What are you playing now: The New Thread

[Vaeliorin]

I picked up XBox Game Pass to play The Outer Worlds, and so I've played a bit of Gears 5, which isn't bad, but the open world part seems kind of pointless. They clearly DGAF about explaining what's going on story-wise to anyone new to the series, however.  I've never played a Gears game before, and while there was a "Previously on Gears" bit at the beginning, none of it meant anything to me.  Gears 1 and Gears 4 are available as well, so maybe I'll try those at some point (I got 3 months of Game Pass for $1, so I've got time.)

Also tried Battle Chasers: Nightwar, which I'd heard good things about, but I didn't realize it was a game that involved grinding dungeons repeatedly, so not sure how much more of that I'll play.  Played a bit of Bridge Constructor Portal as well, which is interesting, but seems a bit too easy (other versions of Bridge Constructor I've seen had limits on how much you could spend on your bridge, which seemed to make it more interesting.)

The only other thing I've got downloaded right now is Operencia: The Stolen Sun, which is a game I've wanted to play for a while.  Haven't fired it up yet, but I watched some of a Let's Play of it when it came out, and it looked pretty much right up my alley.

[Jozape]

I got XGP on PC for TOW too, and man is it buggy. It seems like every button wants to me to start playing Prey. It chugs on the screen when nothing is happening and is super unresponsive.  Also the UI is horrible and uninformative. I had to enter the same information multiple times to subscribe and multiple times to login. At least it was only $1 to start. Hopefully it improves, a lot.

I tried to play Prey a few times but it is buggy, a bad PC port, and yet doesn't seem to have been designed with a controller in mind. I think I could have overlooked the lack of a fullscreen option and the dynamic resolution doing nothing and the eternally rumbling controller if I were using a mouse and keyboard, but I have accumulated too many shoulder and wrists issues to consider using a mouse. The game seems interesting still but is effectively unplayable for me.

I'm really here for TOW anyways... Hurray for time dilation, probably not as good as V.A.T.S. but should hopefully make the game playable.

[MedicineDan]

I've uncovered the majority of the Deadfire map.  Most of my characters are level 20 and have access to last tier abilities.  I don't know the level cap, but it can't be much higher.  I've finished most of the bounty quest lines.  My list of quests are dwindling and there doesn't seem to be a lot of newer quests coming.  I think I've almost got it down to the main story arc quests, which I've been putting off in order to eek out the last vestiges of the game.  I'm even on the last mapping quest from that dude in Neketaka.

One thing I love about the dialogue is the option to [say nothing] and [listen].  moreover, I appreciate that it sometimes leads to it's own dialogue reward.  Too often, games make it so that saying nothing or not milking every dialogue option screws the character.  I know sometimes you need to explore every option, but in real life sometimes you end up learning more by not talking.  Plus, if you come across two strangers arguing, who the hell just inserts himself by saying, "What are you arguing about?"  Listening is probably rude also, but at least it's not quite so jarring.

All that said, I'm a tad bit gregarious in real life and I chat with strangers all the time.  Unless of course I get the vibe that they don't like/resent the intrusion, in which case I'll stop.  Try to be aware of my surroundings...   <.<

[Tale]

I'm really sticking with Destiny 2 this time. And I'm really getting into the lore and story of it.  Lots of neat stuff in there, particularly where time travel or things from other dimensions pop up.

[Hurlshort]

The Outer Worlds - So far it is everything I ever wanted in a game. I am only a few minutes in, mind you, but it is off to a fantastic start. Like Fallout but better.

[MedicineDan]

17 minutes ago, Hurlshot said:

The Outer Worlds - So far it is everything I ever wanted in a game. I am only a few minutes in, mind you, but it is off to a fantastic start. Like Fallout but better.

Wow.  That's a hell of an endorsement.  Is that Fallout meaning the decades old BIS game or Bethesda Fallout.  That's not a loaded question.  Just getting context.

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, MedicineDan said:

Wow.  That's a hell of an endorsement.  Is that Fallout meaning the decades old BIS game or Bethesda Fallout.  That's not a loaded question.  Just getting context.

Heh, probably a bit of early hyperbole, but the initial world that has been built makes me feel like I've got a new interesting universe to explore, and it compares favorably to Fallout.

[bugarup]

13 hours ago, MedicineDan said:

One thing I love about the dialogue is the option to [say nothing] and [listen].  moreover, I appreciate that it sometimes leads to it's own dialogue reward.  Too often, games make it so that saying nothing or not milking every dialogue option screws the character.  I know sometimes you need to explore every option, but in real life sometimes you end up learning more by not talking.  

Have you played "Tyranny"? "Say nothing" option is a form of art there. Also, makes an important part of character if you wish so. 

[Malcador]

12 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

The Outer Worlds - So far it is everything I ever wanted in a game. I am only a few minutes in, mind you, but it is off to a fantastic start. Like Fallout but better.

Shill!

 

Trying to beat Battletech again for the third time, but it's getting tedious as every mission is a damned chore or so it feels like.  Drop down to fight a lance, another lance reinforces them pretty much on their position so now I have 8 engaged immediately, heh. 

 

 

[Humanoid]

TOW as well of course. Took a while to adapt to playing first-person games again, it's probably been a couple years or more since I played a first-person game outside of stuff like Euro Truck Sim. However, once in the groove it was fine - performance was fine, controls were fine (except the talk distance seems a bit short), no weird technical issues.

I do have one problem though, and that's that I chose to play a thief - as I usually do on my first run of any RPG - but have found myself far too lazy to loot anything. That of course somewhat defeats the point of being a thief so I'm tempted to restart and go in a different direction. Like New Vegas and the Bethesda games like it, there's just too much mundane stuff around so I end up being less of a master burglar planning a grand heist, and more of a compulsive hoarder: a far less glamourous profession. I'll sleep on it and decide how to go about it tomorrow I guess.

 

One thing to get used to with alien worlds is that it's really hard to get used to telling the difference between the mundane (but shiny) and actual interactable things, and further to that, what's just set dressing and what wants to rip my guts open.

 

EDIT: Oh right, one technical issue in that getting Freesync to work with UWP apps seems to be a fool's errand. Supposedly MS have added a toggle in the latest Windows build to enable it for games where your regular graphics applet can't access, but for TOW at least it currently appears to do nothing.

Edited October 25, 2019 by Humanoid

[marelooke]

So far each Destiny 2 session has ended when the game booted me to the login screen. The game's pretty good or I'd have long since given up but its sure trying to make me quit.

As for TOW, well, not touching Epic Store and the Windows Store has given me nothing but grief in the past so not touching that either.

EDIT: for some reason felt like picking up my Nier: Automata playthrough. Turns out the game erased my progress. So well, there went that plan.

Edited October 25, 2019 by marelooke

[MedicineDan]

8 hours ago, bugarup said:

Have you played "Tyranny"? "Say nothing" option is a form of art there. Also, makes an important part of character if you wish so. 

I only played about an hour of Tyranny and then it didn't seem to be my kind of game.  I still backed Deadfire, but I was a bit soured and, to be candid, thought that maybe the shine had dimmed on Obsidian games.  Now that I've enjoyed Deadfire as much as I have, I'm thinking of giving Tyranny another look.  However, I might play Outer Worlds first since it's new and shiny.  I might also take a break so I can get more shuteye and then start playing one or the other after things cool down.  No matter what else, I'm going to finish Deadfire.  Brilliant!

EDIT:  ...And I just bought the game on the Microsoft Store.  I don't know what gamepass is, but I don't play many games these days so I just bought it straight up.

Edited October 25, 2019 by MedicineDan

[LadyCrimson]

Anyone playing Outer Worlds on PS4 (or Pro), and how is the performance on it? I'm so bored (don't care much about PS4-BL3 at the moment, it has so many hotfixes/future patch plans it'll be a "new" game in 6 months anyway...) and I'm tempted to end up double-dipping on TOW. Not sure if I will, but it's tempting when you're sitting around twiddling your thumbs all week. Still, if it feels laggy or has really long load times not sure I have the patience for that this time.

 

Edit: I still refuse to go Epic or Windows store, but PS4 is my "impatient" option...

Edited October 25, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

I don't get the windows store hate. I think if you have windows 10, it's already installed actually. It's a pretty basic launcher. It doesn't look anything like the old games for windows live deal from the past.

TOW is surprisingly decent as a shooter, so far. Big improvement over Fallout: NV in that regard. Plus it is gorgeous. Like, I can just stare at everything longer than I should. The vibe has a bit of Fallout, but I'd say it is much more like a Firefly/Serenity RPG than anything else. Very good world building so far. Much more up my alley than Pillars.

[LadyCrimson]

47 minutes ago, Hurlshot said:

I don't get the windows store hate.

I don't have hate for it. Just everything I (still) read says versions on their store are not as flexible in certain ways that would possibly hamper my style. eg, they're treated more as "apps". Also from what I've read, it's much less true than a few years ago but I'm still waiting. I don't like MS software tendencies at all, in general, these days to begin with. I don't even want their office software. *shrug*

Edit - I uninstalled/force uninstalled most of the Windows bloat and any app-like services when I installed Win10 but I did leave Store there just in case one day. 

Edited October 25, 2019 by LadyCrimson

[Keyrock]

I'm at what I believe is the final boss in Code Vein, the Skull King. He's kicked my ass 5 times so far, but I've come fairly close to finishing him a couple times. His second phase isn't much different from his first, there's 1, maybe 2 new attacks, but mostly it's the same as phase 1 just faster, stronger, and tougher. I'm going to grind out a few more levels, that should hopefully be enough to knock that last 15% of health off him before I run out of resources.

[GhostofAnakin]

Very, very early into the first parts of The Outer Worlds.  I chose to play as a character with high marks in conversation options.  So far I've been able to convince every NPC I've talked to about something.  Not sure if that will end up being a good or bad thing.

[marelooke]

6 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

I don't get the windows store hate. I think if you have windows 10, it's already installed actually. It's a pretty basic launcher. It doesn't look anything like the old games for windows live deal from the past.

TOW is surprisingly decent as a shooter, so far. Big improvement over Fallout: NV in that regard. Plus it is gorgeous. Like, I can just stare at everything longer than I should. The vibe has a bit of Fallout, but I'd say it is much more like a Firefly/Serenity RPG than anything else. Very good world building so far. Much more up my alley than Pillars.

As I said, I've had issues with it with each and every game I've bought through it, all of those being MS first party titles: Forza Horizon (FH) 3, Forza Motorsport (FM) 7 and FH4. All three suffered the exact same issue having me re-download the games multiple times to try and sort it out (these are not small games either, for those unaware), on top of some other issues specific to some of the titles.

Moreover FM7 also had the great idea to tie language settings to the Windows Store, meaning that since I play most of my games in English, but don't have an English Windows this means my Windows Store language is forced onto English (which doesn't mean the Store UI is English, oddly enough), which translates to all games that use this mechanism also being forced onto English. This then resets every single patch (of either Windows Store or FM7). Making it a huge pain in the rear end since this setting can't be changed without a game restart.

For those wondering why not just install an English Windows: I only use Windows for gaming so I generally don't care what the system language is, and since the localized Windows version was over 100 EUR cheaper at the time the choice was pretty straightforward... Since the language is tied to the license, I'd likely have to buy a new license if I wanted to change it (or do "dodgy" stuff, or, you know, developers could just let people pick their locale settings instead of trying to be "smart")

My takeaway from all of that was:

• Windows Store is a technical mess held together with low quality duct tape
• MS has zero interest in actually improving it further than the absolute minimum necessary given how in over three years the same major issue has persisted (note that this wasn't exactly an isolated case either, practically everyone who pre-loaded one of these games suffered from this).

Other reasons that I could understand (though not all of them are necessarily my reasons):

• not wanting to tie a MS account to Windows 10, no need to make it easier on them than necessary
• avoid yet another account/launcher (while it might be installed, if you don't use it it at least doesn't eat up background resources. Edge also comes pre-installed, and many people only use that once: to install another browser)
• modding (the MS Store is supposedly extremely modding-unfriendly, even when not using the encrypted format)
• isn't cheaper than any of the competition, while still offering less features (it does sort of have reviews, though, but afaict they're limited to your language, so they're rather useless for me here)
• tries to push yet another subscription service (on top of the 10 you already have for music/video/consoles, and who-knows-what-else at this point)
• has a terrible UI/UX
• has no Linux support (and more than likely never will)

Edited October 25, 2019 by marelooke

[GhostofAnakin]

12 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Anyone playing Outer Worlds on PS4 (or Pro), and how is the performance on it? I'm so bored (don't care much about PS4-BL3 at the moment, it has so many hotfixes/future patch plans it'll be a "new" game in 6 months anyway...) and I'm tempted to end up double-dipping on TOW. Not sure if I will, but it's tempting when you're sitting around twiddling your thumbs all week. Still, if it feels laggy or has really long load times not sure I have the patience for that this time.

 

Edit: I still refuse to go Epic or Windows store, but PS4 is my "impatient" option...

Haven't noticed any performance issues so far.  Load times aren't that big a deal, either.  A lot of large areas so you don't have to transition too often.

[MedicineDan]

Oh my Lord!  I just got to Eothas.  One of my major griefs with the original premise is actually answered in Deadfire.  I think people would have thought that my personal arguments would have amounted to a disgruntled Catholic, but they weren't.  I believed, and believe, in the logical basis for my arguments against the premise that all faith would suddenly have disappeared as a result of Pillars.  That doesn't say that Eothas proves his arguments in Deadfire, but he certainly has a legitimate answer to mine.  Does it carry the day?  I don't know that.  It's late here and I'm perhaps not as fresh as I might be, but I'm certainly aware enough to know I'll be greatly impressed when I get up in the morning... late morning, I should say.

No, this game doesn't shake my Catholic faith, but it does speak to real world nature in a way that Pillars failed to do.  As someone who fashions himself, perhaps more than warranted, as an aficionado of literature both old and new, this is about as close as the medium comes to the written word and is certainly on par with cinema and beyond television.

Too bad I didn't play this and give these statements early enough to make a difference to the bottom line.  Faint praise early on beats grand praise later any day when it comes to sales.

I'm certain I'm close to the ned, but I wanted to wax poetic about the wonderful experience I've had tonight.  This morning, I guess, but whatever.

EDIT:  One of the lines of dialogue is close to an old maxim:  better a thousand bitter truths than one sweet lie.  Anyhow, I'm going to start slurring my typing soon, so hopefully I finish the game tomorrow and can do my long winded and much ignored review.

Edited October 26, 2019 by MedicineDan

[LadyCrimson]

Finally beat Troy in BL2. Did pretty well on that one run, keeping health up most of the time but then wham-died when he had a sliver of health left and thought I blew it - but then the cutscene started so some DoT must've did him in in the nick of time, phew.
Went on to beat the game, cake and pie from there. Agree the last battle felt anti-climatic. The story aspect of the game is just meh and my overall feeling of the game is still only slightly above meh. But now I can farm for loot and get to 50 faster with Mayhem1 mode vs. starting all over in TVHM. Anyway, I had the other 3 classes to Sanctuary but have no desire to beat the game with them (unlike BL1 and 2). Doesn't help I find the skill trees so boring. All those upon Kill and upon damage and .6% increases. It's not that they're not useful/powerful with certain builds but it's just even duller than BL2 in the what-you-get for a skill point, regard. Maybe I've played too many rpg's where you get a new spell every now and then vs. just creeping enhancements to something if that makes sense.

 

3 hours ago, GhostofAnakin said:

Haven't noticed any performance issues so far.  Load times aren't that big a deal, either.  A lot of large areas so you don't have to transition too often.

Cool. I don't mind some load time but more than 10-15 seconds or so (or if you have to do them fairly frequently + they're very longish - looking at you FFXV/console) and ... after FFXV on PS4 I've lost all patience for that.

[Hurlshort]

FFXV on the PS4 had crazy load times. I used to grade papers while waiting for new areas to load.

[Gorgon]

TWO on Supernova difficulty, because i'm not a wuss. 

 

I've made three forays away from he Unreliable and been wiped three times. I suppose I should just main quest a while and get some companions. 

[Humanoid]

3 minutes ago, Gorgon said:

I suppose I should just main quest a while and get some companions. 

What happens on Supernova difficulty is that the companions drop dead the first time you fight anything and stay dead because that's Supernova for you.

[Gorgon]

I'm not moving off supernova, 'hard' is too easy.