June 2024 Game Discussion Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

Turn-based tactics games work really well on handheld. I spent more time than I care to admit playing Advance Wars on the DS.

I had an original green screen Gameboy but the Switch is the first handheld Ive had since then, so Into the Breach is about the only tactics type game I played on a handheld before. Didnt have any problems with that though, Darkest Dungeon seems a bit les intuitive to me, but could be that I played it some on the PC first so I have to relearn navigating it.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I had an original green screen Gameboy but the Switch is the first handheld Ive had since then, so Into the Breach is about the only tactics type game I played on a handheld before. Didnt have any problems with that though, Darkest Dungeon seems a bit les intuitive to me, but could be that I played it some on the PC first so I have to relearn navigating it.

I recommend looking up the Advance Wars games. I believe Nintendo is pretty good nowadays at making nearly its entire back catalogue available for purchase in the online store.

 

[Zed Clampet]

It irritates me when games with base building don't pay enough attention to the pillars. Just built an interesting base that at the end of the day looks like crap because the pillars look like crap.

 

[Colif]

glad we don't take notice of charts on steam to buy games

This game uses bots to keep it in the top 20 Steam games. Its actually pretty dead right now

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a multiplayer game of Crusader Kings 2 yesterday with 3 of my friends. We all picked a county in Germany and made a custom character.

My friends all know the game well, while I know just enough to keep my country somewhat together. Especially in multiplayer, where you can't change the speed of the game at will, I'm mostly just trying to keep up with all of the incoming events. So I was just trying to keep my vassals happy when I suddenly got three notifications all at about the same time. Each one of my friends simultaneously tried to get me to join their society and just for fun I decided to see what would happen if I went along with all three of them.

So I killed my wife to prove my loyalty to the Assassin society, then cheated on my (dead) wife to show my loyalty to the satan worshippers, then secretly converted to Shi'ism.

Not much later I died and my country was split in half between myself and my half-brother, something I'm still not sure how to properly prevent from happening. I floundered along for a while until my friends noticed I was next in line for the throne of Germany. It took a couple of suspicious accidents, but eventually I was crowned king of Germany by the pope. Which is a lot more overwhelming, but luckily everyone loves me, including my friends who I gave a bunch more land.

 

[BeardyHat]

I recommend looking up the Advance Wars games. I believe Nintendo is pretty good nowadays at making nearly its entire back catalogue available for purchase in the online store.

Advance Wars is damn good. I just finished 2 again a few months ago and got a start on AW DS, but ended up putting it down, cause that's kind of how I roll with these games.

Always worth getting a retro emulation handheld or even just emulating on your phone to play old stuff like that.

I played a multiplayer game of Crusader Kings 2 yesterday with 3 of my friends. We all picked a county in Germany and made a custom character.

My friends all know the game well, while I know just enough to keep my country somewhat together. Especially in multiplayer, where you can't change the speed of the game at will, I'm mostly just trying to keep up with all of the incoming events. So I was just trying to keep my vassals happy when I suddenly got three notifications all at about the same time. Each one of my friends simultaneously tried to get me to join their society and just for fun I decided to see what would happen if I went along with all three of them.

So I killed my wife to prove my loyalty to the Assassin society, then cheated on my (dead) wife to show my loyalty to the satan worshippers, then secretly converted to Shi'ism.

Not much later I died and my country was split in half between myself and my half-brother, something I'm still not sure how to properly prevent from happening. I floundered along for a while until my friends noticed I was next in line for the throne of Germany. It took a couple of suspicious accidents, but eventually I was crowned king of Germany by the pope. Which is a lot more overwhelming, but luckily everyone loves me, including my friends who I gave a bunch more land.

I keep telling myself that someday I'll get into these games.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I keep telling myself that someday I'll get into these games.

I wont say its simple, but Crusader Kings 3 is a lot more accessible than I found the other Paradox games Ive tried, with the exception of maybe vanilla Stellaris. They added in a lot of tool tips and stuff in the encyclopedia to help make it much easier to understand. The vanilla game is also great, pretty sure you dont need the DLC's in the same way that I here you do in EU4 for it to be actually functional.

Tbh the most fun I've had in CK3 was when something went horribly wrong because I didnt understand something and I had to desperately find ways to correct or mitigate whatever dumb mistake Id made. Its also pretty much impossible to lose completely, you just carry on as a lesser lord and do something else.

 

[Hveðrungr]

Advance Wars is damn good. I just finished 2 again a few months ago and got a start on AW DS, but ended up putting it down, cause that's kind of how I roll with these games.

If you like Advance Wars, you should buy Wargroove on Steam. It's a “spiritual successor” and very good.

 

[Zed Clampet]

The remake of Riven, the sequel to the remake of Myst, is coming out later this month

Originally released in 1997, Riven promises both big technological advances and "expanded" gameplay.

www.pcgamer.com

I'm pretty sure Riven is the one I played. Myst ran terribly and had wonky movement, and I was already frustrated before trying to figure out the first puzzle. I didn't know Myst had been remade again. Maybe I can go back and try it.

 

[BeardyHat]

I wont say its simple, but Crusader Kings 3 is a lot more accessible than I found the other Paradox games Ive tried, with the exception of maybe vanilla Stellaris. They added in a lot of tool tips and stuff in the encyclopedia to help make it much easier to understand. The vanilla game is also great, pretty sure you dont need the DLC's in the same way that I here you do in EU4 for it to be actually functional.

Tbh the most fun I've had in CK3 was when something went horribly wrong because I didnt understand something and I had to desperately find ways to correct or mitigate whatever dumb mistake Id made. Its also pretty much impossible to lose completely, you just carry on as a lesser lord and do something else.

Good to know that it doesn't require all the DLC, as I own the base game for some reason. I just need to get over the hurdle of so much information being thrown at me and trying to digest it all. Something I've generally been struggling with lately, but I attribute that to exhaustion from little children and it will hopefully pass.

If you like Advance Wars, you should buy Wargroove on Steam. It's a “spiritual successor” and very good.

I'm curious to try it, but it doesn't seem like it'll have any staying power for me; one of the things I like about Advance Wars is the theming and aesthetic of modern vehicles. For instance, I've tried to get into Fire Emblem, as it ought to be similar, but it just never hooks me and I end up putting it down after a short while.

 

[Hveðrungr]

I'm curious to try it, but it doesn't seem like it'll have any staying power for me; one of the things I like about Advance Wars is the theming and aesthetic of modern vehicles. For instance, I've tried to get into Fire Emblem, as it ought to be similar, but it just never hooks me and I end up putting it down after a short while.

How interesting. Do you not play any fantasy games?

 

[BeardyHat]

How interesting. Do you not play any fantasy games?

I definitely like fantasy and am currently playing Skald: Against the Black Priory. I just don't care for whatever brand Fire Emblem is and I think I tend to get a little bored of Fantasy Strategy games or at least, I can't think of any particular one I've played for any extended period of time, aside from maybe actual Warhammer.

I'm not sure I can exactly put my finger on it, but I just don't care much for Fire Emblem in particular. I've tried several entries and none have ever held my interest like Advance Wars.

 

[Hveðrungr]

@BeardyHat Fire Emblem is a subtly different style of game to Advance Wars though. It's a lot more about the party management and the RPG-like elements. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga is the Fire Emblem spiritual successor (and one of my favourite games, and currently 40% off). They also have a much more mature tone. Wargroove is very much a direct recreation of Advance Wars, complete with teen characters, just with a fantasy skin.

 

[Brian Boru]

exhaustion from little children and it will hopefully pass

Yes it will! In approx 20 years.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've been watching a lot of videos of professional Pokémon players because it's honestly fascinating what kind of challenges they can come up with and the amount of strategy they then have to come up with to beat those challenges.

However, it has also made me realise that you'd need to have a ton of knowledge and experience to be able to actually be that strategic. Kind of similar to chess, where I've never been able to think more than one or two steps ahead.

It's not a level of play I'm going to reach while playing the game on my phone in 10 minute increments, but playing it casually is just not very interesting (also just like chess).

Spoiler: The best strategic play I've seen

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0MMTZxAbvY&t=0

---

I continued my multiplayer game of Crusader Kings 2 this evening. This time was fairly uneventful. I just kept the kingdom of Germany together as a much beloved ruler until I suddenly got sick and died. One of my friends took over the throne while I went back to managing my duchies, though with a few more counties and a lot of gold.

I'm now mostly waiting for my plot to kill my sister in law to pay off so my wife inherits the duchy of Tuscany. I tried sending three killers, which cost me a lot of money, but they all failed and proceeded to out me, so now my sister in law hates me. Hopefully she'll die before she can retaliate.

I'm not sure I can exactly put my finger on it, but I just don't care much for Fire Emblem in particular. I've tried several entries and none have ever held my interest like Advance Wars.

For me personally, I really disliked the amount of micromanagement in Fire Emblem games. Especially having to manage inventories between all your units and keeping an eye on the inventories of every enemy. Advance Wars is a lot more straightforward and intuitive.

 

[Hveðrungr]

For me personally, I really disliked the amount of micromanagement in Fire Emblem games. Especially having to manage inventories between all your units and keeping an eye on the inventories of every enemy. Advance Wars is a lot more straightforward and intuitive.

Even as someone who likes those games, this is right. The micromanagement of inventories can be exhausting. Wargroove doesn't do that either.

 

[Johnway]

For me personally, I really disliked the amount of micromanagement in Fire Emblem games. Especially having to manage inventories between all your units and keeping an eye on the inventories of every enemy. Advance Wars is a lot more straightforward and intuitive.

interestingly, i prefer to play Fire emblem over AW. AW rubs me the wrong way tbh, i frequently get bogged down into attrition battles and the super power abilities generally mechanic pisses me off. One minute you're making headway and then, surprise he activates his attack and undoes your progress. But not enough to destroy you. Just enough to reset it a few turns back. The other thing is perhaps the supply mechanic drives me nuts especially for naval/aerial and you either need apc's or go back to base.

Fire emblem i prefer the management side of things. It doesn't bother me as i don't think its all that excessive if you focus on just a core team. there is no way you can level up skill everyone unless the game provided infinite battles. I played on the GBA so i got fairly familiar with the mechanics. Ok, maybe playing on hard is a bit much for me, but still on normal its fairly enjoyable. But i will concede some of the maps are horrifically trial and error sometimes. You don't realize something is about to happen or your perfect plan goes to hell. Which brings me to the next point: RNG. its pretty nasty, not xcom 2 levels of nasty, just BS at times. How do you like to level up and gain no stats? or the enemy has 10% of hitting you and they succeed TWICE in a row?

The inventory side of things, i keep things simple. Mostly preferring to use iron weapons for the most part and investing in steel, silver for the more higher ranking units / lords. I do scroll through the enemies probably at the start of the battle deployement to see who has stuff we can pinch and adapt accordingly. Spoilers: you need one thief to level up at all times. Don't bother making them assassins because its not that useful.

 

[Johnway]

Still playing chivalry 2 trying out the new map. Interestingly the new map is actually in the DEFENDERS favour as opposed to the attackers. part of the problem for the attackers is that most of the battles are tight areas and concentrated on one objective. For example, break down the gate. The only problem is that the gate is in the defenders spawn (less time needed for defenders to get to the fight) and 2 the battering ram is only viable for quick destruction, but you're overlooked by a load of ports/holes etc. I have seen some people just bash the door down forsaking the use of the ram, but progress is slow and you still need to do a huge amount of damage.

The middle where you blast through the city walls is fun. Tight combat, plenty of objectives, but unfortunately because the area is tight, there's little room to maneuver other then to go through. But what really makes it tough is final bit, you have to also blow up the statue at the end. To accomplish this you have to plant a load of barrels AND defend the fuse until it blows. The area itself limits entry to maybe one or 2 entry points (so easily defended) and there's only a single point to drop off the explosives. if it was more opened up, it might make things more interesting. instead i stand on the obj and anyone with a barrel i hit him to drop it and stand watch again. hell an engineer would undo the attackers as the person holding the barrel can't get through and have no choice but to drop it and fight.

Burt if SOMEHOW you succeeded, you get to play as a VIP the 2 top players duke it out and yeah... I've not encountered any victories for the attackers so far. hell, i was given the choice to be VIP and it was an embarrassing performance.

 

[BeardyHat]

@BeardyHat Fire Emblem is a subtly different style of game to Advance Wars though. It's a lot more about the party management and the RPG-like elements. Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga is the Fire Emblem spiritual successor (and one of my favourite games, and currently 40% off). They also have a much more mature tone. Wargroove is very much a direct recreation of Advance Wars, complete with teen characters, just with a fantasy skin.

Good to know. I may still check it out in the future, as it's definitely been on my radar since release, I just haven't been in a hurry. I still would like to get through Dual Strike on my DS and eventually try Days of Ruin again, which was my first Advance Wars game, which I didn't really care for.

Yes it will! In approx 20 years.

Only?! I better start plotting my vacation now.

For me personally, I really disliked the amount of micromanagement in Fire Emblem games. Especially having to manage inventories between all your units and keeping an eye on the inventories of every enemy. Advance Wars is a lot more straightforward and intuitive.

Yeah, I find that really tedious as well. Not to mention, having to hit (seemingly) every house in a battle just to get new stuff or not miss things. Plus having to focus on keeping certain people and units alive, rather than throwing them into the grinder like AW, otherwise you're missing out. Which I guess the implication is to play it multiple times, but who has time for that?

I love the ramp-up in AW. Generally I'll look at a new battle and feel overwhelmed, but then just start taking it one step at a time and before I know it, I've actually won.

 

[Pifanjr]

I love the ramp-up in AW. Generally I'll look at a new battle and feel overwhelmed, but then just start taking it one step at a time and before I know it, I've actually won.

I like the ramp-up in AW as well, but that's only on maps where you have a base. I'm not as much a fan of the maps where you get a limited amount of units, especially not the ones with fog of war.

 

[neogunhero]

I’ve been so exhausted lately. I didn’t play on my PC at all over the weekend, I just squeezed in some Slay the Spire on my Xbox One so I could lay in bed and play. Last night I did play some Warcraft 3. After playing so much AoE4 over the past few weeks, I thought it would be good to go back and play one of my first RTS games ever.

It was a huge pain trying to figure out how the hell I can get the game to start. I redeemed my old product keys from my physical copy onto my BattleNet account maybe 10 years back, so I had the game and Frozen Throne attached to that account. However ever since WC3 Reforged came out, the only way you can play Classic is to launch it through the Reforged client. That was a major pain in the ass trying to understand that when nothing clearly states “launch Reforged to play Classic”.

I finally got in, and boy oh boy this game is gold. I used to play this game to shreds as a kid. I love everything from the cinematics, to the level design, the campaign, the Heroes, all of that is just amazing. It’s really a shame that they don’t make a new Warcraft RTS. I can see the genre not being huge with the mainstream but its Blizzards roots, they should really go back to it. I didn’t play much besides 2 little skirmishes with an Easy AI, but I still had a great time. Thinking about playing some StarCraft now also.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Sorry about your back; being unable to sit comfortably must be absolute misery. But Darkest Dungeon is good and it fits perfectly on handheld. I didn't actually get into it until I played it on my Vita.



You're cheating on me?

Most people just don't think that deeply about games. I met a nieces fiance this weekend who was excitedly telling me about CoD and Immortals of Aveium and it's incredible graphics; he liked Elden Ring as well, but had never heard of Dark Souls.

Nice enough guy, but games are more of something to do in your free time, rather than a hobby unto itself, which is probably what most on the sports forum view it as.



Speaking of: I'm still enjoying Abiotic Factor (I feel like I'm pronouncing it incorrectly, but I'm too lazy to look it up. I just say, "Abee-Ot-Tic")

I don't know why I know this, but it's pronounced ay - by - autic. Sort of like bionic with an "AY" at the beginning and a "t" instead of an "n".

The exploration is really fun, but, as you say, the crafting not so much. It's at least a lot better when you upgrade your crafting table so that it pulls resources from nearby storage.

 

[Zed Clampet]

oh my god. prebuilt laptops without graphics cards starting at $55,300.00

Choose Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)

The Framework Laptop 16 is a high-performance laptop with an upgradeable and completely modular design that allows endless options for configuration, including a fully reconfigurable input deck and modular discrete graphics.

frame.work

I read an article about these on PC Gamer. I didn't notice any pricing mentioned, so I thought I would check them out.

For that kind of money I expect a robot that cooks and cleans, not a laptop that's useless for gaming.

 

[Zloth]

oh my god. prebuilt laptops without graphics cards starting at $55,300.00

!! Even Falcon Northwest can't touch those prices.... oh! In the upper right, you need to switch it to US Dollars.

 

[BeardyHat]

I don't know why I know this, but it's pronounced ay - by - autic. Sort of like bionic with an "AY" at the beginning and a "t" instead of an "n".

The exploration is really fun, but, as you say, the crafting not so much. It's at least a lot better when you upgrade your crafting table so that it pulls resources from nearby storage.

I just got that upgrade and yeah, it's made everything so much more bearable.

I'm torn on my killing power right now. I get the need for progression, but I think my brain ticks over to Half-Life mode and even with my new Scrap Gun, I'm annoyed at how long it takes to kill the soldiers. I can sometimes one shot them if I can sneak up on them, but the guns are so unwieldy; again, I know it's intentional, but I feel like, given that combat isn't the focus of the game, maybe there should be fewer enemies. Fewer enemies and you can keep the janky guns or if you wanna keep the current amount, up the power of the guns, as enemies seem to keep respawning and creating roadblocks to the fun of exploration.

I did adjust some of the spawn rates as you recommended, but not sure I did anything about the enemies. There's definitely entirely too many and respawn frequency is too high for a single player go of it, but I certainly don't want to start over now.

!! Even Falcon Northwest can't touch those prices.... oh! In the upper right, you need to switch it to US Dollars.

I'm glad you found that. I thought surely there's no possible way they'll sell more than a dozen of these things at such prices.

Really like that modularity, especially as a person who loves to open up and tinker with everything. Just wish I could get one with a Trackpoint.