The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (May 1 to May 7)

[ZedClampet]

We've been playing Space Hulk: Deathwing a little in the evening. It's structured like Left for Dead or Vermintide. I heard nothing but bad things about it, but bought it when it went on sale for $5 because my son has been watching videos on Space Marines. I'm not much of a shooter guy, but I'm enjoying this in small bursts. It's a tough game, though, and really balanced for groups of 4, so we've failed a few missions. If your partner dies, he has to wait two minutes and 30 seconds to respawn. It's pretty intense being the one trying to survive long enough for the other one to respawn. The levels are quite atmospheric. There's a leveling/perk system to inspire you to keep going.

Apparently the "enhanced edition" is quite different from the launch version.

Been goofing around with Farming Simulator 22. Considering making a custom map for it. I'm taking the easy way out on my current game. There are all these things you can turn off in the options (like weeds and picking up stones), and I've turned them all off as of yesterday. They are fine on maps with small fields (if you only have a few), but they are just a pain when you have huge fields. It takes hours to pick up the rocks in the fields I'm using right now.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm just about halfway through my Legendary run of Halo The Master Chief Collection. It starts getting pretty clear with Halo 3 that you have to babysit your squad AI by clearing the way for them, even when you pamper them with the best weapons available. They're great at clearing out Ghosts, Banshees, Wraiths, Prowlers and even Phantom transport ships from a distance with the Spartan Laser and Fuel Rod guns, but that's about it. With ground troops they'll commonly and idiotically charge in too close and get grenade killed by simple Grunts if you aren't wiping out most of the fodder yourself. I have at times found clever ways to avoid such problems without rushing by just parking the Warthog to block the doorway where you first go indoors in The Covenant mission for example, but any place you can't do something like that is a constant worry.

That said, I have only the Cortana and Halo missions left with Halo 3, which are both fairly short, and are done solo and with the Arbiter, then I plan to take a break midway through MCC and try playing Chernobylite. Chernobylite is a bit atypical for a Survival Horror game in that it is pretty heavy with RPG elements. There are several key NPCs you need to recruit and keep happy and alive, as the end game ramps up the difficulty considerably, which they not only help out a lot for, but is also the only way to get the good ending.

 

[Zloth]

I'm getting into Phoenix Point now. Pulling a few DLCs turned out to be a good choice - I was getting that "choice overload" thing where there's so many choices that I just get frustrated. I remember the same feeling hitting in Firaxis' first XCOM. Do I invest in more research? Better production? Soldier training? There were many choices, and I knew they were really important, but I had NO clue which way to go on them!

Often times when games hit this sort of thing, it's easy to figure out what to spend on: the thing that's causing you the most grief. If you can't go on missions because you're waiting for soldiers to grow their limbs back, invest in more healing (or more soldiers). If research is taking forever, get more research labs. This gets to be a problem, though, when everything is going well. Then you've got to try and guess what's going to go wrong later. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it isn't. PP was in the latter case.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well, I've finished half of Halo MCC on Legendary now, after completing the last 2 missions of Halo 3 last night, Cortana, and Halo. These missions in fact were a breeze compared to the ones with waves of enemy vehicles where you need to keep your Marines alive and well armed.

Now I'm going to take a break midway through my MCC Legendary run to play Chernobylite. What is it with me? I complain about having to babysit and carefully supply the Marines in MCC, only to go on to a Survival Horror game with deep RPG elements that requires you to do the same with vital NPCs you recruit.

I guess there IS a fair bit of satisfaction seeing your squad handily take out enemies after going through hell on numerous attempts to keep them alive. It's not like these kind of games don't have at least SOME rewards. To quote one of the Marines in Halo 3, "I love it when he kills the bad guys".

 

[Frindis]

Playing Red Dead Redemption 2 doing some more of the main quest. Other than that some more Fortnite no build PvP and Dayz Standalone.

 

[Monster1903]

Guys, what do you think is the most spectacular and popular game at the moment,

 

[Frag Maniac]

I put in a fairly long session of Chernobylite tonight, but only have 1 of the NPCs I started with, and none recruited so far. This game takes a fair bit of study just to get an understanding of how to best upgrade your base, manage inventory, and keep your crew happy. One of the most tedious things is crafting though. I can't believe how many things require mushrooms to craft, even things that have nothing whatsoever to do with them. I'm wondering if it's some dev joke about mushroom clouds, since this is a nuclear post apocalyptic game.

At any rate I'm slogging through it, using a fairly well upgraded revolver. I also carry a stock AK, but haven't really used it yet. I gave the shotgun I scavenged to my military crew guy, but I think I'll swap it out for the 2nd AK I just scavenged off a hostile Merc. One thing I like that I just found out is you can acquire a non lethal takedown skill, which means you don't have to worry about your Psyche level dropping from unnecessarily killing people and having to build it back up all the time. The only time I've not seen it drop is when you kill some mercs that are about to kill a civilian, because it's considered you rescuing them.

I'm several days into the gameplay as far as in game time goes though, and the zones you travel to start getting stormy quicker the more days you progress, with a particularly nasty guy that pops out of a wormhole firing his Plasma Thrower at you as far as I can tell. A couple scientist NPCs I just interrogated (because they work for the bad guys) told me Pripyat looks like it will melt down in about 30 days.

So this game is vaguely similar to Days Gone in how it keeps track of time and escalates the chaos as you go. If you play it, beware of the save system. I recommend using the main menu to manual save before getting any base building started. This is because you can't count on the auto saves and quick saves to be there very long, since they are overwritten, and there's potentially a fair number of damage that could have been avoided out in the field when unexpected things happen, be it radiation, mercs, or monsters.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I've still been playing No Man's Sky mostly. I'm still loving it, but I've noticed something they could have improved on. In all of the planets, the whole planet is the same environment. That's not realistic at all. There should be polar caps and more tropical environments toward the equator. Or at least they should have different environments, based on the location on the planet.

 

[Zloth]

If I remember right, the whole planet has the same weather, too. If it's raining where you are, it's raining everywhere on the planet. You can't escape a storm by jumping into your ship and re-landing 1000 miles away.

Have you found any of the crazier planets yet?

Monster - NO game is very spectacular as long as it's stuck on a little monitor, or even on a big screen TV. If you want spectacular, start reading up on Virtual Reality.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've still been playing No Man's Sky mostly. I'm still loving it, but I've noticed something they could have improved on. In all of the planets, the whole planet is the same environment. That's not realistic at all. There should be polar caps and more tropical environments toward the equator. Or at least they should have different environments, based on the location on the planet.

While I agree that it isn't the most realistic, it does at least keep you going. Planets can't be too interesting or you'll spend far too much time on them and then you get a weird disconnect with the space part of the game.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Have you found any of the crazier planets yet?

What do you mean by crazier planets? I've seen several different types of planets, some of them are a lot more wild than others with storms, radiation, and such. And obviously, I've come across many predators by now. They haven't been too overwhelming, though, especially since I got my bolt gun. So far the worst star systems are the ones ruled by pirates. Pretty much nonstop dogfights.

I actually just started venturing out more. I'm at the part of the game where you start expanding your base with an overseer and scientist. I already did those two and then decided if I'm going to expand a base, I really don't like where that one is. So I decided to go exploring before I dedicate to building a huge base. I'd like to find a planet that I really like, and a beautiful spot on that planet. So what I'm worried about is that I've already hired an overseer and scientist on the base I don't like. If I start that over in another star system, is it going to mess up where I'm at in the base-building quest? Will the people I've hired follow me to another base, or will I have to hire new ones in that star system?

But the reason I brought that up is because yesterday, I worked on getting all of the upgrades to my hyperdrive, so I should be able to go to any star system now. My range is still pretty limited, though.

While I agree that it isn't the most realistic, it does at least keep you going. Planets can't be too interesting or you'll spend far too much time on them and then you get a weird disconnect with the space part of the game.

My complaint doesn't mean the game isn't fun. I'm having a lot of fun with it. But you probably have a good point there.

 

[Zloth]

What do you mean by crazier planets? I've seen several different types of planets, some of them are a lot more wild than others with storms, radiation, and such.

That's definitely a "no".

 

[WoodenSaucer]

That's definitely a "no".

Haha. Now you're going to have to tell me what you mean by "crazy planets."

 

[Zloth]

Oh, you'll find a few! I think you get to see one the first time you open a portal.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Oh, you'll find a few! I think you get to see one the first time you open a portal.

Right now, I'm buzzing a bunch of star systems to find a perfect planet to build a base on, and I can't find a good one anywhere.

 

[Brian Boru]

@ZedClampet and all who play co-op:

This looks interesting, if you don't know about it already

Steam Remote Play

Play your games in exciting new ways with Steam Remote Play.

store.steampowered.com

 

[Zloth]

Right now, I'm buzzing a bunch of star systems to find a perfect planet to build a base on, and I can't find a good one anywhere.

No need to get too picky. It's best if the climate is such that you can stand outside without freezing/melting and there's good minerals around. Remember, you'll be able to set up teleporters fairly easily, so every base you make will just be a loading screen away. If you find a much nicer place, just set up another base there.

I think the first order of business is to set up a computer or some such that gives you special missions that provide blueprints. You can hire some quest givers, too.

 

[ZedClampet]

@ZedClampet and all who play co-op:

This looks interesting, if you don't know about it already

Steam Remote Play

Play your games in exciting new ways with Steam Remote Play.

store.steampowered.com

It's a great feature, but I've specifically avoided buying local co-op games for so long, it will take me awhile to get used to it.

 

[Ryzengang]

I haven't really made much progress on my backlog at all in quite some time. I'm primarily playing Runescape at the moment, currently leveling a new account. I'm actually playing it on Switch, but I also started the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney trilogy and it's been a blast so far. A really goofy game with a great soundtrack and engaging trials. Lastly, I started Ghostrunner to have something in the works for my PC backlog. It seems pretty fun so far from the little I've played. Definitely an interesting game.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

No need to get too picky. It's best if the climate is such that you can stand outside without freezing/melting and there's good minerals around. Remember, you'll be able to set up teleporters fairly easily, so every base you make will just be a loading screen away. If you find a much nicer place, just set up another base there.

I think the first order of business is to set up a computer or some such that gives you special missions that provide blueprints. You can hire some quest givers, too.

I already have several bases. But I'm at the part of the game where the quest is to expand your base. I really want a good location for that. Unfortunately as I visit several star systems, most of them are ending up being hostile or not very habitable.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I finally got my whole crew of 5 recruited in Chernobylite. I've also found as long as you do any Red Forest missions, you can gather quite a lot of mushrooms. And the weather conditions aren't always notably worse as you go as I first thought. I hadn't realized that on the mission select screen, if you press T to look at the Info, it shows how prevalent each resource is in that region. So that has made things far easier scavenging wise. Your crew will even bring back mushrooms sometimes, but in very small quantities.

That said, there ARE a consistently larger number of armored NAR troops that cannot be non lethally taken down. I'm also finding that the Black Stalker has more like a 5 min window of teleporting in now, vs the 3 min it was before. I found a pretty good way of dealing with him without losing any health or ammo though. I just look for an object I can circle around, like a big rock, or tall vehicle, and dash to the other side of it as soon as I hear his portal open. There's only been one fight so far where you are forced to fight him, but it was kinda scary because it was in a building with long hallways and hard to avoid his fire.

I'm also finding the RPG nature of the game can cause consequences. At one point earlier in the game I killed a guy to loot him that was hiding from the NAR because he promised me a reward for not killing him or turning him in, only to find I wasn't given a reward, and there was also nothing shown on the map indicating a stash anywhere. Well, I found out he was the husband of Olga, whom I recently recruited. I lied to her to assure she would join my crew, but now Mikhail, another crew member, has Bad status regarding relations with me for not destroying the NAR servers (got intel about my wife Tanya instead), and lying to Olga.

That said, even though it can be hard to know what decisions to make in this game, which I'm sure they did to allow for different playthroughs each time, you can if you want change your decisions whenever you die, as you go to a place that allows such options before you teleport back into the game. There's even a radiation chamber you can build to self annihilate in, to make such changes at any time.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Been playing Spirit Farer. Just a lovely experience, the art, music, and characters are really good. Bit of a change in tone from Elden Ring, completely different set of feelies being wiggled.

 

[ZedClampet]

I finally got my whole crew of 5 recruited in Chernobylite.

I bought that game, played a few hours and life happened and I completely forgot it existed. Really enjoyed the beginning of the game. Need to get back to it.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I bought that game, played a few hours and life happened and I completely forgot it existed. Really enjoyed the beginning of the game. Need to get back to it.

It's OK, certainly immersive Survival Horror wise. I'm finding it's RPG aspects are getting a bit tedious though. I'm constantly being tasked with decisions where two different crew members are suggesting 1 of 2 opposing choices, and one is always upset at your decision. This makes it difficult to keep everyone on the crew on good terms with you. It's like a balancing act that becomes predictable and annoying.

I'm like 26 days in now game time, and at the 29th day, you need to plan the final mission, the Heist. Before doing so though you can self annihilate in a radiation chamber you build and change any decisions that upset crew members on the death walk before spawning back into the game. I'm hoping that process will not be more of the same, where I please one person, only to upset another.

The game is also weird regarding the save system and the percentage of success shown for anyone you send out on a mission. One time, I came back to base and there was a problem with one of the crew members (don't recall what it was). All it took to correct it was loading the last save before teleporting back to base. At other times though, loading your last quicksave or even last checkpoint, will make you have to replay a lot of the game.

Last night I had to replay a near hour long segment because one of my crew members didn't come back from a mission I sent her on. According to the mission screen, it was supposed to be 90 something percent chance of success too. I was hoping reloading the last save before teleporting back would again correct the problem, but it didn't. Fortunately I had made a manual save in the pause menu screen before leaving base.

So I highly recommend making manual saves at key places, because there is a limited number of checkpoint saves, and those and quicksaves get overwritten. You are even limited to how many manual saves you can make before they start overwriting, about half dozen or so. They also, as do quicksaves, load you to the last auto save point, which can be 1 to several minutes back.

 

[DXCHASE]

Well my biggest new thought is. I GOT MY STEAM DECK!!!!! Now before we go getting excited, i unfortunately have to sell it as i need the money but i didnt want to give up my reservation slot. They are going for double what they cost roughly, so im gonna try to get some money out of it because i need it for bills lol.

As for gaming in general its been on the back burner recently due to schooling/work. When i have played its still my usual Destiny 2 and Lost Ark stuff.