Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[Scuzz]

It's funny, but on my trip to California in 2013, we had a sidetrip to Yosemite which took us by Oakhurst. Now, for anyone who knows their Sierra history, for a large part of their time, their offices were in Oakhurst. You know the Sierra building the Two Guys from Andromeda visit in Space Quest 3? Yeah, that one. So, when we drove by, I instantly recognized the place and was immediately hit with a wave of nostalgia. It was intense and hard to really describe to anyone who wasn't into gaming, but for someone who had spent so much time with their games it was just really neat to be in that same area. It was bittersweet too, as now the offices are held by a medical clinic.

I live in Fresno (well, Clovis really) and you drive thru here to get to Oakhurst. I remember reading about Sierra being located there about the time I was playing their Quest for Glory games. I think the guy who did their music lived up there as well. The local paper did a story on them.

[KDH]

EA has made 5.1 billion in revenue. My hope for them to die and go away is further off than ever.

This is what you do ... you hire a lawyer and bury them in 6 billion dollars worth of paperwork, trivial nuisance distractions about how you know a guy who wasn't happy with some piece of DLC and he's not able to pursue it at this time because his daughter is getting ready for prom .. and you're going to spearhead the task for him

it is imperative that your lawyer be clever, nimble ... and work pro-bono

[Daehawk]

1 week later I accept $10 and a free 5 years old game code and sign an NDA

[Daehawk]

Been seeing a lot of Star Trek stuff lately and its making want to play a Star Trek game again. ive finished everything almost. Im leaning to either Starfleet Command, Star Trek 25th Anniversary or maybe even Star Trek Online. I dont see myself playing anything more involved like Klingon Academy or the shooters Elite force because ive played them to death. Im not even sure on STO because I burned out on it recently but theres a lot Ive not done in it. I am thinking maybe Starfleet Command.

EDIT: OOn a side note I reinstalled Deadpool. I have no idea where I am what i was doing or how to play now after over a year. But as this is the FOURTH time Ive installed this game for a go Im not restarting at the beginning.

[Kasey Chang]

I was trying this "Robot Squad Simulator" I got from Fanatical sim bundle. It has some moments, but it's kinda "meh" overall. The engine was not optimized at all. Even at "very low" graphics setting frame rate was horrible on my machine. It is out of date, but most games are playable on it, but not this budget piece of ****.

Basically you start with a bomb disposal robot and you need to drive around the area looking for bombs. The training course have you disabling training bombs, while later you're called upon to clear a park and inspect multiple areas for bombs, but you also have to avoid a sniper who will shoot at your robot.

Later you'll get a 'spy car' bot, a quad-rotor hoverdrone bot, and a swim bot. Presumably you'll need to avoid cameras, patrols, and so on. Right now I'm fighting controls more than I'm enjoying the game. Controls are sluggish as heck. I'll have to try something else.

Playing my way through the Bridge building games. The Stunts game is kinda interesting as it tried to mesh the car jumping stunt mode (you get to drive the car with throttle and forward/backward flips while in the air) with with ramp and bridge building. Didn't like it THAT much, as there's a pretty obvious way to approach the level.

[Kasey Chang]

Starfleet Command, Star Trek 25th Anniversary or maybe even Star Trek Online.

Skip SFC1 and go directly to SFC2, or even Orion Pirates. SFC3 is really meh, IMHO.

[KDH]

.
.... ... A post on Facebook from Sergiy Grygorovych, states:

Сегодня 15.05.2018 Я официально заявляю:
“GSC Game World разрабатывает S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2”

Spoiler:

Today 15.05.2018 I officially declare:
"GSC GAME WORLD DEVELOPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2"

https://www.stalker2.com/

[TheMix]

[Daehawk]

I dont get it...theres already 3 Stalker games. Meh what do I care....Ive been wanting a new Stalker for a long while. One of my all time favorite series.

2021 release. Well that will be a damn while.

What is this the 2nd or 3rd try at Stalker 2?

[TheMix]

I dont get it...theres already 3 Stalker games.

Not really. More like 1 game and 2 expansions. Remember when games had expansions?

[Daehawk]

Im so old I remember speech packs.

[Kasey Chang]

We remember when games came on 5.25 floppy disks.

[hitbyambulance]

[Max Peck]

1/ Todd Robbins is an awesome performer who is a master of the side-show. He does stuff like hammer a nail into his face or eat a light bulb whole, which is real. He also does some magic, which is fake. I’m going somewhere with this...

2/ He once said (paraphrased), “When I make something vanish (which is a magic trick, and fake), people will swear that it is real. But when I eat a light bulb (which is not magic, and is real) people will swear that it is fake - a trick.”

3/ The point is that it is kind of a part of our species that we tend to hold on to what we *want* to believe while discounting the truth if it contradicts that - no matter the evidence. It takes a disciplined mind to see reality for what it is.

4/ For example, I could write it out now precisely and specifically that “Borderlands 3” will not be at E3 and many of you will choose not to believe it. Many of you will find a way to interpret the intent to suit what you want to believe regardless of what is true.

5/ In fact, this aspect of human nature is so powerful that it is more likely this thread will increase the volume of the debate rather than diminish it. It feels as if “Borderlands 3” may be destined to be the next Half-Life 3 in that regard.

6/ I *love* how important Borderlands is to so many of you. The developers of Gearbox Software are working harder than we have ever worked in order to create new and exciting things in hopes of entertaining you. Your passion fuels us. Thank you! I love you!

"It feels as if “Borderlands 3” may be destined to be the next Half-Life 3 in that regard."

So, there's never going to be a Borderlands 3?

[coopasonic]

"It feels as if “Borderlands 3” may be destined to be the next Half-Life 3 in that regard."

So, there's never going to be a Borderlands 3?

No, it will just come out after Half-Life 3.

[TheMix]

"It feels as if “Borderlands 3” may be destined to be the next Half-Life 3 in that regard."

So, there's never going to be a Borderlands 3?

No, it will just come out after Half-Life 3.

[Kasey Chang]

Oh, if you insist...



Learned 6508 Assembly on it. It was for school too. Saved work on cassette tapes back then.

[Max Peck]

[coopasonic]

Cripes, I think I had forgotten the days of typing in code straight from magazines to create games... and then the tape drive fails when you try to reload it so you type it in again.

[Isgrimnur]

And then there was the buggy MLX program that crashed when it changed modes from strategic map to tactical. Impossible to debug hex code that passed all the validation checks. Days, if not weeks, wasted on that one.

[Kasey Chang]

Cripes, I think I had forgotten the days of typing in code straight from magazines to create games... and then the tape drive fails when you try to reload it so you type it in again.

Yeah, back then I was bemoaning the fact that Apple BASIC doesn't have the funky character shapes in the extended ASCII so it can make all those cool character that the Commodore PET have so I can type in those games myself. I think I got ONE game to work ever typing in those BASIC code on an Apple II...

[Max Peck]

Basic Computer Games is a classic, but I'd really love to get my hands on a copy of What To Do After You Hit Return from People's Computer Company.

[Daehawk]

Used to play home brew cassette games on my Atari 800xl. Also I think it was BYTE magazine that had BASIC codes to do your own things like sound or a rainbow and such.

[Daehawk]

Upcoming 2018 stuff.

First is some game play of Junkyard Simulator. Some kinda free roam weirdness.


10 management sims. The first one, Mr Prepper, looks very interesting.

[Kasey Chang]

For grins, I was playing the games I got in the Fanatical Sim Pack.

RevHead was actually not bad, but the Aussie slang (by some Hungarian programmers) are cringe-worthy. It's kinda like a free-roam car upgrade game had a baby with "Car Mechanic Simulator". You make money to start by working for your crazy uncle's garage and fix stuff under his supervision, and he'll even tell you what parts to fix. Once made enough money upgrade your starter car with like supercharger and stuff and play with your uncle's "Backyard" race course. If you win, you get to explore the world a bit, drive to next town, find more race courses, drag races, offroad races, and just roam the countryside and ****. They apparently put out another update in April that added a new area. So that's kinda cool. Unfortunately the engine doesn't want to play with my slow PC.

Played with Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 and it's actually "fairly" accurate. The parts list is vastly simplified, you don't have a Chilton manual to refer to in order to figure out how many hours to charge, and all parts will come via internet order almost instantly. Hahahahaha. But it is fairly accurate, as it goes into control arms, bushings, sway bars, sway bar links, shock absorbers, springs, spring caps, and bajillion other parts. In the beginning, you are told what parts need to be replaced (but not necessarily where the parts are, as the car may have more than one of the part!). In the future you just get a complaint and it's up to you to figure out how to fix the car. I've done more than a dozen cars now, from changing the filters to practically rebuilding the rear suspension. It's rather refreshing.

The Robot Squad Simulator was meh. You get to control 4 different remote control robots, a bomb disposal robot, a camera scout robot, a hover drone, and an underwater swimming robot. The bomb disposal robot is a PITA to control, as again, my frame rate sucks (it's probably less than 10 fps) which makes the game almost unplayable.

[Paingod]

I'm feeling a pull to play a good FPS or 3rd person shooter with some meat on it, maybe a little open-world.

I don't have many "True Shooters" in my library and am open to suggestions. The closest "feel" I have is towards FarCry2 or STALKER. Something gritty, at least a little darkly themed, with a big world to work with would be great.

To get a feel for what I have - 1st and 3rd person games I have (spoilered so it's not a page long)...

Spoiler:

• Ark: Survival Evolved: Good, but I'm not interested in building bases - mostly exploring & shooting.
• Assassin's Creed: Black Flag - The only Creed game I've played. I think it's good and open, but very melee-heavy.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum & City - Too much melee, not enough bang bang.
• Borderlands 1 & 2: Good, straight-up shooters. Not too linear, but too lighthearted.
• Dead Island: A contender in terms of "gritty", but very melee-heavy. I'm feeling more "Shootie"
• Deus Ex: GOTY - See Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Good game, but pretty linear and not very open.
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - See Shadow of Mordor.
• Empyrion: Galactic Survival - Good, but I'm not interested in building bases - mostly exploring & shooting.
• EYE: Divine Cubermancy: Just ...
• FarCry2: Close. Maybe?
• Grand Theft Auto IV: Good game, but not quite the right feel.
• Hard Reset: Didn't hold my interest long. Maybe try it again?
• Hitman (Codename47, Blood Money, Silent Assassin): Too linear and confined.
• Mad Max: Maybe, but I've beaten it and found it depressing at the end when I think about it too much.
• Metro 2033: A possibility. It's been a while. It has the right feel.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: Good game, but I'm thinking more modern and with guns, not bows.
• Mount & Blade - See Subnautica & Shadow of Mordor
• PUBG: Good game, pretty stressful and I'm looking for a PvP-free experience.
• Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition - I bought this on sale a long while ago and never fired it up. Maybe now?
• State of Decay - Good, but I'm not interested in building bases - mostly exploring & shooting, melee-heavy.
• Subnautica - Good, but I'm not interested in building bases - mostly exploring & shooting.
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - A good shooter with the right feel, would need to re-buy it on GoG or Steam to avoid needing disks in my PC.
• System Shock 2, old but good.
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified: Bought but never played. Worried it may not be too good.
• The Stanley Parable - Funny, but not "visceral" or "shooter" enough.
• Tomb Raider (2013), which I kind of walked away from because it seemed more like a torture simulator.
• Tomb Raider, Rise of the (2016) - See Tomb Raider. I bought these as a bundle and never got into the second after the first threw me off.
• Watch_Dogs, which I loved and have played a few times. This is a maybe, but with PvP off. Not much of a shooter, though.

Any recommendations? Is there a FarCry that stands out above the rest since #2?

[coopasonic]

Any recommendations? Is there a FarCry that stands out above the rest since #2?

Far Cry 4.

Have you played Ghost Recon Wildlands?

[Paingod]

Have you played Ghost Recon Wildlands?

Nope. I'm guessing it's good?

[NickAragua]

Heh, I've also got EYE Divine Cybermancy sitting in my library. Bought it for sale for like two bucks.

If it was me, I'd go Bureau, Sleeping Dogs or Tomb Raider.

Bureau is a fun trip through the X-Com setting. Think of it as Mass Effect: X-Com in the 1950s. There are two pieces of DLC for it - one is this "Ghost Talkers" thing (don't remember the names of these exactly) which is an extra mission that integrates into the main campaign. The other is "Hangar 51" or whatever, which doesn't even integrate into the main campaign. And is kind of boring BS to be honest, as every fight takes place inside the same hangar with rearranged props.

Sleeping Dogs has great hand to hand fighting, but the rest of it is a boring GTA clone.

Tomb Raider... I disagree with the assessment that it's a torture simulator. There's the one part in the beginning where Lara gets captured, but it's fairly benign and she escapes pretty quickly. After that it's basically just stalking around various locations and killing people (while hanging form a powerline and there's always an avalanche or something).

[Blackhawk]

Any recommendations? Is there a FarCry that stands out above the rest since #2?

Any and all. Far Cry 2 was probably the weakest of the series. It created the formula, but it was the rest that polished it. Since you have a few older games on there (STALKER, SS2), I'm going to guess that the latest graphics aren't your thing. If that's the case, I'd suggest picking a Far Cry based on setting.

Far Cry 3 - beautiful tropical islands, the first one that got the modern Far Cry formula right.
Far Cry Blood Dragon - short, but a homage to 80s sci-fi with a lot of humor
Far Cry 4 - Welcome to the Himalayas! It's set in a psuedo-Nepal, and while the setting didn't really click for me, it did for others.
Far Cry Primal - Far Cry in the stone age. It works far better than you'd think.
Far Cry 5 - just came out recently, so it's full price, set in Montana. The only one I haven't played.

[TheMix]

Having recently played Far Cry 2 for the first time... I'd pass. It had some wonkiness with Windows10 (if you are running that). The respawning was a pain. The story was decent, but I felt like the landscape was pretty uninspired.

My vote is for one of the STALKER series. The first one had the best story/atmosphere, but the last one had weapon and armor customization. Tough call. I've been itching for the last 6+ months to replay one/all of them. Though the Metro games wouldn't be bad choices either. Great story, interesting weapons. However, much more on rails. At least they do give you different approaches on many of the maps.

Ghost Recon Wildlands would also be an excellent choice.

[coopasonic]

Have you played Ghost Recon Wildlands?

Nope. I'm guessing it's good?

Yes. I think it is pretty close to exactly what you are looking for.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I agree with coop here. I loved Far Cry 4 and from the ~5 hours I've spent in Wildlands, it's also big fun. My only issue with Wildlands is that it's very clearly designed to be a cooperative experience. The AI buddies I have helping me out aren't a problem per se, but it definitely changes the feel compared to a truly solo Far Cry experience. But in terms of open space / open world / I do what I want, both are ridiculous.

[Kasey Chang]

I think the Bureau managed to create a playable game despite the trials and tribulations. It's NOTHING like the other XCOM games.

Tomb Raider can be frustrating if you're going for all the achievements, or in the toughest fights.

I personally, with a lot of these games, is download a trainer and just play it through w/o worrying about dying, but don't give yourself too many advantages.

[Blackhawk]

That's actually the reason I've stayed away from Wildlands. I've heard from multiple sources that it's great in coop, but mediocre solo.

[Paingod]

Tomb Raider... I disagree with the assessment that it's a torture simulator. There's the one part in the beginning where Lara gets captured, but it's fairly benign and she escapes pretty quickly.

Maybe the wording is too harsh, but it's kind of why I stopped. At every stage of the game I'd die in horrible, gruesome ways to new obstacles as I learned to get around them. Even when everything goes right Laura is constantly slammed, ripped up, beat down, etc. I made it as far as going back down the island and hit a zipline puzzle with a bunch of towers. At some points in the game, IIRC, she's basically hobbling around and barely alive - over and over and over. Maybe it'd be better to call it a "Near Death Simulator" ... ? I guess I wasn't enjoying the way my character felt like they just barely survived everything and kept nearly dying at every turn.

Tomb Raider can be frustrating if you're going for all the achievements, or in the toughest fights.

Which I was, because I'm me.

STALKER would be a perfect fit - but I wouldn't mind something more current, graphics-wise. Older games aren't ruled out, just not as pretty. I don't think I've played one since the first.

I'll go look at Wildlands, FarCry 4, and the most recent STALKER.

[Blackhawk]

Ah. Yeah, the game is pretty brutal. It's got a strong element of 'overcoming suffering', which is impossible without suffering.

[TheMix]

Definitely check out the mods for STALKER. There are definitely graphic upgrades. I've used the Complete mods in the past, but I don't know if they are still recommended.

[Daehawk]

Played all Stalkers and always mod them with Complete.

[Paingod]

Picked up S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat, only $5 right now on GoG.com.

Still exploring Wildlands and FarCry 4, though. Wildlands only gets a 60 from MetaCritic... Reviews don't always stop me, though. I've enjoyed a few games with 60% ratings.