nels1031 wrote: Finished a playthrough of Expedition: Rome. Went with a fairly benevolent Roman Republic loyalist throughout all of the story choices. Overall was alot of fun with a decent enough alt-history story (Julius Caesar dies early on) and was paced well enough that it didn't feel grindy.
Probably won't do another playthrough too soon, despite enjoying the campaign as I'm just not up to the time investment, but next time I'm going to will myself to go as full power hungry villain as I can be and try to take over Rome.
This all sounds tempting indeed......now that i have finished my Throg Campaign in Total War Warhammer - which was a long old slogg
nels1031 wrote: Finished a playthrough of Expedition: Rome. Went with a fairly benevolent Roman Republic loyalist throughout all of the story choices. Overall was alot of fun with a decent enough alt-history story (Julius Caesar dies early on) and was paced well enough that it didn't feel grindy.
Probably won't do another playthrough too soon, despite enjoying the campaign as I'm just not up to the time investment, but next time I'm going to will myself to go as full power hungry villain as I can be and try to take over Rome.
This all sounds tempting indeed......now that i have finished my Throg Campaign in Total War Warhammer - which was a long old slogg
Keep in mind, while the stakes are big, its not a big sweeping campaign like TW: Warhams. Its closer to a non-magical Divinity: Original Sin 1/2 at its roots. There is a grand battle part of the game, but its really a numbers game and all you really do is choose 3 options at 3 intervals and that determines victory/defeat and how much loot you get at the end.
Outside of that, its a solid squad turn-based historical RPG.
Discovered a few days ago Disciples: Liberation in a store. Bought it spontaneously as I played Disciples 2 a lot twenty years ago. Great game and a big improvement to Disciples 2!
Started on Expeditions: Rome, got a good laugh at the loading screen tip about having no time limit for an expansive game that has exploration in it, and how slapping a time limit to it all is a terrible design
Started playing Tom Clancy's End War since it's on sale for 3 USD during the current steam sale. It's not bad but in almost every case i'd prefer a point and click RTS vs a voice activated one now that i've started playing it. Don't get me wrong it can be nice since originally it was a good option for consoles, it's also kinda fun but i can't imagine this game being good for a crap ton of units all at once on a screen. So far i have to control 4-6 and it can be a bit frustrating. It's a bit fun but i feel like so many point and click RTS does it better esp. when you want a unit to go to a specific area or to deploy into a building or to deploy behind cover.
Also in some ways i think Act of War or Act of Aggression have a similar enough premise and aesthetic to interest a person more than End War.
Underrail the Expedition DLC. Regretting making a melee/unarmed build for fighting on the jet ski so decided to get my throwing better. Was pretty good as my character also used grenades and throwing knives quite a lot, but need more consistency. It's been a while since I last played it got frustrated after trying to kill some robots that just kept killing me over and over like a year or so ago. Great game...especially if you're a masochist like me lol
SpongeBob Battle For Bikini Bottom Rehydrated.
A remake of an old PS2 licensed game.
Really fun and really good, has alot of the old songebob humor and jokes and got alot of laughs out of me.
Being a game for children it's easy but there was enough platform challenges and such to make it worth it.
If you loved those cartoon mascot platform collectathons you will like this.
Got back inte Valheim. I was tired after work one day and fired it up. Man it’s such an enjoyable experience. I’ve beaten the game and I’m now just messing about in the base, finishing projects and such. I also took a trip to the most southern corner of the map. There’s a whole unfinished biome there! So I’ve been messing around there for a bit. I think my next project will be to take some lox and bring them to my base. No idea how to bring them but I’ll finish something out. I wonder if I can put them on a boat or a raft maybe.
Bobthehero wrote: Started on Expeditions: Rome, got a good laugh at the loading screen tip about having no time limit for an expansive game that has exploration in it, and how slapping a time limit to it all is a terrible design
Ya, I appreciated that dig at themselves, given the time constraint that Expedition: Viking had.
At first I thought rations might be an issue, a sort of unofficial time limit, but then I started sending my Legion to those hunting camps and that was the end of that.
In my current solo campaign i'm played Brit Land and had to fall back from france in june 1940 or so. A lot of my regiments got trapped in france and surrendered or died. It was kinda bs. I think i'm ok.
Italy is getting hit pretty hard by me in the african colonies and Free France is still helping me but Vichy France is another enemy i really didn't need right now. I'm not sure where Vichy France ranks in power but probably not so much considering they're a weaker version of previous France. Still it's an extra enemy i really didn't need to deal with right now.
Aside from all that i think my naval supremacy went into the crapper so i may need to build some coastal forts or really focus on navy soon. Also fighter, heavy fighters and naval bomber spam should be helpful.
flamingkillamajig wrote: In my current solo campaign i'm played Brit Land and had to fall back from france in june 1940 or so. A lot of my regiments got trapped in france and surrendered or died. It was kinda bs. I think i'm ok.
So kind of like what happened historically.
Yes, historically most of the British troops got out. But there was at least one British division that was forced to surrender, iirc. They spent almost five years as PoWs in Germany - longer than anyone else.
They have my sympathies.
Italy is getting hit pretty hard by me in the african colonies and Free France is still helping me but Vichy France is another enemy i really didn't need right now. I'm not sure where Vichy France ranks in power but probably not so much considering they're a weaker version of previous France. Still it's an extra enemy i really didn't need to deal with right now.
Vichy France is technically part of the Axis, but generally stays peaceful unless you specifically antagonize them. Historically, this actually did happen (a joint British and Free French army attacked Syria, which was under Vichy control). But there's no reason to do so in the game - especially since, unlike what happened historically, fighting Vichy in Syria will likely cause them to become an active participant in the war..
The Italian navy's a real pain (something I've learned while playing as Greece, and having to position troops to defend against naval landings). But you can beat it with effort. And so long as you control both Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, the Italians can't break out of the Med.
flamingkillamajig wrote: In my current solo campaign i'm played Brit Land and had to fall back from france in june 1940 or so. A lot of my regiments got trapped in france and surrendered or died. It was kinda bs. I think i'm ok.
Italy is getting hit pretty hard by me in the african colonies and Free France is still helping me but Vichy France is another enemy i really didn't need right now. I'm not sure where Vichy France ranks in power but probably not so much considering they're a weaker version of previous France. Still it's an extra enemy i really didn't need to deal with right now.
Aside from all that i think my naval supremacy went into the crapper so i may need to build some coastal forts or really focus on navy soon. Also fighter, heavy fighters and naval bomber spam should be helpful.
Vichy only intervenes if you attack it, or the USA. It's basically half a france with a decent navy... still half a france...
Hard not to intervene when France falls and you gotta make your way out of Occupied france by attacking dudes in between.
Also too little too late because france is attacking me now or at least holding ground. I'm taking out most of Vichy France's territory in Africa.
Germany has almost knocked out the Soviet Union in my game i think. At least 50% down if not more. Both the USA and Soviets are fighting against Axis right now and have been for some time.
I'm trying to learn how to supply correctly and i understand more of it. I upgraded motorization a lot, have more trucks and other things i could need, i'm upgrading railroads, adding more supply depots (which takes ungodly long), connecting track to depots and naval dockyards so they can keep the supply lines to my capital and i'm upgrading infrastructure along supply lines. I think all i need now is to upgrade rail and motorization between my capital and dockyards in my home territory in the UK to make sure this absurd supply line stays intact.
All said and done supply is one of the far more irritating parts of this game as far as i've seen. So much so a protracted combat with lots of units becomes Infrastructure, Supply Lines and Resources the Game esp. in undeveloped lands like Africa. I'm really wishing i took the upgrade that decreases supply use because lord knows i need it.
Finally all this supply shenanigans is forcing me to need more troops and better troops again. I easily have air superiority everywhere to a ridiculous degree and naval superiority last i checked.
Sadly i had to give up the Canal in Egypt but i've managed to hold the Arabian Peninsula's area but not from both sides sadly due to getting attacked by multiple sides from Germans, Italians and Vichy France and i blame Vichy france in Iraq for that. Perhaps if i had sent forces there for when they inevitably fell. Still this game is massively about being stretched thin.
I'm still holding gibraltar and some mediterranean islands however which should make holding the Mediterranean easier overall.
There's a saying - "Amateurs study tactics. Professionals study logistics."
Supplies *should* be a big nuisance. Campaigning in Africa has always sucked (particularly when your AI ally "helps" by landing a bunch of troops and sucking up all of a region's supply capacity). China's even worse.
I played for a while and it was sloooow….driving the enemy from Africa but taking Italy was slow too. Things were going well: Japan was taken out and on our side, Italy had either capitulated or almost, the Soviet Union was knocked out by the Germans but we had numerous beachheads and some were working….and then China joined the fascists and later joined the war. Sigh.
Then I started having manpower problems again so I finally semi fixed it by disbanding some in progress units because nothing else was working and I needed manpower just to move all the air units I had.
Not to mention the mountains of Italy are becoming some of the biggest type of quagmire so I started making mountaineers and researching them to counter it as well as maybe paratroopers. Dunno how useful special forces would be right now.
I’ve reached 1948 so most worthwhile tech has been researched. I imagine some of the bigger nations are really showing how strong they are right now. I may need to go flyer heavy if my manpower shortage continues and then just nuke the enemy with my 13 silos and assorted rocket bases. Tier 3 rockets seem far softer to use than anything else because they pretty much have the range of icbm nukes in current year but less killing power. Wonder if I can get like 13 or 20 rocket silos and just wait till each silo is filled with max rockets and just strategically bomb an area with an absurd amount of rockets. If that still doesn’t soften up the enemy’s infrastructure and make it easier to fight them or at least outlast em I don’t know what will. Nukes require too many conditions and 75% of the air supremacy seems to be significant enough. Rockets feel a bit fire and forget without worry you need special conditions. If anything the enemy has gotta prepare defenses just for you or get rockets all over their stupid heads
Oh and I demanded armies from my puppet states which I think totally will swing this somewhat when I play this again for tomorrow. I know I need sleep and the ridiculousness of supply lack of troopships is setting me up for a nightmare esp combine with multiple hour outbreaks.I won’t dump a full puppet state unless I feel they get next to nothing
Btw would it be possible or weird if I took their manpower abut none of their crap gear? I’d rather them use the best of the best as manpower but I can already make better. Maybe I can see if I can trade for flat manpower from a uk colony like Indian rah, aussies land, New Zealand, south Africa and others.. It’s would totally make up for the uks crappy manpower issues. I think if they look safe from enemies I’ll grab most of their troopr
If you want your puppets to have better gear, then send them Lend-Lease equipment. Doing so also influences the "puppet" score in your favor, which allows you to bind them more closely to you. Demanding manpower, on the other hand, reduces the "puppet" score, which allows them to become more independent of you.
Still feeding my Terraria addiction over here. Why is this game so all-consuming when it comes to my free time? I've played a lot of other games and none of them have been quite this addictive (Star Valor came fairly close
for a little while though).
nels1031 wrote: About to assault Vercingetorix's hall in Expedition: Rome, having pacified Gaul. Had to force myself to save it and go to bed late last night. It was a pretty exciting mission, where one team had to take the front gates while killing as much as possible to take pressure off of my infiltration/rescue team. Once the infiltration team got to Vercingetorix's hall, the mission then shifted back to the front gate where my team then had to fend off reinforcements. A third team was tasked with destroying the dam that was built to take away the cities natural moat, killing the reinforcements and of course cutting off. It was all pretty precarious, aside from the A-team who had an easy going towards Verci's hall.
I'm pretty enamored with this game. I think I'm close to the end of the game, and I'm hoping there is a "New Game+" mode where I can take my high level and skilled up characters through another playthrough with more tactical options, with the enemy also having access to those abilities. I highly doubt it though, but I can dream.
How did you beat the mission in Africa where you have to burn two bridges before the time runs out. Either I try to clear the way for a torch bearer and run out of time, or rush in and get everyone killed. It's putting a black mark on an otherwise good game so far D:
nels1031 wrote: About to assault Vercingetorix's hall in Expedition: Rome, having pacified Gaul. Had to force myself to save it and go to bed late last night. It was a pretty exciting mission, where one team had to take the front gates while killing as much as possible to take pressure off of my infiltration/rescue team. Once the infiltration team got to Vercingetorix's hall, the mission then shifted back to the front gate where my team then had to fend off reinforcements. A third team was tasked with destroying the dam that was built to take away the cities natural moat, killing the reinforcements and of course cutting off. It was all pretty precarious, aside from the A-team who had an easy going towards Verci's hall.
I'm pretty enamored with this game. I think I'm close to the end of the game, and I'm hoping there is a "New Game+" mode where I can take my high level and skilled up characters through another playthrough with more tactical options, with the enemy also having access to those abilities. I highly doubt it though, but I can dream.
How did you beat the mission in Africa where you have to burn two bridges before the time runs out. Either I try to clear the way for a torch bearer and run out of time, or rush in and get everyone killed. It's putting a black mark on an otherwise good game so far D:
Took me a while too. I even reloaded my game to prior to the mission and built the tactical items that I needed. As well as picking the right group to send. I went with speed mostly, with one Princeps to tank.
I equipped every member of the bridge demo team with either a torch, oil or the rare greek fire jug as well as at least one archer with a bow that allowed flaming arrows. I deployed heavy on one side of the map, getting as far as I could undetected. Once combat started, it was just a fighting retreat to whatever bridge I was heading to. The bottom bridge seemed an easier route. I'd use Bestia with a dodge ability, or sent a princeps through first to tank any of the Attacks of Opportunity, then sprinted any of the torch bearers/fire jugs as far as possible to get them in range. Then torch it. I did very little combat, outside of the first group that barred my path.
It was all pretty intense and very close. Might've been the hardest mission, looking back.
edit: I went with a Princeps to tank, a healer with a staff to stand behind him and to attack over his shoulder and heal as needed, Bestia and an archer doing the running to the bridges with torches.
I have a team with one each class, though I kept all the story companions in a group with my main for the main assault, which goes stupidly smoothly. I'll have to go back to a previous save and craft torches, I think, yeah.
Bobthehero wrote: I have a team with one each class, though I kept all the story companions in a group with my main for the main assault, which goes stupidly smoothly. I'll have to go back to a previous save and craft torches, I think, yeah.
I feel your pain. It was the first time that I had to go back and actually tailor make what I gave my team. Usually its Pilums and bandages with the odd caltrop or greek fire.
Pretty much. Spread pillums around, try out the vinegar bandages. Now that I am at high levels, and that the enemies use poison over fire, bandages aren't as critical, since poison doesn't lower your max HP.
Finally got the hang of HoI4. I attached several hundred CAS and a crap ton of tactical bombers to each army group and upgraded range and explosions on each (which costs a lot of air xp but is infinitely worth that cost). The fighters I had tore through enough aircraft when upgraded it didn’t matter that I attached them to army groups or not. I crapped all over Italy like it was nothing but maybe all their best were busy fighting Greece. I saved Greece anyway and was surprised how fast it all went once I tore through Italy. I dunno if that was Italy’s best or just a standing army for when Italy was out conquering. Either way i went hard and fast and Italy probably cried to its mommy. Beautiful. It capitulated not long after I at up Sicily and most of mainland Italy.
Fired up CK3 with the new DLC release.
Honestly, I'm not noticing much from the DLC- there are changes, but I... don't really care about most of them? Some things with the Dynasty and Splendor are less transparent now, which is annoying.
The big 'Court' feature is King or Emperor only (which I never start as). The Court Positions are... neat, but money sinks, especially early on.
Anyway, I started as Count Poppo of Orlamunde (who owns 3 of 4 counties in Thurigia. Immediately tried to murder my Brother in law (son of the Duke, which would have made my wife the primary heir to the duchy, which would pass on to my existing kid), but that failed. Declared independence a few years later after my father-in-law died, won handily, then after that truce was up, took the last county by force and eventually amassed enough money to reform the Duchy.
Died Obese on a pilgrimage after developing a food avoidance trait after the death of the wife. (which... yeah).
Started as the firstborn son (who was too old to influence his traits, and Sadistic, Gluttonous and Shy is a really unfortunate combination. Though Martial 20 and Prowess 19 is pretty good. Piety is buried in the negatives (-440), his wife was a known adulterer with the Prince Bishop of Munster (the German city, not the Irish province) who she served as his antiquarian for... reasons. So 1 of 3 daughters is known to not really be, divorce wasn't an option due to the tanked Piety , so... murder it was. Successful, but discover, so between the major sins of Gluttony and Sadism and adding murder, I'm pretty universally disliked.
Remarried a Lazy, Paranoid, Glutton, but at least she has multiple inheritable traits? (Quick and Comely)
And my brother is plotting against me, despite being content, trusting and fickle. And he's now a drunkard (which he apparently picked up from his wife, who was picked for being Hale- didn't notice the drunkard trait). Oh and Improvident, so he gives money away.
The game is weird, but it has its moments of sheer... wth? Which tends to make it fun.
Oh, excommunicated. That's fun. Time to persuade my king I'm not such a bad guy.
And within 6 months, Imprisoned.
Then escaped.
Now, 6 months after that, he is (unhappily) offering me the position of Spymaster.
So updates. My allies and I took down Germany and freed the western countries mostly on our own. The soviets helped sure but we conquered mainland Germany and their western occupied territories on our own as well as all of Italy and its territories on our own.
I started up the fight with Soviet Union since they declared war on us way way back and it’s going somewhere but it’s horribly slow. I’m gonna try to fix up my armies again and see if I can’t get them in better fighting shape. I also need more airfields around to station the bulk of my unengaged Air Force now that most air fields are crap in level. Supply and attrition are probably an issue since it’s winter early 1944 atm in the game but I may need to make sure supply lines are alright too.
I’m going to guess radar will help for my aircraft in air vs air battles. So most importantly grab radar, fix my armies up in army manager a little bit (and make entirely new divisions so every unit doesn’t update super slowly) and make enough airfields for all the planes I’ve built. After that I’ll hope for the best and if it doesn’t work out I’ll reaccess the situation.
Any enemy plane flying in or around your territory has a chance to be spotted. This chance is improved by the number of aircraft you have on air superiority missions. If eny aircraft are spotted, then they can be intercepted.
Radar improves the chance to spot those planes.
It also improves the chance to spot enemy ships, and I believe helps with intelligence against enemy ground troops.
Recently finished the Aliens campaign with Graphite. Devastator and engineer was a good mix. Swapping out a bit now to try some other combos. What a great game when you just want to drown things. Still love the smart gun. Tried the mini gun and the microburst launcher, but always back to the smart gun.
Forcing myself to use the heavy flamethrower for the time being, but low damage aside (unless you have a gunner along who has the right buffs when they overclock), but the smartgun remains a great heavy lifter. They should really give the player the gunner's badge when you four star the weapon:
Just finnished King of dragon pass. Man that was great. A bit tedious at times and with some very unfair heroquests. But still, a truly great experience. Got the best ending where you
Spoiler:
marry under the dragon king.
Now on to more pathfinder: kingmaker. Quite enjoying it. I really like the kingdom building aspects. Got a pretty good run going and just finished chapter 3. Playing a barbarian/druid fellow. My idea was to rage while doing wild shapes. It's worked soso, probably not a top tier build. But it's my first time and I just threw it together on a whim haha.
Finally wiped out Soviet Union while mostly dominating the sky. I also just fought out armored transports and tanks can be boosted with army xp. I’m sure navy works a similar way but I wish I knew it mostly works like planes with better variants which I figured out before
I have about 10 nukes available and about some lands around Japan that I’m gonna build into top tier air fields to store enough planes to get air superiority for nuking fun.
Anyway with how Japan is by itself and decent but without any decent allies it’ll ultimately get rolled over like it was nothing. Seriously the can’t handle allies, post axis faction allies, post commie allies and the main Chinese faction as just one country. It is absurd to even try to make all those enemies or attempt that.
On the biggest plus note I’m being more aware of army groups with only mounted infantry or otherwise fast units to help with breakthroughs and encircling. In 2 or more big encirclement I wiped out over 20 soviets if not 25 or 30. It was beautiful
The rockets I sent to Russia were also fun and I wonder how much they helped destroy their buildings and infrastructure since they were really full silos when I sent them. I think I just ran out of em when the war ended between allies and soviets too which is really good timing.
I wonder how bad destroying enemy infrastructure can get or is it just a way to handle forts easier. If nothing else I’ll have to make strategic bomber for my inevitable 75% air power needed for a nuke. Ofc I have at least 10 nukes now so may as well level Japan with them.
I've played an obscene amount of heavily modded Skyrim recently and decided that the base game (and Bethesda's Fallout series) lean towards mediocre because they're overly committed to a garbage engine and excessively detailed meaningless NPCs. I'm not excited for Starfield or anything else that they have planned because their design philosophy, as a whole, is heavily flawed.
The most exciting thing about Starfield is going to be finding out how many Skyrim and Fallout bugs and exploits are still in there, completely unfixed.
I'm still a little boggled that the Fortify Restoration loop is still part of the Even More Legendary Special Extreme edition of Skyrim. It ain't hard to put a maximum cap on bonus values.
Or that with the right equipment, all once per day abilities become infinite use by taking a hat off and then putting it on again.
Voss wrote: The most exciting thing about Starfield is going to be finding out how many Skyrim and Fallout bugs and exploits are still in there, completely unfixed.
I'm still a little boggled that the Fortify Restoration loop is still part of the Even More Legendary Special Extreme edition of Skyrim. It ain't hard to put a maximum cap on bonus values.
Or that with the right equipment, all once per day abilities become infinite use by taking a hat off and then putting it on again.
They either don't care about exploits or it's too severe to fix. Either instance isn't good. The engine is bad. I've tried to play a mage and even with mods it's dramatically worse than any other fantasy or Star Wars title I've tried. Setting magic/scrolls as equipped items is a terrible decision and limiting the player to 8 unseen hotkeys makes it worse.
What makes it worse is that there are moments of brilliance like the Lost to the Ages quest that are drowned out by all the other issues. The lack of player options when it comes to quests is a big issue.
Ah. The hotkey thing is a problem, one they could easily solve, but console versions are the priority. They just don't bother with a better UI for PC. Inventory is the same story- its set up because consoles are crap at it, and they didn't put in the work at making it not crap.
Player options for quests (and NPCs) just doesn't seem to be part of their mentality. Or they've simply discarded branching decisions as too much work, which, it obviously is more, but they don't have to go full insanity on it.
trexmeyer wrote: Fallout 4 had somewhat reasonable branching decisions with various factions in that you could at least aid or destroy specific ones.
Eh. The problem was that you had to destroy those factions once you allied with the other main one. Even if it didn't make much sense.
And then there was no real payoff beyond a potential crater. The world state didn't really change and there nothing to do with the factions after that point but random-gen quests.
No 'maybe we shouldn't mass produce slaves/ murder people/ destroy personalities for no reason.' There's nothing but going back to the exploration and fething about against a variety of red mobs.
The sad thing is FO4 probably had the best writing Bethsoft ever produced. Its just the main quest is so short and disjointed from the world (and tied very specifically to a background you can't alter). Its still a decent exploration shooter, but they could do so much more with their games, but for whatever reason actively choose not to.
Completed the Pokedex in Legends Arceus. First time in ages I've been compelled to do so. The secret boss you unlock is one of the best fights I've had in a long long time. Absolutely love the game. I'd love to see it expanded into a more traditional gym leader challenge focused adventure going forward.
trexmeyer wrote: Fallout 4 had somewhat reasonable branching decisions with various factions in that you could at least aid or destroy specific ones.
Eh. The problem was that you had to destroy those factions once you allied with the other main one. Even if it didn't make much sense.
And then there was no real payoff beyond a potential crater. The world state didn't really change and there nothing to do with the factions after that point but random-gen quests.
While that is true, I was at least grateful for the opportunity to do so and in Skyrim to destroy the Dark Brotherhood. I think going forward they should have the option to destroy unlawful factions.
They also need to separate faction mainquests and the path to becoming the faction leader.
I'm playing Final Fantasy XI again. I was running around Crawler's Nest last night, and realized that new MMORPGs don't really let you just goof around in a dungeon anymore. It's all instances. Don't get me wrong. They're generally fun instances. But the focus is on getting through the single set path. There's no exploration, or simply enjoying the environment.
It's a trade off.
Anyway, a few years ago, the dev team released the final storyline for the game -Rhapsodies of Vanadiel. I finally finished it yesterday.
Except...
It turns out that there's no a new storyline -The Voracious Resurgence - that's in the process of being released.
Been playing a canny bit of deeprock galactic with some of the lads. It's been ages since I last played it and I'm enjoying the newer updates. So much added since then.
Ah yes, good old Ultimate Squat Simulator, I envy people who get to play it with friends, though BOSCO is me mate.
New guns incoming as well, I love the effort the team keeps on putting into the game. They're working on new "sidearms" now, two previewed, two more to go.
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines with my 2nd play through with my OP Toreador. Taking a break from Bannerlord as it's become quite frustrating. I made the mistake of making my own kingdom. I keep getting War declared on me and my new town Seonon being besieged again and again. Aserai are now on me and yeah, I think they're quite OP. They've been expanding a lot. Almost as much as when I was fighting for the Vlandians. And in the last siege I swear every 3rd/4th soldier is top tier. That's 1,000 men.
BrookM wrote: Ah yes, good old Ultimate Squat Simulator, I envy people who get to play it with friends, though BOSCO is me mate.
New guns incoming as well, I love the effort the team keeps on putting into the game. They're working on new "sidearms" now, two previewed, two more to go.
Ah I know how you feel, until very recently I was in the same boat, my friends had swapped from xbox to PC last year and I was lagging behind until last month. I'm looking forward to the new guns!
It's definitely a squat simulator I like the numerous GW references in the game.
Cyberpunk just got a *huge* (over 40GB) update, adding new stuff (including new apartments, and apartment customization), changes to the way that fixers hand out missions, QoL, NPC AI (both in and out of combat, rebalancing, and more. The list is quite long (and ends with a note that there's more changes that aren't listed), and so I'm not posting it here. You can find the list on Steam, and similar locations.
One item of note, though - some of the changes don't apply to previous generation consoles (i.e. PS4 and XBox One). If you own the game on either of those platforms, be aware of this.
They're finally getting beyond the "fixing the bugs" stage, and moving onto "putting in stuff that probably should have been in the game at launch" stage. They mention "free DLCs" in the patch, which is probably a reference to the apartment additions. But the changes to the fixers are an example of something that in no way can be presented as a DLC. It's a system that should have been present when the game went gold.
In any case, there are two bits of good news here. First, I think it's safe to say that CDPR isn't walking away from the game any time soon. Second, I think the partial shift in patch priorities suggests that they think they've largely got the bugs dealt with, and are moving to start making the game more *fun*. And that's an important thing for a video game, or so I've been led to believe.
Got a Crokinole set for Christmas and my whole family are deeply into playing.
We even take it when camping.
Other than that just a heap of painting the last few months for MCP, AOS, Necromuna and Warhammer Underworlds. Just cannot bring myself to play.
Have been in funks like this before so will return to playing soon.
they've stripped the crappy red lighting out of character creation (so you can actually reasonably approximate what your character will actually look like) AND you can change your appearance in your apartment(s) mirror at any point in game.
-----
It was apparently a big patch day for several games for some reason:
BG3 (early access) also got an update (with the barbarian class and UI rework). The barbarian kind of sucks for the way BG3 is structured- D&D expects a small number of significant combats per day, not the dozens of minor battles that CRPGs typically indulge in. So raging a few times per day (two or three times at early levels) means you basically don't get major class features most of the time. But in a sudden departure from their previous design decisions, they just tossed out the rules for the Players Handbook Totem Warrior subclass and replaced them with...other things. Some of which are worse, for no apparent reason. But in the past like with Rogue and Warlock, they just left subclass abilities they couldn't implement out and didn't replacement. Early Access is Early Access, but hopefully the UI replacement is better than the crap one they were using and they go back and fix up existing classes.
Wrath of the Righteous was supposed to get a DLC and update today, but they pushed back the DLC by about 3 weeks at the very last minute (seriously, last night) and the big patch (which still doesn't come close to fixing all the bugs, 5 months post-release) is still vaguely coming later this week, probably.
So, yeah. None of that matters in the face of Total Warhammer 3 this week, so... hope they all keep chugging along for when I have time to check on their individual screwups.
Got bored and started playing xcom 2 again since I added a new online friend in the game’s character pool. 2nd campaign attempt and seems to be going pretty well now. Strangely I should’ve lost a couple missions and didn’t.
The mission where you get ambushed by advent in the tunnels was really hard and I should’ve probably lost esp. since I didn’t have 5 squad size at that point.
My latest tough mission I had to fight off 2 turrets, 2 advent mecs and various other baddies like stun lancers and I lost 2 soldiers and almost a 3rd. Enemy hit chance is weird sometimes and one of my character pool soldiers was one hit killed by an advent mec while in full cover. It was really stupid.
I’m already up to mid-May and I have 2 days left till magnetic weapons are researched. Anyway I think this run is mostly stable now. All my gts trained soldiers auto become sergeant class and it’s so early in the game that that’s better than most of my trained soldiers esp. due to soldier deaths. Also my online friend I just added is currently the only guy left alive from my character pool but I suppose i only had 4 soldiers in that soldier pool. He’s a sniper at sergeant class I’m pretty sure.
The cyberpunk 2077 update looks great on ps5, it's honestly one of the best looking games i've booted up on this console to date. It's still the same game, but it just feels a lot better...like it should've been this way from the beginning. Plus a lot of little quality of life changes, i've been wanting to alter my characters hair/details for like a year plus at this point. So there might be a redemption story for this game yet, if they stick to it.
Cyberpunk seems to have (finally) put in the game stuff that 25 year old games had and it was amusing to see the Developers having to oh and Ah over them.
Alot of stuff still seems broken - like police AI.
I have just downloaded Dwarf Rock Galactic as a friend to play with pals. It looks quite good fun, has anyone played it?
Alfus Piedro wrote: Finally gotten around to picking up Mass Effect Legendary. Pretty fun replaying the franchise so far.
I've been playing this too recently, about twenty hours into the first game. It's great! Still holds up really well, I am sure the second game will be even better.
Deep Rock Galactic Ultimate Squad Simulator is an amazing coop / FPS experience.
If GManlives did a review on the game, I'd put that here instead.
Some of the highlights for me are:
- Your drop pod is a Termite assault drill, with rockets on top
- You can get drunk before the mission and play it absolutely hammered
- Beards are used to assert dominance over other dwarves
- Each class has great synergy with one another and has a great scope for customisation
- You fight against hordes of insects
- There is a button dedicated solely to greeting one another; when you hear a fellow miner shout ROCK AND STONE or FOR KARL you hammer that key and you reply, no matter the circumstances
In all seriousness though, this is a highly polished experience that delivers on both a solid, great gameplay loop paired with great visuals that are very rewarding to see happen. From launching a full cargo container, bringing down that Glyphid Detonator or laying down pipelines to drill for oil, it just works like a charm. Playing as a driller with a death wish, charging everything with either my drills or the flamethrower is just a blast.
Alfus Piedro wrote: Finally gotten around to picking up Mass Effect Legendary. Pretty fun replaying the franchise so far.
I've been playing this too recently, about twenty hours into the first game. It's great! Still holds up really well, I am sure the second game will be even better.
I recall ME2 being quite an improvement on the first game. Like ypu I'm probably 20 or so hours into the first one. The only thing I don't care for is the near constant need to review your loot for swaps, but other than that it's a blast and holds up well for a 15 year old game!
Premise: Mass Effect the trilogy (yes, I consider it a single game, not three) is my favorite game by a really wide margin. To the point that I've only been interested in playing Hitman trilogy after the release of ME3, aka the last 10 years. I've done like 10-12 careers of ME, all 100%. So I never had the courage to try ME Andromeda, also considering it had mixed reviews.
At the beginning of february I've decided to finally try it and... I liked it at lot! Much more than the first episode (which IMHO has always been far worse than 2nd and 3rd), although overall it's certainly not at the same level of the whole trilogy.
Overall I liked the new universe, plot, the characters, dialogues and graphics. Some of the crew are basically old characters counterparts but I was satisfied by all of them. Jaal and Peebee in particular, but also Cora, Drack, Kallo, Vetra, Reyes and Sloane.
I didn't like that companions are fully on their own during action and the mobile based approach as I defintiely prefer the way more static cover system. I get that this is much more modern and lots of people preferred it, but the game mechanics are a step behind IMHO, they reminded me the clunky Mass Effect 1. I also didn't like that the main story is way too short compared to the amount of time that is required to complete the game 100%. 80 hours in my case. Finally I hated Vetra's voice, who had a really strong american accent which wasn't appropriate for a Turian, or any other alien character. All the other voices were great and ok, including Suvi's one whose accent sounded extremely strange to me; I read it's supposed to be scottish. Maybe there's too much driving the vehicle, another (bad) feature that reminded me Mass Effect 1.
Overall I think it's a very solid game and I'll definitely play it again. Wish I didn't have any prejudice/fear of being disappointed and tried it earlier. To give any numbers if ME2 and ME3 are perfect 10/10 and ME1 is 7.5, ME Andromeda gets an 8/10 or 8.5/10.
Played through and beat Sekiro in about 50ish hours. About halfway through a NG run. I have 2/3 Incense items. I missed the second Owl fight the first time through. It's easily the best game I've played in a long time...it might be the best game I've ever played and I'm typically an RPG/Total War fan.
Edit: I've seen it occasionally compared to JFO. Well, JFO compared to Sekiro. Having played both I have to say that Sekiro is massively better if "harder". Combat is much better and the parry windows might be tighter, but they function correctly. I played JFO on the easiest difficulty (I think) and could never get parries down because it felt so janky. Also, the lack of fast travel in JFO is atrocious and I really hate Dathomir. It creeps me out for some reason. JFO is "difficult" for all the wrong reasons. Sekiro is difficult because it's a timing game.
The combat for most of the game is the best I've ever encountered. There are a couple of minibosses and two bosses that I really dislike, but I'll mention those specifically later. Once you learn the game and get deflections and counters down the game becomes "easy" and you can rapidly speed up encounters. It's a very rewarding system and playing it the "right" way via a parry/counter focused playstyle is an incredible experience.
The actual world is beautiful. I haven't touched any other From Software games because while the settings look interesting, the visuals are either dated (Dark Souls I) or just generally garrish. Also some of the monstrous bosses I've seen aren't my cup of tea.
The story is excellent and surprisingly deep, but it relies heavily on Japanese folklore and history so you have to have an interest in both and willingness to dig deeper in order to really appreciate it. I followed a guide in order to get the best ending, watched a very good series on the lore and went and read about most of the mobs and places I visited.
The following is breakdown of the bosses and minibosses.
Spoiler:
I haven't done the second Hirata Estate memory so I can't speak to those fights and I didn't do the Shura ending so I didn't face two other bosses.
Outskirts
Tutorial boss - Good tutorial boss. Opportunity to learn some of the basics and figure out if the game is right for you.
Genichiro intro fight - You lose regardless. I got destroyed the first time and "beat" him handily in NG+. If you manage to drag the fight out initially you'll see most of his moveset for later on.
Samurai General - Introduces some Perilous attacks that are important to learn how to dodge/counter for later on. Gave me a lot of trouble. 1 shot in NG+ and a fresh game. Later Generals have a Perilous thrust that you can Mikkiri counter as well. The second one was the hardest for me initially.
Chained Ogre - Teaches the player about using Prosthetic weapons. He's vulnerable to a couple. Also a "beast" fight in that it's better to dodge avoid and hit him with attacks of opportunity. Took a while the first time, had to reset him once in NG+ before beating him. Actually 1 shot him in a fresh game.
Hirata Estate first memory
Shinobi Hunter - I had to quit trying him and move back to the Outskirts. Came back later and killed him in the first attempt. Got him in the first try on NG+ and a fresh game. Having Mikkiri is vital.
The Drunkard - This is the first one of these you can encounter. They spew poison or fire. Like the Chained Ogre it's best to go with attacks of opportunity, but you can deflect them down as well. First one can be cheesed.
Depending on the route you take you'll face one of two true bosses first.
Mounted Horse General - First opportunity to abuse the Firecracker prosthetic and discover that it can chain stun beasts. Also can grapple him attack him. Was rough the first time, easy after that. Really the first big "skill check" IMO. Fun fight.
Lady Butterfly - I'm not a fan just because her second phase is annoying, but mastering the first phase will carry you far. Her first phase is fun, second phase is the first opportunity to use Snap Sneeds. Haven't fought her again in NG+, but I did down her in the Gauntlet.
Ashina Castle
Blazing Bull - Annoying. I did 1 shot it in NG+, but it's still annoying.
Seven-Spears - Miniboss that you can face a couple of times. Key is to Mikkiri Counter his thrust and deflect the follow up to stagger him. Beat him the first time I faced him.
Lone Shadow - You can face a few variants of this boss. Boss version of the purple Ninja mobs you can encounter. First fight that I heavily relied on prosthetics to win.
Ashina Elite - Lone Samurai boss. He's just a boss version of the Ashina Samurai. I 1 shot him on the first go. Easy counters.
Genichiro - second fight. This took me forever initially. Like 20+ deaths at least. First three phase boss that you can encounter. Phase 1 is the easiest and easy to punish. Phase 2 he switches up one very punishable combo, but it's not much harder. Phase 3 screwed me up because I kept mistiming a key counter. I 1 shot him in NG+ since I finally got the counter down on the final boss. Very fun fight.
Senpou Temple
Armoured Warrior - Random European Knight that is unique in that you can only damage his posture, but I didn't even expect to face him and still 1 shot him. Might be the easiest boss/miniboss in the game.
Long-Arm Centipede - You encounter two. One can be cut to half health easily from stealth after you clear his room. Both are easy. Just deflect and counter jump his sweep. I died some to the first one I fought and 1 shot the the other on my first go.
Monkeys - Puzzle fight. Not much else to say.
Sunken Valley
Snake Eyes - You face two variants. One can be cheesed since it will stand in poison and die to that. First one I faced was a PITA. Second time around I beat her without going for a stealth deathblow. Umbrella Prosthetic + Deflects win the fight.
Guardian Ape - First boss I absolutely hated. Maybe you can deflect him, but it's not even worth trying IMO in phase 1. I ended up coming up with my own method for handling that once I memorized the moveset. Second phase you can deflect in order to force a huge counter (I think 4-5 times is enough to kill the boss). For a mandatory boss it is the worst. Took two tries in NG+.
Headless Ape - Follow up fight to Guardian Ape. Much easier. I think it took two tries initially, but I knew the moveset by heart.
Ashina Depths
Mist Noble - It's not even a fight, just a puzzle to get to him.
O'Rin of the Water - Took me a while, but this was one of the fights I enjoyed the most. Beat her without using Divine Confetti for the damage buff. Just deflect and counter.
Corrupted Monk - I didn't use the Deathblow cheese strat, but I did cheese it sort of since you can charge in and get two free hits in with Mortal Blade. Tedious fight.
Ashina Castle part 2
Only thing worth mentioning is Owl. Other fights are variants. He's only a two phase fight, but he doesn't have any punishable Perilous attacks. This was possibly the hardest fight for me and the one that forced me to learn how to properly deflect and counter attack. IMO, this is the hardest mandatory boss fight for 3/4 endings.
Fountainhead Palace
You go straight from Owl to Corrupted Monk part 2, but the new one has three phases. Thankfully, it's easier.
You can deflect/counter her down easily in phase 1 since you should be good at it by now. Phase 2 can be cheesed with a stealth deathblow.
Phase 3 adds in a near instant kill. This took me a lot less time than the previous Corrupted Monk fight.
Sakura Bull - You can kill it in ten seconds by spooking it into a wall. 10/10 fight.
Okami Leader - Another fight you can do instantly with the right ability - Anti-Air Deathblow.
Divine Dragon - Another very easy fight.
Fountainhead was actually kind of lame in comparison to the rest of the game in terms of boss fights. The area is fascinating however.
Ashina Castle part 3
There is a bs fight where you face a non-boss Samurai General and a Seven Spears miniboss. Might be the hardest miniboss fight in the game if only because you're facing two enemies at once and you can't kill either that quickly. There is a fight before Owl where you might face two enemies, but it's possible to force them to fight.
The Final Boss - Actually dramatically easier than many other bosses despite having four phases. Phase 1 was harder for me than the rest of the fight because of his Mortal Blade ability. Phase 2/3/4 all have punishable attacks. Beat him twice (reset the first time to go back and face Demon of Hatred) and then 1 shot him the next morning.
Demon of Hatred - Optional, obnoxious fight. I cheesed it.
Headless - 3 are on land, 2 are in water. I fought in water legit and cheated 3 of them, missed one. I really dislike these fights and they offer no meaningful rewards IMO.
Shichimen Warriors - Cheated on these, don't care.
The last three bosses I mentioned along with Guardian/Headless Ape play out very differently than standard boss fights and don't really fit in the game. I'm not a fan of those ones specifically.
Spoiler:
1. Owl
2. Genichiro - Second Time
3. Guardian Ape
4. Lady Butterfly
5. Corrupted Monk
Having sorta become demoralised by Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord and due to the consensus here on Dakka Dakka I re-installed Cyberpunk 2077 and it's so much better. Both due to the updates and playing it on my new laptop. The framerate is buttery smooth, making my Mr Stabby build much much more viable and enjoyable and the driving is so much more fun on a keyboard. Really enjoying it now.
trexmeyer wrote: Played through and beat Sekiro in about 50ish hours. About halfway through a NG run. I have 2/3 Incense items. I missed the second Owl fight the first time through. It's easily the best game I've played in a long time...it might be the best game I've ever played and I'm typically an RPG/Total War fan.
Yeah Sekiro is great. The final boss fight is my favorite of any souls like. My one issue with Sekiro was that you couldn’t go full stealth ninja. You had to fight the bosses. So I remember sneaking around until I faced the first boss and was woefully underprepared. Because my battle skills where lacking. Took me a long time to get good enough at fighting to progress. Since bosses cut off progression and don’t have a stealth option, unlike mini bosses, they force you to change your playstyle.
I’ve been doing so much tww 3. Played the prologue then the Cathay campaign. Game didn’t work day one so I had to look for bad files. Took a while but got it running. Now at turn 50 and I’ve confederated all of Cathay except the other dragon. Really enjoying the caravan mechanic. I hate tzeentch with all of my heart. The damn bird walked up to the settlement my leader was in, transferred it to another player and ambushed my army! I was stunned. Just stared at the screen wondering what had happened. Also decided to put 10 stack armies in the wall to help hold them. The wall really feels like a huge holdout. Had 4 armies crash into it and smash a part of it. So spent about 10 turns raising armies and cleaning up the chaos hordes in Cathay. Hence stationing armies in the wall. All in all I’m really enjoying playing Cathay. Feel like I want to try out Khorne next. Though this play through will take quite some time. Guess I’ll hold off a little on Elden ring to finish this campaign first.
Downloaded Elden Ring. Played 30 minutes, killed stuff. Requested refund. Now if my refund gets refused I'll probably play it, but wow...that game is not Sekiro. It's not even 2022 Skyrim SSE with good combat mods as far as melee combat goes. The roll animation is terrible. The step dodge is fine...but how do you screw up a step dodge?
Had a few days off. Also got Elden ring. At first I couldn’t run it. I encountered a bunch of weird graphic bugs. Black bars would appear all over the screen and the lights flickered weirdly. Took about two days of trying things out until I got it working properly. The solution was to update the graphic drivers directly from my graphic card providers website. The built in windows update function did nothing. If anyone experience the same issue feel free to DM me and I can walk you through exactly how I fixed it.
So now that I can finally play it I must say I love it. It’s certainly not for everyone. It is simply a scaled up dark souls. Want to play dark souls in a much bigger world? Elden ring is the game for you. I’m particularily fond of the mounted combat. It’s fun to ride circles around enemies or charge them on horseback. Also mounting up makes certain outdoor boss fights very interesting. There’s a lot to find. Like many huge dungeons. And several are even hidden and difficult to find. I was amazed at just how massive an early optional hidden-in-plain-sight dungeon was. There’s that classic Fromsoft storytelling. You travel the world and start piecing togheter what’s going on from implications in the environment. As well as item descriptions. Word of advice it takes about 2 hours for the game to properly get going. Getting the horse and the ability to summon I mean. After that it goes much smoother. Also there are turtles.
I decided to get Elden Ring again and give it a serious try. I'm past the first major boss (Godrik) and I cleared all of the starting zone (Limgrave) except for one boss I don't have keys to access.
Edit: I've now cleared through the second major boss Rennala. Overleveled enough that I did the Academy bosses blind thanks to summon + Bloodhound's Sword. Strangely enough, her fight reminded me more of a WoW boss fight than anything else. Tip:
Spoiler:
Roll forward when she launches her projectiles at you, rolling sideways got me hit.
> Combat is not good. It ranges from absurdly easy via abusing game mechanics to pointlessly difficult (360 tracking and combo chaining). Generic mobs are absurdly easy from the start. Some "elite" mobs are very grating. Most bosses can be abused via poise break and summons. The big issue is that it simply isn't fun and doesn't feel like I am mechanically improving at the game much whereas Sekiro was rewarding for actually getting better.
> The world is heavily copy pasted, like all open worlds, but unlike something like Skyrim, there is zero attempt at a narrative outside of the main story. Literally the spoiler is the quest quality you should expect.
Spoiler:
One of the handful of quests in Limgrave is to take a letter from a girl to her father in Castle Morn. You deliver it and return to her. She's dead. Later on her father comes after you. Maybe 10 lines of dialogue total.
Off the top of my head I can think of only a handful of quests in Limgrave
Spoiler:
Castle Morn Letter, Rodrika goes to the Roundtable, Meet Blaidd, D warns you about the Undead Mariner, Ranni sends you with Blaidd to explore the Siofra River
. The ones that do exist are about as in depth as Skyrim miscellaneous quests.
> Mini-dungeons are also copy paste jobs and most are literally enter dungeon, kill 6-8 mobs or run past to reach the lever that unlocks the miniboss, kill miniboss and leave.
> Weapon Arts are actually fairly cool for the most part, but you can't parry with a shield or weapon unless you have that specific weapon art applied.
> There are some impressive views in the world and legacy dungeons. Visually, the open world is fine.
> The story and setting are weird and interesting enough. It's not TES or even Dragon Age level of development...or even Sekiro for that matter, but there is thought behind it.
TLDR: It's made for Souls players and only for Souls players. If you've never touched a FromSoft game this is absolutely not the starting point unless you want to just use a trainer to explore the world and even then...the world isn't deep enough to justify the price.
Not sure how you think the world isn't deep enough for the price. I'm 70+ hours in and still not done. And considering the underground is just as huge and stuffed as the over world, then yeah i have to disagree.
Decided to give Cyberpunk another go, reloaded an old save and why am I naked and unarmed all of the sudden? Like, my original kit is all overlevelled now all of the sudden, hence being naked and unarmed.
Okay, fine, I'll start over for a third time then.
BrookM wrote: Decided to give Cyberpunk another go, reloaded an old save and why am I naked and unarmed all of the sudden? Like, my original kit is all overlevelled now all of the sudden, hence being naked and unarmed.
Okay, fine, I'll start over for a third time then.
The 1.5 update changed up the perk tree and armor mods, so your perks were reset and mods removed. That could be why stuff was unequipped if you no longer met the perk requirements.
Anyway, I'm enjoying Elden Ring, and this is my first Souls game. And I'm finding it hard as hell. Guess I just need to git gud?
It's going to kick your ass, even as a souls vet. I've played them all multiple times and i had a boss that took me over 4 hours last night to put down. But it was such a good fight i didn't even care.
Inquisitor Gideon wrote: Not sure how you think the world isn't deep enough for the price. I'm 70+ hours in and still not done. And considering the underground is just as huge and stuffed as the over world, then yeah i have to disagree.
Yes, the world is huge and there is a lot to do. This is true of AC:Odyssey, AC:Valhalla, DA:I, HZD, etc. It doesn't mean that the content is "deep" or anything other than filler for the most part. The majority of the open world content is on the same level of quality as recent AC games. Just because there isn't a cluttered UI and no checklist doesn't mean that it is somehow "better".
The Legacy Dungeons, so far, are very good. The capitol city is beautiful. Hell, most of the game is beautiful and stylistically impressive. I think the open world is almost justified just for the visual aspect. The actual open world content is still repetitive enough that I don't know if I can be bothered to clear out any more zones after Liurnia.
Then you'd be missing an incredible amount of content. Starting out exploring an innocuous looking cave and discovering what is essentially Moria is more than worth the effort.
whembly wrote: Yeah, Elden Ring is fast turning into my favorite game in all time.
Still played over 70 hours and I don't think I'm even halfway through.
Even PvP, seems to work well.
I'm on PS5 and have not seen any of the buggy issues seen on PC.
I restarted going Samurai for Bloody Slash dex/arc build and it's massively more fun than Great Weapon jump attack spam. I'm not even powerstancing yet and I'm deleting everything in Limgrave (except Crucible Knight). The gameplay feels a lot more like Sekiro with it since Bloody Slash behaves like Mortal Blade.
I've gotten some issues on PC but I'm at min requirements. Only thing borderline unplayable was Tree Sentinel 1, but I cheesed it the second time with Rot Stray summon + Bloody Slash.
So, Wrath of the Righteous finally popped its first DLC and a big patch. It still needs more patching, and the DLC (Inevitable Excess) is... garbage.
Just... I don't know why they did spent man-hours on this. There's maybe 100 lines of dialogue explaining the very thing plot, and then you just punch your way through packs of 1000 hp enemies, solve some very bad and directionless puzzles and... leave.
The biggest enemies are the janky camera and the bad targetting for the super special version of dimension door (it has a shorter range, but you _must_ use it) the game hands you, because multi-level platforming rather than a sanely designed dungeon is something that everyone wants to experience in a game not designed for that.
Best part was spending a half-hour _unsolving_ a puzzle, because I didn't realize I'd accomplished whatever random goal I had in level 2 on the end dungeon, and I needed to go back to level 1 by a new path to the same entrance I came in, and I was just magically supposed to know that a new path had opened up on the previous level, rather than get to the inaccessible platform I could see nearby.
Also, yes, the DLC is stand alone, came out today, and I'm already done. Started around noon, took breaks to do laundry, have lunch, have dinner, and I still finished by 10. Final save is 6 hours, 54 minutes, with a pair of pointless boss fights beyond it.
One of the most irritating and pointlessly frustrating RPG experiences I've ever had. Mostly the janky camera and crappy UI, and how pointless and exploitable high level D&D/Pathfinder combat is.
Killed Godrick at 38 with NPC summon and Rot Stray cheese summon. It did manage to inflict Scarlet Rot. Cleared out Lion Guardian and ran past the Golems to turn Rune in.
I think I only skipped the two Gargoyle Dogs, Bell Bearing Hunter, and Crucible Knight. Maybe a Cemetary Shade as well. I'm not worried about the dogs, they're easy. Bell Bearing Hunter and Crucible Knight kicked my butt, they're legit skill checks.
trexmeyer wrote: Killed Godrick at 38 with NPC summon and Rot Stray cheese summon. It did manage to inflict Scarlet Rot. Cleared out Lion Guardian and ran past the Golems to turn Rune in.
I think I only skipped the two Gargoyle Dogs, Bell Bearing Hunter, and Crucible Knight. Maybe a Cemetary Shade as well. I'm not worried about the dogs, they're easy. Bell Bearing Hunter and Crucible Knight kicked my butt, they're legit skill checks.
Just wait for the Crucible Knight and Leonine Misbegotten combo fight!
Still playing Cyberpunk 2077, quite addicted to it now, in fact. My V is now level 44 and has maxed out both Body and Reflexes, he's a one-man army with his super OP katana but I try to do things silently. I found a large Militech compound in the middle of the Badlands, tried to infiltrate but got caught out and it turned out there were at least four dozen mercs there I slaughtered to a man with ease. I'm now investing inTechnical and trying to upgrade Johnny Silverhand's clothing to make it really good. I think it was the YouTuber Upper Echelon Gamers who said not long after Cyberpunk 2077 came out that Crafting was OP and I see exactly what he meant lol. I'm now interested in how the future of the game will turn out, I'm hoping for DLC as "expansive" as Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. Perhaps one that allows you to play through that montage early in the game? That'd be pretty cool. Would also have to increase the level cap too.
trexmeyer wrote: Killed Godrick at 38 with NPC summon and Rot Stray cheese summon. It did manage to inflict Scarlet Rot. Cleared out Lion Guardian and ran past the Golems to turn Rune in.
I think I only skipped the two Gargoyle Dogs, Bell Bearing Hunter, and Crucible Knight. Maybe a Cemetary Shade as well. I'm not worried about the dogs, they're easy. Bell Bearing Hunter and Crucible Knight kicked my butt, they're legit skill checks.
Just wait for the Crucible Knight and Leonine Misbegotten combo fight!
I dunno, I watched a clip of it and it doesn't seem that hard. Summons change the game so much. Crucible wasn't bad once I developed a tactic for him. I got hit maybe 3-4 times in that fight. It looks like you can burst down Leonine and then focus Crucible.
Adrassil wrote:Still playing Cyberpunk 2077, quite addicted to it now, in fact. My V is now level 44 and has maxed out both Body and Reflexes, he's a one-man army with his super OP katana but I try to do things silently. I found a large Militech compound in the middle of the Badlands, tried to infiltrate but got caught out and it turned out there were at least four dozen mercs there I slaughtered to a man with ease. I'm now investing inTechnical and trying to upgrade Johnny Silverhand's clothing to make it really good. I think it was the YouTuber Upper Echelon Gamers who said not long after Cyberpunk 2077 came out that Crafting was OP and I see exactly what he meant lol. I'm now interested in how the future of the game will turn out, I'm hoping for DLC as "expansive" as Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. Perhaps one that allows you to play through that montage early in the game? That'd be pretty cool. Would also have to increase the level cap too.
Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most underrated games ever made simply because the hype and expectations were completely off base. If you compare it to the Witcher 3, it isn't markedly different outside of combat and Cyberpunk's combat options are quite a bit expanded if you bother to push the boundaries. The stories alone are good, even if the MQ is lacking. My favorite aspect is that you have multiple avenues to approach so many quests. It's a fun game, but the difficulty scaling is awful.
Also plugging away at Cyberpunk, not sure what build I want to do just yet, last time around I put all my points into hacking first before doing the big heist with Jackie and holy gak, that was OP against all but a few enemies, especially when you have the ability for a hack to spread to other enemies, resulting in a mass suicide or overload spree that quickly clears out swathes of enemies.
May go with pistols again though, I love the revolver and with enough skills dumped into it, just godtier.
trexmeyer wrote: Killed Godrick at 38 with NPC summon and Rot Stray cheese summon. It did manage to inflict Scarlet Rot. Cleared out Lion Guardian and ran past the Golems to turn Rune in.
I think I only skipped the two Gargoyle Dogs, Bell Bearing Hunter, and Crucible Knight. Maybe a Cemetary Shade as well. I'm not worried about the dogs, they're easy. Bell Bearing Hunter and Crucible Knight kicked my butt, they're legit skill checks.
Just wait for the Crucible Knight and Leonine Misbegotten combo fight!
I dunno, I watched a clip of it and it doesn't seem that hard. Summons change the game so much. Crucible wasn't bad once I developed a tactic for him. I got hit maybe 3-4 times in that fight. It looks like you can burst down Leonine and then focus Crucible.
Yeah, as long as you can burst down the misbegotten quickly enough it's pretty straight forward, as it's the same exact fight as before. He spawns when the misbegotten is at 50% though, so it helps to have a summon or collaborator along to burst through the rest of his health bar.
Tried out Phoenix Point because it's "from makers of XCom" which everything seems to be. I guess this just proves Firaxis can do XCom better than any of the original XCom people. It's too unpolished and finicky for me.
Instead playing Darkest Dungeon. Very addictive and tough. Definitely go that Civilization feeling of "just one more turn" but instead "just one more run".
You can actually keep ignoring him and sweep up all the side missions even after that point. You get the occasional little 'glitch' moment, but it doesn't actually do anything. My first time through I did everything but the racing minigames (because I hate them), and then went back. Never did finish the story up (because I hate it so much), kind of left it in the middle of the raid on the power plant with the trucker woman.
But yeah, wandering through the hotel as a complete hardcore Solo is pretty fun. It doesn't even feel too much like cheese because the game has so many exploits anyway (like hacking and crafting)
I’m currently playing Solasta: Crown of the Magister.
While it clearly doesn’t have a huge budget I think there’s a lot to like about this game. Anyone who loves Baldur’s Gate (who doesn’t?) and games of that ilk should be able to enjoy it. It uses the 5th edition D&D ruleset and sticks to it pretty faithfully. It also makes some changes to the genre which I think are for the better. In terms of mechanics, UI and graphics.
My concern is that I am a few hours in and the impression that I get is that the plot / story is becoming a bit formulaic. I would say more but don’t want to give away spoilers.
Yeah, as a tactical game its pretty decent. (held back a bit, personally, by the lack of choices in 5e).
Story-wise its kind of whatever.
In terms of voice acting & character art, its dog-crap. Same for character interactions, which IMO are pretty vital for an RPG. NPCs have stock dialogue, and every_single_NPC you're introduced to you in the starting city will berate you for being ignorant or new in one of their three lines (a couple have more than three, but they aren't stellar either), and it doesn't get much better.
UI-wise, its way better than the BG3 EA. (though that may have changed, as Larian supposedly updated that recently). They went all out in keeping things as faithful as possible to the ruleset rather than handwaving or leaving things out (which is still a BG3 problem)
Its also effectively complete (per their last big announcement stream), barring completely separate campaigns. I'm a bit sad for no new classes and etc, but a finished game is a very enviable thing right at the moment. I'm real tired of waiting for developers to 'really finish' their games.
I agree with your criticisms of Solasta, I do think it’s worth checking out though, for anyone who likes that sort of thing. I was thinking the other day that i haven’t played a party based RPG in the last 10 years that gripped me as much as Dragon Age Origins. There are plenty of options out there to choose from, and I’ve played some of them, but no luck so far. From what I’ve played of Solasta so far it comes close, though I admit it does a lot of things wrong too.
If Dragon Age 4 is anything like 3 (no reason to expect it not to be) I’ll probably play it to the conclusion, all the while wishing it was more like Origins. It’s sad to say that current day Bioware could learn a lot from Solasta in certain areas.
I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet. It certainly looks good, though I don’t tend to buy Early Access games. Waiting for the game to be complete looks like it’s going to be a long wait too.
El Torro wrote: I agree with your criticisms of Solasta, I do think it’s worth checking out though, for anyone who likes that sort of thing. I was thinking the other day that i haven’t played a party based RPG in the last 10 years that gripped me as much as Dragon Age Origins. There are plenty of options out there to choose from, and I’ve played some of them, but no luck so far. From what I’ve played of Solasta so far it comes close, though I admit it does a lot of things wrong too.
Oh, if someone is looking for tactical combat first? I definitely recommend it. Just that for me, its characters & story first, and it isn't good at that.
If Dragon Age 4 is anything like 3 (no reason to expect it not to be) I’ll probably play it to the conclusion, all the while wishing it was more like Origins. It’s sad to say that current day Bioware could learn a lot from Solasta in certain areas.
Gods, I hope it isn't like 3 or 1. Inquisition had too much wasted empty void space (and not enough story buried under all that padding), and oddly terrible characters. I still feel Origins is vastly over-rated. Partly because I was real keen on the marketing for it, which promised 'a fantasy setting unlike any other.' And it was... evil catholics, pseudo-orcs, elves dwarves dragons and bad magic. yay...? Generic corruption themes and more rape analogues (and actual rape) than you can shake a stick at. And lots and lots and lots of fetch quests. Woo...
I haven’t played Baldur’s Gate 3 yet. It certainly looks good, though I don’t tend to buy Early Access games. Waiting for the game to be complete looks like it’s going to be a long wait too.
Yeah, 2023 at best. I really want it to get better, but their writing is still kind of naff, the companion PCs they've introduced are... mmm. Not my cup of tea? Lets go with that.
And mechanically, they're not doing a great job recreating the system they're supposed to be transplanting to a computer game (and this is really one of the easier editions to make a computer game out of). They've stripped a couple classes of class features and haven't really replaced them.
For example, rogue sneak attack. In Solasta, it triggers like it should- you can choose to add a sneak attack on any hit (1/rnd) where you fulfill the criteria (advantage vs the target or target next to an ally). In BG3, its a type of attack you must choose in advance, and if it misses, you can't get the bonus damage on any of your other attacks, and you can't use it if you get advantage for shooting from higher ground, because reasons. Which is a huge downgrade in combat utility and functionality.
On the other hand, for the thief subclass of rogue, they couldn't (or didn't) implement the 3rd level subclass feature and just gave the subclass an extra bonus action always, that you can use on any type of bonus action you happen to have (off-hand attacks, shoves, interactions, items, spell-like abilities, dash because you're a rogue, whatever). Every turn. Which... is honestly god-tier broken, and can't be replicated by anything in the 5e system. Its freaking insane.
For the great old ones warlock, at 1st level they're supposed to get telepathy. They just... don't. The end. It isn't replaced by anything else, they just get nothing. And since the EA only goes to level 4, it means that for the time being, the subclass has no abilities at all. /shrug.
Both classes have been in the game since the beginning of EA (15 months ago now), and they're still just broken.
They just added the barbarian, which is... kinda cool, except the PnP rage mechanic just... doesn't work with their encounter design. You've got limited rages per day (2), and if you aren't attacked or attack, it ends. The intro map is huge, and enemies are all over the place (while PnP assumes a small number of significant encounters per day). If you can't consciously exploit _extremely_ long chains on unrelated enemies (that requires knowing exactly where they are and how to make 'fake' attacks between fights), you run dry and you're essentially a kind of crappy fighter without class abilities most of the time. Here they did a direct PnP port of a class and it simply doesn't work.
When I’m too tired for Elden ring or TWW 3 I’ve actually been playing Valheim. Great for chilling. I hang around my base or go on little adventures. There was recently a new update that added mountain caves. They are very atmospheric. I’d be very surprised if they aren’t tied to a future boss. Currently though except for the nice atmosphere they are kind of lackluster. You can craft a new unarmed weapon, a new armour set and a new rug with the loot from the caves. Oh and a new banner that looks like a curtain. I guess the one really cool addition is specialized armour. Like how the troll hide armour gave bonus to sneak. There’s now an armour that gives bonus to archery and one that gives bonus to unarmed. I guess that’s neat. Oh and since a while back you can tame and ride loxes. So I put loxes on a boat and shipped them to my base. It was hell to get them there but I love my new lox pasture. Riding around on them is fun.
stormed Arasaka Tower as Johnny Silverhand and Rogue. It was pretty epic. My V pretty much massacred anyone that got in his way and even Adam Smasher didn't stand much of a chance. I had Johnny join up with Alt Cunnigham as that was what he promised. It was a strange experience talking to an NPC version of my character and how, as Johnny walks on the bridge I'm being insulted by me lol. The ending was...bittersweet. V has everything Panam, wealth, fame. But it's all for nothing as he's on borrowed time. The cliff hanger at the end is pretty I dunno, sad? I did spoil it for myself but it did affect me strongly. Cyberpunk is inherently a Nihilistic/Existentialist genre while Cyberpunk 2077 is more Existentialist it doesn't give the PC a happy ending. Great game!
stormed Arasaka Tower as Johnny Silverhand and Rogue. It was pretty epic. My V pretty much massacred anyone that got in his way and even Adam Smasher didn't stand much of a chance. I had Johnny join up with Alt Cunnigham as that was what he promised. It was a strange experience talking to an NPC version of my character and how, as Johnny walks on the bridge I'm being insulted by me lol. The ending was...bittersweet. V has everything Panam, wealth, fame. But it's all for nothing as he's on borrowed time. The cliff hanger at the end is pretty I dunno, sad? I did spoil it for myself but it did affect me strongly. Cyberpunk is inherently a Nihilistic/Existentialist genre while Cyberpunk 2077 is more Existentialist it doesn't give the PC a happy ending. Great game!
Did you make the Arasaka sound system blast out Samurai as you were gunning your way through? Easily best part of the Rogue approach.
I recommend trying out all the approaches to the ending.
Spoiler:
Especially the secret one which you get by having a good relationship with Johnny and waiting for some time on the roof instead of picking one of the others until Johnny proposes something different. It has you walking in the front door of Arasaka Matrix-style and gunning your way through. Makes you a legend and because you're doing it solo (well, you have Johnny in your head, too), you don't need to risk losing anyone.
The Nomad one is pretty cool, too! Definitely worth giving it a try and has a somewhat happier tone, I think.
Since its release last week, I've basically been non-stop playing Gran Turismo 7.
It delivers all the hype that I personally had for the game, and then some. I am constantly amazed at the strides in physics these folks have made in the game, and the punishment/reward for how you do things on track is just so satisfying.
Especially the secret one which you get by having a good relationship with Johnny and waiting for some time on the roof instead of picking one of the others until Johnny proposes something different. It has you walking in the front door of Arasaka Matrix-style and gunning your way through. Makes you a legend and because you're doing it solo (well, you have Johnny in your head, too), you don't need to risk losing anyone.
The Nomad one is pretty cool, too! Definitely worth giving it a try and has a somewhat happier tone, I think.
Spoiler:
I read about storming Arasaka solo ending, but don't think my friendship with Johnny is high enough at just 60%. Just began the ending with the Nomads, but found out I hadn't finished the questline for Kerry, so went back to do that then will go back to that ending as well as a few gigs too!
You need to have 70% affinity with Johnny for the 'secret' ending I believe. It is determined by responses you give him when you have a chat in the oilfields after 'Chippin In'
Last night I tried sitting and not deciding in Cyberpunk. Got nothing so either 60% isn't enough or I chose the wrong options in that scene. I've been quite nice to him and being too nice to him apparently isn't the right thing to do. Might try again if/when CD Projekt Red release a new game +. There does seem a few things I missed like the side quest to fix the ferris wheel in Pacifica.
Adrassil wrote: Last night I tried sitting and not deciding in Cyberpunk. Got nothing so either 60% isn't enough or I chose the wrong options in that scene. I've been quite nice to him and being too nice to him apparently isn't the right thing to do. Might try again if/when CD Projekt Red release a new game +. There does seem a few things I missed like the side quest to fix the ferris wheel in Pacifica.
They implemented the secret ending terribly. I am 99% certain that is only tied to 3-4 dialogue options during a specific scene at his grave.
flamingkillamajig wrote: Played some more Hearts of Iron 4. I keep getting Strikes as France and it's a pain in my ass.
I may see if there are more ways to increase stability if that's how Strikes start.
Normal strikes are a chance depending upon stability. You need 50% to avoid negative events.
Keep in mind there's also the ones that start due to the montagnian(?) agreement / if you break it, its one of the reasons why left democratic side france is just not much fun to play as.
On my second Cyberpunk playthrough I somehow got the ending where V decided to eat their gun, despite the dialogue choices seeming to hint towards anything but that.
Anyway, chipping away at Cyberpunk pre-heist and also doing some Devour on the side, actually like it more than Phasmophobia, maybe because fighting back, as limited as it is, is better than doing nothing at all.
Well, since I can't seem to post in my own thread for some reason, I guess I'll share my thoughts here. I finally finished Horizon Forbidden West. What a ride. My save is currently at 125 hours and I have absolutely no intention of stopping any time soon.
This is, without doubt, my absolute favourite open world RPG. Everything is just so well executed. Characters, story, setting, combat, atmosphere, aesthetic - all of it is truly inspired. I loved Zero Dawn to death and this game has been an improvement in just about every conceivable way.
Favorite moments from the game...
Spoiler:
So many to choose from, so I'll try to narrow it down.
The first time you see Beta, I went absolutely slack jawed. I totally thought when the door opened you would see Sylens with some kind of device to fake Aloy's gene imprint. Another Sobeck clone was the absolute last thing I was expecting to see. She was such a fascinating character too. A very believably broken human being, given her life experience. I really liked that she was conscientious like Aloy, but with none of Aloy's confidence or fortitude. So well done.
Before you hit Cauldron Gemini in the late game, there's a conversation between the two of them that I found so powerful. When Aloy shows Beta the holo of Rost and says he is why they're so different, that was so touching. A fantastic tribute to a character I would have liked to get to know better in the first game.
I also loved how much Aloy visibly struggled trying to keep her promise to Beta to kill her if the Zeniths captured her. I think they sold that really well. Aloy was just too damn good, too incorruptible, too pure of heart to take a life in cold blood like that. It made their reunion at the end that much sweeter.
Doing a hacker build in Cyberpunk 2077, running around fighting crime and doing gigs, not getting too deep into the main plot. Maxed out quickhacking with a focus on contagion spam. When I get bored with it, I just go in with a katana or shotty and finish them off. But its oddly satisfying to watch some of these scum bags run around dying while I watch from a safe distance.
There are certain gangs that just deserve no mercy, like the ones who were holding on to the Militech drone thing. They seem to heavily modify their bodies and their name escapes me. I haven't really done a deep dive into most of the other gangs, but those guys are kill on sight.
Maelstrom? Compared to the japanese fetish gang that enslaves prostitutes, they seem just average bad boys, with a few exceptions, like the pack screwing with the monks.
Yeah, Maelstrom crossed the moral event horizon for me when they forcefully installed cybernetics into the unwilling, including that monk who is part of a religious group that sees enhancements as impure.
Most gangs serve as nothing more than easy XP and street cred with the warrants on their heads.
BrookM wrote: Yeah, Maelstrom crossed the moral event horizon for me when they forcefully installed cybernetics into the unwilling, including that monk who is part of a religious group that sees enhancements as impure.
Most gangs serve as nothing more than easy XP and street cred with the warrants on their heads.
The ones I kill on sight are The Scavs who make the snuff BDs and did things so horrific to
Spoiler:
Evelyn that she would rather commit suicide than live on after whatever they did to her.
BrookM wrote: Yeah, Maelstrom crossed the moral event horizon for me when they forcefully installed cybernetics into the unwilling, including that monk who is part of a religious group that sees enhancements as impure.
Most gangs serve as nothing more than easy XP and street cred with the warrants on their heads.
Truthfully, the game gives no reason for you NOT to kill every gang member you wander across. There's no real interaction or relationship penalty or anything. They're just bags of loot and XP rather than characters, its one of the fundamental flaws of the game. Unless you just want a shooter/looter. Its pretty fun when its just that.
----
Speaking of flawed games. I wandered back into World of Warcraft to use up some game tokens and to play something that has finished content while I wait for other games to come out of delayed development.
Its the end of the Shadowlands expansion, which has largely been disastrously bad and Blizzard itself has been nightmareland, but leveling characters in old content is pretty relaxing when I'm tired and burned out.
But I've inadvertently finished the end end zone story (I think there's one more part to go next week), and it wasn't completely terrible. Wrapped up some story lines and bits of it were almost touching (like questing with the current 'Lich King' and his daughter and watching them reconcile). The main thrust of the expansion is still dumb as hell though. Ends with
Spoiler:
Killing the big bad, but all he wanted was to raze reality to combat the 'true threat' that's coming. Which is Blizz's endless refrain. Its no less nauseating the... fifth? time its happened. Maybe these idiots should start asking for help instead?
They're going to announce the next expansion next month- it should be funny. They're going to have to dig real deep to recover from the various holes they dug, and really hope Microsoft (heh) can rehabilitate their image.
Speaking of flawed games. I wandered back into World of Warcraft to use up some game tokens and to play something that has finished content while I wait for other games to come out of delayed development.
I've played every expansion, had a max level for every character for all of them, including Classic and TBC Classic, but Shadowlands and nu-Blizzard killed my interest. The story has never been good, only passable, but at this point it's jumped back to back expansions of sharks and their weird need to go back and censor old quests and NPCs is...off-putting. Some /funny jokes were tasteless, but IIRC those were generally worse than any quest.
Decided to do a replay of New Vegas, doing two things I'd normally never do: decided to start the game at max level and some choice kit (Ranger armour and the .45 auto pistol), as well as trying to install some mods to up the performance and quality of textures. Also, an eyepatch, because I like the idea of the Courier taking two rounds to the dome, one of those could've ruined an eye, so why not?
Am now also the owner of a Switch, really enjoying Luigi's Mansion, can't wait to play Pokemon UK when my brother remembers where he left the cartridge.
I downloaded Gladius- Relics of War and just completed a game as Eldar, fighting with Imperial Guard and the new faction, Adeptus Mechanicus vs Orks, Chaos Space Marine and Necrons. It was fun and very addictive, and made sure to wipe out the enemy factions before completing the uhh "campaign". As the last time I won the "campaign" before taking the fight to the enemy, they had top tier units such as Big Stompas that one-shot my level 10 Autarch Raloth Arlyandor I'd been training since the early game. By the end of the game, it's pretty cool having Wraithknights and Scorpions crawling across the map one-shotting Umbras is pretty cool.
Also, what are Umbras in 40k anyway?
Also, also, the new Warlock unit is awesome, OP as hell.
Adrassil wrote: I downloaded Gladius- Relics of War and just completed a game as Eldar, fighting with Imperial Guard and the new faction, Adeptus Mechanicus vs Orks, Chaos Space Marine and Necrons. It was fun and very addictive, and made sure to wipe out the enemy factions before completing the uhh "campaign". As the last time I won the "campaign" before taking the fight to the enemy, they had top tier units such as Big Stompas that one-shot my level 10 Autarch Raloth Arlyandor I'd been training since the early game. By the end of the game, it's pretty cool having Wraithknights and Scorpions crawling across the map one-shotting Umbras is pretty cool.
Also, what are Umbras in 40k anyway?
Also, also, the new Warlock unit is awesome, OP as hell.
I love Gladius. I usually set up thematic maps. Like space marine vs 7 allied ork players. Or eldars vs two teams of 3 necrons in each. Or guards vs 7 allied ‘nidz. It’s rare that I win theese themed games but it does happen. It’s the only big scale 40k simulator we have. Not counting chapter master, bfg or DoWapoc mod. Umbras are an xeno species that may or may not house (minor) chaos gods. It’s said that the kroot god is asleep in her Umbra. Umbras are what you see in the astartes animation.
I got sick and wasn’t quite up for playing Elden ring. So I’ve been doing Endzone. Bad timing because dlc is just around the corner. Honestly I prefer banished over endzone. It’s just that I’ve finished all the content in banished. I mean I do have lots of mods installed but they don’t quite do it for me. Massive respect to everyone who’s worked on the mods though, they’re incredibly extensive.
Went on an Amazing Cultivation Simulator binge. I started over, as I often do. This time I got my first golden core cultivator. And learned how not to do things. I also discovered some elements of the dialogue system that I hadn't realized existed up until now.
Time to start over again so that I can properly utilize the features...
Well gak, didn't even mod Fallout New Vegas into oblivion and already it's broken on me. So instead played through the OG Fallout, not going with a canon run this time, just playing through it as I saw fit, which saw me ending up with the Followers of the Apocalypse somehow wiped out, the Hub broken and Necropolis still existing, despite killing most of the "zombies" there. Now, am I brave enough to play through F2 as well, a game I never really managed to finish.
Isn't the Followers getting wiped out what usually happens? My vague recollection is that getting an ending in which they survive tends to be the most difficult ending to arrange.
Eumerin wrote: Isn't the Followers getting wiped out what usually happens? My vague recollection is that getting an ending in which they survive tends to be the most difficult ending to arrange.
Edit: Whoops misread that I think the Followers don't get wiped out in the Independent ending, they are just overwhelmed by all the chaos after the Courier takes over. It was worse apparently if you didn't complete the side quests to help out the Mojave as much as possible.
Adrassil wrote: I downloaded Gladius- Relics of War and just completed a game as Eldar, fighting with Imperial Guard and the new faction, Adeptus Mechanicus vs Orks, Chaos Space Marine and Necrons. It was fun and very addictive, and made sure to wipe out the enemy factions before completing the uhh "campaign". As the last time I won the "campaign" before taking the fight to the enemy, they had top tier units such as Big Stompas that one-shot my level 10 Autarch Raloth Arlyandor I'd been training since the early game. By the end of the game, it's pretty cool having Wraithknights and Scorpions crawling across the map one-shotting Umbras is pretty cool.
Also, what are Umbras in 40k anyway?
Also, also, the new Warlock unit is awesome, OP as hell.
I love Gladius. I usually set up thematic maps. Like space marine vs 7 allied ork players. Or eldars vs two teams of 3 necrons in each. Or guards vs 7 allied ‘nidz. It’s rare that I win theese themed games but it does happen. It’s the only big scale 40k simulator we have. Not counting chapter master, bfg or DoWapoc mod. Umbras are an xeno species that may or may not house (minor) chaos gods. It’s said that the kroot god is asleep in her Umbra. Umbras are what you see in the astartes animation.
Whoa, Umbras sound interesting as frig might look more into them for my Secret War continuity, thanks!
Edit: Whoops misread that I think the Followers don't get wiped out in the Independent ending, they are just overwhelmed by all the chaos after the Courier takes over. It was worse apparently if you didn't complete the side quests to help out the Mojave as much as possible.
I thought you were talking about Fallout 1? The Followers in that game pretty much always get wiped out, so an ending in which that happens is expected.
Ahhh, okay. Been ages since I last played through and actually finished the original Fallout, that game is hard in the final stages of the story. But I guess it makes sense that they get wiped out, only to slowly rebuild over time to their current numbers come New Vegas, only to then be screwed over by just about everybody else.
Edit: Whoops misread that I think the Followers don't get wiped out in the Independent ending, they are just overwhelmed by all the chaos after the Courier takes over. It was worse apparently if you didn't complete the side quests to help out the Mojave as much as possible.
I thought you were talking about Fallout 1? The Followers in that game pretty much always get wiped out, so an ending in which that happens is expected.
No comment on their possible fates in New Vegas.
Damn, yeah, my bad, misread that.
Back on topic, back on Cyberpunk 2077 after the new 1.52 update and been scouring the map with a fine-tooth comb looking for stuff I missed, also managed to complete a quest that was glitched out beforehand. Found a few places that are cordoned off from the map that seem fodder for an expansion or expansions which is pretty cool and stuff. I dunno.
Ensis Ferrae wrote: Since its release last week, I've basically been non-stop playing Gran Turismo 7.
It delivers all the hype that I personally had for the game, and then some. I am constantly amazed at the strides in physics these folks have made in the game, and the punishment/reward for how you do things on track is just so satisfying.
How are you getting on with the game?
I had it from release and then stopped when the servers went down the other week, I've switched back to Horizon and waiting for the storm to settle (hopefully it has now?)
Absolutely stunning game though, am really enjoying it. The sheer variety of cars, the tracks, the handling (with the PS5 controllers - just incredible). Even had some fun races online that weren't twatfests, people actually racing properly!
I'm not massively impacted by the rewards changes as I don't intend to try and platinum and get every car, just want to play through the game, although I can understand why people are upset by it. And it's now ruining the games critical user reviews, so I hope whichever marketing or DLC department within Polyphony decided on that change think that it was worth it.
I reinstalled Cyberpunk 2077 to goof around with the update.
I think the gigs are actually worse now. Instead of having access to all at once, they're strangely staggered which only serves to increase time in game via increased travel time.
Great, the fixers now give rewards for doing 100% of their gigs. Didn't need it at launch, don't need it now.
I can't say that the game is better. It's still a situation where the main quest is incredibly linear and annoying to play through until Act 2 and the best content in game are side quests/gigs.
I also still can't stand Jackie. I really don't understand how that character got approved. He's a weird combination of naive, stupid, and obnoxious.
This also led me to reinstall The Witcher 3, but only to play Blood and Wine. I like the setting, I like vampires, and I think the Conjuction of the Spheres is a fascinating concept. As soon as I started playing it I remembered. The Witcher 3 might be the single worst game I've completed. As a story, it ranges from fine to very good, but as a video game, it is truly mediocre. The UI is atrocious. It's a combination of too much crap and poor design. Do we really need the Witcher emblem taking up that damn much of the screen? Witcher "senses" is a point and click adventure game. Cyberpunk 2077's Brain Dances are a massive improvement over that, if only because they require more than look for red and press E, while also not occurring constantly throughout the game. The actual melee combat is an abomination. Yes, I love to hit fast attack and have no idea what animation is going to fire.
Again, I really like the story and the setting, I hate playing the actual game. Meanwhile, I hate, and I don't use that word lightly, Cyberpunk 2077's main questline, but the actual gameplay is great, despite being relatively simplistic and easy.
It just baffles me that the same company built both these games. If you actually play both you can clearly see how systems are reused in Cyberpunk 2077, but the end result is vastly different.
Edit:
I take back "the worst" connotation.
I finished Borderlands 3 MQ and two DLCS, but despite having access to two other DLCS, I will never play them. The gameplay is okay aside from the fact boss fights are just bullet sponges and the story is nothing notable.
Also, Jedi: Fallen Order is absolutely worse. The combat is moderately better (still not FromSoft level), but the unskippable cutscenes, janky exploration, and overall lack of replayability kill it for me.
I'd also absolutely put it over DA:2.
For comparison. I think AC:Odyssey, if not Valhalla, is absolutely better as a video game than The Witcher 3. The combat is tighter and responsive. The open world content is essentially the same, if not better. Verticality is incorporated in a decent fashion (a lesson clearly learned by CDPR for CP2077). Yes, the story is inferior, but if I want a great story, I can read a book. I don't think a video game can stand strong on story alone.
In my latest Amazing Cultivation Simulator start, I sent my awakened puppy to clear the demon beast that starts on the map. In this case, the beast was a demon rabbit. Fortunately, no Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch was needed, and the puppy was able to defeat the beast with support from my sect leader. With the demon beast dead, I butchered it for materials, and one of the items that I received was (demon) beast blood. Which is very hot. And this was done on a hot summer day, on grass, which then caught fire. This started a conflagration that quickly grew immense. My outer disciples were't fighting the fire (probably because no buildings were involved) so I set them to start clearing the surrounding grass. But they weren't fast enough to cut it off, and it kept spreading. Just before the spreading flames made their way to one of the two giant ginko trees on the map, I finally admitted defeat, and loaded up a save I'd made shortly before I'd attacked the beast. This time I made sure to haul the body to a cleared spot of ground before I cut it up.
Back on Cyberpunk 2077 again to collect all the cars. Just did now, so maybe my V can begin his own car rental company (if only lol) I got my crafting up so made a lot of a particular pistol over and over to sell so much so I would've saturated the market and driven down its cost by a huge margin lol, made me a lot of money. Can't remember if I mentioned it but I did the ending where
Spoiler:
I sacrificed myself so Johnny Silverhand would take my body and it was unironically a beautiful ending, where a now humble, wiser Johnny is given a new life to begin again, just nice
Now I want to do the Aldecaldos ending when V keeps his body. That'll be interesting. Also with my new OP as hell equipment and mods I'll curbstomp Adam Smasher even worse lol
Main games recently are Tiny Tina Wonderland (always like Boarderlands, add in DND feel and yeah its good), Planetside 2 (long lost love of mine), and tabletop RPGS such as Vampire the Masquerade, Traveler, and a DND 5E
Still on Fallout New Vegas, not sure what ending I'm going for just yet, but at the point right now where I'll need to throw my lot in with one of the big players, just need to wipe out the Khans first. Bit annoyed that I can't get Veronica to trigger her personal quest, also missed out on one dialogue option for Raul, but did manage to get Arcade ready for his one, whilst having already done Boone and Cass.
Also did a complete reinstall of CoD and the launcher, which finally got Warzone to work for me again, let's see how awful the modded WWII guns are. Also, more Cold War Zombies on the side, but that's almost stress relief at this point for me.
With Veronica you simply need to go in a few places with her. I don't remember the locations but in all my three careers in FNV I've always triggered her quest without even looking for the solutions. Never heard of possible bugs in that quest.
I did this on the three locations (McCarran terminal, Vault 3 and Nelson / Cottonwood Cove), I even sat through the Boomer museum speech twice (SAVAGES!) but she wouldn't trigger, not even when I did the "sit down and stand up again" fix or via console commands, which usually works. But screw it, the Brotherhood are a bunch of donkey-caves anyway at this point, might as well wipe them out alongside the Khans, if only to have Mr. House go on an amazing motive rant.
Spent a little time on Amazing Cultivation Simulator. I suspect that this will be the first playthrough that goes to end-game. I added a second inner disciple, but both of my inners are the same law, which limits my abilities somewhat. I'm doing a few things for the first time that are very important. I've collected dragon feces for my metal element cultivation room. I've managed to start gathering clues for the plot mystery. And I've established a branch office in a city so that I can start gathering more recruits. When I signed off, I was about to send my alchemist to investigate a mysterious hall that required alchemical knowledge to safely navigate. I'll find out how it went the next time I start up the game. Hopefully I'll get some valuable potion manuals out of it.
Did the Aldecaldos ending. It was nice but not as resonating as
Spoiler:
giving my body to Johnny Silverhand. I think he'll make a difference by passing on his hard-earned wisdom as he does for that kid in the epilogue
.
In the end, RPing as Attelus Kaltos sorta as a Corpo as the 1st Secret War is actually sorta a Cyberpunk story in 40k. Attelus is a Corporate Samurai in Secret War. But now my V sprints in and slaughters several enemies in a split second before any can react, but he wields a katana, unlike Attelus with a power long sword.
I actually just finished subnautica below zero. Had a few nights shifts at work so decided to play something chill. Subnautica below zero fit the bill. Fired up my old save file and finished the last few hours I had left of the game. I stand by my earlier impression of this game. The original subnautica was a 10/10 game. This is a 8/10. It’s still a very good game but not quite on the level of it’s predecessor. The ending was certainly good but so was the originals. Overall I’m glad I fired it up again and finished it.
So then I moved onto six ages: ride like the wind and some sunless skies. Six ages is more or less king of dragon pass. It’s not as good as kings of dragon pass but it’s definetly a good game. The big difference is that you play a different people with different gods and you have more options on things to do each season. Also it’s a bit more streamlined. For instance you don’t get “bushels of food” anymore but rather seasons of food, which to me make things harder to calculate. Probably easier for a general audience though.
Back on RimWorld. My colony now has a huge farm with dozens of horses, Muffalo, and many other animals. It's great selling horses is a great way to make money and my colony is rolling in silver. They're on the cusp of building a transport airship to fly to the starship off world just need 250 synthread. Which is super expensive and rare, though. Might request a trade convoy from allies. I've never clocked RimWorld before, buuuut I must admit I've cheated a lot by reloading earlier save files when things went a bit wrong lol one of my pawns got shot in the back and killed by another in an enemy attack which made me growl out and reloaded. The enemy had just begun to retreat as well lol. Fun as frig, yet frustrating game.
Have time currently so I'm playing a whole pile of games.
I've got Fallout 4 on the go, I never finished it first time round so I'm hoping to rectify that. I can't remember why at the time. I think I hit a point in the story that I didn't enjoy and I was perhaps a little disappointed in the game. Replaying it now I'm coming into it with a different mindset and I'm actually enjoying it. I forgot I enjoyed a lot of the thing about the game.
I'm also playing the new update to Deep Rock Galactic with a few mates, the new stuff is pretty cool.
Also because it has the same pull as warhammer, I'm playing some WoW classic. Want to try and do one BC raid before wrath comes out..
Revisiting Battletech. Made the jump from a light/medium lance to a heavy/assault lance (still find it odd that the game pacing works out that way, pretty much every time), and picked up a fair amount of Lostech weapons.
Now focused on money making to buy the various Royal versions from the Black Market. Lore-wise, I think that's an abomination, but I enjoy double heat sinks and extra build versatility too much.
Definitely agree on the awesomeness of both subnautica games. The second was much more relaxing purely due to Reapers being the most stressful thing ever
Played through Resident Evil as a refresher and to help a friend out with their playthrough, also did more Aliens: Fireteam, giving the new Lancer class a more thorough tryout.
Must revisit Deep Rock Galactic soon as well, itching to see the new content and to unlock the stuff I didn't manage to get the first time around, now that the first season pass cosmetics has been added to the game itself.
About a week ago I got back into Star Trek Online after a ten year break. I'm already level 65, blew a lot of my premium currency I banked up from my lifetime subscription on stuff and getting the USS Vengeance because it looks cool. I still don't really know what I'm doing, but space lasers go pew-pew and I'm happy.
Few turns into a Yan Baihu playthrough in Total War: Three Kingdoms. Was fiending for some Total War action and Warhams 3 has been a big letdown so far.
Had never really given this faction much attention when I was playing regularly a year or so back. Its pretty fun so far, though it seems like all the serious action is happening up north where all the big players are bumping heads. Going to set my sights on Sun Juan's lands and go to war.
Slowly taking my time and working through the remastered life is strange - just finished the before the storm prequel.
I've played all the games in the series several times over, and it's easily my favourite series so I'm just enjoying an hour here and there with it. Have too much painting to do besides.
Olthannon wrote: Have time currently so I'm playing a whole pile of games.
I've got Fallout 4 on the go, I never finished it first time round so I'm hoping to rectify that. I can't remember why at the time. I think I hit a point in the story that I didn't enjoy and I was perhaps a little disappointed in the game. Replaying it now I'm coming into it with a different mindset and I'm actually enjoying it. I forgot I enjoyed a lot of the thing about the game.
I'm also playing the new update to Deep Rock Galactic with a few mates, the new stuff is pretty cool.
.
Each time I have played Fallout 4 I end up getting to the point where I am sprinting around trying to protect settlements, and end up not getting to the end of the game(!) I think I did see the BoS ending, but need to get to the others.
Deep Rock Galactic is a great game, so much fun. It's replaced Helldivers as my regular gaming night with buddies (although we seem to end up massing around in the bar almost as much as we spend time actually delving!)
Getting gakfaced before a job is the best way to play Ultimate Squat Simulator. Bonus points if you get blackout drunk, wake up in scrubs and proceed to the do the drop in said scrubs. ROCK AND STONE!
Battletech campaign continues. Got most of the Royal SLDF mechs for my primary lance, pride of place being a truly disgusting Highlander with a pair of updamage LBX-10s (with minor weight reductions), an LRM 15 and 10 with bonus stability damage, and a couple spare medium lasers. It just guts enemy mechs.
Currently the Highlander is deployed with:
Bull shark (a pair each of Ultra AC5s and AC2s, plus the stock ER mediums.
Battlemaster (Royal variant) Snub PPC, medium lasers, LRM racks.
and a Royal Griffin. 25 LRMS (2x10,1x5) , 2 medium lasers.
Everything has jump jets, which helps the mobility issues, and the Royal variants can spare the weight.
---
Have a royal Phoenix Hawk for the basis of a faster (and lower drop weight) lance with the Griffin. Want to add Royal versions of the Warhammer and Black Knight to the 'fast' lance, and replace the Griffin in the assault lance with an Atlas II.
Will definitely need to spend money on better energy weapons for the Warhammer and BK, and the Phoenix still needs some work. One of its guns is just a stock large laser!
Had an annihilator that I headshot in a disturbingly low-skull mission, but couldn't stand the speed. And didn't have enough improved autocannons to justify it. Had an HQ Cyclops for a good long while, but it just doesn't have enough spare tonnage (or weapon slots). The royal Griffin outguns it, despite being two weight classes lower.
Olthannon wrote: Have time currently so I'm playing a whole pile of games.
I've got Fallout 4 on the go, I never finished it first time round so I'm hoping to rectify that. I can't remember why at the time. I think I hit a point in the story that I didn't enjoy and I was perhaps a little disappointed in the game. Replaying it now I'm coming into it with a different mindset and I'm actually enjoying it. I forgot I enjoyed a lot of the thing about the game.
I'm also playing the new update to Deep Rock Galactic with a few mates, the new stuff is pretty cool.
.
Each time I have played Fallout 4 I end up getting to the point where I am sprinting around trying to protect settlements, and end up not getting to the end of the game(!) I think I did see the BoS ending, but need to get to the others.
Deep Rock Galactic is a great game, so much fun. It's replaced Helldivers as my regular gaming night with buddies (although we seem to end up massing around in the bar almost as much as we spend time actually delving!)
Yeah I think that was one of the reasons I stopped playing the first time round.
Spoiler:
That and the whole "Luke I am your son thing" as a plot twist. Really thought that was daft.
Started up the new Chaos Gate game this morning. I had just enough time to get through the tutorial mission before I had to head to work. Unlike the campaign, the tutorial has you fighting the final mission of a lengthy campaign against the forces of Khorne. All of your actions are scripted to introduce you to the gameplay. That's nice for showing what you can do, but not so useful for showing the numbers that I'll need to start crunching to beat the game.
Events that happened included kicking open a massive cathedral door, slamming into a pillar to knock it over on enemies (with a reticle used to aim where it fell), shots that always hit (cover reduces the damage you take), marines can survive losing all of their health (it does take them out of action for a while, though), and a marine jumping across a gap.
While I enjoyed the mission, it was fully scripted, and so wasn't a normal fight. It existed purely to explain mechanics, and showcase abilities.
I've been enjoying the oblique weirdness of Cultist Simulator. You juggle various timers to try to keep your cultist alive, while possibly establishing a cult and expanding your knowledge of the dark arts.
It's like Mario party meets an interactive Lovecraftian horror story, that is totally unexplained to the user.
I shot down and successfully stormed the overseer ship!
It ended with a nice down to the wire moment. There were two muton elites left, two of my guys (the medics, of course) were on the floor bleeding out, and I managed to use a combo of mindfray and just shooting dudes in the face to take the elites out in one turn and save my guys by ending the mission.
I'm back at it in Warframe again. I keep dropping the game for a while, and then come back and have fun with it some more. Like having an ex that I broke up with for a good reason yet I can't quite give up all of my feelings for, or something.
I wish i could say i'm playing games but i'm not playing a whole lot. Maybe i've gotten too old for em, maybe games just suck too hard these days, maybe i'm depressed or maybe all of the above.
I played xcom 2 a bit more and tried to finish the current campaign on Legend/Ironman but the end game is just so dull for some reason. Maybe it's the fact tech advances as much as it can and it's no longer an arms race vs the aliens. I think it's the same kind of problem 4X strategy games have and xcom style games in general. Late game is just boring as losses aren't as devastating and wins aren't so critical.
I also played Starcraft 2 legacy of the void from the start a little bit and fumbled that pretty badly. Maybe i should play starcraft 2 again except mostly multiplayer.
Maybe i should play one of my other games i've never tried before like start up Tails of Iron or Deus Ex: Mankind Divided again.
I've been playing a bit of DRG, always a laugh. I've just unlocked the new rail gun for the gunner and I'm eager to get blastin'.
The microwave gun that the driller gets is absurdly fun.
Steadily knocking along with world of warcraft, the Light loves a grinder eh?
Fallout 4 meanwhile, well I've fallen by the wayside. I died rather ignominiously and then the save brought be way back to the start of the area and I've sacked it off since then
Steadily knocking along with world of warcraft, the Light loves a grinder eh?
Heh. I just let my time lapse again, mostly because of the grind- didn't want to spend 3-4 more weeks on the last couple thousand points to Exalted with the Court of Night and Enlightened.
Or level two more alts through Shadowlands (I do still enjoy older content, but I'm at the point where leveling up the abandoned archaeology skill for XP is more fun than the current expansion)
I'll probably pop back in once 9.2.5 happens and get characters ready for the next expansion, but I need a break from cycling world quests for gold that I don't need.
Finally beat the xcom 2 war of the chosen run. Since my soldiers had chosen weapons, the viper ruler armor and extra abilities from the training center I basically ran over the avatar facility. I did have a couple scary moments and did need to heal one guy once but otherwise I killed all 3 avatars and a bunch of stuff in the final area and the earlier section wiped out everything including the chosen warlock (the chosen I couldn’t kill permanently) though he didn’t teleport this time so I assume he died permanently this time.
I suppose I should try out the Long war of the chosen and try it at commander Ironman since long war mod is always one difficulty harder than vanilla xcom 2. This means xcom 2 legend Ironman (hardest difficulty in vanilla) is as hard as long war commander Ironman (2nd hardest in the long war mod).
Tried out the new Stellaris DLC (they sucked me in with Orbital Rings and the subterranean Origin even though the latter really isn't very good- bonus minerals at a cost of pop growth is a horrible trade for this game, though the extra housing and building slots makes it 'ok')
So I really didn't make a League of Votann civilization... except I did, but I forgot how freaking terrible Megacorporations are. The mechanics are interesting, but I inevitably get 'but all your neighbors are hostile to indifferent, and refuse to trade, so you can't do squat.' An Irenic Monarchy (inward perfection, doesn't trade) and a civ that had good matches with my ethics but switched to Rivalry (because reasons, which I think were just 'they didn't have one yet, so haha coding') are my immediate neighbors, and everyone else is on the other side of the first one, and too far away to care.
I did get the event chain for one of the new achievements (Lord of the Deeps?) and happily dug too greedily and deeply. And unearthed a frikkin' underground space amoeba (or something). Its a _15,000_ combat power army. Its still early game, so my armies' power ratings are 22 and 41 respectively. So, yeah, nothing to be done.
Going to restart for this weekend, try something else. Probably the latent psychics origin and some kind of ethic and trait combinations that I don't normally do. Maybe go full decadent Eldar and eventually become the crisis.
Played a little more of the new Chaos Gate: Daemon Hunters. I like the game, but unfortunately I don't have as much time to play it as I'd like. I am having fun with it, though. While the basic idea is similar to games like XCom, the actual playstyle is (so far, at least) much more aggressive. During gameplay, cultists are no longer the only enemies I'm running into. I'm now also fighting Plague Marines, who are noticeably tougher than the cultists. Still nothing that my Grey Knights can't handle with a little care.
Gotta say, whatever changes they've made to the AI, they absolutely blitz research now. I'm used to throttling back both to build an economy and to not completely overwhelm the AI, but with the latest patch, that isn't true anymore. The AI expands faster, builds more and researches a LOT more. To the point that everyone is superior/superior/superior in fleet/research/trade, and I'm used to that being the other way around after about year 50 or so.
In some ways it's good (because the stellaris AI was completely pathetic), but now it feels like competing as the player is very difficult. If I had hostile neighbors in my current game, I'd be dead, with nothing to be done about it, and other than pouring tons into research years and years ago, there doesn't seem to be a solution.
Finally visited, and returned from, each of the four ages in Myst, for the PSP. There's apparently a Rime age but that wasn't in the original game and I think is only available towards the end of the game. I hope its not too long before I move onto Riven, which is highly acclaimed but I didn't get a copy back in the day. Kinda wished I'd picked it up for the Saturn when I had the chance...
Had a go on Farcry 6 - my brother's copy - and quickly lost my rag when a load of radial menus popped and the dozy thing decided to whip out a mobile phone to take a photo, when trying to simply switch to a gun after repairing a vehicle. Which was the last thing one wants when suddenly jumped by unsavoury types...
Played the long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2. I think I must be way behind on things.
I have the engineers and intel isn’t bad but my scientist numbers were at 1 for too long so I rescued a 2nd and bought a 3rd in quick succession and it seems much better now.
I’m also way behind because a small chunk of my guys died. I think it’s 6 so far and 2 were captured in one mission and I’m about to rescue the 2 in another. I also had a lot of injured people so working on power and a Med bay would be a great idea.
Anyway here’s to hoping this game isn’t lost yet. I currently have intel to burn on missions so maybe I’m ok.
Made a big leap towards leaving the planet in RimWorld with the help of the SRTS mod allowing me to make a ship to travel the planet. I built another colony right next to the place where the starship is and have begun methodically moving supplies from my main colony, so I can create defences for the attacks that'll come when I begin powering up the ship (it'll also allow me to land the ship to a place where it's less likely to be destroyed or damaged by the enemy) Also been having my cook to make Survival Meals for the defence. Here's a pic of the ship I built. Took a long while and a lot of resources, but it was worth it. Also, Adrassil is here also lol
SamusDrake wrote: Finally visited, and returned from, each of the four ages in Myst, for the PSP. There's apparently a Rime age but that wasn't in the original game and I think is only available towards the end of the game. I hope its not too long before I move onto Riven, which is highly acclaimed but I didn't get a copy back in the day. Kinda wished I'd picked it up for the Saturn when I had the chance...
Myst and its sequels are truly amazing games. You mentioned Rime Age; it was indeed not in the original game, but was added in the RealMyst remake.
I probably need to come up with copies of all the games and play through them again. Some great memories from my childhood are of playing them myself, and watching some of my various relatives play through them also.
Started a new game of long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2 wotc. I think I’m doing ok except advent strength really piled up in the 3 areas I was grabbing intel from. I got to a 4th region which has only 1 advent strength so likely good for missions vs the 5 to either 6 or 7 advent strength in my previous regions.
This time I have like 5 scientists or so and 3 engineers and I’m fine with that. Ofc supplies are now an issue again.
Anyway I should maybe get a 5th or even a 6th region soon.
Myst and its sequels are truly amazing games. You mentioned Rime Age; it was indeed not in the original game, but was added in the RealMyst remake.
I probably need to come up with copies of all the games and play through them again. Some great memories from my childhood are of playing them myself, and watching some of my various relatives play through them also.
There is certainly a charm to Myst, with my favourite age being Stoneship. Just got both pages back to the books on Myst and the plot thickens...
Thankfully I bought the Exile Collectors edition, as an impulse purchase, back in the day and while at the time puzzles weren't my thing, it came with the complete guide to the game and I was able to just enjoy the visuals. It felt like a taste of what was to come for VR and eventually led me to develop small unity demos for the Oculus Go. Definitely a life-changing experience I must say.
I recently found out the C&C and Red Alert 1 remaster is free on xbox gamepass PC, so I downloaded that. Started the Allied Red Alert mission, it's a real joy to go back to a game that I haven't touched in over a decade. They have a really clever little intro when you boot up the game to show how they've changed the graphics and sound.
Fallout: New Vegas for the first time in a long time. Now with a plethora of mods, including the Someguy series, the character uphaul and the A World of Pain mod, that makes the map has a heap more dungeons which makes exploring the map an almost whole new experience and "updated" HD textures which I like, mostly but some just look a little strange. I managed to get working well this time with few frame rate issues, and it hasn't crashed (besides when I quit the game, but I downloaded another patching mod, and that seems to have fixed that issue) Woops, spoke too soon, it just froze as I did a quick check on the game then, a shame. The last time I quit from the main menu, it didn't freeze, so I might try quitting to that and then quitting the game.
Same long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2 wotc. Only one squaddie has died so far and it’s currently early July in the game’s time. I have 6 scientists and 5 engineers as well as a possible 6th engineer if I win this mission.
My 4th region is doing well and somehow I managed to annoy advent enough to force their armies to station into west and east Africa and leave South Africa alone again. I’m trying to get a 5th region but that’ll require a radio relay somewhere and that may be dangerous with advent strength in those regions so high.
I could also use more intel and supplies but luckily I’ve been doing lots of supply depot missions. Sadly it only seems to be enough to arm and armor my guys and girls for battle.
Anyway it’s been a bit tough. I still have to liberate a region and I feel like I’m a bit slow at it.
Things are pretty good aside from all that though. My scientist and engineer numbers seem decent, I’m a few days away from magnetic weapons and low death counts as well as fairly high soldier numbers. 40 of those soldier guys but like 10 are rookies or squaddies and a bunch get wounded so I only really have about 18 guys I send out on missions.
Anyway sorry for the wall of text but this current campaign seems to be going well.
Still on Fallout: New Vegas. Just encountered the most FANTASTIC character of ALL time Fantastic. I remember back in the day how much of a meme this guy was and boy does he deserve it lol
Just unlocked Castellan Crowe in Chaos Gate : Daemonhunters. About to start a mission with him!
This game is pretty legit, aside from a bit of repetition in mission mechanics. Its challenging, even at standard difficulty but so rewarding when you are victorious.
I do take umbrage with the amount of damage a mere cultist can put on a Terminator armoured Grey Knight with an autogun though.
Edit: Crowe is a beast as expected, since he’s level 20 when he joins you.
Currently the game’s date is early may. Like the 7th or 8th at most. I have full lasers on all my squads and soldiers as far as I know. I’m also researching plated armor which should be extremely helpful and ready within a week or so. I could probably use more intel for getting new regions, scientists for research speed boosts and supplies for building facilities but im not sure. Since advent strength is so low at my main region I could probably put a new scientist on it to boost missions.
For some odd reason enemies don’t seem to want to go after my hq region despite doing a million missions there and most of my overall missions there. I did lots of supply missions, rescue personnel and other such missions but advent seems to go after all my other territories for some stupid reason. Oh well fine by me.
Also I’m on my way to liberating the region (South Africa) and I’m wondering with how lightly it’s defended I should probably get a new region for when I eventually can’t do any more missions at my hq.
More good news is of my 3 playthroughs this run seems to be going far better than the others and much faster too as well as usually with more missions being infiltrated at once. At peak numbers it was 4 at a time.
Well I got more supplies, more tier 2 armor and 1 more scientist in xcom 2 wotc long war mod. I’ll be playing the advent regional hq assault today and that might be it due to work schedule and getting enough sleep. If I succeed I get a lot of resources and enemy corpses to build more gear with as well as supplies. Ofc it could all go very wrong.
Also I need to get a good chunk more intel for contacting new regions. I’ve also lost some soldiers which I’d rather wish I hadn’t lost. I’m gonna have to replace them at some point.
Hah, me too. I can see why it's so well thought of.
I didn't play the witcher until 2018 I think? My wife said to me what the hell are you doing, how haven't you played it! And that was that. Wish it hadn't taken so long.
Been playing some more wow tbc, got to the mid 30s. Getting a mount feels like a real accomplishment. Desperately hoping to get a raid in before wotlk.
Ok so very, very good news. The liberation of South Africa was a success. I’m currently getting my 5th region. I’ve gotten my 2nd liberation mission for Australia which if I succeed I can do advent relay and get a relay up and running. Of course that will be tough I think even if I manage to ambush advent patrol just fine which lowers advent strength in the region.
I’m also basically drowning in the most basic enemy corpses though I could use more stun lancer corpses so I can have enough good swords to go around.
I’ve also got about 6 scientists and 5 engineers now and almost all of my soldiers are at corporal level or above.
All of my soldiers have a laser weapon when they go on missions as well as about 20 sets of tier 2 armor to protect them. When you think about it that much armor alone costs 100 alloys and that’s fairly expensive in resources. Then I’m researching magnetic weapons too and those will help a significant amount.
I spent today playing Elden Ring. I'd found it a bit hard to get into, but I think I've cracked it now. Just needed to get my hands on a Greatsword and upgrade it.
I had an experience in the Dragon Burnt Ruins that blew my mind, super "old school RPG" vibes which I'd already been picking up from it that really made me love the game. Part of me wishes fast travel wasn't so integral to the experience but I'm trying to ignore it where possible, back tracking is a real PITA though.
But christ, it's an absolutely huge game. I've finished every souls game so far (though I took the easy way out with Sekiro because I didn't love the rhythm game aspect to it) and I'm really starting to enjoy Elden Ring, but I wonder if I'd ever actually finish it?
Hah, me too. I can see why it's so well thought of.
I didn't play the witcher until 2018 I think? My wife said to me what the hell are you doing, how haven't you played it! And that was that. Wish it hadn't taken so long.
Been playing some more wow tbc, got to the mid 30s. Getting a mount feels like a real accomplishment. Desperately hoping to get a raid in before wotlk.
It's not blowing my mind actually. It's probably been overhyped for me. How long did it take you to get to level 30?
Automatically Appended Next Post:
flamingkillamajig wrote: Ok so very, very good news. The liberation of South Africa was a success. I’m currently getting my 5th region. I’ve gotten my 2nd liberation mission for Australia which if I succeed I can do advent relay and get a relay up and running. Of course that will be tough I think even if I manage to ambush advent patrol just fine which lowers advent strength in the region.
I’m also basically drowning in the most basic enemy corpses though I could use more stun lancer corpses so I can have enough good swords to go around.
I’ve also got about 6 scientists and 5 engineers now and almost all of my soldiers are at corporal level or above.
All of my soldiers have a laser weapon when they go on missions as well as about 20 sets of tier 2 armor to protect them. When you think about it that much armor alone costs 100 alloys and that’s fairly expensive in resources. Then I’m researching magnetic weapons too and those will help a significant amount.
As I said before this campaign is going well.
I knew those battles against the Nazi hordes were just side quest. Back to the true, eternal, struggle: non-stop Alien Invasions!
Still trucking through Elden Ring. Decided I'm fine with NPC summons and "ash" summons. Normally I don't use summons in Fromsoft games, but I'm gonna take a more relaxed approach to this.
Loving the game so far! I don't think it's quite the game changer it was made out to be, it's Dark Souls 3 with a horse, jumping and a big open world. That's what I expected, that's what I'm getting and I'm happy with it. Weirdly, the large number of enemy groups and the sort of "quantity over quality" nature of the world design reminds me most of Dark Souls 2, but I quite like that game as well so I'm really happy with that.
DS1 is still my favourite, but this is a great addition.
Still rocking out with WH40K: Chaos Gate Daemonhunters.
Killed the first of presumably 5 Great Unclean Ones. Was a fun fight where you get swarmed by Nurglings and you have to destroy their little spawn points while avoiding the GUO’s attacks. The Nurglings also heal the GUO, so you have to get them quick or you’ll get swamped. Took it out with no serious damage to my “A Team” squad. The GUO’s dialogue was excellent.
Got a full crew of 20 Grey Knights, a mostly upgraded Battleship and about 2/3rds of research done. My Knights: 1 Chaplain, 1 Librarian, 1 Paladin, Castellan Crowe, 2 Purifiers, 3 Apothecaries, 3 Interceptors, 3 Purgators and the rest are Justicars. My “Gotta get it done A Team” is max level and built fairly balanced. I use them for the tough story missions. The other 15 are leveling up every few missions under Castellan Crowe’s watchful eye, depending on whats called for.
Aside from a bit of repitition in missions+maps, a few bugs and a fairly archaic save game menu, think this is my front runner for 2022 Game of the Year. There is alot of potential in expansions and followups. Great fun.
Its making me want to paint Grey Knights or Death Guard…
nels1031 wrote: There is alot of potential in expansions and followups. Great fun.
I'd be surprised if we don't see a Khorne DLC. The models are already half-done just from the tutorial mission. It'd be a shame if they don't bring the rest of the faction in.
Hah, me too. I can see why it's so well thought of.
I didn't play the witcher until 2018 I think? My wife said to me what the hell are you doing, how haven't you played it! And that was that. Wish it hadn't taken so long.
Been playing some more wow tbc, got to the mid 30s. Getting a mount feels like a real accomplishment. Desperately hoping to get a raid in before wotlk.
It's not blowing my mind actually. It's probably been overhyped for me. How long did it take you to get to level 30?
Question: Did you mean level 30 on world of warcraft or on the Witcher? I can't remember how long it took me to get to 30 on the Witcher. As for WoW TBC, probably a couple of weeks.
I bought the Age of Empires III definitive edition a while ago when it came out but to be honest I barely played any. However, I saw the other day that they've released new civilisations so I thought I'd pick up the Italian and Malta DLC. Only £7.99 so I figured what the hey.
I gotta tell you it's an absolute blast. Loads of new maps set in Europe, with new 'native' units. I played a skirmish last night as the Italians and it was a total refresh for me. Definitely will carry on playing when I'm not on wow.
The last mission of Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters has me evaluating my skill choices, going way back to when my main squad's heart and soul, a sword and board Paladin was level 4(of 9).
They give you ample warning that the mission is coming, but I wasn't ready. Been great fun, though. I'm going to give it a few more tries tonight before I try something drastic.
hotsauceman1 wrote: Stardew Valley
Im actually kinda mad, i sopent my vacation just playong on my switch.
But its addicting. And i dont see an end point
That game is great, but I stopped playing because I realized how much of a 'real world' job it's like. Especially in the end game lol
Age of empires III def edition, with the new update/ DLC, quite a bit of fun, however i don't understand the decision for a tycon modi whilest it would've been more interesting to have a higher pop cap gamemmode
hotsauceman1 wrote: Stardew Valley
Im actually kinda mad, i sopent my vacation just playong on my switch.
But its addicting. And i dont see an end point
That game is great, but I stopped playing because I realized how much of a 'real world' job it's like. Especially in the end game lol
Yeah I'm in year 2. I thankfully have sprinklers so it helps alot.
To my own surprise I’ve been doing a lot of Valheim lately. Continued on my solo world and I’m some 600 days in. It’s very chill to just hang around the base, finish up building projects and such. Then I go on adventures every now and then to gather materials. All my pigs where killed by slime so I also spent some time taming new ones. Gotta day Valheim is one of my favorite chill/zone out games.
Made a start on Jedi Fallen Order, much better than I was expecting as my view of the AAA market is somewhat jaded
Also memorial play though of Vice City, its kinda of fugly these days and that RC Helicopter mission can shove a can or three of giggle cream up its Rusty Brown's, but its still silly and fun and Mr Liotta was the perfect voice casting
Horizon Forbidden West got a big update today with new game + (finally) as well as new armor dyes, weapons, trophies, even a whole new difficulty. Probably gonna boot that up tonight, but I'm a little worried I'll lose 2 months of my life to it again!
Anyone with a ps5 who likes open world RPGs should absolutely give it a shot if you haven't already, the game is excellent.
Playing more Surviving the Aftermath. It's generally a fun game. But there's one really big thing that bugs me, and that's the way that the game handles the population - particularly families (which don't exist in the game). The game tracks population by one of three age groups - kids, adults, and elderly (adults who are too old to reproduce). This is fine. The problem comes in because the game doesn't recognize family units. Everyone is just thrown into the general population mix. So when your population gets happy enough, they start reproducing. That means that you quickly run out of enough housing due to the rate that new kids get created. And because your new kids are the newest members of the population, they end up homeless. Surviving Mars (also published by Paradox) does the same thing (but adds residences that are only for kids), and I find it very annoying. In real life, family units form. And kids stay with their parents until they're old enough to move out on their own.
It's not that hard to handle in a somewhat proper fashion. Banished, which is similar in playstyle if not theme, does a good job of it. In that game, if there's a free house, then a man and a woman will pair off and move in. They'll form a family unit and start having kids. Those kids will stay in the house until they grow up, and then leave if a different house becomes available. The drawback is that you can end up with an elderly widow or widower living alone in a big house, which leaves you with unused housing space. But it's a better and more realistic way to handle this sort of thing, imo. Population growth can't exceed the number of existing houses, and you don't end up with every new infant wandering the streets.
Because of the delicious trailers from Darktide I've been playing Vermintide 2 with a pal. Man is it fun. I can't tire of hitting rats and nurglies. I picked up the engineer for Bardin so I'm keen to try that out.
I really enjoy these kinds of games, I miss playing L4D2.
I will soon be completely unable to play video games, likely for the next 18 years (hint) so I'm trying to grind out all the level 90 classes I've never done in D2. Right now working on a Throw Barb which I will soon respec into a Singer Barb. Then I want to grind a level 90 Hydra/Orb Sorcerer.
Took over the advent regional hq in long war of the chosen mod for xcom 2: wotc and i think i'm doing sorta ok. Ofc i have a lot less men now, soldiers are wounded and i'd do well to branch out even more. I have 5 regions now.
All this said i feel my accomplishments this game are kinda pitiful. I have full mags and should be able to start elerium research fairly soon.
At least the region i liberated has a lot of rebels collecting supplies and it's not in huge danger of being assaulted too soon.
Anyway not much else to cover. I'd really like to liberate another area if that's even possible any time soon.
You underestimate how fun it will be to play vidjagames with your kids. I was actually introduced to Diablo II by a friend's mom. She was playing it (hydra Sorc, actually! Also used a voulge for some reason) the first time I visited their house.
Also at first when you are doing the evening shift and the baby is asleep, there isn’t much else to do
Multiplayer stuff is hard because you might need to drop everything at a moments notice, so no more 100 player pubg or whatever, but single player stuff you can pause? Definately space for that.
You all assume I'm not going to also have a full time job, and we won't be perpetually taking extra levels of exhaustion.
I feel like in 4 months my stat line will be:
Human Dad:
Strength 10 (Because I can't go to gym anymore)
Dex 8 (Cus i'll be fat)
Constitution 13 (Because of powerbars and caffine)
Intelligence 15 (able to make car seat work)
Wisdom 14 (Able to tell the difference between Diapers and baby food)
Charisma : 18 (Dad jokes and no more hair)
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote: You all assume I'm not going to also have a full time job, and we won't be perpetually taking extra levels of exhaustion.
I feel like in 4 months my stat line will be:
Human Dad:
Strength 10 (Because I can't go to gym anymore)
Dex 8 (Cus i'll be fat)
Constitution 13 (Because of powerbars and caffine)
Intelligence 15 (able to make car seat work)
Wisdom 14 (Able to tell the difference between Diapers and baby food)
Charisma : 18 (Dad jokes and no more hair)
The first few months are certainly a bit like that but it does ease up over time. There certainly comes a point in which you say how much more exhausted could I possibly get?
But like all things it eases up. Also when the baby is asleep there's sod all else to do.
Also re: Flinty. I bloody hate games not having a pause. Or worse, when you hit the pause button but the game keeps going and you've just brought up a menu.
Agreed. You hit start and go to the toilet or something, then When you get back youve been eaten by wandering squirrels or something. Very annoying.
@Fezzik - you will be tired all the time anyway, and it’s important to keep up a few things that you genuinely enjoy otherwise what’s the point?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also I just started on Chorus that turned up on Game Pass. A distracting action Space fighter shoot and loot. The main characters are all so very conflicted it’s a little overdone, but the sentient psychotic space fighter is quite entertaining.
Ugh another failed long war of the chosen modded xcom 2 run. If at first you don’t succeed I suppose. I’m certainly trying. I’ve gotta be doing something wrong that I have to fix.
Has anyone done much time in Wasteland 3? I saw it was on sale and I didn't HATE the last one, but people told me this was more combat less story, which is already better than 2. I hated the story and the people of 2. I hate being forced to make people die horrible painful deaths, because the devs think binary solutions are edgy. Also I heard all the combat bugs from 2 are back for 3. Standing pointblank and missing with a automatic shotgun because RNG rolled a 1.
FezzikDaBullgryn wrote: Has anyone done much time in Wasteland 3? I saw it was on sale and I didn't HATE the last one, but people told me this was more combat less story, which is already better than 2. I hated the story and the people of 2. I hate being forced to make people die horrible painful deaths, because the devs think binary solutions are edgy. Also I heard all the combat bugs from 2 are back for 3. Standing pointblank and missing with a automatic shotgun because RNG rolled a 1.
I enjoyed it a lot, though it did have quite a few “No happy Ending” sort of choices, with no way to find middle ground. Particularly towards the end with certain characters.
Its been awhile since I played, but I was satisfied with the combat. Challenging but not frustrating. I gave it 3-4 playthroughs with different builds and character choices for different endings.
Music choices were… inspired, but weirdly seem to work in the world its set in.
DLC left much to be desired, particularly the game play mechanics of the Steeltown. I think the 2nd DLC was reviwed so poorly that I didn’t bother, though I’ve been meaning to give it at least a try.
If its on sale at a the $20 range, I’d say its well worth a shot.
Xcom 2 wotc with the commander ironman run and the long war of the chosen mod.
It's actually going really well and it's only early June (so a little over 3 months of the game world time). I have like between 15-20 sets of predator armor and 1 set of battle armor for rocket spamming as well as full lasers. Just about everybody has decent gear now and lots of vets as well as doing about 4 missions at a time. I should probably aim for at least researching magnetic weapons soon enough.
It really helped to get the vulture ability in the GTS and 100% extra xp for enemy kills helped a bit too. I was getting so many elerium cores i started selling a bunch for extra supplies esp. when the black market gave double supplies for each elerium core. I must've made hundreds upon hundreds of supplies that month in particular esp. with vulture.
I also have about 4 regions, 5 engineers (6 soon), 6 scientists, a GTS, a medbay and a proving ground (builds special items).
My only issues so far are intel, the fact i could use more enemy corpses and the fact i haven't done so much trying to liberate regions.
Fallout: New Vegas and, damn, just completed the Russell mod, it was very good. I am quite impressed, especially with Someguy's dialogue and characterisation.
I recommend his mods to anyone who plays FO: NV on PC!
Ok so I have elerium research done and power armor almost researched and it’s like early September in the game. I have only 7 scientists and 10 engineers now. I don’t think I need many more engineers. I need significantly faster research however.
I’m gonna try for an advent regional hq assault soon enough. Maybe a 2nd if I can. I’m waiting till my most frontline troops have power armor equipped.
I think I have about 50 soldiers now but 10 aren’t that good and about 3 I never use.
Anyway it’s sort of going well but I need to lower avatar progress big time.
Played through Inside, getting both the standard ending and the secret ending. Normally not my cuppa, but the atmosphere and mood of the game was something else alright.
Also got cracking on Escape Simulator, nothing too deep, but some fun brain teasers to work on after a long day at work for sure. Also did a partial speed run of Monkey Island 2 to create a save file for someone stuck on the notorious and still not fixed acid death trap bug.
Also played a crapton of demos due to it being demo week over at Steam. Personal highlight has got to be "GHPC" which is giving off some serious Armoured Fist 2 vibes, ace!
Gave Duskers a try recently, at a friends house, and It wierded me out. I'm an adult human, and this is a video game. Why am I shaking in fear and getting angry?
Got a bit farther in xcom 2 long war of the chosen mod. Felt like it took forever for those 6 days till power armor to go by. Now I have about 6 sets of power armor. I’m also gonna need to research coil guns but I might want to buy more power armor in the mean time. I may have to save up elerium cores later as well.
Currently I have 11 dead soldiers and 49 living soldiers and nobody is currently captured.
There isn’t a whole lot else to talk about besides having to do like 8 to 10 missions every 3 week period usually but it’s slowing down a little due to me infiltrating an advent regional hq. The advent strength of the hq’s region is fairly low so it should be a cakewalk hopefully.
nels1031 wrote: Giving 2017's "Prey" another playthrough with 2nd to hardest difficulty and survival options enabled. Its rough, but fun.
I've been meaning to finish the mooncrash expansion, but it has been so long I suspect i'd need to start from scratch. It relies heavily on the player building up a strategy and efficient path through the objectives as the game ramps up, and it has been years since I played it last.
Slogging through the 'Through the Ashes' DLC for Wrath of the Righteous.
They apparently wanted to make a sneaky puzzle game and well, it doesn't really work well with their engine or the rule-set (six characters making d20 rolls for stealth checks statistically fails frequently, folks. Its not viable without meticulous prebuild strategies).
Also not fun: puzzles that explode and auto-magically kill everyone for no reason, even characters that aren't even in the room. How old was that save? Ah, entering a building or map transition now doesn't trigger an autosave. Good to know. I think I'll quit for the night rather than start the entire zone over again.
For my less serious gaming, I'm playing Tale of Immortal. It's still in pre-release, which means I sometimes get the odd but of untranslated Chinese text. Aside from that occasional nuisance, it seems to play solidly enough.
For my serious gaming, I've started up DCS. So far I've managed to pitch the nose forward and break the propeller while parked in the civilian P-51 that comes with the base game. I think I had the throttle set too high at the time... No idea if I'll stick with it yet, mind you.
nels1031 wrote: Giving 2017's "Prey" another playthrough with 2nd to hardest difficulty and survival options enabled. Its rough, but fun.
Not perfect, but IMO one of the best singleplayer FPS's in the past decade. Arkane Studios projects always seems to be quality.
Prey confuses me. Wasn't the original Prey something about portals and alien abduction and you were a Native American of some sort? Then the other Prey was, like, "Prop-hunt SCP foundation" or something.
nels1031 wrote: Giving 2017's "Prey" another playthrough with 2nd to hardest difficulty and survival options enabled. Its rough, but fun.
Not perfect, but IMO one of the best singleplayer FPS's in the past decade. Arkane Studios projects always seems to be quality.
Prey confuses me. Wasn't the original Prey something about portals and alien abduction and you were a Native American of some sort? Then the other Prey was, like, "Prop-hunt SCP foundation" or something.
No, that's the second Prey. The original Prey was never released. IIRC, it was the planned "next game" after the amazing success of Duke Nukem 3D. My recollection is that it was supposed to have you fighting against a skilled and powerful enemy - possibly something along the lines of one of Quake Arena's bots, but better. Didn't happen, obviously. But apparently the name stuck around for quite a while even with no actual game attached to it. The game that had you playing as the "Native American abducted by evil aliens" caught me off-guard when it shipped, since it appeared to have nothing with the original concept that had been mentioned a long time before.
The new Prey is a lot more like System Shock 2, imo.
Well my previous run failed a while back. I faced 3 avenger defenses of which 2 were chosen defenses. I failed the 3rd defense due to bad choices and Ironman meant I lost everything.
In this play I have less soldiers I think and my deaths are probably higher for being so early but my tech has developed really quickly. I also have elerium researched which is probably extremely fast considering the current game’s date (either late July or august but likely late august). Pretty sure I have about 7 scientists and maybe 5 or 6 engineers. I also liberated a region by assaulting the advent regional hq. I’ve also got 7 regions now but most have significant advent strength so doing missions is harder.
I have full mags and full predator armor but I might want better armor soon. Ofc power armor is expensive and my resources which are decent may not be enough to field much of it for now. My supplies are also really low so that could be another problem.
Anyway we’ll see how it goes when I get back to it.
Finally got a PS5 and picked up Elden Ring and the new Rachet and Clank. I've never been a huge fan of the latter franchise, but this one really clicked with me, I think just because games with this much focused action and creativity feel so rare these days. Elden Ring seems solid, but feels so slow in comparison. Just surprised how much I'm liking R&C.
LunarSol wrote: Finally got a PS5 and picked up Elden Ring and the new Rachet and Clank. I've never been a huge fan of the latter franchise, but this one really clicked with me, I think just because games with this much focused action and creativity feel so rare these days. Elden Ring seems solid, but feels so slow in comparison. Just surprised how much I'm liking R&C.
I would highly, highly recommend you also try Horizon Forbidden West. If you're into open world RPGs, it's one of the best there is. It looks absolutely gorgeous on ps5.
I’ve been playing Starship troopers: Terran command. It’s fun but sadly no multiplayer is gonna hurt people trying to play this game for a lengthy time.
I used to like most units except snipers but snipers help to suppress the royal guard enemies enough so that they can get destroyed by rocket troopers.
Anyway I hope this game gets dlc or other campaigns besides kwalasha or a co op mode or multiplayer. It’d really help this game a lot.
LunarSol wrote: Finally got a PS5 and picked up Elden Ring and the new Rachet and Clank. I've never been a huge fan of the latter franchise, but this one really clicked with me, I think just because games with this much focused action and creativity feel so rare these days. Elden Ring seems solid, but feels so slow in comparison. Just surprised how much I'm liking R&C.
I would highly, highly recommend you also try Horizon Forbidden West. If you're into open world RPGs, it's one of the best there is. It looks absolutely gorgeous on ps5.
Already got it; loved the original. I had actually planned to start there, but R&C won the family vote and while I planned still to switch to Horizon right away, R&C really sucked me in.
Since its on sale at 90% off, I got a few of my gaming group to purchase 2018's Strange Brigade. Its mostly mindless shooter fun with a few logic puzzles and scavenger hunts thrown in to change things up. I had forgotten how corny the narrator was, but he's kind of funny.
Finally, now that it on Steam I bought Final Fantasy Remake Interlude blah blah blah. And downloaded it because we're on a new internet provider and I'm playing it. I'm in the Sector 7 slums, killing monsters with Tifa and enjoying it a lot. They really stayed true to the original with the art design and atmosphere it's translated well to HD modern graphics. A bit OTT in places though lol. Barrett is the largest ham that has ever hammed but that's true to his character, I suppose but the old game had the excuse of limited expressions and graphics.
Adrassil wrote: Finally, now that it on Steam I bought Final Fantasy Remake Interlude blah blah blah. And downloaded it because we're on a new internet provider and I'm playing it. I'm in the Sector 7 slums, killing monsters with Tifa and enjoying it a lot. They really stayed true to the original with the art design and atmosphere it's translated well to HD modern graphics. A bit OTT in places though lol. Barrett is the largest ham that has ever hammed but that's true to his character, I suppose but the old game had the excuse of limited expressions and graphics.
I started playing it when it was free on the Playstation a while back. But I'm not happy with the changes to the story. I'm sure that many would argue that the changes are minor (at least so far as I played through it). And I suspect that the reason for the changes is because they were turning one large game into three(?) much smaller ones and needed to change the pacing up as a result. But I can't say that I'm happy with the result.
I started playing the demo for Turbo Overkill, and it's super fun. Ultra difficult though, need fast reflexes. Can't wait for the actual game. It's really awesome to see Apogee come out with this type of banger on their re-awakening. I still remember wasting HOURS playing the OG Duke Nukem, and Bio menace, and Commander Keen....
Eumerin wrote: I started playing it when it was free on the Playstation a while back. But I'm not happy with the changes to the story. I'm sure that many would argue that the changes are minor (at least so far as I played through it). And I suspect that the reason for the changes is because they were turning one large game into three(?) much smaller ones and needed to change the pacing up as a result. But I can't say that I'm happy with the result.
Ah, yes, I can understand that; good thing you stopped playing, as from what I've heard by the end, it goes in a WHOLE different direction. A different direction that, let's just say, allows Square Enix to make many more DLC and milk it for a long time more. So far, for me, I like the changes so far, such as getting to know Jessie, Biggs and Wedge a lot more than in the original, and also meeting and fighting another SOLDIER who wasn't Sephiroth was interesting to me.
Back OT I've just fallen into the church and defeated Reno, which was a fun boss fight especially compared to all of the big mechs I've fought so far.
Eumerin wrote: I started playing it when it was free on the Playstation a while back. But I'm not happy with the changes to the story. I'm sure that many would argue that the changes are minor (at least so far as I played through it). And I suspect that the reason for the changes is because they were turning one large game into three(?) much smaller ones and needed to change the pacing up as a result. But I can't say that I'm happy with the result.
Ah, yes, I can understand that; good thing you stopped playing, as from what I've heard by the end, it goes in a WHOLE different direction. A different direction that, let's just say, allows Square Enix to make many more DLC and milk it for a long time more. So far, for me, I like the changes so far, such as getting to know Jessie, Biggs and Wedge a lot more than in the original, and also meeting and fighting another SOLDIER who wasn't Sephiroth was interesting to me.
Back OT I've just fallen into the church and defeated Reno, which was a fun boss fight especially compared to all of the big mechs I've fought so far.
You're getting close to the part where I finally quit playing.
The fight with the other Soldier was annoying to me. He's an arrogant, egotistical loose cannon completely not fitting in with a company like Shinra (or any military organization, either). I also found him too much of a buffoon to take seriously. Even worse, it looks like I'd probably have to fight him at least one more time if I started playing again. The focus on Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, is what I view as part of the padding added in this game. They're not really important to the long-term story. And the new background on Jessie's Dad is supposed to make us feel more hostile to Shinra. But because why? We already know that they're killing the planet. We need additional reasons to want to stop them? Do we also need a scene of President Shinra kicking a puppy and stealing candy from a toddler? Plus, Cloud is consistently depicted as mildly indifferent to everyone and everything at this point in the original game (for good reason, though we don't find out why until much later). He's only involved with Avalanche because he's being paid. Throwing the Jesse background stuff in there messes with that.
Finally, there's the appearance of Sephiroth early on. I don't recall whether he gets mentioned early on in the original game (the first mention I can remember is when Cloud finally meets President Shinra, and Cloud name-drops Sephiroth). But he doesn't show up until what would be roughly around the end of this game's story (except, you come upon his trail instead of actually seeing him). You don't know who he is aside from his name, and it's not really clear that Sephiroth is supposed to be a big bad. In fact, given that the first time you see anything about him, you're following his trail of destruction through Shinra HQ, he might even be an ally (since he's also opposed to Shinra). But in the remake, Cloud has a hallucinated encounter with him almost immediately. Why? It doesn't really help with the story (in fact, I think it detracts from it). But the writers have apparently upended the story (yes, I'm aware of what happens at the end of this false remake; someone was complaining about it here a while back), so they need to introduce a character whose presence isn't even felt in the original until after what would be the end of this game.
The original was well-received in large part due to the story. Unfortunately, the supposed remake can't resist meddling with the story (which means that it's not really a remake), and in doing so makes things worse every single time.
Eumerin wrote: You're getting close to the part where I finally quit playing.
The fight with the other Soldier was annoying to me. He's an arrogant, egotistical loose cannon completely not fitting in with a company like Shinra (or any military organization, either). I also found him too much of a buffoon to take seriously. Even worse, it looks like I'd probably have to fight him at least one more time if I started playing again. The focus on Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge, is what I view as part of the padding added in this game. They're not really important to the long-term story. And the new background on Jessie's Dad is supposed to make us feel more hostile to Shinra. But because why? We already know that they're killing the planet. We need additional reasons to want to stop them? Do we also need a scene of President Shinra kicking a puppy and stealing candy from a toddler? Plus, Cloud is consistently depicted as mildly indifferent to everyone and everything at this point in the original game (for good reason, though we don't find out why until much later). He's only involved with Avalanche because he's being paid. Throwing the Jesse background stuff in there messes with that.
Finally, there's the appearance of Sephiroth early on. I don't recall whether he gets mentioned early on in the original game (the first mention I can remember is when Cloud finally meets President Shinra, and Cloud name-drops Sephiroth). But he doesn't show up until what would be roughly around the end of this game's story (except, you come upon his trail instead of actually seeing him). You don't know who he is aside from his name, and it's not really clear that Sephiroth is supposed to be a big bad. In fact, given that the first time you see anything about him, you're following his trail of destruction through Shinra HQ, he might even be an ally (since he's also opposed to Shinra). But in the remake, Cloud has a hallucinated encounter with him almost immediately. Why? It doesn't really help with the story (in fact, I think it detracts from it). But the writers have apparently upended the story (yes, I'm aware of what happens at the end of this false remake; someone was complaining about it here a while back), so they need to introduce a character whose presence isn't even felt in the original until after what would be the end of this game.
The original was well-received in large part due to the story. Unfortunately, the supposed remake can't resist meddling with the story (which means that it's not really a remake), and in doing so makes things worse every single time.
I agree that it shouldn't have been labelled a "remake" as it isn't and I understand your disappointment in that fact, because it really isn't. More a "retelling" maybe?
Well, while Jessie, Biggs and Wedge are not important to the larger plot (well, sorta) I appreciate the characterisation given to her in that chapter, it definitely makes her more than the flirty, happy-go-lucky girl. Now I see her motivations for going against Shinra and it's damned understandable, and how much she truly regrets blowing up the reactor and wishes to try to make it less likely to happen to be willing to infiltrate a high-security Shinra facility to get more explosives. I appreciate characterisation and it made me care more about her, much more so than the original where she was 2 dimensional at best and how far Biggs and Wedge are willing to go to help them too, by proxy. It also expanded on the world-building with the other Avalanche members attacking the facility (them attacking that same night was a bit of a contrived coincidence in my eyes, but I digress) It also foreshadows the fact that maybe they have joined forces with Wutai which is also for the way Shinra is manipulating things. Cloud helping her doesn't seem too out of the wheelhouse at all, he's a Jerk With a Heart of Gold trope to a "T".
Yeah, that SOLDIER is annoying, but, I dunno, the FF series has had weird and wacky things about it for ages now and it made it all the better to beat the crap outta him for me at least. It was good having a member of the vaunted SOLDIER beside the main characters and it expanded the world a bit more in my eyes.
Sephiroth appearing is just sorta "meh" to me, he's so over exposed and every man and their dog know about him so there was no way the fact that he's "alive" and he murders almost all of Shinra won't be nearly as impactful if they attempted to make the exact same way.
I think we should just agree to disagree
I'm enjoying it a lot, although the "dodge" seems to suck, what's the point of a dodge without any frames of invulnerability? lol Just fought Rude outside Aerith's place and quit in frustration he's much more annoying than Reno was.
I finally decided to try out Warhammer 40,000: Space Wolf. It's been sitting in my Steam library for a year or two now without me touching it (got it free from that issue of White Dwarf that included a code for a bunch of Warhammer games). It's actually kind of fun, if a bit of an odd mashup of game mechanics.
The problem with the motorbike SOLDIER is that he is just too wacky and unreliable. It makes zero sense for shinra to keep him around. He was actively detrimental to their security. I saw some people trying to defend him back when the game released by saying that his unreliability and volatility is what keeps him 3rd class, but that makes even less sense as 3rd class are more likely to be deployed with the common security forces, such as during the assault on shinra tower where you fight lots of 3rd class SOLDIER members. And they are just normal people who are stronger than the regular guards.
I blame Crisis Core for that kind of change. In the original game, Sephiroth was the freak in SOLDIER. He stood completely alone. Crisis Core made him one of the freaks.
I’ve been playing xcom 2 long war of the chosen mod and it’s going insanely well. Ofc I tend to say that and after a while my guys get destroyed from something (usually a chosen led avenger defense).
I’ve been trying new things this time and have some officers with good ranks. They actually help a lot with some skills. I also have most of the buildings and I’m busy building a resistance ring.
My alloys are feeling a bit low as well as scientists but I built a lab and got it fully staffed.
Anyway things are going well. I liberated west Asia which holds parts of Russia and is funny it was held by a ridiculously oppressive regime before my rebels took it. Difference is we liberated it from aliens.
Started a new Hearts of Iron 4 game as the USSR. Sent volunteers to Spain to fight in the civil war. When my troops arrived, I assigned them to cut off a small over-extended group of Nationalist troops not far from Valencia. My regulars failed miserably, being completely unable to push forward on the narrow front I'd selected for them. So I decided to have them hold the line until an opportunity presented itself. And then I waited. And waited. The Anarchists eventually broke away in the northeast while I waited, still under constant pressure from the Nationalists. The slim sliver of Republican territory between the Anarchists and Nationalists was wiped out, but then the line solidified, with the two sides seemingly ignoring each other. Meanwhile, the Nationalists mostly encircled Madrid, but progress against it was slow. The Nationalist main effort was instead against the port of Valencia. Only after the Nationalists had finally ground it down, cut it off from the rest of the Republican-controlled territory, and then completely overrun it (and of course wiped out the volunteers that I'd sent) did they finally start to make serious efforts against the other two fronts.
What a waste. And definitely one of those times when the computer seemed to have it in for me, specifically.
It was also over awfully quickly. I'm used to the civil war taking years. But iirc it only took about 13-14 months from start to finish.
Eumerin wrote: Started a new Hearts of Iron 4 game as the USSR. Sent volunteers to Spain to fight in the civil war. When my troops arrived, I assigned them to cut off a small over-extended group of Nationalist troops not far from Valencia. My regulars failed miserably, being completely unable to push forward on the narrow front I'd selected for them. So I decided to have them hold the line until an opportunity presented itself. And then I waited. And waited. The Anarchists eventually broke away in the northeast while I waited, still under constant pressure from the Nationalists. The slim sliver of Republican territory between the Anarchists and Nationalists was wiped out, but then the line solidified, with the two sides seemingly ignoring each other. Meanwhile, the Nationalists mostly encircled Madrid, but progress against it was slow. The Nationalist main effort was instead against the port of Valencia. Only after the Nationalists had finally ground it down, cut it off from the rest of the Republican-controlled territory, and then completely overrun it (and of course wiped out the volunteers that I'd sent) did they finally start to make serious efforts against the other two fronts.
What a waste. And definitely one of those times when the computer seemed to have it in for me, specifically.
It was also over awfully quickly. I'm used to the civil war taking years. But iirc it only took about 13-14 months from start to finish.
Have you checked the provinces for the unplanned offensive modifier.
The AI needs to remove it, if it doesn't then it doesn't matter if you throw in your best 30-40 width tank division against the 6-12 width civil war infantry since the modifier is crippling offensives heavily.
Also if you want the republicans to win (which isn't even particulary beneficial, especially if you play ahistorical), you not only need to send volunteers but also mostly infantry equipment and some artillery. Further you WILL require air volunteers to stand any realistic chances of winning it.
Especially since if you are purging the army is in shambles anyways and more pressingly the army is in shambles before due to the red/ russian army modifier.
Xcom 2 lwotc updates. Things are going well and I’m not really losing soldiers. I’ve got about 6 regions and probably should try to grab more. I have 8 engineers and 8 scientists with a fully staffed lab. I also recently got full mags research done so elerium should probably be next. I think it’s early august in game time but I can’t remember. All but maybe 5 of my guys are at least sergeant level. So about 30 at least at sergeant level and 5 below.
Anyway most things are going well. I have had the resistance ring for a little while now. I’m kinda waiting for the next supply drop to go on a buying spree.
Pathfinder kingmaker towards the end. I really really like this game. I’m at a point where I have so much money I could decide to abolish taxes and still roll in cash and BP. The only problem is my kingdom stats aren’t as high as they should. It’s the time it takes to raise them that’s the problem. I want to finish the game with a maxed out kingdom but very much doubt I’ll be able to. I’ve finished all the trade agreements though. Also just finished Darvens quest. That was.... an experience.
Nerak wrote: Pathfinder kingmaker towards the end. I really really like this game. I’m at a point where I have so much money I could decide to abolish taxes and still roll in cash and BP. The only problem is my kingdom stats aren’t as high as they should. It’s the time it takes to raise them that’s the problem. I want to finish the game with a maxed out kingdom but very much doubt I’ll be able to. I’ve finished all the trade agreements though. Also just finished Darvens quest. That was.... an experience.
Actually had to look up who Darven was. I did it early enough (between various patches) that it was less an experience and more a very great annoyance because the next stage didn't proc for a long time, and the Hellknight interactions didn't go the way I expected them to (I expected them to react positively to a lawful, legalistic approach, and that seemed to have no effect). I believe I got frustrated enough with the whole thing that when the resolution came I just butchered everyone to be done with it. Second time around, I think I sided with him for some sort of positive bonus (that didn't really matter because it was so late game)
As far as Kingdom stats go, you can delve into the save files (I think its player.json, rather than party.json, once you open the save archive) and change the timers for stat improvement (and kingdom expansion), but those settings don't show up in the save file until after you establish the kingdom. They're both real annoying for wasting time on something your character really has no reason to supervise to the complete exclusion of everything else. But I'm not a fan of the kingdom system in general- its way too flat, with too much effort on nothing for minor bonuses and occasional pure Random Number Generator failures. It took several patch adjustments before playing it straight (without extreme min/maxing or cheese*) didn't result in almost statistically inevitable kingdom failure, just from RNG results.
*for example, making custom mercs with the stat for each kingdom position maxxed out and buy them the associated stat booster items. Hire them at level 8 and you've got a +9 bonus baseline (+10 at level 16) before rank bonuses, and no personality conflicts for choosing the 'wrong' dialogue options at rank up. Never take them on adventures and change the 'group XP' setting off (which you should do anyway, since you get more if you limit XP to just the active party).
A couple of friends and I picked up Ultimate Chicken Horse. I believe the game has been out a little while but oh boy is it good fun. Really enjoyable music.
We've also been playing Valheim. I hated it on principle but now I see the game for what it is, an early medieval house building game. In which case, I love it. My village is lovely.
Olthannon wrote: A couple of friends and I picked up Ultimate Chicken Horse. I believe the game has been out a little while but oh boy is it good fun. Really enjoyable music.
We've also been playing Valheim. I hated it on principle but now I see the game for what it is, an early medieval house building game. In which case, I love it. My village is lovely.
Two very entertaining games. I dislike all the supernatural stuff about Valheim, but with a friend it's really fun.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is just silly party fun, and can lead to much aggrevation as mario kart Probably more. Good stuff.
I was feeling under the weather, so I bought a video game. I greatly enjoy survival games with as little story, dialoge or "characters" as possible (the perfect thing for me would be none of the above. I just wanna be alone in a pretty looking, but hostile world), and preferrably 'realistic' but pretty graphics. I loved Subnautica for example (the fact that I'm deathly afraid of the sea and especially not seeing the ground below me probably even added to the enjoyment in some perverse way). I very much enjoyed Empyrion over the years. Terraria of course is a modern classic.
I read that Raft was hard even on easier settings. I started on Normal, and I don't quite get where the difficulty is supposed to come from. The graphics are a little bit too cartoony for me, but bearable. So far it's been alright. I'm just trying to set up the antennae for the receiver in some way that works.
@Eumerin: Now there's a username that rings a bell. I got HoI4 a few years ago, had a game as Australia, but not much beyond that. Back in the day (2001?) I got HoI bascially on release day because I loved the concept, and I played a LOT of it (back then I had more time too ). Still have to get into HoI4. I've cooled off on the big Paradox strategy games (played a lot of EUIII and EUIV until they changed it around so much I didn't recognize it any more) due to time constraints and mostly due to Paradox having developed into a horrible company. But I think I should give HoI4 a go again....
More xcom 2 lwotc and quite a few people are dying even with power armor. It mostly calmed down now but I lost quite a few awesome soldiers including character pool soldiers. I’ve almost got advanced coilguns researched so that’ll be nice. It’s about early November now and I have a lot of power armor. Losing any of it hurts due to cost. Anyway I’m gonna get back to work and update you guys later maybe.
Have you checked the provinces for the unplanned offensive modifier.
The AI needs to remove it, if it doesn't then it doesn't matter if you throw in your best 30-40 width tank division against the 6-12 width civil war infantry since the modifier is crippling offensives heavily.
Also if you want the republicans to win (which isn't even particulary beneficial, especially if you play ahistorical), you not only need to send volunteers but also mostly infantry equipment and some artillery. Further you WILL require air volunteers to stand any realistic chances of winning it.
Especially since if you are purging the army is in shambles anyways and more pressingly the army is in shambles before due to the red/ russian army modifier.
Thing is, I spent most of that time on the defensive. The only attacks I made were when my troops initially arrived. They spent the rest of their time in Spain purely on the defensive. Even if the Republican AI had set up logistics in the province I was in, my troops were never in a position to attack. The other oddities, as I noted, were that the computer put almost all of its focus on capturing Valencia, largely ignoring Madrid and the Anarchists until Valencia was captured. And the entire war was over in just a bit over a year, which is amazingly quick.
Mind you, I'm not hung up on it. It was just a very unusual Spanish Civil War compared with what I've seen in the past.
On another note, I've been playing the latest MS Flight Simulator lately. Managed to land my aircraft a few times yesterday, which was nice. Lining up the runway and actually landing is easily the most difficult part of flying a plane, and it's always nice to do it without wrecking on or off the landing strip.
No huge updates since the last one. I did a few missions and sadly had to deal with an advent reprisals which didn’t seem to kill anybody so far but one soldier was captured. I have to deal with an advent retaliation later which I’m fairly sure will suck. I have a lot of coilguns of all types now and I think most squad members have them. It’s definitely much cheaper to make them than power armor.
I also handled the advent ufo landing and took their resources on it as well as got to keep all their dropped corpses. Shocking I had to kill a sectopod and using a top tier sniper was able to disable it and wail on it and kill it before it got to really hurt me.
The mission where I had to fight the archon king while ambushing an advent troop column was also fairly tricky but I beat it.
The main issue with all of this is all these tough missions made it so a lot of my soldiers are heavily wounded so I can’t do a whole lot while I worry about 2 possible avenger defense missions that I’m going on resistance ring missions to undo so I can attack an alien facility and lower avatar progress.
————
Updates: I lost 3 dudes on haven defense trying to evac and then lost the avenger defense. I heard from a friend I can restart the avenger defense when I lose so I will try that. It sucks because even if I win it with no deaths everybody is just so badly wounded that I might not be able to do the alien facility mission.
Put a review up here if you can. That game looks like something truly unique.
I'm just over 2 hours in, and I'm enjoying it. Basic premise (from trailers, game descriptions, and first 10 minutes or so of the game): You're a cat. You live outside of a walled city that is populated by robots acting like humans. You get separated from your cat family and are lost inside the city and need to find a way out to get home. Parts of the city are infested with little blob things that want to kill you. You team up with a little flying drone that is your way to interact with objects and people.
And you can do cat things. There is a button dedicated to meowing. You can scratch on walls and carpets. You can knock stuff over. You can get your head stuck in a paper bag which reverses the movement controls. If you idle for a moment, you get random cat animations.
In terms of gameplay, it's not particularly different from other adventure games that let you climb and jump around to explore the world and collect objects to solve puzzles. The big difference is the world is much bigger than you, since you're a cat in a human-sized world, so the perspective is different. If you're a cat person, you may absolutely love the game (I am, so far). If you're not a cat person, then the core premise won't really appeal to you as much and it will feel like just another "adventure game that lets you climb and jump around to explore the world and collect objects to solve puzzles".
From what I've read, the game takes about 5-6 hours to complete. That likely depends on how much you durdle around being a cat. I'm a cat person, so I'm taking every opportunity to do cat things, so my gametime will likely be longer.
Hunt: showdown is running an event so doing that for now. It’s alot of fun. Hunt: syowdown is an extraction shooter. FPS Cowboys vs zombies and deamons. What’s not to love? The event seems great. Really enjoying hunting!
Stellaris as well. Got absolutely wrecked two games in a row. First was fanatic purifiers that utterly destroyed me early. Next game was ravenous swarm that devoured me mid game. Third times the charm. Everything was going well untill the nanite swarm entered the galaxy and started wrecking havoc. Most enclaves have fallen. I’m one of the few nations holding them off. Their 32k power fleets are just destroying everything they come into contact with. It’s really a mid game galactic crisis and I’m absolutely loving it. Trying to contain and minimize the destruction.
When my videogamey friends and I looked for new games after PUBG had gotten stale and RB6siege annoyed us (well, not all of us, but I for one hate everything about it. The presentation, the publisher, "superpowers", etc) we looked into Hunt:Showdown, but it's just up to three players per team, right?
Stellaris is said to be brilliant fun.
Me, I'm playing Dark Souls Remastered again and some AoE4 online. Raft not so much any more.
Sigur wrote: When my videogamey friends and I looked for new games after PUBG had gotten stale and RB6siege annoyed us (well, not all of us, but I for one hate everything about it. The presentation, the publisher, "superpowers", etc) we looked into Hunt:Showdown, but it's just up to three players per team, right?
Stellaris is said to be brilliant fun.
Me, I'm playing Dark Souls Remastered again and some AoE4 online. Raft not so much any more.
I can absolutely recommend hunt: showdown. There’s an event that just started right now and that’ll last for 2 months. Events are a great time to start playing. They usually come around every 3-4 months. Hunt allows for 1-3 player teams and each map has 12 players. It differs from other similar titles mostly by a slower pace and the PVE elements. Also has great atmosphere.
Stellaris is great but it is kind of hard to recommend. So much good content is locked behind dlc. I guess the core game is fun but it gets way better with things like leviathans dlc and utopia dlc.
Agree that dark souls is great. Gotta say my favorite souls game was demons souls though.
Sigur wrote: When my videogamey friends and I looked for new games after PUBG had gotten stale and RB6siege annoyed us (well, not all of us, but I for one hate everything about it. The presentation, the publisher, "superpowers", etc) we looked into Hunt:Showdown, but it's just up to three players per team, right?
Stellaris is said to be brilliant fun.
Me, I'm playing Dark Souls Remastered again and some AoE4 online. Raft not so much any more.
I can absolutely recommend hunt: showdown. There’s an event that just started right now and that’ll last for 2 months. Events are a great time to start playing. They usually come around every 3-4 months. Hunt allows for 1-3 player teams and each map has 12 players. It differs from other similar titles mostly by a slower pace and the PVE elements. Also has great atmosphere.
Stellaris is great but it is kind of hard to recommend. So much good content is locked behind dlc. I guess the core game is fun but it gets way better with things like leviathans dlc and utopia dlc.
Agree that dark souls is great. Gotta say my favorite souls game was demons souls though.
I used to be a huge fan of Paradox starting with the first Hearts of Iron up to EU4. I played the poop out of EU3 and 4, but their DLC policy really annoys me. They rendered their own games rather hard to play really. It's such a shame.
Aye, played Demon's Souls Remaster with my brother on the PS5. What a gorgeous game. Also played a fair amount of Elden Ring, but to be honest I prefer the most closed design of Demons Souls/Dark Souls/Bloodborne.
Dawn of War Soulstorm. The Unification Mod recently released its 6.9 version, and it includes the DKoK as a faction, and boy, is it fun to play survival with a faction that specialises about fortifying and holding the line
Playing Horizon: Forbidden West right now and at something of a paradox. On one hand, there's more stuff than I care for and I have that feeling that there's just endless busywork every time I turn it on. On the other hand, the combat is so engaging that I keep doing all the busywork just to see all the different encounters that get set up.
LunarSol wrote: Playing Horizon: Forbidden West right now and at something of a paradox. On one hand, there's more stuff than I care for and I have that feeling that there's just endless busywork every time I turn it on. On the other hand, the combat is so engaging that I keep doing all the busywork just to see all the different encounters that get set up.
That's definitely a valid criticism, there's a lot of stuff to do in that game. I'm a huge sucker for the world they created so I loved doing all the quests, learning about the Tanakth, and seeing the forbidden west. The world building is beautiful IMO. And yeah, the combat is incredibly satisfying. Everything from Burrowers all the way up to Slaughterspines - doesn't matter what I fight, it's always fun.
Its been a while, but the whole expansion is pretty empty if you just immediately gun down the raiders.
Its a weird DLC, especially with the order they released them. At that point in the game, siding with raiders is a weird choice. And overly convoluted to set them up to 'raid' settlements you had to have established in the first place.
For a fresh start, while it is doable, its a hard start to pull off early on when it would make sense (assuming you just ignore the other story hooks off the bat). And the reactivity frankly sucks, even for FO4.
LunarSol wrote: Playing Horizon: Forbidden West right now and at something of a paradox. On one hand, there's more stuff than I care for and I have that feeling that there's just endless busywork every time I turn it on. On the other hand, the combat is so engaging that I keep doing all the busywork just to see all the different encounters that get set up.
That's definitely a valid criticism, there's a lot of stuff to do in that game. I'm a huge sucker for the world they created so I loved doing all the quests, learning about the Tanakth, and seeing the forbidden west. The world building is beautiful IMO. And yeah, the combat is incredibly satisfying. Everything from Burrowers all the way up to Slaughterspines - doesn't matter what I fight, it's always fun.
It says something that they can have the gall to design underwater stealth levels that actually work. The part where they have you solving puzzles by raising and lower water levels had me laughing in Ocarina.
LunarSol wrote: Playing Horizon: Forbidden West right now and at something of a paradox. On one hand, there's more stuff than I care for and I have that feeling that there's just endless busywork every time I turn it on. On the other hand, the combat is so engaging that I keep doing all the busywork just to see all the different encounters that get set up.
That's definitely a valid criticism, there's a lot of stuff to do in that game. I'm a huge sucker for the world they created so I loved doing all the quests, learning about the Tanakth, and seeing the forbidden west. The world building is beautiful IMO. And yeah, the combat is incredibly satisfying. Everything from Burrowers all the way up to Slaughterspines - doesn't matter what I fight, it's always fun.
It says something that they can have the gall to design underwater stealth levels that actually work. The part where they have you solving puzzles by raising and lower water levels had me laughing in Ocarina.
Man, yes! Huge water temple vibes from that one cauldron, only this time you're not opening the menu every 5 seconds to equip/unequip your iron boots
Back on with playing some Hunt: Showdown. Very disappointed they got rid of the delicious menu music it's a real fun game. Love the art style with the cards and so on.
The long dark. A realistic survival game set in a Canadian winter. I’m having a very intense work week. Intense as in three 24 h shifts. So got this game on sale. After dying about 5 times because I did not know anything I looked up some guides. Turns out this is the perfect game for this week. It’s very slow paced. I play the sandbox mode and the goal is simply to stay alive. The atmosphere is great. This week is very stressful so taking some time hiking through the cold, running from wildlife and surviving as best I can is very relaxing. I play on stalker difficulty, which seems to fit me pretty well. Currently up to 8 days of survival. Will se how long I can survive. Aiming for 100 days! Recommend this game to anyone looking for a slow paced but challenging experience.
Nerak wrote: The long dark. A realistic survival game set in a Canadian winter. I’m having a very intense work week. Intense as in three 24 h shifts. So got this game on sale. After dying about 5 times because I did not know anything I looked up some guides. Turns out this is the perfect game for this week. It’s very slow paced. I play the sandbox mode and the goal is simply to stay alive. The atmosphere is great. This week is very stressful so taking some time hiking through the cold, running from wildlife and surviving as best I can is very relaxing. I play on stalker difficulty, which seems to fit me pretty well. Currently up to 8 days of survival. Will se how long I can survive. Aiming for 100 days! Recommend this game to anyone looking for a slow paced but challenging experience.
Can confirm this game is fun.
If memory serves, there are customizable difficulties so that its not as hardcore.
For myself, I've been going back and forth with various Total war games. Tried to get back into WH3 in anticipation of the big update coming soon, but the main campaign is still unfun and the map orientation irks me. Currently about 25 turns into a Aurellian campaign in Rome 2's Empire Divided, surrounded on almost all sides by germanic tribes and 2 different factions of Romans. I think once my 4th army stack is built, I'll be able to push outward and end some of the threats and then march on Rome. Great fun!
On Regiments, I've only played a little so far - getting through the Tutorials, and starting (but not finishing) the first operation. There's no multi-player in this game. The campaign is divided into "Operations, which are extended mission series. I've only just started, so I don't know how the full system works. But missions are divided into Phases, and each Phase has a set duration. You need to play a certain number of phases on a given map and achieve your objectives to move onto the next operation. There's a few other items, but I haven't played far enough to see how it works yet.
For an operation, you are assigned your base "Regiment" (more like a reinforced company - at least from what I've seen so far - but whatever). For the first operation, this is an East German Panzer Division with a couple of T-72 platoons, a couple of Motoschutzen platoons (infantry in BTRs), and a handful of support units. You can also get up to three additional support platoons from allied units.
Units are moved and fight as full platoons (similar to Ground Control, but different from Wargame). Units are deployed by spending points. You have a total number of points that you can spend at any given moment. If you withdraw a unit, it allows the unit to recover lost troops and vehicles, and also frees up points so that you can deploy other units instead. So you might start a battle with a pair of Hinds, and then swap them out for a tank platoon if you decide that there's too much enemy anti-aircraft capability. Your overall pool of units is determined before the battle, but you have flexibility when decided what specifically from that pool you want to bring onto the map. Unlike in Wargame, your point total is set from the start of the match, and doesn't increase over time. However, success on the map during a Phase will carry over to the next Phase, including reward points that can be spent to (among other things) give yourself additional deployment points.
Combat is what you would expect for an RTS. The platoon is your basic formation, though you can group multiple platoons together. You order units to where you want them to go. They engage in combat with enemy units that they encounter. If you lose a vehicle or infantryman, it's gone until you pull the platoon off the front line. If you lose the entire platoon, then you don't get it back. Recon units can spot units at longer ranges while not being spotted themselves. You will generally know that an enemy unit is in a particular location before you know exactly what that unit is. And if an enemy is far enough away from you and in cover, all that you'll see is the contrails of the fire that he's sending in your direction. Units can be order to hold fire (useful for recon to avoid giving away their position). Artillery can be set to bombard a location. You also generally have access to off-board assets. Points are generated, and each asset costs a certain number of points. Once you spend the points, the designated action takes place. After an asset is used, there's a cooldown period before it can be used again. So accumulating a ridiculous number of points doesn't mean that you can burn through them all with a constant string of artillery barrages. Off-map assets include a quick recon pulse on a selected spot on the map, artillery, smoke, and air strikes (including things like napalm or sub-munitions).
Units available in the game are drawn from the US, UK, West Germany, Belgium, USSR, and East Germany.
Finished Horizon: Forbidden West last night. Pretty satisfying; curious how they plan to handle the sequel bait. I have a lot of Mass Effect vibes/worries. I assume Hades will be necessary because that was a remarkably big plot point to do nothing with. There's actually a few big themes that felt a bit undercooked towards the end; maybe just rushing to tie it all up. Still, overall really strong, really impressive world to explore, exceptional combat, some really fun characters, both old a new. Definitely looking forward to the third.
Adrassil wrote: Back on Vampire: The Masquerade; Bloodlines again. Maaan I love that game, that and RE4 must be the games I've replayed the most.
On Vampire, do you use any patches or the like to make it run properly on a more modern system? If so, care to share? I got a hankering to revisit it again.
Regimens looks kinda interesting. I have to admit that I got a little tickled when I saw the Microprose logo back, but that doesn't really mean anything, right? Anyway, maybe Regiments is worth a look.
Sigur wrote: Regimens looks kinda interesting. I have to admit that I got a little tickled when I saw the Microprose logo back, but that doesn't really mean anything, right? Anyway, maybe Regiments is worth a look.
On the one hand, no, it's not the old Microprose. The old Microprose went through a number of owners that didn't much care for it, and eventually vanished.
On the other hand...
The current owner is a guy named David Legattie. He apparently acquired some money through software-related work, and decided to start buying up Microprose-related IPs. Once he got the rights to the name and logo, he restarted the company in 2019. One of the two original co-founders - Bill Stealey - is reportedly working with Legattie in some sort of unofficial fashion. So far the new company appears to working solely as a publisher for small indie developers, with a focus on tactics and strategy games.
Will it work? Their strategy means that there will probably be a lot of hit and miss stuff. But it's how EA started waaaaaay back in the early days of home computing, back when the company's logo was a cube, a sphere, and an upside down cone.
LunarSol wrote: Finished Horizon: Forbidden West last night. Pretty satisfying; curious how they plan to handle the sequel bait. I have a lot of Mass Effect vibes/worries. I assume Hades will be necessary because that was a remarkably big plot point to do nothing with. There's actually a few big themes that felt a bit undercooked towards the end; maybe just rushing to tie it all up. Still, overall really strong, really impressive world to explore, exceptional combat, some really fun characters, both old a new. Definitely looking forward to the third.
I think vibes/worries are valid, considering how much of ME's DNA runs through Horizon. On the plus side, Sony seems much more content to give their developers the time and resources they need to put out their games than EA ever was. I had insanely high expectations for Forbidden West and the game still blew me away so I'm optimistic about the next game.
Not sure if Hades even can feature in the next one, since it's actually been destroyed this time. I think it served its purpose in the story. I agree on the undercooked themes, I think the Blight was something meant to be very important in the early stages of development that got left on the cutting room floor. It featured prominently in the promotional material. I was actually expecting to go around culling it from the environment like the Fade fissures in Dragon Age Inquisition, but there was surprisingly none of that here.
I spent more time with Regiments. Finished up the first stage of the first operation.
The Operation setup is a little confusing, and I think it could do with a tutorial. The basic mechanics seem simple enough, and are adequately explained. The problem is that there's a lot of info on the screen, and there's not much in the way of explanation for what some of it means - particularly the parts of it that carry over to subsequent phases. I think I might go check and see if I can find a video on YouTube that explains it all,
In any case, I finished the first stage of the first operation. The background for the operation is that a revolt has taken place in East Germany against the East German government. A rebel government - I think the name translates into Free German Republic - has formed, and is supported by some elements within the Nationale Volksarmee (the East German army, aka NVA; not to be confused with the North Vietnamese Army...). The 4th Motoschutzen Division supports the new government. You are a company commander within the 7th Panzer Division, which is attempting to suppress the rebels. The operation consists of three stages. The first stage is two phases, and the remaining two stages can last for up to three phases. The first stage consists of freeing elements of the 4th Motoschutzen that have remained loyal to the government in Berlin, but that are surrounded and cut off by rebels. As this is purely an internal East German affair, NATO is not currently involved. It's not stated what the Soviets are up to during all of this, though Soviet troops are available as one of your support options if you choose.
A phase lasts for exactly twenty minutes. There's no possibility of a battle lasting for an hour or more if neither side can get a decisive advantage. Fighting is conducted over objectives on the map. Objectives are things like small communities, and other points of interest. So long as you're the sole occupant of an objective, you control it. If your opponent can put troops in it, they can turn the objective to an uncontrolled state. If one side has troops in an uncontrolled objective, they can take control of it after a short delay. However, objectives must be contiguous, with a line stretching back to a friendly entry point. If a controlled objective is cut off, it'll revert to an uncontrolled state.
The first stage involved relieving the loyal elements of the 4th Motoschutzen Division, and making sure that they weren't overrun. This required that the loyal units hold their starting objectives for two phases. I took a look at the map for the second stage, though I didn't actually start it. The second stage sees you advancing up a highway that is contested by both sides in order to reach an exit point. This needs to be done within three phases. During the first stage, I periodically suffered counter-attacks by rebel troops that entered the board and moved to attack. The map for the second stage will likely see the same thing happening.
As I noted in my previous post, you start with a core unit. As mentioned last time, for the 7th Panzer Division this is a reinforced company consisting of a recon section, two T-72M platoons, two infantry platoons in BTRs, self-propelled mortars, Shilkas, supply trucks, and a pair of Hinds. I also have off-board artillery and smoke support (Hint - when you fire any on-map indirect fire units, get ready to move them *very* quickly; the enemy knows *exactly* where the fire is coming from, and will send counter-battery fire if it's available. Of course, the converse applies as well, and the game helpfully flags the general location of enemy artillery units that are firing barrages.). In addition to your basic unit, you also have the option to add up to three task forces. These are support elements from other friendly divisions. There are four available to me in the first operation (three East German, and one Soviet), and the one I picked added a Headquarters unit (which boosts the effectiveness of nearby friendly units), plus the option to call in Frogfoot Napalm strikes. After a task force is selected, it can be upgraded two more times. In my case, the first upgrade adds an extra T-72 platoon. The second upgrade doesn't appear to do anything, though. Or I might have missed something without realizing it. One other thing to note - core units can gain experience levels. Task force units can't. Also, when a phase ends. the condition of the map is preserved. All objectives that you secured remain secured by you when the next phase starts. Additionally, core units that were on the map at the end of the phase start in the same location at the start of the next phase. Task force units, on the other hand, always start off the map, and need to be brought back on.
I wrote last time that units that are destroyed are completely wiped out and unavailable. This is only half right. My recon section was completely wiped out twice. I was able to get it back, though there was a much longer unavailability timer than would have been the case if I'd successfully withdrawn the section from the map. But the game does track overall losses. If a particular platoon takes too many losses, it will be unavailable. On the other hand, you can spend points between phases to replace lost units. Though if a unit is wiped out on the map (as opposed to being withdrawn), it will lose all of its experience levels.
One other item - I mentioned last time that the units available include British troops. There aren't currently any British core formations. However, the Belgians do have British troops available as support in some of their task forces. Assuming the game does well enough, the developer has stated that the plan is to add some BAOR formations to the game, as well.
Finally, enemy start locations are randomized somewhat. I restarted the first phase a few times, and enemy units were in different locations each time. No save scumming to figure out where the enemy troops are!
LunarSol wrote: Finished Horizon: Forbidden West last night. Pretty satisfying; curious how they plan to handle the sequel bait. I have a lot of Mass Effect vibes/worries. I assume Hades will be necessary because that was a remarkably big plot point to do nothing with. There's actually a few big themes that felt a bit undercooked towards the end; maybe just rushing to tie it all up. Still, overall really strong, really impressive world to explore, exceptional combat, some really fun characters, both old a new. Definitely looking forward to the third.
I think vibes/worries are valid, considering how much of ME's DNA runs through Horizon. On the plus side, Sony seems much more content to give their developers the time and resources they need to put out their games than EA ever was. I had insanely high expectations for Forbidden West and the game still blew me away so I'm optimistic about the next game.
Not sure if Hades even can feature in the next one, since it's actually been destroyed this time. I think it served its purpose in the story. I agree on the undercooked themes, I think the Blight was something meant to be very important in the early stages of development that got left on the cutting room floor. It featured prominently in the promotional material. I was actually expecting to go around culling it from the environment like the Fade fissures in Dragon Age Inquisition, but there was surprisingly none of that here.
In the facility where you first encounter FZ and recover the GAIA backup kernel, there's a second big storage device that Sylens mentions contains a Hades backup. Not sure if that's a dropped plot point or something saved for later. I kept expecting Hades to be the AI that gives you the edge in the processing power race the plot is so focused on, but it just never comes up.
There is a sidequest where you get to wipe the blight out of Plainsong. It actually changes the whole map and is a pretty impressive, but it happens once you're long past that section and lacks a cinematic that leaves it feeling less monumental than it really is. I'm actually curious if it wipes blight from the entire world, because I don't actually recall encountering any after I completed it.
The one that really sticks out to me is getting the EMP weapons from the Horus and flying in general. Like that whole mission felt like it wanted you flying all over the map, dropping bombs and helping all over, but you just kind of get one, use it in a cutscene and cut straight to the boss fight. Given how significant this whole premise is to the culture of the Tenakth I'm just really surprised the big war was kind of shuffled in as something of a sidequest between the pivotal beats in the story. I do suppose if you stick to the critical path the Tenakth rebellion probably isn't that important, but it makes up the grand bulk of the side content. Also super weird there's like.... 3 side missions that require flight, each you get relatively early on and none of which feel like they make any interesting use of the mechanic.
I was also surprised there wasn't more with the characters of the past. Like some recognition for the consequences of their greed beyond a lot of dialog trees. I felt like there was a lot of missed opportunities there or at least unfinished ideas. I suppose given the nature of Nemesis confronting those things might be planned for the finale, but Nemesis seeing the error of its ways seems to forget exactly what it is in the first place. I'm still not ruling out the possibility of picking a color for the starchild though.
Pretty nitpicky stuff though given how I don't finish very many games these days, but I did nearly everything here. Certainly a great game that I'm hoping gets a worthwhile finale.
I’ve been playing long war of the chosen. I’m trying to switch up my tactics a bit to see if that helps me win. I’m using the advisor system with scientists for mission availability to be a bit better. I’m seeing the effects of it but man oh man it slows down research by a good margin. I’m trying to have maybe a scientist per low advent strength region but usually having a 1:1 ration of research scientists and haven advisor ones.
I’m trying out the disorient and stun rockets rather than shredder ability on technicals and I’m trying to use the armor shredding gunners that also do lots of damage rather than the suppression variants.
I’m also doing a bit more intel package missions for neat little scan-able rewards.
The younger spawn has really jumped into that world, and it tickles a nostalgia spot for me (Gen 1 was the ONLY gen, and it was NEW when I started).
So, started with Arceus, and while I'm still playing that, I've been spending more time in Brilliant Diamond as a sort of first serious foray back into the mainline games.
Stellaris. The single most absurd run I’ve had. Two systems away from my home world I found a ruined dysonsphere. Then I found a matter decompressor some way off. Then I found the cyberex homeworld. Fast forward about 70 years and all off these have been repaired. I’m currently sitting on such ridiculous amounts of recourses that I’m frantically building resource silos. To top off all this silliness I recently conquered a fanatical xenophobic empire that had just built a silence nexus. So I’m sitting on a matter decompressor, dyson sphere, ring world and science nexus without having built a single megastructure. I’m pretty much invincible at the point and just either conquering aliens or getting them into my federation, which currently has 5 members. It’s fun but a bit silly being this powerfull.
I have never actually seen the end game crisis in Stellaris before. I put it at X3 on this one. I always get bored once I become the most powerful in the galaxy and stop playing. This time I’ll just play until I get to fight them. Though I doubt any sort of pesky invader will stand a chance. I have set the welfare to utopian abundance and am a democracy. So in the process of creating a utopian galaxy with a myriad of races living in peace. The swarms, fanatic purifiers and murder robots are all being handled. I think I’ll take on a fallen empire next maybe.
