May PC Gamer Article Discussion

[Pifanjr]

I do like Linux, but I find myself screwing with it and trying to get it configured just the way I like a whole lot more than I find myself actually using my computer for computer stuff when I run it.

This is my main problem with Linux too, it would just take too much time to configure it compared to just continuing to use Windows.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'd rather a turn-based strategy game, as I love XCOM 1/2, but I'm down to see what he can come up with. Honestly, The Sims/Gilmore Girls is far more interesting to me than Marvel characters. I've heard Midnight Suns is great, but I cannot get over the hump of superheroes, which I just can't muster a single **** about.

Midnight Suns is pretty good if you can get past the non-stop, blockbuster-style banter rotting your brain.

 

[Zloth]

Midnight Suns is pretty good if you can get past the non-stop, blockbuster-style banter rotting your brain.

`Tis good banter!

 

[Brian Boru]

my main problem with Linux too, it would just take too much time to configure it

You guys are way ahead of me. When I looked into putting Linux on an old laptop, I got derailed by choosing between the ~200 different versions of it. I decided to keep being grumpy about Windows' 6 different versions instead!

 

[Hveðrungr]

Ubisoft insists yet again that its uncanny AI-generated 'NEO-NPCs' will make games 'more alive and richer', whatever that means

Are you feeling immersed yet?

www.pcgamer.com

I still think that the idea of a game you can play forever is something a lot of people think they want, but would get bored of very quickly

prepares to load up Skyrim again

 

[Hveðrungr]

Midnight Suns is pretty good if you can get past the non-stop, blockbuster-style banter rotting your brain.

I thought the banter was a lot better than in the movies. They were able to get to human pathos, rather than just Joss Whedon quips. The main exception was Deadpool in the expansion, but that's just Deadpool.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

How much of Midnight Suns is playing the game vs hanging out with Superheroes? Ive little to no interest in the characters, but the card part game sounds pretty interesting and reviews made it sound like it was mostly just chatting in the base.

 

[Pifanjr]

Ubisoft insists yet again that its uncanny AI-generated 'NEO-NPCs' will make games 'more alive and richer', whatever that means

Are you feeling immersed yet?

www.pcgamer.com

I still think that the idea of a game you can play forever is something a lot of people think they want, but would get bored of very quickly

prepares to load up Skyrim again

I agree. There are already a lot of games I could play "forever", like Skyrim, I just need to alternate between them. I don't think AI would change anything about this.

 

[Hveðrungr]

How much of Midnight Suns is playing the game vs hanging out with Superheroes? Ive little to no interest in the characters, but the card part game sounds pretty interesting and reviews made it sound like it was mostly just chatting in the base.

So, there are three parts of the game:

1. The fights
   These are the card-driven battles and they are really excellent. You take three heroes and each has a deck of eight cards that you get to customise. A bunch of your time back at base will also be unlocking new cards and upgrading your deck. Assuming you play on a sufficiently hard difficulty, which you should (the game brilliantly incentivises this with extra cosmetics) this will be about 60% of your time.
2. The adventure-puzzler
   Before and after each day's fight you can go jogging around the grounds of your country mansion, picking flowers (crafting materials), solving little puzzles, and discovering lore. It's actually lovely and a great relaxation between the battles, though I can see why people who just want battles might find it a drag. You can ignore this if you want, you'll just have slightly fewer resources to improve your decks but that's fine as you can just keep the difficulty lower if you're struggling and the game is super-easy on low levels. A good balance is to only do it intermittently: the game doesn't make clear enough that there are way more resources available when it's raining, for example. Even if you do it a bunch this will probably be about 30% of your time.
3. The dating sim
   The most controversial bit, most evenings you can engage in a friendship dating sim with your party. You go on friendship dates with your party, give them gifts they'll like, pick dialogue options they'll like, etc. I was very sceptical of this as I'm not into capesh*t movies but I found it to actually be quite chill and sweet. Again this is optional, your heroes will just be slightly weaker: there are battle perks and special combo cards you unlock by playing the friendship dating sim. There are group activities which are a) totally optional but b) fun and very important in terms of getting the lore. Obviously there are also major plot beats that have their own cutscenes and so on, like in any game such as XCOM. Even if you go in deep on this it will probably be about 10% of your playtime.

I think people who say that the game is “mostly” the non-fight bits are not playing on a hard enough difficulty level. On Ultimate III each fight will take a long time, and you will have to reload to try different strategies to complete them. I don't mean save-scumming for RNG, as the RNG has been almost all removed, but realising that strategy A wasn't working and reloading to try strategy B.

 

[Brian Boru]

There are already a lot of games I could play "forever", like Skyrim, I just need to alternate between them

Yep, this—I already have a stable of such games, some from 00s.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Thanks, more likely to grab it when its on sale now at least.

 

[ZedClampet]

I thought the banter was a lot better than in the movies.

That bar is so low you can't even trip over it

 

[Hveðrungr]

The bar runs alongside the ocean-floor cables that carry the internet between continents.

 

[red_5ive]

You guys are way ahead of me. When I looked into putting Linux on an old laptop, I got derailed by choosing between the ~200 different versions of it. I decided to keep being grumpy about Windows' 6 different versions instead!

I haven't touched Linux since the 90s when Red Hat was king. There were far less choices back then, but it still wasn't any better as configuring each device was a nightmare and you had to know every single spec. I think my first build took close to a month to get dialed in. A lot of head scratching and WTF moments, and there was no YouTube back then to save you.