What Are You Playing 6: DLCs of Kevin Bacon

[Gyro89]

Elden Ring withdrawl has been hitting bad, so I'm finally checking out the one that started it all, Demon's Dark Souls! And, wow the graphics aren't great, huh but the game play's still good!

I'm trying something called the Library of Ruina, which is kinda fun. It's a single player card based RPG, with some visual novel sections for storytelling in between. It's apparently from the south korean team that did Lobotomy Corp., though I didn't play it.

It's not bad, overall. There's definitely more thought put into the story and setting than usual, which is nice. The tactical aspects are a bit iffy -- it feels like there are more details in parts that don't need it, and less in parts that do. Overall it's enjoyable, though the writing does the carrying a bit, IMO.

I've always wanted to try Ruina (I loved slay the spire) but is the story too confusing / complicated for someone who hasn't played Lobotomy Corp?

[warty goblin]

I just checked and Steam says I've played 39 hours--doesn't feel like it's been that long, TBH! I did try to go around all the major friendly cities as early as I could in order to pick up quests, since those are by far the best way of levelling up. Presumably if you've reached the Domed City you've also been to Origin, or haven't you found that yet?

Not yet, I've been playing pretty much blind, which is a lot of fun, but I'm almost certainly missing loads of stuff.

Got to level 9, finally could wield a decent weapon, which makes combat at least somewhat doable. Caja's personal quest is going to take a bit more grinding though, there's a couple mutants that will absolutely wreck my face at the moment. At least the Domed City finally had somebody who could teach me to make healing potions.

[Cespenar]

I've always wanted to try Ruina (I loved slay the spire) but is the story too confusing / complicated for someone who hasn't played Lobotomy Corp?

Not really. As far as I can see, it throws around a lot of terms with setting-specific meanings (like a lot of anime), but the general gist of it is pretty easy to grasp. 99% of the terms are just used for different power levels for the same thing, again, like a lot of anime.

(Though probably it'd boost the experience if you knew some things beforehand.)

It's basically a dog-eat-dog weirdpunk setting with a touch of occult, and with another, bigger touch of corporate violence.

[factotum]

Caja's personal quest is going to take a bit more grinding though, there's a couple mutants that will absolutely wreck my face at the moment.

Yeah, about that...you think that first site she takes you to is bad, wait until the later ones. Caja and Ray's quests also seem to be gated by progress through the main storyline, as far as I can tell, I still only have the latter half done and I know Caja has another site she wants to visit but she doesn't know where it is yet! Considering how ludicrously easy it is to complete Duras' quests, there's a major difference in difficulty between different companions, but I don't know if it actually results in a more powerful companion or not.

IIRC there's a quest that does point you toward Origin at one point, but I can't remember now how or where I picked that up.

[Anteros]

Wanted to play some chill Rimworld while I've been home sick this week. Turns out some mod broke all the things and it took me 5 hours or so just to get the game working again with a few core QoL mods. I did get a few hours of gameplay in though.

[NRSASD]

Wanted to play some chill Rimworld while I've been home sick this week. Turns out some mod broke all the things and it took me 5 hours or so just to get the game working again with a few core QoL mods. I did get a few hours of gameplay in though.

I was very excited to try out Vanilla Expanded’s Classical mod, since it’s Roman themed and seemed fun, but I think I’ve played too much Rimworld. I spent an hour configuring it, started the level, and quit after 5 minutes. Came back the next day and tried again, only to quit after another 5 minutes. Makes me sad because I was looking forward to playing more Rimworld but I guess my brain is done with it for now.
Instead, I’m playing Fall from Heaven some more. This time I’m playing as the Mercurians, a renegade band of angels who have come to earth to fight demons and damn the consequences or collateral damage.
My neighbor was the Doviello, a horde of chaotic evil Conans who, in this game, worshipped trees, which gave them a massive defensive advantage. They just got wiped out by the vampires, who set fire to the barbarians’ forests and corrupted the terrain beneath them, turning the very land against them and wiping out their homeland advantages. Very evocative and kinda sad.

[Anteros]

I was very excited to try out Vanilla Expanded’s Classical mod, since it’s Roman themed and seemed fun, but I think I’ve played too much Rimworld. I spent an hour configuring it, started the level, and quit after 5 minutes. Came back the next day and tried again, only to quit after another 5 minutes. Makes me sad because I was looking forward to playing more Rimworld but I guess my brain is done with it for now.
Instead, I’m playing Fall from Heaven some more. This time I’m playing as the Mercurians, a renegade band of angels who have come to earth to fight demons and damn the consequences or collateral damage.
My neighbor was the Doviello, a horde of chaotic evil Conans who, in this game, worshipped trees, which gave them a massive defensive advantage. They just got wiped out by the vampires, who set fire to the barbarians’ forests and corrupted the terrain beneath them, turning the very land against them and wiping out their homeland advantages. Very evocative and kinda sad.

That one looked like too much micro management to me. I don't really like that aspect of the game. I don't even play with ideology or mess with royalty.

[warty goblin]

Yeah, about that...you think that first site she takes you to is bad, wait until the later ones. Caja and Ray's quests also seem to be gated by progress through the main storyline, as far as I can tell, I still only have the latter half done and I know Caja has another site she wants to visit but she doesn't know where it is yet! Considering how ludicrously easy it is to complete Duras' quests, there's a major difference in difficulty between different companions, but I don't know if it actually results in a more powerful companion or not.

I'm not sure I'd call Duras' quest easy, so much as solvable without combat. But it still requires a lot of exploration, which is consistently dangerous.

I actually kinda like how the game keeps soft-gating the different quests behind level barriers. Really keeps you pulling on different threads, exploring the world, and exploration is of one of the best parts of the game.

Figured out I could upgrade my sword
Also that if I upgrade my sword, I'll be too much of a scrub to wield it anymore. Alas.

[factotum]

Figured out I could upgrade my sword
Also that if I upgrade my sword, I'll be too much of a scrub to wield it anymore. Alas.

As I said above, I did that without realising I wouldn't be able to use the resulting weapon and thus spent another two levels using a wrench I purchased and pumping my STR and DEX until I could finally use it! You can find what appear to be some really nice weapons just lying around, but then you look at the stat requirements and wonder what the devs were thinking--why are they providing a bow with a STR requirement of 70 when strength doesn't directly help ranged damage and when said weapon did somewhat less damage than my double-upgraded Cultivator bow? I think it also gave +skills to a couple of Berserker abilities, but let's face it, if you're using a bow you're likely to become a Berserker anyway because the other factions have preferable ranged options!

[asaadrehman]

I am currently playing DLS game, which is one of the best football game I have ever seen in my life. You can also try this one.

[factotum]

Up to chapter 3 in Elex and knocking on the door of level 30 now. Got the best armour for my faction and I can actually survive getting hit a few times now, which is good, because the quests seem to be getting a lot more combat heavy.

[Anonymouswizard]

Playing through Jaws of Hakkon in Inquisition and wow, this is much better than the main game.

Structurally it feels more like Origins or II, it's a single area and to achieve my stated goal I've got to complete the primary quest chain with some leeway in what order I complete objectives in. No power grinding, closing Rifts is a thing I do because I run across them while completing a quest, and when in a new part of the map I'll seek out the camp in case another quest sends me back here. But it works, and completing quests and accidentally finding side areas is fun. Unlike the main game it feels focused and it's much better for it.

It's also quite a bit harder than the main game, but that's only been an actual issue in one quest so far. I've run out of potions more, but again that's just a reason to take that 'more potions' perk when I eventually get back to Skyhold.

[Bohandas]

Yeah. Especially since they decided that all guards look like Cadians, who are starship troopers with early WW2 tanks. There's more influences, though. There's a lot of Dune, a bit of Star Wars, some Canticle for Leibowitz, bits and pieces of Lovecraft and most of the classical fantasy canon via Warhammer Fantasy (which in turn takes a lot of from History, plus Leiber, Howard, Lovecraft, Tolkien and everything else Gygax used, too).

You're talking about WH40K right? There may be a bit of Clive Barker and/or the Marquis De Sade in there too with the Slannesh affiliated factions

[Zevox]

I finally finished up Assassin's Creed: Valhalla this morning. And yeesh, they sure decided to throw some weird curve-balls towards the end there, didn't they?

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Seriously, it's like all they can think to do to try and make anyone care about the modern day stuff is throw the craziest twists imaginable into it now. First Kassandra herself handing off the staff to Layla at the end of Odyssey, and now Basim, who is a reincarnated Loki, surviving to the modern day through whatever that device was plus getting his hands on that staff, plus whatever weird bull**** happened with Layla and that "Reader." I can't even fathom what they're trying to do with all that anymore. And I continue to believe that they made a mistake not abandoning the modern day stuff when they had the chance at the end of AC3. At least they've learned not have it interrupt the things people are actually playing the game for much, though.

As far as the main story goes, eh, it was okay. Some of the region-specific sub-splots were really good, but the overarching story of Sigurd, Eivor, Basim, and the rest, I never really got as invested in as I did the story of Kassandra and her family in Odyssey. The concept of the characters being reincarnated Aesir, who found a way to avoid dying in Ragnarok through reincarnation, is a cool one, and it's just unfortunate that it's ruined by just being a metaphor for something similar being done by the Isu, Assassin's Creed's precursor civilization. Especially since we get glimpses of what the Isu look like now through those anomalies, and... they're just humans in jumpsuits that look like they're out of an old sci-fi movie. That's seriously disappointing for this long built-up mysterious, inhuman precursor civilization. Also, I really wanted to kill King Aelfred, but no, if they let me do that they couldn't imply that he's the one who turned the Order of Ancients into the Templar Order. Because I care so much about that.

Yeah, I definitely preferred Odyssey in this regard. It's kind of striking how, outside of Assassin's Creed 2, the best parts of Assassin's Creed tend be the parts that have the least to do with the Assassins and Templars. In all of the best games you're not actually playing as an Assassin; and in Odyssey even the groups that became the Assassins and Templars don't exist yet, and you can only see the loosest philosophical connection between the Cult of Kosmos and the later Order of Ancients/Templars. The historical stuff is the real draw of the series, not its own original concepts, and even as the series improves that's not really changing in the slightest.

Still, at the end of the day, this is definitely one of the better games in the series. They improved the combat system (despite the difficulty dropping again - I eventually turned the difficulty setting up to max, and still had no real trouble at any point), massively improved how equipment was handled compared to Odyssey, and it's overall quite fun to play. But Odyssey is still my favorite of the series, no question. More fun setting with more diverse regions to see, better story, and more compelling characters.

I hope that whatever the next game in the series turns out to be picks a better setting than 10th-century England. I'd like to see one of these set in feudal Japan or ancient China, for instance. Or maybe Rome at the height of its power.

[Anteros]

Looking for a decent actiony controller game to veg out with on the couch this week while I'm home sick. I'm usually a pc gamer, but don't feel up to sitting in front of the computer desk right now. Any suggestions? Just looking for something chill and easygoing.

[Rynjin]

Looking for a decent actiony controller game to veg out with on the couch this week while I'm home sick. I'm usually a pc gamer, but don't feel up to sitting in front of the computer desk right now. Any suggestions? Just looking for something chill and easygoing.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning maybe?

[Zevox]

Looking for a decent actiony controller game to veg out with on the couch this week while I'm home sick. I'm usually a pc gamer, but don't feel up to sitting in front of the computer desk right now. Any suggestions? Just looking for something chill and easygoing.

Any of the "Warriors" games. Hyrule Warriors/Age of Calamity, Fire Emblem Warriors, Dragon Quest Warriors, probably the actual Dynasty Warriors titles if you'd prefer those (though I haven't played those myself). Easy power-fantasy action games, those are.

[Razade]

Finally got around to Dark Souls 3 and went in a little trepidation. Considering how badly From mangled Dark Souls 2 I wasn't expecting much but overall I've been enjoying it. It's a bit more linear than Dark Souls 1, but the areas aren't so hallway-esque as 2 and at least up to where I've got the enemies aren't just Poise sponges with ocean sized HP pools and insta-gib moves. The bosses have mostly been the largest source of disappointment. I don't understand why every boss needs a second form, I didn't really enjoy that gimmick in Bloodborne either. Haven't found most of the bosses to be that difficult either. Only one that gave me any real trouble was the Abyss Watchers and that was mostly because it took me a bit to realize the gimmick. Only boss I've actually enjoyed was the High Lord. Cool concept, I appreciate "puzzle" bosses and it was close enough to the Nito fight to give me some nostalgia. The Boreal Valley is where I'm at currently and man...that's a step up in difficulty enemy wise I wasn't expecting. Area looks cool at least.

[Mechalich]

Any of the "Warriors" games. Hyrule Warriors/Age of Calamity, Fire Emblem Warriors, Dragon Quest Warriors, probably the actual Dynasty Warriors titles if you'd prefer those. Easy power-fantasy action games, those.

Going to second this. Among recent titles in the series I'd recommend Warriors Orochi 4 due to its truly immense character lineup and its gloriously over-the-top nature.

[Zevox]

So, I tried out the demo for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins. It's... I don't know. The core combat has some definite promise to it, no question there, but wow, a lot of the rest of it is kind of rough. The equipment seems like an inventory management nightmare, with tons of minor copies of the same thing with slightly different stats being dropped constantly. The characters are very bland and forgettable, both in design and personality, and the writing overall is just very awkward. I frequently find myself wondering what the point of some scenes was. A lot of the UI is super busy, throwing tons of numbers at you with little explanation what they actually mean. And there's very odd choices for some of the controls, like interacting with objects like doors and ladders being done by pushing on the central touch-pad of the playstation controller, rather than the X button like in literally every other game ever made. Or the fact that your parry mechanic is on a completely separate button from the block mechanic, rather than being based on timing your block. Or how you can't use the analog stick to make selections in your menus... because for some reason when you pull up your menu, the game doesn't pause, unless you hit the central touch-pad. And if you do that, it pauses the menu as well, and all you can do is hit the central touch-pad again to unpause.

It's like the game developers knew how to craft an interesting action game combat system, but knew very little else about game design. It's kind of bizarre. I don't know, I might pick up the full game at some point, but I don't think I'll be going out to grab it right now.

[Rynjin]

It's...eh. I wanted Nioh 2 with Final Fantasy, but it's a really dumbed down and jank Nioh 2, sadly.

But the cutscenes are gutbustingly hilarious.

[MinimanMidget]

Has anyone played Godfall and wants to offer an opinion on it? Just released on Steam, looks interesting, but I don't know anyone who's played it.

[Rynjin]

Has anyone played Godfall and wants to offer an opinion on it? Just released on Steam, looks interesting, but I don't know anyone who's played it.

Opinion: Meh.

Edit: Wait you said Godfall, not Greedfall. This is not the first time I've made this mistake.

I haven't played Godfall.

[Zevox]

It's...eh. I wanted Nioh 2 with Final Fantasy, but it's a really dumbed down and jank Nioh 2, sadly.

Haven't played Nioh 2 (or 1), so I can't compare the two. I enjoy the combat well enough though. The Garland boss fight was fun and took me several tries.

But the cutscenes are gutbustingly hilarious.

In how bad they can be at times? Maybe, I guess? I haven't found any of it particularly funny yet, just weird and awkward.

[warty goblin]

Has anyone played Godfall and wants to offer an opinion on it? Just released on Steam, looks interesting, but I don't know anyone who's played it.

I rather enjoyed it as some very silly, not at all serious fun, but I really like kinda mediocre hack and slash games, and it's definitely that. The combat is decent enough, with both a reasonable amount of depth and very generous timings, which I appreciate. You don't play this for the joy of mastering a complex system, or to beat hard challenges, it's a game you play to look cool - where cool is defined as "the doodles of an unoriginal but artistically talented 14 year old with a crippling caffeine addition." For instance, boss health doesn't reset after you die, which definitely irritates some people because something something sense of achievement mandatory Dark Souls comparison, but I hate boss fights*, I really hate getting stuck on a boss fight, and this lets you get back to mulching normal dudes much faster. The combat works much better for normal dude mulching anyway. Not a masterpiece by any means, and it's deeply weird that the game's up to like fifteen different releases now, but it's fine.

*People often tell me I must just hate bad boss fights. I'll accept this with the proviso that about 97% of boss fights are bad.

[Cespenar]

Again, trying a couple of new indie titles as usual, and both of them seem enjoyable so far.

Tunic is a nice and polished low-poly isometric Zelda Souls, if I wanted to be brief. It's fanciest gimmick so far seems to be these "guide pages" you find which act as both tutorials, maps, and hints; and are drawn in a pretty cute 90s game magazine type of aesthetic.

And Telepath Tactics Liberated seems to be an indie fire emblem-like, with lesser characters(?) but more abilities and thus a bit more RPG oriented rather than pure strategy like FE. Also, the writing seems okay for such a game.

Both are priced a bit higher than what I'd deem fair right now on Steam, though, so I'd ideally wait for at least a 25% discount.

[Gyro89]

Just beat Ornstein & Smough last night Felt like they were a tad overhyped to be honest, still tough but defiantly not on the level of some of the latter elden ring bosses.
I met the giant lady and can finally fast travel! But I have no friggin clue were to go next. Onion knight said he was going underground so I might follow him for now.

[Razade]

Just beat Ornstein & Smough last night Felt like they were a tad overhyped to be honest, still tough but defiantly not on the level of some of the latter elden ring bosses.
I met the giant lady and can finally fast travel! But I have no friggin clue were to go next. Onion knight said he was going underground so I might follow him for now.

Lots of places open up after Anor Londo. Could take on the Tomb of Giants beneath the Catacombs, the Duke's Archives which is off Anor Londo or New Londo Ruins.

[Anonymouswizard]

Got a new keyboard which is far nicer, so in celebration reinstalled Bloodlines, the unofficial patch, and the Clan Quest mod. Now I just need to decide if I want to go for a Toreador or Ventrue (as I've already done a Brujah playthrough).

Also began Night Road, because I'm really on a VtM kick right now, and darn this game needs TTS support. Because it's good, and I'm playing a relatively standard Camarilla Brujah, but I can't read more than a page without needing a break. Made sure to clean up all my loose ends and do my job, but sadly that means I'm already a point of Humanity down.

[factotum]

Got a new keyboard which is far nicer

Which one did you go for in the end?