February 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[Zloth]

Crunchy in this context might mean "rules heavy", at least that's a word I would use to describe different wargames. Rules being pretty crunchy.

I would expect 'crunchy' to mean there are a lot of viable strategic options. That could easily mean a lot of rules, but not necessarily.

P.S. We're going to be talking about peanut butter soon, aren't we?

 

[Zed Clampet]

You all suck 🤣

There are 642.374 gazillion professional reviews (exactly) where they call good melee 'crunchy'. I don't care about the tabletop wargame misuse of the word.

But even accepting your nonsense, the Steam person obviously meant "clunky".

Furthermore, smooth peanut butter is better than crunchy 🤪

 

[BeardyHat]

Furthermore, smooth peanut butter is better than crunchy 🤪

I think you should leave.

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr IndieGala has a 16 game bundle of adult furry games you might be interested in.

How did you

(note: I have to have someone to do this to now that Brian is gone)

Ohh... nevermind. They looked like low effort trash anyway...

 

[neogunhero]

Thanks to Mother Nature for icing over our roads, I now get to stay home and play Avowed on Game Pass 🙂

 

[Zed Clampet]

Thanks to Mother Nature for icing over our roads, I now get to stay home and play Avowed on Game Pass 🙂

If they'd just release the game, that would be great. Looks like we have a couple more hours.

 

[Pifanjr]

I reached the third council member in my last run of Wizards of Legend, but got absolutely annihilated. I decided that's probably as far as I'm going to get, the game is just too fast-paced for me. Maybe I'll revisit it at some point in co-op.

---

My wife left earlier today to stay at our friend's place in London for a week, so I have the whole evening to myself (assuming my kid doesn't wake up). I was planning on getting the €1 Game Pass trial and play through Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void, but I don't have the energy for it. I looked at a bunch of other games, but none of them seem appealing either.

It sucks when you have a rare moment in which you can do whatever you want and you don't have the energy to do anything fun. Maybe I just need to force myself to start something.

 

[Johnway]

Not much on my front tbh. Still placing AC:V and just plodding along exploring etc. I do have a few niggles with the map not being entirely detailed in places. The good news is that all the chests are revealed pretty much immediately, so no need to get raven to spy and scan an entire base to locate resources. On top of that, some of the more important loot is more prominent. So technically, i only need to get just a select few to complete 100% for an area. Although that said you might be missing the smaller POI.

Doom 2 wise, i'm still playing RAMP 2024 and the Valkan Bunker is complete. A set of sci fi maps that were more on the challenging side. In fact we see our first difficulty 6 map which was indeed tough, but its more a "puzzle" map to eliminate vast hordes of monsters. But even so it was more luck based and if you hated revenants, you'll hate that map. But what about the other maps? a mixed bag tbh. The harder maps were probably were the most polished and the ones that were unique (like the quake 2 inspired map or the teleporting to fantasy distant worlds) i had issues with. Either there wasn't enough ammo (too secret dependent) or just half baked and i had no choice but to noclip out of.

I'll be making my start on the new POE league, since we are all in unchartered territory, i'll have to think about what i want to do. My first impression is to make a minion build either with puppeter or the follower of arrakal. The other builds don't really interest me. Tbh all i want to do is get my rewards, which is an easy get to lvl 80. I can probably do it alone or better yet, just into a public host and just rack up the exp.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I finished making my visual novel in Unreal. It's so good I'll sell the rights to it to the first person who offers me $20.

And now it's off to play Avowed on Game Pass. Hopefully it's better than my visual novel.

 

[BeardyHat]

Managed to get sick yesterday (but I'm the only one in the house. No idea how that happened.) but the kids had a day off. Lucky for me, they played together all day with very minimal fighting, so I played my sick/comfort game, WoW.

But in spite of being sick and very tired from not sleeping at all, I introduced them to Hypercharge Unboxed, which was actually a ton of fun to play with them. Honestly, I'm usually pretty bored when we play games together, because I'm either trying to take care of them in the game or they're just flying around and goofing off in Minecraft.

But Hypercharge, they seem to just implicitly understand. We're playing on Easy and Regular, Regular definitely being more of a challenge for them, but they're still building defenses, hopping around and killing the mobs that show up. I'm having fun supporting them, but running around, exploring the levels and looking for collectables.

I did actually play this on my own for a little while when I first bought it, but it didn't really click at the time, so playing split screen with the kids has been a lot of fun and they're also really enjoying it.

HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed on Steam

Hypercharge is a first and third-person shooter action figure game you've always dreamed of! Grab your friends, complete objectives, defend the Hypercore against waves of weaponized toys, and defeat Major Evil together in the story campaign!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

or they're just flying around and goofing off in Minecraft.

I remember those days. Just to keep them focused I used to make adventure maps. Of course, they never did them the way I envisioned when I made them 🤣

 

[BeardyHat]

I remember those days. Just to keep them focused I used to make adventure maps. Of course, they never did them the way I envisioned when I made them 🤣

Sounds like running a D&D session.

We played a little over an hour this evening after dinner and managed to get Mom in as well.

I think what's nice is that we're all working together and playing the same game, but I also kind of get to do my own thing within it. There's consistent breaks between Waves (it's a tower defence game), so i get to just explore the level and try to complete challenges while they also bounce around and pick up money, build defenses and pick up guns.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Sounds like running a D&D session.

We played a little over an hour this evening after dinner and managed to get Mom in as well.

I think what's nice is that we're all working together and playing the same game, but I also kind of get to do my own thing within it. There's consistent breaks between Waves (it's a tower defence game), so i get to just explore the level and try to complete challenges while they also bounce around and pick up money, build defenses and pick up guns.

It's got a demo. I might try it out. I just refunded Astronomics, so I've got a credit I feel compelled to get rid of.

I read an article in PCG about Astronomics, but it's the most aggressively boring game I've played in awhile. All you do, over and over, is go to an asteroid and drag resources, one at a time, back to your ship. Then you go and sell them for upgrades. But the asteroids are the main thing. The first real one that i did took me 20 minutes of dragging things back to my ship. And the asteroids aren't fun at all to explore. I'm just not willing to do that over and over again.

 

[BeardyHat]

It's got a demo. I might try it out. I just refunded Astronomics, so I've got a credit I feel compelled to get rid of.

I read an article in PCG about Astronomics, but it's the most aggressively boring game I've played in awhile. All you do, over and over, is go to an asteroid and drag resources, one at a time, back to your ship. Then you go and sell them for upgrades. But the asteroids are the main thing. The first real one that i did took me 20 minutes of dragging things back to my ship. And the asteroids aren't fun at all to explore. I'm just not willing to do that over and over again.

I hate the term, "fun with friends", but I do think Hypercharge really thrives on multiplayer. It was merely ok when I played it solo, but now I'm thinking about trying to convince my friends to buy it for something we can do together.

Watching the video, Astronomics seems like it could be interesting. Getting automation setup seems to be the core of the hang, but sounds like it takes awhile to get there? I know nothing about Factorio, but it seems like it's really trying to lean into that style.

 

[Zloth]

Egosoft has entered the "Buy a ship for your space game" race with the Hyperion, a sleek new ship somewhere between a frigate and a destroyer. In Star Citizen, this would cost you at least $100. In Team Fortress, a hat that looks like a Hyperion would cost you $20. In X4, the ship is just $7.

Act now and you'll get a free additional sector added to your map! Operators are standing by!

 

[neogunhero]

Aw man. I caved in.

I bought Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza In Hawaii day 1.

Watching this video for the third time is what it took to convince me to buy it:

View: https://youtu.be/viAEO_cMqfU?si=yqupH_Y6r6HvNmnD


The constant pun after pun really sold me on having a good time lol. “Yes this game is canon, and you’re gonna need a lot of them”

 

[Zed Clampet]

Watching the video, Astronomics seems like it could be interesting. Getting automation setup seems to be the core of the hang, but sounds like it takes awhile to get there? I know nothing about Factorio, but it seems like it's really trying to lean into that style.

If it were anything at all like Factorio, I'd still be playing it. The automation basically amounts to getting drones to help you mine and drag things to the ship.

*****

The most beautiful city builder of all time releases on Steam in 3 days! (It's also Grand Strategy and RTS)

I already know that most of you, but particularly @Pifanjr , have a hard time identifying
beauty, so just trust me on this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKWVy9aUi8

 

[Pifanjr]

I have the house to myself for the next 4 days, but I'm in a bit of a video game rut. So yesterday evening I decided to ask my friend if he wanted to continue our Warhammer 3 campaign, as playing with someone else makes playing games feel less pointless.

Sadly it turned out he deleted our campaign a while ago while cleaning up his old saves, but we started a new one. This time I'm playing as Wurrzag, a Savage orc shaman, while my friend is playing as Tzeentch. It's going really well for me so far, so well that I haven't even played a single battle manually. At least, not for myself, I have taken over the AI in several battles against my friend and even won a couple of them. Though I also lost a couple where the autocomplete result would have given the AI the victory...

The most beautiful city builder of all time releases on Steam in 3 days! (It's also Grand Strategy and RTS)

I already know that most of you, but particularly @Pifanjr , have a hard time identifying
beauty, so just trust me on this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKWVy9aUi8

That looks incredible. I'm really curious how well the blend between city builder, grand strategy and RTS works.

 

[Zed Clampet]

That looks incredible. I'm really curious how well the blend between city builder, grand strategy and RTS works.

I was just joking about the time I posted the life sim you didn't think was pretty, but, yeah, I'll be interested to see how it all works. They used to have a demo up, but I never got around to playing it before they took it down.

Edit: I still had the demo installed, but it won't launch...

 

[dxchase]

Been playing the Killing Floor 3 closed beta. Its KF goodness. Theres a lot of bad talk around it, saying its not like the other 2 and it looks bad, they are pretty much wrong imo. Game runs great and still has that same loop you find in these games. Its limited on guns and stuff, but you can do a bunch of cosmetic changes and building up characters. Fun time, looking forward to its full release.

 

[neogunhero]

Been playing the Killing Floor 3 closed beta. Its KF goodness. Theres a lot of bad talk around it, saying its not like the other 2 and it looks bad, they are pretty much wrong imo. Game runs great and still has that same loop you find in these games. Its limited on guns and stuff, but you can do a bunch of cosmetic changes and building up characters. Fun time, looking forward to its full release.

I played so much KF and KF2 a while back. Been missing some good zombie crunching goodness. May have to get it a look when it comes out in March.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Been playing the Killing Floor 3 closed beta. Its KF goodness. Theres a lot of bad talk around it, saying its not like the other 2 and it looks bad, they are pretty much wrong imo. Game runs great and still has that same loop you find in these games. Its limited on guns and stuff, but you can do a bunch of cosmetic changes and building up characters. Fun time, looking forward to its full release.

Do you still have to set up your own server for multiplayer, or is it an automatic process now? Cause you know they don't make console people set up servers. Not that it really bothers me. It's easy enough to do. I just always thought it was odd.

 

[Zed Clampet]

That looks incredible. I'm really curious how well the blend between city builder, grand strategy and RTS works.

OH HELL. I was talking to the developer on Steam, and he changed the release date to "coming soon". On the bright side, he had previously said any delays would be short. It's releasing as the full game instead of early access, and they want it perfect, which is admirable.

Edit: They may be just trying to avoid launching during the Next Fest. That's a good move, IMO. This was discussed briefly. Never launch your game during a seasonal sale or a Next Fest.

 

[dxchase]

Do you still have to set up your own server for multiplayer, or is it an automatic process now? Cause you know they don't make console people set up servers. Not that it really bothers me. It's easy enough to do. I just always thought it was odd.

No, now its set up like Warhammer: Dark Tide. At the main menu, when you log in, it takes you to a "hub" or your base of operations and you walk over to a computer panel that finds matches for you. Theres also an area to upgrade/change equipment and gear and a shooting range. There is other areas but they arent available in the beta.

I played so much KF and KF2 a while back. Been missing some good zombie crunching goodness. May have to get it a look when it comes out in March.

Base game is only 40 bucks, i dont think thats too much but well have to see how much is available at launch. Theres only 3 different boards right now and a limited number of guns.

 

[neogunhero]

Base game is only 40 bucks, i dont think thats too much but well have to see how much is available at launch. Theres only 3 different boards right now and a limited number of guns.

It was about that much for KF2, maybe $30, but the price was really worth how much gameplay I got out of it. It’s been a while since I played, but I think there were lots of levels to unlock for each class, so a lot of gameplay to justify the price. Plus the blood and gore tech alone is worth the price of admission just to see it in action.