Videogames 2023 pt. II: Can We patreon This Man an Alienware Already?

[RumHam]

26 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

New Stellaris DLC!

And all old games have been deleted.

Edit: Wow. 10 seconds in and this is a major revamp of the leader system.

Every time I think I'm out...

[A True Kaniggit]

35 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Every time I think I'm out...

… they pull me back in!

 

https://youtu.be/242H7F8DKHA

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by A True Kaniggit

[dog-days]

16 hours ago, Durckad said:

Gods help me, I've decided to go for another run through of Baldur's Gate.

I love all of the games (BG2 especially), but man I've played through the beginning of BG1 so, so many times and the beginning of the game is not that great comparatively that I'm already dreading the run through of the Nashkel Mines. 

For the full classic experience, you need to make sure your Charname gets eaten by a wolf in the first ten minutes of post-Candlekeep play.  

Edited May 11, 2023 by dog-days

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, dog-days said:

For the full classic experience, you need to make sure your Charname gets eaten by a wolf in the first ten minutes of post-Candlekeep play.  

AND to find the ankheg armor southeast of the Friendly Arms Inn! 

[Gorn]

Wolves were brutal if you played as a low-level mage. You cast your single puny magic missile, and then chuck stones at them, while wearing a robe.

[IlyaP]

49 minutes ago, Gorn said:

Wolves were brutal if you played as a low-level mage. You cast your single puny magic missile, and then chuck stones at them, while wearing a robe.

Or bard.

*winces in teenage memories*

[DaveSumm]

So, I never finished Breath of the Wild. I loved it, but I just don’t seem to have a window for video games in my life these days. 

Buuuut I used to adore flying around in Skyward Sword, so I’m thinking I’ll probably buy Tears of the Kingdom just for a handful of play sessions and then never finish it as well. 

[Rhom]

7 hours ago, Gorn said:

Wolves were brutal if you played as a low-level mage. You cast your single puny magic missile, and then chuck stones at them, while wearing a robe.

I played Baldurs Gate for the first time a couple years ago.  Shame.  It would have been 100% up my alley had I discovered it in the late 90's.  But anyways, I played up to where everyone is hunting me in the city near the end of the game.  Just got distracted and didn't finish it out.

I would like to finish the game and try out BG2.  I have considered starting over and just playing on the story mode difficulty to ease the experience, but didn't know if I should just try to pick up and finish the original playthrough.

I had a Dwarven Defender (has been kinda my go to for fantasy games to be a dwarf tank) but as I went on with the story, it never really seemed to make sense to me for the main character to be a dwarf.    Had thought about starting over as a bard or mage... but you guys make that sound like it isn't the best route to take for someone wanting a relatively easy experience.   

[horangi]

8 hours ago, Gorn said:

Wolves were brutal if you played as a low-level mage. You cast your single puny magic missile, and then chuck stones at them, while wearing a robe.

See now this is what I remembered- I decided to install the enhanced edition I had received on Prime a while back and was surprised you start with a whole party from the onset. ETA I was wondering if my memory was gas lighting me.

Edited May 11, 2023 by horangi

[Clueless Northman]

15 minutes ago, horangi said:

I decided to install the enhanced edition I had received on Prime a while back and was surprised you start with a whole party from the onset.

Oh come on, that's just silly. You can have several sidekicks very quickly, after all - at least if you need what to do, so on 2nd playthrough (unless you're role-playing a lot and decide not to deal with some misaligned people.

[Durckad]

20 hours ago, dog-days said:

For the full classic experience, you need to make sure your Charname gets eaten by a wolf in the first ten minutes of post-Candlekeep play.  

Not my main, but Imoen did get one-shotted by the second wolf I saw right outside Candlekeep. Oh, what's this? Load saved game? Don't mind if I do...

15 hours ago, IlyaP said:

AND to find the ankheg armor southeast of the Friendly Arms Inn! 

Managed to dodge the Ankhegs and pick up Ajantis after killing hobgoblins questing around the Friendly Arm Inn. Ya'll think wolves are bad? Ankhegs will massively fuck up the party very quickly at 1st level.

13 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Or bard.

*winces in teenage memories*

2e bards suck. And Garrick is an awful companion.

6 hours ago, Rhom said:

I played Baldurs Gate for the first time a couple years ago.  Shame.  It would have been 100% up my alley had I discovered it in the late 90's.  But anyways, I played up to where everyone is hunting me in the city near the end of the game.  Just got distracted and didn't finish it out.

I would like to finish the game and try out BG2.  I have considered starting over and just playing on the story mode difficulty to ease the experience, but didn't know if I should just try to pick up and finish the original playthrough.

I had a Dwarven Defender (has been kinda my go to for fantasy games to be a dwarf tank) but as I went on with the story, it never really seemed to make sense to me for the main character to be a dwarf.    Had thought about starting over as a bard or mage... but you guys make that sound like it isn't the best route to take for someone wanting a relatively easy experience.   

BG2 is, IMO, much better than BG1. I know some like the more open world approach of the first game, but there's just far too much open, empty space to justify it. Definitely worth the investment though of getting through BG1. BG2 is a fantastic game.

But yeah, bard or mage might not be the best option. Bards just kinda suck in 2e, maybe one of the kits is better than the base bard? Not sure, never used any aside from some of the companions.

Mages get absurdly powerful later but certainly have issues surviving early on. A multi-classed mage/thief or mage/fight might help, but will make progression slower. If you play a human, you could start as a fighter and dual class into a mage at level 2 or three. Just make sure you allocate your stats correctly at character creation.

[Corvinus85]

I have once again attempted to get into Crusader Kings III and I am failing once again. The game just received a new update + a new big DLC which adds tournaments, tours, and grand weddings thus taking even closer to how Westeros is depicted. 

I only own the vanilla game because I just can't. I've gotten the hang of the UI, but I still don't really know how to go about things. Do people use spreadsheets to lay it all out? But the problem for me really is the map. I find it overly simplistic, yet at the same time difficult to comprehend.

[IlyaP]

44 minutes ago, Durckad said:

2e bards suck. And Garrick is an awful companion.

Gods was he ever awful. 

Bards just never got any good love in 2E. I love the game desperately, but my attempts at role-playing as a bard never resulted in particularly happy endings. 

[dog-days]

3 hours ago, Durckad said:

 

BG2 is, IMO, much better than BG1. I know some like the more open world approach of the first game, but there's just far too much open, empty space to justify it. Definitely worth the investment though of getting through BG1. BG2 is a fantastic game.

I was fond of that aspect of BG1 – I liked walking my gang through the big meadow and forest areas. The atmosphere created by the music and isometric art was really relaxing. To me that aspect of it wasn't worse than BG2, but it was offering a different kind of experience. 

Haven't played either game now for around sixteen years; I played them both to death when I was young. 

ETA: And yes, BG bards suck. The ones in NWN2 were underpowered as well, though not as badly. 

Playing Witcher 3 at the moment every day for weeks after picking it up for a song from a GoG sale. At the moment it's fine, but also feels like more of a cheap time sink than something I necessarily look forward to bar a couple of good quests. The writing often seems quite blah or irritating, the bosom camera feels skeevy, and the two old friends who are meant to be loveable rogues come across more as eternal child-men. So far I just like Dijkstra and Vernon Roche. Still, Geralt is level 21 and hasn't sailed to the Skellige Isles yet. There is a lot of game and world to go. 

Edited May 12, 2023 by dog-days

[Darryk]

Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 are in my top 5 games of all time, Pure magic, those games.

The open world of Baldurs Gate 1 gave me such a sense of adventure of the time. I wish I could still feel things like that.

Baldurs Gate 2, as far as I know, was the first to have multiple romance options. I still tear up when I hear the Aerie theme music. I love how Aerie and Jaheira start fighting over you.

And yes, the bard sucks but I still managed to finish as a bard on my third playthrough. Blademaster or whatever the subclass was called.

 

[Lightning Lord]

I don't post often here but wanted to mention that Tears of the Kingdom is pretty great so far. Absolutely beautiful setting. Interesting hook following Breath of the Wild.

Looking forward to...what, scores to low hundreds of hours.

[Raja]

Finished Fallen Order, some thoughts

1. Storyline - mostly quite good, and to be honest, it it wasn't good I think this game would have really suffered ( more on that later) - there's a bit right at the end of the game that is a lot of fun for most star wars fans, I think and it was quite cool to see that. I think the two characters that you're with, you really only get to know one of them so a bit of development with the other one would have been nice. Besides those two and the main antagonist, the rest are quite forgettable. I thought the antagonist was done quite well and I enjoyed

2. The world - it's a big meh from me on this front - they really could have inspired a sense of wonder when you explore these new places but I didn't really get that at all except for maybe one of the planets you visit. There isn't much to do in each of these places & the exploration isn't that much fun either

3. Combat - some of this is good, but a lot of this is quite poor and not as good as the games it is trying to copy. There's *not* much skill involved, there's no sense of getting better or progression in your combat. Skill up mentioned this in his review but having the poise meter magically regenerate for enemies whilst you're fighting them is just...odd. Enemy variety is lacking, and the 10th time fighting random creatures just gets rote.

Overall though, I enjoyed the game because it's star wars and the combat is just passable enough and the story is good so I'll certainly be picking up jedi survivor but probably after Respawn actually sort the PC port out. The digital foundry review of jedi survivor is quite something

 

[Slurktan]

2 hours ago, Darryk said:

Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 are in my top 5 games of all time, Pure magic, those games.

The open world of Baldurs Gate 1 gave me such a sense of adventure of the time. I wish I could still feel things like that.

Baldurs Gate 2, as far as I know, was the first to have multiple romance options. I still tear up when I hear the Aerie theme music. I love how Aerie and Jaheira start fighting over you.

And yes, the bard sucks but I still managed to finish as a bard on my third playthrough. Blademaster or whatever the subclass was called.

 

Bards in BG2 definitely do not suck.  Blade is top 3 (if not 1) class in the game.

[Arakasi]

Speaking of games I’ve not played in years I’d like to try Betrayal at Krondor again. Great early 90s game based off Feist’s work. Very underrated early rpg.

[horangi]

1 hour ago, Arakasi said:

Speaking of games I’ve not played in years I’d like to try Betrayal at Krondor again. Great early 90s game based off Feist’s work. Very underrated early rpg.

That was a fantastic game for its time.  Had a good music score (that could be played on a CD player) and I enjoyed finding the puzzle boxes around the open world.  One of the few RPGs I played all the way through.