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What are you playing nowadays? Share yo' thoughts.

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MoragaBlue said:
F125.

Years ago, the old Micropose F1 was one of my favorite games of all time. My brother and I spent years playing it and tinkering with all the different simulation car set ups. This is the first F1 game I've played since, and it's fabulous. Brings back so many memories of tinkering with setups, experimenting with different configs, and trying to squeak out better lap times during practice. Hats off to the devs for making a wonderful F1 racing game.

Some constructive criticism, just as I had with Exp 33. While I both understand and appreciate the need to appeal to a wider audience, in my view especially compared to the Microprose version, the sim options appeared a little light. Not a deal breaker and still great, but it's just a tad on the simplistic side. Also, the game is a little on the easy side when competing vs the AI. I'm not a sim pro racer, but with the AI on max difficulty, I should not be able to win races driving the Kick Saber besting McLaren. Since there is a difficulty slider, they need to add a few notches here.

Nonetheless, fabulous F1 game and can't recommend it enough. Kudos to the devs for addressing the tire temp & wear issue--much appreciate it! Will be playing this a long time and have picked up some racing sim equipment, so those vendors can thank Codemasters for making a fabulous game.
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I'm guessing you don't have a simrig? I'm researching everything so I can build one in the summer. I'm blown away by some of the rigs people have. F1 '25 with a nice F1 rig with a motion platform would be damn awesome. Even without the motion, just a force feedback wheel and some realistic pedals would be bad ass.
 
QueBert said:
I'm guessing you don't have a simrig? I'm researching everything so I can build one in the summer. I'm blown away by some of the rigs people have. F1 '25 with a nice F1 rig with a motion platform would be damn awesome. Even without the motion, just a force feedback wheel and some realistic pedals would be bad ass.
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No simrig, though, as you are, very interested in exploring building one in the not too distant future.

At present, I'm using a Next Level Racing wheel stand, because I've found heavy braking with loadcell pedals on the floor to be impractical--you need some kind of mount. Moreover, at this point, one of the considerations for my mid-level entry base/wheel/pedals was to have PS5 compatibility, which, as you can imagine, somewhat limited my options.

Assuming my enjoyment continues and my lap time improves further with the setup, I may very well build a simrig and upgrade to higher end sim equipment. I just want to be certain it's something I want to do before shelling out the money for it. At this point, the answer is yes, but we'll see in a year or maybe two.

Right now, I'm having a blast. I enjoy so much the full F1 experience and can't put into words how much I enjoy learning the 24 tracks, going through practice, qualifying, and improving my lap times in each before running the full races. It really is exactly what I did as kid during the Microprose Grand Prix games. I will be playing this for at least year or two and spending thousands and thousands of hours on it.
 
With the new season of Fallout here, time to start another play through of Fallout 4 and see what the updates have done for it.
 
Still ass deep in Control.

Great game, Remedy more or less perfected their formula there with crisp gunplay/powers and an appropriately weird Remedy-esq setting/lore/plot/story.

Really having a great time with the game. Currently on the Alan Wake Experience DLC and its great.
 
Just started Stalker 2 since it was on sale and got a free content update a few days ago.

So far, I've encountered one bug where the tips get stuck on your screen, but saving/loading fixed that. Other than that, I haven't run into a single issue and the game has been a blast so far. Granted, the character's animations viewed through their shadow is hilariously bad, but it's a Stalker game so I was honestly surprised that we even cast a shadow.
 
You know, when it comes to PC gaming, probably as with most, I complain about issues where not all components are compatible, the myriad of potential driver conflicts, and, of course, that stupid a** Win 11 (remember the days of the blue screen of death? I do!).

My returned passion for sim racing, in particular F1, has vividly reminded me what's so special about PC gaming. The absence of limitations. While the PS5 is fine, one's limited to a single ecosystem and pays for the PS compatibility, none of which can ever exist in the PC ecosystem, for obvious reasons. The mix & match and having all options available is unique to PC gaming.

The world of racing has vividly reminded me of this, and while I've enjoyed my initial racing enthusiasm on the PS5, I'm switching over to the PC. Of course, the graphic fidelity is much improved (even now, my RTX 3080 12 GB can run laps around my PS5), but mostly to have the option to build my racing rig completely absent of any limitations.

Finally, the PC modding community is as I remembered--the most helpful and altruistic clique I've ever known. These guys, by and large, genuinely offer their work freely, only motivated by their hope of improving the experience for their fellow gamers.
 
Fenixgoon said:
I moved and didnt have space in the car to bri g my PC with me. I am currently playing....mobile games 😭
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Congrats! You're now a proud member of, what they keep telling me anyway, the largest "gamer" demographic on the planet.

Not that there's anything wrong with mobile gaming, of course, but I've never played a mobile game in my life, and I'm sure I never will. To each his/her own, but I just can't see playing a video game absent an accompanying keyboard, mouse, controller, or some kind of gaming input apparatus.
 
Been playing Metaphor Refantazio. It is essentially fantasy Persona. If you like Persona you will like this game. Story is decent. No romance option, minus 1 point for that. 😛 Like Persona, it is way too long...
 
I started back up on Ape Out, years ago I finally beat it after like 500 tries but stumbled on a secret after the end level. I play it about 100 times
over a week, and end up giving up because I can't beat it. Then I come back every 6-12 months and it's the same shit. I played it about 50 times this week and lost all 50 times lol :|

I'm determined to beat this level.
 
MoragaBlue said:
Congrats! You're now a proud member of, what they keep telling me anyway, the largest "gamer" demographic on the planet.

Not that there's anything wrong with mobile gaming, of course, but I've never played a mobile game in my life, and I'm sure I never will. To each his/her own, but I just can't see playing a video game absent an accompanying keyboard, mouse, controller, or some kind of gaming input apparatus.
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Lots of "time killer" games - MTG-alikes, tower defense, etc.

I'd rather be playing space marine or mechabellum, believe me lol
 
I've been playing Indiana Jones and Red Dead 1. The first is like a very casual version of Dishonored and the old Fate of Atlantis. It has a lot of issues but I still love it.

MoragaBlue said:
Congrats! You're now a proud member of, what they keep telling me anyway, the largest "gamer" demographic on the planet.

Not that there's anything wrong with mobile gaming, of course, but I've never played a mobile game in my life, and I'm sure I never will. To each his/her own, but I just can't see playing a video game absent an accompanying keyboard, mouse, controller, or some kind of gaming input apparatus.
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I only play ports of old PC games on phones. World of Goo 1 and 2, Supaplex and a few others.
 
quikah said:
Been playing Metaphor Refantazio. It is essentially fantasy Persona. If you like Persona you will like this game. Story is decent. No romance option, minus 1 point for that. 😛 Like Persona, it is way too long...
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Does it still run terribly? Been wanting to play it as a huge Persona fan and finally have enough of a gpu (5070) to probably brute force it at a decent resolution.
 
QueBert said:
I'm guessing you don't have a simrig? I'm researching everything so I can build one in the summer. I'm blown away by some of the rigs people have. F1 '25 with a nice F1 rig with a motion platform would be damn awesome. Even without the motion, just a force feedback wheel and some realistic pedals would be bad ass.
Click to expand...

Ok, I've essentially spent all of my leisure time since picking up F125 on racing, planning/deciding on building a simrig, and doing all the research that I can.

If you decide to embark on the same journey, be advised you may find yourself completely captivated by this hobby and begin to consider expending a good amount of resources to it. I've now come to the conclusion that one only lives once, so why not?

Here's some of the things I've learned during my journey that may be helpful for you this summer:

1. Begin small. Nothing fancy and just pick up something affordable with force feedback, direct drive or otherwise. Just get a feel for it to ensure it's really something you want to devote your time and resources into.

2. If your definitive answer is yes after your initial foray, decide upon the simrig that will accommodate the direct drive wheel base you prefer. For instance, if you want 12 or 13 NM or above, you're gonna need a specialized rig, since most of the run of the mill sim rigs will only accommodate wheel drives up to 12 NM max.

3. Once the simrig decision has been made, decide on your choice of loadcell or hydraulic pedals.

4. Your wheel base and the amount of torque to fit your needs and your chosen rig.

5. The rest is easy and will fall into place, e.g., one big screen, three multiple ones, types of steering wheels, etc.

Though at this point I'm certain I will build a simrig, I'm still taking my time deciding upon the right one. For me, it'll be F1 based that will accommodate a wheel drive up to at least 21 NMs of torque. Also, as you probably know, Corsair has purchased Fanatech, which I infer to mean they have plans to fully enter the sim race gaming space and compete vigorously. It may be worthwhile, at least in my view, to see their new planned simrigs, one of which looks amazing from the initial preview.
 
quikah said:
No issues for me. playing @1440 with a 4070.
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1440p native? Did you force any AA or upscaling in the Nvidia Control Panel? And what kind of framerates? I remember Digital Foundry saying the game was really shimmery and they recommended rendering at as high a resolution as possible. I'm looking to run it on a 4k60 FreeSync panel with a 5070 at 50+ fps but guessing I won't be able to do that at full resolution. Ugh not having DLSS built in.
 
SteveGrabowski said:
1440p native? Did you force any AA or upscaling in the Nvidia Control Panel? And what kind of framerates? I remember Digital Foundry saying the game was really shimmery and they recommended rendering at as high a resolution as possible. I'm looking to run it on a 4k60 FreeSync panel with a 5070 at 50+ fps but guessing I won't be able to do that at full resolution. Ugh not having DLSS built in.
Click to expand...
1440p native. I haven't done anything with nvidia control panel. The in game settings are pretty limited. Just have it set with SMAA, 60 fps limit, ambient occlusion on, quality at high, 100% rendering res. I don't measure fps, but haven't noticed anything. I keep the 60 fps limit because it is sufficient for me and I don't like fan noise.
 
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Not sure how much longer I can tolerate Stalker 2. There's so many things that are just small gripes with the game that it's just becoming annoying to play the game now.

  • The world is massive, but you'll constantly be overweight because of how low the starting carry weight is. Even with a fully upgraded Zircon and several +weight artifacts, I'm still finding myself constantly chugging energy drinks while I return to base for the 200th time. You could skip the loot runs, but your gear breaks down so quickly and it's so expensive to repair and upgrade, you'll almost softlock yourself if you ignore the loot.
  • Then there's the fact that water puddles are absolutely everywhere in this game and not only do they slow you down, but you'll die instantly in chest-deep water, and slow to almost a complete stop in waist-deep water. Heading to and from usually results in a lot of skirting around water or trying to jump over it and hope you don't instantly die.
  • When you're trying to find your way (especially in Zaton and the Swamps), you need to stay in the shallow water or on land so you can keep moving at normal speed. The only problem is that for some reason, all the weeds are six feet tall and completely obstruct your vision.
  • The flashlight would be fine if I were playing a non-combative survival/horror game like Amnesia: The Dark Decent, but I'm not. We have magic floating rocks and machines that can control anomalies as well as create emissions, but nobody has a single LED flashlight? The flashlight is completely useless if you want to see further than five feet in front of your character, but enemies will spot it from a mile away.
  • The AI stuff they added where events play out around you is fun until you realize that the variation boils down to just three things: Mutants, humans, or a combination of the two. Plus they haven't fixed the issue where enemies will spawn directly on top of you.
  • Very little is explained in the way of anomalies. I've played through the other three games more times than I can remember, but I don't recall any of them needing any explanation as they were fairly straightforward in terms of trial and error. There's two anomalies in Stalker 2 that I had to look up on the wiki because I had no idea how to get past them. One will follow you and one-shot you so long as you have artifacts equipped and the other one will track all movement and try to intercept whatever moves (this also one-shots you). If you touch an object (like a box), it'll spawn multiple anomalies on top of the object you touched and since you touched it, it'll spawn them basically on top of you. Even after I learned how they spawn, I still died multiple times just trying to get through the area.
  • So many Burers! Not just their amount, but every scripted Burer fight I've come across, the strategy has been to run past them into a new area and only fight them if they follow you. If they don't follow you, then you're good. The reason you can't fight them in their scripted areas is because the developers littered the areas with broken guns which the Burers can levitate and use against you, but the worst part is that when a Burer uses a gun against you, it completely negates armor, so you'll die in one or two bullets. There's far too many guns to run around and collect in every spot, so you just have to run. Even if you somehow managed to pick them all up, the areas are covered in loose objects that the Burers can throw at you through solid objects and walls, so you can't even utilize cover against them. They can also rip the gun out of your own hands and if you don't pick it up, guess what? It's going to float into the air and one-shot you. Lastly, if you get too close, they can use a telekinesis attack that has one-shot me every time. I don't mind that the game has an enemy that is better to leave alone than fight, but the vast majority of the time you'll encounter them, you're forced to fight them eventually.
  • The lack of lore/story explanation really irritated me in a few places, but I'm willing to admit that I'm likely at fault for that. I'm not skipping any dialogue, but there were a few times where I must have done things out of order because my map marker just updated to a new place while I was exploring and I had no idea why I was supposed to go to a new area to retrieve this new item. There was no explanation and I can only assume I went somewhere that was important to the story, but I went there too soon or grabbed something before I was supposed to and it broke all the quest dialogue.
I am playing on Veteran and the game is fun, but it feels like everything within the actual game is designed to slow you down. This would be great if I was a teenager again with all the time in the world, but sadly, that ship has long sailed and I don't have that kind of time anymore.
 
Stg-Flame said:
Not sure how much longer I can tolerate Stalker 2. There's so many things that are just small gripes with the game that it's just becoming annoying to play the game now.
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I liked the original a lot, but holy holy shit I remember it being the hardest FPS ever. I don't think I ever got too far in it. Did you play the original? I wonder how the difficulty compares. I'm not really up for a challenge tho and you brought up a lot of points that would probably have me in rage mode.
 
QueBert said:
I liked the original a lot, but holy holy shit I remember it being the hardest FPS ever. I don't think I ever got too far in it. Did you play the original? I wonder how the difficulty compares. I'm not really up for a challenge tho and you brought up a lot of points that would probably have me in rage mode.
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The original? Are you talking about the first three games or Stalker 2 1.0?
 
I started Alan Wake 2. Amazing atmosphere and surreal story, but the gameplay is much more basic than Control. Many sections like a walking simulator, which I actually like but won't appeal to everyone. It feels similar to Indiana Jones in this respect.
 
Getting super bored with Spiderman Miles Morales. Loved the combat and the speed of traversal in Spiderman 2018 but this just feels like the same game except it's Christmas instead of summer in NYC. It's spectacular graphically with amazing RT reflections and I'm far enough in the game I want to finish it but I'm also not too motivated to play it, as the storyline of Miles, Ganki, and Phin isn't doing much for me. On the other hand my 7 yo nephew goes nuts playing every time he comes over, but he hasn't played the virtually identical Spiderman 2018.
 
Revisiting a less buggy Cyberpunk 2077 now that I've got a rig that's more than capable of running it across multiple screens with DLSS and ray tracing. I don't know if I'll stick with it, since honestly I didn't find the game all that enjoyable years ago, but it sure is pretty! Basically the same exact situation as Doom Eternal. Fun to look at, meh to play.

Other than that... I recently re-played the first Dishonored on Linux, which is prob one of my all time favorites. Messed around with QZ: The Last Check for a bit, and now I'm thinking about RE games before 9 releases.
 
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