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22 minutes ago, E.Worm Jimmy said:

I never tried mods at all - did not even think about it.  and i did the full game with both expansions twice - most time i EVER spent in the game since i was a teenager with patience and sega genesis - i think i spent 100s of hours on Sonic games - which i later beat in under 10 hours in my 30s LOL  - but as a kid i just could not beat the later levels.

 

anyways - what exactly do mods do?

Mods change game play, add weapons, add abilities that you wouldn't have otherwise (i.e. fast travel anywhere) there are also graphic/textures that can make the game play in 4K, etc.

4 hours ago, SnoopZ said:

I last played and completed the story in 2019 and I thought I would struggle with the controls but after 30mins or so it all fell into place and this morning I have managed to kill 5 of the 8 Valkyries which I found too hard before, maybe 60fps makes all the difference.

maybe that is the reason i always prefer gaming PC.     even on ps4 PRO - the controls felt really hard.  and i use controller on PC a lot too.

 

FPS does make a difference for sure.   i always felt slow on PS4.

4 hours ago, jnelsoninjax said:

Mods change game play, add weapons, add abilities that you wouldn't have otherwise (i.e. fast travel anywhere) there are also graphic/textures that can make the game play in 4K, etc.

no new stories though?  or new signs?  or something substantial?   fast travel was never an issue for me ,     so far only NEW weapons sounds good.  what other abilities?

 

since i did not like cyberpunk, I might do witcher 3 again, after another year passes or longer, or before the new witcher game  - hopefully there will be a LOT of mods to make my last run through it faster and more fun!

14 minutes ago, E.Worm Jimmy said:

no new stories though?  or new signs?  or something substantial?   fast travel was never an issue for me ,     so far only NEW weapons sounds good.  what other abilities?

 

since i did not like cyberpunk, I might do witcher 3 again, after another year passes or longer, or before the new witcher game  - hopefully there will be a LOT of mods to make my last run through it faster and more fun!

There are some different signs, look here for my details: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/

42 minutes ago, jnelsoninjax said:

There are some different signs, look here for my details: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/

sweet - new quests for blood an wine -  definitely coming back to this in a a couple of years.

  • Like 1

Finished off Ace Combat 7 a few days ago and have picked up Witcher 3 again. Playing through for the first time so looking forward to seeing what CDPR are really about. 

  • Thanks 1
1 hour ago, dipsylalapo said:

Finished off Ace Combat 7 a few days ago and have picked up Witcher 3 again. Playing through for the first time so looking forward to seeing what CDPR are really about. 

Has Witcher3 had the update yet? I won't play on PS5 until that drops.

44 minutes ago, SnoopZ said:

Has Witcher3 had the update yet? I won't play on PS5 until that drops.

No, it's currently slated for H2 2021. I figured I'd get another playthrough when that drops.

6 hours ago, George P said:

Started fallout 4, i've owned it for years, figured it was time to get it out of the way.

There is a lot of articles about playing it in 2020/21

 

I might actually give it a go myself - never did play it and was not interested - but now - when it is updated to the max and with potential mods - it might be the next game I might play later - when I have time between jobs 

 

I added it to my list 

Right now: I am playing The Counsel 

 

Finished 2 episodes so far in about 8 hours - and only because I was a bit slow and got stuck on a puzzle until I googled it later.

 

It is amazing for me - a game about the secret society - with characters appearing - like George Washington and Napoleon - I have to admit - it could have been terrible...

 

It is an adventure game similar to Telltale - you don't need quick reactions and learning complex attack combos  - all of this game is mental and decision making - puzzle solving choices.

 

And it also adds RPG progression of skills that affect the dialog lines and affect every interaction.

 

Anyway - if you like history / secret societies and the game that makes you think - not just test your reaction speed - it is a fun ride.

 

 

  • 2 weeks later...

After not playing any games for a long time I've been on a bit of a binge catching up on some games I've missed.

 

It all started with Mafia Definitive Edition, the story just had me glued to the game. In some ways I was sad to finish this as I wanted more after it. Honestly the best game I've played in a long time.

 

A friend then lent me Mafia 3 on the Xbox, this upgraded to the definitive edition at no cost and gave me all the DLC in the process. As I started Mafia 3 I didn't really enjoy it much at first, it seemed a much more stealth orientated GTA style game. I also found it annoying when I was so far in to a mission and randomly got killed by someone, maybe I was just rubbish at the game, however this got annoying. That said I did stick at the game and ended up quite enjoying it, especially as I got some perks such as calling in some enforcers to help you take down a building full of enemies. This certainly didn't feel like a "Mafia game" compared to Mafia 1 and 2, however I did end up quite enjoying this game. I'd probably play this again in the future.

 

I do plan to buy Mafia 2 Definitive Edition at some point, as Mafia 2 was the first Mafia game i completed back on the 360, it would be great to play this again. It seems cheaper to buy the Mafia trilogy on the Xbox vs buying Mafia 2 Definitive Edition as a standalone, so I might well do that.

 

I then moved on to Gears 4, which after not playing Gears for many years I actually enjoyed again. I purchased this at release, did a couple of chapters then never played it again. What I did like was it was possible to play co-op with my brother who was on the PC. He signed up for a months trial of game pass, so we co-op'ed Gears 4 over the course of a weekend, just liked we'd historically done on the Xbox 360. That was pretty fun and we both really enjoyed it, so decided to do Gears 5 the following weekend as I had got this free from Xbox Live and he could play it on his game pass trial.

 

Gears 5 started out ok, my brother was playing as Jack which was really useful at times. However the game was not that enjoyable, it seemed like it had the same few boss battles which were a right pain to win at times. Maybe we're both just older and not as good at games these days, however we did co-op Gears 1 on insane back in the day so i'd like to think we still had some skill. The game also seemed really buggy, I'm not sure if this was an Xbox / Windows 10 co-op issue, however if someone died in certain places the game would glitch when it re loaded and no enemies would spawn, so we couldn't progress and had to load the previous checkpoint (not the current checkpoint which would always glitch) and re play a big chunk of the game we'd just spent the last 30 minutes doing. This happened at least 3 times which didn't impress us. We both agreed we'd feel a bit cheated if we'd paid £40-50 each for Gears 5.

 

I think for me personally the magic of Gears has gone, the first 3 games we're honestly amazing. Judgement was just "average" Gears 4 in all fairness I enjoyed as that was pretty fun to co-op. Gears 5 I don't really have any desire to play again.

 

So there you are, that's my recent gaming binge essay as someone who's not played anything much apart from Pokemon on the Switch over the last couple of years!

  • 2 weeks later...
58 minutes ago, Randomevent said:

Code Vein on Game Pass is pretty cool.  I mean, thematically it's still not entirely my thing but it's fun.

 

I waited til after I got the XSX to load it up and so far I'll take it.

That's the great thing about game pass, I think you'd otherwise never play that game if you had to buy it, unless you waiting long enough for it to go on some big sale for like $20.

 

Still so much game pass hate going around out there, go figure.

38 minutes ago, George P said:

That's the great thing about game pass, I think you'd otherwise never play that game if you had to buy it, unless you waiting long enough for it to go on some big sale for like $20.

 

Still so much game pass hate going around out there, go figure.

There is?  I've never seen anything but love for it.  I mean I could see the Playstation lovers being a little salty but who cares?

1 minute ago, Randomevent said:

There is?  I've never seen anything but love for it.  I mean I could see the Playstation lovers being a little salty but who cares?

It pops up here and there, mostly twitter I think.    Just a way to deflect from your console of choice not having anything like it and or PS fans trying to justify Sony deciding to charge them $70 for their new exclusives while I can spend $70 and get 6 months of game pass.

 

The people thinking game pass isn't making MS any money are the silliest though.   Hell the game pass model itself is such that, outside of the initial sub, you get a nice discount to buy anything on the list, and it doesn't give you anything other than the base game.  So that new game you're trying out that you actually like, if it's got any DLC you want to also play, you'll have to buy it.  So if you're thinking about buying the dlc for it, why not buy the whole game you ended up liking in the end?    Or you ignore game pass and just buy the games you want like you have been.   Whatever works.

8 hours ago, George P said:

It pops up here and there, mostly twitter I think.    Just a way to deflect from your console of choice not having anything like it and or PS fans trying to justify Sony deciding to charge them $70 for their new exclusives while I can spend $70 and get 6 months of game pass.

 

The people thinking game pass isn't making MS any money are the silliest though.   Hell the game pass model itself is such that, outside of the initial sub, you get a nice discount to buy anything on the list, and it doesn't give you anything other than the base game.  So that new game you're trying out that you actually like, if it's got any DLC you want to also play, you'll have to buy it.  So if you're thinking about buying the dlc for it, why not buy the whole game you ended up liking in the end?    Or you ignore game pass and just buy the games you want like you have been.   Whatever works.

MS has actually said it hasn't made money yet.  The sub conversions probably aren't helping.

 

Either way I can't see myself ever living without it again.

  • 2 weeks later...

Well I finally "finished" fallout 4, I used quotes because there's minor stuff I didn't do and also by it's nature there's this never ending loop of side missions that are more or less used just so you can grind.  As far as any story missions I did those, or the ones I could in my specific playthrough.    

 

Wasting some time in Madden 21 until I feel like playing something else, maybe yakuza 4, don't know yet.

9 hours ago, George P said:

Well I finally "finished" fallout 4, I used quotes because there's minor stuff I didn't do and also by it's nature there's this never ending loop of side missions that are more or less used just so you can grind.  As far as any story missions I did those, or the ones I could in my specific playthrough.    

 

Wasting some time in Madden 21 until I feel like playing something else, maybe yakuza 4, don't know yet.

I decided to skip the Yakuza games and load up Judgment instead, and so far I like it.  Might even finish it.  Never got too far in the Yakuza games.

  • 3 weeks later...
On 05/06/2021 at 00:22, techbeck said:

Just finished Mass Effect legendary. Was good to play again and a lot I did not remember. So was like playing a new game. Hopefully Mass Effect 4 will bring Shepard back and continue the story. Playing Mass Effect Andromeda again right now. 

I've been slow rolling it, doing every side quest because I didn't really play with any of the dlc in the games.

Resident Evil Village on Stadia

 

Finishedon Stadia: FFXV, Cyberpunk 2077, Immortals Fenyx Rising, and Jedi Fallen Order

Still working on in Stadia: Doom Eternal, Borderlands 3, Elder Scrolls Online, Strange Brigade.

 

Also still leveling a character in WoW TBC Classic.

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    • AMD RX 9070 GRE AI, Blender benchmarks vs 9070 XT, 7800XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070 by Sayan Sen Earlier this week, we shared the first part of our review of AMD's new RX 9070 GRE. It was about the gaming performance of the GPU, and we gave it an 8 out of 10. As a follow-up, similar to how we did with the 9070 XT and non-XT, we are doing a dedicated productivity review for the RX 9070 GRE as well, where we compare it against the 9070 XT, 9070, 7800 XT, as well as Nvidia's 5070 and 4070. This will include AI, rendering, compute, and more benchmarks. AI performance, especially, is a very important metric in today's world, and AMD also promised big improvements thanks to its underlying architectural improvements. We will be pitching it against the data we already have for the RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT, but also the Nvidia 5070 FE, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12G, and Gigabyte Radeon RX 7800 XT GAMING OC 16G as they are in a similar price class, but also because we do not have a comparable 5060 Ti card lying around here that we can compare it against. Before we get underway, this is a collaboration between Sayan Sen and Steven Parker, who lent me his test bed. Also, there was no editorial input from AMD. First up, the specs of the RX 9070, 9070 XT, and 9070 GRE, which were given to us by AMD: Radeon RX 9070 GRE Radeon RX 9070 Radeon RX 9070 XT Boost Clock: Game Clock: up to 2.79GHz up to 2.20GHz up to 2.52GHz up to 2.07GHz up to 2.97GHz up to 2.40GHz Stream Processors 3,072 (48 CU) 3,584 (56 CU) 4,096 (64 CU) Ray Accelerator 48 56 64 AI Accelerator 96 112 128 ROPs 96 128 Texture Mapping Units 192 224 256 Memory 12 GB GDDR6, 18Gbps Clock, 192-bit Bus 432 GB/s 16 GB GDDR6, 20Gbps Clock, 256-bit Bus Effective Memory Bandwidth: 640 GB/s Infinity Cache 48 MB (3rd Gen) 64 MB (3rd Gen) Card Bus PCI-E 5.0 X16 Output 2x HDMI 2.1b 2x DisplayPort 2.1a Power consumption 220W 304W Recommended PSU 650W 750W Slot width 2x 3x Price (SEP) $549 $599 As you can see from the specs above, it is less than the standard RX 9070 in every way that counts, except for slightly higher Boost and Game clock speed. Design Moving on, the RX 9070 GRE we were given is an XFX Swift triple-fan, dual-slot design with two 8-pin connectors. At 30cm (self-measured), it will fit in most systems easily. There is no RGB either. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by XFX from all angles. Test system Our test system consists of the following: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow (Amazon|Newegg) ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator WiFi (Amazon|Newegg) Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus (Amazon|Newegg) Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet - 44x37 (Amazon|Newegg) 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB (7200 MT/s in XMP) (Amazon|Newegg) Sabrent Rocket4 Plus 2TB SSD (Amazon) Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8246) AMD shared a press driver based on the recently released Adrenaline 26.5.2 that we were required to use. We now move on to our benchmarks. First up, we have Geekbench AI running on ONNX. For some reason, the 9070 GRE does exceptionally well here in both half-precision (FP16) and single-precision (FP32). It manages to beat the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 non-XT, and is only behind the 9070 XT. Since Geekbench runs in short bursts instead of continuously hammering the graphics card, it seems the GRE's faster boost clocks are helping here. Next up, we move to the UL Procyon AI test suite, starting with the image generation benchmark. We chose the Stable Diffusion XL FP16 test since it is the most intense workload available on Procyon. The Nvidia cards do very well here, as even the 4070 out-muscles AMD's best fairy easily. The positive thing about the GRE is that it gets quite close to the 9070 non-XT in this test; this indicates that the VRAM does not play a very big role here, as SD XL relies on float16 (FP16). So this is something to keep in mind again. If you wish to work with float32 AI workloads, graphics cards with larger than 12 GB buffers would likely emerge as victors. Regardless, the gains are still massive on AMD's 9000 series compared to the 7000 series. Following image generation, we move to the text generation benchmark. This is one test where the 9070 GRE struggled, quite a lot. It seems that the 12 GB VRAM and lower memory bandwidth of the new Radeon 9070 GRE are hurting it quite a bit; the split is massive, especially in a test like Llama2, which packs 13 billion parameters. As such, in all the tests, the 9070 GRE is the slowest of the lot. Next, we tried Blender, and here the AMD GPUs were beaten by Nvidia. Rendering is something the Green team has always had a lead over the Red side, and it has not changed so far. On the positive side, though, the 9070 GRE shows significantly better results than the 7800 XT, which means AMD is on the right path. Catching up to Nvidia, though, will require a lot more effort. And we hope HIP and ROCm can keep improving. Wrapping up AI testing, we measured OpenCL throughput in the Geekbench compute benchmark. The RX 9070 GRE alongside the 9070 did not fare well here at all, even falling behind the 7800 XT. Interestingly, even the RTX 5070 could not beat the 4070 on OpenCL, so perhaps this suggests that OpenCL optimization may not have been a priority for either AMD or Nvidia in the modern era. Conclusion We reached the end of our productivity performance review of the 9070 GRE, and we have to say it's a mixed bag. Unlike the 9070 and 9070 XT, the GRE excels in some areas while losing ground fairly easily in others. Similar to how it happened in gaming, any time the card's memory subsystem gets hammered, it tends to fall behind the others. This was the case with text generation, wherein we saw the VRAM sometimes hit its maximum available 12 GB of usage with larger model sizes. So what do we make of the RX 9070 as a productivity hardware? It can certainly be used, but you have to know it has its limitations. 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