[Video Games] What are you playing? (Omikron Edition)

Currently playing Diablo 4 on Series S (I have a PS5 also but do most of my gaming on Xbox). Runs perfectly fine and controls very nicely with a controller.

You can buy a 1 year Xbox Gold subscription (or longer) and pay for 1 month of Game Pass Ultimate, and your entire Gold subscription will be converted 1:1 to Game Pass Ultimate.

 

Someday when I sell my Andre the Giant action figure (still in the box) I'll be able to afford subscriptions. Until then I'll be buying discounted gift cards at Dollar Tree and drinking wine from Costco (Joel Gott Cabernet ftw).

 

You know how you can go to Walmart and buy a movie disc for 19.99, or subscribe to Netflix and have digital access to thousands of movies for 9.99 each month?

Now you have the same choice with games. Game Pass is the name of Xbox's gaming subscription service, and PS Plus is the name of the Playstation subscription service. You no longer need the physical game discs to play games, you can just download them digitally on the console.

Depending on which generation console you have, a new game will usually cost you either 59.99 for old gen (Ps4 / Xbox One) or 69.99 for the new gen (Ps5/Xbox Series S or X)

The subscription services cost around 10-15 per month. Xbox's Game Pass, for example, has the newest MLB game, Halo game, and Forza Racing game (amongst hundreds of other games) These are 3 games I play and would buy new, to buy all 3 of them individually would cost me $210 on my next-gen Xbox. If I were to instead buy a Game Pass subscription for a year, it would only cost $120. All 3 of those games are included in the subscription service, so I could get access to those same 3 games I want and still have access to literally hundreds of other games to play on top of those, for a hundred dollars cheaper over the course of a year.

It's a good value for most people, but not everyone. If you only play 1 new game a year, or prefer to buy games older, on sale, used, or physical discs, and perhaps don't care to get a new generation system, then buying a PS4 or Xbox One, and your 1 or 2 games that you want would be the way to go. If your fine going used you can get a pretty decent haul of old gen console + game packages on Ebay or at GameStop for cheap.

 

Yes. There are tons of options for mining, crafting, base building, ship customization, and you can have a fleet of ships. There are more than 1000 planets to which you can travel and explore. They said that if you are on a planet and see a moon, you could fly there and explore it.

I could see myself doing so much of the other stuff that it would take me one thousand hours of gameplay.

It is Bethesda so there will undoubtedly be bugs at release, but I feel like that's kind of to be expected. I just hope some of them are funny.

I'm basing all of this just off of their presentation. I'm beyond excited.

 

Bought myself a 7900XT. I probably shouldn't have since I didn't need to. My 3060Ti FE that I got at launch has been solid for games I play, which aren't AAA titles and have simpler graphics. I ordered a 1440p 165Hz monitor that I had to import from China since the US market hates 24" monitors.

Now with the Steam sale, I'm looking into getting Elden Ring. Never played any Souls games or had any interest, but I figured I should make use of these upgrades. Or maybe Jedi Survivor. Never played Fallen Order and not a Star Wars person, but I did like Jedi Knights 2 back in 2002. Diablo 4 is on the maybe list, but from what I've heard, it's nothing special that Diablo 3 or POE haven't done. I'm welcome to any opinions.

 

Congrats on the new card!

24 inch and 1440p is not a good combo from a math standpoint. Its technical, and a long explanation, but the science suggests you should either go 24 inch 1080p or 27inch 1440p, for the best experience.

Some graphical standout games, which includes using the Ray Tracing setting (real life reflections-gorgeous but demanding)
Cyberpunk
God of War
Forza Horizons 5
Death Stranding
Horizon Zero Dawn
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Last of Us
Farcry 6
Control

 

I understand the PPI part for 24" and I don't necessarily agree with it. 24" 1440p PPI is a little less than 32" 4k which people seem to like. Plus I'd rather stick with 24" monitors as it's the preferred size for FPS games. 27" is too wide for my desk size.

The console exclusive ports never really interested me. Plus, like RC Cola said, the ports have been terribly optimized for PC. I don't expect my hardware will have any issues, but still, kinda meh to me for gameplay.

Cyberpunk is a maybe. I've heard the updates make it more playable. Bought Farcry5 a month ago to scratch that FPS itch. It was fun, but I ran into the same repetitive gameplay boredom that I felt in FC2.

If I do try Jedi Survivor, I heard that I should play Fallen Order first. Maybe it'll give the developers time to iron out the bugs.

I haven't really been too interested in any AAA games lately. I mostly play Genshin still and Mordhau every night lol. But I gotta justify this GPU upgrade somehow.

 

Whatever works for you is best. I game on an ancient system that is a 2-monitor setup. The main one is a 32" 1440p monitor in landscape mode and the 2nd one is where I dump my chat windows and other apps that are running - it's a 27" in portrait mode. That works for me. I can't see myself ever gaming or typing on anything smaller than a 32" monitor anymore, though.

Even on the new one I'm building (uh, someday), though I'll be getting a new 32"-ish main monitor, I still think I'm leaning toward a 1440p monitor instead of a 4k. I need to head to MicroCenter and check out some 4k monitors with text. I don't want to keep scaling stuff to make things just right and text used to be wonky on 4k monitors even though games were awesome. I'll be using my PC for things other than just games, so that would make it more important.

The other thing you need to make sure is the CPU you're using isn't the bottleneck or the performance of the video card won't matter because the CPU will bottleneck it.

 

To be honest, I'm pretty sure my monitor has been the bottleneck lol. I have a 5800x and 32GB DDR4 that I built in late 2021. My 3060Ti was capable of 1440p gaming but I couldn't find a good 24" 1440p with high refresh rate. I use 27" monitors at work where the size is better for productivity. But I just don't like that size for gaming.

My new monitor should arrive sometime soon. Shipping from China is slow. I didn't plan to get a new GPU, but these AMD price drops were too enticing. My work computer is gonna get the 3060Ti, which'll be a nice upgrade from the old 770 I put in there.

 

lol. I was ready to build a PC but then saw the issues with overheating/fire that 4090s were having and some new AMD cpus were having combined with needing a separate nuclear reactor to power Intel CPUs and 4090s. Then I started seeing a lot of mobo issues from big manufacturers and thought I'd wait... again. I think AMD dropped the price on 7900 XT's by about a $100 just because it was overpriced, but I'm still pissed a lot of the higher-end overpriced cards are still priced where they are even though they have dropped a bit. Right now, I'm still leaning toward a 7900 XTX for my next build but not happy about the price.

 

Yeah, the 4090 connector cables were melting due to poor contacts being bent. Now the 7800x3d is melting because there's no temp failsafe on the motherboards. I have no plans to upgrade to those premium parts but I like keeping up with the hardware youtubers.

I was seriously eyeing a 6950xt as their prices have been dropping, but my hesitation was the power draw turning my room into a furnace. For that reason, the 4070 was a good competitor, but the low VRAM seems like it'll limit the card's lifespan. I was constantly checking open box cards 4070s, 4070Tis, and 7900XTs from Best Buy. Open box excellent conditions are automatically 20% off if you can find one that ships to you.

The only reason I jumped on the 7900XT is because the Sapphire went down to $720 on Amazon and that brand seems to have the least coil whine issues. That seemed like the best value with longevity in the $500-$800 range I could budget. The 7800XT doesn't seem like it'll be anything special.

 

They've since found out that cables that were seated properly and "clicked" were still melting. Even 3rd party cables/adapters from guys like CableMod because even though it's still built under spec, they were still wiggling in the GPU socket. That was when I basically said I'll wait and see what all is going on with the latest CPUs, mobos, and GPUs. These are freaky times. lol.

Yeah, I try to keep up with the latest stuff when I'm buying because I generally buy mid-range to lower-upper range parts and then use them until they either die or become archaic.

 

Diablo 4 on ps5 is awesome.

 

Anybody playing Demeo? Never played a tabletop rpg but this got its hooks in me.

 

I’ve surprisingly enjoyed NFS unbound since it came out on gamepass

I haven’t liked a NFS game in over 15 years, this one is oddly fun

 

Stupid D4 stealing my valuable time when I know I'll probably never beat Echo of Lillith, yet here I am grinding stupid gear over and over.

 

I know you're not complaining about grinding gear in DIablo. Is there another reason to play Diablo?

I actually haven't played Diablo IV, but maybe it adds something else to it. Although I have to admit some of those boss fights in the earlier Diablos were some of the best fighting fun I've ever had.