December 2024 PCG Article Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires: 'Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime'

Co-CEOs to take over for the interim as a successor is found.

www.pcgamer.com

I was lucky to find an actual article with Cyber Monday/Black Friday articles still going on.

Can't really say Gelsinger retiring is much of a surprise. Intel is in the worst position it's ever been in. Expect a new CEO to come in swinging and possibly do things like cancel their GPU program.

 

[BeardyHat]

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retires: 'Leading Intel has been the honor of my lifetime'

Co-CEOs to take over for the interim as a successor is found.

www.pcgamer.com

Expect a new CEO to come in swinging and possibly do things like cancel their GPU program.

I definitely hope not. I know they're not successful at the moment, but seems like it would ultimately be short sighted to do so. Not only because it would be nice to have another player in the GPU space, but also because Intel might start being pretty damn viable as an all in one, light gaming solution with an APU like AMD is right now. And I'm all about better integrated graphics.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Im hoping they continue with the GPUs because any new CEO they get will surely be excited about AI. I dont understand the exact technical details but Ive read here and there that the Arc stuff is pretty good there. Hopefully they would want to continue on that path and as a side effect we'd get more gaming stuff. A competitive third player in GPUs would be nice.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Be safe out there: long-suffering Bloodborne fans are in hysterics over a new PlayStation ad

There might be something to it. Or, there might not be.

www.pcgamer.com

Bloodborne hopefuls making leaps of faith...

 

[Zed Clampet]

Intel launches new Arc B580 GPU with 10% more performance than an RTX 4060 for $249 but the rumoured RTX 4070-beater is nowhere to be seen

Faster than an RTX 4060, but is it too little too late?

www.pcgamer.com

Intel's new second-gen XeSS 2 upscaling tech with Frame Generation matches Nvidia's DLSS for features and might have the edge on AMD's FSR

More feature-complete than AMD's FSR and competitive with Nvidia DLSS.

www.pcgamer.com

New Intel graphic cards with upscaling and ray tracing that may beat Nvidia's. They compete with the 4060, and are coming way too late, as Nvidia is probably going to unveil their new GPUs in early January. Still, these seem solid and have better feature support than the AMD cards and are cheaper than Nvidia (I haven't priced AMD), so they are going to be a real option for budget-minded players at least briefly. If these had released early this year, they could have been game changers in the low end market. Intel needs to get on the ball with their next generation of cards and beat Nvidia to the market. No word on whether their rumored 4070 killer is ever going to be released. Maybe they are holding onto it to be a 5060 killer. Now that would be something cool.

It all feels "too little, too late" for right now. They need to be prepared to come in earlier with the next generation.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It turns out Two Point Museum is so perfect for my Sims decorator-addled brain that I forgot it was supposed to be a management sim

Designing dream exhibitions, and I guess making money and pleasing guests along the way.

www.pcgamer.com

@neogunhero This one is on your wishlist (mine too). Encouraging article about a preview build of Two Point Museum.

I'm afraid there's a Helldivers 2 sex game, and yes it is called Sexdivers

A lazy parody that at least looks the part.

www.pcgamer.com

lol WARNING the game's Steam page is very, very NSFW.

 

[neogunhero]

@neogunhero This one is on your wishlist (mine too). Encouraging article about a preview build of Two Point Museum.

Very excited for that game. I started Two Point Campus a few months ago and really need to dive back in. It was a ton of fun but for some reason I didn’t stick to it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Hold on to your potatoes because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's system requirements demand ray tracing you can't disable and an RTX 4090 for highest settings

Ray tracing. Why'd it have to be ray tracing?

www.pcgamer.com

The RT requirements for Full RT minimum. All low settings 1080p, target 60 fps: RTX 4070.

https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq

View: https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq


I have no idea what they think people are doing and maybe Im not in the majority here, but if a game is running badly RT is one of the first things I cut. I cant imagine all low settings with RT looks better than high without. Have to wait and see, its not one I'm going to buy at release but interesting to see how it looks.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Hold on to your potatoes because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's system requirements demand ray tracing you can't disable and an RTX 4090 for highest settings

Ray tracing. Why'd it have to be ray tracing?

www.pcgamer.com

The RT requirements for Full RT minimum. All low settings 1080p, target 60 fps: RTX 4070.

https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq

View: https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq


I have no idea what they think people are doing and maybe Im not in the majority here, but if a game is running badly RT is one of the first things I cut. I cant imagine all low settings with RT looks better than high without. Have to wait and see, its not one I'm going to buy at release but interesting to see how it looks.

If I'm being completely honest, the only game I've seen where ray tracing made the game look much better is Minecraft, which normally looks like wet dog.

 

[Frindis]

Would it not be better to open the window and let the sun rays hit the computer screen?🤔

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

If I'm being completely honest, the only game I've seen where ray tracing made the game look much better is Minecraft, which normally looks like wet dog.

Alan Wake 2 and Control with RT on looks really nice but I cant imagine a situation where I would sacrifice every other setting to low just to have path tracing.

 

[Zed Clampet]

More than 300 game developers lost their jobs in one day, just three weeks before Christmas

2023 was bad, but 2024 looks even worse.

www.pcgamer.com

More layoffs/closures. Ubisoft's are due to the failure of Xdefiant. Seems like I might have tried putting it on Steam before tossing all the employees away.

Torn Banner is a bit of a surprise. I thought Chivalry 2 (published by Tripwire) did well, but apparently No More Room in Hell 2 (a self-published L4D clone) bombed. Per user reviews, it was "sanitized for modern audiences".

Sweet Bandits is the last one. They have closed down entirely. They were trying to sell a social deception game for $20 when most of them are free or under $10. The game's concurrents are too low to show up in the Steam app, but the publisher (also Tripwire) plans to keep the game going.

So far Tripwire seems to be okay, but the publisher always gets paid first.

 

[Colif]

Hold on to your potatoes because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's system requirements demand ray tracing you can't disable and an RTX 4090 for highest settings

Ray tracing. Why'd it have to be ray tracing?

www.pcgamer.com

The RT requirements for Full RT minimum. All low settings 1080p, target 60 fps: RTX 4070.

https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq

View: https://imgur.com/dUCHQPq


I have no idea what they think people are doing and maybe Im not in the majority here, but if a game is running badly RT is one of the first things I cut. I cant imagine all low settings with RT looks better than high without. Have to wait and see, its not one I'm going to buy at release but interesting to see how it looks.

now if only signs were that the game was worthy of the graphics engine.

I see it has 4 hours of cut scenes in a 17 hour game, thats a lot of wasted time. Can they stop trying to make games into movies?

I am old enough to remember that movie tie in games are always bad... nice to see they still are. Guess I can wait one more day to watch the reviews... I wonder how many were stupid enough to pay for 3 days early... I wonder how many bugs it has.

So we at stage good graphics are easy, now we just need fun games as well. I guess you can't have everything...
You don't want to know what I think RTX stands for.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

now if only signs were that the game was worthy of the graphics engine.

I see it has 4 hours of cut scenes in a 17 hour game, thats a lot of wasted time. Can they stop trying to make games into movies?

I am old enough to remember that movie tie in games are always bad... nice to see they still are. Guess I can wait one more day to watch the reviews... I wonder how many were stupid enough to pay for 3 days early... I wonder how many bugs it has.

So we at stage good graphics are easy, now we just need fun games as well. I guess you can't have everything...
You don't want to know what I think RTX stands for.

PCG werent all that impressed with what they saw so who knows where it lands in the end with Indiana Jones. The 2014 onwards Wolfenstein games Machine games did had fun stories and they were really good shooters IMO, although I didnt play Youngblood out of those.

Disagree on the making games into movies though. I just finished playing The Last of Us Remastered, and its a very good game with just about the best story and characters that I can think of in a 3D game. Its possible to do that really effectively.

 

[Zed Clampet]

.
You don't want to know what I think RTX stands for.

RTX stands for "Better than AMD"

 

[Colif]

edits forum rules to make that a bannable offence

note: I can't due to who wrote post.

 

[Zed Clampet]

edits forum rules to make that a bannable offence

note: I can't due to who wrote post.

It's a little embarrassing that they still can't handle their own ray tracing worth a darn. Maybe the 50XX ones will finally get the hang of it--3 generations later.

That article on Intel GPUs seems to indicate that Intel is getting the hang of it faster than Nvidia.

 

[Colif]

I can't afford a 50 series card. I don't see point is spending 3500 on a card when you can almost make an entire PC for same price... that and a few years later you need to do it all again for a new one. Graphics aren't worth spending so much on.
Not unless the games get better anyway.

Intel need something, their CPU are a joke right now.

 

[Pifanjr]

A Valve engineer fixed 3D lighting so hard he had to tell all the graphics card manufacturers their math was wrong, and the reaction was: 'I hate you'

Ken Birdwell was all about "getting the lighting right."

www.pcgamer.com

Imagine being a hardware manufacturer and finding out you fundamentally screwed up all lighting calculations on a hardware level.

 

[Colif]

Still no believable reviews for Indiana Jones game yet, just reviews from shills

 

[Zed Clampet]

Almost 80,000 Amazon-exclusive Anker speakers were just recalled due to fire safety concerns

That hot new sound.

www.pcgamer.com

The ridiculous thing here is that these desk speakers have lithium batteries. You whippersnappers have gone too wireless. There's (almost) no valid reason for a desk speaker to have a battery. It just makes it worse.

"A quick flick through the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission's recent recalls shows quite a few products being recalled due to battery issues and slowly degrading batteries are one of the most prominent issues with old devices. From phones to GameBoys, if something has gone wrong with an old electronic device, there's a good chance the battery may be at fault."

We don't have enough houses burning to the ground naturally, so what we need to do is keep buying discount lithium batteries from China.

 

[Colif]

I agree about the battery. Especially if you can't replace it as it just sets a use by date on the purchase. One way to create return customers I guess.
Only case I can make for the battery is on a laptop. Especially if they are Bluetooth
I won't be buying Bluetooth speakers anytime soon.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Over 1,800 CEOs have resigned in 2024, making this the year of the mic drop exit for head honchos

"It's your problem now, I guess."

www.pcgamer.com

As someone whose wife runs a tech company after her boss retired early this year, I can confirm that we own a superyacht.

She doesn't even have a special retirement package, much less a superyacht. She'll probably be in next year's statistics because she's already started talking about retirement. She's mad at the world most days. Lately it was because the board is demanding that everyone get a flat 3% raise for next year. She told them 'no' because that disincentivized being a good employee, so she might not have to retire. She might just get fired.

AMD's Adrenalin software finally has official support for Stalker 2, Flight Sim 2024, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The zone just got a little nicer.

www.pcgamer.com

"Starting with the most important part, the software now officially supports Marvel Rivals, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Slitterhead, Delta Force, and Stalker 2."

Way to stay on top of things, AMD.

 

[DXCHASE]

Who else is sitting here refreshing like a mad man for Path of Exile 2?? Says theres already over 200k according to steamdb but they are all at the menu lol.

 

[BeardyHat]

Over 1,800 CEOs have resigned in 2024, making this the year of the mic drop exit for head honchos

"It's your problem now, I guess."

www.pcgamer.com

As someone whose wife runs a tech company after her boss retired early this year, I can confirm that we own a superyacht.

She doesn't even have a special retirement package, much less a superyacht. She'll probably be in next year's statistics because she's already started talking about retirement. She's mad at the world most days. Lately it was because the board is demanding that everyone get a flat 3% raise for next year. She told them 'no' because that disincentivized being a good employee, so she might not have to retire. She might just get fired.

AMD's Adrenalin software finally has official support for Stalker 2, Flight Sim 2024, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The zone just got a little nicer.

www.pcgamer.com

"Starting with the most important part, the software now officially supports Marvel Rivals, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Slitterhead, Delta Force, and Stalker 2."

Way to stay on top of things, AMD.

Adrenaline works pretty alright. I don't use it much on my main PC, but it comes in handy on my laptop for my eGPU and can give it a nice, mild overclock to pick up a few FPS.

As for being a good employee, it sounds nice in theory, but in my own experience, being a good employee just means more work for the same amount of money. I've never gotten a decent raise without agitating for it and the one that was given to me for being a "good employee" was so insulting (especially considering they were already underpaying me be several dollars an hour) it lead me to do what the kids these days call, "quiet quitting." Sears can go pound sand.