[MysterD]

Just tried out some Metro Exodus Enhanced and there is some truly hideous ghosting going on when you have HDR and DLSS both on. It makes the entire game feel like one of those unfortunate drug-induced hallucination scenes they seem to put in every Far Cry game. Hopefully they fix it because otherwise it really is a showcase for that raytracing crap.

HDR and DLSS ghosting issue has been fixed in a hot-fix today:

https://steamcommuni...87625596859177/
 

[MysterD]

Digital Foundry looking at & analyzing the RE: Village PC version and its technical aspects:

 

[Jesse_Dylan]

Random post but does anyone remember the old game series Warlords? I was playing the remaster of the first game and it got me wondering why that type of game hasn’t been built out in a modern series. I think Warlords IV was the last game made and III was the pinnacle, but the simplicity of a big open world map with castles and stronger main warlords plus armies and fantasy monsters … it’s pretty good stuff.

The core gameplay is really fun … would be cool to see something with the added complexity of Civilization combined with the Warlords model. Anyone aware of any modern games in the last few years that emulate a similar type of gameplay?

Hi.  You maybe reached the only person within earshot who even knows what you're talking about.    I get the digest and just happened to catch it and sometimes pop out of the lurk.

 

Unfortunately, I can't help much.  We could try GoG; when it was not available on there, there were many who complained, and presumably some are still there. 

 

I could yammer endlessly about Warlords... how I played it in my dad's friend's basement with his kids (my contemporaries) on his black and white Mac... how I played it in my own basement as a teenager...  on and on.  I was never good at it and probably never even totally understood the concept.  I just enjoyed it.

 

I think there were some attempts to modernize it, i.e. the RTS versions (Battlecry), which actually did fairly well critically at least, but not with the RTS crowd (I think Starcraft existed by this point).  The developers went on to do Puzzle Quest and some other stuff.  It's set in the same universe, I think, Erathia, and fun fact, the main designer dude guy (not sure if it's his wife who is the other designer or what) also did the music for all the Warlords, at least the turn-based ones, and I think he did the music for Puzzle Quest too.  I could be wrong about all of this.

 

Anyway It was always rooted in wargaming, i.e. the beer and pretzels wargaming, board games, and the nerdy "grognard" type stuff (how do I even remember these terms).  That is kind of making a comeback now, along with D&D and whatever, but now it's nerdy kid stuff instead of nerdy old man stuff.  I don't care; I'm just happy it's happening (I was never an old man playing these things anyway... well I will be!)

 

All that said, I suppose there are some "fantasy" type Civ-alikes that are similar to both Warlords and Civ... kinda...  But if I recited them, would it be anything you don't already know, or just Master of Magic clones?  I know you don't mean Master of Magic or Heroes of Might and Magic...  If you meant that, you'd have said so, and maybe 2.3 people could reply on Master of Magic and 134 and 1/2 people  on HoMM.

 

Maybe my yammering will attract others to your question.  Again, some stuff comes to mind, and maybe it was influenced, but to my mind, stuff like Warlock is probably more inspired by MoM and maybe HoMM.  On the other hand, MoM itself was inspired by Civ and was meant to be a Microprose fantasy Civ since they published Civ in the first place (and of course X-COM and plenty of other stuff Take Two now owns... guess they must have just bought them out at some point).  You could check out some games inspired by Master of Magic, but it kind of leaves behind some of the core aspects and simplicity of Warlords.

 

Actually, that might be part of the issue, is it is too nerdy, too slow, too "simple" for modern standards, and the Civalikes sort of steamrolled the whole concept into a mainstream street pancake.

 

Suppose we could ask the devs!  Presumably they are known more for Puzzle Quest at this point.

[BaeStuped]

How do you do fellow kids?  Does anyone know a good indie gala group buy supplier?

[Blade]

How do you do fellow kids?  Does anyone know a good indie gala group buy supplier?

If that was a serious post, I just go to Detruire now. They are prompt and send transactional updates on Steam whenever a bundle is debited if you pay in advance.

 

If that was a post to mock that person's MysterD wall of text, then sorry, I didn't read past "Warlords" and can't appreciate the joke.

[BaeStuped]

If that was a serious post, I just go to Detruire now. They are prompt and send transactional updates on Steam whenever a bundle is debited if you pay in advance.

 

If that was a post to mock that person's MysterD wall of text, then sorry, I didn't read past "Warlords" and can't appreciate the joke.

It was serious and thank you.  Wasn't sure if they were still doing bundles.

[MysterD]

05-13-2021:

 

Resident Evil 7 (Steam/PC).

 

Finished-up the Campaign for RE7 (base-game). Some thoughts, after spending around 15.3 hours with it in total, according to Steam.

While I didn't mention performance before, I really should mention both performance & graphics quality here. This game was easily running at 1080p at 240fps, which I didn't need - so I capped it and was running maxed-out at 120fps. It never budged below 120fps, running like an absolute top. And this was all meanwhile it was looking as great & awesome as it does, both artistically and technically...without even having Ray-Tracing support here.

This is one of the more terrifying & memorable games in not just RE history, but also gaming history - yes, in all of its grotesque & explicit violence and horror, this evokes things of often disgust & shock. It was a feeling to me that was unlike many horror games here, as this was often giving me vibes of Deliverance, Hannibal, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Wrong Turn; sick & chilling vibes that I'd often feel more so in movies of that sort than in game. Pretty much, it doesn't get much more psychological, sicker and disgusting than this, when it comes to game - and this game can & will deliver more shocks, chills & thrills than most games ever have.

For the story here: Ethan Winters - who is who the player plays as, during most of this game and experience - goes to Louisiana. Winters does go down to the Bayou, to find his wife Mia. She went missing and he's to go find her, running into a House and a lot of swamp-land, where a family known as The Baker Family resides. Of course, all of that is really just part of the story, as that's only part & sum of the 1st 3/4ths of the base-game.

Onto the final parts of the game, the game takes a drastic turn, into the last section of the game. Most of the game is survival-horror and whatnot, namely in its 1st 3/4ths - but it becomes more action-y in the end and explains more as to why what happened & caused the first 3/4ths of the game, its story, and characters to...well, go the way that it did.

With a lot of Lore in the game-world having plot, story, and whatnot...especially in the last 1/4th of the game, where it all really ties its bigger picture and more of a grand scenario into the very personal & horrific story for the 1st 3/4ths - of course, it's all loaded with some twists, turns, revelations & whatnot. While the 1st 3/4ths is fantastic for both the rebirth & evolution of survival-horror, the last 1/4th brings & re-welcomes us to that action that we've seen in the last few RE games (i.e. RE 4, 5 & 6; and even some parts of RE: Revelations 1 & 2) all while in 1st person.

Nothing short of awesome & out-standing, RE7 delivers in all fronts, delivering one of the best survival-horror games & most personal of the RE games in the 1st 3/4ths of the game and also one of the best conclusions & tie-ins with a much bigger picture & grander scale with the last 1/4th of the game, going out with an absolute bang...and then some.

RE7 is the best RE game that I've played since RE4.

[Insomniac_34]

Got my second Pfizer shot yesterday. Everything was going great until the dizziness, nausea and chills kicked in. Also had a headache but that was more the result of slamming my head into the door when I nearly fainted.

 

Other than that, 10/10, would get vacc'd again.

[Neuro5i5]

I got my second last week. Luckily all I felt was like I got punched in the arm.

 

And to stay on track, are there any discounts on ME Legendary for Steam or am I going to have to go with Origin for a day one purchase discount?

 

And to stay more on track, I think pepperoni and banana pepper are my new standard toppings. 

[Syntax Error]

The Lion's Song is free on Epic so you can +1 some indie game about Austrian artists

 

Next week is "Mystery Game".  Probably to be determined by the Epic v Apple outcome.  "If we win?  You all get Mass Effect Legendary.  If we lose?  Toki Tori 2."

[shrinerr]

dammit i was gonna say Bad Rats but TT 2 is quite acceptable

[MysterD]

Got my second Pfizer shot yesterday. Everything was going great until the dizziness, nausea and chills kicked in. Also had a headache but that was more the result of slamming my head into the door when I nearly fainted.

 

Other than that, 10/10, would get vacc'd again.

I got my J&J one-shot deal about a month or so ago (on a Saturday). Never had any of the crazy symptoms, luckily and thankfully. Sorry to hear that you had all those icky side effects; that bites.

 

Overall, I felt weak & didn't watch to do much on the following day (Sunday) after that, but was fine after that (Monday) - but basically watch TV and play games. And my arm hurt for a few days too.

[nitrosmob]

For me I got the Pfizer and was swollen and painful the first shot quite a lot for 2 days and the 2nd I was swollen though less painful for about two days. So much less pain the second one, but no other side effects. I'm hoping eventually everything somewhat returns to a normal. Here in Texas many act like it's normal even without being vaccinated, but that's something else haha.

[Z-Saber]

Wife and I got Pfizer dose 1 yesterday. Head is little foggy, though that could be for a number of other reasons, and both of our arms that got the shots are pretty sore.

Second dose is scheduled for June 2, the exact day that Ohio lifts all health mandates, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

#praisegaben

[Insomniac_34]

Next week is "Mystery Game".  Probably to be determined by the Epic v Apple outcome.  "If we win?  You all get Mass Effect Legendary.  If we lose?  Toki Tori 2."

 

 

[Souffrir]

The Lion's Song is free on Epic so you can +1 some indie game about Austrian artists

Next week is "Mystery Game". Probably to be determined by the Epic v Apple outcome. "If we win? You all get Mass Effect Legendary. If we lose? Toki Tori 2."

If I had an Epic account, I would be rooting for Apple so hard.

[BreadNiblets]

I'm fully Pfizer'd. Kind of felt like I had a hangover after the second shot but that's how I feel every day.

 

Also, I wrapped up RE8 the other day and it was mostly good. I thought it had two truly great levels that I'm looking forward to replaying, one interesting level that will be annoying to complete on subsequent playthroughs since it's basically a build up to one big scare that will be utterly ineffective after it's been experienced once, a handful of perfectly serviceable sequences with a mix of action and exploration, and a truly baffling finale that sucked not only because the over-the-top action felt out of place but also because these games always suck when Capcom starts going out of their way to force old characters and Umbrella back into the mix.

 

I was a huge fan of the original style of RE games but I liked what they did with RE4. The series needed a shake-up and I thought they nailed it. But Capcom didn't seem to understand what made RE4 so good and things went awry with RE5 and fully disastrous with RE6. Once again I thought Capcom did a good job shaking things up with RE7 (the first 2/3 of it, anyway), but RE8 feels mildly awry and I anticipate the next entry will be absolute shit. But maybe RE10 will be good again.

[DrCactus]

https://store.steamp..._Rock_Galactic/

 

Deep Rock Galactic is currently on sale for 40% off

 

Fantastic coop game, and definitely worth checking out at that price.

[Mooby]

Bundle or bust.

[Lithium Flower]

After RE8 turned out to be a bit of a disappointment I wasn't expecting my summer of gaming to hinge on Mass Effect. Also picked up Andromeda. Forgive me padre, for I have sinned. 

[synnarc]

I'm jealous of all of you who got a vaccine. Mine wasn't approved yet, and some bible thumping douchebag brought the virus into my workplace. I'm on day 16 of being sick.

[psunami]

I'm jealous of all of you who got a vaccine. Mine wasn't approved yet, and some bible thumping douchebag brought the virus into my workplace. I'm on day 16 of being sick.

Humanity would be just fine if it wasn't for all of the people.  

 

(I lived in the south for 5 years... most of the people there were the worst.)

 

Hope you don't have any long term effects.  

[ToddManG]

05-13-2021:
 
Resident Evil 7 (Steam/PC).
 
Finished-up the Campaign for RE7 (base-game). Some thoughts, after spending around 15.3 hours with it in total, according to Steam.
While I didn't mention performance before, I really should mention both performance & graphics quality here. This game was easily running at 1080p at 240fps, which I didn't need - so I capped it and was running maxed-out at 120fps. It never budged below 120fps, running like an absolute top.

...

I remember that you recently got a pretty boss rig, but you always mention playing at 1080. Do you have an older monitor or is there some other reason you don't use 1440?

[INMATEofARKHAM]

I think I posted this back when I got it but I got the Moderna a few months back...

First shot, no real side effect other than feeling it in my arm. Some pain when touched but it mostly felt like a strained muscle that twinge when moved.

Second shot, holy shit. Felt fine, came home went to sleep like normal, got up didn't feel that bad got to work... Man, I regretted every decision I made in life. Truly awful. I'm shocked I got through my shift. Granted, I wasn't really productive.

Still a 24-36 hour period of feeling bad was worth it.

[Blade]

Yeah. Got the first Moderna shot last month, no side effects whatsoever. My arm only hurt where the needle punctured the muscle.

 

I got the second Moderna shot Wednesday night. Came home and cooked all of my meals for the next few days in preparation of not feeling well. About 10am the next day, my legs started aching. Then I developed a fever in the afternoon that went away within a few hours. My legs are still sore and my head still hurts this morning. I've been eating a lot more to fuel my body's response to the higher dosage.

[MysterD]

I remember that you recently got a pretty boss rig, but you always mention playing at 1080. Do you have an older monitor or is there some other reason you don't use 1440?

I don't have a 1440p monitor yet.

And if I get one, I want at least probably 120hz support w/ A-Sync (Freesync or G-Sync; preferably G-Sync).

 

I have a 1080p 240hz monitor w/ G-Sync.

I'm spoiled; I love these high framerates, its smoothness, no input lag, no tearing, and also the G-Sync.

 

I also have an older 4K 60hz monitor w/ Free-Sync support (Samsung).

I really should hook that up and see if it's G-Sync compatible, TBH; laziness on my end.

I'd probably use that, even if it say had 90hz...but I'd rather have 120hz, 144hz, or 240hz support.

[Daytonabot]

Humanity would be just fine if it wasn't for all of the people.

(I lived in the south for 5 years... most of the people there were the worst.)

Hope you don't have any long term effects.

What a douchebag comment. I’ll bet you wear “tolerance” as a badge too.

[Z-Saber]

What a douchebag comment. I’ll bet you wear “tolerance” as a badge too.

What a douchebag comment.

[DD83]

Since everyone sharing...

Got Pfizer.

First shot, arm hurt for maybe 2 days.

Second, went home and went to sleep.  I was cold and had a headache.  But it was cold (and snowing) that day (after being warm for a few days prior so furnace was off) and I get frequent migraines (~14 a month) so I have no idea if anything was a result of the shot.

 

In regards to people from the South being the worst.  I live in the Northeast, people here are the worst.

[Souffrir]

People in the South or the North can’t be the worst because I’m the worst.