What are you playing?

I'd really recommend taking a deep dive on the Steam Workshop and trying out some of the gameplay-altering mods rather than trying to slog through a run on the highest difficulty of the basic game. There are full overhauls of the character classes, gear, psionics, MECs, enemy AI, enemy unit types, and basically anything else you can think of as discrete packages that you can use to fine-tune the experience in - IMO, at least - a much more interesting way than doing a Long War run in the first XCOM.

I just started a new run and I've giant pile of mods running. It's basically a totally different experience with new challenges that don't just amount to more enemies and bigger health pools.
One mod I'd like but apparently doesn't exist is to group my troops into squads. I have a team of "starters" who I like to send as a first choice, and having to manually pick them every time can get tiring. Instead I'd like to just select "starters" and have those six immediately show up. And then I might have my "second team", my "tech heavy team", my "SPARKs team", etc. Of course I will often need to mix and match based on injuries, fatigue, the specific type of mission, etc, but being able to pick them all at once would've been nice.

But based on my research apparently this isn't possible without going on a deep dive into the game code, like what Long War 2 does.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I tried getting back into Gnomoria, but I guess my tastes have changed... I don't enjoy it any more, at least not the early part of it.

See, one of the challenges of Gnomoria is that if you don't set a policy for something, it doesn't happen. And for a game where you can't give direct orders to people, there is a LOT of micromanagement.

For example, somewhere in the second season of your colony's founding, you can expect a minor goblin attack. Talking two, maybe three goblins, armed with wooden or stone weapons at most. You start with 9 gnomes. In theory, you should be able to overwhelm them just with sheer numbers, barefisted.

The problem is, your gnomes don't have any combat directives out of the box.

In order for gnomes to engage in combat, they have to be part of a squad. A "squad" is a theoretical military construct in the game that defines combat behavior and formation for the members of the squad, of which there can be up to 5. But to form a squad, you have to assign it a formation. A formation is a theoretical military construct that defines the roles, perks and equipment kit of each gnome in the formation (which again, there can be up to 5). But to define a formation, you have to have at least one equipment kit (or "Uniform") defined, so that you can assign it to each slot in the formation. So at some point you have to go through this bureaucratic exercise that takes 10-20 minutes just so your gnomes won't ignore threats and carry on with their work while they bleed to death from stumps that used to be their extremities.

Define Uniform (Whatever is available) -> Define formation (Civilian militia, consisting of 5 "whatever is available" uniforms utilizing unarmed and sight distance perks) -> Define two squads ("Civilians 1" and "Civilians 2", each consisting of a Civilian Militia formation, with orders to avoid combat if possible unless targets are specifically designated, and flag that members will immediately retreat to heal if wounded).

And if you forget to do all that, the first monitor lizard that wanders into your Dwarf Fortress Gnome Kingdom will bite somebody to death, and this early on in the game you absolutely cannot afford to lose anybody, because each gnome you start with is generally one of only two gnomes with any skill at all in doing what it is he's supposed to do (mine, farm, cook, tend animals, etc), and if one of your original 9 dies before you train up a replacement, you might as well start over.

And there's lots of other red tape like this. If you don't micromanage build and crafting tasks early on, to a ridiculous degree, the workshops you order to get built don't get built. And there's practically no feedback about what is holding things up... it just never gets done.

So yeah... I've been playing more Rimworld instead. The only thing that Gnomoria has over Rimworld is a Z axis - you can have upstairs and downstairs areas, ranging from 20+ stories up to all the way down into Balrog territory. And I was kinda missing that. That, and elaborate pit traps that would drop attacking armies 10+ stories down mineshafts so that my gnomes could pick spoils out of the splatterchunks in the basement and make goblin and ogre sandwiches out of the meat.
 
Kingdoms of Amalur: re-reckoning.
(Steam, PC)

I played the original on PS3. A Lot.

Presently, I can't exactly sit at the computer for any period of time without getting dizzy, but I can lounge on the couch and play streamed games.

This new version ($20! Btw, includes all dlc), is exactly what I remember: beautiful, neat stories, tons of side quests and lore, and lots of character build options. And I still love it. I can lose hours at a time to it, which is great when you're sick and need something to distract you for a bit, but can't nap for whatever reason.

A fun RPG that you can speed through in like, 5-7ish hours or 50+ if you take your time. And taking your time is worth it and rewarded.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I played the original for about 20 hours. I remember it felt like a WOW clone that they forgot to add multiplayer to. But otherwise decently done.
 
Yikes, the new update of Medieval Dynasty is straight up murdering my pc. As soon as the game starts my pc crashes and it fucks up the Radeon Drivers. THe Driver Suite wont start anymore, even if you run it as admin. Thought it was a fluke, reinstalled the drivers, launched it again and the same happened. I am not touching that game again.
 
Overlord 2

Someone gifted this to me so I thought I'd try it out. And at first, I was having fun. Sending minions here and here, pillaging towns, watching my minions pick up swords and helmets, etc. Even got my first mistress, though the upgrades to my tower were lacking as of yet.

But then I got to a part with THE MOST ANNOYING FUCKING SHIP COMBAT THAT BARELY WORKS. And it was just an unending exercise in frustration. I kept dying over and over because the whole thing was just too janky. I gave up.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Overlord 2's gameplay definitely wasn't as good as Overlord 1's.

But I liked the option for a harem ending :D The either/or dynamic of the mistress selection in Overlord 1 always bummed me out.

1632944766724.png
 
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No Straight Roads

DAMN this game goes up in difficulty fast...especially on the rap battle levels,the second which is an absolute nightmare and I want to murder DK West.
 
So after someone gifted it to me, it turns out I'm a hypocrite and have spent all of my weekend playing Diablo 2 Resurrected.

Blizzard still sucks though... but this game was very good.
 
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I'm still playing XCOM 2 on the highest difficulty level.

Yes, I'm still terrible at the game. Yes, the game is still terribly unfair at this level. Yes, it's still kicking my ass. So why am I still playing it? Because I realized I can cheat by editing the config files.

I can give my troops tons of health. I can change the properties of weapon add-ons to ludicrously overpowered levels, such as giving my troops 100% hit chances 100% of the time, or guaranteed one-hit kills, or free reloads throughout the entire battle. I can change the cooldown of powers or remove the cooldowns entirely, so that I can use them constantly. I can give myself extra resources.

At this point I'm just having fun changing reality and seeing what the effects are in-game.
 
So after someone gifted it to me, it turns out I'm a hypocrit and have spent all of my weekend playing Diablo 2 Resurrected.

Blizzard still sucks though... but this game was very good.
Yeah, agree on all of that. I love D2 and have been playing it nonstop.

And ueah, I'm a hypocrite too.
 
Love D2, but not spending any money on Blizzard at the moment. Happily replaying Warcraft 2 (the original) and Diablo 2 (the original) and Diablo 3 (eh, I'm not making them any money playing it)
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Ooof. Did you try the beta version?
I do understand your missgivings, but i play it only on singleplayer and I do enjoy my time. One does have to up the XP multiplier though unless one wants to grind for days.
That might be the key. I was playing on default settings.
Ok, I have to admit the game is much better if you play in sandbox mode with XP at x5-x10 and like 10 bonus trait points. I started a new playthrough with a stealth build (burglar profession, points mostly in sneaking and perception type things) and it's going a lot smoother. Also the minimap mod does SO much to improve things. I can't believe there was no minimap in vanilla.

But it's still awful lonely to play single player.
 
Love D2, but not spending any money on Blizzard at the moment. Happily replaying Warcraft 2 (the original) and Diablo 2 (the original) and Diablo 3 (eh, I'm not making them any money playing it)
I absolutely understand this. I'm boycotting so much stuff right now it's a little exhausting. This is my "Fuck it, I'm terrible today", and Mike Ybarra seems like a good step in the right direction as the new co-president, and a settlement on the first lawsuit was offered but not gone through courts yet.

I'm hoping for some other steps to be taken yet, but we will see.
 
I absolutely understand this. I'm boycotting so much stuff right now it's a little exhausting. This is my "Fuck it, I'm terrible today", and Mike Ybarra seems like a good step in the right direction as the new co-president, and a settlement on the first lawsuit was offered but not gone through courts yet.

I'm hoping for some other steps to be taken yet, but we will see.
Also Blizzard didn't make this. They outsourced to a different company (which might explain why the remaster is so good)

Doesn't mean they don't still profit from it, but I can't deny... the game is good.
 
Ok, I have to admit the game is much better if you play in sandbox mode with XP at x5-x10 and like 10 bonus trait points. I started a new playthrough with a stealth build (burglar profession, points mostly in sneaking and perception type things) and it's going a lot smoother. Also the minimap mod does SO much to improve things. I can't believe there was no minimap in vanilla.

But it's still awful lonely to play single player.
I am pining for multiplayer. I am not sure if there is a mod for it, but even if there was, the update that droppen 2 weeks ago fucked up most of the mods. Game looks much better though and i like the "3D" models for the items. they used to be 2D. Once one reaches the "I want to beautify" my base, it really does a difference. Placing my rifles on top of tables instead of stashing them inside containers, adds a little more immersion.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I am pining for multiplayer. I am not sure if there is a mod for it, but even if there was, the update that droppen 2 weeks ago fucked up most of the mods. Game looks much better though and i like the "3D" models for the items. they used to be 2D. Once one reaches the "I want to beautify" my base, it really does a difference. Placing my rifles on top of tables instead of stashing them inside containers, adds a little more immersion.
My understanding is that the steam build has it already (I joined a server a few times before, hence my previous "the only thing worse than zomboid is zomboid online" rant), but that they're still working on it for build 41.

The problem even with the current steam build is that either something is private (in which case I can't play it) or it is public and therefor stripped barren of any resources that might help a newly arrived player get established.
 
I recently reached the threshold where I could buy a very nice T2 blockade runner ship (which can cloak without speed or warp penalties) which are pretty much untouchable in high and low security space. The only danger to a BR is if you are sloppy or if you go to null-sec (where warp bubbles are allowed that stop the use of warp).

With the BR, I've started taking courier missions on the side where I shuttle stuff around for people who are too afraid to do it themselves, for a tidy fee.
Took my Crane blockade runner through low-sec today, straight through the middle of a gate camp that was actively killing folks passing through. I was a bit worried..there's a website that checks gate camps, and it showed 28 kills within the last hour. But the price of the courier package was too much to pass up, and I figured it was time to give my BR a run for its money.

I have the ship set up with a covert ops cloak, so I can warp and stuff without penalty. I have rigs and other stuff on the ship to make aligning and initiating warp happen quicker (5 seconds or so). I've been practicing my "jump-tick-cloak" timing so that I can only appear on the enemy screens for about 1 second.

But still, there's a risk. Some ships can lock in 1 second. And if you're locked, you can't cloak. And if you can't cloak, they can warp scramble you, so you can't run. And my ship has zero weapons, and no armor to slow me down, or shield boosters (which, while giving you better shields, also increase your signature radius, making you easier to lock and shoot)

Took a deep breath, and jumped through the gate, and landed right in the middle of a battle. Looked like about a dozen ships taking out someone who'd just jumped in before me. Luckily, you have about 1 minute of "just jumped" cloak, so I took another deep breath, clicked to haul ass to the next gate, and hit cloak. In that 1 second, 2 ships started moving toward me. These guys were pretty quick--they saw me on the overview, clicked my ship, and clicked "align" in the 1-2 seconds I was visible..which put their ships on a full-speed course to my last known position.

If they could get within 2000 meters, they decloak you, and if I were in a slow ship, they could have done it in maybe 8-10 seconds. Luckily, within 5, I was gone and on to my next gate jump.

Made it to my destination 4 or 5 jumps later, picked up my courier package, and warped right back through the gate camp a few minutes later. I chuckled as I slipped up to the gate cloaked, and appeared on their screens about one second before zooming off through the warp gate.
 
Control

I'd played this before late last year and lost patience with it. I can't remember if I refunded it and got it again through Humble Bundle Monthly/Choice, but it's been sitting installed on my PC for ages, collecting dust. So on a whim, I gave it another shot, starting from scratch. And for whatever reason, something about it clicked with me this time. I enjoyed it for the most part, even if the story and concepts still don't really make a lot of sense. It's very out there, but I think the problem is all these characters are incredibly bland. The main character doesn't react to anything. You'd think being able to fly or throw objects with your mind would be a thing you'd show a little emotion for, but no.

At times, the combat was a little frustrating and overwhelming. I found enemies, especially bosses, hit you WAY too hard to the point it might as well be a one-hit kill. Mind you, I also barely used the shield because I couldn't figure out how or when was the right time to use it. The flight wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. It's more of a temporary hover that runs out fast, so I barely used that, as well. Ditto for most of the guns. I mostly just used telekinesis on most things and backed up with mind controlling enemies.

Still, I didn't hate my experience playing it. If I had to rank it with the other games by the developer, it would be last, below Alan Wake and Quantum Break, in that order.
 
It's definitely a Remedy game. Amazing first halves that the second half never lives up to.
Yep. Something I notice they love doing in every game is just send you waves and waves of enemies. Often too many, a lot of times, honestly. With this, there's a variety, but some are just unforgivingly stupid, like the invisible bird thing that can basically one-shot you and comes out of nowhere. There a boss you can fight after the game ends who's a pain on their own (one of those flying bastards). But then you get him down to half health and the room starts filling up with baddies, including one of those bird things. I died SO MANY frigging times either from him or that bird thing one-shotting, and having little to no chance to restore my health anywhere.
 
The only part of the second half of Control I really liked was the music video ashtray maze. It was so goofy but I was smiling the whole time. It 100% should have been the climax of the game combat wise instead of forcing you into the absolutely doldrums ending combat sequences.
 
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I decided to LEGALLY acquire Succubus from a TOTALLY LEGIT website because I was kinda curious how the makers of Agony could top their selves after what a lame ass barely functional and hilariously edgelordy game Agony was. Like every decision they made for the game was followed by "That'll really offend, we'll be for sure cancelled for this! Nerd cackle, nerd cackle"

It's a bad game, with bad art that's bad. Also, you refill your life total by ripping a baby from the womb of a strung up pregnant woman and you refill even more life if you smash her head in with her own baby. That's the level of edginess we're talking about. It's so far over the top that you can't even be offended by it. Also, every screenshot you'll see of the game feels like a bullshot since it looks like hot dog turds in real motion and nothing like the screenshots. Every character model is badly animated and looks like it would belong more in the original Alice game with how low quality they are. I have the graphics set to max too.

LOL, it has a selfie mode. This cannot be a serious game. Double LOL, I just gave a dude a hard-on, punched his jaw off, ripped his dick off and then rudely stomped on it. I got 25% of my health back for that. Everything about this screams take me seriously, but it's so fucking lame.

I'm enjoying it in that GOOD bad movie way wherein the people making the movie/game tried their hardest to make their vision, but were too incompetent or underbudgeted (or usually both) to make anything actually good.

So, NSFW here obviously, but look at the bullshots vs a screenshot I just took in game.

1633589691377.png
Bullshotula

VS

Untitled.jpg my screenshot.
 
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I decided to LEGALLY acquire Succubus from a TOTALLY LEGIT website because I was kinda curious how the makers of Agony could top their selves after what a lame ass barely functional and hilariously edgelordy game Agony was. Like every decision they made for the game was followed by "That'll really offend, we'll be for sure cancelled for this! Nerd cackle, nerd cackle"

It's a bad game, with bad art that's bad. Also, you refill your life total by ripping a baby from the womb of a strung up pregnant woman and you refill even more life if you smash her head in with her own baby. That's the level of edginess we're talking about. It's so far over the top that you can't even be offended by it. Also, every screenshot you'll see of the game feels like a bullshot since it looks like hot dog turds in real motion and nothing like the screenshots. Every character model is badly animated and looks like it would belong more in the original Alice game with how low quality they are. I have the graphics set to max too.

LOL, it has a selfie mode. This cannot be a serious game. Double LOL, I just gave a dude a hard-on, punched his jaw off, ripped his dick off and then rudely stomped on it. I got 25% of my health back for that. Everything about this screams take me seriously, but it's so fucking lame.

I'm enjoying it in that GOOD bad movie way wherein the people making the movie/game tried their hardest to make their vision, but were too incompetent or underbudgeted (or usually both) to make anything actually good.

So, NSFW here obviously, but look at the bullshots vs a screenshot I just took in game.

View attachment 39011 Bullshotula

VS

View attachment 39012 my screenshot.
You're making me want to play this game.
 
It's impossible to endorse. It's really, really bad. You'll get sick of it within 30 minutes.
 
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Timberborn

It's not often I grab a game as soon as it releases, but I did with this. I enjoyed playing the demo and wanted more, what can I say?

Anyway, it's an early access city builder type, only your "people" in this case are beavers. Since it still early in early access, there isn't much to do yet. But it's surprisingly engaging for what little there is. I haven't done crazy complicated towns or districts like some YouTubers. I've seen some make massive apartment complexes to house their beavers. Something rare about this game is you can stack most buildings. So you can make these towering complexes as long as there are stairs and platforms to reach them.

Doubly interesting is the water mechanics. Right now, the only challenge is the game is every so many days, you experience a drought. All the water on the map dries up for X amount of days. But since you're beavers, you can build dams to block off and retain water long enough to survive. Otherwise, your water pumps stop working and your farm areas dry up.

With my current game, I made my largest dam to date. I also created my own little river with explosives, leading the water into a big empty reservoir to create my own lake. Build your dams right and you can purposely flood areas to have more water.

Honestly, the flooding and dam mechanics are the most interesting thing about the game. Which is great, because it fits with the beaver theme. It's not often a game's core gameplay loop fits so well with the theme on top of it.
 
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