Octopus Overlords

I needed something to fill the week between finishing Mass Effect and starting Dark Alliance. PS Store had Victor Vran on sale for $8, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I'm always a sucker for ARPGs, and don't think I ever got around to it.

It certainly had a promising start, with Geralt as the main voice actor, funny dialog, good graphics and what appears at first glance to be a pretty snappy combat system. Unfortunately, the cracks begin to show very quickly. Namely three things:

1. Whichever designer decided it was a great idea to require that you kill every enemy twice deserves a kick in the junk. You take their HP to zero, they crumble in a heap, then they get right back up with a full health bar and you beat them again. It's obnoxious...just give them more HP to start with.

2. Having to clear out large areas filled with the same boring mobs every time you start the game up isn't particularly fun.

3. While it's cool that every weapon has their own skill set, only having three skills to choose from for each weapon gets pretty dull fairly quickly. Especially when there's no way (that I've seen, anyways) to tell exactly what those skills do. I'm still trying to figure out the shotgun's "Aimed Shot" ability, for example.

Might give it one more night to see if it improves, but I'm mostly underwhelmed after the first 4 hours. Not a good sign for an ARPG.

Interesting demo now available on Steam, Chernobyl Liquidators Simulator.

Chernobyl Liquidators Simulator is a realistic take on the disaster, where you will NOT fight mutants and monsters, instead work hard to contain the radiation, help the people and conspire with the government.

Quake is 25 years old today! As Blues News said.........

Well, today is one of those anniversaries that is making my brain hurt. It was on this day in 1996 that Quake was first released. That's right, id Software's first-person shooter turns 25 years-old today.For perspective, it launched in 1996. At that time, a 25 year old game would have come out in 1971. The big computer game that year was Oregon Trail, which is quite a leap. On the other hand, fighting the Strogg is no picnic, but it does beat dysentery!

Well, today is one of those anniversaries that is making my brain hurt. It was on this day in 1996 that Quake was first released. That's right, id Software's first-person shooter turns 25 years-old today.For perspective, it launched in 1996. At that time, a 25 year old game would have come out in 1971. The big computer game that year was Oregon Trail, which is quite a leap. On the other hand, fighting the Strogg is no picnic, but it does beat dysentery!

do these freelance writers even know the games they're writing about.... lol

(the Strogg weren't in the first Quake)

Correct. Strogg is in Quake II. Was playing Q2 RTX a few months back.

I was just reminded... It seems the upcoming 0.5 patch to Hardspace Shipbreaker will add RADIATION HAZARDS to the ships...

Having one of those brain farts with what game Ive owned and played on what platform. Its the Wolfenstein series. I KNOW Ive played the one set in the US. I remember the black lady with the big hair, the scarred face of the German woman, the resistance..all of it...its called The New Colossus AFAICT. So why cant I find where I own it? On Steam I see I own The New Order and The old Blood. Ive put 100 hours into those combined. But I dont own TNC. Dont on Epic or Origin either.

Argh.

In 3 years Half Life 2 will be 20 years old. Time is flying.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:15 pm Having one of those brain farts with what game Ive owned and played on what platform. Its the Wolfenstein series. I KNOW Ive played the one set in the US. I remember the black lady with the big hair, the scarred face of the German woman, the resistance..all of it...its called The New Colossus AFAICT. So why cant I find where I own it? On Steam I see I own The New Order and The old Blood. Ive put 100 hours into those combined. But I dont own TNC. Dont on Epic or Origin either.

Argh.

GoG carries it.

Checked already...nope.

It finally dawned on me last night why I've been struggling so badly to get into PC games over the past year. Absolutely nothing on PC has stuck, I lose interest very quickly in PC games (even in genres I have traditionally enjoyed), and I almost always gravitate towards playing on console whenever possible.

It's because I'm working from home now. I spend 10-12 hours a day sitting in my office chair, on my laptop every day. Getting to my gaming PC is simply turning my chair 90 degrees. Sitting back down in that same chair again after hours - even if it is to play a game instead of work - immediately causes me to lose interest. I find that I have to get at least a minor change of scenery...even if that is just moving 5 feet to the left into the la-z-boy and onto the PS4/big screen.

Problem is, I really have nowhere else in my house that I could put the gaming PC. It can't be in a common area (because playing shooters around the Wonder Twins 8.1 ain't gonna fly), and the rest of my office is taken up by the gaming table and shelves. What to do...

Look into getting a VR headset. You get to game, but you won't be sitting in your chair staring at a monitor.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:46 am It's because I'm working from home now. I spend 10-12 hours a day sitting in my office chair, on my laptop every day. Getting to my gaming PC is simply turning my chair 90 degrees.

Buy a stand up desk and use that for work. I love it. (Tip: Buy a kitchen mat to stand on - it will take some of the pressure off your back.)

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:53 am Look into getting a VR headset. You get to game, but you won't be sitting in your chair staring at a monitor.

I tried one once (the PS4 version), and it gave me a splitting headache in about 10 minutes.

JCC wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:05 am Buy a stand up desk and use that for work. I love it. (Tip: Buy a kitchen mat to stand on - it will take some of the pressure off your back.)

I had one when I had an office at corporate HQ. Might look into that, although I'm not sure I want to try to lug this absolute monstrosity of a desk that I current have in here back out.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:10 am I had one when I had an office at corporate HQ. Might look into that, although I'm not sure I want to try to lug this absolute monstrosity of a desk that I current have in here back out.

You wouldn't automatically have to. What I am referring to is something you would place on your existing desk.

JCC wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:20 am

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 25, 2021 9:10 am I had one when I had an office at corporate HQ. Might look into that, although I'm not sure I want to try to lug this absolute monstrosity of a desk that I current have in here back out.

You wouldn't automatically have to. What I am referring to is something you would place on your existing desk.

I had one of these on my desk at corporate. It was ok, but I found it to be annoyingly wobbly in the standing position.

It's actually still sitting on my old office desk and I still have the key. Maybe I should go in and grab it. Would have to see if it would fit on my home desk though...I have a bit of an odd corner office setup.

I used a Varidesk similar to that for years. It was rock solid. Maybe it depends on the desk that it sits on.

My stand up desk has a bit of wobble but not bad.

Tried one ship (Cargo Gecko) in Hardspace Shipbreaker with the 0.5 update. It's not THAT different other than a lot of interior bits have "radiation traps" where you can't disturb else it'd leak all over the place.

Will try Javelin class ship next.

Man, I really want to like Disco Elysium. It looks beautiful, it has an interesting setup, the dialog is incredibly smart and well-written, the world is full of crazy characters, the updated voice acting is superb. It seems like the exact sort of game that should be right up my alley, but I find it all so incredibly…boring. I’ve gotten 4-5 hours into it twice now (once on PC and again on PS4), and despite how unique and amazingly well-crafted it is, there’s just something about it that pretty much puts me to sleep. I normally like deep storylines and great dialog, but this one leaves me completely cold.

Only thing I can figure is that the overall theme of an amnesiac detective isn’t interesting to me at all. The stories it tells within that can be cool, but the general subject is rather meh.

It’s a game that I wish connected with me like it seemed to for everyone else.

Tried Hardspace Shipbreaker 0.5 a couple more times, did not go very well, with the large ships, something keeps breaking.

Played a bit more Tank Mechanic Simulator, I'm missing maybe 4 tanks total, but so far the RNG gods had not favored me.

Played Battlecruisers for less than an hour. It's basically "Alien Hallway" had a baby with REDCON and Forts and redone with Adobe Flash. It's charming, but then for that price it's not meant to be a deep game.

moved Serious Sam 4 from the games 'platter' drive to the SSD because the load times were killing me. needless to say that made a huge difference (tho i am still dismayed my GTX 970 video card is considered 'lowest' tier by the game)

Just announced for release on September 22, 2022, the sequel to one of my favorite racing series Test Drive Unlimited:



As you might be able to tell, the action is set in Hong Kong, which supposedly is reproduced at a 1:1 scale. I enjoyed driving in Hong Kong back in Sleeping Dogs and I liked both the previous versions of TDU, as well as The Crew series from Ubisoft which was done by the same developers I understand.

I found the original TDU to be pretty groundbreaking in terms of what it accomplished. The open-world predates Forza Horizon, I think, and I found what they had done with the online added life to the world that was quite rare to see back then. Never played the sequel, but I heard they toned down or removed pretty much everything about the first game that made it so special, including changing the physics to be more arcade-like and removing the hardcore mode.

I have tried TDU II and found it boring as heck. But then I never really found a "club" I can race with.

My friend is using a little thing from Steam called Yolomouse . Thought Id let you guys know about it.

It says.

Use YoloMouse to change those obscure game cursors. Never lose your cursor in a heated battle again!

It changes your pointer in stuff to what you choose from its selection Im guessing so you dont lose it during hectic parts of a game and such. Thought some might find it handy.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:16 pm I have tried TDU II and found it boring as heck. But then I never really found a "club" I can race with.

I was never part of a club in the first game and never found it necessary. I would just cruise around and do races, which was highly satisfying in itself. I remember coming across a random driver and we cruised around together in our sports cars until we went our separate ways. Very few games allow for that kind of experience even now.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Jun 30, 2021 4:20 pm

And in 10 years we'll look back on that as such quaint low-poly graphics.

Sheesh, just got an email from Green Man Gaming saying they had F1 2021 Deluxe Edition on a discount. By the time I had clicked the button to put it in my cart it was out of stock . First time I've ever had anything show up from GMG as out of stock that I was interested in. I put myself on the wishlist.

Started on Gunsmith. Haven't quite fully figured out the game yet.

I've given up on Just Cause 4. I've been having fun, but the end-boss did me in. It isn't so much that it's difficult, it's the long mission structure that makes it hard for me to make any progress due to it taking so long. Take about an hour to get to the point where you need to disable to 3rd generator, then you have some OP Railgun guys while a canon is shooting at you and it's just too much and too frustrating to deal with. I couldn't get any headway past that before I'd have to shut the game off to move on to something else.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:38 pm Started on Gunsmith. Haven't quite fully figured out the game yet.

I used to be pretty good at Gun Disassembly, but the difficulty level was all over the place. Some Russian guns are like 10 stamped parts and other guns are like putting together a Swiss watch blindfolded.

Uplay has a new 6x6 free-to-play MP first person shooter coming out, called XDefiant (what???)



From PCGamer, Everything we know about XDefiant: Ubisoft's Tom Clancy crossover FPS

Ubisoft is tackling the FPS from every angle, and now that includes its own Call of Duty-like 6v6 competitive shooter. It's called Tom Clancy's XDefiant, and it looks way more fun than its terrible name implies. XDefiant brings together a group of factions from other Clancy games and turns them into playable classes. Don't call it a hero shooter: each faction has its own abilities and ultimates, but abilities aren't unique to an individual.

It's a little hard to wrap my head around, but just imagine Call of Duty if a Wolf from Ghost Recon Breakpoint could lay down a bubble shield, or an Echelon agent from Splinter Cell could slide while shooting you with a P90. It's also free-to-play, so there won't be much keeping you from trying it out yourself.

Here's everything we know about XDefiant so far, including how to sign up for its upcoming test session.

Gunsmith: just to clarify, this is should really be called Gun Industry Tycoon, as you start from a simple tactical glove and clothing manufacturer and work yourself into the largest arms manufacturer in the world. Not quite figuring it out.

BarnFinders: a Polish take on "Amerykana" where rednecks are the average humans, mixing a bit of scavenger hunt in 3D (instead of hidden item 2D) with a bit of wash / clean / assemble, and a bit of price haggling simulator (?!) where the idea is you find / bid on a location and win auction, then find the non-junk for your little shop and sell them for profit, which will finance your next trip out further for more items. Art's cute, but game-wise... a bit of meh.

Galaxy Trucker: tried to play the game, but constructing a ship with random cards AND use them on random adventures can be quite difficult, esp. when the AI is actually pretty good. Will need to play a LOT more to figure things out.

Space Run: yep, went back to this game that came out in 2014/2015, IIRC. Don't believe I've ever "finished" it, and I forgot enough that I started from scratch.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:08 pm Galaxy Trucker: tried to play the game, but constructing a ship with random cards AND use them on random adventures can be quite difficult, esp. when the AI is actually pretty good. Will need to play a LOT more to figure things out.

I don't see the appeal of this one in video game form. On the table it is a blast, mainly because everybody is stealing from everybody during creation, and it gets nuts with three or four pairs of hands all darting into the pile at once.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:45 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:08 pm Galaxy Trucker: tried to play the game, but constructing a ship with random cards AND use them on random adventures can be quite difficult, esp. when the AI is actually pretty good. Will need to play a LOT more to figure things out.

I don't see the appeal of this one in video game form. On the table it is a blast, mainly because everybody is stealing from everybody during creation, and it gets nuts with three or four pairs of hands all darting into the pile at once.

I agree. The AI does flip cards and build ships, and it will take some of your cards, but it is nowhere as aggressive as a human trucker. You sort of miss the chaos playing with real humans. OTOH, the adaptation seems to be quite faithful to the original. Once your ship's built it's really all about luck.

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 9:08 pm Gunsmith: just to clarify, this is should really be called Gun Industry Tycoon, as you start from a simple tactical glove and clothing manufacturer and work yourself into the largest arms manufacturer in the world. Not quite figuring it out.

Oh. That is not what I was thinking, I was picturing something more like "Gun Mechanic Simulator". Which, considering video games and guns overlap so heavily, I can hardly believe does not exist yet. There's even a Mech Mechanic Simulator, so I doubt it's because of any perceived controversy.

Chraolic wrote: ↑Thu Jul 22, 2021 6:34 am Oh. That is not what I was thinking, I was picturing something more like "Gun Mechanic Simulator". Which, considering video games and guns overlap so heavily, I can hardly believe does not exist yet. There's even a Mech Mechanic Simulator, so I doubt it's because of any perceived controversy.

It does exist... just... not quite yet. You can download the demo though...