The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (Feb 20 - 26)(ish)

[Zloth]

I'm all in on Subnautica: Below Zero this weekend. I can't say much, though, because SPOILERS!

Started playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition. So far, I'm loving it.

Mass Effect 1?

 

[Brian Boru]

I finally made C&C Tiberian Sun run quite properly on modern hardware

Oh well done! I got Generals going a couple of years ago, but couldn't get C&C2 going. Your post has been bookmarked

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm all in on Subnautica: Below Zero this weekend. I can't say much, though, because SPOILERS!


Mass Effect 1?

Yeah, the Legendary Edition is a remaster of the first 3. I'm starting with 1. I've never played any of them. I'm not very far yet, but so far, it's great.

 

[Pifanjr]

My daughter's been playing Stardew Valley. She can't read clocks yet, but she discovered that the background of the portrait in the inventory screen changes depending on the time of day and has been using that to know when to leave the mine to get home.

The only thing she does in the mine is finding monsters and then running away from them by the way.

 

[Sarafan]

Oh well done! I got Generals going a couple of years ago, but couldn't get C&C2 going. Your post has been bookmarked

Glad to hear it. The basic version of the game has two major issues: invisible menu bug and very poor performance (the latter appeared not so long ago). I tried everything to solve this from compatibility settings to fan-made patches and whole fan-made installations and the combination of the above. Fan-made patches fixed the two mentioned issues, but introduced another one (at least on my machine): very long loading times (approximately 2 minutes per save). It's more or less fine until you screw up something and want to load a save.

I didn't have much hopes when trying dgVoodoo2, but... It worked! Well... Not straight out of the box, because I had to disable fullscreen optimization on the compatibility tab in properties of the game's executable. Without it I experienced major slowdowns once in a while.

With dgVoodoo2 and disabled fullscreen optimizations the game runs great and the only noticeable issue is distorted graphic around the menu screen. The menu itself is fine though, so there's no problem in selecting the appropriate options. Give it a try if fan-made patches won't do their job.

 

[Zloth]

Actually, there's one thing I can say about Subnautica:BZ: it's got a serious issue with stairs. Each room of your base has a small, two step staircase to get to the tube out of the room. Half the time, your character can't deal with it and just stops instead of going into the tunnel! I'm learning to deal with it by jumping into the tunnels instead of running, but that's pretty pathetic, IMHO. Plus, the issue hits occasionally when running around on land.

It's not game killing by a long shot, given that you spend most of your time swimming, but... really??

 

[Pifanjr]

I could be playing Total War: Warhammer 3 right now through my friend's shared library, but I'd have to delete over half of my SSD to make room for it. I'd also be unable to patch the game, as Warhammer 3 still needs to copy the entire game to apply a new patch and my 250 GB SSD isn't big enough for that even if it was otherwise completely empty.

Perhaps I'll be able to get a new SSD for my birthday in 3 months.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm still feeling relatively well despite the Covid. Hasn't really gotten better or worse. I've now had the vaccine, the booster and the disease, so i should be good for awhile going forward.

Playing Atlas, God of War, Total War Warhammer 3 and Dying Light 2. I'm embarrassed to say that out of all of those, crappy-broken Atlas is my favorite. There's just something about a pirate survival game, exploring the world for blueprints and resources, building your own Queen Anne's Revenge, and sinking some enemy ships, fighting the Kraken, etc. Base building is fun in the game, too. I only wish the game had a different developer. They added these pre-built buildings about 18 months ago that collect whatever resources the island they are on has. For over a year after they were added, they would become invisible after you logged out and back on. You had to build something with regular building supplies to mark the location where your invisible buildings were. They finally fixed it. Also, the original employees all left and the new employees can't figure out how to make new ships the way they used to be made (so you could build them yourself), so all new ships being added to the game come prebuilt, and they are truly garbage compared to the originals.

Actually, there's one thing I can say about Subnautica:BZ: it's got a serious issue with stairs.

That's really strange. I've got 60 hours in it and never had a problem with that. I haven't played in awhile. Maybe an update broke something.

Love that game, though. Played the crap out of it in early access. Need to start a new game now and finish it.

 

[Johnway]

With Shadow tactics pretty much sorted time to think of the next game to play. Think its time for an RPG (pillars of eternity or divinity original sin) but i might have time to play another indie game like subterrain or dear Esther (its only an hour long and one i can throw into the complete pile quickly).


EDIT: concerning the announcement of Soul Hackers 2 i'm pretty interested to get it. That said, i really should at least... you know play the first one... Its on my 3ds and having played shin megami tensei strangers journey it will take a very, very long time (and grinding) to finish that one. Plus i'm currently playing parasite eve 2 on my vita.

Got to say, its different to the original game and the changes made haven't really won me over. If anything, its made the game worse. More comments once i finish it because i am giving the game a fair chance as there is enough to keep me invested.

 

[mainer]

I'm still feeling relatively well despite the Covid. Hasn't really gotten better or worse. I've now had the vaccine, the booster and the disease, so i should be good for awhile going forward.

Hope you get better soon, Zed, I didn't know you got the Covoid, but I knew something must be up because you weren't around for a couple weeks. You'll definitely have a super immunity once you beat it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I got to continue my Warhammer 2 Direfin Vortex campaign yesterday. I've embraced the pirate life, completely abandoning my settlements, the last of which ended up being taken right before I went to bed. Income is a bit of a struggle, though the shipwrecks and the money from sacking is enough to support my current two armies while I work on getting some more pirate coves to increase my income. It would be nice to be able to afford to upgrade my low tier troops though, as the bigger AI factions have upgraded theirs and often have multiple full stacks walking around.

I'd never lost all of my settlements before, so I wasn't quite sure what would happen, but apparently it means my second army will now suffer attrition every turn until I conquer a new one. My main army is a horde though, meaning it is basically a mobile settlement, so it can apparently sustain itself. If I'd known this beforehand, I'd have invested in making my second army a horde too, but now it would be a waste to replace the lord as he just got to level 22.

Then again, I lost a regiment of renown (a unique version of a regular unit) while doing Direfin's quest battle and the only way to get it back is to stand in your own territory, so I need to conquer something anyway if I want it back.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm a slow gamer, so it usually takes me forever to get through a game. I'm playing Mass Effect 1 right now, the remaster. I'm really loving the game. I like story-based single player games. As much as I'm liking it, I'm going to say that it's slightly too story-heavy, and not quite enough action/gameplay. So far, it's more like an interactive story with some gameplay here and there. But I'm not very far into the game. I'm still running around the Citadel, so I'm sure I haven't even gotten to the action yet.

Don't get me wrong, I love dialog and story. It's just slightly to heavy on that so far.

 

[ZedClampet]

My work boss gave me the week off to recover from Covid, but my real boss (the wife) gave me a job to do today. She wants me to create a newsletter template for her.

After that I'm going to play a million demos from the Steam Next Fest.

 

[Alm]

Just had an email from Bethesda saying that they are shutting down their launcher in May and migrating to Steam in April.

I welcome that as I thought their launcher was pretty archaic.

 

[ZedClampet]

Just had an email from Bethesda saying that they are shutting down their launcher in May and migrating to Steam in April.

I welcome that as I thought their launcher was pretty archaic.

Kind of weird they described it as moving to Steam instead of to the Xbox app, but I'll take it.

 

[Alm]

Yeah, Steam beats Xbox app. It's good that they are thinking of the players rather than their ecosystem.

This is the article:

Sunsetting the Bethesda.net Launcher & Migrating to Steam [UPDATED APRIL 27, 2022]

You may now begin transferring your Bethesda.net Library to Steam. Find the instructions and get all the details in our updated FAQ.

bethesda.net

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Just had an email from Bethesda saying that they are shutting down their launcher in May and migrating to Steam in April.

I welcome that as I thought their launcher was pretty archaic.

I'll be honest, I had no idea they even had their own launcher. I only bought their games on Steam anyway. But being owned by Microsoft now, I'm kind of surprised they're not going to the Xbox App, too.

 

[Johnway]

I'll be honest, I had no idea they even had their own launcher. I only bought their games on Steam anyway. But being owned by Microsoft now, I'm kind of surprised they're not going to the Xbox App, too.

I haven't bought anything on the bethesda store and the only thing on there were the free copies of quake 2 and 3. Honestly i didn't think much of the bethesda store had enough of a draw to even entice me to visit let alone buy from it. just glad i can migrate whatever i had and move on.

 

[mainer]

I'm playing Mass Effect 1 right now, the remaster. I'm really loving the game. I like story-based single player games. As much as I'm liking it, I'm going to say that it's slightly too story-heavy, and not quite enough action/gameplay. So far, it's more like an interactive story with some gameplay here and there. But I'm not very far into the game. I'm still running around the Citadel, so I'm sure I haven't even gotten to the action yet.

ME1 opens up a lot once you leave the citadel, and the combat action will balance out the conversations. There are lots of side quests that will take you planet jumping, and I think all of them have combat (although some have paragon or renegade choices that avoids some confrontations). There's some PCs that can be hacked on the citadel that will give you a few more. I love those games.

 

[Zloth]

I went and did pretty near all the citadel quests right at the start. Big mistake. I think it would have been better to do just a few of them, then gotten off the planet, then come back for a few more. Do any of them time out?

I built a little land rover thing in Subnautica: Below Zero. Oh dear. You know how the Mako bounces around over the landscape in Mass Effect 1? Well, this isn't that bad, but it is also first person. After about an hour of that, I was starting to get queasy! That's a rarity for me. It's probably best they didn't do a VR version of this game!

 

[Pifanjr]

My wife insisted I play more Warhammer 2 yesterday because she decided I had been working too hard. I managed to occupy a high elf city and sack some others while they were fighting Naggarond and Grom, which allowed me to recruit my regiments of renown and gave me a ton of money. It also gave me enough infamy to spawn the next quest army. However, while my army has been doing exceptionally well against the high elves, those only have a few high tier units in them. The quest army on the other hand doesn't have any low tier units as far as I'm aware, so I've been waiting for my second army to come up from all the way in the south west to reinforce.

However, just before I quit for the evening, the quest army decided to start besieging the settlement I took from the high elves, so if I manage to get there quickly enough I can attack him from behind and use the city's garrison as reinforcements instead. If he attacks the city before I can attack him I might also be able to do enough damage to have my main army finish him off.

 

[Brian Boru]

My wife insisted I play more

Does she have an available twin sister?

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Got to my first thresher maw in Mass Effect 1. I know they'll probably get easier to fight the longer I play, but it's tough for me now. I kept dying and didn't have the time to keep trying to beat it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Feeling progressively worse today for some reason. All I've done today is play a couple of demos, which I think I posted about in the demo thread.

Might play some Atlas or Dying Light 2 or just go to bed now. Not sure.

 

[Johnway]

Well i thought i'll play subterrain a simple indie game that would finished relatively quickly. Alas, after 2 days of play i suspect that its going to take a while for me to complete this one. namely its a lot of grinding.

Spent the first 2 days trying to figure out how things work and accessing the problem. My diagnosis of the situation? Desperate. First plan of action was to get the basics up and running, get some basic resources/blueprints available and figure out how i can improve my situation later. Right now its to explore the surrounding areas and try to get more power to explore other areas which means exploring further to get the tech to research, build and mine what i need.

But the bigger problem is probably the infection/mutation build up. The longer i take, the more dangerous it will get...