TheMightyEthan

Welp, Zelda is back on as a Switch launch title, at least in NA and Japan. Apparently the reason for the delay to summer was to give Europe enough time to localize into all their various languages, but at the end of December Japan decided fuck Europe, the Switch needs Zelda at launch. The upshot for me is that now I guess I'm getting a Switch at launch.

First finished game of the new year is Wolfenstein: The New Order! I'd heard great things about this game and was still pleasantly surprised. It played well and they kept up a good variety between levels. If I'd managed to finish it before the end of the year it probably would have even beat Titanfall 2 for my favorite shooter I played last year, which is saying something.

@Mal: I definitely take games off my backlog once I realize I have no intention of ever playing them again.

I consider any game that I am not currently playing and that I haven't either finished or decided I'm never going to finish to be on my backlog. The only exception to that is that if I get a game while I'm currently playing another game the new game doesn't go on the backlog until I finish my current game without starting the new game.

Here come the stats! I beat 43 games this year, which was a massive increase from last year's 18. I thought last year could be explained by some big RPGs slowing me down, but this year I played Persona 3 Portable and TMS#FE, both of which clocked in around 80 hours, so I think it was actually Destiny that explained my poor performance last year. My average time-to-complete was 17.5 hours, with a median of 12.4, so I did have fewer really long games dragging up the average compared to last year. Although my sample size last year was so small that that may not actually mean anything. PC barely beat out PS4 as my top platform in terms of number of games completed, 17 to 16, but it completed destroyed PS4 for hours played, at 262 vs 166. Just like last year Vita wins average hours per game, because I only played one game on it and it was a Persona game. Wii U put in a good showing here, with TMS#FE (also almost a Persona game..) giving it a huge boost. I was doing so well on my backlog right up through the middle of December, keeping it in the low single digits, but then Christmas happened... On average a game was on my backlog for 140.8 days before being removed (this only counts games I've removed, not games still on there) and I played it for 13.2 hours before finishing it or calling it good. Going into 2017 I have 11 games on my backlog, which is still better than the 19 I had at the beginning of last year. Though I am very happy that only one game is more than about 6 months old. Shadowrun Dragonfall is still left from last year's Secret Santa (Sorry GOH!) and that's definite the next thing on my list to hit after I finish Wolfenstein.

I take back what I said about Nvidia's DSR not handling non-even pixel ratios well. Somehow my smoothness setting had gotten turned all the way down to 0%, which is what was causing it to fuck up anything other than 4x downsampling. I've turned it back up to 20% and now it looks beautiful no matter the setting. The higher the % though the softer the image (default is 33% and I think that's way too soft), so I'm gonna experiment and see if I can't get it lower. *Edit - So I played around with it and determined that for me at least (this is partially down to personal preference) I can turn the smoothing down to 15% on 1440p->1080p downsampling, and 10% on 1620p->1080p downsampling before the artifacts start to bother me. I want it as low as possible because at 4k you don't actually need any smoothing at all so it's just softening the image for no reason, but stupidly DSR doesn't let you set it on a per-resolution basis so I have to either find one setting I can live with at every downsampling resolution or adjust it in the control panel each time I change the game resolution. That second option's too much of a PITA, so I decided to just go with the lowest setting that works for 1440p and call it good. Plus side of all this is that between figuring this stuff out and realizing Nvidia's FXAA setting works with Wolfenstein I have now been able to put a good dent in that game's problem with jaggies (apparently that game does the antialiasing at a really early step in the render pipeline so a lot of stuff just flat doesn't get antialiased, and it looks awful).

Wolfenstein: The New Order Great shooter so far, although goddamn does it wear its last-gen versions on its sleeve. I'm playing on PC at max graphics and it is just not a pretty game. *Edit - Oh, and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Alright, housekeeping time: Did anyone who signed up not get a gift?

Why does no one want a free Dishonored Definitive Edition code?

You bio-supremacist!

If you want the Definitive Edition of the first one I have a PC code for it that you can have. You may be worried about the second one running but that card should handle the first no problem (I played it on a GTX 470...) You wouldn't feel lost without playing the DLC, but if you do play it you'll notice more stuff, and some things won't seem to come out of nowhere.

Halo Wars Definitive Edition. It's a competent port, but that's all it is, a port. The textures are higher resolution than the original 360 version, but it's just a matter of re-exporting the original textures without compression as opposed to actually creating new assets. Everything else is identical. It did run great on my PC though, at 4k, and having just played the much more recent Legacy of the Void I can say visually it compares fairly well. Gameplay wise it's just the same game as it's always been. Even though I was playing on PC I still used a controller because I always prefer to play on the TV with a controller if it's a viable option, so I can't say how the PC controls translate. If I ever try the multiplayer I'll probably use a kb/m just to avoid being at a disadvantage, but for campaign I figure it was designed from the ground up for a controller so I'm not losing anything.

I'm having trouble imagining a more appealing game pitch than that...

Yeah, I actually think this game would be improved by playing it as the episodes come out, because then you'd be more likely to actually experiment and replay each level to find all the stuff instead of doing what I did and just play straight through all of them once. I definitely intend to get Season 2 as it comes out rather than waiting until the end.

Game of the Year: Dishonored 2 I absolutely adored the original, and while this one doesn't feel as special (the narrative isn't nearly as good) overall it's still an excellent followup. The level design is amazing. Disappointment of the Year: No Man's Sky Does this one even need an explanation? Surprise of the Year: Hitman I have tried and bounced off of at least 3 prior Hitmen (granted not until years after release) but everyone kept talking about how good this one was so I tried it. I don't know if it's just that it's newer so it doesn't have that older game weirdness, or if it's different from the others in the series, or if the formula just finally clicked for me, but I loved this game. Each level feels more like a giant puzzle than a stealth game, which isn't what I expected going in but man is it great. Favorite Moment in a Game: Titanfall 2 Effect and Cause. To say more than that would spoil the amazement. Most Anticipated in 2017: Persona 5 I almost put in Mass Effect Andromeda, Horizon Zero Dawn, Gravity Rush 2, and Zelda Breath of the Wild, but in the end it had to be Persona 5. I tried P3P and bounced off, later tried P4G and loved it, then went back to P3P and loved it too. I cannot wait for this game.

Thanks Vecha!

PC but I'm using a controller.

I've been playing Halo Wars Definitive Edition. I love this game probably more than it deserves. I finally got my code for it right before Christmas so I'm trying to get it finished up so I can dive into the games I got as gifts. Once I finish it (probably tomorrow, I only have one level left) I think I'm gonna tackle Wolfenstein The New Order.

I have Steam codes for Broken Age and Dishonored 1 Definitive Edition if anyone wants them.

I did. The only issue I had was that there was some weird stuttering, but I was able to fix that by turning off vsync in game and then reenabling it through my graphics card control panel. Other than that it ran great.

If you buy the intro pack (prologue and episode 1) you can either buy the rest of the episodes together in the Upgrade Pack, or you can buy them individually.

I didn't technically buy Forza Horizon 3, got it for Christmas. Still though. Same with XCOM 2. Bought ReCore because I was expecting to get it for Christmas and didn't, and it's on sale for like half of what it's ever been on sale for before. I don't need any more games for a long long time.

I downloaded that free first episode but haven't tried it yet, I need to.