How was performance for you? I've seen reports about it being patchy to downright atrocious at times and on even high-end systems.
Framerates varied a lot when I bothered to check them. Generally 45-60fps at 1440p high (capped at 60fps, obviously rtx off with a gtx1080). Low 30s was the worst I saw, but I wouldn't have actually noticed it had dropped that far if I hadn't been monitoring it at that point. Weirdly there's no rhyme or reason for the scenes that dip. They were often the indoor areas in tight corridors.
Thanks. I guess I'll wait a bit until I buy this one. I'm sensitive to frame rates going all over the place and what you described sounds like it could very well bother me enough to spoil the game.
Assassins Creed: Valhalla. I finished the main story thread and am just mopping up the side stuff now. Really enjoyed it. I've not played any AC since AC2 which put me off a bit so I was a bit tentative as to whether I'd enjoy Valhalla or not. I'm going to try Odyssey next.
Mass Effect Andromeda 7.5/10 Finished my second playthrough, almost four years after playing it through at launch back in 2017. A lot's changed for me over that period, so it was nice to revisit. So, to the core of it: is MEA a bad game? Well, no - the gameplay is great fun and while the storylines do have some badly written and acted moments, as long as you stick to the more serious conversation options, it's mostly okay. The best way I can think of describing it is that the original trilogy was meant for adults and MEA is for teens, kind of like a cartoon series shown on Saturday mornings that is based on a film rated 18+. Good points: Fantastic gameplay: I favoured the biotic charging vanguard class (with cloak thrown in for good measure), armed with an Asari sword and the game's most powerful one hit shotgun, charging around like a mad thing. Watched Man of Steel? The fight scenes in that are how it felt - satisfyingly powerful, and way better than the original trilogy. Gorgeous visuals: The Frostbite 2 engine delivers extraordinary graphics, it's just a shame other things let it down (see below). It's great to see some character models (particularly Turian and Krogan) rendered so well. Lots of things to do: plenty of quests and zipping around the galaxy. A decent story 'backbone': The Kett and the Remnant had me intrigued and I'd be curious to see where the story goes, assuming the next Mass Effect is an Andromeda sequel. Genuine effort to give you hard choices: I felt that the original trilogy's moral dilemmas were actually never hard choices and were obvious in which should be chosen. MEA has gone the extra mile and made me pause while I tried to weigh up both sides. Indeed, I think I made different decisions the second time around. Bad points: 'Tween' writing and sub plots: the original trilogy felt more mature - some conversation options had me facepalming and/or cringing. Romance: I've never really been a fan of romance in games, but MEA really seems to have an immature approach to it. Buggy: the game quite often crashed, typically while accessing consoles on the Tempest. The VRAM usage was insane too, always hovering near 12GB VRAM (at one point I had to temporarily go down to 1440p from 4K to avoid crashing out in a cutscene). Inconsistent performance: some cut scenes would judder down to single digit FPS - this would also happen when looking at some things (particularly comets) on the System Map. Broken side missions(?): some of the additional tasks seemed impossible to complete. Terrible character models: whilst some characters are well done, others are truly bad. Some of the human models are downright atrocious and WHAT THE HELL IS WITH THE SH!TE HAIR COLOURS?! It seems as though most women in the future have dyed their hair as though they're an anime character or something. So, overall, certainly worth playing - despite the problems, it had me coming back for more.
Greedfall on the PC. It's an action RPG with a sort of early 17th century-styled fantasy setting. It probably won't be for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I got to play a Legate using diplomacy to get several factions to play ball, all the while being a kick-ass. The combat is fairly simple, but it was engaging enough. I really loved the armor actually. It seemed pretty realistic for once. Story oriented, but it is all thankfully voiced. If you like brainless thing however, then you should probably just stick to CoD.
Borderlands 3 6/10 Finished this up today with a friend. All I can really say is 'meh'. Far too easy - the only time we had any real fun was one of the Slaughterdome 3000 challenges, where it was wall to wall enemies. The end boss fight took all of about a couple of minutes to get out the way. I haven't played the DLC, but considering my friend doesn't have it, it's likely I'll never get around to it. It was also quite annoying the amount of time it took to sift through loot - would rather have fewer items to look through. Certainly not a terrible game, but you'd be better off replaying something you genuinely enjoyed.
Prey (2017) Really enjoyed it. I completed Bioshock grudgingly, the gameplay and art style just didnt work for me. I had a similar experience with Dishonoured, I just didn't get the hype. Along comes Prey... a sci-fi game with similar mechanics but presented in a way I finally found pleasing. I was so ingrossed in the world and side quests, constantly recycling circuit boards and fabricating shotgun shells that I forgot about the main plot but i enjoyed it all the same! Highs - weapons are creative and interesting. The GLOO gun, green lazer thing, recycle grenade, typhoon lure. Sound design is great, I hear the recycler and fabricator in my sleep now! Lows - weapon upgrades are stat based rather than visual, deadspace nailed this. Also space walking in fun, but again deadspace did it better. In summary - Deadspace > Prey > Dishonoured > Bioshock
Remember to set 60FPS vsync chaps, otherwise it'll take you half a year to turn around with the mouse.
Wait, you mean that slow turning isn't a design decision? I thought it was reflection of the restriction of the suit
The Evil Within, seeing as it hit Game Pass. Stressful, claustrophobic and no clue what was going on. Loved every minute of it, including the few boss fights that are 1 hit kills if you get caught which usually feel cheap.
Goldeneye XBLA on 00 Agent (ok, I've finished Cradle but not Aztec or Egyptian yet) Loved it. I particularly love how each level has to be a 5 minute run of perfection, otherwise you die (and have to start again). Frustrating in places (a seemingly infinite spawn of enemies in Archive), but overall a fantastic bit of nostalgia and still a great game in its own right.
Saints Row: The Third. At least in the sense that I've done all of the activities on the map and got all of the collectibles.
Can I first say a big thank you to you all! I often return to this thread for ideas on what to play next and its great to hear from so many passionate advocates for thier games. The last game I completed was Subnautica. I'd meant to play it for a while but between a long Steam list (thanks for emptying my wallet Steam sales) and two boys to look after I never got around to it until this year. If you're looking for a one sentence review: "Immersive survival/horror game set on an Alien world in which you search for fellow survivors and the truth of how you all ended up there." It is very 'open world' and doesn't hand hold. There are lots of useful clues if you are willing to scan and read about your environment. There are no timed events so you set your own pace and choose your own play style. I like the cat strategy: build a base and each day explore a little further then return to the safety of your base." Eventually you'll start building further afield and exploring deeper, gently enticed by the game. The graphics look a little dated now but its still immersive. The music and soundscape is incredible. Subnautica does terror well - from your early fear of fish that will chase you and explode to those that try to bite a chunk out of you it makes it clear early on that you're out of your depth (excuse the pun) and just when you start to feel safe and push deeper the game will flip things on you again.Definitely a game to get lost in. I completely understand the passion of the community. Drawbacks: It's an open world game with a large map so if you travel quickly it can take a few moments for things to pop into view - for those with better graphics cards, there is no way to extend the draw distance to avoid this. Its not very well optimised so it'll run okay on a 970GTX/1060 but your 2080ti won't get you a huge amount more. The most important thing is having it on ssd - this reduces the 'pop in' late loading of objects. As your base gets bigger or you build more it can slow things down a little and even better cards will notice a little stuttering. The best news: Subnautica: Below Zero - a new game set after the first has just been released. It's on the same world but in an arctic region. If you love the original then this will give you a whole new story to explore. Lots of tweaks over the original. Better graphics, a more optimised engine, a lot more story and a whole new soundscape. Well worth £25.
