Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

Are videogames for children?


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Gears Tactics has turned into a very enjoyable romp. I heard it described as XCOM where you're the overpowered aliens, and that seems about right- wiping out several enemy pods at once due to action point refunds and skills triggering a self-sustaining kill cycle is just beautiful.
 
I’ve been going back and forth on whether to get Tears of a kingdom because I hear a lot of mixed opinions from people not instantly giving it tens saying that many of the elements are too rehashed and the story and mechanics are really lacklustre and they just trash so much do the original games lore. Im also disappointed that they have made little to no changes to the engine even if the base game is still quite pretty. Overall is it worth it?
 
I’ve been going back and forth on whether to get Tears of a kingdom because I hear a lot of mixed opinions from people not instantly giving it tens saying that many of the elements are too rehashed and the story and mechanics are really lacklustre and they just trash so much do the original games lore. Im also disappointed that they have made little to no changes to the engine even if the base game is still quite pretty. Overall is it worth it?
I like it. It has the same problems as Breath of the Wild though, or maybe that's just my problem. If I see a shrine I go there immediately so I can (eventually) upgrade my stamina and that fatigue really starts setting in after a while.
 
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Guess what finally launched on Steam? Nu-Saints Row, it's already on sale with 67% off on all editions of the game.
Why now, when you have so many big titles back to back, it would've made more sense to wait until there was bugger all coming out. Unless the plan was to promote it at gamescom? But it's a notorious stinker so no sane person is going to choose it over AC6 or Remnant 2 or whatever else.

So I've dipped until Gears of War: Tactics and was wondering if the mainline games would be worth blasting through (I.e. campaign only, dumb dumb run and gun difficulties). I've never really gotten into the franchise before so don't know if the story and set pieces would be worth grappling with some fairly outdated games.
I have played 1 and 2, but I honestly don't know if they'd be worth playing.

I don't know how you'd run the PC version. The orginal had DRM that broke after a certain date, and had Games For Windows Live. Not sure if there was a re-release.

The first game had three big selling points. Cover based shooting, active reloads, and Unreal Engine 3. None of which are unique these days. Gears 2 is a better game with some good story moments and introduced Horde Mode, which again, isn't a big thing in 2023.

However, I recommend playing on easy if you're alone because the games are built around co-op and the AI does bugger all to contribute to the fight. The enemies are also bullet sponges by design.

How is Phoenix Point, anyway? Gears has made me yearn for more turn based tactics, but I'm pretty sure I'm physically incapable of putting more hours into XCOM.
Hard to say because I never really put enough time into it to form an opinion. I've heard that the first playthrough is best with no dlc, or minimal DLC, since each DLC adds difficulty and complexity that gets out of control when you play all the content at once.

As for other games. Mechanicus is a great game. If you've not played it, I recommend it. Valkyria Chronicles 1 and 4 are great. 4 has some moments of bullshit towards the end (I've still got a few missions to go), but the first game, few issues I remember. And I wouldn't recommend Phantom Doctrine. It has some great ideas, but messes up the execution. The game punishes you for going loud, but going stealth is just trial and error, and your guys will die if you're equiped for stealth and the plot forces you to go loud.
 
How is Phoenix Point, anyway? Gears has made me yearn for more turn based tactics, but I'm pretty sure I'm physically incapable of putting more hours into XCOM.
It's an odd mix of old XCOM and new XCOM. In my experience, it's one of those "love it or hate it" kind of games. I tried it on release, tried it on its arrival on Steam, I just could not get into it. Always get a few months in and peter out. The "enemies evolve to counter your tactics" thing is really just "enemies get upgrades to their arsenal/abilities over time", which is disappointing. The manual aiming is probably the best feature, though it can be janky (can't fire heavy weapons over low cover on rooftops, for example.) The gear system/research has a lot of sidegrades, rather than straight upgrades, and helping factions to get access to their tech is cool and all, but it never felt the same as getting something like plasma weapons or new suits with abilities.

I'd recommend pirating it and giving it a shot to see if it's up your alley. Definitely seconding having the DLC's off for the first run, that shit gets dumped on you early, and having to figure out air warfare and fighting machine men while also dealing with aliens is a pain in the ass.
 
Yeah, going to pass on Phoenix as well. Everything just felt...slow rather than tactical. I could see it had all the elements I'd enjoy, but the pacing really left something to be desired. Not expecting to be blowing dozens of enemies away within seconds of loading, but...eh.

Sticking with Gears Tactics for now.
 
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Playing L.A noire rn, i cant believe that i sat on this game for years and didnt bother to play it. Now that i am playing it, the game does not hold punches and is great! The writing is actually top notch and the music is just at another level. I often stay at the menu for a great while. Damn it feels great to play a nice detective game. where i solve riddles and interview people to get correct answer and reaction! Its a must play for all my kiwis here. Have a nice time
 
A cracking group called MKDEV publicly released some info regarding how to crack Denuvo on their Discord
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And if anyone missed it, Skidrow and Empress had a slapfight a couple weeks ago regarding how time-consuming it is to reconstruct hundreds of functions one by one that Denuvo obfuscates
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Judgment-EMPRESS.png
 
I have not once played Alan Wake before in my life, and honestly I think that might change next month. The prices for the game are going for cheap, even though the Limited Edition seems to almost be sold out on the online retailer stores I usually go to.
 
I have not once played Alan Wake before in my life, and honestly I think that might change next month. The prices for the game are going for cheap, even though the Limited Edition seems to almost be sold out on the online retailer stores I usually go to.
The original is a great game. Not the game itself, meaning the combat loop, but everything other than that is really good. I hate playing Alan Wake so much.

Alan Wake: American Nightmare, the XBLA title, was really good and it's what the original game should have been and in a way it was that until it changed.
 
I came back to La-Mulana after getting stuck on the last boss fight years ago (solved all puzzles by myself except finding the grail -- the solution is in the manual, which I had read but hadn't realized it'd been the actual solution, not an abstract example of a secret passage -- and watched videos for boss fights). I decided to come back to it and got raped by this bug:
Apparently it only happens on Linux. The gist of it is when a platform moves (especially sinks under your weight), you can get stuck on it forever. I'd encountered several such platforms before.
The Viy fight, however, has a scrolling screen. EVERYTHING moves on it. EVERYTHING is sticky.
Feels bad losing to a hohol.

I'm gonna try Hollow Knight next, I'd pussied out on the last boss there too.
 
Playing L.A noire rn, i cant believe that i sat on this game for years and didnt bother to play it. Now that i am playing it, the game does not hold punches and is great! The writing is actually top notch and the music is just at another level. I often stay at the menu for a great while. Damn it feels great to play a nice detective game. where i solve riddles and interview people to get correct answer and reaction! Its a must play for all my kiwis here. Have a nice time
I have a hard time reading their PS3 graphics expressions for clues. It was a bit ahead of its time and deserves a remake.
 
A cracking group called MKDEV publicly released some info regarding how to crack Denuvo on their Discord
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And if anyone missed it, Skidrow and Empress had a slapfight a couple weeks ago regarding how time-consuming it is to reconstruct hundreds of functions one by one that Denuvo obfuscates
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EMPRESS WAS VOSKI ALL THIS TIME?:story:
 
I have not once played Alan Wake before in my life, and honestly I think that might change next month. The prices for the game are going for cheap, even though the Limited Edition seems to almost be sold out on the online retailer stores I usually go to.
You miss nothing by watching an LP of it on youtube and even then you're better off reading Stephen King (who once wrote....) than watching something that's intentionally trying to mimic a boring tv show (compare and contrast with that other remedy game that WAS a boring tv show).
 
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