General Game Discussion for May 2026

[Zed Clampet]

Note: there are mistakes in the picture. These could easily be fixed with Inpainting if it were important. When I first posted, I said everything but the CD-ROM was spelt correctly, which was incorrect.

I'm deciding whether to post a list of the top releases, but the links don't unfurl (explode) anymore, so it's going to look like garbage.

 

[Pifanjr]

Take that all you spreaders of "AI slop". Except for the CD-ROM, I don't see any spelling errors, either. Of course, one of this ships has a hilariously placed engine and the other is just garbage. I could have kept running it through, but I think this one is pretty.

It looks great at a glance, but there are definitely some more things I could nitpick. For example, I do spot one more spelling error right there on the front of the PCGamer magazine.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It looks great at a glance, but there are definitely some more things I could nitpick. For example, I do spot one more spelling error right there on the front of the PCGamer magazine.

Absolutely it's not perfect. However, if I were using this for something important, it would be easy to make it perfect via inpainting. You just highlight what is wrong and instruct it on how to change it.

However, you do need to actually notice the problems. And for that, I would need have to actually care and look at it more closely. But you can get it perfect with inpainting. No reason why you can't as long as you are observant and willing to spend a few more minutes.

Better vision would also help me. I had to practically put my nose on the screen to tell that wasn't a number.

Edited the original post for people who don't know about Inpainting, which is most people. I accidentally assumed that everyone knew about inpainting. I was only praising the layout and painterly style.

I'm not actually planning to fix the picture unless someone just wants a demonstration. There's actually more stuff, not as glaring, that needs to be fixed.

 

[BeardyHat]

I saw the mistakes and such in the image, but it doesn't bother me, I think it looks pretty cool.

What I think is actually funny is that it kind of tells you what the average age of the users here are, given the floppies, CRTs and discs.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I saw the mistakes and such in the image, but it doesn't bother me, I think it looks pretty cool.

What I think is actually funny is that it kind of tells you what the average age of the users here are, given the floppies, CRTs and discs.

Yeah haha. I actually thought about that during prompting. Plus, I just think that stuff looks cool.

 

[neogunhero]

Really cool pic Zed. Love how it's all set up, with the PCs at the bottom and the awesome mural on top.

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I played some No More Room In Hell 2 last night as it's having a free weekend. Pretty standard multiplayer zombie survival game. Not fast paced and arcadey like L4D2, it's slower and a bit more "realistic", but fun for a few hours. The people I played with were absolutely hilarious though. It was an 8-player server and this was all of our first times playing. No one had any idea what to do, as the game doesn't make it crystal clear what your objectives are. Certainly you can figure it our somehow, but opening the menu and the map didn't show me anything that told me where to go or what to do. So we all just ran around killing zombies until the mission failed and we had to extract. The graphics and atmosphere are very nice.

Playing that just made me want to play L4D2, which I downloaded but ended up not launching it. Think I'll give it a shot this weekend. It's been about 7-8 years since I've last touched that game, and I saw there's been many updates since so that's great. I just hope I don't run into any speedrunners, they try to beat the level as fast as possible while I like to play the game "normally" and move between each objective in order. They either trigger the horde before you ever reach the area or wait in the safehouse for 10 minutes as you and the rest of the server slog your way up there.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Really cool pic Zed. Love how it's all set up, with the PCs at the bottom and the awesome mural on top.

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I played some No More Room In Hell 2 last night as it's having a free weekend. Pretty standard multiplayer zombie survival game. Not fast paced and arcadey like L4D2, it's slower and a bit more "realistic", but fun for a few hours. The people I played with were absolutely hilarious though. It was an 8-player server and this was all of our first times playing. No one had any idea what to do, as the game doesn't make it crystal clear what your objectives are. Certainly you can figure it our somehow, but opening the menu and the map didn't show me anything that told me where to go or what to do. So we all just ran around killing zombies until the mission failed and we had to extract. The graphics and atmosphere are very nice.

Playing that just made me want to play L4D2, which I downloaded but ended up not launching it. Think I'll give it a shot this weekend. It's been about 7-8 years since I've last touched that game, and I saw there's been many updates since so that's great. I just hope I don't run into any speedrunners, they try to beat the level as fast as possible while I like to play the game "normally" and move between each objective in order. They either trigger the horde before you ever reach the area or wait in the safehouse for 10 minutes as you and the rest of the server slog your way up there.

The first one is free. Was it always that way? I feel like I would have played it before now.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It looks great at a glance, but there are definitely some more things I could nitpick. For example, I do spot one more spelling error right there on the front of the PCGamer magazine.

I know you don't care, but I re-edited the first post to explain that I had declared that everything but the CD-ROM was spelt correctly. I didn't want anyone to think that you just jumped into the thread and started "bashing" the picture. You were responding to my initial over-exuberance.

 

[neogunhero]

The first one is free. Was it always that way? I feel like I would have played it before now.

I believe it has always been free, though severely overlooked. It used to be a Source engine mod before going standalone. This new one feels much like the old one, which is probably not a great thing as the first game came out officially in 2011.

 

[Johnway]

So i decided to give homeworld series another chance by playing the desert of kharak and i have to say that i'm having more fun with it. i can control my units, there are some strategic elements and the carrier strategy is interesting being able to put power into various features as and when needed.

That said, there are a few niggles. atm there are only 3 combat units. The other is perhaps not always aware where i can move. I want to use the high ground but its not always apparent where i can go. areas that made me go: "yep i should be able to go there" and i can't. the other is that there's no formations. So i can't move units and then determine the direction (no click and drag). other times its using strategic cover properly. i click on a hill and hope they use it properly but alas not always.

Still, fun and the story and narrative is entertaining.

But what about Homeworld 1 and 2 remastered? i hear that there is a community patch so perhaps i can have another shot at it. The other thing is that Homeworld 2 might be slightly easier to play. for example rather then building one unit, they are done in squads.

 

[BeardyHat]

So i decided to give homeworld series another chance by playing the desert of kharak and i have to say that i'm having more fun with it. i can control my units, there are some strategic elements and the carrier strategy is interesting being able to put power into various features as and when needed.

That said, there are a few niggles. atm there are only 3 combat units. The other is perhaps not always aware where i can move. I want to use the high ground but its not always apparent where i can go. areas that made me go: "yep i should be able to go there" and i can't. the other is that there's no formations. So i can't move units and then determine the direction (no click and drag). other times its using strategic cover properly. i click on a hill and hope they use it properly but alas not always.

Still, fun and the story and narrative is entertaining.

But what about Homeworld 1 and 2 remastered? i hear that there is a community patch so perhaps i can have another shot at it. The other thing is that Homeworld 2 might be slightly easier to play. for example rather then building one unit, they are done in squads.

I should probably give this one another chance. It does seem interesting, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to FPS; though I really have no excuses, considering I already own it.

Strongly considering buying Wizordum and Dark Forces remaster right now. But I probably shouldn't, because I'm definitely not going to play them immediately; I'm still pretty happy with Pillars right now.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I should probably give this one another chance. It does seem interesting, but I'm pretty picky when it comes to FPS; though I really have no excuses, considering I already own it.

Strongly considering buying Wizordum and Dark Forces remaster right now. But I probably shouldn't, because I'm definitely not going to play them immediately; I'm still pretty happy with Pillars right now.

Save 40% on Wizordum on Steam

Wizordum is a retro FPS that puts you in the role of a Mage on a quest to track down the source of Chaos. With a wide arsenal of spells and magic items, battle your way through the world of Terrabruma in this unique blend of classic 90s shooters and modern gaming elements.

store.steampowered.com

Looks amazing. Going to play the demo.

 

[BeardyHat]

Save 40% on Wizordum on Steam

Wizordum is a retro FPS that puts you in the role of a Mage on a quest to track down the source of Chaos. With a wide arsenal of spells and magic items, battle your way through the world of Terrabruma in this unique blend of classic 90s shooters and modern gaming elements.

store.steampowered.com

Looks amazing. Going to play the demo.

I've heard lots of good things for awhile now. Have not tried the demo, but I'm a sucker for FPS, I don't think I'd hate it in anyway.

The new Heroes of Might and Magic game came out, which I'm tempted by, but it's pretty expensive for me at the moment and when I tried the demo about a year ago, I wasn't left feeling impressed, so I may wait for a better deal.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The new Heroes of Might and Magic game came out, which I'm tempted by, but it's pretty expensive for me at the moment and when I tried the demo about a year ago, I wasn't left feeling impressed, so I may wait for a better deal.

Buying it. The rumor mill says Ubisoft is turning the mainline games into Skyrim-esque games. First they abandoned it, now they are going to ruin it. They've already made a mobile NFT Might and Magic game. At this stage, I wish Vivendi had succeeded in buying them. Couldn't be any worse. Well, actually, I'm guessing Vivendi would have closed them down by now. They can barely release games anymore.

 

[Zloth]

What I think is actually funny is that it kind of tells you what the average age of the users here are, given the floppies, CRTs and discs.

Look carefully - that's a curved CRT! People pay a premium for that sort of thing! 😉

The BattleTech advanced mod lets you buy extra bays. A single bay holds 18 mechs and, when I originally played, I only needed 8 or 9 and kept two or three more just for fun, so giving me the ability to have 36 mechs at the ready seemed really silly to me. There are some factors that make that useful, though:

• First and foremost, you can deploy a dozen at once instead of just six. But a dozen plus 2 or 3 backups just in case a mech gets badly damaged/destroyed still would fit in the 18 originals.
• There are a lot more heating-up-the-other-mech options, making it a much more viable strategy. In BTA you can even set forests on fire to add even more heat to a mech hiding in one. But, if you're going to a cold battlefield or one with a lot of water, it probably won't work as well as in a jungle. So, you can get a lot more specialized, requiring more mechs.
• Even if you did try to take advantage of different environments and mission types in the original game, it just wasn't as good a strategy as simply using the called shot mechanic to blow away the enemy engines. BTA nerfs that skill.

 

[BeardyHat]

Look carefully - that's a curved CRT! People pay a premium for that sort of thing! 😉

The BattleTech advanced mod lets you buy extra bays. A single bay holds 18 mechs and, when I originally played, I only needed 8 or 9 and kept two or three more just for fun, so giving me the ability to have 36 mechs at the ready seemed really silly to me. There are some factors that make that useful, though:

• First and foremost, you can deploy a dozen at once instead of just six. But a dozen plus 2 or 3 backups just in case a mech gets badly damaged/destroyed still would fit in the 18 originals.
• There are a lot more heating-up-the-other-mech options, making it a much more viable strategy. In BTA you can even set forests on fire to add even more heat to a mech hiding in one. But, if you're going to a cold battlefield or one with a lot of water, it probably won't work as well as in a jungle. So, you can get a lot more specialized, requiring more mechs.
• Even if you did try to take advantage of different environments and mission types in the original game, it just wasn't as good a strategy as simply using the called shot mechanic to blow away the enemy engines. BTA nerfs that skill.

That is fancy! It must cost tens of thousands.

BTA is really good. I definitely need to reinstall that on my new machine, even though it'll probably run like ass.

What's cool is all of that is in the tabletop game; BTA brings Battletech closer to that experience. Though it's nice because in BTA there's a lot less flipping through the book and trying to figure out what rules you need to use and be looking at.

 

[BeardyHat]

I did reinstall the demo for HoMM: Olden Era and a few compliments for it:

It runs really well. Works great on the 8th Gen i7 and 1060, High Graphics, 1200p. Seems to run solid, with maybe a few frame dips (I'm sure that's my PC's fault).

I like that during a battle, it shows the unit health. In the other HoMM games I play regularly (2 + 3), you attack a unit, maybe kill some, but you never are actually immediately aware of how much HP a unit in the stack has. This new version has a proper health bar, so you know if you're going to kill some of the stack or not.

Haven't played much yet, but my main complaint are that the graphics do kind of blend together. They're well done, but in both the Town screen and the overworld, it can be difficult to tell what's what. But I did have this issue with HoMM 3 before I got used to reading the graphics.

One more nice thing is that it's not attached to UPlay. I don't know how many hours worth of saves I lost to that launcher with HoMM 6, but it was a damn lot.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

So i decided to give homeworld series another chance by playing the desert of kharak and i have to say that i'm having more fun with it. i can control my units, there are some strategic elements and the carrier strategy is interesting being able to put power into various features as and when needed.

That said, there are a few niggles. atm there are only 3 combat units. The other is perhaps not always aware where i can move. I want to use the high ground but its not always apparent where i can go. areas that made me go: "yep i should be able to go there" and i can't. the other is that there's no formations. So i can't move units and then determine the direction (no click and drag). other times its using strategic cover properly. i click on a hill and hope they use it properly but alas not always.

Still, fun and the story and narrative is entertaining.

But what about Homeworld 1 and 2 remastered? i hear that there is a community patch so perhaps i can have another shot at it. The other thing is that Homeworld 2 might be slightly easier to play. for example rather then building one unit, they are done in squads.

I played Emergence which was then called Cataclysm before picking up Homeworld and I prefered it back then. I love the atmosphere of those old games. I tried Deserts of Kharak but I wasnt feeling it as it felt more fast paced somehow then the old games which I spend most of the time in pause looking around or just listening to the sounds.

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Played some more Baldurs Gate 3 today, doing an honor mode playthrough with some friends. We just killed Auntie Ethel freed Halsin from the gobbo camp. Dont want to speak too soon, but Im really surprised how easy it is for the hardest difficulty mode. Still challenging, just not impossibly so. I decided to play as a Wild Magic Sorceror, so its keeping things spicy.

Still chipping at 40K Boltgun, theres a massive difficulty spike in the 3rd act I found. I'm sure its easier for people who play a lot of these movement/boomer shooters but Ive found it suddenly quite tough in some of the purge encounters. The funny thing is I then cruised through teh next 2 lervels without blinking, so not sure what thats about.

Also Jedi Fallen Order still, a game I think could have been an all timer if theyd just worked out a few kinks and a lot of the bugs. Unfortunately Ive reached a point where the game doesnt recognize the left trigger of my controller, which is bound to the force pull ability thats really important when traversing the levels. Ive tried a lot of stuff but resorted to using the keyboard just for that one ability when I have to.

However, combat is fun as hell, graphics great, traversal around the levels is mostly amazing and most of the puzzles are good fun too. They just could have done with either a fast travel within the levels or smaller maps IMO. havent finshed yet though, and Im also praying that the second game works better for me as this is a format I think has a ton of potential.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I've come up with a game Idea that I'm obsessed with. I might actually make this one instead of just preparing to make it 🙂

 

[Frindis]

Played some more Baldurs Gate 3 today, doing an honor mode playthrough with some friends. We just killed Auntie Ethel freed Halsin from the gobbo camp. Dont want to speak too soon, but Im really surprised how easy it is for the hardest difficulty mode. Still challenging, just not impossibly so. I decided to play as a Wild Magic Sorceror, so its keeping things spicy.

Yay, awesome with more doing the honor run!🙂

There are a few surprises in honor mode, some extra flavour here and there that can be very dangerous, but with good utility usage and good communication (I guess that could both be a blessing and a curse in a coop), most of the fights are not that hard.

Ps: Have you guys done the optional Phase Spider Matriarch boss? The one before Auntie Ethel. That one has a little nasty suprise

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yay, awesome with more doing the honor run!🙂

There are a few surprises in honor mode, some extra flavour here and there that can be very dangerous, but with good utility usage and good communication (I guess that could both be a blessing and a curse in a coop), most of the fights are not that hard.

Ps: Have you guys done the optional Phase Spider Matriarch boss? The one before Auntie Ethel. That one has a little nasty suprise

Ah no actually thats probably after gobbo camp, we still havent met Dror or Minthara. We went down there from the village and killed some ettercaps quite early, but left before the matriarch and went back up to do Mephits and get Kaghas letter for the Grove. We've dipped into underdark and killed a few Duergar with the shroom guy but ran away from the burrower whose name I also cant remember.

One thing that helps is only one person needs to escape the combat if it gets tough, but honestly havent had a lot of trouble despite being worried once or twice. We almost wiped on the Mindflayer at the Nautilus wreck in the beginning but one of us legged it away and rezzed everyone from afar.

We've all beaten the game before once I think, but one of my friends has done act 1 quite a lot of times, so maybe in act 2 or 3 we'll bite off more than we can chew. Not playing really seriously, probably just start again if we die. Im a Wild Magic Sorcerer, we have Astarion as a Death Cleric, a Druid wild shape as a drop bear tank( he climbs up high and jumps on people before fights) and Dark Urge as a close combat Rogue of some sort. No strict build guides just picking up what seems useful or fun, but we seem decently strong so far.

Really nice that no one seems to care too much about how we do story stuff, Im a goody goody and my Durge friend is a video game psychopath who generally does whatever benefits us most item or ability wise, so its fun to see some sides of the story Ive not before. We just kind of vibe it on who does what conversation.

How far are you in? I would resurrect the BG3 thread, but im playing it with the same people im doing Gloomhaven and occasionally other stuff with so the updates arent massively frequent.

 

[Pifanjr]

I really should finish my Baldur's Gate 3 campaign one day. I'm still in Act 3 somewhere.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I really should finish my Baldur's Gate 3 campaign one day. I'm still in Act 3 somewhere.

Every time I play it, its a good time, solo or mp and it makes me want to play more.

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Random thoughts about QTEs in games and Jedi Fallen Order in particular..

Usually I'm not a fan, but Jedi Fallen order has potentially the best QTE sequences Ive every played. I always felt that whenever theres one in a game it actually works quite well for getting the adrenaline up as long as it doesnt take more than one try. As soon as it fails once the tension drops and it gets frustrating to repeat. when theres a load screen and/or its just not clear what to do. I disliked some of them in Guardians of the Galaxy intensely even if it was a good game overall.

In Fallen Order the directions are clear. Theres timing needed and it feels exciting and powerful to be sliding then bouncing and wall running off of stuff. But most importantly if you do fail theres no loading screen, it takes a second or two to put you back at a checkpoint not far from where you were before. I dont know if this became possible due to SSDs or some other technical reason but it really makes the difference.

Good game, real Star Wars feel to it all around, music, environments, characters and all.