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

[Phrossack]

If your computer can play Medieval 2, then it can definitely play Morrowind. IIRC Oblivion came out the same year as Medieval 2 and they were both complete resource hogs.

On the subject of Medieval 2, I've been playing a campaign as Milan and somehow managing to keep stable alliance with the Byzantine Empire, The Holy Roman Empire, Poland, and England. I let the alliance with France lapse because once I mop up Portugal they are my next target. Spain attacked Corsica on me, I quickly retook it, and decided to launch a campaign of vengeance against them and completely wiped out Spain. Venice is reduced to Crete and Ragusa, Sicily has been kicked out of mainly Europe and Sicily itself; and the HRE stupidly attacked me early game which allowed me to seize Bologna and unite all of northern Italy. Unfortunately, the Medieval 2 AI appears to be slightly bugging out with regards to the Papal States. I got excommunicated because I attacked Sicily (no idea why I was even given the Excommunication ultimatum, I had good relations with the pope). I have since made peace with Sicily, given the pope gobs of money, and have a high approval with the pope but I'm still excommunicated! (The pope also declared war on me for some reason. Once I get Zaragossa the Pope got for some reason; I'm making peace.) Thankfully my faction leader is getting old so he should die soon and lift the excommunication; but I'm not holding out much hope for his successor, a sadly ignorant miser.

Phrossack, do you know how well the Elder Scrolls mod works on the Steam version of Medieval 2?

M2TW AI in vanilla is hell-bent on going after the strongest faction in general, and the player in particular. Never trust them.

There is a bug that makes occupying cities hurt reputation when it should raise it, and having a high reputation improves relations and makes getting invaded less likely. I fixed it in TES: TW, and it works well now.

I unfortunately don't know how well it works with Steam--I got M2TW on disc years ago--but if you ever download it and get it to work, let me know! I did a major overhaul of unit stats, recruitment, and some other things that helped smooth the rough edges.

Silly console gamers buying a £35 game when they could have saved their money and bought a superior gaming PC instead. When will they learn?

Yeah if only people didn't pay for games I'm personally not interested in.

Anyway, as far as the updated Skyrim game goes I'll give it a miss. I've never really had much interest in playing through TES games more than once. If I could somehow revive my old PS3 save on the PS4 version and play the DLCs (never got around to playing any of them) then I'd be mildly interested. But that's a no go. As far as mods go I have just about zero interest. Getting involved in the mod scene in these game usually just means I'll no longer be able to concentrate on just playing and enjoying the game.

I've had my Xbox for years, and my computer and laptop are both pretty outdated, so I have to play Skyrim on console. It's easy for people to forget that not everyone has the budget for dozens of games and an up-to-date computer; I have to make do with a small selection of games on aging systems, and it works fine for me most of the time, though I plan on selling them all and buying a newer laptop once I start my new job.

Purrfectly!

You should be imprisoned for this. Bad Khajiit. Bad!

 

[Lexicus]

"literally paying full price for what is the exact same"

I'm talking about the Skyrim Special Edition, Snerk. Not "similar types of gameplay," literally the exact same game with better graphics.

 

[Synobun]

I'm talking about the Skyrim Special Edition, Snerk. Not "similar types of gameplay," literally the exact same game with better graphics.

It kinda goes a little deeper than "just better graphics" but whatever helps your narrative, I guess.

 

[Lexicus]

Oh sorry you get the DLC for Skyrim too, my mistake. So what? Is it worth paying $60 for all Skyrim's DLC, particularly if you already have it?
I don't think so. Obviously other people think differently, and I guess that's fine, but can't I complain about what I think this does to the video game industry in peace? Can't I blow off steam on the internet without people taking me too seriously?

 

[REDY]

OK I play Arcanum now. I am annoyed by damaging own armor and weapons. I am not sure where to repair. It seems that every merchant can repair just some kind.

 

[Quintillus]

I've been playing fewer games lately, but still play the odd game of Rocket League Hockey, and have been playing some Civ III lately. Yeah, I could get Civ VI, but I started this Civ III game before it came out and it's pretty fun.

I also played some Doom (1993) recently. A little bit of adjustment with the keyboard controls, but not much, and I can appreciate the level design in it. Yeah, I could get Doom (2016) and actually tax my new graphics card, but the classic was way cheaper and way more classic. Those flying flaming head things are also the spookiest thing I've seen in a video game in quite a long time, pixelated graphics or not.

 

[Synobun]

Oh sorry you get the DLC for Skyrim too, my mistake. So what? Is it worth paying $60 for all Skyrim's DLC, particularly if you already have it?
I don't think so. Obviously other people think differently, and I guess that's fine, but can't I complain about what I think this does to the video game industry in peace? Can't I blow off steam on the internet without people taking me too seriously?

Are you asking us to not take you seriously anymore? This can be done, although I doubt you'd like the fruits of your labour on that front.

 

[Commodore]

And performs worse, and is a hell of a lot less useful due to the fact that console OS's restrict the user more than smartphone OS's.

Eh, consoles have their uses. I fire up my 360 (haven't upgraded to the XB1 yet) whenever I just want to veg out on the couch and play some games. It's also good for playing games with my oldest daughter who is now old enough to really start playing games and has expressed a strong interest in playing video games with her daddy. I also play some sports games (mostly NCAA Football 14), and I think those play a lot better on consoles than they do on PC.

My serious gaming sessions are all done on PC though. Also, it's easier to record videos for my YouTube channel with PC games since I haven't gotten around to buying a capture card for my 360 yet.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Space Empires V

 

[Lexicus]

You already don't take me seriously. Frankly I don't care about your opinion of me anyway.

Are you asking us to not take you seriously anymore? This can be done, although I doubt you'd like the fruits of your labour on that front.

I often don't take myself seriously, you should try it, it's a lot of fun.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

I've finished The Age of Decadence and South Park: The Stick of Truth recently. Both are great! AoD has an excellent non-linear serious-tone plot and it is a true cRPG similar to late 90's/early 00's games, Fallout, Arcanum, etc. And South Park is like watching the show, except that you're there doing stuff and interacting with everyone.

Now, I've started Ur-Quan Masters, yet again, maybe I'll finish it this time.

Also, tried Torment: Tales of Numenera, Alien Isolation and Interstellaria. Numenera is a disappointment, instead of the deep detailed atmosphere of Planescape, which captivated me and creeped me out from the start, I've experienced some kind of stupid anime-like beginning, which bored me to sleep. Alien Isolation was intriguing and reassuring at first, but then I felt that this is yet another modern first-person Bioshock-like consolish game for wide audience. I'll try it again some time later. Interstellaria was good for hours, but then I've exhausted everything gameplay-wise and there's only a linear plot left to follow now, which is toyish and simplistic, so I got bored but still with this hunger for space flight and funny aliens. That's why I'm playing Ur-Quan Masters now.

 

[Snerk]

Well, if you want to save money, just buy a smartphone and it's even cheaper
It's all about quality/price ratio. A PC is a bit more expensive, but offer vastly more possibilities.

If you just want to use it to play games, those other possibilities can be pretty irrelevant for a lot of people.

I'm talking about the Skyrim Special Edition, Snerk. Not "similar types of gameplay," literally the exact same game with better graphics.

Fair enough. But I still think there's plenty of room for the release of just remastered games. I've played several of those and I'm glad they make them. I think one can question weather remastering a game from 2011 is a little too soon but there's obviously a market for it among gamers so why not.

Oh sorry you get the DLC for Skyrim too, my mistake. So what? Is it worth paying $60 for all Skyrim's DLC, particularly if you already have it?
I don't think so. Obviously other people think differently, and I guess that's fine, but can't I complain about what I think this does to the video game industry in peace? Can't I blow off steam on the internet without people taking me too seriously?

I wasn't aware that you didn't want to discuss the matter. Look, you made some points that I disagree with so I counter argued. No reason to get upset. I respect your position on the matter.

On topic:
Playing through Journey at the moment. I know it's short so I probably played through more than half in the first sitting, but it really is a masterpiece in game design.

 

[Akka]

Also, tried Torment: Tales of Numenera, Alien Isolation and Interstellaria. Numenera is a disappointment, instead of the deep detailed atmosphere of Planescape, which captivated me and creeped me out from the start, I've experienced some kind of stupid anime-like beginning, which bored me to sleep.

Wait, what, Tales of Numenera is released ? 0_o
I thought it was aiming for 2017, and I didn't see any announce on GOG.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm talking about the Skyrim Special Edition, Snerk. Not "similar types of gameplay," literally the exact same game with better graphics.

Does that tell us more about the audience, or about the competition? If people would rather buy Skyrim all over again than a rival AAA title- and even putting aside the financial aspect, a game like this is a time-gobbler- does the lack of imagination lie with consumers or with Bethesda's rivals?

 

[jackelgull]

Does that tell us more about the audience, or about the competition? If people would rather buy Skyrim all over again than a rival AAA title- and even putting aside the financial aspect, a game like this is a time-gobbler- does the lack of imagination lie with consumers or with Bethesda's rivals?

Typical leftist anti capitalist clap trap, it is never the consumer's fault because god forbid someone besides corporations take responsbility for their actions.


Ok, on a more serious note, why would people choose Betheseda over the competition? I'm not into the genre of games these guys release, but they have a bad reputation, if all the complaints I hear about them are widely held.Yet they're the biggest company on the market.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

They have a reputation for releasing incredibly buggy games which, over a period of months/years will gradually progress to being only slightly buggier than the average game. But if you can look past that then I don't think they have a particularly bad reputation. Far from it in fact.

 

[Akka]

Does that tell us more about the audience, or about the competition? If people would rather buy Skyrim all over again than a rival AAA title- and even putting aside the financial aspect, a game like this is a time-gobbler- does the lack of imagination lie with consumers or with Bethesda's rivals?

Definitely the audience, considering how Skyrim is massively overrated. Witcher 3 alone completely annihilates it.

 

[Arakhor]

Wait, what, Tales of Numenera is released ? 0_o
I thought it was aiming for 2017, and I didn't see any announce on GOG.

The version on Steam is the beta version. I am waiting until the full release.

 

[Ajidica]

Ok, on a more serious note, why would people choose Betheseda over the competition? I'm not into the genre of games these guys release, but they have a bad reputation, if all the complaints I hear about them are widely held.Yet they're the biggest company on the market.

Part of it comes from nobody else making open world RPGs, and those that do tend to really struggle with populating the world (*cough* Witcher 3 *cough*). The other part comes from Bethesda -despite a lot of butthurt people on the internet arguing to the contrary- still makes excellent games that do a good job of drawing you into the world. For myself, my biggest criticism of Bethesda with Fallout 4 is that it feels sort of lazy. (Although I'm shocked they actually managed to make a fun and response combat system.) Apart from the gimmicky crafting/village system nothing new is really added to the series.

Definitely the audience, considering how Skyrim is massively overrated. Witcher 3 alone completely annihilates it.

I wouldn't say Witcher 3 completely annihilates it. I'm a huge fan of the Witcher and feel it is a better game than Skyrim, but let's keep the respective games in mind. The Witcher has you begin as a set character with a pre-established motivation, personality, empty world, and basically linear plot. One of the key selling points with Bethesda RPGs is that there is no pre-defined character, motivations, or personality. If CD Project had to accommodate a Geralt who could range from moralistic do-gooder to a bloodthirsty sociopath they would be defaulting to pretty generic dialogue. Plus, plot-wise the Witcher games are linear. I mean, could you imagine the headaches CD Project would have had if they tried to make Witcher 2 non-linear? Players wandering between Flotsam, Vergen, the Army Camp without following the story path would be basically impossible to code.
Lastly, outside of the quest locations the Witcher 3 is pretty empty and is basically just pretty filler. Beyond occasionally wanting to look at the scenery I never just wandered off into the wilderness. If I were to wander off to their "points of interest" all I would find really are some bandit camps or monster dens that would give me some paltry experience and crafting loot I already had 20 copies of shoved into Geralt's Bag of Holding.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've been (re)playing Metro: Last Light and while the shooter gameplay is run-of-the-mill, the setting is really great. I think 4A Games is a small outfit, so making the environment more open and more interactive was probably just beyond the scope of their resources. I would love to see a good RPG set there (along with the settings for BioShock and Fallout 4).