LadyCrimson

I appreciate and occasionally use a console now, but for years and years, my biggest reason for being a PC gamer 99% of my life is feeling like I have more control over graphic settings, troubleshooting/fixes if the game is glitchy, when to patch a game, and other such things. I wasn't huge into mods although I have used some with a few games ofc. But PC gaming I felt less at the mercy of "it works or it doesn't" since you could try all kinds of things or "hacks" or other players would make user-patches if the dev's didn't, that sort of thing. I just liked feeling like I had more overall options on PC. It's a little different now with digital installs and enforced patching but the options aspect is still much higher. I'm a huge KB/mouse fan too, it's just arthritis/age makes it less and less comfortable. People have preferences for one reason or another - or they may like to use both for the different options each has - there is no "better."

"The Report" https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8236336/ I have a hard time with this one. On the one hand, Adam Driver has a pretty great, if largely low-key, performance as the lead, along with a few brief other moments of actor pizazz. On the other hand, it's a movie that consists almost entirely of talking. People in board rooms, offices, meeting round tables, talking. People in a research room that's like a concrete bunker, talking. A lot of exposition dumps. Flashback exposition/scenes, often of more talking. Politics and reports. Potentially nothing wrong with that but ... I felt like I should've been bored, but I wasn't. But neither was I seriously engaged. So maybe ... a C+? B-?

Dungeon Siege 1. The days of quality character creation options! :P Had an urge to kill monsters while listening to the great soundtrack. It's still fun in that mindless/simple way, except the clicking on the ground constantly to make the party move every 5 inches is super-wearying, vs. being able to just hold the mouse button down to keep them running. On the bright side, I installed from ancient disc and it still works on Win10 with no "help" at all. There's also a mod to let you play the MP map/world in single-player (used to be able to then one patch disallowed it) which is great since that was better than the campaign.

I thought I saw someone in the previous thread mention it. Myself, I've never really been into "mobster/crime family" type films. Never watched Godfather's, Scarface, or all of Goodfellas (bored, turned it off) etc, only seen the well known clips. Closest I can recall watching all of is A Bronx Tale. Hubby's seen some of them so I mentioned Irishmen to him, but it's not his favorite genre so he's in no hurry.

I like stuff. Hence I like this thread. ...tried to watch that Robin Hood movie with Jamie Foxx and that other guy (edgerton?) in it. The obviously machine tailored with some modern sensibility clothing was really out of place (first thing I noticed in a trailer too) but beyond that it's just a terrible movie. I turned it off after 45 minutes.

I still think the gap is a lot bigger for top end-PC's. The amount of graphic/textures vs. resolution vs. FPS and other such things is still large. What I notice most is more limited FoV's, more blurred backgrounds, use of a lot lower textures in near to middle distances in order to increase performance, and inability to even reach a steady 60fps without stutter, frame pacing, and whatever else issues. No I am not talking about using console-4k options, even just in 1080. This does not mean consoles can't/don't look good. Many don't care about hi-res textures and some even like blurring effects (which often hide lower textures as side effect). The next gen of consoles (not too far away I suppose) will close the gap more and hopefully will be able to reach a smooth 60fps in modern/new games. The main (gaming) difference tho is generally about graphics and high-end performance especially at high resolutions. You can buy gaming laptops that are very good these days, but they are still lesser than the same-named parts of actual desktop parts, and much less upgradable and thus likely more of an expense long-run, having to be replaced wholesale more often (if you want to keep up with newest/latest games over years). If one isn't picky about fps, textures, Ultra graphics or performance considerations at 4k, and doesn't play games where wanting a lot of mods is a factor, there is nothing wrong with consoles and again, next gen will up the ante once more as well. The whole "PC vs. Console" thing re: gaming is silly in this day and age. Just use what fits your style/life/comfort and budget. Edit: or do what I/some of do, and have both. I like having "high-end" PC rigs for applications and a lot of gaming, but at this point having a console for certain games or when I want to couch-lounge is cool too.

Finished up Prompto's DLC on PC version. I had to use the "kill a few enemies, pause the game for an hour, repeat" all day yesterday but yeah. At least I get the gun and his 3rd combat tech if you swap over to him, now. God I hate that snowmobile, and the "timed" boss fight. I saw some info re: some "hi-res" mods (meaning some textures looks a tad better, and I think 720) for Might and Magic 7 which tempted me, but it sounded like too much work. I may give it a go later tho. I used to love that game but while MM8 looks sorta ok on new PC's, MM7 is pretty bad unless you want to play in a tiny window.

The fan one isn't terrible re: brownish/yellow tones. It's their contrast and color in things like combat, ships in space, etc. that I don't like. I don't have an OLED yet but what I miss most about plasma/CRT is their ability to have darks be dark (and not blown out darks) while the lighter parts of the scene are still nicely "light"/visible. So often on modern screens blacks are blown out (too much loss of detail) if you want black to look black, and then you can hardly see anything/faces are too dark during a night or dark campfire scene or whatever. Edit: I don't really like "yellow" all that much, btw, I just prefer if over red tones. Especially with skintones. Often I'll calibrate to make skintones look more natural and just live with whatever else.

^ C3PO is too red (brassy vs. gold). The original SE is a tad too "yellow" but I prefer that over too red/rusty toned. I'm extremely picky re: personal preferences of color tones/filters. I will lean towards blue and yellow way over red or green. If my DVD (I don't have a bluray of it) of the theatrical looked like the first pic clarity/sharpness wise on a 40+ inch modern TV, I'd be fine enough. But I'd have to sit 10 feet away from the screen. It looks a bit better on the old plasma than the IPS/LED 4k since the plasma is still better re: contrast/blacks vs. whites dark/light mixed scenes and other such things. Plus oddly it doesn't require me to "zoom" it to fill the screen like the LED. Pfft.

^ Yeah I've heard of those versions. I saw snippets of those fan made ones and didn't like the color/saturation/contrast correction work. I really just want higher resolution recovery so it's "sharper" on bigger screens. A lot of the time you can just tweak/calibrate modern TV settings to make those other things look more to your taste anyway.

I've been watching some YouTuber's movie reviews and his ones for the Star Wars films had me wanting to rewatch the first SW - the unedited/non-cgi'd theater version. So I pulled out the spec. ed. DVD that has that fuzzy theater version on it. The PS4-Pro in my pc room apparently wants to play it with black borders on all sides, making it a tiny window in the middle of the screen. Luckily my cheap 4k TV has this "expand in all directions" option so I could make it fill 98% of the 43" screen. Unfortunately that made it even fuzzier, but from a distance it was ok. Anyway I say all that because I heard that Disney recently got the distribution rights to the original versions of the films (since it now owns Fox) and have also announced a new bluray release of the original trilogy. I can dream they'll include copies of the theatrical with them, right? https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-original-cuts-blu-ray-release/

I only like Ignis/Ardyn DLC but I really need to finish Prompto/Gladio's on PC to get the rewards. Pah. At least it's awesome-looking at times on the 4k TV. Or maybe it's just Aranea that is awesome. I hate the freaking snowmobile (any major dmg. taken knocks you off of it and it takes forever to get up/get back on the thing) so I just run on foot and jump off the cliffs.

Fell asleep early, woke up at 2am to the sound of creatures hopping the fence and growling around the window (racoons I assume). Shuffled to pc-room. Listening to Xmas-y tunes and (fruitlessly) browsing Steam. California winter has arrived with the first big rain/wind/thunderstorm + some light hail yesterday afternoon. Made for a nice time listening to it all pounding on the roof. One of those houses where heavy rain can sound like someone is tossing 2 tons of softened beans at your rooftop. It's glorious.

Bah humbug. .... Oh wait, wrong holiday. A toast to good food and the warmth of loved ones.

So I have my bank send me auto-email info re: all online transaction records, right. I don't check or read them often. Opened one that was "purchase outside the US" today since those are rare for me, and didn't recognize the $$ amount number right away - the oddball purchase-location info was odd. Ran through company's official digital receipts for a while until I finally realize it was GoG. So hey, GoG, could you possibly do something about the scary sounding "Purchase location: at NAME NOT PROVIDED in WARSAW POL"

Back in the 80's, local stores and delis would have those chopped and formed, long super thin jerky strips (or sometimes silver dollar shapes). Some of them had good flavor (fatty, spices) even as the texture and "formed" made you think of dog treats. I lived on those during the coast to coast drive with my sister as well as many long drives with hubby. In terms of common store packaging, Lowrey's wrapped jerky in a can (no longer made I think) was the most akin to those but the ones I'm talking about were bigger and better and less sweet/moist. Some of them would even have the plastic loop punched-in ingredient/price tag on each piece, when bought from the large jars on the counters. Anyone else remember those? Nostalgia makes me want some of that stuff. Can't find any online (or places like 7-11). Don't know what search terms to use (chopped and formed didn't work). Everything is gourmet/artisan or "real slices of meat" now. Which is not a bad thing, mind. Except when you want a taste of your youth.

It's a movie but I saw it on Prime. Had it in my list for a long while. "Cold Pursuit" - another one of those Liam Neeson is angry movies. Figured I knew what I'd get. I was half-right. It was actually rather darkly funny. I was (vaguely) reminded of Fargo in a few spots but mostly because of minor comic tones. It's a revenge tale, angry father of dead son. Local drug kingpin (the loud/pushy, crazy but suave-ish type) then through misunderstandings re: angry daddy's actions, this local Indian tribe (also drug kingpins?) gets pulled in. While angry father doesn't know what he's started. Not a good movie per se but it made me and hubby lol quite a few times. If you like Neeson in this mode, it's a decent freebie stream watch.

(Not the best example and I may have posted similar before, but it's where I was in the game) What the game let's you see while actually playing (sometimes you can't even see the bird-head): What you can see while using Ansel: ...it's just no contest. Is it any wonder I keep going back to the game occasionally. Every single time, even for an hour, you can see things and get screenshots you've never seen/gotten before. No game since has felt as "fun" at all in this regard and thus they all ultimately feel dull and boring ... what am I to do. It's totally ruined me.

I think I bought/tried HL2 just to see what the fuss was about. All I remember is writing my name on a cement wall with bullet decals. At least, I think that was the HL game... not really interested myself but I understand the frustration of wanting a new game in a series and waiting forrrrrever wondering if you're going to even get one.

I kind of like that Witcher trailer posted above ... for the visual aspects. It doesn't tell me much about the show itself. Started that Breaking Bad Jessie epilogue Netflix movie last night. Didn't have time to watch the whole thing but the first 15 minutes seemed pretty decent - enough so that I'll have to watch the rest later today.

Thought I'd try FO:NV without any mods at all at first. It's been years. I suppose it looks overall ok. ... but my nostalgia glasses does not remember things like this motorbike (or the outfits, too) being quite this low-res when you get closer, vs. surroundings. lol. It's a really stark contrast at times, is all. Especially on the 43" TV, even in 4k.

I guess FFXV is going to Stadia now. Haha! With exclusive new (small) content to boot. "We don't want to work on the game anymore but if it'll boost sales here's a few more tiny extras to inspire you to try Stadia." Bite me. Although I wouldn't care about those extras much anyway, some kind of mini-game/racing stuff. I'd be curious how the relatively demanding game (if you want it to look its best anyway) performs being streamed like that, but not curious enough. Stadia itself sounds like something most people shouldn't be buying into yet, regardless. Giant beta and with Google's record of dumping/leaving projects that don't meant expectations, I'd worry they'll just abandon it if they don't get their act together/it fails to be as huge as they want in the longer run.

Today I went to GoG and finally got around to buying FO:NV, Grim Dawn/expansions (supposedly saves port over), War for the Overlord Ultimate and anything else I could find that I potentially might care about (not a lot of them), that I originally bought on Steam. Busy downloading it all. I want to get back to where I only have a few games that need Steam, at any one time, and a tiny game list (will request many never-will-play games to be removed from Steam Library). Easy to do when you hardly buy new games anymore. But there are always those several favorites. If only FFXV and Borderlands series would come to GoG, I could get rid of Steam altogether. Yeah, not gonna happen in my lifetime.

Skimmed some short gameplay vids of the new Star Wars Jedi game. Too much action/modern tombraider-like platform-y - eg not really my bag - but that little tiny droid buddy is just TOO ADORABLE for words. Graphics looked ok but whenever the main/chr/you was running it looked comical enough I lol'd. My vision feels like it's getting worse again. I keep switching between old glasses and newer glasses because the latter gives me more eyestrain with bright things (like TV/monitors or contrast-y situations) but clearer vision in dim light or something like driving - but the old ones give me less eyestrain overall but aren't quite as good for dim light/long distance. And ofc, the reading distance still sucks. Pretty soon I'll need 5 pairs of glasses - night pair, computing pair, daylight pair, admire mountains pair, reading, It's becoming (one) reason I game less and less, frankly. Desk distance, couch distance, doesn't matter, eyestrain city after a couple hours. PFFFFFFFFT.

Hm. Like others have already said this doesn't look like my type of thing (looks a bit too geared to younger crowds+I'm burned out on survival aspects anyway) but at the same time, I'm glad they're working and have something to do, so to speak. Branching out and trying new directions to have more broad appeal isn't always a bad thing imo. As long as they occasionally still put out a game I would maybe be interested in, it's all good/I'll buy those. No one has to make my "type" of game, all the time.