(Video, Board, Card,..) Games People Play

Gothic is much more an RPG than the Souls games.
What's special about the Souls games is the combat-system and the world-design.
In most games you get told about what to do, where to go, you have an auto-map and so on.
In the Souls games you have to actually listen to the NPCs because there is no quest log and you have to piece together where to go next, what looks dangerous and so forth through clues from the environment.

See that bridge which is charred black and burned corpses lying on top. They are not there merrily for decoration, they tell you to be careful on that passage.
Oh it's a dragon, which roasted them. I should have known, because I saw one earlier in that area of the game. Could have pieced it together.

And that's why its world-design is very good - Because it's all very deliberate. Many things in the world are there for a reason and deliberately placed, they fit together to make sense.

In a different game you'd be lost without an auto-map, a quest log and a quest marker, if you were to turn them off. It's not designed to offer sufficient clues through the environment.

Combat is also thoughtful.
It's not about reflexes. It's about developing tactics and identifying patterns.
That's why a second run through the game is usually very easy - it's all about knowing what you are doing.
The interesting part is figuring it out.
But at the same time it's not like there is only one solution to fighting an enemy. There are usually many techniques. Break an enemy's shield guard with a heavier weapon by using both hands or do counter attacks, or even parry - many options.

Story wise, after you have played through it without guides, you experience a certain narrative. But if you explore, you can discover a different narrative and how certain NPCs and the story they help tell, is simply a self-serving lie.
Dark Souls for example is about you sacrificing yourself. But if you explore a lot, you discover that it's not all good, that you are sacrificing yourself, and if you read up on it or explore even more and be persistent you can discover a different ending where you don't sacrifice yourself.

Bought my son a PS4....nice technology.
I can now make my TV into a computer screen, and watch youtube vids on it.
I can also surf the net.
Oh yeah...and you can play games, watch home videos, listen to music etc.

Satyr wrote:

Bought my son a PS4....nice technology.
I can now make my TV into a computer screen, and watch youtube vids on it.
I can also surf the net.
Oh yeah...and you can play games, watch home videos, listen to music etc.

If you like and haven't done so yet, you can also connect a (wireless bluetooth or usb) mouse and keyboard to the PS4 for ease of use with the web browser and youtube.


As for games -

Axiom Verge looks interesting



and
Apotheon



I like the music and the artwork.
But I haven't played neither of them so it's just hearsay.

Apparently there are sales on PSN from time to time where you can download games for less money.

Anfang wrote:

Satyr wrote:

Bought my son a PS4....nice technology.
I can now make my TV into a computer screen, and watch youtube vids on it.
I can also surf the net.
Oh yeah...and you can play games, watch home videos, listen to music etc.

If you like and haven't done so yet, you can also connect a (wireless bluetooth or usb) mouse and keyboard to the PS4 for ease of use with the web browser and youtube.

Oh, you can do that?
Haven't explored all the machines abilities.

Quote :

As for games -

Axiom Verge looks interesting



and
Apotheon



I like the music and the artwork.
But I haven't played neither of them so it's just hearsay.

Apparently there are sales on PSN from time to time where you can download games for less money.

I bought Skyrim and downloaded Risk....my son likes Sims4, but it's not out on PS4 yet.

I have to admit that I become bored of games fast.
That it can convert my television to a computer screen was the deciding selling point.

Satyr wrote:

Oh, you can do that?
Haven't explored all the machines abilities.

In that regard it comes pretty close to a home theatre PC in terms of how people usually use them and if it's the 'right' model of the PS4, the fan should also not be too loud. That's something which a HTPC is usually built to be - practically silent.

I got about 40 hours of entertainment from Diablo III on PS4 and Rocket League while staying with family. On PS3, the game "Journey" is a game I connected with (some don't and find it boring), you might or mightn't appreciate it, if it's available. It tries to tell a story without use of dialogue.

I generally play older games currently because of my laptop hardware (Counter-Strike: Source 'surfing' gamemode). At one point Rocket League on PC as well. If I were to play one of those big time-sink-and-grind games it would be Diablo III or Final Fantasy XIV on PS4. Skyrim is a pretty good choice, though, since they're going to be adding a lot of content to it later on.

I can't think of any other games, but I don't own a PS4. The Witcher series or Mount&Blade are decent, if those are available. I understand an aversion to games in general; growing up with them being 'cool', I tend to overlook the more 'grindy' and predictable parts. Nintendo actually provides a better 'gaming' experience in my opinion, but it lacks the open-ended features like becoming a computer, etc.

Anfang wrote:

Satyr wrote:

Oh, you can do that?
Haven't explored all the machines abilities.

In that regard it comes pretty close to a home theatre PC in terms of how people usually use them and if it's the 'right' model of the PS4, the fan should also not be too loud. That's something which a HTPC is usually built to be - practically silent.

It's Ps4 Pro...and I don't even hear the fan.
Paid $500...the lesser one was $300.

Slaughtz wrote:

I got about 40 hours of entertainment from Diablo III on PS4 and Rocket League while staying with family. On PS3, the game "Journey" is a game I connected with (some don't and find it boring), you might or mightn't appreciate it, if it's available. It tries to tell a story without use of dialogue.

I generally play older games currently because of my laptop hardware (Counter-Strike: Source 'surfing' gamemode). At one point Rocket League on PC as well. If I were to play one of those big time-sink-and-grind games it would be Diablo III or Final Fantasy XIV on PS4. Skyrim is a pretty good choice, though, since they're going to be adding a lot of content to it later on.

I can't think of any other games, but I don't own a PS4. The Witcher series or Mount&Blade are decent, if those are available. I understand an aversion to games in general; growing up with them being 'cool', I tend to overlook the more 'grindy' and predictable parts. Nintendo actually provides a better 'gaming' experience in my opinion, but it lacks the open-ended features like becoming a computer, etc.

Don't want my son to get into it too much.
But he's like me....not an addictive personality.
He actually tried to convince me not to buy it.
Considered building a gaming computer but the price would go up into the thousands.

I recently built a computer for myself.
I wanted it to be silent, cheap, upgradable, play all the current and old games in Full HD and have a purpose for it later in its lifespan.

So I bought an Intel G4560 Pentium CPU for 60$.
It will run pretty much all the current games.
It does however not have many reserves for future game demand.
It is the bottleneck in the build but it has the best performance/dollar in games and it’s incredibly low in power consumption (maybe 20 Watt under full load and close to zero in idle).
Furthermore it has support for HEVC codec up to 10bit colordepth and 4K - In other words it supports all the new video decoding standards which are becoming more prevalent in all the videos and streams. Hardware decoding for the HEVC means that the video playback is smooth, does not consume a lot of power and keeps the CPU free to use its cores for the other tasks.
While it only has 2 cores, it does have the hyper-threading feature and so can also run applications which require 4 (virtual) cores.


Mainboard - MSI B250 M Mortar for 88$
Solid build quality (Military Class 5). Steel reinforced PCI-E slot for heavy GPU cards, many USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, DVI and DP video output for use without GPU, sturdy PCB board, extra protections against electrical surges, very good and shielded digital to analogue sound chip.
So I expect longevity.

Most importantly a BIOS and temperature sensing fan-controller which allows to turn off system fans completely - 0 Volts/ 0 noise, depending on what profile you create for your fans.
Only drawback is that you can’t overclock or under-volt with the B250 chipset but with this CPU it’s not necessary and other Intel CPUs suffer from the “toothpaste” under the heat-spreader syndrome anyway so I don’t like overclocking Intel anyway and undervolting is not necessary with the out-of-the-box very efficient Intel CPUs.




CPU cooler: Be Quiet! - Pure Rock Slim - 25$
Because it is cheap and silent and cools the used CPU easily.

GPU - MSI GTX 1050Ti 4GB Gaming X OC - 165$
Because it’s very power efficient and silent, runs all the desired games and is more efficient at communicating with the CPU than current AMD cards which helps to relieve the CPU bottleneck a bit.



RAM - 8GB DDR4 Crucial - 2133Mhz, one stick - 50$
Because RAM is way too expensive at the moment so I went with the cheapest 8GB (minimum I’d use today) I could find. Gonna upgrade some years into the future.

HDD -
Some old 2.5 inch SATA drive I harvested from an old external usb HDD.
Because SSDs are also too expensive at the moment (cost almost twice what they cost a year ago).
And 2.5 inch drives are also pretty much silent, the 3.5 inch are often terrible noise wise.

Power Supply - 400W from Be Quiet (Pure Power series) -  55$
Because of the good build quality, efficient and practically silent.

The case was 75$

The advantages are that the computer is silent and very power efficient, maybe 30 Watt doing internet surfing, youtube watching or office work, maybe 120 Watt under full load. It was also quite inexpensive to build and plays all the current games in Full HD.
+ good quality components for (fingers crossed) longevity.

Try this site as well: https://pcpartpicker.com/
It gives you an extensive part list as well as most of the online vendors prices. I was building my pc a few years ago and it was very useful.

I remember bookmarking this page for when I buy a new PC or upgrade my current one:

http://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/wiki/builds

From what I understood, according to these guys you can get a PC that is actually better than the new consoles for under 500 dollars - the Crusher build, in particular.

apaosha wrote:

Try this site as well: https://pcpartpicker.com/

Looks like a good site.
If I'd build a computer with a higher price point and more focus on playing upcoming games then I'd pick a Ryzen R7 1700 CPU and a GTX 1060 or RX 580 with a potential GPU upgrade in a couple of years.

Satyr wrote:

Considered building a gaming computer but the price would go up into the thousands.

I would say you can get extremely good one for like 800 euros and in the end you will save a lot money on games. There are plenty of sites that sell extremely cheap game licenses and there are sales every single week.
https://www.kinguin.net
https://www.bundlestars.com/en/


Also you can buy a steamlink device (16€ on sale price) that you can use to play your steam purchased games on your living room TV with 60 fps. Another plus side is that PC's having game communities that fix game bugs and have free mods to improve the original game which is sometimes unplayable or unbalanced. Like for Skyrim you can download a mod which gives a ragdoll death animation (replaces the "twist" animation) or removes those annoying slow-motion kills cams.

Anfang wrote:

HDD -
Some old 2.5 inch SATA drive I harvested from an old external usb HDD.
Because SSDs are also too expensive at the moment (cost almost twice what they cost a year ago).
And 2.5 inch drives are also pretty much silent, the 3.5 inch are often terrible noise wise.

Power Supply - 400W from Be Quiet (Pure Power series) -  55$
Because of the good build quality, efficient and practically silent.

The case was 75$

The advantages are that the computer is silent and very power efficient, maybe 30 Watt doing internet surfing, youtube watching or office work, maybe 120 Watt under full load. It was also quite inexpensive to build and plays all the current games in Full HD.
+ good quality components for (fingers crossed) longevity.

I bought my 240 GB SSD few years ago for 100 € , I highly recommend installing the operating system on the SSD instead of HDD, it makes everything 90% faster. My PC reboots in 15 seconds, practically no loading screens (you rarely have time to read the loading screen text)...

HDMI supports only up to 60 fps so for competitive play 144hz monitor is a must, the prices have gone down this year on 144hz monitors.. No point of getting 4k monitor since they all are HDMI.

Jarno wrote:

I bought my 240 GB SSD few years ago for 100 € , I highly recommend installing the operating system on the SSD instead of HDD, it makes everything 90% faster. My PC reboots in 15 seconds, practically no loading screens (you rarely have time to read the loading screen text)...

HDMI supports only up to 60 fps so for competitive play 144hz monitor is a must, the prices have gone down this year on 144hz monitors.. No point of getting 4k monitor since they all are HDMI.

I'll switch to a SSD some time soon. I expect the prices to drop again in half a year to a year.
I bought a 240GB SSD for 60€ a year ago for my parents and when I built mine about a month ago I'd have paid a 100€ for it. Now it's about 90€ so it's already getting cheaper again.

For competitive gaming on a budget I'd have gone for a 144Hz Freesync monitor and a RX 580. Undervolt it a bit to make it more power efficient and cooler and quieter. But I find that I don't play that many games nowadays and when I do it's usually older ones, those I played when I was younger.

Did try Apotheon and Axiome Verge for 10 minutes each and I can't recommend them.

Apotheon annoys with too many 'quests' and talking (no good in a 2D action side-scroller) and the fighting has its moments but it's also clunky. Another bad impression is that I didn't die in those 10 minutes while I was bumbling around way too much - that's not a good sign. Also the dialogue is terrible and the voice acting reminds me of some Medieval LARPing Brits while the game is set in ancient Greece. Music and art style is good but at the same time is the art style often confusing when it comes to reading and navigating the environment.

Axiom Verge I didn't like because of the art style, the music and the strangely looking protagonist. Gameplay was okay but also lacking in the details (no inertia in the movement for example, all very twitchy if that makes sense).

What I can recommend is Dead Cells.
The gameplay is what is interesting itself in this side-scrolling action game.
It's about pattern recognition and you can and will get better at it - so there is actually something to master in the core gameplay. It's in Early-Access on Steam. May come to the PS4 in the future but nothing confirmed yet.



And very good pixel art.

After not having played anything for months, I decided to take up Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

It's an RPG set in the same universe as the Heroes of Might and Magic games. Good game, I rate 8/10, would recommend. Short and sweet.

Funny:

Sins of a Solar Empire

Slow paced Real-Time-Strategy game with some 4X game elements.
It’s about colonising planets for tax income, mining minerals from asteroids, building up a fleet and conquering the competition.



Planets have a surrounding gravity well, a surrounding space within which the space combat takes place. The various planets are connected with other planets via lanes along which ships can travel faster than within a gravity well but not fight each other.
To get to the point of writing this, there is also a game mechanic of culture spreading along those lanes.

You do this by placing structures like a broadcast centre within a gravity well which will make your “culture” spread along the lanes from that planet to other planets and beyond, connected to it. If your culture is strong enough in a place a planet under enemy control will revolt and control will be lost.



There are three races in the game.

TEC (Trader Emergency Coalition) - a kind of commercial empire, the eternal Anglos of space being in a state of continuous emergency apparently.

Advent -  also called The Unity, an empire based on spiritualism and psychic powers, an overtly feminine civilisation.

Vasari - a formerly powerful alien empire, displaced from their home by an unknown threat, now entering and colonising TEC space, the “fascists” in the game.


Here is the described technology that they use to spread their culture.

The TEC use broadcast centres structures to spread their culture/influence.
To enhance this they research the technologies -
Addictive Consumerism (Pervasive datamining of consumer purchase habits leads to highly effective marketing campaigns….)
Cultural Monopolisation (Key exclusive distribution contacts are negotiated, resulting in consumer products made by your companies dominating foreign markets…)
Critical Mass (Specific campaigns for local markets improves product penetration…)
Foreign Sabotage (Labor market interference slows ship and structure production at enemy planets under the influence of your empire’s culture)
Insurgency (Other empires will suffer periodic attacks by liberating forces as oppressed Trader civilians across the sector take up arms and rebel against them)


The Advent build the temple of communion as their culture spreading structure.
The technologies to research for it -
Zealous Worship
Confluence of the Unity
Unwavering Belief
False Belief Monitoring
Wall of Faith
Eyes of the Converted (Thanks to distant believers into The Unity, your empire gains detection of any planet under the dominion of your culture)
Total Assimilation


The Vasari build the media hub as a structure and the technologies are -
Compelling propaganda
Regimented Thought (Domestic suppression forces are deployed to monitor behaviour and silence criticism of your empire, giving an impression of support for your empire’s occupation)
Shock and Awe
Cunning Sympathisers (Traitors from the enslaved populace infiltrate many remaining resistance movements and subvert their efforts to promote discontent of your empire)



Those culture technologies don’t say much about the culture, they are just means to promote the culture. I also think that we live in times where the culture is so debased that it’s not even much talk about what the culture is (some say it doesn’t even exist anyway when it suits their ends, lol) more so about how people are to be convinced about adopting this “culture”. This how-to becomes what the culture is in public discourse. Deracinated, willing to submit to any dominant force which lets them live a life of at least mental comfort.

Don't get a Xbox One controller for PC.
This controller makes you dumber, just by using it. I'm being serious.
The thumbsticks are way too far protruding and the trigger arrangement makes you claw it like you would if you had no fine finger and hand control.

Anfang wrote:

Don't get a Xbox One controller for PC.
This controller makes you dumber, just by using it. I'm being serious.
The thumbsticks are way too far protruding and the trigger arrangement makes you claw it like you would if you had no fine finger and hand control.

I have 360 controller (wireless) and it's perfect. I think it's the only decent controller since even Playstation 3 controllers are not compatible with all games. I have not tried the steam controller though.

Jarno wrote:

Anfang wrote:

Don't get a Xbox One controller for PC.
This controller makes you dumber, just by using it. I'm being serious.
The thumbsticks are way too far protruding and the trigger arrangement makes you claw it like you would if you had no fine finger and hand control.

I have 360 controller (wireless) and it's perfect. I think it's the only decent controller since even Playstation 3 controllers are not compatible with all games. I have not tried the steam controller though.

I have no 360 controller myself but I've used one for a day or so. I remember it being better than the Xbox One controller.

I've used the PS3 controller on PC with a certain driver and so far it was no problem, except that the input prompts on screen don't match the symbols on your controller but you can sometimes mod the game to change the displayed symbols or you get used to it.

What I also don't like about the Xbox One is how loud the thumbsticks clack against the plastic when you use them. I remember thinking that the 360 controller has better precision with the thumbstick than the PS3 but I don't think so about the Xbox One controller. It's like the controller was designed for people without fine motor skills.

Playstation 3 is now finally downgrade-able via software, at least the majority of consoles in circulation.
Tried it myself and it worked. That tutorial contains all the details and steps necessary.

I think that the game as a "toy" describes the trend in modern video games.
It's an infantilisation -> moving backwards in development.

Game with rules, objectives, development of strategies.
One step below, listening to a narrative, a story.
Below that, shaking a rattle.

STALKER in a nutshell:

FUNNY STALKER VIDS:

I really gotta play STALKER again haha.

It seems Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the new Witcher 3 which refused to add any people of color
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

I was surprised that it was doing that well.

I think RPGs are very popular and it seems to be mostly free of poz.

I think all those "SJW" types in and surrounding the games industry are there because they have (((sponsors))) at the top, otherwise I don't see how this infestation could take place unless the bugman has really become such a prevalent and dominant type by itself. Most people dislike bug people on a personal basis so I suspect it must be due to (((sponsors))) ultimately at the very top.
People like Ko-tick I imagine.

Jarno wrote:

It seems Kingdom Come: Deliverance is the new Witcher 3 which refused to add any people of color
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

I pre-ordered it. This was funded by people and not corporations. It gives the designer freedom to envision precisely their imagination, which involved no black people because there were no black people in medieval fantasies. Shocking. If an African makes an all black movie its all sorts of "understandable", but a European makes an all white one.. Oh..

Any thought-policing vermin calling it racist, as an American turn of phrase, needs to be shot. I have had writers express gratitude to me before for verbally defending their creative right to put any characters they want of any amount of skin coloration without being assaulted in such a manner. That is, giving tolerance to artists and not these little tyrants behind their celebrity gossip articles, hiding behind the first amendment here in the US which they encourage to push aside whenever convenient.

I've been playing recently a lot EU 4 as papal state...First try I did really well, then Castile and Aragon united and they attacked me and ruined everything. Then I tried to start over like 10 times and I couldn't do the same thing again, I couldn't conquer anything because Austria wasn't busy waging wars. Excommunication didn't help at all against Florence or Ferrara or Lucca...They all were protected by Austria if I was to declare a war on them, YET they could attack/conquer each other without Austria getting involved (makes sense). So then I heard there is this Rights of Man DLC where you can break alliances between different nations so it's basically impossible to play without this. Then it often bothers me that Ottomans get so strong so I guess I have to get cradle of civilization as well to make Mameluks more powerful and keep Ottomans busy. Cossack DLC I think I only buy the unit pack since some don't like the DLC itself.

So...Another DLC, it seems they censor negative comments quite actively...I just commented on steam, joking, without implicating anything that " so when are we going to get those long awaited loot boxes? " and my comment got removed in less than 3 minutes, this was before I was thinking anything negative about them, don't feel like buying anything now (now it's on sale 9 € euros for being able to break alliances, 13 euros for making mameluks stronger)

In certain ways Europa Universalis IV is in its mechanics a very classically liberal game.

From what I understand you can conquer territories from different nations, usually with different cultures (different kinds of ethnicities usually). The game recognises that there are difficulties associated with integrating such new territories with different cultures in it, resulting in chances of uprisings, revolts, lowered economic efficiency and so on. But then you can invest gold (money) and administrative power (ideological/intellectual power generated in your nation) to transform these newly gained territories and integrate them harmoniously into your empire over time (decades).

Making them adopt your culture and religion.