*me trying to pick which nation to use in the Endless War game mode*
Hmmm...there's England, or Germany, or Japan, those all seem pretty good.

Some guy: "I'm telling yall, Ghana is OP AF!"
Some other guy:  "Nah, New Zealand is king of war!"

Me:

The crazy part is that in video games, it absolutely is possible for Ghana to a ludicrously powerful nation that wipes the floor with everyone else.  Asumptions based on real history are unfounded in a fictional world, so until I give all countries a try, I'll never truly know who's right and who's wrong.

So has anyone played Starfield?

Quote from: drunkenshoe on October 12, 2023, 03:47:23 AMSo has anyone played Starfield?

Nope. I'm sure it's fine, but it doesn't really call to me. Especially with how many other good games are coming out this year. Baldur's Gate 3, Sonic Superstars, Spider-Man 2. Baldur's Gate alone will keep me accupied for quite a while, especially if they do decide to release DLC for it after all.

Quote from: drunkenshoe on October 12, 2023, 03:47:23 AMSo has anyone played Starfield?

On my increasingly venerable computer, I've actually gotten back into World of Warcraft.

There's a server which allows you to mix-n-match abilities/talents and it's honestly a lot of fun to have that sort of freeform character development.  And yes, there are guardrails in place from making anything too monstrously crazy.  But theoretically, you could make a ranger/mage for a diverse arsenal of ranged attacks, or a warrior/warlock for a melee powerhouse with a side of daemonic DoTs, or a druid/priest uber-healer.

But the best thing are mystic enchants - mostly 3% more damage, chance to do something beneficial, but the best ones radically alter abilities in game-changing ways.  My favorite changes an ability that normally knocks you backwards (allowing you to pour on damage from range or run for your life, depending on the situation) so that now it launches you into the sky and gives you a massive damage bonus until you hit the ground.  It's aptly named Paratrooper.

Also, tons of quality-of-life things like auto-loot, cheaper mounts, free ability level ups, etc.  Lacking that stuff was soooo not fun in the vanilla game.

OK, I got the message, lol.

Yeah. Some people seem to like Starfield, others aren't impressed with it, but most are just like, "Shut up and give us The Elder Scrolls VI already!"

Anybody playing "Ancient Art of War at Sea" currently?

Just downloaded Baulder's Gate 3.  This is the biggest game I've downloaded in quite some time.  Anybody else play it?  Any good sites that gives good beginner's tips (yes, I do know how to use duckduckgo! :) How good is it?

Quote from: Mike Cl on October 20, 2023, 10:49:33 PMJust downloaded Baulder's Gate 3.  This is the biggest game I've downloaded in quite some time.  Anybody else play it?  Any good sites that gives good beginner's tips (yes, I do know how to use duckduckgo! :) How good is it?

I got the game, and I've been enjoying it a lot. I've never played a game that was so open ended before. It's kind of amazing how much freedom they give you.

What system did you get it on? PC or PS5? Either one would be fine, but this game seems much easier to play on PC, since it was built with point and click in mind. I'm sure it will be fine either way, but the system requirements on PC are a bit demanding. Someone in these forums posted a guide for getting it to run better by switching up settings in both the computer and the game itself, and that helped a lot. I can track it down for you, if you need it, but you can probably find something similar with a quick search on YouTube.

Some tips I'll give you: There are some things the game does automatically, which I would recommend you switch off for each character as soon as you get them. There's a mechanic called "opportunity attacks," which is when someone in melee range of an enemy moves out of range without using the Disengage action, and the enemy gets the option for a free hit. By default, the setting for this is to make it happen automatically to save the player's time. However, this can screw you over in some situations. For example, say you cast Charm Person on an enemy, it succeeds, and now they're non-hostile for a limited time. But then that charmed enemy walks past you and you automatically whack them. Well, now they're not charmed anymore. There are also some other reactions which are very situational, such as the Shield spell which can be used to increase one's armor class temporarily as a reaction to an attack. If you waste that on a small hit, and then a bigger enemy comes around and attacks you, then you could end up taking more damage than if you had saved that reaction. So any time the game would do something automatically for you, switch it off. It will add a little more tedium to the game, but it's worth it.

There are spells in this game that have something called "concentration." A caster can only have one concentration spell active at a time, and if they take damage, they have to roll a save to see if they lose concentration. The duration of these spells can vary, but I want to call to your attention the spells that last until a long rest. These you will want to use right away, before you get into any encounters. This way, you don't have to waste an action to cast them in combat, when you could be using that action to do something else.

If you have a rogue in your party, it's important to know how to use their sneak attack. On PC (not sure how this works with a controller), if you hold the Shift key down, the game will show line-of-sight of NPCs in red. In order to successfully sneak, you'll want to get somewhere where enemies can't see you, then use your Sneak action to hide. While hidden, you can make use of your sneak attack, which deals a ton more damage than normal. This can be done with melee or ranged weapons. However, if an ally is in melee range of your target, you don't even need to be sneaking to get a sneak attack in with your ranged weapon.

Elevation matters a lot. Use the high ground like Obi-Wan Kenobi. This will make it easier to land your attacks, and enemies at lower elevations will be more likely to miss you.

Don't underestimate the power of using the environment to your advantage. If there's a chandelier on the ceiling, maybe you can shoot an arrow at it and cause it to land on an enemy underneath it. Grease is hard to walk over (those trying to travel over it can slip), and it can be lit with fire arrows or flame spells. Enemies in water can be zapped with electricity. If you're in an area affected by a Silence spell, you won't be able to cast spells with verbal components, but you'll be immune to Thunder damage, since that is sound based. There are explosive barrels, which you can carry with you or move around.

Characters can be separated. On PC, you can do this by clicking on the chain icon under the character portraits on the left, or you can click and drag one portrait to separate him from the others. This can be good for sneaking around or getting into positions before combat. If combat starts, you can switch to characters left behind and make your way over to join the combat. While those in combat will be frozen until their turns, the characters not in combat can move around freely. So you can have a scouting party that moves on ahead, and then move your other characters into strategic positions to get free hits in. It can feel kinda broken, but it's very useful.

There are some traps in the world that your characters will roll perception checks on. If they succeed, they will be revealed to you. But what ends up happening most of the time is you'll be walking, you'll hear the sound of dice rolling, someone will detect the trap, but then you'll walk right into it before getting a chance to react. It's one of the things I find annoying. I wish they would have programmed the characters to automatically stop moving when detecting a trap. But what can help is to be mindful of this risk and be prepared to cancel movement the instant you hear the dice rolling. On PC, you can do this with a right click.

While this game mostly uses DnD rules, there are a few mechanics unique to BG3 which are pretty neat. You can throw potions and get a diluted effect within the area they land. For instance, if there's a character who has lost their last hit point and they're at risk of dying, you could run over and use the Help action to get them up or using a healing spell as normal, or you could throw a healing potion at them and restore some of their HP. To do this, just go to your inventory, right click on the potion, and select Throw. You can also use a torches or candles to light your weapons, giving them temporary fire damage on top of their normal damage. If you have a candle in your inventory, you can drop it as a free action, then dip your weapon in it.

A large part of the entertainment of this game comes down to unpredictability. Maybe your character notices the person they're talking do is being shifty. Maybe you talk your way out of a fight. You could go through the same situation twice and get entirely different results. So while I encourage you to go with the flow, accepting the successes and the failures as they come, you should definitely save often. If you die unexpectantly, you will not want to lose an hour of progress.

It is possible to activate turn-based mode out of combat. This will make certain things easier, such as thievery. Keep in mind that the world around you is not completely paused. If you just sit still, NPCs will continue to move, just at a slower pace. You can do this to check if anyone has line of sight on you, get into sneak, and then pickpocket. Or you can use this to sneak around to avoid combat encounters.

Edit: A few other things I thought about. Your character's race matters more than in games like Skyrim, where it's essentially just a cosmetic choice. In BG3, your race will affect how other characters react to you. Your race and your class (the latter of which can be changed, once you unlock that option) will open up lots of unique dialog options. For instance, I'm playing as a Dragonborn, who as a people are held in high regard. This is for good reason, because the race is very pluralistic. Any personal failures reflect poorly on their clan, so they hold themselves to high standards of honor and excellence. On the other hand, you can play as a Drow, who are generally assumed to be evil. While you may face prejudice above ground as a Drow, if you find yourself in the Underdark, the people there may be quicker to accept you as one of them.

If you care about the lore, I follow a YouTuber named MrRhexx who makes DnD lore videos which can be relevant to BG3.

Wow, Blackleaf!!!!  I will take you advice to heart!  BTW, I am using the BG3 on a PC--I was a little concerned about how it would preform on mine, but it is working fine.  I thought FO4 had a steep learning curve, but BG3 is even steeper--but worth the effort.  I will be re-starting this game quite a few times before I become comfortable enough with the control keys.  And it seems like this game offers quite a few replays--it is HUGE in scope.  Thanks again, Blackleaf.

I 100% completed Spider-Man 2 on the PS5 last night. My opinion? It's pretty good. The previous two games (Miles Morales had a game too, but it's not numbered) are some of my favorite video games ever, and this one is basically a more refined version of those two games. Since spoiler tags aren't working, I'm limited in what I can say, but I'll do my best.

In the first game, you had a gadget wheel to select the gadget you want to use while time was slowed down. In this game, there is no item wheel. Instead, you simply hold down the right bumper and press one of the four face buttons. For example, R1 + Square will activate the Web Grabber, which is this device that shoots webs out at multiple enemy targets and yanks them in to the same spot. This makes combat faster and more fluid. While we have fewer gadgets to work with this time, since we're limited to four face buttons instead of a whole wheel, I couldn't tell you which were left behind from memory anyway.

Both Spider-Men have powers that work in the same way. You hold the left bumper and a corresponding face button to activate them. For Miles, these are his "Venom" powers from the previous game, while Peter has these new Spider leg things he uses to attack with. These abilities have a sort of cooldown period, which can be made shorter via skill points. Interestingly, both characters learn new powers that can be swapped out. If you've seen the trailers, this won't be a spoiler for you, but for Peter, these are his symbiote abilities.

While both Spider-Men control pretty similarly, I do enjoy that both have their own advantages. Miles can still go temporarily invisible, making him ideal for stealth missions. But you can also activate invisibility mid-combat and use that to your advantage (something I kept forgetting to do). Miles has his Venom Blast AoE attack, while Peter gets this temporary powerup that increases his strength and defense, like a barbarian's rage in DnD. Miles' Venom powers apply a status effect that makes them take more damage while the effect lasts.

The first game, in my opinion, set a high bar for the story for the sequel to live up to. This game does a pretty good job trying to match it. It's not as emotional, in my opinion. The original game's ending was so freaking sad. This game, it tries, but I'd say it's more suspenseful than emotional, and that's fine. The series is starting to feel a bit formulaic, though. You've got the primary antagonist who is overshadowed by the surprise twist antagonist. You have the city-wide threat analogous to the disease from the first game. That being said, they do change around a lot about the characters. Venom in this game is not Eddy Brock. We were told this before the game released. They make a lot of changes like this that make this universe's Spider-Man unique compared to others. They don't hold themselves strictly to what's canon in the comics.

Similar to the first game, there is a wide variety of villains represented in this game, both old and new. Most of them, you don't actually fight, though. The primary antagonist is Kraven the Hunter, who is one of those characters I never liked. I was a little worried about that going in. However, I was surprised how well they managed to turn my opinion of the character around. I feel like they could have done a little more with the character if they didn't have that twist villain take the focus, but the character was fine. As you'd have gathered from the trailers, Kraven's deal is that he's "hunting" Spider-Man's villains for sport. The problem is a lot of these villains are reformed, trying to live honest lives, and this asshole is showing up and dragging them back into the darkness just to have this battle to the death thing with them. So of course, the Spider-Men are trying to stop Kraven and protect these villains. There's a strong theme of redemption in this game, which is pretty cool. You don't often get to see reformed super villains in this type of media.

Now, it was clear even in the first game that this universe's Spider-Man was very experienced before we take the reigns. But even the new villains in this game are enemies that Spider-Man has faced in the past off screen. It has me like, "Are there any villains Peter HASN'T dealt with in this universe?"

There are still some loose ends by the end of the game, so of course, they're planning to have another sequel. That was to be expected. But I wonder if they're going to have DLC expansions, the way the first game did.

I'm kinda surprised I haven't heard Conservatives complain about his game being "woke." You have Miles Morales, the Hispanic/black Spider-Man, of course. But you also have a few minor LGBTQ+ characters. One optional mission has you help a male student ask his boyfriend to go to homecoming. I was...homeschooled, so I don't really know what homecoming is, but yeah. There's also the reveal that a female character from the previous game has a "girlfriend" in France, but we never see her girlfriend, and this character has a tendency to lie and manipulate, so who knows? Then you have the museum celebrating (mainly black) musical history. It's a mix of real people and fiction, which is a little odd. You can read one plaque that tells about this French woman who spied on the Nazis, then read another about this musical duo who happened to be in SHIELD. This had me questioning the authenticity of everything in the museum. Other than that, these kind of things likely won't bother you if you're not a Conservative.

One of my main complaints about the game is pretty minor, but it does irritate me. A problem I had with the previous games was that if JJJ or Danikast started playing, they'd be interrupted if anything noteworthy happened. Got too close to a crime? Oh well. Can't listen to the rest of the podcast then. Fortunately, however, the games did have a place in the menu where you could relisten to the podcasts and hear what you missed. For some reason, this feature was not included in Spider-Man 2. So now I'm resorting to looking it up on YouTube, which isn't yielding the results I'm looking for...

Dawntrail (the new expansion) for FFXIV is coming. I think this part of the story is gonna be boring as hell. It's nowhere near as exciting as Shadowbringers and Endwalker.

I don't really have much time for the game, so I usually just make money in the game by chopping wood or mining silver or something. It's far less exhilarating (and stressful) than those big group treasure maps where everything is a heart attack.

Also, none of my friends in FFXIV go to the gym. I'm very lonely there. All they talk about is the game and other games. It's boring as hell.

Finally finished elden ring. My god, this took me a while.

Grim Dawn came out with a huge update (1.200) with a super amount of changes.  So far, I like them all--so sucked into that world again.