Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[YellowKing]

I popped back into Lord of the Rings Online for a bit, and I'm having a good time. It was probably a bad idea considering I plan on playing New World: Aeternum in a couple of weeks, but I was itching for some MMO action to tide me over.

I subbed for a month to try out the Legendary servers, which are the original base game with time-locked expansions opening up gradually. For these servers they added a mechanic in which ringwraiths will sometimes randomly appear to hunt you down, making for a challenging and unexpected experience. It's annoying at low levels when they're nearly impossible to kill, but once you can hold your own they present a fun challenge, and the tattered shadows they drop can be traded for items.

The legendary servers have also been converted to 64-bit, so there's a noticeable performance improvement. The UI is still dated (the game is 17 years old after all), but I followed some graphical tweak suggestions from YouTube and have the game looking pretty darn good for its age.

This time around I'm really focusing on the story quests (which are now all 100% soloable), because the story journey is really well done and is very faithful to Tolkien's works.

Renfail on YouTube is a huge LOTRO fan and a great ambassador for the game. Watching his videos was in large part a reason I came back. The devs have really stuck by the game all these years and are continuing to put work into it which is attracting a lot of new and returning players.

[Daehawk]

I used to like to fish in the Shire and to hold spontaneous bard music festivals in towns with that old way they had of loading music into the game with midi or something. All lost me now.

I was just telling my old online playing buddy about what is a mmo with a lot of water and no fishing??

[Rumpy]

I used to play LOTRO long ago, and got banned, and not particularly for anything I did. A friend of mine had bought me a subscription so that I could play together with them. I played for many months before anything became an issue. Out of the blue, I was banned. My friend went back and forth with tech support and apparently it came out they had an issue with the fact that the payee's IP address on file didn't match the one doing the playing (me), and my friend had tried to convince them to unban, but they were having none of it.

[Fardaza]

I played LOTRO from beta for almost 3 years solid. Very few other games got my time back then. I still check in every now and then. I think my highest level character is 80. That shows you how casually I approach the game.

My favorite memory was going on a run to advance my cooking (?) character's level. Back then you had to go on a quest to advance levels of crafting, and they were not easy considering my guy was lower level than the area we were traveling through. I needed to get to Esteldin. I had a couple of guild friends escorting me, but the mobs were having none of it! They sensed I was too low a level and almost ignored them in an effort to thwart my plans. I ended up dying a couple times before we gave up. The best memory was running along and shouting, "Thar be GOLD here!" as I saw my first ever gold node. Died shortly thereafter.

[Daehawk]

[Unagi]

In case any of you have been waiting your whole life for a game like this, I thought I would let you know that it is out now.

I have no plans on getting it, but - yeah, I couldn't see this and not put a light on it.

Three limbs ripped off, infected with a deadly parasite, you must survive. Drag yourself through the hallways of an infested arcship, fight off twisted eldritch creatures, craft vaccines and ammunition, and escape to civilization.

Features:
One handed in game, one handed in real life: Everything is mouse-controlled
Guns are manually loaded one bullet at a time
Your healthbar is a parasite burrowing to your brain
...

[Daehawk]

I just now had to disable my old physical fob security key generator for World of Warcraft and Battlet.net and replace it with the virtual app on my phone like I did my SWTOR one back a ways. This thing lasted like19 years! My SWTOW one died like 6 years ago. Wow damn

[Max Peck]

I switched my SWTOR 2FA over to Google Authenticator back in January, but the battery in my physical security key gave up the ghost sometime before that.

[Skinypupy]

It was probably a bad idea considering I plan on playing New World: Aeternum in a couple of weeks, but I was itching for some MMO action to tide me over.

I was hoping Throne & Liberty might scratch the itch until New World. Spent most of today playing and my overwhelming impression is…meh. It looks pretty, but the combat isn’t very fun, the world is bland, the story and quests are hot garbage, and both the character and gear advancement feels overly complex and just kinda weird. It’s got that same “technically competent but completely soulless” feel that so many of the Korean MMOs have. I’ll probably keep playing for a week until New World, but more because there’s nothing else I’m interested in than because it’s any good.

Also, it’s weird to me that Amazon Game Studios would release their two big MMOs within a couple weeks of each other. Seems like that would cause unnecessary competition from people choosing one or the other.

[YellowKing]

I was hoping Throne & Liberty might scratch the itch until New World. Spent most of today playing and my overwhelming impression is…meh.

I'm right there with you. After messing around with it a bit, I started watching YouTube beginner's guides and was immediately turned off when I found out a lot of them were saying "You have to follow a build guide or you're going to be screwed." Sounds like it gives the illusion of being able to freely switch weapon styles ala New World, but unlike New World you're going to really struggle to change at later levels. Plus I've heard it gets very pay to win later on, and that's a huge turn off.

I think it's probably a good game for people who are into those hardcore Eastern-style MMOs, but that's just not my bag. Lost Ark and Black Desert Online never clicked me with either for the same reason.

I'm still diddling around with LOTRO while I wait for Aeternum, but I'm pretty sure once Aeternum hits that will be my mainstay for awhile.

[Skinypupy]

I'm still diddling around with LOTRO while I wait for Aeternum, but I'm pretty sure once Aeternum hits that will be my mainstay for awhile.

What UI mods are you using? I tried LOTRO a couple years ago and while I liked it, the dated UI drove me a little nuts.

[YellowKing]

What UI mods are you using?

I'm not using any mods, but I did go into settings and resized all the UI elements to make them bigger.

[Daehawk]

Thats me...my engineer getup ....in the middle.

[GreenGoo]

Silent Hill 2 remake, only CDN$93. Lol.

[Max Peck]

This would fit in too many different threads, so it goes in none of them...

[YellowKing]

I put a couple more hours into Throne and Liberty last night (mainly out of pure boredom), and I have to admit it has grown on me quite a bit now that the combat has started clicking.

I really like how graphically impressive it is, particularly the cool transitions when entering instanced buildings (there's no load screen, but instead it smoothly animates you opening the door in a zoomed in view to reveal the room).

The crafting and upgrade system is a lot to take in, and I haven't fully wrapped my head around everything yet, but I do think it's neat that you can upgrade weapons and skills at your leisure. For instance, I'm playing a paladin (greatsword/wand combo), but I only use the wand for healing. So I focused all my skill upgrades into the healing skill and ignored the others. That kind of flexibility is pretty cool.

The other positive I'll say is that they really streamlined some basic MMO mechanics. No calling mounts - you just transform into a "mount" with the push of a button and go. It makes getting around so easy. No searching for crafting stations to upgrade gear - you can do that from anywhere (though there are dedicated NPC crafters you need to visit to craft brand new items).

There's still a ton I don't really understand, and I haven't played nearly enough to hit any pay-to-win frustration, but I'm enjoying it for now. I still think New World: Aeternum fits my playstyle better and will be my primary, but I could certainly see messing around with this one as a secondary.

[GreenGoo]

Tarnished Blood.

Splattercat, an indie game promoter on Youtube, brought this to my attention this morning. Early access, natch.

Seems to be a weird combination of Darkest Dungeon (sorta.), Monster Hunter (kill monsters, use parts), Phantom Brigade (shows monster's actions, adjust your actions to take into account) and maybe a few other things as well. Looks really interesting to me.

[Unagi]

Yeah, that has some really really interesting mechanics to it.
(I'm also a Splattercat viewer, from time to time)

[TheMix]

That looks really interesting. For some reason it's giving me "computer version of Kingdom Death Monster" vibes... even though I've never played the board game.

[GreenGoo]

Lol, there is a comment that basically calls it Kingdom Death. I had no idea what that was.

[TheMix]

Lol, there is a comment that basically calls it Kingdom Death. I had no idea what that was.

For your casual reading...
https://cad-comic.com/kingdom-death-mon ... n-journal/

The game looked amazing. But since I knew I'd likely never get around to playing it, the price was way too much. I think someone, maybe Smoove, has a copy though.

[Smoove_B]

I do. Managed to grab a lucky Black Friday cheap pledge which was probably peak KS for me. Hadn't heard of this video game, but I'll check it out!

[Punisher]

I do. Managed to grab a lucky Black Friday cheap pledge which was probably peak KS for me. Hadn't heard of this video game, but I'll check it out!

I too have it. Mostly due to FOMO. I've read through the manual and it's definitely interesting. Have a few of the expansions and figures as well.
One of many games I really want to play but it's hard. Soon many games to choose from and this one requires yiu to assemble the figures so can't even have an embarrassing unpainted game out of the box.

[Punisher]

This looks really cool.

[Daehawk]

I found and installed Throne and Liberty last night. Haven't played yet. Some mmo Ive never even heard of.

[Max Peck]

There are some impressions of Throne & Liberty in this thread, starting here.

[YellowKing]

I'll start a new Throne and Liberty thread since I'm still playing and giving impressions.

[Punisher]

https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-now- ... 4360817261

TLDR. A new California law is going to be in affect in 2025.

The law, AB 2426, prohibits online storefronts from using the words "buy, purchase, or any other term which a reasonable person would understand to confer an unrestricted ownership interest in the digital good or alongside an option for a time-limited rental." The law won't apply to storefronts that state in "plain language" that you're actually just licensing the digital content and that license could expire at any time, or to products that can be permanently downloaded. Companies that violate the terms could be hit with a false advertising fine.

[GreenGoo]

I think that's an important distinction that many people don't understand. I applaud the truth of it even if I don't think it will make any practical difference.

People need to know what they are getting for their money. That's not a crazy idea.

[Punisher]

I definitely agree!
I think it was only recently that I realized this. It hasn't happened to me as far as I know but started hearing about it here. It is a VERY disconcerting that for a lot of people who lost money on their game when it was removed without warning.

[Jaymann]

A good idea. Will probably just lead to some altered semantics.

[hitbyambulance]

Metaphor: ReFantazio - from the team behind Persona 3, 4 and 5

[GreenGoo]

A good idea. Will probably just lead to some altered semantics.

Yes. Still, public awareness is a valuable goal in itself.

[Max Peck]

Humanoid Simulacrum Mark Zuckerberg Says He's Probably The Best Civilization Player In The World

“Priscilla looked at my Steam account the other day and she’s like ‘What?! You’ve played this for more than a thousand hours?’”

Zuckerberg then went on to claim that he wants to be the best in the world at Civilization, and suggested he’d even stream online and face other people to prove his skills.

“In terms of strategy games, the one that I’m more likely to want to be the best in the world at is Civilization,” said Zuckerberg. “I think at some point I should do like a Twitch stream of me playing with someone because I’m pretty convinced that I’m close to Grandmaster status. I’d be surprised if anyone in the world could beat me at that.”

It is interesting that Zuckerberg, in this hypothetical situation where he plays Civilization online against other people and streams it, decided to stream on Twitch and not Facebook. You know, the website he co-founded and owns. The social media site has spent years trying to get people to stream games on it.

Anyway, over on Reddit, the reactions to this have been about what you would expect. A few people have pointed out that they have more hours and have even suggested that a thousand hours in the strategy game isn’t that much, and said they could probably defeat Zuckerberg online.

I'm pretty sure we have more than a couple of people here who've logged much more than a thousand hours playing any given Civ game.

[Max Peck]

For your Saturday reading pleasure, here is a long but interesting history of Paradox Interactive.

The Dark Age of Paradox Interactive: What exactly happened to one of PC gaming's best publishers?

Paradox Interactive once encapsulated the best parts of PC gaming. As a publisher, it celebrated niches like grand strategy and had a huge hand in expanding their popularity into full-blown genres. It took risks on new developers and gave modders the chance to create full-fledged games. There were missteps and mistakes, but from both the publishing and development side the Swedes kept knocking out bangers.

Penumbra, Mount & Blade, Crusader Kings, Stellaris, Cities: Skylines, Surviving Mars, Magicka, Age of Wonders, BattleTech—its library of games includes an impressive number of all-time greats. The Paradox of 2024, though, seems to be in free fall.

• Originally slated for 2020, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has seen constant delays and a developer switcheroo. It now won't be out until 2025.
• Cities: Skylines 2's first DLC was so poorly received and timed that everyone was refunded and it was added to the base game.
• Millennia landed with a thud, following a similar response to Star Trek: Infinite and Lamplighters League.
• Life By You, the much-touted Sims competitor from Rod Humble and Paradox Tectonic, was delayed and then cancelled right before its early access launch.
• Prison Architect 2 was delayed indefinitely, soon after its original developer was replaced.
• Paradox announced a 90% dip in operating profit in its second quarter of 2024.

While Paradox Development Studio's efforts, including Victoria 3, Crusader Kings 3 and Stellaris, appear to be going strong, when it comes to the publishing side of things it's been a rough year. A rough few years, really. But this is not the first time the company has found itself trying to weather the storm.

[GreenGoo]

I thought we had videos and discussion of Prison Architect 2 here somewhere? It's been cancelled?

[Max Peck]

The last I heard it was delayed but not outright cancelled.

[jztemple2]

The last I heard it was delayed but not outright cancelled.

There is indeed a thread. The game was delayed twice, from last spring to now and then indefinitely. Apparently a lot of work has been done on it but there were some unrevealed issues that caused Paradox to announce the delay.

[GreenGoo]

Picked it up finally. Played the tutorial. The gameplay systems felt quite a bit different than I was expecting, but very good.

[Smoove_B]

Definitely bop into the dedicated thread we had here. I haven't played in a while, but I really enjoyed my time with the game - figuring things out.