Video Games- At least 2023 looks like a banger

[Corvinus85]

I picked up the long awaited Knights of Honor II: Sovereign. There were a few reviews that gave me pause, though, and I think they're right. This game feels more like KoH Remastered. Not sure there is much difference from its predecessor other than the updated graphics. Battles are still extremely simplistic. There seems to be more in terms of town development. 

[karaddin]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

The game devs have also confirmed that a fourth expansion is on the drawing board and they've even been talking about a sequel. Apparently MechWarrior 5's early sales were only meh, but the Steam release and then the console release have both done much better business than expected, and the early so-so critical reception has been immensely improved by the expansions.

@The Winged Shadow talked me into giving it a try a few months ago and sadly it gave me possibly the worst motion sickness I've had from a game which was frustrating after I'd quite enjoyed the tutorial/start of the campaign. A few of the others that have been the worst for me I've seen others having it as a common issue as well, wonder if thats true for this and if so whether its impacted its sales.

[Werthead]

10 hours ago, karaddin said:

@The Winged Shadow talked me into giving it a try a few months ago and sadly it gave me possibly the worst motion sickness I've had from a game which was frustrating after I'd quite enjoyed the tutorial/start of the campaign. A few of the others that have been the worst for me I've seen others having it as a common issue as well, wonder if thats true for this and if so whether its impacted its sales.

It's the only video game to give me weird headaches whilst playing it. A quick fiddle around with the POV settings addressed that.

I saw other people struggling even after that so they switched to playing exclusively in 3rd person mode which took care of the rest of the issue.

In extremis, you can even install a mod which transforms the game into an isometric strategy game which removes the issue altogether.

Ixion is getting some great reviews. Apparently it's Homeworld if it was a management sim, which sounds like my jam.

[horangi]

10 hours ago, karaddin said:

@The Winged Shadow talked me into giving it a try a few months ago and sadly it gave me possibly the worst motion sickness I've had from a game which was frustrating after I'd quite enjoyed the tutorial/start of the campaign. A few of the others that have been the worst for me I've seen others having it as a common issue as well, wonder if thats true for this and if so whether its impacted its sales.

I picked it up at a recent sale, having really enjoyed the Battletech turn based tactical game with the intention of running it with a VR mod.  Well on booting up, it had the graphics of a Doom 1 era game and an unplayable frame rate (and the cockpit not centered correctly, but I'll blame the mod on that).  Reverted back to vanilla, and the graphics were still 90's era though the frame rate improved.  With an RTX 2060 card, I thought I would be fine, but reading online, there seems to be some issues with compatibility causing the textures to revert to ultra-low settings even when set to high/max.  I also had an annoying list where the screen slowly rotated despite joystick/mouse being at neutral.  I think the game would be up my ally, but its going to depend on whether I can be bothered to trouble shoot it enough to get it working. 

[Werthead]

22 minutes ago, horangi said:

I picked it up at a recent sale, having really enjoyed the Battletech turn based tactical game with the intention of running it with a VR mod.  Well on booting up, it had the graphics of a Doom 1 era game and an unplayable frame rate (and the cockpit not centered correctly, but I'll blame the mod on that).  Reverted back to vanilla, and the graphics were still 90's era though the frame rate improved.  With an RTX 2060 card, I thought I would be fine, but reading online, there seems to be some issues with compatibility causing the textures to revert to ultra-low settings even when set to high/max.  I also had an annoying list where the screen slowly rotated despite joystick/mouse being at neutral.  I think the game would be up my ally, but its going to depend on whether I can be bothered to trouble shoot it enough to get it working. 

I have a 2060 as well and had no issues on the graphical side of things. I wonder what triggered their compatibility issues.

[Werthead]

I hadn't even heard of this but it's got a real Startopia meets Frostpunk meets The Expanse meets Two Point Campus (which has its own space-based expansion out shortly) vibe. And the reviews are all pretty decent.

 

[Ran]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

I hadn't even heard of this but it's got a real Startopia meets Frostpunk meets The Expanse meets Two Point Campus (which has its own space-based expansion out shortly) vibe. And the reviews are all pretty decent.

Yeah, I was reading the RPS review earlier. The game play trailer makes it look pretty interesting.

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

I hadn't even heard of this but it's got a real Startopia meets Frostpunk meets The Expanse meets Two Point Campus (which has its own space-based expansion out shortly) vibe. And the reviews are all pretty decent.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Ran said:

Yeah, I was reading the RPS review earlier. The game play trailer makes it look pretty interesting.

That does look good.  May have to look into this.

[horangi]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

I have a 2060 as well and had no issues on the graphical side of things. I wonder what triggered their compatibility issues.

Ahh thanks, looks like it was Ray Tracing.  Turned it off and it was night and day.  Also appears that the game is easier to play with the drone camera and a mouse then in FP with the joystick anyways, so it looks like we are off to the races now.

[Werthead]

Dwarf Fortress's new Steam edition confirms it's a game I will almost certainly never play but enjoy reading about.

Quote

"Started a lovely fortress, built into the side of a mountain, next to a fish stocked river. Migrants joined, trade was booming and two migrant children jumped into the river and drowned. They came back as ghosts and proceeded to behead the other members of the fortress. 10/10"

 

[karaddin]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

It's the only video game to give me weird headaches whilst playing it. A quick fiddle around with the POV settings addressed that.

I saw other people struggling even after that so they switched to playing exclusively in 3rd person mode which took care of the rest of the issue.

In extremis, you can even install a mod which transforms the game into an isometric strategy game which removes the issue altogether.

It was still bad for me even in 3rd person so I refunded it the same night. When it's not just making me sick but triggering a migraine I don't want to put in the effort to try work around it, but it's nice they managed to mod it that heavily.

Interesting that it was triggering a headache for you though, I think the size of the mech amplifying the sway is part of the issue.

The number of games that set me off isn't increasing compared to when I was younger, but the severity when it happens sure is. 

[horangi]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

Dwarf Fortress's new Steam edition confirms it's a game I will almost certainly never play but enjoy reading about.

 

Definitely an awesome experience.  The learning curve is so high though, that each time I come back to play it after a year or two, I basically have to spend a couple hours on the wiki to remember how to do the most basic functions. Once you get a fortress humming though, there is no better sense of achievement... until a depressed honey badger manages to incite a suicide cult forming in your midst.

[RumHam]

46 minutes ago, horangi said:

Definitely an awesome experience.  The learning curve is so high though, that each time I come back to play it after a year or two, I basically have to spend a couple hours on the wiki to remember how to do the most basic functions. Once you get a fortress humming though, there is no better sense of achievement... until a depressed honey badger manages to incite a suicide cult forming in your midst.

The lack of accessibility has always put me off this game. It seems like it's Rimworld with layers and shit controls. 

[IlyaP]

I thought I was out, I thought I was done, and then Assassin's Creed: Valhalla came out on Steam, and it was listed at an insanely reduced price, and then videogames pulled me back in!

[polishgenius]

Everything I see and hear about this game makes me want it more. Looks absolutely fantastic. 

[horangi]

10 hours ago, RumHam said:

The lack of accessibility has always put me off this game. It seems like it's Rimworld with layers and shit controls. 

Oh yes, it is definitively inscrutable.  Rimworld is a lot of fun and is definitely heavily influenced by DF, but lacks the depth (literally in the Z axis and in content).  The addition of levels allows for more physics interactions in the settlements by being able to channel and put to work water and lava.  For example, with a lot of planning, you can setup your main entrance with a lock controlled cistern above it connected to a river, which can be used to flood invaders, but not swamp your whole fortress, etc.

[Kalbear]

Not at all surprising given the tea leaves but officially the FTC is suing to stop the MS-ABK merger:

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141613281/ftc-microsoft-activision-blizzard

I'm not honestly sure how to feel about this. My worry about MS buying this at all was that ABK was a set of studios that was well past their prime, especially Blizzard, and this was a whole lot of money. But it also fits well with Game Pass and there are some really cool things they could start doing with Blizzard if they have them in this way.

Also dunno how this will work out, but it'll almost certainly mean major delays in the merger regardless.

[Werthead]

Midnight Suns is shaping up to be a solid game, about 14 hours in. It does have a bit of a lame start - the first 2-3 hours are quite rough - but once the main game loop kicks in it ends up being quite fun.

What is amusing is that after loudly proclaiming "it's not Marvel XCOM!" it kinda does just turn into Marvel XCOM. You're doing research projects in the Forge with Dr. Strange (magical shit) and Iron Man (tech shit), you're manning the strategic operations console with Captain Marvel and sending heroes on missions, and you're hitting the training yard with Blade to train up your troops. You're levelling character abilities and developing synergies between heroes to result in powerful mission bonuses when the two buddies go on a mission together. The big Hydra villains - Venom and Sabretooth so far - also have a random chance to show up during even a standard goon beat-down mission. It is pretty much War of the Chosen with a Marvel skin.

The actual tactical combat is different, though. No movement points and positioning is not really important at all, apart from when you want to pull off environmental attacks or use an attack with a massive cone (like Captain Marvel's photon beam or Ghost Rider's hell car). There is also no cover. The characters' abilities are all pretty formidable and honestly there doesn't seem to be any obviously OP abilities. Magik maybe edges it with her area-of-effect portal attacks, which can go pretty crazy, but then Captain Marvel's ability to unleash massive vapourising beam attacks, Iron Man's multi-targeted missiles and Nico's ability to set up really crazy spell chains with random (but often devastating) effects are all formidable. There isn't really an obvious A-team to take on every mission.

The between-mission Persona stuff is fine, but can feel a bit stretched at times. Doing yoga with Blade and hearing about Captain Marvel and Nico bingeing Buffy the Vampire Slayer can feel a bit of a non sequitur when you are trying to stop the end of the world. The semi open-world exploration stuff is also really odd, since the Abbey and its grounds are not remotely big enough to really warrant it, but if they were any bigger they'd take too much time away from the meat of the game.

It does make me wonder if XCOM 3 is going to have the option of running around your base manually which could be quite fun, but I have been yearning for the "ant farm" base-running mode of the first two XCOM games in this one, rather than having to physically run down to the forge to talk to Dr. Strange and then across the building to get Blade to train up some more heroes.

Still, a pretty solid game.

[RumHam]

 

[IlyaP]

https://gizmodo.com/star-wars-jedi-survivor-gameplay-trailer-game-awards-ea-1849872010

 

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor has its first preview.