May 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[neogunhero]

How silly of me to think Steam discussion forums is a place where people with real knowledge of gaming hardware hung out to discuss things of that nature.

I posted in the Oblivion Remastered forums on why people think the game runs poorly. I clearly stated that I meet/exceed all recommended specs besides my GPU, and I know how important the GPU is, but generally if you meet/exceed all other specs, then you can still run the game at lower settings with a decent frame rate. I stated I was getting about 20FPS on Low settings instead even with DLSS.

People then started to claim "why do you think you can run a game if you're below minimum specs?". One guy called me entitled to think I could disobey the developers recommendations and still expect it to run good.

 

[BeardyHat]

How silly of me to think Steam discussion forums is a place where people with real knowledge of gaming hardware hung out to discuss things of that nature.

I posted in the Oblivion Remastered forums on why people think the game runs poorly. I clearly stated that I meet/exceed all recommended specs besides my GPU, and I know how important the GPU is, but generally if you meet/exceed all other specs, then you can still run the game at lower settings with a decent frame rate. I stated I was getting about 20FPS on Low settings instead even with DLSS.

People then started to claim "why do you think you can run a game if you're below minimum specs?". One guy called me entitled to think I could disobey the developers recommendations and still expect it to run good.

Don't recall exactly, but have you tried some of the hacks/mods to disable Lumen? I've heard it has a huge impact on performance and it's baked in, but you can disable it through some method or another and it seems to improve performance pretty well.

Have you also tried going back to the original? Just wondering, since that's what I did and played about 12-hours only to realize I didn't actually feel like playing it.

Still pretty addicted to Abiotic Factor; hoping I don't burn out this time around, but I'm trying to take a different approach to things. Moving my base around a bit and now I'm thinking I may establish an FOB in Manufacturing in order to keep enemy spawns in an area down and just be closer to "Home" when I need to sleep or repair or something. I think I have enough resources now that it isn't untenable and moving what will become my "main base" will be entirely too much hassle, even with a cart.

Just trying to be a little more methodical this time around and hopefully can get past those annoying teleporting enemies when I inevitably encounter them again.

 

[neogunhero]

Don't recall exactly, but have you tried some of the hacks/mods to disable Lumen? I've heard it has a huge impact on performance and it's baked in, but you can disable it through some method or another and it seems to improve performance pretty well.

Have you also tried going back to the original? Just wondering, since that's what I did and played about 12-hours only to realize I didn't actually feel like playing it.

I haven't tried anything to actually remove Lumen, what I tried were different config file mods that changed some things around to provide better frames, and used a DLSS swapper to inject DLSS 3 into it. Unfortunately my Game Pass sub just expired so I won't be trying it anything soon, hopefully whenever I do get around to it there have been some performance updates.

I have played the original for maybe 500 hours since it first came out on various systems, so I'm not really wanting to go back to the original. I've tried replaying it maybe not a full year ago. My experience with it the past few times I've tried to play it again is that I spend way too much time modding it and not actually playing, so at that point I get a bit burnt out and move on.

 

[Colif]

Similarly, I don't find reinstalling Windows terribly difficult these days, especially with a secondary game drive. It's mostly installing utilities and programs I use from a one-click installer like Ninite and then getting Steam to recognize its game folder or even just doing a transfer of my games over my local network.

reinstalling windows takes 20 minutes, its everything else that takes time.
Shame Xbox games for pc files cant be reused as easily as Steam games can

 

[Zloth]

The Forgotten City is going along nicely. It's been a fun little time loop story, like Outer Wilds but a lot more talky-talky. Some of the NPC faces are a bit weird looking, particularly the very first character you meet, but I got used to it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The Forgotten City is going along nicely. It's been a fun little time loop story, like Outer Wilds but a lot more talky-talky. Some of the NPC faces are a bit weird looking, particularly the very first character you meet, but I got used to it.

I think that started out as a Skyrim Mod right?

 

[Zloth]

I think that started out as a Skyrim Mod right?

Yep! https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1179

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yep! https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1179

I guess that explains the weird NPC faces. I remember when that came out it was in a lot of GOTY discussions, think I still have it wishlisted.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Colif I don't need to know how easy it is to reinstall Windows. I've done it countless times. The reason I'm not bothering to is because I was trying to decide when I was going to send it in to the warranty place, and now that I've got my desktop fully going, the answer to that question is "Monday". I'll never see it again. Thanks for the suggestion @BeardyHat. Since I'm sending it back quicker than I thought, I'll just deal with it as is. I've got that github page bookmarked now, though.

******

Hallelujah!​

I've got my desktop going and I've got my setup just right, and it's EXACTLY the same as my setup was with my laptop, which is what I wanted.

TESTING: AI image generation: What used to take anywhere from 90 to 150 seconds now takes about 9 seconds. That's a nice improvement

Gaming: There are too many things going on for me to figure out how much faster it is than my old setup without more effort. There's a new DLSS and I'm using DLAA, which slows you down.

HDR is the only thing I can't get working right so far.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Nice! Nextlander is my only Patreon sub. Brad also does a pretty good tech podcast with (the other) Will Smith called Brad and Will Made a Tech Pod thats also sometimes interesting.

I go in and out of GB since that last split, but I generally kept up with it and Voicemail Dumptruck was sometimes really funny, real shame that Fandom are going to leave them as a shell, as it sounds like.

Not heard of Back Page before but will give it a look, thanks.


I saw FF7 on sale and was pondering it, but not yet.

I'm still figuring out what abilities work best together for Lune, the element system is really fun to mess with out of the characters I have so far. Gustave (R Patz) is probably doing most damage overall, but Maelle is a little bit lackluster, need to figure out her stance system a bit better. Have barely touched Sciel yet, should also give her a try.

On normal difficulty it seems pretty forgiving on bad builds as long as you can manage to parry more often than not. Not complaining because Im still never sad to get in a fight even with some of the normal mobs because the dodging, parrying and jump counters are so satisfying.

When I was in that town with the weird people who love to fight, I did some of the tournament fights with Maelle, and she did really well. I shot the enemy to mark them and used the skill that does extra damage to marked enemies. I got my action points back during the defense phase and did the same thing the next round.

That's as far as I am. I went through the skills as carefully as I could, and I didn't find a ton of synergy. I have a lot more luck stringing pictos and normal attacks together. But I don't have that many skills yet, so that's probably my issue.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

When I was in that town with the weird people who love to fight, I did some of the tournament fights with Maelle, and she did really well. I shot the enemy to mark them and used the skill that does extra damage to marked enemies. I got my action points back during the defense phase and did the same thing the next round.

That's as far as I am. I went through the skills as carefully as I could, and I didn't find a ton of synergy. I have a lot more luck stringing pictos and normal attacks together. But I don't have that many skills yet, so that's probably my issue.

The Gestrals are great,

I've kind of worked out a couple of skill synergies with Maelle and the others based around burning the enemies switching to Virtuoso stance and marking them. Seems to me that for the most part they have to set themselves up for the big damage hits over a couple of turns with a little help from the other characters here and there. Lune is the only one who can make the elemental stains she needs to do big damage, and Gustave has to build up his own charges. With the abilities Maelle has she can set herself up, but marking helps a lot and burning can come from Lune too.

I dont really know many turn based battle systems like this well but it seems pretty well done to me. Theres a few ways to do things and the different resistances of the enemies make some fights much easier once you find a strategy for them. I only just worked out how break works, and thats really useful in the longer fights, especially against the Mimes. Still havent touched Sciel yet, no idea what foretell and Sun/Moon are all about at all.

Did you meet Esquie yet? I got to Act 2 and decided to go back and clear up some optional areas, the story is becoming a little clearer.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a couple of hours of Outward with my friend yesterday. Now that I actually have the Definitive Edition connecting wasn't a problem at all.

Ive been enjoying it, even if I'm not really sure what we're supposed to be doing. So far we've just travelled around the land a bit, killed some bandits and got obliterated by some wildlife. Luckily in coop you can revive each other, so dying isn't that big of a problem, unless you both die.

Which did happen once, which caused us to be locked up in a mine as slaves, but luckily it wasn't too hard to escape and get our stuff back.

Combat is challenging, you can only take a couple of hits and with each hit your max HP goes down as well, so I was walking around with a max of 11 out of 100 at some point. You can get it back by sleeping (a lot), but it seems a lot of quests use time limits to prevent you from just sleeping all the time.

It definitely seems the game was meant to be played with two players, as then the player that has aggro can defend while the other player can just hack away at an enemy. It also makes resting easier as one player can stand guard while the other sleeps, reducing the chances of an ambush.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I played a couple of hours of Outward with my friend yesterday. Now that I actually have the Definitive Edition connecting wasn't a problem at all.

Ive been enjoying it, even if I'm not really sure what we're supposed to be doing. So far we've just travelled around the land a bit, killed some bandits and got obliterated by some wildlife. Luckily in coop you can revive each other, so dying isn't that big of a problem, unless you both die.

Which did happen once, which caused us to be locked up in a mine as slaves, but luckily it wasn't too hard to escape and get our stuff back.

Combat is challenging, you can only take a couple of hits and with each hit your max HP goes down as well, so I was walking around with a max of 11 out of 100 at some point. You can get it back by sleeping (a lot), but it seems a lot of quests use time limits to prevent you from just sleeping all the time.

It definitely seems the game was meant to be played with two players, as then the player that has aggro can defend while the other player can just hack away at an enemy. It also makes resting easier as one player can stand guard while the other sleeps, reducing the chances of an ambush.

I've got that (I probably can stop saying that) but I haven't played it yet. Hoping to get to it this summer with Guido.

Did you meet Esquie yet? I got to Act 2 and decided to go back and clear up some optional areas, the story is becoming a little clearer.

Yes, I just met Esquie and then got killed by a turtle because my concentration isn't great this morning. Decided to take a little break.

I got everyone firing well now. I don't know if I'll even bring the 4th person in. If I were going to replace anyone, it would be Lune, but lune has my only 'heal others' spell, although it has become kind of crap now that everyone has so much health. But here in a bit she'll get a revive spell. Anyway, CoPilot said, so it may be wrong, that characters didn't get as much experience if they weren't active members of the party, so I feel like the best way to maximize everyone is to keep the same people in all the time.

Oh, there's another reason I want Lune in the party:

Because I think she's hot in the flower costume

I'm not sure I like the Gestral hair on Maelle.
This is how you can tell that I really, really like a game--when I start caring how the characters look.

Oh, and I probably need to backtrack, too. I don't do a great job of finding the parkour challenges and there are two things that I know I missed because I couldn't figure out how to get there. Or in one case, it was a treasure "chest" and I couldn't find the third thing to shoot.

 

[Johnway]

I've been a bit quiet as there hasn't been enough to update with. 141 hours in, i've completed both the DLCs for asscreed valhalla Siege of paris and wraith of the druids. The latter easily being the better of the 2, its more fleshed out, more stuff to do, more gear and more interesting story. Although that said, the siege of paris, the sycthe weapons are easily my fav weapons. The shortswords are nice and i prefer them over the sickles which are far too short even if you can do some serious damage when you can hit anything. but anyway, i'm going to do the last few missions before going back to england to complete the last few areas and head back to norway.



Doom 2 Ramp 2024, we down to the last 56 maps (out of 300) and we've completed the current batch of maps in the Mystery vortex station. There were 3 maps that deserve an honorable mention:

CaCoroids - Remember the old arcade game asteroids? Well someone has made an asteroids game using Cacodemons. Shoot them and they split into smaller ones. its alright but those ghost ones are the worst as their projectiles i think are invisible so sometimes you might fall over dead for no reason.

TripleCross - the map is simple enough, its a hub style map where there are 8 doors with six keys. each door has a different theme or idea. once you've done the final door opens and you escape. its solid map with plenty variety and is fairly entertaining.

The house - Ramp edition - my personal fav of the bunch, remember that awesome map My House? Well The house is a myhouse.wad inspired map. This time doom guy is sent as demon exterminator for a house. it starts off simple enough but things go strange once you start messing with the AC and you get transported to different worlds. Eventually as you make it to the attic and find the teleporter the mystery deepens and soon Doomguy has his work cut out and he has to seal away the hell dimension. An excellent map filled with variety (travelling to space, jungles, castles, alien environments etc), fun ideas and does a fine job replicating Myhouse. The only thing is perhaps the best stuff is buried behind secrets. if you don't find the hidden switch or figure out how to get the portal operational and you'll be missing out on all the good stuff. its very easy to complete the map by killing just 20% of the monsters (clearing the house of monsters) and then walk out.

So thats all done, time to move onto the next station: Thermal plant!



other then that? not much still thinking about buying some more games but no idea what it will b,e but i'll think about it. Theres plenty to options, just need to pick the most bang for my buck.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The Gestrals are great,

I've kind of worked out a couple of skill synergies with Maelle and the others based around burning the enemies switching to Virtuoso stance and marking them. Seems to me that for the most part they have to set themselves up for the big damage hits over a couple of turns with a little help from the other characters here and there. Lune is the only one who can make the elemental stains she needs to do big damage, and Gustave has to build up his own charges. With the abilities Maelle has she can set herself up, but marking helps a lot and burning can come from Lune too.

I dont really know many turn based battle systems like this well but it seems pretty well done to me. Theres a few ways to do things and the different resistances of the enemies make some fights much easier once you find a strategy for them. I only just worked out how break works, and thats really useful in the longer fights, especially against the Mimes. Still havent touched Sciel yet, no idea what foretell and Sun/Moon are all about at all.

Did you meet Esquie yet? I got to Act 2 and decided to go back and clear up some optional areas, the story is becoming a little clearer.

CoPilot was wrong about how much XP they earn while not in the active party. It seems to be the same as everyone else.

Also, I've dumped Lune for Sciel (sp?). Even though I don't know how to see how many whatevers the enemies have, I just cast one skill that adds them and then one that uses them, and she's doing very good damage. Also, she has healing.

And, lastly, I've decided to stop trying to parry the 3 hit enemy combos. I dodge the first two attacks no problem, but I get creamed trying to parry the last one for the counterattack.

 

[DXCHASE]

DOOM The Dark Ages is almost upon us! I think, for me, im about a week out, but its a week from this Thursday for the regular release. So im looking forward to that. Too bad i have 2 more weeks worth of work to do beforehand. Personally, from all the stuff i have watched, i dont think Doom will be a GOTY contender, i think the new parry/riposte gameplay is going to cause problems. But hey, my cool doom-guy statue is coming soon!


Havent been playing much else over the last week, just playing Diablo 4 really. I played a little Expedition 33 but was getting frustrated with what i can just amount to as TBC-mechanics. I dont know when ill be back, im trying to get my D4 characters to 100 before Dooms release which shouldn't be hard because D4s seasonal grind/storyline are really short.

Because I think she's hot in the flower costume

I'm not sure I like the Gestral hair on Maelle.
This is how you can tell that I really, really like a game--when I start caring how the characters look.

Haha i have the gestral hair and the sailor outfit on Maelle currently.

What i did find out about this game over the last week was that Gustave is voiced by Charlie Cox, the guy that plays Marvel Comic's Daredevil in the US. Not sure if people new this.

Doom 2 Ramp 2024, we down to the last 56 maps (out of 300) and we've completed the current batch of maps in the Mystery vortex station. There were 3 maps that deserve an honorable mention:

Went down a rabbit hole looking up this Doom 2 Ramp 2024. Do you have to submit maps or can you just sign up to play them?

 

[BeardyHat]

I'm still hopelessly addicted to Abiotic Factor. My playthrough is going much smoother this time around, as I know a little more about what to do to, I'm building a lot more, rather than focusing exclusively on exploring and I'm expanding outward from my main base with smaller FOB's to make my life a little easier.

I built myself some "Mugnades", as well as a disc thrower gun and it's made things so much easier. In my previous game I was still using the Scrapgun way past this point and really struggling with most things, but now with the Mugnades, I'm dropping Order soldiers two at a time and with the disc thrower, cutting down those obnoxious invisible enemies rapidly.

Still a little concerned about meeting the really annoying teleporting guys again, but I'll be looking more deeply at what I can build this time around and seeing if I have tools to deal with them.

 

[BeardyHat]

Realizing this morning that I may have jumped the gun on Abiotic Factor.

They still don't have a release date, though they raised the price in May and that's the general hypothesis going on about when they'll release. But looking at their news updates on Steam, it kind of looks like I might want to start a new game anyway once 1.0 drops, as there will be some new stuff I'd just be hitting now (in Manufacturing).

I've been utterly obsessed with it since I started playing it again last week or whenever, but I'm thinking might have to force myself into sabbatical so I can save the experience for when it's complete.

Maybe I'll go checkout Shadows of Doubt again, though I heard the 1.0 launch was not great.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Realizing this morning that I may have jumped the gun on Abiotic Factor.

They still don't have a release date, though they raised the price in May and that's the general hypothesis going on about when they'll release. But looking at their news updates on Steam, it kind of looks like I might want to start a new game anyway once 1.0 drops, as there will be some new stuff I'd just be hitting now (in Manufacturing).

I've been utterly obsessed with it since I started playing it again last week or whenever, but I'm thinking might have to force myself into sabbatical so I can save the experience for when it's complete.

Maybe I'll go checkout Shadows of Doubt again, though I heard the 1.0 launch was not great.

I don't know why they launched Shadows of Doubt into 1.0 knowing that the game was incomplete and that development was going to continue. I suspect that their publisher decided they were done paying for it and just forced it in the system to 1.0. That has happened with a few games in the past. It makes like hard for the developers because people blame them for abandoning the game when they really are intending to forge ahead without the publisher.

As for Abiotic Factor, hopefully its 1.0 will hit soon, and I can finish it with my son this summer.

This is one of the main reasons I've had to put a temporary hold on buying games. I don't just have a backlog. I've got a bunch of games that I really, really want to play, but can't get to them.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@Colif I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Game Rant will be the first big gaming site to be entirely written by AI.

That's not really going out on a limb. It's a foregone conclusion. They'll write 100 articles a day...

 

[BeardyHat]

I don't know why they launched Shadows of Doubt into 1.0 knowing that the game was incomplete and that development was going to continue. I suspect that their publisher decided they were done paying for it and just forced it in the system to 1.0. That has happened with a few games in the past. It makes like hard for the developers because people blame them for abandoning the game when they really are intending to forge ahead without the publisher.

As for Abiotic Factor, hopefully its 1.0 will hit soon, and I can finish it with my son this summer.

This is one of the main reasons I've had to put a temporary hold on buying games. I don't just have a backlog. I've got a bunch of games that I really, really want to play, but can't get to them.

It was super disappointing to read about the launch of Shadows of Doubt, especially after loving the hell out of it in EA and then deciding to stop myself from playing to wait for 1.0. Maybe there's a lesson here?

That said, I still haven't jumped in and tried it yet and there's really no reason for me not to. Certainly the game I was initially very excited about is still in there and I already own it, so why not? I do keep it installed, but just haven't felt ready to jump back in yet.

As for Abiotic, I've done some searching around and it looks like it's probably fine to keep playing. I'm generally pretty slow anyway and unlikely to rip through all of what's available right now before the 1.0 release and the developers have mentioned in Reddit commits that a few things in your Save will change (but will be listed in the patch notes), but otherwise the saves are compatible.

And yes, I need to do the same with buying Games. My New Years Resolution fell apart in the first three weeks, if I remember correctly and I've only continued to spiral the drain with my purchases.

@Colif I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Game Rant will be the first big gaming site to be entirely written by AI.

That's not really going out on a limb. It's a foregone conclusion. They'll write 100 articles a day...

I was under the impression that they were already doing that, just look at the sheer amount of garbage that's posted.

I forgot to mention that Friday night I also played Mechwarrior 5 with my friends; that game is completely transformed in multiplayer. A game I really don't care for playing by myself and have countless grievances with is just an absolute load of fun with your friends; one guy playing the role of manager and picking missions and stuff while the rest of us can reconfigure our Mechs as we like and walk around the ship. Very neat.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It was super disappointing to read about the launch of Shadows of Doubt, especially after loving the hell out of it in EA and then deciding to stop myself from playing to wait for 1.0. Maybe there's a lesson here?

That said, I still haven't jumped in and tried it yet and there's really no reason for me not to. Certainly the game I was initially very excited about is still in there and I already own it, so why not? I do keep it installed, but just haven't felt ready to jump back in yet.

As for Abiotic, I've done some searching around and it looks like it's probably fine to keep playing. I'm generally pretty slow anyway and unlikely to rip through all of what's available right now before the 1.0 release and the developers have mentioned in Reddit commits that a few things in your Save will change (but will be listed in the patch notes), but otherwise the saves are compatible.

And yes, I need to do the same with buying Games. My New Years Resolution fell apart in the first three weeks, if I remember correctly and I've only continued to spiral the drain with my purchases.


I was under the impression that they were already doing that, just look at the sheer amount of garbage that's posted.

I forgot to mention that Friday night I also played Mechwarrior 5 with my friends; that game is completely transformed in multiplayer. A game I really don't care for playing by myself and have countless grievances with is just an absolute load of fun with your friends; one guy playing the role of manager and picking missions and stuff while the rest of us can reconfigure our Mechs as we like and walk around the ship. Very neat.

I got frustrated in Mechwarrior 5. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I got soft-locked because I did a bunch of upgrading then used the last of my money to hire an NPC to use one of my suits, and he destroyed it the very next mission, which I think I completed, but for some reason I had no money to continue. At least that's the way I kind of remember it. I posted about it on here ages ago. I just found that post, but I didn't go into detail about what exactly happened.

 

[Johnway]

Went down a rabbit hole looking up this Doom 2 Ramp 2024. Do you have to submit maps or can you just sign up to play them?

You need to sign up to contribute, but to play them? not at all. its a regular Megawad and you run it like any other wad. The link to download the file is right at the top https://ramp2024.doomproject.com/

but if you want to contribute with play testing i suspect you may need to join the discord.

 

[BeardyHat]

I got frustrated in Mechwarrior 5. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I got soft-locked because I did a bunch of upgrading then used the last of my money to hire an NPC to use one of my suits, and he destroyed it the very next mission, which I think I completed, but for some reason I had no money to continue. At least that's the way I kind of remember it. I posted about it on here ages ago. I just found that post, but I didn't go into detail about what exactly happened.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what happened. I have many complaints about that game, not the least of which is the AI on both sides.

Enemy AI just bum rushes you, making every mission the exact same (which it already is anyway) and your own AI does the exact same, making it incredibly difficult to actually build any Cbills because you're constantly having to pay for repairs.

No idea if Clans is any better, only played for like an hour.

 

[Zloth]

I got frustrated in Mechwarrior 5. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think I got soft-locked because I did a bunch of upgrading then used the last of my money to hire an NPC to use one of my suits, and he destroyed it the very next mission, which I think I completed, but for some reason I had no money to continue. At least that's the way I kind of remember it. I posted about it on here ages ago. I just found that post, but I didn't go into detail about what exactly happened.

You went bankrupt. The game is part economic sim, so that happens, especially in the early game.

Enemy AI just bum rushes you, making every mission the exact same (which it already is anyway) and your own AI does the exact same, making it incredibly difficult to actually build any Cbills because you're constantly having to pay for repairs.

The AI is pretty weak on both sides. There's an excellent mod for that, though I don't know if it works in multi-player.

• Avoid putting expensive things in the arms. Arms fall off a LOT! It's balanced by the greater range of motion.
• The standard AI doesn't prioritize helicopters, early game tanks, and S/LRM carriers nearly high enough. You need to make up for that by shooting them as soon as you can. They go down easy but hurt a lot if you don't get them soon.
• Prioritize cash over salvage. Getting a new mech via salvage requires a ton of shares and you don't get your choice on what to 'buy.' What's more, you still have to pay to fix it up. (Personally, I would flat-out save scum the game. Save when you get a lot of cash, go around to a few industrial hubs, and buy mechs. If you don't find any, re-load the save.)