Vidya Games Thread

[Awoogers]

putting this here in case some of you have fond memories of HoN if ever

Home - Project KONGOR

Play Heroes Of Newerth

kongor.online

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

I have Digimon World on the brain for entirely unrelated reasons, so if you're disappointed that it's been nearly 10 years since the last Digimon World game (not counting Next Order re-releases), Anode Heart is the game for you - which I can now readily recommend since they're done with post-launch updates and are actively working on the TCG side-game and sequel. It will fuel your autism in the same way that Digimon World does, which is where I would normally recommend this sort of game to Kirsche, but she might take issue with the graphics:

 

[Willemshaven]

Following up from my previous post during a sale of the Men of War/GEM engine RTT games, I will be highlighing a few other entries in the series.
___________
The game that started it all: Soldiers: Heroes of World War II. It has quite some hardcore features that you won't find in other games in the series. For instance, inventory management matters a lot as they're tiny and weight is a big factor to take account for. There's also zero protection against friendly fire.
Being a old game, it does have some bugs on modern systems, such as key rebinding not working without manually modifying the options file. It also needs to be run in compatibility mode and might require ReShade to fix graphical glitches.


Next up is Men of War: Red Tide, which is a standalone expansion of the original Men of War. A lot of missions give you control over large armies and sometimes smaller warships or submarines with rocket launchers. The drawbacks are that it has no multiplayer (even for LAN), no mod menu, and no soundtrack outside of the main menus.


And finally, Gates of Hell: Ostfront with all of it's DLC gives you a ton of singleplayer content to play with alongside new quality of life features. As one of the recent entries, it is getting updates for time to come. I advise playing from Normal difficulty at minimum as wave timers in defence missions get longer the easier the difficulty is set to. The game and it's DLC are also expensive,

Save 59% on Call to Arms - WW2 on Steam

store.steampowered.com

 

[UberSoldat]

Civvie plays Max Payne

 

[John Vtuber👁️]

check in on your autistic loved ones (but mostly Jerry), because these next few months are going to be torture for them as they wait

Factorio: Space Age, the game's first expansion is coming October 21st, $35 - so expect another round of people complaining that the developers are greedy, despite the millions of people that can vouch the game ruins their lives and should actually be priced higher for the amount and quality of content given:



Satisfactory 1.0 releasing on September 10th, 2024, which means mod development can soon truly begin, hopefully they fix performance issues and motion-sickness:



it would be a shame if any other factory games on the market completely missed the mark entirely while the behemoths keep chugging - but that's a post for another day, it would take a bit of time to put together that I would rather spend more on MSPaint collectible creatures and horrors right now. I'll make note of it though!

 

[MrProcessor]

Civvie plays Max Payne

Anyone else have this for Gameboy Advance?

 

[El Rrata]

There should be a pause feature for every video game that isn't multiplayer only, I thought we agreed on this decades ago. Forget being a woman with kids, there's a million reasons one might have to get up and do something mid-gaming. You're telling me if I have to take out the trash, I need to turn off Elden Ring or quit to the main menu? Are they retarded?

A lot of game design decisions in FromSoft games probably come down to laziness, if I had to guess. They could add the menu-pausing in the game and have the menu no longer pause when you opt-in the multiplayer. I assume that is the same reason they never changed how multiplayer works since Demon's Souls, despite people wanting it to change to something more seamless for a while now.

 

[Audi Vide Tace]

A lot of game design decisions in FromSoft games probably come down to laziness, if I had to guess. They could add the menu-pausing in the game and have the menu no longer pause when you opt-in the multiplayer. I assume that is the same reason they never changed how multiplayer works since Demon's Souls, despite people wanting it to change to something more seamless for a while now.

The lack of a few UI features was a stylistic feature, by a great artisan, or so I have been told. Now if you excuse me, I will now need to consult my IRL notebook for quests since there is no way to log or write things down in game

 

[UberSoldat]

A lot of game design decisions in FromSoft games probably come down to laziness, if I had to guess. They could add the menu-pausing in the game and have the menu no longer pause when you opt-in the multiplayer. I assume that is the same reason they never changed how multiplayer works since Demon's Souls, despite people wanting it to change to something more seamless for a while now.

Strange considering Sekiro let's you pause

 

[El Rrata]

Strange considering Sekiro let's you pause

I assume because it is more complicated to have it swap between the menu not pausing and it pausing. You also wouldn't want the menu cutting to another screen in ER/Souls games like it does in Sekiro, so they would have to develop a system for the rendered gameplay to be paused, too.

Edit:

The lack of a few UI features was a stylistic feature, by a great artisan, or so I have been told. Now if you excuse me, I will now need to consult my IRL notebook for quests since there is no way to log or write things down in game

Funny you mention this and now a streamer I watch is replaying ER right now and I look over to see him looking at a whole fucking flowchart for ER's progression.

 

[Zizara]

A lot of game design decisions in FromSoft games probably come down to laziness, if I had to guess. They could add the menu-pausing in the game and have the menu no longer pause when you opt-in the multiplayer. I assume that is the same reason they never changed how multiplayer works since Demon's Souls, despite people wanting it to change to something more seamless for a while now.

I have wondered how much of Fromsoft's success was just coincidental messing around during the Demon-DS1 era, and that they don't really understand why certain mechanics took off and have just been randomly messing with the details since. It's not that uncommon with Japanese developers honestly (and isn't it curious how many "defining" characteristics of the Souls series have never actually been seen again in their pure state outside of DS1?)
Take invasions, for example. Who are they even for these days? What purpose do they serve? With my replay of Elden Ring I've been summoning to run through each dungeon because why not, I'm on my nth playthrough and it helps other people get rune arcs, and there's a decent chance each time I'll get invaded. The poor invader always gets absolutely fucking destroyed because why wouldn't they? It's the expected result when you're going in with limited resources vs a host and 1-2 phantoms (which can massively outlevel you thanks to weird scaling). Technically there are blues to consider too who would tip the scales even further in the hosts benefit, though I say "technically" because blues are cryptids who haven't had a confirmed sighting since like DS2.
And every time these invasions play out I think to myself "what was the point of that?" It wasn't enjoyable for me. It certainly wasn't enjoyable for the stomped invader. Why is the mechanic even in the game if this is how far From are going to push things because they don't seem to actually want it to be relevant anymore? It's just a pointless exercise in frustration for everyone involved because if you do want to "win" as an invader, basically the only way to do so is to pick a level range and twink the hell out of it. You minmax hardcore to the point you can expect to 1shot the average host within your range (or near enough) and go for the cheapest kills possible. It's why the pvp meta is so desparately sweaty because you need to do these things to even pretend you're on an even playing field. Which again it isn't fun to kill people like that as an invader and it's no fun to be the host who got sniped out of nowhere either. Invasions are a total legacy mechanic they don't seem to have any idea how to handle properly, but refuse to get rid of either.

 

[Superduper Samurai]

I have wondered how much of Fromsoft's success was just coincidental messing around during the Demon-DS1 era, and that they don't really understand why certain mechanics took off and have just been randomly messing with the details since. It's not that uncommon with Japanese developers honestly (and isn't it curious how many "defining" characteristics of the Souls series have never actually been seen again in their pure state outside of DS1?)
Take invasions, for example. Who are they even for these days? What purpose do they serve? With my replay of Elden Ring I've been summoning to run through each dungeon because why not, I'm on my nth playthrough and it helps other people get rune arcs, and there's a decent chance each time I'll get invaded. The poor invader always gets absolutely fucking destroyed because why wouldn't they? It's the expected result when you're going in with limited resources vs a host and 1-2 phantoms (which can massively outlevel you thanks to weird scaling). Technically there are blues to consider too who would tip the scales even further in the hosts benefit, though I say "technically" because blues are cryptids who haven't had a confirmed sighting since like DS2.
And every time these invasions play out I think to myself "what was the point of that?" It wasn't enjoyable for me. It certainly wasn't enjoyable for the stomped invader. Why is the mechanic even in the game if this is how far From are going to push things because they don't seem to actually want it to be relevant anymore? It's just a pointless exercise in frustration for everyone involved because if you do want to "win" as an invader, basically the only way to do so is to pick a level range and twink the hell out of it. You minmax hardcore to the point you can expect to 1shot the average host within your range (or near enough) and go for the cheapest kills possible. It's why the pvp meta is so desparately sweaty because you need to do these things to even pretend you're on an even playing field. Which again it isn't fun to kill people like that as an invader and it's no fun to be the host who got sniped out of nowhere either. Invasions are a total legacy mechanic they don't seem to have any idea how to handle properly, but refuse to get rid of either.

From pvp is crack to autists who do nothing but complain about it
Demon Souls had the best justifcation to it kinda and all the others were tacked on just to have it, but besides 2's it was one of the most jankiest and unbalanced affairs that i have no idea how people have fun with it besides sunk cost

Armored Core 6 by virtue of also having souls autists got figured out and soured to fuck real quick by the current year reddit-mindset

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

I have wondered how much of Fromsoft's success was just coincidental messing around during the Demon-DS1 era, and that they don't really understand why certain mechanics took off and have just been randomly messing with the details since. It's not that uncommon with Japanese developers honestly (and isn't it curious how many "defining" characteristics of the Souls series have never actually been seen again in their pure state outside of DS1?)
Take invasions, for example. Who are they even for these days? What purpose do they serve? With my replay of Elden Ring I've been summoning to run through each dungeon because why not, I'm on my nth playthrough and it helps other people get rune arcs, and there's a decent chance each time I'll get invaded. The poor invader always gets absolutely fucking destroyed because why wouldn't they? It's the expected result when you're going in with limited resources vs a host and 1-2 phantoms (which can massively outlevel you thanks to weird scaling). Technically there are blues to consider too who would tip the scales even further in the hosts benefit, though I say "technically" because blues are cryptids who haven't had a confirmed sighting since like DS2.
And every time these invasions play out I think to myself "what was the point of that?" It wasn't enjoyable for me. It certainly wasn't enjoyable for the stomped invader. Why is the mechanic even in the game if this is how far From are going to push things because they don't seem to actually want it to be relevant anymore? It's just a pointless exercise in frustration for everyone involved because if you do want to "win" as an invader, basically the only way to do so is to pick a level range and twink the hell out of it. You minmax hardcore to the point you can expect to 1shot the average host within your range (or near enough) and go for the cheapest kills possible. It's why the pvp meta is so desparately sweaty because you need to do these things to even pretend you're on an even playing field. Which again it isn't fun to kill people like that as an invader and it's no fun to be the host who got sniped out of nowhere either. Invasions are a total legacy mechanic they don't seem to have any idea how to handle properly, but refuse to get rid of either.

For the longest time, I always thought the worst pvp fanatics were WoW pvp junkies because they flipped out about a primarily PvE game not catering entirely to their PvP minigame. With the release of the DLC, I've been getting recommended a lot of the turbo fromsoft fan channels on youtube and the Fromsoft pvp sweatlords are on an entirely different level of cringe.

There's just a lot going on in Elden Ring that's clearly imperfect or legacy designs but Fromsoft fanatics lose their shit if you have any critique of their game.

 

[El Rrata]

Dark Souls 2 had the pinnacle of Souls PVP and they made it worse with every patch. From just has no idea what they are doing with the multiplayer in their games. Invasions and covenants being utterly pointless in ER just nails home that fact. The best part of DS2 was how interesting the covenants were and both DS3 and ER failed to expand on the idea.

 

[Abomination]

Bought some game during the first day of the Steam sale. The main ones I've been playing from it:

Coincidentally to the discussions, I picked up Elden Ring and have been playing it. I'm not too far in yet, though I have about 27 hours in it already, so take anything I say as a person ignorant of what's to come. I've been having a lot of fun with the exploration and some of the new mechanics (horse, sneaking, non-retarded jumping, etc). However, one thing I've noticed is that out of all the bosses I've come across (not a high percentage compared to the total number), there's only been one or two that I can say I actually had fun fighting. Margit was fun, and Rennala was kind of fun. Pretty much any other boss was forgettable, boring, annoying, or at best, just okay. I know there's probably much better bosses later on and this is likely due to there being so many bosses in an open world game, but it's hard to not look back as DS 1-3 and see how many fun bosses there were in them, including in the early game. I'm sure this opinion will change as I progress more, but after fighting more bosses than most of the Souls games have in total, it's something I noticed. I'm also still struggling a bit with the combat, as it feels super fast a lot of the time. Sometimes, I feel that, even though I'm using fast daggers, I have very little time to dodge attacks, get attacks in myself, then start dodging again without getting smacked for half or more of my health. But, this one is my own problem, and I just need to get used to the flow of things.

For the most part, I'm definitely enjoying the game, though, and I know it'll get better moving forward.

Another game I picked up, have been playing, and have been really enjoying is Songs of Conquest. I've never played HoMM3, so I can't compare them together, but I've been having a lot of fun with this one. Still have a lot to learn and get better with, but it's been great to learn. The gameplay is very fun, and the artwork is nice looking. Definitely one that's going in my rotation of strategy games.

I picked up some others, but these are the main two I picked up and have been playing. The rest aren't anything too interesting, or I haven't played yet.

 

[God's Strongest Dragoon]

I'm also still struggling a bit with the combat, as it feels super fast a lot of the time. Sometimes, I feel that, even though I'm using fast daggers, I have very little time to dodge attacks, get attacks in myself, then start dodging again without getting smacked for half or more of my health. But, this one is my own problem, and I just need to get used to the flow of things.

There's a lot of ER bosses that are hyper aggressive with long attack combos. The common complaint is that these bosses would be fine in something like Sekiro or Bloodborne but not in a Souls game. This has become a big issue in the DLC with a lot of the bosses having long as fuck combos with very small windows to attack.

Leyndell is definitely the crown jewel of the game but there's a noticeable quality dropoff as you go to the next zone, especially since that's where the game makes a sudden jump to endgame scaling.

 

[MrProcessor]

Bought some game during the first day of the Steam sale. The main ones I've been playing from it:

Coincidentally to the discussions, I picked up Elden Ring and have been playing it. I'm not too far in yet, though I have about 27 hours in it already, so take anything I say as a person ignorant of what's to come. I've been having a lot of fun with the exploration and some of the new mechanics (horse, sneaking, non-retarded jumping, etc). However, one thing I've noticed is that out of all the bosses I've come across (not a high percentage compared to the total number), there's only been one or two that I can say I actually had fun fighting. Margit was fun, and Rennala was kind of fun. Pretty much any other boss was forgettable, boring, annoying, or at best, just okay. I know there's probably much better bosses later on and this is likely due to there being so many bosses in an open world game, but it's hard to not look back as DS 1-3 and see how many fun bosses there were in them, including in the early game. I'm sure this opinion will change as I progress more, but after fighting more bosses than most of the Souls games have in total, it's something I noticed. I'm also still struggling a bit with the combat, as it feels super fast a lot of the time. Sometimes, I feel that, even though I'm using fast daggers, I have very little time to dodge attacks, get attacks in myself, then start dodging again without getting smacked for half or more of my health. But, this one is my own problem, and I just need to get used to the flow of things.

For the most part, I'm definitely enjoying the game, though, and I know it'll get better moving forward.

Another game I picked up, have been playing, and have been really enjoying is Songs of Conquest. I've never played HoMM3, so I can't compare them together, but I've been having a lot of fun with this one. Still have a lot to learn and get better with, but it's been great to learn. The gameplay is very fun, and the artwork is nice looking. Definitely one that's going in my rotation of strategy games.

I picked up some others, but these are the main two I picked up and have been playing. The rest aren't anything too interesting, or I haven't played yet.

I found that hunting for ashes really help makes some of the more annoying boss fights better. Usually an ash that does stagger if all else fails, like Flame of the Redmanes or Spectral Lance. Of course, I always use magic and summons even if some people have disdain for those things. One day I'll do a pure melee build, but I haven't gotten bored with magic yet. I actually managed to kill one of those yellow eyeball guys with parry and got a nice talisman for my trouble.

 

[agility_]

I'm going to venture, if you are on you "*nth run" of whatever dungeon in Elden Ring, or just replaying the inner boss variants in Sekiro over and over, or whatever equivalent there is in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, then fromsoftware must be doing something right since you cannot stop playing their offerings.
It sure strikes me as humorous when youtube recommends the 87th video essay on which bosses are better, worse, more fun, boring, and the guy presenting it declares to have played "well over a thosand hours" of the thing.

 

[Stunned But Dumb]

Dark Souls 2 had the pinnacle of Souls PVP and they made it worse with every patch. From just has no idea what they are doing with the multiplayer in their games. Invasions and covenants being utterly pointless in ER just nails home that fact. The best part of DS2 was how interesting the covenants were and both DS3 and ER failed to expand on the idea.

I'm liking this because it's so rare for me to find people saying nice things about DS2

 

[Zizara]

I'm going to venture, if you are on you "*nth run" of whatever dungeon in Elden Ring, or just replaying the inner boss variants in Sekiro over and over, or whatever equivalent there is in Dark Souls and Bloodborne, then fromsoftware must be doing something right since you cannot stop playing their offerings.
It sure strikes me as humorous when youtube recommends the 87th video essay on which bosses are better, worse, more fun, boring, and the guy presenting it declares to have played "well over a thosand hours" of the thing.

No-one's saying that the games aren't enjoyable, obviously they are, but that doesn't mean they don't come with obvious flaws and sticking points in the design that could be improved and learned from - and often, annoyingly with a decade and a half of hindsight, just aren't. Going all the way back to DS1 where Fromsoft decided to design Lost Izalith using the copy-paste tool or the camera tech that's by this point falling apart trying to keep up with the speed, agility, and scale their boss design has evolved into.