Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[hitbyambulance]

my son was very happy to start with Fallout 1, so i gave him my extra GOG key codes for that (and Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics)

[dbt1949]

I loved Fallout Tactics BTW and can recommend it. It is a little off track compared to the main ones tho.

[Blackhawk]

FO:T was fun. It's not canon (deathclaws in the Brotherhood of Steel?), but it was fun. I did find that it became a little long, though.

[Daehawk]

I liked it too. I didn't get it for years after release cause I was mad it wasn't Fallout 3. But I liked it and finished it . I doubt I could stand it now as its turn based. back many years ago that was my favorite way to do gun combat games.

[Skinypupy]

Finished Jedi Survivor and was in the mood for more Star Wars. Started KOTOR 2 with the restored content mod. It’s a game I finished years ago on my XBox but remember very little about. It’s neat, but boy does it look really rough.

What I wouldn’t give for a current gen party-based Star Wars RPG instead of all the action-focused games we’re getting.

[Daehawk]

What I wouldn’t give for a current gen party-based Star Wars RPG instead of all the action-focused games we’re getting.

Amen

[TheMix]

I doubt I could stand it now as its turn based.

I don't think that is entirely correct. I distinctly remember setting my guys up at long range for easy fights and then unpausing and letting them shoot.

The wiki says:

Fallout Tactics features three modes of combat: Continuous Turn-Based (CTB), Individual Turn-Based (ITB), and Squad Turn-Based (STB). In CTB, everyone can act at the same time, and action points are regenerated at a rate based on the Agility stat. ITB is the system used in the original games. STB is a variation of that wherein each turn is given to a squad. Other changes include the ability to change stance, modifiers for height, and setting sentry modes, which let characters shoot automatically in CTB upon encountering an enemy.

[dbt1949]

What he said.

[Blackhawk]

In practical terms, it has a real time mode.

[Daehawk]

I was looking at The Ascent. Its a action rpg is says ....Diablo meets twin stick shooter. It made me wish it was a true rpg and a 3 person team real time with pause. Its a beautiful game world but I dont care for twin stick shooters much. But a full out rpg would rock.

[hitbyambulance]

twin stick shooter

say no more; added to wishlist

[Daehawk]

Recently Ive had the urge to play a LEGO Star Wars game. ive tried the older ones and just wasn't happy with them or the way they played. So I was at a loss as to what to retry when today one of the freebies from Twitch was LSW 3 The Clone Wars...woot! Score something to do lol.

Also been thinking about replaying the first of the new Tomb Raider games The one on the wacky island where Lara get stabbed through her side and it never bothers her...which bugged the hell out of me lol. And another of those freebies was the GotY edition of that one Yay me!

[Jolor]

Early Access.

"Laysara: Summit Kingdom is a challenging city builder which tasks you with creating a new home for your people forced out of the lowlands. During a campaign or sandbox playthrough, you will establish multiple towns, each on a unique mountain with its own traits. All your towns co-exist in symbiosis, creating a trading network, which you can then adjust to your needs by revisiting already developed settlements."

The trouble with early access is one never reliably knows how long before full launch. Developers are currently estimating 6 - 12 months, however.

[Daehawk]

looks kinda neat. Could build your own Machu Picchu.

I think the best looking builder game right now is Manor Lords. Dont own it though so it may be great or awful.

I need to go back to City Skylines. I kinda miss the simplicity of the first Sim City or better yet Sim City 2000. These builders today put WAY too much stuff in their games.

[Blackhawk]

looks kinda neat. Could build your own Machu Picchu.

Maybe, but it would never be as much fun to say.

[Paingod]

FO:T was fun. It's not canon (deathclaws in the Brotherhood of Steel?), but it was fun. I did find that it became a little long, though.

I think this was the first game I modded myself without downloads. I don't remember how, but it was possible to make your character anything. A bug, a lizard, a deathclaw. I remember trying to play as a Fly for a while and had real challenges since they couldn't actually do everything your character normally could.

[hitbyambulance]

twin stick shooter

say no more; added to wishlist

and it was part of an extremely cheap bundle - for $5 i got this and two other games (the second Valfaris and Black Book - they also had Prey, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Insurmountable, Iron Harvest 1920, more) https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-m ... ity-bundle

[hitbyambulance]

twin stick shooter

say no more; added to wishlist

and it was part of an extremely cheap bundle - for $5 i got this and two other games (the second Valfaris and Black Book - they also had Prey, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, Insurmountable, Iron Harvest 1920, more) https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-m ... ity-bundle

and the irony? i already own it... can't return it now

Daehawk, you have mail

[Daehawk]

Anyone played The Callisto Protocol? im thinking it looks like Dead Space. Ive read some negs on the combat but most Steam reviews praise the game and say ignore the older bad reviews.

[hitbyambulance]

Anyone played The Callisto Protocol?

got it free with my AMD video card purchase last year, but i never got a chance to boot it up...

[Daehawk]

Yesterday was my 55th birthday. 6th without my wife. Someone kindly gave me a game here and then my best online buddy gave me Midnight Suns....one is twin stick and one is turn based combat lol. Two things I once loved but have fallen out with over the years. I think its time I bore down and gave them both really hard goes and see if I can shake my silliness off.

[GreenGoo]

Anyone played The Callisto Protocol?

got it free with my AMD video card purchase last year, but i never got a chance to boot it up...

Grabbed it via monthly humble bundle. Have not installed it yet. Reviews weren't great, but I think it scratches the right itch for me, so I'll get to it eventually.

[Skinypupy]

Thoughts on a couple random games I picked up over the weekend.

Balatro - On paper, a roguelike poker game shouldn't really work. But somehow they tweaked the formula to the point where it's a wildly addicting and compelling experience. You create poker hands that give you certain amount of chips, and there are all sorts of variable "Joker" cards you can play that increase your multiplier, change card values, or create other tweaks. It ends up being a super-addictive gameplay loop of figuring out which combination of Jokers, Tarots, and other boosters will allow you gain the ever-increasing number of chips required to complete each level within a certain number of moves. Doesn't look like much, but is really fun.
Highly recommended.



Cryptmaster - A really odd hybrid of traditional first-person party-based dungeon crawler with...a word puzzle game? I was initially drawn in because the art style, voice work, and music is fantastic. Plus, I'm typically a sucker for word or typing games and everyone seemed to be raving about this. Unfortunately, I'm not finding this one very interesting. It's not a reflex-based typing game (like Typing of the Dead) but instead you have to basically try and guess what the game is thinking based on very vague clues or very little information. It all looks very cool, but I'm finding that it's just not particularly fun. Disappointing so far.



NHL 24 - I'm usually at least somewhat competent at sports games. Give me Madden or FIFA and I can do decently against the AI on a medium difficulty. The NHL games are a different story though. For whatever reason, I simply cannot wrap my head around the controls in these games, and get my arse kicked on even the lower difficulty levels. Oddly, there's no real tutorials or practice drills like there are in other sports games to teach you how to do things (at least that I could find). Ends up being very frustrating.

[hitbyambulance]

i can't remember the last time i went from 'really into' to 'fell off the cliff' with a game like i did with Balatro. i was playing it semi-compulsively for a couple of weeks, then i just lost interest. confirms i still do not care for poker.

[WYBaugh]

I bought into the hype surrounding Balatro and I really don't see the draw (pun intended)

[Skinypupy]

i can't remember the last time i went from 'really into' to 'fell off the cliff' with a game like i did with Balatro. i was playing it semi-compulsively for a couple of weeks, then i just lost interest. confirms i still do not care for poker.

I doubt I'll play it for very long, as roguelikes don't typically keep my interest for more than a week or two (I generally don't enjoy doing the same thing over and over for incrementally better results).

It was only $11 though, so I've definitely got my money's worth with the 4-5 hours I've put in.

[hitbyambulance]

i can't remember the last time i went from 'really into' to 'fell off the cliff' with a game like i did with Balatro. i was playing it semi-compulsively for a couple of weeks, then i just lost interest. confirms i still do not care for poker.

I doubt I'll play it for very long, as roguelikes don't typically keep my interest for more than a week or two (I generally don't enjoy doing the same thing over and over for incrementally better results).

It was only $11 though, so I've definitely got my money's worth with the 4-5 hours I've put in.

i will certainly pick it up now and again - it's quite challenging to win this game with just three hands per ante, and and some of the 'boss' antes are totally unfair ... i basically have to hope for some really good power-ups to make that happen - but only one round at a time.

[Baroquen]

i can't remember the last time i went from 'really into' to 'fell off the cliff' with a game like i did with Balatro. i was playing it semi-compulsively for a couple of weeks, then i just lost interest. confirms i still do not care for poker.

I was just about to say this when I caught up to the end of the thread. I do like poker, and I enjoyed Balatro a lot when it came out. But I more than just wandered away from it and actively just don't want to spend my time playing it now. I don't resent buying it, and I did enjoy it on release. But I have no compulsion to go back to it. It's really odd.

[GreenGoo]

Starting to make progress in Sifu. Made it to the second stage of the third boss on a single playthrough (i.e. dying in your 70's).

It's fun, but I still make a ton of mistakes and miss-timings etc.

Tried bragging to my son about my progress, he was like "oh yeah, I made it to the last boss but I'm not a fan of how the fight worked so I never did finish it".

My understanding of his gaming was that grand strategy and minecraft-esque games were his forte and interest. I was crestfallen to learn that my progress that I was so proud of was nothing but an afterthought to him. Too funny.

My pride, my gaming pride! She has been hurted.

Finished the first 3 areas with zero deaths finally. Still working on completing stage 4 without dying. Should be easier, as it's shorter. The last level is barely a level at all it's so short.

Things are finally clicking and fights are much more smooth for me now.

[jztemple2]

Atari vanquishes its most ancient foe by acquiring Intellivision, declares end to 'the longest-running console war in history'

Atari has today announced the purchase of the Intellivision brand alongside "certain games" from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. This is a melancholy coda to the early days of home consoles in the West, where in the US market especially the Atari 2600 dominated the late 1970s scene. Intellivision was one of Atari's main rivals, almost entirely because the machine had the backing of Mattel (these were the days when videogames were sold in the toy section of stores), and launched its first console in 1979.

[jztemple2]

Behind its identikit theme and terrible name, XDefiant is the perfect antidote to those tired of Call of Duty’s modern-day bloat

I’m having fun with XDefiant. There are caveats, but sometimes simplicity is best, something that Ubisoft seems to have grasped with the release of it’s newest free-to-play FPS, which incomprehensibly pits nameless mooks from the developer’s collection of franchises against each other in tense player vs player arena brawls that are fast-paced and just the right side of overwhelming.

As someone hurtling towards his mid-30s and desperately nostalgic for a time when I could play Call of Duty without having to remember which of this season’s handful of new weapons I'm supposed to be using for a scant competitive advantage, XDefiant’s compact initial offering is exciting. 24 weapons, split between a few different categories and unlocked by simple challenges like “kill an enemy from far away” and “hipfire your foes to death like the warrior you are” feels just enticing enough to get my lizard brain invested, while weapon progression is slow enough that it actually makes sense.

Players sick of having to dodge six killstreak rewards and some pleb with a sword every time they drop into a match will probably feel excited here too. Each faction has the choice between two different abilities and an ultra (think Overwatch’s ultimate ability), but outside of this there’s nothing that can shape a match in the same way as an AC-130. Ultra abilities charge slowly enough that you’ll only see a couple a match, and they give you a tiny hero moment when you use them in the situation where they are strongest.

With only five factions, you can feasibly learn all of their abilities and ultras just by seeing them in play. I haven’t touched a tutorial and have barely read a tooltip, and it’s easy to know that the faction full of lycra-clad ninjas are stealthy, while the guys in bastardised firefighters' gear are here to set me and everyone else I care about on fire.

[Jaymann]

Larian (developer of Baldur's Gate 3) has opened a new studio in Warsaw, and is working on 2 (!) "ambitious RPGs" Great news.

[Max Peck]

Atari vanquishes its most ancient foe by acquiring Intellivision, declares end to 'the longest-running console war in history'

Atari has today announced the purchase of the Intellivision brand alongside "certain games" from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. This is a melancholy coda to the early days of home consoles in the West, where in the US market especially the Atari 2600 dominated the late 1970s scene. Intellivision was one of Atari's main rivals, almost entirely because the machine had the backing of Mattel (these were the days when videogames were sold in the toy section of stores), and launched its first console in 1979.

As I understand it, Zombie Atari didn't actually buy the actual "Intellivision" company per se, just the brand and a set of IP rights. The company formerly known as Zombie Intellivision will rebrand and presumably try continue doing whatever it has been doing with the Amico.

I'm not feeling any sense of closure in all of this...

[Rumpy]

Next thing you know, Atari will buy up the Commodore brand.

[hitbyambulance]

Atari vanquishes its most ancient foe by acquiring Intellivision, declares end to 'the longest-running console war in history'

Atari has today announced the purchase of the Intellivision brand alongside "certain games" from Intellivision Entertainment LLC. This is a melancholy coda to the early days of home consoles in the West, where in the US market especially the Atari 2600 dominated the late 1970s scene. Intellivision was one of Atari's main rivals, almost entirely because the machine had the backing of Mattel (these were the days when videogames were sold in the toy section of stores), and launched its first console in 1979.

As I understand it, Zombie Atari didn't actually buy the actual "Intellivision" company per se, just the brand and a set of IP rights. The company formerly known as Zombie Intellivision will rebrand and presumably try continue doing whatever it has been doing with the Amico.

I'm not feeling any sense of closure in all of this...

the Atari 2600+ was actually the first decent thing current-zombie Atari has done (Atari VCS had a good idea, but they couldn't support it)

and i don't think Amico is going anywhere... at all