Random Game Thoughts Thread—December 04-December 10

[Brian Boru]

Far Cry 6

I complained last time about scarcity of Fast Travel points. They're still scarce, but I stumbled on how to get around quickly without having to drive or ride. Meet the Monteros mission gets your first Guerilla Camp, and there you can build the Hideout Network—costs 30 Metal & 30 Gas, so make sure you have that loot.

The HN gives you the Wingsuit, and it activates Air Drop over Fast travel points, so you can wingsuit long distances, provided there isn't an active AA gun controlling the airspace. Track an objective on the map which is in the direction you want to travel—this dictates what direction you'll face.

I picked Bandidos Barracks as my second build, but haven't seen anything useful from it yet—but I'm getting extra Banditos as I free hostages out and about. I probably need to look into the BB a bit more, no doubt it's something I haven't spotted yet.

View in the Guerilla Camp is 3rd person, which is a real clunky pain—makes me want to leave asap when I'd like to look around.

It's good fun tho, I'm enjoying it and will more when I get a handle on the systems.

 

[Zloth]

I opened up Age of Wonders: Planetfall again. That 4X really should be more popular than it is. IMHO.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Just finally finished my Spider-Man Remastered run on Amazing and will be posting the end game missions to add to my Highlights series of the game soon after taking a few months off to play some other games. It's certainly a fun game to play, and the final missions have some good stuff in them.

I will also get back to my Monster Energy Supercross 4 Introduction with the last set of rounds. I don't know if I'll finish the Race Driver GRID Highlights series I started though, because last time I tried to pick up where I left off, the game decided not to capture the final race of an event I did after hitting Instant Replay in ShadowPlay. If it's going to get to the point where I have to redo entire events because of such problems, I'm just not sure it's worth it.

On another note, I'm really hoping Striking Distance can better fix the stutter problems caused by shader compilation in The Callisto Protocol, because I really want to play that game. The patch that was just released only fixes some of the stuttering from what I've read.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm really enjoying Rise of the Tomb Raider a lot. As much as I liked the Plague Tale games, I think I'm enjoying Tomb Raider more. I like not being restricted as much. So I still have this one, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider after this. I looked it up and found out they announced they're making another one with the Unreal Engine 5. I'm glad to hear they're not done with the franchise after this trilogy.

 

[Pifanjr]

I had some time to play today, but didn't feel like continuing my Total War game any more. It's just been 80 turns of killing Dark Elves with low tier armies. I've finally started to get some tier 3 units, but my empire has gotten so large it's become a pain to manage.

So I started a new game of Rimworld, since I read the latest patch was incompatible with old saves. However, the only colonist capable as a doctor died of malaria. The other two are both incapable of taking care of someone, so it's probably only a matter of time before they die of a disease, wound or infection...

I don't really feel like continuing that game, nor do I want to start all over. I also don't really feel like getting back to XCOM: Chimera Squad either, though I would like to finish it at some point.

I've had a similar problem with the Google Play Pass on my phone, where nothing really sounds good to play. I suspect I'm just too stressed about life stuff to really engage with anything right now.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I've had a similar problem with the Google Play Pass on my phone, where nothing really sounds good to play. I suspect I'm just too stressed about life stuff to really engage with anything right now.

I hope things get better for you soon.

 

[Ryzengang]

Surprisingly, I've actually been playing a bit of the new Modern Warfare II (not to be confused with Modern Warfare 2 ). I don't play multiplayer much these days, but some of my buddies have been playing so I decided to hop in. I'm actually having a really good time. It helps that I'm very good at FPS games and I've got friends to play with, but it's definitely a fun throwback to playing the old CoD games on Xbox Live. Also, immediately toggling "mute all" when entering a lobby is a pro strategy to save your ears

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTY5zsxG6Y&t=1s


First 18 minutes of Dead Space gameplay up on IGN. Looks like a 1:1 remake of the original, level design, puzzles and combat almost exactly the same. Not very excited now I've seen this, I played through half of the original not long ago and it honestly doesnt look like they improved much. The original played pretty well for me as it was. Only difference is that Isaac now is fully voiced, which seems a bit of a waste of time.

With the Callisto Protocol not looking that exciting either guess I wont be getting my Sci fi horror shooter fix for a bit, wont be paying full price for that either.

Played a bit more Ni No Kuni today, and I like it a lot. Theres plenty of cutesy characters and landscapes for the kid to run around in and enjoy and the combat looks like it may have some depth to it eventually. Definitely a lot of notches up from Pokemon Legends Arceus, maybe I do still like some JRPG's after all.

Did a couple of 40K Chaos Gate Daemonhunters missions as well, creeping forwards in that one, really interested to see how the higher level skills combine and what Nurgle monsters the late game will throw in there. Only seen Plague Marines and basic cultists still so far.

 

[Frag Maniac]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTY5zsxG6Y&t=1s


First 18 minutes of Dead Space gameplay up on IGN. Looks like a 1:1 remake of the original, level design, puzzles and combat almost exactly the same. Not very excited now I've seen this, I played through half of the original not long ago and it honestly doesnt look like they improved much. The original played pretty well for me as it was. Only difference is that Isaac now is fully voiced, which seems a bit of a waste of time.

With the Callisto Protocol not looking that exciting either guess I wont be getting my Sci fi horror shooter fix for a bit, wont be paying full price for that either.

Played a bit more Ni No Kuni today, and I like it a lot. Theres plenty of cutesy characters and landscapes for the kid to run around in and enjoy and the combat looks like it may have some depth to it eventually. Definitely a lot of notches up from Pokemon Legends Arceus, maybe I do still like some JRPG's after all.

Did a couple of 40K Chaos Gate Daemonhunters missions as well, creeping forwards in that one, really interested to see how the higher level skills combine and what Nurgle monsters the late game will throw in there. Only seen Plague Marines and basic cultists still so far.

Well, we're all a bit haunted by the killer looking for the chap "Buzz" aren't we? Thanks for throwing a monkey wrench into another one of my hopes and dreams titles.

Just joking, I'm gonna play it and pretend I love it even if I don't damn it! I'm just that crazy about wanting games to be good again!

 

[Brian Boru]

Far Cry 6

Bandidos Barracks

Bandidos Barracks … haven't seen anything useful from it yet

Huh. Sort of a visual novel adventure?
In a storybook mode—just like a newspaper cartoon panel—you pick a mission, assign a leader with squad, pick 1 from 3 choices in ~3-4 scenes, done, get some resources as reward!
Maybe it'll change a bit, that's just the first one, I have 3 more queued up—yes, queued… there was a countdown timer on them as I left

Fast Travel

Aha on the Fast Travel—you can buy Hideouts around the map at the Hideout Network HQ. They're cheap ~150 pesos—I have ~7,000—compared to say a weapon I can buy for ~1,500, and which ones are available are chosen for you by the game. I got 4 so far, if I recall correctly, it looks like there are another 8 to get.

Ammo

So on my way back to base, I had fun with my bow, figuring out what was 1-shot, if headshot made a difference—it does, that's 1-shot for all small game—how far arrow will go, drop over distance, etc. Just call me Archie

At base, I replenish my arrow stocks, naturally. You what? Oh no boyo, no you don't! Breaking news—well, it broke me!—you can't buy ammo!! You have to grab it in the wild. While this is totally fine for bullets—many of the guys you pop cough up a few as loot, and the ground is peppered with bullet boxes—I haven't noticed much else made easily available.

There is one failsafe, a 'Replenish Ammo' crate in conflict areas like enemy bases, which refills everything incl 'gadgets'. But arrows are scarce, and with only 15 in quiver, you gotta be frugal or sure of recovery—I found I lost the arrow about half the time shooting baddies or game. So I'll probably keep bow for explosive arrow duties only from now on—especially since I found the grenade launcher only carries 7 rounds total, whereas bow has 15 and I think I saw a perk somewhere to increase that.

No Body Markers

Recent FCs marked game or baddies corpses on the minimap—that's gone now for some reason, even on Easy. I wonder if that's an accident or a deliberate policy choice. Either way, it's a PITA in an anti-QoL way. Boo Ubi

World

It's huge, and it's beautiful. FC worlds have always been great, and FC6's is superb. While 4's Kyrat and 5's Montana are indeed beautiful, 6 adds more biome diversity and terrain variety for an all-round more interesting world. Add in towns and villages—I haven't reached the capital city yet—and there's no doubt it's the best FC map yet. Kudos Ubi

Wildlife

Usual small game. Predators so far: crocodiles, panther, coyote, gar fish, boar, shark. My companion croc Guapo takes care of most of 'em Loads of birds, mainly seagulls, but also an annoying predator, maybe hawk or falcon.

There are no plants to collect, and praise the monkey god, no skinning animations! So far, hunting seems mostly irrelevant, no more valuable than the littered loot.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Well, we're all a bit haunted by the killer looking for the chap "Buzz" aren't we? Thanks for throwing a monkey wrench into another one of my hopes and dreams titles.

Just joking, I'm gonna play it and pretend I love it even if I don't damn it! I'm just that crazy about wanting games to be good again!

It might not stay the same all the way through, so wait for release and reviews to be sure. And even if it does if you havent played Dead Space in a long time it'll still be Dead Space, still a really good game.

Callisto still looks good as well, just not €60 when I have a lot of other unplayed games good. Especially considering how much more smoothly it might run when its patched up.

On a side note, the Resident Evil series on Netflix is actually pretty good so far, 4 episodes in. Just got a bit more schlocky in the fourth with a silly action sequence but not as much as I'd expect from the source material.

 

[Frag Maniac]

It might not stay the same all the way through, so wait for release and reviews to be sure. And even if it does if you havent played Dead Space in a long time it'll still be Dead Space, still a really good game.

Callisto still looks good as well, just not €60 when I have a lot of other unplayed games good. Especially considering how much more smoothly it might run when its patched up.

On a side note, the Resident Evil series on Netflix is actually pretty good so far, 4 episodes in. Just got a bit more schlocky in the fourth with a silly action sequence but not as much as I'd expect from the source material.

Actually I like what I've seen so far of the Dead Space remake, especially that you have free movement in Zero G now, and can explore new places they've added.

Callisto looks good, yes, and I like that it's probably more challenging to play than Dead Space was. Definitely more survival horror resource wise too.

I totally forgot about the Resident Evil TV show on Netflix, I'll have to check that out!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Actually I like what I've seen so far of the Dead Space remake, especially that you have free movement in Zero G now, and can explore new places they've added.

Callisto looks good, yes, and I like that it's probably more challenging to play than Dead Space was. Definitely more survival horror resource wise too.

I totally forgot about the Resident Evil TV show on Netflix, I'll have to check that out!

I remember hearing something about the zero G being different, have to wonder what else jopefully much more than shown. The first 18 minutes was exactly the same, from getting the Plasma Cutter down to getting the Stasis module and the tram puzzle.

Must be difficult trying to find the balance between old and new, always going to be people like me to complain about it whatever you do.

 

[Frag Maniac]

The first 18 minutes was exactly the same, from getting the Plasma Cutter down to getting the Stasis module and the tram puzzle.

Must be difficult trying to find the balance between old and new, always going to be people like me to complain about it whatever you do.

That's simply because those are key things you pickup at the start of the game that you will need and rely on. What did you expect, a complete diversion from the tools of the trade in the first 18 min of the game?

BTW, I read Netflix already cancelled the RE TV show after the first short 8 episode season, is this true? If so, I can't imagine it had a great reception from viewers.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That's simply because those are key things you pickup at the start of the game that you will need and rely on. What did you expect, a complete diversion from the tools of the trade in the first 18 min of the game?

BTW, I read Netflix already cancelled the RE TV show after the first short 8 episode season, is this true? If so, I can't imagine it had a great reception from viewers.

Well its not my business to try and kill your buzz, but I didnt find what looked the exact same 14 year old game with HD textures and a bit of extra dialogue that exciting. But maybe they showed the new stuff more before and this was them trying to show what came from the old instead.

Halfway through the series on RE, I think its pretty good for what it is, but obviously didnt see the back half yet. Looks like it got review bombed on Metacritic for being 'woke', not very sensitive to that sort of stuff myself.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well its not my business to try and kill your buzz, but I didnt find what looked the exact same 14 year old game with HD textures and a bit of extra dialogue that exciting. But maybe they showed the new stuff more before and this was them trying to show what came from the old instead.

Halfway through the series on RE, I think its pretty good for what it is, but obviously didnt see the back half yet. Looks like it got review bombed on Metacritic for being 'woke', not very sensitive to that sort of stuff myself.

Again, common sense dictates when you have a short segment at the start of the game that introduces you to the main items you'll be using, you don't abandon that just to say you "remade" the intro. That would be idiotic, much like the so called "review" sites that don't even play a whole game before they review it. You clearly haven't watched the stuff where the remaking is much more obvious and noteworthy, I would say don't assume too much by your knee jerk reaction of the intro.

Regarding the new RE TV show, I quite honestly didn't like the cast much, and it looks to be made for younger audiences. I'm not sure I buy that it's worth watching. There's a ton of cheesy stuff that's come out since COVID, and Netflix is certainly no exception there. That said, I've only seen the trailer, so I will wait until I can watch at least one full episode. I only have a disc account with them though, and I doubt from what I've read it's been popular enough to warrant putting it on disc. No one but Netflix seems to be streaming it either, as is usually the case with their content. In that sense it's a make it or break it situation with reception, and it isn't looking to be doing well, so.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Yea I hope it's better than it looks from that video as well. Loved Dead Space, and honestly dont think the original aged badly having played it fairly recently.

The RE show is fine so far, its not on my all time list or anything, just thought it was surprisingly good for a loosely based on video game show. Also it had Lance Reddick in it who I always liked so I thought Id give it a shot. Nothings really been great I watched so far this year, then again I havent had time to watch a lot.

 

[Pifanjr]

I tried This War of Mine on my phone today. The controls are fine, but the game is still too depressing and slow for me.

So I decided to let my Rimworld game play unsupervised while I was working. It goes well 90% of the time, it's just too bad that the remaining 10% often turn out fatal.

I started with three colonists, of which two were incapable of giving medical care. Of course, the only one that could give medical care died not too long after the camp was set up (I don't remember from what). The second colonist died after bleeding out from a corgi bite, since no one would bandage it.

The last one hung on for quite a while, even after getting muscle parasites and malaria. I think she eventually died of a heart attack caused by the pre-exisiting artery blockage, though it might have been something else.

The first time all of your colonists go down, the game triggers a special event: The Man In Black. This event adds a new colonist, dressed in all black, to hopefully save whoever and whatever is remaining. However, as far as I'm aware, this is a randomly generated colonist, so there is no guarantee they'll be very useful.

In my case, he arrived too late to save anyone, so he just moved into the camp by himself. However, the random generator decided to give me a former taster for a king, who was used to a life of decadence and refused to do any cleaning or hauling. Meaning he got upset at the dead body slowly decomposing in his bedroom, but he wouldn't bury it or even move it.

Luckily re-installing furniture falls under the construction skill and isn't considered hauling, so I had him move his bedroom to a different room.

A little bit later, he saved a woman from some raiders and she moved into the camp and finally cleared all the rotten bodies. They quickly fell in love and were joined by a wandering vagabond who asked to join. All was well... but I forgot I had turned off the doctor skill for the man in black and the other two promptly bled out after a raid while I was distracted.

I send the grieving man in black to rescue a prisoner who has send a distress signal, so his love could get a proper burial. The rescue went well, but while they were traveling back a raider started burning down the colony. They arrived in time to save most of it, but the prisoner was still naked and the man in black had some bad luck with shooting. They eventually killed the raider, but the man in black went catatonic from all of the stress and bled out, while the former prisoner ended up collapsing right as he reached the camp, dying only a little later.

It's possible to keep the game running in the hope that someone will stumble upon your colony and move in, so I'll start it up again tomorrow and see if we can get a new victim colonist, as I was pretty happy with what I had built so far and I had almost researched turrets. It would be nice not to have to start from scratch again.

 

[Pifanjr]

I just remembered Dwarf Fortress is now on Steam. SteamDB is telling me it's the #1 top seller and it has a 98% positive rating, with 20k+ concurrent players, so it seems it's doing quite well.

See also:

https://www.pcgamer.com/tons-of-game-developers-are-praising-dwarf-fortress-today-in-celebration-of-its-steam-launch/

 

[Zloth]

Many many dwarves will die this very day....

 

[Brian Boru]

he got upset at the dead body slowly decomposing in his bedroom

Fussy much?
That all sounds hilarious. Is it meant to be, or do I need to dial my funny bone back from the dark side?

Far Cry 6

Weapons always available in the field

I'll probably keep bow for explosive arrow duties only from now on—especially since I found the grenade launcher only carries 7 rounds total, whereas bow has 15 and I think I saw a perk somewhere to increase that

Aha! I can keep both, and have access to either one as I desire, out in the field. In the menu, click on Arsenal tab, then the weapon position—ie 1,2,3,4—and you can change the weapon in that position to any other weapon you have acquired.

This sure changes things. Bow for hunting, and still a bit of backup for anti-vehicle—you can change ammo type on the fly also, to any you've previously enabled at base.

 

[Pifanjr]

Fussy much?
That all sounds hilarious. Is it meant to be, or do I need to dial my funny bone back from the dark side?

A lot of the stuff in Rimworld is very dark, but it's often so over the top it's just ridiculous.

 

[mainer]

I see that Assassin's Creed Valhalla is now available on Steam at 67% off (as of yesterday):

Assassin's Creed Valhalla on Steam

Become a legendary Viking on a quest for glory. Raid your enemies, grow your settlement, and build your political power.

store.steampowered.com

I've never played any of the Assassin's Creed games, but I have to admit that I have a small to moderate interest in Valhalla, which I think is mainly due to the visuals that remind me a lot of Skyrim (though probably nothing like it in gameplay). But if I did buy/install it, I'd also have to install another game launcher/store front, Ubisoft Connect, to be able to play the game. So I'm thinking to myself, "Seriously? Another launcher just to play a game?"

Maybe I'm just old (well, no maybes there), or maybe my way of thinking of playing PC game today is a bit antiquated, but I just don't see any benefit to us, the game players, to being forced to use 2 launchers to launch a single game on Steam. Is there an actual benefit to the publisher for incorporating this method? Is it just marketing to force us to install their launcher/storefront? Some of this has been discussed in @Sarafan 's EA App post, but I thought we might discuss it further.

If I want to play Valhalla on Steam, I have to install/log in to Ubisoft Connect. If I want to play Red Dead 2 on Steam, I have to install/log in to the Rockstar Games Social Club (opinion: stupid name). If I want to play any of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, I have to install Origin, or EA App to play them.

Yet if I want to play any of The Witcher games on Steam, there is no requirement to install/ log into GoG Galaxy. I have GoG installed anyway as I love the older games they have (and the ability to play them), but it's not a requirement to play The Witcher games on Steam. I wish these other publishers would have the same consideration for us gamers who play their games rather than forcing their unwanted Apps on us.

 

[Brian Boru]

Is there an actual benefit to the publisher for incorporating this method?

You've noticed the marketing Steam throws out maybe once every week or two? That's the benefit for pubs. It's a safe bet they wouldn't spend money developing and maintaining the launchers if there wasn't a marketing benefit for them.

It's like all the "free" internet services—worth billions because of the route they provide onto our screens for whatever the companies want to promote.

The benefit of GOG Galaxy or Playnite or other combined launchers is you can mostly use just the one launcher, and it takes care of whichever other launcher is required.

Personally I use desktop icons organized in Fences to launch my games—saves me having to launch Galaxy first.

 

[Zloth]

You've noticed the marketing Steam throws out maybe once every week or two?

No. I turn those things off. There's an option to do so in the settings.

Odd thing about the launchers is that some of them don't do marketing. I'm playing Age of Wonders: Planetfall and that pops up this launcher:

I haven't really seen any marketing in that launcher, except maybe for the DLC - but that can be put in the main menu of the game, too. Maybe the real point of it is the little 'hero bar' thing in the lower right that now just has two entries. One points to the official wiki (which isn't very good) and the other panel points to a survey (expired). I suppose they could do some tracking things with the launcher, but why not just use the game program itself for that? {shrug}