TheBrainninja

having been lamenting Xenoblade Chronicles X's lack of a Switch 2 patch not...nine months ago, it's great to see the promised upgrades bear out in its "offline waifu gacha simulator" sibling

while gaining one (1) additional position for the taskbar is nice, it'll take more than these to put Bliss back into my Windows user experience

Will your "fairly standard monitor arm" looks like it resents the cavalier way you address its struggle for life. The monitor's price point, while of course alarming to any sensible person, is "surprisingly reasonable," as you say; I feel like not two years ago you'd spend significantly more for a smaller, less capable monitor. I hope this is indicative of a trend downwards for at least one category of tech!

I can't say I have any specific desires (especially since I've not played KCD2 yet - I only just recently got to KCD1!), but I remain interested specifically because they're committed to Cryengine (and also extremely skilled in using it to make Good Visuals)...it's just about the only way I can see the newest things "Achieved With Cryengine."

...That said, ever since that AC Shadows tech video breaking down their virtual geometry-based LOD system (and realizing suddenly that I'd seen zero LOD pop-in in over 100 hours), I'm bullish on that for sure. I'd love to see something like that! I'd love to see something like RT reflections! As long as they find a way to keep the SVOGI branding, that's critical. Just like...SVORS...i...? I've lost whatever thread I had. Me like when game pretty.

is that a profile button? or the screenshot/share button? it's a small thing, but I like having a dedicated screenshot button, rather than using Steam Input chords (especially now that Windows forcibly and irreversibly grabs control of any Guide Button long-presses. Dead center's an awkward position tho, imo. I'd prefer a slight offset. That reminds me, 8Bitdo's official Xbox elite-lite controller should be out soon, I should check my order info...

"untapped" [groan] Willlllllllllll
Seems like a fun, unique addition for those who have a keyboard shelf like Jay Leno's garage! Maybe not a daily driver, at least at that price.
Fun note about all the inscrutable labeling (CAB? Sleep Lv.2?), my dad actually does English documentation for Chinese-built tech (music industry, not gaming/productivity), and uh...you know, I respect his Craft today more than ever!

Managing to secure a GPU with access to NVidia's latest framegen updates definitely improved my experience somewhat, but the absolutely wild frametime variance in any "overworld" cell (and indeed, in some cities as well - the whole reason they moved to treat cities like "dungeons" was for performance on a system with 512MB shared memory!) is beyond what framegen or VRR can smooth out. Quite an unpleasant experience, and after playing just long enough to say "well, it's better sometimes now," I uninstalled. Irresponsibly gigantic install size for a game that originally shipped on a literal DVD! I know modern assets are big, but come on, I don't have the 130GB or whatever to spare for this.

The name "Xodus" with Extremely Large Tux are the most Linux things imaginable, and I wish them success. I'm still not gonna play Super Tux Kart tho.

Honestly, I find the intense reflectivity of every surface in games these days...kinda overwhelming, and also considering every game's opted for White as the default "interaction color," I end up mistaking random teacups and other decorative props as "important elements" out of the corner of my eye. SO, "more diffuse surfaces" actually sounds like a blessing to me, even if presumably PC will have the option for Proper Reflections on even those...I just feel like most games get the degree of diffusion "wrong," at least to how the world looks when I look around; I can see different colors and intensity of light on the shinier bits of metal on a filing cabinet in my office, but notably can NOT see any discernible objects reflected. I feel like Reflections (both Screen Space and Ray Traced!) have become an archetypal "so busy wondering if we could, not wondering if we should" thing. Little...visual pet peeve soap box, I'll go now...

@speedlemur thanks for the context, and for your work on this! definitely didn’t mean to undersell the value, and I appreciate you being “too honest” about the tradeoffs rather than overly minimizing them. I hope to try it out soon, as I mentioned you’re directly addressing my largest remaining frustration with Control’s otherwise spectacular visuals!

...how excruciating. as much as I'd love to move to an AM5 board, not currently in a position to replace CPU and RAM (especially not RAM) so...priced out of my next upgrade due to C-suite fart-huffing. the smallest but most me-affecting consequence of this swelling bubble.

hmm, while the noisy RT resolve is imo Control's largest remaining visual issue, now that I read the tradeoffs...hm, not sure it's worth the side effects. still, awesome effort, glad someone's at least trying to fix that as best they can! who knows, maybe a better method of disabling the Northlight denoiser will arise in the future!

@Snorlaxcat "enhanced goat piss" is a legitimate reason for celebration in 2026

MegaLights seems very cool, especially those efficiency gains; I'd be chuffed if they "merely" implemented hardware Lumen, as I find the general temporal instability of the software Lumen resolve...unpleasant to the extent that I avoid looking at the screen (and leaving the exe un-launched)
[edit:] for clarity, this was after dozens of hours spent battling spotty performance and IQ on a 5800X/RTX3080 system. I just want to play the game that looks like the crystal-clear image in the trailers!

https://youtu.be/gx6TBrfCW54?t=16&is=b8z32Vv-dygdTyNe

so “bangers,” but no “mash”? it feels like I should be able to call someone and complain about this. ‘tis a silly language!

what's a "cracker," in British? is it different than a "crisp"? a "biscuit"? how does a PC even eat those?

Not to miss the forest of human suffering for the trees of tech news, but it's interesting to hear they've moved onto Creation Engine 3 after shipping...one(?) title with Creation Engine 2. I wish they could've used iDtech for the final render in Starfield rather than the (totally serviceable) renderer they used, but wow it sure doesn't seem like that's any kind of possibility in the future! I guess it all comes back to human suffering in the end...

my kingdom for the back-and-forth that decided against "Picking out signal from de-Noise" for the dek

The YouTube embed didn't work for me; would be nice to make explicit what the referenced content is (in this case, a clip from DF Direct 237 extracted and uploaded separately), as sometimes embedded content gets caught in firewalls or privacy extensions (even after I added explicit exceptions for digitalfoundry.net)
...That said, thanks Sam for the extensive text writeup on the subject - on more technical topics, I definitely benefit from multiple vectors of information delivery!

I'm definitely in favor, though considering the point about the team's size and workload, I'd be okay with it on an "as relevant" basis in broader reviews - such as "wow this PC version sure got problems wot disappear on Linux??????," or perhaps in roundup videos whenever someone gets the bug to do so (like Oliver's "pls break my Steam Deck" series).
...as one of the growingly-dissatisfied Windows Users Seriously Considering Daily-Driving Bazzite, I anticipate interest in Linux benchmarks to increase. Considering the general state of Microsoft and the excruciating effort it takes to change that ship's course, I'll believe these vaunted Windows Gaming improvements when I see them. Their recent rake-stepping WRT: Windows On Handhelds gives zero confidence that they can stem the tide of Windows Users Having Enough - after all, how can you pitch fundamental User Experience Improvements to AI-addled investors?

Not an especially salient point to this #content, but it seems odd that the blurb is about the original DOOM 3 release, but the sidebar is about the Switch port that, by on Scullion's own words, is based on the BFG Edition. Not a complaint! Growing pains! Partnerships! Just a note.