Screenshots of your games

[Slaughtahouse]

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

4K, "Enriched" Mode (Series X)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dropped my Gamepass sub shortly after I got my Xbox, since I don't play enough. However, I like to scour the store for cheap games and I came across this. It's on sale for $3. Decided to give it a go on Xbox for a "short" cinematic single player experience. I've put about 3hrs into in one sitting. Maybe close to 50% complete judging what I've read online (6-8hr game).

 

So far, having a good time. Playing it on the OLED but with wireless headphones to really dial into the psychosis (audio effects). Combat / Puzzle loop is a bit repetitive but if you consider the quality of the entire package, it's a great experience. Playing it on the "enriched mode" which is 4K native + ray tracing. Caveat is a console plebian 30fps but it's honestly not that bad for this type of game. The sequel, Senua's Saga launches tomorrow.  

[schuck6566]

GoG giving away the DLC free today.....

The Witcher 3 REDkit on GOG.com

WWW.GOG.COM

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Please note that you are required to own The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt or The Witcher 3: Wild

 

[Slaughtahouse]

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

4K, "Enriched" Mode (Series X)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Played the remaining 50% of Hellblade last night. I came out of this experience enjoying it much more than I thought I would. The gameplay criticisms are valid for this series, however it does a lot of things well and the overall impact and feel after finishing it is different than most games.

 

I’d recommend it if you’re feeling a short narrative horror/adventure.

Edited June 16 by Slaughtahouse
Format, reduced images

[Slaughtahouse]

Frostpunk

1440p, Max

 

 

 

 

 

Always on edge but there is always a way to keep your colony going. It just may require getting the children to shovel coal from the mines into your storehouses. Good news is you can streamline your processes by building the graveyard next to the coal stockpiles.

 

Dark humour aside, im about 5 hours in and nearly lost this colony about an hour ago. Revolts started because I made some poor choices early on the snowballed into even worse results. Had to demolish some homes and let a few people freeze to bolster my coal production whilst setting new laws that enabled a cohort of priests to help the citizens see the way to prosperity during the -50C weather. Once the faith spread, and we caught a few thieves, people began to understand the collective effectiveness to survive the next storm, -70C. Generator almost blew up but we survived. 

 

On day 25 on my first run (story mode). Curious how far it goes before it gets completely absurd.

 

[UltraMega]

3 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

Frostpunk

1440p, Max

 

 

 

 

 

Always on edge but there is always a way to keep your colony going. It just may require getting the children to shovel coal from the mines into your storehouses. Good news is you can streamline your processes by building the graveyard next to the coal stockpiles.

 

Dark humour aside, im about 5 hours in and nearly lost this colony about an hour ago. Revolts started because I made some poor choices early on the snowballed into even worse results. Had to demolish some homes and let a few people freeze to bolster my coal production whilst setting new laws that enabled a cohort of priests to help the citizens see the way to prosperity during the -50C weather. Once the faith spread, and we caught a few thieves, people began to understand the collective effectiveness to survive the next storm, -70C. Generator almost blew up but we survived. 

 

On day 25 on my first run (story mode). Curious how far it goes before it gets completely absurd.

 

I played FrostPunk when it was on game pass. Cool game, got pretty far but didn't beat the last level. Looking forward to FrostPunk 2 dropping on game pass soon. 

 

 

Are you planning to play Hellblade 2?

Edited July 1 by UltraMega

[Slaughtahouse]

7 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I played FrostPunk when it was on game pass. Cool game, got pretty far but didn't beat the last level. Looking forward to FrostPunk 2 dropping on game pass soon. 

 

 

Are you planning to play Hellblade 2?

 

Curious what happens at end game

now

 

I saw FP2 got delayed until September but a few impression videos were recently released and it looks very good, with a new factions  system that requires some form of trust and influence to successfully establish laws. I decided to pre-order, mainly to support 11-bit studios. 

 

RE: Hellblade 2, I will pick it up when it goes on sale on PC or alternatively, ill resubscribe to GP on Xbox this winter and play it there. Did you finish it? How would you compare it against the first?

[UltraMega]

6 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

Curious what happens at end game

now

 

I saw FP2 got delayed until September but a few impression videos were recently released and it looks very good, with a new factions  system that requires some form of trust and influence to successfully establish laws. I decided to pre-order, mainly to support 11-bit studios. 

 

RE: Hellblade 2, I will pick it up when it goes on sale on PC or alternatively, ill resubscribe to GP on Xbox this winter and play it there. Did you finish it? How would you compare it against the first?

Hellbalde 2 is nothing short of the most high quality cinematic experience I've ever seen in a game. The game itself is short and simple, but it's an absolute masterpiece as a work of art. As someone who likes to see cutting edge tech in games, I really enjoyed it. 

 

I also thought they did a really great job conveying the sense that Senua is just a person, not a super hero. The combat is even more simple than the first game, but it's extremely visceral. It does an extremely good job at conveying the sense that Senua is weaker than her opponents, a frail woman whom perservers through shear grit alone. 

 

I loved it. 10/10.

[J7SC_Orion]

Updated the cooling system of the 7950X3D / DDR5 8400 / Giga-G-OC and am thrilled with the Honeywell PTM 7950 phase-change pads. GPU hotspot delta at around 8C ! 

 

 

originals are 4K png, sized down by 50% and converted to .jpg

 

 

 

 

 

[Slaughtahouse]

Killing Floor 2

1440p, Max Settings

 

 

 

 

 

Various screenshots from the past few months of matches. One of my all time favourite games and fun to jump in between other single player games. If you appreciate the feel of weapons and PvE type games, I highly recommend Killing Floor  Usually playing Hell on Earth if with a class at lvl 20 or higher (max is 25). Otherwise I play suicidal. My preferred class is Medic (healer). Grinding others right now, including Gunslinger (dual pistols / revolvers), Firebug (flamethrower), and Support (shotguns, ammo supplier).

[Slaughtahouse]

Killing Floor 2

1440p, Max Settings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like gibs!

[Slaughtahouse]

Star Wars: Outlaws

1440p, Max (temporal AA, no upscaling)

 

 

 

First few minutes of the game. I won't have time to sync my teeth into it yet, however I do intend to play through it soon. I've left the AMD Adrenaline overlay up just to get a sense of performance. CPU temps aren't bad with new, low profile cooler. There is an "Unobtanium" mode like in Avatar called "Outlaw" to push the graphics further. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure the RT effects will melt my AMD card. 

 

I'm usually a stickler for all the film grain and other camera effects but I am not sure how I feel about the 21:9 aspect ratio mode. It eels odd in gameplay on a 16:9, 27" display but I like the fish eye lens effect on the edge of the frame, the increase in FoV without the sides feeling stretched. It also pushes the main character a bit further back from the camera, which feels too close on "full screen" mode. It may feel better in 4K / large format. TBD. Comparison below and FoV increased to 90 from default. The game also has an explorer mode, just like Avatar to minimize all the crap and icons on screen. 

 

 

 

Edited August 30 by Slaughtahouse
Added screenshot of FoV slider settings.

[UltraMega]

2 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

Star Wars: Outlaws

1440p, Max (temporal AA, no upscaling)

 

 

 

First few minutes of the game. I won't have time to sync my teeth into it yet, however I do intend to play through it soon. I've left the AMD Adrenaline overlay up just to get a sense of performance. CPU temps aren't bad with new, low profile cooler. There is an "Unobtanium" mode like in Avatar called "Outlaw" to push the graphics further. I haven't tried it yet but I'm sure the RT effects will melt my AMD card. 

 

I'm usually a stickler for all the film grain and other camera effects but I am not sure how I feel about the 21:9 aspect ratio mode. It eels odd in gameplay on a 16:9, 27" display but I like the fish eye lens effect on the edge of the frame, the increase in FoV without the sides feeling stretched. It also pushes the main character a bit further back from the camera, which feels too close on "full screen" mode. It may feel better in 4K / large format. TBD. Comparison below and FoV increased to 90 from default. The game also has an explorer mode, just like Avatar to minimize all the crap and icons on screen. 

 

 

 

 

I've been thinking of picking this up. I don't expect it to be amazing, but it looks like a fun time none the less. 

 

I think it's about the same kind of camera lensing that Hellblade 2 used for 21:9, and IMO it worked well there. We're getting to the point where graphics are getting good enough to look highly cinematic. The camera effects of a cinematic camera are somewhat necessary to really achieve that cinematic experience.

Edited August 30 by UltraMega

[Slaughtahouse]

7 hours ago, UltraMega said:

I've been thinking of picking this up. I don't expect it to be amazing, but it looks like a fun time none the less. 

 

I think it's about the same kind of camera lensing that Hellblade 2 used for 21:9, and IMO it worked well there. We're getting to the point where graphics are getting good enough to look highly cinematic. The camera effects of a cinematic camera are somewhat necessary to really achieve that cinematic experience.

 

You may want to wait for a few patches before jumping in. I haven’t played anything substantial yet, however I’ve already ran into one noodle scratcher.

 

I booted the game, went through the initial cutscenes, and took the first two screenshots. I closed the game, downloaded the latest AMD driver (upgraded from 24.7.1 to 24.8.1 Star Wars Driver) and rebooted the game. When I went to load my autosave, a prompt came up, mentioning I had installed it on a mechanical drive and would experience issues. Proceeded to load the save and the load time was pretty slow. ~20 seconds. The game is installed on a Crucial P3 NVME drive.

 

I don’t have any mechanical drives active anymore and I don’t have a baseline for loadtimes for this game but it doesn’t seem right. I doubt the driver caused the bug but the game didn’t give me that prompt when I first booted it. There also wasn’t a save file too so I suspect the driver isn’t the culprit. Many review outlets noted quite a few bugs so be diligent

 

Beyond the bug, it does feel like they’ve hit a good Star Wars feel. Admittedly, I am not a big Star Wars fan and never watched the Disney + shows but I’ve always made an effort to see the films at the cinema when they released. From what I can gather, it does nail the Star Wars (film) atmosphere but take that initial impression with a grain of salt.

[UltraMega]

1 hour ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

You may want to wait for a few patches before jumping in. I haven’t played anything substantial yet, however I’ve already ran into one noodle scratcher.

 

I booted the game, went through the initial cutscenes, and took the first two screenshots. I closed the game, downloaded the latest AMD driver (upgraded from 24.7.1 to 24.8.1 Star Wars Driver) and rebooted the game. When I went to load my autosave, a prompt came up, mentioning I had installed it on a mechanical drive and would experience issues. Proceeded to load the save and the load time was pretty slow. ~20 seconds. The game is installed on a Crucial P3 NVME drive.

 

I don’t have any mechanical drives active anymore and I don’t have a baseline for loadtimes for this game but it doesn’t seem right. I doubt the driver caused the bug but the game didn’t give me that prompt when I first booted it. There also wasn’t a save file too so I suspect the driver isn’t the culprit. Many review outlets noted quite a few bugs so be diligent

 

Beyond the bug, it does feel like they’ve hit a good Star Wars feel. Admittedly, I am not a big Star Wars fan and never watched the Disney + shows but I’ve always made an effort to see the films at the cinema when they released. From what I can gather, it does nail the Star Wars (film) atmosphere but take that initial impression with a gra

in of salt.

 

 

It's a known issue/deficiency that Direct Storage is slower on PC because PC does not have a dedicated hardware to deal with the decompression, and instead direct storage takes away from the GPU. It's just how it is, performance differences are usually minimal.

 

I was prepared to argue about the camera more - 4K native 30 FPS cap:

 

I can run this at 60FPS with upscaling, and I would not suggest playing Outlaws at 30 FPS. But maybe there are some cinematic camera aspects that infringe naturally on to the player when cinematics are the focus. 

Edited August 30 by UltraMega

[Slaughtahouse]

1 hour ago, UltraMega said:

 

 

It's a known issue/deficiency that Direct Storage is slower on PC because PC does not have a dedicated hardware to deal with the decompression, and instead direct storage takes away from the GPU. It's just how it is, performance differences are usually minimal.

 

I was prepared to argue about the camera more - 4K native 30 FPS cap.

I can run this at 60FPS with upscaling, and I would not suggest playing Outlaws at 30 FPS. But maybe there are some cinematic camera aspects that infringe naturally on to the player when cinematics are the focus. 

 

I'm not sure if it's a Direct Storage conflict if the game believes my game is installed on a mechanical / sata drive when it's on an NVME PCIe drive. Either way, thanks for the visibility

 

Edit: screenshot added. Load time measured from input to in-game was ~12 seconds.

 

 

Regarding 21:9, I'm not swaying against it. I think I prefer it but it will take some time to get used to. I noticed in DF's analysis, on consoles, they found the framerate to dip when using 21:9 on the performance mode (unlocked, 60 fps target). Yet they seemed puzzled and identified the game is just adding black bars. From my experience on PC, that's not true. 21:9 increases the number of instances being rendered on screen.

 

Edit 2: Hellblade 2 looks absolutely stunning... can't wait to try it!

Edited August 30 by Slaughtahouse

[UltraMega]

6 minutes ago, Slaughtahouse said:

 

I'm not sure if it's a Direct Storage conflict if the game believes my game is installed on a mechanical / sata drive when it's on an NVME PCIe drive. Either way, thanks for the visibility

Sorry, I just pulled that last comment out of my ass. I don't think this game even supports direct storage. 

 

That is a weird issue. If I had to guess I'd assume the game is decompressing information differently when it thinks the game is running on an HDD, and therefore it's slower even though it's not actually an HDD. 

[UltraMega]

@Slaughtahouse

 

 

[schuck6566]

On 30/08/2024 at 08:53, Slaughtahouse said:

 

I'm not sure if it's a Direct Storage conflict if the game believes my game is installed on a mechanical / sata drive when it's on an NVME PCIe drive. Either way, thanks for the visibility

 

Edit: screenshot added. Load time measured from input to in-game was ~12 seconds.

 

 

Regarding 21:9, I'm not swaying against it. I think I prefer it but it will take some time to get used to. I noticed in DF's analysis, on consoles, they found the framerate to dip when using 21:9 on the performance mode (unlocked, 60 fps target). Yet they seemed puzzled and identified the game is just adding black bars. From my experience on PC, that's not true. 21:9 increases the number of instances being rendered on screen.

 

Edit 2: Hellblade 2 looks absolutely stunning... can't wait to try it!

The HDD vs MVME drive issue is just whacked.All I can figure is the game doesn't recognize your drive so is assigning it as a generic HDD.

As for the aspect ratio,I didn't realize it was in a different one when the wife started playing,she just figured it was fubared and went into the console settings and set it to fit screen and it did.

[J7SC_Orion]

Tour de Skagway...

 

[J7SC_Orion]

...and sneaking up  on an A320 near Anchorage (real traffic in MSFS 2020)

 

4K png

 

[Slaughtahouse]

Star Wars: Outlaws

1440p, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Various photos taken from the photo mode (10mb PNGs) converted to JPEGs. Played through the first mission today. Got sucked into an arcade within the game and had quite a bit of fun :). Eventually, I started to play around with the photo mode, taking portraits of the various races I found at a club.  

Edited September 14 by Slaughtahouse

[Slaughtahouse]

Star Wars: Outlaws

4K, HDR, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I continued on my progress but swapped to the 4K OLED. Game really pops in HDR (not seen in photos attached). Performance goes down from ~120 FPS at 1440p with HUB Optimized Quality Settings to approx. 70fps at 4K in city and enclosed environments. 45 FPS at 4K in the open world. Very similar to Avatar. Grass is taxing...

 

Overall enjoying it fairly well. A bit slow at first. Photo mode is fun as always...

Edited September 14 by Slaughtahouse

[UltraMega]

8 hours ago, Slaughtahouse said:

Star Wars: Outlaws

4K, HDR, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I continued on my progress but swapped to the 4K OLED. Game really pops in HDR (not seen in photos attached). Performance goes down from ~120 FPS at 1440p with HUB Optimized Quality Settings to approx. 70fps at 4K in city and enclosed environments. 45 FPS at 4K in the open world. Very similar to Avatar. Grass is taxing...

 

Overall enjoying it fairly well. A bit slow at first. Photo mode is fun as always...

Great shots. Ubisoft games have always had great lighting in stills. 

 

Sorry to be 'that guy', but has the engine really evolved much since 2017? I wonder if mainstream/console hardware has just caught up. 

 

 

[Slaughtahouse]

37 minutes ago, UltraMega said:

Great shots. Ubisoft games have always had great lighting in stills. 

 

Sorry to be 'that guy', but has the engine really evolved much since 2017? I wonder if mainstream/console hardware has just caught up. 

 

 

 

It’s been more iterative than revolutionary. It’s still the same snowdrop engine but with elements and ray tracing bolted on. The updates are not revolutionary like UE4 to UE5, but still impressive for an outdated engine.

 

In motion it does hold up very well and I am finding the interiors, specifically number of assets and density / quality of assets way more impressive than Avatar. However, the way Avatar’s biomes are modeled and the variety of foliage gives me the impression that Avatar is still superior. I have only 2-3 hrs in Star Wars and 60 in Avatar. So not a fair comparison, and I haven’t played Ghost Recon but from what I can tell, the textures and assets are higher res/ higher poly.

 

The biggest gripe I have with the engine are the animations. The faces don’t always appear to move correctly. Low / mid priority NPCs are nearly stone faced. Some NPCs which appear to be higher priority, like the mechanic shown above in my 4K screen have a lot of detail that stands up as they talk. However, the highest priority model, the main character is a mixed bag. Something doesn’t feel right with her during gameplay but during pre-rendered cutscenes or cinematics, it’s night and day difference.

[Slaughtahouse]

Star Wars: Outlaws

1440p, HUB Quality Optimized Settings (TAA, native)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another 1-2 hrs, slowly getting pulled in. Enjoying the mini games, like "Sabacc". Nothing special about the combat or stealth but its serviceable to keep the plot moving along