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PC Gaming ERA | January 2020 - Ready for the new year, shaka brah.

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Mobius and Pet Octopus

Mobius and Pet Octopus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,581
Jim2point0 said:
We've gone a good long while without incident. Last year, I added a new rule to the OP that said "don't be a dick." I didn't include it this year because I didn't think I needed to. People are much more chill now.

It's true there are some people that have an overly idealized vision for what that thread should be... but I personally think that screenshot threads on the forum with the most users in the world should be more inclusive. If anyone starts poopooing screenshots posted there, they'll be ousted. Morrigan will back me up. I think :)

But since you guys aren't visiting... FINE. I'll post a few of my recent Witcher 3 shots here. Mods keeping this game looking like it could still have been released last year. I'll resize them so I'm not taking up a ton of space :)

icHPqP.png

icFHO5.png

iUFX07.png

iUHKOC.png

iU1mrz.png
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Got a recommended mod list?
 
Sim

Sim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,871
I'm posting his mod list recommendations here so we won't have to load up an image heavy thread to check it out. Also going to bookmark this for a future play through.

Jim2point0 said:
All of my mods

Not a huge list. Some of the more important ones:

* HD Reworked Project - higher res textures all around
* Beautiful Grass V3 - More variety in grass. Looks better
* UGOM (Ultimate Graphics Options Mod) - gives you more control over the graphics settings so you can crank them higher than the normal in-game menu allows. This is how I increase foliage density and push out the grass rendering distance, among other things.
* High Quality Faces - Renders character faces in higher detail from further away

Lighting mods
For lighting mods, normally I just recommend super turbo lighting mod and call it a day. It's a solid choice, and OtisInf would tell you the same. But I've just begun experimenting with more.

In my last post, all 3 shots were using the Immersive Lighting Mod. The... nudel edition. But yeah, I like it a lot.

Weidzman lighting mod.

This one goes for a more dramatic look. I didn't like it as much and was only really taking test shots with it, but here's a few with that one.
And 1 more from the immersive lighting mod. Which was just a test shot to compare, but really like the natural look to it.

Next Generation Level of Detail (beta) - https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3193

I thought this was taken down but it seems like it's back so yay
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Sim

Sim

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,871
BoxingIsCool said:
How do you even download mods? What's the source? I'm a newbie on pc gaming front
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Sure, there are links right in the post I quoted. You'll need to make a nexusmods account to download them. Instructions to install can also be found there.

edit: good luck, it's easier than it seems. site layout is more confusing to navigate tbh
 
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Buttzerker

Buttzerker

Powerhouse Protector / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,017
I can't seem to log in on Vortex's client to use it for Nexus Mods. :c
 
Cecil

Cecil

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,449
TFW when you think about playing Tyranny for a couple of years, bite on the game on a Humble Sale for $10 just a short time before it gets added to Gamepass, and then after just the two first combat encounters get the feeling "I really don't want to play this". :)

Is it worth powering through the game, even if you immediately feel that you don't care for the combat in this game?
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,241
Cecil said:
TFW when you think about playing Tyranny for a couple of years, bite on the game on a Humble Sale for $10 just a short time before it gets added to Gamepass, and then after just the two first combat encounters get the feeling "I really don't want to play this". :)

Is it worth powering through the game, even if you immediately feel that you don't care for the combat in this game?
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I listened to a podcast about the game a while ago, and I would say yeah for sure. But to get the most out of it you'd preferably go in with a mindset to roleplay as a person who isn't unambiguously good -- from what I understood anyway. I was never really interested in the game until I heard more about it myself.

Maybe giving a listen to the podcast (it's relatively spoiler free IIRC) might help make up your mind:
 
Chance Hale

Chance Hale

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,842
Colorado
I enjoyed Tryanny for the story and faction system which are pretty unique and entertaining but it has the worst crpg combat I've ever experienced. It's just so basic and tying every spell to cool downs limited interesting abilities.

It's relatively short but the combat is that bad and it's a matter of whether the tone and writing grabs you enough to power through it. And given the length I do think it is worth it.

I'm a rtwp stan to be clear.
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,119
RR30 said:
Thanks. What graphics card do you have? I use a 1060 so don't wanna go too overboard and wreck it lol.
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Most of the mods don't have a huge performance hit or any at all. Just need to have a 4GB videocard for the texture packs. The only ones that can really tank your frame rate are grass mods and anything involving particle effects/fire
 
Oinone

Oinone

Member
Oct 12, 2018
4,161
Mtn. Ida right of Troy / But mainly Germany
Mobius and Pet Octopus said:
I am thinking to play a horror type game similar to amnesia or alien isolation. I have quite a few thanks to epic store freebies and a small collection over time. Not sure which to play, also have xbox game pass and just not that interested in pathologic 2 atm.

Here are a few candidates:
Outlast
Penumbra overture
Soma
Conarium
observer
layers of fear

Plus some games on xbox pc game pass...
Blair Witch
State of mind?

These are just the games I am aware of.

I am looking for a game that is not super heavy on dialogue or reading, that is not intense mechanically and is horror and/or sci fi.

I loved alien isolation and amnesia darkest descent. But have not played through entirely a game like it in years.
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Outlast always seemed to jump scare heavy and gory for my taste. Also a lot of chasing sequences. Ended up only watching a walkthrough instead of playing it myself.
Penumbra Overture is quite nice and close to Amnesia. But it features janky combat here and there, what can be annoying. The sequel Black Plague is far better and without combat as well.
Layers of Fear plays with a lot of interesting effects. So while it becomes predictable, it still seems interesting to me. I haven't come around to play it myself yet, though.
Observer is quite dialogue heavy, so that may not be so fitting. It is also more relying on jumpscares and stealth sections, I'd say.
Conarium is more of a harmless adventure. A bit of spooky atmosphere, but not that much more. The puzzles can be quite hard. But I like the lovecraftian story.
State of Mind is a harmless PnC Adventure, quite heavy on dialogue.

Mentalist said:
Man, escaping from the flooding Water Tree in Ori was tough. But now I can swim, AND I got a slam attack!
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That was the first point were the game broke me. XD My first session ended before the tree, and I was all like: Huh, this went well. Not sure what the fuss is about.
Welp. X)
Slam attack was my favourite for combat.
 
Joe Spangle

Joe Spangle

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,845
That exclusivity thread that Uzzy got banned in sucks. Era constantly tells me that it prefers consoles to PC as you have to always update drivers and fiddle with settings and just want to sit on the sofa to play games not hunched over a monitor but as soon as anyone brings up exclusivity its OMG how will they sell consoles without exclusives!
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,241
Joe Spangle said:
That exclusivity thread that Uzzy got banned in sucks. Era constantly tells me that it prefers consoles to PC as you have to always update drivers and fiddle with settings and just want to sit on the sofa to play games not hunched over a monitor but as soon as anyone brings up exclusivity its OMG how will they sell consoles without exclusives!
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Let me break it down. I've become very knowledgeable on these issues over the last year.

The 30% cut console makers demand is because the margins on consoles are so razor slim that they need to make up for it somehow. You know: R&D, manufacturing, servers, services -- expensive things that Valve doesn't invest in. This also funds production of hardware-exclusive first-party and third-party content. And we obviously know that without exclusives, people would just not buy consoles. Accessibility to games is not as important as the quality of games (which is why mobile gaming is doing so bad), and exclusive games are inherently better than multiplats -- just look at Metacritic. At the same time, PC is too inaccessible. Here, accessibility matters again. So, anyway, exclusives allow console-makers to sell (more) unprofitable hardware, expanding that hardware's audience and therefore resulting in more software sales of which they get a cut. So really it's a big racket to collect that fat cut. I think that about covers it.
 
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Mugen

Mugen

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,440
Stockholm, Sweden
If you have not yet you have got to play Slay the Spire. I can see it climbing really high relative to the games included in my Games of the Decade-vote. Maybe even no. 1 given enough time. Will once again be very proud of you all if it ends up high on the GotY-voting. Last year's winner Obra Dinn was a cool surprise! Anyhow, vote as soon as you can.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,241
Mugen said:
If you have not yet you have got to play Slay the Spire. I can see it climbing really high relative to the games included in my Games of the Decade-vote. Maybe even no. 1 given enough time. Will once again be very proud of you all if it ends up high on the GotY-voting. Last year's winner Obra Dinn was a cool surprise! Anyhow, vote as soon as you can.
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It really is quite good. I think it'll be in my top 5 of 2019.
 
Randam

Randam

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,884
Germany
I will just ask here if it is ok :D

someone got a link to the Indie Games OT?
am looking for it for almost 15 minutes now with the forum search and google.

finding specific threads here is really anyoing.
 

marcbret87

Member
Apr 20, 2018
1,367
Myradeer said:
Honestly, arguing against exclusivity outside this thread is a lost cause. So many people are willing to prioritize developers, justified or not, over their own benefit.
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It would be pretty awesome to have only one piece of hardware where you could play all games, but the way the console market works is simply that software sells you hardware. If Sony didn't need to sell you the Playstation, they might not need to have so many studios providing games for in constantly. Same thing applies for Nintendo. MS is a bit different, as they're also selling you an Operative System, so it makes sense for them to do dual console/PC releases. And yet, they don't release their games on their console rivals' platform barring some some exceptions (Ori, Cuphead, Minecraft)
 
Csr

Csr

Member
Nov 6, 2017
2,031
I can't get the steam controller to work with Origin games, i remember making it work with Dead Cells a couple of weeks ago but right now nothing is working, i am trying Bloodstained and Dead Cells. I tried adding the games and the client as a shortcut, closing the client every time i launch the game, disabled Origin overlay and AMD Radeon software overlay, launching while in big picture mode. Not even the desktop config is working.
The controller is working fine in steam games obviously.
Any suggestions?
edit: also tried SteamgridDB which is pretty nice but still not working.

Also who thought it was a good idea to play a sound every time you launch a game with AMD's antilag option enabled and then not add any options to disable the sound? So annoying...
 
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Randam

Randam

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,884
Germany
eonden

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,087
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,792
Oman
Randam said:
really? that sucks..
those threads for new releases are nice, but I'm more looking for some older games from last year and 2018.

the is really the last indie thread we had?
bummer..
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Yup as eonden posted, I made various threads highlighting games released on Steam.
Here are all the threads I made, you can use it to make note of any 2018 indie games released, as I tend to prioritize including any notable ones in the threads I make
Code: 
https://www.resetera.com/search/2671258/?q=Highlight&t=post&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=7&c[title_only]=1&c[users]=Tizoc&o=date

You will need to copy the entire url up to the word date then paste it, it should show all Highlight threads I've made thus far, going as far back as 2018.
 
Annubis

Annubis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,660
Cecil said:
TFW when you think about playing Tyranny for a couple of years, bite on the game on a Humble Sale for $10 just a short time before it gets added to Gamepass, and then after just the two first combat encounters get the feeling "I really don't want to play this". :)

Is it worth powering through the game, even if you immediately feel that you don't care for the combat in this game?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Tyranny is incredible at shaping its main story according to your desire.
I'd say it's worth a playthrough just to see that.
 
Gevin

Gevin

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,823
Cecil said:
TFW when you think about playing Tyranny for a couple of years, bite on the game on a Humble Sale for $10 just a short time before it gets added to Gamepass, and then after just the two first combat encounters get the feeling "I really don't want to play this". :)

Is it worth powering through the game, even if you immediately feel that you don't care for the combat in this game?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I played it this past week. For the first couple of hours I was honestly bored, but then the game clicked with me and I had a lot of fun. The combat will stay mostly the same, but if you use mages you can start playing around with the spell system that's quite fun. The story and the consequences of your decisions are cool too.
 
Aaron D.

Aaron D.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,326
pmiUXMK.jpg



Picked up Streets of Rogue over the weekend and am quite enjoying it so far. Feels like a mashup of Hotline Miami and Hitman. I love how the character you select dictates the pacing through the levels, with some characters specializing in brute force while others focus on a stealth approach.

The humor feels pretty dialed in as well. Funny lines and nods here and there without beating you over the head with it. Just the right amount.

When I saw the Character Select screen title referencing Oingo Boingo I lost my s**t. (I'm one of the 12 uber-fans out there.)
 
Mobius and Pet Octopus

Mobius and Pet Octopus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,581
Oinone said:
Outlast always seemed to jump scare heavy and gory for my taste. Also a lot of chasing sequences. Ended up only watching a walkthrough instead of playing it myself.
Penumbra Overture is quite nice and close to Amnesia. But it features janky combat here and there, what can be annoying. The sequel Black Plague is far better and without combat as well.
Layers of Fear plays with a lot of interesting effects. So while it becomes predictable, it still seems interesting to me. I haven't come around to play it myself yet, though.
Observer is quite dialogue heavy, so that may not be so fitting. It is also more relying on jumpscares and stealth sections, I'd say.
Conarium is more of a harmless adventure. A bit of spooky atmosphere, but not that much more. The puzzles can be quite hard. But I like the lovecraftian story.
State of Mind is a harmless PnC Adventure, quite heavy on dialogue.
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Thanks!
 
Teeth

Teeth

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,940
Mobius and Pet Octopus said:
I am thinking to play a horror type game similar to amnesia or alien isolation. I have quite a few thanks to epic store freebies and a small collection over time. Not sure which to play, also have xbox game pass and just not that interested in pathologic 2 atm.

Here are a few candidates:
Outlast
Penumbra overture
Soma
Conarium
observer
layers of fear

Plus some games on xbox pc game pass...
Blair Witch
State of mind?

These are just the games I am aware of.

I am looking for a game that is not super heavy on dialogue or reading, that is not intense mechanically and is horror and/or sci fi.

I loved alien isolation and amnesia darkest descent. But have not played through entirely a game like it in years.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Outlast is like Amnesia without the brains. I don't mean that as an insult, it's just way more "visceral" in its horror. It's bleak, dirty, base, and simple. It can get repetitive but I still liked it, but a lot of people don't for the aforementioned reasons. The DLC for it is honestly better than the base game. It's more setpiece driven, but it works in the game's favor by being shorter and more compact. The gimmick of each "level" doesn't run on as long.

Soma is like Amnesia with a doctorate degree. It's thought provoking, measured, and maybe a weeeee bit overlong, but still probably one of a handful of the best "grand experience" horror games in, well, ever.

Penumbra Overture is a bit like a really well made total conversion mod for Amnesia. It was Frictional Games' game before Amnesia and they were still cutting their teeth to some degree. It's more janky, more obscure, and the puzzles were less logical (you can see the progression from Penumbra through Amnesia to SOMA where the puzzles become less and less frequent, and I wonder if it's just because that's what most people complained about). Some people consider the Penumbra games to be their best, but I always felt like those were people who listened to a band before they were popular and liked the sound of their first album because it was recorded in a literal garage.
 
Randam

Randam

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,884
Germany
Tizoc said:
Yup as eonden posted, I made various threads highlighting games released on Steam.
Here are all the threads I made, you can use it to make note of any 2018 indie games released, as I tend to prioritize including any notable ones in the threads I make
Code: 
https://www.resetera.com/search/2671258/?q=Highlight&t=post&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=7&c[title_only]=1&c[users]=Tizoc&o=date

You will need to copy the entire url up to the word date then paste it, it should show all Highlight threads I've made thus far, going as far back as 2018.
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alright. thanks.

but then I think this thread or a whole new one is better suited for my matter.


after watching Super Metroid Impossible I was asking myself if there are some indie games out there that look like Metroid. I already have Axiom Verge. are there some new ones?
 

Deleted member 10795

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,302
Mobius and Pet Octopus said:
I am thinking to play a horror type game similar to amnesia or alien isolation. I have quite a few thanks to epic store freebies and a small collection over time. Not sure which to play, also have xbox game pass and just not that interested in pathologic 2 atm.

Here are a few candidates:
Outlast
Penumbra overture
Soma
Conarium
observer
layers of fear

Plus some games on xbox pc game pass...
Blair Witch
State of mind?

These are just the games I am aware of.

I am looking for a game that is not super heavy on dialogue or reading, that is not intense mechanically and is horror and/or sci fi.

I loved alien isolation and amnesia darkest descent. But have not played through entirely a game like it in years.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I would highly recommend Soma. I think it's the boldest of this style of game that I've personally played, and by that I mean that it's entirely comfortable with being itself and doesn't fall into tropes, or the temptation to shove encounters or "stalk" mechanics in for the sake of it. After the first monster encounter I thought I had Soma's number, but it's a more complex experience than that initial impression gives credit. That the game is apparently still well worth a look with the enemy encounters turned off says a lot.

Outlast and Blair Witch I would say are the opposite of that. I found Outlast a bit one note and outstaying of it's welcome even with a short run time, and bounced off Blair Witch pretty quickly.

It's not on your list, but if you haven't played it already, Resident Evil 7 goes cheap nowadays and is probably the most obvious progression point from Alien Isolation.
 
Sheepinator

Sheepinator

Member
Jul 25, 2018
28,018
Teggy said:
Know what I find kind of weird? 90's games like Jedi Knight had quick save, but there were no auto saves or checkpoints. I wonder what caused devs to finally get the bright idea to make auto saves/checkpoints so you didn't have to remember to save all the time.
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Parity with consoles? A checkpoint save size is negligible, it just means you store the players inventory and the state of switches flipped (so in-progress and completed puzzle areas work). A quick save has to store the entire game state, including all enemies positions, their AI states, etc. They might also have gone off players save scumming.
 
Tizoc

Tizoc

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,792
Oman
Randam said:
alright. thanks.

but then I think this thread or a whole new one is better suited for my matter.


after watching Super Metroid Impossible I was asking myself if there are some indie games out there that look like Metroid. I already have Axiom Verge. are there some new ones?
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An indie games thread would be nice to have, or revitalized. There are a few indie games I plan on going through in my backlog that I would like to share my impressions of.
 

Andres

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,661
Tizoc said:
An indie games thread would be nice to have, or revitalized. There are a few indie games I plan on going through in my backlog that I would like to share my impressions of.
Click to expand...
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I kept thinking of making a thread like "Best Indie game you played in 2019 that nobody is talking about." Or something like that, most of my favorite games last year were indie titles that basically flew under the radar.
 
Buttzerker

Buttzerker

Powerhouse Protector / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,017
Yo what's the deal with Witcher 3s high res face mod. Causes awful load times to the point every conversation has a blurred load in it.
 
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