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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I've been playing a lot of Crusader Kings 3 the last few weeks. I've been a long-time player of Civilization and I really love that series, but I've always been left wanting more. Particularly more micromanaging and emphasis on things like culture, religion, day-to-day politics, etc. I knew Paradox's grand strategy offerings were the answer to that, but I have tried so many times to get into CK2, HOI, etc. and it just always felt like a 90 degree learning curve. So many plates to spin, so little understanding of what's going on, and very lackluster tutorials.
But then on a whim a month or two ago I decided to play CK3 since it was on GamePass. The tutorial was pretty much perfect and eased me into things enough that within a few days I was competent at the game (but not good by any means). I don't know if I'm good at the game now or not, but I've yet to stop having fun with it.
Beyond the fun itself, I'm learning a lot about history. Yes, the game is pretty random with how things progress in a game, but it's all built around historical events, peoples, etc. I'm not so much learning history from the game itself as I am developing an interest in the medieval era because of the game.
I have EU III and CK II in my library unused. I have played the shit out of HOI4. If you want to give HOI4 a go, I can try and troubleshoot your attempt. Here's a quick rundown to get your feet wet though:
As for Navy, just go submarines for now. Don't expect to be able to pull of Sea Lion on the first go.
If anyone can help me sort out which paradox games I should investigate more closely, that'd be appreciated. I'm not really sure what they each try to model more closely. I've heart HOI4 is more combat focused. What are the others all about?
Opposite for me. I have over 2800 hours in EU4, 700 hours in Stellaris, 700 hours between CK2 & 3, and only 100 hours in HOI4.
HOI is definitely much more combat strategy (and logistics) focused. Stellaris is a pretty standard Scifi 4X. EU4 is more a mix of 4X and State management game. And CK is more of a Historical RPG, and Dynasty simulator. I have yet to play Vicky (although I intend to play Vicky 3 when it comes out), but it supposedly focuses far more on State level political and economic management than the others.
So which you want to investigate further really depends on what you think you might enjoy more, and find most entertaining. If you have any more questions about any of them, feel free to ask.
What exactly is the "state management" aspect of EU4? I think I might be interested in that. Though some good economics wouldn't hurt either.
Honestly, it's really hard to summarize, since there are just so many different interconnected systems involved. But to give you an idea of everything you can manage, and just how complex it is, here's the wiki entry listing all the different mechanics, many of which have their own subsystems, and unique variations depending on which particular nation and/or type of nation you're playing as.
The things you need to manage range from the minute, like deciding what to build in each province, to the more large scale, long term things like unlocking/selecting/modifying your idea groups, enacting policies and decisions, choosing the direction of your technological development, balancing relations with your internal factions and "Estates", external diplomacy (via coalitions, alliances, vassalization, royal marriages, guarantees, etc), as well as everything involved in warfare, including the aspects not directly related to the fighting itself (e.g. managing your manpower, war exhaustion, overextension, aggressive expansion malus, etc). And, yes, there is also economics management at nearly every level, since that's essentially at the heart of it all.
I've been meaning to revisit HOI now that I've got a handle on CK3. I'm inclined to think things like the UI, basic gameplay, etc. translate over pretty well. I'll be sure to check your comment out whenever I get around to it!
CK3 is kind of a weird mix of RPG, nation-building, and combat systems. RPG elements come from your titles getting passed down to your heirs so you're only playing as any one character for at most like 80-90 in-game years, but usually much less. Each character has traits and skill points. There's a talent tree you can explore and there's armor, weapons, trinkets, etc. you can craft (or inherit, or plunder) that give bonuses to your character. All these things alter how you easy certain ruling styles are, change your generated events, etc. It's a bit like a softer, less varied Rimworld in that regard. And like rimworld, 90% of what you can do sounds awful out of context.
Combat is not necessarily amazing, but it basically comes down to how good your commander is, how many troops are at their command, and dice rolls. Different terrains have different modifiers for your combat and different commanders have different modifiers that can benefit from those. Nothing ground breaking, but it's not always as simple as "this guy has less troops than me, therefore I'm guaranteed to win".
Nation building is a lot of fun as well. Depending on the size of your realm you may have to balance the needs of different religions and cultures that all hate each other. Bunch of different ways to do that, my favorite being promoting acceptance between them and forming hybrid cultures. Or just making everyone a single religion (which can take multiple generations for larger realms!).
Says you, in a reply to my post which instructs one to pretend to be Hitler and march on Paris. I think you've got nothing to worry about.
Game-related, but not about any particular game:
I foolishly charged my PS4 controller using a randomly-available fast charging USB charger. That was probably okay in the short term, but I also left it plugged in over night. Well, after some research, I'm concluding that probably broke my controller. It worked fine until the end of its battery life, and when I went to try to charge it, it wouldn't charge any more, and now it also won't turn on the PS4, and won't get detected by Steam on the PC.
I have two other older controllers, which I try to avoid using because the left analog sticks on both of them are jittery, causing game-playing problems. After reading online, and watching some DIY videos, I tried opening up the broken controller and fiddling. I tried swapping batteries between controllers, and also swapping USB ports between controllers. Nothing is resurrecting the dead controller. Oh well.
To make matters worse, in all my fiddling with the controllers' innards, I think I also broke my second-newest controller's USB port, or something. The battery is working, and the controller is working when running off the battery, but it, too, won't charge any more. So, I can only use it to the end of that battery's charge. I guess a hack I can do is swap batteries into a working controller, and charge from there, then swap it back in. But that's obviously terribly inconvenient. It also isn't detected by the PC any more.
Thankfully, my oldest controller is still working and charging. On both the oldest and second-newest, I followed DIY videos and fixed the stick jitter problems on both of them, and -- to my great relief -- I didn't break the charging port on that one.
So, I'm down from three to just one working controller, which means I can't do multiplayer things any more when I have friends over, etc. I'm a bit irked by that, but that's life, I guess. I don't feel like paying full retail price for a brand new official Playstation controller, because I hardly play PS4 games any more, and the review comments on the cheap knockoffs on Amazon don't inspire confidence.
On the bright side, I got some DIY, tech hacking XP from all that I did with the three controllers.
In case anyone wants to offer advice: I have already tried pretty much everything found in the first page of search hits for searches like "PS4 controller not charging". Port swap, battery swap, cable swap, controller reset, PS4 power cycle, blowing parts, cleaning parts.
I had this exact same problem. And while I am usually one to fix my broken electronics, I find working on controllers to be something of a pain, and as there was a sale going on for DS4 controllers (It was probably half-off; this may or may not have been a black friday deal) I decided to simply replace it.
The charging ports on DS4 controllers are also kind of garbage. I kind of wish they just used barrel jacks because it feels like it would have been more reliable.
Can anyone recommend a 2 player coop steam game that's really nice to play?
Local/couch co-op, LAN co-op, or online co-op? Also: Some single-player games can be fun to play with other people watching and talking it through, such as helping to solve puzzles, or deciding as a group where to move the player character.
online, my friend is in america and im in uk. true!
I've heard good things about It Takes Two https://store.steampowered.com/app/1426210/It_Takes_Two/ , and have it on my Steam wishlist.
Valheim is also an option.
I've never tried it myself, but I know that Elite: Dangerous allows two players to be in the same ship, one pilot, one gunner. If both of you are new to the game though, it'll probably take a while to grind enough to get a big enough ship that supports a human gunner.
Others:
I've really been enjoying Sea of Thieves lately because there's no gear grind, you have everything you need to be competitive from the moment you log on. The only thing that progresses in the game is your skill. Well, that and your "drip factor" since all of the unlockables are purely cosmetic. The game is really fun with a friend or two.
Pistos' questions, as well as: What kind of genres do each of you like, and what's each one's familiarity with gaming? Otherwise, there's a lot to choose from.
any genre! i don't have a preference. I don't play games much. my friend is a big rougelike fan, but it doesn't need to be that type.
In no particular order:
Next up a few groups of multiplayer games that aren't necessarily 2-player but can of course be played by 2 players and offer interesting coop experiences:
If you like deck building roguelikes I can recommend "Across the Obelisk". It is very similar to Slay the Spire, but you play with four characters (I.e. 4 decks). It supports multiplayer coop for up to 4 playera where each player then controls one of the characters. Multiplayer feels like the preferred way to play it.
Yesterday I was looking at reviews for Saints Row, and they're... not great. Not bad, but not great. Especially the bugs. It makes me think that good open world games are just too expensive and labor intensive to make. I think I'll wait a few months for that until I buy it.
In the meantime, I picked up Cult Of The Lamb. It's like Binding of Isaac meets Dungeon Keeper. It's absolutely brilliant and I never knew such a combination could work, but here we are. It's so good I bought it for my mac and then my Xbox! Never have I been so excited to go through rounds to pick up a new recruit, get them into my cult, and get them doing random busy work. It's such a strangely addicting loop! I will say that I've noticed the Xbox version does give me some weird bugs like the screen will randomly hang on stuff from time to time - the game isn't frozen, and you can just save, go out, and go back into the game and resume where you left off. But it's weird the Xbox version is giving me these issues whereas the Mac version is just fine...
A few days ago, I found Manhunt 2 on an abandonware site. I've played (but not completed) Manhunt and I honestly enjoyed the first Manhunt for it's horror vibe and soundtrack. I used to think Manhunt would be this wicked evil game, but then I tried it out and I enjoyed it so I figured, why not try Manhunt 2?
Yeah... Manhunt 2 is not like Manhunt. It is extremely edgy, extremely violent (and the kills are pretty sadistic in nature), and doesn't seem to have much in the way of boundaries. For example, the first Manhunt had you killing criminal gangs - no innocent folks are harmed (well, up to the point I've played).
In MH2 you kill pretty much everyone under the sun - a noticable bit is where you kill a gardener (for the simple act of being in your way) and you hear a little boy yell "Daddy!!!". I'm sure someone at R* found that very funny, but that is pretty grotesque.
Not only that, but MH2 goes into so much lore, but at the same time leaves things unexplained. It's boring, confusing, and overstays its welcome (despite being a shorter game than MH1).
The only positive I can give is that the controls have been tightened up quite a fair bit (especially on PC), especially the gun combat, and like 50% of the game is gun combat, so it's quite easy to breeze through. But honestly, there is a reason why the first one is so adored and the second one isn't talked about so much.
Cult Of The Lamb is also on the Switch too. I was considering getting it after seeing it at the top of the Best Seller's list on the eShop, and realizing it was published by Devolver Digital (who has yet to disappoint me). Your comment pushed me over the edge and has convinced me to buy it though. So thanks. :)
Edit: I think I'm going to hold off on buying it after watching a review. Supposedly the Switch version still has some major issues with atrocious loadtimes and a very poor framerate. :( I might get the PC version instead.
I would either hold off or get the steam version. Steam version seems to get more regular updates and doesn’t have quite the poor performance (although on my Mac m1 at 1920x1080 I’m struggling to hold a stable 60fps, keeps wobbling under it between 55-60fps).
I bought the Xbox version and that version has so many glitches it is quite embarrassing how it made it out in that state. Oh well, here’s waiting on a new bug fix for consoles.
I've played about 20 minutes of the new Saints Row so far, and while it's certainly not enough to judge the whole game on I'm pretty happy with it so far. The new characters are fairly charming and the shooting action is nice and snappy. The tech is also pretty impressive; I love the soft lighting you get from raytracing; the monster character you create for yourself is much more believable when it's well lit.
From what I’ve heard it starts off great and polished but slowly falls apart as you go on, story wise and bugs wise.
I’ve noticed that volition under deep silver have become a bit… economical with their games as opposed to under thq (saints row 1-4 vs gat out of hell, agents of mayhem, and now this). I think the team are super talented, but they are severely constrained by money and resources.
The fact that the message I’ve seen from volition is “we’re super proud of what we’ve made” when it’s in the weird buggy state that it’s in makes me think that they are very proud, but unable to do their absolute best due to third party concerns.
It will probably be a while before I get to that point because I don’t have that much time for it right now. Plus my husband is the person who actually bought it so he’s going to want to spend more time with it.
I did play for a few more hours last night and still didn’t notice any bugs. The only problem I am having with it right now is that the story has seemingly paused while it has me doing side hustles and so am worried that it is going to make me do everything on the map before the plot can continue?
There are some signs that it may end up being conservatively produced; the map is really small, so I am hoping it gets bigger later.
There is one thing I should add though; the music is really fantastic. I need to make a note to look into the people who worked on it. Even the selections made for the classical music radio station are great.
My husband and I have been playing through Just Cause 3. I've played through 2 and 4 but couldn't get him into playing either of them, which surprised me when he bought a copy of 3 for himself. We've basically been passing the controller between us and playing through the same save file.
The game is a technical marvel, but the strange thing is that I have so little to say about it. The story is the opposite of engaging and even though there is an important character who dies at the end the direction and script don't seem to actually care about it.
The one thing that makes this game different, though is that it was purchased with all the DLC, and the DLC has a far more engaging story to it. Not only that, but it takes the game from "we've got futuristic technology" to "Here's some sci-fi stuff, have fun with that". The missions you do give you access to, in this exact order, a ridiculously overpowered boat that can practically fly, a gun that shoots lightning from the sky, a jetpack with a machine gun and missile launcher, and a series of quadruped mechs that have a gravity gun on one hand and your choice of three overpowered weapons on the other. And of course, all of these options have unlimited ammo.
The weird thing about the DLC is that it was very obviously done on a budget - there's a lot of assets reused and the story cutscenes are all animated matte backgrounds - but it's probably the most satisfying part of the game. Realistically, it actually breaks the game because you'll be so overpowered at the end. And because you're so overpowered you start to realize how repetitive the game loop is, and how empty the world is. The part of the game I'm calling the "endgame" - where you finally get to the main island - plays just like the early parts of the game with the sole exception that you'll have more options for weapons and vehicles. The biggest difference is that the main island is gigantic and mostly empty, so one of the things that get harder is the process of actually finding the outposts you're supposed to be overtaking. Making things worse, you'd normally find those places on the maps by looking for buildings, but most of the building sites on the main island are ruins.
And then there's two more islands that are completely useless. One of them is called Boom island, and to my knowledge it's just a test area because there's no reason for you to go there. The only reason you know what it's called is because there is a fast travel beacon. Then there's the island where the boss fight takes place, which is huge and has a bunch of neat hidden locations to find, including a giant skull carved into it. But there's just nothing to do there.
And that's what's so strange about the DLC - it's actually rather feature-rich, all things considered. It's like the Fallout: New Vegas compared to Fallout 3 which is the game as it is without the DLC.
Been playing Outer Wilds for the first time after I saw a recommendation here on Tildes a few times. First time I saw it recommended I thought it referred to Outer Worlds which I had tried but didn't really like (too much like Fallout, but in space). After it I realized that the recommendation was for Outer Wilds I tried that out (it is on GamePass at the moment) and I love it!
I find the puzzles not too hard, the open world format with a the different branching storylines very nice. Super curious to see how it ends. Lots of room for exploration and many nice "cool, now I've figure it out" moments which opens up new areas and secrets. Trying to be vague enough to avoid spoilers.
We have played several games of Struggle for Catan which is a card game based on Catan. It does a pretty good job of being portable and feeling quite similar to Catan, which was popular with our family while travelling. With two copies of the game, you can extend to 5 o 6 people, though I don't know that I'd recommend that - with 4, it was just on the edge of dragging by the time it was your turn again. Play is relatively swift, the mechanic of stealing resources was fun, and it was pretty easy to get into. Overall I give this a solid 4/5 if you like Catan. If you dislike Catan, just avoid this, as it feels pretty similar.
As I promised myself, OpenMW is back on the menu with 0.48 being in a quiet RC phase. I deleted my first character as there was a lot of first-character RPG jank going on with him and now have a Khajit thief I'm running up the Thieves Guild questline.
The Outer Worlds: I'm chipping away at this one for fun, and was sort of going through Pavarti's story, which is really sweet.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth: It's a fun game, but easier than I thought. I was going to get Afterbirth+, but it's apparently not exactly worth the upgrade price, but I'm enjoying what I've got.
Super Mario World: I'm using Retroarch's rewind function for this so I don't ragequit on my first run. It's a fun game, and I'm enjoying getting to see it in a stress-free way.
Haven't played anything new or that I have enough time in to give a review, but did come across this review site I'd like to share - https://buried-treasure.org/ - well written, medium length reviews of under the radar indie games.
Found a number of games that I hadn't heard of on there that I've either added to my wishlist to pick up or have purchased to play.