General Game Discussion for March 2026

[Pifanjr]

My wife took a nap this evening which allowed me to play a bit of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain again. I finished the second and third missions and did two side missions.

I'm enjoying it quite a lot. It's the perfect kind of stealth game for me: one where stealth is optional. There is no real downside to being spotted as long as you manage not to die. It does reduce your score at the end of the mission, but so far that doesn't seem to actually affect anything.

I'm still messing up quite a lot, especially when trying to get into melee range or when I try to deal with more than one enemy at once, but I'm learning.

The game does feel a bit janky, in no small part because of the fact that the game is obviously not made to be played with keyboard and mouse. Since I'm not using my guns that much anyway I might just switch to controller.
Besides the controls, I did also manage to blow up a piece of artillery by bumping against it with my horse. Not sure why that happened, but luckily I survived.

 

[Frindis]

I got a new friend in Arc Raiders

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiu2E0HB8Oc

 

[neogunhero]

I got a new friend in Arc Raiders

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iiu2E0HB8Oc

It decided you were one of the good humans and spared you 🤣

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I noticed something weird in my wishlist. I have two games wishlisted that are both about running a VHS video store, and they came out about a week apart:

Save 20% on Retro Rewind - Video Store Simulator on Steam

Manage your very own video store in the early 90s! Rent, sell, decorate and expand your business from the ground up and relive the golden ages of video rentals!

store.steampowered.com

Save 20% on Rewind 99 on Steam

You're the last remaining video rental store. From humble VHS clerk to rental racketeer - run your video store and explore Reshoot Springs, building an underground empire. Expand with upgrades, side hustles, store membership, and more. Whatever it takes to survive - solo or in up to 4-player co-op.

store.steampowered.com

I must be dreaming about running a video store. I always find it strange when a specific niche of game genre has multiple titles coming out at once. PCG had an article about it regarding games with eggs. I also noticed it when Tavern Keeper was about to come out, suddenly after 11 years of development there were many other tavern/pub simulator games out on Steam, they pushed back their early access release by about a year due to it. That must suck, make a game for 11 years thinking it's a unique concept just to have many other similar games come out when you're about to release yours.

 

[Frindis]

Probably a lot do similar when some AAA(A) game hits the shelves, and they want to try to squeeze out a buck or two from some pure soul who happens to stumble upon the latest Cramson Dessert simulator or something like that. Also @Zed Clampet probably going to be interested in that https://store.steampowered.com/app/3552140/Retro_Rewind__Video_Store_Simulator/

@neogunhero Just noticed one of the developers for https://store.steampowered.com/app/3977290/Rewind_99/ is called Real Fake Games😁

 

[neogunhero]

Cramson Dessert sounds like an abusive father forcing their child to shove more cake into their gob. "CRAM, SON! THIS DESSERT WON'T EAT ITSELF!"

...might make for a good psychological horror game.

 

[Frindis]

Something to play while we wait for Crimson Desert🛝

CANABALT

canabalt.com

 

[neogunhero]

Something to play while we wait for Crimson Desert🛝

CANABALT

canabalt.com

Damn, I haven't played this game in probably over 15 years. Great nostalgia trip! I think I played it back on Kongregate, maybe MiniClip, or was it AddictingGames? I frequented all those sites a ton back then.

 

[Frindis]

I'm certain I played it on Kongregate if my memory serves me right🙂

 

[Pifanjr]

I played one more mission in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain today. I noticed earlier that every mission lists how many objectives it has, but it doesn't show you those objectives. Today I realised that when you complete a mission, those objectives become visible and you can replay the mission to try to complete them, while also getting some extra rewards. Plus you can replay the mission to get a better score, which I learned today unlock challenge rewards.

Which means that I was wrong before, getting a bad score does affect you mechanically. However, it does seem like the rewards are good without being necessary, meaning it's a nice bonus if you do get a good score but not a problem if you don't.

I did try playing the game with a controller today, but aiming is so much harder with a controller that I ended up switching back to keyboard and mouse.

 

[neogunhero]

Here's a couple of games I've been keeping my eye on lately:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-bJIDN-fjw


World of Dogs is a brutal, stylized first person action game with some very advanced movement tech. In a way it reminds me of GunZ: The Duel if it were first person. I love the gritty low-fi dystopian worlds they've built.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQPAY63rI0c


I uh... have no idea what this is. You place random objects and lil' guys that make funny noises and movements and somehow you are able to build songs from it. An interactive silly sandbox. I'm mostly intrigued by just how weird it is.

View: https://youtu.be/usVtLkO4pZg?si=r1zDW4TzYGPGTsSf


Another weird game but this time with an aesthetic I can more accurately pinpoint. I am in absolute awe at how accurate they got the early-late 90s 3D raytraced look. It brings to mind the show Reboot, with how amateur the early 3D animation scene looked compared to today's standards. It's like someone watched the intro for Eyewitness that they used to show in elementary school and made a whole game based off it.

 

[neogunhero]

View: https://youtu.be/D0EM1vKt36s?si=o-qPZzMAo51PAUIL


Good to know our outrage and worries are still wrong and invalid even though it does exactly what we were all suspecting it was doing.

 

[Zloth]

The way people keep talking about with respect to artistic intent is giving me some chuckles. Some Japanese studios were wary of releasing their games on PC because they knew what modders would do to their characters. People just laughed at them and ignored the pleas to respect their artistic vision. Now, with AI doing much less drastic things, suddenly people have decided that respecting the artistic vision is so important that even the company selling the game shouldn't mess with what their employees did!

 

[Colif]

Both the next gen consoles will have 10 cores so while an 8 core CPU probably be okay in games, by 2030 its going to the minimum.

I was thinking about getting the 10 core next time already.

Intel will have way more than 10 cores by then, I guess.
AMD 10 core cheaper option for me though.

 

[Zloth]

Wha? Who? What next gen of consoles??

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm start to understand Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain a bit better. Both the main and the side missions take place in settlements in the open world, but you can freely explore these settlements in between missions to mark things like gun emplacements, vehicles and mortars. Plus you can pick up resources which you can use to upgrade your base and equipment.

It seems the resources respawn after some time as well, so you if a mission sends you back to the same settlement you might be able to pick up the resources again. The same is true if you decide to replay a mission.

Also, if you manage to get into melee range of an enemy and grab them you can interrogate them which will reveal the location of some of the resources nearby, so I've been sneaking up on a lot of enemies and I've gotten a lot better at not being spotted.
Though it really helped when I accidentally figured out you can wake up enemies that you've put to sleep with a tranquiliser by giving them a good kick, then grab them when they get up.

I'm definitely not playing entirely without killing though, every so often I'll screw up and find myself in a firefight, or my tranquiliser gun runs out of ammunition or the suppressor stops working.

The most evil thing I've done so far however happened when I tried to pet the little puppy I rescued and ended up backhanding him so hard I thought for a second I'd actually killed him.

 

[Zloth]

Though it really helped when I accidentally figured out you can wake up enemies that you've put to sleep with a tranquiliser by giving them a good kick, then grab them when they get up.

Now you're getting it! The trick is figuring out just what Hideo & Company model and what they don't.

The most evil thing I've done so far however happened when I tried to pet the little puppy I rescued and ended up backhanding him so hard I thought for a second I'd actually killed him.

OMG, D-DOG!!! He's not just some mercenary you can kidnap and abuse!!