February 2025 PCG Article Discussion

[ZedClampet]

My parents didn't regulate my gaming because I had a bunch of other things I liked better than gaming, mostly sports related. We had American football games almost every day during the summer with a bunch of neighborhood kids, and when we finished that we played basketball. It was rare for us to be inside if the weather was good. Of course, we did play games some, but it wasn't the all-encompassing obsession that it is for me now.

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TSMC now said not to be eyeing up Intel's fabs while other rumours suggest Intel could be split between TSMC and Broadcom

Place your bets, basically, but something's probably afoot.

www.pcgamer.com

It's a little shocking that Intel failed so badly that they could very well cease to exist soon. Maybe they should all work Door Dash in the evenings to make a little money while they try to design a CPU that works. If their fabs were done, I'm sure they'd get plenty of business for that. I would not be too surprised if the government bails them out.

 

[ZedClampet]

5 characters I'm pretty sure will never make it into Marvel Rivals, ever

Only one of these characters is going to blow up in popularity, and not in a good way.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm posting this so I can have an excuse to tell you I almost died the other day. My wife's company is having its annual retreat right now, and the first night (which was last night) they were going to have a comic con event where everyone cosplayed as a superhero.

So my wife was shopping for stuff to make her costume with, and I asked her who she was going as. She said, "Brainiac", and I said, "Are you sure you want to go with something that ironic?"

 

[isleepinabed]

5 characters I'm pretty sure will never make it into Marvel Rivals, ever

Only one of these characters is going to blow up in popularity, and not in a good way.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm posting this so I can have an excuse to tell you I almost died the other day. My wife's company is having its annual retreat right now, and the first night (which was last night) they were going to have a comic con event where everyone cosplayed as a superhero.

So my wife was shopping for stuff to make her costume with, and I asked her who she was going as. She said, "Brainiac", and I said, "Are you sure you want to go with something that ironic?"

The whole purpose of everything I've done since age 10 has been to impress a girl. If I do something and no girl is impressed, I feel I've wasted my time.

 

[ZedClampet]

@isleepinabed

Oh, come on now. She enjoys when I joke with her and pick on her, and she does the same to me. We've been married 30 years, and she very well knows that I consider her more intelligent than I am. I've told her that on many occasions. Also, she may be the most confident person alive. She's impossible to actually insult. She just pretends to get mad at me because that's part of our schtick.

 

[BeardyHat]

@isleepinabed

Oh, come on now. She enjoys when I joke with her and pick on her, and she does the same to me. We've been married 30 years, and she very well knows that I consider her more intelligent than I am. I've told her that on many occasions. Also, she may be the most confident person alive. She's impossible to actually insult. She just pretends to get mad at me because that's part of our schtick.

I never miss an opportunity to rip on my wife (unless she's had a rough day...) and she to me.

Her sarcastic sense of humor is what attracted me to her in the first place.

 

[JCgames]

I could play donkey Kong, smurfs and lady bug all day. I guess that's why I flipped um.

Lady bug alternative challenge was spelling special multiple times for the veggie harvest. That was key for flipping faster, old school speed run

 

[BeardyHat]

My parents didn't regulate my gaming because I had a bunch of other things I liked better than gaming, mostly sports related. We had American football games almost every day during the summer with a bunch of neighborhood kids, and when we finished that we played basketball. It was rare for us to be inside if the weather was good. Of course, we did play games some, but it wasn't the all-encompassing obsession that it is for me now.

*******

TSMC now said not to be eyeing up Intel's fabs while other rumours suggest Intel could be split between TSMC and Broadcom

Place your bets, basically, but something's probably afoot.

www.pcgamer.com

It's a little shocking that Intel failed so badly that they could very well cease to exist soon. Maybe they should all work Door Dash in the evenings to make a little money while they try to design a CPU that works. If their fabs were done, I'm sure they'd get plenty of business for that. I would not be too surprised if the government bails them out.

Upon seeing this news, I actually dumped some stock I had in Celsuis Holdings, who tanked over the last six months or so and instead picked-up Intel.

It's a gamble, but Intel stock is half price right now and I figure they're probably not going anywhere, so here's to hoping.

I'm not exactly some stock market shark or anything.

 

[ZedClampet]

Upon seeing this news, I actually dumped some stock I had in Celsuis Holdings, who tanked over the last six months or so and instead picked-up Intel.

It's a gamble, but Intel stock is half price right now and I figure they're probably not going anywhere, so here's to hoping.

I'm not exactly some stock market shark or anything.

Even if they are sold, so long as they get a reasonable price you should make your money back. Personally, I think they need to fight rather than just give up. I'm disappointed in them for approaching people about selling themselves. They are Intel, and that's pathetic. Get your crap together and make a comeback. The chip business has never been better, if you guys can't survive during this time, none of your management team should ever be employed again. For now, just concentrate on sending people home from your maudlin pity party and don't throw in the towel until you find a new CEO.

Sorry. Lost it for a second. I think you made a good investment.

Edit: Oh, I forgot. I bought a very small amount of Intel in early January.

 

[Pifanjr]

Streamer achieves git gud godhood by beating all mainline Souls games at level 1, back to back, without getting hit—then explodes into tears of relief

"I wanna just get naked and run around the city right now."

www.pcgamer.com

Beating 7 souls games without getting hit is insane. Doing it back to back without levelling is unreal.

It also surprised me that the entire thing only took 11 hours. It's amazing how fast the Souls games can be completed once you've mastered them. Elden Ring has an average playtime of about 100 hours to beat the game, yet apparently it can be beaten in less than 30 minutes if you know what you're doing, or under an hour without abusing glitches.

 

[Zloth]

Nvidia has quietly ended support for 32-bit PhysX on its new RTX 50-series, so games like Batman: Arkham City might look and run better on older GPUs

An end of an almost lifelike era.

www.pcgamer.com

And here I thought the 32-to-64-bit fallout was done in gaming.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Nvidia has quietly ended support for 32-bit PhysX on its new RTX 50-series, so games like Batman: Arkham City might look and run better on older GPUs

An end of an almost lifelike era.

www.pcgamer.com

And here I thought the 32-to-64-bit fallout was done in gaming.

One thing I found weird about this specifically in Borderlands 2. I seem to remember playing that game on a 2012 AMD HD7950 with a 4 core I5 3570K in 2012 or 2013 using the CPU for PhysX and it ran fine far as I remember.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbmU8bRIGY


Heres someone with the CPU I was using and a slower GPU then I had getting 35/60 FPS in an admittedly light test. Why cant CPUs from now handle it?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

One thing I found weird about this specifically in Borderlands 2. I seem to remember playing that game on a 2012 AMD HD7950 with a 4 core I5 3570K in 2012 or 2013 using the CPU for PhysX and it ran fine far as I remember.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbmU8bRIGY


Heres someone with the CPU I was using and a slower GPU then I had getting 35/60 FPS in an admittedly light test. Why cant CPUs from now handle it?

So apparently Borderlands 2 is known to have bad performance on newer systems, maybe a Windows 11 problem?

Otherwise as I understand it there are some games that used to run Advanced PhysX that wouldnt run on the CPU at all. This does suck all in all, but at least the games are still playable without it.

 

[BeardyHat]

Even if they are sold, so long as they get a reasonable price you should make your money back. Personally, I think they need to fight rather than just give up. I'm disappointed in them for approaching people about selling themselves. They are Intel, and that's pathetic. Get your crap together and make a comeback. The chip business has never been better, if you guys can't survive during this time, none of your management team should ever be employed again. For now, just concentrate on sending people home from your maudlin pity party and don't throw in the towel until you find a new CEO.

Sorry. Lost it for a second. I think you made a good investment.

Edit: Oh, I forgot. I bought a very small amount of Intel in early January.

This is why I'm gambling that they'll still be around. I don't think they're going to just throw in the towel and they're still the default choice for processor in laptops, it seems (though I do really want to try the newer AMD stuff. That integrated graphics performance is absolutely tantalizing.), but they really faltered after Apple switched to their own silicon.

At any rate, if my gamble fails, it'll suck but I'm not exactly putting my life savings into it anyway.

So apparently Borderlands 2 is known to have bad performance on newer systems, maybe a Windows 11 problem?

Otherwise as I understand it there are some games that used to run Advanced PhysX that wouldnt run on the CPU at all. This does suck all in all, but at least the games are still playable without it.

It's been quite some time since I tried it out, but it runs perfectly on Deck and last I recall, it runs excellent on my Glorified Chromebook (Zed(TM)). I'll have to install it and test it again on the integrated graphics just to see.

Did PhysX ever really make a difference anyway? The last game that I recall having it (Borderlands 2 is a surprise to me) was Mirrors Edge, which added some cool graphical effects, but it wasn't exactly game changing. Seems that much like Raytracing, it's not something you're really going to notice it pay attention to during regular gameplay.

 

[ZedClampet]

Seems that much like Raytracing, it's not something you're really going to notice it pay attention to during regular gameplay.

You would have thought from the way it was advertised and how debilitating it is to a PC that it would be obvious, but it really isn't. AAA developers already had methods of doing reflections. In Cyberpunk 2077, I turned ray tracing on full and went out and immediately found a puddle with a cool reflection of nearby buildings. I didn't really see anything else.

And then I turned off ray tracing and the puddle still had the same reflection on it. I'm not even sure WTH it is anymore. They say it produces better shadows, but who really cares about slightly better shadows? And it cuts your framerate to nothing.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

It's been quite some time since I tried it out, but it runs perfectly on Deck and last I recall, it runs excellent on my Glorified Chromebook (Zed(TM)). I'll have to install it and test it again on the integrated graphics just to see.

Did PhysX ever really make a difference anyway? The last game that I recall having it (Borderlands 2 is a surprise to me) was Mirrors Edge, which added some cool graphical effects, but it wasn't exactly game changing. Seems that much like Raytracing, it's not something you're really going to notice it pay attention to during regular gameplay.

I just found a few different forum posts complaining about BL2 performing badly over the last few years, and its mentioned in the article there were problems with its PhysX before, not that I ever saw it, havent played the game in years and it seemed fine at the time to me.

Theres plenty of videos of PhysX on and off for different games and its very noticeable at times, but as far as I know it is purely visual yea.

You would have thought from the way it was advertised and how debilitating it is to a PC that it would be obvious, but it really isn't. AAA developers already had methods of doing reflections. In Cyberpunk 2077, I turned ray tracing on full and went out and immediately found a puddle with a cool reflection of nearby buildings. I didn't really see anything else.

And then I turned off ray tracing and the puddle still had the same reflection on it. I'm not even sure WTH it is anymore. They say it produces better shadows, but who really cares about slightly better shadows? And it cuts your framerate to nothing.

This is just me repeating what I read in another forum so anyone feel free to correct. I heard that baked in lighting in games takes time and effort to get right, when a dev uses RT its all done by the GPU in real time so they only spend minimal time putting it in. That would explain why devs would shift toward it anyway.

I do think it looks great in places but at the end of the day it is just another layer of shine at a very high cost.

 

[JCgames]

Upon seeing this news, I actually dumped some stock I had in Celsuis Holdings, who tanked over the last six months or so and instead picked-up Intel.

It's a gamble, but Intel stock is half price right now and I figure they're probably not going anywhere, so here's to hoping.

I'm not exactly some stock market shark or anything.

Well a lot will have to do with what happens with tcmc or what ever it is. I was thinking about doing the same,. If intell comes back after the fabs are up and running and us chips take off I think it will be a great investment. If they stop and the other guys take over then it won't.

Now where is my crystal ball

 

[ZedClampet]

This is just me repeating what I read in another forum so anyone feel free to correct. I heard that baked in lighting in games takes time and effort to get right, when a dev uses RT its all done by the GPU in real time so they only spend minimal time putting it in. That would explain why devs would shift toward it anyway.

I do think it looks great in places but at the end of the day it is just another layer of shine at a very high cost.

Sounds right. Satisfactory never really did anything much with lighting until the 1.0 update and then they added Lumen, software ray tracing, which will basically run on any system. It improved lighting quite a bit. Before that, putting lights in your factories was useless. The lights just created a brightness sticker directly below them. Lumen does much better.

 

[Pifanjr]

I finally understand why all those Soulslike bosses hated me so much, thanks to The Dark Queen of Mortholme, which pits you up against some plucky upstart who just keeps coming back

I get why Morgott was such a hater now.

www.pcgamer.com

I played through this game and I can recommend it if you have 20 minutes to spare. It's a fun concept.

I even played through it twice to get all of the dialogue, then twice more where I didn't fight back at all which gives you some unique dialogue as well.

 

[JCgames]

*******

TSMC now said not to be eyeing up Intel's fabs while other rumours suggest Intel could be split between TSMC and Broadcom

Place your bets, basically, but something's probably afoot.

www.pcgamer.com

It's a little shocking that Intel failed so badly that they could very well cease to exist soon. Maybe they should all work Door Dash in the evenings to make a little money while they try to design a CPU that works. If their fabs were done, I'm sure they'd get plenty of business for that. I would not be too surprised if the government bails them out.

Because it's modern bussiness. Make as much as you can, pay your self and stock holders as much as you can and the moment you have a slow year cry foul ask for a bail out and if not don't pay anyone that matters and go bankrupt

Until people start going to jail for this sort if practice nothing will Change. The money never just vanishes, it just goes into the pockets of select few and they all have it in untouchable tax havens. The normal person looses everything, big corporate billionaires make bank doing it.

Most normal business have to plan for lean times, big business seams to just hand our bonuses to everyone then blame something else when things slow and of course just fire 1ks of people to save costs, but the never seam to hurt the top fews profits.

 

[ZedClampet]

Because it's modern bussiness. Make as much as you can, pay your self and stock holders as much as you can and the moment you have a slow year cry foul ask for a bail out and if not don't pay anyone that matters and go bankrupt

Until people start going to jail for this sort if practice nothing will Change. The money never just vanishes, it just goes into the pockets of select few and they all have it in untouchable tax havens. The normal person looses everything, big corporate billionaires make bank doing it.

Most normal business have to plan for lean times, big business seams to just hand our bonuses to everyone then blame something else when things slow and of course just fire 1ks of people to save costs, but the never seam to hurt the top fews profits.

Well, bailouts are very rare, so I don't think this is an epidemic. And Intel got in this position for other reasons than stealing the bank.

 

[ZedClampet]

Former Sony exec finally says the quiet part out loud: putting PlayStation games on PC is 'almost like printing money'

Server bank.

www.pcgamer.com

It's funny that the main reason they agreed to publish to PC is because they think we'll all switch to being console gamers and buy Playstations.

 

[Pifanjr]

This is just me repeating what I read in another forum so anyone feel free to correct. I heard that baked in lighting in games takes time and effort to get right, when a dev uses RT its all done by the GPU in real time so they only spend minimal time putting it in. That would explain why devs would shift toward it anyway.

I do think it looks great in places but at the end of the day it is just another layer of shine at a very high cost.

Ray tracing is quickly becoming inescapable and I think it's time we bit the bullet and embraced it

Upscaling will always save the day. Right?

www.pcgamer.com

This article also says that ray tracing is just easier for developers, it saves them a lot of time they would normally spend on getting the lighting just right.

 

[JCgames]

Well, bailouts are very rare, so I don't think this is an epidemic. And Intel got in this position for other reasons than stealing the bank.

They are still paying hundreds of millions to the top people and share holders. And bail outs might be, but bankrupt and tax shelters happen every day. A few making bank and everyone else getting screwed

A simple example Wal-Mart pulls in about 50 billion in profits for the owners, yet thier workers get about 2.5 billion in public aid to eat and have Healthcare. This crap is rampant in every industry. Just look at companies that go bankrupt and how many people walk away with enough monet they could run the companies for decades.

Intell made record profits for like 3 years during the pandemic, yet some how they are in financial trouble. You don't need to be a math major to see there is something stinky at the hatchery.

But this is a game forum, so that's all I'll say on this other than something needs to change.

 

[ZedClampet]

They are still paying hundreds of millions to the top people and share holders. And bail outs might be, but bankrupt and tax shelters happen every day. A few making bank and everyone else getting screwed

A simple example Wal-Mart pulls in about 50 billion in profits for the owners, yet thier workers get about 2.5 billion in public aid to eat and have Healthcare. This crap is rampant in every industry. Just look at companies that go bankrupt and how many people walk away with enough monet they could run the companies for decades.

Intell made record profits for like 3 years during the pandemic, yet some how they are in financial trouble. You don't need to be a math major to see there is something stinky at the hatchery.

But this is a game forum, so that's all I'll say on this other than something needs to change.

This is not a political discussion. It's a math discussion.

Where this argument makes more sense are all these smaller game developers who are laying people off. In these cases, the income of the CEO and game directors literally could float the companies for awhile and prevent layoffs. But for large companies it's irrelevant math-wise.

Yes, CEOs make too much money, but if you took Walmart's CEO's $25 million dollar salary and divided it up amongst the employees, they would each get an extra $12/year. And you can't count the owners' stock. That's something else entirely. Everyone can own stock.

And the Intel CEOs $16 million salary wouldn't have been a drop in the bucket of Intel's $19 billion losses, and when you are losing $19 billion a year, which is 6 times what they were earning per year when things were good, it doesn't take long for you to go into the hole. Other top employees only make a tiny fraction of what the CEOs make and are even more irrelevant for large corporations.

However, the top employees of game companies outside the CEO tend to make millions, so I think your argument definitely applies to smaller game companies that have 100 employees (or thereabouts) or less. They tend to pay obscene amounts to people like the art director, game director, etc.

 

[JCgames]

Yes, CEOs make too much money, but if you took Walmart's CEO's $25 million dollar salary and divided it up amongst the employees, they would each get an extra $12/year. And you can't count the owners' stock. That's something else entirely. Everyone can own stock.

Not 25 mill, 50 billion, split between the 4 owners and that's after all the investors get paid. if they Paid the 2.4 billion instead of the gov, they'd still be splitting over 40b. I think those numbers were from 2020. If the owners were splitting 25m I wouldn't have anywhere near as much an issue. Laws in the US favor stock holders over employees, it's sad but true.

Take a dive into their finances if you like. I did a couple years ago and i was shocked at what i found. it wasn't conspiracy sites either, this stuff is official government and finance records aa they are public.

look at sports, the collectively bargin to get 50% of the profits, most other companies workers get a tiny fraction. I don't know how things should change by % but when tax payers are subsidizing workers in a company that profits billions because they dint have a living wage, something is wrong.


As far as intell and their losses, how where stockholders still making money if they were not profiting? Sounds fishy to me how the largest chip manufaturer on the planet can't make ends meet