Games you are currently playing: ROUND SIX

[SolidSnakeUS]

I recently spent a few weeks trying to decide between that SN30 Pro and the N30 Pro 2. I needed a controller to play a lot of platform/arcade/action/puzzle games (like Shovel Knight, Cuphead, The Messenger, etc.) that I'd been putting off because they're just not designed for or comfortable with mouse and keyboard. I ended up going with the N30 Pro 2, since the NES is more "my generation" than the SNES and it's a thinner controller, so it packs better for travel. I still might eventually get the SN30 Pro to compare, though.

They're awesome controllers. I love that they have the old school (no handles) design that I'm comfortable with, yet still have all of the buttons and sticks of modern controllers (so you can still play any game with them), as well as the fact that they're rechargeable and can be connected with Bluetooth or USB cable.

8bitdo N30 Pro 2:

BTW, for those interested in the SN30 Pro, there's now an SN30 Pro+, which simply adds handles. They're not for me, but a lot of younger gamers are used to controllers with handles and may prefer it.

8bitdo SN30 Pro+:

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[Pilky01]

Yeah the prongs on those controllers are freaky looking.

I love the classic design with the two sticks added.

 

[God King Fudge]

Been going hard on Persona 5. Blair Witch just released and is getting good reviews, so I want to check that out tonight. Really about it.

 

[Leafs at Knight]

Just WoW classic until Borderlands. Then I'll be playing them both for awhile.

 

[GlassesJacketShirt]

Giving Dragon Age III a go finally after having it in my library for..........three years. Gotta get through that and Witcher III before Cyberpunk 2077 (aka the last game I will ever purchase) comes out.

 

[tealhockey]

Finishing Nier before I play anything else (prob DMC 5), longer game than I expected. Not complaining though I love it so far

 

[Commander Clueless]

Fire Emblem and WoW Classic are taking up more free time than I currently have.


My Witcher expansion play through sits derailed....again. One day I swear I'll actually play those.

 

[Nizdizzle]

I'm having a ton of fun on Classic WoW right now. I have never played WoW before, so everything is new to me, but it is refreshing to have an MMO with so little hand-holding. The community (that I've encountered) is super friendly and people go out of their way to help all the time. That said, I've wasted the first week because I've rerolled so many times. I don't want to commit to a class I won't enjoy since its such a time investment.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I'm still playing Apex Legends and I just had the most insane round, most damage and kills in 1 round in my life. We landed skull town and there was just always action for probably 10 minutes straight. By the time we finally left skull town, there was only a few more minutes of action and we won in the next town. Everything just lined up this game, R-99 was clutch.



Also started playing Doki Doki Literature Club yesterday. I'm past the first playthrough when things start getting really interesting. I can see why people praise it but at the same time, I felt like it dragged way too long to get to this point. Also the beginning seems to be the same text for playthrough #2 for a good bit of it which starts to make it drag there too. Without posting spoilers, it's definitely starting to get pretty crazy but hopefully the craziness is a lot more frequent than it has been so far.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Is absolutely no one here playing Control? I am surprised.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

It looks pretty interesting but from what little I know about it, there's only one gun that you modify and it looks like the majority of the game is just throwing stuff with telekinetic powers. Unless the story is great, I don't see myself getting too far into it. I'll wait for it to get cheap and give it a go then when it gets on a Steam sale.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

It looks pretty interesting but from what little I know about it, there's only one gun that you modify and it looks like the majority of the game is just throwing stuff with telekinetic powers. Unless the story is great, I don't see myself getting too far into it. I'll wait for it to get cheap and give it a go then when it gets on a Steam sale.

There is one gun but it has different modes: regular pistol, shotgun, SMG, sniper and RPG that you unlock as you progress. Special mention should be made about how damn satisfying the sniper mode is, I just LOVE shooting it. There is no ammo, the gun has unlimited bullets (clip size is dependent on the mode) but when it is empty it has to recharge.

You do use the throw ability a lot but the fun of the combat is that you have to alternate between your gun and your powers. Empty your gun and throw stuff around while you wait for it to recharge. You also get the ability to fly at will around the midway point of the game which makes fights especially dynamic: since the main character is rather fragile, you are encouraged to keep moving. Combat is a lot more fun and visceral than it sounds.

The story isn't great (bad guys are attacking!) but the setting really is: the whole game takes place in one sentient building, called The Oldest House, that is infinitely big and can shape shift inside. A secret branch of the US government, the Federal Bureau of Control, has taken up shop in it and their job is to investigate phenomena that bend laws of physics and such. It's sort of a cross between X-Files and Twin Peaks in terms of presentation. Takes about 15 hours if you take your time to explore (metroidvania structure, no levels) and take the time to read the plethora of documents you find (most of them are short and fun to read, but there are a lot of them, around 250)

Easily Remedy's best game to date but I have to admit not having played Quantum Break. The game is really, really fun. It reminded me a lot of the original Half-Life, the Oldest House is very reminiscent of good ol' Black Mesa.

Special mention should be given to the graphics since this is the first real game we have that was designed with RTX in mind: I have a RTX 2070 Super and the game looks utterly incredible.

I know you are PC Frankie but if anyone reading this wants to play it, be aware that apparently it doesn't run all that well on the base Xbox One and PS4.

 

[SeidoN]

was interested in Control till I saw the PC performance. hot yikes.

 

[Commander Clueless]

was interested in Control till I saw the PC performance. hot yikes.

Max graphics & raytracing is a wallet nightmare, but if you just want to play, the minimum requirements aren't too bad.

Like pretty much everything in the RTX era so far, raytracing looks super slick, but it comes at much too high a cost for what you get.

 

[mmalady]

Is absolutely no one here playing Control? I am surprised.

just started yesterday...figuring things out and enjoying it so far...happy to get launch and I know its still early but can't wait for more mod slots to open up

 

[Do Make Say Think]

was interested in Control till I saw the PC performance. hot yikes.

If you run it in DX11 it runs very well. The taxing stuff is the ray tracing and I get 1080/60fps with my 2070Super with RTX on max and lowering stuff like textures to medium (no DLSS cause I hate the smear).

PC performance isn't perfect, the DX12 stuttering is annoying, but keep in mind that most of the complaints are from people with very high end equipment. Don't trust those people, they are the usual vocal minority.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Max graphics & raytracing is a wallet nightmare, but if you just want to play, the minimum requirements aren't too bad.

Like pretty much everything in the RTX era so far, raytracing looks super slick, but it comes at much too high a cost for what you get.

Lower everything to a mix of medium to high (ultra textures are very taxing and the payoff isn't commensurate) and you can crank up the RTX.

RTX isn't free (no there's a ****in' hefty fee) but it works fine, runs fine and looks absolutely amazeballs. Control is the arrival of glorious, full-blown ray-tracing: took a while but it is here and it works.

Of course I have a RTX 2070 Super so I have the GPU for it. Won't work on a 1080ti, but that us why DX11 is available and it still looks great.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Lower everything to a mix of medium to high (ultra textures are very taxing and the payoff isn't commensurate) and you can crank up the RTX. RTX isn't free (no there's a ****in' hefty fee) but it works fine, runs fine and looks absolutely amazeballs. Control is the arrival of glorious, full-blown ray-tracing: took a while but it is here and it works fine.

Of course I have a RTX 2070 Super so I have the GPU for it. Won't work on a 1080ti.

Indeed.

I've seen it in action, and it's pretty awesome. Not yet convinced it's worth a new $700+ video card, though .

My main point was that RTX on a budget isn't really a thing, but if you're interested in the game it is still playable on more affordable hardware. I guess that base level consoles are having issues running it, though to be fair they are fast approaching end of life.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Indeed.

I've seen it in action, and it's pretty awesome. Not yet convinced it's worth a new $700+ video card, though .

My main point was that RTX on a budget isn't really a thing, but if you're interested in the game it is still playable on more affordable hardware. I guess that base level consoles are having issues running it, though to be fair they are fast approaching end of life.

On that I'd agree. I just decided to upgrade my 970 to a 2070 and the Supers came out at the same time. It was convenient but expensive as hell. I also game at 1080p so everything runs better than at 4k.

I just get frustrated by people who claim the game runs like crap because it doesn't stay at 120 fps at 4k with everything cranked up to ultra. It simply is not true, the game runs fine on PC and, from what I read, on the Xbox One X. Even on the base consoles, it sounds like the fps does take massive hits but only at certain times when combat is intense, outside of that it runs at the usual steady 30 fps.

 

[Commander Clueless]

On that I'd agree. I just decided to upgrade my 970 to a 2070 and the Supers came out at the same time. It was convenient but expensive as hell. I also game at 1080p so everything runs better than at 4k.

I just get frustrated by people who claim the game runs like crap because it doesn't stay at 120 fps at 4k with everything cranked up to ultra. It simply is not true, the game runs fine on PC and, from what I read, on the Xbox One X. Even on the base consoles, it sounds like the fps does take massive hits but only at certain times when combat is intense, outside of that it runs at the usual steady 30 fps.

It goes hand in hand with my frustration with your typical PC benchmark numbers around the web. Everyone seems to run benchmarks at max settings when, in reality, a lot of people with the hardware being tested don't expect to run mega ultra textures....

Anyway, that's an off topic rant waiting to happen, so I'll leave it there.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

It goes hand in hand with my frustration with your typical PC benchmark numbers. Everyone seems to run benchmarks at max settings when, in reality, a lot of people with the hardware being tested don't expect to run mega ultra textures....

Anyway, that's an off topic rant waiting to happen, so I'll leave it there.

I'll say that realizing that a strong plurality of people who call a game unplayable due to performance are the usual neckbeards is liberating.

I am very sensitive to fps fluctuations (in that I notice them, not that they make me ill) so I used to always be worried when enthusiasts would complain. Once I knew to not listen to them, everything improved.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I'll say that realizing that a strong plurality of people who call a game unplayable due to performance are the usual neckbeards is liberating.

I am very sensitive to fps fluctuations (in that I notice them, not that they make me ill) so I used to always be worried when enthusiasts would complain. Once I knew to not listen to them, everything improved.

I'm one of those that can get motion sickness from large FPS fluctuations or low FOV, but usually that sort of thing is easily mitigated by dropping certain settings to optimize the visuals.

I do pay a little more attention when I'm looking to play a game on console, though, as they tend to lack the ability to tweak specific settings....options that I hope improve next gen. Fortunately, most console exclusives are well optimized and I really only see the occasional issue (most recent example being a couple of the boss fights in Spider-Man on PS4...but still loved the game overall).

Multi-platform games tend to be more of a mixed bag, but I've found recently that the games I enjoy the most are either indies or exclusives (at least at one point)....or from CDPR I guess.

 

[FourRings]

Jumped into WoW Classic while I wait for NHL.

 

[SeidoN]

Max graphics & raytracing is a wallet nightmare

even without it, not great

 

[Commander Clueless]

even without it, not great

True.

Bump those bad boy settings down a peg.

Looks like it could stand some further optimization.

To be fair, it looks gorgeous on high.