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Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


I have a friend who can't use VR due to eye issues (not sure on the details) who's also a huge Half Life fan. He's kind of bummed that one of his favourite series is leaving him behind.

I'm sure I'll take the plunge on VR when I have the time, money and space to dedicate to it but right now I have a toddler. Maybe in 2035?

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Det_no
Oct 24, 2003
They sell prescription VR lenses, guys.

Bloody Hedgehog
Dec 12, 2003

💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something

Det_no posted:

They sell prescription VR lenses, guys.

Maybe his "eye issues" are that he doesn't have any. Ever think of that, smart guy.

Det_no
Oct 24, 2003

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Maybe his "eye issues" are that he doesn't have any. Ever think of that, smart guy.

Well then he has a flawless reproduction of reality even without prescription lenses.

Party Boat
Nov 1, 2007

where did that other dog come from

who is he


Like I say, I don't know the specifics. He does have to swap between multiple sets of glasses and gets migraines if his prescription is off so I assume that has something to do with it.

spacetoaster
Feb 10, 2014

Grapplejack posted:

I don't think VR will ever actually take off until we can get 360° treadmills, honestly.

I thought that too, until I saved up and got a 400 dollar oculus quest. It got me on board with VR.

A 6 foot usb c cable and I can now hook it to my PC and play those VR games too.

K8.0
Feb 26, 2004

Her Majesty's 56th Regiment of Foot

Det_no posted:

They sell prescription VR lenses, guys.

If someone has severe astigmatism, there isn't going to be a fix other than contacts. Astigmatism is when the cornea doesn't focus light onto a single place, and you can't have a fixed lens correct effectively for a screen that is 2" away from a moving eye.

Alamoduh
Sep 12, 2011

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

Earlier this month some people were posting about Horizon's Gate, the rather pixelated SRPG. Can anyone give and/or repost their thoughts on it? It seems like it'd be up my alley, but there's not much in the way of reviews.

I did not like it at all. The combat is very clunky, with keyboard and mouse at least, in that you have to select the character to move, select a square to move to, select an ability, select a square to attack, then select a direction to face at the end of your turn. It’s extremely cumbersome. The grading part is bare bones- you will always make a profit from yrading, it just increases with distance. Skill accumulation is too slow, and by the time the game was almost over (I couldn’t even bear to slog through to the finish) I still didn’t have any interesting skills or abilities to use even though I had traded my way to a large trading fleet.

It’s just not very interesting or compelling at all. Just to see if I was missing something, I went back to one of the dev’s other games that I had forgotten about previously buying and the same combat control system was just as bad there. I have read some reviews of people liking it, so maybe I am just missing the fun.

Kibayasu
Mar 28, 2010

Just spend even more money on your VR set and get them custom made, bing bong so simple.

Ghostlight
Sep 25, 2009

maybe for one second you can pause; try to step into another person's perspective, and understand that a watermelon is cursing me



TheFluff posted:

I don't really think it's all that hard to understand that when you take a well-established and popular franchise that's historically been exclusive to a certain platform and then make it exclusive to what is effectively a different platform with completely different controls and a whole set of new physical requirements, a lot of fans of that franchise are probably gonna get mad. Call them luddites if you want but it's not that hard to see where they're coming from. People get invested in these things. Like how VR fans get really invested in how Actually Good the technology is, etc.
people were real loving mad about final fantasy moving off the nintendo.

Kly
Aug 8, 2003

VR is a gimmick that will completely die out in 5 to 10 years as consumers are less and less able to afford basic necessities.

Alyx will be the only triple A vr game the early adopters will have while they slowly succumb to organ failure

Trickyblackjack
Feb 13, 2012
How long is Halflyx? Is it a genuine 10h game or an hour long extended VR demo?

GrandpaPants
Feb 13, 2006


Free to roam the heavens in man's noble quest to investigate the weirdness of the universe!

TheOneAndOnlyT posted:

Earlier this month some people were posting about Horizon's Gate, the rather pixelated SRPG. Can anyone give and/or repost their thoughts on it? It seems like it'd be up my alley, but there's not much in the way of reviews.

To give a counter opinion to that other guy, I think the game is great if you can get over the graphics. Exploring is fun, although I wish the game had more dungeons, but I think it does a great job incentivizing exploration since you need to find the trainers to unlock the classes. I do think the ports could spare to be a bit more unique with unique ships and stuff for sale and whatnot, but I assume there are limitations to what rad codex can do.

The ship to ship combat is functional, but the real meat of the game is the land combat, which is still one of the better tactical systems this side of FFT. You get a main class that you exp in and a secondary set of class skills, each of which give you five active skills. But you can also eventually unlock two extra active skills, which give you some absurd customization options to break the system and/or have fun dicking around.

My main healer, for example, has the Tactician's Now! skill, which lets someone else immediately act again, providing a much appreciated tactical option if nobody needs healing. I could just give him the Tactician as a secondary class, which gives him access to skills like Withdraw, which causes 3 party members to take 3 steps back and gives them a defense bonus, which is pretty useful when my mage is about to cast a giant (friendly fire) aoe.

If you like job systems and you like Pirates / Uncharted Waters, this game is pretty much a match made in heaven.

tildes
Nov 16, 2018

Trickyblackjack posted:

How long is Halflyx? Is it a genuine 10h game or an hour long extended VR demo?

Reviews suggest it’s a genuine length game and very good. But yea the needing vr is definitely an obstacle.

Knorth
Aug 19, 2014

Buglord
https://twitter.com/InOtherWaters/status/1242466125541064706

:toot:

SirSamVimes
Jul 21, 2008

~* Challenge *~


I asked in its own thread but apparently it's too dead for me to get a reply, so is Phoenix Point worth getting on the Epic store? I've been hearing that they've apparently fixed some of the big launch issues.

Leal
Oct 2, 2009

Kly posted:

VR is a gimmick that will completely die out in 5 to 10 years as consumers are less and less able to afford basic necessities.

Alyx will be the only triple A vr game the early adopters will have while they slowly succumb to organ failure

OK doomer

Kennel
May 1, 2008

BAWWW-UNH!

Trickyblackjack posted:

How long is Halflyx? Is it a genuine 10h game or an hour long extended VR demo?

The fastest times on howlongtobeat are 9 hours and the average is 10 hours. Still a small sample size and might increase a bit once the slower gamers beat it.

Tiramisu
Dec 25, 2006

Hey, where did you go!? Do you really dislike seeing my face that much!?

SirSamVimes posted:

I asked in its own thread but apparently it's too dead for me to get a reply, so is Phoenix Point worth getting on the Epic store? I've been hearing that they've apparently fixed some of the big launch issues.

It's on XGP if you want to try it for cheap. And frankly, I don't think it's worth buying. The free aim is a neat idea but can end up really frustrating. 50% of your shots land in the inner circle and 100% land within the outer circle. It can make things a fair bit harder to plan around, and there's a general feeling of opacity like not having % chances to hit. I found the tactical layer lackluster compared to X-COM 2.

CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Leal posted:

OK doomer

Doom vr is pretty bad actually

SolidSnakesBandana
Jul 1, 2007

Infinite ammo
I spent a bunch of time setting up Doom 3 VR. I thought, oh this is a perfect game for this. And it was indeed really cool, right up until the moment where you fire your first gun. It felt like the weakest little nerf gun. I instantly uninstalled it in shame.

So far the only non VR games that have been significantly improved are Skyrim and Fallout 4. imo those are the triple A experiences that people are after. Obviously you have to not hate those games to begin with. Walking around VR skyrim is extremely loving cool.

Mierenneuker
Apr 28, 2010


We're all going to experience changes in our life but only the best of us will qualify for front row seats.

I have not played it in VR, but the pistol is Doom 3 is pretty terrible. So is the shotgun, unless you are firing at point blank range.

Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


Any unified library organizers/launchers out there that people like? I've been trying to use GOG Galaxy 2 for a few months and it runs like the proverbial January molasses, loses connection to libraries all the time, and is garbage at syncing even when it is connected

(e) Maybe Playnite has gotten less crashy in the year or so since I last used it

Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Mar 25, 2020

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



It was mentioned before the usual histrionics about VR but The Council is only $7.50 right now, and having just finished it I can vouch for it doing something different in the narrative adventure genre and also being pretty nutty about it.



A really good adventure game is a singular pleasure, an experience that can touch you emotionally and intellectually like none other. The emphasis on narrative and dialogue can give it such power, but only if done well. The Council is a very interesting approach to the genre, focusing heavily on branching paths and character development, without really compromising on the story. The story it tells is a wild ride on its own, though, and the flaws left by its budget and indie stature definitely color the experience in ways that compromise do. But it still manages that singular pleasure with how earnestly it approaches its subject, and with how much fiddling you can do with the mechanics as you progress.

Louis de Richet is a French gentleman and a member of the Golden Order, a secret, globe-spanning organization dabbling in both politics and the occult. In 1793, Louis’ mother and head of the Order goes missing on the private island of Lord William Mortimer, a reclusive but powerful aristocrat. Louis finds himself invited to a gathering at Mortimer’s estate, not only to find his mother but to participate in a conference between world leaders. His path takes him into the orbits of soldiers, dukes, duchesses, and even the newly-elected President of the United States, as the fate of the world plays out in this opulent manor. Only by navigating the halls of power will Louis find the answers he seeks, along with many more he never expected to uncover.

Originally an episodic release, The Council is split into five episodes of something like 17 chapters all told. During each chapter you’ll be following Louis’ part in the story as he hob-nobs with George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and many other powerful figures. The course of the story is pretty well set for most of the game, which gives it the impression of a third-person RPG at times, but there are several significant decisions you can make at crucial junctures. Most of your control, though, is given within dialogues with the other characters, where you can use your skills to access special dialogue options, interrupt people, notice peculiarities, and bypass parts of puzzles. The stat system that governs these options is another RPG element, allowing you to level up 15 different skills like Conviction and Manipulation and Questioning for use in dialogues.

Using most of your options requires effort points, which are mainly restored via consumables found around the manor. There are several kinds of potions and tinctures, some of which provide free actions or reveal what skill options characters are vulnerable or immune to. Those are particularly useful during confrontations, where you have a limited number of chances to navigate tricky situations and which can have lasting effects on the story. You’ll have to do a bit of searching and skill use just to find items, as well as books you can read between chapters for additional skill points. There’s also a wealth of clues and items that can help you out in the story by granting you new dialogues or simplifying puzzles, so it’s very much worth searching areas thoroughly.

You’re also likely to stumble across additional stories while searching. At the end of each chapter, the game helpfully tells you what tasks you accomplished, which ones you failed, and what your other options were, and you may be surprised at what you can get done in each 45-minute section of gameplay. Talking to characters is the real meat of the gameplay, and each is a fully-realized and interesting individual to deal with. They have their own aims and secrets which you’ll be drawn into, and you’ll have to use everything you know about them to turn them to your causes. The dialogue is mostly sharp and engaging but there’s some definite weirdness in tone and delivery sometimes, hinting back to the studio’s indie European roots. I noticed the female members of the cast in particular have some disappointing arcs to their characters, even if they are central to the plot.

Honestly the plot is probably the main draw of The Council, because it starts out with some tasty intrigue and then just goes absolutely hog wild. For the first two episodes, you’ll be glad-handling with cardinals and royalty, squeezing what information you can from them while trying not to get caught up in their webs. There’s some genuinely good politicking and philosophizing throughout, but there is a turn towards those occult roots in the third episode that heralds the madness that takes place in the last two. For me it only made the game more engrossing, as I had to see just how much crazier things got by the conclusion. Some folks might not enjoy the twists it takes quite as much if the politics and history are the real draws, and I’ll admit to not loving the ending despite loving everything leading up to it. I should also mention there’s a decent bit of puzzling across the game, usually more than manageable but there are two big ones that are remarkably tricky and also rather high-stakes.

The graphics are sure to be a big draw on their own, given the remarkable detail afforded the characters and their environments. Each person is incredibly distinct and detailed down to the last wrinkle, and the estate is peppered with the opulent accouterments of 18th century luxury. That being said, the animations are a bit lacking and the lighting is not as impressive as the screenshots suggest, which lead to some otherwise amazing scenes looking rather stiff. Still, I don’t want to pick on The Council too much because it’s accomplished so much with its scope and budget. Not many adventures can keep me gripped for over a dozen hours, and the many twists and challenges to negotiate meant there was always more to look forward to. Between the wild story, interesting characters, and engrossing character progression, there’s plenty to keep you deep in the ancient intrigues here.

Zachack
Jun 1, 2000




Ciaphas posted:

Any unified library organizers/launchers out there that people like? I've been trying to use GOG Galaxy 2 for a few months and it runs like the proverbial January molasses, loses connection to libraries all the time, and is garbage at syncing even when it is connected

(e) Maybe Playnite has gotten less crashy in the year or so since I last used it

I use gog galaxy and have had none of those problems, although I have it pointed at every other library but steam since that's so huge.

ZearothK
Aug 25, 2008

I've lost twice, I've failed twice and I've gotten two dishonorable mentions within 7 weeks. But I keep coming back. I am The Trooper!

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2021


Ciaphas posted:

Any unified library organizers/launchers out there that people like? I've been trying to use GOG Galaxy 2 for a few months and it runs like the proverbial January molasses, loses connection to libraries all the time, and is garbage at syncing even when it is connected

(e) Maybe Playnite has gotten less crashy in the year or so since I last used it

It is not exactly the answer you want, but I've conformed myself to having a \Games folder on my desktop.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer

Too Shy Guy posted:

It was mentioned before the usual histrionics about VR but The Council is only $7.50 right now, and having just finished it I can vouch for it doing something different in the narrative adventure genre and also being pretty nutty about it.
Stop making me impulse-buy games
This actually looks pretty cool and I had no idea it existed.

SelenicMartian
Sep 14, 2013

Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

anilEhilated posted:

Stop making me impulse-buy games
This actually looks pretty cool and I had no idea it existed.
:colbert:

Anyway, Maximum Action is much more playable now

quote:

MAXIMUM GAMEFEEL UPDATE - v0.69 ;) - 3/24/20
Major changes:
Reload canceling! We all hate getting stuck in the middle of a long reload when more bad guys pop around a corner, so now you can cancel any non-empty reload and continue firing your guns like you never took the magazine out in the first place!
Action Time reloading sped up! It was always a slog to have to reload in the middle of Action Time, you were almost better off halting it and reloading normally... but wait no longer, literally! You can now reload your weapons in Action Time at a much quicker speed than before.
Easier weapon swapping! You could always toss weapons to pick up new ones, but that takes precious time. Now you can grab new weapons even when your hands are full, and you'll automatically toss what was in your left hand!
Fire while your other gun is reloading! Yes! No longer do you have to wait for both of your guns to be done reloading before you can use them, as through mysterious forces we don't yet understand, you can now fire and reload both weapons independently!

Ciaphas
Nov 20, 2005

> BEWARE, COWARD :ovr:


ZearothK posted:

It is not exactly the answer you want, but I've conformed myself to having a \Games folder on my desktop.

what is this, 1994?

(i'm pretty close to this, won't lie)

Too Shy Guy
Jun 14, 2003


I have destroyed more of your kind than I can count.



anilEhilated posted:

Stop making me impulse-buy games
This actually looks pretty cool and I had no idea it existed.

You didn't think I was here to help, did you?

spacetoaster
Feb 10, 2014

Trickyblackjack posted:

How long is Halflyx? Is it a genuine 10h game or an hour long extended VR demo?

I'm not dicking around in the game and I'm at 8 hours in. And I don't think I'm near the end.


Kly posted:

VR is a gimmick that will completely die out in 5 to 10 years as consumers are less and less able to afford basic necessities.

Alyx will be the only triple A vr game the early adopters will have while they slowly succumb to organ failure

I would have agreed with you if I had given up on it after trying CV1 and the PS4 version. But I got an Oculus Quest and it converted me.

VR is here to stay.

zedprime
Jun 9, 2007

yospos
I mean VR isn't not cool but there's a huge list of things to do before it can carve out a larger niche, let alone go mainstream. We've barely moved off minimum viable product if only from price and space concerns. A normal person is going to want to be able to buy a rig for themself and 1-4 family members for the current price of a TV and a PS4 while also getting
No screen dooring
Accessible, interchangable, affordable corrective lenses
Imperceptible or no light towers
Imperceptible cabling or tethering, otherwise the ability to don and doff as easy as you turn on a TV or take a phone out of your pocket
High performance driven for one user, and acceptable performance for multiple users in the same virtual space (i.e. it will need to rival TV as the social screen of choice for a family so you need virtual TV/movie rooms)

I might be the only one but I feel strongly about that last point for VR and AR to really take off because it's a medium rival to the TV itself in that it should play its own media and also cannibalize the TV media, like TV did with movie.

With corona virus setting the clock do you think we can jump those hurdles before WW3 starts in 15 years?

Lemming
Apr 21, 2008
Everyone in my family has a Quest and we've been keeping in touch by playing poker once a week since we're all quarantined in different places. It's easy enough to use that both of my 60+ year old parents are able to navigate it. I think you need to be really keyed in to understand the current progress, but things have progressed super quick in the past few years and it's juts gonna get better from here

SCheeseman
Apr 23, 2003

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

Doom vr is pretty bad actually

Doom VFR sucks real hard, but the unofficial ports of OG Doom and Doom 3 are actually really good. Go figure bethesda manages to make something worse than what a few developers can hack together out of ancient source code.

K8.0 posted:

If someone has severe astigmatism, there isn't going to be a fix other than contacts. Astigmatism is when the cornea doesn't focus light onto a single place, and you can't have a fixed lens correct effectively for a screen that is 2" away from a moving eye.

The lenses in most VR headsets have a fixed convergence point of about ~2m, not 2 inches. If you can focus on something 2m away from you in real life, using glasses, contacts or otherwise, you'll likely be able to use VR. If you have poor or no visibility in one eye then you won't get stereoscopy, but that doesn't actually matter for VR any more than in does in real life. That said using glasses in VR isn't ideal, which is why lens inserts exist but they are an additional cost.

SCheeseman fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Mar 25, 2020

GlyphGryph
Jun 23, 2013

Down came the glitches and burned us in ditches and we slept after eating our dead.
Ugh, I still cant play the climb since i updated revive last month. wont let me click anything. Cant find anything about it online, anyone have any ideas whats going on? full reinstall of both the game and revive didnt fix it so im guessing its some setting or something in steam thats off

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

The Turn Based Tactics steam group has released a giant database of... yes, turn based tactics games on steam. It is neat to look at:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1efaRhN_Kv-FQodcb725PwHXP7_wVOehhRBvII2b9sS8/edit#gid=0

The 7th Guest
Dec 17, 2003

i would be happy with a headset like the Quest that is not made and sold by loving facebook

40 Proof Listerine
Jul 1, 2007

Baroness Kanan-Zelaya of the minor House of Carbon

StrixNebulosa posted:

The Turn Based Tactics steam group has released a giant database of... yes, turn based tactics games on steam. It is neat to look at:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1efaRhN_Kv-FQodcb725PwHXP7_wVOehhRBvII2b9sS8/edit#gid=0

Dang, had no idea Super Robot Wars was getting Steam ports unfortunately region restricted

Kazzah
Jul 15, 2011

Formerly known as
Krazyface
Hair Elf
That 40k: Mechanicus game is on sale; is it any good?

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CharlieFoxtrot
Mar 27, 2007

organize digital employees



Is there a Real Time Tactics group

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