This Old Neon Forum

Played The Political Machine 2016 and Freedom Planet lately, both enjoyable games. Also played some ROTK XIII which, unfortunately, I think kind of sucks.

Jordan wrote:Also played some ROTK XIII which, unfortunately, I think kind of sucks.

Oh no! Discuss reasons in this thread. Eager to hear people's thoughts.

Just started Doom (2016) a couple days ago, and it's really pretty good. I'm disappointed because it runs awfully poorly on my GTX 680 graphics card. There's not really any excuse for that. I know my card is a few years old now, but if it runs at 60 frames on Xbox and PlayStation, there's no reason I shouldn't at least expect a stable experience on a PC that was high-end when those consoles came out. Especially when you consider it runs Wolfenstein, a game from the same console generation and the same developer, on very high or ultra settings at 60 frames with absolutely no hiccups. I really don't know what the issue is. The internet has some ideas, but I don't know how true any of them are.

Nevertheless, I'm sucking it up and playing it on low graphical fidelity and still having a great time. The game keeps you on your toes as much as anything I've ever played, and the atmosphere is just great. I look forward to continuing on with this one, and it reminds me that I should dig the original Doom out of my backlog and finally beat it. It's been unfinished business for too long.

Also started Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, but I only played for about an hour. Long enough to show me that I'll definitely enjoy this game, but short enough that I can put it on hold until I beat Doom without forgetting everything I've done. Battle system seems to channel the good stuff about Persona, and seemingly may even take some things deeper. Will be interesting to see where the plot (which is pretty nonsense) goes from here. I play these sorts of games to be *amused* by the plot, not moved, so I can get into the ridiculousness. Should be fun after I finish off the demons of Doom.

Graphically speaking, Doom seems significantly more sophisticated compared to TNO, so I wouldn't expect the same level of performance. Also of note, I think Machine Games had a hand in some of the development, but Id handled the bulk of it. All that said, it does seem odd that you can't get stable performance on ANY settings. What a shame. The game is butter smooth on PS4.

VictorViper wrote:Graphically speaking, Doom seems significantly more sophisticated compared to TNO, so I wouldn't expect the same level of performance. Also of note, I think Machine Games had a hand in some of the development, but Id handled the bulk of it. All that said, it does seem odd that you can't get stable performance on ANY settings. What a shame. The game is butter smooth on PS4.

Yeah, it definitely has more particle effects and lighting things going on, but I still would've expected 60fps on medium at absolute worst. I'm managing to *usually* get 60 on low settings and dramatically decreased resolution. Sucks. Almost wish I'd gotten it on Xbox, even though I really don't like playing FPS on console when I can avoid it. Shrug. It's the same game, and I'm having fun, but it's a shame it couldn't have been a little better optimized. My computer runs other PS4/Xbone games at 60 with solid settings, some of which run at 30 on those consoles, so I really don't get it. Just a mediocre PC version, I think.

And just as I'm bitching about it, Id saves the day!

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/ ... aphics-gpu

This patch has made worlds of difference in the game's performance on my GPU. I've gone from unable to reliably run the game at 60fps on lowest settings with the resolution decreased to able to run the game with mid-high settings and many settings maxed on my native resolution, all while maintaining super smooth 60 frames. This is one of the best examples of post-launch support I've ever seen for a game that likely isn't going to be a huge revenue generator down the line. The cynic in me assumes it was just an excuse to do some R&D for their next project, but it has still made me a much more satisfied customer, so I guess there's no point in speculating. Bravo, Id!

Claytone wrote:And just as I'm bitching about it, Id saves the day!

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/ ... aphics-gpu

This patch has made worlds of difference in the game's performance on my GPU. I've gone from unable to reliably run the game at 60fps on lowest settings with the resolution decreased to able to run the game with mid-high settings and many settings maxed on my native resolution, all while maintaining super smooth 60 frames. This is one of the best examples of post-launch support I've ever seen for a game that likely isn't going to be a huge revenue generator down the line. The cynic in me assumes it was just an excuse to do some R&D for their next project, but it has still made me a much more satisfied customer, so I guess there's no point in speculating. Bravo, Id!

That's great news!


I've been playing a lot of Fallout 4 lately, a lot. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I am, I like the future setting quite well. Compared to the Elder Scrolls, I like the sense of survival the game offers through the gameplay and story. I also love that this game makes use of all the garbage everyday materials you can pick up by using them in settlements. Never really feel bad for picking up a spoon by accident since it can just be scrapped.

I'm not a huge fan of the level up system. I like how you can level up every stat in TES, and it goes up by doing the specific actions - like lock picking skill increases when you pick locks. In this game every action gains general XP used to level up, at which point you can put one point towards a particular skill. I don't really feel a sense of progression. I also feel like it takes way too long to get any of them useful/cool skills. Maybe I'm spreading my experience too thin and I'm supposed to focus on just a few skills, but I'm already level 30 and I'm only just starting to get some tier 2 skills. Overall though I'm really enjoying the game.

The Shoemaker wrote:
I've been playing a lot of Fallout 4 lately, a lot. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I am, I like the future setting quite well. Compared to the Elder Scrolls, I like the sense of survival the game offers through the gameplay and story. I also love that this game makes use of all the garbage everyday materials you can pick up by using them in settlements. Never really feel bad for picking up a spoon by accident since it can just be scrapped.

I'm not a huge fan of the level up system. I like how you can level up every stat in TES, and it goes up by doing the specific actions - like lock picking skill increases when you pick locks. In this game every action gains general XP used to level up, at which point you can put one point towards a particular skill. I don't really feel a sense of progression. I also feel like it takes way too long to get any of them useful/cool skills. Maybe I'm spreading my experience too thin and I'm supposed to focus on just a few skills, but I'm already level 30 and I'm only just starting to get some tier 2 skills. Overall though I'm really enjoying the game.

If you like Fallout 4 at all, I would recommend 1, 2, and New Vegas. I've gone into detail in the BGE threads about why I think Bethesda's takes are not as good (and obviously that's a contentious opinion, and I don't want to imply or say that you shouldn't enjoy the game or anything like that), so I'll spare you that here, but suffice it to say that if you like FO4, you should find the Black Isle and Obsidian games to be just fantastic. Not to mention all of them can be had pretty cheap these days.

With respect to experience/leveling, generally in Fallout, you want to focus on a specific build rather than trying to be good at everything. You're expected to not level some stats at all, and be really good at other things. I think doing that will improve your experience.

Overwatch has been taking up the bulk of my time. It's been great to be able to connect with Kiwi and Drauks, as well as my good friend locally, for some good old-fashioned team shootin'. It would be great if we could rope a few more TONe peeps into the fun.

I've been playing a lot of Steredenn - a spectacularly fun shmup with roguelike elements. Aside from the slow march toward beating the game, there are also daily challenge runs with leaderboards to dig into, which is one of my favourite modern innovations in games. I plan to make more of an effort to revisit other games with the feature (Necrodancer, Race the Sun, and others) to keep them from getting too stale.

Finally, I've been digging into Adventures of Pip, which has really surprised me with its charm, secrets, gimmicks, and tight gameplay. It's a lovely little retro platformer that hides a deceptively compelling gameplay hook in the up-/down-rez mechanic.

I should mention that Pip and Steredenn both sport some absolutely spectacular music. Pip went with a lush, synth-symphony approach, while Steredenn sports some of the best instrumental Heavy Metal I've heard - inside or outside of games. Both soundtracks suit their games perfectly and add tremendously to the overall experience.

Now that I've put Life Is Strange to bed, I'm back to my small rotation of games that I play depending on what I'm doing / how busy I am.

I've still got a simmer on Destiny, which I'll play whenever friends are online to get my team shooting / online co-op fix.

When I have longer chunks of time to really dig into a game, Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII is now where I'll be going. Life Is Strange played that role for a couple weeks, but I was still playing a Hero Mode stage every couple of days.

When I don't have as much time, I pop Adventures of Pip on and power through a couple of stages. It's a startlingly well-designed little platformer. Good ramp up, good level design, and like Vic said, great music (it's Jake Kaufman, what do you expect?). I'm also about half-way through Flywrench, a.k.a. just getting to the hard stuff. Sometimes I'll play this instead of Pip if I have a little but of time but don't want to relax. It's a great game.

On the handheld/mobile front, I'm still playing Pokémon Picross for at least 2 minutes each morning or evening to get my free daily pictobites or whatever the fuck the in-game currency for which I refuse to pay real money is called. I think I have 4-5 areas left to unlock. Picross tho.

I also have Pokémon GO on my phone, which I use while I'm on my evening walks or chilling out at home/work (I don't take the car out and buzz a circuit of 20 gyms or hang out downtown sitting on a lure for 3 hours like I know many players do).