The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (5 June to 11 June)

[ZedClampet]

Bought V Rising and played that last night. My entire experience with top down action games amounts to about an hour, so I started off pretty poorly with the combat. Even though it's melee focused (plus a little magic), it handles like a twin stick shooter. It's not like a regular 3rd person game where your character just swings where he is looking. He always swings in the direction of the mouse cursor even if he has to turn around to do it, and you move with WASD instead of by clicking, so you aren't automatically moving the cursor as you move. All that seems common enough, I guess, but I was still tending to run up to an enemy and then swing in the wrong direction because I forgot to do anything with the mouse other than click. Naturally, I improved as the night went on.

 

[Zimbaly]

I've been into Aram for LOL lately. After years of not really playing I started it back up a while ago and it's been filling my old Vainglory hole...... errrr..... maybe I should of worded that differently, but I hope to god someone knows what I ment.

Just with all the Aram playing I wish there was a ranked mode for Aram.

Also thinking about printing up gaming sized mouse pads of my photos. Don't know if I could sell them, but they'd make great gifts for my friends and family.

 

[Ryzengang]

Summer Game Fest is going to be starting soon, so I'll be watching today. Should be some interesting reveals. With the Xbox & Bethesda showcase being on Sunday, we are going to be getting a lot of information/reveals this week. I'm hoping to see some gameplay of Avowed, as that is one of the titles I'm most interested in going forward. It basically looks like a Skyrim-esque game in the Pillars of Eternity universe.

 

[Johnway]

well saw some more darktide and honestly peaked my interest. But that said, being a coop multiplayer i'm not entirely sure how long the game will keep me interested. I mean, l4d somehow kept me hooked for a while, but thats because i was playing with friends and the multiplayer experience was all new to me (l4d was my first serious multiplayer experience).

Now? with a limited map set, constant stream of DLC map packs, it kinda makes me want to hold fire. if vermintide was anything to go on, i could probably grab it at a cheap price later down the line... Haven't played vermintide 2 yet and honestly i'm not sure that i want to.

speaking of multiplayer, the release of chivalry 2 looms near. Still not sure if i want to get it. If i want to experience the carnage, there no better time then initial release. But whether i have time to play it and have fun? i'm not sure. I've already gone over the reasons. I'll sleep on it some more.

 

[SleepingDog]

I read a review "Fox Hunting" in PC Gamer which is about "The X-Files Game" (1998 vintage). Being a fan of the TV series I was intrigued. It seemed to suggest that Skinner would be part of the action with bit parts for Mulder and Scully. The problem was that it appeared to be only available on Ebay (prices ranging from £18 to £80.)

After a little hunting I found an abandoned software site which had the the 7CDs in ISO format, the manual, user guide and a URL for getting it working on Windows 10. Had fun working out how to use the ISO format to copy the data from a virtual CD drive to my hard drive. After a bit of frustration manged it. [The installer expected there to be a single CD drive so you have to virtual eject the previous ISO etc etc.] Needed a old copy (v6) of QuickTime to get the game to run.

I have have seen the introduction scene, got as far as the menu and played with the options. Later today I plan to actually play the game.

 

[DXCHASE]

Since PCG put up the article about the new mod for Turok 2: Seeds of Evil , i have jumped back into the game to see how it plays and i like the improvements. Itll help me forget that the writer of the article said it was a bad game lol.

 

[mainer]

Well, I finally finished Elex 2 which I posted about in @Zloth 's Elex 2 thread, so I won't go into any details here, outside of saying that I really enjoyed it.

I was still in a post-apocalyptic game mood, so I reinstalled Fallout New Vegas, but I still need to mod it, and for me, that can take several days to get the build I want. I've looked at some of the mod collections on the Nexus, but none of them had a combination of mods that i always use, so a new run at FONV will have to wait a bit.

So then I thought, well, why not Wasteland 3, but then I saw Wasteland 2 Director's Cut languishing in my backlog since around 2014, so I installed that (no mods). Since I knew that I'd never get to WL2 if I played WL3 first.

So far (only about 10 hrs in) I'm really liking it. It's definitely an old-school RPG in the vein of Fallouts 1 & 2. Character creation is really detailed, and overall, probably took me at least 2-3 hours, but that's with going through it 3 times until I got a party that I thought would survive. And I feel that WL2 is going to be pretty unforgiving if you don't have a well-balanced party. There are some pre-generated characters you can choose if you want to skip the character building, but I've never done that in a game. I love tweaking all the stats and skills of a party of characters.

Combat is turn-based and very tactical, and can be brutal if you're not prepared or positioned well, though I haven't had anyone actually die yet. There are a lot of options as far as what actions you can take (moving/attacking/using items/taking cover), and I'm still learning the system, but there's definitely that vibe of the first 2 Fallout games.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Had to have a little gaming break because reality decided to jump me like it does sometimes, but easing back into playing a little occasionally now.

I really liked Wasteland 2, but I played about 25 hours, then restarted with the better balanced characters though. Might be worth looking up a beginners guide if you want to avoid a similar fate @mainer . Wasteland 3 didnt really do it for me for whatever reason so I think you made a good choice on where to start.

Been playing a bit of Hardspace Shipbreaker on Gamepass. So far so good, its relaxing and satisfying to take ships apart with a cutter and and wangle it into the appropriate buckets without getting blown up. Only done the first two ships though so I assume it gets more hectic.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

So then I thought, well, why not Wasteland 3, but then I saw Wasteland 2 Director's Cut languishing in my backlog since around 2014, so I installed that (no mods). Since I knew that I'd never get to WL2 if I played WL3 first.

So far (only about 10 hrs in) I'm really liking it. It's definitely an old-school RPG in the vein of Fallouts 1 & 2.

Didn't Fallout kind of evolve from the early Wasteland games, or was that something else they came out of?

 

[Johnway]

I really liked Wasteland 2, but I played about 25 hours, then restarted with the better balanced characters though. Might be worth looking up a beginners guide if you want to avoid a similar fate @mainer . Wasteland 3 didnt really do it for me for whatever reason so I think you made a good choice on where to start.

Ah wasteland 2. i played this game on hard and it was tough going at the start. Almost snapped when i got to the scrap yard with all those robots. I cheesed the whole thing when i discovered a malfunctioning battledroid somewhere and it came armed with a plasma gun that made short work of them. Provided the robots did hit it that is.

My advice for Wasteland 2? have a high int score. Hell, make it 10 as you earn more exp which means you level up faster and you might get more attributes along the way.

personally i found the game a bit basic in places. It was made with unity and was a sort of indie /startup feel and it showed.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Wasnt it with high int you get more perk points per level up? Which basically makes it mandatory to do once you know. Been a good few years and I have a terrible memory, but something like that.

It had a charm to it that was lacking in 3. I started playing it in the OG edition and the Directors cut came out as I was playing it, so might have been a bit more polished in the version I actually got to the end of.

 

[ZedClampet]

Coffee Stain announced a new Goat Simulator game. I thought that joke had run its course. That's really disappointing to me, to go from Satisfactory to another goat joke.

 

[Brian Boru]

Didn't Fallout kind of evolve from the early Wasteland games

Yes it did—Wiki.

 

[Zloth]

It had a charm to it that was lacking in 3.

But the muuuusic!!!

View: https://youtu.be/Fa9OOormA40

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

But the muuuusic!!!

View: https://youtu.be/Fa9OOormA40

Honestly dont remember anything about the music in either game. Can be it was just the wrong time for me to play Wasteland 3 but it didnt keep hold of me either time I started it. Still played something like 30 hours though so not like it was bad.

 

[ZedClampet]

Been looking at all the games announced so far at not-E3 and it would appear that Epic is increasing it's efforts to lock games out of other storefronts. I really wish Fortnite would die a horrible death. All it would take is for the next "big thing" to come along.

I may make a new rule that I won't purchase any game that accepts Epic bribe money even after they go to Steam.

 

[Brian Boru]

I won't purchase any game that accepts Epic bribe money even after they go to Steam

How about games which released first on console or mobile before coming to PC?

 

[Zloth]

Been looking at all the games announced so far at not-E3 and it would appear that Epic is increasing it's efforts to lock games out of other storefronts.

And they were getting hated for it - until they started giving away free games. I don't think I could do the never-exclusive-to-Epic bit, though. That's a lot of games gone. FF7 Remake, Mechwarrior 5, Phoenix Point, Outer Wilds....

 

[mainer]

I really liked Wasteland 2, but I played about 25 hours, then restarted with the better balanced characters though. Might be worth looking up a beginners guide if you want to avoid a similar fate @mainer . Wasteland 3 didnt really do it for me for whatever reason so I think you made a good choice on where to start.

Wasnt it with high int you get more perk points per level up? Which basically makes it mandatory to do once you know. Been a good few years and I have a terrible memory, but something like that.

Yeah, I've already restarted twice, so I'm on my 3 party of Rangers (the ones in the screenshot above). I briefly glanced at a couple of guides on Steam, but I'm really a stat-freak, so I love just spending time tweaking the different options there are in character creation. And there are so many options for skills and derived stats based on a character attributes, so it takes awhile, for me at least, to get a well balanced party.

Intelligence affects the number of skill points a character gets per level up, the minimum being 2 points, to a high of 5 points with an INT of 10. Perks are available every 4th level (I think), and what perks you can choose are based on your level of a skill, and the number of points to raise a skill increases as you progress through a skill. It's a fairly intricate system that you rarely see in RPGs today, but I love it. Character creation itself is a game all by itself.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yes it did—Wiki.

Cool, thanks for posting that. I was pretty sure Fallout came out of Wasteland. I've always wondered why they changed the name to Fallout. Now I know.

 

[ZedClampet]

How about games which released first on console or mobile before coming to PC?

I'm good with that. Xbox and Playstation lose money on their hardware sales, so if they want an exclusive that helps make that money back, I'm okay with it. As for mobile, it costs a lot of money and time to port a mobile game to PC, so I have no problems there.

I probably won't stick to my guns on this, but it is truly annoying.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm good with that. Xbox and Playstation lose money on their hardware sales, so if they want an exclusive that helps make that money back, I'm okay with it. As for mobile, it costs a lot of money and time to port a mobile game to PC, so I have no problems there.

I probably won't stick to my guns on this, but it is truly annoying.

Epic is losing a lot of money on their giveaways and the development of the platform as well. And I'm not sure they really have a lot of other options if they want to be able to challenge Steam and I don't think it's a bad thing that Steam is getting some serious competition.

 

[ZedClampet]

Epic is losing a lot of money on their giveaways and the development of the platform as well. And I'm not sure they really have a lot of other options if they want to be able to challenge Steam and I don't think it's a bad thing that Steam is getting some serious competition.

Competition is good. Forcing consumers into having no options is bad.

 

[Pifanjr]

Competition is good. Forcing consumers into having no options is bad.

Like I said, I don't think they can become a serious competitor to Steam without doing exclusives. And I'm not sure on the numbers, but I think there's a decent amount of games that are Steam exclusives on PC purely because Steam is the dominant gaming platform.

 

[ZedClampet]

Like I said, I don't think they can become a serious competitor to Steam without doing exclusives. And I'm not sure on the numbers, but I think there's a decent amount of games that are Steam exclusives on PC purely because Steam is the dominant gaming platform.

If they become good enough, they can become a serious competitor to Steam. The fact is that they aren't good enough, but are artificially propping themselves up with anti-consumer behavior. You won't convince me to agree with it.


***********

Well, I'm up early, as usual. Now what? I guess I'll listen to some music and work on a mod project. I need something I'm more passionate about.