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Video Games: In the Grim Darkness of licensed Games.


Toth

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23 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Been playing Subnautica for the last few days. Not a huge fan of survival games, but this one's very good. It helps that it's somewhat focused and there's various things going on that keep you interested in the (minimalist) story but there's also great incentives to just go off and explore the various biomes and locations if you want. I spent about an hour just moseying around the Floating Island by itself which was good fun.

One complaint is that the loot and resources drops are a bit too RNG-dependent. About 12 hours into the game I still haven't built any vehicles simply because I've only found a couple of vehicle bay components and I can't find the third no matter what I do. So I'm still trotting around on foot (well, swimming) when it feels like everyone else has their own submarine by the same point in the game. OTOH, I did develop the radiation suit and Gravity Gun (cough) really early and had explored the Aurora wreck and the freaky Mountain Island long before most people at the same timeframe (from what I can gather), so swings and roundabouts.

Terrific atmosphere and music as well. Not the technically best game around - the amount of pop in is slightly ridiculous - but it was made by a very small team on a very low budget over two years or so, so I give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. I'm also regretting playing with food and drink requirements on: it was fun for the first ten hours or so, but dropping dead of starvation when I haven't eaten for just 50 minutes of real time is slightly ridiculous.

I started playing Subnautica in survival mode, but after about half an hour I felt like the food and water meters just added unnecessary busywork to the game, designed to squeeze out a few extra hours by forcing you to grab those water fish and grill food from time to time.  

Restarted it on the mode that disables those two meters and liked it much more.  It just allows you to focus on the game itself instead of constantly micromanaging two meters that deplete at a ridiculous rate.  

I agree about the RNG.  Gets really frustrating how hard it can be to find things like gold and silver when they are key components to so much of the early game stuff.  Meanwhile, I'd find pieces of salvage around every fucking corner even though I had more of that than I could ever hope to craft.  

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Finding the Mountain Island makes that a lot easier: look to the left of the crash site from the escape pod and you'll find a fuzzy patch on the horizon, which is the island shrouded in fog. It's about 1.1-1.2 km from the escape pod so not that far. There's easy-to-access, above-the-waterline caves filled with Shale Rocks, which generate Gold much more often than Sandstone. They also give you tons of Lithium (which is otherwise very hard to find).

If you look in the opposite direction, almost level with the arse end of the crashed ship, there's another fuzzy fog patch hiding the Floating Island, which has Sandstone Rocks (and thus silver) coming out of the wazoo, and some very nice background bits for the story.

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24 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Finding the Mountain Island makes that a lot easier: look to the left of the crash site from the escape pod and you'll find a fuzzy patch on the horizon, which is the island shrouded in fog. It's about 1.1-1.2 km from the escape pod so not that far. There's easy-to-access, above-the-waterline caves filled with Shale Rocks, which generate Gold much more often than Sandstone. They also give you tons of Lithium (which is otherwise very hard to find).

If you look in the opposite direction, almost level with the arse end of the crashed ship, there's another fuzzy fog patch hiding the Floating Island, which has Sandstone Rocks (and thus silver) coming out of the wazoo, and some very nice background bits for the story.

Good to know.  Only played the game for about two hours so far, so I've really only been in the starting area and the seaweed forest area.

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17 hours ago, Mexal said:

How is Horizon?

It's great.  Really, really great.  It looks good and the play is fun and the story is simple but well done.  The play is semi-similar to Tomb Raider and I am a big Tomb Raider fan.  Horizon stands on it's own, though, no question.  I recommend it without reservation. 

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16 hours ago, l2 0 5 5 said:

I agree with Rhom. You'll love it. I've re-played that game all the way through a good 8-10 times. Beat it on Grounded and Grounded Plus which is damn difficult at times, and if I feel like going back on hard mode and playing with more ammo I'll do that. Such a fantastic game all the way through. Story, acting, gameplay, music... it really has it all. Easily the most inspiring and moving game I've played in my adult life. Enjoy.

While on topic of TLOU, I'm hoping we'll get a release date soon for LoU2. There was no PSX this year and they had a panel there last year where they gave a status update on the game's progress. I think Druckmann said it was around 50-60% complete, and that was just over a year ago. Then we get the amazing gameplay trailer at E3. Recently he tweeted that they just finished wrapping one of the most "complicated and heart wrenching scenes" they've ever worked on. I'm betting on a 2019 release but the year just started today so that's still a long time to wait. I want this game badly. 

I'm looking forward to it and LoU2 as well.  I mispoke slightly when I said Last of Us and Horizon pushed me to get the PS4.  It was specifically that Last of Us 2 trailer in this video game thread or one of it's predecessors...and Horizon that made me finally get the PS4.

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15 hours ago, Werthead said:

Terrific atmosphere and music as well. Not the technically best game around - the amount of pop in is slightly ridiculous - but it was made by a very small team on a very low budget over two years or so, so I give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. 

It's actually closer to four to five years. It has been on early access for at least two years from what I remember.

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Got a few games over Christmas.  Wife put RDR2 in my stocking and I've been absolutely loving it.  Between loving Westworld and still making my way through The Dark Tower book 7, I was ripe for a open world western game.  The only game like this that I actually enjoyed enough to keep playing was Vice City back in the early 2000s.  All of the other ones felt too big and I lost interest about 1/2 way through.  This one is slow and methodical, which are the games that keep me coming back.  I just started chapter 3 and so far I've done all the bounty missions I could, have found $3k in gold bar treasure hunts, tamed a white arabian horse, and upgraded the entire camp.  Going home after work to play some more and will be dedicating most of Sunday to playing.

The other fun game I got was Beat Sabers for Playstation VR.  Best VR game I've played so far and is actually quite the workout.  I'm usually drenched in sweat after about 30 minutes.  My wife and I have been playing together, and she actually might be better than me.

I also finally opened up Diablo 3 for PS4 when my nephew was here (10) and he absolutely loved it.  He's been pestering his dad to get it for him, but I may just get it for him on his sisters birthday (we always give gifts to both of them on their bdays).

Also, I'm in the minority on this one, but I found LoU to be a less fun version of Uncharted.  Maybe it was because there was so much hype that I was expecting more, but it was a big letdown for me.

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1 hour ago, aceluby said:

Got a few games over Christmas.  Wife put RDR2 in my stocking and I've been absolutely loving it.  Between loving Westworld and still making my way through The Dark Tower book 7, I was ripe for a open world western game.  The only game like this that I actually enjoyed enough to keep playing was Vice City back in the early 2000s.  All of the other ones felt too big and I lost interest about 1/2 way through.  This one is slow and methodical, which are the games that keep me coming back.  I just started chapter 3 and so far I've done all the bounty missions I could, have found $3k in gold bar treasure hunts, tamed a white arabian horse, and upgraded the entire camp.  Going home after work to play some more and will be dedicating most of Sunday to playing.

Interesting. I’m on chapter 6, and I think pretty far into it, but I haven’t really done any of that stuff. I think I did like two bounties and haven’t found any of the animals or fish. And while I have a few horses, I haven’t done anything with them. I spent most of my early time looting people.

But I do agree, Westworld was a big reason why I wanted this game.   

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2 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Interesting. I’m on chapter 6, and I think pretty far into it, but I haven’t really done any of that stuff. I think I did like two bounties and haven’t found any of the animals or fish. And while I have a few horses, I haven’t done anything with them. I spent most of my early time looting people.

But I do agree, Westworld was a big reason why I wanted this game.   

I just got the horse yesterday and have bonded to level 2, currently it's at 8 speed/acceleration and 8 health/stamina.  Took like 4 tries to break it, but man has it been worth it.

Bounties have been pretty fun, but can easily get you a bounty.

I also forgot that I've done the gunslinger missions as well.  Those were super fun, even though I died a lot learning how to do them and my horse died once because it got run over by a train trying to follow me.

I've done almost no looting on this character.  My plan is to have one run through as a fairly good guy, then the next time try my hand at it as someone who robs and kills everybody.

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15 minutes ago, aceluby said:

I just got the horse yesterday and have bonded to level 2, currently it's at 8 speed/acceleration and 8 health/stamina.  Took like 4 tries to break it, but man has it been worth it.

Bounties have been pretty fun, but can easily get you a bounty.

I also forgot that I've done the gunslinger missions as well.  Those were super fun, even though I died a lot learning how to do them and my horse died once because it got run over by a train trying to follow me.

I've done almost no looting on this character.  My plan is to have one run through as a fairly good guy, then the next time try my hand at it as someone who robs and kills everybody.

I kill people by accident all the time then have to shoot my way out of the town. It's annoying yet fun all the same.

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Damn it, I shouldn't have done this. Whelp, I guess that's what you get for watching funny Youtube sketches throughout your holidays. I somehow ended up with a craving for WW2 air battles and ended up installing War Thunder.

... and... damn it... it is strangely addictive. But I don't have time for this anymore! Such a mean game, constantly dangling a new shiny thing to unlock in front of your eyes. Fine, I suck badly at the motor boat and the tank battles grow fairly frustrating (especially when the starter tanks blow up if anyone just sneezes... except the T-26 that somehow is quite the little murder machine).

But the air battles... It's interesting that all planes keep being useful, even the starter biplanes that can win all turn battles against monoplanes in exchange for a pitiful attack power. When I unlocked my first monoplane, the He 112, I sucked badly at it because the biplanes made me too comfortable to turn battles, so when I tried that... well, actually other players mostly kamikaze'd me for some reason. So I kept using the biplanes and took a vile pride in shooting down Spitfires with it, always aiming for the toughest foes to take them out of the battle asap. Though soon enough I learned how to use the He 112 properly and racked up quite some killstreaks with it... one match ended with me shooting down three planes while having half of my left wing blown off, which was rather awesome. Just as fun like the one time when flak took out the engine of my biplane and I somehow managed to land it behind enemy lines (even though it wasted far more time than just getting shot down and respawn).

And then I unlocked the first Messerschmitt. I expected it to fly as cumbersome as the He 112. I expected it to only work in strafing runs and abandon prolonged dogfights immediately. Damn it, was I wrong. And I expected it to lack firepower because it has the same little guns as the biplanes. But damn... when I first entered the fray, immediately started to blast my way through two similar monoplanes and then danced through the air and outmaneuvered a biplane in a turn fight, I felt a really impressive rush there. And that's just the very basic Bf109 B-1. I don't want to think about how great the later versions are...

I have to uninstall it right away or I'll waste my weekend...

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3 hours ago, aceluby said:

I also forgot that I've done the gunslinger missions as well.  Those were super fun, even though I died a lot learning how to do them and my horse died once because it got run over by a train trying to follow me.

Losing a horse early on is horrible. Early in ch. 2 I had to do a mission that took me out in the middle of nowhere and I fell off of a cliff. I survived, but the horse died and it took me over an hour to walk back to camp.

Speaking of camp, I regret not doing more with mine. I had horrible money troubles though do to, well, all the murder and what not, and those bounties rack of fast. At one point I owed like $300 in every area and had like $250 to my name. Probably should have done some of those gold runs.

Speaking of which, are the side missions hard to read? I know I have some letters regarding them, but I've never looked at them.

Quote

I've done almost no looting on this character.  My plan is to have one run through as a fairly good guy, then the next time try my hand at it as someone who robs and kills everybody.

That's pretty smart actually. Or play two at the same time. One as the straight man and the other being a pure murder spree. 

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2 hours ago, Mexal said:

I kill people by accident all the time then have to shoot my way out of the town. It's annoying yet fun all the same.

I killed someone on accident once and four guys ran up on me. Thankfully I was in a place where I could get the high ground and it forced them to run through a narrow area I could look down upon. I have no idea how many people I killed, but wave after wave were put down. At one point it seemed like no one was left to hunt me and the bounties were so sweet. 

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1 hour ago, Toth said:

Damn it, I shouldn't have done this. Whelp, I guess that's what you get for watching funny Youtube sketches throughout your holidays. I somehow ended up with a craving for WW2 air battles and ended up installing War Thunder.

... and... damn it... it is strangely addictive. But I don't have time for this anymore! Such a mean game, constantly dangling a new shiny thing to unlock in front of your eyes. Fine, I suck badly at the motor boat and the tank battles grow fairly frustrating (especially when the starter tanks blow up if anyone just sneezes... except the T-26 that somehow is quite the little murder machine).

But the air battles... It's interesting that all planes keep being useful, even the starter biplanes that can win all turn battles against monoplanes in exchange for a pitiful attack power. When I unlocked my first monoplane, the He 112, I sucked badly at it because the biplanes made me too comfortable to turn battles, so when I tried that... well, actually other players mostly kamikaze'd me for some reason. So I kept using the biplanes and took a vile pride in shooting down Spitfires with it, always aiming for the toughest foes to take them out of the battle asap. Though soon enough I learned how to use the He 112 properly and racked up quite some killstreaks with it... one match ended with me shooting down three planes while having half of my left wing blown off, which was rather awesome. Just as fun like the one time when flak took out the engine of my biplane and I somehow managed to land it behind enemy lines (even though it wasted far more time than just getting shot down and respawn).

And then I unlocked the first Messerschmitt. I expected it to fly as cumbersome as the He 112. I expected it to only work in strafing runs and abandon prolonged dogfights immediately. Damn it, was I wrong. And I expected it to lack firepower because it has the same little guns as the biplanes. But damn... when I first entered the fray, immediately started to blast my way through two similar monoplanes and then danced through the air and outmaneuvered a biplane in a turn fight, I felt a really impressive rush there. And that's just the very basic Bf109 B-1. I don't want to think about how great the later versions are...

I have to uninstall it right away or I'll waste my weekend...

Why did I read you....Ok, this is definitely more interesting than certain other "manly" games...

"Flight simulators" in battles settled in WWII !!!!! MY GOD

(I even looked at it up....)

Aeroplanes! I could see myself playing that. Ah...when and only when I have time. Maybe.

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1 hour ago, Meera of Tarth said:

Why did I read you....Ok, this is definitely more interesting than certain other "manly" games...

"Flight simulators" in battles settled in WWII !!!!! MY GOD

(I even looked at it up....)

Aeroplanes! I could see myself playing that. Ah...when and only when I have time. Maybe.

That does sound fucking wonderful. I got all excited for the admitted mediocre Battlefield V air combat.

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I got my son the new Spiderman game on PS4 for Christmas.  He’s finally had a chance to play it in the last couple of days and it is amazing.  The graphics, the movement — it’s incredible to watch it, never mind play it.  This will be a lot of fun.

I downloaded Fortnite for him too.  Noobies get killed quickly, and the PS4 doesn’t seem conducive for aiming with precision and speed.  Less fun there.  Too many expert opponents.

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14 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

And now I have to go play on low tier for a bit, on the off chance we end up fighting with/against each other.

Don't waste your time. When I said I have no time this weekend, I meant that seriously.

Edit: Though maybe you could enlighten me just how exactly the battle ranking system works. I noticed that with my Messerschmitt, which is Tier 2, I automatically get dropped into Tier 2 battles, not Tier 1 anymore. So I assumed the tooltip saying that Tier 1 battles are made up of people going in with planes of a battle ranking from 1,0-2,1 is outdated. Because I have no plane that exceeds a battle ranking of 1,7 whatsoever. I'm still a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed the difference to Tier 1 battles at all...

But then I played one game with Japan in a Tier 1 battle with the three starter biplanes... and noticed that the leading fighter rushing towards my team's base was a Messerschmitt with some designation I couldn't recognize. How exactly was that possible if the worst Messerschmitt is Tier 2? I am confused... just how exactly get players their games assigned?

Not that it helped him much. Must have been quite embarrassing to get shot down by what amounts to an origami bird with guns.

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11 hours ago, Toth said:

Don't waste your time. When I said I have no time this weekend, I meant that seriously.

Edit: Though maybe you could enlighten me just how exactly the battle ranking system works. I noticed that with my Messerschmitt, which is Tier 2, I automatically get dropped into Tier 2 battles, not Tier 1 anymore. So I assumed the tooltip saying that Tier 1 battles are made up of people going in with planes of a battle ranking from 1,0-2,1 is outdated. Because I have no plane that exceeds a battle ranking of 1,7 whatsoever. I'm still a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed the difference to Tier 1 battles at all...

But then I played one game with Japan in a Tier 1 battle with the three starter biplanes... and noticed that the leading fighter rushing towards my team's base was a Messerschmitt with some designation I couldn't recognize. How exactly was that possible if the worst Messerschmitt is Tier 2? I am confused... just how exactly get players their games assigned?

Not that it helped him much. Must have been quite embarrassing to get shot down by what amounts to an origami bird with guns.

The game puts you into fights based on the highest battle ranking vehicle in your lineup, with a ± 1 swing in either direction from that.

So if your highest equipped vehicle has a BR of 3.3, there is a chance you will get placed in a match facing 4.3s, 2.3s, or anything in between.

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