Video Games: Doing Archaeology With A Shotgun

[Werthead]

Excellent tips here on how to get XCOM2 running better. They work quite well without impacting visual quality much.

[briantw]

32 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Some people are very angry that Quantum Break is coming out on PC as well as XB1. Some players have even cancelled their pre-order. Which is a bit bizarre.

It's weird because it was always acknowledged that QB was going to come out on PC as well (Remedy made it clear during the Alan Wake kerfuffle that they weren't going to do that "pretending it's not coming out" thing again) and that QB was only going to be an XB1 console exclusive (not exclusive full stop). QB was also going to be a launch title, so when it missed that title a key reason for timed exclusivity vanished. Finally, the XB1 has not sold in the numbers required to justify a brand new IP being exclusive (but if QB is absolutely massive on XB1, expect QB2 to be a timed exclusive), so it's no surprise that Remedy and Microsoft have moved it up to having release date parity.

Microsoft are still creating obstacles here though. QB won't be on Steam, it'll be exclusive to the Microsoft Store. It'll also be a Windows 10 exclusive, apparently as it uses DirectX 12. It also requires hefty graphics card firepower to run on recommended settings above HD. So it's not like it's going to be selling gangbusters on PC without a Steam release or lower specs.

I guess we'll see on 5 April. What is very nice is that the XB1 version of QB will come with the new XB1 edition of Alan Wake and its expansions and its semi-sequel for free, and XB1 owners of the game will be able to play on both XB1 and PC and exchange saves between them.

Seems silly to kneecap your sales like that by not making it a Steam release.

[The Anti-Targ]

30 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Some people are very angry that Quantum Break is coming out on PC as well as XB1. Some players have even cancelled their pre-order. Which is a bit bizarre.

It's weird because it was always acknowledged that QB was going to come out on PC as well (Remedy made it clear during the Alan Wake kerfuffle that they weren't going to do that "pretending it's not coming out" thing again) and that QB was only going to be an XB1 console exclusive (not exclusive full stop). QB was also going to be a launch title, so when it missed that title a key reason for timed exclusivity vanished. Finally, the XB1 has not sold in the numbers required to justify a brand new IP being exclusive (but if QB is absolutely massive on XB1, expect QB2 to be a timed exclusive), so it's no surprise that Remedy and Microsoft have moved it up to having release date parity.

Microsoft are still creating obstacles here though. QB won't be on Steam, it'll be exclusive to the Microsoft Store. It'll also be a Windows 10 exclusive, apparently as it uses DirectX 12. It also requires hefty graphics card firepower to run on recommended settings above HD. So it's not like it's going to be selling gangbusters on PC without a Steam release or lower specs.

I guess we'll see on 5 April. What is very nice is that the XB1 version of QB will come with the new XB1 edition of Alan Wake and its expansions and its semi-sequel for free, and XB1 owners of the game will be able to play on both XB1 and PC and exchange saves between them.

I never knew it was coming to PC. So does that mean the corresponding TV show isn't going to be exclusively streamed to Xb one or will you still need an XBL account in order to be able to watch the TV show?

Just started Wasteland 2 last night. I'm interested for sure, but playing on console does make reading the text on the TV screen 2.5 metres away quite a strain. Luckily for all the important NPCs there's voice as well as text, but hopefully with a patch they might make the text bold. I've already set the text to large, but because the font is...thin?... reading it still requires more focus than for text heavy games principally designed for console (e.g. all those JRPGs)

[Kalbear]

I'm almost done with one play through with xcom2, and...I'm kind of disappointed.

The game play is still very tactically rich in combat, with one big exception. The problem I have is how streamlined they made it outside of combat.

There isn't that much to research. Because you can't capture guys you can't research that aspect at all. As a result the choices of what to research aren't nearly as hard. Some of that is folded into the proving grounds but only some.

The bigger loss, imo, is the recovery of stuff after missions. I like the loot drops, they're cool. But in xcom one of the choices that had to be made was use of explosives or even nonlethals, because explosives destroyed loot and nonlethals let you keep the plasma guns. There is no real choice here now, and as a result explosives become crazy good. That explosives also shred armor make them incredible - but remove a lot of the tension and reward of not having to kill things or set up traps for the enemy so that you can disable.

And because any time you build an item that isn't proving grounds you get unlimited copies of it, there's very little tension of getting those resources. Your squad doesn't have that one guy with plasma, it has everyone with it right away.

The end result was that the tactical game felt like bringing as many Grenadiers as I could manage, blowing the shit out of random pods (often using a concealed Ranger to be a forward observer), not caring a ton about skullmining and using said explosives to make everyone else's shots better due to removing cover.

Another loss for me was sharpshooters. With the timing thing and the power of explosives and prevalence of armor, they just had a problem due to them having to not move when shooting. They lagged too far behind. Pistols, oddly, seem pretty awesome - I might try a pistolero next time.

[Werthead]

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I never knew it was coming to PC. So does that mean the corresponding TV show isn't going to be exclusively streamed to Xb one or will you still need an XBL account in order to be able to watch the TV show?

It's part of the game itself, so as far as I know you'll get access to it either way.

Quote

Seems silly to kneecap your sales like that by not making it a Steam release.

Microsoft want to try to take back some control of the market, which is groan-inducing as this is not the way of doing it. They also want to crosslink the XB1 and PC versions of the game through a Microsoft game account which links with X-Box Live, which at least gives a technical reason for doing it. But it's still a bit gimmicky. I don't know how many people will be playing the game on an XB1, switching to PC and switching back again. Probably not many.

Quote

The bigger loss, imo, is the recovery of stuff after missions. I like the loot drops, they're cool. But in xcom one of the choices that had to be made was use of explosives or even nonlethals, because explosives destroyed loot and nonlethals let you keep the plasma guns. There is no real choice here now, and as a result explosives become crazy good. That explosives also shred armor make them incredible - but remove a lot of the tension and reward of not having to kill things or set up traps for the enemy so that you can disable.

I've definitely had loot destroyed by explosives before I could pick it up, which is the same issue as in the first game.

Something slightly odd happened. I was up against the wall and had nearly lost the game: 1 blip on the Avatar counter left, almost my entire reserve of manpower in the hospital and no money. Then I caught a lucky break as the month ticked over, suddenly I had lots of money and thanks to a new scientist helped me suddenly upgraded my entire weapons stash in just a couple of days. Then everyone recovered and I smashed two Avatar sites in a row (I took down an Archon with two hits and a grenade!) and suddenly it feels like I've almost won the game.

Being able to make a sweet comeback is cool, but I'm not sure that going from 90% loss to like 70% win in the space of an hour's playtime is such a great thing.

[Kalbear]

You can destroy the loot drop - and as far as I know there's only one - but the loss isn't that big a deal. At best it's one elerium core, along with some weapon mods. That's nice, but it's not nearly as big a deal as, say, not getting any alien alloys or even getting a plasma rifle can be.

Also note that even if the avatar counter goes to full you have 20 days to reduce it. So you weren't that close to losing.

[The Anti-Targ]

52 minutes ago, Werthead said:

It's part of the game itself, so as far as I know you'll get access to it either way.

 

A shame I won't have a PC capable of handling the game.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

It's part of the game itself, so as far as I know you'll get access to it either way.

So it's basically like those old command & conquer games that had cinematic cut scenes with actual actors in between each mission, only this time each cut scene is an episode long, and it comes in whatever order you do stuff in the game. Cool, I guess.

I know Defiance tried this kind of stuff, but I wasn't interested to play a MMO and the show kinda sucked, too.

[MerenthaClone]

4 hours ago, Kalbear said:

You can destroy the loot drop - and as far as I know there's only one - but the loss isn't that big a deal. At best it's one elerium core, along with some weapon mods. That's nice, but it's not nearly as big a deal as, say, not getting any alien alloys or even getting a plasma rifle can be.

I don't know, I'd do obscene things for more cores now that I've seen what a Shredstorm Cannon can do to the aliens.  

But in general, as I get further in, I'm agreeing with you on the relatively shallowness of the tech tree.  I was almost done with all of it with only 4 scientists and no labs built around the time I met Andromedons, with (mostly) only the autopsy-related stuff for enemies I hadn't actually met yet remaining.  And while I appreciate the upgrading concept, it almost seems to run counter to their idea of stressing the importance of evac'ing soldiers with good gear.  Yeah, I'm going to make a lot of effort to get my Shredstorm WAR suit and fully upgraded plasma cannon out of a rough zone, but how much more interesting would it be early on when your only set of predator armor goes down?  And, like all of XCOM games, it goes from being a frantic scramble in the beginning to a victory lap pretty quickly, a factor largely related to the "oh look, I suddenly have mag weaponry on everyone now!" effect.  On the other hand, given how punishing the early game can be, losing your only set of predator armor in addition to your best troop might send you even further into a death spiral.  I don't know, but I'd like to see that difficulty curve smoothed out a bit and some research times tweaked.  I also don't know what to do about explosives because I found the same route you did:  just level city blocks.  My late-game squad mostly consists of a hacker specialist, psyop, shotgun ranger, gunslinger (yes, pistols are awesome though I think a hybrid might be better) and two grenadiers, both with Salvo, and 2-3 grenades each (plus a heavy weapon).  One has saturation fire for even more cover removal and other has Hail of Bullets for guaranteed shredding effects, plus the idea of just emptying that much fire downrange to hit a single target (as a high-level skill) amuses me.  Basically, my squad is just running wild through cities hooting and hollering, indiscriminately throwing grenades at anything that moves and firing wildly into the air just in case a cockroach somehow survived the initial barrage. 

I will be greeted as liberators, dammit! 

 

e:  I mean, my last retaliation mission I may have killed the aliens coming to raid the haven, but I also...kind of completely demolished the haven.  There wasn't a structure with more than two walls remaining when I was done.  In Siberia.  Civilians saved, mission accomplished, Menace 1-5 out.  Good luck dudes!

The mission after that had me accidentally blowing up like 4 civs on a map that I hadn't even seen because they caught the far end of that shredstorm cannon blast I keep bringing up because its so insanely good.  Sure is a good thing I saved those eight civs from the last retaliation mission!

[peterbound]

Is there a destiny thread around these parts?  I can't seem to sift through all the bullshit 'destiny' search strings that pop up.  

I need some folks to run raids and the such with.  This shit is getting harder and harder, and I'm pretty sure my son is getting annoyed at me asking him to help out his old man. 

[Rhom]

13 hours ago, peterbound said:

Is there a destiny thread around these parts?  I can't seem to sift through all the bullshit 'destiny' search strings that pop up.  

I need some folks to run raids and the such with.  This shit is getting harder and harder, and I'm pretty sure my son is getting annoyed at me asking him to help out his old man. 

I feel like we had a thread when it first launched.  There were a few around here that played pretty actively back then.  I've got it on PS4.  I haven't played since a couple months after Taken King though.

[Rhom]

Final Fantasy IX was released on the App Store this week.  I took the plunge and downloaded it.  I only played it once back when it first came out in 2001.  So I look forward to going through it again.

I did find a problem with it though... the ATB system is much less attention deficit friendly than the Dragon Quest games I've been playing on my iPhone!  If my attention is taken away from the game in one of those mid combat, no big deal.  Last night I found myself nodding off a bit while playing it in bed and wound up losing in one of my first real fights!   

[The Mance]

On February 12, 2016 at 1:55 AM, peterbound said:

Is there a destiny thread around these parts?  I can't seem to sift through all the bullshit 'destiny' search strings that pop up.  

I need some folks to run raids and the such with.  This shit is getting harder and harder, and I'm pretty sure my son is getting annoyed at me asking him to help out his old man. 

I just got the Taken King a week or so ago, so I'm playing again.  I don't have many Destiny friends though, so I'm mostly lone wolfing it.  Haven't done any raids or much crucible, but I can run strikes and story missions with you.  xbox live Sicknwrong.

[peterbound]

6 hours ago, The Mance said:

I just got the Taken King a week or so ago, so I'm playing again.  I don't have many Destiny friends though, so I'm mostly lone wolfing it.  Haven't done any raids or much crucible, but I can run strikes and story missions with you.  xbox live Sicknwrong.

cool  sent you a pm on live

[Werthead]

The Torment: Tides of Numenera previews are sounding pretty good. Looking forwards to this one a lot.

[Werthead]

The Fallout 4 DLC sounds...okay, I guess? The first one allows you to build your own robot companions. The second one gives you an arena to pit monsters against your settlers (!?) and the third one is a proper expansion set on a big island with lots of new quests to get involved with.

What's a bit baffling is that Bethesda have decided this stuff is worth more money than they were charging, so they've put the price up. Given that two of these three expansions can be characterised as "dicking around with workshop stuff" (which I would hazard the majority of players don't spend that amount of time doing) and only one as a proper expansion, I actually think the reverse would be far more appropriate.

The days of getting four or five multi-hour, narrative-focused expansions for Bethesda games appear to be behind us, alas.

[The Drunkard]

The first two sound lame and won't be worth whatever they end up charging, especially with something like Hearts of Stone only costing $10. Gimme Blood and Wine.

[Sullen]

DLC for 25$ seems... excessive... especially if that is in US currency.

Otherwise, just started playing Renowned Explorers. I have to admit, I've had more fun with it than with any of last year's big releases... it's insane.

Also, Paradox just announced they'll patch CK2 soon, fixing what they broke with the latest expansion. I am rejoicing.

I finally got my confirmation from Larian Studios that my backing of Divinity: OS 2 went through, I was worried for a bit that it might have been for nothing, considering the unorthodox way I supported the project and the complete silence from them since the backing last year. 

And ultimately we should get more info about Mount & Blade: Bannerlord in the following month, which is also excellent news.

February seems to be a good month for gaming so far.

[Fez]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Torment: Tides of Numenera previews are sounding pretty good. Looking forwards to this one a lot.

I'd been looking forward to this one for ages, and then just sort of forgot it existed. I recall it being mentioned at the same time as Divinity: Original Sin and Wasteland 2, and those both came out a while ago now. Nice to hear that it seems to be coming together to something good.

 

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

The Fallout 4 DLC sounds...okay, I guess?

With this news out, I am now even more baffled about what Bethesda will actually talk about at their separate E3 event.

[Rhom]

Because we are suckers and re-upped for the expensive cable package with Comcast... I got a $250 prepaid gift card in the mail this weekend.  Just in time for me to purchase Street Fighter V and while I'm at it, the Nathan Drake collection.   

(Full disclosure:  My wife now works from home teaching several webinars a week on banking compliance.  So our only option in the area is to have the most expensive internet package, at that point the cable is actually just practically tacked on.)