The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[frunk]

Sounds very POE late game bosses. I absolutely hate invulnerability phases for bosses. I think it can be done well, e.g. them doing an attack during which they can't be damaged, or if the fight is relatively short. But POE's "standing still inside a shield while you dodge stuff" for long stretches during fights (unless you have a dmg meta build) is really off putting.

So I took the fastest character and basically raced to the boss.  The pacing of the fight was completely different.  The first phase change was in 10 or 20 seconds, and I finished the fight in less than 2 minutes.

It turned out it was the next to last boss, and the last boss was simple although at least it had some neat ideas.

Curious if I was imagining it and because there was a side quest I wanted to find, I took the other character back to the boss and the phase changes took even longer than the first time.  It was easily 4-5 minutes of invulnerability before the first time I got to attack the boss. I did beat it, but it was a grind.  I can't tell if it is tied to level (the fast character was 2/5 levels lower than the other one), character type and/or there is something I'm not doing in the fight to trigger the changes.

[Syt]

This is kind of sad.

I got into Overwatch around the time of its release in 2016 and played it on and off for a year or so. It was a game made - among other things - for people like me, who are normally not big into multiplayer shooters. It had a big variety of generally cool and interesting characters for different play styles, an almost saccharine optimism in the future or the world, and once you bought the game, you could enjoy it in full (though it did sell loot boxes for cosmetics). Plus there were seasonal events with special missions and modes, skins etc.

The game wasn't perfect. There were (real or imagined) issues around match making, the meta quickly settled into very conservative team compositions (2-3 tanks, 2 healers, 1 dps) that Blizzard struggled to get balanced, and the community could be quite toxic in both ranked and unranked matches. But overall it was quite good fun if you had learned to play a few heroes decently enough to know broadly what you were doing.

Fast forward to six years later:

https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-2-review-in-progress/

The game will be free to play. You will be expected to buy a season pass to access all characters. AND you will have to grind to unlock some(?) of them. The game leans a lot more into monetization. While the original game itself had no story mode, all characters had fairly detailed backstories, told through in game shouts and comments, but also web comics and some pretty damn good animated shorts - seems that goes out of the window too. Instead of broad appeal and easy to get into gameplay it aims for a more "hardcore" demographic (according to the article at least), and removes some "classic" skills, like Mei's ability to freeze an enemy (it's never fun to be stunned/having control be taken away in a game, but usually there's counter plays or your team mates can help if they know what they're doing).

So yeah. From a brightly colored, joyful "shooter for everyone" to another "games as service" run of the mill shooter.



See, that's why I'm glad that there's still games like the From Software titles - Elden Ring, Sekiro, Dark Souls, Bloodborne. You pay once, and that's it. Maybe a DLC later on (as in proper big expansion packs, like in ye olden days). Have fun, enjoy the game. No pre-order items or skills, no special edition with exclusive armor or weapon sets, or cosmetics (even though with "Fashion Souls" (https://www.reddit.com/r/fashionsouls/) being a thing their games would be predestined for this, often featuring dozens on dozens of equipment items to create your preferred look). Maybe pay extra if you want an artbook PDF and the soundtrack, but that's it. No season pass. No loot boxes. No seasonal events. No grinding for points to get that special item before the event runs out. And Elden Ring sold like 15 million copies in half a year.

[frunk]

I picked up Wildermyth and I'm really enjoying it.  The complaints about combat being shallow or uninteresting are certainly valid, but there's just enough diversity in skills that you and your opponents get that it stays tolerable.  I think it helps that I focus on offense so the battles don't drag on and the boss battles usually have some new mechanics.

I have a bigger concern about the depth of stories.  I've finished three campaigns, and I'm starting to see a lot of repeated events.  Some I understand (like the Seer for cutting down on incursions) and others I appreciate so I can try different paths.  Since story is the main attraction I worry that I won't have much reason to play once I finish the main campaigns.

Still, I've already gotten more than my money's worth out of it so I won't be complaining that much.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, this isn't a game you keep replaying. If they put out a DLC I will definitely get it. I agree that I got for my moneys worth by the play Throughs I did have

[crazy canuck]

Manor Lords has a demo available on steam - no release date yet though.

[Syt]

Browsing Steam I saw that 1992's Ancient Art of War in the Sky is up there: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1704640/The_Ancient_Art_of_War_in_the_Skies/



(It's part of their Microprose wargame collection: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/24509/Microprose_War_Simulation/ )

[Solmyr]

I have a bigger concern about the depth of stories.  I've finished three campaigns, and I'm starting to see a lot of repeated events.  Some I understand (like the Seer for cutting down on incursions) and others I appreciate so I can try different paths.  Since story is the main attraction I worry that I won't have much reason to play once I finish the main campaigns.

The game is very moddable (it has an in-game toolkit that lets you add events with specific triggers and many other things), and there are a bunch of event mods on the Steam workshop. I recommend trying those.

[Syt]

Emperor of the Fading Suns has received a new patch 25 years after release: https://www.gog.com/forum/emperor_of_the_fading_suns/emperor_of_the_fading_suns_enhanced

Patch notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qw4w9gEKaVVrhx8JcIY-t858W_QDmRT8eJB9XIJLwgs/edit

Developer doing a preview stream a few weeks ago:

[Jacob]

Emperor of the Fading Suns has received a new patch 25 years after release: https://www.gog.com/forum/emperor_of_the_fading_suns/emperor_of_the_fading_suns_enhanced

Patch notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qw4w9gEKaVVrhx8JcIY-t858W_QDmRT8eJB9XIJLwgs/edit

Developer doing a preview stream a few weeks ago:

Holy crap!

I really wanted to like that game, but I thought some things were a little off... let's see the patch notes....

[grumbler]

Emperor of the Fading Suns was the first game I recall that had a deliberate atmosphere.  I was somewhat surprised that so few subsequent game designers tried to do the same.

[crazy canuck]

Manor Lords has a demo available on steam - no release date yet though.

This already very promising.

[Syt]

Yes, saw preview of Manor Lords, and it looks really nice. I've been holding off on Foundation as I was wanting it to get out of Early Access, but I think it might get bumped off the list for me if ML turns out well.


Meanwhile:

Superpower III has released to minimal fanfare: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1563130/SuperPower_3/

SuperPower 3 is a modern geopolitical sim in a planet Earth setup. Rule the world or challenge your knowledge about demography, economics, military strategy, as well as political issues across the globe. Compete with or against other players, or just try to do better than the real-life politicians.

It's ... not well received. 

ALL REVIEWS: Overwhelmingly Negative (508)

[Crazy_Ivan80]

None of the superpowers has ever done well iirc.

[Tamas]

So am I the only one playing Terra Invicta?

[Syt]

I've picked it up, played the tutorial a bit - very much like what I see but I'm too into CK3 atm.