LadyCrimson

"Red One" - brain at your door (or maybe as far as your neighbor's door) Xmas movie. I thought it might be the Jingle all the way type of silly/"stupid" - but fantasy/cgi/some action stuff. It reminded me more of Xmas Men In Black (in a non-direct comparison way) mixed with some darkish (well, vs. singing elves/snowmen and dancing reindeer) fantasy tones here and there, and typical Santa nice/naughty/redemption moralizing. Or something. Anyway, it's not a good movie, but maybe because I had zero expectations and wasn't looking for any depth whatsoever, I still found some stuff hilarious. *shrug*

Indy - from a gameplay perspective, the areas right after Gizeh sucked, far as I'm concerned. Cinematic story lovers will like it tho. I would actually like a YT cut of this game where it's mostly all the "movies", in-game cutscenes, and the bare minimum amount of gameplay shown needed (the intro RotLA re-do need not be included, for example), to create a sort of 4-6 hour movie. Versus the 12+ hr "entire main game" fast run through videos where you have to watch someone playing for 8+ hours of it.

Indy - apparently if you've upped your health bars and food-health bars enough, when you fall down a pit, you don't die. Just a sliver of health remaining, so no game-over/auto-reload screen. When it 1st happened, I thought maybe there was some way out of the pitch black pit that even a torch barely helped at all, but no. Result is same, restart checkpoint, so it doesn't matter, but it's hilarious they let you boost health so much/didn't account for that so it happens.

Requirements for FF7-Rebirth are RTX-2060/RX-6600. eg, no GTX. Also, 12gb VRAM for 4k, possibly even for lower resolutions depending on settings, who bloody knows.It's not about RT - theory from some is need a gpu that will support DX12-Ultimate mesh shaders and other other features. https://fullcleared.com/news/here-are-the-pc-requirements-for-final-fantasy-vii-rebirth/ ...it's just that time where gpu tech/game dev tech standards is finally changing over. Had that long period of "my gpu/pc is 8-10+ years old and still does everything!" - but that's going, going, gone. Well, outside of indie games. And eventually that'll go to, for more graphic indies/A/AA, I would bet on it. At least the vram req. part. My 2080ti purchase, for time period I bought it, looks better all the time. If only I could hold out for the 60xx/whatever period.... Edit: at least that Arc B580 looks like a good budget 1080p card. Maybe Intel really will light a little fire under Nvidia's butt ... probably not. Nvidia obviously doesn't care about low budget gpu's.

Oh, also, if you'd like to not see all those logo intros starting the Indy game steamapps\common\The Great Circle\base\video\boot_sequence Rename the file in there. Depending on your PC you may see the loading shaders text line (those logos are like load screens, these days) for 1/4 of a second but then you're in game manu. I don't care about the time saved, it's more my ears saved. Can we please make the game volume control slider ALSO affect the crashing logos "TADAAAA" audio?

Indy game: I believe I'm near the end of Gizeh. I think my game save says around 16 hours. This region has somewhat worn out my liking for sneaking around, because the enemies change it up a little. Also, they do eventually respawn. By that I mean, the region is more fun to randomly explore, but enemies/stealth/combat becomes more tiresome. I have something like 900 "cash" collected for the region and have only had to spend ... 75. I collected 1000's of adventure points doing Adventure/Fieldwork and picking up all the notes, medicine, and relics ( a few) I saw along the way. Meaning I've "read" almost all the books I've found. I can now hold twice as much bread!

Yeah, I know about that. I don't really care about combat stuff, since I'm not looking for the hardest combat difficulty, and I like stealthiness or avoidance vs. leroy tactics. it is nice that you can mix and match the options vs. the defaults if one wants it. Guns imo are last resort/boss only, imo .... there's reasons, but I don't want to spoil. And maybe some would like it anyway. The adventure menu (puzzling) changes nothing. There is no "puzzle difficulty=full", it's just moderate/off/off, which is what the "overall adventure exp" Moderate settings does by default. If you picked Puzzle-Light at the start, you could change it to Moderate, but it doesn't get any better than that.

Ok, Gizeh more engaging in some ways. Perhaps I simply like "outdoors" locations than "cramped historical city" locations. All issues/nitpicks I personally have with the game overall are still there, mind, but the "map/location" design improves it. There seem to be more secrets and tiny cavern holes and brief surprises to stumble on to. Nothing expansive re: exploration/tomb-ing, but at least it's more interesting to navigate. Also, my advice: unless you're a mega-completionist type (which is fine if you are, I mean no offense!), I would maybe stick to mostly the main quest (Adventure) and the larger sidequests (Fieldwork). The rest are largely busy/filler/collection work. That said, the occasional Mystery was interesting, and if you trigger anything/can do it right then, why not. The game loop (largely the same format/cycle as Vatican) gets repetitive fast, but Gizeh is definitely better as a map. Plus one of the cutscenes/story was ... hilarious. Voss is a good Indiana Jones villain.

^ Oh, as usual, to be clear, I am not saying "Indy game sucks." There's fun to be had, it is what it is. Certain audience types will love it to death I'm sure. But it's main draw is nostalgia for Indiana, his character and original films. Just don't expect interesting/deep gameplay, mechanics, AI, reward-motivation, action, etc. I suppose I was hoping for at least a little more old school tombraider-ing feeling perhaps. The answer to that is no. I'm not sure I'll finish it, really. Depends what Gizeh offers.

@Sven_ ROFL at that bioshock video. Using a Sherlock montage was hilarious. And yeah, that's how a couple of puzzles felt like to me. Note that I am definitely in a category of one who doesn't like super hard puzzling games, but even I find the ones in Indy brain dead. There are a number of locked chests/safes in the game with a number code to open - I didn't bother with them all but there would be clues scattered about to figure out the right numbers to input. I am not sure but I think the game considers those puzzles. I would not, since it's just random number odds and the only way to figure out would be to input a zillion combos for 20 hours, or ... find the notes easily found (because they glow) that tell you. The bigger issue is that reward for some things is not worth it. I have collected/stolen "money" but nothing to spend it on, outside of one thing, at least nothing worthwhile. No weapons/gear. You get enough adventure points (to increase some combat/skill stuff a tiny bit) even w/out getting sidequest finished rewards etc. The enemy AI is abysmal, the YT videos on that are accurate. The one time I thought "aha, here's a Tombraider like dungeon traversal difficulty spike", in the end it was ... no. And most big "action" moments are very scripted/QTE-like things, hard to really fail etc. eg, vicarious fun but not much else. I think Gizeh will have a bit more tomb adventuring so we'll see. Could still improve a little.

Hiding the evidence. I have fun with this part. (had to lighten the pics some, it's dark in there)

Don't know about the medicine (I think I only bothered to find 11/15 while wandering/questing/sneaking) and I also did not bother to find most/all the Relics, but I can say that re: the latter (location concept spoiler, but not direct/specific). I have reached Gizeh (this is how it's spelled in the game): ---RIP Tony Todd, you were great, and will be missed ---I would enjoy this game without Gina a lot more. I don't like that she gets in my way at times while being largely an AI-chat bot. They did however give some simple 2-person task excuses for her to be there. She fits the themes of the films, also. But in the game - I could do without. Just me ofc. ---There are times when Indy's face looks more like Troy Baker's face. Just for micro seconds. This is because I know what Troy Baker looks like, tho. And I know it was motion capture tech. But it's funny. ---I still feel like there's very little actual gameplay, as in player involvement/brain-engagement/things to do. This is not necessarily bad. I totally understand the perspective of others wanting that from an adventure game. It's just not what I personally get tons of joy out of. That said, because it's Indy, I've chuckled some times and it really does feel like a new movie in a way.

I remember in the original Tombraider, you'd enter a room, look about, and start hitting the jump key to see what ledges you could grab onto. Or you'd try jumping a chasm from different spots until you found the right "spot". eg, there were no icon prompts, you had to trial and error quite often. I miss those days. In other words, this Indy game - I am reminded of the cat Stray game, where you were not allowed to do anything if there was no icon prompt. It's not quite as severe as that, but it's the feeling I have while roaming the tightly designed/linear areas/dungeons. Glance all around looking for prompts to tell you where you can go. In Stray it bothered me not because of the very simple type of game that was. Plus, y'know, cute kitty. In this Indy game, where it's supposed to be a grand adventure or something, it's a bit deflating. edit: I see no option to turn icon prompts totally off EDITEDIT: oh, also, constant unasked for chr. voice hints, even with the puzzle setting not on easy. I would like a "shut up" option. The main things about the Indy game seem to be: story/cutscene factor, lore, the occasional simple puzzle (so far, occasionally a little pattern recognition or clue brain work needed but nothing major) filling out all the collectable lists (which often are part of some sidequest), and if you so desire, purposely aggroing lots of fascist Nazi's (vs. 1-3 at a time via stealthy) to see if you can not die. The "tomb exploring" is at least starting to be more vicariously enjoyable tho. Atmosphere, graphically, hoping one doesn't miss a collectable etc. EDIT: I have been half ignoring most sidequests. I keep picking up stuff that triggers them, and/or finding collectables related to them, but I haven't been purposely tracking them. Focusing on main story and general map exploration.Some areas are locked initially etc.

Oh, afterthought - I would guess one reason Indy game is so "optimized" (outside of game engine and dev skill/choices maybe) is the areas are generally small/tightly designed. Sure some look more vista heavy, and there's room to roam/explore, but it's no open world, is all. And ofc, not much environment interactivity. RT-GI based games that are seriously open world/no loading screens et - I shudder to think what one would need there. probably 24v vram minimum, but who knows.

According to this guy, you chose wisely. The vid's not about Indy, but asking "more powah, more vram?" 3060/12 seems to beat 4060/8 in that regard. Not just in fps but in "movement/pacing smoothness". It's not that one cannot use 8gb still, but that on these types of games, it's going to mean lower settings, less smooth, sometimes a lot less fps, if the vram isn't enough. 8gb vs 12+gb really just depends on what kind of games one plays. If you're interested at all in some now or future AAA sorts of games tho, and getting something new/upgrading, better get 12gb min. 16 would be better if buying new/can afford. Edit: not relevant to 1080 perhaps, but at my DLSS-4k/Low Textures, I had upped a lot of other settings to High/it kept 60ish for a while, but when I hit the Vatican area my FPS plummeted and I had to put them back to Medium. eg, global illumination, shadows, some others. I don't think the vram went much higher (maybe .5gb) but the fps seriously tanked at High vs. Medium's lol.

I just had a bug. I found another guide page for photo-ing that had pics of the looking thru camera view vs. just a "this is the spot/object in the garden", and you're supposed to get a "Take picture/hotkey" text when you're aiming right. I was not getting that prompt, no matter where I stood/aimed etc. I tried the Restart Checkpoint vs. Continue option and that seemed to get rid of the bug. Text prompt appeared, I had to repeat-run around again, it worked.

Difference here is as far as I can tell, this is the main quest. If I can't get it to work, I can't progress. >.>

Indy Game: ---"Take photos with this camera" oh god, I have never liked this in any game. ---find the thingies, get camera icon prompts, try to take picture. "Need better angle" ---move about, zoom camera in and out, taking 30 photos of the thing. Eventually seems successful. ---Look at quest log book - still says 0/4 photos needed. Try another spot/location. Same result.Yes I am certain I am pointing the camera at the correct item (I looked it up). ---Don't know if it's my stupid brain or a bug. There have been posts regarding some photo-mission bugs/soft-locks for some people - I guess there will be more. Quit game. Also, so far, Tombraider adventure vibe it is definitely not. Edit: it feels much ... lighter. Modern audience, cinema into a game, adventure. Whether that's good or bad is YMMV. I think I'm neutral.

Instead of personality or time of day, my brain wants to relate this to age, except I'd add a couple categories: 200%=kid/teenager, 100%=20's/30's, 75%=40's, 50%=50's, 25%=60's, and 1%=me in 15+ years, assuming I make it there.

Even without full path tracing, you get a decent moon reflection, if you care/notice such things. Tried to pet the dog.

^ I tried to push forward re: the adventuring. Note: I have it on easy combat mode but less easy puzzling, whatever that means. I have yet to get to any puzzles, initial steps feel the usual elongated tutorial/get familiar phase. The manual checkpoint seems overall ok (even tho I dislike such), although what it means is I'm constantly watching for the corner save-hat symbol, or checking main menu to see how long it's been since last checkpoint-save, and then pondering if I want to continue or stop. I'd say I like the game so far but it's not really grabbing me in the sense I'd want to "binge play". Although I do like looking in nooks and side rooms for the occasional loot - eg, first play there's a tiny bit of "fear" of missing some important side-loot (like the point-giving books) which helps inspire looking around. I kinda want to look up whether I'm wasting my time or not tho... EDIT: forgot. It seemed that when I died (jumped off a ledge, game didn't like it), when respawned at checkpoint, I had full health again. Probably by design (or the modes I selected) but I kind of wish it didn't.

^ Was thinking "what nice/pretty photos" and then ... I desperately want a Hello Kitty cone thingie, now. Those Japanese business men/friends my father worked for, who would come visit him occasionally when they were in the US, would always bring small Hello Kitty things as gifts to their friends adopted daughter. Erasers, pencil boxes, hair ties, stationary. I never got super into HK but still brings memories. Also, I wouldn't mind a giant inflatable like that. I could put it on our roof during holiday seasons. Santa? No, Hello Kitty!

To sell gpu's and games, of course. I'm not sure what you mean by cartoony look tho. From what I've seen that doesn't occur. It's just for people who think hyper-realistic shadowing, surface/directional reflections, lighting/lighting movement/cycles, fog/particles sun/god rays and all of that enhance their "immersion." When I tried turning all the pathtracing stuff on, in this game there's not a huge difference. I mean sure the sun rays through windows, reflections on glass, some shadowing was enhanced, not trying to say there was zero difference, but it wasn't "OOOHHHH WOWWWW". Cyberpunk was better in that regard, imo. In Indy, the base global illumination is already pretty decent. Of course, the fact they're using RT global illumination (remember this is "separate" from full ray/path tracing) may be part of the reason. The RT-GI already gives a little boost to lighting, sun rays filtering through windows etc, so full pathtracing is less dramatic in some ways. Maybe. I'm theorizing, not a gpu tech. I don't feel like the RT-GI hindered my FPS at all. I've played some newer games without any RT that were a little harder on the FPS than this one. It's just the VRAM issue and can't use the vaunted 1080 anymore. EDIT: oh, also, the game engine itself may be a performance factor. It is not using Unreal 4/5, something else, maybe it's easier to optimize.

Spent another hour fiddling with the Indy game, along with a small story progression. I definitely think one gets more visual "showcasing" by leaving texture pool size Low and upping other things as much as you can, instead. I also tried turning pathtracing (full RT) on for lol's. DLSS-balanced/same settings = 25fps, haha, yeah, no thank you. Not even that different. I read posts saying that 8gb gpu's won't even have the path-tracing option active/usable, but dunno. Gameplay - game said "best with controller!" so I'm trying that first. It feels ok. Not great, a little clunky at times, but ok. Npc's/Indy cycling of flavor or hint dialogues as I admire/wander surroundings vs. rush to advance, became tiring almost immediately. It's the rate/speed of repetition. Over and over. You have the usual jump/climb/hang and lift/move/grab type controls. 1st person punching is ok. Throwing things you pick up at people is often amusing (see dunkey video if you want a slapstick guffaw). But world detail to admire is very good, has nice movie tie-ins/nods here and there, Indy-fans will definitely love the game for that.

I dunno, for the lowest "texture pool size," medium-ish settings and no full ray/path tracing, I think it looks pretty good. And ofc, it looks a lot better on-screen vs. screenshot. *shrug* Outside of enforced RT global illumination req, the game seems well optimized re: looks vs. performance, actually. A lot of world details for those that like such things, too. The face and body animations (clothes, running, expressions) are sometimes off, but eh, still fine.