General Game Discussion thread for April 2026

[BeardyHat]

I finally got to play more Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain today. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was allowed to continue from the checkpoint I reached last time I played. I was worried I would have to start from the beginning of the mission. Though I did notice it counted as a reset for the purposes of the mission score, but I don't really care about that anyway.

I don't really mind the checkpoint system, but I managed to accidentally fall to my death today near the end of a mission and it did suck having to carefully infiltrate again. Luckily all of the enemies you tag stay tagged, which saves a lot of time.

I unlocked the Intel department at my base, which means it now shows the rough location of all nearby enemies on my map. This is really useful as it was pretty common for me to get spotted by an enemy I overlooked.

I should go back to this one. I was actually enjoying it a lot (played at release), but once Quiet was introduced, I noped right out. The "Male Gaze"iness of it just put me right off.

I've got almost 18 hours in UBOAT now and I think I might be getting a little bored with it. It's enjoyable as a management game and I could up the Simulation/Realism, but I also kind of feel like the game has shown me all it can show me.

I'm trying to suss out why I'm feeling a little bored. I normally am pretty in to a game like this and I'm certainly not averse to doing the same thing repeatedly (it feels similar to Battletech, weirdly), but it just doesn't feel super interesting anymore. Go out on a mission, Patrol/Escort/Lay Mines, torpedo a ship or two, escape, back to base, repeat.

There are upgrades and stuff, but they're coming slowly and don't feel like they're really making a huge difference. I have been save scumming, but I also don't feel like I've actually been in any danger as I've been playing, but again, maybe that's just because I'm on Easy.

 

[dxchase]

I got payed to play The Division: Resurgence , the new division mobile game for roughly 10 hours over the last two days lol. But seriously, its not a bad mobile game. It didnt really devour my galaxy S25 ultra battery as quickly as i thought it would but. Graphics arent...terrible and the game was rather smooth too.

I gotta get a steam deck....

 

[Zloth]

I assume the developers would notice this happening during development and adjust the speed of the rotation of the wheels.

That's determined by the speed of the car and the radius of... oh, no it isn't! Who's going to notice 15rpm difference at that speed?? They could put them at any speed they want! Or maybe they just swap the tires out for tires with blurry hubcaps that don't rotate at all once the car gets going.

 

[Colif]

This game reminds me of colouring books I used to look at a long time ago...

potential spoilers

And Escher

This game comes out on 17th, another game to add to collection... one day I will play another. Think I am waiting for a monitor that will never come.

Sintopia on Steam

Manage Hell. Manipulate the Overworld. Build the resurrection business of your dreams! In Sintopia, you’re tasked with managing the bureaucratic administration of Hell: “re-educate” the sinful, generate profit, play god and expand your hellish empire. All part of a day’s work at Hell Incorporated.

store.steampowered.com

watching tutorial, gives a very Black/White or maybe Populous feel in the first area

 

[BeardyHat]

Had time this morning to play something different and short, so I fired-up Voyager-19

Voyager-19 on Steam

A short horror game where you control a decaying spacecraft exploring distant star systems.

store.steampowered.com

I liked Iron Lung when I played it and this seemed similar. It's ok? I like the concept more than Iron Lung, but the gameplay itself, which is jumping between menus is just obnoxious. Ostensibly, you're supposed to manage your power, which just doesn't really work, because there's no real tension to it ever. You never actually need to disable your life support and try to get a job done, you end-up eventually just needing to enable/disable one system at a time to get what you need done, which means constant jumping through menus. It's meant to be a part of the game and if it didn't have that, there wouldn't be much to the game, but it ends-up just being really annoying.

Also I guess I get the ending, which is supposed to be a jump scare, but I didn't feel any of the tension or atmosphere that I felt with Iron Lung. I just played kind of detached and at the end, it's sort of just an..."ok".

It's neither a recommend nor a not recommend. It's fine for the money, it's short and sweet, but you're not missing anything if you don't bother.

 

[Frindis]

I failed the game, so I identify as a meat popsicle.

The Idiot Test 🕹️ Play on CrazyGames

The Idiot Test is the first instalment of this fun and entertaining game. In this game, you must progress through various levels of idiocy and prove that you actually have some mental brain power! Answer a range of logical and tricky questions to progress through the game and reach higher and...

www.crazygames.com

 

[Zloth]

I don't think I'm going to bother with the rest of Outward. There's just not enough fun there. Still, I easily got my $2 out of it with 25 hours played, even if half of it was just walking along with the W key pressed. It would probably be a lot more fun in co-op, having somebody to chat with as you walk. Most of the enemies outside of dungeons were in pairs, too. I would always have to try and tease the two apart enough so that I could finish off one before the other showed up, where a pair of players could just attack.

Now I'm messing with Battletech again - this time with Battletech Advanced modding the behooves out of it.

 

[Frindis]

I don't think I'm going to bother with the rest of Outward. There's just not enough fun there.

I have a challenge for you, if you could call it that. Try a few rounds of Outward on hardcore difficulty. I'm not saying this because "oh, hardcore is the only way to go bruh,", but because I had my first few (and only) runs in Outward on it and it was pretty cool.

So, to emphasize this: My first runs, I died from the first cave you got to and then from mobs on the beach, but then I started to get a bit better at thinking strategically, and I started to survive.

Then, and I guess this is what I really loved and also what got me scared to play more, is that I got to the point in the game where I had decent gear and enough knowledge to win a fight, but I got hesitant and a little scared.

This is therefore the first game I have ever stopped playing on hardcore, not because of the game being hard, but because of the unforgiving factor of the possibility of me permanently dying.

To say it in other words: This game made me feel like my character was alive and I really did not want to lose him, so he is still there, on a save file🙂

 

[Zed Clampet]

The week I tracked the scores and declared myself the Elon Musk of Monster Train 2, German JoJo didn't show at all. He may not have played that week. He's darn good and usually in the top 8. I've never seen this, though. That's a near perfect score. I could have been more aggressive, I guess.

Say you're playing a game with motion blur turned off and your framerate locked at 60fps. You're cruising down a highway next to another car. If that car's wheels are turning 120 times per second (or 180 or 240), then shouldn't the wheels appear to be not rotating at all? Or, if they are rotating at 239, slowly rotating backwards??

You've got to get pretty lucky to get a match close enough to work and modern G-sync/Freesync monitors that constantly change rates might not keep it for long, but it seems like I should have bumped into that somewhere in all these games I'm playing.

119 would be backwards, too. However, with game engines, I'm pretty sure the wheels are tied to time rather than frames in order to avoid this.

In Satisfactory, the conveyors eventually look like they are running backward (or maybe that's only with the conveyor mod), but things look that way in real life, too, like the rotors of a helicopter, so I always thought it was cool.

 

[Colif]

Mention of Wizardry

 

[Johnway]

Not much to say on my front. still playing Path of exile as it continues to take over my life. My elemental hit slayer is shaping up quite nicely and for the most part combat is smooth and lesser monsters just die in droves. The challenge is when we face off against harder bosses and even though i do an estiamted 1.6 - 1.9 Million damage, some of the top builds pushes this to 58 million dmg, but the gear they have is insane. Some of it i suspect is crafted somewhere else. Not sure how i can actually do more damage at this point if bosses melt using it i guess i can be satisfied.

i did a quick check and atm there are 25 challenges i think i can complete. But its slow progress as we've only done 10 challenges, although to be fair, i'm saving them up for later so i can complete multiple challenges in quick succession as i work on it during higher tier maps. But that said, i really should have my atlas fully mapped by now but it seems like its slow going as i complete as much content as possible.

 

[Rolfil]

I'm also playing Path of Exile. Playing a off meta Chieftain Flame Totem build which is slightly different to the Ancestral Commander version I played in the last Phrecia event. With the Black Zenith gloves and Rain of Splinters 4 totems just rain fire down across the entire screen.

Not much to say on my front. still playing Path of exile as it continues to take over my life. My elemental hit slayer is shaping up quite nicely and for the most part combat is smooth and lesser monsters just die in droves. The challenge is when we face off against harder bosses and even though i do an estiamted 1.6 - 1.9 Million damage,

Elemental Hit is the current meta and to get huge damage you need a weapon that is like 50 divine. Keep at it with the challenges. This guide that someone created helps but there are a few things that aren't correct on it. I'm at 33 and getting to 36 is going to be a push. 28 is where you get the body armour cosmetic so that's worth going for.

My issue is that I way more currency than I've ever had in the past and like nothing to spend it on. I might buy a mageblood but my utility potions are already gain charges when hit, use when fill, and I'm running block with a gain 5% life when block.

 

[Zloth]

And Battletech is eating me up yet again. It's fun to drop 6 mechs plus a tank immediately! It does make for longer battles, though.

Last night, I had a mission to destroy some buildings. They had a whole bunch of turrets around them and, before I even got to them, I was attacked by a Locus and a 4-legged Scorpion. The Locus was dumb and rushed my whole group - so it took a very literal stomping. The Scorpion hung back and caused more problems, but I was able to finish it off without giving the turrets much to shoot at. Oddly, something else started shooting long range missiles at me from no-clue-how-far-away, but it wasn't coming from the buildings.

With the defenders down, I started bringing down the turrets. I still got missile attacks, but I noticed a blip off to the east, which must have been what was sending them. Whatever it was wasn't approaching, so it's likely some tank with an LRM20. I sent the Razorback light `mech after it, which was outfitted to stomp on tanks very nicely.

It wasn't a tank; it was a medium weight Whitworth, that could back up its LRMs with 3 medium lasers and a good bit more armor than my little Razorback. I got a good shot in and figured on running away next turn. My Urbanmech, which has a long range LBX weapon but moves at about 1/8th the speed of the rest of the team, managed to get into position to take shots at one of the buildings. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was spread out around the west side of the buildings, taking down turrets. Finally, one building went down.

Reinforcements showed up! A Dig King, a Javelin, another Urby (this one with a PPC), and a Crosscut. And they all showed up right near my Razorback! Needless to say, my Razorback ran away, but there was no building to duck behind, and it doesn't have jump jets. It was enough to get away from the industrial mech melee weapons, at least, but the Razorback took some missiles up the backside.

After that followed a good old city battle with mechs jumping up on buildings. (They make strong roofs in the future - 40 ton mechs plopping down on top of them doesn't even cause cracking!) The Razorback kept running and took down most of the rest of the target buildings before coming back to take revenge on the Whitworth. My Urbanmech was not only able to get in on the battle but was able to draw a lot of fire and got the finishing blow on the Dig King.

The battle took almost two hours! I came away with double the agreed cash because I destroyed the defenders and the reinforcements. My Cicada lost an arm with no weapons and my Urby took some center hull internals, but nothing serious. Best of all, the Scorpion dropped 4 salvage pieces - in other words, enough to completely build the mech!

This is therefore the first game I have ever stopped playing on hardcore, not because of the game being hard, but because of the unforgiving factor of the possibility of me permanently dying.

Challenge not accepted! That kind of thing makes me play VERY paranoid. The one-save feature is already harsher than Elden Ring's, which has me ignoring content because it might be too hard and it might result in getting dragged to the other side of the map or, worse, down in the depths of some dungeon. Making the stakes even higher means I switch to doing battles I know for sure I can win - which means I'm going to get even more bored.

 

[BeardyHat]

Mention of Wizardry

This looks awesome.

Though I find myself in the same position I'm always in when it comes to these new games in old style: Why shouldn't I just play the Classic instead? It's regarded as a Classic for a reason.

Which is actually what got me playing Might & Magic 4 last year. Which I finished and now need to head to Darkside of Xeen (5) for the rest of the game. Not that I remember there really being a story or anything....

And Battletech is eating me up yet again. It's fun to drop 6 mechs plus a tank immediately! It does make for longer battles, though.

Last night, I had a mission to destroy some buildings. They had a whole bunch of turrets around them and, before I even got to them, I was attacked by a Locus and a 4-legged Scorpion. The Locus was dumb and rushed my whole group - so it took a very literal stomping. The Scorpion hung back and caused more problems, but I was able to finish it off without giving the turrets much to shoot at. Oddly, something else started shooting long range missiles at me from no-clue-how-far-away, but it wasn't coming from the buildings.

With the defenders down, I started bringing down the turrets. I still got missile attacks, but I noticed a blip off to the east, which must have been what was sending them. Whatever it was wasn't approaching, so it's likely some tank with an LRM20. I sent the Razorback light `mech after it, which was outfitted to stomp on tanks very nicely.

It wasn't a tank; it was a medium weight Whitworth, that could back up its LRMs with 3 medium lasers and a good bit more armor than my little Razorback. I got a good shot in and figured on running away next turn. My Urbanmech, which has a long range LBX weapon but moves at about 1/8th the speed of the rest of the team, managed to get into position to take shots at one of the buildings. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was spread out around the west side of the buildings, taking down turrets. Finally, one building went down.

Reinforcements showed up! A Dig King, a Javelin, another Urby (this one with a PPC), and a Crosscut. And they all showed up right near my Razorback! Needless to say, my Razorback ran away, but there was no building to duck behind, and it doesn't have jump jets. It was enough to get away from the industrial mech melee weapons, at least, but the Razorback took some missiles up the backside.

After that followed a good old city battle with mechs jumping up on buildings. (They make strong roofs in the future - 40 ton mechs plopping down on top of them doesn't even cause cracking!) The Razorback kept running and took down most of the rest of the target buildings before coming back to take revenge on the Whitworth. My Urbanmech was not only able to get in on the battle but was able to draw a lot of fire and got the finishing blow on the Dig King.

The battle took almost two hours! I came away with double the agreed cash because I destroyed the defenders and the reinforcements. My Cicada lost an arm with no weapons and my Urby took some center hull internals, but nothing serious. Best of all, the Scorpion dropped 4 salvage pieces - in other words, enough to completely build the mech!

Dang, how far into the game are you? I've played a dozen or so hours of BTA and haven't seen a lot of those mechs, but maybe it's dependent on where you're at in the galaxy.

I do wish we'd get a Battletech 2 with some modding refinements. I'd love to be able to save for those very long modded missions, mostly because I often can't do such a length in one sitting and modded Battletech runs not amazing on Steam Deck.

 

[Zloth]

Big update to Planet Crafter is out:

View: https://youtu.be/A_zVrvzd6Qw?si=eXPTPdLfGdxY7_s0

Dang, how far into the game are you? I've played a dozen or so hours of BTA and haven't seen a lot of those mechs, but maybe it's dependent on where you're at in the galaxy.

Maybe my 4th mission? It took place just inside Free Worlds' space.

The mission length without being able to save is going to be a big problem for sure, at least until semi-retirement. (Then I'll just stay up until 1am if I want!)

 

[dxchase]

Working in a weird technological job makes for changing in schedules... So my whole work schedule is being changed, cutting into my time of gaming and streaming, im going to try to continue streaming (gaming ill never need to cut) but the whole days ive had off to do it now must be done splitting with work unless i do it on the weekends. Only plus side is its temporary, my real schedule affords me at least 3 days off but i have to wait for what im working on to become a full fledge thing.

I still play Arc Raiders too much even if i have major issues with the state of the game. One such problem i have showcaed below. ive attached a picture to show how "dark" they (Embark) have made the maps and its quite ridiculous.

Below is a pic of how Embark has "darkened" maps so it forces players to use their flashlights more. Aside from cheaters using stuff to make it lighter and this not being realistic at all, we cant change the brightness or anything in the game options.

After taking this pic i wound up getting killed by a guy that walked in front of me while taking the pic shooting at my teammates and then me, but i couldnt get my guy to switch guns because the game was glitching out that i took a PrntScn to show how too dark it is.

 

[Pifanjr]

Big update to Planet Crafter is out:

View: https://youtu.be/A_zVrvzd6Qw?si=eXPTPdLfGdxY7_s0

I should get back to that game some day and do the moon content they added.