Blog Your Current Game

[jmotivator]

SWEET!

If that's the case then my office will definitely be closed on Monday.

Haha! I'm taking Friday off.

So the official early release is August 31st at 8PM EDT. What ever that time translates to in your region is when the premium edition unlocks.

 

[Lutherf]

Haha! I'm taking Friday off.

So the official early release is August 31st at 8PM EDT. What ever that time translates to in your region is when the premium edition unlocks.

I just looked at my Steam account and it doesn't say anything about "Premium", just "Pre-Purchase" and everything I see says the 6th for me.

 

[jmotivator]

I just looked at my Steam account and it doesn't say anything about "Premium", just "Pre-Purchase" and everything I see says the 6th for me.

Same, but in theory it will unlock for those who purchased the premium anyway. Fingers crossed.

I'm guessing that is why we got the pre-load option today rather than next week.

 

[Redress]

Starfield very quick thoughts: generally good, but with lots and lots of minor flaws. Just about everything they do has been done better(NMS for example does space combat and flying much better), but mostly it is not bad. However, the lockpick mini-game is inspired, best minigame of that type I have played. It requires thinking ahead and puzzling out the right combination of tools. Challenging but not really hard, if that makes sense(at least so far).

Worst feature is the map on planet surfaces. It is, let us say, really bad. To properly describe it would require using words the forum censors. On the plus side, from watching videos on it, the ship design aspect is going to be something I absolutely love.

 

[jmotivator]

Starfield very quick thoughts: generally good, but with lots and lots of minor flaws. Just about everything they do has been done better(NMS for example does space combat and flying much better), but mostly it is not bad. However, the lockpick mini-game is inspired, best minigame of that type I have played. It requires thinking ahead and puzzling out the right combination of tools. Challenging but not really hard, if that makes sense(at least so far).

Worst feature is the map on planet surfaces. It is, let us say, really bad. To properly describe it would require using words the forum censors. On the plus side, from watching videos on it, the ship design aspect is going to be something I absolutely love.

Agree on the planet map. It doesn't help that New Atlantis street plan was laid out by a mental patient.

So far I am just playing the random mission game to get loot and level up and it's a very fun game.

As expected, it's buggy as all get out. May favorite bug story:

I had wanted to play entirely solo but ended up sort of accidentally agreeing to the first Constellation mission so the lady friend ended up tagging along.

I decided to bypass that mission, though, and take a bounty mission instead.

I flew to the "secret" base where the wanted criminal and his henchmen were hold up and began the assault. I was generally way under geared for the fight, but if you can play an FPS, you can generally make due. With some skill and luck I cleared the outside of the base and looted all the pirates, swapping out some gear and headed into the building.

It was there that I found my target.... locked in a room behind an expert lock. The room he was in had a glass window, so we stared at each other for a while until I gave up. I wouldn't be able to open that room for a while, so I set out to loot what I could. I found a nice suit of armor, some ammo, and then realized my lady friend wasn't with me. I remembered that he had be locked on attacking the mission target, so I figured I would find her still running against the door.

I found her... inside the locked room with the target.

I wish I had been recording, or remembered to save my video buffer... anyway, the two of them duked it out for a while until the both ran out of ammo and the fisticuffs started. My lady friend eventually won, and the target's gun skittered out through the locked door.

It was only a base model pistol. I felt robbed until I opened my inventory and looked at the pistol. Holy crap.

At a stage of the game where the average good HEAVY weapon does 20-30 damage, this pistol does 100!

It took some time but I found a dealer that carries ammo for it and took it with me on my next bounty mission and it behaved as you would expect. It 1 shot all but the elites. It kinda feels broken, and I love it.

 

[Lutherf]

You two are pissing me off. My Starfield didn't unlock so I had to play Stardew Valley which is kind of the same but different in several ways.

 

[jmotivator]

You two are pissing me off. My Starfield didn't unlock so I had to play Stardew Valley which is kind of the same but different in several ways.

Did you buy it through the Bethesda site, GOG or Steam?

I bought it on the Bethesda page and used the steam unlock code to unlock it on Steam. I had to restart steam for it to register and unlock it

 

[jmotivator]

I find it funny that New Atlantis laid out so insanely that I ended up having to take notes on which zones had which stores/services I needed and then I just choose the zone I want to start in when I land.

I still can't for the life of me figure out how to walk from one store to the next even when they are close together, if I need to go two places I need to start at the subway platform.

 

[Lutherf]

Did you buy it through the Bethesda site, GOG or Steam?

I bought it on the Bethesda page and used the steam unlock code to unlock it on Steam. I had to restart steam for it to register and unlock it

Steam

 

[ASHES]

Just upgraded my 1080p monitor to 1440p, and got a 2tb nvme ssd. I'll be giving Starfield a try when it releases for Gamepass.

 

[Redress]

I find it funny that New Atlantis laid out so insanely that I ended up having to take notes on which zones had which stores/services I needed and then I just choose the zone I want to start in when I land.

I still can't for the life of me figure out how to walk from one store to the next even when they are close together, if I need to go two places I need to start at the subway platform.

Not that it is alot of help, but https://mapgenie.io/starfield

 

[jmotivator]

Steam

Well, that's weird. I suppose in theory you could return it on Steam since you haven't played it and buy the premium through Bethesda and then use the code in Steam.

 

[Lutherf]

Well, that's weird. I suppose in theory you could return it on Steam since you haven't played it and buy the premium through Bethesda and then use the code in Steam.

Meh. I'll try restarting Steam when I get home and if that doesn't work, I'll wait. It's not like I don't have work to do!

 

[jmotivator]

It's a mark of a well made RPG when I am constantly thinking I should restart because I want to try out other skills at start.

Also, after some work I've finally figured out space combat which is a lot more fun than I expected.

 

[jmotivator]

Just assume most of what I say about Starfield at this point is spoilers...

....

So, as big of an ice cream headache as New Atlantis is (mitigated only by fast travel), Neon is a breath of fresh, cyberpunk air. Everything in Neon is laid out clearly, with bright neon signs... I think I'm going to make it my regular stop.

I say that now, but I have to first establish if Neon has all of the basic services I need...

Anyway, still playing and exploring.

Favorite Aspect of the Game so far: The ground combat side quests and the lock picking system.

As far as the lock picking goes, I have really liked it in a way I didn't expect. It's a very simple mini-game, but it targets the spatial awareness section of my brain which is oddly comforting....

Least Favorite: Navigating New Atlantis... it could sink in the ocean and I wouldn't care, am I right folks?

I'm not sure where ship construction sits in this list, but I would guess there are a lot of aspects of ship building that I haven't unlocked yet. Right now I have upgraded my ship a bit to add more storage and maneuverability, but I can't escape the feeling looking at it that it was built by a prepper using discarded shipping containers...

That said, the basic ship parts could be used to make a fairly good replica of the Space 1999 Eagle.

 

[Redress]

I had a couple hours Thursday to play Starfield, no time yesterday at all for it, then finally got set down to it at about 3 this afternoon. Finally look up from it to check the time and it was 6:30. I never get sucked in enough to play more than an hour and a half or so uninterrupted(I am a smoker, so I need to at least get up and go outside for a cig). That is a sign of a really good game. Lots of problems, lots of bugs, but overall, really good. I willl try and write up something more in-depth tomorrow, but for now, I want to get back into the game.

 

[jmotivator]

I had a couple hours Thursday to play Starfield, no time yesterday at all for it, then finally got set down to it at about 3 this afternoon. Finally look up from it to check the time and it was 6:30. I never get sucked in enough to play more than an hour and a half or so uninterrupted(I am a smoker, so I need to at least get up and go outside for a cig). That is a sign of a really good game. Lots of problems, lots of bugs, but overall, really good. I willl try and write up something more in-depth tomorrow, but for now, I want to get back into the game.

What other game developer gives you these kinds of unintended hilarious moments?

 

[Redress]

Despite bugs, oddities and glitches, this is a good game with a few problems that have mostly been discussed here. An early possible quest has you chasing down electrical problems and due to the city layout, is just a nightmare. You will spend alot of time running into blank walls and having to retrace your steps for that turn you should have taken. This game needs a real map, badly.

However, it is a ton of fun. Right now I am running the Freestar Collective ranger missions in which you become a space Texas ranger(makes me wish I had named my character Walker) trying to solve a major crime, and which ends with getting a really nice ship. Lots of travel, some pew pew, some persuasion, quite fun.

Some really good decisions by the devs in emphasizing fun, no level cap so you can get all the skills if you want. I have not even started into base design, ship design, crafting, most faction stuff, there is simply a ton of things to do. It will be interesting to see how long it holds my attention(I am ADD, so that is a challenge).

 

[bomberfox]

Ok, here is the audio check, complete with about 3 million "Uh"s and "Um"s

Oh i just started diablo 4. The corrupted druids are going to be a royal pain in the ass lol. Nice vid.

 

[bomberfox]

old video but i think this is one of my favorite moments in world of tanks high stakes arty duel.

 

[jmotivator]

Despite bugs, oddities and glitches, this is a good game with a few problems that have mostly been discussed here. An early possible quest has you chasing down electrical problems and due to the city layout, is just a nightmare. You will spend alot of time running into blank walls and having to retrace your steps for that turn you should have taken. This game needs a real map, badly.

However, it is a ton of fun. Right now I am running the Freestar Collective ranger missions in which you become a space Texas ranger(makes me wish I had named my character Walker) trying to solve a major crime, and which ends with getting a really nice ship. Lots of travel, some pew pew, some persuasion, quite fun.

Some really good decisions by the devs in emphasizing fun, no level cap so you can get all the skills if you want. I have not even started into base design, ship design, crafting, most faction stuff, there is simply a ton of things to do. It will be interesting to see how long it holds my attention(I am ADD, so that is a challenge).

There is a particular mission you get fairly early in the game that I ended up doing just because it was next on my list that ended up being an embarrassment of riches.

Spoiler: simple spoiler

The mission is titled Mantis.

 

[jmotivator]

Starfield Character build strategy spoilers...

As I am well into the game now and have seen all of the mechanics, I can't help but notice that there are basically 2 skills that break the game (and not in the "this game is ruined" way... it just makes the game rather easy). The skills in question are Security (lock picking) and Piloting.

While a lot of the other skills make various aspects of the game easier, or available at all, the combination of lock picking and piloting essentially renders the largest aspirational goals of the game elementary.

The biggest aspirational goal in Starfield, for me anyway, is getting that big pretty space ship with all of the bells and whistles. If you want to build that ship best of luck to you... that kind of freedom is locked behind Expert level skill unlocks and a mountain of credits.

But with a descent lock picking skill, a descent piloting skill, and a little luck, you can bypass that grind rather easily. Security and piloting are both novice level skills, so leveling them up isn't very difficult, and for the most bang for you buck you really only need Security and Piloting level 3. When you get to level 3 it unlocks Expert Locks and Class B ships. If you take a class with either Security or Piloting, you can get level 3 in both by character level 5. You'll need to focus on ship combat and picking locks, but that isn't TOO difficult.

Once you are at those skill levels you can steal pretty much any ship you want except for the end-game class C ships... but even then, you should be able to do that within a few levels, too.

Whenever I go on a mission and I see a spaceship landing in the distance, I sideline the main mission just to go break into the ship and give it a look. Is it is better than what I have, it's mine.

In a lot of cases you won't even need the lockpicking. If it's an enemy ship you can go in, kill the crew, and claim the ship.

So, the third most important thing in the game is the Regulator Pistol. It's insane damage and easy of use in tight spaces make it the perfect ship boarding weapon.

 

[ASHES]

I got Gamepass a few days ago, waiting to give Starfield a try. Been having a pretty good time though, played some Townscaper, which was nice and relaxing, and Super Mega Baseball 3, which is the most fun I've had in a baseball game since MVP 2005, and Microsoft FS, which is always good to go check out the sights, but what I had the most fun with was Insurgency Sandstorm. Don't know why I've never played it, but it was great. Intense firefights, really hard to fight to stay alive and accomplish objectives. I died a lot but stayed around middle of the board.

 

[PoS]

Tried the following games:

Europa Universalis 4: meh, its like Civ, but in real time. Got refund.

Mount and Blade 2: kept messing up in the fight tutorial, so forget it. Got refund.

Kingdom Come Deliverance: started off OK, but then I got into lockpicking, and it ****ing sucks!

Why do so many games suck so much?

 

[jmotivator]

With the announcement of Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 release, paired with the new ray tracing options in the latest nVidia drivers, I decided to reinstall CP2077 and give it a spin.

To get my intended purpose out of the way: The new graphics settings as... worthless? Oddly, to make use of the new Ray reconstruction you have to counterintuitively scroll down through all of the graphics settings, enable Path Tracing (something that only 40 series are supposed to support... I thought) and THEN enable ray reconstruction back up in the nVidia/DLSS box. Results? terrible.

I can only assume that the savings from Ray reconstruction are in comparison to Path Tracing. I did see about a 25% improvement in FPS with reconstruction turned on, but that is in comparison to Path Trace alone which cuts about 50% of my FPS enabling it.

End result is I get about 80FPS on my RTX3080 without path tracing enabled, 40FPS with it enabled, and 50FPS with ray reconstruction. The eye candy isn't worth it. I'm sure it makes a world of difference on a system sporting a 40 series card.. and mainly a 4070 or higher, but the "It works on 30 series cards!" is true and misleading. If it allowed Path Tracing with no change in FPS i might be worth it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Now in other CP2077 2.0 news: I kinda hate it.

I mean, I'm sure it's fine, especially for new players, but they made so many major changes to the game that you really will have a hard time picking up an old save.

The worst changes:

1) Clothing is now almost entirely cosmetic. Your armor is no longer derived through clothing mods, instead armor is now part of the Cyberware system. My character seemed to have a handful of Cyberware armor mods that I needed to go to a ripperdoc to install, and I still feel like I'm made of tissue paper. If you want better versions of the armor mods you'll need to buy them, and if your old character didn't have a lot of cash you are screwed.
2) Smart Weapons but a huge nerf, so if you built your character around smart weapons, sorry, you are also screwed. They didn't just nerf the effectiveness of Smart Weapons (lower damage, less aim control) but the iconic weapons you had when you last played got a nerf-hammer treatment as well. I specced into SMGs specifically for an Iconic SMG I found that did a full-spectrum elemental damage... and now that SMG has it's elemental damage removed AND its mod slots are gone. Oh, and it changed from autofire to burst fire.
3) New tech trees mostly invalidate your previous builds as well. They are more gated through stats than before, so doing a Jack-of-all-trades build no longer is workable with most of the useful skills in the skills trees being gated behind a stat progression.

So a bunch of major changes that are catastrophic to any pre-2.0 builds (especially smart weapon builds) and no real compensation to fix your character to be serviceable in 2.0... thanks, Devs!

Of all the changes they made, the one that makes the least sense is the clothing change. There is exactly ZERO reason in a 1-Player game to make clothing cosmetic-only. Granted, I'm not a player that really values cosmetics all that much to begin with, so your mileage may vary. I guess for people who play these games to virtually dress up their character it makes sense that they can now wear whatever they want without worrying that it will make the game less playable, but in practice it seems dumb.

The only thing I can figure is that Projekt Red is planning of releasing Cyberpunk 2077 Online in the near future and that they wanted to remove all clothing bonuses for visible gear so that they could start selling clothing cosmetics for real money without being pay-to-win.


Is there anything GOOD about 2.0? I couldn't really say. The time I spent in the game was spent just trying to see if I could make a functional character out of the wreckage.