Video Games: Fantasy's Final '16

[Turinqui-Calima]

1 hour ago, KiDisaster said:

I haven't seen any of the new emotes or anything, just the skin pictures on Reddit. Zarya just seems to get no love in the skin department unfortunately. 

The brawl is an all Mei snowball fight apparently. Looking forward to trying it out when I get home from work. 

I saw all of them in this video - McCree's emote is also great!

ETA: Full Patch Notes: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20752545497

~~~

Unrelated, I have been playing the Fighting Fantasy 'games' (it's essentially just digital versions of the books) and they are amazing fun.

[l2 0 5 5]

On December 12, 2016 at 8:40 AM, Fez said:

I think I'm finally in the endgame of the Witcher 3 (though I have no idea how long it will go, probably somehow another 5-10 hours minimum). I'm several hours into the Kaer Morhan plotline, I've already come back from the Isle of Mists and ally-gathering (which took no time at all since I already did all those side quests), and this is all right up there with the Bloody Baron storyline as my favorite part of the game.

The Kaer Morhen questline was my favorite, as well. Geralt's bonding/bickering with the other Witchers is good fun. The castle itself is a pretty and remote area to be present in.

8 hours ago, Rhom said:

Switched over last night and spent more time on FFXV.  Still can't really decide how I feel about the game honestly... Fairly certain I don't like the combat.  I'm beginning to think that I want to bump the combat down to Noob level and just play through for the visuals and experience.  Maybe things will get better as more aspects to combat open up... but its not the best part of the game IMHO that's for sure.   

I second the combat point. All I really do is warp behind an enemy and try to get that blindside damage, and send Glad in like the tank he is and do damage with that sword on steroids he wields. I can see myself dumbing down the difficulty at some point (depending on how many sidequests I do to boost my exp/level ). 

==========

I bought Skyrim special edition when it was on sale around Black Friday from the PS store. The picture and landscape looks great (last played the game in '11-'12 on the 360). I went with an archer which isn't a build I ever go with. Typically go with the breton or dark elf and boost the destruction magic, and one-handed weapon. It's a nice switch up to take the stealth approach.

[briantw]

Finally got my Steam Link set up in my new apartment.  It's very impressive how flawlessly it streams games from my PC on a wired connection.  I tried it in my old apartment where running a hard wire wasn't really feasible and over wireless it was unplayable.  Wired, though, it's fantastic.  Might as well be playing on my PC.  Still iffy on the Steam controller, though.  That's going to take some getting used to.  I'm definitely going to have to break it in with some slower or turn-based games, because I just can't use it for faster games yet.

[The Drunkard]

7 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

The Kaer Morhen questline was my favorite, as well. Geralt's bonding/bickering with the other Witchers is good fun. The castle itself is a pretty and remote area to be present in.

I really wish they included Iorveth if only so you could recruit him for that fight as well. He deserved to be there.

[Corvinus85]

With the release of the Wood Elves DLC, I got back into playing Total War: Warhammer. 

I tried the Wood Elves for awhile. They are a pretty good faction, but their position in the grand campaign, as well as the need to secure amber makes them a challenging faction to play with. To be honest, I don't have much success playing this game at hard or above difficulty. I have to stay at normal.

But after the brief spell with the Wood Elves, I decided to start a campaign with Clan Angrund, because Belegar Ironhammer is a freaking cool name, and it was past due that I played a successful campaign with a dwarf faction. This, too, is very challenging, in fact more so than the Wood Elves, since one of the main campaign goals is to reclaim the clan's ancestral home, which requires the crossing of about half the Badlands, and until you do, all your units have +50% upkeep, so don't count on numerical advantage in your battles. And the starting position is not easy to secure. But secure it I did, because what this dwarf faction lacks in numbers, more than makes it up in total badassery. Starting with 4 heroes certainly gives one advantage, and those Rangers are a very strong range unit. The majority of victories came due to research + lord abilities + master engineer abilities making my range units unstoppable monsters.

So after securing the Grey Mountains region, and destroying the Crooked Moon and Tilea (because they were so annoying) I decided it was time to accomplish that primary goal and conquer Karak Eight Peaks. The armies of Chaos were tearing my imperial allies apart, so I did not wish to face their waves with +50% unit upkeep, and only one army of note. So I took Belegar and that army that I forged around him: 3 of those 4 starting heroes, a few regiments of renown, a couple of longbeards and dwarf warriors, and a bunch of Rangers, and marched them underground through the Badlands to Karak Eight Peaks. Crossing the Badlands was easier than I thought, thanks to my dwarf allies kicking some ass above surface. One of the Mutinous Gits heroes slowed my march once right near the end, but the Greenskin heroes that tried the same only got bloody noses. The complacency of the Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits was their downfall. While my army was far outnumbered (the enemy fortress garrison + near full stack army + half stack army), I had the baddest of the bad, and they proved unstoppable. So Karak Eight Peaks is now mine. I will have to spend some time securing the region, clearing the Greenskins out of there, and then turn my attention towards Chaos and those undead.

[A True Kaniggit]

Was playing Stellaris last night and I tried attacking an Awakened Empire for the first time since that last patch came out.  Sadly, I was unaware how much their fleets had actually been buffed and my fleet of 80K I sent to invade was massacred by two enemy fleets that had a combined strength of 400K.

Now after combining all my remaining fleets and building like crazy I've been able to create a stack of 300K.

It's going to be a long war. 

Edit: The climactic battle of the war wasn't as epic as it should've been. The Awakend Empire lost half its fleet fighting a different enemy, so when I went for its home system it only had one 200K available. I left 1/3 of my fleet to protect my homeworld, so I had a 200K stack as well. 

Casualties were as follows: 

Me- 

Corvettes: 67/100

Destroyers: 86/100

Cruisers: 20/100

Battleships: 12/75

Dreadnought: 0/1

Them-

Escorts: 67/67

Battlecruisers: 26/26

Titan: 1/1

Fortresses: 4/4

Space Stations: 3/3

Edit 2: Oops. I posted too soon. Looks like that second enemy stack wasn't dead like I thought it was. It was still out fighting in a different war. It showed up while I was bombarding their homeworld. 

The casualties of this battle were as follows-

Me

Corvettes: 33/33

Destroyers: 14/14

Cruisers: 80/80

Battleships: 63/63

Dreadnoughts: 1/1

Them-

Escorts: 7/43

Battlecruiser: 16/33

 

[Werthead]

Shadow Tactics continues to massively impress.

One mission required me to carefully eavesdrop on two samurai whilst they were circling around a guard post. I had my ninja on a roof nearby, a courtesan hiding in a building and they got about 2/3s of the conversation between them. I couldn't find a suitable position for my third agent until I realised there was a cow in a pen nearby. I tried hiding behind the cow but got killed. I realised that was because they could see my agent's feet protruding under the udders, so repositioned behind the cow's arse and was able to complete the mission.

First time I've ever typed that in relation to a video game.

[The Anti-Targ]

10 hours ago, Corvinus said:

With the release of the Wood Elves DLC, I got back into playing Total War: Warhammer. 

I tried the Wood Elves for awhile. They are a pretty good faction, but their position in the grand campaign, as well as the need to secure amber makes them a challenging faction to play with. To be honest, I don't have much success playing this game at hard or above difficulty. I have to stay at normal.

But after the brief spell with the Wood Elves, I decided to start a campaign with Clan Angrund, because Belegar Ironhammer is a freaking cool name, and it was past due that I played a successful campaign with a dwarf faction. This, too, is very challenging, in fact more so than the Wood Elves, since one of the main campaign goals is to reclaim the clan's ancestral home, which requires the crossing of about half the Badlands, and until you do, all your units have +50% upkeep, so don't count on numerical advantage in your battles. And the starting position is not easy to secure. But secure it I did, because what this dwarf faction lacks in numbers, more than makes it up in total badassery. Starting with 4 heroes certainly gives one advantage, and those Rangers are a very strong range unit. The majority of victories came due to research + lord abilities + master engineer abilities making my range units unstoppable monsters.

So after securing the Grey Mountains region, and destroying the Crooked Moon and Tilea (because they were so annoying) I decided it was time to accomplish that primary goal and conquer Karak Eight Peaks. The armies of Chaos were tearing my imperial allies apart, so I did not wish to face their waves with +50% unit upkeep, and only one army of note. So I took Belegar and that army that I forged around him: 3 of those 4 starting heroes, a few regiments of renown, a couple of longbeards and dwarf warriors, and a bunch of Rangers, and marched them underground through the Badlands to Karak Eight Peaks. Crossing the Badlands was easier than I thought, thanks to my dwarf allies kicking some ass above surface. One of the Mutinous Gits heroes slowed my march once right near the end, but the Greenskin heroes that tried the same only got bloody noses. The complacency of the Crooked Moon Mutinous Gits was their downfall. While my army was far outnumbered (the enemy fortress garrison + near full stack army + half stack army), I had the baddest of the bad, and they proved unstoppable. So Karak Eight Peaks is now mine. I will have to spend some time securing the region, clearing the Greenskins out of there, and then turn my attention towards Chaos and those undead.

I'm buying my Brother's PC off him soon, so I will finally get to Play TW:WH AND Pillars of Eternity :-D

[l2 0 5 5]

17 hours ago, The Drunkard said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I really wish they included Iorveth if only so you could recruit him for that fight as well. He deserved to be there.

 

I agree with you. I chose Roche's side in W2 but  can't deny that Iorveth was a cool character. Would've been nice to have that option, at least.

[Jasta11]

DOOM continues to impress. The arsenal is very fun to use (especially the rocket launcher and Gauss cannon) and the enemies switfly get bigger and badder, up to the very tough Barons of Hell so far. It also has the most inventive way of replenishing ammo in combat; crank out your limited-use chainsaw and insta-kill a demon to see them drop a bevy of ammunition, then resume the shooting.

I'm having a hell of a time. I urge anyone who ever enjoyed a FPS to try it out when it inevitably goes back on sale this Christmas on Steam.

I do think there's a bit too much platforming, but still also enjoy the big levels and exploration aspect.

[Rhom]

16 minutes ago, Soylent Brown said:

Got Super Mario Run today. I've not played it too much yet but it seems fun. Collecting all of the challenge coins should take me a while, so I've no regrets in buying it.

On PC I've gone back to playing Fallout 3 again. I still think the combat is shockingly bad, but I like the atmosphere so I'll keep at it. I've New Vegas and 4 to play at some point down the line too; I hope the combat is better in those.

Picked up SMR yesterday.  It is a fun and simple time waster.  I have no regrets about buying it.

[Ded As Ned]

I feel like an idiot, but I'm back to finishing more setup on the PS4 before I wrap it up for Christmas, and I need some help... I'm trying to setup individual profiles for each of the 3 players who will be using the PS4, such that we each have our individual save files when we select our profile, but I need them all to have access to the same games that are purchased under my master PSN account....

So I have my personal profile set up and logged into PSN, but when I go to add a second profile it asks me for the login information again, and when I enter it, I get the message of "Cannot use the Sony Entertainment Network account of another user on this PS4."  

Assistance is greatly appreciated.  Do I simply not enter any PSN info for the additional profiles and yet all the games will be available for them and yet maintain separate saves for each user? (I suppose I'll simply try this while I'm waiting for your input)

Thanks for your time  

ETA:  I think I'm figuring this out through the use of sub-accounts.  FFS SONY, WHY DO YOU MAKE THIS SO COMPLICATED!!!

ETA2:  You know what?  Never f***ing mind.  I have to create separate e-mail addresses for each sub-account, which won't be used, or remembered, or even if remembered passwords won't be remembered... and they'll end up deactivated from non-usage anyway.  What a joke.  I'll just deal with our saves stepping on each other before I deal with this circus again. (Another thing that wasn't a problem on the PS3, while I'm pissed off and bitching)

[briantw]

On 12/14/2016 at 6:27 PM, Werthead said:

Shadow Tactics continues to massively impress.

One mission required me to carefully eavesdrop on two samurai whilst they were circling around a guard post. I had my ninja on a roof nearby, a courtesan hiding in a building and they got about 2/3s of the conversation between them. I couldn't find a suitable position for my third agent until I realised there was a cow in a pen nearby. I tried hiding behind the cow but got killed. I realised that was because they could see my agent's feet protruding under the udders, so repositioned behind the cow's arse and was able to complete the mission.

First time I've ever typed that in relation to a video game.

Tried the demo and it became an instant buy for me.  Really fun game.

[The Drunkard]

Been playing TW: Attila as the ERE. I own the eastern half the map, and have been subjugating the western part so that the game doesn't end up with only a few factions left. The only factions yet to be culturally enlightened are the Ebdanians, the Picts and the Geats (between them they own most of Britain and Spain), while I've allowed the WRE to persist as a military ally because I feel bad turning on Romans.

Previously there was a Germanic/pagan NATO thing going on, but that's fallen apart and the Ebdanians+Picts are fighting the Geats while my mass of vassals have just been colonizing razed territories. Going to declare war on the victor and (hopefully) watch my vassal swarm roll over their territories until they're ready to surrender. 

[Werthead]

11 hours ago, briantw said:

Tried the demo and it became an instant buy for me.  Really fun game.

It's brilliant. The characters are also really good and the story has a couple of pretty awesome twists.

It also gets bastard hard later on, but there's a real feeling of accomplishment when you start a mission looking at an impregnable fortress of watchtowers and patrols and two and a half hours later you've managed to kill every single person on the map with a 10-year-old girl and a flute whistle.

Oh really, Dishonored? You stealthed your way through an environment with nothing but your amazing divine-granted magic powers from beyond the dawn of time and vast array of weapons and traps? I just took down a heavily-defended Japanese prison with a 75-year-old man with a pet rodent and a gun for a leg.

Awesome game. Not flawless, but tremendously good.

[Fez]

The Battle of Kaer Morhan in Witcher 3 was kind of disappointing. Maybe its because I managed to bring in so many allies, but most of them had no time to shine at all and might as well have not even been there. It was not the culmination of 40 hours of sidequests like I was hoping it would be. Also, I fully expected that to not be the end of the game, but I was not expecting just how much more there still is; and how side quests are still sprouting out off the main quest. Kind of anti-climatic.

I've also started playing the free weekend of The Division. Its not bad, and I could use another shooter. Anyone know how long it lasts though? Its half off but I'm not sure whether its worth buying; especially since I play solo, which I hear makes the dark zone end-game stuff near impossible.

[Werthead]

Polygon's review of Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun just went up and they gave it a (for them) very high score.

Again worth mentioning that you can get a free demo of the game on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/418240/

Or GoG:

https://www.gog.com/game/shadow_tactics_demo

[Rhom]

14 hours ago, Ded As Ned said:

I feel like an idiot, but I'm back to finishing more setup on the PS4 before I wrap it up for Christmas, and I need some help... I'm trying to setup individual profiles for each of the 3 players who will be using the PS4, such that we each have our individual save files when we select our profile, but I need them all to have access to the same games that are purchased under my master PSN account....

So I have my personal profile set up and logged into PSN, but when I go to add a second profile it asks me for the login information again, and when I enter it, I get the message of "Cannot use the Sony Entertainment Network account of another user on this PS4."  

Assistance is greatly appreciated.  Do I simply not enter any PSN info for the additional profiles and yet all the games will be available for them and yet maintain separate saves for each user? (I suppose I'll simply try this while I'm waiting for your input)

Thanks for your time  

ETA:  I think I'm figuring this out through the use of sub-accounts.  FFS SONY, WHY DO YOU MAKE THIS SO COMPLICATED!!!

ETA2:  You know what?  Never f***ing mind.  I have to create separate e-mail addresses for each sub-account, which won't be used, or remembered, or even if remembered passwords won't be remembered... and they'll end up deactivated from non-usage anyway.  What a joke.  I'll just deal with our saves stepping on each other before I deal with this circus again. (Another thing that wasn't a problem on the PS3, while I'm pissed off and bitching)

I tried once to set up a second profile, but it was appearing cumbersome early in the process; so I gave up too.  I don't understand why it has to be so difficult.  Honestly, the only reason I was even interested was for when we were playing fighting games like Street Fighter or Injustice.

As my son gets older and becomes interested in online gaming of his own, it may be more important then; but for now I'm not making it a priority.

[Ded As Ned]

2 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I tried once to set up a second profile, but it was appearing cumbersome early in the process; so I gave up too.  I don't understand why it has to be so difficult.  Honestly, the only reason I was even interested was for when we were playing fighting games like Street Fighter or Injustice.

As my son gets older and becomes interested in online gaming of his own, it may be more important then; but for now I'm not making it a priority.

Yeah it's pretty freaking ridiculous.  When they get older, and actually have their own e-mail addresses, I'll jump through the hoops.  For now I'll just live with it.  It's not many games for which I need that feature at present, but I imagine it'll be more as they get older. 

[Rhom]

4 minutes ago, Ded As Ned said:

Yeah it's pretty freaking ridiculous.  When they get older, and actually have their own e-mail addresses, I'll jump through the hoops.  For now I'll just live with it.  It's not many games for which I need that feature at present, but I imagine it'll be more as they get older. 

I don't  understand why it has to be any more difficult than the Miis that Nintendo brought in with the Wii.  Make a little avatar.  Link gaming records to it and go on!