The Videogames Tab

Tools    





I love it. The game is really, really conducive to emergent and evocative stories like that, for sure.

Even injured, it might have been worth tracking the injured wolf. They leave blood trails if you hurt them bad enough and you'd get a lot of meat, leather, and gut for your trouble. Also, IIRC wolves track you better and notice you easier if you're bleeding (and/or carrying uncooked meat), so that might explain why you ran into another after all that.

I'm guessing you were in the lumberyard, at the base of the mountain? If so there's some stuff nearby you might want to check out. If you came to it via the main train tracks you would've already passed it...



The People's Republic of Clogher
Bought Hitman 2. Have played a few hours of Hitman 2.

Have not played any of the actual Hitman 2 content yet.

If you own the GOTY edition of the previous game, you get access to the old maps in the new engine and I've been replaying them again. That is one helluva game.

__________________
"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan



I really need to go back and play the previous one. I bought it because on paper it seems like I should love it, and you loved it, too. I tried the training mission and for some reason I just wasn't enjoying it. I think maybe I just need to get used to the mechanics, because I spent so much time trying to do things as opposed to deciding what to do, and I have little to no experience with the franchise.

Still plan to go back to it. I think the thing is, my instinct in most games is to do safe things after lots of preparation, whereas maybe these games are more about taking chances with quick, furtive, high-risk chances.



The People's Republic of Clogher
My big recommendation would be to pick one of the missions in a main map - Paris is the first one - and let the game guide you through. That way you can get a feel for mechanics and awful lot quicker than trying things out for yourself after going in cold. Hitman's great at that.



A system of cells interlinked
I love it. The game is really, really conducive to emergent and evocative stories like that, for sure.

Even injured, it might have been worth tracking the injured wolf. They leave blood trails if you hurt them bad enough and you'd get a lot of meat, leather, and gut for your trouble. Also, IIRC wolves track you better and notice you easier if you're bleeding (and/or carrying uncooked meat), so that might explain why you ran into another after all that.

I'm guessing you were in the lumberyard, at the base of the mountain? If so there's some stuff nearby you might want to check out. If you came to it via the main train tracks you would've already passed it...
I think the place was called "Clearcut." I had spawned near a frozen lake where I found the hatchet in a little guard post looking structure, then I went a bit past that and found a small cabin with an outhouse and a couple of frozen people in the snow. Judging by the surveying I did then, and where the surveying I did near my new spawn point appeared, it looks like I was in the center North-ish area of the Mystery Lake map the first time, and now I am lower and to the West at the trapper's cabin, which has a lean-to near it.

I hadn't thought to keep after a wolf when I fought them...I just try to get the heck out of Dodge asap. Thanks for the tip!
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
It may already be painfully obvious how mah brahn werkx

Saw the news about Sony skipping E3 2019 the other day. Who cares about not showing off a bunch of t.v.'s ? Big whoop.




“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
One year later, NFS Payback is $20


One year, one month later, GT Sport is $20


Living in a RDR world, where I can't justify spending $20 for games that won't get played.



“Sugar is the most important thing in my life…”
Just started a multi-part mission that involves "borrowing" a stagecoach from a "place" with a bunch of armed guards. One can easily hop in, get the thing and run off... Nope. I played out a scenario and re-loaded, played and re-loaded, played and.... trying to perfect a strategy to eliminate everyone. Bow and arrow stealth kills were soon ruled out, because you would always be discovered. Run and gun infilitration? Big Negative.


What followed was a calculated assault from behind cover with a rifle. When clear, remaining guards were dispatched with a pump-action shotgun that was found during another "homestead" invasion mission.



Why all the trouble? I really wanted to have a look around this place and the guards would not oblige me. Of course there was an office tucked away in the corner, but unfortunately there was no golden goose for all the trouble.


I think this sums up the appeal of this type of R* game. The ability to alter missions into something else, while still completing the objectives.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Got Bulletstorm: Full Clip on PS Plus. Thought it was a sequel, didn't realize it was just a revamp. Oh well, still a fun game.
__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews



A system of cells interlinked
All set up in my new base!



Still clicking along on my first attempt at Survival Mode. I think I am about 8-9 days in at this point, and have explored most of the bottom and right side of the map. I had set off to explore from the Trapper's Homestead, and ended up stumbling around at night freezing my hands off (I had no gloves at that point). I managed to find some train tracks and decided to follow them in hope of finding shelter. I found a wrecked train and a bit further down, a train engine, inside which I camped for the night, scrounging what I could for wood to get a fire going to warm up a bit.

When morning came, I explored quite a bit more, surveying as I went. Eventually I managed to find a dam and a large building and some trailers. Inside was a ton of useful stuff, including a hatchet and pry bar. I set off in a different direction after a couple days there, and next came upon mystery lake itself, a bunch of fishing huts, and the camp office, shown above. I am in pretty good shape, currently!



The Camp Office is exactly the place I was thinking of/hinting around about re: finding a good shelter to start. Nice job! You can practice fishing from around there, too. Eventually you'll have to move on, but it's a great place to get a foot hold before deciding when to venture into a new area. My longest stretch came in an adjacent area to Mystery Lake, though. Tougher in some ways but you can definitely hunker down in some other places.

Surprised you were able to get through the night by the train without incident. There's very often a wolf around that overturned car!

Anything, uh, interesting happen in the dam, by the way?



Anyway, now that I've played a few dozen hours of Fallout 76 I've got a pretty good handle on what is and isn't working, and what needs to change for it to stay fun.

The bad news is there's a lot of ways in which the satisfying gameplay loop is interrupted or hamstrung, and I feel like I'm fighting the game (in a bad way) way too much. The good news is most of the things I'm annoyed by are quality of life things that could very plausible be fixed over the next couple of months. This article does a very good job of summarizing the issues. It grates only a little in moderate bursts, but over this weekend, where I probably played over half a dozen hours, it's a lot more noticeable.

I was thinking about all this and becoming a little disillusioned, but the game really saved itself when I hopped on for a bit to scavenge wood, and someone launched a nuke! It was my first time seeing it, and as it so happens I was right on the edge of the blast zone. I told my friend, he jumped into my server, and I went into it. They nailed it. It's so cool. It feels totally epic, especially because half the server rushes into the blast zone and everyone fights the high level creatures together, and scavenges all the rare materials. After we took down a Scorchbeast and cleared out the site, everyone went up to a small cliff above it and gestured to everyone in the area to come over for a photo. Really fun! And eerily beautiful:








A system of cells interlinked
The Camp Office is exactly the place I was thinking of/hinting around about re: finding a good shelter to start. Nice job! You can practice fishing from around there, too. Eventually you'll have to move on, but it's a great place to get a foot hold before deciding when to venture into a new area. My longest stretch came in an adjacent area to Mystery Lake, though. Tougher in some ways but you can definitely hunker down in some other places.

Surprised you were able to get through the night by the train without incident. There's very often a wolf around that overturned car!

Anything, uh, interesting happen in the dam, by the way?
I slept in the train car that had a little gate on it, so nothing could get in, perhaps? I did wake up in the middle of my rest freezing my ass off, and had to start another fire, though...

I did get attacked outside the dam by one of the trailers, but otherwise don't recall anything out of the ordinary happening there. I just found a ton of awesome stuff!



Ah. I wonder if they changed that. There used to be a wolf attack that either always happened when you entered the dam, or almost always. The community named him Fluffy. It made a big impression because at that point everyone was used to thinking of indoors as being safe.



A system of cells interlinked
Ah. I wonder if they changed that. There used to be a wolf attack that either always happened when you entered the dam, or almost always. The community named him Fluffy. It made a big impression because at that point everyone was used to thinking of indoors as being safe.
Is there more than one entrance? If I recall, I was in the "Upper Dam" area. Is there a lower dam?



If you entered from Mystery Lake (by the bridge), that should be the "standard" entrance. I wonder if there's just a percentage chance it happens, or if maybe they removed it. You're on the mode that has wolves in general, yeah? Maybe they just moved it to a tougher mode, hm. Anyway, as freaky and frustrating as it was, it was kind of a great moment just because you realize you'd assumed animals never go inside but didn't have a good reason for it, especially since the main room downstairs has an open window that explains how it might have gotten in.



A system of cells interlinked
If you entered from Mystery Lake (by the bridge), that should be the "standard" entrance. I wonder if there's just a percentage chance it happens, or if maybe they removed it. You're on the mode that has wolves in general, yeah? Maybe they just moved it to a tougher mode, hm. Anyway, as freaky and frustrating as it was, it was kind of a great moment just because you realize you'd assumed animals never go inside but didn't have a good reason for it, especially since the main room downstairs has an open window that explains how it might have gotten in.
Yea, I have wolves. After your advice about chasing them to get meat etc., I have been almost actively seeking them out as a food source, as they tend to provide quite a bit. It took me an encounter or two to figure out they eventually hobble around and fall over on their own - the first couple of times, I chased them down and actively engaged them again, which tended to get me injured more.



there's a frog in my snake oil
I read some dev post-mortems. They were fun. If you like that sort of thing

Thief

System Shock 2

EDIT:

Oh damn, there's one for Magicka. I know what I'm reading next
__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here



I'm not old, you're just 12.
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is the game I'm playing currently. It's so much fun, like a LOTR version of Assassin's Creed. I love the open world Mordor, and all the devious ways you can kill off orcs.
__________________
"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

https://shawnsmovienight.blogspot.com/



there's a frog in my snake oil
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor is the game I'm playing currently. It's so much fun, like a LOTR version of Assassin's Creed. I love the open world Mordor, and all the devious ways you can kill off orcs.
Hey Mp!

Best generic-innovative game of recent years I reckon

There's some fun powers that unlock further down the road

---

The power-up scaling just made me think of this fun bit in the Majicka post-mortem I just read, on ignoring common knowledge:

As Magicka was developed to be a niche game, it was easy to filter and dismiss "incorrect" feedback from certain well-established people that knew the industry better.

"You'll have to remove friendly fire," "you can't let the player begin with all elements, he should have to find them throughout the game," and "players should be able to hotkey their favorite spells so that they don't have to press several buttons just to do one attack," were several of the suggestions we heard.

All of these suggestions directly interfered with the main design philosophies at Arrowhead and would've diluted our vision for Magicka and made it a carbon copy of so many other titles.
Anyone who knows the game will know they were right to ignore that advice

(Good little read otherwise. Young teams coming close to the financial edge, and 'grinding' their way into and out of problems, are def themes in these post-mortems...)