The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Syt]

Someone made the perfect game for Ed, too late.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1684720/Hitler_Hates_Anime/

[Solmyr]

But what about Anime Hitler?

[Syt]

But what about Anime Hitler?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1882820/My_Little_Dictator/

My Little Dictator, 私の小さな独裁者 (Watashi no chīsana dokusai-sha), is a satirical dark-comedy parody of WW2, featuring genderbent anime dictators and generals! A ridiculous visual novel with turn-based battles, decision branches based on player choices, romance, drama and lots of fun things to play and unlock...

I'm not sure whether to or at the Panzykampfwagen II's 20mm UwU gun.

[Valmy]

I do like how the BEF is called BEEF though. Rosbif.

[Syt]

I have 51 hours in Elden Ring and still haven't made it past the first main story dungeon.   

(Rather happy I've so far managed to avoid big or major spoilers )

I've spent most of my time exploring the starting areas, including adjacent optional bits, and slowly figuring out how to take on some of the harder enemies in those areas (while leveling up, upgrading my weapons etc.). I've heard that the initial area in Dragon Age: Inquisition (Hinterlands?) can be an insane time sink if you want to be completionist about it, and I'm starting to feel the Limgrave/Weeping Peninsula areas can be similar. There's enemies, bosses, mini bosses, ruins to explore, hidden treasures, small mini-dungeons (with not really much variety so far), a network of caves ... and then there's a few big open spots with little to nothing which really makes you paranoid - in one such area you may get invaded by an NPC character, in another ... nothing, and you expect some big boss to show up any moment.

And I've taken a few bad turns that threw me into areas that are too high level for me yet, but that looked awesome, and the game dangles them like a carrot in front of you.

Having played previous Souls games, my main disappointment is that some areas guarded by a bunch of enemies sometimes have only a crafting item or two as reward, while in the denser experience of Dark Souls 1-3 almost every find feels important. Weapons, armor, spells and similar treasures are spaced out a lot more.

I've seen some reviewers, a few weeks after release, say that the game's world is great, but it's just too big, and that you can burn yourself out on it. They cite the scale, but also the re-use of enemies and assets in some areas. I guess it also makes a difference that it is mostly free exploration and less story driven questing, so a lot of it is you running around trying to see what's beyond the next corner, what the glowy item is that tough enemy guards, or what might be in the tower you've seen from afar (and that you can almost certainly visit).

The game's in-game map reminds me of the one that came with Morrowind. It's hand drawn with icons being filled in as you explore the land. No clearing of map icons like in Ubisoft games (actually, icons only start appearing once you've visited a site), but if you study the map closely, you can usually make out locations of towers, ruins, and other points of interest so that you still have an idea which places you might want to check out. The map is not revealed to you in full. When you enter a new area you need to find a "map fragment" along the area's main road. It's not a big challenge,s o far, but it helps keeping you focused on your current areas rather than overwhelming you with the entire map from the start.

A complaint I have is how the game handles item tiers, e.g. upgrade mats. In Dark Souls you would have, from lowest to highest, Titanite Shard => Large Titanite Shard => Titanite Chunk => Titanite Slab. In ER, you have Smithing Stone (1), Smithing Stone (2), Smithing Stone (3), etc. Takes me a bit out of the game, tbh.

Comobat is still fun; it feels a bit more forgiving than DS1-3 once you get into the swing of things (pun intended), but that might be because of the extra tools you get: summoning spectres, guard counters after blocking, jump attacks. special skills you can add to weapons and swap while resting, some basic stealth, and the fluid and fun horse combat.

Anyways, 50+ hours in, still enjoying it in bits and pieces, and a far way from finishing. But that seems par for the course for me. DS1 took me about 100+ hours to finish (with walkthrough!), when others are more in the 50-70 hour mark. I have 100 hours in DS2 and 130 hours in DS3 and have yet to finish either game. I have a tendency to do a fair bit of exploring/grinding/sightseeing in these games, plus I play often very slow and methodical (pulling single enemies, approaching areas slow and cautious, checking every nook and cranny), so I feel I it takes me 2-3 as long as "normal" players in these games.

[Syt]

Played a bit of Interstellar Space: Genesis, a space 4X game, currently on sale:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/984680/Interstellar_Space_Genesis/

The game has 81% positive reviews out of 400+.

The gfx aren't much to write home about, but that's fine if the gameplay is good. Unfortunately, after a few hours I was quite bored. The game is one of the many space 4X titles inspired by MOO/MOO2. Unfortunately, I found it quite bland, and it didn't seem to bring much new to the table. It has some pre-defined races (and you can customize your own ones). It has the typical research, it has something similar to Stellaris' traditions (actually, I think it's closer to Civ: Beyond Earth's civ perks, where for each tier in three brackets you have to decide between two options). You can do "remote" exploration, using your scientist's telescopes to (slowly) unveil star systems, or you can send survey ships. There's minor civs, that can grant you perks (like Civ 5/6). There's pops like in MoO2. You can balance planet resources between improving the eco-system, infrastructure and production of buildings and ships. There's tactical combat, and weapons/defenses are built around the holy trifecta of beam weapons, projectile weapons, and missiles. There's leaders to assign as governors or admirals. Etc. The only real twist I saw was that when you unlock one of 4 special resources, you can choose whether to use it offensively or defensively, granting you passive perks (still kinda similar to GalCiv3, I think?). Diplomacy lack personality.

Overall, the game seemed to offer nothing that I can't get from Stellaris or GalCiv3, except those games just feel a lot smoother and more varied.

That said, a lot of people seem to like it because it reminds them of MoO a lot, so YMMV.

[Syt]

Started playing Outer Worlds by Obsidian (not to be mistaken with Outer Wilds).

After four hours I struggle to stay interested. People have likened it to Fallout: New Vegas, and some of the bones are there - similar interface conventions, an Old West setting in a sci-fi game, conversations with skill checks, factions etc.

What it lacks, for me anyways, is charm. I had read that the game maps are less open and more linear than FNV, and that's fine. Not every story needs to be told in an open world sandbox. But it feels ... I don't know - mediocre? Drab? Unengaging?

The setting is space western, though with a heavy gilded age capitalist bent, cranked up to 11. Think Finkton in Bioshock: Infinite, peppered with a bit of humor in the Borderlands or Futurama bend (e.g. the starting town covered up the suicide of a worker, because this would be irreparable damaging of company property (i.e. the worker), and would incur a heavy fine for the town). The dialogue tries to mimick the ca. 1900-1910s speak, and so does the art direction of items, in game posters and labels etc. The visuals are colorful, but slightly washed out, I guess? It's not aiming for realism, but it's also not going for Borderlands' cartoon look. But I look at the starting planet - weird plants and animals, a big ringed planet in the sky, lava fields, a big sea, a dingy little settlement - and somehow they managed to make it dull. No Man's Sky's planets are stylized and become repetitive, but it went with a 1970s pulp sci-fi cover aesthetic that works, mostly. OW sits uncomfortably between Fallout 3 and 4 for me in terms of look and feel.

The pacing in the opening feels a bit off. You get your opening cinematic and then create your character, which is embedded into the game's narrative. You're then sent through a linear tutorial that eventually takes you to the first, tiny town. It feels smaller than Megaton, maybe a bit bigger than Goodsprings?

And then you spend two hours or so talking to people in town. Which would be fine, but the discussions don't feel engaging. They drag for the sake of doing world-building. This would be fine, if the dialogues felt more interactive, or the characters wouldn't feel so generic.

You pick your (non-voiced) lines from a list of options as is tradition, but I felt like I had limited options to really shape the dialogue. Being a silent protagonist in a first person game (why did I customize my appearance?) doesn't help, and neither do the character models that are not very emotive (and neither are the voice actors - I like Ashley Burch, generally, but her companion character feels pretty dull, which is an achievement, since she's kinda made out to be a character like Kaylee in Firefly).

Compare with Mass Effect 1. After Eden Prime you spend hours exploring the Citadel and much of it is exposition dialogue, and while it does get a bit dull eventually, it's kept fresh a lot longer by the visuals of the Presidium, weird aliens to meet and learn about, reasonably engaging dialogue, some interactions with your squad mates, and the occasional bit of violence.

At this point I'm not sure I want to carry on with OW, which seems like a bit of a shame.

[Solmyr]

I've discovered Wildermyth, a roguelike RPG. In it you play campaigns consisting of several chapters, with procedurally generated world maps and side storylines. In between chapters your characters age, develop relationships, can get children, etc. You can generate characters randomly, or customize almost anything. During the game you can also recruit new characters to your adventuring company (which is good because the original characters will get older and eventually may retire). The characters start as farmers and can develop to become legendary heroes. Each character has a personality, different aspects, story hooks, history, etc. These affect what kind of stories each character will get and how they act during them. I'll post some screenshots from my game below.



This is my frontline warrior. He got infected with a poison that caused a stony growth on his face.



This is my hunter. He had an encounter with a crow sorceress that resulted in him starting a transformation into crow form. He's got crow wings, legs, and tail so far.



A more offensive fighter, she joined the group later on and developed a rivalry with the original warrior, though later they became lovers.



My mystic, who is kind of a "mage". In combat, mystics "interfuse" with different objects in the scenery (trees, rocks, furniture, etc.) and use them to trigger various effects, depending on the object. For example rocks can explode, trees can extend branches to trap enemies, etc.



The world map looks like this. You go between regions, fight any hostiles that are present, and secure and develop those regions which then provide resources (that you can use to craft items). Characters can split up, with some doing different tasks. You can only have five characters doing the same task at once, so later on as your group membership grows, you have to assign characters to different tasks.



Storyboards look like this, a sort of comic book feel. You get some choices that affect the outcome. I like the art style too.



And this is the combat. It's X-COM-style, with characters each acting in turn, then the enemies. There's a good variet of actions that you can do, with more becoming available as characters advance and learn new skills. Which skills they learn is semi-random (you get a choice from several random skills each time they advance), so characters of the same class (warrior, hunter, mystic) don't necessarily play exactly the same.

Big recommendation for this one!

[celedhring]

It looks pretty interesting. I will definitely check it out! Thanks for the tip.

[Solmyr]

Here's a longer review as well: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/22638600/wildermyth-review-pc-proc-gen-worldwalker-games-strategy-mac-linux

[Syt]

I've dabbled a bit with it. I'm not super into its combat system, but I really like its story generation.

[frunk]

This looks really interesting to me and I tried to add it to my Wishlist, only to find it was already there.

[Josquius]

Anyone played workers and resources Soviet Republic?
I've heard despite the subject matter it's actually a more realistic city builder than skylines

[Berkut]

This looks really interesting to me and I tried to add it to my Wishlist, only to find it was already there.

LOL. Did the exact same thing.

[Tamas]

Anyone played workers and resources Soviet Republic?
I've heard despite the subject matter it's actually a more realistic city builder than skylines

I refunded it but planning to re-acquire at some point.

It is promising (and having vehicles of my childhood on screen is kinda' cool) but it is very micromanagement-heavy.