Slaughtahouse

If they come up with simply the same formula in a more fleshed out region, Elder Scrolls 6 should be just as good as any other past Bethesda game. My fear is not the game being good, rather that they will excuse basic quality of life features that any game in the past 5 years supports. FoV slider missing from Starfield and a major update allowing players to “eat food” without going into the menu was a joke.

I agree with a lot of those points but I have still found my time in the game more interesting when exploring space. Even if it’s not as good as it should or could have been, I have still enjoyed the small side quests I have found. Not the random encounters when you warp to a planet but the side quests that drive you to land at a random base or station. I believe those are hand crafted quests and they’ve been fun. I really can’t follow the main quest but Ill give it another go soon. Edit: And I’ll remind others here to try the UC faction quests. I have not completed it yet so it could dissolve into nothing but so far, those quests have been the most interesting (to me) and I personally enjoyed the Alien (film) references.

Ghostrunner is free on EGS today. Go git before the year ends!

I didn’t watch the video but I mean that’s how we all felt here (referring to your Skyrim friend). I admit, I am a huge sucker for Bethesda games. They got me hooked since that day I walked into a Zellers (Canadian Target) and discovered Oblivion. That was my first console RPG and I only picked it up because A) I got a 360 on launch and I need another game besides Perfect Dark Zero and B) the screenshots on the back resembled Lord of the Rings. Starfield is still a good game but… it lacks “the world” that ties it all together in my opinion. I recall vividly exploring Cyrodiil, Skyrim, Washington D.C, etc. In Starfield, the key planets that have cities feel like nothing but the cities. All other planets are empty, and largely that is OK but it just doesn’t work as well as it should. Im sure this premise of game could be done but for Bethesda to apply their typical formula, it just doesn’t hold up when, as you mentioned worlds are procedurally generated and well, disconnected. I played it for most of September and I do intend on finishing it, at least the UC faction quest line, but it didnt have the hooks in me (the world) to stick through it in one long marathon. More on topic, one of the reasons it’s getting reviewed bombed is because back in November, Bethesda decided to respond to Steam reviews. Their responses by and large were trying to convince the authors that they didn’t understand that experience of exploring empty planets. Not sure why they decided to shoot themselves in the foot when the average daily count was already so low. Mix that with their philosophy to avoid frequent and signifiant patches, accessibility options, and rely on mods… I think it just pushed the community over the edge. Again, it’s a good game, but it could of been great. Sad to see them try and innovate yet feel so dated at the same time.

Crap, forgot about one more! Prime (Amazon) is also giving away games. Most seem like small or unknown indie but Deathloop is tucked away in there. Just note that Prime seems to have their own DRM / store front now for some games(Amazon Game Store). Sometimes, the games are DRM free (E.g., I have RCT 2 DRM free like GoG) or alternatively, they’re tied to an existing platform like Steam. Deathloop is for Epic Game Store. Prime Gaming GAMING.AMAZON.COM Prime Gaming Home Page

Just a friendly reminder that Epic Game Store is doing their annual free game giveaways. Yesterday Ghostwire: Tokyo, today and tomorrow it’s The Outer Worlds: Spacers Choice (edition with all DLC expansions). Just a moment... STORE.EPICGAMES.COM

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays everyone

Are you using the correct Polaris drivers for your setup? https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-11-1-polaris-vega It's been a different branch for the past few months.

Thanks for sharing! Nice project and glad you brought some joy to your client Honestly, I’ve seen more and more arcades here (Toronto) pop up for adults where they have vintage machines and newer stuff like sims whilst serving cocktails and such. E.g., https://tilttoronto.com/ I’d be surprised there aren’t any in the UK. I was at an arcade recently for an event and got to play Godzilla with a cocktail in the cupholder. It was great and just getting my hands on the tactile buttons again with all the crazy sound effects was great!

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 4K, Ultra (HDR) I don't want to spoil the Ikran sequence (build up to get to it) but once you bond with it, the game really opens up. Approx. 20hrs in, I made it to the next region (Upper Plains) where you can ride the direhorse. Upper Plains are super taxing on the GPU. Where I normally get 60-70fps with my settings, closer to 50fps. All that grass...

2023-12-22 - Holiday Sales (Round 3) A friendly reminder that the Steam Winter Sale is now live Welcome to Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM The Steam Winter Sale is on now — find great deals on thousands of games! Plus vote for the best games of 2023 in the Steam Awards and earn free stickers.

Yes I linked it at the bottom of the OP. I will try to contact the ISP today. There sees to be conflicting info where the OP there still has an issue (to my knowledge) whilst another user successfully resolved it by replacing their modem / router (HH 3000). Update: Contacted ISP, they will send a new modem. I’ll follow up if issue still persists.

A fun infographic from Gamesindustry GamesIndustry.biz presents... The Year In Numbers 2023 WWW.GAMESINDUSTRY.BIZ Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox As the holidays draw near...

Don't forget to try the Unobtanium mode Add this to the launch script "-unlockmaxsettings". Let me know when you're about 3-5 hrs in. Once you get over the tutorial stuff, out in the open, and have a few weapons, the world really shines. I'm probably 1/3 my way through the main plot myself and I am enjoying the game more, each and every day I play it.

Edit: Escalated with our ISP directly. I'll share a brief summary if / when it gets resolved. Edit 2: ISP seems to have resolved it. Over the past few days Ive tried various tips recommended by Microsoft including but not limited to: Port Forwarding, DMZ mode, static IP, various resets etc. However, approximately 5 days after contacting the ISP, download speeds seem to have been resolved. No visibility or response from the ISP but going from 30Mbps to 800-900Mbps is well… night and day. What had originally happened: Download speeds were throttled to 20-30Mbps and Xbox whilst connected to the network would crash the modem and throttle the network for all devices. Modem would always crash and then return to normal (excluding the Xbox). Resolved? TBD but working as intended now.

2023-12-20 - Holiday Sales (Round 2) GMG Sale has gone live -> https://www.greenmangaming.com/winter-sale/ Should match or exceed Steam sale, which starts tomorrow.*

It’s so thin I can’t even see it!

That's some mad Starfield time. My September is also stacked with Starfield but I haven't touched it since. I dabbled in surprisingly very few indies but seems like I spread my time around various AAA titles. RE4 Remake dominated my Steam time and God of War was my first 100% achievement game.

Steam 2023 Year in Review Fun fact: Most of your playtime (90%) was with a controller

An Interview with Cities: Skylines 2 developer’s CEO, Mariina Hallikainen ARSTECHNICA.COM A hugely successful early game can become a developer's own worst enemy. This article likely doesn’t warrant a new thread but as a fan of the city / sim management genre, I think this is worth sharing

I believe this will be marketed more of premium than the last series of “Pro” consoles. PS5’s are still selling like hot cakes and they’ve probably done enough research to know that a mid-gen update will not impede on base console sales. I’m not hearing rumblings from Xbox about a refresh. I wonder if that’s simply due their lack of demand / sales. Either way, I am Pro… Pro. Gives the devs a wide range of hardware which unlocks potential for any cross platform games on PC. It’s also double edge sword because it’s another build / version to test. As long as games are still targeted for Series S (low), Series X / PS5 (mid range), and PS5 Pro (high end), we should only get better and better ports to PC (theoretically) because they will still need to scale to baseline. I suspect this Pro to launch in early 2025 with GTA VI. Needs a killer app and I’m not sure what it is right now. FF VII Rebirth would be a good opportunity but it releases in 2 months.

A few tips / FYIs for iamjanco: the game is a bit slow to start but it will open up pretty quickly once you get through the first hour. Highly recommend the “Exploration Mode” which pre-selects various HUD and Quest markers to be disabled. I typically disable all HUD in any game I play but if that’s not your style, that’s OK. I just really recommend to disable the health bar because it’s linked to a separate smaller meter for “energy”. The energy meter is based on food consumption which provides various buffs. The game will remind you that you need to eat but there is no real negative impact if you don’t. So disabling this hud element, unfortunately tied to the health bar, will avoid those notifications. The one real impact in terms of gameplay is if your energy is depleted, you won’t regen health but there is a health item system.You can store these items in separate inventory unrelated to food. Also, it may be difficult at times to solve puzzles or gather “clues” in Explorer mode. There is a Navi vision tool like Geralt’s Witcher Senses from the Wild Hunt that helps you solve puzzles but more times than not, it’s incredibly difficult to see the clues because there is so much foliage and the navi vision generates a lot of noise on screen. Pro tip: limit your search area. Most clues are within 10’ of the quest item that initiated the investigation. Last but not least, if you have a controller, use it Game is built around it including puzzles and harvesting items that require playing with the pressure applied to the right trigger. That’s all I got Enjoy

And… we have a winner! Congratulations to @iamjanco! Hope you enjoy your time on Pandora, even if Bill Paxton isn’t apart of the Avatar cinematic universe Thanks all for participating! Happy Holidays

I guess I like circles more but ultimately indifferent. If we do go square, please, embrace its 90 degree angled goodness. No rounded corners