Resident Evil Village (PC)

• Sequel to the excellent Resident Evil 7
• Same first person camera perspective as RE7 and is the best playing Resident Evil game as the movement is fast and responsive and the shooting feels great.
  
• More action than RE7, but not as scary unfortunately.  A couple of jump scares, some enemies will chase you around the levels at times, and a couple of creepy locations, but nothing like RE7.  One caveat though, if you are a hand model then stay away from this game as it will freak you out.  
• The game looks great and the performance was pretty good. I had an issue where the  game would open up on my second screen for no reason which would mess up my HDR settings so I would have to redo the HDR  setup and that happened about 6 different times.  I also had a couple of massive frame rate hits in some mini-boss fights.  
• I like all the characters and the new merchant is great and of course the Tall Vampire Lady is awesome.   
• Tip:  Don't sell any of the meat you get, give it to the merchant and he'll cook you some nice meals.  
• I've never been a fan of the enemy transformations the characters go through when they are infected and turn into a boss character and this game doesn't change that.  They all have these weird tentacles and such and they are never very scary. 
• The enemies are varied and fun to fight and be sure to let each one of them kill you at least once so you can see the cool death animations. 
• The default difficulty was a good challenge.  There was one area that went on for a bit too long and had you fight too many enemies in a tight space that I was glad when it was over.   
• I completed the game in around 12 hours which is a decent length.  
• Definitely recommend the game. 

Mass Effect Legendary Edition (PC)

• The Mass Effect series was one of my favorites in the Xbox 360/PS3 era so I was excited to play through the trilogy again.  
• I replayed the first one a couple of years ago with a mod that let you use a controller on the PC version and I'm glad they added that feature to the remaster on PC.  
  
• They did a decent job of improving the graphics and the addition of HDR really makes the game look great especially with all neon and the views in space.
• The first game was more RPG than action shooter so the combat was always a bit clunky and they've improved it somewhat, but it's still not that great.  Your teammates are useless and will die pretty quickly even though you can tell them where to go. 
• I changed to the easy difficulty so I could get through the story which is the best part of the first game.  
  
• I'm about 3/4 the way through the first game so I haven't tried the 2nd or 3rd game yet as I don't want to spoil anything.  
• For new EA games you can sign up for the Origin Plus for $15 a month and play the game for a cheap price if it's something you will never play again. 

Ratchet and Clank: A Rift Apart (PS5)

• The first thing you notice is the awesome graphics.  I'm playing on the 30fps Fidelity mode since I want all the bells and whistles  and it's amazing.  There is so much detail in every scene and the world is dense with a ton of things happening in the background.  I haven't tried out the 60fps modes, but I haven't had any issues with 30fps as it feels very smooth. 
  
• The gameplay doesn't drastically change from the previous games which is a good thing as they always played and felt great.  You still get crazy weapons that have a ton of upgrade options and I like the instructional video you get for each new weapon as the voice over is really funny.  
• The big thing in the marketing was the rifts and how you would go through them and be in a totally different area with no loading.  The no loading is cool, but so far I really haven't used them that much. They are also in the combat arenas, but they feel like a grappling gun more than anything else.  I've only played a couple of hours so maybe they are used more farther into the game.  
• I was playing at a higher difficulty, but turned it down to the default after a couple of hours since it felt like the enemies were mainly bullet sponges and at the default difficulty it just felt better. I was also having a hard time knowing where I was getting hit and from what direction as there were usually a lot of enemies on the screen all around you. 
• The controller is put to good use as each gun  feels different when you pull the triggers.  There are also slight rumbles throughout the game that really add to the immersiveness, much like the rain you feel in Returnal. 
• When you play as Clank it's mainly puzzle sections that you are able to skip if you don't like them which is a nice feature. 
• The game is $70 which can leave a huge hole in your wallet, but I used BB reward points to lower the price.  
• Overall I'm enjoying the game, but it's not that much different from the older games so unless you want something new to play on your PS5 or really love the series I would give this a wait till it goes on sale.  

 

Cyberpunk 2077

 Cyberpunk 2077

• Graphics
• I'm playing the PC version with an Nvidia 3090 at 4K Ultra settings with all Ray Tracing turned on except Ray Traced Shadows in DLSS Performance mode.  I maintain 55-60 fps and with VRR the game feels smooth.
• There are issues with it's HDR implementation, but I've been able to get an amazing  picture using these settings on my LG CX.  TV Brightness set to 48 and Dynamic Tone Mapping turned off on the TV and the in-game HDR brightness set to 3000 with the midpoint balance set to .90
  
• With Ray Tracing it puts it above Demon's Souls as the best looking game.
• Walking down a dimly lit alley with water puddles on the ground reflecting a lonely red neon sign hanging from high above the building is a sight to behold.  
• There is just so much to see it's almost overwhelming as the city is so vertical and densely packed, it's an amazing world to walk around and get lost in.   
• Gameplay
• I was excited to see how they would improve upon the open world game formula and unfortunately they don't deviate very far from other open world games.  
• I'm enjoying the game, but there isn't anything revolutionary about what I'm doing moment to moment.  The world, story, and it's characters are the main draw for me.  
  
• A lot of people are trying to compare the game to GTA V, but currently it's more like Deus Ex than anything else.   Will you use stealth, hacking, or a gun's blazing approach to fulfill the mission.
  
• I was worried since it was their first game with guns that the shooting wouldn't feel great, but after tweaking some strange controller settings, it feels really good.  Their default settings have some deadzone setup which makes it feel a bit sluggish but turning those down fixed the issue for me. 
• The stealth is just ok.  There is no real indicator you are being stealthy, each enemy has a cone radius and you have about 5 seconds to move out of the cone before being spotted.  If one enemy sees you then all enemies do so I've reloaded quite a bit when that happened.  
• The hacking isn't anything special either.  Highlight a device and you can turn it off or use it to distract enemies by the press of a button if you have enough resources.  Same for enemies, you can do various things depending on how you spec your character, but so far nothing that interesting.
• The skill tree is massive, but it's filled with a lot of add 3% to shotgun damage and stuff like that.  There are only a handful of them that offer up any real game changing experiences.
• You do a lot of driving in the game and the cars that I've driven don't handle very well, it's not as responsive as I would like it to be.  The way they offer up new cars is also strange as most characters you do missions for will try to sell you a car immediately after meeting them.  Didn't know in 2077 everyone was a car dealer, also no flying cars. 
• There is a ton of loot in the game that is mostly worthless.  I have hundreds of special drinks that can alter your attributes, but I've never drank one so far.  After each battle there are a ton of items to loot, luckily they are color coded so you can just loot the special ones.  
• I'm playing on the hard difficulty as the normal mode felt like I could go on a rampage in every mission and not fail.  
• It sounds like I'm being hard on the game, but I could say most of these things about every open world game and they would apply.  I was just hoping to see something truly different.
• As I said earlier I am enjoying the game, the world is fun to explore and just look at the pretty graphics.  The story and characters are interesting and I am excited to see the story through.
• The main quest can be beaten around 20 or so hours if you run quickly through it, but not doing side missions will affect the end of the story and how many different endings are possible so I'm trying to complete all of them.  The side quests are varied enough to keep you interested and almost all of them have some story in them.
• Bugs
• The game was delayed a couple of times this year and honestly it should have been delayed once more even on PC.
• I haven't had any game breaking bugs, mostly visual bugs, but it does take you out of the game in those situations.
• The most irritating bug is sometimes when I die and the game reloads it puts the last subtitle on the screen and it stays there even though I don't have subtitles turned on.  A quick game load fixes that, but it's happened about 8 times now.
• The combat AI is decent as enemies flank and take cover, but the pedestrian and car AI is awful.  If you get out of your car in the middle of the street other cars will just stop until you move your car, they just sit there and pile up until you get back.  Same if you park your car in a pedestrian's way, they wait as well.  
• The Cop AI is pretty bad.  If you commit a crime in front of them they will start shooting, but if you get in a car and drive about a block they stop chasing you.  They will also magically appear out of nowhere when you commit a crime. 
• There was a reddit post a couple of months ago where one anonymous developer said the game needed about 6 more months of development and that turned out to be true.
• CDPR does have a great track record of fixing bugs and getting the games where they need to be.  The Witcher 2 really wasn't fun to play until a year later when the definitive edition came out.  
• If you have a beefy PC or the latest consoles then you may want to go ahead and get the game, but if you are on a last generation PS4 or Xbox don't bother until at least February until most of the bugs are ironed out.  No sense druding through a game that will be better in a couple of months.

Random Game Thoughts

 Random Game Thoughts

• Dirt 5
• I was so excited for the game as I've loved every Dirt game Codemasters has made.
• I almost bought the ultimate edition so I could play early, but I waited and found out that the game did not support wheels at launch. It still doesn't. 
• So disappointing and on top of that it doesn't output telemetry so I can't use my motion platform.  
• C'mon Codemasters, this may be the first Dirt game I don't buy.  
• Ubisoft Connect
• Ubisoft's subscription service on PC 
• For $15 you can play every Ubisoft game including the 3 games they released in the last month.  
• Worth it 100%.  
• Immortal Fenyx Rising (Terrible name)
• A Ubisoft open world game that can actually be completed under 35 hours.
• It's a cross between Assassin's Creed and Zelda BOTW 
• Played a couple of hours and I really like it. It's whimsical and the world is full of color and missing most of the bloat that Ubisoft games have had as of late.   
• Watchdog's Legion
• Played for about 2 hours and it's not my jam.
• It's kinda cool wandering around causing havoc but it's definitely a create your own fun type of game that I get bored of quickly.
• Ubisoft needs to rethink their facial hair technology.
• Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• I really liked Origins and even finished the main campaign, but for some reason Odyssee never clicked with me.  It felt really janky, especially the combat. 
  
• Valhalla feels more like Origins so I was more interested.  
• I put in a couple of hours but honestly I am liking Fenix so much more right now that I'll play that instead.
• Spider-man: Miles Morales
• Really enjoying the game.  About half way through at around 12 hours so a meaty game.  
• Raytracing looks really good, so many reflections.
• I tried the performance mode and it does play a lot smoother but I am keeping it in resolution mode as I do like the way the game looks with it on.
• GTX 3090
  
• Was going to get the 3080 but wasn't having any luck so decided to spend the money and get this.  Crazy, I know.  
• 4K120FPS with HDR is amazing. 
• Can't run all the new games maxed out at 4K with 60 fps so that's a bit disappointing.   
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Looks amazing on the new card
• Not exactly sure what I'm doing as the game is massive, but I'm able to keep the plane in the air for at least 10 minutes. 
• Make sure you install the upgraded graphics patch before flying out to see Mount Rushmore, otherwise you'll fly 10 minutes to see a plain rock. 
• Also, if you didn't know, there is a Las Vegas, Mexico.  It's strip is not that impressive.
• PGA Tour 2K1
• Been playing with Mitch online and it's a fun golf game.   
• The UI needs to be improved, but the gameplay is spot on.  
• Mafia Definitive Edition
• Finished the game and was disappointed with the ending.
• It felt rushed and needed to be fleshed out a bit more with a couple of extra missions.
• Cyberpunk 2077
• One more week if you can believe it.
• Watch out, some copies were sent out early so be careful for spoilers

PS5, Xbox Series X, Astrobot, Demon Souls, Yakuza Judgement

 I was lucky enough to pre-order an Xbox Series X so I was sure to get that console on release day, but I missed out on pre-ordering the PS5​.  After trying Walmart a couple of times, their site was awful, I was finally able to order the PS5 Disc version from the Sony Direct website on launch day and it arrived on Sunday.  I've spent a couple of hours playing both so here are some quick impressions.  

Form Factor

• Xbox
• Looks like a small boxy PC.
• Has many vent holes on top so if you have little kids or pets that could be an issue
• Very quiet
• Just one HDMI output port and no kinect or Digital audio support.
• PS5
• Huge, largest item in my entertainment center
• Flimsy stand to hold it horizontally. 
• Very quiet, although I do hear it accessing the disk drive to check if I have the game disc loaded when I start a game. 
• No Digital output support. 

Controller

• Xbox
• Similar to the older controllers but with a slightly different D-Pad
• Has a share button so you can take screenshots or capture video 
• All the older controllers work so I mainly use my older Elite Controller, I love the back paddle buttons.
• PS5
• Insanely better than the PS4 Dualshock.  
• More heft and fits in my hands better.  
• No more bright light in the front to reflect in my TV 
• Better Battery life. 
• Haptic feedback and analog triggers are revolutionary.  The rumble can be subtle now instead of just a strong vibration.  The triggers can have various amounts of tension depending on the game.
• Only worry is that a few games will use the added features of the controller.  The touchpad on the older controller was basically just another button for most games. 

UI

• Xbox
• Same layout as the last generation Xbox.
• Quicker Response moving through all the tabs, feels good now instead of being sluggish.
• Quick Resume is an awesome feature if you play multiple games as it keeps a number of them in memory so switching between games takes seconds.
• Loads new games quickly, not as fast as PS5
• Adds HDR to older games.  Some games look good, others not so much.
• Download speeds are still a bit slow.
• PS5
• Still have a row of your recently played games on the top that you can scroll through to select a game to play.  
• More information displayed about each game and each game has activity cards so you can keep up with trophies and progression by pressing the PS button.
• When pressing the PS button in game you stay in the game and an overlay comes up so you stay in the game instead of loading out into a menu
• Holding the PS5 button does nothing now so turning off the PS5 is a couple of more button presses
• Loads games extremely fast and the loads inside of games are almost instantaneous
• Download speeds are fantastic, almost using full bandwidth.  

Value

• Xbox
• No first party games at launch so has to rely on 3rd party and backwards compatible games
• Gamepass is definitely worth the money and is a great value especially since some next gen games are going to be trying a $70 price point. 
• If you have a gaming PC then it's probably not worth it since all first party games will be coming to the PC.  
• I mainly bought it for Rock band 4 since I play that a ton and for some backwards compatible games that are on PC but don't have controller support. 
• PS5
• First party exclusive games are the main reason for my purchase.  Astrobot is awesome for a pack in a game. 
• The quick loading is also a huge breakthrough. For some games I would wait for the release of the PC version because it had better load times, but now the PS5 loads games quicker than my PC. 
• It is backwards compatible with almost all PS4 games and it also increases the performance of the games that don't have a specific PS5 version patch
• If you are a PS Plus subscriber you can get some good PS4 games for free. I already bought most of them, but it's nice to have some of them digitally. 

Astrobot

• An amazing game that shows the potential of the controller. 
• Each step your Astrobot makes produces a different rumble based on the texture of the surface you are walking on. 
• In one mini-game you are crushing items to get collectibles using the triggers and each item you crush feels different.  Sometimes you can barely press and the item crushes or other times you really have to put some effort in.  
• Both of these are subtle effects and really add to the excitement feature you want out of a new console launch.  
• It's a must play even though it's a pack in game.  Do not miss this awesome game.

Demon Souls

• Best looking game ever.  
• The lighting is amazing and it adds so much atmosphere to each location.  It's the gritty combat game I've always wanted.  I wish the Diablo 4 developers would take a queue from this game.
• It is a remake of the PS3 game so I feel like I'm visiting an old memory.  The gameplay hasn't changed much so there is still a bit of jank here and there but still a great tough game that I kinda wish had an easier mode.
• Loading times are insane, about 3 seconds to reload if you die.  

Yakuza Judgement

• PS4 game that is amazing on the PS5 because of the load times
• On the PS4 when you would get into a fight there would be a staging of the fight that would put up a graphic of who you were going to fight which hid the load of about 3-5 seconds
• On the PS5 there is no staging or graphic, a guy says I want to fight and you begin fighting. 

Oculus Quest 2

 Oculus Quest 2

I'm a tech guy so my house is filled with wires, wires everywhere.  Speaker, Hdmi, Cat5, Usb, and other various cables are infused throughout my house. I probably have a mile of cables if I stacked them end to end.  In storage I have some S-video cables for my old video camera that I for some reason still have from 20 years ago.  So I'm getting a little tired of wires.  That may be the reason that I got the Quest 2 even though I have 3 other VR headsets that I sparingly use. 

I like VR and the experiences it gives you, but I hate the cable as it always gets in the way.  In my racing rig with the motion setup I could never get the cable in the right position, I would move in some direction which would cause a slight tug on the cable that would take me out of the experience. Even for fully stationary games you can feel the weight of the cable pulling down on the headset.  

I never messed with the original Quest for some reason, but I decided to get the Quest 2 and I'm glad I did. It's really an incredible self contained VR experience for $300, actually $350, as you really need the deluxe head strap for extra comfort.  Playing VR wirelessly is amazing and really takes it to another level.  Setup is a breeze and moving from room to room is effortless which is really what VR needs to make it a mainstream product.  

There are a couple of downsides.   Facebook integration is the biggest one for most people as it requires you to link your device to a facebook account.  I already use facebook so it wasn't that big of a deal to me although I don't like them gathering even more information about me. The next downside is that the Quest 2 could be a bit more comfortable, it's a bit front heavy, but if you get the deluxe head strap it makes for a comfier fit.  There have been many reports of the deluxe headset band cracking so that's something to look out for.  The battery life is not the longest at around 2-3 hours which is fine for me since I rarely play longer than an hour and a half, but they do make a strap with an extra battery that extends the life to around 5-6 hours.  I was impressed with the internal speakers on the unit as they are actually better than the Rift S, but if you want the best audio experience you need to use headphones.  

There is one other huge potential downside, not all games will run natively on the Quest, but you can use a link cable connected to your PC to play Rift or Steam VR games.  This is a bummer since you are once again saddled with a cable, but there is an alternative, Virtual Desktop Streaming.  Using the $20 Virtual Desktop app and the free sidequest app you can stream all the VR games from your PC to the Quest 2 and they look better than using the link cable.  It's amazing and I'm not sure why this method isn't being touted more since it's a pure wireless solution.      

I've played Half-life Alyx this way and it looks amazing, it's not quite as good as my Rift S but it's pretty close.  There may be some games where streaming isn't supported, but so far all the games I've tried have worked great and that's using the 5G band of my AT&T supplied router. 

So far I'm impressed with the Quest 2 and think it's a great time to get into VR if you haven't already.

Pre-orders, Mafia Definitive Edition, Hades

 Pre-orders

I think I need to learn how to write a bot after the last two weeks attempting to pre-order a PS5, Xbox Series X, and a 3080 Video Card.  Every site I went to basically crashed or went crazy when I tried to pre-order.   Just because you get one in your cart does not mean you will be able to buy it.  Luckily, I was able to get an Xbox Series X from Best Buy on the day that the pre-orders went up, although it was the least of the three that I wanted.   

It's pretty crazy that with the Covid stuff there is such a demand for electronics that are priced at  $500.  I even thought about buying a Geforce 3090 which is $1,400 and it was just as bad.  I'm not sure what the vendors can do except some sort of lottery and even then you would wonder how rigged the lottery would be. It would also be nice to know the exact numbers they had for sale.  I'm pretty sure the video card stock was around 1,000 or so which they really shouldn't have launched with the numbers being so small.  

Were you able to pre-order?

Mafia Definitive Edition

I remember playing the original Mafia when it came out on PC back in 2002.  The main thing I remember is how slow the cars went and that if you sped or ran a stop light in front of the cops they would arrest you.  Also there was this one car race that took me 30 or so tries to beat.  Luckily with this re-release both of these memories will stay back in 2002.  

This game is a full on remaster and they basically touched everything so the game feels like a 2020 release, except for the movement of the character it's a bit clunky.  They also added some options to negate the issues I had back in 2002.  You can skip a lot of the driving by a button press and have the cops not be so strict.  

If you like Mafia stories then you should think about picking up this game as the story is the main focus and it has some excellent voice acting.  It takes place in an open world but it's not an open world game.  It has linear missions that allow you to roam the world, which I like, as I'm getting tired of the open world formula.  It takes about 12-15 hours to get through the campaign which is a good length for $40.   I also recommend the Mafia Trilogy that has all 3 games in the series, only the 1st game got a true remaster while the other games had some minor changes.  

Hades

Supergiant has made 4 games so far and this is my favorite.  I really liked Bastion with the cool narrator.  I could never get into Transistor as I really didn't like the combat.   Pyre was interesting in that it tried to tell a cool story using a sports game as the background which I've been meaning to return to.  

Hades is rogue-like that has a great greek mythology story intertwined throughout the whole game which sets it above other games in the genre.  I like roguelikes, but usually I play them for  several hours then get stuck or bored and lose interest in playing.  I generally need a story in a single player game to keep me interested and Hades does a good job of weaving the story into the gameplay to keep me adventuring.  

The combat is tight and each weapon you unlock feels different to use.  You acquire unique powers on each run through meeting greek gods who have specific powers.  Sometimes you are given a choice between two god's powers and the one you don't choose becomes insulted and sends in some tough enemies to defeat.  

The game looks gorgeous with some great artwork, especially the portraits of the greek gods.  Each deity is also fully voiced so you get to know them and their personalities.  For $20 this is a great game and highly recommended.  

I was looking around at some old notes and found one back from 2001 where I listed some various computer parts that I had bought.  I still have some of these parts.  

• CPU
• AMD K7 Athlon            $310
• Motherboard
• ASUS K7                     $120
• Storage
• 1.2G Hard Drive          $220
• Syquest Removable Cartridge Drive  $150        
• 8X Cd-rom                   $100 
• 3 1/2 Floppy                 $ 30
• Memory
• 256 MB Ram          $120
• Video Card
• Diamond Stealth II        $140 
• Voodoo 2                      $235             
• Sound Card
• Sound Blaster Live       $139
• Gravis AWE 32             $105               
• Modem
• 28.8 ZModem         $100   
• Monitor
• 17" VGA Monitor     $769              
• Accessories 
• UMAX Scanner            $100              
• Joysticks/Controllers
• Gravis GamePad Pro  $30
• Trackman Vista            $45
• Logitech Mouseman    $20
• CH Flight Stick             $40
• Mark II Thrustmaster    $20
• Speakers
• Reveal 2.1             $40