What are you Playing Now? Whatever happens, at least we're out of that mudhole, Gilded Vale.

[Malcador]

11 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

I try to get my kids to play that game in real life. It is stuck on the hardest difficulty. 

Need to get the Belt DLC.

[BruceVC]

Im about 15 hours in BG2 EE and its going really well, firstly I have forgotten much of the main narrative which is important.  I do remember Irenicus is linked to the Elven Queen and he was cast out or something similar but most of it I have forgotten

I must say he really is a diabolical and deeply dysfunctional person, when I encountered those creatures trapped in those tubes and completely insane his dark nature really  became clear.

Viconia has just joined my party and so has Hexxat who had a very interesting quest for her to join me, I never thought I would allow a Vampire to join my righteous quest but she is a worthy combat addition so I will see how it goes

Im now in the city and trying to raise money to free Imoen and I want to get my magic license 

I also loaded the Skie Silvershield mod and I intend to save her from the Soultaker dagger, exciting times 

 

[Hawke64]

Attempted to play Steelrising. Got "Failed to create the DirectX12 rendering device. Error code 0x800004002".
Jokes on me, though. I normally don't buy games at launch, as they are buggy, overpriced, and incomplete. Spiders' previous games were DRM-/bug-/MTX- and DLC-free (almost*), which led me to believe that Steelrising would be similar.
I intend to wait for a patch or refund and wait for a 50+% discount.

*some pre-order fluff and minor, if any, bugs.

[uuuhhii]

was surprised by the size of steelrising

why are game so massive these days

does all developer forgot how to compress file

[Hawke64]

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

was surprised by the size of steelrising

why are game so massive these days

does all developer forgot how to compress file

From what I've heard, it's the high-resolution textures (there's a file in the game's folder called "datapchighres.spk" 42.6GB). Should have been a separate free DLC for those who want them.

[Keyrock]

The Steelrising file size is 26.8 GB on xXxBOxXx, for what it's worth. Runs buttery smooth on Favor Framerate mode. I haven't tried the other graphical modes, nor do I intend to. The only time I'll pick a prettier graphics mode over high framerate mode is in a turn-based game. I imagine the PC version has a whole suite of graphical options.

I went with the soldier class to start, which starts you off with a halberd. The heavy attack with the halberd has my robot waifu lunge forward after a bit of wind up, letting me hit enemies from rather far away. Apparently she stores the halberd inside her arm when not in use. Not sure how she fits a polearm in there, but I'm not going to argue with her.

The target lock-on works wonderfully when it's just 1 enemy, not a fan of it when facing a group.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Keyrock

[Bartimaeus]

How similar mechanically is it to Dark Souls? My quick glance at the game made me think it was something more like Nier: Automata, Devil May Cry, or even Bayonetta than Dark Souls, and if that's the case, I am super out, GOG release or not.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

was surprised by the size of steelrising

why are game so massive these days

 

[Keyrock]

15 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

How similar mechanically is it to Dark Souls? My quick glance at the game made me think it was something more like Nier: Automata, Devil May Cry, or even Bayonetta than Dark Souls, and if that's the case, I am super out, GOG release or not.

It's most definitely a soulslike.

Edit: From my limited gameplay so far I'd say Bloodborne is the closest comparison.

Edited September 9, 2022 by Keyrock

[Keyrock]

I beat the first boss in Steelrising, or mini-boss, I guess, the Unstable Lancer. It took me a few corpse runs to figure out the strategy, after that I whooped it's metallic ass.

There are 2 adds in the area, 1 you can avoid pulling and 1 you can't. As soon as you enter the area immediately go right into a ruined building, there is an automaton there. Kill it as quickly as possible. You may or may not get hit by the boss, but it's worth it to get rid of that add. Now you can probably avoid pulling the other automaton, it's on the far side of the area. Stick relatively close to the boss, not right up in its face, but fairly close. When it winds up to attack, dodge roll forward. You will most likely wind up behind it, giving you a nice open attack (or 2 if you are feeling frisky or using a fast weapon, with the halberd I recommend sticking to 1 heavy attack). Lather, rinse, repeat. Don't dodge side to side, you're much more likely to get hit that way, and don't get too far away, since the dodge roll won't put you behind it if you're too far away.

[LadyCrimson]

This isn't about a game but about Steam client.

The question ... is there some (non-verification-security) reason to keep Steam Guard on, in terms of accessing your games/features? I'd like to turn it off again but I can't remember why I activated it (after years of not) in the first place. One of those "it has to be active for 15 days before you can do ... stuff" things I suppose. But I don't care about trading or the community market, the only things I notice in their help pages, so I'm at a loss.

Example: would having it off disable the ability to Gift a game to another account (hubby) or anything like that?

[Hawke64]

11 hours ago, Keyrock said:

The Steelrising file size is 26.8 GB on xXxBOxXx, for what it's worth. Runs buttery smooth on Favor Framerate mode. I haven't tried the other graphical modes, nor do I intend to. The only time I'll pick a prettier graphics mode over high framerate mode is in a turn-based game. I imagine the PC version has a whole suite of graphical options.

I went with the soldier class to start, which starts you off with a halberd. The heavy attack with the halberd has my robot waifu lunge forward after a bit of wind up, letting me hit enemies from rather far away. Apparently she stores the halberd inside her arm when not in use. Not sure how she fits a polearm in there, but I'm not going to argue with her.

The target lock-on works wonderfully when it's just 1 enemy, not a fan of it when facing a group.

Tried launching the game on another PC, it did start and promptly attempted to overheat the CPU (at 94C I decided to use Alt+F4). The GPU was at 78C, so while uncomfortable, not critical. I also checked the keyboard and mouse options, 5-button mice are supported, the controls are fully rebindable.
I suppose, the XBox version is preferable in any perceivable aspect, i.e. much better optimised. And halberds seem to be fun to use.
---
Started Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. Seems to be a platformer, similar to Psychonauts, with 2D dungeons. For some reason, it does not support mouse at all, but can be played comfortably with keyboard only.

[Keyrock]

3 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Tried launching the game on another PC, it did start and promptly attempted to overheat the CPU (at 94C I decided to use Alt+F4). The GPU was at 78C, so while uncomfortable, not critical. I also checked the keyboard and mouse options, 5-button mice are supported, the controls are fully rebindable.
I suppose, the XBox version is preferable in any perceivable aspect, i.e. much better optimised. And halberds seem to be fun to use.

How does it play with m&kb? With the Xbox controller it plays great. If anyone here has this on PS5, does it have any fancy schmancy haptic feedback? I've never held a PS5 controller, but I hear the haptic feedback is really cool, but obviously the game devs have to implement it for it to mean anything.

So far the xXxBOxXx experience has been smooth (I've become a dirty, disgusting console peasant ever since I got the black mini-fridge looking box from Microsoft). Gameplay is smooth, the game looks good, and even the texture pop-in, while present, isn't too obnoxious. I've encountered one graphical glitch. When you kill an automaton they fall over onto the ground, but once in a blue moon their corpse will just freeze standing, kind of slumped forward. It's not game breaking and it rarely happens, but I do hope they fix it. I wonder if that's across all ports or Xbox specific? Other than that 1 glitch I have no complaints. Hopefully they polish up the PC port soon.

[uuuhhii]

try sifu after the new patch

doesn't feel much changed without the modifier

really hope for some new level

game keep crashing

pop a windows says something about ue engine

Edited September 11, 2022 by uuuhhii

[ComradeYellow]

Steelrising looks interesting but there's no way my laptop can run it.  I mean just look at the hardware requirements.

Anything that's poorly optimized for PC is almost like a red light signal and should probably skip it, regardless of how powerful your rig is.

Better to be an exclusive and retain your integrity than cynically launch a shoddy port.

@Keyrock PS5 controllers are nice but they're an acquired taste and currently aren't optimized for windows very well, but progress is being made and firmware updates are being dished out regularly.

Edited September 10, 2022 by ComradeYellow

[Hawke64]

10 hours ago, Keyrock said:

How does it play with m&kb? With the Xbox controller it plays great. If anyone here has this on PS5, does it have any fancy schmancy haptic feedback? I've never held a PS5 controller, but I hear the haptic feedback is really cool, but obviously the game devs have to implement it for it to mean anything.

Couldn't reach any actual gameplay, only checked the options, some of the opening cut-scene, and the character creation screen. Judging by the former and Spiders' previous games should be good.

[Keyrock]

6 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

Couldn't reach any actual gameplay, only checked the options, some of the opening cut-scene, and the character creation screen. Judging by the former and Spiders' previous games should be good.

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work well with m&kb. This doesn't play like any previous Spiders game, though. This very much plays like Bloodborne.

My favored weapon combination so far is halberd and fans. Most of the time I just stick with the halberd, since it has massive reach and I can often dispatch automatons without them ever getting close enough to reach me. Against certain enemies, though, I like to switch to the fans and do a flurry of light attacks. The fans have a high immobilization stat and you can fill up the immobilization bar on an enemy quickly with them. Once immobilized, an enemy is open to a critical attack, this is where I switch to the halberd for maximum damage.

[Mamoulian War]

I've finished the sixth playthrough of Journey on my PS3. I wanted to relax a little bit, and hoped to meet at least one companion online. Unfortunately, no one was around today, so still two more to go for the Wonder trophy.

In the meanwhile, I am trying to finish my second playthrough of Atelier Meruru, I am closing to the end of the game, I am still missing 2 more developments to be able to 100% the game (excluding different endings).

[Mamoulian War]

Before going to bed, I have decided to give my PS3 Journey one more try, because I have found one guy on Journey Discord, which planned to play today. We met at the Bridge level and my Wonder trophy finally popped up. He has shown me a lot of new ways how to go through various levels and out of bounds, so we spent playing together almost for two hours, and as a reward I got my last missing trophy Companion. So my journey is 100% complete now .

[Zoraptor]

Finished Wasteland 3. Overall I enjoyed it a lot. Oddly enough my enjoyment was almost the direct reverse of Wasteland 2 where I enjoyed the middle of the game considerably more than the ends, ie I liked the ends of WL3 and the middle dragged*. That's probably an issue with the combat, which of course there is a lot of. If you have a lot of it it either needs to be challenging and varied enough to keep interest, or quick enough that you can storm through it with maximal pew pew and minimal plink plink. Towards the end of WL2 there was an awful lot of plink plink. Kind of funny though at the end the few times I triggered combats where the enemy got initiative I'd lose pretty much the whole party instantly, and the exact reverse if I got initiative.

Spoiler

Sided with Angie and ganked the Patriarch, taking over Colorado, pretty much everything else done in as nice a way as possible as befits a paladin of the wasteland. Fairly sure I got more or less the 'best' ending possible. I also have to credit the ending song specifically, it was... surprisingly great. Especially since I'd decided to see what happened if you turned the Holy Detonation up to 11 and got the loser version a few hours beforehand. The plot was, well, fine. While I will not be writing panegyrics about its awesomeness it did its job well

*mostly an issue with the Steeltown DLC really, first time through I just stalled out there completely.

Also finished Dishonoured 2 recently

It is, of course, a very good stealth game and if so inclined, an OK action game. Though from my brief experience playing it as an action game, very easy when played that way so long as didn't think you were John Rambo.
 

Spoiler

Stealth was a bit below Thief 2, but that's pretty high praise considering that is still the best stealth game 22 years after its release. My main issue was that the AI seemed to be prescient at times** and could see you if you were well hidden, seemingly randomly. It was challenging though, and fair apart from that with a 'realistic'- supernatural powers notwithstanding- stealthy approach always being viable, just probably not as 'ironman'. There was also very good variation when it came to mechanics. I started getting a bit tired of the same old approach half way through, and then you get the past/ present gameplay element introduced in the mansion. This can often be a bit jarring but worked very well here and creatively speaking and as a narrative device was as close to perfect as could reasonably be expected. Might not quite supplant my all time favourite mission Casing the Joint*** from Thief 2 but was at very least Shalebridge Cradle tier. I think I ended up with a lot of unused runes though, as a lot of the powers didn't really have stealth applications. Graphically it was fine, so long as Arkane's patented stylised faces don't put you off. And let's be frank, given Thief 2's faces they shouldn't.

Plot wise it was fine to good. The central pillar of you being dispossessed (or your daughter being frozen, I played as Emily) works well as motivator and to drive said plot, though the overall scale has some issues with plausibility if you think about it for more than ten seconds. Delilah's coup is just too small scale as shown for a fairly large scale empire. Most of the plots of the individual missions were good, but the overarching plot... dunno. I was left with the perhaps unfair feeling that Delilah was throwing the sort of tantrum you get from a 5 year old where they don't really want a particular toy, they just want to break it so someone else cannot have it. There was all the mirror/ painting stuff etc as well but I still ended up with the impression she was less mature than my 3 year old nephew.

**I've been playing Alien: Isolation a bit too, and my complaint there is the exact reverse. Hard to take a xenomorph seriously when comically hiding- Prey2017 Intro style "what is he... is he trying to hide behind the chair?"- behind furniture means it doesn't see you.

***OK, it's actually Life of the Party, but that's nearly everyone's favourite and hence boring.

 

[uuuhhii]

43 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Finished Wasteland 3. Overall I enjoyed it a lot. Oddly enough my enjoyment was almost the direct reverse of Wasteland 2 where I enjoyed the middle of the game considerably more than the ends, ie I liked the ends of WL3 and the middle dragged*. That's probably an issue with the combat, which of course there is a lot of. If you have a lot of it it either needs to be challenging and varied enough to keep interest, or quick enough that you can storm through it with maximal pew pew and minimal plink plink. Towards the end of WL2 there was an awful lot of plink plink. Kind of funny though at the end the few times I triggered combats where the enemy got initiative I'd lose pretty much the whole party instantly, and the exact reverse if I got initiative.

  Reveal hidden contents

Sided with Angie and ganked the Patriarch, taking over Colorado, pretty much everything else done in as nice a way as possible as befits a paladin of the wasteland. Fairly sure I got more or less the 'best' ending possible. I also have to credit the ending song specifically, it was... surprisingly great. Especially since I'd decided to see what happened if you turned the Holy Detonation up to 11 and got the loser version a few hours beforehand. The plot was, well, fine. While I will not be writing panegyrics about its awesomeness it did its job well

*mostly an issue with the Steeltown DLC really, first time through I just stalled out there completely.

Also finished Dishonoured 2 recently

It is, of course, a very good stealth game and if so inclined, an OK action game. Though from my brief experience playing it as an action game, very easy when played that way so long as didn't think you were John Rambo.
 

  Reveal hidden contents

Stealth was a bit below Thief 2, but that's pretty high praise considering that is still the best stealth game 22 years after its release. My main issue was that the AI seemed to be prescient at times** and could see you if you were well hidden, seemingly randomly. It was challenging though, and fair apart from that with a 'realistic'- supernatural powers notwithstanding- stealthy approach always being viable, just probably not as 'ironman'. There was also very good variation when it came to mechanics. I started getting a bit tired of the same old approach half way through, and then you get the past/ present gameplay element introduced in the mansion. This can often be a bit jarring but worked very well here and creatively speaking and as a narrative device was as close to perfect as could reasonably be expected. Might not quite supplant my all time favourite mission Casing the Joint*** from Thief 2 but was at very least Shalebridge Cradle tier. I think I ended up with a lot of unused runes though, as a lot of the powers didn't really have stealth applications. Graphically it was fine, so long as Arkane's patented stylised faces don't put you off. And let's be frank, given Thief 2's faces they shouldn't.

Plot wise it was fine to good. The central pillar of you being dispossessed (or your daughter being frozen, I played as Emily) works well as motivator and to drive said plot, though the overall scale has some issues with plausibility if you think about it for more than ten seconds. Delilah's coup is just too small scale as shown for a fairly large scale empire. Most of the plots of the individual missions were good, but the overarching plot... dunno. I was left with the perhaps unfair feeling that Delilah was throwing the sort of tantrum you get from a 5 year old where they don't really want a particular toy, they just want to break it so someone else cannot have it. There was all the mirror/ painting stuff etc as well but I still ended up with the impression she was less mature than my 3 year old nephew.

**I've been playing Alien: Isolation a bit too, and my complaint there is the exact reverse. Hard to take a xenomorph seriously when comically hiding- Prey2017 Intro style "what is he... is he trying to hide behind the chair?"- behind furniture means it doesn't see you.

***OK, it's actually Life of the Party, but that's nearly everyone's favourite and hence boring.

 

how are the optimization now

couldn't run it on the old pc

loading take forever

[Hawke64]

Mortal Shell. Defeated the second main boss, which took longer than the first (the second stage was somehow harder, because I was unable to bait the boss reliably and it kept skiing around in circles). Though, the area (a frozen crypt) was easier to navigate - if a path led down, it was the one to take. I also was able to upgrade the starting sword to the max level and reach the next area.

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

how are the optimization now

couldn't run it on the old pc

loading take forever

Wasteland 3? Loading times etc were fine. Generally ten to fifteen seconds maybe? Not too many area transitions either in general. Engine was a bit clunky at times, but then Unity games often are. Stability was perfect.

I have a good (for ~two years ago) 1TB NVMe drive for comparison purposes.

Dishonoured 2? A lot longer load times, but then a lot more complicated levels; and it had a couple of perpetual load loops too. Only required a process kill though, no hard lock up. Performance otherwise was fine (on a Vega64 though, and it's an AMD sponsored game. I think since I nuked the start up videos).

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Zoraptor

[kanisatha]

Having finally finished the OC of Solasta, I'm now working my way through the Lost Valley DLC campaign. It, along with all the other improvements and additions to the base game from the DLC, have been excellent thus far.

[xzar_monty]

3 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Having finally finished the OC of Solasta, I'm now working my way through the Lost Valley DLC campaign. It, along with all the other improvements and additions to the base game from the DLC, have been excellent thus far.

Hang on... so you've gone over to the dark side and started playing turn-based games?