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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.
I finally ordered a VR headset, the Oculus Rift S. The specs didn't seem appealing but I trusted the reviews. My last experience with VR was the DK2 and I've got to say it really is something. Oculus' initial demo is really great! I tried several games with it, I'll start with the ones that didn't gel with me and finish with the positive experiences, but the list is not chronological. I started with non-games first (Google Earth, Skybox) to ease me into it.
VR Chat - This one is... weird. I guess there's something for everyone but it seemed to be too anime centric. Plus it turns out it doesn't matter if it's virtual or not, I'm an introvert at heart, I don't seek those kinds of social interactions. I had a similar experience with Second Life way back then.
Pavlov/Boneworks - I'll lump them together because, even though they're not completely the same, they share a core problem: you can move with a joystick and with you body. That is super disorienting. I could not play those games for more than 5mns at best, I felt like I was going to barf. Honestly even though I stopped playing for 24 hours, those ones are still making me queasy.
I dunno if I should persist with them, they just felt like clunky and slow FPS. Some people say that the nausea gets better with practice but the games are not appealing enough to me to make it seem worth it. I don't know if other people have differing experiences, I'd interested in knowing how y'all manage that nausea or if those games are actual gems.
ADR1FT - Now, it might be paradoxical to read, but I had an easier time with zero-g and espace than indoors. It might be because with walking, my brain's built an understanding of the different forces that makes it hard to be standing still in VR. Whereas space is an unknown. With that said, even though the game is confusing and a bit boring to play on PC, it's suddenly quite an experience in VR.
Assetto Corsa Competizione - this game and simracing games in general are the reason why I bought a headset in the first place. Excellent support. Being able to turn you head to check the visors or cars around you, the sense of depth, the immersion, it all makes it very worthwhile. It feels very natural.
PokerStars - I had no idea I was going to enjoy it that much but this is a really nice poker game. I indulge in the occasional game IRL but I can't practice every week. The VR aspect makes it much more enticing than what now seem like bland virtual tables with no faces, gestures, etc. I will say that the prevalence of seemingly young users is really concerning. I guess it's not really that different from the loot box infested games they can play on mobile or PC, but I can't see such an environment as being anything other than a gateway drug to get young people used to the casino and spending money.
I'm still a sucker for Beat Saber - have you tried that?
I also hear that VR is pretty great with Elite Dangerous (which I enjoy in non-VR mode quite a bit anyways).
I'm in the same boat as you on these. I've had VR for years (Vive and now Index), and controller locomotion is still automatic nausea for me. And then Boneworks has a ton of mechanics that are perfect nausea triggers. The fact that you can push yourself off of other objects means if you push an object down onto a surface, or even just set your hands to your side and bump something out of your sight, then the whole world in your vision unexpectedly lurches. It feels like my real life hitpoints just got hit, which might be kinda neat as a punishment in a game, but it's a completely absurd consequence for bumping your hand into something. It's hard for me to play it longer than 15 minutes, and I never managed to make it to the first save point. Maybe I could make it through the game if I paced myself and stood still a lot, but at least in the early game, there's nothing to entertain yourself with while standing still. I haven't tried Boneworks again.
Pavlov is okay in small doses for me, especially if I play in a less aggressive style where I camp a lot. It helps that it has a quicker gameplay loop, so playing it for just 5 minutes can actually feel rewarding. (5 minutes of Boneworks and you're barely into the tutorial area.) Its gunplay is neat but I don't think there's much more to it than that.
Generally I avoid any games with controller locomotion. Games without controller locomotion do not cause nausea for me at all. Anyway, some recommendations if you want: Out of Ammo, Valve's The Lab (especially archery and Xortex), Superhot VR, SteamVR Home (it's really neat to explore all the custom environments. My favorites: Super Mario 64, Mars, Talos Principle, some others 1 2 3), Beat Saber, Space Pirate Trainer, Arizona Sunshine, Job Simulator, Budget Cuts
While it doesn't have the best racing dynamics, Project Cars 2 has undoubtedly the best realism and VR implementation out of all the simracing games IMO.
If you enjoy zero-g movement, you might enjoy Lone Echo and/or Echo Arena. Both of them are Oculus exclusives, but the movement implementation is second to none.
My experience with FPS is that I got used to it. Most VR games with unwanted locomotion (particularly the ISS game/experience - I have a Quest) were nauseating for me, but then I got habituated. The Under Presents has a pull-to-teleport mechanism that is halfway between conventional teleportation and joystick locomotion. I felt I really got my VR legs with Sairento VR, which on first impression sounds a nightmare; it's an arena shooter where you play the role of an hopping, sliding, wall-running and even somersaulting ninja. Maybe it's the fact that I was intently focused on shooting/slashing the baddies ?
I feel the manual aiming and reloading provide different dynamics compared to conventional FPS. More deliberate than 360-no-scope. Aside: Boneworks really feels like a transposition of HL1/HL2 to VR (and started as such), so there's some shooter combat yes, but also plenty of physics puzzle (including level traversal).
I didn't intend on doing this, but I bought Metro Exodus shortly after it hit Steam. I've owned Exodus since it released but on Xbox One. I didn't get very far before getting slightly frustrated by the tiny FOV and console controls.
Now that I'm playing it on PC, where the Metro series began, I've gotten much further into it. I still have some complaints about the tight FOV being applied to an open world, but at least I can snap the mouse around a bit quicker. Gorgeous game but it's doing Metro so differently that it's almost a different game. I can't even trade good bullets for worse, but more plentiful bullets!
I also checked out Kingdom Under Fire II as it was on a free weekend, and it only took the 15 minute tutorial to tell me that game wasn't my thing.
Just FYI, you can adjust the FOV via a cfg file, apparently:
https://www.pcinvasion.com/change-metro-exodus-fov-motion-blur/
Played "We Know the Devil" a little while ago, and even though I liked it, it was a bit too obtuse for my tastes, so I ended up uninstalling it.
Each playthrough only takes about 45 minutes, so if you've got time for a LGBT+ friendly visual novel that has a horror undertone, give it a shot.
I agree. I really wanted to like We Know the Devil but found it hard to follow and seemingly intentionally opaque.
I'll be honest: I really didn't get it after my first playthrough and I had to go the community discussions on Steam to really understand what the developers were trying to go for.
I don't think it's a bad game, but for me, I don't like having to work through a story's themes so much like for WKTD.
I've also played a bit of Human Resources Machine which is really just a "learn how to program" game delightfully illustrated by the same people who did World of Goo.
It's cute. I'm helping my 9 year old daughter work her way through them.
I love that game. :-) I've almost beaten it, but it gets really tough in the later levels.
There's a sequel too, named 7 Billion Humans, but for some reason that game didn't really grip me.
I haven't tried out 7 Billion Humans, but I know what you mean, just from the game trailer / demo. It didn't have the same delightful grip that HRM did.
Gave Children of Morta another shot, and now that I sorted out you actually need to spend points to level your family traits and not just get the required XP, I'm making progress, halfway through the Dog-Medicine quest and can reliably die to the spider boss. Linda is actually my MVP once I figured out how to use her.
We got Ticket to Ride: New York for Christmas, and have been playing it frequently. It's a much faster game than the other Ticket to Ride games, taking about 15 minutes for 2 players. We've found it to be a great introductory game for my son, who is 5; it's about the length of time he really wants to spend playing a game, and it's pretty easy to play. It's a delightful mini version of the game, and the quality of the game itself is quite good; the cards feel nice, the pieces are cute, the board is sturdy. Great game to pick up if you like other Ticket to Ride games, and want a shorter version you can play much faster.
I haven't had much to add in recent weeks, and I'm feeling bad about it. Whomever marked my previous contributions as Exceptional: thank you, and I'm sorry I haven't posted anything like them in a while. It's not that I haven't been playing, but I'm in a period where I'm juggling through games and haven't dedicated enough time to form an opinion I'm comfortable with yet.
A lot of it is because I've been having a lot of fun messing with game files and my own hardware set up, more than playing the games. I like tinkering for fidelity. I don't know if other people are interested in this stuff, but if anyone is, I'll attempt a write-up and maybe save you the hours upon hours upon hours I've spent figuring it out. Tools and projects I've been learning about and tinkering with:
It's not like any of these have a huge effect on games but they're a great catalyst to learning how computers process things we take for granted, like how gamma works and why you'd want to use sRGB versus 2.2 gamma versus REC. 709.
In terms of games, the currently playing list:
I 100%ed Supraland. It was excellent. I'm excitedly awaiting the DLC, which is something I don't think I've ever said before in my entire gaming life. I usually drop games long before I get to a point where I might care about what their DLCs have to offer. This one is different. I'm eager for more.
I'm five hours into The Witcher 3. Based on my playstyle, it has thus far been the story of a gruff anti-authoritarian outcast mercenary who spends most of his time wandering around fields looking for pretty flowers to pick. Occasionally he takes breaks to ribbon dance with a sword. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.
I also started up Team Sonic Racing as a mindless break game for when I just need to chill out. It's fine but nothing amazing. I loved its predecessor, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which was a far better game than its clunky title implies. Team Racing doesn't reach the same heights, unfortunately. I think it would absolutely shine in large multiplayer groups, but the likelihood of getting 6+ people to play it is very low for most and outright non-existent for me.
I tried Team Sonic Racing and hated it. I haven't played too many racing games, but the controls seemed way overdone. I move the stick barely to the left and I'm slamming into the left wall. I correct just slightly right of center and I'm slamming in tho right wall. How is this supposed to be fun? I'm probably missing something obvious.
Hmmm. Might be some sort of joystick/config issue? The controls feel pretty smooth and intuitive to me. Are you talking about issues with regular steering or during drifting specifically?
Just with regular steering. But you may be right. I might need to do some configuration. I'll look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!
Selections from the last couple of times I've spent an afternoon or so looking through itch.io:
Last Train Home - 5 to 10 minute horror experience. Simple, though the climax was notable to me since I'm a sucker for the kind-of-cliche presentation it had. Decently strong arachnophobia warning for anyone who might be interested in this, though.
Text and Drive - I may have posted this here before? It's by the same dude who made 2:22 AM, which I've almost certainly posted here on tildes sometime before. Played this again and concept is so spot-on, even if the execution and experience playing it in janky unity web browser mode is.... less than desirable. Still not sure what to make of the final section, though, thematically at least.
Extra Ordinary - Reminiscent of PS2 Scooby-Doo games rather than NES/SNES horror games, but that might be because I grew up with one instead of either of those. I didn't like it very much but there's probably a few people here who'd get a nice smile on their face from playing this.
Intercontinental - Also by the same person who did Text and Drive & 2:22 AM. Kind of lovely, in a hopelessly doomed way. Makes me wonder what kind of messages I would send out to everyone I know, should I be facing an imminent death.
I mentioned last week that I was playing RealMyst on my iPhone. Well I completed that after figuring out the bug that made some clues not appear. And now I'm on to Riven. While Myst definitely seemed dated, Riven has held up much better. Don't get me wrong – stopping to watch animations of doors opening and closing feels really silly, but the graphics hold up in a way that Myst's don't, and the puzzles are top notch. (Though again, I've run into some issues due to the lack of a mouse on the phone. Not outright bugs, but things that are harder to notice or perform because of the differences between using your finger vs. using the mouse.)
Replayed Crysis 3 for the first time in a while, after reading up on the TVTropes entry for the series. I was looking mostly for the nanosuit and ceph lore, something that's been elaborated on (in a manner divergent with the game series, but in an exciting way) in the accompanying novel Legion.
That game... is fucking boring.
I bet it's exciting to play through the first time because it's full of novel mechanics few other games come close to. Using nanosuit is really cool, and the new bow is neat.
But then, you have to actually play the game, and sit through the scripted scenes, and mess around with the new stalker-y aliens, and watch the cutscenes... and it's a mess. Badly-written, terribly-paced, with bad AI and stupid-ass characters. Even the UI design is subpar. How am I supposed to aim with that skewed-ass crosshair? (Also, tell me which firing mode the main weapon is in. It's supposed to be to the right of the icon of the firearm.)
For a game I was raving about years prior, it's fallen much too short of the expectations. It has its moments, but man... Is that what used to pass for an AAA game back then?
EDIT: something I forgot to add while writing the comment.
The last drop of my desire to play the game disappeared around the train station level when your suit is being jammed and you must fight through a squad of alien stalkers to disable the jammer. It was supposed to be a difficult place, given that you can't rely on the HUD anymore (it disappears until the jammer is disabled)... but you can still use your suit's abilities, like cloak and MAXIMUM ARMOR.
Rather than unsettling, that part seemed to me tedious. The aliens are swift and hurt plenty, but they're asinine. This makes them somewhat unpredictable – but also nearly meaningless as threats if you just rush through the field of tall grass towards the jammer. After that's been disabled, you must go a tad further through the grass and the rusting train wagons. Apparently the aliens can't see you through cloak, so if you time it right, you can sneak past them, undetected, until the very objective point.
Okay, we're there. What now? Your ally, Psycho, calls the base for an extraction route. You must defend your position while he cusses out the replacement mission control. The aliens present no threat at this stage: they rush you position eagerly, but I was more likely to damage myself using the stationary grenade launcher if I fired too close to my position. (Nothing a few seconds in armor mode can't fix.)
Okay, Psycho's done talking. Magically, aliens also cease rushing your position at that stage. The two of you proceed to the next spot, a tunnel that's supposed to lead you outside the dome (long story)... but the door is shut, and even your super-strength can't push through it. Psycho has a brilliant plan: hijack the large tank wagon a bit further south, and slam it into the door... while riding on top of it.
So you do. The door's off its hinges, and the two of you are atop the wagon, going through the tunnel at full speed. Suddenly, CELL (the human enemy with guns) appears along the tunnel. "WATCH OUT!", shouts Psycho and starts shooting back with his oversized, overcompensating sniper rifle.
And I just... stood there... looking at all of this in disbelief. How dumb do the developers think I am? Why would I buy any of it? That part was so obviously full of fake danger, it almost appeared that Crytek laughed at the dumbass on my side of the screen, playing this stupid fucking mess of a male power fantasy...
The few times I've been shot (surprising, considering how many enemy soldiers were along the trail), all I had to do was pop armor mode on and wait a few seconds. Enemies out of range? Disable, wait for energy replenishment. See another wave? Armor on. Repeat until the next cutscene.
So much drama for absolutely nothing.
That's when I deleted the game for good.
That was the same year as Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Metro Last Light, and GTAV, so it probably wasn't the best example of what AAA games were doing.
I don't know, there's always been something... off... about Crytek's games. Even the original Far Cry had the same sort of issue. Their games all feel like they're missing some key element that ruins the cohesiveness, and when you take a step back and the result feels almost too artificial. It's like all the different components were made in isolation and then crammed together. Crytek is a great technology shop but they're not the best video game developers.
My favourite of all their games has been the original Crysis and I think that's because they were the least in their way with that one. They were so focused on making the game a graphical powerhouse that everything else was noticeably less designed. And it worked better. The story was minimal and out of the way, and even if it was bad it wasn't so bad that it was distracting. The gameplay was fairly basic but proven solid, as the guns all worked as you expected with no fluff, and the the suit had a base few powers and otherwise let players figure the rest out on their own.
A lot of what brought Crysis 2 and 3 down for me, and made them nowhere near as memorable, is that they took it from being a sandboxy tech demo that accidentally formed a competent FPS game into a full out AAA franchise, which made them prioritize things that worked against the games. The story... was just kind of dumb starting with Crysis 2. It went from a fairly rote "special ops team vs. NK and then suddenly aliens!" setup to an extremely blasé sci-fi story that was hard to care about. I think what really did in the sequels was that the level design was just not very good and it ruined a lot of what made the first game so memorable. The fun was messing around in a big sandbox levels, exploring around a pseudo-open world tropical jungle island at your own general leisure is what players were looking for, not post-apocalyptic, claustrophobic, muted pallette New York City where it felt like you were getting railroaded in progressing in specific ways.
Even when I go back to replay the series everytime I get nostalgic for them, I realize that all I'm really looking for in the end is what the first game offered, and not at all what 2 or 3 did.
Mmm... Yeah, okay...
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah...
Eh...
Yeah, okay...
Ehhh... Kinda? I don't know, too much hype, never tried it.
Then again, preferences would divide any list of top-selling games of any year on any platform.
I think your commentary on the series is spot-on. There were a few innovative mechanics in the first game that weren't expanded on in any meaningful way, like gun-modding live, or the suit's powers.
I enjoyed the urban warfare part quite a bit – untailored though it was – so I didn't mind the tonal shift, but the railroading and the heavy-handed storytelling that came with it was of no taste to me.
I've been enjoying the newest class in Slay the Spire - so much math! I also think there are some great and interesting cards that can really carry decks. For example, if you can reduce your deck in size and have mostly defensive / cyclic cards along with two or three Pressure Points, it can be crazy overpowered, despite the "D-" level card status that SpireSpy has given Pressure Points.
I think the watcher was a great addition to the game, and have definitely been enjoying it.
Wow, you are so far beyond where I am in playtime (~150 hrs). I'm only at 4 / 4 / 4 / 3 but I only play as a filler between other games.
I think that if you build for switching stances, then you really have to know when big attacks are going to come in.
Wolcen - Finished this game, friend lost a bet that it'd have a D3 copycat 5 acts/chapters (there is only 3). Still buggy. You will get stuck in a wall and have to quit and restart the level. A boss will get caught in a wall and you will have to quit and restart the level. Bosses provide an actual challenge, story was okay, and while the "no classes" thing seems like a good idea, it actually makes it a pain to switch from one main weapon to another as the attribute tree is massive and you'll want the supporting gear to go with it. Since there are no classes you get gear you don't use and you'll level up fast enough that there's little point keeping anything other than the top tier red/pink drops. The "upgrade your city" endgame would be interesting if your city was shared across all your characters, but it isn't. Each one will have to go through the grind to build it up to get better results. No thanks. Uninstalled now.
Children of Morta - This is probably one of the most beautiful (when at your house, not necessarily playing) pixel art games I've come across. Still not sold on having to level up every member of the family, but is engaging and entertaining so far. I just unlocked, but haven't played, the big hammer guy and built the puppy a house, for those wonder where I'm at in the game.
Wizard of Legend - Meh. Tried it, wasn't impressed, honestly can't remember enough of it to say why, uninstalled.
Book of Demons - Cute little papercraft dungeon crawler. Pokes fun at itself and other dungeon crawlers. Not too far into it just yet, but it's not bad. Not a huge fan of the UI and the keyboard controls aren't great either.
Mythgard - Mobile CCG, I despise the always on the internet requirement and will probably uninstall soon because of this. UI is too small for phones in my opinion, poor use of space, and needs a stylus or a tablet to really work well.
Re: Mythgard, I was kind of getting into the single player content, as it was close enough to Heathstone for me to understand how things work. I really got into Rogue Adventure, it's similar to Slay the Spire, but mobile optimized and available on mobile. It has ads, with in-app purchases to remove them, but I was able to start a game in Airplane mode just now, so it might be worth looking into.
Thanks for the suggestion. If I decide I need to uninstall Mythgard I'll take a look at Rogue Adventure, but I see that one of the things that drew me to Mythgard isn't available in Rogue Adventure, or a lot of games really, and that is the artwork of the cards.
That's probably one of the few things I miss about MtG. I know it certainly wasn't the amount of money I spent...
I know Gwent is coming to Android soon, and art on that is pretty good. Not sure how that's going to play on a phone though...
I've heard good things and bad things about Gwent. As someone that tends to ignore most side/mini-games in larger games I never even touched it, that I can recall, while playing Witcher 3.
Your opinion of it?
It's not Hearthstone, and lanes are dumb, but it's cards on my phone, so I'm probably going to try it out.
I nearly beat Ironclad Ascension 18 yesterday on Slay the Spire but i got cocky and thought i could get away with not using a power potion. I ended up miscalculating damage and dying because of the few hp difference. Post 17 ascensions are brutal, especially early run that i actually look for the "next 3 enemies have 1 hp" start just so i can build a bit of a deck because even normal enemies are strong as fuck.
I started a few games of CK2 but i guess i wasnt in the mood because i stopped playing after a few years in each run. Tried a Hungary, Otto iron century start and a Fatamid game but none hooked me.
I've thinking about buying HOI4 when it next goes on sale. I never got into the HOI paradox series but i've been on a bit of WW2 kick recently and it gave me the itch to play HOI.
I started playing Celeste.
I'm too early to say whether I'm digging it or not (platformers are not normally my thing). My main takeaway so far is that it has a surprisingly wild mixture of art styles: pixel art gameplay, hand-drawn characters, and 3D level select.
It's so smooth! Everything about the game is so polished and varied. Wait till you get in the flow, I was personally never a hardcore platformer guy but now I'm doing C-sides because there's a zen-like quality to it that's just masterfully balanced.
Discovered Foundation last week and I've mostly just been playing that. It's a medieval city builder with a focus on organic growth and not locking you into a grid systems. It's an Early Access game, but I couldn't resist grabbing it. There are a lot of UI issues and the gameplay gets repetitive after you've unlocked all of the buildings, but it's still quite fun. Plus those things are to be expected with an Early Access game.
If you've ever played Caesar or Banished, this is a lot like that.
I'm playing CoD: Modern Warfare semi-regularly with my friends and it's a bit of a no-brain fun. Guns have barely any recoil, time-to-kill feels like it's almost zero, then you respawn instantly. Feels good. There are multiple modes, that you can pick from depending on your mood and time you want to commit, ranging from quick 2v2 skirmishes to long 32v32 full-scale battles.
There is also a good amount of customization (with obligatory treadmill thrown in) for guns, which surprisingly has a big effect on the gameplay. Different attachments can turn a gun from a short-range high-rpm blaster into a long-range rifle. Unlocking them takes time, but it's not too bad and felt organic enough.
Anyway, it feels like the best Call of Duty game to date, developers also seem to care about updates and they keep adding new maps, modes and guns. So far, I've been playing it for 3+ months and I still keep coming back. Highly recommend.
hnnnng
If I had a PC strong enough to run it, I'd be running into Steam to buy a copy. It looks so fucking cool on the videos.
I used to wreck matches when I was a teen, back in the MW2/MW3 days. Now it takes time to get into the groove, but dammit I would 'cause that game looks awesome.
League of Legends.
Gonna be very blunt here. I absolutely hate how toxic the game's community is. I've had countless matches entirely ruined by inters and trolls in Iron I and it's contributed a sizeable majority of my losses. Just last game I had a Soraka mid go into my lane and deliberately feed my opponent until he snowballed the match - all because he died when he roamed top and I wasn't able to save him.
Like... how much of a massive jerk does one have to be in order to go out of their way and ruin the gameplay experience of others?
The game has such a nasty community that I swear Riot should be cutting back some of their esports funding to give the bad apples in their community some fucking anger management classes.
I bought No Mans Sky and have been playing the hell out of that. I love it. I know all about the drama with it's release, but I've also heard that with the updates it's become a good game. I saw it was on sale so I got it and I've been very pleased with it for my first 25 hours. I was expecting to get bored with it after maybe 5 like I did with Astroneer and journey to the Savage planet but this game feels a lot more like Subnautica, which I also played recently, and that is the first game Ive played to completion in a few years.
I was hoping to enjoy playing it with my wife, but she ended up hating it after just a couple hours.