Thought I'd dip my toe in the water on Conan Exiles.
It reminds me a lot of Wurm--you can build bases, lots of things are deformable/destructable, but with the nerd/grind factor dialed WAY back. You don't have to spend hours leveling sand to drop your first base. You don't have to level up your freaking hammer to build a larger first room.
Though I was a bit surprised when my plant fiber clothing wore out and I was standing there fighting this turtle monster thing with my dingus hanging out and flapping in the breeze.
The game is extreme "early release" at the moment, and there's not much to do. But it looks promising.
It reminds me a lot of Wurm--you can build bases, lots of things are deformable/destructable, but with the nerd/grind factor dialed WAY back. You don't have to spend hours leveling sand to drop your first base. You don't have to level up your freaking hammer to build a larger first room.
Though I was a bit surprised when my plant fiber clothing wore out and I was standing there fighting this turtle monster thing with my dingus hanging out and flapping in the breeze.
The game is extreme "early release" at the moment, and there's not much to do. But it looks promising.
I've heard nothing but good things about the game, so I'm pretty excited at the moment.
GasBandit
Staff member
Out of curiosity, did you play the Age of Conan MMO back in the day?
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, let's just hope Funcom does a better job with this than they did with that. Not that AoC was terrible, it just fell apart in the endgame and was released way too early. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat system in it, and got chopping off heads down to an art.
Yeah,I chopped a guy in half yesterday, which was interesting. Right now, my food deteriorates so fast, I'm trying to figure out how to load up on enough victuals to get deeper into the map. I may just stay in the first oasis I ran across for a while, because it's got everything I need to level up for a bit. But I can't stay here--there's no coal or steel, so I'm stuck in the stone age for weapons and armor until I move on.
I'm withholding judgement on the game for a while. It *is* very early access, and I understood all the risks of that when I got it on steam. It could turn out amazing, or into a great big turd. But I'm having a bit of fun so far.
I like the tension of the very early game. You start out completely naked, with no equipment, slowly starving and dying of thirst. You gotta figure out that you can harvest resources (rocks, branches, plant fibers, etc) and that harvesting from plants sometimes nets you handfuls of bugs that you can eat to sustain you while you search for food and water. Eventually, you start learning what you can craft to make yourself self-sustainable.
I have never played Rust, but I imagine it's probably much like how starting that game for the first time must feel. I felt such primal satisfaction the first time I chased a deer all over an oasis until I finally whacked it enough to kill it with my stone hatchet--real meat!
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fade
Staff member
Finished Left Behind (Last of Us DLC). That was nice, but really short. Like an hour maybe. And it was even more cut-sceney than the game itself, which was already very cutsceney. Ellie was just different enough from Joel to be fun to play. She's better at stealth killing than Joel, but worse at all out combat. Since the game is primarily stealth based, though, she's actually easier to play. She has a permanent knife, which means she can stealth kill clickers, unlike Joel.
For Honor is pretty fun when it's not crashing.
figmentPez
Staff member
So query, the only Tales game I have ever really been enamored with is Symphonia. I've tried a couple others, but I usually lose interest before I get very far. How would you rate this one?
I like how Persona 4: Dancing All Night's highest difficulty gives you heaps of money, even though you have to have bought everything from the store to unlock said difficulty, and there is nothing left to spend money on.
Just like in real life!
...I mean really, you just hit a point where the number is just a way of keeping score.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
I mean, I assume he's familiar with Dr. E. F. Shumacher's concept of limited resources, or as Jean Paul Sartre puts it...
fade
Staff member
Far Cry 4
I really liked 3. Apparently so did the developers, since 4 is basically a re-skin of 3. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Weirdly, the game gives you the best weapon of 3 in the opening chapter (the bow), and the best vehicle of 3 (the Buzzer) soon thereafter. The only thing that really seems different (other than the plot) is that the enemies seem to spot you a lot easier. Which kind of sucks. Anyway still good. Still a college age bro who somehow has the skills of Rambo.
I really liked 3. Apparently so did the developers, since 4 is basically a re-skin of 3. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. Weirdly, the game gives you the best weapon of 3 in the opening chapter (the bow), and the best vehicle of 3 (the Buzzer) soon thereafter. The only thing that really seems different (other than the plot) is that the enemies seem to spot you a lot easier. Which kind of sucks. Anyway still good. Still a college age bro who somehow has the skills of Rambo.
Enjoying the pooper buttering?
I've played a lot of games, and I have to say that the way pooper buttering was handled in this one was not only very tasteful, but probably the best I have experienced in interactive entertainment at large.
The best weapon in 3 was the bow?
I used the Cobra Assault Cannon more than anything in 3 (well, no I didn't. I wanted to but the damn thing wasn't silenced, so I stuck with the non signaturized version of the sniper rifle.)
fade
Staff member
For my play style it was. Well until you get the silenced sniper rifle. Then the game is almost silly.
One hit kills on everything but heavies, regardless of hit zone. Completely silent, and you can carry 50 arrows with the easily fully upgraded quiver.
Subnautica (gifted to me by Fearless Leader himself, @Dave)
Pretty good. I've been playing it most of this evenings, I'm definitely drawn into it. Absolutely GORGEOUS game with many bright, vibrant colours. The designs of the alien world and even the technology you build yourself are fantastic.
I'm curious to wonder how "finished" this Early Access game is. There's already so much content. On the other hand, it still needs work. There were some graphics stuttering, say, when I'd re-enter my escape pod. Or horrible pop-in draw distance, like a mountainous island popping up in front of me or a nasty leviathan just popping in out of nowhere.
Speaking of nasty creatures, I kinda wish we were given some kind of reward for killing a larger creature. Every other resource management or survival game like, say, Don't Starve, rewards you with some resources.
Still, I'm enjoying it. I've starting building my base, though it's close to my escape pod since I didn't know where else to build it for now.
Pretty good. I've been playing it most of this evenings, I'm definitely drawn into it. Absolutely GORGEOUS game with many bright, vibrant colours. The designs of the alien world and even the technology you build yourself are fantastic.
I'm curious to wonder how "finished" this Early Access game is. There's already so much content. On the other hand, it still needs work. There were some graphics stuttering, say, when I'd re-enter my escape pod. Or horrible pop-in draw distance, like a mountainous island popping up in front of me or a nasty leviathan just popping in out of nowhere.
Speaking of nasty creatures, I kinda wish we were given some kind of reward for killing a larger creature. Every other resource management or survival game like, say, Don't Starve, rewards you with some resources.
Still, I'm enjoying it. I've starting building my base, though it's close to my escape pod since I didn't know where else to build it for now.
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The game's primary storyline is, I'd estimate, around 1/2 to 2/3 complete. As in you can follow the storyline in-game so far up to the point where there's nothing else to do.
The biomes and environments are, as far as I know, 90% complete or more. There will be new stuff added to certain areas, but they mainly have to do with the aforementioned incomplete storyline. However, there are also discussions about certain new biomes that may be added in the future, possibly patched in after the official v1.0 release of the game.
The flora and fauna are also largely complete, again except for story-related creatures that have yet to be implemented.
Finally, as you've noted, there's still a long way to go in terms of bugfixing and optimization.
Yeah, aside from one thing that's happened so far, there hasn't been much story. I imagine that's something that needs a lot of work done.
For example (spoilers):
The only thing I've encountered so far, is the seeing The Sunbeam shot down by a mysterious weapon. From what I've seen of the updates, those alien bases are pretty new additions.
I want to take a moment to talk about how incredibly fucking good Resident Evil 7 is, because goddamn it is.
The last really great RE game was also the first time Capcom decided to break from the formula. RE4 is a classic that still holds up today, and it brought whole new gameplay to the table. The perspective was different, the controls were different, the setting was different, even the zombies were gone. They transformed the game from the old survival horror to a B action horror movie, complete with incredibly cheesy one liners. And it was great, I can still pick up RE4 and play it to this day.
They tried to continue this trend with 5 and 6, and got progressively worse. I started to think the worse, that Capcom had lost that fire, and then comes RE7.
Again comes reinvention. A whole new perspective, a new location, story, characters, it takes a lot of influence from Western horror games of late, like amnesia and Outlast, as well as some from PT. In fact, it feels like PT reflected through the lens of RE, which probably makes sense since they share the same art director.
I'll post more about why it's great when I have more time, but if you like horror, I highly recommend this game
The last really great RE game was also the first time Capcom decided to break from the formula. RE4 is a classic that still holds up today, and it brought whole new gameplay to the table. The perspective was different, the controls were different, the setting was different, even the zombies were gone. They transformed the game from the old survival horror to a B action horror movie, complete with incredibly cheesy one liners. And it was great, I can still pick up RE4 and play it to this day.
They tried to continue this trend with 5 and 6, and got progressively worse. I started to think the worse, that Capcom had lost that fire, and then comes RE7.
Again comes reinvention. A whole new perspective, a new location, story, characters, it takes a lot of influence from Western horror games of late, like amnesia and Outlast, as well as some from PT. In fact, it feels like PT reflected through the lens of RE, which probably makes sense since they share the same art director.
I'll post more about why it's great when I have more time, but if you like horror, I highly recommend this game
I still love RE4 so much. Wish 5 and 6 hadn't taken themselves so seriously
Subnautica
So I've been enjoying this game quite a bit. Built a seaglide, built a small base, built my seamoth. Things were turning out all right.
Then I encountered the worst, game-breaking glitch I've ever seen in a game.
So I was exploring the Jelly Shroom Caves. Finally made my way out and started head for my lifepod, following its marker. Got attacked by a leviathan along the way, but I managed to crawl back to the pod...
...only to discover it had moved locations on me. It wasn't in the shallows anymore. It was about 1000m away from it, in an area with leviathans. To get my bearings, I climbed the ladder of my pod and checked where the Aurora was. It was like an optical illusion, where if I looked right at it, it was fade away. If I moved, I could see bits and pieces of it fade into existance.
I tried saving my game and reloading, but the same glitch appeared.
Worst of all, I eventually found my way back to the shallows...and my base was also gone.
So now, I don't know what to do at all. I've lost all my progress.
So I've been enjoying this game quite a bit. Built a seaglide, built a small base, built my seamoth. Things were turning out all right.
Then I encountered the worst, game-breaking glitch I've ever seen in a game.
So I was exploring the Jelly Shroom Caves. Finally made my way out and started head for my lifepod, following its marker. Got attacked by a leviathan along the way, but I managed to crawl back to the pod...
...only to discover it had moved locations on me. It wasn't in the shallows anymore. It was about 1000m away from it, in an area with leviathans. To get my bearings, I climbed the ladder of my pod and checked where the Aurora was. It was like an optical illusion, where if I looked right at it, it was fade away. If I moved, I could see bits and pieces of it fade into existance.
I tried saving my game and reloading, but the same glitch appeared.
Worst of all, I eventually found my way back to the shallows...and my base was also gone.
So now, I don't know what to do at all. I've lost all my progress.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yep. Unfortunately that's not the only gamebreaking bug in the game right now. Heck, if you get far enough along and do enough stuff, the game will simply refuse to play more then 30 seconds without crashing. That's the unfortunate state of the early access game right now. I've had to basically start over twice now, and it's frustrating as hell, so I've decided to leave it alone until it launches, or at least until I read something to make me believe it's a lot more stable.