Random Game Thoughts Thread - February 19 - February 25

[Frindis]

Thanks for the tip @Colif.

 

[mainer]

So... in my backlog i picked Phantom Doctrine (bought it years ago and got side tracked). So far i'm engrossed by it. yes, its like XCom but its more stealth then combat. Still getting my head around the mechanics like special abilities, what the stats do, economy management, whether there is a doomsday clock etc etc.

I've had Phantom Doctrine on my wishlist for years, I almost got it last year when it was on sale for $2.99, and I still kick myself for not grabbing it.

Got a few mods set up for starting Mass Effect 2. The game now requires the new EA App. Installing that uninstalled the old Origin application and put in the new one. No need to re-input my password or anything, so no issues.

When I finished my playthrough, I noticed I got no achievements. Odd - AAA games like to give one or two out real early. It turns out that the EA app has had this problem for several months now. It has been reported numerous times. EA's answer was to make the app REQUIRED to play EA games.

That's exceptionally pathetic.

I assume that you're playing the Legendary Edition? What mods did you go with? I finished the Legendary Editions ME1 & ME2 last year, and was waiting on one specific mod for ME3 (Citadel Epilogue Mod), which is now released, so I'll be playing that sometime later this year (I hope).

Good to know that there were no issues going from Origin to the EA App (as far as playing goes). Last year for ME1 & 2 I was still using Origin, and there were no issues with getting achievements back then. Leave to EA to screw something like that up and not bother fixing it. EA's trouble shooting forum, called "Answers HQ", I think, is extremely pathetic

 

[ZedClampet]

Guido said he didn't want to go back to FC6, but I really need to uninstall some stuff, so I did a couple of missions tonight. No idea what level I am, but my missions were all level 6 except for 2 level 4s, so I decided to go back and do those. One of them was just a standard mission, but the other one was a quite involved tie in with Stranger Things that I definitely wasn't expecting. Was pretty cool, though. Game says I'm 56 percent through, which if previous Ubisoft games are any indication, I could probably concentrate on the main story line and finish this up in a couple of hours. Didn't even bother to check what difficulty I was on. Unless I start dying I guess I'm okay. It's on whatever Guido wanted when we started.

 

[Zloth]

And I'm aware how you play the game, and any system where you need to constantly knock out reinforcements for a superhero to get "super" is pretty dumb.

No Zed, it's not dumb. If you don't like it, fine, but just because you don't like it doesn't make it stupid.

I assume that you're playing the Legendary Edition? What mods did you go with? I finished the Legendary Editions ME1 & ME2 last year, and was waiting on one specific mod for ME3 (Citadel Epilogue Mod), which is now released, so I'll be playing that sometime later this year (I hope).

Not much. The unofficial LE2 patch, DLC Timings, and Expanded Shepard Armory LE2. I got a New Armor Colors mod, too, but I think the Armory mod overrides it.

You can set Origin so it won't update by putting a special setting in its settings file. I uninstalled the EA App last night, downloaded Origin (it's still on EA's website for now), and got the game running using that. I didn't play long enough to see for sure.

I think the EA App gets confused and thinks you have gotten all achievements already. That might explain why I got a big bonus at the start for having finished ME2 before. I did finish it before, but that was a looong time back. I don't have that save anymore.

 

[ZedClampet]

No Zed, it's not dumb. If you don't like it, fine, but just because you don't like it doesn't make it stupid.

Not much. The unofficial LE2 patch, DLC Timings, and Expanded Shepard Armory LE2. I got a New Armor Colors mod, too, but I think the Armory mod overrides it.

You can set Origin so it won't update by putting a special setting in its settings file. I uninstalled the EA App last night, downloaded Origin (it's still on EA's website for now), and got the game running using that. I didn't play long enough to see for sure.

I think the EA App gets confused and thinks you have gotten all achievements already. That might explain why I got a big bonus at the start for having finished ME2 before. I did finish it before, but that was a looong time back. I don't have that save anymore.

Whenever I say something like that, baked in is the obvious "to me". It doesn't have to be dumb to you or to anyone else to be dumb to me. I played XCOM 2 from beginning to end in 3 days at release. I can't even bring myself to open this game back up.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

That reminds me I never played War of the Chosen, and it should be on my wishlist. Think I'm going to be in Troubleshooter/Elden Ring land for quite a while now though. Took on quite a lot there.

Edit: and its currently on sale for 3.99. Be rude not to.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru do you only get clothes bonuses in FC6 if you wear the entire outfit? I've always assumed that I could mix and match. Since I don't want an entire outfit devoted, for instance, to fire resistance, but wouldn't mind a little fire resistance, I wear the fire resistant gloves, but I don't actually know whether that's helping me. I've always just assumed it was like other games and you get small buffs for each item, but maybe a bonus for wearing them all at the same time. I'm sure it probably says somewhere, but my eyes glaze over with Ubisoft UIs.

 

[ZedClampet]

That reminds me I never played War of the Chosen, and it should be on my wishlist. Think I'm going to be in Troubleshooter/Elden Ring land for quite a while now though. Took on quite a lot there.

Edit: and its currently on sale for 3.99. Be rude not to.

I was thinking the same thing. I loved the main game so much and never went back and did War of the Chosen or the mod campaign those other guys did. Think I'm going to replay the main campaign first, though. Thanks for the heads up on the sale.

 

[Brian Boru]

I've always assumed that I could mix and match

Yes, you can mix & match. Previous play I used Ida's Sigil headgear which highlights enemies etc at night, and it worked fine in a mixed outfit—which included wristband to increase some ammo, which also worked at same time.

This play I'm using the Prisoner's Scarf headgear in a mixed set, and I'm able to takedown alerted enemies from the front—also Parkour Kicks shoes which has increased my run speed.

maybe a bonus for wearing them all at the same time

I'm fairly sure there isn't a set bonus, that's what I read in diff places when I wondered the same thing.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I was thinking the same thing. I loved the main game so much and never went back and did War of the Chosen or the mod campaign those other guys did. Think I'm going to replay the main campaign first, though. Thanks for the heads up on the sale.

I remember seeing some of that mod... Long War, and apparently theres also a Long war of the Chosen. Thats a lot of Xcom2.

 

[ZedClampet]

The massive Darktide update with pretty much every change the players asked for has hit this morning. I'm really excited to get back into it. Hopefully it's not too late to save the game.

Well, there's one thing they didn't add yet. Singleplayer. But I can live with that for now.

 

[DXCHASE]

The massive Darktide update with pretty much every change the players asked for has hit this morning. I'm really excited to get back into it. Hopefully it's not too late to save the game.

Well, there's one thing they didn't add yet. Singleplayer. But I can live with that for now.

I will check this out too and see whats up. I can live w/o SP as well for the likes of this game. I really dont try to get the achievements (forgot the name) so i just log in, play with some randoms and log out.

 

[Johnway]

I've had Phantom Doctrine on my wishlist for years, I almost got it last year when it was on sale for $2.99, and I still kick myself for not grabbing it.

Honestly i wouldn't worry too much about it. if it can hit that price, it can happen again. Currently sunk 7.2 hours into the game and just plodding around chapter 1. Good news is that the story can progress when you want and the dooms day clock isn't an issue provided you stop the enemy from completing their recon.

Not going to lie, PD does have some really good ideas. That Breach feature is bloody good. You stack people around the entry points and select the people you want to breach and they go in and blast everyone dead. Hopefully. The Cork board is nice, but its not difficult and i haven't found any problems solving the case files. Unless Adding a particular agent generates additional intel or something, i see no reason to put some there. yet.

But i really need to address the combat. Its a bit of a mess. The first problem is that there is no % when you shoot. it will either hit or it won't. Cover system feels flawed and a lot less useful compared to xcom. hell, there's no hunker down option to increase defense. Only your Awareness (your MP) will determine if you dodge or not. Which drains very quickly especially if you perform special attacks or just take fire. Combat generally quick and brutal affairs atm as you can take seriously high damage from all the flanking and most of the normal riff raff take one hit to die. its not helping that you can't buy much at the start. Want armor? sure you can buy it. Except you enter the mission with everyone alert and you're going to shoot your way in/out from mission start. But thats nothing compared to the event "unforeseen majeure", essentially after 3 turns everyone becomes alert and you're forced to fight. Either restart the entire mission or struggle through it. When that first happened i had no idea what the hell i was doing wrong and it just triggers.

The stealthy aspect isn't bad though. Sneak around steal stuff etc. Knock out too many people and the guards become alert and start looking for you and/or destroy any loose uncollected intel. That said, why hurting civilians is considered guards is a mystery.

So yeah. mixed bag, but i'll play more of it. i kinda like it, but there are some glaring issues.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bunch of Kingdom Come: Deliverance this evening. For some reason I felt really apprehensive about jumping back in, but after a few minutes I was fine. I spent some time pickpocketing, practicing combat (I still suck at it) and exploring a bit.

Then I got a quest to kill some bandits, so I set off and almost immediately got distracted when the game indicated I could pick a flower. I proceeded to pick an entire field full of flowers and every flower within half a mile of it, almost maxing my herbalism skill with the several hundred flowers I ended up picking. Of course this made me overencumbered, so I walked back to town to sell all of the flowers, where I discovered I only got a measly 80 gold for it.

Once that was done I finally got to the bandit camp (actually maxing out the herbalism skill along the way, apparently I only needed a couple dozen more flowers) and after a few tries (pro tip: do not fight more than one bandit at a time) I managed to kill 3 of them and scare the rest off. I ended up earning more money just for turning in three bandit ears than for the hundreds of flowers I sold.

When I continue I'll spend all of that money on more quicksave potions, so I can kill the next bandit camp.

 

[Brian Boru]

I'll spend all of that money on more quicksave potions

Does that mean what it says on the tin? That you can buy reloadable game saves with in-game resources?

Interesting idea, do other games do that?

 

[ZedClampet]

Played some more FC6. I'm not making any progress towards finishing the game, though. Tonight I did the Rambo tie-in mission, which wasn't nearly as involved as the Stranger Things mission. The dialogue was pretty funny, though.

Was downed once, but I had my handy self-revive pack on, so I made it through that.

I did not, however, make it through the next mission where I had to deliver a plane because I had no idea what the controls were. I had no idea how to kill the engines, so I rolled down the runway at high speed and had to take off again. On my next pass, I tried to solve my little problem with a controlled crash, but the plane blew up right after I jumped out, failing the mission (and the explosion killed me anyway with no option to revive). I have now looked up the controls (L Ctrl to power down the engines), but I didn't feel like doing it again tonight. An in-game refresher course would have been nice.

As I was writing this, I just remembered I could take a pet along with me. That might come in handy.

 

[ZedClampet]

Does that mean what it says on the tin? That you can buy reloadable game saves with in-game resources?

Interesting idea, do other games do that?

I think his foggy brain is just confusing the vodka shots he does while he plays with a game mechanic.

 

[Zloth]

Yep, if you want to save your game in Kingdom Come: Deliverance outside of resting (or exiting the game), you need to drink some Savior Schnapps. If you start quick saving too fast, you'll get drunk!

When I continue I'll spend all of that money on more quicksave potions, so I can kill the next bandit camp.

Can't you just mix your own? I remember getting those was pretty easy.

 

[Brian Boru]

I had no idea what the controls were

If it's like other vehicles, F4 will put the controls on screen—and holster your weapon when on foot.

vodka shots

Ah yes, those can be disorienting if not wearing soakage gear.

 

[Pifanjr]

Does that mean what it says on the tin? That you can buy reloadable game saves with in-game resources?

Interesting idea, do other games do that?

It does mean that, yes. I'm not aware of any other game that does this. Probably because a lot of people don't like it, the unlimited quicksave mod is the most downloaded mod for this game.

I personally don't mind much. The combat is interesting enough that I don't mind having to restart if I die (not being able to save during combat is not unusual anyway). It is a bit of a bother when trying to steal something because the lock pick mechanic sucks and having to redo that every time you get caught is a chore. However, I think being able to savescum your way through every heist would quickly give you more money than you could spend, so I'm just accepting that I shouldn't do it too much.

Can't you just mix your own? I remember getting those was pretty easy.

I have to learn how first. I'm planning on learning how to read soon so I can read recipes. Even without making them yourself they're pretty easy to get though, but limited enough that you can't just save-scum.

 

[DXCHASE]

I dont know if i should start a whole topic about this, but i just bought a pack of ram (32 gb DDR5 6600mhz) for 189

G. Skill Trident

By comparison, heres a pair at 4800mhz for 250

Crucial

That is a really good price for the highest mhz you can get in ddr5 (or is it 6800?) regardless, its a good price by a name brand. Looking at benchmarks, im supposedly going to see a 5-10fps increase in game (more at 1080p but i dont play at that res). I needed to get a new memory kit so i can pass one onto my wife for her new build, shes gonna be going from DDR3 to DDR5 4800mhz so shell be happy. I have been watching these when they were 280 like 4 months ago and today its at its lowest point its ever been at.

 

[Shodan_]

Dude I think I'm going to order this ram.

I've been thinking about upping to 32GB for a while now and if this works on my Z490 Prime I'm buying this thing.

 

[DXCHASE]

Dude I think I'm going to order this ram.

I've been thinking about upping to 32GB for a while now and if this works on my Z490 Prime I'm buying this thing.

DDR 5 only works on 600 series or higher

 

[Shodan_]

Dang it.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

DDR4 here is half the price it was even 6-8 moths ago as well, I expect in the US or wherever you are its similar. I can get 32GB of 3600 C16 Kingston for €115 now, and I paid 10 less than that for 16GB in June last year.