Fathers Day - LG V60

My wife asked me what I wanted for Fathers Day.  I told her I wanted another handgun.  She didn't bite.  Instead, she suggested a new phone.  I'd been using an LG V30 the past 3 years.  It's been working fine.  Before then, I'd used an LG V20.

What'd I get this time?  An LG V60.  Verizon is my carrier.

I'd wondered if the V60 would come with the dual screen case.  It does not (although you can purchase it separately if your carrier is AT&T.  I'd read that you could get a promotional offer of the dual screen case but no literature came with the phone that stated it.  I had to hunt it down on the internet.  Even then, the URLs were bad...it took me a while to find a functional URL that would let me submit for the dual screen case.  I submitted for it the same day I bought it (3 days ago).  It will take 4-6 weeks for me to receive it.

The phone is definitely an upgrade for me.  Everything about it is better (not that I had any major complaints on the V30).  The speakers are far better than the one on the V30.  The camera is better.  The V30's screen is better (but smaller).

I bought a cheap clear gel case for the V60.  I'll use it when I'm not using the dual screen case.

One thing about the dual screen case that I see people complaining about is the fragile front of the case (when closed).  It's made of glass.  While it will protect the phone, it destroys itself in the process.  I hear that LG will replace broken glass for you for $35.  That's not bad.  It would be better if they refined the case by making the front cover plastic instead, though.

I also have an active stylus coming (a Wacom Bamboo Ink Plus).

It also syncs well with my Samsung Galaxy watch (I didn't have an issue with the V30 connecting to it, either).

The V60 is a 5G phone and I don't live anywhere near a location that has 5G (closest area is Pentagon City and DC area).

The phone also is using Android 10, which is new to me.

One thing I have to get used to is using gestures instead of the home row keys that are usually at the bottom of the screen (home key, back key).  I can disable gestures to regain access to the home row keys but I thought I'd try to use the gestures for a bit to see if I can learn something new.  If I don't like it, I can always go back to what I'm used to.

I'll probably give the V30 to my son.  I've to remove the 256 GB microSD card first (he doesn't need that) and then ensure that my Google Authenticator entries have been migrated to my new phone.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

I've purchased both IL-2 Sturmovik:  Battle of Stalingrad and IL-2 Sturmovik:  Battle of Bodenplatte. 

I purchased the premium version for both, meaning I also have the premium (ie, collector) planes for those two modules.

I've been flying IL-2 the past 3 weeks, off and on.  I'm also flying War Thunder in Simulator Battles mode.  I probably shouldn't be mixing the two, but the concepts are pretty much the same between the two games.  I can use the same tactics in both games.

I'll be posting on these two games as I learn more about them.

PC Gaming

During the pandemic, I've not been able to do my normal hobby (visiting the local range to shoot my firearms).

I've been trying to do things that are different.  One example is that I've been delving in using Python (the programming language). 

Another thing that I've been doing is playing different PC games than I'm used to.  I've recently been playing Cold Waters, a submarine warfare sim.  I've also been playing Arma 2.  I'd install Arma 3 but I probably have to uninstall a few other games before I do that.  Arma 2 has a smaller footprint.

I also recently bought Steel Beasts Pro PE, a tank/armor simulator that uses sandboxes (similar to Arma 3).  I bought the original version maybe 20 years ago and thought I'd have fun with the latest version.  It is fun but something that you have to keep playing to get used to.

Lastly, yesterday, I bought a set of rudder pedals and 8 GB of DDR3 RAM (to add to my gaming desktop, which already has 8 GB - I needed to add another 8).  The pedals I bought are CH Pro pedals.  It took me two weeks to decide which pedals to buy.  I didn't want to buy anything super-expensive...I just need a decent set to use to play War Thunder SB or even DCS with (I've the first version of Black Shark as well as A-10C Warthog, which I've rarely used).  If I end up flying SB within War Thunder or DCS a lot more, then I'll invest in a very nice set of pedals.  I plan to use the CH Pro pedals with my X52 Pro HOTAS.

I'm finding myself playing less War Thunder RB.  I think I'm bored.  I've been playing it hardcore a bit over a year and it's getting redundant.

I'll keep you all updated the next few weeks.

TrackIR and FPS

I bought a TrackIR (version 5) a few years ago but hardly ever used it. I wanted to try to use it for flight sims but never got around to using it. Well, I dusted it off and used it to play some Arma 2 this past weekend. All I can say is....WOW! I should've been using this a long time ago. While I realize that not all games allow for head-tracking, Arma does (I've many of the Arma variants, including Arma 3). I also used it a bit to play some War Thunder. It was awesome there as well, allowing for a very immersive bit of gameplay (although I just used the test drive feature to test the hardware). To use TrackIR with War Thunder will also, for full immersion, require the use of HOTAS, which I do have (I've the Saitek X52 Pro throttle and stick combo), as well as rudder pedals, which I do not yet have (I'm in the process of deciding which to buy...I'm not looking for Gucci equipment...just some decent pedals to facilitate gameplay). I'll be testing other FPS games to see if they allow for head-tracking. I may also delve into other flight sims such as DCS and the IL2 series. Stay tuned.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

I bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare last year, but haven't played it much.  A friend reached out to me via Battle.net to ask if we can play a few games and I told him I had CoD:MW.  

I started playing  the campaign to get familiar with it, but noticed that the game kept crashing after a few minutes of play.  

Initially, I tried dialing back the graphics, in case my system couldn't cope with it, but I play a lot of other resource-intensive PC games on this system, so I knew that this wasn't a hardware issue.  I had the game redo the shaders, as well.  Neither helped.  I reinstalled the game (as someone suggested) but that didn't help either.

Today, I fixed the issue.  It wasn't related to software or hardware.  This was a networking issue.  I went into my router's configuration and added some port fowarding entries using this resource.  It worked.  The game hasn't crashed and I've played maybe 1.5 hours.

My gaming system's specs:

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard:  MSI MS-7850
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz
Monitor: Dell SE2719H (27" LED)
Video Card: ZOTAC GTX 1060 6GB
Memory: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
Mouse: Logitech G700S
Keyboard: Logitech G213 Prodigy
OS: Windows Version 7 Professional
Web Cam: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam
Headset: Logitech G935