Kori Odan proved interesting as we moved through the last of the tutoriap chapter and had a series of "Hey, Listen!" moments with the wife that transitioned from nagging to character development.
Also got a better read on the magic system.
You unlock aspects from your ancestors. Main character started out with "Honor"
His first rival had, "Revolution"
The first boss outside the intro had "Perversion"
You sync with an ancestor, get power
Aurion is one of those games that are good enough that I always feel like I should go back to it and finish it, but not quite so good that I don't get distracted away from it by some other game.
I tend to forget about it for long stretches of time and then, when I remember it and intend to go back to it, it's been so long that I've forgotten everything and feel like I ought to start over.
I asked for advice about heavy graphics intensive games to max it out and picked up Control. First thing i did was max out all the settings to see what i could do. the games been running great for the most part, but one thing that i keep running into and im not sure if its just how the game is, or if one of my settings is off. if i go into a darkened room, its like pitch black. I mean like there is almost no ambient light from the room or hallway i just left showing into the new room. maybe this is just going for realism (or surrealism in this games case) the only thing i see inside are small lights like from the loot caches or a monitor screen, but even those should be casting more light into the room then they actually are. I tried lowering all the shadow features in the settings, dont see any changes. any idea what setting could be causing this?
I've now got about 15 hours into Rage 2. I'm enjoying myself but am questioning a lot of design decisions.
I get that open world games usually need some form of transport faster than walking on foot but driving around everywhere just isn't doing much for me. I think part of it is that you're largely on roads which can lead to some very circuitous routes around things. In the regions where the landscape lets you drive off road this isn't so bad but the mountainous and forested areas don't give much freedom to chart your own route.
I'm also mixed on the vehicle combat. Early on, being able to winnow the number of bandits at a camp with your personal vehicle's starting miniguns before clearing out the buildings on foot can be handy. But I've never felt compelled to fight the randomly spawned hostile vehicles you sometimes bump into. For one, they usually can't really keep fighting you if you just keep driving past them. They can't turn around quickly enough and catch up to you. In addition, you don't really get anything for fighting them and vehicle weapon ammo is much less common to find than small arms ammunition. The convoys on the other hand are fun to fight and actually reward you for taking them out but even they only have a little variety in group composition. And since it can take a good chunk of ammo to take one out, there's less incentive to use vehicle weapon ammo on anything else.
Speaking of vehicles, the racing activity feels awful. My biggest complaint is that when you cross the finish line the activity doesn't automatically stop and instead goes into a partially computer controlled lap around the track. It does not tell you how to exit this faux-cutscene and I was stuck in it until I happened to hit the space bar. As for the racing itself, you're taken out of your normal cars to use racing specific cars meaning no vehicle weapons and you have to quickly adapt to how another vehicle handles and it handles pretty poorly. While I was googling how to get out of the racing autopilot scene, I came across a lot of frustration at the racing itself and people who were unable to complete the one main quest required go at it. Now after I'd gotten use to how the race car handled, I found the racing pretty simple and beat it on my second attempt. The AI drivers aren't very good, just kind of annoying, and applying some pretty basic motorsport theory to initially slow down and take better paths through turns and more thoughtful use of the nitrous analogue to accelerate out of turns put me in first place really quickly. This is however not the kind of thing people should be expected to know to advance in an FPS. Now towards the end of my final lap I did manage to eliminate another racer by blocking his attempt to pass me on a turn in such a way that he crashed into a wall hard enough to explode so there could be a more interesting way to finish that quest but you'd have to be doing well enough to be that close to the other cars first.
Finally, you know how in open world games that grant you abilities or different weapon types the game's main route will introduce them to you, give you a chance to familiarize yourself with them, and generally be proud to show off what the designers came up with? Rage 2 doesn't do that. My biggest design complaint (my actual biggest complaint would likely be the writing and dialogue) so far is that you can easily not find the majority of the game's weapons and powers. Five of the game's eight weapons are unlocked through non-story related locations. The special powers you get are similarly easy to miss as only one is required by the story though you at least will end up super close to the locations of a few if you follow the route the game suggests out of the starting area. If you talk with the major quest givers after finishing their initial quests, they'll all point out an unlock location but you have to know it's worth talking to some npcs again (and want to bother given how bland the writing is). There are vendors that will sell you the locations of areas with good loot but only a handful of the weapon/power unlock locations are listed there. After buying all of those out and accepting every quest I could find, I ended up just looking at a map online to find the remaining locations to unlock things. This is a huge shame as the powers are a huge part of what makes the combat more engaging than the likes of Far Cry and while the handgun, assault rifle, and shotgun you unlock via the story probably are more than enough to finish the game the other weapons are more interesting and this is the first Avalanche game I've played where I haven't hated the shooting. Why would you put a rocket launcher with a fun alternate fire mode in an FPS and let the player skip over it? Or what I'm pretty sure is the first Quake-inspired shoot through multiple opponents railgun I've seen in an open world game? Or the rather unorthodox gun that fires darts than then burst into flames with a remote trigger? The game is supposed to be a more colorful and over the top take on open world shooters that otherwise have a tacticool aesthetic and it hides away the abilities that make it that way.
I've come to the conclusion that Avalanche is a studio that came create great game mechanics for open world games and will then botch putting together an entire game. I think this is the first time they've made shooting feel good after botching it throughout the Just Cause series. To date, Mad Max has been my favorite release from them and I think the smaller scope, being given direction for the writing, being able to crib the feel of melee combat from the Batman Arkham games, and other constraints forced the studio to be more focused. They've certainly taken some lessons from that game and applied them here and perhaps in another few years they'll release a game I don't have reservations about recommending. In the meantime, I look forward to setting all the bandits and mutants on fire when I next load the game.
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
The Surge
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV STEAM EDITION
Atari Vault
SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
If anyone has been wanting to get the newest Sonic Racing game, Team Sonic Racing, it's currently available for US$9 at 2game.com using the discount code ISTHEREANYDEAL. I had a lot of fun with the last one so I figured I would pick this one up too.
EDIT: Also note that it currently uses Denuvo copy protection for those people where that is an issue.
The first Magical Diary had you playing as a female student and a member of... Horse Hall, I think?
This one has you playing as a male student and member of Wolf Hall. If it's anything like the first Magical Diary game, it's a nice low-stakes visual novel with good characters and some neat puzzle-solving/dungeon-crawling built-in for various magical exams.
EDIT: Magical Diary: Horse Hall, as the original game has been re-branded is 75% off right now as well!
I've come to the conclusion that Avalanche is a studio that came create great game mechanics for open world games and will then botch putting together an entire game. I think this is the first time they've made shooting feel good after botching it throughout the Just Cause series. To date, Mad Max has been my favorite release from them and I think the smaller scope, being given direction for the writing, being able to crib the feel of melee combat from the Batman Arkham games, and other constraints forced the studio to be more focused. They've certainly taken some lessons from that game and applied them here and perhaps in another few years they'll release a game I don't have reservations about recommending. In the meantime, I look forward to setting all the bandits and mutants on fire when I next load the game.
The combat mechanics were made by id software. That’s why it feels so good to shoot dudes. Avalanche designed the open world.
An unexpected gift brightens my waning President's Day!
Thanks @McMoogle for Far Cry New Dawn! Despite some deeply problematic writing, characters, storylines and themes, I do love this franchise for its map full of explorable icons, the shooting, the power creep and especially the crafting. I don't know what animal I will need to kill and skin in post-apocalyptic Montana to make bigger wallets, but rest assured I will find, kill and skin them all!
Thanks! I love Surgeon Simulator and got serious vibes from that as well. If it has a grading system that will definitely be a stretch goal for the next big Steam sale!
This is not quite Steam thread* but I think it's worth mentioning for those of us who love a good arcade racer - I think FORZA HORIZON 4 is very sneakily the best arcade driving game ever made. I think it stands head, shoulders, knees and toes over it's closest competitor: Forza Horizon 3 (with all else a very, very distant third place - probably Burnout Paradise?) There is so much to do and the systems are so flexible that despite being an incredibly dense open-world game, choice paralysis has never come up. That is an exceptional achievement that should be lauded. @Stabbity Style, or should I say Mr. 100%, back me up here
I've come to the conclusion that Avalanche is a studio that came create great game mechanics for open world games and will then botch putting together an entire game. I think this is the first time they've made shooting feel good after botching it throughout the Just Cause series. To date, Mad Max has been my favorite release from them and I think the smaller scope, being given direction for the writing, being able to crib the feel of melee combat from the Batman Arkham games, and other constraints forced the studio to be more focused. They've certainly taken some lessons from that game and applied them here and perhaps in another few years they'll release a game I don't have reservations about recommending. In the meantime, I look forward to setting all the bandits and mutants on fire when I next load the game.
The combat mechanics were made by id software. That’s why it feels so good to shoot dudes. Avalanche designed the open world.
Avalanche does seem to know how to take lessons learned from a previous game and use it future games. The convoys in Rage 2 aren't quite as chaotic as those in Mad Max but they're still fun to take down.
I think the sci fi setting helped as well. It's no uncommon for open world games/shooters to have some bullet spongey enemies and Rage 2 is no exception. Those tend to have armor that gets destroyed with damage which goes a long way in providing visual feedback even if the target isn't dead yet.
I'm here to proselytize for The Surge, it's great. Dark Souls but in a sci-fi environment where you can target specific limbs on your enemies. Unarmed limbs or heads take more damage, but if you target the armored limbs you can cut them off using a special attack, and then use the limb/head bit to craft the same armor that the enemy was wearing on that limb. It's pretty fun.
Also, there is a mechanic where you can "bank" your tech scrap (your souls, basically) at the game's version of bonfires, so you don't have to get into those situations where you're running around with 50,000 and get killed out of the blue. But, the more enemies you kill without returning to a bonfire, the higher the scrap reward becomes from killing them. Also, the bonfire plays background music, which you can replace with whatever track you want, so you can (for example) hear the Pioneer II music from PSO every time you get back to your safe areas.
This is not quite Steam thread* but I think it's worth mentioning for those of us who love a good arcade racer - I think FORZA HORIZON 4 is very sneakily the best arcade driving game ever made. I think it stands head, shoulders, knees and toes over it's closest competitor: Forza Horizon 3 (with all else a very, very distant third place - probably Burnout Paradise?) There is so much to do and the systems are so flexible that despite being an incredibly dense open-world game, choice paralysis has never come up. That is an exceptional achievement that should be lauded. @Stabbity Style, or should I say Mr. 100%, back me up here
*playing via the XBOX GamePass
It's very good! Seriously, I don't think there's really any arcade racer that comes close. You've got a staggering choice of cars, tons of customization available, and most races you can use whatever car you want and they'll adjust the race to that vehicle type and speed. And yeah, there's just so much to do. Hunting down bonus boards, driving every road, doing all the different races, side quests with fun challenges, and a very fun world to explore. There's also the 4 different seasons, which makes a real difference on how your cars handle and you need to account for in your driving. There's also a LEGO DLC where you can drive around a half lego, half real world and even drive some lego cars. Pretty much the only knock against it is that it's quite similar to previous Horizon games, so if you played those, it should be pretty familiar. That and some of the online multiplayer stuff is kinda weak. Though that new Battle Royale mode they added is actually pretty neat.
The first Magical Diary had you playing as a female student and a member of... Horse Hall, I think?
This one has you playing as a male student and member of Wolf Hall. If it's anything like the first Magical Diary game, it's a nice low-stakes visual novel with good characters and some neat puzzle-solving/dungeon-crawling built-in for various magical exams.
EDIT: Magical Diary: Horse Hall, as the original game has been re-branded is 75% off right now as well!
I will weigh in on this and say that MD: Horse Hall was- and still is- one of my all-time favorite VNs and I'm hoping to get my hands on Wolf Hall to see if the writing still stacks up.
Less than $4 for Horse Hall is an absolute goddamned steal.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
This is not quite Steam thread* but I think it's worth mentioning for those of us who love a good arcade racer - I think FORZA HORIZON 4 is very sneakily the best arcade driving game ever made. I think it stands head, shoulders, knees and toes over it's closest competitor: Forza Horizon 3 (with all else a very, very distant third place - probably Burnout Paradise?) There is so much to do and the systems are so flexible that despite being an incredibly dense open-world game, choice paralysis has never come up. That is an exceptional achievement that should be lauded. @Stabbity Style, or should I say Mr. 100%, back me up here
*playing via the XBOX GamePass
It's very good! Seriously, I don't think there's really any arcade racer that comes close. You've got a staggering choice of cars, tons of customization available, and most races you can use whatever car you want and they'll adjust the race to that vehicle type and speed. And yeah, there's just so much to do. Hunting down bonus boards, driving every road, doing all the different races, side quests with fun challenges, and a very fun world to explore. There's also the 4 different seasons, which makes a real difference on how your cars handle and you need to account for in your driving. There's also a LEGO DLC where you can drive around a half lego, half real world and even drive some lego cars. Pretty much the only knock against it is that it's quite similar to previous Horizon games, so if you played those, it should be pretty familiar. That and some of the online multiplayer stuff is kinda weak. Though that new Battle Royale mode they added is actually pretty neat.
I'm bummed that I'm not super jazzed about the DLC for it. LEGO is real cute and all but it's no Hot Wheels you know?
(To be fair, that's a real high bar to try to clear.)
But yeah, I was one of those idiot smucks that bought the ultimate edition when it came out, and amazingly feel that I wasn't quite ripped off. Beautiful, super fun to pick up and blitz across the countryside, and absolutely loaded with stuff to do.
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
I'm here to proselytize for The Surge, it's great. Dark Souls but in a sci-fi environment where you can target specific limbs on your enemies. Unarmed limbs or heads take more damage, but if you target the armored limbs you can cut them off using a special attack, and then use the limb/head bit to craft the same armor that the enemy was wearing on that limb. It's pretty fun.
Also, there is a mechanic where you can "bank" your tech scrap (your souls, basically) at the game's version of bonfires, so you don't have to get into those situations where you're running around with 50,000 and get killed out of the blue. But, the more enemies you kill without returning to a bonfire, the higher the scrap reward becomes from killing them. Also, the bonfire plays background music, which you can replace with whatever track you want, so you can (for example) hear the Pioneer II music from PSO every time you get back to your safe areas.
Only downside is no multiplayer.
I really liked the aethetic of Surge, but the camera leaves something to be desired. I hear the sequel is better about it.
This is not quite Steam thread* but I think it's worth mentioning for those of us who love a good arcade racer - I think FORZA HORIZON 4 is very sneakily the best arcade driving game ever made. I think it stands head, shoulders, knees and toes over it's closest competitor: Forza Horizon 3 (with all else a very, very distant third place - probably Burnout Paradise?) There is so much to do and the systems are so flexible that despite being an incredibly dense open-world game, choice paralysis has never come up. That is an exceptional achievement that should be lauded. @Stabbity Style, or should I say Mr. 100%, back me up here
*playing via the XBOX GamePass
It's very good! Seriously, I don't think there's really any arcade racer that comes close. You've got a staggering choice of cars, tons of customization available, and most races you can use whatever car you want and they'll adjust the race to that vehicle type and speed. And yeah, there's just so much to do. Hunting down bonus boards, driving every road, doing all the different races, side quests with fun challenges, and a very fun world to explore. There's also the 4 different seasons, which makes a real difference on how your cars handle and you need to account for in your driving. There's also a LEGO DLC where you can drive around a half lego, half real world and even drive some lego cars. Pretty much the only knock against it is that it's quite similar to previous Horizon games, so if you played those, it should be pretty familiar. That and some of the online multiplayer stuff is kinda weak. Though that new Battle Royale mode they added is actually pretty neat.
I'm bummed that I'm not super jazzed about the DLC for it. LEGO is real cute and all but it's no Hot Wheels you know?
(To be fair, that's a real high bar to try to clear.)
But yeah, I was one of those idiot smucks that bought the ultimate edition when it came out, and amazingly feel that I wasn't quite ripped off. Beautiful, super fun to pick up and blitz across the countryside, and absolutely loaded with stuff to do.
Oh man I forgot about the Hot Wheels DLC for FH3. Well that definitely locks it into err.. 2nd place haha
Started playing Code Vein over the weekend. Last night I got to the Cathedral, which is essentially Not Anor Londo and really that's the best first warning the game could give about what was lurking inside: Valkryie enemies who do not stagger, attack constantly, and can teleport to close distance instantly.
I went in with a magic build that promptly got destroyed because hard to get spells off when the enemy is constantly staggering me, tried full physical with a giant axe and still couldn't stagger them so even though I wasn't being staggered anymore I was still getting shredded, then moved to a full on Hornet Ring type Assassin build focused on parrying and ripostes for massive damage just trying to make it from one mistle to the next. I'm currently at the third one and doesn't look like I'm anywhere near done with this place yet.
This is not quite Steam thread* but I think it's worth mentioning for those of us who love a good arcade racer - I think FORZA HORIZON 4 is very sneakily the best arcade driving game ever made. I think it stands head, shoulders, knees and toes over it's closest competitor: Forza Horizon 3 (with all else a very, very distant third place - probably Burnout Paradise?) There is so much to do and the systems are so flexible that despite being an incredibly dense open-world game, choice paralysis has never come up. That is an exceptional achievement that should be lauded. @Stabbity Style, or should I say Mr. 100%, back me up here
*playing via the XBOX GamePass
It's very good! Seriously, I don't think there's really any arcade racer that comes close. You've got a staggering choice of cars, tons of customization available, and most races you can use whatever car you want and they'll adjust the race to that vehicle type and speed. And yeah, there's just so much to do. Hunting down bonus boards, driving every road, doing all the different races, side quests with fun challenges, and a very fun world to explore. There's also the 4 different seasons, which makes a real difference on how your cars handle and you need to account for in your driving. There's also a LEGO DLC where you can drive around a half lego, half real world and even drive some lego cars. Pretty much the only knock against it is that it's quite similar to previous Horizon games, so if you played those, it should be pretty familiar. That and some of the online multiplayer stuff is kinda weak. Though that new Battle Royale mode they added is actually pretty neat.
I'm bummed that I'm not super jazzed about the DLC for it. LEGO is real cute and all but it's no Hot Wheels you know?
(To be fair, that's a real high bar to try to clear.)
But yeah, I was one of those idiot smucks that bought the ultimate edition when it came out, and amazingly feel that I wasn't quite ripped off. Beautiful, super fun to pick up and blitz across the countryside, and absolutely loaded with stuff to do.
Wait, what game is this??? Someone made a Hot Wheels racing game?
When I was a little kid I was really poor (I mean I'm still kinda poor, only now it's my fault), and I fucking loooooved Hot Wheels cars. I had a bunch (the benefits of enjoying a cheap toy, back then they were like $0.75 a piece), cars, tracks, you name it. Still though, I always wanted more, and it was to my great childhood consternation that I could not get hundreds of cars, thousands of cars, untold numbers of cars in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Anyway, sometime back in my early 20s I was thinking about my childhood desire to become a Hotwheels car baron, and I realized something - I was an adult, I made my own money, I could buy Hotwheels cars whenever I wanted to! I didn't actually do it, but it was this really cool, almost liberating feeling.
Anyway, now I am an ancient old man, but every once in a while, when I'm having a truly shitty day, I'll pick up a Hot Wheels car at the grocery store or wherever, and it always cheers me up. I have a couple on my desk, but outside of that I usually give them away or save them for Christmas toy drives. Still though, it always cheers me up.
Anyway, any hints or tips people can give me before starting Mobster Hunter?
When I was a little kid I was really poor (I mean I'm still kinda poor, only now it's my fault), and I fucking loooooved Hot Wheels cars. I had a bunch (the benefits of enjoying a cheap toy, back then they were like $0.75 a piece), cars, tracks, you name it. Still though, I always wanted more, and it was to my great childhood cobsternation that I could not get hundreds of cars, thousands of cars, untold numbers of cars in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Anyway, sometime back in my early 20s I was thinking about my childhood desire to become a Hotwheels car baron, and I realized something - I was an adult, I made my own money, I could buy Hotwheels cars whenever I wanted to! I didn't actually do it, but it was this really cool, almost liberating feeling.
Anyway, now I am an ancient old man, but every once in a while, when I'm having a truly shitty day, I'll pick up a Hot Wheels car at the grocery store or wherever, and it always cheers me up. I have a couple on my desk, but outside of that I usually give them away or save them for Christmas toy drives. Still though, it always cheers me up.
Anyway, any hints or tips people can give me before starting Mobster Hunter?
Don’t write anything down.0
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HiT BiT🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man'sRegistered Userregular
When I was a little kid I was really poor (I mean I'm still kinda poor, only now it's my fault), and I fucking loooooved Hot Wheels cars. I had a bunch (the benefits of enjoying a cheap toy, back then they were like $0.75 a piece), cars, tracks, you name it. Still though, I always wanted more, and it was to my great childhood cobsternation that I could not get hundreds of cars, thousands of cars, untold numbers of cars in all shapes, sizes, and colors.
Anyway, sometime back in my early 20s I was thinking about my childhood desire to become a Hotwheels car baron, and I realized something - I was an adult, I made my own money, I could buy Hotwheels cars whenever I wanted to! I didn't actually do it, but it was this really cool, almost liberating feeling.
Anyway, now I am an ancient old man, but every once in a while, when I'm having a truly shitty day, I'll pick up a Hot Wheels car at the grocery store or wherever, and it always cheers me up. I have a couple on my desk, but outside of that I usually give them away or save them for Christmas toy drives. Still though, it always cheers me up.
Anyway, any hints or tips people can give me before starting Mobster Hunter?
Don’t write anything down.0
Watch Pro Jared's youtube guide to Monster Hunter.
Its 3DS era but still highly relevant. Its the only reason I was able to love the franchise and tolerate its flaws. MHW resolves a lot of those flaws but the video tutorials still make a good baseline for the whole series.
EDIT - Critical example, MHW auto-crafts some of the most common crafts in game, such as Potions and Mega Potions. Also,
1. Eat a meal before EVERY mission
2. Bring only what you need, because you will be looting the map EVERY game. MH is Take Everything, Use Everything. Unleash your inner Elder Scrolls
3. Your Soulsborne skills will not save you, because Hunters always handle like tanks
4. Use the weapon training mode and try all the weapons to find one that suits your style. Don't use a weapon in the dark.
5. Mega Potions are your most common and most important recovery items. Potions are a waste of tempo. Your Mega Potion cap may be 10, but there is nothing stopping you from also bringing 10 regular potions along, then finding some Honey to automatically change them to Mega Potions later.
Posts
Aurion is one of those games that are good enough that I always feel like I should go back to it and finish it, but not quite so good that I don't get distracted away from it by some other game.
I tend to forget about it for long stretches of time and then, when I remember it and intend to go back to it, it's been so long that I've forgotten everything and feel like I ought to start over.
Also, the art style's really nice.
got a 2080 super and a PG278AQ Asus monitor.
I asked for advice about heavy graphics intensive games to max it out and picked up Control. First thing i did was max out all the settings to see what i could do. the games been running great for the most part, but one thing that i keep running into and im not sure if its just how the game is, or if one of my settings is off. if i go into a darkened room, its like pitch black. I mean like there is almost no ambient light from the room or hallway i just left showing into the new room. maybe this is just going for realism (or surrealism in this games case) the only thing i see inside are small lights like from the loot caches or a monitor screen, but even those should be casting more light into the room then they actually are. I tried lowering all the shadow features in the settings, dont see any changes. any idea what setting could be causing this?
I get that open world games usually need some form of transport faster than walking on foot but driving around everywhere just isn't doing much for me. I think part of it is that you're largely on roads which can lead to some very circuitous routes around things. In the regions where the landscape lets you drive off road this isn't so bad but the mountainous and forested areas don't give much freedom to chart your own route.
I'm also mixed on the vehicle combat. Early on, being able to winnow the number of bandits at a camp with your personal vehicle's starting miniguns before clearing out the buildings on foot can be handy. But I've never felt compelled to fight the randomly spawned hostile vehicles you sometimes bump into. For one, they usually can't really keep fighting you if you just keep driving past them. They can't turn around quickly enough and catch up to you. In addition, you don't really get anything for fighting them and vehicle weapon ammo is much less common to find than small arms ammunition. The convoys on the other hand are fun to fight and actually reward you for taking them out but even they only have a little variety in group composition. And since it can take a good chunk of ammo to take one out, there's less incentive to use vehicle weapon ammo on anything else.
Speaking of vehicles, the racing activity feels awful. My biggest complaint is that when you cross the finish line the activity doesn't automatically stop and instead goes into a partially computer controlled lap around the track. It does not tell you how to exit this faux-cutscene and I was stuck in it until I happened to hit the space bar. As for the racing itself, you're taken out of your normal cars to use racing specific cars meaning no vehicle weapons and you have to quickly adapt to how another vehicle handles and it handles pretty poorly. While I was googling how to get out of the racing autopilot scene, I came across a lot of frustration at the racing itself and people who were unable to complete the one main quest required go at it. Now after I'd gotten use to how the race car handled, I found the racing pretty simple and beat it on my second attempt. The AI drivers aren't very good, just kind of annoying, and applying some pretty basic motorsport theory to initially slow down and take better paths through turns and more thoughtful use of the nitrous analogue to accelerate out of turns put me in first place really quickly. This is however not the kind of thing people should be expected to know to advance in an FPS. Now towards the end of my final lap I did manage to eliminate another racer by blocking his attempt to pass me on a turn in such a way that he crashed into a wall hard enough to explode so there could be a more interesting way to finish that quest but you'd have to be doing well enough to be that close to the other cars first.
Finally, you know how in open world games that grant you abilities or different weapon types the game's main route will introduce them to you, give you a chance to familiarize yourself with them, and generally be proud to show off what the designers came up with? Rage 2 doesn't do that. My biggest design complaint (my actual biggest complaint would likely be the writing and dialogue) so far is that you can easily not find the majority of the game's weapons and powers. Five of the game's eight weapons are unlocked through non-story related locations. The special powers you get are similarly easy to miss as only one is required by the story though you at least will end up super close to the locations of a few if you follow the route the game suggests out of the starting area. If you talk with the major quest givers after finishing their initial quests, they'll all point out an unlock location but you have to know it's worth talking to some npcs again (and want to bother given how bland the writing is). There are vendors that will sell you the locations of areas with good loot but only a handful of the weapon/power unlock locations are listed there. After buying all of those out and accepting every quest I could find, I ended up just looking at a map online to find the remaining locations to unlock things. This is a huge shame as the powers are a huge part of what makes the combat more engaging than the likes of Far Cry and while the handgun, assault rifle, and shotgun you unlock via the story probably are more than enough to finish the game the other weapons are more interesting and this is the first Avalanche game I've played where I haven't hated the shooting. Why would you put a rocket launcher with a fun alternate fire mode in an FPS and let the player skip over it? Or what I'm pretty sure is the first Quake-inspired shoot through multiple opponents railgun I've seen in an open world game? Or the rather unorthodox gun that fires darts than then burst into flames with a remote trigger? The game is supposed to be a more colorful and over the top take on open world shooters that otherwise have a tacticool aesthetic and it hides away the abilities that make it that way.
I've come to the conclusion that Avalanche is a studio that came create great game mechanics for open world games and will then botch putting together an entire game. I think this is the first time they've made shooting feel good after botching it throughout the Just Cause series. To date, Mad Max has been my favorite release from them and I think the smaller scope, being given direction for the writing, being able to crib the feel of melee combat from the Batman Arkham games, and other constraints forced the studio to be more focused. They've certainly taken some lessons from that game and applied them here and perhaps in another few years they'll release a game I don't have reservations about recommending. In the meantime, I look forward to setting all the bandits and mutants on fire when I next load the game.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Somehow I'm not surprised that would be an issue. And honestly given what I think about the game's script it could also be a mercy.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
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Really solid Fanatical bundle for $3.99
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter
The Surge
Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap
THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIV STEAM EDITION
Atari Vault
SNK 40th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION
It may also be that the game isn't good with ambient light. But, yeah. Check other things before saying it's the game.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
And that's an impulse buy
Steam ID: Good Life
Now what game are you playing?
EDIT: Also note that it currently uses Denuvo copy protection for those people where that is an issue.
SteamID: edgruberman GOG Galaxy: EdGruberman
The first Magical Diary had you playing as a female student and a member of... Horse Hall, I think?
This one has you playing as a male student and member of Wolf Hall. If it's anything like the first Magical Diary game, it's a nice low-stakes visual novel with good characters and some neat puzzle-solving/dungeon-crawling built-in for various magical exams.
EDIT: Magical Diary: Horse Hall, as the original game has been re-branded is 75% off right now as well!
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Uplink?
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
The combat mechanics were made by id software. That’s why it feels so good to shoot dudes. Avalanche designed the open world.
Thanks @McMoogle for Far Cry New Dawn! Despite some deeply problematic writing, characters, storylines and themes, I do love this franchise for its map full of explorable icons, the shooting, the power creep and especially the crafting. I don't know what animal I will need to kill and skin in post-apocalyptic Montana to make bigger wallets, but rest assured I will find, kill and skin them all!
Thanks very much!
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Wait a minute... Archilochus? I...uhhh....welll...ummm....have at you!
@McMoogle !!!! Don't speed date! That's ruuuuude!
Thanks! I love Surgeon Simulator and got serious vibes from that as well. If it has a grading system that will definitely be a stretch goal for the next big Steam sale!
*playing via the XBOX GamePass
Avalanche does seem to know how to take lessons learned from a previous game and use it future games. The convoys in Rage 2 aren't quite as chaotic as those in Mad Max but they're still fun to take down.
I think the sci fi setting helped as well. It's no uncommon for open world games/shooters to have some bullet spongey enemies and Rage 2 is no exception. Those tend to have armor that gets destroyed with damage which goes a long way in providing visual feedback even if the target isn't dead yet.
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3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I'm here to proselytize for The Surge, it's great. Dark Souls but in a sci-fi environment where you can target specific limbs on your enemies. Unarmed limbs or heads take more damage, but if you target the armored limbs you can cut them off using a special attack, and then use the limb/head bit to craft the same armor that the enemy was wearing on that limb. It's pretty fun.
Also, there is a mechanic where you can "bank" your tech scrap (your souls, basically) at the game's version of bonfires, so you don't have to get into those situations where you're running around with 50,000 and get killed out of the blue. But, the more enemies you kill without returning to a bonfire, the higher the scrap reward becomes from killing them. Also, the bonfire plays background music, which you can replace with whatever track you want, so you can (for example) hear the Pioneer II music from PSO every time you get back to your safe areas.
Only downside is no multiplayer.
It's very good! Seriously, I don't think there's really any arcade racer that comes close. You've got a staggering choice of cars, tons of customization available, and most races you can use whatever car you want and they'll adjust the race to that vehicle type and speed. And yeah, there's just so much to do. Hunting down bonus boards, driving every road, doing all the different races, side quests with fun challenges, and a very fun world to explore. There's also the 4 different seasons, which makes a real difference on how your cars handle and you need to account for in your driving. There's also a LEGO DLC where you can drive around a half lego, half real world and even drive some lego cars. Pretty much the only knock against it is that it's quite similar to previous Horizon games, so if you played those, it should be pretty familiar. That and some of the online multiplayer stuff is kinda weak. Though that new Battle Royale mode they added is actually pretty neat.
I will weigh in on this and say that MD: Horse Hall was- and still is- one of my all-time favorite VNs and I'm hoping to get my hands on Wolf Hall to see if the writing still stacks up.
Less than $4 for Horse Hall is an absolute goddamned steal.
I can has cheezburger, yes?
I'm bummed that I'm not super jazzed about the DLC for it. LEGO is real cute and all but it's no Hot Wheels you know?
(To be fair, that's a real high bar to try to clear.)
But yeah, I was one of those idiot smucks that bought the ultimate edition when it came out, and amazingly feel that I wasn't quite ripped off. Beautiful, super fun to pick up and blitz across the countryside, and absolutely loaded with stuff to do.
I really liked the aethetic of Surge, but the camera leaves something to be desired. I hear the sequel is better about it.
Oh man I forgot about the Hot Wheels DLC for FH3. Well that definitely locks it into err.. 2nd place haha
Tomb Raider GOTY Bundle $4.29
Redout Bundle $13
Moe Bundle Tier 1 7 games $6, Tier 2 9 games $13.49
Dungeons 2 Bundle $5
@taliosfalcon (accept my friend request)
@TheBlackWind
Also, everyone make sure to wish @CorriganX a happy birthday in a week
I went in with a magic build that promptly got destroyed because hard to get spells off when the enemy is constantly staggering me, tried full physical with a giant axe and still couldn't stagger them so even though I wasn't being staggered anymore I was still getting shredded, then moved to a full on Hornet Ring type Assassin build focused on parrying and ripostes for massive damage just trying to make it from one mistle to the next. I'm currently at the third one and doesn't look like I'm anywhere near done with this place yet.
Wait, what game is this??? Someone made a Hot Wheels racing game?
Steam: betsuni7
Forza Horizon 3, which has a Hot Wheels DLC. It fuckin rips.
Now I know what I need to look for on the MS Store.
Steam: betsuni7
Anyway, sometime back in my early 20s I was thinking about my childhood desire to become a Hotwheels car baron, and I realized something - I was an adult, I made my own money, I could buy Hotwheels cars whenever I wanted to! I didn't actually do it, but it was this really cool, almost liberating feeling.
Anyway, now I am an ancient old man, but every once in a while, when I'm having a truly shitty day, I'll pick up a Hot Wheels car at the grocery store or wherever, and it always cheers me up. I have a couple on my desk, but outside of that I usually give them away or save them for Christmas toy drives. Still though, it always cheers me up.
Anyway, any hints or tips people can give me before starting Mobster Hunter?
Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
Don’t write anything down.0
1€
BTA:
9€
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Watch Pro Jared's youtube guide to Monster Hunter.
Its 3DS era but still highly relevant. Its the only reason I was able to love the franchise and tolerate its flaws. MHW resolves a lot of those flaws but the video tutorials still make a good baseline for the whole series.
EDIT - Critical example, MHW auto-crafts some of the most common crafts in game, such as Potions and Mega Potions. Also,
1. Eat a meal before EVERY mission
2. Bring only what you need, because you will be looting the map EVERY game. MH is Take Everything, Use Everything. Unleash your inner Elder Scrolls
3. Your Soulsborne skills will not save you, because Hunters always handle like tanks
4. Use the weapon training mode and try all the weapons to find one that suits your style. Don't use a weapon in the dark.
5. Mega Potions are your most common and most important recovery items. Potions are a waste of tempo. Your Mega Potion cap may be 10, but there is nothing stopping you from also bringing 10 regular potions along, then finding some Honey to automatically change them to Mega Potions later.