I was talked into trying Final Fantasy XIV. My only real MMO experience previously was Star Trek Online (Romulans FTW), which I enjoyed, but mostly for the Space Ships.
So FF14 is a bit different for me, but Im enjoying it alot.
FF14 is both the first MMO I've really enjoyed since City of Heroes and probably the best Final Fantasy game since... 10? I really wish I had the time to play it properly.
Oh yeah, played it for a while and really enjoyed it. There was some grind sadly (was going for Dragoon, so folks probably know what I'm talking about), but nowhere near as bad as I remembered it from previous MMO's I played in the past.
The game is still being supported (had a new expansion released today of all days) and it has one of the best mounts ever: the FAT Chocobo. I wish I still had the screenshot of my game character looking in awe at that yellow chonk.
I liked it, not as much as my brother, who still plays it and has 4,327 hrs on record. Yikes.
On my end, spending what little free time I have still chipping away at getting Shadow of the Tomb Raider 100% completed. Almost there, wahey!
Im surprised really with how much I've been liking it, and they released a new Expansion or something. Im not even through the base story but it got me hooked enough to pick up the expansion.
I'm playing, and have been doing so since the disastrous 1.0 launch. I took a quick look at the expansion content this morning. I unlocked the new Dancer job, and did some of the new Main Story Quest. But I had to go into work, and didn't really have time to do much.
I'm looking forward to getting back online when I finish with work today.
Picked up Starbound from Steam thanks to the summer sale. Haven't really gotten too into it yet. I love Stardew Valley, and this is by the same people and seems sort of similar but yet very different.
I'm thinking about picking up A Hat In Time also. I used to love 3d platformers back in the day (played Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and others), so the nostalgia value definitely gets my attention. Maybe I'll pick up Yooka-Laylee instead, as I've heard that it's decent too. Any input for either of those two games from someone who's played them would be much appreciated!
I'm back to Read Dead 2 on the PS4, because my computer got the Blue Screen of Doom and won't boot up now. I know feth all about PC's so I'm going to have my friend take a look later this week to get it back into shape.
BrookM wrote: Picked up Strange Brigade in the sale yesterday, really enjoying it so far with a nice mix of shooting, exploring and treasure hunting.
It was fun, but I wish it had been longer. The weapon customization was fun too, though limited.
nels1031 wrote: I'm back to Read Dead 2 on the PS4, because my computer got the Blue Screen of Doom and won't boot up now. I know feth all about PC's so I'm going to have my friend take a look later this week to get it back into shape.
BrookM wrote: Picked up Strange Brigade in the sale yesterday, really enjoying it so far with a nice mix of shooting, exploring and treasure hunting.
It was fun, but I wish it had been longer. The weapon customization was fun too, though limited.
Oh yes, I'm at the stage right now where I have so much money but nothing to spend it on. And once you get the right gems for your guns of choice, no real reason to collect more of those as well.
Woefully short, the maps are massive and rewarding for those who want to 100% each mission though. Thankfully my brother and two others have also picked the game up, so sooner or later we'll be going through it as intended.
I finished the release storyline for the new FFXIV expansion, Shadowbringers. It takes a while to reach the end, but the payoff is very much worth the trip.
Finally decided to do the main quest lines for Fallout 4. They're not as bad as I'd feared, but still pretty bland when compared to New Vegas. At least it's better than the hot mess that was the "story" of FO3.
With that in mind, I guess I should actually play through the main quest for Skyrim too, since I've never gotten past the greybeards opening thing because I spent too much time roaming the wilds and hoarding crafting items and weapons.
I'm also working on Inqusitor Martyr, which is a great game. I seriously do not understand the hate this thing has gotten.
Togusa wrote: Finally decided to do the main quest lines for Fallout 4. They're not as bad as I'd feared, but still pretty bland when compared to New Vegas. At least it's better than the hot mess that was the "story" of FO3.
With that in mind, I guess I should actually play through the main quest for Skyrim too, since I've never gotten past the greybeards opening thing because I spent too much time roaming the wilds and hoarding crafting items and weapons.
I'm also working on Inqusitor Martyr, which is a great game. I seriously do not understand the hate this thing has gotten.
TBF, i consider Far Harbour a better game for story telling then what we've got with the mainline in 4.
Togusa wrote: Finally decided to do the main quest lines for Fallout 4. They're not as bad as I'd feared, but still pretty bland when compared to New Vegas. At least it's better than the hot mess that was the "story" of FO3.
With that in mind, I guess I should actually play through the main quest for Skyrim too, since I've never gotten past the greybeards opening thing because I spent too much time roaming the wilds and hoarding crafting items and weapons.
I'm also working on Inqusitor Martyr, which is a great game. I seriously do not understand the hate this thing has gotten.
TBF, i consider Far Harbour a better game for story telling then what we've got with the mainline in 4.
For me overall i am still stuck with mordhau atm.
FH is one of the best expansions they've put out, it felt on par with a lot of New Vegas. However, the Mainstory for FO4 isn't as bad as I thought it was the first time I tried to play through it 4 years ago. At the time I was stuck with a PS4 and now I've got a good PC that can easily run it, so I think that is also part of the reason why I'm having more fun.
I can't do Mordhau, that community is so toxic it just turned me completely off. I was surprised Steam granted me a refund even though I was about 4 hours over the 2 hour limit.
FH is one of the best expansions they've put out, it felt on par with a lot of New Vegas. However, the Mainstory for FO4 isn't as bad as I thought it was the first time I tried to play through it 4 years ago. At the time I was stuck with a PS4 and now I've got a good PC that can easily run it, so I think that is also part of the reason why I'm having more fun.
I can't do Mordhau, that community is so toxic it just turned me completely off. I was surprised Steam granted me a refund even though I was about 4 hours over the 2 hour limit.
Hahah Morhau has a kind of iffy community half the time, altough often you can ignore it.
FH definately comes close to New vegas. The main story of 4 is just, i mean it's a story allright but frankly it is not a good story for an RPG.
Altough personally i wait for Fallout Miami. (mod)
I just noticed how few people are playing xcom 2 or WotC (the xpac) on twitch. I checked all the high viewer count ones and omg they are so bad at the game. I mean sorry if i come off mean or tooting my own horn but i'm probably better than all the ones i just saw listed. I've played for almost 3,000 hours so maybe i'm better than most and it's not the newest game but i expected to at least see some really good players playing it. I kind of feel like i should stream the game just to show people how to beat a Legend/Ironman play.
Streams and youtube videos of games have a short shelf life, at least without a big dedicated fanbase of either the game or the player. And honestly its mostly the latter- like traditional film/tv, the ability of the entertainer to be entertaining and engaging matters a lot more than whatever they're actually doing. (silent, gameplay focused videos do the worst, for example)
It doesn't matter how good or bad the player is most of the time. In fact that latter is usually more entertaining to watch than someone trying to show off how 'awesome' they are to the audience. Intended or not, it usually comes off as condescending.
Finished Bloodborne after I decided to give up on the Chalice Dungeons at Defiled Watchdog of the Old Lords. Just annoying to do so I went and beat the last boss on my first try instead.
Started Sekiro, but now feeling like I might want to go play the Witcher 3 instead maybe. Sekiro is really brutal. I like the stealth gameplay a lot, swinging around and stealth killing people is great fun. But the boss fights rely heavily on parrying, and I am just not good at that. Gotten past three minibosses so far, but each one has been really tough for me and I have not fought a "real" boss yet.
@Da Boss,
If it's just a random Chalice Dungeon, you can roll up a different Chalice Dungeon and fight a different final boss. I don't recall if Watchdog was one of the "mandatory" ones or not.
Bloodborne is a great game. I still reinstall and play a little from time to time. Now you've made me want to reinstall it tonight.
As for me, still playing a ton of Total Warhammer on PC. I've started Dragon's Dogma on Switch. I'm still juggling Anthem, Assassin's Creed, RDR2, Spiderman, and Nioh on the PS4. Although I've only got one DLC left for Spiderman.
It was one of the mandatory ones. It's fine, I decided my bs-o-meter could not tolerate fighting this thing on half health. Getting instakilled all the time was not really fun, and it seemed like it was going to be a really tedious fight. I had done everything else and am happy to leave that fight and walk away from the game feeling happy about it.
It is a really good game, the theme and atmosphere are amazing. I prefer the playstyle of Dark Souls I think, but the theme and atmosphere of Bloodborne are way more up my alley. Really happy I got to play it without shelling out for a PS4 and a big TV!
Still playing Gundam Battle Online 2, but the Steam Summer Sale happened, so I scooped up Hearts of Iron 4 (after seeing my roommate play it a bunch) and haven't gotten much sleep in the last 2 weeks.
Mostly, I've played as Germany because thanks to the Waking the Tiger DLC, I can stuff Hitler into a cannon and shoot him into the sun on turn 1 (I'd put him in a rocket and launch him at the sun, but I can't get rockets until 1943) and then restore democracy to Germany.
Or I can restore the monarchy, which is usually how I roll. I'm sorry, it's just Wilhem II's moustache... facial hair that magnificent cries out to rule an empire. I know, I know, the last time that moustache ran Germany, we ended up with WWI, but what are my options? Have you seen his son Wilhem III's facial hair? The man has the moustache of a peasant. There's no way he can rule an empire.
Besides, Stalin usually kicks off WWII long before I get a chance to.
Still playing SMITE and Warframe a lot. I went ahead and purchased the All Gods unlock for SMITE while it was 50% off, so now I can play any god in the game and any future ones that come out, so that's nice.
Playing the Ghost Recon Breakpoint technical test. Not that you are able to say much but it’s damn good fun so far. Can’t wait for release now. Makes wildlands seem pretty boring
Updated things on the blizzard launcher and found they gave me 3 days free on WoW (presumably for the update or whatever).
The update is. .. um...not compelling. Even for an expansion that wasn't very good in the first place. The first cinematic kicks off in the middle of some plot to follow a... spiked disc? into the ocean for reasons that aren't explained, and then the new crab-naga and naga-octopus models hit the boats with a city... for reasons. Something something releasing Cthulhu #4. OK
But then the quests take breadcrumbs for a new low even for blizzard. Move 30 feet and stop. Do it again. and again. Then jump through portals to jump through portals to jump through portals to get to some guys who take you to a cave to click some shiny things and beat up some earth elemental lord who has a single dragon scale that randomly has all the power of all the black dragons ever*. And then talk to a guy to portal and portal and portal to have a conversation to unlock the ... yeah.
(*interesting aside here, the powers of the dragonflights were sacrificed years back to stop Deathwing. Apparently those energies are randomly coalescing of their own accord for reasons so you can pop them in your jewelry to stop the plot. But... this reappearance of 'the energies' implies the dragon's sacrifice was actually completely unnecessary, since this energy just happens naturally. Ah, Blizz writers...)
Anyway, you then go back to the stranded people from the boats in order to help the new subrace of gnomes/goblins (the latter of which isn't actually new but whatever) and this is all in aid of.... whatever the plot is that they haven't explained. At least not in game since the update. Probably in some novel or whatever.
And that ate two hours of my day today. Somehow I'm not seeing myself using 3 days of free game time this weekend.
Mechanicus, the Heretek expansion got released a few days ago, but due to a heatwave I couldn't give it a try until now.
Had to do a new game to access the content, ugh. Double ugh because whilst the new missions are labelled "easy" they are anything but, as they throw a lot of dirty tricks at you.. enemy techpriests are immune to attacks until they attack you first, which wouldn't be so bad if their power axes didn't also deal acid damage. On top of that, they once they attacked you they immediately trigger an ability to dodge all incoming attacks, be it melee or ranged..
The game is also a whole lot buggier now, with a non-functional intro, assets missing and some key bindings removed or messed up. Going to wait for an official fix to drop before continuing play.
The game is also a whole lot buggier now, with a non-functional intro, assets missing and some key bindings removed or messed up. Going to wait for an official fix to drop before continuing play.
I was looking at picking up the original and this.
Cities Skylines mostly, also Men of War, Rimworld, Crossout, DoW1 often. Rarely Team Fortress, Company of Heroes 1/2, Skyrim or Mordheim, or old, legacy games from 2000-2012.
My personal desktop cogitator is over a decade old, so I'm quite limited by its processing power,
The new Vermintide 2 DLC, which sort of came out a week early as a 'beta'. Its... ok I guess? They changed a lot of the core game, bots are even more stupid than before and now champion is too easy for bots but they die like flies on legend, which they could do before patch 2.0. So that sucks a I usually play as a duo with two bots to back us up.
Final Fantasy XIV has a free weekender / couple of days of free play. Decided to hop back on for a bit and see where I was back then. Clueless AF right now, something about needing to track down an airship or the like?
I bought Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura about midway last year, after hearing it was a great RPG and I'm a big fan of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines which was developed by Troika too. At first, it kept crashing but then I fixed it, but then found the combat too frustrating. But after getting super frustrated with RimWorld I decided to try it and managed to make myself persevere and by the Emperor, it's amazing, one of the most immersive RPGs I've ever played. Makes me sad Troika died out
BrookM wrote: Final Fantasy XIV has a free weekender / couple of days of free play. Decided to hop back on for a bit and see where I was back then. Clueless AF right now, something about needing to track down an airship or the like?
But hey, at least I'm a Dragoon so wahey.
You're still in the Realm Reborn segment?
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that you're in the "this part takes soooo long..." section of the main story quest. It should get better soon, though.
At least you're past the "League of Heroes", or whatever that group was called that you had to deal with before you could fight Titan.
I'm not the target demographic for MMO's. I tend to play a game in bursts of an hour or so, then take a break and do something else.
While there isn't a lot of grind (at level 42 now with a somewhat steady progress), I flipping HATE how many of these quests are simple "go here, talk to that person, have some XP" variety that sees me travel a lot for a few balloons of flavour text that all boil down to "Ah! I see you are here for this quest, but you need to go elsewhere to get help but before I tell you where you need to go, be a dear and do some fetch quests for me first."
That's all this has been so far in search of this ship. Me going places, being told off or told to help out first, then to hear that nobody can help me. Then by a long way around I finally find the location of the ship, at the place where this all more or less kicked off.
Now we know where it is, we almost got it done, but some inquisitor butts in and says no, adventurers are scum and never to be trusted, so now obviously.. more pointless quests.
Standard RPG fare really but still, there's padding and then there's this repeated nonsense.. FML.
The particular FFXIV segment that you're in is pretty much pure padding. The post-Ifrit segment is considered the worst in the game by far. I *think* it gets better after Garuda, though, which is coming up very soon. It very definitely gets better just before the conclusion of the 2.0 storyline. Then there's a segment with lots of very long cutscenes before it kicks into high gear with the Heavensward storyline that starts when you finally enter Ishgard.
Ha! I'm just glad I finally got to kill that Inquisitor, after a lot of pointless travel to another part of the world to get a bottle of booze or something, I don't know, I tend to click through all the fluff text at this point as it's a lot of words to simply say "go here and do X/Y/Z"
I had help from my brother for some other stuff, including the killing of a Mud Puppy or whatever that giant lizard is called, after which he and his mate went back to the latest expansion, which involved a fifteen minute unskippable cutscene..
The amount of padding is absurd though, it's the primary reason I play it in bursts, as I cannot stand the monotony of the main story line.
At least I got to sit in his car and be driven / flown everywhere.
Never have I gone further with the main quest than "Go meet the Grey Beards"
So I rolled up an new vanilla character and I'm following through with both the main quest and the Civil War.
Decided to go stereotype and I rolled up a heavy armor/Two-Handed Nord, name Skarri. Gonna back Jarl Olfric, and make sure Skyrim remains for the Nords!!!
Been developing an Oculus Go app where one can teleport about the interior of a Bungalow. I must say that its been more fulfilling than most games I've played over the decades.
Hard to describe how VR feels, but one feels like Doctor Who stepping into the Tardis; a second home in another dimension!
BrookM wrote: Ha! I'm just glad I finally got to kill that Inquisitor, after a lot of pointless travel to another part of the world to get a bottle of booze or something, I don't know, I tend to click through all the fluff text at this point as it's a lot of words to simply say "go here and do X/Y/Z"
I had help from my brother for some other stuff, including the killing of a Mud Puppy or whatever that giant lizard is called, after which he and his mate went back to the latest expansion, which involved a fifteen minute unskippable cutscene..
The amount of padding is absurd though, it's the primary reason I play it in bursts, as I cannot stand the monotony of the main story line.
At least I got to sit in his car and be driven / flown everywhere.
It'll get better fairly soon.
And not long after you finish the original Main Story Quest line at level 50, you'll be able to permantly say goodbye to The Waking Sands (aside from some optional side quests).
Also, when you finish the original MSQ, take a short break and go hunt down the start of the Hildibrand quest line. You won't regret it.
LunarSol wrote: Been nominally playing Bloodstained but I don't think its grabbing me. Thinking I'll download the Mana collection instead.
I like Bloostained a lot, but after the 10 hour mark I just hit a patch where I got bored. The level design is pretty meh and the enemies all just meld together.
Finished Bloodstained, but not with the good ending - like in SOTN. Beat the "lady in red" but not a scooby as to what to do next.
That is the one thing about the game that feels so off; Mirium's companions waffle on-and-on in parts where you just want to get on with playing the game, yet when you get stuck and need at least a slight hint - nothing but "hows it hanging?".
SamusDrake wrote: Finished Bloodstained, but not with the good ending - like in SOTN. Beat the "lady in red" but not a scooby as to what to do next.
That is the one thing about the game that feels so off; Mirium's companions waffle on-and-on in parts where you just want to get on with playing the game, yet when you get stuck and need at least a slight hint - nothing but "hows it hanging?".
I noticed that too. That's the issue I have with a lot of Japanese games in general. I started playing Senran Kagura last night and it seems like fun, but having to sit through 45 minutes of rambling really was off-putting for me.
Never have I gone further with the main quest than "Go meet the Grey Beards"
So I rolled up an new vanilla character and I'm following through with both the main quest and the Civil War.
Decided to go stereotype and I rolled up a heavy armor/Two-Handed Nord, name Skarri. Gonna back Jarl Olfric, and make sure Skyrim remains for the Nords!!!
The Skyrim hole is never as far away as one thinks. I never finished the main quest either.
Bought Rime a while back on sale and just now started playing it. It’s been a long time since I played a explore/adventure game like this. It was a bit dull in the beginning but once it started adding some context to what’s going on I got a lot more intrigued. Now I can’t wait to finish it. It’s a nice change of pace to what I usually play.
Ion Maiden was officially released a couple of days ago, so played through that over the course of a couple of nights.
Quite good, just as it says it is in the description really, if you liked Duke 3D back then and want to play something like it again, this is your game, right down to the cringy one-liners and rather juvenile humour at times.
May return to Final Fantasy around the end of the week, payday permitting, but we'll see.
Never have I gone further with the main quest than "Go meet the Grey Beards"
So I rolled up an new vanilla character and I'm following through with both the main quest and the Civil War.
Decided to go stereotype and I rolled up a heavy armor/Two-Handed Nord, name Skarri. Gonna back Jarl Olfric, and make sure Skyrim remains for the Nords!!!
The Skyrim hole is never as far away as one thinks. I never finished the main quest either.
Bought Rime a while back on sale and just now started playing it. It’s been a long time since I played a explore/adventure game like this. It was a bit dull in the beginning but once it started adding some context to what’s going on I got a lot more intrigued. Now I can’t wait to finish it. It’s a nice change of pace to what I usually play.
Same. I got as far as talking to Paathunax, or how is that silly flying thing called. Then I try side quests, mods, more mods, more mods, then I *uck the game up with even more mods and then I lose interest.
Never have I gone further with the main quest than "Go meet the Grey Beards"
So I rolled up an new vanilla character and I'm following through with both the main quest and the Civil War.
Decided to go stereotype and I rolled up a heavy armor/Two-Handed Nord, name Skarri. Gonna back Jarl Olfric, and make sure Skyrim remains for the Nords!!!
The Skyrim hole is never as far away as one thinks. I never finished the main quest either.
Bought Rime a while back on sale and just now started playing it. It’s been a long time since I played a explore/adventure game like this. It was a bit dull in the beginning but once it started adding some context to what’s going on I got a lot more intrigued. Now I can’t wait to finish it. It’s a nice change of pace to what I usually play.
I'm having fun with it right now, just finished up supporting Ulfric, Joined up with the blades and started questing for them. I am taking a break to go and get Wulfrad for the companions because I want that sweet 2H axe before I progress any further.
I dunno. It showed up in my steam library one day, no explanation. I think everyone who bought the original got SE for free.
The issue with SE is that is it is the same game, with the added creation-crap content added in. Microtransactions.
But, Bethesda forced steam to hide the page for the original game, so unless you bought it when it released like I did, you can't get the original anymore on Steam - finding a key or hard copy somewhere.
It's not unusual for a game to be completely replaced on Steam by its "improved" version. I own Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex: HR, and both take you to the improved version of the game if I tell Steam to take me to the store page of the unimproved versions.
On another note, Battlefleet Gothic 2 is free to play on Steam this weekend, so I downloaded that last night.
´Playing Breath of the WIld. The weapon degradation is not annoying me as much as I thought it would, though I do think the game would be better with out it, or if you auto switched to the next weapon in your inventory instead of having to break the flow of the fight.
Dark Souls 3 with the Cinders mod. It's a weird mod that added a bunch of things, some of the rebalancing has allowed me to finally beat Darkeater Midir, an optional boss that is normally such a huge pain it's not worth bothering with.
Spent a good while on Alien3 on the SNES last night.
Fun little game, the terminal missions/blue prints are a nice touch and overall gfx and engine are pretty darn tight.
I'm out of a rig that will even run good old mount and blade anymore, but I had a load of fun with Prophesy of Pendor. The additional tier of "sort of magical" items allows you to get away with some silly shenanigans like solo horse archering entire enemy forces (even the wandering heroes ones), but of course I stopped playing before total dominion
I've been playing Darkest Dungeon but it's stressful. Works pretty well on the Switch though.
I've been playing starcraft 2. I dunno why I had the urge to play it but I just do. Perhaps I needed a fairly popular rts to scratch my rts itch. I'm actually enjoying it so far.
Still in the lower leagues (only silver :() and my wins vs losses is even right now. I play protoss in 1vs1 online and fighting toss is average, zerg are just so obnoxious to face and I usually lose against them but terrans right now are just pushovers.
So far all the terran tend to do is quick harass which is countered by stalkers easy, proxy barracks which usually leaves their main base super defenseless for various raids, and if they make siege tanks and those siege helicopters you just out-range them with tempest and snipe those units. You also use high templar to psi storm armies and feedback medivacs.
One of my best terran opponents made many successful though costly raids but I eventually stopped his expansions and destroyed his refineries a lot which forced him to just build marines which psi storm just destroyed. I mean terran are easy to counter so far overall. Of course I'm in low ranks so that could change.
flamingkillamajig wrote: I've been playing starcraft 2. I dunno why I had the urge to play it but I just do. Perhaps I needed a fairly popular rts to scratch my rts itch. I'm actually enjoying it so far.
I also fire up SC2 every now and then. Last I play I hit low gold. It’s a fun rts. In all honesty though after Total biscuit passed on my interested lowered for the game. His shoutcraft Kings series was awesome.
Got into Sekiro: not at all stealth dark souls. It’s great fun but... the game is having an identity crisis. My favorite part of the game is the ninja stealth sections. However, if you go full ninja you’ll be woefully unprepared for the boss fights. Learning to fight (and mostly to parry) is king but you lose out on it if you just stealth your way through the game. Don’t get me wrong, I like it a lot, but it falls short on many of the design philosophies that made dark souls as great as it is.
I sorta regret what I said about terran being easy to fight. Today I was getting thoroughly curb-stomped by terran while playing protoss. People are right about zerg going down hard to raids or early pressure though.
Legacy of the void multiplayer is very much a different beast than previous versions of starcraft 2. I see terran do the 1-1-1 build a lot and the speed they can change into other builds is annoying. Battlecruisers and thors are also obnoxious and siege tanks are pretty annoying early on when someone uses disposable marines ahead to spot for siege or when they scan to siege opponents. Not to mention the counter I use for siege tanks comes way too late and seems to get countered by nearly everything terrans throw at it.
There has to be something I can do but the nerf on immortals was sort of a nail in the coffin. I suppose I could try putting more stasis traps around and then maybe killing siege units when the marines are in stasis and can't do anything. Guess I'll try next time but I imagine they could become wise to it eventually. I still think destroying terran refineries should help a ton. Wish I didn't have to wait so long to find out a good counter.
Currently playing Astral Chain on the switch and it’s pretty good so far. Usual charming mix of cool and bat gak crazy that you get from Japanese games aimed at there home market.
Da Boss wrote: ´Playing Breath of the WIld. The weapon degradation is not annoying me as much as I thought it would, though I do think the game would be better with out it, or if you auto switched to the next weapon in your inventory instead of having to break the flow of the fight.
I think it really helps that the game doesn't focus on equipment progression and eventually wears you down to the point where you stop trying to horde things and just let them break. It keeps the sense of scavenging throughout the game and keeps the power level rather flat so you're free to roam rather than needing to direct the player or level up the world to keep pace. I believe you can quick change weapons with the D-pad? Been a while; I do remember feeling like it could have been implemented smoother, but a lot of it was early frustration from years of degradation systems being more of a tax where I was expected to conserve things. Much happier with them game once I started letting everything break.
Finally got into Mutant Year Zero : Road to Eden, after buying it like 6 months ago.
Its pretty tough, as I like my turn-based squad games. Thought I'd use my X-Com experience and start on "Challenging" difficulty...
Well, that didn't last long and I'm at about level 12 on my 3 squaddies on normal difficulty and its still an endeavor. I'm getting better at the real time movement before combat starts to set up ambushes and such, but I still find myself getting into tough fights. Even small skirmishes need careful maneuvering, lest you alert the nearby enemies.
Its a fun game so far, and I love the characters. Never knew I needed a game that teamed up Bebop of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fame and Howard the Duck of ... uh, Howard the Duck fame in a turn based squad tactical shooter. Also have some sort of weird horned girl in the team as well.
Even more starcraft 2. I think I do fairly decent vs zerg right now but terran are still a problem. Dunno why but I tend to face almost all the same faction for like 4 or so games straight. First terran and nothing but for like 5 matches and then mostly zerg and some protoss.
My Mount&Blade Pendor game got really exciting when I broke away from the D'Shar and founded my own kingdom (jerk king wouldn't give me Janos, when I conquered it, and it's right next to my Ethos). Unfortunately, I waited too long before rebelling, and could just steamroll D'Shar even before promoting a couple companions to Lords.
I took all of their original territory, knocked them down to 2 castles that used to be Sarleans, and then they called a truce. Works for me - somehow their king still loves me.
So I have all the starting D'Shar territory, all but Cez and 1 castle of Baccus's territory, Sarelaons capitol city, 2 Fields castles, and all but 3 Sarleaons castles. Plenty of territory.
Nobody dares declare war on me. And my right-to-rule is only 30. They must be (rightfully) terrified of me. I was hoping Baccus would attack, so I could annex their last two holdings (which are in the heart of my empire).
So I just build up Knights, hunt spawns, and do Noldor tournaments. Just founded my CKO, so I'm training them up too - but I have ~100 Knights of an existing chapter, atop a couple hundred top-tier units, hanging out in Ethos. I have over 200 Noble Recruits ready to be recruited. I make 5-digit income weekly even with mercs upkeep. And a party size north of 400. I think there's no way I'm losing this game.
It's been fun, but what to do next? Get Elixers to bring Str/Agi/Cha to 30? Improve companions to better train my CKO? Start a war? Just keep hunting? Max out my rank with KotBC?
Still playing BotW, and LunarSol, I kinda agree with you. It is just a bit annoying sometimes, but definitely not a fatal flaw with the game. I also get why they did it, it basically makes any cool gear you get a temporary buff only, which makes for interesting strategy for the player. Putting even one "I never break" weapon in would have screwed with that system. I just feel some stuff is really ridiculously flimsy, and it annoys me that my enemies weapons never break.
Also reinstalled Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. One of my all time favourite games. I know some people prefer the DoW2 style with the small squad stuff, and I can see the appeal, but I really enjoy the more traditional RTS nature of DOW1 and Dark Crusades map campaign is a lot of fun to play through. If only Tyranids had existed in this version of the game, it would have been perfect!
Back playing Fire Emblem, About half way through my 2nd play through and I still think it’s the best game I have played in ages.
Going to take a break though as Nintendo just added a SNES emulator to the switch which includes a couple of RPG classics in Zelda a link to the past and Breath of Fire.
unlikely to stick with it as the time sink to get to the point of 'progress' from where I was at the end of Vanilla (cleared BWL and a boss or two in Naxx and AQ40) is just too much of an ask these days
I think I'll get promoted to low gold soon from high silver. Still fairly low leagues but I feel good about it. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this game.
I'm also playing long war on xcom 2 and seem to be doing better than ever before and it's all about what build order you take. I also did well in 40k tabletop with guard so I'm having a winning streak. Hopefully I don't get a losing streak to balance it out.
Also though the epic store is sleazy I keep wanting to give in and play Phoenix point more and more. It doesn't look completely bug free and is still early access but when it comes out of early access in December I think I'll buy it epic store and all.
I've been watch some Phoenix point gameplay and it looks amazingly uninspired. 5 episodes so far, and it's much the same thing over and over. Human enemies break up the monotony a little, but those fights feel random with no real reason.
Map repetition and lack of enemy diversity seem a real problem, as does a lack of challenge. See crabs, shoot crabs
I started over in Mount & Blade Pendor. Got some easy fights early, so nailed 150 Renown day 1. Then just kept finding Tournies. I had enterprises in every city but the lord-hates-you ones and the Baccus Empire ones (Because Baccus hates me), and most of the compainions I wanted, by the end of day 5.
I decided Baccus hates me because I was wrongly accused of being Snake Cult. So I made up my mind to seek out witnesses (Baccus Ladies-in-waiting - rescuing them increases your rep). But Baccus kept being a tool, so I wound up just fighting them more. On day 8, I saw the entire Baccus army get caught between Sarlean and D'Shar, so I took my crappy 100-man army and took Almera - unaligned.
Baccus never attacked me. They sueed for peace on day 14.
It's now day 60, and nobody has attacked me. What the heck. I'm the king of a single castle and village (which I gave to Rayne, so I have at least one vassal). But no real enemies to fight. Just upping my CKO, taking on rare spawns, and grinding up troops. The game really stalled out between day 14 and day 60.
I think I might start "joining wars" to help "keep the peace" (meaning, fight whoever's winning, as a reason to get into wars).
Well, I beat the main campaign in Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.
Was a fun trip, but got kind of boring towards the end because of the lack of a variety of enemies. Every fight felt the same for the most part. The game is definitely challenging and I don’t regret the purchase, but I have no motivation to dig into the DLC campaign as it just looks like more of the same.
Once the new DLC hits for Warhammer 2, I’ll be knee deep in that for the foreseeable future.
Total war warhammer 2. I’m taking a break from my running high elf campaign (which has been ridiculously easy so far). I’ve confederated all but 2 factions of ulthuan and they’re going to be conquered. On hard difficulty any of the military alliances with about 10.000gold will land you nice confederancies. Anyway, I’m trying out the vampire coast (on hard) and much enjoying roaming the seas. Don’t have much of a plan yet but it’s so much fun to hunt down treasure maps and generally raid and loot. This is my first horde army playthrough and I’m really enjoying it. Also like the infamy system telling me just how much of an ocean terror I am.
Nerak wrote: Total war warhammer 2. I’m taking a break from my running high elf campaign (which has been ridiculously easy so far). I’ve confederated all but 2 factions of ulthuan and they’re going to be conquered. On hard difficulty any of the military alliances with about 10.000gold will land you nice confederancies. Anyway, I’m trying out the vampire coast (on hard) and much enjoying roaming the seas. Don’t have much of a plan yet but it’s so much fun to hunt down treasure maps and generally raid and loot. This is my first horde army playthrough and I’m really enjoying it. Also like the infamy system telling me just how much of an ocean terror I am.
I would still consolidate a base though.
Which VC are you playing?
Nerak wrote: Total war warhammer 2. I’m taking a break from my running high elf campaign (which has been ridiculously easy so far). I’ve confederated all but 2 factions of ulthuan and they’re going to be conquered. On hard difficulty any of the military alliances with about 10.000gold will land you nice confederancies. Anyway, I’m trying out the vampire coast (on hard) and much enjoying roaming the seas. Don’t have much of a plan yet but it’s so much fun to hunt down treasure maps and generally raid and loot. This is my first horde army playthrough and I’m really enjoying it. Also like the infamy system telling me just how much of an ocean terror I am.
I would still consolidate a base though.
Which VC are you playing?
Count noctilus. He seemed the most badass to me. Of course I’ll upgrade the malestorm but won’t bother with much else I think.
Nerak wrote: Total war warhammer 2. I’m taking a break from my running high elf campaign (which has been ridiculously easy so far). I’ve confederated all but 2 factions of ulthuan and they’re going to be conquered. On hard difficulty any of the military alliances with about 10.000gold will land you nice confederancies. Anyway, I’m trying out the vampire coast (on hard) and much enjoying roaming the seas. Don’t have much of a plan yet but it’s so much fun to hunt down treasure maps and generally raid and loot. This is my first horde army playthrough and I’m really enjoying it. Also like the infamy system telling me just how much of an ocean terror I am.
I would still consolidate a base though.
Which VC are you playing?
Count noctilus. He seemed the most badass to me. Of course I’ll upgrade the malestorm but won’t bother with much else I think.
In that case i'd still Grab Saratoga.
Etc.
Just to have fallbacks for your lords.
That said noctilous is probably the best suited for sea Terror.
Voss wrote: I've been watch some Phoenix point gameplay and it looks amazingly uninspired. 5 episodes so far, and it's much the same thing over and over. Human enemies break up the monotony a little, but those fights feel random with no real reason.
Map repetition and lack of enemy diversity seem a real problem, as does a lack of challenge. See crabs, shoot crabs
Really? I was hoping to get that game. The boons I saw is you can customize your soldiers with sub-faction upgrades (in one case mind control or other evolutions) depending on who you helped and a few things looked cool like aiming at different enemy body parts. Of course what I saw seemed to show that the game wasn't ready yet. Some slowdowns or crashes and yeah the combat seemed to favor certain weapons. Grenadiers are stupidly strong but more due to doing weapon damage and lots of other damage. I don't have the game myself though so I can't say yet.
Voss wrote: I've been watch some Phoenix point gameplay and it looks amazingly uninspired. 5 episodes so far, and it's much the same thing over and over. Human enemies break up the monotony a little, but those fights feel random with no real reason.
Map repetition and lack of enemy diversity seem a real problem, as does a lack of challenge. See crabs, shoot crabs
Really? I was hoping to get that game. The boons I saw is you can customize your soldiers with sub-faction upgrades (in one case mind control or other evolutions) depending on who you helped and a few things looked cool like aiming at different enemy body parts. Of course what I saw seemed to show that the game wasn't ready yet. Some slowdowns or crashes and yeah the combat seemed to favor certain weapons. Grenadiers are stupidly strong but more due to doing weapon damage and lots of other damage. I don't have the game myself though so I can't say yet.
yeah, I've been watching a playthrough by Retcon Raider over on youtube. He's pretty thorough but not shouty or exciting. He seems to like it but... eh. It reminds me a lot of Xcom2, and not in a good way. A lot of waiting for story things to pop and fairly mediocre fights on 'random' maps that repeat a lot and enemies that can be customizable, but don't seem incredibly interesting. Sometimes they have guns, but mostly they just shamble toward you and ineffectually try to shield themselves.
But then I didn't like Xcom2 itself, so a mashup between that and elements that remind me of Fallout at its blandest doesn't really strike a chord.
I'm more interested in Greedfall, which seems pretty solid despite games media whining (mostly about the setting, and in Kotaku's case, not being mechanically incentivized to be moral, which strikes me as missing the point), and despite Spiders' previous games looking terrible.
It does look like it has things that will really irk me (early on an NPC runs away from you, in the worst RPG railroad manner possible- the screen goes dark and your character announces he's escaped. Despite him starting inside a wooden stall where he _couldn't_ have gotten away easily. That sort of thing just... ugh.)
Voss wrote: I've been watch some Phoenix point gameplay and it looks amazingly uninspired. 5 episodes so far, and it's much the same thing over and over. Human enemies break up the monotony a little, but those fights feel random with no real reason.
Map repetition and lack of enemy diversity seem a real problem, as does a lack of challenge. See crabs, shoot crabs
Really? I was hoping to get that game. The boons I saw is you can customize your soldiers with sub-faction upgrades (in one case mind control or other evolutions) depending on who you helped and a few things looked cool like aiming at different enemy body parts. Of course what I saw seemed to show that the game wasn't ready yet. Some slowdowns or crashes and yeah the combat seemed to favor certain weapons. Grenadiers are stupidly strong but more due to doing weapon damage and lots of other damage. I don't have the game myself though so I can't say yet.
I've been playing Phantom Doctrine recently. It has some key differences with XCom (the RNG is pretty much completely removed in combat, which is both good and bad). But it successfully implements some of the elements that frustrated me the most about XCom 2 (for instance, the lack of true stealth gameplay). With some care, you can finish most of the missions without ever going loud.
I'm playing long war and starcraft 2. Not really much else to say. I think I'm doing alright in both.
I may need another xcom style game soon whether mutant year zero, phantom doctrine or Phoenix point. I find it odd stealth sounds more important in the first 2 than xcom 2 but if you're an xcom vet you know the power of a concealed scout that spots enemy pods for the rest of your force.
Oh and whoever decided in legacy of the void that battlecrusiers when handled with slight care can warp in front of their enemy's base and kill crap and warp back out not long after should've been shot. Seriously i almost kill them and when back in their base they stop for repairs and do it over again. I imagine the only way to handle it is to choke enemy gas supplies.
Predator is the only one I could not beat. I tried it at its easiest, hid in a certain spot that I thought was plasma safe, even sent in droves of rebels as support before triggering the final part of the mission, picked the best LMG and sniper rifle I had, but it's too tough to drop.
Hawky wrote: I got back to Rimworld, where I have a narrative scenario of Wehrmacht squad who got lost in Soviet Russia and is trying to survive frequent raids.
There is a rule to launch a raid every 7 days in addition to what Randy comes up with, and pawns are limited on usage of weapons made before 1945.
Erwin is an officer
Hans is medic
Michael is a regular soldier
Mark is an engineer
Wilhelm is a sniper
Otto is a machinegunner
BrookM wrote: Predator is the only one I could not beat. I tried it at its easiest, hid in a certain spot that I thought was plasma safe, even sent in droves of rebels as support before triggering the final part of the mission, picked the best LMG and sniper rifle I had, but it's too tough to drop.
Him and the Sam Fisher mission are giving me fits. The spawn rate on those dang grunts is annoying and being unable to even knock out is ruining it for me.
Playing a bit of starcraft 2 and more long war for xcom 2. I think I've grown somewhat bored of sc2 again. I dunno I guess we'll have to see. Both games keeping trolling me esp long war.
There are more pawns in my fort, however.
Achmed and 'Fez', two Turks
Yekaterina, a female partisan
Ivan, Osttruppen sharpshooter
Hilda, Markus' mother. How did she get there is beyond me.
There also was Elsa, but she was shot dead.
Also, a herd of cows.
Schnitzel (bull) and Greta & Mia (cows)
BrookM wrote: Predator is the only one I could not beat. I tried it at its easiest, hid in a certain spot that I thought was plasma safe, even sent in droves of rebels as support before triggering the final part of the mission, picked the best LMG and sniper rifle I had, but it's too tough to drop.
Him and the Sam Fisher mission are giving me fits. The spawn rate on those dang grunts is annoying and being unable to even knock out is ruining it for me.
I did that one in a single play through, but it's a poorly designed mission for sure, unless they fixed it, which I doubt, but I hate that once you go loud, Sam does nothing to help in the fight. It may have something to do with being one of the earliest extra missions they've done, in stark contrast with the final story mission they released, Operation Oracle, where Cole Walker hulks out and can go on rampages on his own without your intervention.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Last day on my Final Fantasy XIV sub, so decided to grit my teeth and spend my day off getting as far as I can before it runs out or before I punch the screen in frustration at all these idiotic fetch quests.
Many annoying quests later, I am finally a level 50 Dragoon and get to wear the decent-ish class armour:
Spoiler:
Needs a better spear, but whatever, got a full set, matching colours to boot.
Discovered a pool near the guild house, so I could detox from all those annoying quests and read up on the crapton of ingame stuff the game keeps throwing at me:
Spoiler:
Upon renewal.. find new spear, grind through those annoying guild assignments so I can finally buy and decorate a room of my own at the guild house. Also pound through the last story quests and hopefully finally reach the good stuff of the first expansion. Also, find a new mount, I am getting sick AF of the music that plays whenever I ride the Company Chocobo. Sorry Ace, but I'd rather walk / run than force myself to listen to your tune one more time.
One thing I'm noticing about Borderlands 3 is there doesn't seem to be as many side quests.. there's the main story and each zone seems to have 1 maybe 2 side quests plus an occasional wanted poster. I thought I remembered the old game having big boards were quests would be posted. But then a lot of those quests were just busy work kind of stuff, but still added some extra flavor. Still enjoying the new game a lot though.
Got Greedfall last Friday, and booted it up and sunk around 14 hours into the game over the weekend, and well. As much as I like the astetetics and looks of the game, as well the concept. I can not get myself to like the combat, cut scenes and dialouge. The camera is also a real negativ thing at times as it works against you. But one very posetiv thing is the wealth of customisation you can do with weapons, armour and cosmetics. But I will not sink more time into it before it has been patched a fair bit to iron out the major technical issues.
Necros wrote: One thing I'm noticing about Borderlands 3 is there doesn't seem to be as many side quests.. there's the main story and each zone seems to have 1 maybe 2 side quests plus an occasional wanted poster. I thought I remembered the old game having big boards were quests would be posted. But then a lot of those quests were just busy work kind of stuff, but still added some extra flavor. Still enjoying the new game a lot though.
I don't know about it, I'd like to enjoy the game. But they do not sell it on Steam.
A lot of my friends have reported that the game is pretty mediocre, and that if you played BL2 a lot, this is worth passing on as its just more of the same. Other friends pointed out that the jokes and story are pretty cringey too.
Necros wrote: One thing I'm noticing about Borderlands 3 is there doesn't seem to be as many side quests.. there's the main story and each zone seems to have 1 maybe 2 side quests plus an occasional wanted poster. I thought I remembered the old game having big boards were quests would be posted. But then a lot of those quests were just busy work kind of stuff, but still added some extra flavor. Still enjoying the new game a lot though.
I don't know about it, I'd like to enjoy the game. But they do not sell it on Steam.
A lot of my friends have reported that the game is pretty mediocre, and that if you played BL2 a lot, this is worth passing on as its just more of the same. Other friends pointed out that the jokes and story are pretty cringey too.
Is this a trend with the epic games store games? I swear what I've heard of phoenix point sounds kinda iffy. I mean it doesn't sound terrible but nobody on twitch is playing it pretty much.
More xcom 2: long war for me. God this game likes to troll me into oblivious. Do you have full cover and the enemy is disoriented. Lulz take a critical hit (or any hit) against you anyway. Seriously the likelihood of hitting an enemy in full cover while disoriented is supposed to be super terrible (like 10% or so bad) and yet they still hit. Seriously this long war mod is gonna give me an aneurism due to rage....or maybe i'll have a heart attack since my whole body is in sorta poor shape.
I am currently playing Astral Chain. It's actually great and was able to live up with its hyped. It's also a good game to play while still waiting for Platinum Games to release a 3rd Bayonetta game.
I recently got into the Horus Heresy: Legion TCG. Pretty nice game I have to say, I did invest around 5€ for a starter deck deal the game offered to get started (Night Lords Mawdrym deck, should anyone be interested. Love spamming it because the Mawdrym voicelines are hilariously campy: "You will scream as I vivisect you" is vocalized in kind of pseudo-serious bordering on ironic manner.
It feels pretty nice game so far! The grinding and progression feels really nice, and much less tedious than in Hearthstone. Game has weird free 3 card/item crate every 6 hours, encouraging you to drop in every 6 hours, but as the game is available on mobile I don't see this as a huge problem. Fire up the app, check out the free 3 cards and go on with your day, it doesn't force you to play for the free crate. Also I wouldn't call the game pay to win, free grinding is rewarding enough and the changing deals means that if one works with a certain plan it's easy to make progress on one's deck.
Personally I don't find it a big deal to drop 5-10€ for a 30 card deck if there is good and interesting deal and it's a deck im interested in, although I'm not planning to do this often. The game has daily 3 decks in sale for around 10€/$, which is expensive in my opinion, but I think it's ok. For example if you were interested in Kharn deck and it became on sale it's probably easiest to get it started like that. Anyway I have gotten already 3 new warlords (like special characters from 40k) you use to build your deck around, it's a bit similar to Commander/EDH format in MtG, so the warlords seem to drop at good enough rate from free grinding.
Also the balance feels nice, if you think a little how to play your deck and then plan ahead it seems easy enough right now to make progress and not get your ass handed to you. Most losses I can tell were because I'm missing a few specific kind of cards to leave me ilequipped against certain deck styles, but the game so far seems to lack these extremely powerful super cards that just run you over leaving you feeling powerless. I know I hated Hearthstone as free grinding when opponents would drop these insanely powerful rares that were nearly impossible to deal with.
Now that Iceborne is out, I've started playing Monster Hunter World again. I only started playing earlier this year, and I'd had to set it aside when my schedule got busy. That set aside coincided with me deciding that the long sword wasn't going to work against Kushala Daora, so I've switched over to the Light Bowgun. I was able to figure out the new weapon fairly quickly, and I just took Kushala down last night. Teostra is my next target, which means it's time to start gearing up again. Fortunately, I'm already halfway there.
Not playing, but started watching a Let's Play of Stygian: Not Another Lovecraft Game. Wanted to see if it was any good.
The art style is neat if you like that kind of thing, but... I really think Mythos and Lovecraft stuff is done entirely wrong when its completely out in the open from the start. With no mystery or confusion (and sanity is just a pure gauge), it loses a lot. Gonna pass.
Here's a link to the let's play I was watching. Retcon Raider is pretty decent. No screaming or crazy thoughts, usually just genuine enjoyment of whatever's he's playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lmAo5_Evtg
Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Soulstorm, Injustice 2 (mobile version), and Destiny 2.
Overwatch - I love the role queues as well as the little incentives for queueing up as certain roles. Arcade 'Mystery Heroes' is still a big fave though.
Hearthstone - Started playing again this past week when I need something to do waiting for food to cook haha.
WoW - Giving my 'main' a break (Orc Fury Warrior)... started up an a couple Alliance characters, a human arms warrior and human demonology warlock. Haven't played this much with alliance side in a WHILE.
Soulstorm - maybe a third through campaign as Space Marines... killed off Orcs, Tau, Sisters, and IG so far. Working on Eldar or Necron next... going to save Chaos for last. Once that's done will move on to DOW II
Injustice 2 - Trying to build up a main 'multiverse' team to use... have Batwoman and White Canary... not sure who I want the third multiverse person to be... maybe Supergirl.
Destiny 2 - I've had this for so long... just decided to install it and try it out since the new expansion is coming out. Loving it so far! I like the little bit of part 1 I played on the XBOX One... not sure why I waited so long to try this one out. I have a ranger.
Got myself the Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic.
Time to rebuild the socialist 'paradise' of Eastern Europe by plundering the nature, producing low-quality stuff and 'beautify' the landscape with boxy prefab houses.
Hawky wrote: Got myself the Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic.
Time to rebuild the socialist 'paradise' of Eastern Europe by plundering the nature, producing low-quality stuff and 'beautify' the landscape with boxy prefab houses.
Hasnt been any squad deaths in a while with my xcom long war team. Gonna start infiltrating the 2nd advent regional hq and destroy that to make the aliens and advent a bit nervous. May take time for a 3rd advent hq destruction. When and if it happens.
Indeed. Finished the main game last night. The final joke is pretty perfect.
It's probably a little overrated, and there's a couple puzzles that show how much more clever it COULD be, but as someone who lives it a town regularly overrun with geese.... I found it remarkably authentic.
My favorite memory of the last week? Telling a friendly elf from Amn about how I was just almost eaten by a puddle! He was like "That's a Grey Ooze...", and took the time to heal me up and we chatted a bit.
We had met earlier, and he had given me a nice mace (+1 Mace at level 1 really helped), so it was great running into him again.
(Yes, I knew what a Gery Ooze was. But Andicar - my Fighter - did not.)
I read up on Arelith - sounds like it'd be tons of fun. But they moved to the EE, and I didn't feel like drop $20 on EE without knowing if Arelith would be solid/fun (I have NwN1/2 Diamond, and a few other copies).
I never did PWs or actual RP in NWN before. I just ran it as a dungeon hack.
RPing in NWN feels really awesome. Class and level aren't (directly) visible - so you communicate (in-character) and judge people on their words and actions. Not based on their stats and gear. And what they look like *he said, eyeing the drow standing behind you*.
NWN seems to do RP better than an MMO because the mechanics are all about RPing. Sure, a Lvl10 character can do a lot more than a lvl1 character. But there aren't many levels, and whether you can do something isn't really a matter of level (my low-level fighter in Full Plate with a Heavy Shield isn't going to be hit by random zombies and skeletons, but even a high-level mage, without protection, is gonna get hurt).
H.B.M.C. wrote: How are you enjoying the game with the most exploitative and outrageous monetisation system in modern AAA gaming?
If they aren't offering a $27,000.00 partial unlock packs for assets that don't exist, in a game that may never exist, as a non-refundable donation with no guarantee of delivery, then they are at best a runner up on that front.
I've been playing the planet zoo beta. It has a lot of the same pitfalls as planet coaster (the scenery system is way too detailed and slow, the path system is janky as all hell) but overall it's a super fun game and I'm enjoying trying to get my zoo to work.
balmong7 wrote: I've been playing the planet zoo beta. It has a lot of the same pitfalls as planet coaster (the scenery system is way too detailed and slow, the path system is janky as all hell) but overall it's a super fun game and I'm enjoying trying to get my zoo to work.
Always impressed / concerned by the time some people must spend getting the most out of the scenery editors in these kinds of games - like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHuk7Bj6OHM
balmong7 wrote: I've been playing the planet zoo beta. It has a lot of the same pitfalls as planet coaster (the scenery system is way too detailed and slow, the path system is janky as all hell) but overall it's a super fun game and I'm enjoying trying to get my zoo to work.
Always impressed / concerned by the time some people must spend getting the most out of the scenery editors in these kinds of games - like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHuk7Bj6OHM
Honestly, these videos are both the reason I bought the games and the reason I don't enjoy playing them as much as I should. I know that I can't do what they do, but also it takes so long to make something even servicable that I just end up playing something else. I find Parkitect to be better than Planet Coaster from a simulation perspective and just ease of making simple good looking scenery. I can only hope that something similar comes out to fill the planet zoo itch. Until then, I will struggle to learn planet zoo to the best of my abilities. lol
H.B.M.C. wrote: How are you enjoying the game with the most exploitative and outrageous monetisation system in modern AAA gaming?
If they aren't offering a $27,000.00 partial unlock packs for assets that don't exist, in a game that may never exist, as a non-refundable donation with no guarantee of delivery, then they are at best a runner up on that front.
And to think, all people wanted was another Wing Commander
Still playing borderlands 3.. finished the story, was pretty good. Now I’m doing the proving grounds a lot. Tried circle of slaughter a few times but if you don’t have a good group that can be a real nightmare.
Some of the builds you can do are pretty insane. I’m still playing Moze, I got the skills where you regenerate grenades and get shield regen from crits and kills and stuff. So I just run in, toss a bunch of grenades out that have DOTs on them and are constantly critting things over and over.. it’s almost like god mode. Been playing on Mayhem 3 difficulty, you really constant heals to be able to survive some of those fights. If I get carried away gunning stuff down and forget to keep tossing my grenades out, I can end up 1-shotted to death. My favorite is the zone that’s only tinks, just because the voices make it funny.
I was playing MHW last night, farming drops from Jyuratodus. And then after it ran away the first time, it got into a turf war with Barroth. So I settled in to watch the two from the far side of the area.
And then the Pink Rathian landed right on top of them...
Grinding away at Final Fantasy XIV, almost got enough tickets to buy a horse during one of the many special events they're running, so hoping to get that done tonight because tomorrow, different game'll be taking up my spare time for the coming days.
Also managed to get a minion that when you use the [BECKON] command sits on your shoulder. It's not a tiny succubus, but for now this cutie will do.
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote: Currently Brutal Legend, and Kingdoms of Alamur. Never played either, can't tell which I like more. Prolly Brutal just because of the silliness.
I quite liked both. Brutal gets really awkward when the gameplay changes, but I enjoyed the story beginning to end. Amalur is just a really fun little sandbox. Kind of like a Fable game with a little more generic style and much better combat.
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote: Currently Brutal Legend, and Kingdoms of Alamur. Never played either, can't tell which I like more. Prolly Brutal just because of the silliness.
I quite liked both. Brutal gets really awkward when the gameplay changes, but I enjoyed the story beginning to end. Amalur is just a really fun little sandbox. Kind of like a Fable game with a little more generic style and much better combat.
The combat in Amalur is great! One of my go to games for just relaxing.
Doing a sloooow campaign playthrough with Bretonnia in a TW2 Mortal Empires campaign. Pretty much declaring war against every faction thats not Empire or other Bretonnians as soon as they become known to me. Been alot of fun.
And still playing Insurgency: Sandstorm on a semi-regular basis. Like most hardcore FPS's its great when you are with a competent or semi-competent team, but it still has the same problems as any other FPS.
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote: Currently Brutal Legend, and Kingdoms of Alamur. Never played either, can't tell which I like more. Prolly Brutal just because of the silliness.
I quite liked both. Brutal gets really awkward when the gameplay changes, but I enjoyed the story beginning to end. Amalur is just a really fun little sandbox. Kind of like a Fable game with a little more generic style and much better combat.
Brutal Legend was great but ya they stuck an RTS in first person in there that almost made me ragequit. Made it through though and glad I did.
More long war mod in xcom 2. Sadly I have no internet till tomorrow and I can't play xcom till then. Looks like I will lose my currently liberated territory and I think I'll have to bail out of the current mission. There are too many enemies invading. So many in fact it caused the game to crash which is a common problem in long war. Hopefully I can keep most of my soldiers alive to evac but I probably should've just skipped the mission entirely. I will liberate a new territory soon anyway if all goes to plan and depending on where they invade from this might actually be a good thing. Whelp fingers crossed it works out and not many soldiers die.
Decided to give Destiny 2 a try since it's finally on steam. Was not disappointed. It's a beautiful game with some of the most amazing gun play I have ever seen in any FPS. I cannot believe how smooth and controlled the weapon handling it.
I like the character customization options, and the variety of different weapons, I rolled a Titan for my first play through and so far, I'm having a lot of fun. So much so I bought Shadow Keep and Forsaken today!
When I started back up, I had four monsters left to finish the High Rank storyline. The first of those -Kushala Daor - had already stomped on me once or twice. So I set my Long Sword aside, farmed the components for a decent Light Bow Gun, and - after a couple of tries - took him down.
Then I started farming up for Teostra. I decided I wanted the fire charm, but had troub le getting a rare drop for the second rank version. So I finally decided to just try a test run. And I beat him pretty easily. Then I immediately went after the next monster, and beat him quickly as well (though he was more difficult). That took me to the final boss of the storyline. I figured I'd give it a test run... and beat it, too (though I think I almost ran out of time).
So now I'm in Iceborne.
My plan right now is to get some of the new basic gear that only requires metal or bone (which can be harvested from deposits). I can't see the weapon stats yet, but the new basic armor has a huge jump in defense. Once I've got that, I'll clear out the lower-ranked optional quests that have been accumulating, and get some of the optional cloaks and other items that I skipped past.
So keeping that one city liberated failed and I lost everything there including most of my guys and their stuff. However I have since gotten 2 more regions liberated and did a lot of other stuff. Sadly most of my territory resistance members have to hide now because advent strength has gotten that crazy and I don't want any other regions to get wiped out from retaliations. I still think I will lose this game as I lost quite a few soldiers but oddly I think this is the farthest I've ever gone and best I've ever done on this difficulty in long war for xcom 2.
Voss wrote: Is that a church in Traktorsk? And a complete lack of uniform brick apartment blocks?
It must pre-date the glorious liberation of the people from the yoke of their oppressors. It is likely only still attended by a few aging hold-outs who refuse to recognize the glorious peoples' utopia that they live in, and who are carefully watched for any and all signs of disloyalty to the state.
It's also possible that these are mere Potemkin communities, set up by treacherous bourgeouisie fascist running dogs in some sort of convoluted plot to destroy the glorious people's utopia. See, for instance, that there are no clouds of black smoke - the sure sign of a happy and productive proletariat - coming out of the smokestack in that photograph! Clearly there is something amiss here that bears further investigation by the noble and valiant upholders of our people!
Comrade Hawky, it is my duty to inform you that you have an appointment tomorrow at 9am with your local political officer regarding these so-called settlements.
*cough*
On another note, I mentioned that I've been playing Monster Hunter World. Someone mentioned Epic's Dauntless, so I took a look at that. It's clearly inspired by Monster Hunter. But at the same time, it's much simpler. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it's annoying. For an example of the latter, in MHW (note that I haven't played any of the other Monster Hunter games, so I can't comment on how the non-open world games work) you find your target monster by locating tracks, and then following them to the target. Dauntless dumps you on a large-ish floating island, and has you run around - with no map - until you find your target. When one of the players finds the monster, he or she launches a flare that (briefly) signals their location (along with the monster, presumably) to the other players.
And then mid-way through the fight, the monster runs away, and you have to repeat the process. It's not so bad when the monster flies away. When that happens, you know which direction it's going. But it's a bit of a nuisance when the monster tunnels or teleports away.
The monsters in Dauntless so far have been a bit on the smaller side when compared to Monster Hunter World.
Dealing with health is both easier and harder. You get five potions at the start of the hunt. You can't change this. You can use a potion to instantly restore half of your health. When they're gone, that's it. You can also revive yourself three times if you're knocked out. Other players can also revive you by performing an action that takes several seconds - assuming that the monster has not maxed out its threat rating (which is similar to the enrage mechanic in many MMO boss fights; but don't confuse it with what's called the enraged mechanic in Dauntless, because that's something different). There's at least one other method of healing, but apparently it requires a higher level than I have to unlock it. In MHW, you can carry up to ten potions and mega potions. And you can craft new ones over the course of the battle assuming you can get the ingredients. If you get knocked out, you're carted back to your camp. If the total number of knockouts in the entire group reaches three, then the hunt ends.
Voss wrote: Is that a church in Traktorsk? And a complete lack of uniform brick apartment blocks?
It must pre-date the glorious liberation of the people from the yoke of their oppressors. It is likely only still attended by a few aging hold-outs who refuse to recognize the glorious peoples' utopia that they live in, and who are carefully watched for any and all signs of disloyalty to the state.
It's also possible that these are mere Potemkin communities, set up by treacherous bourgeouisie fascist running dogs in some sort of convoluted plot to destroy the glorious people's utopia. See, for instance, that there are no clouds of black smoke - the sure sign of a happy and productive proletariat - coming out of the smokestack in that photograph! Clearly there is something amiss here that bears further investigation by the noble and valiant upholders of our people!
Comrade Hawky, it is my duty to inform you that you have an appointment tomorrow at 9am with your local political officer regarding these so-called settlements.
Comrade Eumerin, what you see are just the beginnings of a socialist paradise that is yet to come. Currently, we are gathering resources to build a thousand glorious panel houses to accommodate every good comrade and let them have many babies, future factory workers and red army soldiers, yes. With collective efforts, we will crush the fascist NATO dogs and their corrupted countries filled with hedonism and debauchery. We are also currently surveying the mountains for iron deposits, so we could reforge in into tanks and have a thousand tank divisions! And once we conquer the west, our factories will produce the glorious Trabant for every family.
Also, the collective agricultural establishment in Traktorsk won 1st prize for growing crops this year. They grew and harvested the most, so, there is a potential.
Voss wrote: Is that a church in Traktorsk? And a complete lack of uniform brick apartment blocks?
It must pre-date the glorious liberation of the people from the yoke of their oppressors. It is likely only still attended by a few aging hold-outs who refuse to recognize the glorious peoples' utopia that they live in, and who are carefully watched for any and all signs of disloyalty to the state.
It's also possible that these are mere Potemkin communities, set up by treacherous bourgeouisie fascist running dogs in some sort of convoluted plot to destroy the glorious people's utopia. See, for instance, that there are no clouds of black smoke - the sure sign of a happy and productive proletariat - coming out of the smokestack in that photograph! Clearly there is something amiss here that bears further investigation by the noble and valiant upholders of our people!
Comrade Hawky, it is my duty to inform you that you have an appointment tomorrow at 9am with your local political officer regarding these so-called settlements.
Comrade Eumerin, what you see are just the beginnings of a socialist paradise that is yet to come. Currently, we are gathering resources to build a thousand glorious panel houses to accommodate every good comrade and let them have many babies, future factory workers and red army soldiers, yes. With collective efforts, we will crush the fascist NATO dogs and their corrupted countries filled with hedonism and debauchery. We are also currently surveying the mountains for iron deposits, so we could reforge in into tanks and have a thousand tank divisions! And once we conquer the west, our factories will produce the glorious Trabant for every family.
Also, the collective agricultural establishment in Traktorsk won 1st prize for growing crops this year. They grew and harvested the most, so, there is a potential.
Yes, it is. Still early access, so a bit buggy and a lot of features you'd expect are missing, but I enjoy playing it. On a Steam sale too right now, for 16EUR I think.
Hawky wrote: Yes, it is. Still early access, so a bit buggy and a lot of features you'd expect are missing, but I enjoy playing it. On a Steam sale too right now, for 16EUR I think.
Nice, have some spare change and after seeing what ubisoft has done to ANNO i am perfectly willing to cut my losses and go build a socialisct utopia.
Enjoying Destiny 2's relaunch. I played it back before, but the launch on Steam has been flawless for me so far, and it feels the game is better than ever now that Bungie is no longer under Blizzard's thumb. It's one of the smoothest and well polished first person shooters on the market.
Turned a raspberry pi into an Amiga with Amibian this evening and had a go on Saint Dragon, Shadow of the Beast, Gods and Chaos Engine. Chaos Engine is a great laugh!
Never had the pleasure of the Amiga back in the day but I've chosen it for some retro game development. Not only has it got muscle but it is also able to produce game assets with excellent programs such as Deluxe Paint. Good times are ahead...
Eumerin wrote: Surviving Mars isn't an Epic exclusive. So no need to feel guilty about grabbing it if it's free.
Though it does mean giving Epic information which they can then sell for profit.
Nothing is free when it comes to the Internet any more.
Except the free trial of WinRAR.
For what I've been playing recently:
Some Skyrim, doing some Thieves Guild, Dark Brotherhood, vampirey goodness.
Some WWE 2K19 universe mode. My heel stable of spooky ladies called The Disciples are currently accumulating belts through brutality and cheating. Their next target is the tag titles currently held by my babyface tag team High Voltage composed of ladder-diving high-flyer Lightning Lex and suplex-machine technician Thunder Frye.
Also playing through Call of Juarez Bound in Blood as I just picked it up on GOG.
And if you already play one of their online games such as Fortnite or Dauntless (which I mentioned several posts back), then they already have that information.
Yeah I personally was a backer for Pheonix Point. So when they first went epic exclusive (I think they were the first epic controversy?) I set up my account before I heard all the bad stuff. Since I already have it installed and everything, I've been taking the free games (when I remember).
Surviving Mars is pretty fun so far. But it's way more complex than what I usually play. I'm used to the more ant colony simulators like Banished or Aven Colony where it's more about building placement than resource management.
Surviving Mars is pretty fun so far. But it's way more complex than what I usually play. I'm used to the more ant colony simulators like Banished or Aven Colony where it's more about building placement than resource management.
IIRC, Surviving Mars was developed by the same people who do the Tropico games. As a result, there's a much stronger element of managing resources and matching people to the most suitable jobs than is typically the case for city-management games. Building placement is important, as well. Nothing is more frustrating than realizing that you placed the now-settled colony dome in such a way that an important mine is just outside of its range. But there's a much stronger focus on people.
Surviving Mars is pretty fun so far. But it's way more complex than what I usually play. I'm used to the more ant colony simulators like Banished or Aven Colony where it's more about building placement than resource management.
IIRC, Surviving Mars was developed by the same people who do the Tropico games. As a result, there's a much stronger element of managing resources and matching people to the most suitable jobs than is typically the case for city-management games. Building placement is important, as well. Nothing is more frustrating than realizing that you placed the now-settled colony dome in such a way that an important mine is just outside of its range. But there's a much stronger focus on people.
I'm loving it so far as a change of pace, but I'm for sure restricted to easy mode until I learn the ropes.
I’ve been playing Space Hulk Tactics, on XBox One. Went on sale for less than $15 CAD. (My “I want it, but not chomping at the bit” price point.)
Wow. I haven’t binged a game like that in a long time, and there’s a lot of content so far in the BA campaign. I believe I’m close to the end of it now. Tons of 40k flavour, Imperial factions at odds with each other (sort of). Orks and Aeldari are included in the flavour, as parts of the hulk are crashed Ork and Aeldari ships. Hints of warp dabbling in an arc related to the Librarian.
The controls are kind of clunky, and I can’t count the number of times I’ve accidentally ended a turn and lost the mission because of that. I don’t know why, but I keep wanting the “turn over” button to bring up squad data. I think it’s because most skirmish games I’ve played have that. Not to mention, most have a “are you sure you’re done your turn?” Confirmation, not just, “Ok, you just started your turn and did absolutely nothing so far but you clicked *turn over* so the Genestealers are gonna gut you now. Hope you saved!”
Which is user error, but really the only thing that I’d *demand* be changed if given the opportunity.
If you have a chance to pick it up on the cheap, it’s an incredible value if you like squad based skirmish with a focus on board control.
Kind of want to get the physical board game now...
Eumerin wrote: Surviving Mars isn't an Epic exclusive. So no need to feel guilty about grabbing it if it's free.
I try not to feel too guilty. That said even I feel a bit guilty for wanting to play Phoenix Point. There's a couple interesting things about it but i'll wait till December when the game fully launches to maybe buy it.
While I don't like companies getting my info sometimes it's hard to thing my interests and what I do is of any relevance to a multi-national company. I mean maybe for buying stuff but it's weird to me a company would care so much. It's like an oppressive system meets a crazy stalker.
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As for games i'm playing it's still just Long War. Last game went farther than it ever has at that difficulty but it still failed. I think this game will fail too but i'm just not sure what i'm doing wrong. I think my gameplay choices are legit but the strategic/global map choices need work. That said everything in Long War is infinitely more complicated than vanilla xcom 2 or even WotC for that matter.
Mostly MHW, with a dribble of Minecraft or Diablo II in there.
I keep trying Torchlight II, but something in it is just missing that Diablo II charm, despite it having basically identical music.
Also, something keeps causing my gaming PC to freeze up. I thought it was fixed a week or two ago when I took it in to be checked on (the guy just re-seated the RAM and suddenly it's working again). I suspect Vermintide, 'cause I reinstalled it and suddenly it starts freezing again. It's annoying, though. I wanna smash guys in the face with a Flagellant Zealot!
finally completed FTL on hard with the Stealth C. hurrah for rng, might pop to the fancy dress shop tomorrow and buy myself a shiny crown (or pilfer one from Burger King)
As much as I love FTL, the RNG is just sometimes too unfair.
cheers, the unfairness of it is part of the appeal to me but a ship that starts with no shields or cloak was an uphill fight against the 'random'. (oh another enemy ship with beam weapons how lucky)
As much as I love FTL, the RNG is just sometimes too unfair.
As an xcom player you sometimes have to roll with the RNG. Yes it sucks but that's why you should have a back-up plan in case things go south during your current round. That or you prevent yourself from making massive bad mistakes with a small reward by trying to correct a minor one. One example is trying to kill one dude by flanking them only to discover another pod which then move around you and decrease your mission success rate and that specific soldier's survival rate by a lot.
Just about wrapped up Breakpoint at this stage, put in just over 80 hrs and played through all main story missions thus far. There's probably still side missions out there, not to mention the raids, but like hell am I going to do that with randos.
The raid hasn't unlocked yet for Breakpoint, BrookM.
Supposedly it's going to be doable as a solo thing, just easier as a group, like the Behemoth Defense Areas. And the AI teammates(Fury, Vassily, and Fixit) are still a "WIP" that are being worked on to let you do these Elite side missions and the raid.
I'm splitting my time between Breakpoint and Smite at the moment.
Got Dishonored 2 off Xbox Gamepass, enjoying it a lot so far. I think I played the first one on my PS3, seems like it was a while ago.
I'm trying to do a playthrough where I don't kill anybody. Successful so far except 1 chapter where I tried to hide a body near a balcony and he fell over the edge, and I didn't realize he died. And then anther time where someone blew up a thing of whale oil and killed himself and 2 other guards. And one of the boss types I killed before I found out there was a way to save her. So I'm in chapter 5 and I think there's been about 7 deaths total.
Never has a game made me think "What the feth am I playing" and made me want more.
I woke up naked after some weird internal dialogue and tried to get dressed. My character had a heart attack trying to retrieve his tie that is hanging from a ceiling fan, discovered that I apparently threw one of my shoes out of the window in the wild bender that precedes the game starting, tried to bang my next door neighbor, stole a dudes wallet, and discovered that I was in fact a cop. And I lost my badge in the aforementioned bender.
All in the first 3 minutes. I think this will be a wild ride.
Back onto FFXIV and had the rotten luck of immediately doing a big dungeon with two other groups where one of the groups did not do what they had to do to beat the boss (you either kill ads, get shrunk, get eaten and defeat the boss from within or chain the boss up). Massive waste of time that was.
BrookM wrote: Back onto FFXIV and had the rotten luck of immediately doing a big dungeon with two other groups where one of the groups did not do what they had to do to beat the boss (you either kill ads, get shrunk, get eaten and defeat the boss from within or chain the boss up). Massive waste of time that was.
The Cerberus fight?
That's a rough instance. People get stupidly overconfident because it's very old content. But the bosses in there are (as you're well aware, I'm sure) very mechanic-intensive.
BrookM wrote: Back onto FFXIV and had the rotten luck of immediately doing a big dungeon with two other groups where one of the groups did not do what they had to do to beat the boss (you either kill ads, get shrunk, get eaten and defeat the boss from within or chain the boss up). Massive waste of time that was.
The Cerberus fight?
That's a rough instance. People get stupidly overconfident because it's very old content. But the bosses in there are (as you're well aware, I'm sure) very mechanic-intensive.
That's the one. Group B was not doing its job, despite nobody being a new player* and after two attempts we called it quits on that one, even after we split our group up to help out with B.
* Well, I was the newest player present but thankfully part of a five stack, so got shouted at about what to do and when to die (I'm a Dragoon).
As you play further into the game, you'll continue to see raid bosses that have punishing mechanics, and that wipe raids that just try and out-dps the mechanics instead of playing by the rules. But my recollection is that none of the 24-man raids have as many bosses like that in a single raid instance as the World of Darkness raid. There's a reason why I groan a bit whenever it comes up during a raid roulette. ^^;;
And, of course, speaking of 24-man raids, the first one for the new expansion is scheduled to arrive next week. The raid is a cross-over with Nier: Automata, and I'm curious to see what they'll do with it.
Likewise, having an absolutely brilliant time with it. The fact it feels both refreshingly original and instantly familiar is wonderful for being able to just dive headlong into it rather than having to struggle with new mechanics and controls (though, admittedly, I may have jammed then inhaler into my face a few times while trying to go into slo-mo because I'm so used to VATS being on the left bumper! ) The game looks stunning at times, the gunplay is solid and the writing superb.
Did hit one major bug that I think has locked me out of picking up the last companion character, but oh well, an excuse to do another playthrough at some point to see their content! Other than that, so far it's been very stable, which is nice.
Finally picked up Battletech and oh-my what I have been missing.Initially put off by the difficulty spike I hit not too far into the campaign but after getting my rear kicked a few times, rethought things on a couple missions, went back with new mech builds and tactics and pulled out great victories. Extremely satisfying that was - some of the best gaming I have had in ages.
Anyone play Pathfinder Kingmaker Enhanced? Just curious if it is worth diving into now a year plus on from release. The reviews and things I heard back at release really put me off but hoping maybe the game has been brought up to a good place now?
petrov27 wrote: Finally picked up Battletech and oh-my what I have been missing.Initially put off by the difficulty spike I hit not too far into the campaign but after getting my rear kicked a few times, rethought things on a couple missions, went back with new mech builds and tactics and pulled out great victories. Extremely satisfying that was - some of the best gaming I have had in ages.
Anyone play Pathfinder Kingmaker Enhanced? Just curious if it is worth diving into now a year plus on from release. The reviews and things I heard back at release really put me off but hoping maybe the game has been brought up to a good place now?
I have. Bug-wise, its in a good place.
Game-wise, it depends what you're looking for. It is a _long_ game. Mostly because it egregiously wastes your time with the kingdom management stuff. Story and interactions (which you'd think would be center stage in an RPG) are secondary small concerns- you don't interact with companions much, and largely only when their story arcs trigger (which happen over the course of several years of game time, most of which you'll just be passing so the next event will trigger)
Rules-wise, its very faithful to the pathfinder rules*, so much so that if you're not familiar with the system mastery involved, it is a struggle. The only major deviation from the ruleset is that the developers buffed the monsters and made the difficulty settings very opaque (the closest to the pathfinder-by-the-book monsters is normal difficulty and 'somewhat easier,' and even then any named monsters or templated monsters (of which there are a lot) are buffed a lot).
*well, except its real time, and they made sneak attack much easier to do
So if you're looking for a rules heavy long game of rpg combat and 'kingdom management (by which I mean you have a bunch of problem cards that are resolved by rolling d20+ a stat bonus + kindom bonus, and losing quite a few of those checks brings you to a 'failed' end game state), then yeah, it can be fun. But the main campaign is 100+ hours, and very much on rails, and the end sequence is probably one of the worst experiences I've ever had in an RPG.
I enjoyed it. Had no bugs at all, which shocked me, given obsidian (especially how lousy with bugs PoE2 was- that game actually broke down for me, with defeated enemies becoming untouchable rather than dying).
Good gunplay, liked the skill system overall (though the combat and companion skills felt a little useless compared to social, lockpick, hacking and the science/medical/engineering skills)
Perks were a little weak, and the flaws seemed untenable to trade a real weakness for a weak perk.
Graphics were... mixed. The style was fine, but the colors and layout got to me at times.
The journal system definitely needed work. It saved logs of journals and notes, but they weren't organized in a useful way or searchable, and there were lots of callbacks to information you found earlier.
Overall liked the story, though thought it could use a little more nuance than 'evil bastions of evil evilness' and 'people are stupid, haha, laugh'
But the major plot touched on a real problem of colonization that's often overlooked by sci-fi. Though oddly, it didn't look at real solutions to that problem, or address that the problems would also occur in the
Spoiler:
large numbers of earth animals they were using for food, particularly the cows and pigs, which would have worse reactions to the nutrient problems.
It also felt a little odd, since a lot of the science was fantastical/ old-timey views of the future (like fallout), so a realistic science problem felt a little out of sync with the setting.
Companions were... interestingly. I liked the ones I took, but skipped two because they seemed like self-interested jerks. I would've liked more interaction with ones I did have.
The 'last' companion seemed unfinished, like it was supposed to be a reference to past characters in other games, but was just a minor sidequest. Or maybe that was the joke?
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Still, overall a good solid little RPG.
We'll have to see if it becomes a franchise. They left plot hooks, but early talk was it was a stand-alone before they fully transitioned to becoming a Microsoft brand studio.
I'm playing the Outer Worlds too, really enjoying it. I'm taking my time and exploring a lot, doing all the side quests I can find. Right now I'm up to the point where you have to go to Byzantium and I did all of the planet side quests along the way so I'm in no rush.
For the first time I'm feeling like I need to crank up the difficulty. Combat overall just seems way easy to me, I just have it on the normal setting. Got myself a modded hunting rifle and I mostly just sneak, hit the time button, boom headshot, turn off time button. Rinse Repeat. Unless it's a big encounter my companions rarely get to fight at all.
It's on sale on Steam, daily deal or something, plus there was a coupon for it in my Steam inventory, so it cost almost next to nothing.
And a pretty fun game to boot.
Eumerin wrote: As you play further into the game, you'll continue to see raid bosses that have punishing mechanics, and that wipe raids that just try and out-dps the mechanics instead of playing by the rules. But my recollection is that none of the 24-man raids have as many bosses like that in a single raid instance as the World of Darkness raid. There's a reason why I groan a bit whenever it comes up during a raid roulette. ^^;;
And, of course, speaking of 24-man raids, the first one for the new expansion is scheduled to arrive next week. The raid is a cross-over with Nier: Automata, and I'm curious to see what they'll do with it.
As much as I look forward to the Nier stuff, I am still woefully underlevelled, ditto with my gear. So by the time I can finally do that one it'll be two or so years from now.
Necros wrote: I'm playing the Outer Worlds too, really enjoying it. I'm taking my time and exploring a lot, doing all the side quests I can find. Right now I'm up to the point where you have to go to Byzantium and I did all of the planet side quests along the way so I'm in no rush.
For the first time I'm feeling like I need to crank up the difficulty. Combat overall just seems way easy to me, I just have it on the normal setting. Got myself a modded hunting rifle and I mostly just sneak, hit the time button, boom headshot, turn off time button. Rinse Repeat. Unless it's a big encounter my companions rarely get to fight at all.
Combat is easy, definitely. I died exactly once... because I thought the elevator was up when it was down, and got squashed. Most encounters didn't appreciably reduce my health bar.
Sneaking and sniping seemed unnecessary- plasma all the way, except for bugs, who are better crumped and staggered by lead via assault rifle.
Though n-rays are good too. The 'science' weapons were largely disappointing.
It does seem fairly easy on Normal, outside of a few boss fights, even without sneak. An Assault Rifle Ultra with a plasma conversion and the various TTD perks makes short work of most things I'm coming across, and unlike Fallout, Ammo rarely seems to be an issue outside of the first areas. It seems balanced, and the various weapon types do all seem to perform equally well, but enemies are maybe a little bit flimsy.
That said, I definitely want to try a run on the Survival mode, which seems like it might be a bit more demanding, if it makes combat altogether more lethal both ways a la FO4's one rather than just making enemies ridiculous bullet sponges. The companion permadeath should be a genuine challenge for any non sneak builds at the very least.
More Long War mod for xcom 2 and oddly I think I might win this one or at least get insanely close. Avatar progress keeps getting sabotaged and once I get the shadow chamber and some better weapons then this game should actually be pretty solid. Most of the world is contacted except 3 areas and one of those 3 is in the middle of being contacted. I'm in the middle of sabotaging an alien facility and the next region i'm contacting also has an alien facility to sabotage. Some of my weapons are getting fairly obsolete though so I've gotta get more resources as well.
Anyway things are getting interesting so hopefully I win. A ufo is on my ass right now though and this is one that you have to fight due to story progress sadly. For that reason I've been holding back a squad. Anyway that's all I've got for now.
Necros wrote: I'm playing the Outer Worlds too, really enjoying it. I'm taking my time and exploring a lot, doing all the side quests I can find. Right now I'm up to the point where you have to go to Byzantium and I did all of the planet side quests along the way so I'm in no rush.
For the first time I'm feeling like I need to crank up the difficulty. Combat overall just seems way easy to me, I just have it on the normal setting. Got myself a modded hunting rifle and I mostly just sneak, hit the time button, boom headshot, turn off time button. Rinse Repeat. Unless it's a big encounter my companions rarely get to fight at all.
Sounds like the stealth bow build in skyrim. That build was so hilarious and stupid OP for stealth players. Very fun even if you had to always crouch thus making the game take infinitely longer. Shame they didn't make backstab builds more viable.
Sounds like the stealth bow build in skyrim. That build was so hilarious and stupid OP for stealth players. Very fun even if you had to always crouch thus making the game take infinitely longer. Shame they didn't make backstab builds more viable.
Wait, backstab builds in Skyrim were broken as well. High damage dagger with some enchantments for more damage, poison(preferably paralysis and lingering health damage/damage health), x15 backstab damage perk, dark brotherhood gloves to bring it up to x30, invisibility potions/spells/powers
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which is so Lovecraftian and awesome it isn't funny. Combat sucks, though and that whole games thing when you're in close confines (which is almost always) when you're trying to slash a sword it bounces off the walls constantly which can get frustrating. Love it, though.
Ah. I have everything installed tag as a 'favorite' which is a bit absurd, but helped organize things under the old system. Sticking them in a 'collection' might work too. There is an option to hide everything else (its inexplicably a play button one button removed from the games drop-down menu)
The first part of rhe 24-man YorHA raid dropped on Tuesday in FFXIV, and I ran it last night. I only played the demo of Neier, so I can't say much about it aside from the scenery and enemies looking appropriate. Got the gloves for my Machinest to drop on my second run, so that's my drop for the week.
Clearing the raid also drops a 9S card (which I got), a 2B costume pack, and a couple of pieces of music.
And something new happened after I finished my first run. The (empty) zone was unlocked, and I was sent back where I could look for lore logs to pick up.
Adrassil wrote: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which is so Lovecraftian and awesome it isn't funny. Combat sucks, though and that whole games thing when you're in close confines (which is almost always) when you're trying to slash a sword it bounces off the walls constantly which can get frustrating. Love it, though.
That's a blast from the past. Scariest game I ever played with a good story too. You playing on N64 or did they rerelease it?
Adrassil wrote: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which is so Lovecraftian and awesome it isn't funny. Combat sucks, though and that whole games thing when you're in close confines (which is almost always) when you're trying to slash a sword it bounces off the walls constantly which can get frustrating. Love it, though.
That's a blast from the past. Scariest game I ever played with a good story too. You playing on N64 or did they rerelease it?
Do you mean Game Cube? Nah, wish I'd got it as a teenager but in those days I was ignorant of the awesomeness which is Lovecraft and Lovecraftian Horror. Shamed to admit I'm playing it on an emulator :(
Have you played through the different endings?
Finished the outer worlds the other night with a mostly happy ending. Kinda felt like the game should have lasted longer. There were also I think 3 planets in my star map that were always grayed out and I could never visit them. Don't know if I missed a side quest to pick them up? Or maybe there is something planned for a DLC? I don't know if I'd wanna do another play through though to find out, RPGs are usually boring for me the 2nd time around.
Necros wrote: Finished the outer worlds the other night with a mostly happy ending. Kinda felt like the game should have lasted longer. There were also I think 3 planets in my star map that were always grayed out and I could never visit them. Don't know if I missed a side quest to pick them up? Or maybe there is something planned for a DLC? I don't know if I'd wanna do another play through though to find out, RPGs are usually boring for me the 2nd time around.
OW was planned as a transition title without DLC. But the 'greyed out' worlds are notably gas giants, so there isn't much to land on. Also compare to the.. final planet, which spent most of the game with a lock icon on it.
Adrassil wrote: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which is so Lovecraftian and awesome it isn't funny. Combat sucks, though and that whole games thing when you're in close confines (which is almost always) when you're trying to slash a sword it bounces off the walls constantly which can get frustrating. Love it, though.
That's a blast from the past. Scariest game I ever played with a good story too. You playing on N64 or did they rerelease it?
Do you mean Game Cube? Nah, wish I'd got it as a teenager but in those days I was ignorant of the awesomeness which is Lovecraft and Lovecraftian Horror. Shamed to admit I'm playing it on an emulator :(
Have you played through the different endings?
Doing Outer Worlds atm, it's really good, though with one nitpick.
I read all the stuff about the game purposefully avoiding either Capitalism Good or Capitalism Bad, and how stuff would be nuanced, no real good vs evil just folk making choices etc etc. So I decided to do my first run as a proper revolutionary, willing to do distasteful things for The Cause and so forth, and that kinda works there have been opportunities to RP that way.
But there's no companion who really fits that approach. The one guy who does lean firmly anti-corp is also a whingy, noncommittal little gimp who chucks a hissy if you try and stick to the "hard times require hard choices" approach, and doesn't seem to have any kind of actual ideological bent of his own beyond "authority is bad, mostly" and "but, like, don't be a meanie about it".
Honestly once I got the two good ones I've never even bothered to talk to the priest, the pirate-doctor, the aforementioned whinger, or the robot again, let alone had them tag along. They're just kinda meh.
More than made up for by Nyoka and Parvati though, especially the latter - I usually find the "adorkably naive" archetype pretty irritating, but Parvati is just fun. I think it helps that her "romance subplot" is more about you playing Cyrano than the usual "tick boxes to make NPC say they love you now" affair.
Yup. Think there's a secret one if you play a fourth time if you choose all three gods with Pious Augustus.
They're not really any different. I think the secret ending triggers on the third playthrough, but its been ages.
Base Ending:
Spoiler:
You summon a dark god to eat the dark god Pious chose in the opening, Pokemon style. The only real difference here is the color of the god summoned and eaten
Secret Ending:
Spoiler:
Across multiple realities, Pious has summoned a dark god, but in each reality you've summoned the dark god that preys upon it. Because the gods exist outside of reality A eats B, B eats C, and C eats A, effectively killing all 3 of them.
BrookM wrote: Finally onto Heavensward with Final Fantasy. Only took 100 filler quests and more than an hour of back to back cutscenes to finally get there..
But at long last, new content and the machinist class.
Machinest in the new expansion is a lot of fun. If played well, it's one of the highest dps jobs. And unlike Black Mage, the highest dps job, it's also very mobile.
I switched over to it after they wrecked my previous main, Astrologian, and have been having a lot of fun with it.
Yup. Think there's a secret one if you play a fourth time if you choose all three gods with Pious Augustus.
They're not really any different. I think the secret ending triggers on the third playthrough, but its been ages.
Base Ending:
Spoiler:
You summon a dark god to eat the dark god Pious chose in the opening, Pokemon style. The only real difference here is the color of the god summoned and eaten
Secret Ending:
Spoiler:
Across multiple realities, Pious has summoned a dark god, but in each reality you've summoned the dark god that preys upon it. Because the gods exist outside of reality A eats B, B eats C, and C eats A, effectively killing all 3 of them.
Agh! Although I've already watched a Let's Play I'm not touching those spoilers lol
BrookM wrote: Finally onto Heavensward with Final Fantasy. Only took 100 filler quests and more than an hour of back to back cutscenes to finally get there..
But at long last, new content and the machinist class.
Machinest in the new expansion is a lot of fun. If played well, it's one of the highest dps jobs. And unlike Black Mage, the highest dps job, it's also very mobile.
I switched over to it after they wrecked my previous main, Astrologian, and have been having a lot of fun with it.
Same! Doing leves right now to get some levels going, but already liking the class a lot so far. I think this may replace my Dragoon class if future skills are as flashy and useful.
Started Luigi's Mansion 3 last night. Such a wonderful little series and so far the latest feels like a good marriage of the atmosphere of the first with the gameplay of the second. Not very far along but I'm liking it so far.
I am currently about to beat the final boss of Pikmin 2 for the first time ever. Had to pause the game and turn of the tv with the gamecube running while I went to work just like I used to before I went to school 15 years ago when the game first came out. lol. My wife thought that was hilarious.
NeverwinterNights 2 on a Persistent World (Baulder's Gate:Sword Coast Chronicles).
I get to do a lot of RP there. My first character regaled a passing friendly elf from Amn about he was almost just eaten by a *puddle*. The elf replied simply that "We call those Oozes". I knew that, my character didn't. So my character learned.
My druid argued with the party about whether to "raid" some creatures' "home". The party did, and my druid was very unhappy about that. Some great RP experiences, everyone enjoyed that!
And my "Tonivan" has only been accused of being a warlock once. But successfully convinced the accuser that he was no warlock - he just new a lot about magic and magical items. So he's doing what he can for people, while hiding the fact that he's made deals with devils.
It's not as good as an actual in-person tabletop D&D campaign, certainly. But it's the next best thing I've ever experienced. Best RP I've ever had in a game. And I really feel the investment and development of my characters.
Played WoW Classic but didn't pay subscription last time. Got Pre-raid gear already but I have no time for raiding. And there is no PvP right now. Nothing to do in this game.
I've been enjoying the career mode of the HBS Battletech game. It is much improved from the last time I played it a year ago! I'm looking for the expansions to go on sale now.
Also- picked up all the DLC for Darkest Dungeon (which is 50% on steam for another few hours), and I'm about to begin a full run on it.
Still playing the Socialist Utopia simulator (Workers and Resources: Soviet Republic)
I built a new city of Kirov, oil refinery and two-track railway connecting the city of Wirau, Traktorsk, Kirov, and customs house to transport workers and export fuel.
I'm currently building a steel mill, and the next scheduled 5-year plan is to build farms and food processing.
Started up a new game of Total War Three Kingdoms the other day. I spotted someone I wanted to attack camped out on his pig farm, and moved my army so that I could attack him the following turn. Surprisingly, he then rushed out to attack me, even though I had twice as many men in my army.
And then I noticed his reinforcements. Apparently the pig farm garrison *by itself* had over a dozen units...
Currently eyeing the battletech season pass (finally) I refused initially since the first one offered little, and they didn't let anyone know what was in the later DLC, but the third one finally dropped today and the 'season pass' is currently a 'bundle' which is 45% off, (so $33 rather than $60).
Still not entirely convinced by the value of each DLC, but they have added a lot in total, and a few free updates that are worth patting them on the head for (including actual mod support)
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What I'm oddly in the mood for is a JRPG where I can grind and overlevel to a ridiculous degree and god-mode through the story. Waiting for the Steam sale to see if any of the existing ones hit the sale, though.
I tried a few games that were just added to xbox gamepass the last week or so, and so far all were misses for me. Glad I didn't have to pay full price
Rage 2 - was OK but the game got real repetitive real fast, made it to the final mission where you have to get into some tank and go assault the bad guy base, but there was a glitch making it where it won't give me that last quest. Looks like it's been happening for a while. So, I gave up.
Blair Witch - as soon as I got into the woods in the beginning, I got bored and almost fell asleep waiting for my dog to do stuff.
Darksiders 3 - Got to the first boss and got killed pretty quick, didn't really like the gameplay anyway, so I gave up.
Halo master chief collection - I started replaying the original remastered game and it was nostalgic at first, but compared to more modern shooters it's just not as fun as I remember it being.
I am once again playing the "WHY IS MY GAMING COMPUTER RANDOMLY FREEZING!!??" game. I thought I'd stopped playing it, since it hadn't happened for a good couple of weeks... But nope. Now I'm having trouble even getting it to start.
Soul Calibur 6 for the first time in ages got stuck on trying to defeat the last boss (Azwel is his name) of the campaign drove me insane dozens of tries, so fought him again and even though I used a mercenary I SLAUGHTERED him 3 rounds to his 0. Did they nerf him in one of the last updates? Lol
Decided to play through the first rebooted Tomb Raider series (Legend, Anniversary and Underworld) and start a new game on Stardew Valley after the massive content patch dropped not that long ago.
With all the DLC packs out, I've jumped back into BattleTech. It's amazing fun, with tons of stuff to do. I do fear that I'll eventually fall into the gameplay loop of just running really samey missions over and over again. But for now the new 'Mechs and upgrades are coming in thick and fast, so I'm good.
Of course I did just buy W40K: Gladius in the Steam sale... hmm...
Finished Luigi's Mansion 3 over the holiday. Really fun little game, even if the slam attack makes a few too many of the ghost encounters a little trivial.
Was playing DOW2 for the first time (Verdict: Excellent game, but DOW1 scratches the RTS itch perfectly for me for Sci Fi).
But then the sales game and I got derailed. Picked up Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (how many names does a game need?) for my switch and am putting the work into getting into it. I liked the first boss fight, but I have to say I hope the number of tedious fetch quests declines as you get into it, because so far there are only those sorts of quests and no further monsters.
Picked up a few things for PC as well, Warhammer 2, Battlefleet Gothic and RE2, as well as No Man's Sky, since I heard it is a lot better now. Enjoying it - I think it is my speed at the moment.
Just beat Subnautica and trying out Below Zero next week. LOVED LOVED LOVED everything Subnautica made me feel. I was scared, terrified, hesitant, incapable of making even the slightest dangerous trip, because I might loose something I worked so hard to make.
It's like playing Diablo 2 on Hardcore. Loved it. Loved the story, and the cameos by Doraleous and associates.
Witcher 3. Unlike my first two tries at it, I'm actually getting into it, though some of that is ignoring the main characters as much as possible (though Geralt makes that difficult).
Definitely needs a better inventory/sale system though.
Adrassil wrote: Soul Calibur 6 for the first time in ages got stuck on trying to defeat the last boss (Azwel is his name) of the campaign drove me insane dozens of tries, so fought him again and even though I used a mercenary I SLAUGHTERED him 3 rounds to his 0. Did they nerf him in one of the last updates? Lol
I take it you've not fought the weapon master secret bosses (inferno, etc) ?
If you ever feel like hating the game forever, the only way I found to beat that was was seigfriend, backing away sideways for the whole fight and throwing out the occasional drop-kick. Hate bosses that can spam quick, unblockable instant death attacks.
Got beta keys for GTFO, been looking forward to this one for quite some time now, will be fun to have something cooperative again.
And also more Stardew Valley, managed to really get into things again, thundering through that community checklist like no tomorrow, not long now until I've got that greenhouse and I can really break the game.
Adrassil wrote: Soul Calibur 6 for the first time in ages got stuck on trying to defeat the last boss (Azwel is his name) of the campaign drove me insane dozens of tries, so fought him again and even though I used a mercenary I SLAUGHTERED him 3 rounds to his 0. Did they nerf him in one of the last updates? Lol
I take it you've not fought the weapon master secret bosses (inferno, etc) ?
If you ever feel like hating the game forever, the only way I found to beat that was was seigfriend, backing away sideways for the whole fight and throwing out the occasional drop-kick. Hate bosses that can spam quick, unblockable instant death attacks.
I think so, maybe? Or have the yet to appear on the map? The most annoying and had to defeat enemy for me was a side fight who was indestructible and the only way to defeat him was ringing him out, drove me up the wall trying to defeat him lol
Adrassil wrote: I think so, maybe? Or have the yet to appear on the map? The most annoying and had to defeat enemy for me was a side fight who was indestructible and the only way to defeat him was ringing him out, drove me up the wall trying to defeat him lol
If you get a weapon type to maximum level and go back to edge master he'll send you to fight a mini-boss. Do that for half the weapons in the game and you get to fight inferno.
There is another boss fight unlocked by mastering all the weapons in the game but the first one was enough for me. You are pretty much either abusing its AI or playing over and over until it randomly decides not to use it's unblockable auto-win move.
Currently playing/struggling through Breath of Fire 4, which so far has been far more fun than I remember it being. Will probably end up playing Breath of Fire 1, 2 and 3 again after I'm done with this one!
A.T. wrote: There is another boss fight unlocked by mastering all the weapons in the game but the first one was enough for me. You are pretty much either abusing its AI or playing over and over until it randomly decides not to use it's unblockable auto-win move.
Ah! So I haven't then. I've only defeated the master of Taki's and Mitsurugi's weapons, respectively. My save for the Taki's weapons got corrupted though so will have to do that again. Sounds like beating that'll be a bastard lol Thanks for the warning.
Trying to clock out Inquisitor Martyr on PS4. Single player done.
Game is a lot of fun but it’s hard now to find players online willing do play together
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Voss wrote: Witcher 3. Unlike my first two tries at it, I'm actually getting into it, though some of that is ignoring the main characters as much as possible (though Geralt makes that difficult).
Definitely needs a better inventory/sale system though.
Awesome game. Completed on PS4 when released. I heard they improved it a lot since then and the DLC’s been great as well
Blooddragon1981 wrote: Trying to clock out Inquisitor Martyr on PS4. Single player done.
Game is a lot of fun but it’s hard now to find players online willing do play together
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Voss wrote: Witcher 3. Unlike my first two tries at it, I'm actually getting into it, though some of that is ignoring the main characters as much as possible (though Geralt makes that difficult).
Definitely needs a better inventory/sale system though.
Awesome game. Completed on PS4 when released. I heard they improved it a lot since then and the DLC’s been great as well
I've got mixed feelings about it, to be honest. Parts are good, particularly the hunts and some of the story. Other parts... not so much.
Partly its the open world problem (much like Dragon Age: Inquisition), where you're presented an urgent, time critical quest, but they game really wants you to faff about picking flowers and deal with a bizarre array of secondary activities, some of which are actively trivial.
Some of it is the relentless grimdark. It fits the tone, sure, but there are time it desperately needs a break.
Some of its purely mechanical, like the inventory system, and the camera in small buildings (especially towers).
But overall, yeah, its pretty good. There are story moments that are pretty profound and significant.
I just hope Cyberpunk has a larger range of interaction and reactions in conversations. Geralt's limited range gets tedious.
---
Finally got to the end of the main game. Pretty good ending, except for the random and pointless interlude about punching out an ice age or whatever.
I actually stopped mid-cutscene to hunt the internet for a fething explanation for that nonsense.
Blooddragon1981 wrote: Trying to clock out Inquisitor Martyr on PS4. Single player done.
Game is a lot of fun but it’s hard now to find players online willing do play together
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Voss wrote: Witcher 3. Unlike my first two tries at it, I'm actually getting into it, though some of that is ignoring the main characters as much as possible (though Geralt makes that difficult).
Definitely needs a better inventory/sale system though.
Awesome game. Completed on PS4 when released. I heard they improved it a lot since then and the DLC’s been great as well
I've got mixed feelings about it, to be honest. Parts are good, particularly the hunts and some of the story. Other parts... not so much.
Partly its the open world problem (much like Dragon Age: Inquisition), where you're presented an urgent, time critical quest, but they game really wants you to faff about picking flowers and deal with a bizarre array of secondary activities, some of which are actively trivial.
Some of it is the relentless grimdark. It fits the tone, sure, but there are time it desperately needs a break.
Some of its purely mechanical, like the inventory system, and the camera in small buildings (especially towers).
But overall, yeah, its pretty good. There are story moments that are pretty profound and significant.
I just hope Cyberpunk has a larger range of interaction and reactions in conversations. Geralt's limited range gets tedious.
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Finally got to the end of the main game. Pretty good ending, except for the random and pointless interlude about punching out an ice age or whatever.
I actually stopped mid-cutscene to hunt the internet for a fething explanation for that nonsense.
Yeah you are right, parts of Witcher were too limited/simple but overall atmosphere, realm of the great series of books mapped, successfully moved to gaming screens was one of the best games that year.
Cyberpunk imo will be absolutely smashing, more free world, the world open and changing, same as the character you create. I cannot wait!
I did play Cyberpunk Role-Play for few years back in my teen-age years and it was an amazing time, the system, the climate and possibilities of developing your character. One of the best Role-Play systems imo. Next to Werewolf/Vampire Role-Play universe.
I'm looking forward to Cyberpunk, but as RPGsystems, both Cyberpunk and WW are mechanically terrible.
Cyberpunk tends to be a meatgrinder, with a much too long creation process for the death rate, and a skill system that does too little.
For the time it was made, some of its mechanical flaws can be forgiven (though that doesn't apply to WW), as it was it came out the 80s and people were still learning how to write effective RPG mechanics.
Most of the flaws shouldn't apply to the computer game, though. They seem to be borrowing atmosphere and tone, and not bothering with dice systems, just borrowing a few game terms for stats.
Steadily trying to play S.A.L.K.E.R. as I unfortunatly can't play much as of now. Plus I've got a copy of Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 on sale and can't wait to give it a spin.
Voss wrote: I'm looking forward to Cyberpunk, but as RPGsystems, both Cyberpunk and WW are mechanically terrible.
Cyberpunk tends to be a meatgrinder, with a much too long creation process for the death rate, and a skill system that does too little.
For the time it was made, some of its mechanical flaws can be forgiven (though that doesn't apply to WW), as it was it came out the 80s and people were still learning how to write effective RPG mechanics.
Most of the flaws shouldn't apply to the computer game, though. They seem to be borrowing atmosphere and tone, and not bothering with dice systems, just borrowing a few game terms for stats.
You might be right. I was doing loads of Role-play back in the teenage years and loved it. Most systems were good but what I do remember is that the most fun were the actual 'Story-telling' ones with minimum dice rolls required. Such as Vampire/Werewolf for example. We had a brilliant 'game-master' who preferred using imagination and fantasy instead dice so even Cyberpunk (heavily based on stats and dice rolin) was most enjoyable. Our characters tend to survive bit longer then
Anyway back to the topic. I personally think Cyberpunk is going to smash it. It will be brought out to the next gen consoles, so obviously graphics but also the amount of content, game size etc and already looking at the pics/videos you can tell it will have the right climate and feel to the original RPG system.
BrookM wrote: Into my second year of Stardew Valley, finally got the cellar, so time to start making some money at long last.
GTFO came out late last night as well, so hoping to get some expeditions in with that soon.
My daughter is on Stardew.
She got a full upgraded house and two kids already.
Game opens up when after you start making some serious cash
No kids yet, but there is one on the way.
And agreed, once you get good sprinklers and the rather convenient cash cow that is the greenhouse with a few fruit trees and loads of cranberry bushes, you're set to start raking in cash and start work on the more tedious aspects, like fishing. I hate fishing in this game.
I cannot for the life of me, get into Stardew. Normally I'm all for clicky time wasters, but the sudden ice bucket of fifty different open ended (but still timed) quests, with no clear direction, makes it incredibly hard to stay interested in.
Also, I tried looking online and it seems like the game will end very badly unless you do a perfect run from the start, so my first game of 6 hours was a wash. Am I missing something or do I not have to complete everything, talk to everyone, and do everything before nightfall?
The ending has been retooled and mellowed out a bit due to user feedback, it is less harsh now. Plus, you can shove a (IIRC) diamond into the tomb stone at any later date and have him reevaluate your life again, so not all is lost straight away. Which is for the best, as the only way I'm getting fish is through Krobus and the travelling cart, as I personally still really, really hate the fishing minigame and I do want to get the community centre done at some point, so I can replace the trailer with an actual house.
I don't pay that much attention to aircraft, but I'm finding my most enjoyment in the BR 4.7-5.3 range. Bought a couple premium American vehicles in that grouping to help grind out RP/Lions. Almost have a full 7.0 American line up now as well.
I do have a couple beefs with the game, I don't like the prevalence of prototype tanks all over the place, and how they can seem to dominate. They never went beyond prototype stages for a reason, and it's cause they weren't good.
Eagerly awaiting my DL of MW5 to complete. Broke my rule, finally bought something from epic. But, having watched close friends stream the game for several hours this week, I knew I couldn't pass it up.
Togusa wrote: Eagerly awaiting my DL of MW5 to complete. Broke my rule, finally bought something from epic. But, having watched close friends stream the game for several hours this week, I knew I couldn't pass it up.
My wife bought it this morning. It's always been her favorite game series.
Togusa wrote: Eagerly awaiting my DL of MW5 to complete. Broke my rule, finally bought something from epic. But, having watched close friends stream the game for several hours this week, I knew I couldn't pass it up.
My wife bought it this morning. It's always been her favorite game series.
It's been 20 years since their last Single Player game. I'm counting down the hours until work is over and I can go play.
Been playing Talisman: The Horus Heresy, downloaded it on a whim after rage quitting it months back due to the dice rolls being FAR too in favour toward the NPC enemies. But now it seems the rolls are much more balanced and I got to beat the ever-loving crap out of Erebus, fun times.
I got Black Desert Online for my xbox game pass and was playing that this weekend. Seems pretty cool so far, but there's a lot of stuff that I have no idea how it works or what it's for, and there weren't really any kind of noob tutorials like other MMOs have, so I'm mostly just running to where the quests are and killing stuff.
Playing as Followers of Nagash in Warhams 2, Mortal Empires campaign.
My main priority is working my way over to the new Nagashizzar settlement, as it seems appropriate. About 2/3rds way there. Will be pretty upset if there isn't a badass unique building that gives some bonuses.
nels1031 wrote: Playing as Followers of Nagash in Warhams 2, Mortal Empires campaign.
My main priority is working my way over to the new Nagashizzar settlement, as it seems appropriate. About 2/3rds way there. Will be pretty upset if there isn't a badass unique building that gives some bonuses.
I saw a video by Indypride I belive a week or so ago, where he went over the new provinses. There is indeed a building waiting for you there
www.youtube.com/channel/UCID5aKswrcyFjLgDh4kRXYA
I bought Amid Evil on the Steam Sale, and I am already sad. I am not that good on the best of days at shooters, and Amid Evil doesn't come close to holding my hand. It's fun at first, but the difficulty goes way up fast, and I was not prepared. I need to keep trying to get better.
The other minor gripe is, while the game looks beautiful, it's obviously meant to be played on a giant monitor, or a double monitor, because the UI is autoset to such a small degree, the already hard to read font is just impossible at a quick glance. I need to stop and focus on it. Which is hard in a strafe-shootemup.
I've been hunting Doom WADs lately, and found a good number of them. It would seem Doomworld isn't the only place to find WADs, and there is a whole other site that's been around for a while.
It's kind of cool when you think about it. Doom/Doom 2 are already decently-sized games, but a good WAD can easily have just as many maps. These aren't including the mods that outright change the weapons and gameplay. It's like finding a few decades' worth of free games.
I hope Quake or the build engine games have something similar.
Sales everywhere, so went and got some Inquisitor Martyr stuff, along with Warhammer Chaosbane, which is a decent enough Diablo clone. May pick up Inquisitor - Prophecy as well, but we'll see.
Also decided to give NieR:Automata another go, decided to start a new game, as it's been ages since I last played it.
Still playing NMS. I would say I definitely got my moneys worth from the game. I find myself really enjoying merely cataloguing things rather than shooting them as a game mechanic, it is much more mellow and much more what I would want to do as a space explorer.
It also makes the times you have to deal with hostility much more scary for their rarity. I was swimming around on a mostly oceanic planet, and saw something interesting underwater. I grabbed it, only to be attacked by a gigantic anglerfish monster. The thing was near invincible and pursued me relentlessly. All of the islands were sheer sided pillars rising out of the world ocean, and jetpacking onto the top of them was impossible. Some seriously scary stuff!
Some parts of the game are annoying, like how slow it is to get new inventory slots and how much inventory management is required in the game but it does let me inhabit the fantasy of being a space faring explorer-scientist pretty well.
BrookM wrote: Sales everywhere, so went and got some Inquisitor Martyr stuff, along with Warhammer Chaosbane, which is a decent enough Diablo clone. May pick up Inquisitor - Prophecy as well, but we'll see.
Also decided to give NieR:Automata another go, decided to start a new game, as it's been ages since I last played it.
You got Chaosbane? Been looking into that one myself. If you’ll pardon a question, how good would you say the loot and character customization (eg. stats) are?
I had a look at Chaosbane at EGX Rezzed earlier this year, and thought it to be so far towards Diablo-clone that it wasn't really worth bothering with. Thought I could do without paying that much for what felt essentially like a lightly WHFB-flavoured reskin.
I'll be glad to hear if it's actually unique enough to grab at a sale price.
Chaosbane is best bought at a steep discount, as it's a Diablo clone, but not a good one. I mean, it's a stable game and it does what it needs to do decently. Controls are a bit wonky, your only healing is a slowly recharging health potion and the skills use a point-based system, so whenever you get a new skill, a better skill or a passive ability, they cost a certain amount of points and you'll need to drop other things to get it onto your toolbar / active slots. You get more points as you level up, but not never enough. Though to be fair, so far a lot of the skills feel.. useless? Been playing as Wood Elf so far, so YMMV, but even if a skill gets better the output in damage is not that great.
As for the loot.. there's a lot of it, but mostly useless vendor trash, as with most other games of this type. So far though, no store found where I can sell drops or buy new stuff. Instead there's a "collector" you can dump your crap at for rewards, which is money. So, kinda curious what I can spend all the money on I've been hoarding for a while now.
fake edit.
Gold is used to buy some skills and to instantly revive if you die during a dungeon.
I tend to play a game in bursts of an hour or so, then take a break and do something else.
