crispy4000

I thought that for a while too. Steam is more lightweight, and gets the job done. Frankly, I got tired of searching for banner images of each non-Steam game I'd add. This automates the process, and gives a better looking full screen mode, plus superior sorting and import options. For me, that's worth it, especially since I've got the PC routed to my 4k TV.

I see the "free" anti-aliasing at 4k as a 'nice things' option for those who spring for top of the line cards. For those still wanting a more perfect 4k image than with TAA, and whose card can already handle all the fidelity and framerate they ideally want at 4k. I also don't think you, or I, are part of that market. What excites me more is what the lower tier versions of these cards will be able to do once they hit mainstream pricing. By then, many more games should support (standard) DLSS. That's the long game I see here - a great value proposition with cards that punch well above their specs. I am curious as to how AMD will respond. Not only with the PC graphics card market, but to the next-gen consoles as well. They did work with Sony on checkerboarding. Personally, I'm just glad to see PC gaming start to embrace these techniques in a more tangible way. Like with HDR support too. It's about time.

I haven’t either. On the other hand, I might actually buy Shadow of War now that they’re removed, whereas I’d probably pass on it before. I’m much less likely to buy games when they aren’t bloated with super special digital edition launch crap, and loot boxes are like that but worse to me. I’m happy with what action the controversy inspired.

Supports emulators, but even if they were made illegal, this wouldn’t be. You have to provide all the files to set that up. It’s a front end. The only thing you can download through it is box art, screenshots, etc.

I'll see if I can upload some of the PC game videos I spliced at some point. That's the biggest pain about the whole thing, honestly. I've done a shit ton.

As the Epic Store stuff was first going down, I mentioned that if I found a universal launcher with a fullscreen mode and good organizational features, I'd consider dropping Steam as my general library manager. That promoted me to give Launchbox a shot, and that's exactly what happened. The result: Full disclosure, its $50 to unlock the full screen ('BigBox') mode for a forever license. I feel like I've gotten what I paid for, even though it's taken a bit of time to set up. (more on that later) I'm using a relatively simple theme, one of the two defaults. There's more extravagant options out there, but this view provided me what I found most attractive: a large video viewing, featured background art, and a box scroll. Pros: Library organization: On Steam, I had over 30 unique tags and over 500 games. While Valve's tagging works fine, it was all getting too cluttered for me without the ability to create folders or nested categories. This program gives me exactly what I wanted. I can split my backlog into categories, auto-generate playlists with a huge number of options, create folders and subfolders, etc. You can organize your games by whatever metric you can think of. Great Steam Integration: Apps like this tend to focus mainly on emulation. I wanted something that could also do most of the legwork for my Steam library. Launchbox automatically imports all of your Steam games, and pulls metadata from its own database for box art/screenshots/etc. When you add new games on Steam, you can run a wizard to detect it. Opening a game when it isn't installed will bring up Steam's install menu for it. There's an additional plugin that pulls trailers and banner art directly from Steam. Even store tags, which you can use to auto-generate playlists from. (finally!) Supports Other Launchers/Apps: Most games within Origin, Epic Store, Humble, etc also have art and metadata on Launchbox's database. It's a similar process to adding non-Steam games to Steam. If you want to open those games directly and skip the launcher, you'll need to edit command line parameters, which you can do within Launchbox if you choose. A plugin also exists that lets you launch specific games with Steam overlay enabled. I personally use that for DS4 support in games (or apps) that don't support it natively. Fortunately, the fullscreen 'Bigbox' mode does. Retro Gaming: If you do use it for emulators, it's easy to configure and supports Retroarch. The only downside is that videos clips are pulled from a paid-for database. There's alternatives elsewhere on the net if you look hard enough. Another cool feature is the ability to load different view themes by platform: Non-Full screen interface: I'll seldom ever use it for more than playlist organization, but there's a pretty decent games view. I prefer the list option: Only downside is that a few customization features (such as color scheme) aren't available in the free version of the app. Development community is fantastic: The tutorial videos are wonderful and extensive. I had a question responded to within minutes in their forum. There's a ton of themes and playlist content out there too, and the app itself tends to receive a major update every few months. Cons: Performance: It's not quite as snappy as I'd hope for, but can be similar to Steam Big Picture after a few adjustments. Namely, there's a setting to lower the image quality of cached box art (still looks fine on 'low' on my 4k TV). Some themes don't rely on background art, which you can also disable. Videos don't seem to impact performance much at all. But count on it reserving ~1GB of RAM if you want a lot of frills. No importing your own tags from Steam: Bit of a bummer. If you've already organized everything by tags Steam, you'll have to start over. Auto-generated playlists can help, and in general, the interface for sorting things is much easier. PC Game Video Snaps: You'd have to clip these yourself with a lossless video cutter, either from Steam trailers or Youtube gameplay. Video plugins can help with that, but depending on the size of your library, this will take some time. I've done 400+ so far, and could share some if people want. Absent features: There's not much, but two that stand out are the inability to know if a Steam game is installed or not, or know your controller's battery life. A work around might exist for the latter. But for now, I'm still resorting to the Steam client for those two things. Achievements are also only shown on Steam, afaik. (although you can add achievements for retro games, a nice touch) Playlists menu appearance: With some themes, you won't have to touch it at all. Since I'm using custom playlist icons and backgrounds, I've chosen to tinker a bit more. Including making a few ones the community hasn't. Overall: Launchbox is a fantastic program, but does require a decent amount of learning and set up. For the most part, it mitigates the pain points around having multiple PC launchers, and puts it together in a more attractive package than Steam Big Picture. It's still the library organization features that do the most for me. And if you don't want to go through the hassle of putting together videos, it'll still scrape all the images you need to make the fullscreen mode look nice. There's some free alternatives out there, but I think this worth the asking price. Especially with the playlist features and theme options. And if you like the look of something in a competing app, chances are its already been replicated here.

That too, but it's the same technique. Since you're someone who sees the benefit to checkerboarding, why would DLSS 2x be more exciting than normal DLSS? I'd always go with the performance gains and extra GPU headroom.

This is a bit misleading. The 'fancy upscaling' and 'super efficient AA' you're referring to are one in the same. In practice, its Nvidia's alternative to checkerboarding with superior IQ, which they've been marketing as a form of AA. The bigger deal here is that PC market is finally starting to embrace upscaling reconstruction techniques. Like the Pro, these new cards should be able to punch way above their weight class in games that utilize them properly. That could mean huge gains over both the Pro and X, beyond what the PC can already brute force.

I hope they don't stop there. I want it patched into as many of this gen's games as possible.

Sounds noble at least, and perhaps needed on some level in the industry to counterbalance the conduct at Riot, etc. I don't think this will be a particular help to his team hitting their deadlines. There's too many other factors at play, IMO. Not the least being the higher ups calling the shots and making crunch demands.

Kholat free on Steam for a limited time: https://store.steampowered.com/app/343710/Kholat/

That would be enough to keep the web crawlers away.

FYI, it’s best to distribute via pm. No idea if any webcrawlers would ever check this board, but there are those that do take keys.

Microsoft does deserve props for BC. In my view, it is the best argument to purchase a Microsoft console ahead of a PC (upgrade). There's still a good number of og Xbox and 360 games that never got ported anywhere, and its great to see them automatically enhanced. That said, the most exciting thing happening right now in the retro space is AI texture up-scaling with ESRGAM/Waifu/etc. There's going to be tons of up-rezed PC mods coming in the next few months.

I think what frustrates me most is that no one makes these types of games anymore that aren’t sidescrollers. Arkham Asylum is the closest I can think of.

I’m weird with Final Fantasy. I’ve only beaten 3-7, and 13. 13 was a bit offputting in its linearity and self indulgence, but the combat system and it was a fun spectacle. For someone who always heard it was bad, I had low expectations and came away pleasantly surprised. There’s other RPGs that we’re much better that gen, like Radiant Historia and Xenoblade. But I’m curious to try out 9, 10 and 12 sometime to see what the fuss was about.

Just hold off on closing until a Switch revision please. I've got $150 worth of trade in credit from a normal PS4 to a Pro.

They need more games with DLSS support and to market these cards towards that end.

It's only normal when other consoles are time locked out of 3rd party content. Then money-hatting is cool. Microsoft wrote the script on this last gen, plus went hard in with Rise of the Tomb Raider. What others do with their playbook isn't for them to judge.

It does sound like you can clear nests to make it safer to travel though. I wonder if it'd actually be better to travel at night once you've done that.

Golden Sun isn't a good JRPG (series) though. It doesn't do enough right outside of the puzzles, which are still a poor man's Lufia 2.

Axiom Verge is next! https://www.pcgamer.com/axiom-verge-is-the-next-free-game-on-the-epic-games-store/ I'm pumped. I don't think it's ever dropped below $10. I'm 3 of 5 from Epic's store on games I didn't own.

I doubt I'll be buying a next gen console until the back half of the generation. - If history repeats itself, the game library will take its sweet time and cross gen with be the norm. - Once it comes into its own, a hardware revision will be right around the corner. - A subscription future isn't for me. I want full agency over my digital game library. I enjoy bargain hunting. - Cross-platform multiplayer will be a given. I'd rather not pay for it. - PC releases are more common than Xbox ports these days. I'd rather not buy another Microsoft console unless priorities shift. - DLSS should (hopefully) make PC gaming more cost effective than in the past. I'm open to hearing Microsoft and Sony out. Dropping XBLG/PS+ would get my attention. So would working with AMD on an improved checkerboarding/DLSS-like algorithm. Raytracing should be part of the package, but if the current tech is any indication, it sounds like a great reason to wait for a revision. A killer launch window line-up of exclusives could do it for me too. But we haven't seen one since the Gamecube IMO.

Damn. I wanted it sooner, but can totally respect the decision. I don’t only want Retro on board, but Armature too. There’s some talent from the original team there. Both companies are in Austin. Regardless, it feels right for Retro to have their baby back. Nintendo at large has screwed the pooch with this franchise. The Prime series was Metroid at its best. (And I say that as someone who loved Super) I’m extremely curious about what the game looked like. They released that 3DS game no one wanted, but had to cancel this...

Edith Finch giveaway is over, Jackbox pack begins. Looking out to see what the next game will be. It typically gets announced early.