What are you playing right now?

[rooster707]

We have threads like this for books and music... why not games?

What are you playing right now, and how is it?

[Antonok]

As of right now, my current focus is on The Surge. Was on sale for $25 so figured may as well get it at a decent price.

[Winthur]

I get on my 3DS every so often to push the story ever so slightly forward in the delightful Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked and also trudging through Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne on Hard (definitely one of the hardest RTS campaigns there is) and also Dragon Age: Origins.

I started way too many things at once, but I'm trying my best to push forward... between timewasters like Overwatch. :smalltongue:

[Zevox]

At the moment, mostly Hearthstone and Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. Marvel's great fun, I love playing Dante in particular, even if I'm not sure who I prefer for a teammate. Unlike its predecessor, the online's pretty good, too.

And Hearthstone's, well, same as always. I don't play a ton these days, but I get in some matches to do my quests here and there, and hit the Brawls each week.

[Cespenar]

...and also trudging through Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne on Hard (definitely one of the hardest RTS campaigns there is) :

Wow, that is a slog. I remember dropping my Hard run on the last mission of the Undead campaign, on the original W3. Granted, I wasn't a very good player, but still, it was a slog.

On a more related note to the thread, I'm playing Curse of the Necrodancer: Amplified, right now, because it's Necrodancer and it's awesome.

[GloatingSwine]

Mario Odyssey and Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Should get to that Horizon Zero Dawn DLC at some point too.

[Meta]

Path of Exile and Dota 2, mostly. Last of Us and Dangonronpa V3 when my friends are over. Tried Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes in VR. That was pretty nifty.

[rooster707]

On PC, I just finished Mark of the Ninja, which was utterly delightful. It does everything I like about stealth games, but with the twist of being in 2D, which is done really well. I don't know how I missed this until now, it was amazing.

On console, I've been playing entirely too much Titanfall 2 multiplayer for the past month. It's a lot of fun, but I'm starting to get burned out and I think it's time for something new.

[ufo]

Jagged Alliance 2 with the 1.13 mod. I see what the hype is about, very well made, I understand it’s a classic, but holy moley the rampant racism and sexism is wearing me out. I hope we’ll see a spiritual successor that picks up on some of the absolutely wonderful game design.

... so now I’m just waiting for the new DLC for Crusader Kings which is more into depicting the cruelty of darker times than it is into actually being casually racist and sexist.

[The Glyphstone]

Playing through Deus Ex Classic, fully understanding why it remains such a beloved game.

[Meta]

Playing through Deus Ex Classic, fully understanding why it remains such a beloved game.

Deus Ex is arguably my favorite reviewed game on my favorite youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxOKEsBx4NU

It presents a reasonable argument as to why Deus Ex is the most important game ever made. He does reviews on the next two games as well, for fans of the series.

[rooster707]

Playing through Deus Ex Classic, fully understanding why it remains such a beloved game.

I'm so happy for you :smallbiggrin:

[thirsting]

I play a match or five of Hearthstone, every day.

Last few months, Overwatch, every day.

Endless Space 2, every other day or so. Haven't finished a game yet. Got a bad case of altitis. (restartitis?) Just wish there was a way to turn off the quest stuff, all of it. Gets old after seeing the same things a few times.

And that's it. Got Dishonored and Pillars of Eternity waiting, but it's hard to gather any motivation to start anything new at the moment, even though I know both of those should be great..

[Honest Tiefling]

Borderlands 2. Tried the pre-sequel, finished it, have no desire to play more but I needed my fix.

[Meta]

Borderlands 2. Tried the pre-sequel, finished it, have no desire to play more but I needed my fix.

I forgot to put that on my list. Great game. My ladyfriend and I recently beat Master Gee. That was a struggle, but felt good to complete!

[rooster707]

Finishing up my complete playthrough of the Thief series by playing the (kinda, sorta) reboot. Only a level in, but my main thoughts so far are: 1) Wow, the audio is awful. 2) Why couldn't they just do a straight sequel? 3) There are some good ideas here, but I think it would have been better as its own game.

[Winthur]

Finishing up my complete playthrough of the Thief series by playing the (kinda, sorta) reboot. Only a level in, but my main thoughts so far are: 1) Wow, the audio is awful. 2) Why couldn't they just do a straight sequel? 3) There are some good ideas here, but I think it would have been better as its own game.

Did you play The Dark Mod yet? It was a Doom 3 mod that was basically Thief 2.5, and recently became a free, standalone game, and it also has a fan mission community. If you haven't played it, it should wash away the pain of having played Thi4f.

[Sariel Vailo]

Diablo 3 rise of the necromancer. Just can't stop.

[IthilanorStPete]

Hearts of Iron 4. Did a game as the Soviet Union, one as the US, now in the middle of an interesting game as France. I've taken over Italy, I'm invading southern Germany, but Nationalist Spain just joined the war and forced me to rush a bunch of green divisions out for defense.

[rooster707]

Did you play The Dark Mod yet? It was a Doom 3 mod that was basically Thief 2.5, and recently became a free, standalone game, and it also has a fan mission community. If you haven't played it, it should wash away the pain of having played Thi4f.

I'll definitely look into that, thanks.

Also, thought number 4) I get the feeling someone at Eidos Montreal might have played Dishonored. No idea why.

[Honest Tiefling]

I forgot to put that on my list. Great game. My ladyfriend and I recently beat Master Gee. That was a struggle, but felt good to complete!

We've been restarting from the beginning to compare the writing. I'm not so good at the game, so I doubt we'll beat Master Gee so easily. I remember him being really difficult when that DLC came out.

[Corvus]

Fallout: Shelter and Medieval Total War 2.

Once the next DLC for Crusader Kings 2 drops, I'll be playing that again. Though not until after Nanowrimo ends.

[NRSASD]

Right now? Sims Medieval. Our bandit problem is getting out of hand. They mug people in the castle regularly now. Also Day of Infamy with a mod that replaces the normal soundtrack with Dunkirk's.

I second that recommendation for the Dark Mod. It's really really good, and exactly what I was looking for when I needed my Thief fix.

I tried Deus Ex and bounced off for some reason. I love the rest of that holy trinity of Thief, System Shock II, and Deus Ex, so I'll probably have to try again.

[JellyPooga]

Jagged Alliance 2 with the 1.13 mod. I see what the hype is about, very well made, I understand it’s a classic, but holy moley the rampant racism and sexism is wearing me out. I hope we’ll see a spiritual successor that picks up on some of the absolutely wonderful game design.

... so now I’m just waiting for the new DLC for Crusader Kings which is more into depicting the cruelty of darker times than it is into actually being casually racist and sexist.

I really enjoyed JA2; excellent stategy/tactical/RPG gameplay. Definitely one I dig out every now and then (despite its...thematic flaws). Really love the variety and viability of weapons too; except for the end-game, you can do a solo play-through using nothing but knives or even unarmed if you really want!

[Istarial]

Path of Exile and Stellaris, mostly. Also recently started replaying Spellforce (Order of Dawn currently.)

[Avilan the Grey]

Right now I am actually splitting my time equally between Sims 4 and Divinity Original Sin 2.

[Kanua]

I'm just starting to play in the Path of Exile, offended at Blizzard. I do not quite understand what is going on with these PoE orbs, unless you trade (in D3 there was no trade, ie once was but they removed the auction house)

[Meta]

I'm just starting to play in the Path of Exile, offended at Blizzard. I do not quite understand what is going on with these PoE orbs, unless you trade (in D3 there was no trade, ie once was but they removed the auction house)

My character's name is Fuzzy Nuzzy if you wanna add me in PoE. I'm iNuzzle on Steam if that's easier. Our PoE thread is fairly dead here on GitP but I can offer my advice on what to do with the orbs, trading or using.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm just starting to play in the Path of Exile, offended at Blizzard. I do not quite understand what is going on with these PoE orbs, unless you trade (in D3 there was no trade, ie once was but they removed the auction house)

They're what the game uses for currency instead of gold.

They all do different things that are, as far as I can tell, mostly worth less than the things you can spend them on when you get to endgame.

[ufo]

I really enjoyed JA2; excellent stategy/tactical/RPG gameplay. Definitely one I dig out every now and then (despite its...thematic flaws). Really love the variety and viability of weapons too; except for the end-game, you can do a solo play-through using nothing but knives or even unarmed if you really want!

Yeah, the meaningful parts of the game, the interactions with the mercenary registers (murderhobo Facebook), the variety of weapons (and modifications!) and tactical battles, is superb. In many ways, it surpasses modern tactical games like the XCOMs. I enjoyed the stretches where I didn't have to interact with the plot, characters or setting at all but was simply waging a guerilla war on a strategic map, managing contracts, supplies and going on badass missions behind enemy lines.

[Lord Raziere]

Super Mario Odyssey, but I'm probably going to be playing Ultramoon in a few days. should get back around to Cat Quest though....and a few other things I downloaded from steam....

[Kato]

Factorio has been eating a lot of my time lately.. But I've been skipping from game to game a lot since Breath of the Wild this summer. Few games keep my interest for more than a few hours weirdly.

[Iruka]

On PC, I just finished Mark of the Ninja, which was utterly delightful. It does everything I like about stealth games, but with the twist of being in 2D, which is done really well. I don't know how I missed this until now, it was amazing.


Best stealth game I ever played. Good controls, clear detection feedback, differentviable play styles, upgrades that support your style without trivializing the encounters, superb atmoshpere.


I currently play jist some Team Fortress 2 and Star Craft 2 Co-op for a bit unwinding after work. Sometimes Europa Universalis III or Sunless Sea on the weekend.

[Zombimode]

Playing through Deus Ex Classic, fully understanding why it remains such a beloved game.

Oh yes. Deus Ex remains one of the glorious Moments in gaming history.
People saying that "it hasn't aged well" have no idea what they are talking about.

The "bad voice acting" thing is also overstated. Yes, there are some lines that come off weird (the infamous "a bomb"). The rest is just how these people talk.


On Topic:

Currently I'm in the final Scenario of Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic.

Considering that my first save of the campaign is dated to December 2013, this game is truly a backlog item.

It's a good game, but I will be happy when I beat the final mission :smallsmile:


After that I will try my hand at The Age of Decadence which Looks really promising :smallsmile:

[JeenLeen]

Doki Doki Literature Club. Basically done with it, but want to do one more playthrough to see all the content. (Free on Steam. Pretty awesome, but avoid spoilers before playing it.)

I suppose I'm technically playing Cosmic Star Heroine, but I haven't picked it up in months. Mostly due to grad school and kids not leaving time for gaming. Maybe Christmas break.

[NRSASD]

After that I will try my hand at The Age of Decadence which Looks really promising :smallsmile:

Oooo that's a good one. Highly recommend, highly enjoyed. I've played it through at least 8 times already, and I know of 2 more playthroughs I really want to try.

[Knaight]

I've been on a Hand of Fate (1 and 2) kick for a while, although Hollow Knight just got a free mini-expansion and is likely to displace them in the near future.


Best stealth game I ever played. Good controls, clear detection feedback, differentviable play styles, upgrades that support your style without trivializing the encounters, superb atmoshpere.

Have you tried Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun? It has all of this except for the upgrades, and even then it kind of has them. It also has a set of in game (not Steam) achievements that actually add to the game, setting up side goals for missions and forcing you to use more complex and unorthodox tactics, largely because almost all of them are fundamental restrictions.

[Driderman]

I've recently been binging The Curious Expedition. As in playing it until 3 am on a workday because I really get into it, it's a great little gem of a game. Hilariously, I've spent loads more time playing that game these last weeks rather then the AAA-titles like Assassin's Creed Origins and Wolfenstein II that I have waiting for me on the PS4.

[rooster707]

Dabbling in Fortnite Battle Royale because hey, it's free. Died in the first minute of my first three games, survived a while in the fourth but some lady killed me with... a spike trap? Huh?

I feel like it's a good game (mode, whatever) and I'm totally planning on playing the full game next year, but it definitely needs some kind of tutorial.

[The Glyphstone]

Finished Deus Ex, now I've started Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I feel like someone sitting down to a five-star restaurant meal after having grown up on a diet of bread crusts and water.

[Cespenar]

Have you tried Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun? It has all of this except for the upgrades, and even then it kind of has them. It also has a set of in game (not Steam) achievements that actually add to the game, setting up side goals for missions and forcing you to use more complex and unorthodox tactics, largely because almost all of them are fundamental restrictions.

Nice to see this little gem here. Shadow Tactics is a great Commandos game. I wished it was a bit longer, actually.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Right now debating whether I should make another attempt at unifying the Empire in Total War: Warhammer, or buckle down and get going on my Mass Effect series master playthrough...

[Lunatic Sledge]

The roommate and I are finishing up Mario Odyssey. He's absolutely determined to get every moon in the game, which I thought was crazy--but from what I can gather we've already got the absolute toughest/worst/most obnoxious moons, so the rest is just clean up.

[Martok]

Been playing an Athenian campaign in Rome II: Total War - Wrath of Sparta. Have also gone old-school and have been playing a Klingon campaign in Birth of the Federation (Ultimate Mod 5).

[Alent]

I've been playing Ori and the Blind Forest, and it's absolutely beautiful, but I'm probably going to just drop it because of how irritating and integral the Bash mechanic is. It's so inaccurate, and you randomly go the opposite direction of where you're aiming. :smallannoyed: Trying to decide what Metroidvania in my backlog to play next, although I might just fire up Stardew Valley since I haven't started it yet and got it as a gift a while back.

[Sajiri]

Ive just been put on a work exemption for the next 3 months for health reasons, so over the past week I've been trying to catch up on games I never finished.

Mostly been playing Pillars of Eternity and Fallout 4, but I also jumped back on FFXI for the free login campaign going on right now for the nostalgia. Making me want to resub to it.

[Sandsme]

Right now i'm trying 100% on Ori and The Blind Forest.
Also playing Black Desert Online and PUBg

[thirsting]

This War of Mine. (on sale in Steam right now by the way, less than 4€)

Perhaps not a good game to play if you're already gloomy, but I love how this de-glorifies war quite effectively.

[Iruka]

Dabbling in Fortnite Battle Royale because hey, it's free. Died in the first minute of my first three games, survived a while in the fourth but some lady killed me with... a spike trap? Huh?

I'd really like to play it, but seems like it could keep me up all night. Don't have time for that right now. Also annoyed that I would have to register at yet another thing for games.



Have you tried Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun? It has all of this except for the upgrades, and even then it kind of has them. It also has a set of in game (not Steam) achievements that actually add to the game, setting up side goals for missions and forcing you to use more complex and unorthodox tactics, largely because almost all of them are fundamental restrictions.

Never heard of it but it looks great! Good candidate for the christmas holidays. :smallsmile:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Diablo 2: LoD. Partly out of nostalgia but mostly because it's one of the very few games I can play with a buddy after we beat the various Borderlands games.

[warty goblin]

Mostly Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands, which is one of those games that I don't get the sense most people really liked all that much. I find it a hell of a lot of fun. It manages to hit some sort of sweet spot between not having any progression, and having so much progression that I have to run the leveling treadmill. So I can go unlock stuff that I want as I feel the urge. Makes it feel much more like character customization than making a build or anything. And it keeps the combat from turning into frustrating RPG nonsense where guys in this province for some reason take 15 rounds to the face because my assault rifle isn't high enough level. So I can just putter about doing the stuff that seems fun and interesting, shooting the dudes and doing the missions. Which do a pretty good job of giving me some interesting problems to solve, and a variety of tools to solve them, without turning into the sort of 'go through the vents if you're being stealthy' level design that I hate. If I want to sneak I just, you know, sneak. And because of the very light progression that doesn't lock me into any particular playstyle, if I want to go loud, I can go loud.

Plus the map is huge and gorgeous. The game has a fast travel system, but I don't let myself use it. That just ruins games like this, and since I don't need to go sell loot all the time, there's a lot less time consuming ass-hauling than, say, Skyrim. Here if I'm going a place, I want to go there to do something cool. Plus, helicopters are just about everywhere, which is handy.

Some Destiny 2. Which is good - the shooting is amazing - but there's something so bad fan fictiony about it that I find it hard to get into, and the gear churn is sort of tedious.

I fired up Warlock: Master of the Arcane again this week. I had forgotten just how well set up that game's mechanics are, in a sort of breezy you don't even think about way. But it solves so many of the things that Civ V and VI tried, and so much more elegantly. Cities expand across the map because that's where you build all the buildings. Population matters because that's what lets you build things in a city. Location matters because of the huge number of tile-specific upgrades, most of which offer a choice between two sorts of upgrades, and some of which come with their own building trees even. Unit construction is independent of civil construction, and dependent on having specific infrastructure in specific cities. So I can't just spend a pile of gold in Snotville to assemble some high-power unit, those have to be built in major cities that have been developed specifically to produce them, It's a really clever design for getting big armies of cool stuff smashing into each other.

Damn I like this game.

[rooster707]

After digging around in my backlog for a while, I've settled on Invisible, Inc. as my "play until after Christmas, when I can buy myself something without feeling guilty" game. (I kind of ran out of steam on Thi4f... I'll come back to it eventually.) It's by Klei, the guys who did Mark of the Ninja, and like Mark of the Ninja, it is excellent. Unlike Mark of the Ninja, it is turn-based, and therefore I am terrible at it. Still having fun, though.

Also tried out the Overwatch free weekend, and now I finally see what all the fuss is about. It's definitely going on my "must play... sooner or later" list.

[Corsair14]

Stellaris, Warhammer 2 Total War, Squad Assault(? the ww2 war game).

Getting a new computer, looking forward to playing a heavily modded Skyrim and Battlefront 2: Star Wars.

Are there any games on par with Skyrim that has been released since?
Any Star Wars first person shooters with character development?

[Avilan the Grey]

Right now:
Sims 4: Vampires
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Dungeons 3

[warty goblin]

Any Star Wars first person shooters with character development?

Definitely check out Republic Commando, which has excellent characters and is a very solid shooter to boot. Maybe try out the first Battlefront 2, which has a pretty good campaign for a series of disguised bot matches. Some of the later levels are really freaking hard too.

[rooster707]

Definitely check out Republic Commando, which has excellent characters and is a very solid shooter to boot. Maybe try out the first Battlefront 2, which has a pretty good campaign for a series of disguised bot matches. Some of the later levels are really freaking hard too.

Also the Jedi Knight series, especially Outcast, although TBH the best part of that game is the lightsaber combat, not the shooting.

[Zevox]

Started up a game from my backlog - Nier: Automata.

It's like Platinum looked at Dark Souls and went "you know what would make that better? Making it more like Metal Gear Rising." Which, well, to be fair, yeah, hard to disagree with that. But at the same time, for a game that feels so much like a mix of those two, I mostly find myself wishing it was even more like MGR. I suppose getting that taste of better combat and some of the aesthetics of MGR just makes me remember how much more fun a fast-paced, exciting, pure action game like that is to me than a pseudo-open-world, slower-paced one like Dark Souls - or Nier, apparently.

Still, I finished two Dark Souls games and this seems to be a better version of that, so there's a decent chance I'll finish this one. I'll just be wishing all the RPG number-crunching elements, crafting system, and oversized maps would go away and I could get more epic boss fights set to heavy metal music while I'm doing it.

[ngilop]

Playing Age of Empires 2: HD extended edition, and am completely in love.


@winthur, Warcraft 3 frozen throne hard?

@zombimode that's a good game, lol


It took me 14, 15 years to finally beat the final mission in Total Annihilation: kingdoms I think I yelled in joy and cried at the same time. I have never played a mission that hard in my life, I was close a couple of times but ended up loosing my king/queen at losing at the very end.


Company of heroes as kinda hard too.. Commandos: Beyond the call of duty was brutal, but I'm not 100% sure whether it is just hard, or my rts playstyle is not very well supported.

[warty goblin]

I think I'm into the wrap-up phase of my game of Warlock, after my legions of crack minotaurs, lizardman spearmen (spearlizards?) and an elven archer hero who's probably the single most lethal thing in the entire world ground down another Great Mage's army and systematically laid waste to his capital. There's still two Great Mages to go, but I've got a pretty decent economy, and enough temples to start spitting out some really powerful units now. I'm rather tempted to take the core of my army on a jaunt through an other world portal, since there's some really powerful stuff you can get out of them, but we'll see. The portal's a long way from the current front line.

This is also giving an urge to try Civ 6 again. Which is probably a mistake.

[oxybe]

Currently? Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Absolutely up there as one of the best games I've played in a long, long time.

Controls are just as tight & responsive as you'd expect from an action oriented game like this. Z-targeting for blocking and dodging allows you to lessen or avoid most any attack (barring some explosions, I'm looking at you Lynels and your "I'm in close range, time for high damage AoE!"). A well-timed parry or dodge helps you get a good leg up on the enemies, often leaving them vulnerable for a flurry of blows. You do have a stamina meter that drops when you charge up an attack, run, swim, climb or glide but the default is more then serviceable and has plenty of room to grow. As for the movement itself, Link runs, swims, climbs and glides at a nice pace and even has a jump button. It's not a big jump, but it's there and it's occasionally used and nice to have around.

Visually, it's very pretty. it's a very pastel world and tranquil to look at at times, which clashes a bit with post-apocalyptic setting of the game. Yes, this is basically Fallout: Hyrule. The GBomb fell hard on Hyrule and the Hylians are scattered here and there. The Zora, Gorons, Gerudo & Rito came out of it much better then the Hylians, who were at the epicenter of it all. But with the looming threat of Ganon thrashing above the corpse of Hyrule castle, it creates a nice clash when compared to the lush greenery of the plains that's overtaken the land. Now roving bands of moblins, bokoblins and lizalfos control the land and at night horrible undead rise from the grave to assault you. Sneaking up to these monsters allows you to actually observe them go about their tasks (or lack thereof) as they huddle around a fire roasting fresh fish or meat or sleep, as a few keep a lookout for danger, or they're just being silly gooses and dance around or decide to chase a boar or something. It's a nice touch to have them do these things and make the world feel vibrant. Also it gives you time to sneak up and shank them with a greatsword for not paying attention. Yes it has stealth kills.

Sometimes things do look a bit flat or make you go "yeah, that's a low quality texture" (see: trees) but I feel it's splitting hairs: the game looks fantastic and outside of any blantantly egregious examples, complaining about visuals in modern game sounds like sour grapes to me. Then again, I was born in the Atari/NES era, so this whole 3D thing is all a bit fancy to me.

Soundwise, it has all the grunts and squeals you'd hope to hear from Link and the monsters. Weapons have a satisfying sound when they collide with enemy flesh and adds impact to Link's powerful motions. The music is something I could listen to all day long. Kakariko village's theme is such a good calming japanese-themed "background music" with it's woodwinds and shamisen creating a very "spring day" feel for the song & and many of the orchestral remixes of classic songs will punch you in the nostalgia with how well made they are.

The voice acting is... Ok. I've heard better, but the voices do fit the characters as presented and while I did feel that some of the delivery felt a bit off, I think it might be just because it's being bounced off of Link, who is still staunchly a silent protagonist, but people react as though he said something instead of just silently gazing into their soul. It's a bit weird.

Going back to gameplay, out of the tutorial area, you're given all the tools you'll be using, barring the 4 boons found by completing the 4 main "dungeons", if you will. And every Shrine you come across is basically like a pop-quiz on using these tools, helping you get accustomed to them so you'll do better in the combat portions as you become more aware of them and their use. Even the more combat oriented ones help teach you how to deal with various weapon types or how to deal with the stupid death lasers of the Guardians littered about the landscape.

One thing I wish they would have actually mentioned, is how you can actually drop and trigger the remote bombs while gliding. Seeing a gaggle of bokoblins below you and doing a bombing run and watch as they try to figure out what exactly happened is fun.

Either way the abilities are all pretty helpful, both in combat and when exploring.

The variety of weapons is pretty cool too: one-handed swords/clubs/boomerangs, two-handed swords/clubs/boomerangs, spears, bows and elemental arrows all have their uses. one-handers allow for parrying, two handers are high damage, but a whiff leaves you open, while spears/polearms give you a longer reach and ability to more safely manage and enemy's movement. Then you have your bow for ranged attacks.

Arrows, and indeed all weapon types, also come in Ice, Fire, Lighting and generally do what it says on the package, Ice freezes, Fire does damage over time and Lighting will shock (and disarm) enemies.

Ancient weapons, arrows & shields are generally best used against the Guardians, as they have better damage VS their high armour. The arrows are a standout since it can one-shot any enemy (barring guardians, which require 3-5 shots) to my knowledge, but will also destroy any loot dropped (again, barring guardian loot).

Then you have bomb arrows. These are, quite honestly, kinda broken. I say kinda as early game, you'll probably be broke and not afford them, but later when rupees get more plentiful, these are highly effective, especially when you get the bows that spit two, three or even five copies of any arrow loaded. Buy a bunch and save them for bosses.

One thing of note is that the weapons do break and many do break pretty fast, but to be honest, bombs are a good replacement for weapons in the early game VS the weaker monsters and weapons found lying around the world will respawn. The silver 2-hander you find in the Zora's Domain or the Royal Guard gear in the Castle Hyrule, for example can be farmed, to some extent. But even then, you do get some winners from the mobs: The Dragonbone Moblin Club is relatively easy to find and is a solid weapon that can help you get better ones.

But in the end, you'll never really find yourself lacking a weapon to beat a moblin over the head with, even if some break rather quickly. I was surprised to see how much I didn't actually mind this.

The various upgradeable armours are a nice surprise. I do like me some upgrade quest and outside of a few specific instances of having to need to farm, often for the fourth and final upgrades, I had most of the material on me, or very close to it. The extra boons you get on the "travel gears" make exploring Hyrule a joy. The climbing, sneaking & swimming focused ones are probably my most used armours, quickly followed by the Barbarian and Ancient armours for their damage boosting & high defense. Seeing how some NPCs react to how Link looks in some of the armours is pretty funny too.

Currently sitting at 41.27% map completion and finishing up some of the errant side quests, hunting down the Hinox & Taluses I've missed and topping off the few armour upgrades i've got left (freakin' Star Fragments... the completionist in me dislikes hunting for them due to how boring the task is nearly as much as the idea of having to find last 780 of the 900 korok seeds is daunting). Looking at my map, littered with shrine locations, monster locations, weapon locations, "stuff I want to look at later" locations... there is still so much to do.

Early game is pretty brutal too. Three hearts is not a lot of leeway when you're still learning the game mechanics, so you have to git gud (or at least adequate/scumbaggy) to progress until you get your first few heart containers and can finally breath a bit.

My only real complaint is the final boss. I don't know if I was over-geared when I accidentally blundered and stumbled my way to him by kicking down the front door and taking what looked like a side path, but boy was the fight easy. Post-fight is largely a nice cinematic sequence. It's very pretty to look at, but the difficulty is... really not there. You'll have to actively try to fail that part to actually fail. I'll blame this on a mix of a well-stocked up Bomb arrow store, a bow that threw out 3 arrows for every 1 I used and nothing to dissuade to not explode Gannon's face off with heavy ordnance.

But it didn't harm my view the game though, it's still a joy to play. The freedom to go where you want and do the dungeons in whatever order you want, or just ignore all that and go headlong into the last area of the game armed with a stick and some gumption is up to you. Hyrule is extremely pretty and it's landscapes are a joy to trot through on your horsey. I named my first one Greenbean.

Definitely a must play if you're a switch owner.

Zelda gushing aside, hopefully I'll be able to grab a copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 when the Elgado (hooray for black friday sales!) I ordered comes into the Best Buy the next few days for pickup, I'll probably be streaming my gameplay and use youtube as a backup/archive.

Also looking to pickup Monster Hunter World when it releases on PC and eventually Dragon Warrior Builders whenever that release is (Spring 2018 per nintendo's site).

[Driderman]

This is also giving an urge to try Civ 6 again. Which is probably a mistake.

Expansion coming out in Februrary so I'd probably wait until that arrives

[deuterio12]

Currently? Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Absolutely up there as one of the best games I've played in a long, long time.

Controls are just as tight & responsive as you'd expect from an action oriented game like this. Z-targeting for blocking and dodging allows you to lessen or avoid most any attack (barring some explosions, I'm looking at you Lynels and your "I'm in close range, time for high damage AoE!"). A well-timed parry or dodge helps you get a good leg up on the enemies, often leaving them vulnerable for a flurry of blows. You do have a stamina meter that drops when you charge up an attack, run, swim, climb or glide but the default is more then serviceable and has plenty of room to grow. As for the movement itself, Link runs, swims, climbs and glides at a nice pace and even has a jump button. It's not a big jump, but it's there and it's occasionally used and nice to have around.

Visually, it's very pretty. it's a very pastel world and tranquil to look at at times, which clashes a bit with post-apocalyptic setting of the game. Yes, this is basically Fallout: Hyrule. The GBomb fell hard on Hyrule and the Hylians are scattered here and there. The Zora, Gorons, Gerudo & Rito came out of it much better then the Hylians, who were at the epicenter of it all. But with the looming threat of Ganon thrashing above the corpse of Hyrule castle, it creates a nice clash when compared to the lush greenery of the plains that's overtaken the land. Now roving bands of moblins, bokoblins and lizalfos control the land and at night horrible undead rise from the grave to assault you. Sneaking up to these monsters allows you to actually observe them go about their tasks (or lack thereof) as they huddle around a fire roasting fresh fish or meat or sleep, as a few keep a lookout for danger, or they're just being silly gooses and dance around or decide to chase a boar or something. It's a nice touch to have them do these things and make the world feel vibrant. Also it gives you time to sneak up and shank them with a greatsword for not paying attention. Yes it has stealth kills.

Sometimes things do look a bit flat or make you go "yeah, that's a low quality texture" (see: trees) but I feel it's splitting hairs: the game looks fantastic and outside of any blantantly egregious examples, complaining about visuals in modern game sounds like sour grapes to me. Then again, I was born in the Atari/NES era, so this whole 3D thing is all a bit fancy to me.

Soundwise, it has all the grunts and squeals you'd hope to hear from Link and the monsters. Weapons have a satisfying sound when they collide with enemy flesh and adds impact to Link's powerful motions. The music is something I could listen to all day long. Kakariko village's theme is such a good calming japanese-themed "background music" with it's woodwinds and shamisen creating a very "spring day" feel for the song & and many of the orchestral remixes of classic songs will punch you in the nostalgia with how well made they are.

The voice acting is... Ok. I've heard better, but the voices do fit the characters as presented and while I did feel that some of the delivery felt a bit off, I think it might be just because it's being bounced off of Link, who is still staunchly a silent protagonist, but people react as though he said something instead of just silently gazing into their soul. It's a bit weird.

Going back to gameplay, out of the tutorial area, you're given all the tools you'll be using, barring the 4 boons found by completing the 4 main "dungeons", if you will. And every Shrine you come across is basically like a pop-quiz on using these tools, helping you get accustomed to them so you'll do better in the combat portions as you become more aware of them and their use. Even the more combat oriented ones help teach you how to deal with various weapon types or how to deal with the stupid death lasers of the Guardians littered about the landscape.

One thing I wish they would have actually mentioned, is how you can actually drop and trigger the remote bombs while gliding. Seeing a gaggle of bokoblins below you and doing a bombing run and watch as they try to figure out what exactly happened is fun.

Either way the abilities are all pretty helpful, both in combat and when exploring.

The variety of weapons is pretty cool too: one-handed swords/clubs/boomerangs, two-handed swords/clubs/boomerangs, spears, bows and elemental arrows all have their uses. one-handers allow for parrying, two handers are high damage, but a whiff leaves you open, while spears/polearms give you a longer reach and ability to more safely manage and enemy's movement. Then you have your bow for ranged attacks.

Arrows, and indeed all weapon types, also come in Ice, Fire, Lighting and generally do what it says on the package, Ice freezes, Fire does damage over time and Lighting will shock (and disarm) enemies.

Ancient weapons, arrows & shields are generally best used against the Guardians, as they have better damage VS their high armour. The arrows are a standout since it can one-shot any enemy (barring guardians, which require 3-5 shots) to my knowledge, but will also destroy any loot dropped (again, barring guardian loot).

Then you have bomb arrows. These are, quite honestly, kinda broken. I say kinda as early game, you'll probably be broke and not afford them, but later when rupees get more plentiful, these are highly effective, especially when you get the bows that spit two, three or even five copies of any arrow loaded. Buy a bunch and save them for bosses.

One thing of note is that the weapons do break and many do break pretty fast, but to be honest, bombs are a good replacement for weapons in the early game VS the weaker monsters and weapons found lying around the world will respawn. The silver 2-hander you find in the Zora's Domain or the Royal Guard gear in the Castle Hyrule, for example can be farmed, to some extent. But even then, you do get some winners from the mobs: The Dragonbone Moblin Club is relatively easy to find and is a solid weapon that can help you get better ones.

But in the end, you'll never really find yourself lacking a weapon to beat a moblin over the head with, even if some break rather quickly. I was surprised to see how much I didn't actually mind this.

The various upgradeable armours are a nice surprise. I do like me some upgrade quest and outside of a few specific instances of having to need to farm, often for the fourth and final upgrades, I had most of the material on me, or very close to it. The extra boons you get on the "travel gears" make exploring Hyrule a joy. The climbing, sneaking & swimming focused ones are probably my most used armours, quickly followed by the Barbarian and Ancient armours for their damage boosting & high defense. Seeing how some NPCs react to how Link looks in some of the armours is pretty funny too.

Currently sitting at 41.27% map completion and finishing up some of the errant side quests, hunting down the Hinox & Taluses I've missed and topping off the few armour upgrades i've got left (freakin' Star Fragments... the completionist in me dislikes hunting for them due to how boring the task is nearly as much as the idea of having to find last 780 of the 900 korok seeds is daunting). Looking at my map, littered with shrine locations, monster locations, weapon locations, "stuff I want to look at later" locations... there is still so much to do.

Early game is pretty brutal too. Three hearts is not a lot of leeway when you're still learning the game mechanics, so you have to git gud (or at least adequate/scumbaggy) to progress until you get your first few heart containers and can finally breath a bit.

My only real complaint is the final boss. I don't know if I was over-geared when I accidentally blundered and stumbled my way to him by kicking down the front door and taking what looked like a side path, but boy was the fight easy. Post-fight is largely a nice cinematic sequence. It's very pretty to look at, but the difficulty is... really not there. You'll have to actively try to fail that part to actually fail. I'll blame this on a mix of a well-stocked up Bomb arrow store, a bow that threw out 3 arrows for every 1 I used and nothing to dissuade to not explode Gannon's face off with heavy ordnance.

But it didn't harm my view the game though, it's still a joy to play. The freedom to go where you want and do the dungeons in whatever order you want, or just ignore all that and go headlong into the last area of the game armed with a stick and some gumption is up to you. Hyrule is extremely pretty and it's landscapes are a joy to trot through on your horsey. I named my first one Greenbean.

Definitely a must play if you're a switch owner.


I particularly enjoy the little secrets scattered accross the land. Several times I was passing through a supposed area for the nth time to stock up on something and then I found out something new.

Also yes archery's basically easy mode (that and abusing prepared food) once you can afford the fancy stuff. I guess part of the fun is going "with how little/how fast can I go beat this boss?"

[warty goblin]

Expansion coming out in Februrary so I'd probably wait until that arrives

It's not a bad idea for me to play Civ 6 because it'll eat a lot of hours. It's a bad idea because I find it a frustrating and cluttered design which mistakes constant busywork with interesting decisions. And then I'll get annoyed at myself for having thrown $50 perfectly good dollars at it, and ignoring all the evidence that I'd find it a frustrating and cluttered design.

[Knaight]

It's not a bad idea for me to play Civ 6 because it'll eat a lot of hours. It's a bad idea because I find it a frustrating and cluttered design which mistakes constant busywork with interesting decisions. And then I'll get annoyed at myself for having thrown $50 perfectly good dollars at it, and ignoring all the evidence that I'd find it a frustrating and cluttered design.

In that case, let me point out that Dominions 5 just came out and fills a similar niche - but with much less constant busywork and much more interesting decisions. It's also exactly the sort of fantasy I suspect you'd enjoy.

[Von_Derpington]

Finally downloaded The Escapists after having been meaning to forever. It's really fun so far. Strangely immersive, for a game that's this pixel art-y.

[warty goblin]

Speaking of Star Wars Battlefront, I wrapped up the singleplayer yesterday, and got in some decent hours with the multiplayer.

The singleplayer is weird, in that it alternates between these gorgeous cutscenes that add up to about 3/4 of a good story, and utterly mundane shooting levels. When I say 3/4 of a good story, I don't mean the last 1/4 is bad, so much as they just forgot to make some necessary connective tissue. Add that, and it'd probably be my favorite bit of post-Disney Star Wars (including the movies) by a country mile. The protagonist feels rather like an official fan fiction character, not because she's absurdly good at everything (that's being an FPS protagonist) but because everybody immediately considers her the coolest thing ever. This is actually more true in the within-level VO bits than the cutscenes. The shooting is a series of corridors full of dumb enemies who are extremely easy to shoot in the head. All of your special abilities are on cool down timers, which I don't mind enormously in MP since it (in theory) eliminates grenade spam. It's silly in singleplayer, because sometimes I want to spam grenades, and me doing so doesn't exactly ruin anybody else's fun. At least the mission objectives have a sense of humor.


The multiplayer is solid. The progression system remains a swollen boil, sensitive to the touch, in an otherwise solid system, but that can be mostly ignored. The more unexpected disappointment is the big forty player battles, which seem to always come down to some grind to take one last objective, which will be in one very small room. Inevitably, this room will be 90% grenade explosion by volume, and, because the attackers have limited respawns, will very likely result them losing. Even if they played a really good game up that point, and took all other objectives flawlessly. Which isn't to say that there isn't a lot of good stuff in there, because the first parts of the maps are huge and gorgeous and well designed. And there's vehicles and aircraft and special units which you get via points you earn for being good. It never quite adds up to feeling like a big battle the way original Battlefront 2 did, since the aren't usually cool things like tank duels, so much as there are occasionally tanks.

Weirdly enough then, the 10 v 10 team death match ends up feeling way better, and closer to OG BF2. Sure it can be totally obvious that team A is going to beat team B by three minutes into a match, but that's fine because you can still have a good time running around shooting battle droids in the face. Really, this is all I ask for. Battle droids to shoot.

[oxybe]

Just downloaded the backer preview for Indivisible.

Indivisible is an Action RPG made by Lab Zero games, the people behind the fantastic fighter Skullgirls.

Gameplay gimmick is that you control each of your 4 party members using the appropriate XABY face button and a directional input as their ATB-styled command pips fill up. these attacks have various uses, from single to AoE attacks, multi hits, buffs, debuffs or healing. Comboing your characters attacks together will fill up your special gauge, which is shared between the party and used for both guarding & unleashing specials, all while traversing areas in a metroidvania style platformer using weapons and abilities you unlock through play. enemies are clearly shown on the map and can be engaged at your leisure, which will cause a chrono trigger style fight, in that it uses the game's environment as the backdrop for the fight rather then a seperate area. this can mean it's also technically possible to push enemies off ledges.

Rather then being strictly european a lot of the game seems to draw a lot of level, character and monster designs from south asia. Even the lowly slime-tier mob is reminiscent of a bowl of rice with two vertical chopsitcks sticking out of it (a general faux-pas since it kinda looks like funeral incense). Then there's the flying intestine monster that spits digestive juices at you and tries to eat you (the Malaysian vampire, the Penanggalan). But you also have some characters like Vasco who's inspired by conquistador/cowboys or Naga Rider who's basically a Kamen Rider expy with a magical mortorcyle. The will boast a pretty huge cast of playable characters to mix and match your party.

The backer preview differs from the free demo in that it has a new level to traverse, 3 new characters to play around with (in addition to the ones from the free demo), some collectables that currently don't do anything in the build but will have use in the main game and some new monsters to fight.

And the dreaded reoccurence of Mike Z's (badly drawn) Cat boss.

[GloatingSwine]

I have hopes for Indivisible. Since they're unlikely to stick Valkyrie Profile 2 on the PS2 classics, it's as close as we're going to get.


Currently playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 though. Temporary break from moon collection to inhabit a gloriously bonkers world with giant cathedral cities inside of whales. It's more like the first one than X too, more varied location design, more satisfying combat which feels weightier, and plenty of meaty systems to get your teeth into.

And Yasunori Mitsuda knocking it out of the park for music.

[Drasius]

Picked up Civ VI the other day when it was on sale and while I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I feared, I'm also glad I didn't pay full price. A lot of really good ideas mixed in with a lot of unfathomably bad design choices and terrible pacing.

Factorio continues to eat up a bunch of my time after the initial "oh god it's suddenly 3 am" of the first couple of plays.

Playing through fallout 4 again as pistol/melee and going BoS and finding a bunch of new stuff that I never saw on my other playthroughs when it came out.

Will probably binge on PoE for a week or two when the new league starts in a couple of days.

[Cespenar]

Picked up Civ VI the other day when it was on sale and while I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as bad as I feared, I'm also glad I didn't pay full price. A lot of really good ideas mixed in with a lot of unfathomably bad design choices and terrible pacing.

I don't think it merits the flak it got. It was pretty playable, though admittedly my earlier exposure was vanilla Civ 5. I can understand those coming from a fully expanded Civ 5 would dislike it, but still, eh.

[Drasius]

I don't think it merits the flak it got. It was pretty playable, though admittedly my earlier exposure was vanilla Civ 5. I can understand those coming from a fully expanded Civ 5 would dislike it, but still, eh.

Don't get me wrong, there's a decent amount to like and I'm quite pleased with it for what I paid, but I would have been disappointed if I had paid full price on release as there's too many little things that are annoying. Civ has been a staple of mine from 2 all the way through to brave new world and 6 was the first time I'd waited instead of blindly buying on release, though part of that was due to their ability to screw up Alpha Centauri 2 Beyond Earth so badly.

I think there's some great ideas here, especially the idea behind the eurekas to punish severe beelining (like being able to make riflemen without knowing how to read or write for example) as well as lifting stuff like the district mechanics from other similar 4x's like Warlock and Endless Legend while putting their own twist on it, the housing/amenities feels a lot smoother and logical compared to corruption/health/happiness limiters, the cards and government slots are a nice touch that gives each one a use, dimplo has been improved and espionage feels better and the balance (after a few patches) is actually pretty reasonable, but the growing cost of various things with increased tech feels off and kills the pacing, the civilopedia is easily the worst effort of the series for actual mechanical explaination, hotkeys for basic, common actions have been removed (especially galling is the removal of the numpad movement shortcuts), most of the great people are near worthless, the wonders are mostly lacklustre for the effort required and limitations they have, the districts aren't implemented as well as they could have been (especially since the other games generally did it better), the tech pace feels too slow at the start and too fast at the end, everything hinges on the first ~50'ish turns (or equivalent for differing speeds) even more than previous games, faith seems pretty lacklustre compared to the other victories and the AI seems even worse than 5 which I didn't think was possible. Not a huge fan of the more ... cartoony I guess, though you could go with stylised if you were feeling charitable, leaders, but that's neither here nor there.

It's definately not unplayable, I'd even go so far as to say that it was enjoyable, but there's so much there that should have been spotted and fixed in beta that it feels rather rushed and just a little bit more polish would have turned a mediocre effort into a great one. Hopefully it follows tradition and gets significantly better with expansions, but at the moment, it's not bad for half price but I would have felt cheated on release.

[warty goblin]

With Civ VI, the thing I found frustrating about it was how messy everything was. It felt like every single aspect of the game had been feature-creeped most of the way to death. I figured once that, playing as Egypt, there was something like four distinct ways to build religious buildings (city, district, tile improvement, wonder). Which was ironic, because the game's mechanics argue that nothing in Pharonic Egypt actually counts as a religion. But aside from that, does this make the game any deeper? It seems to me that the interesting decision should be whether I want to make a lot of religious buildings or not, having a zillion different ways to do it is just unnecessary bloat surrounding that key concept.

But I think what's going on is that building a lot of religious buildings isn't actually the interesting choice anymore, because you choose most of how you're going to play when you choose Civ in the first place. Going religious isn't so much a strategic choice made in response to the geography or the AI, it's a playstyle you select at the beginning of the game. So the game needs to support that playstyle by giving you lots of fiddly little gubbins to play with. It's much less a strategy game, much more an RPG that happens to be played on a big map. I suspect the fiddly little gubbin proliferation is also why the AI is as horrible as it is. And also why it's such a low priority; RPGs are much more concerned with chooing which sets of numbers you're going to increase than they are about decent AI.

(Incidentally, I think very much the same thing could be said about Firaxis' XCOM; it's not really a strategy game so much as an RPG with a slightly strategic gloss. Except it's a lot more honest about it, and does a rather better job of focusing in on the major gameplay loop of making your squad even better alien murdering machines)


Which is a real pity, because I'd definitely be game for a non-bloated bit of quasi-historical strategy gaming.

[Zevox]

So, I finished Nier: Automata.

Early in the game, I thought I knew where the story was going. And boy, I could not have been more wrong if I'd tried.
I figured that the story about aliens creating the Machines was a lie used by Humans to motivate the Androids. In reality, the Machines were the first AI Humans had created, and essentially a Geth-Quarian situation had occurred, and Humanity, being stupid and not having learned their lesson, created the Androids as still more AI quasi-slaves to take Earth back from the Machines, and you'd wind up turning on the Humans by the end. It would've explained the Machines immediately appearing to be more intelligent than 9S kept indicating they should be, plus the weirdness you occasionally got from your commanders, the actually kinda creepy "For the Glory of Mankind" catchphrase they instilled in all the Androids, YoRHa units sometimes deserting, everything.

Yeah, wow, nearly the reverse was true. Gotta say, completely blindsided me there, so kudos to them on that one.

Still, I'm not sure everything about the story adds up by the end. I mean, I actually have no clue what was up with the endings - what the hell even happened in A2's? What was with the whole Ark thing, Adam and Eve still being alive, and 9S's final words in his ending? Why were the YoRHa Androids designed to fail like that - and by who, exactly, if Humanity was extinct before the aliens even invaded? And the real final ending, well, guess it's sequel bait, since it's just "we repaired everyone, maybe things won't end up the same this time," but no option to play on to a different ending, which is kind of unsatisfying, but oh well.
Still, for all that... wow, what a good game. Despite not everything about the story really working, some of those emotional beats hit hard. Especially what happened with Pascal. If only more of them weren't depressing...

Should say, I originally compared it to Dark Souls crossed with Metal Gear Rising, and I don't think that's all that true by the end. The Dark Souls similarity is largely in the need to recover stuff from your previous body when you die - and I guess in the more RPGish leveling elements and the game being more open-worldy than Platinum normally does, though the overall areas aren't as large as even a Dark Souls game all told I think, much less real open-world titles where the game areas being oversized as hell is a selling point. But what defines the game is definitely the combat, which is very distinctly Platinum's work (not as hard as Dark Souls, at least not on normal, but very good and fun), and the storytelling, which, well, actually exists and is emotionally affecting, unlike in Dark Souls. And the comparison to MGR is principally in the Platinum-style combat (which isn't MGR exclusive) and the aesthetics (I swear, the design of 2B is basically just Rule 63 Raiden). So, it's more of an action RPG by Platinum in the end, I suppose, and damn if it isn't pretty good for their first go at such a thing, ending issues or not. Second-best new game I've played all year, after Persona 5.

[Sian]

Slow-rolling my way through Europa Universalis IV (still on 1.22, and not the 1.23 which was released a month ago, since I'm still in the same campaign), poking a bit around in Rimworld (although my perfectionism-ocd keeps be from truely enjoying it since I don't want to run a kludge) and ADoM (been having an on/off relationship with that game for some 15 years), and recently gotten back into Path of Exile with the new patch/league

[warty goblin]

I find myself sort of losing patience with Battlefront 2. Mostly because the maps just feel horrendously over-designed after a while. Unless you're playing team death match (or maybe Heroes vs Villains which interests me exactly zero) they're all extremely linear, objective based slogs. One side is always attacking, one is always defending, the objectives are always the same, so it just disintegrates into grenade spam around the same damn points again and again.

What's odd is that DICE are clearly smart designers. Battlefield 1 maps don't all work this way. Hell, their 2015 Battlefront had Walker Assault, which did a brilliant job of setting up an advancing series of objectives that caused alternations of attack, defense and simultaneous assault to seize in the first place.


So for no particularly obvious reason I redownloaded Tom Clancy's The Division this afternoon. It's nice to play a co-op PVE game that's actually bloody *hard*, even on normal. Scratches sort of the same itch as Destiny 2, but feels much more like a cohesive world, at least for the story mission stuff. It helps that the environmental design does a much better job of feeling like it's actual place, and the objectives are a bit less of the 'go do glowy space magic' nonsense. Also, it's got the best damn cover shooting mechanics ever devised by humans.

[Deakins2658]

im playing amnesia and hitman

[Knaight]

Opus Magnum just left early access, and I broke my usual rule about getting games near release for it (Zachtronics gets an exception for the Spacechem like games). It's excellent.

[thirsting]

Path of Exile. I'm lost in this passive-skill jungle. Liking it a lot, except for the fact that if I want to change my build, have to start over...

---

Also, NOT playing Elder Scrolls Online, because of needing 66gb of hard drive space for the game, and THEN 80gb free space for the installer to do it's work. Wah?? Yes, my 150gb laptop hard drive feels ridiculously tiny

[Deakins2658]

Path of Exile i think it good but i don't try it and i will try it comming soon thx

[Drasius]

Path of Exile. I'm lost in this passive-skill jungle. Liking it a lot, except for the fact that if I want to change my build, have to start over...

There's a thread here in the playground for it and those of us with experience are more than willing to help provide guidance for the skill tree or anything else you might be having issues with.

As for changing build requiring starting over, that's what Regret Orbs are for, in addition to the ~24 or so respec points you get from quests.

[AlexBlade]

I am a big fun of ps4 games and I am playing Dying Light now. However, I also try to win spinning gaminators (https://affgambler.com/slots-novomatic/). Well, December is time for new experience.

[Anthony222]

I've just finished the Witcher 3 and I really liked it! Also I've recently started playing online. I tried several casino games and really enjoyed mr.bet (https://mr.bet/casino/type/table) table games, especially poker and baccarat. Does anyone like these games? It would be great to find more sites.

[rooster707]

Finished E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. I really wanted to like it, since it was vaguely reminiscent of Deus Ex, but... well, it's a broken, confusing mess. :smallsigh:

[SirJ0ey]

Well, I'm finishing my third playthrough of DS3, because I never played the Ringed City DLC, and discovering that I now kick ass at it, apparently. I beat the Nameless king on my third or fourth try, Sister Friede on my second, and the Demon Prince on my first. So that's a thing.

I'm also playing Bloodborne again because Arcane builds are fun and Bloodborne is fun, as well as Nioh.

I've been starting to play Rivals of Aether again, which for those of you who don't know is like Super Smash Bros Melee but with elemental animals instead of Nintendo characters.

And I just finished Bravely Second, the sequel to Bravely Default, which is basically a traditional Square Enix RPG but with a twist.

In addition to HP and MP, characters have an additional resource, called Brave Points(BP). At the beginning of every battle, characters start with 0 BP, and gain one per turn. Attacking or using most abilities costs 1 BP, but you can also Brave, which allows you to perform up to four actions in one turn, requiring 1 more BP per extra action, or Default, which reduces damage taken by 50% and costs no BP, so you'll start the next turn with one more BP than you had this turn. You can Brave into the negatives, but you can't act on any given turn if you start the turn with negative BP. Oh, and enemies can Brave and Default too.

Additionally, the games use a job system, which, combined with the Brave system, gives the game a bit of a 3.X feel, where you spend a lot of time coming up with broken ability combinations, so if you're the type of person who writes optimization guides, you should try them.

It has a good story, too, so that's nice.


I play games a lot, if you can't tell.

[D20ragon]

... perpetually replaying Dark Souls for the... somethingth time :smalltongue:

Simultaneously slow-rolling Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, and enjoying it (more than I enjoyed the original Dark Souls II anyway) but nothing beats Dark Souls I.

Also working my way slowly through Hollow Knight, which I'm adoring.

I got Destiny 2 to play with my friends, but I sort of bounced off of it after I'd worked my way to having all the gear I wanted, and especially after all the nonsense surrounding it these days. I'd really like to find another multiplayer shooter that I can just sink a bit of time into when I've got an hour or two. I bought and played a fair bit of Overwatch way back, but for whatever reason I sort of fell away from it after a few seasons.
I'm interested in PUBG, but I've heard a lot of bad things about it also. Rainbow 6 Siege also seems interesting, so if people have opinions about either of those games, I'd love to hear them.

[rooster707]

... perpetually replaying Dark Souls for the... somethingth time :smalltongue:

Simultaneously slow-rolling Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin, and enjoying it (more than I enjoyed the original Dark Souls II anyway) but nothing beats Dark Souls I.

Also working my way slowly through Hollow Knight, which I'm adoring.

I got Destiny 2 to play with my friends, but I sort of bounced off of it after I'd worked my way to having all the gear I wanted, and especially after all the nonsense surrounding it these days. I'd really like to find another multiplayer shooter that I can just sink a bit of time into when I've got an hour or two. I bought and played a fair bit of Overwatch way back, but for whatever reason I sort of fell away from it after a few seasons.
I'm interested in PUBG, but I've heard a lot of bad things about it also. Rainbow 6 Siege also seems interesting, so if people have opinions about either of those games, I'd love to hear them.

I've been thinking of getting into Dark Souls, but I'm waiting on the next Steam sale. Is the first one the best place to start? (Also, which is better for a complete newbie, regular II or Scholar of the First Sin?)

I don't play multiplayer shooters as much as I used to (I still haven't played Overwatch :smalleek:) but Titanfall 2 is a ton of fun. It's got a great campaign, too.

[SirJ0ey]

I've been thinking of getting into Dark Souls, but I'm waiting on the next Steam sale. Is the first one the best place to start? (Also, which is better for a complete newbie, regular II or Scholar of the First Sin?)

I'd start with 1, then 3, then SotFS if you really feel like it. There's no reason to get standard 2, it and SotFS cost the same amount (I think) and SotFS is more or less objectively better. You can start with 1 or 3, though. 1 eases you in more, but 3 is harder to get lost in and lacks some of the really annoying design quirks 1 has. Or you could just start with Bloodborne, but that requires a PS4.


but nothing beats Dark Souls I.

That's an odd way of spelling Bloodborne.

[D20ragon]

I've been thinking of getting into Dark Souls, but I'm waiting on the next Steam sale. Is the first one the best place to start? (Also, which is better for a complete newbie, regular II or Scholar of the First Sin?)

I don't play multiplayer shooters as much as I used to (I still haven't played Overwatch :smalleek:) but Titanfall 2 is a ton of fun. It's got a great campaign, too.

Start with 1 for sure, it's the epitome of the souls experience. I'd actually recommend playing SotFS because at least for me, I feel like the return to the original locations from Dark Souls 1 in Dark Souls 3 would have felt more like a return if I'd allowed SotFS to serve as an interlude. But yeah, SotFS is objectively better than standard 2. It's a lot of fun, but it feels very different to play than 1 or 3. I actually hated the feel of the movement for a solid chunk of time, but once I got used to it, it was fine. (essentially, Dark Souls 1 lets you turn on a dime and Dark Souls 2/SotFS controls a lot more like a standard action game. It's way better for PvP tho.) Anyway, if you want more advice on souls, feel free to ask.


I'd start with 1, then 3, then SotFS if you really feel like it. There's no reason to get standard 2, it and SotFS cost the same amount (I think) and SotFS is more or less objectively better. You can start with 1 or 3, though. 1 eases you in more, but 3 is harder to get lost in and lacks some of the really annoying design quirks 1 has. Or you could just start with Bloodborne, but that requires a PS4.



That's an odd way of spelling Bloodborne.

:smallredface: leave me to clip through my jagged, beautiful game in peace :smallredface:

But actually I adore Bloodborne, Dark Souls just has a special place in my heart since I played it first.

[Havelocke]

Still enjoying Persona 5, I can see why it won best RPG.

[rooster707]

Anyway, if you want more advice on souls, feel free to ask.

I'm sure I'll be back in a few weeks, crying because I can't beat the second boss or something. :smalltongue:

Right now, installing Path of Exile because what the hell, it's free. (Turns out my Steam backlog wasn't as big as I thought, and I needed something new to play until after Christmas.)

Edit: Oh boy. This is an MMO, isn't it. I promised myself I wouldn't get sucked into any more of those... but it's too late now...

[danzibr]

Nice thread idea!

Currently trying to get through...
BG:EE (played the original long ago)
Final Fantasy XV (beat the main game, doing optional stuff)
FFX (PS4 version, just started)
FFXII (PS4 version, just started)
FFXV PSN brawler game
River City Ransom Underground
Momodora (the original: beat the PSN one recently)
Tropia
Barkley Shut up and Jam Gaiden
Disgaea 5
Another PSN game whose name I can't recall (it's a horror game, doesn't do a particularly good job of it though, seems to take place in your apartment building)

[Sian]

Edit: Oh boy. This is an MMO, isn't it. I promised myself I wouldn't get sucked into any more of those... but it's too late now...

Not really ... simplistically said, its a Diablo clone with a more complex skill system and a slightly obtuse currency system

[GloatingSwine]

If you want a comically awesome but broken way to play the first Dark Souls, run through the catacombs to get the Great Scythe before you go to the Undead Burg. It's a ludicrous weapon that murders everything forever.

(Probably not on your first go though, the catacombs is not where fresh characters are supposed to go and you have to be pretty good at running away to get through)

[Lentrax]

I’m actually replaying the Pokémon series. With a randomizer.

[SilverCacaobean]

Beyond Good and Evil.

I bought it a while ago, installed it yesterday and I absolutely love it (at least as far as I've played).

What an underappreciated game. I had seen it a long time ago in a review that was extolling it but I had dismissed it. Recently I found it again, remembered it and, after finding out that virtually everyone who had played it loved it, bought it.

Everyone was praising it so much, that I was actually a bit nervous that it couldn't possibly deliver and I'd get disappointed, but not only has it been delivering so far, it also managed to be something I wasn't expecting. People usually describe it as "like zelda" and I even watched a few gameplay videos, but I still wasn't expecting what I got (in a good way). Jade also turned out more fun as a character than I thought she would.

[rooster707]

Beyond Good and Evil.

I bought it a while ago, installed it yesterday and I absolutely love it (at least as far as I've played).

What an underappreciated game. I had seen it a long time ago in a review that was extolling it but I had dismissed it. Recently I found it again, remembered it and, after finding out that virtually everyone who had played it loved it, bought it.

Everyone was praising it so much, that I was actually a bit nervous that it couldn't possibly deliver and I'd get disappointed, but not only has it been delivering so far, it also managed to be something I wasn't expecting. People usually describe it as "like zelda" and I even watched a few gameplay videos, but I still wasn't expecting what I got (in a good way). Jade also turned out more fun as a character than I thought she would.

I had pretty much the same experience earlier this year. I had gotten it for free and I figured I might as well check it out, and bam! Turned out to be one of the best games I've ever played. (Be warned, though, the stealth is utterly atrocious. And there's a lot of it. Still an amazing game, though.)

[Zevox]

That's one I never got, honestly. I played it some years ago (before I joined this forum even, IIRC) after seeing people praise it, but I remember being disappointed by it. Nothing about it stood out as particularly good, and to this day the most memorable part to me is how dumb the guards' AI is - losing track of you as soon as you round a corner, shooting a drone at a bunch of places you clearly aren't at, then turning off the energy barriers you can't pass through but they can as they head back to their posts. That part was pretty comical, actually, but I don't think that was intended.

[Yora]

Dark Souls for the third time. Just started Artorias for the first time.

[Cespenar]

Barkley Shut up and Jam Gaiden

Best writing in an old school jRPG ever.

[D20ragon]

Dark Souls for the third time. Just started Artorias for the first time.

Ach, my heart :smallfrown:

I love that storyline.

[Jama7301]

Way too much Stardew Valley. Also fired up the new Pokemon Ultra Moon for before bed, and for RPGs, I finally decided to get around to System Shock 2. I've had Persona 5 on the backburner for a long time though. Should return to that one.

[danzibr]

Just finished River City Ransom: Underground. Plot took a turn for the worst at the end, but I liked the game overall.

Now... going to resume .hack//OUTBREAK (from like 2004) and finish up BG:EE.

[rooster707]

Heat Signature, at last. It’s pretty much everything I expected it to be. (Which is a good thing.)

[Starbuck_II]

On iphone:
Duel Links
Southpark Phone Destroyer
Girls X Battle

On PS4:
Southpark Fractured But Whole.
Batman Telltale series.

[Jama7301]

Heat Signature, at last. It’s pretty much everything I expected it to be. (Which is a good thing.)

Heat Signature owns. It's a game I love to pick up and play for 10 minutes to an hour.

[Lunetec]

I just finished Pyre, and now I'm playing FFXIV. Waiting for Soul Calibur 6 + Dissidia NT.

[Kaytara]

My life right now is split between Invisible Inc. and XCOM: Enemy Within.

Both are excellent.

[Zevox]

Having gotten a Switch for the holidays, I've started playing Fire Emblem Warriors. It's pretty fun. I do wish that the roster wasn't 70% Awakening and Fates characters (the absence of Ike in particular is just weird), and that they hadn't lazily made several of them clones of each other, but I'm enjoying it nonetheless. Eager to unlock Lyn though, since she's the character I'm most looking forward to playing, but takes a while to get to.

[halfeye]

Oblivion (TES4), iL*2 Sturmovik 1946, and online (KGS) go, all on PC.

[KillingAScarab]

Currently attempting a monotype run on Pokémon Blue. Electric types only, without the legendary. Had to start this team with 5 pikachu, then grind for quick attack before the 1st gym. They are slowly being replaced as other kinds are available. Playing on Blue means I do not have access to electabuzz, so the psychic TM is useless to me (unlike when I tried a fire monotype run). I have a new appreciation for voltorb's/electrode's sonic boom.

[Jama7301]

Just picked up Yakuza 0 and played through the first hour or so of it last night. The city is claustrophobic in a way, but was lively as all get out on the first night. Should be a fun complement to the other games I've got going on.

[Antonok]

Picked up Darkest Dungeon and Final Fantasy Type-0 (both ps4) to hold me over until Monster Hunter World releases (in addition to WoW).

Only played about 20 mins of Type-0 and the controls are frustrating beyond measure. Will you just let me switch to the guy shooting me instead of trying to force me to harvest? Yeah, may not get too far into this one...

[Silfir]

I just won a game of Thea: The Awakening. Took a solid 25 hours or so - and I really only half-beat it, since there's apparently a post game with a second "Save the World" quest. Only realized that was supposed to be mandatory when the post-game victory speech ended with, paraphrased, "Oh, you didn't do that thing, and now Thea is doomed after all. Whoops."

Summarized in one, it's a post-apocalyptic fantasy turn-based strategy game. You command a small human village that has managed to survive the centuries-spanning Darkness, and now that the sun has returned, you look outward, sending expeditions to gather coveted resources and to fight undead abominations and other such nonsense. (Can't be spoiling things!)

In many ways, the game reminds me of XCOM; your villagers are individually named characters with unique skills, loosely defined by their classes. They can be equipped like RPG characters usually can, with weapons, armor, tools and magic items. There's both a strategy layer (the world map) and a tactical layer (the "challenges", which can take many forms, though "Fight" is certainly the most used).

Everything is linked together in some way. You have to gather resources to keep your villagers warm and fed, but also to craft weapons, armor and tools. Weapons and armor enable you to send out expeditions to gather resources that your village doesn't provide, either by recovering it from ruins and such, or by gathering in the wild. Crafting items is also what fuels the Research system - and advancing down the various branches of the Research tree allows you to gather more advanced resources that make even better weapons and armor, as well as craft more advanced items (since in the beginning you can only craft tools, clothing and cooked meals), and constructing more advanced buildings that in turn make your village better, which helps your villagers become stronger. The rarer and better the materials that you use in crafting non-food items (and constructing buildings), the more Research points you gain.

Combat (and other "challenges", which play out in the same way) is not straightforward to learn. The shortest way of explaining it is that it's a card game, and the villagers are your cards. All their equipment and skills and traits ultimately determine how useful of a card they are. Part of the card game is that it randomly assigns your party to "Offense" and "Tactical" zones in each encounter, because you can't always control who is involved in the fighting and who isn't. If you have physically weak characters (like a healer or a craftsman) in the Offense pile during a Fight encounter, you have to take care how to use them so they don't get clobbered; if your big, burly Warrior types end up in the "Tactical" pile they can only show up to the melee late; but if they follow the Sword-and-Board style that the class is designed for, you can also have them use Shield Ally on a vulnerable party member.

Party members like Craftsmen are quite brainy types, so if the challenge is a SOCIAL or an INTELLECT challenge they suddenly become invaluable. Similar is true for witches and sages, who excel not just at SOCIAL and INTELLECT, but also HEX, or Hunters in HUNTING and SNEAK encounters. To some degree, though, you can steer most encounters into FIGHT territory in some way, which makes Warriors probably the best, at the very least the most straightforward assets to any expedition. However, Gatherers are also quite important, since the wilderness is the only place to find all the various rare resources that are located outside the seven hexes that your village reaches. Like in XCOM, the overall threat level of the world goes up over time, so you better keep up!

Also like in XCOM, your villagers can die permanently, and it's usually a blow, since you don't have many of them and can't be easily replaced. They don't die instantly upon going to 0 HP, but you better make camp immediately and hope they don't fail their saving throw.

Even food has interplays not just with the Crafting system (you can "craft" Cooked Meals out of basic ingredients) but also the strategy map and encounter system; a party that has access to a wide variety of foods gets various stat bonuses, chief among them bonuses to movement that allows it to travel faster. "Crafting" food (cooking, roasting, baking) also stretches your food stores; two units of Meat and two units of Herbs combine for eight units of Meat Stew. The food is Slavic themed, as are the names of the villagers, and the overall setting for that matter.

The game is extremely confident in its own replayability, since it locks a number of available Gods for you to play until you've reached level 3 with one God (which roughly equates to winning the game one time). I was ambivalent about that at first and I still am, but at the very least I do get the feeling I want to play it again. The map is procedurally generated, so you have no idea, really, which of the resources are easily available, and which research paths to pursue. You have to find out!



Well, that's the gist of it. The game is actually on 50% sale at this very moment. I wager that if you got to the end of this post, you'll either have a pretty good idea of whether you might like the game, or a very strong opinion on how I've been deliberately wasting your time. Either way, here's to a lovely 2018!

[Kail11]

Darkfall New Dawn is a pretty solid MMO im playing beta of. Launches in a couple of weeks.

remake of DFO / DFUW if anyone played those?

[Drasius]

Darkfall New Dawn is a pretty solid MMO im playing beta of. Launches in a couple of weeks.

remake of DFO / DFUW if anyone played those?

I remember DFO being decent enough. Might have to have a squizz once it comes out. Cheers for the heads up.

[KillingAScarab]

Only played about 20 mins of Type-0 and the controls are frustrating beyond measure. Will you just let me switch to the guy shooting me instead of trying to force me to harvest? Yeah, may not get too far into this one...The story looked pretty interesting for Final Fantasy Type-0, from what I caught of a "Let's Play" of it. Looked surprisingly good for a PSP game, too. There were some mechanics which were being exploited to to breeze through most of the game. I also think Nine might have Snow beat as my least favorite Final Fantasy character, but I did appreciate that Queen and others would call him on it.

[Zevox]

So, I'm continuing to play Fire Emblem Warriors - completed the story mode, went into History Mode and started unlocking the remaining characters, including Lyn. I was a little worried, given the clone characters, that they might have gotten lazy and given her one of the other swordfighters' moves, but I'm very pleased to see that's not the case. She's every bit as awesome as I could've asked for, probably the fastest unmounted character in the game. I love the integration of the after-image duplicates of her that her original game used to indicate her speed during crits, it's a lot of fun seeing some of her moves show opponents getting cut up by three or four of her at once.

Though actually, it's got me thinking, it's pretty strange what the developers chose to get lazy on as far as clone characters go. The majority of the game's roster is sword-wielding characters, but almost none of them are clones - just Lucina taking Chrom's moves, and the two original characters nobody cares about being identical. And male and female Corrin, but they're literally the same character, so that makes sense. (Don't know if Celica or Anna are clones, I haven't unlocked them yet.) Meanwhile, the only spear-users in the game are three Pegasus Knights who all share the same moves, the only two archers are identical despite one of them originally being primarily a healer, and the mounted mage and mounted healer also share all the same moves. The only variation within a weapon set outside of the sword-wielders is among the three axe-wielders, but there one is on foot, one on horseback, and one is a Wyvern-rider who also uses magic, so they kind of had to be.

It's just weird - they can come up with so many different ways for characters to swing swords, but don't bother to do the same for most other weapon types.

[tonberrian]

Got a switch for Christmas, am stuck collecting Moons in Odyssey. I also started up a game of XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, but then I realized I had made a wrong choice during game start (integrating the other DLC means I miss out on the special missions which I haven't done yet) and then my laptop died, so I'm going to start that over when I get the chance. I also got Mario + Rabbids, but aside from starting it I'm focusing on Odyssey for now.

[enderlord99]

I'm not playing a game; I'm posting on a forum! :smalltongue:

[Bohandas]

Pit People, a wacky cartoony turn based rpg about a man whose son gets kidnapped by an enormous space-bear trickster god.

[thirsting]

Puzzles and Empires. Android game. Very light city builder and resource gathering, with a "connect three or more tiles to attack" style combat. It sounded really dumb, but is actually pretty fun to play. Glad I tried in the end.

I wish they wouldn't call these RPGs though. Story is really simplistic, and you can't affect anything or make any meaningful decisions. So there is no roleplaying here. Sure, you can level up minions, but that's it. They just gain bigger numbers, not even new abilities. (Except in chat! I've seen people rp a lot in chat, and there seems to be a lot of people playing, so if that's your thing...).

Playing for free aspect seems pretty fair, and is entirely possible all the way to end game, as far as I can tell.

4/5 so far

[KillingAScarab]

I'm not playing a game; I'm posting on a forum! :smalltongue:Interesting. The only winning move is not to play.


I wish they wouldn't call these RPGs though. Story is really simplistic, and you can't affect anything or make any meaningful decisions. So there is no roleplaying here. Sure, you can level up minions, but that's it. They just gain bigger numbers, not even new abilities. (Except in chat! I've seen people rp a lot in chat, and there seems to be a lot of people playing, so if that's your thing...).Having chat RP sounds deeper than Dragon Quest (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ButThouMust) to me.

[Cespenar]

I'm trying Vaporum. It isn't on the Legend of Grimrock 2 level by any stretch, but it's playable. The lack of riddles is a pretty hard disadvantage, though.

[NRSASD]

Just finished The Sexy Brutale, which was a good puzzle game based around a mansion full of murder. Didn't quite live up to its potential, but it was still very fun and had a very enjoyable plot.

Now I'm getting sucked into Ark. Send help! (or metal, either or)

As an aside, take a look at Subnautica if you get the chance. You'll never find a more beautiful and enjoyable way to develop crippling thalassaphobia.

[Spacewolf]

Heat Signature owns. It's a game I love to pick up and play for 10 minutes to an hour.

Glad I read this topic and checked this game out while it can be annoying it's also one of those games that just gives you great stories.

[Jama7301]

When I've been able to use the sole TV in my apartment, I've been engrossed in Yakuaza 0. Otherwise, I've been playing Steamworld Dig 2 on the Switch, and Axiom Verge on PC (that is, until the Windows update broke my graphics card drivers again).

[warty goblin]

Got back from break, so I can dig into the holiday sale loot.

Mafia III: Apparently if you want to make a well written game these days, you wrap it in mediocre open world third person cover shooter. Because this is a well written game wrapped in a mediocre open world third person cover shooter. The cover mechanics are tolerable, the guns are satisfyingly loud and deadly but pleasingly inaccurate, the AI understand what a flanking maneuver is, but mechanically this is just sort of there. Which is fine, the character stuff is right on, the voice acting is crazy good, and the setting so utterly novel for a videogame that I'm quite interested in getting some serious playtime in. Which, given my schedule this semester, will probably happen in about June.

Elex: Oh look, it's another Piranha Bytes Euro-RPG jankfest. Fortunately I love me some jank in games, it's so much more interesting when the entire game feels like the wheels could come off at any point. The environmental design is great, you get a jetpack right off the bat, the melee combat is decent enough to work but not complex enough to seem to require much thought, which is perfect for a game like this. The world takes a refreshingly dim view of the protagonist, who is also a tremendous jerk. Plus the setting feels cool and fresh, insofar as anything that feels like Leigh Brackett could have written it feels fresh. But it's unusual for games, so fresh for my purposes, and besides, 'feels like Leigh Brackett could have written it' is about the highest praise I can think of for this sort of thing.

Codex of Victory Take a simplified take on XCOM's overworld, but replace the tactical portion with a turn based strategy game that draws heavily on the old Massive Assault titles. That is, it's based on a very precisely defined set of units mostly distinguished not by special abilities or funky ways to break the rules, but by what stat they maximize out of a set of about five. So you've got your cheap cannon fodder thing (low cost), your tank (high durability), your artillery (long range, built of the finest military-spec tissue paper), and so on. The economy is both clever and ridiculously simple, with the same currency used to deploy and move units, and more only gained by seizing particular points on the map. It's not exactly great, but it's so right in my wheelhouse that I sort of love it, and the immensely refreshing emphasis on basic unit statistics instead of special ability gimmicks to drive the strategy feels downright revolutionary in this day and age.

[YangerDanger]

Playing Dead Cells and BOTW Master Mode.
Dead Cells is a "rogue-vania" sidescroller with permanent upgrades. You kill lots of enemies, fight bosses, collect runes to unlock levels, and find new weapons. It is a lot of fun, though recent updates have had an incredibly high barrier of entry. Boss cells are really fun to play with though.

You know what Breath of The Wild is so I won't describe it. BOTW Master Mode has really refreshing difficulty. I find myself using lots of combat tactics don't use in normal mode, such as cutting down watchposts, shooting an arrow to distract an enemy, running them down with my horse, and dropping chuchu jelly so I can explode it.

[rooster707]

Just started Dark Souls! I’m nowhere near as terrible at it as I was expecting. (Whether I’m actually good enough to finish it is another matter. We’ll see.)

[danzibr]

Just got obsessed with Plague Inc. Darn fungus.

[Seharvepernfan]

underrail

indie diamond in the rough; might be my favorite game now

[Zevox]

This weekend is the open beta for Dragon Ball FighterZ (PS4 and X-Box One only though, PC version not included for some reason), so I've started playing a little of that this morning. So far, having a good time. Since there's no training mode it takes a few matches of getting your butt kicked before you learn enough with whoever you're playing to really put up a fight, but it's worth it. Such a fun, satisfying fighting game. I've been running a team of Vegeta, Android 18, and Freeza so far - I figured I would probably play around with a few others before the beta is done, but without training mode it feels like I'll need lots of matches to try things with any given characters, so maybe I won't get to anyone else.

(One side note, the beta is only fully open to public tomorrow [Sunday], today is for people who pre-ordered only. Odd choice on their part, but there it is.)

[Bohandas]

A Hat In Time, a retro-90's style* cartoony 3d platformer, which I'm really liking so far


*like, it kind of reminds me of Super Mario 64**, Gex: Enter the Gecko, and Ratchet and Clank 1

**Complete with unlockable magic hats

[Zevox]

A Hat In Time, a retro-90's style* cartoony 3d platformer, which I'm really liking so far


*like, it kind of reminds me of Super Mario 64**, Gex: Enter the Gecko, and Ratchet and Clank 1

**Complete with unlockable magic hats
It was inspired by Banjo-Kazooie, so yep, reminding you of other 3D platformers of that era makes sense.

I keep forgetting about that one. I need to pick it up now that the console versions are out.

[Bastian Weaver]

Faster Than Light, trying to unlock all the ships; Cuphead (why does it have to be so hard?!); Quest for Glory (best games ever).

[Demica Fatali]

Depending on what kind of game you mean, here are my answers:

CARD/BOARD GAMES - Lords of Waterdeep, Zombicide, Resident Evil
MMOs - Final Fantasy 14 & World of Warcraft
VIDEO GAMES - Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (currently doing the Champion's Ballad)
TABLETOPS - Whitewolf (Werewolf the Apocolypse, 2nd Ed)
ONLINE - Chronicles of Aether, Outbreak, Shadows of the Emerald City & City of Crosses

[Honest Tiefling]

Started playing Titanquest. It's not the most historically accurate thing but its still amusing. Graphics have held up nicely for the era, I think.

[Zevox]

Just got through the last day of the Dragon Ball FighterZ beta, and despite the servers being down basically all of Sunday, damn, did I love it. Even without training mode to figure out anything beyond the basics, just jumping in and playing matches with simple combos and setups was so damn satisfying and fun. I cannot wait for it to officially release a week and a half from now. Definitely starting with a team of 18/Vegeta/Freeza (18 with Vegeta's assist can get some great pressure going, and Freeza seems to be a strong anchor with Sparking Blast + Golden Freeza to supercharge him at the end), though I'll need to try some characters that weren't in the beta out too. And maybe take to the lab with some of the others that were - I kind of feel like I could like Beerus and Kid Buu, but they had enough oddities to them that it was hard to get the hang of them in the middle of real matches.

Regardless though, had a blast, can't wait. It's probably going to be hard for any games that come out later this year to top this one with me.

[Derjuin]

Currently playing Freedom Planet after finding someone playing it on a youtube channel. Holy crap I love this game and almost everything about it.

[SaintRidley]

Just bought Axiom Verge for the Switch. It's real fun, and real challenging.

[Leecros]

I've been hitting Creeper World 3 hard lately and trying to get a bunch of the achievements in it(some of them are really obnoxious to get).


For those unfamiliar, Creeper World 3 is an RTS where you have to build up a base and defend against a dangerous goo-like liquid called "creeper". It's surprisingly simple yet enjoyable and has sort of a cult indie following.

The creator of the game(Which I believe is one person) also releases a free version online which tends to be like a prequel for the actual game that doubles as a nice little demo. They're actually really good in their own right...Albeit a little short for obvious reasons(they're demos)
Creeper World (https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld/playcwts.php) (There's also another one Creeper World:Evermore (https://www.kongregate.com/games/whiteboardwar/creeper-world-evermore) that has a new procedural map every day)
Creeper World 2 (https://www.kongregate.com/games/whiteboardwar/creeper-world-2-academy)
Creeper World 3 (http://www.kongregate.com/games/whiteboardwar/creeper-world-3-abraxis)


(Also he's making a fourth one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf7FxdDt8do))

[warty goblin]

Got in some more time with Mafia III and Elex this weekend.

I like Mafia III, I just wish it wasn't so much of an open world game. I mean it's kinda cool getting to drive around and take in the sights, but the driving is sort of bad. Not terrible, but it's not particularly great, and there's way too much of it. Fast travel may become a necessity here, even though I usually avoid fast travel like the plague, because it just totally destroys any sense of place.

Elex is good, and clearly requires some time and commitment. I don't have either of those for a game right now unfortunately.

[Knaight]

I've peen replaying Hollow Knight, largely for the new Grimm Troupe content. The final boss of which is ridiculous.

[Jama7301]

FIFA 18 is my go to relaxing game, when I'm mentally dead and unable to enjoy Yakuza 0. Recently fired up Pokemon Ultra Moon to play in bed, along with Picross 3D 2.

[Deakins2658]

im playing Darksiders II and WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY

[salvadortorres]

greatreplaying Hollow Knight, largely for the new Grimm Troupe content. The final boss of which is ridiculous.

[oxybe]

Largely done with BotW's core game: I've got all the armours you can find upgraded, all Talos destroyed, all Hinox slain and all Molduga wiped clean. I've restored my memories, got all the dungeons completed and cleared every shrine. Still missing like 600 korok seeds though. Gonna let this hot one cool down before I buy the pass and go another round with Hyrule.

Mario Odyssey is on the backburner for now. I've got the Darker Side of the Moon left to complete then it's running cleanup in the various kingdoms to top off my moon count, so I'm saving it for when I'm tired or angry or in a bad mood and I just want some nice, happy cheerful platforming to do, with Jump Up Superstar blaring in the background (why more games don't have a jukebox mode like this still boggles me, it's a neat postgame feature).

Played the Dragon Warrior Builder demo. Oh gods it's Minecraft but with Dragon Warrior aesthetics. Unlike Minecraft, if you kill the dragon you get a Couch your DerDragonwarrior can sit on in his dirt hovel instead of a weird ending no one really understands. Also: Killing a Green Dragon with a wooden club is a long task and I accidentally built an apartment made of dirt in the starter town and walled it off. As I heard this game features farming of some sort, it will probably be my crack.

I've been playing Mobius Final Fantasy in between my proper gaming since... what August? I was a day one player, but my poor phone couldn't handle it and kept crashing. When Squeenix emailed me about the anniversary it had a steam download version which I installed. The game kept my attention but a mix of "well what now?" single player endgame, Multiplayer being a joke thanks to how common it is to have a Supreme Card user (be they new players or rerollers) drop into your party and kill the boss before you can even act (thus turning MP into a funless material grind) and the Tower challenges are riddled with hackers dominating the leaderboards. It's still very much an OK time waster though and the massive volume of sass the MC has can be really funny at times, especially when NPCs are trying to rush him towards the ever prominent prophesy... which while he'll agree to do it, he is determined to get to it at his own pace, NPCs be darned.

Finally, I am currently enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which is impossible to stock in my city. Best Buy, EBGames (Canada's Gamestop) and even The Source cannot hold any copies since pre-Christmas, so I had to make use of that SD card I bought for the Switch and buy it from the online store. 13GB download. Still in the early game, chapter 2, largely due to me just mucking about with the game and seeing what I can do. But it's a game that's scratching the JRPG itch i've had for a while now, hilarious voice acting and all. Still trying to get a hang of the various mechanics in the game, but the party seems to be rather customizable early on and will only grow as the game progresses. Also the pathing in this game is hilarious at times, with Pyra just jumping off the edge of the world repeatedly.

[GloatingSwine]

Current rotation is Demons Souls, Forza 7, Fire Emblem Warriors, and Nier Automata.

In no particular order depending on what I feel like.

[KillingAScarab]

My Pokémon Generation I electric monotype challenge is complete. I have never used sonicboom and seismic toss so much in my entire life. Going to fool around with HeartGold.


Played the Dragon Warrior Builder demo. Oh gods it's Minecraft but with Dragon Warrior aesthetics. Unlike Minecraft, if you kill the dragon you get a Couch your DerDragonwarrior can sit on in his dirt hovel instead of a weird ending no one really understands. Also: Killing a Green Dragon with a wooden club is a long task and I accidentally built an apartment made of dirt in the starter town and walled it off. As I heard this game features farming of some sort, it will probably be my crack.
...
Finally, I am currently enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles 2, which is impossible to stock in my city. Best Buy, EBGames (Canada's Gamestop) and even The Source cannot hold any copies since pre-Christmas, so I had to make use of that SD card I bought for the Switch and buy it from the online store.I will see your invoking of DerDragonwarrior and raise you a question: does your EBGames have TurboGrafx games (http://www.hrwiki.org/wiki/Teen_Girl_Squad_Issue_9#Real-World_References)?

[Silverraptor]

I'm playing a variety of games.

Main focus is Wargame: Red Dragon, mainly for my youtube channel. I also do Planetside 2 on the weekends with the outfit I joined (Also record the sessions for editing later). I use to play a lot of stellaris but I've stopped for now since they are going to massively revamp the entire game and I'm just waiting for when they do. I've moved on a bit to Oxygen Not Included and currently testing the strategies for the optimal build. Play a bit of Heroes and Overwatch and even less Steel Division since I just got it. Also looking into They Are Billions as a fun game if I can squeeze in here and there.

As you probably come to the correct conclusion, I play a lot of games.:smallbiggrin:

[Yora]

I now got 100% in Dark Souls. Still not decided if I do Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 now. :smallbiggrin:

[D20ragon]

I now got 100% in Dark Souls. Still not decided if I do Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 now. :smallbiggrin:

Go for bloodborne! Dark Souls 3 is more fun after a brief hiatus from Dark Souls, I feel. Makes returning to environs seem more special.

[Zevox]

So, waiting for DBFZ to come out next Friday, I've been itching to play fighting games. So I hopped into Street Fighter 5, since it just had its big "Arcade Edition" update.

Well, I'll give it this: they finally got this game to where it should have been at launch (though it's doubtful many people outside the hardcore fans much care two years after the game came out). The single-player modes most people wanted are finally all there, the roster is a lot bigger (although those of us that bought it at launch don't have most of them unless you played enough or paid for the DLC...), everything looks and, in some cases, works better. A casual fan would actually not be disappointed picking up the game in its current state, particularly since buying Arcade Edition itself new (rather than having the launch edition and getting the free AE update) gives you the first twelve DLC characters on top of the original roster. They've even got a free trial period for the first of the new season of DLC characters going, which is something I haven't seen any fighting game do before that I think is actually a very good idea - give people the chance to try out DLC characters and see if they like them, rather than having to buy them blind, or at most having seen others play them. That's a very rare case where I can honestly say I hope other fighting game developers learn from Capcom.

Unfortunately, it's not doing much for me in this case. That new trial DLC character happens to be my main from SF4, Sakura - but getting to try her, I find that they've changed basically everything about her that I used to like. Her lk and ex shippuga and how they shaped her pressure and combo game being chief among them. I honestly don't find I want to play this version of her. Which leaves me going back to the characters I've been playing since the game came out, which is... eh.

Thinking maybe I should pull out BlazBlue: Central Fiction instead. That'll have more in common with DBFZ than Street Fighter does anyway - and considering the BS they're pulling with BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle has made me decide to pass on that, it might be a long time before I get another BlazBlue game to actually play.

[oxybe]

God I wish my PC was not a years old Frankenstein'd monster so I could play Fighter Z when it comes out in steam, as well as the eventual Monster Hunter World PC release.

I seriously need to get around to building a cheapish gaming pc.

Heck a BestBuy premade would probably run laps around my clunker.

[The Aboleth]

I finished Assassin's Creed: Origins on PS4 a couple weeks ago, now I'm waiting for the DLC to drop. I love the AC series and I think Origins might be my favorite of them all (though Black Flag was amazing and its story ending is much better).

I bought Bloodborne during the holiday sale, so that'll probably be my next major game. I've never played any of the Dark Souls games before so I'm a little worried about jumping into Bloodborne cold turkey, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it quickly enough.

I also keep returning to the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane trilogy, because those games are SO FUN and give me warm and fuzzy nostalgia vibes.

[Avilan the Grey]

Splitting my time now between Sims 4 and Overwatch.

[Grey Watcher]

Recently got around to finishing Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Twenty something years later I finally found out what happens in the game between that damn plant puzzle and the final battle at the Fortress of Doom.

I went on to run through Lufia: The Legend Returns.

While Lufia 3's combat system is neat and Lufia 2 has some really enjoyable game play (if you ignore various bugs and other signs the game was apparently WELL behind schedule), the original really is the best in terms of storytelling.

Lufia 2 has lots of fun dialogue, but honestly the plot is kinda jumbled and turned what was a really well-done plot twist into a series staple, which Lufia 3 dutifully runs with.[/RANT]

[Jama7301]

I finished Steamworld Dig 2 last night. Made it a lot harder on myself though. Spent the last dozen or so time against the final boss dying repeatedly. Decided I needed to grind for more upgrades, and was clearing rooms I skipped towards the end. Found one that I had skipped because i had thought "Eh, I have enough upgrade stuff right now", and found it had an armor upgrade in it.

Audibly called myself an idiot.

Beat boss on next attempt.

[warty goblin]

I've had approximately zero time to really game this week, in the sense of anything that requires me to pay attention. So it's back to Crimsonland

Crimsonland is just a perfect game, particularly in Survival mode. Plus I got a high score that cracked the top 1,000 for Survival last night, which is a personal best. Using the Ion Cannon of all things, which I usually consider a second tier gun at best.

[NRSASD]

Recently picked up Thea: The Awakening and have been having a wonderful time. One part civ, one part oregon trail of all things, set in a world full of Slavic Mythos. You're trying to restore the world to its former glory (or not, your call) by adventuring out into the wastes and bringing back useable resources for your city. Very fun, very lovely art, highly recommended.

Also, Subnautica just got its full release. Time to fall-in-love/be-terrified by the beauties and horrors of Planet 4546B all over again.

[NeoVid]

I've mostly been playing Crossout, since making your own Mad Max car is fun, and Secret World Legends, since my group in that game is still active so we just keep upgrading our gear while waiting for the next part of the storyline to be released.

I also intend to force myself to stop playing Shadow Of War after I finish this playthrough. I hope I can make myself put the game down until after the DLC come out, so I'll get around to playing something new in the meantime.

[Jama7301]

I finished Yakuza 0 last night, and boy, was that chock-o-block full of tension and dramatic irony. One of the few games I may try to do a new game plus.

[Lord Raziere]

I'm playing Dragonball FighterZ. My current team is Freeza/Goku Black/Hit. this is like,the first fighting game I've ever played, so I'm trying for a rushdown team since I like being fast and furious. its really fun even if I think I lose more often than I win.....

[Alent]

I've been having some fun with gaming as of late.

Still working off and on on my Final Fantasy 3 save, I'm coming closer to finally beating the game. Three Onion Swords so far, just down to missing a single piece of Onion Gear and coming up with a workaround since one of my characters probably isn't going to hit 9999 HP. Kinda mixed feelings on that, probably going to savegame hack him up because the 3D remake is really bad about screwing the party on action economy. (I also really want to beat the Steel Giant, and that thing is just brutal.)

Another game I started on that's been tons of fun lately is Sky Rogue. I got it a steam sale or two back, finally decided to dust it off and give it a go... So glad I did, it reminds me of the old low poly flatshaded 3D games. Still trying to get the hang of the game, some dogfights are incredibly unforgiving. (Too many aces and vets in a swarm of enemy fighters and it's all I can do to dodge them.) I really like how there seems to be no "perfect loadout", at least not that I've found so far.

I've been streaming games to some friends lately, too. I started off with the WSC remake of Final Fantasy Legend, currently going through an obscure JRPG called Eternal Filena. It's actually tons of fun in that "so campy it's awesome" sort of way, and has quite an interesting battle system. Recently I added in the D&D arcade game to my lineup and that's been tons of fun- Last time I grabbed my friends for online co-op and voice chat, to get that classic arcade experience going. The next one of those is tomorrow (Sunday) at 3pm Central time (9 UTC) on my twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/nedludonarrative), it should be funny to watch a bunch of amateurs who suck at arcade games flop around in Shadow over Mystara. :smalltongue:

I'm probably going to fire up Hollow Knight once I run out of things to do in Sky Rogue. I still need to play more Dead Cells, too, but I'm saving it for streaming misadventures later on once I finish the current JRPG.

I also ordered myself an SD2SNES cart recently, waiting on that to get built and shipped. I am seriously looking forward to playing ROM translations/Difficulty hacks on real SNES hardware. :smallbiggrin:

[Ankheg]

Doing campaigns in Batman Origins and City from time to time. Trying to gather all items in Darksiders I, II, as well.

[Starbuck_II]

Replaying D&D Tactics. I had to start over due to memory got corrupted.

I forgot how big a story it becomes over time. Still unsure, should I help the elves or the humans right now.

[rooster707]

Finished Dark Souls! It was a lot of fun - not quite as brutal as I was expecting, but just challenging enough to be extremely satisfying.

Going to start Torment: Tides of Numenera tomorrow. I absolutely loved Planescape: Torment when I played it last year, so I think this’ll be my kind of thing.

[ScrambledBrains]

I've been bouncing between Overwatch and Minecraft lately(both on PS4. Yeah, I'm a console peasant and damn proud of it. :smallwink:). Been enjoying the Minecraft, especially since I've gotten a couple major projects done recently. That said, Overwatch is still been pretty fun too, although realizing how bad my aim is some days makes me glad I stick with simpler heroes for the most part.

Also been considering purchasing Dead By Daylight. Seems like an interesting game and despite my inbuilt hesitance to being scared, I think I could have a lot of fun being the Killer. :smalltongue:

[Sian]

gone back poking around with EU4, for the gazillionth time, finally trying to get around finishing the campaign that i started two patches ago

[Kato]

Recently got around to finishing Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Twenty something years later I finally found out what happens in the game between that damn plant puzzle and the final battle at the Fortress of Doom.


Oh man, I love that game. Part of it is likely nostalgia but it's still among my favorite games, period. I wish Lufia 3 and "4" were a bit better than they happened to be, then we might have gotten more sequels...


I got my last achievement in Factorio, so I might be done with that now.. Unless I go for a game just for fun next.
Otherwise I started to finally play Twilight Princess, two hours or so into the game.. It's not bad but.. I'm not really hooked. At this point I will only finish it for completion's sake. Which is what I keep telling myself about Majora's Mask for literally years...
Or I'll see if I can find something totally different to pick up, either really old or something new and quick.

[Starwulf]

Currently playing Civ VI and Stardew Valley. Enjoying both quite a bit, but am a bit frustrated with so many missed opportunities in Stardew, so much stuff I've found out that the devs put in the code, but not the actual code, plus other stuff that would have been minor to add in, but huge improvements over-all. Civ VI of course is great, wishing I had the money for the upcoming expansion, wondering if it will come with all the DLC(there is a massive amount, like 6-8 packs, but each are like $5-$9) or not. If it does, maybe I'll be able to snag it during the summer steam sale, or the winter sale.

[danzibr]

Finally beat Shut up and Jam Gaiden. It's only like a 6 hour game but I get little game time. Absolutely recommended.

I have a gaming triage going. Very close to beating BG:EE. Also done with FFXV except for the post-game content. Also mostly done with .hack//OUTBREAK (my PS2 won't start it reliably though). Maybe halfway through Disgaea 5. Just started The Way. Then there's a few other I barely started or just purchased (looking forward to Hollow Knight in particular).

EDIT: Oh right, also Kingdom Hearts (KHFM on the PS4 compilation btw, nearly done). Playing that one with my wife.

[Friv]

I'm about halfway (well, technically I am exactly halfway) through NieR at the moment. Aside from some deep grumpiness about how the gardening mini-game wants to force me to play literally every day, I am enjoying it immensely.

[JBPuffin]

Cracking down on Terraria (+Tremor mod) - just got into mythril today. Other games I have active saves on include Monster Hunter 4, Fire Emblem Fates (Awakening), Pokemon Insurgence, and Getting Over It.

[Avilan the Grey]

Found a good blind lets play of Mass Effect. I will try to squeeze that in too. WAY too long since I went through a full trilogy playthrough.

[GloatingSwine]

I'm about halfway (well, technically I am exactly halfway) through NieR at the moment. Aside from some deep grumpiness about how the gardening mini-game wants to force me to play literally every day, I am enjoying it immensely.

Being "halfway" through Nier is a trickier thing to define than you may initially think. Sure, there's a point that looks like it's halfway, but you have to do the second "half" four times for all the endings and at least twice to understand what is going on (there are story segments that aren't there first time which let you know what was really going on). Sidequests are saved between them though, but endings C and D need you to max out all the weapons which is a hell of a grind. Also do ending D last.


(Although it's not like you even get to understand what the hell is going on and why without reading the supplemental fan book that only came out in Japanese, because Yoko Taro.)

[Silverraptor]

Playing Subnautica now that it's fully released. It's going a lot faster then it normally would've. Going to attribute that to watching Markiplier play it for so long.:smallbiggrin:

[Zombimode]

Currently on Avernum 2: Crystal Souls. That's... a very long game. But the end is near. Just the last steps for all of the three main quests are left to be done. The game will probably not survive the Weekend.

A good time to think about what to play next.

I've recently aquired some Gold Box classics (Pool of Radiance etc.) and there is also Fallout Tactics on my plate. But after three weeks of Avernum 2 I think a need a break from Turn Based Combat. And maybe RPGs in general.


The Homeworld series has recently catched my interest.
But there is also Outcast (Remastered). Since I've never played the original this seems like a good opportunity.


But if I DO stay in RPGs Venetica seem like a game for me.


So many options...

[Cespenar]

Currently on Avernum 2: Crystal Souls. That's... a very long game. But the end is near. Just the last steps for all of the three main quests are left to be done. The game will probably not survive the Weekend.

Damn, I never finished an Exile or Avernum myself. You go man. :smalltongue:

[Ebon_Drake]

I've been playing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC for the first time. I'd avoided it after the launch debacle and also the negative reviews about the Batmobile sections. The price dropped low enough before Christmas that I figured I may as well take a punt on it.

I'm at about 30% completion so far and have had no real major bugs, so it seems stable enough these days. It is an absolute beast to run though, I've had to turn everything down way low to get a framerate that doesn't feel like I'm wading through treacle. My PC is a few years old now so no longer top-of-the-line, but I was able to run the reasonably comparable Rise of the Tomb Raider on medium settings with little trouble so I'm not sure to what extent the issues are with my rig being lower spec or are still the general issues people were having with the game since it launched. Still, it works well enough to get by.

As for the game itself, the Batman parts are all good. It also feels packed full of content, which was my main criticism of Arkham Origins. The main story hasn't really engaged me all that much (I'm at the point where I'm following the Arkham Knight's trail into a tunnel) but I'm more interested in following it through enough to unlock everything and then just messing around with sidequests. So far I've found the Riddler's questline to be much more interesting than the main plot. It's funny that they've continued to play Riddler thinking that he's Batman's greatest nemesis as a joke when I would have actually quite liked him to be the main villain here instead of the one-note Scarecrow and the spectacularly uninteresting Arkham Knight.

Driving around in the Batmobile is generally fun enough, but it's disappointing how destructive it is - especially since I'm a terrible driver! There's no way you can argue that Bats isn't killing people when your tank is getting into head-on collisions with other cars that turn them into flaming wrecks. I guess the answer to that is "don't get into collisions with the non-drone cars"? It does annoy me how involved the Batmobile is in puzzles, and the game also stretches the Arkham series' already tenuous grasp of the concept of "riddle" to breaking point by having it include "go around a racetrack really fast". Lastly, the tank combat sections are as horrid as everyone had said. It's not so much that they're hard, they're just tedious and unnecessary. They annoy me to the point that I've focused my upgrades on maxing out the Batmobile to make them as short and easy as possible. I'd be much happier if the Batmobile was purely for getting from A to B, with the occasional race/pursuit section.

As for DLC, I enjoyed the Batgirl one plenty. The Harley Quinn one was fun, but too short. The Red Hood one was also very short, but I'm fine with that because **** Red Hood. I've not played the other story ones yet because their descriptions say they're post-main game. I've enjoyed the racetracks for the Dark Knight Tumbler, Keatonmobile and Westmobile although it's disappointing that the Adam West skin was apparently console-exclusive and the Tumbler tracks don't use the Hans Zimmer music (or if it is from the Dark Knight's soundtrack, it's not the Dark Knight theme). All the extra AR challenges are fine and good, I've also aced a lot of them which has helped my "max out the 'mobile ASAP" plan.

[NeoVid]

I've surprised myself by getting hugely interested in Battlefield 1 again, partly because just about everything we complained about at launch is fixed. Also, getting those Operation Campaign rewards is addictive.

[PopeLinus1]

I’ve started to play Orgins, and in that game you get to be an Egyptian pirate.

Oh it’s buggy, but I was forged from the fires of Bethesda softworks.

[rooster707]

I’ve started to play Orgins, and in that game you get to be an Egyptian pirate.

Oh it’s buggy, but I was forged from the fires of Bethesda softworks.

Wait... Origins has boats?

Maybe I’ll check it out after all...

[inexorabletruth]

I've got a few games in rotation at the moment, which is unlike me. Usually, I pick one game and obsess over it until I've beaten it, then done a second run through to discover every secret/Easter Egg/Acheivement/what-have-you, and then a final speed run with some self imposed handicap just to see if I can do it, before moving on to something else.

I'm running A Madness in Hepmonaland, an insanely expansive sandbox for low-op builds. We've had the campaign running for about 3 years now.

Skyrim. I'm late to the game on this one, and finally understand what all the fuss is about. I love the game and struggle with restraint... I have a really hard time turning it off and getting back to real life.

Rocksmith. It's one of the finest guitar/bass tutorials I've ever seen and tons of fun to play.

Rock Band 2: I play this with my son. He's 7 and plays the drums on Expert mode. I'm in awe of him.


Forge of Empires. It's... eh... ok. I picked it because sometimes I want to kill 10 or 20 minutes. I wouldn't call it a good game. It's good enough to be a distraction, but lame enough to be easy to put down and walk away from it at a moment's notice.

[Jama7301]

I picked up Mario Odyssey again after some time away, after clearing the main game and some extra stuff. Game is still like a warm blanket of cozy happiness.

[PopeLinus1]

Wait... Origins has boats?

Maybe I’ll check it out after all...

Oh yeah, I was not expecting it to have such a fun boating system.

Hour one:
Oh cool I can use boats in this

Hour two:
Hahahaha all your wealth is mine! mine!

[GameOmen]

Diablo II!!!! :) the best game ever. Playing CS too.

[Lector87]

Monster Hunter World!

Which might be the answer for a good long while, given how much content there is and how little time I have these days...

[DigoDragon]

I just recently finished Torchlight 2 for the first time ever as a level 55 Embermage. It was alright, though the ending left me wanting a little. I played around a little with the map dungeons, but I think I'm done with game for now. Probably go finish my Fallout New Vegas game (for the first time ever). >.>



Oh man, I love that game. Part of it is likely nostalgia but it's still among my favorite games, period. I wish Lufia 3 and "4" were a bit better than they happened to be, then we might have gotten more sequels...

Another fan of Lufia II: RotS here, though it was the only game in the series I played. I had a lot of fun with it, and I remember the long hours spent fighting that... egg dragon twice to get the best equipment in the game. Heh, the egg puns were amusing. :3

[Kato]

Weird combination now for me..

Twilight Princess, because need to do these stupid Zelda games I skipped for stupid reasons... My heart is not in it yet..

Badass Hero: neat game but I still terribly stuck at it. It's a rogue-like with upgrades so maybe I can grind away my lack of skill.

Final fantasy V Advanced Randomized. (that is all abilities are randomly distributed among classes which really throws a wrench in my usual play style. But it makes a game I feel like I can beat with my eyes closed (mostly) challenging again which is a really good thing.

[Silfir]

It's a rogue-like with upgrades so maybe I can grind away my lack of skill

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

[Lord Raziere]

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

you mean how I play Fallout 4? Just me my ripper and/or super sledge/Shishkebab all upgraded in my power armor and go around charging at fools and killing them in one blow.

[Zombimode]

After some Deliberation I settled with..... Pool of Radiance.

Yes, the '88 one.

It is the oldest game I've ever played in ernest, but appearently I don't care for that.

I'm in the endgame now, and it has been an absolute blast.


First, the historic significance. I was not Aware how influential PoR was until I played it and could see all the references newer games where making.
Especially for Baldurs Gate I had no idea how much BG is a continuation of a Tradition started by PoR.

Sure, the game has it's issue, but I was able to either adapt to them (like the control scheme) or learned to live with them.


And aside from the issues, Pool of Radiance is simply a very good game. It has a clear structure, the controls while a bit awkward at first actually do work quite well, the Scenario and Encounter designe is interesting and varied. It employ some systems to reduce tedium, but is not affraid of breaking with those Systems to create specific Scenarios:
- having to map every dungeon can be tedious. Having to map a dungeon once in a while is a wellcome Change of pace and can be an interesting challange
- neverending random Encounters are a big turn-off for me, so that you can "clear" a map in PoR is a great Feature for me. But making some areas not clearable can create a feeling of danger in these areas otherwise not possible.

It is challenging without being frustrating (most of the time). The lines between "challenge", "Frustration" and "tedium" are fine and that PoR manages to Keep those lines most of the time is a Testament on this game's good design.

There is also something to be said about the game's Scenario and presentation of the world:
The Fantasy world in PoR is neither "whacky" nor moralizing. While the player-controlled adventuring Group kills Kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins etc. by the hundreds, the game does neither demonize the Player for doing so, nor does it remove the Need for remorse by making the enemy "ok-to-kill".
You can interact with the enemy on occasions and it is quite clear through those interactions that your enemies are of normal intelligence and sentinence. They behave in ways you would expect from soldiers/mercenaries.
PoR is mature in the sense that it is not heavy-handed also doesn't bend over backwards in the world-building to facilitate a care-free gaming environment.

[ufo]

I got very hooked on Dead Cells. Think it’s still early access, but was RPS game of the year anyway. Challenging, fast-paced acrobatic platformer combat/unlock-‘em-up roguelike. For me it hits the same spot as Binding of Isaac, Sundered, Mark of the Ninja. If those seem very different it’s because Dead Cells does a lot of things very well.

[NRSASD]

Kingdom Come Deliverance and FTL!

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a very, very flawed masterpiece. It has problems, some trivial, some severe; some are bugs, some are built into the system. That being said, it's the most fun and ambitious game I've played in a long while, and it actually sticks the landing. It promises the world on a silver platter, and it actually delivers. Granted, the platter is made of quicksilver and the world twitches and shudders occasionally, but I'm so impressed that they managed to make it happen at all I can forgive a lot.

FTL is FTL. Possibly the best roguelike ever made. Certainly the best spaceship roguelike.

[Kato]

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

I don't quite see the problem. You're not forced to use the permanent upgrades and their impact on the difficulty varies. What's wrong with giving players options?


I loved FTL and while I was never really perfect I used to beat it quite reliably a while back. I tried picking it up again a few times but somehow it didn't get me hooked like it used to. I don't know why.

[Cespenar]

I loved FTL and while I was never really perfect I used to beat it quite reliably a while back. I tried picking it up again a few times but somehow it didn't get me hooked like it used to. I don't know why.

Eh, it's a pretty good game, but its linearity undermines its replayability a little. Even a couple of wins feel like enough FTL for me.

[ufo]

Kingdom Come Deliverance and FTL!

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a very, very flawed masterpiece. It has problems, some trivial, some severe; some are bugs, some are built into the system. That being said, it's the most fun and ambitious game I've played in a long while, and it actually sticks the landing. It promises the world on a silver platter, and it actually delivers. Granted, the platter is made of quicksilver and the world twitches and shudders occasionally, but I'm so impressed that they managed to make it happen at all I can forgive a lot.

FTL is FTL. Possibly the best roguelike ever made. Certainly the best spaceship roguelike.

I haven’t played the game so I can’t speak to it’s strengths but FYI one of the main developers of KCD and the studio’s founder, Daniel Vavra, is a self-styled gamergater and has expressed some pretty vile racist sentiments.

FTL is the bomb tho.

[Silfir]

Half the reason I'm actually posting this rant is that any danger that the thread devolves into a discussion of Gamergate (and subsequent closing by moderator) is worth fighting with fire.


I don't quite see the problem. You're not forced to use the permanent upgrades and their impact on the difficulty varies. What's wrong with giving players options?


Oh, nothing, of course. I'm not at all debating the game's quality. I'm not objecting to you praising it. For all I know it's the best game on the planet Earth that I haven't played.

It's just not a roguelike. To their credit, the developers of Badass Hero opted for "rogue-lite" on the Steam page - they know it's not a roguelike.

You can play it like one, sure. Last I checked, nobody called Diablo II a roguelike because it has a Hardcore mode. You can play any game in a way that's different from the way it was designed; that doesn't mean it ends up in those genres. Super Mario 64 isn't a racing game just because hundreds of speedrunners race against each other every day to see who can beat it the fastest. (For the record, I agree that if Diablo II had been released with only Hardcore mode as the default, I wouldn't grumble all that much if it was called a roguelike today. It's still very different from the roguelikes I knew when the term meant something very specific, but I know those days aren't coming back.)

We're at a point where the term is so diluted in common usage that it can apply to pretty much anything. Games have had randomly generated content for the purpose of replayability for almost as long as games existed (certainly longer than video games existed - card games, dice games, what have you), and we're at a point where it's anyone's guess why some games that do it are called "roguelikes" because of it and others aren't.

The one thing that I insist on - in hopes of retaining at least some of the term's usefulness - is that, in a roguelike, death means you start at the beginning. If the game has a meta progression system - say, because you retain currency that you can use to upgrade your player character in future runs - it doesn't have true permadeath, and thus it's not a roguelike.

Again, the people behind Badass Hero know this, and therefore they call it a "rogue-lite". That's a good thing - at this point "rogue-lite" is far more useful as a term than "roguelike" is, because it describes a narrower set of expected features. Please don't undercut their efforts.

[warty goblin]

I've never really cared for the whole get upgrades and start over when you die mechanic because it's just a fancy way of dressing up grinding until you're not a newb anymore. I really don't care what people call it.

[NRSASD]

I've been excited for Into the Breach, the next game from FTL's developers, so I decided to reinstall FTL and fell madly in love again. For me, the joy comes from taking weird combos of weapons and tactics and making them fit.

My most recent ship was a mantis clone boarding ship with 2 Flak cannon Mk IIs, which meant we constantly boarded every ship we encountered while shelling it indiscriminately, regardless of whether or not they had O2. Our boarding team dies? No problem, wait 15 seconds and they'll be back on the enemy ship. Waaaay too funny

[Silverraptor]

Going to be playing Stellaris on Tuesday when the entire game changes with the release of 2.0. Going to be a great day!:smallbiggrin:

[Jama7301]

Fired up Owlboy for the first time last night. Seems like it'll be interesting enough.

Resubscribed to Final Fantasy XIV, in hopes that I can finally clear the main storyline from the base game's story. The grind from 49 to 50 is bad (for someone who doesn't like doing dungeons or playing with other people).

[Kato]

The one thing that I insist on - in hopes of retaining at least some of the term's usefulness - is that, in a roguelike, death means you start at the beginning. If the game has a meta progression system - say, because you retain currency that you can use to upgrade your player character in future runs - it doesn't have true permadeath, and thus it's not a roguelike.

Again, the people behind Badass Hero know this, and therefore they call it a "rogue-lite". That's a good thing - at this point "rogue-lite" is far more useful as a term than "roguelike" is, because it describes a narrower set of expected features. Please don't undercut their efforts.

Hm.. not to delve too deep into it but to me a rogue-like is mostly determined by the permadeath aspect, little more. I guess you could include the "no upgrades" to differentiate it from rogue-lites, a term I frankly haven't noticed often enough yet to include in my regular vocabulary, but to me it feels more like a sub genre, than a different one.
I mean, depending on how strict you are, is a rogue-like allowed to have anything that carries over? i.e. can I have unlockables or does that invalidate it, too? Because then I'd be hard pressed to name a true rogue-like, although I will admit I only played a handful.
Sure, if you just want the randomness and some penalty for dying there's a loads of games that one could include and I will disagree falls into the genre, but some unlockables don't seem a problem to me. (Not that I really want to make a huge point out of what is(n't) a rogue, I'm just curious.

[Silfir]

Hm.. not to delve too deep into it but to me a rogue-like is mostly determined by the permadeath aspect, little more. I guess you could include the "no upgrades" to differentiate it from rogue-lites, a term I frankly haven't noticed often enough yet to include in my regular vocabulary, but to me it feels more like a sub genre, than a different one.
I mean, depending on how strict you are, is a rogue-like allowed to have anything that carries over? i.e. can I have unlockables or does that invalidate it, too? Because then I'd be hard pressed to name a true rogue-like, although I will admit I only played a handful.
Sure, if you just want the randomness and some penalty for dying there's a loads of games that one could include and I will disagree falls into the genre, but some unlockables don't seem a problem to me. (Not that I really want to make a huge point out of what is(n't) a rogue, I'm just curious.

Upgrades aren't roguelike because they stop a game from having permadeath. If you don't get reset to zero you don't truly die. You're playing one big game instead of making multiple attempts.

Unlockables are a different issue. Classical roguelikes unlock all classes and races from the beginning. At the very least, unlockables don't break permadeath in the way that a meta progression system involving character upgrades does. Ideally the extra options just provide different ways of playing the game, not inherently superior ones.

[rooster707]

Finished Torment: Tides of Numenera today. Overall, I think I liked it about as much as Planescape - I liked the setting and science-fantasy feel more, but the ending felt a little rushed and wasn’t nearly as satisfying.

Starting up Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin now. Haven’t quite got a feel for the combat yet, but the graphics are a lot nicer than the first game.

[enderlord99]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

[Lord Raziere]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Se, what you do is, you get good, while eating a banana. the potassium is vital to the multi-tasking challenge to get used to doing so, I'm currently doing this with Shantae while eating one right now, beat a whole level while making this post, all thanks to the banana. little known secret it is.

[rooster707]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Mad skills. That’s all there is to it. It would have been funnier if you hadn’t already made that joke three pages ago.

[enderlord99]

It would have been funnier if you hadn’t already made that joke three pages ago.

I don't know why there was a smiley on my original, because I wasn't joking. Unless I was, and just forgot; that's certainly possible.

[Cespenar]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Two screens, two mouses, ambidexterity.

[Knaight]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Putting aside how "right now" is being used loosely to refer to sort of "active" games generally being played over a time period, tun based games is how.

[Psyren]

Guild Wars 2 is my current MMO poison; working through the Heart of Thorns storyline and will probably buy Path of Fire in a few weeks. As for other games:

1) Hit maximum mastery points in Starcraft 2 co-op, so I've put that aside for now.
2) Stuck on the final boss in Cuphead, will get through that at some point.
3) Working on a Divinity OS2 playthrough
4) Accumulating more simfiles for my Stepmania collection
5) Doing another Dead Space 2 playthrough on the weekends as a drinking game.


I don't know why there was a smiley on my original, because I wasn't joking. Unless I was, and just forgot; that's certainly possible.

Taking you at face value then - it's amazing how much time you can free up by not allocating resources to pedantry :smalltongue:

[Gray Mage]

Currently I'm playing Legends of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, it had been a while since I'd last played a fun turn based JRPG. Plenty to customize too, which is always a plus for me. I'm at the last parts of the game though, so after that I think I'll try and finish the last Isle of Cuphead.

[Jama7301]

Picked up Into the Breach and the game is a fun little tactics game.

[Bohandas]

Night in the Woods, a depressing story-driven adventure game about cartoon animals who are unable to find non-minimum-wage employment.

[Drasius]

Bit of Stellaris when 2.0 dropped, picked up Slay the Spire which was surprisingly fun for something that's not usually my jam, continuing to plan out my megafactory in Factorio and my PoE addiction will refresh tomorrow when 3.2 gets released and consume me for the next week or so.

[Cespenar]

Night in the Woods, a depressing story-driven adventure game about cartoon animals who are unable to find non-minimum-wage employment.

Not as depressing as it's organic, I guess. I mean, sure, the protagonist looks depressed, but there's a lot of positivity in her life too.

By the way, one of the better writings I've seen in the last years' games.

[danzibr]

Pretty much exclusively on Disgaea 5 now. Some others on the back burner. I don't remember the Disgaea games being quite so long. I like this one a lot.

Also... I feel my power levels are all janky. Must be lacking in gear. Getting a 900 Statistician is taking forever. I'm mid-game grinding though, not always the smartest thing to do.

[DigoDragon]

Dunno where I made the odd turn, but I find myself now playing Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars and having one heck of an amusing train wreck imagining the Humans as if they were led by President Cave Johnson. You do get "portals" by mid-game (the star gates), and what better way to think with portals than to warp in a battle fleet to lay down some "semi-guided photon science" upon the Meklar? I even have three fleet captains that give science bonuses!

This could make a funny LP.

[Jama7301]

Night in the Woods, a depressing story-driven adventure game about cartoon animals who are unable to find non-minimum-wage employment.

I've been meaning to pick this up at some point, as the story looked interesting. Has it still been holding up?

[Jama7301]

Picked up Diablo 3 to play with some friends, and still puttsing around in FIFA 18 and it's Ultimate Team mode.

But I can not stop thinking about Into the Breach. The game has a mainlined itself into my brain. Haven't even gotten past island 2, but I really enjoy this game so far.

[NRSASD]

Yeah, Into the Breach has a way of hooking you. I absolutely adore that game. If you're looking for a master class in pure, lean, no-padding-here gameplay, Into the Breach is your game.

[warty goblin]

Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

[Bohandas]

I've been meaning to pick this up at some point, as the story looked interesting. Has it still been holding up?

It's good. I've finished it. It takes kind of a weird turn at the end, but not a bad one.

[Drasius]

Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

Giive it a week and Surviving Mars should be out. Looks to be an interesting twist on city builders.

[Kato]

Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

It's not exactly a city builder (but modern) but I've heard good things about Rise of Industry. Then again, it's not exactly my preferred genre.

Also, I made the grave mistake of reinstalling Civ V... Help... I feel like I will never get anything done again.

[Cespenar]

But I can not stop thinking about Into the Breach. The game has a mainlined itself into my brain. Haven't even gotten past island 2, but I really enjoy this game so far.

Same here. I just keep returning to it. Also, if you can't get past island 2, here's a couple of small tips:

-Think all the options. Sometimes (especially when a bit tired) the brain can just go "ah, this move is enough for this round", but there's often a better one.
-The deployment is almost as important as a normal round. Look up the ranges of the opponents and what moves they can pull.
-Don't be a hero on the strategic map. Pick "normal" missions unless you feel exceptionally powerful/weak.
-The second squad is very good.
-Block as many newcoming aliens as possible. If you can stand on a hole and shoot another alien in the process, that's often a winning round.


Yeah, Into the Breach has a way of hooking you. I absolutely adore that game. If you're looking for a master class in pure, lean, no-padding-here gameplay, Into the Breach is your game.

True that. It's a very rare mix of bare-bones minimalism and immense tactical depth. Even though there might be overall "better" games in the last few years, I think Into the Breach should be taught in game design lessons.


Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

I'm not much for non-violence these days myself, but have you looked at Thea?

[NRSASD]

Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

Pharaoh is so good. I adore that game so much. Have you tried Zeus and/or Poseidon?

I enjoyed Thea, but it's completely different. Have you tried Anno 1404? Not nearly as good as Pharaoh, but still pretty fun. My fiance and I had a good time with it.

[Honest Tiefling]

Currently playing Slay the Spire. It's a fun little game (despite still being in Early Access), but I did die to a snot donut. :smallfrown:

[Silfir]

Feeling rather like non-violent games of late. Tragically the lack of decent city builders* in recent years means I'm replaying Pharaoh again. Holds up extremely well, although given how deeply the Impressions games are embedded in my childhood nostalgia, I'm very far from an objective judge of that.

*There's some modern ones I suppose. I live in a modern city, that's bad enough.

You could give Factorio a try. You're not building a city, but you're very definitely building.

[Grif]

A mix of Warframe, Dominions 5 and uh, Civ IV.

[warty goblin]

Pharaoh is so good. I adore that game so much. Have you tried Zeus and/or Poseidon?

I enjoyed Thea, but it's completely different. Have you tried Anno 1404? Not nearly as good as Pharaoh, but still pretty fun. My fiance and I had a good time with it.

Yup. Caeser III was the first game I ever played that came in an actual box; I'm pretty sure I've still got the manual somewhere. And man did the Impressions games have manuals; those things were freaking books. Loved Ceaser III, and Pharaoh, and Zeus. Never really played Emperor though.

I've tried a couple of the Anno games, and for some reason they've never really clicked for me. Not sure why.

[Triaxx]

Have you checked out Subnautica? Base building underwater exploration. There's also a story mode that ditches the survival elements if you want those gone. It's not entirely non-violent, but mostly it's just chasing away things that have decided they want to eat you.

I've rediscovered just how much fun X-Com is. Though fun might not be the right word.

[Sian]

Have you checked out Subnautica? Base building underwater exploration. There's also a story mode that ditches the survival elements if you want those gone. It's not entirely non-violent, but mostly it's just chasing away things that have decided they want to eat you.

I've rediscovered just how much fun X-Com is. Though fun might not be the right word.

for all that it do have 'building' elements ... calling it a builder is kinda just about the least proper thing, without being flat out wrong

[NeoVid]

Vermintide 2 just released. The original was the most fun first person stabber I've ever played, so I've had this one on preorder since last year.

[Yora]

Yup. Caeser III was the first game I ever played that came in an actual box; I'm pretty sure I've still got the manual somewhere. And man did the Impressions games have manuals; those things were freaking books. Loved Ceaser III, and Pharaoh, and Zeus. Never really played Emperor though.

I've tried a couple of the Anno games, and for some reason they've never really clicked for me. Not sure why.

I played the very first. Back in the 90s these games were huge in Germany. The reason I never really got into them was that I always failed to prepare for enemy attacks in time. I was happy building a settlement until some invaders show up and wreck everything.

Played Settlers 2 several times, and I always ended up quitting in the first level in which the enemies attack without being invaded by you first.

[Triaxx]

It was more him wanting something non-violent than something buildy.

[Drasius]

You could give Factorio a try. You're not building a city, but you're very definitely building.

I thought about suggesting this too. With biters turned off it's non-violent and it's very much a builder game. Plus it's not only very fun, it also has that, "hey, why's it getting light outside?" ability to make 8 hours flash by in an instant.

[Avilan the Grey]

I was looking at Slay The Spire and it looks fun-ish, but the art style and complete (almost) lack of animation has turned me off a bit.
Any other creative card games out there (I have played Hearthstone).

[Minty]

I've been playing Breath of the Wild for "over 85 hours", and am about to finish it off (heading to Hyrule castle to kill Ganon after work tomorrow).

It's a very good game (I don't often play anything for longer than 30 hours without getting bored), but it's not perfect. Stamina is an annoying mechanic that just serves to slow you down for no reason. Breakable weapons are annoying, not because you lose good weapons (I never had problems finding more weapons as good as the ones I lost), but because you constantly have to pause, go into the inventory, and select a new weapon. I've heard people say constantly changing weapons encourages variety, but it doesn't really, because I managed to go through the entire game using nothing but single handed clubs/swords and arrows. In fact, mostly arrows. Having to cook things is annoying, just because I find crafting boring in all games, and in this one it's pretty much mandatory if you want any kind of healing items. The difficulty curve is odd, because it starts off difficult and gets easier and easier, until by the end you're running around like a god hacking guardians and lynels to bits with ease. Also, it rains too much.

These are all minor criticisms, though, and I'd still give it 9/10 for the overall experience. There was a lot to like in the game, but it annoys me that everything has to be open world these days. I don't really see the appeal - the "freedom" is an illusion, because both open world and linear games have a finite amount of content, and it really doesn't matter what order you do it in. Open world just gives you the "freedom" to wander around pointlessly and miss half the good stuff. Side quests and collect-a-thons are completely unrewarding filler unless you're an OCD completionist. All the best parts of the game save for one or two (the dragon on Mt Lanaryu, Eventide island) were the main quest.

[Knaight]

I was looking at Slay The Spire and it looks fun-ish, but the art style and complete (almost) lack of animation has turned me off a bit.
Any other creative card games out there (I have played Hearthstone).

I'd recommend trying it anyways - the animations actually flow pretty well in practice (assuming that you haven't deliberately turned them off to speed the game up), and it's much more animated than Hearthstone. It's also a serious candidate for the best roguelike I've ever played, so there's that.

[tonberrian]

I was looking at Slay The Spire and it looks fun-ish, but the art style and complete (almost) lack of animation has turned me off a bit.
Any other creative card games out there (I have played Hearthstone).

Mmm. Elder Scrolls Legends is basically Hearthstone but Better, but I wouldn't necessarily call it creative, just very solid. Though splitting up the field into two parts with different effects is pretty ingenious.

[oxybe]

So I got a notification today on my phone.

"A Steam game on your wishlist is on sale".

Oh boy, I said... I have some disposable income.

Civ V. Civ V is on sale. All of it. For under $14CAN.

WHELP. THERE GOES THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.

[Yora]

I started playing Settlers II again. Kind of funny going back to it after 12 years, but I think I'm probably not going to play it for very long. Having played the first level and being much older now, I get the very strong feeling that there isn't really much actual depth to it.
Still, I think I'm going to play another two levels or so, even if it's just for the old charm.

[Kato]

I've been playing Breath of the Wild for "over 85 hours", and am about to finish it off (heading to Hyrule castle to kill Ganon after work tomorrow).

Oh man... I spent all last summer playing this and then I played it again at the end of the year. I can't say why but it was crazy fun.

I don't really mind the stamina mechanics.. Yeah, it's inconvenient but it's fine for a game to not make everything easy on the player. I guess the most important thing is to stop you from climbing everything early on.
And yeah, the difficulty kind of spikes early and decreases as you get more armor /weapons / abilities. I have to admit I still have some trouble with the Lynel even at my peak strength. I can usually beat one but it's not guaranteed if I do screw up one too many dodges.

Also, I'm usually not into open world games but here it felt like it really made a difference. You really can go wherever you want and while the enemies in some places might be harder it's doable. And you find shrines everywhere along the way so it rarely seems like you're going nowhere.



Civ V. Civ V is on sale. All of it. For under $14CAN.

WHELP. THERE GOES THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.
Bye, bye. Tell you're loved ones you will be fine but to check on you once every two days or so :smallbiggrin:


I started playing Settlers II again. Kind of funny going back to it after 12 years, but I think I'm probably not going to play it for very long. Having played the first level and being much older now, I get the very strong feeling that there isn't really much actual depth to it.
Still, I think I'm going to play another two levels or so, even if it's just for the old charm.
No, there really isn't. But last time I played it I still got sucked in fast. It's quite simple but it has a lot of charm for its age. Or it's just my nostalgia speaking.

[Cespenar]

I was looking at Slay The Spire and it looks fun-ish, but the art style and complete (almost) lack of animation has turned me off a bit.
Any other creative card games out there (I have played Hearthstone).

Card City Nights has pretty interesting mechanics, I daresay even more so than most of the genre right now, but the art style and lack of animation is likely to score very low for you as well.

Faeria was a bit interesting in which it gives you a hex-based tactical map on top of the classic Magic-like mechanics, so that might be worth a look.

Slay the Spire honestly looks extremely mediocre both from a roguelike point of view and a card game point of view. I remember playing better Flash games on Newgrounds every day and forgetting about it the day after. Back when Flash was a thing.

[Minty]

I don't really mind the stamina mechanics.. Yeah, it's inconvenient but it's fine for a game to not make everything easy on the player. I guess the most important thing is to stop you from climbing everything early on.

The thing is, stamina doesn't add difficulty to the game. It's just a pointless nuisance. In a game supposedly about freedom to explore, I don't see why the player needs to be stopped from climbing everything early on. If you're going to take away all structure from the game in the name of freedom, these kind of limitations are pointless. The game only gets fun after 10-15 hours when you have enough stamina to go wherever you want. If we're going to have limitations on progress, then I'd rather stay with the old metroidvania style progress where you needed to get a cool item to access new areas, rather than grinding for an extra stamina wheel just to climb a mountain with one korok seed on it.

[DigoDragon]

I thought about suggesting this too. With biters turned off it's non-violent and it's very much a builder game. Plus it's not only very fun, it also has that, "hey, why's it getting light outside?" ability to make 8 hours flash by in an instant.

This reminds me, my daughter has taught me how to play Minecraft. It too is pretty addicting. Plus my newfound hatred of creepers helped me crack open some old guides to learn how to program in the game.

Stupid creepers.

[D20ragon]

Card City Nights has pretty interesting mechanics, I daresay even more so than most of the genre right now, but the art style and lack of animation is likely to score very low for you as well.

Faeria was a bit interesting in which it gives you a hex-based tactical map on top of the classic Magic-like mechanics, so that might be worth a look.

Slay the Spire honestly looks extremely mediocre both from a roguelike point of view and a card game point of view. I remember playing better Flash games on Newgrounds every day and forgetting about it the day after. Back when Flash was a thing.

I don't know, I find the degree to which Slay the Spire allows you to break the game as well as scaling to some truly unfair difficulties through Ascension mode to be extremely engaging. It's one of those "one more run" games that I find myself getting sucked into now and then, with the last one being Devil Daggers.