What Are You Playing Now: The meaning of life

[MrBrown]

On 11/22/2020 at 10:13 PM, Keyrock said:

Now that I think about it, it's interesting that Dragon Quest is name dropped in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. And not just once in passing, it's been specifically mentioned multiple times, and always in a positive light. Were this a Squeenix game, I wouldn't give it a second thought, but Yakuza is a SEGA IP. Why name drop a game from a different company? If they wanted Kasuga to be inspired by a great jRPG then why not Phantasy Star?

Dragon Quest is just widely popular and known in Japan, so that might be it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest#Cultural_impact

There's even a live-action comedy drama that's basically a Dragon Quest spoof. Can absolutely recommend it, even if you've never played any Dragon Quest games. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yūsha_Yoshihiko

Edited November 24, 2020 by MrBrown

[BruceVC]

15 hours ago, KaineParker said:

Started playing Vampyr on a whim, it's interesting enough but the camera is atrocious.

Looking for something kind of sci-fi to play next, not Cyberpunk tho. Is underrail any good?

I enjoyed Vampyr, you should use a Controller as once you start understanding the combat mechanics the game grows on you

Also I normally always play a good character and I would never go around drinking peoples blood, unless its by agreement, but you have to in Vampyr to progress and win certain  battles ....I did enjoy that part of it and only felt a little guilty killing the occasional  innocent 

[Malcador]

Shadowlands launched last night, so played that. Always nice to run around the new zones, I find the Bastion quests funny as they orient you for your afterlife, is like onboarding at a company.  Gorgeous zones, whatever else happens, Blizzard's art and music teams put in a solid shift.

[Humanoid]

This is the first WoW expansion launch since BC where I don't have an active guild to go back to. Technically it existed and still exists, but not in any number where doing content becomes viable. Back then it was because it was a joke bank alt guild that I was in so people wouldn't bother me about recruitment (being headhunted as a rogue was odd enough in itself), and now almost 14 years later it's returned to that level of activity.

It's kinda sad I guess, but also means I have absolutely no incentive to try playing Shadowlands, which is good I guess? Sick of lurching from crisis to recycled crisis anyway.

That said, I'm wrapping up the MM6 portion of the Might and Magic merge project, and given how the games always devolve into a teleport-and-fly-everywhere monty haul, I'm not sure I'll keep going into MM7. The mod does scale enemies so that even the tutorial areas of games don't become trivially useless when you enter them at level 50, but even so, I've probably had enough for now.

[Malcador]

My guild was, at its peak, only 10 active members.  Died out due to not being able to do anything, which is funny as we can do a lot with 10 people now My server's dead and so is my guild, up until a recent change of UI was nice to see people last online 13 years ago, hah - He said "BRB", and I'm still waiting.

[Sarex]

Left to buy a pack of cigarettes, huh...

 

edit: Here you go Malcador, for the 7k.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Sarex

[SusanDarwin]

Age of Empires 3 DE , the best real-time strategy game that I'm going through right now , the plot is fictional but raised as historically accurate , I advise everyone , it's time to revive the strategy genre that is currently losing relevance...

[Hurlshort]

4 hours ago, Humanoid said:

That said, I'm wrapping up the MM6 portion of the Might and Magic merge project, and given how the games always devolve into a teleport-and-fly-everywhere monty haul, I'm not sure I'll keep going into MM7. The mod does scale enemies so that even the tutorial areas of games don't become trivially useless when you enter them at level 50, but even so, I've probably had enough for now.

You totally make me want to play an MM game, but I'm not sure I can handle the graphics anymore. I did enjoy MM X: Legacy awhile back, maybe I should give that a try? Any other decent newish Might and Magic/Lands of Lore style games? I've already played Grimrock.

[Mamoulian War]

9 minutes ago, Hurlshot said:

You totally make me want to play an MM game, but I'm not sure I can handle the graphics anymore. I did enjoy MM X: Legacy awhile back, maybe I should give that a try? Any other decent newish Might and Magic/Lands of Lore style games? I've already played Grimrock.

Vaporum https://www.gog.com/game/vaporum

Vaporum: Lockdown (both steampunk) https://www.gog.com/game/vaporum_lockdown

Grimrock 2 (dunno if you played this too or not) https://www.gog.com/game/legend_of_grimrock_2

Operencia: Stolen Sun (fantasy) https://www.gog.com/game/operencia_the_stolen_sun_explorers_edition

StarCrawlers (scifi) https://www.gog.com/game/starcrawlers

I played Vaporum and Starcrawlers, and enjoyed them both. Vaporum I enjoyed more, but I had a lot of fun with Starcrawlers too.

I do not know of any more modern dungeoncrawlers, so if anyone konws some and they are available on GOG, feel free to recommend me something as well.

[Humanoid]

3 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

You totally make me want to play an MM game, but I'm not sure I can handle the graphics anymore. I did enjoy MM X: Legacy awhile back, maybe I should give that a try? Any other decent newish Might and Magic/Lands of Lore style games? I've already played Grimrock.

I'm playing with the MM6-7-8 merge mod that puts the assets of all three games into an enhanced version of the MM8 engine. I'm sure enhancements can be acquired individually, but it comes baked in with the usual modern trimmings like high resolution widescreen, mouselook, slightly improved textures, user moddability, etc. All you need is the GOG copy of MM8 to run it, too.

 

EDIT: Travel between the worlds of the three games is enabled once you're high enough level to learn Town Portal and can brave the required location without getting instantly killed.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Humanoid

[Hurlshort]

Ok, I started it with MM6. Retro goodness.

[Humanoid]

3 hours ago, Hurlshot said:

Ok, I started it with MM6. Retro goodness.

A few non-obvious things:

- There are four extra quickspell slots compared to the original game. The normal one remains bound to the S key by default, the ones labelled 1-4 are bound to the F5-F8 keys

- Quicksave is F11, but Quickload is unbound by default. You can open up mm8.ini in the install folder and assign one, though the key IDs aren't obvious. Setting it to "123" makes it F12.

- On the options menu screen, the logo on the upper half of the screen has a the game logo that actually is a button to access some new settings specific to the mod, such as the "bolster" (level-scaling rate) which can also be disabled completely, and the ability to disable the new weather effects which can be very distracting.

- For some skills that originally didn't exist in MM6 - namely Alchemy and Armsmaster - trainers have been added so you can safely invest in those skills. The former Diplomacy trainers (as the useless Diplomacy has been removed outright) are the new Alchemy trainers, and the new Armsmaster trainers are just in formerly empty houses in Free Haven. There's no Identify Monster trainers on Enroth though ...not that anyone ever really takes that.

- For most classes, the final promoted class is the same in all the games, so it doesn't matter which game you promote in. Clerics and Sorcerers are a little funky though, if you get the final promotion in MM6 you have access to both Master Light and Dark but can not reach GM in either. If you do so in MM7 then you get a different promotion depending on what route you're on and get access to GM in one, but are completely blocked off from the other. You can convert from a final-promotion MM6 Cleric to an MM7 one by talking to the Master Light/Dark trainer, I think it's a one-way conversion. (Meanwhile in MM8, you can only ever go the Light route on the Cleric and the Dark route on the SorcererNecromancer)

[Katphood]

Sacred 3

It's pretty fun actaully. It's a non-open world diablo clone.

[melkathi]

I never finished sacred 2. It was huge

Edited November 25, 2020 by melkathi

[Mamoulian War]

I never finished Sacred 1 it felt huge to me as well

[melkathi]

I finished 1 twice... + expansion.

God what did I do with my youth

[Malcador]

5 hours ago, melkathi said:

God what did I do with my youth

A question you never should ask.

Rather enjoying Shadowlands. Everyone seems to hate the Kyrians, whose MO is to purge their candidates of all their mortal memories and identity as they have to serve as courier of souls.  But I like them, the zone is gorgeous and is suitable for my paladin.  Right now am in Edgelord heaven (I guess that may be Revendreth..) Maldraxxus, which is just spiky valhalla.

[melkathi]

@Keyrock since you are our Wuxia expert, let me know what Amazing Cultivation Simulator is like once you get around to play it?

[BruceVC]

On 11/25/2020 at 1:30 AM, Humanoid said:

I'm playing with the MM6-7-8 merge mod that puts the assets of all three games into an enhanced version of the MM8 engine. I'm sure enhancements can be acquired individually, but it comes baked in with the usual modern trimmings like high resolution widescreen, mouselook, slightly improved textures, user moddability, etc. All you need is the GOG copy of MM8 to run it, too.

 

EDIT: Travel between the worlds of the three games is enabled once you're high enough level to learn Town Portal and can brave the required location without getting instantly killed.

Great post, thanks for sharing 

I haven't  played any M&M games and this merge Mod may be exactly what I was looking for as I battle sometimes around older games and the outdated graphics engine and mechanics 

 

[Gorth]

Grrrr!!!... bloody wankers. Africa and South America stabbed me in the back and deserted my holy mission to rid earth of the alien menace. Ah well, they'll change their tune once they get lined up on the meat processing plants. I'll ignore their pitiful screams for help and pleas to save their DNA from being harvested.

 

So, ummm, yeah. Paying the price for the lack of foresight when creating my 3 bases in xenonauts. I only just discovered yesterday, that I can build more than one radar on a site to extend radar range. Something to keep in mind for next run. Getting close to the end of the various tech trees I think. Started to upgrade the condors (and the lonely corsair) to marauder interceptors (2 at each base). Still supported by two Foxtrots at each base for the extra punch against large and massive ships.

 

Almost all of my troopers are running around in jackal armour. Something I probably do need to fix. Assault guys has Wolf armour, but I I'm only just done researching the second tier jetpack enabled armour and I can build the armour that turns an infantry man into a walking tank (heavy weapons only), but I'm not sure if I really want that kind of limited usability armour???

 

Knocked one of the big bosses senseless (Praetor), so now I'm researching "The Endgame". May the best humans win.

 

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah you have to build more Radars to extend the range. IIRC maximum is 3 on one base.

[Keyrock]

On this day of giving thanks, I am thankful for Ryu Ga Gotoku for consistently putting a smile on my face. Nobody does feel good moments quite like them. 

[Malcador]

Still playing Secret Files.  This voice acting is hard to bear some times, occasionally sounds like they're in a cavern.  Well, at least it's better than AlternativA.

[LadyCrimson]

When a few games you've been eyeballing, mostly out of idle curiosity, are on 30-60% sale but you're not sure you'd actually play them. 

--Control
--Metro:Exodus
--Deep Rock Galatic
--Hades

Hm.  Maybe I'll just wait for Winter Sale...  

[BruceVC]

52 minutes ago, LadyCrimson said:

When a few games you've been eyeballing, mostly out of idle curiosity, are on 30-60% sale but you're not sure you'd actually play them. 

--Control
--Metro:Exodus
--Deep Rock Galatic
--Hades

Hm.  Maybe I'll just wait for Winter Sale...  

No you cant possibly wait for a Winter Sale , you must definitely buy Metro: Exodus, ...this is not the time for procrastination when it comes to Metro games on sale