What Are You Playing Now: The meaning of life

[Majek]

On 11/17/2020 at 12:58 AM, Tale said:

Got dragged back into Destiny 2. I'm not sure why, it always fail to live up to the promise it presents.

Previously, it was nice coming in late to enjoy stuff after it had settled. But this time they deleted half the game.

That's pretty  much me as well. Although i must say seeing the Cosmodrome brought back some great memories. I was actually overwhelmed when i first landed.

[majestic]

9 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I don't feel like listening/watching to tons of "hey we're cinema" cutscenes and hours of talking heads if I don't have to.

How did you get past Death Stranding's 2 hour cutscene intro then?

[ComradeYellow]

Still on Death Stranding.  I'm at that part where you have to bring Mountain Knot City into the Chiral Network.  It's pretty cool because now I have a non lethal assault rifle so I can spray down MULES and pacify them for a while so Porters can travel to and fro networks and can loot their stolen goods to use to build roads which I see as the ultimate mark of greatness in this game: logistics and connection to other players.

Chiral Crystals, Metals, Ceramics.  The 3 resources mandatory for logistical supremacy.  The more roads I build the more likes I rake in, though I'm still not exactly 100% sure how much of what I do affects other players, I'm assuming it's a cross between players in your world combined with the amount of players in your "realm" so to speak.  All these online "network" features and algorithms are very confusing and has quite the learning curve and I'm not sure if I want to take the time to master them in their entirety.

[LadyCrimson]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

How did you get past Death Stranding's 2 hour cutscene intro then?

I watched someone play a lot of it on Twitch before I bought it, so I knew what it was about and what to expect.  I would just watch some YouTube or browse forums when they were on and on replays I just skipped.  Most of it is in the beginning and towards the end so I knew it was mostly "freeplay" so to speak, in the middle.

I'm not against story, per se, or "ooh and ahh" cinematic here and there.  I simply don't like the way a lot of games often present, frame and edit such scenes now, vs. older days/games.  I feel too trapped into watching some 5-15 minute thing (vs. 30-60 seconds) every 500 steps vs being engaged as an active participant. Occasionally I'm in a patient mood, or curious, or it's eye-candy, or half-way through a game I'm invested enough into chrs. by then to care but...  

[LadyCrimson]

2 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

The more roads I build the more likes I rake in, though I'm still not exactly 100% sure how much of what I do affects other players, I'm assuming it's a cross between players in your world combined with the amount of players in your "realm" so to speak.  All these online "network" features and algorithms are very confusing and has quite the learning curve and I'm not sure if I want to take the time to master them in their entirety.

it's all automated.

People simply drive on a road the game thinks you contributed to building, you get auto-Likes. After a certain amount of those however, they stop (not sure what the limit is).
People use a structure you built that appeared within their own play session, you get auto-Likes just because they used it (seemed to be a set number).  No one has to manually Like anything, those are just small bonuses.  This is why people place bridges in the middle of land/weird places sometimes, trying to get those auto-likes.

Structures you build are stored/saved on their server and have a chance to appear in other people's games that are all designated as being on the same server as you, but there is no controlling that.  If you "connect" to a player, you may see their stuff more often but still random.  This is why you'll never see anyone's entire "zip line network" for example and it may seem like some things that pop-in make no sense (without the rest of what that player built to go with it).  Also, if you keep deleting structures over and over, game will just replace with something else similar in that spot - but it might be something more useful to you.  Random and not worth bothering to do tho.

Edit: outside of the road-building help, which can be substantial, imo it's better to play the game "Offline" - especially if you want more challenge (and less clutter).  Just me tho.

Edited November 22, 2020 by LadyCrimson

[Keyrock]

In chapter 5 of Yakuza: Like a Dragon I was introduced to the job system. If you have played Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest (in fact, Kasuga is inspired by Dragon Quest in the story) then you know the job system already. Not every job is available to every character, but most are available to multiple characters (provided they meet level and stat requirements), save each character's unique job.

Kasuga, as the main protagonist, is well balanced and suited for pretty much any type of job. I currently have him as a Breaker, which is mostly a DPS job. Adachi, an ex-cop, seems well suited to be a tank. I currently have him as an enforcer which is, well, a tank. Both Nanba, a homeless guy, and Saeko, a hostess club's mama, seem suited to be casters. I have them as a musician and a hostess respectively. Both seem to be support/control type jobs, though I am still figuring them out as I just switched to them.

Edited November 22, 2020 by Keyrock

[Hurlshort]

I started playing The Division 2. I figure it is a good idea to get used to seeing Washington DC as a battlefield, given the current trajectory of the country. So far so good!

[Gorth]

My first terror mission in Xenonauts was a frontpage worthy fiasco. I eventually gave up and reloaded a previous save (capitulated). Blasted aliens were all hanging around on top of the roofs, sniping my squad to pieces. My one and only guy in buzzard armour (i.e. flight capable) died in the crossfire of 4 harridans on the roofs. No ladders leading up to them, meant, they could just move around unhindered and take potshots through windows and anywhere else I tried to take cover and work out a strategy. Short of offering them enough targets for them to run out of ammo?... nah, an example of futility. Reload, ignore this one terror mission and then craft more buzzard armour for the next one (and give it to more than just my sniper, I'll probably give it to a pair of assault guys too so they can go everywhere).

[Hurlshort]

36 minutes ago, Gorth said:

My first terror mission in Xenonauts was a frontpage worthy fiasco. I eventually gave up and reloaded a previous save (capitulated). Blasted aliens were all hanging around on top of the roofs, sniping my squad to pieces. My one and only guy in buzzard armour (i.e. flight capable) died in the crossfire of 4 harridans on the roofs. No ladders leading up to them, meant, they could just move around unhindered and take potshots through windows and anywhere else I tried to take cover and work out a strategy. Short of offering them enough targets for them to run out of ammo?... nah, an example of futility. Reload, ignore this one terror mission and then craft more buzzard armour for the next one (and give it to more than just my sniper, I'll probably give it to a pair of assault guys too so they can go everywhere).

Every time I read your posts, I feel compelled to start a new game. But I think I am going to try and be patient and wait for Xenonauts 2.

[Keyrock]

Now that I think about it, it's interesting that Dragon Quest is name dropped in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. And not just once in passing, it's been specifically mentioned multiple times, and always in a positive light. Were this a Squeenix game, I wouldn't give it a second thought, but Yakuza is a SEGA IP. Why name drop a game from a different company? If they wanted Kasuga to be inspired by a great jRPG then why not Phantasy Star?

Are SEGA and Squeenix planning to work together on some manner of Yakuza x Dragon Quest crossover? If so, yes, please and thank you very much.

[Sarex]

Started monkeying around with the save game files for Pathfinder Kingmaker, tried to edit a decision I made on an earlier quest (early enough for me to not want to backtrack). I tried to make 2 save files, both having different quest outcomes (yay for spamming saves), then doing a compare to see which lines in the code were different and it worked, but it wouldn't load as some other file in the container needed editing and I couldn't be assed to figure out witch. So I guess I will be without an advisor until I progress the quest, which sucks as I wanted to spam the advisor level upgrades until I got a warning to progress the quest.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Sarex

[Malcador]

Perfectly reasonable puzzle in Secret Files - taping a cell phone to a cat's back, feeding it salty pizza in order to make it go inside and record a conversation on the phone.    Then again, after Mystery of Druids, sort of glad I didn't have to poison the cat.

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Perfectly reasonable puzzle in Secret Files - taping a cell phone to a cat's back, feeding it salty pizza in order to make it go inside and record a conversation on the phone.    Then again, after Mystery of Druids, sort of glad I didn't have to poison the cat.

That sounds like about a 5 or 6 on the Moon Logic Scale. The ultimate will always be the infamous cat hair mustache from GK3 IMHO, that puzzle is snow level deep moon logic.

As an aside, not so much moon logic, but my beloved Sierra On-Line pulled one of the worst **** moves in one of the KQ games (I forget which one). There is a bridge in the game you cross multiple times. After a certain number of crossings (5 or 6 IIRC) the bridge collapses behind you, potentially leaving the game in a state where it's impossible to proceed and you may have to reload and redo as much as a couple of hours of game. There is absolutely no hint whatsoever that the bridge may collapse.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Started playing Vampyr on a whim, it's interesting enough but the camera is atrocious.

Looking for something kind of sci-fi to play next, not Cyberpunk tho. Is underrail any good?

[Oner]

4 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

Started playing Vampyr on a whim, it's interesting enough but the camera is atrocious.

Looking for something kind of sci-fi to play next, not Cyberpunk tho. Is underrail any good?

So long as you're playing the right build, yeah.

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

That sounds like about a 5 or 6 on the Moon Logic Scale. The ultimate will always be the infamous cat hair mustache from GK3 IMHO, that puzzle is snow level deep moon logic.

As an aside, not so much moon logic, but my beloved Sierra On-Line pulled one of the worst **** moves in one of the KQ games (I forget which one). There is a bridge in the game you cross multiple times. After a certain number of crossings (5 or 6 IIRC) the bridge collapses behind you, potentially leaving the game in a state where it's impossible to proceed and you may have to reload and redo as much as a couple of hours of game. There is absolutely no hint whatsoever that the bridge may collapse.

I was glad to see unwinnable states cease being a thing in adventure games, I guess Sierra did that out of elitism or just wanting you to call their hint line.  PQ3 had the worst one I encountered, not really unwinnable maybe, but if you don't snoop on your partner she ends up killing you - if you do then some IA commando somersaults in and guns her down.

[Keyrock]

Sierra was infamous for pulling supreme **** moves in their games, and I say that as a huge fan of the company. Sierra was my childhood.

Maybe unwinnable states and ludicrous moon logic were a way of artificially inflating game length? (As well as the hint line thing) These days, developers inflate game length through pointless collect-a-thons and generic copy/paste quests. *glares in Ubisoft's direction*

Edited November 23, 2020 by Keyrock

[the_dog_days]

1 hour ago, KaineParker said:

Looking for something kind of sci-fi to play next, not Cyberpunk tho. Is underrail any good?

Underrail is great but you want to be careful in your mix of attributes/skills/perks. The biggest downside is there's no fast walk button and getting around takes longer than it should.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

43 minutes ago, Oner said:

So long as you're playing the right build, yeah.

That sounds ominous. 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Double Post

Edited November 23, 2020 by KaineParker

[Oner]

15 minutes ago, KaineParker said:

That sounds ominous. 

The game can be very punishing right from the start, though I'm told you can get godlike at some point.
I invested into psionics and gave up when deeper into the game I couldn't beat two raiders despite kiting them literally through the area and abusing LoS. Didn't have the burst to blow them up, so both they had a chance to heal and when I eventually got cornered I got oneshot with a single grenade.

Soo yeeah, I'd look up a build guide or something.

[Hurlshort]

I got lost in the ventilation ducts in Underrail and never made it out. But it was fun for a bit. 

[ComradeYellow]

3 hours ago, KaineParker said:

Looking for something kind of sci-fi to play next, not Cyberpunk tho. Is underrail any good?

If you like games that progress at a snails pace just for the sake of being HARDCORE DAWG than yes there's some interesting character mechanics to be had.

To me, games like this sound great on paper and bore me to tears when put into practice.

[majestic]

5 hours ago, Keyrock said:

That sounds like about a 5 or 6 on the Moon Logic Scale. The ultimate will always be the infamous cat hair mustache from GK3 IMHO, that puzzle is snow level deep moon logic.

My favorite Moon Logic puzzle was in Dragon Sphere. For those that don't know, it's a game set in a medieval high fantasy setting.

At one point in the game you encounter a door you walk through. It teleports you into a room where you're instantly burned to a cinder. A reload later you're trying to figure out how to get past the door. It's the only door left, no matter where else you go, it's clearly the only way forward.

So, what to do?

 

First you need to stuff a dead rat you've been carrying in your inventory into a moden age freezer that's in the basement of the tower to create a ratsicle. Then you use the ratsicle on the door, attach the leftover octopus arm you also still have from the very beginning of the game to the door and peel off a portal that looked like a door which was actually draped over the door.

Then you walk through the door and notice it simply leads to the exact same room as the portal, and you again end up being crispy well done again, but that's a different riddle.

The game also has a great bug where you can, by virture of walking into the wrong room at the wrong time, skip a dialogue that would give you the necessary hints to answer questions posed to your character.

Edited November 23, 2020 by majestic

[Chairchucker]

If y'all wanna try a point and click adventure game with fair puzzles, may I suggest Nelly Cootalot and the Fowl Fleet, which I mentioned earlier, and which is very charming and also a good game, and has Tom Baker as the voice of a bird.