What Are You Playing Now: The New Beginning Thread

[Malcador]

7 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

 

pff Teplice...

Would defeat the purpose of smaller league if I took Sparta or Slavia Sort of funny how poorly paid my players are, well I guess in terms of footballers, most are 1k EUR a week. 

 

 

[Mamoulian War]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

Sorry it's in DS3... But you do have the Hexer's Hood.

Yes, I have it already, and I am using it for Boss Fights. It just increases spell uses, but no spell damage. Still kind of useful for Soul Spear increase.

[marelooke]

On 6/27/2020 at 6:28 PM, Lexx said:

Finished the FFXIV Shadowbringer storyline with my Gunbreaker. The last section had some super boring walk-around-some-more moments, but the actual ending was fantastic. Very well done, especially for an MMO.

Honestly, I find this game to be a quite pleasant experience all around. You don't really have to grind super hard, you can switch your character class at any time, the characters are likable (except for Lyse, god I hate her), and the story / quest design is mostly well done. The other people in the raids, etc. are usually not toxic either, even if you f- up a bit, which is also something I don't really know from other games.

 

Will probably start with the post-Shadowbringer content now. 20 quests have been released already, and the next batch will arrive in the new patch next month.

I'll be interested to hear your opinion on the post-patches once you get through them

Also, in case you haven't already, I'd suggest trying some of the newer raids and alliance raids, I enjoyed the entire Alma raid chain that starts in Kugane (the story of that raid, far less so) and they are really quite a bit harder than the early stuff (Crystal Tower, which I'd hope you've finished before starting Shadowbringers ). The Ghost Ship one from the Sea of Clouds has some interesting fights as well.

The Eden's Verse raids are also pretty good once you get to the end of the final patch (not sure if you can even start that quest chain before you make it past the final patch). Gotta say though, Shadowbringers really cranked up the difficulty noticeably for levelling characters, both for the dungeons, as well as for the raids.

Still have to try my hand at the Copied Factory (aka "the Nier raid"), watched a guide and ho-boy, is there a lot to take in...

 

As for me, well, mostly beein playing FF XIV with a dash of Conan Exiles. In FF XIV I've been unlocking and completing older raids, dungeons and other stuff I'd missed while levelling. I've also finished my first Anima weapon.

Edited July 7, 2020 by marelooke

[Lexx]

I'm working on getting some more tomestone stuff right now. So far I'm quite happy with how the Neo-Ishgardian looks like in combination with the raid gear.

Spoiler

Neo-Ishgardian gear looks really good on my bard, but man, I hate how everything my tank can wear has these silly big and spiky shoulder pads. Basically for my Gunbreaker they give me two choices: 1. Silly shoulder pads, or 2. edgy coat. Annoying.

I haven't finished the 5.2 post-story quests yet. Trying not to rush it too much, because 5.3 is "right around the corner" now. Doing the different raids, eden's gate, etc. in the meantime. Also got me my Gunbreaker and Bard resistance weapons.

Other than that I still think the SHB content is *a lot* better than most of the stuff in SB.

[Chilloutman]

Still pulling my hair out playing DoTA. If you never played dota.. dont do it ever xD

[Hurlshort]

I've been sucked back into Conan Exiles. I started over again, and currently have a neat base set up in the desert near thee pirate ship. I've bridged a couple plateaus and have an elevator that takes me to a rich resource area, so I an happy with the location. The new Greek DLC pack is pretty awesome looking.

[Keyrock]

30 minutes ago, Chilloutman said:

Still pulling my hair out playing DoTA. If you never played dota.. dont do it ever xD

DotA is not for the faint of heart. It can be extraordinarily rewarding, but you need a very high threshold for frustration and a very thick skin.

[Chilloutman]

14 hours ago, Malcador said:

Would defeat the purpose of smaller league if I took Sparta or Slavia Sort of funny how poorly paid my players are, well I guess in terms of footballers, most are 1k EUR a week. 

 

 

 

Zbrojovka Brno!

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, Keyrock said:

DotA is not for the faint of heart. It can be extraordinarily rewarding, but you need a very high threshold for frustration and a very thick skin.

You stop having fun with these types of games when you play them at a "high" level/rank, it becomes about playing the meta and winning. The thing about playing the meta is that it's repetitive and very unfun especially when you aren't winning. I don't see any point in raising your skill in a game that isn't giving you entertainment and you aren't going to go pro and make money out of it

[Malcador]

3 hours ago, Chilloutman said:

Zbrojovka Brno!

Well, they don't wear yellow but suppose can give them a try.  Think I screwed up my Teplice save anyway, got a really amazing winger but now the entire squad is pouting because the current guy was inferior.  Also my strikers are beyond crap.

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

You stop having fun with these types of games when you play them at a "high" level/rank, it becomes about playing the meta and winning. The thing about playing the meta is that it's repetitive and very unfun especially when you aren't winning. I don't see any point in raising your skill in a game that isn't giving you entertainment and you aren't going to go pro and make money out of it

Same with Overwatch.  I find it more fun to lose in competitive games as I get to entertain myself with ragers. 

[Keyrock]

The weird thing about DotA is that it's fun at a low/casual level and I have been told it gets fun again at a very high level, as well as far less toxic (presumably because players at that level truly understand the dynamics of the game and how ludicrously difficult it is). Unfortunately, the middle levels of skill are unbelievably toxic and the grind to get to very high skill level is brutally long and difficult.

As with any team game, playing with a group of friends is light years more fun than playing with randos.

Edited July 7, 2020 by Keyrock

[Mamoulian War]

More Dark Souls 2 played with some small breaks. I am getting slowly to the endgame, so I am just picking up some loose ends. After ridiculous buttkicking in Dragon Shrine on the staircase to the Dragon lying there, I got some key item from him. IIRC Ashen Mist Heart. Some time ago, after visiting the Freja's room again I have found out some strange thingie, which I was unable to activate before, so I have tried to go there with the Heart and to my surprise I got in som kind of old dragon memory.

After a while I've picked one thing there and went to open the doors locked by King's Ring in The Forest of Fallen Giants. There was the last bonfire I was missing and I went towards one old tree, which was sparkling. I've found few of them few weeks ago during my firsts visits to the area, but it has never happened anything when I have interacted with them. But the new thing was, that the tree was shining now. So I've touched it, and to my very big surprise, I got similar cutscene to the Dragon Memory. I got into something called Memory of Jeigh, where there was big fight between Giants and Hollows, with fire raining everywhere and stone heads rolling around... I have noticed, that it looks very similar to Pursuer arena, where there was one big broken head of statue lying around as well. And in the end, there was one big guy waiting on me. After I have move closer to him, I've found out, that it's another bossfight Well, I've run up the stairs, but died very shortly afterwards The fight extremely easy, almost as easy as the Covetous Demon. But the main issue was big lag due to the fighting in the arena on the PS3 version of the game, which caused significant input lag... So it took me 12 tries to adjust to it, and finding the correct rhytm between his attack, me pushing buttons and my toon executing, what I've wanted from him I got loooooooooooooooads of souls from this encounter and happily left the area after picking up the Soul of a Giant.

Being happy and thinking what stats to spent all these souls, I've almost missed, that I was invaded by NPC summon... Royal Sorcerer Navlaan... Who promptly kicked my ass because I was almost out of all spells . Terrifying... So I've prepared my best pew pew, and run fast to my souls, hoping that I survive the second encounter. Thankfully he did not invaded right away, so I was able to pick them all promptly, and right after that, I've sent one big Soul Spear up to his face After a while, I was victorious and used homeward back to Majula, to spent all of them, before I've repeat some stupid mistake like few years ago in Demon Souls, where I lost over 300k souls in the very first area of NG++ right after defeating the Old King Alant for the second time

Final attempt at the boss bellow
 

 

[Sarex]

9 hours ago, Keyrock said:

The weird thing about DotA is that it's fun at a low/casual level and I have been told it gets fun again at a very high level, as well as far less toxic (presumably because players at that level truly understand the dynamics of the game and how ludicrously difficult it is). Unfortunately, the middle levels of skill are unbelievably toxic and the grind to get to very high skill level is brutally long and difficult.

As with any team game, playing with a group of friends is light years more fun than playing with randos.

My experience in LoL was that from Silver to Plat it was toxic as hell and up from there (mid diamond was where I peaked) you don't get griefers unless you encounter someone who has a boosted account (This is on NA, I heard that EU is way more toxic). But I never really cared about toxic people, I stopped playing when I realized that ranked has become a ritual where it sucked when I lost and it was a relief when I won. It became about winning and not having fun. It was a toxic relationship with the game itself...

[Chilloutman]

43 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

DotA is not for the faint of heart. It can be extraordinarily rewarding, but you need a very high threshold for frustration and a very thick skin.

 

I know, I suck at it for like 15 years now

[Skazz]

19 hours ago, Keyrock said:

DotA is not for the faint of heart. It can be extraordinarily rewarding, but you need a very high threshold for frustration and a very thick skin.

That's why HotS is the far superior MOBA.

Fight me.

[Mamoulian War]

And another DS2 boss down. Darklurker. Not so difficult, not so easy for an old guy The biggest issue was again the area to get to him, only 4 enemies, but I pulled by mistake more than one of them, it was immediate death. The second annoying thing was the requirement of 1 human effigy for each entrance to the area. I spent more than 20 until I've finished the fight.

This time, I've defeated the boss on 9th try, but his mirror image was able to cast one more spell outside of my FoV, while the first was already down... I got Victory Achieved, I was yelling happy hell yeah, and right in middle of that, I got one Shadow Spear spell up my ass... You can imagine me cursing in that moment... It took me few more tries to start concentrating again, but in the end my 14th attempt was finally again successful... See bellow

 

[Tale]

Final Fantasy XIV and I occasionally take breaks to play Elite Dangerous. Trying to earn money in ED and it's not going so great. Just equipped my ship for core mining and can't find anything. For LTD mining I basically end up spending an hour to earn 6 mil. So that's not been tops either.

[bugarup]

Finishing Shadowruns, though I'll deffinitely do moar playthroughs of "Hong Kong" which is my favorite of the three. You guys were right, games good. 

[Malcador]

Plugging along in DoK, on the second last mission so the end is near.  Fun game so far, even with my tactics devolving further into just hordes of railguns blasting at everything.  Story is enjoyable, even if a tad predictable, probably first in a game where the antagonists are quite right about you dooming the world.  

[MedicineDan]

Finished Darkest Dungeon and Almost done with the farmstead based xpac.  I would say that it's great, but mostly just provides extra goodies, which aren't necessary.  Plus, since I'm a completenic, I feel the need to play long enough to get all the town upgrades, and getting that one for the mill will be a real pain since I have not, as yet, gotten a single memory.  Tons of shards.  I've used the shard mercs, but I don't see why I really need them with a full roster.  I'm going to wait to do the darkest dungeons until I've explored a lot more of the farmstead.

Oh, and while I have the chance, I've been playing Black Mesa.  Not bad.  I guess it's just a spruced up Half-Life?  At least I get to save some folks on this one.

[Malcador]

Last mission in DoK was the most challenging which is still disappointing , I guess I should have chosen Classic difficulty.  Nice ending, ties in with Homeworld as expected and all.

Now have nothing to play now, suppose I will try again to finish off Battletech.

[Sarex]

Started playing Breathedge (Subnautica in space), so far so good.

[Lexx]

So I finally finished The Last of Us 2. Generic tl;dr: Not a bad game. Probably as good as the first one, maybe a little bit better.

Game offers some more freedom due to the map design. In the first game you were constantly following a "straight line" while in the second everything is split into smaller arena-type maps, which you can freely walk around in. However, it's still very much a linear game.

What annoyed me a lot is how the gender / sex stuff is shoveled into the players face at all times - Ellie the lesbian, Abby the woman with the body of a man, later someone who is transgender, etc. Generally I really wouldn't have cared about this at all, but the way the game presents this to you is just... so bad. It's hard for me to put this in words. It just felt so extremely unrealistic how this post-apocalyptic world is super inclusive. Kinda weird that they missed out a hit at zombie genders...

Anyways, some heavy spoilers below ...
 

Spoiler

It took a while for the story to get me invested. As said earlier, the death of Joel didn't bug me at all, but then it's just an endless stream of following people around / tracking the other party, which kinda drags on after a while. An issue is how the story jumps in time to various places and characters that you don't know. This is where you just don't care about these people. You don't know them, you just follow them around, yadda-yadda. It takes HOURS until you are finally at a point where you care about the side-characters, because now you have interacted with them for a while. NOW it's good. You want to see more of them, see what happens, the game really picks up at this point.

They really managed to make me like Abby. A lot even - it was more fun playing with her than with Ellie. Her story was more interesting, and her character was better.

Now this is what pissed me off HARD in the end .... The game tries so hard to make you like Abby, it succeeded in it, and then it makes you play as Ellie and kill Abby .... I really wanted to stop playing at this point, so much did it feel like bullshait. I had to replay the final combat scene A LOT, because I simply didn't want to attack Abby. It was a dumb scene, it completely failed on an emotional level and the game would have been much better without this. You just can't do a scene like that unless you give the player the ability to choose an outcome ... This is just bad game design that made me loath Ellie more than I did already before.

Other than that, boy the game is brutal. The gore is quite harsh, the camera isn't shy and will make you look right at it. I don't remember the first game having such a level of violence.

There's more to say about the game, but it's late and I really have to hit the bed now ...

 

Edited July 12, 2020 by Lexx

[Mamoulian War]

Looks like, I've hit a big wall in Dark Souls 2, yesterday 3 and half hours and more than 60 attempts at Ancient Dragon fight... His Fire Breath is a gamble, which hits me sooner or later and if it looks like I am able to outrun him through the whole attempt, he flies over the edge, and there is no way to outrun him... *sighs* Best attempt around 50% the worst attempt 5 seconds...

[Malcador]

Leading Brno in FM2018.  This team is truly dire, although I get a kick out of having scouts with terrible assessment skills for some reason , am stuck with them as anyone truly competent wants to work for a decent club.