What are you Playing Now? I name all the operations that go down in Taipei.

[Mamoulian War]

On 7/25/2022 at 9:56 AM, BruceVC said:

Absolutely  

https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/xan-bg2-mod-released.23839/

 

And what about BG1 Quayle? Few of my friends are asking too

[majestic]

Played and finished The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown.

The remastered version, I mean. Even with the revamped character progression and the added option the game runs a little too long and overstays its welcome at the end. It became much more enjoyable after I stopped bravely facing every enemy I ran across and just ran from fights tha would be too long drawn out or flat out annoying, like having multiple groups of spellcasters at high ranges. Why bother, just run, the next fight is just around the corner anyway.

All in all, for an almost fourty years old game, that was pretty good. Well, with the added quality of life from the remastered version. I'd be much less positive if I had to draw my own maps. While modern gaming sure feels like it has lost a certain charm (and perhaps it just doesn't feel like it), some things are best left in the past - although I'm willing to admit that might be just a matter of having much less spare time. Drawing dungeon maps was a nice part of the immersion back when Eye of the Beholder was new, but after a hard day's work, I'm not really in the mood to fight monsters and the game.  

Not sure if I want to immediately continue on to BT2.

Edited July 27, 2022 by majestic

[BruceVC]

11 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

And what about BG1 Quayle? Few of my friends are asking too

I havent found one for Quayle, in fact I havent even met him yet in my game 

[Malcador]

Finished ME2, didn't get as many deaths as I'd liked - only six KIA in the suicide mission, bah.  Tempted to try for better, think my record is 7 and that was with no DLC characters.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Finished ME2, didn't get as many deaths as I'd liked - only six KIA in the suicide mission, bah.  Tempted to try for better, think my record is 7 and that was with no DLC characters.

https://screenrant.com/mass-effect-3-everyone-dies-kill-squadmates-renegade/

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Finished ME2, didn't get as many deaths as I'd liked - only six KIA in the suicide mission, bah.  Tempted to try for better, think my record is 7 and that was with no DLC characters.

Please tell me Miranda survived, we both know how ....important she is 

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Please tell me Miranda survived, we both know how ....important she is 

Less ass in the LE, so no.

The DLCs were not bad. Kasumi's quest was great for the stupid voice acting they gave Hock, Bioware couldn't find a South African to do a proper Afrikaans accent ?

Edited July 28, 2022 by Malcador

[Hawke64]

Haven. I heard that there was a major update, so I reinstalled the game. Unfortunately, the update's content is not accessible on the saves from the previous versions, so I just spent 3 hours hunting an optional boss. By "hunting" I mean leaving the game running and switching to other windows, while waiting for the boss to spawn. Apparently, it could appear only on the islands without camps, because when I started to run in circles around the base island, the signs of it (roaring, screen-tearing effects) were present there. When I sat next to a campsite, there was nothing. I defeated Beruberu on the first attempt, though it took all my healing supplies and some of the buffs.
Also the game is slightly more fun to play without dialogues (or any story content). The music is nice, the graphical style is nice, the gameplay is more or less fine, though it can be frustrating at times (when you try to find a specific path/"flow thread"). Allowing to rebind the controls for the right hand and craft several items per session are the most significant improvements.

On another note, it is incredibly annoying that the "release first, patch later" philosophy is so prevalent even among independent developers. Like, can you just complete the game before launching it? On the other hand, at least they support it for free, unlike the triple-A publishers with their MTX DLC. Though, for both cases waiting for 1-2 years and purchasing with 50+% discount is the best approach.

Edit. Nioh 2. Playing through the side content of the second DLC. Met a ninja cameo character, who proceeded to murder the PC repeatedly. Then fought another boss, who strongly reminded of Vergil from Devil May Cry, with much more success.
I would like to add that Nioh 2 - Complete Edition seems to be actually complete and has not tried to force-update itself during my 3-month-long playthrough.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Hawke64

[Wormerine]

Hard West2 demo - I am impressed. Much, much higher production value. Opening is quite a set piece. Combat seems rather similar to what I remember of HW1, but it’s fast paced now, heavily rewarding aggressive play and chaining moves through “Bravado” system (restoring all action points upon killing an enemy). Some pleasantly surprising storybook moments and world map.

[bugarup]

Decided I'm finally ready for Disco Elysium's Jamais Vu playthrough, going with opposite build (high yellow and red, low blue, miserable purple), so far its less fun because most contributions come from level-headed skills like Perception and Interfacing so I really miss my previous buddies Inland Empire and Esprit de Corps. And Electrochemistry is suspiciously silent too. Guess I'll run a parallel High Purple build too.  

[BruceVC]

20 hours ago, Malcador said:

Less ass in the LE, so no.

The DLCs were not bad. Kasumi's quest was great for the stupid voice acting they gave Hock, Bioware couldn't find a South African to do a proper Afrikaans accent ?

I didnt even know there was an Afrikaans character in the DLC, I checked this video  to see if his accent was accurate

 

And its not at all, its very fake but I dont  blame Bioware because the majority of gamers wont know the difference between a real Afrikaans accent and fake one so at least they tried 

What would be more  of  a valid criticism is the SJW outrage around stereotypes because he is  " another  " Afrikaans  arms dealer and smuggler and this is more  about  anachronistic Apartheid era sanction busting which is a generalization and complicated

But as most of you guys know  I dont support or believe in SJW or the radical left outrage so its fine. 

But there are definitely some white Afrikaans people who would be offended by the accent and the outdated stereotype but it is funny 

[the_dog_days]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

And its not at all, its very fake

Virtually all accents in Bioware games are fake. Their basic Canadian, basic American, and occasional real British are realish. Even most of their French are French Canadian doing 'French accents'. Hell, even their different American dialects (Boston, Midwest, Southern, Cajun, Jersey etc.) are fake.

[bugarup]

I loved their British accents in SWTOR, and at least a couple of them are authentic too because their VAs are British. 

I'm also curious now what authentic Afrikaans accent sounds like. Brief Youtube search on the subject gave me nothing decent but this: 

 

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, bugarup said:

I loved their British accents in SWTOR, and at least a couple of them are authentic too because their VAs are British. 

I'm also curious now what authentic Afrikaans accent sounds like. Brief Youtube search on the subject gave me nothing decent but this: 

 

Very funny clip 

Trevor Noah is South African and he makes me laugh. But white people in SA are different ethic groups like everywhere else in the world. Thats why I often say there is no such thing as " white people " , its just a collective term. Its like Slavs are a collective term because there are different Slavic ethic groups. Its just easier to say " white people " likes it easier to " black people " but there different tribes and black ethnic groups in Africa 

Anyway white Afrikaans people are descendants from the Dutch so most of them have slight way of mispronouncing words and a rough way of speaking English, not all of them but most of them. Here is an example of slight Afrikaans accent 

 

ere 

[Malcador]

Well, did better with deaths. I think I can get 2 survivors, so will try it again.  Only problem will be importing this as this save didn't do Arrival and LoSB yet - but luckily can edit the save. 

[bugarup]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Very funny clip 

Trevor Noah is South African and he makes me laugh. But white people in SA are different ethic groups like everywhere else in the world. Thats why I often say there is no such thing as " white people " , its just a collective term. Its like Slavs are a collective term because there are different Slavic ethic groups. Its just easier to say " white people " likes it easier to " black people " but there different tribes and black ethnic groups in Africa 

Anyway white Afrikaans people are descendants from the Dutch so most of them have slight way of mispronouncing words and a rough way of speaking English, not all of them but most of them. Here is an example of slight Afrikaans accent

Thanks, this apparently gave my memory a jolt because I remembered seeing "District 9" and now I know how Afrikaans accent sounds.

[Hurlshort]

8 hours ago, bugarup said:

Thanks, this apparently gave my memory a jolt because I remembered seeing "District 9" and now I know how Afrikaans accent sounds.

District 9 is actually a solid documentary about life in South Africa, from what I've heard.

[Humanoid]

I think of The Gods Must Be Crazy.

[Hurlshort]

Xenonauts 2 - The original Xenonauts was a fantastic game. Xenonauts 2 improves on it in almost every way. The maps are amazing, the story is more developed, and it looks great. Unfortunately it is taking forever to release, and the beta I'm playing is still pretty buggy, but someday this will be my jam. Still, I enjoyed playing a few missions recently. One went terribly sideways in the dark and I lost all but 3 of my soldiers before trying to breach a UFO. Then my soldiers ended up relying on handguns in the tight quarters of the ship, and things went even worse. It was a glorious loss. I won another mission in a jungle by just blowing up a lot of bushes and trees. Is there an alien in those bushes? The minigun will find out!

[BruceVC]

Further exciting updates from my " saga of the Sword Coast"
My party is mostly on level 4 and every combat is fun and high level enemies mean I need to be strategic in certain battles
For example I cleared Nashel Mines but the end boss battle with Mulahey was giving me problems because he was able to Hold Person my fighters and then kobolds and skeletons spawn and the small size of the room made AOE spells impact my own party so I adopted a "think out the box approach " (I do find it annoying when enemies appear out of nowhere but I understand the developers have to create a challenge for these types of battles )

I used invisibility on my Wizard and made him wait outside the room, when the kobolds started spawning I was able to effectively use Color Spray to neutralize most of them and not harm my party. My fighters were still held by Hold Person but my archers were able to kill Mulahey but it was very close with everyone having less than 6 HP before he was killed

And then Viconia has joined me, I was outraged that the Flaming Fist wanted to kill her. I am chivalrous person and always help a " damsel in distress ". I did lose 2 reputation points for this but sitting at the campfire and seeing that dusky and seductive beauty across from me mitigates that reputational damage 

Sadly I had to remove the sanctimonious Jaheira without losing the combat skills of Khalid which meant she had to die. But I couldnt kill her the way others suggested by using Khalid, thats fundamentally a contravention of my glowie code and Im all about the feeeelz. So I sent her fully equipped alone to fight packs of wolves and wild dogs and she didnt fight back. Jaheira loves nature so being devoured by animals just seemed fitting and humane 

And in the afterlife I believe Jaheria will approve because Viconia is a redemption story and its about Romance which she wanted for me anyway so I dont feel guilty at all

I am now looking for the bandit camps and exploring the Wood of Sharp Teeth

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hurlsnot said:

Xenonauts 2

Ok. So what’s up with this game? How does one buy into it? Is it for backers only? I feel I have been waiting for forever for some kind of Early Access to be released. I remember people gushing over Xen2 during Phoenix Point early builds, and now it’s 2 years after PP completion.

[kanisatha]

2 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I had to remove the sanctimonious Jaheira without losing the combat skills of Khalid which meant she had to die.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Jaheira is the BEST! She's the only BG1 companion (besides lil' sis) who I have always had in my party every time I've ever played either game (which is quite a few times).

[Humanoid]

She was our only bulwark against the idiocy of the 2E druid XP table.

[majestic]

Jaheira's viability in BG1 is hampered by the available items, but she's a powerhouse in BG2. Well, any Fighter/Druid is, but she's the only NPC one. That said, there's no real decent early alternative for her, and she's good enough as a healer and can pack a punch. Everything else is kind of secondary.

Viconia, meanwhile, is as useless as any other single class cleric (well, any single class divine caster, including the stupid EE shaman). The only thing she has going for her is that she's not a single class thief, but that's a bit of a stretch, particularily in the EE where thieves can set traps even early on in BG1 and actually make a bunch of otherwise difficult encounters easier and multiclasses might not have enough points yet.

Edited July 30, 2022 by majestic

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! Jaheira is the BEST! She's the only BG1 companion (besides lil' sis) who I have always had in my party every time I've ever played either game (which is quite a few times).

But I cant handle her constant moralizing and Viconia adds some interesting dialogue that I prefer outside the Romance arc in BG2