August 2025 General Game Discussion

[Johnway]

More blasphemous action, the good news is that new method of lantern jumping has worked a charm so one of the most annoying aspects has been addressed. So my opinion of the game remains highly positive.

Progress wise we're nearly done. i've completed all 8 dungeons, defeated pretty much all the bosses (even if i didn't need to because i messed up the golden ending) and 4 of 5 challenge maps done. Just to finish off the last map any missing items and finally defeat the boss to complete my first run of the game.

 

[Zloth]

BREAKTHROUGH!!

1. Yeah, I was too far when doing my backstabs. You have to get close enough to make the animation weird, with your nose almost touching the enemy.

2. When using a spear, you can attack while still holding up your shield! (Or you can equip a second spear and flail away. Or two flails and really flail away.) They can still break my poise pretty easily, but not as easily as when my shield is just hanging at my side.

3. Ash summons are not one-use-only. What's more, they last a pretty long time and are quite tough! I was pretty sure I would be able to use those wolves multiple times, but I assumed they would just be wolves, which I can very nearly one-shot with my little starting spear.

Knowing these, I was able to backspear most of the enemies in that initial outpost and only needed one heal spell before the elite knight. I summoned the dogs on him, and they almost took the guy out alone!

Then I went to that starting dungeon with the wolves and wasted that boss easily. Then sliced through that costal cave for Boc without much trouble... yeah, it's clicking now. (Also, being less scared means less panicky clicking the attack button, which means less getting hit because I can't dodge while attacking.)

There are definitely things to UNlearn in this game. First, levelling isn't as big a deal as it is in most RPGs. It's important for sure, but it isn't like "forget attacking anything 3 levels above you, sleep through attacking things 3 levels below you" important. Improving your weapons is at least as important.

And, as I had hoped, while there's a lot of focus on how hard the fights are, this game also has highly challenging and rewarding exploration. I've seen many games with good exploration (far more without), but games with challenging exploration? Exploration where you've got to be smart about it or you'll end up dead? That's seriously rare.

Of course, it will kill you sometimes even when you are smart about it. Smart ain't always good enough for From.

 

[Pifanjr]

I started a new Rimworld game. I wanted to try out raiding, so I made a new scenario where I start with a single pawn that starts with only a awful revolver, thinking I would be able to steal better equipment from hostile camps.

However, it turns out camps are quite a but more well protected than I anticipated and a single, unarmoured pawn with mediocre shooting skill and a bad weapon isn't going to be able to do anything.

So instead I've pivoted to a nomadic life. The pawn I chose has the Ascetic trait, which means he doesn't need a fancy bedroom to be happy and he's fine with eating raw food, which is really convenient. Especially since he got gut worms after only a few in-game days and now has to eat twice as often. Too bad he has a terrible medicine skill, so it's going to take a while before he gets rid of them.

I did get a pawn that wanted to join me, but they were being chased by Empire troops and I had to use them as bait while my first pawn escaped.

 

[BeardyHat]

BREAKTHROUGH!!

1. Yeah, I was too far when doing my backstabs. You have to get close enough to make the animation weird, with your nose almost touching the enemy.

2. When using a spear, you can attack while still holding up your shield! (Or you can equip a second spear and flail away. Or two flails and really flail away.) They can still break my poise pretty easily, but not as easily as when my shield is just hanging at my side.

3. Ash summons are not one-use-only. What's more, they last a pretty long time and are quite tough! I was pretty sure I would be able to use those wolves multiple times, but I assumed they would just be wolves, which I can very nearly one-shot with my little starting spear.

Knowing these, I was able to backspear most of the enemies in that initial outpost and only needed one heal spell before the elite knight. I summoned the dogs on him, and they almost took the guy out alone!

Then I went to that starting dungeon with the wolves and wasted that boss easily. Then sliced through that costal cave for Boc without much trouble... yeah, it's clicking now. (Also, being less scared means less panicky clicking the attack button, which means less getting hit because I can't dodge while attacking.)

There are definitely things to UNlearn in this game. First, levelling isn't as big a deal as it is in most RPGs. It's important for sure, but it isn't like "forget attacking anything 3 levels above you, sleep through attacking things 3 levels below you" important. Improving your weapons is at least as important.

And, as I had hoped, while there's a lot of focus on how hard the fights are, this game also has highly challenging and rewarding exploration. I've seen many games with good exploration (far more without), but games with challenging exploration? Exploration where you've got to be smart about it or you'll end up dead? That's seriously rare.

Of course, it will kill you sometimes even when you are smart about it. Smart ain't always good enough for From.

Is this your first From game? It's always exciting to see it click for another person, takes you back to when that happened for yourself.

 

[Colif]

I never realised there were so many versions of Monopoly.

I liked the original, I feel its gone off the road there somewhere as there are now about 4000 versions, many of them cross promoting another product.
Its almost as bad as Lego

List of Monopoly Games (Board)

List of variations of the board game Monopoly. This list attempts to be as accurate as possible; dead links serve as guides for future articles. See also: Fictional Monopoly Editions List of Monopoly Games (PC) List of Monopoly Video Games - Includes hand-held electronic versions Other games...

monopoly.fandom.com

Its the fortnightification of everything... lets shove as many franchises together and produce a product... reminds me of metaverses as well. Everyone will buy it if its for everyone... nope. That repulses people... look at main character in Ubisoft's Star Wars game last year, she was meant to look like everyone but instead didn't attract anyone. You can try too hard to include everyone.

 

[Zloth]

Is this your first From game? It's always exciting to see it click for another person, takes you back to when that happened for yourself.

Yep! Though really, it was half joy of figuring it out and half frustration of "why would you make THAT tricky!?"

The inventory is pretty weird, too. You can equip 3 weapons and switch between them. Weapons you are not carrying that way are all weightless, though. Armor worn is heavy, armor in your bag is weightless. It's not hard to understand once you know it, it's just another one of those things you've got to realize is different without any hint.

Ah, and I got a new spell! Fire sling is actually useful for attacking. An elite knight on a horse became easy pickings with it. I got up on a ruined building, shot a couple of arrows at him to make him mad, and then threw fire at him as he scrambled up the building. He did get to me, but with hardly any health so I could just wail away with my spear without caring if he hit me or not. Easy win.

 

[Pifanjr]

My Rimworld game was going quite well. I decided to check out some abandoned ruins, a feature added by the latest DLC, and got a bunch of stuff to sell. I made it to a neutral settlement and traded my old revolver in for a sniper rifle and bought some better clothing and basic armour as well.

However, the last abandoned ruin I explored was better protected than the ones before and I didn't notice the hunter drones until they'd already swarmed my pawn, at which point it was too late to escape.

I tried starting a new colony afterwards, but I didn't feel like playing any more.


So I decided to start a new Terraria game. It's been years since I last played it and it has had a ton of updates since then, though so far the beginning still feels very familiar. The major difference so far for me is that I'd only ever seen the Corruption, so when I made my world I chose to have it generate the alternative Crimson instead. It's fairly similar, except that it's red instead of purple and the purple orbs you have to destroy have been replaced with anatomically correct(ish) hearts.

Now, with the Corruption you get a floating purple orb as loot that follows you around and provides light. Since the Crimson exchanged the orbs for hearts I suppose I could've seen it coming, but I was still very surprised when I instead got a glowing heart that spurted blood while flopping after me.


The reason I decided to play Terraria again was because I was recently recommended a video series recently on YouTube from someone who introduced a friend to Terraria and used the opportunity to see how well Terraria does at explaining the game to new players.

It's very interesting to see how developers can nudge players in the right direction with subtle game mechanics, but also how easy it can be to get stuck because the player missed something.

View: https://youtu.be/3fHgO1a_tOI

 

[BeardyHat]

Ah, and I got a new spell! Fire sling is actually useful for attacking. An elite knight on a horse became easy pickings with it. I got up on a ruined building, shot a couple of arrows at him to make him mad, and then threw fire at him as he scrambled up the building. He did get to me, but with hardly any health so I could just wail away with my spear without caring if he hit me or not. Easy win.

Honestly one of my favorite parts of From game is that Cheese is encouraged. Love that if you can find a clever way to defeat an enemy, it'll let you do so.

 

[neogunhero]

Put a good amount into the BF6 beta over the weekend but I cannot pull myself away from the Skate playtest. The sad part about it is that there will be multiple progression resets, so everything I'm doing now is not going to carry over. Hopefully we get some playtesting rewards though. The game is far from being complete but it's one of my favorite games I've played this year. It's become the perfect pick up and play game for me, and it barely requires audio so I can play with one headphone off and still hear my wife talking to me when needed.

Skate has been pretty much the one and only game I've played in the past two weeks. BF6 beta for about 4 hours but that's it. I really need to find something else, because like I said, my progress is Skate doesn't carry over when public release comes out later this year so I should find something else to focus time on.

 

[Colif]

The total number of Monopoly versions is over 4000 and no one can know for sure how many there actually are. World record collector has 3000 copies...
Collecting something that has so many variants means you can't know which ones will be valuable in the future... its like collecting Lububu or Funko Pops (though technically the company who made them is almost out of business so maybe in 100 years some of them will be valuable), its just a waste on money. Only person getting rich from Lububu is the guy who created them.

I didn't come here to say that...

I need to create a time machine and go and interview myself from 2009 so I can remember how to play a game coming out next year. I also need to forget about it until then - its too soon to be thinking about it now. I hope they don't mess up the remake or I won't be happy.

 

[Frindis]

Been playing STRAFTAT with my nephew in several matches and it is TONS of fun! Very reminiscent of the Quake era and some of the maps are insanely good to play on. It's fast, frantic, frustrating, and just about anything else. Highly recommended if you want an extremely solid FPS game that is very fast paced to jumpstart those few brain cells we old gamers have left.

STRAFTAT on Steam

STRAFTAT is a 1v1/2v2 ONLINE first person SHOOTER with quick rounds in over 300 MAPS ; Including all WEAPONS, proximity chat and 4 players FFA.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Colif]

This looks like fun

Save 10% on Strange Jigsaws on Steam

A game of strange jigsaws.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Well, after all my talk of not wanting a Steam Deck and not wanting to buy second hand... I bought a second hand Steam Deck.

To be fair I bought it from a friend Ive known a long time and I paid less than what a Retroid Pocket 5 Pro would have cost me so those were the deciding factors. Its a 256GB LCD one just over a year old and lightly used. Ive only played a bit of Hades and Dying Light on it to try it out, its pretty chunky to hold but not uncomfortable. I may have a problem with games that need a lot of shoulder button use, because my fingers seem to only be able to easily reach one set or the other, might be a problem in From games but havent tried any out yet. Will be looking into Emudeck at some point, it doesnt seem too hard but will need a bit of time to sort out and thats at a premium at the moment.

Other than that I started a new profile on Against The Storm, its just the right level of light stress at the moment. Probably my favourite city builder ever, its really intricately designed with the way the combinations of resources, different pop races, biomes and scenario bonuses/penalties interact to make each 1-2 hour game play out slightly differently. Theres been some updates with more biomes and cornerstones which add even more variety to the way things can play out, and a couple of new resources to use too. Theres so much to the game its hard to explain it in short, but if anyone here ever liked The Settlers I suggest checking it out. Its very different to that but gives me the same feeling with a lot of other stuff on top.

 

[dxchase]

Been a minute since i posted on gaming, simply because since Wednesday its been 80% battlefield 6 beta and 20% KF3 with the fam. Thats the tl/dr here, but to continue unpacking...

I bought The House of the Dead Remake for 2.50 usd and i got a hold of The House of the Dead 2 Remake which released in terrible shape, but i got it to work. They are fun to me because i love light-shooter games (i have the Terminator arcade 1up and retro shooter). So, was able to play these with lightguns for a little bit even if the 2nd one took a little longer to get working right with them.

Anniversary is next weekend so wont be doing much gaming then and its a long week at work so not really sure what im feeling, i just know im gonna miss most (most) of battlefield 6 beta's second round next week.

As for Killing Floor 3... its fun to play with people you know, it has a lot of jank but for the most part the loop is fun to use, so we have a good time. The game though..the longer it stays released with little in the way of patching, the more my excitement for this game declines.

First, there is constant crashing and its been a major pain point for a lot of KF3 players, im no different. I can probably get 3-5 matches in before a crash, sometimes less. The joining system is broken and theres a real chance you might be waiting a while for a match to start because you get dropped into a match where you can only spectate and you have to wait until they complete the round or die. If they die, you have to sit through the whole after screen then the whole matchmaking screen again. Really tedious.

Couple all that with limited communication and a roadmap that is still weeks away from any significant release of content/fixes.


I've also been eyeing the new Mafia game, its only 43 usd for me through GMG so i might pick that up soon too, although it has denuvo which i dont really like supporting, but i love me a good mafia SP story. I also have all the other ones so i kinda want to complete my collection.

Put a good amount into the BF6 beta over the weekend but I cannot pull myself away from the Skate playtest. The sad part about it is that there will be multiple progression resets, so everything I'm doing now is not going to carry over. Hopefully we get some playtesting rewards though. The game is far from being complete but it's one of my favorite games I've played this year. It's become the perfect pick up and play game for me, and it barely requires audio so I can play with one headphone off and still hear my wife talking to me when needed.

Skate has been pretty much the one and only game I've played in the past two weeks. BF6 beta for about 4 hours but that's it. I really need to find something else, because like I said, my progress is Skate doesn't carry over when public release comes out later this year so I should find something else to focus time on.

I was the opposite! haha, I was doing the Skate playtest as well (i dabbled a bit beforehand) but the BF6 beta sucked me right in to just stick with that

Well, after all my talk of not wanting a Steam Deck and not wanting to buy second hand... I bought a second hand Steam Deck.

To be fair I bought it from a friend Ive known a long time and I paid less than what a Retroid Pocket 5 Pro would have cost me so those were the deciding factors. Its a 256GB LCD one just over a year old and lightly used. Ive only played a bit of Hades and Dying Light on it to try it out, its pretty chunky to hold but not uncomfortable. I may have a problem with games that need a lot of shoulder button use, because my fingers seem to only be able to easily reach one set or the other, might be a problem in From games but havent tried any out yet. Will be looking into Emudeck at some point, it doesnt seem too hard but will need a bit of time to sort out and thats at a premium at the moment.

Other than that I started a new profile on Against The Storm, its just the right level of light stress at the moment. Probably my favourite city builder ever, its really intricately designed with the way the combinations of resources, different pop races, biomes and scenario bonuses/penalties interact to make each 1-2 hour game play out slightly differently. Theres been some updates with more biomes and cornerstones which add even more variety to the way things can play out, and a couple of new resources to use too. Theres so much to the game its hard to explain it in short, but if anyone here ever liked The Settlers I suggest checking it out. Its very different to that but gives me the same feeling with a lot of other stuff on top.

Im not too far off now, id've boughten it too if i had that kind of way to get one.

Speaking of handhelds. I signed up for Verizon FiOs internet and when i did, i was told i could get a free Switch and some JBL boombox, so i figured why not? I didnt read the fine print which said i would have to make 3 consecutive payments of the plan before they would send it out to me. I hit the 3rd month and got the email, so now im waiting on a switch. Never had one before.

 

[neogunhero]

I was the opposite! haha, I was doing the Skate playtest as well (i dabbled a bit beforehand) but the BF6 beta sucked me right in to just stick with that

I'm basically a lifelong BF fan and I really loved the few hours I have in the Beta but for whatever reason it's not grabbing me as much as Skate does. I'll buy it eventually especially if it remains really good after launch, but for now I just want to play nothing but Skate. It sucks knowing that progression is going to be reset so I'm having fun just hitting random skate spots with strangers. I've also did a few Throw Downs which are a ton of fun, you set a flag down in the world and other people can join to do a mini skate competition with you. I can play these games forever, I'm always able to find my own fun in them which is what I love most about the series. I have noticed a lack of certain tricks but surely they will get added as the game goes into beta and full launch.

 

[Zloth]

Honestly one of my favorite parts of From game is that Cheese is encouraged. Love that if you can find a clever way to defeat an enemy, it'll let you do so.

Cheese? That nutter brought a lance to a napalm fight, he deserved what he got.

I'm amazed at how important lock-on management is in this game, at least when using a spear or tossing fire. If there's a swarm of enemies, it isn't too bad - you're going to hit something and maybe a few somethings. One on one, though, trying to just aim in the correct direction misses half, if not more. You've got to lock on! If you keep locked on, though, you're always going to try to face that target. Running around or trying to deal with another enemy that's gotten closer isn't going to work. So it's lock in, unlock, lock in, unlock. I don't remember doing that in any other game before!

Oh, and I did switch to controller. It took quite some time (and some remapping) to get it to work well for me, but it does work better than keyboard.

P.S. The game's dialog... uhh.... not a selling point.

 

[Colif]

The war of the anti cheats has begun

BF6 tells players to uninstall Valorant if they have it on PC

Personally I see anything with root 0 access as a threat. Only things that should have that is the OS. Anti cheats that need ring 0 aren't welcome on my PC.
Guess I just can't play BF6... I am sure I will cope. They can't even count, there are 13 games so far in series.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played some more Terraria. I entered hardcore mode by killing the Wall of Flesh and immediately died a dozen times because there are a whole bunch of new, stronger enemies running around now. It was worse than when I had just started and had no equipment yet. But with a bit of persistence I managed to unlock the new hardcore ores and get some new equipment as well as a bunch of extra hearts and now I'm back to dying the normal amount of times.

I'm still trying not to look up stuff on the wiki, but the game is truly bad at explaining what things do. For example, I got a sharpening station that says it "Increases armor penetration for melee weapons", but I couldn't figure out how to use it. Turns out that using it just applies a buff that I hadn't noticed.

---

All this talk about Battlefield 6 makes me want to pick up a shooter again. Maybe I should get that Elite Sniper humble bundle...

 

[Zed Clampet]

Big Dune Awakening update today. It has a lot in it, but the two main focuses are griefing and opening up late game resources to people who don't want to enter the PvP zone. It will still be a lot better just to go to the PvP zone, but if you really don't want to and you don't mind a lifetime of grinding, then that's available.

Tons of QoL updates, and they are making the sandworm more dangerous. Currently, the sandworm breaches the surface, which takes a moment, then he goes back down and then breaches again, this time heading straight toward you. Now, there is a chance that the worm will skip the initial warning breach and just come straight for you. This is going to make early game travel a lot more dangerous, but mostly this is to make mining spice and flour sand harder for the late gamers. It doesn't really impact me either way because I have unique clothing and gear from constant grinding that keeps me from alerting the worm at all, even while mining spice.

 

[BeardyHat]

Cheese? That nutter brought a lance to a napalm fight, he deserved what he got.

I'm amazed at how important lock-on management is in this game, at least when using a spear or tossing fire. If there's a swarm of enemies, it isn't too bad - you're going to hit something and maybe a few somethings. One on one, though, trying to just aim in the correct direction misses half, if not more. You've got to lock on! If you keep locked on, though, you're always going to try to face that target. Running around or trying to deal with another enemy that's gotten closer isn't going to work. So it's lock in, unlock, lock in, unlock. I don't remember doing that in any other game before!

Oh, and I did switch to controller. It took quite some time (and some remapping) to get it to work well for me, but it does work better than keyboard.

P.S. The game's dialog... uhh.... not a selling point.

Controller is really going to change the game for you. I just can't imagine trying to make the game work with keyboard and mouse.

With lock on, I often find myself switching enemies a little too early, causing me to need to retarget stuff because my first spell didn't immediately kill it. There's definitely an art to it, but those times when you perfectly line up some enemies and knock them down, oh yeah.

As for story, yeah, I pretty much ignore all of that. From games are pure gameplay and creature design for me, anything else is extraneous.

Last night I made it very close to Volcano Manor, which I've been meandering towards for awhile now. I saw it off in the distance, but the rocky area around it is full of twists, turns and elevation, so I keep getting diverted or finding areas to explore that end up being more complicated than I imagined (Gelmir Heros Grave). Still haven't gone in to the Manor yet, as there's a ton around the area I still haven't explored and just before quitting last night I got wrecked by an area boss, so I want to finish him off and see if the path he guards leads where I think it does.

Civ 6 is still going. I'm reaching a point with it where things are getting pretty complex and I'm not sure what's happening or what I should be doing. I entered a dark age close to turn 300 and 2 cities got mad at me and rebelled, but I don't have much way to reclaim them right now. My armies are all way south and I can't exert enough influence to get them to rejoin me, so they may be just lost to me for now. Ultimately, I don't think I'll end up winning this game, which is ok, as I'd still like to see it all the way through.

 

[Johnway]

With Blasphemous done, i decided to take a quick break and play path of exile, you take a week from the list, get to mapping before resuming play my collection if i wanted. Not going to lie, its going to be a month or 2 of solid work. But i need to sink myself into something good before resuming on the gaming dregs.

The good news is that i quickly jumped into ziziran's tough league as it was coming up to the last dying hours. i wanted the gloves and all i had to do was defeat the first boss of the beach (hillock) in other words, beat the tutorial. i managed to do it and jumped out immediately, prize claimed.

League wise, i've gone for the popular volcanic fissure build and yeah, still early days as i work towards endgame where the real work begins.

 

[Pifanjr]

I have a bit of a problem in Terraria. I need to defeat the three new hardcore bosses to progress, but they absolutely destroy me before I can do any significant amount of damage.

I already have the best weapon available, at least for one of the bosses, and I can only go one tier higher for my armour, though it's taking forever to find enough ore. Maybe if I build an arena so I'll have an easier time moving around and I brew a bunch of potions it'll just be enough to get me through at least one boss fight, which then hopefully gets me some gear upgrades.

 

[Johnway]

I have a bit of a problem in Terraria. I need to defeat the three new hardcore bosses to progress, but they absolutely destroy me before I can do any significant amount of damage.

I already have the best weapon available, at least for one of the bosses, and I can only go one tier higher for my armour, though it's taking forever to find enough ore. Maybe if I build an arena so I'll have an easier time moving around and I brew a bunch of potions it'll just be enough to get me through at least one boss fight, which then hopefully gets me some gear upgrades.

If it makes it any easier, have you tried editing the save game files such as https://yal.cc/r/terrasavr/

i personally used it when i hit a brick wall, but yeah got to a point where i was just getting destroyed by the bosses. The most annoying part is that they could fly through walls.

 

[Pifanjr]

If it makes it any easier, have you tried editing the save game files such as https://yal.cc/r/terrasavr/

i personally used it when i hit a brick wall, but yeah got to a point where i was just getting destroyed by the bosses. The most annoying part is that they could fly through walls.

I managed to kill the Destroyer by upgrading my armour and chugging every relevant potion I could make, as well as equipping an accessory that makes me ignore knockback and fighting in an arena where the lasers it shoots are mostly blocked by terrain.

I then tried to fight Skeleton Prime directly afterwards but that wasn't great with a melee weapon, though I actually got pretty close until I got it to about 20% of its health which triggered an attack that instakilled me. Apparently I need a wider arena so I can just keep running to avoid being hit. Though with the loot from the Destroyer I can now also make an awesome minigun, which should work a lot better than my melee weapon against a floating boss. I just need to find one more material for it, but that shouldn't be too hard hopefully.

Now that I have defeated one of the mechanical bosses I should also be getting an NPC that sells something to remove corruption much faster, which should be useful as it's been spreading like crazy underground.

 

[Frindis]

Everything except the story and I guess it looks OK. Combat is trash, movement is trash, exploration is trash, AI is trash, aiming is trash, loading is trash, markers are trash and so on. Mafia 1 is waaaaay better, Uncharted 1 is waaaay better, my toenails work better. I enjoyed what I played of Mafia 1; this one pales in comparison.

This is my impression from watching a stream, so if anyone wants to roast me hard and play it because you think I might be wrong and out of this world, oooooh, please do, I double dare you

Seems both PC Gamer, Steam and Metacritic shares most of my sentiments:

Mafia: The Old Country review

In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns, but less dangerous than knives.

www.pcgamer.com

Mafia III: Definitive Edition on Steam

After Lincoln Clay's surrogate family, the black mob, is betrayed and killed by the Italian Mafia, Lincoln builds a new family and blazes a path of revenge through the Mafioso responsible.

store.steampowered.com

Mafia III Reviews

In 1968, after years in Vietnam, Lincoln Clay knows this truth: Family isn't who you're born with, it's who you are willing to die for. Now back home, in a new New Orleans, Lincoln is dedicated to rebuilding his life, but established ties keep him from exiting the city. It'll take more than a...

www.metacritic.com

I do find it interesting that both Steam and Metacritic scores were a lot higher last week, but I guess it's more of an organic shift when more people have played through, or at least past some of the longer scripted areas at the beginning. Might also be review bots and paid reviewers, but I guess it is hard to tell just how much they would be able to inflate the scores.