The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[viper37]

I've been watching this game for a little while now:
http://greedfall.com/

I'll eventually buy it, but it looks really interesting for a RPG game, the world is really similar to 17th-18th century Europe (costumes, people, buildings, etc) but with fantastical creatures.

from what I have seen the main critics were that the game was buggy on release, but it should be ok by now for the worst bugs.
Valmy, you check this one out, in case you have some time left for another AAR

[Syt]

Making another attempt at breaking through the learning curve of Football Manager 2020. I have downloaded player images, etc. of course. And also found a skin that I like (FLUT).

The last time I seriously Football Managed was in the early 2000s, mostly with Anstoß 3, a German series (their head dev went on to lead EA's FIFA Manager series). The Anstoß series has a very dear place in my heart. It was of course much more limited than modern games. You could only play in Germany, and only in the top two leagues. There were less stats, and matches were either radio style text only or pre-rendered scenes with multiple outcomes.

The series was also a bit irreverent. There were random events that could affect you (like a rock concert in the stadium requiring you to redo the turf, or a player releasing a tell all book, tanking squad morale). The April 1st jokes were the worst. "Your entire team died in a plane crash!" .... "April Fools!" They caused serious WTF moments you first encountered them.

It also handled the shady side of things. You could funnel money into a secret fund that you could use to bribe players or refs. You could use performance enhancing drugs, and the trick was to use them early enough during season prep that players wouldn't test positive during matches, but late enough to give you a competitive edge before the effect dissipates. Or you just risk it and use it during the season.

One thing that German football managers did, which I didn't realize I missed until some German online comments pointed it out when FM got a German release last year or the year before, was add a business sim on top of the football sim. You had to negotiate your contracts with sponsors and TV stations. You set prices for tickets and merchandise (Anstoß kept stats which player's merch was the most popular). You were responsible for maintaining, expanding, or rebuilding your stadium. Heck, Anstoß 3 had a little Sim City bit where you built your club area with its various buildings and facilities:



You also had some RPG elements - you could date and marry, have kids (who might become players themselves), bought houses and status symbols ...

Gotta say, I miss that whole aspect a little bit.

[Tamas]

I'd argue that FM's latest iterations are very heavy on the RPG part.

You have LOTS of communication options with your players, the press, the board, and specific relationships with these, down to individual journalists.

[celedhring]

In FM if you play long enough you can have your son show up in your team's youth teams, too.

One option I've always missed, besides having a bit more meat in the business part of the simulation, is being able to play as a player/manager. I recall an older football manager sim where you could do that.

[Josquius]

Yes. I too miss that side of things on old footy manager games. I used to like premier manager for this and fifa mangers stadium builder was fun.

I await my Roy of the rovers adventure game.

[DGuller]

I recently got back into GTA IV.  Last time I played it was almost 10 years ago, and back then I just started out driving for real.  I just now played a mission centered around the southern tip of Man Algonquin, and I've had that creepy feeling of deja vu.  Not from playing the game before, but from having driven in or through downtown Manhattan before.  It even had my workplace building in the game modeled, which isn't particularly famous or remarkable.  That was a masterpiece of a game.

[garbon]

Yeah, that's like kind of their freaky thing. I just drove for the first time in Malibu today and felt a tinge of recognition from GTAV.

[Syt]

Not having been to LA I felt some of that when I played GTA5 after L.A. Noire, where some L.A. inspired historical buildings gave me an odd sense of dejà vu. "Oh, isn't that the church ... didn't there used to be a car salesman two corners from here?"

[Josquius]

I really have my fingers crossed for GTA6 returning to the UK. A grotty northern city would be a great setting. And be good for this feel

[Tamas]

I really have my fingers crossed for GTA6 returning to the UK. A grotty northern city would be a great setting. And be good for this feel

Nobody a yard away from Northern England gives a rat's ass about Northern England.

[Syt]

Northern England/Southern Scotland was beautifully represented in Forza Horizon 4.

[Syt]

Possibly of interest to WW2 carrier action fans here:

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/14/the-flare-path-talks-task-force-admiral/

For a man patently hellbent on developing the most realistic Pacific Theatre of Operations wet wargame ever, French flat-top fan 'Amiral Crapaud' uses the 'R' word extremely sparingly. Still at least a year away*, Task Force Admiral Volume 1: American Carrier Battles is a project with ancient touchstones, but a thoroughly modern approach to graphics, physics, and what Carl von Clausewitz called "friction". I've high hopes for Drydock Dream Games' debut diversion. Read the following Shinano-sized interview to understand why.

* A limited playable beta may arrive before 2021.

(Interview in article)

Pre-alpha tech demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upbqBpcG3EA&feature=emb_logo

[Razgovory]

I recently got back into GTA IV.  Last time I played it was almost 10 years ago, and back then I just started out driving for real.  I just now played a mission centered around the southern tip of Man Algonquin, and I've had that creepy feeling of deja vu.  Not from playing the game before, but from having driven in or through downtown Manhattan before.  It even had my workplace building in the game modeled, which isn't particularly famous or remarkable.  That was a masterpiece of a game.

I thought of GTA IV as a Dguller simulator.  You start out as an eastern European immigrant in Brighton Beach and go on an epic quest to New Jersey.

[DGuller]

I recently got back into GTA IV.  Last time I played it was almost 10 years ago, and back then I just started out driving for real.  I just now played a mission centered around the southern tip of Man Algonquin, and I've had that creepy feeling of deja vu.  Not from playing the game before, but from having driven in or through downtown Manhattan before.  It even had my workplace building in the game modeled, which isn't particularly famous or remarkable.  That was a masterpiece of a game.

I thought of GTA IV as a Dguller simulator.  You start out as an eastern European immigrant in Brighton Beach and go on an epic quest to New Jersey.

[Razgovory]

I recently got back into GTA IV.  Last time I played it was almost 10 years ago, and back then I just started out driving for real.  I just now played a mission centered around the southern tip of Man Algonquin, and I've had that creepy feeling of deja vu.  Not from playing the game before, but from having driven in or through downtown Manhattan before.  It even had my workplace building in the game modeled, which isn't particularly famous or remarkable.  That was a masterpiece of a game.

I thought of GTA IV as a Dguller simulator.  You start out as an eastern European immigrant in Brighton Beach and go on an epic quest to New Jersey.

Is that not your life story?