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

[melkathi]

Finished Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory

It has a "Bash the Fash" achievement, so it gets a 100% rating from me just for being openly and unapologetic antifa. Which works well for the Werewolf setting, as that has always in a way been the left-leaning part of the World Of Darkness with its theme of eco terrorism and thus anti corporate greed.

As a sequel, it loosely ties into the story from Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart Of The Forest. The main character and some npcs from that game appear in this as well, and part of the game takes place in the same forest. You do not need to have played the previous game though, as this is an independent story from that.

The story features two divergent branches as your character chooses what matter to investigate. I have only played one branch, but I expect both do lead to the same finale.

What sets this WOD visual novel apart from Coteries/Shadows of New York - its otherwise closest kin - is that, while you play a set person, you choose your skills, tribe, and auspice (class). These don't affect the story in a major way, but allow for an s experience slightly more tailored to the player's preference.

[Humanoid]

13 hours ago, Wormerine said:

It seems people warmed up a lot to Cyberpunk. In my personal opinion the 2.0 update made it a much, much better game. I think it makes for a fine narrative shooter. Though, it wouldn't made into my list of favourite anything, and definitely not as an RPG.

I liked it from the start, but that I think is mostly down to me treating it like a Looking Glass type sneaky game. For that approach, the massive 2.0 mechanical overhaul really had minimal impact. The random generic loot? Doesn't matter. The unbalanced combat? No impact. Indeed the biggest change probably came in an earlier patch, when they made throwing knives non-consumable.

So yeah, it's very good at that. In terms of its other qualities, I rate it as a mediocre RPG, and as a spectacle shooter ...I don't care because I hate that kind of gameplay, as evidenced by my recent rant about Phantom Liberty. The game is at its worst when it funnels you into their grandiose set pieces.

[Mamoulian War]

A little bit more of DS2 again. Two more bosses down and then The Gutter. My oh my… I do not remember it, to be so ****ing ridiculous in vanilla. The hollows do not deaggro at all, so bloodstain runs have been almost impossible. After I got gifted with a surprise gangbang by the hollows, I rather stopped to run completely. The pinnacle of futility in this area was, that I have missed one sconce for summoning the Gutter Denizen Invader. So I had to rerun it again… and wiped few times again All of that in conjunction with a headache I have today

The bosses, which I’ve defeated were Mytha and Belfry Gargoyles. While clearing their areas on the way to them, I had only 3 wipes, on the way through The Gutter, which took me almost 2 hours, I died 10 times (Or 11) I have forgot the deathcounter, at which I have started the Area. Next in line either Black Gulch or Shaded Wood, as I have already rescued the petrified Pyromancer, which unblocked the road. But I feel a little bit down after The Gutter experience…

[Malcador]

Farthest Frontier got an update, so been playing that off and on.  Performance did improve a bit

[Hawke64]

Pumpkin Jack. An action-adventure. I did not expect the game to be so arcade-y, like the movie-based games in the 00's. Can't say that I get the humour, but the story about a rogue being resurrected and sent to slay the chosen one is fine.

The Outer Worlds. Close to finishing the Emerald Vale. Somehow, I am still inclined to support the Botanical Lab, rather than helping Adelaide to become the leader of the town, but I also would like to go to the best ending. I think, the Gorgon DLC interferes with the skill checks and I could not uninstall it, while reinstalling the whole game is undesirable (GOG installers go through the OS drive, which does not have enough space at the moment). Somewhat unhappy that the PC by default is closer to disapproving of recycling the corpses to improve the soil, while using the already dead fish for food, instead of killing the living, is shown as negative. I have also tried sequence-breaking, but Reed (his access code and the card, in particular) seems to be unavoidable. Might look more into it.

[Mamoulian War]

Three more bosses down. The Rotten, Najka and Smelter Demon. And I have experience again the biggest flaw (from my POV) to the SotFS version of the game compared to the vanilla one.

First The Rotten. As always, Black Gulch is an area, which I try to avoid as much as possible. Again, few comedy wipes, especially one, after which I have cleared almost whole are from the statues for Lucatiel summon not be poisoned, just to be eaten by one of the "grabbers" hidden in on of the tar ponds But all in all, the experience was more positive than the one, which I had in The Gutter . Because it was already to late at Saturday evening, and Lucatiel needed to stay alive, I have decided to go for a comedy kill, and have summoned two more available summons It went as expected, despite Lucatiel getting a lot of beating. But in few minutes, The Rotten has been "clubbed to death" in a few minutes.

Next one was Najka. The area of Shaded Wood is the same as before, so I moved as slowly as possible through it, with one or two wipes, while learning, that using a Spear without the ability to lock to "ghosts" is not my forte. After changing to Mace, I moved through the area, picking up all loot like a breeze. The next area after the next bonfire has been changed for better in SotFS, compared to vanilla game, so I have not spent a lot of time trying to get through, as I have used to. I have bought a ring to talk to Manscorpion Tarkus (or what's his name), and moved to Najka. I have found on my way to the fog gate another summon sign, so I have used it, just for the giggles, but this turned the Najka fight to laughable level, so I was not very amused. But yeah, one more boss down.

Next one was the Iron Keep. And this is the area, which they IMHO changed for the worse, even though, they put less archers in there. But the same as the Gutter, they made the melee mobs aggro range into ridiculous levels. My face spent a lot of time eating the ash, so I have decided to go for more relaxing area and try to fight the big rat there. Doors of Pharos. Area is OK, but I am definitely under-leveled or my melee build is sub-optimal for my skills (or more for lack of them ), and I got destroyed instantly in less than 10 seconds. So I had to pass this boss for now after two attempts. That meant, that I had to go involuntary back to Iron Keep. I brought as much patience to the keep as possible, and after few unsuccessful attempts, I have finally found out a way, how to deal with the new mob setup and their new aggro management, and was able to get to fog gate, just with the use of two Estus Flasks. I have summoned Lucatiel again, and in third phase, I have messed up, as I have forgotten one of Smelter Demon's moves with flaming sword, so I have been defeated. But this gave me another chance to test out my tactics for beating the trash mobs, and it worked again. So hopefully in NG+ I will be more confident about going into this area. Second attempt on Smelter Demon was this time successful, despite me making few stupid mistakes again But the end result is what counts in the end

Deathcounter has increased from 59 to 79 during the travels in areas around these three encounters.

[Hawke64]

I remember there being a Pursuer in Smelter Demon's arena afterwards. I think, the mini-boss dropped a ring (of Thorns?), but might be mistaken.

The Outer Worlds. Found Eugene's golden teeth. The thing had no quest marker and I had very fuzzy memory of NPCs' mentioning it (accidentally gave it to Silas, instead of Abernathy Conrad, and reloaded). It is very nice that there is a lot of dialogue to discuss the item, though it feels odd that it was not marked on the map, unlike many other quest-related things, and the highlight/outline was hard to see on the white cloth. I've also got the Junior Deputy badge from Rayes and was able to ask why.

 

Edited August 3 by Hawke64
Mixed up Abernathy, the one with a cold, with Conrad, the barber.

[Mamoulian War]

5 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

I remember there being a Pursuer in Smelter Demon's arena afterwards. I think, the mini-boss dropped a ring (of Thorns?), but might be mistaken.

The Outer Worlds. Found Eugene's golden teeth. The thing had no quest marker and I had very fuzzy memory of NPCs' mentioning it (accidentally gave it to Silas, instead of Abernathy, and reloaded). It is very nice that there is a lot of dialogue to discuss the item, though it feels odd that it was not marked on the map, unlike many other quest-related things, and the highlight/outline was hard to see on the white cloth. I've also got the Junior Deputy badge from Rayes and was able to ask why.

 

Yes you remember it correctly. I had an encounter with it already, and I am now a proud owner of a Ring of Blades+1

[sorophx]

typical Elden Ring

that's the last boss of the game, good thing it's not visible in the pic behind all the crap it threw at me.

[Wormerine]

15 hours ago, sorophx said:

typical Elden Ring

that's the last boss of the game, good thing it's not visible in the pic behind all the crap it threw at me.

You can ride Torren now, apparently! I wonder how it plays now - it felt to me like it should be a torrent fight, with all the long running, and potential jumping over ranged attacks.

[sorophx]

I know you can, I used Torrent for the invincibility frames you get when mounting and dismounting, and it does help to close the distance, because this is supposed to be a boss weak to physical damage, but I eventually killed him with ranged lightning attacks. 

[Serrano]

On 7/27/2024 at 9:56 AM, melkathi said:

Finished Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory

It has a "Bash the Fash" achievement, so it gets a 100% rating from me just for being openly and unapologetic antifa. Which works well for the Werewolf setting, as that has always in a way been the left-leaning part of the World Of Darkness with its theme of eco terrorism and thus anti corporate greed.

As a sequel, it loosely ties into the story from Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart Of The Forest. The main character and some npcs from that game appear in this as well, and part of the game takes place in the same forest. You do not need to have played the previous game though, as this is an independent story from that.

The story features two divergent branches as your character chooses what matter to investigate. I have only played one branch, but I expect both do lead to the same finale.

What sets this WOD visual novel apart from Coteries/Shadows of New York - its otherwise closest kin - is that, while you play a set person, you choose your skills, tribe, and auspice (class). These don't affect the story in a major way, but allow for an s experience slightly more tailored to the player's preference.

I really enjoyed the Coteries of New York games, the first one had a bit of a slim plot but the art is super appropriate and atmospheric for the setting and they did a really good job with the cast of characters who really feel like they belong in the VtM setting. Shadows of New York was just chef's kiss. Loved the main character and the story was awesome, you had a good mystery that delt with a lot of the faction politics and it also had that bleak nihilistic element as well which fits in perfectly with Vamparism being a curse and not a fun existence.  Apparently the third in the series will be the last one, which makes me a bit sad because these games filled the void for me now that LA By Night have stopped doing their show but if they stick with their tragectory then Reckoning of New York is going to be really good.  

I did enjoy Heart of the Forest, I'd been very curious about Werewolf at that point but had never seen a rulebook for it. I guess it was a good introduction to that world but it felt really brief and I didn't really understand the structure of a werewolf tribe and basically was left wanting more, it did help me understand what werewolves were in the World of Darkness though and I think it did a decent job of introducing the concept of Gia. I need to pick up the second one, I hope now that they've done some world buidling they focus a bit more on the plot and characters because I feel like the studio has it in them to make a great Werewolf game that's on par with the New York trilogy.

I know visual novels have always been a niche market but I think Different Tales and especially Draw Distance are doing a great job with their iterations of it. I think if they added a good narrator and made a longer story they could tell a pretty epic adventure. We need more World of Darkness games, it's such a good setting.

[uuuhhii]

17 minutes ago, Serrano said:

I really enjoyed the Coteries of New York games, the first one had a bit of a slim plot but the art is super appropriate and atmospheric for the setting and they did a really good job with the cast of characters who really feel like they belong in the VtM setting. Shadows of New York was just chef's kiss. Loved the main character and the story was awesome, you had a good mystery that delt with a lot of the faction politics and it also had that bleak nihilistic element as well which fits in perfectly with Vamparism being a curse and not a fun existence.  Apparently the third in the series will be the last one, which makes me a bit sad because these games filled the void for me now that LA By Night have stopped doing their show but if they stick with their tragectory then Reckoning of New York is going to be really good.  

I did enjoy Heart of the Forest, I'd been very curious about Werewolf at that point but had never seen a rulebook for it. I guess it was a good introduction to that world but it felt really brief and I didn't really understand the structure of a werewolf tribe and basically was left wanting more, it did help me understand what werewolves were in the World of Darkness though and I think it did a decent job of introducing the concept of Gia. I need to pick up the second one, I hope now that they've done some world buidling they focus a bit more on the plot and characters because I feel like the studio has it in them to make a great Werewolf game that's on par with the New York trilogy.

I know visual novels have always been a niche market but I think Different Tales and especially Draw Distance are doing a great job with their iterations of it. I think if they added a good narrator and made a longer story they could tell a pretty epic adventure. We need more World of Darkness games, it's such a good setting.

 

shadow of new york have amazing atmosphere

dev are working on a new vampire game

there are demo on steam

[Mamoulian War]

Next two bosses in DS2 defeated.

Old Iron King and Congregation (yes i know, I know )

Pretty straightforward this time, although, as always, I have messed up few times Both Iron Keep and first half of Brightstone Cave Tseldora, were more like training in patience than anything else, as the mobs have been pretty aggressive again, but doable. In between running from a bonfire to a bonfire, I have visited the Belfry Sol for Mad Warrior Bell Keeper Covenant grind, which is needed to be leveled to rank 2, due to one spell needed for Platinum Trophy is available only by this means. Pretty boring grind... And what makes it even more boring is, that you cannot predict when he spawns, so you have to run up and down the ladder like a clown, until it spawns. On PS3, you can hear the Blu-Ray spinning loud every time, he spawned, so all you need to do, was to spawn Rest at Bonfire button until you heard a loud noise. Not anymore on other platforms Anyway, Old Iron King has been defeated on second try with the help of local summon, due to me typically dropping to lava due to losing focus for a second or two

Congregation on the other hand, has been defeated on first try of course. The only issue were the Falconer Guys running and sniping around first bonfire, which are new in SotFS version of the game, and me forgetting how to spawn Bernhart of Jugo for his quest. So I had to backtrack a lot a clear the road to the boss room few times, before I could finally enter the fight.

I have also picked up few of the loots around the second bonfire at Tseldora, and asked Blacksmith Ornifex to craft my first boss weapon - Dragonslayer Spear, whih I loved to use in my DS Reamster walkthrough. Unfortunately, I will probably not be able to wield it this time, as it needs much much more Dexterity to use, and I am investing more into Strength and Faith this time around But we'll see. Lightning Heide Lance+4 is fine substitute for now.

[Malcador]

WoW prepatch event is far too slow and isn't very fun. Sad. The Legion one was the best they've had so far. Ah well.

Not much time for other stuff, have been amusing myself with the Arma 2 editor, watching the braindead AI handle tanks like the 40k meme - "Drive me closer.." - taking a T-90 to near point blank range to hit a pickup truck with an APFSDS round

[Humanoid]

On 8/2/2024 at 4:00 AM, Malcador said:

WoW prepatch event is far too slow and isn't very fun. Sad. The Legion one was the best they've had so far. Ah well.

I was thinking that if the free period was at least a week, ideally more, I'd have contemplated the download to see what's new since I last played 5+ years ago. But a weekend? Yeah, nah.

[Hawke64]

The Outer Worlds. Reached the Groundbreaker and was getting a very immersive experience, considering the weather.

Looking for recommendation of games where 1. The human NPC AI reacts differently to the player's actions depending on whether the NPC is armed or where it is located, e.g. when attacked by the PC, a NPC civilian tries to run or alert other NPCs instead of fighting to the death with their bare fists. 2. The non-human/animal NPC AI does not try to kill itself against the player if there is obviously no chance to win, unlike the infamous wolves in TESIV.

Pumpkin Jack. There are more variations of racing gameplay sequences with fixed camera angles. The one with the Witch currently holds the highest number of deaths due to me running into the walls heads-on (I clipped through one of them, which turned out to be the correct action). The boss itself and the boss in the following chapter took 2 attempts each. I suppose, I could say that each area is very distinct and the gameplay is reasonably challenging.

[Wormerine]

Not quite gaming, but I finished the Fallout TV show.

It's good! Way, way better than I expected. I was quite surprised how tight the script is, with good set ups and pay offs. I wish violence was used with a bit more purpose - as it is, it just style, and as such I numbed myself to it rather quickly, but am weary to recommed the show to some folks that I know might enjoy it otherwise.

As for the future - there is perhaps an overarching consipracy thingy going on, that I am not a fan off. I fear the interesting potential of the wasteland (Fallout's wasteland, not The Wasteland) can get lost if there is a big, bad pulling the strings of the ENTIRE WORLD! I also feel like some lore might not be matching up, but frankly it's been so long since I played a fallout, and I skipped couple recent titles, so who knows (not me!).

Edited August 3 by Wormerine

[Zoraptor]

Yep, show was good and was pretty consistent with the games imo. There's a potential lore mismatch with Fallout 1 I noticed, though it isn't serious- the way the show vaults are shown and where they are located the Master would have found them when he started looking well before the events of F1. I tend to pick things apart for verisimilitude/ 'historical' accuracy and if that's the worst I could come up with there isn't much cause for complaint.

The one most people complained about was the date for a certain plot point regarding the NCR that was shown on the classroom whiteboard not matching up with New Vegas' timeline, but that was clearly indicating that said plot point happened after the date indicated, not at it, so no actual inconsistency.

[Wormerine]

I was more thinking in terms Ghouls. And not refering to the Ghoul, but rather

 

the other squire who becomes a ghoul by inhaling a healing thingy. Though it does draw a connection to the Ghoul who was inhaling stuff throughout the show, but I thought ghouls were just an occasional result of human exposure to radiation, and stuff ghoul was taking was to not go feral (though maybe he was inhailing stuff to be ghoul and not die, and was taking liquid stuff to not go feral... I dunno

. There is also one character that I am not sure how she survived up until "current day" events of the show, but maybe that's something that will be explained in season2.

Edited August 3 by Wormerine

[Zoraptor]

There's a fairly big question whether 'ghoul' is appropriate there..

Spoiler

..I assumed it was ~FEV squire wossname took, ie he's becoming a supermutant rather than a ghoul; and that seemed to be the most popular theory immediately after the show's release. We didn't see any supermutants all season bar a blink and you'd miss it at the Enclave base but did see far more ghouls which counts against that theory; but it would also be a way to introduce supermutants more organically next season.

(Actually the Enclave base in the show is another possible inconsistency with the games that I'd forgotten about, though again it's not exactly world shattering nor impossible to handwave away if you want to)

 

[Mamoulian War]

Little bit more of DS2 again.

First in line was Duke's Dear Freja. For some reason, despite Tseldora being pretty annoying place to run around, and you have to Homeward a lot if you want all the loot. Especially the easter egg Pickaxe , I had zero wipes while traversing to her. Summoned two summons and had a chill fight The next one was Lost Sinner. And again, despite not in love, with the exploding mobs, I have managed to survive the walk to her up including the fight with her with no wipes. Again, no wipes, but before the end of the game session, I have decided to fight with Vengarl at his new position. I have lacked Fragrant Branch of Yore up until now. Of course before landing at his place, I had two comedy wipes again, due to me missing the landing point on a bridge to him Both bosses on first try. With summons, but that's OK for now. Plan is to have a little bit more challenge at NG+

The third one was the Dragonrider duo. The fight was again pretty fine with the summon helping out, but the road through Drangleic Castle was pain in the ass I have been surprised few times, with few changes from vanilla. The mob placing is completely different, so I did not knew, what awaits me. That's why I ended up with 8 asskicks before finishing the session. I have also tried to get the complete Ruin armour set, before venturing forth, but after 5 or 6 rounds with Ruin Sentinels, I am still missing the chest piece. But this one actually helped me a little bit with leveling up.

101 wipes. Next in line, Looking Glass Knight and Shrine of Amana... And I have found myself to put the next session off few times, as I hate this area as much as a flatearther, hates a geography book.

[Hawke64]

Finished Pumpkin Jack. Not recommended.
Review:

Spoiler

Pumpkin Jack is an action-adventure in the style of 00’s movie-based games. The story incorporates British folklore and the Christian and the Greek mythologies - the Devil places the curse of undead upon a kingdom, then sends his champion, the titular protagonist Jack, to defeat the champion of humanity. The intended attempts at humour mostly fail.

The combat is very basic - there are normal attacks (1 combo per weapon), a ranged attack (1), and jumping attacks (1 per weapon). Each completed chapter yields a new weapon with a different model and moveset. The game consists of several visually distinct and mostly linear chapters, each ending with a boss battle, and each boss battle consists of 3 stages (the bosses’ attack patterns become slightly more complex or the floor is falling to pieces). There is also some basic platforming, which is somewhat enjoyable, despite the insta-killing pits. There are a lot of various mini-games, from races with fixed camera angles to memory games, with the worst being kicking boxes into the targets with the corresponding shape by spin-attacking them, while the progress bar kept decreasing and the spin attack did not have enough precision. There are also collectibles and unlockable costumes for the main character, though no character development system.

I have encountered some minor collision bugs, the resolution kept resetting upon loading, and once a boss did not proceed to the next stage. The controls are rebindable, though 5-button mice are not supported.

While it is a technically impressive first release for a solo developer, almost all individual aspects (excluding the controls being rebindable) are not good, thus, I cannot recommend this.

---

Started Unsighted. It looks like a post-apocalyptic Souls-like in the pixel art style. Slightly reminds of Hyper Light Drifter.

---

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

101 wipes. Next in line, Looking Glass Knight and Shrine of Amana... And I have found myself to put the next session off few times, as I hate this area as much as a flatearther, hates a geography book.

The Shrine was reasonably good with the unique longbow, which was somewhere in the castle (I think, shortly before Nashandra's portrait). Poison arrows helped against the sturdier foes.

[melkathi]

Finished the Lost Valley in Solasta.

Did not expect the plot twist. Sided with the people and failed the actual job your party is originally hired to do. Had fun.

Edited August 4 by melkathi

[Mamoulian War]

2 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

 

The Shrine was reasonably good with the unique longbow, which was somewhere in the castle (I think, shortly before Nashandra's portrait). Poison arrows helped against the sturdier foes.

Well, I have half of the shrine already behind me, and From definitely placed the caster mobs in much more annoying way. I have not needed to use the Crossbow that much, as in Vanilla, just on very few mobs, I was able to melee down most of them with no issue. In Vanilla, I simply had no chance to get through the area without spending to much time sniping them.