I have to admit that getting an iPad was in our plans. But my wife and I didn’t expect that we’ll be getting one this soon. Considering how things are going, we figured it might be a few years before could even consider actually buying one.
Nevertheless, somehow even with our struggling income, we got the iPad Pro 11 (4th Gen) which is the latest unit. That is until a new one comes along in the coming months.
(more…)Posted by pinoyvideogamer on August 1, 2023
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2023/08/01/review-ipad-pro-11-4th-generation/
I got myself a new TV. yey!
I’ve been wanting to get a 4K TV (max resolution of 3840×2160) for the past few years now, especially when I got back home from working in Cavite for many years. For 2 years, I used a ChangHong 24-inch LCD TV (max resolution of 1280×720) as my alternative monitor and TV. Now, after talking to friends and asking for recommendations, I ended up with a TCL 43-inch P735.
(more…)Posted by pinoyvideogamer on February 15, 2023
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2023/02/15/review-tcl-43p635/
Here’s my review of the Red Dragon K551RGB-BA Keyboard and Mouse 2 in 1 set. This is my first modern mechanical keyboard.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on March 21, 2022
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2022/03/21/review-red-dragon-k551rgb-ba-keyboard-mouse-2-in-1-set/
This is my first experiment on doing some game news. I’ll see if I can keep up with doing it as a weekly thing. This actually pushes my editing skills on speed.
I haven’t done any write ups lately since most of my written work has been on Geekosity lately. So, if you want to check out my reviews and news, check that site. I may still write here some stuff that’s not covered in Geekosity though.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on March 23, 2021
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2021/03/23/game-news-march-22-2021/
After using the Xbox Series X for a week. These are the features that stood out for me.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on January 12, 2021
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/currently-tinkering-xbox-series-x-favorite-features/
This is my initial experience in setting up the Xbox Series X.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on January 12, 2021
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/currently-tinkering-xbox-series-x-initial-setup/
This is my unboxing of the Xbox Series X. I won’t be talking about the each detail on my unboxing. I’ll be talking about how I got it and why, while unboxing the Series X.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on January 2, 2021
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2021/01/02/unboxing-xbox-series-x/
I heard about 8bitdo controllers. I think they are well known for an alternative to the Switch controllers, but I also heard that it also works on the PC. I saw 2 models there. I saw the SN30 Pro and the latest SN30 Pro +. The SN30 Pro looked like an SNES controller with enough buttons to accommodate modern games. While SN30 Pro+ looked like a PlayStation controller.
Opening the box alone feels like there’s a little bit of love and care, more-so than most official controllers that I’ve opened up. I remember unboxing the Logitech Rumblepad 2, and based on it’s packaging, it just feels like it was opening something you bought at a hardware or school supply store. The PS4 (which I also just unboxed recently), just felt like it was there. Standard flare, nothing surprising. But with the 8bitdo, it felt almost like opening an iPad. Felt a tad special. I got the black version, because it stood out from the rest of the controllers that I was looking at when I was choosing at the store. But I suppose I chose badly, since the black color made it a bit difficult to see the labels on the controller. But then again, if you are familiar with the controller, it should not be much of an issue since I may not be looking at it all the time. But if you want to see the labels better, don’t get the black version. The box also included a USB-C to USB cable.
Holding it, it has a bit of weight to it. Feels just as good if not better than holding the PS4 controller. Pressing the buttons really feels like it is has perfect feel. I suppose having bigger buttons than the original Joy-con really helped. Even the directional pad felt good. It was interesting to see that the trigger buttons (L2/R2) had this similar analog control like the PS4 and Xbox, yes the SN30 Pro+ has pressure sensitivity. The original Joy-con had no pressure sensitivity to it. It was hard to test this function since Switch games didn’t really make use of this. So, in terms of the look and feel, the SN30 Pro+ knocks it out of the park.
I was also surprised that this was using a removable rechargeable battery. It’s using a 1000Mah battery that should last you for 20+ hours. That’s a plus, having a removable battery can really make this controller easier to maintain. The PS4 doesn’t have a removable battery, and from what I remember, the Xbox uses a standard AA alkaline battery. The 1000Mah battery is already inside the SN30 Pro+ controller once you open the box. The battery can be easily removed and you are also allowed to replace it with a AA alkaline battery.
The manual indicates that it supports the Switch, Android, Windows, macOS. This is actually pretty impressive. I wasn’t aware that it also supported macOS, but it also proves that this is the controller that I was looking for which was lacking in the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. I primarily need this to work on the Switch. So, I needed it to sync. I could have synced the controller by doing the key combination indicated in the manual, but to make it easier, just use the provided cable. While it’s plugged though, controller doesn’t work. Although website FAQ mentioned that it does work wired on the Switch. Not sure what’s wrong with my unit. But then again, I don’t have any issues since I’ll just be recharging the controller while the Switch is turned off. Anyway, once it has synced, the controller works flawlessly. My main gripe at the moment is that the controller can’t start the console. You have to manually start the console, from there, you can just press start to connect to your Switch.
Using the controller is very responsive. I liked how fast the response is, it functions so much better than my Logitech Rumblepad 2. But is just as equal to the PS4 controller. I tested playing a bit of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, Asphalt 9 Legends, Sky Force Reloaded, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Warframe, Diablo III. At times it also feels more responsive than the original Joy-Cons. I think I felt it more when playing in Diablo III. When going through the menus the joy-cons has some sort of delay when I use it, but in this one, the game responded so quickly that it just made me realize that there is a problem with the Joy-con and not the game itself. Motion controls work great too. The only game I was able to test it was when using Breath of the Wild since aiming your arrow will help using the motion controls for precision. Rumble was good too, though I didn’t test if it’s strong or not, but it did feel natural enough when it seemed like the right moment.
After playing a lot of games. It shows that this controller is more perfect for 2D games because the directional pad is perfectly positioned for your thumbs to be comfortable. Although there are no issues with this controller when playing 3D games, it’s just that the layout makes it more convenient.
The Nintendo joy-cons with the grips remind me of the Xbox controller, which is not so bad actually. But the small buttons made it a little uncomfortable. The original controllers were not bad. I was able to finish a few games without issue. But the main problem of the original controller is that it’s also designed as two controllers that you can combine into one. I love the idea of the original joy-con controller, but it did sacrifice some of the comfort just to fit everything in the small two controllers. Comparing the SN30 Pro+ versus the Joy-Cons is light night and day. One thing, I worry less about the joy-con drift.
So, after my initial test, I also had to try out getting it to work on the PC. This time I didn’t want to make it sync since I didn’t want to get bothered by resyncing the controller. So I tried using the cable again and see if it worked. And it did work wired. I tested out playing Bloodstained Ritual of the Night under Windows Store / Gamepass and it worked like a charm. I did mention earlier that using gamepads that doesn’t have XInput doesn’t work on the Windows Store games. Fortunately, this does controller supports it. It also supports DirectInput so, that gives me control over some games that still uses that. But by default, I won’t have issues on using controllers now.
8Bitdo also offers a software that you can download from their official website. The software can actually change the function of each button, it even offers to change the sensitivity of the trigger buttons. What also impressed me was the macros that you can do on a single button. Although, this doesn’t work well with most games, but games that only uses a few buttons this can work well. I suppose this is where the Logitech RumblePad2 really helped since it offered an alternate control set with just one press of a button. So, using macros on the SN30 Pro+ is a great add on, but for most games these days, it’s going to hard to actually use it.
I didn’t get the chance to try the turbo button. I didn’t get the chance to try it since there was no game I felt that needed this function. But I suppose if I had I had games like the classic NES games, maybe I would have used it. The Turbo function doesn’t work on the Switch, but it works on any other mode.
Overall, I really liked the controller. So much better than the original Joy-Cons, and the battery life is amazing. It has a better response time for the Switch, it works great on the PC. The ability to be able customize the controls is a bonus for me. My Joy-cons will rest now.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on October 29, 2020
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2020/10/29/review-8bitdo-sn30-pro/
Are you using a computer that has 2 GPU’s (Graphics Processing Unit)? Do you have an old controller that still works but apparently, not supported by newer games?
I’ll be teaching a couple of things here, and I hope it does teach you something a thing or two.
Okay. Once I get new game, I must make sure that the game will use the proper GPU. This is usually an issue with most computers today since if you have a gaming system, more likely that you’ll have an internal GPU and a discreet GPU. If all this GPU term is giving you a headache, here is what it means.
The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is the like a computer processor that also does computation like a computer. But the GPU is focused on graphics instead on running programs. If you are using a PC, sometimes we have Video Cards, which is an add on to a PC that contains a GPU. But since we are using a laptop, the term Video Card is not used in this case because the GPU is already embedded on the system.
Most motherboards already have some form of GPU included in the system, although most of the time, those are not designed for gaming. It will support a few games, especially games that don’t require heavy hardware. Another problem with internal GPUs is that this will also eat up some of your RAM, which in most cases, you don’t want. There are also CPU’s that have their own GPUs integrated like AMD’s Ryzen processors which have Vega, which is a pretty capable GPU. Vega’s are designed to run a lot of high end games, but it will struggle a bit, but it’s so much better than just the basic GPU.
So, the laptop I’m using is an AMD Ryzen processor, which already includes the Vega GPU (internal GPU). But the laptop also includes an AMD Radeon RX 560X GPU (discreet GPU). So, the system includes 2 GPUs. Note that some motherboards can disable the internal GPU through the BIOS, but this is not one of them. If you can disable the internal GPU the better, since you won’t have these kinds of issues.
The reason why laptops have 2 GPUs is for power saving (internal GPU) and high performance (discreet GPU). If the system detects you are plugged in, it will generally use high performance, if it knows that you are using a game. But if you are unplugged, it will use power saving. The problem with this is that it can be random.
If I don’t do anything on the system, and I start a game. The system will actually use a GPU based on what “might be better”. If you don’t have any control over which GPU is going to be used, you just hope it starts with the discreet GPU, but in some cases, it will use the internal GPU. Why does this happen? It mostly is because the GPU drivers dictate what to use. If somehow your computer thinks that you are using an office application, it will use the internal GPU. If your computer thinks that you are playing a game, it will use the discreet GPU. But the thing is, all programs are just applications. There is no real part of the program that tells the system that it’s a game or something that you use for work. For the computer, it’s all the same. So, the GPU drivers will try to “guess” what is best for your current situation. And, it most cases this is a miss. It’s generally a 50/50 chance that it will use the discreet GPU or the internal GPU.
Sometimes, your GPU drivers will provide a way to make sure that the system will use the discreet GPU. Both nVidia and AMD provides this, but sometimes, those GPU software provided doesn’t work well as intended, which happened to me. A version of the AMD Adrenaline software for the GPUs removed the option to force a game to use discreet GPU. But then again, this is just an option, the software only did was make is kind of easier to find since nVidia and AMD software is usually always running on the background.
But what I do is go to “Graphics Settings”. You don’t have to manually look for it. Just type it in the Search bar on the task bar. But just in case you can’t find it. Go to Windows Settings, then click “System”. By default you should be on the “Display Settings”. Scroll down until you find “Graphics Settings”.
Open that and you should see this window.
Now there are two options. Classic and Universal. I’ll explain the two before moving on. Universal is for applications designed to work inside the Windows environment, in other words, these are apps that are already installed inside Windows or can be downloaded from the Windows Store. If you downloaded and installed an application that didn’t use the Windows Store, then this is considered as Classic. So, the Steam Game Launcher that you are using is labeled as Classic, and so is all the games that you install under the launcher.
So, now we know what Classic and Universal is. Make sure the Classic is selected and press BROWSE. Since most of my games are under the Classic category, I’ll need to know where the application is located. This is can get a little confusing because you really have to know what actual file to get the game running. By default, it’s a “.EXE” file, or what we call an “executable file”. Steam file structure is confusing and if you are not sure, you can look through the internet and search the actual name of the file is. But if you are using UPlay, Origin, Epic, or GOG Game Launchers, they are actually slightly easier to understand. Sometimes, you might have problems that you have several “.EXE” files in the folder and it’s hard to tell which is which. This is why you might need to do a little research before moving on. But in most cases, there is only one.
Once you find the file click it then press ADD. By default, the application will be added to the list, but you will notice below name of the file it is labeled as “System Default”. This is the automatic mode. As I mentioned before, this is not what you want if you want to use the discreet GPU.
Choose “High Performance GPU”. Then click “Save”. This will make sure, that it will always use the discreet GPU.
Okay, now second topic. Setting up the controller. I’ve talked about this topic before here. I’ve been using the Logitech Rumblepad 2 for a long time now. Although I did that article 8 years ago. Here are a few updates. Under Steam, you don’t have to think much about the controller settings since Steam handles the controller emulation almost flawlessly. You only have to make sure that the drivers did install properly so that Steam can detect it properly. But if you are using other game launchers, I’m now using Xbox360 Controller Emulator almost exclusively.
Now, once the graphics is setup and the controllers are all ready to go. Now we can start the game.
I hope this helped you, especially the ones having issues that your high performance gaming laptop or PC is not working as intended. And the ones with old controller or anyone who just bought an old controller (apparently, I know some shops still sell the Logitech Rumblepad 2).
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on July 24, 2020
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/how-to-setting-up-my-laptop-for-gaming-2020/
For a while now since I reformatted my latpop and reinstalled everything, I’ve been having issues playing games using the controller on non Steam games. On certain buttons. it keeps revealing an onscreen keyboard, in which it can only be controlled using the controller. I didn’t know what triggered it at first. But it got frustrating because I can’t play all of the games that required a controller that’s not under the Steam Game Launcher.
At first, I wondered if this is in connection to the Epic Games Launcher. But after doing a little research, it turns out that this is a Steam onscreen keyboard. The controller can be used as a mouse and other features in desktop mode. Of course, any game that’s not under Steam also is considered as desktop mode.
To fix this, make sure that your controller is connected. If not, connect your controller. Open Steam, under the Steam tab go to Settings. Then go to Controller. Choose Desktop configuration.
You should see this screen after.
So, this shows that your controller is using these settings when you are not using Steam. Even just browsing the internet. Based on these settings, pressing the Left Analog stick will trigger opening the On Screen Keyboard. So, to disable this, choose Browse Settings at the bottom of that window.
You should see this screen below.
Choose Disabled.
You’ll see that the controllers are now blank, but this is in preview mode. Click on the bottom of that window that indicated Apply Configuration. You should see now screen similar below this.
After that, your other games shouldn’t be much of a bother now. No more unwanted On-Screen Keyboards.
Hopefully this helps you if you encounter a similar problem.
Posted by pinoyvideogamer on June 14, 2020
https://pinoyvideogamer.wordpress.com/2020/06/14/controller-issue/
Pinoy Video Gamer 