What are you playing RIGHT NOW?

[Mamoulian War]

I have finished my second playthrough of Tales of Symponia on PS3. First time, I've played it in 2014 . I had not enough Grade to get bonus XP nor to transfer my earned Gald for New Game+, so I had to play it the classic way. With little bit of grinding for equipment and consumables for boss fights . I  was able to finish every single sidequest and minigame, with the exception of Zelos' Gigolo title (because I've picked Kratos at the end of the game), which was a mistake during my planning phase for this playthrough. I've tried to achieve as much Titles as possible, with Kratos getting all of them, so the Platinum Trophy road is now at 54%. Game is still solid gold, with very good storyline, but it has not as enjoyable combat for me. Other Tales of... titles are much better in this regard. I should have now enough Grade to get transfered everything I've need for NG++.

[LadyCrimson]

I have played about six casual hours of Dragon Quest: Builders2, so far. I say casual hours because I wasn't trying very hard to speed through it. I had forgotten how this game/series likes to make you either read or click-through exhaustive tutorial/story texts for the first few major missions, in order to gain basic tools, recipes, etc. which goes on forever and ever. "We need a way to protect the fields, build a scarecrow." "We need a place to sleep, make us a small bedroom." "Building/farming is forbidden! Wait, what tree is that, let it grow, here's a bunch of new missions to help that along."

So one might spend 4-8 hours before feeling like one has any freedom at all.  I find that annoying but once you get past that it's largely fine, albeit the quests continue but it's not restrictive. Anyway, I do like the graphical changes (nothing super special but looks better than the first game), and (mostly) the constant companion warrior dude, who as you go along breaking/harvesting materials will auto-help out. That said, if you're into micro-managing appearance and what you want to dig up, he might annoy a bit in that sense. Not entirely decided on that yet.

But seems just as good as the first one, with some gameplay improvements like not having to start all over each island. I like how the island you wash up on is the actual "sandbox" island this time around, vs. sandbox mode being locked away for a long time, and with the idea being you go to other islands to gather resources and townsfolk to go back and turn/terraform that bare island into whatever you want, so to speak.

Edited August 8, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Ophiuchus]

Not precisely right now but a friend bought me Dark Souls: Remastered a while back and I'm planning on cracking it open later tonight. My circle convinced me to stream it on Twitch and I'm planning on going in blind.

[Tale]

FTL and Everspace. This is teaching me a lot about what I look for in Rogue likes and Rogue lites. 

With FTL, I played all the way to the final and died. Nothing I feel I could have done. I start over try out the new ship, it's garbage, die, and start again. After going through a bunch I figured out little. And eventually gave up feeling like I was going nowhere. 

Everspace, I've not gotten even near the end. One time I died right after spawning. But each time I die, I get to buy perks. More money, more resources, more equipment slots.

And so with Everspace, I always feel like I'm progressing. I want to keep playing because I have something to look forward to with each life. 

[Chilloutman]

Is everspace good? How close is it to Freelancer? I have seen it on sale on GoG and it looked decent, but at same time there is now so much space fighter sims that I am not sure which ones are decent anymore

[GhostofAnakin]

Gone over to the Darkside completely.  I decided to pick up PoE for the PS4 and am currently playing it.

I still suck at the whole magical system thing, opting always for "obvious" offensive spells like shooting fireballs or magic missiles over other more complex spells, so I'm probably missing out on more powerful stuff.

I keep making a Cipher, but with my play style I probably should have just made a powerful melee character instead.

[Melusina]

Thea 2: The Shattering

Edited August 11, 2019 by Melusina

[Mamoulian War]

Not much gaming, but I got gift voucher from my girlfriend and other friends on my 40th birthday months ago, and I got finally free weekend to attend the event I felt crazy adrenaline rush and etremely enjoyed it so I feel to share it to you as well Driving in Ariel Atom and Formula Ford in real life for few simple laps

 

 

 

 

A lot of hours in various sims helped me a lot with what to expect from the cars. But I was still surprised, how "glued" to the track were both vehicles in the corners due to aerodynamics

[Malcador]

Finished The Moment of Silence.  It's not terrible, I liked the setting and story now that it is completed, even if it does sort of speed up at the end (seems common with adventure games) but niggling things like the camera system, long travel times, boring PC and poor hotspot higlighting draw back from it.  Sort of funny to play a 2004 game talking about some AI that is monitoring all global communications with all the attendant conspiracy, concerns and paranois.

The last puzzle is such a tedious exercise too, running around between three screens needlessly when they could have done the same without it all. Puzzles weren't too bad, except for the timed ones - one has you waiting for a microwave to finish heating food.

Edited August 11, 2019 by Malcador

[Ophiuchus]

The Dark Souls stream went well and my friends and I had a great time watching me learn the ropes and make mistakes. I only died once to the first boss and learned how to parry quickly so it's been going well so far. Seems to me the game's brutally hard reputation is something touted by gamers who grew up with quest arrows, regenerating health, and other dross mechanics.

[Mamoulian War]

1 hour ago, Ophiuchus said:

The Dark Souls stream went well and my friends and I had a great time watching me learn the ropes and make mistakes. I only died once to the first boss and learned how to parry quickly so it's been going well so far. Seems to me the game's brutally hard reputation is something touted by gamers who grew up with quest arrows, regenerating health, and other dross mechanics.

Well, the game can be little bit harder, if you have not good enough reflexes. I had a lot of issues with performing parry myself. The faster reflexes you have, the easier the game is. Also the more patient you are, the easier it is as well  I died lot of time, because I am the typical one more hit before I jump away guy. Unfortunately most of the time it was the boss who had the one more hit on me

[Keyrock]

I went through all the escalations and the Embrace of the Serpent bonus mission in the Colombia level in HITMAN 2. The bonus mission is significantly easier than the main mission in Colombia, largely because there is only one target to kill (and a book to retrieve), so just completing the mission can be fairly simple. Completing the silent assassin, suit only challenge, on the other hand, was fairly challenging. It took me a good bit of time to formulate a plan on how to do it, then a couple tries to execute it properly, but I eventually got it done. Let's just say that there will be A LOT of people waking up with headaches... and one person not waking up with a head hole.

With that, I have reached maximum mastery level (20) at the Colombia location, which got me the remotely triggered micro audio distraction tool, which should be quite handy as I move on to other locations.

[Tale]

On 8/10/2019 at 4:13 PM, Chilloutman said:

Is everspace good? How close is it to Freelancer? I have seen it on sale on GoG and it looked decent, but at same time there is now so much space fighter sims that I am not sure which ones are decent anymore

It's very good. It's very little like Freelancer. It's a roguelite. You spawn in, traverse sector to sector, and try to make it to the end. You collect resources to upgrade your weapons or build new ones. With the expansion you also have quests with NPCs. You die and start over, spending your leftover money on upgrades that carry into the next life.

[Mamoulian War]

My weekend adventure somehow motivated me to boot up Assetto Corsa again after more than a month. I run a another race in GT2X race. This time 30 laps on Imola against Medium AI and on Medium tyres without going to PitBox. I think I've sweated out 2 liters of water during the race It was really hard to stay focused in such hot weather and I did few bad mistakes. My setup was also kind of random whatever, so I am just happy, I did not end in the wall right after the first chicane

 

[joels344]

I’m playing Baldur’s Gate 2 again. I figured this game might hold me over until The Outer Worlds, but I’ve already spent 16 hours in three days of play. So, it’s likely I’ll be finished with it before September at this rate. 

[bringingyouthefuture]

Dragon Quest 11 and Shadowrun - DQ11 at home and Shadowrun Returns when the job is slow

[LittleArmadillo0]

Been recently diving into my 3DS lately. I returned Animal Crossing New Leaf and the village that I abandoned for 3 year. Surprisingly not that weeds when I returned and only one villager moved away. Also got my hands on Fire Emblem Fates.

Edited August 14, 2019 by LittleArmadillo0

[the_dog_days]

2 hours ago, LittleArmadillo0 said:

Been recently diving into my 3DS lately. I returned Animal Crossing New Leaf and the village that I abandoned for 3 year. Surprisingly not that weeds when I returned and only one villager moved away. Also got my hands on Fire Emblem Fates.

Fates is great. Highly recommend the Conquest route.

[LittleArmadillo0]

1 hour ago, the_dog_days said:

Fates is great. Highly recommend the Conquest route.

Right now I'm doing a Birthright route, then a Conquest route. I don't know if I will go Revelations after I'm done with Birthright and Conquest. I'll have to see if I want fork over another twenty bucks.

[the_dog_days]

I did Birthright then Conquest and got halfway through Revelations before loosing steam. It was something like 150 hours of FE in less than a month.

[Humanoid]

2 minutes ago, LittleArmadillo0 said:

Right now I'm doing a Birthright route, then a Conquest route. I don't know if I will go Revelations after I'm done with Birthright and Conquest. I'll have to see if I want fork over another twenty bucks.

I regret playing Revelation. Partially my mistake to play it right after completing Conquest, so there was an element of burnout, but I also think it's genuinely the worst of the lot in terms of map design. Indeed a lot of the maps are recycled but with crappier, more annoying gimmicks put in.

[Malcador]

Playing J.U.L.I.A.   So far it's not too bad, only really enjoy unraveling what happened on the planets where people got killed.  But does seem like it's a bit dragged out and the puzzles, at least on two planets so far, seem easy and repetitive. 

Alternating that with SWAT 4.  Game needs a sequel with not many changes, sure is a blast to play and trying to plan things dynamically is pretty enjoyable - well, when it works.  Oddity is the hostiles being deaf to automatic gunfire in a nearby room.  Also have the same issues I had in R6 where the AI team members can't quite toss a grenade into the room and we end up flashbanging or gassing ourselves.  Slowly learning to not just kill everyone as I move through the map, too.

[Tale]

I finished my first run of EVERSPACE yesterday. Felt like I only got there with a lucky early drop of a device that lets me take control of enemy ships. I even had Corvettes on my side.

Today, I did my second run. And I beat it again immediately. Thanks to a time extender, really. Tip if you ever play it, don't even bother fighting Mk 2 Corvettes.  You'll run out of energy trying. It looks like I have 3 more runs to go to get the final ending.

 

And some Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure. Not much to say here. Feels like a Lucasarts game.

[Keyrock]

12 hours ago, Tale said:

And some Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure. Not much to say here. Feels like a Lucasarts game.

I may need to scoop that up. Lovecraftian is the new zombies, in that now EVERY game has to be Cthulhu themed and I'm getting burned out on it with the quickness. That said, I'm kinda chomping at the bit to play a point & click adventure. I've been waiting, seemingly forever, for the 5th end final episode of Kentucky Route Zero to come out so that I can play the whole thing (I always wait for every episode of an episodic game to release before I start it) and who knows how long that's going to take. I may be waiting another couple years, for all I know.

[majestic]

20 hours ago, Tale said:

I finished my first run of EVERSPACE yesterday. Felt like I only got there with a lucky early drop of a device that lets me take control of enemy ships. I even had Corvettes on my side.

Today, I did my second run. And I beat it again immediately. Thanks to a time extender, really. Tip if you ever play it, don't even bother fighting Mk 2 Corvettes.  You'll run out of energy trying. It looks like I have 3 more runs to go to get the final ending.

Once you unlock the Ancient Weapon and Leech glyphs (best combo ever, really) you won't have to worry about not being able to kill anything. Top that off with the Splitter glyph and load up those ARC 9000s for some fireworks.

There are two downsides to the setup, first it locks you into playing one particular way and two it makes the game easy, and I mean "win almost every hard mode run" easy. Especially if you combine it with a Time Extender and a Teleport. The only dangerous situations come from bumbling into some environmental danger (accidtentially hitting a gray goo or eating some solar discharge) and them pesky little Swarm fighters.