What Are You Playing Now: The Other Thread

[Raithe]

Was playing along with Far Cry 5 recently. But hit the third region after completing the first two, and I've suddenly run out of steam and can't seem to find the urge to get back into it to finish for some reason.

[Hawke64]

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. I finished my first playthrough. I guess, I'll replay it with the Restored Content mode, but not right now.

Okami HD. It works well on PC, Celestial Brush (drawing symbols on the screen, which could be replaced with hotkeys) supports mouse. So far, so good.

Avadon: The Black Fortress. A turn-based party-RPG. It works surprisingly well and combat animations are fast, which I appreciate. The writing does not provide a lot of role-play, but it is stylistically and logically consistent. And there are text descriptions for environment. I don't see those often and, considering that graphics do not always capture what the developers are trying to tell, they are most welcome. Camera movement is bound to arrows and cannot be reassigned, which is slightly inconvenient.

[uuuhhii]

trying through the darkest of times

couldn't get through 1936 part

or figure out how to change stats at character creation

Edited February 29, 2020 by uuuhhii

[Starwars]

I'm currently playing Beautiful Desolation, which I also backed on kickstarter.

Very cool game that feels quite unique, which is always a plus in my mind. Interesting setting too. The gameplay is basically top down point and click with just a hint of RPG spice to it. It's also interspersed with some fun CG cutscenes which are super well made given the very small development team.

Not perfect but definitely enjoying it.

[LadyCrimson]

Death Stranding - I spent 15 hours beating up "cargo bandits" with hand to hand and gas grenades, to take all their ceramics and metals and stolen goods out of their camps (and steal their trucks to transport it) so I could start building the game's version of US interstate-80 (or route 66 or...). You don't kill humans in this game, you knock them out (corpses have nuclear like consequences if you don't burn the bodies fast enough...) for a few hours (so they're back again later).

And when that wasn't enough materials I kept marching around collecting more in the form of "lost cargo" that you can pick up as it appears here and there and other slow methods. Wore out a lot of shoes. Which all reminds me of resource gathering patterns in survival games except you aren't using axes and mining picks.  None of which is truly required to do if you just want to see the story. The road/other stuff decays over time, btw, because of "timefall rain" - repair is a thing (but it takes a long time). Probably won't do the whole road (you do it in sections) but it hits the "obsessive" brain quite a bit.

I think calling it just a walking/delivery simulator is a bit extreme. It is, and it isn't. Survival, resource/management/strategy, stealth aspects are all there too. Depends on what you want to do with it. And I want to replay it a 2nd time later just to see how different it feels if you do have the "online" aspect on - at the least it'd make some aspects a lot easier I'm sure.  I can understand why some would find it too boring but I'm having such a blast. See you all in a few weeks.  *wink*

[uuuhhii]

finished a player's heart

wonder if someone atleast know something about theater will enjoy it more

doesn't understand anything in it about theater costume or makeup

still entertaining enough

[Malcador]

Got to level 30 in Division 2.  Drone and turret make these fights nice and easy, don't think I did that much damage to the last Hyena boss directly.  Now to wait until the President who vaguely reminds me of a portrait of Satan tired to become a dictator or turns out to be a lizardman or something.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Malcador

[ComradeYellow]

Borderlands 3.  Greatest modern shooter.  Just like TOW is the greatest modern RPG.

[Zoraptor]

Pathfinder Kingmaker still, and no real feeling of slowing down at all.

Definitely a worthy successor to the Baldur's Gates in terms of boss fights, you either get your party wiped or wipe the floor with them. Fought some dudette that spammed destruction spells and I'm sure the AI scripting told her to target the PC preferentially just because a failed saving throw instantly meant she 'won' the fight via game over. So you hide the main character and she gets chunked in about twenty seconds after a couple of lucky criticals instead...

[Tel Aviv]

Feeling pretty bummed to have finished AI: The Somnium Files. Despite being a fairly disturbing piece of twisty-turny detective fiction, it's full of charm and humour - and has a pretty bitchin' soundtrack and voice cast to boot. For what it's worth, I highly recommend it.

[Keyrock]

After starting Warriors Orochi 4 on normal difficulty, I changed up to hard difficulty and went back through all the chapter 1 and 2 missions again, using this as a way to level up some characters I don't normally use and fill up their bonds meters. I still have a lot of characters I haven't really touched, but the game has such a ludicrous number that it's nigh impossible to keep up. I have 88 currently and I think that's about half. It's worth filling up bonds since characters with high bonds will sometimes pop in and help you out during combat. 

Anyway, I'm a good ways into chapter 3 and I just got ot my first 3 star weapon drop, so weapon farming is about to begin. Weapons come in 1 star to 5 star varieties, but 4 and 5 stars aren't necessarily better than 3 stars, they just have more sockets for upgrades.  You can add sockets to weapons, so when weapon farming you don't really care if it's 3, 4, or 5 stars, you just look for the highest damage stat you can find. Playing on hard difficulty rewards you with generally better drops, but the biggest factor is an appraise upgrade you can put in weapon sockets. I already have several characters with appraise weapons I fused just for this occassion.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Keyrock

[Lexx]

On 2/29/2020 at 11:57 PM, LadyCrimson said:

You don't kill humans in this game, you knock them out (corpses have nuclear like consequences if you don't burn the bodies fast enough...) for a few hours (so they're back again later).

You can kill them later in the game, but doing that is not a good idea at all.

Edited March 3, 2020 by Lexx

[Mamoulian War]

14 hours ago, ComradeMaster said:

Borderlands 3.  Greatest modern shooter.  Just like TOW is the greatest modern RPG.

I think this comment asks for being blessed by quoting Volo

[Amentep]

We ask that the users of this board treat one another with respect, even when opinions differ. Personal attacks that are intended to cause unwanted attention, embarrassment, or harm will not be tolerated.

[Malcador]

Fighting Black Tusk in Division 2, so am in the endgame now.  The Gear 2.0 changes seem ok,  my friends who have been playing a long time are claiming they got a lot weaker though.  Rather enjoying being able to wield a minigun (makes control point attacks easier).

[LadyCrimson]

On 3/2/2020 at 10:27 PM, Lexx said:

You can kill them later in the game, but doing that is not a good idea at all.

Yeah I went through that Chapter where you get the killing-gear. I can't imagine why I'd want to use them outside of the prescribed story moments tho.

I'm in Chapt. 5 now, trying to finish the road before I move the story forward, so I can start building yet more road somewhere, I'm sure. Think I've got everyone currently available at 5 stars too. Almost ready. I'd use all ziplines but not enough grid power for that and sometimes you have to carry more than what you can on your back.

I've given up sleep for this game a few times already - at 70+ hours over the past two weeks. 

Edit: oh, discovered one of my fave anime/game VA's voices Reedus' chr. in Japanese, which would be better than Reddus' grunting, but the game doesn't seem to have a Japanese language option. Just French and a couple others. I guess they figured us Americans wouldn't care about it.  >.> 

Edited March 5, 2020 by LadyCrimson

[majestic]

On 3/2/2020 at 11:03 PM, Zoraptor said:

Pathfinder Kingmaker still, and no real feeling of slowing down at all.

Definitely a worthy successor to the Baldur's Gates in terms of boss fights, you either get your party wiped or wipe the floor with them. Fought some dudette that spammed destruction spells and I'm sure the AI scripting told her to target the PC preferentially just because a failed saving throw instantly meant she 'won' the fight via game over. So you hide the main character and she gets chunked in about twenty seconds after a couple of lucky criticals instead...

There was also something refreshing in being able to look forward to patches, not equally hoping that they'll fix issues you're having while not screwing your characters or playstyle over. Yes, I'm looking at you Pillars of Eternity and your constant Cipher nerfing. Everything's hilariously broken thanks to how the game defines enemies as flanked or once you realize that Alchemist grenades are ranged touch attacks and armor is competely useless against them.

Facing a ridiculous juggernaught of doom that your frontliners can't hit save for crits and your casters can't touch thanks to high spell resistance? Oh, don't worry. Catch a grenade with your face. Woops, wrong damage type? Ah, well, let's just use the other grenades then. Loved it. I think Jubilost single handedly killed every boss in my playthrough. Especially once Owlcat fixed the application of certain debuffs and character builds. Having your frontline flank and flat-foot enemies is hilarious.

 

[MedicineDan]

Hanging on to Don't Starve because it's not demanding and I can play for a short time and then stop for a while. When I get the chance to deep dive into a game, it will be Disco Elysium.

[Mamoulian War]

After two weeks break, I was able to again sit in front of my computer and play a game \o/

So back to the Pillars of Eternity. Because I have made silly choice to upscale White March 2, I went back to the vanilla part and entered Twin Elms. Lot of talking and some new quests taken. Hopefully today I can get few more hours as well

[Mamoulian War]

Currently running around Twin Elms, trying to get some clues how to find one quest NPC in Noonfrost. That "temple" was one big reload fest

[Malcador]

Playing Still Life, which I own for some reason.  Might be an interesting adventure game, so far seems about the same tier as Moment of Silence.  Hm, the smartass protagonist reminds me I never finished Deponia.

[algroth]

Finally finished The Witcher 3's main campaign today. Was alright, though I far preferred Hearts of Stone which I did halfway through this playthrough as well. It's enjoyable enough but from a gameplay perspective it's a bit of a death by a thousand cuts and from a narrative standpoint it's also well-written and enjoyable enough but terribly padded out and overall rather insubstantial, like a fantasy RPG Endgame of sorts. I looked the game up on Glitchwave and this review by vodsel felt pretty accurate at the end of the day:

Quote

I started playing The Witcher 3 in 2015 around the time it came out. I've played the previous games, and really enjoyed them as they were releasing. The Witcher 1 had some novelty to it with its bizarre combat system and old-school feeling, European RPG jank. The Witcher 2 improved on everything the first did, throwing the old combat system out the window and replacing it with something challenging and involved with the actual business of being a Witcher. But in both of these games, the narrative elements were the obvious draw. Between W2 and W3 I even read one of the books, and I think fantasy books are for nerds.

 

When I started The Witcher 3 in 2015, I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. Many quests, many markers, many things to craft, much world to sop up and marinate in. I didn't think it would take me three years to finish, but here I am now with a save file that attests as much.

Looking back at my experience playing The Witcher 3, I can say that I only barely enjoyed it. In 2015 I was wowed by the scale of it and the astounding feat of presentation that the same people who made W1 had accomplished. I wanted to pat them on the back. But after hitting all the markers in White Orchard over 10 hours, I didn't want to play their game. If I recall correctly, at some point in late 2015 I came back to try out Velen, but after blowing up a few nests and rolling and swinging to death some soldiers, I put it aside until 2016 where I ceased to believe everything in the game was really worth seeing, or every engagement worth having to put up with the combat.

Between 2016 and yesterday, my taste in games changed. I began to recognize how important it was for me that systems act as player expression in meaningful, broad ways; and I came to believe that if a game had to have a story, it better be a story that I influence or take part in through intuitive game mechanics, and not dialogue trees or button prompts. The model of the board game, or the pen-and-paper RPG became the ultimate form which video games ought to emulate, instead of something immersive and unbelievably, but superficially, pretty, i.e. an amazing filmic experience, or OASIS from Ready Player One. By the time I made my way back to Witcher 3 for my last real push to complete it, I had already been sufficiently brainwashed by ludo-games to sort of despise any time I spent with it.

All that really dragged me through The Witcher 3's final quests was its writing and world-building. The combat, progression, the way which the game offered three moods of responses to me as some cheap CYAstory, everything seemed so shallow and unengaging, actualizing a game's ultimate failure. The towns and world-building had the appearance of a dynamic, systems-driven world which a better game would have exploited and made reactive in small but meaningful ways, but by the 60th hour all I wanted to do was connect sign-post to sign-post and get the **** out. Three games into the series, The Witcher 3 stands as a bitter compromise that has garnered praise which spells spooky things for triple-A games. If no one seems to care that the combat is boring, the world is mostly without mechanics, that progression literally stops having any purpose by a pretty early point, what are these people going to do when writers learn how to merely sound like The Witcher 3, and everyone is too dumb to realize it's just an appearance? This will happen. Eventually.

This isn't a terrible game, but as everyone has launched it so high to hang in the video games cosmos as some shining example of a modern-day RPG (...yuck), criticism against it needs to be harsh and iconoclastic.

With this in mind though, Blood & Wine already starts with a Seven Samurai reference of sorts so I'm definitely digging it for the short while I've played it.

Edited March 10, 2020 by algroth

[Tale]

MO: Astray

It's on sale on Steam this week and the user reviews were pretty great. I see where they're coming from. It's like a sci-fi horror puzzle platformer where you play an adorably cute blob. Which is just kind of weird until you realize your adorably cute blob can latch itself onto the heads of the zombies and monsters and pilot them.

The cuteness just exists to soften the edge of the gruesome.

Also it's fun.

[marelooke]

45 minutes ago, Tale said:

MO: Astray

It's on sale on Steam this week and the user reviews were pretty great. I see where they're coming from. It's like a sci-fi horror puzzle platformer where you play an adorably cute blob. Which is just kind of weird until you realize your adorably cute blob can latch itself onto the heads of the zombies and monsters and pilot them.

The cuteness just exists to soften the edge of the gruesome.

Also it's fun.

So it's a Headcrab simulator? Cool!

[Keyrock]

I'm deep into chapter 4 in Warriors Orochi 4. I have my A Team mostly set now. I'm running with Bao Sanniang, Sakon Shima, and Susano-o. Susano-o is a stand in until I get Lu Bu, but the other 2 are probably permanent A Team members for the rest of the game. Bao Sanniang is my combo builder. At certain combo score thresholds, namely 300 and 1000 hits, your magic attacks get a damage boost. Furthermore, there are upgrades you can slot into weapon sockets that give you bonuses at said combo thresholds, so if you want to use those upgrades on any or all of your team members then it behooves you to have at least 1 character (combo score carries over when you switch characters in battle) that can build combo score quickly and I've yet to find a character that can build combo score faster than Bao Sanniang. Sakon Shima is on the team for 2 reasons. First, he has hyper attacks and I always like to have at least 1 character on my team with hyper attacks, since they let you zoom around the battlefield very quickly. Second, he has the single best unique magic attack I have seen in the game. It's so ridiculously strong. He calls down a rain of arrows in a pretty large radius around him. It lasts for around 10 seconds and it moves with you and you can act while it's happening (a lot of other unique magics are essentially cut scenes). The arrows keep anyone they are raining upon essentially perma-stunned, officers included, so it's amazing for taking enemy officers out, as well as all the mooks around them. Susano-o is just a good all around character, but he's getting replaced once I get my boy Lu Bu.