COVID-19 Social Distancing Gaming
Per medical advice and general purpose common sense, I am going hermit mode and trying to find things to do at home to entertain myself.
Fortunately being something of a gamer, and one that has done nothing but rack up thousands of hours of Dota 2 in the last few years, I have plenty of new stuff to sink my teeth into. So I have recently dusted off CS: GO to play a bit with my brother and some other mates, to try something different to Dota for a change. Also gave Danger Zone a bit of a go; it's my first time playing any of those "battle royale" style games - pretty fun but also very frustrating. It feels like Danger Zone in particular just doesn't have many people playing it - we tried twice to get into a game yesterday (a Saturday!!) and gave up after waiting 8 minutes to get into a game. I've also picked up the 2016 Doom after fpot mentioned it was on sale, been meaning to play through that, so I think that's what I'm doing for Sunday. I thought it might be interesting to try to organise some games of older games if we can get enough people together to try to play them. Playing CS has made me long for the days of the other far superior games I enjoyed playing more - especially Enemy Territory, but also Urban Terror. Has anyone kept up with those older games & know if they're still playable? |
09:13am 15/03/20 Permalink
2016 doom is flipping awesome.
watched my eldest smash it on ps4, been itching to get it on pc. mite get the new one on pc as a special treat. |
03:55pm 15/03/20 Permalink
I'm just playing StarCraft Remastered. I still love that game so much. Been watching eSports casts of it and am still learning new things. It's tough on Ladder.
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10:24pm 15/03/20 Permalink
2016 doom is flipping awesome.yes I am thoroughly enjoying it. I can't believe how great the graphics are for a game that came out in 2016. I am soooo behind the times for gaming. |
09:47am 16/03/20 Permalink
People are forced to stay inside for longer than normal periods?? I do that for fun. |
04:20pm 17/03/20 Permalink
27 free games from GoG at the moment!
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09:16am 18/03/20 Permalink
oh s*** qwent!!!
i dont want to go down that rabbithole again! |
10:07am 18/03/20 Permalink
Also if you want heaps of games including AAA titles grab Humble Choice - https://www.humblebundle.com/subscription
It unlocks access to the Humble Trove which is 90+ games you can download and play DRM free. |
10:31am 18/03/20 Permalink
Goat of Duty now free on Steam:
Goat of Duty is a fast-paced and intense multiplayer first-person shooter, and that´s pretty much all you need to know. No nonsense: no need to master a convoluted metagame, learn different characters, combine skills, strategic team play... just devilish combat arenas, |
10:01am 19/03/20 Permalink
Watch Dogs and Stanley Parable free now on EGS
edit: why did I think Watch Dogs was set in London? Is there some other Watch Dogs-esque game set in London that I'm confusing it with? |
01:32pm 20/03/20 Permalink
The new one will be set there. Watch Dogs was a Bad Game so beware of that even if playing for free. Stanley Parable on the other hand was utterly amazing. Here's a video. It's one of the most unobtainable endings in the game but spoiler alert just in case -
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02:21pm 20/03/20 Permalink
why did I think Watch Dogs was set in London? Is there some other Watch Dogs-esque game set in London that I'm confusing it with? Isn't the next watch dogs (legion?) set in london? |
02:49pm 20/03/20 Permalink
I messaged ViewSonic on twitter about their supply chain getting disrupted in related to the monitor I want and they said this.
https://i.imgur.com/YrPHdxA.jpg |
08:29pm 20/03/20 Permalink
Tomb Raider now free on Steam.
Ditto Lara Croft & the Temple of Osiris. Also Drawful 2. edit: also Deiland and Mable the Wood (GoG). |
09:26am 21/03/20 Permalink
Finished 2016 Doom and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was really impressed with how much of the old Doom spirit it captured. I felt like some of the fights were a bit too focused on the orchestration - running around and blasting at the same monsters over and over again slowly eroding their health - instead of just wading through hordes and hordes of them and racking up huge body counts. I suspect that was more technical than anything else. But it was still really fun.
And the story and setting and everything was fantastic. It felt like the game id would have made back in '93 if they'd had the tech. Just captured the spirit of an invading demonic horde perfectly. Super keen for Doom Eternal now as it sounds like it's more of the same but on steroids. Looking forward to the first sale. Now installing Tomb Raider! |
09:39am 24/03/20 Permalink
I still have not finished Doom 2016, I should though.
Also, Bethesda released the game initially with an unprotected exe file in the game directory lol. So, no need for a crack. They quicky patched it. So looks like I'll be trying out doom eternal after i finish the previous one. |
03:40pm 24/03/20 Permalink
Child of Light free on Ubisoft's Uplay. I am reluctant to install Ubi games ever since their DRM destroyed one of my PCs though.
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10:30am 25/03/20 Permalink
watching eldest play doom eternal atm, looks f*****g wicked.
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10:50am 25/03/20 Permalink
Was dusting off L4D2 to play it with my brother, but after he finished downloading and installing it, it told him that it no longer works on Macs since a few months ago the latest Mac OS X stopped allowing 32 bit apps to work. So all those old 32 bit only games are just flat out incompatible now. Volvo!
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10:46am 26/03/20 Permalink
10:34am 01/04/20 Permalink
picked up ff7remake so will be playing only that for a while.
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01:27pm 01/04/20 Permalink
Totally Reliable Delivery Service is now Released & free on Epic store for one week.
Looks rather funny. |
02:25pm 02/04/20 Permalink
I finished Tomb Raider the other day. I was super impressed with it!! I can't believe how much progress has been made in games (it's amazing how much you miss when you play pretty much the same game for 5 years straight). It was soooo much darker than I was expecting too, super gory and violent when I was expecting something kinda cheesy and camp. Great fun.
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05:21pm 02/04/20 Permalink
The sequels are also good and often cheap. Personally I find them much better due to less QTEs. |
05:36pm 02/04/20 Permalink
What's a decent PC controller I can get to play games?
I finished Tomb Raider the other day. I was super impressed with it!! I can't believe how much progress has been made in games (it's amazing how much you miss when you play pretty much the same game for 5 years straight). It was soooo much darker than I was expecting too, super gory and violent when I was expecting something kinda cheesy and camp. Great fun.Loved the rebooted Tomb Raider, such a good game. The beginning of the game is one of the best survival gaming I've played. |
09:05pm 02/04/20 Permalink
I've updated my rig for the first time in a long time and have a vast backlog of games I want to get through. Metro Exodus will probably be first off the bat, then Deus Ex Mankind Divided and probably Witcher 3.. then OuterWorlds. So they should keep me busy a long while.
Still gainfully employed (thankfully) in a position that's unlikely to change. So still full days work but I've picked up some time on nights and weekends I would otherwise be engaged outside. I had almost forgotten how frustrating/fun building a PC is and Windows 10 was surprisingly smooth to install. |
11:24pm 02/04/20 Permalink
What's a decent PC controller I can get to play games? just use the best controller ever made. ps4. |
08:48am 03/04/20 Permalink
I had almost forgotten how frustrating/fun building a PC is and Windows 10 was surprisingly smooth to install.shame it's just such a total piece of s*** to use though. seriously I was kind of looking forward to it, I only got my first Windows 10 PC a few months back - I haven't had this many issues with a Windows machine since Win95 (though I confess I skipped Vista entirely). I have been wondering about controllers as well, I just bought a new fancy LG TV - my first Smart TV - which seems to have some magic gaming s***. So I was wondering if I can stream from my PC to the TV somehow and if a controller would be good. I haven't been bothered to research it yet so if anyone wants to explain it to me like I'm an idiot that would be appreciated. |
09:08am 03/04/20 Permalink
picked up ff7remake so will be playing only that for a while. Be interested to hear what you think after the weekend Rav, so far feedback seems to be good. I sunk a lot of time into FF7 back in the day. shame it's just such a total piece of s*** to use though Well.. that doesn't inspire confidence. They're also in the process of getting all work PC's on a Win10 enviro... I know Samsung Smart TVs can stream straight from Steam. Steam is pretty good at allowing that. Not sure on other platforms. Spook is on the money with PS4 controllers. I love my Logitech one, but when at the BILs place the PS4 just feels more comfortable, even when I'm use to the Logitech one. |
09:29am 03/04/20 Permalink
Well.. that doesn't inspire confidence. They're also in the process of getting all work PC's on a Win10 enviro...Maybe it's just me but here is a list of things that I've had problems with so far with Win10: - by far the biggest problem is that after not a very long period of uptime - like 2 or 3 days - my system will randomly start locking or going to sleep. This happens regardless of what I'm doing - I can be full screen gaming, watching a movie, or anything. It will just lock or sleep. Reboot fixes it, until the next time. Searching just reveals a million people with the same problem and a bunch of the usual useless advice. - this weird annoying dependency to actually log into the system with a MS account. Avoidable but because I haven't done it I still have active warnings that I don't understand because the documentation is s*** and opaque, because they just want you to sign in. - one of my longest ever keyboard shortcuts for a third party app was replaced because they inexplicably decided to change the shortcut for the stupid charm bar from Win-C to Win-A and there's no (native) way to rebind keys (so lots of muscle memory retraining going on). - file association mapping seems totally broken and has randomly reset things on me several times - constantly switching contexts between the s***** new Metro style control panel interfaces (which are s***, awkward to use and hard to read in dark mode) and the old style interfaces (which work). Never any idea where to change something. - least customisable version of Windows ever and the s***** flat design makes simple tasks like resizing Windows really challenging. Finally figured out how to change window border colour so at least the default settings of black borders for black content windows no longer mean I have all these black squares overlapping with zero interface clues as to where they end. - really weird security prompts - like "The threat service has stopped. Restart it now." no other links, no restart button, no more info button. You're on your own! Also trying to fix it triggers a message telling me to get my IT administrator because they have limited access. Right. - it has an everything is OK alarm which seems to randomly go off triggering an annoying notification I'm sure in a year or so I'll get used to it but I have not found it a pleasant experience. |
10:58am 03/04/20 Permalink
i have no issues with win10 at all. box is on 24/7 and runs flawlessly
i love win 10, works good on old machines too. certainly no uptime problems troggles. i am fairly locked into my ms account, we use microsoft families here to control the kids machines. it is surprisingly buggy, but works enough to be worth while. i can lock down or schedule pretty much anything hte kids do on their pcs. i only ever use minimal themes coz i hate all that s***, so no issues here with that at all either. win10 security/firewall is great. |
11:07am 03/04/20 Permalink
certainly no uptime problems troggles.It could be a hardware/laptop power management issue. This is the first time I have ever used a laptop as a main PC. I had a bunch of updates two days ago (including BIOS) which might have a fix - here's hoping. I am very bad at switching to new versions of Windows because I generally run a machine until either it dies, or the Windows hits EOL. So I end up running the same Windows for many many years longer than (I suspect) most normal people and certainly most gamers. My old laptop basically was not usable any more so when I went to HK I bought a new one that was specced up enough both for the work I needed but also so I could play games on it. |
11:22am 03/04/20 Permalink
Both Xbox One and PS4 controllers work well with windows.
I prefer the ergonomics and wireless of the Xbox One, if you get the "Xbox Wireless Adapter" you can use the controller's native RF signal instead of messing about with bluetooth pairing, which can still be sketchy depending on your PC's bluetooth receiver (if it even has one, some mobos don't). The PS4 controller is bluetooth only. Both can connect via USB cable for wired play. If you want to splash out, the expensive Xbox Elite Wireless Controller is unrivaled imo. Re: game streaming from a PC to a TV: Any PC with a recent (last 4 years) Nvidia graphics card can stream games to an Android device running the Moonlight app. Steam in-home streaming works with any PC graphics card, and has both Android and iOS apps. Not familiar with LG TVs, but heard they use their own proprietary WebOS, so I suspect there's no Steam or Moonlight apps available there, in which case you'd need a set top box, like the Steamlink, or any Android TV device like the Nvidia Shield, Xiaomi Mi Box or Vodafone TV etc. |
11:28am 03/04/20 Permalink
i am just using balanced power profile, but have good gear in pc, so maybe that helps.
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11:41am 03/04/20 Permalink
Mines got an uptime of 5 days now and haven't experienced the sleep/lock issue. Layouts/design always changes and usually just takes a while to get use to. Key mapping would be annoying but I don't have any that I've found changed yet (that I've used so far at least.) See how it goes I guess.
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01:04pm 03/04/20 Permalink
Key mapping would be annoying but I don't have any that I've found changed yet (that I've used so far at least.) See how it goes I guess.MS is supposed to be releasing a PowerToy for Win10 that lets you remap keys but it still hasn't landed yet |
01:37pm 03/04/20 Permalink
caved and bought it. need something to fill these empty hours and I quite enjoyed the first one! |
03:23pm 05/04/20 Permalink
Why do so many games still have unskipable cutscenes? Looking at you Metro: Exodus. Especially in f*****g New Game+ Mode. I've already been forced to sit through all of these.
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12:40pm 17/04/20 Permalink
Alien Isolation + DLC for 11 bucks. A classic game.
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04:47pm 26/04/20 Permalink
ive gone back to playing overwatch with my kids.
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05:16pm 26/04/20 Permalink
Alien Isolation + DLC for 11 bucks. A classic game.ugh you're killing me, this is the 3rd game you've tricked me into buying so far |
05:33pm 26/04/20 Permalink
Hello legends, been a long time.
I dug out the Homeworld Remastered series on steam. Was good to hide from the plague with :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/244160/Homeworld_Remastered_Collection/ |
12:03pm 27/04/20 Permalink
Hi DC!
I love Homeworld. Such immersive, atmospheric games. I got about half-way through the first one many years ago. I bought the Remastered Collection a while ago but haven't played it much yet. Will give it another go when I get a new videocard. |
10:31pm 28/04/20 Permalink
OK this Alien: Isolation game is pretty great. Was just about to post that it was $2 on Steam, which it was yesterday but it's back to normal price today. Really love the whole design aesthetic of it; they captured the look and feel of Alien really super well I think. The gameplay is not really my cup of tea; not so much into the stealth hiding games but it's still great fun. Some genuinely terrifying moments hiding and running from the alien.
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12:32pm 29/04/20 Permalink
I love the sound of the xeno scrabbling around in the vents above.
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03:01pm 29/04/20 Permalink
I finished Doom 2016 a few weeks ago.. a great shoot'em up game. Haven't got Eternal yet but that should be fun too.
I still mostly play ESO even though it's a laggy mess in PVP :( Dethon & I have been playing a bit of Quake (ezQuake) lately for the nostalgia value.. still a great game for a quick deathmatch slaw. It's kinda amazing that after so long... players still join the servers if you are on. Nearly every time we join an empty FFA server a few extra players will join after a few maps. We are hanging out for some Baldur's Gate 3 when it finally gets released. |
04:00pm 03/05/20 Permalink
Finished Doom Eternal, was tops.
Now im abit into Disco Elysium, this is a fantastic game with interesting dialogue, highly recommended for those who enjoyed the likes of Planescape Torment or Baldurs Gate. |
07:23pm 03/05/20 Permalink
finished ffvii remake and now going through it on hard mode. god damn the combat is fun.
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07:56am 05/05/20 Permalink
Got 100% achievements in Metro Exodus earlier in the week. Only one (dodging Dark One in the boss fight) was difficult, others just took time/care.
Had a quick play of XCOM Chimera squad yesterday but apparently picked the 'hard' path (Sacred Coil) first and got to to the final mission of that branch and was just getting completely spanked in the fight with Gatekeeper and Bellus Mar. Totally outgunned to the point where I gave up. Will start a new game and go down another branch first. Finding it enjoyable (and classically frustrating) at the moment, but not as good as XCOM2 / Enemy Unknown IMO. I guess I'm not even 1/3rd of the way through it... so too soon to judge. |
11:43am 07/05/20 Permalink
A bit of Borderlands 3.
A bit of XCOM Chimera squad. Sacred Coil is the psi one? if so i also picked that for my first run. :| I was looking at Gears Tactics but its a bit expensive, will get on a discount. |
10:16pm 08/05/20 Permalink
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/aegis-defenders And I'm sure everyone saw it already but GTAV is free on EGS (when the site starts working). |
08:46am 15/05/20 Permalink
A bit of XCOM Chimera squad. Sacred Coil is the psi one? Don't think so, they have Androids/Turrents and summon the Gate Keeper. They were much easier when the team had the chance to get some more Abilities, Weapons and Special Ammo. Grabbed GTAV though hadn't used Epic in a while and getting back into it was (not surprisingly) painful. Reset password email took about 25min, then the two factor code was probably another 10. Makes sense that it was getting smashed for a free GTAV though. Loved the predecessors, just never got around to buying it. |
11:05am 18/05/20 Permalink
MS is supposed to be releasing a PowerToy for Win10 that lets you remap keys but it still hasn't landed yetAnd its out, in preview mode. PowerToys for Windows 10 FancyZones will be handy for wide screen monitors in particular. |
01:14pm 01/06/20 Permalink
