What are you playing?

[Easeful2341]

BG3
And still not finish. Lvl 10,5.
Art of Rally.

 

[Vayra86]

Time for another replay of Alpha Centauri. This game holds a special place with me. I have put in thousands and thousands of hours playing this game over the last 25 years and it is the most addictive game that I have ever played. There is so much that you can do with this game with built in tools. You can edit the map, scenario rules, game rules, factions, units, diplomacy, technology advances and even edit the file of what factions say to you depending on your stance with them. I will be Chairman Yang once again.

They really need to remaster this. Change nothing, just upgrade graphics. There are so many major events that could really use a better graphical representation, like the way global water levels work, but also fungus, worms, combat, unit models...

This game really is done mechanically. They tried to redo the vibe with Beyond Earth but that was a clusterfuck of bad design. Just graphics, Firaxis.

BG3
And still not finish. Lvl 10,5.
Art of Rally.

Its very refreshing to start over with all the lessons learned, too, even if you never finish the first playthrough. I think I replayed act 1/2 several times with new parties before I finally went further.

 

[Easeful2341]

They really need to remaster this. Change nothing, just upgrade graphics. There are so many major events that could really use a better graphical representation, like the way global water levels work, but also fungus, worms, combat, unit models...

This game really is done mechanically. They tried to redo the vibe with Beyond Earth but that was a clusterfuck of bad design. Just graphics, Firaxis.


Its very refreshing to start over with all the lessons learned, too, even if you never finish the first playthrough. I think I replayed act 1/2 several times with new parties before I finally went further.

I know... i even think about second play... but its hard to start...when i look on timer... so many houres ! and i try make like in rpg carmic dices ,never load after bad decision... and from that reason i play almost whole game without without companions... on;ly Gale ,Astarion , Black Heart and part of game Mintara but now she is kidnapped. Rest companions is dead

 

[Onasi]

Been playing Hades II EA for the past few days. It’s an interesting experience since it’s a very different game from the first one in terms of how it feels to play. I started out approaching it just like I would the first and that got me bodied quite a bit. It’s a slower affair in many ways, you can’t spam dodges to get you out of trouble. It’s also significantly harder to make a “spam attack, head empty” build in this one, the game REALLY wants you to engage with all its systems and actually use your entire kit at all times. The balance is… kinda off now, certain weapons and gods feel nigh on useless, while others can break the game in half and I haven’t even yet tried out the, apparently, most broken stuff. The new focus on resource gathering was a bit off-putting at first, but they tweaked it to be significantly more lenient and smooth with the first patch, so that complaint is mostly gone now. I do feel that with time it absolutely will outshine the first title.

It’s also hilarious how this game, which is in fairly early stage according to the devs themselves, is already very content rich and detailed (it actually has a bigger playable world already than the first game), far more so than most of the AAA slop that gets vomited out by the big publishers nowadays. Runs on pretty much anything too. More and more I am beginning to feel that upgrading my GPU is something that, while I could absolutely do, is pointless for games since what would I play even? Most big budget titles that do demand such hardware are trash anyway. And indie games and smaller Japanese titles I’ve been favoring run on whatever. *sigh*

 

[LifeOnMars]

Just posted this in the giveaway/deals thread but thought I'd include it here in case anyone misses it and likes that genre of game -

Endless Legend Free On Steam Until May 23rd

ENDLESS™ Legend is a 4X turn-based fantasy strategy game by the creators of ENDLESS™ Space and Dungeon of the ENDLESS™. Control every aspect of your civilization as you struggle to save your homeworld Auriga. Create your own Legend!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Been playing Hades II EA for the past few days. It’s an interesting experience since it’s a very different game from the first one in terms of how it feels to play. I started out approaching it just like I would the first and that got me bodied quite a bit. It’s a slower affair in many ways, you can’t spam dodges to get you out of trouble. It’s also significantly harder to make a “spam attack, head empty” build in this one, the game REALLY wants you to engage with all its systems and actually use your entire kit at all times. The balance is… kinda off now, certain weapons and gods feel nigh on useless, while others can break the game in half and I haven’t even yet tried out the, apparently, most broken stuff. The new focus on resource gathering was a bit off-putting at first, but they tweaked it to be significantly more lenient and smooth with the first patch, so that complaint is mostly gone now. I do feel that with time it absolutely will outshine the first title.

It’s also hilarious how this game, which is in fairly early stage according to the devs themselves, is already very content rich and detailed (it actually has a bigger playable world already than the first game), far more so than most of the AAA slop that gets vomited out by the big publishers nowadays. Runs on pretty much anything too. More and more I am beginning to feel that upgrading my GPU is something that, while I could absolutely do, is pointless for games since what would I play even? Most big budget titles that do demand such hardware are trash anyway. And indie games and smaller Japanese titles I’ve been favoring run on whatever. *sigh*

-Its why I was able to stay on my 980ti for so long. Between patient gaming and being drawn to more indie titles, I just wasn't running into anything that really *needed* the upgrade.

Finally ended up making a new build with my 6800xt... Just because. Turned it into a game scrounging for the best price to perf used parts I could buy which ended up being a lot of fun (made a $3000 2021 PC for $1100 in 2022). Whole build is used parts top to bottom (see sig).

Granted now I'm playing stuff like Witcher 3 EE and Shadow of War that the 980ti could have handled by the 6800xt handles at 144fps+ so I'm not minding the upgrade.

 

[JIWIL]

I know... i even think about second play... but its hard to start...when i look on timer... so many houres ! and i try make like in rpg carmic dices ,never load after bad decision... and from that reason i play almost whole game without without companions... on;ly Gale ,Astarion , Black Heart and part of game Mintara but now she is kidnapped. Rest companions is dead

Most recent play through (last Nov/Dec) I went full Conrad Verner as a Dark Urge. Spoilers to follow:

Spoiler

I clowned around with Gale in the portal until it closed and chopped off his hand... and I'm like whelp and stuffed it into a bag. Wasn't really sure what to do with it, but seemed wrong to just leave it there. I also convinced Laezel to kill herself after she proposed a suicide pact (20CHA was like U FIRST GIRL and she was like 'kay and I'm like ooookay), but a weird ass bug revived her and she just stood around in camp for the rest of the game. Couldn't interact with her or anything... she just stared at me. There was some remorse. Just kept staring, never said a word. Every single camp.

Didn't even recruit Astarion, told him to piss off (I try not to recruit rogues because, well... we all know what happens; also emo vampires are on the list too) but the rest of the game I kept running into NPCs that acted like he was with me. I did something horrible to Karlach because her dancing kept distracting me. I can't even remember what it was, I just know she didn't make it. I'm a monster.

 

[Onasi]

Granted now I'm playing stuff like Witcher 3 EE and Shadow of War that the 980ti could have handled by the 6800xt handles at 144fps+ so I'm not minding the upgrade.

How’s the TW3 EE nowadays? Last I looked into that, it was still half-broken and glitchy. Ran like absolute ass too, even on high end hardware, from what I understand. Curious if they finally patched it.

Not like prettier graphics would make me return to that absolute slog of a game, to be honest. Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine are pretty damn decent, but that base campaign is just… ugghhhhh. Yes, yes, the Baron quest was very cool and poggers, very cool writing there (since that what the internet always brings up), but everything else suffered from the same open-world-itis that many Ubi titles do and I am tired of pretending that TW3 was some sort of immaculate masterpiece. Maybe I was soured on it by playing it on release, since that was plagued by some of the most hilariously stupid leveling systems I have experienced. And that enemies used said levels to determine their strength making YOUR builds essentially irrelevant since anything higher level than you was a wall of HP and damage was also terrible. Oh, and leveled loot. My favorite. Nothing like scrapping a legendary sword of absolute power because this bandit chest contained a basic steel blade a couple of levels above it that made it infinitely better. Makes sense.

Now, I acknowledge that patches and DLC did improve the game, but still, a lot of core issues remain. And you can’t patch-out just straight up bad content like, oh, the entirety of Skellige.

 

[Vayra86]

I know... i even think about second play... but its hard to start...when i look on timer... so many houres ! and i try make like in rpg carmic dices ,never load after bad decision... and from that reason i play almost whole game without without companions... on;ly Gale ,Astarion , Black Heart and part of game Mintara but now she is kidnapped. Rest companions is dead

That's awesome! Just take it as it comes... and then when you restart you can take another path.

Don't worry bout the hours. There's another game in there you've just not seen at all
For me a big motivation to start again is to think carefully about what characters you want in your party. Did you know you can customize every single one? If you want Gale to be a Rogue, you can. So you can get the perfect party setup, for example. Or you can get something really crazy going. Its really fun seeing what you run into with very creative party setups.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

How’s the TW3 EE nowadays? Last I looked into that, it was still half-broken and glitchy. Ran like absolute ass too, even on high end hardware, from what I understand. Curious if they finally patched it.

Not like prettier graphics would make me return to that absolute slog of a game, to be honest. Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine are pretty damn decent, but that base campaign is just… ugghhhhh. Yes, yes, the Baron quest was very cool and poggers, very cool writing there (since that what the internet always brings up), but everything else suffered from the same open-world-itis that many Ubi titles do and I am tired of pretending that TW3 was some sort of immaculate masterpiece. Maybe I was soured on it by playing it on release, since that was plagued by some of the most hilariously stupid leveling systems I have experienced. And that enemies used said levels to determine their strength making YOUR builds essentially irrelevant since anything higher level than you was a wall of HP and damage was also terrible. Oh, and leveled loot. My favorite. Nothing like scrapping a legendary sword of absolute power because this bandit chest contained a basic steel blade a couple of levels above it that made it infinitely better. Makes sense.

Now, I acknowledge that patches and DLC did improve the game, but still, a lot of core issues remain. And you can’t patch-out just straight up bad content like, oh, the entirety of Skellige.

- I never even wasted my time with the DX12 wrapper version of the game, you can launch in DX11 and keep the upgraded textures which is where a lot of the visual improvement comes from.

Runs blazingly fast, rock solid and stable. 0 complaints.

 

[JIWIL]

Put in a little over 100 hours on Witcher3 4.04 DX12 + W3EE Redux 1.39b this spring. No crashes, all the settings cranked except RTX Shadows (buggy, especially in Novigrad area).
Graphics mods used: Optimized Raytracing for RTGI, RT Reflections Blue Hue Fix , and Better Vanilla Lighting.

Frame gen would occasionally bug out and turn into some kind of drunk filter, like you're watching an 80's kungfu flick where the villain starts leaving after-images. Seems to have a small chance of happening when it toggles on/off (after exiting menu/cutscene/etc). That was with DLSSG 3.5.10, haven't tried it with 3.7.0 yet.

I honestly have never played it Vanilla. I first tried it out in 2018 or so, with Ghost Mode installed. A couple runs with W3EE Redux loaded also. Both are great, but Ghost Mode hasn't been updated for 4.0x yet.

Also, the official modkit releases in a few days, already seeing some cool new stuff from people using the beta.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Been exploring Half-Life 2 mods that have their own Steam page.

Can highly recommend Entropy Zero 2 and Minerva.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Just finished Hogwarts Legacy now onto Jedi Survivor on game pass.

 

[theouto]

Since shadow of the erdtree is on the horizon, and I don't want to go into it with my level 176 NG+ character I decided to rebeat Elden Ring with a new character.
Problem is, rushing the game leads to me being underleveled for many fights. An example being fire giant, people recommend you be level 100~ for it, but I killed him at level 73. It was not nice.

 

[adilazimdegilx]

Since shadow of the erdtree is on the horizon, and I don't want to go into it with my level 176 NG+ character I decided to rebeat Elden Ring with a new character.
Problem is, rushing the game leads to me being underleveled for many fights. An example being fire giant, people recommend you be level 100~ for it, but I killed him at level 73. It was not nice.

I also readied my character for dlc and completed everything I wanted to do in base game (including ng+7 run, full pvp character and even completed RL1 All bosses run). Apparently there will be a scaling system in DLC though. So we might not really need a new character to enjoy it. Still, it was a good excuse to rush everything

Already bought the DLC and I'm getting even more excited everyday. They took their sweet time for this DLC, so my expactations are very high.

 

[Space Lynx]

Just finished Hogwarts Legacy now onto Jedi Survivor on game pass.

Jedi Survivor loves x3d cache, hope my old 5600x3d is serving you well!!!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Jedi Survivor loves x3d cache, hope my old 5600x3d is serving you well!!!

Heck yeah it's an awesome CPU. and you sir are a super pimp.

It's paired with a rx 6800 which will be getting swapped for the HellHound 7800XT since it did not sell in my thread. Stupid AIBs cut prices making it so I'd have to eat too much money to move it. It is too good a card for that nonsense. I price my stuff as hot deals but not this card. I rationalize it as a rental fee i.e. I rent hardware I don't own it. In this case I'll keep it in the fleet.

My main rig is a 5800X3D and Pulse 7900XTX. I have a 5800X3D paired with my ARC A750LE too. 3D movies were a fad, 3d V-Cache is pro gamer move.

On topic: Hogshardware was excellent. The music and visuals were AAA all the way. Good voice acting, lots of content. WB franchises tend to satisfy my single player desires. The Arkham series and Mad Max are some of my GOATs.

 

[Veseleil]

Time for another replay of Alpha Centauri. This game holds a special place with me. I have put in thousands and thousands of hours playing this game over the last 25 years and it is the most addictive game that I have ever played. There is so much that you can do with this game with built in tools. You can edit the map, scenario rules, game rules, factions, units, diplomacy, technology advances and even edit the file of what factions say to you depending on your stance with them. I will be Chairman Yang once again.

Thanks for a reminder. I've played Civilization II on Playstation a lot. But I never gave this game a chance, it totally flew under my radar. Later I hopped from Civ II to IV on PC and never looked back, nor front.

More and more I am beginning to feel that upgrading my GPU is something that, while I could absolutely do, is pointless for games since what would I play even? Most big budget titles that do demand such hardware are trash anyway. And indie games and smaller Japanese titles I’ve been favoring run on whatever. *sigh*

Last night I was playing V Rising with a friend on LAN.
My second rig has around 100FPS (drops to 80 at most) on a 1080p 24" screen, and on a main rig it's almost locked 164FPS in 1440p 27". The textures and AA is noticeably better on a 1440p 27", as expected.
Since I know I have AMD Virtual Super Resolution enabled (because why not), I thought, let's try 2160p. And it looks way better, but having only ~80FPS.

Sometimes I'd kick myself in the balls for not saving a bit more for a 32" 2160p 144Hz, but then again I got 27" 1440p 165Hz as I want >100FPS whenever it's possible.
So I'm thinking that only one GPU generation up (7900XTX?) could be the endgame gear for my poor high refresh hungry soul.
Since I always end up enjoying Indie and old games more than anything new "graphically progressive", and since most of them could run on a toaster and have >120FPS, unlike those "eye candies" that are meant to be played at 60FPS top and run like crap even on a 4090, I'm really not so far from obtaining my ultimate hardware at this point.

 

[Space Lynx]

Heck yeah it's an awesome CPU. and you sir are a super pimp.

It's paired with a rx 6800 which will be getting swapped for the HellHound 7800XT since it did not sell in my thread. Stupid AIBs cut prices making it so I'd have to eat too much money to move it. It is too good a card for that nonsense. I price my stuff as hot deals but not this card. I rationalize it as a rental fee i.e. I rent hardware I don't own it. In this case I'll keep it in the fleet.

My main rig is a 5800X3D and Pulse 7900XTX. I have a 5800X3D paired with my ARC A750LE too. 3D movies were a fad, 3d V-Cache is pro gamer move.

On topic: Hogshardware was excellent. The music and visuals were AAA all the way. Good voice acting, lots of content. WB franchises tend to satisfy my single player desires. The Arkham series and Mad Max are some of my GOATs.

Makes sense to me, plus its nice to have a backup for emergencies anyway, and if recent history has taught us anything this market is not stable anymore, crypto/AI, supply chain issues for one reason or another, all ruined us gamers a few times, I would not be surprised if any of it happened again (Nvidia already announced RTX 5000 series will be in short supply at launch due to AI taking most of the foundry time), so imo it's nice to have some spare parts laying around anyway so we never have to worry about enjoying our hobby at least. I never used to feel this way about it, but yeah that's where we are now.

On-topic: Diablo IV all weekend still and having a blast.

Thanks for a reminder. I've played Civilization II on Playstation a lot. But I never gave this game a chance, it totally flew under my radar. Later I hopped from Civ II to IV and never looked back, nor front.

Civ III is my all time favorite, still have my original discs and poster on my wall. I never played Civ II though, I started with Civ III. Would you recommend I give Civ II a go? I still play Civ III sometimes for nostalgia.

 

[Veseleil]

Civ III is my all time favorite, still have my original discs and poster on my wall. I never played Civ II though, I started with Civ III. Would you recommend I give Civ II a go? I still play Civ III sometimes for nostalgia.

Civ II will probably feel odd after playing Civ III. There are lot of improvements made in the sequel. I played Civ III for a short period, even online PvP with some incredible people back then in 2008-2009, that was a community to remember. I've jumped into it by the means of some kind of a game lounge I can't remember the name anymore... We played some kind of a duel maps, 4 city/players deathmatch. They've destroyed me 3-4 times and let me win one... What I hated about Civ III is all those over-production shields gone to waste if you don't micromanage like maniac.
Maybe give Alpha Centauri a try? It has some unique traits compared to Civ II and probably much higher vintage collection value.

 

[64K]

Civ II will probably feel odd after playing Civ III. There are lot of improvements made in the sequel. I played Civ III for a short period, even online PvP with some incredible people back then in 2008-2009, that was a community to remember. I've jumped into it by the means of some kind of a game lounge I can't remember the name anymore... We played some kind of a duel maps, 4 city/players deathmatch. They've destroyed me 3-4 times and let me win one... What I hated about Civ III is all those over-production shields gone to waste if you don't micromanage like maniac.
Maybe give Alpha Centauri a try? It has some unique traits compared to Civ II and probably much higher vintage collection value.

Since I don't think you would be put off too much from dated visuals I would recommend Alpha Centauri/ Alien Crossfire Pack on GOG. It can probably be had for $1 on the upcoming summer sale next month. Alpha Centauri truly is a classic and iirc it was the highest scoring game ever on PCGAMER magazine with a score of 98/100.

 

[Veseleil]

Since I don't think you would be put off too much from dated visuals I would recommend Alpha Centauri/ Alien Crossfire Pack on GOG. It can probably be had for $1 on the upcoming summer sale next month. Alpha Centauri truly is a classic and iirc it was the highest scoring game ever on PCGAMER magazine with a score of 98/100.

It is certainly something worth experiencing. I was just checking it on GOG a moment ago.

Since I've had a nostalgia blast in the last couple of hours, I was digging trough my memories of all those great gaming communities that I had pleasure knowing in the past.
For those of you that love these old NFS games: Porsche Unleashed, High Stakes and Hot Pursuit 2, I present to you the IPLounge, a community that occupies a special place in my heart.
Back in the day, the PU and HS had separate lounges, and I was a PU person. That game has amazing physics, and may be considered as a Porsche driving simulator. Later I wasn't active so much really, even my old login is now invalid. In the meantime the lounges were merged and HP2 was added as well.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Makes sense to me, plus its nice to have a backup for emergencies anyway, and if recent history has taught us anything this market is not stable anymore, crypto/AI, supply chain issues for one reason or another, all ruined us gamers a few times, I would not be surprised if any of it happened again (Nvidia already announced RTX 5000 series will be in short supply at launch due to AI taking most of the foundry time), so imo it's nice to have some spare parts laying around anyway so we never have to worry about enjoying our hobby at least. I never used to feel this way about it, but yeah that's where we are now.

On-topic: Diablo IV all weekend still and having a blast.



Civ III is my all time favorite, still have my original discs and poster on my wall. I never played Civ II though, I started with Civ III. Would you recommend I give Civ II a go? I still play Civ III sometimes for nostalgia.

Right on. I keep spares for my adult son and I on every part, plus compatible parts for troubleshooting. Makes life much easier. I strongly agree about factoring in shenanigans too. Since 2018 it's been a wild ride so at any moment it can be buckle up buttercup.

Stoked to hear D IV is doing it for you. It was all whinging when the game came out. We PC gamers used to be more stoic, I miss that. Maybe it makes me toxically masculine? If that's the case, so be it.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Heck yeah it's an awesome CPU. and you sir are a super pimp.

It's paired with a rx 6800 which will be getting swapped for the HellHound 7800XT since it did not sell in my thread. Stupid AIBs cut prices making it so I'd have to eat too much money to move it. It is too good a card for that nonsense. I price my stuff as hot deals but not this card. I rationalize it as a rental fee i.e. I rent hardware I don't own it. In this case I'll keep it in the fleet.

My main rig is a 5800X3D and Pulse 7900XTX. I have a 5800X3D paired with my ARC A750LE too. 3D movies were a fad, 3d V-Cache is pro gamer move.

On topic: Hogshardware was excellent. The music and visuals were AAA all the way. Good voice acting, lots of content. WB franchises tend to satisfy my single player desires. The Arkham series and Mad Max are some of my GOATs.

- I would have said WB was the most competent movie IP translator of all time until Suicide Squad happened. Granted I haven't played it, and I'd bet its probably a really great example of the genre its meant to play in, its just that GAAS games just sort of suck ass out of principle. Granted, I don't really get Suicide Squad and why WB keeps trying to make it a thing, so I might just be an old man yelling at the clouds here.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

- I would have said WB was the most competent movie IP translator of all time until Suicide Squad happened. Granted I haven't played it, and I'd bet its probably a really great example of the genre its meant to play in, its just that GAAS games just sort of suck ass out of principle. Granted, I don't really get Suicide Squad and why WB keeps trying to make it a thing, so I might just be an old man yelling at the clouds here.

View attachment 347902

No, you are spot on about that game. I have not played it either but I have watched enough and read enough to know it's garbage. GAAS plus sweet baby inc. is a formula for fail. Know your audience or suffer the consequences. It is that simple.

Gotham Knights is overall a fail too. It has none of the heart and soul the Batman Arkham games had. Combat feels more detached somehow. Not a terrible game but certainly not good either. It doesn't pull me in.

I would be stoked for a new Mad Max game based on the movie coming out.

Jedi Fallen Order was great so I am looking forward to Survivor. Performance may have some issues, but the first was a Star Wars game worth playing with some good difficulty spikes to deal with.