TTownTiger

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Has anyone listened to Red Rising? My algorithm on Instagram keeps throwing other fantasy novel suggestions and this one keeps popping up?

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RR is talked about quite often on here. Its fantastic. As much as a i loved the narrator, Tim G Reynolds, listening to the Graphic Audio version of the series with a full cast is my favorite audio book listen ever.

Bought it. Finishing up other stuff before I start it. Steam user reviews are complaining that its unstable. Lotta crashes.

I have more hours in Xcom2 than probably any other game ever. Looking forward to this one.

Saw an interview with Matt Dinniman (the author) recently and he was asked about live action vs animated. Said he won't go through with the show if the CGI/effects suck. Sounded like he'll get to preview how all the effects will look first.

I had already completed the T. G. Reynolds audiobooks, but had the itch recently to jump back in. I decided to try the Graphic Audio books with full cast and background music & sound effects. They are phenomenal! I highly recommend them. Certain side characters that originally didn't make an impact with me are now among my favorite characters (Holiday being one) because of how they are portrayed in this series. It adds new depth to characters.

I'm about 3/4ths through book 4 right now. I agree that's the weakest book of the series, but the G. A. audio books make that one a lot more tolerable. A certain annoying POV isn't anywhere near as bad. And some scenes in Book 4 become epic with music & sound effects going off while the mostly great cast does its narration.

Two issues with them: 1) Each book is broken down into multiple audio books. And each of those are sold as it's own book. So the series can get pricey if purchasing outright. They are available on Audible if you have credits or often go on sale if you want to purchase them. They might also be available with library audio book subscriptions if you go that route. 2) the series isn't complete yet. Book 5 is broken down into 3 audio books and the final part is expected to be released in June. I don't know what the ETA for Light Bringer is.

Love this book. Listened to the audio book for free and enjoyed it so much I bought the hard cover to support the author. I am a sucker for time loop stories though.

I really enjoyed The Gameshouse by the same author too.

Most saying amazing world. Amazing combat. Best looking world ever.

But horrible menus (one said the worst inventory system in the history of gaming). And sometimes unclear objectives that can have you wasting hours at a time.

And apparently you have to grind supplies/equipment for hours before most boss battles as the bosses are on an entirely different difficulty level than everything else in the game up to that point. And not a souls like difficulty where you can adjust your strategy to have more success & figure it out. But strictly difficult because all your armour & weapons will be greatly underpowered even though you can one-shot hordes of enemies right before the boss fight. And this happens over & over throughout the game adding a ridiculous # of hours by mandatory backtracking to grind & farm for bosses.

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Just finished book 5 and damn he likes to drop bombs in the epilogue

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I thought books 3 & 4 were solid but weren't as good as the start of the series, so I was a little worried the series had hit its heights too early. But books 5-7 were all bangers. 5 is probably still my favorite so far, but 6 & 7 are both right up there with it.

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Hes still a fricking killer.

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Joshua should easily knock him out. Shouldn't be a contest.

But let's not pretend like it takes some amazing strength to knock Joshua on his arse either. He has a glass jaw and his favorite defense when he decides to mix it up is blocking punches with his chin. I'd say Paul has a non zero percent chance to get extremely lucky and wobble Joshua at some point in the fight if it goes more than a round or two. That goes for anyone who fights Joshua.

In 2021, I bought a 3080 Lenovo legion 7i. i can still play pretty much anything that I want with mods added in. I cannot run ultra setting on most new games from within the past year. But, with medium-high setting and with Reshade to make the graphics pop, I can still hit 50-60 fps on pretty much any new demanding games. If it isn't a demanding game, I can still hit triple digits with high-ultra settings.

I am missing out on a lot of the DLSS & Ray tracing improvements that started coming out with the 4 Series cards, so if you suffer FOMO that is something you'll have to consider as cards/tech get better.

I do not play multiplayer first person shooters, so can't discuss those. I am strictly single player FWIW. Sports games are always easy to run:
WWE 2k25 maxed settings with a Reshade - 60 FPS (game limits at 60 FPS max)

NBA 2k26 max settings with Reshade - 65+ FPS

F1 25 high-ultra mix settings with Reshade and Lossless Scaling Frame Gen - 70-75 FPS

Others:

Final Fantasy XVI: Med-high mix with Reshade - 50 FPS during the crazy cut scenes. 70+ in less demanding scenes.

Final Fantasy remakes - 70+ Fps on high setting with Reshade

I was hitting 65+ FPS on Cyberpunk with Reshade and 30+ mods added on.

Alan Wake 2 (very demanding): 45-50 FPS on medium setting and Reshade.

Claire Obscur: I believe I was at a high-ultra mix with Reshade and getting 65-75 fps.

No issues with ports: Ghost of Tushima, God of War, Horizon.

I had about 3 years of being able to ultra most games with mods and reshades added in. Now I'm mixing setting between medium-ultra. I'll probably start looking to upgrade when the 6-Series laptops come out.

Edit: wanted to specify that I run reshade on everything and mods on everything if there are mods worth a damn for the game. Those can often lower FPS. So those FPS numbers above include both Reshade and in some cases mods.