What are you Playing Now? - Games don't make you violent, lag does

[Calax]

Playing far to much Yakuza for my own good. In the last 6ish months I've finished 0, Kiwami 1, Ishin, and 6, and am working on Kiwami 2 right now.

[InsaneCommander]

I'm also playing Pentiment. I played for a little last year, but had to stop. The game became far more interesting once I knew who is who in the village and that I can talk to most people before triggering whatever advances the story at that point.

Still in the beginning of Act II. I was disappointed in the first act because I imagined I had more time to investigate and ended up missing a certain action that required a specific time, no longer available.

Spoiler

Infiltrating the library.

However, I did manage to gather some convincing evidence, despite failing a dialogue check. Anyway, I hope I got the right person.

[Mamoulian War]

I am just laughing, while looking at the sim racing stats on LFM portal Today I have became the fastest Aston Martin GT4 driver on Brands Hatch Circuit at Low Fuel Motorsport portal

It is funny, because I know, that I suck, but the game balance is currently a little bit broken, so the absolute top drivers are driving Alpine and Mercedes GT4 cars And in total, I am 1.5 seconds slower per lap than them But I am enjoying driving in that car, despite being slowpoke I would love to see the top guys driving my car, how fast they would be, compared to me

[LadyCrimson]

7 Days to Die A21 - still haven't played it much but so far it feels like once again they have ramped up the starting/initial "survival" difficulty in some ways. A little more like very old Alpha's in a sense. On the flip side (for me) they keep making Trader's more vital which is annoying if you're someone who'd like to use them as minimally as possible, or never. Of course, whether that sticks or they just change half of it back again in a few weeks, as players whinge about change is bad, who knows. Not that it matters. Once A21 goes "stable" I'll be .xml editing the heck out of it as usual and playing my own way, again.   Oh - the graphic stuff like textures, models and details have much improved this round, although the overall impression as you wander is about the same (and that janky grass....).

In the meantime, I still keep going back to Above Snakes. Finished the short story four times simply to try different map arrangements/goals and despite the performance hit to too many world tiles, keep fiddling around in that regard with one save, anyway. It's just so chill and mindless and easy to grind it for an hour and stop. The dev's are working on some new (optional) play mode. No clue what it will entail but curious what it'll be. Maybe it'll give another reason to keep fiddling with it.

Edited June 17, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

Finished Bad End Theater, a visual novel with the ability to replay the story from each MC's perspective and set the behaviours of the other MCs. The number of unique images is very impressive, though the playtime is rather short - 2 hours in total.

Replayed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. It still holds well, though the combat, the targeting, in particular, is rather uncomfortable. At least once I was defeated in combat (was getting hit while trying to get up and the rewind was reset due to finishing off a foe) and the NPC companion died once as well (was surrounded during the final elevator ride). It is also interesting that the save points are locked behind combat encounters, some of which are skippable. Overall, PoP:TSoT proves the quality over quantity approach - it is concise, on point, and takes less than 5 hours (including the doors puzzle that requires a sheet of paper and a pencil to solve).

[InsaneCommander]

Pentiment, Act II: managed the time much better now and I was a lot more confident about choosing the culprit. Still,

Spoiler

there is clearly another person involved in the murders. Funny how the fourth suspect was not an option to accuse but still ended up in the hands of the mob.

The end of act II caught me by surprise. I definitely didn't see that coming.

[Wormerine]

7 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Overall, PoP:TSoT proves the quality over quantity approach - it is concise, on point, and takes less than 5 hours (including the doors puzzle that requires a sheet of paper and a pencil to solve).

I replay that game every couple years. Love it to bits. the door puzzle comes down to following the water sound, no? I remember it taking me time to figure it out the first time, but it’s straightforward after that. 

[HoonDing]

I used to replay it too since it's only a 5 hour game.

I think the failed attempt at a reboot from 2008 deserves more credit.

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, HoonDing said:

I think the failed attempt at a reboot from 2008 deserves more credit.

I need to give it another go. I liked the vibe, but remember not caring for the game much. I also need to replay the 4th late entry to the trilogy. I remember it being pleasant overall.

[Hawke64]

13 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I replay that game every couple years. Love it to bits. the door puzzle comes down to following the water sound, no? I remember it taking me time to figure it out the first time, but it’s straightforward after that. 

You are correct - the water sound does lead to the right door, and I have never noticed it between the characters' comments and the music.

Spoiler

This is the most reasonable order of the doors, which is clearly visible when written down.

 

11 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I need to give it another go. I liked the vibe, but remember not caring for the game much. I also need to replay the 4th late entry to the trilogy. I remember it being pleasant overall.

The reboot is fine (the controls are a bit unresponsive due to the animations), though the semi-open-world format hurts it - you know that nothing horrible will happen mid-area and that you have to clear all the areas and possibly backtrack to gather the light blobs. But it looks gorgeous and the companion is likable. The Forgotten Sands would be better if it was a stand-alone game (the trilogy has 1 theme and it has concluded; it also does not have HP pickups falling out of vases) without any online components. I think, at different points I've encountered 2 progress-stopping bugs (a handhold not appearing mid-game and a door not opening somewhere late-game). Also, the Steam version might not work at all due to the DRM issues.

---
Installed Fable III. After downloading external patches, it agreed to run, but I could not access my saves, because the DRM player's ID was different.

[BruceVC]

Im about 20 hours into DFU ( there doesnt seem to be a way to track RL game time ) and Im still loving it

I have taken a certain approach to the game which includes

• join as many factions as possible and do all the quests I can until I get bored then I will focus more on the main quest. ( but I did initiate the Lady Brisienna main quest )
• I have explored and completed 2 dungeons so far and both were for faction quests, Im getting better at understanding dungeon design and I am using the map effectively to find secret doors and other things

Im a Dark Elf Battlemage which is a nice mix of magic and combat and I have just reached level 3. I really enjoy creating spells, DFU extends magic services at guilds and makes it worthwhile

I also appreciate the constant lack of gold I have, I still havent bought a horse or cart as I decided to invest early on in spells and weapons for effective dungeon exploration. My spells list includes
 

• cure poison, diseases and paralyzation
• light
• open door
• levitation
• recall
• various combat spells

But I will be buying a horse and cart as my next major shopping list items. DFU is a really complex and absolutely  entertaining  game and the DREAM  graphic updates really enhance the visual and aesthetic experience. Here are some screenshots and consider the original jagged graphics and how this game was released in 1996  ( I quickly used my phone so excuse the yellow light at the top , thats not normally visible )

[xzar_monty]

19 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

The end of act II caught me by surprise. I definitely didn't see that coming.

Yeah! I suppose that ending is hard-coded and will happen no matter what, i.e. we're talking about the same ending. Was a big surprise for me, too. Also, the way I tried to play the character, he'd never have done that.

[xzar_monty]

Finished Pentiment. I have to say it was a bit of a letdown in the end. There was so much reading that I had to do, and apparently so little I had any control over, so by the third act I was thinking that I'd much rather just read a well-written novel, because while this game is nicely enough written, it's not written well enough to really justify my time spent on it (because there was so little I could do).

After seeing how things turned out in the end, I actually started to wonder whether it's in any way possible to come to the right conclusions in either the first or the second act. I have no idea.

Edited June 18, 2023 by xzar_monty

[InsaneCommander]

Also finished Pentiment. I enjoyed the game, but I agree with the criticisms made in this thread by @Hawke64 and @xzar_monty.

Based on what I read, here and on Steam and Reddit, there are many things you can't influence and that may not make sense depending on how you play the characters. Not sure how to implement it, but I think there should be a way to be more successful in your investigation, even if it meant ending the game in act I.

As for the ending:
 

Spoiler

First, I wish there was an option to just grab the statue's head and run away with it while the antagonist killed himself but failed to hide the secret. Damn it, he was outnumbered and still got what he wanted. Not to mention Hawke64's idea of grabbing a stone and hitting him.

Despite that, once the guy collapsed the church, I imagined it would be hard to prove the truth and roleplaying made me select the options to maintain the secret. One thing would be to have all the evidence like the statue's head and the wall paintings, but claiming everything is a farce and not having any way to prove it is a different matter, especially in a medieval setting.

Just think about it, the second character was almost killed in the forest just because there was a pig nearby. What a nice place to live! And the Romani guy was shown burning at the stake in the end, I wouldn't want the same for the second protagonist, who had already ignored the saints when painting the mural. Apparently, even Ursula can have the same fate and burn as a witch depending on what you tell her.

Anyway, I wonder what happens if you do try to reveal the truth.

 

6 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

Finished Pentiment. I have to say it was a bit of a letdown in the end. There was so much reading that I had to do, and apparently so little I had any control over, so by the third act I was thinking that I'd much rather just read a well-written novel, because while this game is nicely enough written, it's not written well enough to really justify my time spent on it (because there was so little I could do).

Judging by how things turned out in the end, I actually started to wonder whether it's in any way possible to come to the right conclusions in either the first or the second act. I have no idea.

Spot on. I was playing yesterday past midnight and was getting tired of all the reading in the end.

As for the conclusions in the first two acts,
 

Spoiler

I read somewhere that Josh Sawyer said there is no canon murderer and you are not supposed to be sure of who did it. That said, I think we can make some assumptions and at least establish who was more likely to be guilty. I could write (more) extensivily here, but the Pentiment section of the forums would be more appropriate for that, so I'll instead just say that Lucky probably had a stronger motive and better physical conditions to kill the baron.

As for Otto, I'm not sure. Guy would have to be really lucky to come all the way from the Abbey and not be seen. If he was using that pagan costume, he would have to make one or to borrow it, and there were no indications of any of that. Martin actually didn't seem that worried about the truth coming out when I confronted him (but he had killed people before, so maybe he was simply in control of himself). I actually suspected the Miller, for the same reason as Hanna, but he wasn't even an option. It could be that he simply wouldn't care if the truth came out about the affair. Hanna's husband might not do anything and Else would probably just be afraid of facing her husband. So I guess the most likely assassin would be Hanna, who was even seen in the crime scene.

 

[xzar_monty]

32 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Based on what I read, here and on Steam and Reddit, there are many things you can't influence and that may not make sense depending on how you play the characters.

One particularly obvious example of this is the end of the second act. If it's hard coded and will happen no matter what, then I can't see how it can make sense if you decide to play a hedonist.

Oh well. I wouldn't be asking for my money back, but I am somewhat disappointed and I already uninstalled the game. While the comparison is unfair in many ways, I would say that Disco Elysium was an awful lot better when it comes to games that a) involve a lot of reading and b) essentially have no classical "encounters" at all (although DE famously has that one).

Some of the mini-games I found particularly irritating. Like, if this is supposed to be a fairly high-brow game with plenty of reading to do and plenty of emphasis on European history (good!), then what the heck am I doing making these Christmas cookies and getting criticized for not bothering to be thorough enough so that there's plenty for everyone. I mean, yeah, in real life I would of course use the dough so that as little is left over as possible, but am I going to tinker with it in a game like this? Come on.

[LadyCrimson]

7 Days to Die A21 -

"I'll just fiddle with the rwgmixer.xml numbers and try to make the perfect map for a bit."
**10 minutes later**
"Well apparently I made the perfect map (for me) already, I can quit now."

...more than one trader can now spawn within a modified humongous town now, so within the large lump are 4 (different) Traders, thus making single-city make more sense in that regard.
...they seem to have done better re: POI placement and repetition if you do this sort of altering, too. Buildings still repeat but better spaced out (like no more of the same gas station on all four corners) so it doesn't look as stupid, plus with better layout arrangement for the different types of City sections.

[Keyrock]

System Shock is a testament to the fact that good design is timeless. 29 years later and this fundamentally unchanged remake is still every bit as tense as the rose-tinted memories of playing the classic original in my youth. Even when I get a level down to 0% security, I still don't ever feel truly safe wandering through the cramped dilapidated halls. There's that classic conundrum of trying to conserve my medpacks (because I will for sure need them on the higher floors) while being down to 20% health and knowing that the medbay is so freakin' far away. Just like I remember from the original, grenades are arguably the best weapons in the game. I've done some real satisfying room cleaning with frag grenades. Good times!

[Hawke64]

Finished Lucifer Within Us. A short (3-4 hours? If I didn't check the store page, I'd think that it the whole game was an introduction) investigation game. Somehow, it captures the idea better than Pentiment did, but the objective is also different and there is a specific murderer for each case.

Fixed the save files for Fable III and was able to load them. Somehow relieved that I can access and use my digital media (technically, we purchase licenses, while the files are the means to fulfill the agreements), although with third-party tools (DRM remover and save editor). I still might start a new game after finishing the DLC, as the saves are from the post-game.

Finished Solasta: The Lost Valley. The update slightly messed up the pregen characters' backgrounds. The paladin's I noticed (from Lawkeeper to Lowlife), but missed the wizard's (from Aristocrat to Acolyte) and added her to the party (a rogue, a barbarian, a wizard, and a druid). At some point, the party got another wizard as a follower for a side quest. Because the quest was for a higher-level party and the follower wizard was very effective, he stayed with the party for the rest of the campaign.

Spoiler

I somehow either got stuck or actively antagonised most of the factions and the only ones I could continue with were the Mask and the Rebellion. So I continued with the Rebellion quest line and discovered that their leader was undead (not a lich, as I understood) and he sent the party to discover Orenetis' "weakness" and to destroy his research facility. The rogue under Invisibility was able to explore and loot the whole dungeon, including the bullette's arena (the creature could see through the invisibility, but it was possible to sneak past) and located the NPC the party was sent to kill. The NPC explained why the party might want to kill him and the barbarian auto-declared the intention (I assume, it was bound to the quest), initiating the battle. The uncomfortable part was that the rogue got there alone and the rest of the party teleported via the dialogue, so there was no option for tactical positioning. I was unable to activate the major gate, so the party left the same way as entered. Back at the Rebellion HQ, after receiving the bug-repelling sceptre recipe from the undead, it seemed safer to set him on fire, which was accomplished successfully. But the other Rebels did not like it, so the part had the opportunity to murder the undead's descendants as well. Ironically, the follower wizard, Tuznan Anfarel, was completely fine with everything, despite seemingly being related to them. Then the party just walked out of the valley. Marin Ving (?) was never found and the ending showed the throne being empty with the future described as uncertain.

Overall, I chose a wrong party composition and the parts that I liked were not the ones intended by the developers, such as being able to explore an area without fighting our way through it or using an NPC in the manner described above. I am curious if it is possible to kill and loot Orenetis on the first meeting (thus skipping most of the game), but not going to test it.

[Malcador]

Plodding along in D4, just working through renown in zones.  This grind is a tad brutal, shame they didn't grant renown for doing events in a zone as well though. But, no rush as well.  Poison Flurry rogue is working well for me, although I'd like to try ranged, but need better gear to switch first.

[InsaneCommander]

Gedonia. This game is surprisingly better than I expected. I build an Arcane Archer, which turned out good because I'm frequently running out of mana. But I only spent 3 points in Archery and that will probably be too much. I'm also wondering if it was a good idea to invest a point in most of the crafting skills. It helps with money since I can sell leather armor instead of the raw leather, for example, but I could those points be missed later on? Maybe I will reload one of the first saves and focus more on the magic stuff.

Edit: I can respec later, so I"ll just pick whatever I want for now.

Edited June 20, 2023 by InsaneCommander

[Wormerine]

Tried some demos from Steam Next Fest:

Mimimi's Shadow Gambit - good, as expected. New character kits bring a welcome freshness to the title. I wasn't a fun of the tone of the title from trailers, but I like it much more in-game. The vibrant colours look rather nice on a big screen. There is one change in the control scheme, that isn't disasterous but I prefered the old method - I hope there will be an option to use the system they used for Shadow Tactics and Desperados3.

En Garde - that some folks posted earlier on those forum. It's actually more fun that I expected. Combat is simple, but enjoyably chaotic.

Station to Station - railway building puzzle game. Probably won't be picking it up, but it was pretty and pleasant.

[melkathi]

Finished Fae Tactics. Seems I didn't unlock all content, so may reload before the ending and farm a bit with certain characters to get at least one extra mission I missed.

[Hawke64]

Finished Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The "realism" (as in "How would it work/be used by human beings normally?") of the environment and the combat barks/visual design of the enemies are somehow worse, but the platforming and the ability to traverse the island more freely (to backtrack to collect the health upgrades) feel good. There are more optional collectibles, such as weapons and artworks, but now I am much less interested in hunting them down. I also realised that I had forgotten what some of the switches did and was pulling/pressing them to find out, which was very in-character.
Defeated the final boss on the first attempt, the thing did not glitch (it used to instantly pull itself from the ledge in one of the previous playthroughs). In terms of combat, Warrior Within is more comfortable than the Sands of Time, but the targeting and auto-activating the combat mode are somehow inconvenient and some of the actions are bound to the same inputs (e.g. rolling back and doing a backflip with S+Space, which was unpleasant during the final battle). The total playtime, according to Steam, is around 6 hours.

Finished Fable III - Traitor's Keep and Understone DLCs. I had forgotten some of the design issues (rather poor combat, untracked fetch quests, and good-looking but inconvenient GUI, including maps), but overall it was a very nice experience. Also Fable III has one of the most impressive character customisation systems and environments - the stats affect the PC's appearance and the story choices change the locations.
I suppose, if the reboot is anywhere close to that (and preferably returns visible HP/MP, local maps, and the magic system from the original Fable), it will be great. Also, the game definitely needs a chicken companion animal.

[Wormerine]

5 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Finished Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.

Ah, reminds me of the golden age of Zero Punctuation. Still somehow the most on point take on the trilogy I have encountered. Parable about pudding is a very valuable life lesson. 

 

Edited June 21, 2023 by Wormerine

[uuuhhii]

31 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Ah, reminds me of the golden age of Zero Punctuation. Still somehow the most on point take on the trilogy I have encountered. Parable about pudding is a very valuable life lesson. 

 

zp was pretty good from 2009 to 2020

not sure which part are golden age