Video Games - Legendary Edition

[Werthead]

50 minutes ago, Ran said:

I watched people stream MW5 when it was released, and was rather neat as a couple of them were deep into the lore and were fitting the narrative in to established stuff.

Looked like a fun game, a nice throwback to the 90s when new mech simulators seemed to crop up every year.

It's very solid and definitely evokes the spirit of MechWarrior 2 (the archetypal 1990s mech game). Unfortunately it is suffering from the problem that it's an open-world game that has mistaken grind for story, and probably would have been better if it had a discrete story-based campaign where you just went from one story mission to the next, and made each story mission a lot longer.

Still, it's pretty good, and the BattleTech background material is very solid (the books, particularly by Michael Stackpole, are also surprisingly accomplished). If someone wanted to actually make "Game of Thrones in space" in any kind of real sense, this would be the property to do it with, since Dune is unavailable (and very quickly stops being that).

[Argonath Diver]

Saw in a different  thread that @Tywin et al. also considers Diablo 2 his all-time favorite game. I failed out of college a couple times and got dumped badly because of it. Worth it. (Okay, not worth it but you know what I mean).

A 3rd party mod called Project Diablo 2 started their second season a couple weeks ago. The first weekend was a disaster for their servers, and after a second major loss attempting to mule, I got a single player mod called PlugY that allows infinite shared inventory space. Honestly that's all I ever wanted and it's a goddamn delight. PD2 adds tons of great QoL features, balance changes to make weak skills at least compete with former meta stuff, and an end game system somewhat similar to my current "main" game, Path of Exile. Between that mod making D2 absolutely damn fun as shit, and the stash allowing my to go insane full OCD hoarder, holy crap is it fun. I am saving, like, everything, and over time will probably have about thirty characters - although it does have a free skill/stat wipe button that I am trying to avoid using and failing.

I was right about to start Horizon: Zero Dawn, which I picked up a ways back but didn't play due to some tech issues that I've since resolved. I have Zero interest now, alas, because a damn 20 year old game tickles my gambling itch better than anything, including actual gambling.

I'm taking an online class right now and realized I turned in an assignment late. Due to Diablo fucking 2. At age 40. Hell I'll probably still be screwing up due to playing it on Ready Player One style immersive VR goggle whatevers whatever when I'm 80. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

Saw in a different  thread that @Tywin et al. also considers Diablo 2 his all-time favorite game. I failed out of college a couple times and got dumped badly because of it. Worth it. (Okay, not worth it but you know what I mean).

Thankfully I was largely done with game by midway through my freshman year outside of sports games that didn't eat up too much time, but I can easily see that happening. So many MF and leveling runs.

What was your favorite toon, and were you mainly a campaign player or PvP?

[Argonath Diver]

Never PvP, nope. Dabbled of course, but just wasnt my jam.

I admit I sometimes snicker haughtily when other gamers here talk about hours played per game. Since my jam has always been super-high-hour grindy type games, I am not exaggerating when I say I probably have more than 5000 hours in Diablo 2 over years and years. Replaying it with this mod, it's hilariously embarrassing how many little balance changes I'm noticing even after years away (Hey! That item used to have 10 strength, not 15! kind of moments). I have tried hundreds of superb games over the years, and usually quit them before beating, to go back to my stupid ass ARPGs. I am a terrible gamer.

I definitely played sorceresses the most, simply because teleport, although I had maxed out characters at some point of every single viable class and build. I think my all time 'favorite' though was a bear druid who would just sit in the middle of 8 person Baal runs, doing no damage and just stunning the spawns as I gleefully picked up good loot out from under all the hammerdins, javazons and sorcs. No one at that point played werebears, although you'd see an occasional werewolf. I named my current summoner druid after that toon. Also, I'm glad you also say Toon, which I continue to do with any RPG or MMO. 

My museum of uniques and set pieces grows, since I can keep it all. I am up to 6 Bonesnaps now, my all-time favorite video game item.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Bonesnap? When did you play, because teleport could be used on every character when I did through a rune armor. And I only logged so many hours to try and make all the great PvP toons. 

This was the best item in the game, btw. My step-bro and I had to buy one online for somewhere between $25-$50 because it was a rare hacked item. My lvl 99 FoHdin could go 1v7 against all 99s and they'd be dead in under a minute or two, and that's assuming they were teamed up and saving one another. Everything for the most part died after one shot except a few Barbs, but teleporting Necros and Druids could absorb a lot of hits because it could keep hitting their summons. When that happened I'd just charge them and toss a few hammers and it was over. 

[Argonath Diver]

Enigma (the runeword that was easily the strongest legit item in the game for said free teleport, +2 skills, MF, you name it, that thing was ridiculous. 

Well, of course my Hammerdins and everyone else used it, but I also had many, many, many hours before the huge 1.10 patch that added it and most of the other super-duper good endgame runewords like BotD and HotO etc. Also added skill synergies, Uber Diablo to encourage eating of the bazillions of duped Stones of Jordan on the realms, and Ladders which would become a staple of this style of game. Pre 1.10, sorcs were stupidly better for magic finding, though other classes could use a staff with teleport charges that were exceedingly expensive to repair, and none of the runewords before it were really endgame build-making ones, just convenient levelling items.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Sorcs were good for low level MFing, and hence one of the better toons to start out with, but Barbs were better late game as leap worked the same as teleport, albeit a bit slower, but you could do more damage and tank out while the Sorc was prone to die on one hit in Hell. 

Of course, the teleporting Hdin changed the game (but it was still really good with just charge). Not sure why you skipped PvP though because after a while it became to repetitive for me without the end goal of building a super dueler.

[Argonath Diver]

Like I said, I just freakin loved hoarding and never got tired of rolling new characters. I found PvP unbalanced and uninteresting, but I know plenty of people loved it and spent loads and loads of time chasing each other around for ears, which had such a delightful noise when moved around the inventory, right? Hah.

And again, I am very aware of what was efficient and what wasn't, as I played the game for like four hours a day for years. Comparing a barb's leap, that had a slower animation and couldn't go through walls is silly when I could tele to Meph in seconds. Leap did have a great sound effect though; the barb's voice actor was fantastic. No one back then minded that a black actor was used for a white character. Enigma, like you said, changed all that of course. Before LoD came out, and then 1.10 changed everything, pretty much everyone playing the game had an MF sorc, and then whatever other classes they actually preferred. 

Bonesnap was the unique Maul equipable at level 24 that had ridiculously high damage for that level, although even once upping items to exceptional or elite was added, it didn't compete with better melee weapons in endgame. For whatever reason, I just loved the thing and have picked up and saved every single one I've ever seen dropped - which was downright silly back then, as I I'd have multiple mules full of the things. 

apologies; D2 is one of the very, very few things I'll be as pedantic as can be for.

[Fez]

Decided to look into Outriders, since it seems to have become a relatively decent hit and there's not many big games out these days. I'm still just in the demo, and not sure yet if I want to buy the full game.

The game is surprisingly janky, and is not quite AAA. It wouldn't be fair to call it just AA either though; it is to Destiny as Greedfall is Mass Effect. It's recognizable in what it's going for, but doesn't quite hit it. The combat shows promise (and I've heard it gets way more interesting later on), but movement has an annoying lag and going into cover is super inconsistent. The setpiece graphics look fine, but the main character looks awful in some cutscenes; and there's awkward stuttering at the start and end of cutscenes (especially in conversations, where once each dialog option is over everyone has to reset to neutral in preparation for the next one).

The backstory and setting are more interesting than I expected (and it's not the story I thought; I didn't really look at any preview stuff and thought it was more of a Gears of War alien enemy thing), and there's a beefy codex to do some lore-diving in. But the moment-to-moment writing has only ranged from passable to pretty bad so far.

I'd feel better if it was $40, instead of $60. And I wish it was on PC Gamepass since it's on Xbox's.

[A True Kaniggit]

In the year 1191 the Dutch kingdom of Holland has thrown off the shackles of the oppressive Empire of Francia. The warrior queen Odelt showed the Empress Jozsa the Dutch people would not submit to her tyranny. 
 

Now it’s time to go tyrannize the primitives to the east and south.  
 

Edit: CK 3 of course. 

[A True Kaniggit]

Started a new game of Horizon: Zero Dawn with the 4.5 y/o niece. Love this game. She is enjoying it. And it’s nice that the hero is a woman.

[Fez]

Decided to buy Outriders after finishing the demo. My thoughts from yesterday are basically still all the same, but the thing that push me over the edge was seeing that every rare piece of gear (to say nothing of epic or legendary, which I haven't seen any of yet) has perks that can change up playstyles in interesting ways. Plus there's I think 9 active abilities, of which you can only equip 3 at a time, so there's a lot of variation out there.

For instance, I'm playing the Trickster class, seems to basically be the Mass Effect vanguard. I found a random rare pair of pants that had a perk that added a 5 second slow debuff to enemies near where my charge ends. That's a big change, since it weakens enemies enough that it means I no longer necessarily need to immediately burn one of my other two abilities. Instead I can save them for the next enemies, which I means I can stand my ground after a charge instead of doing hit-and-runs constantly. And I've heard that the legendaries at least can completely change the game.

That kind of variation makes me interested enough in the gameplay, despite the jank, to see things through. Also, I like the worldbuilding enough (even though the dialog writing is so meh), that I'm interested to see where the story goes.

I had 0 connections issues during the demo, which seems to be the biggest complaint with the game right now. Really hoping that'll last, and it's not something like the demo had different servers than the main game and it's going to suck for me now too.

[Werthead]

Managed to finally equip 4 Assault Mechs on MechWarrior 5 and also finally got some Tier 4 weapons, as well as a new pilot who isn't a total disaster (I still have one guy who's inept and needs replacing though), so I can now go toe-to-toe with the Rep 11 and 12 systems. The battles are getting tougher though and there's a definite need for better tactics, like trying to draw off enemy mechs one-by-one and focus-fire on them rather than tackling two enemy lances simultaneously and then endure a shower of reinforcements. Picked up some nifty artillery-backed long range missile batteries and "streak" short range missiles which do absurd damage at close range (and unlike most SRMs actually seem to hit the target).

Still haven't found a satisfying AC20++++ platform though. I really need some Atlases and now I've hit Steiner space they should start showing up.

[A True Kaniggit]

Really interested in Iron Harvest.

Anyone here try it? 

Yay or Nay?

I’m thinking the paycheck after next.  22 days or so.

[Mexal]

I've been playing the early access of Last Epoch as I was looking for an ARPG. So far, enjoying it, fairly mindless, decent graphics, relatively normal gameplay with good loot mechanics. It's just really easy at the moment, at least as a mage. Still early going though, only level 18.

[Werthead]

22 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Really interested in Iron Harvest.

Anyone here try it? 

Yay or Nay?

I’m thinking the paycheck after next.  22 days or so.

Scythe: The RTS? I played the demo and it was okay. 100% not a full-price purchase but if I see it for around £20, I'll probably take a punt. RTS games with a strong single-player campaign are rarer than diamond dust at the moment. I think the last really good one was Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak.

Iron Harvest is strongly based on Company of Heroes (the first one, though the graphics are more like the second), though, to the point that it's almost worth getting familiar with that game first if you haven't played it recently. It goes for pennies on Steam in a sale and remains one of the very finest RTS games every released, despite getting on a bit (somehow it's 15 years old this year but looks more like six or seven; it was easily the best-looking game in existence on release, especially explosion-wise and with the deformable terrain).

[Gorn]

I hope you guys can help me with a hardware dilemma.

I am in the process of moving, and the only PC I currently have available is a laptop that can only run Paradox grand strategies and old 2D games. And while I like those, I also like pizza but couldn't eat it every day. I'd like to buy a gaming PC, but I have no intention of paying current graphics card prices, since I have this strange aversion to being robbed. A console is not an option for various reasons.

So, I've come up with a plan. I'll buy everything needed to assemble a gaming PC, except for a graphics card. The configuration would be built around Intel -K processor that actually has some integrated graphics capabilities. On top of that, I was thinking of getting Nvidia GeForce Now subscription, since I expect I'll have some good broadband speeds at the new location. Then, when the crypto mining madness subsides, I would cancel the Nvidia subscription and get a graphics card.

Does this make sense? I never actually relied on Intel integrated graphics, so I'm not sure what I can expect. Also, how much can I rely on Nvidia servers in the US? Would I face long waiting times with the subscription service?

[Ran]

4 hours ago, Gorn said:

So, I've come up with a plan. I'll buy everything needed to assemble a gaming PC, except for a graphics card. The configuration would be built around Intel -K processor that actually has some integrated graphics capabilities.

A quick Google shows people getting 20-35 FPS in CKIII with Intel's HD 620, though at laptop resolutions, not full desktop. It'd be slower on a desktop, although it seems FPS can double to 60+ if you turn off advanced shader effects.

Quote

On top of that, I was thinking of getting Nvidia GeForce Now subscription, since I expect I'll have some good broadband speeds at the new location. Then, when the crypto mining madness subsides, I would cancel the Nvidia subscription and get a graphics card.

I have GeForce Now and am a happy camper with it. Bear in mind that there are a limited number of supported titles; like CKIII is not, though Stellaris and EUIV are. As for GeForce Now servers, shouldn't be a problem. When a hot new release comes up, you may have to wait a couple of days for queues to die down (that's how it was for several days in Scandinavia when CP2077 came out) but otherwise it should be pretty seamless. I can't speak to performance, but I believe GeForce Now has a tester that'll give you a sense of what performance your connection will get you.

The only issue I'd see is that it's likely that the absurd cost of GPUs is going to last into next year. So you're setting up for a wait. Also, I believe I recall reading that the latest Ryzen chips have superior integrated graphics performance to their Intel counterparts, which may be something worth looking into to squeeze out more performance.

[horangi]

3 hours ago, Ran said:

The only issue I'd see is that it's likely that the absurd cost of GPUs is going to last into next year. So you're setting up for a wait. Also, I believe I recall reading that the latest Ryzen chips have superior integrated graphics performance to their Intel counterparts, which may be something worth looking into to squeeze out more performance.

Yeah just to add an anecdote- I was in the same place two years ago where I wanted to build a new machine and the price of the graphics cards seemed like it was in a bubble even then.  I waited for six months for the price to come down and ended up biting the bullet because the other components were on sale.  I just checked newegg and saw that the card I have now costs three times as much as it did when I thought I was getting ripped off when I bought it... and the slightly newer version of the same thing (same make, chip, and and extra 2gb of memory) is 6x more expensive!    The idea of paying nearly $2k for three year old technology is just crazy. 

[Heartofice]

You guys were right Disco Elysium is so much better now it’s fully voiced. It makes a huge difference, plus the narration and voices are awesome.