What are you Playing Now? - Back to the Grind

[majestic]

Look, Joe liked Lies of P enough to release his first video in a year:

Bit on the short side, but I'll take it.

[Sarex]

  On 12/4/2023 at 7:48 PM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

3 days until release, 3 years until it's stable.

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I am kind of hoping 3rd time's the charm because I plan on playing it day one or weekend one. I mean Wrath was decent on launch.

[melkathi]

Starship Troopers: Terran Command

 

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I played the tutorial, which basically is that Klendathu disaster opening scene of the movie, including the description that it's an ugly planet, a bug planet.

Since, I have started the game's campaign and beaten the first four missions. I haven't done every achievement, such as kill X bugs with a specific ability.

I play on normal (the middle of 5 difficulties) and haven't had much trouble yet. Still, I have way to go, so the difficulty is bound to ramp up. Especially now that the bugs have gotten those big nasty tankers.

 

[majestic]

Done with lies of P:

NG+ optional final boss sure is something. Actually, the optional final boss is still the only one where I feel I have not really gotten a decent grasp on how to play against, but I've defeated it twice now (need to play through all the three endings for the achievements, and you need to fight it in two of them) by playing just well enough to get it down within a handful of tries. The other two non-optional bosses before it, well, they were pushovers in NG+.

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NG+ Simon Manus was a joke. Well, maybe regular game Simon Manus is a joke too, but it takes some time getting used to his moveset and he has a lot of health, and NG+ damage output is much higher due to the insane amount of souls ergo you gather from enemies compared to the first run. Laxasia on the other hand, who everyone else apparently thinks is the hardest boss in the game, is relatively simple fight as long as you figure out that the grindstone giving you perfect guard can be used to make her long lightning attacks a complete non-issue. Not only do you deal insane damage by reflecting all her lightning back to her, it also lasts long enough to counter the otherwise ridiculously hard to parry fury attack where she charges at you across the entire arena in a quarter of a second, with barely a way to see when it begins, not only knocking down a quarter of her health right at the start, but also making her vulnerable to an onslaught of hits from you for a bit.

Anyone playing and struggling, well, don't sleep on throwables. There's a shop in the Malum District that carries an unlimited supply for all of them, at a fairly cheap price to boot (this should alleviate any concern about having to horde consumables), and they do pack a punch, inflict status effects and a large amount of stagger. If you can get any boss down to half their health there's a decent chance you can just throw stuff at them until they die. Adding extra belt slots and increasing your throwable carrying capacity through the upgrade system is very much worth it.

The summoning system where you can get an NPC specter to help you fight bosses on the other hand is really hit and miss. I played though the entire game without using it, only trying it here and there on the later runs. In theory it is a good idea because the specter sometimes has aggro from the boss and you can freely wail at their backside, however, many boss attacks and abilities hit in very wide angles, or even cover 360°, making them more of a curse then a blessing. They also don't stop the boss from just switching to you in a sequence of attacks that is patently hard to read from behind them. Probably the least interesting aspect of the combat system. Could use some work.

Looking forward to the teased Wizard of Oz game from Neowiz.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

  On 12/4/2023 at 8:52 PM, Sarex said:

I am kind of hoping 3rd time's the charm because I plan on playing it day one or weekend one. I mean Wrath was decent on launch.

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Good Journey Struggler.

[Bartimaeus]

  On 12/4/2023 at 10:44 PM, majestic said:

The summoning system where you can get an NPC specter to help you fight bosses on the other hand is really hit and miss. I played though the entire game without using it, only trying it here and there on the later runs. In theory it is a good idea because the specter sometimes has aggro from the boss and you can freely wail at their backside, however, many boss attacks and abilities hit in very wide angles, or even cover 360°, making them more of a curse then a blessing. They also don't stop the boss from just switching to you in a sequence of attacks that is patently hard to read from behind them. Probably the least interesting aspect of the combat system. Could use some work.

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I never liked co-op (either with PCs or NPCs) in the Souls game for this: having two players either trivializes a boss (by just playing off the other with forcing frequent aggro switches, thereby giving piles of free hits), or...the boss is one of them whirlwindy/AoE types and everything just quickly becomes an absolute cluster. Neither ever really resulted in very satisfying outcomes to me.

  On 12/4/2023 at 7:49 PM, majestic said:

Look, Joe liked Lies of P enough to release his first video in a year:

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but even after watching the whole thing, he still failed to convince me to play it

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by Bartimaeus

[BruceVC]

  On 12/4/2023 at 6:42 AM, melkathi said:

I recall having three ladies in my party, the paladin with a name that reminded me of bottled mineral water, the Eskimo dwarf, and the grieving mother.

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Literally in my  next session I came across Sangani and Grieving Mother,  I can handle no   Romance but not having any women in  my party seemed ...incongruous 

I decided  to keep  Grieving Mother as a    active companion, I dont have a Cipher

 

Edited December 5, 2023 by BruceVC

[Sarex]

  On 12/4/2023 at 11:15 PM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

Good Journey Struggler.

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Hopefully I don't get the Eclipse.

[melkathi]

  On 12/5/2023 at 10:03 AM, bugarup said:

 

Almost done with Sunless Sea, moping up some quest lines. Funny how this game low-key and without judging lets you be a heartless monstrosity who <snip> torture or feeds tourists to spiders. 

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Ah, the dev too has worked in tourism and is working through his trauma with this game.

The whole game makes so much more sense now.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

  On 12/5/2023 at 9:01 AM, Sarex said:

Hopefully I don't get the Eclipse.

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You will become the Skull Knight. 

[Malcador]

  On 12/4/2023 at 7:48 PM, PK htiw klaw eriF said:

3 days until release, 3 years until it's stable.

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5 years before you can get it 90% off

[melkathi]

  On 12/5/2023 at 5:58 PM, Malcador said:

5 years before you can get it 90% off

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But only because it isn't Marvel Midnight Suns

[melkathi]

More Starship Troopers.

More fighting on Kwalasha.

Obviously the bugs cannot match the might and courage of the brave men of the mobile infantry.

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We held the line at the impenetrable Fort Meru.

We orderly evacuated from Fort Meru when it got overrun. They said it was impenetrable. Nobody said it was imoverrunable.

We cleared the plasma bugs to make possible the rescue of survivors of the fubared evacuation.

Next mission to survive the fubar rescue.

 

[Malcador]

Still failing against the Japan scenario in RT3 due to the demand at the destination being very weird - the price is lower than places with an abundance. 

[uuuhhii]

playing dredge dlc

core gameplay are amazing

hope for more dlc

one quest require specific aberration are probably most difficult one in the game 

pc still shriek at main menu and some other part of ui

Edited December 8, 2023 by uuuhhii

[LadyCrimson]

NMS - update time, and they're repeating "Expeditions" all month so ppl can repeat them, or if you missed them, do them for the 1st time. I have never done one at all, so I tried the first one. You have to start a new game/chr and there are different mechanics/rules/objectives to follow etc.

Loaded in and ... "You cannot craft anything outside of a claimed base territory, not a metal plate, battery, anything" ... I tried for a while, and it's not that bad, just annoying. I can understand why people like the extra goals/challenges ... but yeah ... the rewards are only base/costume deco and a Fighter ship I will never care about/use and I like my own goals better, so exit, stage left.

And just to say, I *still* see things in the game I've never seen before. Just little things. Not things most would care about but I like it.
Currently on a quest to portal-address record all "blob" pet companion varieties I (randomly, all rng) find/come across. The odder ones are kinda rare.

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

Started The Outer Worlds Halcyon DLC. The antivirus quarantined one of the files, so spent some time trying to figure out why the game was not launching. 
Spent an hour talking to people (and checking their pockets for access cards). The game looks gorgeous (might have something to do with running at 60 FPS), from style to animations, and the dialogue options are varied. I also greatly appreciate the static skill checks.

[Mamoulian War]

I have started Dark Souls Remastered for the first time. This time, I am planning to go with more melee focused character. Last time, I had to go full caster, as I was to clumsy to defeat Ornstein and Smough  we’ll see How will I fare this time  

I have defeated two bosses so far. Taurus and Gargoyles and I have already died 16 times  next in line is Capra Demon, who stopped me very first playthrough for a year or so, as he was impossible for me to defeat, untill I’ve learned how to make the fight easier, with cleverly using the arena layout  

[Malcador]

Still with RT3. Got a good economy seed in the Japan scenario, beat it handily.  One last scenario to beat then I guess I can start playing another game, the last scenario is one of the annoying ones where you need net worth.   I always forget to do stock buybacks (well that and I guess I suck at earning money to do so).

[Amentep]

Old thread:

 

[Malcador]

RT3 defeated. Sort of a crooked way I won the last mission with gold though, just waited until last possible minute and pumped my networth by buying my company's shares on margin in a huge amount, just got me over.

[Hawke64]

The Murder on Eridanos. In progress. Somehow surprised at the number of assassination attempts the victim had survived before dying. After spending 2 months on LinkedIn, the writing seems especially touching and thought-provoking, while remaining humorous. I also remembered that I was not particularly fond of the combat and items, though, the former has been mostly avoidable so far.

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The gameplay logic tells me that the killer is the person I cannot reach, thus, it is Administrator Ludovico.

Spirit of the North. It is a walking simulator with light puzzles, platforming elements, and collectibles (bringing staves to skeletons). The protagonist is a fox who follows a fox spirit across a northern landscape. It is an impressive project for 2 people - it is playable, consistent, short, and it looks and runs fine. On the other hand, there are no rebindable controls, the controls in general feel clunky, the last area was a navigational nightmare, and I had one soft-lock. I also was unable to launch the EGS version through Steam, so there are very few screenshots taken. Still, it is significantly better than Lost Ember, another game with a fox following a spirit, due to the spirit being a silent fox instead of a narrator.

[uuuhhii]

replaying suzerain feel heavier than before

new gasom content are horrible

other new content was decent

hope for dlc is high

[Tale]

How many months was I gone this time?

Anyway, I'm playing a mix of Lethal Company, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rogue Trader.

RDR2 is the hardest to recommend, but maybe that's because it's a slow start. Probably more on me than the game.

[BruceVC]

I completed PoE 1 after about 70   hours,  it was a very good RPG  experience

Firstly I give this game 75/100 on the globally followed  "   BruceVC game rating system " and one of the reasons it gets such a good score is because Obsidian was able to successfully create a  new  fantasy game world with interesting lore  and a new ruleset. And thats hard with the understandable popularity of  D&D   rules

Some of the things I enjoyed about the new    ruleset was how any class can use any armour or weapons and also I liked the new classes like the  Cipher.  So kudos to Obsidian for being able to create something different and still enjoyable

I thought the overall narrative was very unexpected and exciting, at the end I didnt think to discover the truth about the gods and I decided to release the souls back to bodies  they were intended and end the hollowborn curse but I considered all the options and the consequences.Thought provoking choices at  the end 

Combat was a big win  for me and I enjoyed the mechanics  involved. By slowing down the game  and using pause you can literally create dozens of strategies and approaches to win battles. I did have a hard time winning certain hard fights like the Sky Dragon and the final battle with Thaos but once I started using the  combat log I  was able to identify what I was getting wrong with my attacks so I then started becoming strategic and used buffs to increase  my accuracy and spells  to decrease Will. Paralyze become my friend and Prayer against Fear was critical in the dragon fights. But I also tried to kill the Sky Dragon at level 9 and then came back later at level  11 and had  a much better  time  

I also enjoyed the Endless Paths and I decided to free the master instead of combat, great side quest 

A few negatives, I lost interest in reading souls after 30 or so people because you cant do anything with the knowledge you learn. It would nice to see a way where you could incorporate what you learn into a quest? And then I found some of  the companions lacked  depth or didnt  have very compelling side quests. I would also  have preferred Romance as well 

But overall a really good game and I plan to now play White March 1&2. Im going to have quick break and then play these expansions over Christmas  holidays 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by BruceVC