What Are you Playing Now: Living the Good Life

[Sarex]

Playing Disco Elysium while trying to resist my inner savescummer, not an easy thing.

[Theonlygarby]

2 hours ago, Sarex said:

Playing Disco Elysium while trying to resist my inner savescummer, not an easy thing.

I feel you.  Especially in that game where part of the fun is failing.  My brain can't handle all that failure.  If I wanted to fail I'd just live my real life.

[InsaneCommander]

Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

 

This game looks a lot like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The walking animation seems to be exactly the same. The game is too easy, most monsters can be easily destroyed before they do anything to hurt you and the game mechanics can make boss battles a joke. Like one that allows you to regain your HP as long as you are not being hit. But you can press a button and take a hit, just to resume refilling your life later.

Despite that I'm enjoying it for what it is. Maybe they will include a hard mode later to make things properly interesting. It seems you can finish it in 6 hours. I've played for 4 hours so far. Let's see.

[melkathi]

I have been meaning to rewatch Record of Lodoss War

[LadyCrimson]

"Don't update games until I launch them."  - <---used so downloads don't auto-start when I go "Online."

But then ... I like how Steam disables the "PLAY" button within their gui (even if you go back into Offline mode), because they don't want you to play until you update.

Thankfully, most of the time you can bypass this (Offline at least so it can't autostart updating on launch) by launching a game directly from the .exe in the install folder.  FU Steam. And before anyone wonders - no I don't really care that these games want updates. Except Xuan-Yuan, they changed a lot of things I don't want to deal with yet. Mostly I'm just too lazy to want to temp-backup game installs first, and then download, most of the time, especially games that seem to "update" every two days.   I know there's a way to download/downgrade to older game versions (manifests?) but it's way too much bother.

Edited April 1, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Sarex]

11 hours ago, melkathi said:

I have been meaning to rewatch Record of Lodoss War

I wonder how it holds up... I remember it as being very good, but then again almost all anime were good for me at the time.

[marelooke]

17 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

"Don't update games until I launch them."  - <---used so downloads don't auto-start when I go "Online."

But then ... I like how Steam disables the "PLAY" button within their gui (even if you go back into Offline mode), because they don't want you to play until you update.

Thankfully, most of the time you can bypass this (Offline at least so it can't autostart updating on launch) by launching a game directly from the .exe in the install folder.  FU Steam. And before anyone wonders - no I don't really care that these games want updates. Except Xuan-Yuan, they changed a lot of things I don't want to deal with yet. Mostly I'm just too lazy to want to temp-backup game installs first, and then download, most of the time, especially games that seem to "update" every two days.   I know there's a way to download/downgrade to older game versions (manifests?) but it's way too much bother.

If only that option also worked for workshop content

Nothing quite as annoying as having mods auto-update, breaking your game until the mod authors manage to update their stuff... Been a major pain point for Conan Exiles, each update just breaks servers for sometimes days, until the modders manage to catch up.

On the subject of Conan Exiles, on top of the forced connection to Funcom's "live service" BS (note, game supposedly still works if you're offline now, but you can't force it into offline mode without disconnecting your network) they now added a dumb launcher too.

You can, at least for the time being, skip this abomination by just launching the exe directly from the game folder.

<rant>
What's wrong with devs nowadays? Do they not want you to, you know, play the game? Why make it as slow as humanly possible to get into the game? Just get rid of all the stupid unskippable intros, launchers, splash screens (that includes you "press <key> to continue" abomination of a UX failure), health and safety warnings, and get me to the main menu on startup, for Pete's sake, it's not exactly rocket surgery... If you really must show the damn things (eg. for legal reasons) at least make them skippable, or even better, only show them the first time. No need to remind me of the epilepsy warning every. single. launch.

Ugh
</rant>

Edited April 2, 2021 by marelooke

[LadyCrimson]

@marelooke Yeah, workshop mods ... I noticed if a creator deletes their mod, and you go Online, it disappears from your game.  I don't know if that holds true with all game's workshop mods - I've only tried Workshop on 2 or 3 games - but ugh.  I'm sure you can find the mods folder for that game and back it up and restore it when Offline again but per usual, just too much trouble for me when all I want to do is purchase and/or download a game or maybe post in the forums (the only reasons I go Online - I can go weeks/months without going Online).  I'd only use non-cosmetic mods on Workshop if the game is past updating and/or the mod has existed for a long time/well supported.

Everything before the Main Menu definitely should be skippable with ESC or whatever.  Can't stand splash screens either.  eg, we sound of similar mind. 

Edited April 2, 2021 by LadyCrimson

[Raithe]

Picked up Horizon Zero Dawn with the Steam sale on it. Then made the mistake of starting it up at about 22:30 last night to test it out, see how the tutorial played....

Then I realised it was around 0415 and decided I should probably call it a night.

[Humanoid]

I'm calling it now, It Takes Two is game of the year.

[Keyrock]

I started up Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts. I've never played any of the games in the series before, but I went ahead and started playing on Deadeye (Hard) difficulty. This game is supposedly Hitman-ish, and I fancy myself pretty good at Hitman and always play on the hardest difficulty available, so I'm feeling frisky. So far it's aight. It looks pretty nice for a budget title, though the whole game takes place in Siberia, so I suspect is will look quite samey (snow, snow, snow, but look over there, it's snow). I do like having to hold my breath to temporarily reduce sway and having to compensate for wind and bullet drop. I appreciate it when games have proper projectile physics and conventional guns don't magically shoot like lasers. I also like that I can go prone and crawl. Not nearly enough games let you go prone. You can crouch is 95% of games, but very few actually let you go prone.

 

[InsaneCommander]

There is also ice and snowy rocks.

[LadyCrimson]

*stares at Stronghold: Warlords in the virtual stores*

On the one hand, it's supposedly the best  "3D" version of Stronghold they've put out (set in East Asia this time vs. European medieval).  On the other hand ... it's "3D" Stronghold, with likely more emphasis on typical AoE-like RTS over what made Stronghold unique in the first place.  But I'm so borrrred/want a new non-action game.  At least it would have freebuild just to goof on with.And it's not $60.

[Bartimaeus]

A couple of hours of Breathedge. A constant barrage of toilet, meta, and absurdist humor unnecessarily taking me out of what should be an atmospheric game. I thought I would like the space setting, but there hasn't been any tension and everything feels really static, which I didn't feel at all with Subnautica...something's just not clicking for me.

[Sarex]

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

A couple of hours of Breathedge. A constant barrage of toilet, meta, and absurdist humor unnecessarily taking me out of what should be an atmospheric game. I thought I would like the space setting, but there hasn't been any tension and everything feels really static, which I didn't feel at all with Subnautica...something's just not clicking for me.

Yeah, you really need to like the absurd humor to click with the game, I personally enjoyed the game. The game does shift direction 2/3 of the way through and it gets a faster pace and more story driven, but I doubt you would want to play that far if the game isn't working for you.

[Raithe]

I've managed to spend about 35 hours playing Horizon Zero Dawn over the Easter weekend....

Facing that awkward quandary in any mostly open world setting, side quests, and assorted non-main plotline errands that kick my minimal OCD into gear. Having a couple of those side quests where dialogue makes it sound as if you have done stuff to earn a major reputation before you've actually done it, and then running into things where I keep asking myself "Hm, should I have pushed more of the main plot first and then this stuff makes more sense / fits better than randomly stumbling into it?"

Then also the pondering on whether I should do all the DLC stuff before getting too far into the main games story, or when most of it is done?

[Sarex]

Finished Disco Elysium and I had a ton of fun with it. In my opinion this is what PS: Torment should have been. All that being said I think I would have had even more fun had I just cheated the stats, but that is just me, nothing to do with the game itself.

[Bartimaeus]

40 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Yeah, you really need to like the absurd humor to click with the game, I personally enjoyed the game. The game does shift direction 2/3 of the way through and it gets a faster pace and more story driven, but I doubt you would want to play that far if the game isn't working for you.

Yeah, if I'm going to try to play a base-building, resource-gathering, crafting-heavy game of this type, atmosphere and tension are *required* for me to bother (it's like the main draw of these sorts of games for me...really, the only draw - I would never have in a million years bothered with Subnautica if not for its atmosphere and tension, it's what makes the core gameplay compelling), and the game is like deliberately sabotaging both from happening, so I really just can't get into it.

Disco Elysium: I still need to play that. I bought it on Steam, played an hour of it and was like "wow, this seems really cool and well-written", and for some reason (I don't remember specifically why - something in real life most likely) dropped it and never picked it back up again. I'll get to it eventually...

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

12 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yeah, if I'm going to try to play a base-building, resource-gathering, crafting-heavy game of this type, atmosphere and tension are *required* for me to bother (it's like the main draw of these sorts of games for me...really, the only draw - I would never have in a million years bothered with Subnautica if not for its atmosphere and tension, it's what makes the core gameplay compelling), and the game is like deliberately sabotaging both from happening, so I really just can't get into it.

Disco Elysium: I still need to play that. I bought it on Steam, played an hour of it and was like "wow, this seems really cool and well-written", and for some reason (I don't remember specifically why - something in real life most likely) dropped it and never picked it back up again. I'll get to it eventually...

Minor spoiler for Breathedge:

Spoiler

The base building happens in the second third of the game and is abandoned in the last third. You basically leave your base and that map. The last third is littered with resources so you don't need to worry about them.

As for Disco Elysium, you did yourself a favor. The voice acting adds so much to the game, that I think this final cut is in fact the 1.0 game.

Edited April 6, 2021 by Sarex

[Keyrock]

After having completed the first real mission of Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts (6/6 objectives, 2/6 challenges) and started the second, here are my first impressions:

The comparisons to HITMAN are fair. The basic framework of the game is quite similar; you are dropped into a fair sized open-ish area, similar in size and number of different paths to a typical HITMAN level, and you have a number of objectives to complete, ranging from eliminating targets to gathering intel to planting explosives and so on. Not all of the objectives are necessarily required to be completed to successfully finish the mission. There are also challenges like no alarms were sounded, get 20 headshots, kill the main target and his 2 bodyguards within 10 seconds of each other, etc. 

The biggest deficiency, when compared to HITMAN, is the absence of the fun creative kills, like locking someone in a sauna, overriding the safety shutoff, and boiling them inside, or electrocuting a rocker with a faulty microphone. The kills in this game are generally weapon kills or explosions.

The biggest advantage this game has over HITMAN is superior gunplay. Obviously, the sniper rifles feel great, it's a sniper game, they damn well better. However, the secondary weapons (mainly assault rifles and shotguns) also feel quite good, varied, and appropriately punchy. The sidearms are also pretty good, as well as the gadgets (grenades, throwing knives, mines, gas bombs, etc.)

Stealth works fairly well, though the distance and time to getting spotted is still too long for my liking, even on deadeye difficulty, which makes me wonder if there is an even harder difficulty to unlock. The story is fine, your standard military fare and I can smell the future "shocking" plot twist coming from 1000 miles away. The dialogue is too edgelord for my liking, but that's expected from a smaller developer that's obviously trying to lure some of the CoD crowd.

Overall, I'm having fun with the game so far. The level of polish and quality isn't quite up to AAA standards, but it's a budget title, I didn't expect AAA quality. Still, outside of slightly sorta wonky first person platforming to climb cliffs and jump over ravines, it plays fairly well. I do wish the game had manual saves, I hate relying only on autosaves.

Edited April 6, 2021 by Keyrock

[LadyCrimson]

Stronghold: Warlords - well, it is a bit better than most of the other 3D ones and while the graphics are kind of dated looking, I do like the East Asian aesthetic.  I haven't done much more than the tutorial and some freebuilding, so generally no comments re: military/combat yet.

--runs great on my system at 4k/100+ FPS.  :P  Although it would appear older and/or "potato" systems may have low fps issues and/or crashes with a lot of units/buildings over time.  There are total-unit limitations by default (rather low ones imo) but you can increase them via an .xml if your pc can take it.
--units can now move in formation, which is nice. I remember in original game I'd tell hundreds of macemen to march over there, and they'd end up in this single-line stream rushing to attack. But, see, to me that was amusing...
--there are a lot of building restrictions, which make sense in normal play modes...example, you place a large Temple or a small Fear Factor deco item and it greys out in the UI. There can be only one, sometimes two, of each type.  In freebuild this is irritating because maybe I want more than one cherry tree in the whole town? They could make it so only the first one placed of each thing gives a bonus and extras do nothing.  Would achieve same strategy restriction but allow you to have a little more aesthetic too.
--castle building becomes more and more simplified and restricted every game in this series. Some might like this. Not me.
--as is often the case with these updated "3D" of older top-down isometric RTS games, the maps are small and feel cramped - oh and there are no moats.   >.>

Anyway ... so far it's a bit like the 3D version of Crusader 2 they did a while back.  Where I don't dislike it and I at least sort of like the freebuild (there is a map editor for it, so that helps), so I'll probably mess around with that and maybe AI skirmish mode off and on - but as is often the case, while the originals may be graphically outdated with "stupid AI", they still had more flexible/creative gameplay - and charm, the originals had way more charm. 

But at least Firefly still has their corny sense of humor:  (when you click on chickens/pigs they have names...)

[Gizmo]

Planescape:Torment

Styx: Shards of Darkness

[Mamoulian War]

I went back after 4 and half years to Fairy Fencer F on my PS3. I'll try to achieve Platinum trophy in this walkthrough.

[Hurlshort]

I had the same reaction to Breathedge. I liked it enough to get to the second act, but leaving behind the whole area kind of killed what Iike in these crafting games. Plus the humor was off for me. I don't regret buying it, but it is not Subnautica.

[Bartimaeus]

Does anyone remember @Prosper's modeling madness from years back? You know, this stuff:

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64924-sorry-i-was-gone-so-long-2/?tab=comments#comment-1405156

https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64924-sorry-i-was-gone-so-long-2/?tab=comments#comment-1408877

I'm pretty sure I found an EarthBound-esque RPG that was actually made by him or someone as similarly demented as him.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Bartimaeus