I've been running a 3060 RTX for the past 18 months, and it's been working well for me. I don't expect to be upgrading for two more years, at least.

But, when I do, I'm going to looking at AMD cards next time, for the reasons SethM gives above.

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Nintendo offered free downloadable game demos for the 3DS and Wii U*, for AAA games and indies both, and it was a great way to see whether a game was to your liking or not. My kid is still feeling out his tastes in video games, and it was an excellent feature for them. I like the idea of this being available for Steam, too.

* It looks like this is technically a feature for the Switch, but the selection is much more limited than in previous consoles.

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Quoting: Jarmer

Quoting: ShmerlFor whatever reason, the game disables the option to choose between DX11 and DX12, but you can force DX12 mode with -dx12 parameter.

on steam, if you click the cog settings for the game, go to properties, under the general section there's a drop down selector for dx11 / dx12. No need to use launch parameters.

That's weird - when I click "Play" to run it via Steam, I first get a window saying "SELECT LAUNCH OPTIONS" where it allows me to choose whether to use DirectX 11 or 12. I've never needed to fiddle with launch parameters.

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I backed the Kickstarter campaign for Everspace 2, based on my experience with the first one. I don't often care for playing games in early access, so I waited until the 6th for the full 1.0 release. I've already put in too many hours out of the last 24, and I have a few thoughts:

1) It plays very well on my system (Ubuntu 22.04, Ryzen 5600X, Geforce 3060 RTX, using Proton Experimental). I've played so far at 1920x1080 and all the graphics settings at maximum ("Epic"), and it's smooth and lovely to look at. I will likely tweak the balance of graphics settings and resolution to find a sweet spot, but no concerns at all so far.

2) The only crash/freeze I've had so far is when I received the first side mission, and there was a prompt to press Alt to see its location on the map. Doing so froze the game, and I had to close it down and restart it. Fortunately, the game saves checkpoints automatically whenever you enter a system, so I hadn't lost that much time. Viewing the map normally (pressing "M", or choosing the map screen in the in-game interface, cause me no problems.

3) Some of the user interface has been unclear so far. For instance, I think I had 6 hours in the game before I figured out how to spend Mainframe stacks to upgrade my attributes. There's nearly nothing calling that out on the screen. I have similar, albeit lesser difficulties following the crafting/modification menus. Better highlighting or graphical prompts would be welcome.

4) I'm having a lot of fun! I'm playing on the default difficulty, and I am finding it a little too easy - I'm likely to bump that up one notch for more of a challenge. But, the flying is great, the sense of speed when I fire the emergency boost is terrific, and the weapons are very satisfying. There is tons to explore alongside the story missions, and everywhere you go is packed with little secrets. On the first planet I visited,

Spoiler, click me

I went down a completely unmarked mineshaft that I spotted from the air, and found a derelict ship, piloted by a robot, that had been stuck down there for 130 years. I towed it back to the nearby mining base, and I hope something comes of that later

.

I will keep playing, there's tons to do and I have only just started to delve into some of the mechanics.

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The 2014 release video gives off such intense 1996 vibes that I feel like I should source an old CRT monitor to play it on. Pretty cool that it is still in development.

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Quoting: ArehandoroMy only gripe with the Switch Pro Controller are the reversed X, Y and A, B buttons. ... Alternatively, I wished games adapted the icons based on the controller too.

That's not reversed, that's been the same layout since the SNES controller in the early '90s. Microsoft reversed it with the original Xbox. <shakes cane>

In all seriousness, I would also love it if there was some auto-adjustment based on the controller that you're using. I don't know how well that would work with more than one controller type at a time. I use an 8bitdo Pro 2 that has the (correct :-P) Nintendo layout, and my kid prefers a Steam Controller, so there might be some confusion.

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Quoting: mr-victoryWhile you are discussing PC vs console, the next gen already switched to mobile.

I can only speak for my kids and their friends, but all of their gaming is on Switch, Xbox, Playstation, and Steam. None of the younger kids (10 and younger) we see have phones that are capable of gaming, but everyone has a console at home and/or their parents' PC.

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Quoting: MalWith this it's the third year in a row with PC gaming being non affordable. They continue like that again and by 2025 there won't be PC gamers anymore.

The video card industry (really, the global semiconductor industry) may still be a mess, but I think it is improving slowly. As for PC gaming, that's not going to go away because of the pricing of the highest-end video cards - those have always been priced absurdly high, the computer component equivalent of a Ferrari or Koenigsegg. What's important to PC gaming is the mid-range cards, and those are available again in quantity, albeit more expensive than they once were. You can order an Nvidia 3060 card right now for ~$350 in the United States, no wait, and it'll play every one of the Top 10 most popular games on Steam at high resolutions and graphics settings, just not "Ultra."

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Just curious: is the Huaying fan not affected by a magnetic attachment?

Also, I picked up a Deckmate set before the holidays, when they were having a sale. The design and fit with the Deck are great, and the company is very cool in that it also has all their designs available as pay-what-you-want files for 3D printers, with a BoM for any springs and the like.

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Quoting: 1xokOn this occasion, do any of you have experience with the 8BitDo Pro 2 and the Steam Deck?

Yes, I do. I have two of them, and have used them with my Steam Deck. They pair correctly via Bluetooth and seem to have quite low latency, or at least low enough that I don't notice any input lag. I quite like them as controllers, too.

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