2016 Video Games Thread

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by thealmighty

Rimworld is at Alpha 14 and looks like fun from Youtube viewing. Anyone played it (a search came up with only three posts from 2014)?

If purchased, would you go with the Steam buy or the one from the author website directly?

Thanks.

I've probably put 60 plus hours into v13 and v14. One of my favorite games over the past few years. It's dwarf fortress meets prison architect in a firefly setting. If those games interest you it's amazing.

[thesloppy]

I've probably put 20 hours into Rimworld in just the last week. Great fun.

[Julio Riddols]

If a man in prison said that..

[Galaril]

No Man's Sky is finally being released on August 9 and is on Amazon for $47.99 with preorder. I am on the fence whether to preorder or wait. Anyone preordered or are people holding off till the hype dies down.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I've probably put 60 plus hours into v13 and v14. One of my favorite games over the past few years. It's dwarf fortress meets prison architect in a firefly setting. If those games interest you it's amazing.

How have I never heard of this game until now? And yet again, thanks FOFC for another impulse steam buy

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

How have I never heard of this game until now? And yet again, thanks FOFC for another impulse steam buy

It just hit early access on steam a week ago. It's not your typical early access title though as it's mostly feature complete and has been available on their website for around 2 years.

I honestly can't say enough good things about the game.

[chinaski]

Havent been this hyped for a game in a looong time!

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Galaril

No Man's Sky is finally being released on August 9 and is on Amazon for $47.99 with preorder. I am on the fence whether to preorder or wait. Anyone preordered or are people holding off till the hype dies down.

I've pre-ordered. It cant live up to the hype, and I'm prepared to be disappointed, but willpower isnt one of my strengths when it comes to Steam. I'm a bit worried that it'll be pretty but without the depth to keep me interested, although this link from reddit makes me more hopeful:

what do you do in no mans sky and other questions

[Groundhog]

I haven't played any video game in a few weeks, so I'm going to at least try sit No Man's Sky out initially and see what the reaction is after a week. I still don't buy that the worlds will feel anything more 'generated' than typing in a Minecraft seed after you've seen the different biomes and a certain amount of generated creatures.

[nilodor]

Man approvals for osx ports are annoying. It's been a month waiting for the new dlc for XCOM2 to get approved.

[thesloppy]

Regarding rimworld stories, I had a good little colony going tonight, with up to 6 survivors, and a wanderer quickly joined up who is one of the most specialized characters I've come across:



Research is nice, but kind of a luxury most games, to the point that such a high skill level in research and a lack of everything else is almost laughable, but hunting and doctoring are important enough in RimWorld that she could actually be valuable dedicated to either/both of those important jobs with the research ability as a nice bonus........oh, except for one other slight issue, hiding on the health tab:



Sad trombone. As a result Kit couldn't do any doctorin' or huntin'...her only job options were literally: 'patient', 'rest' and 'research'. She could feed herself, sleep, and do research on her little stool, which is where she sat all day, every day...even as her roommates went berserk from starvation and pummeled each-other unconscious with elephant tusks. They lay crumpled on the floor in multiple piles, bleeding out slowly for days, as Kit slowly shuffled by, from her bed to that trusty old research bench. Those hand-less stumps never allowed Kit to help any of her friends directly in any way, apply her vast medical skills to heal their wounds in even the slightest fashion, or even serve to clumsily bury their bodies...but they were just serviceable enough to allow her to eat them, after the last of the food ran out.

[Ramzavail]

thats amazing.

[cartman]

I have a couple of beta codes for NHL 17 on Xbox One to give out. If you are interested, shoot me a PM.

[Eaglesfan27]

You just sold me on picking up Rimworld!

[Atocep]

Love the story Sloppy. The depth of the game and the decisions you make is what really makes this game for me.

Have 5 villagers and a 6th crashlands on your planet? Can you support a 6th mouth to feed? Does he have skills that would be a benefit to the group? If no to either of those you may just let the guy bleed out where he is.

One of your villagers was seriously wounded in a raid? Are you low on medicine? Does the person have skills vital to the village? Is burning through your supplies to keep this person alive good for the village or are you just pushing yourself closer to collapse by funneling supplies to this person? It may come down to euthanasia for the good of the village.

Captured a prisoner in a raid? Should I try to convert him? Is using our medical supplies and food over this time worth it? Is the guy just too stubborn to convert? Execution may be the answer.

[General Mike]

Originally Posted by cartman

I have a couple of beta codes for NHL 17 on Xbox One to give out. If you are interested, shoot me a PM.

I have 2 extra on PS4 if anyone wants one

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by nilodor

NBA 2K17 Features League Expansion - Operation Sports

Pretty friggin amazing. Super stoked for this fall.

That sounds awesome. Sign me up.

[Balldog]

For some reason the whole expansion thing doesn't interest me on NBA 2k17. The league is diluted enough already.


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[rjolley]

That may be true now, but as NBA 2K moves forward, there tends to be a lot of talent, at least in the league I'm currently running. Expansion would've given my league a way to distribute talent.

Have they said you can start with a smaller league, like 24 teams, then expand from there?

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by rjolley

Have they said you can start with a smaller league, like 24 teams, then expand from there?

They have said that you can expand from 30 upto 36 in any increments you want. But I don't think you can contract or start with a smaller league.

[Balldog]

True. You could always adjust the Draft Class quality to increase talent as well


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[bob]

My kids love the Lego video games, but holy hell I've never seen a series of games in which the saves corrupt anywhere near the pace of these Lego games.

[tarcone]

Didnt look through the whole thread.

Has anyone owned the 17 game CD Command and Conquer games?
If so, do I need origins to play if I own the CD?
Were there any issues playing on any computers or lap tops?

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Didnt look through the whole thread.

Has anyone owned the 17 game CD Command and Conquer games?
If so, do I need origins to play if I own the CD?
Were there any issues playing on any computers or lap tops?

I'm sure I've bought them individually and you shouldn't need origin if you have the CDs. The original Red Alert and C&C I think require an unofficial patch to get working on modern machines.

I ended up getting the games again through origin. You can get it on sale for as low as $5 sometimes.

[tarcone]

Origins seemed buggy and invasive. It seemed to really mess up my daughters laptop. Am I wrong about this or is it as easy as Steam to use?

[NobodyHere]

It hasn't given me any more problems than Steam.

Also I should mention that to get Tiberium Sun and Red Alert 2 working through Origin I had to download some files off the internet as well. You'd probably have to do the same for the CD versions.

[NobodyHere]

I've been playing the CnC games a lot recently because my video card died and I've been playing older games that can run well on the onboard video card.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Origin is a steaming pile of shite. I had to jump through an insane amount of hoops to make Mass Effect 3 even playable, and then an update to their system rendered the game completely unplayable for me.

[Groundhog]

I bit on Rimworld. A hell of a lot of fun, but man, I seem to get my colony to just about the exact same place before being massacred. I play on the 'basebuilder' setting, but once I start facing off against anything more than 3 raiders armed with decent guns, I invariably get wiped. I don't get a chance to unlock things like turrets before I'm being overrun.

It seems unforgiving, to put it lightly. I guess that's the point though. Had everything from giant slugs with firebombs torching my corner of the map, batteries exploding and burning all my food supplies and/or settlers, to multiple melee raiders just running past my horrendously inaccurate settlers (even with 10+ skill in shooting, they miss a lot more than they hit) and promptly beating us to death and/or kidnapping us.

I guess I'm yet to really find the defensive strategy to keep my colony alive once the difficulty starts to ramp up.

[thesloppy]

I got to the same place in Rimworld for a while, and for me the big jump was using the terrain to my advantage, and also understanding opponent AI/pathfinding a bit. E.G. in my first games I built mainly for convenience, and would build according to resources and building efficiency, and put doors all over my fort to allow for faster movement...but eventually, after some trial and error, I figured out that every door (or any other resource built outside a wall) is a potential target in a raid, and if you enclose all your generators and crops, and use a single door, you know exactly where every danger is going to be targeted. A fully enclosed fort with a single exit can wait out almost any problem, and you know where all the attacks will be located.

Choosing a starting location also plays a big role in ease of defense. Starting in a mountainous region generally results in a map with easier to defend positions, look for a nice, sizable corner spot with a single entrance/exit, but be wary that mining is generally more labor intensive and slower than building from the ground up. Wide open plains maps, with just a few hills, are much more challenging in terms of both defense, and locating resources to build with,

It also took me a while to figure out how important cover is, and exactly what provides what kind of cover. If you don't clear out all the trees and boulders in front of your main entrance/exit think of it like you're basically shooting into dense forest, even though it's not entirely obvious from the simplistic graphics. Using the 'orders' section to cut trees and haul boulders will take care of most of the cover, but leave behind trees which haven't yet matured...you have to click on those individually and select 'harvest' in order to clear them. Clear out the approach to your exit(s) (you even can use the floor command to lay cement if you want a quick wipe of a large area, but you won't be able to build crops and the ugly terrain will bother you're colonists), build some sandbags for cover right in front of the door, and those colonists with high shooting skill will start to perform a lot better. If you watch the firefights closely, in as-slow-as-possible time, you'll start to recognize how/when your opponents take cover, and how you can do the same. The combat can require some precise movement and time management when going up against tough opposition.

I've also had some up & down luck with traps, but that's tricky business...colonists can trip traps regularly if you lay them in high traffic areas, so I've begun building trap alleys.....wall off a high traffic area approaching your fort, but build a small, open alley filled with traps into the middle of the wall, and place a door next to it. Your colonists can pass through the door with less movement cost than going through the alley, so they'll avoid the traps, whereas a pirate/bug/creep will take the open looking alley, rather than spend time bashing down the door....it takes some extra thinking & a lot of resources to set up, just to set off a hand-full of traps, so I dunno if it's actually worth the effort, but it's another possibility you could toy with. If you've got a good spot to start with, building walls and clearing cover can guarantee where the combat will take place, give you the better cover and even funnel the enemy into a nice single file line as they come into firing range.

Be VERY aware of friendly fire...both theirs and yours. Build sandbags so that your colonists will be spread out laterally when shooting, and don't ever start shooting until they're spread out. Likewise, if you can build walls/funnels so that the enemy will be bunched up and/or in a column when they engage, the more likely they are to shoot each other, and the more likely your missed shots are to score an unintended hit.

Finally, I think you're always at the mercy of the random number generator, as I have had some games where I've lived through many, many raids where the raiders were numerous and tough, but un-advanced, and I've also been wiped off the map almost immediately by small groups with weapons well beyond my own.

Good luck!

[bhlloy]

I've gone full Trump and built walls all around my settlement with only entry/exit points covered by sandbags and that works really well, but sounds like I was lucky enough to get significantly further than you did to get to that point

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Excited to give No Man's Sky a whirl. I have little doubt this game won't be for everyone, but a big exploration game feels like it should be right up my alley.

Edit: Just saw they're doing a lot of adjustments based on what they saw from some of the pre-release players on the server.

No Man's Sky's Day-One Patch Will Make Some Huge Changes

[Kodos]

I have that pre-ordered for my PS4. Looking forward to it.

[cartman]

Add me in to the list of people who have hit a wall with Rimworld. I too would get to a certain point, then get wiped out, or have a key person get incapacitated/die. My next thing to try is to set up a custom scenario, with a bit more resources/research to start with, to see if I can make it farther into the game.

[Critch]

Release date for No Mans Sky has been pushed back til Friday. Late pushback and late game changing patches are a bit worrying.

[chinaski]

Picked up Rimworld. What an amazing game! Kill Rooms, and more kill rooms. It's all about the kill rooms. And digging out a mountain and making your base inside.

[GoldenCrest Games]

Your game suggestions are killing my productivity!!

Rimworld sounds awesome. It's at the top of the list! (right next to Stellaris)

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Critch

Release date for No Mans Sky has been pushed back til Friday. Late pushback and late game changing patches are a bit worrying.

You mean PC version I assume?

[Critch]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

You mean PC version I assume?

Yes, it's only the PC one that's been pushed back, but the big day one patch will be for both versions.

[Groundhog]

Thanks for the detailed post, thesloppy. I had another go last night and had a lot more success defending my base. Mountain colony walled off with one entrance, which was stuffed full of junk to slow down raiders and surrounded by sandbags. Fought off multiple invasions before heat stroke took me from 7 colonists to 1...................... Pretty much need to restart at that point, but I'm going to stick it out for awhile longer and see if I get any newcomers before the next raid.

Definitely need to pick a better starting spot, the temperature during the heat waves was more than halfway to boiling.

[RainMaker]

Mentioned this in the Steam thread but This is the Police has been kind of fun. It's a police management game. I'm a sucker for these kinds of games.

Speaking of which, does anyone have a suggestion for a politics management game? I used to love the old Power Politics but looking for something with modern day politicians in it.

[Thomkal]

some how I missed out on the hype train for No Man's Sky-maybe I thought it was coming out later in the year, or was a Playstation exclusive, but wow I'm on the train now Been watching some livestream's and let's plays of the beginning of the game, and I am captivated by this game-an explorer's dream game probably. So many planets that the devs say you may never encounter another explorer-you get to name planets and animals if you are the first to discover them...etc. It's certainly on my wishlist now.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

some how I missed out on the hype train for No Man's Sky-maybe I thought it was coming out later in the year, or was a Playstation exclusive, but wow I'm on the train now Been watching some livestream's and let's plays of the beginning of the game, and I am captivated by this game-an explorer's dream game probably. So many planets that the devs say you may never encounter another explorer-you get to name planets and animals if you are the first to discover them...etc. It's certainly on my wishlist now.

and I watched a video review* last night and pretty much dismissed it as yet another game that had promise but really failed to deliver. Came off looking almost pointless & as repetitive as Farmville/similar, with even less to discover. A massive choose-your-own-adventure book, but where every page basically leads back to the same thing. {shrug}

(Jim Sterling's ... and he was as least mostly neutral about the game or tried hard to be)

[cartman]

Ars Technica does comment on the 'grinding' dimension of the gameplay.

The first dozen hours of No Man’s Sky: Soaring past disappointment | Ars Technica

[Ajaxab]

I've spent a few hours playing No Man's Sky this afternoon and don't really know what to make of it. It is one part wonder, one part tedium. I'm simultaneously compelled to keep playing and get rid of the game. I can say that any gamer who needs focused goals is going to have a very difficult time getting anything out of this one. Someone who is more interested in creating their own goals could have a better experience. I'll give it at least a week and see how things go...

I don't know if I'm missing something, but when it takes 30 minutes of space flight to get to the next planet, it doesn't feel like a 21st century game. I guess there are supposedly warp devices one can craft but it isn't immediately obvious as to how to do that.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

and I watched a video review* last night and pretty much dismissed it as yet another game that had promise but really failed to deliver. Came off looking almost pointless & as repetitive as Farmville/similar, with even less to discover. A massive choose-your-own-adventure book, but where every page basically leads back to the same thing. {shrug}

(Jim Sterling's ... and he was as least mostly neutral about the game or tried hard to be)

well I don't have the game and haven't seen past the first hour or so of it, so in the end you might be right Jon, but seems like the mystery behind the language "pillars" and things like the "stores" you seem to find on every planet (sometimes with an alien included), the sentinel "police" who attack you while gathering resources, killing animals/and or plants, the makers of the red orb you find when you first start, mysterious signal that leads you to get I assume your interstellar drive, etc seems to give you plenty of stuff to do. Then there is crafting, and visiting various planets to see what flora/fauna they contain. Maybe the planets seem too similar at times though.

[Groundhog]

The thing that will make it or break it for me is how random/different/unique each planet will be, or will it just be a handful of same-looking biomes and fauna/flora.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

I don't know if I'm missing something, but when it takes 30 minutes of space flight to get to the next planet

Okay, that's not just excessive, that's punitive.

Longest I saw in the video last night -- and this was a topic that was mentioned -- was around maybe 90 secs of "warp travel" or whatever it's called. Basically looked/felt like a loading screen to me.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Ajaxab

I've spent a few hours playing No Man's Sky this afternoon and don't really know what to make of it. It is one part wonder, one part tedium. I'm simultaneously compelled to keep playing and get rid of the game. I can say that any gamer who needs focused goals is going to have a very difficult time getting anything out of this one. Someone who is more interested in creating their own goals could have a better experience. I'll give it at least a week and see how things go...

I don't know if I'm missing something, but when it takes 30 minutes of space flight to get to the next planet, it doesn't feel like a 21st century game. I guess there are supposedly warp devices one can craft but it isn't immediately obvious as to how to do that.

well is a space game...but from videos, you should have access to pulse drive right away I think.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

well is a space game...but from videos, you should have access to pulse drive right away I think.

Yep, you have to build the spaceship and then it tells you how to do pulse drive. Travel to the next planet was around 30-45 seconds for me.

I like that there are SO many options on what you can do and where you can do it. It's just lots of exploration. However, I think the GTA types who need more focused missions aren't going to like this game at all.