StaceyPowers

I feel like the only way I survive about 50% of difficulty spikes in Bioware games is to take advantage of loopholes in fight designs or even bugs. While this makes me feel incompetent, the spikes are so ridiculous I don’t feel that bad about it.
Still, I am surprised how often I do this. Does anyone else find you frequently exploit flaws to beat hard fights in games?
 

I feel like the only way I survive about 50% of difficulty spikes in Bioware games is to take advantage of loopholes in fight designs or even bugs. While this makes me feel incompetent, the spikes are so ridiculous I don’t feel that bad about it.
Still, I am surprised how often I do this. Does anyone else find you frequently exploit flaws to beat hard fights in games?
 

Who are some of the most all-out evil/unsympathetic characters in video games? While replaying Dragon Age: Origins last night, I was thinking Branka falls into this category.

One of my friends the other day mentioned taking a break from ESO subscription and thus not playing at all for now. I asked her about this, as I thought ESO is free after the initial payment. She explained that it is, but due to paid crafting (I think?) features, so many things break without the optional sub she’s paid for that her existing character would be borderline unplayable.
I wondered how common situations like these are with freemium games. Have you ever ended up relying so much on optional paid features in a game that you didn’t feel you could play without them?

That is great! Did you order it?
I so hear you on that. Though with my back and neck problems, the couch actually is better for me than a chair at the computer. 
I think @URGAMERTAGSUCKS probably wanted feedback on real life shipping times, but I'm not sure. I just hope everyone gets theirs soon so we can get more feedback about the product!

Have you ever encountered a game-breaking bug that you could not work around on that playthrough? What did you do? Did you shelve the game forever? Wait for a patch and try again later? Replay on a different platform?

It depends on what kind of machines you buy - with Laptops, they tend to break down around the 4-5 year mark. With Desktops especially ones you built yourself, they tend to last way longer. Btw, I loved your article on PC gaming - it was well written with very valid points.

Are there activities in open world games you deliberately take your time with so that they proceed along what feels like a more realistic timeframe? I do this when building houses in Skyrim.

The Outer Worlds has a thing where if you activate a companion ability, it triggers a fleeting cutscene. I find it more entertaining than disruptive. What other games have this?

So, for some stupid reason, it is impossible to delete individual saves on PS5 via the PS5 menus. But I did discover a workaround I wanted to share.
If you go into the game you want to delete the saves for, you can just start saving over the old saves in many cases. It is not an ideal solution, but it does delete them and help you conserve space. This is very helpful if you are playing a game like Skyrim where you are going to end up with a ton of saves.
 

To be fair, it's not like consoles are immune to breaking down. I'm on my third PS4.
 
 
OK, if you genuinely believe you can build or buy a gaming PC with the same performance of PS5 within the budget of a PS5 and basic laptop, prove it. I'll even double the retail of a PS5 to make it $1000 because I'm feeling generous.
 
To set the parameters for this, we need to find a multiplatform game and know how it runs on a PS5. My first thought was AC Valhalla, but it turns out that game's performance on PS5 is rather complicated with dynamic resolutions. So I 'll go for Godfall instead, that runs at 60pfs at 4K on PS5. According to my research, the graphic quality isn't quite the equivalent of Ultra High on PC, so lets go for medium to high settings as the equivalent (source).
 
According to this article from RealSport101.com, the dev's of Godfall have stated that to run Godfall at 4K 60fps, you need a graphics card with at least 12GB of VRAM. Because your trying to build a PC that's the equivalent of what you get with a PS5 out the box, there will be a few rules;
A mouse and Keyboard must be included. That is the user interface and it every bit as vital as any component. Because a A PS5 is shipped with a Dualsence controller (That serves as the user interface for a PS5) as part of the package, this is totally fair. At least 850GB of high speed SSD storage, like a PS5. 16GB of RAM as per the recommended specs, and will be necessary for 4K. You can omit a UHD Blu-ray drive from the build if you want, but will reduce your budget by $100 as you will be building something that's equivalent to a PS5 without the disk tray. An operating system. Again, it is vital and a PS5 is shipped with one, so that's fair.  
I've found you a Bottleneck Calculator to help you match a suitable CPU and you will compile your list using PC Part Picker. I found this totally decent Lenovo Laptop on Laptops Direct to serve as the utility computer next to the console that in $US would work out at $200. That gives you a total budget $1200 with a disk tray or £1100 without a disk tray.
 
Good luck!

Thanks for the link; I knew she writes for VGR but I never really paid attention. I do now though. 

I'm actually gonna give a shout out to our very own @StaceyPowers who wrote a good article on this subject for the VGR website and it's well worth a read. Find the article HERE.

What are some games that seem to have a light tone on the surface, but underneath are quite dark? The Outer Worlds, for instance, is humorous and fun, but it is also incredibly bleak. And the longer you explore the world, the more horrifying you realize the situation is. 

What is your least favourite thing about your favourite game?

Do you play online games to keep up with old friends? I just started playing Minecraft with my high school BFF who lives across the country from me. It’s been a great way to hang out again virtually.

For the greatest immersion, games should do any with 90% of collecting items. That way you can focus on other things and not go into a room and run in circles looking for items to pick up. It's just an annoying distraction, especially in horror games where you are supposed to focus on suspense building. I don't know how many times I catch the shit end of something spooky because I was looking for loot. Also having good AI throughout is definitely a huge factor in immersion. 

I haven't played it!

TLOU, TLOU 2, BioShock, and BioShock Infinite. I adore BioShock 2, but it mostly just built on what BioShock did, so I don't feel I can give it the same status (though I also feel it is severely underrated).

So, for some stupid reason, it is impossible to delete individual saves on PS5 via the PS5 menus. But I did discover a workaround I wanted to share.
If you go into the game you want to delete the saves for, you can just start saving over the old saves in many cases. It is not an ideal solution, but it does delete them and help you conserve space. This is very helpful if you are playing a game like Skyrim where you are going to end up with a ton of saves.
 

I play on PS4 and it has the feature that guides you towards knowing how long you will have to play to complete a mission. Such guides are wonderful since it tells you what time it will take you to complete each phase.

You response is also delightfully meta!

"Kill on sight" has so long been taken for granted in games. After I played Spec Ops: The Line, I can never feel the same way about that again. Watch Dogs Legion is one of the only other games I have seen find a way to call out this assumption/behavioural training. 

You are very right about Albion characters as well as Klan Kelly. When I scope things out I sometimes look at their bio summary to see if they are worth killing or not. lol. If they donate to bad causes or anti immigrant, that sort of thing I'll kill em so quick. And usually their surroundings give a good idea who they are, like if they are patrolling a torture zone, I'll kill em. But yeah, many of them you recruit, they say they want out of the game so as to not get involved with the harder or more sinister stuff. This kind of personalization for all characters including so called enemies is an outstanding feature. 

Wow, you are right about Mindjack. You can take control of anybody. That's a cool feature. 
Haha-I'm always wondering who I killed when I'm crashing into them fleeing the cops. And sometimes using the hijack car feature to drive them off the road to get out the way and it smashes into someone on the sidewalk; ooops!!! Nobody saw that right?