October 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread

[BeardyHat]

I think Valve should give developers and publishers an option to download a DRM free version of their game if they choose to do so. If that were to be the case, I’m sure ~95% of games in Steam won’t have that option, but it would be nice as the customer to have the option. Of course though, that’s just not how Steam operates, so it’s just wishful thinking.

If it's DRM free on Steam, then as soon as you download it, you've got it DRM free. There are quite a few games you can launch directly from the .exe in the game directory, Dwarf Fortress being one of them.

You could technically buy DF, download it, refund it and have it free and clear. Of course, you won't get updates and it's ethically dubious, at best, but it can be done. I know I own several games like this, but I couldn't tell you exactly which titles.

 

[Pifanjr]

If it's DRM free on Steam, then as soon as you download it, you've got it DRM free. There are quite a few games you can launch directly from the .exe in the game directory, Dwarf Fortress being one of them.

You could technically buy DF, download it, refund it and have it free and clear. Of course, you won't get updates and it's ethically dubious, at best, but it can be done. I know I own several games like this, but I couldn't tell you exactly which titles.

I got Baldur's Gate 3 through family sharing with a friend of ours, which doesn't have DRM either. So I usually close Steam before I start the game just so I don't risk getting booted out when my friend decides to play something.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The true cost of game piracy: 20 percent of revenue, according to a new study

Analysis of Denuvo DRM cracking shows significant impacts on publishers’ bottom lines.

arstechnica.com

Kind of releated, interesting article from Ars here on anti piracy.

I'm not usually bothered by DRM in games in a technical level (stuttering etc), mostly because I rarely buy anything at release. But its not hard to see why the big publishers like to use it when you look at those numbers.

 

[Pifanjr]

10 years on, the most infamous gaming Kickstarter of them all is still trying to reach the finish line: 'I want to explicitly state that this project is not dead'

Somehow, Unsung Story returned.

www.pcgamer.com

I thought this would be about Star Citizen, which I would think is much more infamous than this game I had never heard of before.

 

[neogunhero]

Stalker's hardcore reputation didn't prepare me for how surprisingly basic Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is

Stalker 2 is tense, gorgeous, and a bit janky.

www.pcgamer.com

I don’t think it was a good idea to have PCG assign the Stalker 2 preview to a person who has never played the older games. On one hand I get that Stalker 2 is more appealing to a larger audience than its predecessors so perhaps that was the reason for this decision, but I still think that hardcore Stalker fans are wanting to hear what the new game is like from someone who is already a fan.

My issue with the article is that the whole time the author is talking about how everything he has heard of previous Stalker games makes it seem like an extremely brutal and unforgiving survival game with action elements, but the reality of what he played wasn’t as hardcore as he imagined. Stalker players know that that is the way the game presents itself but actually playing it can be very easy, so it seems more of the same which is what a large portion of the player base wants. The author was upset his expectations were not met, but to me the way he describes Stalker 2 sounds exactly how all the other games are.

 

[Brian Boru]

more of the same which is what a large portion of the player base wants

Good to hear—down with innovation!

ETA: Aw, there isn't a demo for us plebs
On the upside, my PC just scrapes the minimum requirements—hope they're real.

 

[neogunhero]

Good to hear—down with innovation!

It may sound antithetical to what players would generally want in a sequel, and this is all purely my own speculation, but I think a large portion of STALKER players want anew game that feels just like the old ones but in a modern engine with QOL improvements. That series is held very closely to its hardcore fans, and changing it too much may lead to more problems and complaints than if they just made the same kind of game with nicer graphics.

Surely there will be new systems to engage with that weren’t present in the older games, but my takeaway from that article is that it is more of the same, just bigger. I am completely happy with that, especially with all the hardships the dev team had to put up with.

 

[Colif]

On the upside, my PC just scrapes the minimum requirements—hope they're real.

looks

Minimum:
OS Windows 10, Windows 11
Processor:[/B] AMD Ryzen 5 1600X / Intel Core i5-7600K
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
Storage: 150 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD

You really need to upgrade Brian... ARM or X86? Fun time to be alive heh...

 

[Pifanjr]

looks

You really need to upgrade Brian... ARM or X86? Fun time to be alive heh...

I'm still working with a i5-4690 CPU and a GTX 1050 ti and so far it has managed to run pretty much every game I've tried, though mostly with (nearly) all graphics on their lowest settings.

 

[Brian Boru]

need to upgrade Brian... ARM or X86?

ARM or leg, more like—'need to' is unfortunately not matched by 'can do'

i5-4690 CPU and a GTX 1050 ti and so far it has managed to run pretty much every game

* Looks down nose * Thank you for making me feel superior!

We'll consider upgrading whenever recent games are fixed, so ca 2027—yeah, the 50th anniversary of Cyberpunk 2077 sounds right

 

[Johnway]

All this talk of upograding and building pcs has got me looking and honestly, whilst i'm in no rush (my pc can run everything in my gaming collection) i'm looking at a complete replacement of machine. Whilst window shopping in various stores, i think i'll go with AMD this time as Intel isn't as upgrade friendly. Looking at prices of parts etc, its becoming eye wateringly expensive and i can see why people are going the steam deck route these days. Will review when something in my PC dies. i would like to keep the case, but i suspect i'll need to replace that as well.

 

[Colif]

recent games are fixed, so ca 2027

I thought you said Decent and realised there aren't any of those, and re read post

I don't want to upgrade PC for a few more years now. It will almost be all new, might use storage out of this. But good chance everything else will be new. Currently looking at new fans only as I have to. PC wasn't meant to have any problems this year, I spent too much on it last year.

 

[Brian Boru]

Looking at prices

You probably know that Black Friday & Cyber Monday are good times to get deals on PCs and parts. PCG usually does article(s) on the best deals they spot, so keep an eye on those in a month or so.

Will review when something in my PC dies

Would suck if you had to pay 50% more in a few months.

 

[BeardyHat]

Microcenter usually has some pretty good deals; I get their ads in my email frequently and they have quite a few packages with processors, mobos and RAM. I actually bought a package back in 2019 and I'm still using the motherboard and RAM, having recently (last year) upgraded to a faster processor.

That said, my upgrade was pretty unnecessary in hindsight. Sure I got to play Starfield and Cyberpunk, but my Deck can run Cyberpunk just fine and everything else I play would have run perfectly great on my old setup of a 2600 and 1070.

 

[Zloth]

Squadron 42, which was 'feature-complete' and just needed 'polish' in 2023, is now targeting a 2026 launch

Star Citizen itself lacks a release window though.

www.pcgamer.com

Star Citizen gets a release da... well, a release year!

Those aliens made me giggle a bit. I don't think they could make some of the sounds in their language given all those sharp teeth. Do they even have lips?? I had the same issue with the Turians in Mass Effect. How do those bone faces make so many sounds!? Why that breaks immersion for me, I've got no idea, but there it is.

 

[Colif]

gets told that updating to windows 11 24H2 can take 1 to 2 hours...
starts update using Update Assistant
It took about 40 minutes to count to 100 before it was ready to run update.
Took 10 minutes max between restart and being back on desktop.

I guess it depends how you update.
Clean installs would take a while too.

Only difference I can see is they changed Icon for task Manager
It feels faster but that always happens after a version update replaces windows.
AI over view of features shows its got nothing of interest to me... more laptop crap.
Why does Microsoft want us to use E waste? Laptops need replacing too often... pass.

 

[Colif]

Best PC fans in 2024: I've put these case fans through their paces to find the coolest and quietest

The best PC fans will keep your gaming PC cool and quiet.

www.pcgamer.com

lol.
Noctua 12x25? Classic... but not the best anymore.
Corsair fans look pretty but cooling isn't the best. Charge people a premium for RGB.

I am looking for new fans for my AIO but as I want RGB, I have to ignore Noctua. Be nice if they bent a little more... at least there are black swap versions now.

Goes back to looking
Lian Li Tl120 look the best options so far, every other one I have looked at has reasons not to pick it. (and after looking at more, its even more so the case. Most have things that you have to work around)

 

[BeardyHat]

Valve says its 'not really fair to your customers' to create yearly iterations of something like the Steam Deck, instead it's waiting 'for a generational leap in compute without sacrificing battery life'

Valve may not be creating yearly iterations of the Steam Deck, but it's having to give the same answer every year.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm still really damn happy with my June 2022 Deck and should be for the foreseeable future and it certainly doesn't feel like it's in need of an upgrade when it runs Cyberpunk at a stable 30FPS, even turning down the TDP.

My only complaint is that mine overheats and throttles when I'm running it at full TDP and pushing it with something hard. Not sure if that's a component of mine being slightly broke or if they all do that, but even with high quality thermal paste, it still does it and has been doing it since I got it. But it's a testament to how good the thing is that once I had it, I didn't want to give it up for a warranty repair, so I just chose to live with it for the 2+ years I've had it.

 

[BeardyHat]

Sorry if this sounds shallow, but I do care about how long a game is before buying it

Quantity is quality, sometimes.

www.pcgamer.com

This will probably flip for me in the future, but general rule of thumb for me these days: shorter is better.

This applies to pretty much everything from games, to music, movies and books. I'm so much happier with a tight 4 minute song than a 15 minute epic, a 90 minute movie to a 3 hour Lord of the Rings, etc. Shorter things are more likely to stick with me because I can actually finish them in a sitting and then go back for another round of it later.

I still like longer games, but I'm very much less likely to finish them. I've been putting many hours into Cyberpunk lately, but I doubt it'll hold my interest long enough right now to actually finish it. Going back to it may be more of an imposition than not when I'm ready to start playing it again, so who knows if I'll ever actually finish it.

 

[Pifanjr]

Sorry if this sounds shallow, but I do care about how long a game is before buying it

Quantity is quality, sometimes.

www.pcgamer.com

This will probably flip for me in the future, but general rule of thumb for me these days: shorter is better.

This applies to pretty much everything from games, to music, movies and books. I'm so much happier with a tight 4 minute song than a 15 minute epic, a 90 minute movie to a 3 hour Lord of the Rings, etc. Shorter things are more likely to stick with me because I can actually finish them in a sitting and then go back for another round of it later.

I still like longer games, but I'm very much less likely to finish them. I've been putting many hours into Cyberpunk lately, but I doubt it'll hold my interest long enough right now to actually finish it. Going back to it may be more of an imposition than not when I'm ready to start playing it again, so who knows if I'll ever actually finish it.

But are you okay with paying full price for these short games?

 

[ZedClampet]

Roblox scrambles to fight the 'pedophile hellscape' allegations with changes to pre-teen accounts that don't seem like enough

Kids under 13 will soon need parental permission for some features, and kids under 9 will need even more.

www.pcgamer.com

Ugh, I accidentally deleted my comment.

 

[BeardyHat]

But are you okay with paying full price for these short games?

I don't pay full price for anything, as I'm a cheap bastard.

 

[Johnway]

Would suck if you had to pay 50% more in a few months.

yeah, i'm still sitting on the fence whether to upgrade now or not. its not far off to say that the whole machine needs to be replaced. The only parts i'll probably could reuse is the case (and fans) (although i need to check) the PSU (although last year i got a brand new 1500w PSU just sitting in the corner), the DVD RW drive the SSD drive.

Everything else needs replacing. Truth be told, the pc is doing everything i need and its unlikely any new games excite me and i can focus on my back collection before investing. But if i think that way, i might as well never see a new pc being built for a while. The problem is that i'm saving for that potential rainy day which seems like round the corner with how things are going.

 

[Colif]

This will probably flip for me in the future, but general rule of thumb for me these days: shorter is better.

This applies to pretty much everything from games, to music, movies and books. I'm so much happier with a tight 4 minute song than a 15 minute epic

Having spent 100's of hours playing a game you can finish in 90 minutes, I see just basing the value of a game on its "completion" time as short sighted. Some games you can complete fast have endless re-playability. Some of the longest games can be as boring as hell. Busy quests don't add up to fun... all the time. Forcing players to be X level to continue story isn't fun. Artificial extenders... lucky they don't put in Mobile game incentives and let you pay to continue... I guess that isn't far off.


As for songs, it can depend on mood. Some days I want to just hear shorter songs, and others I play 20+ minute ones... its generally a mix.
I am glad Tool didn't get their way and release last album as just one long song... though the songs themselves area already too long. Some one should have told them to stop... but I digress.

I don't watch movies anymore so can't comment.
Book length never stopped me buying a book. May have stopped me picking up War and peace but you know, when books become as big as bricks, you have to consider if you can hold them... my Far Side collection books are bad enough... one day I might read them all.

 

[Zloth]

Book length never stopped me buying a book. May have stopped me picking up War and peace but you know, when books become as big as bricks, you have to consider if you can hold them... my Far Side collection books are bad enough... one day I might read them all.

Do NOT read them in bed, with one of them balanced on your chest. If you start laughing, you'll break a rib for sure!