What are you Playing Now? - Back to the Grind

[Malcador]

Caesar 4 getting to be a slog, stupid me taking military missions.  Trying to align buildings in this game is bothersome with the 3D implementation.

[majestic]

I found @BruceVC's next game to play, and probably his first 100/100 on the BruceVC whatever game scale. Slightly NSFW.

Click me!

[melkathi]

I half expected it to be a Rickroll

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

1 hour ago, majestic said:

I found @BruceVC's next game to play, and probably his first 100/100 on the BruceVC whatever game scale. Slightly NSFW.

Click me!

Eh, not enough options to execute homeless people. 6.9/10.

[Keyrock]

2 hours ago, majestic said:

I found @BruceVC's next game to play, and probably his first 100/100 on the BruceVC whatever game scale. Slightly NSFW.

Click me!

Why do all these types of games have the same exact plastic people looking models? Even if all you saw was a close up picture of the face, no body, no title, nothing else, you could be 100% certain of what type of game it is. Is there a specific game engine they all use with stock character models included or something? I have nothing against porn games, but diversify your art styles you perverts. As a fellow pervert I say perverts in the most loving sense.

Edited April 18 by Keyrock

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Why do all these types of games have the same exact plastic people looking models? Even if all you saw was a close up picture of the face, no body, no title, nothing else, you could be 100% certain of what type of game it is. Is there a specific game engine they all use with stock character models included or something? I have nothing against porn games, but diversify your art styles you perverts. As a fellow pervert I say perverts in the most loving sense.

Yes I agree but for me I have never played a porn game before, Romance in games is different to this and its part of expected party interaction if you on some epic quest to save the world. I always   think of Conan and his interaction with women on various quests . Thats typically how I RP my character and its CG if you compare it to D&D alignment 

If I want to watch porn then I will watch  legitimate  adult movies, I wont use a game for that but I realize everyone has different interests 

[Keyrock]

I bought HuniePop on Steam waaaaay back in the day which is a legitimately good and fun match 3 game that's also porn. Steam would, for the longest time, send these porn games into my suggestions feed because I bought 1 porn game many years ago. It took a ludicrous amount of times of clicking the not interested button before Steam got the message and stopped constantly suggesting them to me. In the process I noticed that they all look EXACTLY the same. Is it all one studio pumping these out assembly line style? Is it all the same engine? If so they need to upgrade from PornEngine 4.2 to PornEngine 5.0 and update their hilariously outdated plastic looking models.

[uuuhhii]

18 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Why do all these types of games have the same exact plastic people looking models? Even if all you saw was a close up picture of the face, no body, no title, nothing else, you could be 100% certain of what type of game it is. Is there a specific game engine they all use with stock character models included or something? I have nothing against porn games, but diversify your art styles you perverts. As a fellow pervert I say perverts in the most loving sense.

 

those rubber texture looking model are certainly weird

there are far better model in similar game 8 year ago

[Humanoid]

38 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

In the process I noticed that they all look EXACTLY the same. Is it all one studio pumping these out assembly line style? Is it all the same engine? If so they need to upgrade from PornEngine 4.2 to PornEngine 5.0 and update their hilariously outdated plastic looking models.

They're generic 3D models (not just characters, any 3D modelled object really) that are purchased individually and imported into any engine. Useful for indie devs so they don't need to employ their own artists, though I suspect the reason it's most obvious in adult games is that they all buy the same base models and just drop them in with zero to minimal customisation.

EDIT: Sorted by popular and the fifth result is a pre-fab Jesus for the low, low price of $243.99. If you were trying to spin a quick buck making a Christian edutainment game, it seems a pretty obvious route to take. Though apparently it's another $50 to put him into a videogame, or $1.99 extra if you wanted to 3D-print him. Hmm...

Edited April 19 by Humanoid

[BruceVC]

2 hours ago, Keyrock said:

I bought HuniePop on Steam waaaaay back in the day which is a legitimately good and fun match 3 game that's also porn. Steam would, for the longest time, send these porn games into my suggestions feed because I bought 1 porn game many years ago. It took a ludicrous amount of times of clicking the not interested button before Steam got the message and stopped constantly suggesting them to me. In the process I noticed that they all look EXACTLY the same. Is it all one studio pumping these out assembly line style? Is it all the same engine? If so they need to upgrade from PornEngine 4.2 to PornEngine 5.0 and update their hilariously outdated plastic looking models.

Here is an exception to  my rule,  its  an upcoming Vampire themed  cRPG  porn game  called  Vampire  Syndicate. The developer  is active on Codex  and he is  a  really  nice guy, very friendly and  I sort of  committed  to buying this game when its released. I dont have to buy it but I dont like to say things and not mean it and its an  indie game  and his revenue is tight 

So  Im  going to buy it on principle,  you and  others  might also enjoy it ( NSFW website ) because its going to have RPG elements and lots  of  Vampire  Lore  similar  to the  Vampire  Masquerade Universe with clans and all that 

https://amemoryofeternity.itch.io/vampire-syndicate-gangs-of-moonfall

 

 

 

[LadyCrimson]

Installed Lords of the Realm 2 (GoG) for 1st time in ages thought I'd just quickly nostalgia run thru the campaign right. It seems to run fine but ... the cursor side scrolling is so fast I can't control it (goes one side of the map to other in a microsecond) and half the time the mouse r-l clicking is also too fast and screens/stuff show and disappear in a blink (registers as multiple clicks I guess). Among other things.  Compatibility modes do nothing.

I suppose I could turn on the loud ancient slower Win7 paperweight rig (that I'm thinking of relegating to a closet soon) and maybe play it from there but lately I can't be bothered.  Could there be ways to deal with such? Sure, sometimes, but again, can't be bothered. Nowadays if it doesn't easily work, I don't play.

Ah well. Time marches on.
Back to ... something else.

Edited April 20 by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

On 4/16/2024 at 6:00 PM, Wormerine said:

I retrieved my heart in Dragon's Dogma. What happened next surprised me, and I don't quite know what to make of it.

 

  Hide contents

I think there is something fundamentally unsatisfying when a game puts you against enemies you defeated before many times, but now with heavily inflated stats. It is especially harsh, as so far DD offered very little resistance. And it is doubly unenjoyable to me because of the numerical power curve that game has - I suspect what I am expected to do is grind, level up, upgrade and get even better equipment to bring the difficulty curve down. And to me it just feels like a waste of time, especially as I already experienced the other side of the curve before. I just had a lengthy and epic fight with a hydra - and it would probably feel more satisfying if I didn't kill one easily within a first hour of my playtime already.

On a flip side, the game became somewhat interesting again. Actually worrying about enemies weaknesses became a non issue after about 10h of playing, so overall it is the best the game has been.

 

If you have not been there, the DLC island might a good place to explore. It is a long dungeon crawl and the things there are sturdy, but it is somehow more fun than the similarly looking rooms of the end-game dungeon. Also, with a stack of explosive arrows and luck, there is a really good spot to level up.

Spoiler

You can knock down the Death boss while it is levitating above a waterfall shortly after a shortcut from the starting area of the DLC.

Regarding the end-game requirements,

Spoiler

Killing the offline Ur-Dragon once should be enough to get the items necessary to access the final Final boss. Though, I do not exactly remember how to access the dragon in NG. In NG+ there is a very convenient teleport on the shore.

---

I've been playing Crystal Tales Tactics. So far so good, though the story has the originality of Fire Emblem, with a significantly lower production value.

---

On the topic of erotic games on Steam. The number of low-quality ones seems to be rather high, while the adoption of the generative AI and accessible 3D models did not improve the quality (did not drop it either, though), but increased the quantity (see the screenshot taken today). I also cannot filter them out, unlike roguelikes/-lites. Though, overall, it is great that the talented writers and designers can create full games by themselves, and there are some interesting erotic games on Steam, such as Ladykiller in a Bind, but few and are hard to find.

Spoiler

 

Edit. Speaking of random first games on Steam, someone linked Bethesda's EULA to their game. https://store.steampowered.com/eula/2901370_eula_0

Spoiler

 

Edited April 20 by Hawke64

[Hawke64]

Crystal Tales Tactics. Got softlocked in the main story somewhere mid-game (the next chapter did not unlock). While the game is lovely, it is also rather buggy - it was not the first softlock, but I overwrote the nearest save file, so not going to try again until this is fixed. The other bugs included the recruited characters not appearing, a character who was supposed to be dead doing the opposite (there should have been condition for them to survive if they were critical for the story), a lot of black screens during companion dialogues, and these dialogues not triggering correctly.

Well, at least the character designs are interesting.

[Gorth]

Dusted off the original Carmageddon and gave it a spin. I had completely forgotten how awesome it is to run over pedestrians

That’s a game I would love to see a remake off, so it can run without DosBox

[kanisatha]

Because I'm still waiting for a deal on a new computer, and the GPU on my current old machine constantly crashes, the only games in my library that seemed like I could play and not tax the GPU are the old BG games. So I've started a run of BG1, SoD, and BG2, and for the first time ever am using a few select mods. I'm also playing the classic fighter-mage-thief multiclass for my PC, which I've never done before in my many, many times playing these games. It's rather rough here in the beginning, as my Charname is so very weak from having everything including XPs divided across three classes. But it amazes me how enjoyable it still is to play these now-ancient games.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, kanisatha said:

But it amazes me how enjoyable it still is to play these now-ancient games.

Pathfinding aside they hold up very well, even on an iPad. 

[melkathi]

I am mostly posting so Wormy doesn't think they killed the discussion - 16 hours without a reply...

 

Since Underspace is now on GOG, I bought that.

Since Wartales is getting tedious, I started Underspace.

I finished the tutorial fights, including the optional storm chase. I think they seriously nerfed the serpent in the rift fight. That, or the demo I had played had been bugged and the NPC stormchaser had not been dealing damage back then. Now we made quick work of her and the rift.

Took the optional route and docked at the anarch station, mostly to ensure I have the location on my charts.

Now to decide whether I simply head back to civilization or turn to a life of crime and return to civilized space with a hold full of smut.

Also if I buy a new ship here or on my return. I understand you are supposed to buy a ship at this point - all stations seem to be selling ¥26.000 light fighters, medium fighters, heavy fighters, and a transport. I have not enough time in the game to really check the difference between the corp and pirate ships. Considering the medium pirate fighter, since medium is usually something that doesn't gimp you in any category too badly. And the pirate ships are what's on sale here.

Life's hard.

[melkathi]

Turns out:

I had enough money to buy a ship. Not enough for fancy equipment

[LadyCrimson]

Patron: Got to 3800 population. Was down to 25-30fps overall but still playable. Then I hit Year 65, or 67, or thereabouts. Annnnnd.....apparently there's a mechanic where houses start to fall apart - they get this red icon over each house. You have to click to repair. The problem is there is NO warning they are in need of repair so when your "town" covers the map you may not notice individual houses entering this stage until the "HOUSE HAS COLLAPSED" message (which does not give you any way to "zoom" to area in question, so you are hunting for it). If you are on 10x speed this will all occur very rapidly. I think houses need repair in the order that you initially placed them (time based?) because it started in the first area, so then I felt I had to hover there constantly to catch the icons and repair.

But it took 60+ game years for it start, no warning, sandbox mode with "events and disasters" off, I had no idea this was a thing. How stupid. I'm not repairing hundreds maybe more than a thousand houses a few at a time every few minutes, or playing at 1x speed.

Back to Caesar 3.

Edited April 23 by LadyCrimson

[BruceVC]

I completed Sons of Forest   after about 55 hours, it was an excellent survival game with somethings better than Forest 1 and some things worse

What was worse than 1 is I found myself not having to build a single house or structure to survive, I just used the tent

And then I love and appreciate no hand holding and having to explore to progress the narrative but  this  game  forced  me  to  consult  game guides about what caves you suppose to explore first to find critical items like the spade,  I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone can finish this game without dozens of hours of exploring just to work out what to do next?

Its too "hard" around trying to work out where you suppose to go next

Once you find laptops then its obvious where you must go but finding items like the pick axe and then the ancient armour werent clear to me and I randomly found them. Maybe I missed some papers or documents?

But good game overall and it gets a 70/100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " and if  you want an incredibly difficult  survival  game to play, without getting tips,  this is  for you 

[Malcador]

Almost done Caesar 4.  Avoiding military missions for now, the entire experience is clunky and annoying.   Still need to find a good way to align villas, maybe I should do a block but the villas surrounded by roads rather than on the outside, given the huge size of the entertainment buildings.   Still have this odd issue where all equites just up and leave my city although everything is fine - they're paid well, have jobs, have supplies and everything.

[Hurlshort]

I've been trying to get into Fallout 3, but it's not going well. It's weird because I can play F:NV pretty much every year, but Fallout 3 is just a big dud for me. I played it at release and finished it, but I've never been able to give it another go. I hear the expansions are decent too, but I can't even get myself far enough along in the main story to give those a try. I don't know, it's just a very grey cement world filled with very dull people.

Ah well, maybe I'll play Fallout 2 instead. It's been a couple years, I think.

[Tale]

Still wasting too much time on games. Destiny 2 is looking to make up for Lightfall, but the constant FOMO and grind make it an easy game to burn out on. Maybe with The Final Shape I can give up on playing it for the story and go to other games that aren't made for gambling addicts.

Dragon's Dogma 2 was pretty great. Weaker than the 1st in key ways, which is why I immediately started a playthrough of 1 after finishing.

[Bartimaeus]

Yuppie Psycho.

I played through this game once years back and loved it, now I came back to replay it and also to tackle all the achievements. One of the achievements is to play through the whole game without saving even once (howlongtobeat.com says it's an 8-10 hour-ish game, not including the extended alternative/true ending content that's a little tricky to get). I got like 80% of the way through the game and then died during a short (5 second or so) cutscene. I'd pressed a button that revealed a passageway, which the game panned over to show me, but the game didn't actually pause during said pan, and a zombie hyucked acid barf all over me and I died right as it came back to me.

[Wormerine]

Decided to take a break from Dragon's Dogma1, and reinstalled Final Fantasy7Remake to do a hard mode run. I wouldn't recommend it unless ones feels like doing a 2nd playthrough and want to untick remaigning achievements and the handful of extra battles. I am nearing the end, and it just hasn't been very interesting - the gimmick is that one can't use items. Which means MP used for casting spells is rather limited. After struggling with the first boss in the game, I switched to utilising non MP Materia's (Chaklra, Prey for healing, elemental and synergy for elemental damange).... and so far that's been pretty much it.

Climbing through the ranks in SF6. Eached Platinum1, which I believe is most populated, most middle of the road rank. The game tends to funnel players into it, as up to this point leveling up is far easier than leveling down. It is quite interesting how quality of matches got worse - previously players often weren't great, but they tried. I had couple good matches in platinum, but most opponents where cheesy, one tricks ponies. It is also rare to get rechallenged after winning. Wierd bunch that platinum1. I sincerely hope I won't get stuck in that bracket.