The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Josquius]

Tried to play ancestors the human kind odyssey.

I don't get it. It's very unintuitive.

[Syt]

So I've been mostly (slowly) playing Final Fantasy 14 recently. It's nice escapism, and rather relaxing. I was trepedatious about the mandatory group content you need to advance the main story, but even that has been a breeze (as a tank, anyways) - the game has dungeon roulettes for high level players that they often use for leveling additional classes, so waiting times aren't much of a problem. Other players are chill, for the most part, and helpful. I'm actually thinking about joining a guild to have people to chat with while I go through the campaign.

The base campaign (A Realm Reborn) is not the greatest writing ever, but I'm enjoying plucking away at it and doing some side quests (I'm still 10+ levels ahead of the main quest). I am using a guide for what systems unlock when, and checked some beginner guides on what quests to pick up or leave for later - the game inundates you with the option to start leveling additional classes, crafting and gathering pretty early, but the general advice is to leave those for later.

I wouldn't recommend the game if you have strong opinions about anime art style, cat girls, etc. It's also leaning into the goofiness of MMOs, though it tries to keep it out of the main story from what I understand (with the story becoming significantly better but also featuring pretty long cutscenes at points with the expansions). So if a rabbit girl in a surfer outfit playing Metallica's One on an electric guitar in a social hub or a character riding around in a flying tank or bed breaks your immersion, I'd again not recommend.

Additionally, I wouldn't recommend this if you like to create and customize builds - you get your abilities automatically, you don't have to worry about assigning skill points, and while gear is important it's not the be-all/end-all. It's more important to learn your class's rotations and skills and how to ideally string them together and apply this to mechanics in dungeons and boss fights. It's not exactly Path of Exile in that regard.

But yeah, I enjoy it. I got a good chuckle out of this dialogue from a quest giver yesterday. She sends you to kill mongrels (because they killed her fiance), and later asks you to take a delivery to a different camp. As she explains:

[Syt]

I've received an email from Slitherine/Matrix that I've been a customer since forever, and clicking the link I got a 44% coupon for my next purchase. Obviously, I picked up War in the East 2, at a more reasonable price of EUR 40 than the 71.99 advertised.

Now only to find time to learn this ... 

[Josquius]

So.

Seems paradox is a shit place to work?

https://kotaku.com/report-nearly-half-of-paradox-staff-experience-mistre-1847624162

[celedhring]

I've received an email from Slitherine/Matrix that I've been a customer since forever, and clicking the link I got a 44% coupon for my next purchase. Obviously, I picked up War in the East 2, at a more reasonable price of EUR 40 than the 71.99 advertised.

Now only to find time to learn this ... 

I got mine a few weeks ago, but I only deserved a meagre 5% 

[Syt]

Mine was for 13 years. At least on this account. Though I seem to recall that I had an older account for which I used to get vouchers for. But I think I merged them a while back and they may have gone with the newer one?

[Syt]

So.

Seems paradox is a shit place to work?

https://kotaku.com/report-nearly-half-of-paradox-staff-experience-mistre-1847624162

Yeah. Kinda fits the stories that came out last year. The leaving of their CEO is also a bit weird.

I know it's wild speculation, but I like to think it's no coincidence that Johan opened a studio in Spain around the time that employees in Stockholm got unionized.

[Razgovory]

I'm happy that workers in that industry are asserting their rights.

[Syt]

Preliminary cars list for Forza Horizon 5.

https://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/forza-horizon-5-confirmed-car-list

Bit over 400 cars to start with, which I believe was also the ballpark of FH4 at launch (it sits at over 700 at this point be now, I think, I really liked the James Bond Cars in FH4).

[Syt]

GOG adding a couple of Star Trek games, including Away Team, Elite Force I & II, and Armada I & II (the latter two coming "soon"):

https://www.gog.com/partner/startrek

[FunkMonk]

Got into playing No Man's Sky and I'm kinda hooked. I don't know what this game was like at launch but now it's got tons of stuff to do and see and I really enjoy just how super chill the game is. I can do the story missions or I can just fuck off and do my own thing for a few hours and explore some cool planets. It's the ultimate "decompress after a long day" sort of game.

[KRonn]

I just got XCom 2 from GoG and quite liking it so far. Just in my first game so a real rookie at it. I played a lot of the first/original Xcom game, but hadn't played any Xcom for years until now.

[garbon]

Got into playing No Man's Sky and I'm kinda hooked. I don't know what this game was like at launch but now it's got tons of stuff to do and see and I really enjoy just how super chill the game is. I can do the story missions or I can just fuck off and do my own thing for a few hours and explore some cool planets. It's the ultimate "decompress after a long day" sort of game.

I was wondering if it was worth it now given all the improvements and it is on sale.

[Barrister]

Got into playing No Man's Sky and I'm kinda hooked. I don't know what this game was like at launch but now it's got tons of stuff to do and see and I really enjoy just how super chill the game is. I can do the story missions or I can just fuck off and do my own thing for a few hours and explore some cool planets. It's the ultimate "decompress after a long day" sort of game.

I was wondering if it was worth it now given all the improvements and it is on sale.

I'vce meant to check that out one day.  I know it was lambasted on release, but it's had like 15-16 significant updates in the 5 years since release.

[Grey Fox]

It can feel lonely from time to time but there's usually a new discovery around the corner. The gameplay gets a little samey for me in the regular mode too. I should really try expedition one day.

I don't like the M&K controls.