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

[BruceVC]

1 minute ago, melkathi said:

I watched Escape from Pretoria yesterday. Lots of actors trying to get accents right

I watched that movie and I enjoyed it

Its one of the few Apartheid movies that highlights the reality and nuance of Apartheid  where not all white people agreed or believed in the system but you lived in a police state and there was a real fear of Communism which was used to label anti-Apartheid activists 

 

[Malcador]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

The worst for me is when I hear South African accents , I dont think we have an accents but apparently we do ..and I mean English South Africans, not Afrikaans 

Brings this masterpiece to mind

 

[Theonlygarby]

Got a fancy new computer.  Instantly stopped wanting to play video games.  Decided to play Dune.  It was alright, got bored.  Now I am playing franchise hockey manager, which is basically an excel spreadsheet game... making good use of that expensive computer.

[BruceVC]

I completed the entire install of Life in the Ruins (LITR) for Fallout 4   using Wabbajack and it all worked after some minor troubleshooting. 

Using Wabbajack is definitely the easiest way to install large Mod Collections, this one has over 400 mods

A couple of issues I experienced and how I resolved them
 

• Make sure you spend time on the readme file because there are post config changes you have to make once its installed
• Some mods didnt download, I tried a few times and the same mods failed. But Wabbajack provides a link and then you can manually download them and copy them to the Wabbajack Download folder
• I had some incorrect virus alerts from my AV program so I just excluded the Wabbajack folder from AV and the Wabbajack install and unpack was able to progress
• I had an " access denied " during the unpack of all the mods. I just rebooted and it went away, I think this was related to my AV program

I want to play around with adding some Adult mods so I have created a test profile in MO2 so I cant break my working vanilla install of LITR

And I want to test and confirm how adding mods to a collection works or doesn't work because its not recommended

But Im very impressed with Wabbajack 

[HoonDing]

I thought Lethal weapon 2 was best apartheid movie

[Katphood]

I got a free copy of the new Hexen+Heretic release since I owned both Hexen and Heretic on my Steam library. Trying it out now. 

Also, thank you Bethesda! I don't care if you ruined the Fallout franchise so long as you give me free stuff. 

[melkathi]

Wait till you find out that Hexen has become a base building survival sandbox

[Maedhros]

Played a few hours of NWN2. Man that game did not age well (or was not very good in the first place). The ai, ui and camera are all pretty ass. Almost impossible to play after BG3.

[MrBrown]

For some reason started replaying New Vegas. Not sure why.

[melkathi]

2 hours ago, MrBrown said:

For some reason started replaying New Vegas. Not sure why.

You wanted a simulation of the current events in the US?

[Theonlygarby]

Little bit of Dune Awakening but probably done with it.  Franchise hockey manager 12 or whatever they are on now, this is definitely my relaxing game, not stressful at all.  Then I have been fumbling my way through Victoria 3, 100 more hours and I should understand the basics.

[BruceVC]

17 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Little bit of Dune Awakening but probably done with it.  Franchise hockey manager 12 or whatever they are on now, this is definitely my relaxing game, not stressful at all.  Then I have been fumbling my way through Victoria 3, 100 more hours and I should understand the basics.

Why are you done with Dune, what dont you like about it?

[Theonlygarby]

5 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Why are you done with Dune, what dont you like about it?

Well for one I'm not a dune fan so I think some of it is lost on me.  However I did have fun with it at first so I don't think thats the main reason.

 

I think it just has the same problems every survival building type game has, which is seemingly endless incremental upgrades, repetitive exploration and no real end goal aside from getting those little upgrades.

 

I could see having more fun if I had gaming friends I could play with.  I did have some fun with it, and it's probably something I will return to.  It just felt like it was going nowhere.

[Wormerine]

On 8/16/2025 at 3:37 PM, MrBrown said:

For some reason started replaying New Vegas. Not sure why.

 

[Hawke64]

I have finished Blasphemous 2. In terms of the moment-to-moment gameplay, it feels like an improvement, though narratively, the story wrapped up in the previous game, while the ridiculous number of various collectibles and the changes to the character’s builds somehow spoil the enjoyment. The game is still breathtakingly beautiful and the bosses are varied and challenging.

I purchased the game with the DLC, so while I might not have noticed all differences, the clearly DLC-specific areas consisted mostly of the arenas, i.e. I could not proceed without murdering several waves of recoloured foes. The platforming challenges were mostly doable and the new weapon (1) functional. The bosses, however, were irritating, though the (probably) new spells helped greatly in dealing with them.
 
I have also finished Planescape: Torment - Enhanced Edition. It runs well and there is a wide range of accessibility options, such as item highlight and font size. The unlimited number of manual hard saves and the ability to pause at any time were present in the original version as well and it is good to see them. Some cut-scenes were missing subtitles, however. Admittedly, without seeing why dialogue options are available or locked and because of the very limited class selection and character customisation in general, it is not the most engaging RPG-labeled game I have played, while the ending(s) is unsatisfying. Nonetheless, it is an important part of our history and it is welcome to see it to be available and accessible.

I have started Elephantasy: Flipside which I’ve got from the Queer Games Bundle 2025. So far, it feels like Tunic, but with more hardcore platforming. The game looks lovely, the controls are customisable, and the map feels quite large. Partially, due to large chunks of it being inaccessible at the moment, as they require various traversal items I have not found yet. To be precise, I think I have found the main questline and the said pile of items, but I can hold only one at the moment, with the limit increasing as I progress with the game. There is some form of fast travel available from the start. The in-game map, unfortunately, is not quite helpful - it is monochromous and I cannot leave markers on it. It is 3D, though.

I might proceed with it a bit longer or try another game from the bundle.

[BruceVC]

On 8/19/2025 at 11:26 PM, Wormerine said:

 

S2 looks excellent, I cant wait 

[Wormerine]

Once again it is GamePass time. With Outer Worlds2 coming in October, and games I want to play piling up in gamepass I figured it's a good time to resubscribe and tick few of those off. So here is a list so far:

1) FTC: Firebreak - Remedy's Left4Dead-like. Ehhhh. It's not terrible, but also not particularly interesting. Gameplay is very basic, missions get old very quickly, and matches are either fairly dull (if everyone know what they are doing) or frustrating (if one or two people don't fulfill their roles). It's an ok time waster with a friend, but I think I had enough of it in a solo que. I might jump back again later after few updates, but I wouldn't recommend paying money for it. Sorry, Remedy.

2) I gave new Commandos: Origins game a go. Eh, didn't play much so far, but my impression isn't much different than from a demo - it seems like a clunkier, far less polished version of Mimimi's take on the genre. They just haven't presented any interesting challenges so far, and character kits seem basic.

3) South of Midnight - again not very deep so far. Look beautiful, and I like the vibe. Initial impression of gameplay is that it will likely not amount to much. Feels like a very basic action platformer thing

3) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - that's been my main thing for the last two weeks. It's great! Fairly contained jRPG, with all that I like about genre but none of the tedium. Combat is straightforward but engaging. Vibe and story is the highlight - great soundtrack, compelling character writing, I am yet to decide on plot - it is shaping to be a bit more straightforward than I was hoping for, but we will see - I am confident a big twist is just ahead of me. Perhaps not a groundbreaking game, but with a lot of heart and passion. 

[edit. Ok, I like the plot now. Twist was good, in a thematically meaty kind of way.]

4) The Rogue Prince of Persia - it's really good. Sharp artstyle, and really enjoyable gameplay. They are also doing some smart story thing - not quite copying Supergiant's work in Hades, but still managing to naturally weave story into it's rogue-lite structure. 

Edited August 21 by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

I have "finished" Elephantasy: Flipside as in "reached an ending" (there are 4). The game is significantly more hardcore (challenging and janky), than Tunic. It is also possible to teleport right outside the final boss room by editing the save file, if one knows the room’s coordinates. The final boss battle lasts about 8 minutes, providing that you do not die to the RNG and bugs.

While I found the experience to be more frustrating than rewarding, due to the visibility (only one room is visible at a time) and platforming, if one seeks an old-school adventure with exploration and puzzles, this is it.

It is also not possible to take screenshots via Steam Overlay.

 

[Mamoulian War]

Goal nr. 7/2025

August 24, 14:45 – I have been lately busy at work, so I have decided, that I need some easygoing experience, so I have purchased Hero of the Kingdom on GOG and finished it over the weekend. It was exactly what I have needed. Playing with tempo of your own, no stress, just clicking with a mouse to start and finish quests and to gather materials. And as a bonus, I found out, that it was made in Slovakia . A little bit over 7 hours was needed to get all of the achievements in the game. 

[BruceVC]

Im about 10 hours into Life in the Ruins mod collection for Fallout 4  and Im really enjoying it

It creates a survival reality for FO4 but its balanced and so far not frustrating 

Lots of thinking went into what mods would make the game harder, lore friendly but still enjoyable 

The immediate changes I noticed was no Fast Travel, initially I was a little unhappy  but now I appreciate it. You become lazy when you can fast travel between towns and I enjoy exploring and travelling

 

Then ammunition is very scare and this means you need to scavenge everywhere, this is a great feature and reminds me of the constant resource shortages in games like STALKER

It makes you become more strategic in combat and just increases the overall fun and reward with needing to explore. And Vendors so far have limited stocks of ammo

But excellent mod collection so far, its makes FO4 much more hardcore and a fun survival game in this massive  post-apocalyptic world 

 

I have also added a few new mods outside the Mod Collection  like additional radio stations and its easy to see any issues with MO2 but so far so good 

[Malcador]

Playing Ready or Not and, eh, not too impressed with it, maybe just need time to familiarize myself with the controls  Still laugh at "Restore Order to Chaos" as a mission objective, I am assuming this game is going to be Copaganda.

[melkathi]

Trying the Terror from the Void mod for Phoenix Point. I don't think I'll last long enough to see if any of the changes/additions from the mod are any good.

The changes to classes and skill trees gets a meh - whatever rating on the internationally recognised melkathi scale*.

The non-vanilla human enemies, where every group of scavengers, every squad of jericho troops, has a leader granting an ability to their team, and they all have cringeworthy squad names gets a please go back to writing Harry Potter fanfiction rating.

 

Adding npcs to staff the initial base instead of having everything AI run, gets a thumbs up. But is that enough to get me to care?

 

 

* often described as a jaded, grimdark version of the popular BruceVC game rating system. Just from the perspective that people are useless amateurs until proven otherwise.