Video Games- At least 2023 looks like a banger

[IlyaP]

The next gen update has come out for The Witcher 3. And already, reports are being raised of absolutely no one being able to download it, which is either tragic or funny, depending on your personality. 

[RumHam]

2 hours ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

This is an awesome writeup on a bug in WoW about a ridiculously rare mount that for about 12 hours became very easy to get for the new race.

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-world-of-warcrafts-new-dragon-race-brought-a-10-year-old-loot-system-to-its-knees/

Quote

"They need to remove the mounts people got as Dracthyr," Necisam (opens in new tab) wrote. "This is ridiculous. I farmed the Sha of Anger for years on dozens of toons to get it, around 8,500 attempts. People shouldn't be able to log on and get it in one try because of a bug.

What a shitty attitude to have.

[Argonath Diver]

I enjoyed that story. I'm also very impressed at the exceedingly long word count of what could have been relatively the same blog post in perhaps a tenth of the text. I generally do the same.

I remember the glory days of Vanilla Stratholm (sp?) with the, what, 2% chance at the Baron Mount.

[Rhom]

I also enjoyed reading it (and yeah… it was really long.). Also agree that there is no anger like a nerd scorned.

I had given up regular play long before Pandaria released; so a lot of the obsession over rare mounts was limited to (originally) the bug mount from the opening of AQ and then later the Phoenix in Burning Crusade. I totally understand the prestige of having a rare item/cosmetic though.  Can’t tell you how many hours of my recorded playtime is actually being AFK on a pillar by the auction house bridge in Ironforge just standing there with my Thunderfury out.  

[Gorn]

I find it more fascinating that someone supposedly made 8500 attempts to get a specific piece of loot, just fighting the same boss over and over and over again. If it took them 15 mins per attempt, they spent 2000 hours, or almost three full months of their lives on this. That's more than the playtime of my top 10 Steam games combined.

While I don't want to judge anyone's gaming habits, I count myself lucky I never got the MMORPG itch and that I'm strictly a single-player gamer.

[Kalbear]

21 minutes ago, Gorn said:

I find it more fascinating that someone supposedly made 8500 attempts to get a specific piece of loot, just fighting the same boss over and over and over again. If it took them 15 mins per attempt, they spent 2000 hours, or almost three full months of their lives on this. That's more than the playtime of my top 10 Steam games combined.

While I don't want to judge anyone's gaming habits, I count myself lucky I never got the MMORPG itch and that I'm strictly a single-player gamer.

Oh, it is so much worse than that. You can do it only once per character per week. So it likely means they made 10 separate characters at least and tried it 10 times per week over 850 weeks.

[IlyaP]

What thoughts do people have on The Witcher 3 next-gen update? I've tried it all out and found it rather underwhelming. (Playing on a PC.)

[Werthead]

Yeah, it's borked to fuck at the moment, so avoid until they fix it. Among the problems is that if you don't enable raytracing at all, performance still nosedives. The only way to fix it is to roll back the update altogether.

Meanwhile, Subnautica's 2.0 update, now called Living Large, has been released. It's fixed over 800 bugs from the original release, upgraded the game's graphics and physics engines to match the standalone expansion Below Zero, and brought over all of the UI improvements from Below Zero into the base game. You can now see your battery life and fix objectives and recipes to your HUD. You can also build all the new base rooms from Below Zero, apart from the Seatruck garage (since they didn't backport the Seatruck into the base game because there's no need for it).

Also the latest game to add support for Ukrainian to the language files (also Portuguese, which feels like a pretty big oversight).

It also sounds like Subnautica 2 will be formally confirmed as in development in a few weeks, after it was leaked a whilst back (as they wryly hint at in the update). Good news that they weren't just making that random Brandon Sanderson miniatures video game.

[IlyaP]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Yeah, it's borked to fuck at the moment, so avoid until they fix it. Among the problems is that if you don't enable raytracing at all, performance still nosedives. The only way to fix it is to roll back the update altogether.

REALLY? 

I turned ray tracing off as my videocard doesn't even support that feature, and had no problem. The biggest annoyance was having to delete a single *.dll file to allow Steam's overlay and screenshot function to work properly. 

[polishgenius]

Meanwhile I'm playing the latest entry in the 'games clearly inspired by A Short Hike' subgenre, Lil Gator Game. This one's a little more ambitious because it's (1) in proper 3D with a controllable camera and (2) has a story which seems genuinely quite affecting. Though I understand it's not actually a great deal longer than Short Hike once it comes down to it.

 

So far it's definitely the best of the Hike-inspired games I've played to date: of the other two, Haven Park is just, from what I played, a production-line amalgation of it and Animal Crossing with no love or care in the design, whereas Time on Frog Island has its upsides but plays just a little bit too slow to hit the spot (though I did finish it). Lil Gator gets it: the main point here is just sheer joy of movement, and the childlike glee of just mucking about. Well written too, it's very funny but there's a bit of sadness about growing up running underneath. Having a blast.

Does make one minor mistake though: there isn't a map, or waypoint marker system, and though I understand why- it's too small to really support that and still keep the joy of adventurous discovery vibe, plus it's small enough you can't really get too lost for long- and it mostly designs well around it, there is one baffling decision right at the start that got in my way a bit. Nothing huge and most people probably won't even run into the issue or not for as long, but... hey. (basically there's a central meeting hub for the game that's actually marked out rather smartly in a natural way, but it's visible from the whole gameworld when you know to look for it... except for from the spot you're in when you're first asked to go there, where it's blocked from your view. Led to me wandering more than I wanted to before I'd kicked off the adventure proper).

Also there's a quest log but no way to access it. You see quests when you're assigned them or complete all/part of them, but that's it. That's not a swings-and-roundabouts design choice, that's just silly. 

 

Still, I think this is gonna be a recommendation for 'fans of'. 

Weirdly enough, there's another game coming out tomorrow that is almost an accidental companion piece: where Lil Gator Game is about the joy of childhood (with that sad undercurrent), Aka is about a war veteran panda moving to an island to rest and recuperate, basically pootle about doing chill things in a chill way and pondering his past. It's not got as much hype or pre-played buildup, so I'll probably wait for reviews before plunging on it, but it looks gorgeous. 
 

 

[Werthead]

After passing the 35 hour mark on Midnight Suns I decided to stop arsing around and prioritise the main story. That's working quite well. The game forces you to do one side mission for every one major mission but that's better than grinding the sometimes 4 or 5 side missions for each major one. The story and pacing really kicks up a notch and there's been some very cool setpieces.

Spoiler

The two Ghost Riders joining forces in one mission is nifty.

 

[polishgenius]

On 12/14/2022 at 11:52 PM, polishgenius said:

Still, I think this is gonna be a recommendation for 'fans of'. 

 

Finished Lil Gator Game now, and yeah, it's an absolute joy. I giggled out loud at several moments. Both at some of the writing (which does vary between being moving and having a serious point to being very funny) and at just some little touches that clearly came from the developers being like 'yes we are here to have a good time'. 

 

 

Anyone who just wants a spot of childlike glee should play it. 

[briantw]

Started digging back into Cyberpunk 2077 armed with my brand new PC.  I'd previously only been able to play it properly on GeForce Now.  My old PC could technically run the game, but load times were eternal (at least back when it came out) and the game didn't look all that great.

Now I can run that shit on all high settings.  Only get about 40-50 fps, but that's perfectly fine in a single player game.

The game is a lot of fun.  I'm doing a sort of pistol, shotgun, blunt weapons build, mostly because a sexual encounter in the game left me with a giant dildo weapon that has been, thus far, the most powerful melee weapon I've found by a wide margin, and upgrades have kept it that way.  I had planned to do a katana build, but Sir John Phallustiff was at least 100 points higher in DPS.  It also vibrates when equipped.

I also spent around ten hours of game time not realizing my best pistol had a mod equipped that made it so that headshots didn't do any additional damage.  I was mighty pissed when I notice that, and it made some frustrating stealth attempts make a lot more sense in retrospect.  

I started the game over this time around, as it'd been over a year since I'd last played it and I didn't remember what I was even doing when I stopped playing.  Switched to a female V as well to listen to a different performance for the first ten to fifteen hours, which is about how long I played the game back when it released.

The game definitely has a lot less glitches than it used to, but there's still a pretty distinct lack of AI in the world.  If I stop my bike in the middle of a road, cars will often just stop behind it and sit there eternally, or until I move the bike.  I found a dude kicking a woman on the ground and promptly ended him, only for the woman to get up and walk away, only she'd keep going back into her "on the ground taking kicks" animation as she did so.  Cars will occasionally break every law of physics and fly into the air, as will bodies you drop from time to time.  It's not so often that it's really annoying, and can be amusing at times.

[Ramsay B.]

On 12/14/2022 at 2:08 AM, IlyaP said:

What thoughts do people have on The Witcher 3 next-gen update? I've tried it all out and found it rather underwhelming. (Playing on a PC.)

Playing on PS5 and I’m happy with it. Better graphics, barely any load times and Geralt doesn’t die when he falls from a 5 foot cliff anymore. 

Love the signs shortcut too. So much better than going into your menu every time.

[Larry of the Lawn]

I've been playing dwarf fortress (the steam version) the last couple days.  I'd played the freeware one years ago and enjoyed it but never got too deep into it.  Pretty addictive so far

[IlyaP]

Am still fully and completely at the mercy of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Steam says I've played 61 hours so far. Having achieved power level 101, I felt comfortable starting the Wrath of the Druids DLC, which is meant to be a reasonable 7-8 hour campaign. 

That said, my partner and I were looking at the IGN walkthrough of AC:V last night to get a sense of how much game was left (what the guide refers to as the 'Quest Arcs'), and as I sat there nodding at the major quests/locations/regions I'd completed, I winced and groaned slightly, as I realised "I've...only completed maybe 25% of the game, sweetie". She looked at the screen, smiled, and said "That's okay - it looks like it'll keep you busy!" 

And how, clearly. 

This game is scary amazing so far. I own every single AC game aside from the side-scrollers, and I've never really enjoyed any of them, but AC:V really speaks to me, and doesn't ever feel like work, doesn't put up obvious narrative progression barricades (at least not that I've seen or noticed), and has a lot of, well, everything. Talking with a friend this morning, I've discovered that there are also *ten* soundtracks for this game. Ten. Clearly, Ubisoft went all in on this something fierce. (For those wondering what they are: 

1. Dawn of Ragnarok

2. Out of the North

3. Sons of the Great North

4. The Raven's Saga

5. The Siege of Paris

6. The Wave of Giants

7. The Weft of Spears

8. Twilight of the Gods

9. Wrath of the Druids

10. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (original soundtrack release)

From a pure business perspective, that's some serious dedication to one product. I can't think of any game I've ever played that had this many soundtrack releases associated with it. It's damn impressive. 

Suffice to say, I'm kinda hooked. In for a bit, in for a pound...or something, yeah?

[Werthead]

Ha. One of the oddest things about Midnight Suns is how it lifts the entire character friendship/relationship thing from Mass Effect, but the game does not allow any romances with Officially Licensed Marvel Characters, who as we all know, have never had sex.

The game does have fun with that though. You only acquire Scarlet Witch about 75% of the way through the game, so in order to give you a fair chance to level Scarlet Witch's friendship meter, it gives you a lot of opportunities to spend time with her, take her on missions, do hangouts etc at a hugely accelerated rate. The game then leans into this by also having you and Scarlet Witch work together to 

Spoiler

help resurrect Agatha Harkness - it's a whole thing -

and to keep that a secret you fake being in a relationship (and it matters not one whit if you're playing a male or female Hunter), and everyone buys into it immediately because you've been hanging out for so much. Not for very long, but it's an amusing nod at something they clearly wanted to do but couldn't.

So far I've managed to level Captain Marvel, Nico and Magik to maximum, and their end-game powers and special abilities are pretty awesome. Scarlet Witch isn't far off, and I could probably get one of Blade, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man and Iron Man there if I focused on them, but I doubt Wolverine will make it up there before the end of the game. I could get everyone there, of course, if I just grinded another 50 side-missions, but that's not a very enticing prospect.

It does feel like the game could do with a secondary story arc to bulk out the game with more meaningful story missions, like a War of the Chosen-style expansion. I wonder if that's on the cards.

Nico being one of the most powerful characters in the game does make me want to check out Runaways for the first time, since she's also a major player there (and played by the same actress!). Magick's also very cool, to the point of making me wonder why they haven't done more with her outside of the comics (apart from The New Mutants, but that was terrible).

Spoiler

Magick kicks the living shit out of Mephisto! Twice!

 

[Ran]

Picked up a few things on the Steam sale: Portal 2, which I've never played before, was a gimme at its sub-$1 pricing. Got Disco Elysium because of all the praise I've seen for it. Also got Heaven's Vault because it sounds intriguing. Finally, and the game I'll dive into first with Linda, is Pentiment, which looks lovely and sounds quite intriguing with its very deeply embeded medieval aesthetics. 

Epic's free game today is Metro: Last Light Redux, which is a repeat... but everyone's pretty sure tomorrow's game is the PC version of Death Stranding.

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

Epic's free game today is Metro: Last Light Redux, which is a repeat... but everyone's pretty sure tomorrow's game is the PC version of Death Stranding.

How does that work, @Ran, where people are able to deduce the title of Epic's next free game? Is there a cached text file or something, that has clues? 

[Ran]

Just now, IlyaP said:

How does that work, @Ran, where people are able to deduce the title of Epic's next free game? Is there a cached text file or something, that has clues? 

The image for the next game, that looks a bit like a Christmas gift wrapping paper, has emblems drawn from whatever game is coming next. People were able to figure out all the previous games based on that.

That said, revisited the Reddit thread and some are arguing that it's not Death Stranding at all -- the necklace with three tags doesn't fit the main character's in DS, who has five tags. It could be Raji: An Ancient Empire instead, based on what they're saying.