I understood the PS3 version to have a save issue IIRC. Didn't the saves get more and more bloated, slowing the game down more and more over time? I believe it was something along those lines.
Yep... once it hit approx. 10MB, the FPS would hit a brick wall.
Oh, how affected is your hearing if I may ask? Do you heave hearing aids or anything? I don't know how effective they are, but you could consider the pseudo-surround "5.1" headphones that emulate surround pretty well. Being headphones you can adjust them much, much better than speakers where you'll wake the family, and you don't need a surround system or amp either.
I've always greatly valued just how much atmosphere immersive sound design can make to a game. Original BioShock, the old Soldier of Fortune games, the older Rainbow Six games...they sounded so good I would literally be ducking out of the way of video game bullets and ricochets. But Vista killed that :-( What are your experiences with video game sound in general, I'd love to hear your thoughts (no pun intended!).
I had a couple ear infections as a young squit which wrecked the hearing in my right ear and buggered up my left. I can still hear out of both, but once sound reaches a certain volume, my ears just can't process differences in pitch/tone/frequency or what have you. I'll be able to hear differences, just not THE differences (so in-ear earphones on a low volume are my default setting for music and any background noise kinda messes with it). But yeah, I have the best time when gaming with headphones, though I'm not especially au fait with brands that cater to audiophiles (a set of Sennheiser cans is as far as my savvy goes). Some sounds, depending on proximity/volume manifest as various flavours of static.
Video game sound is fine, as with music, provided it's low enough for me to definitively discern character diction, change in pitch etc. but high enough to actually hear over mild background noise, it's fine. But maybe I'm skimping out, spatial representation of directions sound emanates from always seems off to me. Anyway, nah, my gripes with gaming tend to come with being colour blind, not partially deaf. I installed Witcher 2 recently and for the opening couple hours (the tutorial guff etc.), I raged at being almost completely unable to make anything out on-screen without having my face centimetres from the screen (kept thinking the gamma was messed up, but no amount of adjusting did anything)! Took a bit of calming down from the missus, that.
In some ways I wish I was affected more by new releases. I'll spend months in expectation for a game to be released, snatch it up on release day, rush home from work, play it non-stop for the whole weekend ... and then ... start a new Skyrim character, or plunge back into Overwatch, or even start looking forward to a new game that's coming out soon. My gaming library is full of games that I've been eager as all hell to play on release day but that within a few weeks gave way to my old established favourites.
- Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. And Tyranny
- Divnity: Original Sin 2
- The Witcher 3 + All DLCs
- XCOM2 War of the Chosen (burnt myself out on XCOM2 pre-DLC but think I can face it again)
- X4 Foundations. The only game I've preordered this year, because Egosoft are a great studio who make superlative space games
And on PS4, I bought all Uncharted games, Horizon Zero Dawn, Yakuza 0, Last of Us, the David Cage ones and currently playing through Bloodborne (which I suspect I'll NG+).
And I really want to replay Skyrim SE, maybe another Mass Effect OT playthru at some point too. And in the next year or two, whenever Cyberpunk 2077 that's going straight to the front. Not. Enough. Time.
For Bloodborne NG+, I?d advise to do the DLC play through before the + cycle, like loading a save right before you fight Gehrman. Idk how much the difficulty difference is personally but I?ve heard the tip by quite a few. I?m doing it on a NG+ cycle and it?s generally tougher than anything else in the game, barring some bosses. But even they are up there.
On the sound thing again, this site [https://www.blu-ray.com] has a good review section for what movies sound best and what format they?re encoded in. Here?s one [https://satsun.org/audio/] for a few PC games, but I haven?t found a good one for consoles. Guessing most current games support 7.1 since even most of the big PS3 exclusives did. The Killzone games sounded especially good. I always leave my receiver on Auto/Auto Format Direct since it outputs the signal as encoded. The bells and whistles settings are mainly there to dress up lower quality sources.
I got a chance to play some RDR2 last night. It starts out slow and really I?m still trying to feel the controls out, but it generally plays smoothly and looks phenomenal overall. I also really dug the glass negative loading screens. The environmental stuff especially looks outstanding with volumetric lighting and bounce illumination and probably the best snow deformation I?ve seen, but character models are a bit of a mixed bag. For example Arthur looks great but Dutch looks a bit rough and less detailed. It?s not jarring or anything but noticeable nonetheless.
Back to the controls, I know a lot of people commented on how sluggish it feels but I?m thinking of it as being tied into the physics/animation systems. Arthur has a weight and deliberation to his movement; he isn?t some floaty, turn-on-a-dime action hero because that would honestly feel kinda silly here. He feels more grounded and connected to the world than that of any GTA game, and while there is noticeable lag to the crouching in particular (at least on my current setting) it didn?t seem to affect anything within the context of the game?s action so far. Cover and running are both snappy enough for example, and I kinda dig the rifle action input. The health and stamina systems seem like they could be tweaked a bit or perhaps I?m not fully accustomed to them. I felt like I had to eat something to regain stamina when drawing back and holding a bowstring too long for example. However it?s really too early for me to definitively comment on the mechanics as I?m only scraping the surface.
The game feels like a mix of the same and also different to past Rockstar titles, but I?m mainly hoping to fine tune the aiming towards something at least better than what was in GTAV. I?ve seen quite a few YouTube clips where people have no problem with free aim headshots so it shouldn?t be an issue. The option settings and menu details in general are kinda staggering, but for a game this size it?s meant to be taken in bite size chunks as you play.
I?m currently only to the part where you
head down the mountain to the train tracks to prep the robbery
so I haven?t even opened the map up so to speak. I will say the game is a slow burn, and meant to be played where the only real goal is to step into the life of an outlaw and let things play out, however insignificant or trivial they may be. It?s understandable that people would be put off by it rather early if they?re expecting it to play even like GTA. The little details are really meant to be savored here.
One more thing as a side note, I remember a post or two in the cowboy thread about how minorities might not be able to relate to the time and that being a reason enough not to play, but already the game has established a couple minority characters in the main group and to great effect. I went hunting with a black guy and there was some legitimately insightful dialogue where you are able to gain an appreciation of his background and personal experience of the time period. This is so far Rockstar?s best character writing and they each have more nuanced and natural feeling personalities. The delivery is also just as nuanced. For instance I got the impression that Dutch was either perpetually winded or a little unsure of his words, which is interesting considering he?s the leader.
i'm more distracted by old games i'm still addicted too.
a big reason why my backlog keeps growing is because i spend too much time playing games like Splatoon or Smash bros or replaying old games like Xenoblade, Metroid and Pikmin.
i want to finish or even play for the first time some of my newer games but i just get distracted by how good my old stuff is.
I get super hyyyyyyped sometimes, but usually...eh. Every couple of years my lack of enthusiasm for new stuff has me thinking this'll be the time I finally drop gaming. then something in my backlogue draws me in.
I was really hyped for Marvel's Sony's Spider-Man Trademark, so that kinda distracted me from the six other single-player games I could be playing. I may be the only person with access to an internet connection without a burning passion for RDR2.
Nah, I like my gameplay from this decade for the most part. And I gave Rockstar my obligatory once a gen try with GTA5, which was mediocre to begin with, and then crapped all over because they'd rather put out 20-50 dollar reskins of vehicles to sell shark cards then have content in the base game.
Nah, I like my gameplay from this decade for the most part. And I gave Rockstar my obligatory once a gen try with GTA5, which was mediocre to begin with, and then crapped all over because they'd rather put out 20-50 dollar reskins of vehicles to sell shark cards then have content in the base game.
Fair enough. best poart about GTA for me was that GTA Online was the first game in ages my friends wanted to play that wasn't an FPS, so my interest in it was more that it was a breath of fresh air than anything else. I don't hate FPS, but it's nice to have a breather after two or three straight years.
I can't remember when I've paid full price for a game before Breath of the Wild, Monster Hunter generations rerelease on the Switch, and something else I likely can't remember the name of. Even many games of game series I love I haven't paid for brand new. My most recent game purchase I made was Shady War-y for AU$28 at EB Games in a bargain bin of PS4 games. Normally a game I'dpay for on PC, but I saw it in a bargain bin, and it was more an impulse buy.
So I'm going to say I'm not terribly distracted. I'm currently replaying Daggerfall and having a blast with some mods for it.
My Khajiit w/ all armour forbidden, all weapons foridden beyond longblade, with spell/social heavy build is fun. Underworld hate me... I'm all about blowing up bandits and sweet-talking jobs out of people. Touring the country, perpetually living in taverns, and being the best gosh-darn glass cannon to ever roam Tamriel.
Pulling out all the D&D tropes of the wandering, ultra-violent hobo that people inexplicably love when in reality I imagine people would throw me in prison to avoid all the collateral damage I cause.
i'm more distracted by old games i'm still addicted too.
a big reason why my backlog keeps growing is because i spend too much time playing games like Splatoon or Smash bros or replaying old games like Xenoblade, Metroid and Pikmin.
i want to finish or even play for the first time some of my newer games but i just get distracted by how good my old stuff is.
If they remade Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Switch I'd happily buy that for a modified rerelease full price because I know for a fact that it would chew up a month of my life in the off days I don't need to study or socialize. What they need to invent is a specialized bed mount and charger for the Switch so you can lie in it with a joycon in eachhand and the 'tablet' kept at an adjustable distance to your face.
I'd be happy if they merely boosted FPS, tweak graphics a bit, and made it so you can invite party companions by menu select rather than all of that going back to NLA and travelling about to find them Every. Fucking. Time.
I mean, sure ... it's a fun idea that character have lives and thus different hangouts occasionally, and yuo actually have to visit where they are because they actually live someplace... but c'mon. Convenience is never not a good thing. That and the less time being afflicted with the NLA music tracks, and rather more of the stellar regional tunes, the better.
It's kind of messed up when you think about it. Humanity is on the cusp of extinction. They have a plethora of fighting vehicles and are pilotting bodies that have no need for rest or food. Need their help? Oh, just travel entire continents to get back to that one place they're hanging out, pick them up, and then they'll decide to mobilize. Meet me halfway at least, arseholes. There's hostile forces and aggressive native fauna to put bullets and swords into.
Nah, I like my gameplay from this decade for the most part. And I gave Rockstar my obligatory once a gen try with GTA5, which was mediocre to begin with, and then crapped all over because they'd rather put out 20-50 dollar reskins of vehicles to sell shark cards then have content in the base game.
Fair enough. best poart about GTA for me was that GTA Online was the first game in ages my friends wanted to play that wasn't an FPS, so my interest in it was more that it was a breath of fresh air than anything else. I don't hate FPS, but it's nice to have a breather after two or three straight years.
OH yeah. Their stubborn adherence to archaic control schemes/questionable gameplay and the money grabbing aside. I'll grant that GTA Online is, in general a unique beast. Watch_Dogs 2 (since the first one literally just dumped everyone into a free roam with no real additions at all) just kind of haphazardly copy-pasting a few missions into the online as "co op" content didn't really offer much (or even the much later effort at adding MP specific content that was just kind of awkward and really minimal, like something they made during an internal mod jamming week or something)
Not very. I'm at the point now where I have so much less time for games that I basically don't buy them anymore. I think about carving out more time for them every once in awhile but the world just seems to keep finding ways to keep me busy. I'm currently lusting over Forza Horizon 4 but it's hard for me to justify the $60 when I know I won't be able to play it as much as I'd like.
I think that's a really good approach, but I think it got away from me some time ago. Once the backlog got built up, the issue then became worse. Steam sales still happen so I'll pick things up, adding them on to the queue. Then I'll spend inordinate amounts of time in fewer, "grindy" games...not so much recently but I've put so many hours into Payday 2, Warframe, more recently Diablo 3 and Path of Exile. Each time I replay an older game it also makes the issue worse; I just "finished" a Gaige playthru of BL2 (from lvl 1 thru OP8).
I don't care about backlogs anymore. When I used to I found myself rushing through games just so I could clean a backlog. It made me feel like I was going through a chore instead of enjoying myself. And there's simply no need for that. It's an artificial problem of our own design.
Nah, I like my gameplay from this decade for the most part. And I gave Rockstar my obligatory once a gen try with GTA5, which was mediocre to begin with, and then crapped all over because they'd rather put out 20-50 dollar reskins of vehicles to sell shark cards then have content in the base game.
Fair enough. best poart about GTA for me was that GTA Online was the first game in ages my friends wanted to play that wasn't an FPS, so my interest in it was more that it was a breath of fresh air than anything else. I don't hate FPS, but it's nice to have a breather after two or three straight years.
I think that's a really good approach, but I think it got away from me some time ago. Once the backlog got built up, the issue then became worse. Steam sales still happen so I'll pick things up, adding them on to the queue. Then I'll spend inordinate amounts of time in fewer, "grindy" games...not so much recently but I've put so many hours into Payday 2, Warframe, more recently Diablo 3 and Path of Exile. Each time I replay an older game it also makes the issue worse; I just "finished" a Gaige playthru of BL2 (from lvl 1 thru OP8).
I don't care about backlogs anymore. When I used to I found myself rushing through games just so I could clean a backlog. It made me feel like I was going through a chore instead of enjoying myself. And there's simply no need for that. It's an artificial problem of our own design.
That's a good way of putting it. I used to do the same thing, but more recently I've had unfinished games sitting for years, and every once in a while something will pique my interest back up enough to boot them up. Sometimes it'll stick, but others I'll be reminded why I stopped playing them.
Like most if not all forms of entertainment, games are meant to be enjoyed. If that enjoyment needs to be forced then one can't really put a price tag on that level of insanity.
I pile of shame is unbelievably huge yet, Spiderman and Red Dead Redemption 2 is on my wish list. I'm betting I see Dishonored 2 cheap soon too. G-d of War 4 has come down in price too.
I may... may have the will power to resist a Gen 9 console though.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
