The Videogames Tab

Next PS4 firmware update brings something actually useful - The ability (which the Xbone and WiiU have had for ages) to use an external USB drive to store game data.

AAA game sizes are huge these days and even the ones on disc get their data dumped to the console's hard drive to get around Blu Ray's slow read speeds. My 1TB PS4 drive is regularly getting stuff deleted to make space.

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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

Holy crap, these games. I had the day fully off so innocently sat down before doing some chores... 5 hours later...



I managed to tear myself away when I caught myself doing the one thing I'd told myself not to do. (Build a metal wall around the giant original suburb. What am I doing )

Liking the slow-mo dread of the VATs system now. Codsworth is a cool companion to tool about with too, liking his litany of snide comments about my scavenging . And lord, they ramped up the looting effect with the base building didn't they - squish and reform a whole house? Yes please

I went for the ole Intel-loaded start to get quicker XP, and now pushing strength for loot and charm for the persuasion options and the caravan between settlements. Lots of kit alteration to make up for my reliance on agil/perception as my main combat strengths. Cruising it at the mo for the most part, but very low on ammo since cleaning out the factory for the 2nd settlement. (It glitched and said I'd done it after like 3 kills, but decided to do it properly ). Loved my first experience of a cityscape of that size, with the light of a raider mech stomping around on a fractured rooftop, before nuking a minor ghoul complement in the streets.

(Generally loving all the Bethsheda staples, like the mini stories nested in scenes and notes. That and the glitches. I watched a car juggle itself in the distance for ages while ominous music played )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

My memory is completely breaking down, but...is this your first go with Fallout 4, or are you returning to it? I realize there's a 50% chance we've had a dozen conversations about it already, but I'm out of it today.

First go on F4, held off til now

Is bizarrely nostalgic that it's the same engine (with the same foibles ) but a modern sheen. (My frames still tanked when some mutant moles erupted just as a dusk thunderstorm kicked off tho... Janky horror show...)

Reducing your shadow distance/quality massively helps with frame drops but, alas, makes an already muddy looking game worse.

There's a mod for it that drops the shadows whenever your fps drops below a user-defined point. It's pretty good.

Oo nice one, yeah GeForce auto set shadow draw pretty low, but that mod sounds ingenious. Nice one ta

Ok so I'm an idiot, but I completely clad the old suburb in a ring of steel (with the help of some very sturdy privet to cover the rear). I now have nothing but spit left to help the other settlements, but in a Mad Maxian way it was totally worth it



How are doors supposed to work though? I saw some kind of junk gate as an option, but all the standard doorhole ones don't seem to take a door. (I'm assuming enemies are just gonna glitch through all this anyway, but it's the thought that counts. And the many many turrets )

I think there are some "Walls" that have doors already in them.

Yeah, I hated the fact that I couldn't just add doors to an existing building. But no, that would've just saved me a lot of time, space and resources.

The building stuff in F4 is so clunky that I doubt you'd get anything other than frustration out of it unless you were one of those weird Minecraft people.

Oh.

I kinda like the ramshackle effect (slamming boards over gaps etc). I've turned to wiki to actually explain it though, so I'm all about radio masts and scavenging stations now. Market up next. Liking this whole regrowth in the ashes thing

Plus Raiders are turning up in metal gear now, so they're literally helping me fortify

Hah

(Games help us all age gracefully, no doubt )

Not to take an offhand remark too seriously, but...yeah, I really believe that. I really think certain types of games keep us sharp and active later in life. Can't prove it, just had some really striking anecdotal experiences with people I've known, though I admit I can't establish which way that causality flows.

There actually are studies that say folks who do any sort of mind-engaging hobbies (crossword puzzles, word searches, and/or other sorts of puzzle games, including computer games) do have lower incidences of Alzheimer's as they age. That didn't include FPS games -- it was more about things that engage purer problem-solving in the brain.

So yeah... science, bitch!

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I'm totally gonna play The Witness to give my synapses a work out. (Whether it will actually help with problem solving and memory, or just rage control, is another matter )

Rage control? In my case, it's helped with just rage. I've gotten really good at it now.

What does this say about someone who went looking at vintage pinball tables for sale this week?

What age has done to wreck my reaction times has been made up for in anticipation. #wily

Are you going to need to build a separate wing of your house for these machines, Taccy?

Re: F4 Building

I didn't find it very engaging after a certain point. But it's a great bit of "show not tell" for why the settlements look like they do. It's a really useful way to fill in the backstory of the scavenger style architecture of the world.