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In Starfield, there are several different ship manufacturers, each with their unique styles and benefits. Each has a dedicated location where you can find a dedicated salesperson with access to various parts specific to that manufacturer. In this guide, you can find the locations below of the major starship manufacturers. Stroud-Eklund Staryard Location The Stroud-Eklund Staryard can be found in the Narion system, near the Alpha Centauri system. Be sure to choose Narion, as the Narion and Valo systems are directly on top of each other. Once you arrive at Narion, look for the planet Deepala, where the staryard will be orbiting nearby. Stroud-Eklund also has a showroom on Neon where you can access dedicated parts there as well. Upon entering, look for Havershaw at the front desk on the right when you enter the staryard. He will offer a variety of ship models and parts specific to Stroud-Eklund. Nova Galactic Location Nova Galactic is a little strange because the staryard is abandoned early in the game. To find various Nova Galactic parts, head to the settlement New Homestead and speak to the ship services technician. New Homestead can be found in the Sol system on Titan. Taiyo Astroneering Location Taiyo Astroneering is another brand that works a little differently. Instead of a staryard, there is a showroom in the Ryujin offices on Neon. Head to the Volii system and then fly to Neon, which resides on Volii Alpha. Head to the Neon Core, and near the far end, you will find Ryujin. Head to the end of the first floor to find an elevator where you can select different floors. Select Taiyo Astroneering. Once you arrive, take a right and head to the showroom that is down lower on your right. Speak to Veronica Young to access the Taiyo catalog of ships and parts. Hopetech Location Hopetech’s headquarters lie in the Valo system near Alpha Centauri. The system lies on top of the Narion system, so be sure to choose the correct one. Once you arrive, head to the planet Niira and dock at Hopetown, the location of the Hopetech headquarters. Once inside the Hopetech main building, speak to Inaya Rehman directly on your left as you walk in. Deimos Staryard Location The Deimos staryard is in the Sol system, near Mars and the moon of Deimos. Feel free to dock at the staryard and head below to the showroom upon arrival. Speak to Nikau Henderson to access Deimos’ catalog of parts and ships. Good luck on your journey and upgrading your ship in Starfield!

Fight for your right to party (up for a dungeon crawl)! Back in 1981, video games were different. It was fresh and still new. As a still emerging market, developers were still trying to come up with various, cool ways to implement things we take for granted now. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord may not have been the first role-playing game in existence. But, it sure did help inspire several generations of games that came after. When it was released, Dungeons & Dragons was still new as well. Video games had come out that were both made by TSR (the folks behind D&D) and those inspired by the concept. But, never before could players enjoy a good old party-based dungeon crawl. Wizardry, the first in a series of games in the franchise, allowed you to create a full team of characters to work together. What a novel concept! Yes, it was the first to do it. (Editor's note: A previous version of this news post had a dead link to an older version of the video. It has been rectified.) If you’ve played games like Final Fantasy or even Starfield, with the ability to have companions fight with you, this should sound familiar. Or, if you’re into D&D, this is no different than partying up with other players in a campaign. Digital Eclipse, the fine folks that brought us Atari 50 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, are remaking Wizardry. However, it gets better. They’re keeping the original game underneath the 3D remaster. Similar to some games like The Secret of Monkey Island and the just announced Tomb Raider I-III Remastered, the game will allow you to toggle between both its new version and the original. As mentioned, without Wizardry, we likely wouldn’t have our party-based, turn-based RPGs that we don’t even think twice about from the likes of Square Enix and so many other developers. The MMO market may have also developed very differently, as well. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is now available on Early Access over on Steam. They’re starting to price out at $29.99. But, the price will go up as the game’s development progresses. So, get it while it’s low if you want it.

What’s the point of dreams when the world is ending? Goodbye Volcano High may be about anthropomorphic teenage dinosaurs, but the question at its heart couldn’t be more relevant today. The latest from experimental studio KO_OP, Goodbye Volcano High is a visual novel/rhythm game that follows a teen dino named Fang as they prepare for the most important show of their life. They join bandmates Trish and Reed, all while finishing high school and trying not to worry about that asteroid passing perilously close to Earth. While Goodbye Volcano High sometimes gets lost in the weeds, its heartfelt story and kickass music kept me engaged till the end. The first, most obvious, point to make about Goodbye Volcano High is that it looks and sounds phenomenal. If you’ve played a lot of visual novels, you’re probably used to a standard format for dialogue, where still images of characters take up most of the screen perched on top of a text box. Goodbye Volcano High chucks that convention out entirely, instead turning every interaction into a fully animated, fully voiced scene. You could easily mistake it for an animated film if it weren’t for the frequent dialogue choices. Music to my ears Goodbye Volcano High puts a few novel spins on dialogue. For one, there’s a timer on most choices, so you’ll need to quickly decide what to say (or not to say). Fang isn’t exactly the chillest protagonist, either, which leads to some interesting quirks when you’re choosing your lines. Sometimes they’ll get flustered and dialogue choices will switch positions while you try to select one. Things that are harder for them to say might make you hold down multiple buttons or tap rapidly to select them. Fang will often say more than your dialogue choice indicates as well, which at first felt frustrating when their tone was different from what I expected, but all these effects end up as the perfect way to embody a moody teen who’s not entirely in control of their own big mouth. Goodbye Volcano High’s voice acting is just as good as its art — not a single performance falls flat — though some audio problems do spoil things a bit. The quality of its sound recording varies wildly, with some lines coming out sounding like they were recorded in less-than-ideal environments or with lower-quality equipment. Not a single performance falls flat — though some audio problems do spoil things a bit. This is likely due to how much the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted in-person recording sessions in film and games. Clipped lines and audio cutting out early are also fairly common occurrences. Despite the uneven voice quality, the same problems don’t seem to have plagued Goodbye Volcano High’s music. That’s fortunate because music plays a major role, as you’d expect from a story about a band. Fang’s band, Worm Drama, is headed for the local Battle of the Bands, where the best act will get to play at the upcoming CalderaFest in front of an audience of thousands. As the deadline looms closer, Fang struggles to write an entirely new set for the concert and convince their bandmates to show up to practice. Throughout the game, as Fang practices their new songs and finally plays them at the Battle of the Bands, Goodbye Volcano High becomes a rhythm game with a few different mechanics. You’ll need to match notes coming from the sides of the screen with one joystick, pull down on both sticks when two arrows drop down on either side in tandem, and hit face buttons in time as they appear onscreen. It can be overwhelming to play so many different kinds of notes at once, which, just like the quirks of some dialogue choices, made me feel like a teenager struggling to learn something new. Goodbye Volcano High’s musical sequences usually come at emotional high points, and they contain most of the game’s best moments. As you perform, you’ll sometimes just watch scenes of the band playing. But, in the most effective of them, you’ll instead see a collage of moments that are on Fang’s mind as they play. They tell the story of why they wrote this song and what’s on their mind as they sing. It’s an extremely effective way to bring Fang’s emotions to the forefront and I only wish there were more of them in the game. Growing pains of Goodbye Volcano High Unfortunately, Goodbye Volcano High’s story is a little more uneven when it’s being told in a more traditional way. Writing believable dialogue for teenagers is a task I don’t envy. However, for the most part, Goodbye Volcano High does it well, only occasionally veering into “How do you do fellow kids” territory. But while the writing stays sharp, the story being told loses its edge near the middle of its roughly five-hour runtime. Even as Goodbye Volcano High’s story stumbles, it soars emotionally. Goodbye Volcano High centers on teenagers coming to important crossroads in their lives while they can’t even be certain they’ll be around after high school. They all have different ways of dealing with stress, from ignoring it to sinking into depression. I can’t imagine a more potent or timely story to tell right now, but instead of honing in on that powerful hook, Goodbye Volcano High meanders. In a couple of extended sequences, the gang plays a Dungeons & Dragons homage that’s not nearly interesting enough to sustain its length. It ends up feeling like a half-hearted metaphor that just takes time away from the real story. When the focus comes back to the core story, Goodbye Volcano High runs out of steam. The game ends with a few cathartic conversations and a final performance, but nothing feels resolved as the credits roll. Everyone essentially just decides to stick with their friends and do the things that they would have done anyway if the world weren’t ending. That’s not a bad idea. But, the path they take to acceptance doesn’t have nearly enough drama for its impossible high stakes. Goodbye Volcano High is rough and uneven, but it still contains some of the best individual moments I’ve had with a game all year. Even as Goodbye Volcano High’s story stumbles, it soars emotionally. By the game’s finale, its band drama and apocalypse plotlines alike were running out of steam, but I still felt every bit of Fang’s anger and hope and joy as they played their final song. Of everything it gets right about teenagers, Goodbye Volcano High most seems to understand the turmoil. Friends fight and make up, confess their crushes then push each other away, sink to their depths but still show up when they need to. Likewise, Goodbye Volcano High is rough and uneven, but it still contains some of the best individual moments I’ve had with a game all year.

Nintendo Switch Online members, as with all 99 games, get the game for free. The Nintendo Direct dropped today and it came with some great news across the board, no matter what you’re into. During the presentation, as we talked about earlier this past week during a leak, they also showed off F-ZERO 99, a modern take on the SNES classic. Just like with Nintendo’s prior “99” games, F-Zero 99 is a chaotic, fast-paced take on the original game. Sticking with pixel graphics of the bygone era, the game pits 99 players on a single course. Unlike Super Mario Bros. 35, the caveat here is that you’re all racing together and trying to avoid each other. Crashing into other players or walls will eventually get you eliminated. So, not only are you going at high speeds, you have to manage your power for boosts and health. When players collide and get eliminated, they leave behind Super Sparks, which can be collected and used for a new way to play. When they’re used, it opens up an alternate route above the other players called the Skyway. It’s essentially a non-congested, less windy road that gives you an edge against the other competitors. The game will support the usual controller options. But, they call out that it supports the Super NES Controller for the Nintendo Switch as well. You can unlock customization options for your cars by completing goals. This unlocks anything from new colors and decals to the color your vehicle makes when it boosts. While Nintendo still offers Tetris 99, the other games in the 99 line have all ended support. Super Mario Bros. 35, for instance, was only offered as part of Mario’s 35th anniversary and closed not long after it became available. I’m still bitter about that one, honestly. Pac-Man 99, on the other hand, is still active until October 8th, 2023. After that, it’s going to eat its last pellet and become another ghost dumped onto Nintendo’s pile of lost media. Conversely, Tetris 99 was the first of its kind and is still going strong. It’s hard to place any rhyme or reason to what Nintendo is going to do next. F-Zero 99 was announced today and it’s available also today. What a fantastic surprise for Nintendo Switch Online members. Hopefully it lasts longer than Super Mario Bros. 35.

Unity just did the impossible: They made game devs all agree with each other. Sometimes you read the news for a day and just see some real stinkers. Unity, the game engine that powers a substantial amount of games you play daily, made the headlines over the past 24 hours for willfully tanking whatever trust they had with game developers. Basically, Unity showed off its new “Runtime Fee”, which changes the entire model of how developers pay Unity for using the engine. The problem is that it cuts harshly into developers’ revenue once it hits a certain threshold. The Unity Runtime Fee kicks in at a certain point, starting January 1st, 2024 when a game makes a specific amount of revenue and has at least a specific number of installs. That number changes depending on whether you’re using their free Unity Personal license or the more professional Unity Pro and Enterprise. They detailed it all on their official blog. They’re phasing out Unity Plus immediately, giving Plus users the upgrade for a year to Pro at the same cost. The blog tries to make it seem like this is all a good thing. Let’s put it in simpler terms, for the non-game developers in the room On the surface, the up-to 20 cent fee doesn’t seem so bad if your game isn’t free. It’s when you start to look at it through the lens of Gamedev that you start to see that Unity has royally screwed up. Let’s say your game hits the threshold. What then? The way that it works is that your game pings their Runtime servers every time it’s installed somewhere. For every install, it ticks a counter on their end. If someone pirates the game or is bundled together, it still counts. The word “retroactive” is used, as well. This means that if a game comes out now or sometime in the past, it’s being affected by the new terms starting next year if the game is still live and getting installs, even if they no longer make money. Let’s use Humble Bundle as an example. Ending today is their Masterful Modern 3D Platformers Bundle, which, as the name suggests, is all about 3D Platformers. It’s nearing the end of its run (with around 9 hours left as of writing this). This bundle has up to 11 games in it. One of those games, New Super Lucky’s Tale, is made on the Unity engine. Currently, 18,302 bundles have been sold. Doing the math out, being a part of an (admittedly low-count) Humble Bundle would mean that if every person who gets the game installs it, the dev would owe Unity over $3,600 just for being a part of the bundle, on top of their yearly dues. There is a lot more to it, but you get the general idea. Why not just move to Unreal or Godot? For the unaware, game engines just don’t work interchangeably. Think of it like engines in vehicles. Even though they might have some crossover, obviously, not all car and motorcycle engines are the same. The same idea works for game engines. They may do similar things like designing games or being forms of transportation. But, the differences require specialties and experts for each. Devs can’t just jump from Unity to Unreal overnight, similar to a car mechanic trying to learn how to work on a motorcycle. Doing so means you’re scrapping a large portion of your game to start over entirely. This means that, if Unity maintains its course, the industry is about to look very different. Game developers unite against Unity Needless to say, game developers are pissed. Unity has clearly lost their trust and no one knows what to do. One prominent, popular indie title, Cult of the Lamb, announced on X to “Buy Cult of the Lamb now, cause we're deleting it on Jan 1st.” They end the tweet/post with a kissing face emoji. Other developers, such as Aggro Crab, are ready to jump ship entirely if Unity doesn’t walk this decision back. They have nowhere else to go and are essentially starting over from scratch if they continue working in Gamedev. Warning: Their language is not exactly NSFW, and rightfully so. Rami Ismail, a prominent game dev and industry consultant, has been tweeting a lot in the past day. With the current trajectory that Unity is heading, he believes the future is bleak. First off, he agreed with George Broussard, one of the co-founders of Apogee Software and 3D Realms, about some talk that the higher-ups at Unity ignored all internal concerns about poor messaging and communication. Going into more detail on social media, Ismail believes that there are four things that Unity needs to do to make things right, based on their initial blog post. These things are that they should not change terms and conditions on products or sales already made, as well as the new terms timeline being way too short. Additionally, another problem here is that we’re supposed to trust a company with secret figures and numbers that no one can see. And finally, the last problem is that games that make no money after a certain point are still affected by these terms. He believes that if they can figure these four points out, they might solve the issues raised by game developers. The future of Unity is full of distrust, disappointment, and disdain According to Axios game journalist, Stephen Totilo, they’re slowly dripping out more information and potential revisions, as well as details on what exactly happens in certain situations. Unity has been slowly backpedaling to explain that games in charity bundles or on Game Pass don’t count, and they have fraud protection set up to understand when a game is pirated. It’s also been stated that most game demos are excluded, as well as people who install a game multiple times on the same machine. But, game developers, including Ismail, don’t see how they could possibly track that successfully. One major problem that remains is the absolute lack of communication and proper messaging from the game engine. Unity needs to understand that they’re dealing with game developers, some of the most detail-oriented people on the planet. These are the same people that can spend hours looking for a misplaced comma in code. Of course, they need all the information and minutiae. As mentioned, developers could always learn a new engine. But, that takes time. Many games are either mid-development or nearing completion. Dropping Unity at this point could set some games back years or bankrupt them entirely. Unity pulled a Wizards of the Coast. That isn’t a compliment. This reminds me of when Wizards of the Coast recently tried to drop their Open Game License that’s been established for around two decades. The OGL 2.0 is what allowed writers and game makers to use the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop engine (there’s that word again), details, monsters, and anything in between to make their own thing. They claimed it was to protect their IP and property, but the prospect didn’t last long. After the entire community banded together (sound familiar?), WotC entirely backpedaled and came up with entirely new terms that were much more amicable. The problem, though, is that WotC lost all of the trust of game and module designers and is still dealing with the backlash and aftermath to this day. I expect this is going to go a similar route with Unity. Even if they drop the Runtime Fee entirely, users and developers will remember that they are always capable of doing this again.

An all-in-one tool of vengeance and weather protection Ever since tripping over Gato Roboto thanks to Game Pass, Doinksoft has had my attention. A small team now part of Devolver Digital, this developer has a clear penchant for taking familiar ideas from classic games and finding compelling twists. Look no further than Demon Throttle, not only an experiment in distribution but a bizarre, raunchy take on King’s Knight of all things. Gunbrella is Doinksoft’s fourth game, and in some ways its most ambitious. Gunbrella is Doinksoft’s fourth game and in some ways its most ambitious. This game certainly aims higher than ever in storytelling and adds as much complexity as possible to an otherwise simple central mechanic. Stand under my Gunbrella, ella, ella, ella This game is also fascinating as a true “post-COVID” game; the team noted its scenario and themes were in part informed by the frustration and anxiety from living through the pandemic. And you can feel it the whole way through, as the story tackles the intersection of climate change and class division, police violence, and isolation. This game is also fascinating as a true “post-COVID” game. And while Gunbrella gets props for not yelling “Hey, remember COVID?” directly at the screen, I didn’t come away from the experience feeling like I had a compelling takeaway. The vibes are all here, but there isn’t a satisfying answer to the question, “So what?” At the end of the day, Gunbrella is a revenge story, one we’ve seen a million times in games especially. Let’s do away with the whole dead wife thing already, yeah? Fast, furious, and fashionable Gunbrella props itself up with, well, the Gunbrella. This weapon is more like a multi-tool, not only providing firepower but utility in defense, maneuverability and even platforming. That’s art, baby. The umbrella part offers a surprising set of mobility tools, and the specific limitations on the weapon side force the player to constantly engage with them. While the enemies aren’t terribly challenging, the boss fights can be memorable (and memorably gross) and often ask the player to master various aspects of the Gunbrella. It all culminates in a final challenge that takes all the pieces from the game and throws them all at you in one fight. It’s a feel-good ramp-up to the climax in terms of the action, and while a game-breaking bug (which has been fixed ahead of release, thank goodness) threatened to ruin it for me, the pace and seven-or-so-hour runtime feel right. I actually ended up playing Gunbrella twice during the review period on two different platforms, and the second run was proof of how well that ramp teaches you. I sailed through the second time, with my Gunbrella skills honed to a sharp point. When Doinksoft goes Doinkhard Doinksoft’s previous games were much sillier and more over the top, and Gunbrella’s more somber tone (despite its goofy premise) was surprising. It feels heavier, even with the ending not sticking the landing for me. It all culminates in a final challenge that takes all the pieces from the game and throws them all at you in one fight. It doesn’t have the score-chasing or completionist trimmings of Gato Roboto or Demon Throttle, but it does feel complete and confident in its vision. It feels like Gunbrella is fine only being played once or twice, and makes the most of that first impression. That’s art, baby. Sure, it’s pretty obvious at this point that Gunbrella isn’t my favorite title in the Doinksoft library. But it’s yet another example of this small team’s talent, and especially its range. Each game has been distinct in nearly every way, and Gunbrella is once again a standout among its peers. I came away with some disappointments, but those hours I spent going through the game twice melted away unnoticed. If that’s not a sign of quality, what is? Gunbrella Review Score: 8 Pros: Intriguing setting and themes that feel relevant Tons of gameplay nuance built into the titular Gunbrella Awesome boss fights are gross and challenging Cons: Story doesn’t hit the home run it swings for Switch version sometimes hits brief patches of slowdown Over-reliance on event flagging to move the story forward Gunbrella is available for the Nintendo Switch and PC. Codes for both versions were provided by the publisher for review. A major bug prevented completion of both versions, but was fixed quickly, therefore having minimal impact on the review.

According to a new study, the best cities for gamers may surprise you as much as the worst ones. That’s due to a lot of omitted info. This week, privacyjournal.com put out a study naming 100 cities, ranked from best to worst, in terms of how good they are for gamers. We went in, skeptically, and found some interesting insights. Their list takes the USA’s 100 most populated cities and ranks them based on a scoring system. Immediately, that leaves out entire states like Alabama, South Carolina, and West Virginia, as well as both North and South Dakota, just to name a few. That left us even more skeptical. But, there's so much more to discuss. It honestly just goes to show that hard data doesn’t always tell the entire picture against personal experiences and finer details. With that said, the list does explain how their rankings work and how each score was weighted. They looked at four major categories to come up with their end score: livability, internet structure, gaming community & retail access, as well as gaming career & education. Each category is broken down into subcategories that each come with its own points system. They took specific talking points and came up with a methodology on how to judge, let’s say, Fiber internet coverage vs. mobile internet speeds in terms of importance to gamers. Once the scores are tallied up, they go into a final ranking, from 1 to 100. Those ranks determine who the winner is here. What are the top three US cities to live in the USA for gamers and gaming? The number one ranked city in the USA for gaming is New York City, NY. So nice they named it twice, but the scoring on Livability and Internet Structure could be better. Somehow the Gaming community, retail access, career opportunities, and education are what brought it out as #1. Basically, if you’re fine with slightly more lackluster internet offerings and harsher living conditions, you’re going to love it there as a gamer in NYC due to the communities and options. Going in the opposite direction is the list’s #2 spot: Raleigh, NC. Their livability and high-end internet option save everything as the internet is highly weighted on the total scoring. But, while gaming communities, conventions, retail, and career opportunities exist, there are better options out there. For the record, St. Pete is about a 20-minute drive from Tampa and they’re ranked so vastly different from each other. So, Tampa is the third highest ranked on the list. As someone who lives in St. Petersburg, FL (#85 on this list), it’s interesting to see what these statistics look like in practice against this data. For the record, St. Pete is about a 20-minute drive from Tampa and they’re ranked so vastly different from each other. St. Pete, for instance, could enjoy some of the same amenities and points that Tampa offers, such as conventions, meetups, job openings, and college programs. From experience, the livability is also pretty similar between the two, but that data shows otherwise. But, sticking strictly to the data, it ranks terribly in those same categories by comparison. The study starts to fall apart once you look at what isn’t there Looking at Jersey City, NJ, the same thing happens, but in two different directions. Jersey City is under 30 minutes from both Newark, NJ and New York City, NY and they rank so wildly different from each other. One problem that I worry about is that the list ranks them from best to worst, not accounting for states that didn’t even meet their initial criteria. Salt Lake City, Utah, a city in a state that doesn’t even get an entry onto this list, just misses being a part of the conversation by just about 22,000 residents (at 204,657 in 2022) vs. San Bernardino, CA (220,328) as the lowest population on the list. And yet, Salt Lake City offers conventions, plenty of retail, comfortable living, and so much more. It feels disingenuous to not include cities like this. Sure, you can have conventions and meetups, as well as retail stores. But, do those aspects outweigh the personal safety of actually going to those? Conversely, having had friends in West Virginia, a state not mentioned in this study, many of them didn’t even get to really play Fallout 76, a game based in West Virginia that requires a constant internet connection, due to the terrible internet coverage there. But, you wouldn’t know that from this list or the data used, even though they rank Anchorage and Miami as some of the worst. West Virginia’s most populated city, Charleston, sits at a measly 47,129 as of 2022. It never even got a chance to make this list, as it was swept under the rug. Another important detail that the study mentions is “safety” in the livability category. Giving it only 5 points and a vague explanation, it seems to not take into account or contextualize that safety could also be a huge factor for people of color and the giant LBGTQIA+ communities. This goes doubly so for those under 18 and in schools, in general, and much more so for those looking for safe places to play games. Sure, you can have conventions and meetups, as well as retail stores. But, do those aspects outweigh the personal safety of actually going to those? The points start to feel arbitrary when looked at from other perspectives. That’s definitely true when it comes to Florida, for instance. But, the cities in the state rank all over the board, leaning harder into the less-ideal end for livability according to their scoring system. And yet, Tampa still somehow ranks 3rd place overall due to the weight given to certain slots, as well as high marks for Jacksonville and Orlando. If you want to see how your city stacks up, they offer a full list of rankings, as well as explanations for each category, and the methodology used. While they didn’t do anything inherently wrong, the list just doesn’t seem to take a lot of factors into account that would make it a much more accurate list. It honestly just goes to show that hard data doesn’t always tell the entire picture against personal experiences and finer details.

Home media servers are nothing new, but they’re all the rage today. Thanks to popular streaming software like Plex, you can run your private streaming service in your home. But to do that, you’ll want to set up a media server. Technically, you can use just about any computer as a media server, from your daily driver PC to an old office computer to a Raspberry Pi. But if you want to build a new machine to take advantage of the power and efficiency of modern hardware, then making a new machine for the job is an excellent way to go. Media Server Hardware Considerations CPU When choosing a CPU for media server usage, you typically won’t need anything too powerful. For software transcoding, Plex recommends a CPU with a PassMark score of 2000 for transcoding a 1080p stream. And to put that into perspective, an Intel Core i5-3770 released in 2012 has a PassMark score of 4664. For building a media server, you want an Intel processor with Quick Sync technology. This allows you your computer to do hardware transcoding without needing a discrete GPU. Generally, any Intel Core i3, i5, i7 or i9 CPU from the Haswell generation forward (3000 series processors) with be Quick Sync compatible and can act as your iGPU for video streaming functionality. As for AMD CPUs, they’re not usually a good choice for media server builds. Primarily, they still lag considerably when it comes to video transcoding, meaning if you use an AMD CPU, you’ll probably need a graphics card. GPU When it comes to a media server, a GPU isn’t typically necessary. Yes, a GPU can offer hardware transcoding and could be a viable option if you’re looking to repurpose an older build or want to transcode many high-resolution streams simultaneously. But for most people, a GPU is overkill and adds to the final cost of building and maintaining a media server. RAM RAM doesn’t make a substantial difference in performance for a media server. Faster RAM can help speed things up a bit. But overall, you won’t need a lot of RAM since most streaming platforms don’t use much. A cheap 8gb kit should be sufficient and allow you to use the money you save on RAM towards a better processor or storage. Storage Storage is one of the most important aspects of a media server. You’ll need to have enough storage to house your media library and extra space in case your library grows. You’ll also want a separate drive to house your streaming software and media metadata since you can quickly end up with hundreds of gigabytes of media metadata with an extensive media library. When choosing a drive for your streaming software and metadata, you’ll want to select a fast drive. A fast drive will help make for a smoother experience accessing the server and metadata. For the software and metadata, an NVMe drive is optimal, though a SATA SSD is an excellent second choice. For the media, speed isn’t as much of an issue as redundancy for most users. But that doesn’t mean you should completely disregard speed. For example, if you plan to put your drives in a RAID array to protect yourself against data loss, you’ll want to consider a RAID 5 array for security and performance, requiring at least three drives. Network Last but certainly not least is your network. Since you’ll be streaming media across your network, you will want a hard-wired connection to your media server. For most people, a standard 1Gbps connection should work just fine. Some motherboards may come with a 2.5Gbps connection, giving you more room to expand. However, remember that to take advantage of the increased bandwidth capabilities, you’ll need a 2.5Gbps-capable switch or router at the other end of the Ethernet cord. Now that we’ve gone over media server hardware let’s look at a couple of example builds to give you an idea of what you might want for a home media server. Small Home Starter Server CPU: Intel Core i3-12100F CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Gravity i2 Motherboard: ASRock B660M PRO RS Micro ATX RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) Storage: Team Group MP33 PRO (512GB) for apps; WD Red Plus 4TB (or larger) for files Power Supply: EVGA 400 N1 400W Case: SAMA IM01 Micro ATX If you're building a new streaming rig, an Intel Core i3-12100F is an excellent way to get started if you’re looking to dabble in the home media server space with a small yet capable build. The Intel Core i3-12100F is more than powerful enough for transcoding without consuming a ton of power, thanks to its use of Quick Sync. And the Thermaltake Gravity i2 pairs well, being a good budget-oriented cooler that offers excellent cooling performance at its size and price. The ASRock B660M PRO RS Micro ATX offers Gigabit LAN connectivity for fast network throughput and an M.2 drive slot for fast SSD storage. Install a Team Group MP33 Pro SSD in the M.2, and you’ll have plenty of performance for your operating system and media streaming applications. You have up to 3.5-inch drive bays, so you’ve got room hold a lot of media and run your drives in a RAID 5 array. At around $500 for the build, excluding your media storage drives, it’s small, fast, and powerful enough to serve a small home, blending performance and price with few compromises. Large Family Media Server CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K CPU Cooler: Enermax ETS-N31 CPU Air Cooler Motherboard: ASRock Z690 Pro RS LGA 1700 RAM: G.SKILL Aegis 8GB (2 x 4GB) Storage: Team Group MP33 PRO (512GB) for apps; WD Red Plus 4TB (or larger) for files Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA 550 GA 80 Plus Gold 550W Case: Cooler Master N400 ATX Mid Tower If you’re in a larger home and want something beefier than the starter server above, then this is another good option. At a little over $600, this Core i5-12600K PC packs a wallop, making it more suitable for large homes with lots of concurrent transcoding streams. And it isn’t just beefier in terms of power. The Cooler Master N400 is a mid-tower case, offering a whopping seven 3.5-inch drive bays and two additional 5.25-inch bays if you want to install optical media readers like DVD or Blu-ray. Complementing the case is the ASRock Z690 Pro RS LGA 1700 with 8 SATA ports, three M.2 drive slots, which gives you many options for SSD and HDD data storage in a number of different RAID configurations. All of this is powered by a 550-watt EVGA SuperNOVA PSU, leaving plenty of additional power for a graphics card later down the road, should you ever want to take your transcoding power to the next level. Operating Systems There are endless options when picking an operating system for a media server. However, we’ll focus on a few standard options, with a brief overview of each one to get you started. Windows Windows is a decent choice if you value running your server in a familiar environment. However, it certainly isn’t the best choice. It has more overhead than the other operating systems we mention, and it can’t do HDR tone mapping in Plex, meaning you’ll want something else if you’re looking to stream 4K content. UnRAID UnRAID is a popular NAS OS that allows you to run other software, including Plex and other streaming platforms. This functionality means it works great for media streaming NAS builds. However, it is a paid operating system with limitations, meaning it isn’t suitable for everyone. FreeNAS/TrueNAS FreeNAS and TrueNAS are other possibly good options, especially if you don’t mind getting deep with software. Like UnRAID, these are NAS operating systems that can run popular streaming platforms like Plex and Jellyfin. As the name suggests, FreeNAS is free to use, while TrueNAS is the paid version. Both are great operating systems, but like UnRAID, they aren’t the perfect choice for everyone. Streaming Platforms In addition to picking an operating system, you’ll need to choose a streaming platform to stream your media. Like the last section, we’ll briefly overview some popular options. Plex The most popular streaming platform available, Plex, is a go-to for media server enthusiasts. It offers both free and premium versions, with the latter unlocking even more features. These paid features include watching and recording live TV, streaming trailers of your media, and hardware-accelerated transcoding, among others. Plex also offers both free and paid mobile apps, so you aren’t just limited to streaming to your devices at home. Emby Emby is a direct competitor to Plex, and is partially open-source, making it a good middle-ground between Plex and Jellyfin. Like Plex, Emby offers both free and paid versions, with the latter allotting you premium features like live TV, hardware-accelerated transcoding, and smart home integration. Emby also has a mobile app. But unlike Plex, there is no free version. Jellyfin Jellyfin is an open-source, free streaming platform that easily rivals Plex and Emby. Not only does it have many of the same features as both Plex and Emby, but it also doesn’t put certain features, like hardware-accelerated transcoding, behind a paywall. Jellyfin also has a mobile app. But unlike the other two services, it doesn’t charge money or lock features behind a paywall to use it.

Xbox Mastercard owners earn points to use on Xbox, like a closed loop. It was only a matter of time before Microsoft figured out how to partner with a credit card company, in this case, Barclay, to offer a Mastercard for the hardcore Xbox fanatics. If you’re a big enough Xbox fan, Sony has already proven the idea works with the success of the PlayStation Visa Credit Card that’s been around since 2017. Honestly, looking at the cards side by side gives a pretty good comparison. The Xbox card will have no annual fees, which is good. Cardmembers will also earn points with everyday purchases, then they can use those points on Xbox.com. Your first purchase gets you 5,000 points, the equivalent of $50 in the Xbox shop, plus three months of Game Pass Ultimate for new members. It looks like you earn points like any credit card with a points system. But, the smartest way to use it, if you have one, would be to put your streaming services and dining delivery bills on it, as well as buying directly from the Microsoft Store. You get the most point multipliers that way. Using it for novelties and frivolities like gas or groceries gets you the least amount of points. But, any purchase works. Xbox Insiders in the USA get access to sign up for the card on September 21st. The rest of the plebians can get theirs, if they wish, sometime in 2024. Sony’s PlayStation Visa Card, as mentioned, is very similar. You get $50 for the PS Store. You get special point multipliers on Sony and PlayStation products. They’re a little more frugal and miserly with their rewards, though. If you’re so inclined to check out the Xbox credit card, we’re just here to tell you about it. We’re not sponsored by Microsoft, but news is news.

I’m tired of always going to the left while playing Nintendo Switch games. When game companies file patents, more often than not, they go entirely unused. For instance, Activision has a 2015 patent on a technology that matches you with other players who are higher ranked than you to drive you to spend money on micro-transactions. Gross, right? Nintendo, on the other hand, filed a new patent this month that is a little less predatory, centered around their Joy-Con controllers. They’re looking at ways to solve their dreaded Joy-Con Drift. For those that don’t know, a lot of Nintendo’s controllers have an eventual problem where they will start pushing to the side with the joystick. This makes some games basically unplayable, while most others just acquire a huge inconvenience. This new patent uses the power of science to solve their persistent problem. The controller would utilize “magnetorheological fluid”, or MRF. What would MRF do exactly? So, according to the patent, the liquid would change viscosity depending on magnetic fields. A term you’re likely to see thrown around that uses this kind of tech is “Hall Effect joysticks”, which use magnets to control your joystick instead of older mechanisms and is named after its founder, Edwin Hall. Hall Effect joysticks utilize a magnetic field that “interferes with an electrical flow from a conductor”. Like I said, science. If you want to read way more about the Hall Effect, TheGamingSetup has a fantastic article on how it works and what it could mean for the future of how controllers are made. For those of you who aren’t science nerds, the liquid could thicken or liquify depending on its needs, allowing more flow with your joystick and giving it more free reign to move without messing up an internal component. The patent goes into a lot more detail and technical jargon. But, the important part is to know that they see the problem that’s haunted them since 2017 and they’re now looking at the future. As mentioned, this idea could go entirely unused. But, if they do intend to utilize the patent, there’s no telling if they plan to use it with the current line of their flagship consoles or with a future successor to the Switch. If you’re worried more about the here-and-now of the Nintendo Switch and want to get yourself one, you should check out our buying guide to help you choose the model right for you.

Everyone stay calm, but there’s a small chance that F-ZERO could be making a return. According to a leaker who has a pretty good track record, we’re not only getting our usual September Nintendo Direct this month, but we may possibly be getting some news about F-ZERO, among other things. The leaker, Pyoro, correctly predicted Super Mario Wonder before it was announced back in June. Now, they’re going for a hat trick with a hint with today’s X / Twitter posts. Of course, anything not officially confirmed is just a rumor. So, this could all be wildly incorrect. But, while we are here, let’s break it all down. The first post was treated more like a riddle for others to figure out, as many leakers tend to do: “Let’s just say fans of a certain MATLAB function will be happy with the upcoming Direct”. Relatively quickly, fans on social media and forums like ResetEra started to figure out what that meant. MATLAB is for “programming and numeric computing”, according to their website. Fans were quick to look through the functions in MATLAB is realize one is literally named “fzero”. Nothing else even remotely comes close to being so directly stated. This would mean that Nintendo is bringing back F-ZERO, a beloved franchise that hasn’t seen a new game in 19 years. Fans have been asking for a new F-ZERO for years and it’s always fallen on deaf ears at Nintendo. But wait, there’s more. Not long after the initial leaks, Pyoro kept the Nintendo Direct leak train rolling. Another tease was a GIF of Donkey Kong rolling into battle during a scene from the New Super Mario Bros. Movie. While many speculate that this could be a new Donkey Country Game, it could be teasing something else related to DK. There’s a possibility that it could be teasing a Donkey Kong spin-off movie from this year’s Illumination hit. But, one thing that people aren’t really talking about in Pyoro’s comments is that Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios has a Donkey Kong section being built as well. It could be a number of things, honestly. Additionally, in an offhanded comment, someone asked Pyoro if we were going to see anything about the upcoming Princess Peach game and they simply said “yep”. This is honestly to be expected as we don’t even have a name or any details about the game other than the brief teaser back in June during that Nintendo Direct. We don’t have a date for this year’s September Nintendo Direct. But, if history serves well, we know it’s coming soon. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it pans out and if Pyoro’s predictions are correct. Until then, as always, take it all with the tiniest grain of salt.

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