November 2024 General Gaming Discussion Thread

[Colif]

None of the things I want are on special this month... I looked at a few things and kept finding reasons to say no. I actually crossed a few things off a list I made a few months ago.

I don't need anything and its my Bday/Xmas soon... that is a habit I have had all my life. I never learned to mention what I might want before I buy it. Often as recently they would have said I can't afford the things I have bought

They have no idea about prices. Or should I say mum doesn't.I just don't tell them now.

One set of headphones I have has made it really hard (and expensive) to compare to them... guess I jumped a few layers. Oh well, the only other things I want are IEM and as I said, none of the ones I want are on sale. So I just wait

so as usual I don't buy anything on BF or if I do, its not on special anyway... did that two years ago when I bought 3 fans and they proceeded to get lost in xmas mail for about a week. Joy.

 

[BeardyHat]

@Brian Boru just went out for cigarettes; they'll be back any time now..

 

[DXCHASE]

I am ALSO knee deep in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. I fair well with frames but i do have a 4080super/12900k 32gb ddr6 on a m.4 gen 2 ssd so thats probably why.

If you are struggling with frames though, i highly suggest checking nexus mods. They already have really helpful mods for performance issues, i even employed one myself and i didnt really need it, but it gave me ~15fps boost in some of the more intensive areas (towns).

I am also using a mod that slightly reduces the weapon degradation because i feel its too fast. I kept armor the same because getting shot, bit, slashed etc. is realistic to the wear and tear on armor, but a gun not working because a few clips get shot through it and some mud splashed on it is kinda rough.

Sure theres mods that get rid of both gun/armor degradation altogether, but that ruins the game imo. Theres definitely useful perfomance mods though.

Loving the game so far but i think the extreme tanky-ness of the poltergeists or whatever they are called is too high.

Edit: Not liking it atm. The overencumbered is trash first of all. You come to almost a crawl when you get close to max capacity and everything else is slowed to a stand still, regenerating stamina, jumping, slashing boxes etc. It all becomes useless when your carry too much. I understand the mechanics of overencumberment, and this is by far the worst ive use.

Next is enemy respawning at least it seems that way. My latest mission has me clearing out a base in which i kill roughly 50 guys and for some reason they just keep spawning. Going back over areas to collect loot is tiresome because this game apparently respawns enemies in this base. Really frustrating because im going through all this ammo to keep re-clearing the same spots in this base.

Then theres dmg problems. Unloading a clip into a guy thats fairly close and getting at least 1 headshot in there and them just still running around is immersion breaking to me.

 

[BeardyHat]

I am ALSO knee deep in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2. I fair well with frames but i do have a 4080super/12900k 32gb ddr6 on a m.4 gen 2 ssd so thats probably why.

If you are struggling with frames though, i highly suggest checking nexus mods. They already have really helpful mods for performance issues, i even employed one myself and i didnt really need it, but it gave me ~15fps boost in some of the more intensive areas (towns).

I am also using a mod that slightly reduces the weapon degradation because i feel its too fast. I kept armor the same because getting shot, bit, slashed etc. is realistic to the wear and tear on armor, but a gun not working because a few clips get shot through it and some mud splashed on it is kinda rough.

Sure theres mods that get rid of both gun/armor degradation altogether, but that ruins the game imo. Theres definitely useful perfomance mods though.

Loving the game so far but i think the extreme tanky-ness of the poltergeists or whatever they are called is too high.

Edit: Not liking it atm. The overencumbered is trash first of all. You come to almost a crawl when you get close to max capacity and everything else is slowed to a stand still, regenerating stamina, jumping, slashing boxes etc. It all becomes useless when your carry too much. I understand the mechanics of overencumberment, and this is by far the worst ive use.

Next is enemy respawning at least it seems that way. My latest mission has me clearing out a base in which i kill roughly 50 guys and for some reason they just keep spawning. Going back over areas to collect loot is tiresome because this game apparently respawns enemies in this base. Really frustrating because im going through all this ammo to keep re-clearing the same spots in this base.

Then theres dmg problems. Unloading a clip into a guy thats fairly close and getting at least 1 headshot in there and them just still running around is immersion breaking to me.

Too bad about those annoyances, in addition to the performance issues. This will be the first Stalker I haven't played at release, but also makes me think I should go back to Call of Pripyat; only question is, mods or no? I loved the vanilla experience back in the day and I feel like some of the mods make the experience more annoying and less fun, but not modding it feels weird?

I haven't had time to play much of anything lately. I really want to jump into The Black Parade still, but I've been so tired in the evenings, I haven't been motivated to listen to exposition and play something so slow paced.

I've mostly just been putting in 5 minutes here and there on Dragon Quest 5, emulated on PS2.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Colif What's next Wednesday?

This game seems interesting. Coming out next year.

Decadent on Steam

Decadent is a story-driven FPS combining atmospheric exploration, horror and combat into an immersive experience. Become John Lorn, a Great War veteran turned decadent occultist on a quest to save your lost son and uncover an ancient secret; challenging not only your skills, but your very humanity.

store.steampowered.com

 

[DXCHASE]

Too bad about those annoyances, in addition to the performance issues. This will be the first Stalker I haven't played at release, but also makes me think I should go back to Call of Pripyat; only question is, mods or no? I loved the vanilla experience back in the day and I feel like some of the mods make the experience more annoying and less fun, but not modding it feels weird?

I haven't had time to play much of anything lately. I really want to jump into The Black Parade still, but I've been so tired in the evenings, I haven't been motivated to listen to exposition and play something so slow paced.

I've mostly just been putting in 5 minutes here and there on Dragon Quest 5, emulated on PS2.

Theres a couple of other things that seem...off. If you talk to someone on the radio, it can often switch from a radio voice to someone being right next to you talking. Everytime you come out of your PDA, there can be a slight stutter/lag moment which can affect you when you come out of it. Theres a couple other little weird things i ran into too.

The studio addressed that theres a bunch of bugs they are gonna fix soon, and i see its reflected in the reviews for this game.

But overall, outside of those tiresome moments, the exploration, sidequests and the moments of taking out groups of guys fighting each other is fun and suspensful.

 

[red_5ive]

All this STALKER 2 talk has gotten me interested. I never played the original, and I'm reading that you don't have to as STALKER 2 is a stand alone experience. Is that really the case? I like to play an open world game this time of year, and although I was planning on re-playing GR: Breakpoint, now I'm tempted to grab STALKER 2.

 

[ZedClampet]

All this STALKER 2 talk has gotten me interested. I never played the original, and I'm reading that you don't have to as STALKER 2 is a stand alone experience. Is that really the case? I like to play an open world game this time of year, and although I was planning on re-playing GR: Breakpoint, now I'm tempted to grab STALKER 2.

It's on Game Pass if you like that sort of thing.

By the way, I lied when I said I was going to buy it to support the developer because I found another game releasing next week that I actually want to play, and I don't want to use the rest of my November game budget on Stalker 2, especially since it's on Game Pass.

 

[red_5ive]

It's on Game Pass if you like that sort of thing.

By the way, I lied when I said I was going to buy it to support the developer because I found another game releasing next week that I actually want to play, and I don't want to use the rest of my November game budget on Stalker 2, especially since it's on Game Pass.

Awesome, thank you for the tip! I've been meaning to get Game Pass for exactly that reason as I don't want to go over my gaming budget, which I really don't have one, but if I don't watch it I will end up with one lol.

$70 is getting to be way too much. I mean, I have to eat, and that's barely a burger, onion rings, and a strawberry shake in California.

 

[ZedClampet]

Awesome, thank you for the tip! I've been meaning to get Game Pass for exactly that reason as I don't want to go over my gaming budget, which I really don't have one, but if I don't watch it I will end up with one lol.

$70 is getting to be way too much. I mean, I have to eat, and that's barely a burger, onion rings, and a strawberry shake in California.

Please don't encourage AAA publishers to compare the value of their games to current food prices. We'll be paying $500 for a AAA game.

I'm not sure what the average burger meal costs here because I very rarely eat out, but I think it's $15 to $25 depending on where you go. Sometimes I order delivery, which adds about $15 to that.

 

[Colif]

@Colif What's next Wednesday?

it will be the one week anniversary of the last time Brian was spotted. Yes, I know, it might not have been them... but its still last time we saw anything.

I have asked admin if they can reach out but they are almost as hard to contact

 

[red_5ive]

Please don't encourage AAA publishers to compare the value of their games to current food prices. We'll be paying $500 for a AAA game.

Now that's a very good point. I'd probably die of starvation then.

I'm not sure what the average burger meal costs here because I very rarely eat out, but I think it's $15 to $25 depending on where you go. Sometimes I order delivery, which adds about $15 to that.

Interesting. It's about the same in Cali. I would'a thought this state would have everyone beat. Most fast food is about $16 and change, but more... ahem, "premium"... fast food is easily over $20.

 

[Colif]

Please don't encourage AAA publishers to compare the value of their games to current food prices. We'll be paying $500 for a AAA game.

no way as nourishing.
You can wrap Concord in edible gold but it still won't sell.

 

[ZedClampet]

Did two runs on each character in Slay the Spire. I was really enjoying it. Then I started a third run with the first character and got bored. I'll probably come back to it some day. The problem is that if you uninstall the game, you lose your progress except through the cloud because there is no save location outside of the game files. Of course, I do have a backup...

 

[Frindis]

I have spent 8 hours so far in Stalker 2 and have not experienced any crashes, so that is good. My nephew did experience a couple of crashes at one time. I mostly experience bugs with NPCs showing strange behavior or stuff being glitched inside of other textures, but this is also quite common in large open-world games, so I can live with that. There is also a huge patch coming next week, so I reckon they will iron out some of the visual bugs too.

I like that there are a lot of PDAs (small datapads) in the game that show you more info about different characters or mark a point of interest on the map. Speaking of maps, you can also mark the map with different symbols, so that you can backtrack if needed.

Overall I am still having a great time and what bugs there are have not dampened my experience so far.

 

[Johnway]

Still playing path of exile. The lack of progress is killing me. Sure, i'm doing mapping, but it feels like i've hit a brick wall when it comes to progress, absolutely humiliated that i couldn't beat the searing exarchs herald in the first try (although that said, i think i've realized there is a particular mechanic in that fight that i wasn't abusing). The biggest reason is without a doubt, my gear. I need better stuff so i can do more damage and survive better. So i'm stuck atm. Hopefully if i play the high level maps long enough something good might drop. I have a few replacement bits, but POE is just not playing ball. Can't trade anything as no one is selling any decent gear. not that i even have a divine orb to buy anything....


Doom wad news, Prior to jumping back into Path of exile Necro settlers league, i went to finish off Nostalgic Entropy a singe doom 2 map that is heavily influenced by the 80s and vaporwave. A damn fine map. its well designed, interesting and full of small doom cute details that enhances the experience greatly. Especially since its set in a shopping mall. The fights can be broken up into several scripted fights. Enter a particular store and you get a fight themed around it. For example the arcades will take doomguy into a pacman clone where he has to grab the key whilst being chased by demons in that familiar pacman layout. its complete with invulnerability powerpills etc. The gun store has a shooting gallery in the basement and depending on the target you hit, will open a special encounter. The tv store has a smash tv clone.

The only criticism is perhaps the end is quite abrupt. once you've got the red key you take the elevator and.... thats it. The exit is out of the way and its sort of disappointing especially as it was just getting really really good. perhaps a final fight at the mall entrance or carpark in an outdoor park would have been nice. But minor issue as whats there is excellent. A good contender for cacoaward this year.


As promised, i started my Christmas Doom wad early (i take too long playing a single wad so i have to start early). its Die Rowdy, a parody of the movie Die hard. The story is simple enough, A cabal of mercenary terrorist alien/demon criminals have invaded Nakatomi Plaza on christmas eve. The terrorists occupy all 42 floors of the building and have made no demands. Meanwhile the police have made no attempts to resolve situation (presumably because its christmas eve). A quick solution is to just pay Rudy Jones to go in and clear all 42 floors of terrorist scum and leave via the helicopter on the roof.

Die rowdy is a speed mapping project and mappers are constrained by the prefab map and the time limit. Gameplay wise think of the Going down megawad. Except you're going up and its christmas. The maps themselves aren't huge and i managed to blast through a fair chunk of them in less then an hour but the explosive action makes it all jolly exciting.

 

[DXCHASE]

Still playing path of exile. The lack of progress is killing me. Sure, i'm doing mapping, but it feels like i've hit a brick wall when it comes to progress, absolutely humiliated that i couldn't beat the searing exarchs herald in the first try (although that said, i think i've realized there is a particular mechanic in that fight that i wasn't abusing). The biggest reason is without a doubt, my gear. I need better stuff so i can do more damage and survive better. So i'm stuck atm. Hopefully if i play the high level maps long enough something good might drop. I have a few replacement bits, but POE is just not playing ball. Can't trade anything as no one is selling any decent gear. not that i even have a divine orb to buy anything....

Ah, one of the fine points that can be found across all ARPGs. I feel the same way when NOT playing the broken OP build of spiritborn from Diablo 4.

I absolutely hit a brick wall in gear, can never get anything better to drop and im stuck at certain levels of a 150-level pit because i just dont do the dmg output.

Then theres the other class spiritborn that i am pit-levels higher than my rogue with worse rolled gear and less playtime lol.


Speaking of Path of Exile, i just purchased one of the 60 dollar Path of Exile 2 supporter packs for the early access. I was thinking 30, but ive put a good enough amount of time into POE that i dont mind putting up 60 dollars for an ARPG im going to blast through.

 

[Johnway]

Ah, one of the fine points that can be found across all ARPGs. I feel the same way when NOT playing the broken OP build of spiritborn from Diablo 4.

I absolutely hit a brick wall in gear, can never get anything better to drop and im stuck at certain levels of a 150-level pit because i just dont do the dmg output.

Then theres the other class spiritborn that i am pit-levels higher than my rogue with worse rolled gear and less playtime lol.


Speaking of Path of Exile, i just purchased one of the 60 dollar Path of Exile 2 supporter packs for the early access. I was thinking 30, but ive put a good enough amount of time into POE that i dont mind putting up 60 dollars for an ARPG im going to blast through.

I guess POE in its credit, is a lot easier and more flexible when it comes to skills and item crafting as crafting gear is very easy and currency is mostly abundant and specifics but yeah, RNG is the worst. its still luck of the draw and getting the very best gear is like winning the lottery. better to just buy the gear instead.

interested in POE2, but will need to check if it will run on my machine properly. I mean my pc meets minimum specs, but how well it runs remains to be seen. I would like to have a taste of the gameplay as the change in crafting mechanics feels off for some reason. Not sure why. I didn't really pay too much attention to the twitch stream but it feels limited.

i did have a look at the $60 pack. Some nice armor and pets, but no way am i spending that kind of money. I should buy the starter pack so i can trade and get the currency/map tabs when there is a sale. But i've lived this long with out it.

 

[Zloth]

I'm bouncing between Distant Worlds 2 and Baldur's Gate 3 now. I'm in some pretty dark places right now in BG3, so that's best played at night. I'll play DW2 when the room is brighter.

Interesting. It's about the same in Cali. I would'a thought this state would have everyone beat. Most fast food is about $16 and change, but more... ahem, "premium"... fast food is easily over $20.

$20 will get you a double-steak burrito bowl at Chipotle + drink around here.

You can wrap Concord in edible gold but it still won't sell.

As long as the gold is pretty pure, it should be edible. I don't think electroplating would count as wrapping, either, so I'm willing to buy for $500 per box!

 

[red_5ive]

$20 will get you a double-steak burrito bowl at Chipotle + drink around here.

Except the Chipotles around me, a double steak is only what a single used to be and often is less. And that goes for any meat.

I made the mistake of ordering a chicken burrito bowl online one time, and I didn't bother to look in the bag when I picked it up it as was stapled shut. No joke, I was jaw-dropped when I opened it to find there were probably less than 10 pieces of chicken in there. I consciously haven't gone to a Chipotle for over a couple of years now.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played two games of the new Versus mode from Vermintide 2 this evening. It's fun, but so much more chaotic than a regular adventure. There are basically at least two specials attacking you at any one time and if you do manage to kill one, another will have already respawned to take its place. If you don't manage to kill one though, you now have three or four of them attacking you at once. And unlike AI specials, these don't give you the courtesy of giving you a moment to shoot them before they shoot you. You almost never see them coming and they're a lot harder to hit because they'll duck in and out of cover.

Playing defensively is not an option, you just have to rush forwards as much as possible and hope someone can get you up when you inevitably go down, just to get a few more points than the other team can get when it's their turn to be the heroes.

We could've done more games if one of my friends wouldn't have had a bunch of issues with downloading the patch. We waited for him for quite a while, then decided to try a game while we waited, then waited some more, then did a regular adventure while we waited and then waited some more. It took him 2.5 hours before his patch was finally done, at which point one of our other friends had to leave, so we didn't even get to all play together.

 

[ZedClampet]

I played two games of the new Versus mode from Vermintide 2 this evening. It's fun, but so much more chaotic than a regular adventure. There are basically at least two specials attacking you at any one time and if you do manage to kill one, another will have already respawned to take its place. If you don't manage to kill one though, you now have three or four of them attacking you at once. And unlike AI specials, these don't give you the courtesy of giving you a moment to shoot them before they shoot you. You almost never see them coming and they're a lot harder to hit because they'll duck in and out of cover.

Playing defensively is not an option, you just have to rush forwards as much as possible and hope someone can get you up when you inevitably go down, just to get a few more points than the other team can get when it's their turn to be the heroes.

We could've done more games if one of my friends wouldn't have had a bunch of issues with downloading the patch. We waited for him for quite a while, then decided to try a game while we waited, then waited some more, then did a regular adventure while we waited and then waited some more. It took him 2.5 hours before his patch was finally done, at which point one of our other friends had to leave, so we didn't even get to all play together.

Who are you playing as? Some of them are better at aggressive play than others.

****

I can't decide whether to download Stalker 2 or not. I intended to, but at 155 GB that's a big chunk of my available space, and I'm not likely to play it for that long. I mostly just want to see the world, tbh, and not in a video.

 

[ZedClampet]

The annual PC Gamer Posters of the Year Awards (as selected by AI) have been canceled due to uncooperative AI. They won't play along the way they used to, probably because of all the hoopla about them being unreliable.

I long for the day of an AI that isn't controlled by Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Looks like it's time for me to create one myself.

 

[BeardyHat]

The annual PC Gamer Posters of the Year Awards (as selected by AI) have been canceled due to uncooperative AI. They won't play along the way they used to, probably because of all the hoopla about them being unreliable.

I long for the day of an AI that isn't controlled by Microsoft, Facebook and Google. Looks like it's time for me to create one myself.

Be the AI you want to see in the world.

Start a website and just answer questions and draw pictures in MS paint, pretending to be AI the entire time.

 

[DXCHASE]

interested in POE2, but will need to check if it will run on my machine properly. I mean my pc meets minimum specs, but how well it runs remains to be seen. I would like to have a taste of the gameplay as the change in crafting mechanics feels off for some reason. Not sure why. I didn't really pay too much attention to the twitch stream but it feels limited.

i did have a look at the $60 pack. Some nice armor and pets, but no way am i spending that kind of money. I should buy the starter pack so i can trade and get the currency/map tabs when there is a sale. But i've lived this long with out it.

My thinking is that i didnt spend a dime on Stalker 2, Black OPs 6, Dragon Age Veilguard, Mechwarrior: Clans, etc., games that i just couldnt think of spending 60-80 to really see if itd be somethin i want to play.

With POE, which has always been free and that i never purchased anything from, has helped me to know im def. gonna be playing this and is something i know ill get that 60 worth and if im wrong (like i was about Space Marines 2 ) ill admit it but from the stuff ive seen, ill be satisfied, hey i like diablo 4 after all lol.

But thats my max (straight 60, no tax), theres a 90,160,240 and a 480 dollar tier and i just know that within a few minutes of playing POE2 im going to see a ton of the 480 dollar portals/cosmetics. Sure they come with shirts/hoodies/and an artbook but no way for that much.