What are you Playing Now? - What doesn't kill you, gives you XP

[Theonlygarby]

On 11/16/2023 at 6:47 PM, Helz said:

Small guns are powerful because they include shotguns, submachine guns, and rifles. You do want high Perception. Once you get your guns skill up, you can reliably hit burst and aimed shots. Blinding enemies makes them permanently helpless, so go for the eyes. The Better Criticals perk gives a chance for criticals to kill instantly. Later in the game you can use the Tag! perk to quickly level up energy weapons to use against heavy armor. It's helpful, but not strictly necessary because while your regular attacks will barely scratch them, your criticals will still disable or kill.

Is a melee build viable?  I restarted with high endurance and strength.  It's much easier but I feel like late game is going to be tough.  It's nice being able to hold so many items, that's for sure.

[Keyrock]

My fears of missing the chance of completing all the puzzles in The Talos Principle 2 were unfounded. The devs were kind enough to flat out tell me "you're about to cross the point of no return, if you have any other puzzles you'd like to solve it's now or never." I appreciate it when games give you that warning. Anyway, I'm currently doing the golden gate puzzles which are now open to me. They're structured like regular puzzles, they're just extra challenging. I've completed 6 of 12 so far and they are properly tricky.

[Keyrock]

I finished all the optional stuff and I'm into the endgame.

Even now the game is still introducing new tools. Kind of bonkers given how many tools there already are.

[Keyrock]

I finished The Talos Principle 2 100%. It took me 52 hours and change. I wound up going with the Leap of Faith ending and I got all the extra scenes from completing all the optional puzzles. Fantastic game, probably my GotY, though I have to factor recency bias in and it's been a long time since I played Hogwarts Legacy. Either way, it's a terrific puzzle game. Not too many REALLY hard puzzles, but I really enjoyed some of them, particularly the puzzles in the final stretch. Puzzle games are kinda niche, we don't get a relatively big budget fancy looking one like this very often, a really great one on top of that even less often, so I had to savor this rare treat.

[Keyrock]

With TTP2 finished, it's time to clean up my immediate backlog. First up, I'm back to climbing in Jusant. After that, I have to finish up Phantom Liberty. Then, I can finally play Starfield. Oh God, I'll never get all this done before Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth releases at the end of January, never mind finding time for Baldur's Gate 3. #FirstWorldProblems

[Mamoulian War]

I had a lot of work after my vaccation, and got a little bit sick, so I had decided to make a pause in moving forward with the Star Ocean 5 Ex Dungeon for a while and decided to go for that silly 1 million hit battle trophý which I was still missing. After finishing up 6W Gabriel Celeste, I had a little bit over 400k hits recorded. Soo I have searched trophy hunting forums, how to finish it. And I have found out a guide, how to make it unattended, which was a pretty good thing, as I knew, I will have not much time to play next few days. So. I went to one big dragon superboss and started my first attempt. In the meanwhile, I have done some IRL stuff, which had to be done.

3 hours and some minutes later, the party defeated the boss, and went to check the hit count. My oh my, I nded up disappointed… just a little bit over 60k hits was counted by the game… so I spent almost a week, booting up a console right after I wake up, and leaving the game running for few hours a day, while I was doing my work while at home office. Sigh… approx 30 hours later, I ended up at 960k hits. 40k to go… I really can not imagine a single person, who would have time and patience to get this trophy in a legit “legit way”. As much as I like Star Ocean games, they always come up with some silly over the top Battle Trophy, to degrade your enjoyment out of the game. At least compared to SO4, you could leave the console unatended to get this one. Thankfully, this time they added only this one stupid Battle Trophy. All others were pretty ok to get, and more than 90% of them, I could get while playing the game, without need for a grind. Looking back, SO4 battle trophies were just a torture, bacause you had to do all of them without the help of AI

/rant_over

[Zoraptor]

Finished Days Gone. Enjoyed it, all things considered. Typical open world do jobs and find collectibles while fighting 'zombies' and fellow people just as an Outlaw Biker (with mick sometimes taken over that cliché) so the end effect is basically Walking Dead's Darryl meets Assassins Creed. Objectively I'd say it's too repetitive in its gameplay loop and the story is, well, extremely predictable* with a lot of guns being very ostentatiously placed on the mantel and later fired. Subjectively none of that actually matters. The plot may not be the most original, but it's well executed and is present enough to break up the gameplay and keep it feeling relatively fresh. Overall effect is like having spaghetti bolognaise for dinner: you may have eaten something similar hundreds if not thousands of times before and it's not going to win prizes for adventurous departures from the culinary mainstream; but it's yum so if you really care about that over enjoyment you're probably a bit of a pretentious git.

Took me literally two minutes to work out Deacon's va/ mocap was Sam Witwer. For a guy who isn't particularly famous he's nothing if not distinctive.

*Biggest and pretty much only surprise was the final post end game mission where you find out the FEMA FEDRA NERO guy is actually an Alb from the Elex games...

[kanisatha]

It amazes me how quickly you guys are able to get through games. How do you find the time?!

[Hawke64]

2 hours ago, kanisatha said:

It amazes me how quickly you guys are able to get through games. How do you find the time?!

As someone who has quite a lot of time now, it is stamina and the absence of depression.

Created a party in Wildermyth. I like the character creator, though can't yet comment on skills and equipment (getting 1 skills and 1 equipment piece per mission, which are fortunately short). The art is very lovely.

Playing The Wild at Heart. Like Overlord, but with cute pokemons.
Edit. Finished. Is okay. The controls are not rebindable, the saving is weird. But you can pet all the cats and there are some accessibility options (holding key instead of tapping and higher visibility for the interactive objects).

Edited November 24, 2023 by Hawke64

[Malcador]

RT3 Orient Express mission is doing my head in, so guess stuck there as I can't get Gold yet.

[Mamoulian War]

9 hours ago, kanisatha said:

It amazes me how quickly you guys are able to get through games. How do you find the time?!

This year it is much harder than last year, unfortunatelly  A lot of work now, and a lot of time, I was able to play only during a weekend. Last two months, I finally had more time, but I have decided to go for a crazy time consuming platinum But still having a lot of fun with the game, and finally have some hard challenge again  

[kanisatha]

23 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

As someone who has quite a lot of time now, it is stamina and the absence of depression.

Truly hope this isn't implying something bad in your life.

[HoonDing]

When I play video games it's sadly always to the detriment of other activities.

[BruceVC]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:01 AM, Zoraptor said:

Finished Days Gone. Enjoyed it, all things considered. Typical open world do jobs and find collectibles while fighting 'zombies' and fellow people just as an Outlaw Biker (with mick sometimes taken over that cliché) so the end effect is basically Walking Dead's Darryl meets Assassins Creed. Objectively I'd say it's too repetitive in its gameplay loop and the story is, well, extremely predictable* with a lot of guns being very ostentatiously placed on the mantel and later fired. Subjectively none of that actually matters. The plot may not be the most original, but it's well executed and is present enough to break up the gameplay and keep it feeling relatively fresh. Overall effect is like having spaghetti bolognaise for dinner: you may have eaten something similar hundreds if not thousands of times before and it's not going to win prizes for adventurous departures from the culinary mainstream; but it's yum so if you really care about that over enjoyment you're probably a bit of a pretentious git.

Took me literally two minutes to work out Deacon's va/ mocap was Sam Witwer. For a guy who isn't particularly famous he's nothing if not distinctive.

*Biggest and pretty much only surprise was the final post end game mission where you find out the FEMA FEDRA NERO guy is actually an Alb from the Elex games...

I really enjoyed it,  I  preferred  it to Dying Light 2

I thought the narrative was  compelling and the factions believable and interesting and  clearing Hordes made for some fun around  strategizing

I also liked the main protagonist...and I didnt expect that surprising NERO end. Effective  way to create a   narrative for a sequel 

  

[BruceVC]

On 11/24/2023 at 4:29 PM, kanisatha said:

It amazes me how quickly you guys are able to get through games. How do you find the time?!

No kids and not married so I have lots of time in the evening and weekends

[Wormerine]

42 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

No kids and not married so I have lots of time in the evening and weekends

Yup. Same. Little social life, so I watch films or game in my free time. speaking of which:

Jusant. It’s pleasant, though I wasn’t too blown away by it. Story relies a bit too much on written notes, and it is just not enjoyable way for me to absorb the narrative. Climbing is enjoyable, but almost a walking simulator. It is a bit more involved when it comes to player input that your usually climbing in games, but not in actual mechanics. Some clever ideas here and there, but as didn’t find it to be particularly interesting in itself. It’s still autopilot, but you press two buttons intermittently, instead of holding forward. 
 

Like a Dragon: Ishin! It’s good! Probably my 2nd favourite Yakuza game, due to change of the setting, though I also fought it was somewhat more sloppy than the usual fare. Map is more stretched out, and mini games more seperate from the main map - I found myself having to consciously engage with side content, while usually Yakuzas are great in drawing you in, as you go around your business. Main mini game (managing your homestead) ends up being tedious - you farm and cook stuff that you can later use or sell. However cooking comes with its own mini game. It’s fun at first, when when you get order for 10 meals, it’s stop being fun. I think there should be an upgrade to skip the mini game once one progresses. I also found fighting styles to be uneven. There is one which is pretty much better than anything else, and one which is completely useless. 

I have been tempted to play cyberpunk, so I decided to give a replay to a better version of it: Deus Dx (Mankind Divided as I played it only once). It’s still a flawed sequel, but I am enjoying it more 2nd time around. 

[Mamoulian War]

Goal nr. 10 finished

November 25, 21:30

With the defeat of 6-winged Ethereal Queen, and unlocking of last character ending for Emmerson, my PS4 Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness Universe difficulty playthrough has been finished on 100% today. During my way to 100%, I had to unlock 4 ultra rare Trophies, which have been acquired by less than 1% of game owners. One for crafting all recipes, one for finding every single item, one for finding every single enemy, and one for fulfilling the prerequisites for all of the in-game Battle Trophies. The hardest Trophy, as always, was the Battle Trophy one, as it included the infamous one for 1 million hits. To get this one, I had to spent more than 30 hours fighting against Bloodbane over and over, but I left the last hit for this Trophy for the EQ fight :) . The game got a lot of bashing when it was released, mostly due to the Fiore’s dress, but IMHO, it was one of the best JRPGs released in 2016, as it stayed faithful to its Japanese roots without trying to appease western Skyrim audience unlike FFXV.

[BruceVC]

I completed Kotor  2  after 40 hours and I thought it was  an overall  better game than Kotor 1.  It gets a 72/100 on the globally popular " BruceVC game rating system " 

I enjoyed  the narrative and was surprised how the "  good "   Jedi were actually my enemies at the end.  I did have to use heal  cheats in one or two combats when my main character wasnt fighting because the combat was  almost impossible 

But I ended up saving my party members at  the end, staying true  to the light side,supporting the  Republic and trying to Romance Visas which was  disappointingly  just a platonic Romance and sharing some sort of  spiritual force bonding ..boring 

But good game overall,  my character was  deadly at the end with dual wielding lightsabers and using speed and quick heal to win most battles..oh and my trusty   Verpine Prototype  shield was invaluable 

 

 

[Hawke64]

19 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Truly hope this isn't implying something bad in your life.

Spoiler

About 2 months of looking for employment. At 385 applications in total and 85 explicit rejections at the moment. Considering that on average it takes about 4 months to find a job, everything is as expected, but the lack of any other kind of feedback whether or not I am close to the objective is not inspiring.

On a gaming-related note, somehow I was able to save all not-pokemons in The Wild at Heart up to the final battle, while there, the not-pokemons were dropping dead even under the invincibility potion effects.

[Mamoulian War]

51 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

About 2 months of looking for employment. At 385 applications in total and 85 explicit rejections at the moment. Considering that on average it takes about 4 months to find a job, everything is as expected, but the lack of any other kind of feedback whether or not I am close to the objective is not inspiring.

On a gaming-related note, somehow I was able to save all not-pokemons in The Wild at Heart up to the final battle, while there, the not-pokemons were dropping dead even under the invincibility potion effects.

Can you share, what country you live in, if it is not to much of personal question. 4 months is really crazy long time

[Hawke64]

11 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Can you share, what country you live in, if it is not to much of personal question. 4 months is really crazy long time

Spoiler

UK. I suppose, there are quite a lot people in IT and DS looking for jobs right now, considering that there were ~120 in my class alone and there have been layoffs in many tech companies. Also, on LinkedIn the number of applicants per suitable position is 150+ on average. I am getting some interviews and coding tests, but no follow ups so far. Applied for a housekeeping assistant position once and was rejected.

A friend told that in his former company unless the candidate was already employed, the application was rejected due to the volume of applicants.

 

[Mamoulian War]

10 minutes ago, Hawke64 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

UK. I suppose, there are quite a lot people in IT and DS looking for jobs right now, considering that there were ~120 in my class alone and there have been layoffs in many tech companies. Also, on LinkedIn the number of applicants per suitable position is 150+ on average. I am getting some interviews and coding tests, but no follow ups so far. Applied for a housekeeping assistant position once and was rejected.

A friend told that in his former company unless the candidate was already employed, the application was rejected due to the volume of applicants.

 

Spoiler

Wow, that's completely unexpected. It was always advertised, that EU lacks more than 500,000 IT specialists, to fill all of the required positions Anyway, I wish you best of luck, so you get something good very soon!

 

[BruceVC]

6 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

  Hide contents

Wow, that's completely unexpected. It was always advertised, that EU lacks more than 500,000 IT specialists, to fill all of the required positions Anyway, I wish you best of luck, so you get something good very soon!

 

Why you guys using hidden content to ask each other questions, Im clicking on it expecting to see something serious and possibly adult 

[Wormerine]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

About 2 months of looking for employment. At 385 applications in total and 85 explicit rejections at the moment. Considering that on average it takes about 4 months to find a job, everything is as expected, but the lack of any other kind of feedback whether or not I am close to the objective is not inspiring.

 

 

Hang in there @Hawke64. I have been there - took me a long time to find my job, and was easily the worst of my life so far. Yeah, just sending applications into the void with no feedback was the most demotivating part of the process. I don’t know what I would do without a generous support from my family. I hope you will manage to land a new position soon. 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Wormerine

[Mamoulian War]

13 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Why you guys using hidden content to ask each other questions, Im clicking on it expecting to see something serious and possibly adult 

Well, it's adult as well. In a way