Video Games - Storage Space Blues

[Toth]

Somehow ended up installing War Thunder again because I want to blow up Russian tanks. Even though I'm now concerned I installed Russian spy software on my computer.

Also I don't have time for this anyway...

[Luzifer's right hand]

I'm in a BG1+2 replay phase(with the SCS difficulty mod).

It is mostly a BG1 replay I guess because none of my runs have made it very far into BG2 so far(I play low reload and tend to quit once too many party members are permanently dead). 

[Werthead]

The final Gallic mission in Expeditions Rome is deranged. It's the standard 3-front, multi-stage fight, which is fine, but the difficulty of the penultimate stage is dependent on how many enemies you kill in the first stage. I killed about 35, which I thought would be enough to make a big difference in the final stage. Nope, I'm told that's not enough and I get swamped and wiped out later on.

Looking online, I've seen some people wonder if it's a bug; some killed 30 and reported there were almost no enemy reinforcements on the final stage at all, and others killed 45 and were swamped as well. Aggravating.

[Corvinus85]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

The final Gallic mission in Expeditions Rome is deranged. It's the standard 3-front, multi-stage fight, which is fine, but the difficulty of the penultimate stage is dependent on how many enemies you kill in the first stage. I killed about 35, which I thought would be enough to make a big difference in the final stage. Nope, I'm told that's not enough and I get swamped and wiped out later on.

Looking online, I've seen some people wonder if it's a bug; some killed 30 and reported there were almost no enemy reinforcements on the final stage at all, and others killed 45 and were swamped as well. Aggravating.

On which part of the battlefield are you being swamped? Because if it's at the ditch I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to straight up win there. Go for the dam.

[Werthead]

10 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

On which part of the battlefield are you being swamped? Because if it's at the ditch I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to straight up win there. Go for the dam.

I do. I ignore everything and head to the dam but I'm just swamped by the infinite waves of reinforcements arriving from the right-hand side of the screen. How many soldiers you kill earlier on apparently reduces those waves.

Ideally I need more Greek Fire or oil/lamp combos to start destroying the dam, but it's hard going.

[Ran]

CDPR announced a new Witcher game, which will "kick off a new saga", is in development. Very little other information, except they were abandoning their in-house engine which they built their previous games on (such as CP2077) for Unreal Engine 5. 

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

CDPR announced a new Witcher game, which will "kick off a new saga", is in development. Very little other information, except they were abandoning their in-house engine which they built their previous games on (such as CP2077) for Unreal Engine 5. 

They have said before the saga would continue, but this I believe is the first formal confirmation.

Based on prior comments, Geralt will not be the main character (that's seemingly confirmed by the new symbol being the cat's head, not Geralt's wolf) and this will be a new saga set in the same world, not a direct continuation of the prior games. Some speculation that Ciri will take over as the main protagonist, after being a secondary controllable character in The Witcher 3, but more likely I think is that you'll be able to create and tailor your own Witcher character from scratch.

Switching to Unreal 5 is interesting, since they went on at length about how important it was to have a fully proprietary engine they had full control over. However, the problem with that is that new employees rock up and have to be taught from scratch how to use the tools, which takes months. If you're using Unreal 5, you can hire people with previous experience of the engine easily enough and they can be in the pipeline making new stuff within weeks or even days. And CDPR lost a lot of REDengine-experienced staff over the course of CP77 and TW3's infamous crunch periods.

[Caligula_K3]

Tentatively excited for more Witcher games. And that reminds me, I should pick up Cyberpunk at some point when it's on sale.

I really would love to play Elden Ring, but I don't think there's any way my laptop can run it. Maybe in five years... Until then, I'll replay Dark Souls 1 and 3 and hope for a Bloodborne PC port.

Since I can't get Elden Ring, I'm thinking about getting a new Switch game this week - either Pokemon Legends or Kirby. Waiting for reviews on Kirby, of course, but for those of you who played Legends, was it worth it? My one new worry is that if there's a new Pokemon game coming out in November which uses Legends' mechanics but also is a full new generation, it might be better to wait for that. There's no way I'm buying two Pokemon games in one year.

 

 

[IlyaP]

Can anyone on the board talk about the Final Fantasy remasters that are on Steam? I'm interested in buying FF 6, as I've always wanted to play it. (See here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1173820/FINAL_FANTASY_VI/)

I'm horrifically time poor these days, and would love to get the opinion of someone who's dug into these games and can give a deep-dive analysis.

Or, barring that, if you're just feeling cheeky and have a terribly lame dad joke you've been looking to unleash upon an unsuspecting audience...

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

And CDPR lost a lot of REDengine-experienced staff over the course of CP77 and TW3's infamous crunch periods.

Though admittedly that engine IS pretty. Cyberpunk 2077 is :: chef's kiss:: frelling gorgeous.

[polishgenius]

9 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Waiting for reviews on Kirby, of course, but for those of you who played Legends, was it worth it?

 

I really liked playing Arceus but haven't yet had the urge to go back, power through and complete the 'dex or anything. I recommend it in general but if it is one or the other then probably wait till we at least have more details of what Scarlet/Violet will be like. 

 

 

All the Elden Ring/soulslike talk reminded me I need to put some time into figuring out Eldest Souls (an indie isometric-view Soulslike which is almost entirely focused on bosses and exploring/the story, no side enemies). See if I can get myself to a competent enough level to enjoy it. It got excellent reviews last year. Maybe on  my time off next week. 

Though my backlog of indies on my SD card on my Switch is ridiculously huge and I may end up doing something else.

[Rhom]

8 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Can anyone on the board talk about the Final Fantasy remasters that are on Steam? I'm interested in buying FF 6, as I've always wanted to play it. (See here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1173820/FINAL_FANTASY_VI/)

I'm horrifically time poor these days, and would love to get the opinion of someone who's dug into these games and can give a deep-dive analysis.

Or, barring that, if you're just feeling cheeky and have a terribly lame dad joke you've been looking to unleash upon an unsuspecting audience...

I’ve played through them all in the last couple of months.  I’m almost done with VI right now.  The three NES games are fairly quick.  You can beat each one in 10-20 hours.  They are a great walk in the past for anyone who grew up on the NES/SNES JRPG era games.

FFIV is much easier than it’s original.  Less XP needed for leveling up so it goes very quickly.

FFV does take a bit longer.  Think I was between 35-40 hours on it.  

Currently playing FFVI; it has some really nice additions in the remaster.  The famous opera scene 

Spoiler

Is now fully voiced!   

I’m assuming that I will finish this game in about the same timeframe as I will do much of the side content here.

Bottom line; if you liked old school JRPGs, you’ll love these.  The sound tracks are gorgeous.  They also have a quick save feature that knocks off a lot of the inconvenience/artificial difficulty of the originals.  Some good quality of life improvement.  

[Fez]

https://www.ign.com/articles/ken-roberta-williams-colossal-cave-3d

Quote

 

After officially announcing their return to games last year, Sierra On-Line founders Ken and Roberta Williams are ready to show off their new project. Previously referred to as The Secret, it will be a "reimagining" of Colossal Cave Adventure — the seminal 1970's text adventure game credited with inspiring Zork, Rogue, and other formative PC games, as well as for laying the groundwork for the PC role-playing genre as a whole.

Titled Colossal Cave 3D Adventure, it is a first-person adventured designed in Unity for VR and PC. Like the original, the underlying concept is relatively simple: players explore a cave seeking treasure, encountering characters along the way including a troll, a bear, a snake and a pirate. The quest, apparently, is to "find all the treasure." The reimagined adventure will be challenging and will feature a "wide variety of puzzles to overcome" in a "completely immersive 3D world" with more than 143 locations.

 

They've been out of the game industry for over 20 years and are re-making a game from over 45 years ago. The odds of it being fun to play seem low, but playing a new game by Ken and Roberta Williams is too wild to pass up.

[Ran]

Ken and Roberta Williams... names I've not heard in a long time. Sierra's adventure games were some of my favorites 30 years ago.

[aceluby]

There was apparently an update to Returnal  with a new challenge game, added co-op, new enemies, new weapons, a story-add on, and about 10 new trophies… all for free. They have released a ton of features since release and I thought it was the best game released last year without it. 

[Werthead]

Finished Expeditions Rome. Excellent game, maybe a bit overlong and a bit too easy once you realise how the systems work. But excellent music and atmosphere, great story and very rewarding tactical combat.

Feeling like some dumb fun, so might give Just Cause 4 a whirl. Enjoyed the two previous games, though I know this one has a bit more of a mixed reception.

[Heartofice]

On 3/22/2022 at 5:38 PM, Ran said:

Ken and Robert Williams... names I've not heard in a long time. Sierra's adventure games were some of my favorites 30 years ago.

I've gone back and watched some youtube playthroughs of those games, for nostalgia value. I'm always amazed at how much patience I had back then. Not even being told what terms I could enter into a game to get the answers seems staggeringly bad design these days.. but back then was part of the challenge. 

[Rhom]

3 hours ago, Heartofice said:

I've gone back and watched some youtube playthroughs of those games, for nostalgia value. I'm always amazed at how much patience I had back then. Not even being told what terms I could enter into a game to get the answers seems staggeringly bad design these days.. but back then was part of the challenge. 

On Conquest of Camelot, the favorite thing for 12 year old me to type in was "F@#% Guenevier."  The response from Guenevier came back something about doing that would make me too impure for my quest for the grail. 

[Werthead]

Just Cause 4 is genuinely, bewilderingly poor. The last two games in the series were very solid, dumb fun, just encouraging you to run around causing mayhem and not being bothered too much by a story. This one has appalling and over-complex controls, bizarre ways of organising missions and tracking objectives and just making everything obtuse and needlessly messy.

I'm probably going to DNF this one if it doesn't improve. I was assuming the launch problems  had been fixed since release, but apparently nope.

[Rhom]

Noticed that Deathloop is 50% off on the Epic Store.  That feels quick for a sale of that magnitude.