April 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

[ZedClampet]

Oh that's pretty neat
Brought Fallingwater to mind—there's a future project for you.

Far Cry 6

In the middle of an occasional work project at the moment, so sticking with a no-learn option… and I'm curious how play on Hard—known in-game as Guerrilla if I recall correctly—will go, as in will it be more enjoyable, or differently enjoyable. If it's not, I'll drop it.

I mentioned 1-2 weeks ago I couldn't start a new game. Issue was the 3 save slots were occupied, once I deleted one of 'em all was well. I still have the annoying KB problems I detailed before, where game minimizes to Taskbar when using certain keys in certain ways.

Still had to go thru the annoying intro sequence, which is basically just running around the city for ~15 minutes. Good news is almost all cut scenes are skippable, thanks for that Ubi.

Tactics changes for Hard

Got shredded a couple of times on the opening island, so can't just dance around as freely as in Normal. The tactic of sending Guapo—my croc Amigo—to attack someone on the W side while I sneak in on the E side is proving successful. Baddies are easier to pick off when they've all been decoyed to the same direction—much reduced flanking danger.

I may just stick with Guapo and ignore the other Amigos. Guapo has the huge trait of reviving himself back to 90% health a couple of minutes after being killed. The Wicked Chicken is the most fun Amigo, but has an annoying Space Invaders melee to get him… so I'll probably let him RIP—roost in peace.

One thing I don't like is now there are no enemy indicators on the mini map, that's making things slower as more thorough scouting and more defensible positions are now essential.

Putting the Basics in place

This time when landing on the main island, I didn't follow the mission guide to meet Philly because that takes quite a while and doesn't give any FT—Fast Travel—point early on, which is a pain if I need to quit the game. Instead I used my pre-knowledge of the map and landed near the closest enemy base and captured it, and then worked up to Philly.

That got me to Meet the Monteros, which allowed me to build my first 2 camps—the essential Hideout Network and the desirable Guerrilla Garrison. So now I have the wingsuit, the first bunch of FTs, and I was able to buy the KSG—Kill Soldado Guys?—which is the best shotgun. I have the MS 16S AR for now, and saving up for the best MS 16L which is also available to buy. That'll leave only the RAT4 purchase to complete my ideal loadout.

Priority objectives for now are to kill the anti-aircraft sites—so I can use wingsuit over more of the map—and capture road checkpoints, which also provide FTs. That should provide a good base for going after enemy bases and whatever story missions I feel like doing.

Their house was nice. It wasn't Frank Lloyd Wright nice. Except for the semi-indoor pool, the rest of the house was just normal. Large, but normal.

I may try to do my best friend from childhood's house next. It was big, but not that interesting except for the tennis court. Strangely, I knew two people with tennis courts. Guy down the road from us had a clay court he let us play on.

I would do my own house, but it's a boring, 1960's tri-level plus basement. Also, you can't create basements in the game.

 

[ZedClampet]

Been playing a Total War Chaos Dwarf campaign most of the day. The player mobs are out in full force about this DLC because it cost $25 (fair point), and they are telling little lies about the DLC (not a fair point). Yes, many of the mechanics added to the Chaos Dwarves had their origins in other factions, but they are changed for the Chaos Dwarves. These players, I suppose, would call a lion just a reskin of a dog. Truth is, no other faction plays like the Chaos Dwarves. The Cathay caravans, for instance, are meaningless compared to the Dwarves' military convoys. And, for the first time, every minor settlement is a strategy point instead of an afterthought.

But enough complaining about the mobs. My overall impression of the Chaos Dwarves is that they start out slow, but can snowball into greatness. Lots of fun. Lots of strategy. Even the tech tree requires serious thought.

 

[Zloth]

Much much X4 playing!

There's a mission in the game where you are given a ship that can appear to the robotic Xenon as a friendly and tasked with flying through a lot of Xenon space to see what is going on with some pirates. You find they've got a big... thing:

That's 2 or 3 hundred meters/yards tall. Big.

When you get there, you get a few choices, one of which is to blow up the big thing. That's what I (barely) did the first time I played, with the help of a couple dozen autonomous laser turrets. This time I knew what was coming, so I brought along 60 of the turrets to make it easy! It wasn't.

The first complication I see is that the Xenon had gone a built a small station rather close to the thing. I should be fine from its turrets, but those things also have jillions of little defense drones that swarm attackers. Jillions > 60. Well, we'll see how it goes - so I seed my 60 lasers all around the thing and start attacking.

Then I discover the second complication: the laser towers are just sitting there. The mechanic that makes you appear friendly to the Xenon was always a little funky and, in the intervening year, the developers changed something so the laser towers deployed while appearing friendly stay friendly, so they weren't going to attack anything. Uhoh.

Tossing out laser turrets isn't hard, but trying to do battle while dropping them is a major pain. I tried clicking the pause button and kicking a bunch of turrets out the hatch at the same time. Not good. The turrets got all tangled together and against my own ship, causing them to hit my ship and make it impossible to steer:

Eventually, I managed to get most of them out. They shot at the thing plus the Xenon that tried to fly in and rescue the thing. Finally, it was going well! But oh yeah.... that first problem. In came the swarm. Everything involved was pretty small so it would be hard to see in a screenshot, but on the map it looked like this:

Swarm vs. swarm. My swarm won out, thank goodness. Thing exploded, goal achieved.

 

[ZedClampet]

Got a fun, early access boxing game called Undisputed on Steam. I really didn't want it without the career in place, but changed my mind and decided that random fights would be a no pressure way of getting some practice. It's a pretty complex fighting system. I barely won my first fight on a split decision, and I feel comfortable in saying they never intended you to lose that fight anyway

Here's a PCG article on it:
A boxing fan with no game dev experience quit his job to make a technical boxing sim—now the world's best pros want to be in it

 

[Pifanjr]

I had a bit of time to play a game today, but couldn't pick what to play.

I haven't played Moonlighter in a while and lost my momentum. I enjoyed it, but it's not my favourite type of gameplay and didn't feel like getting back into it.

I started my Total War: Warhammer 3 campaign, but almost immediately closed it again because I didn't feel like spending all my time to figure out what I was doing and having no time to play.
I considered starting the Prologue or the Mirrors of Madness mode instead, but I wasn't sure if either was worth trying in the short amount of time I had.

I ended up trying Shapez. I like how, unlike Mindustry, you don't have to worry about your buildings being destroyed and having to rebuild them. Plus it's much easier to build stuff on a PC instead of a phone screen. However, since there's only just one big map instead of multiple smaller maps it doesn't seem great for short play sessions, because it seems I'll quickly reach the point where I'll need the majority of my time to figure out what I've done before rather than build new stuff.

I need to schedule more game time.

 

[ZedClampet]

Played some Mordhau and thought it was fun. Haven't played a PvP melee game since For Honor.

After that I went to Big Ambitions and finished setting up my first business, a gift shop. So far it's making money, but now I want to hire people, so that might put me in the red. Not sure how much salaries are in the game, but I was working at a grocery for awhile, and if I pay what the grocery paid, I'll be okay.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Still playing Dead Cells and still opening up loads of new weapons and abilities after 20 odd hours. Pentiment too in short bursts, its still good.

Also bought Wartales a few days ago because it came out of early access. Only played an hour or so because I want to get a good long session in to get it to click, seems like something I'll spend a lot of time on. There's a lot more management to go with the combat compared to Battle Brothers which is what brought me to it. Barely scratched the surface yet though.

 

[mainer]

I hit a wall on my Witcher 3 Nex-Gen playthrough and had to take a break after several hundred hours. I know the game well enough from having played it over on GOG years ago, so it will be easy to fall back into at some point, but I needed to play something different for awhile. So I'm playing Solasta The Lost Valley DLC which I hadn't played yet.

It's a new campaign that plays independently of the main campaign, so you have to create a new party of level 1 characters (as opposed to continuing on from the main campaign with the same party). It's got a different feel to it, as instead of trying to save the world, you find yourself trapped in an isolated valley and have to work with various factions to try to find a way out. You ultimately become involved in a power struggle with the various factions and find yourself working with some of them and fighting others.

It's much more involved in that respect than the original game was, and some choices you make can change your alliances, either positively or negatively. But the heart of both campaigns is the turned based combat which is just excellent. Overall it feels a bit easier, but that could partially be due to having played a couple hundred hours in the main story.

 

[Zloth]

Just to give the 40-something's a little "that was 15 years ago!?" feeling:

View: https://youtu.be/Qk-x6TsUn6Y

It's got a different feel to it, as instead of trying to save the world, you find yourself trapped in an isolated valley and have to work with various factions to try to find a way out. You ultimately become involved in a power struggle with the various factions and find yourself working with some of them and fighting others.

Sounds a little Gothic 1'ish! Solista really seems more like a game system than a straight-up game, the same way Neverwinter Nights from Bioware inspired so many fan-made campaigns.

 

[Brian Boru]

Redfall

Launches At 30fps on Xbox, and 60 on PC. Digital Foundry discuss that for ~15 minutes:

View: https://youtu.be/G3hQDsNPlow?t=38


I have my eye on this May release due to the 'Far Cry with vampires' tag.

 

[Pifanjr]

I took my own advice and scheduled an hour this morning to play a game. I decided to try the Total War: Warhammer 3 prologue campaign, but for some reason it keeps crashing to desktop as soon as it finishes loading. So instead I played a battle of the new Mirror of Madness mode, which gives you a small army and then throws endless waves of infantry at you.

The game mode was made in cooperation with Intel, so to help survive, you get access to three spells that add a bit of physics to the game. The first one just holds a unit in the air for a bit, the second one is a massive tornado that throws units very high into the air and the third one is a vortex above your (flying) lord that sucks up everyone your lord flies over and at the end of the duration launches them to the sides.

You get to upgrade the duration and cooldown of those spells, so after a bit I just ignored my army entirely and just spend my time casting spells, either with my lord or with the physics spells. I got a platinum reward, so it worked out well.

I'll try redownload the game to see if that fixes the prologue. We have fiber now, so it shouldn't take too long.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru sorry in advance for this. My brain is kind of...well...drunken at the best of times, but you mentioned a game not that long ago that had both strategy and tactics to it. I think the last game was from maybe 2014ish and they are possibly doing another one now? Maybe I'm mixing up my posts. Anyway, I looked through your posts that I pulled up with key words and was unsuccessful. Do you have any clue what I'm talking about? I thought at the time that I was going to wishlist it, but apparently I didn't.

 

[Brian Boru]

sorry in advance

No worries, we do this for strangers, so why not for forum pests?

strategy and tactics

I assume a biggish game, rather than indie?

One possible is STALKER 2 aimed at this December, altho that probably doesn't have too much strategy.

Probably not the word game Amazing Pyramids Rebirth?

I had a spin thru my wishlist, nothing struck there.

key words

Which ones? Might ding a dong…

 

[ZedClampet]

No worries, we do this for strangers, so why not for forum pests?


I assume a biggish game, rather than indie?

One possible is STALKER 2 aimed at this December, altho that probably doesn't have too much strategy.

Probably not the word game Amazing Pyramids Rebirth?

I had a spin thru my wishlist, nothing struck there.


Which ones? Might ding a dong…

For some reason I thought it had either RTS or TD elements, which were the keywords that I used. But maybe it wasn't you who mentioned it. Not a big deal if I don't find it. Got plenty of games.

 

[ZedClampet]

I hit a wall on my Witcher 3 Nex-Gen playthrough and had to take a break after several hundred hours. I know the game well enough from having played it over on GOG years ago, so it will be easy to fall back into at some point, but I needed to play something different for awhile. So I'm playing Solasta The Lost Valley DLC which I hadn't played yet.

It's a new campaign that plays independently of the main campaign, so you have to create a new party of level 1 characters (as opposed to continuing on from the main campaign with the same party). It's got a different feel to it, as instead of trying to save the world, you find yourself trapped in an isolated valley and have to work with various factions to try to find a way out. You ultimately become involved in a power struggle with the various factions and find yourself working with some of them and fighting others.

It's much more involved in that respect than the original game was, and some choices you make can change your alliances, either positively or negatively. But the heart of both campaigns is the turned based combat which is just excellent. Overall it feels a bit easier, but that could partially be due to having played a couple hundred hours in the main story.

This sounded good to me, and since I'm still hesitant to play the main game without my son, it gives me a perfect chance to at least play something Solasta related, so I started it yesterday. I only made it to where you had to exit the grotto after making a point-of-no-return leap, skirting around some creatures too tough for you. Going to play some more this morning.

I also got that DLC that adds new classes and my lead fighter is now a monk. I've always liked monks despite the fact that most people consider them not optimal.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Brian Boru sorry in advance for this. My brain is kind of...well...drunken at the best of times, but you mentioned a game not that long ago that had both strategy and tactics to it. I think the last game was from maybe 2014ish and they are possibly doing another one now? Maybe I'm mixing up my posts. Anyway, I looked through your posts that I pulled up with key words and was unsuccessful. Do you have any clue what I'm talking about? I thought at the time that I was going to wishlist it, but apparently I didn't.

Maybe you were thinking of my reply to you when you asked about games that combine strategy and tactics. I mentioned Age of Wonders 4, which will release May 2 and describes itself as a "blend of 4X strategy and turn-based tactical combat".

 

[Brian Boru]

RTS or TD elements

Oh, I mentioned that a few days ago about War Robots Planet Defender—but that released 2019, with no follow-up I'm aware of.

Bet you have it now, probably Pifanjr's offering

 

[ZedClampet]

Maybe you were thinking of my reply to you when you asked about games that combine strategy and tactics. I mentioned Age of Wonders 4, which will release May 2 and describes itself as a "blend of 4X strategy and turn-based tactical combat".

Oh, I mentioned that a few days ago about War Robots Planet Defender—but that released 2019, with no follow-up I'm aware of.

Bet you have it now, probably Pifanjr's offering

I'm pretty sure it was Age of Wonders 4, although WRPD sounds interesting. too. I came across that one when I was searching your posts. Thanks, all.

 

[ZedClampet]

In Big Ambitions I have hired an employee and am still managing to make a profit, so the game suggested that I open a second business. After looking at customer demand, I decided on starting a fast food burger joint. I checked the nearby retail space that was available for rent, and picked a place on 4th Avenue (this is in New York), and am preparing for the grand opening of "Biggun's Burgers". I have most of the things I need. I know I need to get cleaning supplies, but not sure if there's anything else. I'm going to open as take-out only to begin with.

I'm finding the game pretty fun.

 

[mainer]

This sounded good to me, and since I'm still hesitant to play the main game without my son, it gives me a perfect chance to at least play something Solasta related, so I started it yesterday. I only made it to where you had to exit the grotto after making a point-of-no-return leap, skirting around some creatures too tough for you. Going to play some more this morning.

I also got that DLC that adds new classes and my lead fighter is now a monk. I've always liked monks despite the fact that most people consider them not optimal.

I've never played a Monk in any D&D game, I guess because I've always been into weapons & armor, and monks always seemed to limited for my preferences, but they can do a lot of damage just with their fists. I did try out the new Warlock build, but I ended up starting over and rolled a Wizard. The Warlock just didn't seem as powerful. Maybe I just didn't spend as much time as I should have with him. My main fighter is a Barbarian from one of the Dragon Races.

My party is level 10 now, and the combat encounters, even the random encounters on the world map, are getting much more challenging. I'm facing a lot more spell casters (who love casting AOE spells), as well as many creatures that are immune to one or more types of damage. I find that having a variety of weapon types and spell damage types is really important late in the game. So is tactical positioning of each party member, and I find that splitting them up works better (most of the time), as opposed to fighting in a tight grouping.

 

[Alm]

Unrecord looks interesting. From what I can tell it’s a photorealistic single player FPS. I don’t think it’s fmv but it could be. I saw it on twitter.

 

[Zloth]

I also got that DLC that adds new classes and my lead fighter is now a monk. I've always liked monks despite the fact that most people consider them not optimal.

Eh? Monks are good! Especially if you expect the developers to throw one of those "take all your stuff away for a few hours" quests. Monks don't need no stuff!

 

[ZedClampet]

Eh? Monks are good! Especially if you expect the developers to throw one of those "take all your stuff away for a few hours" quests. Monks don't need no stuff!

From what I've seen/heard they are rarely played; however, I play them almost every time I'm given the chance. My favorite was in Neverwinter Nights. The instruction manual said that you wanted to avoid certain multiclass combinations like monk and sorcerer, and I thought, "Why not monk and sorcerer? Neither can wear armor." So I played a monk/sorcerer and was easily good enough to coast through. The only problem is that when you do that, you don't ever get the high level benefits of being a monk, at least you couldn't do that in Neverwinter Nights.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried out Neurodeck today. It's a mediocre deck building game with no real sense of progression beyond unlocking slightly different playstyles and too little variety in cards to keep replays interesting. I got it for free though and it was decent enough for a game to play in between working.

 

[Johnway]

So the replacement for my PSU continues. interestingly enough Corsair is offering to replace my 750w psu for a £400 1500w one. Sounds great, but something tells me that its just overkill secondly higher PSU watt more power consumption. I did a quick check for psu calculator and it will no where be near 1000w let alone need 1500w i would have to be running twin 4080, countless fans, LEDs cooling etc before i'll even get to 1500w.

i could accept but i dunno... seems excessive.