I wondered that too with the sale price and update, but then I remembered that I played the game for 45 minutes on release day and was so bored that I refunded it. There's not a single thing the game does that other games haven't already done better, and reading through the new content I'm not sure that's changed at all. And that's forgetting all the bald faced lies from Mr Murray in the lead-up to the initial launch.

I did buy it yesterday [finding a better deal at GMG ;) ]. I played a couple of hours last night. I just landed on my second planet. Way too soon to say whether the game has finally arrived or not, but for ~$25, I figured it was worth a shot.


I've had that game on the sidelines for awhile. I really think this would be a fun one to jump back into. But I'd want to set aside some decent amount of time to play it. My typical style of jumping in for 30-60 mins once or twice a week doesn't give me the chance to truly get invested. I've watched some of the Let's Play videos. Now it's time for me to play.

I think if you come into the game expecting instant action/combat like Diablo/Path of Exile you are going to be disappointed. The game has a "chill factor" to it-just exploring a planet is fun because you never know what you will find on it. Some areas are breathtaking. There is an underlying story to it (not sure what's changed in NEXT for that). You are given a quest to start the story right when you start a new game. Or you can ignore the story and explore, find a planet to build a base on, gather resources, sell them at the galactic market. Go to a space station and get quests, some of which are combat ones etc. Multiplayer will add new avenues for combat. You aren't given everything you need to survive when you start (and a lot of times you start on a planet that will kill you gradually). Learning how the game works is part of the fun.



I understand why some people find it boring. Watch some videos of someone just starting the game to get a good idea of whether you will like it or not. To me its a game that got a very bad "stink" attached to it from all the hype that did not deliver. Slowly patch by patch they are making the game into a lot of what the hype generated. If you can get it a good price (and don't get it from GOG as for some reason that version doesn't have multiplayer), I certainly think its worth checking it out. Just make sure your computer has enough memory/graphics. :)

40,000 people playing it on Steam can't be wrong, can it?


https://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-...ffer-pcgamertw

Yeah, but 38,000 of them had actually died days earlier of boredom

oof!

I've logged 155 hours so far. By far my favorite solo game.

Overall, it's only 2nd to Terraria. (282 hours) That's mostly because the kids keep making me start over so they can build a new fortress :)

No I get that. I mean, I've spent countless hours on Minecraft building exploring digging, etc. I'm OK with that type of game. To me, NMS had components of games I'd already played (Minecraft and Planet Explorers in particular) but didn't do any of them as well. Planet Explorers actually had some of the features NMS was supposed to have and didn't, well before. Even the exploration component... I mean, NMS planets are the equivalents of a single Minecraft biome, not the multi-biome planets that might have made exploration more interesting. If it had a "dungeon crawler" type of cavern combat it might have held my interest, but instead it was "walk 5 mins to point X to mine Y amount of Z", rinse+repeat. OK, lots of games like that... but compare THAT to what was promised and they deserve everything they got from that release.

Apparently Steam updated to include some chat feature that now auto-opens every time I boot up my laptop. I can't figure out how to disable it. Anyone? I just want it to stop popping up on start-up.

Ditto, so I'll watch the thread to see if anybody figures it out.

I don't think you can disable it without reverting to the old UI (which looks to be a pain in the ass to do).

Why the fuck do companies do this? I want to use your service to play games. Don't need another dumb fucking social feature I'll never use.

The funny thing is Discord just added a bunch of games bullshit to their service because no one can actually just improve the service that we are using it for.

The word "engagement" oughta just have four letters in it.

Apparently they're so scared about multi-tasking that they're afraid you might spend time on InstaFaceChat instead of playing games. What they haven't grasped apparently is that many of us game to get away from people, not to interact with them.

I can't think of anything I'd want less than a #$%@# chat message while I was trying to rule the world.

A way to change the chat popup.....

1) Create a new shortcut that points to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe
2) Within the shortcut, add the parameter of "-nofriendsui" that will prevent the popup from showing

If you like Steam to auto start when Windows loads, in addition to the above, complete the following.

1) Go into Steam client and turn off autostart within settings
2) Copy the newly created desktop shortcut to the startup folder on your PC

The vast majority of my gaming time is now spent playing co-op games with friends. We usually use Skype, but last night knew tried to use the new Steam chat function and it worked really well. Much better than the old one, which was abysmal.

So between us we cover the ends of the spectrum pretty much lol

Yeah no kidding. I've never played multiplayer and have no interest at all.

Thanks, but if that's really the easiest way, they can kiss it!

Agree that Steam should have included an option to change within settings, but for whatever reason they didn't. Odd choice. But at least these steps can be taken once in under a minute to resolve the issue. Hopefully there is enough outcry where a future update includes a setting.

Some screenshots from No Man's Sky and some videos and stories about one planet the author found:


https://www.pcgamer.com/the-coolest-...y-next-so-far/


https://www.pcgamer.com/this-no-mans...ffer-pcgamertw

Going to guess it also has to do with the update, but has anybody else got trouble displaying items in the Workshop ? I can get to the game page, but as i click on a category it claims that no items can be found with that criteria.

I suspect you have Steam set up to launch on the booting process, or right after the desktop session is started. I have Steam set to not launch when I turn my laptop on, but have it setup to launch when I start a shortcut to a Steam game (like FOF8). Now, whenever I start a game, even in full screen mode, right after the game started, I'm thrown back to my desktop screen because the chat function had to be launched as well and apparently they think it should get preference over the game I want to play.

I've sent a report to Steam Support to stop minimizing a game right after I tried to start it.

I cannot stand that stupid chat popup.

For the people having issues, do you have the Steam Overlay on? Mine is off and I don't seem to be having problems.

This. This. Very fucking much THIS.

Thank you for this. I can't think of a more worthless feature than an intrusion of social media in a solo game.

Thanks! I turned this off and no more chat window.

You can up the turns if you like.. at least I think I saw that in the options. I just started with Saint Louis FC using the United States mod. It's a deep but very accessible game. Love the turned based tactical play.

Have you been playing this?

Your thoughts? Is it the type of game I can play while watching TV, or is it more detailed where I have to pay really close attention?

Gotta focus on it IMO. I dont mind the game, it's still tricky and slow, but there is a level of enjoyment still

cool.

I decided to grab it since it is on sale.

There are things you have to pay attention to depending on what planet you are on-things like the weather or atmosphere will slowly kill you if aren't there to fix it. You can be attacked in space (and on land if you are hostile to certain things.) But you will get a computer warning that your exosuit is failing on a planet so as long as you keep the volume on there's not a lot you have to pay attention to. Flying in space you will have to pay attention to more to make sure you don't miss your waypoint. (and the first ship you get can be hard to control too). Once you get used to the flow of how things work, its not as demanding of your attention.



My suggestion is to watch some videos of someone starting the game with the new patch, NEXT, just to see what to expect. I'm watching videos from GameRiot on YouTube right now that are pretty typical of what a new player should expect.

My report was replied with a redirect and basically told me to write down my story to the Steam support again. My explanation was pretty clear, go waste your own time by copy and pasting it. :rant:

I needed to reboot to check if it really worked, it appears to be an acceptable temporary work around. It still started the chat fluff, but quickly closed/minimized and then let my computer start up the program I actually wanted to start up.

(in Steam go to 'Steam' in the upper left corer, go to 'Settings', go to 'In-Game', there unclick the 'Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game' option)

XCom2 for approx $20 for the next week on Steam

Make it 100,000


https://www.pcgamer.com/no-mans-sky-...ffer-pcgamertw

Eh, it could be 2 billion and they could still be wrong. Sometimes games succeed because they are good, but there is a lot of popular crap and stuff that is good but never succeeds as much as it deserves out there.

I may have wasted $30. IT didn't hook me and seems very micro managy. May wait to try again until I am somewhere I can really focus on it.

Sorry to hear that Latham. It gets a bit micro managy at first, especially after NEXT because so much is new-resources, methods used to get them, things you need to build to craft with them etc. But for me at least that fades over time. You might try to start 2 or 3 games at once just to run the tutorial quests over and over to help it sink in more. Did you like the scenery at least?

I did. Perhaps I did something wrong. I didn't see a tutorial.

Yeah when you start a normal game, you "wake up" on a random planet, usually one where you will die unless you follow the prompts (female computer voice and a message on the right side of your screen) that start right after you wake up. Look for Ferrite Dust in stones and rock formations or Carbon in trees/plants to recharge your suit enough to survive.


Look at GameRiots 1st video in his No Man's Sky series to see what it should look like when you start:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQg1ZXPmXEM

I saw that and figured out the ferrite dust. I had the sound off so i didn't hear any voice.

there's a good soundtrack, as well as animal voices and more-definitely should play with the sound on

Humble Sports Bundle FTW!


I already have a lot, but for someone wanting Motorsport Manager, it's fantastic.



https://www.humblebundle.com/games/sports-bundle

Just saying thanks for the tipoff on this. Just bought the bundle AND redeemed the 75% off coupon for FM2018 as well.

ugh, how can you resist FM 18 when its 75% off

I'm thinking about getting the bundle for the 75% off... any other great games in the bundle?

EHM (but I figure you've got that already) and that racing sim thing-y (which I think you've got). The rest were stray driving type stuff I believe.

I had about 25 things on my wishlist go on sale this weekend-mostly digital board game stuff, so you might check those out if interested. Also the whole Endless Legends/Space 1 and 2/Dungeons of the Endless etc are on a free to play weekend and sale.

I never got the racing sim... that might make it worthwhile.

Haven't fired it up yet tbh, but for $6 and the combo of it / FM18 for under $20, well that was just too good a chance.

I suspect -- from very first blush at least -- that I may end up playing FM Touch more than the full thing, but you could kinda count that (IMO) as getting at least three games with the combo.

If you've ever had any interest in formula 1, it's a slam dunk. There's a lot to the game and it is much deeper than i would have expected for a first gen game. Then add on expansions for GP and endurance racing and it changes again.

I had to return No Man Sky. It wasn't what I expected, and I am too old and slow and sick to play what was basically a first person shooter.

sorry to hear that :(

I have tried it a few times and it just isn't sticking.

Slay the spire on the other hand it tremendous. I have no idea how some people get such high scores on the daily runs.

I really love Slay The Spire, I keep coming back to it even after beating it with all three characters, I havne't really tried Ascension levels though. And I've intentionally been avoiding youtube or twitch streams of the game, I think there are some power strats that involve having very few cards in your deck so tat the only ones you pull are powerful and you get them over and over, but I've been happier to not optimize and to just figure stuff out on my own so far.

Don't get me wrong, the game looks fine. I have just had some major health issues come up in the last 3 months that have changed how I can play video games. Heck, I have barely been on the computer for the last three months because I had a hard time seeing the screen clearly and I couldn't concentrate on the computer without getting to exhausted. Right now I really have to look at slower paced games that don't take too much out of me to play. No Man Sky didn't look like it fit that bill.

Hope you get better soon!

Yeah, sorry to hear you aren't well. Take care. You're missed around here.

yeah that was what my "sorry about that" was about, not that you couldn't play the game :) I hope that whatever is going on is treatable or at least enough for you to be able to concentrate on the computer again.

I hope you get better quickly, GrantDawg.

Thanks guys. Didn't mean to thread jack. I might make a thread about it because I could use some advice. Anyway, back to game deals and discussion.

Does it make me considerably less of a person that I suspect I'm going to find FM18 Touch more to my liking than full FM18?

It just ... feels better to me after a couple days, way more sense of flow.

I’m a 100% with you on touch over full

Fan of the Torchlight games? Not from the company that made them, but from an MMO company Perfect World, comes Torchlight Frontiers, a shared-world ARPG. One of the people who worked on Torchlight is behind this, so some connection to the previous games. You can sign up for the beta now:


https://www.torchlightfrontiers.com/en/index/enroll/yes

Definitely two great games. Looking forward to this and thanks for posting.

You guys should pick up Orwell for free from Humble right now.



https://www.humblebundle.com/store/orwell

Thanks for the heads-up on that PM

For you XCOM folks, Phantom Doctrine was just released by the same developer who made Hard West.


Strategy gamer gave it a 5/5 and it has some different mechanics than XCOM. It does not use RNG and does some other things differently.

The original Bards Tale Trilogy remastered was just released too. One of my all-time favorite RPG series. Crazy that it first came out over 35 years ago.

It got a pretty negative review at Rock Paper Shotgun https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/201...w/#more-578945

There have been a number of complaints about the tactical combat - AI can see things it shouldn't be able to see, and can shoot through walls, etc. I love the premise and hope patches will clean it up.

Polygon gave a similar opinion. Super cool idea, execution and immersion need some help. Might be a good target around black friday. Which is too bad, because I was really excited for it.

Check out the Strategy Gamer review. Hopefully they do patch that issue though but I applaud their innovation.

Frozen Synapse 2 is due to release any day.. although they have been saying that for a year or two.


Watched this twitch stream and it looks amazing.



https://www.twitch.tv/videos/299774400##

Humble Summer Sale has started, and for a short time you can get Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine for free


https://www.pcgamer.com/warhammer-40...ffer-pcgamertw

Recent purchases:

Prismata: very, very tough game but it appeals to me in some way I can't explain. Slogging through tutorials and being beat by the "easy" AI over and over. Slowly improving. Very frustrating. It's one of those things where I want to delete it from my hard drive and never touch it again but I'm stubborn. If you are good at math, this game will probably be much easier for you. DDDDEDDD

PUBG: I see lots of complaints about this game but i have to admit that i'm enjoying it right now. The scale of the maps is impressive. I love the jump out of the plane mechanic for the initial entry. The whole pay for keys to crates thing for unique clothes and skins for weapons doesn't affect me. Not a huge fan of the feel of the character movement but its growing on me. Playing solo and duo matches (duo with nephew via skype) and i must say its much more fun with friends. I see lots of complaints about cheaters and so far I have not come across anything glaring. You can always watch your Death Cam and every death so far has seemed more than legit.

The jump scare i get when the game is silent for 5 minutes and then you are attacked by the loudest BLAM BLAM ever is unnerving. I can see this staying in my rotation for a while.

Dungeon Warfare I and II: a retro graphic tower defense. I'm not a huge TD guy but I've enjoyed this. My number 1 TD is still the original Dungeon Defenders (there is just something about it that feels right).

The Witcher Series: not a huge fan of this genre but I kept hearing over and over how good the series is. So, it was on sale and i plunged in and have started Witcher 1. I'm already doing the "go get 5 blahblah berries" quest and am slightly annoyed.

The first Witcher game has a strong story and very weak gameplay. I wouldn't judge the rest of the series from the first. The 2nd is a massive leap forward and the 3rd is one of the best PC games ever game.

I tried the first Witcher game not too long ago and had the same reaction. I'm thinking at some point I'll just play through while reading a walkthrough so I can get through it ASAP while still getting all of the story and then jump into The Witcher 2.

But that'll have to wait. I'm still addicted to Rimworld (while waiting for the next big Stellaris update)

Im waiting for the next discount on rimworld to make the plunge. Hope it's sooner than the November sale

It really is an awesome game.

Serious question; I've heard a LOT of good things about Rimworld. I've never taken the plunge myself because I've never seen(though I haven't looked very hard) what the big deal is. My impression of the game is that it's more or less Dwarf Fortress with better graphics and some surface storytelling, with most settlements not even intending or trying to last very long. Is that wrong -- or those of you who like it, what's the hook for you? I have nothing against DF, I've sunk way too much time into as it is. The question is though, what does Rimworld have that makes it worth spending the time to learn it?

It's essentially a dwarf fortress-lite with prison architect graphics. I haven't played it in several months, but put over 80 hours into it after stumbling across it when it was released on steam. I've passively kept up with the updates, but without playing in so long some things may have changed.

The hook for me was the small scale town building and simulation aspects of it. I've never been able to get into Cities Skylines or any of the Sim City games since maybe 4. I really enjoy the familiarity of having a small group of people to "control" and actually feeling like you know your settlers.

What really drew me in was the sense of accomplishment in building a small civilization that thrives a little. The wonderful and frustrating thing about Rimworld is complete disaster comes fast and you often don't see it until it's too late. Bandits attack at the wrong time, the wrong person gets bit by an animal, didn't harvest enough crops for the winter, etc. You often don't even realize what the wrong time or who the wrong person is until it happens.

So what it comes down to is it's a difficult, but fun city builder and management sim with dwarf fortress-lite aspects.

I love Rimworld, but my one big problem (which may have been fixed - it's been awhile since I've fired it up, but I would have 100+ hours on it) with it is that when you DO manage to make a successful colony and really start to bump up your number of settlers, the game's scheduling system really starts to struggle. It's the same with Prison Architect when your prison gets too large and there are too many tasks to schedule, and it begins to seem like people are just not doing what they are supposed to be doing for no good reason - some jobs just don't get priority.

It does take a looooong time to get to that point in Rimworld, but it's very unsatisfying once you do.

I think my key is to start with a mountainous spot and instead of building, dig your settlements directly into the mountain. Saves a lot of material and you can still setup cooling/heating, etc., and with less risk of fire destroying everything, especially if you carefully lay out the high-risk explosive stuff and separate it with tunnels.

I've always wanted to try Rimworld but the name of the game sounds like a porno.

That's what I've ended up doing every game, too. I make a really well defended cave entrance, and then build my civilization under ground. That seems to be the best strategy if you're not a pro at outdoor building.

The only other tip I'd have is to use the manual priority system instead of the default one. Under the "work" tab, make sure it's set so you can change the priority numbers for each worker. The checkmarks aren't enough. Put everyone that is capable of a task at 3 for it, then set each person's specialty to a 2 for them. That usually gives me enough control that I don't need to use the 1 or 4, but they are there for situations that pop up. (ex: I sometimes set doctors to 1 after a battle, so they ignore everything else but healing, until there's no healing left to do)

Also, the latest rimworld update has added some new fun stuff. Building on water, new turrets, more power options...

163 hours in so far, and not slowing down!

Gotcha thanks. It sounds like a good game that scratches an itch that I really don't have, so I'll probably just let all the other people who enjoy it have at it. I have a backlog of projects planned right now anyway so there's only so much one person can do.

Appreciate the info guys.

I have never seen a sale on Rimworld in the last 3 years.

Another rimworld tip:

If you're starting with 1 settler, NEVER get into a fight with ANYTHING. I've lost the game multiple times because my first settler, armed with a charge rifle, got attacked by a rabbit/alpaca/turtle and died from an infected scratch. (because you can't treat your own wounds)

I thought they changed that quirk - not being able to treat your own wounds - in one of the more recent patches?

I hope they did, but my last game (a week ago) was ended by a rabbit scratch.

Well...darn

I really want to love Rimworld but i go through patches where i play a bunch of games for a few days and then i get tired of it and put it down for months. Just something about the progression that i don't like. The tech tree is so meh.

It would be nice to have more tech options but it just feels like choice in tech doesn't make that much of a difference in gameplay and you're researcher is usually too busy tending to the wounded or in bed wounded to actually have time for the research bench. I'm sure somebody will argue that i'm just not doing it right but I can point to Stellaris as a tech tree that is decent (not perfect). A little random every time and you can feel progress.

As for the Witcher comments, I hope 3 is as good for me as everyone says.:)

The option is in the colonist's Health tab (Self-tend).

Rimworld has so many mods you can kinda build your own game.

Bought it. Love it. Lost my first game because I thought I could take out a megasloth with a bow. Send my colonist with a gun to try and they got knock out. My hauler tried to rescue them and didn't make it either.

Second game causes panic with an infected rat which doomed us

That's a good point - I think the 1/4 thing in particular. I do manually set all my priorities but saving 1 for emergencies is not something I've tried.

I also started using a priorities mod last time I played which, I can't recall the name or the specific details, but I think it especially may also have contributed to the mess in late-game.

https://www.humblebundle.com/monthly...s_tile_index_1

Humble Bundle is giving away 9 games for free.

click on each game and then download. It isn't a steam key

GoG is giving away four games (all old because its GoG)


https://www.pcgamer.com/gog-is-givin...ffer-pcgamertw

Bard's Tale 4 now out and available everywhere it looks like

GoG.com having a Divinity sale. Most games in the series are for sale and less than $10, including Divinty-Original Sin I-Enhanced Edition.Original Sin 2 not part of the sale.

Big Sale on Train Simulator. You can get all the add-ons for only $7600.