Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:05 pm

Thanks Blues

New Knights of the Old Republic Rumors

And I dont think its the Star Wars game Ubisoft is working on.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:11 pm

A new KOTOR would be welcome. But at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a new paid expansion for the MMO.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:38 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 24, 2021 9:11 pm A new KOTOR would be welcome. But at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just a new paid expansion for the MMO.

The MMO doesn't really do paid xpacs. If you sub for a month, you get the current + all the previous xpac content included, and get to keep access to them even if your sub lapses.

I think you still can buy the content separately using Cartel Coins (in-game currency) and not subbing for a month, but I can't see a reason why anyone would.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Sun Jan 24, 2021 11:42 pm

Oh, that wasn't true at one point, but I guess they're old enough to practically give them away. Last time I played though, when I maxed everything out and played every class, they were still paid expansions.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 7:28 am

Playing Book of Demons, which is basically a Diablo clone, but done in the whimsical paper-pop-up style, without much of the gore in the original, and there are some innovations on the enemies, but then, I never really played D2 or D3 (despite owning both). It's also but Quality of Life improvements, like if you nabbed all the loot you can exit the level by click on exit sign, and there's loot warnings on top if you missed any. The combat is also somewhat card-based, in that your weapons, shields, and stuff are based on cards, as are your special moves, like knockback, charge, and so on. You can merge your rune cards to create more powerful ones in order to upgrade your existing cards (weapons, shields, artifacts, etc.). Your level and how many card slots you bought determines how many cards you have "equipped" (which determines your attack, defense, and spells). Pretty ingenious. The levels can also be chosen for the length and amount of loot you wish: do you want a tiny, small, medium, large, or huge experience? After 3-4 sublevels, you'd have gathered up quite a bit of loot, but if you just want fast games, keep the games short. It's got that one-more level feel.

Next will probably be Phantom Doctrine, then Hardspace: Shipbreaker.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:54 am

Never liked cards as part of any game...except pure old playing card games

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Jan 25, 2021 2:18 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Nukem_3D

Friday is the 25 year anniversary of Duke 3D

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:55 am

Still messing with Forged Battalion, and I think the difficulty level is cranked way higher than I'd like. I'm on mission 5 of 15, and I already resorted to trainer, as I was unable to make any headway after 3 attempts: I massed a force to go after the first opponent, but his buddy send reinforcements and finished off my attack force, but not before I annihilated the entire base. just one of 3 enemy camps. Then the main enemy camp sent too many units that overwhelmed me, as I just ran out of resources nearby and the harvesters have to go further out. It seems they can establish outposts much easier than I can, and build refineries near outposts to exploit the resources.

So I got a trainer and basically decided to just build, build, and build a huge force, enough to roll over any camp, and used that instead.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 7:59 am

Did play a bit of Phantom Doctrine, and it's giving me some vibes of the old Sid Meier game Covert Action, as you try to disrupt enemy ops by catching bad guys, but instead of one guy, you're now operating a whole team in turn-based tactical combat a la XCOM. On the other hand, I find myself doing more of the piecing clues together than the actual combat bits... Hmmm?

EDIT: While it is cool and got the right vibes, as a game it seems a bit lacking, as most of your time is spent in the global map as you switch agents around, then moving agents hopefully in time to catch the enemy agent sniffing about to either disrupt his/her plans. But since you're also moving agents around to follow up on leads, generate intel, and so on, you quickly run out of agents. Plus the fact that every time you hire an agent your danger goes up but a large chunk, you end up spending 4000 moving periodically. When your monthly income is like 80 (that's with a few upgrades) this is not sustainable. It seems a more frequent move that only cost 1000, but does not reduce danger as much, may be more friendly on the budget. On the other hand, forging also ties up one (or more) of your agents, leaving him with less field experience (and XP) to grow his or her level, in order to reveal his/her perks. Given that there are multiple things you can do at HQ (making special items, doing research, forging money, training...) you have to balance your need for more agents vs. the danger of adding an agent.

This complexity, and the chance of finding that any of your agents (except your avatar) could be a mole, made the game hard to accept at times.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:36 pm

So I'm playing Battle Brothers and I'm following some paw prints. I finally catch up to them and they are serpents! These must be crafty serpents.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Jan 29, 2021 7:55 am

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 28, 2021 5:36 pm So I'm playing Battle Brothers and I'm following some paw prints. I finally catch up to them and they are serpents! These must be crafty serpents.

They travel by wrapping themselves around stilts with little paws on the bottom and walking on them like chopsticks. The sands of the desert are hot.

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 5:31 am

Look! More hidden footprints....

I was watching a bit of a longplay of a leak of a remake of Goldeneye that was supposed to come out around 2008 before it was cancelled. I always find it fascinating to consider the progress of level design... the original came out in 1997, less than four years after Doom. But there's such an attempt to model the levels realistically, as opposed to just simulating realistic locations or crafting simple puzzles. There was also more advanced enemy AI and evasion animations (which seem extremely primitive compared to today). That certainly isn't to say it was better--because Doom was so well designed within its limitations, I think it's aged much better and still has a huge community of players and modders. By today's standards, Goldeneye's levels are so small and boxed in. It wasn't the first attempt at a realistic shooter either; I think it's just the first one many console players experienced. Turok for example was still somewhat abstract and gamey in a time before I think those were intentional design choices.

It's equally interesting to reflect on how little level design has evolved since then. Or rather, how today's more on-rails shooters seem to offer less freedom. Open world games are of course lightyears beyond anything we had back then, but the actual gameplay has only advanced incrementally. Most of the improvements are incremental and seamless, much like advancements in any realm.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Sun Jan 31, 2021 3:37 pm

It was cancelled AFAIK due to the fact that Activision was in development of a full remake with their Call of Duty engine. This remake also re-imagined Goldeneye with Daniel Craig and was first released for the original Wii. I bought it and it came with a golden controller. It has one of the coolest non-movie Bond intros I've seen.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 6:20 am

Played Zombie Army Trilogy to the end with trainer activated, and let's just say, it's pretty INSANE as if you don't have it, it's impossible to solo as you'd be out of ammo due to large number of enemies at every stage, and in the end stages, the dead started getting armor, so regular shotgun just bounce off. You need "Preacher" shotgun, is a double barrel shotgun...but only gives you 14 shots TOTAL. And turns out if you aren't careful, you can be killed EVEN IF you had cheat turned on. And some of the enemies are pretty insane (but killable way).

Tried to play a little Human Resource Machine, was rudely reminded that while I can solve the logic, my optimization needs a bit of brush-up.

Solved all 60 levels of Puzzletronics in 2 hours. They are pretty cute.

Will probably finish Crying Suns, just finished chapter 3, so I assume there's 4 and 5, where I figure out what crashed the entire Empire.

Spoiler:

Tried a couple single missions in Flight Command, which is basically Sid Meiers Ace Patrol in WH40K, with a tracking camera instead of 3rd person camera and no hexes. HINT: Don't do split-S or Immelman just because you "can". You can't take as many G's as the Orks and you'll blackout.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:08 am

So thats why I get nowhere in that game.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 9:54 pm

Thanks to Blues News...

id Software is 30 years old.

Now I really feel old. They were my ages. I was 22 when they began and I played their stuff.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:24 pm

This'll make you feel older still:

The Wonder Years premiered 33 years ago today (1988) depicting events 20 years earlier (1968). A similar show today would be set in 2001.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Feb 01, 2021 11:25 pm

Didn't watch it but a show about 2001 set as an oldie when life was good would hurt the old ager in me.

Hey think thats what Ill be...Im not a teenager so Ill be an oldager.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 4:30 pm

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition First Impressions: Less Than a Remake, but Much More Than a Basic Remaster

When work was first getting underway on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the new remastered collection due in May, BioWare had a conversation with Epic, creators of the Unreal Engine that Mass Effect 1-3 were built on. The team wanted to know if it would be feasible to use Unreal Engine 4 for the remasters, in effect rebuilding Mass Effect on modern technology. The possibilities were tantalizing — Unreal Engine 4 is a substantial step up from its predecessor — but ultimately BioWare opted to stick with the Unreal Engine 3 that underpinned the trilogy from its debut in 2007.

“It very quickly became clear that level of jump would really change fundamentally what the series was; how it felt, how it played,” Director Mac Walters told IGN. “A really crisp example of that would be if you look at the Kismit scripting language, it’s a visual scripting language from [Unreal Engine 3], there’s no real copy-paste for that to go into Unreal Engine 4, meaning that every moment, every scene… everything would have had to essentially be redone from scratch. We knew at that point that we’d really sort of start to take away the essence and spirit of what the trilogy was.”

BioWare’s decision not to use Unreal Engine 4 is emblematic of its approach to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which aims to modernize the trilogy for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC without completely rebuilding it. It’s a collection that definitely makes some measurable improvements to the original games, but fights to keep its ambitions restrained and practical. If there’s one word to associate with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, it would probably be “pragmatic” — a response, perhaps, to BioWare’s recent history of having some of its wilder ambitions backfire spectacularly.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 5:26 pm

I hope they nail it but dont fuck it up. If they ruin the original 3 ME games in one shot I hope its the final nail in Bioware's coffin.

Blues has a ton of reviews / views

https://www.bluesnews.com/s/218849/mass ... info-flood

JCC · Post by **JCC** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 6:29 pm

I was hoping they would have the balls to retcon the ending to ME3. They could even offer the player a choice at the start to select "classic" vs "good" ending. Oh well... I am sure someday I will still re-buy these stupid games.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Feb 02, 2021 6:43 pm

MEHEM The Mass Effect 3 Happy Ending Mod

I used it on my last play through about 4 or 5 years ago. Loved it.

Still wish for one where my fleet slugged it out with the Reapers. I know the script and such didn't call for it but while playing I felt like we could pull it off. I mean I recruit all these species and it only uses them as some engineers on the Crucible.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 2:48 am

Finished 1 short campaign in Flight Command (WH40K), and it's... mediocre. It's kinda sad that even with the excellent Sid Meier's Ace Patrol for inspiration, and the whole of WH40K to drawn from, the game still ended up a big "meh".

Basically, you are now in charge of a squadron of fighters and bombers, with 2 aces, a bunch of pilots and more than a few rookies. You have both fighters and bombers, and your pilots are trained in either one. As they gain XP with kills, they get to roll for new abilities that give them bonus in combat, like +1 damage at enemy at same flight level, or -1 dice when attacked by enemy (thus do less damage). And you may be called upon taking out ground targets (Ork War Wgons and AA) or achieve air superiority, escort a damaged bomber (limited speed) to the other border... you get the idea.

The UI is actually pretty decent, but the icons may be a bit too small. Basically, you have 2-3 icons just below your own craft for the maneuvers you can make. Normal drag is just normal moves and simple turns, or you can tighten it to high-g turns. Click one of the icons to make side-slip moves. Another to do inverse moves (split-S up or split-S down/half loop) Fighters can also do power drive where it loses a LOT of altititude suddenly and trade it for speed. Your move is shown as a "3D ribbon / wireframe craft as if you've moving in a virtual 3D space, showing you how your move will look, basically. Is that enough anticipating how the enemy will move? We shall see. Bombers are not capable of harder turns, but it has extra turrets that can engage enemies at multiple angles, including those approaching from the rear and above.

You can also designate each craft to fire at everything, prioritize a certain target, or even ONLy shoot at this target.

And the objective usually is quite simple... survive, and make sure the enemy units do not. You ALWAYS have a hard 12 turn limit, so don't dawdle.

As you hit commit and execute, you get a playback of your actions, basically camera switch among your units in order, showing you each perspective. But it wasn't obvious who's who (except for the outline jumping among your unit selector.The cameras are either too close or too far, never seem to be right though. You can swap between overhead vs 3D view. But neither is satisfying.

What it got right: WH40K feel. The crafts look right, even though it's just the Imperium vs. the Orks. The Orks have flyers that look vague Mig-17 ish, while Imperium machines are slicker. And you are flying in constricted terrain, and often have secondary targets. If you get out of the boundaries, you are considered to have disengaged, and some missions require you to disengage in a certain direction. So forcing the enemy into disengaging by "herding" them into a corner is a valid tactic. There's also a good mix of air vs ground missions, and sometimes, both!

What's problematic: the boss fight, which is... a bit of WTF? In the 5 missions leading up to the boss fight (the campaign starts with "5 points". For each mission you win, you gain 1 or 2 campaign points, and vice versa. For this game, the win is at 10, and loss at 0. I played 4 1 pt missions and 1 2 pt mission. This was on "easy". I did not lose a SINGLE of my craft and I shot down most if not all Ork crafts every mission, and bombed most of the ground targets as well. For example, in the mission where I have 3 fighters to escort 2 bombers through Ork lines, we hugged a mountain when we were jumped by like 6 Ork fighters, AND there's enemy AA on the other side of this mountain. But no problem... bombers took a bit of dive to pick up speed and turned following base of the mountain and bombed the AA trucks, while the 3 fighters charged at enemies on one side, using the mountain to block the other Orks. Then the bombers ran while the fighters stayed behind to buy time. All the AA's are wiped out, and bombers escaped by turn 9. Turn 12 was considered FINAL TURN (disengage or die) We went back and forth and we shot down 4 Orks by turn 11 (2 in the initial merge, and 2 more between 9 and 10). Two fighters made their escape in turn 11, and the final one got out of bounds by turn 12. Total victory (you get 2x bonus if you scored a "massacre", 1.5x if you score a "superb victory")

Then I was told I had to defeat the Ork flight boss which is considered a 4pt mission. Hmmm... Okay? It turns out to be like... 5 vs 9. And there was no mountain to hide behind... and just the sheer amount of guns did me in. I did destroy the boss, but 4 out of 5 got shot down and the fifth barely got out of range before the game decided it's time to declare victory. Still got a 1.5x bonus though.

The missions appear to be randomly picked out of a list, instead of following a logical progression. You get two major choices, a "no action" (presumably to let your pilots heal or something) and "Emperor's Will", which I take to be "choose for me".

I will keep playing and let you guys know if I see something else special.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:30 am

Borderlands studio gets scooped up in deal worth up to $1.37 billion

One of the last large independent game developers will no longer operate on its own, as Borderlands maker Gearbox Entertainment has merged with Swedish holding company Embracer Group. The Embracer conglomerate already encompasses dozens of mid-size game studios under brands like THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, and Koch Media.

The deal is initially worth $363 million in cash and stock, a number that could grow by up to roughly $1 billion if Gearbox meets some ambitious earnings goals over the next six years. That represents quite the windfall for Gearbox's roughly 550 employees in Texas and Quebec, who have jointly owned the studio since its founding in 1999 and will now become significant shareholders in Embracer.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:36 am

FemShep is front and center this time.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:37 am

Think as soon as it merged Id sell all my stock if I was them. I dont know Embracer but those other companies they own suck pretty much I think. Would need to look.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 2:44 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:30 am Koch Media

Koch Media GmbH is a German-Austrian media company headquartered in Höfen, Tyrol, Austria, with an operating subsidiary based in Planegg, Germany. The company was founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The company operates video game publishing labels Deep Silver and Ravenscourt, the video game developers Warhorse Studios and Milestone, as well as a film distribution arm, Koch Films.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 5:34 pm

So far, not too impressed with WH40K Flight Command, where you play this squadron of Imperials against the Orks. It's your standard attack missions, defend missions, escort missions, and an occasional cargo mission where your transports needs to land, drop off cargo, and make a run, while the rest of your squadron tries to head off any enemies.

Even at rookie level I was somehow losing at least one aircraft per mission, and TWICE I've lost the commander. There seems to be no reason or logic I am losing aircraft. There is an indicator on how many hits can the aircraft take (fighters generally cannot take more than 2 hits, and bombers, no more than 4 hits). But what constitutes a "hit"? How do I know if my maneuver would subject me to 1 hit or 2 or more? The UI doesn't give me that information, and the "behind the plane" 3D view makes it difficult to extrapolate this information, since this is a "we-move" turn-based system... You both plot your moves, then they are executed together. Though switching to the overhead mode may help.

The problem with trying to apply standard aerial combat tactics is... It doesn't work against the Orks. If you are doing head-ons, my usual tactics is a pincer: two go left, then turn right, and two go right then turn left, so enemy has to point at one or the other to shoot. Being head-on, often the missiles miss, then the enemy pulls a split-S and ends up on my tail, or somehow his heavier fire per volley nailed one of my guys in the first pass (!)

But what usually happens is I have a 4 vee 8 scenario. So what I do is send 2 against the left group, and 2 against the right, but they go straight then turn, then high speed blow through the enemy formation, then both turn toward each other in a high-g turn and chase down the other group. One or two Orks will go down in the first pass, then the rest is just a crazy dogfight where somehow one of the fighters got hit, then got hit again and kaboom.

This isn't Wing Commander. There is no shield, and armor doesn't regenerate. If you got hit, you're on borrowed time.

And what's worse, ammo is limited. I've ran out of ammo before when the ships

While there is a way to adjust targeting priority, so you shoot less rather than any enemy that cross your path, it's still kinda lame.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 5:39 pm

Cross-posted in Viral Economy, but I think it belongs here:

Amazon’s Next CEO Says He’s Committed to Making Video Games
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-n ... 48289.html

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 6:00 pm

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 5:39 pm Cross-posted in Viral Economy, but I think it belongs here:

Amazon’s Next CEO Says He’s Committed to Making Video Games
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-n ... 48289.html

Oh. Joy.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:27 pm

Max Peck wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:36 am FemShep is front and center this time.

If you follow the link to the site, there are some 'slider' comparison images and videos. It looks great, except... haze and lens flares everywhere. What is it with HD games and omnipresent haze making everything blurry?

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:32 pm

If so I guess Ill just replay the old ones.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:45 pm

Guess they're going for atmospheric effects

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 9:51 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 6:00 pm
Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Feb 03, 2021 5:39 pm Cross-posted in Viral Economy, but I think it belongs here:

Amazon’s Next CEO Says He’s Committed to Making Video Games
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-n ... 48289.html
Oh. Joy.

Meanwhile, a former Amazon exec has moved into GameStop. They're going to get games in their Amazon, and Amazon in their GameStop.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:14 am

Lately, I've been playing The Secret World Legends and "HOLY CRAP" I've logged 93 hours on it according to Steam!

Anyway, I played the original "The Secret World" when it first came out as a pay-to-play MMO. I mean when it first came out, dropouts on opening day and all. It was a great game and I loved the premise: modern world setting, player characters who developed supernatural abilities and joining super-secret organizations, fighting against unknown Lovecraftian terrors but also against other human organizations whose aims may be at cross-purposes to your own.

Sadly this was during a time when I was very easily distracted by the New Hotness so I ended up not playing it for a while and eventually cancelled my subscription because I wasn't playing it enough to justify the monthly fee.

Funcom then rejiggered the game and released it as a free to play "The Secret World Legends" on Steam. It's addressed some of my original annoyances with the game. Namely, if we're part of a secret organization then how come I see legions of supposedly "secret" players running around in the zone? Now the game limits free-roaming players to about 13 or so per zone so one gets more of a feel of the lone agent acting on behalf of her organization.

One might think "free to play" also means "pay to win" but that's not the case here. As this newbie guide states one doesn't have to pay a dime to enjoy the game, provided you know what it is you want to enjoy. Unlike other MMO's, the endgame is apparently lackluster.

Instead, the main enjoyment is from the story, and that's the way I'm playing it - as a big single-player story where I occasionally encounter another player but whose help I don't actually need. In fact, that's where I'm getting the majority of my enjoyment from the game, progressing through the main story, encountering lore from side stories and "legend" icons on the ground and just soaking in the world-building.

A few things to note: Read the newbie guide. Specific bits of interest:

Monsters don't drop loot and they give piddling amounts of XP when they die, so not a grinding mechanism at all.
Completing missions gives you loot and XP.
There is no crafting, just upgrading of your weapons and talismans (i.e. armor).
Clothes are purely cosmetic. Any in-game armor comes from talismans and your passive abilities.

Because of the above, all you have to do is play around with the different character archetypes to see what two starting "weapons" you like, then buy the highest quality of those weapons (ones with 2 or 3 pips) and just upgrade those with dropped loot or sell the loot if it's not a weapon you can use.
Do that and you don't have to spend a dime. That said, if you're a "shopper" (you know the type, that pores hours over the shop's menu) then you may be tempted to buy stuff with real money. Even then you can always exchange the in-game earned currency (Marks of Favor) for the $$ currency (aurum). It will take some time but as I see it this will cause you to do two things: Re-evaluate whether you "really gotta have it", in which case you'll either spend real money or say "Eh, I guess I don't really want it", in which case you'll go back to playing the game.

In my case I've always gone "Eh, I guess I don't really want it" and I don't think I've suffered for it.

Final note: the player base is actually nice. I hardly see spammers advertising stuff for sale, I haven't gotten hit on yet (playing a female character, which guaranteed getting creepy messages at least once in previous MMOs), and no one spends a lot of time chatting useless stuff in the public chat.

And here's my character, Anandi:

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:21 am

So it’s still considered an MMO? I tried to play it years ago after it changed....format, and just could not get into the controls, they seemed so awkward to me.

Note I never play MMO’s and am completely ignorant of all things MMO.

Related to that, is this something my son and I could play separate, but together via local LAN? Better question: if I wanted to play with my son, what would be the recommended setup? We now both have separate desktops.

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:38 am

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:21 am So it’s still considered an MMO? I tried to play it years ago after it changed....format, and just could not get into the controls, they seemed so awkward to me.

Note I never play MMO’s and am completely ignorant of all things MMO.

Related to that, is this something my son and I could play separate, but together via local LAN? Better question: if I wanted to play with my son, what would be the recommended setup? We now both have separate desktops.

I would guess that if you are playing the game through Steam that you and your son would need to have separate Steam accounts.

That being said, the secret world URL seems to let you download the game independent of the steam client. So I think all you'd need to do is make separate funcom accounts and install the game client on your individual desktops. You can try that.

I guess it's considered an MMO still? I mean, it is online only and "massively multiplayer" is subjective but sure? In any case, the only MMO-like things you have to worry about are:

Daily login rewards - get an item for logging in daily. These are useful
Daily goals - I wouldn't worry about these too much until you get to a high enough level that you can kill level 3 monsters in seconds (say at level 10 or so). Then you can easily complete the 5 basic goals in like 20 minutes. I wouldn't bother with the 5 advanced goals except for the "kill 100 monsters" and "do 6 upgrades". Those are also easily done, especially if you limit your upgrades to only completing the basic and advanced goals (so, 10 upgrades per day).

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:41 am

raydude wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 10:14 amFinal note: the player base is actually nice. I hardly see spammers advertising stuff for sale, I haven't gotten hit on yet (playing a female character, which guaranteed getting creepy messages at least once in previous MMOs), and no one spends a lot of time chatting useless stuff in the public chat.

You find that a lot in more "mature" game where all the "OOooooOOH NEW SHINY" players have moved on and everyone's had a couple years to settle down into their roles. Sadly, this also tends to coincide with a game's demise.

I remember having a lot of fun with this title when it hit "Free to Play" and spent a good bit of time with it. I liked the Lovecraftian themes everywhere and the stories were pretty good and/or horrific. I did feel a little overwhelmed by everything, especially the "transwarp" world for some reason. Some of it did feel like a grind but that seems to be inevitable with MMO's where one of the design goals is to create a game play loop that keeps you "in" as long as possible.

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 11:35 am

I was playing with a friend until he ran into a show-stopping bug in the main questline (well, he probably could have reset that quest, but he'd have had to replay a significant amount - and I think he was getting bored anyway).

I'd still like to go back at some point to check out the last zone (or maybe the last 2 zones). My only concern is that we'd hit max level and the mobs were starting to get tough. So I'm not sure how feasible it would be soloing.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Feb 04, 2021 11:47 am

I must have tried this over a dozen times since release and never get into it. I never get past or far past the starting stuff. It looks old, the controls dont translate to good movement AT ALL and thats a big problem to me, the camera is bad. Ive tried. I always wanted a good sci-fi / future based MMO. Anarchy Online had too much of its own troubles for me to really love but had some fun with it. This I just keep bouncing off of it...and I want to like it..even a little but never do.