[Malankazooie]

So I jumped into AC Valhalla after not playing for a few weeks. Chasing down all the yellow, white, and blue indicators started to mess with my head so I needed a break. When I tried to load my game it was crashing. It did this every time for about four/five tries (after powering down, booting into safe mode and running the rebuild the database option, what have you). This didn't work, so I started deleting recent saves (about three of them). Still the game was borked and kept crashing. I thought I was royally fooked and was resigned to chalking it up as an "oh well" moment (and just be grateful for the experience I had up to that point). So I dicked around on Blops 4 for an hour or so, but then decided to look into AC Valhalla issue one more time, just cause I was annoyed. So I decided to say fuck it, imma delete the profile save file. Hell, I don't know why I thought that would work, but it did. I had to go through the setup stuff that you run through at the beginning again, but once that was done it loaded the most recently saved game. So I lost some progress, which pissed me off, but after about an hour I was pretty much back to where things were prior to the game crashing.

TL:DR

Thought my AC Valhalla play through was borked, so was going to post this with the heading: "Piss on this game." Got it working, so now I guess I'll give it the following heading:

"Powerful stream dude, you do kegel exercises?"




I'm at level 406 now (holy crap!), and I still have Jorvik to deal with. The population areas of Hamtunscire - Wincestre are territories I haven't touched yet. And the main story progess I'm at suggests a new area (Vinland) is going to be available. Holy marathon Batman! This game just keeps going!

[Avatar]

Quote

I put Red Dead Redemption 2 back on for the first time in.. years?

Managed to get into a fight within about 2 minutes while I was running through the controls - some guy in St Denis didn't like the fact I had a gun out, and suddenly there are lawmen crossing the street and firing at me. I was just trying to pick my hat up and I ended up having to kill a load of them before riding away with a huge bounty on my head.

This game looks so pretty and there's so much going for it but I'm only 40% into the story and I think it's going to stay like that.

I think I prefer short, interesting indie games to these sprawling epics these days.

Exactly this! Love this game, I'm also somewhere around 40-50%, but maybe will never finish :-(

[Malankazooie]

Guess what happens next.

Spoiler

d'aaaw, you guys know I'm a big softie.

[Mentalist]

I pimped out a mech and I'm just about ready to beat down the last World eater.

Missing a couple of achievements from boss battles, as well as "collect 20 of these animals" randomness. Not too bothered by them, though, and don't feel like I need to kill a few more evenings just for that 100% completion.

Next big game(s) I wanna tackle is the Nier series, but probably gonna play some smaller stuff first. Maybe give Hollow Knight another try?

[Aptorian]

Played around an hour of The Ascent. It's a top down, twin stick shooter that's exclusive to Xbox... I think? Free on Gamepass anyway.

This game is awesome. The main attraction is how damn beautifully ugly it is. It's a Cyberpunk space junk asthetic and the environments are ridiculously detailed, compact and full of life and grime. Beautiful lighting and explosions.

This game kind of reminds me of the first time I played Loaded on PlayStation 1. Just better.

Also while I was waiting for the Ascent to unlock I played about 30 minutes of CyberShadow, the latest game from Yacht Club the Shovel Knight devs. It's pretty solid. I'd dismissed it originally because I'm not very nostalgic for NES era action platformers, but this is pretty good. It recreates the memories of that area with less of the bullshit.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 29 July 2021 - 06:59 PM

[Mentalist]

Aptorian, on 29 July 2021 - 06:59 PM, said:

Played around an hour of The Ascent. It's a top down, twin stick shooter that's exclusive to Xbox... I think? Free on Gamepass anyway.

This game is awesome. The main attraction is how damn beautifully ugly it is. It's a Cyberpunk space junk asthetic and the environments are ridiculously detailed, compact and full of life and grime. Beautiful lighting and explosions.

This game kind of reminds me of the first time I played Loaded on PlayStation 1. Just better.

Also while I was waiting for the Ascent to unlock I played about 30 minutes of CyberShadow, the latest game from Yacht Club the Shovel Knight devs. It's pretty solid. I'd dismissed it originally because I'm not very nostalgic for NES era action platformers, but this is pretty good. It recreates the memories of that area with less of the bullshit.

Yes, the Ascent is Microsoft exclusive, coming to next-gen Xboxes, Microsoft Store and Steam.

Getting strong Prey 2 vibes from the city; I wanna grab the game, but it's $40 CAD, and there's a few other titles out this week and next week that'll take priority for me.

[Mentalist]

Wrapped up "Biomutant". 93 hours to credits, and I saved the world, yay. Last boss was a bit of a bullet sponge, but not really a challenge.

Moved on to "Morbid: the Seven Acolytes", a top-down soulslike that's giving me a very Blood Omen-y vibe. Killed the first of the 7 bosses, and I'm generally enjoying my time. Parrying isn't great, but there's a pretty generous stealth system that lets you one-shot most regular enemies. Not a fast-paced game by any means, but I'm loving the Gothic setting.

[Aptorian]

Played some more Ascent.

The more you play, the more the little problems become apparent. There's a bunch of quality of life stuff the game is missing, like smart UI design or quest guidance. There's lot of audio bugs. The controller set-up is weird, etc.

But it's still an impressive game for a new studio to put out. It's a one trick pony, there's nothing to the game besides running and gunning, but the style and swagger is great.

[Obdigore]

Aptorian, on 29 July 2021 - 06:59 PM, said:

Played around an hour of The Ascent. It's a top down, twin stick shooter that's exclusive to Xbox... I think? Free on Gamepass anyway.

This game is awesome. The main attraction is how damn beautifully ugly it is. It's a Cyberpunk space junk asthetic and the environments are ridiculously detailed, compact and full of life and grime. Beautiful lighting and explosions.

This game kind of reminds me of the first time I played Loaded on PlayStation 1. Just better.

Also while I was waiting for the Ascent to unlock I played about 30 minutes of CyberShadow, the latest game from Yacht Club the Shovel Knight devs. It's pretty solid. I'd dismissed it originally because I'm not very nostalgic for NES era action platformers, but this is pretty good. It recreates the memories of that area with less of the bullshit.

I played some as well. Absolutely a fun co-op game, chatting with your friends and having a drink or two.

We didn't get far but it was entertaining.

[Mentalist]

I think I'll grab Ascent next week, depending how much the asking price for "Grime" will be.

GMG has Ascent for 20% off, so 32 CAD. Which is pretty decent.

[Mentalist]

Played Grime for like 5 hours yesterday.

There's an interesting mechanic where you parry by sucking things into the black hole your protag has for a head. Once the enemy's HP is down to a certain point, a well-timed parry lets you "absorb" the weakened enemy.

Each enemy time you defeat gives you a sub-quest to absorb X number of the same type, in order to unlock a "trait upgrade" that you can spend special "Hunt Point" gems to get- and you get these (primarily) by killing specific enemies.


Art direction is also insane. It starts out pretty tame, with all the caves and living rock enemies and such. And then it goes absolutely insane once you get to the 4th area and are asked to go back down and kill a monster in order to be reminded of what it was that your actual purpose was. And the art design goes really biopunk and labyrinthine. My only complaint is that you can't map an area until you find and activate a Beacon crystal- and in this particular area, I'm blocked from reaching it by electric shields I can't bypass (yet). Meaning, I'm exploring blindly a lot, and there's also no fast travel (yet)

Aside from that, the game's really cool.

[tiam]

Hi guys

Given the volume of pc gamers on here is there a community for total war games? Given the subject matter I thought it would be right up everyone's street.

I recently spent a fortune on q decent pc gaming rig and am working my way through the titles from rome onwards. Just finished shogun 2.

[Morgoth]

tiam, on 03 August 2021 - 09:53 PM, said:

Hi guys

Given the volume of pc gamers on here is there a community for total war games? Given the subject matter I thought it would be right up everyone's street.

I recently spent a fortune on q decent pc gaming rig and am working my way through the titles from rome onwards. Just finished shogun 2.

we're a few guys playing Total Warhammer I think, and Macros pleasures himself to Rome Total War every night.

[Tapper]

Morgoth, Gothos and me play Total War Warhammer regularly, I think.

[Morgoth]

Tapper, on 05 August 2021 - 05:38 AM, said:

Morgoth, Gothos and me play Total War Warhammer regularly, I think.

I am very happy with the newest DLC for instance. I never really found an enjoyment of the Lizards, but I'm having a grand ol time burning down the world with the angry cow.

[tiam]

Morgoth, on 04 August 2021 - 06:36 AM, said:

tiam, on 03 August 2021 - 09:53 PM, said:

Hi guys

Given the volume of pc gamers on here is there a community for total war games? Given the subject matter I thought it would be right up everyone's street.

I recently spent a fortune on q decent pc gaming rig and am working my way through the titles from rome onwards. Just finished shogun 2.

we're a few guys playing Total Warhammer I think, and Macros pleasures himself to Rome Total War every night.

I've been there. I must have put 10000 hours into the original game over the years. Has anyone sunk time into the remaster? I bought it for half price as I had the original but I'm not sure there is enough to make me go back to it, even with the rebalancing. I think it's like goldeneye where it's so influential and groundbreaking at the time but going back to it now is tough.

Tapper, on 05 August 2021 - 05:38 AM, said:

Morgoth, Gothos and me play Total War Warhammer regularly, I think.

That's great glad there's a community on here. I have only really played rome and medieval 2 in any level of detail.
Finished one campaign of Empire which had some interesting concepts but the combat didn't grab me enough to play napoleon.

Then managed one campaign of shogun 2 which is a strange one. The mechanics and ai are good with the ai being the best for a total war game (from what I've read it's to do with the fact all the factions have the same units so it's less for the ai to take in). Enjoyed the campaign but not enough to make me play it again. I might start the dlc for it as I'm no rush.

Me and a few lads have all done something similar with shelling out for the capability to play all the TW games so I'm waiting until we can at rome 2 together.

Still some way away from warhammer but I've seen alot of youtube videos on all the factions etc.

What do we think about warhammer 3 and the new siege mechanics/factions? I think introducing chaos factions adds some spice to the invasians and moving into non lore territory with China is interesting. They may move to some of the less established factions as the DLC comes out.

This post has been edited by tiam: 05 August 2021 - 06:27 AM

[Morgoth]

I am very excited for Warhammer 3, though I fear I'll need to buy a new laptop to play the thing. At this point I have pretty much exhausted Warhammer 1 & 2, so new factions new mechanics and new maps will be very welcome. Interesting chaos factions and better sieges alone would excite me, but Chaos Dwarfs and warhammer china looks to be really cool too.

[tiam]

Morgoth, on 05 August 2021 - 07:04 AM, said:

I am very excited for Warhammer 3, though I fear I'll need to buy a new laptop to play the thing. At this point I have pretty much exhausted Warhammer 1 & 2, so new factions new mechanics and new maps will be very welcome. Interesting chaos factions and better sieges alone would excite me, but Chaos Dwarfs and warhammer china looks to be really cool too.

Yes a dragon ogre faction would be good as well. I think they will end up doing more eastern factions the other side of the central mountains whose name escapes me. Given the volume of dlc for the first two, and this being the last one as well, I think we will be getting dlc for this for years especially since they have abandoned three kingdoms now with no further patches. All their eggs in the lucrative warhammer basket.

This is why I am playing the TW games in order of release. I'm keen to play warhammer but know that if I I go back and play some of the earlier titles they will seem basic. You can get so much mileage out of each total war games that I'm in no rush and am still playing a medieval 2 campaign at the minute.

I had a mate of mine build my pc with rtx 3060 etc in there. No idea what they are but apparently I'm good for top end specs for a few years so won't have to update.

[Aptorian]

Finished The Ascent. It's an okay shooter but not great.

By the second half of the game I was looking for the game to wrap up but there's difficulty ramp ups that mean you need to upgrade the right weapons, for the right enemies, that means you'll be wanting to do lots of side missions. Felt more like a chore than fun by the end.

But the conclusion of the game is pretty solid cyber punk corporate warfare storyline. It's simple but I like it.

I would love to play a sequel where they learn from their mistakes in this game and create a more streamlined game, that makes for a better player experience.

[Mentalist]

Been playing a lot of Grime. After the 3rd boss you get Air-Dash, and then the game becomes more of a hardcore platformer.

Tons of stuff to explore, though, which is neat. Found a secret "major boss" for a handy ability to pull loot out of crevasses that are too small for me to fit (or insta-kill pits).

I am not sure this game has a story besides "you are the embodiment of destruction, go take care of a bunch of corrupt angel-like things" . Granted, Blasphemous was pretty similar, and I don't need a lot of excuses to go fill out maps, haha.

One complaint would be that I'm not really feeling any of the major weapons. The starting swordaxe and daggers are basically the most effective weapons in terms of speed, damage and stamina consumption ratio.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 29 October 2021 - 07:50 AM