What game(s) are you playing?

[RhynoCZ]

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (1992; PC/ScummVM) - 8/10

Yes, I'm playing a yet another Indiana Jones game. I have finished the game several times before, and it's still great, even after all those years. It's one of the best LucasArts point and click adventure games, with good story, excellent voice acting, great jokes and comedy bits and lovely background music. There is some pixel hunting, as was customary at that time.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Nobby the Bastard]

Stalker 2 (finally)

After getting some more memory for Chrimbo and finally elbowing one of the other bastards off the computer got round to playing this.

It seems that there is some bug that causes it to crash when doing its shader thing sometimes and it really needs to be on an SSD rather than your typical hard drive to actually load in anything other than geological timescales.

the game itself is fine. If you like Stalker you will like it. Simple as.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Triumph Sprint ST 1050

[virus]

Just finished Fallout: London aka loading screen simulator.

Joking aside, my laptop is terrible and Ive also not installed the 'quicker loading times' mod as my game was stable and I didnt want to risk it.

Gamewise Its a masterpiece, so many cool quests, characters, locations, weapons. Its honestly as immersive a world as vanilla fallout 4 and just as big. I can imagine I'll be doing a couple playthroughs of this like I did with vanilla.
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own: 81 xs1100g...
owned: 85 rat CG (sold), 91 GS500e (stolen), 84 gsx400f (scrapped), 81 z250 (siezed, siezed, scrapped), 83 cb250rs (sold), 84 gpz750r ratfighter (killed) 84gpz400 (sold), '80 cb650 ratfighter (wrote off) 95gsx6/12f ratfighter (killed) 91 xj900 (sold)
stinkwheel Well I just had my hands up a pigs fanny. Which makes your concerns pale into insignificance.

[Easy-X]

[RhynoCZ]

A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019, PC version) - 8/10

So, I really liked this game the first time I've finished it years ago, and as I've got a new fancy GFX card I wanted to play the sequel as well, the A Plague Tale: Requiem. Lucky me, I got the ''A Plague Tale Bundle'' on sale on steam for €24,49, as the ''Requiem'' game alone would be otherwise €49,99.

To get up to speed with the storyline I finished the ''Innocence'' game again. It took me a bit over 8 hours, but I already knew how many of the puzzles worked. Not to spoil anything, it's a 3rd. person view story driven action environmental puzzle game, similar to the Uncharted series, with some very fresh and unusual game mechanics and tool/weapon crafting. The game is set in the 1300s France, with very well made and detailed locations with rats everywhere. The rats are part of the game mechanics and puzzles. I did actually enjoy the story a lot.

The game has also very good soundtrack and as for the performance, locked 60fps, 4K, all set to ultra. Beautiful visuals for the time (2019) and even today. The PC barely doing anything (i7 7700K, RTX 4070 Ti Super).

A Plague Tale: Requiem (2022, PC version) - 9/10

Well, it's a sequel to the first game. The story continues where the first game ended. Now, it is just like the first game, but more action packed with many improvements and minor changes as well.

The level desing and locations improved a lot. You now get various ways how to get through a level, not just one scripted option. The locations are also much larger and much more detailed. As for other changes there are more ways how to fight now and some new tools/weapons to craft as well.

As for the audio/visual aspect. The soundtrack and sound design remained excellent and the visuals got much more improved, almost cinematic. As for the performance though, medium to high settings (raytraced shadows on) with textures set to ultra and DLSS quality (4K target; excellent image quality, no artefacts)... locked 60fps with random spikes of the GPU to 100% and drops to high 40s and low 50s on RTX 4070 Ti Super. And here's the fun part, even when I set everything to low and the DLSS to performance or even the native resolution to 1440P and lower... it does not help the random 100% spikes. It could be CPU related but that at that time sits at 40% max. That being said it's not game breaking, thanks to Freesync I don't notice the single digit frame drops and dropping to 40s usually happens in cutscenes. I did try the DLSS frame generation feature, that does lower the average usage of the card when everything works great, but does not help when the spikes happen, and it even messes up the Freesync when it happens.

As for the CPU, my i7 7700K seems like enough for 60fps gameplay, with reduced number of rats being rendered (not sure how this works, the game seems the same, but the CPU usage does drop) and lowered view distance and shadow quality. You know, those settings that affect the CPU the most. The i7 7700K being a 4c/8t CPU from many years ago isn't ideal for the latests games. That being said, the CPU usually sits around 40% for the most part with spikes to 85-90% when many rats/NPCs are in the scene. When the rat count is set to normal, the CPU would hit 99% (100%) here and there and the frame rate would drop. You can also reduce the animation rate for the rats and NPCs, but it's very distracting, as when the game runs at 60fps, the rats and NPCs would render in 30fps.

Once I'm finished with the game I'll give the final score. So far, great story unveils, new gameplay mechanics and more complex levels are nice, and the visuals are breathtaking in many places. Poor PC HW optimization.

EDIT: Finished the game today, 17 hours total. Compared to the first game, this one has more stealth, more action, more everything... the story wraps up nicely, although I've expected a bit different ending. As for technical issues, the above stands + the game crashed 5–6 times during the gameplay with full reboot of the system. I have no idea why and don't care now.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Easy-X]

The Callisto Protocol - for those who like their walking simulator to be more claustrophobic and peppered with jump scares and eviscerations
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[RhynoCZ]

[RhynoCZ]

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (PC, 2024) - 6.5/10

I'm going to start with the obvious, the visuals. The best real time rendering game visuals I have ever seen and one of the best optimization of a video game I've experienced in years. I played the game on i7 7700K, 16GB RAM, RTX 4070 Ti Super, everything set to the max. with DLSS quality and 2160p output. The game loaded up, the frame rate got to locked 60fps and the frame time to 16.67ms and both stayed there throughout the whole game, with not a single frame dropped, no frame time spikes... rock solid performance. The game did crash about 5-6 times, I still don't know what's going on. I even did the OCCT torture test, as some of the key components in my computer are rather old now, but the test was inconclusive. No failures even when GPU, CPU and RAM were at 100% for 10 minutes, warming up the room in the process.

Anyway, the visuals and sound design are both phenomenal. Real time rendering with such level of detail and complexity with no LOD pop-in, no texture pop-in, with great dynamic lighting and volumetric effects such as smoke, mist, haze, dust... UE5 really is the step forward, compared to UE4 games. Even just looking at the gravel paths is just surreal. The last time I was this impressed was the introduction of real time tessellation.

And now for the gameplay. Just like the first Hellblade game, it's a walking simulator with environmental puzzles and hidden secrets, with occasional one on one combat. You also hear voices in your head; devs recommend headphones and I agree it makes the experience better. It took me 11 hours to finish, and I did some backtracking to find all the secrets. I don't remember much the first Hellblade game, but the new one does tell you what happend to keep you upto speed with the story line.

To sum it up, Hellblade II is an excellent UE5 tech demo that happens to be a video game.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Easy-X]

I haven't got round to playing the sequel yet but I'm a big fan of the first one. I'm wondering whether I've played it at all on my current hardware, good excuse to fire it up again. The original was billed as the closest one could get to a psychosis simulator
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[RhynoCZ]

[Easy-X]

[Robby]

Blazing Star and Metal Slug 2, Neo Geo.

1995-me is jealous of 2025-me. Playing real arcade games at home is as good as I thought it would be.

Of course, now I've completed the 16-bit collection I have to make a choice. Do I go 8 bit next, or 32 bit (except Sony, Sony can fuck off).

[RhynoCZ]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (PC) - too soon to rate

I enjoyed the first KCD game a lot, finished it several times on PS4, PS5 and PC, even on hardcore mode, so it only made sense to get the sequel. Now, this game is very well GPU optimized, but is not playable on a quad-core CPU (i7 7700K). The devs do recommend at least a six-core CPU and this time they mean it. Trying to play the game on my i7 7700K, the moment there are more NPCs in the villages and around the game starts to run poorly, not just dropping frames. You also get sound popping as well and very game breaking controller input lag, almost like if the engine drops everything else to keep the visual part of the game running.

The visuals are stunning, by the way. It's like the first game, but everything is just more polished and there is no visible pop in or LOD changes in the distance. The foliage and grass/meadows are both denser, lights and shadows are much more advanced, higher res. textures all over the place... volumetric clouds (or at least they seem they are), nicer water rendering and so on. The game is also more content/feature packed, with not only new weapons, clothes etc. but also new activities and game mechanics.

That being said, the intro sequence for whatever reason (tons of NPCs and action) is playable (locked 60fps), even got me a false sense of ''wow my i7 7700K still can do things''. Without spoiling anything, the moment things don't go as planned in the game, all the performance issues as describes above start to occur on my i7 7700K. Regardless of whether you run the game on the lowest settings or the ultra settings, the CPU usage remains the same, not sure about other PCs with quad core CPUs but on my system nothing can be done to reduce the CPU stress.

As for the GPU side, ultra settings with native 4K@60Hz is doable on RTX 4070 Ti super + the game has FSR and DLSS. With DLSS quality (ultra, 4K output) the power usage of the card drops from 275W to 130W on average while the game still looks the same (#dlss is magic). I also tried the FSR, the presentation just isn't that good but I'd use it if I had to.

Well, after I buy a new CPU, motherboard and RAM, I'll get back to the game.

EDIT/UPDATE: I recently got a new CPU, mobo and RAM, now playing some more KCD:2 and not only the game runs perfectly, the game itself gets better and better as well. I'm still in the first part of the game, after 21 hours, and there is still so much to explore and to do.
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'87 Honda XBR 500, '96 Kawasaki ZX7R P1, '90 Honda CB-1, '88 Kawasaki GPz550, MZ 150 ETZ
'95 Mercedes-Benz w202 C200 CGI, '98 Mercedes-Benz w210 E200 Kompressor

[Easy-X]

I've fired up the first one for a refresher.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[recman]

Finally got round to finishing the Last of Us 2.
Played through again with some handy modifiers on, which was nice.

[blurredman]

[Easy-X]

Do you like Factorio? How about Darwinia? Not keen on the violence?

Microtopia is the relaxing alternative. Build up a robotic ant colony by drawing trails to collect resources and drop them off for processing. Your ant queen is continually shitting out larvae which you can transform into different drone castes and you can even recycle them when they get old.

Yes, you can devise mad but efficient layouts to maximise production but it's just you verses the environment, no rush. And you can pause any time to move things around and re-lay trails at virtually no cost beyond herding a few lost drones to their new location.
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Royal Enfield Continental GT 535, Husqvarna Vitpilen 401, Yamaha XSR700, Honda Rebel, Yamaha DT175, Suzuki SV650 (loan) Fazer 600, Keeway Superlight 125, 50cc turd scooter

[MarJay]

Mechwarrior 5: Clans. At the moment it feels weird after Mercenaries, but it isn't a bad game and I got a decent deal on it. I wonder if having a spectacularly better graphics card would improve it somewhat. Mine is over ten years old.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Easy-X]

[CrypticCrud]

Gone back to FFXI on Horizon. Free to play & without the Gilsellers. Perfect!
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CBT - Aug24, Theory - Jun25
Mod 1 - Jul25, Mod 2 - ….

[recman]

Modern Warfare 2. No online option but it's nice to play through the story again.
No Russian.

[MarJay]

[BanditsHigh]

Return to Castle Wolfenstein ... an old one, but I've just got around to playing it.

I'm shit at it, but thankfully have cheat modes to deal with how bad I truly am ... didn't know it had so much in it

[blurredman]

Completed it mate.

Long time ago. Long game too from memory, and quite hard in places.
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CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S, 1979 MZ TS150.
Current: 1973 MZ ES250/2 - 18k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 10k, 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (295cc) - 40k, 1989 MZ ETZ251 - 50k.

[recman]