The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Sophie Scholl]

These days you can also select any combat style for any character I believe, so you can play a Jedi knight for the story but fight like a smuggler or something. I should probably catch up on the story sometime soon, currently got back into WoW a bit.

I've never left WoW. 
As to SWTOR, you can only use compatible fighting styles. So any Jedi/Sith style for those character types and any non-Force user style for those class types.

[Solmyr]

Okay. Well, both Jedi and non-Jedi have a stealth style, so you can pick that one to skip boring fights.

[Sophie Scholl]

Okay. Well, both Jedi and non-Jedi have a stealth style, so you can pick that one to skip boring fights.

For sure! I definitely do. 

[Syt]

PC Gamer gives Star Wars Outlaws 73% (which is a decent score in their context; their scores tend to be notably less inflated than on other sites):

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/star-wars-outlaws-review/

The conclusion:

[...]

Outlaws has proven a confusing game to follow from start to end, because it's fun, but the two things I was most excited to do before playing it—riding the speeder through the open world and piloting my own ship—ended up being the most forgettable parts of the journey. Ubi still hasn't figured out how to fill the empty spaces between points of interest.

Kay's squirrely speeder is tricky to control at first, and you can tell a room full of designers had to think hard about how a motorcycle with no tires or friction would actually move. Getting the hang of its wide turns and wild acceleration was neat, but there's just not much else to it—weirdly, vehicle combat is limited to Kay's mark-and-execute move, no normal aiming allowed like in a Rockstar game. That killed any desire I had to make a scene and try to fight the law, so I mostly just held down the throttle and gunned it straight for waypoints. Acknowledging that my hunger for friction in videogame traversal is a bit extreme (I turn Death Stranding to its hardest difficulty and refuse to use the assistive exosuits), it turns out a motorcycle that can just hover over most obstacles is pretty boring.

At least the speeder has a clear purpose. Kay's ship, the Trailblazer, gets the shortest end of the stick. Yes, the cool take-off transitions between ground and space are cool, but there's little reason to enter orbit if you're not headed to a different planet. There aren't many places to go in space. Toshara has the most with piles of scrap, a space station, and asteroids cluttering the area, but I've maybe spent 20 minutes total doing stuff there. Only one or two main quests heavily involve space combat or docking in a space station. It's mainly uneventful side jobs that call Kay to space—picking up lost cargo, killing a few pirates. It's a significant chunk of Outlaws that goes underused, but having played Starfield, at least I know it could be worse.

Outlaws is everything good and bad about big-budget open world excess. There's so much going on between its main quests, sidequests, gear quests, rumors, treasure hunts, and contracts, and yet fundamental fun videogame stuff like getting from place to place falls flat. One hour I'm totally engrossed eavesdropping on Stormtroopers plotting to fix the Fathier races, and the next I'm moaning at yet another boring climbing section.

I wish Outlaws took bigger risks with combat and doubled down on stealth opportunities, but dammit, roleplaying a scoundrel is some of the best fun I've had with anything Star Wars. Behind every forgettable story beat is a little bit of that Ubisoft magic.

[Syt]

Also, I should really finish Jedi: Fallen Order. I liked it a fair bit, but then got stuck on one puzzle and didn't return. And play Jedi: Survivor.

But I also re-installed Skyrim and the Lost Legacy wabbajack list and spent yesterday optimizing the various mod settings and performance (FPS in 2160p was a bit slow, and 1080p too blurry on my screen, but running in 1440 with most Vanilla ENB options activated I get 50-80 FPS in most areas, though Whiterun is sitting at 35-40 regardless of whether I use ENB or not  ; I blame the extra clutter and volumetric smoke), which is funny considering I use wabbajack modlists to save time on modding.

[Tamas]

Based on my total of 1.5 minutes on the speeder bike I tend to agree that this won't be a very fun segment control-wise although I am not sure what the expectation is. There's terrain, roads, animals, a few what seemed like points of interest... I haven't been to space yet except for a 20 second atmospheric flight and a cut-scene, I have expected the space portion to be an underwhelming tack-on so I am not too bothered. Again I am not sure what is the expectation there when there's like what, 6 planets, each is just a separate map you switch between via space travel.

Initial impressions of the stealth game, which is the focus, is mixed. It's frustrating because I think AI guards have a far better (i.e. realistic) line of sight than other AssCreed games. I raise their suspicion from quite far away if there's a clear line of sight.

It's interesting how they struggled to make gameplay without magic abilities so they gave you this dog-like creature to perform them. Very ewok-y cuteness factor (bleh) but it does work to give you those magic object manipulation things without making yet another Jedi game.

But damn, the towns and cities are very busy and atmospheric, seeing stormtroopers in the game brought out my inner kid a bit.

Overall I am happy with the game but I think using Ubisoft+ to play it was the right call, as I'll be unlikely to replay it (not immediately anyways) and for the price of the basic edition I will have 4 months access to the all-kitted-out edition.

[Josquius]

After paradox's cancelling of life by you I notice there's another "modern Sims" in development. This one with the stupidly named "InZoi".
There's been some reporting about their release of their character editor for free on steam. I had a look at it and...you know, it is very pretty. And it seems to run on my computer which must be approaching a decade old now. Very limited options though, emphasis seems to be just on clothes which...meh.
I have no interest in the game but there does seem to be quite a fuss about the use of AI.
https://www.thegamer.com/i-have-mixed-feelings-about-inzois-use-of-generative-ai/
Which could have learnings for interesting games.

[Syt]

I installed Outlaws yesterday (only 50-odd GB? WTF?), but didn't play it yet. Was completely knackered (not sleeping well at the moment, and had to walk home in 35° heat because a truck damaged a power line on my tram's route ... ), so I had a few energy drinks when I got home and fell asleep.

Tamas, I guess you probably spent some time with it?

[Tamas]

Yes and I feel like I was spot on on my expectations. I played it way too long last night, sacrificing precious sleep I can ill afford to go without.

BUT, I don't think I would be nearly this hooked if it wasn't Star Wars. Anyone not a SW geek should wait for a discount or try it via the subscription like I have

[Tamas]

And I think as a SW fan (if I can still call myself that while really only caring for the original trilogy  and its time period) what captures me most is playing a role that's (early in the story at least, dunno what'll happen later) just a regular cog in the (underworld) machine.

[Norgy]

I wonder how many computers that will be able to rund Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

I think mine can, but it will get warm.
And I will get owned by the combat system constantly.

[Tamas]

Not my screenshot, but apparently the Outlaws devs subscribe to the Greedo shot first heresy:



Literally unplayable

[Syt]

From the makers of Afghanistan '11 and Vietnam '65 comes their next title about asymmetrical military campaigns: Angola '86, in which you run the South African counter insurgency operations in Namibia from 1966 onwards.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2233150/Angola_86/

t is 1966 and the South African Border War has commenced, with the South African Defence Force being deployed to South West Arica.
As a SADF commander, wage a counter-insurgency (COIN) war to secure the region, on the border with Angola.

In order to win the Hearts and Minds of the local population you will need to track and destroy the SWAPO insurgents, who infiltrate from across the border and destabilize the region by intimidating the locals, laying mines and ambushing your forces.

The insurgents also have a bigger brother, the army of Angola (FAPLA). This Soviet supplied, conventional army have much wider ambitions than SWAPO, they want to take total control of the entire region, a stepping stone to unifying Angola under communist rule.

FAPLA provides a secure base from which SWAPO can operate, but it's primary focus is the destruction of UNITA, a faction supported by the USA and South Africa.
To carry out your COIN mission, co-ordination of ground troops, special forces, artillery, mechanized units, training of local forces (SWATF) and air force assets is essential, but of greater consequence is winning the support of the local population. With greater co-operation from the local inhabitants comes the reward of intelligence, a key factor in COIN warfare.

The war is not fought in isolation, so as the commander of the SADF forces, you will have the added complexity of managing the support for the war back home, should you the lose the support of the United Nations, the war will also be surely lost.
This is a game that captures the true essence of the South African Border War, where counter-insurgency operations are paramount, gathering intel, tracking the insurgents and destroying their bases in Angola play a critical role and containing FAPLA can save the day.

Rise through the ranks and watch your personalized uniform transform from a junior Lieutenant to General as you relive the South African Border War.

Features
- Hearts and Minds victory conditions
- Turn based strategy game, procedurally generated at the start of every new game thereby ensuring extended playability.
- Multiple factions for the player to control (SADF,SWATF,UNITA)
- Full and authentic order of battle management
- Political support model, stakeholder management of the sentiment back home.
- Full range of SADF units including transport helicopters, APC's, armor, Gunships, Engineers etc
- Full tracking and detection model, including helicopter air support
- Special Forces operations (Recces) and cross border raids
- Operational intelligence map
- Training of South West Africa Army (SWATF)
- Air strikes
- Medevacs and in field repairs
- Minesweeping and ambushes
- Full logistical model, including vehicle repairs and maintenance
- Road and base construction
- Handover and intervention of the United Nations (UNTAG)

[Syt]

Played an hour yesterday of Outlaws (trying to get away from the Sixth Kin now, so still veeery early). My 3080 seems to be able to run the game at 60 FPS on ultra if I drop resolution to 1440p which seems fine. 

I'm still getting used to the character designs. I like that they stylize the look a bit, but it still feels a bit uncanny valley. Also stopped to look at posters etc. The opening has a very Andor/first season of Mando vibe.

Really like the soundtrack added so far. Also a nice touch: Huttese voice lines are actual dialogue. If you've played KotOR you're familiar with characters that speak Huttese (or other non-Basic) looping through the same voice lines over and over. The characters speaking Huttese so far in cutscenes had actual dialogue written and performed (you can pick up recognizable bits and pieces in their words).

Seems nice so far, though I'm not sure how I feel about starting some interactions as soon as I step too close to a trigger spot. I was still exploring the cantina when I stepped near the exit and got the cutscene introucing the city. "No, stop, go back inside, I wasn't done there yet!" (Same with some characters.)

[Sophie Scholl]

I've seen little lore tidbits that mention the High Republic era that are really cool touches. In this case, it is the logbook or journal entries found aboard a derelict freighter that mention the Nihil. That's just fantastic world building and making the most of the Star Wars universe. You love to see it!