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

[aimeeandbeatles]

Does anyone know of a decent game on Steam or GOG that I can get for less than 6.44 CAD? Prolific let me withdraw the money I had in my account when they blacklisted my ISP, but it's not enough to transfer to the bank.

I checked GOG and most of the games were just a bit too expensive. I have an extra 85 cents in my Steam Wallet from selling spare trading cards though but trying to dig through cheap games on Steam is....frustrating.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Does anyone know of a decent game on Steam or GOG that I can get for less than 6.44 CAD? Prolific let me withdraw the money I had in my account when they blacklisted my ISP, but it's not enough to transfer to the bank.

I checked GOG and most of the games were just a bit too expensive. I have an extra 85 cents in my Steam Wallet from selling spare trading cards though but trying to dig through cheap games on Steam is....frustrating.

If you like city-builders, Steam is having a big sale. Banished $6.79; Cities Skylines $7.49; Surviving Mars $10.19 and Frostpunk $10.19 are the ones I've played and could recommend (all USD). Banished is no longer supported by its developer, but has massive, ongoing, community-created (and therefore free) mods available, the rest all have DLC to buy if you like them.

EDIT: And Townscaper isn't part of the sale, but it's only 5.99 anyway.

Spoiler :

 

[cardgame]

Superflight is $2-3 full price and amazing, but it might be too fast-paced

 

[AmazonQueen]

Superflight is $2-3 full price and amazing, but it might be too fast-paced

Even the name is too fast-paced for me.

 

[Ajidica]

Playing a game of Total Warhammer 1 as the Greenskins and for the first time I am actually enjoying the campaign. Dwarfs were too static and lack of cav really hurt when fighting the Greenskins who would constantly reform units after fleeing. Empire building tree was a bit overwhelming and I wasn't sure if I should be focusing on fighting other Empire factions or trying to confederate (plus a required quest required me to form a diplo agreement with the ally of the faction that kept attacking me....) Vampire counts were too slow early game.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Playing a game of Total Warhammer 1 as the Greenskins and for the first time I am actually enjoying the campaign. Dwarfs were too static and lack of cav really hurt when fighting the Greenskins who would constantly reform units after fleeing. Empire building tree was a bit overwhelming and I wasn't sure if I should be focusing on fighting other Empire factions or trying to confederate (plus a required quest required me to form a diplo agreement with the ally of the faction that kept attacking me....) Vampire counts were too slow early game.

That's a game I keep thinking I should give another try. I bought it a long while ago, just because it was on sale, but I didn't play it much. I think I also have The Witcher 3, which people keep raving about. I never got past the tutorial of that one.

 

[Akka]

The Outer Worlds finally came to GOG, so I immediately bought it and have been playing it.
It's basically New Vegas in space with future ultra-corporate instead of future Far West, with a heavy topping of black humour.
Not as deep and certainly not subtle, but I'm having fun and it's typical good Obsidian stuff.

 

[Ajidica]

That's a game I keep thinking I should give another try. I bought it a long while ago, just because it was on sale, but I didn't play it much. I think I also have The Witcher 3, which people keep raving about. I never got past the tutorial of that one.

If you play Witcher 3, I would recommend blazing through the Tutorial. Exploring all the nooks and crannies of the starting area will give you slightly better gear and I think another level, but the game isn't hard enough to warrant that. Plus, if you do find yourself stuck in the first real map -Velen- the difficulty can be adjusted in-game.

@Akka: You telling me Obsidian released a game that isn't a buggy, incomplete, unoptimized mess? Impressive.

 

[Akka]

If you play Witcher 3, I would recommend blazing through the Tutorial. Exploring all the nooks and crannies of the starting area will give you slightly better gear and I think another level, but the game isn't hard enough to warrant that. Plus, if you do find yourself stuck in the first real map -Velen- the difficulty can be adjusted in-game.

Hey, exploring the nooks and crannies IS half of what is fun in The Witcher !

@Akka: You telling me Obsidian released a game that isn't a buggy, incomplete, unoptimized mess? Impressive.

Well, the game was released last year through Epic. It simply ended the year-long exclusivity period and reached GOG, so it's now the patched and finished version.
Regardless, it's been some years since Obsidian extracted itself from the hastily-put-together games that had so many flaws, so your mockery is a bit excessive.
Both Pillars of Eternity I & II and Tyranny were playable and not especially buggy.

 

[Ajidica]

Regardless, it's been some years since Obsidian extracted itself from the hastily-put-together games that had so many flaws, so your mockery is a bit excessive.
Both Pillars of Eternity I & II and Tyranny were playable and not especially buggy.

I remember PoE 1 being pretty bad on launch. It was taking 2-3 minutes to load maps that were literally just 2d backgrounds with some particle effects. Months after release they were also doing major balance patches.
If Obsidian did up their project management game, that's good.

 

[Synobun]

I think I also have The Witcher 3, which people keep raving about. I never got past the tutorial of that one.

The beginning of the game is dreadful. I almost dropped it within the first ~10 hours. That sounds like a colossal waste of time, except with cheating and not exploring everything I still got 105 hours out of my playthrough. I echo the recommendation to just check out during the tutorial. And maybe even during White Orchard. I only started to enjoy the game once I reached Velen.

 

[Akka]

I remember PoE 1 being pretty bad on launch. It was taking 2-3 minutes to load maps that were literally just 2d backgrounds with some particle effects. Months after release they were also doing major balance patches.

PoE still has pretty long loading times, even if they improved it. It's due to their engine. Annoying, but it's not a "bug" or something broken. I don't remember any particular problem with it, but I'm the guy who somehow has a lot of luck when it comes to bugs (I didn't encounter a lot of problematic bugs in Fallout 2, New Vegas or Oblivion), so I'm wary to use my personal experience as a standard

The beginning of the game is dreadful. I almost dropped it within the first ~10 hours.

What the hell is wrong with you people

 

[cardgame]

I've got like 15h in Witcher 3 and haven't picked it back up in months

 

[amadeus]

Sim amadeus, simadeus, is building a new house after making a small fortune in the precious metals and gemstones business.

I’ve gone around my neighborhood and took a few photos of real old-style houses that I want to copy, at least on the exterior side. They probably wouldn’t like it too much if I asked to peek in.

 

[amadeus]

I don't know why the in-game screenshot option makes it look like turds, but here it is:

The real house I modeled this on did not nearly take up as much space as it does on the lot, nor does it have as many windows. Also, the house was brick (similar color) but I used tile instead. I'm guessing the house I saw was probably built in the early-to-mid 1970's.

I suppose I could have made it a bit smaller, and probably should have. Oh well, if I hate it, down it goes!

 

[tjs282]

Having run through all the Far Cry missions up to the end of 'Dam' (19/20) at Veteran difficulty, I upped my game to Realistic. Over the last couple of days I've completed missions 9–12 ('Regulator', 'Control', 'Rebellion' and 'Archives'), although admittedly only after much swearing, reloading and restrategising — including replaying the Regulator mission from the start, so I could pick up the rocket-launcher to use on those bloody Ospreys at the end (without having to backtrack through the entire level from the last checkpoint, every time I got killed).

Also very pleased with myself for having invented a couple of new tricks (at least, new to me: they aren't in any of the Realistic walkthroughs I've seen on YouTube!).

Spoiler :

First was to knock off the Fatboy in the last room of 'Control' with minimal effort/ammo-usage. After knocking out the monkey-Trigens on the catwalk, I emptied an entire rifle-magazine into the Fatboy to get him to retreat to the ground floor, then tossed a rock into the deep water in the central well. When he went to investigate the splash, he fell in and drowned.

Second trick was to dodge the Spectres in the partly flooded area near the beginning of 'Archives'. From the room directly above, I used a combination of grenades and shotgun blasts to knock over the barrels standing on the wooden panel, and roll/push everything out of the way, so I could drop straight through into the flooded vent, swim to the other end, (kill the single Trigen in that room) and activate the switch which unlocks all the doors in that section. Then I could deal with the Spectres (and the 3 Trigens which spawn in the same area when the switch is activated) from the relative safety of the sunken area in the switch-room.

Lastly, clearing out the dozen or so night-vision Mercs in the large warehouse at the end of 'Archives': after swapping my shotgun for the rocket-launcher left at the top of the water-tower, I fired 4 rockets towards the far left corner of the warehouse, and a couple more at the incoming Fatboy, then dropped the rocket launcher and ran like hell through the trees and vegetation, back to the pier at the other end of that open area, from where I could snipe all the Mercs as they came along the catwalk. Once they were all down, I was free to loot the corpses for ammo + armour top-ups, and make my way to the hidden elevator at the right hand end of the warehouse without any interference.

These allowed me to finish both those levels with full health + armour (for a change!).

 

[AdamCrock]

I don't know why the in-game screenshot option makes it look like turds, but here it is:

View attachment 574324

The real house I modeled this on did not nearly take up as much space as it does on the lot, nor does it have as many windows. Also, the house was brick (similar color) but I used tile instead. I'm guessing the house I saw was probably built in the early-to-mid 1970's.

I suppose I could have made it a bit smaller, and probably should have. Oh well, if I hate it, down it goes!

It looks very luxurious - several families could live there but there is not enough garage space imho. I'd expect a "machine park" in a house like this. Well logically if You can afford it , everyone in Your family is gonna have a car. If this is America than the cars are also big ! :O

 

[AmazonQueen]

I don't know why the in-game screenshot option makes it look like turds, but here it is:

View attachment 574324

The real house I modeled this on did not nearly take up as much space as it does on the lot, nor does it have as many windows. Also, the house was brick (similar color) but I used tile instead. I'm guessing the house I saw was probably built in the early-to-mid 1970's.

I suppose I could have made it a bit smaller, and probably should have. Oh well, if I hate it, down it goes!

Only in the US could a house built in the mid-70s be considered old-style. Thats when my house was built.
Old-style around here is https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cosmeston-vale-glamorgan-homes-plan-19222546

 

[amadeus]

It looks very luxurious - several families could live there but there is not enough garage space imho. I'd expect a "machine park" in a house like this. Well logically if You can afford it , everyone in Your family is gonna have a car. If this is America than the cars are also big ! :O

Upon further research, I found that the building is actually a Buddhist temple and not a house, which would explain its size. Unfortunately, not a lot is written online about it and finding any sort of construction details is probably not going to happen. At least very easily.

The house is unfortunately a bit big. I might have to scrap the whole thing and downsize it, though I’ve got a better handle on how I’d do it now. The problem with stuff in The Sims is that it just takes up so much space, so having anything that really resembles a house here is going to be tough to pull off well.

Only in the US could a house built in the mid-70s be considered old-style.

This is where I’m afraid you would be wrong.

“Used” properties only account for a very small share of the market here, most single-family housing being new construction. A long-circulated meme on the English-speaking internet is that the expected lifespan of a house here is about 20 years, though I doubt that based just on what I’ve seen. It could be just for condos, but even then 20 years seems too short in my estimation.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Upon further research, I found that the building is actually a Buddhist temple and not a house, which would explain its size. Unfortunately, not a lot is written online about it and finding any sort of construction details is probably not going to happen. At least very easily.

The house is unfortunately a bit big. I might have to scrap the whole thing and downsize it, though I’ve got a better handle on how I’d do it now. The problem with stuff in The Sims is that it just takes up so much space, so having anything that really resembles a house here is going to be tough to pull off well.


This is where I’m afraid you would be wrong.

“Used” properties only account for a very small share of the market here, most single-family housing being new construction. A long-circulated meme on the English-speaking internet is that the expected lifespan of a house here is about 20 years, though I doubt that based just on what I’ve seen. It could be just for condos, but even then 20 years seems too short in my estimation.

What do you make the things out of? Polystyrene?