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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.
Starfield. So much Starfield. There are the occasional bugs, and there are some features that could certainly be added or improved in the base builder, ship builder, etc. But even as is, it's incredible. They have created something that is truly a masterpiece.
Honestly, I can't shake the thought that it's just skyrim in space, or fallout in space. I haven't played the game, but that's what I'm expecting. I'm not excited about it.
If you consider yourself a discerning/picky gamer in any regard, I can't recommend buying the game. It's just bland and boring.
Couldn't disagree more.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I suppose it's probably pretty interesting if you haven't played many games in the same space, but once you have, the shine wears off pretty quickly.
I don't know if the "same space" is Bethesda games or ED/NMS/etc, but either way I think I have probably played just about every game in the space for a hundred or more hours (which is about where I'm at with Starfield already). I can't really explain it, but my experience is exactly the opposite. The first couple of hours were a slog, but the more I play the more I get sucked in.
To each their own. I've replayed and finished Freelancer multiple times (vanilla and modded) over the years alongside the Wing Commander games. And hundreds of hours in ED grinding nearly everything the game has aside from high level Thargoid hunts.
I'm still playing Starfield, warts and all. I'm always up for new sci-fi worlds where humanity has colonized the stars.
Having played almost all of Bethesda's games starting with Morrowind, I can confirm, it's just more of the same. Very bland and lifeless, requires mods to get any long-term enjoyment.
Thanks - I think I'd enjoy it a bit, but would probably stop playing before I finish the main quest.
I'll wait for a price drop - I'm still playing BG3 and have cities skylines 2 coming up soon.
This was my initial feelings on the game as well, but with it being "free" on Game Pass I gave it a shot. It is definitely a Bethesda game in feel and behavior of the game engine, but I think they did a pretty good job at creating a universe for this game setting that doesn't feel like Elder Scrolls or Fallout. I'm still not sure if I'd pay full price yet for it, but it was entertaining and you could definitely put a bunch of hours into it.
I'm somewhere between you and @isleepinahammock. I like the game for what it is, and it's certainly got enough similar facets that you could just call it Skyrim/Fallout in space and you wouldn't be terribly far off the target, but it's mostly excellent at what it aims to do.
It's got the same breadth of scale that Bethesda perfected with their previous games and then they extended it much much farther. Then, to account for that breadth they made it so that instead of having to look for the content to stumble into like Skyrim or Fallout, they put things directly in front of you that you can choose to pursue or not. Ultimately, it becomes a game about deciding what kind of explorer you are, after telling you that yes, it is required of you to become an explorer.
Honestly, my only major problem with the game (besides the bug that made my sweet customized spaceship fly away without me, leaving me stranded on a planet until I bought a new ship) was how they throw you into the main story. It felt very abrupt and without enough wonder or weight to compel me forward with the story until I found enough resolve to buy into it and just say "fine, ok, I guess I'm a part of your organization now because otherwise nothing new will ever happen". After I bought in though, I didn't regret it. I very sincerely haven't had the sense of excitement and wonder about where a story will go in a long time and I'm looking forward to finishing it, then exploring all the nooks and crannies of the settled systems.
It pretty much is.
It's a Bethesda game and that's all it was ever going to be, so if you're not down for that, you won't like it.
That said, I'm enjoying myself and the writing is better than it's been in previous Bethesda games. Which isn't to say it's amazing, but it's pretty good for the most part, with some oversights that seem kind of egregious
Well it kinda seems like you expect Bethesda to change their formula. Which would be kinda odd if they did. If you dislike Skyrim or Fallout then you probably won't enjoy Starfield.
Where does it sit in the context of Bethesda's other games? Is the dialogue a bit more fleshed out than what we had in tes5 and fo4? Maybe a return to some of the mechanical depth we had in previous TES titles? I'm not impressed with the direction Bethesda's games have taken (towards simplicity), and I would like to see them change course a bit.
The dialogue system is closer to FNV or FO3 where you get a list of responses to choose, and sometimes get enough you need to scroll through them to see the rest, it's not just 4 like FO4. And sometimes they have effects you don't expect, like affecting a follower's opinion of you, similar to FNV/FO3 do.
They also have a persuasion minigame you can kick off when you see [Persuade] Stuff you say, and an interesting thing about this game is it requires you to think about how the person behaves. Sometimes you simply aren't around long enough to catch their general vibe, but sometimes you can ask around, or just converse and understand them a bit, and be able to persuade them. It's still all subject to dice rolls, but it feels pretty good.
As far as mechanical depth, it's got a crafting system similar to FO3/FNV/FO4, but you don't keep mods when they come off of a weapon, which sorta sucks. This interacts with the skill system which is directly relevant to this.
The skills are sort of like Fallout+, with enough depth to make you really think about your build, at least starting out. They did it quite a bit different however. You have five main sections: Physical, Social, Combat, Science, Tech. Physical is stuff like sneak-related stuff, oxygen (stamina) amount, etc. Social is things like pickpocket and persuasion, combat is weapons proficiency, science is what you can research, which in tandem with higher skills, means you can craft more, and tech is things like your boost pack, ship handling, hacking (doors and computers are the same process, a new minigame). Then to use higher tier skills per section (there are four) you need to have a combined amount in the lower tiers to unlock the next tier.
I think mechanically Starfield was a huge step forward for Bethesda RPG design. They leaned more on Fallout for the RPG elements with the more opaque per-action skill (per kill/per mission/per task). The systems are straightforward and are more complex than Fallout 4, while doing a good job of being transparent if you take the time to peruse the skills and see how you want to progress.
It's got elements from both, tbh, but they really took their time to perfect things, at least in the scope of a Bethesda game. There are the usual physics bugs, people clipping into things, etc, and some procgen bugs (buildings popping up on other essential sites rarely), but of you have at all liked Elder Scrolls and Fallout, you'll definitely like Starfield, it'll just come down to what an acceptable price is for a Bethesda game for you after considering the warts that come with it. I have about 100 hours and have had only one crash, due to running it on Linux, so it's definitely the most stable game they've put out in a long time.
I saw a video where a guy tried to pickpocket, failed, and a guard immediately ran over and presented the same dialogue options we've seen since Oblivion. Resist arrest, go to jail, pay the fine, or sneakily try to pay less. I've heard some good things about the game, but also a lot of bad, and seeing as how it is essentially "Oblivion/Skyrim in space, but with less cohesive exploration," I think I'll pass.
With all due respect you’re not saying you’ve actually played the game but rather have seen or heard a few things.
What other options are there in a scenario where you’re caught stealing? As far as dialog and options they’re better at times in Starfield than in any other game I’ve played (haven’t played BG3, though).
And there is so much recorded dialog. Jesus Christ everyone says everything. I got used to weird grunts while reading “dialog” from playing a ton of TOTK recently.
That's fair, but I feel that I've watched enough gameplay via streams, plus have close friends that have played it, and from what I've gathered is that it looks more or less of what I've seen Bethesda offer before. Believe me, I know it's not a unique statement; deep as a puddle and all that.
I actually don't try to compare Bethesda titles to games like BG3 because they're so different, it's very much an apples to oranges thing. Though imo BG3 presents stealing and trespassing better (and getting caught); skill checks based on dice rolls as opposed to just a short list of dialogue options, so these occasions can be more unique than the generic list of options I mentioned previously. But again, apples to oranges, two completely different types of games.
Starfield seems to adhere to a certain formula that Bethesda really dug into around Skyrim and Fallout 4, and that's fine. I'll most likely get around to playing it once I can mod the hell out of it, as is tradition.
Edited to add: Then again, I'm reading a lot of intriguing stuff about their skill systems and other dialogue systems and such, so who knows. Either way I can see how "I saw a lock picking video lol" isn't much to add to the conversation, so that's my bad!
For what it’s worth you could not be more right. It’s a new game with a new aesthetic and a new story but after a few loading screens with dramatic orchestral music going in and out of shops to sell junk for credits you got from a cave…
It’s good but it’s definitely a Bethesda game. A really good continuation of their approach to RPGs with much better gun play but the same bad enemy AI.
Like a new Wes Anderson movie that is really good but feels familiar and leans on established techniques.
It really is a "to each his own" kind of game.
Yet I still can't understand the love Skyrim got and I probably won't understand why Starfield is at all popular. They're mediocre at best. The strongest argument I hear is that if you like Bethesda, you like this game.
Which is honestly a rather... empty statement.
Yeah, if you like watching paint dry you should try watching paint dry.
Their games just seem like they try to present themselves as more than they are, but they have neither the technical or the ludonarrative inclination to do so.
If anything, Skyrim did that best and presented itself well by giving you a world and letting you explore wherever you wanted to go. And then they took that away in Starfield.
Is this the game that originated off Kick starter and received millions in backing and had so many issues and dramas over the years ?.
You may be thinking of Star Citizen.
I am in full agreement. I have about 40 hours into it since September 6th. Normally I only play games for less than like 10 hours per week...
I uninstalled after roughly 80 hours, having finished the main story and some side quests along the way and "restarted" doing the UC colonies and Crimson Pirates main questlines.
Haven't touched with a stick the radiant quests as they are garbage and the location for them are always the same.
I would say that if you expect skyrim or fallout in space you're going to be satisfied. It's exactly that, down to the "powers". Overall, it's an "RPG by Bethesda" with "age of space" as the theme instead of "fantasy" or "post apocalypse".
Of the recent Bethesda games is definitely the most polished but it doesn't measure even remotely with things like Baldur's Gate 3 (scale) or even The Witcher 3 (moral choice and consequences).
As I said, it's you usual Bethesda experience. A decent 7- of a game. Will become a solid 8 when the community will make the usual incredible mods for it.
What you SHOULD NOT expect, because it's not, is a space sim or anything that start with space. Comparing it with things like Elite Dangerous etc is asinine or just being fooled by the usual exaggeration of Todd and the usual hype industry.
I'm enjoying it so much, agree with your assessment, but wanted to add that one of the most ridiculous issues I encounter all the time is NPC's repeating the same thing over and over and sometimes having multiple NPC's repeat the same thing. I haven't had a game have that issue in a long time, but half my time with a companion is them repeating some comment the whole time we move through a mission.
Loving the game but the worst example of that was when I took Andreja on the quest to get Barrett back. They have like four different dialogue conversations they have with each other but for some reason they just play over and over and over. I hope it was a bug because if that was intentional that person needs to be fired.
I'm currently running around with Barrett and the man has early onset dementia, just keeps telling the same stories over and over. I don't have the heart to tell him. My wife sits on the couch behind me, playing Disney Stardew minus or whatever it's called and she says I respond to him like an aging family member.
I don't know what's wrong with me... I have Starfield installed in my library but instead of playing that I gravitated towards Fallout New Vegas again. Now I'm gonna finish that before I give Starfield a chance.
Same. I have played the game a little bit, but I probably have 100 hours just in the ship builder at this point.
Played about 6 hours of Starfield and boy do I regret spending money on it. It's just not particularly compelling. There's nothing Starfield does that a myriad of games haven't done better. You want a sci-fi WRPG going to multiple planets, leveling up skills and recruiting companions? Outer Worlds. You want to explore and survey planet after planet while looting randomly generated points of interest? No Man's Sky. You want an engaging Sci-Fi story? Mass Effect. You want to pilot, upgrade, and trade ships while running jobs for profit in space? Pulsar: Lost Colony. Want a beautiful romp through a strange and mysterious solar system with an amazing score? Outer Wilds.
I think the thing I realized is that I don't want a SciFi RPG in space. Space is fucking boring as hell. Nothing but dust and rocks. I vastly prefer a carefully crafted, linear RPG that, while technically set in space, consists of many handcrafted areas that carry the narrative along. It just feels like a weird Fallout 4 mod with spaceflight. And I hate spaceflight.
I'm glad people are enjoying it. Hopefully it funds Bethesda well enough to keep working on TES6. But this has pretty much proved to me that Bethesda is utterly incapable of creating a new IP. Starfield is such a bland, jack of all trades slog. Never thought I would say I would rather be playing Outer Worlds.
Other than that, I booted up DS3 for a rematch after Soul of Cinder bodied me the last time I played it (which was like 3 years ago). Twin Princes still push my shit in. Trying to rock an INT Pyromancy build but I think I overextended my levels and I don't do great damage. My pride tells me not to summon help but for the sake of my sanity and continued enjoyment of the game, I'll probably have to. This boss sucks worse than pontiff.
Also been playing a neat little idle game called Pokeclicker. It's a Pokemon themed idle game where you progress through all the regions while catching pokemon and passing DPS checks. Surprisingly complex. It's been consuming me for the past week. Send help.
I really dislike Starfield for a different reason. I have dumped hundreds of hours into every fallout and every elder scrolls game - and I'm a person that even loved the barren wasteland of Fallout 3. There's something compelling to me about traversing wide spaces and wondering what's around each corner.
But that mostly hinges on actually traversing the space. Ironically, you don't do that in Starfield. Everything you explore in Starfield is a little compartmentalized area - there are no 'between the places' spaces. Just can't overstate how ironic that is for a Bethesda game set in space. It almost reminds me of what I hate about modern World of Warcraft - that there's almost nothing happening in the world ... everything, instead, happens in little instance spaces you teleport to (although i heard the new expansion may be an exception).
This feeling is particularly exceptional given the procedurally generated nature of the worlds. Now i'm teleporting to little boxes of procedurally generated rocks with some really underwhelming caves, natural formations, and settlements. And these things were all set the world to make it feel more alive, but the lack of personal touch seems to make it feel the exact opposite.
It's very hard to feel "in" the game. Everything seems to be pulling me out. And speaking of pulling out, i'm sitting here pulling my hair out navigating all the terrible menus in the game. Man, those things really suck. I had to take a step back to 2000, where I'm keeping track of things on a separate physical notepad next to me because I can't keep track of what i have on my ship, what i need to buy, and all the ingredients i need to finish building my little outpost setup. What a slog. Menus need a lot of help, and I really need a shopping list in the game.
The menus were killing me too. Open one menu to open another menu to select which planet to go to, then select the planet, game loads, it spits you in front of the planet, and then you have to go through another menu to actually land on the planet. It's just so needlessly obtuse in some areas
Loving the game but agree on your concern. I loved just striking out in a random direction in any of their previous games and finding random cool shit. The faction quests are keeping me entertained but the lack of exploration like their other games makes me assume I won't replay Starfield as much as previous games outside of mods.
FWIW, you can "track" materials and it will mark them with a little blue magnifying glass when you encounter them in any context (scanning, shopping, etc).
Yeah, i was using that system, but it doesn't show amounts - which is critical when you need to juggle inventory and weight. I staked out an outpost and calculated the costs of the things I wanted to build there, so i could got and buy or drill what i wanted, but still had to write out the exact amount of those things I needed on a notepad.
Very true, I wish it showed amounts too
Chaos Bed Vestiges is pyro's best friend. Also, Irythyll Straight Sword works well without having to respec since both of the princes are weak to frost. Might be worth dropping armor till you're able to light roll and go glass cannon. There's a lot of dodging required for Lorian, and it helps to get behind him, but you'll still probably only get one or two hits off. You can summon Orbeck for the fight if you've completed his questline (his sign is outside by the top of the stairs), but I don't remember what all the steps are besides giving him all the scrolls. He doesn't do a great job, but it's useful to for pulling aggro off you for a little. Twin Princes is definitely one of the hardest bosses in the game though, either way.
Also, it's funny how different builds have different experiences. Pyro steamrolled most of the game for me aside from a few noise, but Friede was a hard stop. Couldn't beat her no matter what. Started a new game as a STR/VIG build using the spiked mace and ended up beating her at half the soul level.
Edit: Also, the winged knights on the rooftop right there are one of the best farming spots.
Unfortunately I am a moron and said to myself "Meh I won't be doing pyromancy, I'll pop this boss soul" and boom, no more chaos bed vestiges. And then respec'd to pyromancy shortly after.
I'll definitely give the ISS a shot, though. Might be worth it
I'm just emerging from a minor obsession with Book of Hours, a card-based puzzle game about rebuiding a ruined library of Lovecraftian tomes. Surprisingly complicated puzzles, absolutely no spoonfeeding (of either gameplay mechanics or lore), and a melancholy, vaguely foreboding aesthetic combine to create a mood that I just want to soak up all evening. I've played quite a few open-world games that are nominally about exploration but fail to actually reward it as much as this little card game does. The late game falls kind of flat considering how rich the bulk of it feels, and it definitely could use some attention to optimization and QoL, but it's still the best thing I've played this year. Highly recommend.
I thought this sounded a lot like cultist simulator (which reminds me that I still have to play that more than one marathon session after which I was somewhat stressed out) and turns out it's a direct descendant. Hard to describe what makes these games great because they are so unlike any reference I could give, and the game loop sounds a bit silly if you describe it (as it does with most games really), but without having played it I already know that I can recommend checking it out, if only to see something novel in a sea of samey games.
I've never played Cultist Simulator, but Book of Hours has basically no time limits, and you can pause all you want. If you feel like it you can multitask, but there's usually no need to. Sure, some things need to be done within a day, but with pause that's part of the puzzle and not stressful.
The first loading screen says some along the lines of "Book of Hours isn't a stressful game, unless you want it to be".
I think you sold me on purchasing that game. It looks right up my alley. Thanks for shouting it out!
Nice. To anyone starting out my advice is: read everything, don't bother saving items, and try not assume that you've completely understood any given mechanic.
I'm still in the middle of the obsession. I find it super relaxing.
Replayed Fallout New Vegas over the past week.
Just such an incredible game. Played a Yes Man route and unified everyone except the Brotherhood, who decided to shoot first at me and found themselves genocided successfully.
Honest Hearts and Lonesome Road have really helped me with my mental health over the past two weeks funnily enough. Being able to understand ones self through media can sometimes be so damn love liberating.
Also... Stellaris.
Galactic genocide simulator.
Did you use mods with New Vegas? I really want to play it but it being old and the graphics are... too, I'd like to improve the experience with visual mods but it seems such a chore to even start with that stuff.
Get yourself fallout mod manager. Then just give the HD mods on Nexus a download bud. They're big files, but it'll just spruce things up for you. There's some good character ones as well, I'll get the full names if you're interested.
I play very low modded in the Fallout world. New Vegas, despite being 13 years old isn't that bad on the appearance. What it does need, is script extensions and demands that it use your machines full hardware.
Beyond that, you're alright.
Is there a good way to get mods working on the epic version without messing with stuff like cloud saves and tracking playtime?
I'm unsure genuinely bud. Have a look at Fallout Mod Manager as that goes and finds the ini in your downloaded data.
Then you download mods from NexusMods and pop them into a folder and run it through that.
It's the old school modding way, before we got used to Steam Workshop.
Stellaris is so easy to leave and come back to again and again. My peaceful unity-focused hive feels like an old friend at this point.
The Forgotten City
I picked this up from this month’s Humble Choice. It’s been a while since a game gripped me like this. I loved it.
It has some jank to it that you have to overlook, but that’s easy to do because it’s got a ton of heart. The game is full of interesting ideas, meaningful characters, and lots to uncover. I was taken. I loved looping over and over again to learn new things and try different strategies.
It’s hard to talk about the game without spoiling it, and it’s very much the kind of game that has some significantly spoilable things. I won’t say any of that here, because IYKYK, but if you’re interested in a historical time-loop mystery narrative adventure game, I’ll give it a hearty recommendation.
I was waiting for this to come out for ages, but lost interest over time. Have you played the Skyrim mod? Is it significantly different?
I only played the standalone game, so I unfortunately can’t compare them for you.
Did you play the mod version? I’m curious if it’s good on its own terms or if it’s more of a proof-of-concept for the full release.
Baldur's Gate 3. I am enjoying it enough to keep playing for now, but I'm not really understanding the GOTY hype or that debate about "other game studios can't achieve this level of perfection". So far it just feels like Dragon Age: Inquisition but with 5e rules and a less visually interesting setting. Like suspiciously similar to Inquisition, I would guess the story and some of the mechanics were directly inspired by that game.
It is very technically impressive how well they have implemented the 5e system, it's good enough that I wonder if there will be mods to let you run your own campaign using the BG3 engine, but I don't think it really works as a video game. DnD and 5e are designed to be run by a human who can guide the game and emphasize or de-emphasize certain aspects. I am a relatively experienced DnD player, and even I do not enjoy reading and choosing between 30 different options for each member of my party every time we level up. It is more fun to do this when you have a group of humans you're playing with that can help you quickly narrow down to a few options. I understand why auto-leveling would be hard, but that's another reason the system doesn't quite work as a video game.
For example: BG3 emphasizes openness and complete player choice - no railroading, no specified order of what characters you have to meet first or what quests you have to take first, who you have to talk to, who you can attack, etc. This is very true to DnD, and also pretty cool and unusual for a video game. However, in DnD, there is a DM to make the game flow well regardless of what choices the players make. For example, say you're the DM and you're nudging your players to go to some city to move the story forward, but they decide to go to a small village instead. Do you throw away all your characters and plot and start over? Do you repeatedly say "nothing happens" until they go do the thing you want? No, you probably take all your existing prep, adjust a couple backstories and character intros to work with what your players chose, and pretend that was your plan all along. BG3 nails the "do what you want" half of this, but not the much more difficult "adjust the game to match" part, and that leads to some jarring dialogue and less fun gameplay.
At one point, I attacked and killed a character without ever speaking to them, and afterwards realized that they could have become a member of my party. So far so good, cool that the game let me make that choice. But then another member of my party, who was supposed to be this character's sworn enemy, turns to me and says like "oh man, now I feel kind of conflicted, did we do the right thing?" What? Obviously there was supposed to be some scene before the fight to introduce the character and outline some moral dilemma. When I preemptively attacked, a human DM could have had the character shout something during the fight, or had someone roll perception and notice something unexpected. At the very least, a DM wouldn't have had a character say something so incongruous right after the fight. I appreciate the philosophy of total freedom, but in a video game I think it's more fun to force things a little bit to avoid stuff like this. Just cut to dialogue as soon as I fire the first shot, that's fine, and add a dialogue option that says "ignore them and keep attacking".
I don't want to make this comment longer than it already is, but I've experienced a few other instances of the game giving me complete freedom to make choices that I did not intend to make and just made the game more tedious.
The writing is bad. Bad dialogue and not particularly interesting stories aside from the main plot line. Not any worse than the average game, but I was expecting better for some reason.
And as for the setting, I remember exploring some very cool looking places in Inquisition. In BG3 so far I've just been wandering around what looks like an average forest from northeastern USA. It's fine, and it's probably very lore-accurate, but I feel like there was opportunity to be more creative here. The spaceship you start on was kind of cool, and I'm hoping the city will be cool if I ever make it there.
I do like being able to make all the characters naked, that's pretty groundbreaking.
Anyway, sorry to be so negative, just outlining some thoughts that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. It's a good game and an impressive achievement, but I'm not really seeing yet what is supposed to be so uniquely incredible about it.
I'm a huge fan of the Dragon Age series—I did a replay of the full series earlier this year—and did two full playthroughs of BG3, but I'm really struggling to find any mechanics or elements that they have in common that aren't just nearly-universal RPG elements.
Well the campsite where all your party members hang out waiting to be asked to travel with you, and occasionally having new dialogue so you're encouraged to talk to them all every time, just felt exactly the same as Inquisition to me. Now that I think about it I guess Mass Effect has that too, but I guess Inquisition is what I thought of because of the similar setting. Now that I think about it even further, I guess Baldur's Gate 2 was also a Bioware game, so maybe that's where this party selection mechanic came from and I have my tree of inspiration backwards. I've never played previous Baldur's Gates so I'm not sure.
Once I noticed that, I also started feeling like the story is structured very similarly. You start the game after being marked by some mysterious magic that gives you interesting special powers, but is also directly linked to a nefarious evil that you are tasked with defeating. I understand this is kind of vague and I could be making too much of it.
Inquisition also had a phenomenon where people would get stuck in the starting area, the Hinterlands, trying to finish every single quest and getting bored and frustrated, when they should really just leave and explore the rest of the world. I'm having somewhat of a similar feeling in the BG3 starting area, the Wilderness (I think?), but my understanding is that this is supposed to be one of three major Acts and is not just an intro starting area. I am not close to finishing the game so apologies if this is very wrong. This is just a vibe thing and maybe not a fair comparison, but I personally am finding the game pretty similar to my experience in the Hinterlands so far.
All other similar mechanics are as you say just standard RPG things, but added together they have given me the impression that I'm just playing Inquisition with clunkier tabletop mechanics. Again I may have this backwards and Dragon Age is just Baldur's Gate without tabletop mechanics.
The Wilderness is the largest map of Act 1, but there are other large maps that are part of it. The line between Act 1 and Act 2 is a little blurry. The game doesn't really encourage moving on before you're ready as progressing can trigger changes and events, though it does usually warn you. (Urgh, it's hard to talk about BG3's structure while avoiding spoilers!)
For what it's worth, the earlier Baldur's Gate games didn't have the camp (characters joined and left permanently, although there were some you could pick up again), but my mind also immediately went to the Dragon Age camp system. The role it serves in the game is pretty much identical.
You've said a lot worth discussing here, but I'm just gonna make a quick note that Larian's previous game, Divinity Original Sin 2, does have a GM mode with custom campaigns. I hope we see the return of this feature for BG3.
I hope so too, but last time I mentioned this on Tildes someone chimed in saying that Swen Vincke explicitly mentioned it won't be in BG3.
That's awesome, yeah the DnD system is implemented perfectly, and there's already co-op, so that seems like a no-brainer. It's obviously more difficult than Roll20 because you can't grab any random JPEG from the internet and plug it in as a map or enemy, but for people running a standard non-homebrew campaign it seems like it could work really well.
My biggest issue with BG3 is in co-op, basically the only way I've played the game. I love how everyone can do everything, but since it's very DnD-esque in that regard, it's pure chaos if the party isn't really unified in how to handle the campaign. Unintentionally, my party has basically killed every settlement we've come across. Someone picks up the wrong thing, someone pickpockets, someone picks the wrong dialogue option, boom they are aggro. Since anyone can do anything, everyone does everything.
I have one party member who's played it, so he's basically dragging everyone everywhere to talk to and snag whatever he thinks is important, which is basically any and ALL loot, because he's a loot goblin. Two of us are just along for the ride and aren't taking it seriously, and one person takes FOREVER to make any decision and half the time we're asking if he's still there. I don't have a suggested solution, I'm just annoyed.
I tried playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 in co-op. After a few hours it turned out that me and my companion had very different ideas on how to approach the NPCs, quests and a lot of other things. Plus, my companion played the game while I was offline (not fair) and progressed a quest and that was the last nail in the coffin for our game. I had an honest talk with him and we decided to part ways and play solo.
And then I found out I don't like Larian's games. That post (written by somebody else, but I have it bookmarked and always share the link when people ask me why I don't like Larian) from Reddit describes perfectly how DOS feels to me. And now reading @burkaman's original post it feels like I expected -- BG3 is DOS3 disguised in DnD robes. I have had zero hype for this game, but a few of my friends have been playing it since its launch and raving about it, so I reluctantly put it on my wishlist and probably will try playing it some day, but this discussion enforces my reservations.
This is really interesting. I have been playing Starfield and reading a lot of posts on the Starfield subreddit. Multiple people have complained about Starfield's writing and specifically compared it negatively to BG3.
BG3 is probably next on my list after I get tired of Starfield. I'm now very curious to see how they compare.
Maybe "bad" was too strong, I don't know. A lot of it feels pretty generic and clunky to me, and it's a dialogue-heavy game so it's very noticeable. I understand this is a big game and they had a LOT of script to write, and so far I haven't come across any "arrow to the knee"-esque lines that every other character says, which is commendable. Everyone does have unique lines.
The last dialogue-heavy game I played was Disco Elysium, and I know that's an unfair standard, but now that I know what's possible in a non-linear dialogue-heavy RPG I can't ignore it. I also recall having better reactions to Mass Effect and Dragon Age games, but it's been a while since I played them so maybe my standards have just evolved.
The world has a startling amount of former actuaries.
So I've really been enjoying the combat in this game, but I do agree it could be better. In general once combat starts, it doesn't end until one side defeats the other side. I would love to see a little more mid-battle communication.
As an example (and I'll be generally spoiler free), I can only think of one battle where the bad guy runs away and taunts you to follow. Also only one case where a bad guy has a second form. (Although a few do have charge attacks.) There are a few times battles, but only one of them is really memorable.
Additionally there is a battle where the traditional enemy is in your side, and actually in this rare case there is a voiceover of a character telling you who the bad guy is (but not why the traditional bad guys are good, which FWIW is actually OK in this case.) This one stuck out to me because I jumped into battle expecting to fight one thing, but was confused that I was fighting another. While the colors (green = good, red = bad) told me who to fight, it might have been more fun to have someone yell at me mid fight.
That isn't to say the combat is boring or only simple, I just know it could be better, especially with a little dialogue.
There's another battle where the defeat of a friendly NPC leads to a different outcome and another battle, and there are probably more examples of this. I think it's alright that most battles are just "defeat all the enemies" types, you can definitely overdo the mechanic you suggest.
As I understand it, the issue/praise isn't with the quality per se but rather with the scope. In other words, it doesn't do one thing to perfection; it does a massive number of things solidly. The number of systems and story branches and side quests and just sheer amount of content is an achievement in and of itself. There's also the fact that it's a AAA game that focuses on the single player experience, doesn't include microtransactions, no major bugs at launch, etc, etc. To that end, it's getting a lot of praise for what it isn't, which is to say it avoids most if not all of the major complaints gamers have been having with AAA games lately.
Getting back into Cyberpunk 2077 before the 2.0 update and DLC drop. Such an amazing game and story. I'm so glad they were able to improve from the botched launch.
I'm planning a limited replay after. It's basically a whole different game now, and it was great already.
I went back and completed Undertale.
I originally gave it a go around the original release date, but I'm terrible at shoot-em-ups and found that the combat was not for me. However, seeing a random update about Deltarune reminded me that I had this game and I decided to go back to it.
I'm still awful at dodging bullet patterns, but this time I tried to avoid fighting as much as possible and had a much better time just treating each compulsory fight as a little puzzle and running away from everything else. The game does kind of nudge the player in this direction (I just didn't pick up on it after years and years of conditioning from other RPGs!) and it's also pretty generous with healing items, so I had no problem muddling through despite constantly getting hit.
The story is a lot of fun and pleasingly also very short (took about 4-5 hours for me to complete the regular and 'good' endings). The humour and frequent fourth wall breaking isn't going to appeal to everyone, but for a game that's now 8 years old, the writing doesn't feel dated at all, with no reliance on memes or references which tie it to a particular period.
All in all, I'm interested enough to go on to check out Deltarune.
I'm playing Outer Wilds (not Worlds). I hated it at first because I found piloting the ship really stressful. I crash more times than I land. Like, seriously. I'm pretty bad at it, even knowing what direction to steer. I'm slowly getting the hang of it, though.
People are constantly and probably rightly saying that you shouldn't give absolutely any element of the plot away, so I'm hiding what I've figured out behind a spoiler.
Outer Wilds spoilers
I only have a vague idea of what is going on, but am curious to learn more. So far, I've learned that the Nomai did some kind of "ancient alien" thing on the Hearthers, finding them in their tidepool and helping them to flourish in some way. I've found Escape Pod 1, but not the others.The thing that I'm the most curious about is the explosion at the beginning. I tried following the purple thing that it jettisons, but I couldn't figure out a way to get to it. It goes out into space too quickly.
I've tracked the harmonica to the Bramble seed, but don't know how to go inside there.
I suspect that the way that you land on the Quantum Moon involves taking pictures of it so that it's being "perceived" and stays in place. I could be totally wrong, though. I think that I've flown through it, but I couldn't land.
I have no clue what the poem in the grove on the home planet means.
I'm totally unspoiled about the game. I haven't come across any of the "gutpunching" moments that people talk about, except one of the readings near the black hole gravity crystals on that one planet, which I still can't cross without falling into the black hole.
What a game. I've read all the spoilers because my thalassophobia prevented me from doing anything on Giant's Deep. I'm glad I had a chance to play it before reading the spoilers, though; it's mind blowing when that one thing happens. And the music! It's one of my favorite tracks in any video game
Most of that will come along when you start putting all the pieces together for a couple of the mysteries. The impact of some things may also not hit as hard depending on the order you stumble across them, but that's the nature of such open exploration. Mostly, it's less about individual moments and more the gradual realization of what happened and what's going on. Not to mention the catharsis of solving the puzzles generally speaking.
Also, at the risk of overhyping it, the ending is absolutely 10/10 and the real emotional gut punch. In retrospect, it might also be the best example of a game using its mechanics to reinforce it's narrative themes that I've ever played. The only other games that I feel come close are the original Bioshock and Spec Ops: The Line, though obviously those games had drastically different themes and gameplay compared to Outer Wilds.
The game never explicitly tells you what to do to get the ending, but at a certain point you'll probably have a good idea about what goal you need to accomplish and the steps you need to take. I'd recommend trying to complete the ship log as much as possible before then. Also the DLC is absolutely worth playing, but I'd recommend knocking it out right before you plan to end the main game. The main game ending changes slightly if you've completed the DLC and the DLC ending changes slightly depending on how much you've learned in the main game.
Oh, and don't get hung up on the poem. It'll make sense in time.
Week two of Graveyard Keeper. I have put dozens of hours into this game and will probably hit day 200 in-game soon. The game is honestly so simplistic in its loop. It's a potentially tedious crafting loop, but it's paced well. And the fact there's no set calendar removes frustration if you don't hit some deadline. The weeks are six days long, and I think the days are relatively short. It doesn't feel like a big deal to wait a week.
Time to go play some more!
Oooh I hope you're not disappointed later.
I've been trying to learn how to play Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead for next roguelike podcast episode.
I say trying because it probably has the highest barrier to entry on playing that I've seen since maybe Dwarf Fortress. Because CDDA is open source with many lead devs over the years, there isn't really (in my opinion) a coherent vision or design goal in mind. Even trying to figure out which is the "best" version to start with is difficult to understand.
I spent a long time learning Dwarf Fortress with the Lazy Newb Pack ages ago and it was just about the only way I could play it. DF at least had a relatively straightforward goal, whereas CDDA just seems directionless. It feels like it's trying to be obnoxiously hard with that being a major draw.
There are things I like here about menu navigation, being able to zoom in and out on tile-based roguelikes, and the scenario starts are interesting. It feels like a good game with a solid idea is hiding here that someone like Kitfox Games has to come up and polish out.
I get the sense that the version of CDDA I want is something like a roguelike Half-Life game post Black Mesa incident. The stories are very similar: monsters are warping in, killing humans and competing for control of Earth. Many other traditional rogue games have figured out how to not have overly verbose gameplay getting in the way of fun, however. I really don't care about 75 different ammo types that don't work with each other and not being able to wear a shirt that's XL and my character is an XXL.
If a fork of CDDA came out that had UX design in a similar mode akin to Cogmind or Brogue, I'd be more willing to learn it's systems. But right now it seems like the "fun" is learning those systems instead of trying to do something like complete your mission, or play two alien invasion factions against each other through clever game mechanics.
I do appreciate people on youtube who do narrative playthroughs, though. That's about the only way I can remotely enjoy what the game has to offer. Listening too Rycon or MonsterGirl playthroughs are a great audio drama, but I'm not willing to put in the hours to learn to generate that same story material myself at this point.
Factorio. Playing through the Space Exploration mod, and every time I think I'm ready to continue to the next type of science by setting up new outposts I get distracted trying to fix something in my main base.
Starfield. Having a lot of fun when I get into it, but I keep playing something else instead when I remember how much of it involves spending time slowly flying from location to location to start or progress quests and clear out the mess that is my inventory by selling to multiple vendors.
Melvor Idle. Runescape if it was an idle game? A bit different from the usual idle game, as you can only do one thing at a time and it's more focued on levelling up to a limit than iteratively restarting. Not sure if I like it yet.
I recently visited Japan on a holiday and managed to pick up a New 3DS LL. I spent a couple hours yesterday learning how to hack it / change the region to Europe/English language etc.
Fast forward to now and I've got access to the entire handheld Nintendo library up til 3DS for free, which is pretty fucking cool tbh. I downloaded Pokémon Crystal last night and New: Super Mario Bros 2. Having a blast and looking forward to finding more gems from my childhood over the next few weeks.
Anyone any suggestions?
I absolutely love the 3DS, especially when modded. It's super magical having decades of games available at your fingertips. I really enjoyed Pilotwings Resort, Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land on my 3DS if you want some 3DS specific recommendations.
Thanks, some good recommendations there! I've seen a few heads mention Pilotwings, would you mind clarifying what's so good about it to you?
It's super easy to just pick up and start playing, even after months of not playing it. I'm also someone that just loves games where you can freely explore the world and find little hidden secrets which is why I love this game. If you've played the Island Flyover mini-game from Wii Sports Resort, they essentially expanded on that by adding missions and different vehicles to fly around in and made it run on a little handheld. There's no story or anything, you just get to fly around, complete missions, and unlock new vehicles.
If you've played the older Pokemon games already, I highly recommend checking out the rom-hack Pokemon Crystal Clear. Open world, can start in whichever city you want with a variety of starters, a lot of QoL improvements and neat features you'd expect in a modern title, but it's still very much a cozy GBC game.
Starfield. I'm redoing the main story as I mentioned and it still has a lot of the same impact. A significant decision still caught me unprepared because of how fast the story moves if you aren't paying attention, and all I was doing was collecting artifacts/powers when it hit. It's been fun.
I did the UC Vanguard quest, wnd am aiming for the SysDef/Crimson Fleet quest next, which should be spicy.
Starfield has made me want to fire up The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition, which I managed to migrate my old save to. It runs spectacularly on my RX5800xt, wnd I may decide to run with it after I get bored of Starfield, which I feel may happen after my first non-msq NG+ in Starfield. I think TOW influenced Starfield in a couple ways, with regards to characterization and relationships, but at the very least this is a strong point both games share.
I find this comment fascinating because so far for me the main quest has felt like "okay go grab this other artifact" 10x over haha. Something significant did eventually happen but it was not until I had run around collecting artifacts for 5-10 hours.
It depends on what you do.
First time I didn't collect most if the artifacts until the end, and it felt rushed until I had to go clean up the artifact missions.
This time around I did them as presented, and it was like three at a time, so no "5-10 hours" in a shot, but over various windows. Of course some of them, like the Cryo Lab and Entangled, are 1-2 hour jaunts.
The sneaky part was that after the next set of three artifacts I was led to the mission that locks in the chain of events for the decision, which presents as a fourth artifact.
I find I much prefer the pacing if I follow the missions as laid out, as well, and we're still talking about a 25-hour MSQ from Vecterra to NG+n, but the story beats are fairly consistent and brisk if you focus on these quests in order.
Hmm, I don't think I realized I could have been doing other things in the main quest besides the artifacts. They felt like they were presented as "okay here's the next thing you need to do" even when I was looking through the list to clear out remaining main quest objectives.
The quest log in this game is not the best imo.
Two very different games: Armored Core VI and Tears of the Kingdom. Both have mechs, I guess.
ACVI: nearing the end of Chapter 4, and still loving it. Got stuck on some of the bosses, but finally been figuring out how to learn how to counter them properly. I've loved how not-open-world it is, in terms of picking your missions from a list, and replaying them for a better score (and credits for new stuff). As a newcomer to the series, I've been pleasantly surprised with how weighty the mechs feel, even light mechs.
ToTK: nearing the equivalent of Chapter 4, I think. About to go to the fourth region, anyway. I'm fighting my urge to tick off pointless sidequests and just go for it - to see it through the ending - and then come back to the world and play all the unfinished sidequests if I really want to. I'm still amazed that they made the game work so well on the switch. Still getting absolutely wrecked by Silver Lynels.
They released the Rune Master mastery for Mage in Last Epoch. I'm definitely going to no-life that game on full 1.0 release. I put about 30 hours into Rune master and got to Empowered Monoliths (basically end-end-game). It really hits the ARPG spot. I especially like they way they have skill specializations in addition to the passive tree which drastically change the way the skills function and synergize with other skills. I find it hits the sweet spot between the extremely simple skill+rune system of D3 (or the really boring skill tree of D4), and the extremely complex tree of Path of Exile (with even more complex skill/gem combinations). I find Last Epoch pretty intuitive for putting a build together. If you ever get stuck or think your build isn't working, you can respect your entire passive tree (for basically free since there's nothing else to spend gold on), and resetting you skill specializations goes back a few levels (probably 5ish), which you can quickly level them back up by grinding a couple lower level zones real quick.
Other than that I went back for a last hoorah on Diablo 3 for Season 29. I hit 3rd on the Monk Leaderboards for softcore on the American servers. I started a barbarian as solo-self-found (added in S29) last night. I'll be happy with top 200 and probably call it quits. It's really obvious that the player pool is small. In some SFF class leaderboards you can get on them by simply completing a greater rift.
I'm in a co-op run now. We're at level 30 and it's currently too easy. We just run and one-shot most, bosses take 5 seconds or so, and we both have essentially random builds. Occasional network problems, too. We'll finish this run and maybe there will be an option to make it more challenging.
I did a offline run at least a year ago when I think they didn't have any online version yet. It runs pretty smooth, and I like the how the skills have their own little skill tree, but Grim Dawn is still the best-ever-ARPG for me (they are working on a new DLC!).
Yeah, I think they've got it tuned to get people to end game faster right now. There's a whole class of items that aren't even equipable until level 85, and that's where most of the build defining uniques are.
Also, if you're playing through scouring each zone, you're going to be over leveled so it will seem really easy. Being in a zone with monsters 10 levels higher is usually where it feels normal.
You don't need to finish the story. It's a good story, but pre-1.0 I really don't care. It's changed a little bit too a few months ago, so I'm not even sure if the story is finalized yet.
If you look at your map and it shows you have all of your idol slots and all of your passive points, you can just go straight to the end of time and start running monoliths. That's the fastest way to get XP and push up to the higher levels where the more interesting items drop and open up cool build possibilities.
ok, thanks for the info.
It got a bit more challenging so around lvl 40, btw. I had to start to pay a bit of attention to my resistance numbers to not die from certain mobs.
Don't forget to use the forge (just press F) and add resistance suffixes to your equipment.
And their filter system (shift + F) is pretty easy to figure out, so you can easily highlight items with stats you're looking for.
I have been playing nothing but My Time in Sandrock and I am loving it. It is the sequel of My Time in Portia, which I
mentionranted about in the previous thread. I want to preface that Sandrock is still in early access and the dev did gave a release date (November 2023)(I have my doubt that they can keep that deadline but I do believe they will release the game). I also want to say that I do love the previous game and I am somewhat wary of this one because they have improved the characters model and changed the setting from more fairy tale/studio Ghibli vibe to western. But I can safely say that the charm is still in it.The major difference between the two games are its character models. They are now more proportional then the bauble head of the previous game (which I adore)(but one must not get in the way of improvements)(even if it means accepting changes).
Despite the upgrade in textures, the charms of the NPCs are still there. Each one of them are distinct and I always loved their stories. Now the dev has added your character stories in as well. Your in game parents and friends that you left behind will send you well wishes and updates through the mail and you could reply as well!!! Both are sorely missing in the previous game.
The great:
However the other gameplay are nothing but improvements. Majority of the pain points of the previous game has been removed
for eg. You needing to have the specific items in your hand for assembly station,
sprinting uses up endurance,
combat being button mashing (although Sandrock still has it, its been improved by giving players more weapon type and improving the enemies AI and giving each enemies distinct behaviours and pattern)(however it is still simple combat)(eh what do you expect ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
The good:
Other improvements
The entirety of the UI have improved drastically as well. I still open up the menu and surprised myself at how much more organised it is.
The meh:
The combat is still a drag due to how simple it is, there are too little at stake, you cannot lose and the gameplay is too simplistic for it ever be engaging. But then again that is not where game shines.
The stamina management has become worse somewhat, it doesn’t increase as you level up and this encourages you to decorate your house. However, the lack of food items to replenish your stamina is what I am complaining about. I miss that in Portia, the game just gave you too much food.
Lack of gift, I used to be able to buy flowers in Portia and gifted them out willy nilly. I am seeing lack of universal gift in the game.
The panbat eyes!!!! This one irks me the most as I am so used to just staying up late and passes out wherever and be teleported back onto my bed. I could have just chop trees or mine all night long when most NPCs are in bed and don’t need to worry whether or not I could get back in time. (Cuz usually I don’t)
Give me my stable!! Don’t hide it behind mid game tier items.
Lies of P. Been enjoying it a ton, definitely not quite as polished with the mechanics as From's games but super into the world and they have some really cool stuff you can do with modular weapons.
Been looking for Lies of P in this thread! I keep saying to my sister that the vibes are impeccable. Feels like bloodsoulsshock with a splash of Dishonored. And the modular weapon system is so cool. I'm also realizing that I'm a sucker for anything Belle Époque (think late 1800s Europe "forward progress/world's fair" type stuff) too haha.
I just got past the city hall tonight. The dialog is just terrible so far to me. I know it was developed by a Korean team and I get the impression that the English translation was a bit rough. That's a small gripe compared to how much I'm enjoying it so far though. The levels definitely aren't as large or intricately laid out as FromSoft, but the aesthetic (visual and audio) and combat are on point.
Combat has taken a little getting used to. Given the obvious Bloodborne influence, I was expecting more emphasis on dodging and parrying (BB style). Instead, it feels much more like Sekiro with more importance on perfect guards and posture breaking, though even then it's still doing it's own thing. The weapon durability actually adds an extra layer of complexity to the boss fights which I wasn't expecting and is an intriguing surprise.
Also, whoever decided that the costumes should be separate from stat equipment deserves a raise.
Playing through Quake again. This happens once or twice each year. Still damn near a perfect game in my opinion.
Starfield and chess
Everything I have to say my playthrough of starfield has already been said, so I'll say that it's absolutely hilarious playing it side by side with my flatmate, who prefers to do evil playthroughs of games. As I'm sitting there telling Sarah that she's the love of my life and I can't imagine going on this adventure without her, I look at his screen as he's fighting a UC fleet with the top right just saying "Sarah Morgan disliked that. Sarah Morgan hated that. Sarah Morgan is angry at you."
He met some LIST colonists and responded to their hail while he powered up his grav drive. As they're saying "everyone else just jumps away as soon as we–" he's gone.
At one point I asked if he'd met a schoolbus ship yet, he said nothing and had a certain look on his face
😐
"You attacked them didn't you"
🙂
I've also been trying to do chess. I love chess. That Levy guy is fun, I like the memes. I'm awful at the game. Level 3 stockfish on my phone may as well be Gary Kasparov for all I can do against it. I always do the analysis thing, and always fuck up the most basic things because as much as the computer is begging me to win, I just suck so badly at the game that I can't do it.
But I'm gonna keep playing it, because one of these days I'll beat level 3 stockfish and start playing against actual humans
I gave up on Disgaea PC because it was too much grinding to be fun. I switched to the PC port of Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelier_Sophie:_The_Alchemist_of_the_Mysterious_Book
This is also a Japanese game, I’ve had a lot of fun playing Atelier games on the Playstation Vita and was looking forward to playing on a bigger screen. The game started out a little slow but I really got drawn into it in an hour. In terms of gameplay it is very similar to contemporaneous JRPGs such as the Neptunia series but unlike most JRPGs it is a story about an individual and the people around them and is not about the party climbing the world tree, getting the primary antagonist to join the party, regenerating the world, saving the world, nothing about the world, rather a personal story.
The game has various mechanics such as deadlines that discourage grinding so if you think JRPGs are too grindy that could be a good thing. Western reviewers tend to be skeptical about deadlines in other Atelier games but I don’t think they are tough enough to be stressful (often I have a 20 days deadline and finish the task in 5 days)
I used to think crafting mechanics were not so fun but Neptunia changed my mind and I enjoy it as the central theme of Atelier, I enjoy the way characters and their relationships are revealed, the way the protagonist advances, etc. It is about a girl but it has none of the exploitative aspects you see in some Japanese games so I think you might want to check out Atelier.
Haven't really dedicated time to playing any story based games this week as I was away from home while still working 9-5. However, in the free time I had outside of work, I played a lot of BeamNG.drive. Calling BeamNG a game is a bit generous in my opinion, it's more of a physics sandbox. However, that sandbox environment is what makes it fun for me. I'll just get in a stupidly overpowered shitbox sedan and drive it around at high speed and crash in interesting ways. BeamNG does have special "scenarios" that you can play sort of like missions but I find the free-roam more fun.
I've been playing Balder's Gate 3, but it's been feeling like a slog. I thought I would like it because I have joint issues that make turn-based play seem more attractive. Also, I like RPGs with companions. But I am almost at the end of act one, and I feel like every battle is just a chore. Several times I've gone back to a pretty old save because I realized I missed something or did something that would have pretty big negative repurcussions down the line. I feel like I'm only now getting comfortable with the mechanics of the game, but it feels weighted down to me. And the camera feels claustrophobic. I kind of enjoy some of the companions, but mostly I am just not that attached to them or the story.
My favorite series of all time was The Witcher games. Maybe Witcher 2 more than Witcher 3 even. Depite all of the annoyances, that game's storoes and characters felt completely real and personal. Also the art was beautiful. In Witcher three I hardly ever fast travelled because I loved seeing the landscapes, Probably the only thing I really longed for when playing those games was to be able to have companions.
Other games I've really enjoyed are the Dragon Age games, Elder Scrolls games (more for modding than gameplay), and Mass Effect games. I tried to play Divinity original sin twice, and both times I just felt no real emotional attachment to the characters or the story and quit. I played Hogwarts and really liked it at the beginning, but started to feel uncomfortable playing a kind-hearted teenager being forced to kill a lot of people, with no apparent internal or external consequences.
I own Cyberpunk 2077, and I am thinking of giving it a try after the 2.0 patch settles in.
Meanwhile, does anyone have any recommendations on how I could enjoy BG3 more or other games that might be more up my ally? I play on a linux pc, so that does limit my choices (not as much as it used to, though!)
Stardew Valley (for like a month now). Not going to say much about it, almost everyone knows it...
But here and there I play ARMA3 with a few friends in coop. We have plyed Hidden & Dangerous 2 (on hardest difficulty) back in the day and wanted something similar as H&D2 is like 20 years old doesn't cope well woth modern Windows and Linux (I use Linux). ARMA is HARD. And I mean really hard. But it's exactly the kind of a game that we were looking for. We play for fun but want challenge in the game and ARMA let's us do that.
F-ZERO 99
Please tell me someone else is playing this game. It’s an instant classic. It’s so clean and the controls are tight. I thought 99 cars on a track would be ridiculous and it absolutely is but in a surprisingly good way. It feels fair so when you lose it’s cause you used your last boost before the finish line and got cremated 5 inches from the finish line, you noob.
I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3. It's pretty good. I played Divinity 2 before, and I like it better so far. Divinity 2 feels less restrictive. I have 42 hours in BG3, and 106 hours in Divinity 2. I'm not NOT having fun in BG3, I just feel like I am free to do more in Divinity 2.
I actually keep meaning to go back to Divinity OS. I burned out on 2 when I got to the third act and while I've tried to go back periodically, I just feel overwhelmed by the amount of skills my characters have and the cluttered mess that the inventory is.
I don't remember having this issue with the first game, let alone getting bored with it halfway through as I did with the second. But these issues with the second kind of put me off playing BG3 because it just looks so damn similar to OS2.
I had been planning on waiting until the DLC for Tears of the Kingdom came out but since they announced that there are no plans for a DLC I jumped in. I thought BOTW was large (it is the first action-adventure, open air game I have ever played) and wow is TOTK even larger. It's very well done. I've done the Wind and Fire temples, so I'm at about mid game. I only have one criticism thus far:
I'm not all that skilled of a gamer but I beat the first boss (Wind Temple) with 4 hearts and the beginner armor set. At 15 hearts now and the soldier armor, I'm just now starting to be a bit more comfortable going against bokoblins and moblins. I could see not padding the major bosses being the developer's way of ensuring players who don't like fighting and prefer puzzles/shrines/temples to still progress in the game. It's just that it seems to be a pretty large imbalance to me.
As for what I'm doing now: In BOTW I avoided going against Lynels because they're scary, but I'd like to get over that now. I'm working up the nerve to do that before continuing the story. Most advice I've gotten for beating a Lynel is to get better at parrying and the perfect dodge, which I could never master well in BOTW. I do okay in the shrines that make you practice it but it's harder outside of that environment.
I also struggled with mastering the dodge timing for Lynels and ultimately came up with a bunch of easier alternative ways to fight them. Definitely try out the many other options the game offers (powers, items, combinations, bow-bullet-time, etc)!
I beat a red maned one after my post and did not successfully use dodge/parry. Indeed it moves so fast that I don't know how people do it! Still, going to bask in my victory anyway :)
Good to know I'm not the only one that struggles with the dodge timing. I'll do something I don't usually like to do in this case and look up those other methods you listed so maybe it won't be as hard next time. Thank you!
Starfield but I won't talk much about it, as what else needs to be said? It's a Bethesda game and I love it for it. Just started New Game+ and I'm excited to see where that leads.
Doom as in, Doom from 1993. I've been playing it off and on for decades, starting with the Shareware around 1994/5 and I don't feel like I've ever really "properly" finished it, whatever that means; at least, I don't have any concrete memories of finishing it, though there are flashes in my mind here and there of various levels and the bosses. At any rate, I'm trying to finish it on the "proper" difficulty of Ultra Violence for the first time and I'm halfway through Episode 3 and damn it's very challenging in the early levels of an episode when you don't have any weapons or ammo; I've found myself mostly just running through the first couple of levels and grabbing what I can just so I can have a solid foothold in the later levels of the episode. I'm playing via Chocolate Doom, because that's how I remember the game and I'm very much enjoying it and excited to move on to Thy Flesh Consumed and SIGIL.
In addition to the regular episodes, I tried out the "new" John Romaro released maps E1M4b and his reimagined E1M8 and both were great. On M4b I had a smile on my face the entire time from the sheer cleverness of the level, but E1M8 was incredibly challenging, especially with a Pistol start. I needed to actually look at a Youtube video just to figure out the best way to go in the first 30-seconds of the map without being slaughtered immediately; after getting pointed in the right direction, I managed to finish the rest of the map on my own, but damn it was challenging!
At any rate, what's my opinion on Doom? It's a game that really influenced my life; it calcified me as a PC gamer back in the day and due to that, pointed me in the direction my life has gone overall. I wouldn't be in IT without Doom and who knows what other tertiary things would have been influenced without it. That said, is it my favorite game ever? Honestly, no. I love Doom, but I need a little more, if you know what I mean. Running through levels, blasting demons and trying to get to the exit simply isn't enough for me and if Doom didn't hold a special place in my heart, I'm not sure I'd be playing it right now. The years following 1993 saw games that I loved much better--Duke Nukem 3d, Blood, Strife, Quake 2--and the thing they all have in common is a semi-believable world and a little more semblance of story.
I can't diminish the legacy of Doom or Quake even, but, aside from being foundational for me, I can't say they're my favorite games or even in my top 10.
As a fellow Doomer since 1995, I can tell you there's plenty of source ports, mods, maps and more to make Doom feel fresh 25+ years after release. I still play it frequently and make maps, and it will probably never leave my top 10. Not really because of nostalgia, but because it has such an active community that consistently does weird and fun things with such an old game. I'd look up the mods Reelism and Doom Roguelike Arsenal: Extended.
There's definitely been some stuff out there that really pushed its limits and impressed me. At a base level, the newer maps from John Romero were great and I loved them; otherwise, I played through Ashes 2063 and was utterly amazed at what GZDoom could do, not to mention the excellent design that went into a game that is completely free.
I just feel like the older Doom Episodes are a little dated at this time and maybe don't necessarily completely hold-up when faced with something more modern. That said, I might be completely talking out of my ass and I'm eager to play Thy Flesh Consumed and SIGIL to see if my hypothesis holds any water.
I'm fine with dated, that's what I find compelling. There's no shortage of super-detailed incredible maps, but not very many for those of us who dig the retro aesthetic. I want to create stuff that feels like it came off a floppy disk from 1995...just with a bit more detail. 🙂
Dated perhaps wasn't the best word choice for me, but there's just something that isn't my favorite about classic Doom. That said, I'm still playing it, which says a lot, given that I don't have a ton of time to play games and I tend to drop things very quickly if I'm not enjoying them. I just finished the third episode and took some tentative steps into the 4th episode.
Thinking on the word "Dated", I think I more mean it in a map design sense. Many of the maps in Episode 3 tend to feel pretty meandering and don't feel like they really have a sense of flow and continuity to them in the way that the earlier maps do; they have a tendency to feel more like a purely challenge based map (Let's stuff three Barons of Hell into this one room) than something with a cohesive sense of place.
Which isn't to say I'm not up to the challenge; again, I just completed the third episode on Ultra Violence, but where it differs from something like Dark Souls is in that sense of place. A From game feels like it's got a sense of place to go with its challenge; it has a flow to it where I don't feel like I'm wandering around, trying to figure out where to go.
None of this means I dislike the game; I suppose I'm just trying to analyze my own thoughts on it.
You don't have to enjoy it if it's not your thing, but I'll never not enjoy Doom. Everybody else is head over heels for Zelda/Mario because they discovered it as a kid and it has a special place for them; that game was Doom for me. Growing up we never really had many consoles in the home and PC gaming was more appealing to me. I discovered the game on a random shareware disk that came with our first family PC, and the adrenaline rush I got from first playing that game has never been replicated by any game I've played since.
The feeling of being totally alone in space against overwhelming odds with only a pistol for a friend always stuck with me. I try to convey that feeling of "extended demon killing road trip" rather than just lock people into a series of tiny rooms and make them fight a bunch of high-level enemies (part of the reason I don't really like the 2016 one or Eternal). The levels can vary in terms of design and play, but the upside to this is there's such a variety of levels for every skillset and playstyle. Everything from casual romps to blistering 'slaughter wad' arenas. You can play something simple like Memento Mori or torture yourself with something like Eviternity or Plutonia 2.
I really only ever play on UV and anything less doesn't feel like the full experience to me. The maps I make are generally geared towards that difficulty. I'm trying to find ways to make maps that are memorable in the same way they felt to me as a kid.
Maybe I'm not coming across exactly how I want to, which can be difficult in text. I love Doom. I have a Doom T-shirt, I recently bought a Doom poster and bought a very nice frame for it to hang in my office; I regularly listen to the soundtrack, both MIDI and Andrew Hulshult's version. Doom is installed on every new computer I own, every device that can run it (My 3DS, Vita, PSP, Miyoo Mini) and it's a game I regularly go back to and futz around with; I've read Masters of Doom several times and recently finished Doom Guy by John Romaro. Doom cemented me as a PC gamer; I had played PC games, shareware games, etc way back when, but I still played primarily on my Sega Genesis. After my friend told me about Doom and getting my parents to buy me a Shareware copy at Software Etc., it was all over for me, I was a PC guy ever since and it's what lead me to being in IT today. I still love FPS games to this day and you can take any third person game that I'm lukewarm about, slap it into first person and suddenly, that's my new thing.
I love Doom.
But what's happening in this thread, as I replay it fully here, is me coming to terms that while it's something I love, it's not my absolute favorite and I'm talking about Doom, Doom here, not all the expansions and user created maps, etc. I haven't really explored much of those to be honest--though I'm starting to delve a little deeper here. I'm curious to try Doom Infinite, for example--so my opinion here is based solely on the original 3 episodes. I'm coming to terms with how influential this game has been on my life and how much I love it, but recognizing that it may not be my favorite of the genre. I still love it and I'm still playing it, I'm still finishing the original episodes and moving on to extra stuff, but it's just not my absolute favorite in terms of FPS games that have existed since Doom-essentially-invented the genre as we know it.
We're on the same page with Doom 2016 and Eternal. I liked 2016 well enough, but it lacks the spirit of the original game and I never bothered with Eternal, because everything I've read about it makes it seem not at all like my thing.
Eternal is about as far-removed from the spirit of the original games as you can get while keeping the same title; people who claim it's the best game in the series clearly never had a meaningful relationship with any of the other games except the 2016 one. It's just not Doom, and the Doomguy (or Slayer, or whatever he's called now) has become a literal parody of himself. It's like the infamous Doom comic became a game, only the player character is a really angry Swiss Army Knife.
Some months ago got a Steam Deck and have slowly started to play all those games in my library i haven't touched since acquired.
Some highlights from somebody who's now firmly a casual (long past are my days of hardcore gamer):
I'm going very slow since i only play when i can, so i guess in a few years i'll be done with my backlog! Yay!
Lately I've been hammering through a couple of new ones and a few old.
Heretic's Fork is a tower defense game where you work as an employee for Hell trying to stop sinners from escaping by keeping them from reaching the center of the map. It's card-based, but you can combine and unlock new cards by playing as well as different employees who each have a special ability. There's also a bunch of fun stuff you can mess with in the fake PC desktop you launch the game from.
Jupiter Hell is essentially a legally-distinct version of Doom Roguelike done in a turn-based isometric style. It skews so close to DR that my brother, who had never played Jupiter Hell but had played DR was able to explain to me how the game worked while I streamed it. It's easy to pick up, but can be a bit confusing at first. I had to search around to understand some of the HUD elements since the game doesn't really describe them.
I've come back to Vermintide 2 after seeing that the devs added a bunch of new maps and are planning to release a new character soon as well. It's fun when you have a good team. I've been bashing through Terraria again after enough new content built up that I felt like firing it up with some friends. It has an astounding amount of stuff to do.
I've been loving heretics fork! The humour is great and the soundtrack to as cherries on top of the addicting gameplay.
I recommend 2x Great Cleanser and 2x Judgement towers if you want to really be successful. I've beaten 5 of the 6 employee characters using that build. Max out Unholy/Hellfire damage wherever possible and always keep upgrading attack speed.
Jupiter Hell is great and I've been meaning to go back to it for some time now; definitely a rare Roguelike that captures my attention, as most of them do not. That said, I kind of wish I could play it on my Vita, as it's really a perfect game for short sessions, which the Vita is perfect for.
Yeah, that game seems to work best with controllers, the keyboard controls are a bit aggravating.
River City Girls
Grabbed this from the recent Fanatical bundle, beat it as solo Kyoko on Hard mode along with the secret end. I'm really of two minds about this. On one hand, I think the presentation is fantastic: the visuals, animations, music, and full voice acting all blend together into a charming Beat 'em Up that doesn't take itself seriously. On the other hand, I think there are gameplay aspects that don't sit right with me:
I do like the game's atmosphere, but the thought of having to grind up the other characters makes me think I'd probably put more hours into Streets of Rage 4 or Fight'N Rage instead.
MARDEK
On early Chapter 3 following the official guide up to the forest dungeon, main party consisting of Mardek, Zach, Elwyen, and Gloria. This is a trio of flash game RPGs from the late 2000s and it definitely feels like a snapshot of the internet then from all the parody NPC comments. It also shows its age from the wonky inventory system and the keyboard controls, but the latter can be fixed through Steam Input when using a controller. One of the things I like from this is the equipment mastery system which allows a character to permanently unlock an equipment piece's skills for themselves after using it enough, and the subsequent free allocation of skill points to mix and match skills between battles.
Themes: A warning against self-righteousness - Mostly Chapter 2 spoilers
When Emela accidentally kills Steele to stop him from executing a defeated bandit chief, she expresses a lot of shock over it, even if he was the poster child of toxic masculinity who completely deserves it as everyone agrees, and then over the random bandit mobs who didn't surrender to rescue the miners they took hostage. Though Donovan is basically the good cop here reasoning that what they've done was necessary to maintain goodness and Emela comes to terms with herself the day after, Deugan leaves the conversation agreeing with her and disliking what Donovan said about not thinking too hard about killing because they're Royal Guards.
Deugan, privately to Mardek: "Because it makes us 'no use to anyone' if we think about it too much and break down on the battlefield? Hm... That's all we are, I suppose... Tools. Don't want us breaking..."
Vehrn is an optional party member and a paladin who displays all the stereotypical arrogance with constant expressions of how YALORT guides him and enables everyone's victories and blah blah blah. He's recruited when the party finds him beat up by the dungeon entrance after he tried to solo it, but remains just as obnoxious.
Similarly, The World's Saviours is a parody of a hero's party with a warrior, white mage, rogue, and dark mage. They're reoccurring bosses with the hero constantly challenging the main party because they're the heroes and all that jazz.
While I haven't gotten through Chapter 3, Rohoph has made some concerning thoughts about how he finds the thought of there being balance between light and darkness distasteful when it could be all light. The boss of Chapter 2, a necromancer from his home planet, also felt pretty bullied by him despite Rohoph's thinking that they used to be friends.
My main takeaway is that titles can be easily corrupted into bludgeons by assuming that your position gives you the right to act however you want because clearly you must be doing the right thing here.
I've been playing exclusively Elden Ring for the past few weeks. Finally got into Leyndell, but have been dying and losing my runes repeatedly to basic enemies.
I may be playing too much Elden Ring.