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Friday Fun Thread for March 1, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Helldivers 2 is a blast. Haven't had this much fun in a coop game in ages.

I don't understand @Cjet 's objection that the guns aren't satisfying to shoot. They're chunky, with intricate mechanics (they simulate rocket backblast! You can adjust the rate of fire on the MMGs!) and they provide visceral feedback, enemies have detailed damage models and aren't just bullet sponges, you can blow off limbs and see bugs limp, perforate them enough and they'll bleed to death. The robot enemies get blown into scraps in an eminently enjoyable manner. And it's not like the "normal" guns are only an appetizer for support call-ins, they are more more than capable of dealing with 90% of what the game throws at you, and it makes sense that you need to bust out the big guns for tanks of both the biomechanical and engineered kind.

My online buddies have had a great time just fucking around, running through the woods, swamps, taigas or desert with tracer fire lancing overhead, or away from an absolute horde of bloodthirsty bugs.

It's the best Starship Troopers game. It's the best ODST game. It's the best Tempestus Scion versus Tyranids game. You drop heavy fucking ordnance on some very unsympathetic foes, and laugh your ass off when your buddies respawn you in the middle of a minefield or your drones and turrets blow your head off (friendly fire causes half the fatalities in the game, and it's hilarious), and you generally have a great time.

I would heartily recommend it, and hopefully they'll get around to a balance patch that makes some of the off-meta builds less suicidal on the highest difficulties. They're adding mechs and other vehicles soon, and if you wanted a 40k Dreadnought game, this is it.

IMO, the best 'Starship Troopers' game is running around in the nuclear powered tank in Factorio and shooting off hundreds of mini-nukes or just pasting the bugs using the 70 odd tons and the energy shield.

(Yes you could load a hundred nukes into a big tank, even in the real world. )

Well, if you're a fan of the book I can't argue that isn't a faithful representation, all the more if the tank has legs. The Mobile Infantry weren't grunts with assault rifle, they used nukes as primary weapons. And even fought super advanced alien midgets, assuming I'm not getting it muddled up with another mil SF novel.

And even fought super advanced alien midgets

The opposite, they were tall lanky things called 'Skinnies.' They also jumped around with jump packs, powered armor and I think laser swords.

they were tall lanky things called 'Skinnies.'

Just to add context: these are the first enemies the protagonist is in combat against, but they switch sides and for most of the book the main conflict is the same as in the movie, humans-vs-bugs.

(for a loose definition of "the same"; e.g. in the book the humans are trying to capture a brain-bug so they can figure out how to communicate and negotiate peace rather than fight-to-the-genocide, whereas in the movie they want someone for Nazi Doogie Howser to torture)

[The Mobile Infantry] also jumped around with jump packs, powered armor and I think laser swords.

I was going to joke about you confusing Starship Troopers with Star Wars or Halo ... but I pulled down my copy to check, and what do you know, the protagonist cuts through a wall with "a knife beam at full power". I swear I just reread it a few years ago...