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

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Deimos

Deimos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,761
Finally got an HDR TV which means I get to enjoy the headache that is HDR PC gaming. Is 422 12-bit supposed to look like shit? I get banding no matter what combination of settings I use in Nvidia CP but 420 12-bit looks leagues better than anything on 422 and 444. I'm exaggerating with 422 12-bit but it does look noticeably worse than 420 12-bit in terms of banding, which confuses me.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,205
Replacement PSU coming in today. Back in the game!

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Oinone

Oinone

Member
Oct 12, 2018
4,152
Mtn. Ida right of Troy / But mainly Germany
Clowns said:
So every suggestion I saw through Google turned up nothing, but your comment made me think; "I don't have any new programs that update, so that couldn't be the problem, except..."

Except the game Fe, which uses Denuvo, which needs to connect to servers to keep functioning. I hadn't launched it in a couple days.

So I uninstalled that and spent an hourish in a couple games and they didn't minimize once afterwards when they were doing so every 5-10 minutes beforehand.

So apparently Denuvo screws with your games even if they don't have it.
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I had that too until not long ago. Would only happen once per session and nearly only at the beginning. Googled and tried everything mentioned, but it remained.
So I grabbed Windos Focus Logger to find the culprit – but as life goes, it had fixed itself in the meantime and hasn't happened since.
Never found out what it was.
 
Buttzerker

Buttzerker

Powerhouse Protector / Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,017
New rig is chewing up and spitting out Witcher 3 maxed and modded at 1440p. Almost 100 FPS at all times. So smooth on a Gsync 144hz monitor!

Now to decide what build to run with for NG+ Deathmarch.

Maybe Ursine Euphoria? I've been theorcyrafting one for awhile.
 
Freezard

Freezard

Member
Oct 28, 2017
686
I would totally replay ME1. Such a great game. Still haven't played any of the sequels though. Hopefully it's a trilogy remaster.
 
Delusibeta

Delusibeta

Prophet of Truth
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,648
Buckle said:
My PC seems to heat up more from FFXIV than it did back two years ago when I last played. Only game that ever did this to it before was Witcher 3 that put it through its pace around launch.

I have my suspicions that its CPU cooler related. Game never pushed my Graphics card (GTX 960 2gb) on the settings I use, so I doubt its that.

Weird thing is the CPU stays cool according to the program I use to monitor temps but the CPU cooler itself feels pretty damn hot. I mean, I can feel it heating up in the case if I put my hand up to the side of it.

I guess I might as well replace the thermal paste and see if that makes a difference. Its been about..

*checks notes*

About five or six years since I first installed that CPU and applied some paste to it. Maybe one more year than that, I lost track of when I did all that.
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Yeah, probably time to replace the thermal paste. A half decade is good innings for paste, but I'd wager it'll probably be dried out by now.
 
Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Chairmanchuck (另一个我)

Teyvat Traveler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,053
China
Buckle said:
My PC seems to heat up more from FFXIV than it did back two years ago when I last played. Only game that ever did this to it before was Witcher 3 that put it through its pace around launch.

I have my suspicions that its CPU cooler related. Game never pushed my Graphics card (GTX 960 2gb) on the settings I use, so I doubt its that.

Weird thing is the CPU stays cool according to the program I use to monitor temps but the CPU cooler itself feels pretty damn hot. I mean, I can feel it heating up in the case if I put my hand up to the side of it.

I guess I might as well replace the thermal paste and see if that makes a difference. Its been about..

*checks notes*

About five or six years since I first installed that CPU and applied some paste to it. Maybe one more year than that, I lost track of when I did all that.
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One thing to note, since I had that problem. If you have more than 1 monitor connected on older GPUs (and you also have a 900 one), it uses the full clock speed for some reason. Its a bug that Nvidia did not fix with the 900 cards. So if you are playing and have more than 1 source connected, I would only use your primary one when playing.
 
Dec

Dec

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,510
Chairmanchuck said:
One thing to note, since I had that problem. If you have more than 1 monitor connected on older GPUs (and you also have a 900 one), it uses the full clock speed for some reason. Its a bug that Nvidia did not fix with the 900 cards. So if you are playing and have more than 1 source connected, I would only use your primary one when playing.
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This bug only happens when you have one 144hz monitor and other 60hz monitors and is solved by setting the 144hz monitor to 120hz when using multiple monitors. You idle at ~750mhz instead of 135mhz and it will drive idles from 30-35 > 45-50c.

120hz + 60hz = fine
144hz + 60hz = high idle temp
 
Aaron D.

Aaron D.

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,291
For some reason I've noticed Subnautica come up in several threads and conversations lately. It's really got me itching to reinstall.

Only problem is I've got this bad habit of restarting games from scratch when I return to them from a long break. So in essence I rarely finish games at all, I just start new campaigns over and over, dropping them halfway through when I feel satiated. I swear I could have 50 hours worth of revisits logged into a 20 hour campaign that I've never seen through to the end. It's so dumb, lol.

So yeah, looks like I'm reinstalling Subnautica. And starting a new campaign. :p
 
Cecil

Cecil

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,445
Is Assassins Creed: Black Flag still worth playing? I got it for free sometime ago, and give it a spin a few days ago. I'm a huge Sid Meier's Pirates fan, so I like that setting, but this game really felt clunky to play to start with. Not much of a flow in the movement of the character.
 
Igniz12

Igniz12

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,427
The Evil within series continues to be the epitome of low quality jank, jank that negatively affects your enjoyment of the game although it has led to some hilariously unintended moments, I wont lie). They did not do anything to address the issues from the first game, everything feels stiff and loose at the same time, combat continues to be utter dregs. Also does not seem like they added anything new to the game either, just slap a new coat of paint on the game but leave everything just as it was before.

So glad I have RE 0 to play right after this.

Uzzy said:
Windows 10 users, make sure to update your PC ASAP.

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Updated. Thanks, would have missed this otherwise.

Cecil said:
Is Assassins Creed: Black Flag still worth playing? I got it for free sometime ago, and give it a spin a few days ago. I'm a huge Sid Meier's Pirates fan, so I like that setting, but this game really felt clunky to play to start with. Not much of a flow in the movement of the character.
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I gave it up for the same reason. It just never felt right and I dropped it for something else since it was free and I did not feel bad about it. Im also very particular about the way games move and feel, as evidenced by my mini rant above, so your tolerance might be higher for those kinds of things.
 
Mobius and Pet Octopus

Mobius and Pet Octopus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
Igniz12 said:
The Evil within series continues to be the epitome of low quality jank, jank that negatively affects your enjoyment of the game although it has led to some hilariously unintended moments, I wont lie). They did not do anything to address the issues from the first game, everything feels stiff and loose at the same time, combat continues to be utter dregs. Also does not seem like they added anything new to the game either, just slap a new coat of paint on the game but leave everything just as it was before.

So glad I have RE 0 to play right after this.
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I have been thinking about evil within, since I loved RE2 remake so much.
 
AvernOffset

AvernOffset

Member
May 6, 2018
546
Slay the Spire is so good. I got a couple of wins back in early access and started playing again after it showed up in a lot of GOTY lists. I've sunk in over 35 hours since coming back, and I can't stop. I haven't been this hooked by a roguelike in years. The stuff that's been added since EA is great. The Defect is amazing, act 4 is a cool addition, and the ascension system is brilliant in how replayable it makes the game. And then a new character dropped last night! The game won't let me leave.

I've done a couple of attempts with the new character, the Watcher, and she's fun, but also very demanding. Her gimmick is swapping between stances, including Wrath, where she deals and receives 2x damage. Getting the right hand to swap into Wrath stance, unload a ton of damage, then swap back out before you get wrecked is pretty unlikely, so she has loads of card draw and deck manipulation to help make it happen. However, it's a lot to keep track of, and I kept having turns where one mistake would cost me 30+ HP. The riskiest Ironclad deck feels like the Watcher's default deck, and it's amazing. If you haven't played in a while, I think it's definitely worth coming back to try her out.
 

closer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,163
Playing through kentucky route zero again to prep for act v

Man this really is my fav of the gen
 
Delphine

Delphine

Fen'Harel Enansal
Administrator
Mar 30, 2018
3,658
France
Cecil said:
Is Assassins Creed: Black Flag still worth playing? I got it for free sometime ago, and give it a spin a few days ago. I'm a huge Sid Meier's Pirates fan, so I like that setting, but this game really felt clunky to play to start with. Not much of a flow in the movement of the character.
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I tried playing it last year or so, and ended up stopping playing after two hours, because it just didn't feel good as a game for me to enjoy. And I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoyed many games in the AC franchise and is a pretty big fan overall. I think I would have enjoyed it better at release, but trying to enjoy Black Flag after experiencing Origin, Odyssey or even Unity & Syndicate felt like such an unpleasant backward experience I wasn't interested in pushing it further.
 
Mugen

Mugen

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,438
Stockholm, Sweden
AvernOffset said:
Slay the Spire is so good. I got a couple of wins back in early access and started playing again after it showed up in a lot of GOTY lists. I've sunk in over 35 hours since coming back, and I can't stop. I haven't been this hooked by a roguelike in years. The stuff that's been added since EA is great. The Defect is amazing, act 4 is a cool addition, and the ascension system is brilliant in how replayable it makes the game. And then a new character dropped last night! The game won't let me leave.

I've done a couple of attempts with the new character, the Watcher, and she's fun, but also very demanding. Her gimmick is swapping between stances, including Wrath, where she deals and receives 2x damage. Getting the right hand to swap into Wrath stance, unload a ton of damage, then swap back out before you get wrecked is pretty unlikely, so she has loads of card draw and deck manipulation to help make it happen. However, it's a lot to keep track of, and I kept having turns where one mistake would cost me 30+ HP. The riskiest Ironclad deck feels like the Watcher's default deck, and it's amazing. If you haven't played in a while, I think it's definitely worth coming back to try her out.
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Yep, GotY in my book.
 
Joe Spangle

Joe Spangle

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,845
Sheepinator said:
I just finished Yoku's Island Express which I got from Amazon Prime a while ago. What an ingenious and charming indie game that is. Pinball + metroidvania, and it works. Main quests finished, now I think I'll try to wrap up 100% and finish off those map spots I haven't seen yet. Fast travel looks to be all unlocked so it shouldn't take too long.
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I love that game. Its great.
 
Linus815

Linus815

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,664
Igniz12 said:
The Evil within series continues to be the epitome of low quality jank, jank that negatively affects your enjoyment of the game although it has led to some hilariously unintended moments, I wont lie). They did not do anything to address the issues from the first game, everything feels stiff and loose at the same time, combat continues to be utter dregs. Also does not seem like they added anything new to the game either, just slap a new coat of paint on the game but leave everything just as it was before.

So glad I have RE 0 to play right after this.
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But RE0 is worse than both TEW games.
 
Mobius and Pet Octopus

Mobius and Pet Octopus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
AvernOffset said:
Slay the Spire is so good. I got a couple of wins back in early access and started playing again after it showed up in a lot of GOTY lists. I've sunk in over 35 hours since coming back, and I can't stop. I haven't been this hooked by a roguelike in years. The stuff that's been added since EA is great. The Defect is amazing, act 4 is a cool addition, and the ascension system is brilliant in how replayable it makes the game. And then a new character dropped last night! The game won't let me leave.

I've done a couple of attempts with the new character, the Watcher, and she's fun, but also very demanding. Her gimmick is swapping between stances, including Wrath, where she deals and receives 2x damage. Getting the right hand to swap into Wrath stance, unload a ton of damage, then swap back out before you get wrecked is pretty unlikely, so she has loads of card draw and deck manipulation to help make it happen. However, it's a lot to keep track of, and I kept having turns where one mistake would cost me 30+ HP. The riskiest Ironclad deck feels like the Watcher's default deck, and it's amazing. If you haven't played in a while, I think it's definitely worth coming back to try her out.
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I am assuming you are playing a beta build? Or is the steam build different than other platforms?
 
AvernOffset

AvernOffset

Member
May 6, 2018
546
Mobius and Pet Octopus said:
I am assuming you are playing a beta build? Or is the steam build different than other platforms?
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Nope. The Watcher's been in the beta branch for a while, but she was just added to the main branch (along with a bunch of other stuff) last night. I dunno if it's a different build than other platforms, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Steam version gets its updates before consoles.
 
Mobius and Pet Octopus

Mobius and Pet Octopus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
AvernOffset said:
Nope. The Watcher's been in the beta branch for a while, but she was just added to the main branch (along with a bunch of other stuff) last night. I dunno if it's a different build than other platforms, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Steam version gets its updates before consoles.
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I'm using Xbox pc game pass, so update still incoming there as of a few hours ago at least.
 
honorless

honorless

Member
Oct 28, 2017
439
Last night I (re)discovered this game.



I really dug the original so I hopped on the Deluxe Edition preorder, so many years ago. And oh man...was I disappointed. What is with all this extra stuff? It's ugly, slow, and you have to grind to do stuff? In a roguelike?! I gave it a college try because I spent twenty-five whole dollars on it, then wrote it off as a total loss. Caveat emptor, sucker. Don't preorder digital downloads.

Fast forward to, I dunno, six or so years later. I'm blowing the dust off my Steam library looking for games I haven't earned all the trading card drops from, in the vain hope that I'll get more booster packs if I exhaust my opportunities. Bonus points if it's playable on my Surface, which means I can make progress on it over lunch. Enter Desktop Dungeons, which checks both boxes.

I'd forgotten most things about it other than my disappointment with all the Stuff added to the non-free version, but I've mellowed out over the years about grinding. It's still shit but I've soldiered on with it in a few games now in order to beat them instead of just dropping them, so I figured I'd give DD a shot.

Shockingly, my (non-Steam) cloud save from however-tf-many years ago was still there. No clue what I was doing though, so I started a new campaign (kingdom) to go through the tutorials. You can have multiple kingdoms on a save (also nice), so I figured I'd just switch back if I caught up with myself.

...What an excellent, excellent puzzle game.

It's not a roguelike; I wouldn't even call it a roguelite. The stuff I bitched about wasn't "fluff" or "padding" but additional complexity. The artwork is super skilled and amusingly grotesque. (Taking off your weeb blinders is good, folks.)

Amazing how a few years' distance can completely reframe your approach to a game, and thus change what you get out of it.
 
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,539
Yeah i should end my hunt for SSD. Kingston A2000 nowhere to be found, Crucial P! same, hell even Samsung 970 Evo is nowhere to be found. Those SSDs that are left are overpriced. sadpanda.jpg
 
SuikerBrood

SuikerBrood

Member
Jan 21, 2018
15,484
Meh, the waiting times for Forza Horizon's battle royale mode are way too long. I enjoyed what I played of it tho.

Now playing Age of Wonders: Planetfall and shitloads of Planet Zoo. I need more time in my day.
 
empo

empo

Member
Jan 27, 2018
3,101
dex3108 said:
Yeah i should end my hunt for SSD. Kingston A2000 nowhere to be found, Crucial P! same, hell even Samsung 970 Evo is nowhere to be found. Those SSDs that are left are overpriced. sadpanda.jpg
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I was looking at the Kingston or Intel when they were around €120-130 but managed to snag a Corsair MP510 for that price during black friday. Holy crap it's almost €190 now.
 
plast

plast

Member
Oct 25, 2017
172
Yeah, Sophie is great for newcomers. It was the first one I played too. No time limit, so you have all the time in the world to just explore and experiment with the crafting.
 

Deleted member 13148

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,188
Looks like anime Wizardry was released on Steam. Anyone have experience with this one? Not the biggest fan of the aesthetics, but I'd be willing to overlook that if it actually plays well.
 
Dec

Dec

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,510
Does anyone here use Origin Access often enough to know the delay on patches? I've seen gamepass games updated 2 months late (crosscode). Slay the Spire update is out but not on gamepass or Origin access.
 
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