I play a ton of simulation and strategy games (and some that I would hazard to classify as virtual railfanning/model railroading, like Railroads Online and Transport Fever 2) so I crank up the prettiness, download as much custom content as will load and enjoy the scenery at 20-40 FPS
Check out “Aquaria”. Not quite the same thing, but a Metroidvania playing as a mermaid with song powers. Lots of boss fights! And you can even breech the surface when you get there!
I too grew up on machines that were mid-low range and was constantly asking more of them than they could handle, so I learned to stomach pretty miserable FPS. In the end though it’s highly context sensitive - the less movement (and in particular camera movement) the game has the lower the frame rate you can get away with.
As a general rule I would say 25 FPS is the absolute lower limit, but around 40 is probably more in line with your “this is fine and I’m going to have a great time” definition. However, for something like a fast paced shooter it’s more like 60 FPS minimum.
Around maybe 40 or so I start to notice it. 50 and higher I’m content. My monitor only supports 60 Hz. Around 20 or less I’m annoyed. It’s tolerable for turn based games though. Not enjoyable, just tolerable.
My target is 60, but depending on the game I find framerates down to 20 technically playable (if it’s stable), but I need a bit of time to get used to it.
For framerates above 60, however, I can’t really feel any difference so I usually set a cap at 60 to reduce heat and because the on board sound card is poorly isolated and picks up noise from the gpu.
Maybe this has changed since I’ve upgraded my gaming specs but I used to average 14 FPS on Kerbal Space Program and had a great time with it, docking is a nightmare at that frame rate but otherwise it’s more than playable.
Back in my poverty gaming days I 100%-ed a pirated The Simpsons Hit and Run with potato graphics at slide show speeds, I’m talking like multiple seconds per frame with around 80% frame droppage.
Nowadays I just care that it looks decent and runs smoothly for the games I play, which is mostly Civilization and Stellaris
Anything VR really needs to be 90 or more, but around 60 is good for most things.
I actually think the choppy framerates in Cyberpunk is actually really immersive so it's cool all the way down to 30 or with the smearing of dlss-performance, but most games don't give you progressive brain damage in the first 2 hours like it does
Weirdly enough, I actually care more about framerate on “pancake” (non-vr) games than I do on VR games. I can deal with 10fps in vrchat in a crowded instance. I need more like 20~30 for non-vr games.
That said, I get mentally exhausted when the framerate is <30 for an extended period of time in VRChat.
There’s a reason I only upgraded to a 2k monitor and not 4k, I’m not willing to sacrifice that much performance to just play at a higher resolution, 25 fps is way too low for me. 108 fps is what I play Fallout New Vegas at (to avoid physics behaving too weirdly) and I think that’s fine. I think I’ve gone down to 90 and been somewhat ok with that, but anything below that is no bueno.
Non-fps games I’ll cap lower, like 72 fps for a civilization game is perfectly fine.
But if you want beautiful games like God of War (or do you mean gears of war?) and are fine with a lower framerate, that makes sense to me.
I like how us humans have totally different likes and dislikes. I 100% understand you and will never judge you. You like what you like and that’s very good. I mean God of war, yes. It’s freaking gorgeous.
Maybe it’s because I grew up with 60hz CRT monitors in the 90s, the ones that’d give you a headache if you sat in front of them for too long 😅 Or maybe you just get so used to 144 fps once you make the switch that it’s impossible to go back.
GOW running at 40’ish fps as you say even at ultra must mean they cared to make a good game. I ought to give it a go just for the “Boy” meme.
My first thoughts were Final Fantasy because you have all the enemies you need. And they’ve already branched out into monster catching and Souls-like. So might as well.
My second thought was X-men because the Genesis games were already kinda built for that.
I’ve played three time through Remake. First when it launched on Normal and Hard difficulty, and then again, last December in anticipation for Rebirth.
While I didn’t mind too much my first time, the game definitely has a lot of very slow sections. Like you mentioned, you are constantly forced to walk very slowly, wait for animations, etc. It really feels like Square tried to pad the game a lot.
I really liked the combat at first, but my on Hard difficulty it got terrible. I was always annoyed, that your other party members just stood around and never attacked. Rebirth fixed it a little bit, since they actually are doing stuff, just deal basically no damage and don’t get ATB charge. A few fights are also just terribly designed in my opinion, and Rebirth just doubled down here.
About things not carrying over, I was also a bit disappointed at first, that you basically have to start from scratch in Rebirth, but it wasn’t a big deal. The sequel has other, bigger problems, in my opinion, that drag it down.
The main reason I still like the game, are the characters. If not for them, the very first playthrough would have been enough.
I watched a friend of mine play it shortly after its release, and while it was pretty entertaining at times to watch, I just didn’t like the combat system.
I suppose it could be because I’ve invested hundreds of hours into the original, dating back to its launch. I don’t know. But the charm just isn’t in the remake, IMHO.
If you’re just watching, you won’t get the main appeal of the modern FF combat systems. That being the underlying turns and the strategy around what to do with them.
And unfortunately, at lower difficulties, you can get by with button mashing. It’s really disappointing that the difficulty that actually requires thinking is locked behind ng+, but at that level, the system really shines.
It’s all strategy, dressed up as a hack and slash, but if you just button mash, don’t min-max your builds, utilize the entire party, their abilities, spells and synergies, you are dead.
And it’s all made more intense by the combat happening in real-time (though you can slow time to a crawl at any time). I really love the panic of the way you are forced to control any last surviving party member, waiting for your turn to be available so you can use a phoenix down.
Yeah, I get what you’re saying about me not having actually experienced the full gameplay. I guess the lack of turn-based play is what made me not super interested to begin with, though.
I’m old (ha), and my favorite games are the old FF series, Baldur’s Gate, etc. that all have turn-based combat. Maybe I enjoy it because I’m slow 😂
I don’t know how much you know about the intricacies of the newer FF combat systems, but “turns” are still in there, but among a bunch of new stuff that may or may not jell with you.
If you want, in the remakes you can set the combat to “classic” which makes it so that the AI controls all three charachters, rather than just the two you aren’t playing as.
This leaves you to deal with only the “turns”, and which abilities, spells, or items, to use them for. And you don’t need to be quick, the passage of time nearly pauses while you engage with the action menu to decide what to do with a turn.
Characters and enemies can only engage in basic attacks outside of their “turn”. To use abilities, spells or items, it must be your “turn”.
All the decisions that make turn based combat interesting are overlayed on top of the real-time action. At times they even overlap. When not using classic mode, it matters how you control a characters real time actions. The exact timing of when you use a turn can have consequences, you need to make sure you are standing in a good spot for a given ability, you need to make sure you’re not about to take an attack that might interrupt an action, etc.
You have to decide stuff like whether you need to use your turns to spam cure just to keep the party alive. Should Aerith spend one turn and the MP to use Cura on one party member, or wait two turns to use Pray on everyone. Should Cloud go for damage on this turn, or build stagger in case it leads to a stun and bonus damage next turn? Can Tifa keep herself alive with Chakra or do I need to have another charachter heal her? Do I remember the pressure conditions for this enemy or do I need to spend a turn on Assess to find out?
If all you want is turn based classic gameplay, then yeah, it isn’t here. But they have made something very interesting. It’s got hack slash style flashy action, but with an amount of strategy involved I don’t think any other games have achieved. It’s unique.
But I really like turn based combat. I don’t like to have to run around, spam buttons, or time anything right. I like to read and have time to make a decision. It’s a personal preference, but one that made me not get very far in the remake.
I lean towards ‘no’ because I do not see moves on their part to actively attack other distributors, but I admit I have not done research on this subject.
Based purely on having used many other distribution platforms, I think they (Valve) just legitimately have the best service currently. Everyone else either kinda sucking (GOG, as much as I love them), or really sucking (EGS, Origin, UPlay, etc), and losing to you in the market, doesn’t make you a monopoly.
I think they care about their customers just about as much as they care about making money, and aside from GOG, the competition simply does not. It’s a pretty good demonstration to how capitalism has failed us, to be honest, because any of those competitors would have been able to compete if they hadn’t treated their customers like shit.
I lean towards 'no' because I do not see moves on their part to actively attack other distributors
That doesn't matter. There's a difference between having a monopoly and abusing it to distort the market. It's the abuse that's illegal, not the monopoly in itself.
There’s a difference between having a monopoly and abusing it
Sure, but whether Valve fits the definition is debatable. Being highly dominant does not automatically make something a monopoly. At best you could call it an imperfect monopoly/ imperfect competition, because substitutes absolutely do exist, but they’re not mostly close enough to be truly competitive. It’s also important to factor in that 4/5 of the largest games on PC are not even on Steam at all: Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, and League of Legends. PUBG is the only one of the top-5 that’s on Steam.
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