What are you playing at the moment?

[Det.Bullock]

I’ve been playing Halo 3 in the past week and I’m barely at half the campaign.
The set pieces are grand and the plot is nice enough but it’s not quite enough to compensate the things I don’t like.
Having to scavenge for weapons after almost every big shootout and often in the middle of them is such a bore.
Why can’t I gather ammo for most covenant weapons? Most workhorse Covenant weapons can only be swapped for a new one when they run out of ammo and it’s so annoying.
They also reduced the ammo for the shotgun (30 shots instead of 60 or so) which is also extremely annoying with the zombies since most other non-explosive weapons might hurt them but sure as hell don’t stop them before they can melee you into pieces.
There are also no subtitles of any kind which means that my non-native english speaker brain has to work twice as hard to make out what other characters are saying during gameplay which is exceptionally weird after Halo: CE’s excellent subtitling.

Since it’s short I’ll probably finish it but if I can’t think of anything else after that I’ll continue with Blood since apparently when I interrupted months ago I was just one level from the end of episode 2 (I think it was episode 2 at least, the final boss was a spider) and found out a couple of days ago when I fired up the game on a whim.
Boy, being able to hold more than two weapons and being able to quicksave is so liberating.

You shouldn’t use the vision powers in Dishonored, it takes away a lot of the sneaking suspense and becomes way too easy. Just use q and e to peek around corners and the game is immediately 200% better.

When I peeked I usually got spotted whenever any guard happened to be looking my way and this on normal.
Also it’s very easy to miss small objects when rummaging around without those powers or just don’t notice that a guard has a key hanging from their belt.
Besides, flashing around with blink requires planning ahead and knowing what’s around not just the corner ahead but also the two or three ones after that if you don’t want to get involved in fights or reload too often.

[Sarfrin]

Good grief it takes a long time to format a 2TB drive. I’ll be back to playing Horizon Zero Dawn once I’m finished. It’s doing a hell of a good job of teaching me its systems so far without being too didactic about it.

[LTK]

I completed A Monster’s Expedition (that is, I reached the end credits) and I was quite smitten by it (in no small part because of the exhibitions) but unfortunately it never comes close to the heights of Stephen’s Sausage Roll. It feels like the game left a lot of potential unfulfilled: some mechanics, like transporting logs via raft, or stacking logs onto logs, weren’t relevant to any of the solutions more than a couple of times. There may be some optional puzzles that use these but I don’t have very many of those left either, so I really would have liked the game to explore its mechanics to their fullest like SSR does. Even if the game only supports two levels of elevation (ground level/water level+one level above that) there is so much more you can do with this: you could stack three rafts together, yet the game never even gives you the opportunity to stack two! Meanwhile, SSR features a TOWER OF SAUSAGES about an hour into the game!

Still, there is no better puzzle game to ape than SSR, and AME’s twist on it makes for a fine puzzle game. I like it much more than A Good Snowman, which I also finished but the bonus puzzles it unlocks were far too onerous for me to want to continue playing. AME is much better in this regard: all the puzzles required for progression are reasonable in difficulty and there’s usually a fork in each area that lets you choose which way to go if one of them stumps you for whatever reason; they merge later and you’ll end up on the same route again.

There are also many bonus puzzles scattered around the main progression route, with two or three hidden areas that you can reach if you put your mind to it for even more puzzles. This is far superior design, as you can either choose to work on something more challenging than the main progression route, or you just experiment a bit and get a feel for what might be possible. Some require you to put just a little more effort into the problem than usual, some require you to think outside the box, and for some you need to think outside a second box that contains the first box, because first-level outside-the-box thinking won’t cut it. I don’t know how many levels up it goes because there are plenty of puzzles I haven’t solved yet. Maybe the hardest puzzles require thinking outside galaxy-sized boxes I can’t even conceive of. Well, only one way to find out!

[LexW]

You shouldn’t use the vision powers in Dishonored, it takes away a lot of the sneaking suspense and becomes way too easy. Just use q and e to peek around corners and the game is immediately 200% better.

That’s a nice idea in theory but the game is extremely clearly designed for you to use the vision powers (the sequel even more so), given the points Bullock mentioned. The notice-times issue alone means that the game is not very playable like that unless you get into some particularly extreme save-reload action, or are going High Chaos on Normal difficulty. I’ve seen a YouTube of someone doing it, but he’d just memorized the hell out of the levels from playing them a bazillion times with the vision powers previously and basically didn’t even need to peek.

I impulsively bought EverSpace 2. It seems pretty good, and pretty polished for a v 0.4-type early access game, but does have some issues, including to incredibly irritating one so many games share, where they simply have “low, medium, high, very high”-type settings for various graphics settings, without any explanation of what’s different on the settings, even where things clearly are massively different. Like, between Medium and High AA, there’s clearly an entirely different form of AA being used. But what is it? We don’t know (I assume it’s SMAA and TAA but…). And the lighting engine changes massively between “Medium” and “High” overall settings, but which of the many settings did that? I wouldn’t care but High is clearly too taxing for my 1060 in more intense situations (dropping to 30FPS or lower) yet Medium is so quick that I know I can turn more stuff back on. I’m sure I can experiment but like, why not label stuff properly? Loads of games do this! Why? It makes sense with something like LOD or draw-distance or other incremental settings, but absolutely none with settings where different techniques are used on different settings.

Having whined about that, the gameplay is good, as is the vibe. It’s more like what I want out of a space sim, so far, than anything else I’ve played in the last few years. More of an actual Freelancer-type game, but with new elements, and whilst the moment-to-moment gameplay is more “Descent in Space” i.e. FreeSpace, rather than Freelancer, that works for me. They have Diablo-style loot, but ironically so far, if anything, there isn’t really enough of it! Hopefully this will change as time goes on, because Diablo-style loot is always a little sad if it’s very limited in quantities.

The main character is a fairly generic white guy, which is slightly disappointing give the exotic far-future setting, but at least he seems likable so far and there’s a reason he is who he is - and his interactions with the other friendly NPCs are nice, rather than dickish as they are in so many games. At least he’s not the sort of character who so boring and dumb-looking that you actively want to not play the game, unlike some (looking at you, recent Star Wars Dark Souls game).

[zagibu]

Besides, flashing around with blink requires planning ahead and knowing what’s around not just the corner ahead but also the two or three ones after that if you don’t want to get involved in fights or reload too often.

Well, I didn’t use blink either. It was a long time ago, though, so yeah, it might be that I abused save/load quite a bit. I certainly don’t remember there being a problem with getting spotted when peeking…

[Det.Bullock]

Having whined about that, the gameplay is good, as is the vibe. It’s more like what I want out of a space sim, so far, than anything else I’ve played in the last few years. More of an actual Freelancer-type game, but with new elements, and whilst the moment-to-moment gameplay is more “Descent in Space” i.e. FreeSpace, rather than Freelancer, that works for me.

Well, akshually, Freespace was “Descent in Space” in name only (and even then not everywhere, my box says “Conflict” instead of Descent) since its gameplay was a new spin on Tie Fighter/Wing Commander.

[LexW]

Yeah it’s been a while. Certainly this is “Descent in Space” by and large.

[zagibu]

the gameplay is good, as is the vibe. It’s more like what I want out of a space sim, so far, than anything else I’ve played in the last few years. More of an actual Freelancer-type game, but with new elements

Have you played the first one? I didn’t like that very much, it seemed grindy and boring.

[sonson]

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is fucking nuts man. I’m not even sure if I enjoy playing it per se but getting to run around as a Stormtrooper et al in an almost photo realistic environment with AT ATs stomping next to your ear and all that stuff, with all the music playing and the blasters pew pewing is just heady. I basically just load in, look around and die, but as a simulation of being shot/comfused/briefly hubristic in the Star Wars Universe it’s basically unimpeachable.

That Dice engine is astonishing btw. More or less the most impressive graphics re lighting and fidelity going except it’s also running at about 130 FPS, I don’t really understand.

[Aitrus]

When I peeked I usually got spotted whenever any guard happened to be looking my way and this on normal.

I certainly don’t remember there being a problem with getting spotted when peeking…

Leaning in Dishonored 1 is completely invisible, meaning your detection box stays vertical from wherever you were standing. It’s a well documented phenomenon. In Dishonored 2, leaning visibility is an option in the difficulty menu.

For whatever it’s worth, I agree with zagibu - I used Dark Vision on my very first playthrough of Dishonored 1 and then never again, in any of the games. Using it robs you of exciting moments like looking through a keyhole, seeing a guard approaching the door that you’re currently glued to, and panic searching for a place to hide before they come in. Yes, there’s a lot more save-scumming involved if you’re going for perfect stealth, but if not, running away from danger is always a viable option in these games.

On the other hand, I know a lot of people who are obsessed fans like me who absolutely refuse to play without Dark Vision for all of the reasons already laid out. Everyone approaches Dishonored differently and the game is good at supporting that.

Despite loving all of the Dishonoured games I have to say expectations shouldn’t be set too high for the story.

Personally I love the characters of the first game and the Lovecraftian horror-mystery of DotO, but this is still very true. The second game especially has all the charm, mystery, and personality of a loaf of white bread. “Oh, Delilah is back? Cool… We’re gonna learn how she came back? Cool… (seven missions later) Oh, they just… Did a ritual? To bring her back? That’s how they did it? That’s… Cool. I guess.”

[LexW]

Have you played the first one? I didn’t like that very much, it seemed grindy and boring.

Yes, and I felt the same way as you about it. This one it’s more like the under-developed bits are boring, but the developed bits are cool. I think it’s one to stay away from until it develops a lot further generally, but it looks like it’s going in the right direction.

Yes, there’s a lot more save-scumming involved if you’re going for perfect stealth, but if not, running away from danger is always a viable option in these games.

Definitely not “always viable” in Dishonored 2 (at least above the easiest difficulties) imho, given how aggressive and fatal the guards can be (quite ludicrously so on a lot of the settings). But you’re right re: leaning only being visible in Dishonored 2, which is what I was thinking of. Running away in general is a lot more viable in Dishonored 1 I felt.

[Aitrus]

Definitely not “always viable” in Dishonored 2 (at least above the easiest difficulties) imho, given how aggressive and fatal the guards can be (quite ludicrously so on a lot of the settings).

Heh. Yes. Amend that to if you can avoid getting killed within seconds, running away is always a viable option. Safety is usually no more than two blinks away from wherever you’re at, although if you’re indoors (which you are a lot of the time, in Dishonored 2) it can be tougher to get away. 2 is also much less generous with high ceilings and indoor perches.

[Similar]

I kind of gave up on Dishonored (1) for now. I don’t really have the patience and I was probably also expecting too much from the story and characters (though, judging from reviews and Youtube videos the story obviously does work for some people).

One thing that really bothered me, also, was that the game kind of cheats. If you clear out the guards from an area and then go into an instance, like Dr. Galvani’s house, for example, then the guards respawn when you come out (even if they’re still fast asleep in the dumpster you put them in), and often you’re now coming from the ‘wrong’ side so there are much fewer places to hide (I suppose that, if you’ve played the game several times, you’d leave by the balcony rather than the door, in that specific location, but that’s hardly something you can know the first time). That really didn’t feel neither realistic or fair.
And there’s a bit too many guards that just magically pop into existence when you alert some of them too.

---

So I played some Saints Row the Third instead. The intro mission is still great, and some of the other missions are quite funny too, but the open world is rather lacking these days; there’s really not much to do when you compare to more recent games. On the other hand, simple can be pleasant too sometimes. And ‘blow up stuff’ is a mission objective that doesn’t require much thought, which is something I can appreciate lately.
There are quite a lot of things you kind of have to avoid thinking too deeply about or it starts to feel pretty problematic, though.

Also, the best character is the Decker Specialist and you only get her on your side with a mod…

The Remastered version looked kind of nice in some comparison videos I watched, but maybe not 40 USD nice (I also don’t use Epic, but I assume it comes to Steam at some point).

Bonus question: Does anyone know what happened to the improvements that Volition was supposed to do for the Saints Row 2 PC port? As I understood it, there were only two devs assigned to it and one of them got cancer (the guy who made the Gentlemen of the Row mod), but it seemed like he got cured and wanted to work on it. And then nothing happened?
I’d like to try SR2, but I’m not sure if I should wait or just go with what there is.

[Baines]

Bonus question: Does anyone know what happened to the improvements that Volition was supposed to do for the Saints Row 2 PC port? As I understood it, there were only two devs assigned to it and one of them got cancer (the guy who made the Gentlemen of the Row mod), but it seemed like he got cured and wanted to work on it. And then nothing happened?

I’d like to try SR2, but I’m not sure if I should wait or just go with what there is.

Mike (IdolNinja) was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer in his face and lungs. He hasn’t been cured, but hoped to continue working. Last November he posted that treatments had dealt with the face cancer, and had shrunk the nodules in his lungs. He said it was the best he could have hoped for due to how advanced his cancer was. He did hope to return to work that month, and said that his next chemo might not be until January.

Mike has said that he had things in place for the work to continue even if he is unable to finish it himself.

[Similar]

ah, thank you. The quoted message I saw seemed more hopeful, or at least I read it that way (I also thought it was older, but it must have been the one from November).
mh. Pretty bleak.

[BillButNotBen]

Star Wars Battlefront 2 is fucking nuts man. I’m not even sure if I enjoy playing it per se but getting to run around as a Stormtrooper et al in an almost photo realistic environment with AT ATs stomping next to your ear and all that stuff, with all the music playing and the blasters pew pewing is just heady. I basically just load in, look around and die, but as a simulation of being shot/comfused/briefly hubristic in the Star Wars Universe it’s basically unimpeachable.

That Dice engine is astonishing btw. More or less the most impressive graphics re lighting and fidelity going except it’s also running at about 130 FPS, I don’t really understand.

This is kind of what I did with the original Star Wars Battlefront 2. Load up each of the OT maps (not the prequel ones, naturally) and run or fly around them for 5 minutes. Then remember that I didn’t really enjoy the gameplay and try a different one just for the vibe.
Haven’t tried the new one yet due to the download size, but I had heard that it apparently runs really well even on low end hardware, while still looking great. According to a few benchmark sites I checked a while back I could run it at about double the FPS of some other games that looked half as good.

–

I’ve mostly gotten the hang of handling in BallisticNG now, and can get around the tracks without bouncing off the walls on every single corner.
It feels pretty cool when you’re zipping around at high speed while the music pumps at high tempo.

I still think that, with the narrow tracks, once you screw up once you’re likely to bounce off the walls 4 times before you get back on track, which can put you back quite a bit.
This tends to mean that singleplayer races, where the AI doesn’t seem to make mistakes (though it’s too fast to be sure), are a bit all-or-nothing. I’ll tend to either do really badly, or get a gold medal - at least on the default difficulty.
Once you get out in front, if you don’t make any bad mistakes then you’re likely to stay there.

I guess the weapons are supposed to address that, but they don’t seem to have all that much impact.

So, yeah, it’s a cool experience when you’re zipping around, but it doesn’t feel like it’s all that deep.
(there’s a lot of mechanical depth to the handling, but it doesn’t seem to make a massive difference in practice and there’s not much tactical depth.)

[BooleanBob]

This was my experience of Planetside 2. Wasn’t remotely competitive at the game and don’t even think I’d have enjoyed it if I were, but a few evenings spent as a walk-on extra in those incredibly immersive and convincingly realised sci-fi battles made for a great time.

[Det.Bullock]

Halo 3 has been a slog to finish.
I just can’t seem to be able to enjoy this kind of gameplay, if anything it drives me nuts.

Now I’ll probably either continue with Blood or just dump the Heretic wad I bought on GOG in GZdoom just to wash the aftertaste.

[zagibu]

I’ve recently started playing Hellpoint, and it’s more or less a janky Dark Souls clone in an occult sci-fi setting. I’m not blown away by it so far, but I’ve also not given up yet, so I guess it’s not bad.

Some weird balancing so far, though. I found a blueprint for a gun in a secret area that also requires some special material to build, and it’s absolutely terrible. It does like 1/4 of the damage of the starter melee weapon and has like only 5m of range or so.

Oh and you fall down a lot. Because the movement controls are a bit mushy.

[LexW]

That Dice engine is astonishing btw. More or less the most impressive graphics re lighting and fidelity going except it’s also running at about 130 FPS, I don’t really understand.

I think this sort of general thing was why EA were trying to force all their studios to use this engine, a while back - it was true even in earlier iterations of Frostbite, like say, Battlefield Bad Company 2 back in 2010, which both looked way better and ran way better than other engines.

I mean, I think EA made a serious mistake because there’s more to an engine than that (as Anthem particularly showed, because you traveled too far too fast as a flying suit of power armour, leading to tons of loading screens), and other teams haven’t reliably been able to get as amazing of performance out of it, but it’s a hell of thing. It seems to be nearly perfectly adapted to the scenario of having a multiplayer game set in a very large but not gigantic area, where that area only periodically changes (i.e. like, when loading a new match or in a shooter, where an entire mission can take place in that area).