What Are You Playing Right Now, Part 2: Daggerfall

[The Glyphstone]

Grabbed Kingmaker while it was on sale.

[Ogremindes]

I just played Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap on Switch all the way through. Very fun, super charming.

Playing it to 100% was my limit as far as platforming challenges go, so the fact that the recent Monster Boy game apparently leans more heavily into the platformer side makes me sad.

Now I'm gonna play again, as the girl, to get the final gallery unlock.

[Man_Over_Game]

My wife and I have been playing a new playthrough on the Borderlands Pre-Sequel.

She's playing Wilhelm, under his cybernetics tree.

I'm playing "Jimothee", under his...sacrifice tree? Not sure what to call it.

She basically runs in and breaks stuff as a solo bruiser, and I hang back and snipe the hell out of anything that stands still long enough. One of my traits is to deal 40% extra damage to enemies that have less than 40% HP, and that bonus is x4 when I hit something that I haven't damaged yet. So if I kill something my wife has been beating up, I deal 260% damage with my shot. Add on any critical damage bonuses, and that's one painful headshot.

My gripe is that the build itself doesn't really use his Action Skill. There's not much point in summoning a bunch of decoys if you're a sniper. Plays kinda similarly to Zer0 in that sense, where you only use your Action Skill as a Get-out-of-dodge or O-Shi-my-buddy's-dyin' tool. Its saving grace is that sniping is so friggin' hard in Borderlands that the game doesn't need to include your Action Skill to make it complex or challenging.

What's really unfortunate is that we have Aurelia (Lady Hammerlock, DLC character) who can freeze enemies in place and has tons of benefits for sniping, but my wife hated her voice so much that she couldn't play with Aurelia in the game.

[Giggling Ghast]

Getting my ass whipped in Mortal Kombat 11. I try all the characters, but I tend to be a Kollector main.

[Gnoman]

I've been making my way through Silent Hill 4 with great difficulty. The game isn't really that hard, it is simply a really bad game.

[Zevox]

I'm reasonably into Total War: Rome 2 now, and finding I very much like it. I was iffy about armies being unable to move without a general at first, but I'm finding I enjoy it. The generous garrisons that cities get let me feel okay leaving them without forces sitting in them, and this new system does a good job of giving the feel of armies as a unified fighting force rather than just a gaggle of individual troops that can go their separate ways at any time. Particularly with the bonuses skills that the army itself earns rather than just the general, which helps give an experience army the feeling that it's your elite army, even when you add a new, less experienced unit to it.

And hey, diplomacy seems to actually work better than it ever has in past Total War games! The breakdown of factors affecting a faction's attitude towards you is very nice to see and helps in figuring out how to influence them, and the new option to form non-aggression pacts as sort of the lowest level of alliance is a nice addition. It's actually felt like I've been able to negotiate with other factions, compared to past Total War games where I just hope they'll take a trade agreement and then give up on bothering.

I've only recently started looking at the politics system and trying to use it, but it seems interesting. I'm kind of worried about the whole civil wars thing that it indicates can happen if other political parties have their loyalty drop too much, but eh, bridge to cross when it comes. In the meantime, other elements of how to use it to do things like bolster public order by holding games in a province or send a politician as a diplomatic envoy to another nation seem like pretty nice additions.

Oh, and agents feel more useful than in old games, but not nearly as overpowered as in Shogun 2, which is nice. Though their skill trees feel a bit eh at times, some of the options are just... odd.

All in all though, I'm quite liking this one so far.

[Resileaf]

The best thing about Rome 2 diplomacy is that every territory held by your allies count for territories you need to win the military victory campaign. You don't ever have to fear your allies having territories you need to conquer later.

[oxybe]

I think I may have done goofed.

See, I'm playing a modded Minecraft game and decided to try mods I don't usually play with.

I get to the point where I'm like "done mining, time to automate this ****" and I look into energy. I find a cheap energy machine and it uses a wheat based fuel. So I automate a wheat farm... and I kiiiiiiiiinda misread the settings.

Looking at the resources used and name, I thought it was going to manage a 7x7 farm, centered around the machine. What it did was manage a farm with a radius of 7 blocks... so a 15x15 farm.

and that's how I now have a silo of 10k wheat and an overflow double chest full of 64 stacked fuel units.

I legit have no idea what to do with this much wheat. I've never been in a situation where I lacked the necessary fingers needed to count the thousands of wheat units I have. and since the whole thing is self sufficient I'm just kinda at a loss.

my automated miner was put on freeze while I sort things out for ore multiplication, but I nearly have that sorted out too, if only to organize and clean the setup a bit, and then it's back to figuring out what to do with my wheat.

i guess a massive wall of generators and setup a proper central grid?

[Anonymouswizard]

So I decided to play Jedi Outcast, because it was the second Star Wars game I ever played (after Racer Revenge).

It's not easy, especially as my dyspraxia makes fine aiming a tad difficult. But forget KotOR3 (as much as I love KotOR and KotOR2 and have them in my Steam library), this is the kind of Star Wars game that EA should have been making, and similar to how I'd hoped Ragtag would turn out to be. The fact that you don't begin the game as a Jedi but instead as an ex-Jedi without the Force makes it interesting, Kyle Katarn is interesting enough as a character to tie the game together, and the early non-Jedi levels are actually fun. Which just makes me question why Star Wars action and/or adventure games so overly focused on making the PCs Jedi? Being a non-Jedi is actually fun.

[Cespenar]

So I decided to play Jedi Outcast, because it was the second Star Wars game I ever played (after Racer Revenge).

It's not easy, especially as my dyspraxia makes fine aiming a tad difficult. But forget KotOR3 (as much as I love KotOR and KotOR2 and have them in my Steam library), this is the kind of Star Wars game that EA should have been making, and similar to how I'd hoped Ragtag would turn out to be. The fact that you don't begin the game as a Jedi but instead as an ex-Jedi without the Force makes it interesting, Kyle Katarn is interesting enough as a character to tie the game together, and the early non-Jedi levels are actually fun. Which just makes me question why Star Wars action and/or adventure games so overly focused on making the PCs Jedi? Being a non-Jedi is actually fun.

Right on. If anything, starting as a non-Jedi makes you appreciate the Jedi-ness much more than every other game. But nah, I don't see that kind of thing done any more. Makes me remember how Fallout 4 gave the Power Armor 15 minutes into the game. That's buildup right there.

[warty goblin]

Right on. If anything, starting as a non-Jedi makes you appreciate the Jedi-ness much more than every other game. But nah, I don't see that kind of thing done any more. Makes me remember how Fallout 4 gave the Power Armor 15 minutes into the game. That's buildup right there.

In modern games build-up is randomly looting or crafting a functionally identical version of an item you already had, but with much bigger numbers. If the numbers aren't bigger, how can you know you're making progress and having fun?

[Zevox]

Which just makes me question why Star Wars action and/or adventure games so overly focused on making the PCs Jedi? Being a non-Jedi is actually fun.

Same reason the rest of Star Wars media tends to focus heavily on the Jedi, I'd assume, which is likely that the people making it believe that's what the fans most like and want out of it. Which might be correct, but it's definitely a pity that it so heavily limits what we see of non-force-user-centric Star Wars stories. Particularly when many of those seem to turn out better than much of the rest of the franchise (IMO at least - I'm quite fond of things like the Rogue Squadron novels or the film Rogue One).

[Triaxx]

Oxybe, the glory of Void Items.

[Anonymouswizard]

Right on. If anything, starting as a non-Jedi makes you appreciate the Jedi-ness much more than every other game. But nah, I don't see that kind of thing done any more. Makes me remember how Fallout 4 gave the Power Armor 15 minutes into the game. That's buildup right there.

I remember my first time wearing Power Armour in Fallout 3. Even though I found out later that the Armour didn't need training in any other game wearing it felt like I had truly become the badass the game was telling me I was.

Although I'll admit for some games you pretty much have to start as a Jedi. Force Unleashed is trying so hard to be a lightsaber and force focused Spectacle Fighter, and when it's actually unlocked all of your tools it's not half bad (could do with more saber combos though). And if KotOR2 had built the prestige class into the story in the same way that KotOR1 built in becoming a Jedi it would have felt just as cool.

Same reason the rest of Star Wars media tends to focus heavily on the Jedi, I'd assume, which is likely that the people making it believe that's what the fans most like and want out of it. Which might be correct, but it's definitely a pity that it so heavily limits what we see of non-force-user-centric Star Wars stories. Particularly when many of those seem to turn out better than much of the rest of the franchise (IMO at least - I'm quite fond of things like the Rogue Squadron novels or the film Rogue One).

Yeah. I mean, I'm really not looking forward to Jedi: Fallen Order because it's focus is letting you be a Jedi, but wee have to compare it to Ragtag which, from the look of it, was going to have you playing as a Han Solo style Smuggler or Kyle Katarn style mercenary in the Empire Era, which is cool. Maybe do a Dark Forces kind of plot where the characters stumble across an Imperial project that they have to destroy.

But while Jedi Knight and Jedi Outcast had you become a Jedi the early levels are just you, your blaster (and large collection of other guns), and a set of objectives to complete. And they manage to be fun due to a good mixture of first person shooting and platforming, even if I suck at FPSes.

I mean, I'd a game where you go about learning about the Jedi, and then you meet *insert mentor character* who reveals that the main character is not Force sensitive. See the Jedi from an outsider's positive for a change

[Anteros]

I mean, I'd a game where you go about learning about the Jedi, and then you meet *insert mentor character* who reveals that the main character is not Force sensitive. See the Jedi from an outsider's positive for a change

That's fine in theory, but in reality most people probably wouldn't appreciate such a massive bait and switch in regards to their character. If you're going to make a game about a normal in a universe full of specials you need to market it that way up front.

[LibraryOgre]

KOTOR starts you out as a normal. That changes pretty quickly, but you do start there.

As for me, I'm playing Neverwinter Nights, again. Because it seems to hold my interest.

[Spacewolf]

I dunno there might be more games where you play as the non-jedi than jedi, even discounting stuff like TIE-Fighter and pod racer. For example Republic Commando and the SWBF2 (and the others in the series but this fits best), in the later you do get hero units but your main perspective for the campaign is from some random 501st trooper while the former speaks for itself really. The MMO games don't really count as you can be all sorts in them, so that leaves Force Unleashed, the KOTOR games and Jedi academy?

[Triaxx]

Also Shadows of the Empire.

[Anteros]

I picked up Fell Seal. It's basically FFT so I'm having fun with it creating broken builds and such.

[warty goblin]

Messing around with a couple of things right now.

More Mordhau. I alternate between heavy armor sword and shield and light armor + halberd. You have to hit somebody like four times with a bastard sword to kill them, but it's fast, and the shield makes shutting down archers a lot easier. The halberd build is a glass cannon; quite a few things will simply one-shot you and archers will ruin your day. But the halberd just wrecks people, a good thrust will knock off half a heavy armor dude's health, and a hit with the axe side one-shots lighter armor builds.

Druidstone: The Secret of Menhir Forest. Think fantasy XCOM-as-puzzle-game. It's good, but seriously, seriously hard.

Thea 2: The Shattering. I've not played a lot of this yet, but it seems to be a genuinely unique thing. It's a turn based survival-centric nomadic city builder tribe simulation in a weird Slavic mythology apocalypse card battling game. Definitely haven't encountered this particular combination of flavors before, but it works really quite well.

[NRSASD]

Oooo! I've been meaning to start Thea 2 any day now. I've been happily crushing my neighbors in Warhammer Total War as the Von Carsteins, which is a blast. Sadly, I'm the only vampire faction left in the world. All my brethren have been purged by the resurgent Empire.

[GloatingSwine]

Oooo! I've been meaning to start Thea 2 any day now. I've been happily crushing my neighbors in Warhammer Total War as the Von Carsteins, which is a blast. Sadly, I'm the only vampire faction left in the world. All my brethren have been purged by the resurgent Empire.

Fear the Dawitide.

I recently finished/burned out a Mortal Empires campaign as Manny. Despite owning the whole of the Empire's territory and having seen off Archaeon, there was an infinite swarm of dwarfs coming at me from the south, and trying to grind through them was a pain in the ass.

(I stopped when everyone else piled on, building enough extra armies and stabilising the realm against Bretonnia and High Elves as well would have been too much bother. Might go back to an older save and pump 4-5 more stacks many turns before in order to either dissuade the extra forces or just weather them.

[Razade]

Thea 2: The Shattering. I've not played a lot of this yet, but it seems to be a genuinely unique thing. It's a turn based survival-centric nomadic city builder tribe simulation in a weird Slavic mythology apocalypse card battling game. Definitely haven't encountered this particular combination of flavors before, but it works really quite well.

I enjoyed Thea, the first one, while there were things to enjoy. The quest lines were all really quick to farm and min/max when you didn't bother actually dealing with the card game element. I find it really telling when a game lets you skip out on its core mechanic. Is Thea 2 much improved on either of those fronts? Do you find that the game is hard to exploit making pretty much every trial you encounter a breeze? Are there enough story prompts that each run doesn't feel exactly the same? If so, might have to pick it up. But Thea, The First didn't leave much of an impact on me to even have thought they'd make another one. Let alone the second one somehow being playable.

[Triaxx]

Playing HBS Battletech again. Performance improvements have made it much more fun now than when I first bought it.

[NRSASD]

Fear the Dawitide.

Yeah that's what I'm finding right now. I've vassalized the Greenskins and the Top Knotz, and between the three of us we're slowly, methodically, grinding the dwarves into paste. There's just so many of the little buggers, and the attrition penalties are pretty crippling. Hilariously, Karak Hirn has completely switched sides on the Dwarves. They're my #1 trading partner.

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah that's what I'm finding right now. I've vassalized the Greenskins and the Top Knotz, and between the three of us we're slowly, methodically, grinding the dwarves into paste. There's just so many of the little buggers, and the attrition penalties are pretty crippling. Hilariously, Karak Hirn has completely switched sides on the Dwarves. They're my #1 trading partner.

I was only trading across the sea to Luthor, Noctilus, and Malekith. Everything from Akendorf to the Tomb Kings was blue.

(They really need to go into death or glory mode after a little while)

If I'd gotten up to 12 or so stacks it would have been OK, but I do find the length of the ME campaign with the bad boy races who don't get lots of alliances easily a bit irritating and grindy. With Empire and Dwarfs I was able to finish much faster just by getting alliances.

[Inarius]

Playing HBS Battletech again. Performance improvements have made it much more fun now than when I first bought it.

How are the load times? Those were my biggest complaint when I last played and I've been meaning to do another run through of the game though I might wait til the next DLC drops first.

Right now though I'm still working my way through Fell Seal, I'm probably spending way too much time grinding out levels and AP for my characters though, but thats part of the fun of these kind of games imo.

[Triaxx]

They're still a bit long honestly, but it's not too bad I'd you remember it's a a TBS game. It's not supposed to be fast.

[Zevox]

So, BlazBlue Cross Tag just got its first big update since the last of the original DLC was released last year, and I hopped on to check it out. And proceeded to spend about two and a half hours in training mode basically just giddy with the possibilities presented by Yang now being able to cancel her jumping C into specials or supers on hit. And she's just one of maybe ten characters I play in that game.

Yeah, think I'm going to be picking that back up for a little bit. I've had a good few weeks of Dragonball FighterZ, it can go back into hibernation for a while.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Surviving Mars DLC that adds terraforming dropped, and so I've got myself back into the game. Haven't got to the point where I can play with the new features (an early attempt where I rushed failed because of the rushing, and ran out of... well, pretty much everything in the process).

Does anyone follow the dev diaries and can tell me if they cranked up the difficulty? Because I remember my first couple of play-throughs as pretty chilled affairs, with not really any major stress moments, but now I'm struggling just to keep my head above the water.

Grey Wolf