The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (21 August to 27 August)

[ZedClampet]

Playing Forza, but I may be getting to the end of that. I'm finding myself less and less motivated. I may stop playing for awhile (or maybe not) until the last DLC comes out.

Playing Solasta and really enjoying that. I need to check the difficulty because last night I one-shot a mini-boss. Of course, he was flying, and my Wizard hit him with his best spell, which not only did a lot of damage, but caused him to fall, and he took a lot of fall damage. Still doesn't seem right to me. I just started to play since this was my second time with the game, and I never did check to see what difficulty I had it on. I must be on some sort of "story" mode or something. But I had to quit right after the fight, so I haven't checked it yet.

@Brian Boru has previously recommended that I check out Gas Station Simulator and Lawn Mowing Simulator because he knows I like boring games, and as luck would have it, both of them have been in Humble Choice within the last 6 months, so I'll probably go ahead and try them, although I did previously play demos for each, and they were too boring even for me.

Going to try out a 4x/RTS this week on Game Pass and a couple of other things.

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided I need to set time apart to game, it's been almost two months since I last played Total War: Warhammer 2. I have played some games with my daughter and played the current quiz game a few times with some friends since, but I'm itching to return to my campaign.

Sadly I tested positive for corona last Friday. Luckily it doesn't feel worse than a bad cold, but that still means I'm tired all day and unable to really focus on anything.

Going to try out a 4x/RTS this week on Game Pass and a couple of other things.

Sins of a Solar Empire?

 

[ZedClampet]

Sins of a Solar Empire?

Yep. And hope you get to feeling better this week.

*********

I've found my new favorite user-made car livery. I found this dig at capitalism as I was looking for a quick livery fix for my car. Even though I would consider myself as mostly a supporter of capitalism (I'm not going to discuss politics), I thought this was funny. The main sponsor of the car seems to be HTB (Hostile Takeover Bank), which has it's logo all over the place, and the sheer number of corporate stickers on the car is amazing, but even more awesome is that she made all the stickers herself. Anyway, it's ugly but fun.

********************

I was going to play the first Pathfiinder game this morning, but the character creator is buggy and I gave up for now. Once I made a selection and moved on to the next screen, I couldn't back up and change the selection. For instance, I picked Necromancy as my opposition school, went to the spell selection page and changed my mind, but when I went back and picked a different opposition school, it had no impact. I still couldn't select Necromancy spells. This was on the last two screens of character creation, and I'd already spent a long time on the rest, so it was a bit frustrating.

 

[Brian Boru]

Do you ever experience a brief WTF puzzlement when you move the mouse to a screen edge to scroll the map, but nothing happens, or the map scrolls in a different direction?

Takes a second or two to remember that you're watching a YouTube gameplay video.

 

[Zloth]

Solista AND Pathfinder?? Wow, that's a lot of isometric.

Last night I was playing Death Stranding and got to a new station. As soon as I got them on the network, then tell me that somebody in the next station along has been wounded somehow and needs help quickly. Also, here's the schematics for little armor plates you can put on instead of attaching cargo to your arms and a new kind of non-lethal assault rifle. Oooookay. That can't be good.

I'm quite sure that poor, wounded person would have been just fine for days if I decide to go back to paving highways - they will only have 40 minutes to live when I strap on the blood packs and start the mission. But let's keep the game going and urgently head out. I better create that new gun - but I don't want to mess with the armor. And off I go!

Strange, for being in the mountains, there are some fairly smooth paths out here. I probably could have printed up a bike. No matter, on foot I can go more directly over the mountains.

I got a bit off heading, though, and mistook an incinerator building for my target. I started kicking myself, but noticed somebody had left a truck there, distracting me from my vicious self-kicking. Trucks in this game can haul a lot but don't do well on surfaces that are bumpy, so I had never tried one off road. What the heck. Let's see how bad it is, then re-load from when I started and do the mission going the correct direction.

But the truck worked quite well, even going up a slope with some rocks! When it was time to go back down to the flat marshlands, there was even a convenient hole in the forest that I could drive down... right into a camp full of enemies. What would happen if, instead of sneaking around the sides, I just drove straight through them!? I would probably get stuck on a rock... but hey, it's a video game! Get out of the truck, save game, get back in, and ZOOM! (well, as "zoom" as a truck on dirt is going to do)

It turns out, these enemies were very different folks than the MULEs. They had guns! The guns weren't very good at stopping my truck, though. I drove right through their camp (carefully NOT running over any of them - remember, people that die tend to explode in this game) and on into the marshes. I was even able to avoid all the water in the marsh and got the truck to the destination, then showered it with more "likes" than I've given to anything else in the game!

 

[ZedClampet]

Solista AND Pathfinder?? Wow, that's a lot of isometric.

Last night I was playing Death Stranding and got to a new station. As soon as I got them on the network, then tell me that somebody in the next station along has been wounded somehow and needs help quickly. Also, here's the schematics for little armor plates you can put on instead of attaching cargo to your arms and a new kind of non-lethal assault rifle. Oooookay. That can't be good.

I'm quite sure that poor, wounded person would have been just fine for days if I decide to go back to paving highways - they will only have 40 minutes to live when I strap on the blood packs and start the mission. But let's keep the game going and urgently head out. I better create that new gun - but I don't want to mess with the armor. And off I go!

Strange, for being in the mountains, there are some fairly smooth paths out here. I probably could have printed up a bike. No matter, on foot I can go more directly over the mountains.

I got a bit off heading, though, and mistook an incinerator building for my target. I started kicking myself, but noticed somebody had left a truck there, distracting me from my vicious self-kicking. Trucks in this game can haul a lot but don't do well on surfaces that are bumpy, so I had never tried one off road. What the heck. Let's see how bad it is, then re-load from when I started and do the mission going the correct direction.

But the truck worked quite well, even going up a slope with some rocks! When it was time to go back down to the flat marshlands, there was even a convenient hole in the forest that I could drive down... right into a camp full of enemies. What would happen if, instead of sneaking around the sides, I just drove straight through them!? I would probably get stuck on a rock... but hey, it's a video game! Get out of the truck, save game, get back in, and ZOOM! (well, as "zoom" as a truck on dirt is going to do)

It turns out, these enemies were very different folks than the MULEs. They had guns! The guns weren't very good at stopping my truck, though. I drove right through their camp (carefully NOT running over any of them - remember, people that die tend to explode in this game) and on into the marshes. I was even able to avoid all the water in the marsh and got the truck to the destination, then showered it with more "likes" than I've given to anything else in the game!

Translated into a Zed experieince

I went the wrong way. I didn't notice for two hours. I found a truck and crashed it into a tree. Back on foot, I stumbled across a camp filled with enemies. They killed me 12 times until i finally took a 5 mile detour around their camp. At last I reached the marshes and drowned. The second I respawned, I was runover from behind by the driverless truck I had abandoned. It must have rolled for miles.

 

[DXCHASE]

both of them have been in Humble Choice within the last 6 months, so I'll probably go ahead and try them,

Currently playing The Ascent because of this. I started playing it when it first hit game pass, but the windows version had game breaking bugs that wouldnt progress my storyline. I just gave up entirely and didnt buy it on steam and kinda forgot about it until i saw it in August's Humble Bundle. Glad i picked it up too because new DLC dropped for it on the 18th, so im gonna be finishing this one up. Its a very good twin stick shooter with an amazing cyberpunk setting if anyone is interested.


Patiently waiting for Destiny 2's new season to start this Tuesday (23rd). As a clan leader i get messages to help out in the beginning a lot, so theres that. Bungie is also doing a showcase on that day which is going to reveal the upcoming expansion and probably (hopefully) the new subclass that showed up in a leak last week.

On that note, if anyone here plays Destiny 2 and is in a need of a clan, LMK!

 

[ZedClampet]

Do you ever experience a brief WTF puzzlement

I wouldn't call it brief. Fifty plus years.

 

[ZedClampet]

Masochism develops in a patient as a mechanism for coping with the patient's perceptions of repeated failures and humiliations.

I didn't read that anywhere. I realized it when I started laughing at myself after spending over an hour making another horrible Forza livery.

 

[Zloth]

Breakfast time!

View: https://youtu.be/F4KDOpEiN-g

 

[ZedClampet]

Breakfast time!

View: https://youtu.be/F4KDOpEiN-g

Reason #304 why I wouldn't survive in a post apocalyptic world.

 

[ZedClampet]

Random thoughts: It's amazing to me that there are so many gamers using VPNs in China that they are accounting for roughly 40 percent of Steam's sales. There are even a ton of games that are only in Chinese now.

Also, how is Slime Rancher a simulator?

THE update for TW Warhammer 3 comes out tomorrow. Most mods, including the ones I made myself, will be horribly broken. Very much looking forward to the update, but not to the mod situation. Glad I never uploaded my mods to Steam. No pressure except from Guido Now that this update will be done, I might upload them, but this is going to be a nightmare with all the factions.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Random thought: It's amazing to me that there are so many gamers using VPNs in China that they are accounting for roughly 40 percent of Steam's sales. There are even a ton of games that are only in Chinese now.

Also, how is Slime Rancher a simulator?

No matter what genre Slime Rancher fits into, it's a bad game.

 

[ZedClampet]

My dad was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (loser didn't even win), and now one short generation later, I might be nominated for a Nobel Prize in Forza, as I created a car that simulations suggest gets from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds and 0 to 100 in 6 seconds. You can't just do that sh!t. You have to bend space and time.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

My dad was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (loser didn't even win), and now one short generation later, I might be nominated for a Nobel Prize in Forza, as I created a car that simulations suggest gets from 0 to 60 in 10 seconds and 0 to 100 in 6 seconds. You can't just do that sh!t. You have to bend space and time.

That's pretty amazing about your dad, if true.

 

[ZedClampet]

if true.

Why would I joke/lie about that? You just became my least favorite poster despite the Peyton Manning love. He has a Ph.d in Chemistry. I mentioned before I was born in Boston. That's while he was getting his Ph.d. I've also mentioned things he invented, like the additive that allows you to drink out of plastic bottles without drinking the plastic, the additive that prevents plastic bottles from degrading in the sun, the additive that allows plastic to be used in large form without cracking, like McDonald's signs, the precursor to Luminal (while in the army), etc.

My apologies for being so stupid that you don't think my dad is intelligent.

 

[ZedClampet]

I just posted my life story on here for @WoodenSaucer and then thought better of it and deleted it. If you read it before I deleted it, my apologies if it sounded like I was bragging. I've lived a blessed life.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Why would I joke/lie about that? You just became my least favorite poster despite the Peyton Manning love. He has a Ph.d in Chemistry. I mentioned before I was born in Boston. That's while he was getting his Ph.d. I've also mentioned things he invented, like the additive that allows you to drink out of plastic bottles without drinking the plastic, the additive that prevents plastic bottles from degrading in the sun, the additive that allows plastic to be used in large form without cracking, like McDonald's signs, the precursor to Luminal (while in the army), etc.

My apologies for being so stupid that you don't think my dad is intelligent.

Sorry, man! Based on the follow up joke about getting a Nobel for playing a game, I wasn't sure if you were 100% joking or not.

 

[Zloth]

Posting a life history on the internet where any nutcase could read it? That would not be... (looks over at Facebook) ... eeeesh. Nevermind.

 

[Brian Boru]

You just became my least favorite poster

Redemption!

apologies for being so stupid that you don't think my dad is intelligent

No worries, it often skips a generation.

 

[ZedClampet]

Sorry, man! Based on the follow up joke about getting a Nobel for playing a game, I wasn't sure if you were 100% joking or not.

Meh, It's not a big deal. My post wasn't intended to sound harsh.. Was just explaining. I wrote a longer post later, but deleted it because it was too much family history for me to be comfortable with. Plus, my family history probably sounds like BS anyway when you read it online

 

[ZedClampet]

So for some reason, Windows no longer recognizes any apps as being on my D: drive. Everything shows up in File Manager, but if you try to run or uninstall an app, it doesn't show as existing on that drive. Mostly the drive just has secondary backups and Game Pass games. I guess I'm just going to manually delete the games, reinstall them and see if it works.

Edit: It won't let me delete the games. Just going to format the drive. My backups are already mirrored elsewhere.

 

[Brian Boru]

Windows no longer recognizes … my D: drive

If it's full, you could get that or other weird behavior.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Meh, It's not a big deal. My post wasn't intended to sound harsh.. Was just explaining. I wrote a longer post later, but deleted it because it was too much family history for me to be comfortable with. Plus, my family history probably sounds like BS anyway when you read it online

Now I want to hear all about it!

 

[ZedClampet]

This morning's random thoughts:

A couple of months ago I took the time to learn how to play Stellaris, was really enjoying it and never went back to it. I'm a complete scatterbrain.

-----

A few weeks ago, I was learning how to play Stationeers when I encountered a tutorial breaking bug. I reported the bug and they fixed it the same day. I never opened Stationeers again. I'm a complete scatterbrain.

------

I bet @Brian Boru $70 I can win the Emerald Circuit in Forza in a Trident Peel on any difficulty. Later: I did it. Instead of cash, please send me the Final Fantasy VII remake to either my Steam or Epic account.

--------

I downloaded the freemium game Asphalt 9 Legends (against my better judgement). I knew it would be arcade, but this was a whole new level of arcade. Steering, throttle and brake are basically irrelevant. What you do is you hit the throttle, then you drift by pressing "X" and pushing the stick in whatever direction you want to drift. Do this for a second and it charges your nitro bar. Now double press "X" to do your super nitro (it's not called that. I don't remember the exact term). Now start drifting again so you can do your super nitro again. Do this until you win the race.

After the first race, the game offered me a great deal on a pack of something. I could pay $19.99 if I really wanted to, but $49.99 was the better deal. I thought WWWD (what would @WoodenSaucer do?) and decided not to buy anything.

After the second race it said I could triple my earnings by watching an ad. I wasn't sure about WWWD, so I quit the game.

You know, it was kind of fun in it's own way, but it was too aggressive too early in the game trying to get me to spend money or watch ads.

The game is also available on Steam to "mixed" reviews, with the negatives mostly about monetization. One reviewer said the AI gets more competitive at some point unless you buy upgrades with real money. I don't know if that's true or not, but I don't doubt it. Most seem to like the simple gameplay, though.

If it's full, you could get that or other weird behavior.

It had 382 GB available out of 2 TB.

Now I want to hear all about it!

Thanks, but I've lost interest in telling it. People will judge me, probably for the worse, based on that story. Currently I'm the village idiot, and I'm happy with that. Best just to leave it alone.