Computer Games

[CoLA]

Well, I guess I'll skip Starfield for now going by what I'm reading here! Finished GOTG, that was pretty fun, last boss fight was annoying. I just started the Dead Space remake on Gamepass, that game is great! Never played the original, so no comparison as far as if the gameplay is vastly improved or how much better the graphics are.

[Tank]

Scifi-horror is my favorite subgenera but I didn't LOVE love Dead Space. Maybe I should give it another shot?

I've got a Starfield update post coming. I'm definitely hate playing, but I am enjoying it a bit more... but there's still stuff inherently broken and/or poorly designed with this thing.

[Gamevet]

My problem with Dead Space (nearly finished it on 360) was that I got the PS5 version shortly before getting Resident Evil 4.  I forgot how damned creepy Dead Space is. Playing it in surround is downright scary, with the moaning coming from walls and feet scurrying from behind you. It all makes you a bit jumpy.

[Gamevet]

Speaking of PC gaming. I'd finally moved the 3080 Ti into my desktop computer and had picked up NZXT 1000c 80+Gold PSU. All of the games would still crash. So, I boxed up that PSU and picked up a Corsair RM 1000x 80+Gold PSU. I could now run games but they'd still randomly crash after 10 or 15 minutes. I decided to default the settings to my motherboard, only to find out that my XMP settings for the RAM were crashing with this GPU. I ended up dialing down the memory speed to 3,400 Mhz, while keeping the rest of the XMP settings. Everything is rock solid now, but it had been driving me nuts for the past 2 days of trouble-shooting.

[Tank]

17 hours ago, Gamevet said:

My problem with Dead Space (nearly finished it on 360) was that I got the PS5 version shortly before getting Resident Evil 4.  I forgot how damned creepy Dead Space is. Playing it in surround is downright scary, with the moaning coming from walls and feet scurrying from behind you. It all makes you a bit jumpy.

That's a problem? Sounds awesome!

[Tank]

Back to the Starfield hate...

I admit I keep getting sucked back into playing... but then after a couple hours get frustrated every time. The economy and resources just don't work. You want to build A but need X to do it. You find a way to farm X, but it also requires B. You can buy B but only in small quantitates, so you figure out ho to farm B, to farm X, to build A, but then find out it won't work without Y.

All this eats up mass and you get encumbered almost instantly in this game. Gone are the settlements of Fallout 4 where you could build creative, personalized post-apocalyptic townships with NPCs working toward your resource needs... now, even YouTube's "best" outposts are basically just seas of cargo modules plays build to be able to hold resources properly.

Ship building is fun, until you realize only certain parts are available in certain locations, you can't save parts you aren't currently using, you can buy ships but not sell... even setting up a ship-building system at your own outpost won't let you access everything at once without a mod/hack. 

The funniest part of all is that somebody at Bethesda is butt hurt about the mid reviews on Steam and has been responding to them saying things like "when NASDA went to the moon for the first time there wasn't;t anything there to find." Cause you know-- comparing actually going to the god damn moon to sitting in a gaming chair and guzzling Monster while visiting a location with nothing to do, or at least a three minute walk to get to something, in a VIDEOGAME totally makes sense.

[Gamevet]

It would be akin to watching Apollo 13 and having to endure every step that it took to get them to the moon. It would be a 2 year long movie.

[Odine]

UPCOMING GAMES IM EYEING:

 

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader... Looks pretty sweet and is out December. Made by owlcat games who made Pathfinder WotR and Pathfinder Kingmaker. 

Dragons Dogma 2: a Japanese take on western fantasy action RPG. Looks like a blend of dark souls combat, lord of the rings and Skyrim. 3rd person open world action. The first game was amazing, so no doubt this one will be awesome too. 

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2: cautiously eyeing this one. I love the ttrpg and the first bloodlines from 2004. This has had so much development hell that I'm a bit wary though. Not sure the current Dev is up to task but I'm dearly hoping.

 

And in the distant future, I'm looking forward to the release of Squadron 42.. the single player game developed in parallel with star citizen. It's feature complete and in polish stage now.

[Hobbes]

On 11/28/2023 at 12:28 PM, Tank said:

Back to the Starfield hate...

I admit I keep getting sucked back into playing... but then after a couple hours get frustrated every time. The economy and resources just don't work. You want to build A but need X to do it. You find a way to farm X, but it also requires B. You can buy B but only in small quantitates, so you figure out ho to farm B, to farm X, to build A, but then find out it won't work without Y.

All this eats up mass and you get encumbered almost instantly in this game. Gone are the settlements of Fallout 4 where you could build creative, personalized post-apocalyptic townships with NPCs working toward your resource needs... now, even YouTube's "best" outposts are basically just seas of cargo modules plays build to be able to hold resources properly.

Ship building is fun, until you realize only certain parts are available in certain locations, you can't save parts you aren't currently using, you can buy ships but not sell... even setting up a ship-building system at your own outpost won't let you access everything at once without a mod/hack. 

The funniest part of all is that somebody at Bethesda is butt hurt about the mid reviews on Steam and has been responding to them saying things like "when NASDA went to the moon for the first time there wasn't;t anything there to find." Cause you know-- comparing actually going to the god damn moon to sitting in a gaming chair and guzzling Monster while visiting a location with nothing to do, or at least a three minute walk to get to something, in a VIDEOGAME totally makes sense.

If you hate it, what sucks you back in?

On 11/29/2023 at 1:28 AM, Odine said:

UPCOMING GAMES IM EYEING:

 

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader... Looks pretty sweet and is out December. Made by owlcat games who made Pathfinder WotR and Pathfinder Kingmaker. 

Dragons Dogma 2: a Japanese take on western fantasy action RPG. Looks like a blend of dark souls combat, lord of the rings and Skyrim. 3rd person open world action. The first game was amazing, so no doubt this one will be awesome too. 

Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2: cautiously eyeing this one. I love the ttrpg and the first bloodlines from 2004. This has had so much development hell that I'm a bit wary though. Not sure the current Dev is up to task but I'm dearly hoping.

 

And in the distant future, I'm looking forward to the release of Squadron 42.. the single player game developed in parallel with star citizen. It's feature complete and in polish stage now.

Oh--I also play Total War: Warhammer 1-3. 

It is fantasy, not 40K though.  Can you recommend a few 40k games?

[Odine]

14 hours ago, Hobbes said:

If you hate it, what sucks you back in?

Oh--I also play Total War: Warhammer 1-3. 

It is fantasy, not 40K though.  Can you recommend a few 40k games?

Inquisitor Martyr is an ok ARPG, but other than that I'm not too familiar with 40k games. I know there is a new space marine FPS in the works which will be epic, and this new Rogue Trader from Owlcat is meant to be awesome. But it's an Isometric turn based RPG so may not tick all your boxes 

[Tank]

On 11/30/2023 at 1:07 PM, Hobbes said:

If you hate it, what sucks you back in?

 

I'm hate-playing it until I've got my $80 worth.

Also, everyone who defends the game says the same thing-- "It's a Bethesda game, you're supposed to find your own story." I remember not liking Fallout 4 at first because I played it like a straight-line narrative and missed stuff. So I told myself with this one, I'll try to find my own thing to do and see how that goes. I found some motivation for my own head story: I am going to be a masked space vigilante.

This was my inspiration after finding the hideout of "The Mantis" who is exactly that. Only the Mantis is dead and has a Dread Pirate Roberts mantle-passing origin. The game starts you off getting fucked up by space pirates, so I decided they are my enemy. The game makes them a faction you can join if you want. My late ego is a low key, mid-level with a spaceship for hire. I take shipping jobs, some passenger transporting, occasional survey work, and a bit of smuggling. This gives me a cover for seeing the galaxy, and also makes me money, which funds my vigilante operations. I've got a big ass hefty cargo ship for doing this work, a couple outposts that farm resources for doing all the mod-building you can for weapons and armor.

As The Mantis, I'll take the occasional bounty, I'll help settlers plagued by pirates, raid pirate strongholds, and I have the Mantis' ship, which I've streamlined into a fast-attack craft that I use to stalk and hunt pirate ships. I nuke most of them, but the bigger ones I highjack and then sell for funds after I steal their cargo. The Mantis ship also has an effect/chance of scaring pirate ship off when you appear. On this path I run into lower level criminals, which I will often do work for if it is non-violent, letting them think I am working for them, when really, I am just using them to get to higher up bosses, or operations I can shut down and loot guilt free.

I did see by accident on a player guide that if you get arrested you can trigger a storyline where the law basically makes you go undercover into the pirate fleet. Realizing this was perfect for "my story" I went into the nearest shop and stole a bottle of water to get arrested.

To the games credit-- I've been able to do this all pretty easily. This covers tons of missions, multiple story beats, random side missions, and action found exploring. So once I decided this was my story path, damn if the game isn't making it totally doable.

There's people out there starting resource farms to get rich, people with drug empires, people who play out being s space pirate as part of that faction. The ability to make your own story is actually pretty amazing, and the deserve some credit for that.

That said-- why try to force me into a main story at all? I think it's BS-- they either want you to play your own story or play theres. Just commit to one. The there is the fact that if you don't have motivation, it is kinda lifeless. There's no real performances and the PC isn't even voiced. There's no deep emotional connection to the story. And then there's the glitches, the poor resource economy, the stupid ass encumbrances, and all the other stuff I talk about in. my previous posts.

So it's really mixed. I think about this cool story I've made for myself, and I get excited to play. It's fun to clear pirate outposts... until they start repeating layouts. The starship builder is actually a lot of fun... but you need a lot of in game money to do it. So I think of the potential and get excited to play, have fun for a couple hours, then get stalled out due to glitches or poor game design and get irritated.

It's just incomplete and not well thought out it too many ways. The said, I'm sure after a couple years of big updates, mods, and some DLCs, it could get there. I was insanely disappointed by Cyberpunk, Mass Effect Andromeda, and Fallout 4 in the OF versions-- but yers later they are among my favorite games,. Its just sucks that it requires years of extra development, and n entire fan community to get it there.

And again, I paid $80, I deserve some entertainment!

 

[Odine]

GTA VI trailer release baby 

Fuck yeah, thats on the list of anticipated games. Might need some new pc parts for this one. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=inQelDKULOQ

[CoLA]

I knew it would be two years from the announcement! That seems to be their MO, going by the last two games. Sucks but looks like it will be worth the wait.

[Odine]

It'll probably be a longer wait for a PC release too since they seem to do consoles first which is a bummer for me 

[Tank]

Looks amazing. I knew I’d miss the 80s vibe of Vice City, but I am pleased to see the healthy addition of “Florida man” vibes. What Trevor and the desert were to GTAV, we are def getting swamp trash. 

[Tank]

Shit.

I like Starfield now.

God damn it.

[Gamevet]

Any of you ever play this?

 

[Hobbes]

On 12/5/2023 at 4:32 PM, Tank said:

Looks amazing. I knew I’d miss the 80s vibe of Vice City, but I am pleased to see the healthy addition of “Florida man” vibes. What Trevor and the desert were to GTAV, we are def getting swamp trash. 

I  love Once Upon A Time in Hollywood--it might be one of my favorite movies ever.  Anyhow, after seeing that, I really wanted a late 60's early 70s era GTA set in San Francisco.  I have a gay uncle who left the family to live in SF during that time and became a legend in the Castro district.  Would lover for him to be a playable character. 

 

On 12/6/2023 at 12:52 PM, Tank said:

Shit.

I like Starfield now.

God damn it.

What happened?

 

On 12/6/2023 at 3:57 PM, Gamevet said:

Any of you ever play this?

 

Yup--I played the shit out of that (even started on launch day) and was one of like three people that liked it.  I had a bounty hunter/ creature handler Wookie named Hobbes.  I stopped playing when I rage quit over grinding for a speeder for MONTHS and accidentally traded it away (clicked the wrong button) and no one would help me.   

Anywho--I am currently back to WOrld of Warcraft playing on Season of Disvovery if anyone wants to join me. 

[Tank]

Starfield just eventually hooked me with the fun of playing it my own way. I also finally had enough money on hand to start building starships which I spend a lot of my time doing.

That said, it’s still janky as fuck and my list of complaints grows nonstop.

[Odine]

So people still on the fence about Starfield or why it's not well received... This video meme kinda sums it up 

https://youtu.be/ws0ufhrgWJw?si=8g2OKghY7vnCXv7n

[Gamevet]

It would have been cool, if they had chosen a different actor. It’s the same guy that voiced V, in Cyberpunk. It kind of throws me off sometimes, since I played the male V for some 90+ hours in Cyberpunk.

[Tank]

Which character? I play Lady V so I can't think of his voice. But the dude who plays Garros in Mass Effect-- I hear him in every game ever.

Also, I was able to break up with Starfield. The repetition of maps and actions eventually just bored me to death.

[Gamevet]

9 hours ago, Tank said:

Which character? I play Lady V so I can't think of his voice. But the dude who plays Garros in Mass Effect-- I hear him in every game ever.

Also, I was able to break up with Starfield. The repetition of maps and actions eventually just bored me to death.

 Your character in Starfield. Whenever he speaks, it's there. Lady V has the same delivery as the male character. I believe they just upped the pitch for the female character. He also voices your character in Atomic Heart.

 

 

[Odine]

No way they'd just pitch shift the male voice for Female V on a game of this budget. She was voiced by an actress called Cherami Leigh. I think her performance is superior to the male V from what I've heard of the male lines (I usually play female V, dunno why) 

https://youtu.be/cra9Rr26TIs?si=l41I1OlyPaBnUNp5

[Gamevet]

 She’s really spot on, because the dialect and pacing is spot on with male V. The moment I started playing with female V, that really stood out, especially the little rasp in the voice.