August 2024 PC Gaming General Discussion Thread

[Zed Clampet]

Seems to have leveled off around 1.3

Time for bed

 

[Zed Clampet]

Even with a custom background, I still look like a fat old man who needs a hair cut and his beard trimmed. I was shooting for "seasoned Doom guy" 🤣

*****

It's happening. Wukong is about to pass Palworld for most concurrents. Unless it's topped out now, but I doubt it. It's just under 2 million.

User reviews? Overwhelmingly Positive at 96 percent

 

[neogunhero]

Didn’t think Wukong was going to be this huge. Happy for all the players who are enjoying it!

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Still grinding away at Yakuza 0 and I really mean grinding. Trying to level up Kiryu as much as I can but I accidentally went too far in the story and now I’m playing as Majima, which is fine because I do enjoy running the cabaret club and his Slugger stance is my favorite fighting stance in the game, but I was much stronger as Kiryu. Fitting since he loves to fight more than Majima does.

Each character has three fighting stances, which really changes up your fighting style and movesets. They’re all useful for different encounters, but for the most part if you focus on leveling one stance up a lot, it could be useful in pretty much all encounters.

Kiryu’s Rush stance is absolutely OP. It’s the stance I’ve been focused on leveling up the most. It’s Kiryu’s fast paced fighting style, with a really useful evade move and fast attacks that level enemies stunned. I managed to defeat Mr Shakedown for the first time using Rush stance. They’re multiple really huge men who have super strong attacks and lots of health that steal a lot of your money every time you get hit or are defeated by them. If you manage to defeat them yourself, you get a huge load of money. I finally got the achievement for defeating one and gained nearly 10mil Yen, which is decent in this game.

Another thing I was really focused on before moving onto Majima is the pocket racer circuits. They’re those race cars that follow premade tracks, but in this game you have to customize your racers to make sure they’re fast but don’t go flying off the course. I spent a lot of money buying parts and even going through the trouble of unlocking the black market dealer who has some illegal racer parts. I was struggling with my racer being too fast and flying off the course, so after a ton of tweaking and modifying, I finally beat the first few races. It’s so funny how in-depth this part of the game goes and it’s entirely possible to skip the whole thing. I played it a little last time I went through this game, but this time I’m so invested in it. It’s really fun modifying your cars trying to make them the best on the racetrack. As soon as I get to play as Kiryu again I’m headed straight for the circuits.

While I don’t want to rush this game too fast, I am really excited to get to the real estate part of the game. It’s in Chapter 5 and I believe I just got to 4 last night. In the story you take over a real estate business, because you know the main story is all about real estate wars, and you get to do things like property acquisition and manage a team of workers. You manage workers like assistants, security and property managers, and doing a good job will earn you passive income over time. It’s so strange if you just read about it, but actually playing this part of the game is a ton of fun.

Yakuza 0 has so many little side activities and such like that, but it’s done so well to the point where you can spend as much or as little time on side activities and still have a blast. The real estate part is kind of mandatory to a certain point but eventually you can keep growing it as much as you’d like to really grind out money in the game.

In top of all of that, I’m still playing a bit of Two Point Campus here and there. Yakuza really demands a bit of your time, it’s hard to play it for just 30 minutes at a time unless you are free from doing a mission and just doing side actives like bowling or billiards. Two Point Campus works better for me if I only have 30mins-1hr to play. It’s a lot easier to save your progress and jump back in when you’re ready. Still trying to 3-star all levels, and I’m still struggling to do that on the second level lol.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit more of Baldur's Gate 3 during my break (which ended up lasting longer than usual...)

I mostly just killed a whole bunch of Goblins. Honestly, I think the game could be a bit harder still. Even when I purposefully don't rest until all my spell slots have been used, I hardly ever use consumables. I also haven't respecced Shadowheart even though she honestly kind of sucks (in part because of some bad choices I've made during level up).

I do begin every combat by sneaking up on the enemies and getting a surprise attack with each of my characters, which helps a ton. Though I suspect it has also led me to miss out on some dialogue options. However, that just means I'll have some unseen content for my second playthrough.

Even with a custom background, I still look like a fat old man who needs a hair cut and his beard trimmed. I was shooting for "seasoned Doom guy" 🤣

It reminds me of Alan Moore without the Rasputin vibes.

It's happening. Wukong is about to pass Palworld for most concurrents. Unless it's topped out now, but I doubt it. It's just under 2 million.

User reviews? Overwhelmingly Positive at 96 percent

It happened, Wukong got to ~2.2 million.

Black Myth: Wukong smashes Palworld and Counter-Strike 2 to become the second most-played Steam game of all time less than a day after launch, and it's gaining on PUBG's gold medal

The people yearn for monkey business.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

I played a bit more of Baldur's Gate 3 during my break (which ended up lasting longer than usual...)

I mostly just killed a whole bunch of Goblins. Honestly, I think the game could be a bit harder still. Even when I purposefully don't rest until all my spell slots have been used, I hardly ever use consumables. I also haven't respecced Shadowheart even though she honestly kind of sucks (in part because of some bad choices I've made during level up).

I do begin every combat by sneaking up on the enemies and getting a surprise attack with each of my characters, which helps a ton. Though I suspect it has also led me to miss out on some dialogue options. However, that just means I'll have some unseen content for my second playthrough.



It reminds me of Alan Moore without the Rasputin vibes.



It happened, Wukong got to ~2.2 million.

Black Myth: Wukong smashes Palworld and Counter-Strike 2 to become the second most-played Steam game of all time less than a day after launch, and it's gaining on PUBG's gold medal

The people yearn for monkey business.

www.pcgamer.com

I looked it up. 88 percent of the downloads are from China. I'm assuming that represents the player demographics.

Every game for the next 20 years is probably going to be set in China now 🤣

 

[Zed Clampet]

This is appalling in this day and age! Farm Together 2 added peanuts to the nut category instead of the legume category. And we needed a fast growing legume! Riot! 😆

 

[dxchase]

I looked it up. 88 percent of the downloads are from China. I'm assuming that represents the player demographics.

Every game for the next 20 years is probably going to be set in China now 🤣

Yea, i def. felt that was true seeing it reach 1.5 million at about 2:30 am here lol. I asked people who play souls-like games and a couple of them didnt know much about this game. I havent heard or seen any more advertising and articles about it than Elden Ring. Then i see it hit 2.2 million players this early afternoon, but when i looked it was down to about 650k but it was 3:30 am in Tokyo (looked at about 2:30pm here).

Im glad its getting good reviews, i def. want to try it but the whole sentiment of "this game doesnt have an agenda/(woke) agenda!" because of the supposed email they sent to cc's. That is 1,000% an agenda! lol


In other news, i am about to be a twitch affiliate!! I have the # of followers (50), hours, unique stream days and everything, but i am only at 2/3 for average viewers. That should be going up this week!

Shameless plug in for me 🙂

 

[Johnway]

So i'm currently playing Arcade paradise (thanks Epic). So nearly 6-7 hours of solid play honestly i'm starting to find it a bit boring. As someone who is more work orientated, i spend more time working the laundromat as oppose to playing games.

But it seems like time has stopped, i've bought all the available arcade machines and thats it. No further progression. can't expand or anything. Not sure if this is a bug or a certain amount of time needs to pass before the next story mission begins.


Finished another doom wad Sanguine Holy land. i was going to write in the usual topic but not yet. i can't post the images on instagram for some reason. it keeps failing and errors.

On other news, Still playing Path of Exile. The good news is that i'm very close to unlocking 12 challenges. So weapon visual effect completed. So can i get the 24 challenges? unlikely, at best i can get another 17 but grindy challenges just aren't my thing. I might give up early as its unlikely to get the 24-32 challenges. Even looking at the challenge guide its still a nightmare to accomplish.


More grim news, Remember i was playing Shin megami Tensei 4 on the 3ds? Well my 3DS sd card gave up the ghost so my files are lost. My 60+ hour save game file lost... Absolutely sore about that.

 

[Colif]

Wukong peak players hit 2.44 million overnight, Only PUBG has had more players than it, and just wait for weekend.
Really, if just 2% of Chinese population played game, it would easily beat about 3 million
4.5 million copies sold in 24 hours.

Every game for the next 20 years is probably going to be set in China now 🤣

I am not sure about that but a lot will come from there. They want to stop being known for Gaacha and pay to win games, they want to be treated seriously. This could open floodgates and bring more competition to AAA games. Good.

 

[neogunhero]

So i'm currently playing Arcade paradise (thanks Epic). So nearly 6-7 hours of solid play honestly i'm starting to find it a bit boring. As someone who is more work orientated, i spend more time working the laundromat as oppose to playing games.

Had the same feeling when I played that on Game Pass last year. So focused on grinding the work aspects of the game, I ended up forgetting I was trying to run an illegal arcade in the back.

More grim news, Remember i was playing Shin megami Tensei 4 on the 3ds? Well my 3DS sd card gave up the ghost so my files are lost. My 60+ hour save game file lost... Absolutely sore about that.

So sorry to hear about your loss! One of the worst feelings as a gamer. Had this happen to me countless times with cloud saves messing up.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I am not sure about that

Surely you jest. These AAA CEOs would stab you in the face for $20. They are definitely going to be making more games set in China. Obviously I was just kidding when I said "every".

 

[Zloth]

I've been playing The Invincible, a walking simulator game based on a story by Stanislaw Lem. I've read a good bit of Lem's stuff and really like it. This game, though... Idunno. The story is excellent so far. It's one of those classic SF stories where you're dropped onto a weird planet/spaceship/whatever and the story revolves around figuring out why things there work the way they do. I love those sorts of stories!

But also: walking simulator. You just go through it. Sometimes you are asked to make a choice, but I don't really know if the choices make a little difference or a lot. There haven't really been any puzzles at all, unless you count "look around a little to see if you can find the lost-thing."

Obviously I was just kidding when I said "every".

Looking forward to Horizon: Quest for the Great Firewall! 😉

 

[Zed Clampet]

I've been playing The Invincible, a walking simulator game based on a story by Stanislaw Lem. I've read a good bit of Lem's stuff and really like it. This game, though... Idunno. The story is excellent so far. It's one of those classic SF stories where you're dropped onto a weird planet/spaceship/whatever and the story revolves around figuring out why things there work the way they do. I love those sorts of stories!

But also: walking simulator. You just go through it. Sometimes you are asked to make a choice, but I don't really know if the choices make a little difference or a lot. There haven't really been any puzzles at all, unless you count "look around a little to see if you can find the lost-thing."


Looking forward to Horizon: Quest for the Great Firewall! 😉

Put The Invincible on my wishlist. I don't mind walking sims so long as the story is good.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Oof. I could write a book on what's wrong with Dawn of Defiance, but it's still in early access, so I think I'll just put it aside for now.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit more Baldur's Gate 3 and had some tougher fights. The first one was when I accidentally triggered a fight with about a dozen people whom I did not want to kill, so I had to use melee attacks to knock them out. I hadn't saved in a while, so I didn't want to reload the last save. It was still doable, but I did get my first death out of it.

Then a little after that I ran into a group of enemies, one of which could do 3 attacks in a single turn. At some point my fighter was on low health and he downed her, then crit her while she was down, putting her on two failed death saves. Of course it was her turn immediately after and she immediately failed her death save and died.

I got that enemy back by using Crown of Madness on him and making him kill his own ally before killing him.

Luckily I'm rich and can afford to resurrect my party members.

 

[BeardyHat]

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Still grinding away at Yakuza 0 and I really mean grinding. Trying to level up Kiryu as much as I can but I accidentally went too far in the story and now I’m playing as Majima, which is fine because I do enjoy running the cabaret club and his Slugger stance is my favorite fighting stance in the game, but I was much stronger as Kiryu. Fitting since he loves to fight more than Majima does.

Yakuza is such a fun series, just from a humor and ridiculousness standpoint. I really enjoyed my 36-hours with 0 and the so far 20ish I've spent with Like a Dragon, which has fun JRPG style mechanics that I'm finding I enjoy more than the beat-em-up of 0. That said, I need to have some motivation to go back to it, but I'm not in the mood for the slow pace right now.

I put down Arkham Asylum, which I had anticipated. I was enjoying playing it, but I had the distinct feeling that it was only going to last until I found something else to play, which is Hitman: World of Assassination, which I'm happy to finally be in the mood for. I played the original Hitman demo back in the day and ended-up loving the concept, playing every single game until recently. I did end-up buying 2016, but kind of rushed through it, not having much fun, so it's very nice to be back to it and taking me time, figuring things out and just letting it breathe.

I am save-scumming just a little bit, but I'm trying to generally let the chips fall where they may as I play. I have been reloading when it comes to something that I could have known with more knowledge of the game, but not generally when I "screw-up." I did reload a save today when I realized a costume I thought could get me into a place doesn't actually, so I went back and decided not to choke a guy out and steal his clothes, for instance.

 

[Johnway]

Had the same feeling when I played that on Game Pass last year. So focused on grinding the work aspects of the game, I ended up forgetting I was trying to run an illegal arcade in the back.

yeah the sad reality right now i'm making more money from the laundromat then i was from the arcade machines. i suspect there would be a tipping point, but honestly, if in real life i was given $30 picking up less then 20 pieces of trash i would gladly do that all day. if i could get $50 remove chewing gum by just pulling it, i would totally do that. I was under the impression this was a self service laundromat so why i'm doing the work i haven't a clue.

I'll play a bit more before i give up on the game, just to give it a fair chance but i suspect if things don't change its getting uninstalled.

So sorry to hear about your loss! One of the worst feelings as a gamer. Had this happen to me countless times with cloud saves messing up.

Thanks. its now left me in a bit of a bind as to what to play on the hand held. I could just move onto Bravely Default or fire emblem series, but i would like to play something on my much neglected vita but nothing on their excites me. I did dip my toes into psycho pass, but being a VN thats barely any game in that.

 

[Colif]

I watched two endings of Black Myth so far (on Youtube). They are epic.
Not bad for a studio who only made mobile games until now.

Not sure I will buy game, I haven't really watched that much game play.

 

[Pifanjr]

Continued Baldur's Gate 3 this evening. I swapped out my generic fighter hireling with Karlach and made it to the second major area of the game.

I feel like enemies are hitting a lot harder now. Luckily I just got to level 5, letting me do multiple attacks per turn and giving me access to level 3 spells.

 

[Frindis]

I got my hands on an egg in BG3 today. I will keep it and see if I can hatch it and make it my work slave. If not, I will find some evil way to get rid of it. Hmmm, come to think of it I do have an owlbear running around at camp, it likes fresh meat 😈

 

[neogunhero]

Yakuza is such a fun series, just from a humor and ridiculousness standpoint. I really enjoyed my 36-hours with 0 and the so far 20ish I've spent with Like a Dragon, which has fun JRPG style mechanics that I'm finding I enjoy more than the beat-em-up of 0.

So far I’ve only played 0 and Kiwami 1, beat 0 back when it first came to PC in 2018, played a bit of Kiwami on PS4 back when it came out, 2017 I think. I currently own 0, Kiwami 1 and 2, and Yakuza 3 Remastered so I may be in for a series run here if I’m motivated enough. Across those 4 games that’s probably a solid 100 hours minimum if you rush through the stories. I have dreams to play all of the games in canon order, but realistically you’re looking at an estimate 300 hours of gameplay, not to mention the Judgement series and any other franchise games that haven’t made it to the west yet. As much as I’d love to do that I’m not sure how much motivation I have to play them all. May be best to take breaks with other games in between Yakuza.

yeah the sad reality right now i'm making more money from the laundromat then i was from the arcade machines.

That was one thing I was thinking too. After maybe 8 hours of playing it, I started to think when do I get to just kickback and play the arcades? Game time keeps running as you play the arcades, so often I found myself ditching the arcade cabinet mid game to go do some laundry. Sounds like my real life, pausing my game to go do a chore, so I said screw it and dropped the game. Surely they can’t expect the player to do laundry for 20 hours until they beat the game, it’s gotta change at some point but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Well, that was bad luck. Farm Together 2 had an update yesterday that added a new production building. You could only get one unless you upgraded the store where you buy it. I wanted six, so I started upgrading the store. The first four upgrades were tough, but doable. But the fifth upgrade cost was outrageous.

At first I decided to just stick to 5 buildings, but then I decided I was going to try to somehow pay for the 5th upgrade. I worked for hours last night and hours this morning. In the process, I used 800 of the most difficult to get currency in the game. It had taken me weeks to get all that. The kicker was that I was only about 3/5 of the way there.

Then there was an update this morning and the cost had been a typo. It actually costs only a third of what had been listed. I wasted all that currency for nothing. Now I can't even afford the new cost because I need more of that currency first, which is one part of the cost of the upgrade.

 

[neogunhero]

Finally got to the Real Estate Royale part of Yakuza 0. Now, the real game begins.

Up to this point I’ve been trying to max my friendship levels with a few people around town so I can eventually take over their businesses. Easiest of the bunch is the konbini store right next to your real estate office. Just keep buying stuff from her, give her the idea to tell corporate to add a postal service to their stores, and she will max out her friendship level with you. From there I quickly swooped in to add the store to my portfolio. So far I have 4 stores, making me around 5mil Yen each payout. Trying to take the bowling alley but I forgot you have to progress further in the story to unlock the bowling tournament, and once you complete that then you can buy the bowling alley. Haven’t gotten there yet.

It seems a lot of people skip this part of the game. It’s not mandatory to do much of it, just a small portion starting out, but I really enjoy it. It’s a very strange feature but gameplay wise it’s one of the best ways to make money, and you have to spend money to upgrade your fighting abilities.

The main gist is that there is a group of dudes called The Five Billionaires who run the city with their investments, and you start a real estate business to compete with them and eventually take them down. I haven’t gotten that far before but I may try to focus on doing just that. Slowly, piece by piece, you collect properties that make money for you. You have to spend money on managing various staff, but the investment returns are well worth the small price you pay out of pocket. Each Billionaire controls different districts of the city, so as you’re stepping on their toes, they may engage in a Money Battle where they pump their properties with money to make more gains, and you too have to dump a ton of cash into your properties to try to counter and beat them. Eventually you take over all the properties in a district and move onto the next.

You now may see why people skip this part of the game. It sounds strange just reading about it, and if you didn’t know it was in the game it really does come out of nowhere in the story. It happens so suddenly you’re not sure if you have to focus on solely doing that or not in the game, however actually playing it is a ton of fun once you get the gist of it all. You’re making friends around town, buying up their property to manage on their behalf, sending security dudes to collect money, and battling with billionaires. I really love this aspect of the game, such a unique experience in a truly unique game.

 

[BeardyHat]

I don't generally do Early Access, but this is definitely one I'll be picking up as soon as it's available.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era on Steam

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the official prequel hailing back to the origins of the genre-defining, critically acclaimed series of turn-based strategy games. Raise grand armies and wield devastating spells to overcome your foes in both solo and multiplayer.

store.steampowered.com

 

[neogunhero]

I don't generally do Early Access, but this is definitely one I'll be picking up as soon as it's available.

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era on Steam

Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is the official prequel hailing back to the origins of the genre-defining, critically acclaimed series of turn-based strategy games. Raise grand armies and wield devastating spells to overcome your foes in both solo and multiplayer.

store.steampowered.com

Award for most confusing franchise naming scheme goes to HoMM. For the past 10+ years they changed the names of the newer games to “Might and Magic Heroes”, now we’re going back to HoMM.