What Games Are You Playing?

johnlgalt · Sep 21, 2023

Dru2 said:
So you got the full game? And for how much?

Sorry for the late reply. During the (US) Labor Day holiday, I caught ... something. It was tenacious and by the time I got over it I was hit with something else.

double tested (regular and antigen testing) showed it as not COVID though.

Anyhoo, yeah, the (base) game itself is free because of my XBox PC Pass subscription, so I paid for the deluxe upgrade only, with 10% off that upgrade price.

I've only recently started playing, due to the illnesses, but I started one game at normal difficulty, got about 5 hours into it, and killed that and started over, this time opting for very hard.

It's very, very slow going since I've selected very hard, and I think I've visited 5 or 6 systems thus far. Barely into the universe really lol. But I am enjoying it thoroughly, glitches and all.

The biggest issue I have is stick drift on my Elite II Wireless controller. It's maddening, especially when I'm crouched and trying to hide and my character abruptly moves from out of cover in the middle of a firefight.

As soon as I find a good, reliable method to convert this controller to using Hall Effect sensors, I'm doing it. I'm currently researching the various ones I've seen on YouTube, but all of them require just a bit more time and effort than I want to put into it. And as much as I paid for it the damned thing should have had Hall Effect sensors in the first place.

Flashorn said:
I'm in debt after this upgrade. BUT, I don't care.

Heh. I feel you.

I dropped a lot of money making this rig 3 years ago, and dropped a ton more money into it in 2022 (RTX 3080 Ti plus 3 of the 980 Pro 2 TB drives).

It's a happy feeling in cases like this to be in debt for a while.

Ghot said:
At top right you can choose the country. PCPartpicker will find the lowest prices, automatically.
Above the drive listings, you can see the filters I used.

1TB and up, Hard Drives

1TB and up, SATA SSDs

Best thing on the planet. I design this rig fully using PC Part Picker, and was even able to add components I already had / was moving from my old system, to keep the system fully ready to go.

blackroseMD1 · Sep 21, 2023

Flashorn said:
I'm in debt after this upgrade. BUT, I don't care.

I can relate to that. Just threw a ROG Strix 4090 into my machine and my wallet is hurting.

johnlgalt · Sep 21, 2023

CyberPunk 2077 DLC Update 2.0 is live on Steam for me:

pparks1 · Sep 21, 2023

Let me know how Starfield is. My son tried it, and has complained non-stop at how poorly optimized the game is. He's running a Ryzen 3800X with a 2080 Super.

I'm hopefully gonna find time to play some games over the winter. I'm in the process of buying an Xbox Series X for the new new Forza Motorsports. While I can game on my PC, I'd rather race on my 4k big TV and home theater setup. And unfortunately, my office and my theater room are in opposite sides of the house.

johnlgalt · Sep 22, 2023

The game is currently optimized for AMD FSR, but the devs have promised that DLSS will be integrated into the game soon enough.

Only real issues I've had are stick drift (not a game issue, but an issue in game nonetheless) and occasionally the game gets really slow when enabling / disabling scanning mode when on a planetary / planetoid surface.

Quitting and starting the game over sometimes fixes that.

I'm also a completionist, so I'm doing all of the side quests, and that means getting to the end is going to be much harder (longer) for me, but having already read what awaits in New Game+ mode, I'm doing it this way intentionally. But there are a *ton* of side quests, and I've given up trying to accurately scan every single planetoid / planetary body out there, as that takes entirely too long. But the overall story thus far I'm quite enjoying, very Space Opera-esque.

Have your son check out Jay's Two Cents' recent videos on Starfield (and Gamer's Nexus too for more in depth information). Good stuff there, including a mod to enable DLSS (and possibly almost double framrate on nVidia GPUs).

GamePass also has the base Forza games free, so I'm looking forward to that one as well.

As for Cyberpunk - though the patch is out, I'm waiting until Phantom Liberty releases next week to dive back into it.

pparks1 · Sep 22, 2023

Thanks for the info. Yeah, he mentioned that the game wasn't optimized for Nvidia. I'll have him look at those resources. We watch both of those channels, so there is a chance he saw it already.

I am not a game completionist. I think i have only finished 1 or 2 games in my entire life. Not completing all of the side stuff, just getting to the actual end.

Firas · Sep 22, 2023

johnlgalt said:
The game is currently optimized for AMD FSR, but the devs have promised that DLSS will be integrated into the game soon enough.

Only real issues I've had are stick drift (not a game issue, but an issue in game nonetheless) and occasionally the game gets really slow when enabling / disabling scanning mode when on a planetary / planetoid surface.

Quitting and starting the game over sometimes fixes that.

I'm also a completionist, so I'm doing all of the side quests, and that means getting to the end is going to be much harder (longer) for me, but having already read what awaits in New Game+ mode, I'm doing it this way intentionally. But there are a *ton* of side quests, and I've given up trying to accurately scan every single planetoid / planetary body out there, as that takes entirely too long. But the overall story thus far I'm quite enjoying, very Space Opera-esque.

Have your son check out Jay's Two Cents' recent videos on Starfield (and Gamer's Nexus too for more in depth information). Good stuff there, including a mod to enable DLSS (and possibly almost double framrate on nVidia GPUs).

GamePass also has the base Forza games free, so I'm looking forward to that one as well.

As for Cyberpunk - though the patch is out, I'm waiting until Phantom Liberty releases next week to dive back into it.

What Game is this?
Forgive me for asking

johnlgalt · Sep 22, 2023

Firas said:
What Game is this?
Forgive me for asking

pparks1 said:
Let me know how Starfield is.

Sorry about that, I was replying to the previous post, so did not use any quotations.

dbartenstein · Sep 22, 2023

Baldur's Gate 3....

Firas · Sep 22, 2023

johnlgalt said:
Sorry about that, I was replying to the previous post, so did not use any quotations.

I went back to Dead Island 2 because I really liked this game, but I didn't finish the story.

johnlgalt · Sep 22, 2023

I do that a lot with games I really like. Starfield is the first one I'm trying (from the beginning) to complete as much as possible, because I really want to build up the character before I get to the end, so I have a lot to carry over when I finally get to New Game+ mode.

Firas · Sep 22, 2023

johnlgalt said:
I do that a lot with games I really like. Starfield is the first one I'm trying (from the beginning) to complete as much as possible, because I really want to build up the character before I get to the end, so I have a lot to carry over when I finally get to New Game+ mode.

ya Man that's what I'm talking about
Enjoy

Dam times you really miss how good a game this is even if it is 2 or 3 years old

Firas · Sep 22, 2023

Flashorn · Sep 23, 2023

blackroseMD1 said:
I can relate to that. Just threw a ROG Strix 4090 into my machine and my wallet is hurting

I'm glad to see that you still have a wallet !
I should also add that with the new 990 I also installed a
Solidigm 2TB for storage.
No more wallet to speak of.

Dru2 · Sep 23, 2023

johnlgalt said:
CyberPunk 2077 DLC Update 2.0 is live on Steam for me:

View attachment 71659

View attachment 71660

That's the update not the actual DLC. That releases Tuesday. I'm waiting till Tuesday before I even look at Steam.

For now, I'm currently playing a new character in Division 2. Need to get him up to level 40 so I can share my stash with him. This is my third character, and now allows me to carry 450 items between them, which in turn gives me lots of items to deconstruct as resource material for upgrading gear

Dru2 · Sep 23, 2023

johnlgalt said:
I'm also a completionist, so I'm doing all of the side quests,

That's me. I can't play a game without doing all the side quests. And they add to the story which also affects the end game

The Mass Effect Trilogy is a perfect example of this as certain quests not done in the first game, and especially in the second game, can come back to haunt you in choices available to you with certain characters or situations, which than affects the final outcome.

johnlgalt · Sep 23, 2023

Firas said:
ya Man that's what I'm talking about
Enjoy Dam times you really miss how good a game this is even if it is 2 or 3 years old

2 or 3?

Lol. I bought Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered to play it again. I've been playing Skyrim for going on 8 years, and upgraded to the Special Edition to get the better native graphics. I played all 4 Mass Effects, and thus bought Legendary Edition for the better graphics also.

I mean, Cyberpunk 2077 just dropped it's 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty is just around the corner. And this game is almost 3 years old, and I still play it actively. To me, old is much older than 2-3 years old.

Steam shows me as having dumped 693 hours into Cyberpunk thus far.... And I haven't loaded it since 2.0 went live, either. And by my review date, you can see I was an early adopter of the game lol.

But, yeah, replayability of a game will always help for it to find a place in my heart. The above is not even my record, I have way more hours logged into Mass Effect 3 on account of the multi-player in it. I think that game has topped over 1000 hours logged....

And I haven't played it at all since MELE came out lol.

johnlgalt · Sep 23, 2023

Dru2 said:
That's the update not the actual DLC. That releases Tuesday. I'm waiting till Tuesday before I even look at Steam.

The Phantom Liberty is a paid DLC, yes, but the 2.0 Update is so new and different, and even being free, you might as well consider it a DLC for all the new content as well as new restrictions in terms of hardware and such.

I mean, according to IGN:

The release of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion also comes with an early brand-new base game update. The free Cyberpunk 2.0 update brings some massive changes to the base game that players can enjoy alongside the expansion, from a brand new perks system to improved AI. In this part of the Cyberpunk 2077 guide, we’ve broken down each new update and change from 2.0 so you can know what to expect from Cyberpunk’s main game and its thrilling upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion.

Reworked Perks System

Vehicle Combat

Armor and Cyberware Changes

Stamina and Weapons

Updated Ripperdoc Interactions

Updated Police AI

General Changes

Full Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Patch Notes

So, this essentially changes the game (and almost forces you to use a new character and start over, though you can get skill points and such back to rework your character) and has a lot of new content and mechanics that I think it qualifies being called a DLC.

Certainly better than some paltry DLCs I've seen for other games lol!

johnlgalt · Sep 23, 2023

Dru2 said:
The Mass Effect Trilogy is a perfect example of this as certain quests not done in the first game, and especially in the second game, can come back to haunt you in choices available to you with certain characters or situations, which than affects the final outcome.

Why, yes. Yes it is.

I think it is fairly safe to say that you and I both love that trilogy. I only just now read your last reply, and it was several minutes after I had already posted my reply to Firas, so one heck of a coincidence - but if a game (and game series) is done well, people are gonna like it.