What games are you playing now?

ESO pretty solidly for the last 6 months, there's a lot of stuff to do. Got Noita in the sale, it's pretty good, fills the hole left when I stopped playing Spelunky.
 
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Still continuing with MH: Rise.

Fashion hunting has been pretty decent but the actual hunts were not so entertaining.

We fought Magnamalo, the flagship monster of Rise - it was basically Zinorgre glowing in purple on crack. It just bounces about everywhere spreading hellfire blight - not very interesting.

Ibushi & Narwa were even worse - they are basically "Asian" dragon who's mostly floating in the air, upside down. The fight forces you to use wirebug to get on to floating rocks to dodge attacks and use siege weapons.

Then we finally encountered 1 monster that was interesting - Chameleos. It was actually fun fight, the only one I enjoyed so far in Rise (although, I'm not a fan of its looks).

Next up is Kushala Daora (I hate this thing) then Teostra - after this, HR cap is completely removed. Hubby wants to fight Crimson Glow Valstrax which unlocks at HR100 - it sounded daunting but we've been getting 1 HR rank per mission so may not take that long after all.
 
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Fallout has never been realistic. I don't see how being able to upgrade laser weapons is any stranger than food items still laying around almost 100 years after the war or the 1930's style gangsters in FO2. You have to throw normal logic out the window with this series.

I hear you but I was specifically referring to being consistent with Fallout lore and also the VD being the one to do it. S/he has been frozen for 200 years and immediately gets down to building entire settlements and redesigning energy weapons despite his/her background being a former soldier. All I am saying is I would of preferred if instead of workbenches all over the place you could take your weapon to someone and they upgraded it for you like Fallout 2.

Fallout 1/2 established the lore. Sequels should be consistent with that lore (and systems) or evolve it in a way that makes sense.

Couchpotato said:
Check the sub-foum for mods I shared for settlement building & expansions.

Thanks for the links Couch but I was hoping to keep it vanilla as I have heard that achievements are disabled if you use mods.
 
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FO3 suffers from all the same things except the settlement building obviously since it doesn't have it. Overall, I thought FO4 was on par or a little better than FO3 in most ways.

I don't hate Fallout 4 by any means, but Fallout 3 had much better quests. Fallout 4 is combat, combat, and more combat. Almost any location that looks remotely interesting just ends up being more combat.
 
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I don't think I immediately recall a Fallout game that didn't focus on violent conflict :)

That said, I do think the original Fallout had pretty good writing for its time - and Fallout 2 as well (even if there was a lot of silly shit in that one).

Bethsoft never really did good writing as far as I'm concerned, though I think there are exceptions, most notably the Dark Brotherhood stuff in Oblivion and a few others.

Fallout 4 was a MUCH better shooter than Fallout 3, in my opinion - and the character progression was vastly improved by the ridiculous amount of perks and build diversity that followed.

That said, the writing might actually have been worse than Fallout 3, which is saying something - and the voiced protagonist is one of the few examples that give me pause in my opinion about preferring that approach.

I don't understand the whole buggy mess complaints, however - but then again, I never found Bethsoft games THAT buggy considering their scope and ambition. Of course, almost no other games have that kind of scope and ambition - so I guess the expectation of a clean experience might make more sense.

Fallout 4, for me, is significantly more stable and polished than anything they've put out since Arena.

But, to each his own.
 
Fallout 4, for me, is significantly more stable and polished than anything they've put out since Arena.

But, to each his own.

Do you play on a Nvidia 30X0 or a AMD 6X00 and Windows 10?

Also, please share a screenshot of your settlement in Vanilla with dwellings sitting flush on the ground, that aren't on a concrete plot in Sanctuary.
 
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I think literally everything about Fallout Four was far worse than the previous games, save for maybe how indepth the characters could get. It's the only one I've never replayed, and I doubt that will ever change.
 
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I found FO4 alright. Didn't finish it though, since the base building, which is pretty bad, took a lot of time and I got bored of the entire game before the quest chain even took me very far. Maybe I will finish it evwntually.
 
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I think literally everything about Fallout Four was far worse than the previous games, save for maybe how indepth the characters could get. It's the only one I've never replayed, and I doubt that will ever change.

Honestly, I felt going back to FO3 after playing to FO4 was near impossible. The graphics and the interface of the 4 are much superior. Areas actually feel realistic unlike the ghost towns of Fallout 3-NV.

Personally, I didn't care much about building a settlement. It was near useless except as a stable place where you could find workshops / shops easily.

Fallout 4 is all about exploring the map. I had a blast of fun doing so until I eventually grew bored. Quests aren't all good, certainly, but some can be pretty fun. But yeah, it's not a game you play for the writing.
 
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I hear you but I was specifically referring to being consistent with Fallout lore and also the VD being the one to do it. S/he has been frozen for 200 years and immediately gets down to building entire settlements and redesigning energy weapons despite his/her background being a former soldier. All I am saying is I would of preferred if instead of workbenches all over the place you could take your weapon to someone and they upgraded it for you like Fallout 2.

Fallout 1/2 established the lore. Sequels should be consistent with that lore (and systems) or evolve it in a way that makes sense.

I guess I'm not seeing how that's such a big deal in terms of lore. Is it established canon that the Sole Survivor doesn't know enough about weapons to upgrade them? Considering how much illogical stuff is in Fallout to begin with, that seems like splitting hairs.

I don't hate Fallout 4 by any means, but Fallout 3 had much better quests. Fallout 4 is combat, combat, and more combat. Almost any location that looks remotely interesting just ends up being more combat.

I think you have some rose-tinted memories of FO3. When I think of quests in FO3, I think of how completely absurd the writing was. Like the quest with the goth vampire wannabes or the one with the two comic-book style super villains. It was almost like Bethesda made a concerted effort to be ridiculous even by Fallout standards. FO4 wasn't really better, but I don't see how it was worse.
 
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I think you have some rose-tinted memories of FO3. When I think of quests in FO3, I think of how completely absurd the writing was. Like the quest with the goth vampire wannabes or the one with the two comic-book style super villains. It was almost like Bethesda made a concerted effort to be ridiculous even by Fallout standards. FO4 wasn't really better, but I don't see how it was worse.

My memories aren't rose-tinted, but we apparently have a very different definition of "good". I don't care about the silliness. Fallout has always been silly. Both those quests you reference, and most of the rest of the quests in the game, are individually memorable, whatever you think about their tone. When you found a new place in Fallout 3, you could never be sure of what you'd find or what you'd be doing there. You can in Fallout 4, though: shoot Supermutants or gang members.

The combat in Fallout 4 is the best combat a Bethesda game has had, but I don't play those games for their combat. I needed less fighting, more everything else.
 
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My memories aren't rose-tinted, but we apparently have a very different definition of "good". I don't care about the silliness. Fallout has always been silly. Both those quests you reference, and most of the rest of the quests in the game, are individually memorable, whatever you think about their tone. When you found a new place in Fallout 3, you could never be sure of what you'd find or what you'd be doing there. You can in Fallout 4, though: shoot Supermutants or gang members.

The combat in Fallout 4 is the best combat a Bethesda game has had, but I don't play those games for their combat. I needed less fighting, more everything else.

Yes, Fallout has always been silly, but there's a fine line between silly and just outright dumb writing.

I'm glad you found those things memorable though. :thumbsup:
 
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I'm playing BG2:EE after finishing BG1 and siege of dragonspear. About 40-50h into the game. I finished all quests available (except watcher's keep) in chapter 2 and am really overpowered for the underdark. I have to say I enjoy the underdark a lot more now, since I read a lot of drizzt books a year or two back.

I'm enjoying the game a lot. It was long enough ago I played it, that a lot of the content is at least somewhat fresh. Some parts I had no recollection of (like the sahuagin part).

Im really enjoying the complexity of all skills, spells and abilities. It's rife for cheesing if one wants (and sometimes I do that...) but legitimate strategies are fun to explore as well.

Some parts I don't like, like the lack of in game information. I have the manual somewhere, but modern games make it a lot more obvious what one point more in an attribute does.

I'm looking forward to see what comes next in the game and especially Throne of Bhaal, since I never actually finished the last fight in the game.
 
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Do you play on a Nvidia 30X0 or a AMD 6X00 and Windows 10?

Also, please share a screenshot of your settlement in Vanilla with dwellings sitting flush on the ground, that aren't on a concrete plot in Sanctuary.

I've played it on a variety of setups, including this one (3080, 5950x, 64gb and W11). You do need mods for modern hardware, though. Especially if you plan to play with more than 60 FPS.

I recommend: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/44798

That said, I never found the whole settlement mini-game very interesting - so I only ever built the bare minimum stuff.

Honestly don't recall any issues with that.

But it's still a Bethsoft game - and because of their design philosophy of having everything open and somewhat dynamic in terms of AI - there's going to be issues. Lots of little oddities and weird behavior from NPCs are present.

But Fallout 3 was significantly more prone to technical issues for me - as was Skyrim. I've had serious CTD problems with those two - but not with FO4, for instance.

When I'm talking about polish, I also mean stuff like animations and combat - both of which are miles ahead of Fallout 3 - which was barely functional as an FPS, where I'd call FO4 decent and satisfying for the most part.

Aside from the implicit Creation engine limitations (like the physics/fps bugs - which can be fixed) - I truly found it remarkably polished for what it's actually doing and allowing you to do.
 
I guess I'm not seeing how that's such a big deal in terms of lore. Is it established canon that the Sole Survivor doesn't know enough about weapons to upgrade them? Considering how much illogical stuff is in Fallout to begin with, that seems like splitting hairs.

Gotcha. I guess I just thought it would be better if there was less tinkering and the weapons were more inline with with Fallout 2 - which had great weapon progression i.e. 10mm Pistol to 10mm Submachine gun to shotgun/hunting rifle etc etc. When you found a weapon that was an upgrade in Fallout 1/2 it was an exiting experience. In Fallout 4 you have to compare all the individual stats to find out if it better than your current weapon or not and 99% of the time it is the exact same weapon with a different set of mods on it.

Using a bit of steel, adhesive, a spring and a lathe to make a gun do 20% more damage just doesn't appeal to me. I would much rather it be a quest or a special npc who upgrades certain unique weapons. I prefer to see a Desert Eagle, G11, FN FAL, M72 Gauss rifle, Pancor Jackhammer etc. I am aware there are "named" items in Fallout 4 but they are exactly same they just have a single uinque effect applied to the weapon but they are still one of the 11 weapon types underneath. Guess what? A FN FAL is a completely different weapon than a XL70E3 and no amount of tinkering is going to make them the same.

There are basically 11 weapon types in the game and every single weapon that you craft or get as a drop is just a bunch of mods on top of those weapon types. I just didn't find it interesting i.e. "Poweful Sniper Rifle" is just a hunting rifle with a long barrel and a "Powerful" mod applied to it. I thought Fallout 1/2/3 was much more interesting.

I guess I wasn't really talking about tweaking a gun though. It's just the whole base building thing was my biggest WTF moment. An ex-soldier building a fusion reactor using some steel, springs, concrete and some "nuclear material" a couple of days after he has woken up from Cryo sleep. I guess it was just a step too far for me - like the sequence with the Deathclaw right at the start of the game.

I've played it on a variety of setups, including this one (3080, 5950x, 64gb and W11). You do need mods for modern hardware, though. Especially if you plan to play with more than 60 FPS.

The fact that they are selling the game for top dollar still and the fact that you need mods to make it decent means it is completely unacceptable to me. Skyrim doesn't have this issue. It was taking 1-2 minutes for me to load a map when I have a Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD (one of the fastest SSD available) and a top of the line CPU and RAM was completely bonkers. When I could load the same map in 10 seconds on my 8 year old PC!!!!

I also find it hard to believe you ahven't seen the bugs I am referring to because they are everywhere. People stuck on a tiny block of concrete doing the running man dance move endlessly. If you try to get in a suit of power armor from the wrong direction (the front) you can get stuck permanently and have to reload. Elevators that you need to open your inventory (or perform another action) so they get to where they are going. Skyrim Vanilla had less bugs than Fallout 4 and that is saying something. You may not "see" them but that doesn't mean they aren't bugs. These aren't new bugs - they are mentioned in a bunch of reviews on steam (and the general media). Agree that they aren't game breaking critical though - so if you can just ignore wierd stuff you probably would enjoy the game much more than I am.
 
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I found the crafting system a little more elaborate than that.

A lot of attachments do different things - including faster reload, longer range, better rate of fire, increased critical damage and so forth. You have to pick a combination - and you can't just have a single "more powerful" version, though obviously attachments are there to enhance the weapon.

I found it quite in-depth personally, and spent a lot of time tinkering with it - trying to come up with the ideal weapons for my playstyle.

Personally, I found the loot very compelling - especially once you get to the legendary modifiers and what not. Not perfect by any means - but certainly leaps and bounds beyond any other Fallout game imo.

Same goes for armor modding - though I never really delved into that as much, since I didn't feel like I needed it. My playstyle is very much about stealth and long range - which means I shouldn't really get hit much :)

I also greatly appreciated Survival mode - where the game is significantly less spongey - and yet also a lot more dangerous and tense.

It's not a carefully crafted linear experience, sure, but for an open world game with hundreds of hours of distinct content to explore - I found even the vanilla game suprisingly well balanced for a Bethsoft title.

But I guess it's all about what you want from this type of game. I'm all about exploration, immersion and progression - and all of those are superb in FO4. In my opinion, of course.

My main issues involve the setting and the writing. I'm not a big post-apoc fan and I found the writing subpar for the most part.

Thankfully, I expected that going in - which was a big help.

Starfield is most likely going to be more of the same, though there's a higher probability of me enjoying the setting - as it's supposed to be inspired by Star Wars and such - which is among my favorite settings.

But the writing? I mean it's possible they've upped their game here, but I really doubt it.

I guess they're sort of the opposite of CDPR in terms of open world game design. I'm glad we have both kinds - though it would be pretty neat to see a combination of all the goodies.
 
I found the crafting system a little more elaborate than that.

I found it quite in-depth personally, and spent a lot of time tinkering with it - trying to come up with the ideal weapons for my playstyle.

I understand that completely but it is the opposite for me. I like being given a selection of 100 weapons and choosing the one that is right for me. The only tinkering I like is stuff like adding a scope or a silencer and maybe "extending" a barrel like in Jagged Alliance. For me JA1.13 is the benchmark I set all games to in terms of weapon selection ;)

It's interesting to hear about these "legendary mods" though - I will have to keep an eye out for them. I am level 31 and haven't found anything like that. I am not even using the power armor because I find it too lore breaking (and I hate the power armor HUD).
 
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I understand that completely but it is the opposite for me. I like being given a selection of 100 weapons and choosing the one that is right for me. The only tinkering I like is stuff like adding a scope or a silencer and maybe "extending" a barrel like in Jagged Alliance. For me JA1.13 is the benchmark I set all games to in terms of weapon selection ;)

It's interesting to hear about these "legendary mods" though - I will have to keep an eye out for them. I am level 31 and haven't found anything like that. I am not even using the power armor because I find it too lore breaking (and I hate the power armor HUD).

That's fair enough - and I can sort of see your point.

JA2 is among my favorite games, so it's hard to disagree - but that had a more tactical and almost "Clancy-an" style :)

I also hate power armor and never use it except for a few semi-mandatory times during quests.

Does NOT go well with my stealthy playstyle, either :)

About the legendary mods, it's not really the mods you get - but you get legendary weapons with legendary modifiers - which can include stuff like exploding bullets and what not. At level 31 I think you should have seen a few by now.

Again, not exactly a realistic type of loot - but very fun if you're a looter type of player, which I very much am :)

You can get tons of mods (for the game itself) that enhances all these aspects of the game, including ones that allow you to create your own legendary combinations - which is even more fun to me.
 
About the legendary mods, it's not really the mods you get - but you get legendary weapons with legendary modifiers - which can include stuff like exploding bullets and what not. At level 31 I think you should have seen a few by now.

Okay I get it now. Yes I have seen and sold a bunch of them. Early on I got a hunting rifle that fires two bullets for every shot and I have been using that ever since because of the horrendous amount of damage it does. Sadly since I am running a sniper/stealth build no other weapon has come close in terms of damage output. I just upgrade it every time I am allowed to take another level in weapon modding.
 
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