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What are you playing this week?
Inspired by @Whom's music and anime threads
What have you been playing to this week? You don't need to be playing the latest games, nor do you have to write gigantic essays. This is just a space to talk games!
Feel free to give recommendations, thoughts, opinions. Chat about playstyles and habits! Reminisce about games and mechanics long gone, or coming back!
Currently working through Baba Is You. It's a fantastic lateral-thinking puzzle game. It's not much to look at but it's a diabolical brain buster.
When I burn myself out on that, I return to Red Dead Redemption 2 for some hunting or collectible-finding, or pull up Tetris Effect to really zone out.
How much of Baba Is You did you get through? I played it for quite a while last weekend and wow it gets really really hard so quick! I can't even finish all the bonus levels in the second world already. I love it though and I am looking forward to playing more this weekend.
Sounds like you're about as far into it as I am. The difficulty definitely ramped up fast! So far I haven't hit any puzzles I couldn't eventually get through, but I've had to wrestle with a few for a good chunk of time. Which I like in a puzzle game, a good challenge but nothing too impenetrable. At least so far...!
I just want to add another recommendation for Baba. It’s probably the best puzzle game I’ve ever played.
I’m almost done with every level now, and the last few are really challenging. There’s even a great Easter egg in one of the levels!
I think the most astonishing thing about this game is that, if some of the puzzles are this hard to solve, it must have been at least doubly hard for the game creator to formulate them in the first place. How on earth did he do that?
Baba Is You has treated me fantastically so far! It really is a brilliantly designed game.
I'm probably time-wise halfway through, I nearly have "completed" (as in earned the big flowers) all the areas, and have 100%'d the first two. Some of the tricks required to get you to solve them truly are fiendish.
The sound track is brilliant too!
This game passed me by, call me impressed!
Played a whole bunch of Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, after someone on Tildes made a post about it. It turned out to be exactly the kind of a game I was looking for. I loved searching, looting, crafting, and (limited) base-making in the game. The fact that I could upgrade my character with byonics alone made me buy-in quickly. Also, the mutation system in the game is fantastic, and the lore is interesting.
It's vast and has some depth to it, but isn't complicated or confusing.
Decided to put it down for a while, after spending whole days doing nothing but playing it, because it's in early development, and a lot is going to be changed and improved.
Beyond that: still playing SHENZHEN I/O's Solitaire in-game and 0h h1 as a Chrome app. Both are the kinds of games that, once you master, you can play to distract part of your brain just enough to let the other one think and work through the problem. The Solitaire is available as a stand-alone game on Steam.
I'm also playing C:DDA, and am with you on how deep it is. The thing I disagree with is your statement that it's in early development. It's instead in ongoing development, where it will continue to change week after week. It has that in common with Caves of Qud, another of my favorite Rougelikes.
Oh, it's in early development. The city generation sometimes gives me empty cities on non-default settings, the bionics are still imbalanced (you can install any number of them you want, and they have widely-disproportional effects between each other), the crafting all but simplified so far, the gun slots are still unfixed (right now, you can't put a sling on a rifle because the sling goes onto the
slingslot that was added and immediately removed between two builds, and rifles don't have that slot but slings require it), I see my game crash from going up or down the random building that worked fine just a few builds ago...And that's just what I remember.
I'm not putting it down. It's a great game, and it has great potential. It needs time and care, and time and care the dev give plenty of. I may disagree with their "three builds per day" development policy, but I can't deny that seeing the diffs from the updates make me believe strongly that the work is going well.
I know. I dug through whatever information I could find: the repo, the wiki, the latest changes... In fact, I know I've seen those because the links are in purple. :)
Was it you who showed the game on Tildes?
Then as far as I'm concerned, you brought the game to my attention. Thanks!
Been playing a lot of Stardew Valley lately on the Switch. I played a lot of Harvest Moon growing up (FoMT and HM64 are my favorites), so getting a modern take on that formula has been great. My only issue is that after a few in-game years you kind of run out of things to do unless you're really into befriending every last person (I am definitely not). I'm on year 3 and I'm already married, have kids, and I've got more money than I know what do with. Only thing really keeping me playing is my quest to finish the community center bundles (damn you, fishing).
I focused on the community center, married along the way, and then started grinding to make money. Then I started a new game to do the Joja route, and haven't played it much.
I bought the game several years ago and ended up never playing it until just recently due to bigger budget shooters and battle royale games taking most of my gaming time. Recently have not had much time for gaming at home so I end up taking my laptop into work and during my lunch hour playing Stardew Valley. It's slower paced, doesn't require an internet connection and is safe for work. I have a few more games like this that I'm looking forward to getting around to in a similar way once I get bored with SV.
Doom. The 2016 version, because it showed up cheap on the PS store. As a huge fan of the original games (Wolf3D is one of my earliest gaming memories) I didn't think I'd like it and at first, I had real trouble because my mouse hand kept - literally, sometimes - twitching. I've played loads of FPS games on consoles since my Master Race days (I was hardcore into Quake 2 deathmatch back in the day) and it's never been a problem but something to do with it being Doom is reawakening ancient neural pathways to do with mouse and keyboard gaming. I still find combat a bit clunky - entirely due to the controller, not the game - but am enjoying it a lot more now.
Very very looking forward to Sekiro but my gaming time is drastically limited at the moment (thanks, baby!) so will hold off on that for a while yet. I have a few other games to play before that so at least it should be cheaper by the time I'm ready to play it.
Been having a blast with Sekiro, if you are a fan of from software's previous titles you are in for a treat. But it is way harder then DS and BB, be prepared to get even more excited from beating bosses :D
From are the only developers I'll buy their games on release day without reading a single review. The Souls games are my favourite game series possibly ever -, I enjoyed Bloodborne but not as much because I prefer the slightly more measured approach of Souls, but it was still very enjoyable. I hear there's a bit more stealth in Sekiro which is perfect for me, I love stealth games.
So yeah, very much looking forward to doing a whole lot of dying. Might be a few months yet, but I'll get there eventually.
Could not agree more. There is probably just one other developer team i would do the same for, and that is Larian Studios.
I haven't played the Divinity games, so you'd rate them as From-level good?
Interesting. I like a complicated RPG. Might put that on to the to-play list. Anywhere you'd recommend to start? I am a console peasant so PS4 only I'm afraid.
Oh yes, divinity original sin 1+2 are 9.5/10 in my opinion. When i first played dos1 in the series i was blown away, they really did something new and fresh and took the crpg genre to the next level. Which is insane in itself since it is one of the oldest pc game genres out there. I wont tell you why, you will have to see for yourself. They are so good that it spawned a new modern era of crpg games coming out in the past few recent years. I also have to mention that i am very picky about what games i decide to play, and there are only a handful of games i would rate over 9/10. There is a reason why they won almost every single award and game of the year with dos2.
Dos1 by itself is a great game, but dos2 is like a refined version of dos1 on steroids. And yes they are complicated, they are long. You will have to invest not only time, but some trail and error, and studying of the game if you want to complete it on the harder difficulty's.
You will have an edge since you mentioned you love to play complicated rpg games, and if you want a challenge playing it on tactician you will have some work in front of you, even with the experience you have. This is the the difficulty setting i recommend, especially if you have played other crpg games before.
I also have to mention that it has co-op and easier difficulty settings all the way down to a "story mode" one, if you for example want to enjoy the game with lets say your wife not being much into these type of games. The combat system is what is so revolutionary, but the story and world is worth exploring in itself. Every decision you make really makes a difference.
I am going to assume that you are a working adult, maybe with children. Which means this might be a bit of a project with how deep and complicated the games are, be prepared to invest around 100 hours.
Based on what i have said, i would recommend playing dos2 for starters. Do not worry about the story, they are being played out in the same universe, but in a different time line and not in the same plot.
I have been told that both of the games are working well on console, but i never tried it myself. I really hope you will have the experience i had, it is one of those games that left a deep impression on me and left memory's that i will be carrying with me for probably the rest of my life.
You know what, when I ask an offhand question about a game and I get like 6 paragraphs in reply, I almost don't even need to read it. I know that's a game I want to play because anything which someone can get that passionate about telling some random dude on the internet about, I want to see for myself. (I did read it though, of course)
Thanks! I really appreciate you putting in the effort to reply in such depth. I will pick up a copy of Dos2 when I get the chance and I'm already quite excited about the prospect. I'm a part-time working adult, but do have a six month old so gaming time is very limited - but I'm completely OK with just putting in a couple of hours every other day for 3 (or more) months if a game is good.
No problem, like you said i am quite passionate about gaming and this title in particular, happy to help out! I would like to make a couple of more notes for you if you dont mind. First of all, treat it as a sandbox game, if you have any crazy ideas, do a quick load and just try it out. It amazes me how much free will you have in almost every aspect of the game. If something seems logical, like burning down a wooden door that is locked, it probably works.
And also, keep a note book if you plan to play the game now and then, or have to put it on ice for a bit. Otherwise it might be to dawning to pick up again. Even with the quest log and notes in game.
Oh and sorry for forgetting bout your new born. Congratulations!
Good luck out there :)
Hey, it's been a while but I finally went and picked up a copy of DOS2 today. Got a friend coming over tonight to help babysit and we're going to local co-op it for a few hours inbetween keeping the little one fed and (hopefully) asleep. Really looking forward to this, thanks so much for the recommendation.
Hey Mat!
Wow! You remembered me and my recommendation. I really appreciate that you took the time to send me a message letting me know :)
It´s now been a couple of days since that night, and i must say i am super curious to hear about your first impression. A few hours should let you be able and get far enough to get passed the introduction/tutorial area, then again, you make the game as fast/slow as you want it to be. I do have a few initial questions without hearing anything about your experience.
What difficulty did you guys end up choosing?
How far did you get?
Are you planning on creating your own party to play side by side with your friend´s and your play through?
What type of characters did you create?(don´t worry about this, you will be able to respec at any time for free a bit later on)
Did you have any difficulty's figuring out how the game works? Like the combat system for example.
We went for the normal difficulty. Made it to Fort Joy and had a bit of a look around there but not much further - had a few power issues with one of the controllers, and then the baby kept waking up so we got rather less play time than hoped! My friend gets one or two days a year for gaming so she let me take her character along in my party once she went home, and we'd picked up two other NPCs so it's a party of four now.
I have an Elven Witch (Serillo, iirc) and my friend has a custom Lizard Shadowblade. I'll probably end up going down a mostly magic route, because I usually do in this kind of game, but I'm sure I'll make myself a tank and an archer elsewhere in the party.
I love the combat! It's simple enough to dive into without any problems but there seems to be plenty of depth in terms of matching attacks to enemies, using and manipulating the environment and so on.
The journal system could be a bit more straightforward. I'm getting a little lost keeping up with things but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
What I really like so far is the story. It really feels like there's a whole world in this game, everyone I talk to has different things to say, different priorities and needs and wants. It feels deep and 3 dimensional in a way that games like Skyrim don't. It's not just the big, main characters who have backstory, it feels like it's everyone. This doesn't feel like a story on rails, it feels like a world in which I can explore and make my own story. I want to take time investigating everyone and everywhere because it's worth it. There's so much more to find than just a few crates with some gold in, I keep turning up whole quests (none of which, so far, have been "go and get my hat which I inexplicably left at the bottom of a dungeon full of vampires", a la Skyrim)
Also I accidentally got in a fight with a dog and killed it and I feel terrible.
Lmao! This is all i wanted to hear, it´s these type of situations that becomes so memorable. Something that you might have missed is a talent which is a must have and is on top of the "need to know list" before heading into Rivelon, and that talent is pet pal. Have one character have it and you are able to communicate with animals with that character. The animals are usually very interesting and hilarious characters them selves, and they might even help you out in a way or two, or perhaps not.
Yeah i 100% agree, the combat system is, for a lack of better words, amazing. It shows even more if you decide to play on the harder difficulties. And i would say it´s the reason why dos1 made such an impact on the crpg scene.
About the journal system. I read that there had been changes to it in the definitive edition. I think it´s one of the things that they got most feedback on after release. Also, i can´t remember if you played on pc or not, bu the game is mod friendly. I never tried any myself, but i bet there are some journal mods out there that might help. Other then that i recommend that you keep a small IRL journal since you will be playing with such long breaks from it, the journal will get filled up quite a bit later, and it will get hard to get your bearings when entering the game again. Just a few words, like what you where doing and what you wanted to do next, maybe some pin points.
Overall it seems like you had a good time, which really glads me, since i was able to introduce the game to you and all.
ps. I kind of feel bad for the dog to, pretty sure i know who the poor bugger was, rip. At least there are an infinite amount of bones to chew in dog heaven, i sure hope so. And respect for not save scumming that part and living with your mistake.
I have a character with pet pal, the problem is she said the wrong thing and angered the dog! If you guessed it was Buddy, you're right. :)
I'm on a PS4 and I have the definitive edition. The journal is not terrible, I think it just needs some getting used to.
Thanks again for the recommendation, I'm very much enjoying myself so far.
Doom 2016 is great. And the soundtrack too.
I have spent my time playing Sekiro: shadows die twice. Lets just say i have a long road ahead of me, it is probably the hardest single player game i have ever played.
It does not help that i had to reprogram my muscle memory from trying to dodge everything like in the dark souls. My favorite game in modern years is probably Dark Souls 1, and i am having a blast with Sekiro. I am a huge fan of not just dark souls, but i also enjoy stealth games, the combo is awesome.
The combat system is hard and unforgiving, but also very rewarding. I would to say that the level design holds up to their standards, not as amazing as dark souls 1 but better then the from software's other titles, which says a lot. Its just so damn fun playing as a nimble ninja, you feel very powerful, and you are, if you master the game.
Other games that are on my shelf currently is Metro: exodus and the resident evil 2 remake. Both of these titles are great and i have had a great time with them to, just not this week.
Finally got around to Hollow Knight! I hate that it took me this long as I'm a massive metroidvania & dungeon exploration fan, everything about it so far is amazing (I'm 3? bosses in so far), I can't wait to play more this weekend
I'm so tired of games news, let's discuss games. So many good ones have come out in the last couple of months!
Some thoughts on some games I've played in the last week:
Assassin's Creed Odyssey: Started this one earlier this week. I wouldn't call myself much of an Assassin's Creed fan (the first one still leaves a bad, bad taste in my mouth, like my saliva has turned into Buckleys medicine) but I ended up being really taken by the previous game, Origins. The new control scheme and much more forgiving climbing mechanics, combined with a gorgeous world and a new design approach to UI come together to really make it feel a lot better. Turning off the UI to minimal amounts highly recommended. I'm very early in, so not many thoughts on Odyssey itself yet so far, except to confirm that it's more in the vein of Origins and that's good.
Resident Evil 4 HD: The PC version with keyboard and mouse makes this game very easy. Regardless, an excellent game with efficient and variable design and pacing. There's a lot less escorting than I remembered, but the castle is definitely longer than I remembered too. The dialogue is still ridiculous. I cannot wait for the HD texture mod to finally release because, yeah, if there's anything that didn't age well about the game, it's the extremely low quality textures on everything. I guess it was designed for 480i CRT screens so it wasn't exactly noticeable at the time...but that shit's very clearly not HD. Many of them feel like PS1 era textures.
Devil May Cry V: I've loved this series since the first game. This is the best entry. Gameplay is better than ever, and the new character V's moveset is surprisingly novel for a character action game. All the mechanics are better than they have been before, stellar gameplay experience. Is it weird seeing people trying to suggest that the story is at all worth following, though. I've noticed this in recent years, it happened with God of War too. Dormant series gets a new entry, suddenly there's a flood of content on YouTube and outlets that start revising history and explain how a long-accepted shit tier story was somehow a complex and subtle piece of art the entire time. It's weird when you are also aware that the story was literally made up on the fly to justify the action sequences without much thought given to how they connect (that's how Kamiya makes all of his games, Itsuno followed suit).
nsurgency: Sandstorm I mostly play co-op vs. AI but it's a lot of fun. Great gunplay, somewhere between sim and arcade, and truly amazing sound design. I didn't expect to find BF style sound design in a small indie game but here we are. Truly, truly excellent sound effects, if a few gaps here and there (for the longest time, walking in foliage was deafening and would sound like you were surrounded by enemies). The devs have been great about updates and patches since release, and I have no doubt it will only get better. Performance isn't the cleanest, but what low-budget Unreal 4 game has clean performance? Still, recent updates have removed a lot of the chop so the constant flux between 60 and 120 FPS for me doesn't feel nearly as bad as it did at launch.
Battlefield V: Firestorm: The new Battle Royale mode for BFV. It's super basic, barely anything more than PUBG had. And, for that reason, I really enjoy it! I always enjoyed the simplicity of PUBG's BR. I don't like the extra building mechanics of Fortnite, and different classes with different abilities isn't really something I enjoy in most multiplayer games. Putting everyone on an even keel, dropping them into a map with some semblance of reality is all I ask for, and this delivers. PUBG but with BF and DICE polish, so great graphics, stellar performance, no ridiculous glitches and bugs all over the place. This isn't for everyone, but it is for me.
Shenmue HD: I was recently given a copy of I+II HD, but I've only started I so far. Very dated game, of course, but it holds up very well so far. I enjoy that I actually feel like I'm tracking down information, not being handed it so I can speed to the Fun Gameplay Action Sequence. It gives some proper pacing and breathing room for feeling an adventure, not blasting through it in a mindless stream of adrenaline.
Deep Rock Galactic: This game is still in Early Access, but I've put in ~30 hours into it. But I think I'm going to have to put it aside until full release. It's fun but the lack of content bums me out. They've released new stuff recently but, honestly, I'm just not into incremental updates. Previously, I hadn't played in a while and they made some significant changes that I ended up enjoying in that period. I was happily playing for another few weeks until I got all caught up with that. Waiting until 1.0 should have an even better effect, I think.
I'm really glad to see Insurgency included in this list. I haven't picked up Sandstorm yet, but I played the crap out of the first one. The first one was great as far as teamplay went, and had one of the better online communities when I was playing (I put it down for a few years). Almost everyone was strategizing and working together, and for the most part pretty supportive. Anytime there was a conflict it was a result of people continually not playing the objective. And as you mentioned, the devs are great and quick to patch bugs and exploits. New maps and features were always free, and the support of the steam workshop was great. The game was also frequently on sale. To the point where once every two or three months I would be averaging a lot more kills per game; curious, I would check the Steam store page and it would be on sale for a couple dollars.
Would you say that Sandstorm still has enough online players?
I certainly haven't found any issues finding games, but I hear the experience may differ in other regions, like Australia.
I bought the game immediately after trying out the beta because it looks like NWI is keeping all the same approaches the used to content updates with the previous games. They recently released new weapons!
I only got BFV last week, so no idea about the rollout. Historically, I've never had much of an issue with BF and DICE games and performance, it's always been much smoother for me than titles like PUBG and Insurgency: Sandstorm have been.
And yeah, many people seem to be put off from Firestorm for being too simple, but that simplicity is exactly what I'm looking for out of my multiplayer games. It's clunkier than Apex's silky smooth mechanics in a few places, sure, but it's still not nearly as clunky as PUBG.
Really, I just want PUBG with polish and BFV Firestorm is it.
I'm with you. I wasn't really expecting anything groundbreaking and it really is just a polished PUBG with more interesting vehicle and "care package" mechanics.
I agree, BF5 and they still don't have the hackers under control, I don't get that. Lots of bugs, latest patch took out ability to see how many players are left. Weapon mechanics are terrible, can't even kill a person with a rocket launcher unless it's a direct hit, 1 inch off and no damage at all.
Insurgence looks good, might have to pick that up while waiting for Ashes of Creation to release.
ASTRONEER, it's this great open world game where you gather resources, craft new resources, and explore planets. I've just walked around my planet with tethers following the equator.
I've decided to start working through Shovel Knight becquse i've had it for a while, but haven't gotten anywhere in it, and they've overhauled ir since I bought it.
I just watched the trailer for ASTRONEER, I'm getting strong No Man's Sky vibes from that one. Have you played NMS? I'm curious how the two compare.
I haven't played No Man's Sky, but know a fair deal about it.
In Astroneer you're in a fixed solar system with six planets and three moons, and set paths to each body. The surface of the planet is procedurally generated, and each body has a set list of resources NMS is more about galactic exploration, and Astroneer is more about planetary and interplanetary exploration and utilization of resources.
On the surface, you only have to worry about atmospheric conditions and flora in Astroneer, which are randomly occurring, but not generated randomly like NMS.
Also Astroneer was in rapid development as an early access game for a couple of years while the devs of NMS were talking big about features that wouldn't make it in the game until a year after its release.
I play both quite a lot. I'd explain it as "they're similar enough that if you like one, you'll like the other, but different enough that if you liked one, you should definitely play the other".
They're both planetary survival games, heavy on exploration/resources/crafting, but they both have LOTS of differences that make them very unique and interesting in their own way.
Star Wars Battlefront 2. I just picked it up on sale for 7 euros and for that price it's a fantastic deal, the graphics are stunning and the matches and mechanics are satisfying enough that I can play in short bursts without craving more. Unfortunately due to exams I won't be playing much these few weeks but afterwards I'll be diving deep into the campaign and the multiplayer. The only other issue now is finding someone I can play with.
I play on PC at central european time.
It gets a lot of hate, especially with the issues at launch, but it's generally pretty fun and they just released a new multi-stage game mode.
Fuck you, I don't even try to got past the lowest level when I play. If you're not good at it, what does that make me?
I used to do that. It's been a few years, but as I recall, the basic strategy for Venice was to rush whatever tech gives you the UN, and get yourself voted world leader before getting eradicated by the AIs. For the leadup to that, you'd play super defensively with ranged units (especially naval ones) and tons of city state allies, trying to avoid encountering new civs, and engaging in short wars to raze others' cities and/or infrastructure where possible. Actually Venice was one of the easier civs to win with on Deity, at least in single player.
How on Earth do you manage Prince? What's the secret?
I'm deep into The Division 2 on xbone. I liked The Division and I was terribly disappointed by Anthem so I'm really enjoying how Div2 is just a more fun game. Sure, the weapons are fairly boring, but so were the weapons in Anthem and at least Div2 has loot. I've had a good time doing matchmaking with randoms for the main missions, and playing the rest of it solo. I think I've uncovered half of the map.
I'm also playing RiME on PC. It was shown off at the Google Stadia press event as something pretty, and that reminded me that I owned it and I haven't played it. It is pretty but it's fairly simplistic so far.
The story exists. It's a lot of The Division, which didn't have much story, but in this first half it's (again) about rebuilding and the reestablishment of order. I had the first interesting story-related thing happen very recently, no spoilers but it was the first time something slightly unexpected happened.
The missions themselves aren't terribly interesting, but the places are. They put a bunch of missions in museums and other interesting DC landmarks.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate, been an avid fan since Brawl. I'm practicing the meta and few characters i would like to main for elite online.
I checked out the IGF winners and found an amazing little indie game called Mirror Drop. It's messing with my sense of space in a way no game ever did before. Nearly every surface is a perfect, ray-traced mirror, which leads to all kinds of infinite reflections and kaleidoscopic patters, full of abstract shapes and colors. It's hard to see what is a wall and what is just a reflection of a wall. At it's core, it's a simple puzzle game about enabling and disabling "magnetic" forces in certain surfaces but it kinda becomes an almost creepy experience as it's getting harder and harder to even understand the spaces you find yourself in. Great find!
I haven't played many video games in the past 1-2 years save for the occasional, brief, and obsessive stints with Civ5. However, I opened up Call of Duty 5: World at War the other day on PC (with dedicated servers, so no hackers) and I forgot how much fun that game is to me. Very frustrating to be bad at a game that you used to be quite good at though! Has anyone else ever had that happen?
Division 2. Hit WT4 the other day and I'm close to the gear cap. Now to farm until it's actually halfway decent rolls. Mostly waiting on the raid, WT5 and sets to start dropping. Might actually find myself with enough time to justify buying sekiro, but I've had very little time to play lately.
You're way deeper into Division 2 than I am. Do strongholds allow matchmaking?
Spend any time in the dark zones? When I got to the end of the story missions in The Division, I tried to play some dark zone and just never ran into any humans. I was late in the game's life, but I thought it was a bit odd to never see anyone.
Yes strongholds have matchmaking just like missions do.
Very little time has been spent in DZ yet. If it's anything like div 1 it's tiered and I want to do DZ with my friends and they've all been in WT4 since week 1 😂
I quit div 1 far too early, DZ was packed in the first few months
Dark Souls 3 I'm having a blast with it.
I've been playing a lot of Europa Universalis 4. I've always enjoyed the Grand Strategy genre and EU4 has to be the top of the top for me. My only issue is Paradox has some terrible DLC policies, and since I haven't played the game for about a year up until this last week, if I wanted to play an up-to-date and full version I'd have to shell out like $80, if not more, and I'm really not down to do that.
Also have played a bit of FTL: Faster Than Light. It's a bit repetitive after a while but I appreciate the sci-fi and it's one of the better roguelikes I've played.
What's your favorite nation? Have you ever created a custom one?
Also, have you played Stellaris?
Ethiopia has to be by far my favorite to play -- I love how smoothly the difficulty curve ramps up relative to other nations. You can conquer and vassalize a lot of nearby minors, but then you have to deal with the Mamluks and Ajuuraan, and then (of course) the Ottomans, and it's a really enjoyable challenge.
I've created a custom nation but I've never really managed to play a long time with them - they're just not as fun? I don't quite know.
Don't have Stellaris, really want it though! Looks like a great game.
A whole lot of Old School RuneScape (if anyone wants to add me on there or make a clan chat or something, PM me!), I'm getting my passion back for that in a way I haven't had in a few years. I adore that game and I'm so happy it's still around for me to live in.
I've also been revisiting Call of Duty 4 and World at War, the former for some multiplayer that is still very much alive and the latter for zombies with @Cleb. I really enjoy those games, and it makes me sad thinking about where CoD 4 could be today if that game was nurtured instead of snuffed out with the CoD sequel schedule. That series has struck gold a few times and made genuinely compelling FPSes which stand up there with the classics but never got much of a chance to shine. Sad. Still great to play though :)
I was going to jump into Sekiro but I'm away from my desktop this week and my desktop can run it but not as well as I would like for something I really care about, so I'm waiting to take that one on. Miyazaki games are very special to me, Dark Souls being by favorite piece of art in any medium, so I'm excited for the opportunity to jump into another one.
Lots of D&D. Lots of D&D. No, really, a LOT of D&D. Couple hours Monday night, another couple hours last night. Tonight's kicking off a marathon session of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist that runs through much of the weekend. And when I'm not playing that game, I'm in a different game.
This week was my introduction to 5e, and I am really enjoying it. After being genuinely heartbroken and severely disappointed with 4e (both in terms of mechanics and what they did to my beloved Realms), I never thought WotC would again be able to make something that I actually enjoy. But 5e is an absolute delight: it seems to hit all the right design marks for me right now, and Ed retconning the 4e FR nonsense really helps, too. The 5e Realms are my Realms, and I feel like I'm home again. I bought Ed's newer version-agnostic FR book and the 5e-specific book and it just feels so right. It's like I'm catching up with an old friend after a decade and it's just so... comforting. Cozy. A Dutch friend uses the word gezellig for this feeling.
You didn't say I had to post about video games...
How did the Dragon Heist marathon go? I'm currently running that adventure for my D&D group. We're about half-way, and I'm really liking the adventure so far.
I think I still prefer 3.5e over 5e, but it's certainly a solid improvement over 4e. And 5e is a bit easier to get into for new players than 3.5e was, which is generally a good thing.
CC /u/hungariantoast
Have you considered playing online via a VTT (virtual tabletop) like roll20? That’s how I played this game. You can combine it with any kind of VOIP tool you want (folks these days use Discord a lot), and it leads to an experience that very closely approximates the in-person feeling. Plus, with online you don't have to worry about commutes, so you can still play in awful weather, if that kind of thing bothers you.
I should point out that this wasn't an ordinary session; we were playing with someone taking donations for Extra Life, and we got d20 rerolls for every dollar donated. We raised a solid amount of money, but at the same time this means we had a rather charmed run. There was still a lot of danger, though! When I was still first level we had to finagle some things to ensure I wasn't one-shot killed (not dropped, killed) in one of the first combats. And later, one of the endgame enemies oneshotted me to unconscious without critting.
As for the session itself, it was wonderful. So fun, so funny. I played a rogue who really, really wants to be a bard but has serious impostor syndrome. She purchased a kazoo and started playing it, really taking a liking to it. We were running a tavern and we were doing all kinds of crazy things, lots of fun roleplay. We were ultimately successful, and there were a number of delightful surprises along the way--some added by our DM, some as written in the hardcover. After we finished, I chatted with my DM for an hour or two after and got a behind-the-curtain look at things. I am really impressed with the level of detail Wizards puts into their hardcover adventures. They're expensive, but if they all have this much detail, it's worth it.
I don't want to provide too many details for the story because I don't want to spoil it, but the season you're playing in definitely matters for who your villain is. I'm very happy that my DM chose Autumn because the villain is someone with meaning to me as a player. If you're running it, you probably know who I mean and why I said what I did.
As for edition differences, I'm really enjoying the simplicity of 5e. There are absolutely fewer options, but having recently read this lovely article on option fatigue written by one of the founders of Raging Swan Press, I'm beginning to realize that what I want these days isn't to worry about a mountain of +2s and -1s but rather to focus on the roleplaying, and 5e lets me do that far easier than earlier editions. I'm not new (though before last week I hadn't played in around 5-6 years), and I absolutely have a mind for numbers, but it's just not where I want to spend my mental energy.
Fantasy Grounds is another option for online play, though I think I personally prefer Roll20. Interestingly my reason for preferring Roll20 is the same as yours for preferring 5e; its simplicity. My Dragon Heist groups meets in meatspace though. :-)
Yeah there's certainly a lot going on in the background in Dragon Heist. I'll be answering some of the players' questions after we finish it, but not all, as I'm planning to tie up some of the loose ends, and repurpose some of the plot ideas from the other seasons. We're doing winter, simply because it was winter when we started the campaign. The players are still setting up the tavern, but should finish it in tonight's session. There's not really anything stopping the GM from progressing the plot before the tavern is up and running, but I have a little surprise planned for them on opening night.
I don’t get a ton of time to game but I play Hollow Knight. I like Metroidvanias and Platformers a lot and that game has stole my heart. I’m at 110% out of 112% on my main save and have finished all the side options and collectibles that don’t count for %. I haven’t gotten sucked into video games really in 5 years so for a game to have grabbed me this hard is definitely unusual. I’m really excited for the sequel. I’m actually holding off on a hollow knight half sleeve until after the sequel in case there are new characters I like since the game is so close
The only other games I play are flower, journey, and Abzu, all of which are just calming relaxing games I play while high.
I picked up Octopath Traveler for the switch last week. Work has kept me pretty busy, so I only have a few hours on it so far, but I am really looking forward to having some downtime in the coming days to dive in. I've been looking for a good RPG for a few months now, and I really hope this game scratches that itch.
In my attempt to bring my 750 hours in Warframe to 1k, I've been trying to get into Eidolon hunting and leveling up all the shit I couldn't be bothered to get to max rank. You'd think that, after now 875 hours, I'd maybe be MR20/21? Nah I just got to MR16; I've been using Rhino Prime and Arca Plasmor for like a year. So I've been focusing on attaining an MR that is indicative of the work I've put into this game. The Cetus Wisp farm is awful
I don't think any other AAA title I've played has the same gritty Victorian charm or creativity of the Dishonored franchise. I kind of wish the games were more free roam, because I'd love to just dive into the world they created for the games. I think that's actually part of the reason why I keep going back to the series, I just really love the atmosphere and lore.
While I would not have recommended Dishonored 2 upon release because of the technical difficulties it initially faced, I think it's actually a solid game.
My only real complaint is that with Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider, they replaced the voice actor for the Outsider himself, much to the detriment of the character. Unfortunately, I haven't played Death of the Outsider much, but overall, I'd say give Dishonored 2 a try if you haven't yet.
i got PCXS2 and am currently playing through Ace Combat 5. I plan to go through Zero and 4 as well and I might get 7 on steam
I've been primarily playing UNIST, an anime-styled fighting game that's recently been blowing up because of its inclusion in EVO this year.
I'm not particularly good at fighting games, but this one has a thoroughly extensive tutorial to both its systems and to fighting games in general, so I feel my learning has been pretty rapid! I've been doing decently online, at least. :)
I'm a bona-fide Elite Dangerous addict. This is the kind of game that I thought I'd play a while and get bored with quickly. That was, I believe, three years ago. I don't have loads of spare time, but when I do, I sink it into this game and enjoy every second. It's so diverse (don't like what you're doing? do something else entirely! The list is HUGE) and has such a satisfying learning curve. It's hard enough that you have to put effort into it and you feel proud at being able to do what you can do, but it's not so hard it ever makes you want to rage quit.
I recently started up playing the original FEAR, after getting through some trouble with actually acquiring a copy of the game. I saw a video reflecting on the game and it reminded me that it existed and that I should probably go and give it a shot, seeing as my only experience with any of the FEAR games was a very unsatisfying playthrough of F3AR.
I'm not super far into it, but it has some extremely satisfying gunplay, although it kind of suffers from feeling a bit restrictive in movement. It's kind of inconsequential though, considering so much time is spent in slo-mo getting those chunky headshots and nailing enemies to the wall with the nailgun or blasting them to a red mist with the shotgun.
I've been playing Sekiro. I wasn't sure I could do it but I've played enough hard games to realize that you're going to lose a lot. It's been a ton of fun honestly.
I'll probably catch up on some newly translated retro games. I'm pretty excited to play Rusty since I've been listening to the soundtrack for so long.
I just finished bayonetta! Good fun. The game is over the top and ridiculous, but it is also very self aware. I love it! And now I cant get "Lets dance boys" out of my head. Im emulating bayo 2 now.
Team fortress 2. Recently took a break for a bit, but I've come back now. As fun as always and I wish valve would update the damn thing.
Chrono free and quite fun. It would be an amazing party game if it had support for more players.
Lollipop chainsaw. More self aware ridiculousness. But good fun. I should point out that just because something is ironic, doesn't mean people arent still probably tickling their pickles to it.
Strangely enough, I dusted off Borderlands 2 what with the BL3 announcement dev trailer from the other day.
Jeeze. I haven't even had time to turn my computer on this week. And I'm completely bored with Android games.