So far I've only bought Trine 3 (75%), which looks absolutely gorgeous in stereoscopic 3D!

Oh man I was waiting for some site to make an article on this and they finally have, going to make a thread on this sometime next week unless someone has plans to make it sometime themselves, it's up for grabs anyway =P.

I do feel that it;s a worthy topic considering how devs are more recently abusing effects like DoF and Chromatic Aberration and the harm it can bring (loss of FPS/perf issues).

http://www.pcgamer.com/six-terrible-graphical-effects-that-need-to-stop/

I completely agree on some of those effects but disagree on others

Motion blur in racing games and at high speed is ok, but it gets overused on other genres and, to be frank, sometimes it makes me dizzy, literally.

Chromatic aberration... well, the name already says that it's not a good thing, so I don't understand why they use it.

Film grain is a good asset if used properly, for example when you're reviving a flashback (either through a CGI cutscene or through some gameplay).

Depth of field should mostly be reserved for FPS games, and then, only when you are using the fine aim or your weapon.

One effect that is not mentioned in the article that was useless was the "Ubersampling" thing in The Witcher 2. It just made the game to look and run worse.

US ITC Finds NVIDIA Guilty of Infringing Three Samsung Patents

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9875/itc-finds-nvidia-guilty-of-infringing-three-samsung-patents

In Summary: In 2014 and in the middle of its fight for God knows what (besides money), Nvidia sued Samsung for infringing 3 patents and Samung countersued them with another 3 patent violations.

The judges had already ruled that Samsung did not violate the Nvidia patents and now they have found Nvidia guilty of infringing the 3 Samsung patents.

Citing one of the article comments: "NVIDIA picks fight, NVIDIA gets ass handed to them on silver platter, Samsung retaliates, NVIDIA gets ass handed to them on silver platter a 2nd time. NVIDIA unhappy."

Tomb Raider is quite cheap with the 85% sale. Are there too many QTEs? And are they of the annoying kind?

The news:

1-Mods

Final Fantasy VI – Mod Removes The Annoying & Blurry Bilinear Filter. http://www.dsogaming.com/news/final-fantasy-vi-mod-removes-the-annoying-blurry-bilinear-filter/

Force is strong with Fallout 4 lightsaber mod. http://www.pcgamer.com/force-is-strong-with-fallout-4-lightsaber-mod/

2-Gaming News:

AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST – TRIAD WARS BETA SHUTTING DOWN ON JANUARY 20TH

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/and-another-ones-bites-the-dust-triad-wars-beta-shutting-down-on-january-20th/

And we all saw this coming. United Front Games announced today that it will shut down Triad Wars on January 20th. According to the team, Triad Wars wasn’t right for many of its Sleeping Dogs fans, which is why both United Front Games and Square Enix decided to shut it down.

>>Great news. Maybe now we'll get a proper new Sleeping Dogs game.

THE WITNESS – OFFICIAL PC REQUIREMENTS REVEALED

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witness-official-pc-requirements-revealed/

Thekla has released the official PC requirements for The Witness. According to them, the game will run on a toaster (as it only requires an Intel HD 4000 series and a CPU that is clocked at 1.8Ghz). The Witness releases next month on Steam, and you can view its full PC requirements below.

>>Check it to see the "full requirements" (they are rather vague, to be honest) and a new long screenshot.

THE TECHNOMANCER GETS NEW SCREENSHOTS

http://www.dsogaming.com/screenshot-news/the-technomancer-gets-new-screenshots/

Focus Home Interactive and Spiders have released four new screenshots for The Technomancer, focusing on some of the game’s creatures. The Technomancer is the new sci-fi RPG from Spiders and is planned for an early 2016 release.

OCULUS’ PALMER LUCKEY: “VR WILL BECOME SOMETHING EVERYONE WANTS BEFORE IT BECOMES SOMETHING EVERYONE CAN AFFORD”

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/oculus-palmer-luckey-vr-will-become-something-everyone-wants-before-it-becomes-something-everyone-can-afford/

A lot of people described the VR as the next best thing for gaming. And while it’s kind of cool, Oculus’ Palmer Luckey took to Twitter today and tried to warn casual gamers that it will be more expensive than they think.

>>Well, well, well. It's that time when hype becomes more a problem than an advantage. I'd expect more "bad" news in the coming months before the Rift launches.

SHENMUE 3 – NEW VIDEO SHOWS OFF A HUT IN THE BAILU VILLAGE

http://www.dsogaming.com/videotrailer-news/shenmue-3-new-video-shows-off-a-hut-in-the-bailu-village/

Ys Net has released a new video for Shenmue 3, thus giving us a glimpse at a hut in Bailu Village. Shenmue 3 is powered by Unreal Engine 4 and according to its Slacker Backer Campaign, Ys Net is discussing the PC version with the related parties. So yes, it has not been confirmed yet for a PC release (even though its Kickstarter campaign originally claimed that it was coming to our platform).

>>This is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e_kvrpqWxA

Motion blur I'm somewhat fine with in racing games, though as long as it's not too blurry that I can't make out if I'm able to turn left or right (Burnout games are a bit notorious for this).

CA is definitely something that I feel shouldn't be a part of video game fx, for photography I see that being fine since it's a still image.

FIlm grain I;m usually ok with but tend to turn it off for most games but don't mind flashbacks making use of that effect.

DoF is a bit ok but more recently it's irked me just how much devs are reliant on it to blur out far away textures or in cases like Dying Light where my fps takes a hit because they turned up the effect to make it look more cinematic and my visuals/fps took hits because of this decision (Also not many games give us the option to turn it completely off either which is another issue).

Ubersampling I'd agree with you, though not many games specifically use that effect.

I kinda hope sometime enxt year they'll do an article on the various types and forms of AA options, if not I think we should make such a topic since there are some good types used in games of old and new and bad types (the ones that don't do much or hog your fps).

GRIM DAWN IS NOW "CONTENT COMPLETE," LAUNCH SLATED FOR FEBRUARY

http://www.pcgamer.com/grim-dawn-is-now-content-complete-launch-slated-for-february/

Believe it or not, there was a time when the dark fantasy action-RPG Grim Dawn was expected to launch in 2011. That obviously didn't work out, but development has continued, slowly but steadily, and today Crate Entertainment announced that it is "content complete," meaning that everything in the game—quests, items, difficulty levels, and the Big Finish—is now accessible.

ORI AND THE BLIND FOREST DEFINITIVE EDITION DELAYED TO SPRING

http://www.pcgamer.com/ori-and-the-blind-forest-definitive-edition-delayed-to-spring/

Ori and the Blind Forest is gorgeous, fun, and tough, and enough of a hit that a Definitive Edition, with new areas and mechanics, was announced this summer. The plan, as noted by Gamespot, was to have the new version out for the fall, which as you may have noticed did not happen. And yesterday, developer Moon Studios revealed on Twitter that the update won't be out until early-ish in 2016.

ARK: SURVIVAL EVOLVED HOLIDAY UPDATE BRINGS RAPTOR CLAUS TO TOWN

http://www.pcgamer.com/ark-survival-evolved-holiday-update-brings-raptor-claus-to-town/

Studio Wildcard is bringing the holiday spirit to Ark: Survival Evolved with festive home decor, Raptor Claus, and for the bad girls and boys, possibly even a DodoRex, complete with a cheery red hat.

>>And this vide oproves it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrkNyPGkbQE

RUST SALES PASS THE THREE MILLION MARK

http://www.pcgamer.com/rust-sales-pass-the-three-million-mark/

It turns out y'all really like your post-apocalyptic nude survival games. Rust has now sold just over three million copies on Steam, as revealed by Facepunch's Garry Newman this very morning. And that's not the only Rust stat doing the rounds: Newman has plastered a load of infographics over on the official site, and they're pretty interesting!

WE ARE THE DWARVES IS A "TACTICAL EXPLORATION AND COMBAT ADVENTURE"

http://www.pcgamer.com/we-are-the-dwarves-is-a-tactical-exploration-and-combat-adventure/

At first blush, We Are the Dwarves is reminiscent of The Lost Vikings. It features a trio of Dwarves (who also happen to be astronauts, more on that later), each with a unique skillset, who must work together to survive a hostile environment and overcome various sorts of challenges. But as this new trailer makes clear, it's a faster-paced experience than that great old classic, and most of the challenges in question arise from hordes of nasty, murderous space bugs.

>>There's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj66fVdsU3U

MEET THE SAVAGE ORC BOAR BOYZ BIG ‘UNS OF TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER

http://www.pcgamer.com/meet-the-savage-orc-boar-boyz-big-uns-of-total-war-warhammer/

To celebrate the end of the twelve days of Festag, Total War: Warhammer developer Creative Assembly is showing off one of the more alarming units the Greenskins have to throw at us: Savage Orc Boar Boyz Big ‘Uns. They wear bones and not much else, and despite making their weapons out of flint, they're about as scary as orcs get.

>>This is the introductory video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF7ruMXhF2Q

DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN RELEASED FOR MAC, LINUX AND STEAMOS

http://www.pcgamer.com/divinity-original-sin-released-for-mac-linux-and-steamos/

Divinity: Original Sin no colon Enhanced Edition is now out on Mac, Linux, and that newfangled SteamOS, meaning you can play it on that fancy Steam Box your mum's getting you for Christmas. I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Oops. Here, let me distract you with the news that Larian have updated the PC game so it's "in synch with the Mac & Linux version", oh and they've also "fixed a number of stability issues reported by players". That certainly sounds like a sensible thing to be doing.

STARCRAFT 2 DOUBLE XP EVENT KICKS OFF TODAY

http://www.pcgamer.com/starcraft-2-double-xp-event-kicks-off-today/

You can earn double XP in StarCraft 2 this week as part of a Christmas event that runs from today, December 24, through to Sunday January 3.

And that's it for today and for the week. Don't expect more news from me until the next week.

I'm sure we could find a few articles detailing the different AA forms already, and I know I've read at least one of them, but they tend to become very technically dense and I alway end lost.

A good and easy to understand article about it would be very welcome.

What I do remember from that article, though, is that the best technic is the first one, the one called AA. All the rest are just aproximations because proper AA takes a lot of resources. It's kind of surprising that even today, our graphic cards aren't powerful enough to use proper AA.

If you're fan of old TR...well, this is not a TR game. Neither game nor Lara have any similarities to what defined Tomb Raider, so be prepared for massive let down...and if TR is one of your favorite IPs, which is my case, for even something like pure hate toward SE and CD.

But...

...it is dirt cheap, and if you're willing to do bit of mental exercise and pretend that you're playing completely new IP called "Psychotic Killer" starring Moana Daft written by pretty terrible "straight to VHS" writter, then you might enjoy some of mechanics in it, like quite good cover shooting.