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

[Malcador]

Finally got max renown in all zones in D4,  only lvl 63 now.  Gotta grind to unlock Torment now

[melkathi]

You get to play Planescape: Torment as a hidden game in D4?

Like playing maniac mansion in day of the tentacle?

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, melkathi said:

You get to play Planescape: Torment as a hidden game in D4?

Lol if they remade P:T in D4 engine, that would be worth asking price to me. I really wish BG1&2 would get Diablo2 style remaster  

[melkathi]

Saint's Row:

The lack of strippers, while odd, doesn't actually bother me. 

The more touchy feely sitcom relationship between the characters isn't really a problem either. In fact, I like that they all have an opinion about many of Kev's exes, unlike with Shaundy, where the whole joke was "yet another ex".

What does bother me is the day and night cycle which means that half your time in the game, the game world is completely empty. Why are there no parked cars at night? Do people take their cars to bed with them? 

In general, I find myself more and more wishing Devs would not do the day/night thing in their games. The odd stealting while the NPC is sleeping (not a thing in saints row, but thinking of elder scrolls) does not balance out the inconvenience of the rest of the night experience.

The other thing I don't understand is why I can't do petty crimes anymore. What was wrong with running past people in SR3 and picking their pockets? What was wrong with the abductions of people in the cars you stole? What was wrong with streaking? The basis of how yo do these things were there in previous I. It couldn't have been that hard to do them again. So it feels like cut content.

 

[Malcador]

8 hours ago, melkathi said:

You get to play Planescape: Torment as a hidden game in D4?

Like playing maniac mansion in day of the tentacle?

Yes.

[Keyrock]

21 hours ago, Malcador said:

Finally got max renown in all zones in D4,  only lvl 63 now.  Gotta grind to unlock Torment now

 

10 hours ago, melkathi said:

You get to play Planescape: Torment as a hidden game in D4?

Like playing maniac mansion in day of the tentacle?

Plot Twist: You get to play Torment: Tides of Numenera in D4. Also, D4 is D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die.

[melkathi]

I didn't even play Torment: Tides of Numenera in Torment: Tides of Numenera...

[bugarup]

I'm playing Saints Row 3, never played any SR games before. It's strange; the game is full of things I normally hate in games - timers, checkpoints, driving, combos - and yet here I am, 25 hours in and never noticing how it's 2 am already. Maybe because the game is so chill and unserious about anything it's hard to be annoyed at it too? I even started enjoying my abysmal driving! Also some minigames are better than others, insurance fraud is probably my favorite; also love clearing the pink fist events with a tank. 

[Star Crossbowman]

1 hour ago, bugarup said:

I'm playing Saints Row 3, never played any SR games before. It's strange; the game is full of things I normally hate in games - timers, checkpoints, driving, combos - and yet here I am, 25 hours in and never noticing how it's 2 am already. Maybe because the game is so chill and unserious about anything it's hard to be annoyed at it too? I even started enjoying my abysmal driving! Also some minigames are better than others, insurance fraud is probably my favorite; also love clearing the pink fist events with a tank. 

Played 8 years ago and for me the best part. Passed several times, but most of all I liked the mission where you get down from a helicopter and capture the penthouse.
It is a pity that the 4th part came out boring.

[LadyCrimson]

7 Days to Die A21 went "stable" so I had to wipe maps/saves, leading to more map making, because that's about half of what I ever do anymore. With the better world generator I'm going to try super-mini towns again. Each one can only be 1-2 tiles (a tile houses 6-8 POI's each I think). I want a map filled with like 150 of those, spread out all over. It's gonna be awesome.

Above Snakes Adventure Mode has also been awesome. Extra world tiles useful and great, ability to do things out of order/whenever great.

These two games are currently the only games in existence. I play one of them each day for 2-3 hours, alternating each day. Works for me.

[Keyrock]

6 hours ago, bugarup said:

Also some minigames are better than others, insurance fraud is probably my favorite; also love clearing the pink fist events with a tank. 

Insurance fraud is the greatest. It's such a simple mini-game, you run into traffic and get ragdolled. And yet, it's endlessly entertaining.

[melkathi]

The best thing about the new Saints Row is that they kept Insurance Fraud and the intro conversation is hilarious.

 

SR3 was the most fun in the series.

SR2 had the best story, but driving was so unfun, I would not replay it. Also, it was still semi-serious; a serious story with grotesque silly frills.

SR4 was well written, but the superpowers made the gameplay trivial.

Gat Out Of Hell was the best disney princess musical, but the worst SR game ever made.

I am having enough fun with the new one, but I am missing things from 3.

[uuuhhii]

1 minute ago, melkathi said:

The best thing about the new Saints Row is that they kept Insurance Fraud and the intro conversation is hilarious.

 

SR3 was the most fun in the series.

SR2 had the best story, but driving was so unfun, I would not replay it. Also, it was still semi-serious; a serious story with grotesque silly frills.

SR4 was well written, but the superpowers made the gameplay trivial.

Gat Out Of Hell was the best disney princess musical, but the worst SR game ever made.

I am having enough fun with the new one, but I am missing things from 3.

took a long time to learn how to aim for car properly in saint row 3

it is pretty fun despite how simple a mini game it is

[melkathi]

In the new SR, if an npc is driving, you climb onto the roof and fire from there. It allows for a lot better aiming.

It also leads to that funny scene where the npc tells you "You drive, I'll do the shooting from the roof thing!" and you react "That is not actually a..."

[Malcador]

Tried doing the capstone dungeon in D4 at 66, that resulted in failure.  Some of the mechanics are really annoying as melee in the boss fights, just getting hit in the face by a spiraling magic attack, etc.  The dungeon aspects where you're chased by a lightning damager or there are these shadow damage spots on the ground aren't all that fun to deal with either for me, not a huge deal but it makes the tedious farming more so, heh.

Also went back to Sleeping Dogs for a bit, my Wei is being a great cop, randomly abducting people.  It's funny to meet Triad bosses and everyone while wearing an HKPD SWAT uniform though,

[Keyrock]

I started playing AEW Fight Forever. This will obviously get compared to the WWE 2K games, which is both to be expected and not completely fair. On the one hand, WWE games have been made for decades and this is a first outing for AEW, on the other hand it's made by Yuke's who used to make the WWE games. They went for a more arcadey feel like the N64 wrestling games, most famously WWF No Mercy. In that sense, I'd say it's a success. The game is easy to pick up and play and legitimately fun. It doesn't have the level of depth of current WWE games, but you can't expect that from a first outing. The amount of modes on hand is fairly generous. The story mode is a mixed bag. Each week you can do 4 things and then you have a match on the show. You can train which gives you skill points but drains energy and comes with chance of injury, you can go out to eat, which recharges energy, you can go sightseeing or do a meet & greet which improves mood, and you can play mini-games which can earn you money. There are several weeks of standard TV shows then the PPV. Most of the dialogue is not voiced and the writing is CRINGE. In terms of presentation this game won't get any awards for graphics. They went for a more cartoony style and some characters look pretty good and some look hilariously derpy. In terms of creating your own wrestler, the move customization is impressive. There are a lot of moves available in a whole bunch of categories (though some moves I'd love to see in the game are missing) giving you a lot of options with which to customize your wrestling style. In terms of appearance, though, the game comes up rather short. You only get a few faces to choose from and about a dozen hair styles. Gear options are... The basics are there but beyond that the game is lacking. Hopefully modders step up and add a lot more gear options.

Overall I'd say that it's a solid first effort and a good base for future games. It's fun to play, which is the most important part, but the game is definitely lacking in some areas.

[Zoraptor]

39 minutes ago, Keyrock said:

..the writing is CRINGE.

Ah, so they've maintained consistency with the source material then, excellent for immersion.

(I suspect being a writer for a wrestling game is a lot more difficult than people might think, since so many promos etc rely so heavily on the wrestler(s) delivering them. Mark Henry 'retiring', Steiner Maths or Hurricane/ Rock depend utterly on the people delivering them with utter conviction despite them being... just a little silly when you write them down)

[Keyrock]

17 minutes ago, Zoraptor said:

Ah, so they've maintained consistency with the source material then, excellent for immersion.

(I suspect being a writer for a wrestling game is a lot more difficult than people might think, since so many promos etc rely so heavily on the wrestler(s) delivering them. Mark Henry 'retiring', Steiner Maths or Hurricane/ Rock depend utterly on the people delivering them with utter conviction despite them being... just a little silly when you write them down)

True. You have almost any other person on the planet deliver a Rock promo and it would come off as the corniest **** ever. The Rock's immense amount of natural charisma makes up for a lot of things, including his acting range, or lack there of.

[melkathi]

Saints Row devs:

"We need to fill this neighbourhood with small houses. Let's make one and reuse it. We can change the crap in the yard to make them appear different."

Also Saints Row devs:

"We need to write hints for the collectibles. Where is that flamingo statue again?" "West Providencia next to the front door of house number 217." "Cool, I'll use exactly that as the hint!"

Saints Row player:

"But every house is number 217!"

[InsaneCommander]

BG3. Tested the game for the first time. Made all the decisions I'd never make since I was not playing seriously. It was game over in a few minutes. I couldn't free a prisoner and started hitting all objects in the room, apparently dropping acid on everyone.

[xzar_monty]

12 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

(I suspect being a writer for a wrestling game is a lot more difficult than people might think, since so many promos etc rely so heavily on the wrestler(s) delivering them. Mark Henry 'retiring', Steiner Maths or Hurricane/ Rock depend utterly on the people delivering them with utter conviction despite them being... just a little silly when you write them down)

I would say you are 100% correct, although to toot my own horn, I would be one of those people who'd definitely think that it was really quite difficult in the first place. I am reminded of something the formerly-great Portuguese football manager José Mourinho once said: "The same half-time speech given by two different managers is not the same half-time speech." He is absolutely right.

Btw, although some people might think otherwise, those so-stupid-that-simply-seeing-one-of-them-may-occasionally-make-you-feel-ashamed-of-being-human headlines in really bad newspapers aren't exactly easy to write, either. You have to be pretty precise in the way you place emphasis and use the few syllables you've got space for, and there's something almost tragic about the fact that some people have really honed the skill of being hideously crass while maintaining brevity.

Generally speaking, all writing that starts to veer away from plain ordinary language (whichever way you define it) starts to get pretty difficult to do well. I can write a bland generic pop lyric that scans and rhymes perfectly, and it doesn't take longer than five minutes, but coming up with anything that actually works is serious business. Deadfire did a pretty good job of capturing a certain half-lofty tone, although there were moments when it tried a bit too hard (like, in the first "pre-game" encounter, the aged dwarf could well have been just an old dwarf, and talking about rictus was a bit over the top).

 

EDIT: @InsaneCommander: BG3 is still turn-based only, right?

Edited July 5, 2023 by xzar_monty

[Mamoulian War]

Finally I was able to find all hidden owls in Tales of Arise Got an Artifact as a reward The culprit was hidden behind one very powerful Gigant Zeugle, so I had to skip him for a veeeeery long time. Even today, the boss completely obliterated my party in the last phase of the fight, but I was able to finish his remaining 16k HPs with last Law standing, and thankfully I was able to outdodge his attacks and finally defeated him. The reward was last owl and last missing recipe in my cookbook

[Hawke64]

Blasphemous. An incredibly well-made Metroidvania. Not sure if the gore and the religious aesthetics are supposed to make it more humorous, but they do. The visual design is outstanding and the controls are reasonably comfortable, though the insta-kill spike traps are rather unfun. Discovered that I can get more Estus Flasks by filling the empty ones at the blood fountains after the third (?) boss.

Celeste. A very beautiful platformer. Despite the checkpoints being quite frequent, I activated almost all Assist Options by the end of the second area and didn't feel like I was missing anything. I guess, my reaction limit is closer to PoPTSoT than Celeste. The soundtrack might get slightly annoying, though.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Hawke64

[Wormerine]

2 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

EDIT: @InsaneCommander: BG3 is still turn-based only, right?

[Put and Insane commander paper mask]

Exploration is in real time, but combat is turned based.

[xzar_monty]

27 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Exploration is in real time, but combat is turned based.

Thanks! Yeah, my question was poorly phrased; what I meant to ask was whether turn-based mode was the only option for combat. I was pretty certain of the answer, but I'm still a bit disappointed. I would've liked to play the game, but there's no way I'm going for anything exclusively turn-based.