Slaughtahouse

I was unaware they mentioned 2025 or earlier is unlikely. Traditionally when an AAA game goes from pre-production to production, it should be out within 1-2 years. That’s when the team is essentially full size and just grinding content, features, and squashing bugs. The only large risks are essentially external factors or large changes to the project. That’s why I inferred 2025/2026 is possible. Unless Witcher 4 is trying to do something completely revolutionary, they should be able to get it out relatively soon. It’s going to come down what they’re trying to do in UE and if they have the capability to do it. Agreed with the whole marketing nonsense strategy… I thought we were passed misleading hype trailers. A simple “Still in development, pre-rendered footage only” type subtitle would of been more… transparent.

They announced it’s in full production now. I suppose they should hit beta within 6 - 8 months if there are no major changes to scope. A release in 2025 is technically possible but I believe 2026 is more realistic, especially with this being their first UE title. I don’t believe we will have 60 series by that time. We should know more by 2025 Summer Game Fest. Besides, if GTA VI is still on track, no publisher is releasing their huge AAA game near it.

CD Projekt has always marketed their games as PC first, pushing tech and graphics. Even considering how poor (critically) the CP2077 launch was and damage to their reputation, the game sold ~10M copies in a couple days if I recall correctly. Nvidia also pushed a LOT of their tech, and marketing into their games. Witcher 2 “Uber sampling” settings. Witcher 3 hair tech. CP2077 RT. All some level of Nvidia sponsorship. All I see is Nvidia doubling down on this strategy. Yes, it’s misleading but it doesn’t mean it’s false. It’s just to hype up Blackwell, regardless if other GPUs can pre-render trailers. Glad outlets are calling it out and if you haven’t learned your lesson yet, wait at least 6 months before this game drops before considering a purchase.

2024-12-15 Game Awards 2024 Winners Simplified list below Astro Bot won four awards, including GOTY. Balatro, favourite amongst myself and other ExtremeHW users won three awards. Lastly, to no surprise, the most hyped game of 2025 is GTA VI. For the full list including nominees, feel free to use the google sheet! I'll do a separate post with all the announcements soon Category Name Winner Game of the Year Astro Bot Best Game Direction Astro Bot Best Narrative Metaphor: ReFantanzio Best Art Direction Metaphor: ReFantanzio Best Score/Music Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth Best Audio Design Senua's Saga: Hellblade II Best Performance Melina Juergens, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 Games for Impact Neva Best Ongoing Game Helldivers 2 Best Indie Game Balatro Best Debut Indie Game Balatro Best Mobile Game Balatro Best Community Support Baldur's Gate III Best VR/AR Game Batman: Arkham Shadow Innovation in Accessibility Price of Persia: The Lost Crown Best Action Game Black Myth: Wukong Best Action/Adventure Game Astro Bot Best RPG Metaphor: ReFantanzio Best Fighting Game Tekken 8 Best Family Game Astro Bot Best Sports/Racing Game EA Sports FC 25 Best SIM/Strategy Game Frostpunk 2 Best Multiplayer Game Helldivers 2 Best Adaptation Fallout Most Anticipated Game GTA: VI Content Creator of the Year CaseOh Best Esports Game League of Legends Best Esports Athlete Faker Best Esports Team T1 Players' Voice Black Myth: Wukong

With the game awards wrapped up, Ill follow up shortly with a post, recapping the nominees, winners, and announcements! Stay tuned

I know it’s not earth shattering but it’s nice to see mid/ low range get competitive. More VRAM, more performance, less features, less price. I also would expect that it drops in price when Blackwell releases it’s mid (low) range next summer. I anticipate Blackwell to have new features (decompression engine etc.) and it will be hard to compete on anything other than price once it drops. I do feel it at least offers more flexibility to those on a budget. Curious if/when the Battlemage 7XX series releases if it surpasses the 4070 Super at a cost of $400 or less. It’s always a moving goal post but more competition is good. Hardware Unboxed did a good revisit on Intel GPUs (Alchemist) this year and found in most instances the driver issues are solved when compared to launch. Given their position (youth) in the market and how quickly they’ve been able to iterate and deliver features like XeSS and good RT, I suspect Intel will pass AMD on the GPU mindshare front within 4-6 years (2-3 gens) at this pace.

Forespoken, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Star Wars: Outlaws. I believe more Sony games use the API but I am not 100% sure. There are some challenges with it but I am not fully aware of what they are. I just know on the backend, if it was a win/win, it’d be used more. There must be some draw backs, whether it’s resource management or level of effort for the reward in most scenarios. I could be wrong, this is all speculation, and complete conjecture. I am sure there are some deep dives out there with more info.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle 4K (Native), Supreme Settings (Max), HDR, Cinematic Aspect Ratio First thing to clarify, because HDR is enabled, Steam now captures more or less, an accurate screenshot. Albeit it's darker than normal when viewing, sharing via Steam than natively playing the game in HDR. 2nd photo (spoiler) is HDR off. OK, with that out of the way... wow! This game is very good at making you feel like you're playing an adventure as Indy, without it coming off as a cheap, movie tie-in type of game. Similar to Avatar, it does a really good job on the character movement. When you crack your whip, move, look down at your feet, or dodge traps, you FEEL like Indy. I think that is easily it's strength. Performance wise, I am on max settings (Supreme) without Path Tracing, which is currently unsupported on AMD / Intel GPUs. At 4K native and everything cranked, im getting approx 70 FPS avg. in the jungle with a 7900 XTX + 5800X3D. In the interior environments, I am closer to 100 FPS. It runs really well. Cutscenes seem capped at 60fps, but it's rendered in real-time and the animations appear accurate and smooth. I've only got about an hour into it, but so far... really impressed. The simple things like solving booby traps feels right. If you take one wrong step, insta death by poison needles. However, if you take your time and examine the environment, I'm sure you'll figure out the puzzles. The level of detail is quite high, though I do wish some settings would scale further. Reflections seem mid quality. I also had to go into a .cfg file and manually edit a line to extend draw distance. Besides those small blemishes, it's a really smooth port. It also supports cloud saves with Xbox natively. Which is a nice feature. Starfield lacked that and the Steam game wouldn't cross-save with Xbox. Only the Gamepass version. I know it's a small group of people who'd play Steam and Xbox but... I appreciate it It's obviously way too early to give it a "review" but initial impressions are solid. Given the praise from reviews, how well the port runs, and generally speaking, how well they nailed the feel of being Indy, I gotta give it a recommendation!

Small heads up. Indiana Jones on PC does NOT support Path Tracing on AMD or Intel GPUs at this time. They've dropped a patch that enabled it, however, you cannot toggle it within the settings unless you have an Nvidia GPU. I suspect this will change but given there is only DLSS available for upscaling and this restriction is in place, sounds like Nvidia "sponsorship" practices are continuing. I could be wrong. However, given how flexible iD is with their technology and it’s a repeating pattern with Nvidia sponsorship, I have doubts. Maybe a quick .ini file mod will fix it... but it's almost 2025. Get with the program. / End rant

Sounds like the near future for Ukraine if Russia continues their invasion. Glad they capture these moments :)

UFO 50 Another indie game I grabbed from the Black Friday sales. Premise is simple on paper but it’s all the extra layers that make this one special. UFO 50 is a collection of 50, 80’s style (8-bit NES) type games. The game is presented as a collection of cartridges and you can pick any game at anytime. What’s surprising is a lot of them feel like full, released titles that would have been launched back when. Titles are listed in order of year “released”. So as you make your way from 1982 to 1989, you’ll see games evolve, more mechanics, and more context. Including sequels to games. Each game has some sort of objective, which could be simply beating, scoring on the top of the leaderboard, or other challenges. Most games also have 2 player multiplayer. I’ve put about 2hrs in Ninpek, a side scrolling ninja style game. It’s pretty difficult to master but it’s very addictive to try and crawl up the leaderboard. Another fun one, I skipped ahead to, was Party House. It’s essentially a deck builder type game where you need to meet objectives which require money and popularity. Your deck is essentially a rolodex of guests that you can invite. From friends, comedians, dancers, and monkeys XD. Each character has unique traits which modifies how much popularity and money you gain from each party. You want to max out the rewards gain from each party to meet the objectives. However, the risk is that your party can go wild and you control the size of your party or who gets invited. If you’re not paying attention, the police might come and you’ll lose the opportunity to gain more popularity and cash. Those are just 2 games… and there are 50. If you’re into retro games, don’t sleep on UFO 50. UFO 50 on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM UFO 50 is a collection of 50 single and multiplayer games that span a variety of genres, from platformers...

Thanks, Steve!

2024-12-06 One of the last major updates to the Google Sheet. Extract below for quick reference. Ill create a separate page for the Game Awards just like the 2023 thread Surprised by how well the Indiana Jones reviews came in, I decided to pre-order via GMG. I'll share some thoughts later this month in the screenshot thread if anyone is interested

Prime Gaming has a few goodies for free to claim (GoG codes) including: - Outer Worlds - Baldur’s Gate I and II enhanced editions - Spelunky - Quake II Also on Epic they had Dredge for free last week. It doesn’t appear available anymore but they’re starting their holiday giveaways including Lego Starwars Skywalker Saga Prime Gaming | Discover, download, and play games GAMING.AMAZON.COM Enjoy games and more gaming extras every month with Amazon Prime. Just a moment... STORE.EPICGAMES.COM

Halls of Torment About a month ago, I picked up Vampire Survivors on Switch. I got really addicted for a couple weeks and was looking to shift to PC. I then recalled a discussion a couple months back and further, saw some steam reviews, from friends praising Halls of Torment. To sum it up, yes it lives up to the hype. It’s a rogue-like bullet heaven game, similar to Vampire Survivors. The premise is real simple, survive until the timer runs out. As you deal damage, you gain XP, which you can pour into skills that improve your health, speed, defence, dps, as well as upgrade abilities that you discover in a run. What makes is rouge-like is the ongoing progression that persists through the economy, like gold. So if you’re struggling, you can spend gold between runs to improve base traits of your character. What Halls of Torment does differently beyond the themes and graphics, which is straight up classic Diablo, is introduce more modifiers, enemy types, and bosses vs. Vampire Survivors. I’ve got about 5hrs in, and received approx. 100/500 of the Steam achievements. I suspect in a few weeks, the hype will die down. However, if you’re looking for a game to take your mind off other stresses, go slay some demons. It’s around $5 USD during the Steam Autumn sale and highly recommend. Save 25% on Halls of Torment on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Slay hordes of terrifying monsters in this horde survival roguelite. Descend into the Halls of Torment where the...

I had this playing on the TV in the background, and I was shocked. I’ve never heard Gamers Nexus go this hard at a company. The amount of lying and false advertising is disgusting from NZXT. We all understand lending, leasing, or financing is never as fiscally wise vs. purchasing outright but it’s a solution if you’re low on cash, you know your cash flow, and you’re willing to take on a certain amount of risk. This is just customer abuse. I am really curious to see how this all pans out.

+1 to Metro 2033 and Last Light. I haven’t tried 2033 Redux but it’s probably the better purchase. Since it’s not DX10 and it’s the game ported to the Last Light, DX11 engine. Both games are very atmospheric and don’t rely on a ton of FPS skills or are as the kids say “sweaty”. I was also a sucker for Borderlands, especially if you have a partner to play with. I haven’t tried 3 yet but both 1 and 2 are quite fun and don’t require a ton of skill. It’s just first person Diablo.

Heads up that nearly all game distribution sites have their black friday sales up now. Steam, GoG, Epic, Battle net etc. Third parties like Green Man Gaming also have sales that usually offer a few extra % off too! Most sales aren’t anything special, however, if you have a backlog, nows a good time to stock up! Check the list (main page) and don’t forget about 2023! Happy shopping! I have a backlog to target too (copy paste below) but I think I’ll focus on grabbing some indies instead and maybe one AAA to mess around with. As I really want to focus this holiday on Stalker 2. Games that are on my backlog from 2023 in order of priority: Alan Wake II (Purchased!) Sea of Stars (Purchased!) Hi-Fi Rush (Purchased!) Dead Space (2023) (Purchased!) Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Purchased!) Remnant II (Pending purchase) System Shock (2023) (Purchased) Baldur's Gate III (Pending purchase) Dredge (Pending purchase) Final Fantasy XVI (Pending Purchase) Aliens: Dark Descent (Pending Purchase) Cities: Skylines II (TBD…)

Also, here's a link to a Steam recording. It's a new feature to record, share clips in game. Gave it a go with HL2. https://steamusercontent-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/36686769527741002/7FF61F52F7930185144B5B21919E194804440D25/

Half-Life 2 5K (2880p), Max Settings, 8x MSAA. 20 year anniversary just passed by, so I figured it's best to revisit City 17. I have never played through the entire game on PC (shocking right?) and only beat HL2 and Episode 1 in the Orange Box on Xbox 360 some 17 years ago. To no surprise, this game still holds up. Exceedingly well in fact. The pacing of the story and gameplay (small puzzles, action, short dialogue) really keeps it flowing nicely. The physics system is still fantastic and it's always enjoyable to watch enemies react to you and the environment. It was made free a few and I believe it's still on sale. There is an "RTX" version coming down the pipe as well and I really recommend watching the documentary. It's two hrs but worth your time if you enjoy dev diaries.

Thanks. Adjusted Other: In the near future, I’ll begin to plug in GTX Geforce cards, starting with Pascal and going back to Fermi. Ultimate goal will be to go back to the start (256). Baby steps…

I can adjust the pivot table, reorder to descending order for “GPU Series” and apply a condition format the cell to any GPU that is a flagship. For the data page, where the pivot pulls from, Id personally rather leave it as is and let it be a data dump in its current format. As that’s why I did the pivot, to quickly visualize the comparison for discussion

I’ve made some small updates to the sheet for Blackwell GPUs. This is a result of various, new leaks for the 5090, 5070 Ti. https://videocardz.com/newz/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090-gb202-gpu-die-reportedly-measures-744-mm2-20-larger-than-ad102 https://www.techpowerup.com/329123/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5070-ti-specs-leak-same-die-as-rtx-5080-300-w-tdp

Thanks for dropping your impressions. I’m really intrigued and want to support the devs. I’ve read a few reviews and just watch that performance vid from DF. It obviously needs work but it’s not CD Projekt or Bethesda level, launch jank. I think this will be my winter holiday game. So I’ll give it a few weeks but excited to give it a go!

"Never been more healthy" wouldn't be the first words that come to my mind. Massive layoffs and organizational shifts Unclear long term strategy, especially to grow their market in Asia Late to market for mobile / hybrid device (they're just prototyping now) Poor hardware sales (I'm fairly certain the 360 outpaces the Series X|S and that is a 19 year old console in a significantly smaller market). Major existing IPs underperforming (Halo, Forza etc.) Employees going on strike https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/13/24295556/video-game-developer-strike-zenimax-microsoft I have faith that these changes now will build a better, brighter Microsoft. Especially after closing the ABK acquisition, since that will be their safety net. CoD, Diablo, Candy Crush, WoW etc. will keep cash flowing.