What are you playing?

[robot zombie]

I never got very far in Skyrim, I have always been dumb when it comes to games. I think I was like 3 hours in and just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do next, I wondered around a bit and enjoyed some views, then just kind of gave up and got a different game... lol always regretted it though... since its considered like a legend of a game.

Haha, I see how that happens. But hold on. What you're supposed to do?! There's no supposed to nothin in that game. Well, that's the beauty for a lot of people. It's not a super-difficult game. You can sorta just go places and do stuff, trying different skills as you go. You just level as you use them. It's pretty laid back. The key thing is to stick to one armor type and one weapon type for a bit. Stealth and archery are good side-investments. OP in the long run. Everything else you do is sort of up to you. It's your adventure. There are factions out there. Different quests in the holds. Unique quests just kind of plopped in the wild. Stuff that's not even quest related to just find. I usually skip the main story initially. I may not start that till level 30 because of how much there is to get into outside of that... and there's still tons more after that. I pretty much do the main quest when I feel like it. You could play a couple hundred and never do it. I prefer to just run around and do different quests, uncover different items, just work my way out there without the dragons coming. I feel okay spoiling that to anyone lol. Once you hit a certain point early in that main quest, dragons start randomly attacking anywhere and it's a serious problem for you if you don't have some good attacks to dish out on land and into the air. And you've gotta go significantly past that point in the quest line before you get a crucial ability for hitting them on the ground.

It's one of those where you kinda lay back and take your time. Getting off track is basically the name of the game sometimes.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Honestly, if we're talking in a general sense, they're chill games. As far as open-world goes it is very relaxed. FO4 especially. Not the most interesting on their own, but I'm totally jaded at this point. There's plenty of fun to be had and the aesthetic kinda creeps up on you. And then there is New Vegas, done by some of the same people working on 1 and 2. Bethesda kind of lent them the engine and they made a great open-world RPG out of it with good character customization, and really great writing with lots of factions that you can be involved with in many different ways - your choices really feel like they have weight in this engrossing overarching story that is the tale of the Mojave Wasteland, the fate of which is seen manifested in the outcomes of your choices with the different factions, what you make of their intentions as you progress, seeing whatever you happen to see (you'll play it a few times to really start to get all angles of it.) It's really pretty special in that regard. I think a lot of people would agree that one brought the heart of Fallout back to the 3D games for a bit.

Well... all of them have the problem of Bethesda clunk. They're not the best-feeling games, though some of that can be alleviated with some light modding. They all have at least one big bug patch mod that's basically mandatory, haha. FO4 actually has okay shooting. They got some help during a collab on Wolfenstein, so it's not their usual homebrew rudimentary stuff. It has a bit more going on that makes it more enjoyable. That can also easily be fixed-up a bit more by installing a mod or two. But it's very loot oriented and there's a settlement feature where you build your own settlements. You can mostly skip it but it's still a core mechanic. It's worth putting time into it for crafting, which is pretty big, too. Honestly though... one upside to these games is that you can skip pretty much anything you feel like and just continue playing. It's just a rolling loop of explore, fight, and loot. FO3 has less of that looting cycle, though. Weapons and armor are simpler. But they have quirks too and that game really looks and feels dated. It has a real charm to it but going straight in, it might not. It does have some cool side quests and really great DLC. New Vegas is a bit better, the shooting especially. It also again has writing above and beyond either two... like it's not even the same class.

So it's always tradeoffs. If you can accept them as all being fairly flawed, they all have something lovable about them. The one I seem to play the most is FO4. Real talk, the writing is terrible and overall it's kind of a superficial experience. But it's one of those where it's fun to turn your brain energy down a bit and explore, branch out seeing all of these little places and sort of witnessing their stories. It has a lot of character in its minutia. They put a lot of things in places very few people would see for a long time. It also rewards you materially quite often for wandering off. Good for getting into that "Oooh, what's over there?" mindset. It's also the most moddable fallout, which adds a lot to it. The world is already this huge grab bag of stuff, and then you can add whatever you want to it.

I like FO4, just done the vault 88 stuff, the overseer was weird.

 

[Audioave10]

I'm beginning to get lost in this Mod/Game. Sometimes I get my azz kicked too! I still go back for more.
(not my Pic)

 

[robot zombie]

I like FO4, just done the vault 88 stuff, the overseer was weird.

You know? Of all of the DLC's, I've done that one the least. I really like that location, pretty neat bandit fight. The inside is cool, I like the main quest for it. I got bummed about some of the building limitations and amount of things that can't be cleaned. Far Harbor kinda stole me away as my favorite DLC by the time I even became aware of Vault 88. Nuka World is great, too.

I will hand it to them, they pretty much always hit on DLC stuff.

It's a great game. 2000+ hours of it will make you cynical, but I still play it. I'm playing it a bit today. At this point I kind of get nostalgic for the look of the Commonwealth and the soundtrack that it's set to. I love that vibe now. Just a nice place to be when I'm just chillin. Explore and get into stuff. It can be fun to just think of yourself as an urban explorer, trolling through the wastes just so see what's there. Cautiously approaching challenges. I'll get into this mindset of handling everything sort of clean and safe, like some kinda fragile human. Not a ton of armor weight or anything. It's weirdly satisfying, and you uncover interesting stuff. Not just items. Being the Lone Wanderer can be pretty solitary but things never really feel empty. A lot of times you don't feel as 'alone' as you wish because there may be enemies hiding. And they may only be in a couple parts of that huge area, but if you don't know that yet, you don't feel alone. And then when you know you are, it's because you're safe and can explore a little more easily. Go slow and look at stuff, see the sights and little stories. I love when I'm out in a quiet part of the world and there's not much happening. It's super-relaxing and you can freely run around.

It reminds me a little bit of growing up here in Florida. Running around in gigantic nature preserves looking for the best secret base spots for games of manhunt and stuff like that.

I explored the Mass Pike tunnels the other day. They're huge! They basically take you across Diamond City 1.5 ways. Just this big metro full of ghouls and raiders, multiple exits spread far apart.. A few quests send you there, but usually to do something in one smaller sector of it... . You don't know how deep they run until you make it a point to cross them fully. That place really feels like an abandoned metro.

Lots of areas in the game are kinda like that. There's just way more than what you think, tucked away. And tons of stuff to just collect along the way. There are still places in the game I don't think I've been to yet. Not really. Like, for instance, when I went to Greentech for the story quest and got to the top, I saw a crater lake between apartments. I was just up there enjoying the view when I looked down and saw a saline crater pond. Been by there and never considered something like that being there.

That makes two craters that I know of. There's another one out towards the general hospital northwest from here. That one's kinda tough. Don't know if there's a story to this one. I appreciate finding these oddities everywhere, though.

 

[GreiverBlade]

mostly Fallout 4 and @Ahhzz D&D Dark Alliance

well most reviews are painting a mediocre tedious repetitive game (barely reaching 50% score) that does not affect me

I MEAN, come'on it has DRIZZT DO'URDEN! (and Bruenor/Catti-Brie/Wulfgar) and for someone who played the hell out of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance I and II ... it's a pleasure to see another hack'n slash in that realm


and Bruenor has a beer mug on his shield ... THAT'S A HUGE PLUS FOR ME!

clearly aimed toward 4p co-op (not my teacup) console/gamepad oriented (not a problem ... BG: DA series i owned them on OG XBOX and GBA, still play it on my Retroflag GPi case ) graphically pleasing, my only complaint would be the actions timing is a bit hard to get but nothing massive.

Drizzt is a bit more pleasing to play with, i tested Bruenor, which well ... is a Dwarf, thus a little slow but hard hitting


that scene in the opening had me yelling "UNLIMITED POWEEEERRRRRRRRRRR X7" and then "Oops... wrong franchise..." )

 

[Space Lynx]

mostly Fallout 4 and @Ahhzz D&D Dark Alliance
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well most reviews are painting a mediocre tedious repetitive game (barely reaching 50% score) that does not affect me

I MEAN, come'on it has DRIZZT DO'URDEN! (and Bruenor/Catti-Brie/Wulfgar) and for someone who played the hell out of Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance I and II ... it's a pleasure to see another hack'n slash in that realm
View attachment 216464View attachment 216469View attachment 216466View attachment 216467View attachment 216468

and Bruenor has a beer mug on his shield ... THAT'S A HUGE PLUS FOR ME!

clearly aimed toward 4p co-op (not my teacup) console/gamepad oriented (not a problem ... BG: DA series i owned them on OG XBOX and GBA, still play it on my Retroflag GPi case ) graphically pleasing, my only complaint would be the actions timing is a bit hard to get but nothing massive.
View attachment 216463
Drizzt is a bit more pleasing to play with, i tested Bruenor, which well ... is a Dwarf, thus a little slow but hard hitting


that scene in the opening had me yelling "UNLIMITED POWEEEERRRRRRRRRRR X7" and then "Oops... wrong franchise..." )
View attachment 216465

I always take reviews with a grain of salt these days. i also think i would enjoy this game. i have played some really badly rated games and i enjoyed them at a personal level. some people are just too picky. /shrug

 

[GreiverBlade]

I always take reviews with a grain of salt these days. i also think i would enjoy this game. i have played some really badly rated games and i enjoyed them at a personal level. some people are just too picky. /shrug

i have a load of game with "mostly negative" reviews that i absolutely love ...

opinions are subjective, even reviewers ... i found myself often watching CohhCarnage on youtube because he approaches games like i do and give no damn to Twitch viewer that bash the game or him for liking the game in short, if he like a game ... i will probably do too, i enjoy his playthrough more than reviews. (i bought CP2077 because of him ... and he truly enjoyed it, not because he has a cameo in it, he recognized the flaws but still enjoyed the heck of it.)

ah, fun ... i bought the physical day one edition and got the Deluxe+pre order DLC


hilarious for something released in June ... that i did not pre order well physical "day one" copies qualify i guess (although on redeeming the code, Steam only mentioned "standard" )
bah no biggies, it's just weapon skins.

 

[Calmmo]

If anyone else is playing tales or arise there are already "fixes" for the horriblle LODswitching/detail/NPC draw distance issues

Increase LODs and Shadow Distance :: Tales of Arise General Discussions

There are some tweaks floating around that are filled with settings that do nothing for this game, as well as a couple that are actually LOWER than default. Here are the settings that actually work and objectively increase quality. Go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment\Tales of...

steamcommunity.com

- :: Tales of Arise General Discussions

-

steamcommunity.com

 

[Chomiq]

Tales of Arise.
Looks nice, but lots of close camera pop-in and lod switching. (like REALY close, maaybe a 15-20m high quality radius and after that its poof details like NPC's and such) It's UE4 tho so a custom config is bound?? to come up sooner or later.

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I like the art style but I'll wait until it's on sale. Too many games in my backlog now.

 

[Calmmo]

Yeaaah, I was gonna play Pathfinder Wrath of the righteous my self but I put that one on a.. wait for patches to fix the issues cooldown. for now

 

[Audioave10]

I have games that the so-called reviewers didn't like, but I enjoyed them anyway...

 

[Splinterdog]

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 1&2 are highly addictive. So many ways to approach your targets and the AI can sometimes be a little dumb.
This rings a bell...

 

[Chomiq]

...

 

[Vayra86]

Started playing Control to try RTX and I'm hooked. It's a pretty interesting game.
View attachment 216357

So thát is where I lost my Post It

I never got very far in Skyrim, I have always been dumb when it comes to games. I think I was like 3 hours in and just couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do next, I wondered around a bit and enjoyed some views, then just kind of gave up and got a different game... lol always regretted it though... since its considered like a legend of a game.

Funny, because that is how I played my first five times of Skyrim too. Intro, one or two steps of story line and off into the world only to get bored fast.

I did try the story further one time but it never caught me, not even a little bit. Oblivion did better for me, and so did Morrowind. I think it helped that we had less choice back then, more investment to really figure out what's supposed to be going on, I dunno. But the worlds were more interesting to me too. In Oblivion I really did finish every single quest eventually.

Yeaaah, I was gonna play Pathfinder Wrath of the righteous my self but I put that one on a.. wait for patches to fix the issues cooldown. for now

Yeah and its likely to get expacs too. I had a blast playing Pathfinder Kingmaker when it was all said and done, but prior to that, not so much...

 

[Rahnak]

PC crashed and corrupted my Control save, so that's nice. Been playing NFS: Heat in the meantime. It's... alright, but far from the best NFS. Customization is not bad, at least.

@Chomiq What game is that?

 

[Splinterdog]

PC crashed and corrupted my Control save, so that's nice. Been playing NFS: Heat in the meantime. It's... alright, but far from the best NFS. Customization is not bad, at least.

@Chomiq What game is that?

I have NFS: Heat and yes, it's not nearly as raw as Hot Pursuit for example, which is up there with my all time favourite racing games. It's manic, which Heat definitely isn't.
I really don't get all these cheesy stories in racing games. I really couldn't give a monkey's about the story anyway.

 

[Chomiq]

PC crashed and corrupted my Control save, so that's nice. Been playing NFS: Heat in the meantime. It's... alright, but far from the best NFS. Customization is not bad, at least.

@Chomiq What game is that?

Trials of Mana, there's an enemy that basically changes your character into this and you can't do jack.

 

[robot zombie]

I have NFS: Heat and yes, it's not nearly as raw as Hot Pursuit for example, which is up there with my all time favourite racing games. It's manic, which Heat definitely isn't.
I really don't get all these cheesy stories in racing games. I really couldn't give a monkey's about the story anyway.

I tried the one before that, Payback and had the same problem with it. The story isn't good... it's like if an amateur film group had their heartstrings tugged by Fast and the Furious and simply could not let it go! Holy crap, it was painful to see these poorly-rendered characters who still somehow look like b-list actors in a b-list movie when it is a game and they can quite literally look like anything. It was really bizarre to me, like they really wanted it to just have that b-tier feel. Maybe there was a meta-plot that got cut?

Nah, but I was like "Okay, yeah we jumped the thing in the cutscene, but I'm actually driving now, maybe this is okay."

But no, it's not okay. It's not okay at all! The figgin steering assist cannot turn off. You can't just shoot into corners and drift out of them, or take a deep slice from the outside at maximum speed. No, you run the line exactly how it wants because if you do anything else it decelerates you and 'nudges' you to do the turn. It's infuriating. I stopped there, heh.

They've been doing the overly aggressive assists for a while. It's an immersion breaker for me when I tell the car to go one way and in the middle of doing that it decides it needs to go another to save me. The very way I have played those games since I was a kid is pretty much removed from the game by this. It's like having someone in the passenger seat with full controls that take over the second they use them. But you won't know exactly when that will happen, or what manuever it wants you to do. It MAKES me crash more often than it helps me. What kind of racing game intentionally slows you down so you don't crash? Isn't that all like... a part of the experienec? Or is NFS just trying to make you live through a bad racing movie?

 

[Splinterdog]

I tried the one before that, Payback and had the same problem with it. The story isn't good... it's like if an amateur film group had their heartstrings tugged by Fast and the Furious and simply could not let it go! Holy crap, it was painful to see these poorly-rendered characters who still somehow look like b-list actors in a b-list movie when it is a game and they can quite literally look like anything. It was really bizarre to me, like they really wanted it to just have that b-tier feel. Maybe there was a meta-plot that got cut?

Nah, but I was like "Okay, yeah we jumped the thing in the cutscene, but I'm actually driving now, maybe this is okay."

But no, it's not okay. It's not okay at all! The figgin steering assist cannot turn off. You can't just shoot into corners and drift out of them, or take a deep slice from the outside at maximum speed. No, you run the line exactly how it wants because if you do anything else it decelerates you and 'nudges' you to do the turn. It's infuriating. I stopped there, heh.

They've been doing the overly aggressive assists for a while. It's an immersion breaker for me when I tell the car to go one way and in the middle of doing that it decides it needs to go another to save me. The very way I have played those games since I was a kid is pretty much removed from the game by this. It's like having someone in the passenger seat with full controls that take over the second they use them. But you won't know exactly when that will happen, or what manuever it wants you to do. It MAKES me crash more often than it helps me. What kind of racing game intentionally slows you down so you don't crash? Isn't that all like... a part of the experienec? Or is NFS just trying to make you live through a bad racing movie?

I haven't played Payback because it took a beating off the critics and so I'll wait till it's way down in price. But on the assists, surely you can turn those off?

 

[robot zombie]

I haven't played Payback because it took a beating off the critics and so I'll wait till it's way down in price. But on the assists, surely you can turn those off?

Nope. Biggest bane for everyone. You turn off the usual ones in the menu, but this is kinda different. It's like a hand actually grabs your car... like invisible walls manifest, keeping your car completely away from certain things... like magnetic repulsion. It's REALLY aggressive. More than anything I've seen in a racing game.

You can mess with the handling to get around it, but it seems like the handling settings themselves aren't great. But basically what you do is compensate for your car wanting to crab walk every time you take a turn the way the assist doesn't like it... pretty much make it so the handling properties of the car overstep the push of the assist. It's really kinda bonkers. There are slight workarounds, and then a lot of coping to do.

It's funny too... in free roam, it's fine. But every race locks you into it and I never did find a way around it. Playing around with tuning profiles and settings yielded nothing. It seems like it is baked into the normal races and it legit makes me lose when the car changes how it reacts to input with no warning. I'm heading up to a turn expecting to a certain line to already be unfolding... and then that line crumples up midway and I wind up in the wall anyway because when you try to go one direction, it pushes in the opposite. Say you need some gas to push your rwd tires out. If you gas with the game taking control from you, you'll push out the front instead. The car might actually move directly sideways with no rotation! Let off and magically you can turn and go forward again... as long as you do make the turn how it wants. Otherwise you crab walk again, until you leave the turn. It does that regardless of if gassing that hard at that low speed would usually spin you in circles or push the nose further out. Every car behaves about the same in that scenario. I felt like I gave it enough time and became a fly on the wall, watching myself tinker settings for a game I haven't enjoyed in 2 hours of playing.

It basically has a line for every turn, and the moment you are off of that, it does the fastest thing it can to keep you rigidly on it. You see a turn with lots of room, but it's a tight wormhole in reality and you won't know where the universe bends around it until you enter. From there, every direction you try to go is the same. I swear to you, you're in a hot wheels car and there's a kid reaching down grabbing your car through turns.

 

[Splinterdog]

That sounds creepy and horrible so I'll be avoiding that one.

 

[robot zombie]

I don't think you'll be missing much lol. It really is strange and confusing. I thought I forgot how to play for a minute. Not sure what they were going for but they made it so a big part of learning to play the game is learning how it wants you to take turns, going against visual cues and feedback learning built up while free driving without the restrictions.

Now, I remember having a hell of a time with Gran Turismo 3 as a child. But the way that game taught you to take turns correctly was by having you miss them and lose your time all on your own. In Payback, it's more like it looks like you can take a turn several ways, but there's only ever the one. Decelerate and take it smooth. I always like NFS for careening through traffic and ducking into hairpin corners at impossible speeds, threading through multiple cars on the way into, during, and on the way out of the turn. Even better if there's a race or chase hinging on sticking that maneuver. Nail it and skeeze right out of it, slinking two more on the straight. That shit is so exciting and satisfying. It's not possible to drive that way in Payback. Not really. They don't have any granulariy in how you manuver through them.

You know how sometimes being on a straight will put a car in 'lane' mode? Where you don't move freely left and right anywhere on the road but rather give soft pushes that initiate subtle lane changes? It's kinda like that, for turns.

 

[Rahnak]

I have NFS: Heat and yes, it's not nearly as raw as Hot Pursuit for example, which is up there with my all time favourite racing games. It's manic, which Heat definitely isn't.
I really don't get all these cheesy stories in racing games. I really couldn't give a monkey's about the story anyway.

I got it just to scratch the racing itch until Horizon 5 comes along. But yeah, NFS hasn't been going down a good path, imo. The story is always bland and uninteresting. Like robot zombie said, I think they get far too much inspiration from The Fast and The Furious franchise. The driving is arcade to max, but more often that not, in a bad way.
Honestly, the only reason I even bought it was because I wanted to play around with the car customization. It's an area where Horizon 4 wasn't that great at. For 13€ I'm not complaining too much, but I'd say at full price it's definitely not worth it.

 

[robot zombie]

Y'know... NFS is a very different thing now. I mean, different studio completely than the days of NFSU2 and back. But even in context, and how it takes that context.

I remember loving them in the Hot Pursuit days. Back then there were also a lot of cool racing movies, or action movies with lots of cars. They were in vogue and the hectic pace those games were set at really made you feel like that crazy action driver from whatever movies you had seen recently. It was just plain fun. You just kind of expected that you might have a crazy crash doing a questionable maneuver. You're almost intentionally losing control at times. But it let you do that and see what happens. It's exciting.

And it's like they almost manage to understand it now... like I can see they want to get it - they have the right things to connect. But they forget to let YOU be that driver, because they're caught up on showing you how. To have good arcade action you gotta let things be a little loosey goosey. It's part of the fun of arcade-style play. Some padding is always a part of that. But it's a minimal part a lot of the time. It's there to facilitate more extreme circumstances at opportune times, not prevent them! You have to leave room for things to happen if you want that 'again and again' effect. It's like this primal thing, a sense of squeezing order from chaos. And if you do it right, it pretty much always works on people. The feeling that makes NFS games fun comes from the gameplay and I'm not sure they're fully getting why or how.

 

[Rahnak]

I had the original Hot Pursuit 2 for the PS2 and it was great, soundtrack and all. I can't stand the soundtrack on Heat. I immediately turned the music off. That might just be because I don't enjoy the vast majority of rap and hip-hop, so I can't really judge if it's good within the genre or not.

Underground 1 & 2 and Most Wanted were great too. Had a great time with Shift on PS3 with a wheel. And from the later ones I've played, the Hot Pursuit remake and Rivals might be my favorites. The Run was interesting too, I think. I say later but they're almost a decade old. I haven't really played the more recent ones with the exception of Heat. Rivals was probably the last one before Heat.