Video Games Thread

[NobodyHere]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w0eRkhR1z6A" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hopefully it's a worthy successor to the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games.

Unfortunately it's EA so probably not.

It looks to be multiplayer focused with a single player campaign from what I know so far.

[JonInMiddleGA]

So Fortnite finally did their season ending event today ... and damned near broke the internet apparently

2.3 million concurrent views on Twitch shatters their record. YouTube said the audience on the direct feed peaked at 6.1 million. That's 8.4 million watching the primary streams but that doesn't include those watching elsewhere, nor however many players were in-game for the event.

For some perspective on that number: just the 8.4m is about 1m more than any recent primetime TV season winner averaged. It would be good for about 30th place in the most-watched shows of the 2019-20 season ... at 2pm, on a Monday.

edit to add: Perhaps not coincidentally, late this afternoon parent company Epic Games was reportedly raising another $75 million in financing from investors, backed by an updated company valuation of $17 BILLION dollars.

double edit to add: I saw where they released the number of users in-game during the event: 12 million. That means 20.4m viewers, which would made it a larger audience than any regular TV show, broadcast or cable, in the 2019-20 season.

[SackAttack]

If you have GOG Galaxy 2.0 and own Witcher 3 in one of its sundry forms on one of the connectable platforms, you can claim a PC copy of the same edition from GOG.

Like, if you own it on Steam/Epic (is it on Epic?) the allure there is probably 'woo DRM-free, assuming they DRM CD Projekt games on other storefronts.

But if you own it on PS4 or Xbox One, you can get the equivalent edition on PC. Which is actually kinda neat for someone like me who couldn't run it on PC now, but hopes to upgrade his rig in the near future.

[korme]

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

[NobodyHere]

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

9.5 Metacritic critic score

3.4 Metacritic user score - ouch.

They pissed off at least a portion of the fanbase with this one.

[CrimsonFox]

9.5 Metacritic critic score

3.4 Metacritic user score - ouch.

They pissed off at least a portion of the fanbase with this one.

female lead character
probably female side characters too
gets em every time

[NobodyHere]

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

[SirFozzie]

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

Nope, pretty much: Ellie LGBT BAD SJW RAWR

"The game does not tell about the adventures of the protagonist, she is trying to impose ideas of different minorities on me."

"Poor writing and politics don't belong in video games. "

"they destroyed my favorite story game, im so sad tbh all this social justice horror should be erased from human mind its destroying everything"

"This is a political statement, not a video game"

"Let me break this down for you quickly: PANDERING has negatively infected gaming culture and the Last of Us 2 is the quintessential example of it"

"This is a middle finger to all the fans. The creators don’t care about us. This simply pushes their woke narrative."

All found within the first minute of searching metacritic reviews.

It's the latest edition of the culture war from right wingers

[NobodyHere]

So their opinions are wrong or something?

[MizzouRah]

Gears 5 is $10 at Best Buy. Any good?

[bob]

I think it would be a struggle to call Wired right wing. So:

The Last of Us Part II tries to be profound. It fails | WIRED UK (https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-last-of-us-part-two)

[Atocep]

Gears 5 is $10 at Best Buy. Any good?

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

[SirFozzie]

So their opinions are wrong or something?

Nailed it.

Their opinions are wrong.

Glad we cleared it up :)

(or to put another way, if you have to use woke/SJW to describe why you don't like a game, it's not the game's fault. It's yours.)

[sabotai]

Or maybe they just didn't find the game satisfying?

The Last Of Us, released 7 years ago, has 9,765 user reviews
The Last Of Us II, released 1 day ago, has 30,568 user reviews

And some other releases for comparison

Red Dead Redemption 2 has 11k user reviews (2 years old)
Grand Theft Auto 5 has nearly 5k user reviews (6 years old)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake has almost 5k user reviews (a few months old)
God of War has almost 13k user reviews (2 years old)
Desperados III has 46 user ratings (released 3 days ago)


There's obviously vote manipulation going on there.

[NobodyHere]

Nailed it.

Their opinions are wrong.

Glad we cleared it up :)

(or to put another way, if you have to use woke/SJW to describe why you don't like a game, it's not the game's fault. It's yours.)

So if you don't like a game with conservative messaging, it's your fault and not the game's?

Personally I'm not liking the narrative being pushed recently that not liking something is the fault of the consumer and not the producer. Corporate America must love you.

[SirFozzie]

No, but you don't see folks review bombing, say Bioshock Infinite over its libertarian ideals.

A lot of this is follow up from the attempted meta-critic bombing of films like Captain Marvel. It's really a reflex spasm of Gamergate.

(note, I am not saying that The Last of Us 2 is as game of the year candidate. Just that a lot of people are upset that the game has LGBT characters.)

(Honestly, after reading the plotline, I don't understand why people would WANT to play this. Video Games are supposed to be fun/escapism, and this is grimdark to ludicrous amounts)

[SirFozzie]

Anyone who relies on metacritic user score to determine their game purchase solely is not smart.

Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person | GamesIndustry.biz (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-20-kunai-becomes-the-latest-title-review-bombed-on-metacritic-by-a-single-person)

[MizzouRah]

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

Thanks, I need to get in on that. :)

[JonInMiddleGA]

It's really good, but you could play that plus Gears Tactics and other Xbox games via game pass for $1 for the first month and $5 for each month after if not owning doesn't bother you.

One of my backburner notions for a while now had been to make use of gamepass trial & short term it, to kinda keep me & Will both occupied for the summer. I mean, it kinda made sense.

As it's turned out, him adding The Show via PS4 and me picking up Fortnite for the first time (plus still having a Stellaris game going, plus being literally only one game into the Civ6 console DLC that added the weather stuff; i.e. still being one full DLC behind I think) ... we haven't really needed more games at the moment.

Hell, we both have credits to cover the next COD season pass sitting there and neither of us has bothered to touch it, and honestly may not.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Coined a possibly useful phrase in a separate discussion about me & Fortnite (which is really just a placeholder for a variety of games for me):

It engages the "don't actually give a fuck" parts of my brain ... and apparently does so fully enough that it lets the give a fuck parts of my brain rest

[rjolley]

The basic EA Access Pass is a good deal as well. Instead of picking up Madden (didn't like) and FIFA (liked) separately, I picked up the pass and can play both, plus a ton of other games for $29/year or something crazy like that.

[NobodyHere]

Anyone who relies on metacritic user score to determine their game purchase solely is not smart.

Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person | GamesIndustry.biz (https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-02-20-kunai-becomes-the-latest-title-review-bombed-on-metacritic-by-a-single-person)

I daresay the same could be said about critic score too.

[GrantDawg]

The basic EA Access Pass is a good deal as well. Instead of picking up Madden (didn't like) and FIFA (liked) separately, I picked up the pass and can play both, plus a ton of other games for $29/year or something crazy like that.
I have long had the EA pass (got it last year mainly for OOTP). I have played around with many games on it, and well worth the price. Just got the Xbox Ultimate pass. Made my son very excited about the Xbox portion. I was just looking through the PC games, and it is not really great for me right now. Every game on there I am interested in I already own. Hopefully that means I won't have to buy FM2021 or some other games comes on.

[SackAttack]

I have long had the EA pass (got it last year mainly for OOTP). I have played around with many games on it, and well worth the price. Just got the Xbox Ultimate pass. Made my son very excited about the Xbox portion. I was just looking through the PC games, and it is not really great for me right now. Every game on there I am interested in I already own. Hopefully that means I won't have to buy FM2021 or some other games comes on.

FM19 and FM20 have both been on, so I'd say it's a safe bet FM21 will be also.

[SirFozzie]

not on release though, several months after release. Unlike OOTP which was a release day release I think

[Brian Swartz]

I don't understand why people would WANT to play this. Video Games are supposed to be fun/escapism, and this is grimdark to ludicrous amounts

I'm not familiar with the specific game being discussed here, but I think fun/escapism doesn't always have to be the point. For example, This War Of Mine made a lot of people - including me - think about the horrors of war from a civilian standpoint in different ways than they had before.

[Atocep]

I'm not familiar with the specific game being discussed here, but I think fun/escapism doesn't always have to be the point. For example, This War Of Mine made a lot of people - including me - think about the horrors of war from a civilian standpoint in different ways than they had before.

To add to this

I play games for a variety of reasons. Sometimes I want something to pass time or relax, sometimes I want an engaging story, sometimes I just want something fun.

The Last of Us, Read Dead, Detroit: Become Human, Life is Strange and quite a few other games fall into the engaging story category. They make you think, they bring emotion, and they're fun from a gameplay perspective. To me, not playing Last of Us 2 because the story is too dark or violent is similar to avoiding Saving Private Ryan, Se7en, The Boy in the Striped pajamas, or any movie that can be dark, brutal, or sad because movies should be for escapism.

Different games are for different moods. Movies are the same. I'm not watching Marley and Me after I've put an animal down and I'm not recommending Schindler's List for a fun date night movie. That doesn't mean they're not good movies in other situations or unwatchable overall.

[RainMaker]

I've been playing a lot of video games lately with no sports or places to go to. Bought Far Cry 5 which is on sale for $15 on the PS4. Having some fun with it although it's a lot like every other Far Cry game I've played.

Also bought Last of Us 2. I don't know what to say. Enjoyed the first one a bit and probably got caught up in the hype over this. It just isn't that fun. Slow and really depressing. I get they're trying to tell some deep meaningful story, but I don't want to feel like shit playing a video game all the time. And the writing is really bad.

My biggest gripe is I wish I could make decisions in the game. It forces you to do something shitty that you wouldn't want to do and then beats you over the head about how shitty you should feel for doing it. Like fuck you, give me choices. It's like watching a movie while the director berates you for watching the movie.

[RainMaker]

Speaking of games like Far Cry 5, does anyone have any suggestions for some older cheaper games on the PS4? Was looking at The Forest which I heard was good. I like those kind of games like The Witcher 3, Red Dead 2, etc. Games over 2 years old are usually $20 or less.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Was looking at The Forest which I heard was good.

For the life of me I can't recall who the YT'er is that played a metric ton of co-op The Forest but I've watched a helluva lot of it due to the kid running those as background noise. In the right hands, it looks to be pretty entertaining.

But I don't think I've ever once seen anyone play it truly straight (i.e. dealing with the storyline, as opposed to trying to do more of a build-y sandbox-y focus) but it looks like a fairly challenging game, with the build options as the most interesting part of the game, along with figuring out the exact mechanics of dealing with enemies.

[RainMaker]

Yeah I was looking at it for the survival stuff and not any storyline. Friend of mine and I like to co-op on games and this seems like a fun one to do together.

So in the sandbox stuff, do you just build a base and fend off enemies? Haven't played one of those games in awhile.

[Atocep]

I've been playing a lot of video games lately with no sports or places to go to. Bought Far Cry 5 which is on sale for $15 on the PS4. Having some fun with it although it's a lot like every other Far Cry game I've played.


I enjoyed Far Cry 5, but don't bother with New Dawn. It's pretty bad.

Without knowing what you have/haven't played I'll list some of the games I've played:

Horizon: Zero Dawn - Really great game all around
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The best AC game overall IMO
God of War - Probably one of the 5 best PS4 games
Detroit: Become Human - Quantic Dream isn't for everyone, but this was a 9/10 type game for me
Spiderman - A good game, but I felt it was a bit overrated. More like a 7/10 rather than the 9/10 that most were giving it.
The Long Dark - Tough survival game with a story. The survival elements are outstanding. The story is ok.
No Man's Sky - If it launched in the shape it's in now it probably would have pulled some GOTY talk. It's morphed into a really strong game.
Control - Cool setting, interesting story. So-so and repetitive gameplay.

As far as survival games I haven't played yet, but have been on my radar. Green Hell has a terrible name, but may be something worth checking out.

[MizzouRah]

Far Cry 5 is one of my favorite games of all time.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is probably my favorite non sports console game ever, what a fantastic game.

[CrimsonFox]

The Last Of Us, released 7 years ago, has 9,765 user reviews
The Last Of Us II, released 1 day ago, has 30,568 user reviews

And some other releases for comparison

Red Dead Redemption 2 has 11k user reviews (2 years old)
Grand Theft Auto 5 has nearly 5k user reviews (6 years old)
Final Fantasy 7 Remake has almost 5k user reviews (a few months old)
God of War has almost 13k user reviews (2 years old)
Desperados III has 46 user ratings (released 3 days ago)


There's obviously vote manipulation going on there.

Also people seem more eager to give reviews nowadays I think
But yes the hackers and their 17000 bots smh

[CrimsonFox]

I mean I don't think Last of Us 2 has a chance of being as good as the original. THe original didn't have a ton of eyes on it, it just told a simple story of loss and recovery and ...bad choices in an apocalypse.

WHen you hit a home run it's tough to follow unless you're pixar.

[RainMaker]

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The best AC game overall IMO


Do you have to have played the previous versions to understand it? I remember playing the first few and then stopping.

[Atocep]

I don't think so at all. As long as you know the very basics of how the modern and past stories work you'll be fine. You don't really even need to know those, it just helps.

It's more hack and slash with RPG elements than previous games and combat is far better. You're not going to take on 50 people because they come at you 1 at a time so as long as you don't fuck up a button press you kill all 50 one by one.

I found the Ancient Greece setting fascinating. It blew colonial america and Egypt away and those were probably the strongest settings prior to Odyssey.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Yeah I was looking at it for the survival stuff and not any storyline. Friend of mine and I like to co-op on games and this seems like a fun one to do together.

So in the sandbox stuff, do you just build a base and fend off enemies? Haven't played one of those games in awhile.

fwiw, I'm not sure if it's truly sandbox OR if those guys just played it that way (and dodged the story stuff mostly).

I'll get him to tell me who that is & post it back in this thread later & you can skim to get an idea for yourself but, yeah, that's basically what I've seen them do for hours on end. Pick something they wanted to build or try, then do whatever needs doing / collect whatever, etc and do it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Rainmaker -- here's the start of what I was remembering, though I'd definitely dive into videos farther along to get a better feel of how they played (or played with) it.

Turned out it was Gopher and a buddy of his
YouTube (https://youtu.be/2jrCERsFjCc)

[Abe Sargent]

Im really enjoying the recent expansion, Freshwater Frenzy, for Megaquarium

[RainMaker]

Rainmaker -- here's the start of what I was remembering, though I'd definitely dive into videos farther along to get a better feel of how they played (or played with) it.

Turned out it was Gopher and a buddy of his
YouTube (https://youtu.be/2jrCERsFjCc)

This looks great. Thank you!

[JonInMiddleGA]

This looks great. Thank you!

I'm reminded that there were at least two distinct runs they made with the game. That one I linked is, I think, is the start of their first playthrough which was straighter ("they played it") whereas the second run was more sandbox-y ("they played with it").

The second is more what I remember honestly

[dubb93]

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

[Thomkal]

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

I don't follow him but looked into the story. Sounds like something very bad. Twitch has been clamping down on sexual discrimination/racism in recent weeks. The Yogscast had their past sexual discriminators from a few years ago brought up again this week by new stories about them. The PC/Video game publishers/makers have been hit by a whole lot of racism and sexual discrimination accusations this month too. Not the end of it either.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

To the extent that I don't recall ever hearing his name once prior to last week,
whenever whatever is eventually alleged is revealed I'll likely be aware of that happening. In that sense I guess I'm "following it".

[RainMaker]

All I remember is he was the guy who filmed inside a bathroom and got in some trouble for that. I'm guessing it is something really bad this time if they just banned him outright, refunded subscribers, right after signing him to an exclusive deal for a lot of money.

[Thomkal]

Anyone else following along with the Dr Disrespect drama?

Hxxps://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/27/why-was-dr-disrespect-banned-on-twitch-everything-known-so-far/amp/

Basically he was banned for a completely unknown reason(Even to him he says). There are a ton of wild theories out there everything from tax evasion, sexual assault, copyright violation, publicity stunt(unlikely since Twitch refunded roughly 80k in monthly subs).

It’s also interesting that yesterday his sponsors distanced themselves from him by removing him from their websites and ads before reversing and putting his ads back up just a few hours later.

He apparently still does not know why he was banned and Twitch isn't saying:

Popular Streamer Dr. Disrespect Opens Up About His Random Twitch Permaban | HotHardware (https://hothardware.com/news/dr-disrepct-permaban)

[JonInMiddleGA]

All I remember is he was the guy who filmed inside a bathroom and got in some trouble for that. I'm guessing it is something really bad this time if they just banned him outright, refunded subscribers, right after signing him to an exclusive deal for a lot of money.

That fits into one of the speculative narratives tho: that Twitch wants to get out of most (all?) of their big dollar deals now that Mixer has bitten the dust.

[miked]

Ok, so I decided to check here first but have no idea. My kids are wanting an Xbox these days. We currently have a Nintendo Wii from like 12 years ago that everyone has grown out of. Right now it appears that every single console has sold out and I have no idea how much these should normally cost. I do not mind buying a used one on eBay, but am I looking for a 1 TB Xbox One X? I would imagine a new one is around $399 or something, but do these have high resale (ie should I not expect a big discount from the base price)? I really have no idea, always been a computer gamer.

[ISiddiqui]

So I'm actually getting really excited about getting an Xbox Series X. My last 'big' console was the Xbox 360. I skipped the current gen, up until the Switch came out. And I was immediately drawn to its docked + portable nature. And the Breath of the Wild made me love gaming again. So I'm getting a new console, and the Series X seems to look much better and has a ton of backwards compatibility - meaning I can play all the previous gen titles I missed out on (starting with Witcher III).

[JonInMiddleGA]

Ok, so I decided to check here first but have no idea. My kids are wanting an Xbox these days. We currently have a Nintendo Wii from like 12 years ago that everyone has grown out of. Right now it appears that every single console has sold out and I have no idea how much these should normally cost. I do not mind buying a used one on eBay, but am I looking for a 1 TB Xbox One X? I would imagine a new one is around $399 or something, but do these have high resale (ie should I not expect a big discount from the base price)? I really have no idea, always been a computer gamer.

A quick google looks like pre-owned (refurbished or not) 1TB from a retailer is going about $40 cheaper than brand new ($359 vs $399)

I'd personally be wary of going previously owned from an individual on somewhere like eBay but YMMV. The pricing will vary more there obviously and you could get one noticeably cheaper I imagine, but whether that's due to someone needing quick cash vs someone not knowing the market value vs someone looking to rip you off would be hard to know without pulling the trigger.

fwiw, here's a rundown of the differences (https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-one-s-vs-xbox-one-x/) between the Xb1S and the Xb1X, mostly internal things so depending upon how much use and what games specifically are of interest, a 1s might be sufficient, with probably $100 - $150 lower price

[ISiddiqui]

And just beware, as I noted, the next gen is coming out this Oct/Nov and likely will be the same $399 price or just a $100 more (and will last much longer). So if you can wait 4 months or so...

[miked]

A quick google looks like pre-owned (refurbished or not) 1TB from a retailer is going about $40 cheaper than brand new ($359 vs $399)

I'd personally be wary of going previously owned from an individual on somewhere like eBay but YMMV. The pricing will vary more there obviously and you could get one noticeably cheaper I imagine, but whether that's due to someone needing quick cash vs someone not knowing the market value vs someone looking to rip you off would be hard to know without pulling the trigger.

fwiw, here's a rundown of the differences (https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-one-s-vs-xbox-one-x/) between the Xb1S and the Xb1X, mostly internal things so depending upon how much use and what games specifically are of interest, a 1s might be sufficient, with probably $100 - $150 lower price

Thanks, this is helpful.

[MizzouRah]

So I'm actually getting really excited about getting an Xbox Series X. My last 'big' console was the Xbox 360. I skipped the current gen, up until the Switch came out. And I was immediately drawn to its docked + portable nature. And the Breath of the Wild made me love gaming again. So I'm getting a new console, and the Series X seems to look much better and has a ton of backwards compatibility - meaning I can play all the previous gen titles I missed out on (starting with Witcher III).

I'm excited as well, although I've purchased consoles since the Atari days. :D

[JonInMiddleGA]

Though no impact on me, I do think it's interesting that Epic basically just announced that they're all but killing Save The World (the original Fortnite game mode).

It will remain premium, never to be free-to-play. Development will be scaled down with occasional new semi-annual "seasons" and the old locations/enemies going into "rotation".

Those who played it are (and moreso, those who spent money on it) are, umm, unhappy based on their social media reaction.

edit to add: How dead are they killing it? They even announced that future BR cosmetic purchases would not be supported in STW. Anybody care to set the over/under on how long before STW is shut down completely? Does it last more than a year from now?

[Thomkal]

Though no impact on me, I do think it's interesting that Epic basically just announced that they're all but killing Save The World (the original Fortnite game mode).

It will remain premium, never to be free-to-play. Development will be scaled down with occasional new semi-annual "seasons" and the old locations/enemies going into "rotation".

Those who played it are (and moreso, those who spent money on it) are, umm, unhappy based on their social media reaction.

edit to add: How dead are they killing it? They even announced that future BR cosmetic purchases would not be supported in STW. Anybody care to set the over/under on how long before STW is shut down completely? Does it last more than a year from now?

Very disappointed to see this happen to STW, but just felt there was never the same dedication to it that there was with the battle royale. I think I'd rather see them just wave goodbye right now then extend something they are never going to commit to. Like you Jon I don't think it lasts more than a year.

[JonInMiddleGA]

TWO Victory Royales in one day? For ME?

I screwed up.

I shoulda played the lottery instead of playing Fortnite.

[RainMaker]

I enjoyed Far Cry 5, but don't bother with New Dawn. It's pretty bad.

Without knowing what you have/haven't played I'll list some of the games I've played:

Horizon: Zero Dawn - Really great game all around
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey - The best AC game overall IMO
God of War - Probably one of the 5 best PS4 games
Detroit: Become Human - Quantic Dream isn't for everyone, but this was a 9/10 type game for me
Spiderman - A good game, but I felt it was a bit overrated. More like a 7/10 rather than the 9/10 that most were giving it.
The Long Dark - Tough survival game with a story. The survival elements are outstanding. The story is ok.
No Man's Sky - If it launched in the shape it's in now it probably would have pulled some GOTY talk. It's morphed into a really strong game.
Control - Cool setting, interesting story. So-so and repetitive gameplay.

As far as survival games I haven't played yet, but have been on my radar. Green Hell has a terrible name, but may be something worth checking out.

I guess the nice thing about being slow to play games is there are some great deals on games from a couple years ago. Many from your list.

I bought New Dawn because it was on sale for $15 and I enjoyed FC5. Really liked it. Thought some of the changes were nice although both the stories sucked.

Picked up Assassin's Creed Odyssey for $15 last night also (was the last night of the deal on the PS store). Will get around to that soon.

Still can't believe some of the deals out there on games.

[Dr. Sak]

In cleaning out my garage I found my old XBox360 and started searching around for the last NCAA football game on the internet and the cheapest I could find it was for $150!

[Kodos]

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

I'm about 15 hours into it now. So far, it is a very well done game. I'm loving it.

[MizzouRah]

In cleaning out my garage I found my old XBox360 and started searching around for the last NCAA football game on the internet and the cheapest I could find it was for $150!


Guess I need to hold onto mine for a bit longer. :D

[NobodyHere]

I need to see if my PS3 copy of NCAA14 is still in good condition!

[Dr. Sak]

I'm going to make a few offers on eBay for $75 and see if anyone bites. The frustrating part is that is the only NCAA Football that I didn't buy. :banghead:

[SackAttack]

Guess I need to hold onto mine for a bit longer. :D

I need to see if my PS3 copy of NCAA14 is still in good condition!

Gonna make a halfassed prediction that if COVID-19 fucks with the college football season at all, that $150 price is gonna jump as people try to get their fix however they can.

[MizzouRah]

Gonna make a halfassed prediction that if COVID-19 fucks with the college football season at all, that $150 price is gonna jump as people try to get their fix however they can.

No doubt about it.

I decided to download the rosters for this season and started up a Mizzou dynasty. Boy am I rusty! I won against some no name team 42-7 but could not throw the football much at all.

It was fun playing again after all these years, I forgot just how great of a game this is. Excited to dive in some more!

Bama lost to Virgina to open up their season and Clemson crushed Georgia.

For Xbox 360 the gamertag you want for rosters is irish2018. Mizzou was near perfect so I'm assuming the rest is just as well done.

[MizzouRah]

Damn NCAA Football 14 plays better than Madden 20. Beat Toledo 42-17. I know it's been years since I've played but passing and running are great.


I forgot about the game breaks while they show you scores around the league.


Oh yeah and Bama gets shutout at home 34-0 by Texas Tech.

[markprior22]

Sure would like to play. Unfortunately I don't have the hardware to run the game.

[ISiddiqui]

So, IIRC, Microsoft has basically said that any Xbox game ever will be backwards compatible with Xbox Series X. Which means finding old NCAA games is more fruitful.

[Kodos]

I have my Xbox 360 disc and it's also downloaded on my PS3. Good to have redundancy built in.

[MizzouRah]

So, IIRC, Microsoft has basically said that any Xbox game ever will be backwards compatible with Xbox Series X. Which means finding old NCAA games is more fruitful.


I wouldn't bet on super old games like NCAA Football. Since it's not bc with Xbox One, I would be surprised if it would run on Xbox Series X unless they have some sort of emulator or something.

If so... that would be awesome.

[ISiddiqui]

I wouldn't bet on super old games like NCAA Football. Since it's not bc with Xbox One, I would be surprised if it would run on Xbox Series X unless they have some sort of emulator or something.

If so... that would be awesome.

Some of it may be difficult (and perhaps not everything will be able to), but that is their intent:

Xbox Series X backwards compatibility explained by Microsoft: what you need know | TechRadar (https://www.techradar.com/news/xbox-series-x-backwards-compatibility-microsoft-reveals-how-it-works)

Meanwhile, the Xbox One currently supports 575 Xbox 360 titles and 41 original Xbox titles. It doesn't cover the thousands of games in the Xbox back catalog but it looks like Microsoft is looking to fix that with the Xbox Series X.

[MizzouRah]

Some of it may be difficult (and perhaps not everything will be able to), but that is their intent:

Xbox Series X backwards compatibility explained by Microsoft: what you need know | TechRadar (https://www.techradar.com/news/xbox-series-x-backwards-compatibility-microsoft-reveals-how-it-works)

That would be incredible.

[miami_fan]

All right, fess up!

Which one of you made the winning bid?:D

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/11/us/super-mario-bros-auction-trnd/index.html

[JonInMiddleGA]

On the final day of the Steam sale, the offspring bought a few odds & ends, including FHM6.

Historical replays are always tempting to me, for the nostalgia alone, though I have to confess that I can't really be nostalgic for the early 1920s since I'm actually not quite that old.

That said, after starting in the earliest year possible, I feel like I have a better understanding of the hockey decades prior to the Original Six than I ever had before. And having gone through just a handful of seasons now, I'm already developing a much larger sense of amazement at how much time will pass between the Original Six official beginning and the major expansion 25 years later (which occurred the year I was born, so it's really largely been what I've known and understood). Arguably the most educational/enlightening sports game experience I've had I think, at least in terms of feeling like some things clicked in my head.

edit to add: Oh, and a game-specific hat tip: the what-changed snippet that arrives in your game inbox before the start of a new season is, IMO, concise enough to avoid TLDR but also provides adequate explanation for the upcoming season. They're absolutely vital to playing in this sort of universe.

[Coffee Warlord]

MSFS 2020 Pre-Order Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYqJALPVn0Y)

I give to you ... Sex In the Air.

[JonInMiddleGA]

MSFS 2020 Pre-Order Trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYqJALPVn0Y)

I give to you ... Sex In the Air.

100% not my thing as a gaming experience, but it's visually stunning. Probably worth watching the trailer for that reason alone, regardless of game interest.

[Warhammer]

That is...wow...

[sterlingice]

I mean, it's not like any of us are going to be getting in airplane anytime soon so it's the next best thing, right?

SI

[Coffee Warlord]

Though I have a feeling I could buy an actual airplane for what it'd cost to render the game anywhere close to the demo.

[BYU 14]

Holy crap, that is visually stunning. Makes me salivate about what MLB The Show might look like on PS5

[RainMaker]

100% not my thing as a gaming experience, but it's visually stunning. Probably worth watching the trailer for that reason alone, regardless of game interest.

Guessing you'll need one hell of a video card to play that.

[Coffee Warlord]

Holy crap, that is visually stunning. Makes me salivate about what MLB The Show might look like on PS5

They figured out a novel way to do it. The scenery is dynamically downloaded as you fly - otherwise you'd be talking literally thousands of terabytes of scenery data. The drawback is you need a beefy internet connection to get that level of hotness.

The fact that it renders in the different seasons though ... fucking incredible.

[RainMaker]

Ok I've played The Forest over the weekend and it is a ton of fun. Really challenging solo and feel like it would be a lot more fun with a friend or two. One of those games you could probably play through a dozen times and have a unique experience with each one.

It's like $12 on PS4 store right now so I recommend it to anyone who likes survivor games.

[BYU 14]

They figured out a novel way to do it. The scenery is dynamically downloaded as you fly - otherwise you'd be talking literally thousands of terabytes of scenery data. The drawback is you need a beefy internet connection to get that level of hotness.

The fact that it renders in the different seasons though ... fucking incredible.

Yeah, that is spectacular for sure. I won't buy the game, but I would watch videos of others playing it LOL

[cartman]

FS is gonna give my 2080Ti a workout

[GrantDawg]

FS is gonna give my 2080Ti a workout
I remember playing the first MFS in CGA graphics so many years ago. Yeah, playing this one on my 2080 is going to be quite different.

[Coffee Warlord]

Yeah, that is spectacular for sure. I won't buy the game, but I would watch videos of others playing it LOL

I'll go back to streaming flight sims if ya'll raise enough money for me to get a 2080. :)

[BYU 14]

I'll go back to streaming flight sims if ya'll raise enough money for me to get a 2080. :)

:lol: :popcorn:

[Brian Swartz]

From what I know of modern technology, it really isn't even possible to stress a 2080 with a game because the CPU not the GPU is the bottleneck. So it might be more of a case where you need the latest overclocked whatever to achieve this.

[MizzouRah]

I went into Georgia, 5-0 in NCAA 14 and got throttled, 48-14. Up next is #7 Florida.

Next gen NCAA football would be so awesome.... maybe someday.

[MizzouRah]

Just had an absolute awesome game in NCAA 14. #7 Florida is just crushing me, 41-13 as the 3rd quarter is winding down and we get a pick 6 to make it 41-20 as time runs out. Somehow in the 4th quarter we get another INT and then score to make it 41-27. We stop Florida and have nice drive, make a crucial 4th down and then later would score to make it 41-34.

Florida is driving and they make a big 3rd down catch that gets them into FG range and I'm thinking he was out of bounds when he caught it. I challenge the play and it gets overturned so now they have to punt. We have another great drive and on a QB run, score the tying TD, 41-41.

We stop Florida again and with under a minute left, we have the ball on the 50 yard line. We miss on 3 straight pass plays and with the last play of the game, I see their safety leave his zone and now my #1 WR is one on one with their CB so I launch a pass. My WR jumps up, catches the ball and then as the CB is trying to wrap him up, he regains his balance and scamper into the endzone for the game winning TD!!!

Over the years I've had some fun console sports gaming moments (many with NCAA 14), but this has to be one of the top 5 for sure. I never use our x360 although my daughter and her friends prefer it to the xb1x. Kind of funny that a 7 year old console sports game still plays a damn fun game of football.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm trying my best to get into actually playing Kenshi after finally breaking down and buying it.

It will run -- though a bit precariously -- on even my computer (but I do have hopes that a declutter mod will help with that). So far my problem is getting my head around the camera controls.

WASD is not compatible with my brain apparently, and even the mouse movement leaves me moving incorrectly almost half the time. It's going to be really frustrating if I'm ultimately sunk on a game that has a lot of complexity and nuance by something as ostensibly simple as the camera controls.

[Atocep]

Kenshi is probably one of the most interesting, frustrating, and amazing games I've ever played. The stories that come from it are things no other game can match. It's a unique experience.

[RainMaker]

Are you new to WASD? I keep telling myself I need to learn how to play games that way but can never do it. Decades of using a controller and not sure my muscle memory will ever pick it up.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Are you new to WASD? I keep telling myself I need to learn how to play games that way but can never do it. Decades of using a controller and not sure my muscle memory will ever pick it up.

I might as well be new, I'm pretty sure the last thing I played that way -- so long ago I don't even remember what it was -- would have been before Will was born, so at least 22 years ago.

I could live with a certain amount of "no, not toggle maps you idiot" mistakes, the thing that frustrates me to tears is when I find myself unable to see my character/his surroundings because I somehow managed to rotate the camera to the wrong side of a wall and I'm suddenly staring at stone from two inches away.

The mouse option for the camera does work, but I seem to make the same mistakes with it so that ain't helping much.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Kenshi is probably one of the most interesting, frustrating, and amazing games I've ever played. The stories that come from it are things no other game can match. It's a unique experience.

I've seen enough YT of it to know how remarkable it can be, hell I spent more than an hour trying to decide which start to use for my first actual attempt to play. (would a solo character be better for my control wonkiness? would a multi-member party accelerate my learning curve with the controls OR frustrate me to tears? Decisions, decisions)

The basic premise, for those unfamiliar, is "you're nothing special at all, everything skill starts at Level 1 and you can become whatever you work at" opens up a lot of possibilities.

And the base game has exceptional replayability, combined with some "world state change" mods and it seems almost limitless.

[bhlloy]

Really interested to see how you get on with it. It's something that I've looked at so many times, and thought it looks intriguing, but ultimately something in a review I've read has left me thinking it's not a game I'd enjoy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Really interested to see how you get on with it. It's something that I've looked at so many times, and thought it looks intriguing, but ultimately something in a review I've read has left me thinking it's not a game I'd enjoy.

I'll give you some idea of how the learning curve goes.

My first session lasted about an hour. In that time I managed to stay alive, figure out how to pick up items (I already knew how to move, from watching YT). That took most of my first in-game day cause I kept forgetting to pause time while figuring out shit.

A couple days later, my second session lasted a couple hours. During that time: I passed another two in-game days, figured out how to mine basic resources, made it to another town, avoided multiple bandit packs and most importantly: learned THREE keyboard shortcut commands

Of all that, the three shortcuts were by far the most important accomplishment (though knowing to run like a scared rabbit toward the nearby town AND MAKING IT was second place)

[Lathum]

Fired up a Banished campaign. Such a beautiful game.

[Abe Sargent]

Golf topia is out on EA today. I just picked it up and hope to give it a spin here soon

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cZy4p7PU3WE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Atocep]

Really interested to see how you get on with it. It's something that I've looked at so many times, and thought it looks intriguing, but ultimately something in a review I've read has left me thinking it's not a game I'd enjoy.

Definitely not a game for everyone. There is no overarching story or quests. You make of the game what you want. The game does give you the freedom to do just about anything you want. Combine that with the AI, factions, and game world and it creates story without the need for story.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Definitely not a game for everyone. There is no overarching story or quests. You make of the game what you want. The game does give you the freedom to do just about anything you want. Combine that with the AI, factions, and game world and it creates story without the need for story.

It's VERY RPG-oriented to me, it's just not big on framework, you write the story for yourself as you go.

That said though, doesn't the (virtually optional to get involved with) conflict between the major factions kiiiind of provide overarching story?

I'm asking, cause that's sort of my impression of the game from watching (I haven't played enough yet to have an impression of my own). Is that actually less influential than I'm anticipating?

[Abe Sargent]

I've enjoyed Golftopia a lot over the last hour of gaming.

EDIt I just gave it a good review over at Steam after continuing with it nicely.I got to 6 holes. I like it a lot a lot.

[Atocep]

It's VERY RPG-oriented to me, it's just not big on framework, you write the story for yourself as you go.

That said though, doesn't the (virtually optional to get involved with) conflict between the major factions kiiiind of provide overarching story?

I'm asking, cause that's sort of my impression of the game from watching (I haven't played enough yet to have an impression of my own). Is that actually less influential than I'm anticipating?

I think it definitely does, but it's still more of a it's what you make of it sort of thing rather than story handed to you through quests in a traditional RGP.

There's a lot of open world games that claim to be a sandbox, Kenshi is a true sandbox of a game.

[RainMaker]

Finished The Forest and had a blast. What a fun game for that price. Anyone have other suggestions for survival games? I like the ones where you can build stuff like a base. Conan seems interesting but maybe a bit much.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Finished The Forest and had a blast. What a fun game for that price. Anyone have other suggestions for survival games? I like the ones where you can build stuff like a base. Conan seems interesting but maybe a bit much.

"7 Days to Die" is great and very much like this. Probably the best one out there that I've played.

Conan was fun for a while, but not that great.

I've enjoyed "The Forest" when I've played it with friends. Good times!

[MizzouRah]

Troy: A Total War Saga is about 3 weeks away from release and I'm pumped, I still can't believe it's free if you grab it in the first 24 hours. Nice to finally see some campaign game play.

KING OF SPARTA! Total War Saga: Troy - First Look Campaign Gameplay - Menelaus - YouTube (https://youtu.be/0bkD5OiBb3U)

[Abe Sargent]

After 6 hours, I really, really, really like Golftopia and it's very developed for an Early Release. It's a solo game by teh same folks that made space Pirates and ZOmbies which I loved. Consider this an official recommendation!

[RainMaker]

"7 Days to Die" is great and very much like this. Probably the best one out there that I've played.

Conan was fun for a while, but not that great.

I've enjoyed "The Forest" when I've played it with friends. Good times!

Cool, 7 Days is on sale for like $8. Did hear it was buggy and not as good as the PC version (hasn't been updated).

Anyone tried Green Hell?

[Honolulu_Blue]

Cool, 7 Days is on sale for like $8. Did hear it was buggy and not as good as the PC version (hasn't been updated).

Anyone tried Green Hell?

I've only ever played 7 Days on PC.

[MizzouRah]

OMG I can't wait to dust off my flight stick and throttle for this.


Microsoft Flight Simulator #1 - First Gameplay! - Cessna 152 over my Home Town! #FS2020 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/8oHHfyBlZoQ)

[stevew]

Anyone got Super Mega Baseball 3.

Probably for switch. $45 seems steep. Just curious about franchise mode.

[GrantDawg]

I am going to have to get a joystick and throttle. I haven't had one years.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[samifan24]

Anyone got Super Mega Baseball 3.

Probably for switch. $45 seems steep. Just curious about franchise mode.

Yes I have it for Switch and am in the second season in my franchise and am having a blast. No career stats yet but supposedly they’re coming soon. The game is a breath of fresh air compared to The Show. I highly recommend it.

[Abe Sargent]

I can't tell you how happy I am that the Cruise Director 7 just came out in the Vacation adventures series. I love it so much! I just d/led it and am about to just let the game take over once again...

Vacation Adventures: Cruise Director 7 Collector's Edition > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game | Big Fish (https://www.bigfishgames.com/games/14735/vacation-adventures-cruise-director-7-ce/?pc)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Not sure if this is its own thread caliber or not, so I'll just stick the thought in here.
If it were a thread, it'd be titled something like "Games That Require More Mental Investment" or something.

Kenshi is really the prompt for this notion, though I've had it happen at times with other games too.

A great description is "a game I'd like to be playing when I'm playing something else .. because I just don't have the concentration / patience / whatever to be playing the better game"

I really enjoy Kinshi thus far, I like a lot of things about it ... but I'm still low enough on the learning curve that it requires a good bit of focus for me to avoid screwing something up royally. And sometimes -- okay, a LOT of the time -- I simply can't make that mental investment, so I end up doing something else.

Combined with it being risky for me to pause/tab window/multitask cause it's pushing my p.c. capabilities to run well and I'm having a tough time playing it nearly as much as I'd like to be.

[thesloppy]

I have a similar problem starting up a new game these days. I start out excited, imagining what gameplay is like from the trailer videos or whatever, but once I actually start playing the inevitable tutorial and realizing it's going to take me 4-5 hours (if I'm lucky) of handholding & being baby-bird-fed game mechanics before I can even begin playing and Im like "You know what? Fuck this game." and I load up something I'm super comfortable with.

[Abe Sargent]

I can't tell you how happy I am that the Cruise Director 7 just came out in the Vacation adventures series. I love it so much! I just d/led it and am about to just let the game take over once again...

Vacation Adventures: Cruise Director 7 Collector's Edition > iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC Game | Big Fish (https://www.bigfishgames.com/games/14735/vacation-adventures-cruise-director-7-ce/?pc)

All done!

[thesloppy]

That was 4 hours ago!

[spleen1015]

Picked up the FF7 Remake a few days ago since it was on sale. I think this might be the first game I finish in a long time.

It has also made me realize I like the action rpg genre. I should be playing these games more often.

[spleen1015]

dola

And the Don Corneo scenes in this game might be the most uncomfortable I have ever been while playing a video game.

[stevew]

Yes I have it for Switch and am in the second season in my franchise and am having a blast. No career stats yet but supposedly they’re coming soon. The game is a breath of fresh air compared to The Show. I highly recommend it.

Just saw this. How bad is the late inning cheat/comeback AI. I hate catch up code and read about it in some of the steam reviews. Instantly turned me off.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Fortnite battle pass season Lvl 100. With 17+ days left in the season even.

If you'd have told me as recently as a few months ago that would EVER be something I'd do, I'd have told you that you were completely nuts.

[Thomkal]

Congrats Jon, you are completely nuts :)

[thesloppy]

I still haven't played a battle royale game.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I still haven't played a battle royale game.

And I still don't love the format/genre tbh. Though I will say that -- same as with all online games in my life really -- I strongly prefer playing solos to playing groups. Easier on my nerves that way.

I'm that way with anything where I know I'm not very good, I'd rather only drag my own outcome down than anybody elses.

[MizzouRah]

Don't forget tomorrow, Total War Saga: Troy is FREE on the Epic Store for the first 24 hours after release.

[NobodyHere]

Don't forget tomorrow, Total War Saga: Troy is FREE on the Epic Store for the first 24 hours after release.

I'm guessing this thing will have tons of DLC attached.

[MizzouRah]

I'm guessing this thing will have tons of DLC attached.


The first DLC is The Amazons, an all women faction which is FREE as well if you have or create a Total War account and link it to your Epic store account.

[spleen1015]

Thanks for the heads up dewds.

[Abe Sargent]

Parkasaurus just came out of early access today. ill try it out later and let you all know my thoughts!


So far so good, here is my early analogy of this game to existing software:


Parkitect is to Planet Coaster

as

Parkasaurus is to Planet Zoo.

[MizzouRah]

I could never much get into the TW Warhammer games but enjoyed Thrones of Britannia, which puts me in the minority I know.

With that said, I'm having a blast with A TW Saga: Troy. I'm playing as Menelaus of Sparta on easy for my first play though, learning all the campaign systems and battle stuff. There is a perfect mixture of campaign stuff and the battle system is typical Total War CA.

[MizzouRah]

Who's flying tomorrow via MSFS 2020?

Unfortunately I have to work late so I'm going to wait until the weekend to grab it. I would love to hear some impressions and what kind of system specs those of you have it are using and what graphic settings your using.

I'm hoping to be able to run on medium with i7-3770/16GB Ram/GTX 1660 Super/200MB internet

[cartman]

I'm downloading it now. 100GB to go

[cartman]

Pro tip: Coffee Warlord and I were chatting a bit last night, and it seems that getting stuck on a loading screen is a common issue. For some it gets resolved by exiting and restarting. I tried that, did't work. I had to exit and launch the game outside of Steam as Administrator. That got me going.

[Coffee Warlord]

Who's flying tomorrow via MSFS 2020?

Unfortunately I have to work late so I'm going to wait until the weekend to grab it. I would love to hear some impressions and what kind of system specs those of you have it are using and what graphic settings your using.

I'm hoping to be able to run on medium with i7-3770/16GB Ram/GTX 1660 Super/200MB internet

There is a streamer who was running it on High/Ultra with specs slightly worse than that. I guess the one thing people reccommend is to cap your FPS (you can do so in the nvidia control panel). 30-40 cap is perfectly fine for a flight sim.

[Coffee Warlord]

Dola - I'll definitely fly later today after work, you can add me as CoffeeLord3131.

[cartman]

I've got i9-9900KS/64GB of RAM/2080Ti

Looking forward to the 4k glory

[PilotMan]

You're such a baller cartman. That's badass.

[Vince, Pt. II]

After 6 hours, I really, really, really like Golftopia and it's very developed for an Early Release. It's a solo game by teh same folks that made space Pirates and ZOmbies which I loved. Consider this an official recommendation!

+1 - feels like an updated version of SimGolf. I'm a golf purist, so the futuristic stuff was a little off-putting to me at first. But I still have been really enjoying the game.

And it definitely feels way more polished than the "early access" tag would have you believe.

[MizzouRah]

There is a streamer who was running it on High/Ultra with specs slightly worse than that. I guess the one thing people reccommend is to cap your FPS (you can do so in the nvidia control panel). 30-40 cap is perfectly fine for a flight sim.


That's great to hear, thank you.

[cartman]

I was poking around and there is also an FPS cap configurable inside Flight Sim

[rjolley]

Parkasaurus just came out of early access today. ill try it out later and let you all know my thoughts!


So far so good, here is my early analogy of this game to existing software:


Parkitect is to Planet Coaster

as

Parkasaurus is to Planet Zoo.

Is Parkitect more akin to RCT than Planet Coaster is? Planet Coaster just seems like too much to deal with to get a simple park going. I've booted it a number of times trying to get into it and never get very far.

[ISiddiqui]

So this whole PS5/XSX game of chicken on the price is getting a bit annoying. Both consoles are going to be released in 3 months, yet no one knows what the price is going to be - which, of course, means no one can pre-order. Rumors initially were thinking maybe both were targeting $499 (with the PS5 digital edition and XBox Series S - which hasn’t been offically revealed yet - being cheaper) with both companies waiting the other one out so they could undercut.

Now some rumors are saying that they may be targeting $599, with the undercut being $549... YIKES!

[cartman]

Finally got my yoke and rudders all set up and configured and took my first flight. The real-time weather is spot on. I walked outside and the clouds were extremely similar to what was in the game. I took off from a ranch airport nearby and flew over my house in a Cirrus SR22. The houses were in the right spots, but at low altitude you could tell they were generated. I then flew on and landed at another private airstrip about 5nm south of my house.

I need to dial in my yoke and pedals a bit, but I was very impressed. I was able to make a solid landing, but my pilot skillz are VERY rusty.

[GrantDawg]

I've got i9-9900KS/64GB of RAM/2080Ti

Looking forward to the 4k glory
I am an i7-9700 with 32gb and a 2080. So like the light version of yours. Still, running ultra with no hiccups. It has been decades since I played around with a flight sim. Got a Thrustmaster hotas one for a controller. Feels really good. I wish my monitor was bigger (it is 4k but it is only 22 inches).

[PilotMan]

Man, it's been nearly 6 months since I saw the cockpit in 4k.

[Coffee Warlord]

That's great to hear, thank you.

Annnnnnnnd after flying around a little myself, I now have absolutely no fucking clue how he was getting 30fps at that high of settings.

[MizzouRah]

Annnnnnnnd after flying around a little myself, I now have absolutely no fucking clue how he was getting 30fps at that high of settings.


LOL... from what I've read it's CPU/Ram dependent as well and SSD is almost a must.

[Edward64]

Crap, some of you guys have really high-end rigs.

Still working on an i7-6700 w/8GB RAM (another 8GB on order), SSD and 750Ti card.

[sabotai]

I just built a new PC this weekend.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700 with 8 cores
64 GB RAM
Two 1TB SSDs
Radeon RX 580 w/ 8 GB RAM

I wasn't aiming to build a beast, but to find that sweet spot between budget and beast right where prices start going up exponentially. Very happy with how this turned out as I'm playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with decently high settings (found an "optimal settings" guide on Youtube) at 60+ FPS.

On my last PC I had to play RDR2 with everything about as low as it could go and it looked like crap and got ~25 FPS.

[sabotai]

Is Parkitect more akin to RCT than Planet Coaster is? Planet Coaster just seems like too much to deal with to get a simple park going. I've booted it a number of times trying to get into it and never get very far.

This has been my experience with Planet Coaster as well. Tried a few times to get into it and it's just not happening.

[stevew]

I just built a new PC this weekend.

AMD Ryzen 7 3700 with 8 cores
64 GB RAM
Two 1TB SSDs
Radeon RX 580 w/ 8 GB RAM

I wasn't aiming to build a beast, but to find that sweet spot between budget and beast right where prices start going up exponentially. Very happy with how this turned out as I'm playing Red Dead Redemption 2 with decently high settings (found an "optimal settings" guide on Youtube) at 60+ FPS.

On my last PC I had to play RDR2 with everything about as low as it could go and it looked like crap and got ~25 FPS.


What was the budget on this? Not including case, etc

[sabotai]

AMD Ryzen 7 = $273 (Amazon)
64 GB RAM = $260 (Amazon) (4 sticks of 16GB)
Two 1TB drives = $280 ($140 each) (Amazon)
Radeon RX 580 = $190 (New Egg)
Gigabyte X570 AORUS ULTRA motherboad = $300 (New Egg)

So around $1300 without the case. But I also had a spare power supply so I didn't need to buy one, so add another $150-$200 for that.

I used PCPartPicker to figure out what to buy.

[stevew]

Thanks. Thinking about doing something like this in the next month or so

[Coffee Warlord]

LOL... from what I've read it's CPU/Ram dependent as well and SSD is almost a must.

Hell, CPU/RAM is my strong suit on my computer. I have a Ryzen 3600, w/ 32 gigs of ram. My weak point is my GTX 1660ti, but that's not even THAT bad of card.

[MizzouRah]

Hell, CPU/RAM is my strong suit on my computer. I have a Ryzen 3600, w/ 32 gigs of ram. My weak point is my GTX 1660ti, but that's not even THAT bad of card.


Not at all.


From what I've watched on YT, low looks horrible but once you step up to medium settings it looks really good to me. Now high a bit better and ultra, well on a 4k monitor looks photo realistic. I was just surprised that the biggest jump was from low to medium.

[Coffee Warlord]

Okay, so the usual "this works for me, who knows if it'll work for you" disclaimer. BUT.

MSFS - Do NOT use the built in fps lock. Assuming you have an Nvidia card, use the FPS limiter in that control panel. I locked mine at 30 fps.

Switching from the frame lock in sim vs the Nvidia one literally moved me from 15-25 fps on medium to constant 30fps on high.

[MizzouRah]

Those of you with MS Flight Sim 2020, how is it?

I just ordered 4x8GB of ram for a total of 32GB of ram as I currently have 4x4GB for a total of 16GB and no more slots available. Newegg had it for $160 which isn't bad.

I want 32GB of Ram before I dive into it next weekend.

[Coffee Warlord]

Flying GA is beautiful.

If you are buying it for the big commercial boats, you're going to be disappointed.

[JonInMiddleGA]

A bit of app game news I guess -- the traditional MyNBA2k21, companion to the annual console game, hit the appstore today ... but without the traditional CCG elements.

So basically it's just a face scan app and that's about it.

The tweet wasn't absolutely specific that the game portion was removed permanently but that's certainly how the wording suggested it.

That was probably good for 10-20 hours of app game grinding per week for me for the past four years so either my last remaining app game (WWE Supercard) will get more grinding or I'm gonna have time to figure out how to fill. I'm kinda less than thrilled about that :/

[Carman Bulldog]

That was probably good for 10-20 hours of app game grinding per week for me for the past four years so either my last remaining app game (WWE Supercard) will get more grinding or I'm gonna have time to figure out how to fill. I'm kinda less than thrilled about that :/

South Park: Phone Destroyer is excellent. I've heard good things about The Simpsons: Tapped Out but I've never played it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

South Park: Phone Destroyer is excellent. I've heard good things about The Simpsons: Tapped Out but I've never played it.

With the exception of once a day round of Homescapes, I'm pretty limited to F2P CCG-styled sports games that have ever held my attention for any length. I'm on my sixth (?) year with WWE Supercard, and I only stopped playing the NHL version because they stopped making it.

It appears atm that well is sorta drying up and I'm not sure what will fill the multi-tasking friendly role those have been playing for quite a while now.

[stevew]

Is this a decent deal on Alienware. They're running 0% for a year and it'd be about 1567$

Tech Specs

Processor
AMD Ryzen™ 7 3700X (8-Core, 32MB L3 Cache, Max Boost Clock of 4.4GHz)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
Hard Drive
1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Memoryi
16GB HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)

I have the GFX card at around 700 and the CPU at about 300 from searching I think.

[SackAttack]

Is this a decent deal on Alienware. They're running 0% for a year and it'd be about 1567$

Tech Specs

Processor
AMD Ryzen™ 7 3700X (8-Core, 32MB L3 Cache, Max Boost Clock of 4.4GHz)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
Hard Drive
1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Memoryi
16GB HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)

I have the GFX card at around 700 and the CPU at about 300 from searching I think.

For perspective, I got 0% for two years on an HP Omen, cost me about $1220 after tax. The differences between my specs and yours, mine has the 2060 SUPER, a 256 GB M.2 NVMe SSD + 1 TB HDD, and 16 GB HyperX FURY upgradeable to 32.

Between the 2080 and the 1 TB SSD, $1567 looks about what I'd expect on a cost difference.

[RainMaker]

Is anyone else playing Fall Guys? Kind of silly game but has taken over for Rocket League as a game I play when I have like 20 minutes of free time.

[Thomkal]

Is anyone else playing Fall Guys? Kind of silly game but has taken over for Rocket League as a game I play when I have like 20 minutes of free time.

I played the beta a bit. I like that its a silly game that even a computer game klutz like me, can play in and make it past the first round or two. I know its been a big hit on Twitch and Social Media

[Scoobz0202]

Is this a decent deal on Alienware. They're running 0% for a year and it'd be about 1567$

Tech Specs

Processor
AMD Ryzen™ 7 3700X (8-Core, 32MB L3 Cache, Max Boost Clock of 4.4GHz)
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit English
Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 SUPER™ 8GB GDDR6 (OC Ready)
Hard Drive
1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Memoryi
16GB HyperX™ FURY DDR4 XMP at 3200MHz; up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)

I have the GFX card at around 700 and the CPU at about 300 from searching I think.

Pretty good deal, tbh. I put that into pcpartpicker and came up with around $1400. That doesn't include case, power supply, motherboard, and operating system. A lot of prebuilts I get concerned with them cheaping out on a power supply, but you could always replace that and rewire everything if need be. Seems like a decent deal.

[Kodos]

Does THE LAST OF US PART II need its own thread?

It would seem not to, at least so far, since I'm the only one who has had multiple posts about it. :p

I finally finished it a couple of days ago in just under 40 hours of gameplay. I'm a slow mover, so a better gamer would likely finish it in around 30ish hours. Overall, I think if you are someone who enjoyed the first installment, you will enjoy the second one. It's a very refined game with varied missions, characters who you care about, and plenty of action. That said, it's not perfect. I probably spent half of my time scrounging for supplies so that I had enough ammo/bombs/medicine packs on hand for the action sequences. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and it is probably the first game I have finished since Last of Us 1.


That said, if you against LGBTQ stuff in your entertainment, you're going to be unhappy. Ellie, the protagonist, is gay, and that leads to several romantic encounters with another female character. Also, the main antagonist in the game, Abby, could be construed as a possible transgender character as well, although I think she is just buffed up to survive in the zombie-filled world.

Joel getting killed by Abby a few hours in provides the motivation for Ellie to seek her revenge on Abby and everyone else allied with her. That need for vengeance drives the narrative of the game.

I didn't like everything about the game. Naughty Dog made the decision to force you to play from Abby's perspective for about half of the game. I realize it was an attempt to humanize her and make the player see that Abby's motivation for violence was driven by a similar tragedy in her past. They also tried to make Abby sympathetic by having her protect a young boy and girl along the way. The game tries to go for an anti-violence message in a similar vein to Terminator 2. In the end, Ellie's need for vengeance costs her everyone that she cares about.


Overall, I found the game to be very enjoyable. I will definitely jump back in if there ever is a Last of Us 3. Naughty Dog knows how to make a compelling game with characters that you care about. There were some truly touching scenes of Joel and Ellie trying to mend their relationship after a rift. I'd give the game a 9 out of 10. Well worth the time and money that I put into it. The things that bothered many gamers who reviewed the game negatively were not a problem for me.

[spleen1015]

Has anyone played Dauntless? I'm looking to play something with a Battle Pass system that is more PVE focused.

[stevew]

Pretty good deal, tbh. I put that into pcpartpicker and came up with around $1400. That doesn't include case, power supply, motherboard, and operating system. A lot of prebuilts I get concerned with them cheaping out on a power supply, but you could always replace that and rewire everything if need be. Seems like a decent deal.

I added water cooling for another 50 or so dollars so hopefully I don't have to crack into it for awhile.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Far be it from me to say that the final day of a Fortnite season brings back every single full-time player in history but ... I have 1 elimination in my last 14 matches and 11 of my deaths have been at the hands of "Anonymous"

Skill-based matchmaking has apparently been turned off for the day, 'cause this is absurd.

[MizzouRah]

Finally purchased and downloaded MSFS 2020, plugged in my thrustmaster and after 4 hours I'm trying to pry myself away to get some shuteye.

The game auto set me up on high end and so far it's been silky smooth on my pc. I'm in total awe at how beautiful this flight sim is. Of course here in STL it's night time so my first flight from Lambert airport was unreal with all the lights and seeing cars travel down I-70 as I took a short flight to Chesterfield airport.

I have a TON of learning to do and I'm sure I'll do all the flight training, but just being able to go on the other side of the globe on a sunny day flying around various parts of the world is nothing short of an incredible feeling.

[thesloppy]

As suggested by someone in another thread, I subscribed to the Xbox gamepass on PC to try out some of these newest games, and the beta is even on sale for $1 for the first month, which seems like a terrific deal for day one access to some of these titles......but good lord the app has been an absolute headache so far and even getting a game installed has been a frustrating challenge.

[SlyBelle1]

As suggested by someone in another thread, I subscribed to the Xbox gamepass on PC to try out some of these newest games, and the beta is even on sale for $1 for the first month, which seems like a terrific deal for day one access to some of these titles......but good lord the app has been an absolute headache so far and even getting a game installed has been a frustrating challenge.

curious on what kind of install problems. i have had game pass for quite awhile and every game has installed without an issue fir me. the download client isn’t as robust as others but seems to do the basic job, although i wish you could choose the install location.

[MizzouRah]

I purchased directly from MS as I had a Gamestop gift card. It downloaded a few things, said failed and I clicked the download again then it took off. Once it was in the MS 2020 game window it went very smooth.

I don't even think the loading times are that bad in game.

Ok I have a flight to Colorado to make.

[thesloppy]

curious on what kind of install problems. i have had game pass for quite awhile and every game has installed without an issue fir me. the download client isn’t as robust as others but seems to do the basic job, although i wish you could choose the install location.

I wish I knew what the problem was. It just won't start downloading/installing 99/100 times and gives me some 0xcXXXXX interruption code with a link saying 'click this to learn more' which takes me to a missing page on the Microsoft support page. Eventually some of the games have started downloading on their own and completing installation, whereas some seemingly refuse to start at all.

..all that said, some of it may be my fault as I had manually turned off some of the Xbox-related services long ago, when I had no reason to use them. I turned them all back on which resolved some earlier errors, but not these.

[21C]

Get Tom Clancy's The Division for free at Ubisoft until September 8.
https://register.ubisoft.com/the-division/en-US

[Thomkal]

Good catch, thanks 21C.

[CrimsonFox]

OMG! SOMEONE BEAT THOMKAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thomkal]

OMG! SOMEONE BEAT THOMKAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just felt bad that I was "hogging all the glory" on reporting free/reduced price games to you all, and wanted to let you "share the joy" :D

[RainMaker]

Is the Division 2 any good as a co-op game? Been playing Borderlands 3 with some buddies lately and looking for some other games we can play.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Is the Division 2 any good as a co-op game? Been playing Borderlands 3 with some buddies lately and looking for some other games we can play.

Yes! We had a blast playing Co-Op. I play co-op games with three buddies once a week and have been doing so since around 2013 - beginning with Borderlands 2 - so let me know what you're looking for. I've likely tried most of them.

[stevew]

MSFS is taking forever to download. going thru these stupid FSpackages right now via the super shitty content manager. and it's apparently 30+ of these and I'm only on 13. Unfortunately my system went to sleep last night, otherwise it might be done already.

[Critch]

I finally took the jump and paid my $1 for Xbox Gamepass for PC. From one night it's shown me that Phoenix Point is not for me, so that's saved me $30 already. The install was a bit clunky (install button didn't show up to start with) but the uninstall worked with no issues.

Got The Outer Worlds and Wastelands 3 downloading now, getting my money's worth quickly.

[SackAttack]

I finally took the jump and paid my $1 for Xbox Gamepass for PC. From one night it's shown me that Phoenix Point is not for me, so that's saved me $30 already. The install was a bit clunky (install button didn't show up to start with) but the uninstall worked with no issues.

Got The Outer Worlds and Wastelands 3 downloading now, getting my money's worth quickly.

The app is trash, but there's value there. OOTP and FM seem to show up every season, so that's probably gonna be in your wheelhouse. CK3 is on there now, and there's a handful of solid RPGs at any given time.

[Edward64]

Baldur's Gate news.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access will be $60, period | PCGamesN (https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/early-access-price)
Baldur’s Gate 3 will be entering Early Access September 30, and to participate, you’ll need to pre-order the game. Today, Larian announced pricing for the Early Access launch, and it’s the same as the game will be when it eventually launches: $59.99, or your regional equivalent.

[spleen1015]

Marvel's Avenger's is really good, IMO. I like Marvel though, so I may be biased. Just finished the main campaign and the story was great. I like where it is headed.

I don't have much experience with games like this, ie Destiny/Borderlands. Not sure how the gear grinding endgame is yet.

[GrantDawg]

Baldur's Gate news.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access will be $60, period | PCGamesN (https://www.pcgamesn.com/baldurs-gate-3/early-access-price)
I have a decision to make here. I was sort of excited about this game. But I am not sure I am $60 excited. I am really not feeling $60 to play test it excited. Hmmmmm...

[ISiddiqui]

So the first Next Gen console price has been leaked and then confirmed. The rumored (but never before seen) Xbox Series S:

https://twitter.com/Xbox/status/1303230071033880576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

It's going to be $299 (and limited to 1080p), which is the same price as a Switch. It will likely fly off the shelves for cost conscious gamers (and parents).

No release date.

Interestingly the Xbox Series X and PS5 are due to be released in about 2 months and no pricing for them at all (they still seem to be playing a game of chicken). [edit: though the rumor is that the Series X price will be released this week and it will be $499]

I was initially excited about the Series X, but the lack of any information, combined with some really cool gameplay and exclusives of the PS5 have made me lean Sony - guess I'll have to learn those weird shapes.

[Kodos]

I skipped Xbox in the current generation. Will likely do the same with the coming generation. I don't play enough to justify owning both systems.

[spleen1015]

Current gen there were several exclusives that made me what a PS4. Can't say the same about the Xbox 1. It is the first console I haven't owned.

[MizzouRah]

I believe the Xbox Series S is actually 1440p/120fps with 4k upscaling.. but no blue ray drive and only a 512GB SSD.

I'll definitely get the X as I still like to buy most of my games via disc so I can trade them in at some point, plus it has a 1TB SSD.

I hate all things Sony (and Nike and Pepsi and a few other name brands).. where is MBBF so we can argue xb vs ps? :)

[ISiddiqui]

I believe the Xbox Series S is actually 1440p/120fps with 4k upscaling.. but no blue ray drive and only a 512GB SSD.

I'll definitely get the X as I still like to buy most of my games via disc so I can trade them in at some point, plus it has a 1TB SSD.

I hate all things Sony (and Nike and Pepsi and a few other name brands).. where is MBBF so we can argue xb vs ps? :)

I was all in on the Series X, but as the year has gone on, Xbox has lost me quite a bit - especially with lack of 'wow' content (and has any gameplay been shown actually running on the Series X?). I'm now thinking the PS5, which would be my first Sony console ever, at launch. And then maybe the Series S a year down the road.

The Sony exclusives machine may have finally turned me.

[stevew]

I’m probably sitting out until GTA6 comes out. I have a good PC now. If GTA is day and date with console I prob won’t bother. GTA 6 might not happen til 2024 I think I read

[MizzouRah]

I was all in on the Series X, but as the year has gone on, Xbox has lost me quite a bit - especially with lack of 'wow' content (and has any gameplay been shown actually running on the Series X?). I'm now thinking the PS5, which would be my first Sony console ever, at launch. And then maybe the Series S a year down the road.

The Sony exclusives machine may have finally turned me.

I plan on getting gamepass very soon and I mostly play sports games. I believe The Show is coming to Xbox next year as well.

I haven't seen any gameplay for either console yet. It's going to be Christmas or sometime after before I really look into getting it.

[ISiddiqui]

I believe just about all the Sony games at their reveal were on the PS5 (XSX reveal had games playing on PCs - maybe Forza has it's trailer on XSX hardware). And the 10 or so minutes of Ratchet and Clank were on PS5.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[MizzouRah]

I believe just about all the Sony games at their reveal were on the PS5 (XSX reveal had games playing on PCs - maybe Forza has it's trailer on XSX hardware). And the 10 or so minutes of Ratchet and Clank were on PS5.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I meant gameplay that interests me. :D

[Izulde]

I don't know that I've ever gotten a console at launch. PS5 won't be any different I'm sure. But I haven't bought an XBox since the 360 and that's not going to change. These days I use my consoles primarily as a streaming device, with some gameplay thrown in. Unless it's the Switch - I play quite a lot on that (usually Fire Emblem: Three Houses).

[SackAttack]

I'm toying with the idea of the Series S just for GamePass. I only have one 4k port in my TV anyway, and I plan to use that for PS5. So the Series S for $299, if the 512 SSD is at all upgradeable down the line, is why not?

[ISiddiqui]

I don't know that I've ever gotten a console at launch. PS5 won't be any different I'm sure. But I haven't bought an XBox since the 360 and that's not going to change. These days I use my consoles primarily as a streaming device, with some gameplay thrown in. Unless it's the Switch - I play quite a lot on that (usually Fire Emblem: Three Houses).

Normally I wouldn't either, but I didn't get a PS4 or XBOne. I got a Switch from the last generation after a break from gaming. And all these ports came out for the Switch and I thought to myself... why buy a worse graphical port (which are still technical marvels because you can take it on the go) when I can wait a year or so for a new generation?

So if I do get a PS5, which seems most likely, I'm immediately going to get Horizon Zero Dark, God of War, The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, Spiderman, and Witcher 3 right away for cheap (most of them are like $20 on Amazon right now).

[ISiddiqui]

And here we go:

Xbox Series X | Xbox (https://www.xbox.com/en-US/consoles/xbox-series-x?xr=shellnav)

Xbox Series X will be $499, released on November 10, pre-orders start on September 22. Also announced that EA Play is going to be bundled in with Gamepass Ultimate, which is massive news!

Sony, the ball is now in your court.

[Critch]

The app is trash, but there's value there.

Xbox Game Pass for PC so far:

Night 1 - Install The Outer Worlds. Play for about an hour.
Night 2 - Last night save didnt save, so start again
Night 3 - The Outer Worlds says it needs an update. Start the download and the update is 29GB. Cancel the download.
Night 4 - Restart the download, it gets 10GB downloaded then fails with an error and the game uninstalls itself.

So yeah, it's trash. Slay the Spire is good though.

[thesloppy]

I had to jump through so many hoops to get gamepass working. Some of it was my fault, as there were xbox-specific services I had manually turned off, but I also had to turn on a bunch of other services and enable & run Windows Update a couple times before it would even start-up properly, and then I had a whole other host of problems based on it not being able to connect to the internet. I spent literally over 8 hours getting GamePass to work properly. Steam & Origin & The Epic Store & whatever else never had a single issue beforehand.

[SlyBelle1]

guess i have been lucky with game pass, no problem installing or playing any games. been pretty easy for me and can’t beat the current price for what you get. it’s certainly not as mature from a featured perspective as steam, but steam has had a lot of years headstart.

[RainMaker]

I'm not familiar with Playstation Plus. Are the games they give for free lifetime? I just got a credit for Fall Guys which I bought in August but apparently was a free game.

[spleen1015]

I'm not familiar with Playstation Plus. Are the games they give for free lifetime? I just got a credit for Fall Guys which I bought in August but apparently was a free game.

They are free as long as you claimed them and you subscribe to PS+.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Fortnite stats: Solo

661 Eliminations
661 Matches Played

If you'd told me that a 1.00 K/D was possible for me I'd have said you were nuts. I remember being -150,with little hope of even closing to -100.

I'm not pretending I'm any good at it ... but I'm considerably better than I ever imagined I'd be.

[ISiddiqui]

So other fun things on the next-gun consoles. Dolby tweeted that Xbox would be the first next-gen system with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos gaming. Then XBox's head of marketing, retweeted, saying Xbox would be the ONLY next-gen consoles with Dolby Vision AND Dolby Atmos. The question is what does that mean for PS5... is the AND important here (because Sony has said they are working on their own audio system). If PS5 doesn't have Dolby Vision gaming that's a MAJOR loss.

[NobodyHere]

What is Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos?

[ISiddiqui]

What is Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos?

Here the official pages:

Dolby Vision - Dolby (https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-vision/)

Dolby Atmos - Dolby (https://www.dolby.com/technologies/dolby-atmos/)

And this is what Wikipedia says (I'll explain better about Dolby Vision):

400 Bad Request (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Laboratories#Video_processing)


Dolby Vision is content mastering and delivery format similar to the HDR10 media profile. It supports both high dynamic range (HDR) and wide color gamut (ITU-R Rec. 2020 and 2100) at all stages from content creation and production to transmission and playback. Dolby Vision includes the Perceptual Quantizier (SMPTE ST-2084) electro-optical transfer function and supports displays with up to 10,000-nit maximum brightness (4,000-nit in practice). It also provides up to 8K resolution and color depth of up to 12-bits (backward compatible with current 8-bit and 10-bit displays).[27] Dolby Vision can encode mastering display colorimetry information using static metadata (SMPTE ST 2086) and dynamic metadata (SMPTE ST 2094-10, Dolby format) for each scene.[28] Examples of Ultra HD (UHD) Dolby Vision are available in TV, monitor, mobile devices and theater. Dolby Vision content can be delivered on Ultra HD Blu-ray discs,[29][30] over conventional broadcasting, OTT, and online streaming media services.[31] Dolby Vision metadata can be carried via HDMI interface versions 1.4b and above.[32] It also supports IPTPQc2 color space, that is similar to ICtCp. Dolby Vision IQ is an update designed to optimise Dolby Vision content according to the brightness of the room.[33]

Dolby Atmos - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Atmos)


Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on decreasing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects.[1] Following the release of Atmos for the cinema market, a variety of consumer technologies have been released under the Atmos brand, using in-ceiling and up-firing speakers.

Dolby Vision is an HDR10 (High Dynamic Range) format which allows for analysis of proper dynamic range on a scene by scene basis (using scene by scene metadata). Whereas regular HDR does the dynamic range movie or show wide (fixed metadata for each show/movie). Some scenes look better when the range is variable (so a dark scene where the light is bright but not as bright as it would be in a light scene). The difference between a Dolby Vision and HDR work is, IMO, pretty substantial. And Dolby Vision makes works look a lot more realistic.

Dolby Atmos, though I haven't experienced it, uses upward firing speakers to create a 3D audio sensation. Makes you feel as if the sound is happening all around out - in a more real way than 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound.

[Bee]

The $5/month price on gamepass for PC is going away soon, so it will be $10/month. They are also adding EA Play sometime later this year to gamepass.

I ended up buying a couple 12 month Xbox Gold codes and converting that to gamepass ultimate essentially locking in the $5/month for the next couple years.

[GrantDawg]

Have we talked about Star Wars Squadron on here yet? I am hard core stoked for that.

[SackAttack]

The $5/month price on gamepass for PC is going away soon, so it will be $10/month. They are also adding EA Play sometime later this year to gamepass.

In September sometime, I believe. And if you have Game Pass Ultimate, PC is included in that. $15/month for Game Pass on Xbox One/Series S/X, PC, and also EA Play? That's amazing. I mean, I'm a cheapass so I'd prefer to pay LESS than that, but that's basically Netflix pricing for a service that's as close as we've ever come to "Netflix for gaming."

[NobodyHere]

Have we talked about Star Wars Squadron on here yet? I am hard core stoked for that.

If there's a good single-player campaign then I'll probably buy it.

[JPhillips]

I picked up Ancestors a few days ago. It's interesting, but I don't think I've ever seen a game designed to be so opaque in terms of controls.

[Atocep]

As far as hardware goes, I think the Xbox is the better console for the upcoming generation. With Sony committed to bringing more of their exclusives to PC, I'm leaning toward buying my first XBox since the original.

[ISiddiqui]

As far as hardware goes, I think the Xbox is the better console for the upcoming generation. With Sony committed to bringing more of their exclusives to PC, I'm leaning toward buying my first XBox since the original.

IIRC, the exclusives PS is bringing to PC are older ones.

This week we should have more information on both systems. Sony is doing it's big PS5 price/date reveal on Wednesday - which should have more info on the underworkings of the system as well and games. And it is rumored that Microsoft is doing a video on Thursday.

[Atocep]

IIRC, the exclusives PS is bringing to PC are older ones.

This week we should have more information on both systems. Sony is doing it's big PS5 price/date reveal on Wednesday - which should have more info on the underworkings of the system as well and games. And it is rumored that Microsoft is doing a video on Thursday.

Horizon: Zero Dawn was Sony's way of testing exclusives out on PC and it's sold very well. The Show is rumored to be coming to PC in 2021 and there are also rumors of Sony looking at timed exclusivity for some of their stuff moving forward. There are several Sony exclusives that I really like, but I'm not sure I'm going to let that dictate which console I buy this Gen when I think Microsoft clearly has the better hardware.

I'm also not sure there's a potential Sony exclusive in the near future I'd be willing buy anyway (assuming The Show is on PC). I'm sure Horizon 2 will make its way to PC and I thought Spiderman was overrated. A new Naughty Dog or God of War game is probably years and a a price cut or 2 away.

I'm sure I'll end up with both eventually, but I'm leaning Xbox for now.

[ISiddiqui]

PS5 reveal just occurred. $499 for disk version, $399 for digital version. Coming out November 12. Also revealed that a number of PS4 hits are going to be available on PlayStation Plus (not quite Gamepass, but a definite step in the right direction).

[ISiddiqui]

Horizon: Zero Dawn was Sony's way of testing exclusives out on PC and it's sold very well.

Right, but Sony isn't doing a Microsoft. They are releasing exclusives to PCs to drive PS5 sales. And I think there is an expectation that they would do it for games that are 3+ years old to show PC gamers you could have been playing this years earlier if you had a PS5.

[Atocep]

I stand corrected on years away from another God of War game.

[stevew]

Have we talked about Star Wars Squadron on here yet? I am hard core stoked for that.

I have a flight stick. I should be able to map out controls to that, right?

[ISiddiqui]

Wow, Sony jumps Microsoft a bit by saying "select retailers" are going to have the PS5 for preorder tomorrow... I guess that'll help narrow down a lot of people's choices - if they can get a PS5 preordered tomorrow or not :D.

[dawgfan]

* ahem *

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Live the unwritten in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HogwartsLegacy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HogwartsLegacy</a>. <a href="https://t.co/TOLbkbxYhs">pic.twitter.com/TOLbkbxYhs</a></p>&mdash; WB Games Avalanche (@AvalancheWb) <a href="https://twitter.com/AvalancheWb/status/1306326101329813504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

(very excited our game is now finally official)

[JonInMiddleGA]

From the looks of Twitter, it appears Gamestop is handling those PS5 preorders ohhhhh so well. #Yikes

[ISiddiqui]

* ahem *

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Live the unwritten in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HogwartsLegacy?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HogwartsLegacy</a>. <a href="https://t.co/TOLbkbxYhs">pic.twitter.com/TOLbkbxYhs</a></p>&mdash; WB Games Avalanche (@AvalancheWb) <a href="https://twitter.com/AvalancheWb/status/1306326101329813504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

(very excited our game is now finally official)

Oh damn, that's yours? I'm playing the fuck out of this game. By far the most exciting reveal for me.

[ISiddiqui]

From the looks of Twitter, it appears Gamestop is handling those PS5 preorders ohhhhh so well. #Yikes

Everywhere is nuts (BB and Target with website drops and quick sell outs) - Amazon hasn't started selling yet though. Sony screwed things up it seems by giving no lead time. Maybe they will have a ton themselves tomorrow (when preorders were supposed to happen)

[JonInMiddleGA]

Everywhere is nuts (BB and Target with website drops and quick sell outs) - Amazon hasn't started selling yet though. Sony screwed things up it seems by giving no lead time. Maybe they will have a ton themselves tomorrow (when preorders were supposed to happen)

But did the others interpret attempts to get on their site to place an order as DDOS attacks and start banning IPs?

[dawgfan]

Oh damn, that's yours? I'm playing the fuck out of this game. By far the most exciting reveal for me.
Indeed it is. In fact I had a significant hand in several of the cinematics featured in that reveal.

[rjolley]

Indeed it is. In fact I had a significant hand in several of the cinematics featured in that reveal.

Very kool. Congrats. The game looks like it has potential.

[ISiddiqui]

I ended up getting a PS5 preorder on Best Buy. They apparently released a whole new batch of preorders at midnight Eastern. But it required a whole lot of clicking place order before it actually went through. Who knows what BB was doing? Maybe they did think DDOS, Jon, though that would be really dumb to not check on when selling a next gen console.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

[Kodos]

I always figure it’s good to let them work out the kinks on a new console before purchasing one.

[ISiddiqui]

Usually I wouldn't either, but my last 3 consoles are:

1) Nintendo Switch (at launch)
2) Nintendo Wii U
3) Xbox 360

My PC is a Surface Pro 4.

So I'm due for something new ;).

[Kodos]

Sometimes new electronics are required! :)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Managed to snag a pre-order for PS5 on Wal-Mart yesterday. Once I got the pre-order button, I just kept smashing 'complete order' until it took it. Dumb luck, but it worked.

[Lathum]

Is MLB The Show 20 worth it? On sale for $41.99. PS4 if that matters.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Is MLB The Show 20 worth it? On sale for $41.99. PS4 if that matters.

Yes. It's the main reason I always get a PS system. Love the Road to the Show mode.

[Bee]

Isn't the Sony exclusivity on MLB the Show going away next year?

[BYU 14]

Is MLB The Show 20 worth it? On sale for $41.99. PS4 if that matters.

Yes. It's the main reason I always get a PS system. Love the Road to the Show mode.

Second that, best sports game out there IMO

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Isn't the Sony exclusivity on MLB the Show going away next year?

Yes and no. Sony is going to start putting it on other systems (they can do it because it's clearly superior to any baseball game on other systems/PC), but they own the franchise, so you can guarantee that they're going to make sure the PS version is the best option.

[ISiddiqui]

Well this was quite the announcement the day before Xbox Series X/S Preorders were going to go live:

Welcoming the Talented Teams and Beloved Game Franchises of Bethesda to Xbox - Xbox Wire (https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/21/welcoming-bethesda-to-the-xbox-family/)

We are thrilled to announce Microsoft has entered into an agreement to acquire ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks.

Probably won't have a ton of effects for the next 2-3 years, but imagine Elder Scrolls 6 and the next Doom being Xbox console exclusives. Wow!

[sterlingice]

You almost get the impression that Microsoft was like "well, we lined up a bunch of financing for TikTok so let's use that cash somewhere else" like someone who had a few bucks in their pocket and was just looking to spend it

SI

[ISiddiqui]

I actually think MS was thinking of buying BOTH. Bethesda was due to all the Xbox has no games memes, I'm sure - with polling showing most gamers were going for PS5 over XSX this generation.

Sometimes we forget just how much money Apple, Google, and Microsoft have.

[Edward64]

It could go either way but am cautiously optimistic. Hopefully Bethesda will churn out more great games (and faster).

[JonInMiddleGA]

It could go either way but am cautiously optimistic. Hopefully Bethesda will churn out more great games (and faster).

The obvious push/pull is value of exclusivity vs recouping the investment. My bet is on the latter with, at most, a limited time exclusivity on the main titles.

[ISiddiqui]

There is definitely going to be at least a limited time exclusivity. They have to leverage the deal to sell more XSX and XSS and Gamepass subscriptions. One way to do that is to have these big games come to PS5 a year later (at least).

[JonInMiddleGA]

There is definitely going to be at least a limited time exclusivity. They have to leverage the deal to sell more XSX and XSS and Gamepass subscriptions. One way to do that is to have these big games come to PS5 a year later (at least).

$7B is a fair bit of change. The patience for recouping the cost will be, IMO, more limited than one might expect.

I'd be genuinely surprised if exclusivity went past 6 months on anything, and only that for the creme de la creme titles.

[ISiddiqui]

$7B is a fair bit of change. The patience for recouping the cost will be, IMO, more limited than one might expect.

I'd be genuinely surprised if exclusivity went past 6 months on anything, and only that for the creme de la creme titles.

Wouldn't selling consoles and subscription services help make up that money far better?

A lot of people are using the $7B as a reason that MS won't bring games to PS - because they spent that money for a reason.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Wouldn't selling consoles and subscription services help make up that money far better?

A lot of people are using the $7B as a reason that MS won't bring games to PS - because they spent that money for a reason.

Why? Because they had it.

The thing is, if we are (as everything I've seen today suggests) still at least two years away from that deal producing a game of consequence (i.e. the next Elder Scrolls) then how many consoles does the deal actually sell?

It's one thing to say "oh, I'll have to have that for sure" but another thing for most people to say "I'm not gonna buy a next gen console for two years while waiting for THAT game"

It may be a push toward increasing the number of multiple system households but damn that's a long time to show ROI.