Videogames Latest: Starfields of Glory

[Werthead]

3 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

There are so many good skills to develop though. 

With no level cap and a fairly steady clip of going up levels (I'm at Level 25 with less than 30 hour on the clock), you can also develop all of them.

The jet pack is a good one because you only need 1 point to actually use it, you don't need to go up the full ladder (the same with stealth).

[Kalbear]

That said, maxing the jet pack does mean you can use it for a lot longer and with a lot less oxygen. It's one of the more useful things you can do in the game.

[Werthead]

Steam turns 20 years old today (even if 99% of early adopters didn't encounter it until a year later, when Half-Life 2 was released).

A brief moment of remembrance for having phone cables strewn through my house at the time trying to get the fucking thing to work, to the mild irritation of my then-landlady.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Werthead

[Heartofice]

I remember being mildly annoyed by the idea of a steam account back when my shelves were covered in endless CD-ROM games like Medieval 2. The idea it was getting so much backlash as an idea back then seems quaint now. 

[Werthead]

Apparently I have 5,769 hours on Steam spread across 484 games, although apparently I've only actually played 234 of those, the rest are unplayed or pre-Steam games that got migrated onto Steam at some point.

My most played games are:

1. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition: 309 hours (this went up this week with the addition of two new campaigns)
2. Fallout 4: 210 hours
3. Cyberpunk 2077: 204 hours
4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: 190 hours
5. BattleTech: 158 hours
6. XCOM: Enemy Unknown: 136 hours
7. Death Stranding: 96 hours
8. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition: 96 hours
9. Grand Theft Auto IV/Episodes from Liberty City: 88.5 hours
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: 88 hours
11. Homeworld: Remastered Collection: 83 hours
12. XCOM 2/War of the Chosen: 83 hours
13. Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock: 82 hours
14. Baldur's Gate III: 80 hours
15. Company of Heroes: 80 hours
16. Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak: 74 hours
17. Valkyria Chronicles: 70 hours
18. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: 65 hours
19. Rome: Total War Remastered: 63 hours
20. Horizon Zero Dawn: 63 hours

Hmm. Rookie numbers compared to the people I know with thousands of hours in Skyrim alone, or the competitive multiplayer gamers with thousands of hours in Dota 2 or Team Fortress 2.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Werthead

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Omg empire total war was my first downloaded game on steam and internet connection in India in 2008 was ASS! I just hated the platform back then, took me a week to download and play the game. Also cloud syncing was a mess, always had syncing conflicts and used to actually override my save files continuously on different PCs until I finally turned it off. Much better now since they got a local server in india. 
 

I didn’t really appreciate Steam until I was forced to use Origin and Uplay by EA and Ubisoft respectively….

Edited September 12, 2023 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Fez]

I first installed Steam in 2010, but didn't start to seriously use it until 2014. I had been a console gamer mostly, with a handful of physical PC games plus WoW. But I didn't really have the money at the time to upgrade to the PS4/Xbox One era; and also I'd been a 360 guy and really didn't like the Xbox One (but didn't want to switch the the PS4 eco-system either). 

I think I may have gotten a couple free games in 2010/2011, but my first steam purchase was Fallout 2 for $4.99 in July 2012. I had 3 more purchases in the next 25 months. And then floodgates opened in August 2014, beginning with Divinity: Original Sin 1. 

I now have 5,404 hours (which is actually lower than I'd have guessed, but I guess I do still play a fair amount on PC outside of Steam) spread across 451 games, which is eerily similar to Wert's numbers.  

My top 15 most played are:

1. Pathfinder: WotR- 1,013 hours (I have a problem, I know)

2. Pathfinder: Kingmaker- 309 hours

3. Stellaris- 255 hours

4. Divinity: Original Sin 2- 232 hours

5. Secret World Legends- 205 hours

6. Europa Universalis IV- 187 hours

7. Civilization V- 182 hours

8. Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children- 166 hours

9. Baldur's Gate 3- 149 hours

10. Elden Ring- 139 hours

11. The Witcher 3- 133 hours

12. Cyberpunk 2077- 129 hours

13. Mass Effect Legendary Edition- 115 hours

14. Hades- 112 hours

15. Pillars of Eternity- 93 hours

 

It's interesting to me how top-heavy the list is; and also just how big the COVID effect has been on my gaming habits. Most of these are games I've played in the past 3+ years. I think I am gaming more than before, but also gaming on more steam than before. I certainly use PC Gamepass still, but my days of using other launchers seem to basically be over now.

[horangi]

My profile indicates its 18 years old, so that would suggest I was one of those Half-life2 early adapters.  Interestingly enough the game profile for HL2 doesn't have any hours played or achievements, so I wonder if they weren't a thing when it first came out, since I know I beat the game.  As for games overall, 9720 hours played, but a huge amount of that is idle time.  The Paradox games are great for a busy life where you can tab out and play in little bursts around a busy schedule.  @Werthead you have pretty good balance to make it through games I am guessing, maybe as part of your reviewer livelihood.  I tend to either play it to death or it doesn't make it past hour 2 or 3. 

1. Stellaris - 2306 (My comfort blanket)
2. Fallout 4 - 588 (Must connect every village with full defenses!)
3. EU4 - 508 (Mostly trying to win with ridiculous scenarios, the game that has gotten the most $$ out of me on DLC)
4. XCom ET - 480 (Long War)
5. TW: Warhammer III - 468 (That's probably like 4 Mortal Empires runs)
6. Valheim - 460  (Online with friends COVID defense)
7. Long Dark - 431  (Great for those cold gloomy winter days with an Irish Coffee)
8. Elite Dangerous - 422 (Nothing more relaxing after a high stress day then mapping a far flung star system no other player has been to)
9. Battletech - 411
10. CivVI - 397
11. Skyrim - 363
12. TW: Warhammer II - 278
13. Rimworld - 201
14. TW: Shogun II- 197
15. Darkest Dungeon - 172
16. Fallout NV - 165
17. Fallen Enchantress LH - 159
18. Crusader Kings II - 141
19. Stardew Valley - 120 (gaming with family)
20. Subnautica - 113 (Most immersive game I've played)
 

Edited September 12, 2023 by horangi

[Kalbear]

Heh. Kind of surprising for me on some of the stuff. Part of the issue for me is that I often don't close a game before I leave, so it just...keeps on running. But...

Civ 6: 744 hours

Terra Invicta: 744 hours

Xcom 2: 179 h

CP2077 - 'only' 113h

Endless space 2 - 364 h

Endless Legend - 425h
Master of Orion - 420h 

Yeah, might have a pattern there

[horangi]

28 minutes ago, Fez said:

My top 15 most played are:

1. Pathfinder: WotR- 1,013 hours (I have a problem, I know)

2. Pathfinder: Kingmaker- 309 hours

OK thats quite an endorsement- I was put off a bit from Kingmaker when I kept running into no win situations.  Does WotR provide a bit more balance or is reloading 'the way'?

[horangi]

DP Feel free to remove.

Edited September 12, 2023 by horangi

[Fez]

38 minutes ago, horangi said:

OK thats quite an endorsement- I was put off a bit from Kingmaker when I kept running into no win situations.  Does WotR provide a bit more balance or is reloading 'the way'?

Depends which situations you mean. The crusade system, which is the replacement of the kingdom system, is much easier; almost impossible to lose if you read up a bit on how it works. And you can fully automate it if you want (though you do miss some cool scenes if you do that; also it locks out 2 of the evil mythic paths, which require certain crusade buildings to be manually constructed).

For the regular gameplay though, it depends. There are certain fights for instance that are a breeze if you have a certain buff already up (e.g., fire resistance) but very hard otherwise; so you might run into a few reload situations like that. Overall though, I think it is more balanced, with a more smoothed out difficulty compared to Kingmaker. And there are some QoL changes to help out, built into the mythic powers system. Like by mid-Act II you can have your main buff character's buffs that last over 5 minutes last for 24 hours instead, so you can just cast all of them right after a rest instead of trying to guess which fight it makes sense to use them for.

Overall, there's still that heavy, heavy "crunch" that the Pathfinder 1e system has, so it really depends on how you feel about that. I adore it, but I get the frustrations around 'trap' builds and the like. If you can at least tolerate it, the game has a really compelling narrative; with way larger, and more meaningful, choices than you usually see in an RPG.

[Werthead]

Obviously Steam doesn't capture games I have on other launchers, and I think they changed the Half-Life 2 system at some point because that does not register after a certain point. Also, mods sometimes disable the time tracking system as well.

I'm pretty certain my most-played game is Company of Heroes, which I and a friend of mine played at least several times a month between 2006 and around 2016 when it switched to the Steam version (after which we generally stopped playing it, although still enough to get another 70-odd hours in). I also have a ton of hours in old games like StarCraft.

[horangi]

26 minutes ago, Fez said:

For the regular gameplay though, it depends. There are certain fights for instance that are a breeze if you have a certain buff already up (e.g., fire resistance) but very hard otherwise; so you might run into a few reload situations like that. Overall though, I think it is more balanced, with a more smoothed out difficulty compared to Kingmaker. And there are some QoL changes to help out, built into the mythic powers system. Like by mid-Act II you can have your main buff character's buffs that last over 5 minutes last for 24 hours instead, so you can just cast all of them right after a rest instead of trying to guess which fight it makes sense to use them for.

Thanks!  Its the bolded that got me in Kingmaker.  I kept running into encounters that were clearly beyond the capability of the party, but, to my knowledge there wasn't a way to run either.  I probably didnt give the game enough of a chance, but it felt like there wasnt much of a way to sense and avoid those situations and I've tried to not meta game through trial and error (party wipe, I mean, running away to fight another day is fine).

[GallowKnight]

My numbers are rookie numbers compared to some of you. I've had Steam since Skyrim was released in 2011 and my top 10 is:

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 454,2 hours

2. Total War: Shogun 2 - 156.4 hours

3. Saint's Row the Third - 67,4 hours

4. Far Cry 3 - 57,5 hours (impressive considering that I never made it off the first island)

5. Knights of the Old Republic - 51,6 hours

6. Thrones of Brittania: A Total War Saga - 5,4 hours

7. Fallout New Vegas - 49,8 hours

8. The Banner Saga 2 - 48,7 hours

9. Saint's Row 4 - 41 hours

10. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger - 38,4 hours

 

[Corvinus85]

Joined Steam in 2012 when I built my PC (upgraded since)

Here is my top 15, all with over 100 hrs of play. See if you can figure out my favorite franchise. 

1.       Total War: Warhammer 2 1429 hrs

2.       Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord 566.8 hrs

3.       Mount & Blade Warband 538.2 hrs

4.       Total War: Warhammer 3 415.2 hrs

5.       XCOM 2 (including War of the Chosen) 301 hrs

6.       Wartales 270 hrs

7.       Total War: Three Kingdoms 260.1 hrs

8.       Total War: Rome 2 241.4 hrs

9.       Skyrim: 220.4 hrs

10.   Counter-strike: Global Offensive 211.2 hrs

11.   Battletech: 207.5 hrs

12.   Total War: Attila 171.6 hrs

13.   Expeditions: Rome 141.8 hrs

14.   Mass Effect: Legendary Edition 120.6 hrs

15.   Might & Magic Heroes VII: 103.9 hrs

[Ser Not Appearing]

First things I leveled up in Starfield were security and boost pack and fitness. I can unlock anything, can run forever and use my boost pack all over the place.

Boost pack you should at least have one point in because you get a good bit of utility out of it just with the one point. It's like how putting a point into targeting systems allows you to use that functionality and it's a big game changer. You don't have to keep leveling it up, necessarily, but just the one point unlocks the ability and that's a big step forward.

Edited September 12, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing

[Ser Not Appearing]

I rarely used steam because I'm a console player.

Fortnite is certainly my most played game of all time. Too easy to sink hundreds of hours into that with buddies. I'm in the thousands, actually. After that, Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild and Rocket League are each good bets to be in my top five because I know I've got 200+ hrs in each game.

[Ran]

My numbers are true rookie numbers -- my most played game is CP2077 at 226 hours. Second is Team Fortress 2 at 168 hours. I've literally hundreds of games now, but I just can't bring myself to play any of them for too long. Except Cyberpunk, I expect to rack up another 100 hours once Phantom Liberty comes out. 

Of course, The Secret World MMO, I logged thousands of hours in that one. That was an obsession for a few years.

 

[Slurktan]

My top 10:

Medieval Total War II: 452

Total War Warhammer II: 389

King Arthur: Knight's Tale: 388

Super Auto Pets: 348

Dark Souls 2 : 330

Slay the Spire: 289

Dark Souls: 288

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV: 273

Civ V : 232

Total War: 3 Kingdoms: 231

 

For those of you who have done a lot of the XCOMs try King Arthur, it's great.