October 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Kaamos_Llama]

What you playin'? Anything being released youre looking forward too?

I'm still working my way through Pillars of Eternity 2, enjoying it. The combat is really engaging, lots of abilities and effects to apply and the different character classes are quite distinct. The turn based mode seems pretty good to me, combat almost as fun as Baldurs Gate 3, although it lacks a lot of the environmental mischief possible there.

I'm side eyeing God of War Ragnarok and Black Myth Wukong too, but also want to play Baldurs Gate 3 now theyve stopped adding to it, and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, and Against the Storm had a DLC drop...

 

[DXCHASE]

Diablo 4's next exp. drops october 8th, Destiny 2's newest season starts october 8th so ill be diving into both of those with no high expectations from both tbh. The Starship Troopers game "extinction" leaves early access and i have not played it since Helldivers 2 released so i might check that out. I will also be checking out the new CoD on xbox gamepass, Silent Hill 2 and maybe the next expansion for Mechwarrior 5 (Clans).

But first!...I have to work.

 

[neogunhero]

Still playing AOE4 and Minecraft bedrock. Nothing new to report. Just got paid today, bills taken care of, so I may get around to picking up The Holy Gosh Darn. The core fans have been saying it may be Perfectly Paranormal’s best game yet.

I will also be checking out the new CoD on xbox gamepass

I’m definitely not a big CoD fan, but the new one coming day one to Game Pass is enough for me to check it out. If anything, I can expect a bombastic Hollywood blockbuster of a campaign mode, and Zombies generally a good time. Can’t do CoD multiplayer anymore though, too many sweats. I’m just not as fast as I used to be when it comes to twitchy multiplayer FPSs lol

 

[Zloth]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is nearly done. One (probably big) 'dungeon' to go through.

I'm not sure what's next. I bought Baldur's Gate 3 in the summer, so that's a possibility. Or I might go back into X4 and finish off that Boron terraforming - I got through the hardest part early in the year, then took a break.

 

[Colif]

Anything being released youre looking forward too?

Titan quest 2 seems to be getting closer to release. Early access starts soon... winter 24/25

 

[neogunhero]

Yakuza: Like a Dragon is nearly done. One (probably big) 'dungeon' to go through.

I'm not sure what's next.

Infinite Wealth! Gotta see what Ichiban and Kiryu get up to in Hawaii.

 

[neogunhero]

Last night I picked up Rogue Legacy 2 on sale for $12.49, and so far it’s been awesome. I was a big fan of the first game 10+ years ago, back when roguelikes as we know it today were still kind of new and fresh. It was perhaps one of the first roguelike games I’ve ever played, specifically where you play as a new character after each death and the runs are randomized. In this sequel, they basically took all of what made the first game awesome and cranked it up to 11.

The game had its final content update in March of last year, so the game is now fully finished being worked on which makes it a great time to jump in. I spent a solid 30 minutes reading the games update history, user reviews, PCG’s review, and more before deciding this would be a game I would love. After playing for two hours solid last night I can definitely say I’m happy with my purchase.

The main gist is that the ruler of a kingdom is being overthrown and his associates tell him he must sign a law to allow his children to succeed him. You play as said children, which apparently this king had many of, and you need to explore this lost ancient city to unlock its secrets. A typical run involves running around a large randomly generated level full of monsters and traps, collecting money to get unlocks back at base, and when you die you play as a new character. Each character has different abilities and personality traits that can affect gameplay, such as not being able to see your health, etc. The money you collect from each run lets you build new crafting stations and such at your base, unlock new weapons, new classes for your characters, and more. Once you’re ready to go on a run again, you give up all remaining money you have, so it’s all about doing the best you can in a single run rather than horsing your money over multiple runs. Theoretically each time you return, you buy upgrades that make you stronger so you can do better with each run. There are also tons more stuff that I have no idea what they do yet, such as strange teleporters and crafting benches.

Randomizing your character and levels ensures that this game can be played for hundreds of hours if you like it that much. It also removes the need for memorization of enemy placements and level layouts which means it’s more about being skilled and getting powerful than just knowing the specific strats to get through a level (Dark Souls/Elden Ring players may not enjoy this game for that reason alone).

The graphics and sounds are nice, the writing is quite humorous, and overall it feels like a very high quality and polished game. All of the content updates added so much to the game from launch, making it so that you can play this game for a very, very long time and not even see everything the game has to offer. I actually like that in games especially if the core gameplay loop is fun enough to keep you wanting to progress further and further.

Overall, I’m enjoying it a ton and can’t wait to play more. Highly recommended for any action platformer + roguelike fans. It’s on sale 50% off until October 8th.

 

[Rolfil]

I've gone back to Star Trucker in the last few days after the first patch. This makes a number of improvements to things like the price of higher capacity batteries. The main thing is that it fixes a bug that could hard-lock the story. The only issue now is that the XP gain from each run has been radically reduced.

I also picked up Monuments Renovator which is the sort of janky renovation games that I love to play.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've been trying and failing to complete ascension 4 with The Defect in Slay the Spire. Just now I finally had a great deck with great relics, but then failed to draw any of my defence cards two turns in a row, as well as any draw cards, in the final boss fight. Every fight before this was a slam dunk where I didn't lose any health, so this really sucked.

 

[Colif]

So Suicide Squad have to release 5 seasons of the game as they are obligated to do so. That smells like they took a Govt grant that came with requirements. So if game had been successful, it would just be money on top of the profits...

But if game only has 250 max people playing, you have to make 5 seasons and waste money making them for your audience. No wonder company aren't advertising it anymore. They prefer no one play it so they have an excuse to not make any more seasons.

Poor games companies needing grants... same thing happened with Skull & Bones. They had to release it.

 

[Zloth]

Infinite Wealth! Gotta see what Ichiban and Kiryu get up to in Hawaii.

Eventually - probably about this time next year!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Hot Take Analysis! Put it here because the article discussion thread moved on and this is more of a random thought anyway.

Tim Sweeney and Epic stumbled in to a master plan. Create an FTP stepping stone between Roblox and more adult games for tweens and teens, then use Fortnite to indoctrinate kids into using the Epic store so that over time as they aged and graduated away from Fortnite they would buy their new games in the store they were familiar with. What actually happens is, the people playing Fortnite just keep playing it and everyone else already has roots in Steam and/or hates Epic for other reasons. As a result Tim Sweeney rolling with the punches publicly states Fortnite is the ultimate expression of gaming, and no one cares for anything else anymore.

Slow day today

Hot off the press, Hey Timbo

 

[Brian Boru]

everyone else already has roots in Steam

Of course there was a time when everyone had roots anywhere but Steam—say 20 years ago—and Gabe pulled the same stunt with Half Life 2 and especially The Orange Box. It worked for him because he developed a good service while there was no competition.

Tim seems to be trying to expand the scope as you say, which is necessary to make headway against an entrenched competitor. Time will tell if it works, but he seems to have found a 'no competition' combo according to you elsewhere, ie something like 'there's only one Fortnite'.

We better hope he succeeds—and others too—because Gabe doesn't have long more at the Steam helm. When he goes it's likely we'll all learn why most eggs in one basket only goes well on smooth terrain.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Of course there was a time when everyone had roots anywhere but Steam—say 20 years ago—and Gabe pulled the same stunt with Half Life 2 and especially The Orange Box. It worked for him because he developed a good service while there was no competition.

Tim seems to be trying to expand the scope as you say, which is necessary to make headway against an entrenched competitor. Time will tell if it works, but he seems to have found a 'no competition' combo according to you elsewhere, ie something like 'there's only one Fortnite'.

We better hope he succeeds—and others too—because Gabe doesn't have long more at the Steam helm. When he goes it's likely we'll all learn why most eggs in one basket only goes well on smooth terrain.

Thats fair to say, but before Steam not many people were buying anything digital. They pulled the stunt at exactly the right time when no one else was doing it. Not many people were happy about it then either, but I guess the sales must have won people over. Not sure, I checked out of PC gaming for a couple of years and when I came back in 2012 there was literally no other way to buy most games when I came back.

I use Epic occasionally and havent really got a problem with it, my kid is trying to get me to play Lego Fortnite at the moment. I just have an attachment to Steam because I spent a lot of money there, and to be honest its just a way better app. When Gabe goes I dont think it will burn to the ground, but stranger things have happened.

The no competition to Fortnite thing theyre trying to leverage maybe isnt working out for the Epic Store how they probably wanted as I said, so I wonder if theyll slowly give up on it. Seems to me that sort of thing would take a longer time to bear fruit, and Fortnite most likely wont bring in the megabucks forever so theyll need a back up plan I assume. I dont know whats happening behind the scenes there, the UI still seems really basic compared to Steam. They stated they dont want customer reviews or forums which is a big attraction for a lot of people, it doesnt seem like theyre really trying outside of giving away free games and buiying exclusives which was probably counter productive going by a lot of the attitude they get from people.

I dont think Fortnite has a direct competitor true, theyre building it into a metaverse. They have Battle Royale as well, but they also get a lot of celebrity and popular culture tie ins which attracts a ton of people. I dont think you can skin up as a Hotdog or John Cena and go fishing in Warzone or Apex Legends, and I dont think their audiences would necessarily respond to that kind of thing all that positively either.

 

[Colif]

Fortnite is the game that other companies have destroyed themselves trying to replicate... Steam is the service that other companies are also trying to replicate. They two big things in their field but they not really competitors in their specialities...

Steam isn't just the store for one big game, its the store front for who ever wants to pay the tax. So its got variety and over 100k games to choose from... No other service can offer the choice.

 

[Brian Boru]

When Gabe goes I dont think it will burn to the ground

Oh no, very unlikely. The danger is the new broom, what will se sweep away, how will se make hir mark—ego + bonus + legacy = unpredictability.

Think of the changes with:
Gates > Balmer > Nadella
Eisner > Iger > Chapek > Iger
Jobs > Scully > Jobs
Michael Dell > Rollins > Michael
Etc—you never know what they'll do. Current buzzwords in CEOland include 'impactful' and 'transformative'.

giving away free games and buiying exclusives which was probably counter productive

Yeah, Sweeney said a couple of months ago that the freebies were working well but the exclusives weren't.

guess the sales must have won people over

They helped, but stores ran sales too. My guess is the simultaneous growth of Web 2.0 was the main driver as people looked for more ways to make their life easier. So basically great timing in the wider context.

Epic Store … I wonder if theyll slowly give up on it.

It may depend on what danger they see from Valve to whatever Epic decide are their best growth avenues. A lot of corp investments are defensive, ie intended to stymie competitors rather than turn a profit in themselves. So maybe a store serves that purpose—there's a big danger in ceding the store segment almost exclusively to Valve as that would give V an assured income to attack other industry segments… just like Fortnite gives Epic for now.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Oh no, very unlikely. The danger is the new broom, what will se sweep away, how will se make hir mark—ego + bonus + legacy = unpredictability.

Think of the changes with:
Gates > Balmer > Nadella
Eisner > Iger > Chapek > Iger
Jobs > Scully > Jobs
Michael Dell > Rollins > Michael
Etc—you never know what they'll do. Current buzzwords in CEOland include 'impactful' and 'transformative'.

I would hope that considering Valve unlike the above arent publicly traded this wouldnt be such a given. No bonuses based off stock prices to encourage people to tear things up to look good and get the bonuses and golden handshakes. I heard that employees of Valve actually get stock as part of their benefits too, though I have no way of knowing if thats true. I imagine he would pass the company down to someone with similar ideas from inside when it comes to it. Not sure how it works with private corporations tbh.

They helped, but stores ran sales too. My guess is the simultaneous growth of Web 2.0 was the main driver as people looked for more ways to make their life easier. So basically great timing in the wider context.

True, had to be.

It may depend on what danger they see from Valve to whatever Epic decide are their best growth avenues. A lot of corp investments are defensive, ie intended to stymie competitors rather than turn a profit in themselves. So maybe a store serves that purpose—there's a big danger in ceding the store segment almost exclusively to Valve as that would give V an assured income to attack other industry segments… just like Fortnite gives Epic for now.

That would make sense in a lot of cases! The way its all gone over with Epic in the last few years is weird. The whole Apple thing and Sweeney white knighting about Steams fees when Epic tried to get started. I'm not sure Epic and Steam were really competing much over anything until Epic tried to start a store and made an issue over Steams dev cut.

 

[neogunhero]

While we’re on the topic of Fortnite…

My girlfriend and I are looking for games to play together. We’ve poured so many hours into Minecraft over the past few weeks and starting to get a little bored. I remembered that Lego Fortnite exists and it’s kind of like a third person survival game, not exactly like Minecraft but some similar elements. I suggested we try it out, so we may dive into it this weekend.

As for other games, I’ve been playing Rogue Legacy 2 a ton. What an amazing game. It’s one of those games that makes me wish that I had a Steam Deck. This game is seriously fun. It has me chuckling with a giant grin just about every minute I play it. It’s hard, brutal even at times, but full of so much charm and great game design. The “House Rules” game options are full of different customizable difficulty options so it’s accessible to everyone. Every run is totally different so you need to focus on perfecting your skills in the game, not memorizing level layouts or enemy placements. When you mess up that’s on you, but you learn as you go along.

One personality trait characters have in the game removes the cooldown timer after getting hit, meaning I was getting bounced in the air multiple times in rooms full of enemies. There is also contact damage which you can turn off, but it makes the game more challenging. There are also so many different unlocks, I’ve barely scratched the surface just yet. I’m very happy that I picked this game up on a whim the other day.

 

[DXCHASE]

Why is it a pain in the butt using warranties on electronics?

So my "G" key is half-responsive. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt, ive tried pretty much what i can w/o breaking the board, so i decided to replace it.

I went for the advanced RMA (put a deposit down so they can send the keyboard (or any product) to you and you send it back, then get the money back) so i wouldnt have to replace my keyboard with someone elses since the keyboard is otherwise fine.

I put this through not last friday, but the friday before, when they actually decided to offer the RMA after two days of them just tellin me to send the keyboard to them first.

So about sending it out. As of right now it is still not at the carrier, UPS (i got a tracking number the day they said that it shipped!!) I emailed them yesterday around noon and never received a response back so now im writing yet another email askin about my replacement.

This is corsair btw.

Again, i can use it, but the key does go out (did here writin this) but i have no problems gaming and stuff. So im not bristlin with rage but its ridiculous esp knowing the keyboard is comin from only like 4 states away.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm side eyeing God of War Ragnarok and Black Myth Wukong too, but also want to play Baldurs Gate 3 now theyve stopped adding to it, and Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, and Against the Storm had a DLC drop...

I'm really enjoying Ragnarok. I was on the Steam forum for the game yesterday where someone posted a rant thread saying it wasn't as good as GoW 2018. Most replied saying they feel Ragnarok is better, largely due to the combat, which was one of his nit picks.

I've also really been enjoying using OBS to capture. I installed the new Nvidia driver yesterday and went through all the GFE ShadowPlay settings to put them back where I had them, like you have to do with EVERY new driver. I was thinking of checking it to see if the problem I had with ShadowPlay was fixed, but didn't bother. It's bad enough you often get it not wanting to work or working intermittently with certain games (even AAA ones), but the 20 min Instant Replay limit is also a bit of a pain sometimes.

In a game like Ragnarok, a single quest can easily take an hr or more. I am able to leave OBS running for a long time in Ragnarok, and I often forget it's running in the background because it doesn't affect the performance. My prior sessions I would get a pretty noticeable hitch here and there during combat, but after updating to the latest driver it has been much smoother. Yesterday I captured 2 of the longest sessions I've ever recorded, one 2.5 hrs, the other nearly 3 hrs, and there wasn't exactly a lack of complex scenery or action either. I fought a very tough knight type enemy, whom uses relentless attacks, one with with a special effect. Then a quest during a dream Atreus has where you are in a very colorful, lush forest, then a quest with Freya where you have a very long, tough battle against a large beast that uses multiple attacks with effects.

I think the reason a few players prefer GoW 2018, is Ragnarok is more story rich and paced with exploration in between battles. To me, and most I think if you look at it's massive sales figures, this just means it's more epic. I would also say, combat wise, comparing GoW 2018 to Ragnarok is a bit like comparing Doom 2016 to Doom Eternal. In Ragnarok there are a lot of enviro features that you can use to help in combat, and it's quite fun once you start linking them together. Even the exploring in certain places has hostile plants you have to deal with, some easy to destroy, some not so easy, and the puzzling to get to good loot is the best it's ever been.

 

[Brian Boru]

Valve unlike the above arent publicly traded

Oh good point, forgot about that

Depends what he'll do with the company then when he's finished with it. Will he sell it—what will buyer do?—or will it go to his sons… what will they do?

Hey, maybe Epic will buy it!!!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I'm really enjoying Ragnarok. I was on the Steam forum for the game yesterday where someone posted a rant thread saying it wasn't as good as GoW 2018. Most replied saying they feel Ragnarok is better, largely due to the combat, which was one of his nit picks.

I liked the first game a lot so Im going to play it for sure. Itll be on a sale though because theres a lot Ive been meaning to get to. I'll have much more time in a couple of months so most likely then.

Oh good point, forgot about that

Depends what he'll do with the company then when he's finished with it. Will he sell it—what will buyer do?—or will it go to his sons… what will they do?

Hey, maybe Epic will buy it!!!

That would be one hell of a twist!

 

[Frag Maniac]

Hey, maybe Epic will buy it!!!

Oh, please no, bad enough that AMD just announced they don't intend to compete with Nvidia on high end GPUs. We dearly need more competition in all phases of this industry to keep prices competitive!

 

[neogunhero]

This is corsair btw.

Sounds like you’ve had a better experience than me though. It’s been two weeks and I haven’t heard anything from customer support about my ticket for tech support. Some of my K95 Platinum keys are physically sticking even after really deep cleaning the entire board+keys, so I put in a support ticket about it. No response at all. I hope you get your RMA done soon!!

 

[Colif]

Tencent might buy Ubisoft... its about right value.