Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:39 pm

Sudy wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:12 am I played the first several hours and then promptly forgot about it. I could see myself going back to it, but the gameplay is fairly generic.

Yeah, there’s nothing memorable about it at all. I’ve mentioned before that Torchlight feels like Diablo without any soul or character, and this installment does little to change that.

That said, the core hack-n-slash gameplay loop is pretty satisfying (as it is with most ARPGs) and they seem to have sanded out a number of the rough edges that were present at launch. I haven’t had any tech issues at all. My minor gripes (outside of the general blandness of the story, monsters, and world) are the weird way selling loot works. You get a flat 8 gold for normal, 30 gold for rare, 60 gold for unique, and 100 gold foe legendary, regardless of how good or bad the item actually is. I’ve also received multiple copies of the same Legendary items, and I’m not even out of the first act.

My guess is that it won’t have enough staying power for me to see it through to the end, but it is scratching the ARPG itch for this weekend. Plus it was free (well, Gamepass free).

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:47 pm

Torchlight 1 & 2 are fine games if played with others. Alone they are kinda drab. But TL3 has had a long troubled path to release and from what Ive read and been told by friends its a mess.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:56 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:39 pm
Sudy wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:12 am I played the first several hours and then promptly forgot about it. I could see myself going back to it, but the gameplay is fairly generic.
Yeah, there’s nothing memorable about it at all. I’ve mentioned before that Torchlight feels like Diablo without any soul or character, and this installment does little to change that.

That was my feeling as well. I've played through it solo, with a group of three, and most of the way with a group of five. It didn't change my impression of it. Diablo X and Titan Quest both did it much better.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 2:41 pm

Daehawk wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 1:47 pm from what Ive read and been told by friends its a mess.

Early on, it doesn’t seem any better or worse than the previous two games, imo. It’s pretty much exactly the same.

If you like the first two, you’d probably like this one as well.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Sun Aug 29, 2021 7:49 pm

Yeah, initially I'd heard all this stuff, "It was originally designed as F2P, but they pivoted to one-time purchase and its systems are such a mess", etc. But then I tried it, and it's really not that bad. You can maybe detect the shadow of the old design, and the game is certainly grindy without some of the gratification hooks of Blizzard's dopamine masters etc., but as far as I played it was entirely competent and in no way felt as if you were playing a mobile game or something. It's not a hardcore experience, but it's not designed to be.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 5:29 am

Finished TitanFall 2 on easy. I almost bought Titanfall 1 as well, then realized it has no single-player and chose not to buy it. Titanfall 2 was stylish as heck and the campaign, while somewhat cliche (nothing gets done without our hero or his Titan). Too bad there isn't a Titanfall 3 as it did leave a lot of room for one. I did get VERY frustrated at wallrunning through. I did get past the 4 wallruns alternating thing. But wall run off one wall, jump off, bounce off POLES on the other side, keep wallrunning, and do it two more times? Sorry, I'm going to cheat.

Which also broke the mission progression trigger.

Since I was able to "fly" to places I'm not supposed to. Had to redo the beacon mission.

Fun. Definitely fun.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:28 pm

So I'm playing Fallout 4 and I'm walking along the shore. I see some dead sharks there. And I'm thinking...........I better be careful, Chryssalids can pop out of those.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 31, 2021 8:21 am

I was trying to clean up my game shortcuts today. I had them in a folder. I shift-selected them all, but my clumsy fingers managed to misclick, and I proceeded to try to launch three dozen Steam games simultaneously.

That was fun.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:22 am

I'm surprised Windows doesn't have a check for that. Even e.g. Outlook 2003 does... "Are you sure you want to open 863 emails?" No... no, I really don't. I was just trying to move them. Thanks for actually being helpful for once, Outlook!

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:16 pm

Saw this in my local obits. Guess he wont be running into any more dungeons.

Wade Leroy Jenkins
August 10, 1944 - August 28, 2021

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Tue Aug 31, 2021 6:57 pm

Stupid rookery whelps.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Aug 31, 2021 9:00 pm

WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship releases this Thursday. Details below

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the championship, WRC 10 is offering a brand-new Anniversary edition, packed with new content and sensations. Relive the most intense moments from 1973 to today! WRC 10 History Mode puts your driving talents to the test through 19 historical events that require you to adapt to racing conditions of each time period.

Never-before-seen content for WRC:
- The 4 new 2021 rallies: Estonia, Croatia, Belgium and Spain
- 6 historic rallies including Acropolis, San Remo, Germany and Argentina
- 120 special stages
- 52 official teams from the 2021 season (WRC, WRC2, WRC3, Junior WRC),
- 20 legendary cars from Alpine, Audi, Lancia, Subaru, Ford, Mitsubishi, Toyota, and more...

Career Mode, unanimously hailed as one of the best-developed and most complete in a racing game, has also been comprehensively upgraded and now includes a livery editor, so you can create your own team and add your colours to contemporary cars!

With a hyper-realistic and ultra-precise physics engine, WRC 10 has made the feeling of driving even better, with better aerodynamic force, turbo and braking management, on all surfaces. The sound design has also been revamped to reinforce the immersion.

A particularly competitive eSport, with daily and weekly challenges, and clubs so you can create your own competitions, drivers can measure themselves against the community at their own levels.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:00 am

And they'll charge like $70 or $80 USD for it... Right?

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 1:06 am

Kasey Chang wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:00 am And they'll charge like $70 or $80 USD for it... Right?

No price posted for it yet, I'll post it when they do. Oddly there is a Deluxe version available through Green Man Gaming which isn't listed on Steam.

Review from Sim UK:

Update: Future content to be released, all free:

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 1:18 am

The entry list for WRC10:

Spoiler:

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 2:58 am

Installing Dirt 5 and In Other Waters, the Outer Worlds, and Dieselpunk Wars. Trying Angel Wings, and Disjunction (of GOG, one of the Humble Bundle games)

Disjunction is a 2D stealth game that's inspired by MGS and a little by Gunpoint. You play 3 different characters trying to unravel a giant conspiracy in near the Old New York City of the future dystopia. The first guy you play as is a PI good at sneaking, and you can go non-lethal. But the guards are numerous. You have first aid kit, smoke grenade, and a tazer to help you. Tazer just freezes the enemy for a few seconds, which may be enough for you get close and knock him out with your baton. Smoke grenade let you close in a bit. The other two characters will be quite different... One's wielding a large shotgun and probably less sneaking. The third is a hacker, not sure how her mission will play out.

Right now it's a bit hard, as I'm still figuring out the tactics.

Angel Wings is a visual novel with characters modeled after Korean female pop stars, but an original story that resembles dating games... Choose who you want a relationship with.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:08 am

Anyone around here play Trackmania (in any form)?

Soooo many "current" versions of this game, I am not sure any other franchise has a similar situation. To complicate (?) things further, they went back and remastered/updated the REALLY old versions!

Not a complaint, but it's kind of hard to know "what to play" in the series, if that makes sense.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:48 am

I've dabbled with Stadium, under 8 hours.

I find initial research on Wiki to be helpful.

Fardaza · Post by **Fardaza** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 11:32 am

dbt1949 wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 8:28 pm So I'm playing Fallout 4 and I'm walking along the shore. I see some dead sharks there. And I'm thinking...........I better be careful, Chryssalids can pop out of those.

Just blow them up with a grenade. Then they can't pop out Chryssalids!

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:01 pm

I think I won't be getting WRC 10

. I reinstalled DiRT Rally 2.0 to refresh my rallying skills and was reminded how glacially slow my reactions are. I did finally locate some good setup instructions for my Logitech G920, but even with the wheel being less of a problem I still just can't keep it on the island. So if I can't deal with one hardcore rally game I probably shouldn't try another.

On the other hand I did also reinstall DiRT 4 which I play pretty much exclusively for its rally content. I've completed all the career rallies but I really, really like the My Stage rally stage generator. You select one of five locations in the world, then adjusts sliders for stage length and complexity. Hit a button and the stage is generated for you to inspect. If you don't like the look of the stage, keep hitting the button and see the results. You can reverse the direction of the stage (for instance, turning an ascent stage into a decent one). Then select the time of day and the weather and save the stage to an event. I made several of these events, putting them together in themes, like racing from before dawn till after dark in Australia, or a series of really tough tarmac stages in the dark and the rain of Spain. And of course you can select what ever vehicle you want for the event. All the career rally events in DiRT 4 were created using the My Stage system.

The My Stage feature does have some drawbacks. The scenery is rather generic and while there are a lot of nice touches like road signs and the like, they can't compare visually to the bespoke stages in the WRC games or DiRT Rally. Also there are only five locations. Still, there's a lot to like about the system and with the wide variety of vehicles available, there's a lot of playability there. It is really a shame that Codemasters dropped the feature for DiRT 5 and never added more content for DiRT 4. I think it would make a really cool standalone rally game since it doesn't need WRC licensing.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:45 am

Kasey Chang wrote: Mon Aug 30, 2021 5:29 am Finished TitanFall 2 on easy.... But wall run off one wall, jump off, bounce off POLES on the other side, keep wallrunning, and do it two more times? Sorry, I'm going to cheat.

Okay, I just realized I was stupid. I was supposed to time-flip during the jump. Which just proved that Respawn is the master of level design.

Spoiler:

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 3:15 am

Playing "In Other Waters". It was one of the games I was tempted to buy during LudoNarraCon, but was glad to see I already have it. There's really not much of a "game" per see, but rather, it's a series of minimal inter/activity to bring forward more dialog. You're the "AI" in a diving suit and can barely converse with a xenobiologist studying the ocean, and looking for her friend Minae, another xeno, while exploring the weird creatures beneath the ocean. You don't actually see the creatures, just sensor scans but the text descriptions are vivid and they read right for xenobiology of sorts. Just finished chapter 1 and will continue.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:51 am

WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship released today, price $49.99 USD for the standard version, ten bucks more for the Deluxe since they give you a bundle discount.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 9:06 pm

Why do some video games allow you to have unlimited frame rates on PC by default? Doesn't that seem to be potentially dangerous in terms of overheating a video card?

Just fired up Days Gone and that's how it was set to go with a fresh install. I feel like I've read stories about that being a bad thing.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:01 pm

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:01 pm On the other hand I did also reinstall DiRT 4 which I play pretty much exclusively for its rally content.

Let me guess... gamer mode? No worries, I do the same.

Try simulation mode.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:12 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:01 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:01 pm On the other hand I did also reinstall DiRT 4 which I play pretty much exclusively for its rally content.
Let me guess... gamer mode? No worries, I do the same.

Try simulation mode.

It's been so many hours in the game since I set that stuff up, I had to go look... I'm in Gamer mode

. I believe I did try Simulation mode early on but it was just too hard. Probably why I did so poorly in DiRT Rally 2.0 and why I'll pass on WRC 10. I want to have fun with a game, not make myself miserable. Unless of course WRC 10 has a Gamer mode

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:18 pm

If it's anything like WRC8, you can turn on a lot of the assists to make things easy on yourself, as well as make the AI times slower.

EDIT: FWIW, GMG is doing 20% on WRC10, both regular and deluxe editions.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 03, 2021 2:17 pm

Im attracted to trees in all those racing games. There can be a single tree on a straight road and my car will fly to it for a hug.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Sat Sep 04, 2021 12:28 am

Thinking about racing games motivated me to reinstall Automobilista 2. I picked up the original game in early 2017 after it had been out about a year. I didn't have a wheel back then and so didn't put in a lot of hours, but I was impressed by the commitment of the dev team in making the game better and better. So when Automobilista 2 was released in March of last year I decided to keep it in mind in case I finally got around to getting a decent wheel.

When I did during the summer I picked up AM2, but I had several other racing games plus AM2 wasn't really ready for prime time so after tinkering with it for while I put it away. I've gotten it out again and I'm really impressed with all the QoL updates they have made, plus new tracks and cars. During the eighteen months since release they have added new DLC as well and intend to continue releasing new DLC into at least next year. I won't be spending too much time on it now with the new Surviving Mars DLC coming out, but it is a fun racer to go to for a break.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sat Sep 04, 2021 2:27 am

Carpet_pissr wrote: Wed Sep 01, 2021 10:08 am Anyone around here play Trackmania (in any form)?

Soooo many "current" versions of this game, I am not sure any other franchise has a similar situation. To complicate (?) things further, they went back and remastered/updated the REALLY old versions!

Not a complaint, but it's kind of hard to know "what to play" in the series, if that makes sense.

start with the F2P portion of TrackMania (2020) [the remake of TrackMania Nations]- it works really well as a demo of the gameplay loop. if you don’t care for that, no point in trying any of the other entries (much less pay for them).

also, this game is entirely viable to play with the keyboard and back in the day, was even the recommended controller method.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Sep 05, 2021 12:36 pm

I bounced off the PS4 Spider-Man pretty hard when it first came out. Couldn’t really get the hang of swinging around the city, and kept getting my arse kicked in combat.

Grabbed the Ultimate Edition for $20 yesterday, and have really been enjoying it over the last couple days. For some reason, the swinging mechanic has clicked, and now that they’ve put in a “dummy” combat level, I can actually do fights without dying to every group of mobs. It’s been far more fun than I expected.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Sep 05, 2021 1:50 pm

Screwed up the audio recording of "In Other Waters" playthrough... recorded with the wrong mic.

That's about 5 hours of play footage gone.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:06 pm

Star Wars KotOR is getting a PS5 remake

Sure would be nice if I could actually buy a PS5!

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:23 pm

Skinypupy wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:06 pm Star Wars KotOR is getting a PS5 remake

Sure would be nice if I could actually buy a PS5!

It's interesting that they describe it as "a console exclusive on PlayStation 5 at launch." That implies (to me) that it might be coming to PC earlier than expected, perhaps even at launch.

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 6:40 pm

Eurogamer pretty much says it will be out for the PC at PS launch.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:45 pm

According to starwars.com:

Announced at PlayStation Showcase 2021, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Remake will see the classic RPG return as a PlayStation 5 console exclusive at launch and for PC.

And... at this point, someone is on the verge of scolding us for not making a new thread for the game.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 10, 2021 10:23 am

Uncharted series remaster

Alan Wake remaster

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:07 pm

It's odd to me that Uncharted 4 would need to be remastered. Any improvements would be minimal at best given how good the PS4 version looked. Guess the news here is mostly for a PC release, which would add higher resolutions.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:05 pm

Thought you may like this game play video.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Mon Sep 13, 2021 3:39 pm

Was cleaning out some old drawers in my office and came across one of my old 3DS'. I think this was my very first 3DS and I would guess it's been sitting in that drawer for probably 8-10 years. The manufacture date on it is 2006. The hinge on it doesn't work great (too loose, so the top half flops back over a bit), which is ultimately why I ended up replacing it.

To my amazement, it booted right up without even plugging it in. Somehow the battery still managed to hold a charge after all that time.

It even still had the big GBA FF Advance Tactics cartridge in it. I may be doing a trip down memory lane for tonight's gaming session.