What are you playing right now?

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Several, lesser known titles. If nothing else, just to see what it was I actually bought

Two that I remember from top of my head (from the last 24 hours) "RWBY" and "Don't Starve Together"

 

(edit: played quite a bit of Borderlands 2: The Pre-sequel" in coop mode earlier in the week with two friends)

If you think that changing your set of charms will help you get closer to defeating a particular boss, it won't. It's not going to change your strategy or playstyle either (It's not Megaman).

 

In my experience that isn't true. Certain charm combinations can utterily trivialize bosses to the point of them being a pushover, e.g. Shaman Stone and Spell Twister combined with Stalwart Shell will allow you to kill Troupe Master Grimm with Howling Wraiths while he's shooting fireballs - just tank the hits and blast away.

 

There's no reason not to tailor charms to the boss you're fighting or struggling with. At least not unless you're either doing a speed run or can't, like in the Pantheons.

 

When you Google the answer because Sierra developers are actually aliens that don't understand human logic.

Tower of Time.

Not what I expected (a dungeon-crawler, instead of a CRPG), but I like the numbers, such as "Completion 100%" and "+57% to Skill damage". The story is fairly straightforward (post-apocalypses, the party tries to save what remained by exploring an ancient magical tower) and the combat is satisfying (occasionally too easy). I genuinely detest that the plot has been linear so far and the avatar was predetermined, but it's typical for the genre.

 

Reached the 4th floor.

 

Edit. Reached the 5th floor, the plot has become more interesting and the soundtrack is excellent.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Hawke64

When you Google the answer because Sierra developers are actually aliens that don't understand human logic.

Come on man, to get past the yeti you need the custard pie.  It's perfectly logical! 

 

Never mind the moonlogic puzzles, though.  Sierra pulled one of the all-time greatest **** moves in video game history.  In one of the King's Quest games, I forget which one, there is a bridge you walk across several times because going back and forth to the same locations many times is standard point & click adventure fare.  After you cross the bridge a certain number of times the bridge collapses making it impassable and if you got trapped on the wrong side of it or you haven't done everything you need to do on the side you can no longer reach you were SOL.  This was long before the days of autosaves so you might have to revert to a save HOURS before or even restart the game entirely, and the kicker is that there is nothing whatsoever in the game that warns you about this.

 

I write this as a guy who LOVES Sierra On-Line. 

Edited January 19, 2019 by Keyrock

Highly informative and entertaining review of a game I never worked up the constitution to endure, yet whose remake I'm looking forward to playing:

 

It's an awesome game.

I have about 54 hours in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is about 30 more than I intended to play. It's been years since I last played an AC game. Ubi's done a good job of removing a lot of the small things that used to cut the momentum down with AC while also making more like an RPG with more cut scenes. I'm having fun but I have hardly scratched the surface of all the content. Kinda wished they'd taken all the best parts of Odyssey and boiled it down to a 25 hour game.

I completed Odin Sphere Leifdrasir. It gets a bit repetitive, but overall I did enjoy it a lot. Took me around 35 hours. I'm going to mop up some trophies for the platinum, which is a rare thing for me.

Still not persuaded yourself for Xillia 2 platinum?

Tower of Time.

Not what I expected (a dungeon-crawler, instead of a CRPG), but I like the numbers, such as "Completion 100%" and "+57% to Skill damage". The story is fairly straightforward (post-apocalypses, the party tries to save what remained by exploring an ancient magical tower) and the combat is satisfying (occasionally too easy). I genuinely detest that the plot has been linear so far and the avatar was predetermined, but it's typical for the genre.

 

Reached the 4th floor.

 

Edit. Reached the 5th floor, the plot has become more interesting and the soundtrack is excellent.

 

Oh yeah, Tower of Time's story turned into a really wild ride towards the end. Much more good than bad in that sense.

 

I remember thinking the combat got repetitive really fast towards the latter half of the game, though. I don't recall the game introducing any new combat conditions after the second floor, just stronger enemies. I recall thinking the game was a strange twist of lots of tower defense combat towards the end.

 

The overall game might have dragged on a bit too long too, probably because of my thoughts towards the combat. I feel some of the floors could have benefited from being condensed and merged as well. It also didn't help that I don't think the later characters are worth using over the first four that you find. (Although the final party member you get can be built into someone that floods the field in summons, she shares gear with the archer, who is straight up broken.)

 

Don't get me wrong, it's still worth playing just to see how insane the story gets, but I wouldn't recommend it for the combat.

 

---

 

I am bouncing between three games at the moment (not counting FFXIV). Final Fantasy III, Shadows: Awakening, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

 

FFIII so far is a rather charming game, but I hit a wall with the final dungeon. The game doesn't let you save unless you're on the world map, and the final dungeon sequence appears to expect you to go through a boss gauntlet that may be balanced around gaining roughly 10 levels between the first boss you encounter and the last boss of the game without any opportunity to save in between. It's a sort of reminder of how games were designed decades ago.

 

Shadows: Awakening is rather interesting in that you clearly have a main character that's this edgy demon in terms of appearance, but you can have all the other characters he possesses pick 'good guy' choices. The game keeps track of what choices you make based on a 'greed/benevolent/etc.' metric, and while I'm not too sure yet, it might actually affect how the main character demon speaks and addresses other demons later on. I did notice him getting some runic angel wings as the game progressed. (I also feel that the game is designed for playthroughs with the main archer or mage characters, because the game throws a few warriors at you that you are required to keep in your party for certain sections of the game, but I haven't run into a single plot mandatory archer or mage yet, aside from your choice of secondary lead character.)

 

Dragon Age: Inquisition is actually a lot smoother in design when you're not playing it on a toaster of a computer. I'm not sure how I ever got past that first playthrough with such bad framerate. Or maybe it's just a lot more tolerable if you're playing as an archer because melee feels terrible in that game.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Saito Hikari

 

If you think that changing your set of charms will help you get closer to defeating a particular boss, it won't. It's not going to change your strategy or playstyle either (It's not Megaman).

In my experience that isn't true. Certain charm combinations can utterily trivialize bosses to the point of them being a pushover, e.g. Shaman Stone and Spell Twister combined with Stalwart Shell will allow you to kill Troupe Master Grimm with Howling Wraiths while he's shooting fireballs - just tank the hits and blast away.

 

There's no reason not to tailor charms to the boss you're fighting or struggling with. At least not unless you're either doing a speed run or can't, like in the Pantheons.

I am playing it again on Steam but I find that switching charms helps more with platforming and exploration. Maybe it's just me and my playstyle. It's on sale for $9.89 on PSN so I'm going to buy it on there and make some videos

 

I wonder how many people gave here to the well and how many did not

The new Season in Diablo3 started last night so I played that long enough to get the "free stuff" they do every Season. Because I'm like that (collector). No pet this time tho.

 

Now I'm back to having no idea what to play (if anything) this weekend. There's this fine line I tread nowadays between wanting something that doesn't require tons of brainpower but more than the average arpg of today. I suppose I can try Wiz8 ... if I can manage to sneak down the road without being ambushed or something. Nice thing about old games? They take up hardly any disc space.

I did it! I opened up the central hub in The Witness.  There's some Aperture Science **** going on here.

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by Keyrock

Finished Battlefield 1 campaign yesterday. It was.... mediocre. The game has some great moments and ideas, but at the same time at least the same level of stupidity. I like the idea of multiple mini-scenarios spread over the world, but they tried to have me feel emotions that I can't feel, because the exposure to the characters was way, way too short. Apparently they want me to care about people I barely know. From all these scenarios, I'd say the tank one was the best. Probably because it's also the longest.

 

I was hoping for something about the german or austrian side, but as to be expected, they are nothing but proto-nazis. Slap some swastikas in the maps and it will look like any other WW2 game with weird weapons. In general this game feels like any other (back then very popular) WW2 game, just in slight WW1 disguise. I think they actually really wanted to make a WW2 game instead of this. Hell, it even comes with its own Normandy-like beach landing mission.

 

The gameplay was tiresome. First you sneak, then you shoot waves of enemies, then the mission ends. Not much different than all the other Battlefield or Call of Duty games, I guess (haven't played them in ages). In this one, though, they seem to have integrated multiplayer stuff into the singleplayer. The icons and how your friends are market, sometimes you have to hold an area, which looks like your usual capture the flag mechanic, etc... I'm guessing they use it as a tutorial for the multiplayer mode as well. Wouldn't be surprised if most of the maps are taken 1:1 from the multiplayer as well.

 

The weapons... boy, this annoyed me the most. Every other weapon is some sort of machine gun. If you have a bolt action rifle, it takes literally 10 seconds to get any machinegun. There's your assault rifles, machine guns, heavy machine guns,... they look weird and clunky, but at the end of the day, they are exactly the same as in any other shooter. Here it really shows again that they actually wanted to make a WW2 game. So scared of doing something different, "players might not like it if we don't have machine guns!".... Annoying.

 

All in all, I will likely delete the game now and never touch it again.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Lexx

Lol, as expected. DICE is garbage.

Yea, B1 is a very Hollywood take on WW1. Then again, I never really expected authenticity and when it comes to the kind of bombastic entertainment that I expect out of Battlefield/Call of Duty singleplayer camplaigns, B1 was among the best.

 

Lol, as expected. DICE is garbage.

I'd say "garbage" and "mediocre" is worlds apart. As for DICE, as far as I know, they treated their employees quite well and supported their games for a fairly long time, which would elevate them above "garbage" in itself.

I've been playing Season 16 D3, my ultimate goal being building an alternative character that doesn't require a full set (thanks to this season's theme). Well, I started off, and I noted that it was the Darkening of Tristam event where they include that D3 version of D1 with retro graphics. I have only played it once a couple of years back, but now I got obsessed, so I played it like 5 times over and reached lvl 70, all within that D1 universe! Also, with the exception of that expensive Wirt's Leg, I soon have ticked off all the achievements for this annual event. I look forward to getting a cow pet mooing me along.

Yea, B1 is a very Hollywood take on WW1. Then again, I never really expected authenticity and when it comes to the kind of bombastic entertainment that I expect out of Battlefield/Call of Duty singleplayer camplaigns, B1 was among the best.

 

Lol, as expected. DICE is garbage.

I'd say "garbage" and "mediocre" is worlds apart. As for DICE, as far as I know, they treated their employees quite well and supported their games for a fairly long time, which would elevate them above "garbage" in itself.

 

 

To be fair realistic depiction of WW1 would be boring gameplay, sitting for months in own feces in trenches shooting into darknes slowly getting consumed by some disease from decaying corpses around...

Edited January 20, 2019 by Chilloutman

If you want a more authentic WWI experience play Verdun.

I am mowing through the puzzles in the central hub are in The Witness. The game is pulling out all the stops to thwart me (e.g. rotating boards, changing colors, having to solve multiple puzzles at once, etc.), but I will not be denied.  Once I 100% this game, and I will, I'll officially be recognized as a Puzzle Grand Master. I need to consider how to best utilize my powers. I thought about becoming a Batman villain, but that gravely voiced mother****er always seems to come out on top eventually, so that seems like a bad idea. Maybe I should use my powers for good? I could tutor the next generation of puzzle solvers. I would, of course, charge an exorbitant fee, but I'd be giving them the greatest gift of all, knowledge.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Keyrock

Still not persuaded yourself for Xillia 2 platinum?

Not even started it. 

 

I remember the times when I wished that Europe would also get Tales games. Today, I have Xillia 2, Symphonia, Symphonia 2, Zestiria and Berseria to play. They are patiently waiting in my backlog.

 

Just for good measure:     

 

I want to complete Star ocean 5. Not a good game by any means, but I'm so far in that there's no reason not to try and complete it.

 

Yea, B1 is a very Hollywood take on WW1. Then again, I never really expected authenticity and when it comes to the kind of bombastic entertainment that I expect out of Battlefield/Call of Duty singleplayer camplaigns, B1 was among the best.

 

Lol, as expected. DICE is garbage.

I'd say "garbage" and "mediocre" is worlds apart. As for DICE, as far as I know, they treated their employees quite well and supported their games for a fairly long time, which would elevate them above "garbage" in itself.

 

 

To be fair realistic depiction of WW1 would be boring gameplay, sitting for months in own feces in trenches shooting into darknes slowly getting consumed by some disease from decaying corpses around...

 

 

Then you get to walk- not run- towards some dudes with machine guns across 100m of barbed wire, craters, debris and bodies to an enemy trench knowing that if you manage to take that trench there are a dozen more behind it. Or if you're Italian you get to attack the Isonzo River 12 times consecutively, because attacking at exactly the same place as previous is the last thing Fritz will expect. Also make sure you have your gas mask on you at all times as well, lest you end your days drowning in your own fluids. Not getting a 'realistic' WW1 fps is actually a pretty good thing.

 

Eastern front was a bit more interesting, also Tanzania and Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's campaign- but no americans so not a viable game setting.

I've been playing Season 16 D3, my ultimate goal being building an alternative character that doesn't require a full set (thanks to this season's theme).

The problem I have with sets is that I feel forced to play a certain way, not my way. I almost never use/like the things they're designed around. Although the boosts Sets got this patch was nice.

I've tried some on other chrs/classes as testers (not just in D3 but all rpg's really) and I definitely understand why people use them for high dps but I don't like being locked in. So that one 2-ring "set" is the only one I'll use.

 

That set got me to Greater Rift 67 but even at Paragon-630+all Ancient gear I can't quite finish GR68 within the timed limit and I stopped trying since for me then it largely becomes only about Paragon leveling.

 

One thing I don't like about the 2-ring set is I can't use Brigg's Wrath for the pull-in effect (since the Cube Power is taken up with double-mages cast), which is/was totally awesome and super efficient for use with curses and corpse explosion. Pull them all into a pinpoint clump, kill one with Bone Spikes, use CE and kabam, all dead. Now I have to deal with scattered enemies again. If I ever reach Paragon1000+ (ha.ha.) I may take the ring set off again.

Edited January 20, 2019 by LadyCrimson