The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[garbon]

https://www.eurogamer.net/gearbox-making-new-tales-from-the-borderlands-out-this-year

Gearbox making new Tales from the Borderlands, out this year

Telltale Games' brilliant Tales from the Borderlands is getting a sequel of sorts, courtesy of Borderlands' main developer Gearbox.

The new Tales game will launch this year and feature a fresh cast of characters, Gearbox's colourful CEO Randy Pitchford announced on stage at PAX East last night.

In development for "many" years, the project has been worked on in-house at Gearbox after the developer saw the critical success of the original Tales - and after Telltale itself sadly closed down.

Pitchford concluded by saying the game would get a proper reveal this summer.

"We really love that format as a way to create characters, create new stories and explore all that differently than what's possible in the looter shooter games," Pitchford said.

"This time we're doing it to imagine all-new characters, all-new stories from the Borderlands," he continued, while emphasising that it would keep the the original's "interactive fiction" gameplay style.

Last year, the original Tales from the Borderlands finally returned to digital game stores after several years, following Telltale's demise.

"Both witty and touching, Tales of the Borderlands sees Telltale at its very best," we wrote in Eurogamer's Tales from the Borderlands review.

[celedhring]

Tales of Borderlands is probably my favorite Telltale game (it's either that one or Wolf Among Us). Dunno how this one will turn out, since I assume it's an entire new team unless they scooped up people from Telltale.

[garbon]

I posted that news item for you.

[celedhring]

Thanks! 

[Syt]

The Borderlands games never clicked for me. I'm not big into shooters, and its brand of humor is just not for me.

I checked out some videos of Tiny Tina's Wonderland, its fantasy shooter spin off (the conceit being that you're basically playing through an RPG session narrated by Tiny Tina). Yeah, not doing it for me, either. Will Arnett playing the goofy villain didn't help, either,since I now mostly associate him with BoJack Horseman.

[celedhring]

The Borderlands games never clicked for me. I'm not big into shooters, and its brand of humor is just not for me.

I checked out some videos of Tiny Tina's Wonderland, its fantasy shooter spin off (the conceit being that you're basically playing through an RPG session narrated by Tiny Tina). Yeah, not doing it for me, either. Will Arnett playing the goofy villain didn't help, either,since I now mostly associate him with BoJack Horseman.

I find them good mindless shooters, but I can see why somebody could find the often juvenile humor a bit grating    The RPG spoof was already a DLC in Borderlands 2, and it was incredibly fun - but dunno if the conceit will really hold up for an entire game.

FWIW, the writing in Tales of Borderlands was miles above the writing in the original games.

[garbon]

I avoided the main Borderlands games as not something I'd be interested in. I'm not sure why I tried Tales but really enjoyed that.

[Syt]

Elden Ring has sort of become my Sunday afternoon game.

I made it past the first "proper" story boss, and I noticed I was getting quite frustrating with him.

(MINOR SPOILERS TO FOLLOW)

From Software games often have a very deliberate progression of difficulty. A common design element is having a boss that checks your progression - whether you're good enough to move on. That might be to check if you do enough damage, understand gameplay etc. E.g. Dark Souls 1 has (if you follow "normal" progression) 3 of those bosses early on:

- Asylum Demon: the basics of fighting a big boss (learn how to avoid damage, and when it's safe to attack), plus using high ground for a plunging attack.
- Taurus Demon: much the same, except in a much narrower space. Also teaches to check your surroundings (at one end there's a tower you can climb and tease out plunging attacks, plus there's archers on top who will shoot at you during the fight if you don't take them out first.
- Bell Gargoyles: fighting two mobile enemies at the same time, summoning help from players or NPCs

Other games in the series do the same. Memorably, Father Gascoigne, the first or second boss of Bloodborne (depending on how you progress) is a major stumbling block for new players, including veterans of the series - he's there to teach you that boss fights have multiple phases now, and that this game requires a very aggressive, fast paced play style.

Fast forward to Elden Ring, where Margit the Fell Omen is the first boss on the main progression path that the game lays out for you. He's not the first boss you must fight - there's plenty of optional challenges strewn about in the early game area, and theoretically you can even do things out of order.

On the way to him the game already puts two pretty hard obstacles in your way - you can use your horse (new to these games) to rush through, though I guess with certain builds you might be able to fight your way past the enemies.

But then comes Margit. He has two phases. His moves are fast, he can jump, his cane has crazy reach. The arena is narrow (not as bad as Taurus Demon's parapet, though), and has cliffs on two sides. You can fall off, but in a rare case of a boss in these games cheating, Margit can't.

So I did the usual thing - see what kind of attacks he has, how to avoid them, and figuring out when I could get my hits in. Pretty standard stuff. His moves were not all clear to figure out, but after about an hour I could reliably get him to phase 2.

And that's where I hit a major brick wall. He gets more moves, hits harder, and gives you fewer windows of opportunity. Try as I might, I couldn't figure out how to deal with this jerk. Tried fire, tried magic, tried blocking attacks. Managed to parry him a few times, but that was no guarantee, either.

So after trying for two hours or so, I decided to do a quick google search if I was doing something wrong, or what was going on. I didn't want a walkthrough, but rather some confirmation that he was hard.


Turns out a few articles were written about him. It seemed he was giving new players AND veterans quite the hard time.  Several said that much of the game afterwards feels a lot easier (which could also be them getting better at the game). One video explained (again, without being a walkthrough) that he's one of the most intricate bosses to fight. There's the factors mentioned above. But guys analyzing his move set realized - he doesn't have a "move set" per se.

To explain: in e.g. Dark Souls (any), a boss will have a certain number of moves that they will use either randomly or depending on player actions (e.g. many bosses can defend against you being behind them, or try to hit you when you use a healing item). But overall, it's a limited move set, and much of the challenge is figuring out how to deal with it while still doing damage. "When he does this attack, I have to dodge twice, and then I can hit him with a strong attack," or "This move has a recovery time, I have time to heal up now."

Margit has some moves you can learn. E.g. in phase 1, if he does a running jump attack that is followed by another swipe - you can dodge those, then hit him once or twice ... though if you stand behind him, he'll try a tail swipe, so gotta watch for that. But that's not all. Esp. in close combat he has single attacks that he can string together quite randomly (even more so in phase 2). So it becomes much, much harder to get any melee damage in. On top of that, his speed in phase 2 is relentless, and you really need to manage your stamina or he'll catch you flat footed.

So, with this being the first story boss of the game, what's the idea? He does act as a progression check, I suppose, but more in the way Gascoigne is in Bloodborne. If you go to him in a beeline from the game's start and you get smacked senseless, he's meant to have you go back and explore the areas you're been to. Get gear, level up, etc.

If you've leveled up and STILL struggle with him - maybe check out what options the game gives you. There are ways to deal with him that require no mad skillz with the pad, if you use the tools the game provides you with. For example, this is the first time you can summon an NPC to help fight the boss. For some players it's a point of pride to fight bosses without summoning help (either players or NPCs), but the devs put this option there for a reason.

So I summoned the NPC - a sorcerer character. Me melee, him ranged; that should work, right? Well, not really. That guy was really quishy, so it was either me trying to get aggro (and dying) or sorcerer boy dying fast, and - shortly after - me. But Elden Ring also introduced "Spirit Calling" where you can summon certain minions (usually based on enemy types) to help in certain areas. A duo of armored knights (melee and and archer) seemed to do quite nicely. But it wasn't until I used them and the NPC summon together that finally there was some headway. With 4 targets to choose from, the damage was spread much more evenly (unless my summons clumped together ), and after an unlucky first try Margit finally went down on my second attempt at that tactic.

(And apparently there's also an item you can purchase that helps with the fight.)

So yes, he's a progression check. The usual, "Do you have the stats/skills/equipment to take me on?" But, more crucially: "Have you used all your tools?" And "Maybe you should go seek more tools, if you're not getting on with me yet." This ties into the creed of the earlier games - yes, they're hard. But you can make them easier by leveling up, by getting better gear, getting new spells, summoning help, etc. And Elden Ring gives you a lot more options than any of the previous games which makes it really fun.

(P.S.: There's going to be elitists/gatekeepers who will insist the only "true" way of playing these games is without ever leveling, with only basic gear, no summons etc. - fuck those guys. There's no "wrong" way of playing these games as long as you make progress. )

(P.P.S.: I'm sure if I were to look up a walkthrough video for Margit, there's probably a silly cheese strat that you can use, but where's the fun in that I'll leave looking up stuff for after I finish the game. Which at current pace should be around October or so )

[Zoupa]

Late to the party regarding Space 4X games recommendations for Jacob, but I would definitely try Star Ruler 2.

It was quite a refreshing take on the genre, the UI is great and fully scalable. Overall 9/10.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/282590/Star_Ruler_2/

[crazy canuck]

Somehow I missed this one.  Looks very interesting.  I will give it a try

[mongers]

The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall has appeared on steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812390/The_Elder_Scrolls_II_Daggerfall/

[Jacob]

So I bought GalCiv4, making that the game that got me on to the Epic Store (which I supported in principle, I just couldn't be bothered to sign up).

I'm only one turn in, though, between work and kid duties....

[celedhring]

I took a page from Valmy and I'm in the middle of replaying a Bioware saga classic. Just finished Mass Effect 1 and currently going on 2.

Despite its age, I enjoyed ME1 immensely. The only really poor part of the game are all the sidequests and related planetary exploration, which recycle the same set of rooms over and over. But the main missions are a blast and the FPS/RPG gameplay, even if quite basic, is still pleasurable. ME1 also brings me some nice memories, since it came out when I was living in NYC, and replaying it sorta brings me back to those times.

Now, ME2 I didn't enjoy as much at the time. Despite the technical improvements, bigger budget, and a more realized worldbuilding, the pared down RPG elements and the story didn't engage me as much. But I'll give it another go. If anything, I want to play the Liara DLC, which I didn't have at the time and I have always heard it's one of the best missions of the saga.

Then I also want to play ME3 because I never experienced the retooled ending.

[crazy canuck]

Has anyone tried Dune Spice Wars - it looks like they just put a generic single player rts on a map called Dune, made pretty sand graphics, and called it a day.  But maybe it is something better?

[Josquius]

Been playing a little game called Mars horizon.
Manage a space programme from the 50s on, conducting missions and racing for firsts.
It's nice and addictive.