What are you playing right now?

[Hawke64]

Completed (reached the credits, not going for the collectibles) Ori and the Blind Forest.
The beginning was frustrating and slightly infuriating (because of the plot and character animations), the ending was unsatisfying (couldn't chop down the tree), but in general the game was quite interesting. Neither the best Metroidvania I've played nor the worst.

 

Edit. PC controls are decent, but cannot be changed in-game, only by editing an *.ini file.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Hawke64

[Bartimaeus]

I did not like Ori and the Blind Forest very much at all. I thought the movement was just...really bad for a platformer? Very sticky and floaty. Couldn't get used to it, so I had to drop it. Looked very nice, though. I guess it's like universally loved, but I'm more used to the Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario Bros style of platforming, where precise movement is actually incredibly important as opposed to simply a pretty afterthought, so it just wasn't for me.

Edited July 19, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[the_dog_days]

I don't like platforming and especially dislike platforming in rpgs.

[GhostofAnakin]

Want to experience that again? Join the re-launch

 

The lag is STILL that bad?

[melkathi]

They had fixed it to a large degree in the old game. The new one is really laggy again.

The good thing is that you can more easily get the EGO Pursuits for reviving other players, as they'll die to lag and you get a chance to revive them before they notice and thus before they self-rez

 

(I uninstalled)

[majestic]

 

The worst thing about the split is arguably how many other MMOs blindly copied the same model, resulting in both factions of their much-smaller games being complete graveyards of people who can't play alongside each other. The games might have failed anyway, but it certainly would accelerate the death spiral. Just desserts perhaps, but it boggles the mind that developers of a new game in a saturated niche could think that splitting their players and not letting them meaningfully interact with each other is a good idea.

If you want PvP in a game like most of them, you'll need factions to drive it, though you can work around that I'd imagine via merc companies or something else. Not sure that would really effect much of a MMORPG's death, though. Is it a problem to just play the same faction as your friends and just have alt for the other side ?

 

 

Or you do it the EQ2 way: have two factions for story purposes but let the players play together during general gameplay. Enemy faction NPCs are KOS but players can do whatever they want (which made some quests interesting as you might have to hike through an enemy capital to help someone or run into NPCs that are hostile to only some in your group).

You can even betray your faction (which means losing your class: going from Good to Evil, for example, a Warden would become a Fury) and there's even a hub for people in between factions (or you can just stay factionless, though I never did the betrayal thing so the specifics of it I don't know either. It's a huge rep grind, that much I know)... The betrayal thing wouldn't be relevant in WoW due to how they just have the same classes on both sides nowadays, in EQ2 otoh it is the only way to have a Dark Elf Warden (since Dark Elves are an Evil race so can't pick warden on character creation).

 

I don't remember how PvP worked, but having it faction based wouldn't be such a big deal though given how both factions had different classes it would be an interesting balance exercise. Mercenary companies, as you suggest, would also work. Or the Guild Wars 2 way: World vs World (which would translate to Realm vs Realm in WoW-speak) would be an interesting way to go for a game with the population to sustain such a thing.

 

The reputation grind of the betrayal questline wasn't that bad. Having to camp named mobs on the other hand was. You could spend weeks waiting for the right mob to spawn even if you farmed it every day due to ridiculous spawn times and chances - either a mob only spawed once every X amount of time or it spawned in a couple of minutes with a sub one percent chance of spawning the right one.

 

Oh, and there was no PVP in EQ2 for over year. It got patched in later, first as open world only, later with some WoW style battlegrounds, but neither Sony nor Daybreak were ever captable of overcoming the big problem of EQ2 PVP: It was bolted on due to how popular World of Warcraft was at the time.

 

It turned out to be impossible to balance what with EQ2's 24 classes, faction class restrictions, alternative advancement paths, quest buffs (that even carried over into battlegrounds) and an equipment and stat system never meant for PVP.

[Hurlshort]

I always hated the idea of balancing in MMO's, because it basically handicapped the developers from introducing new classes and content.

[marelooke]

 

 

The worst thing about the split is arguably how many other MMOs blindly copied the same model, resulting in both factions of their much-smaller games being complete graveyards of people who can't play alongside each other. The games might have failed anyway, but it certainly would accelerate the death spiral. Just desserts perhaps, but it boggles the mind that developers of a new game in a saturated niche could think that splitting their players and not letting them meaningfully interact with each other is a good idea.

If you want PvP in a game like most of them, you'll need factions to drive it, though you can work around that I'd imagine via merc companies or something else. Not sure that would really effect much of a MMORPG's death, though. Is it a problem to just play the same faction as your friends and just have alt for the other side ?

 

 

Or you do it the EQ2 way: have two factions for story purposes but let the players play together during general gameplay. Enemy faction NPCs are KOS but players can do whatever they want (which made some quests interesting as you might have to hike through an enemy capital to help someone or run into NPCs that are hostile to only some in your group).

You can even betray your faction (which means losing your class: going from Good to Evil, for example, a Warden would become a Fury) and there's even a hub for people in between factions (or you can just stay factionless, though I never did the betrayal thing so the specifics of it I don't know either. It's a huge rep grind, that much I know)... The betrayal thing wouldn't be relevant in WoW due to how they just have the same classes on both sides nowadays, in EQ2 otoh it is the only way to have a Dark Elf Warden (since Dark Elves are an Evil race so can't pick warden on character creation).

 

I don't remember how PvP worked, but having it faction based wouldn't be such a big deal though given how both factions had different classes it would be an interesting balance exercise. Mercenary companies, as you suggest, would also work. Or the Guild Wars 2 way: World vs World (which would translate to Realm vs Realm in WoW-speak) would be an interesting way to go for a game with the population to sustain such a thing.

 

The reputation grind of the betrayal questline wasn't that bad. Having to camp named mobs on the other hand was. You could spend weeks waiting for the right mob to spawn even if you farmed it every day due to ridiculous spawn times and chances - either a mob only spawed once every X amount of time or it spawned in a couple of minutes with a sub one percent chance of spawning the right one.

 

Oh, and there was no PVP in EQ2 for over year. It got patched in later, first as open world only, later with some WoW style battlegrounds, but neither Sony nor Daybreak were ever captable of overcoming the big problem of EQ2 PVP: It was bolted on due to how popular World of Warcraft was at the time.

 

It turned out to be impossible to balance what with EQ2's 24 classes, faction class restrictions, alternative advancement paths, quest buffs (that even carried over into battlegrounds) and an equipment and stat system never meant for PVP.

 

 

Since I mained a Warden I never had issues in PvP, making my team basically immortal might have had something to do with that *cough*

 

But yeah, PvP was an afterthought and they were always honest about not balancing around it, which I think more developers should do (*cough* Blizzard *cough*)

 

I always hated the idea of balancing in MMO's, because it basically handicapped the developers from introducing new classes and content.

 

I agree. And PvP tends to imply (excessive) balancing, which usually ends up with all classes being practically the same and talent trees being reduced to mostly a cosmetic thing (see World of Warcraft, though they figured that one out and just axed that part).

[majestic]

Since I mained a Warden I never had issues in PvP, making my team basically immortal might have had something to do with that *cough*

 

But yeah, PvP was an afterthought and they were always honest about not balancing around it, which I think more developers should do (*cough* Blizzard *cough*)

 

I mained a Dirge and let my guildies sucker me into going on the betrayal questline with them. I should have picked a different race at the time but what did I know of the game, having just started. So I ended up faction changing a gnome of all things. Bah. Wasted time. Worse even since our stunted leveling caused a rift between our group and the rest of the guild, drama ensued and... like so many others I ended up playing WoW instead.

 

Can't really beat knowing people in MMOs. Especially if you can't do anything without a group at all. Not that finding groups as a Dirge was a problem. Got kicked a few times from random groups though because I wasn't, ahem, pulling my weight. Ah the joys of randoms who are told they need a Dirge in a group but have no idea why. Made leaving easier though.

[Mamoulian War]

Moar Dark Souls!!!

 

My first sessions were just about farming stuff. I needed 30 Humanities for Chaos Covenant, and during that, I got to max Item Discovery, so I have started to run around Lordran for various drops needed for one of the trophies, and to satisfy my 100% need Pretty boring, but I had to do some stuff for my job in the evening as well, so rather than attempt for new bosses, I made few short farming sessions.

 

After I had most of the stuff, I wanted, I have gone against Ceaseless Discharge, and tried the easy kill method, luring him out of lava. Much easier than my first kill Right after that, I have turned to Human again, to fight against second Kirk's Black Phantom Invasion. Unfortunately, because I still need Git Gud, I have died at the same time as him, and it bugged out his loot drop under the texture, without any chance to pick it up, even after reload trick :/

 

Next day, I have gone right after Demon Firesage, and as before as with Kirk, I sucked a lot and died at the same time, losing out on his Demon Catalyst, which was an actual upgrade for me No other way to obtain that loot. Next chance will be NG+ and I hope, I'll suck less next time, so I will not need to go through whole NG++ to get this item. Centipede Demon compared to him was just piece of cake. I have summoned Solaire, and defeated him in less than 30 seconds. Reward was lava damage reducing ring and another encounter with Solaire in his quest line.

 

Now was the time to offer the farmed humanities to Quelaag's sister to rank up her Covenant, and open a shortcut for the last part of Solaire's quest line. It took me again longer than killing both Firesage and Centipede, lol. After that I moved back to the Centipede Demon place and walk into Lost Izalith. I have killed few of the "Undead Dragon Butts" to gain two more soul levels, and attended the last encounter with Kirk, the Black Phantom. This time, I sucked less, and defeated him easily with getting one of his drops (Barbed Sword). After him I met Siegmeyer again, and helped him to kill Chaos Eater at the poison pit, and he was happy to move on another trip.

 

After him, I went for Bed of Chaos boss encounter... Sigh... This encounter is just bad... Very bad design... I made a mistake and killed her right arm first, and that meant like 15 corpse runs to try and go for her left arm... The first time, I've played the game, I have gone for left hand first, and although I died few times, it was not an exercise in futility, like my current attempt... Every step I've tried her other arm dropped me immediately into a pit, and "YOU HAVE DIED" flashed on the screen again, and again, and again, and again... In the end I have tried to use little bit different route to the hand, but at the end of the route was big pit hole. I really do not know, how I was able to manage to jump over it, and being stunned by performing my lucky jump, I lost my concentration for a second, which meant another fireburst diractly in my face... Thankfully, I have survived with like 50 HP or so, and I finally hit her second hand... Few more seconds later, and Bed of Chaos was dead again, and I took a break from a game, to cool little bit.

 

After the break, I went to visit Vamos, to offer him my new Embers, Snuggly the Crow, to exchange Sunlight Maggot with Old Witch's Ring and with it, I could finally have a little chat with Quelaag's Sister and made Engyi jealous

 

Before going to bed, I have also visited the Pyromancer trainer in Blighttown, and upgraded my Pyromancy flame to the max, and I could finally move to The Duke's Archives. I killed the Blue Crystal Golem for DLC unlocking item, and later for my first meeting with Seath, in this playthrough. Waking up in the prison was the last thing of that evening.

[ShadySands]

I hated when they removed the trait trees from SWTOR because then every spec was pretty much identical. They added utilities but they don't offer much variety as you have pretty much obvious and limited choices depending on if you are doing PVP or PVE and they mostly just add different effects to abilities you already have.

[majestic]

I hated when they removed the trait trees from SWTOR because then every spec was pretty much identical. They added utilities but they don't offer much variety as you have pretty much obvious and limited choices depending on if you are doing PVP or PVE and they mostly just add different effects to abilities you already have.

 

We have Bioware copying Blizzard and the infamous dotsmash build to thank for that.

 

I always thought dotsmash was such a strong case for why talent trees were fun. The idea that you could extend the the bleed by applying it less often because your rotation consists of abilities that don't use your stacks was ingenious.

 

For those who are interested and haven't played SWTOR, dotsmash was a hybrid build in SWTOR where you picked up an ability that would apply a very strong 6 second bleed effect on the enemy each time you made a standard attack (SWTOR has two attack types - standard and force or tech). It stacked three times and the idea was to apply all three stacks quickly and then have 6 seconds of really heavy bleeding. In a pure bleed build that was the only way to maximize DPS.

 

Then someone had the idea to combine the bleed with half of the force-attack based auto-crit build the class also could do. Suddenly it became viable to not apply the stacks rapidly and have a massive uptime increase on the bleed that lined up perfectly with the cooldown of the ability.

 

Bioware chose to "balance" the build by axing talent trees.

[Katphood]

Shadow Warrior 2 is an amazing game and I am very sad that people don't know much about it.

 

Just got the ability to dual-wield assault rifles. I wub this game, it's like a marriage between everything that is cool about both new and old-school shooters.

[SadExchange]

Shadow Warrior 2 is an amazing game and I am very sad that people don't know much about it.

 

Just got the ability to dual-wield assault rifles. I wub this game, it's like a marriage between everything that is cool about both new and old-school shooters.

After the story part of the game is finished. Is there more to keep you coming back?

[Fenixp]

I wub this game, it's like a marriage between everything that is cool about both new and old-school shooters.

Well...

 

Something may have changed with late patching, the last time I've played it was about a year after release - nonetheless, the game's attempt at being Borderlands and failing at it miserably didn't really inspire much confidence in me. Almost entirely unsubstantial loot (My gun now shoots blue bullets which do 3 more damage to most enemies, yay?), even more spongy enemies than the original and, worst of all, entirely random levels and encounters - which meant they all ended up being the same - cluster****s of differently colored enemies ("I can use my blue gun on red enemies because it does more damage to them! Meaningful decisions!") thrown around in levels that weren't constructed in any semblance of logical fashion, resulting in a game that never really heard of 'pacing itself'.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Fenixp

[Katphood]

Forza Horizon.

 

I like the setting, can't wait to cruise around in the canyon.

 

After the story part of the game is finished. Is there more to keep you coming back?

The story isn't anything to write home about but there are funny jokes pretty much in every mission. Shadow Warrior isn't about that though, it's mostly about shooting a whole group of enemies, similar to Serious Sam. If you enjoyed that game you could give SW2 a try. But yes, there is a whole lot to do once the game is over:

 

-Collecting gems

-Collecting orbs so you can purify gems, infuse guns or make your own gems by combining them

-Coop with 3 other players

-New Game+

 

 

snip

-There are 70 Weapons in SW2 instead of 'Bazillion' weapons like in Borderlands(most of which is vendor trash in BL)

 

-Not all levels are procederally generated

 

-Mission goals are not procederally generated at all

 

-There is much more variety in both weapons and enemies compared to Borderlands 1 & 2: Bows, pistols, smgs, gattling guns, heavy machine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, swords, chainsaws...

 

-Enemies in such games ARE bullet-sponges, this is a DOOM/Serious Sam clone, not Arma 3

Edited July 20, 2018 by Katphood

[marelooke]

 

After the story part of the game is finished. Is there more to keep you coming back?

The story isn't anything to write home about but there are funny jokes pretty much in every mission. Shadow Warrior isn't about that though, it's mostly about shooting a whole group of enemies, similar to Serious Sam. If you enjoyed that game you could give SW2 a try. But yes, there is a whole lot to do once the game is over:

 

-Collecting gems

-Collecting orbs so you can purify gems, infuse guns or make your own gems by combining them

-Coop with 3 other players

-New Game+

 

 

snip

-There are 70 Weapons in SW2 instead of 'Bazillion' weapons like in Borderlands(most of which is vendor trash in BL)

 

-Not all levels are procederally generated

 

-Mission goals are not procederally generated at all

 

-There is much more variety in both weapons and enemies compared to Borderlands 1 & 2: Bows, pistols, smgs, gattling guns, heavy machine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, swords, chainsaws...

 

-Enemies in such games ARE bullet-sponges, this is a DOOM/Serious Sam clone, not Arma 3

 

 

Pardon me asking, chief, but did you play the game...like...at all?! At any rate, pretty much the entirety of your post is bull****.

 

 

Personally I was disappointed in Shadow Warrior 2 because I liked the 2013 reboot (and the original game), I wasn't looking for a Borderlands clone, I still have two Borderlands games I need to finish because I got burned out on them.

On top of that the story doesn't make sense after playing SW2013 (which actually had a somewhat decent storyline) and the weapon modifications didn't feel like they had much of an impact at all (at least at release)

 

So yeah, I'd say the issue isn't that the game is bad per-se, but that it isn't what many of us who enjoyed SW2013 were looking for.

 

 

Anyway, personally have been playing Warframe pretty heavily lately. I made it to the rank of Sage (Mastery Rank 25, aka the maximum right now) while gearing up for Eidolon hunting.

 

As I mentioned before my clan dragged me into a Tridolon hunt a while back (which is killing the 3 different Eidolon back-to-back: the Teralyst, the Gantulyst and the Hydrolyst), where I didn't feel all that useful, so I did what I usually do in Warframe when I don't want to be a detriment to the team: learn how to handle the content solo.

I started off by soloing the first (and easiest) of the three Eidolon: the Teralyst. Grabbed my Oberon and a Lanka built for Radiation damage and just about managed a capture before daybreak (the Eidolon only roam around at night). Since I didn't exactly start the fight right after dusk I'm not sure whether I was excessively slow or just started late. I did learn my Operator needs a few more skills to make this easier (more health and health regen would be real nice) so I've been spending time in Elite Sanctuary Onslaught, which is a great way to gain operator skills, coincidentally it's also a great way to level up weapons and Warframes hence the getting to MR25 bit

 

I also spent some time with The Bard's Tale 4 demo, so far I'm liking it. There's some concern about the 3 active skill limit (see other thread on these forums) but within the confines of the demo it hasn't bothered me yet. I just hope they do something about the facial expressions. They're sometimes downright creepy...

Edited July 20, 2018 by marelooke

[Fenixp]

-There are 70 Weapons in SW2 instead of 'Bazillion' weapons like in Borderlands(most of which is vendor trash in BL)

Actually, there's like 8 weapon categories, our of which majority behaves very similarly with significant differences in stats - like you can use a shotgun with low damage and a big magazine or a shotgun with massive damage and a small magazine, but they'll both be very similar. Additionally, majority are your generic shooty McBangBangs, just meele weapons are extremely well done.

 

Anyway, weapons are not that much of an issue - the amount is cool, even if majority are just slight variations. It's the loot drops you get. Like 99.9% of loot you collect is utter trash, and even the most interesting upgrades are of the "+2% #insert_damage_type# damage." There's the very cool aspect of weapon modifiers which make them behave differently in fun ways, but there's too little of that - I wish the game focused on those instead of the crappy gems that don't do much of anything except allow you to bypass enemy immunities. ... Oh god, I just got flashbacks of the terrible enemy immunities in that game. Just... Why?

 

-Not all levels are procederally generated

Yes, just like in Diablo 2, not all levels are procedurally generated :-P But as opposed to Diablo II, level design in FPS matters and when majority of it is bad, well... The few that are decent won't save it. And that's what the hand-crafted levels are at best - decent.

 

-Mission goals are not procederally generated at all

Might as well be as majority are collect x of that and kill this, but it's an FPS, so who really cares.

 

-There is much more variety in both weapons and enemies compared to Borderlands 1 & 2: Bows, pistols, smgs, gattling guns, heavy machine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, swords, chainsaws...

Swords and chainsaws behave pretty much the same, actually. And enemies are even worse - yes, there's a whole bunch of enemy types, but that doesn't mean a whole lot when there's like 4 different AI routines and majority of enemies end up feeling like the same thing with a different skin.

 

The only thing the game tries to do to vary things up are damage resistances and immunities, but that's never been a fun system to implement in an FPS.

 

Still, I've had like 30 minutes of gleeful murdering when I found my first chain sword.

 

-Enemies in such games ARE bullet-sponges, this is a DOOM/Serious Sam clone, not Arma 3

DOOM/Serious Sam made me constantly feel like I was shooting bullets, not peas. Altho this is very much hit and miss in Shadow Warrior 2 - when the gunplay works, it's amazing, with enemy models showing damage, reacting well to hits, falling apart as you massacre them. That's bloody awesome.

 

But when it doesn't work, you're going to be shooting rubber pellets at a bunch of enemies that are often too dumb to really do anything to you, which is ... Not fun. And since the encounters are procedurally generated, whether you'll have fun or not gets decided by a dice roll, not a person that designs encounters.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I finished Shadow Warrior 2 while also completing all side-objectives and as I said, when the gunplay worked, it was bloody amazing. But... That's about it, really. The game tends to fall apart and contradict itself in most of its other aspects. For me, it was a big disappointment after enjoying SW 2013 a whole lot.

 

All in all, I'd recommend the game to FPS fans - but there's a whole bunch of reason for why it's not as well-liked as the original. And yes, marelooke made a good point about story which is rubbish in SW2 but was actually pretty nice in the original.

 

(Oh yeah, I just remembered the movement system in SW2 which is also pretty awesome, allowing you to jump, hop and slide around the levels with incredible speed if you were being skillful. It's just a shame most of the levels were so dreary.)

 

At any rate, pretty much the entirety of your post is bull****.

Thank you, I'm trying! Edited July 20, 2018 by Fenixp

[kastle]

I play a musical game, it is Love Live School Idol Project.

[Katphood]

Thank you, I'm trying!

Sorry, chief, meant no disrespect. It's just that you and Bartimaus can really MURDER a game if you want to.

 

 

 

Replaying Bayonetta.

 

I own Bayonetta 2 for the Wii U so I figured I'd replay 1 before heading for 2. I feel a bit worried when it comes to 2 though because that Wii U gamepad is NOT meant for an action game such as Bayonetta. I should have bought the 'Pro' gamepad when it was available just to have a spare one in case the one have goes kaput...I didn't.

 

I've been neglecting that poor Wii U, I should at least play an hour of Mario Maker everyday for 2 main reasons:

 

a.It's fun

b.It makes Switch owners feel jealous.

Edited July 20, 2018 by Katphood

[Bartimaeus]

Sorry, chief, meant no disrespect. It's just that you and Bartimaus can really MURDER a game if you want to.

why i never

[Hawke64]

Replaying Alpha Protocol, while waiting for the first PoEII DLC.

Found my old saved games. It's been seven (!) years since my first PT.

 

About Bayonetta 2 on Wii U. The game is quite playable with its gamepad. Though, I rarely use controllers, so they all are equally uncomfortable for me.

[GhostofAnakin]

Heavy Rain is free on PSN this month, so I decided to download it since I've played it before.  I liked Detroit Become Human, but was only meh on Beyond Two Souls.  So we'll see how I feel about this one.

[Katphood]

Heavy Rain was great from start to finish, Beyond: Two Souls on the other hand was pretty boring.

 

Haven't played Detroit, Fahrenheit or Omikron: The Nomad's Soul yet.

Edited July 21, 2018 by Katphood

[Starwars]

As far as I'm concerned, Heavy Rain was an interesting idea *horribly* executed.

 

Detroit: Become Human is surprisingly entertaining though. It has its moments of complete idiocy but on the whole it was a fun ride nevertheless.