XxEvil AshxX

Was never a sub when I was a kid but I'd hit up the local grocery store and grab a GamePro or an EGM whenever I had the chance. I had always wanted a Nintendo Power but never subscribed. My buddy on the bus had a sub though so I'd read his.

I seem to remember there was a merger at one point.. I think it was EGM that bought out some other mag but I can't remember what it was. I also remember in the mid-90's those magazines were pushing 200 pages each. You could roll one up and kill somebody with it.

Also, I'm old... so if any of this sounds weird to you, it's because it was before your time.

I love how the whole mid-life crisis thing is personified by buying some frivelous thing we really don't need.

To be fair though, it's usually that thing that we could never justify, and then we reach a point in our lives where we're like, "welp, I'm dying soon. Might as well start spending this shit or else the kids will get it."

I'm in my mid-40s as well. I guess I should be getting on this whole crisis thing myself... 

Phil could always just stop doing interviews. Easy to be the whipping boy when you're the only one willing to talk.

1 hour ago, Spork3245 said:

7700 is perfectly fine for a 4090. (If that’s what you have  )

Aaaand it is not lol. I over-estimated my machine. I have the 5700, which ranks pretty low on all those charts. 

To be fair though, those charts are still showing well over 120 FPS on all the games. I can't see myself aiming for much over 60-120 so I might be alright for a bit. But yeah, I'm already factoring in a future CPU upgrade now.

Looking at a 4070 TI Super with whatever AMD CPU is a good bang for the buck by the time I finally upgrade... which will probably be the end of the year.

I remember buying GW2 day-one because I really like the first GW, even though it wasn't really open world and kinda sucked. I played it for a hot minute but I'm pretty sure I fell off before the first expansion even released. I don't even think I would recognize it now.

I'd jump onto a GW3.

20 hours ago, Link200 said:

From what I understand Dragon's Dogma 2 is very CPU heavy. If you upgrade you may not see a huge performance boost in this specific game.

Yeah, it's not optimized very well, from what I understand. But I wasn't looking to increase performance, I was just kinda using it as a benchmark.

On 3/28/2024 at 4:55 AM, Spork3245 said:

CPU scaling with a 4090 at 1440p:

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/amd-ryzen-7-7800x3d/20.html

Since we have no idea which Ryzen 7 CPU he has, there’s certainly a point where he’ll be so CPU limited that the difference between even a 4070 Ti and a 4090 will be 0 at 1440p and lower.

 

Looking at that chart, I want to say I have a Ryzen 7700, but I keep forgetting to check whenever I'm actually sitting in front of the machine.

14 hours ago, DarkStar189 said:

I signed my son up for a year kind of as a joke  A few months ago my kids(10 and 12yr old) didn’t even understand GameStop. They asked why would you have to come to the mall to buy a game?

Did you tell him we didn't go to the mall to buy a game, we went to check out the chicks. Then went the chicks weren't looking we ducked into Babbage's/EB real quick.

I would actually bite one this, but the problem is that I literally never check my mailbox. Even as I'm sitting here writing this I'm trying to remember the last time we checked the mail. I can't imagine how much shit I have crammed in there right now. I was very broke for a long time, so going to check the mail meant literally digging through bills and late payment notices and all this other shit, and I don't have to worry about any of that now but going to check the mailbox is like PTSD and it still stresses me the fuck out.

8 hours ago, Spork3245 said:

You need to tell us the CPU. Run dxdiag from the start button menu (just type it in) and it should be able to give you the full model information. Also, what resolution are you playing at?

I'll check when I get home from work. I've been playing at 1080p but that's cuz my monitor is old. I'll probably be upgrading to a 1440p monitor though.

I have a Ryzen 7 something-something CPU, which I don't think is a slouch, but right now it's coupled with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. I'd like to get my PC ready for the next few years' worth of gaming, so I am looking to upgrade my GPU in the next year or so, to a 4070 or 4090.

From what I understand, the 4090 already has way more power than any current games are taking advantage of, and with the way the current industry trends are looking, it's really not going to get much more demanding on the software side, as far as the GPU is concerned. 

I'm just wondering if I'd be bottlenecking my PC by not upgrading the CPU as well, or if my current one will be capable of handling whatever is thrown at it in the next few years.

It seems to be handling Dragon's Dogma II right now without going nuclear, for whatever that's worth.

Thoughts?

6 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

No, everyone's pretty aware that the most popular shit is weird free to play trash for kids.

I lost all faith in kids when Teletubbies became a thing. That's when I knew their taste in pretty much anything is trash.

2 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

Dear Lord - you're a freakin' machine!

Only 82 more games to go! 

Double Dead Whammy. Because I've been slacking on my posting.

Finally got to put some time into the game this past weekend. Not a ton, but I finally got to the big main castle city. I have to admit, Capcom nailed the traversal in the game. They made sure you could see the castle from a highpoint on the path when you were far away, so you could see it off in the distance. Then they had the path wind down into the canyon and around the other mountains, and every so often they would put you back on a high point so you could see the castle was a bit closer. Then they had you make that crest over the hill and see the entire thing sprawled out before you. There is no way that entire path from the little outpost to the castle wasn't painstakingly planned. That was an Elder Scrolls moment for sure.

I was a bit thankful that my performance didn't completely tank when I got in the city. I mean, it wasn't good, but it was still playable.

Also, everyone else's PC sounds like a freight train while playing the game, right? RIGHT??? 

This is Derrick. He is my pawn.

I hate Derrick. I hate his face and his stupid voice.

If you have the displeasure of crossing paths with Derrick and choose to hire him, be sure to treat him like the piece of dirt he is. Don't bother giving him a parting gift, as I will throw it away and scold him.

Feel free to order him to fight the troll alone. Laugh as he gets trampled by the Gryphon. If he calls for backup, just tell him to shut up. Just shut up, Derrick. I don't care about your damn blueberries.

If anyone is willing to trade for Derrick, I'll gladly take literally anything for him.

Fuck you, Derrick.

On 3/12/2024 at 8:02 PM, Phaseknox said:

Is Xbox 360 considered retro gaming now? I still play it regularly and buy games for it occasionally although I pretty much have everything that I want for it at this point. I have a big physical game collection for it, I started buying most of what I wanted for it in the early to mid PS4/Xbox One generation because games for it were fairly cheap back then. Some games still are, but I have a lot that have gone up in price quite substantially since then.

I don't consider it retro in the sense that it is a certain age. But it is a game that is out of print and technically can't be acquired unless its found used somewhere. 

Picked it up on Steam. Created my Arisen and my butt-ugly Pawn and played for a few minutes. But work tomorrow, so I had to cut it short. Looking forward to giving it some time this weekend.

That anime was terrible lol.

7 hours ago, GameDadGrant said:

 

EDIT: Oh wait. No Switch version? In that case, not buying. 

What? no Andre Agassi potato-mode?

8 hours ago, ShreddieMercury said:

Hold on, a fun looking sports game in 2024?  What's the catch?  Are backhands paywalled or something?

Don't even joke about this. It's 2K we're talking about here.

I need to go back and get Gold on my licenses. I really do try to get into GT7, but those "realistic racing physics" don't always translate to "fun." My eyes start drooping in the middle of a race.

I don't personally feel like technically, the graphics are better in GT7, but Turn10 really dropped the ball in the artistic direction in the new Forza. The graphics are great but the tracks are so fucking boring that it's really hard to get excited about the racing. GT7 tracks, to me, don't really look technically better, but they're way more interesting.

43 minutes ago, GameDadGrant said:

Eh...but Contra is one of those franchises where you can replay the games over and over again. Always fun for a pick-up-and-play, especially with local co-op. Maybe that's just me?

Sure, but that was back when I only got like, one game a year and replaying games was a way of life.

I would probably play through this Contra more than once... maybe. Some day.

I've had this on the Switch for a while now. Looks great on the small screen, but ehhh.... dunno about playing the first one on a large tv.

11 hours ago, AbsolutSurgen said:

I saw the price on Steam today and laughed.

I didn't laugh, but I did have a flashback of being about 8 years old and beating Contra on the NES for the first time. It was about a day or two after my mom bought it for me, and I was all excited that I beat it so I ran up and told her. Her response was a very annoyed, "Already?!"

I get it now.

1 hour ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I enjoyed playing GRAW with friends. That was mostly pvp, but I recall there being some

coop missions maybe in GRAW 2. 
 

Wildlands was definitely fun with friends. 
 

those were fun games. Dont know that they were typical Ghost Recon, and Im sure Id enjoy them if they were called something else. That’s just it really. i just want Ubisoft to make a fun game. 

The thing about Ghost Recon is that every two iterations were uniquely different, but still felt the same. They were essentially "GR", then "GR standalone expansion".

Ghost Recon and Island Thunder/Jungle Strike/Desert Siege were the OG slow methodical military sim.

Ghost Recon 2 and GR2 Summit Strike went third person, but was still very much the one shot-one kill, tactical shooter

GRAW1 and GRAW2 went full shaky-cam sim, but the multiplayer still somewhat retained the GR2's co-op and pvp (even if it wasn't as good) 

But then after GRAW2, things kinda went off-track and got... weird.

GR Future Soldier was this weird, cinematic action game, with probably the worst multiplayer of any GR ever.

GR Wildlands was pretty fun, but like others have said, was essentially "Ubisoft: The Game."

I don't even know what the hell GR Breakpoint was, and I put 50+ hours into that game.

Personally, as someone who has followed the series since the beginning, I wish they would take inspiration from the GR2 and GR2 Summit Strike era. That was the point which I think they had the perfect blend of tactics and action. Every mission in that game could be played in co-op with up to 16 people, and we would turn off respawns so that our numbers would slowly be dwindling as the mission went on. To add to the tension, we didn't have party chat at that time, so when someone died, they were booted back to the lobby and no longer participated in the game chat. So they would go silent. What would start out as a fun, rowdy group would slowly get quieter and quieter until it was only a few people left, or you were completely alone in silence. They could watch you, but you couldn't talk to them or hear them, so you were quite literally alone. It was up to you to try to finish the mission. And if you failed, you were greeted by a room full of boos when you were booted back to the lobby with everyone else.

GR2 Summit Strike still stands alone as THE BEST online gaming experience for me. We played that game every night for a good year or so.

THAT is what I want Ubisoft to tap into. But alas, sadly those days will never return.

I remember when you used to have to plot a waypoint for your B-squad, but then you had to micromanage them so that they didn't go to point B straight through the armed artillery convoy.

No, motherfuckers, not over the hill! Around the hill. AROUND the hill.