January 2025 General Game Discussion

[Johnway]

So the main news of the day for me was that Path of exile 1 content has been delayed whilst POE2 gets fixed with its next patch. personally, this works for me so i can keep playing the current league and maybe i'll get to 35 challenges.... But again so much grinding and no one is trading any more now so i'm good as screwed for some of the challenges.

 

[BeardyHat]

I downloaded STEINS;GATE on my phone.

Been meaning to give this one a go on my PSP or my Vita. I really like playing visual novels in bed, kind of like reading a book. Though I'm still trying to find something to read again; just finished my last book and the next two I picked up have both been misses.

That's textbook FOMO. I occasionally get wistful thinking of all of the great games I'll probably never get around to playing, but then again life isn't about playing as many games as possible. That's not where lasting happiness or satisfaction comes from. Which holds for buying new gaming hardware too: it only gives a fleeting sense of happiness before it just becomes the new normal and you start wanting something even better.

You have to practice mindfulness and living in the moment and all that crap so you can appreciate what you have instead of what you don't have. It's not always easy, but it works a lot better than trying to buy happiness by endlessly chasing something "better".

Funny, as I tell my kids that all the time.

It's definitely FOMO, as there's lots my laptop + eGPU runs just fine that I'm quite content to play right now (such as Aliens and WoW).

I think what sparked this was feeling a bit discontent with this setup. I tried to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution and it refuses to work with my current switchable graphics setup; I can play on my Deck no issue, but I'd rather play first person games on my computer. Given this, it got me looking at laptops with dedicated graphics, which just spawned this whole conundrum. I should just try and appreciate playing first person games on my Deck, really...

Though this all might have to do with AMD switchable graphics, as I had to use a NVIDIA card to get Dishonored 2 to work. I just haven't been motivated to tear into things and move graphics cards around again...

At any rate, you're exactly right. I think the other thing is, I don't really want to get rid of this laptop, as I've been very happy with it in the year I've owned it and aside from imperfect performance, it hits all the right boxes for me.

 

[BeardyHat]

And actually, one thing I learned in my research is that regular thermal paste has a "pump out" effect, where after a short amount of time, it ends-up migration away from where you originally put it and it becomes less effective. This seems to track, as I repasted my laptop with a high quality paste back in November or December and it made a huge difference in my temps.

That said, only a month or two later and my temps are back where they had been. Apparently, what the cool people are doing is using thermal pads instead. Specifically the Honeywell PTM7950, as I guess it does this phase change stuff and gradually becomes more and more effective; I guess it's kind of a pain to apply and there's some knock-offs out there on Amazon, but I think may order some anyway and see how it works, as my temps are back to ridiculous levels.

Also, actually one thing about that FOMO is that it hasn't completely left me. If I can find a reasonable price for a OnexGPU, I may pick one up later this year; the Razer Core X is very neat and I like that it's upgradable, but I hate the fact that it's 14lbs and isn't easily mobile. I miss my old little 5500XT box, because I could move it around the house easily. Although maybe I should just do as Pifanjr suggests and make the most of what I have... maybe I'll order some additional power cables to strew about the house to make plugging and unplugging to move it easier...

 

[Zed Clampet]

@BeardyHat I always think about AAA games when I buy my laptops, and I haven't played a AAA game more than a few minutes in years.

@Pifanjr It surprises me the STEINS;GATE just now hit mobile. I played it in 2017 on Steam. Except for the art not being as impressive on a phone, the phone seems like the perfect place for a visual novel. I really enjoyed it, but unlike most of the visual novels I was playing at the time, there's very little user interaction other than turning the page.

 

[Johnway]

More mechanicus action this time i decided to take on the bosses and so far the first 2 bosses have been a cake walk. But the bigger problem is the death clock. Before you even fight the boss your deathclock count is at +4 and with 6 of them i can expect at least +24. So in my case my death count is actually more like at least 65. So i have 35 spare, so enough time for 11 - 17 missions if the count goes up 2 or 3 at a time.

Next Plan of action: finish off the DLC content (that doesn't increase the deathclock) acquire any additional deployment space and the siege bots.

 

[BeardyHat]

@BeardyHat I always think about AAA games when I buy my laptops, and I haven't played a AAA game more than a few minutes in years.

Yup, I look at notebookcheck for baselines on AAA games I don't play D:

Still wish I had more performance, but I'm going to see if I can figure that out while spending a minimum amount of money.

More mechanicus action this time i decided to take on the bosses and so far the first 2 bosses have been a cake walk. But the bigger problem is the death clock. Before you even fight the boss your deathclock count is at +4 and with 6 of them i can expect at least +24. So in my case my death count is actually more like at least 65. So i have 35 spare, so enough time for 11 - 17 missions if the count goes up 2 or 3 at a time.

Next Plan of action: finish off the DLC content (that doesn't increase the deathclock) acquire any additional deployment space and the siege bots.

I still gotta get back to that one. Started it and maybe played an hour or so, but didn't go much further; honestly, just wish I could play as the Necrons, they're my favorite faction.

 

[March's Ghost]

I always think about AAA games when I buy my laptops, and I haven't played a AAA game more than a few minutes in years.

Better to have it and not need than need it and not have it.

Of course, the same could be said about the extra money you spend for AAA capability.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Better to have it and not need than need it and not have it.

Of course, the same could be said about the extra money you spend for AAA capability.

If I'm down to my final pennies and thinking, "Darn, I wish I'd bought the cheaper graphics card," then something terrible has happened, and I shouldn't have retired, much less bought an expensive GPU. Time to get out the hot little dress and hit the streets again.

***

Dang, a AAA developer is making a "jobs" game, and it's about 332.7 percent better looking than any jobs game I've ever seen.

RoadCraft on Steam

As the leader of a company specialized in restoring sites devastated by natural disasters, use your construction machinery to restart the local industry. Clear debris and faulty equipment, rebuild roads and bridges damaged by weather, and much more!

store.steampowered.com

 

[BeardyHat]

If I'm down to my final pennies and thinking, "Darn, I wish I'd bought the cheaper graphics card," then something terrible has happened, and I shouldn't have retired, much less bought an expensive GPU. Time to get out the hot little dress and hit the streets again.

***

Dang, a AAA developer is making a "jobs" game, and it's about 332.7 percent better looking than any jobs game I've ever seen.

RoadCraft on Steam

As the leader of a company specialized in restoring sites devastated by natural disasters, use your construction machinery to restart the local industry. Clear debris and faulty equipment, rebuild roads and bridges damaged by weather, and much more!

store.steampowered.com

Is Saber a AAA developer? Honestly I'd say AA at best, but realistically maybe A-Tier.

That said, I'm happy you brought this to my attention. I absolutely adore the entirety of the Spintires/Mudrunner franchise (though I haven't tried the latest game yet), so I'm sure this will also be up my alley.

Still talking myself off the ledge as far as buying an expensive computer goes. I've at least come back to my original plan, which was to spend considerably less for a better laptop with a better processor, so my eGPU works better. That said, realizing that most of the games I'm testing I don't want to play right now anyway, helps. Though I do with Gates of Hell ran better.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Is Saber a AAA developer? Honestly I'd say AA at best, but realistically maybe A-Tier.

Well, I can't really argue the finer points of what separates AAA from AA or A, but the Ghostbusters, World War Z, Space Marines and The Evil Dead are all AAA games to me.

 

[dxchase]

Once I have them and have my 5 glyphs to level 45 I can move from Torment 3 to Torment 4.

I wish there was more than just 1 activity to level these up. But i play Diablo regularly and have a clan on there if you ever want to party up.

Loving my upheaval barbarian atm. going to switch to the meta druid build on my second one.


Been playing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black outside of diablo 4. The combat is fine but its old school and i can understand why its not really found in games anymore but it looks good and runs beautifully.

 

[Colif]

Rush was fun

https://t3hd0gg.com/project-r/

 

[BeardyHat]

It's reassuring to see what my current integrated graphics rat can run, so I ended-up putting about 45 minutes into Darkest Dungeon 2 this morning (also based on the narrator's voice actor dying, unfortunate that is) and it plays great. Not a solid 60FPS most of the time, but that's also unnecessary for the type of game; I tested a few others as well, including Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which actually runs pretty great on the integrated chip. Had had some issues with it previous, but they must have been heat related. Even got some Aliens: Dark Descent in on the integrated chip and that ran...playable. Low Settings, 1280x800 and started to dip into the teens as the computer got hot, but otherwise was fine.

So, I've just ordered the Honeywell Thermal pads to put on my laptop. The Kyronaut I had on here was great when I initially did it, but it's not doing its job anymore; I had no idea thermal paste would pump out so quickly, which explains the heat issue I have with my Steam Deck occasionally as well, so I think I'll go ahead and see if I can apply the stuff all around, maybe even my GPU. I'm hoping to eke out just that little bit more performance out of this machine.

I also went and found myself another PC power cable to keep plugged in at a different spot I like to use my laptop. Makes moving my eGPU that much easier not having to get under the couch and try to unplug it and then replug it when I'm ready to go back, so I can be more mobile in the house again. Not sure why I didn't think of that before...

Anyway, thanks for talking to me about it, all. Helped alleviate that FOMO for the time being and stop me from spending a ridiculous amount of money on something I don't need and selling a computer I actually really like.

 

[isleepinabed]

I gave a go to a few compilations I already had in my library.

Contrary to what I remembered Namco's Museum Archives are not arcade games but rather the NES/Famicom versions. Thus, they're good versions because the original conversions were good versions but not the arcade classics. There's a great demake of Pac-Man Championship Edition on Vol 1. (Vol 2 has a new variation of Gaplus as an 8 bit game, which is more generic).
As they're NES/Famicom games it's a strictly two button affair on all. There are some QoL via emulation like save states but presentation is otherwise a little bare.
In the end my favourites were Dragon Spirit and Druaga in vol 1 and Mendel Palace and Rolling Thunder (very Lupin) for vol. 2. Apart from that I had never realised how disgusting Dig Dug was!

I then tried Konami's Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection. This one is almost all shooters, and includes Japanese and overseas versions. Apart from great blown out high resolution art of Gradius on the splash page presentation is bare and disappointing. Even worse the emulations themselves seem problematic. I have never played Gradius on an arcade machine but there was some serious slowdown and it was not the Treasure-style slowdown for effect when there's a huge explosion. Graphics do not look crips and it made me check if these were also console conversions and not the arcade originals. The QoL improvements are also pretty bare. It was hard to have fun with it.

The company that handles these conversions are M2, which are very highly regarded. So I became suspicious, although these have by now a few years. Finally, I turned over to Darius Cozmic Collection. Thankfully they vindicated their reputation. This is an expensive collection (~40$) that only has three base games (Darius I, II and Gaiden) but with some variations (3 variations of I and 3 more of II). Darius is, of course, notable for its three-screen cabinet. And.... it's amazing. This isn't a game that has fantastic gameplay and the bosses themselves are quite disappointing. But the game is a visual statement piece that looks unlike any other thing out there with very appealing visual effects. Gameplaywise Gaiden is the best, but these are relatively simple games. The QoL improvements are also quite deep so, unlike the other two, there is a lot of things you can adjust to make it look, sound and feel as pleasant as you want.

 

[Johnway]

Been meaning to give this one a go on my PSP or my Vita. I really like playing visual novels in bed, kind of like reading a book. Though I'm still trying to find something to read again; just finished my last book and the next two I picked up have both been misses.

i have it on my Vita. Honestly i was really disappointed. I had hoped there would have been branching conversations or something but like a novel its mostly linear for maybe one or 2 bits but even then its mind numbingly dull. Personally i thought the anime was much better then the VN and after playing it, my opinion for the anime has only increased. The only advantage the VN had was the other stories/endings got investigated whereas the anime was the golden ending.

BUT with steins;gate elite that might have all changed. Not sure how much new content was added and where, but it might very well be the best of both worlds.

I still gotta get back to that one. Started it and maybe played an hour or so, but didn't go much further; honestly, just wish I could play as the Necrons, they're my favorite faction.

I'm still enjoying mechanicus but there are some caveats. rather then being xcom, its best to think of it as a board game and there are things that rub me the wrong way at times. Final opinions when i beat it....

Been playing Ninja Gaiden 2 Black outside of diablo 4. The combat is fine but its old school and i can understand why its not really found in games anymore but it looks good and runs beautifully.

Not really a fan of NG2 tbh. I played the game on vita and the 30 fps lock didn't rub me the long way, but the game itself wasn't all that compelling to play. Certainly didn't grab me as much as NG1. The combat, story or gameplay didn't really gel for me. Visually NG2 black is nice but there isn't anything really worth a second play.

i would play NG3 (haven't played it) but i hear that game isn't that great apparently.

 

[neogunhero]

Checked out that reTHAWed mod I was talking about yesterday. Installation was a bit involved but nothing difficult. Torrented a copy of the game from the Internet Archive, it came in 5 .iso files. It’s been forever since I last had to mount an iso, so I was surprised to see it’s built into Windows now, super convenient. As it asked me to insert the next disc all I had to do was mount the next one. What a trip down memory lane, I haven’t been asked to do that in a decade! The last game I bought physically for PC was GTA 5, that definitely took more than a few discs to install.

Anyways once you get it installed, all you have to do is drop the mods installer into the game directory and let it run. It took over an hour! Not sure if there was just so many files, or if the connection to their server was slow, I’m thinking the latter. My internet maxes out at 45MB/s, so the only games that take over an hour to download are 100GB+ games.

Once I got it installed, I booted up the game and you’re immediately introduced to the mod. It’s a complete overhaul of Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, pulling together content from nearly all other TH games up to Project 8, as well as lots of custom made content, tweaks and fixes. The game runs perfectly smooth and looks nice and sharp at 1080p. Sure beats playing it on Dolphin Emulator, as now it’s running natively.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I was playing Satisfactory when it asked me if I wanted to install the interactive map. I said sure, but as I was installing it, I noticed that you also had to install something called Overwolf. I researched it and decided to go ahead and install it, and it's kind of cool. It has an in-game browser, and it can make recommendations on builds and stuff while you play. There are a ton of things that it does, though, like game recording, video chat, managing mods, etc.

But as cool as it is, I don't need it hogging the RAM. I've only got 16 GB. After I put more in, I might redownload it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I made some more progress in The Planet Crafter. I looted a bunch more wrecks and got some nice loot, among which a bunch more blueprints. While doing that I unlocked the tier 2 ore extractor, so I deconstructed two of my tier 1 extractors to build two tier 2 ones in the osmium cave, finally giving me a renewable source. I still haven't found another osmium cave, I'd only found a couple pieces while looting so far.

I also unlocked the next terraforming stage, so now I have proper plants growing on my planet which also added a bunch of the white crystals I needed to upgrade my vehicle. Now it's a lot faster and it refills my oxygen when I'm driving it, meaning I no longer have to build little sheds all over the map.

Next time I play I'm planning on deconstructing most of my original camp and moving the resources over to my new camp. It's going to be a bit of a pain to move everything over, but it'll give the ore extractors some time to dig up the osmium I need to upgrade my terraforming machines.

i have it on my Vita. Honestly i was really disappointed. I had hoped there would have been branching conversations or something but like a novel its mostly linear for maybe one or 2 bits but even then its mind numbingly dull. Personally i thought the anime was much better then the VN and after playing it, my opinion for the anime has only increased. The only advantage the VN had was the other stories/endings got investigated whereas the anime was the golden ending.

BUT with steins;gate elite that might have all changed. Not sure how much new content was added and where, but it might very well be the best of both worlds.

I'm not sure if the mobile version is the elite version, but so far I'm enjoying it. A VN is much easier to play a bit of in between working than it is to watch episodes in bits and pieces.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I made some more progress in The Planet Crafter. I looted a bunch more wrecks and got some nice loot, among which a bunch more blueprints. While doing that I unlocked the tier 2 ore extractor, so I deconstructed two of my tier 1 extractors to build two tier 2 ones in the osmium cave, finally giving me a renewable source. I still haven't found another osmium cave, I'd only found a couple pieces while looting so far.

I also unlocked the next terraforming stage, so now I have proper plants growing on my planet which also added a bunch of the white crystals I needed to upgrade my vehicle. Now it's a lot faster and it refills my oxygen when I'm driving it, meaning I no longer have to build little sheds all over the map.

Next time I play I'm planning on deconstructing most of my original camp and moving the resources over to my new camp. It's going to be a bit of a pain to move everything over, but it'll give the ore extractors some time to dig up the osmium I need to upgrade my terraforming machines.

Sorry, I must have misremembered. I thought you could only mine osmium with the tier 3 extractor. Maybe I was just thinking of being frustrated by the tier 2 still extracting a bunch of other ores. You can set the tier 3 to only extract whatever ore you want.

 

[Pifanjr]

Sorry, I must have misremembered. I thought you could only mine osmium with the tier 3 extractor. Maybe I was just thinking of being frustrated by the tier 2 still extracting a bunch of other ores. You can set the tier 3 to only extract whatever ore you want.

According to the wiki, Tier 2 only has a 8 in 13 chance of getting the ore you want. It has an inventory size of 25, so once it fills up after about half an hour you'll have around 15-16 ores. A tier 3 only gives the ore you want, but only has 15 inventory spaces, so it gives about the same amount of ore, but it fills up about 10 minutes faster.

Of course, once you automate the transport of those ores, the inventory size doesn't matter and the tier 3 is just ~30% faster and doesn't generate trash. But I haven't reached the automating part of the game yet.

 

[Zed Clampet]

According to the wiki, Tier 2 only has a 8 in 13 chance of getting the ore you want. It has an inventory size of 25, so once it fills up after about half an hour you'll have around 15-16 ores. A tier 3 only gives the ore you want, but only has 15 inventory spaces, so it gives about the same amount of ore, but it fills up about 10 minutes faster.

Of course, once you automate the transport of those ores, the inventory size doesn't matter and the tier 3 is just ~30% faster and doesn't generate trash. But I haven't reached the automating part of the game yet.

Trust me. It's not that big a deal with osmium because you don't need much of it, but the tier 3 is a godsend, regardless of the stats (which are better) because dealing with the trash is a pain, but also because the tier 2 machines are random, and you can go out there and have 2 or 3 osmium in the whole thing. Then they have to slowly fill up again. They just aren't reliable enough on things you need a ton of. I ended up having 2 tier 2 extractors in a couple of places trying to defeat the odds, but once I unlocked tier 3, I never had any more problems. Plus, you can't really easily use the tier 2s for automation. You have to get drones to extract the trash, as well, otherwise the thing fills up with it if you are just taking out the ore that you actually need. Of course, I was sending up one rocket per minute or less for awhile and automating animal food, rockets, etc. none of which is technically necessary.

 

[Colif]

Kill screen passed.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I played a lot more of Donkey Kong Junior. Didn't have to spend a quarter every time.

Mario was the bad guy.

May have been one of the last times Nintendo characters were on anything other than a Nintendo since the SNES came out right after this if I remember right.

 

[Johnway]

More doom 2 Mod madness in Ramp 2024. So another 2 sections completed. We let off at the obelisk curating all things Egypt or tomb like. interestingly the 2 hardest maps were most interesting. A stone tomb (A wat) was claustrophobic challenge as theres little room for manuvoure and the map is frequently using ambush closets to catch players. The other was a homage to plutonia experiment. A mini slaughterfest that was jolly entertaining.

So we moved onto the tree of jurak station (all things jungle/tropical coast line). Some stand out maps here, there were 3 maps i liked the most:

Dominus may not look like much but think of map 29 of doom 2 and you have a rough idea what it looks like. A challenging map but manageable stuff even if i died several times to the horde of monsters. Think of it as a lite sluaghter/sunder map and was jolly fun.

Hamia jungle is a fairly standard level but the aesthetics and doom cute does make it quite an interesting map. Each section is broken down in to themed area like the jungle path, the villiage, temple and miltary base.

But undoubtedly the best of the bunch was Burial Clowned. a run down nightmarish circus awaits the player as they go and visit the various attractions to get weapons and keys to obtain admission to the round top. what sets this one apart is the high production values and the unique enemies spliced in. Namely those from blood with zombies and cultists thrown into the mix. Its a bit hit-scan heavy and the central area is a bit too dark for my liking but its a jolly good romp. The remixed weapons makes it all the more unique with a railgun, grenade launcher and some sort of chaingun that dispenses health and armor as you hurt enemies.


Sadly there was one map i could play as it kept crashing after several minutes. It was extremely difficult namely you're given no weapons or ammo to fight. All the while enemies are shooting you from all angles.

next up - the ice station. 2 maps i played so far i liked was bliss ( a riff of winxp and we've seen some of this from kitkatrina with her HTML/geocities map earlier) and another where we're in a rusting ice bunker dealing with undead and mutants.

 

[Zed Clampet]

I'm working on the February post, so don't get impatient and post it without me 🙂