The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (2 October to 8 October)

[Colif]

I always wondered why the next game after this in the series felt so different and had floaty cars. Its mentioned in this video that this was the last game made by the team who originally made NFS and it was meant to be last game in series... but well, EA doesn't let things die if people still buy them... or didn't back then...

This was the last one I really enjoyed and had I known at time it was last made by original team, I may have stopped hoping they make one like it again. They won't as they not there anymore... reminds me of Diablo 3. Original teams leave and new people who don't get it, come in and make a mess.

 

[Johnway]

Day 3 of the chivalry play. Level 40 and today the scores were much better at 3 wins and 1 loss. But tbh that last game was a close one. Literally several points it was down to the last dying seconds. A twist of fate here or there and i would have been a winner. Not that important, considering i walked away from the match with a minus K/D

 

[ZedClampet]

This week's Trial race was a dirt race, and I came in 2nd to last. I started poorly and then got elbowed out of a checkpoint early on, and I expected to be bad at it anyway, so I just stayed out of everyone's way after that. Well, except for the one person I beat who was probably @Pifanjr 's daughter just sitting in the floor banging a controller against a baby doll. And she almost had me.

 

[Brian Boru]

PCG Articles

Major game studios believed this company was providing experienced, well-staffed QA teams—employees say that was a lie

https://www.pcgamer.com/quantic-QA-tester-report/

"…you will know the games this Embracer Group subsidiary worked on: Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Necromunda Hired Gun, Cities Skylines…"

… — … — … — … —

EA's Origin is officially dead

Superceded by 'EA app'

 

[Colif]

If you going to play the game, do it right?

 

[ZedClampet]

If you going to play the game, do it right?

Need one of those haptic feedback chairs like they have at amusement parks.

My problem with the Truck Simulator games is that, by necessity, the cities are not so hot. If I'm traveling around Europe, I want to see these cities, not just the rocks and trees leading up to them.

 

[Colif]

i was impressed by fact he could roll the window down on the door... I wonder how many screens it supports.

I didn't watch for long. Shame colour temp or something isn't the same on all monitors. Front looks different to sides.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Pifanjr feeling any better at all today?

 

[Zloth]

Major game studios believed this company was providing experienced, well-staffed QA teams—employees say that was a lie...

I remember back in the late 90's there was all this talk about how contractors from places like India and Brazil would take over all the programming jobs. After all, wages were FAR lower there, and code can be shipped even easier than all those goods coming out of China. Of course, the managers saying this would also imply that maybe we could keep our jobs if only we worked well over 40 hours a week for no extra pay at all. I know some companies did switch (some of my programming friends suddenly turned into low level management for groups of programmers in India - talk about a rough time differential) but I don't think any stuck with it.

There sure are some odd things in that article about QA. Quotas for bugs found?? That's just.... weird. Would testers gravitate toward testing code from people that weren't as good because they could make quota easier?? If I write my code well, am I going to put some poor QA guy out of a job!? (Not that I've ever had the benefit of a dedicated QA group before.)

 

[mainer]

EA's Origin is officially dead

Superceded by 'EA app'

I'm glad you mentioned this, I was just about to make a post about it. I didn't see the PCG article for some reason, but I saw this one on The Verge:
EA’s new PC app is here to replace Origin - The Verge

The only games I had on Origin were my Mass Effect & Dragon Age games, and I never really liked the Origin Client, but I really had no choice. There wasn't much of a "community" there as you'll find on Steam, and getting to the forum section was a pain. You'd click forums, have your browser open up the forum page, login (again), then click some more to get to the forum you wanted. Way too many clicks, and when you got there, nobody is home, or at least very few current posts.

Fortunately, when EA/Bioware games became available on Steam (2 or 3 years ago?), there was a big sale and I was able to repurchase the Dragon Age games with all DLC content & ME Andromeda for very little cost, and that cost was worth it just to have them on Steam. Later, I purchased ME Legendary to replace the original 3 ME games. You do have to have to be logged into the Origin Client running in the background, but it was pretty painless, only a slight delay in launching EA/Bioware games.

The reason I mentioned all this is because of a post in the Steam Forums for ME Legendary, that if you opt in to EA Play, your EA games may not launch on Steam. At least currently, though I'm sure...well no I'm not sure, but hopeful, that that will be corrected. As EA Play is still optional, if you own/play an EA game on Steam, I'd advise waiting. The link to that forum:

Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition :: Steam Community

steamcommunity.com

 

[Pifanjr]

I never actually thought about getting out of the Mako and walking, but it would definitely be an alternative way to do that part (and probably less frustrating). The only drawback to that is that it would be a long walk through the next map to get to the Prothean Ruins to find Liara. And while there's plenty of cover, the entire way has multiple Geth troops as well as Geth Armatures to battle.

I think that's the part that was the most perfect opportunity to use my sniper rifle in all three games.

@Pifanjr feeling any better at all today?

Not much. We have some friends of my wife staying with us, so my wife and I are sleeping on the couch. But it's been hard falling asleep with my wife playing WoW 5 feet away from me, especially since she's on call with her guild doing mythic dungeons.

 

[Pifanjr]

I just did another Gloomhaven quest after upping the difficulty. Turns out that the early levels were just easier, I got my ass handed to me. Though a big part of that was a string of very bad luck and one very dumb error. I also chose my party composition based on who had the fewest experience points, as I want to level everyone roughly the same amount, but one of the characters I didn't bring would've probably be very useful here.

I turned the difficulty down for when I try it again next time. Maybe it'll turn out really easy next time with a better party composition, but I'd rather complete the quest easily and then up the difficulty for the next one than fail it again, reduce the difficulty and try the same quest for a third time.