Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[coopasonic]

Two thoughts about random games that showed up on PS Plus this month.

Need for Speed Unbound was one of the new games, so I grabbed it yesterday. I haven't played an arcade racing game in ages, so I thought it might be fun. The racing itself wasn't terrible (it wasn't particularly good either), but everything surrounding the actual races was just so, so bad.

I was inundated with at least 10 popups to buy different cosmetic packages before I even got to the launch screen. I already knew the music wouldn't be my type, but I was a little surprised when the opening title screen was accompanied by some dude rapping about "I'm the shit, you're bullshit, fuck these hoes", etc, etc. It was literally the very first thing I heard when I opened the game (which caused me to immediately mute the music). Every character option looks like a reject from a breakdancing competition. The dialog is absolute cringe, sounding like it was generated in a corporate board room full of middle aged white guys to sound "cool" and "hip":

"Yo dawg, this street racing is hella tight".
"Hell yeah fam, I can't wait to see the rest of these fools tripping on my dope ride"
"Oh shit, here comes the po-po. We gotta bounce so they don't break us down out here"
Etc, etc...all of it just laughably bad.

I was so irritated with the whole package that I uninstalled it after 30 minutes. I get that I'm probably not the target demographic here, but I was honestly left wondering...who the hell was? It was all so obviously forced and ridiculous that I can't imagine even the teens (?) they were going after wouldn't immediately cringe.

I finished NFS: Unbound and enjoyed it. Compared to the last NFS game (2019s Heat) it was great.

Of course I don't really care about the story much, I just like the racing, upgrading/customizing cars and checking stuff off the map. The music didn't do much for me, but it also didn't bother me.

[Skinypupy]

Of course I don't really care about the story much, I just like the racing, upgrading/customizing cars and checking stuff off the map. The music didn't do much for me, but it also didn't bother me.

I don’t care about the story in racing games either. My only ask is that it’s not so actively obnoxious as to be distracting.

Same with the music. It’s (obviously) not going to be my preferred genre, but maybe there’s a middle ground between that and hearing “fuck dem hoes” in the first 30 seconds?

[Rumpy]

Two thoughts about random games that showed up on PS Plus this month.

Need for Speed Unbound was one of the new games, so I grabbed it yesterday. I haven't played an arcade racing game in ages, so I thought it might be fun. The racing itself wasn't terrible (it wasn't particularly good either), but everything surrounding the actual races was just so, so bad.

The last one I played was NFS Heat, and I thought that was pretty bad as well. I actually preferred NFS Payback as it offered more variety via its multiple playable characters. I thought Heat was pretty bland. I kind of feel the NFS series needs a complete reset at this point.

[Kasey Chang]

Trying to play orbit.industries, as it's down to $7. I did play 20 hours, but it was a frustrating experience.

[Unagi]

Trying to play orbit.industries, as it's down to $7. I did play 20 hours, but it was a frustrating experience.

The reviews for that game all read pretty poor. 20 hours of frustration is not something I'll be too curious to sample.

[Kasey Chang]

There is a decent game in there, which is basically what my GOG review said, but some questionable design decisions masked the game with UI frustrations instead. Later, I ran into some game stopping bugs, like objective impossible to achieve.

Basically, pre-requisites are tied to "worker count" (i.e. population) instead of having built X and Y. Which leads you into researching and building modules (which can cost up to 400 days) that you can't use, because you're missing a resource it needs (which requires a different type of "generator" you haven't researched and build yet, which can cost another 200-400 days).

I was able to complete the first of three "scenarios". However, upon half-way through the second scenario the game seems to have glitched and gave me a "mission" (project) that requires TWO "command centers". However, only one such can be built. It's impossible to complete.

[Kasey Chang]

Playing Parkan II, which actually is a time-travel story. Apparently you are sent back 17 and odd years with an implanted AI to complete certain tasks to prevent some disaster in the future. But this is basically a Russian take on Elite / X franchise: a ship that you can pilot almost anywhere, shoot at anything, trade, and land on planets in first person and shoot enemies (usually bots). For $2, you really can't go wrong. And yes, there's a plot.

[Daehawk]

The Forever Winter

The Forever Winter is a co-op tactical survival horror shooter where you and your squad must loot the dead to survive under the shadow of terrifying and gargantuan war machines locked in a never-ending conflict.

Steam page

[Jolor]

Re: Classified: France '44

I played the demo and really liked it. On my steamlist for later, just below Shadow Gambit and The Thaumaturge.

[Jolor]

Random Thoughts on a Sunny Winter Day:

There are Rougelike and Rougelite games. Are we soon to see (or have seen) a Soulslite genre?

[YellowKing]

I'm on my second attempt to try to finish Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I really enjoyed the game the first time around but apparently got sidetracked by something shiny and never got past Chapter 6. I believe I was playing it on GamePass for PC the first time.

I re-bought the game on PS5 and finally got back to the point where I left off. Still having a good time with it, but didn't realize how long a game it is. I thought I was maybe 2/3 of the way through but now I realized I'm still less than half.

My JRPG backlog is tremendous right now, because I'm making a concerted effort to go back and finish ones I started but never completed. I re-bought Ni No Kuni 1 & 2 and Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel on sale recently as those are all games I really enjoyed but never finished.

[Moliere]

Anyone play Bluey? It's now on Gamepass and wondered how kids would respond to it.

[Kasey Chang]

Parkan II was starting to get a bit... weird, as I get some faction missions, and this often involves going to X, board ship Y, kill the (robot) crew, and upload a virus or engage the self-destruct.

Getting to X usually means doing some space combat, unless you do the blockage runner thing: engines to max and just afterburn your way past the AI, and hit land even as they fire on you. You'll land, and bypass all that fighting.

However, boarding ship Y is not that easy, as ships can carry "Warbots" (tanks, hovertanks, floaters, etc) to protect themselves, and you can bring your own... if you can find some to buy and not lose them in the subsequent fighting. While you *do* have rockets let's just say you alone against 2-3 hovertanks is NOT good odds.

Once you've defeated all of the warbots (if any), then you can beam aboard, but let's just say the enemy crew is NOT helpless. They will try to kill you, and if you take a couple hits without your shield, you die. And you don't respawn in this game. It's time to reload previous savegame. Fortunately, there's always quicksave and save-scrumming.

Once you've depopulated the enemy vessel, run through the ship, grab any loot (you have a transporter beacon gun known as "transfer beam"... Point it at the lootable object and "use", and it'll be beamed into your own ship's hold, to be sold or such. Then go to the bridge and activate whatever you came to do, then leave.

In the last fight, I had 3 warbots, and I ended up going up against 6 warbots. Lost all of mine, and I still have to kill like 3 tanks by myself. Fortunately the warbots will not follow you into your own ship, so I basically run back to my ship, replenish ammo, let the shield regen, then go back down and try some more. Raiding planets is easy. Raiding these ships are hard. On the other hand, I have so much "money" (measured as "FU" or fuel units) than I can spend. It's now a matter of chasing down the plot missions vs. the procedurally generated stuff.

-----

Decided to try Absolute Tactics: Daughters of Mercy, an isometric dark fantasy turn-based tactical battle RPG adventure, that I picked up many months ago from Amazon Prime Gaming. giveaway. Dark forces, lead by Father Eldritch, and his 3 "daughters of mercy" Eudora, Galena, and Lenexa, are scouring the countryside, dispensing "mercy" (death) to civilians and collecting their essence "Adenine" to boost their dark powers. You play as young boy Huxley, searching for an adventure, picked up a friendly dog "Max" as companion, and later, met up with other adventurers such as Callie, Arkyn, and Roux to rescue Elise, a girl kidnapped from the Corliss village, and from there the adventurers unite, even as Huxley is guided by an unseen voice in his head... I think I am near the half-way point, as I just defeated Lenexa, who had used Adenine to transform into a dragon. However, the game loop is getting a bit repetitive: tons of enemies, some are vulnerable to physical attacks, some are vulnerable to magical attacks, and you pretty much need a mix to go through your battles. The unique thing here is the ability to swap out skill books. Each person starts with one skill book, which can be upgraded twice (1 to 2, then 2 to 3) and can acquire a second skill book. There are well over a dozen skill books, some with passive buffs, some with just XP boosts, some with active skills (often magical attacks). The world also has different armor sets, helmet sets, and weapon sets that help you specialize in one thing or another. Basically, no need to min-max stuff by picking from bajillion combos, the combos are already done FOR you, just pick the right set for the tactical config you're going for. That's kinda refreshing. Oh, did I mention you can SWAP spell books among characters? Even if you've levelled up the spell books? You're not fixed in those roles. The RPG elements are mainly in upgrading your core stats, but the spell books are buffs on top of your core stats of HP, SP, Atk, Def, M-Atk, and M-Def (called "skill" instead of magic in the game). Some sets impart additional benefits, such as life-steal, auto-heal, and so on.

I am not sure if I want to finish this one, as fantasy is not really my cup of tea, and I've played this far along because I thought it's kinda interesting, but now the core mechanics have been exposed, I find I'm not really discovering the "combos" that synergizes well, and that doesn't really make me want to keep playing to the end. And yes, I'm playing on EASY.

Apparently each map has a "secret" (basically a skill book upgrade) hidden and it's up to you to find it, usually by using Huxley and Max. And there are "optional missions" which gives you ANOTHER chance to find secrets, and those are repeatable if you want to "grind" your characters up.

As I said, I am starting to get bored.

[Daehawk]

For a good space game I hear Everspace 2 is great. I own it but haven't had time yet to play it. Its different then the first one if you disliked the first one. that was a roguelike. this is a full space sim no timers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128920/EVERSPACE_2/

[Moliere]

For a good space game I hear Everspace 2 is great. I own it but haven't had time yet to play it. Its different then the first one if you disliked the first one. that was a roguelike. this is a full space sim no timers.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128920/EVERSPACE_2/

Or play for free on Xbox Gamepass.

[Skinypupy]

Mrs Skinypupy bought me two $25 PSN gift cards for Christmas. I went to redeem them today to put towards FF VII Rebirth.

In order to access the code, you have to scratch off the silver bit on the back that covers the PIN number. When I did so, it scratched right through both the film covering the number...and through the number on the card itself. So I have 8 digits of the 12-digit number, and the other four digits are in very tiny shreds all over my desk.

I didn't even scratch that hard, it just went straight through the stupid flimsy card stock it was printed on.

[stessier]

At least there are only 1000 combinations!

(Sorry)

[Isgrimnur]

At least there are only 1000 combinations!

(Sorry)

10,000.

0000 - 9999

Contact Sony support. I'm sure they deal with this all the time.

[TheMix]

Agree with Issie. I would assume something like the receipt and a pic of the card should get a replacement.

[Zenn7]

Had a similar problem with a Steam gift card once. Their support helped me.
I have to imagine this happens to pretty much every company's gift cards at some point.

[Daehawk]

These companies should maybe consider plastic debit card like gift cards. Like a prepaid card. Donna was given two different gift cards on different birthdays and they are the plastic type. We used most of only one. i still have both some place.

[Daehawk]

This looks really good. I agree though with MetalJesus that the maps are pretty bland still...like originally lol.

[infinitelurker]

I picked up Ozymandias a few days back when it went on sale (sale is still on until March 2nd) and have enjoyed the time I've spent with it so far. It's a streamlined and somewhat abstracted Civilization like game that you can actually complete in an evening. If you are like me and hesitate sometimes to fire up Civilization since you don't have the requisite free hours to complete a game, give it a shot...

[Daehawk]

Hell Galaxy look. People say its like Freelancer and stuff combined. Im not sure i like the small mission areas though. Oh and its all robots..you brain is in a raider ship now. Like a Cylon

Hell Galaxy is the only game where you can experience the fusion of space battles, eerie specters, and daunting titans. This unique gameplay offers a mix of action, horror, and space exploration. Engage in dynamic mining, looting, and crafting while traversing an RPG-influenced cosmos.

[Daehawk]

This video speaks of Larian and shows their BG3 acceptance speak then goes into how bad Suicide Squad and Skull & Bones is. Also show cases mod sites that have shitty rules and stuff.

[Daehawk]

Ship of Heroes

Anyone tried the demo for this? Looks like the old City of heroes today but its new. not out yet but theres a demo at that Steam link.

Spoiler:

[Daehawk]

Bethesda Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology Edition

Seems its a new release of the old Nuclear bomb case Fallout collection. Its up for pre order now in that Amazon link I provided.

$59.99

7 games this time. Still no FO Tactics.

Experience the definitive PC collection from the award-winning Fallout® series. Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L Anthology features all seven critically-acclaimed games and official add-ons in a premium collectible set including – Fallout 76, Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 2, and Fallout. Packaged in an exclusive mini-nuke storage case, complete with audible bomb sound.

[Daehawk]

A nice article on upcoming city builders to be released before the end of this year. In spite of the title, there are actually six games to be discussed, see towards the end of the article for more info: 5 exciting city builders coming out before the end of 2022

I'm always on the lookout for the next great city builder, and there are more of them in development now than ever before. Like Fraser noted earlier this year, no one out there is really making a play for the big urban city builder market these days, but just because Cities: Skylines is the uncontested king doesn't mean there aren't lots of smaller and more niche builders being made, many with survival systems, historical themes, or sci-fi settings.

2022 has already been an exciting year for city builders, with lots of new games to challenge our building and management skills. There's The Wandering Village, where you build on the back of a giant, lumbering dinosaur that carries your city through the world, Farthest Frontier, the excellent medieval-themed survival city builder from the makers of Grim Dawn, and Frozenheim, a Viking city builder that includes raids and RTS combat. And just this week, Banished-inspired city builder Settlement Survival left early access for a full 1.0 release. It's a great time to build!

But it's worth looking down the road at what's coming, because there are lots of exciting-looking city builders on the near horizon. I know a lot of us are waiting for Manor Lords, though developer Slavic Magic hasn't announced a release date for it yet, and we still don't know when Frostpunk 2 is coming out, but it probably won't be until 2023.

Frozenheim is on sale now for $7.99 at Steam. its been on my wishlist since this above post. Its when i mentions a wish for a Flintstones city builder

Still looks interesting. Did anyone try it? $7.99 is really low but Im on a TIGHT budget and even under $10 is cutting me out of something else right now as I have half my taxes to pay, car tag renewal, and cc debt.

[Hrothgar]

Bethesda Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology Edition

Seems its a new release of the old Nuclear bomb case Fallout collection. Its up for pre order now in that Amazon link I provided.

$59.99

7 games this time. Still no FO Tactics.

Experience the definitive PC collection from the award-winning Fallout® series. Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L Anthology features all seven critically-acclaimed games and official add-ons in a premium collectible set including – Fallout 76, Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 2, and Fallout. Packaged in an exclusive mini-nuke storage case, complete with audible bomb sound.

Both the picture and your quoted description list Fallout Tactics as included.

[Daehawk]

Doh didn't see it at all either time lol. Maybe it was just the old one I was thinking of. I cant recall what it had but i know it was missing stuff. I dont think it had 76 either but Im not going to bother looking.

[Daehawk]

Space Crew: Legendary Edition is FREE on Steam. i also posted this in the Steam sale thread

EDIT: Ive played a couple of the first missions. They are the tutorial ones. Seems fun so far. I may change my mind down the road when clicking on crew and telling them what to do with more crap going on burns me out. i dont care for extra confusion.

[Daehawk]

I dont know if the rumors are true about them working on a new C&C game or perhaps a redo / remake yet again....but Steam has the 3rd games in the series marked WAY down and their respective DLC as well.

$1.99 each. ill repost this in the steam sales if Is hasn't got it there already and toss a link back in this thread.

[Hipolito]

Doh didn't see it at all either time lol. Maybe it was just the old one I was thinking of. I cant recall what it had but i know it was missing stuff. I dont think it had 76 either but Im not going to bother looking.

Well, it's missing everyone's favorite, the console game Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

[Daehawk]

Have an urge to reinstall Borderlands 2 and play Kreig. I finished 1 & 2 but only online with pubs. It was all rush rush so I never saw the story really. And I barely played Kreig. Thinking he may be fun...maybe not.

Ive tried BL The Pre Sequel a few times and always get stuck on that missio nwhere you go outside an elevator and have to fight the respawning enemies.

[Blackhawk]

Have an urge to reinstall Borderlands 2 and play Kreig. I finished 1 & 2 but only online with pubs. It was all rush rush so I never saw the story really. And I barely played Kreig. Thinking he may be fun...maybe not.

Ive tried BL The Pre Sequel a few times and always get stuck on that missio nwhere you go outside an elevator and have to fight the respawning enemies.

I just finished a (single) playthrough of BL2 as Krieg yesterday. Krieg is awesome. He's one of the best mob-killing characters in the game if you build him right (but will die constantly if you don't.) Just don't plan on having an easy time with him against bosses. When most of his tree is designed around melee, five-story tall bosses with crit points four stories up aren't exactly a cakewalk.

On that topic, my son and I have been on a Borderlands kick lately. It's not the movie that kicked it off - it's the board game that got us both thinking about it again.

We ran a BL1 playthrough together (me as Mordecai, him as Roland) that we just finished a couple of weeks ago. We didn't feel like starting from scratch, so we grabbed a set of pre-made saves that start with the the second playthrough. We played through it all, including DLC, including killing Crawmerax a dozen times or so.

Then we did a double Pre-Sequel playthrough. I was Wilhelm (built for lasers), and he was a sniper Aurelia. It was a very, very effective pairing. Again, we played through it all, including the DLC, and killed the Invincible Sentinel a few times afterward. Unlike the last time I went through it, we actually had a lot of fun with the final DLC boss, too.

Next we started a BL2 run. We're planning on doing all three playthroughs. I started with Krieg, but switched to Salvador for the second and third. We're planning on going after the various raid bosses and doing some farming after the third playthrough, and Krieg isn't all that great at that. Still I had never played him or Sal, so I ran him through the entire thing once, then copied him and used an editor to turn him into a Salvador that I'll be using going forward.

And yeah, we'll be doing BL3 next. I'm planning on playing Zane, the only one of those characters I haven't played.

By the time we're done, I'll have done a playthrough of every game with every character except for Brick from BL1, plus Nisha, Claptrap, and Aurelia from TPS.

[TheMix]

I did a rocket launcher only build with Brick. It was fun. But it didn't hold up well at higher levels. The rocket launchers lag quite a bit behind the other guns.

His melee build is still one of the most fun builds I've played though.

[Blackhawk]

I've played some Brick, just not a full playthrough. Enough to know that I'm not overly fond of his playstyle. The launcher builds can be powerful (although they're still a pain for bosses - for that I had to switch to other explosive weapons - combat rifles, pistols, etc), but they're terrible in cooperative. Anybody else who needs to get close (like an SMG Lilith or a shotgun Roland) can't see - it's just fire everywhere and a constantly shaking screen. Snipers who need to line up shots have trouble with it as well.

Moze explosive builds in BL3 have the same problem - they screw over anyone else who needs to get close.

[Blackhawk]

I do have a few dozen clips I saved from our runs that I'll be editing together into a montage on how... quirky the series can get, especially when physics come into play.

[Daehawk]

I dont have BL3 or Id play that.

I figure I might try to make my Kreig with explosives based and such. So a pretty easy to get health restoring shotgun listed. But if he is hard to play that makes me rethink and maybe not bother.

I always played the turret maker people or Mordecai the sniper. I think i tried claptrap one. its just so intimidating to have many characters to choose from. i always feel like I chose the wrong one when I start having problems with one.

maybe i should wait on a sale of BL3.

[TheMix]

Mordecai was a beast with pistols. I much preferred that to sniping.

If you never tried the Sirens, you've missed out. I found Maya to be the most powerful character I played in BL2. At least for Ultimate Vault Hunter mode. Salvadore was a decent second choice though.