The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Syt]

Occasionally a new game enters early access that seems particularly tailored to the Languish folks: "News Tower", in which you run a New York newspaper in the 1930s. If anyone feels like becoming the next William Randolph Hearst.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649950/News_Tower/

Live the life of an aspiring influential publisher in New York City during the 1930s.
Define your editorial line and search the globe for the newsworthy stories of the decade.
The Prohibition, the Great Depression, or a lost cat... Not all articles are deserving of a Pulitzer...

But watch out! The mafia, mayor, and other factions will be more than happy to use your influence in New York City to print their own "truth".
To get unique rewards, you might have to cover the topics they want!
Bend to their will and compromise the freedom of the press or print the truth, whatever the cost!


People's stories create History.

In News Tower, you will follow some of the key moments of the 1930s, but it will be up to you whether to cover and even influence them.
It's up to your reporters to beat the deadline to get the news while it's hot. Time is money in News Tower!

Use your reporter's favorite topics to send them searching for the right news to get it faster, or it might already be old news by the time they return. The more they cover a topic, the more experienced they get, allowing you to sharpen your editorial line.
Search for exciting news across the US and the world that matches your reader's interest and editorial line.
Will you decide to publish gossip to satisfy your readers' thirst for sensational press, or will you always seek hard stories for the truth?

A lot of news offers different avenues of investigation, unveiling diverse versions of the story. Send your reporter down a path, but be mindful of the risk and rewards of each: poking your nose around the mafia may lead to "offers" that you can't refuse...
Not everyone is in favor of the freedom of the press...

Build and optimize your tower to ensure the well-being of your employees while meeting your printing deadlines on Sunday!
Recruit and manage every profession necessary to ensure your success: reporters, photographers, janitors, without forgetting the essential ads salesperson and lawyers.

Make sure you're a great place to work!
Being surrounded by oily and noisy printing machines can get on the nerves of your employees, and they will lose focus, ultimately leading to poorly written articles which will lower your sales.
One always works best when surrounded by lush vegetation and a near unlimited source of coffee.

Build facilities and decorate each floor to transform your dingy tower into a prestigious workspace for your employees. With that done, you will be able to ensure their well-being!
However, you should probably find a more optimal placement for your coal generator. It's making an awful noise on the typesetter's floor...

In News Tower, manage each step of your newspaper's production line:
Telegraph station, typesetting, photography... Each step is essential to transform a reporter's notes into a ready-to-print article. Recruit the right employees and plan the layout of your workstations to optimize your production.

Searching continuously for more topics & scoops is exciting, but will your production line keep up?

Start as a local Brooklyn newspaper and develop your distribution network citywide!

Wall Street, the Yankee Stadium, or New York's Harbor. Expand to famous locations, each unlocking specific upgrades and new audiences with their own reading interests.

Increase your readership one neighborhood at a time to become New York's most influential publisher.

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

"The full version will feature extra content, going from 1930 to 1939 – only 1930 to 1932 in Early Access.
We're going to keep on building on our existing features to give more depth to it."



What is the current state of the Early Access version?

"The current state of the game includes
- One part of the main campaign play from 1930 to 1932
- 100+ objects to build and manage your tower from printer to luxury decoration items
- 10+ job types to make sure your newspaper is running
- The reporting, production and printing core loop of the game
- News map to send your reporters dig the hottest news of the moment
- 1000+ News items to report on
- New York district systems to gain more readers according to their interests.
- Progress unlocking systems to grow your News Empire bigger and more efficient."

[Josquius]

Eiyuden Chronicle is coming out in a few weeks.
Its the only game I've ever supported on Kickstarter, way back in 2020.
Why?
Its the spiritual successor to the Suikoden series with Murayama Yoshitaka, the primary writer and other from Suikoden onboard.
Just got an update from kickstarter today....and Murayama has died. Just before the release.
This seems so fated

[Syt]

[Josquius]

Kingmakers. A game trailer worth watching.
Looks generic at first but then... 

Give it 30 secs.
https://youtu.be/OvezgDni8z4?si=A05YsiEMKpZjJu-N

[celedhring]

This should have had and Army of Darkness theme. I hope it will be modded eventually. 

[Maladict]

Groovy.

[Syt]

Almost exactly 2 years after release of Elden Ring, FromSoft finally share a trailer and release date for the long awaited DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree - June 21st (summer solstice?).

Elden Ring is a game I still want to get back to, but its size was both amazing and off putting. In 50 hours I explored mostly what is the beginning area, which is like 10-20% of the game map (if that)? But I think that's to do with my explorative, cautious play style (most people say their initial blind play-through was more like 100-150 hours). I mean, it took my current save 160 hours to enter Baldur's Gate Lower City (after Wyrm's Crossing) in BG3. So YMMV.

[The Minsky Moment]

The Steam Next event was about 2 weeks ago but I just finished going through some of the demos I DLed.  Short reviews in rough order of interest:

Balatro - there seems to be a glut of deckbuilding roguelikes, none of which has seemed compelling enough to me to play over Slay the Spire.  Balatro is now the exeption - it takes the genre literally, stripping away all thematic elements.  You have a deck of conventional playing cards and play poker hands that have to beat a required score. There are a bunch of buff cards and ways to manipulate the mechanics. Simple in concept, but plays very well and easy to drop and pick up at any time. Now released - at $13.50 price is right.

Indika - You play a young, troubled nun from some version of 19th century Russia, plauged with a disturbing and diabolical voice in her head, and travelling with a badly injured escaped prisoner who claims to talk to God. Nothing that special about the gameplay here which seems to consist of environmental puzzles and some running/jumping excercises. However, it has great and truly original concept with very immersive setting.

Pacific Drive - adventure type game with survival/resource gathering elements.  Not my favorite genre but this one also has a compelling setting - the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, sealed off after a scientific experiment gone badly and mysteriously awry.  From the demo the resource gathering elements center around fixing up your station wagon, which functions as a normal station wagon but apparently is also a manifestation of an alien intelligence of unknown motivations.  Released this week.

Esoteric Egg - Disco Elysium influenced RPG using the OGL license for 5e D&D - from the demo seems to be on the right side of the line of clever and stupid.  You can get the sense of it by the fact that you HAVE to play a cleric (although seems to be considerable customization).  Since I still need to play through the actual Disco Elysium, I'll probably pick this one up later on a sale.

Star Trucker - Euro Truck simulator in outer space.  Not exactly my genre and defeats the purpose if the idea is to drive through "real" locales, but the game looks really nice and grabbed me more in a way the conventional sims usually don't.

Echopoint Nova - stylish open world shooter with parkour elements, lots of running and leaping.  Don't think we are suffering from an FPS shortage, but if you want to play one, you could do far worse than this.

Ultros - metroidvania, core gameplay seems very solid.  Again, not my most favored genre and one not suffering from a shortage of titles, but the art design on this one is unique and makes it cut above the competition. Has been released.

Yet Another Fantasy Title - fantasy RPG parody.  Had its moments but hard to see putting over a dozen hours into it.  I'd definitely go for Esoteric Ebb first, or play a Lego game if I want the make light of some IP vibe.

Game that I couldn't get to work on Steam Deck: Half-sword - Rennaisance era combat sim.

[Syt]

Seeing a lot of positive buzz around Balatro. Actually, the lack of theme is kinda putting me off a bit, but I think I might pick it up eventually

I have Esoteric Ebb on my wishlist following some previews that looked promising. Didn't try the demo, though.

[Syt]

Got the new Paradox newsletter.

6th Nov: EU4 expansion/major patch
7th Nov: AoW4 expansion/major patch
9th Nov: CK3 flavor pack/major patch
14th Nov: Vic3 flavor pack/major patch

Paradox content is like public transport - first you wait forever, and then there's a whole bunch in a row.

They're doing it again.

Stellaris major patch 3.11.1:  27/02 (yesterday)
Age of Wonders 4 patch & DLC: 27/02
CK3 DLC: 04/03
Vic3 major patch 1.6: 06/03
HoI4 DLC: 07/03

[grumbler]

They're doing it again.

Stellaris major patch 3.11.1:  27/02 (yesterday)
Age of Wonders 4 patch & DLC: 27/02
CK3 DLC: 04/03
Vic3 major patch 1.6: 06/03
HoI4 DLC: 07/03

I've stopped playing Paradox games because the company insists on breaking my saves and I refuse to dedicate myself to playing a long strategy game in a short span of time so as to be ale to complete it before it is ruined.

[Valmy]

They're doing it again.

Stellaris major patch 3.11.1:  27/02 (yesterday)
Age of Wonders 4 patch & DLC: 27/02
CK3 DLC: 04/03
Vic3 major patch 1.6: 06/03
HoI4 DLC: 07/03

I've stopped playing Paradox games because the company insists on breaking my saves and I refuse to dedicate myself to playing a long strategy game in a short span of time so as to be ale to complete it before it is ruined.

I play Crusader Kings II. They haven't broken any of my saves in years.

[Syt]

Well, if you know a big patch is coming you can create a manual backup of your mods (copying them from the steam workshop folder to the game's mod folder, where you would keep your manually installed mods), which will make sure that Steam doesn't auto-update them. Or, if you don't want to keep tracking patch schedules you can keep manual copies of your mods at all times, just to be safe. (Also useful if you want to edit/tweak some of them yourself.) And in Steam you can go to the game's properties and revert to a previous patch (under betas, I think). That will let you continue playing your game. It's a bit of manual hassle, but it should at least allow you to keep the game at one state for months and (likely) years.

[Syt]

Dark Forces remaster is out. People sem to like it, but €29 seems a bit steep.

[Habbaku]

Anyone on Languish committed to the spread of Managed Democracy in Helldivers 2? I have a small group that's playing pretty frequently if you'd like to join us.