Happy New Year! General Game Discussion--January 2026

[BeardyHat]

Have you heard of Lossless Scaling? Some people swear by it, though I've never used it myself. It's upscaling for GPUs that don't natively support DLSS/FSR, as well as an alternative upscaler on cards that do support those. I wonder how well you could get a non-RTX/non-FSR(?) card working using that software.

I do actually use it on my Steam Deck occasionally. Keep thinking about giving it a try on something else, but really I'd only need it on my laptop, which already supports DLSS. My main PC is only 1080p, so I really haven't had any struggles with any games on my 6700XT.

It looks more detailed, you don't have to have a 4k screen to run it, I ran at QHD

Normal Timespy is easier

Oof, more than double my numbers at 1080p!

 

[Zloth]

Maybe I try Tropico 6 since I bought it last year. I have 7 on wishlist

Let's see, which one was 6... oh yes! Now that I watch the trailer... yeah. Given current events, you gotta play that. Be sure to steal the Statue of Liberty!

Have you heard of Lossless Scaling? Some people swear by it, though I've never used it myself. It's upscaling for GPUs that don't natively support DLSS/FSR, as well as an alternative upscaler on cards that do support those. I wonder how well you could get a non-RTX/non-FSR(?) card working using that software.

Lossless seems an odd name to use. You're upscaling, why would you lose anything?

 

[Zloth]

Arg - double posting but, I was watching this video:

View: https://youtu.be/nnN2t6W4BjU?si=5wFXH45R_vrGQB0l


I knew about Tomb Raider, but there are a few games on there that are remakes of remakes. The games of 15+ years ago look pretty dated and technology seems to have largely levelled out now, so it's a good time to remake the old classics. But remaking remakes... are we starting to get into a cycle where we start re-releasing games every 15-20 years? The owner gives them a glow-up, perhaps adds a little content, and most importantly a marketing campaign then charges $40 for a game that was going for $5 in the last Steam sale?

I kinda want that to be a bad thing but, without the marketing, the games are almost never going to get bought. "My dad said Dragon Age: Origins was really cool" doesn't work so well on most kids.

 

[Pifanjr]

I kinda want that to be a bad thing but, without the marketing, the games are almost never going to get bought. "My dad said Dragon Age: Origins was really cool" doesn't work so well on most kids.

There are a couple of games that never go on sale, or only for up to 20%, and maybe even go up in price over time. And honestly, as long as the game isn't obsolete, I don't see why a developer would just keep dropping the price over time. Considering that graphics are one of the biggest reasons why old games are no longer considered relevant to modern audiences, I don't see a problem with charging full price for a remake, even if it replaces the original.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Oh god, I don't know how I missed this, but friend of Nintendo, PocketPair (Pal World) has announced an Animal Crossing-like spinoff of Pal World.

Palworld: Palfarm on Steam

Enjoy a farming life with mysterious creatures known as Pals! Team up with them to grow your farm at your own pace in this brand new creature-collecting farming sim, fully playable in multiplayer!

store.steampowered.com

Anxiously awaiting the lawsuit that claims farming is owned by Nintendo.

Pal World itself is still chugging along and doing well. Still has good daily concurrents that peaked at 66k today.

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StarRupture, the new automation disaster game by the Green Hell devs, launched at a friendly $15.99 launch price.


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I kinda want that to be a bad thing but, without the marketing, the games are almost never going to get bought.

This seems to only be true, somehow, of large publisher games. Great indie games somehow manage to sell without any marketing at all.

 

[Colif]

Lossless seems an odd name to use. You're upscaling, why would you lose anything?

I found one answer:
It's called Lossless Scaling because the application was originally designed for integer scaling (pixel-perfect upscaling) that preserved image quality without the blur from traditional methods, and later added frame generation to create smoother gameplay by generating interpolated frames, aiming for a high-quality, low-latency experience.
The "lossless" part refers to minimizing quality loss during the upscaling process, making low-resolution games look sharp on high-resolution displays, while its modern "frame generation" also aims for visual smoothness

 

[Zed Clampet]

Cynical post: Path of Exile 2 is going to be free at 1.0, but that's going to be awhile because the devs have discovered the joy of selling your game. According to SteamDB, they've sold about 6 million copies. If all of those were sold at $30 minus Valve's share, that's quite a haul, and it's still selling well...

 

[Frindis]

Cynical post: Path of Exile 2 is going to be free at 1.0, but that's going to be awhile because the devs have discovered the joy of selling your game. According to SteamDB, they've sold about 6 million copies. If all of those were sold at $30 minus Valve's share, that's quite a haul, and it's still selling well...

I wonder how much they earn from the microtransaction shop compared to revenue from buying the game. While there is nobody forcing anyone to get more stash tabs and the like, the whole game is very much about getting more and more loot and trying to put them into a system, something that is incredibly hard with the few free stash tabs you start with. It seems to me that players roll with it, myself included, understanding that obtaining stash tabs on sale is part of the game's core.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I wonder how much they earn from the microtransaction shop compared to revenue from buying the game.

Wow, according Tencent financial reports, they were making a heck of a lot.

Fiscal Year	Total Revenue (NZD)	Net Profit (NZD)
2024	$105.2 Million	$38.6 Million
2023	$83.8 Million	$28.4 Million
2021	$90.0 Million	$44.9 Million
2020	$108.1 Million	$54.4 Million

So after Valve's share, they made roughly $126 million this year, which is more, but not by nearly as much as I was imagining.

 

[Johnway]

Well thats it for path of exile, i've completed the 28 challenges i needed. For the last 3 i simply gave up finishing the maps 100% i was purely fixated with the objective and cut out anything that mostly increased completion time.

All the money i saved, decided to splurge and i tried to complete multiple challenges at once in the hope to complete them faster. it did make them much harder, but needs must. The other thing was just buying expensive currency and just wasting them on naff gear as i wasn't into crafting anyway.

So the reward is... meh. maybe wasn't worth it. i think the next league i'm taking a break unless there is something compelling like a lootbox on offer, i'm done with the game till the summer or autumn.

yakuza 5, i'm also getting to the point i should move on. The game is so huge that i'm having my fill and its time to wrap things up. We're at the 88hr mark now and i'm just trying to finish the last hostess challenge and maybe one or 2 side things. its unlikely i'll finish the other challenges as frankly its just filler that's not interesting or fun to play. i'll make a long review once i'm done in one or 2 weeks.

So what to play next? Well, normally at this point of the year, i play an Ubisoft game. I've got Ghost recon wildlands nearly a decade ago and i need to finish that off.