October 2023 Random Game Thoughts Thread

[Colif]

Even though I have game pass now and am working through list of games I might try... I still don't want MS to buy Nintendo just to put their games on Game pass and make money. I still like the idea of Nintendo being unique and not just another bunch of franchises to be sold. Though if they made a new F Zero I might forgive them... Star Fox? Wave Race? No... I must resist.

Some company needs to push the peripherals market with weird controllers, Sony & MS won't. Its also nice having a company resisting the Graphics are all you need mantra...

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided not to look up anything about how to play Forager and I didn't quite realize on my own how important it is to unlock new areas. At the very least having more land also means having more resources available, making it easier to find something when you need it. But a lot of pieces of land you unlock also give insanely powerful buffs after solving a puzzle or gathering some specific items.

For the longest time I had to grind to get the resources to craft a new upgrade or to buy a new area, but now I just wave a wand around and everything around me is turned into resources. The main limiter now is the actual crafting time of advanced components.

 

[neogunhero]

Needed a break from Starfield. With the funds I got from selling CSGO crates, I bought BattleBit Remastered. I only played for about 30 minutes but in that short amount of time it already captured the feeling of nostalgia from my Battlefield 3 days. It’s surreal that only 3 people made this whole game, because it feels much more like a Battlefield game than BF5 or BF2042 ever did. I know that 2042 is much better now, and it does feel pretty good at times, but there are still so many problems with how the franchise is now, and one major problem that BattleBit does much better to me is the graphics. Battlefield has gotten too realistic in their graphics and I think that is a detriment to the overall gameplay experience. You aren’t always going to be scanning for all the minuscule details they put into their graphics, and it all becomes rather cluttered and the colors all mesh making it harder to see the important details clearly. BattleBit fixes this by having rather simple graphics and it is so effective. You can clearly see every enemy and teammate and they never mesh into the background.

The shooting feels so good for a game that looks like Roblox. And from what I’ve heard, the customization is insane with there being a ludicrous amount of attachments. I barely scanned the customization screen, but I wasn’t a fan how it doesn’t make it very clear what stat is increasing or decreasing with each different selection. I wish it would have a green or red bar that shows you which stats are changing. I am going to tough it out with plain weapons for a bit before I get too deep customizing.

I wasn’t hugely impressed by the map we played on, but it was simple and effective like many things in this game. Have not yet rode in any vehicles, so looking forward to doing that tonight. Locational voice chat is always a fun time when used properly, and I love that you can hear the enemy voices when nearby as well. That is something Battlefield needs desperately.

Overall it seems like it is going to be a fun game for $15 and I can’t wait to play some more. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it still gets 10k+ players daily.

 

[Johnway]

Gone back to Age of empires 2. finished the Saladin campaign and working on the Genghis khan campaign and trying to figure out how they work and the best plan of action.

One of the main standout things i'm getting from playing AOE2 is how stubborn the AI is. its like trying to kill ants/cockroaches as i have to literally burn them out of every hidey hole and drive them into the sea. Leave just one peasant and they will rebuild everything somewhere and it takes that much longer to complete a mission. if they escape into another allied factions base, you have to roll them up as well or be content with crippling them in the short term.

Thankfully watching T90official's videos has given me some vital knowledge. The strategy seems to be sod most of the foot infantry and go straight for the stables. That's probably because the saracens/mongols have decent mounted (ranged) unique units and build enough of them and you'll crush the opposition.

We'll see what the other factions are like...

 

[ZedClampet]

Even though I have game pass now and am working through list of games I might try... I still don't want MS to buy Nintendo just to put their games on Game pass and make money. I still like the idea of Nintendo being unique and not just another bunch of franchises to be sold. Though if they made a new F Zero I might forgive them... Star Fox? Wave Race? No... I must resist.

Some company needs to push the peripherals market with weird controllers, Sony & MS won't. Its also nice having a company resisting the Graphics are all you need mantra...

I'd love a new Wave Racer. I played the heck out of that on the N64. I think if Microsoft bought Nintendo, they'd probably let Nintendo make the Xbox handheld console (a new Switch) and put all the games on PC, and that would make me happy.

However, Microsoft is never going to buy Nintendo. Regulators would lose their minds. Spencer probably said that so everyone would think, "Hey, them buying Activision wasn't so bad after all!"

****

According to Steam. I finished The Talos Principle on September 5, 2015, so just over 8 years ago. Time to find out how much more stupid I've become over the last 8 years!

 

[ZedClampet]

Anyone other than @Brian Boru and me like The Talos Principle? We could use the editor to make puzzles for each other.

Or, alternatively, you all could make puzzles for me and I could clap like a fat, diapered baby.

Or I can make some puzzles. Either way. Or neither way.

 

[Pifanjr]

Gone back to Age of empires 2. finished the Saladin campaign and working on the Genghis khan campaign and trying to figure out how they work and the best plan of action.

One of the main standout things i'm getting from playing AOE2 is how stubborn the AI is. its like trying to kill ants/cockroaches as i have to literally burn them out of every hidey hole and drive them into the sea. Leave just one peasant and they will rebuild everything somewhere and it takes that much longer to complete a mission. if they escape into another allied factions base, you have to roll them up as well or be content with crippling them in the short term.

Thankfully watching T90official's videos has given me some vital knowledge. The strategy seems to be sod most of the foot infantry and go straight for the stables. That's probably because the saracens/mongols have decent mounted (ranged) unique units and build enough of them and you'll crush the opposition.

We'll see what the other factions are like...

As a teenager, I once played a 3 vs 1 game, two friends and myself versus a friend of a friend who was (supposedly) pretty good at the game.

He send horse archers to harass us before we had any decent defense set up, but I got lucky and managed to get his units killed by my town center while he was distracted. I also had learned some tricks from my brother's friends who were pretty good too, so I managed to close off my base and build up my forces enough to survive the next attacks while my friends were desperately trying to survive.

Eventually I was doing well enough to distract our opponent so my friends could start building up again and we eventually wiped his town off the map. However, that just started the 1+ hour struggle to find every last of his damned villagers while he just kept building new towns and harassing our villagers (and especially our trade carts).

 

[Zloth]

Anyone other than @Brian Boru and me like The Talos Principle? We could use the editor to make puzzles for each other.

Oh, I didn't know they even had a tool, but now I see it when I search my Steam library for Talos. How does a puzzle get from one person to another?

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh, I didn't know they even had a tool, but now I see it when I search my Steam library for Talos. How does a puzzle get from one person to another?

The usual way would just be to upload to the workshop and post the name on here, but you could use some other file share site, like maybe Google Drive (maybe. I've never used that before)

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm buying Total War Pharaoh and that's going to be the last AAA game I buy for a long time (I don't consider The Talos Principle 2 to be AAA).

I've been looking through Steam Next Fest, and it's simply no competition. I love Indie games far more than big budget AAA games. I've found a dozen games so far that I would gladly trade my copies of Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield for (I only have Starfield on Game Pass, but you get my point).

 

[Colif]

Plays Journey for 1st time in about 8 years. It seemed longer on PC but I see I only took 10 minutes longer than normal. I may have just forgotten one part.

Need to play again later, missed a few scarf parts. Need to get my white suit. Makes game faster. That could be the difference.

I am glowing.

 

[Colif]

My avatar is higher res than the actual game
I got a close up

didn't take long. 2 plays... I had forgotten where 2 signs were.

Sun sure looks good

only 49% of people who played got to end and started again... its only a short game? Must have hated the combat.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think I'm done with Forager. I've unlocked all the lands and completed every puzzle/quest/challenge on them, which is good enough for me. I could still upgrade all of my tools, but without anything to use them for I don't really care. There's also a combat challenge, but I don't really care for the combat.

After seeing the top 100 on PCGamer, I think I'll play Disco Elysium next. I've started it once, but it didn't really grab me at the time.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

After seeing the top 100 on PCGamer, I think I'll play Disco Elysium next. I've started it once, but it didn't really grab me at the time.

I played it all the way once, and it seems I saw some stuff that's pretty rare to get. I've tried to play it again a couple of times and not managed for some reason. I kind of feel that my Harry had his story and thats canon now. The abilities are unlike any other RPG I played. Theyre based around stuff like empathy and intuition as well as strength, athletics, observation and raw intelligence etc.

But the main thing is the writing is of a higher quality than most novels, which is extra impressive considering they are Estonian. There's some really hilarious stuff, some really dark stuff and some really beautiful stuff too.

 

[Colif]

now i need to take a week off from game to get next trophy. Others rely on people staying entire game, something always seems to happen. 10/14 in 3 playthroughs isn't bad though.

They made one area harder compared to Playstation... that or I just don't remember it being so hard.

 

[neogunhero]

Ended up refunding BattleBit. Not that it is a bad game, but I haven’t been feeling multiplayer shooters as much as I thought. So I still have $53 in my Steam wallet from selling CSGO crates but there aren’t any good games on sale right now. I’m burnt out on Starfield and suppose I’m going to have to wait for it to be better in the future like Cyberpunk. Bethesda has never done a full overhaul of any of their games the way CDPR has, but I feel Bethesda will be better with Starfield than past games in that regard. They did fix FO76 a TON since release, making it an entirely different game than it was at launch, but in a way it’s not the same as what CDPR did. CDPR went about fixing a game that had the foundation but not the substance. FO76 is more like a completely different game with new mechanics and features than the launch version. No other Bethesda game besides FO76 features an official FOV slider and the fact that they added it recently to Starfield gives me ever so slight hope that they will listen to player feedback and add features we are requesting.

Might just have to replay the Monkey Island series and try out the newest one too. I just need a fun game with a good, engaging story, not a game that feels like a chore to play. Monkey Island is all of those things to me!

 

[Pifanjr]

I started Disco Elysium today and while I have no idea how to approach any of the RPG systems, I'm enjoying just learning about the world.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm almost done with the last DLC campaign in Megaquarium (but they are releasing a new DLC this month).

I was having a stressful time yesterday. Tons of equipment burned out at the same time. I put too many of a kind of fish in one tank and it couldn't be completely fed in a single day, and there was just a bunch of other stuff. I started getting autopsy reports from fish dying in one tank. Then I got a message on one of my employees. It said, "Olive has leveled up!" but I initially read the message as "Olive has given up!" I just thought it was kind of funny how my frame of mind impacted my reading.

The main problem was how the aquarium was set up when I took it over and the fact that I decided just to try to make it work instead of fixing it. So at this point I just paused the game and rearranged literally everything into a set-up that was actually doable by the employees (who have terrible pathing). I also sold some fish (that were new to the game when I bought them, so I had no experience with them) that were causing employees to spend too much time when feeding those tanks. Then I unpaused the game and everything went smoothly from there.

 

[Johnway]

So... with the AOE2 Genghis Khan campaign done and dusted (the last map was surprisingly easy), i'm thinking its time to play take a break from AOE2 and strategy and play something else. Truth be told i'm not sure what. It won't be anything long like say Assassin's creed, as i want to get back to AOE2 after a break. Not going to play yakuza 3 as i think its going to be a festive thing for me. last christmas i played yakuza 2 , so this christmas i'll play that as well. (so i won't be finished with the yakuza series by 2026 depressingly if i did it this way).


i might play some indie game, but not sure what...

 

[neogunhero]

So... with the AOE2 Genghis Khan campaign done and dusted (the last map was surprisingly easy), i'm thinking its time to play take a break from AOE2 and strategy and play something else. Truth be told i'm not sure what. It won't be anything long like say Assassin's creed, as i want to get back to AOE2 after a break. Not going to play yakuza 3 as i think its going to be a festive thing for me. last christmas i played it, so this christmas i'll play that as well. (so i won't be finished by 2026 depresingly if i did it this way).


i might play some indie game, but not sure what...

The new AC looks good if you didn’t like the 200+ hour RPGs the last two were. I haven’t played it but it seems solid, and people say you can beat it in roughly 30 hours. I’ve definitely been wanting to check it out with Ubisoft+.

 

[neogunhero]

I finally found a game to take me out of my gaming slump. It’s called Betrayal at Club Low. It’s made by a developer called Cosmo D and it’s the fourth (I think?) game to take place in his universe he’s crafting called the Off-Peak saga. I have loved all of his previous games but for some reason it took me a year to get to this one, and boy was I missing out! His games have always been a bit surreal, totally unique and very humorous, and this game takes all of those qualities and puts them on a delicious pizza.

On the surface, Betrayal at Club Low is a RPG point and click adventure where you roll dice to perform actions. You are always rolling your dice against someone or something, so you must roll the higher number or tie to get the outcome you want. As you explore the city, there are many different characters and objects to interact with, often with multiple solutions which really encourages replayability. You have stats such as Music, Wit and Physique amongst others, and you upgrade these skills by increasing the numbers that show up on the die corresponding to the stat. Different actions will use different stat die depending on what you’re doing. You also can make your own pizzas, which are actually dice also. Your pizza dice are your own creation, with each ingredient giving a different buff or a bit of money, and they roll every time you roll. You could make a pizza die with nothing but money, or you can even it out with some health and mentality replenishers.

The main gist is that you are trying to infiltrate a night club. Cosmo D games are always disorientating in the best way because you can get sidetracked trying to convince the chef to let you cook or wrestling a guard to tell you a secret passphrase. Nearly every person has something funny to say with multiple choices of actions you could do, like pickpocket or try to impress them with your music knowledge. However if you fail, you will get Condition dice, which can subtract numbers from your roll or damage your health. They are usually related to your failures, for example if you fail to impress the coatcheck lady with your music knowledge, you will get Embarrassed and feel Awkward which will damage your next roll. She could also get Onto You, which means she will also roll a second die that contains negative buffs towards you.

I am excited to play more because I love this guys games. They are some of the most unique and innovative games I’ve ever played. There is a reason why Betrayal at Club Low won the most prestigious award at this years IGF.

Save 25% on Betrayal At Club Low on Steam

Tonight you're on a rescue mission, infiltrating a nightclub that was once a coffin factory. Will you succeed? Will you fail? Or will your night take an unexpected detour? Roll the Pizza Dice and find out!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Johnway]

The new AC looks good if you didn’t like the 200+ hour RPGs the last two were. I haven’t played it but it seems solid, and people say you can beat it in roughly 30 hours. I’ve definitely been wanting to check it out with Ubisoft+.

its a new game so i won't be playing that for some time. need to play all the other assassin creed games, like odyessy and eventually valhalla.

in the end i downloaded immortal redneck an indie shooter roguelike. if you know my past with rogue likes you know this can't end well. but we'll see.

 

[neogunhero]

in the end i downloaded immortal redneck an indie shooter roguelike. if you know my past with rogue likes you know this can't end well. but we'll see.

I haven’t played that one in a while but it was a blast. I’ve been playing a slightly similar game recently, RoboQuest, so maybe now is a good time to check out Immortal Redneck again.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried out the newest, non-Steam version of Dwarf Fortress today, because my kid is off school and Disco Elysium seems unsuitable for when there's a 5-year old around.

The new UI is quite nice, though it takes quite some getting used to. It took me forever to find the menu for making squads for example.

I did encounter a bug where a caravan wouldn't leave my trade depot and when I disassembled it, they left most of their stuff behind. I was a bit worried the sudden increase in wealth would be accompanied by an influx of goblins, but so far I've only seen one thief, who was spotted well outside my fortress and ran off.

 

[Johnway]

I haven’t played that one in a while but it was a blast. I’ve been playing a slightly similar game recently, RoboQuest, so maybe now is a good time to check out Immortal Redneck again.

its ok so far, my current strategy is trying to get all the money upgrades asap and if i do it early enough, it should stack up later on. Its only day 2 and tree is practically unlocked. But yeah, like a rogue like the random ness can really screw you over. Sometimes you get decent weapons you want, sometimes you get the middle finger and screws you over. The other thing of concern is the slightly repetitive nature of the rooms, which i suppose is a blessing as i have a rough idea what to expect and adjust accordingly.