Discussion What's your most favorite GAMING GENRE ? **General game Discussion thread**

[Metal Messiah.]

Hello everyone !

As the title says, which is your most favorite Gaming GENRE ? And, what all games do you actually play, be it any genre, or a mixture of 2 genres ?

Some examples of genres: Action game, Action role-playing game, SIMs like City-building or a Flight game, First-person shooter, Tactical role-playing game, Third-person shooter, Tactical shooter, "Platform game", Racing video game, Real-time strategy, Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter game, 2D Fighting games, Stealth game, Sim racing, and Role-playing video game among others.

Mine is mostly First-person Shooters, with some third-person action Games, like Gears of War 4, Mass Effect 3, DEAD SPACE, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, JUST CAUSE. Though, FPS has always remained my topmost priority.

I'm not an actual gamer though, very casual. But I've been playing FPS games since the good old days of DOOM, QUAKE, HEXEN, HERETIC, DUKE Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein, Soldier Of fortune, PAINKILLER, HALF LIFE, F.E.A.R, Call Of Duty series, Battlefield series and few others.

These are my list of games owned by me, all LEGIT, not pirated. This list is not exhaustive though. Some are lesser-known titles though.

ALIEN RAGE. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Rage

Aliens versus Predator 2.

Alpha Prime (excellent FPS, by an indie DEV studio). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Prime

Area 51. I love this shooter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51_(2005_video_game)

Battlefield 3, 4, 5, Hardline, BF: BAD company 2.

BIOSHOCK 1 and 2.

Bordelands 1 and 2.

BREED. A good old-school FPS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breed_(video_game)

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, earned in Blood, and Hell's Highway !

BULLETSTORM.

CALL of DUTY series (starting from the fist game till BLACK OPS).

CALL OF JUAREZ.

CHASER ! This is my most favorite FPS of all time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaser_(video_game)

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Clive Barker's Jericho ! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Barker's_Jericho

Contract J.A.C.K. Hell Yes, lol !

CRYSIS 1, 2 and 3.

DOOM, DOOM 2 and 3, BFG edition and DOOM (2016).

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition.

DYING LIGHT.

F.E.A.R. series.

FAR CRY series !

HALF LIFE series.

Halo: Combat Evolved.

Hard Reset. This game is TOO tough for me, I had to use Cheats/Trainers to beat it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Reset

HERETIC, HEXEN.

MEDAL OF HONOR series.

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way. I like Cate Archer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nne_Lives_Forever_2:_A_Spy_in_H.A.R.M.'s_Way

PAINKILLER series.

PREY (only the first title which came out in 2006).

Project Snowblind ! This is my MOST favorite FPS. You guys must try playing this shooter.

Project: Snowblind on Steam

Experience the dramatic intensity of the frontlines of a war through the eyes of the first of a new breed of super soldiers in this gritty and epic first-person action game. An augmented super-soldier must stop a renegade regime from eradicating the civilized world. Hong Kong, 2065. 2nd Lt.

store.steampowered.com

QUAKE 1, 2, 4.

RAGE 1 and 2.

RED FACTION 2.

Section 8: Prejudice. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_8:_Prejudice

SERIOUS SAM series, All the games released till now. And, yes I'm SERIOUS !

Shadow Warrior 1 and 2.

SiN Episodes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SiN_Episodes

Soldier of Fortune series.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear SKY.

SWAT 4.

Titanfall 2.

TIMESHIFT ! I love this game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TimeShift

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.

TRIBES Vengeance. This game is really good. Strong STORY campaign. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribes:_Vengeance

Unreal II: The Awakening.

Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Old Blood.


Thanks for reading, NICK.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

If you played on PC, with mouse and keyboard, which if I recall correctly, is the only way you play, the lack of comfort playing it may have more to do with the extremely poor mouse support than the third person view. It wasn't until Dead Space 2 that they refined mouse control to work properly. In the first game it was so bad even with mouse sensitivity set to max, it was a chore just to turn 90 degrees and run when monsters spawned in.

Yeah, I totally agree on the MOUSE support also being the main culprit here. But the game's player view was still a bit uncomfortable for me in the beginning. The sensitivity was really bad.

DS1 and DS3 had better support for mouse. By the way, YouTube’s ‘YBR Gaming’ has shared a video, showing an hour of new gameplay footage from Dead Space Remake. This video shows off Chapter 3, so it may contain some spoilers. Obviously for those who have not played the original game.

I think the game is still in testing and development stage, since the player's animation is not perfect, and the Plasma cutter feels a bit weak.

View: https://youtu.be/6Wqc18o-g44

 

[Metal Messiah.]

It looks like 'A Plague Tale: Requiem' PC game is finally out ! I won't buy this now. Will wait for some time, and get some feedback and opinions from games and gaming media journalists.

The game seems to be pretty demanding and heavy on the GPU/CPU though.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1182900/A_Plague_Tale_Requiem/

A Plague Tale: Requiem PC Performance Analysis

Powered by Asobo's in-house engine, it's time now to benchmark A Plague Tale: Requiem and see how it performs on the PC platform.

www.dsogaming.com

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah, I totally agree on the MOUSE support also being the main culprit here. But the game's player view was still a bit uncomfortable for me in the beginning. The sensitivity was really bad.

DS1 and DS3 had better support for mouse. By the way, YouTube’s ‘YBR Gaming’ has shared a video, showing an hour of new gameplay footage from Dead Space Remake. This video shows off Chapter 3, so it may contain some spoilers. Obviously for those who have not played the original game.

I think the game is still in testing and development stage, since the player's animation is not perfect, and the Plasma cutter feels a bit weak.

View: https://youtu.be/6Wqc18o-g44

You're telling me 3rd person view is hard to get used to, and I get that, but in a game like this, first person view with it's much narrower peripheral view has it's problems too gameplay wise.

I'm still worried they are rushing this game given the use of the code heavy Frostbite engine. I'm a bit torn here between having more faith in EA since Titanfall 2 and Jedi Fallen Order, both of which were great games, but I get the feeling there will be lingering bugs and performance issues with this game.

It looks incredible graphically, but as we know that's not the be all end all of quality game production by a long shot. I SO want this game to be good though, because I've been craving a good Dead Space release for some time, even if a remake.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

I'm still worried they are rushing this game given the use of the code heavy Frostbite engine. I'm a bit torn here between having more faith in EA since Titanfall 2 and Jedi Fallen Order, both of which were great games, but I get the feeling there will be lingering bugs and performance issues with this game.

It looks incredible graphically, but as we know that's not the be all end all of quality game production by a long shot.

Couldn't agree more on that. Like I have said before, I too have lost faith in the gaming industry and developers/publishers in particular. They can hype all they want, by showcasing trailers, teasers or screenshots, but the end result and the final product is going to be different.

CyberPunk 2077 is a perfect example of this. I wouldn't be surprised if this remake is ridden with bugs, and gameplay glitches on the PC, given how other PC remakes have been in the past 2-3 years or so. Can't trust EA these days now to deliver a very polished game either.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

And, here we go again ! History repeats itself.

Gotham Knights PC game which is about to release tomorrow, is a stuttering 'unoptimized' mess on the PC. That's why AAA gaming industry, and the current game developers cannot be trusted. A time will come when I will be forced to quit playing games on my PC, assuming my old backlog of games has exhausted (but I PRAY it doesn't) !

Let’s also not forget that the game is locked at 30fps on current-gen consoles.

Gotham Knights resurrects Arkham Knight’s massive stuttering problems:

Gotham Knights repeats Arkham Knight's performance issues | Digital Trends

Early performance review by DSOG:

Gotham Knights has major performance/optimization issues on PC (dsogaming.com)

IGN gave 5/10 rating.

"Gotham Knights is a consistently disappointing return to Batman’s troubled city and a distinct step backwards from the past decade-plus of Batman games.

Even if running around Gotham in two-player co-op can be decent fun and each of the four playable crime fighters are well executed in their dialogue and distinctive moves, too many of the fundamentals fall short for me to recommend it. From the inconsistent frame rates, to the weak story, to one-note combat that rarely feels good, there was virtually always something going wrong to make sure I wasn’t experiencing the triumphant return with my friends at my side I had envisioned."

Gotham Knights Review - IGN

Gotham Knights review | PC Gamer

Gotham Knights review – a promising spin-off that wilts in Batman’s shadow | Games | The Guardian

 

[Frag Maniac]

And, here we go again ! History repeats itself.

Gotham Knights PC game which is about to release tomorrow, is a stuttering 'unoptimized' mess on the PC. That's why AAA gaming industry, and the current game developers cannot be trusted. A time will come when I will be forced to quit playing games on my PC, assuming my old backlog of games has exhausted (but I PRAY it doesn't) !

Let’s also not forget that the game is locked at 30fps on current-gen consoles.

Gotham Knights resurrects Arkham Knight’s massive stuttering problems:

Gotham Knights repeats Arkham Knight's performance issues | Digital Trends

Early performance review by DSOG:

Gotham Knights has major performance/optimization issues on PC (dsogaming.com)

IGN gave 5/10 rating.

"Gotham Knights is a consistently disappointing return to Batman’s troubled city and a distinct step backwards from the past decade-plus of Batman games.

Even if running around Gotham in two-player co-op can be decent fun and each of the four playable crime fighters are well executed in their dialogue and distinctive moves, too many of the fundamentals fall short for me to recommend it. From the inconsistent frame rates, to the weak story, to one-note combat that rarely feels good, there was virtually always something going wrong to make sure I wasn’t experiencing the triumphant return with my friends at my side I had envisioned."

Gotham Knights Review - IGN

Gotham Knights review | PC Gamer

Gotham Knights review – a promising spin-off that wilts in Batman’s shadow | Games | The Guardian

That's disappointing, as it's one of the games I was interested in. Not hugely interested as I prefer playing as Batman, but some of the gameplay shown looked pretty good. Hopefully it can get patched well, but optimization fixes can often take a LONG time, especially if they are deeply rooted in code.

I just got A Plague Tale Requiem. It's a pretty good game with decent graphics and much more strategy to the gameplay than the first one. There are places where you are limited resource wise and have to choose wisely your route and craft as you find things while maintaining stealth.

The disappointing thing though is it's not at all well optimized, at least for older GPUs like my GTX 1080. I have to think there's something really screwy with the performance issues though, as even when I put it on Auto, which sets graphics settings for you and lowers them considerably, there's no big difference in performance. It only plays slightly smoother with the same FPS, which generally fluctuates between 42 to 60 FPS for me.

I feel now like I was too anxious to buy this game, maybe I should have waited to see if it would get patched.

BTW, I'm not the only one experiencing strange performance issues with this game.

No optimisation :: A Plague Tale: Requiem General Discussions

I like the game. However, it is system demanding. With my RX580 - 25-35 FPS (High-Medium settings). I know its my problem - I can't afford myself purchasing thousands-dollars PC. Today Dying Light 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 give me up to 60 FPS. But, yes, after more than year of patches. Hope...

steamcommunity.com

The problem is, there are a handful of players with high end Nvidia 3000 series GPUs claiming it runs fine, while others with similar spec are saying otherwise. What I noticed though is some are playing it on Game Pass, which is basically the Series X version on PC, which would likely have lower graphics quality.

I concur with those saying other hardware demanding games like RDR2 and Cyperpunk 2077 actually perform better though. Like I said, I feel it desperately needs a performance patch.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

The disappointing thing though is it's not at al well optimized, and least for older GPUs like my GTX 1080. I have to think there's something really screwy with the performance issues though, as even when I put it on Auto, which sets graphics settings for you and lowers them considerably, there's no big difference in performance. It only plays slightly smoother with the same FPS, which generally fluctuates between 42 to 60 FPS for me.

I feel now like I was too anxious to buy this game, maybe I should have waited to see if it would get patched.

Yeah I know the game is extremely demanding on the PC hardware, apart from being poorly optimized for older gen platforms. DSOG gaming site also posted an early performance review before the game was released.

"All in all, A Plague Tale: Requiem is one of the most demanding PC games we’ve seen to date. Although it does not require a high-end CPU, it does require a powerful GPU. RTX owners can thankfully improve performance by using DLSS 2 Quality (and we highly recommend it, even at 1440p). Unfortunately for AMD and Intel owners, though, the game does not support FSR 2.0 or XeSS."

A Plague Tale: Requiem PC Performance Analysis

Powered by Asobo's in-house engine, it's time now to benchmark A Plague Tale: Requiem and see how it performs on the PC platform.

www.dsogaming.com

But I hope the DEVs at least release a performance patch soon. That's why I don 't buy games at the time of their initial release. According to the PC specs, the game requires a GeForce GTX 970/Radeon RX 590 GPU as the minimum. So it should work somehow on older gen hardware as well.

But I'm not sure if my RX 480 can even handle this game even at 1080p. And, your GTX 1080 card is heaps faster than my AMD GPU. So I'm in a dilemma right now, whether to buy this game or not.

I think the game is poorly optimized. Because if other demanding games work fine on the same PC, then this game needs a performance/optimization patch soon.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well I played quite a bit more, this time with the Nvidia GeForce Experience overlay off. It seems to play smoother with it off, but I won't know for sure until I play through it again with it off from the start whether the micro stutter I got early on was just that part of the game.

I've also hit places now that are far lower in frame rate, as low as 30 FPS. It also still does this weird thing where for a moment it feels really laggy if you so much as toss a pot of tar, then equip an Ignifer (flame) pot to toss at it. It's as if the game is preparing for big fire effects very awkwardly.

It definitely needs a good performance patch, and I hope it gets one before I get tired of playing it.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

I've also hit places now that are far lower in frame rate, as low as 30 FPS.

30 fps is totally unacceptable for a big AAA game. I also heard that lowering the in-game video/graphic settings has little impact on the performance. But in any case, the DEVs have to improve the performance and stability of A Plague Tale: Requiem .

I also presume you game on 1080p on your Panasonic LCD TV ?

 

[Frag Maniac]

30 fps is totally unacceptable for a big AAA game. I also heard that lowering the in-game video/graphic settings has little impact on the performance. But in any case, the DEVs have to improve the performance and stability of A Plague Tale: Requiem .

I also presume you game on 1080p on your Panasonic LCD TV ?

Yeah, I play pretty much any game that is a resource hog at 1080p.

I found a workaround, if you can call it one. I tried setting the graphics preset to everything at Med, then lowered the settings most known for performance impact according to guides I've seen to Low (Draw Distance, Shadow Maps, Volumetric Lighting, and Screen Space Reflections).

This is MUCH lower than the Auto settings puts it at for my spec, but it's the only way I can play without having an amount of lag that affects gameplay, especially the tougher combat sections. The surprising thing is, it doesn't look nearly as bad at these settings as I thought it would,

I can now move and react a lot quicker in battle, but I still feel this is unacceptable and a performance patch is sorely needed. Although even at these extremely lowered settings it still looks better than the first game, I know full well there are games that have just as good graphics if not better that allow for far better settings and FPS.

What I'm averaging FPS wise now is mostly between 55-60, but there are times it dips to 40, although without that extreme feeling of lag. I'll report back how the sections that allow you to toss pots of tar then pots of Igniter react, as those were the most laggy before. I'm on a 2nd New Game + playthrough that allows you to retain your gear upgrades, but you stil have to wait for certain parts of the game to get certain gear.

They call this mode "Ultimate" difficulty, but they don't explain whether that means it's supposed to be harder, or easier enemy wise. There's been one section so far that requires a lot of sneaking that seemed to be harder to get through than on Med difficulty due to the persistence of the guards you're trying to evade, but I'm not sure.

[EDITED]
Just found a site that explains New Game + and it's Ultimate difficulty mode.

"With a new difficulty level, players will find a higher level of challenges with enemies that are smarter, and deal more damage. They can detect the players a lot more easily, and it only takes about two hits from them to die. Outside of that, we are unsure if the ultimate difficulty does anything else."

Source: https://mp1st.com/guides/a-plague-tale-requiem-new-game-plus-explained

There are other sites saying Hard is the hardest mode though, as it turns off all onscreen indicators. I HAVE toggled off all onscreen help though, which is the way I played on Med, meaning you have to explore where to go, as there are no objective markers. It also takes WAY longer to get any dialog hints, if you get them at all.

I guess the reason I'm doing OK on Ultimate with no such indicators is because I know now where to go and what to do, but there HAVE been places where it seemed tougher than the first play through, and I've not nearly been to any of the hardest battles yet, so.

It's really a shame about the performance issues, because everything else about the game is top notch and above my expectations.

Spoiler

It's even got a bit of a Harry Potter vibe between the way Lucas dresses and the words he describes his concoctions with. I was worried that the way it ended we wouldn't get a 3rd game, but they leave a little hint in the credits that seems to indicate it will go on.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

It's really a shame about the performance issues, because everything else about the game is top notch and above my expectations.

Exactly my thoughts. The story/plot is really good. Much better than 'Innocence' as well. I really want to play this game, but there are many obstacles preventing me. Also, I have a weak PC, so I need to take this into account as well.

By any chance, will you also play/buy UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection ? The game actually requires an insane 126 GB storage space to install and download. Imagine downloading 100+GB data on a slow internet speed/ISP.

UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection on Steam (steampowered.com)

 

[Frag Maniac]

Exactly my thoughts. The story/plot is really good. Much better than 'Innocence' as well. I really want to play this game, but there are many obstacles preventing me. Also, I have a weak PC, so I need to take this into account as well.

By any chance, will you also play/buy UNCHARTED: Legacy of Thieves Collection ? The game actually requires an insane 126 GB storage space to install and download. Imagine downloading 100+GB data on a slow internet speed/ISP.

UNCHARTED™: Legacy of Thieves Collection on Steam (steampowered.com)

Yes, I just got Uncharted LoTC, and should be checking it out in a day or 2.

BTW, there's something else about APT Requiem that may be upsetting to you story wise. It's not for certain, but many are upset about it. I won't give you details as it would be a major spoiler.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I’m enjoying Kerbal Space Program. Scott manly always uses it to discuss things like orbital mechanics and other space related things. Early access to the next version is in February 2023

 

[Metal Messiah.]

BTW, there's something else about APT Requiem that may be upsetting to you story wise. It's not for certain, but many are upset about it. I won't give you details as it would be a major spoiler.

Okay, thanks for the heads-up. Yes, please don't tell me what it is, else the story/plot will get spoiled. But I know this game is still worth playing.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

I’m enjoying Kerbal Space Program

Is that a space SIM game ? I think I read somewhere about this title on a forum. The feedback this game has got till now is extremely positive as told by gamers. But I don't play simulation games, so I cannot comment how good this space sim might be.

When it comes to gaming, I'm only into FPS, TPS and RPG gaming genre. NEVER tried playing any other genre though, like sports/sim/RTS, and not to mention side scrolling titles, and other 2D platformers.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Is that a space SIM game ? I think I read somewhere about this title on a forum. The feedback this game has got till now is extremely positive as told by gamers. But I don't play simulation games, so I cannot comment how good this space sim might be.

When it comes to gaming, I'm only into FPS, TPS and RPG gaming genre. NEVER tried playing any other genre though, like sports/sim/RTS, and not to mention side scrolling titles, and other 2D platformers.

Yeah. It’s a space simulator game and it’s really fun and there’s a lot of physics to explore if you’d like physics.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Okay, thanks for the heads-up. Yes, please don't tell me what it is, else the story/plot will get spoiled. But I know this game is still worth playing.

Yes, for me, it's still very much worth playing, even though I was upset about that detail myself. I presented some scenarios to those that were upset about it, to try to suggest other possible meanings the devs may have had by it, but I remain concerned myself.

BTW, I played a fair bit of Uncharted 4 last night from the Legacy of Thieves Collection. It's a great game, and the graphics are decent (Unreal 4 I think). It's really annoying how long the game takes to compile shaders when you first launch it though, especially if you put it on a HDD like I did (didn't have room on my 500 GB NVMe). What's worse is when I came back to the game after rewatch8ing parts of a Blu-ray movie I missed the night before due to falling asleep, it said there was an error and it could not finish compiling shaders.

I looked at the shader cache folder, which is named C, and there's nothing in it. The result is the beginnings of cutscenes often hitch, sometimes in a subtle way, but sometimes badly. I've also seen really weird things happen in cutscenes though, like NPCs appearing out of nowhere abruptly, or even doing that weird fast skate to where they were supposed to spawn.

There's also a message before playing the game that says Sony collects data for certain content and you can only select full or limited. I was getting crashing sometimes, which I didn't know was caused by the shaders not being compiled, or the collection of data not going smoothly (I always have a VPN running).

It got to the point where every time I tried to launch the game at the spot I had progressed to, it kept crashing every time instead of letting me get into the game. So I disabled Windows Defender and my VPN, and then it not only launched, but didn't crash anymore.

Iron Galaxy ported this game to PC for Sony, and normally I'd blame them for problems like this, but I also am not happy about Sony forcing data collection on us. That said, the hitching doesn't happen in game while no cutscenes are playing, and I get a solid 60 FPS at max settings, which is what it defaults to on my PC. I know others are upset about the tedious shader compiling and crashing though.

I think when I start The Lost Legacy, this time I'll disable Windows Defender, and not interrupt the shader compiling, to see if it succeeds in compiling them. I had minimized the game before that while surfing forums though and it didn't stop the compiling progress. Also, when I watch Blu-rays. it's just a different input I access, as I have a dedicated home theater BD player, so that shouldn't have been the problem.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

BTW, I played a fair bit of Uncharted 4 last night from the Legacy of Thieves Collection. It's a great game, and the graphics are decent (Unreal 4 I think). It's really annoying how long the game takes to compile shaders when you first launch it though, especially if you put it on a HDD like I did (didn't have room on my 500 GB NVMe). What's worse is when I came back to the game after rewatch8ing parts of a Blu-ray movie I missed the night before due to falling asleep, it said there was an error and it could not finish compiling shaders.

I looked at the shader cache folder, which is named C, and there's nothing in i

Have you tried setting the max Shader cache value to 'unlimited' in Nvidia control panel/NVCP ? Shader cache size: Unlimited. Not sure whether doing this will really help though. It sucks it there are shader compilation issues, and even errors while compiling.

I guess the game uses DX12 API. And since DX12 defines and builds it's own shader cache, changing the cache option under NVCP won't do any good, IMO. Shader cache only affects DX11 games.

Usually the default location is here: C:\Users\<windows username>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Alright...

I have been busy playing old-school classic FPS games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein , Duke Nukem 3D, DOOM 3, QUAKE 4, F.E.A.R collection, PREY 2006 game, Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2, Medal of Honor Pacific Assault and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.

I paly them randomly regardless of whether I have finished any of those titles or not. Once I complete all of the above, I have more FPS titles on my list, like UNREAL 2: The Awakening, FAR CRY 1 and 2, CHASER, PARIAH, STALKER SoC, Call of Duty 1and 2, COD: MW2, and many more... 🙂😉

 

[Frag Maniac]

Have you tried setting the max Shader cache value to 'unlimited' in Nvidia control panel/NVCP ? Shader cache size: Unlimited. Not sure whether doing this will really help though. It sucks it there are shader compilation issues, and even errors while compiling.

I guess the game uses DX12 API. And since DX12 defines and builds it's own shader cache, changing the cache option under NVCP won't do any good, IMO. Shader cache only affects DX11 games.

Usually the default location is here: C:\Users\<windows username>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache.

Yeah I tried setting Shader Cache in NCP to Unlimited, and I also waited for the shaders to compile fully before starting the next session. Neither stopped the stuttering and crashing, though it stopped crashing non stop, so setting Shader Cache to Unlimited may have helped some.

What's helped the most since then is moving the game from my 134 Mb/s HDD to my 2200 Mb/s NVMe drive. I still get a crash every now and then. but no stutter issues. I finished Uncharted 4, and am now playing The Lost Legacy. Uncharted 4 was great, and TLL is pretty good too so far.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

I finished Uncharted 4, and am now playing The Lost Legacy. Uncharted 4 was great, and TLL is pretty good too so far.

WOW, you are pretty fast when it comes to playing games. I play on a slow and steady pace though.

I'm actually thinking of grabbing Uncharted 4/TLL instead of "Requiem". This game feels better for my taste, and at least it's not that graphic demanding on the GPU like "Requiem".

When is the next STEAM sale btw ? I just hope they give some discount on some of the new AAA games as well. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is also on my list. Both Uncharted 4 and COD:MW2 require at least 125GB of hard drive space, so it's going to be a huge download of the game files.

And not to mention the updates/patches released for any of these games. Some of the recent COD game patches/updates have been an insane 60-80 GB in size !!

 

[Frag Maniac]

WOW, you are pretty fast when it comes to playing games. I play on a slow and steady pace though.

I'm actually thinking of grabbing Uncharted 4/TLL instead of "Requiem". This game feels better for my taste, and at least it's not that graphic demanding on the GPU like "Requiem".

When is the next STEAM sale btw ? I just hope they give some discount on some of the new AAA games as well. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is also on my list. Both Uncharted 4 and COD:MW2 require at least 125GB of hard drive space, so it's going to be a huge download of the game files.

And not to mention the updates/patches released for any of these games. Some of the recent COD game patches/updates have been an insane 60-80 GB in size !!

Warning, you need to have a very fast drive to play Uncharted Legacy of Thieves. Even with it installed on my NVMe drive, which is running at 2200 Mb/s, I still get a few stutters going into and coming out of cutscenes. It's not too bad though if I let the cutscenes play, because they act as load screen as well. So if you skip them, it causes the game to pause and do a loading buffer, sometimes even in the middle of action segments. There's a ton of long cutscenes in these games, but they're well made visually. I didn't mind watching them the first play throughs of each game, but I'm getting impatient now.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

Warning, you need to have a very fast drive to play Uncharted Legacy of Thieves. Even with it installed on my NVMe drive, which is running at 2200 Mb/s, I still get a few stutters going into and coming out of cutscenes. It's not too bad though if I let the cutscenes play, because they act as load screen as well. So if you skip them, it causes the game to pause and do a loading buffer, sometimes even in the middle of action segments. There's a ton of long cutscenes in these games, but they're well made visually. I didn't mind watching them the first play throughs of each game, but I'm getting impatient now.

Damn ! I don't even have an NVME drive, just SATA SSD, and that too it lacks enough space for downloading/storing a monstrous 125+GB of game data. I cannot opt for an NVME drive on my old rig, so I better be prepared to get more in-game stutters, lol.

AAA gaming these days has become a sort of a luxury hobby. Apart from GBs of data download, some titles these days also suffer from optimization issues. Thanks for the heads-up, nonetheless.

 

[Metal Messiah.]

This isn't related to the PC platform, but it's worth sharing this news/discovery under this gaming thread. This is ridiculous though. COD games are the biggest offenders.

So you live in Randomville in the middle of nowhere, with a slow ADSL that's barely a few Mbps fast, and thought you could enjoy Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II on PlayStation 5 with its disc version?

Think again. It turns out that the disc version of this game doesn't actually have the game on the disc. That's right, those unlucky enough to buy the disc version found that it only contained 72 MB of data, LOL, which when autorun, gets the console to fetch the up to 151 GB of the game's payload over the Internet.

The disc only acts like a hardware DRM, in the same way as certain expensive software ship with USB flash drives that need to be plugged in for you to use the software.

After enduring the massive download, you're required to keep the disc inserted to play the game. It is possible to ship the entire game in two 50 GB Blu-ray discs with the best available compression tech.

The problem with CoD off-late has been that the developers either forgot how to distribute game patches, or are using the sheer file-size of patches as an anti-piracy measure; with most of them spanning several dozen gigabytes, and major updates even fetching the entire game's triple-figure GB payload all over again. This 72 MB disc-based distribution is below the belt.

News source: Modern Warfare 2 disc doesn't include the actual game, only has 72MB of files | TweakTown

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1585423945863512064

View: https://twitter.com/manfightdragon/status/1585423945863512064

 

[Frag Maniac]

An update on Uncharted Legacy of Thieves Collection. Apparently the stuttering problem was not caused by the game not loading textures well like I'd thought. Iron Galaxy just released a patch that fixes performance, and as they said, "Removed frame rate dependency for mouse sensitivity". This basically means they made the rare and rookie mistake some devs do when porting to PC of tying the mouse polling rate to the game's frame rate.

Before I even got the patch to update the game, I experimented with mouse polling rates after reading about this patch, and tried a polling rate of 250 ms, because one person on Steam Forums said that works to fix the problem (others and certain sites were saying 125 ms).

So I played a pretty long session of The Lost Legacy last night at 250 ms mouse polling, and it played very smoothly. I did however let the cutscenes play. That was with a driver roll back way to 517.48 though, as the newer drivers definitely cause stuttering in these games.

There weren't ANY of those aforementioned pesky screen freezes with a loading percentage message onscreen. I will report back after trying skipping cutscenes as to whether it plays well that way too.

So kudos to Iron Galaxy for at least quickly coming out with a fix after such an oversight in coding. That said, lots of players have said the patch itself caused a need to drop the mouse polling rate to as low as 125, because if they don't, the mouse sensitivity is too sluggish even when set to max. Many are waiting for a better patch because of it.

It's really a shame that two of the best titles in one of Sony's biggest franchises was given such a shoddy port. It's key to note as well that a few of the Iron Galaxy devs worked on some of the Uncharted titles that came to console, and as far as I know, they lead the Iron Galaxy team.

What I'm getting at is experience developing past titles for console is not at all the same as experience porting two of their most action heavy titles in the franchise to PC on Unreal Engine 4. In fact after seeing what a mess they've made of the port, and the patch, it looks as if they've never ported games to PC before.