Magnumstache

As a 7800XT owner it'd be nice if they tested more AMD cards, but it'd surely add a huge amount of additional work (at a time when they're already overstretched on the PC front, and relying a lot on the great work of their contributor to help out) for only a small % of the overall GPU market? They've got to draw the line somewhere and it sounds like the developer has already commented on the AMD GPU issues so hopefully a patch will be imminent.

Interesting stuff. I didn't get round to replacing the SSD in my 64GB Deck (laziness: once I'd installed games and set it up the way I liked I couldn't be bothered starting over) and have muddled through with microSD instead. Always wondered if I was suffering much performance loss because of it.

I think the next-gen PlayStation handheld or PC handheld will probably supplant it and the Deck as my first handheld ports of call, but I'll definitely still be playing it as I'm still playing my PSP and DS 😂

I am probably a 50:50 split between consoles and PC, where the PC part is mainly Steam Deck with a bit of sim racing thrown in on my aging desktop. I double-dipped on PlayStation games on Steam primarily to play them on a handheld (either the Deck, or a future, more powerful one). Had PlayStation continued releasing games on PC I wouldn't have been interested at all in their proprietary handheld, so that combined with Steam Machine/Helix means I totally understand their decision. Realistically their efforts were spotty at best anyway so I'm happy for them to focus 100% on console games.

Some of those screenshots are sure to be meme worthy (who knew rendering apples was so taxing!), but the game generally looks like another decent Switch 2 port.

Are many games you test actually CPU-limited? Feels like VRAM capacity and the difference in RT/ML capabilities of the GPUs from different manufacturers are the main things spoken about rather than Game X runs like a dog on a 3600 but great on a 9800X3D.

As someone with a 3900X (built as a simulation workstation in 2019, then COVID hit and I got to take my work, er, workstation home anyway...) I am saddened by the thought that I am the lowest of the low (but also, it's absolutely fine for what I need 😆)

I like to think that the PlayStation 5 is slowly rising through the old Pro Evolution Soccer difficulty levels.

Definitely interested at the thought of them more seriously entering the PC handheld or console space: AMD has lacked competition there for too long and that's led to diminishing returns and short shelf-lives for the devices (whereas Switch 2 with DLSS can punch above it's weight).

I feel like a home console Switch 2 would strip out the 2nd biggest selling point of the system (the first being Nintendo's 1st party games): the portability. Having a Switch 2 that didn't switch and delivered graphics around the level of a Xbox Series S....well, I've already got a PS5, an Xbox Series X and a PC that can do better than that but I'm missing a handheld that can play most of the latest games at decent resolution and framerate (love my Deck but lack of ML upscaler severely limits it).

I've made the leap, PS5 Pro seems like a really worthy upgrade now and I was looking enviously at the Pro settings for RE: Requiem and Crimson Desert.

Think I've gone from scepticism, but deferring judgement until I've learned more, to "nah probably not" after Nvidia tried to make it sound less like Generative AI by admitting that it's Generative AI...still eager to learn more but they've got some work to do to convince gamers this is a worthwhile thing.

@exclamationpoint I've started downloading the 4K videos from Patreon more often, but sometimes YouTube is just handier!

Lovely stuff. I think this is one area where the website really comes into it's own, particularly when you're starting a game a few weeks or months after launch, as it's much more convenient to click a tag or search to find these settings vs. watching 3 mins of YouTube ads then trying to find the relevant bit of the video. Top websiting.

Great article Alex, hope you're on the mend now. Your story of injuring your back in the most mundane way is very familiar: thankfully any issues I've had were muscular, so tended to fully clear up in a few weeks/months, but I've done the most damage via some kind of rigorous physical activity the day prior then being tipped over the edge by a sneeze, or tying my shoelace! Back issues suck, you take care (and also please write more website articles, you tell a good story)

John missed a trick by not subtitling that video "Thick...and big". Just at that point now, laughed as hard as Mark 😆

Sounds like Alex won't be happy until his Shader Butler can also clean his flat.

Make it so, massive multinational companies.

I think a good ML upscaling option is absolutely essential for any future gaming handhelds (as shown by Switch 2), and the lack of current options is why I've never really felt compelled to upgrade my Steam Deck. If Intel can come in with a good alternative and push AMD to innovate it can only be a good thing.

I traded in some PS1 games to fund a PS2. Still haunts me to this day. Otherwise, I still have every game and console we ever had, starting from a Grandstand, running through the Master System, Game Gear and Mega Drive and then onto the 3D consoles. The only ones where I don't still have the originals are the PS3 and Xbox 360 as they died. They'll pry those consoles from my cold, dead hands.

Excellent game and excellent feature. Just found out imgur is banned in the UK though so can only imagine those joyful GIF-filled explanations 😆

Rich with his "The Black Friday discount season is upon us" advert is the biggest jump scare in gaming right now.

This is really good news, I've always preferred to pay annually.