March 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

@BeardyHat I'm into Xen in Black Mesa. Bearing in mind I have no memory of the place from before to compare it too.

The sound design and art style are great. Its a really alien feeling place and beautiful despite being in a 20+ year old engine. Great puzzling and level design, like most of the rest of the game somehow the puzzles are not so obscure as to be frustrating and not so easy as to be pointless, also not repetitive. Ive made it through a couple of hours of it and arrived at some alien (Combine?) machinery that needs repairing in 3 parts.

So far feels to me the game gets stronger in the second half, Surface Contact, Forget About Freeman and Lambda Core are all excellent and have slightly different vibes, and Xen doesnt seem to let up on the quality as far as Ive gone.

At this rate I might just go straight into HL2 again afterwards.

 

[neogunhero]

Still playing A Merchant's Promise. I am still learning how to play as the game does not hold your hand at all. In one of the towns, I sold a home I apparently already had, and it gave me a decent amount of money. I have yet to try setting up a stall to sell things yet because I have nothing to sell. Currently, you have to pay 20 gold to get a merchants license, allowing you to set up shop for only one day, so the goal is to make more than 20 gold each day. Problem is, what the heck am I supposed to sell?

I made a stew by placing three mushrooms into a pot and placing the pot on a campfire, but as I was travelling to the next town, the stew dislodged itself from the pot.

Spoiler: Stew

The stew is supposed to be in the pot, not floating in midair unable to interact with.

I'm not even sure if I can sell this. Who wants to eat mushroom stew?

 

[neogunhero]

One of the most annoying things to happen to PC gaming in the past few years is the increase in shader compilation before the game loads. In a lot of modern games from just the past 2-3 years, they make you wait before the main menu to compile shaders, and it's been increasingly getting longer and longer. When I tried out Delta Force a few months ago, it was nearly 5 whole minutes before I got into the main menu. Marvel Rivals does this too, and that usually takes at least a minute. STALKER 2 also took a good couple of minutes to complete.

However, I've come to understand it more and feel less negatively about it. Around the time this became more common in PC games, some games were having major issues with stuttering due to shaders compiling while in-game. It didn't seem to be a hardware issue as people with high-end rigs still experienced this, perhaps it was the engine. This never used to be an issue in the past, but as graphics in all aspects became more complex to render, the solution is the do most of the shader compiling work before loading into the game. So, a slight inconvenience to save us from an even larger inconvenience, I'll take it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

One of the most annoying things to happen to PC gaming in the past few years is the increase in shader compilation before the game loads. In a lot of modern games from just the past 2-3 years, they make you wait before the main menu to compile shaders, and it's been increasingly getting longer and longer. When I tried out Delta Force a few months ago, it was nearly 5 whole minutes before I got into the main menu. Marvel Rivals does this too, and that usually takes at least a minute. STALKER 2 also took a good couple of minutes to complete.

However, I've come to understand it more and feel less negatively about it. Around the time this became more common in PC games, some games were having major issues with stuttering due to shaders compiling while in-game. It didn't seem to be a hardware issue as people with high-end rigs still experienced this, perhaps it was the engine. This never used to be an issue in the past, but as graphics in all aspects became more complex to render, the solution is the do most of the shader compiling work before loading into the game. So, a slight inconvenience to save us from an even larger inconvenience, I'll take it.

We lost loading screens with HDDs and 10 years later they brought them back with a different name

 

[DXCHASE]

One of the most annoying things to happen to PC gaming in the past few years is the increase in shader compilation before the game loads. In a lot of modern games from just the past 2-3 years, they make you wait before the main menu to compile shaders, and it's been increasingly getting longer and longer. When I tried out Delta Force a few months ago, it was nearly 5 whole minutes before I got into the main menu. Marvel Rivals does this too, and that usually takes at least a minute. STALKER 2 also took a good couple of minutes to complete.

However, I've come to understand it more and feel less negatively about it. Around the time this became more common in PC games, some games were having major issues with stuttering due to shaders compiling while in-game. It didn't seem to be a hardware issue as people with high-end rigs still experienced this, perhaps it was the engine. This never used to be an issue in the past, but as graphics in all aspects became more complex to render, the solution is the do most of the shader compiling work before loading into the game. So, a slight inconvenience to save us from an even larger inconvenience, I'll take it.

I actually wrote about this too lol I understand it might be necessary, but its annoying, esp. when your whole rotation of games currently do it...

In other news......Is it just me or are more and more games these days forcing you to pre-load shaders? Every game in my rotation outside of Diablo 4 does it. Avowed, Rise of Ronin, Immortals of Avium, Mortal Kombat, GTA 5, etc. Im missing a couple i know it, but it just seems something i have to do almost every time i open games these days.

It seems im going to actually finish Avowed and maybe Rise of the Ronin. Both these games are hidden gems i have found to be fun to play. Rise of the Ronin was annoying at first and felt too much like dark souls, but you get skill points for literally anything so i was pretty strong and flying through packs of guys in no time. I also had a scare that i thought i might lose my save files through side-loading updates, but they have all been smooth and RotR has come a long way in 2 patches, the game runs rather smoothly, buttery and uncapped now.

Avowed has just been a whole discovery for me so much so i really wish Obsidian would move away from TBC for stuff like Avowed personally. Its not the best thing ive played but its up there as something refreshing, better than any souls-like imo. The story has also grown on me along with the combat and the combat, although repetitive arena-style fights, is just fun because, to me, it never gets old to run around casting ice storms then taking out people with my snazzy-looking musket that reloads fast than guns in modern games.

Oh yea, playing Helldivers 2 of course, i gotta always serve democracy for super earth!! The recent warbond makes us cowboys and the rifle that came with it is pretty good. I also like that helldivers can look like the lone ranger now lol.

Heres a video of the...enemy AI...in Rise of the Ronin. Its funny, but the game is still fun.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wohK2v2kXg

 

[neogunhero]

I actually wrote about this too lol I understand it might be necessary, but its annoying, esp. when your whole rotation of games currently do it...

The trick is to recognize which games do this, launch the game then go grab a coffee. I suppose you can look at it as a necessary evil.

 

[ZedClampet]

Wish I wasn't so enamored with the usability of the Trackpoint. I'd just go and buy a gaming laptop at Microcenter otherwise; they are looking pretty nice these days, but living with just a trackpad sucks.

I don't know what a trackpoint is, but one of the first things I do when I get a new laptop is disable the trackpad.

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh yea, playing Helldivers 2 of course, i gotta always serve democracy for super earth!! The recent warbond makes us cowboys and the rifle that came with it is pretty good. I also like that helldivers can look like the lone ranger now lol.

Have the devs managed to keep putting out weapons that feel unique to use after all of these huge battle passes? Or are they beginning to all run together?

The trick is to recognize which games do this, launch the game then go grab a coffee. I suppose you can look at it as a necessary evil.

With my ADHD, by the time the shaders have loaded, I'm ready to exit the game and play something else. I just load the shaders and then hit exit to desktop. I've seriously done this multiple times.

 

[BeardyHat]

I don't know what a trackpoint is, but one of the first things I do when I get a new laptop is disable the trackpad.

It's the clit, uh nipple, uh, red point on a Thinkpad.

Basically means you can use the keyboard without having to move your hands to move the mouse. It's functionally a more accurate joystick and allows me to play any action games without an external mouse.

Plus it's just more usable for navigation in the OS, because you can make quick, dramatic movements with it and it has a middle click. It's far superior to a trackpad, though works well in combination with one.

 

[ZedClampet]

It's the clit, uh nipple, uh, red point on a Thinkpad.

Basically means you can use the keyboard without having to move your hands to move the mouse. It's functionally a more accurate joystick and allows me to play any action games without an external mouse.

Plus it's just more usable for navigation in the OS, because you can make quick, dramatic movements with it and it has a middle click. It's far superior to a trackpad, though works well in combination with one.

First time I was playing a game and hit that accidentally, I'd probably disable that, too.

 

[Zloth]

It's the clit, uh nipple, uh, red point on a Thinkpad.

Hmmm, is your old laptop filing a harassment lawsuit against you, by chance?

 

[BeardyHat]

First time I was playing a game and hit that accidentally, I'd probably disable that, too.

Can't hit it accidentally if it's your primary control method!

Believe it or not, but I can hit headshots all day with it in FPS games. Like this guy

But I'm just weird and don't like using a mouse on my laptop. But it's also because it means I don't need to use a laptop tray everytime I play on it.

Hmmm, is your old laptop filing a harassment lawsuit against you, by chance?

I mean, if I was that bad at hitting it, I'd probably also be getting a divorce.

 

[Colif]

1. Go to play Tropico 6.
2. Click install and it proceeds to download 10gb of DLC I got with game
3. Wait 15 minutes for it to install

get reminded of the days on Playstation where I would buy a game and then by time it was downloaded, be bored and/or need to go to sleep.
Internet used to be so slow, 16gb games would take 3 days to download. Was main reason some games remained on PC as it would take too long to get again

Its finished now but I didn't really want to play, just install it.

Yesterday NMS on Xbox gamepass tried to install a 22gb update, I just cancelled it as I never really played it. Process of cancelling update removed game, so that works.

I keep forgetting that I am not moving my 4tb ssd out of this PC, so I can install any I like, or just leave what is there.

 

[BeardyHat]

1. Go to play Tropico 6.
2. Click install and it proceeds to download 10gb of DLC I got with game
3. Wait 15 minutes for it to install

get reminded of the days on Playstation where I would buy a game and then by time it was downloaded, be bored and/or need to go to sleep.
Internet used to be so slow, 16gb games would take 3 days to download. Was main reason some games remained on PC as it would take too long to get again

Its finished now but I didn't really want to play, just install it.

Yesterday NMS on Xbox gamepass tried to install a 22gb update, I just cancelled it as I never really played it. Process of cancelling update removed game, so that works.

I keep forgetting that I am not moving my 4tb ssd out of this PC, so I can install any I like, or just leave what is there.

I had some consternation the other day when it took two hours to install Cyberpunk.

 

[Colif]

I watched someone talking about Civ 7 before and needing to shuffle games or delete them to make space... I was thinking, how big is the game?
Looked and its only 20gb??
dlc might add more but there isn't a lot of it yet.

People need bigger drives, they not that expensive unless you buy the Samsung 9100 Pro 4tb but thats overkill for a games drive.
I have about 3.5tb of free space on ssd right now, but I know I am not the norm. Losing all my data a few times 20 years ago scarred me and I don't really put anything on my drives anymore. If anything I will have less in new PC.

 

[ZedClampet]

the Samsung 9100 Pro 4tb but thats overkill for a games drive.

That's crazy talk. I have 5tb and only have 1tb left. I've downloaded 3 games just this morning

 

[Colif]

I had to laugh, looked at what games Steam recommends I get based on what I own, and it recommended Diablo 4. No, not buying that on Steam as well. Other was Cities Skylines 2 but I may leave that until we have computers capable of running it at its best. It still runs bad on even best CPU 4 months ago, and while I am getting a 9950x3d, I don't expect it will be amazing... most of the performance hit is on GPU.... and I don't have a 5090 or the money to buy one.

He says to just play 1. I already have that.

 

[BeardyHat]

@BeardyHat I'm into Xen in Black Mesa. Bearing in mind I have no memory of the place from before to compare it too.

The sound design and art style are great. Its a really alien feeling place and beautiful despite being in a 20+ year old engine. Great puzzling and level design, like most of the rest of the game somehow the puzzles are not so obscure as to be frustrating and not so easy as to be pointless, also not repetitive. Ive made it through a couple of hours of it and arrived at some alien (Combine?) machinery that needs repairing in 3 parts.

So far feels to me the game gets stronger in the second half, Surface Contact, Forget About Freeman and Lambda Core are all excellent and have slightly different vibes, and Xen doesnt seem to let up on the quality as far as Ive gone.

At this rate I might just go straight into HL2 again afterwards.

Xen in this version is definitely cool and I really loved all the world building they added as you go though the early stages. How we can see what Black Mesa was doing here and how much of a foothold they actually had.

Plus, I really love the new zombies, I think they're great and amusing.

 

[BeardyHat]

I had to laugh, looked at what games Steam recommends I get based on what I own, and it recommended Diablo 4. No, not buying that on Steam as well. Other was Cities Skylines 2 but I may leave that until we have computers capable of running it at its best. It still runs bad on even best CPU 4 months ago, and while I am getting a 9950x3d, I don't expect it will be amazing... most of the performance hit is on GPU.... and I don't have a 5090 or the money to buy one.

He says to just play 1. I already have that.

The one reason I'd like to give 2 a go is that they've supposedly added more management to the game. Skylines was great, but after I was done playing it, I felt really done, because it tended to feel like I was painting a city, rather than building one and dealing with problems a city has to deal with.

I really want some management and some challenge.

 

[ZedClampet]

I couldn't take it anymore (waiting for 5070ti cards to become reasonably priced), so I bought a prebuilt Thermaltake desktop.

Thermaltake LCGS Reactor i1470TS​

B760 Chipset

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF (I wanted AMD but desktops with 5070ti's in them are in very short supply)

Cooling: Thermaltake 360mm ARGB AIO

GPU: RTX 5070ti (doesn't say who made it, but I think it's ASUS)

RAM: DDR5 32GB Toughram 6400 MT/s (by Thermaltake)

Storage: 2TB Western Digital NVMe with heatsink

PSU: Thermaltake 80Plus 850 Gold

I haven't been in the desktop business for awhile, but I've used Thermaltake stuff before and been pleased with it, so I went with them. I'll probably add more storage and maybe more RAM.

I charged it on my Amazon credit, which will give me quite a bit of cash back (about $150 because I bought a 4 year warranty), and I'll just pay it off as soon as it hits so I won't be charged interest.

I got this keyboard on sale. Some people say it's difficult to get used to typing on it, but I'm going to have to adjust from using a laptop keyboard anyway.

Already have a monitor.

*****

@Kaamos_Llama have you tried this:

Steam Workshop::Black Mesa: Blue Shift

steamcommunity.com

When I'm done with Black Mesa I'll give it a try. People seem to really love it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Xen in this version is definitely cool and I really loved all the world building they added as you go though the early stages. How we can see what Black Mesa was doing here and how much of a foothold they actually had.

Plus, I really love the new zombies, I think they're great and amusing.

I'm a bit mixed on Gonarchs Lair, found some parts a bit frustrating. I suppose I should have realized there werent ammo buckets everywhere and not just pumped a lot of rockets and heavy rounds into it at some points early in the chase. Still there were some kind of unique parts and it wasnt bad.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I couldn't take it anymore (waiting for 5070ti cards to become reasonably priced), so I bought a prebuilt Thermaltake desktop.

Thermaltake LCGS Reactor i1470TS​

B760 Chipset

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF (I wanted AMD but desktops with 5070ti's in them are in very short supply)

Cooling: Thermaltake 360mm ARGB AIO

GPU: RTX 5070ti (doesn't say who made it, but I think it's ASUS)

RAM: DDR5 32GB Toughram 6400 MT/s (by Thermaltake)

Storage: 2TB Western Digital NVMe with heatsink

PSU: Thermaltake 850 Gold

I haven't been in the desktop business for awhile, but I've used Thermaltake stuff before and been pleased with it, so I went with them. I'll probably add more storage and maybe more RAM.

I charged it on my Amazon credit, which will give me quite a bit of cash back (about $150 because I bought a 4 year warranty), and I'll just pay it off as soon as it hits so I won't be charged interest.

I got this keyboard on sale. Some people say it's difficult to get used to typing on it, but I'm going to have to adjust from using a laptop keyboard anyway.

*****

Hope it will serve you well, specs seem good

@Kaamos_Llama have you tried this:

Steam Workshop::Black Mesa: Blue Shift

steamcommunity.com

When I'm done with Black Mesa I'll give it a try. People seem to really love it.

I actually saw about that last night, might get into it after I finish up thanks.

 

[BeardyHat]

I couldn't take it anymore (waiting for 5070ti cards to become reasonably priced), so I bought a prebuilt Thermaltake desktop.

Thermaltake LCGS Reactor i1470TS​

B760 Chipset

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF (I wanted AMD but desktops with 5070ti's in them are in very short supply)

Cooling: Thermaltake 360mm ARGB AIO

GPU: RTX 5070ti (doesn't say who made it, but I think it's ASUS)

RAM: DDR5 32GB Toughram 6400 MT/s (by Thermaltake)

Storage: 2TB Western Digital NVMe with heatsink

PSU: Thermaltake 80Plus 850 Gold

I haven't been in the desktop business for awhile, but I've used Thermaltake stuff before and been pleased with it, so I went with them. I'll probably add more storage and maybe more RAM.

I charged it on my Amazon credit, which will give me quite a bit of cash back (about $150 because I bought a 4 year warranty), and I'll just pay it off as soon as it hits so I won't be charged interest.

I got this keyboard on sale. Some people say it's difficult to get used to typing on it, but I'm going to have to adjust from using a laptop keyboard anyway.

Already have a monitor.

*****

@Kaamos_Llama have you tried this:

Steam Workshop::Black Mesa: Blue Shift

steamcommunity.com

When I'm done with Black Mesa I'll give it a try. People seem to really love it.

You've turned your back on the laptop gang and unfortunately, it's not that easy to get out.

Normally we'd beat you out, but we'll settle for you turning in your equipment at your cost. You can send it directly to me.

Edit: also, did you figure out a solution for using it in your recliner?

I'm a bit mixed on Gonarchs Lair, found some parts a bit frustrating. I suppose I should have realized there werent ammo buckets everywhere and not just pumped a lot of rockets and heavy rounds into it at some points early in the chase. Still there were some kind of unique parts and it wasnt bad.

Gonarch is definitely where things begin to change for Xen. Still curious as to the rest of your thoughts as you progress, I'm trying not to color your opinion with my own.

Unfortunate that the Blue Shift mod isn't finished yet, as I did love that one for the original game. Which reminds me, I should finish Op Force. I started it after I finished Half-Life, but stopped to play Black Mesa instead.

 

[neogunhero]

I couldn't take it anymore (waiting for 5070ti cards to become reasonably priced), so I bought a prebuilt Thermaltake desktop.

Congrats on the new rig! Sounds like an absolute beast!

---

---

Every now and then I try to force myself to get into a genre or series I’m not already into, mainly because I can see the things people like about it and it seems interesting to me too. The biggest case of this with me is trying to get into turn based and cRPG games. These aren’t the kinds of games I normally play, but I know how much people love games like Planescape Torment, Baldurs Gate, and the likes. I want to experience their greatness but I can never get passed the style of gameplay.

One of the biggest wastes of money in this regard is when I bought Pillars of Eternity when it was brand new for maybe $40-60, can’t remember. Steam says I played for 10 hours, actually game time was probably less than that. I enjoyed the character creation process, the lore, the story, but couldn’t get into it fully. It just wasn’t my type of game, and especially back then I wasn’t as determined to try harder.

Well now I’ve been seeing about the update it recently got and how there are some planned future updates. I know how much people love this game and think it’s fantastic. Maybe now is the time for me to try to get into it. I have been thinking a lot lately about giving it another go and I think I’ll take that dive this weekend.

 

[Colif]

Storage: 2TB Western Digital NVMe with heatsink

I assume you adding more drives after just saying you had 5tb and only 1 free
I assume there are enclosures under or behind motherboard tray

Looks like its this case:

The Tower 250 Mini Tower Chassis

The Tower 250 is the latest mini-ITX case in the Tower series, featuring a classic vertical design with an octagonal prism shape. The small form factor doesn't compromise on cooling performance, as it includes two CT120 fans and supports up to eight 120mm fans, as well as a 360mm AIO radiator on...

www.thermaltake.com

not many spaces for ssd/hdd
1 x 3.5”,or 2 x 2.5”

That system description lacks one thing that would let me know how many nvme you could attach. All it tells you is chipset, not what motherboard it is.
Expect its got at least 3 nvme slots so ssd/hdd really isn't a problem... they probably all under the GPU though. Except the top one.

I assume lcgs stands for liquid cooled gaming system.

Looks good, you should enjoy it. Desktops can last longer than laptops as you can replace everything in them if you want to.
I need to find something to do as all I think about is May 11 when I can get the remainder of funds to buy my parts. It will drive me mad(der than I already am).