The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (17 July to 23 July)

[ZedClampet]

I asked a question on Reddit. Without getting into details, I said, "How would you...." And someone sent me a private message that said, in total, "It can be done. There's trick to it."

That was so helpful, so I might be in jail next weekend if I can track this dude down, in which case @Zloth should start the weekly thread. I hope the jail has good wifi and outlets in every cell. Maybe I should check the menu for next week.

I played the first campaign scenario in The Good Company. It also served as the tutorial so it wasn't the most difficult accomplishment I've had this year. Looks like it's going to be a fun game. The campaign is a series of scenarios. You have to get one star to unlock the next scenario, but there are optional objectives that can end up getting you 3 stars. There is also an endless sandbox mode, which I'm actually looking forward to more than the scenarios.

I'm currently downloading 300+ GB to install Ark Survival Evolved because my son wants to play it. The crazy things you do for your children. My daughter is home this weekend so we are going to play some Phasmophobia and Ghost Exiles here in a bit.

There's the kids. The former US Marine is on the left and the one on the right is 6 foot 5 now. Was just going through some old photos and thought I would share. I'm the one on the far right in the back row. Oh darn, I cut me completely out.

In the 36 combined years of parenting these two, I never had a single minute of trouble, unless you count when my daughter was two. She was pretty bossy haha, but she was also adorable, so it evened out. She grew out of it quickly.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Nice fam Zed, and good job raising them.

I'm continuing on with Dying Light Ultimate Edition, which I installed and started playing a little while ago. I'd forgotten how tricky some of the climbing can get, and the annoying bite of losing 10% of your income if you die. That mission where you get the sonar device for the twins that like to treat you like an idiot is a prime example. Just trying to remember how to take the ride down the cable to get to the other end of the bridge was driving me nuts. Then I noticed all you have to do is look up before you even climb all the way up, and you can just jump onto it while hanging on the tower wall. I then recalled having made that mistake before. When the game spawns me on the platform above it after dying though, I take a mad leap at it and grab for dear life when I see the interactive prompt, which is far trickier.

I tend to play this game by just swapping out my melee weapons for the best ones I find, without even adding effects to them via crafting, until I have to for tougher parts of the game. Reason being they can only be repaired so many times, and I got sick of having to craft all over again so often. Nothing a good flying kick and stomp can't fix. Of course that's largely because I use the Ranger Bow a lot, which is included in the Ultimate Edition. I also buy the blueprint to craft arrows for it as soon as I can.

As far as random game thoughts, I'm curious if anyone here has ever played Freedom Fighters or The Saboteur? Both games were way better than I expected. Those are two games I wouldn't mind seeing remakes of, or even just well done remasters. I thought it was amusing the hardest mode in The Saboteur was call "Feckin' Hard".

 

[Zloth]

In the 36 combined years of parenting these two, I never had a single minute of trouble...

...so I might be in jail next weekend if I can track this dude down...

Ummmm... I'm experiencing some cognitive dissonance here...

 

[ZedClampet]

I tend to play this game by just swapping out my melee weapons for the best ones I find, without even adding effects to them via crafting, until I have to for tougher parts of the game. Reason being they can only be repaired so many times, and I got sick of having to craft all over again so often.

Durability doesn't even really come into play in Dying Light 2. Things might last longer, not sure, but you are constantly finding good and often better weapons. We played through 2/3 of the game, and I never repaired anything.

 

[ZedClampet]

Ummmm... I'm experiencing some cognitive dissonance here...

No, you aren't. Is a football coach a great quarterback? Can your average basketball coach do a 360 dunk? I'm a lousy person, but I know how to parent and make kids good people.

By the way, I talked to the guy again, and he actually doesn't know anything, but had some suggestions on where I could find people who do know things *eye roll*

 

[Frag Maniac]

Durability doesn't even really come into play in Dying Light 2. Things might last longer, not sure, but you are constantly finding good and often better weapons. We played through 2/3 of the game, and I never repaired anything.

Yeah I'll eventually get around to getting and playing DL2, but the launch reception it got made me think I'm better off waiting for a much lower price on it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Yeah I'll eventually get around to getting and playing DL2, but the launch reception it got made me think I'm better off waiting for a much lower price on it.

People don't know what they are talking about. There was a lot of bias against this game before it launched, and many people aren't strong-willed enough to see past that to the reality. Two of the people on the front page of Steam with negative reviews call the parkour clunky. That's ridiculous. The parkour is unbelievably well done and ultra polished. It's far, far better than the parkour in the first game. They also call combat clunky, but combat is exactly the same as the combat in Dying Light 1, which I thought was some of the best first person melee combat ever created.

I found pretty much everything about this game equal to, or superior to, the first one. The one exception to that being some bugs. The first game launched very clean. This one had to be cleaned up after launch.

If I weren't stuck in a co-op game, I'd already have finished at least one new game plus. My son thinks we made too many wrong decisions, so he's afraid of what the ending will be.

 

[Frag Maniac]

People don't know what they are talking about. There was a lot of bias against this game before it launched, and many people aren't strong-willed enough to see past that to the reality. Two of the people on the front page of Steam with negative reviews call the parkour clunky. That's ridiculous. The parkour is unbelievably well done and ultra polished. It's far, far better than the parkour in the first game. They also call combat clunky, but combat is exactly the same as the combat in Dying Light 1, which I thought was some of the best first person melee combat ever created.

I found pretty much everything about this game equal to, or superior to, the first one. The one exception to that being some bugs. The first game launched very clean. This one had to be cleaned up after launch.

If I weren't stuck in a co-op game, I'd already have finished at least one new game plus. My son thinks we made too many wrong decisions, so he's afraid of what the ending will be.

Actually I was referring to some saying the physical part of the gameplay was the only thing it had going for it, with a lot of dull missions and bad NPC dialog. The bugs of course most didn't like though.

I really hope they're wrong, but I'll probably wait until it's under $40 anyway.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I'll be picking up Dying Light 2 in the winter when I'll have more time to play it. Hopefully I'll get it in the Autumn or winter sale for a decent discount. First game was one of my favourites of that time.

Just started playing Tunic on Gamepass, unfortunately I'm away from home this week so I wont be able to pick it up again for a bit. Its really, really good. Isometric view Zelda alike with Dark Souls like exploration, as in shortcuts that link back up to areas youve already been in ways you dont expect.

It also only explains its mechanics through manual pages you find by exploring the world. Far as I can tell things are available to use and figure out if you want to experiment before you find the instructions but it doesn't hold any hands at all. Its vibing similarly with me to Deaths Door from last year, lovely relaxing music and cutesy polished graphics. Only played for a couple of hours but looking great so far and I've only heard good things so look forward to finishing it.

Played some 40 Battlesector as well, continues to be OK. Seems they have a world domination mode but it only includes Tyrannids, Space Marines, and Necrons for an extra tenner. If it had a lot of factions in an overworld campaign like Dawn of War Dark Crusade/ Soulstorm (?) I think I'd be really into it. I think if they do that it will be released piecemeal and an extra 10 USD a faction though. Maybe that one potential symptom of developers having some types of games on Gamepass going forwards.

 

[ZedClampet]

Actually I was referring to some saying the physical part of the gameplay was the only thing it had going for it, with a lot of dull missions and bad NPC dialog. The bugs of course most didn't like though.

I really hope they're wrong, but I'll probably wait until it's under $40 anyway.

Yeah, wait for a sale, but they are wrong. The missions and NPC dialogue are fine. This is why I just despise so much about gaming culture. It's both stupid and negative at the same time. I guarantee most of these people wouldn't even recognize good dialogue or be able to explain why some dialogue was poor. The game is fine. The story isn't a masterpiece and can occasionally be predictable, but so was Dying Light 1's story. It's a pleasant enough narrative to keep you going while you enjoy the great gameplay.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well, the developer ruined Ghost Exiles in exactly the way I knew he would. I even went on the forums over a month ago and begged him not to do this, but sure enough he did it. It's now almost impossible to gather evidence and each mission is going to take you about an hour. You just stand around forever doing nothing, hoping against hope that some of your equipment will finally register something. I told him we were done with it and were going back to Phasmophobia.

 

[Pifanjr]

I played a bit of Fall Guys on request of my daughter. She can do the easier levels, but let me do the obstacle courses. I actually managed to end up as #1 once.

As far as random game thoughts, I'm curious if anyone here has ever played Freedom Fighters or The Saboteur? Both games were way better than I expected. Those are two games I wouldn't mind seeing remakes of, or even just well done remasters. I thought it was amusing the hardest mode in The Saboteur was call "Feckin' Hard".

I have played Saboteur and I agree it was surprisingly good. I didn't finish the game though, I got distracted with something else and never returned to it.

 

[Frindis]

Right now I am playing Vampire Survivors and the new map in PUBG called Deston. Highly recommend Vampire Survivors for anyone wanting to play as Bullet Hell himself and defeat countless waves of undead stuff. The game does not cost much, so it is definitely not a big loss if you suddenly get bored after some hours of playing. I got 11 hours of play and still having a blast!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqdLmAGG7kI

Nice fam Zed, and good job raising them.

I'm continuing on with Dying Light Ultimate Edition, which I installed and started playing a little while ago. I'd forgotten how tricky some of the climbing can get, and the annoying bite of losing 10% of your income if you die.

Losing some of the income can suck a little at the beginning, but after you get some skills and weapons for crowd dealing, you'll be able to grind out The Infamy Bridge for cash/mats. At least I found this strategy to be both lucrative and fun, especially at night. I also found a way to grind the Nighly creatures for some easy XP:

Spoiler

Kite the Volatiles to the tower and mow them down since they can't get past the safe zone, but you can shoot from the safe zone.

I tend to play this game by just swapping out my melee weapons for the best ones I find, without even adding effects to them via crafting, until I have to for tougher parts of the game. Reason being they can only be repaired so many times, and I got sick of having to craft all over again so often. Nothing a good flying kick and stomp can't fix. Of course that's largely because I use the Ranger Bow a lot, which is included in the Ultimate Edition. I also buy the blueprint to craft arrows for it as soon as I can.

I love the Ranger Bow! Very fun to use and hard-hitting. I also like to use the silenced German pistol and the Volkan Combat Assault Rifle which comes with both a silencer and a scope. My favorite melee weapons are the wrench & one-handed swords. The wrench is not necessarily the most damage-making of weapons out there, but I have used it since the beginning so it will always be in my bag.

 

[Ryzengang]

Right now I am playing Vampire Survivors and the new map in PUBG called Deston. Highly recommend Vampire Survivors for anyone wanting to play as Bullet Hell himself and defeat countless waves of undead stuff. The game does not cost much, so it is definitely not a big loss if you suddenly get bored after some hours of playing. I got 11 hours of play and still having a blast!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqdLmAGG7kI




Losing some of the income can suck a little at the beginning, but after you get some skills and weapons for crowd dealing, you'll be able to grind out The Infamy Bridge for cash/mats. At least I found this strategy to be both lucrative and fun, especially at night. I also found a way to grind the Nighly creatures for some easy XP:

Spoiler

Kite the Volatiles to the tower and mow them down since they can't get past the safe zone, but you can shoot from the safe zone.

I love the Ranger Bow! Very fun to use and hard-hitting. I also like to use the silenced German pistol and the Volkan Combat Assault Rifle which comes with both a silencer and a scope. My favorite melee weapons are the wrench & one-handed swords. The wrench is not necessarily the most damage-making of weapons out there, but I have used it since the beginning so it will always be in my bag.

I really wish this game was on Switch. This is literally a perfect handheld game. I have it on Steam and it's still a great time, of course, but it would be great to have on the go.

 

[Ryzengang]

In terms of what I've been playing, I started playing a bit of coop Deep Rock Galactic again. Really a fantastic game that I'm going to continue to return to. But overall I haven't been playing too much on the PC side. I've been playing KOTOR and the Slay the Spire on the Switch. Slay the Spire is really a brilliant game and it's perfect for playing in handheld mode. I owned it on Steam but I never got super into it, but it really excels as a pick up and play game on a handheld.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Just started playing Tunic on Gamepass, unfortunately I'm away from home this week so I wont be able to pick it up again for a bit. Its really, really good. Isometric view Zelda alike with Dark Souls like exploration, as in shortcuts that link back up to areas youve already been in ways you dont expect.

I really wanted to love Tunic, but I just couldn't get into it. I can see why people love it, but it's just not for me.

 

[ZedClampet]

I genuinely wish I had never started playing Forza Horizon on Unbeatable difficulty. It's about as much frustration as I've ever had in a game. Several possibilities exist.

1. I'm not good enough.
2. I don't understand how to set my car up.
3. Only certain cars, set up perfectly, can actually win these races.

I spent at least 2 hours upgrading and tuning a Toyota Supra (It has a really cool body kit). This included a lot of track time where I tested changes. It also involved making 2 different upgrade versions to test them.

So I finally go to a race. In Unbeatable, you start off in the last row every race. So the race starts, and I start frantically passing cars. You have to do this as fast as possible because the first place car is leaving you behind. At the end of lap one, I was in 2nd place, which is awesome, but the lead car was 9 seconds ahead of me. The first place car is based off of your car, and it runs nearly perfect laps every time. Over the last 6 laps, I was only able to cut maybe 3 seconds off of it's lead, and I finished in 2nd. This is how 95 percent of my races go in unbeatable, with the other 5 percent being wins somehow.

Note: this is only the case for cars in A class or better. If you race B class or below, you can actually set up your car to win almost every time (and the rabbit isn't fast enough to get that far ahead), but who wants to run slow races?

 

[ZedClampet]

@Frag Maniac after a long break where I was obsessed with Forza, I got irritated at it and went back and played some Grid (2019).

Sticking with stock cars and in the hardest difficulty (so much more fair than Forza's hardest difficulty) with no assists, my next up championship were the trucks. These things are a lot of fun, but they drive really weirdly. They have too much oversteer at the beginning of a turn, but the grip through the middle and end of the turn is phenomenal. I found out that I could start the throttle pretty early with these so long as I came into the turn correctly.

That aggressive oversteer made the Crescent track pretty fun. I started in last and finished poorly in seventh. There were a lot of AI shenanigans going on throughout the race. i got knocked off the road twice and had to dodge another truck that had slid to a sideways stop in the middle of the track. I really should have run a qualifying lap.

I won the second race in the series, but didn't win the championship. Overall, though, I really like these trucks. They require a lot out of you. Welp, time to go back and run this series again...

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah, wait for a sale, but they are wrong. The missions and NPC dialogue are fine. This is why I just despise so much about gaming culture. It's both stupid and negative at the same time. I guarantee most of these people wouldn't even recognize good dialogue or be able to explain why some dialogue was poor. The game is fine. The story isn't a masterpiece and can occasionally be predictable, but so was Dying Light 1's story. It's a pleasant enough narrative to keep you going while you enjoy the great gameplay.

Yeah, admittedly I couldn't make much sense out of the complaints given the often overly simple and immature dialog of the first game. It was really the mention of dull missions, because most of the missions in the first game are pretty good, with a lot of unexpected that can happen. It seems unlikely they would just get really bad at mission design though, especially considering the development time put into DL2.

 

[ZedClampet]

Yeah, admittedly I couldn't make much sense out of the complaints given the often overly simple and immature dialog of the first game. It was really the mention of dull missions, because most of the missions in the first game are pretty good, with a lot of unexpected that can happen. It seems unlikely they would just get really bad at mission design though, especially considering the development time put into DL2.

I think that if you go into the game expecting the main story line to knock your socks off, you'll probably be disappointed. This probably happened to a lot of people because Techland emphasized the story so much in it's pre-launch ads. But it isn't actually bad. Secondary quests actually have better stories than the main quests.

The missions were fine to me, but I only played one side of the story. I would have played completely different missions, mostly, had I made different choices.

There was this one mission, I won't put any spoilers in, that had several turning points, a mini-boss battle, an unexpected chase and some other things to it, and I was surprised to find out that most people don't even get to do that mission. So it could be the case that some people miss out on the good missions, or the good versions of missions (there was a version of the above mission, depending on your choices, where the main location you went to was just empty).

In retrospect it's kind of hard to say specifically how good the missions are overall because there are so many paths, and I obviously only took my own path. There was this one guy I really wanted to kill, and most people apparently get that chance, but I never did. It's just tough to judge under the circumstances.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I think that if you go into the game expecting the main story line to knock your socks off, you'll probably be disappointed. This probably happened to a lot of people because Techland emphasized the story so much in it's pre-launch ads. But it isn't actually bad. Secondary quests actually have better stories than the main quests.

The missions were fine to me, but I only played one side of the story. I would have played completely different missions, mostly, had I made different choices.

There was this one mission, I won't put any spoilers in, that had several turning points, a mini-boss battle, an unexpected chase and some other things to it, and I was surprised to find out that most people don't even get to do that mission. So it could be the case that some people miss out on the good missions, or the good versions of missions (there was a version of the above mission, depending on your choices, where the main location you went to was just empty).

In retrospect it's kind of hard to say specifically how good the missions are overall because there are so many paths, and I obviously only took my own path. There was this one guy I really wanted to kill, and most people apparently get that chance, but I never did. It's just tough to judge under the circumstances.

Yeah that's the risk developers take with the games that change with player choice. If they aren't well balanced to give a decent outcome with each choice, it can mean empty feeling missions. That was also the primary reason I was worried about the complaints about the missions.

 

[Brian Boru]

Slay the Spire

Oh dang, not what I thought—I immediately thought there was a sequel to 'Crush the Castle' You guys ever play that pre-cursor of Angry Birds? If you did, and want to again, follow me down this rabbit hole…

CtC is a Flash game, and you absolutely shouldn't have Flash on your system anymore. However, there are extensions for Chromium browsers which will play SWF files—the files Flash games come in.

I installed SuperNova SWF Enabler, recommended by Kongregate, in my Opera GX browser, and it plays CtC! Comments there suggest you may need to go into your browser extensions and enable it, and others suggest it may not play all SWF files. Dunno, this is just a quick rabbit chase

That done, play it here on Kongregate—I've visited them from time to time since the 00s, as far as I know they're a sound place. US-based, owned by a Swedish company.

Hmm, I see there's a Crush the Castle 2, don't remember that…

 

[ZedClampet]

Oh dang, not what I thought—I immediately thought there was a sequel to 'Crush the Castle' You guys ever play that pre-cursor of Angry Birds? If you did, and want to again, follow me down this rabbit hole…

Never played Crush the Castle, but I was hired to close a bank down back in the day. You can shut a bank down in one day, but taking care of everything that needs to happen after that takes months and the help of many government folks who aren't in a hurry and probably didn't bother going to work the day you needed them or are still on some mysterious 4 hour lunch break...um, the point is that this was at the height of the Angry Birds craze and I had nothing to do but wait for people and try to get 3 stars. It was actually awesome.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I really wanted to love Tunic, but I just couldn't get into it. I can see why people love it, but it's just not for me.

Fair enough Thought you might be one who'd be into it, I know most around here probably wouldnt be into it but I seem to have a soft spot for that art style combined with that type of game.

Away at the cabin so I cant get to it this week anyway. This week ill only be playing Pokemon Legends Arceus with the girl on Switch. My first ever Pokemon, but shes mildly obsessed so I cant say no.

 

[Pifanjr]

Oh dang, not what I thought—I immediately thought there was a sequel to 'Crush the Castle' You guys ever play that pre-cursor of Angry Birds? If you did, and want to again, follow me down this rabbit hole…

CtC is a Flash game, and you absolutely shouldn't have Flash on your system anymore. However, there are extensions for Chromium browsers which will play SWF files—the files Flash games come in.

I installed SuperNova SWF Enabler, recommended by Kongregate, in my Opera GX browser, and it plays CtC! Comments there suggest you may need to go into your browser extensions and enable it, and others suggest it may not play all SWF files. Dunno, this is just a quick rabbit chase

That done, play it here on Kongregate—I've visited them from time to time since the 00s, as far as I know they're a sound place. US-based, owned by a Swedish company.

Hmm, I see there's a Crush the Castle 2, don't remember that…

Crush the Castle was definitely one of the better flash games I've played.

What is the place to go to nowadays for free browser games? I know itch.io is pretty big, but there's so much crap on there and I've found it hard to filter that out.