April 2025 General Game Discussion

[BeardyHat]

I don't really know. They give you points which you can use in the shop on cosmetics for your account, but not sure if there's anything else you can do with it. Pretty sure you can't trade them, but I could be wrong.

Are people using Steam like social media or something? I think I have a lot of points, I know I've bought random things in the store once or twice, because it seemed like a fun novelty and I have heaps of the points I don't use.

Finally got some decent game time on my new machine. Decided to play Cyberpunk for a bit over an hour and it ran great; couldn't tell you the FPS, as I elected to turn off the FPS counter, since I was just staring it and monitoring it for drops rather than really playing the game. But it was hovering around 50-60FPS, so I'm pretty happy with that. Running it at 1200p, since no way in hell will it run good enough at the native 4k.

Definitely got pretty hot, but I suppose that's not surprising. I'm pretty pleased with the performance and it's nice not to be tethered to my eGPU, while also having better performance than I did with my old Nano with the 6650 XT. Feel like I can finally move my computer about the house again and game wherever, without having to also drag the eGPU along with me.

Tomorrow I should get motivated to take the 6650 XT out of it and put it in my HTPC, in place of the 1070, then put the 1070 in the tower the kids are using to replace the 750 ti in that one. Though that'll require a PSU swap, but that's not much trouble.

At any rate, realized I never listed the specs for this guy. Hopefully Zed won't make fun of me anymore now...

Thinkpad P1 Gen 4
i7-11850H
32Gb RAM
RTX A3000 6Gb (Basically equivalent to a 3060)
1Tb SSD
3840x2400

 

[Zloth]

I don't really know. They give you points which you can use in the shop on cosmetics for your account, but not sure if there's anything else you can do with it. Pretty sure you can't trade them, but I could be wrong.

I don't think you can trade them - at least not directly. What you can get:

• Spruce up your profile with more stuff
• Get little frames around your avatar that show up on your profile and when posting in Steam forums.
• Get more emotes to use in forums, chat, comments.
• There are stickers, some animated, but those are chat only.
• Give awards to other people.

Once you get your profile the way you like it, there's really not much else. The emotes are cheap and often are limited to games you have on Steam, so you won't be able to spend much there even if you want to.

So, points pile up.

 

[ZedClampet]

Are people using Steam like social media or something?

Some appear to be.

***

Goofed around off and on with my new go-to "kill a few minutes" game, Zombieville USA 3D. @neogunhero should really check this out.

I don't play this type of game much, so it probably took me longer than most to reach the final level. Now I'm working on unlocking the last half-dozen weapons, upgrading weapons, and learning/upgrading skills.

It will be interesting to eventually see how long I can last. A big thing is ammo. You can take 4 weapons with you, but they come with a fixed amount of ammo just depending on the weapon. Once that ammo runs out, you need to replace that weapon with one that you find because there are no ammo drops. So no matter what weapons you bring, you eventually end up with all different weapons. Well, except for that time I got too picky and had no weapons at all.

My current strategy is to use my weakest weapon first, since the zombies get harder and harder to kill, and when that weapon runs out, I try to use the next weapon I find, saving the good weapons I brought for when the crap really hits the fan.

My other strategy is that once the zombies start spawning late game zombies that I rarely try to just hold my ground unless there are just too many pick-ups to leave behind.

But that's only when I'm trying to set a new personal best. Right now I'm just trying to kill as many zombies as possible with melee weapons and shotguns so I can unlock the last one of each.

 

[February's Ghost]

After a good while of not gaming (like maybe a week?) I finally jumped back in and resumed Alan Wake 2. Been so long since I last played I decided to start over. I am about where I was when I stopped playing so long ago (Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is now the game that's on hold). Right about 20ish hours in.

I love games with chaos and this game has a good dose of it with its shifting realities and its existential meta. Sam Lake is a bloody genius game designer.

 

[ZedClampet]

Started playing a tycoon game this morning that released last week and didn't have any user reviews yet. Well parts of the game were really rough (for instance, when I won the first scenario the game just zapped me back to the main menu, and I thought it was a soft crash) and there were some bugs. Given that there were no reviews, I figured the dev might have already packed up and left, but I went ahead and wrote a post listing the bugs and making a few suggestions. This was at 6 am. At 9 am the developer pushed out an update that fixed the bugs, and he left me a message saying he was working on the suggestions. I know it won't happen, but I wish his sales would turn around. This is the kind of developer that makes playing these little indie games worthwhile.

 

[ZedClampet]

All that stuff I said about Zombieland levels and being at the end of the game was wrong.

 

[February's Ghost]

I know it won't happen, but I wish his sales would turn around. This is the kind of developer that makes playing these little indie games worthwhile.

How many great games and devs will we never see because they never cross our paths or we dismiss them as something that looks uninteresting to us?

 

[ZedClampet]

How many great games and devs will we never see because they never cross our paths or we dismiss them as something that looks uninteresting to us?

I'm guessing the number would be both shocking and depressing.

****

I can't use a controller in EuroTruckSim2 and it makes me a little sad. The problem is that the game doesn't let you adjust the sensitivity of the right stick, which is what you use to look around, and the default speed is just too slow. I'm in a huge truck that takes awhile to get going. When I need to look out the side window and then back out the windshield, I need to do it now. The very first time I pulled out of a parking lot, I got hit by a car that wasn't even there when I was looking out the left window, and I don't feel comfortable, with a huge payload, to start driving when I'm looking out the side window if it's going to take that long for me to turn my head to see where I'm going.

 

[Johnway]

Not really looked into the Switch 2 and its specs as i doubt i'll get it (i didn't get the first one), but whats been leaving a lot of people a bad taste in their mouth is the increased price in games on the switch 2. Games at £80 as standard makes it a bit expensive for a game. if it became the norm i suspect that people will be hard pressed to justify buying it. i mean, will children have the pocket money to buy the games and would parents really fork out that price especially with costs of living increasing?

If there are multiple AAA games and then all the MTXs, DLCs on top of that and live services it might be a price that only the adults and absolute die hards will get it on release day. if you're going to push the MTX, DLC, Live service route, a game needs to have a low barrier to entry. You only go for the expensive route for the full package. To be fair, i guess the nintendo games rarely have DLC. Hopefully customers don't get suckered into it or buy more indie games or (worst case scenario), software piracy.

I suppose it gives me an extra reason to save money and look backwards rather then forwards to future releases. As pc gamer i guess i can buy indie games or just wait like i always do. Maybe i can finish more of my backlog or play doom wads or i just switch to doing art during the evenings.

 

[BeardyHat]

Not really looked into the Switch 2 and its specs as i doubt i'll get it (i didn't get the first one), but whats been leaving a lot of people a bad taste in their mouth is the increased price in games on the switch 2. Games at £80 as standard makes it a bit expensive for a game. if it became the norm i suspect that people will be hard pressed to justify buying it. i mean, will children have the pocket money to buy the games and would parents really fork out that price especially with costs of living increasing?

If there are multiple AAA games and then all the MTXs, DLCs on top of that and live services it might be a price that only the adults and absolute die hards will get it on release day. if you're going to push the MTX, DLC, Live service route, a game needs to have a low barrier to entry. You only go for the expensive route for the full package. To be fair, i guess the nintendo games rarely have DLC. Hopefully customers don't get suckered into it or buy more indie games or (worst case scenario), software piracy.

I suppose it gives me an extra reason to save money and look backwards rather then forwards to future releases. As pc gamer i guess i can buy indie games or just wait like i always do. Maybe i can finish more of my backlog or play doom wads or i just switch to doing art during the evenings.

Nintendo now targeting the Man-Child demographic (I guess I must be part of that, given my hobbies) who spend hundreds of dollars on Lego sets.

 

[neogunhero]

Been a little quiet on the gaming front over here. Still playing Schedule 1, but starting to lose interest a bit. I'm decently far in the objectives, right now 5 hours in I have to make a mixed strain that is valued at $60 or higher, and my attempt to mix a more expensive strain with a banana produced one valued at $57, like really? The game is fun but it definitely is rough in some areas, especially the skateboard. It gets caught on everything. Apparently the first content update is supposed to come out this weekend, so I hope that means we will get some pretty regular updates.

The Switch 2 reveal was amazing. Gave me goosebumps so many times throughout. I'd love to get one, but the games are getting really expensive. $80 for digital games, $90 for physical. This is mainly just for first party Nintendo titles though. It's not completely unwarranted though, we have been blessed with 20+ years of AAA games being only $60, with it only recently going to $70. As game budgets continue to grow, it makes sense to charge more, plus an additional $10 for the manufacturing of the physical game case. I'm perfectly fine with games going to this price, but the issue with Nintendo is that it is so rare for them to discount their games, and when they do it's maybe $10-$25 off at the most. Super Mario 3D World that originally came out in 2013 for the Wii U still sits at $60 on the Switch eShop today.

The way I view it if it becomes a new industry norm is that we do not have to buy games day 1 all the time. I myself have done it a ton, even this year buying Pirate Yakuza and Split Fiction day 1, but it was not necessary for me to do at all, I would still enjoy the game long after release date. The issue with myself and a lot of people is getting sucked into all the hype. That is especially true with Nintendo games, and their biggest games always feature some groundbreaking new innovative mechanic, or are just down right fun in the form that is missing from nearly all games today. Nintendo is a different beast when it comes to generating hype around their games. So couple this with $80 price tags, it makes it hard to justify buying the Switch 2. But dammit I really want one, did you see DONKEY KONG??

 

[Pifanjr]

Been a little quiet on the gaming front over here.

Same here. It's now been two weeks since I last played a game. I just haven't had the energy, I've been struggling with insomnia and general tiredness.

The Switch 2 reveal was amazing. Gave me goosebumps so many times throughout. I'd love to get one, but the games are getting really expensive. $80 for digital games, $90 for physical. This is mainly just for first party Nintendo titles though. It's not completely unwarranted though, we have been blessed with 20+ years of AAA games being only $60, with it only recently going to $70. As game budgets continue to grow, it makes sense to charge more, plus an additional $10 for the manufacturing of the physical game case. I'm perfectly fine with games going to this price, but the issue with Nintendo is that it is so rare for them to discount their games, and when they do it's maybe $10-$25 off at the most. Super Mario 3D World that originally came out in 2013 for the Wii U still sits at $60 on the Switch eShop today.

The way I view it if it becomes a new industry norm is that we do not have to buy games day 1 all the time. I myself have done it a ton, even this year buying Pirate Yakuza and Split Fiction day 1, but it was not necessary for me to do at all, I would still enjoy the game long after release date. The issue with myself and a lot of people is getting sucked into all the hype. That is especially true with Nintendo games, and their biggest games always feature some groundbreaking new innovative mechanic, or are just down right fun in the form that is missing from nearly all games today. Nintendo is a different beast when it comes to generating hype around their games. So couple this with $80 price tags, it makes it hard to justify buying the Switch 2. But dammit I really want one, did you see DONKEY KONG??

I think the main problem for new video games is that they compete with all of the old video games that are a lot cheaper. To justify a price increase the new game has to offer more than the old games, but that also means spending more time and money on it and you run into diminishing returns at some point. It doesn't help that indie games have made great leaps in quality while being made with a fraction of the budget and can therefore be sold for a lower price.

Personally, I think the last time I bought a game full price was Assassin's Creed: Black Flag in 2013 and I'm not entirely sure I bought it at full price. On Steam the only game I've bought at full price was Borderlands 2 in 2012, as a pre-order.

I did also buy the Tomb Kings DLC for Total War: Warhammer 2 for full price in 2021, but only because my friends gave me the base game for my birthday after I had already started a Tomb Kings campaign using Family Sharing.

I have hundreds of hours worth of games in my backlog and there are plenty of games I've been wanting to play for years that I could pick up for less than €5-10 on a sale. I doubt I'll ever buy another game at launch unless I win the lottery and can quit my job.

 

[ZedClampet]

Been a little quiet on the gaming front over here. Still playing Schedule 1, but starting to lose interest a bit. I'm decently far in the objectives, right now 5 hours in I have to make a mixed strain that is valued at $60 or higher, and my attempt to mix a more expensive strain with a banana produced one valued at $57, like really? The game is fun but it definitely is rough in some areas, especially the skateboard. It gets caught on everything. Apparently the first content update is supposed to come out this weekend, so I hope that means we will get some pretty regular updates.

The Switch 2 reveal was amazing. Gave me goosebumps so many times throughout. I'd love to get one, but the games are getting really expensive. $80 for digital games, $90 for physical. This is mainly just for first party Nintendo titles though. It's not completely unwarranted though, we have been blessed with 20+ years of AAA games being only $60, with it only recently going to $70. As game budgets continue to grow, it makes sense to charge more, plus an additional $10 for the manufacturing of the physical game case. I'm perfectly fine with games going to this price, but the issue with Nintendo is that it is so rare for them to discount their games, and when they do it's maybe $10-$25 off at the most. Super Mario 3D World that originally came out in 2013 for the Wii U still sits at $60 on the Switch eShop today.

The way I view it if it becomes a new industry norm is that we do not have to buy games day 1 all the time. I myself have done it a ton, even this year buying Pirate Yakuza and Split Fiction day 1, but it was not necessary for me to do at all, I would still enjoy the game long after release date. The issue with myself and a lot of people is getting sucked into all the hype. That is especially true with Nintendo games, and their biggest games always feature some groundbreaking new innovative mechanic, or are just down right fun in the form that is missing from nearly all games today. Nintendo is a different beast when it comes to generating hype around their games. So couple this with $80 price tags, it makes it hard to justify buying the Switch 2. But dammit I really want one, did you see DONKEY KONG??

We haven't had 20 plus years of $60 games. We've had 20 years of games pulling more and more content from the main game and selling it as DLC. Nintendo and Sony games may be an exception, but the greed from western developers has led us to the anger gamers currently feel towards AAA companies.

Personally, I'm not interested in the Switch this time around. The first one was very uncomfortable to use, and all the Nintendo first party games are for children, and they are priced as though they were made of gold and never go on sale. I'm not playing that game. There's just nothing there for me.

 

[BeardyHat]

Actually kind of getting into Cyberpunk. Maybe that's just because I can finally play it the way I want to: on a computer (that is, not on Steam Deck) and on my couch. I'm making good progress, though with my frequent breaks from the game, I can't really remember what's supposed to be happening in the story.

Also, I'm trying to convince myself I don't need a 2Tb drive for this computer. I have the money for it, but I can simply install one of the few things I'm not going to play right now if I desperately needed the space. But I'm feeling the threat of FOMO, in the case that drives go up in price here soon.

 

[ZedClampet]

Actually kind of getting into Cyberpunk. Maybe that's just because I can finally play it the way I want to: on a computer (that is, not on Steam Deck) and on my couch. I'm making good progress, though with my frequent breaks from the game, I can't really remember what's supposed to be happening in the story.

Also, I'm trying to convince myself I don't need a 2Tb drive for this computer. I have the money for it, but I can simply install one of the few things I'm not going to play right now if I desperately needed the space. But I'm feeling the threat of FOMO, in the case that drives go up in price here soon.

I can't have all the strain of gaming and AI (especially AI) on a single drive, so I'm ordering a second one to divide up the work.

 

[BeardyHat]

I can't have all the strain of gaming and AI (especially AI) on a single drive, so I'm ordering a second one to divide up the work.

I'm not nearly (or at all) productive on the computer, so mine is exclusively for gaming. But now that I have a laptop that can run some newer games, they certainly take up a lot more space.

I'm tempted. That FOMO getting to me.

But I could use that money for Kingdom Come 2 instead...

 

[February's Ghost]

I have 4 drives. The OS drive. The gaming drive. The "productivity" drive (all my creative software is on that one), and my junk drive for miscellaneous crap. The junk drive is a rather old HDD.

Needless to say the productivity drive doesn't get much use.

 

[Colif]

Also, I'm trying to convince myself I don't need a 2Tb drive for this computer. I have the money for it, but I can simply install one of the few things I'm not going to play right now if I desperately needed the space.

Did you mean to say uninstall as your sentence makes no sense otherwise. Drive prices could increase, the 4tb SSD I have now would cost almost double what I paid for it now. Only reason I want two nvme in next PC is because I was going to do it in current and then weakened and bought a hdd instead. Perhaps if I had got 2 nvme I wouldn't have bought a 4tb ssd later.

I can't have all the strain of gaming and AI (especially AI) on a single drive, so I'm ordering a second one to divide up the work.

Unless AI is constantly writing to the drive, I don't see a lot of strain there really. But having two drives have advantages though. I would put all your windows library locations on the second one, especially Documents. But thats just a habit I have.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't know if Sunderfolk can replace tabletop RPGs, but its smartphone controls feel like a great alternative if your DM's too exhausted to run a campaign

It's not pen and paper, but it's pretty damn good.

www.pcgamer.com

This doesn't seem like an alternative to a TTRPG to me, it's more like a board game similar to Gloomhaven. And as far as I'm aware, Gloomhaven did pretty well, so I can imagine there's a decent market for another game like it.

 

[neogunhero]

Had a code for one month of Game Pass so I redeemed that and installed Atomfall. After one hour, it certainly has made a good impression on me. It really does remind me a lot of Fallout in some ways, but with a proudly British setting and characters.

The game ran surprisingly smooth. The minimum recommended requirements states an RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB, I have the non-Super 6GB edition. Surprisingly, I’m playing on a mix of mostly high/medium settings, no FPS counter but it feels very smooth like 60fps. The most surprising thing of it all though was the fact that my CPU never went above 40c, and the GPU stayed under 65c as well, so I’m very happy to see my cooling additions being put to work.

The game drops you into the world almost immediately. It took me less than 10 minutes to leave the bunker and be able to explore the world, which I think is fantastic. On normal difficulty, it does that thing where it doesn’t show you a quest objective, just to go investigate a specific area, and I somehow stumbled across the Interchange immediately which I believe is one of the first major landmarks you’re meant to go to in the story.

One thing I learned very quickly is the world is full of Outlaws who will kill you in just a few hits. You start with practically nothing. I’ve got a keen eye for loot and exploration, so I was able to find a few weapons very quickly, but with almost no ammo, I had to resort to a hatchet for the entire hour I played. I eventually did find ammo but it’s quite scarce so I conserved it. I have been picking up a lot of crafting materials so that’s good, but I’m unsure if I have unlimited carry weight or not.

Only issues so far which could just be my PC is the antialiasing looks terrible. I have in game AA settings at Ultra, and have consulted Copilot about tinkering with Nvidia Control Panel settings, only for nothing to work. Trees in the distance look very pixelated and sharp, and a lot of edge surfaces n the distance have a weird sparkle/white pixelated effect, making the game look quite bad. I believe this is just something with my PC, most likely some display setting in Nvidia Control Panel, that I need to mess around with and fix. I have seen it in other games but never as bothersome as this.

So far it’s very impressive, and quite fun. I have also been quite interested in the lore, actually took time to read some logs to get a feel of what’s going on. It’s all very strange so I was looking for some type of explanation only to be left even more curious about what’s going on. Highly recommend checking it out if you’re a fan of open world FPS games.

 

[OldGuy_1947]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/c...e-immediately-and-flagrantly-doing-just-that/

I think the article missed why people are bothering to cheat the game. I don't play the game myself, but looking at what the cheating there is all about, a leader board ranking and pendants, it's pretty clear the prizes and competition are pretty lame. Capcom's warning was taken up as a challenge from Capcom to its player base. So, it's not about bragging rights for the leader board or showing off a "rare" pendant of all things. It's about getting banned over a really lame competition and bragging about getting banned. That's the real prize. And a show of contempt by those players.

It really should be a warning to companies like Capcom who find themselves at war with their player bases to understand they bring it on themselves. and how they just keep shooting themselves in their feet.

 

[ZedClampet]

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/c...e-immediately-and-flagrantly-doing-just-that/

I think the article missed why people are bothering to cheat the game. I don't play the game myself, but looking at what the cheating there is all about, a leader board ranking and pendants, it's pretty clear the prizes and competition are pretty lame. Capcom's warning was taken up as a challenge from Capcom to its player base. So, it's not about bragging rights for the leader board or showing off a "rare" pendant of all things. It's about getting banned over a really lame competition and bragging about getting banned. That's the real prize. And a show of contempt by those players.

It really should be a warning to companies like Capcom who find themselves at war with their player bases to understand they bring it on themselves. and how they just keep shooting themselves in their feet.

I think just being at or near the top of the leaderboard is better than the pendants. At least, I like that sort of thing. I also support banning the cheaters who ruin the fun for players who are taking the competition seriously. But, anyway, I do question whether gamer anger is causing the cheating because just about every leaderboard I've ever seen has been packed with cheaters at the top.

So what happened that made Capcom at war with its customers? Is it just the launch performance of Wilds? Capcom's last few games have been well received so far as I'm aware. Seems a little knee jerk to go all out war over one rough launch. Rough launches have been going on since the beginning of video games. Some of the games people remember the most fondly started with a rough launch.

 

[BeardyHat]

Did you mean to say uninstall as your sentence makes no sense otherwise. Drive prices could increase, the 4tb SSD I have now would cost almost double what I paid for it now. Only reason I want two nvme in next PC is because I was going to do it in current and then weakened and bought a hdd instead. Perhaps if I had got 2 nvme I wouldn't have bought a 4tb ssd later.

Yeah, I did mean uninstall.

And yes, I also broke down and ordered a 2tb NVME and an enclosure for my old one to clone directly to the new drive. Walking home this morning after taking my oldest to school, I couldn't help but think that I have the money now and this is probably as cheap as it's going to be for awhile, so I may as well do it.

I'm just hoping something else doesn't give me FOMO next, which tends to happen..

I don't know if Sunderfolk can replace tabletop RPGs, but its smartphone controls feel like a great alternative if your DM's too exhausted to run a campaign

It's not pen and paper, but it's pretty damn good.

www.pcgamer.com

This doesn't seem like an alternative to a TTRPG to me, it's more like a board game similar to Gloomhaven. And as far as I'm aware, Gloomhaven did pretty well, so I can imagine there's a decent market for another game like it.

It certainly looks much more like a boardgame than a TTRPG.

Also, this is petty, but there's nothing more offputting to me than anthropomorphized animals; again, petty, but I will completely dismiss a game (this one) on that alone.

 

[OldGuy_1947]

I think just being at or near the top of the leaderboard is better than the pendants. At least, I like that sort of thing. I also support banning the cheaters who ruin the fun for players who are taking the competition seriously. But, anyway, I do question whether gamer anger is causing the cheating because just about every leaderboard I've ever seen has been packed with cheaters at the top.

So what happened that made Capcom at war with its customers? Is it just the launch performance of Wilds? Capcom's last few games have been well received so far as I'm aware. Seems a little knee jerk to go all out war over one rough launch. Rough launches have been going on since the beginning of video games. Some of the games people remember the most fondly started with a rough launch.

In this case I think it was simply the draconian wording of the warning Capcom posted on X. In the spirit of "Speak softly and carry a big stick" it would be better for Capcom to carry through with simply, and quietly, banning cheaters as they catch them. Cheater know they are cheating and if they've bothered to read most game's TOS then they also know they can be banned for it.

Those who do cheat are everywhere, as you point out, and obviously aren't going to worry about being banned. So why challenge them publicly as Capcom has just done? That just draws attention to the cheaters, which encourages them to brag about being banned on wherever they hang out and generally keep the pot stirred as they rationalize "why they did it". The added attention must actually attract them to the game to cheat as the article pointed out how obvious some of them were being about their cheating and making no attempt to avoid detection.

 

[ZedClampet]

In this case I think it was simply the draconian wording of the warning Capcom posted on X. In the spirit of "Speak softly and carry a big stick" it would be better for Capcom to carry through with simply, and quietly, banning cheaters as they catch them. Cheater know they are cheating and if they've bothered to read most game's TOS then they also know they can be banned for it.

Those who do cheat are everywhere, as you point out, and obviously aren't going to worry about being banned. So why challenge them publicly as Capcom has just done? That just draws attention to the cheaters, which encourages them to brag about being banned on wherever they hang out and generally keep the pot stirred as they rationalize "why they did it". The added attention must actually attract them to the game to cheat as the article pointed out how obvious some of them were being about their cheating and making no attempt to avoid detection.

I guess something that makes this extra unusual is that there was a warning and then the cheaters went ahead and put their usernames on what is essentially a cheater's list.