setsneedtofeed

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Dusted off the old Nintendo 64 to play some StarFox 64. It still holds up great.

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The controls hold up better than something like Star Wars Rogue Squadron, which I surprised myself to discover. I have great memories of Rogue Squadron but the controls are stiff in all the wrong ways while StarFox is comparatively easier to fly even in the non-linear arena areas.

Visually StarFox is obviously dated, but because it opted for big low detail style to begin with it isn’t difficult on the eyes the way “realistic” N64 games look today.

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I’m so happy that I’m on the sidelines of all this. I think watching is significantly more enjoyable than being part of it.

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I’ve been part of some amateur game dev projects and SC has the vibe of an amateur project where the devs are constantly focusing on whatever catches their fancy at the moment, going back and tinkering with things they’ve already made, and sort of aimlessly scope creeping. There’s nobody to strongarm them into writing, much less following a game design document.

All of that is intuitive to me to understand.

Then there is “the dream” that is being sold to people who want this type of game. That level of very specific fandom is also easy to understand, at least from a distance. People get super into all kinds of games and spend outsized amounts of money and time.

Star Citizen is like the perfect storm of these elements.

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No, there’s really no excusing this game’s development. If anything, Robert’s should have learned from Freelancer to have a tight core product that’s actually shippable.

At this point Internet nerds are locked into throwing money at Star Citizen’s development, making it the closest thing humanity has achieved to a perpetual motion machine.

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If you landed in an in-game fake moon it would be a wonderfully interesting plot thread.

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Too bad. They’re getting copies of Burger King’s Sneak King and they’re going to like it.

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The caption calls him “For Win 95 & DOS CD”. It’s a very archaic set of titles.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I always go full vegetarian. Sell all the cows and use the money to buy a bunch of grain, preferably in winter. Plant everything, and you’re good. Once grain starts making surpluses you have enough to feed everyone and sell the excess back to the carts for the rest of the game.

In spring, summer, and winter grain needs fewer workers. Only in fall will it need reallocation.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I never played 3. Back in the day my computer couldn’t run it, and I never got around to trying it out. I own it as part of the Steam pack I bought 2 with, but my next review will be a mystery game that I had to order a physical copy of.

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Thanks. I’m trying to put that content everybody keeps asking for on lemmy. I’m mentally toying with the idea of videos if I become confident enough to script and edit.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

For $1.29 you can buy a pack with Lords of The Realm 1,2,3 and Lords Of Magic on Steam right now. (This is not an ad, just saying, the game is still very accessible).

And I miss big thick paper manuals, especially ones with background info and art.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Lords Of The Realm 2 is substantially different from the Civ games. In Lords Of The Realm 2 there is no tech tree and no eras to unlock, there are no alternative options for victory aside from military success, the player and AI do not create their villages but the village locations are preset on the map, there is no building of logistical infrastructure such as roads or mining quarries- instead each county has predetermined resources and the player only decides how many workers to assign to them, battles happen inside their own distinct level of play rather than happening on the world map.

The Civ games are 4x games where long term research and policy decisions are needed to build a faction. Lords Of The Realm 2 is set strictly in the medieval setting and is only concerned with the immediate local squabble.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I’ve tried playing Lords Of Magic and have bounced off of it. The real time combat feels more like a real time tactics game than a strategy game, and I’m pretty bad at real time tactics games. It also makes use of heroic characters and faction specific abilities and magic. It’s something I haven’t fully wrapped around.

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It released close to Endwar which was an RTS with a similar plot premise.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

“Bailiff, seize him.”

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“It has already been released. It has been released for thousands of years. Humanity simply needs to reach a point of true understanding to see it.”

Gabe disappears in a flash of light.

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“It’s actually all of yours. Check you computers, they all have Half Life 3 installed.”

Gabe puts on a top hat, pulls out an umbrella and floats away.

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I’m still a little disappointed at that part in the movie when the guy simply recommends an AR. Dude should have listed off a bunch of specifications like in movies when a Car Guy lists engine details.

“Ah, I think you’ll be interested in a new build I have here. Noveski upper with a ten point three barrel, suppressor compatible, monolithic handguard, there is an adjustable gasblock which I’ve left a little overgassed but I get the feeling you won’t be using this piece long enough for that to be a problem. The lower has a two stage flat trigger. Very good break. Ambidextrous controls. Non-latching charging handle of course. I’ve taken the liberty of putting a low power variable zoom Trijicon optic on top. Twenty five yard zero with M855.

It comes standard with six anti-tilt steel magazines. Although, for you Mr. Wick I’ll go ahead and make it twelve.”

That or it should have just been Ian recommending obscure French guns until John Wick leaves.

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A scene that John Wick referenced, which was fun.

The original version had the great negotiation about how much Ugly was going to rob the shopkeeper though.

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In Valve’s case it’s just a smart move both for PR and business. Black Mesa isn’t competing with any of their products since I’m sure not many younger people are super interested in the original. In fact the remake might drum up interest by some people to play the original. And it’s sold on Valve’s platform, giving them a cut. Win win.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Am I the only person who mostly liked the Blue Shift models?

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I started playing ATOM RPG again. I tried once a few months ago but my build made the game very unfun. I looked up a guide to a hood starter build and hope that helps me see what other people see in it.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I played Stardew Valley Expanded until 1am.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

While it was weird that there even was a Thieves Guild in Fallout 1, I do appreciate how it wasn’t just signposted about in town, and to get to it you had to really explore seemingly desolate areas, get through multiple locked doors and a hallway of landmines.

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The drive sprocket for the Tiger 2 was modeled with 18 teeth instead of 20.

The developers are buffoons. Absolute fools.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Why would you take a car off a diamond store?

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

My favorite tutorial was in STALKER. The guy gives you a pistol and tells you good luck.

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It’s once again one of the only games where skills like speech or barter actually feel worth it

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e74650e9-bf98-4f1d-ac6e-041e04be7b00.jpeg

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

The combat was a low point. I spent most of the game up through the finale with a MK2 light machinegun. It was tinkered with and upgraded. My character had no points at all put into gun skills and I still chewed through enemies with ease. Whenever ammo ran low I switched to a MK2 heavy assault rifle.

Even the finale sub-boss robot was pathetically easy to kill.

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I’m still not sure why The Outer Worlds is thought of as the same team as New Vegas. It had different leads and writers. The marketing for the game heavily pushed the connection because of Obsidian, but the individuals (at least the ones most important in steering the game development) involved are different.

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While the ending slides were mostly nothing special, I did actually audibly laugh when the SAM’s ending slide was an advertisement.

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Still playing The Outer Worlds. I feel like I’m closing in on the finale in the next gaming session.

I want to come back and write a full review because the game has been a strange experience for me. It has so many gameplay and quest design choices that are baffling, usually in a negative to mixed way. There is no single issue that is a killer negative, just a death of a thousand papercuts of small issues.

Yet despite what will be laundry list of issues, the setting is so strong that I recommend the game. This is a game I’m happy is getting a sequel because it is exactly something that needs another attempt.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

Wasteland 3 is a very approachable CRPG styled game. It’s not as granular in character build as Underrail because rather than playing as one character, you always have a party. You are encouraged to hyperspecialize each character, as dialog and skill checks will roll from whoever has the highest skill in the party.

I recommend WL3 over WL2 because the presentation is much more polished, a lot of unnecessarily complicated skills from WL2 have been collapsed in WL3, and the story feels more focused and doesn’t drag in the middle as WL2 does.

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Fallout 1 is great, one of my favorite games, but you do have to be ready to accept the 1990s presentation and tech. It can also be very difficult (but never impossible) if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Vanilla playthrough character: Speech, lockpick, small guns. Minimum charisma, high intelligence and agility. Gifted trait.

If you ever meet the used car salesman, don’t leave until you find the Red Ryder BB gun. Not the normal BB gun. Red Ryder.

setsneedtofeed, rok temu

I learned about it from Civvie11’s video. I have unfortunately not played it yet, although I fully intend to. It’s stuck on a long backlog list. I really admire such an ambitious game that fully commits to a design and aesthetic which the devs surely knew would be obtuse and offputting to a wider audience. Making a game focused on a vision, without compromise is really a great thing.

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That is a question where the answer is very complex. You’d have to break down different game design philosophies, think them through, and then apply them to specific games.

In general, I have two gut reactions:

1. If players are desiring to change the difficulty of the bosses compared to the rest of the game, the devs have to ask if there is a failure of design on their part. An example of this would be Dues Ex Human Revolution, which was an immersive sim that supported many different character builds, except the boss fights which were entirely based on combat. This created a frustrating and unfair situation to players not making a combat built character. The solution was that the boss fights were completely redesigned in the Director’s Cut release to support alternate builds. This is one example, but naturally there are many more. If a game has a “that boss”, the devs should look at it and examine if there is a problem with the design. Is a battle too comparatively difficult? Too tedious? Only suitable for certain builds (in games with builds)? Is the battle too much of a departure from standard gameplay in the rest of the game?
2. A popular game is going to get mods. If there is a strong desire in the player base, the mod is going to happen regardless of dev stubbornness, so devs may as well just give the people what they want. If a game is praised but has outcry for boss difficulty sliders, either put it in officially or incorporate it into the sequel.

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In certain circumstances, I agree. I am currently playing The Outer Worlds RPG. In the game there is a companion quest which culminates in fighting a “Mantinqueen”- a giant monster space bug. There is a ton of build up to it. The monster had previously killed the companion’s entire mercenary group. The lair was spooky and atmospheric.

Problem was, mantiqueens were creatures I’d already fought in the open world. I could demolish one is about a minute with my upgraded weapons. This made the boss fight underwhelming.

I wouldn’t want the solution to be just tacking on more healthpoints, but there are other options to make the boss creature more interesting to fight and the game took none of them.

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People always complain about this because they blocked out the trauma of the RC plane missions. Those were 1000x worse.

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I think there is a wide difference between soulslikes and GTA. The most obvious being that soulslikes are understood to be difficult, while GTA difficulty spikes are almost random and tend to be a result of poor design.

In something like GTA there shouldn’t be a need to skip story critical missions, because those mission should be ironed out. The really frustrating missions either need to be reworked or pushed into optional side missions.

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You actually could have floors over floors, but the game just wouldn’t render them both at the same time.

As for it holding up, Boomer Shooters are in vogue right now. There is a market for these games existing in an accessible way where the player doesn’t have to do a bunch of tweaks to get it running.

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The engine could truly have rooms over rooms, it just couldn’t render them in Dark Forces. Eventually (after Dark Forces) it was updated to make that possible.

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I’ve been playing The Outer Worlds. I restarted with a new character focused on dialog and tech skills after seeing how easy the combat is.

I like the game and really wish the discussion around it stopped simply painting it as “Fallout New Vegas In Space”, because it is not. Thinking of it that way sets misguided expectations.

The writing quality and sensibilities are clearly from many of the same minds behind New Vegas, but the game’s overall design is much guided for the player than New Vegas. In a lot of ways it feels like a classic BioWare RPG. Instead of a giant open world, there are various hubs that have curated content and which are opened up to the player in a quasi linear way.

The setting is very well defined and there is a clear vision for it. So many game settings are generic or uninspired. I haven’t played Starfield, but the footage of it never grabbed me with its kind of generic looking future. The Outer Worlds has a schtick and it leans into it 110%.

The combat is smooth, no surprise on the Unreal 4 engine. It is a hair too easy, but I prefer easy over hard when the enemy AI is so simple. I’m not a fan of bullets sponges or increased mobs of enemies to increase difficulty.

One single and huge complaint I have is the PC controls are not fully rebindable. They are only partially rebindable which is a headache for a left handed IJKL player. The game won’t let me rebind to my preference and I ended up writing my own script in AutoHotkey, which I then have to run whenever playing the game.

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I find XCOM difficult to go back to after playing XCOM 2, especially with the huge amount of easily installed XCOM 2 mods on the steam page.

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I’m not sure how I feel about the revamped buy system in CS2, but I guess it does make it easier to add more alternate guns.