OT: I only screamed once when Guido drove us home from senior orientation today.
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Sorry, I meant to bring this up the other day, but the tracks are all laser scans of real world tracks. They are the exact opposite of arcade.
Here's my final take on Forza games. They are the best racing games I've ever played, both Motorsport and Horizon. No other racing game feels as good to drive. No other racing game is as comprehensive. They are the pinnacle. I just don't know about keyboard, but if you are finding YouTubers who are doing okay with it, then it must be fine. My warnings above were mostly just about Unbeatable difficulty.
Maybe you're referring to official tracks I've not seen, but most of the MS 7 vids I saw seemed to show some kind of cruise through the countryside stuff, and the surrounding graphics just looked kind of monotone and Meh.
Well, there are 33 tracks in the game, and 30 of them are real locations. These tracks, just like the real ones, have 197 configurations. Most real raceways are "cruise through the countryside stuff". Here's a picture of a small section of Road Atlanta, for instance.
As far as the graphics go, YouTube may be compressing the graphics or it's possible the players don't have them turned all the way up. Here's a picture of the same area (I'm considerably farther down the road on the flat area) at Road Atlanta from my game. Graphics look fine to me, although most of the races do seem to be run in "overcast" weather, which kind of stinks. Also, there is a significant haze effect on distant objects. But I don't pay any attention to the graphics when I'm racing, so it really doesn't bother me. I would agree that Grid is more vibrant while Forza is more realistic.
I showed that picture (cropping out the HUD) to my wife. Said it was made from a car at Road Atlanta (she's a race fan), and she never suspected it wasn't a real photograph.
In any event, the driving in Grid 2019, even though I really like the game, is more arcade than in Motorsport, and a lot of the fictitious tracks are not realistic. They are far more spacious than real, urban racetracks. And I like them quite a bit. Some of these real racetracks are annoying as hell when you try to find somewhere to pass.
I genuinely like both games, but calling Motorsport more arcade in any conceivable way just ain't right.
Zloth
Community Contributor
(Boggles at the thought of Visual Studio advertising at a raceway)
Yeah, very familiar with Road Atlanta from other race games I've played. Now that one looks very photo realistic.Well, there are 33 tracks in the game, and 30 of them are real locations. These tracks, just like the real ones, have 197 configurations. Most real raceways are "cruise through the countryside stuff". Here's a picture of a small section of Road Atlanta, for instance.
As far as the graphics go, YouTube may be compressing the graphics or it's possible the players don't have them turned all the way up. Here's a picture of the same area (I'm considerably farther down the road on the flat area) at Road Atlanta from my game. Graphics look fine to me, although most of the races do seem to be run in "overcast" weather, which kind of stinks. Also, there is a significant haze effect on distant objects. But I don't pay any attention to the graphics when I'm racing, so it really doesn't bother me. I would agree that Grid is more vibrant while Forza is more realistic.
I showed that picture (cropping out the HUD) to my wife. Said it was made from a car at Road Atlanta (she's a race fan), and she never suspected it wasn't a real photograph.
In any event, the driving in Grid 2019, even though I really like the game, is more arcade than in Motorsport, and a lot of the fictitious tracks are not realistic. They are far more spacious than real, urban racetracks. And I like them quite a bit. Some of these real racetracks are annoying as hell when you try to find somewhere to pass.
I genuinely like both games, but calling Motorsport more arcade in any conceivable way just ain't right.
mainer
Venatus semper
Still playing Wasteland 3 (roughly 78 hrs now), and I've gone from liking it to loving it, but it took a while to get to that point. I think the main reason is that I started WL3 immediately after completing WL2DC which had a very stat/skill intensive structure (and unforgiving of mistakes) which was an old-school approach that really clicked with me.
In WL3, most of those skills/stats/perks have either refined, overly simplified (in my opinion), or outright nerfed. Some refinements work better, like putting both bladed & blunt weapons in a melee skill branch. Others, like the derived stat "combat initiative", have become irrelevant. In my limited experience with turn-based tactical combat systems, combat initiative has always been huge, determining in what order your party members got their turn in a combat queue relative to the initiative of the enemy troops. But that queue doesn't exist in WL3's combat.
For example, in Divinity OS2 (one of the best turn-based tactical systems I've played), that combat initiative was important, and reflected in the combat queue at the top of the screen:
It was also a strategy element in WL2DC, determining when your rangers got their turn in the combat queue:
In WL3 the combat queue doesn't exist. All your party members take a turn, then all the enemies take a turn. It makes "combat initiative" irrelevant and takes away a bit of the strategy in the combat. The combat is still great, and there are a lot of other choices to be made during combat, but the initiative doesn't matter anymore.
What really hooked me into the game, were the quests, and the multiple ways to solve them. It's very intricate and most don't come down to a "good or evil" choice, there's a lot of grey area, even if you try to do what you think is the right thing, it will often have consequences later in the game, affecting your reputation (there's a reputation system) as well as what recruited members stay with you. That's what really elevated WL3 for me, it's rare that you see that level of complexity in newer RPGs.
In WL3, most of those skills/stats/perks have either refined, overly simplified (in my opinion), or outright nerfed. Some refinements work better, like putting both bladed & blunt weapons in a melee skill branch. Others, like the derived stat "combat initiative", have become irrelevant. In my limited experience with turn-based tactical combat systems, combat initiative has always been huge, determining in what order your party members got their turn in a combat queue relative to the initiative of the enemy troops. But that queue doesn't exist in WL3's combat.
For example, in Divinity OS2 (one of the best turn-based tactical systems I've played), that combat initiative was important, and reflected in the combat queue at the top of the screen:
It was also a strategy element in WL2DC, determining when your rangers got their turn in the combat queue:
In WL3 the combat queue doesn't exist. All your party members take a turn, then all the enemies take a turn. It makes "combat initiative" irrelevant and takes away a bit of the strategy in the combat. The combat is still great, and there are a lot of other choices to be made during combat, but the initiative doesn't matter anymore.
What really hooked me into the game, were the quests, and the multiple ways to solve them. It's very intricate and most don't come down to a "good or evil" choice, there's a lot of grey area, even if you try to do what you think is the right thing, it will often have consequences later in the game, affecting your reputation (there's a reputation system) as well as what recruited members stay with you. That's what really elevated WL3 for me, it's rare that you see that level of complexity in newer RPGs.
Still blasting indie games. This time its Punch club and... yeah not liking it. i played over 2 hrs and honestly i think i've seen enough.
The problem is how grindy the game is. Contending with various meters whilst also preparing for a fight. its made worse at the end of the day your main fight stats degrade slightly and the higher your stats, the higher the loss each day. God forbid you lose an illegal fight as it impacts your exercise rates and there's a long recovery time to boot.
Combat is just watch and wait as you have little influence besides swapping in or out moves and just letting RNG play out. Again not very involving.
The problem is how grindy the game is. Contending with various meters whilst also preparing for a fight. its made worse at the end of the day your main fight stats degrade slightly and the higher your stats, the higher the loss each day. God forbid you lose an illegal fight as it impacts your exercise rates and there's a long recovery time to boot.
Combat is just watch and wait as you have little influence besides swapping in or out moves and just letting RNG play out. Again not very involving.
I got that for free somehow, maybe Twitch, and always thought I should play it. Going to mark that off my list now
Play a PC Game I Just Made Up Called "How Ugly Are You?"
Winning Condition: To win this game you must be at least 45 years old and survive a vicious attack from your significant other.
Where to download the game: Go to Adobe's website. The game is called Photoshop.
What else do I need? A digital camera.
How to play: First, with your camera ready, tell your significant other that you bet them $20 that you can make them smile in less than 5 minutes, but that they aren't allowed to leave their seat during the five minutes. While they are staring at you without smiling, take their picture then excuse yourself to go to your computer and open the picture in Photoshop.
Some quick background: Photoshop has added a neural AI that can change a person in a photo's expression--sort of. It's basically analyzed a gazillion photos of people. It finds photos of similar looking people who have the expression you are requesting and translates that to your picture. There are many problems, but a funny one is the teeth. If it can't see the teeth, it makes a best guess, and and it basically works like this: If you have a picture of a young supermodel, it will give her nice teeth Not a supermodel or in your 40's or older? Well, you are going to have teeth missing and look like you've been chewing cow dung for 50 years.
So with the picture of your significant other selected, go to filters and choose "Neural". On the right side of the screen, take the "Happiness" slider and move it all the way to the right. Your significant other should look like they've never heard the word "dentist". Now go to the "Surprise" tuner, and slide it all the way to the right. Using these two sliders together creates...something I'd rather not describe. You now have a picture that would look right at home in the house of Resident Evil 7. Frighteningly, it's still somehow recognizable as the person you took the picture of.
Finally, put this amazing picture back on your phone and show it to your significant other.
Good luck!
Winning Condition: To win this game you must be at least 45 years old and survive a vicious attack from your significant other.
Where to download the game: Go to Adobe's website. The game is called Photoshop.
What else do I need? A digital camera.
How to play: First, with your camera ready, tell your significant other that you bet them $20 that you can make them smile in less than 5 minutes, but that they aren't allowed to leave their seat during the five minutes. While they are staring at you without smiling, take their picture then excuse yourself to go to your computer and open the picture in Photoshop.
Some quick background: Photoshop has added a neural AI that can change a person in a photo's expression--sort of. It's basically analyzed a gazillion photos of people. It finds photos of similar looking people who have the expression you are requesting and translates that to your picture. There are many problems, but a funny one is the teeth. If it can't see the teeth, it makes a best guess, and and it basically works like this: If you have a picture of a young supermodel, it will give her nice teeth Not a supermodel or in your 40's or older? Well, you are going to have teeth missing and look like you've been chewing cow dung for 50 years.
So with the picture of your significant other selected, go to filters and choose "Neural". On the right side of the screen, take the "Happiness" slider and move it all the way to the right. Your significant other should look like they've never heard the word "dentist". Now go to the "Surprise" tuner, and slide it all the way to the right. Using these two sliders together creates...something I'd rather not describe. You now have a picture that would look right at home in the house of Resident Evil 7. Frighteningly, it's still somehow recognizable as the person you took the picture of.
Finally, put this amazing picture back on your phone and show it to your significant other.
Good luck!
I got that for free somehow, maybe Twitch, and always thought I should play it. Going to mark that off my list now
i suspect that more a mobile game with tamagotchi elements and frankly its not that exciting to play when there are more interactive games to play. its like playing pixel puzzles ultimate when you could instead play an FPS , RPG or RTS game.
but would i play it on a smart phone? probably not...
Sarafan
Community Contributor
Basically two games are on my mind now. The first is The Elder Scrolls Online. A few months ago I was tempted by a very good sale on Steam and decided to buy the base game and all of the expansions (without High Isle which had a release date not long after that). The game has a chance to become my favorite MMORPG. The writing is decent (for an MMORPG standards). Maybe it doesn't drift so heavily into single player experience like The Old Republic does, but it definitely defends itself. Of course there's a lot of Fed Ex quests, but this is a general problem characteristic for the genre. The area main story arcs are usually beyond that however and it satisfies my needs.
I also like the mechanics which are a blend of standard RPG progression system and TES series "learn by use". The main problem associated with character development is level scaling. The game was designed to give you freedom. You can go anywhere and you shouldn't experience major difficulties regardless of that. This was characteristic for all TES games, but it's even more noticeable in the online title. I believe it was a little different closer to the release date, but they decided to make the game more accessible to new players and less linear. I treat it as a slight downside, but it also has some advantages.
The good thing is that the game defends itself graphically. It probably underwent some major overhauls since it was released in 2014, but it doesn't matter. It shows that the graphical progress slowed down versus the situation from the beginning of the century. It's not a huge problem for me. This means less frequent hardware upgrades and opens a longevity chance for online games.
Generally if you're looking for a good MMORPG TESO might be good choice even in 2022.
The second game is Solasta: Crown of the Magister. I'm only 7 hours in, but I can already tell that the game shines when it comes to combat. As a fan of Baldur's Gate I hate to admit it, but D&D mechanics plus turn-based combat are a great combination. It's not as dynamic and slows down the pace a lot, but the amount of control we have over the characters and the fun from dice rolls which we physically can see compensates this completely. Given my problems with finishing RPGs lately, I have no idea whether I'll finish the game. I'm sure however that I'll spend a few dozens of hours in it. The story is mediocre, I'm just going to keep playing the game for combat.
I also like the mechanics which are a blend of standard RPG progression system and TES series "learn by use". The main problem associated with character development is level scaling. The game was designed to give you freedom. You can go anywhere and you shouldn't experience major difficulties regardless of that. This was characteristic for all TES games, but it's even more noticeable in the online title. I believe it was a little different closer to the release date, but they decided to make the game more accessible to new players and less linear. I treat it as a slight downside, but it also has some advantages.
The good thing is that the game defends itself graphically. It probably underwent some major overhauls since it was released in 2014, but it doesn't matter. It shows that the graphical progress slowed down versus the situation from the beginning of the century. It's not a huge problem for me. This means less frequent hardware upgrades and opens a longevity chance for online games.
Generally if you're looking for a good MMORPG TESO might be good choice even in 2022.
The second game is Solasta: Crown of the Magister. I'm only 7 hours in, but I can already tell that the game shines when it comes to combat. As a fan of Baldur's Gate I hate to admit it, but D&D mechanics plus turn-based combat are a great combination. It's not as dynamic and slows down the pace a lot, but the amount of control we have over the characters and the fun from dice rolls which we physically can see compensates this completely. Given my problems with finishing RPGs lately, I have no idea whether I'll finish the game. I'm sure however that I'll spend a few dozens of hours in it. The story is mediocre, I'm just going to keep playing the game for combat.
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Zloth
Community Contributor
@Sarafan - one of the DLCs is supposed to have a better story. I think there's also a lot of fan-made adventures out there. (The game has been on my wish list for a long time.)
@mainer - Did you get anyone with the goat hater perk?
P.S. Big topic on Wasteland 3 here: https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/wasteland-3.5688
@mainer - Did you get anyone with the goat hater perk?
P.S. Big topic on Wasteland 3 here: https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/wasteland-3.5688
I started playing Relicta tonight. So far, it's a really great game. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of portal. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one.
Played some Forewarned tonight. The shape-shifting magi had spawned who takes the form of one of the players to try to trick you. So I turn a corner into a room and there he is. I know it's him because he's standing right next to the blue lever, which is what we've all been searching for and no one had announced that they found it.
So he's standing there looking at me, and I know there are at least 3 things that will set him to come after you: turning your back on him, running, and an unknown quantity of time (first he acts like a teammate to lure you in). So I just casually walked over to him, flipped the blue lever and took off running.
If you get cornered by a demon or any other monster, you can wave your torch at them and scare them off, but the magi don't give a damn about your torch. These tombs are mazes, and there are many dead ends. If you dead end in a room, you might be able to run around him and get out--probably not, but maybe. But if you run into a hallway that dead ends then it doesn't bode well for you.
I light all the torches in the hallways and rooms with my own torch and tell the kids to do the same, so as I'm running I'm quickly looking for lights because I have no damn idea where I am since we played on the largest map. I look down one hallway and not only do I see torches, but I see another player. Graciously, I head toward the other player hoping the magi will start chasing them instead of me. Right as I get to the other player, he kills me. The other player kills me. The other player was the magi. The magi who was chasing me was actually Guido playing a trick on me.
When you die, you have the option of coming back as a good mummy or a bad mummy. If you come back as a bad mummy, you forfeit all your experience and gold for the round, so we always pick the good mummy. Until tonight. I got my revenge on Guido
So he's standing there looking at me, and I know there are at least 3 things that will set him to come after you: turning your back on him, running, and an unknown quantity of time (first he acts like a teammate to lure you in). So I just casually walked over to him, flipped the blue lever and took off running.
If you get cornered by a demon or any other monster, you can wave your torch at them and scare them off, but the magi don't give a damn about your torch. These tombs are mazes, and there are many dead ends. If you dead end in a room, you might be able to run around him and get out--probably not, but maybe. But if you run into a hallway that dead ends then it doesn't bode well for you.
I light all the torches in the hallways and rooms with my own torch and tell the kids to do the same, so as I'm running I'm quickly looking for lights because I have no damn idea where I am since we played on the largest map. I look down one hallway and not only do I see torches, but I see another player. Graciously, I head toward the other player hoping the magi will start chasing them instead of me. Right as I get to the other player, he kills me. The other player kills me. The other player was the magi. The magi who was chasing me was actually Guido playing a trick on me.
When you die, you have the option of coming back as a good mummy or a bad mummy. If you come back as a bad mummy, you forfeit all your experience and gold for the round, so we always pick the good mummy. Until tonight. I got my revenge on Guido
Basically two games are on my mind now. The first is The Elder Scrolls Online. A few months ago I was tempted by a very good sale on Steam and decided to buy the base game and all of the expansions (without High Isle which had a release date not long after that). The game has a chance to become my favorite MMORPG. The writing is decent (for an MMORPG standards). Maybe it doesn't drift so heavily into single player experience like The Old Republic does, but it definitely defends itself. Of course there's a lot of Fed Ex quests, but this is a general problem characteristic for the genre. The area main story arcs are usually beyond that however and it satisfies my needs.
I also like the mechanics which are a blend of standard RPG progression system and TES series "learn by use". The main problem associated with character development is level scaling. The game was designed to give you freedom. You can go anywhere and you shouldn't experience major difficulties regardless of that. This was characteristic for all TES games, but it's even more noticeable in the online title. I believe it was a little different closer to the release date, but they decided to make the game more accessible to new players and less linear. I treat it as a slight downside, but it also has some advantages.
The good thing is that the game defends itself graphically. It probably underwent some major overhauls since it was released in 2014, but it doesn't matter. It shows that the graphical progress slowed down versus the situation from the beginning of the century. It's not a huge problem for me. This means less frequent hardware upgrades and opens a longevity chance for online games.
Generally if you're looking for a good MMORPG TESO might be good choice even in 2022.
The second game is Solasta: Crown of the Magister. I'm only 7 hours in, but I can already tell that the game shines when it comes to combat. As a fan of Baldur's Gate I hate to admit it, but D&D mechanics plus turn-based combat are a great combination. It's not as dynamic and slows down the pace a lot, but the amount of control we have over the characters and the fun from dice rolls which we physically can see compensates this completely. Given my problems with finishing RPGs lately, I have no idea whether I'll finish the game. I'm sure however that I'll spend a few dozens of hours in it. The story is mediocre, I'm just going to keep playing the game for combat.
My wife bought ESO on sale recently too, as well as renewed her subscription to WoW to play Classic with a friend of hers. Compared to WoW classic, ESO is absolutely gorgeous.
Sarafan
Community Contributor
Never heard that you can play fan made adventures in ESO. Are you sure that this is the game?
Given its age ESO looks ok even by today's standards. We have to remember that this is an MMORPG. Games from this genre usually look worse than its single player counterparts.
There are good mummies?When you die, you have the option of coming back as a good mummy or a bad mummy. If you come back as a bad mummy, you forfeit all your experience and gold for the round, so we always pick the good mummy. Until tonight. I got my revenge on Guido
As much as I loved Skyrim, I just could not get into ESO. It's so much different than a single player campaign that it just wasn't my thing, even though it's Elder Scrolls. I really wanted to love it, but it just doesn't click with me.
mainer
Venatus semper
The turn-based combat system is excellent, with elevation/height giving an attack advantage, and the ability to jump, there are many different ways to approach each battle. It's not that long a game by CRPG standards, and I actually enjoyed the final battle, which is rare for me. There was more interaction with party members that I initially expected, but there's no real personalities, or with the NPCs you meet, but for such a small studio I thought Tactical Adventures did an excellent job, seeing as they also didn't have the full D&D license. I'm more excited now to see what Larian does with BG3 and their turn-based combat system.
I believe that he may have been referring to the Lost Valley DLC for Solasta. I just recently picked this up myself as it was on sale. It's gotten mostly positive reviews and is apparently nearly the same length as the main campaign, so more like an expansion.
Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Lost Valley on Steam
Escape from Lost Valley in this brand new level 1 to 12 campaign that will take your new party into the long forgotten lands of the Dominion. Ruled with an iron fist by the tyrant Orenetis, your arrival will light a fuse under this political powder keg!
There's also additional content in the Steam Workshop:
Steam Community :: Solasta: Crown of the Magister
Solasta: Crown of the Magister - True to the TabletopWizards of the Coast granted Tactical Adventures a license to use the Dungeons and Dragons SRD 5.1 Ruleset, further anchoring our will to make the most faithful video game adaptation with the Tabletop Ruleset and craft the game you are hoping...
I believe that's a quirk? But no I didn't (though I always give my created rangers a quirk), but I really wanted to, as I ended up hating goats in WL2 from the awful sounds they made. After awhile, I just wanted to kill them all.
I saw that, and actually read through it before I made my WL2 post in the RPG section, because there were also many comments on WL2 as well.
Zloth
Community Contributor
Awwww, the goat hater perk results in a special encounter against a giant, flaming goat - which has quite a few goat followers. You could have taken sweet revenge!
P.S. I just came to an understanding of why some people very much need a quest log.
P.S. I just came to an understanding of why some people very much need a quest log.
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I don't play online anymore, haven't for ages. I just looked at a 48 min movie last night though, which is a collection of high res cutscenes of ESO, and while it looked very good and exciting, every gameplay clip I've seen of the actual game looks like crap by comparison. The part I thought was best in the cutscenes movie was the dragon parts. I'm really surprised Bethesda by now hasn't come out with a decent Skyrim sequel with better graphics that highlights such things. IMO it would be a big hit, don't waste it Beth.
Sarafan
Community Contributor
Not everyone likes MMOs. They usually have a specific flavor. The quests and story are simpler and the gameplay focuses on playing with other. ESO however is totally playable even as a single player (pretty much like The Old Republic). You can of course ask a question: why bother solo an MMORPG when there's a lot more better single player RPGs out there? When it comes to ESO it's the world. After all those expansion packs you can visit nearly whole Tamriel and sometimes even beyond. The only game in the series that did this, was Arena, but the content was randomly generated. In ESO there's practically no random content which is a huge advantage given the size of the world.
Ahh, yes. Silly me.
I even have the DLC and know about the player created content. It's one of the reasons I bought the game. I heard the Lost Valley is indeed better than the base game, but it had quite a lot of bugs. I hope they managed to fix it.
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The only good mummies are players who choose to come back after death as a good mummy. All the AI mummies are bad.There are good mummies?
I should have mentioned in my story that there is only one mummy model in the game, so when I chose to come back as the evil mummy, Guido, naturally, let me walk right up to him. He wasn't at full health, so I one shot him hahaha.
********************
@Frag Maniac remember all that crap I was saying about Forza, keyboards and unbeatable drivatars? Just forget all that. I recorded myself driving for the first time tonight, and upon watching myself, was surprised to find out that I actually suck hahahahaha. So if I can manage it, you can manage it.
I might try to upload it later. I used the Xbox overlay to record, and apparently the settings were on "Garbage", so it isn't pretty.
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