Commenter Archive

AI has been super valuable for helping learn and deal with the non-intuitive UI - much quicker than Google (which is crap these days anyway), or Reddit or Youtube.

Lol, that is so true. The learning curve is steep.

I found that ChatGPT is pretty good at giving specific EU4 advice that helps cut down on the need to watch videos, but its info database is a couple of patches old, so like all things AI, it sometimes give bad advice or suggests things that simply aren't possible anymore.

Some other goodies from the sales:

Darkest Dungeon- $1.99
Red Dead Redemption 2 - $19.79
Baldur’s Gate 2 - $47.99 (20% off)
Europa Universalis IV - $4.99 ($11.99 with all the dlc)
Assassins Creed Odyssey- $5.99

Still jealous you are iceland! We were there in June and want to go back!

Nice!

Me and my family were in Iceland this past June. The spot we parked when visiting the Blue Lagoon is now under lava. I also caught one of the worst cases of athletes foot there.

Other than that we LOVED Iceland - except for the wind.

Have fun!

Just wait, it gets better.

I didn't buy or play it, but Hogwart's got decent reviews for gameplay and was still #1 despite efforts to sink it because of all the JK Rowling hatred.

But I don't know what's going on in the games industry. How there can be so much money and so much crap and the recent moves by Xbox. Well, I guess I should know, because the same problems exist in Hollywood.

I am still really, really enjoying modded but vanilla Fallout New Vegas. No bugs, modernized, updated graphics and lighting and other things (not modern Cyberpunk quality by any stretch but decent enough) and it's just such a pleasure to play. What a great game. If Bethesda was smart they'd do an updated version of this game fixing everything and rerelease it like Skyrim.

Just saw a couple of videos on the next FO76 DLC which is in Steam beta now and due to go live supposedly in June. Really positive so far - might be worth sticking around for.

And yeah, I have the itch for a Fallout 4 replay too. I still remember some annoying things about that game, but probably mods have fixed a lot of stuff.

I haven’t played FO76. I was hopeful for it at launch but nope. Haven’t really kept track of it since but with the renewed interest in fallout it seems they’ve fixed a lot of it.

I’m still not likely to play it, however. No friends who are interested and I’m currently having a blast with a modernized and modded New Vegas. I’ll probably do modded Fallout 3 after.

With the show out, Bethesda really should get a New Vegas remaster.

You haven’t watched the fallout show yet?

Criminal!

Remember your post about getting the younger generation to play classic games? The Fallout TV show got my 14yo son to buy and install Fallout 3 - without ANY prompting from me - and he has been loving it.

It got me to reinstall New Vegas with the Viva Las Vegas mods and I’m having a blast too.

You need to watch the show.

I have been on a Stellaris kick lately, which, if you know anything about Stellaris, means it's fun, and soul and time-sucking all at once. RIP a normal sleep schedule.

I think there is something to this.

But I look at something like BG3 and what a huge success it was, and I don't worry as much about the future of RPGs.

The great thing about gaming is the diversity. Most everyone, from the solitaire player to the person making spreadsheets in Eve, has something that will appeal to them.

My son “hated” RPG’s especially open world rpgs. He tried Skyrim first, hated it. I didn’t bother trying with Fallout, and anyway, he refused anything that had “open world” or “rpg” in it for the last few years.

Then, we watched the Edgerunners anime together and he wanted to try Cyperpunk 2077. Fortunately this is after the recent patches and DLC. He LOVED it. Now he’s listening to his friends and playing Elden Ring - loves it too. He still wants technically difficult combat more than interesting stories, but maybe I can get him to seriously try a classic. You give some great advice here for how to explain it to him better.

Not super interested in Marvel Avengers. It's not my style of game, and I have too many games as it is - more than I can play.

As for what I'm playing, I basically just finished Starfield yesterday. "Finished" in the Bethesda game sense of doing all the major side content and the main campaign. I'm sure there's lots of small stuff I missed, and there were areas of the game (like outposts) and areas of the map I haven't touched or brushed over. I still have a couple of bugged quests that I can't complete, but they are smaller side quests.

This is really a big game. And it has so many options for expansion and mods that I think it will have the longevity of Skyrim.

Overall, I did really enjoy it, but Bethesda's engine is really showing it's age, and I hope they fix some of the weird design decisions in the future.

But I'm done with it for now. Next on my playlist is Phantom Liberty. I haven't played CP2077 in a long time, so I need to relearn everything with the changes. I'm not sure if I want to do another playthrough from the start though, as I've already done the main campaign twice. But that's what CDPR and many recommend so...

I'm on PC but using the Microsoft/XBox version of the game. Kinda wish I had just gotten the Steam version, but wanted to give my kids the chance to play.

I've had a few crashes, but the most annoying are a few (three so far) bugged quests. Fortunately, these have been relatively minor side quests (AFAIK), but I'm hoping Bethesda will have a patch out to fix them at some point.

Yeah, that is a non-obvious thing that increases the QOL substantially.

I am spending a LOT of time with the game. Obviously, I really enjoy it or wouldn't be spending the time, but it's far from a perfect game and has a lot of the usual Bethesda Jank and weird design decisions.

I also agree with you about the lack of an edge. A lot of the storytelling is quite good but, as you say, it doesn't break much new ground and is very familiar in a lot of ways. I like your comparison to classic rock radio.

The main story has, so far, been a mixed bag. It's got some interesting moments - and one brutal one (again, so far), but much of it is drudgery with too much of doing the same thing over and over.

So far, I've done a bit of everything - or at least tried.

Where to spend my skill points is a constant issue but in a good way. Unlike a lot of RPG's, you can't do it all - at least without pouring probably a thousand hours into the game. I keep wondering where I should focus my efforts - it's frustrating in good way.

I will probably take a break when the Cyberpunk changes and expansion come out, which look great. It seems like they've fixed a lot of core issues with that game, and the expansion looks very promising. And that is a game that definitely has an edge.

Yes, proceeding further into the main mission helps with all sorts of things, including surveying. Because (spoiler).

I'm glad I listened to the advice to work on the main story before getting too distracted by all the shiny things.

The miner on your ship can be used at an outpost when/if you decide to build one. You can "store" the miner on your ship but they don't help you. Or you can just setup a really simple outpost to store those characters until you get more into outpost building. I have two now producing raw resources but I mainly made them test out the outpost feature and to give the miners I found someplace to be.So far the outpost building is a great improvement over Fallout 4.

Then I did a bunch of random quests. The "activities" quest list can be deceiving. They don't look important since they're listed at the bottom and the descriptions are often very perfunctory. Sometimes they are truly a simple a one-and-done quest, but others are much longer and very interesting questlines. And you don't know which ones will be quick or which will lead to something much more interesting! It's nice not knowing ahead of time where something will lead.

I'm now doing one of the main faction questlines- it's super fun and interesting! But I'm pretty far into it, and the current mission I'm on requires being really stealthy, and I don't have a stealth build. I may have to come back later to finish it after putting some points in stealth, which is disappointing.

Apologies for my wrong assumption!

It’s $100 for early access and the first DLC, $70 for the base game.

One of the reasons I choose to wait on BG3 was because of the too much money and too many long games - so I made a different trade off.

One of the things I really don’t like is the lack of any kind of map. You mentioned a museum - so I went to look for it. After about 30 minutes I gave up and googled the location.

Another thing I don’t like are all the loading screens. Thank goodness I have a fast M.2 SSD. And thank goodness there is a good fast travel system once you get used to the quirks.

I'm a few hours ahead of you.

So far, I'm really enjoying it, but there seems to be a steeper learning curve than with other Bethesda games.

From the spoiler-free reviews I've read, the game is massive and it seems like it will be 100-200 hours to the main quest and all the faction questlines. That's insane.

I'm now level 10, have been to the main cities through the main quest, and have so many quests.

I can understand some of the criticism in several reviews though - it really does take quite a while for the game to get into a rhythm. The main quest doesn't seem compelling at first and it certainly lacks the sense of urgency of Fallout 4 or Skyrim, where the narrative wants you to beeline the main quest but the gameplay doesn't. I think it's good that here there isn't a similar sense of narrative urgency here with the main quest.

That said, I'd recommend following the main quest for your first few hours. It seems like it acts kind of like a tutorial in that it introduces you to some mechanics, as well as companions and the main areas. I think I'm about at the point now where I'm going to start leaving the main quest aside for a while. And, again, the nice thing is that works narratively - there isn't a narrative time crunch - at least so far - to get the bottom of the MacGuffin.

Considering I'm a middle-aged dad with a job, family and lots of responsibilities, who knows how long it's going to take me to "complete" this game. I'm not sure whether I should focus on the main story to get to NG+ or just meander. It's nice to have the choice, though.

Oh, and pictures you take with photo mode will be rolled into loading screens - nice!

The Dishonored system is interesting because it's not really good v evil but stability vs chaos. The more people you kill, the more chaos there is in the world, and the less stability in the society, which has all kinds of effects, including on the nature of the ending. I think the game incentivized you to kill bosses but avoid killing others, like guards, although there are non-lethal or non-murderous options to deal with the bosses.

It was and is a really good game.

I like to play either good or selfish characters. I never go for the evil options unless it’s motivated by revenge or maybe the “greater good” which are choices games tend to give you.

Your post made me think of Cyberpunk 2077, which lets you do some morally dubious stuff (consistent with the lore and setting) but if you’re evil, you lose a lot of content and options for the ending. Fuck over Panam and you lose access to a romance, an ending and a huge chunk on content. The game doesn’t give you the option, for example, of siding with the Wraiths. I think that’s a good game design choice but on the other hand it would be nice to have more complex interactions with some gangs beyond kill on sight.

Some extra content for being evil doesn’t bother me too much as long it’s small, not game-breaking, and being good comes with something equivalent. There should be trade offs.

I haven’t played BG3 yet and am not sure I will given the time commitment and with Starfield (a game I’m more excited about) just around the corner. Although I’m tempted because my memories of BG2 are very fond and have stuck with me.

As I’ve gotten older, though, I’ve become less enamored of the isometric tactical party combat play style. I never finished Pillars of Eternity, for example, because it just became too tedious.

Is this new one as carpel tunnel unfriendly as the previous ones? I wrecked my hands playing Diablo 3 when it came out.