November 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

[BeardyHat]

I've become pretty enamored with Hardcore mode on Turtle WoW. What started as just being sick and wanting to play a comfort game several weeks ago has developed into full blown obsession (ok, that's too strong a word. But like...a level or two below obsession, whatever that is.); I started just playing a normal character and checking out the new stuff the server has to offer, but two days ago thought it might be fun to try hardcore.

Hardcore is interesting and feels like a new way to play WoW, given I can't rely on any of my old tricks. Hardcore means really struggling and scraping for ever little bit of progress you make and being vigilant when it looks like a situation could turn hairy (turn Harry? You're a Mage, Harry) and erring on the side of caution. I've already lost one character due to hubris and forgetting something I normally do generally involves death. So... That's kind of neat.

 

[Zloth]

Hmmm, I revved up the DLC for Solasta last night. But now the Steam sale has started and GoG, too, so Cyberpunk is on the table. Hmmmm hmmm....

 

[ZedClampet]

Spent most of my day smoking marijuana while running up and down the boardwalk looking for robot turkeys. No one can say I don't know how to live.

 

[BeardyHat]

Spent most of my day smoking marijuana while running up and down the boardwalk looking for robot turkeys. No one can say I don't know how to live.

Deviant.

 

[Frindis]

Hello PS2, I have missed you!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9wFWWZrOhA

 

[neogunhero]

Hello PS2, I have missed you!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9wFWWZrOhA

Graphics don’t always need to be realistic to look good as long as you have some sort of style or aesthetic, but this game lacks all of those. It looks like a college student’s first Unity project.
I’m not a huge fan of the show or comics, but it does seem cool to replay major scenes and choose what happens. More video game adaptations should do that. Play as Anakin in the video game adaptation of Episode 3 and force pull Obi-Wan into the lava😂

 

[Johnway]

I personally really liked spamming Woad Raiders. They are cheap, relatively fast, they get a bonus against buildings so they're great for quickly destroying camps without having to wait for slow siege weapons and they work pretty well even against heavily armoured cavalry because they're small and can surround the horse, allowing a bunch of them to attack at once. You just have to be watchful for enemy onagers, because those absolutely destroy entire groups of Woad Raiders.

Not played as the scots since the tut so i don't have a real opinion on them. personally i prefer ranged units, like the saracens mamelukes (being a sort of ranged melee unit), but again, playing on SP standard so... yeah not a fair assessment. haven't found my preferred faction yet.

The first expansion for AOE4 just came out, about 2 years and 1 month after original release. Is that too long compared to the other games? And it seems like there are tons of AOE4 content creators on YT, but none that I’ve see are super big. Maybe it’s an oversaturated video topic, too many people are making AOE4 videos.

Looking at the history, AOE2 DE releases 2 expansion packs each year (2022 was a blip). this year alone they released the return of rome and the mountain royals dlc that came with several campaigns. AOE3 about a year after each other (african royals 2 August 2021, Knights of the Mediterranean 26 May 2022). Although nothing this year and i'm not entirely sure they could be counted as expansion packs.

Who knows, maybe its a waiting game till we get more from AOE4. The problem i have is that if i have to wait some time for an expansion apck, i would have beaten the game and moved on or not got the game until much much later when some GOTY pack comes out. only XCOM2 has done the unthinkable and sucker punched me each time into getting the expansions/dlcs months after i finished playing the game.

i had a quick look around for AOE4 content and yeah seems to be lots, just not from my current AOE2 youtubers. Spirt of the law does some interesting stuff, hera plays it every so often but i dunno, not enough to convince me to watch it sadly.



EDit: Still playing yakuza 3 and i'm already on chapter 9 and apparently the last chapter is 12. i've apparently only completed 30% of the content. A bit shocked tbh as it feels like some of the content can't be done until after endgame? We'll see....


An update on the artwork side of things. its technically at 90-95% done. I'm just spending a few more hours polishing up the textures etc and tightening things up. but we're close. So very very close....

 

[Zloth]

I started Yakuza 4. No Kiryu yet, but the guy I'm playing is interesting.

Looks like Old World got a big update today!

Hello PS2, I have missed you!

Yyyyeah, I think a PS2 would melt trying to do that level of graphics.

 

[ZedClampet]

Played the new gaming sensation Lethal Company with my kids. We played for 5 straight hours, so I think it's pretty good. Dying is really easy haha

You work for a company that sends you to gather useful items from abandoned facilities on the planets/moons of your choice. The facilities are partially randomly generated. You have to buy your supplies, like flashlights, weapons, ladders, etc. And the company gives you a quota, like earning $500, which you have three sessions to earn. If you fail to bring back enough stuff to meet your quota, you are fired, ejected out of the ship into space, and you have to start over from scratch. It happened to us twice, but we started to get the hang of it. The thing is that the quota goes up every time, and now we are going to have to go to higher risk/higher reward locations.

There are a variety of enemies. Some you can fight, some you can't. You have to leave the mission zone by a certain time each night or you fail. Exploring the facilities looking for things is very fun. If everyone dies, you are just lost for the day and you lose anything you were storing on your ship. But as long as one person is able to be on the ship and take off you are fine, although there is a little penalty for each person who dies. What we did was whenever one person died, another person carried all the stuff back to the ship while the third person kept exploring. If that person died, the person who went back to the ship would immediately take off.

Another strategy is not to sell everything you've got, but to stop selling as soon as you've met your quota. That way you can carry things over to the next quota,

We had a ton of deaths, but got into a good rhythm with our strategy and have done pretty well. I'm not sure if you can actually win the game or if it just keeps getting harder and harder until you die.

 

[ZedClampet]

With all the racing games i play, I have finally decided to get a wheel and wheel stand. I've gotten pretty fair with a controller. Will be interesting to see if I'm improved with the wheel. I have to think I will be, but you never know.

 

[Colif]

Zed's next purchase

Technically the only gaming chair worth buying... or an example of one. It serves a purpose. And no RGB... clearly not made by Razer.

 

[Brian Boru]

Zed's next purchase

I think he'll go for the Wheel & Pedals plugin for this instead:

Btw it's currently $200 cheaper over at Che… uh, never mind, Steam have it at full price.

 

[Frindis]

Pfff, amateurs

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfetLhpOvJw&t=457s

 

[Brian Boru]

no RGB

You wearin' those fancy shades indoors again? My blind ol' ones clearly see R and also some G. His eyes might be B…

amateurs

Agreed. We're tryin' to keep this professional here, so if you could take this elsewhere, that would be great. Givin' ya thanks already!

 

[Pifanjr]

I completed another mission in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak yesterday. It was a lot more stressful than the one before, because I had to defend three areas on an open plain while the enemy kept sending small groups from off screen. And since the game uses a very strong rock, paper, scissors system, you can't really trust your units to take care of themselves, so it was a lot of micromanagement.
The campaign uses persistent units and resources, so it's not just important to keep units alive for the current mission, but for future missions as well.

I've also been playing Sims 4 whenever I want to play something less intense, like while eating lunch. It's not much of a game, but I haven't found anything else I want to play that is as casual.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think he'll go for the Wheel & Pedals plugin for this instead:

Btw it's currently $200 cheaper over at Che… uh, never mind, Steam have it at full price.

I'm 50 years too old for a racing themed bed, if that's what that is. It certainly doesn't look like a good place to play games. And I definitely don't want warm drink storage.

And quit being a moron. Copilot mistakes it for humor, and it throws off our contest.

 

[ZedClampet]

Zed's next purchase

Technically the only gaming chair worth buying... or an example of one. It serves a purpose. And no RGB... clearly not made by Razer.

Maybe some day if @Brian Boru lets me borrow the $7 he's saved by waiting until now to buy Pong.

 

[Brian Boru]

quit being a moron

When in Rome…

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Speaking of cheapskates, I've been playing Ruiner a bit today. Seems really good so far, its a Twin Stick shooter set in a Cyberpunk themed city. Techno soundtrack, fun abilities, and a lot of time went into the art design which is great. Definitely worth the €3.80.

I then slipped out of that character by buying Metro Exodus for €5,99 on Steam when I already own it on Epic. Stick that in your price chart and plot it

 

[ZedClampet]

Speaking of cheapskates, I've been playing Ruiner a bit today. Seems really good so far, its a Twin Stick shooter set in a Cyberpunk themed city. Techno soundtrack, fun abilities, and a lot of time went into the art design which is great. Definitely worth the €3.80.

I then slipped out of that character by buying Metro Exodus for €5,99 on Steam when I already own it on Epic. Stick that in your price chart and plot it

That looks a bit like The Ascent, which I've enjoyed quite a bit even though I haven't finished it. Just an absolutely fantastic world. You hit a bug every now and then, but I haven't experienced anything game breaking. Bugs seem to be the major complaint, though, in the "mostly positive" reviews. Everything else about the game is top notch.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I played a bit of The Ascent on Gamepass whenever it came out, seemed fun but didnt stick at that time. I think I read or heard somewhere at the same time about Ruiner and it went on the wishlist.

 

[Brian Boru]

Played some of the first of those 4 Wordle games I picked up for about $1 total. It's a bare bones word search game, so pop in for 5m and then pop out.

Copilot mistakes

You haven't twigged it yet? Sheesh…

Get out of the way and let it be Pilot on its own—you are so holding it back

 

[Colif]

All this talk of pilots made me think of something
NSFW

Spoiler

 

[Zloth]

7.5 hours in and Yakuza 4 isn't looking good. I'm playing on normal difficulty and the fights are so easy that I haven't needed to use a single health boost in any fight so far. I stopped bothering to spend my skill points after the first couple of hours. Worse yet, the looniness is gone again. In Yakuza 3, it was replaced with giving life advice to kids. In 4, it's just plain preachy - and preaching pretty crappy lessons, too.

I'll give it a little longer - maybe the game will redeem itself with other characters - but I'm pessimistic right now.

Edit: OK, you want to see too easy? Here we go:

View: https://youtu.be/ecEn9L1EoPI

Normal difficulty. If I had kept running in a circle, I would still be recording.

 

[Brian Boru]

I occasionally see this on Steam, where a bundle will be cheaper than an individual component—so keep an eye out for it.