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“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
RL seems like the perfect Switch game.



You don't know how badly I want a Switch right now. Super Mario Odyssey looks amazing.
I know! My roommate and I are definitely going to buy one, and split the cost before late August. Odyssey looks like the most inspired Mario game since the original Galaxy.

They're still going, too! They just announced a reimagining/remake of Metroid II for the 3DS. I usually don't get hyped up about remakes, or remasters too often, but that one makes sense, it definitely would benefit from it.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Wow, I didn't realise Fallout 4 VR (and by association, probably Skyrim VR as well) is a $60 game, regardless if you already own the original release.

That's crazy, although probably a reflection of the amount of copies they expect to sell compared to their development costs. They were the company who brought us horse armour, I guess.
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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



there's a frog in my snake oil
Just catching up on the ole E3 headlines:

So Anthem has got some pretty lovely design work. I'm a sucker for jet packs and Mos Eisley style hubs. But will it just be another dumb-and-gun? Don't see anything to suggest otherwise as yet.

And Monster Hunter, cool, I could see Monster Hunter, although got some worries on whether the pretty upscales and the grind will hurt my mind.

Shadow of War is still the AAA I'm most leaning towards a launch buy on though. The Nemesis system is the closest thing we've seen to innovation in the 'living, breathing' open world genre in forever. Even if the core seems essentially unchanged, and the idea of 'cap the base with your Batman parkour skills' sure isn't novel.

Intriguingly, GamesRadar have gone mad and suggested the side-quests and world-building are pitching for Witcher territory, and might get there. Way too early for those type of claims, but if they're filling the new playspace with more than just space I'll definitely be happy.



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Oh christ, and yes. Best trailer by a country mile!



(Just for a game I'm not going to play :/. Same boat as you T. The Wolf reboot looked grand, and this looks to have cubed it. But ultimately, it's still just a campaign shooter :/)

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And in It's VR so I shouldn't really care news...

It seems Fallout actually offers a mixture of teleportation and locomotion, wild flappy melee, and does have VATs working in a new form:

Here's some eye-bending footage:



Yeah T, not surprised it's full AAA pricing to be honest. I've been scooting around the VR reddits and they seem fairly inured to the idea. The hardcore just want AAA game content, and for VR to bed in. Plus they get the market is still small and niche. (It's pretty clear Bethesda have had to rework a ton of mechanics, and like actually optimise, so think they can make the case for it.)

(The only guys up in arms are the PSVR guys, who don't get why it's not coming to PS4 )

But hey, they get Skyrim first, and that's another fun playground for VR. Voice controlling Fus Rah's with the ole Kinect was pretty fun - can see bows and spell casting being a blast with hands. They at least seem to have locomotion with melee too, although it looks a bit static...



Still early days. If they ever were to get a VR melee system that allowed for fine-grained body movement and weapon accuracy, and for you not to wire-yank your machine to its death in the process, I would totally make a fool of myself in my living room for that. No doubt

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EDIT: Oh, and on Microsoft shying away from VR for Xbox, they are at least talking up the PC realm...

“We have games from Microsoft Studios in development for Windows Mixed Reality, and several game developers are working closely with us to bring their titles to Windows Mixed Reality,” the Microsoft representative added. “We’ll have more to share on specific games and content experiences coming to Windows Mixed Reality later this summer, after E3. Because of the opportunity with Windows Mixed Reality, and because we believe the user experience will be best on PC right now, that is where our focus is.”
Wish they'd stop using the term 'Mixed Reality' for everything though. That stuff could all pertain to their $3000 HoloLens (actual 'mixed reality' MS, learn to use words ). Given the context though looks likely their 'budget' VR stuff is included in that.
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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Just realized that the GT:Sport trailer was directed at me. Well, besides the racing against people and it's not about collecting cars anymore.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Reasons not to PC game: No. 327

You update your drivers while plugged into your TV, then can't figure out why your PC screen is a new mushy shape, even though they're both the same aspect ratio. (Who knew there were two flavours of 1080 display? And that you can't fix things just by swearing? )



The People's Republic of Clogher
Reasons not to PC game: No. 327

You update your drivers while plugged into your TV, then can't figure out why your PC screen is a new mushy shape, even though they're both the same aspect ratio. (Who knew there were two flavours of 1080 display? And that you can't fix things just by swearing? )
I've fallen out of love with the PC, these last few months. Tekken 7 running like crap on mine has put a hat on it.

I've also been playing a lot of Destiny. I should have listened to a lot of 2015 people - Destiny is real good.



there's a frog in my snake oil
No mention of exclusive games is to be permitted! Or resplendent lobbies full of actual people!

*grumbles something about exclusive access to novelty VR kit here*

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Ach, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with PC, in terms of graphics gloss, and indie oddities, and a seemingly infinite back catalogue of sale offerings. It helps that I've got a happy bundle of work buddies forming on Steam for the co-op-y end of things too. But it is notable that the only online game I play that has really reliable numbers is cross-play :/



The People's Republic of Clogher
No mention of exclusive games is to be permitted! Or resplendent lobbies full of actual people!

*grumbles something about exclusive access to novelty VR kit here*

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Ach, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with PC, in terms of graphics gloss, and indie oddities, and a seemingly infinite back catalogue of sale offerings. It helps that I've got a happy bundle of work buddies forming on Steam for the co-op-y end of things too. But it is notable that the only online game I play that has really reliable numbers is cross-play :/
Every once in a while you'll get the 'this game runs fantastically for people with systems half as powerful as mine but it's practically unplayable for me, what gives?' and long for the uncomplicated nature of a console.

That's what happened with T7, a game I only bought because of online with a few people on my friends list. I already have the blinking console version.



there's a frog in my snake oil
Every once in a while you'll get the 'this game runs fantastically for people with systems half as powerful as mine but it's practically unplayable for me, what gives?' and long for the uncomplicated nature of a console.
That's practically every PC game for the first week isn't it . While we tinker with them, in our immaculate freedom...

(But yeah, when you hit a real roadblock, or a flat out rip-off port, the burn is real for sure. And it breeds a certain suspicion of every other game while you're breaking them in...)



Hey @Tacitus: I remember you telling someone else that a new generation of processors and/or graphics cards were due out (this was a few months ago), so they should hold off on any builds or upgrades or whatever. As someone a couple of years into both, this is relevant to my interests, but I'm foggy on the details. Do you know of what I speak?



The People's Republic of Clogher
Hey @Tacitus: I remember you telling someone else that a new generation of processors and/or graphics cards were due out (this was a few months ago), so they should hold off on any builds or upgrades or whatever. As someone a couple of years into both, this is relevant to my interests, but I'm foggy on the details. Do you know of what I speak?
Yeah, the series 10 Nvidia cards and their AMD equivalents are a pretty major step forward in terms of power consumption vs graphics power. The rule of thumb is usually, a 1060 is similar to last year's 970, the 1070 to the 980 etc, but they'll run cooler and thus are more capable of overclocking.

There will be new cards out in a matter of months, guaranteed, but that's the lot of PC building - Your build is probably out of date about 3 months before you price it up.

Can't see the step from 10 series to 11 series being as drastic as 9 to 10, however, so you'll be safe buying one of this year's cards.

One thing I can increasingly see mattering is CPU - Quad core i5s just don't seem to cut it any more in the most demanding games. Next upgrade I do (probably next year) will be an i7 with my existing 980ti GPU.

EDIT - The higher end cards are all targeting good framerates at 4k resolutions, so if you're fine with 1080p then you can save some money and still get your 60fps/Ultra settings.



Oh yeah, I'm not going nuts.

Any particular chip or graphics card you'd recommend as an unusually good value? Guess I'll have to see if this necessitates a motherboard upgrade, too. I remember putting the processor in place last time was the most nerve-wracking part, so here's hoping I can just do that and not have to take the whole thing apart again! But I'm kind of expecting I'll have to with any significant jump in processing power.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Seds is running a 1060, I believe, so he'll be able to give a lot more useful advice in that area than me.

*cough* @Sedai cooo-eee!

The 1060 seems to be the best value 1080p card in terms of good performance, but GPUs seem to have sneakily gone up in price, model for model, this year. I'd keep the CPU etc as is, and only think about changing them if you find yourself not getting the performance you expected. A new model Intel CPU (new skew out later in the year, promising significant upgrades to what you can buy now) will mean a new motherboard and RAM as well.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Quick Life is Strange prequel note - It's not even being made by dontnod, who are full-on with the proper Life is Strange sequel.

Don't know whether I'm relieved or even more saddened by that news.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Attention Everybody!

What was your one big takeaway from E3 2017?

In all reality I should probably be a Switch gamer.



The People's Republic of Clogher
Attention Everybody!

What was your one big takeaway from E3 2017?

In all reality I should probably be a Switch gamer.
I dunno, Bioware finally abandoning their great RPG heritage and basically becoming EA's Naughty Dog? Ubisoft being full of heart but not having much I actually want to play? The XboxXxX looking like a PS2? A bit?

My one big takeaway is that PLAYERUNKNOWN, of PLAYERUNKNOWN's Battlegrounds fame, is an unassuming Irish bloke called Brendan. It's coming to Xbox and then PS4, so we may as well wrap up Game of the Decade right here, right now.



Seriously good game, even in its present state. Seriously good.




A system of cells interlinked
@Yoda

Loving my 1060 so far. I upgraded to that card from my old trusty 560Ti and the difference was night and day. I did not upgrade my CPU, as for some reason, the i52500K seems to still be able to gobble up most recent games. I have run both Witcher 3 and Dark Souls 3 on ultra so far, and things run nice and smooth. I think I had the hair and beards on high on Wither if I recall. Not sure I needed ultra beards! I was a clean shaven chap, anyway.

I will start looking at processors when I start running into issues with future games, as I am sure it will happen eventually. For the record, I have the 6GB 1060.

This one!

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“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



Welcome to the human race...
Started playing Dishonored 2 (sorry, Andromeda). Picked Corvo at the start and am wondering what difference it's going to make. Otherwise, it's proving enjoyable enough. Kind of annoyed that in the first mission I ended up killing exactly one enemy - and that was because I was trying to hide an unconscious enemy and fell into the water, which apparently kills the enemy. Figures.
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



From what I've read, they have different powers, with Corvo generally being better for stealth and Emily for murder/mayhem. It sounds like she got more of the new ones, too (Domino sounds nuts), but I'm not positive.