What are you thinking? General Gaming Edition!

[Frag Maniac]

I just got A Plague Tale Requiem yesterday, and am finding it is not nearly as well optimized as the first game. And no, I'm not just saying this because it produces lower FPS on my GTX 1080 than I got in the first game with same settings. I'm saying it because even when I use their "Auto" mode that puts all settings at what they consider are best for your spec, the FPS is still 42-60 like it is on all Ultra settings. The only slight difference is it's a bit smoother without the intermittent micro stutter I get on max settings.

There are people on a broad range of hardware complaining about poor optimization, even some on 3080s or 3080 Tis. A handful of the usual fanboys step in and say otherwise, but it's interesting to note, some of them have admitted they're playing it on Game Pass, which is said to have Series X equivalent graphics.

So not all things on PC are rosy. I'm with the crowd that says this game plays worse than even RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Not bug wise, it's pretty much bug free, but I certainly didn't have micro stutter in those games, and the settings I was using made them look just as good if not better.

That said, it's the only game I've seen so far that has a strange quirk where if you have Nvidia's Performance Monitoring turned on, it shows a small black box on the left edge of the screen. For this reason I'm going to try turning off Nvidia's in-game overlay just to see if by chance it might be causing the micro stutter.

 

[Ikawaru]

A plague Tale Requiem is a brand new game and is certainly optimized for DX12 Vulcan, which 1080's, being the last generation to use only DX11, cannot do.

I'm noticing a lot of stuttering as well on my laptops 1650 ti with every RE since RE7 because they've all been patched to be more compatible with Vulcan DX12.

I'd strongly recommend getting a DX12 Vulcan card at the bare minimum especially if you wanna play current Gen games, and I would even wager that you would have no problems aside from the usual poor optimizations that are sometimes present with shoddy ports (remember you can always turn the settings down to get better frames, not everything has to be ULTRA settings).

Sony games are starting to see much improvements with their ports to PC. Days Gone and Horizon: Zero Dawn are both success stories and run very well on PC.

And yes, I would advise not using Game Pass, my opinion is that it's utter trash and to just stick to Steam. Epic Games store is fine and they give away a lot of free games but most of their games aren't even optimized to use controllers, which is my preference, so I can't recommend it just because it's currently garbage with controller support.

And I just looked it up, Plague Tale Requiem maxes out a 30 fps on a PS5 and 40 fps when using 'Performance' mode which is designed with high refresh rate TV's in mind so to say it's having no issues on consoles as well would be a falsehood.

This is a failure of the developers to properly optimize the game to current Gen standards.

 

[Frag Maniac]

A plague Tale Requiem is a brand new game and is certainly optimized for DX12 Vulcan, which 1080's, being the last generation to use only DX11, cannot do.

I'm noticing a lot of stuttering as well on my laptops 1650 ti with every RE since RE7 because they've all been patched to be more compatible with Vulcan DX12.

I'd strongly recommend getting a DX12 Vulcan card at the bare minimum especially if you wanna play current Gen games, and I would even wager that you would have no problems aside from the usual poor optimizations that are sometimes present with shoddy ports (remember you can always turn the settings down to get better frames, not everything has to be ULTRA settings).

Sony games are starting to see much improvements with their ports to PC. Days Gone and Horizon: Zero Dawn are both success stories and run very well on PC.

And yes, I would advise not using Game Pass, my opinion is that it's utter trash and to just stick to Steam. Epic Games store is fine and they give away a lot of free games but most of their games aren't even optimized to use controllers, which is my preference, so I can't recommend it just because it's currently garbage with controller support.

And I just looked it up, Plague Tale Requiem maxes out a 30 fps on a PS5 and 40 fps when using 'Performance' mode which is designed with high refresh rate TV's in mind so to say it's having no issues on consoles as well would be a falsehood.

This is a failure of the developers to properly optimize the game to current Gen standards.

Hold on, "DX12 Vulkan"? I mean WTF? My GPU handles both DX12 and Vulkan fine, and they are two separate competing APIs, so why are you saying DX12 Vulkan?

At any rate I played some more, this time with Nvidia's In-Game overlay off, and it seemed to run a bit smoother. I also noticed it's even a bit quirky with Afterburner FPS, Temp, Usage monitoring running in the background. There was a moment where Hugo was looking at a flower or something in a field, and I couldn't even activate the interactive prompt to respond to him until I toggled off the AB monitoring. It also causes a very slight hitch in the video when I turn it on.

I'm also seeing places now where the FPS dips as low as 30 FPS. I get the feeling the devs only cared to keep it at 30 FPS or better, because you see a lot of players talking about 30 FPS. I mean granted, the game looks really good, but it's not like it looks any better than RDR2 or GoW 2018, and it performs worse.

 

[Ikawaru]

Hold on, "DX12 Vulkan"? I mean WTF? My GPU handles both DX12 and Vulkan fine, and they are two separate competing APIs, so why are you saying DX12 Vulkan?

****, I screwed up there, 1080's can use DX12 and Vulcan, it's Ray Tracing and DLSS (both which require DX12 or Vulcan) that it can't do. I was always under the impression that the whole shebang required at least a GeForce 20** card.

Still seems kinda pointless to run DX12 with any 10** series card when DX11 is so well optimized for it, which is why I always set the game to DX11 when I can.

 

[Frag Maniac]

****, I screwed up there, 1080's can use DX12 and Vulcan, it's Ray Tracing and DLSS (both which require DX12 or Vulcan) that it can't do. I was always under the impression that the whole shebang required at least a GeForce 20** card.

Still seems kinda pointless to run DX12 with any 10** series card when DX11 is so well optimized for it, which is why I always set the game to DX11 when I can.

Well if the devs do their job right coding for Vulkan, it can run loads smoother with higher frame rate than DX12. Doom 2016 was one of the first examples of that. I think most of them have gotten better at coding for DX12 though, I don't really have a problem with either anymore.

As for RT and DLSS, yes, I know full well the 1000 series GPUs can't handle either, but I also know a lot of players with RTX GPUs still leave RT off for performance reasons.

 

[Ikawaru]

but I also know a lot of players with RTX GPUs still leave RT off for performance reasons.

That's where DLSS comes in. Whilst it doesn't come without its own issues, it especially works wonders on 1080p laptops with only 15 or 16 inch screens, where you will not even notice any dips in resolution with its very advanced upscale technology.

I cannot comment on how it works on big 4k screens because I haven't done it yet, but it's quite a handy feature that frees up a lot of frames for Ray Tracing and I literally do not mind turning the settings down to get the framerate that matches my monitors refresh rate.

DLSS quality mode (720p->1080p) + Ray Tracing max + medium or even medium low settings = joy.

 

[Frag Maniac]

That's where DLSS comes in. Whilst it doesn't come without its own issues, it especially works wonders on 1080p laptops with only 15 or 16 inch screens, where you will not even notice any dips in resolution with its very advanced upscale technology.

I cannot comment on how it works on big 4k screens because I haven't done it yet, but it's quite a handy feature that frees up a lot of frames for Ray Tracing and I literally do not mind turning the settings down to get the framerate that matches my monitors refresh rate.

DLSS quality mode (720p->1080p) + Ray Tracing max + medium or even medium low settings = joy.

Yeah I know what DLSS is and what it does, and that DLSS 2 is even better at it. RT is still a work in progress though, as many games implement it poorly. I'm considering perhaps upgrading soon to a 4080, but it would be more for a raw performance upgrade than RT.

Underlying all this what upsets me most actually has nothing to do with gaming. It's that I was ideally going to wait for those 4K TV broadcasts they said would cover 60-70% of the US by end of last year, but of course COVID slowed that down considerably. The reason that plays a role in my upgrade plans is I have tried a 4K TV before (I use just one TV display for ALL my needs), and though it was fine for gaming, it sucked for 1080p TV broadcasts.

The thing is though, I started realizing, especially since COVID, that there would come a time when a GTX 1080 would become inadequate for the way I want my games to look and perform, so I may have to upgrade soon just for better performance. That may involve a 13,700K, RTX 4080, and Z690 MB. I've yet to decide whether I want DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, but I was hoping to wait for a price drop on DDR5. It will seem kind of strange playing with that powerful a PC, on just my current 1080p TV, which lacks HDR capability.

Part of me is hopeful the latest TVs I'm considering will at least upscale lower res content better, but I'm not forgetting that's one of the main reasons I returned the 4K TV I already tried. At this point RT, at least at 4K (because I've gotten used to one display fits all needs, and all modern TVs are 4K now), is not worth the price of admission when you consider the level of GPU it takes to run all games at 4K with RT on.

I kind of miss the old days when you could game relatively well at comparatively cheap prices. I can't imagine what it's like to be a parent now, as even the kids want gaming consoles that cost over $1000.

BTW, I finished a Plague Tale Requiem and am now playing on New Game +, which puts you at "Ultimate" difficulty mode. I have found some of the tougher combat sections are just too hard with the settings I was using, or even the game's "Auto" mode that selects them for you. I then put the Graphics Preset on all Med, and lowered the main 4 demanding settings (Draw Distance, Shadow Maps, Volumetric Lighting, and Screen Space Reflections), to Low. This puts me at mostly 55-60 FPS, with an occasional dip to 40. I can move and react way faster now, and surprisingly the game still looks very good, easily better than the first one did when played at much higher settings.

These are MUCH lower settings than the Auto mode indicates I should be able to play on though, and it's not my PC, as it's played some pretty demanding titles like RDR2 just fine with higher settings and FPS. It's clear to me Asobo rushed the optimization and testing of this game. I also think if they don't come out with an acceptable performance patch, there will be a huge backlash that may affect sales of this and the next title in the series.

 

[Jonipoon]

I'm having "a blast" over at a Silent Hill forum currently trying to convince people that the idea of RE7 "brought Resident Evil back to its roots" is false and made up by gaming journalists.

 

[Ikawaru]

Despite not being overly thrilled with Konami's decision to make 3 new Silent Hill 2 games (even though I'd say it's an overall net positive that the genre is "reignited"), Konami DID also announce remastered versions of both 'Suikoden' 1 and 2 being released on ALL platforms so that is great news indeed.

Don't know if anyone has played the first two (skip the others) 'Suikoden' games but I will say they are fantastic and I'm not even a huge RPG fan, as games they are absolutely brilliant so I would recommend them to Hell.

I know in the English version of 'Suikoden 2' they butchered some key plot elements because it was too graphic for a Western audience back then, hopefully we'll get a completely uncut and remastered version this time.

 

[UniqTeas]

I think Konami should have started with a remake of the original Silent Hill. SH2 is the bigger title, but you can add so much lore to the original and make it playable to a whole new generation of people. I loved ****tered Memories, but that is a different game and not the same story as the original SH at all. I do, however, like the sound of all of the games they announced depending on what they end up being.

Additionally, I am SUPER looking forward to the Suikoden I & II remasters. Those games are perfect for me, someone who loves solving recruitment methods in games. I am looking forward to both versions of Eiyuden Chronicles as well. 2023 is going to be WILD.

 

[Jonipoon]

Silent Hill 2 is the popular fan favorite as well as every Western developer's obsession, so it was obvious that Konami wanted to go with the safest financial bet and remake it instead of the first game. It also has a very straight-forward and simple story that's easy to replicate. The first game however is extremely complicated with all of its lore, so any Western developer trying to remake it would most probably f*** it up without proper guidance.

I'm mostly p***ed that they didn't announce the old versions of SH1, 2, 3 and 4 to current generation consoles.

 

[UniqTeas]

Truly, SH2 is the safer bet, but damn, we could have all 3 original SH remade. But yes, it is easier to remake considering how centralized the story is outside of all of the complex lore surrounding other games.

I look forward to it regardless though.

 

[Ikawaru]

Original 'Silent Hill' writer/director Keiichiro Toyama, who works at Brokeh Game Studio, is jumping back into survival horror with a new game called 'Slitterhead'.

Slitterhead: Release date, gameplay, and everything we know about the Silent Hill creator's new horror game

The Slitterhead release date has been set for November 8

www.gamesradar.com

Now THIS looks promising, I mean RE4 and SH2 remakes are fine and all, but I don't really like placing bets on Capcom, Konami, and Squeenix because they're just too damn BIG so I feel like I'm getting cheated even harder if they don't deliver. At least with small-medium sized studios there's that feeling of good faith in any case.

It pains me to say this, but I'm starting to have more respect for Toyama than I am Mikami, the former WANTS to jump back into the survival horror ring and seems enthusiastic, the latter seems to think he's too good for it and just wants to put his past works behind him and go forth making mediocre games.

 

[Ikawaru]

Well color me interested. However, it's from Moonglint and I'm seeing a lot of promises from them yet we still have yet to receive a fully functioning game, just a whole load of pipe dreams. Will remain skeptical until they've proven themselves able to deliver.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well color me interested. However, it's from Moonglint and I'm seeing a lot of promises from them yet we still have yet to receive a fully functioning game, just a whole load of pipe dreams. Will remain skeptical until they've proven themselves able to deliver.

To me, that all looks good except for the camera angles. It's as if it's trying to be a top down view game without actually being one. Graphics look fairly good, but animations could be a bit better, and there's some ridiculous no-clipping.

 

[Ikawaru]

Square Enix Sales Are Down According to Company Financials

Detailing its latest financial results, Square Enix reports that its sales have fallen despite launching a slew of games in 2022.

gamerant.com

Nice. Whilst I don't wish economic misery to any Square Enix employee, I have a hunch that the worst they do financially, the better the odds of them throwing a hail mary and finding a way to make a 'Parasite Eve' remake a reality at all costs.

 

[Ikawaru]

Dead Island 2 review | The biggest surprise of 2023 - fqekj.com

A pleasant surprise, Dead Island 2 banishes the boredom from the original game, and makes zombie-slaying fun again Dead Island

fqekj.com

The first 'Dead Island' had a lot of potential, I couldn't quite finish it because it got kinda boring, but I did like it better than the grating 'Dying Light' which I did not like at all.

If this one improves in ways that matter, I may just check it out once it lands on Green Man Gaming (PC game purchasing platform that I like).

Any console players on here try it out yet?

 

[Rain611]

I haven't tried it yet. My gaming plate is pretty full. I'm trying to platinum RE4R remake still, as well as Inscryption, plus I've been farming SP in Evil Dead The Game because they're releasing a really cool looking DLC Friday with a new demon that I've been wanting to see in the game. My husband and I also are playing ESO which has a new expansion coming out in June. Then there's Diablo IV coming out June 6th lol. So I'm putting a pause in new games at the moment.

 

[Ikawaru]

https://gamerant.com/new-horror-games-may-2023-amnesia/

Horror games ahoy!

 

[Ikawaru]

Diablo 4 release date and everything we know

From Diablo 4 gameplay impressions to news on co-op, crossplay, classes, Game Pass and so much more

www.gamesradar.com

Interesting. Never was a huge 'Diablo' fan but now that I've finished FF7R I'm kinda starved for a new game between work and this actually does look promising, much better than Diablo 2 and 3 which I didn't care for. 'Diablo' 1 is about as old as 'Resident Evil' so I'm old enough to remember when it came out and I did reasonably enjoy for its clickety-click gameplay to a degree but I tried playing it a few years ago and absolutely despised the controls and the interface so it hasn't aged well. Perhaps D4 can keep me entertained for a reasonable length of time though there does seem to be a strong emphasis on co-op so would be cool to actually have people to play with if I do decide to give it a whirl...