Best Gaming Booster For Pc (2024 Updated)

Picked up this drive for my teenager for Christmas so they could install more games (the gaming laptop they have only has a 500GB internal drive). It worked great, speed was fine, no stuttering or lagging when they played games like Apex Legends or GTA V or Valorant installed on this external drive.

Problem is that after about 30 days drive stopped working. Seems to be a critical failure. Now I get it, this happens happens, and 99% of the time if you are going to have a HD failure it will be within the first 30 days of use (as a result of manufacturing defect) or after the 5-7 year mark (when it simply just wears out).

I’m just kicking myself because I have lost the receipt and this purchase was like the ONE TIME that I declined having an electronic receipt emailed to me. So if this drive works for you it will work fine.

Works great as an external game drive. Just be sure to KEEP YOUR RECEIPT because if it fails it will fail relatively soon and still be under warranty. I’m going to end up buying another one despite the failure.

I figure now that the odds are ever in my favor.

This is a great little sound enhancement device. For £19, you just can’t go wrong. I run this on a dell E4200 with a low power soundcard with no enhancements (realtek audio) The USB soudcard will work just by plugging into the USB port, but really to get the best out of it download the software that gives so many more enhancements.

Importantly, if you are running high impedance headphones, you can set the sensitivity to increase the output volume. I used a pair of Beyer Dynamic 770 pros at 250 ohms. These take a lot of driving, but with this soundblaster external card, the improvement was just exhilarating.

The software is simple to use and has tabs for setting various features, including the microphone levels for gaming etc. That’s not my scene, but it’s there for the gamers. Music quality is excellent but only if you have good h-phones or you are outputting to a full spectrum hi fi.

Sound can be enhanced via the software program on screen with a sort of spacial effect, bass boost and high frequency lift. Interestingly there is also a crossover slider that allows you to select a boost frequency bell curve, DAW users will understand when I say this sounds a bit like a frequency filter slope.

Can be very effective when you experiment with it, as it can cut nasty resonant frequencies in your phones. Really like this little device. For the price, it packs a huge punch with high quality sound variables.

Creative Soundblaster have been making great sound electronics for years. It really shows. Recommended.

I bought this for a very specific purpose – To interface with an aviation headset, itself connected via a battery powered interface box to provide enough power for the headset to work at all. For laptop use, I almost always use headphones, for films, internet documentaries etc.

This latest purchase was a direct comparison to a passive splitter cable, to connect the separate headset and mic plugs into one 3. 5mm socket on the laptop. In direct comparison, there was very little between the 2 methods – I was speaking quietly and then listening at high volume to check for background hiss and other effects.

Unadjusted, there was not much between the Creative soundcard and the cable. Downloading the Creative interface software changes everything, full controllability is now possible. For a comms headset, a feedback from the mic to the headset is useful (UI allows that to be activated)….

Aviation headsets tend to have high impedance, again the software has an option for this. Listening to music through an aviation headset is not the best option, I will acknowledge, but the Creative interface allows enough tweaks to make it much better than plain plug and play.

I will be keeping the Creative USB soundcard, for the money it is a good performer.

First, thanks to all the reviewers who took the time to explain setup. Yes, when I installed the Play!3 there was a low frequency hum. When I followed the suggestion to open the software, go to the Control Panel, go to the Mixer tab and mute the microphone the hum immediately stopped.

I purchased this because the headphone jack on my 7 year old ASUS N550 laptop is intermittent and will suddenly stop playing audio and generate a loud buzzing noise. The Soundblaster Play! 3 is a $20 solution to the problem.

I use the laptop almost exclusively in the garage, as a media center and to view helpful YouTube videos when I am working on a project. Sound quality is excellent, based upon my original setup, in my home office with a Pioneer Elite receiver connected to Martin Logan Motion 60s and a ML powered subwoofer.

Test material was in FLAC format. In the garage the Play! 3 is connected to an Onkyo receiver, which feeds two “Advent” satellite speakers and a powered subwoofer, none of which are worthy of testing audio gear but nonetheless sound pretty good when I’m working in the garage.

When I put the computer to sleep the speakers are silent. No hum. An excellent $20 solution to a very annoying problem.

Product features are covered by other reviewers. I don’t care about features and am primarily interested in sound quality. I’ve done a tonne of random A-B-C testing with this Sound Blaster G3, the SupremeFX onboard audio on my Asus B550-F Gaming motherboard, and finally my Ifi Zen V2 DAC that I’ve been using for quite a while with my Sennheiser HD599 headphones.

I knew the G3 would be somewhere in the middle but was curious exactly how it would perform in comparison. Here’s my conclusions: As you’d expect, onboard audio is average at best. Even on an expensive motherboard.

It’s a device that makes a collection of noises to replicate music, nothing more. The musical notes don’t sing to you. It’s pretty lifeless and the muddy bass booms in a valiant effort to cover up that fact.

Far from a goosebump experience. As the most expensive challenger (more than twice the cost of the G3), the Ifi Zen V2 DAC makes music shine with clarity. Here the bass is no longer fighting for centre stage and rather has enough punch to simply compliment the mids and highs, as it should be with neutral sound processing.

Instead of “waiting for the good bits” of the song, you actually find yourself spending the whole song appreciating details in each individual note and instrument. It’s made to be a real listening experience.

The Sound Blaster G3 falls somewhere in the middle, and goes a long way toward fixing the problems of onboard audio. In fact I was impressed by how decent the experience was. You still get an emphasis on bass like the onboard audio, but in this case it is actually controlled and less muddy.

There’s actual life and detail in the mids and highs. The G3 beats onboard hands-down. Granted the G3 detail is less detailed than the Zen (as if you’re listening with socks on your ears), but at no point do I think the G3 sucks in comparison.

A lot of the musical enjoyment is still there, it’s simply less of a pure listening experience than the Zen. I don’t think it would take much distraction to forget that I’m listening on a sub-$100 USB device.

So considering it offers pretty good audio quality and can be used on any USB device, I’d call it a good purchase. Of course you can always upgrade to a serious DAC later on and keep using the G3 for portable uses.

The one point to note is that the G3 can only do up to 24 bit 96 kHz, which is still a limitation, even though bitrate is proven to contribute very little in real world performance. Not enough to bother me.

This was good for the price. The gaming sound mode worked well for making meetings sound better by making vocals more forward in the sound stage. The musical mode left more to be desired. I ultimately returned this because it didn’t drive my headphones as well as I’d hoped and because I use my headset for listening for music more than I do for games or meetings.

Also this would be a better design if it had a USB C female input instead of an external usb c male cord. This design made desktop use awkward.

Tried this as an option to connect my guitar and headphones at the same time. Worked well with MainStage and Logic Pro X with the included USB-C to USB-A Adapter. Included optical cable was a surprise and nice addition! One star off cause it feels kinda cheap.

Thought it was metal, it’s plastic.

This is the second generation A10 wired headset while I have no experience with the first one this one, for the cost, performs admirably. Upon removing the headset from the box you can see it’s built well.

It’s very flexible and light with a 3. 5″ jack to plug into your controller (I run ps5). The memory foam in the headset and around the ears feels like it’s well made and comfortable. The earcups are removable but I’m not sure they offer replacements (more on that later).

The earpieces rotate up and down but don’t swivel around although I don’t see that as such a big deal since with the weight of these they rest nicely on you head. I am happy to see the pads are removable as the size of the ear holes is pretty small.

I’m a grown man with regular sized ears and they do not fit all the way inside the hole. They rest on top of my ears. Not super uncomfortable but I’m used to headsets that swallow my ears. Thats really my only negative of the headset.

It’s not a huge deal breaker and I never experienced any fatigue from wearing these. Maybe they will create newer, larger pads. The volume control rests on the cable, not on the headset but works well where it is.

The sound you get from these is decent, not earth shattering and not bottom of the line. I feel that the bass is well balanced and I got good sensitivity when playing COD. The depth might be where these are lacking compared to more high dollar headsets.

You won’t be able to grab sound from far off in the landscape, but when sound is closer they do fine. All in all, for the cost these are a good buy. You won’t have to worry about babying them and taking it easy on them since they’re relatively affordable yet really flexible and twist and turn easily while bouncing back in to shape.

Astro offers these in 5 colors so there’s something for everyone. With only a few negatives (ear cup size and sound depth) I recommend these for those just starting out gaming or trying to save a few bucks yet take advantage of a mid tier quality headset.

If you’re a big time gamer that spends hours and hours on honing in your FPS skills, these likely aren’t going to provide the quality you want.

Need some quality gaming headphones that are comfortable and affordable at the same time. this is it. I have a couple wireless headphones that I use for gaming but they are never 100 percent reliable.

So I opted for these wired Astro A10 headphones from logitech being that logitech is a reputable company for pc peripherals. I needed something that wouldn’t break the bank but be comfortable and durable at the same time and figured I couldn’t go wrong with these.

So far I am very pleased. The headset came packaged very well which gave me the impression that the build of the headset would be just as formidable, and yes it is. This headset is extremely well built for having an attached rotary/flip mic.

Both the head band and mic have a very durable elasticity to them that allow free movement and comprising angles without getting damaged. The mic can form to pretty much any angle to get the perfect reception when speaking into it.

The nice part about this mic is the quick privacy/mute setting with just a flip up. It has smooth motion when flipped up and does not produce any feedback when placed in the mute position. Perfect if using on meetings or work from home environments.

I use it with Discord and other video platforms and it works well even then and allows your audience know that you are not engaged with them when the mic is up. The ear pads and headband are very comfortable and I can wear this headset for an extended period of time without any fatigue or anxiety.

They do get a bit warm because of the thick cushioning but overall very comfortable. The sound is great. It almost feels like noise cancelling headphones but it blocks just enough ambient noise to get the full spectrum of sound from your games in a surround sound effect.

The cable is a little shorter than I would like but the in line volume control is a plus. The wire connections to the ear pads have a retro look to them but are well protected and out of the way from damage.

The ear pads are also easily adjustable with a smooth slide adjustment for comfort. Overall this is a great gaming headset that produces a full spectrum of sound that is very durable with exceptional comfort at a very affordable price for the budget minded consumer.

If you have tried the Astro Gaming A10 wired headset before, get ready for a new design with the Gen 2 model. Even though I’ve only seen pictures of the Gen 1 version, I do like the newer design, with how it has now been set up with the connection of the headband to the earphones.

I don’t have the biggest head around, but I did end up needing to extend both sides fully to get a more comfortable fit. The only issues with the design is with the size of the ear cushions. For me, even though I don’t have really big ears, they are just barely big enough to fit around my ears.

The padding and the fabric covers are soft, but after 30-45 minutes of wearing them the first time, I started to feel some discomfort. After a little readjusting, it did start feeling better and was able to continue for quite a while longer.

One nice thing about the ear cushions is that they are removeable, and can be replaced. It would be nice if they were to come up with a larger set that can used to replace. The headband is comfortable.

That, coupled with being fairly lightweight, the top of my head didn’t mind wearing them longer (I actually like it somewhat better that a cousin brand Logitech headset we also have). At first, I had a little bit of an issue with getting the sound or mic working when connecting to my PC (using the included splitter cable).

After re-seating the detachable cord a few times in the base of the headset and moving it just right, everything finally started working. While not the top of the line, the sound quality is pretty good, especially after adjusting some audio settings.

From gameplay to listening to music, the output was pleasant enough, with just enough bass. The flip to mute works well and the mic itself is a little flexible if needing to bend it closer to the mouth.

The volume control is a part of the cord, instead of be built into the headset. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and can sometimes be quicker to access than reaching up to a control on the headset.

If you are looking for a good headset on an budget, this may be the one for you.

I have two of these for a HOSAS setup in Elite Dangerous. Works great, both were detected immediately and I was able to set in-game bindings without issue. Comfort: Very comfortable, perfect size for my hand (a bit on the small size, but larger hands should fit fine) and all buttons are easily accessible.

When using it in the left hand (such as for a dual-stick HOSAS setup), there is no wrist rest and the side thumb button is not easily accessible. That said, the grip is not uncomfortable and I didn’t get fatigued, but I would not recommend using this as a left-handed stick for people with large hands.

Build quality: It’s a cheap stick, so don’t expect top-notch quality. The plastic on the handle feels fine and the buttons are reasonably tactile, though I wish the trigger had a bit more travel. The base is nice and weighty with some decent rubber feet, so it’s not going to slide unless you really push on the stick (or have a non-grippy desk).

My main issue arises with the hat switch. On one stick it works fine, but on the other it feels mushy. Software: Any game I tried it with detected the stick automatically, so there’s no need to install software.

If you intend to play a game that doesn’t support sticks, Logitech’s software allows you to bind keys to it. This worked well, despite the age of the software. Think of it like a macro customizer. The software also automatically supports multi-stick setups.

Accuracy: Despite the lack of hall effect sensors and a 20 year old design, I’m pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of the stick and use only a small deadzone (mostly to prevent my resting hand from providing an input).

For the hat switch, I recommend using it as a 4-way hat instead of an 8-way hat because it’s easy to skip between the directions. One small note about the throttle on the back – there’s no feedback when it’s centered.

If using this for a space sim, set the throttle control to be only in the forward direction, or don’t use that throttle at all.

All buttons and sticks are easily programmable and they immediately update in real time, no restart needed (must first install the stick’s driver and software). 12 buttons, two joysticks and a switch tab.

The base platform is wide and heavy enough to keep it firmly planted on a flat surface so the entire device does not tip over when doing aggressive moves with the stick. Product weight says 2 pounds, but to me it feels more like 4 to 6 pounds.

Moving the stick feels firm, which is good so you don’t over shoot your movements and frantically move back to align. The plastic material feels solid as steel. USB cable is long enough, about 6ft. Can’t beat the price! The corner holes make it easy to set on a DIY side table if you build your own gaming seat simulator, you can use the holes as channel locks or run straps through them.

I honestly can’t think of any cons with this thing. It’s perfect.

I looked everywhere for this stick at MSRP. Finally found it at Micro Center, whom seem to be the only ones out there not willing to sell multiple things to a bot. 1 per house hold. Thank you Micro Center! Anyhow, I use this in a dual stick setup for my games, like Elite: Dangerous.

The stick has an unbelievable amount of buttons for the price, and most games allow you to use them as macros (I think that’s the correct term) so if you press and hold button 1, for example, and then press button 2, it could be assigned to an entirely different action.

This makes your usage increase beyond the simple 12 button scheme. The stick itself moves smoothly and without resistance. Compared to my older Logitech Attack 3, this thing is leagues ahead of it. The build quality is superior, though there is an uncomfortable plastic seam on the handle, but you get a much needed change in the palm rest at the base of the stick, a curved button for your thumb, a HAT joystick and an easy to reach “dial”, which can be used for thrust.

The software you can download for it is a must have. Seriously. I couldn’t even get it to work in games without it, despite the sticks appear. Within the software, you can adjust all sorts of things for the sticks to fine tune it further.

Overall, I am quite pleased by the product and would completely recommend it, especially if you have a tight budget!.

A nice addition to Battlefield 2. New weapons added as well as special forces tools such as a grapling hook and zip line. I really like the grapling hook. It allows you to get on buildings that in regular BF2 you could not.

This tool is given to the assault guys, though I feel that the sniper should have got this tool instead of the zip line. If the sniper had the grapling hook, it could go to better shooting platforms.

Since everyone has a chute they could always get down to move to another position. Don’t get me wrong the zip line is cool and does allow for quick movement across the map and to other hiding places.

The maps are filled with nooks and crannys to hide in. Much more so than BF2. Some maps are set at night and the night vision is pretty cool. Got to watch out for those flashbangs though! That is another new tool that is fun to use, just be careful where you throw it as it can temporarily blind you, your buddies as well as the enemy.

Another fun tool is the tear gas launcher which is given to the support guys. It’s a nasty tool that makes your vision all fouled up and makes you cough. It can be countered with a gas mask, but sometimes people forget to put it on.

Overall, I like the new maps. There seems to be something for everyone except jet pilots. Helicopters are available on some maps. There are two new choppers. The Russian Hind and the US Apache. Both seem fairly deadly as they kill me often! LOL I feel that it was worth the $29.

95 for the game. Not to mention it gives you new unlocks for vanilla BF2!.

Great action and lots of weapons. Great graphics also. Easy to load and get working, real no-brainer. My boys love these Battlefield series games and they are not to over the top for thier age games.

Recommend even for adults as it is just fun and easy to play. There is a lot more to the game if you get deeper into using it.

I’ve been playing BF2 for some-time now. I’m a big fan of online multiplayer FPS. I bought Special Forces for all of the weapon unlocks that come with it. There are also many extra vehicles you can use (ie: jetski, quad, and off-road buggies).

Many new maps are also included. One map is a night map and u get to use NightVision, which is cool. After installing it and playing for a while there were many other items that I found usefull in game.

Like the zipline which allows you to zipline from roof tops to very nice hidding spots. Which is usefull if you play the sniper kit alot. All-in-all the Bf2 Special Forces Expansion pak is a great addition to the game.

I highly recommend it. It makes a great game even better.

Need for Speed: Rivals is a fun, open-world racing game that has you either joining the law to shut down the illegal racers that cruise the streets of Redview County, or become a racer yourself and try to avoid the police.

The graphics are beautiful, and the gameplay is fun and exciting, for sure. The largest issue I have with this 2013 installment of the NFS series – and this is totally just a personal preference – sometimes, when you collide with something in the environment, whether this be a fellow car, a lightpole or the like, the game takes away your control over your vehicle and forces you to sit there for a few seconds and stare at your motionless ride – while the rest of the world ticks on in the background, which means you can be busted by cops if they swarm you during this time, or get wrecked as oncoming enemy vehicles collide with you.

It’s a minor frustration, especially when it costs me all of my hard-earned points, but I’m admittedly not great at driving in this game anyways. If you’re looking for a NFS game for your modern system, I hear some of the newer offerings like Payback or Heat have even more options for your cars and a more in-depth story.

But Rivals does more than enough for those that just want to zoom around an open world, like myself.

Pretty sure I haven’t played Need for Speed in over 15 years and hadn’t had any real desire until my son begged me for two weeks to buy it and we got it on sale. And as I’m typing this review, my son is currently playing the game and I’l be playing right up until noon when NFL games start.

When we first bought the game, he and I played it non-stop. I’d even play it until 1 or 2 in the morning, and I’m a head to bed by 10:30 kind of guy. It took a while for me to really get a good feel for driving the cars, and I’m still not as good as I’d like to be.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been flying down some road and driven head-on into a tree or another car. Getaway driver is not in my future. The game is full of a lot of excellent features. I like that you can play as either the criminal or the cop.

At first I thought it was our civic duty to play as the police, but man is speeding away from the cops or crashing into them a ton of fun! I’m always having to remind my son (he’s 10) that “this is not something we do or condone in real life.

” Not that I ever worry that one day he’ll turn into a hoodlum, but I still think it needs to be said. I also like how, for me, my gameplay is combined with others playing online as either criminals or police.

It definitely adds to the challenge. What I don’t like is that my son cannot play in this mode as EA has decided that it as a company should be in charge of what my son plays online. I get that the game and the online server is a product that the company owns and that I have the privilege of playing on, but my son is missing out on a great component of the game and unfortunately cannot utilize unless I create him a fake account.

This is not something I’m going to do, which means he either has to play on my account (which he does with Star Wars Battlefront) or play the game offline. This is why I give the game 4 stars and why I have decided to not give any EA game a full 5 stars until something changes in the online arena.

After only very recently bothering to unwrap and play through (in order) NFS Hot Pursuit and then NFS Most Wanted, I decided it was high time to acquire NFS Rivals for my PS3 and give it a spin. As you can appreciate, this game, being made AFTER the aforementioned duo, had high expectations placed upon it, especially as – NFS Hot Pursuit, in particular – was thoroughly excellent.

However, I was disappointed by this game, right from the outset. First thing to raise my eyebrow; the requirement for a mandatory install. Both other previous titles had excellent visuals throughout (MW especially) and required zero installation.

Naturally, I presumed that this would be required due to the immense graphics, textures and details I was going to be subjected to(?!) Secondly, the load times are horrendously painful. No elaboration required.

Thirdly and, this is the big one: visuals. The graphical presentation is terrible. Rough as hell, I don’t mind saying. If you remember, when you tried to go ‘back’ and play a PS2 game via SCART on your shiny new 42″ HD Panel when you first bought it? Yeah, very reminiscent of that effect, visually.

The game VERY often runs at sub 30fps (I doubt it ever really reaches it) and the visuals actually make the game hard to look at when your trying to play it! Migraine inducing tbh. I will say, in fairness, when the framerate is up to scratch (rarely) the game actually feels and plays alright.

After the great job Criterion did with the last two NFS titles though (opinions vary, but they were at least, graphically accomplished and gameplay was good) this is a massive step back. I have since had chance to experience the PS4 version and, although the game seems to lack any personality and is as dull as dishwater, the visuals are at least very nice and the game plays well enough.

Just a bland ‘we can’t possibly lose’ mix of Most Wanted & Hot Pursuit rolled into one. If you could be bothered to read this far, do yourself a favour and either: 1) Buy or revisit NFS Hot Pursuit or NFS Most Wanted 2) Buy NFS Rivals for PS4 instead The PS3 version is reminiscent of all those leading developer/publisher titles (EA, Ubi, Acti, etc) released at the end of generation for all consoles; a shoddy, quickly ported, “will have to do” cash grab.

If you really have to. then you have to. But you’ve been warned: honestly, just avoid it.

A few quirks that still need to be worked out on this thing as far as exiting menus etc, then having to physically go to the host PC to close down, restart steam etc. Sometimes have issues with lag over my home network.

Since games often require such precise control and reaction times, it can be a bit frustrating to play with. When it is working well though, it doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. I noticed that reducing resolution settings to 720p made the steam link go from unplayable to playable at least over my home network.

Also, connecting my pc that is actually running games and steam on my home network directly to the router over ethernet helped improve the stream quality even though I was still using wifi from my living room tv for the SteamLink.

EVen with it’s shortcomings I’ll still give the SteamLink a four star review, simple because it basically gets the job done for a really reasonable price point.

Fast setup, didn’t even need to read the instructions. It’ll walk you through setting up your controllers, link it to your pc via the code it gives you and bam like 5 minutes from it being in the box to playing games with your dad on the tv.

Awesome little box, barely warms up a little after playing it for a few hours, it is smaller then it looks! I was expecting it top be around the size of a router, it’s like half that size little bigger then my wallet is all, Tiny.

Oh and all you do is go to the power option and turn off the big picture mode and you can steam your entire pc and before you know it you’re streaming hulu, netflix, the cw, you name it. Basically it’s like having your beefy pc on any tv in your house without having to move the monster around.

Thanks steam!.

The steam link is easy to set up, definitely use a wired network. There is no noticeable lag, games do have a tendency to freeze more often. This may be due to me running a gtx 570 rather than a more powerful card.

You do end up spending half your time trying to make it work. It loses connection often and for some reason I had to untick the box ‘xbox 360 controls’ to be able to use a wired xbox 360 controller. Then tick it again for other games otherwise the D pad wouldn’t work.

For the price though you can’t really complain. You can close steam big picture and it will duplicate your pc monitor. You haven’t lived till you’ve played Pokemon yellow on a 50” screen.

Just superb. I use this with a pair of MMX 300s and I have never been happier with my system sound. Both the cans and amp easily justified my choice to move away from popular PC component manufacturers to specialists in their field.

My only irritation is why I didn’t do it years ago!.

Good unit a little loud for Warzone but works well Hard to deliver correct noise levels for game audio and voice audio.

only problems i have are that it doesn’t have proper support for consoles or even the xbox app on pc (the chat wheel doesn’t work with the xbox beta app) and it doesnt turn on automatically with my pc ( i think its a common bug with this model) but other than that it produced a pretty good sound stage for me at least.

Age of Empires III is played hard by my 16 year old Autistic Son and I. We play so much that I reciently had to replace one of our original Age of Empires III Games. I am 50 years old and recently disabled.

Age of Empires III gives me additional quality Father Son time. We play marathon weekends during the school year and extended playtime in the summer. When bedtime comes and their isn’t a victory for one of us, there is always the save game option.

If my son selects the playback option He can replay the game and show his mom how good he was at beating me. If I win, the payback gets deleted 🙂 Age of Empires III offers my Son and I to play one on one or as a team against 1 to 6 computer generated opponents of his choice.

It also allows for individual game play against 1 to 7 computer generated opponents. This allows my Son to hone his skills even when we are unable to play together. There is also on line play available where he can play with other real life players either by hosting a game or joining a game someone else has created.

Age of Empires III is relatively easy to install and play. The game graphics are extremely realistic so it’s probably not suited for younger children. Their are many game setting options and create your own scenarios so game playnever becomes boring.

For example, when his game play becomes to easy for him, he easily switches to a more challenging game setting. The Age of Empire series, starting with the first game that came out, has an expansion.

In keeping with that tradition, Each consecutive game also has had an expansion. The Age of Empires III Expansion is War Chiefs. My Son and I have enjoyed playing all the Age of Empire games over the years.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see and Age of Empires IV in the future. We can hardly wait to play the next game in this series so keep them coming Ensemble Studios and Microsoft Game Studios!!!!!!.

Classic single player game. Complete the single player game, then play using skirmish mode. Adjust it with different settings and different maps & continue with more great game play in 4K. Age of Empires 3 is the only version that did everything right.

But beware of third party sellers and confederate versions. There are many bad sellers offering copies that will not play. Beware of any seller claiming Age of Empires 3 will not play on Windows 10. All legitimate copies will.

This game is a challenging and somewhat realistic real-time strategy simulator that makes a reasonable attempt to be historically and tactically accurate. Historical background information is provided for the playable civilizations, though the characters in the strange single-player storyline are fabricated.

This game is much like AOE2, but lacks some of the more advanced tactical commands of AOE2. The main difference from AOE2 is the “home city” concept. In this version, you are playing the role of a new world explorer who has been sent by a European power to establish a colony.

As you accumulate XP (experience points) by building units and buildings, exploring the map or destroying enemy units, you earn “shipments” from your home city. The home city sends resources, units, and improvements that can speed up resource gathering or strengthen military units.

Your home city gains levels as you progress through the game, and you earn more powerful shipments as you gain levels. The three resources are coin, wood and food. There are no mines or lumber camps in this version, as settlers just harvest from the resource piles continuously without needing to carry the resources back to a town center or camp.

There are no farms in this version, only mill-and-farm combination. Plantations can be built to create coin, and factories can be built to produce artillery or any needed resources. The seige units (artillery) are all gunpowder units in this game, as are most of the infantry and cavalry.

Archers and hand infantry are good and cheap units early in the game, but after advancing a few ages, you will want to make only gunpowder units. If you decide to purchase this game, enjoy playing Age of Empires III.

At $70-80 CAD, you will not find a better entry level chip in new condition. Trust me. I’ve looked. This bad boy is Windows 11 supported, comes with its own cooling solution, and can be overclocked stably to 3.

9GHz if you buy a dedicated GPU and want decent 1080p gaming. The integrated graphics are solid for light gaming, and you can watch video in 4k with no issues too. This CPU is perfect for people who aren’t doing heavy gaming or productivity tasks.

I use it mainly for clients who just need a reliable PC to surf the net and watch YouTube. If you’re not keen on paying $500+ for a desktop for that use case, then this is the way to go. Add a cheap case, 400W PSU, a 128 GB SSD, 8GB of DDR4-3200, and a cheap B450 mobo, and you can have a sub $250 CAD PC that will do everything that the pre-built will at a fraction of the price.

So yeah. this is a great bang for buck CPU that delivers competent performance for casual gaming, NAS, basic PC, and HTPC applications.

I received a free case from a friend which started the journey for my first build. I wanted to keep the prices low. I found a deal on ASUS A320M-K motherboard, and looked for compatible components. At first I chose the Ryzen 55600G with Wraith stealth cooler and was told it would not work with my board, and to buy a Ryzen 5 3350G instead.

Both of these are more expensive. I chose a Corsair CX450M for power and Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2×8)DDR4 kit to go with the SATA hard drive I owned that has Win 10 on it. My whole idea was to build a Win 11 compatible P.

C. and this CPU fit the requirements. I am very happy with my success and would recommend not only this purchase, but also Newegg as a Company.

If you are looking for a cheap option for your family that only do web surfing or email it is a good deal. Will be able to play most games with a separate video card as the integrated graphics are weak but good enough for watching videos or the like.

-This will use an M. 2 SSD just fine as long as the motherboard supports it. I am using a 2TB M. 2 SSD on mine right now and it is fine. The problem is that it doesn’t have the amount of PCIe lanes so some motherboards will turn off certain functions because the cpu doesn’t support it.

So look at the motherboard before buying and make sure that one of the M. 2 slots is supported with the 3000G as you may only be able to use one of the slots rather than the 2 or 3 the motherboard may come with.

I don’t know much about this stuff but I record video on my iphone using the Rode Wireless Go and Rode Lavalier Go and my microphone would blow out sometimes when I talked louder. The rep at BH said this could fix that and give me slightly better sound quality.

It seems to be doing exactly that as my mic isn’t blowing out as hard as before.

My pc’s original sound blaster soundcard had some issues like there was a major delay when speaking into a mic and wearing headphones which can make it very hard to speak. I stuck the Play 3 in my usb slot stuck the wires in it and it was working.

I definitely recommend downloading the software for it that allows you to tweak the sound. My headphones have deep powerful bass for the first time thanks to this! (use quality mic & extension cables like RODE SC1/SC2/VC1).

This provided powerful and high quality audio input and output for my work laptop for not very much money. People have complimented me on the improved microphone quality.

I’ve been playing The Sims for about 10 years now and the seasons pack for Sims 3 has been one of my favorites. I was worried the pack wouldn’t deliver but it has! My favorite feature is being able to create your holiday which is nice since the holidays that I celebrate aren’t already included in the pack.

I would definitely recommend this pack to anyone looking to expand their Sims 4 gameplay.

With this expansion you get a calendar with premade holidays and you can make your own holidays. The thermostat is a useful tool. Be careful hotside u can kill your sims in freezing temps and also in the heat.

New activities are great. One of ther better expasnisons packs for sims4.

Good game for pc. My daughter loves playing it. Was on clearance price. Good deal.

Does not disappoint! Although Protoss fans may have had to wait for 5 years to see what would happen to their favorite race in the final installment, upon playing it it brings back all of the nostalgia of the older series as well as creating a fun and memorable experience in the campaign mode.

This game is unique compared to the rest of the Starcraft II games, in that it’s multiplayer has been drastically sped up, almost to the point of being a completely new game. Although it may seem like a lot at first, all that has been done is the first 4 minutes of “nothing happening” time of a multiplayer game has been replaced with more action requirements to keep up.

Would, and have, recommend(ed) this to friends.

The third and final chapter in the starcraft 2 saga. It tells the story from the protoss point of view and their struggles against the hybrid armies. It wraps the story nicely but was made a bit bland compared to the other two chapters.

would recommend it still however.

This product is not stand alone. You need to connect to internet to play. Bad decision to buy this.

Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is a remaster and updated version of the original Age of Empires PC game that came out on October 15, 1997 and the expansion pack Rise of Rome PC game that came out on October 31 1998.

I thought I would warn you that in order to download and play Age of Empires: Definitive Edition you need to go to Microsoft website and set up and activate an account with Microsoft so that you have a password with Microsoft to use and activate the game’s digital code you bought.

Another thing I don’t like is every time you click on a selection to try to go into the Main Menu in the game your redirected to a page where Microsoft tells you about upcoming features for the game and they want to go click on the page to go over to Microsoft website.

Why can’t you just go straight into the selection you pick on the Main Menu instead of being redirected to another page every single time? Some parts of the remastered and updated version of Age of Empires is really well done so far.

The graphics are really nice and the game now has a zoom feature where you can now use the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. You can go into the game Settings and go to Zoom Detail and change the zoom feature at X1, X2, or X4.

Unfortunately my computer has a computer monitor that can only go to 2K resolution (2000 pixels) (1920×1080) so I can only zoom at X2. I cannot zoom at X4 because I don’t have a computer monitor that can go into 4K resolution (4,000 pixels).

I’m finding out that technology is changing so often and so fast that it is almost impossible to stay caught up with anything in technology anymore. It seems like you buy something today and it is obsolete tomorrow.

The game sounds are real nice too. The sounds of different animals and the sounds of military units clashing in battle is just amazing. I also love the game’s music that plays in the background. It was nicely remastered by a great orchestra playing the music.

I also like how you learn a lot about ancient history because Age of Empires: Definitive Edition goes into great detail describing different ancient time periods and different ancient civilizations you play.

The game has 12 different ancient civilizations to choose from in different ancient time periods. I think this game has a great learning tool to learn all about ancient history. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is far from perfect.

There are a few things that bother me about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. For instance you cannot put a Desktop Icon on your computer monitor screen and you have to play the game from an Icon setup on your computer Taskbar.

Also you cannot rotate around on any of the game maps. There is no rotation button. You cannot change the graphics in the game either. There are no Graphics Options In the game’s Settings to change the Video Resolution, Bit Depth, or Refresh Rate.

You’re sort of stuck at whatever graphics your computer is set up for. Another thing I have noticed from what I have played so far in the game is that you cannot set up your military units in any kind of military formation.

You end up setting up and sending a ragtag group of military units to fight against the enemy. The path finding in the game is just horrible. For instance I played missions in the game where all my military units and villagers just sort of stood around and didn’t do anything but just stand there when being attacked.

Enemy soldiers would attack my camp, village, town or city on the map and go around and destroy everything in their path. They would end up killing all my villagers and the soldiers I left to guard my home base would do nothing but just stand around and watch.

It was very frustrating because usually I’m at a different location on the map fighting enemy soldiers while my home base is getting completely destroyed by the enemy. I can’t be everywhere on the map all at once trying to control everything.

I had villagers that wouldn’t even react or run away when enemy soldiers approached them and would just end up getting killed. Microsoft programmers need to do a better job programming the game so it plays out better than it is now.

The game needs better path finding so I can have my military units set up in military formations and have my villagers react and move better in the game. I hate to bring this up but In Age of Empires III you could set up military formations and villagers and military units would react to anything in that game and Age of Empires III came out almost 13 years ago (October 2005).

Right now I feel the path finding in Age of Empires III is a lot better than in Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. There are no health bars over enemy units when you fight them so you can’t tell when their unit’s health goes down.

In Age of Empires III you had health bars over enemy units you were fighting so you could tell right away how soon you could take the enemy units down. You could also rotate around on the maps in Age of Empires III.

Plus with Age of Empires III you could set up a Desktop Icon for the game on your main computer screen. You also have Graphic Options in Age of Empires III to change the graphics. You would think that since Age of Empires: Definitive Edition is a lot newer game than Age of Empires III that this game would already have all these features.

We’re in the year 2018 now. Why can’t this newer game have all those features built into the game already? I hope Microsoft addresses all these issues in the future. I would also recommend when you go into game Settings do not check off any the boxes under Accessibility Settings (Menus, Chat, Game) because a narrator voice will come on and will voice everything out loud you do in the game including going through the game’s Main Menu.

It get very annoying after a while. Right now I refer to the Age of Empires: Definitive Edition game has a work in process that with future patches and updates will only get better over time. For the price of $19.

99 for Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, I would say it is one of the best priced video games in the market right now for the amount of content you get in the game. It just needs to catch up to the level of Age of Empires III to be consider a truly great 5 star game.

If you played AOE before, this Definitive Edition should not be missed. Shame it is only a download code; miss the days of a physical box and manuals for collection. I chose to buy from bestbuy. com (to earn points best buy reward points as well) instead of directly from the Microsoft app store.

The game runs smooth on my windows 10 and the graphics are sharp. Download and installation was a snap. Definitely worth $20 for this classic game.

Update – after 5 attempts, the digital download NEVER worked. It has been 2 weeks since I ordered the download from Best Buy. All their attempts to help me failed and I will cancel my order since Best Buy cannot figure out how to send me a valid code for what I purchased – I will bring my business elsewhere – NewEgg has never treated me this way!.

I used to be in the top 5 streamers in the world for this game from release for a handful of months afterwards. I have over 1K hours just live poured into exploring, nukes, photos and trying so hard to love each glitch or bug.

No more. Fallout is one of my favorite game series! I’ve played every single one. I own fallout merch up and down. I LIVE EAT BREATHE the wastelands – this isn’t it. I own this game on both console PC.

I spent a year trying to make excuses for why it was okay everything was broken, why we’d been lied to over and over, or why the game was virtually unplayable 40% of the time after patches. I would bounce back and forth between console and PC, laugh things off and hope they’d get better, I was doing interviews on podcasts instead talking about characters or the future patch notes.

This game is a disaster. Anything they promise is a joke or lie covered up by a broken mess Or microtransaction. Their customer support is unresponsive. The game STILL doesn’t work, and their response to this was a subscription program for double the amount of the initial overpriced game a year? When their tag line motto is a meme of “it just works” as an excuse for why NOTHING does? You know it’s bad.

Each time I try to log back in nothing has changed. It’s a broken glitchy mess that doesn’t even feel like a fallout game anymore. Instead of fixing their content – they added subscription paid vinyl optional flooring for your bases and spotless pianos or curtains.

Folks bases don’t even look like a wasteland anymore – it’s sims. The only people who can play are paying $100/yr for extra “stash space” on top of their $60 game. Not worth it. Save your money. Yikes.

This is really great game. Game play is really good. I love games like this before you have more freedom to choose what character you want to be good or bad. And with hundreds of places to go, including thousands of weapons and items to choose from.

Nothing you can asked for. Great graphics as well with 4 GB graphic card Ndivia GTX 1050ti I’m using on my gaming PC plays like a charm. Great hd sounds from the graphic card as well. But you might have some issue for installing this game.

Xlive. dll files are not included with game which is surprising to me. You must go online install Windows live to get the Xlive. dll file to game to play with your PC. Which I did not get with the disc.

That’s the only catch. Other than that it’s play well with best OS Top of the line in the market Windows 10 Enterprise software version 1903. I can’t wait to get the fallout 76 I’m a big fan of fallout games.

I highly recommend this game if looking for survival gaming.

Best game of the year. One of my favorite games. The replay value is unstoppable. I wouldn’t improve it best as is. Definitely enjoyable to play. Many of hours of fun. Definitely recommend this game to others.

Fallout games are amazing.

So, recently a buddy of mine and I got into producing game videos for a few of our favorite games. Not so much streaming but more profiles of classes/ships, and reviews of new content. He mostly does the game work while I do the ‘filming’ and production.

Despite having a relatively new (late-2021) gaming rig, the system sometimes gets a little bogged down at times and this would mess with some of our recordings. This is with having a 3080 card and a respectable amount of RAM.

The only thing that we could really upgrade on the rig would be the primary hard drive and so we did. (We could have dropped the fidelity of the graphics or recording but that would not be ideal. ) I flashed the main drive over on to the WD_BLACK SN850X, swapped them out, tweaked everything, and then used the original drive in the add-on slot after everything checked out on the new drive.

I didn’t even need to run any benchmark testing to tell that things were already running more smoothly. Our primary game likes to have a ton of visual spam during combat (which is annoying at times), and is also when we were most likely to get a hiccup.

We haven’t had a single hiccup in frame rate, recording, or processing since I bumped the rig up to this new drive. BTW, I’m using Power Director for video processing and the game’s built in recorder for much of the capture.

I used to be an Adobe fan, but I will not pay subscriptions for productivity software (but that’s a whole different issue). Another thing I like about the upgrade to the SN850X is that I think this will open up the ability to better use some of the 3D rendering software to add in bits and pieces from original (first party assets) and fan made models.

I’m excited to see what else we can churn out now with this upgrade. It brought back a little of the excitement that we had when we first started doing this. Not bad at all for an easy $200 upgrade!.

WD SN850X SSD is a fourth generation PCIe SSD with top spec. This SSD is rated at 7,300MB/s read and 6,600MB/S write speed, these numbers are blazingly fast. As usual, typical PC gamers should always be skeptical about reaching those exact speed due to several reasons such as hardware and software issues.

However, firstly it is important that your motherboard should support 4th gen PCIe devices. 4th gen PCIe has been here for quite a while so it’s expected that next year 5th gen PCIe will become available.

The question, is it still worth it to invest in a 4th gen PCIe SSD? The answer is yes especially if upgrading your storage capacity has already becoming a necessity. The SSD comes with 5-year manufacturer’s warranty, which is nice to have.

To unleash its full potential, the write performance of this SSD is meant for PC though it will work in other devices including PS5. If you’re a gamer and specifically if you game, stream and record your video at the same time, this is the SSD to get.

You will also appreciate the performance of the SSD when you use your PC for video editing. There’s a PC dashboard software that gives us information about the SSD including firmware updates and the ability to switch on the gaming mode.

If you’re not sure about the gaming mode, just leave it on auto mode. So how about the performance? The performance is very good especially the write speed. While it’s hard to reach the exact top speed as per the manufacturer’s rating, its important to note that the SSD can maintain a sustained performance meaning you won’t be experiencing dramatic drop of speed when the PC is running a write or read operation on the SSD.

You will need sustained performance if you use your PC for tasks such as editing and rendering 4K videos. Here’s what I don’t like about the SSD. Number one is durability, if you plan to use your SSD on daily basis, performance will suffer after a few years, which is quite typical for any SSD.

The SSD also runs quite hot so if you are a super competitive gamer that relies on every FPS you can get, you may want to have a look at your PC’s overall thermal management system to ensure that the heat it produces does not affect the system.

This is not an issue for typical gamers so overall this is a very good SSD to get.

Probably my favorite game next to Kingdom Hearts. This game in my opinion, will give a lot of chances for replay without feeling bored. There are multiple character stories and races that offer a different view point of the same world.

The storytelling is top notch and is very engrossing. I really wish they would remaster this for the newer systems. If you love RPGs, I’d recommend this game and others from the Dragon Age series.

I bought this because I’ve recently fallen in love with the Dragon Age series. If there’s one thing video gaming for 16 years has taught me: Don’t judge a game by its graphics. The game’s graphics aren’t.

terrible per say, but if you’re like me and played Inquisition before origins, then you’re gonna be extremely put off at first. To be fair, I was originally put off by Inquisition, but not because of the graphics.

They’re gorgeous in that game. I was put off by the battle system, at first. I was instantly given a WoW-vibe to it, and thought to myself, “Oh god, no I am not repeating my WoW phase. ” Trust me when I say: you learn to love it.

I haven’t finished this game yet, but I’ll point out what sticks out most to me thus far. Controls: It may take a little while to adjust yourself to the controls, they can be quite wonky. I do not recommend equipping potions into one of your main battle buttons (triangle, X, O) because you WILL end up accidentally using one, and there’s no “Are you sure?” for it or anything, so that’s annoying.

Though, if you’re a baby who plays on casual like myself, you’ll hardly find yourself needing too many potions. Now, the dialogue. Something I noticed with this game is the dialogue differences. This isn’t to say that they’re significantly different from the other games, but that I definitely notice much more humor in this game, and I love every single second of it.

I find myself laughing my ass off with Alistair and Morrigan on my main teams, being that they hate each other. At one point, you may even comment on someone’s genital size. (I won’t spoil it, but it is certainly every bit as funny as you’d imagine) Sarcasm thrown left and right.

It’s everywhere and I love, love, love it. Additionally, I think it’s good to note your protagonist is technically silent. They have a voice, but it only occurs in battles. You might think this to be a negative, but when you hear the voice options you have, you’ll quickly thank Bioware for not making us suffer through long, ear-cringing dialogue with them.

By the way, if you’re a Rogue, get used to: Trap! Trap! Trap! Trap! about twenty times or more every time you enter a dungeon. Romances: Not many romance options in this game, but I wouldn’t call that something to complain about.

The romance options are certainly adequate enough to keep your attention, with interesting sex scenes and compelling personal quests. Without a doubt, you’ll find yourself falling in love with one of the companions in this game.

Or, if you’re like me, you fall in love with all of them and cry because youcan’t romance everyone at the same time. Oh yeah, and your companions can get jealous regardless of whether or not you’re dating them.

Which isn’t bad, but rather cute, in my opinion. It shouldn’t hinder your relationship with them either unless you’ve been flirting with them. Replay value: Now, I haven’t beaten it, and I intend on revising my review after I have done so, however, I can already say now I plan to replay this game.

Bioware does a phenomenal job of providing you with games well worth the money you spend on them, given their replay value. Perhaps not as many path options as Inquisition, but I still certainly long to play as an Elf mage.

This time around, however, I chose Dalish Rogue Elf, because I am a huge sucker for Elven lore and their origins. To specify: you have to be a city Elf in order to be a mage. All mages have the same background story, which I understand, but it is a bit of a nuisance to me.

So yeah, that’s all I have to say for now! I’ll definitely revise this later on.

I love this game and always go back to it. Being able to choose your origin, character race/species, and what class you are is amazing. I especially love the fact that there are different stories for each character.

You could start off as a noble or be a Dalish elf. That’s something I missed in the newer games. I also loved how big the selection is for mages. The newer games seemed to limit the mages and I’m not entirely sure as to why they did.

This game made it feel like you were apart of it. The characters were also great and I enjoyed going through their personal stories and making friends. and enemies throughout the game. The choices are never truly right or wrong, it’s up to you and how you feel about the situation at hand and sometimes you feel regret over the choices you make, but that’s what makes the game so interesting.

I love this game a lot and hope the newer games bring back that personal connection again.