Anyone Play Video Games?

Log in

SmokingPipes.com Updates

Watch for Updates Twice a Week

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

LeafErikson

Lifer
Dec 7, 2021
2,172
19,056
Oregon
After many years of not playing any games, I've booted up Skyrim and Super Mega Baseball 4 this week. I called my local GameStop to see if they had a copy of Super Mega Baseball 4 and the guy working the counter actually thought I was trolling with the title until his colleague found it in their system. It's a fun mix of arcade and simulation baseball with a super deep franchise mode, which is something that most modern sports games sorely lack.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fireground_piper

danimalia

Lifer
Sep 2, 2015
4,469
27,077
42
San Francisco Bay Area, USA
I called my local GameStop to see if they had a copy of Super Mega Baseball 4 and the guy working the counter actually thought I was trolling with the title until his colleague found it in their system.
This made me laugh so hard... I'll have to give it a try. For a few years, there was a guy using create a player to simulate all the minor league players and prospects for MLB The Show, but I think he stopped. They were stunningly accurate. Now that the minor leaguers have a union, I'd hope MLB The Show would start incorporating them into the game for us nerds. But then again, that's a financial outlay to pay for name and likeness, and they prefer lootbox, ultimate team style mode already over franchise mode, I'm sure.
 

Pooh-Bah

Can't Leave
Apr 21, 2023
397
4,277
32
Central Maryland
I hear that the Lunar games are getting a rerelease for the current crop of PlayStations. Which reminded me how good those games are, so I've dug my discs out and began replaying the old PS1 release this evening. Currently just starting on the White Dragon Cave in the first one.

I am cautiously optimistic and heartily recommend them.
JRPGs from the 90s with a little bit of silliness, hand-drawn FMV cutscenes, and the sort of "enthusiastic amateurs you can't help but root for" level of voicework you see in older anime dubs (assuming that they have sense enough to not bother retranslating and redubbing a cult series)
 

hakchuma

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 13, 2014
877
516
52
Michigan, USA
Finally digging deeper into Elden Ring. I purchased the Xbox series x=X version on release date but the performance was terrible and my eyes just could not handle the low frames per second. They must have optimized the game a good amount because it's looking pretty good now. Not sure how long I'll last but I'll give it a go.

Oh and I have to say I like Mortal Shell more than any of the souls games. Hope they make Mortal Shell 2.
 
Jun 27, 2016
1,280
126
Love that game!

Really a great game, & the white robe makes it even better.
IMG_6029.JPG

I'll get back to it once Battlefield 3 servers finally shut down on November 7th. I've been jumping on sporadically, & it's still a fun game online. I guess I could go to the PC servers but probably not going to bother, & there's no guarantee that those will stay up much longer past Nov. 7th anyway.

I've heard that Front Mission 3 is getting made for Switch. Re-made? Updated? Not sure exactly. Hopefully it turns out as good as or better than the PS1 version, & they don't screw it up!
 
Jun 27, 2016
1,280
126
Last call for Battlefield 3 Multiplayer PS3, let's go!
Servers are going down in a couple days & I've been having a blast & playing as much as possible!!!

Checking in on my M40A1 sniper rifle stats, & my M40 overall accuracy dropped slightly from 46.49% to 46.2% over the last month. Makes sense as I've been sending a few more than usual, trying to hit my goal of 10 Sniper Rifle medals & 9 Accuracy Ribbons before the game shuts down. (You get a sniper ribbon for 7 sniper rifle kills in a match, & an accuracy ribbon for 5 headshots (any gun) in a match, & then a sniper medal for every 30 sniper ribbons, & an accuracy medal for every 50 acc ribbons.)

However, my headshot kill percentage has risen from 82.88% to 82.93% over the past month, so I've only gotten deadlier. =)

Also I believe that I increased my longest headshot a couple weeks ago to 1266 meters from 11xx meters, but I'm not sure on that. I dinged someone way out there a couple weeks ago & it was around a 1200+m holdover.

Compared to my first account which I lost, my M40 accuracy has increased from 40.9%, & my headshot kill percentage has increased from 81.76%. First account had 9679 M40 kills with 7914 headshots, & 47751 shots taken, 19 sniper rifle medals, & 17 accuracy medals, & 96 M40A1 service stars (one for every 100 M40 kills).

Second account has 5390 M40 kills with 4470 headshots, out of 22,428 shots fired.

My first account has my longest headshot of 1791.92 meters. I haven't had an opportunity but maybe more than once to try again, as one of the spots is rarely ever used. I thought it would be fun to try & recreate the shot for you guys, so I jumped into an empty server & headed to Operation Firestorm (Conquest mode) to set it up. One thing I realized the other day is that both spots are accessible from the US teams side of the map, so I was able to set up a beacon & drone cam at one spot, & then went to the other spot to shoot at it, & then I took some bad pics with my phone to show you guys. Sorry I don't know how to stream or screen cap.

Here's the location from the US side of the map, & I have my beacon (blue triangle) & drone (blue orb thing) set up at the other spot, about 1790 meters out, & downhill from here. That slightly affects the holdover compared to shooting from the other spot. Thankfully this game doesn't accout for windage.
IMG_6584.JPG

Zoomed in, just looking down the barrel more or less. (12x scope)
IMG_6585.JPG

Zoomed in, with about the appropriate hold-over to make this shot, although I'm off-center to the right slightly, & it's probably a little high:

M40 hold-over with a 12x scope works out to around 300m at the first line, 700 at the second, 1100 at the third line, & 1300 at the fourth line, & then once you get into the post you carry that 200m spacing between the third & fourth line down into the post, & it works out & you might have to add a little more. 1790m is around the start of that first haze ring, which is slightly above the blue triangle, hard to see in the pic. So this looks maybe a little high, especially since I'd be shooting downhill here.
IMG_6589.JPG

Here's what I'm shooting at, from my drones perspective flying above my beacon. I'm the little blue triangle in the top right corner, & the beacon triangle is in the bottom right corner, obscured by the info overlay.
IMG_6587.JPG

Here's the view on the ground from there, with my drone & beacon over at the first spot now.
IMG_6592.JPG

And here's about what the holdover needs to be, in order to hit the shot. You'd have to add a little compared to shooting from the hill, since now we're shooting uphill slightly. The topof the first haze-ring is just even with the top of the blue triangle. Very hard to see in the pic, but that's around 1790m holdover for the M40 with the 12x scope.
IMG_6595.JPG

Here's the beacon (blue triangle near bottom of the screen on the US hill, with me out there in the swamps (blue triangle near top of screen). This is a somewhat popular place for people to snipe from.
IMG_6593.JPG


I already knew what the holdover needed to be for this shot, since I've made it before in-game (three or four times), but I took some test shots to dial in, in case I have a chance to hit this thing one more time before the game shuts down. Hang-time is about 5 seconds, so I was able to line up & take the shot, then switch to my drone cam, then pick up my phone & focus & snap pics as the rounds came in. Here's a composition of a few different shots, showing the round incoming & hitting the beacon.

See it heading in, it's the white blob above the "A" in the square:
IMG_6601.JPG

A bit closer:
IMG_6600.JPG

Big blurry blob between A & B now, sorry for the bad pic, it was tough to get these pics...
IMG_6603.JPG

Almost there, it looks like a spear in the blob, right above the red "B":
IMG_6602.JPG

Finally we see it streaking through the beacon, looks to be 'on the money' to me.
IMG_6604.JPG
When I made this shot in-game, I was actually shooting from where the beacon is in the pic above. No one ever goes out there, so it's always been tough to actually find this battle in-game. You have to wait for someone to be on the hill, & then you go out here into the swamps & try to snipe them from here. There were two guys up on the hill, eventualy trying to snipe back at me once they figured out where I was. Also there was a friendly laser or someone on my team close enough to be marking them periodically, so I sometimes had a red triangle over the bad guys heads to line up on, or else I never would have made the shots since you can barely see them if at all at these ranges, & too far for me to mark them myself with the select button.

I hit my Sniper & Accuracy Medal goals over the past week, plus some other stuff that I was close to getting & would be fun to go for, so now just going to try for ten more M40 kills to get one last M40 service star, plus however many more sniper ribbons & accuracy ribbons I can get before this thing shuts down for good.

Anyone else jumping on Battlefield 3 before the end? I'm on PS3.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6590.JPG
    IMG_6590.JPG
    101.3 KB · Views: 0

jdlander

Lurker
Jul 6, 2024
44
89
Salem, OR
Finally digging deeper into Elden Ring. I purchased the Xbox series x=X version on release date but the performance was terrible and my eyes just could not handle the low frames per second. They must have optimized the game a good amount because it's looking pretty good now. Not sure how long I'll last but I'll give it a go.

Oh and I have to say I like Mortal Shell more than any of the souls games. Hope they make Mortal Shell 2.
How is Elden Ring treating you? It's my favorite game of all time.

I need to try Mortal Shell. It's on my Want list.

On a different note, do you guys smoke pipes while you game? How well does that work?
 

Sigmund

Lifer
Sep 17, 2023
2,961
28,253
France
@jdlander Ive tried a pipe while gaming. It doesn’t really work out. I clench, puff to fast and burn the roof of my mouth. On turn or round based games I will sometimes take a few puffs if I have a partial pipe sitting by me but its never really smoke time.
 

karam

Lifer
Feb 2, 2019
2,571
9,831
Basel, Switzerland
Finally digging deeper into Elden Ring.

Oh and I have to say I like Mortal Shell more than any of the souls games. Hope they make Mortal Shell 2.
I'll have to see if to get it.

Elden Ring...mixed feelings. I played it through twice, including the DLC. Pretty, but meh. Overall I never hit it off 100% with this game even though I've sunk a few hundred hours in it. I think FromSoftware went overboard, too much of a good thing, ridiculous bosses and delayed attacks. Morbid abundance of gear and reuse of models.

Still, very very pretty and on point on atmosphere, but I prefer Dark Souls 1&3 despite being dated.