February 2025 PCG Article Discussion

[ZedClampet]

Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 8 testers are whispering that a previously mediocre subclass is now an S-tier war god of infinite thunder smites, but there's no way it can last

Mr. Market says sell your Eldritch Knight stock.

www.pcgamer.com

Sony bullies Bloodborne 60 fps mod off the internet with DMCA takedown as it continues to let the FromSoft classic gather dust on PS4

You can still reach 60 fps on Bloodborne through emulation, and some users have already reuploaded the mod.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[DXCHASE]

Beyond Citadel is a horny, ultra-violent retro FPS that I want to recommend to everybody and nobody

Smart, tactical shooting hidden under a veneer of unparalleled anime body-dismantling.

www.pcgamer.com

This was the game i was talking about here and tbh, i had no idea about the character and enemies being anime girls, but this is a good review! I recommend it to boomer shooter players of all. Its a good FPS albeit some anime thirst trap art.

 

[ZedClampet]

Beyond Citadel is a horny, ultra-violent retro FPS that I want to recommend to everybody and nobody

Smart, tactical shooting hidden under a veneer of unparalleled anime body-dismantling.

www.pcgamer.com

This was the game i was talking about here and tbh, i had no idea about the character and enemies being anime girls, but this is a good review! I recommend it to boomer shooter players of all. Its a good FPS albeit some anime thirst trap art.

Thanks to my state's "save our kids from boobs" campaign, I'd probably have to enter my drivers license and register with the state to play this game.

 

[ZedClampet]

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden slams Nvidia RTX 5080 as 'a monopolistic crime against the consumer'

"F-tier value for S-tier prices."

www.pcgamer.com

As long as AMD fails to provide sufficient competition (not counting the opinions of AMD fanboys), we're probably stuck with embarrassingly low VRAM coming from Nvidia.

To put this into perspective, to properly use an AI art generator, you are supposed to have enough VRAM to put the entire model into it. Some of the better AI models are 24 GB, so to properly use those you need a $2000 5090. It's ridiculous. AMD needs to start figuring out how to run this stuff and stop being the Intel of GPUs. It would take me all of a second to decide to dump Nvidia if only AMD would catch up in AI. Right now, most AI programs won't even run at all on AMD chips.

 

[Colif]

Some of the better AI models are 24 GB, so to properly use those you need a $2000 5090

$2000 5090 don't exist. The ones on the Nvidia site were listed as 3k by the end of the time they were available
The entire stock of them for Germany were bought by bots in 15 minutes.

Nvidia need to stop announcing hardware without the stock needed to actually sell them. They also need to let people pre order them and not in bulk.

AMD took this gen off, I don't know if they just doing the pattern they used in past, to take one off and come back swinging next.

Its not just vram, the performance offered by the 50 series over 40 isn't massive. Lower you get down the tree, the less you get. 5060 might just be a 4060 with a new badge and maybe more vram.

 

[ZedClampet]

Its not just vram, the performance offered by the 50 series over 40 isn't massive. Lower you get down the tree, the less you get. 5060 might just be a 4060 with a new badge and maybe more vram.

Yes, but I think this part was inevitable. I think we need an entirely new architecture, not an iterative improvement, and smaller dies before we can get an improvement in traditional rendering, and those things are going to be very hard to accomplish. I doubt AMD can do it either at this point, which is probably why they are slow in introducing something new.

 

[Colif]

The new architecture needs to use less power. That is the thing stopping ever increasing performance. The new power cables max out at 600watts. So unless they start releasing cards that have multiple connections, and PSU that have more than one (some have two) 600watt cables on them, you not going to see much more than what a 5090 can do now.

 

[ZedClampet]

Palworld developer 'blown away' by the response to its new publishing arm, which has received 150 game pitches just one week after opening

"We're determined to help as many great games get made as possible."

www.pcgamer.com

Pocket Pair are genuinely the good guys.

 

[Pifanjr]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review

KCD2 is just as bizarre and ambitious as its inspirations. Thank god.

www.pcgamer.com

This kind of makes me want to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance again. It makes it sound so fun, but it'll have to wait until I actually have time to play it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review

KCD2 is just as bizarre and ambitious as its inspirations. Thank god.

www.pcgamer.com

This kind of makes me want to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance again. It makes it sound so fun, but it'll have to wait until I actually have time to play it.

I actually downloaded that yesterday. It's one of those games I got on sale, but never played. All this talk of the sequel has me interested, though.

 

[ZedClampet]

Gaming's largest lobbying group says Trump's tariffs 'would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans' and do serious damage to the videogame industry

The ESA doesn't seem to sure what to do about it, though.

www.pcgamer.com

Well, on the bright side, Europeans and others won't have any problems finding graphics cards.

 

[Pifanjr]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE8q2a8NU8g


It looks like Assassin's Creed Shadows is more like the older AC games, which is good to hear in my opinion. The gameplay of Origins and such never looked good to me, or at least not like an AC game.

The perks on the weapons seem similar to Shadow of War and the loot system of Shadow of War worked pretty well, but I really hope it's true that you can quickly switch loadouts.

The parkour mechanics being simpler isn't really a problem in my opinion. I did like the more involved mechanics in the older Assassin's Creed games, but I don't think it's something that I'll miss if it's not there.

The base building stuff looks cool. I don't really care about decorating, but it's a nice way to visualise unlocking new mechanics. I just hope it doesn't require too much grinding.

 

[Johnway]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 review

KCD2 is just as bizarre and ambitious as its inspirations. Thank god.

www.pcgamer.com

This kind of makes me want to play Kingdom Come: Deliverance again. It makes it sound so fun, but it'll have to wait until I actually have time to play it.

I actually downloaded that yesterday. It's one of those games I got on sale, but never played. All this talk of the sequel has me interested, though.

i got a free copy on epic and the base game + DLC is usually quite cheap on sales. I've been interested by it, but when it first launched it was a buggy mess and i'm not entirely sure if its been fixed. On top of that there were some balance issues in places. I too should get round to playing it, but i think it might be one of those games to play when i get my next pc. If ever.

Good to see the sequel doing well and getting generally favorable reviews.

 

[neogunhero]

Old AM4 CPUs including the Ryzen 5000 still make up 50% of AMD's sales today

The PC isn't all about the latest tech.

www.pcgamer.com

My Ryzen 5700X is nearly one year old to me, and it’s had no issue with any game I throw at it. At this point my GPU is what is getting old. I used my old Ryzen 1600X from 2018-2024, and it was only on newer games that it really started to show its age. Ryzen ftw.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Old AM4 CPUs including the Ryzen 5000 still make up 50% of AMD's sales today

The PC isn't all about the latest tech.

www.pcgamer.com

My Ryzen 5700X is nearly one year old to me, and it’s had no issue with any game I throw at it. At this point my GPU is what is getting old. I used my old Ryzen 1600X from 2018-2024, and it was only on newer games that it really started to show its age. Ryzen ftw.

I've been on B550 for over 4 years and I built a Ryzen 5600 system last weekend for a friend who needed to do some designing and rendering on a budget. You can get pretty powerful CPUs and all the other kit for relatively cheap now, mostly thanks to AMD supporting their older sockets and still producing stuff for them. The problem is the GPU will easily double your cost at the low end.

 

[Colif]

The problem is the GPU will easily double your cost at the low end.

And it every level above that too. unless you buy a threadripper and then maybe the GPU cost won't be half the PC

Only reason I am looking to make a new PC is I get one every 5 years. My 5800x3d is only 18 months old now, and could play any games I wanted to play.

The reason so many on 5000 series is cause AMD made it easy to upgrade older motherboards to support the new CPU as they released them. Intel... new motherboard every new CPU almost. Not so simple. In some cases you also needed to add new ram to price. AMD way easier upgrade.

I know I did as I had a 3600xt originally.

 

[neogunhero]

I've been on B550 for over 4 years and I built a Ryzen 5600 system last weekend for a friend who needed to do some designing and rendering on a budget. You can get pretty powerful CPUs and all the other kit for relatively cheap now, mostly thanks to AMD supporting their older sockets and still producing stuff for them. The problem is the GPU will easily double your cost at the low end.

I’ve mulled the idea of building a budget gaming PC for my girlfriend and if I ever do, a cheap Ryzen CPU will do the trick. I see the 5600X is only $120, and that could last for many many years, so a pretty good value in my book.

 

[Zloth]

Gaming's largest lobbying group says Trump's tariffs 'would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans' and do serious damage to the videogame industry

The ESA doesn't seem to sure what to do about it, though.

www.pcgamer.com

Well, on the bright side, Europeans and others won't have any problems finding graphics cards.

"Videogames themselves are largely distributed digitally these days, especially on PC, and so are mostly exempt from the tariffs."

Interesting that that's still true. Obviously, it's not like you could just set some officers up on the international cables and charge for packets like they can do at ports, but I would think something could be worked out. I wonder if anyone will try?

 

[BeardyHat]

I actually downloaded that yesterday. It's one of those games I got on sale, but never played. All this talk of the sequel has me interested, though.

It's really great. I ought to go back to it, given there's a few things I haven't finished in it and I can't afford the new game yet.

Henry is just a great character, super fun to play as. Love him to bits.

Gaming's largest lobbying group says Trump's tariffs 'would negatively impact hundreds of millions of Americans' and do serious damage to the videogame industry

The ESA doesn't seem to sure what to do about it, though.

www.pcgamer.com

Well, on the bright side, Europeans and others won't have any problems finding graphics cards.

The impending tariffs were definitely a driving factor in me wanting that more powerful computer I had been considering. Still feeling a pang of fear that I'll regret not getting one, but I'm still well setup here, honestly. I need to get back to using Moonlight again anyway, that's, in fact, how I played the majority of Kingdom Come, streaming it to my laptop back in 2020.

 

[neogunhero]

Next Battlefield game set to release sooner than I expected, before April 2026: 'We're looking for this to be the biggest Battlefield we've ever made'

EA has "invested more in this Battlefield than any Battlefield before" and plans to release it during its next fiscal year, which starts soon.

www.pcgamer.com

I really hope they do good and make a good BF game again. BF has been one of my longest played series. I first got BF1942 in maybe 2006-2007 and have played just about every single one since, including BF2: Modern Combat, BF1943 and Bad Company 1 on Xbox 360 and BF Heroes on PC. BF3 and 4 were still the peak of the series for me. I missed out on the peak days of BF1 and kinda wish I didn’t because of how fondly people talk about it, but love the campaign. BF5 is where the series started to slip for me, and 2042 was just weird even after all the fixes.

I want them to take it back to modern era combat, perhaps slightly in the future but not as futuristic as 2042 was, or even 2142 for that matter lmao. I don’t want specialists, I want our standard 4 classes back. I want big incentives for sticking close to and playing with your squad. I want tons of unlockables and customization that actually has an impact on the stats. I want large maps with unprecedented destruction.

The Levolution feature from BF4 would be a nice throwback, where there is one or two major destructible structures that alters the map in significant ways for the rest of the match, it could be improved upon and made even better. I still think Flood Zone from BF4 is one of the best maps I’ve ever played in a multiplayer shooter. Once the levies broke and the map got flooded up to the third level of a lot of buildings, it drastically changed how you played the map for the rest of the match. Driving a boat down the main road and blasting people in the buildings with the mounted machine gun will always be one of my favorite BF memories.

 

[isleepinabed]

"Videogames themselves are largely distributed digitally these days, especially on PC, and so are mostly exempt from the tariffs."

Interesting that that's still true. Obviously, it's not like you could just set some officers up on the international cables and charge for packets like they can do at ports, but I would think something could be worked out. I wonder if anyone will try?

As I read that I thought... doesn't the USA have VAT? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax)
Seems not!

VAT brackets usually relate to types of commodities. For instance "luxury" commodities (jewellery, for instance) are usually taxed higher than "essential" commodities (rice, for instance). However, since they're also used to incentivize or deincentivize certain products (cigarettes or sugary foods, for instance, are taxed higher) I'm sure they could also be used to tax by location, like a tariff, even in online goods.

Not that they need me to give them ideas...

 

[ZedClampet]

As I read that I thought... doesn't the USA have VAT? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax)
Seems not!

VAT brackets usually relate to types of commodities. For instance "luxury" commodities (jewellery, for instance) are usually taxed higher than "essential" commodities (rice, for instance). However, since they're also used to incentivize or deincentivize certain products (cigarettes or sugary foods, for instance, are taxed higher) I'm sure they could also be used to tax by location, like a tariff, even in online goods.

Not that they need me to give them ideas...

The federal gov in the US doesn't have VAT taxes because it doesn't have a sales tax. A few individual states charge extra tax on tobacco, but that's about it. The situation as it stands in the US right now would make any attempt to bring on extra taxes disastrous. None of those politicians would ever be elected again.

But apparently most people don't care about tariffs, which basically have the same result.

I have my doubts that these tariffs will actually go into effect, though, because it could cause huge inflation. We have almost no chip production right now in the US, and just about everything has chips in it.

Trump just says crazy stuff to start conversations. I don't think he's really serious about a 2000 percent tariff. I'm guessing he wants a conversation with China.

*****

EA has learned all the wrong lessons from Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and it's going to be disastrous for the future of Mass Effect 5—if it even has a future

No EA RPG is safe from the publisher's obsession with live service.

www.pcgamer.com

I think co-op might have been good to add so long as the game was also properly balanced for single-player. Live service multiplayer would have been a disaster, though, and if that's the direction they are going to go for Mass Effect, they might as well already close Bioware.

Live service is not good for story telling, which is what games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect thrive on. Some games, though, have successfully told interesting stories in co-op, like the Dying Light games. And co-op games do tend to sell quite a bit more than single-player games, at least that's the case with the indies I follow. There really aren't that many AAA games that really go full into co-op for some reason.

 

[ZedClampet]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sells more than 1 million copies in just 1 day

Warhorse's weird medieval RPG has come a long way.

www.pcgamer.com

There are no sales estimates yet by platform, but with 176k playing at the same time on Steam, I'm guessing PC has pulled in more than half the sales. Analysts should be putting out their estimates by PC/console next week. I know, I'm the only one who's interested in sales figures

 

[Zloth]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 sells more than 1 million copies in just 1 day

Warhorse's weird medieval RPG has come a long way.

www.pcgamer.com

There are no sales estimates yet by platform, but with 176k playing at the same time on Steam, I'm guessing PC has pulled in more than half the sales. Analysts should be putting out their estimates by PC/console next week. I know, I'm the only one who's interested in sales figures

No, I am, too! This one has me confused. The first game was pretty fun (and plenty pretty) but hardly top notch. It's strange to me that it would have such good sales figures. This was a game that made it difficult to save the game and had a fairly complex melee combat system - it wasn't what I would expect most gamers to want.

 

[JCgames]

I've been on B550 for over 4 years and I built a Ryzen 5600 system last weekend for a friend who needed to do some designing and rendering on a budget. You can get pretty powerful CPUs and all the other kit for relatively cheap now, mostly thanks to AMD supporting their older sockets and still producing stuff for them. The problem is the GPU will easily double your cost at the low end.

You don't need to spend a lot on a gpu. A 4050 is better than a 1060 and a 1060 is still a really good gpu at 1080p which I prefer as many games I play are only 1080p anyway. I rather not fuss with ever other game just to add a little better resolution that to me is not needed on a 28 inch monitor. When you scale up to a 65 inch tv and run 4k They actually are quit similar.

Besides, just think about any high end unbelievable graphics game that has ever been released and look at them today and you realize it was not all that great really. All these unbelievable eye candy games of today are going to be sub par in 10 years, so don't trick your self into some eye candy hype gold. It's not, and you'll see it's not, when you compare it too what ever is great eye candy in 2030 and you'll think how on earth did I think it was that great?

I'll be interested in seeing what the 5050s do, but there is also intells battle mage cards which are like 250-300 and are also really solid little cards. Raytracing is way over rated anyway..