What Are you Playing 7: Deadly Sims

[WritersBlock]

Playing some more Wizardry 8 off and on. That voice you can give a character of yours where they talk like an author narrating the adventure like a book they are writing is epic win. (There are a few other good ones too but that one stands out for me) Vi Domina is terribly done however. (Wants to go to ascension peak and stop the Dark Savant but refuses to go near the Rapax Castle where you have to go to get to ascension peak.) and she gets a really bad attitude about it while saying she wont go that way with the party, forcing you to drop her to progress, she was similarly awful when I tried to go to Bayjin with her in my group. I mean almost every recruitable party member wont go to those places and some others, but she is by far the worst about it considering who she is supposed to be and how supposedly important she is supposed to allegedly be to the finale of the game.

Great game I just wish the were some mods to add at least one new custom made recruitable npc that would actually go with you to more places. (The robot RFS-81 is the real MVP, he pretty much goes anywhere.)

I still have the spyro reignited trilogy in my steam library that I picked up when it was on sale, need to install and try that out sometime as well.

[Cygnia]

Finished both the casual and hard runs of Thimbleweed Park. Ceville was on sale for 90% so I'm trying it for 39 cents. And sitting on my hands to NOT immediately buy Sentinels of Earth-Prime.

[Saambell]

Picked up a reverse city builder called Terra Nil. Instead of making an urban sprawl, you start with a wasteland and terraform it back into a beautiful wilderness. Then once its thriving again, you pack up your buildings and leave the land a thriving ecosystem. Very relaxing, has at base 3 difficulties which mostly just adjust how much buildings cost and your starting funds. But it also has a build your own difficulty, which I have not played around with yet. There is also the ability to once you finish a level, to turn on appreciate mode, and just watch your hard work be beautiful.

Another bonus is the devs are donating part of the earnings to endangered wildlife charities, so not only do you get a relaxing game, you also help a good cause.

[LibraryOgre]

I finished New Vegas, doing an Independent Run for the first time. I decided to give Benny a chance to go out in a blaze of glory, giving me an excuse to kill Caesar, then kill Lanius at the end... I wasn't gonna leave any of those slavers alive. While I generally LIKE the Sink, and find it really convenient to have everything in a short walk from everything, I find needing to ditch my companions every time to be a pain, and discourages me from having companions.

I'm now playing Dragon Age: Origins. Elf wizard, this time, instead of my dwarven commoner rogue who I love so much. I find it frustrating not to be the rogue, sort of... I am stuck with Leiliana (soon Zevran), simply because I need a rogue to do things like disarm traps and open locks. I like having a wizard's skills, but I could always outsource those. Might do DA2 after this, again as a wizard.

[Batcathat]

I finished New Vegas, doing an Independent Run for the first time. I decided to give Benny a chance to go out in a blaze of glory, giving me an excuse to kill Caesar, then kill Lanius at the end... I wasn't gonna leave any of those slavers alive. While I generally LIKE the Sink, and find it really convenient to have everything in a short walk from everything, I find needing to ditch my companions every time to be a pain, and discourages me from having companions.

I'm now playing Dragon Age: Origins. Elf wizard, this time, instead of my dwarven commoner rogue who I love so much. I find it frustrating not to be the rogue, sort of... I am stuck with Leiliana (soon Zevran), simply because I need a rogue to do things like disarm traps and open locks. I like having a wizard's skills, but I could always outsource those. Might do DA2 after this, again as a wizard.

Aw, now I kinda want to do another run of either of those and even if I give into temptation, I'll have to make up my mind about which one. Both New Vegas and DAO are among my all-time favorites. (And on the topic of endings, I should probably try the NCR or Legion endings, I'm not sure I've ever picked one of those.)

And as a habitual player of rogues (or equivalent) in most RPGs, I sympathize with the issue of suddenly having to rely on other characters for stuff like that.

EDIT: No wait, I think I picked the Legion ending in my "crazy melee cannibal" run. That was a pretty fun one.

[Triaxx]

One of the benefits of modding New Vegas is the companion friendly hideouts.

Then again I find it hard to escape the mad scientist cowboy if only because seeing Legion assassin's get wiped out by my Giant Crashed Car bot is intensely funny to me.

[GloatingSwine]

Banjo-Kazooie (and Tooie) are pretty much the last gasp of a genre - the collectathon platformer - that was on the way out when they were made (hence why the third game in the series is vehicle-based) and has never really recovered. The spiritual successor Yooka-Laylee games didn't sell all that great, and I don't recall anything else in that vein in well over a decade. The writing, art style, and characters would have a lot of charm today, but the core game mechanic? That's a harder sell.

One of the (AAA) videogame industry's more annoying habits is intermittently declaring things old hat and stopping making them, with seemingly no evidence that they actually aren't popular any more.

Then a decade or so later they'll dig them up and stuff them full of microtransactions.

Remember when they said nobody wanted turn based games any more, then XCOM and Persona 5 happened? Or Survival Horror until it was time to nostalgia bait people with Resi 4 and Dead Space?

[LibraryOgre]

One of the benefits of modding New Vegas is the companion friendly hideouts.

Then again I find it hard to escape the mad scientist cowboy if only because seeing Legion assassin's get wiped out by my Giant Crashed Car bot is intensely funny to me.

I think this is the first time I've encountered Harper's Shack, which is close to perfect, if it was considered Player Housing (and you can survive the neighbors).

[Triaxx]

Yeah Harper's is a solid option.

[Rynjin]

One of the (AAA) videogame industry's more annoying habits is intermittently declaring things old hat and stopping making them, with seemingly no evidence that they actually aren't popular any more.

Then a decade or so later they'll dig them up and stuff them full of microtransactions.

Remember when they said nobody wanted turn based games any more, then XCOM and Persona 5 happened? Or Survival Horror until it was time to nostalgia bait people with Resi 4 and Dead Space?

Survival horror actually was dead for a while (sales were slipping...mostly along with game quality). It wasn't the nostalgia bait games that changed that but Resident Evil 7. Resi7 was a MASSIVE, likely somewhat unexpected success for Capcom and a bit of shock to the industry as a whole.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, though I think in these two specific instances it was kinda true. Collectathons had started to fall off in sales and so had survival horror.

[LibraryOgre]

One thing about Dragon Age (at least, Origins, Awakening, and 2) is that it always makes me want to play an RPG in Thedas. In any RPG, there's always the "I want to give a different answer to this", but DA often makes me want to roll up a dwarf or something.

[Resileaf]

One of the (AAA) videogame industry's more annoying habits is intermittently declaring things old hat and stopping making them, with seemingly no evidence that they actually aren't popular any more.

To be fair, the collect-a-thon genre did get shot in the leg by DK64 and it's been limping ever since. It needs to be really good to be something people are willing to play in today's market.

[Zevox]

Survival horror actually was dead for a while (sales were slipping...mostly along with game quality). It wasn't the nostalgia bait games that changed that but Resident Evil 7. Resi7 was a MASSIVE, likely somewhat unexpected success for Capcom and a bit of shock to the industry as a whole.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, though I think in these two specific instances it was kinda true. Collectathons had started to fall off in sales and so had survival horror.

Can't speak to survival horror, but collectathons were also kind of a flooded market for a while there. After Mario 64's big success they turned into the natural extension into 3D of the already-existing big rush on mascot platformers that Mario and Sonic had already inspired. The N64/PS1 era was full of them - I know I rented plenty back in the day - and of course, when there's that many being made, most of them aren't exactly going to be top-quality.

To be fair, the collect-a-thon genre did get shot in the leg by DK64 and it's been limping ever since. It needs to be really good to be something people are willing to play in today's market.

Again, Mario. The main entries in his series remained in that same style from 64 all the way through Odyssey, which is still the most recent major entry in the series, and one of the best selling titles on the Switch. Now, Mario obviously has the advantage of being Nintendo's mascot, but still, he's not selling that many millions off name recognition alone while everyone gripes about his games not being good.

Also, DK64 was a good game, and I don't care who says otherwise . And plenty of gamers these days have never played it anyway, since Nintendo only ever re-released it on the Wii U virtual console (and we all know how the Wii U sold), and those of us who have did so over two decades ago, so it's kind of hard for many to be put off by it anymore.

[Sermil]

Page 49, need to come up with a new thread name soon.

My vote is "What Are You Playing (2023 Reboot)"

[Resileaf]

Again, Mario. The main entries in his series remained in that same style from 64 all the way through Odyssey, which is still the most recent major entry in the series, and one of the best selling titles on the Switch. Now, Mario obviously has the advantage of being Nintendo's mascot, but still, he's not selling that many millions off name recognition alone while everyone gripes about his games not being good.

Also, DK64 was a good game, and I don't care who says otherwise . And plenty of gamers these days have never played it anyway, since Nintendo only ever re-released it on the Wii U virtual console (and we all know how the Wii U sold), and those of us who have did so over two decades ago, so it's kind of hard for many to be put off by it anymore.

Sure, but it's telling that Mario is basically the only series in the market that can still do the collect-a-thon and sell well these days.

And I mean, I don't disagree on DK64 being an awesome game. It was Rare at its best. But it's also true that there is a... Lot of stuff to collect in that game. Way more than in any other collect-a-thon. Though it's unfortunate that the re-releases have a certain issue with framerates.

Because the game was designed around its framerate on the N64, when it's played on a more powerful machine, even through an emulator, DK64 runs too fast and some parts of it are either out of sync (cutscenes run faster than the audio) or some minigames becomes impossible because timers run at the actual rate of one second per second instead of slow seconds like on the N64.

[Bohandas]

I'm currently obsessed with Shadows of Forbidden Gods a grand strategy game about spreading cults and driving world leaders insane to release a lovecraftian god. It's great!

[Rodin]

Sure, but it's telling that Mario is basically the only series in the market that can still do the collect-a-thon and sell well these days.

And I mean, I don't disagree on DK64 being an awesome game. It was Rare at its best. But it's also true that there is a... Lot of stuff to collect in that game. Way more than in any other collect-a-thon. Though it's unfortunate that the re-releases have a certain issue with framerates.

Because the game was designed around its framerate on the N64, when it's played on a more powerful machine, even through an emulator, DK64 runs too fast and some parts of it are either out of sync (cutscenes run faster than the audio) or some minigames becomes impossible because timers run at the actual rate of one second per second instead of slow seconds like on the N64.

Define "sell well". There are still collect-a-thon games getting made. Hat in Time and Yooka-Laylee are the two most prominent I see, but there are quick googling reveals a good few more that are well regarded. It also depends on your definition - do the Lego games with their vast number of collectables count?

They aren't primary AAA games any more, but the genre still has its niche from what I can tell.

[Zombimode]

Got through a couple of games lately.

I somehow found myself giving Wasteland 3 a second chance. Last year I tried to get into that game and played it for quite a bit. I was going in with high expectations since the game is praised pretty highly but found myself strangely not engaged which let to me dropping the game.
I think this had several reasons:
First, back then the memory of the ATOM games which I found much more interesting and engaging was still fresh.
Second, the combat mechanics do not have a lot to offer. The character abilities are pretty shallow (you mostly shoot things). Its a side-based initiative system which leads to very explosive and one-sided combats. And since neither cover nor armor offer significant enough protection that you can rely on, you actually have to control and limit the number of enemies that can attack a single character regardless of that characters cover or armor.
And third while the game has a very clear and well-executed aesthetic I was not hooked by that personally because it is so very very american. This is not a ding against the game, but simply a matter of fact and a reminder that games can and do have cultural ties.
When I was picking up the game again I knew what I was getting into and had my expectations leveled. And... the game grew on me. I started to appreciate the game's style even though I often did not experienced the emotional response the game expected me to. The combat while simple is not bad per se, and the game very much focuses on "important" combat encounters. But I think the main source of enjoyment came from the two DLCs, both of which are well-made. More importantly both DLCs do their own things. They explore themes outside the main games, have different music and even put their own spin on the gameplay. Especially Cult of the Holy Detonation was very enjoyable.
And in the end, Wasteland 3 is still a big RPG where your choices and actions shape the world and it's people which is something I always enjoy.
Overall I'm glad that I gave it a second go as Wasteland 3 does offer a pretty unique experience. For me it will never be one of the genre's biggest hits, not nearly on the same level as my top entries in recent memory (Tyranny, Kingmaker and D:OS 2), but I can see why it can take that spot for other people.

Then I jumped into Bendy and the Ink Machine, a highly stylized game presenting it self as a horror puzzle game. While the game absolutely nails the style it is sadly lacking in all the other departments. The gameplay is frustratingly basic, the "puzzles" are not worthy of that name and horror didn't really manifested for me. The later is is part because the protagonist is strangely OK with what he sees: why should I be worried about living incarnations of cartoon figures when protagonist just accepts it?
The game's setting (the Ink Workshop) is also not as captivating as other horror settings have been. It has the potential but it lacks the substance to really build up my interest.
For that reason I'm not sure if I will pick up the mini spin-off Boris and the Dark Survival. The recently released sequel Bendy and the Dark Revival on the other hand I will very likely play at some point as it seems to address many of the criticisms against the first game.
Now, this sounds all a bit negative for a game that I did enjoy quite a bit. The game is quite atmospheric and also does not overstay its welcome: you can comfortably finish it on a weekend. I do recommend the game if the game's style floats your boat. Just don't expect to much from the gameplay or puzzles.

Next up was Iron Harvest which I found to be quite fantastic. It's an RTS game based on the dieselpunk 1920+ Alternate History setting whose most visually striking difference is that the tank of the First World War did not evolve into the tracked vehicle but into various forms of walker-mechs.
The game seems to be a bit polarizing with a wide range of points being raised for and against it:

• "The gameplay is like Company of Heroes and quite good, but not as good" - as I have not played CoH this comparison is lost to me, so I focus on the "gameplay is good" part. It is, but it is also true that there are some flaws here and there: infantry seeking cover right next to the enemy infantry, the interface not being as clear as it could be, some basic RTS features are missing like a "hold fire" order or a patrol mode
• "The gameplay is not fast-paced enough, heavy units are cumbersome" - true, its not a super fast-paced RTS and true, the mechs have some real weight to them. I mean, it is a game about hulking primitive dieselpunk mechs - what do you expect? To me the pace is a plus as I like slower RTS games. Plus, it's not like you can sit on your thumps. The more challenging missions require constant action and early initiative.
• "The games sucks in competitive multiplayer - it's 'unbalanced' and no-one plays it" - the game is unabashedly focused on it's single player experience, and that is also the only thing I care for. Maybe the games sucks in multiplayer. I don't know, I don't care.
• "The story is bad and the voice actors are scenery-chewing large hams" - maybe we have played different games, or maybe you (the general "you") have not paid attention, but more on the story later. The voice acting is not that consistent but overall quite good with some real talents here and there (Gunther von Duisburg especially). As a bonus they have used the same voice actors for all the supported languages. Plus, you can set an option that all characters speak in there native language - which can lead to situations where a pole, a russian and a german all talk to each other in their native language apparently understanding each other perfectly, but to me that was worth it
• "The campaign is surprisingly good" - oh yes, it is. It is the heart of the game, a hefty piece with 28 missions in total, and no expanses spared. So lets talk about the campaign.

The campaign spans the three factions of the original game and forms one cohesive narrative. The Usonia campaign from the DLC is set after the end of the base game but is doing its own thing.
During its run the campaign is constantly adding suspense, making the transition from the humble snowball battle in the first mission to the epic conclusion feel seamless. There is also no drop-of in difficulty between the factions.
Most surprising for me was that while the game features dieselpunk mechs and C&C style Tesla Coils the narrative and characters are pretty grounded. This is not comedy, this is not a feel-good story. It is a post Great War story with conflicted and flawed characters where war is not glorified at all (the three World War 1 flash back missions really hit home). Not all characters are fleshed out equally and some characters feel a bit like embodied Zeitgeists. Positive standout are Gunther von Duisburg and Jannek Kos. Jannek gets special mention as pretty much the only one with no political agenda.
Lastly I want to praise the spectacular presentation: the sound design, from the creaking of metal-on-metal to the hefty explosion and weapon sounds, the destructible environment, the large and highly detailed maps - this is what a modern RTS can be!
While not without flaws I can heartly recommend Iron Harvest to any RTS player who values a fun and engaging story campaign, with the game's presentation being one of the best that I have seen in the genre.

Finally and currently I've recently started Scorn, also a first-person horror puzzle game. It comes with high-fidelity engrossing visuals, a very fitting soundscape and at least in the 2 hours I've played so far does pretty well in both the horror and the puzzle department

[Eldan]

Scorn didn't click with me, I gave it up after a few hours. Mainly because I thought the puzzles were a bit too easy, but made annoying by slightly awkward controls. And after I got used to it, the environment shifted in my head from "pretty cool Giger reconstruction" to "abandoned industrial park", so that wasn't holding my interest either.

Played through Dredge over Easter. Unlike what the trailers show, it's actually pretty light on the horror, especially if you play carefully. Going out at night, as well as a few other things, lowers a sanity meter, but that never actually felt dangerous, more annoying. Your sight worsens, there's purple stuff all over your screen and at some point, sea monsters start coming after you, but the game also pretty early on gives you tools to outrun or banish those and after a few hours, I was pretty regularly just making runs across the open ocean at night with no consequences. Plus hull and light upgrades make you feel pretty safe, too. (Maybe I'm also too much of a biologist, if I see a Gulper Eel or a Frilled Shark, I don't go "Oh no, what terrifying terror of the deep", I go "oooh, neat".) The story is... serviceable. It doesn't give you a lot of details, but enough to put stuff together, but then, it's not the focus. Apart from that, the game gives you enough with various small sidequests to keep you motivated to go new places. And the core gameplay loop is very serviceable and navigating the environments is solid. They are varied enough to keep you interested and there's enough upgrades and equipment variations that you have something to work for.

Overall, a solid game, fun for a few hours, can recommend.

[Corvus]

I picked up Deep Sky Derelicts, free from GoG. I've made my way through the first derelict, so far. The card mechanic is interesting, but having a constantly draining energy meter, is somewhat annoying. I'm going with a Leader/Scrapper/Technician lineup. If any of you have played it, what are your thoughts on the game?

Energy does improve as you research. You will still have to keep an eye on it but carrying a couple of recharges is handy.

I played it some time back and enjoyed it. I liked the ideas behind the setting and he ability to have more control over the makeup of you decks.

I went with a leader/medic/bruiser build. Leader gives bonus money on completing jobs due to high mental, helps with card draw and bonus actions and debuffs the enemy. Medic, despite the name, doesn't heal - they just give bonus turns and massive buffs to team mates. Both of them are their to buff the bruiser, who is both tank and aoe. Being able to lay down multiple big aoe attacks in a single turn due to buffs from the other two makes very short work of the enemy.

[Rynjin]

Scorn didn't click with me, I gave it up after a few hours. Mainly because I thought the puzzles were a bit too easy, but made annoying by slightly awkward controls. And after I got used to it, the environment shifted in my head from "pretty cool Giger reconstruction" to "abandoned industrial park", so that wasn't holding my interest either.

The only good things to come out of Scorn were the visuals and that bass boosted "S C O R N" reverb sound Jerma made during his playthrough TBH.

[warty goblin]

Suggested new thread title: What are you playing v8.0: Nerfing Your Build.


Iron Harvest is good, and does what it does pretty well. The difficulty in having a game comparable to Company of Heroes (which it very much is) is that CoH is functionally perfect already, to the point where Relic can't make the sequels feel like genuine improvements because aside from sorting some physics bugs there isn't anything really to improve.

So if you enjoyed Iron Harvest, play CoH. The original plus Opposing Fronts is, well, perfect.

[IthilanorStPete]

I'm currently obsessed with Shadows of Forbidden Gods a grand strategy game about spreading cults and driving world leaders insane to release a lovecraftian god. It's great!

I just looked this up, I'm definitely going to try it out; it sounds hilarious and amazing.

[Cygnia]

How does it compare to Cult of the Lamb?

[AlanBruce]

Just finished playing Life is Strange: True Colors.

I must give credit to the studio- their writers deliver with a very good story and cast. The character designs are perfect, especially the protagonist. The environment is stunning to look at. My only pseudo complaint would be the power itself, which took me awhile to understand how it actually works (it seems to be all over the place at times, unlike the previous entries where the ability is clearly defined, but that could be just me). Otherthan that, a story worth replaying if anything to see more of this vibrant world.

I did get the DLC, Wavelengths. More for the nostalgia, since it centers around a side character from past games, but other than a technical improvement visually, I didn’t find it as engaging.

[Zevox]

Sure, but it's telling that Mario is basically the only series in the market that can still do the collect-a-thon and sell well these days.

Mario is also the only notable series to try in a very long time. Recall that the next most notable somewhat recent examples we have are two kickstarter-funded indie games. Other than Mario and those two, what was the last notable example of a game even attempting the genre? The closest I can think of is Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, which, while partially influenced by collectathon platformers, is as much stealth/action-adventure as platformer, and is now a full decade old. And before that I don't even know if there was anything notable after the N64/PS1 era.

And I mean, I don't disagree on DK64 being an awesome game. It was Rare at its best. But it's also true that there is a... Lot of stuff to collect in that game. Way more than in any other collect-a-thon.

Sure. And? It's not even like the game didn't sell well back in the day, it very much did. Any claims of it killing the genre even then are pretty exaggerated, and it's doubtful anyone these days would be put off trying a collectathon platformer because of remembering how excessive the amount of collectibles in an over two decade old game were.

[IthilanorStPete]

I'm currently obsessed with Shadows of Forbidden Gods a grand strategy game about spreading cults and driving world leaders insane to release a lovecraftian god. It's great!

I just looked this up, I'm definitely going to try it out; it sounds hilarious and amazing.

And after some time with the demo, it's somewhat less great than I thought. The interface is really clunky, there's a tremendous amount of information to deal with that's hard to sort through, and it's really hard to understand how to make progress. Probably not going to spend more time with this.

[Triaxx]

Just Cause 2 tried collectathon in an open world and it was so big you'd get 100% completion for getting 80% of the items.

[Zombimode]

Scorn didn't click with me, I gave it up after a few hours. Mainly because I thought the puzzles were a bit too easy, but made annoying by slightly awkward controls. And after I got used to it, the environment shifted in my head from "pretty cool Giger reconstruction" to "abandoned industrial park", so that wasn't holding my interest either.

The only good things to come out of Scorn were the visuals and that bass boosted "S C O R N" reverb sound Jerma made during his playthrough TBH.

Huh. Well, Scorn seems to elicit quite polarizing responses: on the one hand there is a lot of negativity surrounding Scorn, for very diverse reasons. Then there is the camp of players that are truly fascinated by the game. There seems to be almost no middle ground.

Thankfully, I'm in the later camp. Scorn is a masterpiece. It is clearly the most visually impressive game I've ever played. It has a soundscape to match. A highly detailed and very carefully crafted world that creates a unique atmosphere.
While the lore is not made explicit the worlds imagery is coherent and intentional enough to allow the lore to be pieced together by the player. Is my interpretation the same that the game's developers had in mind? Maybe, maybe not. Again, the game is detailed and coherent enough that I can create my own interpretation clearly based on what can be seen in the game. I see no difference in that to other artwork: if I look at a painting by Hieronymus Bosch or Pieter Bruegel I construct a meaning out of what is depicted on the painting and my own perspective.

But I am in no way surprised by the negative views the game gets. It is a very niche title.
Horror has pretty much no mass appeal in the first place. Then, Scorn is a very "artsy" game (which again lacks mass appeal) and whether a specific artsy games works for you or not really depends on the individual. Again, just like with other artwork: I like Bosch and Bruegel, but Picasso and Dalí just don't work for me - but obviously both have their vivid fans.

Iron Harvest is good, and does what it does pretty well. The difficulty in having a game comparable to Company of Heroes (which it very much is) is that CoH is functionally perfect already, to the point where Relic can't make the sequels feel like genuine improvements because aside from sorting some physics bugs there isn't anything really to improve.

So if you enjoyed Iron Harvest, play CoH. The original plus Opposing Fronts is, well, perfect.

I thought about doing that, multiple times. But.... I'm just done with WW2 as a video game setting. I can't stomach it anymore.
I didn't pick Iron Harvest because I thought it was mechanically superior to CoH. I did so because the game's setting and visuals are just that much more appealing to me.

[Eldan]

I like artsy games especially artsy horror , and Scorn is well made, but to me, it all just felt samey after a while. I've seen horror movies, I live half an hour from the Giger museum. So to me, it all just became "oh, that's a crane, those are rails, this is a block puzzle, I need the red key for that door" after about an hour.

I'm just jaded, I guess.