What are you Playing Now? Who needs a life anyway?...

[Sven_]

Yeah I'm not far in, but some camera and AI issues aside, this is pretty much my kinda game. Speaking Desperados 3, the art style in some ways reminds me of that too (coupled with Telltale's Walking Dead). It's pretty pleasant to look at.



Just like in Prey, I went a bit experimental though, and may (or may not) have already spoiled myself a plot twist by killing a (major) at least early game NPC (and from the reaction to that). This was by accident, as I only wanted to test how the game kept track of killing NPCs, but happened upon this specific NPC.  

Still pretty cool that the game allowed me to do that, rather than scripting it so that you couldn't touch this NPC until it served its function in the plot. In Prey I had used the gloo gun to build a gigantic staircase to a place where I wasn't necessarily supposed to go that early, which kind of gave away what the entire situation was all about. 

But it's all still pretty early. Naturally, what I like the most is that the game world isn't but a set piece for plot, but fairly interactive. There's even neat touches recognized, such when you put a bucket outside when it's raining, it's slowly filling up with whater (which gives HP when drinking it). I also had to chuckle upon noticing that when you kill somebody, vultures will show up to nibble on the body.

They've already announced that they plan to release free stuff in the coming weeks (and also fully on expansions of kinds, naturally to be paid for).  

 

[Bartimaeus]

22 hours ago, Lexx said:

Yeah, I already had such issues with Bloodborne. Played it to around 3/4 and then had to take a break of a few months. Then later came back to do the rest. Seems Elden Ring will be a similar experience for me.

Also the endgame balance now is starting to become really wack. Especially many of the new bosses will kill me with 2 hits. Without the ashes as temporary bait, I probably would have serious issues.

I've heard some not so great things about bosses being pretty wack...between ridiculous attack wind-ups and combos that are even worse than DS3's, and some boss encounter design borderline requiring you to get help. Which I hate, because boss AI is very clearly never equipped to deal with changing aggro mid-fight. Only game I used summons was DS2, and only because I was hate-playing that cruddy game.

Also, a friend sent me this a few days ago.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Bartimaeus
hotlinking text because the embed was broken

[Lexx]

That video is very spot-on.

[Katphood]

Yeah, but there is exploration! Those mini-bosses serve as a nice distraction since the two ones I've encountered so far have been pretty easy to deal with.

[Wormerine]

Did what seems like "tutorial" section of Weird West. First impressions a very promising indeed.

[Totally not Gorgon]

Got 3/4 of the way through Elden Ring and ran out of steam. It looks really great, the atmosphere is really good, but compared to Darksouls the fighting mechanics are weak. You spam a "win button" spell or weapon art to beat the majority of the bosses, the most successful builds have no variety at all. Too many of the bosses are so large you can't tell what's going on or what you should be doing.  So far I had tried to keep things interesting by learning to parry everything I could, and by sapping between 4 - 5 weapons and shields on the go for different effects. But, eventually the options narrow towards just spamming your best weapon art, or dying constantly. 

 

 

 

[Sven_]

3 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Did what seems like "tutorial" section of Weird West. First impressions a very promising indeed.

As for the camera, I've immediately turned it off that the camera automatically zooms out (and thus changes) cam view when you pull a weapon.

I've also only just now noticed that "weapon pulling" can be either a TOGGLE or a HOLD function. Default it is a toggle, that is on PC you right-click to draw a weapon, you right click to put it away (two clicks required).

I've now changed this to the HOLD function. This is just one click: You right click and your character draws the weapon, you release the button and he/she/it(in case of pigman ) puts it away. This feels a lot more fluid to me not merely because of the lesser clicks, but also because when a weapon is DRAWN, you cannot rotate the camera anymore (which is oft useful, as during the dynamic and very fast paced combat, enemies may go "out of sight"). The mouse exclusively controls aiming when a weapn is drawn. So this is also a more fluid way to switch in between those to me. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Sven_

[Keyrock]

Bagged my first bounty, the varmint had his posse holed up in a gold mine. Yeb done blessed me with foresight cause I happened to have my trusty pickaxe along. No sense in letting those gold nuggets go to waste. I dragged that feller kickin' and screamin' all the way back to Grackle, nice comfy jail cell waitin' for im. I tell ya, that boy had fire in his eyes when Flora slammed the cell door shut. Like 2 burning coals those eyes were, yessir. It might have been better to kill the varmint, far as my own neck is concerned. But I ain't about to let this demon infested land turn me into a monster, no sir. If that varmint ever gets out of those cold iron bars and comes fixin to put some lead in my body, well I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

[HoonDing]

Woke West

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Hades. Finally escaped using the spear only to go back to hell. Oh well, it's fun when I'm in the mood for hack and slash. Currently gaming to get the fated prophecies done, once that's over with I can just take the stuff that works best for me.

 

[rjshae]

I'm giving Wasteland 3 a go now to see if I enjoy it, having waited for patching to reach a fairly stable state.

[Wormerine]

14 minutes ago, rjshae said:

I'm giving Wasteland 3 a go now to see if I enjoy it, having waited for patching to reach a fairly stable state.

I will be curious to hear what you think. I am dipping into it for a while now, and can't get into it. 

[Sven_]

Re: Weird West. I'm done with the bounty hunter. After you're done, the game gives you a review of how you handled the major story beats -- and what gets carried over for the rest of the game. Really interesting.

Pighead next (and this starts really WEIRD).  

Really quite like this game. 

[Lexx]

I want to like the game, because I like wild and wired west scenarios, but whenever I watch videos of it, the 1 character and control scheme turn me off so hard. Don't really want to spend 40 bucks on such a gamble.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Lexx

[uuuhhii]

didn't get used to weird west combat system

but the style are amazing

[Wormerine]

Combat is essencially twin stick shooter - from what I played it's been pretty alright. Playing with controller. 

On a sidenote:

 

[Vaeliorin]

11 hours ago, Lexx said:

I want to like the game, because I like wild and wired west scenarios, but whenever I watch videos of it, the 1 character and control scheme turn me off so hard. Don't really want to spend 40 bucks on such a gamble.

This is me as well.  I hate twin stick shooters (and generally "immersive sims"), so I'll likely never play this game, but I'd kill for a good weird west RPG.

[Keyrock]

The trail led me to a tobacco tycoon. Big money like this usually comes with dirty hands, but he had information I was needin'. The fat cat tried to strike a deal with me. He was wantin' what someone else was havin' and that someone else didn't much want to give it to im. Didn't need to be no fancy head doctor to see I was dealin' with a feller slimier than a yellow-bellied toad. Told im I'd think over his proposition but I wasn't keen on shaking hands with the devil, and that's even if he intended to ever honor his end of the bargain. I chose to find a, shall we say, alternative way to get the information that I needed. Now, I don't take pride in pilfering through another man's property, but given the nature of the feller in question and the things that I found, I don't feel the least bit bad violating his privacy. I got what I needed and I got scarce.

[Sven_]

4 hours ago, Keyrock said:

The trail led me to a tobacco tycoon. Big money like this usually comes with dirty hands, but he had information I was needin'. The fat cat tried to strike a deal with me. He was wantin' what someone else was havin' and that someone else didn't much want to give it to im. Didn't need to be no fancy head doctor to see I was dealin' with a feller slimier than a yellow-bellied toad. Told im I'd think over his proposition but I wasn't keen on shaking hands with the devil, and that's even if he intended to ever honor his end of the bargain. I chose to find a, shall we say, alternative way to get the information that I needed. Now, I don't take pride in pilfering through another man's property, but given the nature of the feller in question and the things that I found, I don't feel the least bit bad violating his privacy. I got what I needed and I got scarce.

Personally I actually agreed to the deal -- the job that followed I finished in true Thief style, I think the first time in the game I ever went someplace without getting spotted neither going in nor out.   But also later found that in true genre style, it wasn't a necessity, and that there were alternatives, such as the one you mentioned.

I staid up all night, pretty much because of the game. Hasn't happened in a while. While they should fine-tune AI as well as camera post-release, there also seems one glaring balancing oversight (which I've first seen brought up by somebody else).

Dishonored had its mana pool you needed to activate abilities. Here it's simple action points. In both cases, to a degree, they auto-regenerate (which also meant in Dishonored, that you could "blink" as often as you wanted.) The maximum action points pool is 20. The auto-regeneration fills it up to 5 again, over the course of about 15 seconds. To regain full action points, you need a potion (or sleep).

For most abilities, this is naturally a bit of the burden it should be. 15 seconds would be a lot if you're say engaged directly in combat and thus had to wait until the points have recovered. HOwever, not so for instance the rifle's "sentry silencer" ability. Activating it costs 5 AP. Your next shot will not merely be silenced, but cause significantly bonus damage to an enemy. Rifles have decent range. Basically, it's a bit of a sniper thing.

Coupled with hiding someplace or camping on a roof, this means time is never much of a factor. You can just camp in your hiding spot and wait for the action point pool to rise up to 5 AP again, and spam this quite powerul ability. Taking out entire enemy camps easily one by one.

In their official feature request boards, I've already raised this. If you agree please upvote. On/off option for auto-regenerating action points - Weird West (featureupvote.com)

Edited April 2, 2022 by Sven_

[Keyrock]

13 minutes ago, Sven_ said:

I staid up all night, pretty much because of the game. Hasn't happened in a while. While they should fine-tune AI as well as camera post-release, there also seems one glaring balancing oversight (which I've first seen brought up by somebody else).

The camera is my biggest complaint. You can change the angle from directly overhead to 45⁰ and anything in between and rotate freely, plus there are 3 zoom levels. It works perfectly fine in open outdoor areas, but when you get into tighter areas, buildings, and so on, walls, ceilings, and foliage don't turn transparent soon enough, often times leaving your vision completely obstructed for a few seconds. I can work around it, but it is annoying and some tweaks could go a long way to making it less frustrating.

[Sven_]

I'm itching to finally continue as Pigman now anyway though. I think I may stop using the rifle for the moment. There aren't many abilities that are exclusive to the characters sadly, but the 4 freshly introduced for Pigman encourage a more offensive style of play than what I did before anyways.  

Whilst this game may not be perfect in any way, I have a feeling it may become as underappreciated as Prey was before (or Creative Assembly's Alien Isolation). Outside a very few exceptions, appreciating the actual key strenghts and core ideas of these kind of games sadly seem to be an aquired taste. 

I think they may have further limited their audience by switching to the more isometric gameplay -- something I was sceptical of at first myself upon the announcement. It's probably certainly not was most (including me) would have expected when the director of games such as Arx Fatalis, Dishonored or Prey announced a new game.  Personally I like this change in pace meanwhile, as it brings the overall feel closer towards several classic CRPG experiences of the 90s, a lot of which overhead/isometric view (the Fallout-y style travel map does the rest).

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sven_

[Keyrock]

Tracked one of dem crazy baldies, Oneists they call themselves. Fancy it as some sort of religion, they do. I reckon they're more loopy than a coyote that got in on the wrong kind of cactus. Messin' with spirits and dark magics, it ain't natural. This particular nut job done burnt somebody's house down, hope they weren't still inside.

I had every intention to haul her in cuffed and breathin. I was slowly whittling down her sisters, giving them a cozy nap, nice like. It was slow going since she always traveled with a large group, making singling anyone out a chore. Then they all wandered into a church... Well, it was once a church before those crazies defiled it with their black magic. There I was, waiting outside, hidden like, looking for an opportunity when they were to walk out. They never walked out, though. Suddenly a fracas broke out inside. I heard yelling, screaming, gun shots, and all manner of noises too foul to describe. Once the air felt silent I went inside to investigate. Nothin' but dead mangled bodies and blood everywhere. Guess that's what they get for messing with forces beyond their understanding.

Well, the bounty did say dead or alive. I wasn't intending on dead, but I ain't gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

Weird West can be wonderfully messy. Unexpected stuff can just happen completely changing the situation, possibly ruining a well thought out plan or presenting a serendipitous opening. There are a lot of variables and sometimes they go off script, with or without your intervention.

[Bokishi]

Finished Elden Ring I'm now a LVL 250 Tarnished

Now replaying an old favorite, F.E.A.R. 1. Currently getting 1500-2000 FPS. It's crazy how the game effects and physics break when your framerate is too high. Smoke and fire won't animate and you float forward like a ghost

[milczyciel]

"Siege of Avalon" - old and rather janky rpg that was not good enough to catch my attention back in the day. Given that I don't chase new releases anymore, I've found myself dusting off some of those forgotten curiosities and giving them a second chance. Trimming down my hoard of shame a little in the process.

It's hard to love, but I'm already pass 3/4 of the game, so even though I have to force myself a little from time to time (no waypoints, no portals, lots of backtracking, terrible UI) I'm pretty sure I'll finish it by the end of the week. Overall - I'm glad I didn't buy it back then (with a competition it had back then, it would be an inevitable disappointment) , but I'm also glad that I gave it a chance now. There is some "indie", janky, amateurish charm to it and I can't help but appreciate it for what it is and what it does.

Might give "Weird West" a chance next.

[Sven_]

Entered a nearby settlement as Pigman™ only to be greeted by the local sheriff to f**k off you pigface, or else...

Waited till night, sneaked into town, got to my objective, broke into her house by smashing through the window, knocked her over, skinned her alive and ate her.

Aside of Bloodlines' Nosferatu clan, there's nothing quite like playing Pigman™.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sven_