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

[melkathi]

Yesterday I forgot to play games.

[Gorth]

Started playing Star Wars the Old Republic again. Just enough to try out the new story bits and level a few characters up to the new max. This, together with the gear grind made me love Guild Wars 2 even more!
 

edit: GW2 has had no level increase or gear inflation the last 10 years. You don’t lose anything by taking a break from it

[Malcador]

Grinding my way through D3, realize I've spent 1000 hours playing DH over the past decade.  Worth the wrist damage.

[Bartimaeus]

Yuppie Psycho, successfully 100%-ed! This time, I played through the 'true' ending, which actually properly resolved the central story once and for all...

...but it was personally much more horrifying for me.

Spoiler

I had to brutally decapitate not one, but two, little girls. One of which was my favorite character in the game. Don't blame me, I was literally possessed by the Devil (not figuratively literally, literally literally). It was honestly pretty rough, do not recommend, do the other ending where everything goes to hell in a hand-basket instead. The story resolution is great and all, but... I don't like killing children, not unless they're annoying. And especially not when they're my favorite characters.

Steam lists these two game tags back-to-back, just like this, for Yuppie Psycho:

It's honestly pretty accurate, and I think I'd say that cute horror is the best horror. The same developer is working on a similar game that I hope is at least 75% as good, and having now played this game twice (although really more like three times, what with the failed "no save" playthrough mentioned in my previous post having gotten me like 80% of the way there), I can now safely qualify this game as one of my favorite games of all time - it's stuck with me for years at this point, and I still love it. There's something about all the different little pieces that come together perfectly to make it a really personalized-for-me kind of game. Though I could probably play quality games in this genre (this kind of top-down exploration game with fun characters, world, and story) for probably forever if I had enough of them. If anyone knows of any more, feel free to recommend them to me. Though I've already played SIGNALIS, which was similar-ish and which I also really liked.

Edited April 25 by Bartimaeus

[Hawke64]

13 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

Yuppie Psycho, successfully 100%-ed! This time, I played through the 'true' ending, which actually properly resolved the central story once and for all...

...but it was personally much more horrifying for me.

  Reveal hidden contents

I had to brutally decapitate not one, but two, little girls. One of which was my favorite character in the game. Don't blame me, I was literally possessed by the Devil (not figuratively literally, literally literally). It was honestly pretty rough, do not recommend, do the other ending where everything goes to hell in a hand-basket instead. The story resolution is great and all, but... I don't like killing children, not unless they're annoying. And especially not when they're my favorite characters.

Steam lists these two game tags back-to-back, just like this, for Yuppie Psycho:

It's honestly pretty accurate, and I think I'd say that cute horror is the best horror. The same developer is working on a similar game that I hope is at least 75% as good, and having now played this game twice (although really more like three times, what with the failed "no save" playthrough mentioned in my previous post having gotten me like 80% of the way there), I can now safely qualify this game as one of my favorite games of all time - it's stuck with me for years at this point, and I still love it. There's something about all the different little pieces that come together perfectly to make it a really personalized-for-me kind of game. Though I could probably play quality games in this genre (this kind of top-down exploration game with fun characters, world, and story) for probably forever if I had enough of them. If anyone knows of any more, feel free to recommend them to me. Though I've already played SIGNALIS, which was similar-ish and which I also really liked.

The developers' previous game, The Count Lucanor, is quite similar, though smaller in scope. I would say that Doki Doki Literature Club is close enough to being cute and horror as well, though it is visual novel.

I have also played (have not finished) Kraken Academy!!, which was visually similar, but somehow less engaging. There is also Yomawari: Night Alone (have not played the sequel), which is technically both cute and horror, but felt rather shallow and underwhelming.

Spoiler

And a dog dies in the intro sequence. I am perfectly fine with piles of dead children, Dead Space 2-style, but not dogs or other "regular" animals. Those are unnecessary sad.

---

Speaking of, the Immortal Cats mod for Fallout 4 (pre-"next gen" update) did not work for me. So, the only mod I am using is Full Dialogue.

Got Fallout 4 on GOG shortly before Bethesda messed up the mods yet again (the sale was really convenient) and decided to try the expansions. Died in the first combat encounter at the Far Harbor 4 times so far.

---

I think, I have finished Yuppie Psycho once with the best ending, though, I did look up the elevator code at the end.

[Bartimaeus]

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

I think, I have finished Yuppie Psycho once with the best ending, though, I did look up the elevator code at the end.

There are two major ending branches, with different sub-endings for each. The first branch I got was the one you mentioned (where you attend Hugo's birthday party - this is the 'normal' one), but there's a second branch that veers wildly off into a different direction that reveals a lot more about the Sintra family (you must discover where the ritual dagger, the Athame, is hiding and take it before the birthday party happens). I feel this is intended to be the true ending, though interpretation may vary depending on exactly what you value (also, I think it probably works better if you've already played the first ending, as I feel it builds off of what you learn in the first ending branch).

Spoiler

This ending has you and Kate enter the secret Sintra family complex together while protected by the Athame to discover what actually happened to Rei and Domori, why the witch's curse started in the first place, and seems to lead to an end to the curse at Sintracorp, whereas the first branch doesn't...though depending on which exact sub-ending you get, perhaps the resolution isn't quite as clean as you might expect.

 

1 hour ago, Hawke64 said:

The developers' previous game, The Count Lucanor, is quite similar, though smaller in scope. I would say that Doki Doki Literature Club is close enough to being cute and horror as well, though it is visual novel.

Yep, I've also played both of those. Though very different, DDLC is a pretty cute/horrific game and one of like...maybe four visual novels I've ever played all the way through, and The Count of Lucanor I quite liked as well though it didn't quite match the highs of Yuppie Psycho.

Thanks for the other mentions. Yeah, finding quality games that really hit the mark can be difficult...there's always stuff where it's similar-ish and kind of alright, but it's usually pretty clear when a game really has its claws in you versus when it doesn't.

 

Edited April 26 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

Was up late for other reasons, so when time came, went to buy Manor Lords (on Steam, for the moment):
--- "Too many people want to buy this game, so you can't right now, try again later." --- "But not too many times in a row or you'll hit our attempts limit and be frozen out for a while."  I guess millions of wishlisters is too much for Steam's purchase software. 

Bought it, it started fine, spent 15 minutes with settings and such (will be doing EZ no-combat mode while learning town mechanics, then try normal mode). Game loaded me into a spot with baskets of bread, 1 ox, and some peasants. Looks nice. But I save and exit. Sadly too tired from staying up all night to test-play within "2 hr time limit" window. Later. But I did make an angry squirrel, purple-white coat of arms to match my purple dress/white hat wearing, grumpy old fart female avatar. Color/mood matching is important after all.

[LadyCrimson]

Manor Lords: played an hour and a half or so. I like it enough I won't refund it. Probably play it for a while then shelve it for a year to see what happens etc. Anyway...in its current initial early-access form:

---the early pace of the city-build aspect is verrrrry slow. It seems that it's one house/family=one building/job. At least at the start? So you build house plots and wait, and wait, for new families arrive. All city builders do this to some extent but Manor Lords feels extra slow. Plus building times are extra long. I do like the methods for laying out house plots and buildings/roads
---there are work oxen (you start with 1) which basically are needed for many buildings to function. They can die. I recommend buying at least a 2nd with initial small start funds immediately. Because having zero ox with zero funds would be bad.
---the 1st person viewpoint is very nice for tourism. Although the visible avatar is always this red robed dude (not even a matching generic female version yet).
---Game performance is fine/great for me.
---haven't really looked at the progression/skill tree yet. There's an influence upgrade/points system and I'm not sure how hard it'll be to get it up quickly without any combat/bandits.

Edited April 27 by LadyCrimson

[kanisatha]

19 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I guess millions of wishlisters is too much for Steam's purchase software. 

Haha. And I'm one of those wishlisters entirely because of what you shared about the game.

But because of my "no purchase of an early access game" rule, I'll wait to see how things develop with this game.

[uuuhhii]

On 4/24/2024 at 5:50 AM, Hurlshort said:

I've been trying to get into Fallout 3, but it's not going well. It's weird because I can play F:NV pretty much every year, but Fallout 3 is just a big dud for me. I played it at release and finished it, but I've never been able to give it another go. I hear the expansions are decent too, but I can't even get myself far enough along in the main story to give those a try. I don't know, it's just a very grey cement world filled with very dull people.

Ah well, maybe I'll play Fallout 2 instead. It's been a couple years, I think.

 

would never go back to fallout 3

fnv at least have good atmosphere and casino

[Hawke64]

Stray Blade. Finished about 2 weeks ago, but have not (possibly, will not) written a review. The action-adventure was not especially horrible, but it was not exactly good. I liked the general plot (the twist was more funny than tragic), the main characters, the character customisation options (the MC always wore a full suit of armour and a closed helmet), the rebindable controls, and the 2D cut-scenes/art. On the other hand, the combat was generally irritating, there were relatively few bosses (7, with the beast generals being rather underwhelming), the exploration was not exactly engaging (most weapon blueprints were dropping from any human enemy based on the MC's level), the number of save slots was limited to 1 (granted, the story was linear and the last save was before the point of no-return), the graphics did not align with the system requirements and performance (I had severe FPS drops in some areas).

Fallout 4. I continued my 8 year-old save file. The side effect is that I have a very vague recollection of what is in my inventory or who the child at the main settlement is. The inventory management in general is rather painful - there are a lot of items, but the sorting options are very limited and have to be cycled through (I am also only guessing the abbreviations). With the Full Dialogue mod I at least know what the PC would say, so that's very nice. The number of the dialogue options being limited to 4 is less nice. The combat is rather horrible. On the other hand, making engaging first-person combat is challenging.

So, I have reached the Far Harbor town in search of Kasumi, whom her parents asked to bring home or to confirm that she had left on her own. The first battle at the town's gates took me several attempts to get through. Afterwards, the locals asked me to kills some random ghouls and mantis-like creature and find some tools to reinforce the gates. One of the locals offered to guide to the town where Kasumi supposedly had gone. On the way to the mantis-like creature, I found a Vault and something I initially thought to be a weird bush. It was a Legendary irradiated yao guai.

[LadyCrimson]

Manor Lords: short take: still like it. Slow pace. Per usual first year or three hardest but growth controllable so I don't feel rushed (in sandbox mode). Hours go by without a blink. But it's definitely an Alpha w/some balance issues and ofc features not made yet. A very polished Alpha tho. The main thing that I'm focused on personally is whether or not the game is "fun" re: expanding all over the map and raising population etc, since I like to do that.
============

------currently zero good tutorial aspect. Example: when you place a housing plot you can dictate the size/shape. Different shapes/icons mean different things/results for what the house/s built can do. Took me a while to figure that out. One icon means you can have a house make a personal yard-garden, or chicken coop, or goats, but better make it a huge yard/plot if you want it to make much. Or one icon/shape concept means you can upgrade a house to house more than one family. It's kinda cool actually.
------start-game region and resource nodes/farm fertility quality seems random. So you could keep restarting until you get a favorable start region arrangement.
------both importing and exporting trade has a supply/demand mechanic where the price rises or decreases if you trade it repeatedly/too long without a break, so no getting super rich fast, selling off excess-whatever, and no constant buying of anything or it'll cost an arm and a leg before long.
------Farm mechanics seem not very rewarding re: how many families you have to have working them. You want them, but it drains your workers a lot vs. gain. Initially you're better off with lots of big house-veggie gardens vs. farming.
------there is town happiness, but in no-combat mode (so no combat morale issues) it's pretty easy to keep it at 70% or higher.Doesn't feel like much of a balancing act so far.  It mostly dictates how many new families you get per month. Max is 2 per month currently.
------apparently you have to build the "Manor house" in order to get the options that would allow for expanding/taking over other region lands vs. being locked into your starter area. Which requires your town to be at a certain title (Small Village). Meaning I can't delay (or decide to avoid entirely) having to make (or trade for) certain resources/buildings, or upgrading at least houses to a certain level etc.

Edited April 28 by LadyCrimson

[LadyCrimson]

Help me! I can't stop restarting a new map! It's almost as bad a chr. creation windows in rpgs! 

[Pidesco]

5 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Help me! I can't stop restarting a new map! It's almost as bad a chr. creation windows in rpgs! 

Is that the LadyCrimson seal of quality?

[BruceVC]

On 4/23/2024 at 11:50 PM, Hurlshort said:

I've been trying to get into Fallout 3, but it's not going well. It's weird because I can play F:NV pretty much every year, but Fallout 3 is just a big dud for me. I played it at release and finished it, but I've never been able to give it another go. I hear the expansions are decent too, but I can't even get myself far enough along in the main story to give those a try. I don't know, it's just a very grey cement world filled with very dull people.

Ah well, maybe I'll play Fallout 2 instead. It's been a couple years, I think.

But please tell me you are using the recommended and mandatory mods for FO3 like this overhaul  mod, the Wanderers Edition. It incorporates over 50 mods and vastly improves the vanilla experience 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2761

Just please  dont tell me you playing vanilla FO3?

[melkathi]

11 hours ago, BruceVC said:

But please tell me you are using the recommended and mandatory mods for Bethesda games

There, fixed that for you

[LadyCrimson]

Manor Lords:

Ok, from a city-building/no combat perspective, you cannot expand your first town/area across-regions.

The way it works is if you claim another map region, it becomes like a new-start town. Plop down a starter tent w/5 families there, and go thru the entire process of building up population/town buildings again. Although you can make it less advanced/large, of course, if you just want some outpost-like resources. But if you want to use/gain resources from that region, you don't just give it to yourself freely - you must build tradeposts and barter goods with that region - send firewood for wheat for example. Ppl/carts have to travel back and forth. The exchange rate is not 1-1 either, dunno the maths, different for different resources. Which works, is more "realistic" too (other regions are like your surfdoms?), but it is a cumbersome exchange system (as is, it could change).

So that is a little deflating. Some of the regions are large enough to be fun to fill just "your" area as a playthru, some are much smaller. I suppose you could have a goal of getting every region stable (where you don't really have to manage it much anymore, which is totally doable) and just keep doing it in all regions, where the management would be the barter system to give some regions resources they lack - kind of like 8 maps in one save, ha.

It totally makes sense in terms of the light RTS/combat/defeat AI to claim regions, aspect, tho. In that case you wouldn't be focused on building so much as claiming regions before the AI gets them all/you.

I think many of those wishlisters are going to be disappointed that it's not either "Total War Killer" and not Banished/Ostriv. It's more like a combo of Banished and Stronghold. Maybe. I still like it tho. And I love restarting. We'll see what updates bring someday.

Edit: it's Stronghold feeling in town-sandbox, I don't mean SH's combat or castle defense.

Edited April 30 by LadyCrimson

[Amentep]

Old thread:

 

[Pidesco]

Shamefully, I actually only finished New Vegas today. My two main playthroughs is this one, where I left a bunch of stuff not done nor explored, and went with the wild card ending.

The other one, over 10 years ago, I did about everything except for some straggling quests and, critically, the actual ending. It would have been an NCR ending.

 

Next I'm considering Tyranny which I've restarted a dozen times but never finished, Storm of Zehir which I also never finished, an evil MotB run, or a new NV playthrough with only Arcade Gannon and a robot as companions.

Or something non Obsidian. My backlog is humongous.

[Hurlshort]

I gave up on Fallout 3 super quick, so I decided to load up Fallout 4 and give it a try. I hadn't played it in like 6 years, I guess. It does look way better than FO3. There is color, and the HD texture pack is new to me, I think. So it's more fun to just walk around the wasteland. I never really go into the building a base stuff when I played it back in the day, so I think I'll just hang out in Sanctuary for awhile and see if I can make it look decent. I put up functioning lamp posts, and it does add a nice vibe to the place.

[Gorgon]

how can you stand the 3 minute load times.

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, Gorgon said:

how can you stand the 3 minute load times.

I don't know about 3 minutes, but right now I'm just exploring the map, so it's rare that I have to transition to a new place. It does take awhile when I do transition, but it's probably about 20 seconds.

[Gorgon]

Wait until you get to diamond city.

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, Gorgon said:

Wait until you get to diamond city.

As I said, I am just going to build up Sanctuary and wander around. No need to enter the ballpark. Maybe I'll go in once to get Valentine.

[Zoraptor]

Heh, is there any better illustration of the absolute mess that is Gamebryo than F4's loading times? The loading times are linked to frame rate, and the frame is limited to 60 because otherwise minigames, physics etc get screwy because they're linked to frame rate too...

(If needed in future there is/ was a mod that 'fixes'/ helps with the issue by uncapping fps only during loading screens, whether it works still after the next gen update who knows)