What Are You Playing Now: The Other Thread

[Keyrock]

15 minutes ago, ComradeMaster said:

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

There is a clue in one of the bits of lore you find outside.

 

30 east 90 north if I remember correctly

Edited January 12, 2020 by Keyrock

[ComradeYellow]

Ha!  Thanks, all I had to do was press 'tab'.  Silly me.

[Mamoulian War]

Moved further with White March expansion today (little bit over 4 hours of playtime today  ) I have finished all of the quests from Russetwood, and reaped some rewards  Then I have decided to go to the location east of the Stallwart and after encountering Lagufaeth Broodmother and her pack, which completely decimated my 9th level party, I have decided to move back to Stallwart for a night at the Inn.

The fight was crazy, the pack knocked out during a fight all of my characters with the exception of Edér and Durance. In the middle of fight I was able to “spell bubble” him and when Edér moved closer and closer to death, the spell ended and I cast with him last few spells in his spellbook to finish the Broodmother  the reward was a small egg which hatched after a while in my backpack  

That episode will be uploaded tomorrow on my youtube  

[Lorfean]

I am about 14 hours into Shadow of the Tomb Raider and it's by far my favorite of the reboot trilogy -- there is a much bigger focus on exploration and puzzles compared to Rise, and the combat set pieces that I have come across so far have allowed me to go full Bat(wo)man and pick off the enemies one by one without them ever spotting me. That approach is also helped by the expanded stealth elements (mud camouflage, stringing up enemies on tree branches), making the combat encounters a type of puzzle in their own right. It's awesome.

The game also looks great -- they managed to make the jungle feel real, the "tombs" (temples, caves, etc.) feel impressive and imposing, and as a setting it is so much more appealing to me than Rise's snowy mountains and broken down industrial buildings... Lara's mobility and the "feel" and flow of her movements is also the best it's ever been. They both streamlined and expanded on her repertoire of terrain traversal skills and it's great. On top of that, and as a welcome surprise, the swimming in the game is really good. I've had a few underwater sections and they were very cool with, again, some expanded gameplay elements from the previous games and much better / more responsive movement.

As a final note, I also feel that their storytelling has improved -- it's still not high tier but I am more engaged than I was in the previous two games -- I arrived at the second hub last night and it opens up the game as well as the story in a very nice way that felt like a proper "moving into the second act" moment.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Lorfean

[Skazz]

2 hours ago, Lorfean said:

I am about 14 hours into Shadow of the Tomb Raider Shadow of the Torture Porn Raider

You misspelled the title. I fixed it for you.

[Lorfean]

2 minutes ago, Skazz said:

You misspelled the title. I fixed it for you.

Yeah, I think it's juvenile and unnecessary to call it that tbh, but each to their own.

[Skazz]

1 minute ago, Lorfean said:

Yeah, I think it's juvenile and unnecessary to call it that tbh, but each to their own.

Well, I have nothing against the game. I just wanted to hop on the running gag train that seems to be going on in this thread.

[Malcador]

Didn't notice that much torture porn in the second game, was funny how Lara became Sam Fisher though :P

Making a concerted push to finish off Tropico 6, on the last mission.  Probably will **** it all up when they need me to play politics as I always seem to be able to just make everyone happy enough rather than push certain groups. 

Played some Battletech now that I can wield the Steiner Scout Lance.  Last couple of missions have had me with an allied lance so it was a nice 8 v 8 fight rather than the tedious 4 v 12 mechs and vehicles.  Also somehow killed a Warhammer when his MG ammo exploded...

[ComradeYellow]

To be honest, there is no game that deserves the "Torture Porn" label more than Outlast 2.  Anyone play that ****?  OMFgoodness.

[Keyrock]

The bulk of the torture porn was in the 2013 reboot, plus it made it easy to differentiate from the OG game to call it Torture Porn Raider. Rise and Shadow have much less torture porn, mostly the awesomely gruesome death scenes, but I still call them torture porn for consistency. 

Edited January 14, 2020 by Keyrock

[ComradeYellow]

Never played the 2013 reboot.  I heard there's rape themes in it.  Can you clarify, Keyrock?

[Keyrock]

47 minutes ago, ComradeMaster said:

Never played the 2013 reboot.  I heard there's rape themes in it.  Can you clarify, Keyrock?

There's a scene early on where Lara gets captured and it's strongly implied that her captor is about to force himself on her. Then you get a QTE struggle/escape sequence. Lara gets captured, bruised, battered, and beaten quite a bit in the game. Also, it's by far the most combat heavy and tomb raiding light game of the trilogy. There are a handful of challenge tombs that are so easy it's insulting and, if I recall correctly, 1 tomb/temple in the main story to go through.

[ComradeYellow]

Yeah the right wing gaming community really focused on that scene.  Made it sound like Tomb Raider was now all about rape.

It probably has something to do with the Red Army raping German women so now they see rape everywhere.

And what does Crystal Dynamics do in response?

Spend much time belittling the USSR in "Rise" to try to appease the "Cry rape" crowd.

[Chilloutman]

1 hour ago, ComradeMaster said:

Yeah the right wing gaming community really focused on that scene.  Made it sound like Tomb Raider was now all about rape.

It probably has something to do with the Red Army raping German women so now they see rape everywhere.

And what does Crystal Dynamics do in response?

Spend much time belittling the USSR in "Rise" to try to appease the "Cry rape" crowd.

 

WTF? Is this Bruce 8 years ago alter ego? You sir is really great troll

[Lorfean]

Started playing The Long Dark's story mode Wintermute yesterday and I'm digging it. I bought the game back in 2017, when it was still in early access, dabbled a bit in Survival Mode and liked it well enough but decided to shelf it until the official release and some of the story episodes were out. The improvements made to the game since then and the quality of the story content is impressive -- the game oozes atmosphere, from art style to sound design, music and voice acting, and its more calm and thoughtful pacing is such a nice diversion. There's something oddly relaxing about sitting in a cave (having just looted a hidden stash of supplies after following directions on a note I found in an abandoned house), in front of a campfire, waiting for my Rose Hip Tea to boil while watching the night fall outside.

Edited January 14, 2020 by Lorfean

[Hawke64]

Ashen: Nightstorm Isle. The DLC is a large linear dungeon. There are several checkpoints, a boss, some weapons and armor sets. It was pretty similar to the main game, except occasionally screaming new insect-like enemies, while they were a part of the environment (i.e. invincible; to make the area more atmospheric). The boss took 3 attempts, 2 with the AI and 1 solo. It was possible to do alone, but relatively easier with the AI. There were some issues with the controls (might be just my hardware/reaction time), but nothing critical.
I suppose, my main issues with the game are it being linear, from story to character builds, and the checkpoint system. Everything else is either good (rebindable controls, visual style, bosses, climbing) or serviceable (enemy variety, dodge and sidestep bound to the same key, lore).

Edit. And because the NPC companion could be a player it was impossible to turn in their quests outside the main hub, so I had to fast-travel back after completing each objective. It was somehow immersion-breaking and irritating.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Hawke64

[the_dog_days]

On 1/14/2020 at 6:36 PM, Hawke64 said:

Ashen: Nightstorm Isle. The DLC is a large linear dungeon. There are several checkpoints, a boss, some weapons and armor sets. It was pretty similar to the main game, except occasionally screaming new insect-like enemies, while they were a part of the environment (i.e. invincible; to make the area more atmospheric). The boss took 3 attempts, 2 with the AI and 1 solo. It was possible to do alone, but relatively easier with the AI. There were some issues with the controls (might be just my hardware/reaction time), but nothing critical.
I suppose, my main issues with the game are it being linear, from story to character builds, and the checkpoint system. Everything else is either good (rebindable controls, visual style, bosses, climbing) or serviceable (enemy variety, dodge and sidestep bound to the same key, lore).

Edit. And because the NPC companion could be a player it was impossible to turn in their quests outside the main hub, so I had to fast-travel back after completing each objective. It was somehow immersion-breaking and irritating.

Your pics has me going back and replaying Ashen. As if I don't already have a mountain of games to get through. 

[Malcador]

Playing the new WoW patch.  Sort of funny seeing people bitching about just grinding and doing the same things over and over, in a MMORPG.  Not too bad, I like the theme of the patch although I find it doesn't really explain the system all that clearly in game.  I think I've hit my limit for frustration with playing a non-DPS class with all these things I have to kill

[213374U]

On 1/13/2020 at 6:45 PM, Malcador said:

Played some Battletech now that I can wield the Steiner Scout Lance.  Last couple of missions have had me with an allied lance so it was a nice 8 v 8 fight rather than the tedious 4 v 12 mechs and vehicles.  Also somehow killed a Warhammer when his MG ammo exploded...

The sad thing is the super flexible mechlab really breaks the game, because the OPFOR can't really counter imba builds like max flamer Firestarters or laser vomit Grashoppers and is itself restricted to stock variants. So that and an AI that is just adequate (and cannot use morale abilities) require that you are always outnumbered to provide an iota of challenge. A bad foundational decision to have that in the game in its current form, but I guess "fans wanted it"... though they may have felt differently if warned that it would come with 4v8-12 drudgery.

In this game, an ammo explosion automatically destroys the part, and the MG ammo is in the CT on the WHM-6R. I used to run a melee modded Banshee with max armor and nothing but +crit MGs. Good (broken) times.

Chugging along in the BFGA2 imperial campaign. Tyranids launched a multi-pronged invasion but managed to only take a system that had just been lost to heretics. GG hivemind. I get the feeling the game is made much easier by having a friend control half the fleet, and I'm no space Zhukov. We may need to up the difficulty for next campaign. I'm really liking how distinct the different factions feel.

Edited January 16, 2020 by 213374U

[Hurlshort]

Conan Exiles again. This game just has such a good balance of exploration, crafting, and violence. I've got a cozy little home right now with a few thralls, but I think it is time to relocate off the newbie river. Almost level 30.

[ComradeYellow]

Shadow Tomb Raider.

I've reached "Hidden City" or whatever it's called and already the game is starting to become rather too easy.  I'm a completionist so I have a habit of scourging early parts of the game for everything and then by mid game I'm over leveled and over looted and the game just becomes easy and not so fun anymore.

Still a great game, almost as good as Witcher 3.  Well, almost almost.  But still, it suffers the same syndrome as it where's turbo completionists have it easy once you hit a certain point, even on Hard difficulty (which I am playing, Hard across the board).

[Hawke64]

God Eater 3. There was an update/free DLC with post-game content (3-4 missions for one of the companions, 1 "new"* aragami). So far so good, though I detest the character's VA - it is truly horrible and, probably, meant to be this way (the character is a child).
*it looks like a reskin of an existing aragami.

Tried Disco Elysium. I failed to find where to rebind the controls or to toggle highlight for interactive objects, thus played with the Tab key pressed. It is not what I had hoped for, but maybe the game will get better - it is praised for its writing, not mechanics. Though RNG in non-combat skill checks is an odd choice that inspires heavy usage of the F5/F9 keys.

[ComradeYellow]

Replaying S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat.

It's seemed to have aged well because I'm having tons of fun with it.  There's plenty of quests and loot to be had and the gunplay is still a blast.  I tend to use 5.56x45 and .45 handgun weapons, upgraded to full effect.  Also keep a mutant shotgun handy for close encounters.  Don't use grenades much, though you can sell excess for a few pennies.

Much better than the original, imo

The other good thing about these aging titles is that you can set it to 4k max and get close to 144 fps (provided you have decent hardware) so the visuals can remain in good shape.

Edited January 18, 2020 by ComradeMaster

[Katphood]

Tried playing ICO again for the 3rd time but this games keeps getting on my nerves. I just hate escorting npcs in video games.

Should I bother?

[Mamoulian War]

Yes