Hawke64
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Posts posted by Hawke64
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On 3/20/2024 at 1:25 PM, kanisatha said:
No, never.
Given the dirth of quality fantasy RPGs to play nowadays, I've slowly become open to the idea of trying some post-apocalyptic RPGs. But for me to be willing to try them, they'd need to at least satisfy me with respect to my other major game preferences: be party-based; no first-person perspective; melee combat just as viable and effective as shooting from afar. Oh, and I'm probably not going to try a super-old game. I'm not one for wanting fancy graphics, but even I have my limits.
Recommendations?
(Looking through my Steam library for RPG games with a party in any setting). If action-RPGs (little player's agency) count, then:
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen.
- Dungeon Siege III has quite a lot of combat, but technically there is a party (of 2) and some decent decisions>consequences. I also have it in my Steam inventory if anyone is interested.
- There is also Ember, which was fine (amusing, but, again, quite light on dialogue options).
- Any of Spiders' games - they all (except Steelrising) were party-based action-RPGs of variable quality.
- Sword Coast Legends was fine (?). Not sure if it is still available for purchase.
There are several quite good party-based RPGs, though the combat is turn-based.
- Expeditions: Viking was good, with several outcomes and paths to victory (the PC's village not dying out). The sequel was prettier and the combat was better, but it also had more grind (may the conquest battles and random encounters be damned) and felt more shallow. In either game, the PCs' societies were not exactly pleasant, though it somehow depends on the roleplay.
- The above-mentioned Encased, Wasteland 3, and Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Hong Kong were excellent.
- Torment: Tides of Numenera.
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On 3/27/2024 at 3:36 PM, ShadySands said:
I'm slightly interested in Saints Row and Midnight Suns but they are only on Steam... so, yeah. Someone please take this temptation away!
Saints Row is an interesting juxtaposition of a coming of age story with the usual Power of Friendship and cartoonish violence, gang violence, and the very modern job market. I found it particularly touching after almost 4 months on LinkedIn. It is also a stark contrast to SR2, at the same time being a logical evolution of the series, with the previous entries How the Saints Saved the Christmas and Gat Out of Hell. But ultimately, it is a story about
imperfect people in an imperfect world doing their best (through violence)*. So, while the party is not investing in education or researching renewable energy or creating legal job opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, one of the companions donates toys to orphans and there is an actual cat who is unharmed.The graphics and visual style are fine and I found them more appealing with the visual accessibility settings and some filters. As is, they seemed a little too detailed yet some animations were occasionally too minimalistic, but as mentioned, it fit the general style.
The controls are comfortable and rebindable, though the aim assist felt a bit too strong by default. The combat felt simple but functional (when compared to Devil May Cry, which might be an unusual example), though I have not used the special abilities. Same for movement and driving, but there are flying suits, which are more grounded than the superhero abilities from SRIV.
The range of customisation options is excellent and includes body sliders, layered clothing, and several voices. On the negative side, the missions have been linear so far,
and I am 50% in**. The side missions and collectibles are nice, though I would have preferred them being available from the start. As is, their availability is bound to the main story.The number of the save slots is limited to ~16 (not sure, but not enough to save every other main mission). Disabling the online DRM requires adding a launch parameter to the executable.
Overall, I would recommend it with the right expectations.
*just finished the game. It was about the Power of Friendship. The final mission was very touching and well-made.
**one choice for the main story.
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Nioh 2 is an exploration-light (mission-based) Souls-like with a linear story, a quite (for the lack of a better word) shiny (visual-effects-heavy) combat system, and absolutely horrible inventory and loot.
Aragami 2 is a decent stealth game. You also can jump there, unlike Aragami 1. It was sad that the developer closed about a year ago.
Soultice (EGS) didn't run.
Haven't played the rest.
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I am curious about Citizen Sleeper, though I might dislike it. There is no Light: Enhanced Edition looks visually appealing. So, if no one else is interested, the key for either would be appreciated.
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Now, modders have provided all of these [MTX] items for free on the PC version of Dragon’s Dogma 2. At the time of publication, the second most-popular Dragon’s Dogma 2 mod on NexusMods is Crazy’s Shop, by Crazy Potato. This mod, essentially a fast travel pack, adds hundreds of each of these key items, including Elite and Explorer’s Camp Kits, Wakestones, Rift Crystals, Portcrystals, and Ferrystones to the first shop in Vernworth. It’s been downloaded nearly 35,000 times.
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Because Dragon’s Dogma 2 doesn’t allow for multiple save slots, autosaves replace your manual save. The save manager mod keeps track of your saves and lets you set them as active as you play the game, virtually giving you infinite save slots.
Somehow a modder adding essential functionality to a $70 game seems rather odd. Just how hard it was for Capcom to implement manual saving with several characters and into several slots if Bioware managed to do it 25 years ago with BG1 and 10 years ago with an engine for multiplayer FPS?
On 3/25/2024 at 7:19 PM, HoonDing said:They should jump on the Dragon's Dogma 2 bandwagon and make sequel to Ego Draconis.
To Dragon Commander.
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17 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:
Thank you for the advice, I have already seen it, but did not knew it was your guide
The issue is, that I wanted to attempt pacifist run, right out of the bag, without the knowledge of these critical path, and didn’t knew I would get stuck so soon, because I thought, I will be able to talk out of everything, like in most of the different games
And the battle simulator proved me wrong right at the start of the game. I do not want to restart the game, I never do this when I play my first playthrough, out of stubbornness to see how far I can get with suboptimal build. But I ma pretty sure my build is not trash this time, I just have not expected, that you will have to invest heavily into combat skills, if you want to go non-lethal way 
so it looks like, I have to find a way, how to skip the battle training altogether. Is that even possible?
Sorry for the late reply, but yes - if the combat tutorial has started, backing out is not possible.
Some random info on the no-kill run:
- There's a knock out/non-lethal combat system. The fatigue damage does not scale with anything, so it is possible to KO a foe in one turn + surprise turn. The one possible inconvenience is that the PC gets tired as well and will need to sleep without foes around (by passing out and passing time).
- A companion recruitment spoiler:
SpoilerIf you knock out (the) Fox, using a cup of coffee on her body will help her recover.
- Technically, you can reverse pickpocket, but the number of timed explosives is low and so are the crafting materials for them.
- Not all side quests can be resolved without combat, so having a party (who also can hit people on the head) is recommended.
- The Magellan Station is enormous (as far as I know, it was the starting point in the EA) and easily can take 30% of a playthrough. There's nothing comparable to it later.
- The writing in the low-Int playthrough is significantly different.
- The only thing I can recall about the survival elements is that I was low on food at the beginning of Act 1 in my critical path run.
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11 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:
Sigh, I am stuck at battle simulator. I would like to attempt a pacifist run, but I am unable to get over the battle simulator without killing the "images". Anyone has an advice how that can be done? Or to skip?
The holograms seem to count towards human kills (at least one of the guides says so), but a full pacifist/stealth run should take about 4-5 hours when you do only critical path and know exactly what you are doing (there is a step-by-step guide on Steam written and tested by me).
Death of a Wish. Defeated 3 out of 4 main bosses. So far so good, though I liked the silent MC in Lucah more.
SpoilerA cut-scene. Happens to all MCs sometime, but still annoying.
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Saints Row
The team building is going well.
Got a new hat.
Death of a Wish
The game is unintentionally funny.
And there is a cool garden.
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22 hours ago, Humanoid said:
To be fair, it seems this is mostly an artifact of Steam Cloud integration messing with the one-save-per-account system (which obviously is in-itself questionable). You're supposed to be easily delete your save and start fresh, from what I understand.
The microtransaction being sold is meant to be for editing your existing character. You buy an item, whether for $2 real money or whatever in-game currency it costs to buy it from a regular vendor, and it allows you to modify your character once per purchase.
I feel the more egregious thing though is that the game's auteur was yapping on about how fast travel is bad for games, then immediately undermines the semi-valid point he was trying to make by selling consumable tokens that allow fast travel from anywhere.
This is exactly the behaviour that one would expect from Capcom, actually. The latest Street Fighter is a huge offender, as are recent Monster Hunter games. Apparently the first Dragon's Dogma also had some cynical nickel-and-diming, but they were mostly removed by the Dark Arisen re-release/expansion which was sort of a "Definitive Edition" of that game.
Maybe the smart thing to do would be to wait for Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen...
Regarding DD2, the saving system seems to be (not going to get it, so comparing to the experience) the same as in DDDA - one save file per PC/account. As mentioned, can be easily bypassed with Windows Explorer and creating your whole party can be done with Steam Family Sharing (but one would have to go online with each account to upload and download the AI companions). Though, it is really inconvenient that the game lacks such a basic thing as manual saving with several characters. I suppose, it is tied to the online system, which, unlike saving, is a gimmick.
Regarding MTX in Capcom games, I can remember the MTX being in their games for quite some time. They definitely were added post-release to DMCV and were present in Monster Hunter (which I refunded).
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QuoteThe original Shadows of the Damned never went further than the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, potentially one reason behind reportedly small sales despite a generally warm consensus about its engaging gameplay and charmingly rompy road-movie feel. This year’s remaster - the title of which will probably tell you whether you’ll get along with it, as it’s called Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered - will inspire a proper PC release for the first time, landing on Steam later in 2024.
Quote"There's this fear that exists—if we don't have everybody working overtime and we don't make AAA games that have $200 million budgets and the focus is on photorealistic graphics and 1,000-hour playtimes, we need to pack all that in and work everyone to death making it and that's the only way to make games.
"If that's true then maybe the industry deserves to die. If that's true. The thing is that I just don't think it's true."
I definitely would not object to lower system requirements, no DRM, and no MTX.
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On 3/21/2024 at 4:54 PM, Mamoulian War said:
I have been lucky and received a code for copy of Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition. Unfortunately for the Steam. That's why I have not redeemed it yet, and would like to ask, if there might be any person here, who still did not play this game, nor owns it yet, but is thinking about purchasing it, now or in the future, which would be willing to barter my Steam gift key for a GOG gift key. The game is currently 60% off at GOG.
https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_outer_worlds_spacers_choice_edition
Feel free to PM me. Thank you for consideration
Just in case, PC Gaming Wiki says that the Steam version is DRM-free. So, it is possible to download, zip the folder, and put on 2 external drives as backups. It also should be possible to run without Steam, just from the *.exe.
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5 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:
If you own a game on GOG, you will be able to play it on streaming service Luna (subject to availability of said game on that service) for no additional costs. I think Nvidia offered something like this with Steam few years ago, but then cancelled it. So for some people, it might be interesting addition to their services.
It sounds rather odd - the people who purchase on GOG are less likely to trust their continuous access to their purchases to the publishers' whims (or whatever Amazon is). On the other hand, the ones who use streaming services are less likely to bother with backups, which are the main feature of GOG, or concerns about ownership and preservation, while Steam has a wider selection or titles. So, odd.
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2 hours ago, HoonDing said:
Is the new Saints Row cell-shaded?
It's a visual accessibility option + the Retro filter. The trailers show that the game would look different without them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAvdbvX79H4. I suppose, if there was a dedicated cell-shading option, like in Prince of Persia 2008 reboot, I would have preferred it.
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21 minutes ago, melkathi said:
How far in are you? Has the larp started yet?
Edit:
Saw the picture thread, I see you summoned the mighty bowelrod and smote thine enemies.
29% on the save file, I think? Just got the actual recruits and started planning to rob a train.
And yes, the quest line was fun. The dialogue with Gwen was good as well (as a rather friendly rivalry).
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Death of a Wish
Steelrising
The lowest settings which somehow still required 6GB VRAM. The depth of field and some other settings could not be disabled completely. The hat-hiding toggle kept resetting.
The weird mix of English with some French words added was rather unpleasant to see. It should have been either consistently English only or French VA with subtitles. The French is not present at all, by the way, while the proper nouns vary in spelling (e.g. a chateau, an estate, or a p(a)lace when referring to the same location).
Saints Row
The LARP quest line.
Spoiler
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7 minutes ago, uuuhhii said:
played the first game for few hour
got annoyed by the dragon nonsense and dropped it
The dragon thing is the main story line and, if it is critically important, does not get much better, though is sort of justified by the plot (?). The end-game and the DLC island are similar, with the latter being unintentionally funny, story-wise.
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On 3/12/2024 at 1:00 AM, LadyCrimson said:
Well, at least it was a gain?
Not that I've made any effort to, but I never quite understood the cards stuff. I have a few, they just sit there. Seen some post they made a bit with the trading system but eh. I figure it would be just as useless to me as my 136k Steam points. I suppose I could award people with 200+ clown jesters, but...
Social stuff (or self-expression, if one is being generous), like gold watches. Not really useful, but looks so shiny. Steam points are similar - you can customise your Steam profile, so everyone knows that you like XYZ, or give awards to comments or guides, so everyone knows that the comment was helpful/ridiculous.
In general, the social features on Steam and them being bound to purchases might encourage the potential users to use Steam (and, say, not Epic) and purchase more. While it does not work on everyone, most humans are social and value the sense of community (because that other player with an animated anime avatar is definitely a part of my community /s).
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12 hours ago, uuuhhii said:
dragon dogma seems interesting
if the dragoon heart part of the setting not such incomprehensible nonsense
If it is similar to DD1, it is an action game first - the roleplay options were rather limited.
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Death of a Wish has been released. It is a sequel to Lucah: Born of a Dream.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/death-of-a-wish-review-a-brutal-and-beautiful-experiment
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The Blackwell series. Finished. While it looks mostly (different games have slightly different styles) good, the logic of the puzzles often eluded me, while the story included a bit too many holes. Though, I do not play adventure games often. Also, the games should have been bundled together more explicitly - each of them is short and the story in the later ones does not work well on its own.
Steelrising. I suppose, while the level design in Spiders' games has never been their strength, combined with the awful visual design (every surface shines) and terrible performance (at least, it stopped frying the CPU with the said CPU safely throttled), it is significantly more noticeable and does not make a good impression. On the positive side, the controls are rebindable, 5-button mice supported, the Assist Mode allows to disable losing "souls" on dying, which is convenient (considering that parrying with 25 FPS is rather challenging).
Saints Row. Slowly progressing. So far, it seems like a very nice story about friendship and comradery (or PG13-appropriate gang violence in the US), which is rather nice.
Death of a Wish. An excellent surreal action game with engaging combat and unique visual design.
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https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-rpg-bundle
The price is suspiciously affordable, but Fanatical is a well-known platform and (most of) the games in the bundle are good. Except Mortal Shell, but for this price, it is adequate.
I will probably get the OST/DLC for the ones I like.
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4 hours ago, kanisatha said:
But surely all of this is possible to do with companions without those companions having to be shared with other players.
I actually would like to see the system implemented more widely in single-player only RPGs.
Specifically in DD (the saving system was extremely poor, I would add), it was possible to create your own party via Steam Family Sharing and several accounts. Granted, every pawn had to be levelled up separately, and the behaviour respec books provided more reliable results than training.
Spoiler
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I would add The Waylanders, though it is not exactly the best of the genre. The wishlist shows Sovereign Syndicate, but I can't tell if it is turn-based or not. The Way of Wrath, Worldstone Chronicles, New Arc Line seem fine?
That is to say, there are few high-quality* party-based CRPGs in a fantasy setting at the moment.
*have a professional writer and functional gameplay systems
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QuoteLast week's alleged Epic Games hack was a scam, so-called "ransomware" group Mogilevich have confessed, or at least, are reported to have confessed in a self-congratulary new statement. The group have not, it now seems, stolen a bunch of login data, WIP software and payment information from the creators of Fortnite; they were only pretending to have done so with a view to duping other hackers into buying their tools.
Well, I still have changed my password.
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3 hours ago, Keyrock said:
Dragon's Dogma 2 is less than a month away.
I've long been puzzled as to why more games don't copy Monster Hunter's combat. Over the last decade or so, everybody and their grandmother have tried to copy Dark Souls combat, and with good reason. Very few games have tried to copy Monster Hunter combat, despite the fact that it is the gold standard for fighting gargantuan beasts IMHO. One of the few games that did copy Monster Hunter was the original Dragon's Dogma, I believe some of them worked on Monster Hunter previously, so it makes sense. Anyway, this game looks ****ing awesome.
Looking forward to DD2. From what I remember, MH combat was significantly slower and less responsive, while there also were fewer readable indicators of how well it was going (e.g. monster's HP bar) and the encounter design was not particularly fun (e.g. chasing the monster after injuring). The companion cats were cool, though. Can't recall if they could launch you on the monster, like fighter Pawns do.
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Saints Row
The active graphical settings are highly unlikely to be used by anyone else, so it might be not exactly representative.
There is something amusing about this.
The low visibility is intentional.
The cat looks a bit off, but good enough for the first actual cat in the series.
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Finished Sands of Aura last week and did that one side quest that kept resetting. Basically, you had to defeat a very sturdy mini-boss 7 times without resting and without closing the game while running through the whole area. In the end, it took 2 attempts and about 20 minutes with end-game equipment.
Overall, it was a decent Souls-like, nothing exceptionally bad, though the story was not exactly engaging and the lack of target lock was rather inconvenient. The equipment-based character development system and the setting were unusual.
Review (long):SpoilerSands of Aura is an action-RPG in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting. The story follows a young squire accompanied by a mysterious spirit who are trying to stop the corruption plaguing the world and save the last standing human settlement.
Although the story is not quite engaging and most of the dialogue options are variations of “Continue”, there are some choices and consequences (limited) in the main and side quests, and the setting is rather unique.
The customisation options include the appearance (hairstyle, skin colour, and body type, the latter is not bound to the gender identity) and equipment. The name is always “Player” and the protagonist is usually addressed as a Knight.
The character development system is built around equipment rather than the player's character themselves. The equipment consists of 4 upgradable pieces of armour, each of them can have several runes slotted, 2 weapon sets, and several talismans. The talismans and different weapon parts offer quality improvements, such as poisoning the foe on hit or regenerating on block. While it allows switching between different builds easily, it also requires a lot of resources to keep more than one set upgraded. The upgrade schematics, talismans, and the vendor inventory upgrades have to be discovered and might depend on quests. The materials can be purchased or farmed.
The crucial part of levelling up is runes. They increase the base stats, such health and armour, and are slotted into armour. The upgrade costs increase exponentially, while the power increases linearly, but the number of slots is bound to the level of the armour.
The combat is reasonably engaging, but there is no stamina - it is possible to attack, dodge, and sprint infinitely, though the number of magical and special ones is limited.
The controls are rebindable and comfortable, though the camera inversion kept resetting between sessions. It is possible to bind dodging and sprinting to different keys or keep them together. Additionally, the 5-button mice are supported. On the negative side is the lack of target lock - neither the attack nor the camera direction can follow a target automatically. Considering the occasional poor visibility and some teleportation abilities, it can be challenging to see what is being hit (the optional floating damage numbers do help, however). It should be noted that the camera angle is around 45 degrees and it might make some areas harder to navigate.
The game autosaves upon interacting with “bonfires”, reaching important story points, and quitting the game through the menu at the exact spot. Unfortunately, the number of slots is limited and manual saving can be achieved only through a file explorer.
Bosses are diverse in visual and combat design, with strong backgrounds and connection to the main story, though the challenge varies due to the open progression - it is possible to be severely underlevelled or over-powered. Some of the bosses have rather frustrating mechanics, such as a bullet hell-like sequence or requiring a very specific item from a side quest to avoid the damage received from avoiding an insta-killing attack. There are achievements for fulfilling certain conditions during boss battles, but they have no meaning in-game and can be done easily if one is overpowered enough. Few of the bosses are repeated, but it is not too noticeable. The regular foes are reasonably varied, though in the early areas, they mostly consist of zombies (unarmed, armed, casting, etc.).
The environments are diverse in terms of aesthetics and gameplay systems, though the variety of the latter is lower. There are ruined towers, a gothic city, a volcano prison, and many more. As an example, the volcano prison has a stacking overheating debuff, which can be reset by breaking water vases. In general, the areas are labyrinthine, with some verticality and several dead ends with secrets and shortcuts, ultimately leading to a boss. Frequently, the navigation is complicated by the camera angle - unless on an elevated surface, it is hard to see far ahead, though the same is true for the foes as well.
The world map consists of independent locations, which must be first discovered, then it is possible to fast travel between the Bells. The desert is traversed by a sand ship. It is easy to control and cannot be destroyed or customised. The ship can get stuck, though, which might require returning to the last Bell rested at. The other thing to find is loot. It is mostly materials, but there are some manually placed armour pieces as well. Overall, it is enjoyable enough.
The visual style is stylised, expressive, and mostly consistent (the zombie smith does not quite match the other NPC), leaning towards cartoonish, though, it is somehow washed out and the readability of the environment is low - it is hard to tell which objects are interactive. The GUI is mostly comfortable and clear.
The soundtrack and audio effects are fine, if not notable (aside from the Flare Forge music, which is very epic and somehow unfitting for a mid-game dungeon without significant plot progression). The voice acting is present. It definitely could be better, but it also could be worse.
In terms of bugs, there were several and it might be prudent to keep backups. As was mentioned, one of the settings kept resetting between sessions, once my ship got stuck in an island (I had to restart), I got stuck in an infinite fall (rolled back the save - just exiting to the menu did not help), and a quest didn't trigger.
Overall, it was a positive experience, primarily due to the game being LGBTQ-friendly, supporting rebindable controls and 5-button mice, and saving the exact progress on exit. It would have been better with more roleplay options, manual saving, and accessibility (outlines for interactive objects, target lock).
Started the Blackwell series and finished Legacy. The story follows a journalist and a ghost trying to send restless spirits into the afterlife. I can say with certainty that the progress made by the developers in all aspects is very noticeable when compared to their later games. (i.e. the game is short and the first puzzles make no sense). But the ability to combine ideas was rather nice and the pixel art style looks good.
The wisdom of the Internet (PC Gaming Wiki, in particular) allowed me to overcome the EGS DRM on Saints Row and I was able to launch it through Steam. Which means that I do have a DRM-free version. The game runs worse than SR3 and 4, but it was to be expected. I haven't progressed far, but it feels like that the developers might have aimed at a younger audience. Still, the game is fun and I like the MC and the companions. Also there is a cat.
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Epic Games are investigating a claim that the Fortnite publishers have suffered a massive ransomware attack, with almost 200GB of data reportedly stolen including emails, passwords, full names, payment information, source code and more besides.
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Sands of Aura
The maces and the combat style were an unusual combination. Also reminded of lollipops.
SpoilerKhrisom, because can't be blue and crimson, I guess.
Spoiler
The hugging thing is not a piece of equipment. After getting several of them, I noticed that they decrease the maximum health.
The boss of the area
Spoiler
Some got behind the textures.
The boss of the area
Spoiler
The fire that killed the FPS (the location is a spoiler):
Spoiler
Got the musicians.
Final bosses
Spoiler
The boss flew out of bound.
Endings
Spoiler
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Obsidian Entertainment: My Thoughts on most of their games
in Computer and Console
Posted
For random encounters without much positioning or any sort of tactics, it often feels like they should be over as soon as possible. The boss battles (with 1-2 large/very dangerous foes) usually require some strategy, have significance for the story, and are quite engaging (unless they are puzzle-like and require 1 very specific solution), but they would not feel that way without some low-effort (from the designers and the player) fights. So, yes, RTwP systems allow to speed up the later and focus on the former.