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Videogames: New Year, New Thread


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I beat the second stage of Vampire Slayer pretty easily. Laurel + Garlic might be overpowered. Once you've maxed everything out you get 25 coins or a floor chicken on level up. At the end I was constantly being hurt and constantly picking up experience gems. The only reason I was able to stay alive was because I kept leveling up and picking the chicken. 

Edit: Still haven't broken 15 minutes on stage one.

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43 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I've never played these other ones. Does Viking have fantasy, because that's what some of the screenshots implied?

I like these non-fantasy tactical turn-base games. Rome is certainly interesting. As a Total War player I wish there was more on the grander strategy side but even so, I did not expect such a complex game when I started it.

The writers do a good job in Viking of making it unclear if there's fantasy or not. E.g., In this one battle under a mountain, am I fighting goblins or am fighting a tribe of feral humans? It's left open-ended. Your shamans seem to know spells, but maybe it's all psychosomatic/the power of belief?

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Slowly moving up the heat ladder now. I’ve now unlocked/maxed Chiron, Chaos, Zag Sword, Arthur, Achilles, Eris, Demeter, Lucifer and Beowulf. I think bow is my highest heat at 13 with spear and rail right behind. Sword is going up slowly since I got Arthur and same with Beowulf and shield. They’re at like 5-7. Fist I just don’t play much.


I’d say overall my favs are still Chiron as well as Arthur and Achilles. Beowulf and Eris are both quite good but I find them a bit one trick ponies in playstyle. Beowulf it’s just slam into them and nova over and over and Eris I am fine with but I just get disappointed every time I don’t get rocket or cluster bombs. Lucifer is cool but not as strong. Main thing is I just don’t like rails attack for bosses so it’s usually special or cast builds.

Arthur I enjoy because you can actually just tank which is nice. Achilles I really enjoy for massive cast or attack builds. I had an absolute insane one today with like rank 4 frost attack, rank 5 trippy shot + ice wine, arctic blast, a 75% chaos attack boon, flurry jab and heroic Hermes attack speed buff. (Yes I mean heroic thanks Eurydice) I just stunlocked everything.

Been playing around with different pacts and mostly been doing EM3, customs and some light other ones. I just tried EM4 with a Chiron run and although I did use two death defiances I killed hades first shot. Chiron at the end of the day is the build I feel safest on.

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Lowkey getting excited for Pokemon Legends Arceus after looking at some leaked gameplay. Looks like an actually good game with some long awaited deviation from and improvement on the formula they've been turning out game after game for the past 25 years.

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6 hours ago, Arakasi said:

Slowly moving up the heat ladder now. I’ve now unlocked/maxed Chiron, Chaos, Zag Sword, Arthur, Achilles, Eris, Demeter, Lucifer and Beowulf. I think bow is my highest heat at 13 with spear and rail right behind. Sword is going up slowly since I got Arthur and same with Beowulf and shield. They’re at like 5-7. Fist I just don’t play much.


I’d say overall my favs are still Chiron as well as Arthur and Achilles. Beowulf and Eris are both quite good but I find them a bit one trick ponies in playstyle. Beowulf it’s just slam into them and nova over and over and Eris I am fine with but I just get disappointed every time I don’t get rocket or cluster bombs. Lucifer is cool but not as strong. Main thing is I just don’t like rails attack for bosses so it’s usually special or cast builds.

Arthur I enjoy because you can actually just tank which is nice. Achilles I really enjoy for massive cast or attack builds. I had an absolute insane one today with like rank 4 frost attack, rank 5 trippy shot + ice wine, arctic blast, a 75% chaos attack boon, flurry jab and heroic Hermes attack speed buff. (Yes I mean heroic thanks Eurydice) I just stunlocked everything.

Been playing around with different pacts and mostly been doing EM3, customs and some light other ones. I just tried EM4 with a Chiron run and although I did use two death defiances I killed hades first shot. Chiron at the end of the day is the build I feel safest on.

I'm in a similar boat, though I focused on getting as much of the prophesies as I could done and then moved to upping my heat.  Chiron is by far my favorite.  Add some hangover on special - weak, doom, or chill on attack, +40% for dual status effect.  Everything just dies and requires almost no investment.

Doing the prophesies, especially going for legendaries, gave me a lot of insight on how powerful some of the boons can be.  Demeter is definitely an unsung hero, especially on fists, but is really effective for almost every fast weapon - slow enemies are incredibly easy to dodge.  Aphrodite is crazy powerful on your slower weapons and weak is no joke.  8 Fated Authorities can get you some crazy stuff for end-game, especially if you can get a couple more.  You can leverage Styx to force a specific god really easily, just switch your non-god boon until you get a god-boon and if it's not the right god, go to the next one.  You'll never duplicate gods and can get 4-5 boons right at the end to make your build killer.  I've been skipping shops lately on my way up as well and choosing the mirror that gives you +15% after every biome.  Very rarely do I not have enough to get the 1200 for more Titan Blood (3 per run FTW!). 

So far I've been able to unlock every weapon and max out at least one aspect (sometimes two) per.  Really just trying to finish out the side-quests more than anything, but I can feel I'm getting toward the end and may put it down before going back to a few of my other games I got for Christmas.

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https://www.techradar.com/news/wheel-of-time-author-dismayed-george-r-r-martin-worked-on-elden-ring

 

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“Let me be salty,” Sanderson said. “FromSoftware decides to make a fantasy game and partner with a fantasy novelist, and they choose someone who spends his days blogging about the NFL rather than the person who has played their games since King’s Field and has listed their games as among his top 10 consistently over time.”

Wow, didn't think I could possibly like Sanderson less....

 

Perhaps From Software thought your track record of extruded YA fic wasn't the best fit for their properties?

 

 

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To be fair, the entire thing was presented only half seriously. Like, he's a FromSoft fanboy and really wants to work with them, so sure, he wishes he had the opportunity. OTOH, assuming he's aware of the fact that Miyazaki is a huge fan of GRRM's from well before ASoIaF, then he knows he wasn't in the running anyways, it was Miyazaki's opportunity to work with someone whose work he really admired (who also happened to be a hugely known name in and out the genre thanks to the creation of GoT).

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19 hours ago, Infidel said:

https://www.techradar.com/news/wheel-of-time-author-dismayed-george-r-r-martin-worked-on-elden-ring

 

Wow, didn't think I could possibly like Sanderson less....

 

Perhaps From Software thought your track record of extruded YA fic wasn't the best fit for their properties?

 

 

I thought it was pretty funny to be honest. He's clearly being tongue-in-cheek.

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Oooh nice.

Respawn are working on three new Star Wars games. Jedi: Fallen Order 2, which I'm sure we all saw coming; a FPS, possibly a spiritual successor to Dark Forces; and what splendidly sounds like Star Wars: XCOM, with new studio Bit Reactor who were set up specifically to make XCOM-alike games.

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8 hours ago, Darryk said:

I thought it was pretty funny to be honest. He's clearly being tongue-in-cheek.

Here's where it's mentioned. I've linked it to the exact moment Brandon brings it up, and he's CLEARLY being highly tongue-in-cheek and comical. 

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Can someone who has played the God of War series answer a few questions that I find myself wanting to ask after reading the following review? 

https://www.dsogaming.com/special/reviews/god-of-war-pc-review-first-rate-fatherhood/

1. It is unclear to me: is the PC version of God of War a reinvention of an older GoW game? Is it a port of a particular GoW game?

2. Does the game let you go and explore places after you've finished the main story? If so, to what extent? I get frustrated with games that have lots of side content that don't add much to the game other than to give me slightly more powerful weapons or narratively irrelevant objects (looking at you and your blasted shards, Dragon Age: Inquisition) for the sake of padding out the game world. 

3. How much time does the main story actually take to complete? 20 hours? 30? I ask as I have a pretty full-on job and a lot of books to catch up on, so I'm a fan of shorter games these days, rather than ones like (say) Assassin's Creed: Origins, which, glorious though it may be, is still just way, way too long.

4. The camera seems to hover right over Kratos' shoulder in the game that reminds me of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I found that to be a bug-bear, as it meant I could not see as much of the world because the shoulder and skull of my character consumed so much screen space. Was this also the case in the original Playstation versions of the game? And do we know if there's any intention from the developers to provide players with the option of a wider field of view?

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10 hours ago, IlyaP said:

1. It is unclear to me: is the PC version of God of War a reinvention of an older GoW game? Is it a port of a particular GoW game?

There have been four God of War games to date: God of War (2005), God of War II (2007), God of War III (2010) and the confusingly also-titled God of War (2018). A fifth game, God of War: Ragnarok, is due out in 2022. The first three games comprise a trilogy set in the "Greek Era," the latter two games are the first parts of the "Norse Era." The Norse Era is a loose sequel to the original trilogy but also a reboot and on-ramp for brand new players.

The PC version of God of War is a port of the 2018 God of War, originally released on the PlayStation 4.

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2. Does the game let you go and explore places after you've finished the main story? If so, to what extent? I get frustrated with games that have lots of side content that don't add much to the game other than to give me slightly more powerful weapons or narratively irrelevant objects (looking at you and your blasted shards, Dragon Age: Inquisition) for the sake of padding out the game world. 

I have to pass on this one. I believe there's a main, linear path through the game but you can revisit some areas later on with new equipment, or once you have levelled up to fight some optional (and very tough) bosses.

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3. How much time does the main story actually take to complete? 20 hours? 30? I ask as I have a pretty full-on job and a lot of books to catch up on, so I'm a fan of shorter games these days, rather than ones like (say) Assassin's Creed: Origins, which, glorious though it may be, is still just way, way too long.

Based on various websites, the completion time for God of War is 21 hours if you focus on the main story, 33 hours if you do some side-activities and 52 hours for completionists, with the average completion time for all play styles being 33 hours. 

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4. The camera seems to hover right over Kratos' shoulder in the game that reminds me of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. I found that to be a bug-bear, as it meant I could not see as much of the world because the shoulder and skull of my character consumed so much screen space. Was this also the case in the original Playstation versions of the game? And do we know if there's any intention from the developers to provide players with the option of a wider field of view?

One of God of Wars' selling points is that the entire game takes place in one continuous camera shot (i.e. it never cuts to another shot), with the camera smoothly moving from behind Kratos's shoulder to pan around during cut scenes and then back again. So no, I don't think there's any option to disable or change that perspective. The PC version does have an adjustable FOV though, because the devs talked at length about how much of a headache that was and they had to re-render every cut scene in the game to make sure it worked with up to a 90-degree FOV.

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Not sure how far into Act II of Expeditions: Rome I am, but I just reached the point where I gained a second legion and it's interesting how much it changes the feel of the strategy layer of the game. It's still doing all the same things as before, meaning it's still very limited compared to a true strategy game. But by having two separate legions that are controlled independently, it feels much more like I am actually leading a war. And based on the way the UI changed, I would not be at all surprised if you get even more legions later on.

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2 hours ago, Fez said:

Not sure how far into Act II of Expeditions: Rome I am, but I just reached the point where I gained a second legion and it's interesting how much it changes the feel of the strategy layer of the game. It's still doing all the same things as before, meaning it's still very limited compared to a true strategy game. But by having two separate legions that are controlled independently, it feels much more like I am actually leading a war. And based on the way the UI changed, I would not be at all surprised if you get even more legions later on.

I hired Titus Pullo as one of my centuriones but he died in just my second battle. But it's ok, out of my centuriones he was the one most insubordinate. :laugh: No sign of Lucius Vorenus yet. 

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8 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I hired Titus Pullo as one of my centuriones but he died in just my second battle. But it's ok, out of my centuriones he was the one most insubordinate. :laugh: No sign of Lucius Vorenus yet. 

Ha, yeah I found Titus Pullo too. I'm not sure what hidden stats influence damage (but there must be something not surfaced based on what I'm seeing) but he does almost no damage compared to my other Princeps. He's a useful tank in the large-scale battles though.

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There's a new rougelite named Warm Snow, made by Chinese developers, that a lot of past Hades streamers have gotten into -- scratches a similar itch. It doesn't seem to have the same depth or replayability as Hades, but does have a story and apparently there's hidden lore around that fleshes things out.

Looks fun, nice graphics, though I will say that the thing that struck me about it is that it seems very easy. There's some balance issues. People are beating the game with hardly any meta progression.

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Vampire Survivors was well worth three bucks. 

Once I unlocked the library level I never looked back on the garden one, it's just not as fun. I beat the library on my third try with the extra projectile guy and very few power ups unlocked. I knew what gear I wanted to upgrade and lucked into a good loadout of evolved weapons. Felt good about it, did another few failed runs, and bought the hilariously overpowered Extra Projectiles powerup. With Gennaro, it's pretty silly. My last run here I had my fourth evolved weapon by minute 17, and spent 13 dull minutes wishing there was a fast forward button. I didn't think it was possible to get much past level 70, but this one i got to 92. Hah! 22 cash bags from rewards. Pretty silly run.

https://imgur.com/a/YvWR129

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Having put a few hours in to Pokemon Legends: Arceus I have to say I'm very impressed so far. This is a very fun game and the first Pokemon game in... forever really to actually innovate and improve on the formula they've been shamelessly re-using since 1996, and it truly elevates the experience; for the first time I'm actually immersed in the world of pokemon, and catching them actually feels fun. I've heard there are "only" 250 or so pokemon in PL:A and I where I was outraged when it came to Sword and Shield lacking certain pokemon here don't even care... I realise now that I never needed the thousand or so pokemon and their various forms all crammed in to one area, I just wanted a fun game.

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Damn, I should really stop taking in all the prisoners in Rimworld that look like they could be remotely useful. And crashlanders hoping that they'd just leave and then they don't and now I have a drug addict with severe withdrawal with psychic sensitivity and bloodlust sticking around. Well, I guess I need someone for cleaning duty anyway.

I now also had in very quick succession two manhunter pack events, first with racoons, then with foxes. The first one I couldn't sit out because my caravan was just about to return, so instead I opened my door and shot them up, which somehow worked. The second one however was nasty and was made doubly difficult by my base being as large as it is and being squarely in the middle of the map: It spawned just below my killzone while everyone was asleep and I had no chance to get anyone there in time to construct a door at the entrance. So I had to set-up a defense as well that... got chewed up pretty badly, but luckily some of the foxes' AI must have broken as they charged past my firing line and into my base, only to come back to the killzone one at the time. Don't really know what they wanted to do, but I'm thankful that they did anyway.

Well, I guess it's time show you guys around what's new. Let's start with the central main hub where everything started out: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/gvo9ucjo.png

Not much happened here as you can see. Still a central dining/research area, a small stockpile and a crafting room in the center, the sleeping quarters around. You can also see that I had given up on trying to replace the wooden parts with stone. Probably not wise, but my stone production is slow and I always have other buildings to set up.

Next up the new living quarters I made for my new entrances: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/lawyma4z.png

I keep the corner as it is because I want to set up mortars there.

Then we have the main kitchen: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/l3anz57z.png

Replaced the sandstone floors with sterile tiles, moved the kibble making butcher table into a different room and constructed a second stove because I get ever more hungry mouths to feed. As you can see I've set up an extra barn mostly for hay and another stockpile that I'm using mainly for stone, but want to use it for chocolate later on given that my colonists' expectations get ever more extravagant. The indoor farm is north of the fridge, but as you can see I'm hardly using it at the moment because my stockpiles are just that full.

My sickbay and prison complex: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/bahzambj.png

I guess it seems strange that my hospital gets also used as a cinema and a fabrication bench, but, well, TVs are expensive and the fabrication thingy surprised me with how much space it is eating and it was the only free area close to my main stockpile.

Which is this: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/8248u3nh.png

Right to my mega barn and above my secondary kitchen that produces survival meals and a tightly packed advanced crafting area that also contains my emergency generator. Keen eyed observers must have noted I already got a persona core. There was a quest that tasked me to destroy a bandit camp right next to my base that gave this one as a reward. I used this quest as an exercise to try out my brand new sniper and assault rifles.

Then I have a drilling site outside my base: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/wfnwucq4.png

I'm somewhat stupefied that my colonists treat it as a social relaxing spot for some reason, which is somewhat irritating because of the long march towards it, but well, if that makes them happy.

Then there is my main entrance: https://s20.directupload.net/images/220130/hpiwwzyo.png

During the last raid some of these suckers just hid in my boomalope barn taking potshots at my turrets until my snipers took them out, so I'm wondering about whether this 'labyrinth' thingy might help hurrying them into my killing field instead.

After selling my donkeys and my alpacas I also got the idea to buy a pair of chickens to try them out, but hatching eggs gives me a headache. I had to build a heater in the barn, which worked just until I was hit by a solar flare. That's why all egg baskets now contain exactly one ruined egg and the hen refuses to use them. But every time it lays an egg in the remaining one, the hatching timer resets. It seems far too much micromanaging for a noob like me...

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