Updating, reinstalled Wolcen Lords of Mayhem since they dropped a big new patch, its feeding my ARPG itch atm, this is with Destiny 2 obviously until cyberpunk 2077 lol
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I started playing Shadowlands this past weekend. I impulse preordered when I was still playing classic, even though I really don't care much for WoW retail. By the time I came to my senses it was too late to refund, so I figure why not while I wait for Cyberpunk. I'm actually digging the new leveling structure, it's pretty enjoyable and apparently quick. I don't think I'll get to end game, but at least I'm getting something out of that impulse buy.
mainer
Venatus semper
Currently replaying Dragon Age Inquisition, after having replayed both DAO & DA2. I really like the story and the companions. I think it's a really good game, with a few minor annoyances that keep it from being great. DAO is still the best in the series, with DA2 being more of a prelude to DAI.
Zloth
Community Contributor
I think I'll hit Tropico 6 next. I started it a few months ago but wasn't really in the mood. Now, with snow threatened from time to time, palm trees might be nice.
Restarted on Elite: Dangerous after a break of a few years. Really like the planetary exploration, and i do find the game a great bit of escapism.
Also really enjoying Apex which is a total change of pace to ED, so depends on my mood.
Also really enjoying Apex which is a total change of pace to ED, so depends on my mood.
I have 20gb left on my game drive so I decided I had to crack down and finish something 
. So, I've started playing Metro: Exodus. Very happy with the game so far. Interestingly, the other games in the series simply didn't grip me; I stopped playing them at about 90 minutes/2 hours in. Exodus is a stark contrast and gripped me within 20-40 minutes. Really enjoying it so far. Oh, and the game is absolutely stunning as well.
. So, I've started playing Metro: Exodus. Very happy with the game so far. Interestingly, the other games in the series simply didn't grip me; I stopped playing them at about 90 minutes/2 hours in. Exodus is a stark contrast and gripped me within 20-40 minutes. Really enjoying it so far. Oh, and the game is absolutely stunning as well.
Started playing Cyberpunk 2077 a few days ago. It's kinda been a mixed bag for me so far. One of my first main annoyances was the absolutely horrible implementation of gamma adjustment. In my experience the game is way too dark, especially indoors during missions like The Pickup and The Heist. These are the main prologue missions, and for those on low brightness displays like IPS a lot of us have, it makes for a bad initial impression.
The main problem is the gamma slider at a certain point stops making the game look brighter, and actually starts making it look darker. So if you go from the default 1 to the max 2, it can look very dark. Fortunately, no thanks to CDPR, I found a tweak online that shows how you can enable more gamma related settings in the Video menu. These include Tone-Mapping Midpoint, Maximum Brightness, Paper White, and Gamma.
www.hebergementwebs.com
The default settings for these values are...
Tone-Mapping Midpoint 2
Maximum Brightness 270
Paper White 100
Gamma 1
I messed around with them a bit, and settled on...
Tone-Mapping Midpoint 3
Maximum Brightness 750
Paper White 200
Gamma 1
The only reason I can figure gamma was best left set at the default 1, is because it's adjustment slider seems broken. With the above settings it's still not perfect, but far better than before. I should note as well that my IPS display also uses the older style CCFL lighting, so those on LED lit IPS displays may need less aggressive settings.
Another gamma related problem the game has IMO is the way the game switches brightness automatically when going between bright and dark areas seems too aggressive. I'd like to be able to find script for it in the options.json file, and tone it's value down a bit, but don't know if there is such script there.
There are other problems with the game, and not just bugs, but game design, mostly AI related. I will tag this with spoilers for obvious reasons.
Other than that, especially since I found an acceptable way to tweak the gamma, the game is pretty good. I really liked the segment where you control the spider bot. My main gripe though is they seem to force and/or reward open combat far too much. It's not just scripted detection either, for instance the one perk I've seen to automatically replenish RAM states that it only happens during combat. What's strange about that is RAM is used every bit as much (if not more so) for stealth, as it is for open combat.
The main problem is the gamma slider at a certain point stops making the game look brighter, and actually starts making it look darker. So if you go from the default 1 to the max 2, it can look very dark. Fortunately, no thanks to CDPR, I found a tweak online that shows how you can enable more gamma related settings in the Video menu. These include Tone-Mapping Midpoint, Maximum Brightness, Paper White, and Gamma.
Temp Mail - Generate Temporary Email Addresses for Free
Disposable email accounts generator including sending emails, 10 minutes mail, fake email, burner email, mail forwarding, password protection and
www.hebergementwebs.com
The default settings for these values are...
Tone-Mapping Midpoint 2
Maximum Brightness 270
Paper White 100
Gamma 1
I messed around with them a bit, and settled on...
Tone-Mapping Midpoint 3
Maximum Brightness 750
Paper White 200
Gamma 1
The only reason I can figure gamma was best left set at the default 1, is because it's adjustment slider seems broken. With the above settings it's still not perfect, but far better than before. I should note as well that my IPS display also uses the older style CCFL lighting, so those on LED lit IPS displays may need less aggressive settings.
Another gamma related problem the game has IMO is the way the game switches brightness automatically when going between bright and dark areas seems too aggressive. I'd like to be able to find script for it in the options.json file, and tone it's value down a bit, but don't know if there is such script there.
There are other problems with the game, and not just bugs, but game design, mostly AI related. I will tag this with spoilers for obvious reasons.
In the mission The Pickup, it is FAR too easy to takedown Royce with just 2 sneak attacks. Yet in The Heist, a mission T-Bug designates as stealth when she says "no bodies", it is very scripted at a certain point to take your stealth away. I was maintaining stealth just fine, which allowed me to keep quick saving, but as soon as I got to the 3 guys near the elevator, despite being able to successfully distract and sneak attack the 2 regular guards, the heavy in the glass room with his back turned would ALWAYS automatically go agro when within a certain distance of him.
I also tried going straight to the heavy right after distracting the other two, and could sneak attack him, but the nearest regular guard would always automatically pull away from the device I distracted him with, and spot me right after sneak attacking him. This of course means the AI in the area you descend to in the elevator are all agroed as well. At any rate, "no bodies" I assumed meant using just sneaks, but everything after the code red is issued involves piling up bodies. Your only real alternative is going non lethal, and even that eventually becomes impractical if not impossible.
I also read there's a way to betray Dex by picking a dialog line about Evelyn Parker, but as far as I know, I chose that option, because I got Dex to bump our cut to 35%. I also lied to him and said we didn't get the relic, and kept it. I witnessed Dex getting shot in a rather confusing sequence during the Johnny SIlverhand segment. So did I betray Dex, or not? Most RPGs I've played have special icons next to certain dialog lines, which usually have a number of your level of the skill it applies to beside it, which I've seen at times in CP, but there's no clear indication I've noticed if you unlock an opportunity by it or receive extra XP, etc. Maybe I missed some messages though.
I also tried going straight to the heavy right after distracting the other two, and could sneak attack him, but the nearest regular guard would always automatically pull away from the device I distracted him with, and spot me right after sneak attacking him. This of course means the AI in the area you descend to in the elevator are all agroed as well. At any rate, "no bodies" I assumed meant using just sneaks, but everything after the code red is issued involves piling up bodies. Your only real alternative is going non lethal, and even that eventually becomes impractical if not impossible.
I also read there's a way to betray Dex by picking a dialog line about Evelyn Parker, but as far as I know, I chose that option, because I got Dex to bump our cut to 35%. I also lied to him and said we didn't get the relic, and kept it. I witnessed Dex getting shot in a rather confusing sequence during the Johnny SIlverhand segment. So did I betray Dex, or not? Most RPGs I've played have special icons next to certain dialog lines, which usually have a number of your level of the skill it applies to beside it, which I've seen at times in CP, but there's no clear indication I've noticed if you unlock an opportunity by it or receive extra XP, etc. Maybe I missed some messages though.
Other than that, especially since I found an acceptable way to tweak the gamma, the game is pretty good. I really liked the segment where you control the spider bot. My main gripe though is they seem to force and/or reward open combat far too much. It's not just scripted detection either, for instance the one perk I've seen to automatically replenish RAM states that it only happens during combat. What's strange about that is RAM is used every bit as much (if not more so) for stealth, as it is for open combat.
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Zloth
Community Contributor
Tropico 6 is surprising me. The gameplay is pretty much as expected, it's the missions that are a surprise. They're hard this time! In older games, I would cruise through the first half dozen or so just to learn about the buildings and other functionality. This time, the second mission has your starting town split between two sides of the island with one lone bus carting people back and forth. It pushes you to make rum, too, which isn't lucrative enough to keep you going so you need to actually build up your island without much guidance before doing the story missions.
Epic games is giving away free games, every day one new game, for the holidays. So, I'm spending my time with those. And it's not 'enter random game you've never heard of'. For the comming weeks I'll probably play The Long Dark. Great game.
Is SC2 Blizzard ladder still up and running?? Man, you touched some old strings in my soul...
McStabStab
Community Contributor
Just bought Titanfall 2 for eight bucks on Steam. So far it's great, and having played Apex I already know most of the weapons and movement mechanics.
Forza Horizon 4 since it has come on steam now. Really a great game to just relax and drive around.
OsaX Nymloth
Community Contributor
Still going, new season started this month with new maps. Esports side of SC2 never died, there's always either a tournament going on or a stream of pro player to watch.
I haven't touched the ladder since february, personally I find the current meta just boring. After playing the game for almost exactly 10 years, seems like I won't hit that Grand Master league. Still happy with my constant Master 1 in last few years tho
Back to the topic:
Football Manager 2021 and just finished Narita Boy. It was ok love letter to 80's, but it's not a hard recommendation. Just solid title with some fun ideas here and there, questionable design in few places and overall a typical 6-7/10 game.
I'd been slogging through a video series on GRID 2019 for some time, but since I bought Monster Energy Supercross The Official Videogame 3 recently, I've been playing that mostly, both on Hard mode. Both have tracks that can be quite difficult to beat on Hard, but overall I'd say GRID 2019 is actually a bit more balanced in how hard the AI are to beat on each track, with the exception of a couple tracks. MESX 3 though was going swimmingly on the 250 East career, until I got to the Nashville track, where I'll be hard pressed to place in the top 5 let alone podium. There's only two races left after that though, and I have a substantial points lead, so here's hoping things go well.
I actually bought Ghostrunner yesterday though, and I don't really know why I thought it would be a good break from the stress of having to hit every rhythm and whoop section near perfect at MESX 3's Nashville track to contend with the AI, but despite dying literally hundreds of times on first play through so far, the game is quite addicting. I tend to play it a bit skittish at times, especially where there's a few shielded guys and I have to get to their shield battery before killing them.
Interestingly enough though I've found you can at times sneak in and get a foe that isn't shielded, then safely destroy the battery, retreat to a safe place, then sneak in and take out one of the others where there's cover nearby to avoid getting killed right after, and activate a button that reveals a way to the next area, leaving one foe behind. At times you can avoid even groups of foes because there are often multiple platforming paths, and the right one can often take you straight to a button to activate a way to proceed.
Make no mistake about it though, Ghostrunner is designed for hardcore players, and I'm not even sure I can get through it. It's entirely made as a OHK (One Hit Kill) game, meaning you can always kill with one slash of your katana sword, but any single projectile or fall out of the intended play area will also kill you. It's a mix of frustration and nirvana once you get a flow going. I rarely can manage sustaining a flow, but it's fun and challenging in a puzzle-like way via the platforming.
The Ghostrunner you play as is like a Ninja Batman, and his grapple device is quite nice. If you don't like challenging wall running though, it may not be for you.
I actually bought Ghostrunner yesterday though, and I don't really know why I thought it would be a good break from the stress of having to hit every rhythm and whoop section near perfect at MESX 3's Nashville track to contend with the AI, but despite dying literally hundreds of times on first play through so far, the game is quite addicting. I tend to play it a bit skittish at times, especially where there's a few shielded guys and I have to get to their shield battery before killing them.
Interestingly enough though I've found you can at times sneak in and get a foe that isn't shielded, then safely destroy the battery, retreat to a safe place, then sneak in and take out one of the others where there's cover nearby to avoid getting killed right after, and activate a button that reveals a way to the next area, leaving one foe behind. At times you can avoid even groups of foes because there are often multiple platforming paths, and the right one can often take you straight to a button to activate a way to proceed.
Make no mistake about it though, Ghostrunner is designed for hardcore players, and I'm not even sure I can get through it. It's entirely made as a OHK (One Hit Kill) game, meaning you can always kill with one slash of your katana sword, but any single projectile or fall out of the intended play area will also kill you. It's a mix of frustration and nirvana once you get a flow going. I rarely can manage sustaining a flow, but it's fun and challenging in a puzzle-like way via the platforming.
The Ghostrunner you play as is like a Ninja Batman, and his grapple device is quite nice. If you don't like challenging wall running though, it may not be for you.
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Zloth
Community Contributor
X4: Foundations now. Already have over 150 hours in the game.
Something strange has happened to the X community. It's gotten bigger. A *lot* bigger! It started tiny so I'm only talking about 6000 players but that's about 20 times what I was seeing back in X3! (No Man's Sky's average daily peak over the last 30 days is about 12,000.) There's even a bunch of X-focused videos and a couple of YouTube channels!?
P.S. Thanks to SteamDB for the numbers.
Something strange has happened to the X community. It's gotten bigger. A *lot* bigger! It started tiny so I'm only talking about 6000 players but that's about 20 times what I was seeing back in X3! (No Man's Sky's average daily peak over the last 30 days is about 12,000.) There's even a bunch of X-focused videos and a couple of YouTube channels!?
P.S. Thanks to SteamDB for the numbers.
I'm playing Amazing Pyramids Rebirth…
store.steampowered.com
…and liking it a lot. If you like word games, and especially Hangman, this is worth a look. It consists of a main game with 55 levels, plus 3 mini games.
Each of the 55 levels consists of a pyramid of 7 words, from 9 letters down to 3. You're shown the category the word belongs to, eg Animals, Countries etc. After a few levels you start to accumulate 4 power-ups, which:
Fill in one letter in the position you select;
Fill in all the vowels;
Knock out 5 unused letters from your alphabet selection;
Discard the given word and give you a new word.
You earn game points and power-up points from:
Quick word completion;
Making no mistakes after your first correct letter;
Picking X-in-a-row letters without a wrong 'un;
Guessing the word correctly before you have all the letters.
The 3 mini games are:
Guess the jumbled words put on screen, one at a time for 3 minutes;
Make as many words as you can in 3 minutes from a random 12 letters;
A pyramid without a category clue or power-ups.
Very decent value for $7 imo.
Amazing Pyramids: Rebirth on Steam
Amazing Pyramids are back! Lead a group of scientists through addicting word adventures! Play now and solve intricate word puzzles to unravel the secrets of an ancient city! Use your wits and vocabulary to survive the blistering sun!
Each of the 55 levels consists of a pyramid of 7 words, from 9 letters down to 3. You're shown the category the word belongs to, eg Animals, Countries etc. After a few levels you start to accumulate 4 power-ups, which:
Fill in one letter in the position you select;
Fill in all the vowels;
Knock out 5 unused letters from your alphabet selection;
Discard the given word and give you a new word.
You earn game points and power-up points from:
Quick word completion;
Making no mistakes after your first correct letter;
Picking X-in-a-row letters without a wrong 'un;
Guessing the word correctly before you have all the letters.
The 3 mini games are:
Guess the jumbled words put on screen, one at a time for 3 minutes;
Make as many words as you can in 3 minutes from a random 12 letters;
A pyramid without a category clue or power-ups.
Very decent value for $7 imo.
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mainer
Venatus semper
I've been replaying (yes, replaying instead of starting something new. again.) BG1, and moved into Beamdog's expansion, Siege of Dragonspear (which actually is new for me, as I've never played it), and I've been greatly impressed with the work they did on SoD, it feels like a true sequel. I also hadn't realized that they had hired some of the original voice actors from BG1. For instance, Minsc, Dynaheir, and Iomen have much more voiced dialog and banter that was never heard in BG1.
I started a new Warhammer II co-op campaign. My friend and I had a Skaven and Brettonia (respectively) campaign, but the last update changed a bunch of Skaven stuff, so we decided to restart. I also didn't mind because Brettonia is just not a very interesting faction.
We're now playing as Empire and Dwarfs. I'm not entirely sure whether it's appropriate that Dwarfs are always lacking in gold. Perhaps this is why they're so obsessed with it, because everything is so expensive for them. It's obvious the money being spend isn't divided equally under the workers though, as the miners even have to work a second job as soldier.
We're now playing as Empire and Dwarfs. I'm not entirely sure whether it's appropriate that Dwarfs are always lacking in gold. Perhaps this is why they're so obsessed with it, because everything is so expensive for them. It's obvious the money being spend isn't divided equally under the workers though, as the miners even have to work a second job as soldier.
OsaX Nymloth
Community Contributor
Started my journey through Ancestors Legacy.
And damn, I never expected it to be so full of...value. I mean the very first mission of the first viking campaign? That's stuff was so well done I was totally expecting to be charging into battle full TPP mode. Reminded me of the famous Normandy landing from ooold Medal of Honor. Really well done.
Finished first campaign for now and while I may have few issues with micro/macro, overall the game is clearly well designed and put together. This won't replace SC2 for me, but hey, it's damn good so far.
And damn, I never expected it to be so full of...value. I mean the very first mission of the first viking campaign? That's stuff was so well done I was totally expecting to be charging into battle full TPP mode. Reminded me of the famous Normandy landing from ooold Medal of Honor. Really well done.
Finished first campaign for now and while I may have few issues with micro/macro, overall the game is clearly well designed and put together. This won't replace SC2 for me, but hey, it's damn good so far.
I started playing Cyberpunk and horizon zero dawn. However my PC keeps restarting when I'm playing cyberpunk. I tried some tips from online guides and it is still not helping. My laptop is old, so maybe it is time to buy a new one. Till then, I'll finish playing Horizon zero dawn which is a fantastic game.
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Sarafan
Community Contributor
Two games mostly. I'm ending Metro Exodus and I regret a little that I haven't waited for the Enhanced Edition that will be released in May. Oh well, I'll probably do a second playthrough.
The second game is Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I return to this game quite regularly. I do so even more often than to its sequel because of a bigger modding scene. Right now I finished Shadows of Undrentide and proceeded to the official interlude module called Shadohaunt, of course with the same character. I'm planning to continue playing through the Hordes of the Underdark and maybe some community modules intended for epic level characters. It's really fun to role-play the same character from level 1 all the way to epic levels!
The second game is Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. I return to this game quite regularly. I do so even more often than to its sequel because of a bigger modding scene. Right now I finished Shadows of Undrentide and proceeded to the official interlude module called Shadohaunt, of course with the same character. I'm planning to continue playing through the Hordes of the Underdark and maybe some community modules intended for epic level characters. It's really fun to role-play the same character from level 1 all the way to epic levels!
Sarafan
Community Contributor
Your laptop is probably overheating. That's the reason of these restarts. CP2077 puts a heavy load on all computer components.
mainer
Venatus semper
@Sarafan - That's another game world & it's dlcs that I want to revisit this year. Currently in the BG Saga, but I've been in that D&D mood for awhile. I haven't played NW since back when I had to install it from CDs and enter all those CD key codes for the main game and the dlcs. Those key codes were 35 digits long, and a huge pain to type in without making a single mistake.
I've got the EE edition of NW on Steam, so that may be my next destination. Thanks for reminding me!
I've got the EE edition of NW on Steam, so that may be my next destination. Thanks for reminding me!
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