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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.
Just got back into Guild Wars 2 and have successfully recruited some of my friends. They've added an enormous amount of content since I last played seriously and I'm slowly working my way through it. It's a lot of fun, but oh my god some of these Living Story missions are unfair in a very bad way. Last night I had a maybe 30 minute solo boss fight where most of the fight was me getting juggled around the room by chain reacting AOE stunt attacks, it was some major bullshit, but thankfully it's mostly an isolated incident.
Hopefully once my friends make it to level 80 we'll be able to do high-level group content like raids and fractal dungeons and whatnot. So I'm pretty excited for that. There's an expansion coming out in Feb, so it would be really cool to have a whole team ready to go by then.
One of my buddies got a handful of us to play GW2 in August. Definitely one of the more enjoyable MMOs I have played. I had tried GW1 when it came out and really wasn't into it. So I was surprised that I liked GW2. Pretty casual, which is right up my alley.
We all got to 80 then stopped to play some other games, but I'm sure we'll be back.
I know how that goes, I've been playing off and on since launch. Every time I come back it feels like they've added a bunch of stuff. There's so much post-80 content now that it's actually kind of ridiculous
I bought this game ages ago, but never really got in the mood, so to speak. I was coming from WoW and GW2 seemed... floaty. There was probably some input lag going on too. The game felt bland, colorless. I came back later only to discover that it had just become more complex and required the purchase expansions, gems, whatever. Didn't like the story either. IDK. I don't have a gamer PC anymore, otherwise I'd try it out with you guys.
I never really got into WoW myself, so I can't compare directly from experience, but I get what you mean about it feeling floaty. But a lot of the game is about traversal and exploration and I think that floaty-ness works in service towards moving around the world. Essentially it's part platformer in a way that, in my admittedly very limited understanding, I don't think WoW is. And the new areas especially are incredibly vibrant and vertical since they were designed with more movement options available to the players.
And while I get not getting drawn into the single player story, the dynamic world events are, IMO, a ton of fun and a huge part of the GW2 draw.
Most of the new post-80 content does require expansions, but the base game is now completely free. No initial cost, no subscription, so I don't really mind paying for expansions or the occasional gem purchase (understandably other people may feel differently)
Online chess. Looking at my stats, I realized that most of my defeats are resignations, so I've been trying to avoid that. It's hard to resist quiting when I blunder real bad!
I played a match (white pieces) today that made me proud. It was a long game (40 moves) that took a lot of patience, gradually building an advantage. I won by checkmate. In the end, the engine accused zero mistakes, zero blunders, and zero missed wins. First time that happened to me. Outstanding :)
I just bought Omori. I’ve wanted it for a while now but only now am starting to have enough time to start playing now.
It’s very cute and I like the art but I am waiting for the shoe to drop. It’s a bit slow paced. I can’t stand the white room and that cat mocking me.
And that’s about as much as I can say because I really only started. But I have been playing for a few hours and am not particularly enthralled.
Coincidentally my fiancé bought Metroid Dread and he has had me play through some of the more challenging parts. I’m actually surprised how much I have liked it. I generally haven’t liked metroid games so it was a pleasant surprise. I think I like it much more because it’s less focused on shooting and more on mobility - it’s just more satisfying to play on a mechanical level.
Week 3 of Stardew Valley! I've basically accomplished all of the goals I established before I started my playthrough. But now my goal is to 100% everything. I've been playing this game since it came out years ago and I've only experienced a fraction of the content available. Lots of relationships, entire areas, plenty of items, etc. have gone completely missed by me in previous playthroughs. But not this one!
v1.5 spoilers ahead....
I got access to Ginger Island and the volcano dungeon there is quite challenging. So I started looking for a Prismatic Shard so I could get the Galaxy Sword to help even the playing field. Fortunately I found one (and a second one later!) and got me that sword. But it's still not enough. Unless I want to be constantly devouring cheese while I slash my way through the dungeon, I need to figure something else out. I'm going to try to hit lvl 100 in the Skull Cave and see if I find some boots or rings to help me out.
I also finally decided to pick a wife. I started giving Leah a bunch of goat cheese (not a euphemism, she actually loves goat cheese and I've got a ton of it) and we're at 2 hearts so far. I didn't even realize she was an option until yesterday. I guess I kept getting her mixed up with Penny and the carpenter because they're all red heads and I wasn't paying enough attention haha.
I've finished The Procession to Calvary. It can be pitched as "What if we made a point and click game out of classical paintings?". It's fairly humorous, with a style reminiscent of Terry Gilliam / Monty Python.
And uh, that's it. It's not terribly good, but not terribly bad either. It's finished in two afternoons and is currently included with Game Pass. But it's a nice way to recontextualize old masters' paintings, and appreciate all the fine details present in them.
I kind of miss the hayday of AGS where there were so many people making adventure games of wildly varying quality. They're so simple and gags are so easy to pull off that even bad adventure games can be enjoyable.
Tried the Battlefield 2042 open beta, didn't like it, bought 4, 1, and V for sale for like 10$ and I've been playing the multiplayer for those.
BF4 I bought and played when it came out, it's fun returning to it (and I like it a lot more than 2042). 1 and V I briefly dabbled in during their open betas but never bought the full games -- now I feel like I really slept on them, really fun (especially compared to 2042) and incredibly nice atmospheres they crafted.
Also went down a whole nostalgia trip over these, since I remember being in love with Bad Company 2 (first love was the beta then second love was the full game), and going through BF3 and up to 4. The part I didn't remember as well until looking it up was I must have played a ton of Bad Company 1 too, since I vaguely remember playing that, and then remember playing it again after the BC2 beta was over but before the full game came out, but also I vividly remember playing BF1943 (not 1942) -- which came out after BC1 and before BC2, so I really must have had a whole long streak of playing BC1 all the way through 4 before petering out.
I’ve played every single Battlefield game from the beginning and I’ll say that they have some work to do for sure on 2041. Not just with bugs and glitches but I think the specialist system is a misfire and takes away what makes BF unique (squad-play). I’ll reserve judgment until release but I think it needs more than polish. That said I did have some fun with the beta.
I've been a Battlefield fan through BF 3, 4, 1 and V. I'd be interested in more of your thoughts on why 2042 isn't as good.
It didn't really grab me during the one day of beta I played, I didn't get around to playing the second day to follow up with thoughts I was having (but I guess it didn't grip me enough to make me want to play).
Something about the gunplay didn't feel satisfying, I didn't really like how the guns felt or shooting at people felt, that's really hard to nail down so I think that's just a personal preference.
I don't really like the specialist idea, everyone seemed to just be running Mackay (which I guess isn't much different from in the past when everyone ran assault/medic, me included, since that's the best solo rambo class), the medic (not Mackay) character apparently kind of sucks so I'm guessing no one is playing as them, the sentry gun guy seemed OK but not particularly engaging. Since everyone is playing the same character and they're made to have unique looks, every one of the 128 players in the game look the same and it's kind of weird. I miss the basic 4-class style of gameplay where everything is neatly defined and they play separately and uniquely -- the specialists didn't feel that different, everyone is basically just "guy with (any) gun with 1 extra superpower".
I didn't like the long resurrect time, nor the animations for it. I was missing the BC2/BF3/BF1 style "make a mad dash for a downed ally and hit them with paddles", it was nice and frantic and felt dangerous, but gratifying when you pull it off. People in the beta didn't seem to be doing a ton of resurrecting, there's leeway there for that being a "new to game" problem, but I also think its just not particularly incentivized to res people in it vs the BC2/BF3/BF1 style quick-res system.
Come to think of it for some reason squads felt really downgraded in this. Squads felt like a portable spawn-spot and that's it, all comms seemed to be disabled, and if you're just running around with your own medkit, there didn't seem to be anything pulling you to sticking with your squad.
The weird UI doesn't help, it was really lacking in information. It was impossible to tell at a quick glance if someone was on your team or not (everyone looks the same due to specialists, and the best you can do is look for a tiny dot above their head), I don't think there was a strong indication that someone needed to be res'd (although I'm not confident in recalling that). In general it was hard for me to tell what was going on or where I should be going or doing, there was a big problem with being able to quickly understand the game. Even the on-the-fly attachment system didn't seem to get explained at all, I had to google that to see how to arm attachments and it turns out there's a whole new system for it -- same with the specialist superpowers too, I didn't really know they had any or how to use them until googling.
There's a theory going around that this was originally developed as a battle royale game that they pivoted last minute to be more traditional Battlefield. I like that theory and the more I think about it the more it fits. The on-the-fly attachment system is necessary for a BR, but doesn't really feel right for a Battlefield (not to say it doesn't have a place, but it felt clunky, and you can go from long distance support gunner to close range dude on-the-fly, although I didn't particularly like having to do that). The specialists make sense in something trying to ape Apex Legends. The giant open field of a map (and apparently the 128 player beta map was one of the smaller ones from the game) makes sense in a BR but felt to me like it was too open and unfocused for a Battlefield conquest round.
I guess really to be honest the main reason I didn't like it was because I thought the map sucked and I don't like giant conquest games. I liked BC2's much smaller player-coun, reduced vehicle impact, and focus on the rush gameplay. All the Battlefields after that focused on bigger player-counts and more vehicle stuff and more conquest, and that wasn't what I liked about the game for me -- bigger player-counts and more vehicles diminishes your role as an infantry and makes your team more reliant on having people who know what they're doing with the 1 or 2 big vehicle types of the map to get anywhere. I do kind of like that style for BF1/BFV since they're about the big wars where troops were a small cog in a big meat grinder of destruction, throwing themselves at the frontline just to get shot down for no gain. I like rush (apparently a BC1 invention) because it focuses the gameplay and keeps you on track for a specific objective instead of a more unfocused conquest game where you're just kind of noodling between flags.
Anyway the beta map was giant and open and boring, it's 128 players but doesn't feel like that because its so big and each area is removed from each other so you're only playing in a pocket of 16 players at a time in an area. There's a big tower on one side that has a part at the bottom and a part at the top and not much in between. Being on top doesn't seem to help much unless you like sniping, and then you get weird angles looking down at the giant open field. The other end is a smaller tower that again has a weird verticality next to a giant open space. The path between them is a giant open field with nowhere to hide, and a tunnel underneath that seemed like it would instantly become a meatgrinder where neither side makes any headway. The third major point is the oil tank place which was kind of cool but super removed from the rest. The inbetween of the big field between the two towers had the two warehouses (one on each side) that were my favourite part of the map, but were kind of boring as a concept.
The BC2 beta map (Port Valdez?) was smaller, had a much smaller player-count (I want to say 32 players? but it's been 11 years) but felt like a much more intense larger scale conflict. I remember playing the BC2 and BF3 betas for hours on end without finding anything stale (granted I was like 20 at the time and had nothing else going on in my life).
There were some weird bugs (like when you're a gunner in a tank, the screen is jerking around constantly and it's really hard to aim), but that's the one part I'm willing to look past since hey it's a beta (but uh, they also had 11 years of these games on this engine where that wasn't an issue so I'm not sure why they're having issues now). The fundamental gameplay concepts I wasn't a fan of, and that's a bit late to drastically change, with a month until release.
Anyway I wouldn't say it was terrible, but it didn't give me a lot of confidence in the game, and I went to BFV and BF1 (for the first times since a quick stint in their betas) afterwards, and then back to BF4, and had (and continue having) a lot more fun with those than I did in BF2042, so I think the formula just changed for it in a way I don't like as much.
Edit: Come to think of it there was no unlocks, but there was levelling up. Adds more fuel to the "Battle Royale" theory, but also it made the beta feel a bit lifeless since you didn't have the new gear to work towards (I loved this in BC2 when it came out).
Thanks so much for your detailed review. Sounds like it would serve me well to keep my money in my Steam account and wait for a price drop before really trying this for myself. And maybe watching some YouTube and Twitch gameplay footage, first. I, too, think the multiple classes, and the rock-paper-scissors intentionally designed into the game are cornerstones of the Battlefield franchise, and it would be a shame for those to be taken away or suffer too much from redesign. Like you, I also prefer "linear" game modes like Rush, Breakthrough and Frontlines. However, I can also settle in and enjoy a good session in a meatgrinder Conquest map (Metro, Locker, Op Underground, Devastation).
Currently going through Persona 5. ~31 hours in, and it's pretty good.
But I do feel like the overall tone and cast hasn't really hooked me in like P3 and P4 did. I predict that P4 will remain my favorite, with a tie between P3 and P5 (P3 being the worst as a game due to extremely slow pacing and monotonous gameplay but having a good cast, story and especially final boss + epilogue and ending, while P5 will probably score the lowest in cast, characters, themes, etc, but best as a game).
I am revisiting Sekiro in anticipation of From software's next big release, Eldenring.
I'm trying to platinum it, and just yesterday got the second to last achievement, so all that remains now is the final boss fight for the final ending. It took a while to grow on me, but the combat system in the game is truly a work of art. When I get in the groove, the back-and-forth with some of the bosses is so rythmic and flowing, I'm almost disappointed when the fight ends.
He's definitely a skill-check for if you've learned how to parry and deflect yet. The game's combat and bosses goes up a level of difficulty after that point as well, so he's a pretty effective skill-check boss.
The learning curve is pretty tough, and Genichiro is a pretty big speed bump, but one thing that I really appreciated about the game was that they gave you an NPC to practice with. The game felt really tough, but it never felt unfair. Genichiro, and other bosses after him, are definitely a real challe but once I got a feel for the timing of parrying and dodging the fights all clicked. I think the developers designed a very specific flow for a lot of the fights; once you realize what it is, everything clicks and you can breeze through most of the game.
Tangentially related, I beat the last boss and got the platinum! However, I mentioned to my friend that I was going for 100%, and he platinum'ed it again on his PS5 in the time between my last post and this one -_-
I've been making inroads into custom Dirt Rally 2.0 Clubs. I found two clubs on reddit that seem pretty chill and have joined the rally they're hosting. First club is hosting an R5 class rally, held in 13 locations, with 6-10 rallies per location and each location lasting 7 days before moving to the next. I've made it through 5 stages in New Zealand so far and have some pretty bad damage to the Ford Fiesta MK II, so I'll need to take it much slower in the second half if I even want to finish. I'm a little disappointed because I started out top 10 in the first two stages and then lost hella time to spins and car damage. There's certainly a lot left for me to learn how to drive properly.
The other club is a Historic Only rally club, meaning they're not going to be driving modern cars. I don't know where the delineation is, but the first rally location was NZ (again) with the H2 RWD class. I crashed out and had to retire at stage 6 I believe, which is, again, rather frustrating. I can't seem to figure out how to drive RWD properly, I always feel like I'm fishtailing more than driving straight. I might need more pedal control to reduce the lack of traction or something.
Either way, I'm having a great time racing against strangers and getting some tips during it all!
Fallout: New Vegas. I decided to sprint to the finish which goes against the game, but I did the major quests I wanted to do and figured I'd see what the world looked like. I hate the way it ends, and will explain why. It's not the prologue bit, that's great, and gives you a real sense of consequence. It's the way the game resets you to your previous save before the battle.
I feel that you should be able to play in the world you created. It can be locked in that end game state, with maybe the ability to improve your relationship with the remaining factions. There's not really a technical reason for this effective pre-Battle for Hoover Dam reset anyway, as even Morrowind, eight years and one engine before, makes significant changes to the game after you win (the Ghostgate is shut down because the Blight is removed from Vvardenfell), so that tells me it's a narrative decision to let you go back and tweak things, which I guess I also get. After I skipped the credits I just felt disappointed by that "Would you like to go back?" prompt. I am glad I finished it, and I understand why it's a legendary game, though. I want to do another character and go for an NCR win, or maybe just do a Mr. House run, but after the game's ambiance and whatnot stopped messing with my head it also just started to feel boring.
I've been watching Real Civil Engineer's Polybridge 2 videos, at least for levels I haven't completed, and they've got me back to plugging away at the last Poly Bridge 2 world (as well as the PB1 worlds Dry Cactus has in the Workshop). I missed this game, it's super relaxing to play, even if getting a design just right is infinitely frustrating. That last PB2 world is incredibly difficult, so I'm also trying to find other levels/worlds to play.
Yeah, one of Sawyer's greatest regrets regarding Fallout: NV was that they didn't have the time or resources to put in a post-ending play mode. It was just a matter of very tight development timelines.
That makes a lot of sense, actually. It's such a huge game, and it just feels like it stops abruptly when it should be at its best.
EDIT: I may try this mod, which was created by a self-proclaimed hard core fan who wanted to give the game the ending it deserved. Some discussion mentions that certain endings leave you with less content, but I guess that's just what happens when you drive out half of the factions in Mojave.
Post-mod EDIT: FPGE gives you that continuity but it also empties the wasteland if you do the Independent Vegas ending: NCR leaves, the Legion is around, but Cottonwood Grove, for example, has like five dudes. It changes small things, but doesn't revitalize the post-game.
Pokemon, specifically Romhacks. My roommate is very into pokemon, and I got back into it because of our conversations. I'm currently on a nuzlocke run of Blazing Emerald, an excellent hack of Emerald. My starter is Duskull :)
I recently got back into Animal Crossing: New Horizons to decorate my island for Halloween, just in time for the final big update and the DLC to be announced. I'm excited, but also very overwhelmed, haha.
November 5th Update Spoilers
I'm looking forward to the quality of life updates from the free update, like more storage space in my house (I'm all out... again) and the ability to access your home storage without going into your house. I'm also thrilled with the idea of being able to visit Harv's Island to see all of the vendors in one place, presumably instead of waiting for them to show up randomly. And I'm going to make a farm! Really pleased my island is unfinished and I have room for new things like that.
At first I wasn't very excited about the DLC. The idea of making resort homes for other characters just really didn't appeal to me for some reason. Maybe it's the overly capitalistic aspect? Not sure. And then when they started showing the added design tools, I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to do that on my island. But of course the tools do work on your island (countertops! walls!), and eventually you can even update the houses of your villages on your island! I've been so sad about the boring starter houses my original villagers have, so I guess I'm going to have to get this update!
Eastshade
I had this on my Steam wishlist for a while, and even saw it go on sale at least once previously, but only got it recently because I happened to be in the mood for what it was marketed to bring. In particular, I was looking for it to be a nice nature walking simulator. I think I got it at 50% off or better, and so, if it delivered on the walking simulator promise, I'd be satisfied with my purchase.
Unfortunately, while it does come close, it falls a bit short for me. The graphics aren't as good as other top-notch games (such as Kingdom Come: Deliverance). Foliage and vegetation are low-res when viewed up close. Circular things (such as round tables) are noticeably polygonal. The movement mechanics make it feel more like "camera moving simulator" than walking simulator. Occasionally, the viewpoint clips into environmental polygons, so you see inside objects or hillsides or trees. The feet of walking NPCs can be seen hovering sometimes a good 8 inches above the ground, which you can see based on how the shadows are rendered.
Your character is supposed to be a painter (artist). I knew this going in. So, I get to the point in the game where I'm going to paint my first painting. I prep the canvas, select the subject, and I'm anticipating some nice, on-screen painting UI -- but I'm disappointed to find that the so-called "painting" feature of this game is nothing more than a glorified screenshot tool. :\ You drag a rectangle to crop the
photo"painting", and then it snapshoots your viewpoint, and applies a painting-looking filter, reminiscent of acrylic paint, perhaps.I'm already past the refund point, so I'll see if I can push through and progress through the storyline a bit more, for the sake of getting my money's worth. Some positives about the game: the music is not too bad, and kind of pleasant and relaxing from time to time. There seems to be a healthy number of voice actors employed, so that's good for variety. The game world and lore seem interesting enough so far. The day-night cycle is cool, as shadows are rendered according to the position of the sun, and you can watch the sun progress across the sky (slowly).