March 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[BeardyHat]

Bluetooth problems (mostly) fixed. Bought a cheap, no name brand Bluetooth 5.4 adapter and it arrived on Saturday. Good news is that the controllers connect near instantly and have a very long connection range. Bad news, they are still highly sensitive to physical interference but better than the built-in Bluetooth I was having issues with.

I moved my PC to our bedroom so we can hook it up to the TV and play Split Fiction, and there were moments where if my leg was up in a certain way, it would start blocking the connection. It's a lot better than before though, where I was losing connection even though my PC and controller were only about 2-3 feet away from each other. Now in the bedroom, my controller sits approx 15 feet from the PC, with only minor issues.

I can't believe that the Bluetooth just crapped out of my mobo. I tried everything I could to try to fix it, and the only solution was to just get a new adapter. At least while sitting at my desk it works like a charm, only in the bedroom where there is more interference as well as two controller connected at once, does it start to have some minor issues. If I just readjust my sitting position it works better, but at times I just wanna lay all the way down and play.

That all seems so weird. Is there maybe also some radio interference in your house? Maybe your Wifi isn't switching bands and it's somehow interfering with the Bluetooth? Never seen a Bluetooth radio just crap itself, so I'm just curious if maybe there's something else going on.

Otherwise, at least you've got it mostly resolved and can play how you want to.

I've been mostly playing Advance Wars: Days of Ruin lately. I had been playing on my 3DS, but was curious to get my DSi XL back from my buddy and see if I preferred the larger screen and the appropriate screen resolution, so I went over there yesterday to pick it up from him. Well, he ended-up giving it back to me, but also giving me a Dell XPS 9560. It's not an amazing machine, but long story short, it has an i7-7700HQ, 32Gb of RAM and a 1050 Max-Q. Weirdly, for being so big and beefy (4.6lbs! 16.6"!!!), it's really only as powerful as my Thinkpad Nano (1.99lbs, 13")

So I've been testing it anyway, because I'm curious to see if I can live with having such a huge machine, since I usually prefer portability, even if I never use it. So now, I'm looking for a PC game to play; I finished Black Mesa last week and haven't had much motivation to play anything else, but I'm going to force myself to find something to play so I can give this machine an earnest test. I'm thinking I may trying picking up Aliens: Dark Descent again, but might also finally get properly into Selaco or even try Blood West, which I just picked-up last week.

edit: I should also say, I'm kind of hoping the hugeness of this thing helps me out with my RSI/Carpel Tunnel I've been having for about a year now. I've been thinking recently that it's possible my love of my tiny laptop isn't doing me any favors when I'm typing or gaming on the somewhat cramped little keyboard.

 

[BeardyHat]

I forgot: This XPS also has a 4k screen, which is just silly for a laptop, I feel.

Not only can the hardware not push it in most games, but even in Windows, it cranks-up the UI size, so you essentially have the same screen real estate as if you're using a something like a 720p screen. To my mind, it looks no clearer than my 1080p screen on my desktop or my 1350p screen on my other laptop. I just don't get it.

 

[Colif]

My 4k monitor used to run 150% scale in windows meaning it was like I had a 1440p monitor instead. That was when I swapped to an actual 1440p monitor as there were the occasional program that would run at native and trying to see something scaled to 4k often resulted in me taking a photo or a screenshot to blow it up and read it.

Most apps are better now, its only the occasional old game that might ignore scaling and load as 4k.

 

[BeardyHat]

My 4k monitor used to run 150% scale in windows meaning it was like I had a 1440p monitor instead. That was when I swapped to an actual 1440p monitor as there were the occasional program that would run at native and trying to see something scaled to 4k often resulted in me taking a photo or a screenshot to blow it up and read it.

Most apps are better now, its only the occasional old game that might ignore scaling and load as 4k.

It's definitely annoying for older games. Been meaning to give Total War: Napoleon a try, but on my laptop(s), the text is completely unreadable. Game plays really well, just way too high of a resolution.

I guess the benefit of this 4k is at least I can downscale to 1080p rather than something like 800p on my other machine.

 

[neogunhero]

That all seems so weird. Is there maybe also some radio interference in your house? Maybe your Wifi isn't switching bands and it's somehow interfering with the Bluetooth? Never seen a Bluetooth radio just crap itself, so I'm just curious if maybe there's something else going on.

Otherwise, at least you've got it mostly resolved and can play how you want to.

I have a few ideas on what may have caused it. First and foremost was me accidentally ripping the wifi antennae off the PC when I was moving it a few months back. It used a RP-SMA connector (had to look that up), looks basically like mini coaxial, and the thin wire got caught on the edge of a counter and ripped off. It was fine because I don’t use WiFi on my PC anymore. However, for a while after that the Bluetooth worked just fine. Then I started to think it was maybe my desk. It has a metal frame, but that never gave me issues before this.

Anyways, the new adapter is working perfectly now. I’m a decent distance from the PC when I game in my bedroom, and there is some physical interference, but I didn’t have any issues at all last night.

 

[Colif]

It's definitely annoying for older games. Been meaning to give Total War: Napoleon a try, but on my laptop(s), the text is completely unreadable. Game plays really well, just way too high of a resolution.

One game I used to play didn't like it much at all, and if anything, playing it at 4k had negative effects on game play. Instead of making game look better in detail, it just extended the draw distance to the point that in an ARPG where you don't really want to fight every group at the same time, you could attract more attention than you really wanted. And there was no where to run since fog of war was further away now. Run away and instead meet more things that want to kill you.

 

[neogunhero]

5 hours into Split Fiction. This game is great fun! If you ever played A Way Out or It Takes Two, it is very similar to those two games, just with a lot of cool new ideas while constantly changing up so it never gets boring. One moment you are flying through a wave of exploding airships, the next you are chasing ghost cats, the next you are traversing an icy landscape to fight an evil cat known as the Ice King, etc. The amount of variety, not just in the mini-stories and environments, but also the gameplay mechanics is truly surprising. The game just does not give up on the gas pedal, and for a game like this, it's all the better for it.

The overall story is pretty generic, and the characters make some Marvel-esque corny one liners, but the gameplay more than makes up for all of that. While it's easy to ignore the story, I do wish it were better. A Way Out is about two guys breaking out of prison and taking care of jobs left undone, It Takes Two was about a struggling marriage and working towards rekindling that love between the two protagonists, Split Fiction is about two writers who fall for a scam to extract all ideas from their minds to turn into mega-blockbuster pieces of media. The premise is good, but it kind of feels like an excuse to explore different stories.

The two characters are stuck in a simulation meant to experience these stories in a sort of virtual reality, but they get stuck together, so in order to break out they have to find "glitches" that slowly destroy the simulation they are stuck in. Each glitch is a new main story one of the characters created, with a few side-stories thrown about that transport you to a new world for a smaller amount of time. The premise of the story allows this to work well, but beyond that, the story is pretty bland.

Gameplay however is top notch. Constantly throwing new mechanics at you to keep you on your toes and keep the experience from getting stale. The game isn't hard apart from a few platforming sections, especially since you magnetize to most surfaces you're meant to land on, so the game is good for beginner gamers as well.

I'd highly recommend this if you've ever played any of Hazelight's older games before. It keeps the Friend Pass, meaning only one of the two people playing actually need to own the game. I'd still say wait for a sale, because the game is only 10 hours long for $50.

 

[DXCHASE]

Well, off to NYC today for a couple days, sons birthday gift. Goin to see a live band play the music to the anime "Cowboy Bebop" and then do some "touristy" stuff. Been there 5 or 6 times and this is the first time im doin that.

There is a food restaurant around my hotel called 8-Bit Bytes so im gonna check that out, gaming wise. Other than that, no gaming (i dont have handhelds) until saturday night/sunday morning.

 

[neogunhero]

Goin to see a live band play the music to the anime "Cowboy Bebop"

That sounds absolutely fantastic, love that show.

8-Bit Bytes

That food looks really good, the “Choco Mountain Milkshake” name gave me a good chuckle.

 

[BeardyHat]

Well, off to NYC today for a couple days, sons birthday gift. Goin to see a live band play the music to the anime "Cowboy Bebop" and then do some "touristy" stuff. Been there 5 or 6 times and this is the first time im doin that.

There is a food restaurant around my hotel called 8-Bit Bytes so im gonna check that out, gaming wise. Other than that, no gaming (i dont have handhelds) until saturday night/sunday morning.

That all sounds really cool. I'd love to see the live music, is your son a fan of Cowboy Bebop? My wife and I were going through it about 2 years ago or so but we kind of fell off for some reason; the music is great though.

Edit: I also just realized I got the intro music for Cowboy Bebop and Interstate 76 mixed up in my head when I was writing this post...

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3JCGZFQZkdc