April 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[ZedClampet]

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.

The lines bend, but if the destination is to the left at all, as opposed to straight up or to the right, it won't connect.

Per the developer (I just found this in the forums): "The connection is from left to right because that's the nature of nodes. If I allowed connection in other directions, the buildings would not be nodes then. And it would be a completely different game"

 

[Brian Boru]

Still playing the same group of games as a week ago, altho it's been ~a week since I did some C&C.

That BFG icon is for Royal Envoy 3.

Far Cry 5

WeMod has worked great on my special FC5 run—while the capture sequences are still very annoying, at least now I can get thru them using unlimited Health. FC4 did the Boss fight bit best of all FCs so far—bigger stronger locations with loads of enemy troops incl lots of heavies. You could play them like a FC game. All the other FCs degenerated into enclosed melee for their big set pieces.

I detoured into John's region for a bit, needed one level of Resistance from him. Then defeated Faith because that's necessary to get the D2 shawn-off sotgun™, while the 4 Resistance levels enabled the 4th weapon slot. This enabled a significant loadout change.

Up to now:
Sidearm—Pistol to Magnum to M-79 grenade launcher
Main Gun—M-60 LMG to AR 45/70
Secondary Gun—SA-50 sniper to SPAS-12 shotgun

From now on:
Sidearm—D2 'Sin Eater'
Main Gun—AR 45/70
Secondary Gun—SA-50 sniper
Vehicle & Air control—Compound Bow + explosive arrows

Far Cry 5 Weapons commentary

I must say the 45/70 did a decent job shooting down planes and choppers, but not as good as sniper or explosive delivery weapon. Maybe it was me, but I found the Magnum rubbish—other pistol put attackers down much more reliably. Probably me, Magnum isn't my style, so not used to it.

M-79 served well to take out the river and road armed patrol convoys, but doesn't have the range of the bow, and I find the bow arrow trajectory easier to guess—but M-79 is a decent alternative, and has a lot more explosive ammo, 19 grenades v 5 explosive arrows… I think I can increase that a bit with a perk.

M-60 I spoke about before, don't like it. If SPAS-12 could take the D2's slot I'd go with it, my fav shottie of all—has the essential rapid fire rate for local crowd control, plus a decent mag size, and can be suppressed. SA-50 also has the rapid fire rate, which enables more tactical freedom in that you can take out 2-3 guys near each other before one can raise the alarm.

As always, I'm using single-shot mode and prioritizing accuracy over damage—taking that extra ¼ second to get the headshot, which suits Faith's region since headshot is the only way to kill the zombies aka Angels. Since I've had some spare cash, I've been buying armor-piercing ammo for the rifles—thanks Far Cry 6 for introducing me to that.

All in the name of New Game Plus—just say YES

 

[Pifanjr]

I played some more The Outer Worlds and I'm still not sure how you're supposed to survive straight up firefights with an entire marauder camp, but luckily I can just snipe them one by one. Only the strongest enemies occasionally need a couple extra shots, which then does alert the other remaining enemies, but that's what my companion is for.

The game has quite a few different damage types, each supposedly better against certain enemy types, but you can only carry 4 weapons. I wonder if you're supposed to just pick a single weapon and carry four copies of it with different ammo mods or switch out weapons from your inventory based on what enemies you think you'll encounter. The latter option would require you to boost your weight limit though, as it's pretty limited (especially if you dumped your strength score like I did).

 

[neogunhero]

This weekend was pretty disappointing for gaming to me. I started to cheat too much on Conan Exiles and burnt myself out on it. As I mentioned before I basically went into creative mode and built a huge base, stuffed it full of NPCs, then got bored because they all just stand around and don’t interact with much. There’s probably mods to fix that but I decided to quit playing. Vanilla is simply way too much grind for a single player, you have to cheat it a bit to give you more resources/XP, but to me it’s like once I start doing that then I increasingly start to change more and more options and eventually get to the point of going full creative mode. There’s no sense of accomplishment or need to do the work, so it just becomes a sandbox with no end goal. That’s fine but not what I wanted originally.

So I bounced around so many other games all weekend long. Played a bit of Grounded, wasn’t really feeling it. Played some Medieval Dynasty, also wasn’t feeling it. Did a few rounds of Insurgency Sandstorm, a bit of Balatro. I wanted to play Fallout 4, but it would take me a while to get to the point where I want to be, and didn’t want to cheat myself into building a big town. Wanted to do a bit of Oblivion but felt too lazy to mod it to how I want. I fired up No Mans Sky and Space Engineers but didn’t even get past the main menu before quitting.

I then had an urge to play some old Battlefield games. I looked up a bunch on how to play Battlefield 2 and 2142 online, but got a bit overwhelmed at all the steps required to get them running. Thought about Project Reality but decided against it.

Not sure what’s going on. I’m in a major rut right now for games. Maybe I should take a break but it’s been raining so I can’t do yard work and I get so sleepy whenever I try to watch something late at night. Games keep me engaged but I just can’t find anything to play. I want something new and fresh but really don’t want to spend money. Maybe I should try some emulators.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

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.



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

Sorry for late reply, I don't check this place as often as I used to.
Best I just dig up my old post, that explains it my stance a bit more.
Since then I haven't touched the game and frankly, I have no desire to come back at all.
On the other hand, I feel quite peckish for some Fallout 2 run....

The Outer Worlds.

I am disappointed. It started nicely, was interesting to explore the world and learn about how people basically enslaved by corporations. Fights were somehow challenging as I was learning the ropes and played on Hard difficulty. After finishing Edgewater I thougth to myself: well, that was solid - even if a bit too long - tutorial. Even with quests it went from "pick up this" to "you have to make a decision".

But then it stopped doing anything. Mid game I was literally just running ahead of me whenever I wanted, shooting anything that moved and killing it easily. I had 4k+ ammo surplus of every type. Quests never become interesting, I don't remember a single NPC. Not. A. Single. One. Well outside the doc, it's hard not to remember him considering he is like in half of the main story and cutscenes.

Companions? Forgetable or just bad. Did all their quests and really, what happened Obsidian? How come you forgot how to make interesting companions and their personal quests?

Let's just say I killed half of the Byzantium twice, because I got so annoyed with quests. I loaded those two times. I didn't load the time I killed one of the corpo-bosses, yes, because I was annoyed.
End game I was just running and shooting, didn't care, just wanted to be done with it.
And game was nagging me with some lady that's apparently "very high up there VIP or some ****". I didn't even know the hell she is.
Killed chairman, game didn't even recognize it on nor then nor in the end sliders. Ugh.

The worst? I felt nothing. Aside from first area, everything else was the same-ish. Go, shoot, loot the same stuff, go next area. Sometimes I will run into a silly joke or something in the logs, but it's all wasted potential.

Game is so afraid for the player to fail it's embarassing. Like, seriously. Failing is almost impossible. During one of the latter missions I was "in disguise" and was just itching to have a pretext to kill everyone. But I kept passing checks in dialogues. Next time there was a disguise option I simply shoot my way through to make things slightly faster.

Wasted potential.
Also: uuu! Corporations bad and dumb! Repeat, whole, game.

 

[BeardyHat]

Still playing the same group of games as a week ago, altho it's been ~a week since I did some C&C.

I love C&C Remastered; been thinking recently that I ought to go back to it again. I do hope they remaster the second game, as I never did play it. By the time it came out, I was on to other stuff and never really looked back.

Sorry for late reply, I don't check this place as often as I used to.
Best I just dig up my old post, that explains it my stance a bit more.
Since then I haven't touched the game and frankly, I have no desire to come back at all.
On the other hand, I feel quite peckish for some Fallout 2 run....

Thanks for the insights. Definitely doesn't make me want to continue with it, though I don't feel like playing it at the moment anyway, since I'm just not up for hours of dialogue.

I feel like I should like Monster Hunter more, but I always find myself getting bored with it and trying to finish the missions as quickly as possible. The combat is fun enough and I enjoy the challenge of using the Charge Blade, but the areas just aren't that interesting, there's really minimal exploration and I dislike that it's essentially a Game Lobby with various rooms and areas attached to it. I do love the aesthetics and general look and feel, just wish I didn't always feel bored when I played it.

So instead, I've been playing Dark Souls again. I could go back to Elden Ring, as I only have 45 hours in it, but eh, it's just not what I'm wanting right now. The exploration is fun, combat is ok, but it feels like it just lacks that certain thing the Souls series has; I like getting to know an area and steadily working my way through it and the linearity really works in Dark Souls favor here. Elden Ring just seems to be missing something for me and I have no real desire to get back to it, which is unfortunate.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm not sure how much more of Supermarket Simulator I can stand. After every day, you have to reorder merchandise and carry it into the stockroom. The problem is that you reorder from a PC, which means you have to walk up and down the aisles, guessing how much to buy, then going back and forth to the PC. You can only order 10 things at a time, so you order then run the stuff from the sidewalk to the storeroom. As the store gets bigger, it gets more and more oppressive, and I still have 23 expansions left.

 

[Zloth]

Still playing the same group of games as a week ago, altho it's been ~a week since I did some C&C.

Still playing the same game I've been playing for weeks. I've forgotten what I had going on in Endless Space 2. It's all X4 Foundations all the time! (Or the occasional bit of beta testing for X4.)

 

[Frindis]

Been playing Noita (which is also on sale until the 15th of April) and it is fun. You can build your own wand and wreak havoc. It got a surprisingly steep learning curve, but I respect that. It is an unknown world with unknown materials that react with each other in different ways, so you'll spend some time experimenting and having fun dying doing so. The pixel physics in the game is very good and some of the spells you can make can get intense at times, like blowing up everything around you, including yourself. Some pools of unknown material also do some weird stuff with your body, like transforming you into a sheep that is getting pulled up by a bee, something like that. Most fun wand I have found was a wand that sent out pheromones that made ALL the enemies on the map fall in love with me for some time. I also found a wand that shot out some kind of gravitational stone that wrapped around my leg. I could not move at all and had to burn the stone down with another wand to get unstuck. I didn't like that wand...

I have not gotten far in the game, but so far it seems that there are stages that you go to. So you'll go deeper and deeper and find a portal that takes you to the next stage. Inside the portal, before you enter the next stage you can also buy upgrades and other stuff, like mixing different spells from different wands. If you die, you also die if you do not have a resurrection stone or similar item. That is roughly what I know about the progression system so far.

Noita on Steam

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Brian Boru]

I've played a fair bit of Far Cry 5, but never stumbled across this side mission before:

Triggered when I returned near the place where Guy Marvel was shooting BD3, where I'd done his earlier mission Quiet on the Set.

Here I am on set:

I think I mentioned before that I found a back way up Raptor Peak, accessible from the starting point at the top of the path, before you start the stupid swinging and roundabouting—aka grappling. That may require the Resistance mod with the extra jump height enabled, because I couldn't get it going tonight.

However, I did find it after a couple of grapple swings—two I think, at the stage when I was getting annoyed with it. I looked around, tried a likely spot to climb the mountain side, and it worked. Here's a pic enroute, you can just head straight up from here:

I like trying and finding new things in games I know well

 

[ZedClampet]

What I love about Epic is that they have high quality standards. For instance, check out this gaming extravaganza:

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/maze-of-disorder-4f23a0

Besides the complex and gratifying gameplay showcased in the trailer, notice the sign at the end (1 minute trailer)

Edit: I have to stop looking through the depths of the Epic store. I'm close to needing psychological counseling.

 

[BeardyHat]

What I love about Epic is that they have high quality standards. For instance, check out this gaming extravaganza:

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/maze-of-disorder-4f23a0

Besides the complex and gratifying gameplay showcased in the trailer, notice the sign at the end (1 minute trailer)

Edit: I have to stop looking through the depths of the Epic store. I'm close to needing psychological counseling.

Helluva description too. Hope they kicked that developer a lot of money for exclusivity.

 

[neogunhero]

What I love about Epic is that they have high quality standards. For instance, check out this gaming extravaganza:

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/maze-of-disorder-4f23a0

That game looks like it was made on the PlayStation game Dreams then ported to PC

---

Been playing Noita (which is also on sale until the 15th of April) and it is fun. You can build your own wand and wreak havoc. It got a surprisingly steep learning curve, but I respect that.

I really need to give it another go. I only played for about 5 hours but it was a blast. I was surprised to see some reviewers on the Steam page have over 150 hours in it, it’s a lot deeper and more complex than I originally thought.

 

[neogunhero]

I decided to do some comfort-exploring in Far Cry 6 last night. It’s games like these that I love to turn off the HUD and get lost in the world, wandering aimlessly. I drove a crocodile taxi up a mountain, found a little river with a jet ski, rode it around a while, glided around a bit, it was all very relaxing.

I’m currently using all the clothes I have that give me speed boosts. When I slide, I can sprint as fast as a car driving normal speed in this game. It makes exploring and doing parkour a lot of fun. So I was zipping around all over the place grinding out a bunch of cache boxes. One thing I don’t really like about this game is you unlock loot in sequential order regardless of the actual location of the cache box. That means you can just find a bunch on the map, sprint to them all and grind out the unlocks. Pair that with me running at lighting fast speeds, it makes for a fun parkour game.

 

[Johnway]

not much to report on my front tbh. Still playing assassins creed odyssey and i bought the boomer humble bundle boomer shooter pack for the 3 games. I figured that for 4 games its ok at less then 4 quid each. But yeah, parts of me wishes i could resist or wait. I doubt there is anything i want in the next bundle....

 

[ZedClampet]

In 2017 I bought an engineering game called SimplePlanes. I just installed it for the first time.

Too bad I'm probably too stupid to be able to design planes. Should give me some funny moments though.

 

[BeardyHat]

not much to report on my front tbh. Still playing assassins creed odyssey and i bought the boomer humble bundle boomer shooter pack for the 3 games. I figured that for 4 games its ok at less then 4 quid each. But yeah, parts of me wishes i could resist or wait. I doubt there is anything i want in the next bundle....

The thing that really stopped me with Humble is that my library is damn full, I just don't want to add anything else to it, especially games I have zero interest in.

I was tempted by the Humble Choice this month, as I've been really wanting Humankind and Hobbs Barrow for awhile and while it's a damn fine deal, I think I'd ultimately just be happier if I spent the little extra money and got the stuff I wanted in a Steam sale, rather than further stuff my library with things I'm going to forget about and never play. Money is easier to come by than time right now and I'm a stay at home parent.

All I want to do right now is play more Dark Souls. Sure, it's dated, especially in comparison to Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring (hell, even Dark Souls 2), but it's just a damn fine game in the first half. Kind of dreading the second half, but we'll see how it holds up, given it's been 12 years since I last played it.

I've been trying to play other stuff, across a variety of systems, but everything just tells me to play Dark Souls instead.

 

[Johnway]

The thing that really stopped me with Humble is that my library is damn full, I just don't want to add anything else to it, especially games I have zero interest in.

I was tempted by the Humble Choice this month, as I've been really wanting Humankind and Hobbs Barrow for awhile and while it's a damn fine deal, I think I'd ultimately just be happier if I spent the little extra money and got the stuff I wanted in a Steam sale, rather than further stuff my library with things I'm going to forget about and never play. Money is easier to come by than time right now and I'm a stay at home parent.

All I want to do right now is play more Dark Souls. Sure, it's dated, especially in comparison to Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring (hell, even Dark Souls 2), but it's just a damn fine game in the first half. Kind of dreading the second half, but we'll see how it holds up, given it's been 12 years since I last played it.

I've been trying to play other stuff, across a variety of systems, but everything just tells me to play Dark Souls instead.

yeah that was my counter argument not to get it, but doing the math i felt that 3-5 quid for each of the game would have been a deal too sweet to pass up. its unlikely i would get them at a lower price unless its on the grey market something i'm not keen to do. Especially for non aaa games.

 

[BeardyHat]

yeah that was my counter argument not to get it, but doing the math i felt that 3-5 quid for each of the game would have been a deal too sweet to pass up. its unlikely i would get them at a lower price unless its on the grey market something i'm not keen to do. Especially for non aaa games.

Definitely, it makes total sense to do it that way. My method is purely for my own mental health these days; I have so much of a library or backlog of various Games and projects (heaps of unpainted miniatures, but I've gotten through a lot) that to look at it makes me feel overwhelmed and causes me to mentally shut down. Only way I've figured out to deal with it for myself is to just be more deliberate, even if it ends-up costing me more money in the end.

 

[Pifanjr]

I did end up needing to do a shootout with a bunch of enemies at once in The Outer Worlds and it wasn't too bad. I did have to reload a couple of times, so it definitely wasn't easy, but it's doable as long as you hide behind some cover and wait for enemies to come to you one by one.

Been playing Noita (which is also on sale until the 15th of April) and it is fun. You can build your own wand and wreak havoc. It got a surprisingly steep learning curve, but I respect that. It is an unknown world with unknown materials that react with each other in different ways, so you'll spend some time experimenting and having fun dying doing so. The pixel physics in the game is very good and some of the spells you can make can get intense at times, like blowing up everything around you, including yourself. Some pools of unknown material also do some weird stuff with your body, like transforming you into a sheep that is getting pulled up by a bee, something like that. Most fun wand I have found was a wand that sent out pheromones that made ALL the enemies on the map fall in love with me for some time. I also found a wand that shot out some kind of gravitational stone that wrapped around my leg. I could not move at all and had to burn the stone down with another wand to get unstuck. I didn't like that wand...

I have not gotten far in the game, but so far it seems that there are stages that you go to. So you'll go deeper and deeper and find a portal that takes you to the next stage. Inside the portal, before you enter the next stage you can also buy upgrades and other stuff, like mixing different spells from different wands. If you die, you also die if you do not have a resurrection stone or similar item. That is roughly what I know about the progression system so far.

Noita on Steam

Noita is a magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you've created yourself.

store.steampowered.com

Noita is one of those games that I think I might love, but I'm not sure enough to bet money on it.

 

[Brian Boru]

everything just tells me to play Dark Souls

Your psyche is talking to you, it will not be denied—next game The Evil Within

damn fine game in the first half. Kind of dreading the second half

Drop it half way. I replay Crysis and Warhead every year, and drop both at halfway when the game morphs into the fight with the aliens. Shame, the first halves are so good…

I haven't played Far Cry 1 in over a decade, but same story—introduced Trigen monsters halfway which turned a great tactical adventure into a get-thru-it slog. I replayed FC1 at least half a dozen times, but only completed it twice.

Same when I play Civ—9 of 10 games I don't finish, typically drop ~⅔ in once it becomes slog and outcome is clear. So don't dread second halves, drop 'em!

be more deliberate, even if it ends-up costing me more money in the end

You're nearly there, fortitude my friend! Just take one hit of no new games for a year, and then you'll have a lifetime of Patient Gaming—think of it as letting the wine age

The Outer Worlds

Should've listened to Zloth—now there's a first!

I may give it one more whirl, but probably won't. I got to first town—EverGlades, EverGrande, AriannaGrande?—but already the game is far more fussy than I like. No matter, worth a look.

 

[Zloth]

Should've listened to Zloth—now there's a first!

You couldn't, you didn't say anything until you started playing!

 

[ZedClampet]

but already the game is far more fussy than I like. No matter, worth a look.

I don't think it's the game that's fussy.

 

[Pifanjr]

Should've listened to Zloth—now there's a first!

I may give it one more whirl, but probably won't. I got to first town—EverGlades, EverGrande, AriannaGrande?—but already the game is far more fussy than I like. No matter, worth a look.

In the first area I found that you can rush through most conversations pretty quickly and get back to just shooting marauders. When I got to the space station however there was much less shooting and a lot more talking. You could of course ignore all of the side content, but then you could also just play a proper FPS game if you don't care about the dialogue.

Because I have fairly limited time to play I do try getting through dialogue more quickly than I would in the past. I've also decided not to steal anything, because I know that once I start I'll spend hours just sneaking around trying to grab anything left unattended. There isn't that much interesting loot anyway.

 

[Brian Boru]

There isn't that much interesting loot anyway

Reminds me of Far Cry 3, my first looter.
"$2 and a chewing gum wrapper"—What?
"$3 and a safety pin"—Huh??
"$2 and a broken doll"—WTF???

you could also just play a proper FPS game if you don't care about the dialogue.

Yep, there's more than enough dialog in my FC games, to the extent it's a significant reason I went solo last run, and will continue such, apart from getting their few kills for perk points.

you can rush through most conversations pretty quickly

Kinda defeats the purpose of playing tho, unless what you're getting back to is compelling. I assume the weapons and combat improve a lot later, they did nothing for me in the bit I played.

Anyway, my own fault—when Fallout 4 didn't draw me back [yet?], this is just not my genre. No harm done.