Unified Vidya Games thread

[altered]

I’ve been homeless again. Right now I have no internet (on my phone here) and so so so much free time in an unfurnished basement (my joints are death and if I had 500 dollars I’d be buying some of that ultra light camping equipment to get a chair, table and cot because lord I’m desperate rn) so I’ve been playing Tyranny finally.

I actually REALLY like the worldbuilding. Like... it’s obviously a pretty crap CRPG in gameplay terms, but the worldbuilding is really well done. Of course, the worldbuilding is also sort of a blatant pastiche of BioWare and Bethesda properties, so it sort of was inevitable that it would be good.

The plot isn’t too bad either: incompetence, selfishness and egotistical bullshit is the order of the day, just like real life.

Most interesting of all to me, I actually... don’t really hate Kyros? There’s a lot of weird shit about that. I don’t really know how to feel about it.




I’ve also been playing more Phoenix Point, which is really worthwhile for anyone who likes Firaxis XCOM type gameplay, but wishes it was a bit more detailed and nuanced. No XCOM classic level, but still, not insignificant amounts of added control.

I find the smaller maps and shorter mission structure greatly benefits it as well compared to the XCOM formula. It’s at its slowest in the story missions, but the most tedious Phoenix Point mission is an order of magnitude more sensible than the snappiest XCOM 2 mission.

An example: Clearing the Phoenix base in the tutorial (the most mindnumbingly tedious mission I’ve played so far) compares favorably to XCOM 2s Operation Gatecrasher — the NON tutorial one. Yes, really.

There’s also some really good sorta zone defense type missions and while there are definitely rough edges and it’s obvious the developers were not able to include everything they wanted, it STILL stands out as an impressive game to me. And there’s more DLC to come besides.

If it included the XCOM 2 character pool and allow for full visual modification of your troops like in XCOM 2, I think it would handily beat that game.

[Cain]

I have heard good things about Tyranny. I picked it up for free from the Epic store, but I've not yet committed myself to sitting down and giving it a playthrough

[chaotic neutral observer]

I've been playing some Frostpunk, lately.  It's a survival city-simulator with a steampunk aesthetic, where some sort of cataclysm has caused the global climate to cool drastically.  The temperature starts at -20 C...and then drops from there.

The ostensible object of the game is to keep your people warm, fed and healthy, while meeting certain objectives that are thrown at you.  In reality, though, the game is about managing hope and discontent.  It doesn't matter if everyone is alive, and you're producing enough raw materials to keep everything going; if your people are angry about extended hours, cold workplaces, and being fed nothing but thin soup, there's a real possibility you'll find yourself kicked out into the frozen wasteland.  Sure, you could shorten working hours...and risk a coal shortfall which causes the generator to shut off in the middle of the night...and then everything freezes, people start getting sick, your medical posts are overwhelmed, and production drops even further.

It's a fun game, and a pretty decent challenge on the higher difficulty settings.  There's not a tremendous amount of replay value once you've finished the main scenarios, though.

[Junkenstein]

I have heard good things about Tyranny. I picked it up for free from the Epic store, but I've not yet committed myself to sitting down and giving it a playthrough

Have you given this a fair try yet? I quite liked it, and there are a few nice "betrayal! moments. Which only happen if you really look for them, but that's actually quite nicely done too.

[Cain]

No, my computer died for a bit, so I'm trying to finish my Mass Effect trilogy vanguard playthrough (which isn't too far off) and grinding hard in ESO when I'm not (Elsweyr celebration = double drops on dragons = get rich quick scheme). But once Mass Effect is finished I'll either sit down and play that or Pathfinder: Kingmaker.

[Cain]

Might upload me soloing some ESO dungeons here. Just did the Undaunted event (extra loot drops on dungeons) and I soloed a lot of them on normal on my Templar, just because.

Soloing normal dungeons isn't any great feat for a mildly optimised character, but it might be fun for someone to watch. And Templar is good for soloing because you have great sustain, a powerful spammable ability, a lot of resistances and can easily purge negative effects, all while outputting decent damage.

[rong]

i used to play Shadowgate but I've kinda gotten out of games since then

[Cramulus]

I LOVED shadowgate. I can still hear the music.

My mom is not a gamer, but back in the early 90s, she loved Tetris... and Shadowgate.

She was obsessed with Shadowgate for a little while. I remember her beating it while the rest of the family clawed their faces off.

[rong]

I LOVED shadowgate. I can still hear the music.

My mom is not a gamer, but back in the early 90s, she loved Tetris... and Shadowgate.

She was obsessed with Shadowgate for a little while. I remember her beating it while the rest of the family clawed their faces off.

As I've gotten older I've come to realize that my favorite thing about my favorite video games was the music. 

Edit- man, you ain't kidding.  I confess, Cain's poat reminded me of the game, but it took a little googling to figure out what it was called.  I couldn't recall the music, so I decided to listen to it on my way home from work.  I found a youtube video of the game play.  It's a little off putting at first but it really does get pretty cool after awhile.  I hope I'm not just exploiting some sort of long form neurological feedback loop that just makes me think it's good music because it's a nearly forgotten childhood memory.  Either way, A+ enjoyable time.  Will def listen again

[Cain]

Soloing time

Fungal Grotto I
Banished Cells I
Spindleclutch I
Darkshade Caverns I
Wayrest Sewers I
Elden Hollow I
Crypt of Hearts I
Elden Hollow II
Tempest Island
Blessed Crucible

So the build here is an Imperial stamina templar. Imperials get no significantly crazy bonuses, but they do get extra health, extra stamina and cost reduction for all abilities.

This stacks very well with the Templar, who also gets cost reduction for all abilities, in addition from good sustain from the rune (that returns stamina). This allows me to use the New Moon's Acolyte set, that gives a significant 400+ weapon damage bonus, but increases the cost of all abilities by 5%. I can then stack damage bonuses Briarheart and from Fighters Guild passives on top of that to build a fairly hard-hitting class. The Templar's healing ability also purges negative effects in addition to scaling healing according to your max damage stat, whether it's physical or magical, making it very well suited to defense. Finally the Templar spears are unique in that they're the only area of effect class spammable ability in the game, allowing the Templar to do to groups of enemies what most stamina classes can only do to a single one at a time.

[Cain]

So I did finally get around to some hardcore Wrath of the Righteous gaming over Christmas, and I am here to report that the Siege of Drezen music is fucking awesome.

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