So this past week I’ve started browsing what was out there for budget gaming laptops and I have found a couple that I like. There are a couple of others that I really like but their price tags I really don’t care for. Since most laptops come with similar graphics cards, and other goodies, I will omit that but here are a couple of things I do want in the next gaming laptop:
- Price: It has to be under or around $1,000: By around I mean no more than maybe $100 over. I would like it to be under $1,000 but I know that might be a little difficult
- 2nd drive bay: I’ve been spoiled by my current Dell in that it has a 2nd drive for an additional hard drive. Since everything runs off an M.2 drive, I have a 2TB drive that is home to my iTunes library, downloads folder and some games. The next laptop needs to have something like this especially since I’m still one of the few who likes to drag their music library with them on their laptop
- Flash Storage: I want my OS to run off of this. I love having a laptop boot up in 20 seconds. Heck even my little Travel Laptop boots up quickly, just not 20 seconds quickly.
- Ports: I really want a Thunderbolt port. I like having the option of eventually buying an external graphics housing (I probably wouldn’t buy one because they are super expensive) but I would like the option.
- Backlit keys: Again I’ve been spoiled by my Dell because I can type in the dark. I really don’t need the crazy RGB setups but having the lit keys is a plus.
- Looks: Lets be real, most gaming laptops are ugly. This isn’t a high priority for me but if I can get a laptop that doesn’t look like a reject from a Michael Bay Transformer’s flick I’ll be happy.
There’s no real timetable on getting a gaming laptop. My current one is running fine with the exception of not being able to play my Steam games but that really isn’t a problem. I’m thinking if I can put some cash away every month I will have enough around the holidays to take advantage of some sales. This of course puts a back seat to my goal of wanting a Surface Pro Tablet but I am ok with that.
In the meantime I’ve gone back to consoles/handhelds and I’ve played a couple of games.
Spider-Man: Edge of Time - 3DS
Since everyone was talking about the new Spider-Man, which looks really good, I thought since I don’t really want to drop $60 on a game because laptop saving, so I went to the library and found a Spider-Man game I haven’t played.
I believe that I bought this game a couple of years ago when Big Lots were getting rid of their games and many of their games were $1-2 each and I haven’t really played it since. Well good news for you handful of readers, I actually am playing this game. Currently I am 6 chapters away from the end and this is a good enough time to praise/complain about this game!
Now this game is one of those fun let’s play in the past and future games with 70s Spidey, and 2099 Spidey. For you hardcore Spidey fans I have no idea who 2099 Spidey is but I really like his character in this game and in the Spider-Man runner game on iOS and Android. So the bad guy decides to go into the past to change the future and 2099 Spider-Man is trying to stop him with the help of 70s Spider-Man. This all takes place in a building.
Praise
Combat: The combat is a lot of fun. Where else can you button mash two tiny buttons on a 3DS XL and whack bad guys. Think choppy God Of War fight mechanic.
Web Swinging: Oh its here and that’s usually my favorite part of a Spider-Man game. Where does the webs connect to? Who knows but it’s fun.
Cut Scenes: Some cut scenes are taking from the big brother console versions which look pretty darn good on the 3DS screen
2nd Screen Use: It actually does a decent job using this screen. There are buttons on the opposite corners of the screens, one to control opening doors, and hacking computers, while the other button tells you were to go. This screen is also home to the upgrades window and during gameplay the other Spider-Man is on this screen complaining.
Complaining
Camera: It is freaking horrible. You control the camera by using the D-Pad under the nub. This is really funky especially if you are trying to actually look for something. So if you try and shoot a web to get to a higher position you turn the camera to face the glowing item you can shoot a web at, then turn Spidey towards it, and then hit the button shoot the web. Yep real smooth.
Glowing thing to shoot a web at: Oh this is a pain. When I try to shoot to it while flying around, more times than not I end up on the ground or flying into a wall.
Controls: Sometimes the controls are somewhat fluid, and other times they suck. A couple of times I got stuck while climbing walls into a corner where the game had no idea if I wanted to go up, or down, so Spidey went in a circle. Another time when I was running in a tunnel to outrun a fire ball and I would just stop running at a point in the tunnel. After many tries I figured out that I should do some web slinging because that totally makes sense…INSIDE OF A TUNNEL.
Level Design: The timed portions in this game suck. You start the timer and then proceed with like your hair is on fire trying to web sling and pray to Stan Lee that you can catch a glowing thing. Also I really hate the free fall portions where you have to avoid random obstacles. The crazy thing is a lot of the harder obstacles are in an elevator shaft.
Overall this game isn’t great, but really isn’t terrible. It has its quirks, and at times portions where you want to pull out your hair but times I’ve enjoyed the game, taking out bad guys, finding golden spiders to collect and upgrade the characters, and it can’t be all bad if I’m actually playing the dang thing. I give this game a solid C.
Sea of Squares - iOS
At first I thought this was going to be the iDevice version of Picross on the 3DS, and it kind of is, but instead of breaking away blocks to reveal the final model in the puzzle, you break the model by removing two or more of the same color block that are touching until you are left with nothing.
Each level has a new shape for you to destroy. As you progress your models become more complicated and that’s where the fun is. You can move the model around and you can zoom in/out by pinching at the screen
These two are the same model just moved the camera around. Now I’m assuming that at some point you have to use some strategy, which I am starting to use but since I am playing through the casual section I am just blasting away. Once you get stuck you have a limited supply of a feature that redistributes the colors, usually 5-7. I hold off on these until towards the end. There are three difficulties and I believe the top one has 6 colors, while casual only has 4. I liked this game so much that earlier this morning instead of hitting Twitter and watching the news before I got up, I played an hour of this game. Anyways fun game, I think it’s still free, no in app purchases, give it a spin.
Alright Pixlpeeps I am off. Have a good week!
That’s all for now, more later!
-Chris
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