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What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
All PC versions of the game got upgraded to Final Cut so if you're playing it now, you should be playing that version.
I'm playing Tunic, alias Fox Souls: A Fox To The Past, and holy shit. So far I think it's game of the year material. Tight design, engaging, challenging, polished, bug-free. And the booklet mechanic is so cool. I'm not much one for Souls-like difficulty, but I like exploring and finding secrets. Having loved LttP as a kid I appreciate the many many nods to that game. The game does also remind me of Death's Door.
Started Elite Dangerous not very far, only completed the training and first couple of quests so far. I haven't played a space/flight sim game in a long time, but man these controls feel wrong. A friend's son plays this on Xbox, but I'm not sure how as I set the input to controller and it's still making me use the keyboard for half of what I need to do. Went back to keyboard and it still doesn't feel right. I usually adapt to control schemes pretty well and then change them as desired, but these stock settings just feel way off and being that I just started I can't really change them as I don't know what half the settings/scenarios where they apply mean.
I log in to Lost Ark once a day, grab the daily rewards chest, do nothing else, and log off. This is down from playing a few hours a day (and several hours a day on weekends) for the first month, to doing all of the daily and weekly tasks each day (completed in about 90 minutes) after that first month, to what is now logging in, clicking one thing, and logging off. The latest update gave everyone what is effectively a Season Pass that was initially presented in the game as being for top end characters. Once you accept it, you realize it's for characters that just hit level 50. You cannot change it to another character (at this time). There's honestly nothing to do except grind and I'm real tired of it. I tell myself I'm waiting for the BigHammerGuyTM next month to drop, but even that isn't going to change the actual gameplay much, so not sure if I'll even last that long. Time/rate limiting what I can do or how often I can do it just leaves a extremely bad taste in the mouth. I uninstall mobile games that do it, Diablo has grinds for gear, but doesn't time/rate limit you and having extremely low chance RNG that uses the resources you can barely manage to acquire in high enough quantity because of the time/rate limits really sucks as a progression block. The alternative is to use alts to transfer what little resources that aren't character bound to your main character by having them complete the exact same tasks each day/week to boost one toon higher. I am not a rushed player, I took my time, I watched every cutscene, read every story, did every side mission I came across, tome is at 70-80% for every continent, I have a third of the island souls and completed the island missions on about two thirds of all the islands (since many others just want you to grind for days on end), and after two months as a regular, but still relatively casual, player I've exhausted all of the content leading up to the 1470 grind. I'm looking at the 75gb of space it's taking up on one hand and wondering if it's time to send an eviction notice.
Hi. Experienced E:D player here. I find the controls very intuitive and comfortable. First thing to check or ask: There's a big difference between having Flight Assist on vs. having it off. I personally much prefer FA off, but you should check what you currently have it set to, and try to switch to the other, and see how that feels. In a nutshell: FA is more realistic, where the ship floats freely and holds momentum(s), where as FA off is a lot more "arcadey". For me, FA off feels really wrong, and unrealistic and immersion-breaking.
Second: most of the controls settings are named well enough, I think, so you should be able to remap things to your liking, and also adjust sliders (sensitivity, etc.).
Small tip: I use KBM for "normal space" flight, but use a controller for supercruise. Something you could consider.
Most controls can take two bindings, so you have more than one way to do it. Perhaps that's what going on with your setup. Honestly, though, on PC, I can't imagine not using the keyboard at all, because there are lots of bindable things, and I don't see how a controller could be mapped to comprehensively cover all of them.
This made me legitimately smile (context). Introducing someone to game that they have enjoyed, and then seeing them speak up and help better than I would have - that's a good feeling.
No Man's Sky: I'm still doing the expedition and tried to fly all the way across the galaxy after using the black hole trick to fix a Phase 2 mission. I'm finally on Phase 4, and just need to get the Sentinel Scanner and t he rendezvous and it's on to the next phase. I'm enjoying it more as it makes more sense.
I was in a roguelike mood and hit some Sproggiwood and Ultimate Adom. UA is super simple compared to how I expected it, but I want to poke at it more. Sproggiwood is just goofy, smaller dungeons in a Mario-style map, and almost like Chess wjth how you need to think about space. Maybe all traditional roguelike are anyway, and I've just missed it, but I like this approach.
I started up Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PS4), for like the umpteenth time. I actually own an original PS2 collector's edition of this game. As well as the Switch version. Because I think this game is great. I love the look of the game, the setting, and the political machinations and literal palace intrigue. However...
The story is soooo slow to me. Every playthrough, I get a bit further, but I feel like I'm always waiting for that turn or twist, or something to really happen but it never comes. Or at least I haven't seen it yet. And it's not like I haven't put the hours in. I think my furthest attempt was like 40hrs in. It's just slow. Which I accept, but it does make it hard to hold my attention.
There are some things I'm not a fan of, the battle system being one. It does use an Active Battle System. Fights happen in the open world, not in some separate battle scene. I do control the location of my party lead. But it's still turn-based, though it's largely automated. The characters are "programmed" using the Gambit system. These are a series of prioritized if-then statements. So like if a party members drops below 70% HP, then have this character case Cure. Or if the target has the highest HP of the group of monsters, then attack it first.
I'm actually fine with this part; it's a neat system that still offers the player some control over the characters (unlike in FF13 with its Paradigm system where characters are completely automated; the player just shifts the characters classes during battle; the player is abstracted away from the battle). It's just that there's still the traditional waiting time bar between actions. Even though it appears to be like a Western, active action RPG game, it's really not. Having just finished the FF7: Remake, which almost fully leans into a live, active battle system, it really makes FF12's battles feel slow, and the game overall even slower. I'm normally a fan of traditional turn-based JRPGs. But having a sorta compromise system subverts my expectations.
The "new" Zodiac class system (I believe it was part of the original release in Japan, but wasn't part of the Western releases) is also causing some headache. At least right now in the early game. But I think that eventually sorta opens up and leads to better character stats/skills development, so I won't harp on that much. Plus this is getting long.
Idk. I hope I can finish attempt this time. In fact, I'm going to go play some right now!