What are you Playing Now? Who needs a life anyway?...

[Tale]

Death Stranding Director's Cut

So far it's the same game I played back in the day on PS4 when it first came out. None of the new stuff has been particularly noteworthy. But it's still kind of a great game. Sadly all the tension is sucked out of it being on a second play. Just grenade the BTs into next year and the Mules are quite vulnerable to being punched in the face. 

But even where the tension fails, the atmosphere excels. And it's great to just see a city appear as you crest over a hill and the music comes on. More open world games really need to do that.

[Wormerine]

14 hours ago, Tale said:

Death Stranding Director's Cut

It's on my to-do-list. I waited for Director's Cut for dualsense5 support. I have to many massive open world games installed at the moment to add this one to the pile. 

How is online component? Do I loose much by waiting? From what I understand stuff our build can appear in my game. Does it mean that if I wait for too long then logging in will result in bunch of stuff appearing in my game, or does it more organically appear with story progression?

[Raithe]

Just wrapped up Deliver Us The Moon.

It's an.. odd one.  Once you get past a couple of the plot points it's an atmospheric adventure (no pun intended) in an apocalyptic near future where as a lone astronaut sent to the moon on a critical mission to save humanity. A slowly un-ravelling mystery, but all set to a series of fairly basic platform movements, flips between 1st person and 3rd person play, a few logical puzzles, and a lot of collect audio logs or look at memorabilia from the missing colonists. And for some reason a space suit that can only carry 3 minutes of oxygen. Depending on how invested you can get in characters told to you via notes, audio logs, and some holographic logs you might enjoy the emotional pull, or it might just be dull and unmemorable if they don't catch you.

About 3-4 hours worth of game to run through.

[Malcador]

Darkside Detective's done. The penultimate bonus case is a joke, but the last one was enjoyable - I liked the character just introduced so you can get the guy out of the pool.  

[Humanoid]

On a whim I started playing Sid Meier's Covert Action again. The odd thing about it for me is that it's not a game I play out of any real nostalgia: I didn't play it back when it released, not for the rest of the 90s, not in the 2000s. I think I only played it for the first time a little over 10 years ago. And yet it scratches that one itch that nothing else has managed to in all these decades: my need for Advanced Carmen Sandiego. So while the gameplay is actually pretty sub-par, the meta-layer of investigating all the links with actual pen and paper in hand is still extremely satisfying.

A reimagining in something resembling the Hitman engine would be very welcome indeed.

[Theonlygarby]

Playing "trails of cold steel" already beat the trails in the sky series.  I like it, but I can't really say why.  The dialog is rather corny.  All the quests are fetch, go here, talk to this person, get something, fight a monster.

 

The combat is very easy.

 

JRPGs are just charming I guess.  The writing is childish, but also somewhat dark If you look passed it's presentation.

 

Nothing has really happened story wise, it's just all character development, which I appreciate.  It feels like every game lately has to start with some intense action, instead of easing you into the game.

 

I think of baldurs gate 3, and pathfinder 2.  Both start by instantly showing you some mega boss.  Instead of you being introduced to the world and setting.

 

Wrath of the righteous has a giant demon, a dragon  and a magic sword within like 5 minutes.  The sword is what makes me stop playing.  Now I feel like I should make a character that uses a sword.  Why would a monk, mage or ranger be the chosen sword character... I don't know if I want to be lawful or chaotic in this situation.  I just threw a knife, fell down a hole, now I gotta choose if I'm going to lawfully accept the sword.

 

This just became a pathfinder rant

Edited April 6, 2022 by Theonlygarby

[uuuhhii]

36 minutes ago, Theonlygarby said:

Playing "trails of cold steel" already beat the trails in the sky series.  I like it, but I can't really say why.  The dialog is rather corny.  All the quests are fetch, go here, talk to this person, get something, fight a monster.

 

The combat is very easy.

 

JRPGs are just charming I guess.  The writing is childish, but also somewhat dark If you look passed it's presentation.

 

Nothing has really happened story wise, it's just all character development, which I appreciate.  It feels like every game lately has to start with some intense action, instead of easing you into the game.

 

I think of baldurs gate 3, and pathfinder 2.  Both start by instantly showing you some mega boss.  Instead of you being introduced to the world and setting.

 

Wrath of the righteous has a giant demon, a dragon  and a magic sword within like 5 minutes.  The sword is what makes me stop playing.  Now I feel like I should make a character that uses a sword.  Why would a monk, mage or ranger be the chosen sword character... I don't know if I want to be lawful or chaotic in this situation.  I just threw a knife, fell down a hole, now I gotta choose if I'm going to lawfully accept the sword.

 

This just became a pathfinder rant

a lot of player seems to have some problem with the angel sword thing

with how common outsider are in pathfinder setting a angel sword are just a +3 flaming long sword to most player

[uuuhhii]

trying weird west again

combat control are awful

but trying stealth are wasting far more time

at least quick load are fast

[the_dog_days]

I haven't made a whole lot of progress with my new Elex 2 save though I did find some really useful mods. Including,

Skip Opening Logos: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/21 (Removes the THQ Nordic and Piranha Bytes logos on startup.)

Brighter Flashlight: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/40 (Makes the flashlight actually worth something while also making the nights seem darker because of the contrast.)

New Hell Difficulty: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/58 (This does a bunch of things. Some I consider more cheesy than good, such as increasing stamina drain of swings in combat and decreasing player character DPS, but it also fixes enemy AI aggressiveness so that they no longer look at you confused for a few minutes when you come barreling out of a bush into a camp of ratboars.)

Create Ammunition Fix: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/38 (Increases the amount of ammunition you craft per set to something more reasonable given the resources needed.)

Upgradeable Potions: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/37 (Makes it possible to upgrade your potions 2 LOWER = 1 HIGHER. Making it worth holding onto your lower tier potions to upgrade rather than sell mid game.)

Brave Party Members: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/64 (Increases follower AI aggressiveness.)

and the one that holds a special place in my heart:

Disable Level Scaling: https://www.nexusmods.com/elex2/mods/62 (Elex 2 has limited scaling for the alien enemy types and some humanoids. This removes scaling (for any enemies you've yet to encounter if uploading this in the middle of a save) and makes their levels fixed. Warning: the late game enemies are set to level 70. Which is well higher than the soft level cap of 36-37. This mod encourages and rewards you for playing longer. It's definitely not speedrun friendly.)

[uuuhhii]

pc almost broke again when trying to change the name of weird west desktop exe

but how does the economy in this game work

most junk and low level gun doesn't sell much

Edited April 6, 2022 by uuuhhii

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

pc almost broke again when trying to change the name of weird west desktop exe

but how does the economy in this game work

most junk and low level gun doesn't sell much

Bounties so far have been the easiest way to make money.

[Keyrock]

1 hour ago, uuuhhii said:

pc almost broke again when trying to change the name of weird west desktop exe

but how does the economy in this game work

most junk and low level gun doesn't sell much

Bounties are the fastest way to make money. Between the bounty itself and the junk you will collect along the way you can make roughly 300. Your playstyle will have a big effect. Playing Jane ghost style I have way more money than I know what to do with because I'm not spending anything on ammo & healing. I plan to play at least one character demolition style, hurling dynamite like a madman. I imagine I'll be just scraping by with all the money I'll be spending on dynamite.

Pro-tip: Buy a horse ASAP. It ain't cheap but it will pay for itself quickly.

[rjshae]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:26 PM, Wormerine said:

I will be curious to hear what you think. I am dipping into it for a while now, and can't get into it. 

Well I'm only 11 hours into it, but thus far I've been enjoying myself. There's enough tactical variety in the encounters to make it a challenge, and it has the same warped humor as Wasteland 2. Apart from the variety of items, the biggest difference I've seen is the increased rate of skill improvement.

[Theonlygarby]

On 4/5/2022 at 11:20 PM, uuuhhii said:

a lot of player seems to have some problem with the angel sword thing

with how common outsider are in pathfinder setting a angel sword are just a +3 flaming long sword to most player

I'm curious, does not taking the sword and being chaotic hinder you?  It feels like they want you to take the sword.

[Tale]

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

This will be my first time experiencing Rise of Skywalker. Never saw it in theatres, never plan to see it. I have my own petty issues with that whole trilogy. But I'm kind of looking forward to seeing it through a Lego game lens.

[ShadySands]

What sword are we talking about?

Spoiler

The one Lann asks you to help find or the one in the Shield Maze? If it's the former then it doesn't matter as you can't refuse it nor is it actually a weapon you can wield but an opening to the Angel mythic path and if it's the latter then just give it Seelah if you don't use longswords.

Also, if it is the first one then your alignment won't matter at all. You have to pick your myth path much later (mythic rank 3) and there are alignment restrictions for each path but if you pick a path that doesn't align with your current alignment then you will get a chance to change it to fit.

 

[Gromnir]

45 minutes ago, ShadySands said:

What sword are we talking about?

  Hide contents

The one Lann asks you to help find or the one in the Shield Maze? If it's the former then it doesn't matter as you can't refuse it nor is it actually a weapon you can wield but an opening to the Angel mythic path and if it's the latter then just give it Seelah if you don't use longswords.

Also, if it is the first one then your alignment won't matter at all. You have to pick your myth path much later (mythic rank 3) and there are alignment restrictions for each path but if you pick a path that doesn't align with your current alignment then you will get a chance to change it to fit.

 

am a bit surprised by @Theonlygarby concerns regarding the shield maze sword. is the only sword which fits what is being described... although it don't in fact fit the complaints. the sword ain't equipable in a weapon slot, which should be immediate apparent. is also impossible to bypass or miss the encounter. is hard to imagine one is playing wotr w/o awareness o' mythic paths, so one should be aware that forgoing an angel's sword won't cripple gameplay, yes?

am s'posing there is the possibility o' a player making a reasonable assumption that at some point the shield maze sword would become capable o' being equipped

Spoiler

it doesn't.

then again, we didn't assume we were eventual gonna get deskari's scythe 'cause we saw it in the first moments o' the game, leading us to build the ultimate scythe haver... which is not a terrible idea regardless.

converse, seelah does present us with the conundrum @Theonlygarby understandably mistakes as problematic, but not 'cause o' the shield maze sword.

Spoiler

much as the bg2 avenger was a 2h sword, resulting in most paladins going the 2h route in bg2, the holy avenger available in wotr is a "longsword." if you want to have seelah or a pc paladin use radiance throughout the game, then it makes sense for the paladin to chose feats which makes longswords more effective. is a good argument that a 2-handed reach weapon is a better choice for seelah, but going that route means radiance is wasted.  due to meta knowledge as well as the recognition pathfinder encourages specialization o' weapon feats results in a disproportionate number o' players choosing the longsword route for seelah or their paladin. unfortunate.

HA! Good Fun!

[LadyCrimson]

When you have 11 billion gold in Diablo3 with nothing to spend it on.

I switched to my Wizard as a change of pace from Necro, and he still has this original piece of equipment that allows him to channel one skill, and constantly proc, every second, any other damaging spell you have hotkeyed (alternates between whatever they are). At some point they patched it so that item only works with a single other skill now (Twister) so it's nowhere near as good but with the original item I have, it's so OP.  I just hold one button and sweep Disintegrate in a circle around me while Blizzard's and Orbs are also cast/fill the screen.

Everything dies, even some stuff I can't see on the screen edges yet.

It's so OP/mindless it's boring even for Diablo/ARPG standards, but makes for a great Rift Keystone or early Gem-leveling speed-farming chr.

Edited April 8, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[alanschu]

Was wanting something chill so I am playing a ton of Elite Dangerous right now. Although there's a civil war right now between my minor faction. That said we're in a pretty dead part of the bubble it feels haha

[melkathi]

Whoah!

Someone hacked Alan's account and is posting as him!

[Keyrock]

I wish they had never made controller thumbsticks clickable. It never works well. I wind up pressing the stick when I don't want to press it all the time when moving it around rapidly. And when I do want to press the thumbstick I wind up moving it when I don't want to move it. It's a really terrible place to put a button. I get it, controllers have limited buttons to work with, but there has to be a better solution. I'd rather we went back to 6 face buttons like the SEGA Genesis controller and did away with thumbstick buttons. 6 face buttons is more awkward than 4, but I'm 99% confident that I would erroneously press face buttons with the 6 buttons A LOT less than I erroneously press thumbsticks.

Is this just a me problem?

[Vaeliorin]

Elex was on sale on steam, so I picked that up.  Never played a Piranha Bytes game before, so a new experience for me.  There's a lot to like about the game, but the combat and enemy placement is just so, so bad.  Why are there high level enemies that can one shot me 5 feet away from wimpy enemies that I can easily kill?  That might make sense if the high level enemies were human, but they're animals who should kill and eat the wimpy enemies.  I'm not asking for level scaling, but..maybe a more gradual transition?

I'd also kind of like some clue as to what level quests are supposed to be.  It's not fun to have a cutscene spawn enemies that can 1 shot you.

Oh, and why do bows act like guns?  I've never encountered a bow that acts like this is any other third-person game.

Still...the way quests work, and the fact that you can do things that aren't necessarily quest options but completely make sense is awesome.  Turning in people who wanted me to break the Laws is great.  I'm not sure why not killing the outlaw and turning in the guy who was selling him technology illegally is somehow a point against me according to the warlord, but other than that, the quest design is great.  The writing is sometimes weird (like one character telling me I'd get more juice when I'd never gotten any juice from him and things of that nature) but I'd love if other companies would look at the quest design and copy that.

I'm not sure how long I'll keep playing (the combat really is that bad) but it was an interesting experience so far.

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Keyrock said:

Is this just a me problem?

No, it's not, but I'm not sure what my support is worth. I hate most controllers layouts, think the GameCube controller was the best, and I'm using a Logitech M1 laser mouse to play games and want my PS/2 ports back. I'm clearly not the target audience for any modern input device.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Keyrock said:

I wish they had never made controller thumbsticks clickable.

Never had much issue with it, but then again as a profesionally trained violinist I do consider my hand dexterity to be above average. The worst thing was jumping in Dark Souls, but I got used to it. I do agree that there probably must be better way to add buttons though - I am pretty sure some controllers, like XBOX elite, have extra buttons at the back of the controller. 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Wormerine

[Keyrock]

48 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Never had much issue with it, but then again as a profesionally trained violinist I do consider my hand dexterity to be above average. The worst thing was jumping in Dark Souls, but I got used to it. I do agree that there probably must be better way to add buttons though - I am pretty sure some controllers, like XBOX elite, have extra buttons at the back of the controller. 

I think the XBOX Elite controllers are also fully remappable, but they're so freakin' expensive.