What are you Playing Now: Living the Game Life

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, melkathi said:

Back to your favorite stories:

Skyrim Tales of Parenting with Melkathi

We played hide and seek with Lucia before I headed off to Whiterun and what would turn out to be the siege of Whiterun.

When I returned to Solitude, Lucia was gone. Of course my housecarl Jordis had no idea where she was. Or any of the guards (read: I ran all across Solitude where her routine could take her). I talked to Noster Eagle-Eye, who I pay to keep his eye on the girls when they play outside. And I had a stern word with Sofia, after having tried to bribe her with honey nut treats.

Lucia had snuck past the guards at the gate, out of Solitude...

So I went searching for her (console player.moveto refID).

And found her well past Dragonbridge, on the road heading for Whiterun. Seems she got tired waiting for news from the battle and decided to check herself.

"But muuuum..."

"No. You are heading straight home and straight to bed."

There was an Ancient Dragon circling overhead, but even it understood enough to keep well away from angry mum, so it didn't attack.

Seriously. I may have to make a mod to ground her.

 

Please clarify something for me because I havent played Skyrim yet, how are you generating this real gaming events around children. Is this a Mod ?

[melkathi]

It's the Hearthfire DLC. Also the awful scripting of NPC routines in Bethesda games, that makes them get lost and walk out of towns and off into the sunset. 

[BruceVC]

During the 1980's because of Apartheid sanctions SA lacked  PC gaming investment and general access to any RPG  games and paraphernalia  but if you could go overseas on holiday you could obviously buy things like AD&D and tabletop games in London which we use to do and bring them back to SA. But we didnt ever buy anything PC related because we didnt  really have  actual computers in SA to run games 

 PC gaming investments in SA only stared slowly from  1990 and onwards so I only  had my own PC  in 1995 which was more for studies and work related than gaming. Which is why I missed the early days of the original RPG like M&M, Ultima, Wizardry etc.

Anyway I always use  to read about these games in the Dragon magazine and I loved the concept and  ideas of the Ultima world and in 2007 when I invested in my first real gaming rig I played Ultima 8 and Ultima Online for several years which was great but this MMO had passed its heyday which happens to many MMO

But I only ever played Ultima 8 and yesterday I bought on GOG Ultima 7-9 for under $5. I have decided to make an Ultima project and look at Mods to update these  games and give them a try in the future. I know they are old but I am sure I can get into the game from Ultima 7 onwards

Their is still an active and committed fanbase on various dedicated Ultima websites like this one which is always encouraging because you know people still write Mods and updates for the entire Ultima series 

 https://ultimacodex.com/

 

[Humanoid]

So I'm playing a game of Civ 6 with the Gathering Storm expansion for the first time (yes, it's been out for 2.5 years and I've owned it for most of that time, shh) and ugh, there's one major step back. Settler/Worker/Builder micromanagement has always been the worst part of every Civ game ever since I got the original bundled with my Sound Blaster 16 back in the day, and after Civ 6 initially made some big strides to address the tedium, the Gathering Storm brings it back with a vengeance.

It's just whack-a-mole like how pollution tiles used to be way back to the dawn of the series. Random bad tile spawns, and you're forced to build, move and order a unit to clean it up. Just now it happens all throughout the game instead of just late post-industrial era games where at least you'd have the infrastructure to address the issues quickly. Screw that, I'm getting the mod that allows you to set the Disaster Intensity setting to -1, because the devs in their infinite wisdom decided that a setting of zero means "few, mild disasters" instead of "off".

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

So I'm playing a game of Civ 6 with the Gathering Storm expansion for the first time (yes, it's been out for 2.5 years and I've owned it for most of that time, shh) and ugh, there's one major step back. Settler/Worker/Builder micromanagement has always been the worst part of every Civ game ever since I got the original bundled with my Sound Blaster 16 back in the day, and after Civ 6 initially made some big strides to address the tedium, the Gathering Storm brings it back with a vengeance.

Interesting, I thought Civ6 really streamlined those - especially builders are a selective decision, rather then something you have to control every single turn. I suppose putting builders on auto isn't a thing anymore, and maybe a problem is that I always refused to do so - I found automated builders to be suboptimal. City planning (what improvements to put where, where to put districts, what wonders to go for) is one of the things I enjoye about Civ6 the most - and that includes builders and smart use of their limited charges. I must say, I didn't find disaster system to be particulalry impactful. Games rarely go for long enough to make it shine, unless one increases disaster system to max. 

[Humanoid]

10 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Interesting, I thought Civ6 really streamlined those - especially builders are a selective decision, rather then something you have to control every single turn. I suppose putting builders on auto isn't a thing anymore, and maybe a problem is that I always refused to do so - I found automated builders to be suboptimal. City planning (what improvements to put where, where to put districts, what wonders to go for) is one of the things I enjoye about Civ6 the most - and that includes builders and smart use of their limited charges. I must say, I didn't find disaster system to be particulalry impactful. Games rarely go for long enough to make it shine, unless one increases disaster system to max. 

Yes, the charge system in base Civ 6 really did alleviate most of the tedium and I was quite pleased with that. It's just that Gathering Storm basically returns them to the status of the previous games where you always need them on hand to repair damage now, bearing in mind it costs no charges to repair. It really is back to the old worker system in that regard.

[Malcador]

Tried playing Earth 2140 again.  Lost interest, but I guess I am too spoiled by modern games.  Maybe will give 2150 a go.

Soundtrack is pretty nice though

 

[Keyrock]

I'm roughly 13 hours into Chernobylite and I'm very much loving the game so far. It's very psychological, it's as much about dealing with mental trauma and phantoms in your head as it is surviving the enemies or the elements. I've been stealthing the game as much as possible. Some combat is unavoidable, but the vast majority, so far at least, has been. I haven't even used my shotgun since I found it, though I did use the revolver I started with a couple times. i try to avoid using my weapons as much as possible, but it does make me feel more secure to have a loaded shotgun, to that end I've made some upgrades to it. I've probably got a good ways to go. I assume that at some point I will have to

face off against the Black Stalker. The few times he(?) has appeared beyond the initial scripted cutscene, I've mainly just ran away and tried to use cover to avoid getting shot, once I figured out that he(?) is on a timer and will go away eventually. I might have the firepower to take the Black Stalker down, but I suspect that right now it wouldn't kill him(?), just send him(?) away before the timer ran out; a waste of ammo and health items.

[Wormerine]

Finished Horizon: Zero Dawn. After really rocky start I somewhat warmed up to it. It is still Ubosoft time waster at its core, so I suppose it's my fault for expecting something more... interesting considering all the glowing reviews.

I still stand, that for how AAA the game seems it's incredibly janky. I don't know how much of it is game it self and how much is PC port and mouse&keyboard controls. Cutscenes are really basic for how well the models looks, and there is this awkard hair physics jiggle with every camera cut. Controls feel unresponsive - as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be action queing, so if Aloy is stick in animation and I will press sprint or aim button, it won't start doing that once she is available.

Still, while the story is predictable, once it starts rolling it is pretty well done, and characters well rounded. Lack of indepth quests design is prohibiting from being truly engaging, but it's still way better then AssCreeds. 

I think my biggest complaint is lack of game systems - combat is fine, but that's the only thing there to do. Stealth is really, really basic and with little reason to use it, "investigation" is barely a mechanic, and unlike Witcher3 it isn't used to tell interesting stories, climbing is rarely used and again, not really a mechanic, exploration as such doesn't exist either. I mean couple main missions are literally walking simulators - making your way through linear corridors and being told a story. I think there is a reason while Arkham games has been my favourite from the AAAs - and that's because they have enough stuff to fill their maps with. That's why I didn't like the Arkham Origins - I felt they didn't pace skillfully combat vs stealth vs puzzles. You put too many in the row, and players start noticing how uninteresting your game really is. 

DLC content is far better, with more elaborate mission design, and trying vary things up with other game systems - puzzle, navigation, platforiming is all expaded to an impressive degree considering how basic those systems are. Cutscenes and animations seemed to get an overhaul, making it look like proper AAA production and not overly ambitious AA EuroJank.

Overall - it's alright. It's pretty. It would be disposable if not for the superb art direction. 

[Wormerine]

With Horizon out of the way, I installed Psychonauts2. First impressions are superbly positive. Had a quite a few good chuckles within the first mission alone.

Almost finished with Dark Souls3. Mostly DLCs left to do. Had a space half an hour today break, so I gave Nameless King my second try. Beat him without much trouble. I heard him being mentioned as the best DS boss, so I was somewhat disappointed by how much of a pushover he was. Artorias is still my no. 1, though I wonder now if I will find him as interesting now after 3 DS games. 

[Keyrock]

To cleanse my palate of Chernobylite for a bit (I love the game, but it's very tense and I'm a wuss so I need to take breaks from it and play it in spurts) I decided to revisit Nier: Automata.

Right off the bat I will say that the game looks better than I remember. It's been a few years, did they do a big update or something? I mean, there are still some really gnarly low res textures mixed in with the nice looking textures, but I remember the game having this really drab washed out look and it looks a lot better and more vibrant now. I'm not using any texture injectors or anything.

Anyway, it had been long enough that I forgot how much I hate the prologue. I mean, it's a solidly designed prologue/tutorial, it shows off all the different camera shifts, both on foot and in shmup fights (I suck at the twin stick parts, always have, but I love the regular scrolling shmup parts), and there's a big flashy boss fight at the end. All that is well and good, the problem lies in the fact that it's nearly an hour long and there are zero save points in a game that doesn't autosave. I'm past that now and there are plenty of save points everywhere, but why would you do that to new players? Why would you make the very first thing you do in the game a nearly hour long slog with no place to save? It's such a bizarre design decision in an otherwise awesome game.

[Wormerine]

10 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

Right off the bat I will say that the game looks better than I remember. It's been a few years, did they do a big update or something?

I believe they were supposed to patch the steam version, after for some reason they released a better version on the Windows Store. 

[xzar_monty]

On 9/3/2021 at 11:14 AM, BruceVC said:

But I only ever played Ultima 8 and yesterday I bought on GOG Ultima 7-9 for under $5. I have decided to make an Ultima project and look at Mods to update these  games and give them a try in the future. I know they are old but I am sure I can get into the game from Ultima 7 onwards

Having played those games back in the 1980s (starting from Ultima IV), I know the general consensus (or at least *a* general consensus, i.e. among those I knew) was that the best games by far were IV, V and VI, and then it went downhill from there. However, all of those three titles are probably too crude to be enjoyed today, but they sure were groundbreaking at the time. With Ultima VII, but somehow the magic was just... gone. However, since you are only coming to those games now and don't have the experience of playing IV, V and VI, who knows how much magic there may be for you.

It was very interesting to read your story, by the way. Thanks!

[BruceVC]

14 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

Having played those games back in the 1980s (starting from Ultima IV), I know the general consensus (or at least *a* general consensus, i.e. among those I knew) was that the best games by far were IV, V and VI, and then it went downhill from there. However, all of those three titles are probably too crude to be enjoyed today, but they sure were groundbreaking at the time. With Ultima VII, but somehow the magic was just... gone. However, since you are only coming to those games now and don't have the experience of playing IV, V and VI, who knows how much magic there may be for you.

It was very interesting to read your story, by the way. Thanks!

I was reading that V-VI are the most popular, I not in rush and will see how I can Mod VII-IX but it might very well be a case of " these games are too outdated "

I started on AC Odyssey this weekend, its early days and only 5 hours into the game but so far its been great. Ubisoft always does such a good job of creating a realistic ancient world to play in that it always captivates me in the AC series

I love Greek mythology so it should  be  a fun journey  

 

 

 

[Katphood]

When you discover a game way too late: https://store.steampowered.com/app/360940/The_Mean_Greens__Plastic_Warfare/

 

I'd still buy it if you could play it with bots.

[Oner]

4 hours ago, Katphood said:

I'd still buy it if you could play it with bots.

Have you checked if there's a discord community?

[BruceVC]

On 9/5/2021 at 7:51 PM, xzar_monty said:

Having played those games back in the 1980s (starting from Ultima IV), I know the general consensus (or at least *a* general consensus, i.e. among those I knew) was that the best games by far were IV, V and VI, and then it went downhill from there. However, all of those three titles are probably too crude to be enjoyed today, but they sure were groundbreaking at the time. With Ultima VII, but somehow the magic was just... gone. However, since you are only coming to those games now and don't have the experience of playing IV, V and VI, who knows how much magic there may be for you.

It was very interesting to read your story, by the way. Thanks!

http://www.u5lazarus.com/

I decided to take your advice and look into the older Ultima games and I found this awesome U5 mod called Lazarus. Take a look at the new screenshots compared to the old game as you would remember the graphics 

So I have decided to start on U5 with this Mod  and go forwards from their 

 

[xzar_monty]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I decided to take your advice and look into the older Ultima games and I found this awesome U5 mod called Lazarus. Take a look at the new screenshots compared to the old game as you would remember the graphics

Yes, I've heard of this Lazarus. The screenshots look very nice -- and indeed, they are absolutely worlds away from the original 1980s graphics.

I really hope you like the game and get to experience some of its magic. Back in the day, it was groundbreaking: your moral choices really mattered, you had to find a way of surviving in a world that had fallen ill with an excess of (a particular kind of) order, which quite naturally deteriorated into tyranny. Sea travel, mountain travel and moongate travel were all extremely exciting, some monsters were really frightening and the dungeon puzzles were extremely cool. Heck, I can still remember certain passwords, mantras, and so on. The surprising things you could find on those tiny little islands, etc. Of course, the games of the time had no in-built journals, so we wrote our notes by hand in notebooks or pieces of paper and then spent a lot of time piecing those clues together.

You don't have to heed me in any way whatsoever, but I think the game is likely to be more fun if you don't read any walkthroughs or spoilers. Because of its era, it's not that complicated, and finding the answers without help is very satisfying.

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, xzar_monty said:

Yes, I've heard of this Lazarus. The screenshots look very nice -- and indeed, they are absolutely worlds away from the original 1980s graphics.

I really hope you like the game and get to experience some of its magic. Back in the day, it was groundbreaking: your moral choices really mattered, you had to find a way of surviving in a world that had fallen ill with an excess of (a particular kind of) order, which quite naturally deteriorated into tyranny. Sea travel, mountain travel and moongate travel were all extremely exciting, some monsters were really frightening and the dungeon puzzles were extremely cool. Heck, I can still remember certain passwords, mantras, and so on. The surprising things you could find on those tiny little islands, etc. Of course, the games of the time had no in-built journals, so we wrote our notes by hand in notebooks or pieces of paper and then spent a lot of time piecing those clues together.

You don't have to heed me in any way whatsoever, but I think the game is likely to be more fun if you don't read any walkthroughs or spoilers. Because of its era, it's not that complicated, and finding the answers without help is very satisfying.

That sounds very exciting, I like the idea of writing things down. Lets see how it goes 

[melkathi]

Trying Hard West. Having to enter the game options to enable the "experimental" feature to be able to save the game is among the most ridiculous things I have encountered in gaming.

[Keyrock]

2 hours ago, melkathi said:

Trying Hard West. Having to enter the game options to enable the "experimental" feature to be able to save the game is among the most ridiculous things I have encountered in gaming.

I played Hard West a few years ago. It's a decent enough game if you can get past the technical issues and quality of life, or lack there of, issues. I think this was the developers' first game. They followed this up with Phantom Doctrine, which was a much smoother experience. 

[Keyrock]

I'm barely off the transport in The Dome for 10 minutes, just doing the new employee initiation and getting my standard issue equipment, and this sleazebag starts hitting on me. I mean, I know I'm attractive, but some professionalism, please. Oh well, I'm a silver so heaven knows I understand how to file a sexual harassment report and how to get it through proper channels to the top.

First impressions with Encased are quite positive. This game feels like a lot of Fallout 1 & 2 with a pinch of Shadowrun and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. There's a ton of dialogue and narration, so if you are the type of gamer that skips dialogue to get to the action then this is not the game for you. I'm impressed that almost everything has been voice acted so far, I didn't expect that from a budget title. I also appreciate that people have very distinct personalities, even if that personality is sleazebag. I imagine that that guy wouldn't hit on me if I was a male character, but I wonder if my charisma is at play too. The test character I made has a fairly high charisma stat; were I to make a female with lower charisma, would he not hit on me? Is this game that smart? I may just put that theory to test.

Anyway, I'm going to **** around some more before making my real character, but I'm considering making a character that's dumb as a box of rocks yet has powerful psionic abilities. That sounds dangerous and hilarious!

Edited September 8, 2021 by Keyrock

[BruceVC]

Im 12 hours into AC Odyssey and I am definitely deep into that inexorable " Ubisoft Honeymoon period " ...the game is great and I am loving it 

I have just left the starting isle and I thoroughly appreciate how that whole part of the game is your learning curve. I am comfortable with combat and  loved the normal parts of the game like killing bandits, crafting and completing side quests 

Im sure the inevitable " Ubisoft fatigue " will settle in and I will move to complete the main quest but right now I am just enjoying exploring and completing side quests 

[Hurlshort]

I picked up Encased as well. It seems to have some pretty great options for characters. I spent about an hour creating mine before I had to go to bed.

[Wormerine]

Binged Psychonauts2 story. Just some collectibles remaining. It's the best sequel one could hope for, I think. There is of course part of me that screams that it's not as good as the original, and sure - sequels for story driven games aren't as straightforward to do as mechanical ones. Still, can't imagine it really being better then that.