What are you Playing Now? - the man sez Video games are bad for you - fight the man!

[LadyCrimson]

Tainted Grail:  oh, forgot to mention, the dev's said they have plans for mod capability/tools in a few weeks/a month or something. How useful/extensive or what form this will take is unknown. But it peaked my interest a bit. they're also looking into a NG+, and extra content updating with a focus on Act3 maybe in August.

So if they hold to this roadmap of updates, it's likely to improve the game a fair bit. I might replay it then to see.  EDIT: to be clear, I still enjoyed the game quite a lot. It just kind of runs out of steam/started to feel too repetitive by Act3. And far too easy (over-leveling content).

Edited June 13 by LadyCrimson

[melkathi]

Remember, always buy everything Awaken Realm publishes. If they make a lot of money they might open an animation studio and I have called dibs on pitching them scripts for animated series

[LadyCrimson]

On 6/9/2025 at 9:48 PM, Hurlshort said:

10/10 - would become worm food again

Dune seems like a game I would have liked - if it wasn't a MMO/online. I know you can largely play it solo if you wish, and turn off public chat or something, but after spending a long time, once, thinking that WoW would be the perfect casual game if I could just play it Offline - nah, don't want to do that again. 

I've also heard the "end-game" focuses largely on MP and maybe guild PvP or some such, making solo play less viable or enjoyable. I know you're not that far along but do you know anything about that?

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, LadyCrimson said:

Dune seems like a game I would have liked - if it wasn't a MMO/online. I know you can largely play it solo if you wish, and turn off public chat or something, but after spending a long time, once, thinking that WoW would be the perfect casual game if I could just play it Offline - nah, don't want to do that again. 

I've also heard the "end-game" focuses largely on MP and maybe guild PvP or some such, making solo play less viable or enjoyable. I know you're not that far along but do you know anything about that?

I'm guessing I'll spend the end game building the perfect base, rather than anything PvP. There seems to be a tremendous amount of content to stay busy outside of the deep desert, where PvP takes place. 

But the online thing is a concern. I would also prefer solo/private servers where I could just do my own thing. I'm holding out hope that they will get there eventually. They did that for Conan Exiles, after all. They know they can make a lot of money just by selling new skins and art assets to us folks who just want to build in the desert. 

I've has very little interaction with other players other than seeing all of their bases scattered around. It is kind of neat seeing all of this stuff pop up, then watching it erode as people move on to different areas.

[melkathi]

Back when, I somehow gave up on Sattelite Reign because of real life and then didn't pick it back up. So I decided to change that.

I have started a new run of Sattelite Reign.

I still really like the Syndicate feel of the game. 

And true to the old Syndicate, my biggest opponent are the controls...

[Sven_]

Arcanum. Never actually finished it. This time, I might -- with a Necromancer Elf that made a pact with the devil. And is as beloved throughout Arcanum (or most of it) as hemorrhoids.

 

PS: I don't want to crap on The Outer Worlds too much. It's not a "crap game". Still: How do you go from this to The Outer Worlds, where perks as exciting and game changing as "+10% to damage" or "+5lbs to carry weight" rule? I have a few suspicious. But still, it's one thing to try to make something more accessible, widespread industry process and no. 1 priority since ca. 2001. It's another to turn it into something as bland and vanilla as frozen burger patties sold en masse at Walmart.

Edited Sunday at 01:25 PM by Sven_

[Tale]

After playing Oblivion, I found myself missing the sandbox features of Skyrim. And now I've spent weeks playing Skyrim... I'm supposed to be better than this.

I did manage to wrap up a game called Blackshard. Mostly just exploring a megastructure and really good if you're into that.

[Hurlshort]

11 hours ago, Sven_ said:

PS: I don't want to crap on The Outer Worlds too much. It's not a "crap game". Still: How do you go from this to The Outer Worlds, where perks as exciting and game changing as "+10% to damage" or "+5lbs to carry weight" rule? I have a few suspicious. But still, it's one thing to try to make something more accessible, widespread industry process and no. 1 priority since ca. 2001. It's another to turn it into something as bland and vanilla as frozen burger patties sold en masse at Walmart.

They do get to see the numbers on this stuff though, and a lot of times the argument is not enough players utilize certain features to justify putting them in future games. That's just my guess. 

I mean, the idea that you can take a perk to be sneaky, but your knees crack when you stand up is still pretty creative.

[Sven_]

8 hours ago, Hurlshort said:

They do get to see the numbers on this stuff though, and a lot of times the argument is not enough players utilize certain features to justify putting them in future games. That's just my guess. 

 

This is a stance clearly taken by Bethesda games, which consequently have well earned their "wide as an ocean, deep as a p*ss pot" tagline.  (And as Starfield had replaced the distractingly beautiful work of their world and art team for procedurally generated specks of dust and greys at the arse of the universe: Everybody got to finally see it.)  

 

 

Edited Monday at 08:22 AM by Sven_

[HoonDing]

Starfield was Bethesda going back to their very roots. It is literally Daggerfall In Space.

[Lexx]

The fact that nothing in Bethsoft games has any consequences is probably the biggest flaw for me. It makes their games predictable and boring in the long run.

[Sven_]

3 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Starfield was Bethesda going back to their very roots. It is literally Daggerfall In Space.

Minus the benefit of a rewarding character system and costumization of course (par for the course for Bethesda since). The "seamless" exploration (like a fantasy themed Elite). The lovely bunch of 320x200 pixels. And the dungeon complexity -- to be fair, as everything in Daggerfall was RNG, any seemingly simple "fetch my slippers" quest to get 10xp could lead to a multi-level hellhole putting POE's Endless Paths, Ultima's entire Underworlds plus Skyrim's Blackreach combined to shame. 

Like: "All I wanted to do is fetch the slippers and now I can't find the exit no more."   

 

 

@Lexx  Yeah, and the lack of consequence is actually by design... Raw size and scale is all what matters to them. FO3 still tried SOME of it. But overall, it's one of the big tragedies of the 21th century that Bethesda landed Fallout. An IP once reknown for coining the term "choice&consequence", right from character creation to technically being able to walk right to the big bad and talk him out of it -- THE END.  No more.

Edited Monday at 01:00 PM by Sven_

[Mamoulian War]

3 hours ago, Lexx said:

The fact that nothing in Bethsoft games has any consequences is probably the biggest flaw for me. It makes their games predictable and boring in the long run.

Well that’s pretty much the consequence of buying their game

[Lexx]

Well, Morrowind was still ok. I didn't know better with Oblivion. Skyrim at some point cost like 2 bucks or less, and Starfield is "for free" in Game Pass.

[LadyCrimson]

@Sven_  Most giant AAA these days are aiming towards "the masses." And if I've noticed anything, it's that the "masses" generally don't want consequences. Even if they think they want choices, they want choices without consequences.

"I waltzed into a town and killed everyone who looked at me funny. now I have a quest that wants this NPC but I killed them, so I can't (turn it in, talk to, get rid of a quest in my log), is there any way I can I still do the quest, I heard there's good item, I don't want to reload/start over etc."

I'm lazy these days and I generally want more sandbox than choices, but even I look at what so many post in game forums and shake my head.
Btw, overall you probably wouldn't like Tainted Grail very much, I'm guessing - it has choices but nothing deep or hugely impactful and perk trees are pretty modern-like - but if you want consequences, you can find an area in the game with a specific thing called a croakmaw, with this special one having a giant "PET" text over it. Pet it.  

 

It eats your arm. You become a one-armed hero. This means you cannot dual wield, use 2H, you can't mine for ores (pickaxes are 2H), and a host of other gameplay functions. In fact, you may not even be able to finish the MQ because some things require two arms to activate. There is no cure (yet, maybe they'll patch one in if ppl complain enough).  I find this hilarious. 

Edited Monday at 05:24 PM by LadyCrimson

[melkathi]

I am tired of consequences

[LadyCrimson]

3 minutes ago, melkathi said:

I am tired of consequences

Since more and more I don't tend to replay more structured/non-sandbox games (I try/want to do everything I can in a single mammoth play), I don't like too many consequences either, if said choices/consequences locks you out of large areas/aspects of the game per run.

But as I've said many times, I'm not at all a role-player and get zero immersion/care with feeling like I had impact in some game world.
Just gimmie my silly mage hat.  Or maybe a baker's hat. And a turn to cheese spell.

[Sven_]

3 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

@Sven_  Most giant AAA these days are aiming towards "the masses." And if I've noticed anything, it's that the "masses" generally don't want consequences. Even if they think they want choices, they want choices without consequences.

. 

  Reveal hidden contents

It eats your arm. You become a one-armed hero. This means you cannot dual wield, use 2H, you can't mine for ores (pickaxes are 2H), and a host of other gameplay functions. In fact, you may not even be able to finish the MQ because some things require two arms to activate. There is no cure (yet, maybe they'll patch one in if ppl complain enough).  I find this hilarious. 

Considering that New Vegas has (in the long-run) turned out to be the no.1 fan favourite, even amongst those who started with FO3, I'm actually somewhat hopeful. So many games doing spectacularly well that according to industry wisdom shouldn't have, helps --  whereas vice versa, those that went with perceived wisdom often times struggled. Or at least: failed to set the world on fire even if they set out to do so. 

Generally, a lot of industry people still seem to act as if it was 2005, and young males playing plenty Gears Of War and Call Of Duty on Xbox was the only big crowd to convince and go after. Speaking of which:

The Outer Worlds 2 hands-on preview: There's a chance this is Obsidian's greatest game, and the best shooter of 2025 | GamesRadar+

 

Edited Monday at 09:11 PM by Sven_

[LadyCrimson]

^ I'm of the mind that just like with tv/films/streaming, covid wasn't helpful. It gave the big corpo's this idea that those boosts from people being stuck at home was the new normal. And I feel like so many publishers have forgotten (again) that putting all your trillions into one basket isn't a safe bet forever. Sure, have the giant blockbuster aimed game, but pair it with lower budget/risk, less known or new IP's. How else do you get a new "blockbuster" IP of the future.

People are fickle and get bored of any trend, eventually. Especially if they think they aren't getting value for their purchase, whatever value means to any individual.

That all said, for me personally, I'm not holding my breath anything I'd like re: gaming is going to become the new mega trend again. I don't think anything I super-want/like would ever be considered re: AAA anymore. One just has to look for the smaller games, find that diamond (or maybe at least an emerald .... ) in the rough for one's personal tastes, somewhere. They're out there.

[Sven_]

11 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

That all said, for me personally, I'm not holding my breath anything I'd like re: gaming is going to become the new mega trend again. I don't think anything I super-want/like would ever be considered re: AAA anymore. One just has to look for the smaller games, find that diamond (or maybe at least an emerald .... ) in the rough for one's personal tastes, somewhere. They're out there.

Looking at midrange GPUs now going for 600+ bucks and there being no end in sight: It's not all bad when you are looking for alternatives. It wasn't in 2023+2024 already! 

Drova - Forsaken Kin bei Steam 
SKALD: Against the Black Priory bei Steam
Plus some Josh luvin' of course: Pentiment bei Steam

Edited Tuesday at 09:34 AM by Sven_

[Malcador]

Finished the season grind in D4, although I wonder what the point was. 

[LadyCrimson]

Becoming curious about The Alters - but my fear is there will be too much sense of time or progression pressure for my liking (vs. feeling more freeform). And that I won't be able to tell within the steam 2hr window etc.  I'm not sure, still investigating. But sure sounds like an interesting, maybe "higher concept" survival/base/management/rpg. Only a bit over $30 tho, might give it a shot.

7 Days experimental 2.0 is available, sounds/looks like crud. Imma gonna have to mod the poop out of it to make it palatable. Or just skip it. The Fun Pimps really are the UnfunPimps (as well as the can't stick to anything, I'm not sure they ever really play their own game, Pimps) these days.

[BruceVC]

On 6/15/2025 at 2:53 PM, Sven_ said:

Arcanum. Never actually finished it. This time, I might -- with a Necromancer Elf that made a pact with the devil. And is as beloved throughout Arcanum (or most of it) as hemorrhoids.

 

PS: I don't want to crap on The Outer Worlds too much. It's not a "crap game". Still: How do you go from this to The Outer Worlds, where perks as exciting and game changing as "+10% to damage" or "+5lbs to carry weight" rule? I have a few suspicious. But still, it's one thing to try to make something more accessible, widespread industry process and no. 1 priority since ca. 2001. It's another to turn it into something as bland and vanilla as frozen burger patties sold en masse at Walmart.

Nice, I played Arcanum for the first time a few months ago

Its the last CRPG from that era I hadnt played and I had a great time 

 

The combat  mechanics weren't  great but the overall narrative, side quests, class and skill choices  and different ways of solving quests were brilliant. And the whole map exploration I really enjoyed

Overall I had a very positive experience 

Edited 5 hours ago by BruceVC

[majestic]

18 hours ago, Malcador said:

Finished the season grind in D4, although I wonder what the point was. 

Wasn't it fun to fight hit point sponge Ladder bosses with their own boss abilities which almost never fit into any character build? 

The difference is ludicrous. My sorcerer could reliably kill Belial in under five seconds on Torment IV. Equipping the Lilith boss power for the season journey? Oh, have fun fighting 15+ minutes because suddenly your damage potential is down in a ditch. The absolute dumbest thing was fighting Andariel with her own boss power, which activates after standing still for a second, which is pretty hard to do when the entire screen is full of moving one-hit kill zones during her last phase, but you need to damage enemies with your boss powers because all the other damage boosting effects procc from damaging enemies with your equipped main boss power.

This was easily the least fun season since the first one, although that was by far and large my own fault for not switching characters. Barbarians were really, really bad in season one. Learned my lesson though - haven't played anything but FOTM OP builds since.