The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Syt]

Doesn't Field of Glory already occupy that niche?

Yes,but not in real time.

[Syt]

Songs of Steel: Hispania is out and currently 20% off:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2603300/Songs_of_Steel_Hispania/

Lead your people to victory and make history: Relive the confrontation that took place, from 153 BC to 133 BC, between the relentless Roman Republic and the brave Celtiberian people of Numantia.

Choose your side and immerse yourself in a system of classic combat strategy and tactics mechanics based on positioning, flanking, and covering, in-battle missions, and decision-making, through battles and cinematic with powerful hand-drawn illustrations.

Manage your resources and skilfully mobilize your troops in challenging settings, from dense forests to ancient cities and majestic mountains, taking advantage of the environment and weather to defeat far more powerful armies.

Five historical confrontations and forge new paths with two full campaigns to choose from, featuring battles and historical figures from a war that lasted two decades.

Experience the intensity of decision-making and its impact on combat and history. In-battle missions are a real challenge, where objectives can change in the blink of an eye. Prepare to adapt and make crucial strategic decisions in real-time.

Strategy for everyone, from beginners to veterans. Immerse yourself in a strategic combat system that perfectly balances tactical depth with universal accessibility.

Experience a complete combat system based on positioning, flanking, and covering as you face challenging scenarios, from dense forests to ancient cities and majestic mountains.

Use every resource at your disposal to defeat armies bigger than your own; in "Songs of Steel: Hispania", your strategic skill is the key to success.

With hand-drawn illustrations that capture the beauty and brutality of that era.

Meet historical figures such as Rhetogenes, Scipio, Megara, Ambo and Leuco

[Norgy]

Unpopular opinion:
Elden Ring is one of the worst games I have tried to play. Give the player above 40 years a chance, FFS.

[Valmy]

Unpopular opinion:
Elden Ring is one of the worst games I have tried to play. Give the player above 40 years a chance, FFS.

How dare you!

Actually I have never played a DS-ish game. I am sure they are fun but it looks like just such a commitment.

I did like this video though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_KVCFxnpj4

and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRo4arGaSk

Speaking of long commitments, but I just listened to them while doing work.

[Norgy]

The Souls-like games are dominating the market. And who am I to argue?

[Tamas]

Unpopular opinion:
Elden Ring is one of the worst games I have tried to play. Give the player above 40 years a chance, FFS.

I have only failed at the final boss fight.

Welcome back.

[Syt]

I like the Souls games, but I suck at them, and also take way too long to play through them, because I explore a lot and take my time getting to know new areas. DS1 was not too quick; more tactical than twitch based. DS3 upped the speed a lot, and I feel ER cranked it up some more, or at least added more confusing spectacle during some fights.

Not sure Souls-likes dominate the market though. There's a handful of "real" souls-likes (Nioh 2, Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen, The Surge) that usually aren't quite as good as the originals, and some games (like Jedi: Fallen Order) have adopted some mechanics but aren't nearly as hard.

Looking at most played on Steam ... yes, Elden Ring is up there (unsurprising with its new DLC out), but otherwise it's mostly the usual ... free to play multiplayer games, and things like Terraria, Stardew Valley, Euro Truck Sim, BG3, etc.

https://store.steampowered.com/charts/mostplayed/

[Norgy]

I have played BG3 a lot, but for all the flaws, I still find The Witcher 3 one of the best games made. Along with RDR2.

I notice noises about an Elder Scrolls VI, which I might be able to play in an old people's home, judging from the pace of Bethesda's development.

The OpenMW Morrowind project is nice, and sort of got me reminiscing about how weird and good that game was. Until I came in combat. After the third try on getting from Seyda Neen to Balmora and being wiped by that well-known combo of nix hound and cliff racer, ragequitting seemed like a good option.

[grumbler]

I have played BG3 a lot, but for all the flaws, I still find The Witcher 3 one of the best games made. Along with RDR2.

I notice noises about an Elder Scrolls VI, which I might be able to play in an old people's home, judging from the pace of Bethesda's development.

The OpenMW Morrowind project is nice, and sort of got me reminiscing about how weird and good that game was. Until I came in combat. After the third try on getting from Seyda Neen to Balmora and being wiped by that well-known combo of nix hound and cliff racer, ragequitting seemed like a good option.

OpenMW allows you to use regular MW mods, one of which turns off Cliff Racer aggression.  Don't play without it.

[Josquius]

Unpopular opinion:
Elden Ring is one of the worst games I have tried to play. Give the player above 40 years a chance, FFS.

I really don't get this twitchy hard for the sake of itself subgenre.

[The Minsky Moment]

I stopped Dark Souls early because I just didn't like the art style and the color palate.  I don't have an issue with dark creepy and atmospheric (like Silent Hill etc) I just found the game really drab

Haven't tried Elden Ring b/c with my games backlog I'm waiting for it go below 30 before buying, last Steam sale was close but not quite.

I tried the Flintlock Demo in the last steam tryout thingy. It's billed as a souls light. Quite liked the demo and it's coming out on gamepass soon so I'll try it out

[FunkMonk]

Elden Ring is actually easier than Dark Souls. In elden ring if I get my ass beat by a boss a few times then I'll go somewhere else, explore a bit, grind a couple levels, level up my weapon, and come back and beat the boss. The summons you find especially can help a lot with bosses. That's what I did with Margit, the first real boss in the game. Then I went back and killed that big knight guy at the very beginning on my first try. I did the same with a dungeon boss in the first zone.

The game is set up such that you can cheese the bosses to progress and that's OK. You can also go in as a low level character and skill your way through. That's OK too.

To be honest I find Elden Ring quite a chill game. I take it for granted I'm going to die a lot so I just roll with the punches. As I mentioned before, I'm playing it on Steam Deck, handheld not docked, so it's a tiny screen with like 35 fps, and I'm now officially 40 years old, so it is certainly possible to progress in the game without having a mega PC as an elite 20 yo gamer with Mountain Dew fueled skillz.

[Syt]

That's a good point - FromSoftware games usually provide plenty of tools to mitigate the difficulty - weapons, leveling, summoning help, different builds... the exception to this is Sekiro which does it to some degree but is heavily focused on its timed parry mechanic.

[Norgy]

I just don't have the time and effort to play much, so Elden Ring was one of those games I rage-quit after dieeeeeeiiiing so many times.

I realise I am not in the segment of the market they want to sell to, and I am fine with that. But I wanted an open-world fix, and yet another iteration of Far Cry was not really top of my list.

All this has made me realise how far, and how different, computer games have developed since I joined the Paradox boards in the last century or whatever.
I am awestruck by the sheer size and narrative of games like RDR2. And, yes, I cried when Arthur died.

On a brighter note, I hear a Witcher re-make and a new project for a Witcher 4 is in the making.

[Norgy]

OpenMW allows you to use regular MW mods, one of which turns off Cliff Racer aggression.  Don't play without it.

I am still a novice at OpenMW, but at least I have colourful flora and trees. It's like an LSD trip.

And thanks for the tip, I will check out more of the mods.