What Are You Playing Now: The meaning of life

[Tale]

I've been snowed in all week so far and it's looking to continue. So I'm playing through the Crysis trilogy.

I'll be honest. I hated Far Cry. And wasn't thrilled with Crysis when I first played it. It only clicked for me when I played Warhead. Replaying Crysis now, I see a bit of why that is. Because when the aliens show up, the interesting play style goes out the window. Sadly, Crysis 2 does not capture that same play. But it has its own strengths. I've always kind of loved transhuman storylines and it's got plenty of power fantasy when you grab a turret, armor up, and go to town.

Now to play Crysis 3 for the first time.

[melkathi]

Free DLC in Troubleshooter turned out to be:

2 recruitable characters.

3 Missions (including a new map)

1 New enemy faction with 3 new enemies (2 models) + bosses.

New masteries (skill sets) for and dropped by the new enemies.

 

Which kinda is still more than some AAA titles include for a DLC in their season pass...

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by melkathi

[Vaeliorin]

I think they're still adding more to the DLC, at least that's the impression I've gotten.  Also, it was free, so...can't complain.

Failed my first mission in Troubleshooter (actually failed, not had to go back to a checkpoint failed.)  It was Angry Tiger, and I got myself into a situation where the checkpoint was at a point I couldn't survive after.  I did too much running around and fighting instead of going straight to the objective (seriously, I don't know how you'd destroy the jammers unless you were way overleveled) and just got obliterated.  Running straight for the phones worked much better.

Got a fifth member, too, and I have to admit it was not who I expected.  I knew he became a team member, but I expected it much later.

Kinda wish extractors weren't consumables (or at least they stacked up to a certain number instead of going away completely if you use it once) but that's probably because I don't like having to spend money (I've only got ~22,500.)

[melkathi]

Angry Tiger is seen by some as the hardest mission in the game. Even with the help (though some people don't go asking for help and just rush in solo).

I have never gone back to checkpoint. The few times I failed (and Angry Tiger was one of them) I always hit restart.

I like the mission as it definitely gets you emotionally involved with fighting the White Tiger gang.

 

And that character is the best addition to the team. In a target rich environment he really shines.

[LadyCrimson]

@Keyrock

So are you liking Valheim?  I'm not at all into the Viking scenario but the building mechanics seem serviceable enough.  But how much is combat the focus?  eg, do you have to defeat bosses before you can get all abilities/skills/recipes or something like that?  Is it moddable at all?  It's being so hyped - does it feel like it might be more than just a streamer flavor of the month?

...my initial impression is I should wait and see what happens to it after a year or two. I'm not really seeing much that would make me think I'd like it more than 7 Days, at least - outside of boats - and I'm STILL waiting for that one to be "finished." 

Edited February 17, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Malcador]

More RT3 scenarios fall before me, getting gold on the Central Pacific, and Go West ones.  Only 6 more left to get gold on and I can close this chapter in my life.

Also playing Overwatch off and on, made it to Gold league and somehow the experience is worse than Silver, just people playing poorly intentionally, leavers and ever present neckbeards raging so much they let up on the push to talk key.

Edited February 18, 2021 by Malcador

[Keyrock]

@LadyCrimsonSo far so good. Valheim definitely is a surprise hit, since the survival game boom ended a couple of years ago after the marked got flooded with a bunch of early access garbage that will never leave early access. I think one of the things it has going for it is just how polished it is. I guess it was on Itch.io (don't know for how long) before it popped up on Steam. The animations are pretty stiff, they could use a rework and the UI could use some love, but beyond that the game feels finished and polished. I haven't encountered a single bug yet. It runs fine and looks good IMHO.

It's interesting how this game handles food. Food is your health and stamina, but not in the traditional sense. You can eat up to 3 pieces of food at a time, but they have to be different. You can eat a piece of cooked meat, a mushroom, and a raspberry, but you can't eat 3 mushrooms. Each piece of food gives you a certain amount of health, stamina, and regen for both. You can't starve to death in this game, but you will be weak as **** if you don't have any food buffs going.

Combat is fairly basic but decent enough. You can attack, dodge, and block, and you have stamina. Stamina regens fairly quickly as long as you are rested and/or have food buffs going, so running out isn't crippling. My favorite thing to do so far is hunting deer. Deer will peace out if they spot you, so you need to be sneaky. Skulk around through the grass, listen for the deer, figure out where Bambi is, creep closer, line up your shot, figure in arrow drop, and let it rip. It's slow, methodical, and I find it quite exhilarating. I'm weird like that.

I'm still on fairly low tech, so I can't speak to the extent of crafting, but supposedly the system is very extensive. Snapping pieces together is quite finicky, but it works fine so long as you are patient. I like that you don't have to snap pieces together, you can fit them weird ways and overlap them. Supposedly you can build ships later on, not boats, but full fledged ships. That's going to be badass.

There are bosses. I'm not sure yet if bosses gate tech, but I suspect they do at least partially. You can wander into biomes beyond your abilities and get horribly murdered. The game will warn you "Are you sure you want to go in here? Maybe you should fight Eikthyr first to prove your worth?" but it won't stop you.

 

[Keyrock]

A thing I like about Valheim is that they softened some standard survival game systems. The biggest one for me is item durability and it got me thinking. I HATE item durability and I feel it has no place in any game that is not strictly a survival game. Item durability adds nothing but tedium and frustration to a game, but at least in a survival game it fits thematically. If you are a game developer making anything other than a survival game and you shoehorn item durability into your game then you are an @$$÷*/÷ and I hate you. Honestly, I would rather not have item durability even in a survival game, but I get why it's there. In Valheim at least they make repairing equipment quick and painless. You just go over to your workbench, open up the UI, and click the repair icon. No materials needed and you don't even need to select each item to repair. You just clickclickclickclickclickclick and everything is good as new. It takes 5 seconds and you can go right back to doing something fun, because repairing equipment never is, never was, and never will be fun.

[LadyCrimson]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

In Valheim at least they make repairing equipment quick and painless. You just go over to your workbench, open up the UI, and click the repair icon.

That's actually something I wouldn't like, because it ties you to your base (or a town, or whatever) too much.  I disliked games where exploring or dungeon crawling would be interrupted because you had to go back to town to repair.  Durability as a concept doesn't bother me - having it limit your ability to wander does (or yeah, if you need to carry 20 different repair things around).  Even in something like Diablo's where you could easily portal to town and click the blacksmith, it's annoying because it disrupted the flow of dungeon cleaning.  So in 7 Days you have repair kits for guns and higher tier tools/armors, that you can buy, loot, or craft, carry a stack or two with you, use it to repair wherever, and keep on truckin'.  Early tools you just need 1 stone and you're almost always going to be carrying/mining that stack of 6000 around with you anyway for other reasons.

Food/drink is still my biggest beef with survival because in most games the amount required is stupid and while you're often allowed to carry 500 tons of stone or wood per inventory slot, apparently fitting even 11 jars of tea into that same single slot is impossible.

Edit: also, any survival/building/crafting/looting games that have 7000+ different types of items and a tiny inventory of 12 slots or something, for no good reason, are stupid/not fun.  Not saying inventory should be an endless magic bag of holding, but you get my meaning.

Edited February 18, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Keyrock]

24 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

That's actually something I wouldn't like, because it ties you to your base (or a town, or whatever) too much.  

I'd be happiest if there simply was no item durability period. IMHO it has never been a positive feature of any game ever. It's always a negative. Again, in survival games at least it fits thematically, but why anyone would ever put it in any other type of game boggles my mind. 

Producer Nancy: "Hey Bill, what are you working on currently for our new game project?"

Designer Bill: "A system that actively and repeatedly obstructs the player from having fun."

Nancy: "That souns great, I'll make sure it's included in the final version."

Edited February 18, 2021 by Keyrock

[LadyCrimson]

^ I understand the sentiment but that falls under the "what is fun" category.  Technically you could  say the same regarding food/drink, weight limits, ammo limits, etc.  Assuming one is playing "legit" within a game's rules, some find all of that part of the challenge. Without any of that it's no longer really a "survival" game anymore maybe. So for me it's not so much the mechanics can't be "fun", it's simply the implementation.

I'm never going to be into combat games where you're struggling to find even 5 shotgun shells, so half the time you're carrying around a useless shotgun in the hope you're going to find some ammo for it (some people love that stuff tho).  But I don't mind magazine size limits (even if they're not realistic) and having to buy/refill said magazine and the possibility of running out of ammo. It's all degrees.

[Vaeliorin]

More Troubleshooter.  Honestly, as...rough...as the translation is, the game still seems to have writing better than 90% of the games I've played.  They actually make the NPCs (not the party members, I generally am always a fan of party members) people that you care about because you actually interact with them fairly regularly.

The game also has some of the best level design I've ever encountered.  Slum of Shadow Fog is perhaps the best level I've ever encountered in a tactical game, with tons of verticality and so many different ways to move around the map.

Honestly, it's a crime that the game hasn't gotten more recognition, because it honestly might be the best turn-based tactical game I've ever played.

[melkathi]

The thing is, I feel sorry for Scott and Jason.

I like Sharky and John the Immortal. OK, I kinda like most Spoonists.

And even the White Tiger gang bastards you can understand. Maybe not Andrei - I can't remember anything about him. I mean Berke isn't even a bad guy - by White Tiger gang standards.

 

edit:

The other thing I found well done was the flashbacks fleshing out information later on. When Joel dies, you don't care all that much. But when you later get his story you actually care retroactively, if that makes sense?

Edited February 19, 2021 by melkathi

[Vaeliorin]

That definitely makes sense about Joel.  When he died he was just some random character, and now, a couple missions into Chapter 4, I really wish he'd lived and we'd gotten to work with him.  He seems like he was a really good guy.

As to the various gang members, I guess the Spoonists have some decent ideas in terms of making things better for people (though if they intend to enforce that whole "if 10 people give up a spoonful of rice" thing on everyone, that's just theft) but I have a hard time forgiving the violence they all use.  So for, the rest of them just seem like violent thugs (well, Jason seems more like a pathetic lickspittle, who is always looking for someone to serve.)

[melkathi]

That's definitely how Ryo views Jason as well. At the same time Jason is the only Angry Bull higher up who sticks with the gang to the end. Even though he is way in over his head.

So you are in Chapter 4. Remember to tell me your choice in Scent of the Past.

In "Intruders" when you have to find Kylie and escort her to the broken fences, who did you find her with? It seems canon is to find her in Heixing's activation.

[LadyCrimson]

Can someone please explain why spending 3 hours doing nothing but trying to dig out every block of a giant ore node, regardless of whether I actually even need said ores, is such an obsessive task that I can't stop myself from doing it? I hit a node, think "I'll just clear out a little" and hours later I'm still going. It's so mindless, but almost meditative.  *whack whack whack*

In my defense, the occasionally wonky structural integrity mechanics of 7 Days means you do have to be careful that there aren't too many caverns or holes under any vertical support aspects of your base, if said base sits on top of, say, that ore node you're mining out.  So part of that 3 hours is also crafting and using blocks of the basic "stone tile" and refilling some of the mined cavern to be solid again.   I think the vertical/horizontal support stuff in the game is one of my fave things re: building. It's not a big deal most of the time but requires at least a little thought if you're making something huge/complex, since if you start stacking too many benches or chests on a ill-supported floor it could collapse if you do it 'wrong.'  Even your chr's 'weight' could be the final straw towards roof/floor collapse as you dash across it.

Edited February 20, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

I picked up Battlefield 1 on sale. It is the first BF game I've played in a long while, but it still felt pretty comfortable from my BF2 days. I played through the pilot storyline and it was alright.

[Lexx]

The idea of Battlefield 1 is cool, imo. But the execution is ... meh. Biggest issue for me was the campaigns being too short and shallow.

[bringingyouthefuture]

I finished the Troubleshooter game, completed all missions on hard, with some of them on challenging :)  Got 145/198 steam achievements with the most rare one being:

We are the one

In the mission [Astonishing Reunion], win as the team of Irene, Anne and Ray with 'Pick lotteries.' choice on 'Hard' or higher difficulty.

Pretty fun and obsessive game, thanks @melkathi for all the screenshots and making me want to buy it!!!  The story and role playing elements, humor and strategy are all pretty fun.  I mean the game only got grindy for me when I started obsessing over crafting and needed money and material, otherwise fast paced and right on time.

[melkathi]

I had forgotten about the violent case the freeLC for Troubleshooter added. So met the new new enemies and ouch. So it added more stuff than I thought. Waiting for the big update which will complete it and up the content to 8 + 2 missions from the current 3 + 1.

AAA titles would probably have split it into a 5 part season pass and charged $20 for it.

[Raithe]

Finally launched the Neptune Escape planet and got off-planet in Subnautica.

Then get hit with the 1Trillion debt you owe for using resources on the planet to escape.

Apparently I managed to get all achievements for the game while doing that playthrough - What strikes me is that while I'm not so surprised that only about 10% of players have the final achievements for completing the game, apparently only 79% of players have the "Getting Your Feet Wet" achievement.

Does that mean 20% of players literally never played beyond the opening and got out of the damn escape capsule? Or just that many turned on the console to cheat from the start? Or just bought the game and never played it?  That's going to be one of those bizarre nagging questions in the back of my head some sleepless nights....

[Keyrock]

Valheim has that time vortex factor for me. I'll start playing it, intending to play for 45 minutes or an hour, suddenly where did those 4 hours go? It's an oddly relaxing game about surviving in a hostile Norse mythology world.

I recently reached bronze tech level, which opened up a ton of new crafting. I'm slowly converting my gear from flint/leather to bronze.

I've also reached stage 3 of trolls:

Stage 1) Fear of trolls

Stage 2) Hunting trolls for their hide

Stage 3) Annoyed by trolls

[LadyCrimson]

^  "time vortex", I like that phrase.  That's what's missing from most games for me, these days. Again, it's not that games suck or are bad. I might even find them fun for a brief moment.  But ... whether it's a virtual novel, slots, or the most complex rpg in the world, a game must cause that time vortex to happen or it has no sticking power for me. I must be sucked in to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.   

Most games I've tried recently I'm still watching the clock while playing.  Pfft.

[Hurlshort]

5 hours ago, Raithe said:

Finally launched the Neptune Escape planet and got off-planet in Subnautica.

Then get hit with the 1Trillion debt you owe for using resources on the planet to escape.

Apparently I managed to get all achievements for the game while doing that playthrough - What strikes me is that while I'm not so surprised that only about 10% of players have the final achievements for completing the game, apparently only 79% of players have the "Getting Your Feet Wet" achievement.

Does that mean 20% of players literally never played beyond the opening and got out of the damn escape capsule? Or just that many turned on the console to cheat from the start? Or just bought the game and never played it?  That's going to be one of those bizarre nagging questions in the back of my head some sleepless nights....

Probably a good mix of people that never played it and have it just sitting in their library, and a few that just played it in offline mode. As a kickstarter game, some people might have it on other platforms as well.

I never beat it. Played a ton of hours but preferred to tool around in my sub.

[Malcador]

Started Lost Horizon, so far it's not too bad for a knock off Indiana Jones game.