May 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

I picked up Warhammer 40K Boltgun as I liked what I heard about it. Its pretty good, so far 3 levels in and having fun with it without having to think too much. Might be less of a novelty for people who've played any of the other retro FPS games that have been popping up in the last few years, but it was the 40k skin on this one that got me interested tbh. Half hour ish levels make it easy to pick up and put down and work through slowly.

Still working my way through Planescape: Torment again too. Been quite a few years so I've forgotten a lot of the minor characters and some more major beats as well. Clunky as anything but not challenging combat on normal so it doesnt bother. I also think playing it at higher rez loses something from being so far away, but cant really avoid that.

I'd probably buy a proper remake of it day one, haven't been able to get into Tides of Numenera over a couple of attempts but might try again some sunny day.

 

[ZedClampet]

We started a new V Rising game on the 17th, which was the one year anniversary of the launch and the first major content update, and we've been dragging it out as long as possible. Could have finished the game in few days, but we like it so much we don't want it to end. We might play it again after we finally finish it using the first person camera mod.

 

[Zloth]

I started a little beta testing in X4:Foundations. They are trying to add a new multiplayer option... multiplayer that isn't exactly multiplayer. They're calling them "ventures."

When you opt in, the only thing that changes is that you get access to a few special build items that you can build onto a base. They're relatively cheap and easy - though you do have to have a base to put them on. Once you build them and link your Steam account to Egosoft, you can save your game as an online save and you'll be playing ventures.

From the player perspective, ventures are just a matter of sending off ships to do things in the metaverse (online servers). You don't play there yourself, you just pick a ship to go do something and it remains unavailable for minutes-to-hours. At the end of the time period, some dice are rolled and, if you get a good roll, your missions is successful and your team gets some rewards.

Yes teams. When you first convert, you are asked to pick one of two factions, then pick or create a team within that faction. The rewards you get mostly go to the team, but you can get access to special ships and paint jobs for your own ships, too. After a period of time (about 3 months right now), scores are totaled in some way and winners are decided - I haven't really looked into that part yet.

Another affect of having ventures going in your game is that "visitors" show up, which may be friendly or of the opposite faction. These are NOT being piloted by other players, though it's possible their stats are represented by whatever ship a player sent off into the void. My first encounter with one of these was when a medium sized trade ship tried to attack one of my destroyers - which ended as expected.

Anyway, something new. I very much do not want to get in a situation where I feel like not playing would be letting down my team, so I made my own team. Obviously, my team has no chance of being the highest ranked team (well, it's beta testing, so I guess there's a chance the code will freak out - but it wouldn't be a good thing), but there's also no chance of feeling guilty because I decided to play something else.

P.S. Once your game is converted to an online save, it doesn't lock you in. All your offline saves are still there plus you can convert your online save to an offline save any time you like. It's just converting an offline to an online that's a big deal.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I finished my first play through of Far Cry 6 a couple days ago. I played just on Action mode the first play through, which is like Normal or Medium. I grew to like it a bit more as I progressed. I actually took the time to fully upgrade each Amigo, but Oluso the black jaguar is the most effective in combat. I'd have to say Chicharron, the rooster, is by far the most amusing though.

I kept my style of using the parkour gear to sprint and parachute my way through the game world for the most part, which was made even easier when I got the wingsuit. There's a lot to do in the game and many of the puzzle-like exploration based side missions can be quite fun. In fact acquiring Oluso is done via 3 such treasure hunts in maze-like caves with zip lines.

By the time I got to the end game I had only 1/4 of a side mission left where you deface some statues. I may have missed some races though, which brings me to one nit pick. Rather than show results when you hover over a race you've completed with the mouse, they only show an orange highlighted exclamation mark when they're new, which disappears if you hover over it.

This playthrough on Guerilla mode I'm going to try to remember to leave all the exclamation points, so I know what races I've not done. The end game was pretty good, and gives you the ability to use mostly stealth. I might do a final 3rd playthrough on Guerilla mode with no amigos and no HUD. The lack of red clouds on the mini map highlighting enemies are (Guerilla mode) has not been challenging enough.

 

[Johnway]

So after a somewhat awful gaming session on chivalry 2 i think we're done. The sweat lords are back and to top it off i can't jump onto close servers to play my game. So i've called it quits and uninstalled the game. i've pretty much completed everything i needed, got to level 100 (currently at lvl 121 i believe) finished both season pass content and unlocked some stuff. Clocked in like 130+ hrs game time. I say i've got my money's worth from it. Time to move on.

Speaking of moving on, i've been playing the rise of the tomb raider, its been ok so far, but can't help but feel that some of the platforming mechanics are a bit off at times. Sometimes lara will cling on to something, other times she won't, other times she would cling on and then slip off etc.

 

[mainer]

I'd probably buy a proper remake of it day one, haven't been able to get into Tides of Numenera over a couple of attempts but might try again some sunny day.

Yeah, I've had Tides of Numenera on my wishlist for years now, but something about it just makes me wonder if I'll enjoy it. I've watched several videos and read multiple reviews, yet it just doesn't seem to "click" with me.

I loved the original Planescape Torment years ago when installed from a disc (haven't played the Enhanced Edition yet), mainly because the characters were so weird and unique. Mort the flying skull and Annah the Tiefling (with excellent voice acting from Sheena Easton) were always my favorites.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yeah, I've had Tides of Numenera on my wishlist for years now, but something about it just makes me wonder if I'll enjoy it. I've watched several videos and read multiple reviews, yet it just doesn't seem to "click" with me.

I loved the original Planescape Torment years ago when installed from a disc (haven't played the Enhanced Edition yet), mainly because the characters were so weird and unique. Mort the flying skull and Annah the Tiefling (with excellent voice acting from Sheena Easton) were always my favorites.

I'm just having fun dropping into it for 20 minutes to an hour. Its old enough that its not scary to my kid if she happens to run up. Most of the gameplay is just reading and doing fetch quests, but the setting and characters are so weird that its just interesting to read what they all have to say about stuff. I basically just gave myself superhuman Int, Wis and Cha because all I want is to have more conversation options. Just made it to the lower ward and done a bit of running around.

Tides hasnt clicked with me yet either, It was written by Colin Mcoomb who has collaborated with Chris Avellone on a lot of stuff including the original game, so you'd hope it shares some of the same themes and charm, but somehow it hasnt caught me yet. That can also be on me, as sometimes its not the right time for me to play a game, but who knows. I know it didnt get the same buzz as Planescape, but then again nothing else ever has come close except Disco Elysium.

 

[Brian Boru]

Oluso the black jaguar is the most effective in combat. I'd have to say Chicharron, the rooster, is by far the most amusing though.

Yeah, the Wicked Chicken is a hoot
I ended up playing a lot of it without an Amigo, just because they get underfoot way too much—to an annoying degree fairly quickly. They're much worse than Far Cry 5's companions, which generally kept 5-10m to the side and didn't bounce around like Flubber whenever you moved a muscle.

The lack of red clouds on the mini map highlighting enemies (Guerilla mode) are has not been challenging enough

Agreed. I thought the clouds would be a major loss, but they're almost completely unnecessary due to the AI's audio signals.

Good luck with no HUD—that's a level of masochism I couldn't endure… but then again, I'm not a RPG player

 

[Zloth]

I played through Tides. It was OK and had some good ideas, but Planescape Torment?? No. Not even close. The gameplay is solid and the characters are OK. The setting sounds neat, but in practice it just means the writers don't have to stick to any theme at all.

The sweat lords are back...

Wait, the WHAT lords!? Do they wear their armor all the time, even in the summer?

 

[ZedClampet]

I started a little beta testing in X4:Foundations. They are trying to add a new multiplayer option... multiplayer that isn't exactly multiplayer. They're calling them "ventures."

When you opt in, the only thing that changes is that you get access to a few special build items that you can build onto a base. They're relatively cheap and easy - though you do have to have a base to put them on. Once you build them and link your Steam account to Egosoft, you can save your game as an online save and you'll be playing ventures.

From the player perspective, ventures are just a matter of sending off ships to do things in the metaverse (online servers). You don't play there yourself, you just pick a ship to go do something and it remains unavailable for minutes-to-hours. At the end of the time period, some dice are rolled and, if you get a good roll, your missions is successful and your team gets some rewards.

Yes teams. When you first convert, you are asked to pick one of two factions, then pick or create a team within that faction. The rewards you get mostly go to the team, but you can get access to special ships and paint jobs for your own ships, too. After a period of time (about 3 months right now), scores are totaled in some way and winners are decided - I haven't really looked into that part yet.

Another affect of having ventures going in your game is that "visitors" show up, which may be friendly or of the opposite faction. These are NOT being piloted by other players, though it's possible their stats are represented by whatever ship a player sent off into the void. My first encounter with one of these was when a medium sized trade ship tried to attack one of my destroyers - which ended as expected.

Anyway, something new. I very much do not want to get in a situation where I feel like not playing would be letting down my team, so I made my own team. Obviously, my team has no chance of being the highest ranked team (well, it's beta testing, so I guess there's a chance the code will freak out - but it wouldn't be a good thing), but there's also no chance of feeling guilty because I decided to play something else.

P.S. Once your game is converted to an online save, it doesn't lock you in. All your offline saves are still there plus you can convert your online save to an offline save any time you like. It's just converting an offline to an online that's a big deal.

Not going to bother with this. It seems like it could be fun for people who have exhausted the game, maybe, but I'm nowhere near that, and I only play once a week or so.

*******

Trying to be more interesting in Big Ambitions. I wanted to make a store that only sold the most expensive items in the game in order to get those big margins, but when I checked the marketing research to see what people in that neighborhood wanted, they wanted donuts and coffee (seems reasonable). I thought about how cheap donuts and coffee were and set up a few counters at the front of the store and gave away free coffee and donuts to anyone who wanted them. Seems to be working. Sales and profits are excellent.

 

[Johnway]

Wait, the WHAT lords!? Do they wear their armor all the time, even in the summer?

the affectionate name of the dedicated/die hard players of Chiv2. They've been there from the start, play duel servers, probably based in a clan and are probably some of the sweatiest players of the game. Hence lord status. The problem is that games quickly become lop sided when even a handful of the high level players are in place and more annoyingly, they either play in a group and/or refuse to play defense (constantly switching to attack). so any game against them usually ends in a crushing defeat, low scores and a -k/d. Prior to a few weeks ago, you never saw them and it was more less a level playing field in skill. if there was more balance, we might have a chance but in most cases you're just there to get farmed and eat dirt.

 

[Colif]

Hey guys, why can't I share a link and how to do it
I'm new here and I don't understand anything

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[Sarafan]

I bought Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Master Collection that was recently released on GOG. I never actually had the occasion to play the game. It's considered one of the best RTS in history. Did anyone here played it? What are your opinions? I'll probably install it later today. Also there's a very good offer for Iron Harvest Deluxe Edtion on Steam, but I'll probably pass, because there's a lot of games coming this year that I might buy...

 

[Zloth]

View: https://youtu.be/argpSxB1NQE


There will be a quiz tomorrow.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I played through Tides. It was OK and had some good ideas, but Planescape Torment?? No. Not even close. The gameplay is solid and the characters are OK. The setting sounds neat, but in practice it just means the writers don't have to stick to any theme at all.

I've only ever played long enough to get to the first town after the falling part, so I should give it a bit more time one day.

I bought Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Master Collection that was recently released on GOG. I never actually had the occasion to play the game. It's considered one of the best RTS in history. Did anyone here played it? What are your opinions? I'll probably install it later today. Also there's a very good offer for Iron Harvest Deluxe Edtion on Steam, but I'll probably pass, because there's a lot of games coming this year that I might buy...

Had DOW 1 which I played most, Winter Assault and Soulstorm but its been 15 years at least. Really loved the single player, the animations on the units were incredible for the time and the campaigns were really good. The checkpoint capping system felt different to most other RTS at the time, it made the game faster but it wasnt too crazy for someone like me with an APM of about 3.

I think generally people preferred Dark Crusade over SoulStorm for that kind of sandbox campaign, but I never had it.

 

[Brian Boru]

quiz tomorrow

Bejapers

Is it worth 6 hours viewing time?

 

[Zloth]

Yeah, it's a tad long, which is why the quiz isn't today.

I got up to Frogger and it's been quite good so far. I'll watch it in bits and pieces over the course of the next week or so, I expect.

 

[Johnway]

I bought Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Master Collection that was recently released on GOG. I never actually had the occasion to play the game. It's considered one of the best RTS in history. Did anyone here played it? What are your opinions? I'll probably install it later today. Also there's a very good offer for Iron Harvest Deluxe Edtion on Steam, but I'll probably pass, because there's a lot of games coming this year that I might buy...

pretty much played all of them except DOW 3. But only in single player. its been a while so not sure how well its aged.

DOW1 SP wasn't bad, i remember enjoying it a lot. its not particularly long as you played as the space marine blood ravens and one of the short comings was not being able to play as other factions unless you played in multiplayer.

That changes with the expansion pack winter assault which introduced the imperial guard (astra miltarium) and another narrative SP where you can actually play as 4 factions; the IG and Eldar on the "good" side and orks and chaos on the disorder side. Again wasn't bad.

Dark crusade does away with narrative campaigns and you play on a 4x map where you basically pick a faction and kill off all the other factions. uses various skirmish maps to play the game and only the stronghold missions have any sense of narrative to the campaign. it wasn't bad, but i wouldn't recommend playing the game several times to see the factions. it does introduce 2 more factions (tau and necrons) to the mix.

Soul storm is more of the same. throws in 2 more factions and now "aerial" units but they were mostly another vehicle and honestly never really saw the point of them. Is it better to play Soul storm over Dark crusade? eh, not sure tbh. Its more of the same.


We move onto the Dawn of War 2 stuff and mechanically, think COH with a DOW2 skin. its a step forward in some areas and 2 steps back in others. Again narrative campaign you can only play as the Blood ravens and you control only a few squads as opposed to an army. The biggest problem is probably the repetitive nature of the campaign as you will be visiting the same battlefields several times. chaos uprising fleshes out some of the mechanics with a moral system where certain decisions would accrue corruption points and the more corrupted you became the more you could use chaos weapons or got chaos gifts. personally a missed opportunity campaign wise as that too was a bit lifeless. Again one play through just to say you've played it.

There was a 2nd expansion pack for DOW2 and it concludes the story of the Blood ravens in a certain fashion. I wouldn't bother playing through the narrative campaign maybe once or twice as all factions will go through the same campaign. A few tweaks to story here and there, but honestly, lazy stuff. i suspect it was more for multiplayer to get your hands on all the factions.


never played DOW3. Apparently it wasn't good.

 

[noukdbl]

I don’t know why but I find it incredible that the creator of ZELDA tours of the kingdom makes us a demonstration of the game ...

 

[ZedClampet]

There was a successful player revolution at Big Ambitions today. Today was the day of the big update, and the game completely changed into a personnel nightmare sim. It was terrible. I had nothing better to do and spent 6 hours figuring out how I was going to handle all the employee requests and the different health insurance plans, but most people were furious. Then at around 3 o'clock the developer put the personnel stuff back the way it was and said they would figure out a different way of working it. So far as I know, however, there's no going back for the people who opened their games under the new system. Your employee base is borked. Imagine you open up your game and you have 300 employees and every single one of them has 3 or 4 demands in order for them to stay with your company. And these demands are not easy to meet. Personally, I didn't open my main game under that update, so it didn't impact me. I started a fresh game just to test the waters.

 

[Brian Boru]

you have 300 employees and every single one of them has 3 or 4 demands in order for them to stay with your company

I take it saying "Door's that way" and hiring 300 new people wouldn't work?

 

[Zloth]

I take it saying "Door's that way" and hiring 300 new people wouldn't work?

Or just removing the door.

 

[ZedClampet]

I take it saying "Door's that way" and hiring 300 new people wouldn't work?

The only problem with that is that their needs grew as you trained them. In other words, you might hire someone who's only requirement was "Full Time" and by the time you finished training, they'd changed to part time and added four day work weeks, gold health insurance, and a particular type of office chair, so getting rid of people didn't help because the new people were just going to change a lot after you hired them. There was no way of knowing what you were going to end up with. You just hired people at random and hoped for the best then ended up firing most of them after they got a requirement you couldn't, or didn't want to, handle. For instance, I couldn't get the insurer to offer us a gold health insurance plan, and I also refused to constantly go back into the building and trade out chairs. First you had to order the new chair (but you can't order just one because there's a minimum order amount), and then when you go into the building with the chair, there's no way to know who is sitting where. None of the NPCs have names over them.

 

[Brian Boru]

The only problem

OMG, that game makes RPG sound enjoyable!

 

[ZedClampet]

OMG, that game makes RPG sound enjoyable!

It does sound miserable, but they changed it to where the employee needs don't change over time which eliminated most of the personnel nightmares. Now you just don't hire people you don't want to deal with. The rest of the game is pretty fun.