What are you playing right now?

[Gorgon]

How is Elex. I mean, how broken is it. Should I jump on the sale ?

[Labadal]

How is Elex. I mean, how broken is it. Should I jump on the sale ?

My Steam review:

 

Gothic fans rejoice!

 

Have you been waiting for a game in the vein of the Gothic games? Then this might be the game for you. Risen scratched that itch, but its sequels strayed away from the formula.

 

ELEX is a game that is very unforgiving in its earliest hours, but you will become an absolute beast in the end. At first, you will have to be very careful of your surroindings. Stay close to settlements and try to do quests there. Why? Because even the most harmless looking monster can wreck you. As you gain levels and better armour, you will be able to explore further into the wilderness. Beware though, that overconfidence in this game will be punished. Companions that you recruit can make life easier for you, and buy you some time, but you can't completely rely on them. Coming back to an enemy that could one shot you 20 hours earlier and return the favour feels really satisfactory. Bigby, I'm looking at you.

 

There are three different ways to tackle combat, melee, ranged or magic. All three ways are viable and it isn't wrong to combine these styles. One important note about melee combat. At first, the game has auto target enabled. I advise you to disable this option as soon as possible for your own sanity's sake. You can block, dodge, roll, use your jetpack to hover in the air for ranged attacks or even a jetpack melee attack. The game uses both a stamina system and mana system, so be careful when fighting. There are fast and heavy attacks, direct ranged attacks or blast attacks and damage over time attacks. There's a summoning spell and some buffs.

 

The weapon categories include these types: one handed, two handed, ranged and heavy ranged. You can improve your weapons for money with crafting. Upgrade or unlock gem sockets. Maybe add an element to the weapon. My only complaint regarding weapons is that the unique ones are mostly not on par with regular stuff that you upgrade. This is especially true for melee weapons. There are som cool unique ranged ones.

 

You improve your character stats with attribute points that you gain on a level up. The higher your attribute, the more points will be needed to raise it. Note that no attribute needs to be raised to the max. I do not think that attributes add a lot to your character's power. They allow you to pass the requirement to wield equipment and magic. There are also skill points. Different skills require a certain amount in some attributes. Skill points can't be allocated directly. You need to find the right skill trainer for the right skills. You can also find and craft different kinds of Elex drinks. They give either, exp. Attribute points or Skill points. There is much else to be crafted, but you'll have to find out what on your own.

 

My favorite parts of the game are quests and exploration. While the game doesn't have the best writing or the best looking environments, they have structured them in a great way. The jetpack adds another dimension to exploration. Find places that would like only be a vista to look at in other games. Finding some old world ruins to scavenge while hoping that a slime drakon or something else don't jump you gives a great feeling of excitement. There are many nooks and crannies to search. As for the quests, you can join different factions and it will give you a different experience. You can still accept some quests from the other factions. Many quests can be handled in different ways, which might have very different outcomes.

 

The story wasn't anything special, but it was interesting enough for me to want to know what would happen next. There will be some twists and turns later on.

 

My main complaint about the game would be the UI. It doesn't look great and its functionality leaves something to be desired. The inventory is more appropriate for a console game. There are barely any numbers, which for me, is a fun part of rpgs. I raise my magic energy, but how much do I have? No idea.

 

All in all, this is a great game and for me, the best game of 2017. This is despite some flaws here and there.

 

[Hurlshort]

I picked up Elex recently and have been enjoying it. It isn't broken.

[GhostofAnakin]

How is Elex. I mean, how broken is it. Should I jump on the sale ?

 

I enjoyed it.  Frustrating as hell early on when I'd get my butt kicked by a squirrel I'd pass by in the wilderness, but otherwise a really good game.

[Zoraptor]

Elex is life. Elex is love.

 

The game is pretty good as well, it is a bit janky in places still but an absolute must for any Gothic fans. The difficulty curve is more of a cliff at the beginning which will put a lot of a casual players off, but that's par for the course with Piranha Bytes games.

[Hurlshort]

I also found it was a lot easier to play Elex with a controller. 

[kanisatha]

So I've been playing Witcher 3 for a few days now, and while I really like the game overall, I am really hating combat even though I'm playing on the easiest setting. It is especially tiresome and painful when up against multiple enemies. Any practical combat (mechanics) tips? I'm playing on PC with keyboard and mouse.

[Hawke64]

So I've been playing Witcher 3 for a few days now, and while I really like the game overall, I am really hating combat even though I'm playing on the easiest setting. It is especially tiresome and painful when up against multiple enemies. Any practical combat (mechanics) tips? I'm playing on PC with keyboard and mouse.

In general, kiting is the key - when fighting several enemies simultaneously, getting surrounded means reload. I rolled in circles landing 2 light quick hits at a time on 1 of them and rolling/sprinting away before the rest caught up. Worked for the most of the game, except 2 bosses from Hearts of Stone (one required more aggression, the other had to be parried) and 1 boss from Blood and Wine.

[Zoraptor]

Crowd control from signs especially aard or igni helps a lot as well. Think the tips/ tutorial says you should parry humans and dodge monsters, but 90% of the time you should dodge both. The crucial thing is definitely to keep your enemies in front of you as much as possible since attacks from behind will kill you very quickly.

[redneckdevil]

been slowly playing red dead redemption 2.  great game but taking my time.  also trying to reduce my backload by playing adventure time pirates and call of cthulu.  supposedly quick games and AT isnt bad and CoC is actually great but not worth the 60 dollars, mayybe 30-40.

[ShadySands]

Still more Star Trek Online. Just working on reputations and fine tuning my ship.

[HoonDing]

So I've been playing Witcher 3 for a few days now, and while I really like the game overall, I am really hating combat even though I'm playing on the easiest setting. It is especially tiresome and painful when up against multiple enemies. Any practical combat (mechanics) tips? I'm playing on PC with keyboard and mouse.

Axii

[Keyrock]

I made a bunch more progress in The Witness finishing another entire section and getting through a lot of another. Hopefully I can unlock that central hub soon.

[SonicMage117]

My stategy in Witcher 3 is lighting everything on fire with the secondary sign (whichever one that had Geralt hold out his hand and send stream of fire). That pretty much made every non-boss battle easy.

[Mamoulian War]

Doing slow progress in Tales of Vesperia, and trying to stream the thing, but stupid twitch mutes in every video one music for few minutes, which btw loops the whole time... That muting feature is pretty stupidly done...

 

Besides that, I love the game

[Keyrock]

I found a whole new type of puzzle in The Witness: Environmental Puzzles. These could be anything: Shadows, reflections in water, a row of stones, etc. If you look at these otherwise nonedescript objects from a certain angle and distance they resemble the other more "standard" puzzles scattered throughout the island. Once looking at them from the correct perspective (perspective is a central theme in this game) you can initiate puzzle mode and solve them. Once solved the traced path of the solution appears... somewhere (I won't say where to avoid spoilers in case anyone else here is crazy enough to play this game). No clue how many of these there are and what happens when you solve them all.

 

The design of this game is amazing. Jonathan Blow is a really talented guy.

Edited January 13, 2019 by Keyrock

[Fenixp]

Yeah, Blow may be a bit pretentious, but he's undeniably clever and knows a whole lot about game design and learning. And that's basically all The Witness is about - learning and discovery. It wasn't quite enough to keep me engaged, but I have to admire how much far did Blow manage to take the concept of connecting dots and still make it entertaining and innovative.

 

And the best thing about it is how you, as a player, tangibly improve at solving those puzzles while playing the game - to the point where you'll go back to puzzles you weren't able to solve previously and go "Aaaah, so if I combined what I learned over there and over there, that should ... Bingo!" It's like finally learning how to dodge properly and defeating that badass boss creature, but... Y'know, with puzzles.

Edited January 13, 2019 by Fenixp

[Gorth]

Hmm... thread is getting a bit long... ah well, can fit another post in here!

 

I bought Battlestar Galactica Deadlock a while ago on a Steam sale. Only just got around to try it out for an hour. Played to first skirmish twice. Got my butt handed to me in the first attempt while trying to work out maneuvering and weapon controls. Made a better second attempt with a closely contested fight (I still lost, but only barely this time). I'm sure I'll get those pesky enemies in my third attempt. I need to work out what the optimal distances and use is for things like Vipers, Guided Missiles and Torpedoes.

[Gizmo]

Just finished FullThrottle:remastered, Grimdawn is on temporary hold, while I play through Vaporium.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm a little confused about the gun specs in RDR2.  For instance, the damage bar will have a filled in part, then there's like a greyed out part that indicates the gun could do more damage ... but I don't know how to upgrade it to that?  No gunsmith will upgrade the damage of my guns to their max.

 

And no, I'm not talking about needing to clean/maintain the gun.  I do that.  It's the grey areas beyond my current total damage (or total accuracy or whatever) that I can't seem to figure out how to upgrade.

[Hurlshort]

I'm not fully sure about the gun damage meters. I just put an extra bullet into everything to be sure. 

[Fenixp]

Some of the later bosses in Hollow Knight are insane, especially the optional ones. 'Spose I should experiment with charms a bit more.

[kanisatha]

Thanks all for the very helpful TW3 tips! Combat is a little better now that I've made it to level 3.   But I still have great difficulty managing to attack, parry/dodge/roll, and cast signs all in very quick order. By the time I figure out what I need to do and then figure out what key I need to press to do it, I'm pretty much dead.

[Malcador]

Nothing like gunning down some old lady wielding a PKM to make me realize I'm fighting the good fight.  Briefing officer in WIldlands also needs to stick to her day job.  Still though, is great fun in co-op.  Wish I could get a new scope, something so wrong about using a sniper rifle with an ACOG (who the hell equips these Special Forces I wonder).

[Keyrock]

Am I the only one who's #TeamYrden in TW3?