What Are You Playing Now: The Other Thread

[the_dog_days]

11 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I am surprised that I don't enjoy ME2 as much as I did. For all it's faults ME1 had scope, consistancy and immersion, which ME2 lacks. Small things, but they matter - changing how traveling works, means that Normandy leaves the station everytime you return to the ship . Being in direct control of the ship, just doesn't gel, with being commander, rather then pilot. No Mako sequences make the world feel small, even though content wise ME2 is most likely far more packed then it's precedessor. While combat is improved, it is still not a good action shooter. The only thing I don't miss is managing the inventory, which was a boring chore in ME1. Plot of ME2 has some odd plot choices and forced melodrama, which I didn't bother me before. There is also far less companion content then I remembered.

I've been saying for years that with each Mass Effect game the franchise gets worse.

[Keyrock]

5 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I am a big Raider fan, but the new series never appealed to me. I found characters and story unappealing, and gameplay is well crafted, but far to relient on flashy but shallow setpieces. I am somewhat curious about "Shadow". I heard it has little combat, and has more exploration then previous two games. It will have to wait for the new rig, though. 

I flat out hated the 2013 reboot, while at the same time recognizing that it was a fairly good game. It just wasn't what I wanted out of a Tomb Raider game. I wanted to raid tombs, not play a cover shooter with a Tomb Raider coat of paint.

I found Rise to be a significant step in the right direction. Still WAAAAAY to much murdering for my taste, but at least there was a good bit of tomb raiding.

The jury is still out on Shadow, but so far so good. Then again, they instantly won me over with the OG Lara character models (I'm easy like that). If nothing else, the game is super pretty and jungle ruins always look great.

Also, I will say this for the reboot trilogy as a whole. There's at least one thing they fo really well: The OH ****!!! EVERYTHING IS COLLAPSING AROUND ME. RUN!!! setpieces are rad as ****. If they made a game that was entirely challenge tombs and run for your life setpieces, that would be my jam.

[Wormerine]

5 hours ago, Keyrock said:

Also, I will say this for the reboot trilogy as a whole. There's at least one thing they fo really well: The OH ****!!! EVERYTHING IS COLLAPSING AROUND ME. RUN!!! setpieces are rad as ****.

Those didn't work for me. Gameplay is far to simple to engage. No amount of effects will make pressing forward with occasional jump excited to me. If one wants an effective escape sequence, then one needs more complex platforming to be able to throw something against the player. See, for example the excape from the tree sequence from Ori and the Blind Forest. In TR those are just noice to me, with no imaginative imput. Is this the right place to use Ludonarrative disonance? I think so. TRs are full of it. From the opening where Lara is lost, and by herself, but player is handholded throughout majority of the game, to death threatning situations, which are solved by mindlessly pressing forward with occasional unresponsivenes to your imput when Lara's scripted stumbles happen.

[bugarup]

Bought "Darkest dungeon" for grimdark, but it's actually funny in slightly darkish way? Not complaining, though. At first it was so addictive I burned my tea kettle twice, later -- when difficulty suddenly rises up outside training wheel dungeons and you notice both need to grind and anti-grind mechanics -- enthusiasm dims a little but it's still fun, only better consumed in bite-sized doses. Initially thought about testing class synergies vs different dungeon critter types via "volunteering" suicide squads, but found out I don't have a heart for throwing those sad sacks of dysfunction into the meat grinder so will have to resort to using wiki. So far so good, lost 75% of a party only once but that's entirely on me (Evil looking idol: "place a torch here to summon unspeakable horror" Me: *places a torch* Unspeakable horror: *materializes, eats the party* Me: "...I wonder what I expected ")

[Tale]

Internet has been out at the house for over a day, so I played a couple games on my PS4 that have just been sitting there.

Mass Effect Andromeda demo. Why is the opening of this so boring? No urgency, no action. Like there's three exciting beats over the course of 30 minutes, but they're all treated with the impact of a dentist's waiting room. The gravity shut off? Don't worry, just wait. An explosion?! Would you be a dear and scan that thing then flip a switch. The ship crashed into a mysterious cloud? Ehh, we'll deal with it in half an hour. Our shuttle GOT TORN APART AND YOU'RE FALLING, nah it's fine. Time for some light jogging. Sara Raydar is so passive and seemingly uninvested in anything that I couldn't bear to finish the demo.

Neon Chrome. Fun enough, but it wore out on me quick.

[ComradeYellow]

Thinking about diving into Monster Hunter World after I finish Disco.

Edited January 9, 2020 by ComradeMaster

[Skazz]

Majesty Gold HD

[Mamoulian War]

I have arrived some time ago into White March expansion of the Pillars of Eternity. The expansion is little bit harder than anticipated, but still doable First I have saved the Village of Stalwart from big bad Ogres and then, I have run around and tried to get as many quests I could, today I have entered the Russetwood and I almost get wiped out, thankfully I survived with my main character with probably 10 health or so . So far I am satisfied with the expansion

[Skazz]

4 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

I have arrived some time ago into White March expansion of the Pillars of Eternity. The expansion is little bit harder than anticipated, but still doable First I have saved the Village of Stalwart from big bad Ogres and then, I have run around and tried to get as many quests I could, today I have entered the Russetwood and I almost get wiped out, thankfully I survived with my main character with probably 10 health or so . So far I am satisfied with the expansion

White March is great (well, imo)! Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

And while we're at it: please give Zahua a chance. The guy is a (again, imo) a treasure.

[Mamoulian War]

1 hour ago, Skazz said:

White March is great (well, imo)! Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

And while we're at it: please give Zahua a chance. The guy is a (again, imo) a treasure.

My party is currently my Cipher, Aloth, Edér, Durance, Zahua and Maneha So he is having his chance now

[LadyCrimson]

On 1/8/2020 at 2:42 PM, Wormerine said:

I am a big Raider fan, but the new series never appealed to me. I found characters and story unappealing, and gameplay is well crafted, but far to relient on flashy but shallow setpieces. I am somewhat curious about "Shadow". I heard it has little combat, and has more exploration then previous two games. It will have to wait for the new rig, though.

Shadow was probably the first Steam game I ever bothered to refund. It should be noted this isn't because I thought it "sucked" - per usual, I'm not willing to judge based on less than 2 hrs. But early on it felt focused more on flash than gameplay, I didn't like the controls, jumping/other mechanics (felt inconsistent), or the gameplay camera. I even disliked the main menu.   Anyway I decided it wasn't even a "maybe one rainy day" so I refunded.

I was also a big fan of the original TR series but every game or reboot beyond the original series I've liked less and less - Shadow was the first one I tried since maybe ... (looks up a list) ... Anniversary, I think.

[Melusina]

trying to 100% Pathfinder, but that may be futile.

[Mamoulian War]

Because I am forgetting to save, I have lost 1 and half hour of progress in PoE White March I am little bit exhausted. The expansion is tough for level 8 I'll try to do another attempt in few hours

[ComradeYellow]

Solo Paladin is fun in PoE (focus on them resistances!) but it takes forever!  Legendary patience required.

[Hawke64]

Ashen, a co-op focused Souls-like (more of an action-adventure, but it was advertised as a mix of Dark Souls and Journey*). After several hours I reached the second boss, Amiren. The dungeon that led to her was a 3D maze. Somehow I found a "short-cut" (it was not short enough and there was a large group of enemies) on my first try, but died before reaching the boss room. So the next 3-4 attempts I tried to reach my (in DS terms) "bloodstain" and recover the not-souls dropped. For some reason (probably, co-op), it was impossible to use a lantern and a shield at the same time and Ashen had quite realistic darkness - I could not see anything without a light source. In the end, I somehow lost my NPC companion (I assumed that he either despawned or fell to his death), but reached the boss. I lost two hits away from victory. And for the next 3 or so hours I tried to get back to the boss with the companion alive. At some point he got stuck somewhere again, but rejoined me when I approached Amiren's room. She had more HP and the battle was more chaotic, but we succeeded. The key to traversing the dungeon was memorizing the path and just running through, ignoring the enemies.

*The NPC companions are (figuratively and literally) faceless, so any player can take place of any companion, but ridiculously effective and aggressive. The two direct consequences I see are low variety of builds (there are 2 stats, HP and stamina, and their increase are quest rewards; weapons don't have any stat requirements) and the above-mentioned lack of (combat) personality (also the necessity to warp back to the town and report to the NPC, while they were with you when you completed their quest).
I strongly dislike the lack of manual saves and the game's attempts to connect to its servers. Switching Steam to the offline mode helps with the latter, but it is irritating.

[Malcador]

Got to GR 75 in D3, rather fun with Crusader and the Valor set. As usual Primals are a lie, but that is the gimmick. 

Back to Disco Elysium, think I need to work on games I bought but never play this year.

[213374U]

Going through the campaign in Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 with a friend. I've been waiting for a tactical spaceship game with co-op since Starfleet Command 2.

I'm finding a disturbing lack of over-the-top voice acting for a 40k product, so far. Gameplay wise it's entertaining enough, but I'm still learning the ropes.

[Keyrock]

I'm having fun with Shadow of the Torture Porn Raider. From the limited sample size so far I'm finding both the main story temples and the challenge tombs to be the best in the reboot trilogy, hopefully they remain that way throughout the game. Full freedom of movement while underwater makes a welcome return in this game, which is grest since I always enjoyed the underwater parts in the original series. Hopefully I can finish the main campaign before Jan 28th because...

As soon as the final act of Kentucky Route Zero releases, I'm diving right into it. I have waited patiently and resisted the urge to play the already released episodes all these long years so that I could play the whole game straight through, and the time is almost here. I can still remember the Kickstarter campaign. It was during the 3rd year of the reign of Emperor Trajan that the campaign was announced and the plebeians and patricians alike tossed their denarius aureus at them.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Keyrock

[Skazz]

1 hour ago, 213374U said:

I'm finding a disturbing lack of over-the-top voice acting for a 40k product, so far.

Really? Myself, I thought that - for example - Trazyn was delightful.

Edited January 11, 2020 by Skazz

[Hawke64]

Ashen. I successfully reached the palace of Lathyrus and defeated the boss, the Shadow of the Ashen, thus retrieving the Human Heart. The palace itself was rather hard to navigate, just as the previous dungeon, but it also had some sort of sentries that would block the door until all enemies in the room are dead, in some cases it was possible to find another way. Fortunately, there was a checkpoint before the boss room. Though, I defeated the boss on the first attempt and proceeded to the final area (according to the map).
It was dark, filled with water (like the Shrine of Amana in DS2) and those leaping homing things (no idea how they are called). I mostly ran and ignored them. There was no boss at the end of the area, but the Twin Hearts of Lathyrus (the things dropped by Amiren and the Shadow of the Ashen) were restored and the location of the Ashen was uncovered.
With my weapon fully upgraded (Ash Infused +7), all town folks' journeys complete I attempted the final boss. The arena was in the cave I had found at the beginning of the game and assumed that it was either optional or meant to return later. The boss itself was much faster than Amiren or the Shadow and my companion often fell to his death during or after the first phase. I have not yet defeated the boss.

 

Edit. Defeated the final boss. The key was a two-handed weapon (the Rotten Axe, in my case) and switching the boss' aggro between the companion and me, especially during the second phase.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Hawke64

[ComradeYellow]

Went ahead and bought the full version of 'Shadow of the Torture Porn Raider'.

I love it, it really picks up after the demo area when you start romping through the jungle.  It uses the RGB skill system which I love and offers plenty of optional tombs and other exploration discoveries.

I have a high end PC and that also helps the graphical aspects which probably make it even better because it looks gorgeous on high settings.

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by ComradeMaster

[Keyrock]

I have corrupted a fellow forumite into also calling it Torture Porn Raider.

 

[ComradeYellow]

Yes thank you Keyrock for Code Vein and now this, if not for your suggestions I would probably be stuck playing Dark Souls and various other archived favorites for eternity.

Also I am stuck on the part where you're little kid Laura and you have to solve the "2 shields and a white crown puzzle", I think I got the two shields in place but there's no white crown to be found.

Someone help me, my left wing brain really lacks dynamic intuition.

[Keyrock]

^ Have you activated the red lights yet?

[ComradeYellow]

No, I tried spinning the globe thing but have no idea the correct coordinates.  I'm totally stumped on this one.