April 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

That CRPG, Broken Roads, that I wanted pretty badly is apparently in pretty bad shape at launch. Last I looked it had Mostly Negative user reviews. It also got a 60-something review by PC Gamer, which actually seems a bit generous based on the user reviews I've read. Many times you can't target enemies because they overlap with dead enemies. A bunch of quests can't be completed. That's pretty bad.

 

[Pifanjr]

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.

Personally I really like the support for sneaky gameplay. I love sniping people from a distance or crouching through buildings with a silenced gun. And I do like the world building and I enjoy the dialogues, I just don't really have the time to patiently listen to a whole bunch of exposition at once, so I skim the subtitles instead of listening to the voice actor.

 

[Brian Boru]

Hah, this is neat in Far Cry 5. I climbed the lookout tower at Grey Wolf location, here's a pic:

Do you see it?

Spoiler: I never noticed before that…

…the rock in the field looks very like a grey wolf!

 

[neogunhero]

I played some Risk of Rain 2 while waiting for the Fallout show to release (discussion thread). Why do I only have 15 hours on this game??? It’s so awesome. I think around the time I was first playing it, I only got it because my co-op friends at the time begged me to get it. I was a bit cynical and wanted to play other games instead so I kinda dragged it down in my mind but that’s my own fault. Playing it with a more open mind now, I don’t understand how I disliked it back then. I love roguelikes, I love shooters, I love games where you continuously get stronger and stronger, this game is everything I love. I did a few rounds last night and my longest run was around 40 minutes. I got a ton to unlock so I’ll be playing this for a while now.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Hah, this is neat in Far Cry 5. I climbed the lookout tower at Grey Wolf location, here's a pic:

Do you see it?

Spoiler: I never noticed before that…

…the rock in the field looks very like a grey wolf!

Looks like a rock in a field.

Tell your friend wearing the 1970s curtain that she needs to point the barrel of the gun at the ground unless she's decided to shoot you.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Having fun with Max Payne still, interesting to see the little Remedy touches that are still there in the later games. TV and Radio shows to find etc. Kind of fun to go back and remember the kind of linear game design that used to be common 25 years ago, shootings still fun but the bullet time is not as useful or smooth as I remembered it being. Also still failing at Slay The Spire, happy to hear there'll be a new one for me to be bad at in a year or so.

 

[Johnway]

So... episode 1 of the fate of atlantis sorted. Moving on from elysium and starting episode 2 of the game. Honestly its getting to me now and i can't wait to see the back of the game. I suppose the fantasy environments allows the devs to stretch their creative juices and that comes in the form of a few special abilities. But again it doesn't push the boat that far out as its still an assassin's creed game and its merely reskinned parts and still the same grind.

Interestingly, upgrade points come thick and fast. currently i'm sitting on 27 unallocated skill points. No idea why i haven't upgrades my skills. i think i don't see some of the upgrades as being significant. Like hell i'm going to drop 20 skill points into + dmg with daggers.

 

[BeardyHat]

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



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!

I definitely ought to recalibrate my expectations. I always go into games, expecting to finish them and move on to the next game in the series, but it almost never works out that way. Though, I don't actually feel guilty for dropping anything when I'm not having fun anymore, so we'll see how Dark Souls goes. Currently, I'm in the Depths and it's an annoying as hell area, but I'm still enjoying myself, though I'm eyeing Dark Souls 2 with great curiosity now...

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

Oh, I think I'm long since there. The only game I bought last year that wasn't at least half off was Pentiment and that's a decision I do not regret in the slightest.

I generally try to look through my library first before buying anything new, just to save my self some money. That said...

I played some Risk of Rain 2 while waiting for the Fallout show to release (discussion thread). Why do I only have 15 hours on this game??? It’s so awesome. I think around the time I was first playing it, I only got it because my co-op friends at the time begged me to get it. I was a bit cynical and wanted to play other games instead so I kinda dragged it down in my mind but that’s my own fault. Playing it with a more open mind now, I don’t understand how I disliked it back then. I love roguelikes, I love shooters, I love games where you continuously get stronger and stronger, this game is everything I love. I did a few rounds last night and my longest run was around 40 minutes. I got a ton to unlock so I’ll be playing this for a while now.

This looks intriguing and I'm inclined to buy it at half off. That said, while it looks fun, it looks like the kind of game that I personally get bored with relatively quickly; not sure how I can tell that, but just my suspicions. I do wish I could stick with this type of game for longer.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I definitely ought to recalibrate my expectations. I always go into games, expecting to finish them and move on to the next game in the series, but it almost never works out that way. Though, I don't actually feel guilty for dropping anything when I'm not having fun anymore, so we'll see how Dark Souls goes. Currently, I'm in the Depths and it's an annoying as hell area, but I'm still enjoying myself, though I'm eyeing Dark Souls 2 with great curiosity now...

I've only actually beaten Gwin once, but Ive got to Ornstein and Smough 3 or 4 times over the last few years. I think its pretty common to fall off on the second half of DS, once you get to Ceaseless Discharge (teehee) and beyond its not as good.

Have you played DS2 before?

 

[neogunhero]

This looks intriguing and I'm inclined to buy it at half off. That said, while it looks fun, it looks like the kind of game that I personally get bored with relatively quickly; not sure how I can tell that, but just my suspicions. I do wish I could stick with this type of game for longer.

It’s the type of game where you need to keep completing challenges to unlock new stuff. Each character has unique moves and abilities so that keeps things fresh. Each run is fairly similar, it’s RNG heavy since it’s a roguelike, but a lot of times I end up getting a lot of the same items between runs. That’s not a bad thing though, and I bet the DLCs would add tons more ability items but I don’t own any. For me an average run is about 30-40 minutes but I’ve had some go on for an hour or longer. It’s a good game to pick up and play for short bursts as it’s easy to get right into the action and you can pause if needed.

 

[BeardyHat]

I've only actually beaten Gwin once, but Ive got to Ornstein and Smough 3 or 4 times over the last few years. I think its pretty common to fall off on the second half of DS, once you get to Ceaseless Discharge (teehee) and beyond its not as good.

Have you played DS2 before?

Yeah, that sounds about right. I've got over 100 hours in Prepare to Die edition and I do recall stopping at O&S a few times.

I actually was doing a new run of Dark Souls 2: SotFS around summer or so of 2023. Played about 40 hours, but then got enamored with Elden Ring for a bit, but I've been thinking about going back to DS2 since I started this current run on DS1.

DS2 has some nice quality of life stuff and during that last run there, I was actually really enjoying it quite a bit. I definitely didn't feel as much enjoyment when it first released, but I think it's actually holding up quite well. For all the genius of Dark Souls world construction and how it loops back in on itself, I kind of feel like the novelty has worn off a bit and it maybe stands up not quite as well as the later entries. One thing I'm kind of surprised about on this revisit is how easy a lot of it is.

It’s the type of game where you need to keep completing challenges to unlock new stuff. Each character has unique moves and abilities so that keeps things fresh. Each run is fairly similar, it’s RNG heavy since it’s a roguelike, but a lot of times I end up getting a lot of the same items between runs. That’s not a bad thing though, and I bet the DLCs would add tons more ability items but I don’t own any. For me an average run is about 30-40 minutes but I’ve had some go on for an hour or longer. It’s a good game to pick up and play for short bursts as it’s easy to get right into the action and you can pause if needed.

It definitely looks intriguing, but honestly, your description tells me exactly that it's not going to be my type of game. For whatever reason, run based games very rarely actually stick with me and I can only think of a handful that I've played a good amount and even then, I tend to drop them after not too long, without exception.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I've got over 100 hours in Prepare to Die edition and I do recall stopping at O&S a few times.

I actually was doing a new run of Dark Souls 2: SotFS around summer or so of 2023. Played about 40 hours, but then got enamored with Elden Ring for a bit, but I've been thinking about going back to DS2 since I started this current run on DS1.

DS2 has some nice quality of life stuff and during that last run there, I was actually really enjoying it quite a bit. I definitely didn't feel as much enjoyment when it first released, but I think it's actually holding up quite well. For all the genius of Dark Souls world construction and how it loops back in on itself, I kind of feel like the novelty has worn off a bit and it maybe stands up not quite as well as the later entries. One thing I'm kind of surprised about on this revisit is how easy a lot of it is.

I think once you break the seal on Souls games they somehow all seem easier. The first time I ran at O&S it was on the Switch and I was at it for about a week, must have been dozens of attempts solo, and I didnt have Nintendo online to get any help from a summons. I played the whole game without any online features so I didnt even really realize it was an option. 🤣 The first time you open a shortcut is a moment though, especially when it then keeps happening again and again.

After Sekiro came out and I loved it I picked up the other games and played them. I did DS 2 last and it was my least favourite, but that can also be because I'd played a lot of Fromsoft games all in a row and I was a bit tired of the style.

At the time I played them all before Elden Ring I would have said DS3 was my favourite, people seem to consider it the most linear and I can see it, but it didnt bother me. The combat feels slightly smoother somehow and the bosses were all pretty good, IMO unlike the first two games which both had some bad ones like BOC or Triple Gargoyles which are frustrating rather than well designed.

Havent ever beaten Manus in DS, or done a lot of the DS2 DLCs which people say are the best parts, and I didnt finish the Ringed City DLC in 3 either. Probably saving it for my retirement in about 75 years at this point though.

 

[BeardyHat]

I think once you break the seal on Souls games they somehow all seem easier. The first time I ran at O&S it was on the Switch and I was at it for about a week, must have been dozens of attempts solo, and I didnt have Nintendo online to get any help from a summons. I played the whole game without any online features so I didnt even really realize it was an option. 🤣 The first time you open a shortcut is a moment though, especially when it then keeps happening again and again.

After Sekiro came out and I loved it I picked up the other games and played them. I did DS 2 last and it was my least favourite, but that can also be because I'd played a lot of Fromsoft games all in a row and I was a bit tired of the style.

At the time I played them all before Elden Ring I would have said DS3 was my favourite, people seem to consider it the most linear and I can see it, but it didnt bother me. The combat feels slightly smoother somehow and the bosses were all pretty good, IMO unlike the first two games which both had some bad ones like BOC or Triple Gargoyles which are frustrating rather than well designed.

Havent ever beaten Manus in DS, or done a lot of the DS2 DLCs which people say are the best parts, and I didnt finish the Ringed City DLC in 3 either. Probably saving it for my retirement in about 75 years at this point though.

Don't think I ever did any of the DS2 DLC's either, never made it far enough in it to actually make them viable, not that I know how to even access them.

My wife watched me totally clear Dark Souls 3 and all the DLC's, which was a great time and has been watching me go through Lies of P, which has been great. Lies feels like a nice tweak on the formula and I'm excited to finish it; just haven't been able to with my wife out of town since she wants to watch, which is why I started on Dark Souls instead. Craving the genre right now.

Still haven't tried Sekiro yet, it just sounds intimidating, but after Lies and practicing things I'm not good at in the Souls series, I'm starting to warm to it.

Honestly, what I should have been doing while my wife was out of town was start on Resident Evil 4. Kind of forgot it even existed and that I had it in my library, but I think it would have been a good choice, as I feel it has a similar pace.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Don't think I ever did any of the DS2 DLC's either, never made it far enough in it to actually make them viable, not that I know how to even access them.

My wife watched me totally clear Dark Souls 3 and all the DLC's, which was a great time and has been watching me go through Lies of P, which has been great. Lies feels like a nice tweak on the formula and I'm excited to finish it; just haven't been able to with my wife out of town since she wants to watch, which is why I started on Dark Souls instead. Craving the genre right now.

Still haven't tried Sekiro yet, it just sounds intimidating, but after Lies and practicing things I'm not good at in the Souls series, I'm starting to warm to it.

Honestly, what I should have been doing while my wife was out of town was start on Resident Evil 4. Kind of forgot it even existed and that I had it in my library, but I think it would have been a good choice, as I feel it has a similar pace.

I've almost as many hours in Sekiro as I have in Elden Ring and its a much more linear condensed game. It is all about the parrying, but not the same kind of parrying as in DS. Almost like a rhythm game, and theres not really any way to grind after a certain point so you do just have to learn the fights well. Not easy but its my favourite. You can also away with a certain amount of spamming parry as well, so its not like you need ultimate reflexes to do it.

I still want to finish Lies of P, its really good I just get distracted by new shiny if I dont get to play for a few days and leave things unfinished sometimes.

The Surge 2 is worth a look sometime if you havent already, it feels Soulsy but is also its own thing like LOP.

 

[dxchase]

Since dark souls and souls-like games are the topic, i got Nioh 2 in the last Humble Bundle and literally 1 second into the game its a stupid parry, roll, parry, roll, strike, parry roll boss fight. Easy, but just a boring game loop.

But, as most souls like games, it looks fantastic and i love the armor and stuff, but all those cute little soulsy things like dying to falling down from a low-hanging roof from a 1-shot off screen arrow because jumping down from a roof right above that roof cost you half health even though it was a higher climb than the ground one..is such a turn off to me and then easily fighting my way back is just a boring loop.

Ugh, i have sucha love/hate with that genre, its not that i cant beat the games, ive beaten DS 1-3 (3 i cheated) its just that i get so bored with dying to small dumb things that reset a whole board. Its just 1 big dungeon crawl that looks nice but plays dumb to me.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Dying to stupid ambushes and random stuff is a big part of the fun to me, especially when you think you've done it and get nailed by something else after. I dont really replay games often and Ive started them all up again apart from DS2 more than once.

I dont think theyre particularly hard games either. I just think most people playing pretty 3d games arent used to dying a lot, and theres not a lot of hand holding as to where youre supposed to go or what to do always. Nothing a quick look at a wiki doesnt solve if youre geting too frustrated.

 

[Johnway]

just a reminder, if you can, try and do your part for https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

 

[Brian Boru]

unless she's decided to shoot you

Oh no, I have Faith 😉

what I should have been doing while my wife was out of town was start on Resident Evil 4 … I think it would have been a good choice

Yeah, that would also fit…

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

 

[neogunhero]

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

I spent ~3 hours following the Viva New Vegas modding guide for FNV. I started it before I noticed PCG posted their own modding guide for FNV and linked Viva New Vegas in the article just a few days ago, I thought about how coincidental that was and took it as a sign: I HAD to play this game again. I bought the Lonesome Road DLC because for some reason in my 14 years of owning this game on this same Steam account I never owned all the DLC. I picked up the Couriers Stash DLC as well, paid $3 for both DLC by selling a few CS2 skins.

I completed all the essentials then went and added a lot of the mods listed in the Extended guide, all in total there were 115 mods. It was my first time using Mod Organizer 2, I’ve mainly only used Nexus’s own mod manager then their Vortex software for the past probably 15 years. Occasionally I’ll try something different but I always go back to their software. It was confusing at first, there’s some extra steps you have to do that you normally wouldn't do on Vortex but in the end it was neatly organized and easy to use.

I fired up the game and the changes were immediately noticeable. Interior and character model shading looked a lot better than vanilla. Textures seemed slightly sharpened, and tons of meshes are fixed to be more high quality. Character creation was streamlined so I got out in about 2 minutes from starting.

The game is sooooo smooth. I played with only a few mods I selected about a year ago, so comparing that experience to now after following the VNV guide, the differences are night and day. There are so many engine optimization mods, bug fixes and patches, and quality of life improvements in this guide that it makes the game feel amazing in 2024.

The sprint is so nice, just took a little tweaking to make it use less AP but not allow me to sprint for minutes before getting tired. There are world objective markers which may make it a lot easier but honestly I really like it. It’s like in modern games where there is a marker in your view telling you where to go, so you never get lost. This is turned off by default but after using it for a while I really like having that little touch. Animations are more abundant, and it seems like NPCs are a lot more alive, they react to things happening around them a lot quicker, enemies are quick to pick up weapons and take cover, civilians have more idle animations.

So far I’ve become idolized by Goodsprings, vilified by the Powder Gangers, and forced Primm under martial law by the NCR. Not sure what my characters moral standing is going to be yet, but I haven’t been fully evil in this game before so I may try that. I highly recommend anyone wanting to replay FNV to follow that Viva New Vegas guide, it’s very long and took me forever but it is entirely worth it in the end. Just make sure to read all of the instructions clearly, there’s a lot of intricacies you need to pay attention to.

 

[Zloth]

I poked my nose back into the Homecoming City of Heroes servers over the weekend. I was surprised to see my characters were still there from over 1000 days ago!

Well, mostly there. My Arachnos Widow took some costume damage. She looks fine in the game, but everything other than her primary costume is the default all-black-tights. If I try to mess with her primary costume, it suddenly manifests a huge collar. She was only level 6, so I just shunted her off to another server and re-built her. I had to use a completely different costume - I presume due to some sort of rule changes.

But everything else is going strong, still. There are a lot of people playing! They've added some new powers and powersets, too. I like the super-speed that has an additional short-range teleport! Super-speeders always had a really hard time dealing with walls and elevated highways.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Been mostly working, but played a bit of Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader and Hydroneer. I'm still at the beginning of both, but enjoying them. I'm having navigation problems in Rogue Trader. The map isn't helpful, and it keeps teleporting me to new areas, so I can only wander around until I find where I'm supposed to go.

It's hard getting back into a CRPG again, but I will probably get the hang of things eventually.

 

[Colif]

Single player games that require servers to play them shouldn't exist. Should get media to allow play without a connection. Shouldn't be able to stop players from playing just by closing a server. One way to force them buy a new version but if its a constant cycle of closing old servers, only idiots would keep buying your products... looks around...
What happens when Steam closes? Where are your games then? The video shows a way we can try to stop them just closing servers after a few years. We shouldn't be forced into buying new games to keep playing what we love.

 

[neogunhero]

Played more FNV then switched to DayZ last night. Livonia DLC is on sale again and I’ve been wanting it for a few years so I took the plunge and bought it. Playing on a non-modded PVE only server and the main difference is how much more detailed the world is. Chernarus is just a modified version of the original map from ARMA 2, and even through all its modifications and additions it’s still the same map, and that means I’ve been playing the same game map for 12+ years. Sure there are modded custom maps but nothing really matches the same level of quality as Chernarus IMO so that’s why I felt it was time to get Livonia.

I played for about 2 hours and it was pretty tough. Being a brand new original map, they went all out with the detail and level design, and it feels like they added more zombie spawn placements. I was chased within my first 30 seconds! I found some basic loot, hid inside of some buildings, and found a revolver. I was getting chased by a horde inside a large empty warehouse, so I decided to shoot the revolver, it was so loud I nearly jumped out my seat.

Definitely gonna play more of this. I go through phases of DayZ each year so this may be the start of one.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Going to play a couple of older games, Gold Mining Simulator and TerraTech.

Got a new way of doing things in Hyrdroneer and Supermarket Simulator, so thing are going faster in those two grindy games.

@Colif People always ask, "What when Steam closes?" Guess what? It's not closing. It's a multi-billion dollar company, not some start-up barely making ends meet.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Daughter is playing Car Mechanic Simulator. Then she went out and changed her real car's oil. Atta girl!