Octopus Overlords

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:37 pm

This is out of early access and in full release today, anyone have experience with the game? Reviews seem good but I'm liking for some sweet OO impressions

It's... difficult. I mainly watch Wolfpack345 play and when I tried my hand at it, I either miss my mark and I crash into my own convoy ships.

But it's basically playing Greyhound the movie, but less dodging torpedoes and more about driving the U-boat deep so they don't have a firing solution. The idea is to reduce their attacks, instead of killing them.

Stormgate

From ex Blizzard folk. RTS. Looks like an old school rts to me. Kinda Starcrafty. But the way the enemies can walk through forests is kinda strange. Usuauly those work as natural walls to protect you.

Daehawk wrote: Thu Dec 07, 2023 5:25 pm Stormgate

From ex Blizzard folk. RTS. Looks like an old school rts to me. Kinda Starcrafty. But the way the enemies can walk through forests is kinda strange. Usuauly those work as natural walls to protect you.

Looks very Starcrafty. Unfortunately....

Explore an ever-evolving campaign, group up for 3P co-op vs. AI, compete in 1v1 or 3v3, or get creative in the editor.

No campaign. I've never enjoyed MP in RTS games, especially Blizzard style RTSs. They tend to be less about strategy and reacting, and more about memorizing the optimal build order and then doing it as quickly as humanly possible.

/edit - I take it back. There's a solo campaign, they just didn't explain that on the store page well (it's mentioned in the FAQ.) Apparently it's an 'evolving' campaign. I've seen games with evolving campaigns (WWII Online did something like that), but I have no idea what they mean by that in this context. It sounds like it's going to be less about following a story and more of a way to draw people into multiplayer.

Also:

Free to Play

Welcome to world of microtransactioncraft!

Kasey Chang wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 10:35 pm

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:37 pm

This is out of early access and in full release today, anyone have experience with the game? Reviews seem good but I'm liking for some sweet OO impressions

It's... difficult. I mainly watch Wolfpack345 play and when I tried my hand at it, I either miss my mark and I crash into my own convoy ships.

But it's basically playing Greyhound the movie, but less dodging torpedoes and more about driving the U-boat deep so they don't have a firing solution. The idea is to reduce their attacks, instead of killing them.

Thanks Kasey, I'll just think about this one for now.

Meanwhile, since I don't think we have a dedicated thread for this game:

The Day Before joins Overwatch 2 as one of Steam's worst-reviewed games after players discover it's not an MMO at all

Survival MMO The Day Before has become one of Steam's worst-reviewed games, and it's mostly down to the fact it's suddenly no longer an MMO.

On December 7, developer Fntastic finally released The Day Before - a game that many thought was never going to see the light of day. It started life at the top of Steam's most wishlisted list, where it stayed for quite a long time, but it's now joining the likes of Overwatch 2 as one of the worst-reviewed games on the digital storefront.

It didn't take long after its release for The Day Before to be met with several 'overwhelmingly negative' Steam reviews. In their reviews, players can be seen criticizing the game's lack of open world, poor performance, and most noticeably, the missing MMO element. "This is not an open world MMO, this is a small area extraction shooter," one reviewer writes on Steam.
...
To make matters worse, members of the game's subreddit have claimed Fntastic is removing any evidence that suggests it was ever supposed to be an MMO. According to the post below, it looks like several changes have been made in Steam's backend that remove things like the mention of 'open-world' or 'massively multiplayer'.

So, in other words, it's being review-bombed because it's not what people have expected. I can understand developers shifting focus, as it happens probably more than we realize, but seems like people are feeling pretty entitled. Pretty par for the course though in this day and age, unfortunately.

It's being review bombed because it was advertised as something that it's not.

jztemple2 wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:28 pm Meanwhile, since I don't think we have a dedicated thread for this game:

If you might be interested, there is a discount available through Green Man Gaming. My account shows a 15% discount.

Isgrimnur wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:49 pm It's being review bombed because it was advertised as something that it's not.

Well, if it was advertised that way, that's one thing. But I still feel like review bombing seems a little extreme.

Review bombing is always extreme, and it's always bullshit.

But at the same time, they really did do something crappy, and deserve to be called out for it.

Anyone know any good tablet games? Something like a mmo, rpg, city builder, or shooter even? Something without play timers or microtransactions. And looks nice.

Daehawk wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2023 4:12 am Anyone know any good tablet games? Something like a mmo, rpg, city builder, or shooter even? Something without play timers or microtransactions. And looks nice.

Zelda-clone Oceanhorn may scratch you where you itch:

About this game
You wake up and find a letter from your father. He is gone…
The only lead is his old notebook and a mysterious necklace. What happened?

Explore the islands of Uncharted Seas, a world filled with many dangers, puzzles and secrets. Fight monsters, learn to use magic and discover ancient treasures which will help you on your quest. Use all your wits and skill to unravel the mysteries of ancient kingdom Arcadia and sea monster Oceanhorn.

If you don't mind SNES-style 2D sprite graphics, the mobile version of Terraria would likely be a solid choice, too.

Oceanhorn looks cool. Ehhhhh not sold on that second one. Keep'm coming. And TY.

Daehawk wrote: Sun Dec 10, 2023 11:17 am Oceanhorn looks cool. Ehhhhh not sold on that second one. Keep'm coming. And TY.

How about replaying classic PC RPGs ported to Android? Beamdog has a variety available on Android, namely: Baldur’s Gate I and II Enhanced, Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, Icewind Dale Enhanced, Planescape: Torment Enhanced, and Neverwinter Nights Enhanced. A tablet would be ideal for replaying these, as I suspect the UI would be somewhat cramped on a mobile phone (even those with a larger than average display).

In terms of city-building with no microtransactions, check out Pocket City and/or Pocket City 2:





Also, if you're a fan of '90s-style side-scrolling beat 'em ups, Streets of Rage 4 is superb, with gorgeous hand-drawn visuals and a banging soundtrack. I haven't played the mobile version, but found the PC version to be immensely satisfying. So gameplay, sound, and visuals ought to be enjoyable on a modern tablet:

Huh cool games are out there I see. That Pocket City 2 looks interesting.

Those old games run on a tablet now?? WOW. That might be interesting.

We were outside putting Christmas lights on a new wreath and my wife, who seems surprisingly unimpressed with my decorating skills, told me that we were trying to place the lights to get a halo effect. I said "Oh, I guess that makes you Master Chief" and she had the nerve to pretend that she didn't get the reference at all

So, I spent the last couple days redeeming keys from the last several years of Humble Choice and Monthly bundles. What a pain in the ass. I'm so pissed off a couple of the Origin codes "expired". Frigging EA. Ah well....

My Steam library has bloomed from 1,400+ titles to 1,883. At least a few hundred of those I specifically want to play. This is ridiculous. But I suppose it's not much different than having a library of books. You needn't read them all, they're just there if you ever want them. Which I think is something Blackhawk previously said.

Anyway, as a result I have 80 keys to give away! So that's cool.

That is, in fact, something I've said (specifically in regards to claiming freebies that I don't currently want to play - who knows what I'll enjoy in five years!)

Train people are dang pleased with this line operations sim because it's not too hardcore, nor too simple

A new train game is picking up steam in the train game community, with Railroader picking up 97% positive reviews on Steam since its December 7 Early Access launch. A sim of both driving the trains as well as routing them, choosing cargo, and picking passengers, Railroader looks to appeal to both the sim crowd and the less-hardcore folks who enjoy games like Euro and American Truck Simulator—even roping in a few strategy and transport sim types who enjoy games like Transport Fever.

Set in the Appalachia region in the era when American railways were switching from Steam power to diesel-electric engines, the "transition era" in railway enthusiast parlance, Railroader is focused on the day-to-day operations of the whole railway rather than just yourself as a single engineer running their train. To that end it includes jobs not just driving, but working the traffic control system as a dispatcher.

To be clear before I go further, Railroader does include one of the most important things you can do with a steam engine: Pull the lever that makes the whistle go choo-choo.

The most interesting thing going here—besides the choo-choo noise—is that it includes cooperative and solo play, scaling accordingly by also providing AI railway engineers to run trains when you're not present or when you're at the switchboard. That'll let you play by yourself at any level, or run a multiplayer server that your friends (and strangers) can join in.

I'll also say that this one's got a place near to my heart, as the setting is based on the lovely mountains of western North Carolina. With its focus on the broader network of the railroad rather than single trains, this thing's about the place and time, and the business of running it all, rather than about finicky sim details.

Is it really review bombing if the game is legitimately a piece of shit? At any rate, there is no tomorrow for The Day Before.

The Day Before Studio Fntastic Announces Closure Just Days After Early Access Launch

In a bizarre update to the long The Day Before saga, studio Fntastic has announced its closure just days after the game's launch in early access last week.

"Today, we announce the closure of Fntastic studio," the company said in a statement on its X/Twitter account. "Unfortunately, The Day Before has failed financially, and we lack the funds to continue. All income received is being used to pay off debts to our partners."

Fntastic adds that the future of The Day Before and Propnight is "unknown, but the servers will remain operational."

The statement also makes a point to note that "we didn't take any money from the public during the development of The Day Before; there were no pre-orders or crowdfunding campaigns. We worked tirelessly for five years, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into the game."

Still, the closure comes after fans still did spend money on it, with it costing $39 in early access. Some players were already asking for refunds, however, even before today's closure news. The long-controversial game's early access launch was a rocky one to say the least, with the Steam page being flooded with negative reviews.

Not only was The Day Before plagued by bugs and server issues, but there were also complaints that it wasn't even what was initially advertised. While labeled as an open-world MMO, many were quick to point out that it's actually an extraction shooter. The backlash was so bad that its player count dropped almost 90% in four days, and it's already entered Steam's 10 worst-reviews games of all time.

Sad.

Skinypupy wrote: Mon Dec 04, 2023 11:31 am I bought Scarlet Nexus ages ago and spent an hour or two with it twice. Bounced off it both times because it felt like the combat would be way to difficult for my old, uncoordinated self to manage. Didn't have anything else that I was interested in, so I randomly fired it up on a whim yesterday...and spent almost 6 hours with it. Once I got past the initial learning curve, I realized that it has one of the most fun combat systems I've played quite a while. The anime sci-fi story is really well done as well, and I am completely hooked. Third time's the charm, I guess.

Finished Scarlet Nexus today and decided that it is 3/4 of a really good game. See, for the first 18'ish hours, it tells a really interesting story, has fun combat, has a simplified Persona-ish social system, and looks great. Unfortunately, the final 6 hours are a complete and utter disaster.

The story collapses from interesting to a mish-mash of tired anime cliches. The last two zones are boring, mind-numbing slogs where the game doesn't bother to do anything new or interesting, instead choosing to simply throw waves and waves of enemies at you. None of it is particularly hard, it's just hours and hours of repetitive grind. The level design looks like they just...gave up, with one level being nothing but nondescript, dull black and white hallways, and the last level being a mash-up copy/paste of all the other areas in the game. I'm guessing they also ran out of concept art for the truly unique "Others" that you fight against (weird combinations of household objects with human features), because the final hours are simply pallet swaps of previous mobs. The dialog that had been interesting turned completely lifeless, the characters all become one-note tropes, and the whole thing just devolves into a wholly forgettable mess.

I slogged through simply because I had put in so much time already and had enjoyed most of it, and I figured there had to be some sort of redeeming quality (plus, I wanted to add one more completed game to the 2023 list). There was no way a game could completely fall off a cliff the way this one did. It did very slightly redeem itself with a cool final boss battle, but then veered right back into anime nonsense land to wrap up the story.

If you would have asked me at the 10 hour mark, I would have said this game is an easy 9/10. Now that I'm done, I think a 6/10 would be really generous. probably closer to 4 or 5.

Max Peck wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:41 pm Is it really review bombing if the game is legitimately a piece of shit? At any rate, there is no tomorrow for The Day Before.

I've been reading up on it. My conclusion: Good riddance.

They promised an open-world zombie survival MMO and ended up being the most wishlisted game on Steam for two years based on an amazing trailer. More people had this on their wishlist than had Starfield. I remember seeing it. It looked a lot like The Division. They eventually released some gameplay footage (that we now know never actually existed) showing how amazing the game looked and played. What they released (and charged for) is an a PvP extraction shooter with practically none of the elements from the trailer, none of the features they described, wasn't even in the genre they described it as, and apparently consisted almost entirely of store-bought assets (IE - it was an asset flip.) Instead of being a run-down city swarming with zombies, there were apparently almost no zombies, with only three or four per hour.

In addition to that, they've had multiple copyright battles, controversies involving using unpaid labor, and all sorts of other crap.

At the end of the day, it sounds like they either A) over-promised, realized they couldn't deliver, and decided to play bait-and-switch instead, or they just ran it as a straight-up scam to begin with.

So, yeah - good riddance.

/edit - here, from Gameranx, whose reviews I usually trust. I'll just queue up the conclusion at the end.

Max Peck wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:41 pm The Day Before Studio Fntastic Announces Closure Just Days After Early Access Launch

Red flags begin to wave.



If you're not getting the image, one of the company's other games just had it's developer's listed name changed. And there are no other games on record for 'Eight Points.'

Maybe they sold it. Or maybe they're 'shutting down', only to turn up the next day as the National Bocialist party, without doing war crimes.

Send in the lawyers.

I need me a super hero MMO. Is there one still at least a little active with players? DC Online? Did anything come of the City of Heroes public server? Whats out there>? Nothing Im betting.

Playing, or should I say, surviving Tin Can, the ultimate spinning plate survival horror... how long can you juggle what you got to keep your lifepod working (and yourself breathing)? I think I need to play with the sandbox to understand what can be pulled off which stuff. I've survived the 6 minute and 10 minute benchmark so far, but 15 minutes thus eludes me. I think I know what to do, but not quite sure HOW to do it, LOL.

I played Tin Can when it came out, I think I put eight hours into it. Fun premise, I don't remember how long I lasted.

Blackhawk wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 10:54 pm

Max Peck wrote: Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:41 pm The Day Before Studio Fntastic Announces Closure Just Days After Early Access Launch

Red flags begin to wave.



If you're not getting the image, one of the company's other games just had it's developer's listed name changed. And there are no other games on record for 'Eight Points.'

Maybe they sold it. Or maybe they're 'shutting down', only to turn up the next day as the National Bocialist party, without doing war crimes.

"8 Points" is the name Fntastic operated under for the Kickstarter that initially funded The Wild Eight. The name change from 8 Points to Fntastic happened in 2017. Apparently they also sold the game to their publisher (Hype Train Digital) in 2017, so my guess would be that the publisher changed the developer credit in a futile attempt to avoid blow-back from Fntastic's implosion.

Makes sense.

I'll admit - I have a raw spot when it comes to crappy companies taking advantage of people for fun and profit.

E3 has called it quits for good.

Not unexpected, but still bittersweet.

Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 12:34 am Playing, or should I say, surviving Tin Can, the ultimate spinning plate survival horror... how long can you juggle what you got to keep your lifepod working (and yourself breathing)? I think I need to play with the sandbox to understand what can be pulled off which stuff. I've survived the 6 minute and 10 minute benchmark so far, but 15 minutes thus eludes me. I think I know what to do, but not quite sure HOW to do it, LOL.

Thirty-one minutes



Be sure to read the Pod Technical Manual! There is a lot of good info there, but cleverly the devs have dressed it up to look like a real tech manual.

Finally, here are the error codes in an alpha-numeric ordered list, taken from the manual. This should save you some time, since they are not in alpha-numeric order in the manual

E3 will be remembered in history.

Skinypupy wrote: Tue Dec 12, 2023 4:28 pm E3 has called it quits for good.

Seems odd if ‘each one bigger than the last’ was true. I’m completely ignorant of the context here, but usually the death of trade shows is caused by stagnation, not growth.

I guess if you have the wrong kind of attendee growth, and a decline of exhibitors, that would make sense.

Some things get untenable. Some things get too political. Some things lose their profitability. Then there was the whole COVID thing.

2020 no show
2021 some virtual bs show
2022 no show but be ready for better next year
2023 next year its dead Jim. "What do I look like Jim, a undertaker?"

From Steam news, New Quality of Life Workshop Features

We've recently added some features to the Workshop that should be pretty useful for both new and power users alike.

The new Steam Client beta has various improvements around Workshop, including displaying which item is being downloaded in the Downloads page, and an improved interface for dealing with your Workshop item subscriptions (accessible from your game's Properties dialog). The subscription list now contains additional information, such as when the item was last updated, when you subscribed to it, and any item dependencies. You can also filter your list by name or by tag.

For more advanced use cases, you can disable items from being loaded by your game. And you can now change the local load order for your items. Also, if Workshop creators have set their items as depending on other items, you can automatically set the load order based on these dependencies. Missing dependencies will also be displayed, to make it easier to see why some mods are not working. You can opt into the Steam Client beta to try out these changes.

On the web side of things, we've added Saved Search Queries. Basically, if you often find yourself searching/sorting/filtering to find the same kind of items in a game's Workshop, you can now save those search query parameters. Then you can re-run your search at any time by selecting that saved search query from your game's Workshop home page.

We've also added some more browsing options to the main Workshop Home page. You can now filter to games that have Workshops based on whether you recently visited them, and we've brought back the ability to view Workshops for games you own or have recent playtime in.

Carpet_pissr wrote: Wed Dec 13, 2023 11:52 am Seems odd if ‘each one bigger than the last’ was true. I’m completely ignorant of the context here, but usually the death of trade shows is caused by stagnation, not growth.

I guess if you have the wrong kind of attendee growth, and a decline of exhibitors, that would make sense.

If that is actual growth rather than spectacle. If it's spectacle, you end up make 'bigger than last time' into an unsustainable power creep.

E3 failed because they tried to do too much, and because they refused to adapt.

As I recall, they suffered from the fact that they were a retail show in the post-retail era, and they suffered from the fact that, instead of adapting to a changing market, they stayed the same, which spawned competition that was more relevant. They tried to remain an industry-only event until the very end (the public wasn't allowed in E3), and the 'bigger' power creep meant that companies wanting to announce new products were expected to host massive stage shows with top-tier performers and stars to crowded auditoriums. Eventually, the companies started to shy away from it. Those presentations were massively expensive, and took months to produce, pulling developers away from actually working on their actual products. I remember that Nintendo was the first to skip E3, doing their own announcement event via livestream only (which for 99.9% of the interested population was exactly how they were used to seeing E3.)

Then more companies started doing their own thing. Blizzard made their announcements at Blizzcon. Many companies started doing it during the Game Awards or Pax, but with a much lesser production (they'd send an executive or presenter rather than having half of the devs there, and would have trailers rather than Metallica.)

Then COVID hit.

Creative Assembly is eating some Total War crow for Christmas this year.

A Message from Total War’s Leadership Team

Dear Total War fans,

I’m Roger Collum, Vice President at Creative Assembly, and writing on behalf of our Total War leadership team.

It has been a difficult few months, and we recognize that we have made mistakes when it comes to our relationship with you all. It’s been a constant conversation internally on how we can get back to solid ground. What’s clear is that it won’t be easy and that it will take time and effort.

We see the confusion, the frustration, and the distrust of us across the community and honestly, it breaks our hearts. We make games to bring you joy, to inspire a love of history, of fantasy, and strategy games. Total War is our everything, we care about it as deeply as you. Recently, it’s clear that we have failed to demonstrate that in our actions.

We are sorry.

We cannot fix our issues overnight, but we will work towards a more transparent, and consistent relationship with you all.

Total War is a big and complex ship to steer, built on decades of knowledge, passion and technology. The slow and steady pace we’ve taken up till now has benefited us in the past, but today we see the need to react faster to help address the challenges that are ahead of us.

So, let’s talk about those challenges, and what you can expect from both Total War: WARHAMMER III, and Total War: PHARAOH going forward.

tl;dr: They know they screwed up the last Warhammer III DLC and are going to try to fix it. They know they screwed up Pharaoh, so they have reduced the price on the base game and removed the higher priced versions and are refunding the difference in price to people who already bought the game. My refund showed up in my Steam wallet this morning. The initial DLC that was bundled in the more expensive versions is going to be freeLC now.