I've done a lot of "research" into the issue I had and how to optimize the game and my video card. In the end, I didn't change very much. I made one change in the Nvidia Control Panel, which was to set that global setting to one display, since that's what I'm using. I also toned down all the settings one notch in the game, which produced good results. Then, I decided to experiment and see if there might have been one setting that messed things up. So far, it seems that having Shadow Quality at High rather than Very High fixes my issue.

As for your question, yes, this is mostly the original game with improved graphics and just a few additions. This version has Self Radio, the radio station that allows you to use your MP3s. It also has the Rockstar Editor, which allows you to record and share game play. As far as I know, the game hasn't received any DLC. Also, while there are no tools for it in the game, people have already created mods. One mod, that I saw, was the Batmobile.

I got all the gold medals in Flight School with Trevor. I did the Stunt Plane Time Trials, but decided getting gold was not important and just more frustrating. I ended up getting silver instead. I also went hunting with him, which is something I didn't do on the PS3. I learned a few things about that. One is to climb on the RV or use the ATV to avoid getting killed by cougars. Another was that in order to save your progress, you need to finish the day of hunting, which is only available during certain hours. I also started doing the Bail Bonds missions, which I didn't do before. So far, I've only done the first and I have looked online for help with that.

Yeah, Cletus gets you started on it. On the PS3, I did the intro mission where he shows you how to hunt elk. That's as far as I got with that. On the PC, however, I went to the hunting spot marked on the map. I did pretty good and achieved some good ranks and now have to do some harder things, like get a pic of a coyote and boar together. I also have to kill two elk with one shot, which I've done before, but died during the mission (damn cougars). It's really fun, actually, even though I most definitely do not go hunting in real life. I thought about recording a video because, while I was waiting on time to pass so I could go hunting, I saw a bunch of elk jumping all around the area. A few even died and I don't know if they had run into a cougar or just fell.

I recently learned how amazing Chop is. One time I switched to Franklin and he was playing in a field with Chop. The game tells you how you can throw a ball and get him to retrieve it. It also tells you that if you ride in a vehicle (like a motorcycle) that doesn't have room for him to get in, he'll follow you. Since Franklin had his green motorcycle nearby, I decided to take Chop home, which wasn't far away at all. Once I got there, though, I decided to get in Franklin's white car and let Chop in. This was a time, recently, when I was constantly visiting one of the hospitals (in Strawberry) so I could get a free helicopter. I have purchased the helipad, but still can't afford a helicopter and I need one to get at least one of the spaceship parts. Anyway, I got to the hospital and got out of the car, Chop did so, too. I then climbed the first ladder and Chop some how made it up there, too. I then climbed down, got in the car (because there weren't any helicopters there), and he magically made it off of the roof and inside of the car. Hahaha, I just thought that was funny. I have never tried out the app that let's you play with him on a tablet, but it's something I might try eventually.

I took another look into the "stutter" issue I was having with the game. I checked the Rockstar forum post that I linked in my original post. Someone said that they fixed the same issue by turning off High Resolution Shadows. So, I again had GeForce Experience optimize the game settings for me and when I got in the game I turned off High Resolution Shadows. Now I am running on those optimized settings except for that one I changed and the game runs much more smoothly now. One thing about the many settings in the game is that each has it's cost in VRAM and some seem like you really wouldn't notice a change anyway. That one setting I changed reduced the game's VRAM requirement by about a gig, I think, which is very helpful. The game does show you the VRAM cost of the settings you've chosen and how much your GPU has available. You can, of course, exceed the VRAM limit of your GPU, but doing so may cause the game to run less smoothly as the GPU will have to access your RAM or CPU to process the extra VRAM needed. I read about that some where online. Right now my settings cost about 5GB VRAM and I only have 4GB. Still, as I said, the game is running much more smoothly now. I'm almost done collecting all of the Spaceship Parts. I've also been using the Self Radio.

Funny thing happened recently. I've been grabbing the Scrap Letters lately. On my way to one of them, I ended up driving up a hill or mountain. When I got to the top, I got some air, meaning the car flew a bit above the top. While doing so, I ended up hitting a bird. I laughed, I thought it was funny.

Last night, I finished Story Mode. That was the second time I've seen the credits roll in the game, I had forgotten how long that is! Jumping back in the game, there was one mission for me to do with Trevor (I'm avoiding a spoiler here). After that, I didn't know what to do. I've spent a total of 79 hours in the (PC version) game. I've completed all the races (boat, car, and off-road) with the exception of the stock car races. I did two of those, once with Trevor and once with Franklin. I won different cars each time and I'm sure there are others to win as that check point is not marked as completed (with a green check mark). I'll probably go and finish those. One reason I didn't do that before was because I currently don't have many places to store the trophy cars. With Trevor's win, I stored the car in a garage I bought with him, which has room for at least one more I'm sure. Franklin's home garage currently contains the vehicle you get from collecting all the space ship parts and the one I got from his stock car race win. Michael's home garage contains a police car and maybe one more car.

I did finish Flight School with Trevor and got a gold rank in each, but it was such a pain that I decided I wouldn't do it again. I tried the stunt plane time trials, but again it was such a pain that I decided to just do them for fun and not worry about what rank I got. I think I got silver in all or almost all of them. Otherwise, all the races were rather easy. The stock car race wasn't one of the easy ones, but I didn't mind repeating those to win them.

I also completed the hunting missions with Trevor. Some of the challenges weren't as difficult as I thought. For instance, some of them require that you send him a picture of multiple dead animals. Well, you don't have to include all of them in one shot. You simply take a picture of one, save it, and then take a picture of the next. Once you have taken a picture of all the required animals, send the last to him and they will all be marked as complete.

I think I finished all of the Strangers and Freaks missions, except I realized I didn't do the Epsilon missions (Michael only missions), so that's what I'm working on now. I've thought about replaying all the missions to achieve a gold rank, which requires you to do certain things. I'm not sure if I'll do that, though.

After the Epsilon missions, I'll probably jump into GTA Online by transferring (really copying) my PS3 character to my PC. You can only do this transfer once and I'm fine with that. I spent very little time in GTAO on the PS3. I was very happy with the character I created, so it's great that I don't have to try to re-create him. As I've said before, I think he looks a lot like me.

That was how much time I put into the game, which included doing a lot of things. That was a bit after I completed story mode.

The PS4 is quite powerful. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was running on that hardware. I doubt that the graphics will be this shiny when the game releases, but if you look at what devs like Ready at Dawn, Ubisoft, and Naughty Dog are doing with the hardware, it won't be that far off. Not to mention, this will be DICE's, what, third game on the system? They should be able to hit the sweet spot.

I have not yet run into any of the new Treasure Goblins. I noticed, by viewing my profile, that I've actually spent a lot of hours playing this game. Yet, I still have not had a Treasure Goblin open a portal upon its death. Although, this always happens with a Rainbow Goblin.

When I created my Wizard, I noticed he had an opening cut-scene kind of thing that basically introduced him. I don't recall seeing this on my other characters, certainly not with any of the more recent ones I created. I think this might have had to do with the new patch perhaps resetting some configuration. I tried to see the one for the Witch Doctor I created, but even resetting his quests did not show it. I found out, with a Google search, that the game skips cut-scenes if you've already seen them, even if that option in the configuration is not set. Thus, to resolve that issue, you can edit the game's configuration file and reset them. I did this, but still did not see the opening for my Witch Doctor.

All classes received some reconfiguration (as usual) and so I'm thinking, after I finish with my Wizard, of creating a new character for each class. One of my other reasons for doing that is because when I first played, and after not playing for a while, I didn't use most of my skills. After playing more, I began to use them more often. So, I'd like to go back and test them out, since I usually select the new skills that are available upon leveling up. While I'm tempted to delete and replace my old characters, I still have extra character slots available, since I upgraded to the Collector's Edition, so I may hold off on deletion for now. If I create new characters, as I intend to do, I think I'm going to create female characters and go through Campaign mode to see (or hear) the difference, since I've only created male characters so far. I'm also thinking I may select the Enchantress as a follower for these new characters, since I pretty much always select the Templar as a follower. That all is just to change things and see and hear the variations.

It is difficult to pick a favorite class because they all seem quite powerful and capable. I've enjoyed playing all of them. The reason I stated in this post that the Witch Doctor was among my favorites was because of his ability to summon companions, Zombie Dogs, and a Gargantuan. I found this to be very helpful. The Demon Hunter can summon a companion, too, which I enjoyed. The Wizard can also summon a Familiar.

Anyway, let me know if you're playing the game now that it has been patched again. Let me know if you've run into any of the new stuff. Also, feel free to leave your thoughts on the classes.

Yeah, I start out on Normal and increase it as I progress. If I notice I'm not really taking any damage, then that's a good indicator that I'm ready to increase the difficulty. My new Wizard is on Master or Expert now and I'm in Act II.

That's cool that you have a female character. In my event, I mentioned the trouble of naming characters, but the interesting thing is I think I have some good names for female characters, instead of the males. My (male) Witch Doctor is "TheDoctor," a Doctor Who reference, and my (male) Wizard is "TheWizard," a Black Sabbath reference. I'm thinking of naming a female Barbarian "Starbuck," in reference to the rebooted Battlestar Galactica or "Fang" from FFXIII. I also thought "Paine" from FFX-2 might be a good Barbarian, too. I think a female Witch Doctor could be named "Lulu" from FFX, but she would also make a good Wizard. "Yuna" from FFX might also be a good Wizard, or a Demon Hunter because of her gun usage in FFX-2. I'll decide when I get there, I guess. My first character, a male Barbarian, I named "GregoPeck." Then, I named my next one, a male Crusader, "Peck." After that, I named my male Demon Hunter, "Grego." Do you have the same issue, with naming new characters?

I remember you mentioning getting into that portal from a Treasure Goblin, I hope one opens for me some time. Just recently, with my new Wizard, I've run into two Rainbow Goblins, so with him I've visited Whimsydale twice already. I've run into maybe about five regular Treasure Goblins so far.

I'm curious if anyone here has found Leoric's Signet. The only farming I've done in the game was to get the Herding Staff ingredients so I could go to Whimsyshire, which I was able to do successfully. I'm tempted to try to farm for LS, but not sure if I want to spend the time to try, though it may be worth it. If anyone got it, let me know if you farmed for it or got it randomly. If you farmed for it, feel free to tell me how you proceeded.

I decided to try to farm for Leoric's Signet, but was not successful, and I eventually gave up with good reason. Most of the farming strategies I came across mentioned getting 5 NV (Nephalem Valor) point stacks and using MP (Monster Power) 10. I found out that NV and MP were removed from the game (before I started playing), so that made those strategies useless. I then had trouble finding any more recent strategies for this (a year old or so). I then found out that farming for Legendaries is better to do in Nephalem Rifts, which I tried. During that, one time trial, I ran into one of the new Treasure Goblins, I think it was an Insufferable Miscreant. I also found out that Legendaries can drop at any time and can scale to the level of your character. So, it seems Leoric's Signet is no longer necessarily a level 14 ring.

Therefore, I gave up on my quest to find it and decided to continue playing the game with my Wizard. I want to finish Campaign mode with him and I've just recently made it to Act V. I believe I am playing on Torment 1 and it is difficult. Since my Crusader is level 47 (or so), I don't know if I completed Campaign Mode with him. So, I may do that with him or or create a new one.

I think it's cool how I can still learn things about a game, even after having spent plenty of hours playing it. Yesterday, I finished Campaign Mode with my Wizard. Since I wasn't sure if I did that with my Crusader, I decided to delete the old one and re-create him. After I leveled up (to 2), I ended up hitting the "P" key for Paragon and found out that you can allocate those points right away. I thought you had to wait until you reached level 70 or 71 to do that. I guess that's only necessary if you haven't reached a Paragon level with any character before. I'm pretty sure they were effective right away because I ended up increasing the difficulty all the way to Torment 1, which is something I don't usually do in Act I.

I also wanted to replay the class since I know I initially hesitated to use class skills (1-4) and wanted to play again to see the progression of those skills. Also, when I created some of my characters, I'm sure I was thrown straight into the game without seeing their intro cut-scenes. Since I edited some settings in the configuration file, it seems that I get to see these when creating a new character. So, I may end up creating more new characters to do all of that.

So, I've gone through a few difficulty changes with my Crusader. A few times I realized my character wasn't equipped or ready for some of the higher difficulty levels (like Torment II and III). Fighting Belial sucked once he changed to his final form. That was the only time he really hurt me and that made me die a few times, so I lowered the difficulty from Torment I to Expert, which made that battle winnable. It wasn't just that I died a few times, but also because when you die you have to start the whole battle again, which became a nuisance. After the battle, I raised the difficulty back to Torment I and went to the next Act. My Crusader is currently level 67. My Paragon level is 99.

Jon, I found a really awesome Legendary Belt for the Crusader that is really cool, you should check it out (link below). It's orange ability says, "Punish gains the effect of every rune." I didn't know that ability existed and wow is it helpful!
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/angel-hair-braid

I'm not sure about that, the loot drop rates after the patch. I know that gets better with harder difficulty levels, but that's as far as I've noticed. I still want Leoric's Signet and the game has failed to deliver it to me. It has given me a Stolen Ring (link below), but disappointed me by giving me another one or two of them. I was also disappointed because when I was playing through with my Wizard, it kept giving me Legendary maces, so I have a few of those as well.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/item/stolen-ring

I finally got Leoric's Signet. It did actually drop in Act II by one of those Deceiving serpents. I finished with my Crusader (which really is an awesome class) and created a new, female, Barbarian and I found it with her. I also have two Liquid Rainbows, which means I've found three total in the game. I farmed for the first one to make the Herding Staff so I could visit Whimsyshire. They don't stack (Liquid Rainbow), which sucks because my chest is full. I decided not to sell Legendary items and I have bought all the slots available for the chest. I wish I could buy more. That doesn't mean all of my slots are full of Legendaries. My first slot is filled with gems, crafting materials, and some pieces of equipment since I ran out of room in the others. I also wish I had more character slots. I did get more when I upgraded to the Collector's Edition, but I don't think there's room enough to have one male and one female for each class.

I'll finish the game with my female Barbarian very soon and I'll probably start another female character (going down the list, which will probably be a Crusader). I may continue playing even more by creating new female characters to hear their dialog. There are still a few items I'm looking for like Cain's set pieces. I know there are also Keywardens that could drop keys needed for Uber boss fights or the Infernal Machine. Anyway, I thought I'd mention that I have two Legendary potions. I had to "research" how to use them. It's easy, just drag the Legendary potion to your health potion slot on the bar that contains that and your skills. Keep it in your inventory, though. They work like potions, but have added effects for a limited time, depending on which it is. The one I'm using adds armor. The other one I have gives you the ability to break through champion monster created walls, which I think isn't as great as the armor bonus.

http://www.diablowiki.net/Legendary_Health_Potions

Oh and BTW, my absolute favorite music in the entire game is the ending credits of Reaper of Souls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEmxhpLeeb0

I was wrong about the character slots I have available. I have one male character for each class (so that makes 6, I believe). I also have one female Barbarian and now one female Crusader. So that makes 8 characters and I have 7 more slots available. So, yeah, I have plenty. I don't know why I thought I didn't have enough. LOL