What have you been playing, and what do you think of it?
(I really liked the weekly /r/games stickies, would be nice to have similar discussions here)
Prey (2017) - Spiritual successor to System Shock 2. An FPS-Survival Horror game with RPG elements. As a huge fan of the original system shock series, this was quite a treat. I've kept reading that this was the underrated game of that year, and after playing it for a dozen hours, I agree. Bioshock games didn't quite scratch that itch for me: exploration felt very 2-D and linear, environments didn't feel like the spaces they represented (living quarters, public squares, etc.), sometimes too much exposition, and it eschewed the detailed interface for a simpler menu. It's a blast to explore all the hidden nooks and crannies in Prey, sometimes getting more story bits, or just extra ammo; it's tense and and rewarding. Story so far is compelling and the twist at the start was 10/10. Here's hoping the rest of the game holds up.
I'm fighting a full on Path of Exile addiction at the moment. After trying many times in the past to get into the game, I've finally found a build that works for me and is letting me experience the end game. This is one of those games that feels absolutely overwhelming until you put in some time to really dig into the systems. I'm still very much a noob, but a noob that is having a blast!
What build are you playing?
I really enjoyed this game a while ago, but got burned out playing the same story maps over and over to get to the end game with each character. I know they implemented a full campaign, but I still get annoyed with the old content, just 'cause I played it so much.
If you haven't played any of the Atlas expansions yet, they added a lot of new end game content to mess around with. Shaper and Elder are new end game bosses to beat.
The new 10 act Campaign also helps out with burn out, since you're not playing the same 4 acts three times to get any character to end game mapping.
Currently, I'm playing a Molten strike sword shield jugg build. It's working out pretty nicely where I can face tank most things and clear packs of mobs quickly! That said, I'm only up to t8 maps, so we will see how it progresses into the endgame.
Path of Exile is my most played game on steam. 1.6k hours according to Steam, and I'm sure it's more because I had changed from the stand alone client to steam a few years back.
I highly recommend the game for any ARPG lovers out there, and I'm glad to hear that you're starting to find success in your build; always a great feeling when things start to come together.
I decided to play Anachronox, which is an offbeat RPG directed by Tom Hall (better known for Commander Keen).
That game was way ahead of its time. It fits right in with modern weird RPGs like OFF, Space Funeral, Undertale etc. There's a 15-minute mandatory quest to find a dirty sock. One of the party members can immobilize enemies by launching into long, boring old man rants. In order to learn new abilities, you have to pay $50 to pray inside a hemetically-sealed cube ('remember: money is transient, your salvation is eternal!'). It's also got high-quality art direction and a surprisingly richly-drawn world. If it had come out a few years ago, people would have regarded it as 'janky, but good'.
In many ways, it's a great counterpoint to Deus Ex - totally different in design, but alike in style and tone. I would recommend it.
I remember when this game first came out, it was fairly acclaimed but super buggy; my computer was way under-spec. I watched Errant Signal's analysis of it to see what I missed and it looks like such a hodge podge of genres and ideas, but also much ahead of its time.
I hadn't heard of this, but I grew up with Commander Keen. Plus when I Google Anachronox, one of the "People also search for" games is Septerra Core, so this definitely has my attention. I'll be checking it out!
I've been playing a lot of Hollow Knight and it's extremely comfy, entertaining, and decently challenging. The hand-drawn everything looks wonderful, the combat is metroidvania (which I admittedly don't have a lot of experience with) and very satisfying to learn and get better at. It's often something that's said that you would enjoy if you enjoy the Souls series a bit, and as a huge Souls series fan I think I'm in agreement.
Did you pick it up on switch? I've been waiting for it's release on switch for what seems like forever now, and now that it's out I don't have any time to play through it, lol.
Nah, I sadly don't own a switch but I really would like to in the future. Got it on steam a week or so ago.
I got stuck in Bloodborne (jesus how hard is this game) so I took a break from dying all the time to....
....die all the time trying to 100% all of Super Meat Boy.
I've tried getting into DF a few times, but could never get the hang of it enough to actually feel like I'm playing
I've been playing Arma 3 thanks to the Humble Bundle, and it's been a blast (pun not intended). I'm actually surprised at the realism of the game and the importance of positioning in the game, and the Apex expansion is the really fun to play with friends.
I just started playing Overwatch on PS4. I have hundreds of hours on it on PC but since my son is starting show interest in games like these I feel the need to scrub off the old contoller rust. What better way to do that than playing a game I'm already familiar with. I've been away from console shooters long enough to have lost my muscle memory so it's an uphill battle.
On the PC I'm "playing" modded Skyrim SE. Playing in quotes because so far I've spent dozens of hours modding it and around 2 hours actually playing it.
Been mostly playing low key games lately. Not enough time to get into big world games.
Multiplayer Stardew Valley is fantastic. Friends and I play almost daily.
Into the Brink (same team that did FTL) is also super addicting and satisfying.
I wish I had people to play multiplayer with... The single player experience isn't very enjoyable. You spend most of your time mining/fighting with a clunky combat system to get metal for sprinklers so you don't have to spend your whole day watering stuff. The whole game seems to be about reduction of effort, but it doesn't go full factorio, so it ends up being slow and tedious.
I can see where you can get tunnel vision here - but the game is designed for you to be able to explore and mess around and investigate new things if you get tired of the grind. Yes, if you plant too much to try and min/max you are gonna have to also water that shit, but you don't HAVE to min max. Each character has an arc and they game does have some depth - you just got to minimize mundane daily routines (unless you kinda like them like some people do) and get out there and talk to people and discover the story.
Now I will say that multiplayer is game changing. I will never go back to a one player game ever - it's so much more fun to have a crew and all have specialties but then all charge into some objective together. If you need some people to play with (I think the max is more than 4 now) DM me. Can have you join one of my personal online farms to see if you'll click well with the rest of my group. (this is an open invitation to any stardew friendly folk).
Which is why you have to spend the first year mining to make sprinklers and kegs to get a steady source of income going so you can spend money on other stuff.
Played a bit of Jurassic World Evolution last night (yesterday was its release day). It was pretty good, though you can't pause or speed up time which was annoying. It's essentially a management sim game in the same vein as the Zoo Tycoon series, but with better graphics and more likelihood of failure. I lived off of the Zoo Tycoon games as a kid, so I have high hopes that this may scratch that itch.
God of War (2018) is probably one of my favorite games of all time. The balance between the story and gameplay is pretty perfect for me. I’m not saying it’s anything revolutionary but it is refreshing.
Also I’ve never played a GoW game before lol, I love Kratos but from what I’ve seen he’s much different (and quieter) than he was in previous games.
Also Sony fucked up big time not releasing a remastered trilogy.
Oh man, the combat is so different in the other GOW games. This most recent one is a masterpiece because the story and gameplay is so great, but having come from the previous games, the combat is such a huge step down. There's a lot more cool stuff you can do, but the way difficulty is dealt with and how much skill comes into play is such a let down.
I've been playing some Star Trek Online lately. They just released a new expansion pack, and the summer Risa event is due sometime "Soon™".
Oh man, haven't touched this game in a long time. How easy is it to start playing now? Last time I tried there were so many incomprehensible systems, tokens, rewards, quest lines, and even reaching max level didn't clear much up for me. It was super cool to be the captain of all the iconic designs though, I really love ST universe.
It's still just as complex, though much of that stuff is entirely optional.
Take your time.
The new expansion brought new quest lines, and new acting by the voice actors for the characters of Garak, Quark, Rom, (more of) Nog, Odo, Kira, Martok, the female changeling, and Weyoun, and a redesigned/expanded DS9 map.
I really wanted to get into ST:O but it's just so.. ugly. I feel like it's a big enough franchise to do some graphical updates like EVE and WoW and others have. I'd love ST:O but with modern graphics.
I can't speak to Eve, but I find WoW's graphics to be so goofy as to be impossible to suspend disbelief. STO isn't perfect with faces (sadly), but for example, Garak's face is done really well, and their ship combat for a Trek game is done very well, graphics and all.
Take a look at Garak's face here: https://io9.gizmodo.com/star-trek-onlines-new-expansion-is-a-wonderful-love-let-1826739389
Oh man, thank you for posting that link. I’m not interested in MMOs and I’m sure I’ll never play ST:O, but as a DS9 fan I love the attention they’re giving it. That Garak gif made me swoon.
You're welcome. I didn't think I'd really be into Trek as an MMO (sometimes flimsy manufactured conflict, shooty shooty, grinding, etc) , however, as I've played STO, I have to really give the team a lot of credit.
In the example of this latest expansion pack, they've really given a lot of Trek fans who aren't wild about Discovery (although there are some references/NPCs/ships/uniforms/etc to it in the game) what they wanted. This expansion takes place roughly 40 years after DS9 ended on TV, and the missions reference previous episodes (complete with a hilarious Ferengi-based mission, "Quark's Lucky Seven") and enemies from the TV series were never developed well, such as the Tzenkethi or the Hur'q. In previous expansion packs like Delta Rising (all free), they expanded on the Delta quadrant, some races from Voyager, Voyager faces like Kim/Tuvok/7 of 9, etc.
It has a lot of fun content, even including a (somewhat limited, but there!) mission editor to make and publish your own missions for everyone online to play.
I'm playing Pillars of Eternity 2 right now. I'm pretty disappointed with the primary story line and what seems to be an easier game compared to the first but the mechanics and the faction story lines are great. It's my favourite genre of game and what they're doing overall is something I'm happy with.
I'm playing it as well after having replayed the first with the expansion.
I found, and still find, the main plot of the first installment quite shallow and I finished the game with the same plot hole I was remembering of course. But I must say that I loved the expansions. They had very much a feeling of "tales of the sword coast", the Baldur's Gate expansion.
About the second, I'm being quite surprised by the graphic improvement (did they change engine?) And I'm just past the island you crash into at the very beginning (just killed the first pirate captain). All in all I'm enjoying it but I'm seeing lots of complains about the difficulties.
I think that part of them are caused by the AI actually doing something, compared to the uselessness of it in the previous chapter.
However I'm playing mostly "casual" this late years (apart games that rely entirely on the challenge factor) so I don't mind it being "easy".
Hope the story won't disappoint me as the previous one.
Hmmm I'm not sure if they changed engines, I think it was kept the same but don't know.
I've gone through and disabled most/all AI scripting other attacking if they're attacked within close range. I've had to up the difficulty to veteran. I think really a big part of it is that all spells now are refreshed upon engagement. This essentially really frees up spell use to go for maximum damage and buffs for every single battle. This means that extended dungeon crawling is significantly easier since the need to rest is eliminated unless you're injured and the strategy of conserving spells is essentially gone.
Pixeljunk Monsters 2 for the PS4. The original PS3 game was one of my favourite games not least because it had local co-op and I played it for hours and hours with my housemate of the time. The new one is not quite as good but it's close and I've been putting a lot of time into it. Well worth £11 if you like tower defence games. I don't live with the old housemate but it does have online co-op so we could play except he doesn't have a PS4. If Playstations were a bit cheaper I'd probably buy him one because it was such good fun playing together.
Posted a thread about Horizon Zero Dawn a few days ago, have put another 15 or so hours into it since then. I continue to be wowed, I took down my first 'big' monster the other day, spent the last of my currency on weapons, and upgraded my armor. It's one of those '5 more minutes, just one more objective' games, and I've been losing sleep because of it haha
I just watched my gf beat HZD in a little under two weeks. There were definitely days we both went to sleep late wanting to finish just one more quest, cauldron, corruption zone, or whatever. Loved the story and the main character. How can something like this come from the Killzone people? What a pleasant surprise. She did complain about controls and the climbing mechanics quite a bit, though. We're both stoked about the eventual sequel.
I got SW Battlefront 2 on sale for $20. It's pretty fun, seems a lot more polished than the first one. The combat feels a little tighter as well. I don't think I would have paid full price for the game but am pretty satisfied with it so far.
I know a lot of people were bitching but I don't know what they expected. I saw one group of people essentially wanting a remake of the originals and then another group of people wanting Battlefield reskinned with Star Wars assets. While I'd enjoy the latter, you can't realistically expect either of those things. They wanted a more casual audience than what a Battlefield reskin would have given and the old games are way too arcadey to hold up. I think they found a good middle ground with this one. I've only played a handful of matches but it seems like I play the same 5 maps. Still feels like I'll be playing this one for a bit.
I've been playing a metric fuckton of Bloodborne, and it's been very fun as my first souls game experience. The difficulty can be bullshit but it's usually fair. Definitely recommend.
I recently completed Dishonored and had a lot of fun doing a ghost playthrough. I started a second run as a high-chaos slaughterfest to see how different the experience is, but that’s on the back burner for now. Right before that one I finished Assassin’s Creed Origins which was fantastic. I’d like to get back into that one again and explore more of the side content.
In the meantime I swung back to Skyrim for the time being. I don’t have an accurate count of how many hours I’ve played it on multiple systems, I’d estimate around 2000 or so. It’s my go-to “between games game.” I like to get immersed in its world, even though I’ve already explored every inch of it. Amazingly it never seems to get old to me.
I also have a backlog of started-but-not finished titles that includes The Witcher 3, Mirrors Edge: Catalyst, Civilization III, and Crusader Kings 2. Also some oddballs like Danger Zone and a replay of Shining Force. I can’t get any new games until I finish what I’ve started, haha.
Finish Civ and CK2? That's quite ambitious! I have hundreds of hours (thousands?) into those games and certainly don't feel finished :)
I'm honestly impressed with your Skyrim hour count, do you play with mods?
Haha, I'll be lucky if I can even figure out how to play those two. They are easily the most intimidating games I've ever tried to learn (Dwarf Fortress belongs somewhere on that list too). Learning curve is straight vertical. I want to enjoy them but I don't have as much free time as I used to these days. Every time I sit down with either one of them I'm completely overwhelmed. But I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel yet!
Skyrim is mostly therapeutic at this point, I'll just clear out a few dungeons to unwind at the end of a long day, or fart around with min/maxing different wacky character builds for giggles. Currently I'm experimenting with a poisoner Khajiit, maxing out alchemy, sneak, and pickpocket. Playing on survival mode. Gonna see how far I can get through the Dark Brotherhood questline without using any weapons.
I do use mods, but I'm the weirdo who plays on a PS4 so that's really limited the experience. I came across this PS4-friendly mod list on Reddit last year and I'm happy with most of those. I did uninstall the Deadly Bosses, Dragon Cult, and magic overhaul mods because they were just annoying. Also didn't bother with the mods that give you huge houses full of bookcases and mannequins, those are just silly and uninteresting to me. The rest of the mods in that list make for good improvements on the base game, IMO.
Civ is probably the easiest one to start with, the goals are pretty clear and mechanics are somewhat intuitive if you're familiar with strategy games, and there's the difficulty slider.
CK2 is a heckuva game and I did not find it at all intuitive the first dozen hours or so. What's more confusing is that some mechanics change slight, subtly, or completely depending on the expansion you have installed. That said, I highly recommend watching a few let's plays to get an idea of what you CAN do, as opposed to trying to figure out what you SHOULD do. The game is very open ended and victory is something you feel rather than achieve. My personal favorite starts and goals are forming Sweden from one of the duchies there. Raiding is a lot of fun and generates tons of cash.
The problem with Dwarf Fortress is and always has been, the interface. It's not actually super difficult and you can get a basic fortress going relatively quickly. The actual difficulty is trying to remember which button does the build work shop, which one does the construction queuing, keeping track of the essentials, and preparing for the first couple of sieges. The inconsistencies are very frustrating at first. I highly recommend looking into RimWorld as a starting point, it has similar general mechanics but the interface is way better.
I got sucked into World of Warcraft while looking at MMOs about a year ago and have been playing it pretty steadily since. I used to be really turned off by its cartoonish fantasy look and vowed I'd never play it, but the story and gameplay deliver in a way no other MMO I tried got close to matching, so here we are. I'm just hooked on the payoff of being able to master its complexity and adjust everything about my UI and controls to fine tune my play style, then look back at my performance with insanely detailed stats and graphs. I'm currently reading the novel that just came out yesterday and leads up to the events of the next expansion due a few months from now.
I do love me some WoW! What class are you playing now and what do you plan to play for BfA?
My WoW sub is currently paused as I haven't played in a month or two, but I'm really looking forward to BfA. Choosing which class to play for a new expansion is always my biggest challenge! I've got every class at 110 and have unlocked 3 of the 4 allied races, so I'm nearly prepared.
I played a frost mage in Legion and am expanding to frost and fire in BfA. I enjoy the involved rotations and chance paired with the super high mobility and brief windows of total immunity to damage. I've always loved playing glass cannons, and it's really rewarding for me to be able to blink across the room to dodge and soak mechanics at a moment's notice. The lack of any self healing forces me to be very aware of sources of avoidable damage and in rhythm with the fight.
That's kind of incredible you have every class leveled. It took me like eight months just to be fully comfortable with the game and a single spec of a single class. I halfway leveled and then boosted a priest and can fudge my way through playing holy and shadow on it, but I wouldn't take it to heroic raids and probably couldn't even manage a green parse in normal with it.
How long have you played, and what class and spec emerged as your favorite overall and/or within Legion?
Also you should definitely pick up the new book Before the Storm. Its first two chapters are like expanded versions of the cutscenes where Anduin and Slyvanas first see Azerite, but then those scenes keep going past where the game left off. It's quite a page-turner so far.
Mages have always been one of the classes I love in theory and end up hating in practice. It's a class that has been a real pain to level in the past, but Legion made it quite a bit easier, imo. Fire leveling was a pleasure in legion.
I've been playing since release, it's been a fun ride to watch the game change over time! I've mainly raided with healers or tanks in the past, but recently have been playing more dpsbso I can be a bit lazier but I'm not into the raid scene these days, so it works for the time being.
I'd say my favorite classes in legion, at least at the moment, are warrior and demon hunter. Both have nice mobility and survivability.
I start legion as an outlaw rogue and enjoyed the RNGness of the spec until it became time to actually perform. Fishing for 2-3+ buffs was enough to outweight the awesomeness of a full buff stack.
I'll have to check out the book, thanks for the recommendation!!
I've been alternating between Prey and Warframe the past couple weeks.
Warframe is a total grind fest, but I perfectly okay with that because I'm enjoying collecting all the frames and weapons. I do wish there was more enemy variety. You fight mostly humanoid creatures and stuff and visually the enemies are not interesting (in my opinion).
Prey is great so far - I'm around halfway (I think). I love the Mimics. It's a wonderful mechanic to have an enemy that can hide as any object in the room. It just adds to the suspense. Some enemies in the game are absolutely stupid though - Cystoids are just the worst. I wish Thanos could snap them out of existence. Other than that, the story has me intrigued and the progression and gameplay have kept me entertained.
Prismata is an obsession of mine. It's a fairly small user base now, so here's my two cents about it:
Prismata can roughly be thought of as a game which distills mechanics common to RTS games (purchasing units/techs, resource management, and build orders) into a turn-based card game. It is fairly simple to pick up, but the strategic depth is unparalleled. The single player campaign is alright, and serves as a useful introduction to the base mechanics, but the real meat and potatoes of this game is the multiplayer ladder. I personally recommend diving into bot games or casual matches if you lose interest in the campaign.
Since becoming a father, and a homeowner, I have had almost no time to play games. Last game I completed was Mass Effect: Andromeda. I bought my wife a switch so she can play Zelda, and borrowed a copy of MarioKart from a friend. We have been playing a few rounds of that every night, and it has been a lot of fun! It's been bringing me (a huge nerd) and my wife (the only game she has ever played has been Zelda BOTW) together closer.
I've finally got around to Doom 2016. The best part is walking into a big, empty room full of items with a quad damage sat in the middle. Anticipation builds and then the music starts. Good stuff.
On the other hand, I'm doing a Factorio death world run with Bob's, Angel's, Clown's, Pyanodon's, and Rampant. I hate myself.
I just finished Aragami which is a pretty simple stealth game. Bad dialog. I loved it despite the garbage cutscenes and story. If you played Tenchu when you were younger this will be right up your alley.
Just started Siberia which is a point and click adventure. I haven't made it too far in yet but the story hasn't really gotten ahold of me. I will finish it, but if I don't like it I won't be playing the sequel which I own.
A lot of pubg, mostly because a friend of mine plays it and that's one of the few ways we can catch up regularly. I think I'm going to try realm royale because he seems to like it, and that way I can walk away from the shit show that is pubg.