Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Aug 24, 2022 10:14 pm

Just hit ANOTHER snag in the GRID Legends car issue.

There is a "Renault R26" open-wheel series. I've won the 2 events, but there's a third event "Fully Upgraded". EXCEPT... I don't own that vehicle. I have to win it from a sponsorship event.

And that means even MORE grinding since I've completed almost every race in the game, some more than a few times.

This is a similar problem with the Porsche 935/78 Moby Dick earlier. It's a sponsorship reward, so I have to win it to upgrade it, and without upgrade I can't win against cars that HAVE the upgrades.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 2:51 am

GRID Legends continues:

Some of the sponsorship requirements are easy, just win some races. But some are ridiculous, like win against a specific team... in drifting, or spend 8 seconds on two wheels. The only vehicles that can spend time on two wheels are the stadium trucks, due to their jump ramps, but even then it's EXTREMELY difficult to maintain such. The suspensions being super-soft on the stadium trucks may also have contributed to the problem. Even at max turn I can only get 1 wheel off the ground.

I thought I had developed a "bounce" routine, where I drive only two wheels onto the ramp, which flipped me over, but only so much as the "bounce" against the road popped me right side up again. However, repeating this doesn't give me much 2-wheel time at all. And if I do it too hard I ended up in a vertical flip.

It's amusing to see but doesn't give enough 2-wheel time. Each race adds like... 1 second of 2-wheel time, if at that. I need 8 (I have 3 now).

I basically have to try the ramp ALONE and play with it at various speeds to see if I can keep it on 2 wheels for more than a second. That makes this tedious.

Then the sponsor wants to see some elimination wins, except I already did so many of those it's no longer funny.

I have 7 of 9 categories at 100%, but the remaining 2 may just be impossible. 1 is drifting, which at pro level is impossible for me. I can't even go semi-pro drifting to win. And I already explained I have a Renautl R26 problem, as I need to WIN the car to upgrade it, and I need to finish sponsorship stuff to win it. And that sponsor requires a drifting win against a pro level drifter. ARGH!!!!!!

It may be possible to unlock "GRID Events" by completing 4 Sponsorship Events, but that's completing FOUR different sponsor events, and they ALL have different requirements, some of them are just outright weird, like "Win races in storm conditions". I have to FIND races like that, as I'm not sure if race creator can satisfy those.

Max Peck · Post by **Max Peck** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:19 pm

New from Northway Games:

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 9:30 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 9:34 pm Anyone ever play Tinytopia? Looks fun and cute.

I tried it. It didn't feel like I imagined, mainly because you sort of sit the houses and stuff around like wooden blocks, and they can fall over and don't snap in place. So that makes a weird mix of toy and strategy game that my OCD couldn't handle.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Aug 25, 2022 9:34 pm

Bummer. ok thank you.

Also...WOW is giving away Shadowlands. Just fire up with Battlenet desktop app and click the little gift icon beside your name top right. Got mine.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 4:22 am

GRID Legends: Just spent a whole hour practicing drift, and maintaining angle seems to be my worst problem at the moment. I think my throttle may be too sensitive or I'm just used to pushing it all the way instead of incremental. ONCE I managed to chain enough moves together to get 500K, but most of the time I'm stuck in last place barely able to get 150K in score. The idea is to keep chaining the drifts together so I keep adding more and more multipliers, but I can't seem to chain them, as I'm going too slow to go from corner to corner, and doing the whip-tail thing just slows me down, while pushing myself to go faster helps a little, as I can get good proximity bonus for coming close to the corners, but it's about getting used to the vehicle.

What I really need is some sort of "vehicle playground" where I can practice these moves, and I'm surprised there's no testpad / test course. But I guess I can simply make a custom race for that.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:43 pm

You've really been into car games lately Kasey. Don't you burn out on game styles? hehe... I can only do like one style at a time with rest between.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 6:44 pm

I am done with GRID Legends, actually. I just tried raising the difficulty level (from medium to hard) to test the waters, and it was slightly more difficult (less stability control). For that, the game reset my ENTIRE career progress. ALL the completed categories went to ZERO. There was NO WARNING on this may happen. While under progression it says I still have the points, but the individual races and progress to gauntlet have been reset to ZERO everything. WTF... And there was no "restore" from previous cloud sync either.

Sorry, but I'm NOT replaying the hundred+ hours played to redo the career. F*** that.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Aug 27, 2022 10:54 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 6:44 pm I am done with GRID Legends, actually. I just tried raising the difficulty level (from medium to hard) to test the waters, and it was slightly more difficult (less stability control). For that, the game reset my ENTIRE career progress. ALL the completed categories went to ZERO. There was NO WARNING on this may happen. While under progression it says I still have the points, but the individual races and progress to gauntlet have been reset to ZERO everything. WTF... And there was no "restore" from previous cloud sync either.

Sorry, but I'm NOT replaying the hundred+ hours played to redo the career. F*** that.

What happens if you drop it back to medium? Some games keep track of progress separately for different difficulties.

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 10:20 am

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sat Aug 27, 2022 6:44 pm I am done with GRID Legends, actually. I just tried raising the difficulty level (from medium to hard) to test the waters, and it was slightly more difficult (less stability control). For that, the game reset my ENTIRE career progress. ALL the completed categories went to ZERO. There was NO WARNING on this may happen. While under progression it says I still have the points, but the individual races and progress to gauntlet have been reset to ZERO everything. WTF... And there was no "restore" from previous cloud sync either.

Sorry, but I'm NOT replaying the hundred+ hours played to redo the career. F*** that.

Dunno if this'll help, but it's worth checking to see if you have any prior locally-stored save games that still contain your original progress. The PCGamingWiki entry for GRID Legends suggests its save game data is located here:

Code: Select all

%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\GRID Legends\savegame\profile\

So, try looking there for any .bak or .sav files that are dated from before you raised the difficulty level. If they're there, then you should be able to simply rename or delete the current save game, then do the same with the older .bak or .sav file to restore your original progress.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Sun Aug 28, 2022 12:35 pm

That is some shitty design. In all the thousands of hours of game development they couldn't be bothered to throw in a simple warning that your progress will be lost?

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:28 am

Return to medium was the first thing I tried. Nothing. Even quit the game and went back in, nothing. It wasn't a glitch. It's a "feature".

I looked for way to restore a cloud-save or alt savegames. There's a "save management" button in options, except there's no option to restore a cloud save. Apparently that's "saved" as soon as I changed the difficulty setting. Apparently, there's no restore on this thing. EA's client shows no cloud save to restore either.

I was so mad I already uninstalled the whole thing.

Right now I'm playing Shadowrun Returns. Decided to play that old game instead. At least I sorta get the combat.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Aug 30, 2022 1:36 am

Actually gotten pretty far into Shadowrun Returns. According to Steam I bought it 8 years ago, played 10 hours, then quit and never touched it again. Now I'm playing the free GOG version picked up way back when, and I think I'm about 75%-80% done, as I'm about to start on the Telrarian Industries Raid. I'm playing on easy. So far, I only failed once... when the ghouls swarmed the place. Thought I'd fail when I got back to the Union without Jean Marie and no money, then Samedi handed me 8K creds, so I actually have enough to hire Runners AND afford some weapon upgrades.

Did the corp extraction got paid for it, but didn't have a decker or didn't get the extra data for more $$$. Next time in, will be doing the Telrarian Raid and maybe get some answers.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Aug 30, 2022 2:12 am

Tried it back then too and quit early. The turned based combat turned me off. It was ack when I thought i still loved tbc. May try again since i own them all. Loved the old ones on snes and genesis

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Aug 30, 2022 10:56 am

One thing I really hate about Shadowrun Returns is the problem of outfits. It doesn't warn you you're wearing the wrong outfit, or which outfit goes with which class. I didn't know the ninja suit was for a different class. I switched into it, didn't notice I no longer have my weapons (I'm street samurai) and clearly I can't fight a mission with just my fists. I had to rewind, reload, whatever.

While I like the multi-path possibilities, as a guy who explores EVERY path, I am not sure how each item leads to a separate path. Getting into the basement of Universal Brotherhood, for example, has no less than 3 paths: find janitor's outfit, then upgrade to brother/sister's outfit (depending on your gender) and make an ID card, choloform a father when he's alone and take his outfit (and ID), or just outright brute-force it by starting a fire with a container of kerosene on a hot stove. But none of that really matters as I still have to shoot my way past the guards and the turrets anyway.

EDIT: Just finished the campaign, not sure if I want to download more content to play with, as I feel I should be playing the other games with the improved engine(s). I like the idea of multi-path adventure RPG as it should cater to different play styles, but as a computer game it's a bit hard to coordinate as you basically play all roles. But the game engine supports that pretty well, esp. when there's simultaneous action in Cyberspace and Realspace. Though I just keep thinking the action in cyberspace should be a bit faster...

Probably not for game reasons.

Was kinda browsing GOG's site, and every game they have that I want, I realized I already have it in my Humble Bundle Subscription.

Metro Exodus, Destroy All Humans (1), etc.

I want to try Metro Exodus. I think I finished both previous games with cheat on, then I looked at the download... 66GB for the "enhanced edition", yikes. My pipe isn't the fattest, so this will take... a whole day.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:23 am

Since I've been disappointed with F1 Manager 2022, I've been trying different games to give me a break from all my reading. I'm two weeks away from my surgery which afterwards will cause me to be stuck at home for at least a week, probably more. So I've been doing some open world gaming.

Last month it was Assassin's Creed Origins, which is my favorite of the AC series. However, it didn't grab me enough for what would be my third playthrough. Just a couple of weeks ago I installed Grand Theft Auto V and got up through about 60% complete. I've still got it installed and I might go back and play it some more.

I considered reinstalling Ghost Recon Breakpoint, but I've got over 200 hours on that and even though I didn't finish the last expansion they released I just can't get excited over it any more. I do love the open world of GRB, the details, the different terrain and the amazingly detailed world, but the gameplay isn't varied enough and there aren't a lot of side missions.

So I've reinstalled Watch_Dogs 2, which I last played back in April of 2019, which was actually a replay for me since I first played it in late 2016 when it was released. I didn't get too far in that 2019 playthrough, so a lot of the content is almost six years old to me. That was about the amount of time between my last playthrough of GTAV and the one I did this month and I was pleased that I didn't remember a lot of it so it was more fun for me. So I'm hoping I'll feel the same way about WD2.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:57 am

I remember playing through WD2, and while I like the idea of using both ground and air drones to "hack" your way through the area, the inclusion of what's essentially assault rifles and LMGs from a 3D printer, IMHO, is a bit too chaotic for me, and turned it into more Far Cry than WD, esp. when you have a mission that require you to get into an area and get out after alarm had been triggered. You can TRY to keep it non-lethal with your tazer, but I remember going into the basement and got stuck because too many guards outside. At the end, I ended up using the drone to bomb everyone (lethal) then just shot my way out.

The miniature of SF Bay Area though is quite entertaining.

------

Looking at GRID (2019) car list vs. GRID Legends pretty much confirmed that the ONLY thing added was the story mode. The car list is virtually identical, as are the classes they were assigned to. I recall GRID 2019 to be EXTREMELY sensitive and VERY easy to spin out in any car, even FWD ones, and there are no settings to just one axis or another to improve stability. This made races way too frustrating esp. if you're fighting through traffic, and I was pretty sure I was NOT playing on a very hard level.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 11:24 am

Had Watch Dogs 2 forever I think. As I recall it was a freebie somehow. Never touched it. Could never get into the first one which should be a no brainer to me. It looks like Deus Ex and other games I love. But I tried at least 5 times and it just never grabbed me. I also think it ran poorly on my old video card. 2 just always looked stupid to me wit hits youngster millennial vibe in the trailers and all the amount of stuff to do.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 12:00 pm

Watch Dogs 2 was a great game. Story was interesting and I liked the message they were trying to convey.

Rumpy · Post by **Rumpy** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 1:33 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Mon Aug 29, 2022 3:28 am

Right now I'm playing Shadowrun Returns. Decided to play that old game instead. At least I sorta get the combat.

Ugh, I hated the Shadowrun games. I mean, I loved the initial concept, but I found the gameplay so boring. It feels so sterile, if that makes any sense. I found the map design to be uninteresting to the point I kept wondering if I'd already visited something because everything pretty much looked the same. Still, I trudged on hoping to find some good in it. I think my favourite one was Shadowrun Hong Kong. I felt the games were kind of a chore.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Aug 31, 2022 3:46 pm

Ubisoft pauses 'decommissioning' of old games, reverses course on DLC deactivation

Ubisoft's shambolic "decommissioning" of more than a dozen older games took an unexpected turn today with a surprise announcement that the process—well, most of it—has been delayed to give people one final chance to snag the content that's going away.

So here's what's happening now: The decommissioning has been moved from September 1 to October 1, and until that date any singleplayer DLC for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed 3, Far Cry 3, and Splinter Cell Blacklist will be available to download and keep: As long as you activate it before October 1, you can continue to access and play the add-on content without interruption. Singleplayer DLC on console versions of those games won't be impacted, and will continue to be available to access and play past the October 1 deadline.

Ubisoft also confirmed that Anno 2070 will be getting an update that will enable the game to operate, in single or multiplayer mode, beyond the shutdown date.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:44 am

Prey Director Says Arkane Was Forced to Use that Title: 'It’s Gross... Not What I Wanted to Do'

Prey director Raphaël Colantonio has said developer Arkane Studios was forced to use the Prey name by Bethesda, despite his disagreement and feeling "gross" by using it.

Calling it Prey was also detrimental to the game's sales, Colantonio said, because fans of 2006's Prey - a first-person shooter about an ex-soldier being abducted by aliens - would protest Arkane's game and those who disliked the original wouldn't look twice at it.

"It was also a kick in the face to the original makers of Prey," he continued. "I wanted to apologize to them many, many times. I didn't really have a chance because I don't really know those people. It was never our intention to steal their IP and make it ours. It's gross and that's not what I wanted to do."

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:53 am

I wondered about that. The name is definitely confusing.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 2:28 pm

i actually want to know what it should have been named

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu Sep 01, 2022 2:42 pm

Systemic Shock?

Fardaza · Post by **Fardaza** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 9:51 am

XCOM2 is on sale at GOG for $6!!

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 1:25 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 9:44 am Prey Director Says Arkane Was Forced to Use that Title: 'It’s Gross... Not What I Wanted to Do'

Prey director Raphaël Colantonio has said developer Arkane Studios was forced to use the Prey name by Bethesda...

Why, because of the portal technology?

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 2:12 pm

Probably for name recognition.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 3:51 pm

Weird, my one short Cold Waters (Dot Mod) video is going viral, getting the most views ever in a day of ALL of my videos ever. It's about to hit 100 views (most of my videos get 10-30). I don't consider it particularly interesting myself...

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 4:18 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 3:51 pm Weird, my one short Cold Waters (Dot Mod) video is going viral, getting the most views ever in a day of ALL of my videos ever. It's about to hit 100 views (most of my videos get 10-30). I don't consider it particularly interesting myself...

I've been hot and cold (ha!) about Cold Waters, but if it goes on sale again I might pick it up for something to play, as Command: Modern Operations has become too complicated for me... or maybe I'm too old to be able to give it full justice

.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:39 pm

Anyone know how to get info on the gold master disc edition of Legacy of Time The Journeyman Project? Back in the late 90s i entered their contest and won a copy of the game with the gold masters in it . I had to sign legal forms and all. Ive never played them in a cd or dvd drive..cant recall which they are. 1998 so thinking cd. So they are spotless and unscratched. Ive only taken them out by the edge to view them. Thick and heavier than a normal cd is all I can tell. I still have them and the rest mint in box.

Was considering selling it but i cant find it even mentioned in the WIKI never mind anywhere online. Not even a pic.

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 4:22 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 6:39 pm Anyone know how to get info on the gold master disc edition of Legacy of Time The Journeyman Project? Back in the late 90s i entered their contest and won a copy of the game with the gold masters in it . I had to sign legal forms and all. Ive never played them in a cd or dvd drive..cant recall which they are. 1998 so thinking cd. So they are spotless and unscratched. Ive only taken them out by the edge to view them. Thick and heavier than a normal cd is all I can tell. I still have them and the rest mint in box.

Was considering selling it but i cant find it even mentioned in the WIKI never mind anywhere online. Not even a pic.

i actually remember my brother playing the first _The Journeyman Project_ - must have been 1993? we had gotten the CD-ROM drive for our 486 computer just the previous year. i remember a lot of static scenes and horrifically long loading times. i also remember the "Turbo" edition was released the next year to optimize the horrifically slow loading times.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:05 pm

Not played any of them. Im not a Myst or Myst like fan. But I did enjoy winning this copy.

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Mon Sep 05, 2022 5:31 pm

Kasey, ever try Assetta Corsa? Its always seemed cool but never played it. Its on sale....$15

Assetto Corsa

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Tue Sep 06, 2022 5:48 pm

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:07 pm

I see that setting... and have always wondered who actually uses it.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:31 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 5:31 pm Kasey, ever try Assetta Corsa? Its always seemed cool but never played it. Its on sale....$15

Believe it or not, I find previous GRID games TOO monotonous as it's basically the same tracks over and over. GRID Legends improved that slightly, but it's really still the same tracks. So far Forza Horizon 4 is keeping the variety up, and some of these races are quite entertaining, such as the Behemonth race (you in a Toyota race truck have to race down the mountain against a huge (compared to the truck) hovercraft that's just WIPING OUT everything in path. I haven't beaten that race (I've tried 5+ times) and closest I got was 1.5 seconds behind. It was a load of fun though.

I sort of realized what GRID Legends did was giving the player "plot armor". Basically opponents in front of the player suffer various ways, from horrible crashes and malfunctions like lose a wheel or engine blown, and I am pretty sure I'm remarked about it in my various playthroughs, if they are not plot enemies, like Voltz or Ravenwest.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:45 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:07 pm I see that setting... and have always wondered who actually uses it.

Me, every single time. Inverted aim is what used to be called "aim" when I first started playing first person shooters.

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Sep 06, 2022 8:08 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:45 pm
TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Sep 06, 2022 7:07 pm I see that setting... and have always wondered who actually uses it.
Me, every single time. Inverted aim is what used to be called "aim" when I first started playing first person shooters.

I always have to change the "aim" setting to inverted since I'm used to looking down by pushing the controller stick forward. Probably comes from my flying days.

Right now I've reinstalled Fuel since I own it on Steam. A great arcade racing game with a huge map and lots of flavor.

JetFred · Post by **JetFred** » Wed Sep 07, 2022 12:00 am

I was so clueless about FPS when I bought Half-Life that I finished the whole game with a flight stick.