Zero Punctuation
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Transcript
It’s the end of 2020, and I think I speak for everyone and their clenched sphincters when I say, thank fuck that’s over with. Let’s hope in 2021 we can start rolling things back to the previous more stable state of hell on earth. We might’ve been living in constant fear of climate disaster and financial ruin under leaders that could barely display the minimum pretence of caring, but at least we could still hug our elderly relatives as they died gurgling on their flooded lungs. But let’s not forget the most important thing: making sure that the beings that one day discover the ruins of our civilization are very clearly informed on which video games from this year I liked and which I didn’t like. And which just sort of dropped straight through my per
Today we’re taking a detailed look at how AMD’s Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology influences performance in a wide range of games. All in all, we plan to benchmark 36 games at 1080p, 1440p and 4K. While technically SAM is not an AMD-exclusive technology, they are the first to take advantage of the resizable Base Address Register or resizable BAR, a feature introduced with the PCIe 3.0 spec.
For those of you not yet up to speed, SAM or resizable BAR defines how much of your graphics cards VRAM is to be mapped for access by the CPU. Typically the CPU can access up to 256 MB of mapped VRAM, but with the resizable BAR it can have full access to the graphics cards VRAM buffer.
Dec 31, 2020 08:00 EST
We re finally rounding the bend from 2020 into 2021. It s been, for lack of better phrasing, a year. But as frustrating as some of the real-life events were over the past 12 months, we still have some fantastic games to show for it, particularly of the shooter variety. When the year got us down, these games were waiting to pick us back up. Here are some of our favorite shooters from a year we really needed this kind of explosive stress relief.
Doom Eternal (8.5)
One of the most iconic shooters of all time returned in 2020 with another hard-hitting, visceral entry that expanded upon 2016 s Doom reboot in every single way. Players take on the role of the Doom Slayer once more as they battle the demonic forces of Hell, armed with weapons like the Combat Shotgun, BFG 900, Plasma Rifle, Chainsaw, and more. More than just a simple shooter, it requires strategic rip and tear tactics combined with aggressive combat. It was a great way to get those 2020 frustr
Before going any further, it s been an incredible year for video games and gaming publishers. We ve seen publishers have a great 2020, including Devolver Digital (Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Serious Sam 4, Disc Room, Carrion), Activision (Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Tony Hawk s Pro Skater 1+2, Crash Bandicoot 4: It s About Time), and Electronic Arts (Command & Conquer Remastered Collection, Star Wars Squadrons, NHL 21, Rocket Arena). This year s Best Publisher award ultimately came down to a two-horse race between Xbox Game Studios and PlayStation Studios. While Xbox had a great year with games like Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Tell Me Why, and Gears Tactics, it was PlayStation that stood out above the pack with some of its best games ever made.
THIS GAME IS ALL ABOUT SHOOTING GUNS! MOTHERF IN GUNS!!!
What a timely collection. With the recent resurgence of Doom in 2016 I feel like people have been looking for more fast paced first person shooters with hints of exploration. I know I have, and while I am familiar with Serious Sam, I still feel like it is a somewhat ignored series, and I hope that people see this collection and pick it up.
The Serious Sam games are very much old school first person shooters. Everything is polygonal because the series only started in 2001, but the gameplay is all about managing large crowds of enemies using a variety of weapons while moving around constantly to dodge enemy attacks. Exploration is rewarded with secret areas filled with ammo, armor, and other weapons. Anyone not familiar with Serious Sam but with say Duke Nukem or Doom will feel right at home, because Serious Sam is not about reinventing the genre in major ways. What is important to note is that at the time, the things Serious