ShreddieMercury

Frame rate drops are definitely an issue, but if a game has a consistent frame rate then I get used to whatever it is and it's not really a problem for me. Higher frame rates are great, but only really noticeable for me if I switch back and forth in the same game. Otherwise, I get accustomed to it very quickly and am not thinking or caring about it. I know a lot of people instantly vomit if something is under 60, but I can't think of any examples where a lower but consistent frame rate ever presented a problem for me. I also agree with @crispy4000 that the current high frame rates on the new consoles are probably temporary and due to the cross-gen focus. We will see games that push the hardware as time goes on, and frame rates will take a hit at the expense of graphical bells and whistles that people have come to expect of the new machines.

Damn, that FPS boost and load time patch for Dishonored and Prey is wild. Prey is easily one of the best games of the past several years, this would be an amazing time to play it if you haven't yet.

Lol

I align myself with whatever party aims to do the most good for the most people/animals/living beings. America desperately needs more than one party, but for now that happens to be the Democrats, even though they are for the most part useless cowards. Republicans and conservatives of all kinds can get fucked.

My picks from that list would be either The Matrix or The Grand Budapest Hotel. My wife is usually not a fan of action/genre stuff, but she was extremely compelled by the story of The Matrix, and that movie has held up brilliantly. Similarly, Grand Budapest has such a zany, madcap tone, but it's balanced with some real affecting drama, so that could suit both tastes as well. It's also Wes Anderson's strongest movie by far in my opinion.

This inspired me yesterday to buy a clone GDEMU and an SD card. I've never done any game modding at all, but a friend of mine assured me it was easy. It should come tomorrow. Wish me luck!

The whole thing consists of interviews with Japanese developers, so unless you know Japanese you might not be able to listen mindlessly It was all new to me. It's basically a deep dive with a few of the key development leaders for games like Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Rez, and Seaman. It doesn't really go over the generally well known story, it's more just interesting conversations about the Sega's culture and what they were trying to achieve with the DC.

Dreamcast and Wii were really the last bastion of lightgun games. It's a bummer that we may never see stuff like that (or rail shooters) again.

Found this browsing around, and though I typically stay away from videogame related youtube stuff, this was a fascinating and super insightful look at the Dreamcast. It's inspiring and also very tragic, as these developers lament the failure of what they all saw as a unique and exciting piece of hardware with seemingly limitless potential. This will forever be my favorite era of videogames, and I don't think the creative breadth and depth of the Dreamcast's library will ever be topped. Watching this and being reminded that Rez, Skies of Arcadia, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5, Chu Chu Rocket, Shenmue, Soul Calibur, Jet Set Set Radio, and Seaman all came out on the same console is pretty wild. I still have mine and most of my games (including Seaman and the microphone attachment), but haven't figured out an inexpensive way to get a good picture out of my 4k TV.

Two threads about this, but I will express my confusion in both - why are they not wearing rollerblades? That blows my mind.

2022?? Also, this is the first time I've noticed that they aren't wearing rollerblades... wtf?

I'm glad that they're doing something because it seemed as if they might abandon VR entirely. I will say though, as somebody who has PSVR and was quite blown away by unique games like Astro Bot, Wipeout, Paper Beast, etc., I don't know if it will ever not be a niche product. The only way that it can break through is if it becomes as simple and easy as putting on sunglasses, and even then, the barrier becomes the complete sensory deprivation that's at once both the draw and the drawback in my experience. Over time I used the headset less and less, because it's disorienting and quite overwhelming, and playing on a TV where I could react to other things is so much easier to manage. It's an aspect that I don't see talked about a lot, but I think as cool as it is to be completely immersed in a virtual world, the requirement to be completely switched off may be a significant issue for some people like it was for me.

Thanks for the tip - I had heard about that, so I took it out when I opened it up. It didn't seem to have leaked, and the system is still working well thankfully.

I recently took apart and cleaned out an old Dreamcast controller that I have, and it was really fun and rewarding to get it clean and functioning again. So, I then bought an old 1st generation Xbox, some thermal paste and torx wrenches and cleaned it up inside. Not sure if I'll ever get to the point where I can solder things or do any serious repairs, but it's really fun to take apart consoles and learn how things are put together/clean them out and restore the parts that you can. It sounds from reading a bit about it like I should mod my Xbox because it's a v.1 with a supposedly unreliable DVD drive, but I'm pretty intimidated by modding overall. Anybody have experience doing this stuff or enjoy it? Also, maybe this should go in Retro Gaming?

Bumping this because I played guitar on this track: Brandi Carlile and Renée Elise Goldsberry Cover ‘I Put a Spell on You’ for the ‘Social Dilemma’ Soundtrack (EXCLUSIVE) VARIETY.COM Variety has the premiere of Brandi Carlile and Renee Elise Goldsberry doing "I Put a Spell on You" for the new "Social Dilemma" soundtrack.

Basically Eurogamer is it. USGamer was awesome, but as already mentioned they are sadly no more. It actually blows my mind how bad games journalism is on the whole. Either you have to watch an inexplicably long youtube video that has about 2% of interesting content throughout, or you have to read poorly written short articles that are basically summaries of tweets. Popular podcasts like Giant Bomb also seem to just boil down to "this was good, this was bad, holy shit this snack is awesome". There is nothing of any critical substance in most anything game related in my experience.

Microsoft buying Sega would be amazing, and might make sense given Sega's adoption of the first Xbox when they got out of the hardware business. If MS did that, then all of those amazing games could hopefully be added via back compat. Stuff like JSRF (still unlikely due to music licensing, unfortunately), Outrun 2, Gunvalkyrie, Otogi, etc. I'd say Nintendo announces new docked-only switch model (this is what the "Pro" is). Sony releases a new stand and differently colored plates for PS5. MS announces some sort of VR support to capitalize on the lack of clarity on the future of PSVR.

Holy shit this was so cathartic and amazing.

Personally I'm very excited for Third-Person Open World Game, Another Metroidvania, and Indie Rogue-like 1-100.

Ok yes, great, but where is Wolfenstein III??

My pandemic has been primarily spent revisiting old games, which has been wonderful. I've gravitated towards nostalgic experiences that feel comfortable and remind me of less disruptive and intense periods of my life. At the same time, playing lots of older games is really illuminating and has helped me understand why so many new games leave me cold. Playing Mario Galaxy in HD was an absolutely magical experience, pure gameplay and moment-after-moment of creative genius. After getting a Series X, I've spent all my time guffawing at the upscaling and HDR applied to games like Ninja Gaiden, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and SSX3. And then other stuff that isn't enhanced but that looks mind blowing with HDR, like Jet Set Radio and Geometry Wars. So I don't have a specific game that's defined my pandemic, but my preference for games has definitely been altered by it.

I debating whether to get this on PS4, because it looks like it has interesting PSVR support, or on Series X due to graphical enhancements. I'll probably wait and see what people say about the VR portion.

My wife had a reaction to her second shot. She had a fever, aches and chills, but only for about 24 hours. It subsided pretty quickly and wasn't too severe.

Agreed. I haven't played Evolve, but understand it to be a mess.

My wife was vaccinated at her hospital this morning. She has the second dose scheduled three weeks from today.