What Are You Playing Now: The meaning of life

[melkathi]

7 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

If you expect an advice from the community, I would say go for RP choice

 

I went with the middle ground and got jurisdiction for the district the lady who runs the bar in Shooter Street lives. I think Sion has a bit of a crush on her and she had hired us to do a mission there before. Gameplay wise it isn't the most income I could get, but it means I am not at 3/5 Residential jurisdictions and havea  presence in 3 different sectors.

[Mamoulian War]

Started Torchlight II with Engineer as a way to clear my head little bit. So far it feels easier than first game on Normal difficulty, but that's not a bad thing today Sometimes I feel like I need that kind of relax

[MedicineDan]

I've been playing Wasteland 3.  Since I was here last, I actually cleared a couple of games off the docket, but I find I really like Wasteland 3.  Sadly, I wasn't as enamored of Assassins Creed Odyssey.  I do appreciate the Greek aspect, even the modern Greek pronunciation, but I just couldn't get into the kind of aimlessness of it.  I much preferred Prey or Dishonored, which probably just means I tend to like games where I can be lazy and follow a set story-line, although I love New Vegas where I could more or less follow a story but still strike out on my own.  Wasteland 3, at any rate, is more fun for me than AC:O.  So much so, in fact, that I feel the need to crack down and get back to work and school again.

[melkathi]

So the translation of Troubleshooter gets worse as the game progresses. I guess they had help with fan edits in Early Access, so the older content had more eyes on it.

[marelooke]

Made it past the Heist in Cyberpunk 2077 and getting absolutely bombarded with quests (and Gigs, just by walking around...), a lot of them "urgent", do any of them have actual timers, other than possibly failing by pushing the main quest too far? Because if they do, it's going to be an interesting (and frustrating) ride...

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, marelooke said:

Made it past the Heist in Cyberpunk 2077 and getting absolutely bombarded with quests (and Gigs, just by walking around...), a lot of them "urgent", do any of them have actual timers, other than possibly failing by pushing the main quest too far? Because if they do, it's going to be an interesting (and frustrating) ride...

I don't think any of them have timers.

[Malcador]

I think the quest to rescue Saul has a timer, he buys it if you don't start in 24 hours.  That quest has a funny bug last time I ran through, snuck in the exhaust pipe and got to Saul but couldn't trigger progression until I "entered the warehouse" by sneaking back up to it.

[Reza Modaresi]

Just started The Medium, game is good really, but man the textures are the WORST! I'm playing it on a Xbox series S, and sometimes I wonder how didn't they fix this problem. 

[ShadySands]

Riders on the Storm is one that comes to mind and it's the one Malc mentioned. There are a few more than have a time limit once started like the guy with the malfunctioning implant or the captured monk but other than that I can't think of any off of the top of my head. You can fail some quests as well but you usually have to try to get a fail condition.

[Oner]

The cop neighbour quest is also timed.

[ShadySands]

Is it? I thought it just had a certain order to it. Don't talk to the cops after talking to the neighbor before looking into the guy's best friend. I never hurried it but it never took me that long either so maybe.

[Oner]

I've read it on the internet, so it must be true.

[melkathi]

Reads things on the internet?

Must be a villain.

[melkathi]

I am at 87 hours in Troubleshooter and ready to start the pokemon part of the game and try to tame all the beasts I can.

[LadyCrimson]

Started a game of Medieval Dynasty.  Couldn't figure out how to craft the starter stone axe.  Finally looked it up and realized the controller doesn't seem to access the crafting menu properly.  Works fine for almost everything else but ... oh well, KB/mouse is near at hand and I can just use it when I must.

Then I realized that this is one of those survival games where your hunger meter drops super-rapidly and you need to eat like 10 steaks to get it up again. Who the heck eats 10 steaks per meal, honestly.  Are these "steaks" the size of quarters?  Maybe some skills eventually helps it out some but nope, not dealing with that type of survival. Anyway, game settings allow you to turn on/off most "survival" aspects but you can only do it at the beginning of a new game. So I started over and turned off hunger/thirst and inventory weight limit. I am not spending 20 minutes carrying 10 logs back and forth to a storage bin constantly just to build a pre-fab small hut.  Maybe I'll try it with all that back on later, but for now...

Anyway!  Outside of that - I'm liking the game so far. Good for exploration and management etc.  Tried poking a boar (I may not need to eat but I could sell the meat!) and it trampled me. Good times.

[melkathi]

8 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Good times.

And suddenly everyone on the forum realized that LadyCrimson was Gromnir's alt account.

[Malcador]

Story of Secret Files 3 certainly went places.  Apparently the constant of Pi has schematics for a machine of some sort with great power.  

[LadyCrimson]

On 1/31/2021 at 4:28 AM, melkathi said:

And suddenly everyone on the forum realized that LadyCrimson was Gromnir's alt account.

HA!

[marelooke]

2 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

HA!

Missed your chance to just answer with "No!" and confuse everyone

 

Anyway, been rather hooked on Cyberpunk 2077. I've been saved most egregious bugs it seems (well, unless the game is yet to slap me with some broken quest chain down the line...), and graphical glitches have been very much limited (there were only 3 occasions I can recall: one floating person, 2 parked cars stuck in the ground, and some untextured terrain).
Ran into one item glitch which is an invisible item, it doesn't have a picture in the inventory (does have a name though) and no textures, so if I can find a few more of those I can run around nude, while clothed, I guess. Literally unplayable

Actual gameplay affecting bugs have mostly been weird UI breakage, the two most obnoxious issues being getting stuck in hacking mode and being unable to fire my weapon when I aim down sights. Both of them only fixable with a reload.

The one quest breaking issue I've encountered so far is one of the Cyberpsycho quests that refuses to recognize a non-lethal takedown (it's the Mox one fwiw), possibly breaking the overarching questline. I sure hope all the previous ones registered, but I haven't gone back through my quest log to check how many I've already done...

There's a bunch of systems that could use some serious work, driving (I didn't expect Forza Horizon, but come on...) and the UI (the map can be rage inducing if you tend to drag it with the mouse, like I do) being on top of the list for me. I also absolutely hate how double tapping a direction key dodges in that direction (and puts you out of stealth to top it off). I've done that way too often by accident and I couldn't find a way to turn it off.

As for the story, the start feels kind of rushed. The "origin story" is really short and does not really give you much time to "get into" that part of your PCs life. After that you barely spend time with the main NPCs before the first big mission (and the actual start of the game), instead most of that timespan is covered by a cinematic montage of what you've been up to in that timespan. That first big mission itself has some very obvious cut content too (spoilers on The Heist mission):

Spoiler

After the murder you can go to the roof, where you will have to kill two guards (not even an option for non-lethal take-down here, which was weird), but after that it's almost impossible to grab the stuff from the aircraft.

The fact that they cut that escape route isn't much of a problem if it makes the story work, cut content happens. But they could have cleaned up that area so it doesn't feel as...glitchy(? looking for the best word here) to grab the stuff from the aircraft there. It really makes that area feel unfinished.

It has been uphill after that, but I haven't really touched the main quest past where it branches out in multiple quests.

Given the criticism the game has gotten about "having nothing to say" I was pleasantly surprised how often quests touch upon various mental illnesses and how society is still unable to cope with them (and boy, there's quite a lot of reasons to pick up some kind of mental illness in Night City...).

Edited February 1, 2021 by marelooke

[Wormerine]

Holy crap, Dishonored2 levels are great. It probably has weaker narrative, and gimmickiness of levels do make it less reliable and therefore immersive (I believe that stealth work best in familiar surroundings). That said what good gimmicks those are. Clockwork mansion was already pretty fun, but I just finished the time traveling level, and it's just pure excellence. 

I think I will also have to do "no power run" of Dishonoreds one of theses days. I feel that our outsider powers are so robust, it's easy to play in a boring in repetitive way. WIth most of powers being off, I found myself digging into mechanics and enviromental interactions, in a way I never done before. 

[Malcador]

3 hours ago, marelooke said:

There's a bunch of systems that could use some serious work, driving (I didn't expect Forza Horizon, but come on...) and the UI (the map can be rage inducing if you tend to drag it with the mouse, like I do) being on top of the list for me. I also absolutely hate how double tapping a direction key dodges in that direction (and puts you out of stealth to top it off). I've done that way too often by accident and I couldn't find a way to turn it off.

That double tap dodge resulted in my failing Sinnerman, as my bumping into the convict was seen as an attack and the cop then opened fire on me.  CDPR will some day learn how to make a proper UI, for sure.

Dragging myself to the end of Secret Files 3, switching characters seems pretty contrived at this part, but I'd heard the ending was rushed (maybe they ran out of money or time?)

[melkathi]

71 hours into Troubleshooter

I now have a full team of 8 characters. I think there are two more to hire from the FreeLC.

I have tamed two pets and built one robo-drone.

I could now either push the main story or just farm the various missions for materials and beasts to tame. And materials. Loads of materials. The jrpg farming has opened up and beckons suggestively. I mean if I get my hands on a Pure High Quality Oil Sac, I could craft that bangle to complete the Lightning Nigoori set and seriously boost Scion's damage output. Until he is high enough level to use the Draki stuff, which I expect will have an even bettererer set. And all I need to craft a Pure High Quality Oil Sac is 10 Big Oil Sac. Which I can make out of 10 Oil Sacs each. Ok, I don't have any of those either, but I should have 3 Small Oil Sacs left and I only need 7 more to make a standard sized Oil Sac. So if I get 997 more I should be set...

 

I do like that in proper Anime/Manage/jRPG fashion, all the baddies and npcs etc have their story arcs. I understand to an extent the criticism from some reviews that the enemies felt samsie to them - is there truly a difference between an Angry Bull hoodlum with a machine gun and a White Tiger gangster with a machine gun, other than the colour of their outfit? Is there a difference between a Spoonist and a Smuggler? Other than the obvious yes, level, quality of equipment, passive abilities? Obviously. The Spoonist will share his bowl of rice with his brothers of the [Spoon]. He will welcome you to his humble table and share that bowl with you. He'll offer you the [spoon] and a chance to come along on the quest for the [coordinates] and the promise of Paradise. Spoonism will welcome all of you. OK, maybe not if you are White Tiger gang. I mean, who'd really want to welcome those guys? Especially after Starlight Junction. I mean there are limits even to divine forgiveness.

 

 

[Humanoid]

So then, the first game I christened the new PC with was Age of Empires 2, a game I first played on a Pentium 3. Obviously that didn't let the system stretch its legs, so I tried some other things. Euro Truck Sim 2 in Eyefinity mode unfortunately exhibited some graphical corruption, so that put the kibosh on that plan. This got me a bit worried, but no such symptoms appear in single-display mode, or when I fired up the Hitman 2 benchmark, so I'm putting it down to a possible driver issue - if it persists once the Iberia expansion releases I'll be pretty annoyed though.

Anyway, to ensure things were truly working properly, I finally fired up the big one, Cyberpunk 2077. It's been a long wait, I know. I chose not to continue with the character I had created previously because I didn't like the idea of having a boss, so I started as a Nomad this time. I've only gotten up to the timeskip in the prologue but the game looks good, and performs well at maximum non-RT settings. I didn't run any metrics, no frame-rate counter or anything, but judging from eye I think I've landed on the right amount of power for the system because I don't see any reason to reduce any settings at all.

 

EDIT: I also freaked out a bit as The Witcher 3, which had just installed, failed to launch. Then Rogue Legacy also failed when I tried it to see if Galaxy was working properly. Turns out both needed to be repaired, odd.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Humanoid

[Mamoulian War]

I've finished Act 1 in Torchlight II and arrived in Zeryphesh. Game got little bit harder, and my first death happened

[melkathi]

100 hours into Troubleshooter, I took out the White Tiger gang tonight. It was a hectic but fun fight. I opted for the risky deployment, splitting my group up into two squads. The main squad took out one of the White Tiger leaders more by accident than anything else, as he ran into overwatch fire. Then they got bogged down a bit trying to clear out snipers and split off the SWAT contingent to help rebuke the White Tiger counter attack on the police cordon. All that kinda meant that instead of the second squad creating a diversion for the first squad to get to the White Tiger bossman, it found most of the gangers taking cover, facing the other direction.

I had kinda hoped the Spoonists would grab the opportunity to attack the White Tiger gang themselves, but they stayed out of it so I let them stay out of it (which means, my sniper spotted the non-mission relevant characters before they spotted me, allowing me to circle around them and not have to put up with that headache as well).