13
votes
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.
Following up on a discussion from a few weeks ago, there's a sale on EU IV right now. I'm wondering what a good level of entry commitment might be: Mostly, plain or starter pack, or maybe a specific DLC that isn't in the starter pack. That kinda thing. I'm going to give the free 3-day tryout a go meanwhile, but that's without DLCs afaict.
Also a brief starter guide to EU4 would be appreciated for someone familiar with stellaris and HOi4, if someone feels like providing that.
Paging @cfabbro because we talked about this.
Also for the deckbuilder roguelite crowd, I've come Across the Obelisk today but haven't evaluated it.
TBH, I have no idea how I could even start writing a starter guide for EU4 at this point due to how complex it has become, and how different the game can be depending on what nation you play as, and what DLC you own. Most mechanics are included in the base game, since Paradox regularly updates the base game to include features developed for the Expansions in order to prevent the game from diverging too much, but there are still quite a few very very useful mechanics that only unlock if you have particular DLC. But as for recommending DLCs, I have always purchased all of them as they came out, and have always played with them all enabled, so after all this time I don't remember which mechanics are from which DLC anymore, or which DLC is really worth getting.
So your best bet is probably going to be finding a more recent YouTube beginner's guide for the game and watching that. That's how I learned the basics ages and ages ago. And there are probably DLC recommendation guides on YouTube as well.
Edit: MordredViking did a tutorial series for complete EU4 beginners late last year for the official Paradox channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5-XrNlVNE&list=PL_3rLv22kp6RpVViojSxMScS6_uzu2jeS
I've watched a bunch of Mordred's Let's Play series, and he knows his stuff, so that's probably a good one to watch to help get you started.
I checked the EU4 Steam page to see what the DLC situation is like (after not playing the game for years). There are a total of 38 pieces of DLC, which combined cost more than 7 times the price of the base game. But apparently they also offer a subscription service now, at a monthly price of about a 9th of the base game. They're a bit vague about the contents, but "over a dozen expansions and immersion packs", that sounds like a pretty good deal.
A couple of the DLCs are essentially must-haves, since they add pretty important mechanics (iirc Wealth of Nations and Art of War are fairly important, maybe Rights of Man?), while others are important depending where you play the most (like the Dharma DLC and the Mandate of Heaven DLC adding greater depth to India and China, respectively)
Mainly FFXIV. I think I'm halfway through Heavensward content. I feel I might actually stay in FFXIV for longer than usual (1-3mo) this time since I've found myself looking at RDM guides and even instance guides, which I've never really done before. Been very much enjoying EX instances, even though we wipe like 10 times before completing it (if we even do complete it).
Picked up a game called Jack Move yesterday on Steam. JRPG-style cyberpunk-influenced game. Doesn't seem to take itself too seriously though. Only played about an hour so far, but liking the look and feel and definitely interested in some of the systems. Like instead of magic spells, my character is using software. And she has slots on her "deck" to allow for more RAM, so she can load more software (ie have more spells). A bit overtop and cringey with the cyberpunk-influenced dialog at times, but nothing too crazy.
I have just been cycling between Ys VIII and Bloodstained.
Yes, I already played through Bloodstained on Switch but now on the Steam Deck the visuals are so much better that it almost feels like a remake. The same is true with Ys but I never got very far on that game before because I didn’t have the patience for the twitchy skills it required at that time.
When those are done I might start on a new VN but I am not sure which. I technically still have to finish Arcade Spirits but I am leaning towards playing Paradise Killer. And that reminds me I still need to get a copy of Boyfriend Dungeon.
So Steam launched their Tokyo Game Show sale and it turns out that a ton of games that I had been waiting for a good sale price to buy are now on sale. I guess I know what I'm going to be playing next week.
I almost forgot that the last Project Diva release, Megamix+, got a PC release, but now that you can buy both the base game and the additional song pass that gives you a total of 250 songs to choose from for the 'normal game' price of $60, I had to buy it. To be honest, I bought a simelar bundle for Switch not too long ago. I loved playing the earlier iterations on my Vita because I think that rhythm games are kind of the perfect pick-up-and-play kind of game because they're quick to engross you and it needs only last as long as you have time for. Sadly the Switch version doesn't work that way because Nintendo's downloadable game functionality is completely retarded and requires you to connect to their servers to prove that you own the game, and there quite simply is no physical version for the Switch to get around that requirement! And with the one exception of the AB/XY keys being reversed by default, it plays perfectly on Steam Deck!
The other games I bought were a little bit ill-advised because they're all Windows games and my Windows gaming PC is not currently connected. And to make things worse, they are all certified to not work on Steam Deck. Those games are Ai: the Somnium Files, the remake of Yu-No, and a super cheap bundle consisting of Way of the Samurai 3 and 4. The great news is that I stubbornly downloaded all of these games to my Steam Deck and they all played absolutely flawlessly. The only hiccup was that some of them had an annoying launcher to start the game and you have to tap the button that says "play game". I'm just utterly astonished at how much better this little thing is than I had ever imagined. At this point I must say that Valve is seriously underselling the value you get with this thing.
That being said, while I was testing to see if these games would work, I have decided for sure that my next game is going to be the Yu-No remake. I've already gotten through the first 1/4-1/2 of the famously long prologue. The writing is so good that it just sucks you in instantly. I haven't gotten too far with the remake yet, but for sure you'll be hearing a lot of my thoughts about it next week.
I just wanna point out that I played the introduction to Torment Tides of Numenera (which is on Xbox Game Pass), and I think that is the best writing I ever read on a videogame. And by writing I mean literal text, a bunch of it. This is a very wordy game. But it felt like the beginnings of a novel, and a good one. I have little to say about mechanics or graphics (it seems fine so far), but I may continue playing this game largely for the writing -- and I don't think I ever said that before.
If you enjoy the writing in Torment: Tides of Numenera, you would probably love the writing in Disco Elysium too. Those two games have the some of the best writing, and most unique worldbuilding, in any RPGs I have ever played, along with another of my favorites, the much older Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Edit: Oh, and if you haven't played it yet either, Planescape: Torment (which Tides of Numenera is a spiritual successor to) is also definitely worth checking out too.
I just finished Death Stranding: Director's Cut and it's great. The ending is super long and mostly re-tells the entire story as I'd already put it together, repeats itself twice, and maybe a quarter of it is actually new story content. I like the story, I like the idea of how they tried to end things, but it also makes you sit through the credits twice as well. I like the story, but I've played maybe 1 hour of the last three finishing this game up. I'll probably not continue it, or replay it, but it's a game I'm glad I finished.
Is that repetitiveness due to it being the Director's Cut, or is it the same in the regular edition?
No idea. I dont think DC adds extra cutscenes, though.
I finished the campaign for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition this week. To be honest, the game started feeling like a chore around midway through, and I'm not entirely sure why it didn't click with me given how much I enjoyed Xenoblade Chronicles 2. When I first played the standard edition around a decade ago, I managed to get about a dozen hours in before dropping it; but I only dropped the game because of the inconvenience of playing it -- I played on an emulator, and Dolphin wasn't in the shape it is now -- but I do remember being enthralled by the vastness of the world and the MMORPG mechanics.
I think the main problem is that the game became stale around the midpoint, since by then I had basically experienced everything the game had to offer: I had almost all my character arts, with the only remaining task being to optimize my gear/stats/skills.
But the secondary problem is that, despite how vast the world is, there's just too little to do. When I went off the beaten path, I would often encounter "unique monsters" with piddling rewards. Sometimes I would find "secret areas", but these usually offered even less than the unique monsters. Notably missing were chests -- with only a few late-game exceptions, these just didn't exist.
Finally, in a game with 400+ quests, almost all are filler fetch quests. It's unfortunate because the game does offer real quests, but you have to sort through the rubbish to find them. In fact, there are quests to unlock 14 extra skill trees (of 35 total). This is exactly the sort of injection this game needed to stay fresh, but unfortunately I only found a single extra skill tree quest in my playthrough -- they were just buried under all these crappy side quests.
That said, even though my review is fairly negative, I did generally enjoy the game (especially the music). And I'm not quite done with it -- I still want to play the epilogue and unlock the extra skill trees for each character.