October 2025 General Games discussion thread

[neogunhero]

I played some more Bannerlord. I made an excellent choice with the kingdom I decided to join, they're absolutely killing it. However, they really like being at war all the time and it's proving to be impossible to safeguard all of my villages by myself, so it seems it's time to give my companions their own units. Hopefully they'll be somewhat competent by themselves.

I've tried so many times to get into Mount and Blade but never could. My friend hyped up Bannerlord so much that I bought it the first week it came out but only have 9 hours total on it. Reading your posts makes me want to consider going back and giving it a stronger try.

I've played a demo of that game, I think during a Steam Next Fest a while ago. It was pretty fun, but it can get pretty hard on later levels.

I was having trouble just starting out, I couldn't make it past the two minute mark. Granted you are the weakest when first starting, and as you play more you can start to unlock permanent buffs and new characters. Also just getting a good loadout can be difficult. One thing that actually helped a lot was just aiming the ball... for the first few runs I didn't move the crosshair at all and just let it go straight up. Moving it around more actually helps a lot more than it would seem.

 

[Johnway]

Had a crack at the Menace demo for nextfest. I'm not entirely sure about it. I know its pretty good and there are some complex mechanics, but its also got things that rub me the wrong way. i suspect that the demo does a poor job easing you into the game, i would have loved a tut to understand the various mechanics and a bit of tips and tricks. i suspect is like brothers in arms where you suppress, flank and kill, but the problem is that most of the maps are very open so i'm not entirely comfortable charging in guns blazing. in fact i tried that with a close assault squad and they were dead in a couple of turns. its not helped that its AP based, so you are unlikely to move and shoot. its either one or the other or half arsed. So its a far away experience from XCOM where i get the chance to move and shoot, see stats to determine hits, adequate cover etc.


Onto other news, i've been window shopping again and i have a pc built in my wish list for around 2k-2.5k with all the bad news about pc parts going up in price, i'm wondering whether to just pull the trigger. its just that my current pc is adequate for the job and the new one will be bigger, run hotter and thirstier for power which in turn means i melt in the summer and higher energy bills. So its the long term costs rather then the immediate ones as i can buy the pc easily, just can't convince or justify it atm.


And we have a spot of Doom news. Well, GZDoom news, apparently there is a schism within the GZDoom dev team. The leader developer is found to be using AI to program/build the next update and there are talks of a split in the fork and branching off to another version of GZDoom. I don't know the implications of using AI and its early days so i'm content to watch and see what happens.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've tried so many times to get into Mount and Blade but never could. My friend hyped up Bannerlord so much that I bought it the first week it came out but only have 9 hours total on it. Reading your posts makes me want to consider going back and giving it a stronger try.

I can recommend ignoring the main quest the game gives you. It doesn't reward you with anything useful and instead starts a timer that forces you into a war with three factions once it runs out. Occasionally it'll spawn some enemies you can defeat to slow the timer, but it's honestly just obnoxious having to stop what you're doing to chase those down.

It's also just a fairly slow and repetitive game. It's great if you have a lot of time and little energy or just want a game where you can turn your brain off for a couple of hours.

I was having trouble just starting out, I couldn't make it past the two minute mark. Granted you are the weakest when first starting, and as you play more you can start to unlock permanent buffs and new characters. Also just getting a good loadout can be difficult. One thing that actually helped a lot was just aiming the ball... for the first few runs I didn't move the crosshair at all and just let it go straight up. Moving it around more actually helps a lot more than it would seem.

It's definitely one of those roguelites where you have to grind the same level a bunch just to buy power ups just so you can make it a bit further.