What Video Games Have You Been Playing #15: Computer not on fire yet? Better add more mods!

[aimeeandbeatles]

Spoiler :

That's pretty landscapes.

 

[EgonSpengler]

My favorite is when they would do that after getting shot or seeing another guard get shot.

"Hmm someone just shot me in the shoulder so we clearly have an armed infiltrator on the base, but I can't find him so I guess I'll just go back to my rounds and not report this to anyone".

Elite mercenaries my butt.

I think the last straw for me was one of the Sniper Elite games. You could wipe out an entire enemy installation, just by shooting one guy and then waiting 3-4 minutes for the entire group to 'reset' before shooting the next one. I tried returning the game, but I'd missed the window. iirc, the old Thief games addressed the issue by making you almost worthless in a standup fight against a soldier who had chainmail and a helmet, but at the same time your missions almost always involved stealing an item or crossing an area undetected, and a lot of your tools were designed to avoid a fight (one of my favorites was the "moss arrow" that would cause a big patch of moss to grow over creaky floorboards in a couple of seconds, muffling your footsteps - one can imagine a guard or a servant coming upon a big patch of moss in the hallway the next morning and going "WTH?"). The overall design of the game kind of worked around the fact that the guards were essentially mindless. Games that use robot sentries or zombies kind of do the same thing; the fact that the guards are stupid and predictable makes sense, in context. I think there was a stealth game in which guards and civilians would alert on any bodies, but you could pick up a dead or unconscious person and set them down in a closet or under a stair. Maybe that was also Thief.

I don't think any stealth game I've played has found a good reason to knock people unconscious and not kill them, besides just roleplaying, or to extend the consequences of your behavior into subsequent missions or chapters. Dishonored waved at the idea, but their implementation didn't work very well, I didn't think. In Metro Exodus, I got out of one stealth mission only by killing a guard, and my NPC comrade said something like "too bad you had to kill somebody", which got me hoping there'd be some kind of setback or consequence for having used lethal force when I wasn't supposed to, but no, the game seemed to forget all about it. It's possible if I went back to the same location, the people there would be perpetually on alert without having spotted me first, but I haven't had any reason to go back there. It's also possible there would've been some kind of additional reward if I'd finished the mission flawlessly, but other games have done that before (again, maybe Thief, I think you got bonus XP or something if you complete a mission entirely undetected, etc).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The Last of Us handles this pretty well. Once alerted, bad guys go into a permanent search pattern. Given long enough, they'll move away from your area but they rarely if ever go back to a relaxed state. The game is linear though so you can never really go back.

 

[Akka]

That's pretty landscapes.

Yes, that game is gorgeous.

Don't forget to toss him a coin, though.

 

[Birdjaguar]

@aimeeandbeatles What is the game?

 

[Synobun]

@aimeeandbeatles What is the game?

Witcher 3

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

@aimeeandbeatles What is the game?

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I finally got to Skellige.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Witcher 3

Is it the same Witcher from that NETFLIX original show starring Supes?

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yes.

 

[Synobun]

Well, yes and no. The show's more about the books IIRC.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Who knew that playing an early 2000s horse game that is no longer commercially available (unless you pay $50 for a used copy) could be so difficult?

First, some ******* had replaced the installer with a trojan. This is why I always run files from unknown sources through VirusTotal. The rest of the files were untampered (which makes me wonder why someone would go to the effort of doing this), so I was able to drop in a clean InstallShield and get it installed.

Then the game wouldn't run, with an error about initializing Direct3D. Pulled out DxWnd (which was just once a tool to get games into windowed mode but has expanded into pretty much an entire suite of compatibility tweaks) and actually manage to get the game running!

Except for the pesky problem of instantly crashing to desktop with another Direct3D error whenever I try to save. Yeah....

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Who knew that playing an early 2000s horse game that is no longer commercially available (unless you pay $50 for a used copy) could be so difficult?

First, some ******* had replaced the installer with a trojan. This is why I always run files from unknown sources through VirusTotal. The rest of the files were untampered (which makes me wonder why someone would go to the effort of doing this), so I was able to drop in a clean InstallShield and get it installed.

Then the game wouldn't run, with an error about initializing Direct3D. Pulled out DxWnd (which was just once a tool to get games into windowed mode but has expanded into pretty much an entire suite of compatibility tweaks) and actually manage to get the game running!

Except for the pesky problem of instantly crashing to desktop with another Direct3D error whenever I try to save. Yeah....

You have some really amazing skills.

 

[civvver]

That's why we love gog. They do all that crap for you in one nice package. Actually maybe you should go work for them on making installs!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I wasn't actually able to get the game properly working. It always crashes upon save.

I get the Pokemon newsletter, and I just got word of...this:
https://swordshield.pokemon.com/en-us/expansionpass/

Which makes me a bit uncomfortable, because I'm worried it might be a slippery slope to microtransactions. I don't play Sword or Shield anyways (don't have a Switch), but...

 

[Commodore]

I still have not bought Civ 6, but I might after watching The Spiffing Brit's videos on the sheer hilarity that can be caused by using the "infinite pantheon founding" glitch. Has that been patched or is it still possible?

 

[Birdjaguar]

Path of Exile memory leak has been fixed!! I can play again.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

So how long before we see you again?

 

[Birdjaguar]

So how long before we see you again?

Well I spent three hours playing when the patch went live and stepped out to get some dinner and watch Rachel Maddow. Then it will back to the game for a few hours.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In the Sims 2, I loaded up my testing neighbourhood for, uh, testing purposes.

Spoiler :

Allow puppy/kitten/toddler riders seems to be working pretty well.

Spoiler :

Of course my self-Sim would be buying video games...

Spoiler :

Oh dear.

Spoiler :

How are you shredding that poster? It's too high for you to reach!

Spoiler :

So I have a pregnancy hack that allows elder Sims to get pregnant. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually add elder pregnancy clothing. And I don't have any no-censor mods, either.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

So I have a pregnancy hack that allows elder Sims to get pregnant. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually add elder pregnancy clothing. And I don't have any no-censor mods, either.

Thank you for using the camera angle to spare us that.