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

[melkathi]

No difficulty setting

[Humanoid]

Tried Solasta co-op, having never played the game before. Got squashed on the middle ("authentic" I think) difficulty. I'm going to blame low-level D&D blues for that but I also suspect that skipping a sidequest may have cost us an all-important level-up. Regardless, we're going to switch it down a notch next session. The dialogue system is also kinda silly with individual dialogue choices arbitrarily tied to to party slot. That is, the first choice is spoken by the first party member, and so forth.

Besides that, my biggest gripe is probably the camera controls, which I don't see an option to customise. Getting the camera to auto-follow your unit(s) is particularly irritating because the input for doing so is at odds with the input to select multiple units. So for example, you already have multiple units selected, but the camera is not on auto-follow. You double-click a unit to set the auto-follow, but this means you've now only got one character selected. So now you need to drag a selection box to select everyone again. It's extraordinarily tedious to have to go through this ritual of double-click then box select every time I want to move, especially as the mode gets deactivated at the drop of a hat.

[LadyCrimson]

Diablo3 Seasonal:

So I buckled down today and played a while. Farm Nephalem Rifts for some keys, use those to farm Greater Rifts for leveling gems etc, but mostly hoping for those Petrified Screams. Repeat. Got a few helpful items along the way and blew through GRifts 25, 35, 45 (GR's don't get too hard until 60+). My chr level got to Paragon 200. No Scream. Finally at Paragon lvl 206, one dropped, I went "well, finally," and immediately closed the game without trying the new challenge, so I still don't know what it'll be like/whether it's worth it at all for a non-meta player like me.  >.> 

I have a feeling you could play for 8+ hours and you might get 1-3 Screams. So despite the giant XP boost and an insta-Augment (that won't be high Ranking if you aren't uber build), since you still have to grind the Rifts forever (where you could/should be leveling gems each time anyway? at least if always solo)  it kinda seems like you're adding to the grind vs. saving time.

...still, I'll try it, I'm just too tired after all that Rifting. 

Edited April 23, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

Completed Aragami 2.

Playing Nioh 2 (EGS). 1. I haven't figured out how to set it to offline mode without turning on the firewall, in which case the game cannot connect to EGS and does not start. 2. There are no auto-saves between "bonfires", thus if you return to the main menu, the progress is lost. Otherwise fine so far - looks lovely, runs well, 5-button mice are supported. Though, there are piles of colour-coded loot and a possibility of grind later.
Nioh 2 is a Souls-like with a mission-based structure.

[kanisatha]

13 hours ago, Humanoid said:

Tried Solasta co-op, having never played the game before. Got squashed on the middle ("authentic" I think) difficulty. I'm going to blame low-level D&D blues for that but I also suspect that skipping a sidequest may have cost us an all-important level-up. Regardless, we're going to switch it down a notch next session. The dialogue system is also kinda silly with individual dialogue choices arbitrarily tied to to party slot. That is, the first choice is spoken by the first party member, and so forth.

Besides that, my biggest gripe is probably the camera controls, which I don't see an option to customise. Getting the camera to auto-follow your unit(s) is particularly irritating because the input for doing so is at odds with the input to select multiple units. So for example, you already have multiple units selected, but the camera is not on auto-follow. You double-click a unit to set the auto-follow, but this means you've now only got one character selected. So now you need to drag a selection box to select everyone again. It's extraordinarily tedious to have to go through this ritual of double-click then box select every time I want to move, especially as the mode gets deactivated at the drop of a hat.

Co-op was just added so they will need some time to fix and fine-tune things. The camera issues have been around for a while. They've tried to make some improvements, but ultimately I think this is one area where their limited resources will allow only so much.

[Malcador]

Wasting more time in FM.  Brno reached the Europa QFs but then lost because the game doesn't like it when poorer clubs succeed.  Club is almost Serbian now though, hah.

[Humanoid]

14 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Co-op was just added so they will need some time to fix and fine-tune things. The camera issues have been around for a while. They've tried to make some improvements, but ultimately I think this is one area where their limited resources will allow only so much.

I don't think any of my quibbles or issues with the game so far have anything to do with co-op, since I assume mechanically the campaign plays out exactly the same whether there be one, two or four people splitting the characters between them. Which is good in terms of making a stable co-op experience, but perhaps a little bad in terms of the issues being having around for a long time before co-op was even a twinkle in their eye.

[LadyCrimson]

Another full day trying to farm D3 "Screams." This time I got 3, for a total of 4. So I finally tried the new arena challenge thingie.

---My seasonal character began it with: Paragon Level 328 and 3 main Legend Gems already at around 42 (GR 53).
---Ran around like a chicken in the arena. Felt like I was mostly running to avoid constant waves of overlapping/room filling AoE molten ground explosions with skellies/mages randomly attacking things and that kept me around for a bit.
---I did not find this scenario very fun. I didn't hate it or find it hard in a typical sense, but it wasn't fun either.
---I "failed" after about 3 or 3.5 minutes with a Rank 79 augment stone and XP boost to Paragon Level 346. So only 18 chr. lvls for that level of survival, but it was pretty easy to last long enough for that 80ish Augment Ranking.
---in solo offline play, highest level Gem augment I've done is maybe 64 or 65.

If I got 26 Rank 70-85's it would be a moderate main stat boost on my two main offline chrs,  but they can already do almost everything anyway so yeah ... no. Doesn't seem worth days of farming that many Screams. (edit - especially since I'd have to wait 3-4 months before I could use it them on offline chrs).  I'll just use up the other 3 Screams I have and that's it. 

Edited April 24, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[uuuhhii]

elden ring new game plus

get beat by the first crucible knight 4 times before switch to river of blood

some of these miniboss are far too powerful

[Keyrock]

I could never stomach end-game in MMOs and loot em' ups. Going through the game visiting new areas is fun, I like that. As soon as I beat the normal final boss I am done with the game. I absolutely loathe running through content I've already completed over and over and over again to farm a complete set of purple Super Diamond Plasma Plate of Legendary Awesomeness so that I can do the secret super dungeon that takes 12 hours with a 40 person party. 

[LadyCrimson]

I have a simple mind that doesn't mind some grind to improve characters performance efficiency and abilities. Or that long hunt for an item with near perfect stats or, er, a cute pet, or something, assuming I care about whatever it is. But I have limits to my patience for such, and my definition of "good enough" is reached long before the types who seem to spend 18 hrs a day to speed level/gear a chr. to uber meta/top ladder rankings in 3 days.  >.>

I was never going to grind Diablo2 for a Zod rune, for example. In D3, you can rank the best Gems to 150 I think.  I will never get even close to that because you'd have to do Greater Rifts 150 or something and yeah...that is so not worth it, especially solo. There is zero point/goal to going past GRift 70, outside of bragging rights.

Edited April 24, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[rjshae]

I started playing The Outer Worlds, having picked it up on sale. It's been decent fun thus far; the commercialism message is completely over the top though, much as 50's-style conservatism was in the Fallout series. It's not a setting I can take seriously, which is a drawback for me. Still, it has its moments.

[LadyCrimson]

Y'know, Death Stranding does look a little better on PC, especially if you have a good TV. It has a bit more of that "wow" factor at times, with all the darkish/moody scenes. But the PS4 version was still very good. The main difference is cutscenes on console have that slightly softer focus plus forced depth of field/vignetting, so only the center is in hard focus. So because of that you'll see more/sharper textures edge to edge, human wrinkles/pores etc. on PC throughout. The rest is quality of one's hardware/TV and the color/contrast and better graphic lighting differences such entrails. I mean I have direct screenshot comparisons and it's pretty close in some respects.

I did the first trainer quest in the game, sat through cutscenes, the next trainer quest, sat through cutscenes. I forgot how long it takes time wise to actually reach the point where the initial long and frequent cutscenes stop and the game (you feel like you have more control) begins.  >.>  Of course I could've skipped them but it's been long enough I felt like watching them again as a reminder, plus to just see graphics.  Apparently I still remember the paths/methods to entirely avoid all BT encounters tho. Like the first body furnace, if you sneak and go up to the roof of the building and go around, you can avoid having to try to run past them. And I remember there was a few big bad encounters in the game (big bizarre lion things) where I figured out if you ran to one side over some obstacles and got out of the "zone" really fast you didn't have to fight them. That was one reason I liked the game ... combat was usually optional. And why I didn't like those combat specific war scenarios. 

Anyway, I might be able to get into the game again. It's probably going to take a long time to finish it tho since I'll likely only play it an hour or two each time vs. all day long.

Edit: oh, also, after the very start of the game felt slightly choppy in Director's Cut, I changed an nvidia setting - Low Latency Mode to Ultra - and the performance/fps seemed to smooth out. Not sure what that was about but it worked and it's holding 60fps native 98% of the time now, like before, vs. drifting constantly from 50-60. *shrug*

Edited April 25, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[Wormerine]

15 hours ago, rjshae said:

 It's not a setting I can take seriously, which is a drawback for me.

I enjoyed in on both my playthroughs but what you mentioned plus major quests generally having preferable option C keep it in my "meh" category.

Playing Solasta's DLC. It might be made on modest budget, but Tactical Adventures invests in all things that matter:

https://imgur.com/hAgnK2W

[Humanoid]

Got ambushed by a set of dectuplet bandits, all with identical outfits, maces and beards which seemed a bit absurd. Had to use the box strat exploit of standing on a tower and blocking all the ladders up to stand a chance. So yeah, the balancing of random encounters is a bit wonky. On the plus side, the location design of the second major questing location is far more reasonable and interesting than the first location, and the fights seemed much more reasonable too. So in general the challenge seems okay now. Early on it was probably skewed a fair bit because we created the characters with more of a 3.5E mindset and have generally poor stats after taking the default rolls for all four characters. Stuff like there not being any skill points was a big shock, as well as learning that I should have been dual-wielding from level 1 with no supporting feats, etc.

[MrBrown]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

Got ambushed by a set of dectuplet bandits, all with identical outfits, maces and beards which seemed a bit absurd. Had to use the box strat exploit of standing on a tower and blocking all the ladders up to stand a chance. So yeah, the balancing of random encounters is a bit wonky. On the plus side, the location design of the second major questing location is far more reasonable and interesting than the first location, and the fights seemed much more reasonable too. So in general the challenge seems okay now. Early on it was probably skewed a fair bit because we created the characters with more of a 3.5E mindset and have generally poor stats after taking the default rolls for all four characters. Stuff like there not being any skill points was a big shock, as well as learning that I should have been dual-wielding from level 1 with no supporting feats, etc.

Random encounters are sort of balanced on the idea that you don't have to hold back at anything, since you're going to long rest anyway, so you can use anything you got on round 1.

...But, given that it's pretty easy to rest in the game anyway, you usually can take a long rest every 1 or 2 fights in any case.

[LadyCrimson]

I am pretty sure Death Stranding didn't used to have a "Very Hard" setting - it only went up to Hard. So that is what I am using, as well as staying in Offline playmode for a while (I might turn Online on about midway thru the game for some road building "help").

As I recall "Hard" largely made the rainfall more damaging to gear/structures and package containers, with enemies being slightly more spongey but I could still stun grenade and punch them into submission no problem. Very Hard seems to increase that package container damage speed even more, and just trekking 40 meters in the rain feels like I'm getting the red "YOUR CONTAINER, LADDER, PCC IS RUINED" message constantly. It's awesome! I wonder if I'll have to do something besides punch (or occasionally, sneak or lasso) the bandits, now. I don't think I ever used a gun type weapon at all, before.

Edited April 26, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[rjshae]

1 hour ago, MrBrown said:

Random encounters are sort of balanced on the idea that you don't have to hold back at anything, since you're going to long rest anyway, so you can use anything you got on round 1.

...But, given that it's pretty easy to rest in the game anyway, you usually can take a long rest every 1 or 2 fights in any case.

Some of the OM encounters can be brutal, but I'm okay with that. Even with a good survival skill though, we ended up surprised far too often for my taste.

[melkathi]

On 4/25/2022 at 3:48 AM, rjshae said:

I started playing The Outer Worlds, having picked it up on sale. It's been decent fun thus far; the commercialism message is completely over the top though, much as 50's-style conservatism was in the Fallout series. It's not a setting I can take seriously, which is a drawback for me. Still, it has its moments.

It is enjoyable. I found it refreshing that all the followers are just people and don't try to become more Morte than Morte. But one playthrough is enough to see everything the game has to offer.

[marelooke]

After finally getting a new GPU I've finished Metro Exodus (minus the DLC, for now). Kinda ambivalent about it. The storyline is nice, they do a pretty good job of actually setting up an existing relationship for the player you can't help but care about, with character with their own hopes and dreams. Quite unlike that other company with the post apocalyptic games that tries to make you care about certain characters... (*cough* Bethesda *cough*).

However gameplay-wise... I don't know. For me the best sections where those that played more like previous Metro games, the more linear, more purposefully built pieces rather than the open world stuff, like the start of the game, Yamantau, the Taiga, and the finale. Especially the respawning enemies kinda took me out of the immersion, certainly when it comes to what are supposed to be the more "scary" enemies (like Demons). In that it sort of reminds me of Dead Space 2, that game was "fine", but really didn't evoke the same claustrophobic fear of the original, until I set foot aboard the docked Ishimura and all that claustrophobic fear came rushing right back.

The use of collectibles (diaries in this case, some of which are really easily missable) for environmental storytelling also isn't a trend I particularly enjoy, especially given how the save system works: there's only a few rolling saves that constantly get overwritten, with autosaves and quicksaves using the same slot, so if you purposefully save at a certain point the game will just overwrite that save in short order. This means that if you miss something in an area you cannot return to your only option is to replay the entire level.

Still, I'd consider it a good game as I finished it in a few sittings, which is unusual for me nowadays. I'd probably give it a 7/10, maybe an 8, if I'm feeling generous.

[LadyCrimson]

Death Stranding - I hate the Wind Farm - at least the first time you do it. It's not terrible later.

Now I have to decide if I'm going to fart around in the starter area for a long time to get ahead on Order sequences or push ahead to the more open, main game world area. I'll be looking to do/get all 500 (or whatever it is now) LoL deliveries again. It'd be better to push ahead and get some of that gear that helps out and go back, but then again it's not as challenging that way.

Edited April 27, 2022 by LadyCrimson

[Labadal]

I've been playing a bit of Elden Ring here and there. There are many fun parts, but I feel like the world is a bit too big for its own good. Dungeons are mostly fun, though.

[MrBrown]

On 4/26/2022 at 5:38 PM, rjshae said:

Some of the OM encounters can be brutal, but I'm okay with that. Even with a good survival skill though, we ended up surprised far too often for my taste.

In Lost Valley, I managed to ambush the enemies quite often, yet those encounter still end up with the enemies surrounding your party, you just get the surprise round. Kinda disappointing.

[rjshae]

3 hours ago, MrBrown said:

In Lost Valley, I managed to ambush the enemies quite often, yet those encounter still end up with the enemies surrounding your party, you just get the surprise round. Kinda disappointing.

Even taking into account enemy surprise, starting combat completely surrounded and in contact with the enemy is kind of a brain fart design decision. At least to me. It nearly eliminates most most tactics and makes the battle less interesting. I'd rather be facing more enemies with some gaps for maneuver.

[rjshae]

On 4/26/2022 at 7:46 AM, melkathi said:

It is enjoyable. I found it refreshing that all the followers are just people and don't try to become more Morte than Morte. But one playthrough is enough to see everything the game has to offer.

After playing turn-based games for a while, I'd forgotten how uninspiring FPS combat can be. Ah well. At least the character interactions in this game are interesting.