So, when you start a new game for the first time:
* Do you go into the options before you even start playing?
* What options do you change before you start playing, or as soon as the game lets you?

(Apparently, some gamer magazine asked this recently, but I'm curious what people on here would say.)

(Accessibility discussions that have to do with the game options are perfectly acceptable in this topic.)

All the time:-

1. Make sure resolution is native to monitor

2. Turn off a ton of visual "enhancement" cr*p (eg, Chromatic Aberration, Depth of Field, Motion Blur, Head Bob, etc)

3. Custom rebind keys. Change mouse sensitivity / acceleration if needed.

Edit: Given how lazy many modern games devs are, 3. often requires quitting the game, editing some .ini config, then restarting it due to lack of menu options...

- I set all graphic options to max - if my GTX970 can handle it, otherwise it goes in the backlog.
- Turn off Depth of field and Motion Blur.
- If no controller support -> change WASD (ZQSD here) to arrow keys, and maybe some other keys so that they're closer to the arrow keys.
- Turn on EAX, if supported.
- Turn subtitles ON.
- Online stuff = OFF. (some?) Capcom games ask you every time you launch the game.

I have an older PC, so usually V-sync. If it isn't there, I just enforce it through NVIDIA's options.

That's about the only thing I bother with regularly, mostly to avoid my PC bursting into flames. Other stuff is rare and/or dependent upon the game.

Before even starting the game, yeah, I just turn subtitles on. Nothing else.

Some game studios are FINALLY catching on, and either have subtitles in their intro trailer (that starts immediately when you start the game executable), or they have a button press option to turn them on just before they start.

My impression: it's usually turned on by default. If not, I turn it on anyway. I've never noticed its downside anyway (higher input lag?).

Yes, that's the first thing I do.

0. If it's a xinput gamepad game, I setup my trusty dualshock 2 with x360ce before even launching.

1. Tweak graphics options for best mix of performance and graphics quality. Games that include a benchmark are greatly appreciated. I hate having to start a game before I have this setting in place. Kills immersion.

2. Go over the binds to make sure they're sane.

This^
It’s like devs want you to get seasick with all the crap effects.
Also, check pcgamingwiki to see if there are essentials, check moddb.

Now that I think of it...
I'm always adjusting the sound first, whether it's the music or the SFX.
They never sound right.

All other things are adjusted after starting the game.

People with better setups (like monitors with built-in sync functions, etc.) likely notice things with it on, but I'm not among that crowd and it's rather vital to not having my system die a thousand deaths via heat unfortunately.

check graphics settings and adjust according to experience, boot the game and enable afterburner to see how usage compares to the wants, if the needs exceed the wants boot out and adjust settings towards the wants

Turn on vsync if applicable ( part of the previous handling but in most cases the first and last handling )

use image sharpening to see if that does the game any good

most of the time autobenchmark provides quite right except the one you can find in the newer total war games. for same reason it persists on settings resulting in a laggy gameworld

Choose language and enable subtitles.

ah yea right, with adventures most of the time i enable subtitles too these days

and a extra note as a disclaimer ( nvidia sharpening seems to work best with aspect ratio scaling selected and not integer scaling )

DUH! There's no interpolation with integer scaling. Why would anyone try to sharpen a perfectly sharp pixel.

I always turn off chromatic aberration, depth of field, and motion blur.