Nobody Cares: Gaming Edition

[Caete]

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Want

 

[Cristiano]

I am playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla before bed, and on the mission I'm on, I had to help some local musicians because the bishop kept harassing them. When I completed the mission, they started singing "Smack my bishop"

 

[bubblesort]

John Oliver just put up a video about how snack companies don't make fun video games any more, and spend their resources on twitter, instead. My first reaction was "WTF? The Play store must be full of branded snack games." I mean, food and casual gaming always went hand in hand, right? Think about things like fruit ninja. That's not branded, though. So I checked the android play store...

Doritoes must have an android game? No. Nike? They have workout apps, but nothing I would call a game. Kellogg? No. Pepsi? No. Coke? Not unless you count apps that are about dropping mentos into bottles of coke, and even then, that would be co-branding, which is slightly different than what I'm looking for. Campbell's Soup surprised me, with their franchise of games about their goldfish cracker character, named Finn. Colgate has a few games, too. Other than that, though, I can't find anything.

It is strange that companies haven't jumped on the mobile gaming medium yet. If I made mobile games, I'd try pitching to big brands to make games for them. This seems like what silicon valley hipsters call a blue ocean opportunity.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

 

[Free]

How many actors have never seen the productions they've been in?

 

[Khamon]

many many very many

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

How many actors have never seen the productions they've been in?

No doubt; the problem here is that the CEO of CD Projekt told the press and investors that he had and "loved it".

Maybe a white lie all by itself; but as the tweet points out, CD Projekt did a whole lot of lying to investors about Cyberpunk 2077 and is currently struggling to get out of trouble for it, so this is just one more little weight on a scale that's getting crowded.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

In the meantime, I REALLY want this game:

 

[Noodles]

I don't really know why, but I have been playing Fortnite some the last few days. I think part of it is that I want to see how their creative system works.

The whole interface outside the game still kind of confuses me. Maybe confuses isn't the right word.

So, for one, I wanted to look cool... ish. So I threw down some money on this. After considering my options, I bought the Battle Pass Monthly Subscription deal. I can always cancel it.

It came with some stuff outright, but it also seems like I have to still play to unlock more, plus eventually the unlocks expire, which is honestly kind of shitty. The playing would be ok if they didn't expire. Basically, if I don't get to level 100, then I miss out.

The store also has an in game currency shop, which costs in ge currency you can sort of earn, but everything is so expensive you basically have to still buy if you want anything. You sort of earn them by unlocking currency on the Battle Pass tree. As far as I can tell, there is no way to unlock things if you are "Free to play" tier.

There is also another mode where you can do some sort of PVE called Save The World, but from what I can tell, you have to pay extra again for that as well. I think. Which is disappointing.

The game itself is alright. I make it to the top ten pretty regularly, but partly because I mostly just wander aimlessly until most people are gone. I will pick a fight if I encounter someone and can ambush them, but otherwise I don't actively hunt other players.

 

[Ghost Pepper]

How many actors have never seen the productions they've been in?

Some hate to see themselves on screen. They'll wind up critiquing themselves the whole time.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

It came with some stuff outright, but it also seems like I have to still play to unlock more, plus eventually the unlocks expire, which is honestly kind of shitty. The playing would be ok if they didn't expire. Basically, if I don't get to level 100, then I miss out.

The store also has an in game currency shop, which costs in ge currency you can sort of earn, but everything is so expensive you basically have to still buy if you want anything. You sort of earn them by unlocking currency on the Battle Pass tree. As far as I can tell, there is no way to unlock things if you are "Free to play" tier.

Dan Olson did a pretty good job breaking down Fortnite and its hostile design. It's was an April 1st video so there's some silliness involved, but he gets down to business before too long:

 

[Noodles]

Yeah, it's incredibly predatory in design.

Everything in the cash shop is like $10-$20.

It all seems to expire fairly quickly, a week or two at most maybe? I have not played long enough to know if things return. This creates an awful sense of urgency and FOMO.

There does not seem to be any way to earn in game currency without spending money at all. You sort of get some in the battle pass but it's not really enough to buy anything.

I thought the PVE mode let you earned Vbucks, and so I considering spending that $16 because one time for the ability to earn currency is better than buying currency over and over (which I only have done with the sub thing I likely won't renew). Anyway, seems like that was only during the beta and doest apply anymore unless you joined in the beta.

I do not mind cash shops, especially cosmetics only, I spend too much in SL already. I have a problem with the pricing levels. It's the same problem I had with Black Desert. The cost for individual skins of rediculous.

I also am not sure I like the character system now that I have used it some. It's essentially full body skins, sometimes there are customization add ONS specific to that skin. As far as I can tell, you cant do custom individual colors, or mix and match say, heads and bodies.

The game itself is really really repetitive. I kind of want to keep going to at least get to level 100 and get the Battle Pass junk I paid for, but it's getting kind of old. I also noticed the experience you earn seems to be less per round. I seem to get more experience by running this silly obstacle course game from creative mode than aging the actual proper game.

There are a zillion quests and it's kind of hard to keep track of them all, especially with how random some of the objectives are. This is probably intentional since it helps keep people from just farming out all of these quests in an efficient manner.

I played some with building a creative island, but it kind of comes down to "now what?" Every time.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

The whole interface outside the game still kind of confuses me. Maybe confuses isn't the right word.

Yes, the interface is bad, they've changed it several times. The Save the World UI is better than it was.

So, for one, I wanted to look cool... ish. So I threw down some money on this. After considering my options, I bought the Battle Pass Monthly Subscription deal. I can always cancel it.

Fortnite crew, $11.99 a month. I don't do it because I don't do subscriptions to MMO's.

It came with some stuff outright, but it also seems like I have to still play to unlock more, plus eventually the unlocks expire, which is honestly kind of shitty. The playing would be ok if they didn't expire. Basically, if I don't get to level 100, then I miss out.

You've got the length of the current Battlepass season to unlock stuff with the "Battle stars" and once you do, it's yours and you keep it when the current Battle Pass expires.

The store also has an in game currency shop, which costs in ge currency you can sort of earn, but everything is so expensive you basically have to still buy if you want anything. You sort of earn them by unlocking currency on the Battle Pass tree. As far as I can tell, there is no way to unlock things if you are "Free to play" tier.

Yep. There is a "free tier" of some sort, but I think it limits what they can use their "Battle Stars" on.

There is also another mode where you can do some sort of PVE called Save The World, but from what I can tell, you have to pay extra again for that as well. I think. Which is disappointing.

Yes, originally the plan was to eventually make STW free-to-play, but when they took it out of "Early Access" they called it a premium experience so charge for access. You need to buy the current access pack, which is currently the "Robo-Kevin" pack (he's the small triangle shaped hovering homebase bot) in the pack he gets a bipedal body and is classed as a Constructor.

Robo-Kevin Pack - Epic Games Store

Download and play Robo-Kevin Pack at the Epic Games Store.

www.epicgames.com

This access pack is currently the ONLY way to get access to STW and to aquire Kevin. The previous access packs were the only way to acquire certain other heroes...Like Lars, or RaY's bipedal body, or Lok and his bipedal body. I think the only homebase robot left is Pop, but he turned somewhat evil early in Stonewood/Plankerton and we haven't seen him much at all since then.

The game itself is alright. I make it to the top ten pretty regularly, but partly because I mostly just wander aimlessly until most people are gone. I will pick a fight if I encounter someone and can ambush them, but otherwise I don't actively hunt other players.

Yep, that's what I do when I play Battle Royal, which isn't very often, I do Save The World.

Yeah, it's incredibly predatory in design.

Everything in the cash shop is like $10-$20.

Some of the emotes are only 200V-bucks or so, but generally the good stuff is 400 on up, and since 1000 v-bucks in $7.99...yeah. And skins are usually 800-1500.

It all seems to expire fairly quickly, a week or two at most maybe? I have not played long enough to know if things return. This creates an awful sense of urgency and FOMO.

Stuff in the shop WILL return...eventually. Battlepass stuff is specific to that Battlepass and won't appear again as far as I know.

There does not seem to be any way to earn in game currency without spending money at all. You sort of get some in the battle pass but it's not really enough to buy anything.

I thought the PVE mode let you earned Vbucks, and so I considering spending that $16 because one time for the ability to earn currency is better than buying currency over and over (which I only have done with the sub thing I likely won't renew). Anyway, seems like that was only during the beta and doest apply anymore unless you joined in the beta.

Yes, if you didn't become a "Founder" during the "Early Access" period, you cannot earn vbucks in STW other than those you can get as part of an access pack, like the Kevin pack. Generally anything that would earn vbucks for a founder a non-founder gets X-ray tickets which can only be used in STW unlike the vbucks. Also note than in STW vbucks and x-ray tickets are used to buy loot llamas with weapon schematics, heroes, and survivors. While you can get some of these things using the "gold" and "event tickets" you get from STW missions (and sometimes from missions themselves), the primary way is to use vbucks or x-ray tickets on the vbuck llamas. Note that these are NOT blind lootboxes anymore. You can see whats in them before any purchase. Save the vbucks/x-ray tickets for llamas with Mythic Lead Survivors.

Also Founders, especially Ultimate Edition Founders, have heroes and weapon schematics you will never be able to get. Only Ultimate founders have all 8 Legendary founder heroes and only Ultimate founders have the schematic for the Nocturno assault rifle with its Nocturno specific bonus perk: Hitting an enemy with this weapon marks them as a target, stacking with each hit. Upon reload, each marked target explodes in a 0.5 tile radius dealing 65% of weapon damage dealt per mark applied and the explosion removes all marks from the target.

That perk makes it one of the most powerful assault rifles in Save the World, just like the Founders Revolt with the Revolt only Bullet chain perk is one of the most powerful pistols in Save the World.

Most of the long term founders in Save the World, who probably have their Lead Survivor slots filled with Mythics, don't have much to use their vbucks on except maybe getting a llama that has a duplicate schematic they can add to the collection book or perk a different element for high level missions where elemental strengths/weaknesses are more important, or Battle Royale cosmetics.

Founders did at one time get a certain number special friend codes that they could give out to give access to STW, if any founder had any left when STW left "Early Access" they were disabled.

I do not mind cash shops, especially cosmetics only, I spend too much in SL already. I have a problem with the pricing levels. It's the same problem I had with Black Desert. The cost for individual skins of rediculous.

Agreed.

I also am not sure I like the character system now that I have used it some. It's essentially full body skins, sometimes there are customization add ONS specific to that skin. As far as I can tell, you cant do custom individual colors, or mix and match say, heads and bodies.

That's right.

The game itself is really really repetitive. I kind of want to keep going to at least get to level 100 and get the Battle Pass junk I paid for, but it's getting kind of old. I also noticed the experience you earn seems to be less per round. I seem to get more experience by running this silly obstacle course game from creative mode than aging the actual proper game.

Yes, you can earn battle pass XP in some creative mode things. Recently they enabled the ability to earn Battle Pass XP in save the world, which I would recommend. Though there is a limit to how much you can earn per day in STW compared to Battle Royale, earning it in STW is less annoying because STW has different mission types, you choose your hero loadout and special abilities and every map is random.

There are a zillion quests and it's kind of hard to keep track of them all, especially with how random some of the objectives are. This is probably intentional since it helps keep people from just farming out all of these quests in an efficient manner.

Yep. Some people say the most efficient way to earn Battle Pass XP is by running Encampment missions in Stonewood in STW. If you've got a good loadout (which I do)...and probably be high level and capable of running Twine Peaks missions (which I am), you can run through them, doing the 5 regular and 4 super encampments very quickly. I could solo those, easily with "Stonewood level" copper weapons. (general weapon level 10/10, weapon power level 26...yes weapons/heroes/survivors/defenders have TWO different levels in STW...it can confuse people)

I played some with building a creative island, but it kind of comes down to "now what?" Every time.

Invite friends to it, I think there might be some way to promote it. But I don't do creative mode.

 

[bubblesort]

The Steam Christmas sale is happening. I don't see much that I'm interested in this time. Red Dead is on sale, but I don't buy from Rockstar any more, since they deliberately broke GTA IV by disabling mods. I picked up Styx: Shards of Darkness, because the first Styx is the best stealth game I've ever played.

Are there any new VR games worth my time? The last good one I picked up was Half Life Alyx.

 

[Free]

A good overview of NFTs and where gaming is going with it.

 

[Noodles]

I bought a pile of V-bucks because I am WEAK.

SHAME ME.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

I bought a pile of V-bucks because I am WEAK.

SHAME ME.

SL gets one used to buying virtual currency for cosmetics and makes me WEAK.

Did not get any games for christmas but did get PSN and Nintendo gift cards.
PSN: Hades, Spiritfarer, also downloaded Iconoclasts, but apparently that was a cross-buy PS+ freebie from Vita. A friend mentioned it to me on Christmas Eve.
Switch: Hades, Iconoclasts.

God I wish the Switch was cross-buy/cross-save with PS5.
"But CC, you can dock your Switch!" Yes, but it's not as good as my PS5.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Well, Fortnite is mostly for kids. And for people who just like building tons of stuff in a battle royale game.

If you want to play a battle royale game made primarily for adults then Apex Legends is the way to go.

 

[Rose Karuna]

Asking for some help

I used to play Dragon Age Origins on my MAC but then they quit supporting it. Dragon Age was probably my all time favorite of all the games I've ever played.

For Christmas, I got an Xbox S series, can anyone here recommend any games that are similar to Dragon Age? I loved Dragon Age because I could play so many different iterations, Mage, Elf, Human or Dwarf. Plus I could choose what I looked like and what my speciality was (Warrior, Rogue, etc.). I really don't like battling in regular video games, I don't have the dexterity nor the eye sight needed. Battles in DA were more about strategy than my fighting with a sword or knife.

Can anyone here recommend any Xbox games besides Dragon Age out there that are like this? Specialize in characters, allow me to choose my character and use more strategy than dexterity?