Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[jztemple2]

I see that GOG has Commandos 2+3 on sale. I am seriously tempted...

[Paingod]

I see that GOG has Commandos 2+3 on sale. I am seriously tempted...

I can attest to owning these for some time now, and am pleased to say that every time I see them in my inventory, I get a wave of pleasant nostalgia - one that I have no intention of ruining by trying to play them again.

Commandos 3 can be run at 1920x1080 with some tweaking, including using a 3rd party .exe that replaced the original. Always sketchy.

Someone modded Commandos 2 to allow for HD play.

Looks like there may be a way to run Commandos in 1024x768.

[Daehawk]

Ive found myself really having a lot of fun with some games I installed just hoping I could try them again. been in a terrible gaming rutt and was slinging all kinds of games at the wall so to speak.

Fallout 3 has been a blast to replay. So much I had forgotten. Also if anyone wants to replay Half Life then Black Mesa is the only way in my opinion. So purdy and nicely mapped. Its like a totally new game.

Im just now starting Divinity Original Sin 1. Ive only created characters.....took me a day......but it seems like it will be a full on RPG adventure for me. So many details.

Also have Freelancer, Deserts of Kharak, and still going with DOOM and Far Cry Primal. Full plate of goodness.

[jztemple2]

I was able to break out of my gaming ennui by deciding to fire up Door Kickers for the first time in almost three years. It's one of the few games in which I've put more than a hundred hours of play. It has the advantage of fights that take only a few minutes so it is easy to start and stop. And there are single missions, several campaigns, a random mission generator and you can download missions off Steam Workshop and even build your own (I actually made several missions that are available in the Workshop). And there are a number of cool mods out there for the game as well.

They have prettied up the game since I last saw it and added a few new bells and whistles, but it still has that fun gameplay.

[Daehawk]

Was watching Witcher 3 being played and it struck Id love to see some guy in after you kill those random thugs...he would come by and rummage their bodies for loot then toss them in a cart. Later you go see him in the cemetery burying them lol.

Then I thought WAIT Id love a Graveyard Tycoon game A full on sim of running a graveyard or maybe a funeral home and a graveyard too. The whole shabang.

Looking online there are already some games like that...one even named Graveyard Tycoon LOL. But they seem more silly than serious.

[GreenGoo]

If you could play serial killer tycoon on the side, even better.

Tell me there isn't a game to be built around Dexter.

[Smoove_B]

Not really a "Tycoon" style game, but there is A Mortician's Tale on STEAM. Apparently it's only about an hour to finish, so it's probably not at all what you're looking for.

A Mortician's Tale is a narrative-driven death positive video game where you play as a mortician tasked with running a funeral home. Take on the role of recent funeral direction graduate Charlie as she learns the ropes of the business and industry. Prepare the bodies of the deceased (via embalming or cremation), attend their funerals and listen to their loved ones' stories, and interact with Charlie's coworkers, clients, and bosses.

A Mortician's Tale is an informative, honest, and sometimes humorous look at the current state of and the future of the western death industry.

I believe it's loosely based on the work of Caitlin Doughty, an absolutely amazing individual. Her Youtube videos are fantastic.

[Paingod]

I was able to break out of my gaming ennui by deciding to fire up Door Kickers for the first time in almost three years. It's one of the few games in which I've put more than a hundred hours of play.

I bought this in a recent sale and found it interesting, but somewhat annoying as well - mostly because of in-game achievements, like completing missions with 1 man under a specific time frame. I didn't find the mechanics overwhelming, but rather that it seems impossible to take one person through a building and clear it in 45 seconds without dying or touching your plan. I didn't give up on it as much as I opted to postpone my annoyance and do something else.

My favorite random mission so far was a series of train cars, and I had to escort a VIP out. It took a long time to plan a good route with a shield-bearer and a .44 Magnum. Half the time, the VIP was killed by a bad guy with a shotgun who'd run away from my guy, open the VIP door, and execute him. It was simple luck that determined if I hit him as he was running. After that, though, I still had to clear 4 more cars and get the VIP to follow safely. I spent a LONG time on that one, planning and re-planning.

Eventually my random generator seemed to get locked into a loop with one House that I could clear in 3 seconds. 1 Hostage, three bad guys. Walk up to the front door, throw a flashbang through, then execute the 3 bad guys I could see without even walking in. Boom boom boom. Mission end. I exploited this for a little while to unlock some new gear I thought would be helpful later, but got pretty bored with it since there's no "ultimate" items as far as I can tell. I mean, piling on heavy armor and big guns is great, but breaks any chance at a speed bonus.

I also ran into some impossible random missions where rooms were literally walled off with no way in.

[jztemple2]

Eventually my random generator seemed to get locked into a loop with one House that I could clear in 3 seconds.

The random mission generator will only generate a new seed if you switch to another mission type tab, then back to the mission generator. You can tell this by looking at the seed number in the box on the bottom right.

[Daehawk]

All my games and Im bored to heck.

[Daehawk]

After looking at free MMOs until I fell asleep Ive got it down to two now....Archeage and Guild Wars 2. I own or have played them all even these two. So its a matter of picking. But I cant decide. Maybe try both and see what grabs me.

[Daehawk]

Wish there was a true treasure hunt sim game. The one and only I can think of is Sea Rogue from waaaay back early 90s. Id like it to be sorta like tomb Raider or Uncharted ...more Uncharted....but without the bad guys and no climbing stuff. Just a game of research and following clues and finding cool puzzles to solve and actual loot at the end. Throw in some Goonies to that mix. The Nathan Drake games make me want this. I have fun following clues and solving puzzles but I know as soon as I do one the bad guys will show up to do a scripted fight. never fails. Give me a treasure hunting sim. Old deserts....underwater.......caves........abandoned military bases.....anything from sunken treasure to hidden gold to buried kings to alien tech.

[Daehawk]

Why is it everything I want to play this week has been one giant FUCKING hassel????? Im wanting to play Aion. No big deal right? Ive played it before. I have an account. Ive played their other games like Lineage 2. So I download and install. Takes 2 hours to download. And its a weird one because instead of downloading and installing all together it downloads a copy then installed it from there. So it takes twice the room. So I have to delete 3 games....as it installs.

Get in and try to create a character. After i spend 30 minutes makign one JUST right it tells me I cant make a new character if my old ones are on there %#&$%&%R^D*$^R

So I go to delete the old ones. Now it wants a godfrakkindamn pin to do it. I cant remember it. 5 tries and Im locked out. So after the 4th try I click reset pin.

It open a webpage for me and I log in and it says to change pin I have to type in my old one . THE ONE I DONT FUCKING KNOW!! I dont want to change it..I want to reset it...nada zilch. F IT. This will be the ..lemme see....9th games Ive deleted in 3 days after spending HOURS working on it.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^&$%W&^#%$^&$%W&^$W&E%^*%^&*%^&*%D

[Greybriar]

Wish there was a true treasure hunt sim game. The one and only I can think of is Sea Rogue from waaaay back early 90s....

Mentioning Sea Rogue was certainly a blast from the past. It was a unique game and I wish someone would update it and re-release it.

[jztemple2]

I've reached my limit of interest on Nantucket and just can't get excited about putting in more than the 42 hours I've already put in on Subnautica. I briefly considered replaying Ghost Recon Wildlands, but I know that's never a good idea. So I looked through my Steam game list for something that might strike my fancy. And I come across Ride 2, the motorcycle racing and collecting game (sort of a bike Forza) and I see I have only six hours on it. And I can't for the life of me remember why only six . Did I not like it? Did I get distracted by something else? Anyway, I also see that since I last installed it they have added five more free bike packs so I figure I'll install it and give it another go.

And in a related note, installing Ride 2 reminder me that I didn't take advantage of the Steam sale on MXGP3, but when I looked at the store page in my browser, the Firefox Enhanced Steam add-on noted that it is currently on sale on Humble Bundles for another 24 hours. So maybe I'll pick it up if I decide that motorcycle racing is fun again.

[Daehawk]

Wish there was a true treasure hunt sim game. The one and only I can think of is Sea Rogue from waaaay back early 90s....

Mentioning Sea Rogue was certainly a blast from the past. It was a unique game and I wish someone would update it and re-release it.

I can see my Sea Rogue box from here. One of my first purchases. I tried to replay it about 15 years ago....no go. I remember diving on wrecks Id researched.

[Paingod]

It's not much of a treasure hunt, but I've been enjoying Assassin's Creed IV, Black Flag for a night or two now. Some of it does involve some treasure maps and finding chests. Picked right up where I left off - 46% of the way through, 40 hours in. I play to collect every item on the map and move at a very deliberate pace.

I may actually finish the game this time. I generally restart games because I feel like I can't remember where I was, what I was doing, or why I quit.

[Daehawk]

Thats me too. In BF Im also 50% or so and afraid to try going back. Been that way 2 years now lol. In stall and log in sometimes and see Im at my home island base and Im afraid to leave. Cant recall what I was doing and have no clue about fleets and such now.

[Paingod]

It's pretty easy to slide right back into. If you want to, you can replay every story mission without losing your progress and then return to where you were, with the map opened up and items collected. There's never any doubt as to where to go as the main quest is always a big gold circle on the map with an exclamation mark in it.
The fleet thing isn't anywhere near as complex as games like X3's trade/economy and is basically a little time sink side-game. Fighting isn't so hard that I get my ass kicked over and over for having forgot. The game holds your hand everywhere, telling you constantly which buttons to push to do everything, mostly so you know when a context-sensitive action is available. The only one I was briefly confused by was the "Up Arrow" icon. It's not "Up" - it's "Shift"

I'm enjoying being back, and actually not bothered at all that I didn't restart. I don't feel lost at all. I got home from work very tense last night, and after sinking a few hostile fleets, I was feeling much more relaxed.

[jztemple2]

I just saw the first sign of spring... no, not a robin on the lawn, but an email telling me that Out of the Park Baseball 19 will be released on March 22

[Isgrimnur]

Then why isn't there a new post somewhere?

[jztemple2]

Then why isn't there a new post somewhere?

Oh, so you want me to start a new thread?

OK, new OOTP19 thread posted.

[Isgrimnur]

[jztemple2]

This evening I was playing Ride 2 for the first time in a year, as I posted about here. That got me thinking about how cool it would be if they had a Forza Horizons version of Ride 2 so that you could race those motorcycles around locations in an open world. That in turn got me thinking about a place where you could race motorcycles in an open world environment, in Grand Theft Auto V. That got me thinking about how I had spent many a happy hour using the GTAV Race Creator to make races for motorcycles in the game. Sadly not too many people appreciated my motorcycle race creations.

And even fewer appreciated my bicycle races I created in GTAV. I loved making those courses because bikes could fit down staircases and alleyways and in all sorts of tight squeezes. I had one race that ran through the movie studio and another that crossed back and forth across the bridges of the GTAV version of the Venice (California) canals.

And thinking about riding those bicycles in GTAV made me think about one of my seminal moments in my lifetime of gaming... that moment in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when CJ, newly arrived from Liberty City, is forced to try to escape the bad guys by riding a bicycle through Los Santos. Suddenly instead of having a motorized vehicle to blast through the streets, I had to thump a button over and over to keep up the speed of my bike to race through the streets and alleys.

And really, the seminal moment (I'm probably not using that correctly, but it's 5am and I'm a little groggy) came after the chase was over, Smoke and the others went off in their separate directions and CJ was left to pedal by whatever route I chose to get to his mom's house. I distinctly remember going past the GTASA version of the Watts Towers and coming to the crest of the overpass and looking across towards the stadium and the beach and the port and thinking how really, really cool it was that I could see this sitting on the seat of a bike.

Just thought I'd share

[Paingod]

Well, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag lasted long enough for me to add 25 hours to my save game, now hovering around 68 hours. I unlocked every area, and found every single collectible - from diving bell stuff to smuggler's caves to city points. My gear and ship are as upgraded as they can get. All I have left, I think, is the rest of the main story. I'm 67% done with the game.

Factorio snagged me again. I love the way the game grows as you play it. You start small "All I need is a couple more of these..." suddenly becomes a sprawling production line that you struggle to keep fed. It's a most satisfying production line snowball game.

[Scuzz]

I am 117 hours into Fallout 4 and still going strong. I have yet to complete the main plot line, and have yet to wear power armor or use VATS. I love the shooting in this game though, you really don't need VATS.

[Paingod]

I get into the Power Armor mostly because I have a 'Mech fetish going. The shooting in Fallout 4 is fun, but when things go crazy (like a swarm of Ghouls), it's hard to beat being able to VATS and cut a leg off each one in turn. I'd say I'm like 70% me, 30% VATS in that game. It's nice when you want to make a called shot on a fast enemy, or reliably pop a bunch of Raider heads as they run through a doorway.

[Kasey Chang]

My Steam log says I'm 168 hours into my current FO3 playthrough, but that includes my aborted playthru earlier. On the other hand I haven't gotten into any of the DLCs.

I'm rich enough that I don't bother looting any more except for the really advanced weapons (certainly nothing lower than assault rifle). But habit compelled me to loot ammo, grenades, and fingers on the evil ones. Of course, if my companions got the kill, I don't get a finger. Too bad I can't make Dogmeat (the dog) retrieve fingers.

I found myself using VATS a lot more for headshots and whatnot. I can pretty reliably take limbs or heads off most creatures with most weapons. But then, I tend to shoot them from as far away as possible.

[Scuzz]

About 50 hours into Fallout 4 I wandered into a occupied vault where I ended up buying the Overseers Gun, which modded out is just ridiculous. Strangely enough when I left that same vault I ran into a traveling merchant just outside who sold the Spray n Play which also is devastating. Those two weapons have carried me thru the rest of the game.

[Blackhawk]

I was commenting in the Zelda: Breath of the Wild thread yesterday that, even though it is a fantastic game, I just can't seem to make it click. I couldn't figure out why. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I do this a lot with open world games. Either I get utterly absorbed in them, losing weeks, or I play for a while and end up wandering off, the game never quite connecting. I thought about gameplay, I thought about mechanics, all trying to figure out why one open world game will draw me in, and another will leave me wanting. Finally, I made a list. It isn't every open world game I've played, but it was enough to figure out the common thread.

Finished, or utterly absorbed:

Morrowind
Oblivion
Skyrim
Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout 4
Far Cry 3
Far Cry 4
Far Cry Blood Dragon
Far Cry Primal
Subnautica
Minecraft
Batman: Arkham City
Saint's Row 3
GTA San Andreas
GTA 5
Mass Effect 1, 2, 3


Wandered away from:
Many Assassin's Creed games (the only ones I finished were the ones that weren't open world)
Final Fantasy 15
Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Infamous
Witcher 3
Red Dead Redemption
(others - it's harder to remember games you didn't finish)

See the link? Everything that clicked for me, with only a couple of exceptions, were first person games. Those that did not click were third person games. The few third person games that I finished were either only quasi-open world (Mass Effect - they were open world in theory, but had a very linear path), or I only finished them after multiple starts and after leaving and returning multiple times, and even then only because they had some really compelling element (GTA - characters and story, Arkham - me and DC.)

The element in my psychology that seems to hook me in so tightly to open world games is the immersion, the sense of 'being there', of being that other person. First person games facilitate this. Third person do not. At least I know what to look for, now.

As an aside, I skipped some in the lists. Dragon Age: Inquisition and Borderlands 1,2,PS, for instance. While they have open world elements, their gameplay is more a linear sequence of open levels than something like GTA or Fallout, which give you a whole world with points of interest.

[Scuzz]

How about Dragon Age: Origins? Kind of open world for awhile but eventually linear.

I bought a Far Cry game during the Christmas sale and when I get a few other games done I plan on giving it a try. It looks like you have liked them.

I haven't played an Assassin's Creed game I would call open world, but I have only played AC1, AC2 and Brotherhood.

[jztemple2]

The element in my psychology that seems to hook me in so tightly to open world games is the immersion, the sense of 'being there', of being that other person. First person games facilitate this. Third person do not. At least I know what to look for, now.

I too like the immersion of these open world games, although I'm not bothered by the first person/third person thing, I think partly because it allows me to do combat better to be able to see my character in relation to an opponent.

Another open world game to put on anyone's list is Ghost Recon Wildlands. It doesn't really have RPG elements but the map is vast and filled with all sorts of different places to explore. And I'd throw Just Cause 2 in there as well, a truly massive map with an amazing number of environments, from snow covered peaks to tropical beaches. And there are jets and hang gliders

[Blackhawk]

Dragon Age Origins is a lot like Inquisition. It is more about open levels than open world. Baldur's Gate was similar. I liked it quite a bit. Some of the later AC games were very open world. Black Flag, for instance.

[Rumpy]

Playing through the Avernum remake which itself is apparently the 3rd remake of the game, and having a blast with it. Spiderweb's games are an odd bunch for me. I had bought the Geneforge series years ago and desperately wanted to like it but kept stumbling along and eventually always coming to a dead-stop due to the indecisiveness of its large open-world. They're almost too big to keep me entertained. Recently on a lark, I bought both the Avernum remake and its sequel and I'm finding it to be much more my type of game than I ever knew. I find them much more fun than Geneforge ever was.

[Daehawk]

Another open world game to put on anyone's list is Ghost Recon Wildlands.

I was gifted this for Christmas but Ive been saving until I finish some of these other games or delete them and get out of my gaming rut. I really enjoyed the betas Ive played of it.

[killbot737]

Eagles in Kyrat are fucking dicks. As are rhinos.

[Max Peck]

Eagles in Kyrat are fucking dicks.

They are, but that makes it very satisfying when you hear one scream, look up, spot it coming in and blast it out of the sky.

[Blackhawk]

I am really in the mood for a good turn based RPG or strategy game, preferably fantasy. I used Steam Library Filters to get some suggestions. I'm weeding out those I know I'm not interested in or have already played. Do any stand out as particularly amazing or awful?

Blackguards
Blackguards 2
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes
Heroes of Might & Magic V
Heroes of Might & Magic V: Hammers of Fate
Heroes of Might & Magic V: Tribes of the East
Joe Dever's Lone Wolf HD Remastered
King Arthur - THe Role-playing Wargame
Legend of Grimrock 2
Legends of Eisenwald
Massive Chalice
Of Orcs and Men
South Park: The Stick of Truth
The Banner Saga
Warlock: Master of the Arcane

[Daehawk]

What about Divinity Original Sin 1? Its highly rated and turned based combat fantasy rpg. I couldn't get into it but will try again in a bit.

[Blackhawk]

I couldn't get into it but will try again in a bit.

Because this. I don't feel like tackling all the bits and pieces that turned me off of it again right now.