Octopus Overlords

Max Peck wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 12:01 pm I stayed up until midnight to install it, but I'm not allowed to play today until all my chores are squared away. Well, most of the chores. At least one of the chores...

Rules you set for yourself are the hardest to follow

Max Peck wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 12:01 pm I stayed up until midnight to install it, but I'm not allowed to play today until all my chores are squared away. Well, most of the chores. At least one of the chores...

It sounds like thinking about the chores has been quite a chore. Seems to me that you're good to go.

Welp, we're off to a great start. Good job, Epic!



And, of course, the links to the Epic support information land on a 404 error. Because of course they do.

Enjoy your Epic Exclusive (tm) experience.

The first try at launching the game I got that Epic error, then what appears to be the anti-tamper utility failed and the game failed to launch.

On the second try, the Epic fail repeats, the anti-tamper fail didn't repeat and the game launched.

On subsequent launches the Epic fail continues to repeat but at least the game seems to launch.

Tough but clumsy seems like a good fit with my gaming skills...

It doesn't matter whether it's merely a pandemic or a full-on zombie apocalypse. Amazon keeps on delivering.

I was able to get in a good 5 hours or so, and so far I'm liking it. The story is good, albeit with plenty of stereotypical California caricatures. The fights started out easy but are getting more and more challenging, some requiring environmental effects to complete successfully. It's pretty much more of the same style as the first, and if you liked that you will probably like this one.

I'm not simply immune. I'm a vampire!

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 9:34 pm Enjoy your Epic Exclusive (tm) experience.

My best guess is that it's failing to install because Epic Online Services is already installed (I can see it in the task manager, and it seems to be used by the Epic launcher itself). It's stupid that the installation fails in such a janky manner, with a meaningless error code and links to nonexistent support pages, but at least the game itself seems unaffected.

Managed to avoid some spoilers but the story seems more robust this time around.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 8:56 am

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 9:34 pm Enjoy your Epic Exclusive (tm) experience.

My best guess is that it's failing to install because Epic Online Services is already installed (I can see it in the task manager, and it seems to be used by the Epic launcher itself). It's stupid that the installation fails in such a janky manner, with a meaningless error code and links to nonexistent support pages, but at least the game itself seems unaffected.

I think you just wanted to type "Epic fail" several times without even winking at what you did there.

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:12 am Managed to avoid some spoilers but the story seems more robust this time around.

Spoilers in a zombie shooter?

There are zombies? Man, spoilers!

Who could have guessed that a game could have a linear story, with plot points that can be spoiled, and also have zombies...

This is my new best friend. A well-timed heavy attack to the head is shockingly effective with this bad boy.

stimpy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:15 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:07 pm There are plenty of great open world zombie games. I am a big open world fan with no sign of open world fatigue. Still, I am interested to see what a tighter, more directed narrative can do with the genre.

I guess I should clarify that as long as it's not on rails, I'm fine with it.

They said it wasn't an open world game, but it's pretty damn open. I've played 8 hours and I'm enjoying it. The story isn't going to win any awards, but it serves its purpose.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 12:23 pm Who could have guessed that a game could have a linear story, with plot points that can be spoiled, and also have zombies...

‘Also’ have zombies? Lol. It’s an unabashed zombie shooter, not The Longest Journey with a few z’s sprinkled in for color and the occasional jump scare.

It was a joke.

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 11:36 am

GreenGoo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 22, 2023 10:12 am Managed to avoid some spoilers but the story seems more robust this time around.

Spoilers in a zombie shooter?

It's a zombie rpg. Presumably. Like the first one.

Is Dying Light a zombie shooter too?

FYI, Twitch has a giveaway for Dead Island 2. Go to the appropriate section here, find a channel that's participating, watch for 20 minutes, and then claim the item. I do this regularly for games I play (or plan to play), and have gotten a ton of extra content over the years.

also got this for free with my recent Radeon GPU purchase, so i will have to try this

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 11:54 am FYI, Twitch has a giveaway for Dead Island 2. Go to the appropriate section here, find a channel that's participating, watch for 20 minutes, and then claim the item. I do this regularly for games I play (or plan to play), and have gotten a ton of extra content over the years.

Ugh. They want me to sign up for an account on PROS, whatever that is. I don't think I want a weapon skin that badly.

Max Peck wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 1:01 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 11:54 am FYI, Twitch has a giveaway for Dead Island 2. Go to the appropriate section here, find a channel that's participating, watch for 20 minutes, and then claim the item. I do this regularly for games I play (or plan to play), and have gotten a ton of extra content over the years.

Ugh. They want me to sign up for an account on PROS, whatever that is. I don't think I want a weapon skin that badly.

I've never actually seen a drop ask for a third party service before. Often you link your account with the game company to Twitch (IE - Battle.net for WoW drops, your ESO account for ESO drops), but I've never seen them do this before.

I played the first Dead Island a couple of times and DI is one of those rare games that triggers nausea for me.
It's generally mild and usually goes away pretty quickly which is why I managed to play through and even complete it.
Not sure if it was a POV issue or framerate issue, or whatever but it definitely made me woogy.

Dead Island 2 is another matter. I managed to watch about 10 minutes of a play video (Outside XBox) and I was ready to toss cookies. I had to lay down for about an hour for the feeling to clear.
Not sure if this was a one time thing but I'd say my chances of playing this game are pretty slim.

Brian wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 2:13 pm I played the first Dead Island a couple of times and DI is one of those rare games that triggers nausea for me.

Ok, that was why we stopped playing. We were discussing it the other day and couldn't recall why we quit.

Dead Island does have a default narrow FOV, and it was extremely limited in how much you could increase it (increase it to normal levels and it would increase recoil on guns dramatically.) One thing that also stood out is that it had one of the most jerky, swingy first person melee cameras I've ever seen in a game. As I've said before, the game had a lot of things going for it, but it was an awful PC port.

I'm lucky in that I've never gotten nausea from games, but Dead Island seems like a game that would cause it if anything would.

Head-bob in first person games used to trigger nausea for me. It hasn't been a problem for a long time now, but I don't know whether that's because I've gotten used to it or because developers have learned to tone it down. Probably a little from column A and a little from column B.

Yes, the original was unplayable for me until they released some tool that let you modify the .ini (or whatever) to change head bobbing and the FOV. It was legitimately 20-30 minutes of playing (tops) before I was gripping the side of my desk and ready to hurl. Once they let people change those settings, I was able to enjoy the hell out of the original.

I'll check for DI2 to see if there are issues with the sick tummy club before I make a purchase, that's a given.

It didn't upset my tummy, in fact in some cases the way the flesh and muscle rips off the faces and bodies kind of makes me hungry.

Of course I have never gotten motion sickness of any kind so I am probably not a good barometer. Also, see my profile pic, gore doesn't bother me much.

I’m playing on the PS5 and can confirm that there are zombies. Can also confirm that I was feeling a bit nauseous when I first started but I bumped up the FOV slider to 95 (out of 100) and it’s much better for me. I don’t usually run into the nausea problem but at least it was fixable in my case. Now back to the hacking and thwacking!

If you're not a fan of of the aim-assist in Dead Island, you'll probably eventually find yourself cursing at Dead Island 2 on occasion. I've been finding that in cases where there are a lot of potential targets in more or less the same line of sight, the game will sometimes snap the aim point to different target than what I was intending to shoot. For example, at the Venice Beach PD it has an annoying tendency to snap to the exposed battery in one of the police cars instead of the zombie I intend to snipe, possibly because the zombies are behind the car. I should note that this has only been the case when using firearms when initially aiming (iron sights, or especially the scoped sporting rifles), and doesn't seem to affect firing from the hip at all.

The good news is that there is an aim assist sensitivity option this time around. It can be adjusted in the range 0-3 (default 1), so I assume that 0 switches it off completely. I haven't played with the setting yet because it has only been getting in the way a few times, and for the most part the default setting has been fine and not intrusive.

I haven't really felt aim assist, but I am generally only using rifles when I am 1:1 with a crusher or slobber and then use shotguns if I am getting overwhelmed and *spoiler* is not ready.

I hope so - I really wanted to like DI, but the lazy port really turned me off, and as someone who was primarily a shooter player for decades and spent years working on precision and control, having something take that control away feels awful. I'm hoping that DI2 either addressed much of that or will patch it.

I wouldn't even know that aim assist even existed in the game if it wasn't kicking in under very specific circumstances. I'm not sure I'd notice it at all if not for the zoomed in view of the scoped rifles exaggerating the degree to which the aim point is moving when initially bringing up the iron sights/scope.

I will add that, so far, guns are very much optional. No idea how far I am story-wise. There is one category of cards I still haven't gotten so there appears to be some runway left.

Yeah, as in the previous games in the series, you start out with only melee weapons and firearms are introduced as you progress. They're useful, and fun, but the real heart of the game is the melee combat. Shooting a crusher (equivalent to a thug in the OG games) is all well and good, but nowhere near as satisfying as punching it into the ground with brass knuckles or slicing it apart with an electrified katana.

And nothing is better than wading into a mob of zombies with your trusty tricked out bo-staff.

Have they communicated if it's a 6 or 12 month Epic exclusive at this point?

I believe it's 12 months but I can't swear to that under oath. The game is actually a lot better than I expected, given its troubled development history, so I'm glad I didn't wait for it to arrive on Steam.

Even if I still have to cancel that stupid Epic Network Services installation pop-up every time I launch the game.