Videogames: New Year, New Thread

[Poobah]

23 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

For now the colosseum twins are a huge issue, as no matter how strong my build is, having two bosses with different cues to monitor for incoming damage is the end of the line for me.

They are generally the biggest road bump/wall that most players face in the game in my experience. If you're looking for some tips/a guide on defeating them:

Spoiler

Theseus is a huge asshole, but Asterius is the true threat and should be dealt with first as he's much more dangerous and aggressive, and he enrages if Theseus dies first. If you can stay away from Theseus and fight Asterius around the pillars at the edge of the arena you'll mostly be able to ignore Theseus as they'll likely be in the way of his thrown spears and he spends a lot of time walking around to line up spear throws, plus when Asterius charges you can get him to crash into the wall or a pillar to stop his bull rush, then you can just focus on his attacks. As a bonus you will be getting more practice fighting him in the miniboss room in Elysium sometimes and if you beat him there he starts with less health in the final fight so it's always worth taking the Elysium miniboss.

Once Asterius is down you'll have more time to watch Theseus and suss his patterns. In general don't bother trying to fight him in melee because he constantly blocks from the front and his melee attack is pretty quick and dangerous whereas his spear throw is very well telegraphed and leaves him vulnerable because after he throws he turns around and walks away a bit leaving his back open to stabbing/shooting. When he hits 50% he'll go invulnerable for a bit and then call upon one of the gods whose boon you do not have to help him instead, while he's channelling the god he's totally vulnerable (though there will be a lot of damage circles around the ground in various patterns/configurations depending on the god) so it's a good time to go ham on him. After that the fight resumes as it was before with the addition of the god in question raining down area attacks.

5 hours ago, aceluby said:

Still trying to get a decent run out of the sword

As for getting a good run out of the sword I agree that the hidden aspect is one powerful and fun route, though the Poseidon aspect is another worth considering. The build @Kalsandra suggested would work well with this, though for things like the Ares, Dionysus, and Demeter casts which continue to exist after you've cast them I really like the "have 1 cast stone but it recharges" over the "3 stones but you only get to pick them up after the cast is finished doing its thing" mirror option. You can still get extra stones with the recharging version from chaos, Artemis legendary, or the well of charon, and with the recharging stones perhaps having their recharge speed increased by Hermes, and/or in the case of the Area and Demeter casts getting extra duration for the casts themselves from support boons for them you can end up with a hell of a lot of casts active on the field at once since your stone supply will recharge faster than the casts take to finish doing their thing.

Another good cast build with the sword would be to start Poseidon, take his cast, and then go into Artemis for her attack, the Arty/Poseidon duo boon (this works really well with literally any cast build by the way, great for Ares build Kal suggested, for instance though it begins to stretch your luck/rng manipulation capabilities so you won't hit everything you need/want every time) and more cast stones with her legendary. Then just jam all the poms into your cast. If you have the opportunity you could also pick up an Aphrodite boon to qualify for the Aphrodite/Poseidon duo to make your poms twice as effective to further enhance your cast's level.

Edit to add: Another very fun cast build, albeit one that isn't always gonna work because it has a large number of pieces that need to come together to bring it to absurd levels is to focus on Demeter's meme beam. With the setup I described above with the recharging cast, as well as the boon that makes it last longer (which scales up very well at increasing the number of seconds it remains on the field with poms) you can end up with tons of beam turrets on the field, though they really need the Artemis/Demeter duo to improve their tracking speed, and improve heavily if you can get enough Demeter boons - there's one that makes the beams apply chill, and one which unfortunately doesn't have that one as a pre-requisite that causes an explosion and clears chill stacks when something hits 10 chill stacks which with the beams is extremely fast and becomes very silly very fast.

[Kalbear]

Also, this is a good resource for the duo boons:

https://hades.fandom.com/wiki/Duo_Boons

[Ser Drewy]

On 1/3/2022 at 12:24 PM, Werthead said:

Yeah, I did a replay with the Anniversary Edition (also known as "barely noticeably improving anything,") and I got another 50 hours out of it, but had to drop off. I think as an open-world, do what you want to change the world game it's been seriously outdated even by Fallout 4 (effectively the same game with guns, but also much better graphics, a far better UI and the settlement building stuff really adds a different dimension to the game), and as a story/character-focused open-world game, well it's never been that, but The Witcher 3 and Horizon: Zero Dawn leave it in a cocked hat.

The atmosphere and worldbuilding (albeit much of it inherited from Morrowind and Oblivion) are still top notch, and mods can fulfil a lot more of the potential of the game.

Yeah it's an odd blend of really good ideas and a often mixed bag of execution. There's definitely parts of it that are evocative, but sometimes the other elements of the story or presentation don't live up to the promise. 

My most recent glitch involved a quest character finishing their dialogue only to turn and run straight off a cliff... 

[Ran]

55 minutes ago, Poobah said:

Another very fun cast build, albeit one that isn't always gonna work because it has a large number of pieces that need to come together to bring it to absurd levels is to focus on Demeter's meme beam.

Haelian did a run with a build along those lines a few days ago:

I think I got distracted from playing right when I started messing around with a Demeter cast build after seeing him do it in some earlier run. Need to get back into the game.

[Arakasi]

Yeah I just got into this again recently (along with Mass Effect Legendary which I should thank some friends for the good work they did there)

I have gotten into Styx a couple times but not to hades yet. I play on the switch not pc. I mostly like bow and shield. Spear I’ve done okay with as well. Not the biggest fan of the others although only played rail once or twice. Only have the original six titans blood so only have put points in Chiron who I like. I need to find a build I like with it that can be consistent and get past Styx. Last time got destroyed by poisons and ranged guys there.

[The Winged Shadow]

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This caused me to set up a heater in every living quarter, which in turn caused a power outage during the night just before I wrote this. Seems I underestimated the energy consumption and need another solar panel and maybe another battery. I've also started a double outer wall layer made of granite for better insulation.

You can minimise the number of heater by putting in a vent between rooms. Say you have 3 bedrooms next to each other, you can put a heater on the middle bedroom and put vents on it so it also spreads heat to the adjacent 2 bedrooms. If you have multiple heaters heating up the same "vent connected" space, you can also set up the heater temp to be slightly different so they go low energy usage mode if the space in question is already at desired temperature. For example, if you have 3 heaters, you can set one to 21c, one to 22c and one to 23c, so heater 21c and 22c use less energy during the day because temp is already around 23c+, but get triggered at night when its likely to be colder.

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Amusingly, I figured out why the turbine was so bad: There was a small piece of roof just in front of it. After I tore that down it worked perfectly without anymore outages.

Haha. Everyone does that at some point. A trick is to use that space in front and the back of the wind turbine for solar panels so the trees etc don't grow back. Alternatively, use it for farming. If you don't want to grow anything there, you can still set up a growing zone but toggle the planting off, which will mean they won't plant anything but will auto chop down any trees that are in that area.

 

[Corvinus85]

Wartales turns into a bit of a horror game when you explore underground ruins. You need torches which run out, and when you get into a skirmish it's pitch black so some of your companions need to be equipped with torches or else you won't be seeing much. And you don't know the number of enemies coming at you. They just come out of the darkness. Made me think of Bakker's books. But those puzzles are stupid hard for the reward you get.

[Toth]

59 minutes ago, The Winged Shadow said:

You can minimise the number of heater by putting in a vent between rooms. Say you have 3 bedrooms next to each other, you can put a heater on the middle bedroom and put vents on it so it also spreads heat to the adjacent 2 bedrooms. If you have multiple heaters heating up the same "vent connected" space, you can also set up the heater temp to be slightly different so they go low energy usage mode if the space in question is already at desired temperature. For example, if you have 3 heaters, you can set one to 21c, one to 22c and one to 23c, so heater 21c and 22c use less energy during the day because temp is already around 23c+, but get triggered at night when its likely to be colder.

That was my intial idea. I have a common room in the middle with dining table and research station, the stockpile and the manufacturing room to the north of it and three bedrooms arrayed up on the southern side. I put vents in all of them and initially wanted the highest temperature in the common room and the living quarters, but my colonists kept complaining that 17° is still too low, so I built another heater in each of the bedrooms.

1 hour ago, The Winged Shadow said:

Haha. Everyone does that at some point. A trick is to use that space in front and the back of the wind turbine for solar panels so the trees etc don't grow back. Alternatively, use it for farming. If you don't want to grow anything there, you can still set up a growing zone but toggle the planting off, which will mean they won't plant anything but will auto chop down any trees that are in that area.

Indeed, I zoned hay and cotton into the front and the back. Though I'm not sure about the cotton anymore since I'm researching devilstrand at the moment. Then again, it'll take ages until I get someone with a high enough planting skill... It's a shame that this one raider girl with 11 planting died of blood loss on the first night in my prison despite 100% successful operation. Probably because of that headshot wound...

[Argonath Diver]

So, this thread was in my phone's browser window when I woke up. I hazily hit the See Replies and was reading you lads' heater recommendations in your homes. Not realizing it was the gaming thread yet, I'm reading and thinking "Are these guys seriously knocking open giant vents in their homes to dissipate heat from electric heaters?!" Oh, of course, it's the gaming thread, not the nonexistent DIY Home Repairs thread.

Anyway, carry on. It was a pretty funny way to wake this morning.

[aceluby]

Had 2 really good runs with the bow where both of them had Hades down to a sliver of health, only to lose my last life.  Same build both times, aspect was the one you'd tag with the attack and special home in on them.  Both times was an ares/drunk guy (forgot his name) build.  First run I got like 3 duo boons that were all super helpful.  Second time I didn't think I'd do as well and then right before Hades I got another duo boon that slowed down projectiles (which apparently also includes most of Hades attacks).  I had to move to a different weapon after that one, so tried out the rail and died to Hades on my first run.  I've got a good run going right now with the sword that I'll finish up tonight.  Hopefully this is the run, but I'm still having a tough time with hades attacks when up close.  Probably because I'm a spaz.

[IlyaP]

Picked up Horizon: Zero Dawn on GOG on the cheap. Going to give that a try today after work. If it doesn't capture my attention, then I'm turning my attention to finally starting and finishing Torment: Tides of Numenera.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Picked up Horizon: Zero Dawn on GOG on the cheap. Going to give that a try today after work. If it doesn't capture my attention, then I'm turning my attention to finally starting and finishing Torment: Tides of Numenera.

Horizon: Zero Dawn is spectacular, but the opening section is a little slow. Once it gets really going, it quickly becomes fantastic.

I don't know of any other video game where the backstory and the main story become so incredibly well integrated with one another and end up supporting one another so well. There's also an excellent and unusual thing where you character and your "man in a van" who helps you out with audio advice via intercom actually have somewhat conflicting goals, but you need their advice and technical skills and they need your robo-dino butt-kicking skills in the field, so you have this constant, complex dance of trying to work together whilst not actually helping one another. It's something I haven't seen before, at least not done this well.

I'll also submit the first time you defeat a Thunderjaw or Stormbird in combat, having literally run a mile the first time you see them because they look indestructible, is one of the biggest highs in gaming.

[Ramsay B.]

I second the HZD love. Horizon Forbidden West can’t come soon enough. Although I’m a little worried that the backstory likely won’t match the first one because most of the mystery of what actually happened is gone. 

Also seeing the teaser for a VR game in this world has me excited, even know I have an Oculus and basically never use it. And of course I’ll have to buy another VR system whenever the PS5 one drops.

 

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

Horizon: Zero Dawn is spectacular, but the opening section is a little slow. Once it gets really going, it quickly becomes fantastic.

Initial thoughts, after 46 minutes: 

1. Holy crap that opening took forever, while I sit there and wonder "can I play now?"

2. The elements-based names (Aloy, Rost) are cute. And no doubt thematically linked. 

3. Nice nod to Jurassic Park with the dinos.

4. Oh look, an underground horror scene. My initial speculation leads me to wonder if the robosaurs wandering the planet each contain the conciousness of the people Aloy finds in the underground cave system. 

5. Forcing me to walk slowly with the holo projector on is a cute touch, forcing me to explore at a slower pace.

[IlyaP]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

Horizon: Zero Dawn is spectacular, but the opening section is a little slow. Once it gets really going, it quickly becomes fantastic.

Does it the game's tendency to suddenly switch to a cut-scene mid-movement persist throughout the rest of the game? Or is that aggravating mechanic only present in the opening section of the game?

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, IlyaP said:

Does it the game's tendency to suddenly switch to a cut-scene mid-movement persist throughout the rest of the game? Or is that aggravating mechanic only present in the opening section of the game?

It does happen later on, but once you are in the open world section of the game it only happens occasionally during main missions. Otherwise you retain control.

I did find the best approach to the game was to mix and match the main story, side-quests and optional activities (and did appreciate how clearly these are labelled as such in the menu) and not try to mainline the main story at the expense of everything else.

[Mexal]

Just cleared Hades again using Kal's Ares/Artemis cast build. That was fun. I also had Chiron bow, Aphrodite attack, Artemis special, Hangover on dash so had lots of interesting legendaries/duos. I made the one mistake of getting triple shot cause I had never gotten it before and that really ruined my Chiron playstyle.

[Toth]

I finished setting up my second solar panel... and instantly an eclipse happened.

It's as if the game says: You might have chosen a low difficulty setting and I can't just wipe you out, but I can still fuck with you!

[Corvinus85]

I was unable to get into HZD. I think I managed to finish that intro part but was greatly annoyed by how long it took with all the cut scenes and finding out that it was just a prologue. I realized I have an issue playing console designed games on my PC. I like to be able to get up from my desk and quit a game when I want to, not have to wait for a save point. 

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

I like to be able to get up from my desk and quit a game when I want to, not have to wait for a save point. 

This is one particular feature that I also noticed and it drives me nuts.