What video games have you been playing V: the return of the subtitle

[Ajidica]

Picked up Far Cry 3 on Steam Sale, enjoying it so far but it lacks the same gritty and realistic feeling in Far Cry 2. While FC2 had environments where you could feel the heat, humidity, and baking sun FC3 feels a bit too much like a postcard. Everything is bright and colorful. The menus are also a bit of a pain to navigate.
The jeeps in FC3 sound almost exactly the same as in FC2 and as a result of FC2 I have an immediate impulse to take cover as soon as I hear the sound of a jeep engine only to discover it is an allied jeep.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Picked up Far Cry 3 on Steam Sale, enjoying it so far but it lacks the same gritty and realistic feeling in Far Cry 2. While FC2 had environments where you could feel the heat, humidity, and baking sun FC3 feels a bit too much like a postcard. Everything is bright and colorful. The menus are also a bit of a pain to navigate.
The jeeps in FC3 sound almost exactly the same as in FC2 and as a result of FC2 I have an immediate impulse to take cover as soon as I hear the sound of a jeep engine only to discover it is an allied jeep.

I agree with you about the "feeling" of the environment, but I thought 3's story was superior to 2's. In 2, I just felt like a mindless mercenary, going where I was told and killing who I was told to. As to the jeeps, I once wiped out 3 guys before they even had a chance to get out of the vehicle, then realized they were friendlies.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I seem to have stopped playing Fallout 4.

After the Battle of Bunker Hill, I realized that I'd completely lost the plot. What a jumbled mess. I talked to "Father" on the roof of CIT, but nothing became any clearer. And frankly, none of the factions appeals to me very much. The Minutemen seem the most benevolent, but I've had my fill of the settlements system and missions, and that's all the Minutemen seem to be about.

I like the exploration and combat and side missions, but I've lost all sense of forward progress. Oh well. I'll keep an eye open for the inevitable DLC. I imagine I'll return to the game eventually.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Given that Fallout 4 is "next gen", have Bethesda finally managed to make interiors and exteriors exist in the same universe yet? I'm a bit fed up of "windows" in buildings that don't actually work.

(I guess this is more of an Elder Scrolls problem as, for Fallout 3 at least, they just didn't bother with even pretending to have windows for the most part, but as the first Bethesda game on the new hardware I was just wondering.)

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Picked up Far Cry 3 on Steam Sale, enjoying it so far but it lacks the same gritty and realistic feeling in Far Cry 2. While FC2 had environments where you could feel the heat, humidity, and baking sun FC3 feels a bit too much like a postcard. Everything is bright and colorful. The menus are also a bit of a pain to navigate.
The jeeps in FC3 sound almost exactly the same as in FC2 and as a result of FC2 I have an immediate impulse to take cover as soon as I hear the sound of a jeep engine only to discover it is an allied jeep.

Oh wow, I didn't realize that the jeep models went all the way back to FC2 - they are still the exact same jeeps in FC4. That's one of the things that kind of made me mad about FC4; they just recycled nearly all of the human, vehicle and animal 3D models. Sometimes they didn't even re-skin them! It's kind of cheep and I didn't like that but I guess that's how they churn out these games yearly or bi-yearly.

Is FCP out yet?

Given that Fallout 4 is "next gen", have Bethesda finally managed to make interiors and exteriors exist in the same universe yet? I'm a bit fed up of "windows" in buildings that don't actually work.

(I guess this is more of an Elder Scrolls problem as, for Fallout 3 at least, they just didn't bother with even pretending to have windows for the most part, but as the first Bethesda game on the new hardware I was just wondering.)

I do not recall any buildings with windows that show the outside of a building except in the very few buildings that don't trigger a load screen when you enter. I think there is an army barracks that has a section that is indoors but you can see through windows but I am pretty sure that entering that section of the 'building' triggers it's own load screen - i.e. the game considers it going 'outside' even though you are technically in the covered walking path between the main building and an outbuilding.


To be honest non-working windows never bothered me.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Well in Skyrim it certainly defeats the purpose of building a nice house overlooking a lake, if you can only enjoy the view if you stand outside in the rain.

It just seems a bit basic and rubbish. I remember playing Legends of Valour on the Amiga over 20 years ago (one of the games that apparently inspired the original Elder Scrolls game) and even in THAT you could see in and out of windows into buildings.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Most of the houses you build in your settlements in FO4 do have functioning windows; i.e. they do not trigger a load screen. Also, the houses you can build in FO4 are ramshackle huts that are falling apart and largely exposed to the elements, so there is that. (I actually hate this)

The only house I can think of that does trigger a load screen and does not have working windows is the one you can buy in Diamond City. Most houses of NPC's that you enter also trigger load screens and do not have windows, assuming they are proper houses and not open-air stalls or huts.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Given that Fallout 4 is "next gen"

There was clearly a tremendous amount of work put into it, and a lot of it is competently if not expertly put together, but there didn't seem to be nothing about the game that's new or innovative. It's pretty much the next iteration in its series, for better or for worse.

Anyway, you can see and shoot through a lot of windows, but not all of them. A lot of small buildings aren't separate zones, and their windows are really windows. You can't climb through them to enter or exit the building, but that's a function of the movement system (you can't climb anything at all). Larger buildings are separate zones, and any windows they have are nonfunctional. If you want to take a high-altitude view of the game world from a downtown office building, you have to go up to the roof or find a spot that is technically part of the outdoor world zone, such as a balcony or a spot where the exterior wall has crumbled away. There are also many buildings that are just scenery; you can't enter or interact with them in any way, and their windows are purely cosmetic.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

if you know where they are but can't see them due to stealth mode, how do you kill them?

Battle scanners. This is why (well, one in a long list of reasons) you should always pack battle scanners on at least one of your troops. Once they're knocked out of stealth seekers aren't that impressive.

 

[Commodore]

Battle scanners. This is why (well, one in a long list of reasons) you should always pack battle scanners on at least one of your troops. Once they're knocked out of stealth seekers aren't that impressive.

Eh, I've always got along just fine without battle scanners. Plus, Disabling Shot is a much more useful ability and has gotten me out of some pretty tight jams before.

My snipers are always Squadsight, Gunslinger, Disabling Shot, Opportunist, and Double Tap.

 

[Wolfbeckett]

Does battle scanner conflict with disabling shot in the vanilla game? I've play Long War exclusively for over a year so I've forgotten what the vanilla game is even like lol. In LW you can equip them just as a normal item like you would a grenade. In that case yes, your only real option for dealing with them is layered overwatch and pray nobody misses, disabling shot is really really good against big enemies like sectopods in the late game so you probably want it.

 

[Commodore]

Does battle scanner conflict with disabling shot in the vanilla game? I've play Long War exclusively for over a year so I've forgotten what the vanilla game is even like lol. In LW you can equip them just as a normal item like you would a grenade. In that case yes, your only real option for dealing with them is layered overwatch and pray nobody misses, disabling shot is really really good against big enemies like sectopods in the late game so you probably want it.

Yeah, in vanilla you have to choose between Disabling Shot and Battle Scanners at the Lieutenant rank for Snipers.

 

[jackelgull]

Eh, I've always got along just fine without battle scanners. Plus, Disabling Shot is a much more useful ability and has gotten me out of some pretty tight jams before.

My snipers are always Squadsight, Gunslinger, Disabling Shot, Opportunist, and Double Tap.

Why would you take gunslinger? It seems counter intuitive for a sniper to get an ability that's only good for close range fighting.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Snipers are often isolated and sometimes need to move and/or deal with a surprise nearby threat. At the point the sniper rifle isn't much use.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Why would you take gunslinger? It seems counter intuitive for a sniper to get an ability that's only good for close range fighting.

Because unless you take snap shot (which you really shouldn't) your sniper might spend quite some time moving a bit and doing nothing useful. With gunslinger you can reposition and still do decent damage/overwatch on the same turn. Especially if you have looted plasma pistols.

 

[Commodore]

Why would you take gunslinger? It seems counter intuitive for a sniper to get an ability that's only good for close range fighting.

Snipers without Gunslinger are pretty useless in close range fighting, meaning they aren't good for UFO missions, where their sniping is awesome outside the UFO, but once you breach the UFO, you essentially lose a soldier. With Gunslinger, the Sniper can easily transition from long range to short range combat so you can then actually use all your soldiers to breach a UFO. It also makes snipers more effective on overwatch if you don't take Snap Shot (which you shouldn't since the benefits of Squadsight turn the sniper into the master of the battlefield).

EDIT: If you have Enemy Within, Gunslinger also makes Snipers perfect for the covert operative role, since covert operatives are limited to using pistols while on mission.

 

[Synobun]

Decided to play Borderlands again after a couple years. I don't remember Mad Mel being so god awful to beat, but then again this is the first time I'm playing the game single-player. Eventually cheesed it and just stood where he couldn't get me while popping off sniper shots. Fun game, plan's to use my nostalgia to catapult me into Borderlands 2 and actually stick with it. I've replayed the first mission so many times but always end up quitting.

Considering getting back into Darkest Dungeon now that it's complete. Maybe stream it. Who knows.

Been playing CK2 as well... India is still impossible to play.

I would also highly recommend Kingdom to anyone who likes side-scrolling, pixel art, and resource management. Deceptively simple game; it's actually quite difficult to do well in it.

 

[Antilogic]

Considering getting back into Darkest Dungeon now that it's complete. Maybe stream it. Who knows.

They are adding two new classes in a big patch coming in early March. I am starting a new file then.

 

[Ajidica]

They are adding two new classes in a big patch coming in early March. I am starting a new file then.

Has Darkest Dungeons fixed its annoying habit of not providing you enough information to figure out if you keep getting cut to pieces because you are bad and the game (and should feel bad) or you are just not approaching a situation the right way?

I mean, in XCOM I can generally figure out where I went wrong (not building enough satellites, taking too long to get laser/plasma guns) but with DD I always just feel like I get screwed by the RNG and an unclear turn order.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I started up XCom the first since I never got around to it and figure I might as well before I play the sequel.