Random Game Thoughts Thread—November 20-26

[Brian Boru]

Didn't feel like playing much today, just a few Picross Touch quickies.

What are you up to?

 

[Zloth]

Still going through Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous in full turn-based mode. It's a big game, taking 90'ish hours, but I've managed to take 145 hours and I'm still only in Act 3. I'll likely need to take a break from the game for a few days with the Thanksgiving holidays. Maybe it's time for Yakuza 3, or Mass Effect 2, or Plague Tale, or the full Stanley Parable... or maybe even Batman: Arkham City after reading about this mod.

I don't know, though... how can I go back to a game I already played when I've got five whole games I haven't even touched yet!?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Was enjoying a bit of a nostalgia trip going back to Doom 2016 on Nightmare, and I have to love that game's Mission Select, which allows you to seamlessly go back to complete challenges and collectibles you missed. Id is smart enough to acknowledge that a lot of people get so caught up in their fast paced Doom games that they can forget to complete or collect such things at times.

Currently I just finished a play through of A Plague Tale Requiem on Normal, but with no HUD, including reticle. I'd already beaten it on Normal with HUD and reticle, but now that I know the game better I was MUCH more aware of what places can be snuck through without using any resources. Still though, there are places where just not having a reticle makes it VERY challenging. There's a battle toward the end of the game in a chapter called Dying Sun, where the ship you escaped a ruthless Count on is wrecked on a beach. While the Count fights a rather battle worthy companion you pick up earlier in the game, you are tasked with taking out several enemies ranging from archers, to spear throwers, to shield carrying mace wielders, and others whom can't be killed with the sling, including helmeted axe wielders, and two knights in heavy armor. The worst part of this battle is the 2nd phase, where a thick Macula fog comes in, making it VERY hard to see enemies. This combined with no reticle to see whether you're locked onto a target or not, made me have to retry it numerous times.

There's a few tricks I discovered in that battle though, so hopefully I can progress through Hard mode, then Hard with no HUD. The ultimate would be Hard with no HUD or upgrades.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

When I have time to play, I'm playing Requiem. Unlike Frag, I'm only on my first playthrough, and I'm on like Chapter X, I think. It's a great game, though. I just wish these games weren't so restrictive, as far as where you can traverse. I wish you could jump over rocks and move around more freely. But sometimes it's helpful, and there are a lot more open spaces to walk around than there were in the first one. I love that you have unlimited rocks for your sling.

But it's an excellent game. I'm also playing It Takes Two with my wife here and there. She's starting to get a little better at playing, so it's becoming more enjoyable.

 

[DXCHASE]

Have been playing the Warhammer 40k: Darktide beta and having lots of fun with it. Its easy to just pick up and get in a mission. Game does need optimization and is a bit unstable, but there has been a patch released already addressing some issues, but Raytracing sucks when its on, game jumps like 20-30 frames when its off for me, but its still a beautiful 40k setting and it looks great. The gameplay is fantastic, it feels nice and weighty hitting enemies and the guns are nice. The armor/upgrade system is kinda wack, maybe some stuff is just locked until its release on the 30th. Overall if you like 40k, dont miss this, but waiting would be a good idea while fatshark irons out a lot of the issues going on right now.

Also, Call of Duty MW2 is janky too. I have had the game crash so much and right in parts of the game that leaves me frustrated (end of a campaign mission i have to restart all over, happened once/end of a MP match right before i can get the XP), textures disappear, games UI is terrible etc. Ill go more into detail for my impressions thread, but its annoying such a high budget game is playing the way it does. Darktide, i understand, but COD, come on.

As for life. I had a 4 day (paid for thursday night and sunday night) weekend due to the snow that hit Buffalo, so i was able to play a good amount of Destiny 2 in with the family.

 

[Frag Maniac]

When I have time to play, I'm playing Requiem. Unlike Frag, I'm only on my first playthrough, and I'm on like Chapter X, I think. It's a great game, though. I just wish these games weren't so restrictive, as far as where you can traverse. I wish you could jump over rocks and move around more freely. But sometimes it's helpful, and there are a lot more open spaces to walk around than there were in the first one. I love that you have unlimited rocks for your sling. But it's an excellent game.

Yeah Requiem is quite a bit more fleshed out as far as what routes you can take in areas with enemies. It took a little while, but I'm starting to get a feel for better routes in some of the tougher areas with lots of enemies and rats. There are SO many possibilities as far as how you can use Ignifer or Extinguis, a constant puzzle kind of stealth combat.

 

[Zimbaly]

Are the plague tale games that solid? Also right now I'm doing Darktide, pretty fun, still doing Avernum *i love these games, they hit that old school dos feel for me* and I'm tempted to hit fortnite up, but it's weird not playing with my one buddy. Also been playing some SPAZ.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Are the plague tale games that solid?

They are both very popular, and very good IMO, but Requiem is quite a bit more taxing on your hardware. I'm still waiting for Alex Battaglia of Digital Foundry to do an optimized settings guide of Requiem, but it is said he's waiting until they patch in the RT that's been promised. I hope that update also includes some much needed performance patching.

If you like stealth games with a bit of puzzles, even in how you navigate through the rats, and a heart felt story, you'll probably like them both. They also have a pretty unique style of combat, and gameplay in general.

 

[mainer]

still doing Avernum *i love these games, they hit that old school dos feel for me*

I've got Avernum 4, 5, & 6 in my Steam backlog, just haven't gotten to play them yet. Looking at the screen shots, they remind me a bit of the early Ulitima & Dark Suns games from years ago. I love old school games like that.

 

[Brian Boru]

Picked up Far Cry 6 Standard edition for $15.11 on sale, currently downloading 68GB, should be ready after dinner

The DLCs in the Gold edition don't interest me—seem to be whacked our rogue-like shorts. The Ultimate version doesn't interest me either if on sale, as it doesn't include the new expansion Lost Between Worlds which should be announced soon.

Nice timing, I was humming and hawing about what to play over the next while. Well, that's well and truly settled now for quite a bit—I'll see you guys in the New Year

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided to get the Google Play Pass and have been trying out some games.

First was Meteorfall, a deck-building roguelike. It's pretty decent, but lacking in content and I'm not a big fan of the artwork. I played once with every class and won once with the healer class.

Then I tried Card Quest, another card-based roguelike. It's got a bit of deck-building, though you get just three pieces of equipment that each add about 5 cards to your deck (I think, I'm too lazy to verify). It's quite hard as your health doesn't ever get fully restored, so a single mistake can turn out very costly for the entirety of the run. Still, I did manage to make it to the final boss on the first campaign once, though I failed to beat him.
It's not bad, but it seems a bit too limited. It was mostly just doing the same strategy over and over, there isn't much room or necessity to adapt your play style to the different enemies.

Now I'm playing Cultist Simulator, from the creators of Fallen London and Sunless Sea. It's basically a game purely about resource management. Each resource has one or more attributes that determine how they can be used. You get 5 different slots, each described by a verb, you can put one or more resources in to get different resources back, with each slot having their own list of attributes they accept.
Each conversion takes a certain amount of time and a lot of the resources decay after a certain amount of time as well, so you need to plan ahead. Also, quite a lot of conversions are somewhat random, so you're not always sure what you'll get.
There's also a slot that just continuously burns through your Money resource at a steady pace, forcing you to keep generating more or starving to death.
Then there's two more slots that pop up every so often that start consuming your Dread or Fascination resources, adding them each to a counter. If either counter reaches 3, you lose, so you need to generate yet other resources to counteract those.
You can also lose if the police get on your trail, which happens if you generate the Notoriety resource, which then gets converted to evidence by yet another slot that pops up every so often, forcing you to deal with that too.

It's a great game for people who love to just figure out a system by experimenting. I died of starvation twice before I discovered money is supposed to be tight and you need to ration it. Then I died of Dread and Fascination a couple of times before I discovered how to (somewhat) reliably counteract them and how to predict which conversions (might) generate them. My last character got locked up by the police, but that taught me a bunch about how to manage that better too, though I'm not yet sure how to stop an investigation once it's near its final stages.

So it's taken me a good few hours just to learn how not to lose and I'm only just learning how to actually make any progress and I'm absolutely loving it so far.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah Requiem is quite a bit more fleshed out as far as what routes you can take in areas with enemies. It took a little while, but I'm starting to get a feel for better routes in some of the tougher areas with lots of enemies and rats. There are SO many possibilities as far as how you can use Ignifer or Extinguis, a constant puzzle kind of stealth combat.

I'm having a tough time in Chapter X when you have to get around a ton of those slavers. In one of my playthroughs of that section, I just ran to the end where the bridge is up and I assume you have to get to the door on the other side, and I didn't even see what to do. But I was just running around, and I didn't have time to scope it out. I wish it was easier to get a bunch of crossbow bolts.

Are the plague tale games that solid?

Oh man, they're so good. I was fortunate enough to play the first one while it was still on Game Pass, and now I'm playing the second one on there.

 

[Brian Boru]

Played a few hours of Far Cry 6—cue gasps of surprise. Has the same annoying opening as other FCs—the particularly annoying bit is it's so completely not a FC segment, mostly a dungeon crawl and corridor run until you end up dumped on the starting island. I looked for a mod to skip it, but none yet as far as I know.

But at least the fun started then, been toodling around the starting island exploring—on foot only, of course—and doing a couple of missions and side jobs. A few skirmishes, but not looking for trouble yet as my weapons are pretty basic. I hear most of the good stuff only opens up after you leave the starting island and get to the mainland.

I was surprised to find my progress from the free weekend some months ago was saved and available, but I decided to start over since I'd forgotten what was going on.

I'll post anything of interest in the Experiences thread, but for now, meet my best pal Guapo

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm having a tough time in Chapter X when you have to get around a ton of those slavers. In one of my playthroughs of that section, I just ran to the end where the bridge is up and I assume you have to get to the door on the other side, and I didn't even see what to do. But I was just running around, and I didn't have time to scope it out. I wish it was easier to get a bunch of crossbow bolts.

Yeah that part was tough for me on my first run on Normal with all HUD features enabled, but this time I did a lot better on Normal with no HUD or reticle. I even killed a minimal amount of enemies and got the 2nd big loot crate, but missed the first one. If you tend to run out of bolts, you can upgrade the crossbow to where bolts are retrievable. Also, in places where you need bolts most, there's a good amount of them to be had.

I am now doing a run on Hard, and skipped straight to Hard with no HUD or reticle. Things are going pretty well so far, but I'm still doing upgrades.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah that part was tough for me on my first run on Normal with all HUD features enabled, but this time I did a lot better on Normal with no HUD or reticle. I even killed a minimal amount of enemies and got the 2nd big loot crate, but missed the first one. If you tend to run out of bolts, you can upgrade the crossbow to where bolts are retrievable. Also, in places where you need bolts most, there's a good amount of them to be had.

I am now doing a run on Hard, and skipped straight to Hard with no HUD or reticle. Things are going pretty well so far, but I'm still doing upgrades.

I found out there is a little narrow crack in that ditch at the end that you have to squeeze through. No way I was going to notice that with a ton of slavers running after me.

 

[PointnClicker01]

Just stumbled over a Google Earth version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and thought this might be something for @WoodenSaucer

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Just stumbled over a Google Earth version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? and thought this might be something for @WoodenSaucer

Awesome! I'll check it out. Thanks man!

 

[Brian Boru]

After my abysmal unbrag performance, I needed a pick-me-up.

Tricky riddles from over 1000 years ago

<brag>

</brag>

 

[Frag Maniac]

I found out there is a little narrow crack in that ditch at the end that you have to squeeze through. No way I was going to notice that with a ton of slavers running after me.

LOL, if you mean that spot down below and to the left of the drawbridge, I had a hell of a time finding that even after killing all the enemies my last play through.

 

[Brian Boru]

World's oldest games awards shindig has just dug this year's shins:

https://www.gamesradar.com/golden-joystick-awards-2022-winners/

 

[Zloth]

PC Game of the Year is... Return to Monkey Island? Ooookay.

Oh, the Steam Award nominations just showed up along with the Steam sale. I can actually pick from two games this time: Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Death Stranding. I guess both count as "this year" because they showed up on Steam this year. Maybe I should run through The Stanley Parable Deluxe to see if that shows up. Then I can have a choice of THREE games when I normally get none at all!

P.S. The game queue thing seems to have been replaced by the "interactive recommender," which just has an easy-to-miss link after all the game categories.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

LOL, if you mean that spot down below and to the left of the drawbridge, I had a hell of a time finding that even after killing all the enemies my last play through.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. How in the world did you kill that many guys with helmets? I haven't seen enough arrows to take them all out. If you have any advice on that kind of thing, let me know. It's a lot easier when you get back to the rats, and you can take out their lanterns and stuff.

BTW, I did get past that part, and well into the next section before I had to quit today. Since I didn't know how to take them all out, I just ended up finally being able to sneak past them.

 

[Brian Boru]

No surprises in this BBC article, but still…
Games (and gamers) that made history

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. How in the world did you kill that many guys with helmets? I haven't seen enough arrows to take them all out. If you have any advice on that kind of thing, let me know. It's a lot easier when you get back to the rats, and you can take out their lanterns and stuff.

BTW, I did get past that part, and well into the next section before I had to quit today. Since I didn't know how to take them all out, I just ended up finally being able to sneak past them.

Just look for jars of tar around the place, lure them toward one, break it with your sling, then hand toss an Ignifer at it. If you're unsure how to lure them, work with jars that you can get a safe distance from with a patrolling guard at a distance on the other side of it, then just start slinging rocks at him. Jars in tight places are bit trickier, but sometimes their patrol routes take them near them. At times breaking tar jars without being seen will lure them to them if they are close enough to hear it break. Sometimes you can catch two of them with one jar. It's a bit easier if they're both carrying torches or near a brazier, as they automatically get lit up, but to do that, you must sling break the jar when they're very close to it so it will splash on them. IMO it would be too easy if you could carry a lot of clay pots. I like that they placed jars of tar here and there, it makes you explore and use the environment, much like the bolts scattered here and there where they are needed most.

You can also break the tar jars ahead of time, and they will do a sticky slow walk in the tar puddle. If two of them are headed toward the tar puddle while luring one or more to it, but staggered at a distance from one another, you can stop the one that gets there first by stunning him with a slung rock. The same stop method works excellent to get Joseph to kill them from the boat before they can get to you without wasting any resources.

One word of caution, DO NOT be hiding in tall grass near a tar jar you light on fire, the fire will spread quickly into it and may kill you. The bolts aren't as necessary as you may think, which is why you only see bolts to pick up where they are really needed most. I'm a bit more than 1/3 way through my Hard run with no HUD or reticle, and I've yet to upgrade anything. I know I said earlier I was upgrading, but I was only collecting tools and pieces in anticipation of doing so. Truth is at times I've not even had a knife to open the collapsible workbenches. I keep thinking either Hard mode has less of them scattered around, or I'm missing some of them.

As you can see, I currently have 11 Tools, and 280 Pieces, and a max of just two arrows in my quiver, without having done any upgrades.

The hardest part was the first bit on the beach where you acquire the crossbow, but I managed it with 1 bolt left over. I discovered it only seemed hard because I was trying to sling kill the archers. Once I discovered this, I found it was better to kill the first helmeted guy just after he hopped over the log, then sprint to and crouch behind the log, pick up another bolt, and take out the spear thrower with the sling (took several shots). I then stayed crouched there and waited for the next helmeted guy to come and shot him just as he got where the spear thrower stops, then immediately sprinted to the cover just ahead and to the left of there right after the archer on the left shot, and picked up another bolt.

I then again sprinted just after the archer shot to the exit path on the left, making sure to aim the crossbow at the final helmeted guy coming from that path in just enough time to shoot him before he attacked me. I somehow had inadvertently switch to flame arrows, but killed him none the less, and by then I was home free to mantle the ledge at the end of the path, triggering the cutscene where Amecia tries to cut the boat free. This method avoids having to kill the archers, which are hard as hell to lock onto from a distance with the sling with no reticle, but I do use Low level lockon, so that is largely why. The crazy boat ride where you're being shot at by archers on the shore was actually easier, because you really only need to shoot fire arrows at the clusters of enemies standing near tar pots . Other than that, as long as you stay ducked and aim at the ones closest to you, the turret crossbow shield will protect you. I DID manage to kill at least 2 or 3 archers with regular bolts though, I'm just not sure it was necessary.

BTW, I still had that one bolt left over by the end of that segment, because it's pretty easy to hide while the spear thrower leaps over the obstacle at the near end of that narrow canyon with water, sneak attack him with the sling, then sneak past the helmeted guy. He spotted me as I got a bit further away, but by then I could easily outrun him and the others he alerted back to the cutscene with Arnaud and Hugo at the boat.

 

[Ryzengang]

I gotta say, the Steam Autumn Sale is live now and it is exceedingly hard to feel like an autumn sale when there's multiple feet of snow outside... . Regardless, I'm probably not going to buy much of anything and instead just wait for the winter sale. There are a couple of super cheap games on my wishlist, though, so I might pick up a $5 game or something. I haven't really played much recently as there's been a lot going on and I'm trying to be a bit more cautious about adding to my backlog too much. Plus, waiting has the added benefit of getting a lot of the games cheaper when I finally do buy them.