Well, that's likely because Forza Horizon hasn't been anything less than awesome yet. The worst it got was the initial PC release of FH3, which had severe performance issues....issues that were ironed out, although it did take Playground FOREVER to get it done. FH4 worked flawlessly from launch, and there's no reason to suspect 5 won't as well. There will undoubtedly be a demo, so you can see how it runs/looks for yourself.

I really, REALLY hope they eventually catch on to the whole "remaster" thing, and make a Forza game that has ALL the previous areas/expansions. They could even make them all separate paid DLC, I'd happily even re-buy that stuff just to have it all in one executable! I'd love to scoot around in FH2's european villas again, and since you can't buy the Hot Wheels expansion (nor FH3) anymore, it'd be nice to let newcomers experience their craziest expansion ever.

Johnny Depp doesn’t even voice the character. From the trailer, he does a reasonable mimic, but it’s not quite right.

They’re claiming it’s actual story content, so that might make it worth playing. SoT was too reliant on “emergent gameplay” to hold my attention for more than a couple days, having a story to adventure through would probably hold my attention for precisely the length of that story.

Well, they got my money again. Looks like a much more diverse location than FH4, and they even seem to have snuck a tiny bit of the Hot Wheels expansion's insanity in. I still think they should release the Hot Wheels expansion either as a standalone, or maybe make Forza Horizon into Forza World, bringing every location back, and then selling access (or gamepass, of course) to new areas.

The UnMetal trailer was....man, that was pretty damn good. As with most comedy-heavy games, I do worry that I just saw all the best parts, but I've been pleasantly surprised before. Journey to the Savage Planet was quite funny, start to finish, and a spectacular action/puzzle game as well.

Huh. I still think Xortex had a way better idea for it, and it wasn't even a standalone game.

This midway multiverse game has unnecessarily shitty graphics, likely built to work on the Quest standalone.

I'm torn on the Quest headsets....on one hand, they get VR into more homes than VR requiring a PC, and right now, that's a HUGE benefit. Video cards capable of running even midrange VR games cost well over $1000, IF you can even find one. The Quest 2 is quite nice, overall, and a killer deal when you add in the PC compatibility as well.
On the other hand, the headsets bring the visual quality of games down a LONG way. Games made for both are always built with the shittiest hardware as the target, making the PC version look unnecessarily poor. I'm not terribly worried about Quest exclusives, as the hardware is self-contained. It's not the bullshit that Oculus games (the PC ecosystem) pull, where they refuse to support any other headsets. I honestly wish ReVive *HAD* been sued into oblivion, because too many weak-spined players will use it to play games that they've been walled out of. There's no warranty, or support, or anything, when playing that way, yet they charge the same price.

Oh wow! They’re all-in this time, they’ve never said that before!


To be fair, they’ve been doing a good job of releasing PC versions of their first party games. While UWP is a bit annoying, the crossplay it allows for is nice.

This means Indie studios may be able to compete graphically with AAAs, making gameplay the real difference.
Also, from a lot of what I've seen with these tech demos, the engine runs shockingly well even on modest hardware.

I haven't seen anyone try to show us what tons of *moving parts* looks like, though. Again, I'd like to see something like late-game Satisfactory in this engine.

You too can have Super-Hearing, all you have to do is wear this thing on your head that makes you look like a donk.

The Capy collection includes Critter Crunch, which can be currently purchased for just a few cents over a dollar. Very fun, gorgeous puzzle game.

Huh. I was gonna grab a 10850k at Microcenter next week but if DDR5 is coming *this year*, I may just hold out. My current machine is still on DDR3, it'd be kinda cool to leapfrog an entire ram generation. It still does well enough most of the time still (the somewhat legendary 4790K), but the motherboard has, of course, NO new features. No NVME (or even m.2) drives for me currently.

The devs kept putting resources toward making more content, but no effort into getting the game to run better. played it upon launch, and again a few months back with friends. Ran poorly both times.

The game apparently lets you do some sort of Good Shep/Bad Shep, but a reviewer tried both ways and the results were identical. So the devs wanted there to FEEL like you had some agency in the story, but you absolutely don't. Someone in management couldn't STAND the idea of creating content that might not be seen by every single player. That's not cost-effective!

Sounds an awful lot like the bug queen you save/exterminate in Mass Effect...in the end, you still fight her again in ME3. *That* was the moment that soured me most in the ME trilogy. By the time I got to the ending, I had already given up on there being any real difference to how MY story ended vs anyone else's.

Always intended to pick this game up. And now I have!

Hades ($10 on EGS) is eating up my time right now. I knew it was considered to be good, but I was not prepared for HOW good it is.

Like, pretty much all 4 of those are "Your HDD is dying". It's so rare that anything else actually blows up, unless you spill something in it or drop it. If your laptop still boots off of a HDD, well...it's time to replace it anyway, and likely the entire laptop.

Slashman wrote on May 27, 2021, 10:39:

Interesting. I never really looked at the Uncharted series very closely. Always thought it was basically a male version of Tomb Raider.

I mean....you're not entirely wrong. They're both games about exploring long-abandoned locations, fighting other treasure hunters along the way. The characters are better defined in Uncharted, for sure...Lara's got personality TRAITS, but no personality.
Unlike the new Tomb Raiders, which have backtracking and whatnot, the Uncharted games are a linear story. The second one was so good, I bought the remastered series just to go back and play it again. But don't expect much replayability beyond experiencing the story again.

No, you don’t NEED to play the first 3 games. 4 is quite self-contained, and easily the best one of the series. Uncharted 2 comes in second place, then 1, and then 3’s nonsensical bullshit comes up dead last.

If you don’t have a PS4, UC4 is one of the biggest highlights. Now all they need to do is bring God of War along for the ride.

I mean...it's mostly "WoW-con", with bits for their other games.

I don't have any hatred toward Blizzard Now vs Blizzard Then. They make polished games. That hasn't changed. They've always copied other game types.

I *AM* disappointed in Warcraft 3 Reforged, and that disappointment has fed my disinterest in the Diablo 2 remake. I'll just play Diablo 4 whenever that comes out.

The only Blizzard game I play with any regularity anymore is SC2's Co-Op mode. It's a blast, with a surprising variety of gameplay styles.

The forward compatibility thing is the biggest gain, honestly. Projects currently halfway through production on UE4 can be shifted to 5. I doubt it's a 100% smooth transition, but it's probably not HORRIBLE.

I'll be interested to see what people do with this EA version in terms of trying to break it. They *SHOW* it handling a shit ton of triangles, but in what feels very...controlled. There's only ever a few interactive things moving. Show me a stampede running through the area, with dust being kicked up and the animals reacting to each other.

Would a game like Satisfactory, which has a lot of framerate issues when moving faster than the general run speed (as in, when you're in a train or driving the faster vehicles), see a huge performance boost JUST from switching engine? Would a game that complex make the jump decently? It has a truly mind-boggling amount of moving parts that work *pretty damn well*. Would performance-destroying stunts like what LetsGameItOut still wreck framerate?

Up until this info leaked, Gabe's "console announcement" was assumed to be HL:Alyx for PSVR2. Now it's likely...well, both Alyx AND this handheld.

BTW, for everyone complaining that they stopped making games, may I point to Alyx and remind you that they did, in fact, make a game quite recently. It's so good that when people try my VR kit for the first time, I don't let them play Alyx first. It puts expectations in place that aren't realistic currently. It looks SO DAMN GOOD that everything else just looks lazy by comparison. Sure, it's a very linear game, but so were HL1 and 2.

Hooray, another piece of hardware that they'll abandon!