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General gaming discussion

Retr0gamer

Right going to give this a go. A general gaming discussion thread. The rest of the forum seems to be dedicated to discussing just the big new games and games stories. Here you can just talk about whatever. What you have been playing at the moment, thoughts on it, what's better xbox or playstation. OK maybe not the last one.

Right to kick things off. Final Fantasy 12. I've let people know how much I hate this game in the past but I'm currently playing the recent zodiac age release and... actually enjoying it. I'm doing all the hunts and lots of exploring so I'm not as underlevelled anymore. The new job system is fantastic and way better than the free for all that was the original license board. You tend to use under utilised skills rather the Han nuking everything with the best attacks. Also it took a while but the battle system is starting to make sense and there's some good battles in the later half of the game. Takes a while to get theready though.

I still think the xenoblade games are a far better expression of the ideas in ff12 but it's not the **** show I orginally had it pegged as. The story is garbage though. Starts off great but once you hit Archades it's very obviously rushed.

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Azza

gimli2112 wrote: »

As a console pleb this makes no sense to me, it like reading Hebrew.

In this case your not the pleb

pixelburp

As much as I'd love to splash out on a new PC machine, just can't justify the cost (and environmental impact) in getting something that'd allow for Modernity with graphics. And as the Switch offers more ease and convenience for gaming - especially given 90% of what play are indie games on the Nintendo console anyway.

Time was I'd keep parity with technology and the laptop binned ages ago - but priorities shift. I apologise for nothing, so you can meme all you like :P Last game I bought for PC was the C&C remaster and it ran smooth as butter

Just isn't a gaming machine anymore

Penn

Games I keep getting confused:

The Outer Worlds / The Outer Wilds
Hollow Knight / Shovel Knight

(could probably add another 100 to the list if I actually knew I was getting them confused)

Penn

pixelburp wrote: »

As much as I'd love to splash out on a new PC machine, just can't justify the cost (and environmental impact) in getting something that'd allow for Modernity with graphics. And as the Switch offers more ease and convenience for gaming - especially given 90% of what play are indie games on the Nintendo console anyway.

Time was I'd keep parity with technology and the laptop binned ages ago - but priorities shift. I apologise for nothing, so you can meme all you like :P Last game I bought for PC was the C&C remaster and it ran smooth as butter

I recently looked into upgrading the PC I built 6 years ago. To get it to an even moderately decent standard would be over €600 (because any new graphics card would be bottlenecked by the processor, so I'd need a new processor, which means I'd need a new motherboard, which means I'd need new RAM).

I might do it next year, but that killed any idea I had for trying out PC gaming again. Even just researching the requirements annoyed me.

[Deleted User]

pixelburp wrote: »

As much as I'd love to splash out on a new PC machine, just can't justify the cost (and environmental impact) in getting something that'd allow for Modernity with graphics. And as the Switch offers more ease and convenience for gaming - especially given 90% of what play are indie games on the Nintendo console anyway.

Time was I'd keep parity with technology and the laptop binned ages ago - but priorities shift. I apologise for nothing, so you can meme all you like :P Last game I bought for PC was the C&C remaster and it ran smooth as butter Just isn't a gaming machine anymore

Ya I did run by the environmental logic but overall concluded I don't drive so my footprint is still small in scheme of things. Still couldn't be assed with parity, will build a desktop when I get a house. Laptop is adequate for now.

Will probably invest in new PlayStation eventually too.

johnny_ultimate

Yeah I updated my GPU around six months ago and am now eyeing a CPU upgrade to really allow it shine, but I’ll need to get a new motherboard and RAM on top of it. It certainly ain’t cheap to get anywhere near a reasonably solid one that’ll last a good few years. And this is my first CPU upgrade since building the PC - basically it’s close to a full rebuild (other than the PSU and hard drives)!

Penn

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yeah I updated my GPU around six months ago and am now eyeing a CPU upgrade to really allow it shine, but I’ll need to get a new motherboard and RAM on top of it. It certainly ain’t cheap to get anywhere near a reasonably solid one that’ll last a good few years. And this is my first CPU upgrade since building the PC - basically it’s close to a full rebuild (other than the PSU and hard drives)!

Yeah it's not something I want to do by halves. I'd want whatever new parts I put in be decent enough and compatible enough to do another 6 years or so if possible. But like you, it's basically replacing everything I put in6 years ago bar the case and PSU (I have thrown an ssd into it now as I'm using it for working from home).

Azza

Penn wrote: »

I recently looked into upgrading the PC I built 6 years ago. To get it to an even moderately decent standard would be over €600 (because any new graphics card would be bottlenecked by the processor, so I'd need a new processor, which means I'd need a new motherboard, which means I'd need new RAM).

I might do it next year, but that killed any idea I had for trying out PC gaming again. Even just researching the requirements annoyed me.

You need to look beyond PC gaming when building a PC for gaming. Its not about gaming, well maybe 1% of the time it is. Its really about being able to mock and meme total strangers with lower specs than your own on internet discussion forums! :pac:

Thecageyone

Penn wrote: »

Games I keep getting confused:

The Outer Worlds / The Outer Wilds
Hollow Knight / Shovel Knight

(could probably add another 100 to the list if I actually knew I was getting them confused)

Same, I have Outer Worlds but still keep referring to it as Outer Wilds because that game was being hyped around the same time.

On consoles ... I still have my xbox 360

Never got with the next gen, had given up on games for a good while but as I needed a decent PC for photo processing thought I may as well get one with a half decent cpu/Gpu [nothing fancy, 2600x + GTX 1660, find it copes with pretty much any game] - had to sell a very nice lens to manage it but it should see me good for a few years.

one armed dwarf

CPU upgrades are in a bit of a wanky spot right now cause Intel aren't on board with the next PCI-e specs yet so can't support those high speed SSDs that are getting put into consoles. AMD Ryzen have become the more wise choice it looks like.

Flight Sim is the first game I've really felt the strain. I took a screenshot the other day taking off from JFK where the CPU in task manager was 95% utilized just on flight sim, trying to stream in all the data. GPU was crippled to about 50% usage. I think with everything it's doing Flight Sim is the nearest peek you get at next gen requirements right now, or maybe it is unusually heavy. Time will show

heebusjeebus

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yeah I updated my GPU around six months ago and am now eyeing a CPU upgrade to really allow it shine, but I’ll need to get a new motherboard and RAM on top of it. It certainly ain’t cheap to get anywhere near a reasonably solid one that’ll last a good few years. And this is my first CPU upgrade since building the PC - basically it’s close to a full rebuild (other than the PSU and hard drives)!

I did the same earlier this year to prepare for Cyberpunk. Went from 2nd gen i5 to Ryzen 3600. Huge difference in performance now but it was a completely new build. Only the GPU survived the upgrade. The power supply was from 2007 so I decided to change the lot.

pixelburp

Penn wrote: »

I recently looked into upgrading the PC I built 6 years ago. To get it to an even moderately decent standard would be over €600 (because any new graphics card would be bottlenecked by the processor, so I'd need a new processor, which means I'd need a new motherboard, which means I'd need new RAM).

I might do it next year, but that killed any idea I had for trying out PC gaming again. Even just researching the requirements annoyed me.

I just got really fed up trying to keep up with PC hardware; the depreciation felt savage against what you get for the 6, 12 months of bleeding edge technical prowess. That coupled with how little time I was actually doing anything with the PC: even simple browsing on Chrome was predominantly done on my Smart Phone (the one gadget I did spend time and money on getting the "right" one). Then the Switch came along and TBH apart from the odd legacy game, the PC is used for eyepatch purposes

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yeah I updated my GPU around six months ago and am now eyeing a CPU upgrade to really allow it shine, but I’ll need to get a new motherboard and RAM on top of it. It certainly ain’t cheap to get anywhere near a reasonably solid one that’ll last a good few years. And this is my first CPU upgrade since building the PC - basically it’s close to a full rebuild (other than the PSU and hard drives)!

My CPU has similarly been with me for years with nothing more than an upgrade from a 970 to a 1070.

Next upgrade will be pretty much a rebuild. New GPU, CPU, motherboard, faster ram, NVE SSD. Current system is doing alright at the moment even if the 1070 isn't quite enough to get 60 fps at my monitors 3440p resolution but pretty great at 1440p. I'll probably look at a new monitor as well. Love my ultra wide montior but high refresh is so damn nice and would love an OLED for those sexy black levels, even if I'll miss watching 21:9 films without letterboxing.

Probably going to wait for the 30XX series cards super equivalents before I buy, get something that will trounce the next gen consoles and keep up with games for the next few years.

johnny_ultimate

Penn wrote: »

Yeah it's not something I want to do by halves. I'd want whatever new parts I put in be decent enough and compatible enough to do another 6 years or so if possible. But like you, it's basically replacing everything I put in6 years ago bar the case and PSU (I have thrown an ssd into it now as I'm using it for working from home).

Aye, I’ve got a standard 200gb SSD for the OS and two HDDs (one just installed recently), but would likely buy one of those fancy new small SSDs too as the one I have is basically just for the OS at this stage. It’s actually working from home that has me reluctant to upgrade the CPU just yet - wouldn’t want anything going wrong when I’m relying on having a PC for non-gaming stuff! Might be a project for Christmas break though, since it’s hardly like anything else is going to be happening :pac:

one armed dwarf

Tbf CPU requirements on PC remained fairly static for most of the gen, but we're at the edge of a new one and so PCs are playing catch up a bit if they want to run a PS5 spec game at 60.

GPU is def a constant arms race though. Not too bad if you weren't bothered about VR and could safely ignore having to upgrade for that. But I think ray tracing will just become a standard requirement after a few years. I doubt devs will stay doing two types of lighting for every game for too long.

I can say while the impact to gaming is minor I really like having the NVME. Having Windows boot up in no time at all. Also some games which do have very pestering load screens (DMC5) or are just generally heavy to load in do stand to benefit even if not at the level promised by PS5 etc

Retr0gamer

pixelburp wrote: »

I just got really fed up trying to keep up with PC hardware; the depreciation felt savage against what you get for the 6, 12 months of bleeding edge technical prowess. That coupled with how little time I was actually doing anything with the PC: even simple browsing on Chrome was predominantly done on my Smart Phone (the one gadget I did spend time and money on getting the "right" one). Then the Switch came along and TBH apart from the odd legacy game, the PC is used for eyepatch purposes

PC upgrading has been fine for the last few years. You could have gotten a great system 8 years ago that would have kept up with current gaming with just a GPU upgrade. Intel just had been so lax in the CPU market that there was no need to upgrade anything but the GPU.

Only really feeling the need for a total rebuild now with Ryzen coming along and giving the CPU market the kick up the arse it desperately needed and a NVE SSD and fast RAM looking to be essential.

johnny_ultimate

Retr0gamer wrote: »

My CPU has similarly been with me for years with nothing more than an upgrade from a 970 to a 1070.

Next upgrade will be pretty much a rebuild. New GPU, CPU, motherboard, faster ram, NVE SSD. Current system is doing alright at the moment even if the 1070 isn't quite enough to get 60 fps at my monitors 3440p resolution but pretty great at 1440p. I'll probably look at a new monitor as well. Love my ultra wide montior but high refresh is so damn nice and would love an OLED for those sexy black levels, even if I'll miss watching 21:9 films without letterboxing.

Probably going to wait for the 30XX series cards super equivalents before I buy, get something that will trounce the next gen consoles and keep up with games for the next few years.

Stuck with the 970 for years but have a 2060 Super now (basically upgraded for HL Alyx), which is definitely a major boost but you can see the CPU struggling with the likes of Flight Simulator (although that’s obviously a hog regardless of build). 1440p tends to be fine for most things, but know once the next gen consoles come out I’ll be lagging behind without a CPU upgrade.

Thecageyone

I only ever intend gaming at 1080p, should be fine with what i got for a good while at that. It doesn't concern me whether the new consoles are higher spec or not, maybe I'll get one this time around when they start dropping in price but I'm not really what you'd call a big gamer. All i need is 'decent enough'. I was much more a true gamer in the 80's

High Fps count doesn't bother me either, as I don't play any quick reflex/response games, wouldn't last a minute in the likes of COD, I'm completely useless at FPS games. For the games I play, mostly SP adventure or platformers, once I can get in or around 60fps 1080p high, I'm golden.

SomeSayKos

I always think about building a gaming pc, but then I start looking at bits and I get annoyed and then I stop. Ah well. I guess i'm just a console constable.

one armed dwarf

I think beyond 60fps is massively diminishing returns anyway. You can definitely see the benefit in very visually busy games like MMOs having all that motion clarity, but I need to actually use a M&K to properly 'feel' the improved smoothness a lot of the time.

Like I got a proper mouse today for my PC after using a crap wireless touchpad for ages and I spent ages just moving the cursor around at 165hz lol.

Retr0gamer

I've played on a high refresh monitor and I'm not some CS streamer that needs high refreshes. It just feels so much better.

And then when I go back to my own 60 FPS screen it feels like I'm going back to a console and playing in awful 30 FPS again

everything just looks stuttery until you get used to it again.

one armed dwarf

I will say I wish I could move all my work laptop stuff to my gaming system cause the combo of high refresh, an actual decent CPU and being able to run a VM that isn't molasses is such a productivity boost. I used it over the weekend for some other work related stuff and it's so pleasant, now I'm back on the work PoS and I'm much more miserable lol.

johnny_ultimate

I do admit that while my pc is for gaming first and foremost, having a proper desktop computer for working from home has been incredibly welcome. Picking up a second monitor in particular has been a godsend. Just don’t like laptops for longer periods of work.

That said, it does mean the gaming aspect of the PC is not that appealing after an eight or nine hour work shift on the computer. PS4 and Switch have been getting much more of a workout as a result.

Retr0gamer

New Nvidia 30XX series cards to be shown off today at 5pm.

All I know is no matter how powerful they are FFXIII-2 is still going to run like absolute **** on them. **** whoever ported that game.

And I also know that Digital Foundry will still be using Crysis 3 to test them.

Azza

Retr0gamer wrote: »

My CPU has similarly been with me for years with nothing more than an upgrade from a 970 to a 1070.

Next upgrade will be pretty much a rebuild. New GPU, CPU, motherboard, faster ram, NVE SSD. Current system is doing alright at the moment even if the 1070 isn't quite enough to get 60 fps at my monitors 3440p resolution but pretty great at 1440p. I'll probably look at a new monitor as well. Love my ultra wide montior but high refresh is so damn nice and would love an OLED for those sexy black levels, even if I'll miss watching 21:9 films without letterboxing.

Probably going to wait for the 30XX series cards super equivalents before I buy, get something that will trounce the next gen consoles and keep up with games for the next few years.

Is there even such things as OLED monitors?

Where I'm living at the moment we have an 55" OLED TV and it was really looking great with native 4K and HDR content. Blacks are fantastic too but its suffering bad burn in at this point in its life.

My PC monitor is a 27" 16:9 165Hz 1440p VA monitor. Believe its the best balance of size, responsiveness and speed at a resolution that's not too taxing on GPU's and where achieving high frame rates is somewhat practical. Has basic entry level HDR 400 support too, but its miles away from what the OLED TV can do with HDR. But still better than not having it and Windows support for HDR is finally working okay. PC still lacks games that support HDR compared to console though its improving.

Better HDR support is the one thing that would make me consider upgrading my monitor down the road. I was more impressed by HDR than from going from 1080p to 4K on the TV. But I wouldn't want to give up high frame rates and Freesync/G-Sync for it. The trade off would be too high.

[Deleted User]

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Yeah I updated my GPU around six months ago and am now eyeing a CPU upgrade to really allow it shine, but I’ll need to get a new motherboard and RAM on top of it. It certainly ain’t cheap to get anywhere near a reasonably solid one that’ll last a good few years. And this is my first CPU upgrade since building the PC - basically it’s close to a full rebuild (other than the PSU and hard drives)!

Did you have one of those 2500k processors? They really were troopers. GPU is the big general upgrade I've found. Depending on the game, 32gb can really shine as well.

Thecageyone

SomeSayKos wrote: »

I always think about building a gaming pc, but then I start looking at bits and I get annoyed and then I stop. Ah well. I guess i'm just a console constable.

I had mine custom built for me, used a UK site where you select all the compononts and they put it all together for you - 2 reasons: 1, I'm useless with cable managment and electrics in general and 2: there was a very good sale on at the time if you selected a specific start set up [you could from there add or remove anything you desired] I paid less for all brand new components plus delivery from the UK than I would have for lesser spec used on adverts here. We really get rode for PC pricing in this country

johnny_ultimate

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Did you have one of those 2500k processors? They really were troopers. GPU is the big general upgrade I've found. Depending on the game, 32gb can really shine as well.

i5-4690. Still does the job for the most part to be fair, just gradually showing its age

Azza

Retr0gamer wrote: »

New Nvidia 30XX series cards to be shown off today at 5pm.

All I know is no matter how powerful they are FFXIII-2 is still going to run like absolute **** on them. **** whoever ported that game.

And I also know that Digital Foundry will still be using Crysis 3 to test them.

Nvidia are up to 80% GPU market share on PC now. Not that AMD is doing terrible, its GPU sales are up as well, just not as much as Nvidia's.

Be interesting to see what both Nvidia and AMD have up their sleeves with Ampere and Big Navi. Nvida have been dominate at the high end for years and have such a lead its difficult to see AMD catching up, even if the initial performance rumors from Big Navi are true.

There was speculation that the at the high end Big Navi was up to 50% faster than an RTX 2080Ti but more recent reports from AIB manufacturers suggest performance is very similar to the 2080Ti and in best case scenario's its up to 15% faster.

AMD should be able to offer ray tracing this generation and they might be able to leverage the fact that it there GPU's that will be powering both the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. It might be that its implementation of ray tracing ends up the de-facto standard way of implementation RT this generation. If architecturally AMD's new GPU's and the next gen console GPU's are very similar that might ensure good optimization towards AMD hardware as well.

I believe Nvidia are moving to a 7nm process for Ampere so a big jump in general performance should be possible. Regardless of that it looks like DLSS is a killer feature that AMD can't answer at the moment. Its implementation in Death Stranding offered better than native 4K image quality at high frame rates even on mid level GPU's.

Ray Tracing wise I expect Ampere to offer performance improvements there as well.

How knows what other features Nvidia might offer. The only question is how much are they going charge for it?

As for Crysis 3, all I can say is....THE ALPHA CEPH!!!!!

one armed dwarf

I've had mixed success with that DLSS thing. It can look better but you can get weird artifacts. Like in Death Stranding the phone wires sort of create ghosty outlines. Control has a lot of noise on carpets and doors. I'd prefer to play these games native, or at least I wish I could in the case of Control.