14
votes
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've started playing Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and while I am enjoying it good lord is the UI terrible, there's so much unnecessary clicking. For example, to pick a single berry bush you walk up the bush, press A twice, get asked if you're sure you want to pick the bush, press A for yes, then A two more times to dismiss the dialogue I've seen a hundred times before! There's no reason to not pick the berry bush! Just let me press A ONCE and move onto the next bush!
Hasn’t Pokémon always been like this though? I remember one of the things I always hated about the series is how much hand-holding it did. Everything needs confirmation. And the general pacing of the game has always been so slow.
I don't remember. I did try Emerald, Platinum and Ultra Sun (I think that's what it was called) and found them terribly dull.
The meta-story of the SMT series about how it evolved from a creative perspective is absolutely fascinating. It has so many spin-offs and right now those spin-offs are way more popular than the originals, and that's largely because those originals would not at all be acceptable to audiences today. Part of it is mechanical - first person dungeon crawlers have generally not been a popular genre for the past two decades - but a lot of it is narritive; people generally do not want to play games with these kinds of themes where these kinds of things happen. There's a reason why most of the early games didn't even leave Japan. And you can kind of get the feeling that those games were only popular in Japan because they were in something of an "emo craze" at the time. Decades go by, and when Atlus finally decides to make a sequel they have so little confidence that it will sell that they decide to make it a 3DS exclusive. I remember waiting a long time for it to come out and it making so little of a splash when it actually happened it took me over a year to find out about it.
But yeah, the mainline SMT games have always been pretty dark. The first game in the series basically forces you to fuse your pet dog with a demon in order to get past the first dungeon. It's almost hard to believe that this is the same property that Atlus decided to make as the basis for their pokemon clone.
I've been playing SOMA. It's a sci-fi game centred in a relatively oppressive world deep under water.
I'll admit that a big reason I started playing was the native Linux support, but it turned out to actually be a very enjoyable little game. I particularly enjoyed the balance between the survival horror (and the amount of death/problems/surprises that you uncover throughout the game) but also the touches of humour. I think they struck a delicate balance very well.
SOMA is pretty high on my list of video game GOATs. I've always been a fan of Frictional Games, and the setting and story of SOMA really made all of the skills and technology they had been building into new heights (though honestly a lot of this is because this is the only game of theirs that has an actually happy "good" ending).
I think the narrative was the key in this game. One of the few games my gf actually enjoyed watching me play (this and RDR2).
I've been playing so much Apex Legends. I really suck at the game but I have a close friend who also plays and we've gotten pretty good at communicating during battles and are getting better at choosing good positions. Still lots of stuff to learn but I do think I'm improving! I also bought a razer tartarus pro gamepad to try out; so far it has made me much worse at the game than better, but I'm still adjusting to the new keybinds.
My home TV has a 120hz refresh rate compared to my computer's 60 hz display, so I'd like to get a setup where I can play Apex with a mouse and keyboard on my couch.
Halo infinite multiplayer. It's the first time in a while I have been getting on at least once a week with multiple friends 3-6 at a time. It's a really fun game but it can't escape that it's free2play.
Meaning?
The cosmetics and battle pass progression is set up in a way that is at odds with the multiplayer queue system. You can't choose the game mode or maps you want to play so you are stuck playing matches that only waste your time if you are trying to grind out weekly objectives. For example, I needed to play Control Point a few times yesterday to finish out one of my final weekly awards but it seemed like the queue system knew this and would only place me in the Control Point mode once every 10 matches. The cherry on top of that was after finally completing all the weekly awards, you get a final ultimate challenge to cap it all off. So yesterday after finishing out the weekly grind, I was met with a challenge of win 17 games of PvP within 24 hours. This would have taken between 3-4 hours of playtime and was extremely unreasonable for someone who already put in 40 hours for the week.
But this only matters if you care about doing the battle pass stuff and leveling up to get the cosmetic stuff. I don't necessarily like the cosmetic stuff, but the objectives make me try out different weapons and playstyles that I wouldn't normally do. I just wish I could be more direct about tackling that stuff without having to play Oddball over and over when I really needed to play Slayer or CTF on a specific map.
Wow, that's a terrible queue system! It certainly seems like it is purposefully keeping you playing or trying to prevent full battlepass utilization to force you to purchase cosmetics instead of redeem them for points. I haven't played Infinite, in fact I didn't even know it was F2P until yesterday when I was invited to play next week in a group.
Yeah, it is certainly the worst part of the game. Otherwise, it is awesome and I love playing it! I just wish they would either fix the queue system or adjust the weekly awards to be more broad. After all the work this week, the hardest challenge was getting the queue system to place me in matches where I could do the challenge!
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
100%ed it for the second time. It's absolutely splendid. Movement in the game is such a joy. The ending made me cry again.
I cannot wait to see what Moon Studios does next.
Me and a few friends started playing New World recently. I like it. It has a nice mellow feel to it. We can do some quests together and it is mostly on a manageable difficulty. I also enjoy that the combat system isn't just spamming button combos, but instead encourages you to pay attention to the enemies. I play a healer and it can be a bit challenging to keep people from going down, partly this is because I am a few levels behind the others.
There are a few things I don't like about the game. Primarily when picking up faction quests when in a group we all get different quests. This would be fine of you could share quests, but that's not currently possible. Secondly, the fast travel options are limited which is fine, but a bit annoying. Would be nice if there was someway to send items between settlements via NPCs so I didn't have to do the run myself. Lastly the dominant factions get some benefits from the areas they control. It would be nice if the underdog factions got some kind of perk. As is, since we picked Covenant (which is the smallest on our server) "the good guys" we miss out on some benefits.
All in all, nice mellow game.
If your faction owns the town you're in and the town with the stuff in storage, you can pay to pull it out on your end. Another way being the dominant faction is important.
I saw someone here talked about Deep Rock Galactic. Talked to my friends about it and decided to give it a try since there was a 50% discount during last steam sales. Wow what a blast! It must be one the funniest game I have ever played online. Everything about it is good. The setup, music, the theme and the gameplay. Customization is also on point. I think we will play that game for a long time. I play the engineer class.
I know it may sound absurd, but when I'm too tired/drunk/whatever, I play Hollow Knight. I started a normal game but I play it like in steel mode. If I am at 1 HP I quit (happened 3-4 times). I died only once in 12 hours as of yesterday. More than halfway through. Still not fast enough for the speedrun achivement though.
Stardew Valley just hit summer year 2. Got my first big starfruit wine sell and got a lot of money. I'm still to finish the community center. Not sure if i want to play until perfection or just try mods after the evaluation. Enjoying much more now that I'm going after social stuff but I'm still filling my days with too much work.
Mahjong Soul It's a riichi mahjong (the 4p game, not the solitaire) mobile/browser game that has gatcha stuff but it looks like it does not limit gameplay and can be ignored. I bought a cheap mahjong set long ago but never got to learn the quintillion rules about scoring so maybe a computer version makes it easier. Just playing unranked matches for now until I'm more confortable with yakus and being aware of discards and stuff. Fun for now although some matches can take too long for me.
I'm pretty deep in Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch. It's actually feeling a bit too easy (maybe I'm over-leveled?) but it's incredibly addictive and I can already tell I'm going to go back and replay it several times with the different houses. I'd definitely recommend it to people who like tactics games, though it's got a lot of Persona-style social simulation elements as well which might not be for everyone.
One of the things I've always disliked about the Fire Emblem series is that they're always heavy on the tactics, but really light on the role-playing, so those social simulations actually make it seem a lot more interesting to me.
I've been slowly playing through Shining Force III lately and next on my list is Shining Force III Scenario II, Shining Force III Scenario III, and the recent translation of the Saturn version of Vandal Hearts. So it's safe to say that I'm on a bit of a Strategy RPG kick.
Claude. I read that it was easiest so it seemed like a good starting point.
Still playing Pokemon Volt White Randomized. I finally beat the second gym leader and will be on my way to the next part of my adventure soon. Right now, I'm focusing on levelling and catching so I can build out my team a lot more. Pokemon Volt White 2 Redux was announced so I'm pretty excited to get a fresh romhack for the sequel when I'm ready.
Also still playing Halo Infinite. I'm getting tired of Oddball.
Started Inscryption. Not sure what's going on anymore after a certain event, but I enjoyed breaking the... early game? very quickly with my very first death card, a free 3/2 infinitely sacrificeable for 3 blood, and beefed up field mice.
Was it per chance the discussion 2 weeks ago which brought the game to your attention?
No, I think I added it to my list when a streamer I like but who I rarely watch has played it, then I bought it because it was discounted during the thanksgiving-ish steam sale.
I'm playing Pokemon Brilliant Diamond. I don't love it. I bought it somewhat by accident thinking it was the newest Pokemon game (apparently I was thinking of Arceus) and not just the newest remake. The wild encounters are tedious. I can only stand to watch the dramatic battle animation to fight a Wooper so many times in a row before I lose it. That said, for now I'll keep playing.
I've started to play eco with a couple of friends. My colleague invited me to his server and I've had a blast! It's a merger between stardew valley and minecraft. Much more focus on the collaboration, since you have a finite amount of skills you can place in different skill-trees. One of us is a miner, another one is a farmer etc etc. You need to create a government, your own currency, your own tasks on a board which other people then can fetch for a reward. I think it's a really, really interesting concept for a game.
Oh, and the farming requires fertilizing to keep the levels of nitrogen, phosphors and potassium at the right level!
I'm almost done with Forza Horizon 5, I know they'll keep adding the multiplayer events, but I don't particularly care about those so once I've finished the "campaign" I'll uninstall and move on. Not sure if I'll play something small/indie or go back to HBS' BattleTech as I recently reinstalled it after putting in way too many hours when it was first released and just bought the expansions during the last Steam sale. I just know that I love the game and the entire universe (I'm an old tabletop BattleTech-er) so I'll spend an ungodly number of hours playing it instead of getting through the backlog of games I've purchased and not played.
If you're looking for something new to play in the same universe, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries came out earlier this year, and it's on XBox Gamepass for PC too if you don't feel like buying it. It's a MechWarrior game, so FPS/TPS action, and not turn based strategy like Battletech though, so I don't know how interested in that you might be.
I haven't played MW5 yet myself... largely because I am still obsessed with Monster Train, which I am currently playing on my Switch (thanks @vektor and @deimos for recommending it)... However, I also loved HBS' Battletech too, loved the previous MW games, and I have MW5 already installed for when I finally get the urge to play it. :P
I went looking at their Steam page and was trying to figure out how in the world I missed that game since it says the release date was May of this year, but it looked so familiar. Wikipedia to the rescue, showing it was on the PC GamePass last year and that's where I played it. I haven't seen the new DLC though, so might have to give it another go.
Oh. I didn't realize it was actually first released on Dec 2019 but as an EPIC exclusive, then May 2020 added to GamePass, and it's only on May 2021 that it finally made its way to Steam. What a truly bizarre and annoying release schedule. Bloody exclusives!
Right?! I was looking at it and the trailer didn't go into anything that sounded familiar plot-wise, but I found it hard to believe that I missed a freaking Mechwarrior game and knew I had played one recently. I wait for sales and have quite the backlog of games, so there was a solid chance I'd only just played a game released a few years ago, but a quick search turned up nothing else this decade.
Yeah, I have an insane backlog and often wait for sales too, so I miss new game releases quite frequently as well. So it doesn't surprise me I missed the initial 2019 release of MW5, especially with it being an EPIC exclusive. I have only ever bought 2 games on EPIC, Borderlands 3 and Old World, and I have never once really browsed their shop either. I have collected almost all the free games they have given away though. ;)
Same! I have purchased exactly one thing from Epic and that was the first battlepass I had for Fortnite back when the guys and I would play. After that it's easy to hit the points needed to buy the next one without spending another dime, so never did. Their lack of security, so many reports of hacked accounts in the early days, had me remove the card immediately after the first purchase and I've only ever checked in on Thursdays to grab a free game or two to add to the endless backlog.
If you mean this Battletech : I really liked that game. After finishing the main game, I didn't feel like it had much draw for me any more, especially considering I have other games to play. If the DLC are nicely discounted (I'm thinking -70% or more), I'll get some. For now, I just feel they're too expensive.
I don't pay full price for pretty much any game over $20 (Forza was a gift), so can't blame you for wanting it on sale. The DLC was 50% off during the Steam sale which price history seems to say is the lowest it goes, but might drop as the game ages.
Battletech is my jam, so replay-ability through skirmishes and just trying different ways to play, purposefully handicapping myself, and the hundreds of mods make it a solid game I go back to just as I do with tabletop via MegaMek.
Any mods you recommend?
RogueTech by LadyAlekto and team or BattleTech Advanced 3062 depending on the era you want to play and how much of a challenge you want.
3062, as the link discusses, is a later timeframe in the universe and provides a way to play a more in depth game than the vanilla install.
RogueTech is a slightly earlier time in the universe, makes the experience closer to tabletop without the dice, and will kick your ass.
Both open up more of the tech that is available in the canon, mechs that could/should have been available, and make the enemies you fight to be factionally correct.
I'm reading the 3062 wiki. This looks very interesting! And it does seem to offer a lot of extra depth. I'll give it a spin. Thanks for the recommendation.
I got sucked into Kingsway again. It's a sort of mock RPG that you play using Kingsway OS. An in-game operating system suspiciously reminiscent of Windows 95/98. You fight with monsters and what not like a traditional game, but the real final boss the inventory management system. Early game you have like 4 windows you need to manage and it's not a big deal. By end game you'll have dozens and dozens and you need to FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE HAS YOUR GOD DAMN POTIONS BEFORE YOU DIE. It's actually pretty entertaining and the traditional RPG part is simple enough that it's manageable. Definitely strange as far as game go, but I'm having a good time,
I FINALLY got my girlfriend to play Exceed by Level 99 games with me. It's a card game meant to emulate tradition fighting games like Street Fighter by centering the gameplay around out predicting your opponent. Whenever either one of you attacks you both lay down a card and reveal them at the same time. Then, depending on which cards were played and your relative positions, one, both or neither strike might hit. It's really entertaining, and the characters we played with (Ryo vs Ken from the demo deck) felt very faithful to the little I know about Street Fighter. I may have lost control and took advantage of their Black Friday sale to grab a bunch more.
Wow, Kingsway looks and sounds really interesting.
LFTL: https://store.steampowered.com/app/588950/Kingsway/
I started the Doom mod "Back to Saturn X" on id's Unity-based engine and it's great. I don't remember the difficulty it's on, but I like how it keeps me stocked on ammo and sort of telegraphs the coming difficulty by keeping me stocked with rockets. It feels more sci-fi, less "RIP AND TEAR THROUGH HELL," especially with the soundtrack. You're still tearing through hordes of demons.
Ion Fury: I started this since eduke32 supports it, and it's a fun game. I'm playing on the easiest setting, and like Duke3d, it still kicks my butt, but the one liners are great, the gameplay is solid, and it overall just feels fun.
RimWorld: I'm still playing my same Cassandra Classic Base Builder world I got off the ground last week. I'm doing some save scumming, like when my batteries all blew up after a lightning strike lit my house on fire or I botch a fight. I didn't understand the prisoner system and had an escape before I could recruit the two I had. I managed a safe caravan for a negotiation to improve relations with a nearby group, and I'm at a point where I have power (except for a solar flare) all the time. I'm getting bored, but want to try to go for endgame on this save to say I did it before moving up in difficulty. Once you get established for your first year the game starts to make more sense, and the mechanics settle in.
What do you mean by this? Is this a source port or something I haven't heard of? Or is it like the latest Quake port where it's a compatibility layer over the normal id tech engine?
Ion Fury is great. I'm going through it on my second playthrough at the moment. I never finished it the first time around, but now that I have more experience with Build Engine games, I'm going through it and absolutely loving it. I definitely agree with your assessment that it "just feels fun". The one-liners really build character in a way that most modern games just don't do any more.
It's like the latest Quake port where they released it over the top of the original. However, according to the DoomWiki, they made the engines into libraries, and Unity builds the game from the library. I'm not sure how the Quake port was done.
Edit: the new Quake was implemented via Nightdive's Kex engine, which started as a Doom-base but is expanded into whatever they can make it do at this point.
I tend to not have that happen to me anymore, even with bigger prison breaks. I eventually started burying my prisons deep inside my base while having the armory near the defenses. Prisons and armories don't mix, let me tell you. I used to have a prison hospital (yes, you can mark beds as for prisoners and hospital) near the defenses to quickly stabilise downed enemies. With the new-ish mechanic for field medicine (drafted pawns can force-tend other pawns, and will not run back to base to collect meds), this isn't necessary anymore. So these days I just put the prison in the deepest corner of my base to give me as much time as possible to stop escapees. Armories go near the defenses so I can fiddle with loadouts a bit if needed.
It also helps to quickly decide what you want to do with those prisoners (i.e. release or recruit) and keep them as comfortable as possible. That way you have less prisoners and they're more likely to be compliant.
I haven't touched The Hunt: Showdown during the summer and it turns out they added a bunch of new features. It's a stressful game to play but a really fun game to watch on Twitch, so I alternate.
So Dark Souls 1 as the best, and 3 as the weakest in the series?
Got it. I haven’t played any of them yet, but might in the future.
I have two very similar games that I enjoy quite a bit, but each has its own spin on it, and plan to finish both before :