General Gaming |OFFICIAL TOPIC| Gaming the System

[NSA]

I could have sworn we had a general gaming talk thread.. but lord help me, I cannot find it, so here we go!

Anyone playing anything lately?

I usually go in long spurts where I don't play a damn thing. I catch up on TV shows and movies or fuck around on my phone in my free time, but can't be assed to actually boot up a game.

THIS HAS CHANGED!

I saw that a strategy game came to Xbox Gamepass this month.. STELLARIS: CONSOLE EDITION! (also on pee-es4) It's included with Gamepass so why not.

Holy moly I am hooked! It's a "4X" type of strategy game.. think Civilization but in space. It was originally a PC game, but they did an admirable job porting it to the console. There is a TON to learn and figure out.. and I'm still not all there.. but it's pretty fun controlling a fledgling stellar empire.

Each game seems to be randomized, so you never know what you'll get in regards to other aliens, galaxy layout/etc. Highly recommended!

Also, it has a killer synth-type soundtrack (Think Mass Effect combined with the movie Oblivion)


Really listen to them all, they're great 'space-ish' music that kind of go with anything.

Also, I've been playing Clash Royale and Gears POP! on my phone lol

So what is everyone else playing?

 

[pcsguy88]

I might need to look at that game since Halo Wars just doesn’t keep you on the hook very long.

 

[NSA]

It is fun,.. it's slower paced, but a great game to kind of sit back and chill with,.. but its the perfect example of '5 more minutes' turning into 1AM!

 

[nacho]

I've been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest for the last 10 months. It's addictive in strange, subtle ways. Playing just becomes part of your daily routine, almost without conscious thought.

 

[pcsguy88]

My mobile and tablet addiction is RISK. Auralux 2 when I need something short and faster paced.

 

[nacho]

Which risk do you play? Before there was an official, my son and I play what used to be "Drisk", but now I think it changed the name to "Border Siege". It was about the only good clone for a long time. Now there seems to be dozens of risk wannabes.

 

[pcsguy88]

I use the official RISK now. They finally put out a version that plays well, has tons of maps and all the settings can be customized. It's so good I even bought the full version and some extra maps.

 

[NSA]

I am not entirely sure I ever played Risk. I was always an Axis & Allies kid.. I have so many different sets of that game, and no one willing to spend all day playing!!

 

[pcsguy88]

Risk on a computer is a godsend since you can get thru a match in about 30 minutes. The analog version could last an entire day with all of the damn counting at the start of everyone's turn.

 

[nacho]

Oh, no joke. My buddies and I would play all-nighters in middle school. It definitely makes games bearable.

 

[NSA]

I loved the first two games.. shoot they were like almost 20 years ago now.


Holy shit, Homeworld WAS 20 years ago! September 1999!

Homeworld - Wikipedia

I hope the new one is as good, though I don't do much PC gaming anymore.

 

[nacho]

That's how I feel about Half-Life, the greatest game of a generation. It was 20 years ago, and I feel old.

 

[NSA]

Half Life 3... any year now!!!

 

[NSA]

So hooked on Stellaris.. I can't put it down. I start a Galaxy and get decently into it, realized I learned something new, and want to start all over. It's randomized, to a degree, so each time you start it's fresh.. though the game basics remain the same, so you can learn to do it better than the time before.

Right now I think I'm at one of the "Endgame" events, a giant parasitic extragalactic alien force has landed and is gobbling up the sectors at an alarming rate. Need to find a way to unite all the remaining Alien races to try and beat it back.

 

[NSA]

This is running on a PS5, but should work on Xbox Series X too as it's Unreal Engine 5.

Also.. whew.

 

[Giga Bread]

Until there’s something worth my interest coming to the latest GhostRecon, I’m playing a mobile Final Fantasy game called War of the Visions. It’s basically a money grab version of Final Fantasy Tactics.

I think outside of the recent remake, FF12 was the last one I played. I liked the knight designs in that one. The last one I really enjoyed playing was FF9.

I greatly prefer the tactical RPG so much more. It just feel like a next level chess match. Final Fantasy Tactics was my favorite FF game just because of the battle system. When Tactics Ogre got redone and ported, I didn’t realize how much FFTactics was basically a modded version of that for simpler people.

Anyways, this mobile game can be fun but there’s so much of the built in constant luck drawing, endless grinding, and endless carrot sticking, that it doesn’t really feel like a true tactical rpg.
For instance. I couldn’t play until I drew cards for a party. So I did a free card draw and ended up with 4 highly capable characters, half of whom I find out are in the story, later on, as antagonists. I miss starting with a ragtag group of squires and alchemists battling grunts and badasses.

Anyways, I spent too much time talking about it.

 

[NSA]

Yeah I haven't really played anything for the last month.

I am still hopeful there will be something good coming out soon, but in reality I haven't the time or energy to really devote to a big long game. I want an 8-10 hour really good campaign.

 

[NSA]

uh huh

 

[pcsguy88]

That controller looks wicked, but I wouldn’t want to use it. Bet it doesn’t age well either.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I would hope the buttons are not as recessed as they appear to be. Who wants to be feeling around to find your buttons in the midst of being blasted?

 

[NSA]

Ooooo



Forgot this was coming.. it's out now. I bought this over the weekend and just finished the original GDI campaign.. it holds up pretty well! I forgot how hard some of it was..

Time for the power of NOD! Kane has held up pretty well!

C&C was one of my favorite all-time games as a youngster, it's still a lot of fun.

$20 for all the content isn't too bad.

 

[Giga Bread]

is This only for PC?

 

[NSA]

is This only for PC?

Yeah it's on Steam or Origin only I think. It'd be fun on console but they'd probably need to rework a lot.

 

[pcsguy88]

I liked the gameplay of Red Alert better. For some reason Tiberium Sun turned me off since all my units would just walk to their deaths in the fields.

 

[NSA]

I liked the gameplay of Red Alert better. For some reason Tiberium Sun turned me off since all my units would just walk to their deaths in the fields.

Yeah, Red Alert was superior, but each successive game usually added or fixed something. RA2 was great. They got a bit wacky (in a bad way) after that. Though C&C Generals was one of my favorites back in the day.

 

[pcsguy88]

Right, RA2 was the sweet spot and where I ended, though even then some of the units were too goofey.

 

[Giga Bread]

Yeah, Red Alert was superior, but each successive game usually added or fixed something. RA2 was great. They got a bit wacky (in a bad way) after that. Though C&C Generals was one of my favorites back in the day.

Generals was definitely the peak. couldn't stand Tiberium Sun. I think the genre direction took it to territory that Dawn of War and Total Annihilation just did better.
Red Alert 3 I would say jumped the shark but I think we were okay with shark jumping with Red Alert 2.
I think the British Sniper in RA2 is my favorite unit of all time.

 

[NSA]

Generals was definitely the peak. couldn't stand Tiberium Sun. I think the genre direction took it to territory that Dawn of War and Total Annihilation just did better.
Red Alert 3 I would say jumped the shark but I think we were okay with shark jumping with Red Alert 2.
I think the British Sniper in RA2 is my favorite unit of all time.

I liked Generals because it was more "grounded" at that point without the NOD/GDI stuff... man I remember some crazy survival games where you just had to build a huge base and survive like 7 AI onslaught.. good times. I remember playing that one online with a friend too.. it was so long ago, we'd play online but be holding a phone to our ear so we could talk at the same time haha.

Tiberium Sun was C&C 2 right? I remember being pretty disappointed with it when all was said and done. It improved on things, but didn't feel like a step in the right direction after RA. RA2 really did start the shark jumping, but it was campy enough that it just 'felt' right.

Still sad they've basically left the brand to die.. though maybe this remaster will show there is still interest.

EA killing Westwood Studios is one of the biggest gaming disasters ever I think.

 

[NSA]

Well.. hello there

 

[pcsguy88]

Generals is the one with the M1A1’s and other real units? I really wanted that one, but my PC wasn’t up to snuff.

 

[NSA]

Generals is the one with the M1A1’s and other real units? I really wanted that one, but my PC wasn’t up to snuff.

I think so.. I need to see if its playable on modern PCs.. I'm jonesing..

 

[Giga Bread]

It was grounded but the Chinese and Terrorists were so comical.

 

[Giga Bread]

They have like an online mobile game for C&C but it's really just a capture a missile launchpad between the 2 bases and hold onto it long enough to destroy the other base. The missions are real quick and seem worthless. It's kind of like the effect of taking tactical RPGs and making them into mobile games.

 

[pcsguy88]

They have like an online mobile game for C&C but it's really just a capture a missile launchpad between the 2 bases and hold onto it long enough to destroy the other base. The missions are real quick and seem worthless. It's kind of like the effect of taking tactical RPGs and making them into mobile games.

Oh yeah, I played that stupid shit when it released. Someone needs to make the old games tablet compatible since my only RTS game fix is Halo Wars these days.

 

[ThunderDan19]

Not playing, but watching a dude play it on YouTube: Last of Us 2 - What an absolute SJW dumpster fire. First they killed off a very popular main character an hour into the game, then lied about it in their marketing and then used the threat of lost access to make all the professional reviewers to give it a 10 of 10 score to try to keep people from not buying it (and then prohibiting returns). Meanwhile, the actual fans of the game are severely pissed and gamers are giving it a 3, and I don't blame them. It's pretty awful. I'm not sure I'll make it to the end.

It's bad enough they killed off Joel, but then they force the gamer to play as the villain who committed the deed for (what seems at least to be) most of the game, all the while jamming it with grossly unappealing, yet fully empathetic, SJW characters that you don't know what to make of. And it goes on forever with apparently the stupidest ending ever (I have not gotten that far yet, but I have seen some reviews of it). Oy vey. The first one was pretty good, but apparently this one is worse for LoU fans/gamers than TLJ was for SW fans.

Way to piss the fans off... again...

In other news, apparently Nike has now lost about $790M for their recent wokeness... Hope it was worth it...

 

[NSA]

Yeah I was reading about that last week during launch.. Super Duper SJW.. the main characters are a butch straight girl, an asian trans, a lesbian and her bisexual jewish girlfriend.. and some guys who all end up being bad.

And the gameplay isn't really much different than the original. Skippidy do-dah for me.

 

[ThunderDan19]

That pretty much sums up the portion I've seen so far. Combined with a truly contorted path through the "story" and it's really hard to stay engaged for (supposedly) 30 hours of play. So far I've made it to The Rad Brad's episode 44, but I'm fading fast... Any I'm never disappointed when the villain gets chewed on by the zombies...

 

[NSA]

Did you get to the sex scene yet ? lol it was cringeworthy.

 

[ThunderDan19]

I believe so. It happened so quick at 2x speed that I really didn't even get a real look at the moobies. I had no desire to back it up to get a second look, I'll tell you that. That she-man really is the least attractive (modern) playable character I can recall. It's like the complete inverse of the modern Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, who I consider a nearly perfect video game heroine. She's reasonably believable as athletic enough to pull of some of those jumps and falls and such, but still attractive.

 

[NSA]

I believe so. It happened so quick at 2x speed that I really didn't even get a real look at the moobies. I had no desire to back it up to get a second look, I'll tell you that. That she-man really is the least attractive (modern) playable character I can recall. It's like the complete inverse of the modern Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, who I consider a nearly perfect video game heroine. She's reasonably believable as athletic enough to pull of some of those jumps and falls and such, but still attractive.

It's absolutely not worth re-looking at it. Even though I did a couple times. I could have sworn the girls a man or trans.. there are like zero, negative boobies at a certain angle. I guess she's not but could have fooled me.