June 2025 General Game Discussion Thread

[Colif]

They should just grant me the ability to delete posts. I promise I won't delete anything but spam...and posts talking about using controllers...and anything @Pifanjr says about Satisfactory...

super user... I am sure its totally safe.

 

[neogunhero]

I think it depends on the genre and how saturated it is…

But PvP is a different animal altogether. People take that crap seriously…

I think this is the biggest takeaway from the arguments about SG2 I was involved in. My opinion on it is vastly different than most players. I think there should be casual, low stakes, easy PVP FPS games. That specific genre is dominated by fast reaction speeds, high skill ceilings, and high levels of competitive play. That genre is about as perfect as it can be. I don’t know what a casual PVP FPS game would even be like, but I feel like SG2 is kind of a step in that direction, although the creators insist you to take it seriously as an esport.

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Still more DayZ. Apparently a large update is to be announced today with a release date of July 1, I got a server message in-game saying all servers will be wiped that day. The weird thing is the promotional photo they posted to social media is written in a graffiti font that doesn’t match DayZ’s style at all. A lot of people are speculating it will be a return to a fan favorite Arma 2 map called Takistan, but I remember playing that map on the original DayZ mod and not liking it very much. It does hold a special place is many long time DayZ players hearts, but I didn’t find it to be that great. Lots of barren dessert, tons of sand to hiding and camouflage is near impossible, and I remember it being fairly flat too.

With the graffiti text, I’m hoping for a more densely populated urban map, or a map with a major area like that at least. DayZ maps do have large sprawling cities, but they are all Eastern European centric, by that I mean lots of old historical buildings and an older more classical look overall. I’m hoping for something a bit more modern, more gritty, maybe modeled after New York. I’m just guessing, it’s going to be revealed later today.

 

[neogunhero]

View: https://youtu.be/2oad7AX7gWM?si=-elsbCNNwzaCR9iV


Well, there it is. Takes place in the fictional country of Takistan but a different region. Looks like a much remastered and enhanced version of the original Arma 2 map. Will be the largest DayZ map ever, at over 103 square miles, which I think is getting close to double the size of Chernarus, the original map. Smart move to go in the opposite direction of the freezing climates of Sakhal from the last expansion to a dry, arid climate in the new. Instead of fighting for warmth, you'll be fighting for water. Interesting dynamics, can't wait to try it out.

 

[Johnway]

I've almost finished playing dex and the good news is that the game does get better. Expect comments on the game hopefully in the next few days. I'm at the multiple endings section so i'm making multiple save game files and just seeing each one through.

after that i'll try and finish off more of my indie collection from 2018(!)

 

[BeardyHat]

@Johnway

Just remembered that I heard about this recently. Really love the original Jupiter Hell and this seems neat; though I admit, some of what I like about Jupiter Hell would be the graphical style. So I'm not sure I'd get into this one the same way.

Jupiter Hell Classic on Steam

Jupiter Hell Classic is the demake of a remake of a roguelike unmake of a famous 1993 FPS shooter. Rip and Tear!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zed Clampet]

Doing something I never thought I would do: we're playing V Rising on "Brutal" difficulty. We are somewhere around the mid-game, and I've only had to be revived once. It was a boss fight, and I just got caught, at the end, in a massive AOE fire. You can't really heal yourself, so I was just screwed.

When we first started playing this game, I had never played a game with this type of combat (arpg) and I couldn't even stay alive on Easy. Never let them tell you old dogs can't learn new tricks.

 

[Johnway]

@Johnway

Just remembered that I heard about this recently. Really love the original Jupiter Hell and this seems neat; though I admit, some of what I like about Jupiter Hell would be the graphical style. So I'm not sure I'd get into this one the same way.

Jupiter Hell Classic on Steam

Jupiter Hell Classic is the demake of a remake of a roguelike unmake of a famous 1993 FPS shooter. Rip and Tear!

store.steampowered.com

I've noticed it on my browsing. being a roguelike it might not quite be my style. if i have time and the price is right i might get it or play the demo if i find time.

 

[Zed Clampet]

Six percent of V Rising players have reached the end of Act 2 on Brutal difficulty. Be interesting to see how many are left at the end of the game.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Still picking at BG 3 sometimes in the Underdark, will probably have it on the back burner for a while. I also have a co-op campaign going with it in act 1 so theres a bit less motivation to play it again solo for now.

I like The Alters a lot still, but Ive not felt like playing that type of thing. Its unfortunate as it was really pulling me along until I couldnt play anything for a few days and I lost momentum with it. Really going to try and not leave it unfinished because its quite unique and interesting, despite the fact its getting some criticisms for not declaring the use of LLMs in Steam as per the rules for translations and some of the background text.

Played a few hours of The First Berserker: Khazan this weekend. Its a character action game that takes some inspiration from souls likes same as just about every other melee game from the last 10 years. Has bonfires, enemies respawn and it saves when you rest at one, interlinked level design with shortcuts to reduce the length of run backs, level up points seem fairly sparse go into one of 5 skills that raise stats just a teeny bit every time. Its quite linear so far, doesnt seem like it will go open world.

Pretty good. It differs from souls in that there are quite a few weapon and movement skill trees to choose from more like a character action game. On the trees are unlockable combos that you access through skill points, putting extra moves on combos with fast or strong attacks, use less stamina on dodge, use a fast counter on a successful parry and so on. Doesnt seem to be any dedicated ranged or magic options. Theres a javelin throw which has limited ammo that refills from attacking thats pretty powerful. It has quite a wind up so its good to use to start an encounter or from a good distance. Has a guards, dodge and parry, less deliberate than Dark Souls but not as fast as a DMC or whatever. Good enemy variety in the first few hours at least.

I'm not big into the anime presentation, but its well done and has enough of a story to keep the action moving along and give what youre doing a bit of purpose. It doesnt seem to be very demanding, I'm playing it on max with DLSS quality with the frame rate capped at 120 and it hasnt dipped below that once, no bugs at all in sight so far.

From what Ive played so far I think I might prefer Lies of P in most aspects, but I got much further in that game and Im not sure how the combat will evolve as more skills open up later on.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've been reading through the notes for the upcoming Odyssey expansion for Rimworld, which made me want to play it again. So yesterday I decided to continue my last game, where I had just researched the first space ship technology.

However, it turns out that building a space ship takes a ton of materials and a bunch of different technologies. My colony is pretty much self-sufficient, so I don't really have anything to do but to fast forward and wait for my colonists to make frustratingly slow progress. I cheated in some materials, but even then it takes forever to actually get the damn thing built. I'm not sure I'm going back to that save again.

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Today I came very close to buying something from the Steam Summer Sale. I didn't want to continue Rimworld and didn't really feel like continuing my modded Minecraft game either. However I didn't really feel like starting an entirely new game either, so I ended up playing Minecraft anyway.

Now that I got bamboo I was finally able to built a bunch of chests and sort my storage, which was nice. I also almost managed to automate a bamboo farm, but I couldn't get it to become self-sufficient fuel-wise as most of the bamboo fell on the ground instead of being picked up. I have a plan on how to fix it, but I don't have the resources for it yet.

 

[Colif]

Crosswind on Steam

Crosswind is a survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Explore procedural open world, gather, build and craft. Overcome challenging bosses in soulslite combat. Sail your ship, fight on land and sea, play solo or with friends. Live your swashbuckling life in PvE or rise to power in optional PvP.

store.steampowered.com

Maybe a real pirate game?

 

[Zed Clampet]

Crosswind on Steam

Crosswind is a survival adventure in the Age of Piracy. Explore procedural open world, gather, build and craft. Overcome challenging bosses in soulslite combat. Sail your ship, fight on land and sea, play solo or with friends. Live your swashbuckling life in PvE or rise to power in optional PvP.

store.steampowered.com

Maybe a real pirate game?

I responded to this in a lot of detail, but apparently that post and several others got erased when the site went down.

To summarize, it looks like a much smaller and less ambitious Atlas. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I might check it out whenever it releases. Since Atlas crashed and burned, I've been wanting a new pirate game, and they've all been terrible. I could go back and play Atlas again, but it's a shell of its former self (Thanks, Studio Wildcard).

 

[Colif]

I responded to this in a lot of detail, but apparently that post and several others got erased when the site went down.

not sure what that was, it sure looked different
forums weren't down, they just didn't work right

I did try to wave down a passing moderator but I see someone noticed. Its not my job any more so I was waiting to see how long before someone noticed

It looks more piraty than say the first ever AAAA game was

 

[BeardyHat]

I did try and post last night, but yeah, no luck with the forum all finicky.

I've had little bursts of being able to play a game here while traveling and boy, I'm kicking myself for not having brought my Steam Deck. I somehow forget that I'm usually so busy all the time while traveling that the only thing I want to do is play a handheld on the couch with little fuss, instead of trying to find a spot to set my laptop to use the keyboard and mouse/trackpoint reasonably. Lesson learned for the end of the month when we travel again; at least that trip will be by car, so carrying everything should be less of a burden.

This trip in general has been more busy, weirdly, I suppose since I'm seeing a lot of family I haven't seen in ages and I'm in there area. Last year was easier as we stayed at a house with lots of family, so there was generally more downtime.

At any rate, I've been playing Transport Fever 2 again while I have time. Easy to pick-up where I left off months ago and keep expanding my map without having to think too hard to focus too much on what had happened in the past. I feel like this game is like having a trainset you build in your basement as a hobby; you can just put it down, then go back to it later and see what you were doing or just pick-up a different part of it and begin expanding it.

Edit: I did discover that if you own the original System Shock 2, you received the Nightdive remaster for free, which is pretty cool. I was initially going to buy it, but I thought $30 was too steep a price and then I noticed it's already in my library, which is pretty cool.

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster on Steam

System Shock® 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster is a genre defining experience that established innovative game-play mechanics that are a staple of the FPS and RPG genre today. Survive the wretched corridors of the Von Braun. Your training has prepared you for this.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Colif]

I have system shock 2 but I expect the box version doesn't count. I found it last year going through my drawers.

 

[neogunhero]

Edit: I did discover that if you own the original System Shock 2, you received the Nightdive remaster for free, which is pretty cool. I was initially going to buy it, but I thought $30 was too steep a price and then I noticed it's already in my library, which is pretty cool.

Not seeing it in my library, according to this Steam discussion post they specified if you pre-ordered the System Shock 1 remake you will get SS2 remaster free. $30 is a bit of a steep price, but worth it for first time players. I'll wait for a sale.

 

[neogunhero]

The only thing I bought during the summer sale so far is DayZ Frostline and for a big fan of the game like myself, I think it was worth it. One thing to keep in mind about this game is that there are no microtransactions, no cosmetic DLC, free updates every few months, and it's been going since 2013, so these expansions being a bit pricey make up for how well they treat their playerbase.

I really love the new map Sakhal. Set on a snowy archipelago, the constant threat of freezing to death makes the first few hours more intense than the other maps. You start with just a tshirt and shorts of course, so finding clothes and knowing how to keep warm is vital. Luckily all you really need is a blade of some sorts to gather some sticks and bark, you can combine them to make a fireplace, add more bark for kindling and sticks for fuel, then combine them again to make a hand drill kit. It takes a very long time to get going but knowing how to keep warm comes in handy as your health starts to drop the colder you get.

I haven't been lucky enough to find a working vehicle yet, and I can't find the parts I need to get them started either. I found one of the new boats along the shore, but it was missing a new specific kind of sparkplug that I haven't seen in game yet. I did find a new hunting rifle which was really cool, but no ammo. My longest survival time on this map has been just under 2 hours, right when my life came to an abrupt end by a raging bear. I thought my puny .22 LR rifle could kill it with a headshot, but that just made it race towards me while I fumbled to reload the rifle. One swipe later and I was dead.

It's been pretty tough getting used to the map, and just hard to get started as well. Apparently, there will be a new update tomorrow so all servers will restart, hopefully that will make finding loot a bit easier. I've been playing on a vanilla community server which doesn't use mods but makes things like night go faster and stamina a bit higher, and it has made it a bit easier to get used to. It is also PVE only, so I don't have to worry about getting killed by another survivor for no reason. One of the best things about that server is that it gives you a map to look at which is super helpful when traveling long distances, but kind of ruins the fun of just exploring on your own. But with the cold constantly biting at your heels, it's nice knowing where to run to next.

 

[neogunhero]

One thing I haven't done in a very long time is mess with the RGB in my PC. My keyboard, mouse, and motherboard all support it, but I think they all require different software and I've uninstalled it all so that's why I don't mess with it. My keyboard lights are almost always off, mouse is set to a rainbow cycle but my palm covers the light when using, and motherboard is very hard to see since I don't have a clear side panel. Before getting my new CPU, I think I uninstalled them all in effort to improve performance, but I would like my keyboard to at least shine white. However, I think there may also be an issue with the RGB not showing properly, displaying incorrect colors, perhaps liquid got into it at some point in the past. I'll give it a try again and see if I can at least get it to glow a very dim white, would be helpful at night. I wonder if my mouse and keyboard will have firmware updates also, if they do then it's been at least 2-3 years since they were last updated.

There are also 6 macro keys to the lefthand side, I never use them, literally ever. Do you guys have macro keys that you use, and what do you use them for? I should set them up for quick video capture/save replay, and maybe open overlays too.

 

[Colif]

However, I think there may also be an issue with the RGB not showing properly, displaying incorrect colors, perhaps liquid got into it at some point in the past. I'll give it a try again and see if I can at least get it to glow a very dim white, would be helpful at night.

Or its Icue. It has a bug where it changes the hex code of colours after you pick them. The only way to make sure you have right colour is to enter the hex code. I know as I have corsair rgb ram in my old PC. Same thing also applies to keyboards.

Have you looked at this? I know it can do corsair, not sure about your mouse

SignalRGB

Control and sync your RGB devices from one free application. SignalRGB is the only RGB software you'll ever need.

signalrgb.com

I would but so far the software lacks support for any X870 boards so I can't.

rgb sux, if you don't really need it you better off without it. No standards, every maker has its own app... I am avoiding rgb fans just to not add more software to mix. Right now I only need three programs

• Motherboard software controls onboard + RAM
• GPU software controls its rgb
• Keyboard is running off hardware settings - I don't need software to change it. It glows light blue on its halo (as does pc)

• Mouse uses Steelseries engine for rgb or would if I didn't have it in ultra power save mode. It doesn't light up at all but lasts 2 weeks on battery. I would use software to control mouse even without rgb settings

 

[neogunhero]

Or its Icue. It has a bug where it changes the hex code of colours after you pick them. The only way to make sure you have right colour is to enter the hex code. I know as I have corsair rgb ram in my old PC. Same thing also applies to keyboards.

Have you looked at this? I know it can do corsair, not sure about your mouse

SignalRGB

Control and sync your RGB devices from one free application. SignalRGB is the only RGB software you'll ever need.

signalrgb.com

I would but so far the software lacks support for any X870 boards so I can't.

I'll give iCUE another shot when I get home and try entering the hex code. Strange bug, seems it should have been fixed years ago... if that doesn't work I'll look into the other one. The crappy part about the manufacture software like iCUE and Razer Cortex is one I uninstall them, I lose the profile I set. Strange since my keyboard as on-board memory, it should keep it. I think anything with customizable RGB should come with a couple basic profiles pre-installed so you don't have to ever use the software if you're fine with a single color, such as solid white or red.

 

[Colif]

in Icue, the onboard memory settings are shown as Hardware lighting in the list of choices on the device. It should let you save up to 3 profiles onto the keyboard, I know my K70 mum uses has a few on it.
Mum uses it on her PC without Icue installed and it has colours of sorts.

https://forum.corsair.com/forums/topic/160741-how-to-utilize-k95-platinum-profiles-on-multiple-computers/

No idea about razer, I haven't used their software in about 13 years now. Synapse made me say no.

 

[Zloth]

Edit: I did discover that if you own the original System Shock 2, you received the Nightdive remaster for free, which is pretty cool. I was initially going to buy it, but I thought $30 was too steep a price and then I noticed it's already in my library, which is pretty cool.

Huh? I have System Shock 2 (1999) on Steam and have had it for a few years now. I got no remaster.

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children called me back. They've got a new option to continue your company in a parallel universe.... which is crazy-speak for New Game Plus, I suppose. When you start again, you already have a lot of enemy research and materials - and you also have all the (unequipped?) masteries. Meaning I'm starting with skills I shouldn't be able to get for another 50 hours.

Obviously, I'm going to need to crank up the difficulty pretty soon!

 

[BeardyHat]

Huh? I have System Shock 2 (1999) on Steam and have had it for a few years now. I got no remaster.

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children called me back. They've got a new option to continue your company in a parallel universe.... which is crazy-speak for New Game Plus, I suppose. When you start again, you already have a lot of enemy research and materials - and you also have all the (unequipped?) masteries. Meaning I'm starting with skills I shouldn't be able to get for another 50 hours.

Obviously, I'm going to need to crank up the difficulty pretty soon!

Odd. I have no idea why I own it. When I initially looked at it when it came out, I thought $30 was too much to pay and wrote it off until a decent sale.

Then I was looking at it again on my phone a day or two ago and saw that it said, "You already own this." and sure enough, it's there in my library. Not sure why that is, as I definitely didn't buy it.

 

[neogunhero]

Have you looked at this? I know it can do corsair, not sure about your mouse

SignalRGB

Control and sync your RGB devices from one free application. SignalRGB is the only RGB software you'll ever need.

signalrgb.com

I would but so far the software lacks support for any X870 boards so I can't.

So Signal was useful for setting my mouse RGB, I was able to set it then close the program and keep settings.
I was also able to find the on-board memory settings for my keyboard via iCUE, which I also set the RGB and closed the program. I also set macros for the Nvidia app. Nice!

 

[BeardyHat]

Huh? I have System Shock 2 (1999) on Steam and have had it for a few years now. I got no remaster.

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children called me back. They've got a new option to continue your company in a parallel universe.... which is crazy-speak for New Game Plus, I suppose. When you start again, you already have a lot of enemy research and materials - and you also have all the (unequipped?) masteries. Meaning I'm starting with skills I shouldn't be able to get for another 50 hours.

Obviously, I'm going to need to crank up the difficulty pretty soon!

Figured it out: it's because I preordered the System Shock Remake a few years ago or whatever.