What Are you Playing 7: Deadly Sims

[Cygnia]

I've been curious about Scorn -- how triggering can in be in terms of gore/death/jump scares?

[GloatingSwine]

I've been curious about Scorn -- how triggering can in be in terms of gore/death/jump scares?

From what I hear, nowhere near as triggering as how terrible and frustrating the combat and save system are.

[Cespenar]

Tried Ozymandias, a bronze age 4x so minimalist that it's almost a tabletop board game. Still plenty deep though, and one game runs about 1-2 hours, so there are plenty to like about it.

[warty goblin]

I've been curious about Scorn -- how triggering can in be in terms of gore/death/jump scares?

I've played a lot of very gory FOS games, but have pretty much zero tolerance for more overt horror stuff. I wouldn't say I'm triggered by it, but I definitely really dislike it, make of that what you will. Also I've so far played like 15 minutes, so I hardly even have a representative sample of the game.

So far I'd say Scorn has zero jump scares, or really scares at all. It isn't super gory either, at least in the sense of dismemberments or extreme suffering or anything. You do get the world's creepiest Nintendo Power Glove made up of mollusk shells and disturbing sexual undertones grafted into your arm, and there's some blood there, but it's more unsettling than horrifying.

[Sigako]

NEO:TWEWY made it to Steam. So that's what I'm going to be playing for a while.

For reals? F**k, I had to create an Epic account for this game alone. B***rs.

[factotum]

For reals? F**k, I had to create an Epic account for this game alone. B***rs.

I'd say that's on you, Epic exclusives are never "for ever exclusive".

[Saambell]

I'd say that's on you, Epic exclusives are never "for ever exclusive".

Though they may end up on not the system you think they will. One game I was interested in, Ooblets, a farming sim creature collector with card game battle system, was an early Epic exclusive, and due to angry people harassing the dev team, when it finally stopped being exclusive, they ported it to switch rather then let it come to steam. Steam still has it listed as "release date pending" when its been on Epic for years and Switch for a few months now. Goes to show that the more you harass the devs, the less inclined they are to give the angry people what they want. Given the rumoured amount they got for making the game an exclusive, since it was a two person husband and wife team, that pay check will last them years. Very little need to give in to the angry people when they can coast for a nice bit.

But yeah, on the whole, Epic exclusives, heck most exclusives nowadays, don't last. Unless its a Sony or Nintendo game, then the odds are a LOT slimmer. But even then, hello Spiderman and God of War. And Nintendo is one of the most emulated companies, so given enough time even those.

[Anonymouswizard]

Really getting into Defiance Bay now. Yeah, I can see why people might be turned off here, it is very much Torment style conversations rather than dungeon crawling.

On the other hand, this is a better open world game than anything AAA from the last five to ten years. Sure the individual environments are small, but there's a lot of actual stuff to do and it feels like the world reacts to it.

Now only a couple more things to do and then I'll head to Heritage Hill.

[Sigako]

I'd say that's on you, Epic exclusives are never "for ever exclusive".

And now I checked - even if the Steam has it, it isn't listed in my region. At least in Epic I can still play it.

[Zombimode]

For the past month or so I tried to get into Wasteland 3.

I started the game, played for a bit, and put it back only to pick it up againt a week or so later. During the last 1-2 weeks I tried to play it more seriously but even in those portions of my free time that I actively plan for gaming I catch myself playing the game for like 20 minutes or an hour, then Alt-Tabbing out and getting distracted by some YouTube video. I'm procrastinating while playing a video game!
Yesterday I admitted to myself that I'm simply having no fun with Wasteland 3.


But I don't really know why.
It is not a case of me suddenly not liking RPGs or video games in general anymore.

And I don't hate the game. There are some minor annoyances but overall it is fine.

The visual design is good. The sound design is at least serviceable. The character building is ok and the combat gameplay is ok as well. You can make the argument that it has better combat gameplay than Atom RPG or Fallout 1&2.
As for setting design, characters, plot and writing I don't bounce off of those immediately as well.
But maybe we are getting somewhere.

While there is nothing that I hate, there is also really much that hooks me

[warty goblin]

Wasteland 3 is fine and does pretty much everything it does fine. I'm not sure it does anything particularly unique or executes any bit of its formula exceptionally well though. Writing? Yep, that's some just fine RPG writing. Combat? It's a decent rendition of post-XCOM move-n-shoot cover combat, but there's like a zillion games that do more or less the same thing about as well. Worldbuilding? Of all the black comedy post-apocalypses with mutants and stuff, this is another of them.

Which kinda makes it hard to really fall for.

[Cespenar]

The combat is fine in Wasteland 3. It's just too much combat and too little investment in story and plot. Also, worse writing than the classic Bioware/Obsidian level doesn't help either.

Funnily enough, all of those problems were even worse in the previous game.

[Erloas]

I suppose it depends on how much you like turn based combat, I felt like it executed on the genre very well, but the genre can feel slow and take a while to really develop, especially when you don't get the more interesting things until later. Although it's been a long time since I played so I don't remember the beginning, and I've been playing that style of games since Fallout 1 so there is a lot of nostalgia value for me.

The world and story design is a blend of serious and big concepts and silly and a bit ridiculous, and I can see that being off-putting for some. It felt like it matched the other games and Fallout 1&2, but it's still not for everyone.

[Sermil]

Bouncing off Rogue Legacy 2. I usually don't play action games, but I really liked Hades (finished all the endings!) and this sounded similar -- rogue-like action but with between-run progression so that you can grind your way out of trouble if you aren't very good at twitch games (I'm not very good at twitch games).

Unfortunately, RL2 has been a disappointment. It's inferior to Hades in both gameplay and story. In story, there's almost nothing there. There's some occasional cryptic notes about stuff, but the main character has literally 0 personality. There's a few people you can talk to and they'll say some semi-witty remark, but I have really zero interest in any of them. In Hades, even if I was getting a bit stuck on progressing, I knew each run would at least give me another chance to throw sarcastic barbs at my father or bond with Dusa. Here, when the gameplay gets tiring, I just don't care enough to keep going.

The gameplay is better, but even there, it just doesn't quite live up to Hades. Hades wasn't perfect, but RL2 really emphasizes going into the easy areas and clearing them out again and again. In the former, once you were good at the first level, you sped through it and spent most of your time in the later levels you were still struggling with; in RL2, I spend at least half my time in areas I can easily breeze through, because that's how you get gold and how you get artifacts and hitpoints. Also, in Hades, you had a few choices of weapon, but there were few enough that you could master one or two; in RL2, there are so many classes, and you have a limited random selection each time, so I feel like I'm forgetting how to play each.

Also, the difficulty curve at the end is really steep. The 5th level (Sun Tower) is really hard; even though I can reliably clear the first 4, I usually only get a few rooms into the 5th. I feel like I'm really hitting a wall with it and am getting pretty close to just dropping the game.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I found a hidden little indie gem called Crystal Project that I've found tickles the retro gaming itch I've had lately.

Consider, if you will, an old-school Final Fantasy game with a Job system, your basic four man band, and throw it into a 2.5D isometric platformer in a deliberately blocky aesthetic world.

Combat is fairly straightforward, they have a new spin on the old ATB. Spells have casting times so your spell might not go off until after the enemy acts so keep an eye on it. Aggro management is something you have to manage with some classes having particular skills which rely on having high (or lowest) aggro.

You start off with a selection of classes that looks extremely familiar to classic FF I players. You have Fighter, Thief, Martial Artist, Black Mage, White Mage, and Red Mage. Some of them have been renamed... but it's still pretty obvious. However, Red Mage has taken a page from some of the more modern implementations of using less powerful versions of white and black magic, although it is the first class that starts applying damage over time effects. Then you find crystals out in the world that give access to a single class, there's like a dozen of them or something? You level up your job as well as your character. Stats are gained based on which class is equipped when you level up. Don't worry, there's a mid-game place to 'respec' your level-up classes to min-max your stats if that's your thing. You can equip a second 'job' although you don't get that class's innates (such as equipment options). There are also passives you can equip that are in each class's skill tree, however you have a maximum number of passive points to fill, but passives can be equipped (once unlocked) regardless of what class you have. Think of it like a Charm system from Hollow Knight.

It actually has some Metroidvania beats, using a series of mounts as traversal skills with their various merits and flaws to be utilized to get to where you previously couldn't. And of course speedrunners have already found sequence breaks. But really, the game is intended for you to find your own path, so the devs expect (and at least to a certain degree, embrace) sequence breaks.

The biggest problem I have with the game is that it is a 2.5d isometric world that requires platforming. Usually there isn't much in the way of punishment, but given you can't move your camera angle (mostly, your L and R binds can rock the camera angle slightly) means some extremely awkward platforming.

Something I personally don't have a problem with but some do is that this game doesn't really hold your hand like a modern game in terms of where quest goals are. There is no quest tracker (although there is a quest list), there is no objective dot on your map, there is no glowing line to follow to your intended destination. Heck, you have to obtain each region's map separately before you can use it! About the best you'll get is 'in this region over by this landmark', and you'll have to find it yourself from there. I find it a refreshing change, others have found it annoying, YMMV.

So if you've got the hankering for some retro RPG action while navigating your way through a world that looks like it should be a FF: Tactics combat scene with a surprisingly nuanced ATB and class system and encouraged to simply go out and explore and to hades with the plot... I urge you to check it out.

[Cespenar]

Bouncing off Rogue Legacy 2. I usually don't play action games, but I really liked Hades (finished all the endings!) and this sounded similar -- rogue-like action but with between-run progression so that you can grind your way out of trouble if you aren't very good at twitch games (I'm not very good at twitch games).

Although it's not feasible in general to compare other games to the current multiple-genres-dominating title (arguable, but still), I agree with your takes in general. It's not a bad game IMHO, but has definitely too much padding.

[Zevox]

I'm closing in on the end of my Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle replay - I'm now midway through the fourth and, IIRC, final area. Which means I just acquired the last character, Yoshi, who comes in entirely too late in the game I must say. Even the next-latest character you acquire, Rabbid Yoshi, who you get midway through the third area, it feels like you get at least a decent amount of time with, about 1/3 or so of the game, but regular Yoshi is only going to have a tiny chunk of it (1/8, unless there's a fifth area I've forgotten) where he's available.

Honestly, team composition limitations is my main criticism of the game as it stands. Yoshi and, to a lesser degree, Rabbid Yoshi coming in as late as they do means you don't get much time to use them. You can only ever use two of your teammates at a time, since the team is capped at 3 and you are always locked into using Mario. And finally, a strange restriction I'd forgotten about until just recently when I tried to put together a team that broke it: you cannot make a team without at least one Rabbid. Which means that Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi can never be on the same team as each other, since Mario is always locked into use. That one's just strange, like the developers were insecure about the possibility of people sidelining the Rabbids as soon as you got access to Peach or something. Or maybe they thought that, since the non-Rabbid character always get an Overwatch-style move, having a full team with those moves would be overpowered? I dunno, this is pure speculation for a very strange decision, but it's one that I hope is gone in the sequel. Along with these other little issues.

Beyond that, I've been pretty pleased trying out the non-Luigi characters. Since obtaining them I've mostly used Rabbid Mario and Peach as my team, and oh gods, did I underestimate them the first time around. I figured that the way their shotgun weapons' damage dropped off with range would be a big issue, as well the extra risks inherent in Rabbid Mario in particular being a strictly close-range specialist, but not at all. Rabbid Mario is like a walking bomb. All of his attacks, including his dash attack, are AoEs that do big damage. Sending him into a cluster of foes to do as many dash attacks as possible, then using his Magnet Dance ability to draw them in next to him and whacking them with his hammer will wipe out just about anything that isn't a boss in one go. Peach is less of a powerhouse, but she's crazy durable, making going into close range for high-damage shotgun blasts much more reasonable than I had thought, and the free healing she gets with every team jump is also far more effective than I thought, since it's a healing effect you can get every turn, even if it is only 10-20% instead of the larger heals that Rabbid Peach or Rabbid Luigi (via Vampiric Dash) are capable of. Her ability to take some of the damage when her team members get hit is quite handy at times too - though it's also the one ability in the game that I think I actively don't want to max out, because it seems better to me to keep it at a 60/40 split rather than "upgrade" it so that Peach takes all of the damage. Makes it easier to recover the health give her AoE healing effect if it's spread out.

Also, it's just kind of nice that Peach wasn't designed in the super stereotypical way you'd expect. Being normally a damsel in distress type, I would've figured she'd be more like Luigi or Rabbid Peach - squishy and entirely a support role, maybe the party sniper so she didn't need to get too close to the danger. Instead, she's the party tank, and while still primarily a support-type character, she can definitely dish out some big pain with that shotgun.

I haven't played with the Yoshis as much, since I just got regular Yoshi and Rabbid Yoshi didn't look to synergize that well with Peach or Rabbid Mario, but regular Yoshi looks fun too. Albeit it's kind of awkward that the free ground-pound AoE he gets off team jumps seems to destroy any destructible cover anywhere near where he lands, which makes that ability hard to use. Rabbid Yoshi's more eh - I feel like he synergizes best with Luigi, since his "scare" ability forces enemies out of cover but away from him, which is better for a sniper like Luigi than shotgun-wielders like Rabbid Mario or Peach, but since I used Luigi extensively my first time through the game I'm trying to avoid using him this time. Also, from the one time I tried using the two Yoshis together, I quickly realized that a team with no source of healing whatsoever is probably a bad idea. Which means including either Rabbid Peach, Peach, or Rabbid Luigi in every team. And since I'm avoiding Rabbid Luigi in particular, well, that means one of the Peaches is going to be mandatory in every team for me. (Technically Rabbid Mario can also inflict Vampiric with his weapons, but unlike Rabbid Luigi there's no guarantee, and he tends to just kill anything he attacks anyway, so I'm not going to count him as a healing source.)

[Form]

I've been curious about Scorn -- how triggering can in be in terms of gore/death/jump scares?

I've not played it myself, but I have seen a full playthrough of it. I don't remember there being any jump scares and there aren't many gory scenes, but there are a couple and the squick is significant. This is especially true in the endgame. Aside from that the environment also tends be fleshy and it's got H.R. Giger as inspiration written all over it. If you're very sensitive to gore or just don't want to see it, you might want to pass on Scorn.

[Spore]

Marvel Snap is an awesome game. And thus far I have not seen a useless card. Of course this is day 1 and decks are unrefined, but the changing locations and 2 out of three mechanic makes it difficult for meta decks to dominate.

[warty goblin]

Returned to World of Warships after a solid two weeks away. Yeah the F2P crap still sucks, and yeah the game has issues. But aside from nearly archeologically old titles, it's the only source for arcade battleship on battleship action*, and however weird some aspects of the game are, it does a good job of it.

And really, popping up at 11 km in HMS Incomparable and delivering a couple 20 inch shells into the citadel of some poor cruiser is never gonna get old.


*and War Thunder, but the grind there is even worse by all accounts.

[Anonymouswizard]

Now I remember why I hate open world games. I get a quest to kill some ghosts in a lighthouse, and as I'm level five this seems reasonable.

I enter the lighthouse and geymt swarmed by about twenty higher level ghosts. Maybe this sidequest should have unlocked an act later.

Well guess it's off to Heritage Hill, hopefully I'll find a cute cat!

[Taevyr]

PoE has a few of those "come back later" encounters, most notably the Endless Paths, as they're designed to be gradually explored over the course of the entire game. I personally like having those in a game: makes it more realistic than everything "conveniently" being around your level, but I can see why it could be irritating.

[Anonymouswizard]

PoE has a few of those "come back later" encounters, most notably the Endless Paths, as they're designed to be gradually explored over the course of the entire game. I personally like having those in a game: makes it more realistic than everything "conveniently" being around your level, but I can see why it could be irritating.

Mostly I think a bit more warning is needed. At the end of the day it got me back onto the main quest at about the right time, but it also feels like I'm leaving more undone than I should. Plus I've got one quest unlocked which is presented as pretty urgent, but I know will kill me if I try it from my first attempt at a playthrough.

Well I've put all that behind me and it's off to The White Marsh. Partially because I want to make sure I don't forget it, and partially because I still don't have a Rogue in the party. I'm also considering dropping Durance, it leaves me without a healer but he is just annoying as hell. Maybe if I switch from Normal to Easy that'll be fine.

Also already trying to plan my class for Deadfire. I know I want to stay Monk, but I'm considering mixing it with one of Barbarian, Fighter, or Rogue.

[NRSASD]

Mostly I think a bit more warning is needed. At the end of the day it got me back onto the main quest at about the right time, but it also feels like I'm leaving more undone than I should. Plus I've got one quest unlocked which is presented as pretty urgent, but I know will kill me if I try it from my first attempt at a playthrough.

Well I've put all that behind me and it's off to The White Marsh. Partially because I want to make sure I don't forget it, and partially because I still don't have a Rogue in the party. I'm also considering dropping Durance, it leaves me without a healer but he is just annoying as hell. Maybe if I switch from Normal to Easy that'll be fine.

Also already trying to plan my class for Deadfire. I know I want to stay Monk, but I'm considering mixing it with one of Barbarian, Fighter, or Rogue.

Enjoy the White March! There’s a rogue in there who’s a unique species, an automata if I remember right. The Devil of Caroc I think?

[Anonymouswizard]

Enjoy the White March! There’s a rogue in there who’s a unique species, an automata if I remember right. The Devil of Caroc I think?

Yeah, I was hinting at her.

Honestly seriously considering switching down to Story Mode, because the combat is just not that enjoyable. Sorry RTWP, but you are just the less loved sibling compared to turn based combat

[Cygnia]

Finished Iron Danger. It just...ended.

It seems like they're setting up for a sequel, but it left me unfulfilled.

[MCerberus]

I've got all this backlog I need to work th-

Oh look a 40 hour jrpg I've beaten twice has the bonus edition on game pass.
Haha persona time
edit - and to answer the follow-up question, Makoto, the objectively correct answer

[Zevox]

I've got all this backlog I need to work th-

Oh look a 40 hour jrpg I've beaten twice has the bonus edition on game pass.
Haha persona time
edit - and to answer the follow-up question, Makoto, the objectively correct answer

40 hour? I can count the number of times I've beaten a Persona game in under 100 hours on one hand, and even those were over 80 hours.

Seriously though, I have no idea how you would get through Persona 5 in only 40 hours unless you were skipping a heck of a lot of things.

[MCerberus]

40 hour? I can count the number of times I've beaten a Persona game in under 100 hours on one hand, and even those were over 80 hours.

Seriously though, I have no idea how you would get through Persona 5 in only 40 hours unless you were skipping a heck of a lot of things.

Oh for some reason my brain completely erased my relation to time and memory when it comes to persona games some time when I was playing p4r. Something about the cousin. I sure am glad nothing stunningly awful happens in that game.

[warty goblin]

Been faffing around in Ranked in Warships. This season Bronze League (where everyone always starts) is Tier 5 only. Since both subs and carriers are only even tiered, it's 9nly surface ships.

T5 only is weird. Cruisers at T5 suck because almost none of them have heals, and most have citadel for miles. This makes them easy prey for battleships, because what low tier battleships lack in accuracy, they make up for in sheer number of barrels. So you get like one suicidal cruiser player on each side, who usually immediately explodes in a hail of 12, 13.4 and 14 inch shells from the salivating battleships.

But without cruisers, their natural predators, destroyers are almost completely unchecked. The plethora of slow, lumbering battleships sailing in very straight lines to get all their weird amidships turrets off means torpedo heavy DDs are having a field day. So if you pick a gun heavy DD, you can just murder overconfident and undergunned torpedo boats, then torpedo the battleships anyway. Sure you don't torpedo them as well, but you're faster and stealthier, what are they gonna do about it?

I'm normally awful in destroyers, but this is just fantastic. I'm making it rain First Blood (get the first kill) and Devastating Strike (get a kill with a single salvo that does at least 50% damage) achievements.