What Video Games Have You Been Playing? IX: Now With 4K VR!

[EgonSpengler]

I was thinking about starting a new Survival game of The Long Dark, looked at the Hinterland forums to see if there was anything new to be aware of, and learned that using Custom Difficulty means you don't make any progress on Skill Badges. Argh. On the bright side, I did see a helpful tip that I hadn't thought of myself:

Spoiler :

Wolves can be distracted by throwing a rock.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In Audiosurf, I've taken to playing in ironmode, even though I stink at it most of the time. Playing in regular mode, I don't stink. I guess I'm just a masochist.

 

[Smellincoffee]

The recent sale lured me into Civilization 6.. I like it. I'm playing a game as the Germans. The Japanese sneak-attacked me, but he was using one of my city-state allies' roads to reach me, so that...did not work very well for him. I almost tried Beyond Earth, but the sale ended.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The recent sale lured me into Civilization 6.. I like it. I'm playing a game as the Germans. The Japanese sneak-attacked me, but he was using one of my city-state allies' roads to reach me, so that...did not work very well for him. I almost tried Beyond Earth, but the sale ended.

Beyond Earth got old fairly quick. It is more like a Civil 5 mod than a standalone game. They abandoned it after one lackluster expansion and it's pretty buggy. I got maybe a years worth of enjoyment out of it. That's great for a game but terrible for a civ game (for me at least).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Don't you mean lootboxes?

 

[Broken_Erika]

Don't you mean lootboxes?

Maybe they're more like those "Surprise Bags" you can find in the candy section of most corner stores....

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

50% of them just have oran berries in them. I just started throwing them all over the place so I had more room for useful stuff.

 

[Broken_Erika]

50% of them just have oran berries in them. I just started throwing them all over the place so I had more room for useful stuff.

So they ARE those surprise bags!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Must be a convention going on.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

In Audiosurf, I moved up to Mono Ninja (hard mode). Through sheer luck, I actually made it through a pretty fast song without hitting any grey blocks. That is, until hitting one less than a second before the song ended.

I swore.

 

[Lexicus]

Started another Byzantine campaign in M2TW, soon my armies will conquer Italy and Egypt at like the same time and my control of the world will be assured

 

[EgonSpengler]

I started a new game of The Long Dark. I decided to give Stalker a try - the hard mode, but not the suicidal mode - after playing mostly Voyageur before. On day 1, in Mystery Lake, I got chased by a wolf (no knife, so I had to run) and barged right into a moose. I'd swear I could hear the wolf laughing as it ran away. I spent the next 12 days recovering from a broken rib. On day 13, in Pleasant Valley, I got mauled by a bear. The damned thing ate my hat and I almost got frostbite before I made it to the farmhouse. I spent 3 days convalescing in the farmhouse, reading books about fishing and sewing. But the farmhouse had a rifle and a box of ammo. Now I'm going back to Mystery Lake to find that moose.

Spoiler :

 

[Traitorfish]

Started another Byzantine campaign in M2TW, soon my armies will conquer Italy and Egypt at like the same time and my control of the world will be assured

I'm genuinely impressed. Whenever I play the Byzantines I get immediately dog-piled by the entire Mediterranean. The one time I held out, suddenly: Mongols.

 

[Lexicus]

I'm genuinely impressed. Whenever I play the Byzantines I get immediately dog-piled by the entire Mediterranean.

Oh they're dogpiling me alright, they do it every time. First Sicily attacked me, then Venice, then Papal States, then Hungary and finally HRE broke our alliance to attack me (big surprise on VH campaign difficulty right?). When I've consolidated my position in the Yugoslavia area I'll reinvade Italy (previous invasion failed due to insufficient troops and a series of naval defeats in the Adriatic that reduced my entire navy to two ships, though I did manage to defend Venice from multiple sieges so I've got a foothold), and when I'm finished mopping up rebel territory that was never taken by the Turks in Mesopotamia I'll swing my eastern armies down to take out Egypt (those fools are at peace with me...for now).

Hungary also owns Cairo due to a successful Crusade which helpfully diverted some full stacks from my principal enemies listed above. Many of those stacks are still marching north and west through my territory on their way back to...do something.

 

[Ajidica]

I'm genuinely impressed. Whenever I play the Byzantines I get immediately dog-piled by the entire Mediterranean. The one time I held out, suddenly: Mongols.

I've found the best strategy is to go for the Turks immediately. Their starting forces are basically rubbish, the Byzantine Infantry you can recruit in Constantinople will tear through basically anything they can field (including Bodyguards if you pin them down with a spearman first), and your Trebizond Archers at this stage are basically a hard counter to their horse archers.
Plus, by fighting the Turks you can stay on better terms with the Catholics in Europe, delaying their inevitable dog-pile. (Though Hungarian stacks of Feudal Knights are always terrifying until I can get an appreciable amount of Latinkon or Lancers.)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Sometimes I forget how pretty my neighbourhood in the Sims 2 is

Spoiler :

 

[Yeekim]

Holy Fury for CK2 came out yesterday.
Sleep is for the weak, I guess.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Spoiler :

Those two were fighting for two hours already. They would continue to fight for another three. I love mods.

Spoiler :

What a romantic place.

 

[Snerk]

Hawt.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The Long Dark: Whoever named "Pleasant Valley" obviously has a dark sense of humor.

With my newly-refurbished rifle, I decided to spend a day hunting, and it turned into a sequel to Liam Neeson's The Grey. Not a bad movie, btw, if you're into this sort of thing.

I went out lightly-equipped, expecting to be carting most of a deer back to the farmhouse. After shooting the deer, I followed the blood trail up into the hills. The friggin' thing finally dropped dead right next to that same friggin' bear that got me a week earlier. I circled around the hill, out of the bear's path, and as I came back over the hill from the opposite direction, the bear was lumbering towards me again. I circled around another 120 degree or so, then came back up to the top of the hill, and sure enough, the friggin' bear is moseying right at me yet again. The friggin' thing was following me. I could easily outrun it, but there was no way I could skin the dead deer without dealing with the bear first. Fine. It needed to be taught a lesson anyway.

I got the bear twice as it charged me. It slapped me around, but I survived. After bandaging myself, I shot it a third time, which dropped it. Awesome, now I had a deer carcass and a bear carcass, and I happened to be not far from a cave where I'd previously stashed some supplies. Perfect.

Then the wolves showed up.

I was too hurt to fight a wolf, and at that point I was trying to conserve my ammo. I managed to skin the bear and the deer, and take some meat. I had to leave most of it, because I wanted to be able to run, if I needed to. I set out at first light, but the flippin' wolves were pacing back and forth between me and the farmhouse, so I had to strike off into the unknown.

Then the blizzard started.

And of course the wolves followed me, because I was carrying 20 lbs of fresh venison. I was a walking buffet. So, a day-and-a-half after setting out to bag a deer, I barely managed to drag myself, wounded and freezing to death, back to the farmhouse. Pleasant Valley, my [behind].

Oh, I forgot: I almost got parasites from eating some of the bear meat. My Cooking skill isn't high enough, I guess.