In What Electronic Entertainment Have You Been Partaking #18: Reticulating Splines

[aimeeandbeatles]

 

[Gorbles]

hobbs knows I would never do a hot take over a video game disagreement. Well . . .

So long as nobody mentions Dawn of War III, we're good. I really enjoyed that game

But now I go to fire up Borderlands 3, and see if I can not get the CTDs I was getting last night (weirdly, not a kind I've experienced before).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I....literally do break every game I touch. I got a horse game. I have a horse in it.

Spoiler :

Today, I loaded up the game. And, uh...

Spoiler :

?????

Also, the name generator is probably the best part of the game. Every single one of these names was produced by the generator.

Spoiler :

 

[MaryKB]

I've been playing a game called Kingdom Rush: Origins on my phone. It's cute and a nice distraction. I like these kinds of high-quality games that don't keep showing you advertisements or require money to enjoy.

 

[Gorbles]

@aimeeandbeatles

I guess when you level up horses they get sweet hairdos. Your power worked out this time

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Oh dear...

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I....literally do break every game I touch. I got a horse game. I have a horse in it.

Spoiler :

Today, I loaded up the game. And, uh...

Spoiler :

?????

Also, the name generator is probably the best part of the game. Every single one of these names was produced by the generator.

Spoiler :

Hey. I'm a horsie.

 

[Takhisis]

I haven't read the quote, but ‘Irish lady’ and ‘Irish Canadian’ both sound so much like racehorses' names that I'd almost bet that they exist.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yup. And multiple entries for "Irish Lady."

 

[Birdjaguar]

I decided to play a round of famous places in GeoGuessr. First place was inside the White House (all the portraits of former presidents gave it away). Second place was just outside the Lincoln Memorial (I've played Fallout 3 enough to recognise that long thin lake when I see it). The fourth place was standing to the right-hand side of the same skinny lake, with the Lincoln Memorial somewhat further off in the distance, making Washington DC literally 60% of the places I was supposed to be "guessing".

The third place was the statue of Stanislas of Poland in Nancy, eastern France, though I picked Paris instead, and that was the only one I did even vaguely badly at, because the fifth place was right on Westminster Bridge, with Big Ben ahead of me and the Houses of Parliament almost literally spitting distance away! (I even got a perfect 5000 point score on that one, for some reason!)

Somehow, I don't think I'm ever going to score over 20,000 points on a single round again.

I played one of those a while back, but they always started me on a random country road somewhere in the world. I could travel down the road and look for sings of life besides trees and shrubs. The goal was to guess as close as you could to one's actual location. i was surprised how close I could get without any actual names of places or noted buildings.

 

[Arakhor]

The random places are rather more difficult, yes.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

At the beginning of the game, Rune Factory 4 did a good job of tutorializing the gameplay to help you along and I appreciated that. Then, once I got into the game and unlocked all the basic mechanics (farming, cooking, forging, etc), the game stopped tutorializing stuff. Thing is, each of these mechanics is surprisingly deep and with a ton of variation and nuance. So now I feel I'm just skimming the surface of exploring each of these mechanics and there is no good way to try experimenting without losing lots of resources and it's pretty frustrating. The game seems easy enough that I can beat it without really deep diving into any of these mechanics but then it is too flat of a game to really enjoy.

The online guides for the game turn out to be pretty awful as well and I don't want to have to stop gameplay every five minutes to consult in the first place. In effect the game had multiple tutorials to make sure I knew how to press A to harvest something and put it in my sack but then had nothing to help me learn how to manage the fields. It's pretty frustrating.


So I tried getting back into Harvest Moon and that is also frustrating because I don't remember all the plans I had for this game save. At the same time, this particular version of Harvest Moon has a tragically long and boring introduction (it takes probably 10 hours to get through was is in effect the introduction) so I don't want to restart it either. Oh well, I'll just forge ahead and figure it out.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Cookie Clicker is judging me.

I started playing this because of you. Grandmas!

Also.. "Hearty Spreadsheet" freaking wonderful.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I started playing this because of you. Grandmas!

I'm sorry.

 

[local_hero]

I've spent some more time on Horizon and the Frozen Wilds dlc. Earlier I've called it the best game I didn't like, but I came to genuinely like it. Good game.

Recently finished AC Odyssey. Very mixed bag. I liked the character and some of the gameplay and skills. To use a spartan kick and send enemies flying of ledges was very satisfying haha.

But unless there comes a AC game set in like China, this might have been my last AC game. I took a chance on this game because I liked the setting and it was on a sale. The quests objectives were so repetitive. Kill this or fetch that. And a lot of superfluous support quests to advance the main story. And microtransactions so you don't have to play their game? Peculiar game design...

I bought Zelda Breath of the Wild and I've played a few hours. Not quite what I had hoped, but let's see. I really feel burnt out though on big open world games, so I think it will have to wait for a while.

So next up... probably Luigi's mansion 3.

 

[Lexicus]

Started an Medieval 2 campaign as the Holy Romans. Got attacked the Venetians, Milanese, French, Danes in quick succession. Also the Moors and Spanish but they made peace after 1 turn. The Danes and French sent big stacks without family members to besiege Hamburg and Metz, respectively, but the gods protect me in Medieval 2 and both of those stacks turned into rebels 1 when the AI ended its turn.

However, they will not be the last. The French have captured Bruges with overwhelming numbers and will likely attempt to take Antwerp next, while shadowboxing in the area between Metz and Dijon. Meanwhile the Danes have yet to send a second army to take Hamburg but it's only a matter of time.
My position in Northern Italy collapsed after taking Venice when Milan attacked with several much larger armies, destroying my king's army (but fortunately he managed to escape, now he has the "Hates Milanese" trait) and taking Venice and Bologna. I converted Florence to a castle and still hold it, and have sent reasonably large armies to attempt to capture Milan and Genoa.

I expect the Poles will likely attack along my eastern border and some point, with more distant concerns about the Hungarians (they border Vienna) and the Papal States (they border Florence).

 

[Synobun]

Played through Little Big Workshop. Basically a watered down version of something like Factorio. It was alright, I finished it, but it has very little replay value. Once you've done the milestones, that's pretty much it. There aren't different scenarios or anything like that.

Then I tried Resident Evil Revelations, but I stopped playing after two episodes because the game is, shall we say, sucky. Relies heavily on endless fight scenes where you just stand around and shoot waves of monsters. Fun. Story sucks, too. I don't understand Resident Evil, I really don't. It seems like the premise had such promise, and I really did enjoy Resident Evil 5, but the rest, I just don't get.

Now I'm playing RollerCoaster Tycoon. Again. I always stop playing after the first five scenarios despite telling myself I'll finally, finally, dedicate to doing them all. Honestly, I think the inability to speed up the game is what ruins it for me. Every year is an hour IRL and then some of these scenarios are three to four hours long because of it. I spend most of that time just twiddling my thumbs or staring off into space. I could read or colour, I guess, but it seems like an inefficient and roundabout way of progressing through the game. Being able to make a year twenty minutes or so would vastly up my enjoyment.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I've spent some more time on Horizon and the Frozen Wilds dlc. Earlier I've called it the best game I didn't like, but I came to genuinely like it. Good game.

What did you not like about it early on? I was pretty taken with it immediately and I especially loved all the lore. There is one set of lore recordings that especially appealed to me:

Spoiler :

There is a guy you find journal recordings from that was a high-school dropout before the apocalypse and he was sort of a low-life dirtbag. Then he decides to get his crap together and got a degree and became a rocket scientist and I just squealed with joy because that's [more or less] the route I took in life.

My biggest complaint with the game is that the melee combat was extremely lacking, you pretty much just smash the attack button over and over.

I liked the game enough that I got every collectible in it and did every side mission excluding the stupid time challenges which I hate as a general rule.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Now I'm playing RollerCoaster Tycoon. Again. I always stop playing after the first five scenarios despite telling myself I'll finally, finally, dedicate to doing them all. Honestly, I think the inability to speed up the game is what ruins it for me. Every year is an hour IRL and then some of these scenarios are three to four hours long because of it. I spend most of that time just twiddling my thumbs or staring off into space. I could read or colour, I guess, but it seems like an inefficient and roundabout way of progressing through the game. Being able to make a year twenty minutes or so would vastly up my enjoyment.

I have a program that'll unlock all the scenarios if you just want to skip to the later ones.

 

[local_hero]

My biggest complaint with the game is that the melee combat was extremely lacking, you pretty much just smash the attack button over and over.

Yeah, a lot due to this. And you were so squishy in the beginning of the game, remember a few early quests where you had to engage corruptors in open combat. Hard.

But I think I suffered a bit because I relied too heavily on the bows and not learning the other weapons. And I should have bought other sets of armor earlier and customise equipment. Perhaps the game could have emphasised this a bit more.

I vaguely remember that guty. But the lore was really good. And I usually avoid Sci fi and post apocalypse.

Are you looking forward to the sequel?