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

[Humanoid]

2 hours ago, rjshae said:

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.

Yeah, going back to that 10 identical bandit encounter, half of them had strategic vantage points surrounding the party. So of course on their first turn they all climbed down from their strategic positions to rush me with their maces. I ran around them and claimed the wooden tower that two of them started on, and only after I blocked the ladders up did the game show that actually, all 10 bandits had heavy crossbows all along. Real facepalm moment, that.

[Bartimaeus]

14 hours ago, marelooke said:

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*).

Enjoyed the first one, but the characters and story in Last Light made me quit because of how stupid and annoying everyone was. How does Exodus compare?

I played through Everhood, a game that takes a number of major stylistic cues from Undertale while also doing its own thing in terms of gameplay. Very good game, but I didn't quite connect with the story or themes, not like I did with Undertale.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

After 5-starring a few "cities", I reached the spot in Death Stranding where as soon as I run outside it's the first boss fight. Which is a good spot to copy the save directory elsewhere as a "if I ever restart, saves me some hours, save." But...while a few new missions are always nice I guess, about the only thing I was seriously interested in re: Director's Cut is the ability to use zip lines with the luggage sleds. That would have saved a lot of trips back and forth. OTOH, there was something peaceful about traveling across miles dragging those hover sleds behind me.

...but not like that's the biggest motivation, so now watch, I won't want to play it any further for weeks.  >.>

...oh wait, look, a cheat mod that removes weight limit (height limit still in effect tho, my funny bone was disappointed not to be able to have a stack 300 feet high on Sam's back...) and enemy detection status (MULES just stand there jittering in place like they've had 10 gallons of coffee/don't fight back, BT's and heavier rain graphics don't show up at all).  Maybe I will keep (re)playing after all!

...maybe. 

There was also a super-speed run cheat but that one caused Sam to fall through the ground into empty void-space a couple times so I crossed that one off the usable list. >.>

[uuuhhii]

at this rate elden ring new game plus may only take a third of the time first playthrough take

though did encounter a weird bug

can not touch any grace generated by defeat boss

[marelooke]

On 4/28/2022 at 2:48 AM, Bartimaeus said:

Enjoyed the first one, but the characters and story in Last Light made me quit because of how stupid and annoying everyone was. How does Exodus compare?

Errr, I had to look up what Last Light's story was about again... So yeah, Exodus' story is easily much better, a lot more "grounded" too, I'd say. The only thing you might miss out on with skipping Last Light is some of the relationships Artyom builds. Then again, aside from Anna and Miller I didn't particularly remember most of them (other than "name sounds familiar") and it didn't really hamper my enjoyment at all.

I've now also finished the first DLC "The Two Colonels", which was a pretty interesting in itself giving some other people's perspectives on events during the main game.

[Bartimaeus]

51 minutes ago, marelooke said:

Errr, I had to look up what Last Light's story was about again... So yeah, Exodus' story is easily much better, a lot more "grounded" too, I'd say. The only thing you might miss out on with skipping Last Light is some of the relationships Artyom builds. Then again, aside from Anna and Miller I didn't particularly remember most of them (other than "name sounds familiar") and it didn't really hamper my enjoyment at all.

I've now also finished the first DLC "The Two Colonels", which was a pretty interesting in itself giving some other people's perspectives on events during the main game.

I remember playing Last Light and right off the bat, Khan was some preachy crack-smoking hippie instead of the thoughtful old man he was in the first game and thinking "well, this isn't going to go well". Then Anna was introduced and I thought "this is going to be the worst forced love interest in gaming history"...and a few hours of playing later, it pretty much was, and that's when I quit. Glad to hear Exodus is maybe better, .

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, marelooke said:

Errr, I had to look up what Last Light's story was about again... So yeah, Exodus' story is easily much better, a lot more "grounded" too, I'd say. The only thing you might miss out on with skipping Last Light is some of the relationships Artyom builds. Then again, aside from Anna and Miller I didn't particularly remember most of them (other than "name sounds familiar") and it didn't really hamper my enjoyment at all.

I've now also finished the first DLC "The Two Colonels", which was a pretty interesting in itself giving some other people's perspectives on events during the main game.

 

I loved all the Metro games, I particularly enjoyed fighting all the factions like the Nazis and Soviets and Exodus had a great narrative. It was interesting seeing all the communities outside of Moscow and how they survive...anyone feel like a " toasted cheese and human flesh  " 

[mkreku]

Been playing Dysmantle on my Steam Deck lately. It's basically a game where you bash everything and.. that's it.

The world has ended and you've survived in a hole in the ground. You run out of food so you have to get out. Armed with a crowbar you exit the hole into a fully 3D but isometric view of the world, and from then on it's a lot of bashing. You bash flowers, zombies, fences, trashcans, traffic signs.. and everything gives you materials so you can upgrade your crowbar so you can bash even harder stuff like.. fridges.. The world is open, but like a Metroid game you can't get everywhere until you have the right tool (in this case an upgraded crowbar). You also run into missions and boss fights here and there. I think there's a story in there somewhere too..

It's addictive. I like it.

[BruceVC]

Im very much committed to playing  Oblivion and Im having an absolute blast 

I have been using Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul and its makes some excellent changes to the overall game that include no level scaling for enemies and its slows down level advancement so I have  been playing for 50 hours and Im only on level 4. Its great and forces you to explore every dungeon, fort and cave to enable you to advance in levels

@HoonDing Im following your advice and Im using some worthwhile adult mods which really enhances the game

Here is my Viconia companion ( from  BG series ), who needs Chainmail bikini armor when you have Dwemer armor   

 

 

[Majek]

On 3/29/2022 at 12:41 PM, Katphood said:

I wonder if @Majek is playing Elden Ring. I remember it was fun discussing different builds in Bloodborne with that guy...and now I want to play Bloodborne again!

I was playing it a lot.  But i didn't really get anywhere because i was testing out all the early early game things. I beat Radahn and after that i got back into Destiny 2 again to get my max pinacle level. And now i'm trying to get back to Elden Ring  but i also have to get back into Monster Hunter Rise before expansion arrives at the end of June. So lots of playing to do, so little time because of work.

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Here is my Viconia companion ( from  BG series ), who needs Chainmail bikini armor when you have Dwemer armor   

I think I start to understand why you like BG3 and why I don't.

[Lexx]

Is it because of the story?

[BruceVC]

14 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

I think I start to understand why you like BG3 and why I don't.

I havent played BG3 yet because Im waiting for full release. Why do you think I like BG3?

[Maxxx17]

I play Minecraft.

[melkathi]

Started playing Stranger Of Sword City.

I may not be the target audience for this.

The loot is ranked F,E,D,C,B,A and probably S.

You hunt boss monsters all over the place.

There is unique equipment.

Which you can feed to a Mimic named Mumic so the item gets removed from your inventory and returned into the loot table with new stats.

You probably are supposed to farm for hours.

Definitely not the target audience for this game.

But you can import custom images for your party, so I could theoretically have a whole party of Teddy Bears...

[213374U]

I'm like 80+ hours into CP2077. Haven't managed to complete anything but the first round of main jobs. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But it does seem to have the same problem as literally every other open world game out there -- there's this super urgent main plot to save the world or whatever but you can postpone it indefinitely to go rescue cats from trees with no repercussions.

Just finished this side mission about some fool that hires me to do a hit on someone. Scripted shootout sequence after a scripted driving sequence that won't let you save at any point during it once you start. That's after one of the very few convesations in the whole game you can't spacebar through, btw. I read that I'm supposed to basically take my hands off the keyboard and watch the whole thing play itself so I can listen to some deep message about something over a chain of side missions. Yeah, nah. I shot the cop in the face after the script removed his godmode (long sigh) and took my eurodollars. Scripted quest design overriding the game's own rules and player agency can suck a ****.

Edited May 3, 2022 by 213374U

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, 213374U said:

I'm like 80+ hours into CP2077. Haven't managed to complete anything but the first round of main jobs. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. But it does seem to have the same problem as literally every other open world game out there -- there's this super urgent main plot to save the world or whatever but you can postpone it indefinitely to go rescue cats from trees with no repercussions.

 

Its true what you observing but having  a finite amount of time to complete the main quest\mission would undermine the design of most sandbox and open-world RPG 

In Oblivion at the moment the Kvatch gate is open and I am supposed to close it urgently but its suggested you must be on level 16 to complete this main part of the game. With Maskars brilliant mod my level advancement is really slowed  down and Im only level 5 after 60 hours. So Im not bothering with that quest and Im just exploring, joining guilds and doing as many quests as I can to get to level 16...but its funny to hear  NPCs talking about " the urgency to close the Kvatch gate " and Im busy killing rats and visiting Daedra shrines 

[Raithe]

I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 in those easter sales and have been roaming around.

I'm still trying to get my head around the whole "we had to flee this place and go up the mountains and brace snow over winter to travel east...."

But then you've come down out of the mountains about 5 miles from the place you fled, set up shop and are then surprised they found you again...

[Malcador]

Got Brno to CL knockout for first time, took 4 points off Barcelona too.

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, Raithe said:

I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 in those easter sales and have been roaming around.

I'm still trying to get my head around the whole "we had to flee this place and go up the mountains and brace snow over winter to travel east...."

But then you've come down out of the mountains about 5 miles from the place you fled, set up shop and are then surprised they found you again...

I know that happens over and over again. I feel that if they would use a cutscene for travel it would be more effecting in hiding how close everything is together.

It took me a while but I finally got into RDR2 - have been doing a decent progress though according to the game I am only about 60% done (don't know if it counts side content or just main story). I didnt' play much Rockstar games, but I am somewhat surprised how little there is to do outside main stories and occasional side missions - like there are some side activities like hunting, fishing, gambling or robberies, but there is little reason to do those outside "roleplaying". For all the talk about how much we need money I am constantly running with over $1k with nothing to spend it on, and other rewards seem purely cosmetic and not to my liking. It is also disappointing how strict missions are - they really discourage engaging with content beyond following instructions and map markers. Writing is decent, and the game looks and sounds georgious. It's a nice way of spending an afternoon in a rainy day.

[Theonlygarby]

3 hours ago, Raithe said:

I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 in those easter sales and have been roaming around.

I'm still trying to get my head around the whole "we had to flee this place and go up the mountains and brace snow over winter to travel east...."

But then you've come down out of the mountains about 5 miles from the place you fled, set up shop and are then surprised they found you again...

The thing that always annoyed me about RDR2 is how they want it to be "realistic" no fast travel, clean your horse,  manage your weight... yet when it comes to combat you can get shot in the head a dozen times and be fine.  I really feel like if they scaled the amount of enemies, as well as your health, it would have fit the rest of the game much better.

[Lexx]

My issue is more the dissonance between open world and linear story missions. It's pretty clear that two teams worked on it ... the ones who wanted the more grounded, slower paced wilderness gameplay, and then the people who think players need to shoot some guys every 3 minutes or else they die of boredom. Every single story mission is the same. Go to x, go to y, headshot 100 people via aimbot. Every. Single. Time. So much wasted potential here.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Theonlygarby said:

The thing that always annoyed me about RDR2 is how they want it to be "realistic" no fast travel, clean your horse,  manage your weight...

There are multiple way to fast travel though (one that can be easily accessed by setting up the camp), and the latter two (together with cleaning weapons) are flavours mechanics one doesn't need to worry about too often.

1 hour ago, Lexx said:

My issue is more the dissonance between open world and linear story missions. It's pretty clear that two teams worked on it ... (...) Every single story mission is the same. Go to x, go to y, headshot 100 people via aimbot. Every. Single. Time. So much wasted potential here.

So far I thought that RDR2 hadled it the disconnect better then most games, but it is definitely there. Openworld is a meny through which you access main story mission, rather then story mission taking place in the open world so to speak.

As to the reason why story mission are so limited I think the explenation is simpler - game system and gameplaywise RDR2 has nothing going for it. It has very rudimentary movement, riding, stealth, shooting mechanics. They have lavish animation and sound effect, but gameplay wise it's very basic stuff. That's is all. What can you do, if there is so little to explore?

Edited May 3, 2022 by Wormerine

[Lexx]

Their mission design is simply stuck in the past. It's GTA3, etc. over and over again.

Btw. I don't agree that there is little to explore. IMO the world is one of the best and I spent lots of time just randomly riding around, checking everything out. It's even why I was able to suffer through the multiplayer for so long -- because I could just ride around and enjoy the landscape, occasionally hunt a rare animal, etc.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Lexx

[Chilloutman]

finished normal in D2R. now grinding countess in nightmare for runes