Random Game Thoughts Thread - January 08 - 14

[Brian Boru]

I don't have anything new from last week. Still playing Far Cry 6, not yet at 50% completion—probably because I haven't done that many story missions.

There are a bunch of unique weapons you acquire via various side missions—these can't be customized. I've only found one of them better than the early normal weapons I acquired, which is the Supercharger shotgun—it's silenced and has a good rate of fire, and has served me well.

My main weapon is the MS16 assault rifle, first the S version, and then the L version which appears a bit later. Equipped with armor piercing rounds, it can deal with any enemy I've met, provided I get a headshot.

I have a loot fetish, and there is just way too much loot in the game. Just cleared a farmhouse while ago, and there was probably ~20 diff loot objects around it—often 2 of the same beside each other, and then 2 more in the next room. I don't get the design choice they made about this.

I've cleared most of the enormous map by now, so I'll probably be tackling more story missions and making my way slowly towards the end of the game.

 

[ZedClampet]

With my son, the God King of Calipuco (.our Colony Survival town), I'll be playing Darktide, Colony Survival and Forza.

Not sure what I'm going to play solo. Trying to stay away from House Flipper until the new DLC comes out. Kind of burned out on the game right now.

During this week's Trial in Forza (human team vs "unbeatable" bots), one of the cars you could pick was a Crown Victoria. You can decorate it as a police car complete with flashing lights and a siren.

So Guido and I picked that car and decked it out well, and Guido borrowed my setup. Whenever we play the Trial or Open, the game starts Guido in second to last and me in last. I have no idea why. Our skill doesn't really justify making us start in the back, but that's where we start. It may be that our "Launch" stat is always better than everyone else's because of the way I set up the cars.

Anyway, the race starts and immediately I hear Guido's siren as he rockets past people headed to the front. It took us about half a lap to catch the leader, who was level 374, about 100 levels higher than I am, which is impressive considering how much I play. In the first turn after we catch him, Guido, siren blaring, slams into him so hard that both cars leave the ground. I was laughing so hard I could barely drive.

Guido slammed him in every turn. The guy was a great sport, though. He knew Guido wasn't actually trying to take him out because every time they came to a checkpoint, Guido could have launched him out of the race, but gave him lots of space instead. I was just Sunday driving behind them and watching. I told Guido to let the guy win for playing along (you can't actually talk to other drivers in Forza, but you can use canned statements selected with your controller and the guy was saying some hilarious stuff). The second race played out the same way, with me tagging along as Guido, siren blaring, pounded the crap out of this guy until letting him go at the end. You probably "had to be there" but it was pretty funny.

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh, Happy 18th Birthday Guido!

My birthday is tomorrow. I'm 27ish. You know, give or take.

 

[Zloth]

My birthday is tomorrow. I'm 27ish.

And that, folks, is why your science teachers always insisted on everyone putting the UNITS on their numbers!

My birthday is (looks around suspiciously) within two weeks of today. Happy birthday to all of us!

Now if only I could get out of Act 3 of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Sheesh, I've got the most severe love/hate relationship with that game. I'm still getting tons of crashes. The balance in the game goes wonky from time to time. Weird rules in the Pathfinder system bite me (knock an enemy down with a Grease spell and everyone gets a +4 to hit... with melee weapons, ranged weapons have a -4 to hit). And then I get the opportunity to take a bunch of mimics into my crusade!

There are now a bunch of random items scattered around my woodland area - including a streetlamp that actually works!

 

[Brian Boru]

Guido, 'grats man—we know more about you here than your mom does

But finally… yes, finally you can tell the old man to stuff it, woohoo!!

tomorrow. I'm 27ish

You had Guido when you were 8-9

My birthday is (looks around suspiciously) within two weeks of today

Wow, look at all of those Fools Day conceptions!

 

[ZedClampet]

Guido wanted us to play Stranded Deep on Game Pass. I said, "Yeah, that's not going to work," but we tried anyway. It didn't work.

We could get into the same game (though it was challenging), but after the 5 to 10 minute process of getting in the same world, it immediately desynced. Changes made in player 1's world didn't exist in player 2's world. That was just one problem of many. This sort of thing is typical on Game Pass for multiplayer.

I'm going to see if it actually works outside of the Game Pass/Windows Store ecosystem, and if it does, we'll play it on Epic because I already have it over there. Would just have to buy Guido a copy.

 

[Pifanjr]

Oh, Happy 18th Birthday Guido!

My birthday is tomorrow. I'm 27ish. You know, give or take.

Happy birthday!

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Happy Birthday, Zed!

 

[Colif]

as I do with games, I started again. Game hasn't changed that much since Beta, I wasn't expecting to be remembering story as I go

Managed to not die on some bosses just to stand in poison
I bought an expansion just to get Necomancer class. Pets so much easier provided they stay alive.

Downside to Necromancers... where am I?

pets stand on me

 

[Zloth]

I bought an expansion just to get Necomancer class. Pets so much easier provided they stay alive.

Is "alive" the word you want to use there?

 

[ZedClampet]

Darktide on higher difficulties is just about too much. We finished two missions, and Guido said, "I need a break," and I was right there with him.

Of course, we're playing with two bots, which is far from optimal. The bots aren't terrible by any means, but they are worse than humans, for sure, so that puts extra strain on you. Also they have some glitches that need to be worked out. For instance, we were riding an elevator, and I turned around and they were both lying on the ground needing to be revived. No idea how that happened.

Also, one of the bots went down, and as I was creating a swath of carnage to get to him, I was watching the other bot who was trying to revive the downed bot. It was completely wasting it's time and getting itself killed because every time you take damage, it interrupts your attempt to revive the other player. This bot was doing nothing but trying over and over to revive the other bot when it should have been clearing out enemies first.

 

[Zimbaly]

Happy birthday you guys. As for gaming I'm still playing Darktide. Slowly getting my last two guys to level 30. Might break out some Starpoint Gemini Warlords. Was fun from what I played, but I was just at the start of it and I'm guessing it opens up more as I get deeper into the game. Picked up The Hunter Call Of The Wild and it looks nice, but holy 6 shots from a revolver and 4 plus shots from a shotgun to take down a moose is some garbage.

Other then that it looks like the vinyl cutter I got ain't working now and I'm getting it replaced. So for right now no more gaming decals. It's such a bummer...... =\

 

[Pifanjr]

I've played some more Kerbal Space Program yesterday. I managed to do some successful suborbital flights and one orbital one. Next step is to do a fly-by of the Mun. And hopefully this time I'll remember to use my science components before I'm descending back into Kerbin's atmosphere.

I also played some Total War: Warhammer 3 with two friends. We were planning on playing Vermintide 2 at first, but then my friends decided to just gift me Warhammer 3 so we could play that together instead. I'm playing as Skarbrand and it's going pretty decent, but units are extremely expensive and it's hard to boost my income. I'm mostly surviving on sacking settlements, but I pissed off the Beastmen near me and now they're coming to take revenge with a full 20-unit army, while my main army only has 11 units and I don't have the money to buy more. I'm just hoping I'll be able to catch them near a garrison.

 

[ZedClampet]

I've played some more Kerbal Space Program yesterday. I managed to do some successful suborbital flights and one orbital one. Next step is to do a fly-by of the Mun. And hopefully this time I'll remember to use my science components before I'm descending back into Kerbin's atmosphere.

I also played some Total War: Warhammer 3 with two friends. We were planning on playing Vermintide 2 at first, but then my friends decided to just gift me Warhammer 3 so we could play that together instead. I'm playing as Skarbrand and it's going pretty decent, but units are extremely expensive and it's hard to boost my income. I'm mostly surviving on sacking settlements, but I pissed off the Beastmen near me and now they're coming to take revenge with a full 20-unit army, while my main army only has 11 units and I don't have the money to buy more. I'm just hoping I'll be able to catch them near a garrison.

On the bright side, Skarbrand would be too OP with money. His units are awesome, so maybe your 11 stack can whip the Beastmen, who are generally pretty weak. In my ogre campaign, I've basically got the max number of ally (Skarbrand) units in each army.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Ok guys, I'm going to be vulnerable with you guys about my gaming, so don't be too hard on me!

Some of you guys have probably surmised this by the things I've said, but when my gaming PC started feeling outdated, I went to playing on an Xbox Series X because it was way cheaper than upgrading my PC to where I wanted it to be. So that's been almost a year ago now that I did that. But it looks very promising that I'll be able to build a good gaming PC in a few months, so I'll be able to rejoin you guys in the Dark Side again. Haha.

One thing I've learned is that the XSX is a great console, and for the price, it does an amazing job at gaming. But I can't get away from the fact that I've just always been a PC guy my whole life. Anyway, all that to say that in this transition time, I'm having to plan ahead with how I do my gaming, because I usually play long games, and I'm slow at playing them. For Christmas, I got an Xbox card, so I bought the Xbox version of Cyberpunk with it. But right now, I'm playing AC: Odyssey on Game Pass, with still a very long way to go. Well, I realize that I'll be able to continue playing that game on my PC when I build it because I'll still have the PC version of Game Pass. So I'm making the decision to stop playing that, and go ahead and start playing Cyberpunk while Xbox is my primary means of gaming, since I can't carry that over to PC. So whenever I get another chance to play something, I'll probably start that.

 

[Pifanjr]

Ok guys, I'm going to be vulnerable with you guys about my gaming, so don't be too hard on me!

Some of you guys have probably surmised this by the things I've said, but when my gaming PC started feeling outdated, I went to playing on an Xbox Series X because it was way cheaper than upgrading my PC to where I wanted it to be. So that's been almost a year ago now that I did that. But it looks very promising that I'll be able to build a good gaming PC in a few months, so I'll be able to rejoin you guys in the Dark Side again. Haha.

One thing I've learned is that the XSX is a great console, and for the price, it does an amazing job at gaming. But I can't get away from the fact that I've just always been a PC guy my whole life. Anyway, all that to say that in this transition time, I'm having to plan ahead with how I do my gaming, because I usually play long games, and I'm slow at playing them. For Christmas, I got an Xbox card, so I bought the Xbox version of Cyberpunk with it. But right now, I'm playing AC: Odyssey on Game Pass, with still a very long way to go. Well, I realize that I'll be able to continue playing that game on my PC when I build it because I'll still have the PC version of Game Pass. So I'm making the decision to stop playing that, and go ahead and start playing Cyberpunk while Xbox is my primary means of gaming, since I can't carry that over to PC. So whenever I get another chance to play something, I'll probably start that.

 

[ZedClampet]

Ok guys, I'm going to be vulnerable with you guys about my gaming, so don't be too hard on me!

Some of you guys have probably surmised this by the things I've said, but when my gaming PC started feeling outdated, I went to playing on an Xbox Series X because it was way cheaper than upgrading my PC to where I wanted it to be. So that's been almost a year ago now that I did that. But it looks very promising that I'll be able to build a good gaming PC in a few months, so I'll be able to rejoin you guys in the Dark Side again. Haha.

One thing I've learned is that the XSX is a great console, and for the price, it does an amazing job at gaming. But I can't get away from the fact that I've just always been a PC guy my whole life. Anyway, all that to say that in this transition time, I'm having to plan ahead with how I do my gaming, because I usually play long games, and I'm slow at playing them. For Christmas, I got an Xbox card, so I bought the Xbox version of Cyberpunk with it. But right now, I'm playing AC: Odyssey on Game Pass, with still a very long way to go. Well, I realize that I'll be able to continue playing that game on my PC when I build it because I'll still have the PC version of Game Pass. So I'm making the decision to stop playing that, and go ahead and start playing Cyberpunk while Xbox is my primary means of gaming, since I can't carry that over to PC. So whenever I get another chance to play something, I'll probably start that.

Nothing wrong with that. You play with a controller anyway. You don't like turn-based games. Don't know how you feel about playing on a television. But an Xbox is a good call for you right now.

PC gaming has the potential to be cheaper in the long term depending on how you play and how many games you buy, but over the short term, console is cheaper. Of course, if you mostly play Game Pass, then it gets more difficult to make PC more cost efficient.

For me, PC has better games, cheaper games and more options. And I play on Game Pass every now and then, but I mostly use it to test games out and then buy them elsewhere. I still like to own the games I play.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Nothing wrong with that. You play with a controller anyway. You don't like turn-based games. Don't know how you feel about playing on a television. But an Xbox is a good call for you right now.

PC gaming has the potential to be cheaper in the long term depending on how you play and how many games you buy, but over the short term, console is cheaper. Of course, if you mostly play Game Pass, then it gets more difficult to make PC more cost efficient.

For me, PC has better games, cheaper games and more options. And I play on Game Pass every now and then, but I mostly use it to test games out and then buy them elsewhere. I still like to own the games I play.

TV is actually my choice for gaming, whether it's PC or console. So I'm good there. And you're right that the Xbox was a good choice for me for the last year. It's significantly more powerful than my current PC, and it only cost $500 for the console. But we're getting ourselves in a financial position this year that building a really good PC will probably be possible for me. And I'm definitely not getting into it to be cheaper. I know it doesn't usually work out that way. It can be an expensive hobby.

But the truth is, even though the Xbox has worked out for gaming, there has been a lot that I have missed about PC. For one thing, the versatility. Xbox sucks to try to use it as an HTPC. But with PC, I can just do whatever I want without any limitations. Even with games, I can play almost any Xbox game on the PC, yet the PC also gets a lot of Sony games, too, that I'll never be able to play on Xbox. Not to mention every once in a while, Epic will have a killer freebie. The Xbox runs games better than my current PC, but there's been too much that I have missed. And what I'm planning on building should put this Xbox to shame, hopefully. But it's done me pretty well for the past year, and it will get me through the next few months, too. Plus, I never would have tried out Game Pass, which was pretty much what resurrected my love for gaming.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I finally just started Cyberpunk. I've only had time to get to where you get to the city and do the VR combat tutorial. I know I haven't given it much time, but man, I'm not sure if this game is going to capture me, or not. So far, I'm not really getting into it. We'll see, but I'm glad I got it for half price.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

(@WoodenSaucer sometimes I play games on my Switch and talk about them here as well, shhh dont tell anyone)
I quite liked Cyberpunk FWIW, then again I played it mostly as if it was just a linear single player game and didnt bother exploring half of the areas. I did a lot of the side missions too, some were pretty interesting. Keanu does kind of sucks in it tbh, and I dont usually mind Keanu.

Still playing Dying Light 2, the environmental puzzle areas like the power stations and water towers are cool, climbing stuff is fun and tense, I just wish they would give me the damn grappling hook and let me at those big towers. Need to do more story I guess.

The game also rewards you for clearing some of those puzzles by letting you give control of the area they are in to one of two factions, just with a wave of the hand and they dont argue or comment on it, at least yet. One gives you more traversal options like jump pads and zip lines and the other weapons like car bombs and mounted guns dotted around. I have no idea why anyone would not pick the movement stuff, but takes all sorts I 'spose.

 

[ZedClampet]

I just wish they would give me the damn grappling hook and let me at those big towers.

Just so you are prepared...When you first get the grappling hook, it's almost completely useless. All you can do on it is swing. It won't pull you toward it. You have to upgrade it with 2 military techs and some old world money before you can do anything useful with it.

they dont argue or comment on it, at least yet.

I've had a couple of times where the Peacekeepers were planning a mission, and they sort of stated offhand, with no anger detected, "This would have been nice to have here, but you gave it to the survivors."

 

[Zloth]

(WoodenSaucer sometimes I play games on my Switch and talk about them here as well, shhh dont tell anyone)

What what whaaaat!?!?

 

[Colif]

Is "alive" the word you want to use there?

Probably not.

One thing I do with games like this is restart once I know what is to come. Or think I might have messed up. Tunnel vision happens and only thing that matters is keep going,
At lvl 2 you choose one mastery, at rank 10 you choose another. Masteries = classes. Every character can be a mix of 2 classes, I didn't know what combined well with necro so I didn't choose a 2nd class, so possibly weakened it. You can pick it at any time, but you only get 3 points to spend on skills per level so with 2 classes you have to split them up.

So google was needed.

So I started again yesterday (twice) and so far have a Necro/Occultist to lvl 33. Its got any more pets than before... though it seems both classes max out at maybe 3 pets each... which works out to be 6 Skeletons that don't count as party members, and 3 other pets that do. I should work out how to heal my pets. My job in fights is to summon new pets, I don't hit anything myself so no threat. I don't actually have any attack moves so once my pets are dead they notice me. I have to make sure my pets stay up. One pet can heal other party members but not skeletons.

So far I have only died to environmental hazards (such as going into an area only dead people live and gettjng to a point where you kill a boss just for it to come back again and you realise you can't win because its eternal undying and your portal option doesn't work, but it was a fun life. Lucky death means nothing (unlike Sacred 2) and I just laughed). I was only lvl 31, killing lvl 38 enemies. The undying one was lvl 39, I killed it once before I realised it was pointless and there was no escape. Character is still playable.

The other restart is a Warrior/Nightblade, which is essentially a rogue. Its a distinct change from the pet build, have to kill everything myself. It was slow until I enhanced one of his attacks to be crowd control. Bosses don't last long unless they are summoners. One boss is a pain, summons lots of adds and I am not in a rush to fight it on the rogue.

game has this weird bug with lights

it crashed on me yesterday, guess I had been playing it for um... 20 hours. Good thing it autosaves when you use a portal or go to certain areas.

There is so much I just don't understand yet. This is probably a good thing. Not enough explanations, stumble into screens and wonder what they do. You get points for clearing shrines but I didn't know. Stumble onto the devotion screen and see a chart similar to the skills tree in POE (and Diablo 4) and notice you have points... wonder what to spend on to make character better. The enchancement I put on rogues attack came from this tree. Its not explained anywhere apart from a short help paragraph. Necro choices mainly seem to help pets. I probably need to watch another video.

Reading guides can help. Randomly discover I can set pets to aggressive.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Just so you are prepared...When you first get the grappling hook, it's almost completely useless. All you can do on it is swing. It won't pull you toward it. You have to upgrade it with 2 military techs and some old world money before you can do anything useful with it.


I've had a couple of times where the Peacekeepers were planning a mission, and they sort of stated offhand, with no anger detected, "This would have been nice to have here, but you gave it to the survivors."

Thanks, I havent used any miltech yet but I was going to upgrade the paraglider with it. Maybe better to save it for the grapple then.

I dont really know how they could have done the story stuff differently with the way the game works, but its hugely disjointed how it is. Guess thats because they tried to mix up the single player campaign with the online co-op stuff to give it the same legs that the original had for some. Over xmas all the zombies were dressed as santa and dropped candy canes, which kind of takes you out of the story too if thats what you were there for.

What what whaaaat!?!?

Shame, shame, shame!

 

[Ryzengang]

I've mostly been doing more of the same playing Forza and MW2 with my buddies. I started my new job this week so it has been busy and I'm just trying to get settled in. I've been itching to get into something new, so hopefully this weekend I can start something. I have a few smaller games that I'd like to give a shot. I got Lunistice for quite cheap during the Steam winter sale and it looks like a quick and fun experience. I think a quicker experience is best for easing back into my backlog.