Happy Sunday everyone. Hope everyone has had a refreshing weekend. I have been playing minecraft and Disco Elysium this past week.

  • SpiderFarmer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    11 hours ago

    I played a couple rounds of Kill Team with my friend to see if it was to my liking. Once the flow state kicked in, I was super engaged. Beastmen are super fun and I hope we eventually get a Loyalist equivalent, considering my love for more obscure units and alien races in that game.

  • sneak100 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    12 hours ago

    Finished Metaphor demo, now I’m having an internal struggle session over if I should buy it or not, because it’s so fucking expensive. The closest is probably Super Mario Galaxy 2 at launch price, but I don’t think I’ve ever spent this much money on a game. But the story has drawn me in like nothing has in a while. But the swimsuit fairy character is cringe and keeps reminding me that I’m not a cis man freeze-gamer by throwing out lines like “I’m not nagging but…” cringe But I’m excited to take down the weapons manufacturers that test their igniters on minorities. But the way any good quality in a person gets labeled as “royal” or “noble” makes it feel like an exercise in commie-washing the west european ruling class, which is mega cringe, not to mention the importance of the “royal bloodline” (so far in the story at least). But I wanna level up the cool warframes by going on dungeon romps with my pals. But the next big fight after the demo is an EVIL gender non-conforming character downbear. But the writing just feels like it has a lot of heart to it, it keeps making me tear up from the smallest cute moments of comradery. But, I’m just being sold a really elaborate interactive anti-capitalism adventure experience aren’t I?

    Anyway we’ll see where I fall on that one.

    Other than that I finished Wizorb and Toy Box Turbos recently after going through older games I haven’t tried in my steam library. Toy Box Turbos was ok. It was cool not having any licensed vehicles, but the vehicle choices that were there just give the biggest vibes international-community-1international-community-2. There was a whole area themed after construction and featured almost exclusively (not) Caterpillar tractors, bulldozers and such. Just couldn’t stop thinking what depraved shit the IDF is doing with those vehicles, and then it turns out the final level of the area is called “WAR IS HELL” in which you have to take down a cis man anti-cracker-aktion in a bulldozer. I played that whole area using the combine harvester as a existentially “fun” challenge for myself.

    Wizorb was good. I like bouncing the ball and making the little blocks disappear, good sounds. The art made me want to go back and play Dyna Blaster on DOS Box

    • peppersky [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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      3 hours ago

      Finished Metaphor demo, now I’m having an internal struggle session over if I should buy it or not, because it’s so fucking expensive. I did the whacky and stupid thing which is buy a denuvo offline activation for five bucks from some russian site, which is not something I recommend, but I just can’t help myself when it comes to these games.

      I do really like the game so far, but that could definitely change depending on how liberal brainwormed or generally idiotic the story turns out to be. Your motivation in this whole thing being to get the righteous heir (who also just happens to just be a nice guy who would do good for the kingdom and its people) onto the throne is already kinda iffy and the villains in this story being the most “villain who has good motivations but goes about it in ridiculously evil ways” they could possibly be doesn’t help matters either.

      spoiler for plot points that happen right after the first dungeon so not that long after the demo ends

      The whole question for a successor of the throne turning into a magic popularity contest with magic rules is just ridiculous. Like I get that this makes it easier to integrate it into the gameplay loop, but it betrays a critical lack of imagination, that they had to add what is basically one of those reality tv competition shows into their fantasy world (not to mention that Persona 5 already had a very similar mechanic). Like can you seriously not think of any other way to tell this story?

      It does manage to get you out of the city and into the world fairly quickly after the first dungeon though and I could definitely imagine this game taking you on quite a large and eventful journey (which is exactly what I want out of a JRPG) and the vibes are just pretty damn cozy for the most part. Probably helps that the most basic mechanical pieces of these games just fit way better into a fantasy world than it ever did in the real-life-setting of Persona. Just having side dungeons with little stories to them that are actual places in the world instead of mementos or whatever the persona games before 5 had is a giant improvement.

      spoiler for a basic gameplay mechanic the game introduces like 10 hours in

      What did really rub me the wrong way though was that as soon as you step like a single step outside of the main city on your cool-ass-submarine-that-has-giant-monster-legs-that-walks-across-the-landscape, they introduce teleportation and fast-travel to the game. The game makes a huge deal about you leaving Maria behind in the city, all with you making big promises to return and to tell her about your journey, just for the game to basically go “oh also you can just immediately return to her in an instant with this magical fast travel mechanic”.

      Like all the mechanics of the game feel almost perfectly set up for you to be able to get you that “big journey across the world” feeling: The calendar system actually turns the time spend on the road into a mechanical feature of the game, the social links you can bring with you on your runner can obviously develop quicker and deeper than those you have to leave behind and there is a really cozy feeling to being on the road, with nothing else to do but pass the time with your party. Introducing fast travel with absolutely no cost to this system so quickly just makes it feel like the designers gave up, didn’t feel like going all the way with it, or just felt convenience trumps all. I think it is a shame either way.

  • roux [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    13 hours ago

    Portal Revolution: What a well made mod. It honestly felt like a part of the franchise.

    Portal 2: PR is apparently getting me back into a first person puzzle kick so I had to go with this next. It’s my 4th or 47th playthrough but it’s been a long time. Very much enjoying it. I’m trying to play co-op with my kid but it’s hard keeping my patience so we are playing in small bursts. We are about halfway done.

    X4: It took me an embarrassingly long time to get my substrate factory construction going. I donno what was going but I’d assign a construction ship and it would just disappear. I’m deep inside Terran space so they ships weren’t getting ganked. I’d unbuy the factory and cancel the plot and the ship would show back up on the map. I finally decided to park on on, then assign it and ride to my plot in Mars and it’s finally building. The whole thing is just keeping me from wanting to play more though.

  • Luna [she/her, love/loves]@hexbear.net
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    14 hours ago

    Been playing Fire Emblem: The Morrow’s Golden Country. It’s a pretty great romhack, with a good story, and that Three Houses feeling of “is anybody really good or bad? I don’t want to kill them”. I have a feeling it’s only going to get more complex and gain more depth, and I’m here for it.

  • Stolen_Stolen_Valor [any]@hexbear.net
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    20 hours ago

    Satisfactory. The factories keep getting bigger and bigger and producing fewer and fewer parts.

    I’m currently feeling heavy decision paralysis. Do I build a second gigantic factory to produce motors or do I build a railroad across the entire map and transport them instead?

  • Smeagolicious [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    18 hours ago

    Some space fash simulator (space marine 2) since a recent patch actually allows it to run more than 30s before crashing. Fun game, difficulty overtuned as fuck though

  • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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    20 hours ago

    Oblivion, kinda Vanilla+. I have a depressing number of hours dumped into Morrowind and Skyrim, but Oblivion has kinda always just been “there” for me. That game that came between. I’ve beaten it in the past, enjoyed abusing things like paintbrush steps and all that, but never got really invested. Couldn’t tell you why.

    So, I’ve decided to change that. Taking it slow, exploring, and just having a generally good time.

    • Gorb [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      18 hours ago

      Fancy sharing the vanilla+ mods you have? I had a collection for oblivion myself ages ago but my HDD died and i didn’t remember what I added but i remember it being quite fun.

      I did the same with morrowind but that has a website dedicated to a vanilla+ modlist

      • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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        15 hours ago

        Home, wanted to give a cleaner version now. Just for awareness, I have a copy from GOG, so I have the 4gb patch baked in, but for physical copies and I think the Steam version, you’ll have to grab that, too, like with most older Beth titles.

        First, running BethINI for deep ini tweaks for the base game, highly recommend.

        xOBSE, not the older OBSE.

        Unofficial Oblivion Patch, Unofficial Shivering Isles patch, Unofficial DLC patch.

        Blockhead.

        Engine Bug Fixes and Blue’s Engine Bug Fixes.

        Oblivion Display Tweaks.

        SkyBSA.

        OBL Mod Limit Fix.

        MenuQue.

        LINK.

        OBSE Elys Universal Silent Voices.

        Shambles Crash Fix.

        Cornerras Maximum Compatibility Skeletons.

        HG EyeCandy Body Replacer.

        Oblivion Character Overhaul V2, OCO- Advanced Edition for bashed patch compatibility, OCOv2 - Filter Patch for Mods. This is where I needed the guide as you need to have things a certain way for WryeBash and UOP.

        New Eyes for OCO V2.

        Ultimate Leveling.

        Carry More Stuff(I use the Lite esp).

        Maskars Oblivion Overhaul.

        A Brotherhood Renewed.

        Kvatch Rebuilt.

        Immersive Weapons.

        Clearer Underwater.

        Here’s a link to the Essentials guide

      • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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        18 hours ago

        I’m currently away from my laptop, so I’m going mostly off memory for now, but it’s pretty basic:

        Oblivion Script Extender(OBSE), Blockhead, HGEC body mod, Immersive Weapons, Oblivion Character Overhaul, Better Underwater(removes the fog from outdoor underwater locations), Maskars Oblivion Overhaul, Ultimate Leveling customized to near Vanilla but using the KCAS wheel setting for attribute leveling, LINK, Unofficial Oblivion Patch, a few sub patches for UOP.

        If you look up “Oblivion Modding Guide Steam”, that’s the list I pulled from for the base setup.