Random Game Thoughts Thread - December 25-31

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Playing some Farming Simulator and Home Flipper this morning. I'm on a 16x map in Farming Simulator and the workers have taken about 3 hours so far plowing the my main field, which I'm going to divide into 4 smaller fields as soon as they are done.

Can't really sit around doing nothing while they plow, so I've been working on a house in House Flipper. Have just two two bedrooms, one bath and laundry room left to do. Already did all the repairs and the landscaping and such.

Finally broke through in my Ogre campaign in TWW3. At turn 62 I only had 5 settlements. Now at turn 118 I have 51. I had two very strong enemies that I struggled to eradicate early. My best armies struggled against what they were producing. Finally had a tide turning battle in the south, where I destroyed 4 enemy armies with two of my own. This weakened them to the point that I could sweep through and finally eliminate the faction. After that I was able to send most of my armies to deal with Kholek Suneater in the north.
 
I'm slowly getting the hang of Darktide. The horde portion is a piece of cake, as that is mostly what the Vermintide games are. But Darktide adds a bunch of new things that are hard to avoid damage from. Last night I thought I was doing well. I had made it 3/4 of the way through a mission without taking any damage. Then a horde hit, which was fine, but then a sniper showed up behind me--far behind me--and took out my shield in one shot. Immediately a fire grenade that I didn't hear went off, and I had to run through the fire to get out, all the while trying to dodge around so the sniper wouldn't hit me again, and by the time I got through the horde and the fire and into cover, I had barely a sliver of health left, I managed to take out the horde that was right in front of me, peaked around my cover and took out the sniper and waited for my shield to recharge.

Before last night, I'd always played the zealot. Last night I played the Psyker and thought he was a lot more fun. Today I'm going to try the sharpshooter. I've been avoiding him (and the Psyker) because I wanted a melee focused character. Too bad they aren't all as fun to play as the Psyker.
 
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I'm halfway through Half-Life which I hadn't played since basically it came out. With difficulty cranked one notch it is no joke when the cloaked ninjas start showing up...

Also tried Death Stranding since I got it for free. Cutscenes are LONG. Prologue is over so I can enjoy some gameplay for a while next time I feel like playing a fkin weird game.
 
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^^ I played DS for an hour. It's honestly very cool but like (mild spoilers) you start off hurry up to a cave, huge cutscene. Cutscene ends get to the city, even huger cutscene. Now I got a big proper mission, so I quit, knowing next time I play I actually play.

Original Half Life, not Source. It's a buck on Steam. It plays without any issue.

I play it 4:3 on the highest available resolution.

Actually all these games are a buck so I got them all :

Portal 1-2
Half life 1-2

I'll do both HL back to back then probably both portal. I don't remember anything from HL 1-2 it's been too long, and I never played Portal games.

I actually also got Rise of the Dragon on GoG for the point and click lolz. I'm looking forward to this one.
 

mainer

Venatus semper
A dark, dreary, and rainy New Years Eve day here in Portland; perfect for playing PC games. I seriously love days like this for gaming, but it's weird that on the last day of December that there's not a flake of snow on the ground. It feels more like late March or early April with temps in the low 50s, low clouds and rain (sorry to my friends @Ryzengang and @DXCHASE who live in or around the Buffalo, NY area). Weather patterns & storm intensities are changing due to Global Warming. Well, at least that's my theory anyway.

Still playing The Witcher 3 Next-Gen and loving it, though the majority of my comments are over in the RPG Section of the Forum. But I'd like to wish you all a safe and happy transition from 2022 to 2023.

I'm halfway through Half-Life which I hadn't played since basically it came out. With difficulty cranked one notch it is no joke when the cloaked ninjas start showing up...
I've been tempted to replay both the Half-Life games, as the gameplay and pacing of those games is still hard to beat. But if I do, I'll probably try the Black Mesa version of HL1 as so much work went into making it, and the Zen levels seem to be much improved.
 
My wife and I made a list of things we hope to accomplish this upcoming year. One big thing on my list is that I'd like to be able to build a good gaming PC by my birthday to replace the outdated one I have. My birthday is August 25th, so I have a while to be saving up for that, along with the other things we want to do.
 
The 1998 version? I assume it plays well on Win10/11?
I have it but never played it—loved HL2, a true classic.


Grr, Kojima again. I hated the intro to MGS5, to the extent I quit before it finished. I got DS free too, so maybe some time I need punishment…
I want to try the Black Mesa version. I've had it for awhile.

As for MGS5, it's almost like Kojima didn't try compared to Death Stranding. Most of the time I don't mind cutscenes, and I just quit. Even after I made it through the intro, I did one brief mission and the cutscenes started again At one time I could have told you how much of the first hour and a half was cutscenes, but I've forgotten now. Nevertheless, I may just brace myself and head back in some day soon. I'd really like to give the game a shot.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
HA! "Big" cutscenes, are they? HA HAAA!! They don't even have intermissions! There are some JRPGs that do - and need them! Plus, these were pretty good ones. Big HUGE beach thing, sister on the beach... oh, I'm sorry, but they never do explain how the Hades your sister can walk on the beach so well despite wearing heels. Maybe DS2 will touch on that. ;)

The cutscenes calm down after you do your mother's delivery and deal with those consequences.

There's a beginner's guide here. (Plug plug ;))
 
HA! "Big" cutscenes, are they? HA HAAA!! They don't even have intermissions! There are some JRPGs that do - and need them! Plus, these were pretty good ones. Big HUGE beach thing, sister on the beach... oh, I'm sorry, but they never do explain how the Hades your sister can walk on the beach so well despite wearing heels. Maybe DS2 will touch on that. ;)

The cutscenes calm down after you do your mother's delivery and deal with those consequences.

There's a beginner's guide here. (Plug plug ;))
@Brian Boru is just old fashioned. He'll watch your movie. And he'll play your game. But if you try to put them together, he's out. I feel the same way about cookies and raisins.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
OK, what if we do something special. We set it up so that, when a cutscene plays, the game switches to some mini-game and the player's TV switches on to show the cutscene? The game doesn't stop, it just gets to a kinda slow part, so they'll want to watch a little TV at the same time. TV that's surprisingly relevant to the game they are playing.
 
OK, what if we do something special. We set it up so that, when a cutscene plays, the game switches to some mini-game and the player's TV switches on to show the cutscene? The game doesn't stop, it just gets to a kinda slow part, so they'll want to watch a little TV at the same time. TV that's surprisingly relevant to the game they are playing.
I thoroughly enjoyed Quantum Break. There was no mini game during the show, but you did stop and watch TV every now and then.
 
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I thoroughly enjoyed Quantum Break. There was no mini game during the show, but you did stop and watch TV every now and then.
That's the only game that I've had a hard time with the "cut scenes." The gameplay was pretty cool, but then when it throws you into a 25 minute episode, most of the time, I just didn't have time for it. Sometimes I have a lot of time to play games, but more often than not, I need to just get like a half hour of gaming in at a time, and it's tough when most of that ends up being an episode video. The game was a cool concept, though.
 
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I want to try the Black Mesa version. I've had it for awhile.

Oh I forgot about that! The Crowbar Collective—what a great name :)
Yep, that would be the one to play rather than the original, I hear Black Mesa's ending is far superior.

Didn't even cross my mind and now that I've watched about 30 mins of a Black Mesa playthrough I must say it is legit mind blowing what they've done.
 
OK, what if we do something special. We set it up so that, when a cutscene plays, the game switches to some mini-game and the player's TV switches on to show the cutscene? The game doesn't stop, it just gets to a kinda slow part, so they'll want to watch a little TV at the same time. TV that's surprisingly relevant to the game they are playing.

Personally, I think it's great when games let you still have some control or give you something to do during cutscenes. As long as it isn't just walking a set path, in that case I'd rather not do anything at all.
 
Didn't even cross my mind and now that I've watched about 30 mins of a Black Mesa playthrough I must say it is legit mind blowing what they've done.
My only problem with Black Mesa is that I'm a controller gamer, and it doesn't work well with a controller. It's understandable, because Half-Life was made back when PC gamers just didn't use controllers. I wouldn't normally have a problem with playing with a keyboard and mouse, except I do all my gaming on my TV from my recliner, and it just doesn't work out too well. So I've gravitated to controllers over the years, and now prefer them. If they could have worked in good controller support, I'd probably eat that game up.

But now that I think about it, I've only tried out the older free version. I've never tried out the more robust paid version, so maybe they did work in better controller support.