>>22247

85 hours in I have only unlocked half the rare blades and I'm not even half way through the game. It's difficult to comprehend Xenoblade 2's scope, I've burnt out. I need a couple of days break.

Back to the Anno series for me.

Just finished NieR: Automata (ABCDE and a smattering of others - I've not played any of Drakengard or NieR before). It's one of those games that hooked me in despite its flaws.

The story is teenlad level of deep, the character design consits of prototype wapanese fan service, the map design is so full of invisible walls it makes you wonder why they bothered to model half the stuff they did, the combat mechanics don't quite go beyond "just mash", upgrading items requires the most nonsencical list of components I've come across so far and grinding for them is just not a thing unless you're truly masochistic... but I still loved it and binge-played it over the last couple of days.

It's got just enough lore in the game that it makes you want to learn more about it. The story, while trite, is well delivered in way that made me care about the characters and was enough to propel me through the 3* re-runs it needs at minimum.


(*) You do not literally replay the same game. The first time is played as "2B", the second as her companion from the first time "9S" which is substantially similar but allows for short cuts and adds extra story elements which avoids it turning into a chore. The third times moves into entirely new story material.

What game lets me control a battalion sized (or larger) formation of troops during the Second World War? None of that arcade stuff either, I want to feel the stress of watching my men get popped by a flak gun we can't even find.

>>22255

Neither are exactly as you describe, but both the Commandoes and Company of Heroes series are stressful as fuck.

Is Red Alert 3 worth getting in the Steam sale? I think the last RTS game I actually played was Red Alert 2.

>>22257

I think Total Annihilation was my last RTS. Man that was a game.

>>22255
Hitler treated black people better than the Americans.

>>22255

Probably something like the Graviteam Tactics series.

Virtual Pool 3, when lacking access to a proper table.

I got Just Cause 3 in the Chrimbus sales off steam.

It's a fun game but the story is just so piss poor and it's full of silly little immersion breaking things. I understand that an over-the-top, self-aware action story is what the Just Cause universe is about, but the problem is it's not very well done even on that front. Sleeping Dogs did that one far better.

The mechanics are by and large very smooth and fun and I liked the addition of the wingsuit (making the who 'car collection' aspect of the game totally redundant and I pity the guy whose job it was to design that part of the game), but the driving and enforced AI escort sections are fucking awful.

Unlike, say, GTA, the game's story doesn't dynamically react to your actions outside of the story. By that I mean, the idea is that you must capture the whole 'country' in game, as in the earlier JC games, by destroying a checklist of items in each settlement. I did the first couple of stories and then systematically captured the whole map before continuing with the story, but the story still acted like the rebels were only controlling a small section and the Big Bad General was still in charge.

The 'grand final battle' was also incredibly underwhelming, the capital city was guarded by about 5 snipers and that's it.

After the endgame, the procedurally generated missions still act as they did before you killed the Main Bad Guy, completely breaking the immersion.

The asynchronous multiplayer would be good if it actually used my Steam friends list - it currently just puts me against a seemingly random list of 2 to 3 people I have never heard of that changes on a weekly basis.

It's a fun game and if you can get it for cheap on sale it's worth the 20-30 hours you'll get out of it just flying around, blowing shit up, but I feel like they could have really rounded it off with not a lot more effort.

I'm considering getting the Rockstar Humble Bumble; is it true that the PC ports of their games are prone to bugs and crashing?

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/rockstar-games-bundle

Old School Runescape

>>22266
Is new school Runescape as shite as I imagine it is?

>>22268
I don't know, I haven't tried it.

Check out me stats

>>22269
>42/40

u wot

>>22270
Armour bonus or temporary buff I assume.

>>22271
It was accidental whatever it was, I have no idea.

>>22272
If you recently restored prayer at the edgeville monastery it gives +2 above your level

Here's my stats, I wonder how many others there are...

>>22273
I played a bit last year, got as near to full rune as is possible without killing the dragon because I couldn't be bothered to do that quest.

>>22268
I wouldn't say it's shit, it's just basically unrecognisable from the version you know. I just logged back into my old main out of curiosity, here's a screenshot. The interface is all customisable but would be confusing as hell the first time you log in.

>>22275
Also I have to concede it's quite pretty. This is Falador castle now.

>>22276
>quite pretty
That's Neverwinter Nights with better aliasing, not exactly pushing the boat out graphics wise.

>>22277
I didn't mean as a standard for the whole gaming industry, just that it's nice to explore a familiar world re-rendered in this way.

>>22275
>>22276
Wow! That's actually impressive for RuneScape. It looks like World of Warcraft now.

>>22277
Don't be an arse.

Finished Kingdom Hearts 2. I started it when I was 14 and never finished it at the time as I didn't want it to end. But now I've finished it 11.5 years later. It had a satisfying ending, so I'm curious to see how the prequels/sequels keep the story going after such a definitive conclusion.

>>22266

I've just spent a whole week levelling up my mining. Thanks for reminding me that Runescape exists you massive bellend.

There are pros and cons to having one, universal Microsoft account. However, being called "loser" by a lad who beat me on Fifa an hour and a half after I've turned the Xbox off is definitely a con.

>>22288
It's best when you do it with an unfashionable club, that really seems to irritate them. I haven't had a FIFA game in ages, but my favourite team to play online with was Flamengo when they had Adriano and Vagner Love up front.

>>22288

What in god's name have you done to your browser, lad?

Did you accidentally tie-dye your computer?

>>22290
I think he's gone all a bit Aztec in that late eighties style.

I bout Quake Champions hoping it wouldn't be shit, because if you buy it in early access you get all the champions and that without having to go through the unlock bollocks.

Unfortunately it's shit.

I mean my first 3 or 4 matches I quite enjoyed it, but that's about as long as the matchmaking held up before it just crumbled and I found myself playing against 43 year old Q3A veterans without being able to get a kill in edgeways. The champion abilities are complete horseshit too, there is no place for those in a game like this, they just feel cheap and unfair when you die to them, and effortless when you use them. Even instagib is ruined- Instagib, the most level playing field you can think of, where only aim and reaction time matters- Cunts will still fucking cheap-shot you using the Ranger ability. Nothing is sacred.

But of course, it's still in beta they say, it hasn't had the flaws ironed out they say, it will get improvements they say. And yet I can see they've clearly been putting their effort where in it counts- making fucking overpriced gambling crates with more cosmetic shite than you can ever hope to unlock by normal means. There's so fucking much of it. Every champion has about 5 different skins and dozens of colour shaders. But the game itself barely has ten maps and 3 game modes.

Why did I try pretend it would be any different?

>>22335
I don't see who it's made to appeal to. Old school arena FPS fans seem like they'd be put off by the modern additions like champion abilities and lootboxes. And the more casual audience seem like they'd be put off by the more hardcore gameplay compared to stuff like Overwatch. So who is it for?

>>22335
>Q3A veterans
I never really got into Q3A myself but I used to watch videos of the top players and I've honestly never seen anything like it since - as a test of pure twitch reflex it's hard to match. I guess it might not even be possible these days, since there's always a few frames of latency in modern, more complicated engines.

>>22337

What really makes a world class Q3A player is game sense. Good players have an uncanny ability to anticipate the movement of their opponent. At best, human reaction time is about 200ms, so you're at a huge advantage if you pre-fire at angles where you expect your opponent to arrive. This is doubly true with slow projectile weapons like the rocket launcher, but it still applies with hitscan weapons like the rail gun. You see it a lot in CS:GO too - entry fraggers pre-firing all the common CT spots and AWPers making speculative wallbangs etc.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rce75JYlJd8

>>22336

Precisely, it's just the worst of both worlds. If they wanted the hardcore audience, they could (and really should) have just done a direct remake of Q3 into the new engine. If they wanted the casuals they'd be better off building on the success of Doom 4 and making a single player Quake.

In fact if they wanted to be really clever they'd do a sequel to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. It's a much more natural fit for the tropes of modern shooters, and they could have bundled in a little deathmatch side mode just to keep everyone happy. But of course that makes too much sense.

>>22338

Jesus, I'm getting twitchy just watching that.

Modern Warfare 2 and 3. It's the first playthrough actually, could have played it way back but life interfered.

MW2 is ok. Actually, really ok. They went the 'take all the good parts from MW, add more, turn up to 11' route and that's all good but Russian invasion of USA seemed a bit overdone in pathos/drama to me. But then, it's CoD.

MW3 is a tad shite. Nothing really memorable about it. I can only recall the mission in Paris where you get to fight both for ground troops and for the C-130 team. Everything else was sub-par.

I've found a tarball with Cataclysm:DDA in it and decided to give it another go. It's pretty fun for a game with no graphics besides ASCII symbols.

I died about 20 times before the god of randomness sent me an almost intact Humvee with a fucking Mark 19 GL installed on it. I managed to sweep clean two settlements before I ran out of ammo. Bloody outrageous.

And again, for a game with no graphics it's been unproportionally fun to 'nade things, same for running them over at ~80 kph.

Autism thoroughly checked.

I’ve been on that CK II shit for a long while now. During this save I changed characters from my Emperor of Britain to some Persians and what the AI let happen to my former realm was nothing short of vile. They let the vikings reconquer Kent ffs, and my Lollardy reformation was all but totally undone. Makes me sick, lads

Invested every hour I'm not at work or sleeping in Yakuza 0 since it came out.

Fucking brilliant game, I was going to buy a PS3/4 just to play them.

>>22422
There's been too much Yakuza this year. 6, remake of 2, and then the Fist Of The North Star Yakuza game in October. I can easily sink 30-50 hours into a Yakuza game, but with so many out this year I'm struggling to find the time.

>>22423
I'm a PC player so I'll likely be getting a slow dripfeed of them. I've put 88 hours into 0 - I've just got enough cash to get to Lvl 99 Dragon, so just need to spend a few hours on that infuriating upgrade tree.

>>22417
On a second playthrough I'd take my words about MW3 back. It's quite ok. Thoroughly enjoyed the team Metal missions.

Gone are the days I can walk into an FPS and be better than average. I think I'm gonna refund BlackOps 4 and hang up FPS forever.

I barely understand how bad to average players can possibly enjoy battle royale.

>>22452

>I barely understand how bad to average players can possibly enjoy battle royale.

Because you can win a match by just killing one person. In a traditional FPS you might have to get upwards of 40 kills to win.

>>22453
You don't need any kills to win. And what sort of victory is that? Where's the fun in seeking bye after bye in every engagement? You don't see hide and seek games gaining... Dead by Daylight is actually one of the most popular games on Steam. Fuck me.

>>22454
You may have missed the point of BR modes entirely.

>>22455
My experience leads me to think this thriller narrative fades very quickly after your first couple of wins.

>>22452
Not played the battle royale mode yet, but I'm pretty poor at CoD multiplayer but still have fun. I think because you don't have to wait long to respawn so I don't feel I'm being punished for failing. Mainly getting it for the Zombies mode though.