What games are you playing now?

[Redglyph]

Did you finish it? I just reached Chapter 3. It's impressive how many things there are to see and find in this game. I thought I had probably found just about everything in the first two chapters, but a quick glance at a walkthough showed I missed quite a bit of stuff.

Do you mean chapter 3 or act 3? I think there are 3 acts, 11 chapters. I'm almost finished, in chapter 9.

There are a lot of things to discover, photos to take, the geocaches, the silly bears and toys, the things to repair... most of which is optional.

And have you noticed those codes laying around? People are still trying to discover their meaning. I admit it's entirely meta and a little OCD, this one should give you an idea how crazy this is. I'm definitely not going down that path.

 

[JDR13]

Do you mean chapter 3 or act 3? I think there are 3 acts, 11 chapters. I'm almost finished, in chapter 9.

There are a lot of things to discover, photos to take, the geocaches, the silly bears and toys, the things to repair... most of which is optional.

And have you noticed those codes laying around? People are still trying to discover their meaning. I admit it's entirely meta and a little OCD, this one should give you an idea how crazy this is. I'm definitely not going down that path.

Chapter 3 I think. I'm in some tunnels after the dam. I guess this game is bigger than I thought.

Those geocaches are well hidden. I found one in chapter 2, but I read somewhere that there are 7 in that chapter, and here I thought I was being thorough.

Definitely some cool easter eggs and humor scattered about.

Spoiler: ……

 

[Redglyph]

Chapter 3 I think. I'm in some tunnels after the dam. I guess this game is bigger than I thought.

Those geocaches are well hidden. I found one in chapter 2, but I read somewhere that there are 7 in that chapter, and here I thought I was being thorough.

Definitely some cool easter eggs and humor scattered about.

Yes, that must be chapter 3, you still have some fun ahead of you. When you get to a water treatment plant in ch 5, take a picture of the screen with the state of the valves before starting anything, you may need it to keep track of things.

Nice Easter eggs! I missed the first one. I kept a few as well, but I'll wait before posting them to avoid spoiling it.

From the Steam achievements, I missed plenty of geocaches, and even pictures in the first act - I didn't know you could take photos of the documents too, I was only looking at defects, cracks, rebars and such.

 

[Carnifex]

I got sucked back on on a part-time basis to the newest TLP server for Everquest two.

What on earth have I gotten myself into, lol!

 

[Couchpotato]

I'm currently playing Interstellar Space - Genesis and CK III with the latest DLC.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I played a little bit of Diablo Immortal on PC, and while it is impressive for a mobile game (and not even that, since some of the encounters are even more impressive and imaginative than Diablo 3 had on offer), I grew bored of hacking and slashing for no apparent purpose. So I quit and uninstalled it.

The other awful thing about it is it's chock full of the free-to-play shit. You're bombarded by random "claim this reward" or "get this pack, since it's at the lowest price". I hear it's also very much pay-to-win towards the end.

It's amazing to think some people will play this as their main grinding game. I'm gonna wait for Diablo 4.

 

[Shagnak]

I played a little bit of Diablo Immortal on PC, and while it is impressive for a mobile game (and not even that, since some of the encounters are even more impressive and imaginative than Diablo 3 had on offer), I grew bored of hacking and slashing for no apparent purpose. So I quit and uninstalled it.

I had no idea this was coming out for PC as well. I'll probably have a look, just to educate myself.

 

[JFarrell71]

I played a little bit of Diablo Immortal on PC, and while it is impressive for a mobile game (and not even that, since some of the encounters are even more impressive and imaginative than Diablo 3 had on offer), I grew bored of hacking and slashing for no apparent purpose. So I quit and uninstalled it.

The other awful thing about it is it's chock full of the free-to-play shit. You're bombarded by random "claim this reward" or "get this pack, since it's at the lowest price". I hear it's also very much pay-to-win towards the end.

It's amazing to think some people will play this as their main grinding game. I'm gonna wait for Diablo 4.

Phone games in general tap into the worst aspects of gaming.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Well, didn't want to start a new thread for this. Seems we keep not getting the games we actually want from PS to PC. Sony just announced that they're bringing Spiderman from PS4 to PC. It's fine, but as always, I was hoping for Last of Us or Bloodborne. I have a feeling that either those are never coming, or they're last in line to be brought over. (cry)

Anyway, Spiderman is also nice, I guess.

 

[wiretripped]

I'm currently playing Interstellar Space - Genesis and CK III with the latest DLC.

How's Interstellar Space, and how does it compare to Stellaris?

 

[Kordanor]

How's Interstellar Space, and how does it compare to Stellaris?

Played both games at release (Stellaris in 2016, Interstellar Space in 2020) so its quite a few patches ago, but I found Stellaris far better. In fact I stopped playing Interstellar Space after just one run of 9 hours or so, as I just felt too tedious. Too much micromanagement where you repeat the same things over and over while not making any impactful decisions.
Might be interesting to see where these games involved to, but if I had to recommend one of the two it would definitely be Stellaris.

 

[Redglyph]

... unless you don't have a QWERTY keyboard. Paradox Interactive has always hard-coded their games for that layout and never provided any help to others. (for all I could judge, their support is abysmal despite their recent update on how they were tracking bugs)

 

[Couchpotato]

How's Interstellar Space, and how does it compare to Stellaris?

Two different games as Interstellar Space Genesis is 4X TB game. Similar to Master of Orion were you manage everything. Yes it can get tedious that the sell of these games.

If you just want to just play emperor look for a game called Stellar Monarch and it's sequel. Also another which should be near release called Alliance of the Sacred Suns.

 

[Kordanor]

Stellaris is also pretty much a 4X game as it changed quite a bit of the usual paradox formular which makes it rather similar to other 4x titles. And also here you fly around with individual ships and explore stuff for example. But (at least when I played it) you were also forced at some point to give up control of additional settlements. You can only manage so many, and after that you have to hand additonal ones to governers. A bit like in Civ. But being forced to that actually makes a big difference which is actually a good one, as in Civ you would never voluntarily do it, unless you wanted your Nation to suck. If you have no choice, it makes it much easier and lets you focus on other things more.

So Stellaris breaks with lots of Paradox Conventions to be more similar to traditional 4x:
-You start with basically nothing (and not with a historic nation)
-You have intricate control about pretty much everything
-You do not have historic events (which can make it more boring / generic feeling)
-You need to fully explore the map yourself
-You dont just play a limited timeframe but have victory conditions

I am not sure yet whether they added more/better victory conditions though.
When I played it, it was basically "kill everything" (or have majority of the map), which on a huge map, was impossible to do in a lifetime.
On a smaller map, thats possible though, as you can see on my Insane Ironman Playthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8JXzNn0shw

 

[Couchpotato]

Correct but it's not TB which matters to some players. Anyway after the launch of the recent DLC Overlord I haven't touched the game as it broke the main game again.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Seems I was really bored, so I played a little more of Diablo Immortal on PC. And I might actually be done with it.

As I said previously, it's pretty impresive for a mobile game, and in certain gameplay areas it's even better than Diablo 3.

Aside from the monetization galore, where you truly feel that even though a lot of the game is free and you don't have to pay, it's so "in your face" that you're constantly pulled out of the immersive experience.

Aside from that, the game also constantly feels like fan-fiction and pandering in terms of the story and world. I mean they actually constantly make use of story points or characters or locations from Diablo 2, so much so that it's getting annoying. You meet Charsi again, and Akhara, and Kashya, you reach the Tree of Innifus, you fight the Priestess, or whatever she was, of the Forgotten Tower. It's constant name-dropping from Diablo 2. Feels very lazy, and I'm not sure why they did this. It's not like the hardcore fans of Diablo 2 are either gonna play it or really enjoy all of this pandering. And the main audience will likely have no idea of any of these references.

It really feels like any respect to the Diablo lore pretty much died with Diablo 2. Diablo 3 took a steaming shit on it. DI seems to be doing an even bigger one. I wonder how Diablo 4 will feel, since that looks a little more like Diablo 2. I hope they take it seriously again. It's not that there was anything exceptional with how D2 handled it, but at least it took itself a little more seriously.

Oh, forgot to mention this. Another thing which makes it hard to enjoy DI as a singleplayer experience is the fact that there is no sp mode. So while you're trying to pay attention to character animations and whatnot, the other players are just fighting demons right beside you while you're in a dialogue sequence. Awful. This is one of the reasons I really hate mmos or multiplayer games where you can't control how much of it you're exposed to. It's constant noise on my screen that has nothing to do with me. It's just messy and obnoxious.

 

[JDR13]

Yes, that must be chapter 3, you still have some fun ahead of you. When you get to a water treatment plant in ch 5, take a picture of the screen with the state of the valves before starting anything, you may need it to keep track of things.

I'm on Chapter 5 now. Is that the last chapter of Act 1? To be honest, it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit for me. I want to at least finish the first act but then I think I'm going to move on to something else.

I didn't care for Chapter 4 much. Stalberg Steel was impressive from a level-design standpoint, but I ran around forever trying to figure out what I needed to do. Earlier there was that dreadful sequence where you had to navigate the underground river on a raft that disintegrated if it touched anything. I probably had to reload at least 20 times there.

I love the atmosphere, but I need more than just puzzles and platforming to hold my interest if a game is going to be 40 hours.

 

[Redglyph]

I'm on Chapter 5 now. Is that the last chapter of Act 1? To be honest, it's starting to feel like it's dragging a bit for me. I want to at least finish the first act but then I think I'm going to move on to something else.

I didn't care for Chapter 4 much. Stalberg Steel was impressive from a level-design standpoint, but I ran around forever trying to figure out what I needed to do. Earlier there was that dreadful sequence where you had to navigate the underground river on a raft that disintegrated if it touched anything. I probably had to reload at least 20 times there.

I love the atmosphere, but I need more than just puzzles and platforming to hold my interest if a game is going to be 40 hours.

Yes, it's the last of act 1, here's the list. I was fine with the pace, but I can understand it may seem long without any combat or story, there's barely any encounter at all.

I checked and I was wrong, the water plant I mentioned is mid chapter 6 (Stalburg Central Waterplant). It's perhaps the most complex of all, you can find some scattered information about what to do before trying anything. Otherwise act 2 shows more progression thankfully, except at the end.

I think end of act 2 / beginning of act 3 were the most tedious for me, a lot of running around a huge facility. If you don't give up now, you may at this point from your feedback. To be honest, if you give up at this point, you'll have seen the best of the game.

 

[JDR13]

I finished Act 1 a little while ago. I ended up enjoying Chapter 5 quite a bit, and it was easily my favorite out of the first 5 chapters.

I think the game is at its best in the smaller to medium size levels. I had fun with the water treatment plant and the hacker's hideout.

I'm probably going to take a break and play something else now, but I plan on coming back to it.

Spoiler: A few more screens

Another Breaking Bad reference. These guys must be big fans.

They apparently liked Game of Thrones too.

I laughed out loud here when he made the standard "I don't think it's meant to be like that." remark.

 

[Redglyph]

Yes, there are a few good references.

I think this one below was taken in Act 2 so it's up to you, though it's not a huge spoiler.

Spoiler: About cinema enthusiasts

They liked Lord of the Rings too.