Video Games What video games are you currently playing?

[th555]

Just bought trackmania 2 (canyon), highly enjoyable and highly irrealistical racing, just like every other game in the series.

[jlobkob]

tomorrow is the release of guild wars 2, so that's what i'm going to play for the next months.

[Guest trananhhung]

I'm thinking of buying Lollipop Chainsaw and Binary Domain. Any advice?

[Dan C]

Dark Souls soul level 1 play through.

 

Because I have huge monster balls etc etc

[kaini]

tell me watmm, is the demon's souls port really AWFUL? it's a game i've wanted to play for a very long time but i hear so much about crappy controls and all that... i know there are hacks to sort out the res/fps bullshit... but does the UI actually make the game worse?

[Ego]

The resolution isn't an issue anymore. The resolution mod works great.

 

This is still far from great though:

- ATI cards seem to preform much worse, especially with the resolution fix

- 30 FPS cap remains and probably wont be fixed by modders. According to some things I've heard, they used a fixed timestep for a lot of animation and gameplay purposes. (anno 2011 )

- Mouse and keyboard controls are bad

 

The UI is exactly the same as the console version and is fine if you're playing on a controller. Doesn't make much sense on mouse and keyboard. My GTX470 SLI gets solid 30FPS at 1080p, but for some it drops down to 15 or lower. It has been stable for me, no crashes or weird issues.

 

It's a fantastic game though. If you haven't played Demon's Souls or Dark Souls on console I'd recommend it for sure.

[kaini]

- ATI cards seem to preform much worse, especially with the resolution fix

 

gaaaah

and they wonder why people tend to pirate games as a demo.

[Guest jasondonervan]

Good summary of events from Ego there. Durante's resolution fix is up to version 5 now, loving the Depth of Field resolution fix he included, now stuff in the distance looks perfect.

 

I've got it running nicely on a solo GTX680, the odd frame drop here or there from 30fps but nothing major. My two remaining issues that I hope someone fix are:

 

- The developer splash screens take forever to load. Kill them!

- The UI text is still at the lower resolution. In a way it adds to the grubby vibe that DS exudes, but it would be nice to have it a little smoother.

[mcbpete]

- 30 FPS cap remains and probably wont be fixed by modders. According to some things I've heard, they used a fixed timestep for a lot of animation and gameplay purposes. (anno 2011 )

Excuse my ignorance - but what's the issue with having a 30fps cap - Don't your eyes work slower than that anyway ? There's probably an obvious answer to this which will end with me slapping my forehead with my stupidity.

[Guest ChrisUpLate]

Hello everyone,

 

Currently trying not to crap my pants while i play through Deadspace...

 

eagerly awaiting Borderlands 2

[Friendly Foil]

- 30 FPS cap remains and probably wont be fixed by modders. According to some things I've heard, they used a fixed timestep for a lot of animation and gameplay purposes. (anno 2011 )

Excuse my ignorance - but what's the issue with having a 30fps cap - Don't your eyes work slower than that anyway ? There's probably an obvious answer to this which will end with me slapping my forehead with my stupidity.

I always thought the human eye could see around 120 fps. maybe I'm wrong.

[mcbpete]

Actually after a little research I can see what the benefits of a larger frame rate would bring - http://www.100fps.com/how_many_frames_can_humans_see.htm

[Ego]

You can certainly see the difference between 30 and 60 fps. It makes the difference between acceptable and silky smooth. Some people claim they can see the difference between 120 and 60, but I haven't seen anyone ABX that.

 

Apart from visual smoothness, 30 fps adds another 33ms input lag. Which can be very noticeable as well.

 

If you're used to 30 fps you probably won't be that bothered. But try capping a game to 30 after playing it at 60 for a while. The difference should be obvious.

 

[Dan C]

I don't know if I can think of any two things less important to Dark Souls than having it run at 1080p or above 30fps.

 

Maybe having a difficulty setting I guess?

[Ego]

I'm fairly certain it has some side effects which serve to reduce the overall responsiveness of game in terms of visual output, i.e. whereas a game with no fps limit will deliver, say, 40 frames per second during really intensive scenes (e.g. firefights, lots of physics), the same game with an fps limit of, say, 30, will not deliver 30 fps during those same scenes. instead it'll drop them to like 20 or something.

 

I had such an experience when experimenting with the vsync option, which imposes an fps limit that depends on the maximum number your monitor can display before "tearing" starts to occur.

 

That's not really how it works. If a game is capped at 30 it gets 33ms to do all game logic and drawing per frame. If it can't complete that within those 33ms and starts to drop frames, it wouldn't be able to do so without a cap either. So if you get 25fps with a 30fps cap, you'll probably get 25fps with no cap as well.

 

Vsync is not just frame limiting. It locks your framerate to the refresh rate of your display. If you can't get to 60fps it drops all the way down to 30fps because your refresh rate needs to be evenly divisible by the framerate. You can alleviate this somewhat by using tripple buffering but that adds some input lag and few games support it. Nvidia recently added adaptive vsync to their driver which automatically switches vsync off if your system can't manage 60fps in a certain scene.

[Ego]

If you can't get to 60fps it drops all the way down to 30fps because your refresh rate needs to be evenly divisable by the framerate.

 

Ah, I didn't know this. I thought it was some kind of inefficiency introduced by crudely capping frame rates, and then figured a similar thing might happen with an actual cap in the case of these ports. Thanks for the explanation. And I assume you meant 25 fps in both cases in your example.

 

I always felt triple buffering didn't do enough to improve frame rates when using vsync. In the end I just turned vsync off and ignored screen tearing.

 

Woops, yes I meant 25 fps in both cases.

 

And same here. If I get bad FPS, vsync is the first to go.

[Guest Iain C]

Started a new game of Dark Souls over the bank holiday weekend. Maybe it's because I can remember all the enemies' attack patterns, maybe it's just the fact that I put over 150 hrs into in the first couple of times around, but I just can't get into it. I think for a lot of people it's going to be one of those games that's amazing the first time round - when everything is a surprise and it's genuinely challenging - but it definitely suffers from diminishing returns.

 

As for what I'm actively playing: Civ V (and losing badly) and Red Dead Redemption (mainly just for letting off steam by shooting horses in the face with shotguns). But mostly I'm playing board and card games, because I'm a boring cunt.

[747Music]

I'm having lots of fun playing Fallout: New Vegas. I'm trying to get the platinum. I should have it within a week. Then it won't be long until Borderlands 2 comes out, which will be awesome.

[SR4]

I'm having lots of fun playing Fallout: New Vegas. I'm trying to get the platinum. I should have it within a week. Then it won't be long until Borderlands 2 comes out, which will be awesome.

 

 

man im forever in love with F:NV...i got a bit burnt out on the ultimate edition, but ill be back. Glad you are digging it too.

[Friendly Foil]

played BF3 for the first time ever yesterday.

 

Played a few levels of the campaign. got pissed off at the jet part, where you have to shoot the other jets before they take off from the airfield.

 

Played a multiplayer match. got pissed off because, first of all, the match lasted 40 MINUTES! That's too damn long! Second of all, I got spawn killed again and again by some dude in a tank.

 

This game is not very good so far. I should've known I wouldn't like it very much, because I've pretty much hated every Battlefield game I've ever played. It's always the same crap. Run out in the open > get sniped by some douche hiding in a bush on the other side of the map. Drive a vehicle > Get svarmed by enemy tanks and helicopters. I really don't get the love for this series.

[Friendly Foil]

Also, what's up with the weird red and white lights coming from the enemies?! I can't see anything!! Halp!

[Guest jasondonervan]

The latest update on the Vita finally lets you run original PS games. Loaded up a few classics, they look great on it.

[Guest Frankie5fingers]

played BF3 for the first time ever yesterday.

 

Played a few levels of the campaign. got pissed off at the jet part, where you have to shoot the other jets before they take off from the airfield.

 

Played a multiplayer match. got pissed off because, first of all, the match lasted 40 MINUTES! That's too damn long! Second of all, I got spawn killed again and again by some dude in a tank.

 

This game is not very good so far. I should've known I wouldn't like it very much, because I've pretty much hated every Battlefield game I've ever played. It's always the same crap. Run out in the open > get sniped by some douche hiding in a bush on the other side of the map. Drive a vehicle > Get svarmed by enemy tanks and helicopters. I really don't get the love for this series.

see thats how ive always felt about those games. but i don't think ive ever had it as bad as you did. lol i at least get a kill or two in before im totally spamed by some little douche bag from tailand. lol so i at least dont have a HORRIBLE experiance. but those games are more of a time waster to play with your pals. its not that great to play against random people. thats how i feel about it.

[Rubin Farr]

played BF3 for the first time ever yesterday.

 

Played a few levels of the campaign. got pissed off at the jet part, where you have to shoot the other jets before they take off from the airfield.

 

Played a multiplayer match. got pissed off because, first of all, the match lasted 40 MINUTES! That's too damn long! Second of all, I got spawn killed again and again by some dude in a tank.

 

This game is not very good so far. I should've known I wouldn't like it very much, because I've pretty much hated every Battlefield game I've ever played. It's always the same crap. Run out in the open > get sniped by some douche hiding in a bush on the other side of the map. Drive a vehicle > Get svarmed by enemy tanks and helicopters. I really don't get the love for this series.

Practice.

[Guest Iain C]

Apparently the new episode of The Walking Dead has finally hit Steam, which is convenient cause I've got nothing to do tonight. Can't wait to get into it - episode 2 was brilliant.