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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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I have been playing Mass Recall recently, a really cool project for SC2. It is basically SC1 and Broodwar campaigns in SC2, with new features and missions.
 
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quikah

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
4,068
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Death Stranding: Story is pretty dumb. WTH is with the character names? The driving physics are god awful. The survival aspects are kind of fun. The gameplay loop is goofy, but also somewhat satisfying. I am still playing for some reason. It is decent I guess. /shrug
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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Im starting to think squares engine is vastly superior to unreal, and also way more optimized.

This kind of quality while not even taxing my gpu is just amazing....
Capture1.PNG


The more i play the more i am speachless at the quality in the remake outside keyboard and mouse controls which is utter garbage.
But sigh.... i can totally see why Tifa is a lot of Video Gamers Virtual Wifu...

Capture3.PNG

This is all rendered and not preset CGI scenes.
 
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sactoking

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2007
7,507
2,703
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I picked up Trombone Champion from Steam. It's a music rhythm game that does not take itself seriously. As someone who enjoyed Rockband, used to play trombone in grade school and has a son who plays trombone this game is freaking hilarious. Biggest downside is that even after adjusting the delay in the controls the timing is still off by a non-zero amount.
 

SteveGrabowski

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2014
6,806
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I started on FF7 remake, and all i can say is WOW in the GFX. It also uses such little GPU power for such quality, its amazing how optimized it is, but the controllers for PC is utter garbage, and i had to pull out the XBOX controller.

No stutter? I thought it was supposed to be horrible on PC. Maybe it was just the Epic Game Store version and Steam cleaned it up or something?
 

GodisanAtheist

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 2006
6,719
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Playing through Shadowrun Hong Kong. OMFG I love the Shadowrun universe so much, a not insignificant part of me wishes we would have gotten a Shadowrun game in the place of Cyberpunk. I mean, its Cyberpunk with fantasy races, whats there not to love.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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No stutter? I thought it was supposed to be horrible on PC. Maybe it was just the Epic Game Store version and Steam cleaned it up or something?

Im not seeing these shutters. Im on the steam version.
I also realized, my gpu (3090) is way overpowered for this game, and its probably why its not taxing it at all, also im running the game on R0 4 x SSD's.

Capture.PNG

So bandwidth issues should be almost non existent.

LMAO... here's a epic one from FF7 im sure you guys all remember:
Capture4.PNG

Tifa Dolled up:
Tifa.PNG

Aerith Dolled up:
Aerith.PNG
These are all In game renders and not movie scene CGI.

Overall the game is VERY GOOD, but has very poor keyboard and mouse controls.
It has a very good combat system. Its very fluid, and well planned out.
It does a justice to the "remake" of the epic FF7. I can tell a lot of pressure was probably placed on the development team as FF7 is a cult more then all the other Final Fantasy Series.

The remake on some of the songs in the game is so well done.
Dub Step version of Tifa's theme is so well done.

The character development is also so much better, and Aerith is really adorable in how she interacts with Cloud.
Its gonna crush me
when she dies in the second part... at least i think that's where its gonna end

Definitely would get the game if it goes on sale if you don't have it.
And definitely going to get the second part.
 
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Jul 27, 2020
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also im running the game on R0 4 x SSD's.
Is there any open-world game that experiences texture pop in even with this insane storage configuration?

By the way, when I get back into PC gaming some day soon, I have a 960GB U2 Optane drive ready to do its thing.
 
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Jul 27, 2020
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Im starting to think squares engine is vastly superior to unreal, and also way more optimized.
What's more likely is that they strictly enforced on the development team some minimum FPS requirement that they had to deliver on the minimum required hardware configuration. Which is a good development practice if you ask me. More older systems able to run the game means more sales in the end.

I think I read somewhere that Microsoft gives their developers really old hardware that their Windows builds must run sufficiently well on. The developers hate working on those machines, of course, due to the amount of time wasted waiting on them to complete their tasks.
 

yepp

Senior member
Jul 30, 2006
398
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Im starting to think squares engine is vastly superior to unreal, and also way more optimized.

But doesn't FF7 remake use Unreal 4?

Though I do rate Squares Luminouse Engine highly, FF15 for a 6 years old game still holds up amazingly well today and cringe dialogue or not Forspoken does look awesome.

No stutter? I thought it was supposed to be horrible on PC. Maybe it was just the Epic Game Store version and Steam cleaned it up or something?

The stutters were due to a bug in Nvidia drivers, Digital Forgery spreading FUD, no surprise there.
 
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Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,493
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Picked up Mortal Shell on the cheap - it's a Dark Souls clone with a few twists on the playstyle. Relatively short game, but that's not a bad thing.

In terms of improvements (IMHO), there are 4 shells (classes) you can switch between at almost any time, in addition to 4 main weapons (so, 16 potential 'builds'). Weapon upgrades are shared across classes, while class perks are unlocked individually. Still, it means less grinding than "aw shit i got this cool weapon but i specced strength instead of dexterity".

Combat is of course punishing, but you have the option to go into a stone form to block a single attack. Stone form has a cooldown so you can't spam it. Compared to DS1 (my only reference points), movement and combat are so much less janky. No crazy input delays (oh you pressed attack but this giant weapon has a 5s windup) and movement is decent.

The environments are quite nice. I especially enjoyed the Seat of Infinity area.

One thing I did learn from watching Dark Souls speedruns is that you don't have to fight everything, hah! Units have aggro radii and will eventually stop chasing. So if you need to get from A to B...chances are you can run/dodge your way there.

Things I didn't like:
1) save points are few and far between
2) No maps for overworld or dungeons. I get that's part of the Dark Souls style, but it makes things difficult to navigate especially at the start. Or if you don't have enough hours to cram in to make a mental map of all the various connections. Fortunately it's a small game. The dungeons were relatively intuitive to navigate, at least.

Overall score? 8/10? Pretty solid game, and you can find it on sale. I wouldn't say it's genre-redifining, but Mortal Shell is a worthy entry into the SoulsBorne genre, especially from a smaller studio.
 
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aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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But doesn't FF7 remake use Unreal 4?

OMG it does...

Then why does every other game that uses UE4 just look bad and run horribly.

The stutters were due to a bug in Nvidia drivers, Digital Forgery spreading FUD, no surprise there.

Doing some research it was not only that but also because the game used to be frame locked at 30fps when it first launched.
I think a patch somewhere unlocked the FPS, i also have Gsync Ultimate on top, the one with a dedicated Gsync module on the monitor, so it could also be that is helping out majorly with any stuttering the game might possibly have.

I have a very bullish approach to videogames... its basically take a sledge hammer hardware wise to it, and smash that wall to get the FPS i want, almost ignoring how expensive that sledge hammer might be. :p
 
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bigi

Platinum Member
Aug 8, 2001
2,482
153
106
Bioshock Infinite is the game that got me off gaming. I've attempted to start it like 3-4 times, blah.

Replied Unreal from 1998.
 

HalfWolf

Junior Member
Dec 11, 2022
3
1
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I've been playing surprisingly a lot of titles lately.

Halo Infinite [7/10].: Just an awesomely satisfying gunplay and combat in single-player. I've only played Halo 1 way back when. It still has the repetitive environment makes the progress very tedious... just like the first one which copy-pasted rooms not twice, but 5x throughout the game. Combat is just so tight and so much fun: I think you have about 20+ unique weapons with tons of vehicles and NPC squad action. This game could've been so much more. I'm about 50-60% done and don't really have the biggest urge to finish it now.

TinyTina's Wonderland [6/10]: I love Borderlands series, so I paid full MSRP for this. Playing Halo above made me realize how fun 3D shooting mechanic can be. This looter-shooter stand-alone sequel got high praises by critics, but it's still the same grindy / leveling gear mechanics and enemies feel so dumb and flat. Well, what did I expect in the EXP-based RGP-shooter. I stopped playing about 10 hours into it. Man, Borderlands 2 was great when it was fresh with an engaging story with peak humor.

Overwatch [10/10]: I keep coming back to this. This is Blizzard's one of the finest game. Very well polished with a great art direction. Peak multiplayer 6v6 game.

FallOut [9/10]: Love to play this game, Fallout 4 features like as crafting, ammo, steam, common items, armour, and other features are now accessible with new fallout 4 item codes. We will include every Fallout 4 item code in this article so you can utilise them to simplify the game for yourself.
I finished Dead Space 1 yesterday, and it still holds up very well after 14 years. Some of the jumpscares seemed too easy to predict, and whenever I saw airvents, I became a little nervous, even though nothing happened most of the time. The atmosphere is fantastic, as is the gameplay, and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel when it becomes available.

This week, I'll begin reading The Saboteur. Regrettably, I purchased it on Origin and was unable to get it to boot up, despite trying a slew of fixes, ranging from patches to limiting the frame rate to using only four CPU cores. Nothing worked, so I had to try something else...
 
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sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
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I finished Dead Space 1 yesterday, and it still holds up very well after 14 years. Some of the jumpscares seemed too easy to predict, and whenever I saw airvents, I became a little nervous, even though nothing happened most of the time. The atmosphere is fantastic, as is the gameplay, and I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel when it becomes available.

This week, I'll begin reading The Saboteur. Regrettably, I purchased it on Origin and was unable to get it to boot up, despite trying a slew of fixes, ranging from patches to limiting the frame rate to using only four CPU cores. Nothing worked, so I had to try something else...
The dead space remake is coming out Jan 27 so just in time. They changed a good amount in this remake but I suppose you can probably wait for a sale since you just finished it.
 
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Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
30,246
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Those original Dead Space games were great.... I think it was #2 that introduced the classic "falling through space" scene?

I recall having a tough time getting the first one to work the way I wanted it to on PC back in the day.... had to apply several mods.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Yea the first game was a classic I still remember it and some of the plot. I'll be getting the remake for sure. I honestly enjoyed all 3 of them but the first 2 were my favorites.
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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Recently I have picked up New World on sale, and have been playing that. Pretty fun now, and no dead card yet. Also I have been playing the new COD.
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Aug 22, 2001
28,274
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Doing the second playthrough of Spiderman Miles Morales. The web slinging mechanic is something I have enjoyed going back to Spiderman 2 on Xbox. Of course it looks amazing now, miles better. :p I was window licking for the first couple of hours with RT reflections.

Story isn't very good, and not being able to skip cutscenes needs to be patched or something. Is that a Sony thing? Or is there a button combo I am missing?

Next up is Days Gone, then Horizon Zero Dawn. Sold my PS4 Pro years ago, but it is great to get to play these titles with better eye candy years later at higher fps. I will have to mix the updated Witcher 3 in.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
15,332
7,792
136
Nothing right now. After 25 years of gaming as an adult, I decide to give it up for a year. It was just eating up too much of my time - so I went cold turkey.
 
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akenbennu

Senior member
Jul 24, 2005
677
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Recently I have picked up New World on sale, and have been playing that. Pretty fun now, and no dead card yet. Also I have been playing the new COD.

I started a new character on one of the fresh start worlds, like what they did with the intro leveling. Sadly, the end game is still very grindy.
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,493
9,824
136
Now playing Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters, and if you like Warhammer 40k and TBS/TBT games, this is your jam. There's a bit of repetition, but the graphics are beautiful, the action is fun, and it makes me want to buy a Grey Knights army for the tabletop game.

They just released an expansion for it, though steam reviews are quite negative at the moment - crazy difficulty scaling, and one of the new classes is only available in specific missions. I consider that pretty disappointing. i'm holding off and hoping a patch from the devs will retune things.

in the meantime, the base game is stellar and i'm really, really enjoying it.
 

sze5003

Lifer
Aug 18, 2012
14,177
622
126
Witcher 3 comes out with the next gen update I think today?

I left off in that game halfway in the middle years ago so I'll be continuing with this one one day.