What videogames have you been playing? version 1.22: What's with that plural?

[red_elk]

I can add that this hardcore survival stuff mostly applies to harder difficulties, Stalker and Interloper. In easy mode, the game is far less punishing, though still presents some challenge to new players.

 

[Gori the Grey]

if @EgonSpengler survived for 70 days... he didn't play one game where he lost after 70 days. He played 70 games where he won 69 times and lost once.

Well, okay. That way of formulating it addresses my masochism concerns.

For all that, I still won't play the game. Gotta be turn-based: 1) I don't have speedy reflexes and 2) I play on a laptop, which doesn't even give me the aiming control of a mouse, let alone of a joystick.

I will just continue to die vicariously through the descriptions that the two of you provide

 

[EgonSpengler]

Now a player could set his own goals, and say extending life for X days counts as a win, or beating my last longevity counts as a win. But nothing is a win!

Yeah, Survival Mode in TLD is a 'sandbox' game, warts and all.

The other thing that is different about this game... for me at least, is how BIG the environment is...

I've read that TLD is bigger, geographically, than Skyrim, but I haven't played the latter game enough to know what that means. A quick Google search doesn't turn up anything like square mileage for Great Bear Island. I don't know how it compares to the open-world games I've played, like Fallout 4 and Subnautica. I suspect TLD also 'plays bigger' because movement is so slow and there's no "fast travel."

In general, though, sheer size of a gameworld doesn't impress me. I'm really more interested in a smaller game-world that's more densely-packed with stuff, which is where Fallout 4, Subnautica and The Long Dark really shine, imo.

For all that, I still won't play the game. Gotta be turn-based: 1) I don't have speedy reflexes and 2) I play on a laptop, which doesn't even give me the aiming control of a mouse, let alone of a joystick.

It's not turn-based, but it's not a reflexes-based FPS, either. It's primarily an exploration game. The survival aspect is strategic, not tactical. It rewards planning and forethought. Movement is very slow. You really kind of trudge everywhere. And you can't carry everything, all the time. You have to lay stashes and set up bases, temporary or permanent, in order to explore a region.

The 'difficulty' levels kind of present whole different gameplay experiences:
Pilgrim - Pure exploration. Predators won't attack you, they just run away from you (bears will attack if you shoot them, but wolves won't even do that much). I haven't played at this level, but I'd imagine you could play the whole game without firing a shot.
Voyager - This is 'normal' difficulty. Wolves will attack you, but not until they're close, and they're not hard to scare off if they do come after you (and, really, if you're in good Health and have a knife or a hatchet, you can survive a fight with a wolf unless you get unlucky). The survival aspects are tuned to be very manageable.
Stalker - This was the game's original 'hard mode.' Wolves are everywhere. The environment can actually get you if you aren't diligent.

Interloper is a special game mode introduced for the express purpose of killing experienced players for making the slightest mistake, or sometimes for no reason at all.

(As to playing it on a laptop, I've never tried. You're on your own, there. )

 

[Sommerswerd]

For all that, I still won't play the game. Gotta be turn-based: 1) I don't have speedy reflexes and 2) I play on a laptop, which doesn't even give me the aiming control of a mouse, let alone of a joystick.

You don't need speedy reflexes. It's not that kind of game. Like I mentioned earlier, its not an FPS game and any attempt to make it that would ruin the game. Its not an RTS either where you need to follow a specific build order and play mistake free (maybe Interloper level has a little of this element, but the other levels don't). What I love about this game is that it gives you plenty of time to just sit and think, about what to do next. You can actually pause the game all you want to think as well, but the pace of the game actually allows you to just sit, and stare at your fireplace/campfire and space out a little while... just listening to the sounds of owls, birds, wolves howling in the distance, water rushing by in a nearby river or waterfall, watch the sunset, or the aurora... and so on. And like @EgonSpengler says, there is so much trudge, trudge, trudge, from one place to the next that you just never have any shortage of time to be with your thoughts... but the game is so immersive, that what you are thinking about, during all that time, is generally about your in-game life/survival, rather than your RL.

FWIW, I play on a laptop exclusively... generally while lying or sitting in bed. I usually use a wireless (or wired) mouse though, as it makes it a lot easier to control the direction of where you are looking and/or walking.

I've read that TLD is bigger, geographically, than Skyrim, but I haven't played the latter game enough to know what that means. A quick Google search doesn't turn up anything like square mileage for Great Bear Island. I don't know how it compares to the open-world games I've played, like Fallout 4 and Subnautica. I suspect TLD also 'plays bigger' because movement is so slow and there's no "fast travel."

In general, though, sheer size of a gameworld doesn't impress me. I'm really more interested in a smaller game-world that's more densely-packed with stuff, which is where Fallout 4, Subnautica and The Long Dark really shine, imo.

Yeah I remember in Ocarina of Time, there is this central region that is essentially a large open plain that is a transitional zone to everywhere else in the game. You eventually get a horse that allows you to traverse it quickly, and I remember being really impressed with how vast it was... but soon you realize... there's nothing there to do except ride your horse to the next zone.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well, all right then. I'll wait for the next big Steam sale and I'll buy it. You don't even need quick and accurate actions when you're fighting off wolves? I could play Morrowind because combat was just putting a cursor on someone and clicking away, and the game based your success on your character's stats. Oblivion asked me to coordinate blocking with a sword and striking with a shield and it was just to much for the likes of me.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Well, all right then. I'll wait for the next big Steam sale and I'll buy it. You don't even need quick and accurate actions when you're fighting off wolves? I could play Morrowind because combat was just putting a cursor on someone and clicking away, and the game based your success on your character's stats. Oblivion asked me to coordinate blocking with a sword and striking with a shield and it was just to much.

Fighting off wolves consists of pretty much the same as what you just described... a wolf sees you or smells you, then stalks you until you either lose it, or it runs you down... wolf attacks... you then choose a weapon from a list of the couple weapons you are carrying, generally a knife, an axe and a crowbar, or hammer, occasionally a pistol. Then you just click, click, click away until the wolf either runs off, yelping... or kills you. That's it. In any case, on the higher difficulty levels, "fighting off" wolves isn't really something you should be doing. You should be avoiding/hiding from/running from wolves and/or scaring them away with flares, gunshots and noisemakers whenever possible.

The game does contain/allow hunting, which does take a very minimal bit of accuracy, but nothing like an FPS game, and even then, you don't have to hunt at all to survive in the game, especially at the lower difficulty levels. You can easily survive on foraged materials and later, just ice fishing. In fact, there is an achievement you can get for going the first 25 days without hunting.

 

[Snowygerry]

I've been playing RDR 2 again, really great game, perhaps a bit underestimated even.

Played it before but found the storyline disappointing, railroaded shooting galleries, your gang members constantly getting themselves killed and coming up with hairbrained plans that get them ever deeper in trouble gets old quickly.

But now I started a new game, left Dutch and the rest in the first camp and went off on my own, totally different experience.

The contextual controls sort of force you to roleplay as a drunk cowboy anyway, my first night in Valentine I got into a fight, while trying to punch it out I accidentally pulled my knife and stabbed one of the assailants, that resulted in murder charge and having to flee the town in a hurry...

Now living as an outlaw on the plains for the first time the game finally functions as "Western simulator" rather than an annoying semi-FPS,

definitely something to recommend if you enjoy the genre

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've been playing RDR 2 again, really great game, perhaps a bit underestimated even.

Played it before but found the storyline disappointing, railroaded shooting galleries, and your gang members constantly getting themselves killed and coming up with hairbrained plans that get them ever deeper in trouble gets old quickly.

But now I started a new game, left Dutch and the rest in the first camp and went off on my own, totally different experience.

The contextual controls sort of force you to roleplay as a drunk cowboy anyway, my first night in Valentine I got into a fight, while trying to punch it out I accidentally pulled my knife and stabbed one of the assailants, that resulted in murder charge and having to flee the town in a hurry...

Now living as an outlaw on the plains for the first time the game finally functions as "Western simulator" rather than an annoying semi-FPS,

definitely something to recommend if you enjoy the genre

That's been on my radar for ages, but I haven't gotten around to buying it. I might grab it next time there's a big sale. The Wild West genre is one that's never really crept into my gaming, even though I've enjoyed plenty of Westerns in film & television over the years. Back when I was a kid, my gaming group tried Boot Hill, but we could never quite get our arms around it. And I've played some games that were clearly inspired by Westerns, like Fallout.

 

[Snowygerry]

In many ways it is the game we dreamt of when we were kids in the 80s - the interactiveness is phenomenal - the trick is to ignore the main storyline, imho.

 

[Sommerswerd]

That's been on my radar for ages, but I haven't gotten around to buying it. I might grab it next time there's a big sale. The Wild West genre is one that's never really crept into my gaming, even though I've enjoyed plenty of Westerns in film & television over the years. Back when I was a kid, my gaming group tried Boot Hill, but we could never quite get our arms around it. And I've played some games that were clearly inspired by Westerns, like Fallout.

SC2 has a Wild West flavour to it, with the Terrans being the "Cowboys" and the Zerg and Protoss being the "Indians".

Then again, SC2 is probably even more akin to Fantasy, with Humans (Terran) v. Elves (Protoss) v. Orcs (Zerg)

 

[Farm Boy]

Wouldn't the Protoss be a crumbling empire or something? So... the British. All lost Avalon and whatnot with the elvy thing.

 

[FriendlyFire]

MW5

Someone created a mod to remove mech storage cost, which was a much needed addition as micro managing mechs made me stop playing the first time round
The proc-gen missions havent improved, the jarring terrain generation is weird but all the hand crafted story missions are great

 

[Hygro]

I beat Elden Ring a week ago. I won't spoil much except say that a) it was amazing and b) I think I went about 70-80 hours of just riding around full on exploring before I followed the game as a game with a plot etc. You can get into things much much quicker but why bother when you can find cool places to take pictures of your guy posing naked with a sword and and send them to people.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Hinterland published a new Developer Diary for The Long Dark. I was hoping the next part might be this month, but I suppose March 30 is still technically 'first quarter.' I'm still waiting for the gaming industry to get a handle on the requirements of its own craft, in terms of workload and release dates.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the bunkers update. Just from the pic, it looks like they've redone the bunkers visually. And I'll be surprised if they haven't moved the spawn-points. I wonder if they've added some new functionality, or if the bunkers might be connected to the shortwave radio & transponders system. I assume the shortwave will only work during the Aurora? I have no idea what the 3 new clothing items might be. When they introduced does, I wondered if doeskin and buckskin clothing might have different stats, but they didn't. Could be that. Can you eat acorns? I'm not sure what those'll be used for. Beachcombing has never been much of an activity or a tool for me. Occasionally I'll pick something up if I happen to see it sitting there. Maybe that's why they're enhancing it.

TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part One: Mac Version - Feb 15
TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part One: Xbox and PlayStation Versions - March 15

TALES FROM THE FAR TERRITORY, Part Two - March 30

• Tale: “Signal Void” (estimated 5+ hours of play time to complete)
• Fire-Hardened Arrows
• Handheld Shortwave Radio
• Transponder Cache Gameplay
• New Bunkers
• Three new Clothing items
• Enhanced Prepper Bunkers
• Enhanced Beachcombing
• Acorns & Oak Trees

 

[Farm Boy]

I beat Elden Ring a week ago. I won't spoil much except say that a) it was amazing and b) I think I went about 70-80 hours of just riding around full on exploring before I followed the game as a game with a plot etc. You can get into things much much quicker but why bother when you can find cool places to take pictures of your guy posing naked with a sword and and send them to people.

Fashion Souls!

Spoiler :

Mostly still in the first area, so I am not reading stuff yet, but in case anyone didn't want gear spoilers.

 

[Hygro]

Looking good there!

Here’s a screenshot of a video from my phone of the TV I took super stoned one night:

Spoiler :

 

[Farm Boy]

Looking good there!

Here’s a screenshot of a video from my phone of the TV I took super stoned one night:

So mighty. Rwar!!!

 

[Sommerswerd]

Looking good there!

Here’s a screenshot of a video from my phone of the TV I took super stoned one night:

Spoiler :

View attachment 653366

What a visual!

Those yellow trees in the distance are trippy. This seems like a great game to play stoned

 

[Farm Boy]

It's helped me cut back on all forms of intoxicants. I can't beat anything difficult when I'm messed up.

Plus it's scary.

>.>
<.<
>.>

 

[Sommerswerd]

So mighty. Rwar!!!

That cartoon! Lmao thanks for the tasty member-berries on that one

I will say though... the main baddie, Wrath-Amon, is very... not James Earl Jones... and simultaneously, a little too...Serpentor. Tsk tsk, writers... lazy, lazy...