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Latest Comments by soulsource
Dwellers of the Gut has you rescue the townsfolk inside a giant
16 May 2020 at 12:33 pm UTC Likes: 2

Hmmm, performance with Mesa drivers is bad. Like, really bad.
Seems like it's Unity's HLSL->GLSL transpiler at its best again...

However you can still get the game running with decent FPS by running it with "-force-vulkan"

Unreal Engine 5 announced, Epic Online Services are now online
13 May 2020 at 7:31 pm UTC

UE5 is built on top of the same codebase as UE4. I would be quite (negatively) surprised if they dropped Linux support.

I mean Linux support in UE4 isn't great, but just dropping it wouldn't make much sense. Not only due to Stadia, also for dedicated servers.

Stellaris turns 4 with the big 2.7 'Wells' update - free to play for a few days and a big milestone hit
13 May 2020 at 12:37 pm UTC

Quoting: NagezahnI suspected it'll be on sale when I read the post about the new update. But didn't suspect it'll be free to try, so I went ahead and downloaded it. It's quite overwhelming when you start it. After a while when I got a bit accustomed to it I guess it's nice, but mostly two factors impact my enjoyment negatively: the overall slowness (research takes forever when compared to Master of Orion, for example) and the game not being turn based. Had this on my wishlist since it was released, but I'm sceptical I'd like it enough in the long term. :|
The issue with research speed is that the tech-tree is rather small. Already on normal research speed you run out of researchable technologies pretty early in the game (meaning: usually before end-game starts), unless you don't care about your administrative capacity.
(Actually, since you mentioned being a new player, you might not have seen this yet: Keep an eye on administrative capacity. If your empire sprawl exceeds it, your research will slow to a crawl. That _can_ be compensated by having lots of scientists, but since the Federations update it's probably easier to just get a bunch of bureaucrats to increase your administrative capacity instead.)

It not being turn-based is something that can be annoying in multiplayer, but in single player there's always the pause button to take your time.
(Some people might call the game turn-based, given that the smallest time unit of the game is one day. There are no fractional days. Also, if you pause, the game will always complete the current day first. However the player doesn't really see/notice this, it pretty much feels real-time.)

If you feel the need to take down capitalism then Tonight We Riot is out now
10 May 2020 at 4:32 pm UTC Likes: 3

Sorry for being a bit meta now:

I must say, this thread has greatly restored my faith in humanity.
With a few exceptions people here manage to discuss such a sensitive topic in a very civil way, backed by historic arguments. I can find a lot of points I agree on with all sides in this discussion (with the aforementioned exceptions...).

That's something quite rare on the internet today. On most forums people just yell at each other, or make claims not backed by any actual data.

Thanks a lot, it is a pleasure following this discussion.

As Stellaris prepares to turn 4, Paradox have a big free update ready for this month
8 May 2020 at 10:40 am UTC

Quoting: PhiladelphusHmm, can I finish up my max-size galaxy game before this comes out? :S: Time to find out! :D
Luckily Paradox usually keeps the previous version available in a Steam branch.

I'd really love to jump right back to Stellaris after the update, but I'm afraid I have to stick to Elite for now, otherwise my month-long tourist contract from Alioth to the "Dancing With Giants" site on the other side of the galactic centre would not be doable...

What are you clicking on this weekend? Come have a chat in the comments
3 May 2020 at 7:52 am UTC Likes: 1

After having finished Ciel Fledge once (thanks again for the article covering it, otherwise I would have never known about that game), I've made the mistake of buying Elite: Dangerous (Steam Play).
I've spent an unreasonable amount of time with that stupid game, just farming stuff to upgrade ship parts to at some point maybe depart from human space to explore the great unknown. Where I probably will get bored, because there's just endless repetitions of the same procedurally generated stuff...

About Ciel Fledge: I really enjoyed my first playthrough, even though the game has plenty of story and balancing issues. Some activities are basically useless (skill requirements = maximum skill they allow to train), but the game doesn't tell you beforehand. Sometimes the story has weird inconsistencies. Some are minor, like
Spoiler, click me
Ciel calling Helen the "guitar girl" when they first meet, but not knowing about the instrument when they see each other again, and even not being able to remember the instrument's name.
Some are pretty major, like (warning: major spoiler)
Spoiler, click me
the government of Ark 7 at the time of the attack of Ark 3 suddenly being a different one when talking about the incident later. Almost like the attack cut-scene was already final when the writers changed their mind about the situation...
But yeah, those negative points are easily made up for by the game's general mood and gameplay.

I don't think I'll have to write about Elite: Dangerous. It's that kind of game that has you waiting for hours and hours, just staring at remaining time counters slowly going down... All that for some occasional adrenaline rushes and beautiful vistas.

What have you been playing recently? Come tell us what you think about it
5 Apr 2020 at 6:19 pm UTC

I've been playing a little bit of this and that.
o) Stellaris after Federations DLC was released. Awesome new DLC, I love the Galactic Community mechanics, even though it's a bit buggy still...
o) Cursed Lands by Winter Wolves. I like the story, but both battles and micromanagement feel less rewarding than in Loren or Tales of Aravorn.
o) Big Pharama. Having a bit of fun curing virtual diseases, because there's little I could do about the real-world one we are currently facing. And yes, I'm fully aware that's silly.
o) Two point hospital. I had it on my Pile of Shame forever. Well, it's Theme Hospital with better graphics, so I didn't play it long. I've had my countless hours in Theme Hospital already...

Edit: For the protein folding I let my computer do the work. It's set to run Rosetta@Home whenever nobody does any input for more than 3 minutes... Perfect during the loooooooong home office Zoom meetings.

Cellar Door Games have officially announced Rogue Legacy 2
4 Apr 2020 at 12:59 pm UTC Likes: 3

Ohhh, they missed the opportunity to call it "Rogue Legacy Legacy", or "The Legacy of Rogue Legacy". :(

Mixing a sci-fi RPG with a Visual Novel 'Planet Stronghold 2' is out now
2 Apr 2020 at 8:44 pm UTC Likes: 1

After having played "Loren, the Amazon Princess" and "Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf" some months ago, I'm currently enjoying "Cursed Lands".
I can recommend all of these games, though I must say that combat in Cursed Lands feels a bit too simple compared to the two other titles. Also the inventory system has been simplified... On the other hand the writing clearly improved since Loren. (The writing of Loren isn't bad, but it starts out pretty much like "Hey, I see your party doesn't have a rogue. Mind if I join.").

So, if you are new to Winter Wolves and want a recommendation, I'd say, start out with Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the wolf. It has a well written story, and combat is still challenging.

If you need an escape from reality there's some unique experiences free on itch.io right now
18 Mar 2020 at 9:09 am UTC

I can fully recommend Last Word. The story is captivating, and the battles are mostly entertaining, although the "war of attrition" that occurs frequently in battles is a bit boring.