Videogames Latest: Starfields of Glory

[Ser Not Appearing]

Starfield preinstall on Xbox starts tomorrow. The 30th for Steam.

Also, here's a Starfield developer Q&A transcript from today:

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing

[IlyaP]

5 hours ago, Werthead said:

The problem is that releasing your game exactly halfway between Baldur's Gate III and Starfield is probably not wise. I'll pick up a copy but it might be months before I get around to it.

How could you forget about Phantom Liberty, you monster!  

[Toth]

Finished the Civil War mission yesterday... by constantly restarting the last leg of the mission because the tight schedule to get 3000 passengers from Louisville to Atlanta was just absolutely insane, with every little random breakdown making it impossible because even in my best run I only had half a year of time for it. The last four passengers literally arrived three days before the deadline expired. I was following that train yelling "Come on! Come on! Come on!"

Seriously, the fact that you have to do the entire thing in less than three years is insane. But otherwise it's a really good concept for a mission. I liked that with every successful task the front lines move further south, you get access to the confederate rail network and the next task is always to get more weapons and more people further down south, trying to depict you aiding the war effort. That makes the whole mission quite fluid. Except of course thanks to the crazy rigid deadlines...

(though I have to wonder... are train nuts usually right-wing? I found it a bit suspicious how the cut-scene was blatantly vague about the political background of the war, only going on and on about rising tensions and that there were "various disagreements", culminating in the victory cut-scene going "after the war, the union was stronger than ever". What? How? This combined with the in-game characters' reaction to the war being "Oh no, what a bummer. Let's go profit off of it!". It's like the developers were afraid to ruffle any confederate feathers, despite placing the player in the shoes of some union railway company that got hired by the army)

So... now onto the last mission. Which on paper sounds suspiciously easy and I already finished two thirds of them yesterday. It's basically the last leg of the trans-continental railroad. I need to connect all the cities and resources in California and grow Sacramento to 100.000 inhabitants. The only slight obstacle is the very uneven territory, forcing you to very carefully place tracks respecting the slopes. Already did most of the connections and reached 80.000, the main difficulty being so far that RNG HATES everyone and places mostly completely useless factories, causing me to struggle to get the advanced goods for the last leg of growth, so right now my focus is growing every city to the same level and unlock more factory slots. Because right now, San Francisco is useless as it produces the same shit as Sacramento, but because of my mission objective Sacramento gets all the export connections. The AI opponents have it even worse however, with Doc Brown having ONLY meat production in every city and von Pomp having ONLY beer production, causing their growth to be crippled because nobody can export anything. Still have plenty of time for resolving that, so I see not much of an issue there. The only other remaining objective is to send 50 passengers from San Francisco to Promontory Point, Utah. I have a fear that this once again means dragging people there kicking and screaming, abusing the minimum passenger number with a dozen express trains because nobody actually has a reason to travel there.

[polishgenius]

Been casting about a bit post-Zelda. Want to do some RPGing, but not really feeling the stack of JRPGs I've got right this second, and the hype about Baldur's Gate had me wanting to go a different route, so... I picked up a game in my backlog totally unlike Baldur's Gate, of course.

That being Roadwarden, which I picked up back in March or so but got distracted from. Giving it more of a go now and it's a whole balancing act of trying to balance conversations and figure out alliances and all that kind of stuff. Text-based (though illustrated) RPG about trying to be a roaming sheriff in a wild peninsula, trying to balance your motives, your employers', and those of the locals (which are many and varied). Good shit, atmospheric. 


 

[Werthead]

20 hours ago, IlyaP said:

How could you forget about Phantom Liberty, you monster!  

Phantom Liberty doesn't come out until weeks after Starfield.

[IlyaP]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Phantom Liberty doesn't come out until weeks after Starfield.

Just checked online and it looks like it comes out - woah - 20 days later. 

September's gonna be...crowded.

[Ser Not Appearing]

Finally got around to Celeste as a test for streaming.

First chapter done was funky and mic was muted.

Second chapter was better but mic too quiet.

Third chapter kicked my butt ... but my audio was better.

Fun game.

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing

[Argonath Diver]

Holy cow I didn't realize how close Starfield's release date is. Got credit for the game after my graphics card purchase this summer - it'll be my first true AAA game to push my PC in a long time. I don't count Diablo 4 since that ran just fine on my ancient 1060. For some reason I think "Oh its September, that's Fall, months away surely".

Skipping this weekend's hyped Path of Exile league again - I work weekends and always miss the first 3 day wave of excitement anyway. The game has a decade of content to delve into, but to play at a high level, you simply need to invest more time than most graduate level classes just to understand all the systems. At the same time, D4 just really sucks after ~100 hours, so I'm delighted to hear that Grim Dawn is planning their biggest free content patch in years - even though it's much slower paced, I consider it the best single player experience in any ARPG ever if you can overcome its POE-adjacent learning curve. I'm pretty happy to see so many strong choices in my preferred ultra-grindy ARPG market right now.

[IlyaP]

39 minutes ago, Argonath Diver said:

I'm delighted to hear that Grim Dawn is planning their biggest free content patch in years

Is there any indication as to what we can expect? 

[Caligula_K3]

I need some advice about buying a new system. Maybe.

For the past while, I've been doing non-Nintendo gaming through a gaming laptop, which has doubled as my work/life computer. When my old laptop died in the Spring, I was excited to get a new one so that I could try out a bunch of recent games my old laptop couldn't play: Cyberpunk, Horizon games, Elden Ring, plus upcoming games like Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Dragon Age 4. But it quickly became clear that gaming laptops aren't affordable anymore. The ones that were close to affordable were also designed look like the wet dream of a 12 year old high on Dorito dust and Mountain Dew. Not good for work life. I also find that in general, at the end of a workday, I'm not likely to want to spend more time on laptops.

So I got a work computer, and now I'm trying to decide what to buy instead to get my non-Nintendo gaming fix. Would be curious for the opinions of people who have experience with these systems and who can think of factors I might be missing.

Option 1: X Box Series S

Pros: the cheapest option by far, with good deals available because they don't sell well. Access to all Microsoft published games: most importantly, Bethesda and Obsidian games. Game Pass could be worth it, giving me the opportunity to try lots of games.

Cons: No access to Sony games. Some games, like Baldur's Gate 3, seem to have development challenges for the Series S.

Option 2: Playstation 5

Pros: Access to Sony exclusives I've been interested in playing, like Horizon, Last of Us, Final Fantasy remake. Seems to be an all around good system that people are happy with.

Cons: About double the price of the Series S. No access to Bethesda and Obsidian games.

Option 3: Steam deck

Pros: Will be able to play a mix of Microsoft and Sony exclusives. Access to my Steam library, which already has a lot of games. Portable play, as I've learned from the Switch, is kind of nice.

Cons: Shockingly expensive if you want more than the most basic version, plus costs will add up for a controller, dock, etc... In terms of technology, will probably become obsolete quickly and already struggles to run some new games.

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Caligula_K3

[Gorn]

14 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

I need some advice about buying a new system. Maybe.

For the past while, I've been doing non-Nintendo gaming through a gaming laptop, which has doubled as my work/life computer. When my old laptop died in the Spring, I was excited to get a new one so that I could try out a bunch of recent games my old laptop couldn't play: Cyberpunk, Horizon games, Elden Ring, plus upcoming games like Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield, and Dragon Age 4. But it quickly became clear that gaming laptops aren't affordable anymore. The ones that were close to affordable were also designed look like the wet dream of a 12 year old high on Dorito dust and Mountain Dew. Not good for work life. I also find that in general, at the end of a workday, I'm not likely to want to spend more time on laptops.

So I got a work computer, and now I'm trying to decide what to buy instead to get my non-Nintendo gaming fix. Would be curious for the opinions of people who have experience with these systems and who can think of factors I might be missing.

Option 1: X Box Series S

Pros: the cheapest option by far, with good deals available because they don't sell well. Access to all Microsoft published games: most importantly, Bethesda and Obsidian games. Game Pass could be worth it, giving me the opportunity to try lots of games.

Cons: No access to Sony games. Some games, like Baldur's Gate 3, seem to have development challenges for the Series S.

Option 2: Playstation 5

Pros: Access to Sony exclusives I've been interested in playing, like Horizon, Last of Us, Final Fantasy remake. Seems to be an all around good system that people are happy with.

Cons: About double the price of the Series S. No access to Bethesda and Obsidian games.

Option 3: Steam deck

Pros: Will be able to play a mix of Microsoft and Sony exclusives. Access to my Steam library, which already has a lot of games. Portable play, as I've learned from the Switch, is kind of nice.

Cons: Shockingly expensive if you want more than the most basic version, plus costs will add up for a controller, dock, etc... In terms of technology, will probably become obsolete quickly and already struggles to run some new games.

 

Have you considered Option 4, cloud gaming? It has its drawbacks (requires a good internet connection, cannot be used for some titles and DRM-free games, has a certain amount of lag, etc), but it would allow you to play all PC games on your work laptop. And the cost is not bad, $100 will buy you a year of mid-tier GeForce Now membership.

[Ran]

What @Gorn said. I used GeForce Now for about a year, and was able to play CP2077 and other high-end games pretty well. The only reason I justified a high-end rig now is because it dovetailed with things I wanted in a workstation + hobbyist interests as well as gaming, but if I didn't need more than a bog standard laptop to do those things, well, cloud gaming would be the way to go. 

You can sign up for a free account to test it out. It has a queue and only allows 1 hour of play time, but it'll give you a sense as to whether it'll work for you. It can be tied in to your Steam, Epic, and Gog accounts, and maybe your Xbox Game Pass as well (I recall reading something about some deal related to that), but as Gorn said, not all games are supported (CP2077, yes. The Horizon games and Elden Ring, no. BG3, yes. Starfield, no one knows. Ditto DA4.)

Edited August 18, 2023 by Ran

[Ser Not Appearing]

14 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

Finally got around to Celeste as a test for streaming.

First chapter done was funky and mic was muted.

Second chapter was better but mic too quiet.

Third chapter kicked my butt ... but my audio was better.

Fun game.

 

 

Streamed chapter 4 of Celeste this morning. There were a few areas that were confusing to me (one in particular) and I didn't even know what I was supposed to do to complete them. That was actively a bit aggravating and I whined and cried crocodile tears. But I eventually figured it out.

Also, my thumb hurts from fighting against the wind.

If anyone has played or is a big fan of this game, can you tell me if the solution I came up with for the room that I start at 51:00 in this video is the correct solution or if there was something more obvious? I feel like I really struggled to put together the steps necessary to complete this room and it was pretty frustrating but I assume that I was either really slow on the pickup or there was something more obvious that I could have done. Pretty curious about it, actually.

https://www.twitch.tv/jamalisms/v/1901965138?sr=a&t=2s

[Denvek]

I think when I played it I started the block moving first and then rushed ahead to get on and destroy the first block, but after that it was pretty much the same as you.

[Caligula_K3]

Thanks for the heads up on cloud gaming, @Gorn and @Ran. I hadn't even considered it as a possibility, but I'll definitely give it a try with Baldur's Gate 3 and see how that goes.

[Poobah]

1 hour ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

If anyone has played or is a big fan of this game, can you tell me if the solution I came up with for the room that I start at 51:00 in this video is the correct solution or if there was something more obvious? I feel like I really struggled to put together the steps necessary to complete this room and it was pretty frustrating but I assume that I was either really slow on the pickup or there was something more obvious that I could have done. Pretty curious about it, actually.

I think what you ended up doing by getting ahead of the block to trigger things and remove blockages is mostly how I did it and what seems to me to be the logical / correct and intended route

[Fez]

Absurd how busy this gaming year is. It's not just all the big games either. There's also Shadow Gambit (from the makes of Shadow Tactics and Desperados 3), Book of Hours (from the makers of Cultist Simulator), Dredge (horror-ish fishing game), Roots of Pacha (prehistoric Stardew Valley), Viewfinder (puzzle game), Jagged Alliance 3, and Remnant 2. All came out this year, and all I haven't touched yet. There's also The Lamplighter's League in October. And, probably at some point this winter, WH40K Rogue Trader (which, if it's anything like Wrath of the Righteous will seriously eat my time, I've put over 1,000 hours into that game).

[Whiskeyjack]

3 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Option 2: Playstation 5

 

Pros: Access to Sony exclusives I've been interested in playing, like Horizon, Last of Us, Final Fantasy remake. Seems to be an all around good system that people are happy with.

Cons: About double the price of the Series S. No access to Bethesda and Obsidian games.

Can't speak on the other options, but I do have a PS5 and love it.  The exclusives are pretty key, like you mentioned - Last of Us 1 and 2, God of War and God of War Ragnarok, and HZD are all outstanding.

Just finished Ragnarok over the summer, and probably rank it as tied for my favorite game I've ever played. 

[polishgenius]

3 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

If anyone has played or is a big fan of this game, can you tell me if the solution I came up with for the room that I start at 51:00 in this video is the correct solution or if there was something more obvious? I feel like I really struggled to put together the steps necessary to complete this room and it was pretty frustrating but I assume that I was either really slow on the pickup or there was something more obvious that I could have done. Pretty curious about it, actually.

 

 

 

I feel like what happened there is you got a bit misled by the game into thinking the first block- which you can crumble before you start the moving platform- was a tutorial for the doorbell, and therefore the solution is to find a way to get back on the doorbell too. Which isn't an unreasonable thought since Celeste obviously does the 'tutorial-real challenge' progression all the time. 

But no, your solution in the end is the intended one as far as I can tell. 

[Argonath Diver]

14 hours ago, Fez said:

...Dredge (horror-ish fishing game ...

I play exceptionally few games, but I saw this one for a bit on Twitch and really enjoyed it for ~20ish hours of very, very leisurely play. Totally worth it and I'm going to restart again soon now that I figured it out for the most part. Hopefully I can finish up it by the time Starfield drops soon. Not much time to game anymore, such is life.