What Are you Playing Now: Living the Good Life

[BruceVC]

15 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

Completed Hardland. It was mostly an enjoyable experience, though I've got stuck a couple of times (got unstuck by looking up info on the forums). I managed to reach 3 endings (out of 13) and they seemed not too terrible.

Nothing wrong with getting pointers and help from forums, I do it after about 25-40 minutes of battling with something on any game ...life is to short my fine feathered friend and their are just too many games out their to spend hours battling with some specific puzzle or vexation 

[LadyCrimson]

"You have claimed a portal!"
"One of your minions cannot reach the treasure room."  <---imp stuck in a wall
"A trap has been manufactured."
"A new spell has been researched."
"Your library is too small."
"Your creatures are fighting among themselves!"
"The enemy has broken through your walls!"
"The enemy is destroying your rooms!"
"Your creatures are under attack!"

"Ahh! Ayee! Wheeeee! Whoahhh! Wahhhh! Eeeeee!"  <----sound of you and AI dropping lots of minions on a tile
"Your creatures are attacking the enemy!"
"Your creatures are falling in battle."
"Your minions are winning a battle."
"Food is scarce; enlarge your hatchery."  <---too many bile demons
"A new room has been researched."

"Beware, the Lord of the Land approaches!"
"Your dungeon heart is being attacked!"
"Your minions are winning a battle."  
"You have conquered this land!"
"It is payday."

....still the most funzies game ever.

[Tale]

I "finished" a game of Stellaris with the new update. First time I've completed a game since they changed the economy.

I put finished in quotes because the game has a repeatable hard lock 900 days from the end of the galaxy. I, as the player crisis, tricked the galactic alliance into fighting against the Awakened Empire. Thus allowing me to mess around and not be attacked by either unless I attack first. And right before I win, the Awakened Empire wipes out the Galactic Custodian. The hard lock occurs after the notice.

[uuuhhii]

38 minutes ago, Tale said:

I "finished" a game of Stellaris with the new update. First time I've completed a game since they changed the economy.

I put finished in quotes because the game has a repeatable hard lock 900 days from the end of the galaxy. I, as the player crisis, tricked the galactic alliance into fighting against the Awakened Empire. Thus allowing me to mess around and not be attacked by either unless I attack first. And right before I win, the Awakened Empire wipes out the Galactic Custodian. The hard lock occurs after the notice.

every time play stellaris again after a patch

always end up with painful wrist

far too many click to do anything

[213374U]

"Hard lock"?

[BruceVC]

20 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I have decided to play Morrowind, I played it once in 2008 so hopefully I have forgotten most of the narrative as it unfolds

I have 254 Mods loaded with the Nexus  Vortex Mod Manager and already I have used a graphic Mod to set resolution at 3440 x 1440 so I predict its going to be  fun filled gaming ride 

Its amazing how doing some research can help when you use large numbers of Mods and you experience  issues in the game 

I started having issues once I used MGE EX to set my resolution, I couldnt view aspects of the HUD properly like the Journal. Anyway their is this Mod called Code Patch and I hadnt installed it properly because I just assume Vortex will do that for  me. Once I started following this excellent Morrowind Mod troubleshooting guide, link below,  I installed Code Patch and all my problems have gone away ...yay for me 

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/8481563-guide-for-installing-mods/

[marelooke]

On 4/16/2021 at 2:12 PM, Hurlsnot said:

I cleared some sort of goblin dungeon on the Isle of Siptah in Conan Exiles. It was scary.

I'm enjoying the Isle a ton. It's fun just to have a whole new area to explore, but I also feel like funcom has come along way with the engine and their world building, and it resulted in a pretty focused expansion with great effects.

I am building my fortress on a large rock outcropping in the middle of the maelstrom. 

Should give it another go now that they've added NPC camps, because boy, was getting thralls tedious in the original beta release.

Ironically though, I feel the game has mostly been regressing, rather than advancing when it comes to the base systems. All the additional crafting stations are just a nuisance (gotta fit them all *somewhere*, feels like just lazy workaround instead of properly dealing with atrocious crafting station UX, I guess), combat is as broken, if not more so, as it's ever been. But they removed much of the cheese tactics, so now you're more at the mercy of the game's shoddy hit detection and teleporting enemies.

But I still play the game, though I rarely venture into combat heavy areas, or dungeons, anymore as that experience, solo anyway, is just...not good. Building stuff is where it's at

[Hurlshort]

The camps are pretty great, and the loot you can get from them is better than in the past.. I also killed some big guy with a key and unlocked a cage with a prisoner, and viola, I had a new follower. That was a pretty cool moment. 

[the_dog_days]

Finally got my PC fixed. I had to wipe one SSD and lost all my save games.

[Hurlshort]

6 hours ago, marelooke said:

Should give it another go now that they've added NPC camps, because boy, was getting thralls tedious in the original beta release.

Ironically though, I feel the game has mostly been regressing, rather than advancing when it comes to the base systems. All the additional crafting stations are just a nuisance (gotta fit them all *somewhere*, feels like just lazy workaround instead of properly dealing with atrocious crafting station UX, I guess), combat is as broken, if not more so, as it's ever been. But they removed much of the cheese tactics, so now you're more at the mercy of the game's shoddy hit detection and teleporting enemies.

But I still play the game, though I rarely venture into combat heavy areas, or dungeons, anymore as that experience, solo anyway, is just...not good. Building stuff is where it's at

Oh, and did you hear about the new god?

[melkathi]

11 hours ago, the_dog_days said:

Finally got my PC fixed. I had to wipe one SSD and lost all my save games.

Anything important? Or is this the opportunity to replay Titus the Fox and James Pond from the start?

[ComradeYellow]

Horizon Zero Dawn

Ok here's the deal.  It started out wonderful, I mean the plot/narrative was a bit meh but the gameplay and world were absolutely stunning, I was even contemplating ranking it as one of my favorites.

However!  I'm at that midpoint+ point of the game and the typical issues with open world games are becoming very glaring, like tedium, repetitiveness and overall feelings of artificiality and a dry overabundance of superficial content.

I don't even know why I bother with open world games anymore, I mean this is probably one of the best there is and it's still got that disease.

[Hurlshort]

21 minutes ago, ComradeYellow said:

Horizon Zero Dawn

Ok here's the deal.  It started out wonderful, I mean the plot/narrative was a bit meh but the gameplay and world were absolutely stunning, I was even contemplating ranking it as one of my favorites.

However!  I'm at that midpoint+ point of the game and the typical issues with open world games are becoming very glaring, like tedium, repetitiveness and overall feelings of artificiality and a dry overabundance of superficial content.

I don't even know why I bother with open world games anymore, I mean this is probably one of the best there is and it's still got that disease.

Maybe you just need to adjust your expectations on how the game will play out for you. I mean, clearly you enjoyed the first half of the game. You probably got a lot of hoursof enjoyment out of that. Why isn't that enough? Do you really need to complete all the content to call it a good experience?

I don't go into open world games expecting to finish anything anymore. I go in to explore, and when it gets tedious, I stop.

[Lexx]

I mean, you at least want to see how the story goes, no? And if that stuff is locked behind crappy unlocking features, etc.. then that is pretty garbage. : >

[Hurlshort]

2 hours ago, Lexx said:

I mean, you at least want to see how the story goes, no? And if that stuff is locked behind crappy unlocking features, etc.. then that is pretty garbage. : >

The stories are rarely all that engaging, though. I mean, Horizon: Zero Dawn was above average, but I remember there was some big reveal 20+ hours in that was pretty predictable, and then it became clear what the end was going to look like (spoiler alert: you need to fight a boss at the end.)

Most of these open world games don't really keep me on the edge of my seat with story. The exception is probably Saint's Row 2.  

[Malcador]

Grinding in D3, finally got an ancient primal that wasn't the free one with GR70.  Of course it's a legendary that gives a bonus to a skill that I don't use, but it's still something.  Is funny to watch some of the crits, I hit a demon for 1.03 Trillion HP damage

[Theonlygarby]

Kind of playing colony ship... kind of playing trails of cold steel.

I can't seem to do anything in colony ship.  Has a disclaimer that it's hard... and it is.

 

Cold steel is just kind of boring.  I like the series but it is rather predictable.  And the game loop is very repetitive.

I am having a hell of a time getting into any video games lately

[LadyCrimson]

Read the followers in Diablo3 can now wear more equipment? 
Which had me wondering if I wanted to try the PC version of the game again.  I played it on PC originally just not sure my hands could take the constant mouse use for chr. movement, UI, etc. at the moment.  Plus I don't like always-online.  Maybe I should just stick to the PS4.  But ... but ... the graphix clarity!  Yeah I know, D3 graphics are nothing special but ... clarity! 

[LadyCrimson]

Well, it's pretty fun putting something like those fire walking boots on the Enchantress follower and have her leaving a trail of fire where she goes.  Fun to put full gear on all of them.  I'm not quite sure what effects work on them or don't, or what they wear that works on my chr etc. 

The new season has a cute pet but supposedly to get it you'd have to do every single goal of the Season.  Nope, not happening.    

[ComradeYellow]

20 hours ago, Lexx said:

I mean, you at least want to see how the story goes, no?

As I stated, the story isn't really all that great to me, though it does have a great protagonist and some cool dialogue options.

Red Dead Redemption 2 I completed no sweat, because the plot was engaging and the the world felt more organic and less artificial, though the controls were a bit clunky (not an issue whatsoever in HZD).

I also completed Elex no sweat because at the mid point is when you finally start becoming powerful and able to take down baddies, so there was a "ladder" effect there, unlike HZD where it becomes extremely easy at midpoint.  Also Elex had some really interesting factions that Hegel would admire:  Tree hugging hippies.... who are right wing reactionaries?  Technology worshippers... who also worship a deity?  Wonderful use of contradictions.  I also really enjoyed the build character planning aspect of Elex.  The most glaring problem with Elex was extremely unbalanced, even for a PB game, which kinda killed it for most gamers.

[bringingyouthefuture]

I recently played through Diablo 3, the cinematic trailer for Diablo 4 got me interested.  I beat the game pretty quick, do most people play it on the hardest difficulty?  I couldn't really get into it, but also not a huge fan of action games anymore, my soon-to-be-claw hand rebels against the idea.

[Lexx]

I'm playing Diablo 2 again recently, because of the Resurrected announcement and alpha test. It's so much better than Diablo 3. Like, Jesus, how could they f-up D3 so much, it's incredible. It's been years since I had touched D2, and I totally forgot how it felt like.

Anyways. Usually the normal difficulty is reasonably easy (though D2 is still harder than D3, imo). It's picking up the pace in nightmare and hell difficulty. However, you will also get a lot better item drops to power up your character. This is pretty much where the fun-part comes in.

Now that being said, I guess the reason why D3 just feels so unfun to me is that the item drops are just bad. The game is throwing so much stuff at you, it just doesn't feel as interesting and rewarding as in D2. It was even worse at release, when clearly the mechanics were tweaked with the auction house in mind - for example, monsters would more likely drop items for any but not the class you are currently playing with ... thus you are forced to shop in the auction house for better gear, etc. What a crap.

[ComradeYellow]

21 minutes ago, Lexx said:

It's so much better than Diablo 3. Like, Jesus, how could they f-up D3 so much, it's incredible.

Not the same team.  Blizzard North was dismantled quite a few years before D3 was developed so the veterans behind the series weren't involved.

Knowing Activision-Blizzard, it was probably designed by a team of thousands of interns each responsible for a tiny aspect of the game.

[Lexx]

Yeh, not the same team, but it's like Blizzard looked at what made D2 successful and then came to the completely wrong conclusion about it.

Unlike other people, I'm not convinced that the original team would have necessarily delivered a better game, though. Management would probably have forced them into similar money-making gameplay schemes.

[Malcador]

15 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Read the followers in Diablo3 can now wear more equipment? 
Which had me wondering if I wanted to try the PC version of the game again.  I played it on PC originally just not sure my hands could take the constant mouse use for chr. movement, UI, etc. at the moment.  Plus I don't like always-online.  Maybe I should just stick to the PS4.  But ... but ... the graphix clarity!  Yeah I know, D3 graphics are nothing special but ... clarity! 

Yah, is great for rifts as they can wear Nemesis, a lot of other gear emanates so you get the legendary bonus.  I agree with the always online, always seem to get brutal lag spikes in the evening EST - really good when you're challenging a GR.

Sort of stuck in my build now, maybe will try different gems that are not ideal but will at least be different.  Or go to the Strafe set