LadyCrimson

Fixed that for you. Honestly I think Jensen needs to hire an announcement spokesperson, because Jensen is absolutely terrible at it. When on stage it feels like he doesn't want to be there and his comments are only negative meme worthy. I don't mind a bit of DLSS, for 4k at least, so less artifacting with that is fine, but frame generation is LOL and using any upscaling as a benchmark brag is ROFL insulting. I think the true problem is the whole gpu diminishing returns+yet no radically new tech (whether because not invented yet or because of, y'know, maybe re: engineering physics), but still needing something to convince people to buy a new gpu every 2-4 years. It's like adding touch screens and netflix screens and cute music jingles to home appliances at this point. Edit: you can't keep moving upwards at a lightning pace forever and both companies/developers and consumers perhaps need to stop expecting/selling it.

I remember I was really liking Alice sn1, until episode 3 killed it for me. I tried a couple episodes after that but couldn't get into the characters/direction it went. Occasionally I get too attached too quickly and then when the rug gets pulled, I never recover.

Nvidia: "5070 is as good as a 4090!" .... "with the new DLSS 4/super-AI frame-gen4x all on vs. the old 40xx versions of such." From what I can tell (at this point/no actual benchmarks) the best thing about 50xx will be a big leap up for DLSS quality, and that the 5080 is a 2-slotted card instead of 3. eg, smaller. Wonder how that'll do re: gpu-cooling. DLSS 4 (not frame gen aspect) will also supposedly be ported backward to even 20xx, although ofc gains from it on older gpu's won't be as impressive. The MSRP pricing leaves plenty of room for a 5080ti or some such later - if it has 20+ vram I'd wait/buy that. Although 3rd party versions I'm sure will be 25% more than MSRP. But it all still makes me hope I can wait for 60xx. If I can fix my reboot issue. Pfft. Digital Foundry did get to use test-demo period of the 5080 for some hours or something to try some settings/record a little video/performance comparison graphs (not serious benchmarks, mind), but that's where the possible DLSS/frame gen uplift - less artifacts/smear/light angle/distance jitter/blur etc - info is from. And release versions could be different from what they got to look at.

@Bartimaeus In Diablo1, Warrior had the toughest time mid-late game/high difficulties, Rogue next, Sorcerer was op'd godmode by lvl 20-25. Sorcerer only has issues at the lvl1-10 stage or maybe if luck with spellbooks/gear was terrible, or if one made the mistake of putting too many points into anything other than Magic. Although at max difficulty/MP mode which was more map-open/much more enemies (vs. quest/campaign mode), Sorcerer could still easily die/1-2 shotted/mobbed in some cases. But yeah Warrior late-game/high difficulties sucked because of chasing those witches everywhere and stuff like that. Rogue was annoying (to me) because of the bow aiming with that tile movement system but her magic capabilties were at least a little better to help out. And of course, vs. today's games, it's all very simplistic anyway. Ranged - especially AoE ranged - will always outstrip anything melee (more pure melee, not magic-spell-melee, ahem). Unless one gimps the AoE ranged so much there's no real point in using it anyway. Even today they can't get a real arpg balance for it, having to use massive cooldowns stoppers and other methods.

I still occasionally consider buying Elden Ring when it's on sale. But you know me - I'd just use some trainer and romp around like an idiot and take screenshots. eg, admire the scenery/art but never care about any actual gameplay. Thus I've confined myself to watching long streams of dunkey playing it. Which were so hilarious I actually watched multiple hours of it without FFWing. I'd much rather watch someone else die repeatedly in a humorous fashion/narration then experience it myself. Games like that always look like fun to me when you watch snippets of others playing, but I know I'd toss a monitor out a window if I tried. Oh and if you've never seen those streams and have hours to kill, and like dunkey, it's this playlist. And now that I've needlessly chattered on that, I shall go back to panic-run-turn-fire from mobs of demon dogs (all at that put-put pace) and being killed by exploding barrels and packs of 20 bow skeletons you can't see across the room. Diablo 1's dungeon music and sound is still the best.

I haven't actually watched Lost. I saw the first couple episodes on ABC way way way back, went "seems interesting but not enough to wait every week for it (no streaming then). By the time a few seasons had gone by, I'd read enough to know it was nowhere near an end, so I kept waiting. When it ended, "everyone" said it sucked vs. how long they'd been waiting. So I never bothered. My record for liking/having patience for shows with never ending main plots/mysteries is usually low (1-2 seasons). Something like early Dexter, Supernatural, House, crime shows, as I've said before, that have 1-2 background season arcs but are generally self-contained episodes on top are fine. Nothing against something like Lost, I just lose patience or motivation to watch if I can't watch it all in 1-2 months to get the whole story. Although Lexx's point re: ever growing silly mysteries on top of mysteries - or patterns obviously designed to keep something going (can't have lots of red shirt deaths without constant influx of new people) - also makes me roll eyes. 2nd season an average busy busload. Does the 3rd season do 2 full tourbuses or 10 trailers of families all vacationing together? eg, such series, if they go on for a long time, run into ever growing power creep. Every season has to up the stakes/cliffhangers until it's just stupid. Supernatural ran into this after 5-7 seasons, in some ways Walking Dead, many others. It's why I respected Breaking Bad. Guy had an idea and knew where he generally wanted to go, and stuck to it. So we have a complete long form tale without (too much) filler or power-creeping just for the sake of power-creep/endless seasons stakes. Anyway, From is definitely good at making you wonder wtf is going on for a good while so I'd be willing to semi-binge it at some point to see if it keeps it up. I'll just probably wait and see if it ever gets finished, first.

Since it does not seem to make my PC reboot itself - - I turned on Diablo1. Using a modded version that gives fast walk in town at least. Put-put-putted around, killed stuff, sold stuff, spent any money I made on mana potions (sorcerer, I always play a sorcerer), poured all pts into Magic. Found lots of fireball and holy books. Cleared the Poisoned Well. Got to lvl 3, put-put-putted around, killed stuff, etc. Found gear with +10 STR, cool. Found gear with +4 VIT, cool. Full of confidence, I hit a barrel. 10/10, would get killed by exploding barrel, again.

So I was going to skim through From's 1st season as a reminder, then watch 2nd season. Hubby went "what u watching". So I had to rewatch whole thing, didn't skim through it. Then started on the 2nd season. I think we're about halfway through. There is then the 3rd season, and wiki top summary said it was renewed for a 4th season, and I read an article with the creator saying something like (totally paraphrasing) "have tons of stuff/ideas for endless seasons." I like the 2nd season enough - although the influx of new people pattern already feels a little old, plus it's getting weirder and more convoluted - but my thoughts on all of this is: "Is this going to be another Lost?" ... which I wouldn't be keen on. May watch all 2nd season and then wait again, see if they ever "finish" it, first.

When I built the 2080ti rig I thought "this will work for basic 4k a while, and in a couple generations they'll have a 4k gpu that will last at least me, even more years." Now I'm unconvinced that even a 5090 would "last" more than 2-3 years before AAA/big dev games would be all like "haha, no, you need 48 vram for even 1440/High settings, now, just upgrade your PC man."

I'm not convinced yet I like UE5 as an engine, from a player/customer point of view. But oh well what do I know. Edit: I'm sure I'd be able to run both Obs games, but yeah, 3080 is a little steep-feeling. They could've at least mentioned what that was targeting - eg, 1080/60/RT+DLSS on, or whatever. And never mind RT stuff - I'm still of the opinion that TAA is one of the worst things to happen re: overall simple graphic clarity. Sometimes DLSS/Quality with sharpening looks better in some ways than native, because of TAA - depends on game tho. Sometimes it's not too bad, other times it horrid. I don't mean pixel-hunting comparison type better, I just mean ... a clean sense of clarity, better contrast "pop", less smeary/soft lens sensation.

NOPE. Pfft. Zombie game did the reboot twice, once almost right away, 2nd after an hour. Guess a new PSU/power cables is next. After that it's not worth the bother spending weeks trying to figure it out etc.

My RAM arrived. Installed, winblows memtest at least said no issues found, desktop seems fine/usual etc. I didn't enable XMP. So now I get to see if new ram means games won't cause random system reboots in 1 minute or 2 hrs. Which means I have to turn on/play at least a few different games, for such sessions, multiple times to try to trigger reboots. It's a difficult task, but for the sake of knowledge, I shall endure. I really don't want to build a new PC (yet) and have to spend days/weeks setting up/refining all the stupid O/S, software and bajillion data transfers. So, please be fixed, gimmie another year or two, please.

TLDW: more testing needed but overhead issues, so don't pair with older gen or maybe lower end CPU, or something, may/likely get 30-50% less performance vs. picking/using, say, a 4060. eg, ryzen 5 2600 and one wanted to replace their 1660. It's not just simple bottlenecking. So decent budget gpu upgrade for some, not for others. (original reviewer/tester/vid they're referring to)

Tim Cain's recent videos on violence as default in AAA games and the cost of moddability were interesting. Games generally having violent actions as the progression requirement or simply the main gameplay loop irks me more and more as time goes on. I would like it if non or less violent option games could be something other than puzzle or farming/walking sims, if you get my meaning. But I still have no idea what to do instead. Stealth/avoidance is the main method I suppose but having to sneak around at a crawl pace gets old after a while.

I was watching a video on the Star Trek alumni (not just actors) who have passed this year and when they reached David Soul, I was gobsmacked. I never knew/realized he'd played an alien chr. in the ToS "The Apple." I knew him from other things but never recognized him from ST. Of course that was an episode I rarely rewatched, and the makeup, so.... Anyway, some were probably already mentioned in the thread when they happened, but a belated RIP to all the ST universe folks that passed in 2024.

Another year older, but I am still none the wiser. Best of luck in the new year.

My ram won't be here for probably a few or several more days. Since the reboot situation is so unpredictable, it makes me not want to play anything. Cue extra boredom. (me: decrease "memes" and "theme song lyrics" by half to enlarge "cat videos", and decrease "cringey memories" by half to make "random obsession" larger) I did buy a few of the story collection books of Stephen King that I hadn't read and am slowly going through those. I came to the conclusion years ago that I like his shorts and short novels more than his 800+ page novels. But so far not impressed with the more recent offerings of such. They're not bad, but I'd probably rather re-read the older collections. May try John Scalzi's Lock In, next.

I've definitely come to think pacing - in either direction - is a large factor why I have a hard time getting into anything now. They are either too rushed, or too indulgent.

No timeouts but more frequent long page loading again. Also, just got a "can't edit post because moved or it's been too long." --- this was trying to edit a post 5 minutes later. I assume that is not normal, even if there is still (no clue) an actual edit time limit.

^ "This post can no longer be edited because it's been moved or too much time has passed." (It's been maybe 5-10 minutes). I was going to add, doesn't Great Britain do something similar re: ads playing during a show's runtime?

To me it depends on what a series pattern is being styled for. Procedural (Law and Order, CSI, sitcoms, etc) are easiest re: long multi-seasons and make sense because they are generally 80-90% self-contained stories but with some important chr arc threads being moved forward a little at a time, whether in every episode or every few episodes. Didn't matter if there were 2 seasons or 15 seasons much of the time because you can keep churning out new self-contained mysteries/funnies, with season long "who's the ripper?" arcs. The larger pattern these days is for series - at least initially - to be a 6-12 hour movie. The "self contained" aspects are now minor subarcs that often wouldn't really even be missed if deleted, and the focus-flow is all for main plot suspense and momentum to go on and on. So you have to have enough story - and the skill at drawing things out on a fine blade - to justify series-length movies. If you don't, it will drag and the "filler" will get more silly and hard to ignore. Shorter seasons are less risky but can feel rushed. Obviously there are crossovers and series that mix both styles with varying success, just talking generally. ========== K-dramas are interesting (from the a US standpoint) because they were/usually self-contained (that's becoming less true now ofc). But even back when, 16 was often a little long - 16 was probably what they wanted for ideal ad/commercial amounts - so you'd get the half or back third season lag/filler. They used to be filmed a few weeks advance of air-date, like old US TV, so if popular they might even spur of the moment extend the series a few more episodes. with mixed results. There used to be (may still be, times change, I don't keep up) restrictions on S. Korea re: playing ads during an episode air-runtime. That is, they couldn't run ads like the US does, in the middle of/interrupting episodes. This was, supposedly, one reason why some k-dramas started splitting 1-hour episodes into 2 episodes - so instead of 16 it looks like there's 32 episodes - so more actual ads (vs. blatant in-show PPL) could be played for that one episode. Anyway, it's probably changing/already has changed somewhat at this point, but it was an interesting difference vs. US broadcast TV.

Ssn2 and 3 were filmed back to back or something of that nature, so in reality it's basically one long season, split apart, 2nd half next year (I would guess 4-6 months from now or some such). But the way they did the cliffhanger - there was zero sense of satisfaction re: a "part 1" ending. I'm fine with some cliffhanger in some stuff but it has to be done well. That was just ... cutting a cake in half and leaving with the knife still in the cake, before the cut is even finished. The bigger issue I had with ssn2/pt1 was the voting segments. They went on far too long/were too much the focal point, and other side/concurrent arcs mostly feel like filler, in the sense we still know almost nothing/it didn't seem to progress. I'd guess all the strings will pull together in part2 somehow but it felt sloppy. That said - I did like it overall, and there were great moments. Eps 1-4 I felt pretty good about/felt invested, it was just the longer it went, the more picks I felt like nitting. In the end, even if it all works, I think splitting the season and plot arcs was a mistake. Edit: I was, however, quite excited as more and more cast members kept showing up and I recognized more and more from S.K. films/dramas/music. Quite the cast, even past the main knowns.

^ I used windows crap mem-test just to get an idea what I wanted to try first. I know there's supposedly better memory test programs but these days most such programs seem to be mostly bloat/spyware of some sort, even if old versions used to be great. eg, I don't tend to download/use such. Almost every single program/company that made the program I used to like has become something I would never want to install on my PC so I just don't bother anymore. In the end if it's the mobo, can't do much about that/I'd see no point trying to "fix" that aspect, and I'd just build a new PC entire. If ram or psu replacement makes it go away, great/ideal. If it doesn't ... oh well. In my life situation, I'm not too fussed. Just would mean I won't be playing games too often for a few months or something. I'd certainly prefer it to be a simple ram fix tho, ofc.

Oh, yeah, I know there are non-gaming upsides/needs. And in the past nvidia's "top" was meant for professional use vs. consumer, (Titan, whatever other names) with them seeming to want to return to that mindset/pricing, perhaps - it's just become out of whack in that regard in gamer's minds - and I am, of course, looking at all of it from the gaming perspective. The main irritation for many lately mostly seems to be about the vram issue tho. I would be fine with much less "powerful" performance in other areas of 5080, but AA/AAA dev's seem to have decided doing graphics that want huge vram #'s at least available, for gaming, should be a thing. And it's probably only going to get worse (even discounting full RT) So mid to highish end, gamers want/think they should get more vram at minimum, even if it isn't the uber fastest vram or highest bandwidth or whatever other tech specifics. Is it dev's fault, or the gpu makers fault, chicken, egg. There will always be gamers who buy every gpu generation because they have nothing better to do, just like some people buy/lease constant new cars, but most of us - even most of us with plenty of cash to fling around on an optional hobby - want a bit more justification. If they just stuck 20gb vram on the 5080 I probably wouldn't complain. Just me tho.

@Bartimaeus I would guess the main reason for that (gaming news channels) is a "gaming news" channel can't really survive on a few videos made a month, waiting for actual news. Daily or every other day videos "required". Hence having to find a reason, any reason, to blabber about something in constant new uploads. Algorithm - all those hidden factors that are seemingly much more important than simply channel sub numbers now - and all that. Thus they have all become TMZ or whatever, styled reporting. imo they should stop pleading for viewers to subscribe. I don't think that really does jack anymore - at least not without high numbers in all the other algorithm factors. YT "knows" most people sub and then never return to view the channel again.