April 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[D10S]

I just grabbed Call of Cthulhu, it's a 2018 title, but plays like a classic ~2010 era thriller with slightly more modern graphics.

https://imgur.com/a/njzwG7u

View: https://imgur.com/a/njzwG7u

 

[Brian Boru]

Played an hour of The Outer Worlds Spacer's Choice Edition, so far so good. The intro wasn't too overdone, similarly with the RPGish character customization. Is this an RPG? I thought it was supposed to be fairly good…

The resolution is fixed at 15x8, is that how it's supposed to be? My TVs are 1920x1080:

There's a setting for hiding UI, says it's great for screenies. I assume I'm not missing a Photo Mode, they mean screenies via Windows or some other app?

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

The resolution is fixed at 15x8, is that how it's supposed to be? My TVs are 1920x1080:

Pretty damn sure not, maybe it's detection is off for some reason.

The Outer Worlds is one of those games, that the longer you play the more obvious the waste of potential becomes apparent. But hey, maybe you will like it more than I did.

 

[Zloth]

[The Outer Worlds] Recent reviews are more favorable. I'm currently installing it too, worth a look at least.

Wait, what? An RPG? And a later post said 'so far so good'?? Can you other mods check the IP address "Brian" has been logging in from to see if it changed to some other nation??

 

[Brian Boru]

An RPG?

Well darn, my suspicions were rising…

Oh well, guess I'll take some more for the team of Discerning Gamers, and design a warning label

the longer you play the more obvious the waste of potential becomes apparent

Oh wait, maybe the devs saw sense as production went on, and deRPGed it—I can hope!

 

[ZedClampet]

Well darn, my suspicions were rising…

Oh well, guess I'll take some more for the team of Discerning Gamers, and design a warning label



Oh wait, maybe the devs saw sense as production went on, and deRPGed it—I can hope!

What, exactly, makes it an RPG?

You already made it past character customization. What else is there? It's just a shooter with more narrative than you are used to, but not much, and a little more player agency.

****

Played some TWW3 Chaos Dwarves. Most enjoyable faction in the game. Lots of interesting mechanics. You start off pathetically weak, but if you take care of business, you can snowball into greatness.

Now if only the regular dwarves were this interesting.

 

[Pifanjr]

Now if only the regular dwarves were this interesting.

I really like playing as the dwarves, even if their campaign mechanics are pretty basic compared to new factions. If you want something more interesting, there are mods that add additional campaign mechanics, like this one that adds something similar to Grom's Cauldron or Kislev's Witch Hut, styled like a rune forge:

Steam Workshop::Runeforge mechanic for the Dwarfs (Requires Shadows of Change DLC)

steamcommunity.com

 

[Brian Boru]

What, exactly, makes it an RPG?

Zloth, above

So far, my experience matches your description, so here's hoping.

 

[ZedClampet]

I really like playing as the dwarves, even if their campaign mechanics are pretty basic compared to new factions. If you want something more interesting, there are mods that add additional campaign mechanics, like this one that adds something similar to Grom's Cauldron or Kislev's Witch Hut, styled like a rune forge:

Steam Workshop::Runeforge mechanic for the Dwarfs (Requires Shadows of Change DLC)

steamcommunity.com

It's not that I don't like the dwarves. I've played them more than anyone. It just feels like they were cheated a little.

Zloth, above

So far, my experience matches your description, so here's hoping.

@Zloth is right. It is called an RPG.

I don't know what it is about RPGs that you don't like. If I knew what that was, I could tell you whether it was in the game or not.

 

[ZedClampet]

So far as I can tell, in Supermarket Simulator, the number of customers you get per day depends on the size of your stockroom. I suppose the developer wanted to insure that you wouldn't run out of product, so he tied those two together.

Items bought per customer may depend on the size of the showroom as opposed to the variety of products. I need to watch that to verify.

 

[D10S]

I'm loving this Call of Cthulthu game. Classic thriller where you have to figure out what to do by yourself. Almost no jumpscares, but I got one and almost had a heart attack. A must play position for thriller/horror game fans. I expected it to be almost entirely about monsters, and it is if you think about it, but it's brilliantly incorporated into this psychological/detective story.

see pics if you'd like to, but there might be spoilers. If you're intrigued and want to play it, I suggest you don't open the gallery.

https://imgur.com/a/PYG4jIS

View: https://imgur.com/a/PYG4jIS

 

[Brian Boru]

what it is about RPGs that you don't like

Oh it's just a general preference for simplicity, where the core gameplay is aided by the surrounding aspects, rather than those forming significant portions of the play. So for example, where the combined weight of aspects like the following reaches a tipping point of 'too much':
Character attributes
Cut scenes
Dialogue
Fantasy [or Space] setting
Inventory mgt
Leveling by 50-100 steps
Linear progression
Loot everywhere
Melee combat
Multiple Boss fights
Narrow or closed world
Squad control
Story focused

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh it's just a general preference for simplicity, where the core gameplay is aided by the surrounding aspects, rather than those forming significant portions of the play. So for example, where the combined weight of aspects like the following reaches a tipping point of 'too much':
Character attributes
Cut scenes
Dialogue
Fantasy [or Space] setting
Inventory mgt
Leveling by 50-100 steps
Linear progression
Loot everywhere
Melee combat
Multiple Boss fights
Narrow or closed world
Squad control
Story focused

You're quite delicate. Can you feel a pea placed under a stack of 20 mattresses? Maybe you're the princess @Colif has been searching for. XD

But, yeah, I'm with you on most of those.

 

[BeardyHat]

Played an hour of The Outer Worlds Spacer's Choice Edition, so far so good. The intro wasn't too overdone, similarly with the RPGish character customization. Is this an RPG? I thought it was supposed to be fairly good…

The resolution is fixed at 15x8, is that how it's supposed to be? My TVs are 1920x1080:

There's a setting for hiding UI, says it's great for screenies. I assume I'm not missing a Photo Mode, they mean screenies via Windows or some other app?

I definitely need to be in a particular mood for an RPG. Used to play them a lot, but definitely don't have the motivation for them much anymore.

That said, I picked up Outer Worlds since it was free on Epic, I am a sucker for this style of open world RPG.

The Outer Worlds is one of those games, that the longer you play the more obvious the waste of potential becomes apparent. But hey, maybe you will like it more than I did.

I'm curious about that, what to you mean exactly?

 

[ZedClampet]

@neogunhero never mind the co-op buddy thing. I'm struggling to get interested in Conan this time around (I've played it several times previously for a total of about 200 hours). Probably need to just put it aside again for awhile.

***

Going to try Captain of Industry again, but this time while practicing patience for the learning process.

 

[neogunhero]

@neogunhero never mind the co-op buddy thing. I'm struggling to get interested in Conan this time around (I've played it several times previously for a total of about 200 hours). Probably need to just put it aside again for awhile.

Same here. I started to cheat too much and built up a giant fortress and filled it with thralls. My issue is that they don’t talk or do much of anything… it makes the reality of playing single player mode in a multiplier/co-op focused game that more depressing haha. I don’t mind playing alone but I want the NPCs to interact with me, so I started up Medieval Dynasty but not sure how I’m liking it. I may go back to Fallout 4 especially with the show releasing today.

 

[ZedClampet]

Same here. I started to cheat too much and built up a giant fortress and filled it with thralls. My issue is that they don’t talk or do much of anything… it makes the reality of playing single player mode in a multiplier/co-op focused game that more depressing haha. I don’t mind playing alone but I want the NPCs to interact with me, so I started up Medieval Dynasty but not sure how I’m liking it. I may go back to Fallout 4 especially with the show releasing today.

The first time I played Medieval Dynasty I bounced off of it, but really clicked with it the second time and put quite a few hours in it. I may try the one set in Japan

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit more of The Outer Worlds. It seems the game is still using the most basic textures for some stuff, but it seems better than it was. I suppose my GPU just has too little VRAM to properly load all the necessary textures.

It also takes a couple of minutes to start, only showing a black screen for a while before the main menu shows up. I haven't found a way to get around that, turning off the startup videos didn't work.

Regardless, it's playable and I'm having fun. I do find that I'm rushing more than I usually do in RPGs. I got burned out with Fallout 4 because I combed every location for items and now I purposefully skip exploring every nook and cranny and every dialogue option. I think I just don't have enough time to play to spend it on that kind of stuff nowadays.

I got surprised today when what I thought was just a couple of cute birds suddenly turned hostile and I almost died. The game in general seems pretty hard, as I can only take a couple of hits before I die. The bullet time helps, but I don't think it would be doable to play a purely melee build in this game, at least not at low levels.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Kaamos_Llama

Buckshot Roulette on Steam

Play Russian roulette with a 12-gauge shotgun. Two enter. One leaves. Roll the dice with your life. Good luck!

store.steampowered.com

We talked about this briefly. Has over 6k reviews, overwhelmingly positive. Apparently it's just what you would imagine.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

@ZedClampet Mike Klubnika probably made a bit of change there, good for him looks interesting for a couple €.

Ive been playing Max Payne, had to install some mods and fixes to get it working but was easy enough. Gameplay wise its old and feels like it, but the atmosphere is still there, the comic strip story exposition parts are cheesy as hell in a Sin City kind of way.

Procrastinating on Armored Core 6. Stick on a really difficulty mission for days and tempted to take the other option to see if its easier, will probably cave and take the potentially easier route just to get closure on it even if its not the story path I would have chosen. Its a good game, but I doubt I'll replay it again soon.

Slay the Spire is a really great game, I am not good at it. There are 4 playable characters, trying to get them all to ascension 5 which involves finishing a run which then opens up the next slightly higher difficulty or 'ascension'. The Silent is really hard for me to get past Ascension 3, there are 20 Ascension levels. Might be running out of patience with it, but its really moreish.

 

[ZedClampet]

Question for @Brian Boru or anyone who knows...

re:

Save 50% on Masterplan Tycoon on Steam

Welcome to the resource management game where your creativity and logistics skills are put to the test! In this minimalistic simulation you will build interconnected chains of products and open new missions by completing various tasks to create the biggest system you can.

store.steampowered.com

In real world logistic software is it common for you to only be able to move things (widgets) from left to right? Even though the game takes place on a map, you can only move things left to right, which doesn't make sense if you are on a map, but may make sense in software.

 

[Brian Boru]

In real world logistic software is it common for you to only be able to move things (widgets) from left to right?

TLDR: No.

I'm out of that game professionally, but there never was a direction attribute in software I used. Hurk explained it best, you "moved stuff from Point A to Point B, but not necessarily in that order"

Iow it worked via location names, not map-like info. It was up to the moving people or software to figure out how to do that—and I never saw directional attributes in that either. I never looked into the software of the ASRS system in one of my workplaces, but the low-level 'how to get there' might have had directional instructions.

 

[ZedClampet]

TLDR: No.

I'm out of that game professionally, but there never was a direction attribute in software I used. Hurk explained it best, you "moved stuff from Point A to Point B, but not necessarily in that order"

Iow it worked via location names, not map-like info. It was up to the moving people or software to figure out how to do that—and I never saw directional attributes in that either. I never looked into the software of the ASRS system in one of my workplaces, but the low-level 'how to get there' might have had directional instructions.

Thanks. I thought maybe there was some standard format similar to maybe an org chart, but what I'm picturing would probably be way too simplistic for real use cases, like: materials -> fabrication -> assembly -> distribution -> store. Wouldn't really need software for that chart Item count tracking spreadsheets? Yes. Chart that spells out the obvious? Not so much. Plus, that assumes there are never things going from Loc B back to Loc A, etc. which is unrealistic for most operations, I guess.

I suppose the game just does it to add difficulty.

 

[Pifanjr]

Question for @Brian Boru or anyone who knows...

re:

Save 50% on Masterplan Tycoon on Steam

Welcome to the resource management game where your creativity and logistics skills are put to the test! In this minimalistic simulation you will build interconnected chains of products and open new missions by completing various tasks to create the biggest system you can.

store.steampowered.com

In real world logistic software is it common for you to only be able to move things (widgets) from left to right? Even though the game takes place on a map, you can only move things left to right, which doesn't make sense if you are on a map, but may make sense in software.

I don't think it's uncommon when making graphs to dedicate the left side of a node to incoming and the right side to outgoing. It makes it a bit easier to see what's happening.

From the videos in the store page it seems it's possible for lines to (kind of) bend back, so you're not forced to put a source strictly to the left of a destination.

 

[Brian Boru]

I don't think it's uncommon when making graphs to dedicate the left side of a node to incoming and the right side to outgoing

Agreed, that's nearly always in my experience—main exception being when diagramming an actual location which physically has incoming elsewhere than on left/west side.