Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[Daehawk]

With all these remasters and even a full Baldur's Gate 3 (no interest due to tb combat but at least its a sequel).....I think its about time we got either a KOTOR I & II remaster or a KOTOR III....or both. Like the Mass Effect series this is one I play repeatedly over the years. But its older and looks it and has its bugs .

[Daehawk]

[dbt1949]

And no X-Com

[Daehawk]

And no X-Com

Thats ok to me.

[Brian]

Somehow, The Meal (Kayla Sus) pulls off a kill right in front of everybody, I call him on it, and everybody ejects my wife.

[Smoove_B]

The ‘Mass Effect’ Trilogy Remaster Might Be Out Sooner Than We Thought

Spring 2021

Your choices. Your squad. Your Shepard. Relive the legend in a remastered edition of the highly acclaimed trilogy. Mass Effect Legendary Edition arrives Spring 2021.

More info on their blog.

[Daehawk]

So EA is saying NO CHRISTMAS FOR YOU!...ok.

[Max Peck]

Probably more like 2020 saying "No Christmas for you!" If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd guess this would have been a holiday release.

[wonderpug]

I wonder what “targeted enhancements for PS5/XBSX” means. It read that as “minor token upgrades” but hopefully it’s more than that.

[Daehawk]

Other than the announcement of the remaster trilogy did you guys see this part?

He also confirms another rumor, saying a "veteran" team is in the early stages of creating a new installment in the space opera series.

BioWare, meanwhile, is still invested in role-playing games. In addition to the much-anticipated Dragon Age 4, which BioWare teased last year, a new Mass Effect game is in very early development at the Edmonton office under director Mike Gamble, a longtime BioWare producer.

I thought Andromeda killed any chance of that happening. TBH if they cant do better than that team then I wish they'd let it stay dead. Andromeda was ok as a space game but as a ME it sucked. And the team was shit. Bioware of today isn't old Bioware. its EA with a bought name. I hope they can do it but I dotn see it. They haven't made a game right in a few tries now. Hell they didn't even get the Baldur's Gate 3 license.

[Max Peck]

Bioware is running a tabletop Mass Effect RPG session on their Twitch channel, with Mark Meer and Jennifer Hale as players.

[Daehawk]

I peeked but that GM just drones on and on and on....yawn.

[Daehawk]

I get the feeling I want to play an MMO again. But I dont want to pay anything. So looking at them all Im either burnt out on them or I know how they suck. I dont see any new stuff and all the old stuff is..uh..old.

[Isgrimnur]

The new stuff is less MMO and more large-pop individual servers. Rust, Conan Exiles, etc. The next big MMO on the docket is New World.

[Daehawk]

The new stuff is less MMO and more large-pop individual servers. Rust, Conan Exiles, etc. The next big MMO on the docket is New World.

I signed up for the beta. Im kinda wondering if it will be cancelled before it releases. Im honestly surprised anyone is trying to do a new big mmo as they all seem to fail out the gate these days.

[Hrothgar]

I get the feeling I want to play an MMO again. But I dont want to pay anything. So looking at them all Im either burnt out on them or I know how they suck. I dont see any new stuff and all the old stuff is..uh..old.

I think I have a Humble Conan Exiles key if you want it Dae.

[Kasey Chang]

Testing "Stable Orbit", and it actually *is* a spinning plate game where you need to balance your need to make money with the station vs. the need to build it up (which costs money). It is, in a certain way, the successor to EOS from way back when (played it on Apple II?)

I'm still trying to figure out what goes where. The tutorial kinda sucks, as if you follow the tutorial you run out of money about 15 steps in and never recovers. The short of it is you only make money by doing orbital research, which means you need "labs", but your default station only has crew of 1, so you need a hab module to get 2 crew. But if you build a lab and hab you don't have money to put up things like radiator, water, oxygen, food, or a resupply dock, solar array, and all the rest of the fun stuff. And you can't wait as your budget is steadily decreasing (ground crew costs, I guess). And you need a "truss" to add more attachment points. So the problem is you need a truss right away, but a LOT of the stuff needs to go onto the truss, rather than the main station body, so picking the right stuff is NOT easy. Putting the wrong item means you can't expand the station any more, due to monetary constraints, and neither does waiting too long.

So I think I need to put in the lab first, then large truss, then slap the radiator and solar on the truss, along with water and oxygen and food and battery. I need 3 crew up here to keep the lab running 24/7, the only way to make money. The trick is keep the oxygen running, as that seems to be the shortest supply when I have a single crew.

Or I can just play in Sandbox mode.

[Daehawk]

I get the feeling I want to play an MMO again. But I dont want to pay anything. So looking at them all Im either burnt out on them or I know how they suck. I dont see any new stuff and all the old stuff is..uh..old.

I think I have a Humble Conan Exiles key if you want it Dae.

Huh...thought I owned this but Steam says its just on my wishlist. I could swear Ive played it a little. Might be confusing it with another Conan game but doubt it.

Anyways thanks but I doubt Id play it enough to justify giving me a key. Id play it a couple weeks off and on is about it. Im not into PVP like I once was and I dont like royal battle stuff or building a lot. And I play more solo now. TF2 pissed me off so much yesterday I deleted it...twice. I left it uninstalled the 2nd time because I feared Id break my cedar chest the pc sits on lol. I was bouncing my soda can up into the air when I smacked the chest lol.

[Rumpy]

I thought Andromeda killed any chance of that happening. TBH if they cant do better than that team then I wish they'd let it stay dead. Andromeda was ok as a space game but as a ME it sucked. And the team was shit. Bioware of today isn't old Bioware. its EA with a bought name. I hope they can do it but I dotn see it. They haven't made a game right in a few tries now. Hell they didn't even get the Baldur's Gate 3 license.

A large part of it though was having to be forced to use an engine they weren't at all familiar with and which wasn't at all suitable for the kind of game they were making, and then not giving them enough support throughout development to make that transition, and under a tight timeline to boot. So, of course the game was going to have tons of problems, and I think Bioware was on the shit end of the stick. If the conditions were more favourable, I still think Bioware could still put out a great game. They were unfortunately hit with terrible conditions and then made to take all the blame.

[Daehawk]

Bioware hired and put some terrible people on that team.

[Blackhawk]

Im not into PVP like I once was and I dont like royal battle stuff or building a lot. And I play more solo now. TF2 pissed me off so much yesterday I deleted it...twice. I left it uninstalled the 2nd time because I feared Id break my cedar chest the pc sits on lol. I was bouncing my soda can up into the air when I smacked the chest lol.

FWIW, there is no PvP if you are playing solo. There are public servers, or you can just host yourself locally with no ne'er-do-wells. But it can be a frustrating game, as the interface isn't always intuitive, it doesn't really tell you how to do much, and it can be difficult.

[coopasonic]

Im not into PVP like I once was and I dont like royal battle stuff or building a lot. And I play more solo now. TF2 pissed me off so much yesterday I deleted it...twice. I left it uninstalled the 2nd time because I feared Id break my cedar chest the pc sits on lol. I was bouncing my soda can up into the air when I smacked the chest lol.

FWIW, there is no PvP if you are playing solo. There are public servers, or you can just host yourself locally with no ne'er-do-wells. But it can be a frustrating game, as the interface isn't always intuitive, it doesn't really tell you how to do much, and it can be difficult.

...and if he doesn't like building, there isn't much value to get out of Conan Exiles.

[Blackhawk]

I agree, and it isn't a good game for someone with a low frustration tolerance, either. But I did want to clear that up, as it is a really good game and I didn't want other people to get turned off on it due to thinking it was PVP only.

[Daehawk]

I touched a little on one of these anniversaries in gaming not long ago but now its the right day. All three of these games came out on Nov 9th...two in 2000 and one in 1998.

20th Anni of Counter Strike 1.0
20th Anni of NOLF
22nd Anni of SIN

Really does make you feel old.

[stimpy]

I agree, and it isn't a good game for someone with a low frustration tolerance, either. But I did want to clear that up, as it is a really good game and I didn't want other people to get turned off on it due to thinking it was PVP only.

I'm glad you added that. I was looking forward to getting Conan from Epic when it was scheduled to be free.
When they pulled it, I looked at other sites but the price was prohibitive.
Hoping for a decent Holiday sale on it.

[Hrothgar]

I agree, and it isn't a good game for someone with a low frustration tolerance, either. But I did want to clear that up, as it is a really good game and I didn't want other people to get turned off on it due to thinking it was PVP only.

I'm glad you added that. I was looking forward to getting Conan from Epic when it was scheduled to be free.
When they pulled it, I looked at other sites but the price was prohibitive.
Hoping for a decent Holiday sale on it.

Since Dae doesn't want it, you're welcome to that key. Drop me a PM.

[stimpy]

Just wanted to add my thanks to Hrothgar for the Conan key.
Very much appreciated.

[Daehawk]

Now go make that glorious schlong.

[Hrothgar]

Now go make that glorious schlong.

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women.

Enjoy.

[Rumpy]

Last month I'd played XIII, and it's a game that despite its age looked really great and scaled up really well. Now the remake is out and oof, it's apparently quite a mess! I had a feeling from the trailer that something about it looked off.

https://kotaku.com/the-xiii-remake-is-n ... 1845637391

[Blackhawk]

Last month I'd played XIII, and it's a game that despite its age looked really great and scaled up really well. Now the remake is out and oof, it's apparently quite a mess! I had a feeling from the trailer that something about it looked off.

https://kotaku.com/the-xiii-remake-is-n ... 1845637391

Wow, they really flubbed that. Did they not understand that this game was meant to look like a comic book? The updated the graphics, but removed the art style.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, they really messed up. I mean, it's cel-shaded in certain aspects, but in the original game, where they couldn't cel-shade, such as textures, they still made those textures fit the theme. The problem this remake has is that unlike say, Borderlands, the characters may be cel-shaded but the environment took more of a realistic approach, which makes the remake feel rather pointless. A thing that the original did so well was the minimalism. Yeah, the environment wasn't super detailed, but then it didn't need to be, as I feel the flatness of the environment helped to suck me into the comic book world. Here in this remake, it's as if they couldn't be bothered to have the environment and art be consistent.

There are some odd misteps with this remake. I understand reusing the orignal recorded dialogue, but they've also gone and used the same audio for the guns.

One of the comments has split screen videos showing the differences between the two. One of the best examples in showing the differences is the bank level as show in this video:

[Paingod]

Feudal Alloy, a side-scrolling platform game where you're a fish controlling a robotic suit. I picked this up over the weekend on my Switch for $3. The gameplay is fair, the controls workable, the theme cute, and the art nice. The world is "open" in so far as you can (and must) pass through areas repeatedly to break open things you had to skip before.

I was enjoying myself until the difficulty spiked out of nowhere. I went from tangling with basic enemies with limited threat (a single attack or limited range) to facing things that hovered over me dropping bombs, had more reach than I did, and dealing with insta-kill fireball turrets. Literally in the span of two or three screens. I felt exactly like that Ron Burgandy meme "Well, that escalated quickly"

It was frustrating enough that I bumped back to Fire Emblem instead. I'm sure I'll pick it up again sometime, but the shift was a slap I wasn't expecting based on how the game had played up to that point.

[Daehawk]

Happy sweet 16th birthday to Half Life 2 released November 16, 2004.

[Sudy]

That's not possible and I ask you not to repeat it.

[Isgrimnur]

I should finish it one of these days.

[hitbyambulance]

Steam was initially released September 12, 2003; 17 years ago. the days of PC game physical media were then numbered

[Sudy]

I should finish it one of these days.

Lol... me too. I've tried a few times. I'm an explorer type gamer who often replays sections to "get it right", and I often lose interest or get distracted before finishing the longer shooters.

Wow... I had forgotten when Steam looked like that. But it all comes back to you. I remember how pissed everyone was when we had to install it. Now here we are, hundreds or thousands of titles in our libraries, and Steam an essential app.

[Blackhawk]

We thought that Steam would be the end of PC gaming. In retrospect, it probably saved it in an era when PC games were being slowly pushed out by the low sales relative to consoles and the high cost of shelf visibility.

[Daehawk]

Now here we are, hundreds or thousands of titles in our libraries, and Steam an essential app.

Or if you're JetFred hundreds of thousands.