Video Game Thread v. Wii4One

[Chino]

I found my original Sony PSP in storage last night with all my games. That system as not aged well. My hand was cramping up after about 20 minutes and the graphics are nowhere near as good as I remember them (though I guess that holds true for all systems). For some reason it can't see my wifi router despite every other device in the house having no problems connecting to it.

[cramx3]

I had a PSP and after my first few days of using it, the cramps were a major problem for me.  I sold it shortly after and never looked back.

[Sacul]

Especially since my video card is a 780. Trying to get a 1080 thrown in this year.

Send it my way if you don't want it . That's already a very powerful card, I see no reason for such small upgrade tho.

[TioJorge]

Especially since my video card is a 780. Trying to get a 1080 thrown in this year.

Send it my way if you don't want it . That's already a very powerful card, I see no reason for such small upgrade tho.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the wording, like that it'd be a small upgrade for you personally. I hope so, (or I'm missing the trolling) because there is an ocean of difference in performance separating the 780 and 1080. It's not even close. Ten fold if you're speaking with exclusivity for FFXV (and quite frankly, most other AAA titles that are coming out now and will be coming out sooner than later, though FFXV is the extreme of that). I mean the specs alone are easy to look at but I had a 780 about two years ago and upgraded to the 1070 and that alone was a massive boost in performance, so that's a first hand account. That's just a jarring comment if it's in reference to the actual difference between a 780 and a 1080.  Not to say the 780 is bad or anything, but going from that to a 1080 is going to be night and day.

That's a real shame about the invisible barriers that keep you from seriously exploring. That's genuinely disappointing. I do want to play it because the boss battles look ridiculously cool and it's just beautiful, but that's a problem. So is the lack of diversity in the party, the entire bromance/road trip/bonding thing is not what I really want out of a Final Fantasy story. Maybe I should wait for a sale. Especially since my video card is a 780. Trying to get a 1080 thrown in this year.

I'm pretty picky about it and probably have been more than biased since my BoTW playthrough, so don't let it muddy your view of the game too much. It's not noticeable for the most part in the actual "open map" (there actually isn't a map ala the old school FF's, but there are dungeons and smaller sections of that "map" in which the invisible wall phenomena is present) of the game but there's little sections that very much resemble FFXIII's way of going about "openness" where you'll see a fairly sizable chunk of the map, try to go over there and there's an invisible wall. Again, much of the time that isn't there but it was jarring for me at first because I went into the game almost entirely blind and thought it'd be true open world goodness. It's almost there, just not quite. Definitely check it out though because the game is a whole lot of fun and I'm enjoying it a lot, just don't go into it thinking it's a true open world game. Go into it viewing it like a regular Final Fantasy with open-world aspects and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

[The Walrus]

Yeah, like, the 780 is a lovely card, I picked it out specifically for the rig I built just to play Shadow of Mordor at top settings, but it's several years old now and I have wanted a 1080 for a while and there is definitely a difference as Jorge already covered. In fact I may just go beyond the 1080 depending on prices between models, but that's roughly what I'm aiming for.  The next step is finally upgrading to two slick monitors. Last year was Switch year, this year is... well, still Switch, but hopefully some PC too 

And that's good to know about FFXV. Really, I'm not that picky a gamer, so I bet it'll be fun. I just long for the days of (mostly) medieval-influenced Final Fantasy; FFXV looks so modern it might as well be another franchise. I miss those kinds of settings and all that... all the modern furniture and stuff they showed in 13 also bothered me, it just didn't feel like the FF I used to know and love

[ReaperKK]

I found my original Sony PSP in storage last night with all my games. That system as not aged well. My hand was cramping up after about 20 minutes and the graphics are nowhere near as good as I remember them (though I guess that holds true for all systems). For some reason it can't see my wifi router despite every other device in the house having no problems connecting to it.

I remember re-visiting so many classic and being shocked at how bad they looked, I guess my young imagination filled in the blanks (or polygons ) or maybe it's because the graphics were great at the time.

As for paying $60 for a title, I'll gladly do it if it warrants it, but Sea of Thieves doesn't. My brother bought the game and is currently trying to play but the servers are down. I'm going to watch him stream before I decided on getting it.

[TioJorge]

And that's good to know about FFXV. Really, I'm not that picky a gamer, so I bet it'll be fun. I just long for the days of (mostly) medieval-influenced Final Fantasy; FFXV looks so modern it might as well be another franchise. I miss those kinds of settings and all that... all the modern furniture and stuff they showed in 13 also bothered me, it just didn't feel like the FF I used to know and love

I couldn't agree more. I'd love some fancy new graphics amidst a setting like Final Fantasy IX. XV is great, but it definitely has callbacks and homages galore to previous FFs for a very specific reason; it needs to invoke that nostalgia because in some ways it really feels more like an immensely fantastic fan-retelling of a Final Fantasy than an actual first party game in regards to the nuance and vibe. I'm loving it but it seriously takes me right out of the entire experience when I hear a character in FF say (this is verbatim here) "hashtag sorry not sorry" and things of that ilk. It tries very hard to be meta and with that, it loses some of the fantasy.

Awesome as a game itself, but "good" as a Final Fantasy. Granted, with the development hell it went through, I'm just surprised it ended up releasing at all and ended up as fun as it is. I'm sure the next iteration will be more concise and less of a "we're catering to the new kids". I mean hell, every time you open up the game (in the PC version at least) it says right in your face "A Final Fantasy For Fans and First-Timers". It's like the game is reminding the "fans" portion of that, that this was also made heavily with a different sect of gamer in mind (and different generation).

[The Walrus]

I'm loving it but it seriously takes me right out of the entire experience when I hear a character in FF say (this is verbatim here) "hashtag sorry not sorry

 

[TioJorge]

  Yep. It's a new generation, man...

...

Did I just talk you out of buying the game? 

Really though, even stuff like that is in there, it's in the downtime of the game when the bros are bro-ing it up while exploring or camping. It's not like (at least not with what I've played so far) there's antagonists saying stuff like that. But the fact the line is in there at all speaks volumes to how they are trying to present the game and the world they created.

[Sacul]

I mean, yeah the 1080 is a beat of a card, and there's a good difference as you mention, but is it really worth it? I'm sure the 780 can already handle most games in high settings and resolutions - I played Deus Ex: Mankind Divided recently with a RX 550 quite recently in mid settings, and that's barely half as powerful as a 780, at least in G3D score (mine being around 3500 points, the 780 almost 8000, and the 1080 at ~12200). I guess I'm just a poor student and don't mind not having the fanciest graphics, so I see not point in upgrading a very capable card unless it's for something at least double the performance . But then I remember these things are way cheaper in the USA than here, and salaries quite higher

[TioJorge]

Eh, with GPU pricing right now, nowhere is cheap unless you sale-hunt every single day (which is totally doable). But you're right, the graphics quality in games (as well as the optimization of those games, emphasis on that part) definitely has a huge factor. I've gotten to the point where I really like to have my games at the higher settings if at all possible. I played at low to medium settings for a long time and once I could max things out, it was kind of a no going back situation for me. I'd definitely take higher FPS over the ridiculous almost-unnoticeable quality stuff. It's a balancing act that is dependent on the user, to be sure. But it sure is nice having the option to go balls to the wall if you want with that 1080.

I'm certainly not rolling in the dough, but other than spending money on a nice dinner here or there and of course the occasional PC component, I literally spend nothing outside of essentials and bills, so that helps me out a lot. It says something that my friends will go out for a night on the town and spend as much money as I did on half of my GPU and that I wouldn't trade that for the world. 

[The Walrus]

I probably don't need to do it - it still runs GTA 5 at high settings and Shadow of Mordor at max (the games I built the rig for) - but I think it's 3 or 4 years old now, and a nice GPU upgrade would be killer. Especially if it makes a brand new game all that prettier 

Money I probably shouldn't be spending, but hey... hobbies. 

[TioJorge]

It'll run the game okay at medium settings 1080p! You just won't be turning on any fancy effects or maxing anything out, but the game still looks absolutely awesome without it (uhh except anti-aliasing; for some reason unless that is on High, the grass looks like it's about 3 pixels total and legitimately messes with your eyes while running around; but you could get by with that on high and still get 40-ish FPS).

I'm sure there's some benchmarks out there with the 780, it's definitely a good GPU still for the Medium settings of current day AAA games, maybe Low if you're really an FPS stickler and if the game is really that demanding; which sadly XV definitely is (though worth it)!

[ReaperKK]

So I signed up for the free trial of xbox game pass so I can play sea of thieves for free for two weeks to see if I really want to buy it. I recommend anyone who wants to try it just sign up for the game pass if you haven't.

[TioJorge]

Yeah I was just reading up on that and with a game like this, that's huge. Really cool to have the option to try it out.

This and the FFXV demo made me realize I really do pine for the days of demos being a regular, normal thing for almost every game. Granted, Steam's refund service is okay but it's not the same and limits you pretty heavily.

[ReaperKK]

Steam's refund system works well for me. If by two hours I'm not engaged with the game then I'll probably never touch it again and return. Usually I can tell within an hour if I like the game or not.

FFXV is on my list of games to get now that it's on PC. I've never played any of the FF games and heard a lot of good things of FFXV.

[cramx3]

Especially since my video card is a 780. Trying to get a 1080 thrown in this year.

Send it my way if you don't want it . That's already a very powerful card, I see no reason for such small upgrade tho.

I have a GTX 770 I am likely putting on ebay soon.  I've got a few old PC parts I think I am going to sell from my previous build.  Was holding onto them in case I wanted to build another PC, but that seems unlikely.

[The Walrus]

It'll run the game okay at medium settings 1080p! You just won't be turning on any fancy effects or maxing anything out, but the game still looks absolutely awesome without it (uhh except anti-aliasing; for some reason unless that is on High, the grass looks like it's about 3 pixels total and legitimately messes with your eyes while running around; but you could get by with that on high and still get 40-ish FPS).

I'm sure there's some benchmarks out there with the 780, it's definitely a good GPU still for the Medium settings of current day AAA games, maybe Low if you're really an FPS stickler and if the game is really that demanding; which sadly XV definitely is (though worth it)!

I'm no min-maxer when it comes to cranking the effects on my games (and truth be told after all these years I still haven't bothered to learn what all those abbreviations in graphic settings are, I pretty much understand anti-aliasing and that's it), but I definitely would like to run it on high, so I think I'll focus on getting the 1080 first. Plus, maybe XV will go on sale by then LOL. I may just wait and tie it in with Monster Hunter World when the PC version comes out because I am super hyped for that 

[cramx3]

So I signed up for the free trial of xbox game pass so I can play sea of thieves for free for two weeks to see if I really want to buy it. I recommend anyone who wants to try it just sign up for the game pass if you haven't.

Yea, that's what my friends did last night.  Well, I'm working from home today cause of the snow and currently got my PC set up for dual boot with Windows 10 now.  Working on my data transfers I was bitching about the other day    I'm still waiting on feedback from their time at sea last night to see if it's all really worth it, but this upgrade is needed and I have time today. 

And yea, besides having a new 3TB HDD and new 2TB SSD, I forgot I had the 250GB NVMe drive in there already (which I put Windows 10 on just now since Windows 7 doesn't support such drives).  So a pretty big storage overhaul is due today and hopefully just kill off my Windows 7 set up by the end of the day.

[Sacul]

2TB SSD? Damn lucky one, I barely got a 120 GB the other day . But I don't regret it, performance is amazing, booting into Linux is stupidly fast, and everything feels way more responsive. Hope to get another one for my laptop eventually.


Kattoelox, don't forget you have a lot of albums to buy after your roulette tho

[cramx3]

2TB SSD? Damn lucky one, I barely got a 120 GB the other day . But I don't regret it, performance is amazing, booting into Linux is stupidly fast, and everything feels way more responsive. Hope to get another one for my laptop eventually.


Kattoelox, don't forget you have a lot of albums to buy after your roulette tho

I work for a tech company in our DC.  We have been doing performance testing on many different types of really expensive SSDs.  Apparently these didn't meet the requirements so it became mine and my coworker took the other one. 

[The Walrus]

Kattoelox, don't forget you have a lot of albums to buy after your roulette tho

Man, tell me about it. I do plan on buying a TON of albums so those will come first, and with ProgPower, I'm pretty strapped. I'll be lucky to get the card before the end of the year. 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

In case anyone cares, I've recently started streaming on Twitch. Here's my Twitch page. Link is also in my sig. I've been streaming Fortnite, Forza Horizon 3, and MLB The Show. I am open for suggestions on games to stream too.

[cramx3]

In case anyone cares, I've recently started streaming on Twitch. Here's my Twitch page. Link is also in my sig. I've been streaming Fortnite, Forza Horizon 3, and MLB The Show. I am open for suggestions on games to stream too.

Followed, I'm cramx3 on twitch and been streaming a bit more lately.

And after all my bitching, I took my work from home day yesterday and redid my hard drives and OS and just bought Sea of Thieves.  My friends had fun playing the night before and I just said fuck it.  I had a blast, played about 5 hours straight into the night.  My friend and I ended up getting paired with a young girl during my stream and her father gave us a warning beforehand: https://clips.twitch.tv/EnticingSmellyRadishWOOP  (and we were very respectful, you can rewatch the full stream, we practically taught this girl how to play and she tagged along with us while her father watched) and then later her father I guess told her to shoot the canon at us which really caught us off guard lol https://clips.twitch.tv/TemperedTransparentCheeseM4xHeh  But yea, the game is defintiely lacking content.  Manning the ship and sailing is really fun though, especially when you encounter someone else.  We had a few really good attacks and sunk others ships, until finally someone got us near the end of the gaming session.  Definitely a game you need to play with friends, yelling to raise the anchor and drop the sails to randoms isn't nearly as fun.

[ReaperKK]

I think the game shines when it's PvP but I'm already tired of going to islands and getting treasure.

[cramx3]

I think the game shines when it's PvP but I'm already tired of going to islands and getting treasure.

Yup, we just set sailing looking to kill people which worked the first time and not so well the second.  Just took awhile to find people, which sucked.  Game won't last long, it's unfinished, but apparently there's plans to add more content, just will be too late most likely.

[The Walrus]

This whole trend of releasing unfinished games/"early access"/etc. really makes my ass itch.

[ReaperKK]

Yea, this game is truely unfinished, hell there isn't even a start menus when you start. It feels like a beta that is $60.

I'm very happy I didn't buy and just used the trial to play it.

[cramx3]

My buddy I was playing with, he lives in San Fran and his brother in law is in the game industry out there in silicon valley.  He shared that Microsoft forcced Rare to rrush the game and they knew it was unfinished.  The sailing mechanics and ship battles are really awesome, it's such a shame they couldn't have something more on release or just have cut the price in half if they were going to add content later.

This whole trend of releasing unfinished games/"early access"/etc. really makes my ass itch.

Yea, it's hit and miss.  Like I miss the old days of when a game was released, it was a finished polished and working game.  But I also like the cheaper, get to try games before they are released and be apart of the process as well.  They don't always work out and you know that ahead of time so it's your own risk.  What the problem is, is when these two sort of mix and now you are getting advertised a complete product and pay the price for a complete product, but the product ends up being of the same quality as the early access type of game.  Which is essentially what Sea of Thieves feels like.

[ReaperKK]

I love/hate sea of thieves so much.

Last night we spent an hour doing boring fetch quests with my brother and one of my other friends when we came across two other ships. We eventually were able to sink both by shooting over to their ships killing the players, beaching the boats. It was so much fun but afterwards all that was left was the boring fetch quests.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Hey y'all, I haven't posted in a long time and don't feel like spending forever going through this thread to read everything. 

I made a thread specifically for the Nintendo Switch. I'm sure there's a lot of discussion for it in here, but I think it'd be nice to have it's own thread considering it's doing so well!

If anyone has an issue with this, feel free to have it taken down. 

[cramx3]

I love/hate sea of thieves so much.

Yea this.  Played it a lot this weekend and a mix bag of good times and frustration.  The lack of content is obvious, but I found myself not terribly bored with the game because playing with a full crew (even with randoms) can be a lot of fun.  My friend got a refund though, he isn't into it at all.  Apparently Microsoft is giving refunds to lots of people if you call and complain.  My frustration mostly comes from doing a bunch of quests and then having another pirate ship come by and steal it from you.  But to me, that's what makes the game fun too, having those real interactions.  I don't know, game should be 30 bucks, but I am having enough fun with it to not complain.

[ReaperKK]

I agree with everything you said. More unique quests and more pvp would make me happy. Some really great stories unfold through the pvp.

[Cool Chris]

Just finished Knights of the Old Republic 2. I had the mod that apparently fixed some of the issues with the original release, but I can't comment on any of that since I don't know the history of it all. Fun game, didn't mess with the formula from the masterpiece of the KotOR.  Now doing some reading about the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil Wars. I am not an EU guy, but I am finding this fascinating.

I found the story engaging but it lost me a bit toward the end, but I was not always totally focused on the dialogue and cut-scenes, as I was often playing with my infant daughter in my lap and felt somewhat obligated to pay some attention to her as well. Being a dad can be rough.

[Nel]

Just finished Knights of the Old Republic 2. I had the mod that apparently fixed some of the issues with the original release, but I can't comment on any of that since I don't know the history of it all. Fun game, didn't mess with the formula from the masterpiece of the KotOR.  Now doing some reading about the Mandalorian Wars and the Jedi Civil Wars. I am not an EU guy, but I am finding this fascinating.

I found the story engaging but it lost me a bit toward the end, but I was not always totally focused on the dialogue and cut-scenes, as I was often playing with my infant daughter in my lap and felt somewhat obligated to pay some attention to her as well. Being a dad can be rough.

Canon or not, Kreia is by far one of the greatest characters in the Star Wars franchise. She's fascinating. That character was my biggest takeaway from that game.