Looks like Prison Architect might be another turkey. I'm trying to complete part two of the tutorial campaign (rebuild the kitchen and canteen destroyed by arson) and I've followed the tutorial each step. It's indicating that I've completed both tasks but it also has an alert showing that I've failed to provide certain objects that are already in place. I've double checked everything is there. The game still says task complete but also says not complete. I'm just about ready to bin this one. Why do game designers not supply manuals and supply instead broken tutorials?
What Game Are You Currently Playing?
- Thread starter McMurphy
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I bought Aliens: Fireteam Elite, which was on sale on Steam. After Aliens: Colonial Marines, this felt like throwing good money after bad, but what the heck.
Despite its rubbish world-salad title, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is actually pretty decent. You are one of a three-marine team (other players or bots), fighting your way through hordes of Aliens to get missions done. It's pretty tense and difficult, even on "casual" mode, although it can get a tad monotonous at points. Unlike Colonial Marines, it doesn't tell exactly the same story (Company is naughty, Aliens run amok) as every Aliens game and the characters seem to have got the idea that the Aliens exist and that Weyland Yutani is dodgy (at long last).
The thing that impresses me so far is the attention to detail. The backstory involves the Seegson Corporation from Alien: Isolation and the Union of Progressive Peoples from William Gibson's unused Alien 3 screenplay. Many of the marine officers seem to be from South America, which has been swallowed up by the United Americas in the setting. The ship's android even seems to reference Lee Brimmicombe-Wood's good but ancient Aliens Technical Manual from 2000 or so. It's as though they've decided to use only the good bits of the setting. So far, I'm impressed.
Despite its rubbish world-salad title, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is actually pretty decent. You are one of a three-marine team (other players or bots), fighting your way through hordes of Aliens to get missions done. It's pretty tense and difficult, even on "casual" mode, although it can get a tad monotonous at points. Unlike Colonial Marines, it doesn't tell exactly the same story (Company is naughty, Aliens run amok) as every Aliens game and the characters seem to have got the idea that the Aliens exist and that Weyland Yutani is dodgy (at long last).
The thing that impresses me so far is the attention to detail. The backstory involves the Seegson Corporation from Alien: Isolation and the Union of Progressive Peoples from William Gibson's unused Alien 3 screenplay. Many of the marine officers seem to be from South America, which has been swallowed up by the United Americas in the setting. The ship's android even seems to reference Lee Brimmicombe-Wood's good but ancient Aliens Technical Manual from 2000 or so. It's as though they've decided to use only the good bits of the setting. So far, I'm impressed.
Paradox actually make a game with a good tutorial/manual???!!! You've got a better chance of being hit by lightning. A couple of times. Then being run over by a clown car driven by Boris Johnson and mahatma Ghandi.
I've finally figured out what was going wrong in the tutorial. I paused the game and studied both canteen and kitchen as they were burning down. It turns out that neither had doors (just a hole in the wall). Of course, me not being born in a field, I put doors on my first attempt at rebuilding them. This time, without doors, I got it completed. Annoying since it never mentioned doors anywhere in the tutorial.
I call it a bug, they, no doubt, will call it a feature...
I call it a bug, they, no doubt, will call it a feature...
Vladd67
Stake Holder
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What bugs me with the Alien games is that when Weyland Yutani get in trouble a troop of Colonial marines are sent in to rescue them. Now the company is part of The Three World Empire, an Anglo Japanese political union, and the marines are United Americas Colonial Marines, not only a force from a nation at best in a cold war with the empire and at times actually in a shooting war. I guess that's what happens when you retrospectively write a back story after you have produced a product.
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Yes, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The whole setting has been added to in bits and bobs, some of them much better than others. I think anyone making an Aliens game has to decide what to leave out/skirt around.
Rapidly became bored with Prison Architect but might return to it later. For now, I'm trying out Stygian: Reign Of The Old Ones.
It's a Lovecraftian RPG with a kind of comic book art style. I have high hopes but I've been disappointed many times before. Here's a screenshot.
It's a Lovecraftian RPG with a kind of comic book art style. I have high hopes but I've been disappointed many times before. Here's a screenshot.
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Aliens: Fireteam Elite continues to be very entertaining. I've really enjoyed it so far. It's nice to have an Aliens game that is actually good in playability terms and also looks convincing. The characters are surprisingly sympathetic, given that they do very standard stuff, and the decision to leave out the whole Bishop family saga is a good one. Even the second-rate additions to the setting in Prometheus and Covenant are treated quite well (although I will never understand why the mysterious Engineers turned out to be big blue men).
One level involves fighting rogue androids, which is a nice change, and forces you to adopt a different playing style. I'm a big fan of the Aliens robots, even when they are vomiting and exploding. I've only got a few missions more to do, and I expect that my character will then retire from the Corps and elope with Esther the friendly synthetic. Or just die horribly.
One level involves fighting rogue androids, which is a nice change, and forces you to adopt a different playing style. I'm a big fan of the Aliens robots, even when they are vomiting and exploding. I've only got a few missions more to do, and I expect that my character will then retire from the Corps and elope with Esther the friendly synthetic. Or just die horribly.
My time in Stygian: The Old Ones didn’t last very long. Played about a half hour yesterday, loaded up my save game today and nowt.
It loaded the save and showed the usual ‘press any key to continue’. The problem is pressing any key, pressing the mouse, shouting at the screen, banging my head against the wall….nothing worked.
To make matters worse, I couldn’t close the game. Task Manager showed no task running. Switching to the desktop merely brought up the taskbar and closing it from there also failed. In the end, I had to restart the PC. I’m not in the mood for any more of this game right now.
It seems I’m not having much luck with games these days.
It loaded the save and showed the usual ‘press any key to continue’. The problem is pressing any key, pressing the mouse, shouting at the screen, banging my head against the wall….nothing worked.
To make matters worse, I couldn’t close the game. Task Manager showed no task running. Switching to the desktop merely brought up the taskbar and closing it from there also failed. In the end, I had to restart the PC. I’m not in the mood for any more of this game right now.
It seems I’m not having much luck with games these days.
.matthew.
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I swear by my house turtle god. It's been overseeing computer-related problems for twenty-odd years and never fails to deliver the solution...
Give yourself to the turtle,
Embrace the turtle,
Praise be, the turtle.
Playing some Civ VI. But I've also seen that Phantasy Star IV can be bought (as part of a Classics collection) on Steam for 79p. It's one of my favourite RPGs with some fantastic mechanics (combo attacks are cool) and a great storyline so if you don't mind the old school (it's about a quarter of a century old) graphics then it's not exactly going to break the bank.
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I finished the main campaign in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, admittedly on the "easy" setting. I've really enjoyed this game. Like Left 4 Dead, which is basically resembles, it has decent action, entertaining voice acting and lots of interesting things to see and do (whilst running away from hordes of Aliens and robots). The worst bits of the setting are generally ignored and the take on what it does include is very solid (including a surprisingly complex discussion of Asimov's three laws). Even the sub-Von Daniken rubbish in Covenant isn't too jarring when it appears. In a way, it's quite monotonous, but the simple task of advancing and killing enemies is well-handled. Now onto the bonus levels. Saddle up, people!
Played a bit of Skyrim for the first time. Looks gorgeous but has, without exception, the worst interface in any RPG I’ve ever come across. I couldn’t figure out how to quit the game. In the setting menu, a ‘down’ arrow hinted to me that there were other options so I used my mouse to click on the arrow. Nothing. So I tried using various keys on the keyboard. Nowt. Eventually, I had to use control-alt-delete to bring up the task manager and quit from there. After that, I went on line to research the problem. After fiddling about unsuccessfully with ini files, I went back online to look again. It turned out some folk had been playing this game for months and were still using task manager to quit. I wasn’t alone in this conundrum.
Eventually, I found the answer: place your mouse over the settings menu until you highlight one of the options. When that happens, use the mouse wheel to scroll through and -voila- the quit option. Note, one of the options must be highlighted or the mouse wheel will not work.
What planet are these programmers on? Why couldn’t they stick with the Oblivion set up? It’s simple, easy and highly effective.
It took me so long to sort this out that I gave up in disgust and went back to an old favourite: Rule The Waves 2.
Eventually, I found the answer: place your mouse over the settings menu until you highlight one of the options. When that happens, use the mouse wheel to scroll through and -voila- the quit option. Note, one of the options must be highlighted or the mouse wheel will not work.
What planet are these programmers on? Why couldn’t they stick with the Oblivion set up? It’s simple, easy and highly effective.
It took me so long to sort this out that I gave up in disgust and went back to an old favourite: Rule The Waves 2.
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.matthew.
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Still playing Battlefleet Gothic 2. Honestly, the game has really surprised me. The 4X strategy layer isn't anything special at all, but the actual combat is pretty damn fun.
It feels responsive and weighty at the same time. There's a lot of micro-management available, though it can be mostly ignored on the default difficulty, leaving you free to whizz around and occasionally ram the xenos.
Plus the art style is very nice, with the ships looking super nice and the cutscene art being screenshot worthy.
It feels responsive and weighty at the same time. There's a lot of micro-management available, though it can be mostly ignored on the default difficulty, leaving you free to whizz around and occasionally ram the xenos.
Plus the art style is very nice, with the ships looking super nice and the cutscene art being screenshot worthy.
Yes. It appears to be designed with a game controller in mind. The .ini file has settings for controller and controller rumble.
I played a little more of Skyrim after sorting out the quit problem (and I had collected all the toys that I threw from the pram) and I have to admit, the landscape is a step up from Oblivion. I’ve just gone into the mountains looking for a dragon stone and the wind is howling through the rocks with snow being blown in streamers from the craggy peaks. Before me is a vast ancient ruin and up a long set of steps looms a pair of massive doors leading into the gut rock of the mountain. What lies beyond is waiting to be discovered and, no doubt the passage there will be fraught with danger, but I have my trusty bow and sword to keep me company.
Visually, it’s just epic
So, I've just spent the last half hour trying to sort out my character in Skyrim. In Oblivion, it was easy to assign a key for a magic skill but in Skyrim it's an absolute nightmare. First, you have to assign the skill to a Favourites section and then you can assign it to a number key. The problem is, by doing that, I found it impossible to change back from magic to weapon (I assigned a healing spell in order to quickly heal myself during or after encounters). To fix this, I also had to assign my bow and sword to the Favourites section and then I could assign them suitable number keys. Talk about a roundabout way of doing things! surely it's not difficult to programme it to be able to assign various keys during initial character setup via the controls menu? It's as if somebody said 'let's make this as difficult as possible for people to play'.
Also, no health, magic or stamina bars on screen but they show up if you use them. I'd rather have them up all the time but that, so far, seems impossible. If there's a way, I haven't found it yet. Again, searching on the net, I find many folk having the same problems.
It's a fabulous looking game but I find I'm spending more time battling the interface than monsters.
Also, no health, magic or stamina bars on screen but they show up if you use them. I'd rather have them up all the time but that, so far, seems impossible. If there's a way, I haven't found it yet. Again, searching on the net, I find many folk having the same problems.
It's a fabulous looking game but I find I'm spending more time battling the interface than monsters.
I'm so used to it, after about 1400 hours of the game!
So, I use the 'favourites' button - 'q' - to switch between favourites rather than use hotkeys.
There are loads of mods to alter the UI to your liking - SkyUI is supposed to be the most used one for changing the clunky original one (that is designed really for consoles rather than PC). But there are others like Immersive HUD that lets you play about with what you see on screen (see this article: Skyrim: 10 Amazing Mods To Clean Up The User Interface. Although as of time of writing this you can't access that particular mod as they are doing work on their site.)
The inventory system and how it handles large numbers of objects can be irritating - but again, I am so used to it, I've never got round to messing with mods to improve it.
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