Playing other games

[Gavrushka]

Looking at buying a 1st person single player shooter, but it's a bit overwhelming trying to find the right one. I just bought Counterstrike, and discovered it's a multiplayer game... DOH!

I loved Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and have just slapped the Call of Duty Black Ops II bundle into my Steam basket, but wondered if there's a better option? - I'm not really needing an up-to-the-minute game, but just something to exorcise a little excess aggression in these trying times.

Oh, and I'm old and rubbish, so it needs to have an easy option.

[pjknibbs]

Prey 2017 is supposed to be good, as are both of the modern Doom games. If you fancy something a bit more old-school, Painkiller from 2004 is still a superb game and well worth a try if you've never played it before.

[burger1]

Looking at buying a 1st person single player shooter, but it's a bit overwhelming trying to find the right one. I just bought Counterstrike, and discovered it's a multiplayer game... DOH!

I loved Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and have just slapped the Call of Duty Black Ops II bundle into my Steam basket, but wondered if there's a better option? - I'm not really needing an up-to-the-minute game, but just something to exorcise a little excess aggression in these trying times.

Oh, and I'm old and rubbish, so it needs to have an easy option.

Maybe you own an older game already? Any game cds or games on disk laying around?

Mass Effect series

Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl is hard and is a kind of a quick and the dead type game

Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4

Delta Force is old

Bioshock

Far Cry series

Battlefield series has single player I think or some do?

Wolfenstein series

Left 4 Dead series can be played single player or in a group. I think steam has a sharing thing (remote play or something).

Max Payne series (minus the part in the maze thingy in Max Payne 1)

Crysis series

[Gavrushka]

Thank you!

Ha, yeah, I have almost all those games. - Indeed, I've Fallout New Vegas which I've never played!

And I had the special edition of Stalker (the brilliant one) but it's on offer on GOG now, so I'll pick that up.

And Mass Effect... How could I forget those? Damn... All already on my Steam account.

And are Crysis and FEAR worthwhile?

[burger1]

Thank you!

Ha, yeah, I have almost all those games. - Indeed, I've Fallout New Vegas which I've never played!

And I had the special edition of Stalker (the brilliant one) but it's on offer on GOG now, so I'll pick that up.

And Mass Effect... How could I forget those? Damn... All already on my Steam account.

And are Crysis and FEAR worthwhile?

Watch lets play videos of crysis and fear. The crysis games are different from each other environment/openness wise except maybe crysis 1+ crysis warhead which are more or less the same. I only tried fear 1 for a bit. I think it was half life like. I have the entire series I bought on sale.

There's also metro series which you might have gotten metro 2033 for free. It's not a slow shooter. It more of a stalker like quick and the dead game just a bit easier. Stalker 2 might release next year.

[pjknibbs]

And are Crysis and FEAR worthwhile?

The main claim to fame of Crysis was its amazing graphics for the day. Game was alright, but not stellar. Speaking of it, though, have you ever played the original Far Cry (e.g. not 2, 3, 4, 5, Primal, or any of the other modern ones)? That was a great shooter, at least until it started throwing mutants at you.

FEAR--first two games are fun, third one is best avoided.

[birdtable]

Already mentioned above
1. Stalker (Shadow) .... for the atmosphere.
2. Far Cry (original) ... for the adventure.
3. Fear .... for the good enemy AI
All 3 will be a bit dated, different and very enjoyable for a gentleman of slightly delayed eye and finger coordination.
PREY , BIOSHOCK and HALF LIFE 2 are also worth checking out ...

[RegisterMe]

Astrox Imperium - one man band dev, early access, single player "Eve-lite" (which is not fair, but is useful), good helpful community on Discord, and I've already put 50+ hours into it. Not bad for a tenner. And it will get better.

[Mightysword]

Ha, yeah, I have almost all those games. - Indeed, I've Fallout New Vegas which I've never played!

People considered it's the best 3D/modern Fall Out. I

And Mass Effect... How could I forget those? Damn... All already on my Steam account.

If you haven't played any of them, I would recommend to do so now. It's one of the few series that each sequence greatly improve on the previous tittle, both in term of story telling and gameplay. Think the first game is good? It'll get much better. Think the first game has something that annoys you? It'll most likely be fixed or gone in the next game. I'm not a fan of shooter games, but it's one of the few I played more then once.

And are Crysis and FEAR worthwhile?

I finished the original crisis, it's good but nothing special. As pointed out the one thing that made it special (graphic) is common these days. It's alright for a game you can play if you have nothing else to play, and good enough that once you finish you won't likely feel you wasted your time.

Can't comment about F.E.A.R, too much of a scary cat to play that game, people were praising it mainly for delivering the most authentic thriller experience at the time. As someone who used to got PTSD flash back from playing Parasite Eve 1&2 too much, I couldn't handle that game pass the first few corridors. Loved the gun sound effect though.

[burger1]

Lost Alpha is a free Stalker game. It's kind of messy and not well planned out but it's free.

Not playing games since I don't have vr but some impressive vr games. The player swears fairly often so maybe you can find better steams if it annoys you.

Half Life Alyx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1SwlsZ ... hlEYEdtmam

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd6fiBq ... ivqQ-ygPYu

[pjknibbs]

If you haven't played any of them, I would recommend to do so now. It's one of the few series that each sequence greatly improve on the previous tittle, both in term of story telling and gameplay.

I will freely agree with you that the gameplay in ME2 definitely improved on 1 (haven't played 3 so can't judge), but going to be a hard NO on the story improving. Mass Effect 1 was an excellent set-up story--it defined the problem and gave us tools that could have been used to solve that problem in subsequent games. ME2 basically ignored all the good setup work done in the first game and had you spend its runtime dealing with an irrelevant sideshow that got you no closer to solving the big issue. While the side quests in ME2 are some of the finest you'll find anywhere, the main plotline is just hot garbage from beginning to end.

[Gavrushka]

Gonna buy the damned lot, with the exception of Half Life 2 (which I own) as the screen motion in it makes me vomit so hard I do Catherine Wheel impressions.

I loved the 1st Bioshock game, loved the sound effects and cut scenes, so will get the newer ones too.

I might even try a multimedia FPS or two if I can find a server dedicated to the decaying, inept and the elderly.

Thanks for all the recommendations.

[birdtable]

@Gavrushka .. If you find a "mmo FPS dedicated to the decaying, inept and the elderly" ... Let me know...

[Gavrushka]

@Gavrushka .. If you find a "mmo FPS dedicated to the decaying, inept and the elderly" ... Let me know...

LOL, you have a deal. Yesterday I managed to play a game with my own password protected server, just me in it, and still managed to lose. I can imagine if it's populated with others as clueless as me, it'll make for a great Monty Python sketch...

[Mightysword]

If you haven't played any of them, I would recommend to do so now. It's one of the few series that each sequence greatly improve on the previous tittle, both in term of story telling and gameplay.

I will freely agree with you that the gameplay in ME2 definitely improved on 1 (haven't played 3 so can't judge), but going to be a hard NO on the story improving. Mass Effect 1 was an excellent set-up story--it defined the problem and gave us tools that could have been used to solve that problem in subsequent games. ME2 basically ignored all the good setup work done in the first game and had you spend its runtime dealing with an irrelevant sideshow that got you no closer to solving the big issue. While the side quests in ME2 are some of the finest you'll find anywhere, the main plotline is just hot garbage from beginning to end.

I think the goal of the story in ME2 is pretty well defined as well? Build a team and go after the bad guys, that objective is set within the first 30min of the game and I don't think we strayed too far from it. It also serves as world building and explain the 'motive' of the bad guys beyond the 'simply wipe out everything', the big relevation at the end fit the overall story of the series (although I don't remember if one needs to play ME3 to see that). ME1 does the introduction, ME2 set the stage, and ME3 is the grand performance.

Kinda hard to discuss this without spoiling haha.

One thing that definitely consistently improve is the characterization. ME1 was good but felt just typical Bioware standard, ME2 is a lot better, and ME3 is one of the best if not the best from Bioware about connecting the NPCs. IMO of course.

[pjknibbs]

The problem is, though, the bad guys in ME2 are not the main bad guys of the series that you spent the whole of ME1 trying to stop and who actually invade in ME3. They're an irrelevant sideshow, as I said, and nothing you do in ME2 advances your goal of dealing with the Big Bad. As you say, it would be spoilers to go into more detail, but I could give you chapter and verse as to all the things that make the ME2 storyline hot garbage--and I think many people give the game a pass because it definitely plays better than the first one, and has superb quality side missions, without paying too much attention to how irrelevant the main plot is to the overarching storyline of the series as a whole.

[Mightysword]

I agree with you in the sense that the core missions of ME2 (the team building ones) seem to be unrelated to the ultimate objective, but I would still argue that there are enough relevant stuffs in ME2 itself about the 'bad' guys. It may not directly involving stopping, but nether-less they are important bit in building the the over-arching world. For example, the 'faction' you work for in ME2 has a bigger role to play, not just within the current timeline, but similar factions with similar roles also existed in previous cycles, and serve to construct what I see as the methodology of the 'bad' guy. What we see in ME2 around the world I think is to serve as an example of what had happened in previous cycle, why civilization are so un-prepared and why the bad guys can success easily, on which ME3 built on the foundation of why this cycle success.

Most importantly though, and I bet this is on purpose given Bioware's story telling style. The 'bond' you build in those seemingly unrelated missions in ME2 help connect you with those characters in ME3, and some of them would be fighting their own battles in ME3 because of what they learnt with your character during ME2. Half of the reason why ME3 was so good for me personally is because of this, and without ME2's context they would be definitely much less impactful.

Of course, most of that is in hindsight after playing ME3 though. Like I said ME2 is like setting the stage, and the audience may wonder "why do they put that piece on the stage?!?" until you see the scene itself play out than you go "oh so that's why that piece is there".

Been so long since I played the series, but if you were happy with the gameplay change from ME1 to ME2, I think ME3 makes even a better improvement.

[notaterran]

Bannerlord question:

How do I kill my wife? I'd like to get rid of her because I found one with better armor. I activated the "heroes can die" option when I started the campaign, but so far nothing works. I took away her armor and I always send her to the front line, but even though she's only fighting in her underwear and falls relatively quickly to enemy attacks (or mine) she won't stay dead. Also, before I put her in my army I left her in a town, but she just kept on having kids. I need a mod to stop her whoring around because now I have to scroll down a bunch of baby icons to get to the rest of my companions (and where are all those babies anyway?). Unless illegitimate children are a game mechanic, pregnancy is broken in this game.

[Mightysword]

Are you playing the latest Beta? And are you on an old save? The babies making were overturned and was significantly reduced since 1.3. But if you want to directly have control over it, I think there is a mod on nexus for that.

The devs are probably football fans, since there is a saying "do you want enough Children to field a football team" is an endearing expression.

Haven't heard anything about killing your wife, but there is a chance she'll die at each child birth though.

[pjknibbs]

I agree with you in the sense that the core missions of ME2 (the team building ones) seem to be unrelated to the ultimate objective

Those aren't the core storyline missions--they're entirely optional, in fact, you can skip pretty much all of them if you want. ME2 has three main types of missions: story ones, team recruiting ones, and companion loyalty ones. The latter two are fine, in fact, as I've already said, some of Bioware's best work. They're not what I'm talking about when I say the main plot is hot garbage.