OT: Video Games V

[Raikkonen]

This is awesome. Has Need for Speed HP2 feel to it

And that red tractor is surely from BF V.

 

[Raikkonen]

Also this

 

[usiel]

Also this

Dig that last weapon.

 

[g00n]

So, Borderlands 3.

Maybe spoilers maybe not, so to be safe:

Spoiler: luke warm take

It's a Borderlands game. That's about it.

I like some of the new features like toggling special weapons effects (for example a gun may be able to switch between shock and corrosive); and I appreciate the ability to hit "jump" a second time while in the air to scale higher objects, but what else has improved, or changed much?

The story hasn't grabbed me yet but I'm barely off Pandora, so who knows. They've clearly taken more of a Mass Effect approach to a "galaxy map" fast travel model, which I guess is cool, but the side missions are very "meh" which makes the travel seem kind of pointless beyond the main quest. And even that's a little simplistic and vague, if that makes sense.

The new villains are levels below Handsome Jack in quality and just seem like Poochy-esque "wiggity wiggity WHACK to the EXTREME!" snotty brats. I miss Jack's sardonic, subtle cruelty.

It has the usual annoyances of NPCs hanging around you at vending machines repeating inane blather (Claptrap is especially bothersome, as always), though some of the lines are funny coming from the Atlas soldiers nearby.

So far there's not been enough easter eggs, witty banter, or even uses for that extra jumping beyond scaling obviously placed cargo boxes.

Some targets have "ghosts" in them that release and attack you when you kill the body. Apparently this is for some side quest but I haven't seen any benefit yet, just annoying ghost attacks that can hamper you.

There's an abundance of small ammo boxes etc to make sure you never run out of ammo, which makes the game seem very easy a lot of the time on the default setting, but of course some of the boss or badass ambushes can put a hurting on you quickly. So it doesn't seem as measured for leveling or balanced challenges as previous installations.

Which brings me to the skill tree. What the **** is this thing? I suppose it's cool in concept to have all these slots and abilities to unlock and assign, but the way they're tied to one of three special abilities makes no sense. Some basic upgrades are isolated in trees that force you to use one load out and not the others, so if you want to change your action skill you lose a lot of your basic buffs (or you have to pay to reassign points).

Give me back my turret!

Overall it's very reliant on vehicle travel, even in the "urban" areas. Again this is just a few sites into the game so it may change. But right now I feel like I'm basically driving around from one quest section to another. Any time you exit your vehicle expect to be attacked by another vehicle within 30 or so seconds.

Maybe my reconstructive memory of past games is warped but this one seems like the same basic programming with new maps and worse story. So far. It may get better.

A month on from last time and I'm more into it. Worth a play but still some issues. More comments with possible spoilery stuff if anyone cares:

Spoiler: B3 take 2

I did find myself wanting to play more as I went along, though I never get very much time so immersion is limited.

Not a humblebrag so much as a tip for others who are similarly experienced with this series, but it might be better to start on a more advanced level. I think I may have been killed by a boss once and I'm Level 33 or so by now. Normal setting may be a little too easy 90% of the time for anyone who's got some techniques with Borderlands titles. Dunno. Rarely run out of ammo, only seem to get killed when I know I'm biting off more than I can chew or some surprise ambush takes place.

A LOT of opening chests and whatnot. Maybe too much.


I jumped off the drone load out/skill tree and onto the digi-clone, which replaces the turret I was whining about. It's actually better than the turret and might be one of the reasons the regular play gets too easy at times. Still not sold on the skill trees as a whole, though.

The story so far is a bit predictable. I won't spoil the details but you're running around hunting for vault key fragments while the bad guys are trying to beat you to it. SSDD.

Point being there can be a lot of driving around and getting out of cars to blast giant monkeys or lizards etc while looking for some object/NPC. Maybe the Eden-6 jungle/swamp landscape just isn't doing it for me. Some of the other more urban settings were more interesting.

Still not impressed with the side missions, though. There should be more and they should be more creative. Would like more secret areas to explore as well.

Overall it's playable. I'm even considering going through again on a harder level and a different character, though my Pile of Shame keeps building so not sure how likely that is.

 

[Marshall]

Feels like every game (but Wasteland 3) that I'm looking forward to this year has been delayed. For the best, but still irritating.

Going through my back collection now, playing BattleTech, the Dying Light DLC (which I didn't know I had, whuups), and re-playing Company of Heroes.

News gamez, plz.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Realized I never played Batman: Arkham Knight so I bought it for $9.99 on Saturday. I really need to stop going on the PS Store after a few drinks, I don't have enough time to play video games yet in my queue I have about 12 games and I think 90% of those were purchased after consuming a few libations.

 

[itsjustsurvival]

Feels like every game (but Wasteland 3) that I'm looking forward to this year has been delayed. For the best, but still irritating.

Going through my back collection now, playing BattleTech, the Dying Light DLC (which I didn't know I had, whuups), and re-playing Company of Heroes.

News gamez, plz.

How is Battletech?

 

[Marshall]

How is Battletech?

Well, take my review with a grain of salt, as I've been playing BattleTech, tabletop and video games, for a lonnnng time.

It's interesting, turn-based tactical combat with mechs that are pretty customizable. A detractor would say it's repetitive - the missions vary, but each mission is still robots marching around shooting stuff. Play-wise, I'd say it's similar to XCom2 with less production. LOTS of mods out there for it. (Note: I also love XCom2.)

I've gotten a lot of milage out of my copy, but the idea of a big 'ol robot blowing another robot's arm off appeals to me.

 

[itsjustsurvival]

Well, take my review with a grain of salt, as I've been playing BattleTech, tabletop and video games, for a lonnnng time.

It's interesting, turn-based tactical combat with mechs that are pretty customizable. A detractor would say it's repetitive - the missions vary, but each mission is still robots marching around shooting stuff. Play-wise, I'd say it's similar to XCom2 with less production. LOTS of mods out there for it. (Note: I also love XCom2.)

I've gotten a lot of milage out of my copy, but the idea of a big 'ol robot blowing another robot's arm off appeals to me.

Sounds like something I would enjoy. Thanks for the review!

 

[ovikovy817]

With 0 sports on TV, I need to bring back my PS3 and play at The last of us again.

This game is not far away from what happening right now in the world LOL

 

[usiel]

Doom Eternal is tempting me.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Finally caved and bought NHL 20. Still not a fan of the 5-on-5 play but The World of Chel is fun.

 

[hb12xchamps]

All this downtime has gotten me into playing CoD again. The new Warzone battle royale mode is fun when you’re playing with some buddies. It’s also free to download if you didnt pick up Modern Warfare

 

[usiel]

All this downtime has gotten me into playing CoD again. The new Warzone battle royale mode is fun when you’re playing with some buddies. It’s also free to download if you didnt pick up Modern Warfare

I completely forgot I had picked that up until I was in geforce experience seeing it listed in there, lol.

 

[Drake1588]

What is better than building a new gaming rig? Building two new gaming PCs, of course.

 

[usiel]

What is better than building a new gaming rig? Building two new gaming PCs, of course.

Needs some hardware specs!

 

[Drake1588]

Ha! Well, I started out planning an Intel-based gaming PC. I have few workstation needs so Ryzen wasn't really as interesting to me. I'm not a content creator and I don't need to do anything other than game on this. Thread count is not terribly important to me, so I think Intel is still the better, if more expensive, option for my own needs.

I went looking at cases and had to try and find some with optical drive bays. I like to set up some retro gaming options with Dosbox and my Roland MT-32 and SC-55 Sound Canvas modules. That means CD and DVD media, so a bay was a must. As far as empty cases go, I've two Cooler Master HAF X full towers at home that are beasts, and I'm using a really nice black Phanteks Enthoo Pro for my current gaming PC. Yet case design has come a long way and I don't really want to use the HAF X this time.

I went looking for another Enthoo Pro in white, but couldn't find one available. So I decided to pick up an Enthoo Pro M mid tower with a black exterior, white interior, and a tempered glass side panel; I've never had a glass panel before, and that's a nice compact case. No sooner had I ordered the mid tower, than one of the full towers that I was looking for appeared a few days later. Damnit.

I figured what the hell, and decided to buy it anyway. Now I needed to figure out what to build in it. No one's going anywhere for a while, so I'd build two PCs and end up building an Intel and an AMD Ryzen PC side by side. I haven't built an AMD PC in 20 years, probably not since the K6-2 or Athlon days. So this is what I settled on.

• Intel Core i7 9700K Socket LGA 1151 CPU
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO (Intel LGA1151/Z390/ATX/2xM.2 Thermal Guard/Realtek ALC1220/RGB Fusion/Gaming Motherboard)
• Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB DDR4 3200 C16 for Intel 100 Series - White
• Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Super Gaming OC White 8G Graphics Card, 3X Windforce Fans, 8GB 256-Bit GDDR6
• Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe M.2 drive
• CORSAIR RMX White Series (2018), RM850x, 850 Watt, 80+ Gold Certified, Fully Modular Power Supply - White
• Corsair Hydro Series, H100i RGB PLATINUM SE liquid cooler AIO, 240mm Radiator (white), Dual LL120 RGB PWM Fans (white)
• 2 x Corsair LL120 RGB PWM Fans (White)
• Corsair Commander PRO. Fan/RGB/Temp Hardware Controller
• Creative Sound Blaster Z
• LG 14x SATA Blu-ray Internal Rewriter, Black (WH14NS40)
• Phanteks Pro M Tempered Glass Case, Black/White, PH-ES515PTG_SWT
• 2 x 8TB HDDs

I already have the storage drives, the NVMe SSD, the optical drive, and sound card, so I didn't need to pick those up. I expect I will play around with RGB for a few days, then set it to one color or turn it off thereafter. But for now, I'd kind of like to try that out too and see if I find it gaudy or striking. So I went with a white-themed build, tempered glass and some RGB on the motherboard and fans for the first time.

I'm going to mount the 240mm radiator at the lower front, with two 120mm radiator fans set as intakes, in a pull configuration to bring cooler air in through the radiator. Then I'll mount two fans on the top, or more likely one on the top and one at the back. Two intakes, two exhausts out and roughly stable pressure (I'm using four of the same fans). I may play with the software afterwards to adjust the fan speeds and create slightly negative pressure to ensure it doesn't bring in dust.

The second one is very much a secondary rig, with upgrade potential down the line.

• AMD RYZEN 5 3600X 6-Core 3.8 GHz (4.4 GHz Max Boost) Socket AM4 95W 100-100000022BOX Desktop Processor
• GIGABYTE X570 AORUS ELITE AMD Ryzen 3000 PCIe 4.0 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.2 AMD X570 ATX Motherboard
• G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory (F4-3600C16D-16GVKC)
• Western Digital WD BLACK SN750 NVMe M.2 2280 500GB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 64-layer 3D NAND Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) WDS500G3X0C
• be quiet! 200W TDP Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler with Silent Wings - High Performance - 135mm
• CORSAIR CX Series CX650 650W ATX12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply
• Phanteks Enthoo Pro Full Tower Chassis (PH-ES614P_WT) White

This one will inherit the current nVidia GTX 1080 GPU that I'm gaming on. AMD wants faster RAM, so I'm picking up 3600 MHz (I may add another RAM kit later.) Good SSD, OK CPU, which I might replace down the line. No liquid cooling and instead just a really good air cooler. This one is just for fun and wasn't really intended to break the bank. I think I'm going to heavily overclock it.

Parts for the first one are all here, save a controller and two more fans. Parts for the second should all arrive Wednesday (3/25).

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

@Drake1588 that sounds really cool I just wish I understood anything you were talking about. I am a "push 'on' button and work properly" kind of guy, though I've always envied people like yourself who can build stuff.

 

[Devil Dancer]

@Drake1588 2080 super, nice. I've been really happy with my 2060m, and that's obviously several steps below.

I'm playing Division 2, which is a game about a war in DC following a plague. So that's more than a little weird. But exploring the 1:1 recreation of downtown is a lot of fun. I found the Hirschorn yesterday.

The only bummer is the mall is all torn up and filled with fortifications. I know they wanted to put in cover spots for gameplay purposes, but I'd have liked to see some open space down there.

Metro is also dissatisfying. The stations look great, but you can't go in the tunnels for long. It's a step back from Fallout 3, where you could explore station to station underground.

It's fun overall.

 

[Drake1588]

AB8: If you ever do get the itch, there are a lot of useful instructional videos out there to help you along when building a PC for the first time. Moreover, lots of (mostly) friendly people on the Geek forum here and loads of other places can sometimes help answer specific questions where you're stuck.

DD: Yeah, I had a lot of those creepy familiarity vibes playing Fallout 3, traipsing all over the capital region. I still need to play around with the Division games, plus a ton of other games backed up.

Still haven't built this thing. Waiting on one last part.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

@Drake1588 2080 super, nice. I've been really happy with my 2060m, and that's obviously several steps below.

I'm playing Division 2, which is a game about a war in DC following a plague. So that's more than a little weird. But exploring the 1:1 recreation of downtown is a lot of fun. I found the Hirschorn yesterday.

The only bummer is the mall is all torn up and filled with fortifications. I know they wanted to put in cover spots for gameplay purposes, but I'd have liked to see some open space down there.

Metro is also dissatisfying. The stations look great, but you can't go in the tunnels for long. It's a step back from Fallout 3, where you could explore station to station underground.

It's fun overall.

I had a mild addiction to TD2 for a while. I think I'm level 498 or something, could never find enough exotics to get to 500. I really enjoyed the gameplay but the inventory management and weapon/gear mod process is a nightmare. I'm at the point now where I don't even play any more because it takes 20-30 minutes to scrub my inventory and figure out loadouts before I go shoot a bullet. I may try out the new Warlords of New York expansion pack since I'm running out of other things to do. DM me if you want to run through a few missions together if you have PS4.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Playing Assassin's Creed: Odyssey right now and not super impressed so far. Feels like they've gone away from the fun stealth mode and it's kind of like a more clunky GTA. Haven't played the series since the original so it might just take time to get used to it again.

 

[usiel]

That only part building a PC that I used to stress about was mounting heat sinks on the CPU but the last corsair water cooling system I installed it was much easier to deal with.

When I didn't want to deal with building out a new system myself I have picked up a few customized systems from cyberpowerpc.com and they were rock solid and good customer service though it has been about 6 years since my last desktop system.

 

[Devil Dancer]

DM me if you want to run through a few missions together if you have PS4.

Thanks, but I'm in PC.

I'm also level 12, so we might be a bit mismatched.

 

[Cush]

Wasteland 3 delayed to August 28