What are you Playing Now? - Right Now at the moment edition

[majestic]

Time to check if the jeweler area in Kurast Bazaar still crashes after a couple of seconds standing in there. Got stuck there yesterday because it kept crashing the moment it loaded the game, until I got far enough away to get out of the crash zone. Man, you know, back in the day, Blizzard made games where half the mechanics wouldn't work or don't do whatever they were supposed to (one of the funniest  was the Earthliving Weapon glyph in Wrath of the Lich King, which read it increases Earthliving Weapon's procc chance by 5%, which it did - raised it from 20% to 21%, a proper 5% increase ), but at least the game ran well.

Nowadays half the mechanics and half the game don't work...

edit: Well, no crash in Kurast yet. Looks like they fixed it. Good job, now, can I have my quest reward back that dropped on the ground moments before the game crashed on me the last time I was there?

Edited October 11 by majestic

[melkathi]

Tried Disney Speedstorm.

It is an Okay Mario Kart style racer.

It is also a nasty gacha game, so it could have been published more honestly by Paradox. It would have endless DLC, but it would be less predatory.

[Hawke64]

On 10/11/2024 at 12:51 PM, melkathi said:

I bought Two Worlds 2 when it came out. Never really played it. Something bothered me in the initial feel.

 

Maybe I'll have to try again after a full BruceVC rating has been given.

I have played it (started, defeated the ork boss, but did not finish, then the MTX were introduced, so it will remain unfinished) and I agree about it being unfun.

---

Tails of Iron. A 2D action game in a fantasy setting, with anthropomorphic mice fighting against anthropomorphic frogs. The game looks very pretty (the visual style reminds of old picture books), though the mandatory combat encounters (the game locks you on a screen until all foes are dead) are somewhat boring and the movement controls are uncomfortable (but rebindable). After reaching the second boss, I restarted on the lower difficulty to have shorter combat encounters.

---

1000xResist. A walking simulator in a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic setting. As art as it gets, but having the MC automatically doing dumb things or the range of dialogue optoins being "Yes" and "Yes" annoys me greatly. The gameplay consists of walking to an objective in areas of variable ease of navigation (from unobstructed corridors to labyrinthine buildings, 1 area had a map), some sort of light platforming, and 1 puzzle (matching several sentences). The story is a commentary on the Umbrella Revolution (Hong Kong) and generational trauma. I have not yet finished the game, but the achievements suggest that the only choice comes at the end, while the previous 10 hours are the build-up to it.

[uuuhhii]

trying to get back to ck3 but the ui layout is so bad

as interaction available with npc increase it only getting worse

and the painful pace of bug fix and performance issue didn't help either

[Hawke64]

Finished 1000xResist. Review (I am unsure whether I should put these text-walls under spoiler tags or not, but there have been higher walls, so probably fine):

1000xResist (“One Thousand Times Resist”) is a mix of a walking simulator and a kinetic visual novel. There are one puzzle (unless one counts the “interact with everything” objective as a puzzle), one timed action sequence, and one choice that matters, with the previous 10 hours being the context to make it. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting, where humanity died out from an extraterrestrial invasion and a plague, with only one human and her clones remaining. The human, Iris, the All-Mother, is worshipped by her clones as a goddess. The protagonist, the Watcher, is a clone whose duty is to observe the All-Mother’s memories. The story is focused on the topics of revolution (the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution, in particular) and generational trauma. The game is as artistic as it can get.

The visual and the sound design are reasonably simple and expressive. All dialogues are voiced and there are very few facial animations.

In terms of gameplay, the only possible challenge is to navigate the labyrinthine locations to interact with the next objective, but the exploration never feels rewarding. Only the main hub has a map, which becomes unavailable at some point. Occasionally, the story presentation becomes less straightforward and more abstract and invocative, but just walking forward solves it. The choices in the dialogues throughout the game affect nothing and it was frustrating to see the protagonist do or say unwise things automatically.

For the technical part, the controls are not rebindable, though they are not uncomfortable either. The only visual settings are the resolution, the shadows’ resolution, framerate limit, and V-Sync, so I was stuck with the post-effects (blur, chromatic aberration, etc.) and the game was trying to heat up my GPU a few times (nothing on the screen at that time could explain ~80C). The textures are noticeably low-resolution and it is fine, great even, but the lack of optimisation is unpleasant. There are 10 save slots, with one of them being the auto-save, and it is possible to replay the unlocked chapters. Surprisingly, the save files for the GOG version were not in a hidden folder, but in the /User/Saved Games/, which is admirable, considering how rarely it happens now.

Overall, I think that games like 1000xResist should be celebrated, but the technical and gameplay flaws make it significantly less appealing, thus, I would recommend it with at least 50% discount. There is also a descriptive mention of animal cruelty that was unnecessary to get the point at the start of the story.

Edited October 13 by Hawke64

[Sven_]

Finished The Outer Worlds. Despite being oft rather lukewarm to ok with it, I still experimented some after. I'd advice NOBODY to grind through Monarch (in particular the surface) solo, without companions (there's perks for going solo). That's what I did.

Better to take the perk that lets you sprint faster and just run past enemies (no problem, really).

Or invest in leadership (+companion perks) and take two companions. Actually, they can roast pretty much everything alone.

So this is it. The officially last Cain&Boyarsky game. But also by far the safest. Still somewhat interested in the Whodunnit DLC, seams like a neat, self-contained idea. It's not like there's anything bigger out there ATM. Games are taking forever to develop thanks to the obsession with fidelity and pixel perfection, there's been delays -- and even Obsidian's last game technically was Pentiment. And generally, this SHOULD be 100% my type of game.

Edited October 13 by Sven_

[Hurlshort]

Lamplighters - I played this on the gamepass and never got into it, but I was in the mood for a good TB combat game, and it was on sale on GOG, so I grabbed it.

It caught my interest better this time around. The combat is a bit awkward, but mostly well done. The story is decent. I'm enjoying it. I'm bummed that this is the game that kind of damaged Hairbrained, as it is pretty solid and a nice attempt at a unique IP. That being said, I can see why it didn't sell well, as it does strike a strange tone. Still, it has gotten better as I've played it more, and I am looking forward to finishing it. 

I did read an article recently from a lamplighter producer that said there isn't room for more Xcom style games to thrive. I think that misses why this game struggled. There are a ton of good games with Xcom style combat that have done well. Most aren't charging full price. JA3, for example, was a solid hit. Also BG3 succeeded with similar TB combat. The reality is the Lamplighter setting is very niche, and they thought it would bring in a larger audience. It was overly ambitious.

[MrBrown]

Mostly finished with the Diablo4 expansion and the current season.

 

Expansion story felt like a prologue to the next one. Gameplay of the story content wasn't anything special, no interesting bosses, some were graphically nice.

New endgame content feels like weird mix of several only slightly different things to do which give you different stuff. Not sure what the aim is.

Balance seems wacky. There's some completely broken builds around, that Blizz feels aren't worth a day 1 fix for some reason. Due to how damage resistances work, bosses like to one shot you. Should make the numbers still more like D3, imo.

[melkathi]

6 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

 

I did read an article recently from a lamplighter producer that said there isn't room for more Xcom style games to thrive. I think that misses why this game struggled. There are a ton of good games with Xcom style combat that have done well. Most aren't charging full price. JA3, for example, was a solid hit. Also BG3 succeeded with similar TB combat. The reality is the Lamplighter setting is very niche, and they thought it would bring in a larger audience. It was overly ambitious.

Showgunners was a fun little indy game with XCOM style TB combat. I may personally scoff at the virtue signalling of having one NPC being explicitly Ukrainian when no nationality is mentioned for anyone else, but that doesn't change the qualities of the game as a game. It has fun combat, a predictable, niche story that appeals to men my age. But it lacks random encounters and enemy variety, meaning that after one short, fun romp the game is done.

Capes suffered from bad reviews from people who wanted a different kind of game - a party based RPG with custom characters, instead of the Chimera Squad style superhero themed xcom clone they got. It also got a concerted attack from right wing trolls who see the game as a conspiracy to remove blond white protagonists from our culture and to besmirch Elon Musk. The game itself though is fun, even if the odd mission can be frustrating. The characters all have different powers meaning it matters who you take along on a given mission. Again, there are no random missions, but at least this time all missions are repeatable.

 

Troubleshooter is huge and not everyone's cup of tea, especially with the Asian grinding for components to craft better and better gear required for the dlc enemies, but it did well enough for them to be working on the sequel. And honestly, an xcom clone jrpg instead of a final fantasy tactics clone was a big step.

 

Lamplighters didn't offer anything. The combat in Shadowrun was uninspired and dull, the games enjoyable because of the good writing, not the gameplay. Battletech didn't have all that great tactical combat either. Harebrained had the IPs, but they didn't really make gameplay to convince they could pull off a good XCOM clone. And the good Americans Vs Nazis has been overdone - the world didn't need the latest Indiana Jones movie either.

 

Harebraineds success was built on nostalgia. Far fewer people would have given the Shadow run trilogy a chance if Shadowrun Returns didn't have the "but it is the only shadowrun game we have" going for it. Even I, who hated Battletechs gameplay the first time round, made three attempts to perhaps enjoy it enough to play for the setting. I chose to watch the 80s cartoon instead (it is terrible, you have been warned).

Harebrained has been a bit in a bubble.

 

There are a plethora of games in the genre coming out that are worth looking out for. I am waiting for Mars Tactics. Others will enjoy Every Day We Fight - I personally hate the real time overwatch, but others may find it engaging. 

The genre has something to offer for everyone. Maybe not everyone has something to offer to the genre.

[Wormerine]

12 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

Lamplighters - I played this on the gamepass and never got into it, but I was in the mood for a good TB combat game, and it was on sale on GOG, so I grabbed it.

Same, but I don't think I am still ready for it. Instead I dipped back into Shadow Gambit, finishing up DLCs, and probably will do some badges afterwards.

[Mamoulian War]

After a week long break, I have started again with DS2 playthrough. I was not very keen to go into Gutter, so I have postponed it, until I felt relaxed enough to make another attempt. And it went much better than anticipated. First I have went for Royal Rat Vanguard and finished it on first try. No complications, and no clumsiness this time 

Then I went for Gutter. To my surprise, I got to second bonfire, without a single **** up But it did not took long, to make one, on my way to the Ant Queen, where I have not seen a missing planks After that, I have run around to light all sconces to summon the Red Phantom at the end of the area. After a victory, I moved slowly through the Black Gulch just to get obliterated by the first of the Red Phantoms here. I was not able to hit him at all, just few times with the Lightning Bolt. Then I have cornered myself into one of the caves, and my days were numbered The second encounter was funny one, as he pushed me with one of his hits into the abyss. I started to bitch aloud, just to end up completely surprised, after I've landed on one of the small alcoves, which lead to the big cave with Giants. Cleared them fast with lightning bolts and after traveling up with the lift, I have finished the phantom as well The second on was much easier, as I was able to lure him into the bonfire cave, where I was able to kite him a little bit and finish him of soon. After that It was time for the Rotten. I equipped Fire Resistance Ring+3 and Ring of Steel Protection+1, and started the fight. I got him to 25% without being hit a single time, and then I have started to do stupid things again and almost burned myself in one of the fire pools. I ended up with less than 1% HP Luckily, I was able to avoid the boss and heal up a little bit and then to land the final hit.

So both bosses today on first try, and as a reward, I got one more trophy for crafting final Hex from the NG+ boss soul.

[majestic]

I am done with the season journey in Diablo IV. There are some tasks open (salvaging 100 ancestral items is more of a grind than I thought it would be) for the feat of strength, but otherwise, yeah, well, that was underwhelming in every way.

Except maybe that completely busted Evade Eagle build of the new class. My thumb hurts from hitting spacebar over and over again.

[Bartimaeus]

On 10/11/2024 at 10:14 AM, majestic said:

I don't get it, Solaire is clearly undead, and if he was Gwyn's firstborn and human, he would have been dead at least twenty times over. Frampt implies that it has been at least a thousand years since Gwyn linked the first flame, and his disavowal of his first born must have happened before that. If you help him fail his quest for the sun he loses faith ("Was it all a lie?" - why yes Solaire, that is the nature of religion, it is always a lie), which is why he can be summoned against Gwyn, whom he worshipped, and you need 25 faith to join the Warriors of Sunlight without jolly cooperation, so he's part of a rather faithful group, yes?

I'd argue it is also the reason why he can (almost) solo Gwyn even on NG+. 's laughable, out of all the things in the game, the one with a rather clear intent by the designers is the one the fandom argues over being something completely else?

My understanding of Dark Souls is that the flow of time is not really, er...linear? Insofar as characters from different times and places pop in and out of existence as you go along your quest, which is also kind of handwavey for the player connecting with other players to go through areas and see characters or defeat bosses which they may have already defeated or interacted with. Like, I don't know that the player's tromping around of Anor Londo is really meant to represent what Anor Londo would look like hundreds of years after its fall or whatever...buuut I guess I don't know that it isn't, either. Also, on a side-note, I'm pretty sure the Warriors of Sunlight do not worship Gwyn but rather the disgraced and forgotten son (who, officially, actually turned out to be...someone else from Dark Souls 3, despite the fact that Dark Souls III would necessarily have to take place even later than the events of Dark Souls 1, so never mind Solaire and how old he might've been). I know people also liked to read into the placement of corpses of certain characters (e.g. Lautrec after you defeat him in his own world) and also how they like, instantly become ancient petrified corpses that seem like they must've always been there despite the fact that they weren't just moments ago, as if this also plays into the non-linear flow of time rather than the fact that making custom corpses for each important character would be wasted dev effort on a game where a hundred stationary dragon butts were copy and pasted in an otherwise empty giant lava pit. Maybe all that nonsense was actually a real thing deliberately designed that way, but I don't care: characters are what draw me to stories, but the motley crew of mostly passive and background-y characters a fully compelling world and story do not exactly make.

On 10/11/2024 at 10:14 AM, majestic said:

Arguably the best weapon in the game, and one you can Fast-Havel with due to its low weight. Not so keen on the poise damage though. Great weapon to use on bosses though.

I tend to, what was it that Tolkien used to describe his dislike for allegory, cordially dislike PVP in games were anything but skill influences outcomes too much, and in the case of Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 game, their backstab vector placement and net code are just way too janky to make for fun combat. That is before factoring in that one might just play a build that is not too good in PVP and since there are not a whole lot of players left playing the games these days you might get invaded by the same player over and over again without having a real chance to fight back against their meta build, and you end up with one very unfun experience. 

Maybe Dark Souls 3's PVP is better, but somehow I doubt it, and I am not going to find out. It is just not fun for me, and the same was or is true for PVP in plenty of hot key based MMORPGs with global cooldowns and incredibly gear dependent PVP. Really enjoyed the arcade space shooter component of SWTOR though. I might have played a couple thousand matches.  

The combination of jankiness and unfairness is a big part of the fun...but then again, one of my favorite things in DS1 PvP was invading someone and being faced with a team of three or four because they'd summoned gold and white spirits and had set themselves up specifically to murder invaders like me (and kept using the Dried Finger in order to draw more invaders in rather than suffer the usual ten or maybe fifteen minute invasion pause that would normally happen after you were invaded). The ensuing back alley knife fight to survive that ambush and take out the host using any means I could despite the long odds made it worth all the while. Or on the other extreme end of the spectrum, invading someone, realizing they're basically helpless, and just playing with them by trying to land a successful grab-and-kiss animation with the Dark Hand heavy attack before White Crystalling out... It doesn't even do any damage, it's just cute and funny. I suppose it does steal a Humanity if they've got any, but I usually dropped them a Soul of a Great Hero or something while I was doing an emote before leaving anyways.

On 10/11/2024 at 10:14 AM, majestic said:

I did not like using the rapier, but it had several advantages that were too good to pass up. Next to the ridiculous damage output it also was good to use for the NPC and PVP invasions (since Dark Souls 2 requires external shenanigans to put into offline mode, I often did not bother doing it) because it could stunlock enemies until your stamina runs out. The Dark Souls 2 PVP meta seems to revolve around doing the silly rapier dance. You whip out your ice rapier, buff it with your buff of choice depending on your character build and then try to connect just once to stunlock them until you are out of stamina. Rinse and repeat until one side is dead.

Yeah, I think I disabled my network adapter every time I played Dark Souls 2. I hated the movement in the game too much and just wanted it to be over with, getting randomly ganked by other players wasn't going to make it any better. Now I've been using simplewall for like five or six years on all of my personal Windows devices, which makes application and service white/blacklisting via Windows' built-in filtering only take like literally three or four seconds, so it would be super easy to just turn off Dark Souls' internet connectivity. Windows' default firewall controls are super tedious to deal with on an application-by-application basis, I'll never go back to it for my own devices when I just want most programs to automatically have their connectivity blocked (which simplewall enables you to do with a whitelist & notify system - you start up a program for the first time, simplewall automatically pops you a notification asking whether or not you want to add it to the whitelist, click yes or no, it'll remember your choice and not prompt you the next time, done...go into the UI and checkmark the box next to it if you change your mind; if for some reason you don't hit yes or no, it defaults to no, so everything is automatically blocked when you run it for the first time).

Edited October 16 by Bartimaeus

[melkathi]

Speaking of XCOM type games.

 

I just started the tutorial of USC: Counterforce.

If you don't hear from me - send help.

[Malcador]

Wandering the galaxy at last in Rogue Trader.  That farm planet ambush was annoying, mostly the grenadiers.  I need some more long range characters I guess (I assume that Eldar sniper they showed will end up with me potentially)

[melkathi]

I don't remember any grenadiers on Janus. Argenta probably killed them all too fast. She has a tendency to do that with a lot of opponents.

[melkathi]

USC - Counterforce

First Impressions.

 

I knew going into USC that it was a UFO/XCOM style game on the heavier end. Still, I did not expect it to be this heavy.

I tried firing up a campaign and the game prompted me to play the tutorial. I like playing tutorials, so I did.

Two crew on a spaceship, a tech and a medic, go to fix some tech stuff. The medic isn't strictly needed, as she points out, but regulations are that no-one ever does anything alone. It seems they have watched enough movies to know you don't walk along a spaceship alone.

In short order you learn how to walk, how to open doors, how to use a device in your inventory to fix machinery, how to use another device to unlock a locked door, how to use a blowtorch to breach a sealed door. How to pick up loot. How to equip the gun you looted, reload it, then split ammunition with your squad member. How to jump over environmental hazards, how to shoot and swap between different weapon modes. How to overwatch. How to extract from a mission.

Then you learn how to set up a squad before a mission. How to equip the each member. How to train them. Some rudimentary bits about specializations. You learn about different weapon types, directional armor, crouching so people can fire over the soldier in front of them. About AoE and things going boom.

And when you then click "Start New Campaign" the game informs you that perhaps you should play some one off skirmishes and all the different game modes first, to ensure you know what the hell all the bits are.

I said "Nah, I am good."

The campaign puts you in orbit of a planet, with 24 soldiers under your command, to split into squads as you see fit. With (what seems like) loads of starting cash. And with a whole planet where you can drop into any region you like. No hand holding, after all, you were warned. GLHF

 

So I backed out into the main menu and have started a base defense one off. Hold off against 10 waves or earn at least 10.000 detherium or what it's called.

40 minutes later, we have wiped out wave 1. We have ~5400 of the stuff. I spend all my cash reinforcing the base. Maybe I should have saved some to drop some supply crates with ammo boxes. But if we survive wave 2, at the rate I extract, we can evacuate with the resources and write it up as a win.

 

Recommended for:

People who want a UFO game that has an action for every interaction you can think of.

People who know that obviously the scanner for bio signals can't be simply re calibrated to scan for minerals. Obviously you need a different scanner for that. And a third scanner for other stuff.

People who realize that the most important thing you can learn is the thirst for knowledge, not knowledge itself. As Gotthold Lessing would have said: "It is not the truth that a man possesses, or believes that he possesses, but the earnest effort which he puts forward to reach the truth, which constitutes the worth of a man." This game has a tutorial that teaches you everything it can, then leaves you needing to learn more. And more. So this game is recommended to those who want the values of Enlightenment in their gaming.

Edited October 17 by melkathi

[Malcador]

23 hours ago, melkathi said:

I don't remember any grenadiers on Janus. Argenta probably killed them all too fast. She has a tendency to do that with a lot of opponents.

She mostly cackles a lot and misses, in my experience.  Doing a bit better now, have more than one officer NPC in the party, was a bit unbalanced with 3 operatives.  I probably should think more on how I've built them.   Got the Eldar sniper, so having 2 of those is handy.  

Sort of a funny fight at the Rebel Base where Abelard's thunder hammer is parried 4 turns in a row by some rando cultist.

[melkathi]

I had my Argenta with the blessed bolter shell that makes single bolter shots never miss. It is nice for taking out anyone who could be annoying otherwise.

Operative is my least favourite class. I can't truly see a point to it.

[melkathi]

Barely survived wave 2 in the base defense.

Except for George. He ran out of ammo and grenades trying to hold the radar. He retreated to the med pad outside the generator building but got surrounded there and torn to shreds before the squad medic could reach him.

Luckily we got enough d-sumthin-ium to call it a win. Even if the rating was 1 star.

 

Things I learned:

• You can never have enough ammo.
• I have no idea how armor works and how much health is in an alien's health bar.
• Maybe building two harvesters was not such a good idea. Maybe that spawned twice the number of aliens and that is why I was outnumbered 10 to 1.

[Malcador]

Died a couple of times against Ah Bulan in D4, still not sure what killed me the last time.  Should have gone ranged rogue I guess.  Will switch the child demon mercenary I have and see if that helps

[majestic]

27 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Died a couple of times against Ah Bulan in D4, still not sure what killed me the last time.  Should have gone ranged rogue I guess.  Will switch the child demon mercenary I have and see if that helps

There's really no point in playing anything but Spiritborn and Necromancer right now. Well, maybe Sorcerer if you like very specific playstyles.

[MrBrown]

Or just lower the difficulty.

[Malcador]

39 minutes ago, majestic said:

There's really no point in playing anything but Spiritborn and Necromancer right now. Well, maybe Sorcerer if you like very specific playstyles.

Nah, pretty sure Rogue is still viable, may not be the current "meta".  Need some legendary weapons, I think. Also for some reason the game doesn't register my clicks, pretty sure my mouse is working fine though

[majestic]

4 hours ago, Malcador said:

Nah, pretty sure Rogue is still viable, may not be the current "meta".  Need some legendary weapons, I think. Also for some reason the game doesn't register my clicks, pretty sure my mouse is working fine though

There's a pretty wide range between viable and meta builds, yes, but with the entire endgame of Diablo IV consisting of timed challenges with waves upon waves of enemies, killing them efficiently is the difference between playing an okay ARPG and having a miserable time.

At least, well, for me it is. I'm not playing to have fun, but to quickly get through whatever gauntled Blizzard has cooked up so I can get back to playing other games.