Patient gamers might be interested in this news.
I have a gtx 1080. 2025 games are mostly written in unreal 5. Unreal 5 is designed such that not even the highest end gpus can actually run it without framegen. And now also with mandatory raytracing.
Older games still work, and they look and run better for me.
And most U5 games look kinda the same
It does depend on the game, Satisfactory for example uses UE5 (5.3.2) and runs perfectly fine for me without framegen at 5120x1440. Admittedly I run it on an RX 6900, so not an average card. But at the other hand it’s already an older one and that resolution approaches 4K.
Unless something changed fairly recently the game also doesn’t use Lumen by default, let alone raytracing. Was RT made mandatory in later UE5 versions? Because it’s definitely not mandatory for every UE5 version.
UE5 is by no means a lightweight engine, but I do wonder how many of the issues are caused by lack of optimisation.
ue5 doesn’t force rt. But the number of games that do mandate rt (ex the latest indiana jones game) is increasing. I flat out can’t play those.
Next year it is going to be even lower with how prices are going. Upgrades are just not feasible anymore.
Glad I got a 9070XT just before everything went bust. I’ll be sticking with DDR4 for a few years though.
I’m using 32GB of Corsair DDR4 I got back in 2016. Think I can safely say I got my moneys worth already and still intend to ride it into 2030 at this rate.
Honestly I think DDR4 is the right call for an everyday-use PC anyway. I might be showing my ignorance here, but when I upgraded my PC I got DDR5-6000 and the memory training times are INSANE. The first few times I tried to boot I wound up restarting because 5 mins after hitting the button it still hadn’t shown the manufacturer’s logo and I assumed it was busted. Once it finally does finish the training, it usually doesn’t have to do it again for a while… but sometimes it does! Totally randomly (as far as I can tell), I’ll go for a quick reboot, maybe swapping from my Linux install back over to Windows or something, and what should be a 15 second wait is now suddenly a full 5+ minutes.
Near as I can tell, DDR5 Just Does That Sometimes??? How is that an upgrade!? I guess I’m probably seeing some performance gains from the faster timing, but man, sometimes I think I’d trade it in exchange for never having to wait on a black screen for minutes at a time.
I have never heard of memory training? What is this? Something new with DDR5?
I do buy new games even full price on rare occasion. Regardless of that, there’s nothing new games do much better than old games besides graphics and that mattering declined hard once league of legends, counter strike, fortnite, minecraft, roblox, etc became people’s childhood to their ongoing adulthood games. I’ve met people that haven’t spent a dime on genshin impact while having played for 5 years
No one is missing out on the best 2025 games if they’re playing the best games of 2015. Time is finite and if it’s filled with good, what difference does it make if it’s new or old. You’re not missing out if you’re playing the best games of 2000-2014 in 2025.
I follow emulation on Android communities and people love playing the greatest hits of the PS2, Gamecube, DS, 3DS, PSP, Vita and it seems to mostly be teenagers. And now we’re getting good PC emulation support and PS3 and X360 support is progressing. Switch on Android emulation is pretty good now. Android, Steam Machine, Steam Deck, Steam Frame, Legion Go, Rog Ally, GPD Win, Ayaneo. Even Switch 2. The relatively low power gaming scene is growing and that bodes well for “classic/retro/oldies” gaming.
It’s been 12 years since the PS4 launched. Early PS4 games don’t play much different than 2025 games. The classics oldie radio station of games are soon going to be very modern. 2007 Bioshock era games are already very modern and look pretty good too
Fourteen percent seems huge though, considering video games have technically been a thing since, what, the 70s or 50s.
My method of patient gaming is to only buy games that are $10 or less
Just got subnautica, hades 1, disco Elysium, oxygen not included, hollow knight (I’m sad to learn I don’t like platformers that much…), kerbal space program.
Shit, I have so much to play for the next 5 years just there.
Factorio and Hades 2 were my exceptions, got them full price.
The gaming industry for new games being released is brutal. The competition is sky high, and all you need to think about are games like Stardew Valley or Skyrim. There are so many options to choose from, a new young gamer has barely any reason to pay full price for any new games. We are entering the “Please play out game! It’s free!” phase, and still no one will spend the time. Time and attention are the most valuable thing.
Which probably only proves that Steam Machines is going to be more than enough for everyone.
Like a true patient gamer I didn’t play a single game from 2025.
Respect.
Makes sense, most games were released before 2025
If they already made all the games we ever need, would they start taking them away just so we have to buy new ones, instead? This is the future of steam when Gabe dies.
People don’t buy new games anymore because they often release incomplete. Why would I buy a game that is offering only 25% of its content. I’ll wait for it to be don’t and buy it at a discount in a year. Thanks
It doesn’t help also that new GPUs and now even disk drives and RAMs are ridiculously expensive.
I am sure the end goal of corpos is to turn this into another subscription service.
I kinda gave up buying new stuff because of all the editions bullshit. Complete, Deluxe, Gold, Ultimate, Season Pass, Whatever The Fuck Else Special Director’s Cut - yeah, yo ho ho ho your capitalist ass straight to the fire sell.
Same here, game on sale for $3, but then I see it had $200 in DLC to play the complete game. Major turn off.
Icarus, Conan, hit man 3, etc.
hitman 3 is fucking ridiculous. it’s a great game, I love it, but for the love of God just release it in one piece and kill the online mode
Literally just had that same thing with Icarus while I was looking at the winter sale. I went to reviews to find the catch for the game and people were saying the base game is pretty just a big demo.
People with massive backlogs: aw yeah, it’s all coming together
I played like three games from this year. PEAK, MH Wilds, MK World.
The joy of playing older games is that they run well since they‘ve had years of patches and there‘s been years of faster hardware to power through most of the lack of optimization. And they‘re about a quarter the price. For running four times worse, new games also certainly don‘t look four times better.
