Random Game Thoughts Thread - February 19 - February 25

[ZedClampet]

Ever since the latest Windows update, my computer periodically hangs during games if I play with my desired graphic options. It seems like it isn't as efficient at using either RAM or VRAM. This is a huge problem in Forza and any other game that requires consistent timing. I finally decided last night to switch my resolution from 1440p to 1080p. I only have a 17 inch screen, and with my vision rarely being at its best, I honestly can't tell the difference between the two resolutions, but at least games don't hang at 1080p.

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Installed WRC 8 from Amazon Prime that I got free last summer. Got 12 more free games while I was there to take my total Amazon Prime free games to 54. I really need to check more often. I rarely think about it.

Anyway, WRC 8 has this thing where you run a race and it determines what difficulty and which assists you need. I thought, "I'm going to screw with this and run this thing like a maniac." and then ended up having a fantastic, always on the edge, run. Now I have no assists and am at high difficulty. I think I can change it, though. I don't like starting games at that level, but prefer to work my way up.

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Speaking of racing games *flex flex flex*, I've won 17 multiplayer races in a row in Forza Horizon 5.

 

[Pifanjr]

Speaking of racing games *flex flex flex*, I've won 17 multiplayer races in a row in Forza Horizon 5.

That's definitely flexworthy, congrats!

 

[Brian Boru]

I've won 17 multiplayer races in a row in Forza Horizon 5

Ok, getaway driver sorted, wife is inside 'man', Guido's muscle and BFG—anything else before we run this heist?

Grats

 

[ZedClampet]

Sons of the Forest has over 250k concurrent players right now. Wow. What a huge launch for a small dev team. So happy for them. Wonder if they'd let me borrow some money?

 

[DXCHASE]

Sons of the Forest has over 250k concurrent players right now. Wow. What a huge launch for a small dev team. So happy for them. Wonder if they'd let me borrow some money?

I had this on my wishlist and it looks pretty interesting even though im not a huge open-world survival fan.

 

[Shodan_]

The Forest was fantastic, I'm sure they nailed it again.

The building mechanic in that game was far more enjoyable than a lot of other games, albeit some advanced options were not exactly obvious and the UI could've been better. For example you could put a blueprint of wall of X type, and then aim at it and change some properties of it like windows or style, and that way, you would get options that weren't in your main list of plans. Pretty annoying to figure out and not consistent across all types of parts.

The best part though is the blueprint. More games should have this. Like all of them basically. Even if you don't have any materials gathered up, you could lay down an entire base in blueprint, and then go off and gather the materials, and snap them to the blueprint until it's completed. Straight fkin genius.

No need to gather everything first, only to realize your placement won't work or you need to destroy something else first or any other familiar symptom of a survival base building game. Plan first, then if it all works out, start the build and actually feel like you're building and not spawning a house and plopping it some place.

 

[ZedClampet]

The Forest was fantastic, I'm sure they nailed it again.

The building mechanic in that game was far more enjoyable than a lot of other games, albeit some advanced options were not exactly obvious and the UI could've been better. For example you could put a blueprint of wall of X type, and then aim at it and change some properties of it like windows or style, and that way, you would get options that weren't in your main list of plans. Pretty annoying to figure out and not consistent across all types of parts.

The best part though is the blueprint. More games should have this. Like all of them basically. Even if you don't have any materials gathered up, you could lay down an entire base in blueprint, and then go off and gather the materials, and snap them to the blueprint until it's completed. Straight fkin genius.

No need to gather everything first, only to realize your placement won't work or you need to destroy something else first or any other familiar symptom of a survival base building game. Plan first, then if it all works out, start the build and actually feel like you're building and not spawning a house and plopping it some place.

My only problem with the building was tree chopping. Oh, the humanity. Second playthrough I basically made everything out of stone. The stones respawned really quickly. So long as you were in an area with a decent amount of them, you could basically build and build and build...

 

[Shodan_]

Yeah I had the tree respawn turned off because realism, and then decided I should build a staircase all the way down the sink hole, hugging the cliffside.

The deforestation was massive. I didn't make many native friends doing this but the path to the hole was nice and clear.

Only after did I realize you can just pick up rocks and not worry about any of that. Tree respawn on or off.

 

[Johnway]

More play on phantom doctrine. So things are picking up. There is a dooms day clock, but i don't thinks particularly visible. That said there is the danger heat bar which as far as I'm aware is how likely that the enemy spy group (Beholder) launches an attack on your safe house. Find Beholder's safe house and you can launch an attack and destroy their hidey hole where non active agents hide. Typically you want to hit these early as the more enemy hideouts appear, the more higher the danger meter increases and i think it will slowly tick up passively. There's also the benefit of getting some decent gear and intel as well. Blew up their safehouse, stole all their intel and abducted their agents, all done in stealth. A good job in my books.

The game still has some strange aspects/mechanics. Whilst i need to send my agents on site to perform missions, for assualt missions there seems to be no penalty from pulling people from all over the world standing idle to be in the mission. I kinda thought that there would have been a time penalty or something (so you had to have the x number of people in the country to perform the mission).

Another niggle i found was trying to collect intel/items is somewhat annoying. You can only access the items from one direction. For lockers/cupboards it makes sense. But for intel on a bloody table? Why do i have to be on the correct side of the bloody table to collect it? Its stupid especially when I'm taking a photo of it! The second niggle? I'm seeing repetitive maps. For the beholder safe house it was the same map of one i played and my prior knowledge helped me navigate and explore much easier.

Gameplay mechanics i'm getting to grips with the stealth mechanics. Whilst you can wear heavier armor, it causes those agents in public areas to be at risk of being spotted and breaking infiltration (normally agents can wander public areas without problems unless they start shooting weapons etc)

my top tips for this game? bring a silenced pistol and someone with high HP (Something along 96 if possible at chapter1). On higher difficulties you have to be equal or higher HP to subdue agents and capture them for intel etc. On the plus side eliminating the agent early prevents all sorts of things happening. Take out the agent and no one get suspicious when people start falling unconscious. or dead. The silenced pistol allows agents to fire weapons and kill people without breaking stealth. hell, i found myself taking the extra time to eliminate the various Security and get some extra xp.

 

[Zloth]

Reading a scroll of HACK'M MUCHE over Mass Effect 2 so I could use Origin to run it instead of the EA App has definitely worked to allow me to get achievements. I don't get those first achievements back, but oh well.

I remember Mass Effect being really old, but ME2 is more clunky than I remember. The animations are pretty weak. But the characters are still great. Mordin really is fun!