Discussion What's your favourite video game you've been playing?

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

killing me waiting for news on Cyberpunk 2077. going to have to start a new run in Witcher 3, Mass Effect 3, & Deus Ex: Mankind Divided to try and keep my RPG attention occupied.

Sooon....

Metro Exodus Gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlTLphrvxYU

looks awesome. i can't wait to play. now got to reinstall 2033 & Last Light Redux and play some before this releases.

 

[madmatt30]

Old skool, & not even out on pc, but at the minute it's spyro reignited on the xbox one.

Its a testament to how a remaster of a series some 20 years old should be done properly.

The level design for a game from that era is incredible

 

[R_1]

in the last 18 months, first killing floor 2, then pubg, now its Ring of Elysium.

all time favorite game/series: unreal tournament 2004
grand turismo series are the only console games I play

 

[minnie_mouse]

Good to see you back.

Played Shadow of Chernobyl then Clear Sky and now I'm playing Call of Pripyat. I forgot what great games they are. Hard games but really fun.

Sorry for answering so late, but still it's better late than never.
Stalker was a game of my childhood and I'm afraid it may disappoint me during playing these days.
Should I try and risk my best memories? Seems yes, but can you give me some feedback about replaying this wonderful games?

 

[MasterChief86]

Playing Commandos Men of courage with friends on weekend nights now. Wonderful game. Sucks they discontinued the whole franchise.

 

[hammer874]

GTA V

 

[hanotaink]

Heroes of the Storm. Not as deep as other moba games but I got really tired of all the items, skill learning and other stuff you have to learn to even be decent at those games. In hots everything is simple enough to learn on the go, no need for in depth guides and build orders

 

[LordVile]

Been playing Civ Rev recent, been prett good.

 

[Gman450]

Hey guys,

I finished Red Dead Redemption 2 and Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4. I've never played the original RDR and the story in RDR2 takes place before the events of of the first game, so I guess I didn't miss anything. It was most certainly a huge game. The world is open and very very beautiful. Gunfights are fantastic, the story was wonderful and the gameplay was pretty much what you'd expect from a Rockstar game. Riding around on your horse will get tiresome by the end of the game as you'll be on it for most your time.

The stranger missions and other side ones were very interesting. Our character, Arthur Morgan definitely goes down into my books as one of the best protagonists in video games ever. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it and I hope it comes to PC soon too so that I can replay it. It is tough as hell to aim with a controller in this game so yeah, I'd love to play it with a keyboard and mouse.

Horizon zero dawn was another huge open world game that I really enjoyed. The world was pretty unique. The combat is just so crazy and good. It gets your heart racing every time. There are a lot of enemy types in this game. The story, although I liked the lore a lot, wasn't executed too well. I didn't care much about the other characters in the world other than the one we play - Aloy. The character models look amazing but their animations are pretty stiff. They learnt their lesson in the DLC though - the frozen wilds. Character animations are so much better over there. It's definitely a great open world game and I'm looking forward to a sequel when it gets here.

On the PC side, I've upgraded to a Ryzen 5 2600 with 8 gigs of RAM for now and a 1050 Ti that I've borrowed from my friend. I'm planning on getting the RTX 2060 when it starts selling over here. I'm very happy with the performance right now. Tons of games to play over on this side and I am very excited to get my hands on the Resident Evil 2 remake.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Hey Gman, I'm surprised you said nothing about the most common gripe of RDR2, the very linear style. I've seen review videos demonstrating that aspect of it and it's plain ridiculous how restricted the player is to do everything a certain way. If you're coming off an open world game that has a lot of mission options, like GRW, it's going to feel extremely cramped and repetitive.

That said, I'd still enjoy playing RDR and RDR2 on PC if they were available on that platform, but from what you said about animations, maybe RDR3 would be the better game. Who knows, maybe one day there will be an entire RDR trilogy on PC.

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Yeah they look like pretty good games but unless they come to PC I doubt I'll ever play them.

Nice new system Gman. Make sure you get 2 sticks of RAM though. Ryzen hates single channel and it really hurts performance.

Just started a new game + of Mass Effect Andromeda after finishing the original trilogy again. I preordered it and had mostly finished it by the time all the fixes were released the first time. I'm actually kind of bummed it's not getting a sequel. It's not a bad game but they just really screwed some stuff up. Like the Asari. Even Salarians ( who lay eggs lol ) find the Asari attractive but they're all just terribly animated in Andromeda.

Really looking forward to Metro Exodus. The system requirements just got released today and it's a Metro game. Takes a beast of a system to max it. I just redid the storage in my desktop and next will be a 2080 most likely. It will be interesting to see if my 6700K is enough for Exodus at 1440p with a 2080. The requirements say it needs an 8700K for max 1440p.

Since it's not a secret anymore Tom's will be moving to Xenforo in the very near future. It will be nice to finally have a forum with basic functionality that works. More info here if anyone's interested.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3858944/user-guide-toms-forum.html

 

[Frag Maniac]

Make sure you get 2 sticks of RAM though. Ryzen hates single channel and it really hurts performance.

Since it's not a secret anymore Tom's will be moving to Xenforo in the very near future. It will be nice to finally have a forum with basic functionality that works. More info here if anyone's interested.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3858944/user-guide-toms-forum.html

Yeah I will add as a recommendation to definitely get 3200 speed RAM as well Gman. Ryzen's Infinity Fabric core interconnects are tied to RAM speed, so the more you go below 3200, the more latency it causes, which translates to more frame drops and even possible hitching.

I'm also hoping the new forum has, or at they least consider adding, a response option to tutorials. I worked damn hard for months on my last two video tutorials on The Evil Within and Ghost Recon Wildlands on Akumu and Extreme with no upgrades, and I was quite shocked and upset no one could respond. If they don't add that feature to tutorials, I won't likely even post my video guides as tutorials anymore.

Oops, spoke too soon, just read this...

Where are the Tutorials?
Tutorials are now known as the “Article” content type on the forum. Articles add a new experience to the forums, allowing you to rate, review, and leave comments for the creator. You can also add an expanded “About” section to showcase yourself as an Article author.

Awesome!

Only thing I'm worried about now is if existing content will be ported over, and if my tutorials WILL still exist and be converted to "Articles", does that mean they now get the comment and other options as well?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I don't know exact details about tutorials but the whole platform will be different. Tom's is now on an old proprietary platform that's held together with chewing gum and unicorn tears. It takes an act of god to do basic stuff that you can do in 2 clicks on Xenforo. We've been testing it behind the scenes for about a month now and it's really impressive compared to what's here now. It takes a bit of getting used to but functionality is 1000 times better. We still haven't been told exactly when the roll out will be but it's moving quickly and should be soon.

Edit to your edit. I wouldn't worry about losing anything in the transition. Badges and best answers with be different but content should move over fine.

 

[Gman450]

Yes, I did mention RDR 2's gameplay was similar to anyother Rockstar game. The way that you are instructed every single moment during a mission is pretty annoying and this was something that started to get my attention since GTA V. When I noticed it a lot more often, I started to have less fun with the game, so I tried not to think too much with it. And since GTA V's story was nothing special, it made me have less fun with the game.

Story wise, red dead redemption 2 is far superior and you won't notice the frequent instructions and prompts too much. At least, that was the case with me. I agree that their mission structuring is too linear and I'm hoping Rockstar has heard the community's feedback. I'm hopeful for much less hand holding from their games in the future.

I will be getting another ram stick soon. I currently have a Corsair 3000Mhz one. The price for it has gone down since I bought it last month. Thanks for letting me know guys.

 

[Frag Maniac]

@anort,
Good to know there won't be any lost content in the change over. Looking forward to seeing the new forum in action.

@Gman,
You and I are on exactly the same page regarding GTA V. Their story and dialog writing went way downhill since GTA IV. Interesting you say the instructions and prompts in RDR2 aren't too bad, because most whom dislike them have said they're the worst since any previous R* games. I guess these things are a matter of opinion and you don't know until you try it though.

I've seen it described as more heavily restrictive than hand holding. My idea of hand holding is when they tell you far too much what you need to do. I've seen missions described as having to enter a building exactly one way. Alternate entrances in buildings with enemies, say roof access for instance, leaves the player wondering why there's no interaction or mission failed. That isn't hand holding, that's pointless restrictions that leave the player if anything confused and angry vs pampered.

The main thing most seem to agree on is the only place they give you true freedom of how to accomplish things is in free roam when you're hunting, good deed doing, robbing and such. The missions are all described as ultra linear where you have to do them one way only.

 

[aafusc2988]

Playing a lot of Overwatch (Lunar New Year Event), Rainbow Six Siege (got into it now that my PC can beast this game - have owned the Starter Edition for 2 years now I am waiting for a Complete Edition sale on Steam), some Black Ops 4 since it came free with my i5-9600K, and playing the Anthem VIP Demo over the weekend since that game came free with my RTX 2070. Seems pretty fun.

 

[jankerson]

Playing Shadow Of the Tomb Raider quite a bit, finished the game 100%. Playing the DLC challenge tombs etc.

Also Far Cry 5, also completed the game 100%, playing the DLC's and Arcade.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Playing Shadow Of the Tomb Raider quite a bit, finished the game 100%. Playing the DLC challenge tombs etc.

Also Far Cry 5, also completed the game 100%, playing the DLC's and Arcade.

Yeah I couldn't wait until I finished my GRW Extreme No HUD/Upgrades video guide to play SotTR, so it didn't take me very long to finish it by the time I completed the guide, as I was dabbling into it frequently along the way.

I guess I have mixed emotions about it. I played it on Hard the first play through with none of the puzzle tips or highlighted platforming ledges, so it was definitely challenging in places. I also like that it had a lot more tombs and especially some pretty challenging ones compared to the last two games.

Still though, the lack of polish (frequent hitching) was very annoying, and it also has a lot of places where bits of audio aren't there. The last one had a few places where backtracking to get all the collectibles and such was frustrating, but this one is over the top ridiculous that way.

One of the most annoying things though is you get to what appear to be challenging open combat sequences, yet all it's about is shooting X number of barrels, then the heli is scripted to fly away and the whole battle suddenly ends. The whole thing in both design and polish just seems rushed and unfinished.

I found Far Cry 5 horrible and have yet to finish my 2nd play through.

I'm now playing through AC Origins on Nightmare and have nearly gotten to the end game sequence of missions. Just need to take on the last of the elephants and do the gladiator battles. I actually encountered the hardest one first this play through (Jumbe), and managed to beat him on just level 34 in under 5:30. He was far enough above my level to be designated the dreaded skull icon vs a level number.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64GEou2zgk4"][/video]

I'm not sure I'll even bother with the chariot races this time, they're a bit repetitive. I'm glad I saved most of the papyrus puzzles until leveling up though, because I just got level 45 Legendary Composite, Ash, and Smoke and Mirrors bows. Odd that you rarely see Legendary regular swords though.

I also got AC Odyssey recently, despite being upset it has no shields. Haven't started playing it yet though.

 

[jankerson]

Playing Shadow Of the Tomb Raider quite a bit, finished the game 100%. Playing the DLC challenge tombs etc.

Also Far Cry 5, also completed the game 100%, playing the DLC's and Arcade.

Yeah I couldn't wait until I finished my GRW Extreme No HUD/Upgrades video guide to play SotTR, so it didn't take me very long to finish it by the time I completed the guide, as I was dabbling into it frequently along the way.

I guess I have mixed emotions about it. I played it on Hard the first play through with none of the puzzle tips or highlighted platforming ledges, so it was definitely challenging in places. I also like that it had a lot more tombs and especially some pretty challenging ones compared to the last two games.

Still though, the lack of polish (frequent hitching) was very annoying, and it also has a lot of places where bits of audio aren't there. The last one had a few places where backtracking to get all the collectibles and such was frustrating, but this one is over the top ridiculous that way.

One of the most annoying things though is you get to what appear to be challenging open combat sequences, yet all it's about is shooting X number of barrels, then the heli is scripted to fly away and the whole battle suddenly ends. The whole thing in both design and polish just seems rushed and unfinished.

I found Far Cry 5 horrible and have yet to finish my 2nd play through.

I'm now playing through AC Origins on Nightmare and have nearly gotten to the end game sequence of missions. Just need to take on the last of the elephants and do the gladiator battles. I actually encountered the hardest one first this play through (Jumbe), and managed to beat him on just level 34 in under 5:30. He was far enough above my level to be designated the dreaded skull icon vs a level number.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64GEou2zgk4"][/video]

I'm not sure I'll even bother with the chariot races this time, they're a bit repetitive. I'm glad I saved most of the papyrus puzzles until leveling up though, because I just got level 45 Legendary Composite, Ash, and Smoke and Mirrors bows. Odd that you rarely see Legendary regular swords though.

I also got AC Odyssey recently, despite being upset it has no shields. Haven't started playing it yet though.

In Far Cry 5 I reset the outposts a few times then did the new game plus. Then started playin the DLC's once they came out. Now I am just playing the Arcade waiting on Far Cry New Dawn to be released this month.

I didn't have any issues with SOTTR like you did so I dunno.

If you have the season pass you can play the NEW Challenge Tombs as they come out, and do the time and score trials on them.

Here is the video I shot of the Pillar Challenge Tomb Score Attack, Gold Reward score.

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pl-5EZXIX0&t=1s"][/video]

 

[spdragoo]

HBS: Battletech. Looking forward to MW5 next year, but for now loving HareBrained's take.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I didn't have any issues with SOTTR like you did so I dunno.

It's been confirmed by many players that it hitches in certain spots, and has audio cut outs, so it's probably when assets load at key points in the game and the engine they're using is likely too outdated for the content it has. Even the last game usually hitched significantly in Geothermal Valley, even in the in game bench when it got to that part.

I really think it's a case of some players noticing it more than others, because my spec (8700k, 1080 SC, 16GB 3200 RAM) is more than adequate to run on max settings. In fact some of the issues have even been verified by 3rd party guides on the game. https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Tomb_Raider#Audio_issues


That said, I have it installed on a 500GB 970 EVO NVMe drive, and some games don't play well with those. I also think it might be a bit more optimized and designed for the RTX architecture, and I played it on older 399.24 drivers because GRW was having issues with the first RTX drivers.

Thus I won't know for sure how it plays until I play it on the latest drivers and maybe try it on one of my WD Black HDDs, but ever since Underworld, TR has had it's performance issues, whereas Anniversary performed flawlessly. Angel of Darkness was a complete mess though. I still think Anniversary is best in the franchise.

[EDITED]
The drivers I mentioned may either be a moot point, unless the newest ones have significantly improved where SotTR is concerned. I'd forgotten I actually checked which driver version was the first one made for the game before installing it, and it indeed was 399.24. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-game-ready-driver/

 

[jankerson]

I didn't have any issues with SOTTR like you did so I dunno.

It's been confirmed by many players that it hitches in certain spots, and has audio cut outs, so it's probably when assets load at key points in the game and the engine they're using is likely too outdated for the content it has. Even the last game usually hitched significantly in Geothermal Valley, even in the in game bench when it got to that part.

I really think it's a case of some players noticing it more than others, because my spec (8700k, 1080 SC, 16GB 3200 RAM) is more than adequate to run on max settings. In fact some of the issues have even been verified by 3rd party guides on the game. https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Shadow_of_the_Tomb_Raider#Audio_issues


That said, I have it installed on a 500GB 970 EVO NVMe drive, and some games don't play well with those. I also think it might be a bit more optimized and designed for the RTX architecture, and I played it on older 399.24 drivers because GRW was having issues with the first RTX drivers.

Thus I won't know for sure how it plays until I play it on the latest drivers and maybe try it on one of my WD Black HDDs, but ever since Underworld, TR has had it's performance issues, whereas Anniversary performed flawlessly. Angel of Darkness was a complete mess though. I still think Anniversary is best in the franchise.

[EDITED]
The drivers I mentioned may either be a moot point, unless the newest ones have significantly improved where SotTR is concerned. I'd forgotten I actually checked which driver version was the first one made for the game before installing it, and it indeed was 399.24. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/shadow-of-the-tomb-raider-game-ready-driver/

I played and finished it on a i7 8086K and GTX 1080Ti all at 1440P.

And I didn't notice any issues.

The only thing that changed from then and now was I swapped out my CPU to a 9900K.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I know a handful of people have made such claims, but I remain skeptical. It doesn't make sense at all they would for some odd reason optimize the game better for a mere Ti version of the same GPU. A 1080 and 8700k will produce plenty enough frame rate at 1080p to avoid any performance related hitching.

As I said, the hitching occurs regularly at specific intervals, just as it did with Bioshock Infinite. That kind of hitching is always related to assets not loading smoothly at checkpoints and/or map seams, and it's not the kind of problem higher spec will fix, including using a 3400Mb/s NVMe drive to play the game on.

You can tell by the end credits of the game they were saying goodbye and thank you, and alluding to the fact that SotTR is the final installment of the reboot trilogy, and it's unlikely there will be another TR for some time, if at all. It's the kind of scenario where they just said, what the hell, lets give this tired old engine one more game, even if it chokes it to death.

Whether you're aware of it or not, that is sadly the state of mind even top AAA titles are developed with these days. It's become more about high profit margins than sincerely serving their loyal fanbase. I've seen reverse cases where people insist they have stutter, yet show videos that indicate no such thing. I can only trust what I know, I tend to take claims with a grain of salt.

 

[jankerson]

I know a handful of people have made such claims, but I remain skeptical. It doesn't make sense at all they would for some odd reason optimize the game better for a mere Ti version of the same GPU. A 1080 and 8700k will produce plenty enough frame rate at 1080p to avoid any performance related hitching.

As I said, the hitching occurs regularly at specific intervals, just as it did with Bioshock Infinite. That kind of hitching is always related to assets not loading smoothly at checkpoints and/or map seams, and it's not the kind of problem higher spec will fix, including using a 3400Mb/s NVMe drive to play the game on.

You can tell by the end credits of the game they were saying goodbye and thank you, and alluding to the fact that SotTR is the final installment of the reboot trilogy, and it's unlikely there will be another TR for some time, if at all. It's the kind of scenario where they just said, what the hell, lets give this tired old engine one more game, even if it chokes it to death.

Whether you're aware of it or not, that is sadly the state of mind even top AAA titles are developed with these days. It's become more about high profit margins than sincerely serving their loyal fanbase. I've seen reverse cases where people insist they have stutter, yet show videos that indicate no such thing. I can only trust what I know, I tend to take claims with a grain of salt.

All I can say is that I didn't notice anything odd going on.

People these days complain about everything and anything so I take any complaining with a grain of salt or ignore it completely.

But then I normally don't have issues with my systems either.

There was some bugs in FC5 that got worked out with their updates, mainly in the Arcade.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well all I can tell you is I will investigate it further with the new 417.71 driver I'm on now. I'll report back my findings. Which one are you using btw? Sometimes drivers can make quite a bit of difference.

Meanwhile maybe you could upload a short video clip. One spot that seems to hitch for most is early on where Lara slides down a rocky slope into an area where there's one of your first confrontations with several bad guys. I think it's also where just beyond there they have the first grass wall to hide in.