What are you Playing Now? - Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll

[Mamoulian War]

6 hours ago, BruceVC said:

90 hours into Underrail and still loving it

Several major developments in my journey and adventures

I completed the Arena and I now have the Invictus title, great challenges and another example of where you need to be selective around combat strategy to win battles. I started the Gauntlet but then decided not to complete it. I dont like the idea of not having all my equipment which means I cant adopt my numerous combat strategies

I decide to join Coretech as my Core City faction, they have useful tech items and they make sense to me around there politics

I also aligned with the Protectorate and completed there quests, I like there vision of the future of Underrail. I went on the Chemical Assault Unit quests and ended up wiping out the Free Drones with mutagen gas . This was another example of a clever and unexpected mission. It turned into a complete disaster with me having to avoid the gas and escape the Free Drones base, I let the gas do most of the work and allowed the Free Drones and Mutants to kill each other

Im now at the Tchort Institute to get the cube back and its a fascinating place and what they believe. I am doing all the quests and I have read up on all the lore on the Original Report. I just completed the quest where you have to secure Station 7 in the tunnels underneath the Institute and the battle was other epic struggle of needing to use different strategies. I used mines, caltrops, stealth, grenades and then my Psi to finally win. It was like the Shopping Mall quest, you cannot rely on one approach

The Fast Travel option using Rift Gates is probably the most realistic and best implementation of Fast Travel I have ever come across, I realize this was added in the DLC so for most people who played the original game they didnt get to use it. But you need to find Rift Gates which is almost impossible without a guide and then they just make things easier. Its very convenient but you still need to explore and travel on foot

And then I still find Easter Eggs from randomly exploring , I came across this canyon and then I climbed down and found a Lunatic base and Formedictator selling rare items

The game really delivers on open-world, sandbox and different ways to complete quests 

Do you have also both DLCs installed? I have Underrail on my backlog, but missing the latest DLC yet.

[BruceVC]

19 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Do you have also both DLCs installed? I have Underrail on my backlog, but missing the latest DLC yet.

I do have the Expedition DLC which includes new mechanics like the Rift Gates 

Mamie you MUST play this game but buy Expedition because there is another region to explore after the main quest is completed

It has this constant reality where you have to utilize different strategies for  different battles

I have never played a game like that before, most games you can rely on more or less the same combat  approach with some buffs for protections  but not this game 

You have to  think and adopt  in most large battles 

[MrBrown]

https://s.team/y24/gbrjtpt?l=english

[Sven_]

Indiana Jones just got an update.

 

Not sure if I had this before.... but does anybody else get a red CPU load shown in the game's performance analysis just when enabling Vsync? I noted that this would tank my fps in some areas at the start of the game. It seems generally, there's a 20% performance hit with Vsync, be it with DLSS/Quality, TLAA... 
 

 

Vsync off (CPU load all green)




Vsync on (the bar goes immediately up). This is regardless whether I activate Vsync in-game or via Nvidia driver settings.



 

Edited Thursday at 12:16 AM by Sven_

[LadyCrimson]

I never have vsync enabled and I haven't updated the game, so no, I haven't noticed. Haha.

I've seen posts (pre and post patches) of all kinds of weird stuff re: cpu/gpu usage, frame pacing, other, under certain conditions, although usually related to frame generation/PT on. Which is why I don't want to update because it's running ok for me (and I haven't run into that whip/camera bug) so why risk it.

Only thing I've noticed (no patch) is I get slightly lower overall CPU usage and higher overall GPU usage with DLSS OFF/TAA, maybe that's normal, dunno.  But I think this is the first game that is likely CPU bound at my 4k (dlss or not) settings. eg, gpu sits around 40-50% most of the time vs. maxed out/cpu overall always says 100% (and almost all cores including H-threads are very high graph use in Performance Monitor, not just 2-4). Dunno if it's because of something re: poor/odd game coding or not tho. I've seen people with better PC's (and running full RT) report the same sort of thing. Edit: could be because of using Vulkan too I suppose.

Edited Thursday at 03:40 AM by LadyCrimson

[Lexx]

Indy game has kinda crazy high graphic requirements anyways. Considering I can play Cyberpunk with full path tracing and stuff and it works fine.. Indy game makes my PC hot, and everything feels like walking through mud. It doesn't even have a huge open world with lots of stuff visible at the same time at all times.

[LadyCrimson]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

and everything feels like walking through mud.

I started noticing that sensation in the desert and jungle areas. It's not microstutter, or fps drops. Just sometimes you're walking/swimming around, it feels fine, and then suddenly it feels ... sluggish. Animation still looks smooth/isn't jerking, but feels like you're walking in quicksand for several seconds. Most of the time it's fine but yeah, it's weird. Figured it was the cpu-maxing or something. But the frame pacing isn't going haywire or anything. Haven't had any issue w/temps, gpu or cpu - but I do have that giant mega Noctua cooler on the cpu.

I'm kinda thinking the game is a "failure" - in the sense there seems to be very little interest in it. Steam in particular. The RT gpu and generally steep requirement thing is probably part of it, Indy-topic and more casual SP adventure (vs. fast/exciting  action) being a smaller or even niche market another, available on gamepass another etc. Of course I have no idea re: console sales or how many gamepass subs might've been "sold" or renewed to play it.  EDIT: and while the visuals are nice, don't get me wrong, from my perspective it's not even that great of a case for RT (even with full PT on, I've looked periodically, ooo, lighting on that mirror pedestal's base is different, pfft). The environments/art design overall just isn't impressive/unusual enough for that.

I've tried to continue playing it a few times, getting maybe 20 minutes and then "eh" stopping. I did finally look up a main plot concept and I'm pretty sure I'm not too far from the end game anyway. It has good first impression but it already wore out its welcome. There's just not much to it outside of visual designs, a bit of humor, maybe a couple decent puzzles/dungeons in each larger section, and Indiana-love. The rest is filler fluff.

Edited Thursday at 11:02 AM by LadyCrimson

[Lexx]

39 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

I'm kinda thinking the game is a "failure" - in the sense there seems to be very little interest in it. Steam in particular.

It's too expensive. Even the base version with no bonus stuff is 70€ ... no thanks. Even 60€ would have stretched it already for me. Without the GamePass thing, I wouldn't even have checked out until a couple years from now maybe.

[LadyCrimson]

10 minutes ago, Lexx said:

It's too expensive.

Fair. It doesn't really "feel" like a serious AAA game to warrant that "full AAA" price. Also, zero replayability for probably 99% of those who play it.
Also, the cats are weird looking and are not cute.

[Sven_]

10 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I never have vsync enabled and I haven't updated the game, so no, I haven't noticed. Haha.

Well, I fixed my issue. I was dumb.


I didn't have VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) enabled in Windows in all those years, lol.  

 

 

Also, I'm gonna be one of those who's apparently going to spent ten hours in the Vatican alone.  

Edited Thursday at 02:09 PM by Sven_

[Mamoulian War]

On 12/18/2024 at 3:20 PM, BruceVC said:

I do have the Expedition DLC which includes new mechanics like the Rift Gates 

Mamie you MUST play this game but buy Expedition because there is another region to explore after the main quest is completed

It has this constant reality where you have to utilize different strategies for  different battles

I have never played a game like that before, most games you can rely on more or less the same combat  approach with some buffs for protections  but not this game 

You have to  think and adopt  in most large battles 

So you are missing Heavy Duty DLC as well

[marelooke]

4 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Fair. It doesn't really "feel" like a serious AAA game to warrant that "full AAA" price. Also, zero replayability for probably 99% of those who play it.
Also, the cats are weird looking and are not cute.

AAA went up 20EUR in only a few years as well, first trying to convince us that the console prices that were 10EUR above normal PC pricing of 50EUR were "standard" for PC as well, and then tacking on another 10EUR for inflation...

[Hurlshort]

The Indy game will probably be judged on its Gamepass success, rather than just on sales. The goal for Microsoft is to get subs, I believe.

[melkathi]

Which does make sense. If people who can play it for "free" as part of a subscription can't be bothered to download it, that is bad.

So it can be a good indicator of failure.

And they should have statistics of new subs who then proceed to download and play this.

[Lexx]

Sadly I won't be able to finish it within my 2 weeks of 1€ gamepass sub, as I'm not at home over the next weeks. But I might resub in the future.

[Sven_]

5 hours ago, marelooke said:

AAA went up 20EUR in only a few years as well, first trying to convince us that the console prices that were 10EUR above normal PC pricing of 50EUR were "standard" for PC as well, and then tacking on another 10EUR for inflation...

Mind you, I'm not overly impacted, as I'm not playing all that many AAA games. I'm still far more outraged over GPU prices these days. Just ten years ago the thought of ever spending 300 Euro on but a GPU never crossed my mind. Nowadays, that's the entry level price of admission.



*Fun fact: Even the 60 bucks HD 6670 could play you some Skyrim (in reduced / medium details) and Dishonored.



On the plus side: As there hasn't been a decent sub 200€ card in years, the used market even works for completely outdated GPUs almost a decade old -- and generally, GPUs don't like half their worth in just a year or two. E.g. you still get some money back eventually.

Edited Thursday at 10:14 PM by Sven_

[melkathi]

I have picked up my Underspace play through once more.

 

I had been put off by a certain storm event that kept triggering, which I couldn't survive, but now things are better. 

Pushed through the first part of the story and am now level 19 just before the warning that if I continue the story... You know, the usual "get your affairs in order before you do".

Mind, level in this game is determined by how much cash you have made, since that reflects how good your equipment potentially is.

Speaking of, I now upgraded to a tier 2 light fighter. The mobility is nice, but I need to check the energy output on a medium fighter. My current guns drain my energy meaning I dodge waiting to recharge. Also, I am not that great a shot, so my previous low energy loadout meant I could just keep my finger on the trigger and hope something hit.

 

Going to sit back and do some exploring and storm chasing. Maybe check for some fancy equipment. See if I can rank up in some stormchaser chapters.

I also need to see if I can buy some favour with the criminal factions, as I suspect my relationship with the union military may worsen in the course of the main story.

[LadyCrimson]

If I buy a 50xx gpu it'll be the 5090, because with all the vram, even if a couple generations later it won't be able to utilize "frame generation limitlessv99" and "UberHot-DLSS v3659", only on 70xx" or something, it would at least run the darn game because of vram and general power. If it doesn't blow a house circuit, or catch on fire, anyway.

I currently have this weird desire to see how far I could get the Indy game to run with middle path tracing at 1080p. The thing about PT (for me) is not simply that fps drops to 30-35 - it's that the fps is not stable/smooth, like 30fps in old games. It's an utter stutter/lag fest. Since I like the first half of the game best, I could start a new save...AAA games these days are mostly good for benchmarking/testing your rig.  Heheh

Edited Thursday at 11:08 PM by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

22 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

I currently have this weird desire to see how far I could get the Indy game to run with middle path tracing at 1080p.

Scratch that. Unlike a few other earlier RT games, even DLSS-balanced used with 720p/everything low (haha), full PT tanks the fps, even if it's not taking up all 11 vram (about 10). And I mean tanks. I'd guess more vram and faster CPU would help with that ofc, but yeah, that's still nuts. Other settings really don't matter much.

[Mamoulian War]

I have finally decided to continue my DS2 NG+ playthrough, which I have postponed for a month or so, because I have the most annoying parts of DLCs in front of me. So my plan for today was Sir Alonne. A lot of people have said, that this one is even harder than Fume Knight. For my surprise, I have downed him in 7 or 8 tries. First time, without summons. Shield helped in this encounter a lot. My damage was pretty low though. Even after I have went for a two attempt kill of Twin Pursuers, which dropped my new Ring of Blades+2. Thankfuly Alonne’s moveset was easy to learn and predictable. All I needed to do, was to be patient enough to hit him only once during his openings. Because whenever I tried two hits, he always punished me with his follow up. Next eithe Gank Squad or King’s Pets. We’ll see. Not very happy to go through their gauntlets again  

[Wormerine]

On 12/19/2024 at 11:11 PM, Sven_ said:

Mind you, I'm not overly impacted, as I'm not playing all that many AAA games. I'm still far more outraged over GPU prices these days. Just ten years ago the thought of ever spending 300 Euro on but a GPU never crossed my mind. Nowadays, that's the entry level price of admission.

I am not outraged by the price. Diminishing returns law must apply and it makes sense that GPUs get more and more costly to make and sell. I am sure price gauging takes place, but I am also not surprised if they can’t reach a new level for performance without investing unreasonable amounts of money. 

What I do find unreasonable is the ongoing push for new expensive GPUs and better graphics while benefits stopped being visible to me quite a few years ago. Does God of War2 look better than God of War1? Eh, I suppose but I still think GoW1 looks better than I even need a game to look. 

We do however see more and more dominant games that aren’t on the cutting edge of graphics, so I wonder how much value there is in pursuing best GPUs. If I can’t run Great Circle well, that’s doesn’t make me happy but I also don’t think like I would be missing on something groundbreaking. 

Edited yesterday at 12:18 PM by Wormerine

[marelooke]

On 12/20/2024 at 12:07 AM, LadyCrimson said:

If I buy a 50xx gpu it'll be the 5090, because with all the vram, even if a couple generations later it won't be able to utilize "frame generation limitlessv99" and "UberHot-DLSS v3659", only on 70xx" or something, it would at least run the darn game because of vram and general power. If it doesn't blow a house circuit, or catch on fire, anyway.

I currently have this weird desire to see how far I could get the Indy game to run with middle path tracing at 1080p. The thing about PT (for me) is not simply that fps drops to 30-35 - it's that the fps is not stable/smooth, like 30fps in old games. It's an utter stutter/lag fest. Since I like the first half of the game best, I could start a new save...AAA games these days are mostly good for benchmarking/testing your rig.  Heheh

It will probably be a few more generations before hardware path tracing is at the level we need for it to be usable everywhere without tanking performance and/or quality at any resolution higher than Full HD. Just fingers crossed my RX 6800 XT can last me that long (and more fingers crossed Intel will be able to provide some higher end competition by the time this card starts falling off)

On the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 front I can say the big 1.1 patch definitely improved the Zone's feeling. Enemies no longer pop up behind you fully aware of your location and they do seem to wander around on their own. That being said, the game still clearly spawns NPCs based on triggers (I had to kill the same pack of Blind Dogs three times while exploring a location...) or, at least to my feeling, "activity" (if you are jogging around too long, per the game's estimation, without a fight the game will spawn you a fight)

Apparently the major showstopper I ran into was fixed, but it's hard to say as I managed to get past it before the patch dropped. I did run into major performance issues during the

Spoiler

Faust

boss fight though, fps dropping to the single digits each time I targeted the boss.

Feels like I'm nearing the end of the playthrough, so far it's clocking in at 100 hours, which puts me at about 1death/hour (though I'd say about 70% of those are probably attributable to the game being in a "state"...)

At this point I'd say I'd score it like a 6/10. It's decently playable at this point, and you probably won't want to uninstall within the Steam refund window if you're not a hardcore S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fan (but assuming this type of game is your jam, of course...)

[MrBrown]

Trying to play Mass Effect:Andromeda

It's like going back 25 years in regards to save functions. No quick saves, and the autosaves get corrupted often.

Only about 10hours in so don't want to say anything definite, but gameplay seems lackluster.

[Serrano]

49 minutes ago, MrBrown said:

Trying to play Mass Effect:Andromeda

It's like going back 25 years in regards to save functions. No quick saves, and the autosaves get corrupted often.

Only about 10hours in so don't want to say anything definite, but gameplay seems lackluster.

I haven't played Andromeda but it's such a shame that the series fizzled out like that. The premise sounded so good. Is there anything you like about the game so far? Even though you're just getting started how is the story?

Edited 19 hours ago by Serrano

[Serrano]

With the Omens of Destruction DLC just being released I'm playing Total War: Warhammer 3 again. Creative Assembley are doing a really good job  at giving the campaigns for the new characters a lot of personality and unique gimmicks. I think one of the things I really like about what CA are doing are the developer blogs and video interviews about the new content, it's really interesting to see behind the scenes and get to hear developers talk about their games, I miss when Obsidian used to do that more often.