Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Let there be snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

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Reader Interactions

125Comments

  1. 1.

    Josie

    Because I’m old, I don’t understand the love you (and my sons) have for these games, but I’m so glad that it lifts your spirits. Have fun.

  2. 2.

    p.a.

    @Josie: Yep.  I aged out around the time of Atari Tempest and never got into the home/portable game experience.  But I’d love to be able to play the Evel Knievel pinball machine one more time.

  4. 4.

    Ken

    OK, but remember that some of your responsibilities are used to being fed on schedule and scritched behind the ears regularly, and will express their displeasure at any disruptions.

  5. 5.

    Pharniel

    May the crits be with you.

    (Says the person who has events going on in just about every game I play. RIP my free time)

  7. 7.

    Urza

    If I wasn’t on a work trip I’d be downloading now.  Sadly the work laptop is not made for gaming.

  8. 8.

    Josie

    @p.a.: ​
     When I was dating my late husband, we would go to a dumpy little local bar, put money in the jukebox, and play the pinball machines. Good times.

  11. 11.

    CaseyL

    @p.a.:
    @Josie:
    I was such a pinball nut in my teens and early 20s.  Talk about full immersion; nothing distracted me when I was on a roll.  I knew to the smallest shimmy how much shaking a particular machine could take before it went tilt.
    There was no sound more gratifying than the Pop! Pop! of winning a free game on points.
    Boy, that takes me back…​

  12. 12.

    leeleeFL

    @schrodingers_cat: Or yarn, or fabric, or watercolor pencils.  I have many loves!  If I didn’t have to work full-time, I’d be crafting, sewing,painting, coloring!  Full-time, of course!

    This is the only part of my life that has ADHD!  My GrandDaughters call me Dory for a reason!

  13. 13.

    NickM

    Baldur’s Gate 3 looks good, but my daughter the gamer is REALLY looking forward to Starfield, which comes out just before Labor Day.  I’ve seen the trailer and it looks amazing.

  16. 16.

    Central Planning

    Seems like I would have to play Baller’s Gates 1 and 2 to understand what’s going on in this one. And yes, I know it’s Baldur’s.
    Anyone play Pokemon Go?

  17. 17.

    Doug Clark

    @NickM: I can barely contain my desire to get Starfield downloaded and going.

    Getting the premium edition so I can get started Labor Day weekend (5 day headstart for pre-ordered premium copies).

  20. 20.

    cain

    I played Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. It’s been awhile since I’ve played those games though – they are huge time sinks and I don’t have the time I used to for playing them. I spend most of my time playing quick games of “Shank” :D

    Highly recommend the Valve’s SteamDeck – you can do PC gaming sitting on the couch. Which is sometimes I do while sitting next to my wife instead of hanging around in my office. :)

  22. 22.

    MobiusKlein

    @Urza: The work laptop for me is loaded with so much corp spyware that the CPU hit critical temperature and throttles itself on a regular basis.

    So no gaming, even if infosec policies said it was ok

  23. 23.

    cain

    @NickM: lol –  I’m still using the same gaming rig from about 8 years ago. Most of the games still pretty much work. I tend to buy a new graphics card/machine every time a new version of The Witcher comes out. The last time was Witcher 3 – I understand that they are coming out with a rebooted Witcher 1 – which I’m definitely going to be updating my machine for. Plus I want to get in on this regenerative AI and stuff.

    I’ve come back to working at Intel and doing a bunch of AI related stuff and need to work on GPUs again.

  29. 29.

    MisterDancer

    Have fun! I lack a lot of time/focus for gaming, sadly, but I’ve been following the discourse with some interest :)

  30. 30.

    Urza

    @MobiusKlein: We actually have no policies against. I played WoW on my Surface a few years back, but that was before we got the secure laptops.  Poor Google people, they’re testing full cutoff from the internet for ‘security’.

  33. 33.

    AnnaN

    Yaaaaassssss.  My BF and I are planning on spending the first hour in character creation.  Wheeeeeee!

  34. 34.

    Ejoiner

    …and it’s not just BG3 – I’m a Destiny 2 dork and a new season starts in Septermber, but I’ve been neglecting that after getting sucked in to the excellent Remnant 2, and the big one – Starfield – as about to drop!

    That’s a lot of delicious, delicious, gaming headed our way :)

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    I’m completely unmoved by these types of games but out of curiosity I had a look at the Baldur’s Gate 3 teaser trailer. The first words in the voiceover were, “Few mortals ever glimpse what you’re about to see” and I burst out laughing, because it’s a game, it’s for sale, and anyone who can afford to pay for it can see it. It’s not some hidden secret. In fact, they want you to see it. That’s why they’re advertising it.

    I am clearly not the target audience. Have fun, John.

  38. 38.

    dm

    @Gin & Tonic: I always preferred the (somewhat later generation) Marble Madness.  Sooooo mannnny quaaaarterssssss….

    The 8-bit+ soundtrack was great, though.

    … and I still use a trackball instead of a touchpad or mouse, maybe thanks to that game.

    But I never got into computer games.  I guess I was spoiled by Adventure and Zork on the PDP-10.

  39. 39.

    eclare

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I saw the Barbie part of Barbenheimer last week and loved it.  Plan to see Oppenheimer next week.

    If Hollywood makes good movies, and not part ten of Fast and Furious, etc., people will show up.

  43. 43.

    Butch

    @CaseyL: When I was in college we used to go to a bar called The Plaza in Madison and play a specific pinball game – we even had a nickname for the game, and I wish I could remember it.  The money wouldn’t have gone any faster if it was stolen out of our pockets.

  46. 46.

    HarlequinGnoll

    @Central Planning: as I understand it BG 1 & 2 aren’t as necessary as most sequels to enjoy 3 (new cast, 120 year jump in setting) unless someone wants “ALL THE LORE!”.

  47. 47.

    Anonymous At Work

    @piratedan: Civ5 got replaced by Civ6 and not sure Civ6 gonna get replaced anytime soon.  No word on Civ7 beyond “in development” but hard to see where it goes.

  48. 48.

    Scamp Dog

    @Central Planning: Yes! I have a dog and no yard, so I’m out on frequent walks, giving Meeca outdoor time while I do Pokémon things. I make sure I get to 50 km a week, so we’re getting some good exercise.

  50. 50.

    M31

    I played Baldur’s Gate 2 with friends and had a blast setting up my character, found a goofy sneering pic of a guy/elf/warrior thingy and named him “You Whiny Bitch” and then the conversations in the game were so fun,

    “We must defeat the Evil Minion Spawn of Darkness, You Whiny Bitch!”

    the ipad port of the game was annoyingly glitchy though so I didn’t play much

  51. 51.

    eversor

    Minsk and Boo were amazing in BG2.

    My game library/backlog is out of hand though.  I need to finish Tears of The Kingdom first.  Though I’ll probably still get BG3.

  52. 52.

    Hildebrand

    I loved playing both BG and BG2.  My biggest fear is that my laptop doesn’t have the muscle to run this one.

  53. 53.

    Lyrebird

    @Scamp Dog:  Hooray!  And maybe when there are no Pokemon in sight, you can take a pic of Meeca and send to Water Girl, hint hint hint…  Glad you are both getting your exercise!

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    @Josie: Yeah, more of a Pong generation guy myself.

    If it’s a “first person shooter” thing then it appears the skillset is literally used on the battlefield in Ukraine. Who could have guessed?

    Enjoy, Cole. We all have our itches to scratch and every day needn’t be like the one before.

    Me, I’ve been power-watching WWC rematches, since the live broadcasts are definitely not ideal for peoples living in the Americas. Some I can only find in Spanish, which is mostly unintelligible to me but the goal celebrations are totally worth it.

    Calling it now: England wins out. Japan could well be in the final.

  55. 55.

    Hildebrand

    @eversor: The voice work was pretty darn good in BG2.  I especially loved that the main villain was voiced by David Warner.  He was perfect.

  57. 57.

    Alison Rose

    @Yarrow: Pretty sure that’s meant as part of the game, not like “hey bro watching this video, you’re the only one who is gonna see it”. The voiceover is telling the line to you as the game character. It’s meant to be immersive.

  60. 60.

    Yarrow

    @Alison Rose:  Like I said, I’m not the target audience. But don’t they have options of voiceover things to put in a trailer? Choosing that seems kind of…odd. Given they’re selling it and want as many eyes as can see it as possible, I mean.

  64. 64.

    MobiusKlein

    @Urza: when your group at work helps send 1billion overseas a month, you understand the paranoia.

    And all the ssn, bank account, etc.data.

  65. 65.

    JustRuss

    Never played Baldurs Gate, although I played a lot of Neverwinter Nights.  Fallout eats up all my game time now, thinking I might jump to Starfield, but I’ll see how reviews for BG go.  I’d pay good money for a a Very Special John Cole Game Review.

  66. 66.

    WeimarGerman

    @piratedan: We may need a Civ thread to debate the versions.

    I think v2 had slavery, v4 had the best mod (just checked Fall from Heaven has >600k downloads).  I skipped 5 completely and am back with 6.

  67. 67.

    coin operated

    @Anonymous At Work:

    Civ5 got replaced by Civ6 and not sure Civ6 gonna get replaced anytime soon.  No word on Civ7 beyond “in development” but hard to see where it goes.

    I’ve owned most of the Civ franchise and I’m wondering where it will go as well.  With all the gameplay available in the Civ6 expansion packs, Civ7 has big shoes to fill.  If it’s just another spashy graphics update, I’ll probably pass.

  68. 68.

    Alison Rose

    @Yarrow: Okay, you’re really not understanding. The line isn’t meant to be a thing the game company is saying to the real humans watching it. They are showing you parts of the actual game (or cut scenes, maybe) and including voiceover that applies to the character in the game. When you’re watching the trailer, they want you to imagine it as if you were playing the game in that moment. You need to stop taking it so literally. If a movie trailer says the special effects will “blow your mind” do you get annoyed because no one’s head is actually going to be physically blown off their neck?

  71. 71.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    i’m still hip deep in elden ring (you DIED!). not gonna start anything new for a while. DEFINITELY looking longingly at the new armored core IV, but not for some time.

  72. 72.

    ljdramone

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m sorry, but Gravitar rules and Tempest drools.

    And I say that having played Tempest to death for free (friend of mine once had a Tempest cabinet in his apartment).

  73. 73.

    JML

    “Go for the eyes, Boo!”

    I’m probably not in on this one (I’m terrible at these games and really struggle on a lot video games solo these days) but I know a lot of people who are super hyped about it, and it makes me happy to see them happy. (Plus, I built a Minsc & Boo commander deck in MTG that’s super fun)

  76. 76.

    BC in Illinois

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am going to Oppenheimer this afternoon.

    I may be going to see Oppenheimer with my son and two of my sons-in-law on the BIG big screen. It’s our response to the phenomenon of . . .

    wife and her sister.
    2 daughters and a daughter-in-law,
    5 of 6 g’daughters,

    . . . all going to see Barbie tomorrow. [G’daughter #6 has already seen it.]

    I warned them that it probably wasn’t going to be as good as the book.

  77. 77.

    MisterForkbeard

    I’m at 22% downloaded and counting. Damnit.

    ALSO: Baldur’s Gate 3 is multiplayer with up to 4 players. I can only imagine the mayhem that a Balloon Juice party would get into.

  78. 78.

    Marigold

    For those of you playing BG3, or have played previous editions, how much hand-eye coordination do you need?

    My nerdy coworkers know I play tabletop D&D, and they want me to buy the game. I think it’s sweet that they want to include me, but I didn’t grow up on games where you have to aim and never took the time to learn as an adult. I don’t want to embarrass myself, or mess up their fun.

  80. 80.

    MisterForkbeard

    @eclare: It’s a LONG game designed to emulate a Dungeon’s and Dragons campaign. Probably 60+ hours.

    Designed primarily to be played by a single person, but up to 4 players can play at a time. And it’s surprisingly good at handling that. If you get all 4 players in it really does play like a tabletop game in terms of interactivity.

  81. 81.

    justawriter

    Was a pinball junkie dating back to the five balls for a dime era (three games for a quarter). When I was a senior in college the local arcade got an old machine and the highest score I think over a month or two got to take the machine home. It was so old that the first of four digits was just a light behind the number one. So when I hit 1900 I had someone go get the manager so if I broke 2000 I would have an official witness. I got within 30 points if I remember correctly and yes, I won the machine and a friend with a pickup helped me haul it to my dorm room (thankfully on the first floor). When I went to grad school, my dad stuck it in an unheated garage and a couple of severe winters and probably a mouse family or two did the innards no good. Then he moved and the corpse was auctioned off without telling me.

    My main game on my iPad is a pinball simulator. I only have a few card games on my phone and rarely play games on my laptop.

  82. 82.

    Origuy

    I got a little ways into Baldur’s Gate 1, less into 2. I’m not into multiuser games, because I can’t commit to playing when other people want to. I have the discs to Neverwinter Nights somewhere, but can’t be arsed to look for them. I play for a while, get busy on something else, and lose track of the story line.

  83. 83.

    Kirk

    BG3 download tonight, play tomorrow. Actually probably play with character design tomorrow and play Saturday.

    Starfield preordered and similar plan – and I do figure to pause bg3 to play SF.

    Re Civ, I’m meh but my wife insists Civ1 is still the best.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    @Alison Rose:  I completely understand. The game company is a business and they want to sell the game. To as many people as possible. The trailer is an advertisement for the game, to get people to buy it. Maybe this voiceover is the best way to do that. It seems odd to me to choose the one line that says, “few people will see this” to use in their sales ad when goal of the ad is to get as many people as possible to see it by buying the game.

    I’m not annoyed in the slightest. I found it hilarious. I actually burst out laughing when I heard it. I fully own I am not the target audience

    Edit:

    You need to stop taking it so literally.

    Really? I need to? Why is that?

  85. 85.

    Origuy

    @Marigold: It’s not a first-person shooter type of game. The Baldur’s Gate series are turn-based role-playing games. Your fighter takes a swing at an elf, his sorcerer casts a spell on your paladin. Quick reflexes not required.

  86. 86.

    eversor

    @Marigold:

    None really.  It’s an RPG.  This is not a competitive FPS or fighter by any stretch.  It’s also not an RPG in the sense of say Dark Souls or Elden Ring or hell even Diablo.

  88. 88.

    SadOldGuy

    BG3 is the first Triple A game (i.e. they spent BIG money on it) in over a decade that uses a Dungeons and Dragons rule set (specifically D&D 5th edition which more video game adaptable than previous editions). If you saw videos two weeks ago about a silver haired man about to have some “adult fun” with a person turned into a real bear that then traumatized a squirrel, that is this game. From the looks of it, the game is HUGE, with a large amounts of things to do and different ways to do them.

    I personally am just terrified of just the thought of playing this game since there is no “correct” way to play the game, which will set off my mild autism. I myself will be watching one of my favorite streamers play it (probably Shenpai, Jesse Cox, or Premier Two).

  89. 89.

    kalakal

    Starfield is the one that’s going to take up my time. That and the soon to arrive Cities Skylines 2

  90. 90.

    Gravenstone

    Figure I’ll let mine download overnight (yeah, my connection is that poor) then poke around a bit before heading to MN for a concert on Sunday.

  92. 92.

    MazeDancer

    Trying to think of a parallel event that would give me such immersive pleasure.

    No answer yet.

    But happy that so many are looking forward to having so much fun.

  93. 93.

    Kirk

    @Marigold: Since you play d&d this might make sense to you.

    It’s a slightly house ruled 5e game, computer gm, you control all the PC’s tabletop actions and all actions for one PC. The GM has storyline elements for the other three PCs of your party.

    There are more niggling details but that’s the gist. No twitch, just TTRPG D&D played on a computer.

  94. 94.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @eversor: from isn’t fucking around at ALL. elden ring is hard. they don’t explain how anything works.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Sort of reminded of the opening scene of a fantasy film (whose title my brain refuses to share at the moment).

    Cottage of what we’ll learn is one of the principal characters. Slow, silent pan around a room, zooming in to a close-up of a clock sitting on the mantelpiece.

    Very first words of narrator: “It was a time before time.”

    What bloody good was a clock for then?

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @Josie:

    Because I’m old, I don’t understand the love you (and my sons) have for these games, but I’m so glad that it lifts your spirits. Have fun.

    I’m ancient and know plenty of gamers in my age group. And some of them were there from the beginning, stealing time in college computer labs to play the early, primitive computer games.

    I played pinball a lot in college, and note that there was this engineering major who was a pinball genius.

    But later, a group from work would regularly play arcade computer games at a downtown cafe during lunch.

    I drew a line at installing games on my personal computer. I have used computers for work and personal purposes since forever, but I have a cheapskate gene that prevents me from upgrading or buying equipment primarily for gaming. Also, I just never had much interest in most computer games. I was good at pinball and some of the early games, but that was just about dexterity and killing time.

    But I acknowledge people who love gaming and any other diversion. It’s cool to have something that you enjoy or are passionate about.

  97. 97.

    cain

    @trollhattan: I find it funny that I find myself in the middle of those from the pong/pinball machine era and today’s gamers. I started off playing pong that my dad got me from Sears and then graduated to an atari and a NES – then moved to PC gaming.

    Doom was the first first player shooter when I was in college – it was a great game but still a bit of a toy. Quake was definitely the best though. Then 3dfx came..

    The first time I bought a 3d graphics card, and loaded Quake and turned on the 3D/openGL – there are few moments where you feel real wonder and this feeling of possibilities. In one shot, we went from pixelated graphics to realistic guns with real smoke coming out of the gun. It was a revelation and I knew gaming would have changed evermore. Too bad I didn’t buy NVidia stock back then haha! :-)

    Today, I’m still using older graphics – I don’t get into the FPS because it’s filled with trash talk from immature boys. I prefer when we didn’t have voice and I am not exposed to the ugliness of humanity. Of course, cheating and all that. In the end, single player is the best gaming experience for me or co-op. L4D and L4D2 was THE BEST playing with friends ever. Fucking fantastic.

  99. 99.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Marigold: You need to be able to click a mouse. Combat is turn-based so you can take as much time as you want. Outside of combat things happen, but you can also pause the game at any time.

    So as long as you can click a mouse reasonably well, you’ll be in good shape.

  100. 100.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Bostondreams: The “bear sex” reveal was hilarious. Every piece of it. And no, it’s not an actual bear, it’s an elf who’s shapeshifted into a bear when he got excited. You can choose to make your character a furry and tell him that you’re into it.

    The romance writers for the game say they had a ton of fun with it. And from what I can tell, some of the romances are genuinely very sweet – such as the tielfling (part demon) barbarian who was trapped in a demon war for a long time and just wants to go on a typical first date. That was adorable.

    There’s a great Reddit thread out there from a gay dude who says that the romances are so well written that his in-game characters are all straight, because he finds the women and their story arcs so intriguing.

  101. 101.

    eversor

    @strange visitor (from another planet):

    This is going to sound odd but I never found the From Software games hard*.  I played Demon’s Souls in Japanese before it came to the US and just breezed through it.  Same for all the Dark Souls, Blood Borne, and Elden Ring.  But then again, I like crazy games and import a lot of them.  So this was less of a shock to me.

    *The one that did give me a tough time was Sekiro but that was a massive departure from their other stuff.  I never fully mastered the counter timing and just ate pain all through it.  I still like Demon’s Souls the most out of all them.  The PS5 is here only because I wanted to play the remake.

    From’s probably one of the best developers out there.  They keep knocking it out of the park.

  102. 102.

    MisterForkbeard

    @eversor: Those games emphasize memorization, attention, and pattern recognition. If you’ve got that (+ reflexes) the games aren’t nearly as hard as most people think.

    That said, some of the fights in Elden Ring just eventually noped me out of the game. The one-on-one fights are excellent, but some of them have you fight 2-3 bosses at once and those are all terrible just for camera reasons.

    @strange visitor (from another planet): If you played through the Dark Souls games, the game is very similar. But you’re right – Elden Ring really benefits from learning about it outside the game or paying attention to the very sparse tutorials.

  103. 103.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @eversor: maybe hard isn’t the right word. elden ring is unforgiving. you make A mistake, you’re probably gonna lose the fight, especially on a low level.

    the best thing about it is removing the linear aspect of the earlier games, so if  you hit something you can’t beat, you can always range elsewhere and build up XP while getting new gear before you go back and try again

    eta- @MisterForkbeard:  absolutely. when the enemies swarm you, YOU DIED is soon to follow.

  104. 104.

    trollhattan

    @cain:

    Know what you mean about the progression in graphics capabilities–I peg it on the switch from CRT [woke alert!] with, if you were lucky, had true 720 line progressive scan, to HD digital displays. Virtual night to day advancement that changed the landscape.

    My photo editing PC committed seppuku last Thanksgiving and its replacement has a five-year newer graphics card that gives me access to all sorts of AI image processing, some of which is game-changing. I expect the PC would be quite the gaming machine (it’s super-fast) but…nah.

    What I cannot fathom are the gaming rigs sporting a pair of $1k+ graphics cards. For what earthly reason?

  105. 105.

    Marigold

    Thank you all! I should be able to handle turn-based combat and mouse clicking. And it helps that I would be able to practice in the single player format, not just in public.

    I haven’t been able to be a player character in a while… so many possibilities!

  107. 107.

    eversor

    @trollhattan:

    PCs do not support dual GPUs anymore that shit died with DX11/12.  It never really worked either.  The frame buffer was loaded into both GPUs at the same time and there was always a latency hit, and the drivers had to have a profile for that specific game.  It was a nightmare.

    Now though they make 2000 plus buck GPUs instead.  Which suck insane amounts of power.  The catch though is that as almost everything can now use GPU acceleration it’s not just for gaming/rendering things.  So you’ll be getting your monies worth regardless.

    Multi GPU is strictly workstation class stuff for AI compute loads and other stuff.  Yeah, you can do it, but no modern games support it.

     

    @cain:

    Let me go ruin your life.  Quake 2 has ray tracing and high res texture support now along with coop.  Quake also has ray tracing and high res texture support along with a coop horde mode.

    For all their faults id always did a remarkable job at updating their stuff and open sourcing everything.  So if you want to fire up Quake from 1996 with so much turned on it will bring a 2000 buck GPU to it’s knees you totally can.

    The coop horde mode is a gem as well that IIRC dropped two years ago.  My group still plays it.  Turn on friendly fire and watch the carnage and cursing ensue!

  108. 108.

    eversor

    @Marigold:

    There’s nothing to practice in these.  It’s the pen and paper game done by point and click.  The complexity is in player interactions, item management, and character building.  Which is made easier on a computer with a GUI rather than pen and paper.

  111. 111.

    Gravenstone

    @Marigold: how much hand-eye coordination do you need?

    None. It’s basically point and click for movement then selecting the spell/skill/ability you want to use and the target whenever your turn comes around. Not a twitch game at all.

  113. 113.

    cain

    @trollhattan:

    What I cannot fathom are the gaming rigs sporting a pair of $1k+ graphics cards. For what earthly reason?

    Some people chase fps like nobodys business and they want it with maximum resolution. They want every advantage against other players. It’s just madness.

    ETA #111!!! Binary baby!

  114. 114.

    cain

    @eversor:

    I think we’ll see some interesting things with GPU offloading. Where you can use both the CPU and GPU to do things. It’s one of the things that we’re working on at work with heterogeneous computing.

    Didn’t know that Quake 2 can suck up all the GPU even the expensive latest ones.

  115. 115.

    NotMax

    @Marigold

    Not a fan of many of the shooty-shooty games (not a fan times infinity of first person shooters – they induce motion sickness in this guy). There are, though, scads of less in-yer-face violent games you might care to sample.

  117. 117.

    MisterForkbeard

    @eversor: Quake 1 Horde Mode is excellent and I wish I had a group of folks to play it with.

    Also, Quake II RTX is trippy and kind of fantastic. But if you want to experience the game in a brand new way, pick up a Meta Quest 2 and sideload Quake 2 on it. For extra awesomeness, you can put Jedi Outcast on it and get an amazing, full VR Jedi game: https://youtu.be/ToM-wz3v-NU

  122. 122.

    eversor

    @cain:

    Yeah I’m aware of the compute aspect.

    For Quake 2 it’s a bit odd.  There are different kinds of ray tracing and some are easy to pull off and others will straight murder GPUs.  In the case of Quake 2 RTX it’s one of the few games that has the ability to go all out and actually tap out all the RTX and tensor cores in an nvidia GPU.  Don’t even try it with an AMD one.  So it was more thrown out there as a “this is what is possible, some day” sort of tech demo than a real shot at it.  If you can run it, and at 4k 144fps @ 144hz it’s going to nut punch a 4090, it’s glorious.  You’re going to crap out at like 70 fps though.

    GPUs are much more complex than they were and there are the general GPU cores, the AI cores, and then the RTX cores all going at the same time and handling different tasks.  So while Quake 2 even with high res texture packs is stupidly easy to run, turn on all the new tech and it’s rough.

    Let’s set up the Quake 1 romper stomper of horde me.  We won’t enable friendly fire off the bat.  To this day the “huh, huh, huh” of the jumping and the “bing bong” of the grenades still cracks me up.  And yes… I am a nade spammer and bunny hopper.  Though I can still mid air rockets people and then switch to lightning and pin people into a corner.

  124. 124.

    Kayla Rudbek

    I’m feeling the same way about Knit Picks finally offering weaving looms (I am unemployed and I do not need to go spend hundreds on a 32” wide loom or hundreds on a new iPad, even if the old one is having trouble running Audible for audiobooks)

  125. 125.

    Victor Matheson

    First a new Diablo game and now a new Baldur’s Gate? It’s like I am living my early 30s over again!

    And since it’s a video game and not irl, it doesn’t matter that the last 20 years have cost me at least 3 minutes on my mile time.

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