Don’t Think, Just Jam
I started a screenshot album for my virtual adventures. Check it out if you’d like.
I should really give survival another shot. I played it maybe 3 times so far and while I did like it, it never managed to stick with me beyond that - I’m not sure why. Guess it’s as good of an excuse to reinstall the first game as anything else.
I actually know it exists thanks to a few cross-posts between it and !girlsfrontline@lemmy.world but I keep forgetting to check it out. Thanks for the reminder!
I never really got too deep into builds and just threw together whatever looked or sounded cool until recently. I’m finally starting to try come up with things that actually work properly within the intended mechanics though even then, I don’t really care about min-maxing and popular builds and simply tinker on my own. That said, I mostly play solo so it’s not like there are people who could get angry at me for not playing “optimally”.
Do you also alternate between the games or did you found one that stuck with you for good?
I don’t have specific numbers since some of these games were played on various platforms or outside of environment which keeps track of play time. Still, these are the things that come to mind in regards to where I spent most of my game time.
I’m putting each title into a spoiler to avoid a huge wall of text. I tend to get a bit rambly when talking about games, sorry.
I never played IV and I don’t really like VI, Civ V however managed to grab me in a way few other 4X game could. I haven’t played it in a few years but I still remember the feeling of “one more turn” - this stuff is addicting.
I was curious about the story concept for the first game but didn’t like the idea of a modern shooter with bullet spongy enemies so I avoided it for a good few years before giving it a shot. When I did jump in however, my initial hesitation evaporated pretty quickly as the atmosphere of winter New York grabbed me 100%. There are still times where enemy tankiness or firepower can be annoying but that’s mostly end game issues and something I can deal with if I lock in.
I probably have more playtime in the second game by this point but I still think there are some things the first game did way better than the sequel (writing, atmosphere, enemy factions, some skills, cosmetics). It’s why I tend to alternate between the two whenever I’m in the mood for more TD.
Came for girls with guns, stayed for the story. It’s a gacha game, which I know many people might scoff at, but it’s from the time when the monetisation practices and tactics where very different to the current landscape (there’s no premium pulls, paid weapons or anything like that, the only thing you’d really spend your money would be skins - if you want).
Gameplay is pretty simple (build your squads, traverse node based stages, partake in semi-autobattler combat and complete objectives) but it’s pretty enjoyable for the most part. It also does a great job of combining stage challenges/difficulty with what’s happening in the story (something its sequel is simply unable to do due to a modern, dupe based character gacha and progression).
We’re two weeks from the final main story event of the game, which after more than 7 years of playing feels somewhat bittersweet. It was a fun journey though.
Played it multiple times, never finished it - usually because I got distracted or just had my fill of fun.
I actually like the Gothic series more than any of the Elder Scrolls titles. These games feel somewhat more alive and immersive to me, to the point that even the unusual control scheme, preset protagonist (I really like making my own characters) or lack of “forever fun” aren’t enough to make me lean the other way. There’s some “magic” in Gothic that’s missing from TES games for me, even if they’re great in their own right.
I finally managed to finish the first game a few months ago so I hope I’ll do the same with this one “soon”. I’d like to scratch it off of my backlog, if only to give myself some closure in that regards.
I don’t really like Skyrim. I find it to be pretty shallow and boring in its vanilla state and the only reason I spent as much time on it as I did is mods. I pretty much use all Elder Scrolls and (modern) Fallout games as a base for a modern life-sim experiences where I just do whatever I feel like at the time - anything except for being the hero. So yeah, it’s just a backdrop but I guess it counts.
I wish Cyberpunk 2077 had as big modding scene as Skyrim. It’s another title I like to use for my “be whoever, forget the story” playthroughs and one I vastly prefer in pretty much every aspect.
I haven’t touched it in years but it’s still one of my most played multiplayer titles ever (or at least it feels like it). I tried going back to it a few times over the years but modern TF2 is simply not the same. I also really don’t care for PvP these days so while I was curious about the classic mod/rework released some time back, I never even gave it a shot. I think I had my fill of competition.
There are probably a few more titles with similar play times but I don’t want to make it look like I had no life as a kid (I didn’t). I love games man.
Fix for VRAM leak on some AMD systems.
That’s why everything kept crashing when I tried to play anything?! Praise be, here I thought my PC is on its last legs. Looks like you’ll have to survive a bit longer old chap.
No prob, glad it was of some use.
I have some experience with that so I’ll throw in my two cents.
TL;DR for Poland:
It’s the usual case of loud minority (far-right) and silent majority (everyone else). Most people are fine with immigrants, especially if they get to interact with them. Things may change as polarisation increases though (and there’s a pretty significant push for that at the moment, unfortunately).
Long version:
Poland was a pretty multicultural country through a good chunk of its history. It had it ups and downs, plus plenty of conflict and racism (similar to what was present in other European countries at the time) but it wasn’t until WW2 that population homogenised into what you’d think of today.
After the war, immigration has been slowly but steadily increasing - starting with people from USSR and south east Asia (there’s a pretty significant number of people of Vietnamese descent for example). University cities like Warsaw, Cracow or Lublin are full of international students from all over the world. These people often find jobs and stay around integrating without issues and functioning like everyone else. Same with those who immigrate for purely monetary reasons though here integration can often depend on what kind of job they do/work environment they end up in (low pay workers often live and function together to a higher degree than blue collar ones). Even then, there’s usually some interactions between them and the local population (don’t expect any stereotypical ghettos of unwanted “invaders”).
Are things perfect? Obviously not, especially with the rise of far-right rhetoric, but most Poles in my experience either don’t care or are more than happy to interact with foreigners. Heck, many still treat it as something unusual and exotic.
As for Poles being blunt and rude, some of it has to do with how Poles are in general. There’s less “fake” friendliness you’d often see in the Anglosphere and more straightforward “what you see is what you get”. For example, if you ask a Pole “how are you” the usual response won’t be an automatic “fine” or “I’m good” but rather how they actually feel at the moment.
As always, there’s no one size fits all in this kind of thing and temperaments will differ based on person, region etc. but it’s not just people being ass-holes (usually).
Anyway, these are my observations on this. I’m sure there are people with less positive view on this topic but hopefully it’ll clear some things at least.
As the other user said, it was a reboot. One that doubled down on the bad parts of the original and added some new poor ideas on top of it. Stuff like:
There’s probably more that I forgot at the moment but it was simply a bad sequel which didn’t know what made the first game good (in my opinion).
As for how this one is different? We’ll see when a public version becomes available. One thing that makes me hopeful is the complete lack of talk about combat on their store page. If they can focus on good movement mechanics and the actual delivery gameplay that in itself will be an improvement over Catalyst.
I love how unapologetically Mirror’s Edge it is and really hope it turns out well. I need my ME fix.
Jumping between Ridge Racer 2 (PSP one) and The Legend of Linkle: Breath of the Wild (BotW, just modded).
With RR2 I pretty much stick to random tours at this point as I really don’t want to deal with playing the final duels of the pro tour (I cleared one, tried another and decided it’s just not fun). I’ve been on a bit of a binge of RR related media (videos, listening to the soundtracks) so I come back to this game regularly. I also decided to try out Ridge Racer Type 4 but I’m doing it on my PC due to laziness. Didn’t play enough to have an opinion on that one yet.
With BotW I came back after a year or so long break and decided to start from scratch with refreshed attitude instead of continuing my previous save. I’m having a bit more fun and less pressure to progress this time so there’s a chance I’ll be able to finish it (I got about half-way on my first attempt). We’ll see how it goes.
At the very least, I’d love a proper Zelda game with Linkle as a protagonist. Heck, I’d settle for a decent knockoff.
Hm, sounds good but not necessarily like a must-have for someone who enjoys the series more casually/from the sidelines rather than being an active part of the fandom. I’ll keep that in mind for the future, thanks.
Are there any projects you could suggest as worth checking out? I love mods but I never really thought about using them with FF7 - it’s just not a game that comes to mind when I think about doing a modded playthrough. Anything transformative enough to make it more than just FF7 but with QoL or nicer graphics?
Hmm, seems like sticking with emulating my copy might be good enough for now. I might jump into the other entries instead since I neither have nor played them. Thanks for the reply!
I have the PS1 version but this does look enticing for convenience’s sake. How does the modern PC release compare to the original one (besides the quality of life additions mentioned on the store page)?
Older games are purely singleplayer, multi is something they leaned on later on. For PC Rayman Legends also supports local co-op, I believe. This one however is only available on Steam and requires Uplay account or linking your Steam to it. Origins is available on both Steam and GOG - I can confirm the latter version does not require any additional accounts or services.
Finally, there’s Rayman Raving Rabbids but that’s more of a mini-game compilation/party game rather than a platformer. It also has multiplayer.
Since you mentioned platformers, Rayman Origins might be worth a look. It’s a 2D platformer from 2011 so it doesn’t require a lot of power, levels take a few minutes to complete which makes it perfect for short sessions and it has local co-op (up to 4 players).
I tried it recently on my desktop (Pop!_OS, ubuntu based) and Steam Deck, played without issues on both of them.
They also do Bandcamp Fridays! These are the dates where all of the revenue goes directly to artists, without the usual 15% share for Bandcamp. Here is the list for this year if anyone’s curious.
Yup, something like this or simple sliders would be an ideal solution for what I’m talking about - preferably both, depending on whether the setting is a numerical one or not. It doesn’t have to be a completely granular access to every value, I just want enough control to adjust the experience when things are close but not exactly right.
Jose Pavli, composer for Project Wingman, (re)created music for this project. It’s available on his Bandcamp page.
Was it a specific mechanic, the whole theme of the expansion or something more specific like how it was utilised with the difficulty you play on? I’m pretty sure I like all of the expansions for that game but I’m also a rather casual player when it comes to 4X games so I’m curious about your experience.