What are you Playing Now: Living the Game Life

[melkathi]

Have they improved pathfinding for the AI mechs?

When I played it got annoying that, defending a base, my mechs would do the opponent's work for them as they'd ignore the existence of buildings.

[Gromnir]

50 minutes ago, melkathi said:

Have they improved pathfinding for the AI mechs?

 

yes. am gonna admit Gromnir is far more likely to destroy structures in the defense o' a base than members o' the lance. we will knock down a wall section if it means we won't need to go all the way around to an opening just so long as we got a big cushion on the % needed undamaged to achieve mission goals. however, it has happened that we hear the refrain, damage is coming out of your pay, which at times is only possible the lance mates is responsible as we is nowhere near structures.

ai is not perfect but is far better than it were in the past. lance mates is also good (not great) at avoiding artillery strikes, which makes those beachhead missions doable if still a bit unnerving.

HA! Good Fun!

 

[Theonlygarby]

12 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

just edit save or play on the lowest difficulty

read few hundred hour of pathfinder 1e try to figure everything out just doesn't worth it

I have turned it on easy but then it was no fun at all.  I'm going to persevere... maybe

[uuuhhii]

41 minutes ago, Theonlygarby said:

I have turned it on easy but then it was no fun at all.  I'm going to persevere... maybe

without enough spell slot to always cast haste on the entire team will make this game far more unbearable on early hours

mostly just have fun reading dialogue

[ShadySands]

9 hours ago, Gromnir said:

yes. am gonna admit Gromnir is far more likely to destroy structures in the defense o' a base than members o' the lance. we will knock down a wall section if it means we won't need to go all the way around to an opening just so long as we got a big cushion on the % needed undamaged to achieve mission goals. however, it has happened that we hear the refrain, damage is coming out of your pay, which at times is only possible the lance mates is responsible as we is nowhere near structures.

ai is not perfect but is far better than it were in the past. lance mates is also good (not great) at avoiding artillery strikes, which makes those beachhead missions doable if still a bit unnerving.

HA! Good Fun!

 

Did they make radar more useful? I'm remembering everything just spawning next to me and most combat taking place at knife fighting range and most maps essentially being corridors. I did drop it fairly early because of those reasons so maybe it opens up more later. 

[Malcador]

Coworkers have wanted to play a game to socialize, so have been playing Paladins.  Prefer Overwatch myself, but I do get to play a angel so there's that.

Sam Peters isn't annoying so far, but the protagonist is getting there.  Expecting this to just be like Secret Files 2

[Gromnir]

5 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

Did they make radar more useful? I'm remembering everything just spawning next to me and most combat taking place at knife fighting range and most maps essentially being corridors. I did drop it fairly early because of those reasons so maybe it opens up more later. 

wouldn't say stuff is spawning immediate adjacent to us. am getting a good amount o' use from long range weapons. however, with all the tanks, aircraft and light mechs attacking in waves, is gonna be difficult to stay at range. earlyish missions has us able to dispatch a few mechs before we need get close, but eventual a jenner(s), centurion or pheonix hawk is gonna be sharing closet space with us and am rare built for such. enemy ai is kinda aggro focused, so you may need actual do counter-intuitive and switch targets a bit during a few missions. 

maps haven't changed much. you are never fighting on the plains o' nebraska or kansas. is functional corridors, if quite robust in areas. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Theonlygarby]

2 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

without enough spell slot to always cast haste on the entire team will make this game far more unbearable on early hours

mostly just have fun reading dialogue

I've pretty much mastered the start of this game... I've played like 100 hours and haven't gotten halfway.  So yeah... very experienced in the early game haha

[melkathi]

Alt-F4ed out of the latest Troubleshooter mission. I really dislike the new monster and since both the violent case from last update and the mission from this update future it exclusively, I guess I am done with the game at least for now. I have 0 interest in fighting the same exact enemy I don't care for 35-100 times exclusively on maps.

[Keyrock]

I've put about 7 hours into Griftlands so far and I am thoroughly impressed. I've played games from Klei before and they've always been well made games, so I was expecting a quality title, but this has blown my expectations out of the water. The amount of depth in this deck builder is really impressive and I don't know how long this game was in early access, but they polished it to a brilliant shine. There seem to be 3 characters to play, each with their own set of 2 decks to build (negotiation and battle) and their own story campaign. There are tons of characters to meet, each of which you can befriend, piss off, or kill. You get boons and banes from folks you get to really like you or really hate you, which do a variety of things to help or hinder you. You can get grafts which modify how negotiations or battles go. There are tons of cards to collect for each deck. You can upgrade grafts and cards. There are daily challenges, which I haven't tried yet. There's no shortage of content here. Also, the game looks fantastic, but that's to be expected; Klei employs some terrific artists.

[Gorth]

On 6/2/2021 at 3:26 AM, BruceVC said:

I have always been interested in GW2, about 12 years ago I worked with 2 guys who loved this game and played it religiously at 6pm for 4-6 hours most nights

How would you describe it, go into as much detail as possible 

Heh, I could probably ramble on for a long time time and completely missing the point, because the things I like may not be what other people want to focus on in a game.

There are a number of youtube videos with a combined few hours of arguments why you should play Guild Wars 2 in 2021 and they focus on slightly different things.

The core game has a nice story (imho), combat is very dynamic and fluent. No romance arcs. I know this would be worth mentioning

It does have plenty of romance, love, despair, politics, betrayal, racism, misogyny, hatred, wisdom, lgbt friendliness and bigotry. All depending on which faction, race and political class you're dealing with.

Graphics are very nice. Not at least considering the game was launched in 2012.

Something that mattered to me, *especially* after having played swtor for a number of years, is a very friendly and helpful community. Only exception I've been told, is the pvp community, but that seems to be a universal law that this particular subculture is toxic as part of its nature

But elsewhere in the game, don't be surprised to see people go out of their way to resurrect you or pitch in if you're in the middle of a fight in the open world. Unlike swtor, the loot in GW2 is shared. It means everyone who participates get a copy of the loot. No rolling off against each other or the first one to tag an enemy gets it all. You participate where you can and welcome help when other people participates.

Personally, I hate pvp, not at least because of the nature of pvp communities, but I do love what is called wvw (world versus world), which is large scale, open world pvp where you fight in a separate set of open world maps in a three way free for all, server vs server (the servers being the "worlds"). Large scale as in sometimes featuring hundreds of players, sieges (complete with siege engines and boiling oil to pour on your enemies at the gate).

Another important thing for me is the story. The core story (the free to play part of the game) is great. I love it. Self contained and you get a closure and a ceremony with a slide show.

But, Anet keeps adding to the story. Something called "Living World" which is a constant addition to the story. Every two-three months, you get a sizeable chunk of new story, missions, achievements, new maps to explore etc.

The two expansions are for me a must. First one adds a new base class (taking the original 8 to 9) and 9 "elite classes" and something called "gliding skill". Oh, and a lot of story. *LOT* of story... as well as new events, bosses, missions etc. Second expansion adds similar 9 new elite classes and more epic story than you can shake a stick at.

Elite classes are variations of the base classes. E.g. a thief can become either a daredevil (my main character) which fights with a Bo staff as a main weapon. Think Shao Lin style monks with staves. Alternatively, the thief can become a sniper with a long rage rifle and lots of stealth to shoot at enemies from very far away and the stealth to get in and out of combat when so desired. Similar for the other classes who now has two specializations each.

A note about the living world seasons, at this very moment, Anet is running a campaign in preparation for the announced third major expansion (which is all East Asian themed) giving away the living world season episodes for free. Two episodes every week. The current season is available to free to play players too (players who haven't bought the expansions). They are normally available for free to players who have logged in at least once during the release of an episode. I.e. the 2-3 months windows where it is the "current" episode. People who don't log in or are late comers normally have to buy them for cool, hard cash.

So if in doubt, I would recommend to asap create and account, install the game and just log in. Even if you don't do anything else in the game, just log in once a week for a while to get this first season for free. Then you can always regret wasting those 30 seconds of your life late if you decide this isn't really for you. Alternatively (preferably) you like the game and stick around long enough to play those episodes (which takes place immediately after the core game ends).

 

Edit: I'm a sucker for nice music. Someone edited a number of in game cut scenes together, recreating the mood of the game with it's main theme as background track

 

[Wormerine]

Finally sinking my teeth deep into Arcane's Prey. Superb Systemshock-like in many ways, but it feels like it should spend some more time in the oven. It feels unnecessarily rough around the edges, and unevenly developed in some departments (like enemies - mimics are superb, everything else I have seen so far is rather bland and dull). Level design so far is top notch. 

I also installed Horizon: Zero Dawn. I find it difficult to get into it. Combat feels weak, quests require frustrating amount of legwork, the world looks beautiful but it just doesn't feel great to me - packs of same robo-dinos around every corner. I really, really hate "RPG" elements - there is even no "sell all junk" button, when shopping. I hate how tedious it is to refill med bar. 

On a side note - how long should gamepad last? I bought my first controller (PS4 gamepad) 2+ years ago. I had drifting issues for a while now (stick giving imput when idle or not registering imput) which I was correcting using deadzone, but yesterday the left/right/up arrows just randomly stopped working. I suppose I was contemplating to upgrade to Dualsense, but I am frustrated by how quickly issues appeared. I did use the game pad for a decent amount of time, but I am kinda turned off by how quickly £50 tech started to malfunction. 

[ComradeYellow]

4 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Finally sinking my teeth deep into Arcane's Prey. Superb Systemshock-like in many ways, but it feels like it should spend some more time in the oven. It feels unnecessarily rough around the edges, and unevenly developed in some departments (like enemies - mimics are superb, everything else I have seen so far is rather bland and dull). Level design so far is top notch. 

I agree with the enemies all looking kind of samey but rough around the edges??  I never got that impression, except, maybe, the skills trees being a bit unbalanced.

[Oner]

11 hours ago, Gorth said:

Edit: I'm a sucker for nice music. Someone edited a number of in game cut scenes together, recreating the mood of the game with it's main theme as background track

 

Too bad that's not the actual mood of the game.  It's way too theme park-y compared to the trailers.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, ComradeYellow said:

I agree with the enemies all looking kind of samey but rough around the edges??

I meant it mostly graphics wise. I don’t know if it game itself, or issues arising with porting from PS to PC. Assets look fabulous, but there is more jank then I expected. Menus look and control dated. Cutscenes are weirdly poor considering how well game looks otherwise... facial animations are inexistent, and there seem to be a weird physics reset with every camera change. There is also something weird happening when characters blink. Again, I don’t know if it’s game itself, or me running it 100+ FPS. 

Overall, most of that stuff happens in cutscenes, so the game seems to be more AAA, since I finished introduction and started game proper. Also, I thought starting as young Alloy made a bad first impression - her move set isn’t nearly as fluid as adult alloy, and reminded me more of something like Plague Tale, then what I expected from shiny Sony exclusive.

Not surprisingly, I enjoyed the game much more for the brief time that I used controller... but then combat is sucky, though maybe it won’t be as bad if I get new pad that doesn’t drift when I try aiming. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Wormerine

[Gromnir]

kinda an amusing german guy, but we noticed the video 'cause it showed a base defense and the second mission were a relative open map with the narrator running a trebuchet with an lrm 15 as his primary weapon system. 

admitted you don't get to see pilot ai not causing collateral base damage 'cause german guy kept getting lured away from the defense area. however, is a few instances where you may see ai pilots purposeful avoiding structures. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Sarex]

Finished Subnautica BZ. This is pretty much more of the original, although I feel they simplified it by a fair margin. All in all, still a good game.

Also Titan>Seatruck.

[Tale]

I've played DOOM 2016 three times. I hated it the first two. Lots of tedious item hunting and awkward jumping between merely okay combat. But now I see why people liked it so much.

Why is the third time different, you may ask? I'm playing on PC this time. And I max out the skills that tells you were all the items are, so I don't have to waste much time on it. If it weren't a DOOM game I never would have given it so many tries.

[BruceVC]

On 6/3/2021 at 2:03 AM, Gorth said:

Heh, I could probably ramble on for a long time time and completely missing the point, because the things I like may not be what other people want to focus on in a game.

There are a number of youtube videos with a combined few hours of arguments why you should play Guild Wars 2 in 2021 and they focus on slightly different things.

The core game has a nice story (imho), combat is very dynamic and fluent. No romance arcs. I know this would be worth mentioning

It does have plenty of romance, love, despair, politics, betrayal, racism, misogyny, hatred, wisdom, lgbt friendliness and bigotry. All depending on which faction, race and political class you're dealing with.

Graphics are very nice. Not at least considering the game was launched in 2012.

Something that mattered to me, *especially* after having played swtor for a number of years, is a very friendly and helpful community. Only exception I've been told, is the pvp community, but that seems to be a universal law that this particular subculture is toxic as part of its nature

But elsewhere in the game, don't be surprised to see people go out of their way to resurrect you or pitch in if you're in the middle of a fight in the open world. Unlike swtor, the loot in GW2 is shared. It means everyone who participates get a copy of the loot. No rolling off against each other or the first one to tag an enemy gets it all. You participate where you can and welcome help when other people participates.

Personally, I hate pvp, not at least because of the nature of pvp communities, but I do love what is called wvw (world versus world), which is large scale, open world pvp where you fight in a separate set of open world maps in a three way free for all, server vs server (the servers being the "worlds"). Large scale as in sometimes featuring hundreds of players, sieges (complete with siege engines and boiling oil to pour on your enemies at the gate).

Another important thing for me is the story. The core story (the free to play part of the game) is great. I love it. Self contained and you get a closure and a ceremony with a slide show.

But, Anet keeps adding to the story. Something called "Living World" which is a constant addition to the story. Every two-three months, you get a sizeable chunk of new story, missions, achievements, new maps to explore etc.

The two expansions are for me a must. First one adds a new base class (taking the original 8 to 9) and 9 "elite classes" and something called "gliding skill". Oh, and a lot of story. *LOT* of story... as well as new events, bosses, missions etc. Second expansion adds similar 9 new elite classes and more epic story than you can shake a stick at.

Elite classes are variations of the base classes. E.g. a thief can become either a daredevil (my main character) which fights with a Bo staff as a main weapon. Think Shao Lin style monks with staves. Alternatively, the thief can become a sniper with a long rage rifle and lots of stealth to shoot at enemies from very far away and the stealth to get in and out of combat when so desired. Similar for the other classes who now has two specializations each.

A note about the living world seasons, at this very moment, Anet is running a campaign in preparation for the announced third major expansion (which is all East Asian themed) giving away the living world season episodes for free. Two episodes every week. The current season is available to free to play players too (players who haven't bought the expansions). They are normally available for free to players who have logged in at least once during the release of an episode. I.e. the 2-3 months windows where it is the "current" episode. People who don't log in or are late comers normally have to buy them for cool, hard cash.

So if in doubt, I would recommend to asap create and account, install the game and just log in. Even if you don't do anything else in the game, just log in once a week for a while to get this first season for free. Then you can always regret wasting those 30 seconds of your life late if you decide this isn't really for you. Alternatively (preferably) you like the game and stick around long enough to play those episodes (which takes place immediately after the core game ends).

 

Edit: I'm a sucker for nice music. Someone edited a number of in game cut scenes together, recreating the mood of the game with it's main theme as background track

 

Great post and lots of pertinent information for those looking for a review of GW2 from an active player, nice one 

I will give it a try, I will let  you know when I do 

[Wormerine]

20 hours ago, Tale said:

I've played DOOM 2016 three times. I hated it the first two

I did finish my first (and most likely last) playthrough just recently. I didn't much care for the game. I really dislike upgrade system. I don't care for soundtrack. I did play on PC, but it felt very slow and repetitive. I think it didn't help that I played it right after Titanfall2, which has a superb movement system. Doomguy, by comparison, felt like a fridge.

I am not sure if I will touch the Eternal, though from what I heard I might like it more. Cranking the difficulty up might be what the game need. While Doom2016 has plenty of weapons, I felt I was switching them more out of boredom, then necessity. 

[Malcador]

Control is pretty fun, Launch is a bit OP hah.

[ComradeYellow]

22 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Control is pretty fun, Launch is a bit OP hah.

I avoid Launch like the plague because it does make the game a little 'Meh', my last build was centered on Pierce, Grip, Shield, and Levitate (armored floating sniper lolol) and that was pretty fun. 

Game is like Witcher 3 where the base game is pretty simple but once you hit the expansions the difficulty jumps quite a bit, which could be regarded as a plus I suppose.

[Malcador]

Ah all I have is Launch and Shield, mostly using Grip to just gun everyone down.  Setting for the game's interesting, the grindy aspects with the loot does make me roll my eyes a bit but I guess it's not a deal breaker or anything. 

[the_dog_days]

I've been playing a ton of Low Magic Age. I finished the main quest (tutorial) a long time ago and I'm mostly taking my team from dungeon to dungeon adventuring. In more than 30 hours I only had one death. It helps that they're so high level now. I can't wait for the full release of this game though that's probably years away as there's only one guy working on it.

[BruceVC]

Im 40 hours into ELEX and absolutely loving it, it has a better "sandbox" enemy level and exploration design than Morrowind. 

What I mean by that is in ELEX their are several deadly enemies who randomly exist on the map and you cannot possibly defeat them at my level 10. So you use subterfuge and exploit the brilliant AI to get the monster, in one example I was facing a slugbeast at level 7,  to follow you and I led the foul beast to the Berserker camp where their elite fighters were able to defeat it...on the way to the camp  the  slugbeasts aggro made several low level cultivators and guards foolishly  throw their lives away by attacking it, it was hilarious seeing them get slaughtered in some pointless attack 

Anyway I now have a follower and an energy sword so I use my follower to attract enemies and I attack from the side or back...its effective and works in much combat with higher level enemies

In Morrowind I got to the level where nothing could defeat me, it was fun but the ELEX design is better because you can easily be defeated by enemies and very difficult enemies you encounter as you explore the map and solve a myriad of quests for different factions and around the main quest