October 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Aramaa11]

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...

Right now, I’m really into Elden Ring.The open-world exploration and challenging combat keep me coming back.I'm looking forward to new games like Avowed, which might be a fantastic new RPG.Choosing what to play next can be challenging because there are so many great choices

 

[ZedClampet]

Does anyone have any idea how to open up Advanced Network Settings on Windows 11?

It doesn't appear for me under "Settings" > "Network & Internet".

I'm trying to adjust network discovery.

Edit: Geez. Never mind. I went to "Network & Internet" a different way and it showed up. Thanks, Microsoft.

 

[Colif]

just ask co pilot. surely it knows that... it has to be useful for something apart from spying on you.

 

[BeardyHat]

Does anyone have any idea how to open up Advanced Network Settings on Windows 11?

It doesn't appear for me under "Settings" > "Network & Internet".

I'm trying to adjust network discovery.

Edit: Geez. Never mind. I went to "Network & Internet" a different way and it showed up. Thanks, Microsoft.

One of the most frustrating things about Windows these days. I was just complaining to a friend recently about it, I don't recall exactly the complaint, but having to do with the lackadaisical migration of Control Panel items over to Settings. Why the hell do I need to go to CP for certain things and Settings for others? Also, why can I not simply backup to an external drive via Settings, but instead have to use the ancient Win 7 backup tool in Control Panel?

I see myself migrating to Linux sooner than later. I'm still mostly content with Windows, but these little issues and frustrations are beginning to build and my general familiarity with Linux is in a good enough spot these days that it wouldn't be an issue. My only problem with it is crap driver support and poor functionality of my beloved Cli--I mean, Trackpoint on my ThinkPads.

 

[Brian Boru]

Why the hell do I need to go to CP for certain things and Settings for others?

Have you tried God Mode for a one-stop-shop? I don't know if it is one-stop, as I forget about it half the time, but it might be. The CP to Settings migration has been going on for a lot of years now, must be really tricky—I know, they need to implement a Ribbon for it!

I went to "Network & Internet" a different way

Always worth trying alternative ways, MS loves to scatter functionality around different places

I see myself migrating to Linux sooner than later

Are you sure you'd prefer trouble with drivers to trouble finding stuff in MS's mare's nest? Plus the reduced gaming and pro software availability?

Have you tried the built-in Linux sub-system in Windows 10 or 11? Maybe that's a good middle ground… I dunno, haven't tried any desktop Linux, only on managed server.

 

[Pifanjr]

Have you tried the built-in Linux sub-system in Windows 10 or 11? Maybe that's a good middle ground… I dunno, haven't tried any desktop Linux, only on managed server.

I think the perfect middle ground is to learn how to do everything in Powershell instead.

 

[Otto Levin]

Right now, I’m really into Elden Ring.The open-world exploration and challenging combat keep me coming back.I'm looking forward to new games like Avowed, which might be a fantastic new RPG.Choosing what to play next can be challenging because there are so many great choices

Avowed looks promising and could be a fantastic addition to the RPG genre.

 

[Colif]

Have you tried God Mode for a one-stop-shop? I don't know if it is one-stop, as I forget about it half the time, but it might be. The CP to Settings migration has been going on for a lot of years now, must be really tricky—I know, they need to implement a Ribbon for it!

God Mode gives you instant access to your favorite Windows setting, and here's how to use it

Wondering how to use God Mode on Windows 11 or previous versions of Windows? Here's how to enable it and what you can do with it.

www.xda-developers.com

Some parts of windows CP are also being split onto the Windows Tools, which itself is in Control panel... lets go around in circles... I think that is likely for legacy reasons, some old problems are hard coded to use certain things. Same thing happens with drivers.

Some things just don't fit into settings. Like Windows Fax, or media player legacy. Hence Windows tools. Some of which I have never used.

Every version of windows they shuffle settings around, to make it look like its different... otherwise they get more people like me who load new OS and wonder... what is new? I did that with windows 11. New coat of paint on the same old OS. That is what Windows 12 is.. though now the AI is there as well to spy on you... I mean, help. Even if you don't want help.

 

[Pifanjr]

I continued my Minecraft Craftoria game. I once again needed something from the Nether, so I decided it was time to go back. I crafted a divination rod that would point me in the direction of the ore I was looking for and off I went.

Turns out that the mining drill I made can break netherrack so quickly that it was very easy to accidentally break two blocks in a row, which caused me to drop to my death twice. I just switched to creative and teleported back to get my stuff and keep going.

After about 15 minutes in the Nether without my divination rod finding anything I started suspecting the rod wasn't working. I again switched to creative to fly around, but still couldn't get the rod to find anything. By pure chance I actually saw a piece of the ore I was looking for and confirmed my rod was indeed not working. Turns out the divination rod I made was from a different mod and apparently doesn't work for that specific ore. Luckily the mod the ore is from has its own divination rod, which does work.

The moral of the story is that I should cheat more often to avoid wasting my time.

 

[BeardyHat]

Have you tried God Mode for a one-stop-shop? I don't know if it is one-stop, as I forget about it half the time, but it might be. The CP to Settings migration has been going on for a lot of years now, must be really tricky—I know, they need to implement a Ribbon for it!



Always worth trying alternative ways, MS loves to scatter functionality around different places



Are you sure you'd prefer trouble with drivers to trouble finding stuff in MS's mare's nest? Plus the reduced gaming and pro software availability?

Have you tried the built-in Linux sub-system in Windows 10 or 11? Maybe that's a good middle ground… I dunno, haven't tried any desktop Linux, only on managed server.

I've tried God mode, but don't care for it. MS made the right choice in cutting down the size of the context menu and I feel that God mode just reclutters things up again. At least, last I used God Mode, which was quite awhile ago now.

As for Linux, it's mostly a compounding issue with Windows. The more those little niggles pop up, the more I'll want to migrate over, especially considering I've been using it regularly on my Deck, as well as having to interface with it on a couple of Raspberry Pis I have integrated into my network and home. The last time I used it was about 4 years ago and yeah, had quite a few driver issues with it.

But hopefully those issues are getting better and there's really only one way to find out. That said, I'm still not quite ready to switch yet, but it feels like it's on the horizon for me.

 

[BeardyHat]

I've been playing Diablo and Diablo 2 lately and it's got me thinking on ARPGs, my relation to them and respective genres.

The gist is: I don't really ever click with ARPGs, in spite of trying all of the big ones over the last 20+ years. But I do like Diablo and it's one I continually go back to, as well as one that I've completed in the past.

Thinking about it, I think the reason I enjoy Diablo the most is that it's really more of a Survival Horror game than it is an ARPG. It's clunky movement, slow pace and general tension is far more akin to something like Resident Evil than what came after.

It's easy to go into the dungeon and get overwhelmed by enemies, there's this pacing to it that leads to this constant: "do I need to head back to town and rest and restock?" When you do go back to town, you need to make sure you stock up on supplies and manage your inventory for maximum space on your next delve. Items are few and far between and it's rare you're going to be constantly picking up colored to items to use or sell.

Everything after became centered around this idea of smashing through dungeons and obliterating hordes of enemies, coming up with a weird character builds that allow you do so more efficiently. I can see the appeal, but it just doesn't capture my attention in the same way Diablo does.

 

[ZedClampet]

I've been playing Diablo and Diablo 2 lately and it's got me thinking on ARPGs, my relation to them and respective genres.

The gist is: I don't really ever click with ARPGs, in spite of trying all of the big ones over the last 20+ years. But I do like Diablo and it's one I continually go back to, as well as one that I've completed in the past.

Thinking about it, I think the reason I enjoy Diablo the most is that it's really more of a Survival Horror game than it is an ARPG. It's clunky movement, slow pace and general tension is far more akin to something like Resident Evil than what came after.

It's easy to go into the dungeon and get overwhelmed by enemies, there's this pacing to it that leads to this constant: "do I need to head back to town and rest and restock?" When you do go back to town, you need to make sure you stock up on supplies and manage your inventory for maximum space on your next delve. Items are few and far between and it's rare you're going to be constantly picking up colored to items to use or sell.

Everything after became centered around this idea of smashing through dungeons and obliterating hordes of enemies, coming up with a weird character builds that allow you do so more efficiently. I can see the appeal, but it just doesn't capture my attention in the same way Diablo does.

I've never played a Diablo game so far as I can remember. The first one does sound good. It's possible that I bought that and didn't like it. At the time I was only into turn-based games.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnMR6SOBa9k&t=34s


I think Diablo was the first game I heard with an actual real instrumental soundtrack. Kicking back in the village, the CD-Rom spins up and this kicks in.

Never got very far in it, but somehow the music always stuck in my memory.

 

[Colif]

Beardy should try Torchlight, its made by the people who made Diablo 1 & 2.

Development of the game was led by Travis Baldree, designer of Fate, joined by Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer (co-designers of Diablo and Diablo II),

Torchlight - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Torchlight 1 & 2 are very much in line with Diablo. Rest of Torchlight series should be avoided/ignored/set on fire.

 

[Johnway]

Nextfest is back, anyone seen anything good? I've downloaded the unbroken demo and will have a look at it maybe thursday. I plan to finish off the last 2 AOE2 historical battles. We're so close to completing it...

on the handheld front, its been a bit of a disaster tbh. Ever since that Shin megami tensei 4 save on my 3ds was lost, my desire to play handheld games has gone out of wack. I need a reset and jump back onto the 3ds again. The vita just isn't cutting it.

 

[neogunhero]

More Minecraft. Again I forgot to upload screenies showing off the base.

I tried to build a habitat for frogs but somehow they frogs kept killing each other or dying, not sure what happened. I painstakingly brought them over from the swamp nearby, the buggers are so hard to handle and push to where you want them to be. I eventually had two frogs in there, I saw the frog eggs turn to tadpoles, but then everything died. I think maybe the habitat is not big enough and the pond inside wasn’t big enough either. I would recreate it but it’s such a pain to do it, especially dragging them over from the swamp in a boat, I may just leave it alone and transform it to another room.

We cheated and teleported to the old base to go through the nether portal over there since we haven’t had luck with the one at our main base. Within 5 minutes of entering the old portal we found a massive nether fortress. We killed tons of Blazes so we now have lots of blaze powder for potions as well as finding lots of nether wart.

We also leveled up the cartographer to give us a woodland mansion map, but when we got to it there wasn’t much loot at all. We’ll probably try another mansion or two and hope for good loot.

Right now we are focusing on trying to find a stronghold so we can go to The End and kill the enderdragon. We aren’t well equipped yet, since we barely have any netherite at all. It’s not required to kill the enderdragon, but it helps a lot. Slowly we’re making progress towards it and I’m hoping to “beat” Minecraft for the first time. I’ve never even seen the enderdragon besides in creative mode.

Once we complete that I’m not sure what we will do next. We’ve built a ton in our village so not sure what else we could build. My girlfriend is very goal oriented, so she doesn’t like to just goof around and play randomly, she needs a goal to work towards each time we play. Me on the other hand am happy to just build random stuff, explore for the fun of it, and just relax in the game. We balance each other out well in Minecraft since we are always making progress each time we play, but we’re not doing it fast enough that we end up getting bored quickly.

 

[BeardyHat]

Beardy should try Torchlight, its made by the people who made Diablo 1 & 2.

Torchlight - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Torchlight 1 & 2 are very much in line with Diablo. Rest of Torchlight series should be avoided/ignored/set on fire.

I've played both 1&2 a reasonable amount and I did quite like 2, but ultimately never stuck with it super far. I did play the first game for about 18-hours and the second for 27, however and I do think about going back to the second.

But again, they kind of still are ARPGs first and foremost. I think Diablo is just an anomaly in how it was developed and plays (having been initially turn based before being converted to real time has something to do with it, I think).

Nextfest is back, anyone seen anything good? I've downloaded the unbroken demo and will have a look at it maybe thursday. I plan to finish off the last 2 AOE2 historical battles. We're so close to completing it...

on the handheld front, its been a bit of a disaster tbh. Ever since that Shin megami tensei 4 save on my 3ds was lost, my desire to play handheld games has gone out of wack. I need a reset and jump back onto the 3ds again. The vita just isn't cutting it.

Nextfest just overwhelms me most of the time and I end-up never actually playing anything.

Have you hacked your Vita? It really dramatically opens-up the experience and I've probably spent way more time playing homebrew and ports over native Vita games. There's constantly new stuff being released in the Port category, so there's always something new and interesting to try out.

VitaDB by Vita Nuova

www.rinnegatamante.eu

But I'm biased. I own a N3DS and I like it, but it just doesn't hit the same way the Vita does for me. There's also all the new Chinese handhelds coming out, of which I currently own two: the Miyoo Mini and the Anbernic RG405m, which is what I've been playing Diablo on. Nice as well that these newer handhelds charge off a USB-C, so I don't need to carry around an extra charger with me; although the Vita battery is absolutely incredible.

 

[Colif]

i played tl2 for 1300 hours so I guess I liked it more.

I never played Diablo 1, I never went back that far. Started on Diablo 2.

 

[Johnway]

Have you hacked your Vita? It really dramatically opens-up the experience and I've probably spent way more time playing homebrew and ports over native Vita games. There's constantly new stuff being released in the Port category, so there's always something new and interesting to try out.

yeah i've hacked my vita and got a whole load of games on it including some psp games, but nothing all that excited to play. its been a while since i've added any additional content. I generally don't play homebrew stuff on my handhelds namely because i do all of that stuff on my pc.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played some more Minecraft Craftoria. I progressed far enough into the Theurgy mod to convert emeralds to diamonds, I used creative mode to repopulate the nearby village and I set up a sugar cane farm to make paper to sell to the cartographer.

I'm now trying to progress in the Occultism mod to upgrade my ore crusher so I get 6 ingots per ore instead of 3. It's still a bother to get it all done, but at least the crushers require no further upkeep once you get them and they're not actually all that expensive. At least, depending on how valuable you consider the lives of the 4 villagers I had to sacrifice.

Meanwhile on my phone I've decided to take a break on Slay the Spire and I've started playing the Hearthstone solo mode Tomb of Horrors again. I've beaten it on Heroic a couple of times, but not with every deck and every starting treasure, which the game tracks for you.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Colif and anyone looking for a heavier mouse:

On the side there, it says it's 32 pounds. Looks nice and big, too.















Note: I'm getting better at AI art generation.

 

[Zloth]

OK, my opinion of BG3 is climbing.

Spoiler: A BG3 Act1 Story

I was looking for a gem to put in that Book of Dentistry I found earlier. I had to sneak around a huge phase spider to get it, but I managed.

As I left, I wondered about that encounter. There were four web bridges set up around the edges of a deep pit with green light coming out of it. Would it be possible to push mama spider into that pit? I checked online and... yep! But you lose her treasure. But wait, a note said you can get the treasure from her corpse, which you'll find in the Underdark! Ooooo! The first D&D module I ever bought was Vault of the Drow, so I'm excited to see that!

I went back, fought the spider and her helpers, died a few times, reloaded a few times, and eventually managed it without pushing her down the hole. Then I saved game with a good, memorable save name, got everyone on a web bridge, cast feather fall, broke the bridge, and down we went! I spent a lot of time down there, sneaking around, completely outclassed by the enemies. I didn't find a way back up, but I was able to fast travel to get back above ground.

What about you? Planning to dive into Phantom Liberty soon or waiting for more reviews to roll in?

More reviews?? It released over a year ago!

 

[Brian Boru]

I'm getting better at AI art gen

Aargh, you got me, thought it might be a super-expensive custom job for weight lifters and wrestlers! Nicely done

 

[neogunhero]

I actually played some Far Cry 6 yesterday for a change. I’ve just been goofing around and not really tackling missions. I’ve played this game for maybe a total of about 40 hours or so and I found something I’ve never seen before: a car with a massive propeller in the back that allows you to fly. It was hard to learn at first but as soon as I got the hang of it I never wanted to get off. I would drive around, go into flight mode, zoom around then do a hard landing back on the ground. It was a ton of fun just flying around and taking in the sights, this game has a beautiful world.

The only thing that wasn’t beautiful is the games lack of Anistrophic Filtering. I had to force it to 16x in the Nvidia control panel which seemed to help a bit but not much. My issue is that textures in the distance and AA look pretty bad. Up close everything looks clear and crisp, but objects in the distance are often very blurry and bad jaggies no matter what AA setting I have it on. Next time I play I’ll look around for some better solutions to fix it, maybe forcing on some type of AA in the control panel along with the filtering.

 

[Colif]

almost real