Computer Games

[noddy]

ive moved on to AOE4.

not sure yet, RTS has always been a touch and go issue for me, I enjoy much of it, but get my feathers ruffled at the relentless micro managing of things like villager production.

still early days yet.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

It sounds exciting!

I've read what seems like a lot of nitpicking and disappointment from expectations set too high.

My own disappointment is reading that one can't double-stack walls and buildings anymore.

Slowing the game down and winning by monopolizing resources/frustrating opponents was always my favorite strategy and that required lotsa maze building, deception and defense that relied on double-stacking.

[noddy]

at another stage of my life I would have got into that.

for now, Im playing the single player campaign on easy.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I'm sure the meta-game exploits are already making it difficult to find enjoyable competition.

[noddy]

ive decided the problem i have with these games is they are the most fun when you are just doing things in your own time, experimenting with the sandbox but the realities of PvP games, or single player against higher difficulties is it quickly becomes the meta-game and how quickly you can execute the checklist.

for me, thats just work, not entertainment.

i am still enjoying the single player campaign in easy - its not very punishing about dropping the ball on the production of villagers/units.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Precisely when the illusions of choice and dynamics largely collapse.

It's combining the memorization of chess but stripped of strategic diversity.

Not to take away from the metagamers, some of the exploits and observations are extremely impressive, especially when one finds something novel and off the wall-- like it was mined -- but it's exhausting.

----------------------

I'm glad to hear the single player is good, btw.

[noddy]

I'm glad to hear the single player is good, btw.

so far its been fun and stands a good chance of lasting for most of the 2 months I have left on the xbox pass thing, which is nice.

its structured as a history lesson, which i often skip the video story of, so its a mix of sometimes doing the town building and sometimes just being given a famous battle scenario, in which everything is already built.

you can then experiment with the various rock paper scissors strategies and troop tactics.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I've not purchased it yet but I'm champing at the bit.

Now, I've received the game but have not had time to play it! Alas, the dilemmas of life.

I'm hoping in a day or two to finally get around to it.

[noddy]

Im currently digging through all the end of year sales, trying to upgrade my gaming and music laptop to something modern in the $2k AU range.

tried Journey to a Savage Planet out because it was free as an enticement to join some gaming service.

was almost good, but had a nicely done adventure, puzzle game that got ruined by a substandard combat shooting game being tacked on top.

am currently trying Outer Wilds but its a hard slog, not sure im going to keep at it - controls are very poor and if the game is good, I cant tell because im too busy shouting at the sluggish systems.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

rSaEYgGEW6k

This is the current go-to game round here. I've not tried it myself but it was a hit on Christmas, and the quick jump in/jump out mini challenges are proving popular.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Godot Engine- Free and Open Source 2d and 3d Game Engine

Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.

Godot is completely free and open-source under the very permissive MIT license. No strings attached, no royalties, nothing. Your game is yours, down to the last line of engine code.

[noddy]

Godot Engine- Free and Open Source 2d and 3d Game Engine

Godot provides a huge set of common tools, so you can just focus on making your game without reinventing the wheel.

Godot is completely free and open-source under the very permissive MIT license. No strings attached, no royalties, nothing. Your game is yours, down to the last line of engine code.

I downloaded and played with that a few months back, it seemed quite a cool thing for doing indie games - all the tools for 2d and simple 3d.

I was kinda hoping my life would be such I could do a little fps in it sooner rather than later but at this stage its looking like later

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Gvn9Pg4lUy8

[noddy]

dunkey is the kind of content creators (tm).

for godot I found this guy who is moderately entertaining and informative

https://www.youtube.com/c/Garbaj/videos

[noddy]

while burning through the last month of my game pass.

Halo Infinite: got a small way through the campaign, gave up, its not bad, its just a bit nothing.
Gunk: very simmilar to Savage Planet, cutesy adventure game, doesnt seem to have combat tacked on, which is a plus
Outriders: shite action shooter thing like gears of war, didnt finish the introduction.
The Ascent: visually stunning, really amazing art work, gameplay weak.
Serious Sam 4: b grade shooter, but no story and reasonably polished bullet hell gameplay, good for 10 minute blasts

free on epic.

Tomb Raider shadow something: havent uninstalled it yet, but the ratio of walking and cutscenes to actual game will likely trigger that soon. the graphics are stunning.

sales on gog.

I lashed out on the meme that is Cyberpunk 2077 now that its only $40 aud, I wanted a latest gen game to test my new fancy laptop out, and its certainly a cracker for that.

now that its a year later, I havent noticed any real bugs and its got incredible ray traced lighting and shinyness.

the game itself is more of an adventure shooter thing than an RPG, which suits me fine, so the biggest source of salty criticism is not a downside to me - i couldnt care less about how branching the dialog is or how the fancy dress systems work.

its mostly like prettier fallout with less walking, which is a win in my book.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I've have this itch to play Resident Evil, anyone of 0, 1 or 4.

They seem to be on sale almost constantly, but the price is set just over the line of what I'd want to pay. The two dollar gap is very wide indeed.

[noddy]

I played the PS3 era of Res Evil, cant say I got into it - vageuly remember the first one on a PS1 at a friends house back in they day, very much an oddball thing from the era before mechanics and controls were sorted out.

ive made my first steps towards learning Godot, followed a few tutorials - also am building a CSG programmating modelling generator thing for other reasons, hoping to "mesh" (boom tish) those together.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

I never tried the PS 3 games. We didn't come across a a ps3 until well after its expiration date and the turn to all out action past 4 didn't seem that appealing.

I'd go to bat for that oddball original with the tank controls, prerendered backgrounds, extremely cheesy story and everything. It's one of a handful of ps1 games I have any memory of-- and probably only one that can be appropriately called a survival horror game, as it was so easy to run out of ammunition and save ribbons [limiting the ability to save the game].

Which is why its funny to say that if I'm being critical of myself, I don't think there really is a price I'd pay to play any of those games again-- which is quite the conundrum and probably why its been on my mind. None of them have been updated all that much, as far as I'm aware- maybe it would be one thing if they were redone as to play at a consistent 60 fps with no loading times. Even then, I'd still be reluctant.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

ive made my first steps towards learning Godot, followed a few tutorials - also am building a CSG programmating modelling generator thing for other reasons, hoping to "mesh" (boom tish) those together.

Sounds exciting, I bookmarked that godot tutorial youtube channel, I just haven't gotten around to actually checking it out. Hah.

Do you have an end goal in mind if you pull off the merger?

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

while burning through the last month of my game pass.

Halo Infinite: got a small way through the campaign, gave up, its not bad, its just a bit nothing.
Gunk: very simmilar to Savage Planet, cutesy adventure game, doesnt seem to have combat tacked on, which is a plus
Outriders: shite action shooter thing like gears of war, didnt finish the introduction.
The Ascent: visually stunning, really amazing art work, gameplay weak.
Serious Sam 4: b grade shooter, but no story and reasonably polished bullet hell gameplay, good for 10 minute blasts

free on epic.

Tomb Raider shadow something: havent uninstalled it yet, but the ratio of walking and cutscenes to actual game will likely trigger that soon. the graphics are stunning.

sales on gog.

I lashed out on the meme that is Cyberpunk 2077 now that its only $40 aud, I wanted a latest gen game to test my new fancy laptop out, and its certainly a cracker for that.

now that its a year later, I havent noticed any real bugs and its got incredible ray traced lighting and shinyness.

the game itself is more of an adventure shooter thing than an RPG, which suits me fine, so the biggest source of salty criticism is not a downside to me - i couldnt care less about how branching the dialog is or how the fancy dress systems work.

its mostly like prettier fallout with less walking, which is a win in my book.

Did you stick with Cyberpunk 2077?

My brother was saying how disappointing Halo Infinite played, and it wasn't that it was terrible but that it definitely lacked any sense of direction or purpose (other than Microsoft needing it to sell gamepass).

He particularly didn't care for multiplayer (though he seems to be in the minority of halo fans on that) and doesn't think Infinite being a decade long service does it any favors.

[noddy]

Do you have an end goal in mind if you pull off the merger?

not really - I was working on the CSG generator for a work related project and it was the act of being able to programmatically generate content that gave me the inspiration to learn how to drive that from Godot.

I dont like random generated things, but carefully tweeking a controlled generation towards an outcome is the only way i could seriously take on the workload of making a game by myself, around real work, relationships and existing hobbies.

first step is to get code generating levels, next step is getting a first person viewpoint walking around those in Godot - first person to avoid needing a character model.

if it can make those 2 steps happen as purely techincal excercise im hoping somewhere along the line I get inspired as to what it should be.

[noddy]

Did you stick with Cyberpunk 2077?

so far, I have, and im still enjoying it.

it breaks all my usual predjucies actually - its stunning to look at, really amazingly stunning (*) and its very story and character driven and so far thats been done well enough to not bore me.

the mechanics are neither here nor there, the action is barely passable, the rpg elements of managing the inventory and upgrade trees borderline chore like.

so out of nowhere its my main game , Im just enjoying my little 20 minute bursts in my spare moments - do a few side quests on the way to a main quest and call it a night.

I can sorta understand why the hardcore RPG types dont like it but I really couldnt give a lavender about their problems - Im not the person who plays the damn thing for 1000 hours and wants to milk every possible conversation tree and possible outcome.

(*) because my new laptop has the 3070 card with DLSS and ray tracing support.. its not stunning to look at without those.

My brother was saying how disappointing Halo Infinite played, and it wasn't that it was terrible but that it definitely lacked any sense of direction or purpose (other than Microsoft needing it to sell gamepass).

He particularly didn't care for multiplayer (though he seems to be in the minority of halo fans on that) and doesn't think Infinite being a decade long service does it any favors.

yeh this was my feeling - it had that open world, copy and paste a bunch of "base battles" with a too boring to care scifi war story connecting them.

so for that to work, I would have to really enjoy the mechanics - the movement, the shooting, the primal things and they were also very bland and generic.

millitary shooters are so boring, the thin sprinkle of scifi on top wasnt enough to hide the brown sludge underneath.

ive been off multiplayer for years, barring a dabble now and then in a game I did like, but now i live in the middle of nowhere on radio internet its not even possible to play even if I did want to.

so multiplayer is not just ignored, its irrelevant.

[noddy]

The best bit of the steamdeck is the effort being put into porting games to the virtual windows system - proton.

I just set up the beta of steam on my main linux box to see how its going and now 265 out of 266 games are claiming to possibly work.

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Did you stick with Cyberpunk 2077?

the mechanics are neither here nor there, the action is barely passable, the rpg elements of managing the inventory and upgrade trees borderline chore like.

So it's the Witcher?

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Steam Deck Running the Gamecube and Wii Emulator Dolphin

I'm not so interested in gamecube and wii emulation as much as ps3 and ds/3ds emulation

I heard it is ps3 capable...how capable, I don't know. No word has come my way on how it handles the ds/3ds stuff.