December 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

My PC woes continue. You might remember that my PC has a problem where it occasionally refuses to boot up, which can be fixed by removing or adding a RAM stick. Well, a couple of days ago, the CPU fan started being louder than usual and when I turned the PC on this morning it spun a little bit and then stopped, even though the PC was booting up as normal.

I checked the connection on the motherboard, but that didn't help. I did notice that if I tried to turn it by hand, it made some noise and didn't turn very well. So I took it off the CPU and discovered there were a bunch of hairs wrapped around the motor. I wasn't able to detach the fan blades from the motor though, so I couldn't get to it to clean it.

I did have an old heatsink that has 4 copper pipes that run through a whole bunch of metal fans, but I did not have the fan that goes with it, nor the screws to attach it to the motherboard, nor any thermal paste. Luckily I found a small business specialised in servers in the next town over that sold thermal paste and which had the option to pick up an order at their office. So I biked there during my lunch break to pick it up and the guy who handed it to me said they don't get orders like that very often. I did ask if they had any fans or heatsinks for desktop PCs, but sadly they did not.

So now I have a heatsink without a fan sitting loose on my CPU, but at least it has some fresh thermal paste. I ran a stress test of the CPU which pushed it to 100 degrees Celsius after a few minutes, so we'll have to avoid running it at 100%. I could play Shadow of War for like 30 minutes with the temperature staying slightly below 70 degrees though.

Would you be able to reach the hairy motor with a metal dental pick? I'm having a hard time picturing it because the only fans I ever used just had 4 screws to take the case off and get to everything, so this may be a nonsensical suggestion.

 

[Colif]

My PC woes continue. You might remember that my PC has a problem where it occasionally refuses to boot up, which can be fixed by removing or adding a RAM stick. Well, a couple of days ago, the CPU fan started being louder than usual and when I turned the PC on this morning it spun a little bit and then stopped, even though the PC was booting up as normal.

I checked the connection on the motherboard, but that didn't help. I did notice that if I tried to turn it by hand, it made some noise and didn't turn very well. So I took it off the CPU and discovered there were a bunch of hairs wrapped around the motor. I wasn't able to detach the fan blades from the motor though, so I couldn't get to it to clean it.

I did have an old heatsink that has 4 copper pipes that run through a whole bunch of metal fans, but I did not have the fan that goes with it, nor the screws to attach it to the motherboard, nor any thermal paste. Luckily I found a small business specialised in servers in the next town over that sold thermal paste and which had the option to pick up an order at their office. So I biked there during my lunch break to pick it up and the guy who handed it to me said they don't get orders like that very often. I did ask if they had any fans or heatsinks for desktop PCs, but sadly they did not.

So now I have a heatsink without a fan sitting loose on my CPU, but at least it has some fresh thermal paste. I ran a stress test of the CPU which pushed it to 100 degrees Celsius after a few minutes, so we'll have to avoid running it at 100%. I could play Shadow of War for like 30 minutes with the temperature staying slightly below 70 degrees though.

Was PC under the rubbish pile you used to have in your house?

When was last time you thought to clean it?? 🙂

CPU can't get very hot at boot if it works fine without the fan... my PC in the past would go mad if the CPU fan wasn't spinning, the case fans would run at full to compensate...

What CPU is it? Might be better idea to buy a new Heatsink and fan that match.

Or just buy this and forget about fan (fitting in case might be a problem)

NH-P1

The NH-P1 is Noctua’s first passive CPU cooler and has been custom-designed for fanless operation from the ground up: in enclosures with good natural convection, its six heatpipes and thick, widely spaced heatsink fins enable it to cool modern high-end CPUs with low to moderate heat dissipation...

noctua.at

I try to avoid running stress tests even with a fan that works.

 

[red_5ive]

@red_5ive
You were talking about going to buy a game and discovering you already own it. Well, today I discovered that I had 2 games installed in two different places on my hard drive, one under Xbox and one under Steam.

Ok, you win sir lol.

 

[Colif]

Xbox games on Win 10 are installed in virtual drives so that could be one reason they in a different location.

Other thing is I don't think you can install non steam games in its directories. I guess you could but it would get confusing, especially as Steam games can be reused on new installs, the Xbox ones can't.

I have Steam & Microsoft games in 2 different locations... most people would.

Not sure win 11 uses the virtual drives method. Never noticed one show up... I would need to play a game I guess for it to make it? hmm One day.

 

[red_5ive]

hmm, I didn't realize Aliens: Dark Descent was on there. I've been wanting to play that.

Steam has it on sale right now. I almost bought it, then I saw it's on Game Pass. I'm definitely signing up, starting with the 14 day thing @Frindis mentioned.

 

[Frindis]

@red_5ive Hope you like it🙂 I also noticed Dead Island 2 is on there, so I will be downloading that this weekend (or next week) and slash some zombies.

Watching while I wait for Path of Exile 2 to launch!

View: https://www.twitch.tv/darthmicrotransaction

49 minutes to launch, but then there is a patch and a 99,9999999% chance servers will crash.

 

[Pifanjr]

Wonder if you have some issue with continuity in your PSU or possibly even dirty power if you're plugged directly into a wall or something?

Maybe, I wouldn't know how to tell. My guess is that the motherboard is slightly faulty because it wasn't screwed into the case entirely, so it had a slight bend while the case was upright. Removing or adding RAM might just jiggle something somewhere in the right way to fix it.

Would you be able to reach the hairy motor with a metal dental pick? I'm having a hard time picturing it because the only fans I ever used just had 4 screws to take the case off and get to everything, so this may be a nonsensical suggestion.

It's one of these:

The metal fins can easily be detached, but the rest seems to be stuck together. When I tried to get to the motor by pulling on the blades I slightly cracked the top. It seems the circuit board is somehow attached to the casing and the motor, but I didn't want to mess with it more. I'm not sure it even works any more regardless of whether I can remove the hairs.

Was PC under the rubbish pile you used to have in your house?

When was last time you thought to clean it?? 🙂

I will admit the inside of my PC was absolutely filthy. Since we have to add or remove RAM frequently I leave the side of the case off and it's lying on its side to prevent the motherboard from bending, so dust (and hairs) can easily get inside. I cleaned it out a bit recently but it's still not great.

CPU can't get very hot at boot if it works fine without the fan... my PC in the past would go mad if the CPU fan wasn't spinning, the case fans would run at full to compensate...

So the interesting part is that when it fails to boot, the CPU fan refuses to spin but the CPU does get hot. I need to hold the power button to get it to turn off so I can fiddle with the RAM and hope it boots properly when I turn it on again. The case fan however does always spin, regardless of whether it boots or not.

What CPU is it? Might be better idea to buy a new Heatsink and fan that match.

Or just buy this and forget about fan (fitting in case might be a problem)

NH-P1

The NH-P1 is Noctua’s first passive CPU cooler and has been custom-designed for fanless operation from the ground up: in enclosures with good natural convection, its six heatpipes and thick, widely spaced heatsink fins enable it to cool modern high-end CPUs with low to moderate heat dissipation...

noctua.at

The heatsink I have on it now is pretty similar to that one. It also has 8 pipes running through a bunch of metal fins, though it might be a bit smaller. It also allows a fan to be attached to the side of it, so I could buy a new fan for it if needed (or find the one I used to have on it).

I try to avoid running stress tests even with a fan that works.

I wanted to know if the heatsink was working well enough without a fan. Turns out that it works well enough during normal loads, but I should really avoid running it at 100% for more than 3 minutes or so.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Maybe, I wouldn't know how to tell. My guess is that the motherboard is slightly faulty because it wasn't screwed into the case entirely, so it had a slight bend while the case was upright. Removing or adding RAM might just jiggle something somewhere in the right way to fix it.



It's one of these:

The metal fins can easily be detached, but the rest seems to be stuck together. When I tried to get to the motor by pulling on the blades I slightly cracked the top. It seems the circuit board is somehow attached to the casing and the motor, but I didn't want to mess with it more. I'm not sure it even works any more regardless of whether I can remove the hairs.



I will admit the inside of my PC was absolutely filthy. Since we have to add or remove RAM frequently I leave the side of the case off and it's lying on its side to prevent the motherboard from bending, so dust (and hairs) can easily get inside. I cleaned it out a bit recently but it's still not great.



So the interesting part is that when it fails to boot, the CPU fan refuses to spin but the CPU does get hot. I need to hold the power button to get it to turn off so I can fiddle with the RAM and hope it boots properly when I turn it on again. The case fan however does always spin, regardless of whether it boots or not.



The heatsink I have on it now is pretty similar to that one. It also has 8 pipes running through a bunch of metal fins, though it might be a bit smaller. It also allows a fan to be attached to the side of it, so I could buy a new fan for it if needed (or find the one I used to have on it).



I wanted to know if the heatsink was working well enough without a fan. Turns out that it works well enough during normal loads, but I should really avoid running it at 100% for more than 3 minutes or so.

That's a very inconvenient fan.

I would suggest going into Advanced Power Management and reducing the max power to the CPU to keep it from getting too hot. Maybe set it at 85 percent and see how it does.

 

[red_5ive]

Wonder if you have some issue with continuity in your PSU or possibly even dirty power if you're plugged directly into a wall or something?

My nephew had some problem like this not too long ago. He was having random weird issues that I would have suspected was a bad board, which was a new pre-built he picked from Microcenter. But he also mentioned he's had some other issues with other plugged-in electronics. Couldn't figure out what it was (helping him over the phone since he's out of state), so I had him plug it into another socket and it cleared up maybe 80% of his issues. I suggested he try a power conditioner with voltage regulation and also check with his utility company to run some tests if they offer it. Seems like everything has been fine since.

 

[red_5ive]

My guess is that Nvidia is paying for this to be the case. They have to know that everyone just turns it off every time they open a new game, which completely destroys the competitive advantage they have.

I've wondered the same. I also wonder if modders will find a way around it. Mods like that is why I wholeheartedly contribute funds to modders.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I've wondered the same. I also wonder if modders will find a way around it. Mods like that is why I wholeheartedly contribute funds to modders.

Hey, I've made some mods before. Let me send you my Venmo.
🤣

 

[red_5ive]

Hey, I've made some mods before. Let me send you my Venmo.
🤣

lol

Well, I didn't say how much. 😀

 

[Zed Clampet]

lol

Well, I didn't say how much. 😀

They weren't worth that much. I came in and did some mods for Troy long after the game was abandoned by players. Last I checked, I think my most popular one had maybe 3500 subs. And I did a couple for Satisfactory, but I didn't upload them. A handful of others for various things, like the last Farming Simulator and my 300 mph tractor (it was broken and wouldn't do over about 250), but after Troy I don't upload mods anymore because I got cyber-stalked by this guy who wanted me to make another mod for him.

 

[red_5ive]

They weren't worth that much. I came in and did some mods for Troy long after the game was abandoned by players. Last I checked, I think my most popular one had maybe 3500 subs. And I did a couple for Satisfactory, but I didn't upload them. A handful of others for various things, like the last Farming Simulator and my 300 mph tractor (it was broken and wouldn't do over about 250), but after Troy I don't upload mods anymore because I got cyber-stalked by this guy who wanted me to make another mod for him.

Damn, scary. Creepos just have to spoil things, don't they?

That's cool though you got into the mod thing. I don't have the patience. I sit in front of computer looking at code all day 5 days a week building stuff. The last thing I want to do is the same exact thing when I logoff for the day. I did give a go at building custom maps back during the Doom (.wad) days, and uploading them to ye ol' BBS's, and over dial-up nonetheless. But that was the extent of it. I'm too much of a perfectionist with that kind of thing and will spend 3 hours on the slightest minute detail. That's also why I don't like being given projects for the front end of the system I support.

 

[neogunhero]

Yuck. I'm not a fan of RT. Even for having a rig capable enough to play with it on, I still disable it. The performance hit isn't worth it, I'd rather have higher framerate. Star Wars: Outlaws doesn't have a means to disable it, either. I'd like to see more titles with Unreal 5's Lumen.

That’s how I would feel too if I had a powerful rig. It looks nice and all but even with a beefy rig the performance hit does not seem worth it all the time.
This article from PCG explains how Stalker 2 uses the “software mode” of Lumen in the first few paragraphs. From how I understand it, all shadows, lighting and reflections are ray traced with no tradition rasterization techniques being used, and combined with software Lumen not fully utilizing the specific RT cores in a GPU to render the ray tracing effects, it is a huge performance cost on any GPU. Nick does go onto explain how maybe, possibly, there will be more traditional RT features implemented in the future, and my personal hope is that there is eventually an option to disable it entirely.

---

I totally agree with you. The one thing I like about GTA V is the first person view and that's about it. I couldn't make it through the story, as it's just so... I'm not sure. Every character in every GTA is a caricature to some extent, but everything just feels so over the top in 5, I hate all of the characters.

Would love to see the mod guide you found, as I do think about going back often and thinking I should mod, but never got started.

Here is the GTA 4 mod guide I was talking about. I only looked at it for a good 10 seconds before thinking it may take some time to go thru it all, but it may be easier than at first glance. I’ll try to make time this weekend to do it.

I think GTA 4 struck the perfect balance between Rockstar’s signature satirical social commentary mixed with grounded and realistic characters. The story is great, very intriguing and keeps you hooked the whole time. San Andreas did this very well also but IMO GTA 4 takes the win. GTA 5 had a great story of heists, corruption, power and personal struggles, but the way it is presented was much more over the top than previous games. The overall plot is great, but I didn’t like the characters very much, the social commentary was still funny, but it lost its signature feeling to it. It’s so hard to say. Good story but presented poorly I suppose.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Damn, scary. Creepos just have to spoil things, don't they?

That's cool though you got into the mod thing. I don't have the patience. I sit in front of computer looking at code all day 5 days a week building stuff. The last thing I want to do is the same exact thing when I logoff for the day. I did give a go at building custom maps back during the Doom (.wad) days, and uploading them to ye ol' BBS's, and over dial-up nonetheless. But that was the extent of it. I'm too much of a perfectionist with that kind of thing and will spend 3 hours on the slightest minute detail. That's also why I don't like being given projects for the front end of the system I support.

Sorry, "cyber-stalked" was a bit of an exaggeration. It's what it felt like, but really he just left messages various places on Steam, including my profile. First he sent me a friend request, and I accepted. I told him I wasn't making mods anymore. When I realized he was nuts and not going away, I unfriended him. Then shortly afterward, after leaving messages for me on all the mods and my profile, he changed his name and sent me another friend request. It's not like he was doxing me and calling my house or anything. He was just overly persistent. I sent him line-by-line instructions on how to make the mod he wanted, which was just a simple database adjustment, and I haven't heard from him since.

So nothing like the girl from Haiti that I met in Maryland... 🤣

I must be near death. I'm having my life review...only there are other people here...they are bored and walking out...I wonder if they left their popcorn...

 

[Zed Clampet]

Okay, well I only played the prologue, but I enjoyed Aliens Dark Descent so far. I wasn't hugely impressed with the controls. I clicked on the floor on the near side of some cover, and my character ran to the other side and got killed, but that was just a one-time thing, and I'm loving the beginning. It definitely sounds like you are in an Alien movie.

 

[red_5ive]

Sorry, "cyber-stalked" was a bit of an exaggeration. It's what it felt like, but really he just left messages various places on Steam, including my profile. First he sent me a friend request, and I accepted. I told him I wasn't making mods anymore. When I realized he was nuts and not going away, I unfriended him. Then shortly afterward, after leaving messages for me on all the mods and my profile, he changed his name and sent me another friend request. It's not like he was doxing me and calling my house or anything. He was just overly persistent. I sent him line-by-line instructions on how to make the mod he wanted, which was just a simple database adjustment, and I haven't heard from him since.

So nothing like the girl from Haiti that I met in Maryland... 🤣

I must be near death. I'm having my life review...only there are other people here...they are bored and walking out...I wonder if they left their popcorn...

lol well considering I have no stories to tell of some girl, the cyber-stalker experience is enough to be more than an annoyance as far as I'm concerned. But I do appreciate when it's done with creative purpose.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Replaced my system after eight years after the motherboard or power supply went out (didn't do a lot of troubleshooting because I was planning on a replacement anyway), and picked up Cyberpunk 2077 during the autumn sale so I can finally play it. I avoided any discussion of the plot, etc, so I'm going in mostly virgin except knowing that Keanu Reeves will show up at some point. Doing a Nomad run.

Also picked up Roots of Pacha and am enjoying it as well.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Funnily enough I started playing Aliens: Dark Descent a couple days ago. Had to recalibrate slightly because I wanted to play it gung ho but if you do that they just keep coming and you die fast. Still halfway around the first mission so not far. I do think at some point someone could go with a different angle than 'never seen a xenomorph before'. It kind of grinds on me when characters are always going through the same beats we've seen across a dozen films and games before. Anyway it seems well made and I intend to play more.

Been playing Gloomhaven a bit to try and get a feel for some other characters. The real life campaign Ive been playing with a couple of friends is quite far in, onto my second character. There are a lot of moving parts in that game and it quite often makes me feel stupid when I forget rules and mechanics so it makes me want to play more. The rules of the base version on Epic seem to be slightly different, but quite likely its just confusing me in a lot of ways.

Spoiler: Gloomhaven nitty gritty

Its a turn based tactical card RPG game, where you go dungeon diving in a campaign set around the town of Gloomhaven. You start with a set of around 10 cards depending on character and you have to choose 2 abilities to use each turn after which they are discarded. The cards are either ranged or melee attacks, moves, buff or debuff. Each card has a top and bottom ability and you can only use one from the top and one from the bottom of the set you choose each turn. Each card also has an initiative number which dictates turn order and you are blind to what the enemy and your team are doing each round before choosing. When the cards are used they are discarded. Once you have discarded all your cards you have to rest at which point you lose 1 card permanently for that run and get the others back, once your down to 1 card you are exhausted and out of the scenario. The strongest abilities are one time use per run only and for my current character depend a lot on having certain 'elements' on the board which you have to generate with other abilities the previous turn. Theres more, like limited use items you can buy from a shop that block damage or enhance abilities, but basically a lot of variables and rng to consider as well as synergies between abilities of your own and the other players.

If it sounds like a lot, it is for me at least. My friends seem to have more of a handle on it but they have played a campaign before and are also smarter than me 🙂

I have an Elementalist at level 4 now in the board game, and I started out as a Savvas Cragheart but completed my world goal of killing a demon of each element and retired it.

Mentioned elsewhere that I finished The Last of Us Part One the other day, just a great story all around and a fun game to play as well. It also seems to be working well now which apparently it wasnt at release.

Then I started to play some 1000x Resist. A science fiction adventure game and not the type of aesthetic I can usually get into. However it is very weird and thats keeping me interested, need to play more.

 

[red_5ive]

Mentioned elsewhere that I finished The Last of Us Part One the other day, just a great story all around and a fun game to play as well. It also seems to be working well now which apparently it wasnt at release.

Yeah I can't wait to jump in. Had I known I was going to grab it up during the Steam sale, I would have picked it to start my holiday gaming. Can't wait to see how it fares being a remake, as I otherwise only played it previously on PS3 and PS4.

 

[Colif]

FYI: We still don't know where Brian went but we are trying.

I don't know anything more.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah I can't wait to jump in. Had I known I was going to grab it up during the Steam sale, I would have picked it to start my holiday gaming. Can't wait to see how it fares being a remake, as I otherwise only played it previously on PS3 and PS4.

I played a chunk of it on PS3 10 years ago or more but that got interrupted and I didnt have a PS3 afterwards to go back and finish it. As far as I can tell it just looks a lot nicer. I played on controller so dont know how the m+k is handled, but it all worked well on my system at basically the highest settings plus DLSS Quality.

I liked the series quite a lot, but I actually think the game tells the story better. Now just waiting for them to port part 2!

 

[neogunhero]

I followed the Gillian's Guide for modding GTA 4 and it was way easier than I expected. Took me less than 15 minutes to do it all. The main purpose of the mod guide is to get the game working as well as possible on modern computers and 1080p 60hz, restore some cut content, update a few textures (mainly decals), all while maintaining as faithful to the vanilla game as possible. The guide goes through getting everything set up such as downloading DirectX 9 and the likes to make sure the game has the correct drivers to run properly. After that, its as simple as downloading a ~4GB file (no viruses per Windows Defender scan) and dropping it into your install folder. The game runs flawlessly after that.

There are a few new graphical options that I had to tweak. First, Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Bloom, all turned off. Cranked the rest of the settings up besides the new view distance/object detail distance sliders because you get an error recommending to keep them at default values if you move it. One other option I couldn't decided if I liked or not is Console Gamma. All it does it decrease the Gamma levels. It gives it a bit more gritty look, the shadows are darker, but the game gets too dark even with raising contrast and brightness.

Overall, highly recommended for anyone wanting to go back to GTA4 or play it for the first time. Decals that were once pixelated messes are now HD, there are some more variety in the NPC's clothing and looks, vehicles now have slightly altered paintjobs that cycle randomly (different trim/scratches/imperfections for a more realistic look), it runs in full 1080p at 60FPS, the game loads in under 15 seconds from start to finish, tons of QoL improvements, the list goes on. Even with an SSD the vanilla game takes a long time to load from pressing Play in game. My only issue is now if I want to add more mods, I will have to go through trial and error to see if they are compatible with the ones I installed from the mod guide, but for now I'm happy with just this.

 

[BeardyHat]

I followed the Gillian's Guide for modding GTA 4 and it was way easier than I expected. Took me less than 15 minutes to do it all.

Good to know. It took me something like two days to mod KOTOR 2 last I did it. Think I'll give it a go on Steam Deck when I'm next feeling like some GTA again; but I may need a first person mod if one is not included.

Spent yet more time in Elite again last night. Finally found something that's working for me, which is just trading; very simple, fill the cargo hold (pretty small in my current ship), two or three jumps and then sell the stuff at a different station, load up, rinse, repeat. Pretty much exactly what I was looking to do and just yesterday between my play sessions I've made about 7-million credits. Enough to afford a bigger cargo hauler, so I should be able to make even more.

Elite plays great on Deck, but I haven't actually been playing it there. With the constant jumping back and forth and less "active play" for what I'm currently doing, I'm preferring to use my laptop, propped-up on the couch arm with a gamepad. Makes it easy to watch TV while I grind some cash. Plus the UI on the Deck is a little small, so it can be a little more challenging to play.

However, boy it's giving me the wants real hard. Performance on my laptop and eGPU is not amazing. Lots of frame drops when entering a station and very poor performance when on foot in a station (I'm talking like 12-15fps), so now I'm looking at upgrading my eGPU. I like what I have and it's been good to me, but I don't really need the portability and a performance increase would be quite nice. I'm going to see what I can manage on the cheap...