Slaughtahouse

Enjoy up to 60% off unforgettable classics

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Sale ends on March 21

A bunch of classic EA games just got added to Steam. I literally just bought Sim City 3K on GoG...

2024-03-06  Ghosts of Tsushima PC announcement 

I'm still behind on updating the sheet and announcements but this is a big one. Long rumoured and finally happening!

https://blog.playstation.com/2024/03/06/ghost-of-tsushima-directors-cut-is-coming-to-pc-on-may-16/

Love it

I wish it was more Architectural and I could choose different concrete finishes, mixtures, and heck, even relief patterns!

On 02/03/2024 at 14:02, J7SC_Orion said:

...some screenies transposed from 4K to 70% jpg...the original CP2077, then on to CP2077 Ultimate, followed by...

 

 

In some areas, CP2077 absolutely beautiful, especially with the way materials react with lighting. Looks straight out of a rendering tool. However, sometimes its disconnected. Lighting is off in this one. Guard rails (fixed and mobile) have inconsistent shadows and the concrete column for the raised highway is missing a large segment. 

How is the expansion? I see go to "Dogtown" in the quest prompt, which I believe is the new area  

23 hours ago, neurotix said:

I also have a teal GBC. Most of my handhelds were plain black ones, my GBA SP silver was scratched to hell, so I put decals from decalgirl.com that my wife found on most of them.

 

I had a photo of all my handhelds but can't find it on my phone. If you're interested in seeing them with the skins let me know and I'll haul them out and take photos.

It's your call I just shared all those details because I went back to the OP and noticed you were pretty granular! 

On topic, I wanted to add one more game or an honorable mention to "retro" game. Runescape!

I played the heck out of it in the early 2000's. I had the subscription, would fish and mine like crazy. Sucked at PvP but I recall beating most of the quests. I have no real drive to ever play it again but it had a good moment before WoW and GuildWars took over, and I never went back to any MMO game.

I heard it's getting popular again and it's been brought back as Old School Runescape 

3 hours ago, neurotix said:

Thanks for your reply @Slaughtahouse and your list. Definitely different from my preferences, it's great to see what different people rate as their top 5.

 

I will surely add you to the club. Welcome. Will be adding you right now. EDIT: added. Had to exclude a few consoles that aren't retro.

Ah thanks for the edit. I just went ham with everything. I noticed you have quantities listed and even types like fat / slim. I need to check my 360 count because it is intense.

I should have 3 regular white 360s. One of which is the launch edition the silver disk drive, one Arcade version, one standard retail one sent by MS (RMA) and I have the silver, Halo Reach slim limited edition. So a total of 4 360s today lol and I RRoD at least 3 360. I feel I fast tracked Bill Gates’ retirement XD

Teal Gameboy Color. Ice Blue N64. Glacier GBA. Black Gamecube. White Wii. Silver / standard DS. Black DS Lite. Cosmo black 3DS. European SNES Classic.

Add me to the club. Consoles I own:

Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo Switch, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo 3DS, SNES Classic, Xbox 360, Xbox Series X, Meta Quest 2. 

On 25/02/2024 at 04:28, UltraMega said:

 

What are your top 5 retro games? 

By my age / definition, retro is basically anything early 6th gen console or prior. 

• Halo CE (PC)
• Super Smash Bros. (N64)
• Perfect Dark (N64)
• Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 (PC)
• Sim City 3000 (PC)

Metroid Prime is my all time favourite game but doesn't feel "Retro". I can play that game over and over again. I was ecstatic when it was re-released on Switch. Now, going into the list... 

Halo CE -> It was my first "3D polygonal" PC game that I can remember. I played the demo, bought it and eventually I bought two copies because... why buy one?. No, not really, I lost the CD so I bought a second copy. Either way, it was exceptional on PC. There were extra maps, weapons (flamethrower), special warthog that shot missles, and custom modes and maps. You could drive a warthog reskined as a Epona in Hyrule field shooting arrows. Was it fun? No, not really but it really opened up my eyes to PC modding. It's one of my all time favourites.

Super Smash Bros. -> Arguably the GOAT of N64 multiplayer. Sorry Mario Kart, take a back seat. The idea of all these Nintendo characters bashing each other over the head with hammers and star rods was genius! I love the franchise and I think without Sakurai, this world would be a slightly darker place. Smash Brothers Ultimate on Switch is this crazy culmination of gaming history all packaged together. So many different 3rd parities. characters, stages, sound tracks... all in one game. Wouldn't have been possible without Smash 64 laying the ground work. 

Perfect Dark -> Wow! Somehow... someway, they took everything from GoldenEye, and made it even better. More maps, more weapons, co-op modes, counter-ops modes, a freakin' laptop gun? What about that sniper that lets you see enemies via xray vision and snipe them through walls? Amazing. All made possible with the little expansion pack for the N64. Even though that game is multiplayer, I would spend so many hours playing solo against bots. I love it and the 360 port is fantastic. Supports 1080p / 60 fps. I think it runs at 4K on Series X. Online multiplayer too. Definitely missing out not having that game on PC. 

Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 -> PC gaming to me has always been 3 things. Strategy, simulation, and pushing the boundaries. I think nothing culminates those 3 strengths more than the original RC series. The amount of customization and mods is staggering. Even today, people still play and stream these games. The sprites hold up very well and it has a very rewarding gameplay loop. I would spend stupid amounts of time making custom coasters. Usually ones that would lead my patrons to their death but oh well, it was in the name of R&D! 

Sim City 3000 -> Similar to RC, you have a very good set of tools and simulation to build out your city. Yes, sometimes the residents and city members would be complaining over the most minute issues but who cares - just send the aliens! Joking aside, the game has an excellent sound track and something was just oddly satisfying about connecting sewer pipes and watching the tiles spill fresh water to various zones. It's the only "Sim" game, besides 2000, I've ever really enjoyed. I recently just repurchased it on GOG and it still holds up well. 

Honestly, looks good. I'm not a big fan of complicated GUI and I've always liked classic NVCP. However, it's very slow and does feel archaic when you can't have simple overlays or OC / UV. AMDs panel has a bit too many menus for me but I prefer the way it operates overall. If all the functionality is there but it's easier to navigate and runs faster, that's a win in my books. 

28 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Definitely a bit of overlap between a GPU and an NPU, but not as much as you might think. An NPU can be up to like 10k times better at certain tasks vs a GPU. 

 

Just like how a CPU technically can do most of what a GPU can do, just not very well. 

 

If AMD GPUs had NPUs or functioned well as NPUs, FSR and DLSS would be of similar quality. It's the NPU that makes the difference. 

I want to believe that but my instincts tell me that the NPU will be more like a PhsyX type card. Great for upgrading an old rig but not ideal if you're considering getting faster video card that can simply do this work. Especially if future graphics cards have an NPU. 

Thanks for sharing. Curious how "NPUs" will evolve and from a practical standpoint, if they move the needle forward for enthusiasts. 

2024-02-21 - Updates

I'll work on plugging the announcements and release dates into the sheet as well, I'll summarize the announcements here later in the week* (Edit: So many announcements, need moar time ) 

Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase 2.21.2024 - Nintendo Official Site

WWW.NINTENDO.COM

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A Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase is here! Tune in for around 25 minutes of information focused on games coming to the Nintendo Switch system in the first half of 2024 from our publishing and...

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s first trailer and release date are here

WWW.POLYGON.COM

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Rise, Tarnished... and reinstall Elden Ring

Microsoft confirms which Xbox games are going to Switch, PlayStation

ARSTECHNICA.COM

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Hi-Fi Rush, Grounded, Pentiment, and Sea of Thieves are going multiplatform.

Final Fantasy XIV Online Open Beta Now Available on Xbox Series X|S - Xbox Wire

NEWS.XBOX.COM

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Critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV Online has officially launched into Open Beta on Xbox Series X|S!

11 hours ago, pioneerisloud said:

I've been hearing that one's gorgeous.  Definitely on my list of future benchmark titles.  

100%. 

It's beautiful in it's own right. Where Avatar really looks great in both macro and micro views (large vistas and up close with nature and metallic structures), the level of detail in Alan Wake II is astounding. They layer on a lot of video effects, both post processing and active film / FMV over top to present their world in a unique way. When you throw on the path tracing, it's fun to see how shadows, materials, light bounces all dramatically change. From a gameplay perspective, it's difficult to notice but if you stop and stare, you can see it. Too bad it's really 4090 + terriority to play. The only other gripe is that there isn't an alternative AA to the upscalers.

I tried to play it at 1440p on my monitor but since there is no AA (E.g., TAA) and I am on AMD (FSR is my only choice), the jaggies are real. I'm choosing to play the game at 4K super sampled on my monitor. Or playing native 4K on my TV. 

Alan Wake (1) was one of my all time favourite games, I love thriller films and stuff like American Horror Story, Twilight Zone etc. so this hits all those vibes. A little weird playing on Epic Game Store. I am a sucker for achievements but the sound effect for achievements on EGS is so loud, it gives me a mini heart attack because I am on EDGE... 

Only 3 hours in but if you're into Resident Evil, Silent Hill, or the original Alan Wake, you'll be right at home with this. 

Alan Wake II

4K, Max

Getting lost in looking all the little details. Fun to toggle path tracing (2nd and 4th screenshot enabled) to see how materials react. It's subtle and not worth the perf loss during gameplay but for screenshots, it's super fun  

24 minutes ago, pioneerisloud said:

 

Well, if they're claiming that "1080p / LOW settings / 30 FPS" is the bare minimum to be playable, I'd like to simply argue that maybe the bare minimum specs are perhaps closer to this.....because this was absolutely "playable" (on a generic 1080p / 60Hz panel).

There are some areas that the benchmark doesn't represent well, like the planes (second, large biome) or some of the larger bases. That being said, pretty impressive results with a Fury X!

On 18/02/2024 at 01:46, pioneerisloud said:

Source


 

James Cameron would be proud XD

Sim City 3000

1440p

I was intrigued by Andrew's post (Cities Skylines II) and decided to purchase Sim City 3000 on GOG. There is a simple mod for the .exe to get it to run on modern resolutions. Booted up the Berlin default map just to quickly get a feel for it. Brings backs the memories... Highly recommend this one if you love city sims. I'd argue it's the best one https://www.gog.com/en/game/simcity_3000

12 hours ago, GanjaSMK said:

 

 

Quote

To add into this very topic on ever increasingly new information (credit geekwire link, don't know orig source, didn't reat far enough in lol), and seemingly the possibility of fighting discourse in a socio-economic fashion, coupled with a completely unstable global market right now, who knows where this is going short term (pre-2030). It'll be more interesting to see (as sustained far-reaching workforce layoffs will absolutely continue, like it or not and regardless of new opportunities) what transpires via US election year (think oval-office + megacorp persuasion economically), where this is going to land very short term. 

I believe the government will try to regulate AI but knowing how slow the regulators are, these corps will take advantage and print money while they can, as fast as they can. Might be 2-3 years of AI bubble money, might be 5-10 money. Who knows.

Quote

 

7 Trillion seems like a lot, because it is an unfathomably large sum of money for an indidvidual. Even a billion dollars (with NO reference to any current socio-economic spigot of FUD) is near unfathomably large for an individual. But the things a company, government.... oh what they could do. 

Think about it for a while. It's really interesting. 

 

I'm not sure if I was misunderstood but when I mentioned one player, I was referring to the OpenAI, which Sam A. is the face of  

 

A 7 Trillion request in funding today for single corp to manufacture chips is absurd. Especially when you contextualize the current market value per UltraMega's comment.

Edit: Just more fuel for the OpenAI money generating fire  

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

Just a little context on the 7 trillion figure; AI is estimated to bring in some 800 billion per year in the short term, and that number is only going to go up so with that in mind, 7 trillion seems a lot more reasonable. 

Still a 9x evaluation on an estimate for the entire market for only one player in the market, for just chip fabrication. Yea, AI is an immerging market but a 7 Trillion ask today is still absurd. 

2 hours ago, GanjaSMK said:

I've said it previously, maybe even on here. 
 

I think the next round of true AI inferences becoming incredibly powerful tools will happen once systems are able to be linked, offering new applications that will exceed the inspirational applications being envisioned (and taught!) today. 

 

Example: 

 

TinyML is receiving an incredible amount of interest due to the possibilities afforded in such low-energy, low-resistance, high-functioning opportunities. Think of an application with TinyML sensors tuned in a greenhouse - linked to a completely non-human intervened system, using TinyML sensors that detect and rationalize how other sensors  are also reporting information. Thinks like barometric pressure, moisture content in the air, etc, etc. If those systems are linked and able to drive other robotic/machine driven things like seeding, planting, maintaining air quality, soil, water, etc - that's a HUGE potential game changer in a very small subset of possibilities to execute ideas like this, in other industries for other applications. 

 

I envision a future where independent but highly-accurate systems are linked together, creating what I guess would a be a digital-neural network of interconnected (LLM, VLM, ALM, TinyML) applications - running seamlessly together. Kind of like a human brain, in some very light respects. More along the lines of how a central piece of the brain essentially links to help all other connected systems operate; that's the similarity that I see. 

 

I think this is exactly what OpenAI is seeking investment for. I think behind the scenes they fully understand the far-reaching (short term, not long) applications prospects. It's incredibly mind-bogglingly plain to see, in my humble opinion. 

I think that's the key piece. It's still a tool and requires human input. I've seen more and more AI integration into various tools or various new tools, completely based on AI but ultimately, they need some level of input. My outlook on AI is more positive but for sure, there are some serious and valid concerns across the industry. 

While 7 Trillion today may sound completely unreasonable, because it is an unreasonable number, it's a good indicator that companies are ready to heavily invest into AI and this trend will continue. Whether it's sustainable at this pace is another question. My gut is no, as there likely be some form of market saturation very soon unless we continue to innovate with AI very rapidly. I'm seeing similar applications compete already compete with each other so that's why I'm a skeptical this will go at this pace. But I could be entirely wrong. 

Meanwhile, Nvidia just keeps printing money

Nvidia passes Google’s market cap, now world’s fourth most valuable company

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Nvidia might soon be worth more than the world's biggest oil company.

On 11/02/2024 at 15:30, Andrew said:

I forgot to put this in here the other day. I made some hot chocolate.

 

 

Someone told me it looks like there's mold in there, but I can assure you it's not, it's the seasoning.

Yea something is in there. Let me zoom...

A little closer 

Ah, there it is

Alan Wake II

4K, Max (RT Disabled)

Below:  4K Native Max Raster vs. 4K Native with Max Path Tracing

My body is ready. My 7900 XTX is not ready (...path tracing melts it XD)

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

1440p / 4K, Ultra

Rolled credits after approx. 60hrs of clocked game time. Last 4-5 main missions are pretty fun, even if some of the unique mega bases still use a lot of familiar assets. Some large changes to the world start to occur towards late game which was fun. A lot of doom gloom, lets make you feel bad type moments with Navi and wildlife getting pillaged. I feel beyond a core selection of side quests (5-10), most are repetitive Ubisoft point A to point B and you should avoid. A bit of a shame because the world is really fun to explore but quest design got lazy. Unless you can enjoy jumping in trees, flying across valleys, and stalking prey in the wild, the world might feel pretty bland. Hard game to recommend if you really not into Avatar. I also felt there wasn't enough unique encounters (besides fauna / wildlife). There are also just a few too many bases to clear out for me to consider "100%ing" the game. A fun note is that you unlock another bow type weapon towards the final 3rd of the game. All three bows are fun to use in combat and have strength / weaknesses. 

I'd think I would land at an 8 out of 10. Great game but bogged down by typical Ubisoft tropes.  Curious what the DLC brings but overall, I'm glad I played it. This is coming from someone who hates Far Cry games. No more Avatar spam from me anymore  On to Alan Wake II and other games.