Breaking Dad's Big Bad Gaming Discussion - For all things to do with PC Gaming !

[Paliv]

So, who's stoked for Starfield then?

Definitely me! And my mid cycle upgrade just meets their top system specs for ultra (no reference to resolution or frame rate). 5800X and 7900XT. Hoping it runs well

 

[RMerlin]

Will definitely be playing, but not in such a hurry since BG3 is plenty to keep me occupied at the moment.

 

[Maverick009]

So, who's stoked for Starfield then?

I actually have the premium version of the game pre-ordered and also received a free copy of that same version with my new X3D CPU purchase. I am very stoked for this game.

 

[BreakingDad]

Will definitely be playing, but not in such a hurry since BG3 is plenty to keep me occupied at the moment.

Are you enjoying BG3? I played D:OS2 not ventured to BG3 yet.

 

[RMerlin]

Are you enjoying BG3? I played D:OS2 not ventured to BG3 yet.

If you liked D:OS2, you will also like BG3. Similar combat tactics (although not as extreme when it comes to using environmental surfaces). Combat is a bit more balanced than it was in Early Access (where many fights were REALLY brutal even to a veteran like myself). Be ready to think "out of the box". That can mean pre-positioning barrels of explosive in a hallway and luring the enemy by it, for example.

Earlier this week, I was struggling with a fight against a large number of ennemies, multiple of them casting Darkness (making my spellcasters useless), and trashing me. I ended up winning the fight by backing into the hallway, throwing flasks of grease at the floor while still retreating as their mages were recasting Darkness at me. Spellcasters aren`t very agile characters, so once they reached these pools of grease, they all slipped on the floor. Throwing a rolling ball of flame (which can be cast ahead of the darkened area, it can just roll through it afterward) and having it reach and ignite that grease with a bunch of fallen down mages made for a nice barbecue. THAT kind of original thinking is what can let you win some of these toughest fights.

One thing I like is there are no random trash mob encounter at all. Every fight is actually planned (or provoked by you).

The general writing is just as good, if not better than OS2. The voice acting is the best I have heard in many years.

I really enjoy it. The story isn`t as engaging to me as Pathfinder: WOTR was, but it`s still very good. I'm currently in Act 3 where you finally are in Baldur's Gate itself. Performance was painful at times in the busy sections of the city, partly seems to be caused by a leak since restarting the game would make a huge improvement. Patch #2 landed today and is supposed to improve overall performance.

BG3 is definitely worth playing for anyone who likes CRPGs. I intend to do a second playthrough in the future, trying out the evil path.

And I found a picture of Sebille hanged on a wall

 

[sfx2000]

Interesting to note that AMD's FSR3 is vendor independent - FSR3 is their answer to nVidia's DLSS

AMD Teases FSR 3 and Hypr-RX: Updated Radeon Performance Technologies Available in September

www.anandtech.com

Upside here is that one doesn't have to have an AMD gpu to take advantage - so benefit here is early on in the pipeline...

Intel has also offered up some work regarding the graphics pipeline and where potential bottlenecks might be...

Can't find the link at the moment, but I'll continue to look at it - was interesting in where we get CPU bound vs GPU limits...

 

[sfx2000]

So, who's stoked for Starfield then?

Been watching this one - seems like just getting sorted and moving forward takes a bit of time...

 

[L&LD]

Starfield review: An absolute triumph in gaming that reveals the continued brilliance of Bethesda's storytelling

A mighty slow burn — Bethesda rewards the faithful with one of Microsoft's best exclusive games in over a decade.

www.windowscentral.com

 

[RMerlin]

After a few hours playing Starfield, my initial feedback is: meh. The visuals feel dated, particularly compared to BG3. The NPCs looks soulless, you can't see an hint of an emotion in their animation compared to BG3. And it seems to be closer to a FPS than an RPG, which was what also threw me off Fallout 4 (while I actually enjoyed Fallout 3).

Space combat also felt bland, with limited ship control. Again, it looks like an heavily watered down game compared to Elite Dangerous, where dogfighting is actually exciting and engaging.

People getting overexcited about "over 1000 planets!" obviously never played Elite Dangerous, where there are millions of planets to explore. And unlike Starfield, you actually land/take off from these planets, you don't just get a cut-scene animation of your ship taking off/landing.

I'll put more hours into it as we're heading into a three days weekend here, but initial impressions ain't very good.

 

[RMerlin]

15 hours into Starfield, and it's still very "meh". The overhyped exploration part of the game is pretty much shortcircuited by the fact that you are pretty much forced to Fast Travel everywhere (yes, even between planets!) because, for starter, there's no map. That's right, it's not just missing a minimap, it's flat out missing a whole map. So if you are in a district of New Atlantis (where everything is 50 miles away in a very confusing layout), good luck locating a specific building, unless it happens to have a quest marker, which you can follow using your scanner.

Someone needs to travel to the future to bring them the wonders of Google Maps.

 

[sfx2000]

15 hours into Starfield, and it's still very "meh"

It's like "No Man's Sky" on steriods, if there is such a thing...

I'm waiting for "Stray 2 - the Rescue"

 

[Paliv]

I just wanted a Bethesda game with fewer bugs. I got a Bethesda game with fewer bugs. It’s no Skyrim, there’s less soul, but I still am enjoying it.

 

[Maverick009]

After a few hours playing Starfield, my initial feedback is: meh. The visuals feel dated, particularly compared to BG3. The NPCs looks soulless, you can't see an hint of an emotion in their animation compared to BG3. And it seems to be closer to a FPS than an RPG, which was what also threw me off Fallout 4 (while I actually enjoyed Fallout 3).

Space combat also felt bland, with limited ship control. Again, it looks like an heavily watered down game compared to Elite Dangerous, where dogfighting is actually exciting and engaging.

People getting overexcited about "over 1000 planets!" obviously never played Elite Dangerous, where there are millions of planets to explore. And unlike Starfield, you actually land/take off from these planets, you don't just get a cut-scene animation of your ship taking off/landing.

I'll put more hours into it as we're heading into a three days weekend here, but initial impressions ain't very good.

I am actually enjoying Starfield. More likely due to venturing on all the side missions and not sticking to the main story line completely. The graphics I agree could be better, but they are not the worse I have seen in a game, and I feel there is still optimizations they can make overall to the game. Also saw an HD rework project has started from the same person that has done other HD rework projects getting noticed by the devs. Cannot remember the person at the moment, but his work has been great, so there is always that. The overall game has a mix of old school Wing Commander flight, Tachyon, and No Man's Sky, with Fallout 4 and Skyrim RPG vibes in space. The best way to describe it.

As I mentioned, the side quests seem to give a lot more thought to it over the main story as that I heard does not get really interesting until closer to the ending. I am also starting to enjoy the outpost and ship building, which seems to be the better features and talk of the game. There are also factions you can join, but I have not yet gotten that far. On another note, I may have to lookup Elite Dangerous, as I may of missed that on my radar. Seems like that may have more in common with the stuck in perpetual Alpha design of a game, Star Citizen, from that small description you gave....

 

[Paliv]

I am actually enjoying Starfield. More likely due to venturing on all the side missions and not sticking to the main story line completely. The graphics I agree could be better, but they are not the worse I have seen in a game, and I feel there is still optimizations they can make overall to the game. Also saw an HD rework project has started from the same person that has done other HD rework projects getting noticed by the devs. Cannot remember the person at the moment, but his work has been great, so there is always that. The overall game has a mix of old school Wing Commander flight, Tachyon, and No Man's Sky, with Fallout 4 and Skyrim RPG vibes in space. The best way to describe it.

As I mentioned, the side quests seem to give a lot more thought to it over the main story as that I heard does not get really interesting until closer to the ending. I am also starting to enjoy the outpost and ship building, which seems to be the better features and talk of the game. There are also factions you can join, but I have not yet gotten that far. On another note, I may have to lookup Elite Dangerous, as I may of missed that on my radar. Seems like that may have more in common with the stuck in perpetual Alpha design of a game, Star Citizen, from that small description you gave....

I’m starting to really like this game. I got good advice to answer all distress calls. I answered my first one 10 hours in the other day and got a fun 2 hour quest.

 

[follower]

15 hours into Starfield, and it's still very "meh". The overhyped exploration part of the game is pretty much shortcircuited by the fact that you are pretty much forced to Fast Travel everywhere (yes, even between planets!) because, for starter, there's no map. That's right, it's not just missing a minimap, it's flat out missing a whole map. So if you are in a district of New Atlantis (where everything is 50 miles away in a very confusing layout), good luck locating a specific building, unless it happens to have a quest marker, which you can follow using your scanner.

Someone needs to travel to the future to bring them the wonders of Google Maps.

It's a garbage game. I removed it.

 

[Paliv]

It's a garbage game. I removed it.

Sorry you didn’t enjoy it. Not every game clicks with everyone. There’s enough games out there that you won’t even miss this one.

 

[follower]

Sorry you didn’t enjoy it. Not every game clicks with everyone. There’s enough games out there that you won’t even miss this one.

It's 2032. I don't understand it doesn't support multi play, not even LAN play.

 

[L&LD]

It's 2032. I don't understand it doesn't support multi play, not even LAN play.

No, it's not.

Easy to understand. That is coming later.

 

[Paliv]

It's 2032. I don't understand it doesn't support multi play, not even LAN play.

I don’t care about multiplayer. The prevalence of multiplayer games and my lack of a consistent schedule to play with a group has caused me to miss a good number of games. I’m okay with that, as long as enjoyable single player experiences keep coming and hop-in multiplayer experiences are still around like Call of Duty and Fortnite solo. None of my friends have any sort of schedule that would match up for a co-op rpg, so not even a thought I’d have personally.

 

[Maverick009]

Getting away from the actual games, I just added a new upgrade in the form of 2 new Samsung Neo G8 32" 4K HDR2000 monitors to arrive to me this month to upgrade my dual 32" Dell S3220DGF 1440P Software HDR400 screens.

I’m starting to really like this game. I got good advice to answer all distress calls. I answered my first one 10 hours in the other day and got a fun 2 hour quest.

I just built my first ship last night. Only bad is I had just over 113000 credits prior and now just over 1400 credits left. Guess going to have to do more missions to build funds back up. Ship looks cool enough and adds depth on the plus side lol.