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I actually love it as well Brock for the same reason I like 40K. It's just this outrage is pretty funny. It's like the people who get pissed off at one of the Primarchs being called Lion El'Jonson.
Tell them to expect a visit from the Inquisition... in the person of Grand Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau.
 
Mods:
For mods have slow down time mod on. Others are a matter of taste but I would rate extra life and extended stun as quite good (gives more time for melee kill)

Weapon advice:
Chaingun and Rocket Launcher should be set to their second modes always. For Chaingun this is the four barrel version, for a Rocket Launcher this is the Lock on mode that shoots three rockets. When I say "Chaingun" I mean use their right click special mode indicated above, but first jump into the air to slow down time. Same with "Rocket Launcher". If slow down time is not yet recharged just get some distance.

"Plasma gun right click" refers to the draining stream mod, not the shunting one.
I forgot how much I like Doom Eternal. I have done a full clear as I go, unlocking everything and finding all secrets up until Taras Nabad where I hit a brick wall.

My setup is:

Runes: Chrono Strike, Dazed and Confused, Air Control

Suit Upgrades: Everything but but Armor for Blood and Regenerating Barrels.

As for Arsenal I use everything you recommended but need clarification on these 3:
  • Plasma Gun: Heat Blast. Are you saying Microwave Beam is better?
  • Ballista: Arbalest.
  • Chaingun: Mobile Turret.
 
As for Arsenal I use everything you recommended but need clarification on these 3:
  • Plasma Gun: Heat Blast. Are you saying Microwave Beam is better?
  • Ballista: Arbalest.
  • Chaingun: Mobile Turret.
Microwave beam is better in order to take down the Doom Hunter. With Chrono Strike you can do a very controlled removal of a Doom Hunter's shield that allows you to dodge fire as you do it.

The Heat Blast wasn't very useful in my experience.

For the Ballista I actually never use it's advanced modes, I just use the normal fire all the time to remove Cacos and Pain Elementals

Mobile Turret for Chaingun indeed.
 
I have $50 in my Steam Wallet burning a hole in my pocket. Any suggestions? The Doom Eternal expansions are the front-runners but since I am roadblocked at a tough fight I might not be able to enjoy them for a while.
 
I have $50 in my Steam Wallet burning a hole in my pocket. Any suggestions? The Doom Eternal expansions are the front-runners but since I am roadblocked at a tough fight I might not be able to enjoy them for a while.
Which fight in Taras Nabad if you don't mind? In case I have something useful to say.

I'd easily recommend the second expansion, but right after the main game the first expansion is such a jump in difficulty it might get tiresome.
 
Building my first boat in Valheim. Is there a great risk that they drift away if unnatended?
As far as I’ve seen, they don’t move out of the area if you are not in it. If you are in or on it, it will drift, regardless of if you are steering.
Generally, it won’t move much, but waves can move them around. Also the Greydwarves will attack the boat.
 
I have $50 in my Steam Wallet burning a hole in my pocket. Any suggestions? The Doom Eternal expansions are the front-runners but since I am roadblocked at a tough fight I might not be able to enjoy them for a while.
The 2 Doom DLC's, Wolfenstein: The New Order if you're looking for another shooter to get into.
 
Generally, it won’t move much, but waves can move them around. Also the Greydwarves will attack the boat.
right, it won't move away but it will rub up against stuff and rock.

new valheim patch today slowed down farming spam, which is hypothesized to cause network lag.
 
Found a hidden gem on steam called The Wind and Wilting Blossom. If you liked FTL then you will almost certainly like this. It follows the same format but it is not a lazy cut and paste by any means. The following review says it better than I. Highly recommended!

It's partly FTL-clone, with classic HoMM1-style tactical battles on hexes, about nightmarish japanese folklore.
You unlock characters just like ships in FTL, and navigate the same map structure, but this one has much more emphasis on text-based adventure generator, guiding you around several inevitable story key-points. Also it reminds of Banner Saga, but rogue-like.
 
I've been playing Borderlands 3 again a bit after setting up my new computer. And man, I forgot how fun zoomy fast Zane builds are. Especially with the Spy class mod that makes stacking stupid amounts of Commitment for insane damage and action skill cooldown.
 
Completed Jade Empire, spurred on by a general Chinese and Japanese reading streak I'm on.

In certain ways this was Bioware's best game. Certainly the main plot is superior to any other they've written. One major reason is that there is a twist that might be the best ever in gaming. Not because it's very shocking or unexpected, it's more just done in a very believable way and allows you to view earlier events in a new light with no inconsistencies. Rarely mentioned is that it's actually two twists in a row.

The setting is often called a East Asian pastiche, but it's really almost purely Chinese. Very good use is made of Taoism, the Will of Heaven concept and the Celestial Bureaucracy as story elements. They aren't just mentioned off-hand for flavour, but a fundamental part of why certain events happen.

The downsides are:
  1. Genuinely atrocious voice acting in some cases. In fact outside of about three characters the voice acting is only serviceable. However I will say one of those three is one of the best voice acting performances I've seen.
  2. The mechanics are under used. They created an interesting system of several mundane and Chi using martial art styles, combos that mix styles and matrix bullet time. However almost everything can be defeated with punch spamming.
  3. Side quests are completely forgettable, to the point where I'd say don't bother (see below).
  4. Your companions are mostly forgettable and poorly written caricatures.
However I think it is well worth a play-through for the main quest, the world and just some Wuxia fun with the combat system even if it doesn't exploit its own depth. Lots of useful ideas for a "Strange Tales of Songling" or "Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades" game as well.

If you decide to play the game the only side-quests worth doing are:
  1. The Black Leopard school plot (good story)
  2. Kia Min at the start (for extra early XP)
  3. Aishi the Mournful Blade (good story)
  4. Imperial Arena. Part of this can be used to complete a main quest and its more interesting than the alternative way I felt. However it's worth doing to the end as well for the story.
  5. The Outlander. For John Cleese as practically a Monthy Python character and a good puzzle.
  6. The First Gravedigger's quests are borderline worth it for XP and money.
  7. Trapped. For money and XP. This is a minor NPC, ship captain in Tien's Landing, giving you money for completing a main quest. So you might as well do it.

hYSEu.jpg
 
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I love me some jade empire, and am deeply deeply disappointed it never got the sequel or the recognition it so deserved.
 
This arrived the other day.

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My wife is also playing Hades on the Switch.
 
I love me some jade empire, and am deeply deeply disappointed it never got the sequel or the recognition it so deserved.
It wasn't KoTOR and a lot of the flaws that Séadna Séadna mentioned were game killers for a good section of Bio's fanbase.

Remember, for example, the side characters where what made KoTOR half the game, the story and plot itself were OK, but the interactions where what really sold it.

Secondly, the gameplay wasn't compelling enough. It needed more meat to it. If you're going to have a game about Kung Fu, even an RPG, make it central to the combat system. The idea of collecting them like weapons is cute, but you need to be able to use them all with the touch of a button. Three move combos isn't really that engaging.
 
It wasn't KoTOR and a lot of the flaws that Séadna Séadna mentioned were game killers for a good section of Bio's fanbase.

Remember, for example, the side characters where what made KoTOR half the game, the story and plot itself were OK, but the interactions where what really sold it.

Secondly, the gameplay wasn't compelling enough. It needed more meat to it. If you're going to have a game about Kung Fu, even an RPG, make it central to the combat system. The idea of collecting them like weapons is cute, but you need to be able to use them all with the touch of a button. Three move combos isn't really that engaging.

I gave up on Kotor despite its reputation because combat was such a bore and a chore to get through. I'll return to it someday to see if it clicks better. Jade Empire looks fun.
 
I gave up on Kotor despite its reputation because combat was such a bore and a chore to get through. I'll return to it someday to see if it clicks better. Jade Empire looks fun.
Jade Empire's combat is more action, but it's not very fleshed out, but other than that, it's very similar.
 
Jade Empire's combat is more action, but it's not very fleshed out, but other than that, it's very similar.
Mechanically I wouldn't say it was that similar. KotOR's is more squad based orders tactical combat, where as Jade Empire is basically an adventure beat-em up. Unless you mean they're equally tedious? I liked Jade Empire's provided you don't want something deep (its fun turning into demons etc) but I could see how somebody would find it boring.
 
Mechanically I wouldn't say it was that similar. KotOR's is more squad based orders tactical combat, where as Jade Empire is basically an adventure beat-em up. Unless you mean they're equally tedious? I liked Jade Empire's provided you don't want something deep (its fun turning into demons etc) but I could see how somebody would find it boring.
The bold part, yes. I was expecting more from the combat system. It's a game about KUNG FU!
 
Funny story: Last year I got the deluxe edition of Wasteland 2, having loved the original in the 80. I found Wasteland 2: DE to be an utter disaster. About 40% of my hate came from the game’s writing, and the other 60% coming from glitches in the game. From characters disappearing and reappearing, ket characters not showing up, and issues using skills the game became a slog. The last straw was when I spent three hours to finish a quest, got to the last part, and found the key I needed to continue the game had disappeared from my inventory.

I searched everywhere from when I first got the key to that point in the game to see if I dropped it somewhere, but nothing. Rather than replaying from my last save point before I “got” the key I gave up on the game.

This week, after five months of not playing, I fired the game up. In my first character’s inventory the key was back. I took it as a sign, and have been spending all my free time on it. This afternoon I had the final battle for a quest, and dropped my gear in the room outside the battle. I went back later to pick up my dropped gear, and all the explosives I dropped are gone....and I need explosives to clear a barrier.



I hate you, Wasteland 2.
 
I've been playing Borderlands 3 again a bit after setting up my new computer. And man, I forgot how fun zoomy fast Zane builds are. Especially with the Spy class mod that makes stacking stupid amounts of Commitment for insane damage and action skill cooldown.
Love the franchise and BL3 is a feast of content. Only ever played one character, a Zane, also a zoomy (drone/clone) build. Have to keep cleaning my bank to make room for Legendaries.

Coildnt wrap my head around Arms Race (i.e. got my ass kicked) and never completed the Guardian Takedown and still had a ton of fun with it. But right now on more of a Vermintide 2 kick (I go back and forth between the two).
 
Still playing Cyberpunk 2077 and The Elder Scrolls Online, though lately, I haven't really wanted to play at all. It's not as dire as it sounds- I've just been writing more and taking some online classes in a few areas (Writing, Unity and AWS).
 
Love the franchise and BL3 is a feast of content. Only ever played one character, a Zane, also a zoomy (drone/clone) build. Have to keep cleaning my bank to make room for Legendaries.

Coildnt wrap my head around Arms Race (i.e. got my ass kicked) and never completed the Guardian Takedown and still had a ton of fun with it. But right now on more of a Vermintide 2 kick (I go back and forth between the two).

I did drone/clone at first, but am going Drone/MNTS now since the release of the 4th skill trees. MNTS with the Seein' Red skill basically means you can keep your kill skills activated indefinitely even with no enemies to shoot at. Also the Arms Race gives a Class Mod called Spy that gives boosts to skills in the MNTS tree that is insanely good, plus increased kill skill effectiveness and duration. One of the purple skills is a stack infinitely kill skill that gives +gun damage and +action skill cooldown. I can get up to like 30 stacks sometimes during a fight, which combined with Spy & Seein' Red gives an absurd +1200% gun damage bonus and action skill cooldown. I can literally spam the MNTS cannon so fast that it can bug out if I'm not careful without actually losing charges since it is recharging so fast.

On PC I currently have 2 characters at 65 (Zane and Moze), one character at 40 (FL4K), and one character at low level (Amara, that I'm playing coop with my son)... And I played first on PS4 and have several characters at 50 from then...

I might have played the game a lot.

(Also, Zane has the best actual lines out of all the playable vault hunters in the game. FL4K is second. Moze is alright (though Moze is insanely fun to play). Amara is the most boring Vault hunter).

I've not played Vermintide, mostly cause I never liked WH fantasy, but I'm probably going to jump on the franchise with Darktide, as I do like 40k. I wonder if we can get together some pub folks so we don't have to deal with rando assholes (I'll just say the discussions of the games from fans have not given me hope that I'll enjoy playing with the people talking about it...)
 
I did drone/clone at first, but am going Drone/MNTS now since the release of the 4th skill trees. MNTS with the Seein' Red skill basically means you can keep your kill skills activated indefinitely even with no enemies to shoot at. Also the Arms Race gives a Class Mod called Spy that gives boosts to skills in the MNTS tree that is insanely good, plus increased kill skill effectiveness and duration. One of the purple skills is a stack infinitely kill skill that gives +gun damage and +action skill cooldown. I can get up to like 30 stacks sometimes during a fight, which combined with Spy & Seein' Red gives an absurd +1200% gun damage bonus and action skill cooldown. I can literally spam the MNTS cannon so fast that it can bug out if I'm not careful without actually losing charges since it is recharging so fast.

On PC I currently have 2 characters at 65 (Zane and Moze), one character at 40 (FL4K), and one character at low level (Amara, that I'm playing coop with my son)... And I played first on PS4 and have several characters at 50 from then...

I might have played the game a lot.

(Also, Zane has the best actual lines out of all the playable vault hunters in the game. FL4K is second. Moze is alright (though Moze is insanely fun to play). Amara is the most boring Vault hunter).

I've not played Vermintide, mostly cause I never liked WH fantasy, but I'm probably going to jump on the franchise with Darktide, as I do like 40k. I wonder if we can get together some pub folks so we don't have to deal with rando assholes (I'll just say the discussions of the games from fans have not given me hope that I'll enjoy playing with the people talking about it...)

I was underwhelmed by the MNTIS, I’m sure it’s great mechanically but having to push F or G to fire it doesn’t appeal to me, and doesn’t have the same battlefield mayhem feel as dropping clone and drone and running around shooting bandits.

Don’t know much about the others but Zane’s lines are great. Amara’s are fun too (wife plays Amara). I started FL4K but didn’t really get far with him (her? it?).

Vermintide 2 (never played 1) is magnificent. It’s a game that by all rights I should have tired of, yet Mrs. The Butcher and I keep returning to it night after night (exhaustion allowing) because there are so many classes and weapons to try, and because crushing Skaven and Chaos feels so good. She’s not familiar with WFRP but being a fan is definitely a factor for me.

Definitely getting Darktide, whenever it comes out.

I’m on Epic (for BL3) and Steam (for everything else) as TheButcherBR. Friended a bunch of Pub-goers on Steam; feel free to look me up on either. I usually run private games with Mrs. The Butcher and a handful of friends — who have been less assiduous of late, so there’s always room for anyone who wants in.
 
I got sidetracked by Horizon: Zero Dawn. It's a decent AAA open world RPG. You have to approach combat as a hunter so I had to adjust my usual approach. Many of the enemies have tons of HP making frontal attacks tedious at best (and extremely difficult at worst). The game strongly favors sneak attacks, sniping, hit and run, and traps. I am pleasantly surprised to finally play a game where traps are part of an effective strategy and not just an afterthought. Lots of resource gathering and crafting if you are into that. Story is alright so far.
 
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I got sidetracked by Horizon: Zero Dawn. It's a decent AAA open world RPG. You have to approach combat as a hunter so it took me a little bit of a paradigm shift to settle in. Many of the enemies have tons of HP making frontal attacks tedious at best (and extremely difficult at worst). The game strongly favors sneak attacks, sniping, hit and run, and traps. I am pleasantly surprised to finally play a game where traps are part of an effective strategy and not just an afterthought. Lots of resource gathering and crafting if you are into that. Story is alright so far.
Later in the game you can do more frontal assaults, but you still need to be smart about it. Knowing what element to use and what weak points to target is key. Lots of the enemies can be taken out in only a few arrows if you know where to hit them and which arrows to use. And using stealth is still encouraged just because starting with a good alpha strike on a weak point matters a lot. (Being able to get high ground on tramplers and hit power cells with electricity to chain stun them for instance).

I really liked that the game heavily encouraged playing smart.

(Also, I really am a fan of the story).
 
Later in the game you can do more frontal assaults, but you still need to be smart about it. Knowing what element to use and what weak points to target is key. Lots of the enemies can be taken out in only a few arrows if you know where to hit them and which arrows to use. And using stealth is still encouraged just because starting with a good alpha strike on a weak point matters a lot. (Being able to get high ground on tramplers and hit power cells with electricity to chain stun them for instance).

I really liked that the game heavily encouraged playing smart.

(Also, I really am a fan of the story).
I recently picked this game up used as I remembered you praising it!
 
I played about 10 minutes of Days Gone before I deleted the sorry mess from my ps4. Long cinematics, long loads and short gameplay sections circa 2004. Unwieldy controls. As much as I like Zombie media, that was garbage.
 
Later in the game you can do more frontal assaults, but you still need to be smart about it. Knowing what element to use and what weak points to target is key. Lots of the enemies can be taken out in only a few arrows if you know where to hit them and which arrows to use. And using stealth is still encouraged just because starting with a good alpha strike on a weak point matters a lot. (Being able to get high ground on tramplers and hit power cells with electricity to chain stun them for instance).

I really liked that the game heavily encouraged playing smart.

(Also, I really am a fan of the story).
I have grown to appreciate Horizon more now that I have upgraded to a couple shadow bows and a shadow tripcaster, opening up many more tactical options. I spent last night rampaging through areas that had given me trouble previously.

I am pleased to hear that you enjoyed the story. I was concerned that the grand reveal would be a disappointing nothingburger as has happened with so many of these AAA open world RPGs that seduce me with an intriguing mystery.
 
Just landed a fuel miner on a slope too steep for it to be stable and it fell over. The fuel safety margin on this design is a bit low - it only had about 50 m/sec worth of delta-V left on landing. Nothing was damaged by the fall and Breaking Ground is finally working properly on this version (at the expense of only loading Kerbal Engineer) so maybe I can design a crane or something with the robotics that can right it.

Rescue rover seen next to it, sent from nearby support moonbase to pick up the crew. The rover is based on a probe core, so it can operate from crew or remote control.


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Been trying to catch up on some Open World RPGs like Horizon Dawn, Greedfall and Kingdom Come. Man, I hate coming back to a game and relearning everything...
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I often end up just restarting because I've become too brain dead as to what I was doing and how to play the game to pick up halfway through >_>
 
Lately I've been playing Evil Genius 2. Good fun being a bond villain.
I'm thinking that after I finish my current campaign I'll switch to Fallout New Vegas. I've got a bad case of the old world blues.
 
Facing my fear of the sea in Subnautica. What a great game.

And started playing Imperator: Rome because of the Bronze Age mod but ended up loving the base game anyway. For Paradox fans I super recommend it, despite some rough edges. They managed to integrate other games mechanics (like Vicky Pops and CK characters) in a coherent whole that makes peacetime gameplay so fun, I don't know if I can go back to Europa Universalis after this.
 
I often end up just restarting because I've become too brain dead as to what I was doing and how to play the game to pick up halfway through >_>
Well, when I start up the game, I realize how far I am through it, and restarting seems like such a waste of time and progress. So I continue to try to figure out what I was doing until I get disgusted and put it down for good.
 
Well, when I start up the game, I realize how far I am through it, and restarting seems like such a waste of time and progress. So I continue to try to figure out what I was doing until I get disgusted and put it down for good.
I will never finish Darkest Dungeon because I don't remember the current meta and all my character slots are taken up with max level, max gear dudes that are too precious to waste on practice runs (losing one would take hours of grind to replace).
 
I will never finish Darkest Dungeon because I don't remember the current meta and all my character slots are taken up with max level, max gear dudes that are too precious to waste on practice runs (losing one would take hours of grind to replace).
That's one for me too. And I never played the DLCs and want to. I might give in eventually.
 
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