What are you Playing Now? - Games don't make you violent, lag does

[melkathi]

Waiting for the Storm dlc for Midnight Suns to play through that and uninstall the game.

Easily the biggest wasted opportunity in gaming in a long time.

Edited April 13, 2023 by melkathi

[marelooke]

Been swapping between Conan Exiles, and Elite Dangerous (since Star Citizen 3.18 is still a disaster area).

In Elite I made the dumb decision to fly to Colonia, the furthest out inhabited system, as a rookie. It was a learning experience, to be sure, made a lot of bank too, but really dreading flying back to the Bubble... The universe is big, it turns out. Who'd a' thunk?

I've also started flying with HOSAS. Just soooo much more enjoyable, and I got used to movement surprisingly quickly. Star Citizen uses the 6DoF a lot more actively though, so it will be interesting to see how I manage there. Also, manual landings in SC...

In Conan Exiles I've picked up a character I created a long time ago but didn't do much with[*]. Decided to build in the Savannah as starting location and started building a main base on the volcano (near the hidden exit), linking both with a portal. Bit of a shame that even though you can build up pretty darn high you literally have no view due to all the clouds

Also the size of the map room is getting really annoying (only took, errr, all these years for me to get annoyed by it?  ), creates some annoying constraints if you're trying to build in weird spaces. I wonder if there's any mods that just shrink it down a bit.

The in-game store is also starting to really annoy me. Funcom always claimed DLC were locked down for modders so the assets don't get stolen (which is why there's no mods to improve/extend Siptah, for example), but now they're selling extension building pieces to the already very expensive DLC at absurd prices on their in-game store

At least they finally fixed most of the snap points on the DLC building pieces. Really, I love Conan Exiles, but I'm not touching that new Dune survival game from Funcom due to how absolutely disgusting their treatment of CE has been.

Anyway, goal-wise I've been going through the new Journey steps. It seems they completely dropped guiding players through the storyline of the Exiled Lands, which is a real shame. The new system is just a bunch of tutorials and doesn't really guide people towards any of the story stuff at all, omitting some of the really important parts for the plot entirely (eg. some story-related dungeons aren't in any of the steps).

Really hope they revise these, uncovering the story was one of the main things I liked about CE compared to most of these types of games (like Ark, for example), but some of the steps are really...obtuse so the guidance of the Journal was helpful at quite a few points.

[*] I created a little tool to be able to switch between chars on the same save db, or create a new char even. There's tools that do the same out there as well, but the ones I found weren't updated in ages, or not FLOSS. Regardless it can quite easily be done manually if you know some SQL.

Edited April 13, 2023 by marelooke

[Hurlshort]

Have you used the new teleport and transport stuff in Conan Exiles? I'm not far enough in to have seen it, but I was assuming that would swap the reliance on the map room a bit.

[marelooke]

9 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Have you used the new teleport and transport stuff in Conan Exiles? I'm not far enough in to have seen it, but I was assuming that would swap the reliance on the map room a bit.

I have. The teleporters do have their drawbacks, which I've spoiler tagged in case you want to find out for yourself:

Spoiler

you get a big chunk of uncleanseable corruption on each use with a decent enough length timer. I can confirm that, no you can't kill yourself, but yes, you can get very close and you better be careful around ledges ;). 6hp and 1stamina was where it capped out.

I also assume there's a limit to the amount of locations you can connect together, though I haven't yet run into it, but given the UI (for lack of a better description) I figure more than 6 or so places might get annoying, especially if they're in the same direction.

I'd say that the locations the Map Room connects to generally are still useful, especially since some you can't build close to (like the Archives), but having only Map Room that can be reached with a teleport is probably sufficient.

They also just allow for much freer base location choice since being near an Obelisk doesn't really matter at all anymore. Especially nice for those among us that don't really use mounts...

Obviously, they're absolutely fantastic on Siptah because no map room there at all, and rare materials are anything but on Siptah

Edited April 13, 2023 by marelooke

[Hurlshort]

I've been playing Molly2k23

It's a bit buggy, but in a good way.

Edited April 14, 2023 by Hurlshort

[Hawke64]

Immortal: Unchained. Completed the game. After the point of no-return the areas felt more linear and drawn out. The final boss went down on the second attempt with the fully upgraded Silver Spear sniper rifle, which scaled with the stat I originally had not planed to use, but levelled up to the same number as the Normal Weapon Scaling in the end. The ending of the story was somehow disappointing (I do detest monologues).
Review:

Spoiler

Immortal: Unchained is a Souls-like third person shooter in sci-fi setting inspired by Norse mythology. The story is linear, but the objectives in the second part of the game can be completed in any order and there is a decent variety in character builds, though sniper rifles and grenade launchers vastly outperform other weapon type. The armour upgrades have to be found and are visible on the main character. Weapon upgrades are just as linear, but the materials must be found first. There is no weapon durability or survival elements, but the ammo is limited and restored only at Obelisks (“bonfires”), using a consumable, or upon traversing through a portal to another location. Few of them are shortcuts, most lead to optional bosses. The game saves on exit and it is possible to pause and continue without backtracking to the last Obelisk. There are few NPCs and side quests (3) and none of them affects the main story.

The location design is diverse, but they are too large and during the first part of the game they are filled with traps - vines, spikes, and pressure plates, while during the second most of the foes can teleport, including snipers and melee combatants. In general, often the opponents rise from the floor, appear out of the air, or drop from the sky - it is not possible to see and attack them first. The damage to their weak point (head and back) can be 5 times higher than in the chest, provided that the chest is not protected by a shield, in which case the damage is blocked completely.

The 4 main bosses are unique, while the optional ones are reskinned regular humanoid-with-weapons mobs with 5-10 adds. Some of them can be found along the main path, some require key items to reach. Occasionally, it is possible to kill the boss from outside their respective arena. While melee combat is possible (except for 1 boss), the attacks feel weightless and unsatisfying for both the MC and the foes. Overall, the variety of opponents, their movesets, and abilities is adequate.

The backtracking is not necessary to complete the game, but considering that fast travel becomes available only in the second half of the game, unlocking fast travel points requires investments, and it is not possible to see if everything has been collected, it is not convenient. There are a lot of locked chests and doors across the world, which may provide weapons, optional bosses, or shortcuts. In order to unlock them non-consumable keys (found during exploration and can be rewards for defeating bosses) are needed and it is hard to remember which door or chest needs which key.

The graphics and visual design are adequate, the soundtrack is irritating, the sound design is odd - the teleporting snipers make a distinct noise when they spawn, but some non-interactive level architecture can produce sounds when the MC is close.

The controls are comfortable and mostly rebindable, 5-button mice are supported. Shooting and aiming are hard-bound to left and right mouse buttons respectively, 1-4 keys are used for weapon selection.

I have encountered one soft-lock in the last area - the path did not open when it was supposed to. Reloading the area with the Obelisk solved it. The time of the playthrough was around 30 hours. The game has NG+ and a unique “Cursed One” class, which provides an even more challenging experience.

Additionally, the ending was, while relatively original, unsatisfying.

In conclusion, recommended on sale with low expectations.

 

Completed Lost in Random. The ending was rather hilarious, though for wrong reasons. The general opinion for the game has not changed - it would have made a decent comic book or an animated movie, but not a game.
Review:

Spoiler

Lost in Random is a fairytale action-adventure. An 11-year old girl with her magical dice companion tries to save her sister, who was kidnapped by the Queen, while traversing through the six regions of the Kingdom.

The game lacks graphics and controls settings. The story is linear and the combat is neither comfortable nor enjoyable - in order to charge any damage-dealing ability the crystals on the foes’ bodies must be shot or destroyed by timed body-slamming into the foes. Unlocking more summonable weapons, bombs, or status effects improves it only slightly - while body-slamming (Blink Dodge and Crystal Curse) can hurt the opponents, it still has to be charged first.

The location design is very basic as well - the world consists of corridors with very few points  where the main character can jump down or climb a ladder or interactive items (the pots to break and the small doors for Dicey to loot). The environment is visually diverse, but the character models start to repeat by the third location and the foes remain the same throughout the whole game, except the bosses. In general, the regular combat encounters are repetitive and often unnecessary for the story.

The side quests and most of the main ones feel very bare-bones with linear structure and no input from the player - running from one green question mark to another with a combat encounter between them. The two times where there was some significance for dialogue choices were when the right replies slightly hurt the boss and in a side quest a different character gave the same reward (a card).

The visual design, sound, and writing are appealing, but they cannot hold a game - it is not a movie to be passively consumed, interactivity and the player’s agency are an essential part of the medium.

Additionally, the Steam version uses double DRM and cannot be played offline at all.

Overall, if the level design and movement controls were improved and the combat aspect was removed or completely reworked (either as a full hack-and-slash action or turn-based), it could have been a decent game. As is, if one desires, a full playthrough on YouTube would provide a better experience.

 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Hawke64

[melkathi]

Tried Warhammer Total War 3 - Immortal Empires.

Was at war with the various Khorne factions, as one should be, minding my own business, and suddenly the Gorequeen Valkia the Bloody offered me gold, asking for a truce.

I decided it was just the chaos wastes playing tricks on me and slaughtered her armies, spilling their blood for the Bloody Handed God.

Then the Khorne worshiping Norse tribes also sued for peace.

Khornite lip service and no true faith.

[BruceVC]

I finished IWD2 after 100 hours, its a great game and scores a 70/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system "

I had one of the hardest battles I have ever had in any RPG with Iyachtu Xvim, I only defeated him on the 9-10th time and what made it so difficult is his natural resistances to certain magic,  how only bludgeoning\crushing is effective and his AOE spells. So I adopted a strategy

• start the initial battle with my 2 x tanks and 1-2 summons
• then run away with any of my party members and let the summons do the fighting to get Xvim to use his AOE spells
• use more summons to get him to use spells
• use ranged weapons like sling and +5 bullets
• Engage him with my full party once the summons are dead

And it was still very hard, I lost 1 party member and I had exhausted most of my offensive and healing spells but I had 3 x Lighting Bolts left and I used that to finally kill him 

And then the battle with the twins was fun but strategically easier because I just killed the wizards first and quickly and then focused on the twins

Great game and definitely worth playing if you enjoy D&D ruleset and an overall action RPG design  

Edited April 16, 2023 by BruceVC

[Mamoulian War]

The fourth of milestones in this year has been reached...

It took some time, due to me being much more busy, and spending more time with Assetto Corsa Competizione, but the main story boss of Tales of Arise on my PS4 has been finally beaten today. I have been very positively surprised of the game, and I have enjoyed it much more, than the JRPGs I have played in last few years. It's probably only on par with Tales of Berseria. I have enjoyed the story full of plot twists and surprises, and had my fun with the decent gameplay as well. Although, it was simplified a lot compared to older Tales of games, it was still good enough, to not drag the enjoyment down. The only negative, which I have encountered, was around the time, when I have arrived at Niez to fight against the fourth Renan Lord. At that point, the story progression hit soft experience wall, probably to incentivize purchase of XP and money DLCs. So once in a while, in order to progress further, I had to start to go after all possible sidequests and needed to do little bit of extra grinding for money, as the consumables were hard to find and cost arm and leg at the shops. Still it was much more manageable than some Ubisoft games, and I have never felt that I was forced to do it. It just made the fights with bosses less stressful.

[Sarex]

Got Solasta and Wall World.

Very nice of Solasta to just give me the unlocked ability points instead of forcing me to reroll those damn dice. Apart from that didn't get very far yet.

Wall World is a sideways Domekeeper but better. The game is 5 bucks and punches above its weight.

[melkathi]

I really enjoyed Solasta. It would have been nice if they had the resources to add more game or have a better RNG. But it was one of the most fun DnD experiences I had in a long time.

[Malcador]

Got gold on all the races in Dragonflight, the reverse ones have some "fun" design choices, like a tree being around a blind corner or through so much foliage you can't see a branch that'll hit you, heh.  Fun use of time, also trying to knock off the last raid...amazing how people stand in front of a charging laser beam.

[MrBrown]

On 4/16/2023 at 6:42 PM, Sarex said:

Very nice of Solasta to just give me the unlocked ability points instead of forcing me to reroll those damn dice. Apart from that didn't get very far yet.

I recommend using the standard array or point buy, if you want a reasonable challenge. If you just set the stats at what you want it gets pretty easy.

[Humanoid]

For my co-op run, we just let the dice fall where they may: used the randomly rolled stats they give you without once touching the re-roll button. The one difficulty hump we hit was early on and I suspect that was because we skipped a sidequest (

goblin cave

) which I suspect meant we were one level short of what the coming encounter was balanced around.

[melkathi]

Solasta has the most fun tutorial with them all in the tavern sharing stories.

[BruceVC]

The last 4 games I have played are IWD2, KC:D, ELEX 2 and DA:I and I have an important gaming rule where I dont play the same genre more than 3-4 times in a row. This means I dont get bored or unnecessarily cynical or critical  about one type genre 

So I am playing Mafia 3 now, it should be a nice change from my favorite games which are fantasy  RPG 

[Agiel]

Playing the Resident Evil 4 remake and finished my Professional Run. Some bemoaned the absence of the cheesiness that made the original memorable, particularly with Leon's interactions with the villains. But I would say my criticisms aren't so much that they are no longer present but the fact that besides the greatly expanded relationship with Krauser Leon _barely_ interacts at all with the villains until their respective boss fights, such as Salazar mostly having one-sided conversations with him throughout the Castle section. I rather missed Salazar slowly going insane with each successive failure to kill Leon, a dynamic that now seems to have been condensed into their boss fight.

Speaking of Krauser it occurred to me that the apparently ret-conned Operation Javier is basically the plot of <<Clear and Present Danger>> one for one:

 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Agiel

[Hawke64]

Encased. Tried a stealth-only run through the starting area successfully.
In general, I am quite pleased with the game, not counting the looting (too much trash) and fatigue* systems, and was able to complete the prologue without combat. Probably could even without interactions with NPCs, if I wanted to.
*the difficulty options do not seem to affect the fatigue gained per lock picked (75), so I might try to remove it with console commands.

[Humanoid]

I remember Encased's stealth system being so janky it made me quit the game, hmm. For as much as Skyrim's "must have been the wind" AI sometimes pulls you out of a game, Encased's alert system had an approximately 10 minute real-time duration, so if you weren't save-scumming, detection meant hiding in a corner somewhere and then going to make yourself some tea or coffee. That and the weird 360-degree detection "cone" of NPCs...

[melkathi]

The test system was so unfun, the first time I got damaged in combat I uninstalled and never looked back.

[Sarex]

Reached the end of Wall World. Some 10ish hours of playtime, although I will probably go back to get the last two achievements, so a couple of more hours of playtime. Great game, very much recommended.

[Tale]

Cursed Halo Again came out and put me on a Halo kick. I finished that, it was fun, and now I'm jumping between Halo Wars (first time since before the game released) and Halo: Reach.

I wish Reach had a cursed mod so much.

[Hawke64]

18 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I remember Encased's stealth system being so janky it made me quit the game, hmm. For as much as Skyrim's "must have been the wind" AI sometimes pulls you out of a game, Encased's alert system had an approximately 10 minute real-time duration, so if you weren't save-scumming, detection meant hiding in a corner somewhere and then going to make yourself some tea or coffee. That and the weird 360-degree detection "cone" of NPCs...

Yes and no - the detection area is a circle (technically, 2 - low attention and high attention), the detection cooldown time is quite long and unpleasant if you cannot leave the location*. Haven't tried yet, but leaving the location and waiting (skipping time via the Wait menu) should cover it. As there were no owned objects, thus no crime detection, in the Nashville facility, I did not have to wait out the increased NPC suspicion and could loot almost everything (short of 2 containers - one was surrounded by 2 NPC, another in use).
*this - I could not wait because the area was "unsafe" and the NPCs were blocking the exit.

Spoiler

The PC's stats for the stealth playthrough, should I continue:

 

18 hours ago, melkathi said:

The test system was so unfun, the first time I got damaged in combat I uninstalled and never looked back.

I have not figured out how I am supposed to rest, except of falling asleep from high fatigue**, so been using medkits (needed only once when I could not avoid the damage from the lack of lighting) and the anti-fatigue consumable. There should be a medic companion somewhere, who might make it better.
**a spoiler for the Nashville facility:

Spoiler

[Gfted1]

3 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

I have not figured out how I am supposed to rest...

I dont have the game, and Im just guessing based on your screen shots, but maybe the Rest button is the moon with zz next to the portrait (one red / one green)?

[melkathi]

You can sleep in beds