Videogames Thread: Steaming Ahead

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Edited , thought this was the Unreal engine under discussion. 

Edited September 14, 2023 by Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II

[Ran]

2 minutes ago, Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II said:

I was getting sick of seeing every game made on Unreal. 

Unity is not Unreal.

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

1 minute ago, Ran said:

Unity is not Unreal.

Ohh my bad I confused them with Epics Studio and Unreal engine. 

[IlyaP]

Woke up to extremely exciting news: Tomb Raider 1-3 is getting a remaster release: 

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-original-tomb-raider-trilogy-is-being-remastered-for-release-next-year

[IlyaP]

Have finally finished Solasta: Crown of the Magister, which was extremely fun and only in the end really started to outstay its welcome with a plot that, in the last act, put the pedal down like season 4 of Babylon 5 and just ran hard and fast towards the climax that never quite gels and wraps up rather abruptly without making much, if any, sense. 

Being turn-based (*gnashing teeth*), battles take way longer than I'd like, and the final third of the game has far more trashmob fights than I'd like, which seem to exist soley to either prolong the conclusion or help the party level up a bit in preparation for the DLCs. 

Still, at 35 hours, the game does what it sets out to do, if with a bit of roughness around the edges. The lore and background are very much tropey, generic high fantasy Tolkienesque stuff, and isn't what I'd call memorable, and the high level loot is far and few between. And if you want better gear - better learn to craft, as that's the best way to get +1 arrows, which very much come in handy during the more tedious matches between Sor-Akkath and your party of four (which you can pre-generate like in Icewind Dale, or, if you prefer, choose from pre-made characters). 

All in all, it's alright, for a turn-based RPG. And because it's all 3D, it lacks the hand-touched, painterly touch that I personally prefer in my rpgs. But it's fine. It's entertaining. It's well-made, bug-free, no patches needed to work, everything runs smoothly out of the box, and the game even features a dungeon maker that's apparently quite easy to use, and several post-campaign DLCs, for those that want to continue onwards to higher levels. 

It's got a quaint, mimicking teenagers doing shoddy voice-work with great passion kind of charm to it, which makes it feel very, well, charming. And ye gods, composer Maxime Herve does some terrific work in the game, and is worth acknowledging for the thunderous score he composed. 

[Corvinus85]

I've decided to quit the outpost aspect of Starfield. Just too tedious and too much hauling around a lot of cargo. The majority of quests are decent enough to take up much of my time, I get plenty of credits through loot and completion of quests, and sometimes from surveying valuable planets. I will still do ship upgrades and wish to try to build my own ship once I get the better skills for it.

The game needs to have a setting where you can disable your companions chatting on the ship when you're flying. I don't know how many times these chatterboxes were yapping in the background when I was trying to talk to another ship captain.

[Werthead]

46 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

I've decided to quit the outpost aspect of Starfield. Just too tedious and too much hauling around a lot of cargo. The majority of quests are decent enough to take up much of my time, I get plenty of credits through loot and completion of quests, and sometimes from surveying valuable planets. I will still do ship upgrades and wish to try to build my own ship once I get the better skills for it.

The game needs to have a setting where you can disable your companions chatting on the ship when you're flying. I don't know how many times these chatterboxes were yapping in the background when I was trying to talk to another ship captain.

I found Sam and his daughter to be kinda endearing, but a bit odd when they're having a discussion about Cora's book collection (did you get that Cora likes books? The game doesn't mention that enough) when you're in a laser death dogfight with four pirate ships.

[Leofric]

6 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Have finally finished Solasta: Crown of the Magister, which was extremely fun and only in the end really started to outstay its welcome with a plot that, in the last act, put the pedal down like season 4 of Babylon 5 and just ran hard and fast towards the climax that never quite gels and wraps up rather abruptly without making much, if any, sense. 

Being turn-based (*gnashing teeth*), battles take way longer than I'd like, and the final third of the game has far more trashmob fights than I'd like, which seem to exist soley to either prolong the conclusion or help the party level up a bit in preparation for the DLCs. 

Still, at 35 hours, the game does what it sets out to do, if with a bit of roughness around the edges. The lore and background are very much tropey, generic high fantasy Tolkienesque stuff, and isn't what I'd call memorable, and the high level loot is far and few between. And if you want better gear - better learn to craft, as that's the best way to get +1 arrows, which very much come in handy during the more tedious matches between Sor-Akkath and your party of four (which you can pre-generate like in Icewind Dale, or, if you prefer, choose from pre-made characters). 

All in all, it's alright, for a turn-based RPG. And because it's all 3D, it lacks the hand-touched, painterly touch that I personally prefer in my rpgs. But it's fine. It's entertaining. It's well-made, bug-free, no patches needed to work, everything runs smoothly out of the box, and the game even features a dungeon maker that's apparently quite easy to use, and several post-campaign DLCs, for those that want to continue onwards to higher levels. 

It's got a quaint, mimicking teenagers doing shoddy voice-work with great passion kind of charm to it, which makes it feel very, well, charming. And ye gods, composer Maxime Herve does some terrific work in the game, and is worth acknowledging for the thunderous score he composed. 

I enjoyed this game a lot and  played it quite a bit last spring.  The DLC's are also good.  Lost Valley is a separate story that restarts you at level 1.   There are factions to play off of and more politics.   The Palace of Ice is for higher level characters and is a sequel to the original story.   You can carry over your original characters that finished the main game or you can start with new higher leveled characters that the DLC assumes had beaten original story.

[Ser Not Appearing]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

I found Sam and his daughter to be kinda endearing...

I did too. Perhaps too much based on my gameplay.

[IlyaP]

6 hours ago, Leofric said:

I enjoyed this game a lot and  played it quite a bit last spring.  The DLC's are also good.  Lost Valley is a separate story that restarts you at level 1.   There are factions to play off of and more politics.   The Palace of Ice is for higher level characters and is a sequel to the original story.   You can carry over your original characters that finished the main game or you can start with new higher leveled characters that the DLC assumes had beaten original story.

I might revisit it later. As this point though I have had my fill of the game and turn-based nonsense. 

[Werthead]

Starfield certainly took a turn.

Spoiler

One of my companion characters was brutally murdered and then New Atlantis's spaceport was flooded with Terrormorphs, resulting in chaos on the streets, civilian casualties and UC marines being torn to pieces.

Well-played Bethesda, well-played.

[Ser Not Appearing]

3 hours ago, Werthead said:

Starfield certainly took a turn.

  Hide contents

One of my companion characters was brutally murdered and then New Atlantis's spaceport was flooded with Terrormorphs, resulting in chaos on the streets, civilian casualties and UC marines being torn to pieces.

Well-played Bethesda, well-played.

 

On 9/15/2023 at 12:29 PM, Ser Not Appearing said:

Perhaps too much ...

Yep.

Spoiler

I believe there's always two possibilities in that scenario. The first is that the companion you have the most affinity with will die or Barret will die. Depending on who's with you when you go to the lodge and what choice you make in that dialogue, that determines which dies. In my case that was Coe.

I got the little girl's dad killed.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Ser Not Appearing

[Maia]

I am making my way through Etrian Odyssey 3 remaster. It is part of a game series that appeared on DS and 3DS and was strongly influenced by Wizardry - i.e. a turn-based blobber. They have now remastered the first 3 installments for the Switch and PC.

What distinguishes these games is that you have to map a labyrinth descending ever deeper, but floors have their own gimmicks and mini-bosses, which are strong enough that they have to be avoided during initial exploration. They all have their own patterns of movement and behavior and are part of a puzzle that needs to be overcome to descend further. Eventual battles with them and stratum bosses (every few floors) are tactical and thrilling. Random encounters aren't push-overs either and require use of abilities when you are first exploring a floor. Which matter and work, so character/party building is quite engrossing too. The loot that the enemies drop is used to unlock and produce new equipment, which can then be further improved in some of the games, including this one. All of this is also enlivened by short text adventure moments. Town is a menu and most characters that you cant talk with don't even have a portrait, though a handful of most important ones do and you also run into about as many  in the dungeon.

EO3 additionally has sea exploration - also turn-based, where you have a number of turns limited by your ship's equipment and have to figure out currents, whirlpools, reefs, etc. to establish routes to other settlements and unlock optional boss battles. There are, again, occasional short text adventure moments, as well as equipment and goods to be found on various islands.

I love this game - though I was already a fan of Etrian Odyssey, having played 2 of the 3DS games. From what I have heard, 1 and 2 are somewhat rough, but EO3 is great if one enjoys this kind of old-school RPG, but with new coat of paint and QoL.

 

[Werthead]

There's a remaster of the original 1981 Wizardry (Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord) on the way, which is pretty crazy stuff.

[IlyaP]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

There's a remaster of the original 1981 Wizardry (Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord) on the way, which is pretty crazy stuff.

Did you notice that nearly every dungeon looks more or less the same? Watching the trailer, I got the distinct feeling that there'd be an overpowering sense of deja vu very quickly from the sameness of each dungeon. (I'm guessing this is also *shudder* turn-based?)

[Werthead]

19 hours ago, IlyaP said:

Did you notice that nearly every dungeon looks more or less the same? Watching the trailer, I got the distinct feeling that there'd be an overpowering sense of deja vu very quickly from the sameness of each dungeon. (I'm guessing this is also *shudder* turn-based?)

To be fair, that would be very true to the original!

[Martell Spy]

On 9/17/2023 at 12:39 PM, Werthead said:

There's a remaster of the original 1981 Wizardry (Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord) on the way, which is pretty crazy stuff.

Yeah, Wizardy was huge to me. I assume it was huge to 1980's computer people, too. But I couldn't get a PC until adulthood, but I found a NES copy of Wizardry. There weren't a lot of NES turn-based RPGs. But also playing Wizardy was like playing D&D, and this was before I got to play that so it was a good stand in. I couldn't find a copy to buy, but rented it often from a video store.

[IlyaP]

8 hours ago, Werthead said:

To be fair, that would be very true to the original!

So the original was more about levelling up a party in a generic dungeon than about, say, lore and exploration?

[IlyaP]

(I ask only 'cause I'm too young to have ever come across -  much less played - these games.)

[Werthead]

12 hours ago, IlyaP said:

So the original was more about levelling up a party in a generic dungeon than about, say, lore and exploration?

It was 1981, lore was "this is the bad guy, kill him," and exploration was "here's some more snake men, they are slightly tougher than the last room."