Saturday 28 October 2017

Total War!

So I have had my eye on Total War: Warhammer for some time.

I actually bought it in a Humble Bundle Monthly deal, which was excellent value for money. Loaded it up. Could hear the sound. Got all interested. Nothing. Not a thing on the screen!

Turns out, after much fretting and checking, that my good old graphics card just was not enough to cope (GT 9600). I could not afford a new one so it all went on the back burner.

Over the next few months I tried to scrimp and save a bit...very difficult at the moment... all my real cash goes on the family and house, as it should. But I did take part in a long survey for SKY and earned £50. I also got £50 for my birthday in August. And during spare bits of time I did a lot of the surveys on Opinion Outpost, earning £2.50 in Amazon vouchers here and there.

Eventually I count my pennies and do some research. A 1050 Ti looked like a good bet. It actually used much less power than my old card (it takes it all from the rail), was quieter (fans only spin up when put under serious load) and was a decent price point (expensive for me, but decent bang for your pound).

I did a lot of research and tracked down an EVGA slightly overclocked one on Amazon. Totted up and added on all my vouchers. After £90 of vouchers (!) and £50 birthday money it actually only cost me £5 of real cash! Bargain!

I was not looking forward to the change over, having worked with IT for so long and seen so many things go wrong. In the end, absolutely faultless and painless. Even put the old card into my wife's PC downstairs to boost it a bit.

First thing I loaded after checking everything? Oh yeah... Total War!

Finally! An oh boy was it worth the wait. I have always wanted Total War to come into the Warhammer universe, and to be honest, they have done themselves proud. I have now played through several campaigns, trying the Empire several times (once getting trounced late game as everyone around me declared war at the same time, another giving up after a time), Dwarves (to completion, enjoyed that one) and I am now into a Wood Elves campaign (yes I paid £10 for the DLC... wanted to try them out as something different, and given I had a bit of cash on me at the time and I had saved so much over the last year with the package I treated myself).

More to come!