The Video Game Thread: What are you Playing?

[Paragon]

MOO2 is pure love. Have you tried Alpha Centauri? Only other strategy game to rival MOO2 for me.

I do, and actually played it not long ago, but the graphics seem to have aged badly for me in a way that MOO2s didn't. I can't even begin to say why.

I rather like Endless Legends from the new generation.

I tried a couple times and bounced. Odd, because I thought Endless Space was okay.

War of the Chosen is pretty good too.

I'd hesitate to say the number of hours I've put into that game. Its probably alarming.

 

[Baulderstone]

Steam is offering a massive discount on We Happy Few so I took a break from Doom Eternal (amazing game, it's on the GOAT list) to give it a shot. I was expecting a campy romp through a dystopian psychedelic 1960's England but ended up skulking around like a rat in a devastated countryside scrounging for trash. The game so far is mostly running, hiding, stealing, and hoarding punctuated by choking people out. The Mrs likes it but I am finding it a little grindy and repetitive so far. I feel like it's trying to be Bioshock with survival elements but failed because the developers didn't have enough money or time.

If someone has played this before, when does the fun start? Does the lore get any more interesting? After a couple hours it was painfully obvious to me what happened-

Spoiler: Spoiler

the people let the Germans take their kids and their guilt led them to taking Joy. Oh and Arthur sold out his brother.

The game + all DLC is only $13 on Steam right now. At a price that cheap I don't mind the money spent and am going to keep playing in hopes of an improvement.

Everything I've heard about the game suggests there isn't much more to the game than what you are saying. I don't know. Maybe it does get fun, but nobody ever lasted that long.

 

[Smith]

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint — anyone playing? Is it any good?

I’m not exactly eager to throw myself into another game but the Vermintide 2 crew wants to switch over to that and I’m not exactly thrilled by the release reviews. Though some reports suggest the game’s improved substantially since.

I put a little bit of time into the more hardcore side of it (i am not interested in loot dropped milsim weapons) and it was just... okay. Mindless michael bay-esque 'stealthy' fun.

 

[Voros]

Playing Shadow of War on PSPlus, the sequel to Shadow of Mordor, which I was surprised to quite enjoy.

I have no idea what the story is on about in the cheesy and silly cut scenes and don't really care but I'm enjoying the combat and nemesis system of enemy orcs except for the fact that one orc I've killed at least half a dozen times escapes everytime I try to deliver a killing blow.

I assume I need to level up or he is now an endgame boss.

I also must have inadvertently skipped the tutorial, I played the first game but was rusty on the combat mechanics but seem to be thrown into fights with no instruction, not even DS-like symbols.

 

[Brock Savage]

Three of us tried Phasmophobia in the dark with headphones and mics using the in-game chat. Even though the game is kinda basic it was a wild experience, both fun and scary as fuck. My friend and I feel that this game is like the crude predecessor of a new kind of gaming that will emerge once VR tech improves. It's hard to describe, it was like a uh... authentic shared group experience that you normally don't get on a PC

A friend bought me Greedfall and I am enjoying it more than expected. I played for hours while on Steam Chat with friends. It's basically a fantasy Age of Exploration RPG with factions and companion quest lines. I have a sweet little Long Blade + Stasis build that is extremely effective so far. We'll see if the game continues to be this enjoyable in the long run.

Playing Shadow of War on PSPlus, the sequel to Shadow of Mordor, which I was surprised to quite enjoy.

I have it but only played like an hour or so. Let me know what I have to do to find the fun.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Three of us tried Phasmophobia in the dark with headphones and mics using the in-game chat. Even though the game is kinda basic it was a wild experience, both fun and scary as fuck. My friend and I feel that this game is like the crude predecessor of a new kind of gaming that will emerge once VR tech improves. It's hard to describe, it was like a uh... authentic shared group experience that you normally don't get on a PC

I've only seen people play it but it definetly seems like a fantastic game concept that really needs a full team/funding behind it. VR would be terrifying.

 

[Smith]

I played Phasmophobia in VR. I locked myself in a bathroom and had to try to stay sane while a spirit tried to kill me, it was rough. I had fun!

 

[TristramEvans]

The best exploration of my favourite Video game series that I've ever come across

 

[Smith]

The best exploration of my favourite Video game series that I've ever come across

Noah is fantastic, I really liked his Ghost Recon video recently and his exploration into politics (or apolitics) in games and how Americanisms bleeds into game structures regardless.

 

[Nobby-W]

Well, I fired up Kerbal Space Program for the first time since about 1.4 or 1.5. At that point it had developed a crashing bug and wouldn't run at all on my computer. That computer is actually doing sterling service with a chap I play D&D with now. They've obviously fixed the bug now, as it seems to be all hunky dory on my machine now.

However, I was quite shocked by just how much I had forgotten - like most of the keyboard controls and how pernicketty staging is. It took a few attempts just to make a working orbital shot. I think I might need to practice space stations, mun and duna missions again before I go back to the Jool exploration I was part way through when KSP went tits up on me.

 

[Smith]

My wife and I bought Heroes of Hammerwatch in the Steam sale to play together. We had previously played the predecessor to this pixelated gauntlet-esque/roguelike, Hammerwatch, so we knew we'd likely enjoy it.

Safe to say we're hooked, this sequel has instead opted for procedurally generated dungeons rather than pre-created ones, so each run has something different to throw your way.

 

[Voros]

I have it but only played like an hour or so. Let me know what I have to do to find the fun.

Did you get to the Nemesis system yet?

Hunting down and killing the orc that shanked you I find pretty damn entertaining.

I just started skipping the cut scenes to get to the orc killing.

 

[Brock Savage]

Did you get to the Nemesis system yet?

Nah I didn't get to that point and it got deleted from the HD to make way for AC: Odyssey. I've never played an Assassin's Creed game. It was fun but combat is really easy on Normal, I tear through enemies so easily that stealth is mostly pointless. I still suck at ship combat tho. Do I recommend it? Not sure. On one hand it is Ancient Greece and just a feast for the eyes, on the other hand after I've effortlessly slaughtered a legion of bandits to reach level 9 it is starting to feel like a grind.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

I finally beat Project: Warlock and good lord the last boss fight was so hard I had to go back to previous levels to farm Upgrade points just to barely beat it.
Over al I liked it, but I felt that there were some inconsistencies in the level/boss design. In particular, the second to last boss, a giant tank, was so easy I beat it without taking damage, no challenge at all. The other 2 bosses were more challenging, but the second boss was kinda boring, all you really had to do was kill some tentacles poking out of the ground while dodging regular enemies.
No good Doom Clone is complete without secrets and Project: Warlock was no exception. However, some of the secrets were really pointless, basically shortcuts. Several were direct shortcuts from the beginning of the level to the end of the level with no way to backtrack and explore the rest of the level, which meant I had to restart just to find the other secrets.
Overall I liked it.

 

[Smith]

Nah I didn't get to that point and it got deleted from the HD to make way for AC: Odyssey. I've never played an Assassin's Creed game. It was fun but combat is really easy on Normal, I tear through enemies so easily that stealth is mostly pointless. I still suck at ship combat tho. Do I recommend it? Not sure. On one hand it is Ancient Greece and just a feast for the eyes, on the other hand after I've effortlessly slaughtered a legion of bandits to reach level 9 it is starting to feel like a grind.

Let me tell you, the grind never ends.

My wife and I have a shared save in Odyssey with about 80 hours. We still haven't finished the main campaign!!

 

[Nobby-W]

Station core and tug that will be used to assemble the space station, plus a corresponding one in Kerbin orbit. These will be used as depots for munar fuel mining operations, which will then be used to fuel up the Duna and Jool expeditions. Note the massively over-spec RCS on the tug.

Unfortunately Val and Jeb are both in Munar orbit now, so I'll have to recruit some more astronauts and (at some point) loft a munar shuttle and a re-entry vehicle or SSTO to get them back down to Kerbin. Fortunately Kerbals are blessed with infinite patience.

 

[Baulderstone]

Station core and tug that will be used to assemble the space station, plus a corresponding one in Kerbin orbit. These will be used as depots for munar fuel mining operations, which will then be used to fuel up the Duna and Jool expeditions. Note the massively over-spec RCS on the tug.

Unfortunately Val and Jeb are both in Munar orbit now, so I'll have to recruit some more astronauts and (at some point) loft a munar shuttle and a re-entry vehicle or SSTO to get them back down to Kerbin. Fortunately Kerbals are blessed with infinite patience.

View attachment 24633

My nephews are deep into Kerbal Space Program at the moment. Last time they came over, I showed them a documentary on the Moon landing. They alternated between awe at the majesty of the achievement and treating it like a YouTube tutorial for KSP.

 

[Paragon]

Well, after trying it out a couple of times during the time I was waiting for it to get to GOG, Phoenix Point gets to GOG today, I install it--and massive flickering and screen tearing makes the game unplayable. And no attempt to adjust the graphics seems to help at all.

 

[Nobby-W]

KSP is starting to come back to me. It can be a game of logistics. In order to fuel up a big Jool expedition I'm setting up a fuel mining operation on the Mun.

This involves:

• A Munar orbit fuel depot
• A Kerbin orbit fuel depot and way station
• A fuel shuttle
• A passenger shuttle
• A tug to assemble the station
• Some comm sats in Kerbin and Munar orbit
• A survey satellite
• A marker satellite to aim your suicide burns at
• One or more heavy miners to mine and refine the fuel
• A re-entry vehicle (a re-usable SSTO space plane) to get Kerbonauts back to Kerbin]
• An intra orbit shuttle to transfer kerbonauts between the way station and the re-entry vehicle, as SSTOs normally don't have enough delta-V to do much in the way of orbital rendezvous manoeuvres.
• Several shots to get the various bits of the Kerbin and Munar stations into orbit.

It will be something like 30 shots in total to get all that lot installed.

 

[The Butcher]

Wanted to get Total War: Warhammer 2 but, being unfamiliar with the franchise, a friend recommended I try an earlier entry in the series and pointed me towards Total War: Empire — which I picked up for a song with the Steam sale discount.

Installed.

Played the land battle tutorial.

Lost.

Twice.

It starts simple enough with British cannon and 2 infantry units besieging a farm house sort of place held by 2 Spanish infantry units. We made short work of them and brought down the house.

Then three more infantry units emerge from the woods, you gain a dozen new buttons and the fuckers pincer your beleaguered troops while the game is like “now use your new commands” (which I’ve told you nothing about! Surprise, motherfucker) “to rout the remaining Spanish army” (which outnumbers you 2:1 and spawns immediately adjacent to your wide open flank) and both my infantry units rout in literally seconds.

As a kid who grew up with a Sega Master System I never thought I’d say (or type) this, but: fuck you, Sega.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Wanted to get Total War: Warhammer 2 but, being unfamiliar with the franchise, a friend recommended I try an earlier entry in the series and pointed me towards Total War: Empire — which I picked up for a song with the Steam sale discount.

Installed.

Played the land battle tutorial.

Lost.

Twice.

It starts simple enough with British cannon and 2 infantry units besieging a farm house sort of place held by 2 Spanish infantry units. We made short work of them and brought down the house.

Then three more infantry units emerge from the woods, you gain a dozen new buttons and the fuckers pincer your beleaguered troops while the game is like “now use your new commands” (which I’ve told you nothing about! Surprise, motherfucker) “to rout the remaining Spanish army” (which outnumbers you 2:1 and spawns immediately adjacent to your wide open flank) and both my infantry units rout in literally seconds.

As a kid who grew up with a Sega Master System I never thought I’d say (or type) this, but: fuck you, Sega.

I gotta say, of all the Total War games you could have gotten, you got the one that is considered a low for the franchise. Rome:Total War (The first one), Medieval 2 and Shogun 2 are pretty good (Especially Shogun 2 for the campy voice acting). Napoleon was ok, and Rome 2 has some technical issues. I can't speak for the original Medieval or Shogun and the Total Warhammers, although I've heard that the Warhammer's are pretty good.

 

[Paragon]

Well, after trying it out a couple of times during the time I was waiting for it to get to GOG, Phoenix Point gets to GOG today, I install it--and massive flickering and screen tearing makes the game unplayable. And no attempt to adjust the graphics seems to help at all.

Aaaand--a deinstall and reinstall made the problem go away. A bad bit or slightly dodgy sector I guess, but its always odd when that'll let a game load but still eff up something as broad as making giving screen tear and flicker.

 

[Raleel]

 

[The Butcher]

I gotta say, of all the Total War games you could have gotten, you got the one that is considered a low for the franchise. Rome:Total War (The first one), Medieval 2 and Shogun 2 are pretty good (Especially Shogun 2 for the campy voice acting). Napoleon was ok, and Rome 2 has some technical issues. I can't speak for the original Medieval or Shogun and the Total Warhammers, although I've heard that the Warhammer's are pretty good.

Yeah, I’m starting to suspect I was misled. I specifically asked him about Rome and Shogun, BTW.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Yeah, I’m starting to suspect I was misled. I specifically asked him about Rome and Shogun, BTW.

The main problem with Empire is that the AI is as dumb as a rock, I played a campaign on the normal difficulty recently and almost never lost a battle because the AI made the same mistakes over and over. I've heard that Sega didn't do much to update the AI tactics from their previous game, so you have line infantry acting like it's still the Middle Ages and trying to storm a fortress. One of the DLC for Shogun 2 had a similar problem, with 1860 era infantry trying to scale castle walls against volleys of rifle fire.

 

[The Butcher]

The main problem with Empire is that the AI is as dumb as a rock, I played a campaign on the normal difficulty recently and almost never lost a battle because the AI made the same mistakes over and over. I've heard that Sega didn't do much to update the AI tactics from their previous game, so you have line infantry acting like it's still the Middle Ages and trying to storm a fortress. One of the DLC for Shogun 2 had a similar problem, with 1860 era infantry trying to scale castle walls against volleys of rifle fire.

Seriously? I got my ass kicked in the tutorial.

Twice.

 

[Séadna]

Seriously? I got my ass kicked in the tutorial.

Twice.

That's not too unusual. It's more when you get into it you realise the areas where the AI is weak and it becomes very easy to exploit. The one real downside to Medieval II which I loved otherwise.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

I'm reinstalling right now because I want to check out the tutorial. I never played it because I had a good grasp of mechanics from playing so much Rome and Medieval II.

 

[Séadna]

Reviews are starting to trickle in as well. General impression is improving on the Witcher 3's focus on well written side stories and side mission gameplay. Only consistent downside mentioned is early launch bugs.

 

[Raleel]

Reviews are starting to trickle in as well. General impression is improving on the Witcher 3's focus on well written side stories and side mission gameplay. Only consistent downside mentioned is early launch bugs.

downloading this morning before i go on a trip. it was fast for about 2 minutes then the internet checked their email and the servers were crushed

 

[Nemesis]

downloading this morning before i go on a trip. it was fast for about 2 minutes then the internet checked their email and the servers were crushed

Thanks for the tip to pre-download the game. I had no idea that was an option.

 

[Baulderstone]

Thanks for the tip to pre-download the game. I had no idea that was an option.

There is an easter egg if you try to play the game before the release.

 

[Ghost Whistler]

I preordered Cyberpunk, so that's out on Thursday (stocks permitting), so given that it has at least one 50gb patch I can look forward to playing it three days later.

 

[Endless Flight]

The Jeff Grubb posted his review of CP 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077 review — A look at the present, not the future

Cyberpunk 2077 is a massive game with fascinating quests and characters, but it feels a lot more like gaming's past than its future.

venturebeat.com

 

[Brock Savage]

The Jeff Grubb posted his review of CP 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077 review — A look at the present, not the future

Cyberpunk 2077 is a massive game with fascinating quests and characters, but it feels a lot more like gaming's past than its future.

venturebeat.com

Sounds like a good game and about what what I expected. I get the feeling that the author was expecting more than the Witcher 3/Assassin's Creed/GTA 5/Fallout 4 gaming experience but I don't know where he would have got that impression.

 

[Smith]

Sounds like a good game and about what what I expected. I get the feeling that the author was expecting more than the Witcher 3/Assassin's Creed/GTA 5/Fallout 4 gaming experience but I don't know where he would have got that impression.

the copious amounts of marketing and publishing speak that suggested this is the game of the decade?

 

[Baulderstone]

Sounds like a good game and about what what I expected. I get the feeling that the author was expecting more than the Witcher 3/Assassin's Creed/GTA 5/Fallout 4 gaming experience but I don't know where he would have got that impression.

Yeah, sounds exactly like what I expected from it.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Still playing Avengers. Especially with a new character dropping tomorrow.

Just finished Vampyr and just started Yakuza Kiwami.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Sounds like a good game and about what what I expected. I get the feeling that the author was expecting more than the Witcher 3/Assassin's Creed/GTA 5/Fallout 4 gaming experience but I don't know where he would have got that impression.

Shit, if I expected Witcher 3 from every game, I might as well pack up all my gaming stuff now. I don't know if that bar will ever be reached again.

 

[Endless Flight]

The game of the 2010s was GTA V. I’m guessing the game of this decade will be GTA VI.