October 2024 General Game Discussion Thread

[Frag Maniac]

I FINALLY am getting around to Aliens: Dark Descent and have to say it’s a great game. My first go at it I was thinking how dumb it was cause I figured I was supposed to engage the xenos like xcom… and then I realized I was the dumb one cause in no Alien movie are people like, “yeah let’s see how many times we can survive an onslaught of xenos.”

The sneaking around the levels is pretty clever and although the combat could use some polishing I think they really captured the vibe of James Cameron’s Aliens.

I had to take a break from Elden Ring SOTE because I was going a little too hard into it and was starting to feel like it was becoming a little bit of a grind. Always a good point to step away because even the best games get grindy if you keep playing them non-stop.

I'm waiting for another good Alien game which has a main focus of singleplayer. I'll take another Isolation, since there are rumors now floating around one's coming, but I'd really prefer one with more combat.

 

[SHR-51]

Decided to continue my old Battletech save. Turns out, I was mid-campaign on it, so I just picked up where I left off. Have to say, I like everything about that game, no exaggeration. From the UI to the combat to the music. Man, the music is good.

Also, I've had this nibbling idea of trying to complete XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Impossible difficulty. Watched a few guides, readied myself and dove into it. And yeah... Don't think I can do it. Enemies consistently hitting my guys for 6 damage in full cover from the other end of the map is tough to swallow

 

[Pifanjr]

@Pifanjr @neogunhero You all need to get into redstone if you aren't already. Also, an automatic chicken spawner/cooker is super simple to make, gets you endless cooked chicken and feathers. (if you already have a lot of chickens)

But before I got exhausted of Minecraft I did a bunch of things with redstone--mob spawners, auto doors automatic farms, etc. It really extends the life of the game if you can get into it. It's also fun to spawn in a few command blocks and see what all you can do with those.

I did a bunch of custom Hunger Game maps (this was before battle royale became popular), where it would automatically spawn some items that you had to race other players for and then have a fight to the death. Of course, it would also spawn the players in to begin with so no one had an advantage. Did a lot of redstone in these maps.

I also did some custom dungeon maps using redstone and command blocks, and the kids would spawn in at the beginning and have to make it to the end. Were some light puzzles and a bunch of monsters to fight. Was a lot of fun making them.

What I'm trying to say is, if you get bored of the game, there's a lot more game there that you might be interested in.

I've dabbled a bit with redstone, but like I said previously, I dislike having to fiddle with all of the wires. I made some really simple stuff for my kid where she had to choose one of three levers, with one opening the next door and the other two spawning monsters or lava or something. Even with something so simple, just having to put all the redstone underground and covering it all up is a bother to me.

 

[BeardyHat]

Decided to continue my old Battletech save. Turns out, I was mid-campaign on it, so I just picked up where I left off. Have to say, I like everything about that game, no exaggeration. From the UI to the combat to the music. Man, the music is good.

Also, I've had this nibbling idea of trying to complete XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Impossible difficulty. Watched a few guides, readied myself and dove into it. And yeah... Don't think I can do it. Enemies consistently hitting my guys for 6 damage in full cover from the other end of the map is tough to swallow

Battletech is great. I have 211 hours in it and would love to play more, but the one thing I'm over with it is the load times. They're just excruciating, especially with mods. I've only dabbled a little bit with BEX, because I just can't take how long it takes to load and unfortunately, it disables the mid-mission saves.

Been thinking I should maybe just play the game unmodded again so I can do those mid-mission saves and reduce the load times back to "normal". I did get 200-hours of fun out of it unmodded.

Also, I think Commander Ironman is really the definitive way to play XCOM anyway, so no need for Impossible!

 

[ZedClampet]

but like I said previously,

Ah, my apologies. I have no memories of having this conversation before. I have some memory issues.

 

[Pifanjr]

Ah, my apologies. I have no memories of having this conversation before. I have some memory issues.

Don't worry, it wasn't in a conversation with you, it was in one of my posts about my Minecraft game. You might have just not read it at all.

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While I lost all motivation to continue my Minecraft game, I do still kind of want to play more Minecraft. I'd been wanting to play the Thaumcraft 4 mod again, as I absolutely loved it the first time I saw it, so I'm planning on playing the Blightfall modpack, which has a pre-built world including a story based around Thaumcraft.

But first I'm going to see if I can manage to squeeze in a couple extra demos from Steam Next. I've been having a lot of fun with my kid just trying out several games today, but there are a couple I saw that she wasn't interested in that I would like to try out.

I'd forgotten how fun it can be to just play a demo, even if I have no intention of buying the full game. Sometimes it's just nice to have a bunch of short, novel experiences.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I had to take a break from Elden Ring SOTE because I was going a little too hard into it and was starting to feel like it was becoming a little bit of a grind. Always a good point to step away because even the best games get grindy if you keep playing them non-stop.

I picked it up again a couple days ago and made my way to the final boss. Apparently it was nerfed in a patch a while ago, but I am not seeing it. Havent managed it, in a couple of hours of trying so far I got it to second phase twice.

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Still playing Pillars of Eternity 2, I tried to make my way to the end game but turns out what might be the final battle is pretty tough at level 16 so I carried on exploring to level up. It doesnt feel too grindy yet because the combat is mostly fun and theres a fair amount of written content I didnt cover.

I take back what I said about the turn based combat being as good as Baldurs Gate 3 though. Ive had ups and downs with at as its gone on. At normal difficulty most encounters arent interesting at all. Maybe its because it was designed first as a RTWP game, so slowing down small low level encounters to turn based makes for bad pacing. A fight with a couple of Xaurips or something that should be over in a few seconds with a pause and couple clicks now takes a minute. Turning up the difficulty helps a lot, bigger battles demand some thought then but the same problem still exists with the random lesser encounters. To be fair there arent all that many of them, but its still annoying when it happens.

Good game though, I think Ive liked it more than the first all in all.

 

[ZedClampet]

This was kind of hilarious. I was playing one of my simulator games, and I went up to one of my employees and gave him a location to go take care of. As I was walking to the next employee, the first employee backed over me with his truck. I clipped into the trailer of the truck and couldn't get out. He just drove off with me in the trailer. Fortunately he drove into a forbidden part of the map, which knocked me back out into the street.

 

[XiYangtestee]

2024 is packed with exciting PC games! Some top picks include S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl—a survival horror FPS set in a radioactive open world, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater—a faithful remake with updated graphics, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown—a fun platformer. Check them out!

 

[Colif]

Ah, my apologies. I have no memories of having this conversation before. I have some memory issues.

Don't worry, it wasn't in a conversation with you, it was in one of my posts about my Minecraft game. You might have just not read it at all.

he will be in trouble when its tests time... not reading every thread? The nerve of some people... Colif runs before being asked to show proof he wasted his time reading 11900 threads.

 

[Dead2009]

Also bought Gargoyles Remastered last night as well

 

[neogunhero]

@Pifanjr @neogunhero You all need to get into redstone if you aren't already.

That’s a whole side of the game we haven’t touched at all. The only thing I know how to do with redstone right now is make powered minecarts, but we haven’t found the need to add one yet. We’re currently building a second level city above our main village, somewhat inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, so maybe with that we could have a minecart transportation line.

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No bees in Minecraft yet. I tried to lure them back to our base but we are essentially on a little island in the middle of a spruce forest/swamp, with that much water between us and the flower forest the bees are in, it’s very difficult to transport them. As I mentioned above, we decided to build a massive platform with the intention of making more buildings, primarily residential for all of our villagers. It turned out great so we are now just needing to make the buildings on it. I really think I will make a minecart line going from top to bottom powered with redstone as a quick and easy way to get up there.

Every time we build anything at all, the villagers find ways to escape. Maybe for a minute there is a block placed in the perfect location to be able to jump over the village walls, or with the platform, villagers just falling and landing outside the village. I found a baby villager in the middle of the woods a few minutes from the village. Pesky little guys.

I also ended up playing more Far Cry 6. I’ve stormed my way over to the major city where I assume Castillo is, but since I haven’t gotten to that part of the story all I can really do is run around fighting enemies. That’s fun just as it is though. The city is very well designed and offers some nice urban fighting areas, compared to Far Cry’s traditionally rural/tropical settings. FC6 by far has the densest urban areas than any other FC game which is really neat. I was enjoying just fighting while holed up in some dilapidated building, holding my position against an onslaught of enemies. I played with no goals or missions, just ran around and explored and got into occasional gunfights when I felt like it. Far Cry is a great game series for exactly that.

 

[Otto Levin]

I was just saying that I think it was technically possible for them to put NPC schedules and a little rudimentary AI into the game, along the lines of the old Gothic games (and Oblivion?). It wouldn't have been easy and probably would have cost us some other game systems, but technically I think it was feasible.

😈 while adding complex NPC schedules and AI routines, I think there's an even bigger opportunity to approach NPCs differently. Games like The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 already create immersive worlds where NPCs react to the player's choices and environment. Expanding this with AI could, in my opinion, lead to more dynamic storytelling. Imagine an RPG where NPCs not only have daily routines but also grow emotionally over time - forming alliances, betraying the player, or even pursuing their own goals.

 

[ZedClampet]

😈 while adding complex NPC schedules and AI routines, I think there's an even bigger opportunity to approach NPCs differently. Games like The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2 already create immersive worlds where NPCs react to the player's choices and environment. Expanding this with AI could, in my opinion, lead to more dynamic storytelling. Imagine an RPG where NPCs not only have daily routines but also grow emotionally over time - forming alliances, betraying the player, or even pursuing their own goals.

LLMs are becoming better and better, and they are highly customizable. You could assign different knowledge bases and personality types to each NPC and then let them talk for themselves and even use text prompting from their own speech to direct their actions. For instance, while having a conversation with a random NPC, you could mention how dire the situation is, and they could say, "I think I need a drink" and then head off for the tavern.

Make no mistake, you can blend human writing with the LLM dialogue, forcing human written dialogue when the situation calls for it, like providing lore or mission dialogue or whatever you want. So the game would still have a full human written script, but would also have the LLM there for other things, like asking for directions or asking if they know of anyone who needs work done. That kind of thing will be added to each NPCs knowledge base depending on what that person should know.

And it doesn't matter if the player talks crazy or says stupid things. You can just have the NPCs act the way people really would to someone who said something crazy. What's even better is that the NPCs could talk to each other, and if you act bat$hit crazy all the time, your reputation with the NPCs in that particular town could suffer, and they would treat you differently.

There's no doubt something like this is on the way, probably from an indie developer, and I'm all for it and can't wait.

The biggest challenge would probably be that developers would likely have to run the LLM on a server since a lot of people don't have PCs that can run an LLM quickly enough to have normal conversation pacing. You don't want to have to wait 15 seconds for the NPC to respond to everything you say.

The second biggest challenge is that AAA companies likely won't risk taking a chance on this type of technology. They use AI all the time, but it's behind the scenes where people like PCG and artist unions can't see it and complain. Plus this would just be too high risk for the suits who only care about the bottom line.

 

[Brian Boru]

I played with no goals or missions, just ran around and explored and got into occasional gunfights when I felt like it. Far Cry is a great game series for exactly that

Yep, that's the secret sauce in FC. Wander and wonder—did just that for an hour last night, picked up a few random crates & idols.

the major city where I assume Castillo is

Yes he's in Esperanza. Don't worry tho, you'll get 2 chances to have a go at him. And in good news, the final boss fight is not the typical stupid design from other games, it's just more of the same for longer.

One good place to whack enemies is the Cathedral. After you capture it, head up on the roof near the main road and start picking off passing infantry and trucks. Pretty soon you'll have tanks and choppers dropping by.

 

[Pifanjr]

No bees in Minecraft yet. I tried to lure them back to our base but we are essentially on a little island in the middle of a spruce forest/swamp, with that much water between us and the flower forest the bees are in, it’s very difficult to transport them.

Have you tried using a leash?

 

[neogunhero]

Pretty soon you'll have tanks and choppers dropping by.

This is a ton of fun for me. It’s like getting 5-stars in GTA, just see how long you can hold out until you die. I need to raise the difficulty if possible in FC6 though because the enemies aren’t very challenging, though it’s still a lot of fun picking their heads off one by one. I’ll check to see if I have the cathedral unlocked, I may to recreate that one scene from Saving Private Ryan.

 

[Frindis]

Doom Eternal is super cheap/free for anyone interested. You can get it through Twitch Prime for free (if you can) or head over to https://gg.deals/game/doom-eternal/ for different retailers.

 

[Johnway]

Still playing Yakuza 4, where at chapter 3 of act 3 and we're soon to wrap up the story of our 3rd character. So far, i have no incentive to dip into any of the sub games like darts, gambling etc. Not sure why. Perhaps its not riveting or worth it. Doesn't help i don't really have the money to burn in that game.

played a bit more of voin and again still cracking good fun. Atm i don't think there is any particular objectives. I spent most of my time walking around exploring the vast landscape and murdering monsters. As expected even against higher tier monsters and larger mobs its cracking good fun and you're soon quick to adapt in the dash combat. Saw some of the more dangerous monsters. There seems to be some archetypal monsters and just evolves from there, being larger, stronger, more aggressive and having more tricks.

Whilst i messed around with swords, there are a wide variety of weapons like dual blades, hammers, claymores etc. But i stuck with the whirlwind sword as its quite effective.

The only negative (besides the lack of direction) is probably check points/portals are too few and far between and if you miss it, expect a lot of back tracking. The other problem is that some of the underground areas haven't got any checkpoints. and these underground areas are vast. i went into the basement of the fortress and soon it gave way to underground mushroom city and i think theres still more like a lava area.

i would also streamline a few bits and pieces. like for example summoning the teleporter. Yes, its cool to look up and summon the portal, pressing T or something to summon it would be better.

Still very good game. I might want uninstall it as to not spoil any more.

 

[Brian Boru]

if I have the cathedral unlocked

You have, it's just a normal enemy base on the east side of the city.

 

[Zloth]

I managed to get pretty sick (physically, I mean) - sick enough I can't really play video games. Not too sick to sit around and watch YouTube videos, though.

I was watching one on patents and the video mentioned the Active Combat System in the older Final Fantasy games. The games are technically turn based but, if you can zip through menus quickly, you can sometimes strike more often that if you sit there and think about what you plan to do.

The turn based system in Yakuza: Like a Dragon is similar. When it's your turn, enemies don't just stand around until you hit them, they wander around, surrounding your characters, which makes area attacks against them hit far fewer enemies. I knew Like a Dragon had some Final Fantasy nods, but I didn't realize they used a variation of the Active Combat System! (The patent expired a few years ago.)

 

[Colif]

Life is the only game you guys don't want to get to the end of

I am the same, probably why I played Journey for so long... it only ends when you stop... sounds familiar.

 

[Zloth]

Antibiotic for the win! Still not well, but certainly getting better.

Karlach seems like a good character in BG3. However, I've never been fond of barbarian types. She managed to get herself killed in her very first fight. I used the game's system to create a monk character earlier, so I used that same system to switch Karlach to monk. Her personality isn't exactly the typical monk, but I think it might work out.

 

[ZedClampet]

Man, in about 700 hours in Satisfactory (not sure on my hours at Epic), I have never screwed up a build as badly as I did today. I used the wrong set of numbers for my calculations. It's beautiful, though. That has to count for something.

 

[SHR-51]

Antibiotic for the win! Still not well, but certainly getting better.

Karlach seems like a good character in BG3. However, I've never been fond of barbarian types. She managed to get herself killed in her very first fight. I used the game's system to create a monk character earlier, so I used that same system to switch Karlach to monk. Her personality isn't exactly the typical monk, but I think it might work out.

She could be the first 'angry monk' character archetype!