OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread

[StickeeFingaz]

HYPE!

Watch on YouTube

;t=4s

I've had Last Epoch in my cart for awhile but couldn't remember why, you must've mentioned it before. I'll pick it up tonight and try to get to it tomorrow. Any tips for just starting?

Damn, that looks good. Might have to.

[ReasonablySober]

Seen a couple articles on the MiSTer emulation machine and it sounds awesome (and so expensive for the full works). So I plugged a PS4 controller into the laptop and now I'm playing the best SNES game ever, again, Actraiser.

[MikeIsGood]

HYPE!

Watch on YouTube

;t=4s

I've had Last Epoch in my cart for awhile but couldn't remember why, you must've mentioned it before. I'll pick it up tonight and try to get to it tomorrow. Any tips for just starting?

Damn, that looks good. Might have to.

It's great - you both should. My only word of warning is that it's still EA obviously, and will be until sometime in 2022 (possibly 23, but I doubt it). That said, it's quite polished at this point. EA here doesn't mean bugs, and moreso means that they're balancing skills and classes, finishing story content, continuing to add end game content, etc. But I've already put in almost 200 hours, and I want to play more each patch.

Some new player thoughts:

This is, IMO, the most "like Diablo 2" modern ARPG there is. It is more complex than D3, (significantly) less complex than POE, and more generally modernized than Grim Dawn. Just an idea of what to expect complexity wise, and thus gameplay for the genre.

Don't follow a build guide - you can wing it. You will find some things are better than others, but swapping out skills is possible without being completely trivial, and you have lots of room to play around with things in the early game. The game is very clear and consistent in how skills are worded, scale, etc. and there is an extremely good in-game guide.

Crafting can be done early, and you should feel like you can. I would suggest holding off until you get a sense of which runes (it'll make sense once you play) are most common and which are rarer, and to save the rarer ones until you're later in the story or end game. But basic runes will be plentiful, and these include ones like stats (Str, Int, etc), health, mana, and most resistances.

There is no multiplayer right now. It's coming before full release, but what that means right now is that you can't play with others or trade. You do, however, have a shared stash amongst your characters, so you can share items with yourself.

At launch, all of your EA characters will move to offline only, as will your stash. This is to ensure there's a clean slate for the online community. But the expectation is that you don't "lose" anything from your account.

Happy to answer any questions you guys may have!

[Sauce Boss]

I’m now 50+ hours deep into Guilty Gear Strive and I see no end in sight. It’s been fascinating diving into fighting games, as my previous bias was that they were obtuse and extremely hard. They really aren’t when the game is good at teaching you. The whole hook is personal growth and self improvement, and it’s been an addicting and welcome change of pace.

[ReasonablySober]

I’m now 50+ hours deep into Guilty Gear Strive and I see no end in sight. It’s been fascinating diving into fighting games, as my previous bias was that they were obtuse and extremely hard. They really aren’t when the game is good at teaching you. The whole hook is personal growth and self improvement, and it’s been an addicting and welcome change of pace.

Is it multiplayer you've been playing?

[Sauce Boss]

I’m now 50+ hours deep into Guilty Gear Strive and I see no end in sight. It’s been fascinating diving into fighting games, as my previous bias was that they were obtuse and extremely hard. They really aren’t when the game is good at teaching you. The whole hook is personal growth and self improvement, and it’s been an addicting and welcome change of pace.

Is it multiplayer you've been playing?

I’ve been playing Thursday’s with friends online and the mission mode (basically just a way to teach mechanics/combos), mostly. I’ve played ranked online only a little bit and that’s the meat of the game, so I’ve got a lot of playing a head of me. Rollback netcode makes online so good, always thought it was a couch with friends genre until Strive implemented it so well.

[ReasonablySober]

I’m now 50+ hours deep into Guilty Gear Strive and I see no end in sight. It’s been fascinating diving into fighting games, as my previous bias was that they were obtuse and extremely hard. They really aren’t when the game is good at teaching you. The whole hook is personal growth and self improvement, and it’s been an addicting and welcome change of pace.

Is it multiplayer you've been playing?

I’ve been playing Thursday’s with friends online and the mission mode (basically just a way to teach mechanics/combos), mostly. I’ve played ranked online only a little bit and that’s the meat of the game, so I’ve got a lot of playing a head of me. Rollback netcode makes online so good, always thought it was a couch with friends genre until Strive implemented it so well.

I miss being into fighting games. First genre I was really good at, hung out at arcades and let older teens lose their quarters playing me in SF2. But yea, since then the games have gotten intimidating. I love the Injustice series and there are some characters I feel great playing but in the end I know I would be trash if I went online.

[StickeeFingaz]

Purchased Last Epoch this morning and installed so I’ll be playing this weekend.

[MikeIsGood]

One more tip that came to mind - at this time, the only thing gold is used for is gambling for items at The Gambler (or buying from other vendors), buying more stash tabs, and buying Runes of Shattering (which you'll learn about). You'll also get significantly more gold when you get to end game compared to early, of course. So don't feel like you have to hoard it - go ahead and use it to upgrade your items as you level.

[WRau1]

Bought and installed Epoch this morning, hoping to get to it tonight.

[Sauce Boss]

Have we ever thought of making a board Discord for games? I don’t know why that came to my brain today, but was a little surprised that it’s never been thrown out there.

[ReasonablySober]

Have we ever thought of making a board Discord for games? I don’t know why that came to my brain today, but was a little surprised that it’s never been thrown out there.

Can you explain what discord is to this old guy?

[crkone]

Have we ever thought of making a board Discord for games? I don’t know why that came to my brain today, but was a little surprised that it’s never been thrown out there.

I made one a couple years ago now I think.

Link removed per RealGM rules.

[crkone]

Have we ever thought of making a board Discord for games? I don’t know why that came to my brain today, but was a little surprised that it’s never been thrown out there.

Can you explain what discord is to this old guy?

VoIP for gaming but has a ton of other features.

[ReasonablySober]

So Craftopia is pretty rough in a lot of ways. But one thing I do like they hold your hand A LOT. They've got 13 "How to Play" missions, each broken up with three to five goals. Goals are simple, but they explain them. Climb a wall, do a double jump, glide, punch a rock, punch a tree, punch a goat. You complete a goal, you get a checkmark. Complete the missions, you get a reward. All the while you level up, which lets you spend points on a pretty legit skill tree.

I'm playing their easy/explore mode so I wonder what all this looks like when I try their harder stuff, but I like when a game make sure you know how to play it.

[StickeeFingaz]

One more tip that came to mind - at this time, the only thing gold is used for is gambling for items at The Gambler (or buying from other vendors), buying more stash tabs, and buying Runes of Shattering (which you'll learn about). You'll also get significantly more gold when you get to end game compared to early, of course. So don't feel like you have to hoard it - go ahead and use it to upgrade your items as you level.

What class/character have you enjoyed the most?

[WRau1]

The Acolyte is pretty fun so far, Rip Blood seems pretty good.

[ReginaldDwight]

In other news...

Read on Twitter

This game just keeps getting more and more updates as time goes on.

I think this is the update that finally gets me to play. I don't know when that'll be - kind of already had my fall gaming lined-up - but next time I can't figure out what to play, I think this is it.

Yeah Ill probably hop back into NMS in a week or two once they fix some of the bugs with the new patch. I really like the game and I enjoy how I can play for a bit come back in 3 months and the game has tons of new content. This patch looks awesome though and when i go on the NMS subreddit i see some awesome stuff people on there are making .

[MikeIsGood]

One more tip that came to mind - at this time, the only thing gold is used for is gambling for items at The Gambler (or buying from other vendors), buying more stash tabs, and buying Runes of Shattering (which you'll learn about). You'll also get significantly more gold when you get to end game compared to early, of course. So don't feel like you have to hoard it - go ahead and use it to upgrade your items as you level.

What class/character have you enjoyed the most?

The majority of my chars have been mages. That may say more about me than the game, though, as I always gravitate toward either mages or archers in RPGs.

That said, I've found the mage spells to be a ton of fun. Elemental Nova and Lightning Blast are both extremely strong, and Glacier is also quite powerful as well as unique (IMO). I've also made a frozen orb sorc (D2), basically, by converting volcanic orb to cold. All are blast to play IMO.

That's just scratching the surface, though. I haven't played a melee mage yet, and many think Firebrand/Flame Reave is one of the strongest builds in the game.

Until recently, Rogue was the most polished because it was the newest introduced class. Everything rogue that I've done - chakrams, bow - has been fun too. It feels super smooth.

My second most played class is Sentinel, which I'm playing again now for a lightning java...nel? Shield Toss and Rive were both good, and I love having a giant golem pet. I've never played the void skills - I planned to this patch, because of recent reworks, but then they announced the Javelin skill 2 days ago and upended my plans.

I've dabbled in Primalist (Druid), but not gotten a good enough impression. Nothing against it, though. And I've never played Acolyte - again, nothing against it. I need to play both.

I recommend you play whatever you most typically like to play. And if nothing jumps out to you, I'd recommend Sentinel (just refreshed), Rogue (new), or Mage (strong builds). Just because I can't speak to Acolyte (which has steadily gotten refreshed), and Primalist is getting refreshed next patch.

[ReasonablySober]

I still don't understand what it is I'm supposed to do in NMS.