The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[The Minsky Moment]

There were also a ton of rogue-likes, souls-likes, XYZ-likes, metroidvanias of every kind.  Only one that managed to pique my interest was Spirit of the Samurai.  Silly story, but the art looked nice.  And it has a kitten.

[Josquius]

Precinct worked fine on my Dec.

I get it. But... Yeah. Maybe not for me. Perhaps part of the age old problem of doing gta but as a cop, many games have tried and failed at this in the somewhat distant past.

If it stuck to the action and set pieces it could be good but having to read rights, transport perps and all that sort of thing... I can see it getting old fast.


I've also tried House of Legacy. A city builder which looks beautiful.


The demo sucks. Just click click click. Seems way too overly complex around personal relations.

[crazy canuck]

The other demo I managed over the weekend of interest was Burden of Command.  Another squad leader influenced game, but as the name indicates, the emphasis is on leadership and command, rather than cruchy equipment tables.  Some RPG elements as the officers can gain or lose trust points with the men, or "prestige" (credibility) points with the higher ups.  The demo has a tutorial scenario where the designer does a lot of talking about the different design elements.

This is one I am interested in.

[crazy canuck]

I spent some time with Ara History Untold.  I like the game mechanics but it plays like they rushed it out of early access.  There are still some basic mechanics that didn't make it into the release, like being able to upgrade units, that they are promising in an upcoming patch.  There is also a lot of needless micromanagement caused by not including the necessary summary reports about what is happening in the various production chains.  Another thing the devs are promising to fix next patch.

One thing that they are not yet addressing is a way to influence how the random map is generated.  The only option if you get a type of random generation you don't want is to roll again.

This game will be worth a try after a lot of polishing.  But I can't recommend it now.

[The Minsky Moment]

This is one I am interested in.

FYI - a Steam Deck can play that game, but at present, it can't output to the screen because of scaling issues.  You'd have to run it through an external monitor.  But since the game can run on very modest specs, it can be run on any laptop made in the last decade.

Re city builders, there was an Egyptian one that looked pretty good and an intriguing Aztec themed one called Tlatoani.  I downloaded both but haven't gotten around to them yet.

[Syt]

I love tile based city builders. They're great for chilling while listening to podcasts or just relaxing. By now I have a frankly embarrassing amount of hours in Dorfromantik, but other games can scratch that itch (Panorama, Terrascape).

Technotopia is another one that came out recently, which while cheap (€6 or so) isn't bad, but has some quirks. It's set in a pixely voxel art deco cyberpunk world, and it comes with an overarching story of you being an AI trying to run the "perfect" city which adds a bit of a Reigns element to it (events with decisions, having to balance four factions against each other). I generally like the city building/card drawing/building unlocking aspect, but I couldn't care less for the story (I say, as someone who's usually into story stuff - just not something I want in these games, I guess?). And the building selection itself seems a bit limited? Then again, for the price I didn't expect too much, so I think it delivers.

Also, the game doesn't look great on my screen, because I think it doesn't even go to 1080p resolution? Unless I overlooked something.

[Syt]

I tried out Balatro on the weekend. And have already 9 hours in it.

As roguelike deckbuilders go, it's fairly simple:
The game is structured into Antes, each Ante is three rounds, the final one being a "boss" Ante that adds a twist. Each round you have a certain number of hands/discards you can play to reach the target score of the round.

Where it gets interesting is the modifiers you pick up. The main piece are 150 different joker cards you can unlock. You can hold 5 of them at a time and they add modifiers - increasing your scores, adding multipliers, buffing certain cards or poker hands etc. with room for synergizing.

Then you have consumable cards. Tarot cards can modify cards (change its suit color, add bonuses when you play them or keep them in your hand without playing them), add Jokers to your hand, or create other cards.

Next are planet cards - they level up your poker hands, making e.g. two pairs score more when you play it.

Celestial cards are more powerful buffs. They can change your entire hand to a single suit. Or even the same rank (e.g. suddenly you have nine Queens in your hand). All these changes to cards are applied for the entirety of your run.

Finally there's vouchers - generally showing up once a round, adding a more general buff, like making certain card types more likely to show up in the shop, increasing the number of hands or discards or cards in your hand.

Oh, and you can buy regular cards, too, sometimes with powerful buffs. You can also decide to skip rounds (except boss rounds) which may have you skip some money earning opportunities but may give you some free jokers or other powerful cards, or let you re-roll a boss with a nasty gimmick. And on top of that you can unlock card decks that provide different starting rules - more hands, more discards, more money ... before talking about challenge runs or adding highr challenges in general to your runs (think the increasing level in Slay the Spire).

All that with a slightly pixely CRT aesthetic.

Really fun once you start learning the intricacies, though (at the moment) it feels more random than StS - in StS you can generall learn what enemies show up where and what their sequence of attacks are. In Balatro it's all on you and what you make of the cards you get - you might get great synergies, or you may end up running into cards that act against each other, but it's still fun to go back for "one more run" ... and getting high scoring combos tickles the endorphine center of the brain nicely.

[11B4V]

I have reloaded the mods and fired up Fallout 3 and the Quest for Heaven series. The Mod that ruined Fallout for me....

[grumbler]

I have reloaded the mods and fired up Fallout 3 and the Quest for Heaven series. The Mod that ruined Fallout for me....

I only wish that someone would mod it for TTW.  The official TTW team won't do it for some ridiculous reasons (like they can't get permission from one of the original developers, who is dead).

[11B4V]

I have reloaded the mods and fired up Fallout 3 and the Quest for Heaven series. The Mod that ruined Fallout for me....

I only wish that someone would mod it for TTW.  The official TTW team won't do it for some ridiculous reasons (like they can't get permission from one of the original developers, who is dead).

That would be cool if they would.

[Josquius]

Found today. A release tracker for Mega Drive game.

https://md.restartmag.com/

That is recent and future mega drive releases.
This is a thing.

[celedhring]

Found today. A release tracker for Mega Drive game.

https://md.restartmag.com/

That is recent and future mega drive releases.
This is a thing.

Yeah 1990s retro gaming is really into overdrive nowadays. One of my friends who never cared for consoles when he was of the proper age now has bought a retro SNES 

Nostalgia is quite the drug. I think it helps that pixel art graphics aged better than early 3D, and the simpler (in a good way) gameplay is a bit of a palate cleanser compared to modern games.

[Syt]

Found today. A release tracker for Mega Drive game.

https://md.restartmag.com/

That is recent and future mega drive releases.
This is a thing.

Btw, Sega plans to delist a whole bunch of classic games from Steam:

https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/articles/29776767664145-SEGA-Classics-FAQ#h_01JBWBC4E7NJ9WH4TKAZXJK27N

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

Alien Soldier

Alien Storm

Altered Beast

Beyond Oasis

Bio-Hazard Battle

Bonanza Bros

Columns

Columns III

Comix Zone

Crack Down

Crazy Taxi

Decap Attack

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine

Dreamcast Collection Bundle

Dynamite Headdy

Ecco Jr.

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco: The Tides of Time

ESWAT: City Under Siege

Eternal Champions

Fatal Labyrinth

Flicky

Galaxy Force II

Gain Ground

Golden Axe

Golden Axe II

Golden Axe III

Gunstar Heroes

Jet Set Radio

Kid Chameleon

Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole

Light Crusader

Mega Drive and Genesis Classic Bundle

NiGHTS into Dreams

Phantasy Star II

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Ristar

SEGA Bass Fishing

Shadow Dancer

Shining Force

Shining Force II

Shining in the Darkness

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic Spinball

Space Channel 5: Part 2

Space Harrier II

Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 3

Super Thunder Blade

Sword of Vermilion

The Revenge of Shinobi

ToeJam & Earl

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkoton

VectorMan

VectorMan 2

Virtua Fighter 2

Wonder Boy in Monster World

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Emulators exist, obviously, just as a headsup.

[The Minsky Moment]

Btw, Sega plans to delist a whole bunch of classic games from Steam:

I got this collection the first time it went on sale.  Seems like prior buyers will be grandfathered In (cross fingers).  Among the other benefits, the collection is a legal way to acquire ROMS for these games.  The uncompressed ROMS are placed in your game folder when you DL the game from steam.

I'm a sucker for these collections, got a bunch of the Capcom ones too (mixed bag), plus the Atari 50 (fantastic)

[The Minsky Moment]

Nostalgia is quite the drug. I think it helps that pixel art graphics aged better than early 3D

No question - the best SNES/Genesis games look a lot better than PS1 era.