Flashfall's recent activity

  1. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    I actually feel the same way about it. All the reviews and opinions I've seen about it seem to suggest they can't stop playing but for some reason I'm a bit mentally worn out after one or two...

    I actually feel the same way about it. All the reviews and opinions I've seen about it seem to suggest they can't stop playing but for some reason I'm a bit mentally worn out after one or two runs. Maybe it's me overthinking about what the best possible plays for every single round would be, but I need to take breaks and I'm wondering if if should have just waited for it to come out for mobile instead.

  2. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    The latest update to Warhammer 40000: Darktide finally convinced me to boot it back up after a yearlong hiatus, and there's a few things I've noticed immediately: The combat in this game really is...

    The latest update to Warhammer 40000: Darktide finally convinced me to boot it back up after a yearlong hiatus, and there's a few things I've noticed immediately:

    1. The combat in this game really is just so much more refined and engaging than that of Space Marine 2's. Don't get me wrong, I love tearing through tyranids and thousand sons with over the top execution animations, but the combat really is rather basic when the only real mechanic is parrying. It lacks that, how do I put it, manic crackhead energy that high difficulty Darktide demands when the AI director decides it'd be really funny to throw a mixed horde of 20 specials and elites and maybe even a monstrosity on top of 200+ poxwalkers at you in the span of 30 seconds, only to do it again a couple minutes later.

    2. The weapon mastery system is fantastic. It's still a significant plasteel sink and takes a bit of grinding with your weapon of choice to get the right stats, perks, and blessings, but the fact that you can 100% guarantee what you get on your weapon now is huge. They still haven't come up with a good way to spend all this diamantine on though. Why can't I convert diamantine to plasteel yet Fatshark?

    3. The new weapons are pretty awesome. The force greatsword on psyker lets me fully embrace my melee psyker build, the relic sword on zealot lets me complete my Radzig Kobyla cosplay, and the bolt pistol is just so damn punchy, like something firing a miniature rocket should be.

    Once I've shaken off the rust and gotten comfortable with my new builds, I suppose I'll clear a Maelstrom mission so I can get started on Havoc difficulties. Some people have already cleared Havoc 40 with only ogryns and no guns, so the only excuse I have is a skill issue and I am totally ok with that.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Only a few hours into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 so far (at least one of which has been spent exclusively on loading and fiddling with graphics and performance settings) and it is definitely STALKER, both...

    Only a few hours into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 so far (at least one of which has been spent exclusively on loading and fiddling with graphics and performance settings) and it is definitely STALKER, both in the atmosphere and the bugs and the punishingly poor enemy and economy tuning. Having put 200+ hours into the original trilogy including dabbling a bit in the higher difficulty mods (MISERY mod to this day is still the most masochistic mod I've ever had the displeasure of playing), I was expecting combat that was stressful and somewhat punishing but ultimately rewarding to survive through. The game does the first two well enough and currently falls on its face on the third. Looting other humans after a firefight will rarely yield anything of good value and typically just partially replenishes your food, med and ammo supplies. As a silver lining, they go down easily enough, especially with headshots. Looting mutants just isn't a thing now, and they're fairly common and also bullet sponges, so they're not rewarding at all and only serve to annoy you and burn up your supplies. Note that this is only less than 10 hours in the game and I haven't left the beginning area yet so my experience might change as I get further in, but I have a feeling it'll be more of the same but with more expensive gear.

    Of course, the bugs and performance also deserve mentioning. All the old STALKER players came in expecting a fair amount of eurojank, as all the previous STALKER games were also buggy messes on launch. STALKER 2 has met our expectations in that regard, and even gone above and beyond in others. Memory leaks after a short while of playing? Oh you know it. Weird physics interactions causing big frame drops? Got that too. Huge losses in FPS if you have the audacity to alt+tab? That's a given. But compiling shaders EVERY SINGLE TIME you start the game up, and it takes at least several minutes each time? You have outdone yourselves, GSC. The fact that the game is still mostly positive on Steam despite all this is a testament to how badly people wanted a new STALKER and how only GSC has managed to deliver that. There's fixes and such in the works of course, but it puts a damper on the experience nonetheless. Won't stop me from playing it though.

    This is just turning into a Steam review at this point but what the heck. I would still recommend it in its current state to diehard STALKER fans who are willing to put up with the bugs so they can get back into the Zone. For everyone else, give it a month and the worst of the bugs and balance issues should probably sorted out by then.

    16 votes

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Booted up Remnant 2 for the first time in a year to play through all of the DLC and having quit Destiny 2 a few months ago, this game really does scratch that buildcrafting itch again. The new...

    Booted up Remnant 2 for the first time in a year to play through all of the DLC and having quit Destiny 2 a few months ago, this game really does scratch that buildcrafting itch again. The new amulets, rings, and weapons open up the already expansive build variety even more and I've only unlocked one of the three new archetypes so far but I'll give those a whirl when I get them too. I've completed one run of The Awakened King and though it was short, I did like how they expanded on the Victorian London/fantasy elf castle map design in a few ways.

    Boss design is still very hit or miss though, and there was that one boss with a scripted one hit kill which was a real pain in the ass, though at least it was incredibly telegraphed so not hard to dodge once you learned the tell. Would still rather not have those though, that's not fun difficulty, that's some Ninja Gaiden shit and not very fitting in a game that lets you build to increase survivability significantly only to get deleted anyway.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    Disco Elysium isn't really an RPG, at least not by regular video game definitions. It's more of a point and click adventure with dice rolls, and the gameplay itself is such a minor part of it that...

    Disco Elysium isn't really an RPG, at least not by regular video game definitions. It's more of a point and click adventure with dice rolls, and the gameplay itself is such a minor part of it that if you don't enjoy the art and absurd dialogue it's not going to be a good time. It's not something you need to force yourself to enjoy or understand just because it reviewed well.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Diceomancer released last week after being initially showcased at a Steam Next Fest a few months ago and it's yet another fun variation on the classic deckbuilder game. The gimmick in this one is...

    Diceomancer released last week after being initially showcased at a Steam Next Fest a few months ago and it's yet another fun variation on the classic deckbuilder game. The gimmick in this one is a magical die that lets you manipulate any number on the screen, from health bars to card values to your current mana pool to even the values of buffs and debuffs in the compendium itself. There's your usual spread of mana types, null, purple, red, blue, green, black, and cards to go along with them. You can't choose cards to start a game with, but you do choose 3 color orbs to determine your class, which has its own innate perk and gives you a set of starting cards of matching color.

    Beating the game itself isn't hard, though like every good deckbuilder you're encouraged to try out every possible combination of colors to beat it over and over, and you earn coins to unlock new cards, relics, color orbs, opportunities to use your number-altering die, etc. And there will absolutely be plenty of opportunities to use it, though it does consume some charges each time you do which recharge as you progress, so you can't just set your enemies' health bars to a value between 1-6 in every encounter. Also, the game has this cute hand-drawn cartoon art style and quite a few cards which reference other games and media, which are just extra treats on top of a very replayable game.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Helldivers 2 support studio Toadman Interactive to shut offices in Sweden and Norway – some positions at developer's Berlin office also at risk in ~games

    Flashfall
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    Nah, there's no community servers. Daybreak just had a handful of servers to support a few different regions and a bunch of those already got merged due to declining player numbers. There aren't...

    Nah, there's no community servers. Daybreak just had a handful of servers to support a few different regions and a bunch of those already got merged due to declining player numbers. There aren't any real alternatives to Planetside either, since it already seems like black magic for this game to support 1000+ players on the same map in a shooter and still manage to maintain acceptable latency, so those server costs are probably eating up almost all the money they'd be making from subscriptions.

    4 votes

  8. Comment on Helldivers 2 support studio Toadman Interactive to shut offices in Sweden and Norway – some positions at developer's Berlin office also at risk in ~games

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    This is the same studio that entirely took over continued support and development of Planetside 2 from Daybreak Games, though that's a much more niche title than the ones they have listed in the...

    This is the same studio that entirely took over continued support and development of Planetside 2 from Daybreak Games, though that's a much more niche title than the ones they have listed in the article. For the tiny handful of active Planetside 2 players that use Tildes, sorry but unless they sell the IP to someone that actually cares about reviving it, I think the game is actually done for this time.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on An important update on Concord - "At this time, we have decided to take the game offline beginning September 6, 2024" in ~games

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    Damn, knew this was going to go poorly for Sony but I didn't think they'd just shut it down outright. Hopefully they're just taking it down temporarily so they can relaunch it after a proper...

    Damn, knew this was going to go poorly for Sony but I didn't think they'd just shut it down outright. Hopefully they're just taking it down temporarily so they can relaunch it after a proper marketing campaign with more success. I still wouldn't buy it since I'm just not interested in hero shooters right now, but I'm sure there's a decent audience of disgruntled Overwatch players that Sony failed to capture due to basically nobody even knowing the game existed.

    7 votes

  10. Comment on Hunt: Showdown 1896 | Official launch trailer in ~games

    Flashfall
    Link Parent
    The action can definitely be much more drawn out and deliberate due to the generally lower rate of fire and longer reload times of the old guns, as well as the cat-and-mouse style engagement that...

    The action can definitely be much more drawn out and deliberate due to the generally lower rate of fire and longer reload times of the old guns, as well as the cat-and-mouse style engagement that happens when hunters converge on a bounty location to steal it from the defending hunters. At very close range though, things can still get hectic especially if there's multiple teams present.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Tildes' favourite movies in ~movies

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    I missed that last thread, but still happy to see In Bruges and Ghost in the Shell mentioned in this list, even if they only have one and two votes respectively. That said though, I am a bit...

    I missed that last thread, but still happy to see In Bruges and Ghost in the Shell mentioned in this list, even if they only have one and two votes respectively.

    That said though, I am a bit disappointed to not find Patlabor 2 or Redline mentioned here. They are admittedly pretty niche animated titles, but damn if they aren't perfect for what they are.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    I started Once Human last week and it's gotten far more of my attention than I expected it to. It's a third person free to play survival MMO with lots of RPG elements, though the survival aspect...

    I started Once Human last week and it's gotten far more of my attention than I expected it to. It's a third person free to play survival MMO with lots of RPG elements, though the survival aspect is definitely more dominant. The theme and monster design is pretty solid, and it feels like it's taken inspiration from a million different supernatural-themed IPs - SCP, Control, Death Stranding, Nier/Drakengard, Remnant, Destiny, internet horror in general like the Backrooms, just tons of things from all over but it does a decent job of somehow combining it all into one package. The story and characters are entirely forgettable and not at all worth playing the game for. The combat is solid enough, with a good amount of build variety and a decent spread of weapons.

    The crafting, base building, and other survival aspects are top-notch though, maybe with the exception of the snapping being inconsistent. You can claim a territory almost anywhere on the map that isn't a town, road, or enemy encampment, as long as it's not already claimed. Any storage within your territory is automatically drawn from when building, crafting, cooking, etc., which is hugely convenient. You can MOVE CHESTS AROUND WITH ALL THEIR ITEMS IN THEM. I cannot understate how great that is. There's a fair bit of things that can be automated once you reach the later tech tiers, the power system is relatively simple, the water system is relatively simple, you can literally relocate your entire territory to another zone at no cost with a 10 minute cooldown as long as it doesn't break any of the territory rules stated above and it will preserve the whole base as is, easily one of the best base building systems I've seen in any survival game, if not the best.

    But, BUT, the game does have some big issues. For one, there is a HUGE amount of things it will not tell you how to do, and you will either need to learn by trying it out yourself or looking it up. Tons of intricate interactions that aren't explained, and you'll likely still be learning new things even a few hundred hours in. Also, there is a frankly ridiculous number of menus. You'll be going through menus to get to other menus to collect rewards for seasonal events or character milestones or important progression unlocks and it's horribly confusing early on, and still cumbersome later even after you remember where they all are.

    And the biggest turn off for most, is that each "season", or at least the current and next season, only lasts 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, the next season starts and you will be prompted to move to that one, which will preserve some valuable resources, unlocks, and currencies, but for the most part your levels and gear will be reset. There's a separate, creative-mode instance that never resets and you can use a currency you can earn there (not paid for) to transfer a certain amount of gear over to the next season, but it's still limited. The upside is that it shouldn't take you much time at all to get back to max level, and you keep your blueprints so you can craft any gear you have blueprints for, including legendary gear, as soon as you have the requisite material. You can even create a blueprint for your base to do the same, which again is another huge point of praise for the building system. But a wipe is a wipe, so for those who don't like to lose progress and rebuild regularly this will be a huge breaking point for them. I'm approaching this more as a survival game so I'm alright with it, especially since they do get to change the map and scenario with the reset, but the devs have heard peoples' complaints about the reset, specifically how short the seasons are, and they've been very receptive to feedback so far so we might see improvements to this as well.

    I haven't even mentioned the deviations yet, which are a core part of the game as paranormal entities you can capture to assist you in combat or help you out in your base by providing materials or improving efficiency of various activities. It's less involved than Palworld in that they're much more passive and thus easier to manage while still being very helpful, though the process of getting some of the more valuable ones can be frustrating due to RNG. I won't spoil any details on them since they're fun to discover, but I like them.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    I returned to Destiny 2 to play through The Final Shape expansion campaign and see the conclusion to the 10 year narrative of Light vs Dark and I have to say, this expansion is a great return to...

    I returned to Destiny 2 to play through The Final Shape expansion campaign and see the conclusion to the 10 year narrative of Light vs Dark and I have to say, this expansion is a great return to form for Bungie after the disappointment that was Lightfall. The Pale Heart sets the gold standard for patrol zones now, and Overthrow is a significant improvement on public events. The zone itself also looks beautiful and there's a plethora of secrets and other collectibles scattered about.

    The campaign story itself did not disappoint, though for the sake of avoiding spoilers I won't mention any specifics here. All I will say is that it provides excellent closure for both in-game characters and veteran players alike, and the final mission is a real spectacle that does the ending of such a long story justice, with many callbacks to all the events and seasons that have transpired in the past years. What's even more surprising is how well they set the ending up for the continuation of the story in new directions. I thought I'd just come back to beat the campaign and raid and then be done with the game but I suddenly want to play Destiny again.

    As for the raid, my clan is one of those casual groups of friends so we gave the first encounter a few tries on contest mode on friday evening and then we had to get back to life stuff. The raid race itself was mildly interesting to follow but the fact that it was won by a team that wasn't even streaming to a large audience was pretty funny. Also Saltagreppo is an elitist prick so him not taking world's first again pleases me. My clan will give the raid a proper shake some time this week after reset and it'll probably still take us multiple sessions to finish it even with guides out, what with it being the most difficult raid yet and all.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    I haven't actually, and my friend even said the second one was a lot better than the first gameplay wise so it wouldn't be very fun. I took his word for it and watched a playthrough instead to...

    I haven't actually, and my friend even said the second one was a lot better than the first gameplay wise so it wouldn't be very fun. I took his word for it and watched a playthrough instead to learn the backstory for the second game.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    A friend sent me a copy of Blasphemous 2 after beating it because he enjoyed it just that much, though he is a huge fan of metroidvanias. I decided to give it a go and after some 27 hours I've...

    A friend sent me a copy of Blasphemous 2 after beating it because he enjoyed it just that much, though he is a huge fan of metroidvanias. I decided to give it a go and after some 27 hours I've gotten the 100% completion achievement. This is a really solid game. The fantastic pixel art and animation, the Spanish religious iconography, the superb soundtrack by Carlos Viola, tight gameplay with simple but effective variety and mobility, great map design with a fair spread of ability-gated pathways and collectibles, bosses that are all very unique and mostly very fair. It's a great game with great pacing, even when going for full completion, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys metroidvanias.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    Abiotic Factor released in early access last Thursday so I picked it up with a friend and we binged it together until we progressed to the story's current state of completion. To put it simply,...

    Abiotic Factor released in early access last Thursday so I picked it up with a friend and we binged it together until we progressed to the story's current state of completion. To put it simply, it's a survival crafting style game set in an underground research facility that's very reminiscent of the Black Mesa Research Facility in the first Half Life game. You play as one of the researchers in the lab and your goal is to escape to the surface after the lab suffers a total containment failure and all hell is breaking loose. The graphics are even done up to appear visually similar to the first Half Life, though the lighting and other details make it feel modern enough. Even the sound design is similar to the first Half Life. Aside from all the Half Life referencing though, there's also some inspiration taken from SCP. There's various anomalies and whatnot that are either locked up in containment or interactable to varying degrees.

    If you like the original Half Life and also enjoy the survival crafting genre this game is a great way to kill 40ish hours so far, with more on the way. Getting past some of the puzzles needed for progression can definitely be a bit confusing right now though since the game usually won't hand you the solutions on a silver platter, so make sure you read the lore and journal entries, the information there can be good for more than just world-building.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    I got back into Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to catch up on all the updates after not playing for a year and it's just as hectic and visceral as it was before, only with more maps, more banging...

    I got back into Warhammer 40,000: Darktide to catch up on all the updates after not playing for a year and it's just as hectic and visceral as it was before, only with more maps, more banging music, and a lot more build options. As far as co-op games go, Helldivers 2 is probably still more fun but this one does top it in multiple departments, from music to immersion to rewarding skill by being considerably more punishing at the highest difficulty. Managed democracy is great, but I will always have a soft spot for the God Emperor of Mankind.

    Also bought Balatro to play when I'm not in the mood for multiplayer and wow this game really is as addictive as everybody said it was. Who would have thought turning one of the most timeless card games into a roguelike would be such a dangerous combination. Haven't got all that much done in my collection and haven't even started on the challenges yet, but I did get one hand over a million and I'm pretty happy about that.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Which anime or manga transcend the boundaries of genre and medium? in ~anime

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    Ping Pong the Animation is my favorite coming-of-age story, and one of my favorite stories in general. The very unorthodox but incredibly expressive art style, the extremely natural voice acting...

    Ping Pong the Animation is my favorite coming-of-age story, and one of my favorite stories in general. The very unorthodox but incredibly expressive art style, the extremely natural voice acting of all the characters, and the animation which hits this sweet spot of being tame enough to not break immersion, but fantastic enough to really enhance dramatic moments, all those come together to create a story with some of the most realistic characters I've ever seen in fiction, and some of the most emotion and empathy I've felt from any piece of media. I try to recommend it to friends that also watch anime but the art style really isn't for everyone.

    6 votes

  19. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    As a fan of the STALKER games, I enjoy the vibes of Pacific Drive. I get that the environment's supposed to be hostile and partly horror, but I guess I'm so used to it that I can kinda just cruise...

    As a fan of the STALKER games, I enjoy the vibes of Pacific Drive. I get that the environment's supposed to be hostile and partly horror, but I guess I'm so used to it that I can kinda just cruise through it like it's a scenic drive. More relaxing than I anticipated it to be.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Flashfall
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    Not the devs, and not even well versed in network infrastructure, but from what I can surmise the reason people can't host their own servers is due to a combination of the need to avoid saving...

    Not the devs, and not even well versed in network infrastructure, but from what I can surmise the reason people can't host their own servers is due to a combination of the need to avoid saving data client-side to avoid all the really easy client-side cheating, and everyone's data being stored in one location to update the galactic war information. At any rate, I highly doubt we'll see player-hosted servers or even an offline mode anytime soon, if at all.