What Are You Playing Right Now, Part 2: Daggerfall

[DigoDragon]

I keep trying to play new things... and then go back and play the good ones I've already learned. It's a bad habit.

I know that issue well. For it's Skyrim and the Six Degrees of Khajiit Sneak Archer. XD

[Triaxx]

I played one stealth archer build and it was so boring. Much more exciting to sneak close with daggers and do 30x damage. (Dagger perk + Brotherhood gloves) 60x if you're using orc rage.

[Wookieetank]

So just about finished with KH3 and its been an enjoyable ride. So much sparkly glitter and over the topness with the action. I have no clue how well this is gonna wrap up the story, but overall I'm feeling its a rather suitable end for the series. Have plans to finish it tomorrow with the fam and a friend who's gotten sucked into watching the game as well.

Now after 10 months of KH goodness, I'll need to find the next adventure to go on with the fam. Preferably something with fewer games in the series XD.

[Man_Over_Game]

So just about finished with KH3 and its been an enjoyable ride. So much sparkly glitter and over the topness with the action. I have no clue how well this is gonna wrap up the story, but overall I'm feeling its a rather suitable end for the series. Have plans to finish it tomorrow with the fam and a friend who's gotten sucked into watching the game as well.

Now after 10 months of KH goodness, I'll need to find the next adventure to go on with the fam. Preferably something with fewer games in the series XD.

You COULD look into The World Ends With You. Similar vibe to KH (it's a lot darker), and, well, let's just say it might be relevant to your interests to play it.

The Final Fantasy Dissidia game plays kinda similar to KH, with its sword-and-sorcery platforming, but it's a 3v3 arena style game with no RPG elements.

Not sure if you're big on FPSers, but Borderlands 3 is coming out in September, and it's pretty damn gorgeous to watch. The series has a nice balance of skill vs. RPG.

[Wookieetank]

You COULD look into The World Ends With You. Similar vibe to KH (it's a lot darker), and, well, let's just say it might be relevant to your interests to play it.

The Final Fantasy Dissidia game plays kinda similar to KH, with its sword-and-sorcery platforming, but it's a 3v3 arena style game with no RPG elements.

Not sure if you're big on FPSers, but Borderlands 3 is coming out in September, and it's pretty damn gorgeous to watch. The series has a nice balance of skill vs. RPG.

TWEWY is great, got that way back when it first came out. Never did get around to getting all the secret reports though.

Really should look into FF:Dissidia, never played any of them but I'm a huge fan of FF in general.

Not the biggest fan of Borderlands, played some of 1, 2 and the Pre-sequal, but never finished any of them. Also don't think that's something I should play for a 6 y/o to be watching...

[Man_Over_Game]

TWEWY is great, got that way back when it first came out. Never did get around to getting all the secret reports though.

Really should look into FF:Dissidia, never played any of them but I'm a huge fan of FF in general.

Not the biggest fan of Borderlands, played some of 1, 2 and the Pre-sequal, but never finished any of them. Also don't think that's something I should play for a 6 y/o to be watching...

How about the new Spiderman game? Plays really darn well, and it's perfect for a 6-year old to watch.

You can also look up anything by SuperGiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Hades). They all have vibrant color schemes and youthful art designs that are easy to get into, and they all feature enough explosions and action to keep an audience interested. And they're just plain good.

[Wookieetank]

How about the new Spiderman game? Plays really darn well, and it's perfect for a 6-year old to watch.

You can also look up anything by SuperGiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Hades). They all have vibrant color schemes and youthful art designs that are easy to get into, and they all feature enough explosions and action to keep an audience interested. And they're just plain good.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll have to run some trailers by my daughter and see what sticks.

The whole family is interested in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, but 1) its not out yet, and 2) its on the Switch which we don't have. Pretty sure I have Christmas in a bag this year

[ranagrande]

I'm playing City of Heroes. It was my favorite MMO ever, and now it's back!

[LibraryOgre]

So, I picked up Occidental Heroes game to fill in for Merchant (which I'd reached a point where I was just playing to play... there wasn't much left to accomplish), and it's pretty fun. A party-based rogue-like with, so far, 3 classes... stolid and simple man at arms, the mobile duelist, and the unable-to-fight-in-melee archer.

Anyone else playing? ANyone got hints?

[oxybe]

Nothing!

My PC was crashing lately so I ran some tests and found it was overheating.

I crack open the case expecting dust and stuff and i see one of the two brackets holding the CPU's heatsink lying in pieces atop the videocard and the heatsink barely holding on to the remaining bracket not touching my processor at all.

Fun times as I'm going to need to go to Best Buy tomorrow and see if they can order me the part, or by luck have one in the back, as I got the PC from there earlier in the year.

[factotum]

If it's that new then it should still be under warranty and you should be getting them to repair it for you.

[tchntm43]

Currently playing Baldur's Gate (with Tales of the Sword Coast and Siege of Dragonspear installed). Once I make it through the Ducal Palace fight, I'm going to take a break from the game because I have a lot of other games I want to play and I'm at like 60+ hours already. I'll save the final dungeon and final battle, as well as all of the expansion content, as well as a tough optional fight in the city I've been putting off (you enter a house and are attacked by 2 invisible stalkers, 2 helmed horrors, and a doom guard).

After taking a break from this game, I am going to play Cities: Skylines, something I've wanted to play for a while but I put off until I just recently built a new computer with the muscle to handle it.

[Erloas]

Ah, good old Civilization, 12.5 hours in, just finished the tutorial. Which is why I never learn the games that well. Will I actually get past more than one or two games of "regular"? I don't think I did much more in IV.

So game 2 was about 8 hours, though I could have called it an hour or two earlier (didn't actually finish, but it was obviously no long left. Did standard difficulty with 6 enemies and a world style map. But it was really oddly distributed, like all 6 empires were on the same continent that only covered about half the map. And one country started started off to one side where it was able to develop unimpeded for a large part of the game, all the rest of us were smashed together to even get 3-4 cities down. Even by 1980 there were no empire players on half the map.

[Yora]

I got Sekiro today. The only thing I know about it is that it's from From Software and I've seen people commenting about the first gameplay demo a good while back. It's similar to Dark Souls but different, and I've heard some people say that it's their favorite game in the series.

Really curious about how much sense I will be able to make of what's going on in the game and how the mechanics work, going into it completely blind. Having played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1 and 3, and Bloodborne, I am probably quite well trained in how these games are designed now, but it probably should be very interesting how much I understand in just the first playthrough. Read ALL the item descriptions!

[Man_Over_Game]

Been sitting on Red Dead Redemption 2 for a long while now. The tutorials always took so much time that I'd get started, get bored, stop playing for a few months and forget enough to need to restart and do it all over again.

Finally sat down over the weekend to just get it over with in one go. It took me 4 hours to get past the tutorials and get to the first major campsite. Whoever in Rockstar made the tutorial needs to get the 'Old Yeller' treatment out back. It's as meme-worthy bad as Skyrim's intro. But at least Skyrim lets you play the game in the first thirty minutes.

[LibraryOgre]

Back to LOTRO. The "I am fulfilling quests and doing useful things!" is great for low-grade depression.

[DigoDragon]

Back to LOTRO. The "I am fulfilling quests and doing useful things!" is great for low-grade depression.

My version of that is building houses in Skyrim.

[IthilanorStPete]

My version of that is building houses in Skyrim.

I like games with nice simple feedback loops; clicker games, simple crafting games like Forager, that sort of thing.

[tonberrian]

Recettear is good for that, and is what I'm playing.

[LibraryOgre]

My version of that is building houses in Skyrim.

I get too distracted by other things in Skyrim.

Still haven't gotten involved in the Civil War.

[Triaxx]

I've done both sides. Neither is particularly interesting.

[Man_Over_Game]

I've done both sides. Neither is particularly interesting.

I think siding with the rebels is slightly more interesting, if only because you get to actually interact with the only other Dragon-Shouter. Although it's never really relevant.

I will say that, because the Civil War enemies scale to your level, but the rewards for the missions don't, you can get some stupidly good gear by seeing it all the way through at really low levels. Like pieces of dragon armor at level 10.

[tyckspoon]

Ah, good old Civilization, 12.5 hours in, just finished the tutorial. Which is why I never learn the games that well. Will I actually get past more than one or two games of "regular"? I don't think I did much more in IV.

So game 2 was about 8 hours, though I could have called it an hour or two earlier (didn't actually finish, but it was obviously no long left. Did standard difficulty with 6 enemies and a world style map. But it was really oddly distributed, like all 6 empires were on the same continent that only covered about half the map. And one country started started off to one side where it was able to develop unimpeded for a large part of the game, all the rest of us were smashed together to even get 3-4 cities down. Even by 1980 there were no empire players on half the map.

The default arrangement for the Earth-like map is usually having all the start locations mashed into 'Europe'(/Asia/Africa, because the Civ map scale is pretty funky), with the Americas being basically unoccupied aside from barbarian camps/goody huts/nation-state civs depending on the game. The key strategies for it are to rush sailing techs so you can get units across the sea and get an uncontested claim on the best bits of the New World, or succeed in an early war or two and claim another civ's share of the expansion space (or both - grabbing an extra capital area plus the surrounding area for expansion will usually catapult you ahead enough to be the first one across the ocean.)

[Yora]

18 hours into Sekiro and so far I am not too thrilled about the game. I now finished the first area, and think I've reached the boss of the burning castle optional area.

I think Demon's Souls and Dark Souls both took me about 80 hours the first time, and assuming I get better now and looking at the number of trophy bosses, I think it's still possible that this game will take me a similar time. But I have very little feeling of making progress.

[Anonymouswizard]

Updated my journal.

Well I remembered that I had Planescape:Torment: Enchanced Edition on Steam, bought for like £1.70 in a sale and realised that I never did complete the version I had on a DVD years ago (and think I still have somewhere). So I booted it up and used all the EE graphics options.

Then I immediately turned off all the enhanced graphics options bar smoother sprites (which I'm already on the fence about). It seems to gravitate you towards a larger FoV, whereas the close default camera position of PS:T is part of what made that personal feeling for me.

Anyway, I booted it up, started playing it again, and thought 'this is the game I was so into half a decade ago?' But I stuck with it until I got to Ol' Mebbeth*, where I remembered it's for the intense moments of character development, in depth discussions, and in-depth discussion of ideas. Especially as after switching my class to Mage I went to recruit Dak'kon and managed to find a conversation path I missed last time (where you have a short debate over whether or not the city *knows* itself), which gave more more XP (maybe I can hit level 4 before I go to Pharod). While I get that the Mortuary is mainly a tutorial area it means that after the beginning conversation it takes a while for the game to get to it's strong suits (which is the dialogue trees, not all these Hive Thugs that keep trying to interrupt me).

So yeah, enjoying it even though I kind of wish they'd kept the radial menu instead of going with the five tabs on the bottom of the screen.

* Of course I'm playing an INT/WIS Mage Nameless One, I very much feel it's what the designer's intent was.

[Zevox]

Single-player: Pretty deep into my Rome 2: Total War campaign now - if it weren't for the fact that all of the victory conditions require conquering some province or another out east of Turkey, I'd have won by now. I've acquired near total control of Europe (and what little is left is falling fast) and much of North Africa, so I'm easily the most powerful nation on the map now. I also successfully transitioned my nation from Republic to Empire, which has solved the loyalty issues that started cropping up as my Imperium rating rose, so I don't think civil war will ever be a worry. Have to say, I've quite enjoyed the game - I know I've been told it had a lot of issues at launch, but my experience with it at this point is that it's been a worthy successor to the first. I could easily see myself playing it again as another faction next time I get the urge to play a Total War game.

Multiplayer: Samurai Shodown just came out today, so I've given that a try. Not my usual type of fighting game by any means, but not without its merits. Playing against the AI in the "story mode" (which is really just an arcade mode with a few cutscenes tacked on, and even those don't explain much...) can be pretty frustrating, as even on the normal difficulty it seems to be quite good at blocking and pushing almost anything you try to do, but playing against actual people has been more fun. The description I heard of the game before release was that it was a high-risk, high-reward fighting game, and oh boy is it. Very little is safe on block, but geez when you get hits that aren't light attacks, they hurt. A single heavy attack can chunk out 20-30% of someone's life (which makes it feel very good when you figure out that a move your opponent likes to poke at you with is punishable by one of those on block), mediums and a lot of specials can be 10-15% or occasionally higher, and supers are 40-50%, sometimes as high as 70-80%. Hell, sometimes meterless moves can do that much - I've been playing Darli Dagger, and she has a special wind-up punch that she can only do when disarmed (something that certain moves can do to you in this game, generally puts you a big disadvantage) which is ridiculously slow and probably punishable by basically everything on block, but is armored and takes off probably 70% of a health bar on hit. I haven't landed it on a real person (yet), but it sure made the final boss (who can't block) a lot easier. Combos are nearly nonexistant, and what are there is very short and sweet, but with how much damage you get off individual moves, there's really little need for them. Not sure how much I'll wind up liking it at the end of the day, as there are some elements I'm not too fond of (particularly the feel of the controls, which are stiffer than I prefer), but so far, I've enjoyed the online matches I've had enough to want to keep playing for a little while at least.

Handheld: Persona Q2. Like Fire Emblem Fates before it, I'm playing this slowly, since I mostly play my 3DS on breaks at work, but enjoying every minute of it. I recently met up with the Investigation Team, so now the only characters I'm missing are Yosuke (the one P4 character still lost in the dungeon) and the original SEES team. The interactions between the Phantom Thieves and Investigation Team - and the P3P protagonist - have already been quite fun, so I am definitely looking forward to seeing this unfold over the coming months. I especially want to see how the P3 team reacts to meeting the P3P protagonist. Fights have been challenging too, I've sometimes had to back out of a dungeon after just a battle or two because I didn't have the right element for an enemy I ran into and wound up using too much sp on one battle. And the first boss was even quite a challenge, took a couple of tries to beat - I half wonder if maybe I was a bit under-leveled for it. Oh, and damn, the music is so good. I mean, that's pretty much par for the course for Persona, but still.

[Resileaf]

Single-player: Pretty deep into my Rome 2: Total War campaign now - if it weren't for the fact that all of the victory conditions require conquering some province or another out east of Turkey, I'd have won by now. I've acquired near total control of Europe (and what little is left is falling fast) and much of North Africa, so I'm easily the most powerful nation on the map now. I also successfully transitioned my nation from Republic to Empire, which has solved the loyalty issues that started cropping up as my Imperium rating rose, so I don't think civil war will ever be a worry. Have to say, I've quite enjoyed the game - I know I've been told it had a lot of issues at launch, but my experience with it at this point is that it's been a worthy successor to the first. I could easily see myself playing it again as another faction next time I get the urge to play a Total War game.

Yeah, you can call that a successful author's saving throw. CA has worked tirelessly to make Rome 2 a good game after the sub-par launch, especially the Emperor Edition. They can be commended for that.

[Man_Over_Game]

Updated my journal.

Well I remembered that I had Planescape:Torment: Enchanced Edition on Steam, bought for like £1.70 in a sale and realised that I never did complete the version I had on a DVD years ago (and think I still have somewhere). So I booted it up and used all the EE graphics options.

Then I immediately turned off all the enhanced graphics options bar smoother sprites (which I'm already on the fence about). It seems to gravitate you towards a larger FoV, whereas the close default camera position of PS:T is part of what made that personal feeling for me.

Anyway, I booted it up, started playing it again, and thought 'this is the game I was so into half a decade ago?' But I stuck with it until I got to Ol' Mebbeth*, where I remembered it's for the intense moments of character development, in depth discussions, and in-depth discussion of ideas. Especially as after switching my class to Mage I went to recruit Dak'kon and managed to find a conversation path I missed last time (where you have a short debate over whether or not the city *knows* itself), which gave more more XP (maybe I can hit level 4 before I go to Pharod). While I get that the Mortuary is mainly a tutorial area it means that after the beginning conversation it takes a while for the game to get to it's strong suits (which is the dialogue trees, not all these Hive Thugs that keep trying to interrupt me).

So yeah, enjoying it even though I kind of wish they'd kept the radial menu instead of going with the five tabs on the bottom of the screen.

* Of course I'm playing an INT/WIS Mage Nameless One, I very much feel it's what the designer's intent was.

For Torment fans, do take a look at the spiritual successor Torment: Tides of Numenara.

I will say that, from someone who's played through the game, that the developers spent more time on world and combat development than character development. So while the world is wilder and more fantastical, and the missions you get are exotic and fun, and the gameplay mechanics are damn fun, you don't get things like Dak'kon teaching you his religion, finding out you're Ignus's master, or things of that nature.

Where Planescape: Torment is a quest about a guy with a chaotic past, trying to create his own identity in a bleak and grey world, Torment: Tides of Numenara is about a blank adventurer mastering a world of chaos and wonders.

[Yora]

Most games I have take me under 30 hours to complete. With Sekiro, I feel that after 30 hours I am starting to understand how this game is played.

[DigoDragon]

I get too distracted by other things in Skyrim.

That's the best part--it mimicks real life! XD