General Gaming Thread 2024

[lanky316]

Sabaton enter the gaming market

Only a kickstarter at the moment (although it hit funding within an hour) but Par from Sabaton is working on a music festival management sim. I've said before about music management games being something I'm disappointed there aren't more of but this so far is looking very promising. I'm anticipating it having a bit of a tongue in cheek Brutal Legend style sense of humour about things but if the management elements are good as well it could be fun to play through when it's done.

[Razohiro Ishii]

So I picked up Unicorn Overlord today as it was on sale for about 50% off at my local game store. I've been watching the price of it since it came out and this is the first time it has gone on sale. I've only had time to play about 90 minutes but I'm enjoying so far even if I don't really know what I'm doing yet (so far I can only have 2 units per squad and I only really know that you don't want them in a straight line because of spears. I think I haven't used Hodrick yet. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use Josef because he's so OP or  if I should sub Hodrick in to gain some levels). The visuals are absolutely stunning and the audio is great, too. I'm playing on the second easiest difficulty because, tbh, I'm shit at these kinda games but like to play them for the stories. Maybe this will be the first game I actually complete this year.

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, Razohiro Ishii said:

So I picked up Unicorn Overlord today as it was on sale for about 50% off at my local game store. I've been watching the price of it since it came out and this is the first time it has gone on sale. I've only had time to play about 90 minutes but I'm enjoying so far even if I don't really know what I'm doing yet (so far I can only have 2 units per squad and I only really know that you don't want them in a straight line because of spears. I think I haven't used Hodrick yet. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to use Josef because he's so OP or  if I should sub Hodrick in to gain some levels). The visuals are absolutely stunning and the audio is great, too. I'm playing on the second easiest difficulty because, tbh, I'm shit at these kinda games but like to play them for the stories. Maybe this will be the first game I actually complete this year.

You should be using Hodrick, he's a fantastic tank. Josef should be a "in case of emergency" unit.

 

By mid game, you'll have so many units you won't know what to do with them all, so I wouldn't worry about leveling everyone. Plus, the exp items are easy to come by.

[Baddar]

Gave the Survival: Fountain of Youth demo a try with the full game currently in the Steam sale.

It's a tough one to fully judge, even after close to 5hrs gameplay. Combat is so-so, and it follows the survival/gathering mechanics in other games of this type. There's no limit to how long you can play the demo for, but the amount of islands you can visit, craftable items you can unlock and skills you can equip are limited.

It has everything your run of the mill survival game has, as well as a complex time management, injury, sunburn, illness and healing system with different plants required to fix up certain ailments. 

I got to the point last night where, with the right tools, you can build a dock for your boat. These can then be used as fast travel points, apparently, between the now 11 islands in the full game. 

One thing I liked immediately was that even though you're following a story, it can all be done at your own pace. If you're enjoying gathering supplies, it's never a rush to head off to complete the next story objective. 

You also have to find maps yourself and explore to unveil new parts which obviously is nothing ground-breaking, but I like the fact you can use charcoal from the fire and then some rope to climb a tall tree to map out parts of the island you're on that you can't see at ground level. The height you're at determines how much you open up. It's cool.

So yeah, definitely going to play some more of this. The sale runs til the 4th I think, and it's only a little more than £13 so I see myself upgrading to the full version.

[Lint]

On 29/08/2024 at 03:08, Mad Jack said:

Expedition 33 looks amazing. I love that you can parry/counter/dodge enemy attacks - are there other games with this kind of combat system that do that? It feels new but it's gotta to have been done before, surely?

Just watched the trailer on Steam and yea, that game looks amazing and I think it'll be fun.  Added it to my wishlist.

Recently bought Dungeons of Hinterberg, which if I had to describe it is like "If the Persona series had a kid with the Zelda series"

Like Persona, your day is divided into Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Night. 

Morning is having coffee with your friend on a balcony while some story related conversations happen, Afternoon is when you go into the dungeons, Evening is when you are in town and can go to shops to buy/sell things and meet various people to develop your relationship with them to unlock various things, then Night is when you go to bed....I assume more will happen at Night as I play more, but now my only option is go to bed.

The dungeons are fun.  Each dungeon is in an area were you get magic specific to that area, and all the magic is used to solve the puzzles in the dungeons (as well as combat).  I kept dying at one point because I didn't realize there were thorns on the ground and I needed to use my whirlwind spell to lift myself up over them.

I really like the art style as well

[Mad Jack]

That art style is so good.

Speaking of art styles, Pathe will be announcing their next "My Time At x" game in September (I think it's probably Highwind) after finishing up major development on My Time At Sandrock. The MTaX games are set several hundred years after some kind of apocalyptic event and about building, crafting, farming, socialising etc in this kind of era. Sandrock is one of my favourite games, partially due to the art style and character models, which look like this:

Spoiler

But they've released a screenshot of the new game, and (apparently due to fan feedback) they've made the character models "more realistic":

Spoiler

I dunno if I like it, but if I can pet that dog I think I'll get over it.

[Lint]

35 minutes ago, Mad Jack said:

That art style is so good.

Speaking of art styles, Pathe will be announcing their next "My Time At x" game in September (I think it's probably Highwind) after finishing up major development on My Time At Sandrock. The MTaX games are set several hundred years after some kind of apocalyptic event and about building, crafting, farming, socialising etc in this kind of era. Sandrock is one of my favourite games, partially due to the art style and character models, which look like this:

  Reveal hidden contents

But they've released a screenshot of the new game, and (apparently due to fan feedback) they've made the character models "more realistic":

  Hide contents

I dunno if I like it, but if I can pet that dog I think I'll get over it.

Never heard of this series, but I watched the trailer on Steam for My Time at Sandrock and it looks pretty fun, but I see it has the Multiplayer tag.  Is multiplayer necessary or is it optional?

[Mad Jack]

1 minute ago, Lint said:

Never heard of this series, but I watched the trailer on Steam for My Time at Sandrock and it looks pretty fun, but I see it has the Multiplayer tag.  Is multiplayer necessary or is it optional?

Entirely optional - I've never played it. It's nice to have but there's no content that's locked behind multiplayer at all (and indeed I think mp games might not even have story content).

[Bobfoc]

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain came out nine years ago. People who played the game will know the significance of nine years.

[Benji]

10 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain came out nine years ago. People who played the game will know the significance of nine years.

9 years since MGS, 9 years since Fallout (non-MMO), 9 years since The Witcher, 11 years since GTA, 11 years since Bioshock, 13 years since Elder Scrolls (non-MMO). I know they'll all come out and probably be great, but I hate that we're in an era where you can basically go an entire generation without a new iteration of iconic games.

[Bobfoc]

I wish so many big companies weren't so focused on motion capture, ray-tracing and all the other high-tech features they like to put in these days. It massively raises the costs and development times and, in my opinion, doesn't make the games more fun to play.

I'd feel rather cheated if a big blockbuster game I liked ended on a cliffhanger, knowing that I'd possibly be waiting a whole console generation for the next part.

[Ruki]

2 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain came out nine years ago. People who played the game will know the significance of nine years.

I don't remember! 9 years ago is a lifetime ago.... I should replay it, it was a fantastic (and weird) game. 

[Your Mom]

There are still frustrating parts but I really like the Star Wars game now  

[Lint]

13 hours ago, Benji said:

9 years since MGS, 9 years since Fallout (non-MMO), 9 years since The Witcher, 11 years since GTA, 11 years since Bioshock, 13 years since Elder Scrolls (non-MMO). I know they'll all come out and probably be great, but I hate that we're in an era where you can basically go an entire generation without a new iteration of iconic games.

Is this why we're here...just to suffer...

[Bobfoc]

This is my favourite part of MGS 5:

Spoiler

 

 

[Baddar]

Bit the bullet and upgraded to the full version of Fountain of Youth. Haven't regretted it one bit. It's quite difficult, but by putting a few hours in to gathering food and water sources, it's not impossible to get on top of.

I do like that everything you do in game slowly improves your character too, and the effects it has on every task. 

[Chris2K]

Once again I have the deluxe edition of NBA2K25, mainly because it comes with NBA League Pass which I would buy anyway, so I get the game for £20 essentially.

Shockingly very little has changed, they have changed the shooting mechanic like they do every year to make sure that casual players are put right back to square one again, and there are more animations for the ball going through the hoop so it's not just swish or rim out any more.

MyTeam has been made incredibly difficult to progress in, either you play 10+ multiplayer games a day or you're not getting any new cards, with various modes or options locked behind "reputation" which takes an age to level up.

Still, I'm mainly playing for MyNBA and my simulations, which I quickly realised the 3 day advance playing for the deluxe edition was a waste of time for, as there's nobody to upload any decent historical drafts.

[Lint]

 

Well there goes my day...

[stokeriño]

I have run into my first experience of horrendous stick drift (PS5 controller in this case), and researching it has made me hate everything about the gaming industry.

Having had no success with the so-called easy fixes (reset controller, clean around the analog stick with alcohol, do a lot of pressing-down-and-rotating of the stick...), I feel like my only options are to buy an entirely new controller (£60) or venture down the Sony repair route which, so far as I can tell from the anecdotes of the internet, generally sees you spend a bunch of postage money and wait weeks to it to be no better off than when you started.

Edit: so yeah, I've ordered a new one. 🙄 At least I'm buying it from John Lewis so if this one goes to shit they'll be marginally more pleasant to deal with than Amazon/etc. would be.

[jrhodes]

16 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

I have run into my first experience of horrendous stick drift (PS5 controller in this case), and researching it has made me hate everything about the gaming industry.

Having had no success with the so-called easy fixes (reset controller, clean around the analog stick with alcohol, do a lot of pressing-down-and-rotating of the stick...), I feel like my only options are to buy an entirely new controller (£60) or venture down the Sony repair route which, so far as I can tell from the anecdotes of the internet, generally sees you spend a bunch of postage money and wait weeks to it to be no better off than when you started.

I've been a gamer since the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis days. Always took care of my consoles, games, and controllers.

This is the first generation I've ever had an issue with stick drift or any controller faults in general. My Switch Joycon and PS5 controller both have stick drift. I've kind of abandoned my Switch as a result. I have a second controller for the PS5 and if that goes I'll probably just sell the PS5.

I really don't like the way the games industry is going for a variety of reasons and this is certainly one of them.