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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.

Was going to jump back into Wrath of the Righteous, but their 3rd DLC has been delayed from next week to end of the month.

Somehow, I'm not shocked.

Still fingers crossed that TW3 doesn't go completely south on at least one of the IE & Chaos campaigns.

Just starting Nukaworld again.

Reckon I’m just gonna slaughter the Raiders right off the bat. Not like they’re much use for anything else, the lazy thieving sods.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:


Reckon I’m just gonna slaughter the Raiders right off the bat. Not like they’re much use for anything else, the lazy thieving sods.

They're good for giving you a bunch of loot after you assign one of the parks to them.

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.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

 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:

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

 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

I'm really hoping for a DLC announcement soon.

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.

Played through Little Nightmares and its sequel, bs deaths aside, great atmosphere and setting.

Also did some random skirmishes on C&C Remastered and some random zombies on Cold War.

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!

Trying Hearts of Iron 4. I have no idea what’s going on. Pretty terrible tutorial.

Back on Vampire: The Masquerade; Bloodlines again. Maaan I love that game, that and RE4 must be the games I've replayed the most.

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Trying Hearts of Iron 4. I have no idea what’s going on. Pretty terrible tutorial.

The tutorial is bad indeed. I recommend starting as italy in a normal round to learn.

Any specific questions?

Grabbed the brand new Regiments. It looks like a cross between Wargame and Ground Control, set in 1989.

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!

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

 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.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 KamikazeCanuck wrote:
Trying Hearts of Iron 4. I have no idea what’s going on. Pretty terrible tutorial.

The tutorial is bad indeed. I recommend starting as italy in a normal round to learn.

Any specific questions?

Going to take a break from it for a bit for real life stuff but when I get back into it I'll take you up on that offer of help.

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.

Recently been on a big Pokemon kick.

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.

Prey.

It's a hard game, I really recommend lower difficulty levels. Lots of very hard side quests that sometimes are impossible for reasons.

Kind of annoyed they made the main opposition a fat,ugly guy. Stereotype much?

But it's a good, mentally challenging game that you really need to think your way thru. If you like a challenge for a thinking gamer give it a shot.

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.

I've been playing Mordheim. I didn't play it much at the time when I bought it, didn't quite like the d100 system for attacks and percentages.


I love it, it's a great game and it's better than I remember.

My only real gripe is the AI will ignore everyone else if it means they can screw over your heroes.

My leader got to level 6 without going down, first time it happens and the only one to drop and he's immediately killed outright. Bloody typical.