Need advice from UK gamers!!

[Ed0o]

Hello, I will be moving to the UK with my wife within a couple of months to obtain our Msc, perhaps we could squeeze some gaming time and I need some advice from you guys:

-Internet provider: we will be going to west midlands (Birmingham) and I really need advice on a good provider in terms of speed, cost and quality. we don't want to spend a fortune but I'm tired of playing with ~300 ms latency. Also no bandwith limit so we can watch netflix or w/e.

-Buying games: sometimes I notice that steam screws people in the UK when it comes to pricing, I realize things are more expensive there but still...any help appreciated. I don't know many other portals to buy games online

-Gaming communities: board games, videogames, card games...any of these would be nice to get in touch

EXTRA STUFF:

-Mobile service provider: something with decent data plans, coverage and prices, we don't plan on calling people everyday but we need this still.

-Anything else: any advice on great things to do there other than gaming is appreciated, also anything we should look out for while we are there.

Thanks for the help in advance

PD: I'm from South America, I don't know the first thing about what you guys have there.

[Heathy]

ITT BT has a monopoly on the phone line so it doesn't really matter what isp you go with in the UK they all rent the line from BT.

connection is much better in a city, if you live in a place like me the max up/down you can get in my area is something like 8mb down 1mb up. gaming is fine though, if the server is in the UK or in the EU ill average around 30-50ms but as you get further and further away, servers in the US are on average 200-250ms.

I can stream reasonably well i usually have to wait a couple mins for buffering though.

again in a city you have much better options on your speed because of the distance to the exchanges and the actual isp for BT is based in Birmingham so you'd probably get a really good package there.

[Deleted]

Leave.....

[Blackmist]

Internet provider: Dozens to choose from. I go with Zen because they were one of the first to offer broadband in the UK, but if you really want higher speeds there's Virgin (the only alternative to BT copper lines). They do tend to be a little unreliable at times though. Whenever somebody misses a raid because their internet is down, it's *always* Virgin.

BT speeds depend on your exact postcode and how far away from the cabinet your house is.

As for games, just look around online. Our stores don't just sell at retail price, and supermarkets often have no idea how much a game should cost. I've picked up brand new games for £25 before now. I often look at http://www.find-game.co.uk/ for a rough idea, but you can still sometimes find them cheaper if you look around enough.

[Syri79]

For internet providers, Virgin Media offer the fastest lines, but are only available in certain areas. I think they have a service in Birmingham, but they don't always provide a service to the entire area, so you'll need to check. If you can't get Virgin, you'll need one of the many companies offering a service through a BT line. BT themselves offer services, but they tend to be more expensive and have download limits. TalkTalk are fairly cheap, but don't have great service if things go wrong, from my experience at least. I've been using Plus.net for the last few years, and that's been great, with unlimited downloads, and decent support too.

As for mobile, in the city areas, they're all pretty similar really, so it depends where you'll spend most of your time. You can pick up a cheap pay-as-you-go phone to see how good the signal is where you'll spend most of your time, or if you have an unlocked phone, you can get a pay-as-you-go sim card to try it out.

Buying games, I tend to use Amazon or Steam most of the time, but most of my steam purchases are from sales. I know some friends who use CD key sites, but I've never been sure about using them myself, I tend to prefer to make sure I get what I want without any potential problems. I don't know much about Birmingham, so I can't really suggest anything in the local area.

[Aqueous]

Play.com/Rakuten.co.uk is a decent competitor with Amazon in the UK so that's another option.

[khalltusk]

For ISPS there are plenty to choose from.

Both in cities and in villages FTTC/FTTP options are available but there are some blind spots in availability. Some have download allowance others have "unlimited" but heavily traffic shape their network. Zen are pretty decent and have started to roll out their own FTTC network (going away from BT wholesales back haul which can be a bit of a bottle net for fibre customers). Virgin are pretty good but don't take their shitty free router. Get a decent one your self you won't regret it.

Steam is pretty awesome here still for games steam sales are the wallet killer. Friends use sites like G2Play and humble bundle as well. As for Mobiles most city areas are fine for connectivity. I would turn Wifi off when out and about unless you trust the wifi source really. If you do want to buy games and cba to order online you can find CEX stores for second hand games (pretty decent for that sort of stuff).

Gaming communities for board games there are loads here. If you get time you can find plenty of stores you can go in and play. Games workshop for all the hate they sometimes get, are pretty good for what it is. Hell I still have an army I can use and sometimes buy the odd model. So the board gaming scene here is pretty thriving and card gamings great. In london there is Orcs nest, had LOADS of board games you can get.

[Deleted]

if you want decent internet, you are limited to pretty much virgin or BT fiber. I think BT is more reliable, they used to be really really bad, but nowadays are not totally awful (pretty much the best praise any ISP will get nowadays!). There appears to be lots of choice in "Normal" broadband, but in reality a massive round of takeovers in the last few years means that an awful lot of the supposedly different companies are in fact just rebrands of bigger ones.

Most deals in the UK are not bandwidth limited, though check the "fair usage" bit carefully, some deals throttle you back big time at peak demand times.

Games are more expensive, its the UK, we get screwed on everything, learn to live with it.

AS for mobile, check coverage maps carefully, some networks are absolutely shite outside major urban centres. and if you plan to travel round at all, some networks are pretty fucking worthless.

[Meestercat]

I don't have anything techie to add to what has already been said, so instead I will say, "Go visit Five Guys in the Bullring and have awesome burgers."

[Calaba]

Broadband: as people already said, the correct choice is Virgin, assuming you can get it. Very high speeds and very reliable. BT infinity everywhere else.
Games: Steam sales are awesome.
Mobile provider: 3 is brilliant data-wise in the areas they cover, the problem is the coverage. If you need good coverage in remote areas, go Orange/EE.

[khalltusk]

if you want decent internet, you are limited to pretty much virgin or BT fiber. I think BT is more reliable, they used to be really really bad, but nowadays are not totally awful (pretty much the best praise any ISP will get nowadays!). There appears to be lots of choice in "Normal" broadband, but in reality a massive round of takeovers in the last few years means that an awful lot of the supposedly different companies are in fact just rebrands of bigger ones.

Most deals in the UK are not bandwidth limited, though check the "fair usage" bit carefully, some deals throttle you back big time at peak demand times.

Games are more expensive, its the UK, we get screwed on everything, learn to live with it.

AS for mobile, check coverage maps carefully, some networks are absolutely shite outside major urban centres. and if you plan to travel round at all, some networks are pretty fucking worthless.

I presume you mean BT wholesale? BT retail are just like any other ISP. Meaning anyone here can go with any other ISP who offer FTTC or FTTP products that Openreach and then Wholesale deal with. Zen also have their own network for FTTC which is pretty good tbh. You are correct though about some smaller companies being bought out. It is best the OP takes a look at the comparison sites as they can give them a better idea of who they want to give their money too.

Plusnet are also owned by the BT group but are still pretty decent. So just be careful which ISP you choose (best to look up the ISP comparison sites).

I would stay clear of Sky/Talktalk retail for the most part. Usually pretty dire technical and customer services. (talktalk wooden spoon anyone).

[Kalis]

I'm from South America

we will be going to...Birmingham

That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie.

[Ed0o]

That sounds like the beginning of a horror movie.

It's usually the other way around, europeans go to "exotic" places on holydays and bad things happen to them :P

Thank you all for the advice so far guys, really appreciate it, as I see the coverage map, three gives good mobile coverage in the area where we will be living that year, still comparing pricing for virgin and BT

[Kalis]

It's usually the other way around, europeans go to "exotic" places on holydays and bad things happen to them :P

Birmingham was the inspiration for Mos Eisley.

[Ed0o]

Birmingham was the inspiration for Mos Eisley.

Will be frequenting cantinas then !

Do you have any reference on that? would like to read about it

[Kalis]

Do you have any reference on that? would like to read about it

No, I was taking the piss out of Birmingham.


A crash course in major British cities:

London: everybody hates it because the residents are richer and better looking than the rest of the country.
Birmingham: it's like Croydon, only not quite as posh.
Liverpool: they sound like dolphins.
Manchester: according to legend it stopped raining in 1827 for almost half an hour.
York: the home of Viking roleplayers.
Newcastle: they have no concept of weather appropriate clothing.
Cardiff: they shag sheep.
Glasgow: kisses aren't pleasant, avoid eating the local cuisine.
Edinburgh: gives a false impression of what Scottish cities are like.