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What have yo been playing recently?
Video games, board games, card games - whatever. I'm interested to know what you all have been playing recently.
I've been playing a lot of D&D recently. My players have just delved deep under an ancient keep to save an archaeologist from undead Tomb Spiders. I'm currently planning for this weeks game where they will hopefully encounter the giant spider brood mother.
On the video game front, I've been playing through Duke Nukem 3D. That's a game that's certainly made the test of time.
-LTADnD
Ayyyyy a Civ V fanboy like me! Are you waiting for CIV VI to get a complete edition so you can get all the stuff on sale without throwing money away on the overpriced DLCs like me? Or something about CIV VI that doesn't tick for you?
Edit tbh I hate their DLC practices. The base game is $60 and there is already $40+ worth of dlcs (Just one expansion) :@
I'm in the "wait til it's cheap" camp. If I wanted to pay hundreds for a complete game, I'd play Sims 4.
We're smart not desperate to be taken advantage of. (high five) Also was not a big fan of the CivVI artwork so I can wait. :P
I've been running a Pitboss Civ 5 server with friends again. The games usually last for 1+ year.
Sadly the pitboss mode is really buggy, and it doesn't look like they'll ever fix some of the problems.
I'm going to stick with Civ V until they fix more of the issues with Civ VI. Are the AI still insanely aggressive?
I haven't played in a few months but they did adjust the AI and last time I played it was much annoying. They have not however fixed the underlying problem with AI that has plagued every Civ game.
For D&D, check if any hobby shops or other geeky hangouts near you host Adventurers League - D&D's organised play scheme. It should be very easy to join one of those games.
Hey there, LetsTalkAboutDnD! That sounds like a cool questline you're running for your players. How did your players find out about the missing archaeologist, if you don't mind my asking? I'm always looking for interesting flavor (instead of telling my players "You see a bounty board!").
I've been playing a lot of Pathfinder, myself. I'm trying to get better at being a GM and thinking outside of the box. For instance, an alchemist player has just gained the ability to fly (using extracts or something? Alchemy is complicated!), and as he flew into the air and began dropping bombs on a group of nasty goblins (the quest was investigating reports of little green men and strange lights around a farm). The goblins all had wands of Magic Missile (the strange lights were just wands they'd stolen), so I directed all of my attacks at this guy, since the other player was hiding in a tree (monks, amirite?).
I didn't want him to feel like I was directly targeting him for flying though (although I know that's totally legit, most goblins I feel would target the asshole dropping bombs from on high), since we'd kind of had a spat earlier, so I fudged the rolls without him knowing, and he successfully killed the goblins. My brother (who plays as GM sometimes as well and is much better at improvisation) later suggested that I just have a flying mob go up there and wreck his shit.
That turned into quite the wall of text, but man, I could talk about this game all day! I've never played tabletop RPGs before, and I'm absolutely in love with the game. I think I'm going to start planning a dungeon/quest right now.
Maybe I'll make it underwater.
Hi Woop.
You'll be somewhat disappointed I'm afraid.
The archaeologist was an acquaintance of one of my players. The central town in my game at the moment is a brand-new settlement built around the walls of an old Orc keep. When they came into town, the players were given a few quest hooks, one of which was to help Dr Key - the archaeologist - investigate the central keep, which she had been unable to get into. They helped her get in, then basically went "bye, we have another quest to do" and left her at the keep.
A few sessions the party came back to town and it was mentioned she was missing. The party was in to "oh shit" mode and after investigating her home, concluding there hadn't been any break in, they left to the keep - down under a trap door they had seen sessions earlier but chose not to enter.
That wasn't a great session for me - I hadn't gotten enough sleep and was beyond sloppy. The pacing, reveals and descriptions were all below my standard. If I were to do it again I would have been more subtle and not have an NPC blatantly mention she hadn't been seen in a while. That was mistake one.
Mistake two was that a few days prior I got a new book in (Monsters of the Guild - it's great) and really wanted to try out the Tomb Spider monster. So at short notice I threw out my original plan for under the keep (which was a Tucker's Kobold dungeon) and replaced it with a much more atmosphere-focused trek through dark, web-covered, spider infested tunnels. Unfortunetely I couldn't convey that atmosphere because of how tired I was on the day.
Learn from my mistakes!
Luckily we ran a one-shot instead of the regularly scheduled dungeon-crawl last session, so I have a better-prepared second chance when they continue that adventure.
I really like the idea of little green men with wands. Do you mind if I use that in my game sometime? Did your players immediately go to "little green men? Okay it's goblins"?
Here's a tip on the goblin front:
If you play your goblins smart, it creates verisimilitude and your players will overlook you singling them out because "that's just what goblins would do". It's cool when a player gets a new toy and you want them to enjoy using it, but don't nerf the opposition to make the toy seem more useful than it is. If the player gets knocked out of the sky, it shows that yeah, their ability is pretty cool but it has limits and they have to work within those limits or risk getting smoked.
When I run my games, the monsters aren't fair. The players get in over their heads into deadly situations and it's up to them to survive. The last thing I'd want to do is set the expectation that every encounter is designed for them to win and death isn't a threat. It's much more fun for the players to end up in situations and consider whether it's worth the risk to get involved. So fudge some rolls if you like, but don't reward players by going easy on them when they make bad plays.
-LTADnD
You may think that, but it sounds to me like a pretty solid adventure from the way you described it. It does make sense that an NPC could/would tell your players that their employer went missing, especially if this someone noticed them leave town with a well-known person and return to town without them. I can imagine that if you're not feeling up to par on some days you can feel like you're slacking though.
On the "little green men," absolutely, but that's nothing I came up with. I found it on an old Reddit thread about rumors, because I've been wanting to work on my improv skills more (I've been relying on written storyboards and outlines too much, but they are fun to write and build around). The way I described it was sort of "M. Knight-ish," in that there have been rumors of little green men and lights in the sky around this farm, along with mutilated cattle. They didn't immediately mention goblins, but that was one of the monk's first questions when they interviewed the farmer.
Previously, I've felt like I haven't had the ability to "take the gloves off," so to speak, just because my players are low levels (they just reached three). I have mentioned that I wouldn't go easy on them now though, since they've pretty much got the game and their characters figured out. One reason I fudged the rolls was because of a minor IRL spat with the alchemist (my fault), and I felt like five goblins with fully-charged MM wands was just a little bit cheesy. And don't worry, they were forced to flee from a very enjoyable encounter with a cult following Zon-Kuthon and some hell hounds in a previous encounter, tail-between-legs style.
Totally agree about the new toy situation. My brother (the monk) even mentioned, "Dude just knock him out of the sky!" Which for some reason (beer?), and shame on me, never even crossed my mind. Hell, I need to shoot more arrows at the guy for him to deflect.
Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely work harder to give my players a challenging experience that makes them feel rewarded for their efforts. Also, that book looks absolutely wicked.
-woopitywopp
In my personal experience, D&D groups quickly become those close friends.
I've always wanted to get into the Civ games. I want to but I'm always afraid that I would be too far behind at this point and would know where to start.
Can Elite Dangerous be played with a controller? I'm going to be out of town for business and am looking for a game to keep me occupied on my mobile PC, but (good) controller compatibility helps A LOT when playing in a hotel room.
I'm playing Portal 2 for the first time and it's fantastic.
What do you think so far? That was one of the first real story-based games that I played, and it's gotten me hooked on the genre since. The "inline cutscenes" (don't take you out of the gameplay) were really awesome.
I used to be really into competitive class based fps games (thousands of hours logged in tf2 + overwatch) but I stopped and can't really get back into them.
I finished Portal 2 today though, and it was a lot of fun--some of those puzzles took an embarrassingly long time for me to solve, but when I finally got them, it was satisfying as hell. The dialogue (monologues?) was super sharp too, as expected from Valve writers.
Do you have any suggestions for similar story based games (not necessarily puzzlers)?
Mhm, lately lately I've been wasting an hour every evening on a private WoW server. I know it's not a good thing but this one I found is quite stable with nearly everything working in terms of dungeon/raids and I play mostly random battleground and dungeons anyway.
With a full time job and a family I really don't feel like giving Blizzard money for a game that maybe I will not play for the majority of the month.
I'm also mastering the first ever RPG campaign for my kids on the weekends. They're loving it and I struggle to keep up how much stuff they want to do :D
Also recently I discovered dobble, a quite funny card game that my family/guest are loving.
Dude I want VR more than anything in the world right now but having to spend 600 on a capable card and 400 on an oculus touch is going to suuuuuck. How's Pavlov? Full of shenanigans?
I picked up skyrim but haven't put more than about an hour into it yet. I need to hop in and configure Natural Locomotion with it and try that. I've been really only playing Hotdogs Horseshoes & Handgrenades since Anton added the Take & Hold gamemode, and I use and love the armswinger movement in that. Supposedly Natural Locomotion lets you use that same type of movement in any game that has normal directional pad movement.
I have a bad feeling that that isn't going to fully get my hooked into skyrim just because of how menu based skyrim is kinda. I definitely need to give it a better shot though, because all I wanted day 1 from VR was oblivion/skyrim and now that it's here I haven't given it a fair chance :(
Have you tried Beat Saber yet? The game is super fun.
Oh man.. prepare to have a fucking /blast/. I've showed the game to the majority of my friends and family, every single one of them have had above average reactions, I highly recommend you to give it a try!
So you would say VR is worth it? Which glasses and what card are you using?
And you are just fine with your 1080? I've got one too but I don't know whether I should wait until the 1180 releases.
I'm am more interested in the VR experience in general, but I think I'm going to wait until I move so that I can plan my setup there!
That game looks fun! I have less space, but still enough to move around! Thx for the help!
I played the new God of War almost exclusively for the past month, though now I've been pretty lax on gaming. Gave Doom another run through, that games still kicks ass.
Mostly I've been playing a lot of D&D.
I'm very excited for that Jurassic World game coming out soon. Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was my jam back in the day.
The new God of War game is just incredible. I had head good things but didn't expect to be the captivated.
Thoroughly impressed by the vast majority of choices they made for that game.
Everything in that game is just exploding with polish and quality. It's astonishing.
I haven't had a chance to pick up it yet, but I'm excited to try it out. I've been enamored with the franchise since the original game for the PS2.
Heroes of the Storm is one of my favorite go-to low(er)-stress MOBA games. A large portion of players actually play 5 vs A.I. because Blizzard, at least in my opinion, did a good job balancing the bot difficulty levels between vanilla Skyrim NPC and aimbot 9000. Plus it's close enough to a 5 vs 5 match that it serves as an excellent practice ground to get a combo right or try a weird build.
After that, Dead Cells is easy to pick up for 5-10 minute spats and I love their animation and weapon combo choices.
Yes! I've started shifting over from League of Legends to HotS as I'm finding the community and gameplay much less frustrating/toxic.
It's weird. The last benefit I see from switching from LoL to Hots, which I did a while back, is the community. The gameplay is just funner. No playing whack a mole for 30 minutes pregame. It's just team fights after team fights around objectives.
Love it.
Isn't it amazing? I won't lie, I've definitely shouted obscenities, but it's mostly at myself for being dumb, or the higher level A.I. being perfect about hitboxes.
I'm still pretty obsessed with Stardew Valley, but I've also been playing some Divinity original sin - which is fun and I like a lot.
I was like 200 hours into the third witcher game when my computer gave up the ghost, and while I'd love to finish it, it has seemed like too daunting of a task to restart when I already put in so much time!
I tried playing Stardew multiplayer with a friend. That lag was far too much. We've been holding off for a bit until it gets more development and mod support.
Man, Divinity is such a good series. Have you played Original Sin 2?
nope! I like to try to play series in order (I'm honestly not sure why, but it's a thing I'm always trying to do) and I heard a lot of good buzz about Divinity 2 so I.. am playing the other one first :P
I like it so far though, it feels kind of old-school in the way that it takes a lot longer to grind up levels and such, and fights are actually pretty challenging - did you play the first one as well? the second is better?
I’m still chugging through Mario Odyssey, about 1/3rd through collecting all the moons. Its just hard to find time while working to do stuff😅
I've been playing Odyssey too. Just for 20 minutes here and there.
I think I'm at 889 moons right now - I'll be sad when it's over.
Same, although I have yet to actually start BotW....I feel like it may be a crime but I've only put about 20 minutes total into it so far, cause I've been so busy...
I wouldn't be too sad! My boyfriend has beaten the game a couple times, and even though he is a bit of a "completionist", he always has fun replaying it! Plus all the costumes in there are pretty cool too, once you've found enough special coins.
I haven't really played much of anything recently, only a few quick rounds of NecroDancer from time to time. Otherwise, lots and lots of Factorio - it really is as addictive as everyone says. GuildWars is fun too, but I haven't started that in a few weeks either.
I tried to get into DnD once (a few classmates have a group), but it's just not really my thing I think - I simply don't have enough creativity.
Ah, a fellow automation enthusiast!
I used to play a lot of different kinds of games, but ever since I bought Factorio, my other games have been collecting dust. I think I passed the 600 hour milestone a few weeks ago...
And in case someone hasn't tried it, there's no excuse not to; the free demo is already quite vast in terms of content.
I was searching for the Factorio addict. Do you play vanilla or modded?
Depends on what you call modded - pretty much always with small quality of life mods (Squeak Through, Upgrade Planner, that sort of thing), a few times with bobs and half a time with angels. In the end it always results in unfinished maps because everyone loses interest when it gets complex.
A casual farming game on Steam called Farm Together. :P It's finals week so I don't want to play anything serious or story rich. Was planning to uninstall all of the games I have installed so I could focus more... but I can't grow a pair. :'/
Edit: I plan to play SOMA after the exams are over so that's something.
SOMA is very good and very creepy, but it's pretty short. You could probably dedicate an evening to it and finish it.
Ooh I loved that game. Very spooky and thought provoking. I've been trying to get into Amnesia: the dark descent, which is made by the same people but I just haven't had the time...
Amnesia: The Dark Descent is also very good, and I would recommend playing the "Justine" expansion if you've got the game on Steam. Justine was made to promote the reveal of Portal 2, so it applies "test chambers" to Amnesia. It is quite a bit more difficult than the base game though, because it's something like an hour long and there's no way to save your game.
You might be interested in the Penumbra series. It's also made by Frictional Games.
Huh that does look interesting, I'll keep an eye on it in steam sales. Once again, my steam wishlist just gets longer and longer.
You made the right choice. Installing all your games again would be a pain in the neck.
Do what I do: Have your games on a separate hard drive, so that when you need to stop playing for a while you can just take the hard drive out.
But I would connect it back and start playing! :'S welp.
Also that's too much work now. To copy all the games to and setting the install game files (source) location newly to the hard drive. This would need pre-planning (which I don't have atm) Will do this next time but I don't trust myself. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve played Skyrim for the first time in my life this past month.
It’s honestly been an extremely engaging experience. Felt like a true D&D experience. Lots of fun roleplaying, lots of character growth, and I’ve been allowing myself to be fully immersed in campaigns such as the mage college or theives’ guild. Felt like I was in Hogwarts.
Admittedly, the game has obvious faults, considering how old and pioneering it is to the genre, but it deserves a lot of its praise that I’ve read about but haven’t seen firsthand for the last 7 years. I can see where titles like BotW heavily took the positives from Skyrim and put it into their games. It’s pretty damn clear to me now why there are so many people who still play it to this day and how bustling their modding community is.
I’ve been playing on PC by the way, since I got it for $5 probably 3 years ago but never touched it. Can’t justify playing for $60 on my Switch! Plus mods rock. Pesky dragon bones get in the way of my adventuring too much because they weigh a ton.
You can purchase homes in Skyrim, you just have to gain the favor of the town Jarl. Whenever I start a new game that is what I do. And I store everything including those really heavy bones in the house chest. Makes my life easier since I love collecting every little thing I see.
Yes, I know. It’s still inconvenient when I’m in the middle of traveling to a destination only to run into 2 dragons and find my inventory completely full. Even with a follower to carry more, I found myself being very selective with looting when dungeon crawling.
Modding seems like a game in itself. It seemed like I'd constantly find reasons to add another mod and another one.
I'm a big RPG nerd and usually have a few going at once. Currently playing:
I've been looking for a great console RPG. What do you like the most about it?
Impossible for me to pick a favorite single feature so I'll list a few:
I may not be presenting the articulate defense this game deserves. I hope somebody less drunk and more able than I can present a better case for it. With that said: It's 10 bucks and, if you're that lacking on funds, I'll just gift it to you if you PM me how to. Love the game that much. Hopefully that says something about how amazing Suikoden is.
I'm a big RPG fan myself and I've recently got back into roleplaying Skyrim. This time I've created illusion, conjuration character for a bit different gameplay.
Well, Dark Souls Remastered mostly in the last day. Besides that it's been DOOM 2016, Ironsight (F2P CoD:BO), and Nier:Automata.
I was super excited for the remaster but after I heard it's pretty much just a slight graphical upgrade I wasn't really on board. I already own it twice, I don't really need it a third time ha ha.
Eh. I owned it twice already too. I was hoping that modding could get it up to 144Hz, but it seems that all the game logic is tied to the frame rate, so that's not really possible. That said, I am enjoying SunBroing it up. I've helped dozens of people already and I look forward to helping dozens more.
PUBG. Have finished #2 but still haven't won it all
Send me a message if you want to win a game this weekend we can play a few games together, I win pretty much every day.
I would but I'm on Xbox One and I assume you're probably on Steam
God the only time I came even close to winning, I had just downed a cup of coffee, the play area was getting smaller and smaller. Far out does that get your heart going, but after strong coffee? I thought I was gonna die man holy crap.
Ha, I had a pretty good strategy of getting a vehicle then just staying at the perimeter and raiding houses. At the end I ditched my car and started sniping. Worked well but I messed up which gun I had and accidentally equiped the sniper over my M16 and the other dude beat me.
I have a hard time allocating time for gaming. Personally I no longer play on PC, just on Nintendo switch and my android phone. Even then, sometimes I find myself not playing much.
For now, I'm playing donkey kong tropical freeze on switch and the room: old sins on my phone :)
I loved the first two The Room games, but I fell off on the third one. How's Old Sins?
It's OK I suppose, they're trying to mix things up even more that you have to solve multiple puzzles in different rooms at the same time in order to progress.
I'm in a similar situation to you, just super busy and I often straight up don't have the energy to play games.... I find Splatoon 2 on switch is a good way to only play a little but still get your video game fix. Nice short games, and it's good fun.
Oh yeah, almost forgot about Splatoon 2, although for short games, I tend to play Rocket League more :D
Ooh I've been waiting for it to go on sale. Is the switch port any good?
Yeap, I'm very happy with the switch version.
One thing I also noticed for myself, for games like Rocket League and Splatoon 2, I better buy the digital version.
I own splatoon 2 on cartridge, but I ended up not playing it too often because I'm lazy to switch cartridges when I have other "heavier" games like Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong (for these, I'm ok with physical copy)
I bought the digital version of RL and I end up playing it more often to spice things up between playing those heavier games.
how is Tropical Freeze compared to like the DKC series? does it capture or improve on the feel of it all?
Honestly I'm not too familiar with DK games before this, I think the last one I played was on SNES.
I bought it because of the great reviews haha, and so far it's a great platformer game :)
I recently have started going to school again so I don't have as much time for video games. Right now I'm trying to find a game to relax to. I was playing Torchlight until recently. I played it years ago when it came out but decided to take a dive back in because it's an easy game to play, and easy to relax with. It still stands up quite well. Feeling that ARPG/Diablo itch I tried out Titan Quest Anniversary Edition and it's great but I have decided to shelve it for when I have more time. It seems like a big game and I want to give it a chance to wow me.
I have been reading a decent amount about different Tabletop systems. I don't like how constricted the D20 system that D&D uses, it's just too complicated and rigid (crunchy I've heard some people call it.) I've been reading about the OpenD6 system which is pretty crunchy still, but such a cool system. I've also learned about Powered by The Apocalypse system which is the opposite of the D20 system. It's so loose. All dice rolls are just 2d6+attribute and the GM never does any rolls. It ends up less being a game and more being a collaborative story telling event.
You're a bit out of date there on your D&D knowledge. D&D hasn't used the D20 system for a good few years now. They dropped that after 3.5e. 4e flopped and we're on 5e now.
5e is about as anti-crunch as possible. Their whole thing with this edition was to simplify and strip away the noodlier rules of earlier editions and have the central theme be DM rulings over written rules. Most of the rules that remain are variations of skill check rolls - it's super streamlined.
I'll cede ground that 5e is the least crunchy DnD has ever been, but it's certainly still very crunchy. Especially when compared to PBTA which is basically zero crunch, or as close to zero crunch as a game can be. Maybe there is a Calvinball table top game I don't know about.
PBTA has a ton of awesome games associated with it! I've been working on incorporating some of the main aspects of Dungeon World into my new D&D campaign (which the players are way more familiar with)
I listen to a real play podcast called The Adventure Zone (I wouldn't be surprised if you know of it) and they recently played a few PBTA games. Monster of the Week and Urban Shadows are the games they played and both of them are really great.
I can cede ground on the idea that many players aren't that familiar with the structure. DnD's rigid D20 system makes playing simple because each move is so closely tied to dice rolls. There isn't any need to be creative. Eventually players do become familiar with the game and become more creative with their moves. I really liked the D20 system at first but it can get in the way of creativity and makes the gameplay feel more like a video game.
Oh yes, I am definitely a TAZ fan -- it's literally what got me started with D&D.
I've fallen a bit behind on the new season (I've been bingeing Friends at the Table) but I'm looking forward to when I have time to catch back up with TAZ!
I totally agree RE: the rigidity of D&D's system. It provides an awesome way to find out what happens, but it doesn't really provide as much flexibility to do things that aren't explicitly in the rulebook (without breaking into homebrew rules); or more... it doesn't explicitly encourage players to think outside the rules and the world that the DM gives them.
So I'm gonna be hand-waving a lot of the preciseness of the rules and incorporating the partial success system from PBTA. In addition, I'm explicitly using the principles and DM moves from Dungeon World adapted for my campaign.
For example, in a prequel campaign I ran last year, I had this weird data-archive-tree forest but I really hadn't fleshed out anything about how it works. One of my PCs asked me last night about it (they want to have their character be from the forest, using one of the backgrounds I made for it) and my response was essentially: "Well I don't know how that works! Here's some thoughts I had, what do you think". This is straight out of DW ("Draw Maps, Leave Blanks" and "Ask questions and use the answers"). DW has a bunch of resources for the DM that encourage this sort of dynamic world-building / role-playing, which is why I'm so excited to bring as much as I can into my D&D campaign
It's difficult to find time to play games these days, but when I do I can be found in Project: Gorgon or SWG: Infinity, a Star Wars Galaxies emulator server.
I really wish I could find an FPS game to love again. Other than retro console games, I really fell in love with gaming over competitive Rainbow Six. I was in several ladder-ranked clans over the years. It was some of the most fun times I've ever had. These days everything feels so arcade-driven. I can't enjoy Battlefield. I can't enjoy the new Rainbow Six games. I can't enjoy Counter Strike. Everything feels so meh.
ARMA is probably as far away from arcade as you can get. It also involves stratgic team play, but that needs a group obviously.
I bought that ages ago, didn't have time to play it, then forgot about it for literally years because nobody I knew played it. I really wish I'd gotten into it when it was new.
Right now I'm playing a bit of BF2 Revival.
Have you tried pubg? It can be a mess at times but it really is extremely fun.
Not into battle royale games. I like strategic team play. Though I did give Pubg some research and decided against trying it because of the company behind it. Lock boxes and an initial price tag, long paid early-access, reports of rampant cheating, etc. I don't have time for that garbage. When I tried the Battlefront 2(2) beta I launched the game, was greeted with my daily loot crate, and immediately closed the game while thanking EA for not wasting my time by letting me know immediately in the main menu that I had no desire to continue.
To each their own, squad play in pubg is definitely strategic team play though, you are required communicate quite a bit. I can't deny that the loot crate stuff is lame but I mean the price tag is pretty low and I have put quite a bit of time into the game because it is actually a really great gaming experience despite all of its flaws. I have never spent money on crates in the game before and it really doesnt effect my enjoyment.
I know it might not be a popular choice, but have you played Destiny 2? I love the Pvp. If you play on PC I'd play with you and I know there is a free trial of the game.
In a season of life where I can't really commit any uninterrupted chunks of time to playing a game. So unless the starts line up right can't really play anything with real time multiplayer. Saw Kripp streaming Slay the Spire on Twitch a few months ago and that's been my goto for a while now. Really enjoy the random deck building mechanic and the fact that I can literally stop mid turn and go attend to kids and whatnot are what keep me coming back.
A bit late to the thread, but I started playing Skyrim again yesterday (after seeing it mentioned here).
The last time I played I loved the exploration, but I did so much of it that I lost track of the main storyline and got overwhelmed. By the time I got to Riften I had so many quests stacking up and so many new people asking for help, I just walked right back out into the wilderness and stopped playing.
This time I'm trying to find a better balance between the exploration I love and the story (which also seems cool, don't get me wrong). I've also set up some commands in Voice Attack and with my pedals; hopefully if I experiment I can find a setup that isn't too clunky but also saves my poor arms.
Old school style: D&D and World of Warcraft.
I'm so into the story of a game as much as the actual gameplay lately. These have been such fascinating uses of my time. It'd be nice to get more exercise though! Haha...
One of my friends set up a rig in front of his treadmill. He walks while he plays - it's a pretty great idea!
haha, that's nice. i have attempted a standing work station before... it was actually pretty great.
I've recently started a 5e campaign with some friends and decided to run a Tiefling Warlock. I'm hoping to figure this class out and play it a lot better than my previous 3.5e Druid. Warlock sounded like a super cool battlemage, and while I haven't used melee yet, my spells have been super helpful (Thank you, Misty Step, freeing me from assassin vines)
Warlocks are pretty neat. I haven't gotten around to playing one yet (I'm mostly a Bard guy), but they seem fun - especially the Hexblade subclass.
Love my Tiefling warlock! Mine has a pact with an archangel (Pact of the Celestial from Unearthed Arcana) and is a bit of a hero-of-the-people type (who has a tendency towards smiting via Eldritch Blast)
I've been replaying Dark Souls 3 again! Going through with a fist build again and started another character with pyromancy intent.
Also playing a bit of Metal Gear Solid 5, because it was on games for gold on xbox and I had a discount laying around to get gold for $5. It's pretty worth it, I'd say.
I also bought Celeste recently at the recommendation of my girlfriend, and I'm gonna probably start playing that sometime today!
I really love playing Dark Souls 3 with a pyromancer, but do you know what I love more? Celeste :), I really haven't had a game like that in years that's really pulled me in and had me invested, but Celeste surprised me so much in that it is soooo good. Obviously not everyone will like it, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was so good.
Caves of Qud. An amazing science-fantasy roguelike. Possibly the best roguelike ever made.
Just finished some obsessive Starbound runs, and now I'm going to crack open Pillars of Eternity. I bought/played it on launch, but it was buggy/slow at the time. I hear the patches fixed it all up, and I'm really looking forward to a story-heavy cRPG.
I'm waiting for the next league of Path of Exile to start on June 1st so I can make a real go of it. I've never gotten too far (just to regular mapping), so I'm hoping to beat the endgame boss(bosses?)
iv'e been having my money sucked dry by a mobile game called DBZ: Dokkan Battle. it's one of those Bandai Namco gacha games.
I've just finished a playthough of Mass Effect: Andromeda. I get why it got so much hate as it felt very rushed and incomplete. However, I still liked the game. I liked the combat but I hated the pacing. I found myself getting pretty bored often. It wasn't the worst game I've played, but it could have been better.
I like ME:A too, but yeah there is a lot of really bland parts. It feels like they wanted to go back to Mass Effect 1 in some ways, and I felt the Mako parts of ME1 were the most boring parts of the game. Just dry "drive 5 minutes here. Now drive 5 minutes here" filler, and ME:A had that in droves.
Having a LOT of quests with no map markers (or even some indication of what planet those quests should be done on) doesn't help either.
I liken it to Arkham: Origins. It's probably the worst game in the series but if you like the series you won't hate it and it's worth playing at least once.
Yeah same. It felt a lot like DA:I in that every huge region had a bunch of side stuff that was mostly skippable. But I did like the relentless optimism of Andromeda.
I just played Breath of Death VII last night. Turns out video game humor from 2010 doesn't hold up that well, but it's still a decent RPG with snappy menus and stuff that keeps it from being too tedious.
Pretty decent for a game that's basically just "that thing that comes with Cthulhu Saves the World."
Finally got around to NieR: Automata, having put it off for so long. I thought it was hyper-sexualized, turns out that's mostly just the fandom.
I'm incredibly impressed by the game. Fluid combat and a really, really impressive story, and what amazes me the most is that none of the side quests feel like a waste of time.
I practically counted down the days until Thimbleweed Park was released and pre-ordered it in advance. I downloaded it the moment it was available then ... never touched it until last night. I sunk about 4 hours into it and love it so much. If you're a fan of the point and click adventure genre then you'll love it.
I would love to get back into D&D. I played with friends in high school and college but, at 35, life has mostly gotten in the way. Most of us are married with kids and just don't have the free time to get together for several hours each week or whatever. I've looked into the D&D Adventure series or whatever it's called and have thought about getting involved in that. Maybe I'll make it a priority this summer.
Adventurer's League? That's a good idea. The benefit to that is you aren't tied to a game. You can take the same character to multiple, dropping out whenever you don't have time to play.
I'd like to be involved in a long term campaign, preferably with the same people every session, but I'll take what I can get at this point.
Right now everyone is so busy with work, marriage, kids, etc. that just getting together for a one off session is damn near impossible. There's no way everyone can find time to make it a regular thing.
I've had some luck playing via skype; that way, you don't have to worry about being physically gone and can respond to things at home with minimal disruption (at least compared to having to, say, drive home)
Stardew Valley multiplayer has been fun. Haven't played in a couple of weeks.
https://stardewvalley.net/stardew-valley-v1-3-beta/
I'd like to endorse Detroit: Becoming Human if I may. Really superb story telling. Lots of content. Nice diverging storylines. Fun to play with friends of you each take a character. Good replay value. I've been enjoying it bunches.
I've played quite a lot of Towerclimb recently. It's one of my favorite games, and in my opinion, criminally underrated. Almost nobody knows about it, but it's a great game! Really well polished and has a lot of content. I ended up beating it early april for the first time, around the 70 hour mark. It's a very hard but very rewarding game.
Basically, it's about climbing a tower (duh). There are a lot of different zones in it, most are 3 levels long. There's chapter one (which some experienced members of the community refer to as the tutorial, due to a difficulty spike after it, even though there is an actual tutorial), which is made of some zones like your lava zone, icy zone, and some more creative things like plant zone or something I won't spoil. Then, there's chapter two (which you get a shortcut to start in, which you should most definitely use to get good at the beginning of it). It's a big game changer. The zones are more complex in ideas and execution, and still very fun. There are also other gamemodes that can be unlocked. Overall, it's one of my favorite games that I've ever played. I really recommend you try it if you get a chance. Currently, I'm working towards beating one of the other gamemodes.
Factorio! It's like learning to program all over again.
Every software developer friend I've introduced to Factorio have loved it and expressed similar sentiments.
I get that.
Ah yes, the ol' Tetris Syndrome. Except, you know, with inserters and conveyor belts.
I've seen it said frequently on reddit, "I used to have a life-- now I have a factory."
Too much Rocket League.
I've been working through Final Fantasy XV for the last month. This is the first FF I've really enjoyed, having played and bounced off of all of them except 11, 12, and 14 (which I haven't played). I'm also stubbornly trying to get through Pillars of Eternity, because I want to finish it before I try the sequel.
The only FF I haven't bounced off of is IV. The rest just haven't grabbed me. It also feels like the series jumped the shark several games ago.
I haven't played Pillars of Eternity, but I kind of want to try it only because the whole cast of Critical Role is in the sequel.
I did really like IV, as well as VIII and XIII, so I plan on revisiting those once I get through XV. I think I could really get into XIII if I can get through that interminable tutorial.
I've come to realize that I like the ideas of Pillars of Eternity and the entire CRPG genre from Baldur's Gate on than I do playing them. Baldur's Gate was what got me to give AD&D a shot, but I never finished it. Like the FF series, I've probably touched all of the major games in the genre and never saw them to the end except Dragon Age: Origins. I did finish that and its sequels, but I don't think I can lump the sequels in with games like Pillars and Baldur's Gate.
I didn't know the Critical Role people were in PoE2, but that's neat! I haven't watched that since the first few episodes but I know it amassed and enormous fanbase, which is pretty awesome.
Critical Role just started a new campaign recently. If you were ever considering giving it a watch again, now is the best time.
I never got into Critical Role -- honestly, the first podcast episode sounded way over produced for me (those weird player intros, and like 8 names / backstories to remember off the bat is a bit much). How would you say it stacks up against something like Friends at the Table?
Well Critical Role wasn't meant to be a podcast - their central medium is livestreaming. Because they were the first to do that, they didn't know how large their audience would be so they just continued with their characters from their home game. That's why it starts off with all the player intros - they had already been playing for years and had to exposition-dump their history.
In their new campaign, they've started from scratch with new characters (which is why its a great place for new viewers). I'm a few episodes behind, but this new campaign has been great and the new characters are really interesting.
Unfortunately I haven't listened to Friends at the Table, so I'm not able to compare the two.
Ahhhh that makes a lot of sense. I tend not to love livestreams (I stare at a computer screen enough during the day), but I'll have to give the new campaign a shot
Driving around listening to the old FF sound tracks is surprisingly enjoyable. I also think the fighting mechanics are fairly interesting. My big gripe is the open world with a huge amount of generic side quests design choice, along with some terribly designed item placement (i.e. the coins on top of roofs that turn the game into a platformer with poor controls). I stalled about 20 hours into it, but I'll probably get back to it eventually.
I finished it this weekend. Really enjoyed it, but I agree about the seemingly generic side quests. They do eventually lead to optional dungeons but those dungeons haven't exactly been fun. I was cleaning up some side quests in the post game and the game crashed on me deep into one of those unfun dungeons and I think I'm going to call it there. It was a lot of fun and the first time I've finished a Final Fantasy.
That is exactly what's kept my interest. The whole road trip feel of the bulk of the game is really something.
I recently got a Windows MR headset, so I've been playing a lot of Pavlov VR. The VR aspect adds a good departure from traditional FPS's like CS:GO, while it still maintains the "feel" that CS:GO had. I also find that reaction time is less important in VR FPS's, whereas situational awareness comes more into play.
What headset did you get?
The Lenovo Explorer. There was a great deal on it about a month ago.
Have you had any experience with any other VR/MR headsets to compare it to?
Yeah, I've used a Vive before. I'd say the controller tracking isn't quite as good as the Vive (due to the inside out tracking used in the WMR headsets), but it holds up surprisingly well. Along with that, the screen is higher resolution, which means less SDE, however it has less contrast, since it isn't an OLED. The Lenovo Explorer is definitely more comfortable though, compared to the Vive, especially with regards to glasses.
Oh? Meaning that they have better lenses?
Actually I'd say the Lenovo Explorer's lenses are worse, since they have a noticeably smaller sweet spot. The Lenovo Explorer has a flip up mechanism and a hard strap rather than a soft strap, which is why it's easier to use with glasses.
Ah. That's what you meant. So it's similar to the PSVR in that way?
Lots and lots of Hyrule Warriors. I love it personally, though I know it's not for everyone.
I got Princess Maker Refine 1 and 2 and God Save the Queen on sale recently, I play that on and off to relax when I have time. I was on a Demon's Souls kick before that and last winter it was nothing but Stardew Valley. Oh yeah, and some Lego games with a friend.
For me it's Cities: Skylines on PC, and Clash Royale on mobile. Between the two of them, I always have something with the right length play session. Plus I finally feel like I'm getting good enough at Cities to make something I'm proud of.
Oh man, I really enjoy Cities Skylines when I just want to chill and do some city planning.
I made a city based on large octagons where the central bit is a park; it's my favourite city so far.
That seems like a really neat concept! Have you seen the Parklife expansion? It sounds like that could make your central park a lot more interesting.
I've recently started with mods, just Traffic Manager: President Edition and Moveit. It really give a whole new range of possibilities in terms of what I can build and how I can control traffic.
I have seen that expansion - it looks pretty great. I have a fair number of mods going at the moment (most of which I got from r/CitiesSkylines). It's been a while since I've bought one of the expansions.
I play on multiple platforms at once, but here's what I've been spending my time on:
PC - Pillars of Eternity 2 - I'm level 8 at the moment, still running around the first major city, Neketaka. I've always disliked big cities in cRPGs, if only because of how large they are. Ratio of running around and talking to people vs. combat is too skewed. I can't wait to be done and go back to being a pira-imean Gentleman of Fortune.
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts 1.5 Remix - Played KH1 and 2 back on the PS2, bought the remix so I could experience the full game again before the third one comes out. Being able to watch some of the other games as cutscenes is also nice. I've missed out on a lot by only having played KH1, 2, and BBB. I will say that KH1 has not aged well, but I dipped into the 2.5 Remix and it seemed like it would hold up.
PS Vita - Demon Gaze - A dungeon crawler that was recommended to me by a friend. Some of the art is pretty fan servicey, but the game itself is solid.
I'm playing Risen, a fairly old RPG... kinda light on the RPG elements. Has real time combat. Three classes (as far as I can tell). Pretty good for it's age.
I'm also playing a mobile game called wordscapes.
I've been heavily back into racing games and I think I'm about to bite the bullet and build a proper racing setup. I've been playing lots of Asetto Corsa, Project Cars 2, Beam.NG Drive, and arcadey stuff like GTAV and Far Cry 5 but using both just for the vehicles.
I'd love to do a VR racing setup, just need to remember where I planted the money tree. Might have a shot and putting together a hydraulic or actuator driven seat myself because I like tinkering too. I'll at least get a proper wheel and 3 pedal setup soon though.
I also still casually play EVE Online, and working my way through a bunch of games I missed like Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted 4.
Mostly Dota2, Warframe and Payday2. I recently uhh.... acquired Watchdogs 2 so I'll start on that today. Besides that mostly forum games in the forms of Arms Race games.
What do you think about the sacrifice quest that might be coming very soon to warframe?
I'm not as excited about Umbra as some people are, but I'd like to get Spacemom back sometime, so I'm hype for that.
Just finished off watch_dogs. Which I found just alright. The last few missions were not great though.
Currently trying to figure what to get started on next, since I finished watch_dogs 2 earlier in the year.
Have you played the Borderlands series?
Yeah! They're great games. Hopefully 3 comes out one day.
Lots of Persona 4 and Mario Party. Persona 4 has been a game I've been intending to beat for a while (it's the first game I got on my current PC setup around a year ago but I never got too far in it), and so far it's been fun. Hard mode was a mistake though.
Mario Party has been quite a bit of fun through the netplay discord. I've probably put around 25 hours into games on there in 2018 alone.
I've finally taken the plunge into Gothic. I tried playing them a long while ago but never got too far, mainly because the control systems were a bit too wonky. But now I'm in the thick of things at chapter 2. I've joined the sect camp and just became a templar. This game is great and the progression system does such a good job of making you feel as though you're actually increasing your skills and power. Every upgrade has a tangible effect on your character and it's just delightful. This is like the Witcher before the Witcher.
I"ve been playing Strange Journey Redux for a while now. Just make it to sector E. It's a lot easier with that teleporter and trap sub app.
I know it may not be a popular choice, but I enjoy the hell out of doing all the endgame content in Destiny 2 with my clan and having fun playing PVP. I play PC so if anyone wants to play just send me a PM :)
Also Celeste has been a very good purchase in my eyes. And I've been playing a couple Dark Souls games, although I haven't gotten very far in any of them.
Diablo 3 on Xbox One; Wizard is pretty fun.
Looking to get back into Old School RuneScape again in the very near future though.
Lot's of Battlefield One, though I've started to lose some interest in the game.
I've recently started playing a lot of Skullgirls, originally picked it up when it first came out, and was pretty shit at it but having devoted some time and effort it's pretty good!
^ 2500+ hours in EU4, 1500+ hours in CK2... I have a problem. halp!
Been playing skyrim a lot lately. Mainly because I'm planning on playing through beyond skyrim and needed a tricked out character
I feel your pain on WoW as well! I dread logging on as well; however the new expansion is coming!
Rogues are the best class anyways, so think of this as a good thing. :)
I feel your pain! I was convinced to come back since Wotlk about two months ago... they made me warrior tank :(
I leveled a hunter recently to 110; was way more fun while I was leveling him but not so much now...
Trying out a monk now!
I've been getting back into Starcraft 2 recently. I played it very heavily for a few years when it first came out, then put it away to play other stuff (first Chivalry for a few years in a clan, then stuff like heroes of the storm/hearthstone, some single player RPGs like Fallout and Witcher, and PUBG). But there have been some really exciting professional starcraft tournies lately I decided to check out, and then I kept watching, and eventually started playing again.
On the side I've also been playing Stardew Valley when I just want to relax, and I play a browser capture the flag game called TagPro too.
Starcraft 2 and Stardew Valley are my recent go-tos as well!
Just like you I played it pretty hardcore for a while, managed to hit GM during Wings of Liberty, but I swapped over to LoL for a long while because a lot of my friends from work were playing. As that game has changed and my friends have stopped playing I was looking for something new, but I fell back in love with an old flame and I can't stop playing SC2. I'm so bad now though!
Haha, well unlike you I was never above Plat back in the day, but I'm flirting with Diamond right now :) I've got a few issues to overcome to break my plateau (mediocre APM, not good at hotkeys, need to macro during engagements better, terrible with spellcasters) and I don't think I'm likely to do so soon, but I'm having fun anyways!
I've been playing a lot of Binding of Isaac recently. It's one of my favourite games. I tried Overwatch during the free weekend and it was a lot of fun!
CSGO. Even though after so many years, can't seem to get tired of it. Also it is probably the only esports game to have servers in my country that also helps alot.
Kingdom of Loathing. Been playing since July, and it's arguably the funniest, most in-depth RPG I've ever played. Check it out.
I've been really digging the new Battletech video game! It's a fairly faithful translation of the table top rules, poses fun tactical and logistical challenges, and it's great to see something I backed on Kickstarter come alive!
Recently finished Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn. Just picked up Assassin's Creed: Origins, Ni no Kuni 2, and Monster Hunter: World from Memorial Day sales. Have a lot of games to play right now.
I just started messing around with Steam Link on Android and playing Bayonetta from my bed. It's awesome
Prismata has become a bit of an obsession recently. Stardew Valley and 7 Days to Die have also seen a lot of playtime recently.
Probably gonna pick up Civ VI and Elite Dangerous again soon.
I've been getting in to some more open-world games recently, which I've had a hard time getting into in the past. I finished Fallout 3 a couple of weeks ago and have been playing Fallout 4 recently (I'll be going back and playing New Vegas after 4.)
Also, I'm still addicted to Factorio as always. If you don't know, it's a game about automating everything and it's the most addicting game that I've ever played.
Edit: I just realized that I am very late to this thread. Oh well.
I've been replaying Bioshock Infinite and it still amazes me to how good the game was for it's time :)
I was playing Destiny 2 but it got old.
Mechanic simulator and Planet coaster have been so much fun
I have been playing a lot of Titanfall 2 on PC. I think its one of the best games to come out in the last 5 years as far as shooters go...
Destiny 2. The new exotic and pvp changes have been really fun. I know it gets shit on a lot, but I have had an immense amount of fun on the game.
PvP is in the best state it's ever been in, IMO. Balanced heavies (no more sprinting, sliding shotguns dominating the entire crucible).
I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda on my me time, but I recently ran into a glitch that won't let me proceed, so I'm weighing the pros & cons of either going back to an hours-previous save, restarting the entire game, and just giving up. When it's my wife & I time, "we" have been playing Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. She navigates, points things out to me, and pulls up a walkthrough for when we're both stumped, and I bumble about in the game. You might think that she'd be bored by it, but she actually enjoys watching me play while helping me out.
Shout-out to phone games. I've been playing Clash Royale. It's PvP and It's like being the general of your own cartoon army vs another army.
I just started making my way through the King's Quest series. I'm currently on the second game. I think I messed up in the early part of the game and have to start over. At least I've already figured out how to get half way through the game.
I'm doing this all on actually 486 laptop! No DOSBox for me.
Awesome! How are you playing the games - working floppies?
I wish. It's a pirate's life for me.
infinity complex, text based PVP game... dos 6.22 virtualbox/mbbs6.25
Civ V, Dark souls, rainbow six siege, and the witcher 3.
Though I'm so trash at siege that I have my teammates scream at me every match for being bad XD
Are the people still playing Siege pretty much vets who have things down to a science? I'd have gotten into that game on its release, but it just didn't seem worth the price.
No, I see a lot of new people in the game. And it is true that it doesn't appeal to everyone but many people who play csgo migrated to it (which is what happened to me)
Rec Room on the PSVR; I suck at it, but it's fun.
The Division (still) with friends, 'cause it's the only PvE squad game out for PS4 for the foreseeable future.
And Witcher 3.... trying to force my way through it. It gets easier once I force myself to get used to the odd movement controls and learn to just loot & sell everything I can, but I just don't think I'll ever LOVE the game.
Still, it's the only big game in my backlog that I've been meaning to tackle, and there's nothing else coming out that I'm excited for this year until Red Dead Redemption 2.