Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:07 pm

The social aspect has been my primary concern. While she’s having a blast with the gameplay (at low levels, at least), there’s still the reality that she’s a 9 year old playing a game populated almost exclusively by adults. She’s been a little disappointed that I’ve tamped down the random Free Company (guild) invites she’s received. We’ve had the talk a hundred times about not telling strangers anything about yourself, not telling them you’re a girl, etc, but she still gets so excited about the possibility of interacting with other real people. While the FF XIV community is generally a good one overall, it certainly still has its fair share of assholes. She’ll be crushed when she discovers that.

Helps that she’s playing on PS4 (the game is cross play between console and PC), and I haven’t told her yet that you can use a keyboard to chat. Not terribly worried about her slowly typing out messages on the controller.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 4:13 pm

All my kids are like lightning on the keyboard. Even my fine motor skill-challenged son. None of them use the home row, or even more than 2 fingers on each hand, but they are fast, especially my daughter, and that makes me happy. Being fast on a keyboard is potentially important no matter what they do with their lives.

They are all still in awe of their old man though.

Fretmute · Post by **Fretmute** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:14 pm

Skinypupy wrote:
dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:44 pm I finally got 7000 hours in Civ 5.
Holy shit.

The most time I’ve ever spent with a single game is Final Fantasy XIV, and that’s barely at 1,300 hours.

I’m nearing 6000 in Dota 2.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sat Jan 12, 2019 6:40 pm

For those who have Far Cry 2, there's a new mod out that sounds interesting. Per the article Far Cry 2: Redux mod is now available for download

BigTinz has released a must-have mod for Far Cry 2, Far Cry 2 Redux. This overhaul mod for Far Cry 2 brings accurate magazine sizes, disables auto reload, fixes the bouncing NPC bug, adds the infamous heal animations and features more dynamic AI.

Furthermore, this mod raises the camera FOV from its default values, improves ironsight FOV, improves weapon ballistics, adds new weapon animations, improves buddy weapon variety, improves sprint stamina, as well as jumping and climbing.

Those interested can download the mod from here, and below you can find all the changes that this mod brings to the game.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:25 pm

Playing Silent Storm Sentinels. I've actually NEVER finished that game, and I decided to turn on the cheat and play it to the end, and, f*** this game is hard even with the cheat on. It's as if they took the mission difficulty in Silent Storm and turned it up to 11.

By mission 10, I'm actually seeing Panzerkleins (yes, person-sized power armor in 1940's). They are also in original SS, but it's sorta explanable. In here? It's more like WTF? Was everybody supposed to carry a bazooka?

Just finished the "defend base" mission. I have a team of six, plus a few extra defenders, 4 in the trenches, 3 in reserve. Plus a couple in the towers. I was rushed by 10 regulars, and 3 PK's, then a super PK (with beam rifles), then a second wave of 8 regulars with 3 Hammer PKs (the red ones back in original SS). The sucky part about PK is they are heavily armored, and only Armor Piercing bullets works. SMGs and pistols are useless. Rifle, LMG, and rockets would work. There are a few fixed guns but they can't swivel far enough to hit the PKs. And there aren't enough AT weapons around. I basically ended plinking the PKs to death with everybody on rifle or LMG. Lucky for me, I did buy a beam rifle for the LMG guy so he used that. Blew up 5 PKs (too much damage to salvage), manage to keep two when I forced the pilot to eject from two near the beginning.

Without the cheat code I'd have died several times over.

And even then, I managed to kill 3 engineers. One I accidentally killed when the box he opened blew up, took out the floor he's on, and the game decided he should die, even with godmode on. Recruited a replacement, forgot to turn godmode on again, and the same for the third guy. Hahaha!

Redfive · Post by **Redfive** » Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:25 pm

dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:44 pm I finally got 7000 hours in Civ 5.
What's sadder than that is there are thousands of people out there with more.

If my math is correct , and I'm being generous, that is 2.7 hours every single day since it was released.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Sun Jan 13, 2019 10:48 pm

I didn't start plying it till two years after it came out. But still, it's been out there a long time.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Jan 14, 2019 3:11 am

Continued playing S3 (Silent Storm Sentinels). Suddenly I have to raise 100K to get the enemy base's position? WTF? Where's the money going to? (EDIT: Turns out it's going to a traitor of a traitor, hahaha) I'm at about 70K, but there's not too much ways to raise money outside of missions. Typical missions only pay a few thousand, random encounters pay nothing except loot, which basically means I have to leave all the good weapons behind, leaving just the bare minimum (one gun per person, no grenades) and just loot everything I can get my hands on.

EDIT: FInished. It was okay. The big mission was indeed big... Have to fight a bunch of robots (i.e. PK's with no person inside, but like triple armored). The end was rather satisfying if a bit tedious. At least now I can say I "finished" it. Didn't care about the score, but then, I'm mainly here for the experience.

Fardaza · Post by **Fardaza** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:47 am

Redfive wrote: Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:25 pm
dbt1949 wrote: Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:44 pm I finally got 7000 hours in Civ 5.
What's sadder than that is there are thousands of people out there with more.
If my math is correct , and I'm being generous, that is 2.7 hours every single day since it was released.

I also have to remember that all our hours played include time with the game running on-screen, but I'm eating, or watching a football game in the other room, or something else. It's not all glued to the computer time.

Maybe I can convince myself that that's really why I have so many hours in some of these games.

Glycerine · Post by **Glycerine** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:37 am

Blackhawk wrote:Starting your PC reduces its lifespan. True - 25 years ago. Like so many others, it became 'common knowledge' that never got updated. Anything newer and leaving it on is more harmful than shutting it down/restarting it, as the heat is worse than the restart.

It also costs a lot more.

Absolutely not correct at all, except for the “costs more” part. I’ve worked in IT for 23 years, manage a team of techs in multiple parts of the country, and it’s still true today as it was when I started. These machines are designed to be turned on and left on. If you have a thermal problem to the point that heat can eventually cause damage to other components then shutting it off isn’t going to fix that problem, it will only delay the inevitable outcome. Look at any major corporation and see how many have their thousands upon thousands of employees actually turn their computers off at night. In my entire career I can’t think of a single one, and I’ve worked for some of the largest companies in the world.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:52 am

The big difference between corporations and home users is the necessity for overnight patching. I have all my users leave their PC's on all the time so I can patch, update, fix, and tinker after-hours. At home, my PC is off except for when I'm actively on it. It's a waste of power to leave my PC on for the 20 hours a day I'm not using it. It's an acceptable business expense to leave on 1000 computers so they can be managed remotely after-hours.

As far as strictly computer longevity for home users? I don't think there's any benefit either way. Leave them on, turn them off. Lifespan will pretty much stay the same - but the home user has no business case to justify the cost in electricity. I can say the desktops I use at work that are on all the time start to fail increasingly often after year 5, but I'm also buying lower-grade systems to fit the business budget. A $2,500 developer station will likely still tick along 12 years later.

The great debate over leaving them on vs. turning them off isn't settled. The answer is firmly "It Depends"

I advise people to just do whatever makes them happy.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 10:23 am

When I play a game I quit it when I leave the computer except for bathroom and snack breaks.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:41 am

Glycerine wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:37 am
Blackhawk wrote:Starting your PC reduces its lifespan. True - 25 years ago. Like so many others, it became 'common knowledge' that never got updated. Anything newer and leaving it on is more harmful than shutting it down/restarting it, as the heat is worse than the restart.

It also costs a lot more.
Absolutely not correct at all, except for the “costs more” part. I’ve worked in IT for 23 years, manage a team of techs in multiple parts of the country, and it’s still true today as it was when I started. These machines are designed to be turned on and left on. If you have a thermal problem to the point that heat can eventually cause damage to other components then shutting it off isn’t going to fix that problem, it will only delay the inevitable outcome. Look at any major corporation and see how many have their thousands upon thousands of employees actually turn their computers off at night. In my entire career I can’t think of a single one, and I’ve worked for some of the largest companies in the world.

And yet I've seen other experts say the exact opposite, in the context of high-abuse gaming systems rather than rows of office machines. And I've seen experts that say the same thing you have. What I haven't seen is serious research and tests either way, and when I really dug into it (over a year ago now), the larger contingent seemed to lean toward 'shut them down.' Also, I wasn't talking about a thermal problem. I was talking about the effects of thirty seconds of startup juice on the overall lifespan of components compared to the the effects of heat from idling for twelve hours. In the 90s the idea you always heard was that starting up a system was so hard on components that you were better off leaving it on.

In either case, it probably doesn't matter. The lifespan of components are long enough that neither is likely to have much of a meaningful impact (kind of like early SSDs vs modern SSDs.) You'll replace components long before the reduction in lifespan from starting up or leaving on would catch up with you.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 12:11 pm

Paingod wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 7:52 am I advise people to just do whatever makes them happy.

Great advice at any time

I imagine that the environment the machine is kept in might have more impact. We live in Florida in a house that is air conditioned and humidity controlled year round. My rig is five years old, my wife's rig is seven, and both are used quite a lot, almost every day, except when we are gone on vacation. Neither of them have had any problems whatsoever. It makes me think back to the days when hard drives were expected to last about a year or so before replacement.

My biggest issue right now is going to be making my wife understand that she really does have to switch to Win10 by next January

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:04 pm

This is like arguing whether semis, pickup trucks, muscle cars and electric scooters all behave the same way or have the same rules on operation.

A heavily overclocked system is going to break earlier than one that isn't, no matter how much cooling it has, even when load is not a factor. It's possible that turning one system off (particularly if it's off for long periods of time. If you only use your gaming machine once every few days, it makes no sense to leave it running) will preserve its life, and leaving another on will do the same.

Systems designed for reliability under heavy load are almost certainly more stable and longer lived when left on.

There is no hard and fast rule for motor vehicles, and there isn't one for computers. Personally, barring infrequent usage, a non-overclocked gaming system can be left on for years without significantly shortening its life. MTTF isn't going to change much for most components, especially if there is no heavy load going on when the system is on but not in use. This is what Paingod said. I'd counter the electrical bill with the low draw an unused system will pull, particularly if in power saver mode. Sure, it's more than when it's off. Is it enough to matter? Depends on your definition of "matter" I guess.

MonkeyFinger · Post by **MonkeyFinger** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:28 am

Right, do whatever makes sense to you. For us, I can't even recall the last time the computers here have been turned fully "off off"... perhaps during one of the crazy way-too-close lightning storms we get once in a great while. Otherwise, they're sleeping, waking up on demand or in the middle of the night for patching and/or backups as needed.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:01 pm

I don't turn off my laptop... ever. It only goes to sleep mode, and I reboot as needed. Sometimes it reboots and went to sleep (hibernate) by itself and I had to turn it on in the morning, but I never voluntarily turn it off. But then, I have a bottom cooler, an exhaust fan, and a personal fan all blowing on that thing.

Probably one more reason it needs a replacement ASAP. Hahaha! But then, the laptop was released in, 2009? 2010? Somewhere thereabouts. I already burned up one laptop (I had a Toshiba laptop that died while playing an FPS) then. Hahaha.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 1:01 pm

Another IT professional here. Regarding shutdown of PC - at work it stays on for patching, at home I turn it off. I'm not concerned about thermal wear-and-tear.

At home, I'm concerned about security and compromise. My home network is significantly less secure than my work one is. Even if I have my own router/Firewall, and keep it locked down tight and up to date. Even if I use port security and have hidden SSID, and have ridiculous complex passwords that get changed several times a year. Even if I do consistent patching and AV scans and backups for my PC. Work has for more robust security and constant monitoring. I turn off my home PC when I'm not using it; it is set to not wake on LAN, mouse etc; and it does not reboot after power loss.

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Wed Jan 16, 2019 2:33 pm

MonkeyFinger wrote: Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:28 am Right, do whatever makes sense to you. For us, I can't even recall the last time the computers here have been turned fully "off off"... perhaps during one of the crazy way-too-close lightning storms we get once in a great while. Otherwise, they're sleeping, waking up on demand or in the middle of the night for patching and/or backups as needed.

Gaming PC with SSD and Windows 10 pretty much boots to desktop in the amount of time it takes me to sit down in my desk chair after hitting the power button. I turn this one off more because of the instant boot up than previous generations where I would get annoyed if in a hurry for something. It's freaky fast.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:28 am

Unfortunately, my laptop has a problem in that it takes a VERY VERY long time to boot if my USB3 peripherals are plugged in. If I unplug the USB3 the Win10 boots in seconds. If I leave it plugged in it won't boot for 2 minutes. Probably one more reason I leave it on.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:42 am

Kasey Chang wrote: Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:28 am Unfortunately, my laptop has a problem in that it takes a VERY VERY long time to boot if my USB3 peripherals are plugged in. If I unplug the USB3 the Win10 boots in seconds. If I leave it plugged in it won't boot for 2 minutes. Probably one more reason I leave it on.

Would something like this help? Disabling legacy USB in BIOS. Best match I could find for your problem from a quick Google search. Not a perfect match, but similar in some ways.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 8:57 am

I'll try that next time I reboot.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 2:17 pm

Or just take USB way out of the boot order.

I almost gutted my system because it wouldn't boot. Turns out, it was trying to boot from my MP3 player.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:22 am

I checked the BIOS again, nothing about legacy USB. Also, it's the POST sequence that takes a long time with USB plugged in. On my DELL, there's this progress bar that goes through. Without USB3 plugged in, it takes like 1.5 seconds. With USB3 plugged in, it takes like a few minutes. It's weird. This is before the OS takes over, so it had to be BIOS, but I can find nothing there about USB legacy. And I have no USB boot devices...

------

Was playing "By the King", sorta JRPG that's westernized, mixed with procedural generated world. However, it seems the world was way too brutal, even on apprentice difficulty. Random encounters pop up while moving. AND there are enemies standing around in the forest. And the help file doesn't cover how to "recover" HP with herbs (I have them, but I can't use them). AND the enemies grow in strength as you go on (so the faster you go, the better). It's just way too hard, IMHO. You can't wander around the world hoping to grind your way up, but if you rush, you hit a hard enemy and you simply... DIE. ARGH.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:04 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 5:22 am
Was playing "By the King", sorta JRPG that's westernized, mixed with procedural generated world. However, it seems the world was way too brutal, even on apprentice difficulty. Random encounters pop up while moving. AND there are enemies standing around in the forest. And the help file doesn't cover how to "recover" HP with herbs (I have them, but I can't use them). AND the enemies grow in strength as you go on (so the faster you go, the better). It's just way too hard, IMHO. You can't wander around the world hoping to grind your way up, but if you rush, you hit a hard enemy and you simply... DIE. ARGH.

That’s a game I’ve always been interested in, but the brutal difficulty has kept me away.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:55 pm

Have I mentioned lately how much I utterly despise Uplay (Ubisoft's portal)? I had an itch today to re-try one of the newer HOMM games, which I somehow purchased directly through there instead of via Steam. Opened the portal and:

- Took 15 minutes to update
- HOMM games didn't show up under the Games tab. I had to close it and reopened, then they magically appeared.
- Clicked on it to download, and got an error message that "The Uplay service cannot be reached. Please try again later.". Tried that 5 times, and on the 6 try, it randomly connected.
- Took 2.5 hours to download a 14GB game, even though it was claiming an average download speed of 5.6.

Gods, their portal sucks.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 8:56 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 1:04 pm
That’s a game (For the King) I’ve always been interested in, but the brutal difficulty has kept me away.

Got a little further, then they threw me a gauntlet dungeon that just about drained me by 40% point.

I actually survived long enough to figure out the combat a little. I did win more than a few fights, got some armor and stuff, and collected a fire tome for the scholar. He uses fire most of the time, else he switches back to the regular scholar book. But when I got to the mines, instead of, like say, 5 groups of enemies, it looks like it's TWENTY-FIVE stages of enemies and encounters. I made it through mine level 1, bought out all the heal at the shop on level 2, but it's not close to being enough to finish level 2. Even with herbal help, everybody's like died once already. And I'm facing enemies with armor 4 or 6. WTF?

I want to download a trainer, then my antivirus kicked in and nuked it.

Need to disable that next.

EDIT: First trainer didn't work. The version I have is 1.0.10.xxx. Somehow the trainer I downloaded is for 1.1.xxx. I don't see a trainer for 1.0.10.xxxx... just 1.0.9.xxx

But I think I got past the "hump", when the RNG gods were on my side and I got enough stuff to survive. I got my guys up to level 5. The "problem" here is, you only have limited number of "revives" available (6 on rookie level). and I already used up like 3 of them.

The game is hard as ****. Chaos adds to your enemy HP. Chaos 0 = 100%. -1 = 95%, +1 = 105%, and so on. So you have to periodically hit a couple chaoses minibosses to drop the Chaos, but enemies start to get really tough... I just ran into some chaos fairies and they cast slow, protect (single use shield ward) and just wore my fighters down.

The heal mechanism is also hard as f****. Different towns have the same services, but have different inflation levels. The city's inn cost 40 gold, but the smaller town's gold was like 17 gold, yet they heal the same amount. And you only get a few gold per mission, unless you hit a super hard mission and you get teens and so on. The cost in cities is also excessive. Heal herb costs more than double in the cities.

Exploration also triggers "scourge" which is like extra bad things that happen to the terrain and increase bad things. Volcano guy has random volcanos pop up all over the map and fire over two or more hexes. There's also a "bandit king" which increase raider and thief random spawn, which also raises all the costs. I'm sure there are more. But they spawn as level 5 or 6 when I was still level 3 or 4. I had to be fully healed as level 5 to tackle level 6 enemy.

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Sun Jan 20, 2019 10:49 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Sun Jan 20, 2019 2:55 pm Have I mentioned lately how much I utterly despise Uplay (Ubisoft's portal)? I had an itch today to re-try one of the newer HOMM games, which I somehow purchased directly through there instead of via Steam. Opened the portal and:

- Took 15 minutes to update
- HOMM games didn't show up under the Games tab. I had to close it and reopened, then they magically appeared.
- Clicked on it to download, and got an error message that "The Uplay service cannot be reached. Please try again later.". Tried that 5 times, and on the 6 try, it randomly connected.
- Took 2.5 hours to download a 14GB game, even though it was claiming an average download speed of 5.6.

Gods, their portal sucks.

There are lots of things wrong with Steam, but their entire reason for existing is (ok, selling stuff, sure) being a reliable software delivery service. That's not the business that Ubisoft is in. Uplay is a half assed secondary service that doesn't receive enough attention, maintenance or resources to do what it's supposed to do, so you have situations like yours. It is frustrating. I do my best to never buy directly from a publisher. I haven't always succeeded, but I have very few games on Uplay, Battle.net (much better, I've never had a problem with it, ever), Origin and the like.

Steam was nearly as bad when it was young, and I stayed away from it too, back then.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 3:57 am

Got a little further in For the King, it seems I'm collecting weapons I can't use. I gave the magic staff to my mage, who can now deliver damage in the 20's. I think I'll switch my blacksmith back to shield + sword. Right now he has a double-handed war axe, which means big damage, but no protection. My archer still has a plain bow, haven't found her a better weapon yet. And I sure don't have enough heal herbs to crawl a dungeon.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:15 pm

A couple random game thoughts:

- Evoland 2 was on Greenman for $5, so I figured what the hell. The first one was a pretty interesting showcase of gaming history and did a good job of transitioning between multiple genres and styles. The sequel looked to be MOTS, and got decent reviews.

Unfortunately, I encountered three gamestopping bugs in the first 3 hours. One on a sliding block puzzle where you could slide the blocks to slide in such a way it was impossible to move them. The puzzle couldn't be reset, so the only way to progress was loading a previous save from 15-20 minutes back. Second bug was when I had to kill a group of skeletons to unlock a door. To kill them, you had to get them to follow you into the path of a falling block (similar to a Mario Thwomp) that crushed them. The last skeleton got stuck on a platform, and couldn't follow me. Last bug was on a block that needed to be placed in a particular spot for a puzzle. It got stuck on something in the level geometry, and I had to reload.

I'm pretty short on patience with games in general these days, and three major bugs in the first three hours is a no-go for me. Shame, as the game was actually pretty fun. Started out in a monochrome Gameboy style, then went to a 16-bit action JRPG, then moved to an 8-bit Zelda style game, then to a fully rendered 3D RPG. I played turn based battles, time management games, Metroidvania platforming, and a host of other genres. Really wish it would have been less buggy.

- I spent hundreds of hours with HOMM 3 and 4, but none of the games since have really grabbed me. I always end up hugely disappointed and quickly wander off.

I went back and re-tried a few of the newer HOMM games this weekend to see if they were worth a crap, now that the initial lofty expectations have worn off. 5 has been really good, 6 is still total buggy garbage. and 7 has been vastly improved since launch. Played through a couple random maps (a feature that wasn't available on release) this afternoon, and had a really good time. I'll state the caveat that I typically play on Easy level with Quick Combat enabled. I'm more about exploring and building the world, and less about hex-based combat. I can't speak to whether or not the AI is worth a crap, or if the difficulty is adequate from those folks wanting a significant challenge.

While I probably won't spend a ton of time with either, I'm glad I gave them both another shot. They've gone from horrible disappointments to at least passable games.

Fardaza · Post by **Fardaza** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:19 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Jan 21, 2019 9:15 pm - I spent hundreds of hours with HOMM 3 and 4, but none of the games since have really grabbed me. I always end up hugely disappointed and quickly wander off.

I went back and re-tried a few of the newer HOMM games this weekend to see if they were worth a crap, now that the initial lofty expectations have worn off. 5 has been really good, 6 is still total buggy garbage. and 7 has been vastly improved since launch. Played through a couple random maps (a feature that wasn't available on release) this afternoon, and had a really good time. I'll state the caveat that I typically play on Easy level with Quick Combat enabled. I'm more about exploring and building the world, and less about hex-based combat. I can't speak to whether or not the AI is worth a crap, or if the difficulty is adequate from those folks wanting a significant challenge.

While I probably won't spend a ton of time with either, I'm glad I gave them both another shot. They've gone from horrible disappointments to at least passable games.

I played the heck out of 1, 2, and 3.
New World Computing had their offices near me in Southern California. I don't remember which one, but I even went into their office to get the expansion for one of them. I still have one of their notepads that they used to put inside the box. Many an hour on those titles.
Never really got into 4 or 5. Haven't even tried 6 or 7.

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:06 pm

I really liked HOMM V.

Still play HOMM 3, often...

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Jan 22, 2019 10:10 pm

Well I'm playing nothing right now because after setting up three dozens laptops for our volunteer tax preparers I have done something to my right hand/wrist and currently if I try to use the mouse with my right hand I start getting shooting pains. I've switched to my left hand for now (which wasn't that hard, since I'm a lefty in a lot of other areas) and am seeing the doc tomorrow.

The good news is that Amazon doesn't care which hand I use, just so long as I spent money

GreenGoo · Post by **GreenGoo** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:18 am

Z-Corn wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:06 pm I really liked HOMM V.

Still play HOMM 3, often...

I put HOMM 3 on my wishlist when it was re-released, but I have since passed on it repeatedly despite it being within my price range across multiple sales. I guess I'm resigned to never picking it up. It was pretty great during it's heyday though.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:57 pm

GreenGoo wrote: Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:18 am
Z-Corn wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 9:06 pm I really liked HOMM V.

Still play HOMM 3, often...
I put HOMM 3 on my wishlist when it was re-released, but I have since passed on it repeatedly despite it being within my price range across multiple sales. I guess I'm resigned to never picking it up. It was pretty great during it's heyday though.

The "HD" re-release was terrible. You're far better off getting the HOMM3 collection from GOG.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:30 pm

Geometry Wars 3 doesn't quite scratch the Super Stardust HD itch, but it's plenty fun. responsive controls, nice additions to the original Geometry Wars (and it even includes a sorta upgraded 'classic mode') and some variant modes that are actually interesting. i like the one where you have no gun, but run through floating gates to destroy nearby enemies.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:58 pm

I've played all the HOMM games, 3 was great. 4 was OK. 5 was the best since 3 (particularly liked the stronghold expansion w/ the orcs and their rage mechanic). 6 was too different, kinda sucked (just talking about the basic gameplay, not counting the bugs; did not like how they implemented the faction heros - necro could not build an army - they could only raise at most what they started with). 7 is decent, couple interesting new ideas (gotta get the dwarves dlc some day - though hard to between not being overly interested in the game for a while and not being interested in the dwarves much when I am into the game).

I am not good at the games, I can usually do the campaigns, but not so good at the random maps (I just don't grok something in how to expand with starting troops well enough to get out far before AI comes along w/ much larger armies and slaughters me - I can usually conserve armies reasonably well in the fights, though I sometimes focus on that and things like ranged over other, sometimes better, tactics that might cost a few units but can take on tougher armies than I can w/ the ranged focus).

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:19 am

This is very, I guess you say meta? I'm playing a new career in the recently (as in today) released out of Early Access PC Building Simulator. So in-game I boot up my office computer and damn, the background of the desktop is the same as in my real life computer. Kind of cool, actually.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Jan 30, 2019 9:10 pm

I have HOMM 3 complete and I think I bought the chronicles too. It's okay as I can never seem to build stuff fast enough to fight the AI. Hahaha

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:47 pm

Not sure what happened (STEAM update? Win10 update?) but over the last week if I try to make game shortcuts for my desktop, they show up as Earth globes (instead of game art icons). I know I can do it the long way and browse to the folder and create it manually, but I'm at a loss for trying to figure out why this is randomly happening now. There are discussions I've seen elsewhere indicating this isn't a new problem, but I'm not entirely sure why I'm seeing it now.