* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
* Wolfenstein II: New Colossus (replay)
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
So, who's next. You. Yes, you! Step forward, and prepare to tell the
class...
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
* Wolfenstein II: New Colossus (replay)
I still haven't played Youngblood, ha.
On 10/1/23 08:42, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
So, who's next. You. Yes, you! Step forward, and prepare to tell the
class...
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
I found this game called Chroma Squad, its a really fun tactical rpg
thats themed around a power rangers esque team. Only problem I have with
it is that it's too short (only 35~ battles, beat it in 12 hours
according to steam)
* Metroid Dread:
Worst Metroid title ever made. Bad controls, unfair difficulty, and
awful work ethics from the developer (Mercury Steam). I ended playing
Super Metroid and Fusion again to remove the bad aftertaste left by 20
hours of hell
* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
* Wolfenstein II: New Colossus
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
On Mon, 02 Oct 2023 17:17:28 +0300, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Anssi Saari wrote:
Future games
The most interesting term for "endless backlog until I die" I have seen
to date.
Future games
That said, I got to the final boss and said, "No thanks." I knew it
was gonna be a DIAS-fest, I knew it was going to be brutally unfair,
and I had already completed all the exploration, which is why I love
these games. I have aspirations that I'll eventually defeat Raven
Beak, but I'll probably use a walkthrough to cut down on the amount
of DIAS. Or I'll continue to not want to bang my head against that
particular wall. Or I'll just watch a Let's Play on YouTube with
someone who has already cracked the DIAS and is going to "Do It For
Reals" (DIFR).
I had no problems with the controls using either a pro controller or
the attached joycons in portable mode. What got you hung up?
I too revisited Metroid Fusion afterward, since it's available on
Nintendo Online now. I'm considering playing it only portable to
complete that Gameboy Advance feel, and this time with a backlight!
Zaghadka wrote:
I too revisited Metroid Fusion afterward, since it's available on
Nintendo Online now. I'm considering playing it only portable to
complete that Gameboy Advance feel, and this time with a backlight!
That's one of the things that Fusion had and Dread lacks: How the bosses slowly degrade and change aspect over time, indicating the phase you are
in. Remember the Nightmare? The one that controls gravity, and over time loses the face plate to reveal it's true face? Dread has nothing like
that. That boss still haunts to this day, not because of the difficulty,
but for how ominous and oppressive it was.
I still have the original GBA game, but with only a Gameboy micro left,
I may complete it on the Steam Deck this time.
On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 16:31:36 -0500, candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net>
wrote:
On 10/1/23 08:42, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
So, who's next. You. Yes, you! Step forward, and prepare to tell the
class...
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
I found this game called Chroma Squad, its a really fun tactical rpg
thats themed around a power rangers esque team. Only problem I have with
it is that it's too short (only 35~ battles, beat it in 12 hours
according to steam)
Depending on the game (and the price), 12 hours is acceptable length.
I'm opposed to the idea that every game has to be a hundred-hour
marathon. There's something to be said about a game that knows when to
call it quits before it starts to drag.
That said, I'm not sure "Chroma Squad" would fall into that category (honestly, I can't say one way or the other, but tactical-strategy
games usually deserve a bit more time than that). But it does have an 'episode editor') and numerous new missions available in the Steam
workshop, so maybe give that a look?
Myself, although I like the vaguely SSI-Goldbox visuals, I'm not sure
the topic material would be appealing enough to me. I didn't grow up
with Super Sentai-style shows, so there is no nostalgic vibe for those
games to tickle. The idea of 'managing' a TV show does sound sorta
fun, though...
I'll up "Chroma Squad" from my 'probably never' list to 'maybe, who
knows' category. ;-)
Zaghadka wrote:
That said, I got to the final boss and said, "No thanks." I knew it
was gonna be a DIAS-fest, I knew it was going to be brutally unfair,
and I had already completed all the exploration, which is why I love
these games. I have aspirations that I'll eventually defeat Raven
Beak, but I'll probably use a walkthrough to cut down on the amount
of DIAS. Or I'll continue to not want to bang my head against that
particular wall. Or I'll just watch a Let's Play on YouTube with
someone who has already cracked the DIAS and is going to "Do It For
Reals" (DIFR).
Heck, that was EXACTLY my experience. I had been postponing it to
explore as much as possible know that I had all the traverse upgrades.
It took me 15 attempts to get to phase III, and every failure sends you
back to the begining (Prime allows continuing between boss phases if the >battle is fairly long. I decided that the health of my hand joints
mattered more that beating the boss. I saw the ending on YT and "whelp,
it was not worth the suffering".
Pencils (and gamepads) down everyone. You've had thirty days to...
prepare; now get ready to announce to the newsgroup what games have
occupied you over the last month. Be sure to stand up straight and
annunciate when giving your report; you will partly be graded on your presentation. You, the talkative one in the front who always seems to
have something to say; you go first!
* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
I struggle to think of anything to say about this game that I haven't
said already. It's not a bad game - it is quite creative and it's
gun-play is fairly fun - but it never really grabbed my imagination.
Its weird pacing and mixture of tones makes it hard to judge; am I
supposed to relish in its over-the-top gore and insanity? Or do I take
its dismal, depressing setting seriously? The best I can say is that
the developers had a clear concept of what they wanted: an impactful
final mission for BJ "Wolfenstein" Blazkowitz (an idea later subverted
by the inevitable sequels) and they gave him a meaningful ending.
I just wish the journey to that end was more memorable.
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it
worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit >screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a adding
a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you can
avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system that
tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is working >correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the players want.
I watched a zero damage Let's Play after chatting with you, and I'm
glad I made that choice. It would have taken me a million tries to
figure out you could destroy the black sphere with missiles, and I
probably never would have figured out that you needed a super bomb to
destroy the gold one.
That is a game mechanic inspired by a 12-year-old reading Nintendo
Power, where learning the secrets from someone else is how most
players do it.
I'm sorry you wasted your time on Raven Beak. I wish I could have
warned you.
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it
worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a adding
a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you can
avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system that
tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is working correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the players want.
Now that doesn't mean they haven't balls it up because in my experience
your average developer has very little knowledge of software based RNG's
and how to properly use them. That's compounded by it's not always
obviously that you've done it wrong. Players are even worse and you can
very much guarantee that any online debate about it will have a least
one person thinking they're smart by saying, actually computers can't
produce real random numbers and another that thinks using the system
time as a seed somehow makes the output from the RNG less random.
World of Tanks is great for this especially when the devs said that the
RNG is pre-calculated during low server load and then taken when
required from the pool created. There were quite a few posters who
somehow thought that meant the RNG was rigged.
another that thinks using the system
time as a seed somehow makes the output from the RNG less random.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 10:12:38 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, JAB wrote:
another that thinks using the system
time as a seed somehow makes the output from the RNG less random.
I demand that my RNGs use seed values from the decay of a cesium atom.
It's the only way to roll.
On 10/3/23 04:12, JAB wrote:
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it >>> worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit
screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a
adding a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you can
avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system that
tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is working
correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the players
want.
Now that doesn't mean they haven't balls it up because in my
experience your average developer has very little knowledge of
software based RNG's and how to properly use them. That's compounded
by it's not always obviously that you've done it wrong. Players are
even worse and you can very much guarantee that any online debate
about it will have a least one person thinking they're smart by
saying, actually computers can't produce real random numbers and
another that thinks using the system time as a seed somehow makes the
output from the RNG less random.
World of Tanks is great for this especially when the devs said that
the RNG is pre-calculated during low server load and then taken when
required from the pool created. There were quite a few posters who
somehow thought that meant the RNG was rigged.
In summary, the computer isn't broken. Humans are.
But humans can break computers much easier than the reverse.
On 10/3/23 10:32, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
But humans can break computers much easier than the reverse.
Computers can't break humans? Try debugging code
On 10/3/2023 8:40 AM, candycanearter07 wrote:
On 10/3/23 10:32, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
But humans can break computers much easier than the reverse.
Computers can't break humans? Try debugging code
Former programmer, used to work on the Dispatch Systems in 911 centers.
It takes much less effort for a human to smack a computer with a hammer
than for a computer to break a human. ;)
On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 10:12:38 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it >>> worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit
screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a adding
a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you can
avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system that
tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is working
correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the players want.
Is that really a problem of 'virtual dice', or a problem that relying entirely on dice rolls doesn't entirely make for fun gameplay? Fudging
the rolls is an unspoken standard in most tabletop games if the
end-result makes for a better experience (even in wargames, most
players would allow a re-roll if their opponent started getting too
many bad rolls in a row.
But /when/ to fudge is an extremely human judgment, and will vary from
player to player, and from game to game. When playing tabletop, you
can assess the mood of the other players and the style of game they
are interested in, and decide when it is acceptable to ignore the dice
and when it's not (and even then, there is often argument). Computers
lack that ability, and - assuming they aren't completely RNG - rely on scripted interpretations that won't be applicable to every situation
and game.
TL;DR: computers suck, tabletop rules ;-)
Pencils (and gamepads) down everyone. You've had thirty days to
prepare; now get ready to announce to the newsgroup what games have
occupied you over the last month. Be sure to stand up straight and
annunciate when giving your report; you will partly be graded on your presentation. You, the talkative one in the front who always seems to
have something to say; you go first!
Titles
---------------------------------------
* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
* Wolfenstein II: New Colossus (replay)
* Journey (replay)
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
-- and I retreated to books & movies this month
rms
On 10/3/23 04:12, JAB wrote:
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a
week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times
over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it makes it >>> worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their
RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit
screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a
adding a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you can
avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system that
tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is working
correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the players
want.
Now that doesn't mean they haven't balls it up because in my
experience your average developer has very little knowledge of
software based RNG's and how to properly use them. That's compounded
by it's not always obviously that you've done it wrong. Players are
even worse and you can very much guarantee that any online debate
about it will have a least one person thinking they're smart by
saying, actually computers can't produce real random numbers and
another that thinks using the system time as a seed somehow makes the
output from the RNG less random.
World of Tanks is great for this especially when the devs said that
the RNG is pre-calculated during low server load and then taken when
required from the pool created. There were quite a few posters who
somehow thought that meant the RNG was rigged.
In summary, the computer isn't broken. Humans are.
On 03/10/2023 16:01, candycanearter07 wrote:
On 10/3/23 04:12, JAB wrote:
On 02/10/2023 00:36, Zaghadka wrote:
The RNG also appears to be mildly fucked. I have, over the period of a >>>> week, rolled with advantage on things and gotten a double 1 three times >>>> over. For the love of god, don't turn on karmic dice because it
makes it
worse. But karmic dice's very existence implies that Larian knows their >>>> RNG is messed up, and, well... I don't know? They can't download a
library that works? I mean, this isn't exactly an unsolved problem.
IS there any game with virtual dice that doesn't at times feel a bit
screwed-up. A game called Heroes of Normandie even went as far a
adding a dice log so that people could check what was going on.
Whether it is, probably not, because as you say any half decent
programming environment will have built in functions that mean you
can avoid the common pitfalls. Also the fact that they have a system
that tries to smooth out the randomness to me suggests the RNG is
working correctly but they realise that sometimes that's not what the
players want.
Now that doesn't mean they haven't balls it up because in my
experience your average developer has very little knowledge of
software based RNG's and how to properly use them. That's compounded
by it's not always obviously that you've done it wrong. Players are
even worse and you can very much guarantee that any online debate
about it will have a least one person thinking they're smart by
saying, actually computers can't produce real random numbers and
another that thinks using the system time as a seed somehow makes the
output from the RNG less random.
World of Tanks is great for this especially when the devs said that
the RNG is pre-calculated during low server load and then taken when
required from the pool created. There were quite a few posters who
somehow thought that meant the RNG was rigged.
In summary, the computer isn't broken. Humans are.
I wouldn't put it quite that bluntly but kinda yeh. Anecdotally there
seems to be a correlation between those with a table top games
background and those just a video game background. I assume that this in
part is because we have a tendency not to like the idea that bad things
just happen so want to associate it with some agency. In TT games this
is a bit hard as you roll the dice yourself, video games - well you have
a computer that's rolling for you.
That is then compounded by common sense can trip you up when it comes to randomness. A common example is something was very unlikely to happen therefore there must be something-up (and I'm not say Zag had this
mindset). The problem comes in how they calculate the probability. Say
as an example just to explain where things go wrong, you roll a d20
twelve times and never get over a ten. Now that seems to be fairly
unlikely if you just treat it as you would for flipping a coin and you
got twelve heads in a row. The issue though, the probability you're
really want means you need to look at that streak in the context of
every d20 you've rolled but also in the context of thousands and
thousands of players. Then the conclusion is, you were just unlucky.
Right, humans need to tie their bad luck to something. That spawns >superstition and claims of cheating. So the AI basically has to cheat in >order to seem fair, ironically.
In summary, the computer isn't broken. Humans are.
Funny from you vast collection of games you pull up Wolfenstein. My 10yo >somehow heard of these games and I already had:
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
He played it for about 10mins before declaring the music too scary and
went back to Fortnite.
That's a classic with 4x games. They don't know how to make an AI play as well as a human. In Civ, at harder difficulties, it gives the AIs faster
tech research and faster construction.
But not the rolls.
On 10/4/23 08:52, Zaghadka wrote:
That's a classic with 4x games. They don't know how to make an AI play as
well as a human. In Civ, at harder difficulties, it gives the AIs faster
tech research and faster construction.
But not the rolls.
So the AI cheats?
On 10/4/23 08:52, Zaghadka wrote:
That's a classic with 4x games. They don't know how to make an AI play as
well as a human. In Civ, at harder difficulties, it gives the AIs faster
tech research and faster construction.
But not the rolls.
So the AI cheats?
* Journey (replay)
My earlier play-throughs of this game were on the Playstation 3 but in
the intervening years the game has been ported to PC, and this is the
first time I've played it on my preferred platform.
That said, I'm /still/ playing it with a gamepad (ironically, an XBox
gamepad rather than a PS3 compatible device). The game plays perfectly
fine with mouse-n-keyboard, but it is obvious it was designed with the >sensitivity of a gamepad in mind, and shushing down the slopes in
gentle s-curves feels much more natural using the joysticks.
"Journey" isn't a long game, or deep; I finished the game in a single
sitting (about 90 minutes). It's all about the atmosphere and the
journey itself. The game presents a subtly beautiful world, even if it
is extremely simple in presentation. It can't help but inspire a bit
of awe and wonder as you traverse its dune-covered ruins. But there's
not much challenge to it and - other than achievement hunting - there
is little point to replaying it once you're done.
When it was released, "Journey's" visuals were impressive, with some >excellent lighting and particle effects. They're still effective
today, but - with the advancement of technology - the game doesn't
stand out as much. Its deformable sand dunes were unique for the
time, but these days it's far less novel. This sadly robs the game of
some of its impact, as you really felt you were experiencing something
new and exciting when it was released, and now it feels a lot more >run-of-the-mill. Still, the sparkly sand remains a neat effect.
But that's true for the game as a whole. When "Journey" came out in
2012, 'walking sims' were still a new genre and the idea of a (near) >challengeless game seemed groundbreaking. Nowadays, they're a dime a
dozen, and the game suffers from this loss of its uniqueness. It's
still a fun, if brief, adventure but it just doesn't hit in the same
way.
On Sun, 01 Oct 2023 09:42:43 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
* Journey (replay)
It looks to me like it would make a good iPad game and it is out for
the iPad so I bought it!
On Wed, 04 Oct 2023 21:53:51 -0600, PW
<iamnotusingonewithAgent@notinuse.com> wrote:
On Sun, 01 Oct 2023 09:42:43 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson
* Journey (replay)
It looks to me like it would make a good iPad game and it is out for
the iPad so I bought it!
I'm not sure how well touch-screen controls would work with Journey.
then again, I generally find touch-screen controls awful (or at least >inferior to the alternatives) for pretty much any game, so maybe I'm
biased ;-)
On 10/4/23 08:52, Zaghadka wrote:
That's a classic with 4x games. They don't know how to make an AI play as
well as a human. In Civ, at harder difficulties, it gives the AIs faster
tech research and faster construction.
But not the rolls.
So the AI cheats?
On Tue, 3 Oct 2023 10:01:02 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, candycanearter07 wrote:
In summary, the computer isn't broken. Humans are.
Yeah, I rolled three double 1's in 4 days. 1:400 chance of that happening each time. I think there at least might be something wrong with the way
it rolls with advantage. I've rolled double 1's in tabletop, as well as double 20's. It just doesn't happen with that frequency.
Or, random really can do that. It's just very, very unlikely. RNGesus is
a cruel god.
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew
Good review. I read many of the steam forum comments wishing them well.
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
* Wolfenstein: A New Order (replay)
* Wolfenstein II: New Colossus (replay)
I still haven't played Youngblood, ha. Anyway. New Colossus left
something of a bad taste in my mouth, partly from the 60's setting which >seemed to me at the time as irrelevant and annoying to the pure WW2 flavor
of most all the previous games, partly from the 'family' aspect, confronting >his father etc, felt like downbeat baggage; partly that the shooting >mechanics and gameplay felt inferior. From a real-life historical >perspective I can see the value in having this 60's generation confronting >their parent's prejudices, but in the game it didn't work for me, while the >shooting felt stale and without weight or complexity to engage me mentally. >Very possibly I got off on the wrong foot with this game, but have no >inclination to revisit it.
What Have You Been Playing... IN SEPTEMBER 2023?
Nothing. The quantity of major and exciting titles this year is
astounding, but also exhausting for me to contemplate -- BTW I'm hearing
good things about Cocoon, a Limbo/Inside-like ~4hr long game if anyone's >interested -- and I retreated to books & movies this month. I do intend to >start God of War, Trek to Yumi on the PS5, and perhaps look at Cocoon as
well in October!
rms
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