Community MetaSteam | April 2021 - So NieR Yet So FAR

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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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I usually stick on an open world or sandbox game, pop on a podcast and just go exploring. Skyrim, No Man's Sky, Minecraft, BOTW for example.
Or a game i know really, really well and can just pootle around in or open a console, stick on some cheats and go crazy with it. Like Half Life 2 with infy ammo.
Puzzle games like Hidden-Object type games are usually relaxing for me too. Play on Easy to lose the timer and just zone out looking for stuff.
The Forza Horizon games always looked like they had a lot of relaxation potential. Get in a car and just drive. Truck Sim? House Flipper? The Sims? City Builder type game?
 
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Valdien

✵ Chaos! ✵
Mar 26, 2020
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Anyone got some good relaxing games suggestions? I think I need something to calm down my nerves with!
Would Daemon x Machina count as a relaxing game? :p I found it pretty relaxing. But that's just me.

There's the The Touryst but it's only available on Game Pass/Windows store.
Firewatch
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Terraria (You can relax if you focus on only building stuff. Use the Journey Mode)
Ace Combat 7 (I find the flying aspects of it relaxing. There's a free flight mode.)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (same reason as above, but expensive AF)
Starbound
My Time At Portia (never played it, but it's similar to Stardew Valley)
Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge Catalyst (I recently played through the Mirror's Edge games, and they're both pretty relaxing. The second one more so in particular because of its art direction/visuals. Some amazingly serene moments in there.)


And like Edward mentioned, the Forza games. Just driving around in them is pretty relaxing.

Tinkering with Nier again just now. I wonder what's up with this GPU usage. At 5120x2880 with no AA, my 1080Ti topped at 90%. I turned on AA and it's still at 90%. And my CPU is barely used, hovering around 15-17%.

Frametimes is consistent enough, even though my framerate is only a little above 30fps at that resolution.
If you're using SpecialK, try enabling Nvidia reflex (low latency) + boost and see what happens to the GPU usage. I've heard it helps somehow? I don't own Nier Replicant yet, so I can't confirm if it's true.
 
Reason: Added Mirror's Edge
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Blu

MetaMember
Mar 12, 2019
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I think it was Durante who was asking but looks like Tales of Arise is confirmed to not have multiplayer.

We still haven't really seen the combat in action, but the new Tales of Arise trailer suggests that it will put a big emphasis on colorful super attacks. One thing it will not have, however, is multiplayer. With few exceptions, the ability for multiple players to control characters has been a key feature going all the way back to the original Tales of Destiny, so its removal is a fairly big deal for the series.

Asked about the decision to cut multiplayer from Tales of Arise, Tomizawa says, "So this game is really a standalone game where one person really enjoys the drama and the overall story of the game, we don't really have any plans currently for a multiplayer mode. But on the other side, we did put a lot of focus on how the characters work together and how they cooperate in the battle and how that plays out in game mechanics."
Source
 
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xxr

Member of the Abyss
Dec 21, 2018
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I usually stick on an open world or sandbox game, pop on a podcast and just go exploring. Skyrim, No Man's Sky, Minecraft, BOTW for example.
Or a game i know really, really well and can just pootle around in or open a console, stick on some cheats and go crazy with it. Like Half Life 2 with infy ammo.
Puzzle games like Hidden-Object type games are usually relaxing for me too. Play on Easy to lose the timer and just zone out looking for stuff.
The Forza Horizon games always looked like they had a lot of relaxation potential. Get in a car and just drive. Truck Sim? House Flipper? The Sims? City Builder type game?
Try farming sims like Harvest Moon or Story of Seasons. I especially like the Doraemon one a lot, soothing visuals and music with cute characters.



Or if you have access to it, Animal Crossing.
Would Daemon x Machina count as a relaxing game? :p I found it pretty relaxing. But that's just me.

There's the The Touryst but it's only available on Game Pass/Windows store.
Firewatch
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Terraria (You can relax if you focus on only building stuff. Use the Journey Mode)
Ace Combat 7 (I find the flying aspects of it relaxing. There's a free flight mode.)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (same reason as above, but expensive AF)
Starbound
My Time At Portia (never played it, but it's similar to Stardew Valley)
Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge Catalyst (I recently played through the Mirror's Edge games, and they're both pretty relaxing. The second one more so in particular because of its art direction/visuals. Some amazingly serene moments in there.)


And like Edward mentioned, the Forza games. Just driving around in them is pretty relaxing.
Thank you for all the suggestions!

I wasn't even aware Story of Seasons was on Steam, is that one any good?
Have you played A Short Hike?
No, but I own it so that's definitely something to consider. How.... short is it?
 

Nabs

Hyper˗Toxic Pro˗Consumer
Oct 23, 2018
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Thank you for all the suggestions!

I wasn't even aware Story of Seasons was on Steam, is that one any good?

No, but I own it so that's definitely something to consider. How.... short is it?
Like 90 min or so to hit the end, but I had to put in at least 3 hrs finding everything I could and just messing around.
 
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texhnolyze

Child at heart
Oct 19, 2018
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I wasn't even aware Story of Seasons was on Steam, is that one any good?
It's pretty good. It's a spin off with Doraemon theme, but it has all the chracteristics and core farming mechanics of the main games besides more in-depth ones. Like you can befriend the townfolks but there's no marriage, MC is still a kid after all. It's also focused on the story and it's very close to what you usually get from Doraemon adventure/movies. It's focused on a huge mystery surrounding the island and Nobita c.s.
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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I enjoyed it as a coop experience but as said not something I would play as a "service" game.
Go through all the levels with a friend and call it a day. Makes for a fun weekend.
If we treat it like we did L4D1 and 2, it'd be a campaign/part of a campaign a week until we finish or whatever we can fit into 2ish hours
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,052
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I tried the mod, and while it seems to work (great job!) the game is very bad at maintaining much more than 60 FPS for me (i.e. I get much worse GPU utilization trying to go for high framerates at lower resolution than when I play at 60 FPS with high resolution like I did so far). I'll stick with 60 for now.
 

sk2k

Steam New Releases Warrior
Dec 8, 2018
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I'm confused about the system requirements for Nier Replicant. The recommended CPU is a i5-6400 and the GPU a GTX 1660 to play at 60fps @ 1920x1080.
But apparently there are many people with better configurations who have low fps problems with the game.

I still have a i5-6500 / GTX 1070 (corona made upgrading impossible :( ) and now i'm unsure about buying the game. I want to buy it on GMG because it is cheaper than on Steam and so i can not refund it if it runs badly. :(
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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All i want is a mod that auto-hides the mouse in Nier Replicant.
I was using NVidia Control Panel to cap at 60 but had to start using the SpecialK mod and turn off screenshots etc just for mouse auto-hide. I'd like to disable everything in SpecialK apart from Frame limit and Mouse auto-hide but i'm sure i'd end up turning off the wrong thing and wreck my performance.

I also turned off Steam Input for the game and my 8bit-do Plus controller is working fine.
 
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ezodagrom

JELLYBEE
Nov 2, 2018
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www.youtube.com
I'm confused about the system requirements for Nier Replicant. The recommended CPU is a i5-6400 and the GPU a GTX 1660 to play at 60fps @ 1920x1080.
But apparently there are many people with better configurations who have low fps problems with the game.

I still have a i5-6500 / GTX 1070 (corona made upgrading impossible :( ) and now i'm unsure about buying the game. I want to buy it on GMG because it is cheaper than on Steam and so i can not refund it if it runs badly. :(
I dunno about the CPU, but at the very least the GPU is enough for 1080p 60fps if you use LOD on high instead of max (I have a 1660 Ti, similar performance to the 1070).
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
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All i want is a mod that auto-hides the mouse in Nier Replicant.
I was using NVidia Control Panel to cap at 60 but had to start using the SpecialK mod and turn off screenshots etc just for mouse auto-hide. I'd like to disable everything in SpecialK apart from Frame limit and Mouse auto-hide but i'm sure i'd end up turning off the wrong thing and wreck my performance.

I also turned off Steam Input for the game and my 8bit-do Plus controller is working fine.
Yeah, based on the pic I saw, I'm terrified of having to configure SpecialK.
 

EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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It's dead easy to configure SpecialK to disable screenshot hooks, cap to 60 fps and maybe disable input if your controller is playing up.
Just avoid the other setting panels. I don't go anywhere near them.
 
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Mor

Me llamo Willy y no hice la mili, pero vendo Chili
Sep 7, 2018
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I won't be installing any mod for Nier Replicant, so far 4 hours in and it's running well, a 60fps cap sure is a bit EH in 2021 but it's not a problem to enjoy the experience (I mean, I will enjoy SMT 3 at 30fps hehe) and as the rest of the port is running smoothly (visuals, performance, etc...) I will stay like this.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
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NVidia Frame Rate cap was simple and working perfectly for me but everytime i took a screenshot i had to move the mouse to the edge of the screen which got annoying enough for me to drop SpecialK in the folder just for mouse auto-hide. A solid 60 is fine for me with this game.

It's been years since i played it but it's all coming back to me as i advance the story. Someone said it's like meeting an old friend and i agree.
I've still forgotten enough details that it's interesting to me and playing as Bro Nier is new to me so there's that too.

Yonah is till great though.
 
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Snakethesniper

Time Traveler
Jan 11, 2019
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I tried the mod, and while it seems to work (great job!) the game is very bad at maintaining much more than 60 FPS for me (i.e. I get much worse GPU utilization trying to go for high framerates at lower resolution than when I play at 60 FPS with high resolution like I did so far). I'll stick with 60 for now.
Are you experiencing some kind of ghosting in 60 fps compared to higher framerates?
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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Crashes, disconnects, nerfs, inventory wipes, and now this.


The game will never reach positive user reviews if this keeps up.
One step forward, a comical fall down a flight of stairs backwards it seems. That kind of thing doesn't seem like it'd be hard to fix so long as PCF are actually attentive to their community's needs
 

Snakethesniper

Time Traveler
Jan 11, 2019
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Not that I've noticed. That said, I'm playing with 4x DSR, so that might hide something like that.
Looking around some gameplay videos it might just be how the game looks. Maybe it's the desaturated look, but even in videos () it doesn't seems "crisp" to me, like there's some blurriness
 

MegaApple

Just another Video Game Enthusiast
Sep 20, 2018
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PC-tan

Low Tier Weeb
Jan 19, 2019
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Is papa in this game at any point?


I was finally able to play Nier R and well. Asides from some issues that SE will very likely never fix and we will have to rely on mods for, I'm happy with what we got.


Playing this you realize how it sucks that Platinum games uses FMVs for their cutscenes when they could have been in realtime and looked a lot better. Compare the PC cutscenes of Nier A to the ones from Nier R, the Nier R ones look a lot nicer and smoother because they are in realtime, which makes me wonder if the reason for the FMV is that those scenes in particular were just too taxing so they opted for FMV to at least make them look consistent, otherwise you would get something like in Nier Gestalt were the slow down can be seen in the cutscenes (which up to this point was part of the experience, but that's no longer the game and maybe could have just always been a hardware limitation thing, oh what could have been if that game was released for PC all those years ago. Since that would have potential given that game a different feel altogether in some parts of the game). But In the future when we have better hardware those scenes in particular will look eve more jarring when all the other parts look and play more smoother because of the better hardware playing the game but the FMV will stuck the same as it was during launch.




This to me is one of the biggest difference between the original game and this game and thats blocking. In the original game, blocking is pretty much useless because of the way it works and how it takes up a skill command slot, and it didn't really help you with much and just rolling around everywhere to dodge and avoid enemies attacks was a much better idea. But here you can parry enemy attacks. Maybe you always could in the original game but it just felt so sluggish and didn't really have a point to it but here it just feels so good and satisfying to be able to do something like that.



Their is no VA for the NPC, before I think they would only make a noise and say hello when you talked? Because I don't remember them fully talking in the game. The VA doesn't always match the characters, so you will have young sounding voice from much older people.

There are some of two parts of the game that are fighting themselves the new and the older stuff of the game. If you have never played Nier then you will not notice it. It's not a major thing but it is something that you notice if you have before and some may even welcome it (some parts I myself welcome) and other parts just feel off. And that is "speed", in the original everything is slow (I'm not sure if that was a hardware limitation thing or a creative choice type of thing). Two examples of slow down because of the previous version is the opening cutscene (the opening that you get at the beginning of the game when you don't touch anything,( I'm guessing that the opening was just to loud so they changed it because before you would get the opening first and then the menu, in the new version you get the menu and then the opening.) If you notice, Nier Is just walking he is not running at super speeds like he can now. Most people will not pay much attention. Then you have indoor stuff for the 2.5D stuff you will just walk when in reality you should be able to move around a lot faster then you are in reality.



I know that people pointed out the Nier score of 60-something to the 80-something that the new game has as a metascore and to that I will say that the 60 was way to low a score but even with the original I would not give it a 80 (by which I mean I myself would give it a high score, but when you think about how other would feel about the game and how well the would respond to it and therefore lower the overall score). 70-something would have been an ideal score for the game since it does have it's issues and those issues were likely big enough that some people may have actually never finished the story. This new version does deserve a higher score since it's way easier for more people to get into the game and be able to enjoy the game.
 
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