Tomi on 26/12/2020 at 20:38
I've been playing The Long Dark and Strange Brigade during the holidays.
The Long Dark is something that I've been meaning to play for a long time, but I wanted to wait until the winter season. I started the story mode, and while I dig the atmosphere and how authentic everything feels, I really dislike the UI and the inventory management. Exploring the wilderness is nice, but that's also one of the main flaws of the game in my opinion - TLD is supposed to be a survival game, but so far I've never really felt that I'm in any danger. The nearest cabin or cave is always close enough, there are always plenty of supplies lying around or animals to be hunted, and you can even run away from the wolves. I wonder if the actual survival mode is any better in that regard. The story progresses at a really slow pace, but it's interesting enough so I want to see how it ends.
Strange Brigade is the complete opposite of that. It's simple non-stop action in all sorts of exotic locations. I like the Indiana Jones vibes here but I wish there was much more exploration. Instead, this game's all about fighting hordes of skeletons and mummies, and solving simple puzzles here and there. The action is fun but the guns lack some oomph and the levels lack variety. There's an over-dramatic (in a humorous way) narrator cracking terrible jokes at every opportunity that could easily get on one's nerves, but I find it pretty great. It's nice to play a game for a change that doesn't try to deliver an epic story or take itself too seriously.
Renault on 26/12/2020 at 22:40
Quote Posted by henke
Death's Cold Embrace for Thief 2 - Haven't played Thief 2 in ages but this FM campaign is making me fall in love with it all over. Such a well-written story and lovingly crafted levels by Yandros and the gang. I'm getting close to the end. Anyone got reccs for any other missions or campaigns from recent years I should try out?
Lots of good missions lately, especially with the 2 recent contests. For starters, check out these (all from the last 3 years):
Feast of Pilgrims by Random Taffer/marbleman
Malazar's Inscrutable Tower by nicked
The Sound of a Burrick in a Room by skacky
Lost Among The Forsaken by DrK
The Scarlet Cascabel by Tannar/Pukey Brunster
Rose Garden by Melan
Heart and Soul by Stinky Kitty/McTaffer/Sliptip
Into The Odd by Squadarofl/Schlock
Ascend The Dim Valley by DirkBogan
Home Sweet Home by Lady Rowena
catbarf on 27/12/2020 at 00:28
Quote Posted by DaBeast
I'm pretty sure it was entirely down to bringing multiplayer to console masses.
I think that's selling the original Halo a bit short; the way it integrated melee, grenades, and vehicles into the core gameplay, and used regenerating shields as a resource to maintain offensive tempo, was pretty novel. Looking up reviews from '01 I see as much about the gunplay, enemies, AI, or story as much as the multiplayer. Having replayed it recently, I find it's aged a lot better than AvP2, Red Faction, or Return to Castle Wolfenstein (other 2001 releases).
You're absolutely right about most of its fans nowadays being in it for multiplayer, though, because the sequels have never been as revolutionary as the original. And ever since 343 took the helm from Bungie, the single-player content has been hot trash.
Even Halo 2 I found disappointing- Yakoob's assessment is spot on. Halo 1 had a lot of copy-pasted level segments, but generally good design, and varied the enemy and weapon setups to keep it fresh. Halo 2 has some bad level design painfully stretched by having you sit in place and face waves of enemies, and its mid-game story twist is both unoriginal and weaker than the first game's. I thought Halo 3 is stronger but still not quite as good as the first.
Anyways- currently still playing
Il-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad in VR. I recently built a (
https://i.imgur.com/V5WVSrs.jpg) homemade sim control mount setup out of 80/20 aluminum brackets, allowing me to use a center-stick setup with a 20cm stick extension. Looks janky, but it's stable, can be disassembled so I can pack up the table and revert to roomscale, and in VR it's not like the aesthetics are noticeable. With the game's quality of life support for VR, I'm able to play without needing HUD icons or other game aids; I've just graduated to full realism and am learning the intricacies of managing the Klimov M-105 engine on Soviet aircraft. It's a niche game, but for anyone into combat flight sims it sure delivers.
glslvrfan on 27/12/2020 at 02:05
Got a new pc for Christmas.
Ryzen 5 3600x 8 gb
Geforce RTX 3070
16 gb ram
I haven't been able to play for several years. Last game was Fallout 3. I got NV and pc took a dump soon after.
I'm not sure what I'll start on. I put New Vegas on, I had 15 total hours played thru steam. I could spend the next couple months replaying Oblivion before I even begin to think about something else to be honest, but I'm getting install errors from my hard copy.
Metro Exodus looks like something I'll get. I'd like to actually try 7 days to die. I played that when it first came out, but was so laggy I gave up.
Skyrim is high on the list for the coming year.
I've been getting the better free epic and GoG giveaways.
I have
GTA5
Watchdogs and 2
Hitman
Remnant
Borderlands 2 and Pre sequel
Amnesia
and Just Cause 4.
I am actually still very very active on Pokemon Go truthfully. :)
beginning to lose it fast with the all useless updates recently.
henke on 27/12/2020 at 13:10
Quote Posted by Brethren
Lots of good missions lately, especially with the 2 recent contests. For starters, check out these (all from the last 3 years)
Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check em out! :D
None of these have spiders in em, riiiiiiight? I was about to play Inverted Manse and Calendra's Legacy but then I read that they're quite spidery so no thanks. I did play Heist Society tho, which was good, even tho I took me another half hour and a walkthrough to find that one last key.
Nameless Voice on 27/12/2020 at 13:48
I'll add The Violent End of Dunan Malveine by Nicked to the list of recommended recent fan missions, I played that recently and it was great. (If maybe slightly too big.)
I've been playing Elex, which is... pretty much exactly what I'd expect. Gothic in the post-apocalyptic future. Decent game, though it's not as strong as the Gothics or the first Risen.
It has some rather unusual levelling systems, as you can brew an unlimited number of potions which give you attribute points and learning points (the two things you get from levelling up), so long as you can afford to buy the (somewhat expensive) ingredients, so money remains important throughout the game, as you'll be woefully under-powered if you only go with level-ups.
This also has the somewhat odd side-effect that XP isn't all that important any more, and also a lot of monsters respawn - which is very unusual for a PB game, where the entire XP in the world is always carefully calculated.
Neb on 27/12/2020 at 16:00
Quote Posted by henke
Anyone got reccs for any other missions or campaigns from recent years I should try out?
* Breaking The Stone
* Broken Triad
* The Seven Sisters
* The Black Frog
* CoSaS 2: Mission X
* Deceptive Perceptions
* Deceptive Perceptions 2
* Tales From The Cleft: Vandal
* Tales From the Cleft: Ladytaker
* Exile
* The Korrigans
* Cryptic Realms
* A Better Tomorrow
* Kingsbridge
* Lord Alan's Factory
* Eclipsed
* Rose Cottage
* Morbid Curiosity
* Better Off Dead
* Greyfeather Gems 2: Rodamill
Probably a bunch more that I'm forgetting. Plenty of them aren't recent either.
henke on 27/12/2020 at 16:10
Thanks thanks! Started playing Feast of Pilgrims and I'm digging it. These kinda thieves highway missions are my jam.
Also, on a completely unrelated topic, here's an art of rally powerslidin' montage I made.
[video=youtube;DNH56BL6v0M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNH56BL6v0M[/video]
Nameless Voice on 27/12/2020 at 20:37
Quote Posted by Neb
Plenty of them aren't recent either.
I think FMs from over a decade ago probably don't count as "recent years", but since you're mentioning them, basically anything by Eshaktaar or Lady Rowena is well worth playing.
Tomi on 27/12/2020 at 21:19
henke, that rally video is awesome. :thumb: A couple more big jumps and maybe crashes would have brought it even closer to perfection, I think, but it's still pretty damn good. Thanks!