July 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[BeardyHat]

My friends bought Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition and got me to come play with them for about an hour last night.

I have to say, I was super bored. My friend's Brother has clearly been playing for a little while, so everyone ended-up giving me tens of thousands of gold, as well as items and then leading me around by the nose to talk to quest givers and kill monsters.

Hate to complain, but that just isn't terribly fun for me. When you remove the friction and exploration from a game, I just have zero interest in actually playing it. I know they just want to level-up and do raids or whatever, but that's got to be the least interesting aspect of a game for me; I'd rather play for weeks and struggle to level-up and get new items than just be power leveled to end game and start a grind for gear in raids, in a world I don't care about.

 

[Zed Clampet]

1.9 million is my best hand so far. I was specifically shooting for that last hand to be big, so I wasted a couple of turns.

This run was a forgone conclusion by ante 3 and just became more and more ridiculous as I got closer to the end. Sometimes you just get crazy lucky with jokers.

Needless to say, I would have much preferred the 300,000 blinds this time

 

[Pifanjr]

My friends bought Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition and got me to come play with them for about an hour last night.

I have to say, I was super bored. My friend's Brother has clearly been playing for a little while, so everyone ended-up giving me tens of thousands of gold, as well as items and then leading me around by the nose to talk to quest givers and kill monsters.

Hate to complain, but that just isn't terribly fun for me. When you remove the friction and exploration from a game, I just have zero interest in actually playing it. I know they just want to level-up and do raids or whatever, but that's got to be the least interesting aspect of a game for me; I'd rather play for weeks and struggle to level-up and get new items than just be power leveled to end game and start a grind for gear in raids, in a world I don't care about.

Yeah, that sounds terrible. My wife would love if I start playing World of Warcraft with her, but she mainly does end game dungeons now, which seem like the worst part of playing WoW to me. I know that if I were to start playing, she would do the exact same thing of giving me tons of gold and powerleveling me just so I could get to the end game the fastest, completing missing every part of the story or worldbuilding.

I should still try it out at some point though, I might enjoy it if we do it together.

 

[Zed Clampet]

@BeardyHat @Pifanjr

I wholeheartedly agree that it's the journey not the destination, but when Guido was younger, he just liked killing stuff, so I played Dying Light and Far Cry 4 by myself first and then gifted him the best weapons in the games, and he loved it. It would be very different now that he's older, of course.

If the end game is fun enough by itself, then don't make the rest of the game, but I've never seen a game where that was the case.

 

[Pifanjr]

@BeardyHat @Pifanjr

I wholeheartedly agree that it's the journey not the destination, but when Guido was younger, he just liked killing stuff, so I played Dying Light and Far Cry 4 by myself first and then gifted him the best weapons in the games, and he loved it. It would be very different now that he's older, of course.

I definitely cheated a ton when I was a kid and loved getting access to the overpowered stuff immediately. I wonder if kids in general like the power fantasy even more since most kids have so little control over their lives. Breaking the rules by cheating and becoming so powerful that you can defeat everything with ease is not something they can do in normal life very often.

If the end game is fun enough by itself, then don't make the rest of the game, but I've never seen a game where that was the case.

How would you know you've never seen a game like that? Maybe you've played a bunch of games that scrapped a whole bunch of content to make the end-game the whole game.

 

[Johnway]

So at the moment i'm playing Dreamfall chapters; the (final?) part of the longest journey/Dreamfall series. Its certainly growing on me, sure the puzzles aren't that difficult, there is a lot travelling back and forth, but theres plenty to like, namely the characters and the tough decisions to be made.

there are a few technical issues, like sinking into the floor and unable proceed, but thats resolved by restarting. There was one other situation but i don't know if it was a slip clicking onto action, but i dunno, i was still trying to identify the traitor before my character just grabbed the last guy.

We're now on chapter 3/5 we'll see how my terrible decisions have influenced my game.

 

[BeardyHat]

Yeah, that sounds terrible. My wife would love if I start playing World of Warcraft with her, but she mainly does end game dungeons now, which seem like the worst part of playing WoW to me. I know that if I were to start playing, she would do the exact same thing of giving me tons of gold and powerleveling me just so I could get to the end game the fastest, completing missing every part of the story or worldbuilding.

I should still try it out at some point though, I might enjoy it if we do it together.

This is what I'm kind of torn by. Like, maybe I should stick it out and maybe I'd have fun once I got to the end game and did stuff with my friends?

Maybe. But given that in every MMO I've played, I usually get rapidly bored of the end game, as well as the fact that my friends and I have lots of other games we can play together, it doesn't seem worth it. Not to mention, it's a pretty big time investment anyway and I'm pretty happy just playing the games I want to play by myself as time allows. Several of these friends don't have young kids and the one guy that does, his family is in another country for all of summer, so he has plenty of time.

@BeardyHat @Pifanjr

I wholeheartedly agree that it's the journey not the destination, but when Guido was younger, he just liked killing stuff, so I played Dying Light and Far Cry 4 by myself first and then gifted him the best weapons in the games, and he loved it. It would be very different now that he's older, of course.

If the end game is fun enough by itself, then don't make the rest of the game, but I've never seen a game where that was the case.

As @Pifanjr said, it's definitely a power fantasy thing with kids. First thing I'd do with any new game as a kid is find the cheat codes, running around with God mode and all the weapons. I think I must have been around 12 or 13 when I finally realized it was actually more fun for me to have some friction in the game.

But that's exactly it too about the end game. With the modern incarnation of WoW, the leveling just seems vestigial; especially given you can just buy a level boost to get to max level with decent gear. I always liked fantasizing about getting there and getting cool stuff, but I was always having the most fun when I was exploring and getting incremental upgrades. My first character I ever got to max level, I think I did one or two raids, got one piece of gear and then quit playing altogether; the only reason I go back to vanilla WoW these days is to do the leveling experience and the slow burn.

Not sure what that is, as I can see the end game definitely has some friction to it, especially if you want to raid seriously, but maybe that's just too much cooperation and work for me. I want to play games by myself generally, as I'm a service oriented person in life, making sure everyone has what they need and what they want, so it's nice to play something where I'm not obligated to anyone but myself.

 

[Pifanjr]

Not sure what that is, as I can see the end game definitely has some friction to it, especially if you want to raid seriously, but maybe that's just too much cooperation and work for me. I want to play games by myself generally, as I'm a service oriented person in life, making sure everyone has what they need and what they want, so it's nice to play something where I'm not obligated to anyone but myself.

Yeah, the main friction of the end-game content in a MMO is the drama in your guild/raiding party and the toxicity of (some of) the players you encounter when joining random groups. I sometimes get exhausted just listening to my wife talk about it. And especially at high levels there just aren't that many people you can team up with, so you can't just join a different group.

 

[Colif]

I never saw the rush to get to end game... hello? its the end of the game? Now its almost the starting point for some games... which makes me wonder, when are they adding end game+, as it really isn't the end if it keeps going.

Even in MMO I much preferred levelling up than just endless raids or dungeon runs. But then I don't like boss fights... I am weird.

Making alts and starting again was more fun than being at end. Really I haven't changed that a lot since, most games I restart before end... it does depend what happens at end. I happily "end" a play though of Torchlight 2 or Journey, as neither really ends there. Most games these days only have one difficulty though.

Raiding becomes a job, have to spend time preparing for them and (at the time I played wow), make sure to be at dungeon entrance to start raid on time. Now you just sit in some queue and get teleported there... but then no need to explore. turns entire game into a menu.

Single player has less restrictions/requirements. Play if/when you want... no need to explain where you were night before.

 

[Colif]

Some competitors in COD aren't playing the game the same way as others

COD WW2 on Gamepass isn't safe right now.

 

[Johnway]

So i finally got around to playing the Jupiter hell classic demo - a turn based roguelike shooter inspired by doom.

I must say i found it pretty entertaining. But being a roguelike its a bit annoying random loot etc and monsters. on top of that the LoS is a bit BS sometimes. A zombie can see me before i can see him, but perhaps i'm not familiar with all the nuisances when it comes to the mechanics of the game.

A fun distraction, but not sure i'll pick it up. being roguelike and all.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The First Berserker Khazan is great, might be my favourite non Fromsoft soulslike overall. Apart from the level design and some of the small design choices which are deliberately done to ape Dark Souls, the art style is totally its own thing. The combat system is really satisfying and the boss fights so far are really well designed to be fair but very tough. Its closer to Sekiro than Elden Ring, so theres a lot of quick reactions and learning patterns required, with no option to build around a big shield and tank or play a fully ranged build. Having said that there are a lot of elemental armors and items to play around with, and it does have actual menu difficulty settings.

Apparently its something like Nioh in combat, so Id like to give that game another try now after. I got put off it by the amount of loot but maybe should have given it more time.

 

[BeardyHat]

Some competitors in COD aren't playing the game the same way as others

COD WW2 on Gamepass isn't safe right now.

This is super interesting, but also makes me feel very dumb, because I know pretty much nothing about it.

So i finally got around to playing the Jupiter hell classic demo - a turn based roguelike shooter inspired by doom.

I must say i found it pretty entertaining. But being a roguelike its a bit annoying random loot etc and monsters. on top of that the LoS is a bit BS sometimes. A zombie can see me before i can see him, but perhaps i'm not familiar with all the nuisances when it comes to the mechanics of the game.

A fun distraction, but not sure i'll pick it up. being roguelike and all.

FWIW, I actually have not much interest in the demake of Classic. I do like how it looks, but that classic roguelike look tends to turn me off pretty quickly. The original game I thought was pretty cool with the 3d graphics, though I did only play 5.5 hours of it and that was probably enough for me.

 

[Colif]

This is super interesting, but also makes me feel very dumb, because I know pretty much nothing about it.

the core of it seems to be that games companies re use the server side of games and bugs that were in games 8 years ago still happen today. As do exploits. Players on Game pass have found a way to hack other users on Game pass. Microsoft need to sort out their security

 

[Zed Clampet]

(Balatro) Oh good grief. I finally figured out that you can put your jokers in whatever order you want

Well, it's on to a different deck. I'm guessing, without having looked at the rest of them, that Blue is maybe the easiest deck--one extra hand is great. It also earns you an extra dollar each round, which adds up to a lot of money after awhile.

 

[Zloth]

Making alts and starting again was more fun than being at end. Really I haven't changed that a lot since, most games I restart before end... it does depend what happens at end. I happily "end" a play though of Torchlight 2 or Journey, as neither really ends there. Most games these days only have one difficulty though.

You missed City of Heroes, didn't you? A pity.

• You know how you make a friend in a game, but can't stay together long because one of you levels up faster than the other? Or maybe you start in sync, but life happens and one of you can't log on as much, thus can't level as much. That problem is gone: solved by the sidekick/mentor system.
• At least last I looked, there's only one proper raid. It requires a bunch of people and even has exclusive rewards. It showed up at (or soon after?) release and they never made a proper raid again. There are some neat game-wide events that can kick off when players do certain things, though.
• Missions and even wandering around outdoors is scaled to party size. A team of 8 will see far more enemies than a team of 2. The scale happens pretty quickly, too, so people can show up and leave mid-mission without too much of a hiccup. (You can also tweak the formula by changing the difficulty settings. Who ever heard of an MMO with difficulty settings!?)
• There are quite a few missions you could call end game, but the only special reward for them are badges, which are similar to achievements. There's no 'completing your armor set' or anything like that. The level cap was put in a month or two after release and has stayed at 50 ever since. You're really encouraged to make new characters and explore the breadth of content. (Which, after all this time, has got to be massive.)

 

[BeardyHat]

You missed City of Heroes, didn't you? A pity.

• You know how you make a friend in a game, but can't stay together long because one of you levels up faster than the other? Or maybe you start in sync, but life happens and one of you can't log on as much, thus can't level as much. That problem is gone: solved by the sidekick/mentor system.
• At least last I looked, there's only one proper raid. It requires a bunch of people and even has exclusive rewards. It showed up at (or soon after?) release and they never made a proper raid again. There are some neat game-wide events that can kick off when players do certain things, though.
• Missions and even wandering around outdoors is scaled to party size. A team of 8 will see far more enemies than a team of 2. The scale happens pretty quickly, too, so people can show up and leave mid-mission without too much of a hiccup. (You can also tweak the formula by changing the difficulty settings. Who ever heard of an MMO with difficulty settings!?)
• There are quite a few missions you could call end game, but the only special reward for them are badges, which are similar to achievements. There's no 'completing your armor set' or anything like that. The level cap was put in a month or two after release and has stayed at 50 ever since. You're really encouraged to make new characters and explore the breadth of content. (Which, after all this time, has got to be massive.)

Shame I never got in to that one when it was around. I do recall trying it out at some point, but super heroes were never my jam, so I didn't get into it at the time.

I'm laid-up in bed today, sick again, somehow. At least this time, I don't think I'm sick, sick. I cleaned out my shed yesterday due to some wasps taking up residence; I took down all my camping gear and it must have just been loaded with dust and pollen, because about an hour afterwards I got the worst allergies I've ever had. Burning eyes, coughing, runny nose, congestion, the works; could barely sleep last night and woke-up at 4:30m with panic attack, thinking I probably had/have hantavirus. I probably don't have hantavirus, but I still feel like crap, so I've just been hanging in my bedroom all day with my laptop propped-up, watching Youtube.

So I was going to install Control, having gotten it for free off Epic games some time ago and having seen it in one of the video's I was watching, Fortunately or unfortunately, Epic games is pretty crap and I accidentally launched Death Stranding. I went to close out of it and then it occurred to me: It might be the perfect game for me right now anyway. I'm lying in bed, I don't want anything hard, listening to a bunch of story sounds nice and relatively low impact gameplay.

I ended-up "playnig" for 2-hours here and at the end of my session, went and picked-up Director's Cut for $13. I didn't NEED to buy it and probably shouldn't have, but it seems like it includes enough QoL stuff that it's probably worth it, especially given I got the game for free previously.

Anyway, it's redownloading now on my laptop via Steam and I'm looking forward to starting it back up again. I'll undoubtedly skip whatever cutscenes I can until I get back to where I was, which really wasn't all that far in to the game, maybe 30 minutes of actual gameplay.

 

[Zed Clampet]

V Rising: There's a new sheriff in town

Before the battle, I cranked up my favorite LGBTQ+ power anthem, "I'm Coming Out" by Dianna Ross, and I ran around town explaining the new order to roaming bosses.

 

[Colif]

Checks Titan Quest on Steam... coming soon...
Wonders if Xmas get here first.

 

[Colif]

Steam :: Titan Quest II :: Build Example: Crit Trick Shot Ashstalker

Heroes,As you already know, in Titan Quest II you will create your own class by utilizing aspects of two masteries. We want to give you a more detailed look at this by highlighting individual mastery combinations. Expect more of these over the next weeks, as we are approaching the long-awaited...

steamcommunity.com

Rogue/Warrior combo class

Yet to see the other 2 classes in action.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Steam :: Titan Quest II :: Build Example: Crit Trick Shot Ashstalker

Heroes,As you already know, in Titan Quest II you will create your own class by utilizing aspects of two masteries. We want to give you a more detailed look at this by highlighting individual mastery combinations. Expect more of these over the next weeks, as we are approaching the long-awaited...

steamcommunity.com

Rogue/Warrior combo class

Yet to see the other 2 classes in action.

Since playing V Rising, I've decided I like ARPG style combat, so I'm trying to find one to play. Path of Exile 2 was supposed to release this summer and go FTP, so I'm waiting for that at the moment, but it doesn't seem like they are on schedule.

The problem is I'm not playing any ARPG that is click-to-move. WASD or nothing

 

[Zed Clampet]

Call of Duty: WW2 pulled from PC following reports of remote code exploit trolling players with 'Notepad pop-ups, PC shutdowns' and desktop wallpaper of a lawyer

RCE attacks are among the nastiest out there, though this hacker seems to be in it for the memes.

www.pcgamer.com

My takeaway is this: never, ever play Call of Duty


(oops, wrong thread)

 

[Zloth]

All right, Troubleshooters is done educating and has opened up a lot of slots on all of my 4 (and counting) characters. Albus, the first character, is becoming a hell of a blade master. He and Irene both have forestallment, which causes them to auto-attack any enemy that moves close to them, and counterattack, which makes them auto-attack after being attacked.

That leads to some funny situations. Spoonist tough guys also have counterattack and get a free attack if an ally attacks an enemy that's next to them. It's easy to get multiple free attacks and counterattacks bouncing back and forth in a chain all started by one attack!

 

[Zed Clampet]

I have the strongest lineup of Jokers that I can currently imagine, so I'm going to try endless and see how far I can get.

I won my current game with High Card that scored almost 400k

 

[Colif]

I have the strongest lineup of Jokers that I can currently imagine, so I'm going to try endless and see how far I can get.

I won my current game with High Card that scored almost 400k

you can get silly scores in that game