December 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Pifanjr]

My kid had seen a video of the Bluey video game and had been asking me to get it and since her Christmas vacation has started today I decided to indulge her. She loves the series, so even though the game is really simple I think she really enjoyed it, especially since we can play it together.

My kid loves the Bluey game. We've finished the story and collected almost all of the collectibles already. It's pretty short though and a bit broken, as we sometimes start clipping through stuff, including the ground a few times, requiring us to go to the main menu and back into the game. Luckily, loading times are short and progress is saved automatically, so it's not too bad.

It's insane it's being sold for €40 full price though. Even with the current discount of 35% it's still too expensive for what you get for it.

 

[Colif]

 

[Frindis]

Calander still going strong: https://advent.larian.com/

Highly recommend it for those of you who play or have played BG3. Probably fun if you have not also, since you can do some easy puzzles for the whole family and some of the dates have rewards like unreleased music or wallpapers and such.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif Noita is one of the most ridiculously easy and ridiculously hard games I have ever played. You can get a superwand and feel like a God on a couple of maps and then a rock falls on your head and you die.

I'm still looking for my super duper awesome build around this: I got a spell that I could cast unlimited which would start to fill up the whole map with water. The enemies would drown, but so would I. So my goal is to get a breathing underwater perk and perhaps also lightning immunity with lightning going off in the water, so I not only drown the enemies but also electrocute them.

 

[Colif]

With great power comes the great chance it will kill you too.

Yes, that game is scary lol. I have watched it before. You can make bonkers weapons in that.

At 9942 hours played the entire map becomes made of lightning, and you can't move unless you have teleport. Due to a buffer over run error.

 

[BeardyHat]

@Colif Noita is one of the most ridiculously easy and ridiculously hard games I have ever played. You can get a superwand and feel like a God on a couple of maps and then a rock falls on your head and you die.

Watching that video, I realize I have pretty much no idea what I'm looking at. Certainly not what I thought the game was.

I'm still enjoying my Dishonored 2 run. Finding time here and there to sneak in 30-minutes and still very much enjoying myself and taking things slow, exploring spaces as best I can and collecting all the ruins and bonecharms in a level. I'm currently on the one where I need to get access to Siltons Mansion, but I'm trying to figure out how to do that without appealing to either of the factions that can get me in, as they both seem a bit **** and I'd rather they fight each other than give one more power over the city by knocking out another's leader. Though, I am tempted to get Paolo, simply because he's said to be unkillable...although I am doing a non-lethal run, which has been going great so far.

Also, I picked-up Armoured Commander 2 in the Steam Sale and I'm actually feeling quite addicted to it. I started with it on Friday, with the tutorial, which I finished-up on Saturday morning and have now put a total of 3.3-hours into it, which has been great.

https://imgur.com/a/mwEByPE

This is my 1940-era tank (M3 Lee), penetrating and destroying a French tank made in 1918 (Renault FT) with a .30 Caliber machine gun, which is amusing.

It looks utterly baffling, but it's very simple to play and the rules are very straightforward, which is something I appreciate in a wargame. It also works very well on even my most basic of systems (such as a Surface Go 2) and plays exceptionally well on Steam Deck. Can't wait to put more time into it.

 

[Colif]

Watching that video, I realize I have pretty much no idea what I'm looking at. Certainly not what I thought the game was.

well, his game is after 145 hours, and its not your normal play through as they trying to collect every substance into one location to run experiments...

That and its not his first game ever really, he been playing since before release, in the early access. I remember watching them years ago.

most of the game isn't like that.

 

[Frindis]

Watching that video, I realize I have pretty much no idea what I'm looking at. Certainly not what I thought the game was.

I feel the same way as I have absolutely no clue what he is doing.

It took me 2 minutes to get to the final boss and then under one minute to kill it. I had a teleport perk that would teleport me away whenever I got shot so I teleported through the levels until the final stage. I was lucky though because at the boss there was lava everywhere so if you get hit and teleported, you would die instantly.

An average run (without the insane luck I had) would probably take at least 1-2 hours and then some more if you also wanted to mine or explore every nook and cranny. It is very luck-based when it comes to what weapons and perks you get throughout levels so every run feels completely different.

 

[ZedClampet]

Playing Voin in small bursts, mostly because it's in Early Access and is supposed to change dramatically over the next year. But I got past the first boss and am level 3 now. I've collected quite a few power objects. There are many things you can equip, and they each do 1 or 2 different things, and I'm finding it difficult--so far--to really have a coherent build, but I guess that isn't surprising considering I don't have much time in it yet.

Another thing I've struggled with is the dash/dodge. My first thought was to play fast with constant dodging like in Vermintide, but in Voin you move too far when you dodge, and it can be a little disorienting if you are dodging over and over with a bunch of enemies around.

 

[JCgames]

My kid loves the Bluey game. We've finished the story and collected almost all of the collectibles already. It's pretty short though and a bit broken, as we sometimes start clipping through stuff, including the ground a few times, requiring us to go to the main menu and back into the game. Luckily, loading times are short and progress is saved automatically, so it's not too bad.

It's insane it's being sold for €40 full price though. Even with the current discount of 35% it's still too expensive for what you get for it.

Do you game with your kid? If so get Night of the Rabbit. Or give it to your kid and keep them busy for the next 3 months trying to figure out the puzzles, it's not an easy adventure. Though if they are into bluey, you might want to wait, or play together as i think i small kid could enjoy it, just not solve the puzzles as it's a bit challenging as far as point and clicks go.

The story is so great. A small boy is whisked away to another land by a magic Rabbit. It's not magical like Alice in Wonderland, it feels more like a practical real place. You just work your way through the story to make it back home. It's a very whimsical story, and i think i would of loved it even more as a kid. It's a must play recommendation for any point and click fan, Blade Runner, The Dark Eye, longest Journey, Syberia, Broken Sword, Shardlight, Blackwell ect.. Night of the Rabbit is as good as the best that's out there.

 

[ZedClampet]

Do you game with your kid? If so get Night of the Rabbit. Or give it to your kid and keep them busy for the next 3 months trying to figure out the puzzles, it's not an easy adventure. Though if they are into bluey, you might want to wait, or play together as i think i small kid could enjoy it, just not solve the puzzles as it's a bit challenging as far as point and clicks go.

The story is so great. A small boy is whisked away to another land by a magic Rabbit. It's not magical like Alice in Wonderland, it feels more like a practical real place. You just work your way through the story to make it back home. It's a very whimsical story, and i think i would of loved it even more as a kid. It's a must play recommendation for any point and click fan, Blade Runner, The Dark Eye, longest Journey, Syberia, Broken Sword, Shardlight, Blackwell ect.. Night of the Rabbit is as good as the best that's out there.

any recent point and clicks you would recommend?

 

[Colif]

It took me 2 minutes to get to the final boss and then under one minute to kill it. I had a teleport perk that would teleport me away whenever I got shot so I teleported through the levels until the final stage. I was lucky though because at the boss there was lava everywhere so if you get hit and teleported, you would die instantly.

An average run (without the insane luck I had) would probably take at least 1-2 hours and then some more if you also wanted to mine or explore every nook and cranny. It is very luck-based when it comes to what weapons and perks you get throughout levels so every run feels completely different.

A non average run'

 

[neogunhero]

Last night I had a ton of time to game. Got back from seeing the family and the in-laws around 9, I was gonna stay up late and game. I thought, “let’s check out the Steam sale, surely I will find something good to play”. I’ve been wanting something new to play, I’ve been bored with my regular rotation, and everything new I try just hasn’t been hitting good.

I proceeded to spend the next 3 hours doomscrolling the sale, cross referencing SteamDB to make sure I’m getting good deal, and not actually playing anything. I bought Cruelty Squad, I’ve been meaning to check this out for a while, but the game literally would not run. I reinstalled it, reinstalled it to a different drive, restarted my PC multiple times, no dice. That was my first sign. I refunded it and went back to browsing.

I then bought Planet Zoo, which seemed to be a very well made zoo management game. I got the Deluxe edition for just under $14. Historical low price also! I knew I was getting a good deal. Before the game even finished downloading, the regret set in. I had to refund it. No way I’m actually gonna play this.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I just need to play what’s in my library. I have well over 1200 games, surely absolutely I will find something I will like. I just need to browse and choose. Maybe I’ll replay an old favorite or give something new to me a spin. I have so many games across different platforms, I just need to look.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bunch of Shadow of War. I did a bunch of the daily and community quests, which involved doing 5 online vendettas (killing an orc that killed another player) and 2 online fort assaults (attacking a fort with another player's orcs), which got me a whole bunch of new equipment. I think I replaced a level 22 with a level 48 or so, I was pretty behind on good gear.

Then I killed all of the warchiefs of the next Fortress, but when I killed the last one a new one had been recruited. When I killed that one, two new ones had been recruited. Apparently I needed to kill them one by one and then replace them with my own if I wanted them to stay gone. Luckily killing captains is still fun, but I probably should've gone to be an hour or two ago. I did get the fortress though.

Do you game with your kid? If so get Night of the Rabbit. Or give it to your kid and keep them busy for the next 3 months trying to figure out the puzzles, it's not an easy adventure. Though if they are into bluey, you might want to wait, or play together as i think i small kid could enjoy it, just not solve the puzzles as it's a bit challenging as far as point and clicks go.

The story is so great. A small boy is whisked away to another land by a magic Rabbit. It's not magical like Alice in Wonderland, it feels more like a practical real place. You just work your way through the story to make it back home. It's a very whimsical story, and i think i would of loved it even more as a kid. It's a must play recommendation for any point and click fan, Blade Runner, The Dark Eye, longest Journey, Syberia, Broken Sword, Shardlight, Blackwell ect.. Night of the Rabbit is as good as the best that's out there.

Thank you for the recommendation. My kid prefers sandbox games where we can run around in together, so I'm not sure if this is something she'd be interested in, but I can show it to her and ask. It's only €2 on sale now, so even if it turns out she doesn't like it it's not a big waste of money.

 

[ZedClampet]

I have over $9 billion in my Chillquarium game (an idle clicker). Wonder if there's a TikTok video called, "Use this one little trick to convert your game currency to real money!"

 

[BeardyHat]

I had a couple of huge chunks of time today to play Dishonored 2. First, my kids went over to the neighbor friends house, then my wife left to buy some stuff off Craiglist, so I had a solid hour and a half to two hours to play. Then the kids went to a birthday party, which my wife took them to and graciously told me she didn't think there was any need for me to go, so I had another hour to an hour and a half. And then, my wife went over to her sisters house after dinner, so once I put the kids to bed, I had a good hour and a half again, giving me a solid 5ish hours to just play and not have to worry about anything. Sorry, just got excited and wanted to gush, as a day like today comes around so very rarely.

At any rate, I made it back to where I had been back when I stopped playing in 2017. I have to say, I remember almost nothing about this game, which is kind of surprising, because the set pieces are absolutely fantastic and memorable. I have a terrible memory, but this is the kind of thing I would absolutely remember; though back then I had no kids and a serious reliance on substances that mess with memory, so I guess it's not surprising. But the Clockwork Mansion was fabulous and now the entire Dust District and getting into Stiltons Mansion is amazing as well, especially with the new mechanic that's introduced there.

But I feel like I'm still going strong with this one. I feel like I recall petering out by this time back in 2017 and just unable to bring myself to tackle another huge map. But this time, I'm just enjoying the journey and taking my time to explore every nook and cranny. Dishonored 2 is quickly becoming one of my favorite games of all time.

 

[BeardyHat]

Oh, I also found time to fit in Armoured Combat II in all that today. Still a fantastic game and having a great time playing as Americans in North Africa 1942. Really pushing me to finish my repaint of my US Army miniatures in the Early/Mid-War paint scheme I landed on.

 

[red_5ive]

I had a couple of huge chunks of time today to play Dishonored 2. First, my kids went over to the neighbor friends house, then my wife left to buy some stuff off Craiglist, so I had a solid hour and a half to two hours to play. Then the kids went to a birthday party, which my wife took them to and graciously told me she didn't think there was any need for me to go, so I had another hour to an hour and a half. And then, my wife went over to her sisters house after dinner, so once I put the kids to bed, I had a good hour and a half again, giving me a solid 5ish hours to just play and not have to worry about anything. Sorry, just got excited and wanted to gush, as a day like today comes around so very rarely.

I remember those days. My kids were in bed by 8:30 during the week, and my wife would be home from work at 9:30 ish. My PC was always ready to go to get that whopping hour of gaming in! Then a couple of times a week she'd call to tell me she's starving and is going to stop for drive-thru and ask if I wanted any thing, and I'd be like "Heck yeah! 15 more mins of game time! And I don't have to step away to make a snack!"

 

[Colif]

I hate how two pairs of my glasses are almost exact same color and the only way I can tell them apart is one has a hole for a cable at end of its arm, and the others don't.

If that was only difference, I wouldn't mind... but one pair are reading glasses and the other are for PC use, and if I don't notice which ones I have on, it can make me think I have bad eyes that day... unless I look. Today I didn't notice for about two hours. I thought I just had a headache.

I do have other pairs but the spare pair of PC glasses are scratched, and the other pair of reading glasses are old. Need to replace almost all of them, probably keep one pair of reading glasses as a spare.

Need to get eyes tested again as since my last fitting was 2 years ago, I know my eyes have got worse. Reading glasses shouldn't be able to read screen from distance I have it, meaning the depth I can't see has increased. Most of my room is blurry now without glasses - which explains why I put wrong ones on today. Which I used last depends on if I used PC or Phone last, need to use reading glasses for the phone.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well, the tutorial for Age of Mythology Retold is sorely lacking. I guess they assumed everyone already knows how to play. Guess I'll be watching a video or two or finding a beginners guide somewhere.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif That Noita run is insane! Extremely lucky at the 2:50 mark as it looked like the bullet hit him. Must have been the small shield helping him I think.

I'm around three times as fast as him in finishing Noita, but not hitless. I think the best I could do with the teleport spell is to get for example fire immunity, dip myself in fire, and be teleported around while taking damage over time. That way I would reduce the risk of getting hit by any enemy. It still would not be hitless though just hitless from the enemy, not environmental damage.

It would be extremely risky because if you have a dot on you, like being ignited, you will teleport each time the damage ticks. This means that it would be very, very hard to time it so you could get into each level exit without getting teleported somewhere else.

 

[Colif]

doing it with no preparation and just luck of what you find on way down, does make it challenging. I like his tunnelling process of avoiding combat.

 

[neogunhero]

Well, the tutorial for Age of Mythology Retold is sorely lacking. I guess they assumed everyone already knows how to play. Guess I'll be watching a video or two or finding a beginners guide somewhere.

I had that same feeling when I played it, I had to learn a lot on the fly, especially summoning your god. I had no idea how to do that until after all AI players spawned theirs and I saw the big flashing button towards the top center of the screen. It takes a while to make it also, depending on how many workers you have working on it, so I was so far behind the first few matches I played. I came from AoE4 so I had some prior knowledge on how to play it but the differences between the two games is what I struggled to learn. Speaking of which, AoE4 has a much better tutorial and campaign in my opinion, it really teaches you all the mechanics available to you.

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So, in my search through my Steam library for a new game to play, I downloaded a couple. Before that though, I uninstalled so many games off my system. I have two 1TB SSDs, and I went from having a total of 300GB free to right around 1TB free. So far I have installed Batman Arkham Asylum, Dishonored 1, Noita, and a few more that I can't remember. I am going to try hard to play through the games I already have. I'm getting sick of spending so much money on games just to barely play them or not at all. I bought the latest Humble Choice two weeks ago and have barely touched anything besides an hour in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.

Noita is awesome. After seeing all the posts about it here I decided I need to play again. Haven't touched it since April 2023, and only have 6 hours total in it, but it's a blast to play. Currently I'm trying to focus on just surviving for a long time and not dying so quickly. There are so many secrets and spaces to explore, but I'm just trying to get the hang of the gameplay first. One good way to help with this is the daily practice runs. You can run them an unlimited number of times every 24hrs until it resets, and you start off with a full loadout from the jump. It's a great way to get a feel of the "endgame" of a run I believe.

I have also modded Batman Arkham Asylum to full 4K textures. I'm still only running it at 1080p, but it's still very noticeable. I'll have to upload screenshots later, it will get too compressed if I just copied it from my Steam cloud. I followed the Asylum Reborn mod guide. The base mod only updates character models, but there is an additional mod, AsylumHD, that you really want. The mod guide is quite confusing, but I got it down and the results are stunning. Everything is just so crisp and sharp, and on my RTX 2060 it still runs at full 60fps. I was afraid that upscaling textures would cause frame dips but not at all. Batman games are always pretty great for an after-work stress free gaming session. The games aren't too hard, but also not too mind numbingly easy, it's a very nice balance of both. And the breathing room you get between fights to soak in the environments are always great, especially in Arkham City and Arkham Knight, which I need to play more of. I think I will do an Arkham series run, who knows.

 

[Colif]

@Frindis
how long it take you to kill all bosses?

the last 10 minutes is crazy

 

[Colif]

Expensive racing sim