What are you Playing Now? Volume XIX: The New Beginning of the End of the Middle

[Malcador]

20 hours ago, Sarex said:

Put 30ish hours in to Farthest Frontier. The game is good for what it is, the building aspect is fun enough to keep you engaged until you reach the final tier. Don't know why they cap the population to 500 by default, game works fine over that.

Didn't know about the cap. Played this in EA as well, playing it now. Nice to unlock buildings with tech rather than the town center.  Finally have surplus population, my previous games always left me with no labourers. Seems kids take ages to grow up as well, so maybe was lucky with immigrants.

Salvage sites is new to me too, also good.  Shame soldiers are expensive as heck though.

 

[Sarex]

34 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Didn't know about the cap. Played this in EA as well, playing it now. Nice to unlock buildings with tech rather than the town center.  Finally have surplus population, my previous games always left me with no labourers. Seems kids take ages to grow up as well, so maybe was lucky with immigrants.

Salvage sites is new to me too, also good.  Shame soldiers are expensive as heck though.

I was short on laborers until I reached over 500 pop. Until then I needed to switch between farmers and labor, non stop. Kids only come in to play in late game, when you get people dying of old age, until then immigration is key.

There are some relics that can make soldiers almost obsolete, at least on anything below hardest. I didn't even build any walls.

[Raithe]

Slowly doodling along in the background with some of the Outer Worlds 2.

Mostly in short pushes rather than hugely extended gaming times.

 

Edit:  And yes, I am moderately amused and entertained by the menu responding and making commentary on where the game is when I run it up again.

Edited Saturday at 07:53 PM by Raithe

[Sarex]

Finished the last mission of Pacific Drive. Had to do the game in small bits due to motion sickness. Overall well worth the money in gameplay. The story is just there.

Will probably play around in Farthest Frontier until the new Anno game comes out.

Edited Saturday at 10:36 PM by Sarex

[LadyCrimson]

Teddy's Haven (a fantasy shop simulator type game) - early access, single person dev, asset pack flip use I assume. Dev does small updates very frequently, like adding a new shop item, performance tweaks, other things. Recently he placed a giant new door into a rockface, purpose unknown. They've set it up where updates shouldn't require a new start, which is great.

Haven't really played a "shop simulator" game before. They all mostly looked kinda boring/static, plus I don't care about being a mechanic or power wash or lawn care business. This one caught my attention because of the smallish "outside/world map" aspect, and cats and stuff.  It has one of those (over time) repetitive loops (get resources to make stuff to sell/expand shop), and as you unlock/purchase more upgrades/crafting the loop becomes more interesting/fun.  So it's charming, a bit funny, the fact you're not locked into a shop/can explore the small world is initially rewarding, and it's possibly the coziest of no pressure coziest. No time pressure, no combat, etc. There's no real challenge or boundaries (this is on purpose), it's a vibe, a design/deco shop layout, busy work. So it's been perfect for my current zone-out brain.

Would I recommend it to the regulars of this forum? Nah. I mean, if such is your thing, it's a pretty good time waster. And it's cute. And has cats. And penguins, goats, giraffes occasionally show up to buy your wares, because I guess animals occasionally need a good dagger or two - which is funny. And you can buy this tiny Oreling, feed it excess stone, and it'll grow, and grow, and grow.....I'm still wondering if it has a size limit.

Edited Saturday at 09:03 PM by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

I have finished The Séance of Blake Manor as well and managed to save everyone saveable (21/21, as the end-game window indicated). I have also spent almost a day trying to find Joyce - the quest requiring her was available very early, while the NPC was frequently inaccessible. 

The time limit allows to have a lot of interactive junk and functionally useless dialogue options without pressuring the player into using them all, which is welcome. I also had to wait for ~2.5 hours at the end for the last event after doing everything else (and 1 hour to get to Joyce). 

The controls are rebindable and it is possible to save at almost any time, though the number of save files is insufficient. The main non-logical puzzle (the runes/glyphs thing) is fun enough to do repeatedly. The visual style is very readable and expressive at the same time (low-poly 3D environment and 2D character models). 

A small annoyance was (ending spoilers):

Spoiler

That the MC did not tell Deane to be on her merry way far far away from him. At that point, Deane was known to be ruthless and manipulative, so why anyone would choose to interact with her without getting paid for it is beyond me.

Also, some investigations were obvious to me as a player (e.g. Murphy's) but not the character, including the main culprit. 

[Wormerine]

A bit too early for me to have my Outer Worlds2 thought, but this seems to align pretty well m with my impressions so far:

 

[kanisatha]

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

A bit too early for me to have my Outer Worlds2 thought, but this seems to align pretty well m with my impressions so far:

Thanks for sharing. I like this review very much, because it pushes back at something that's been seriously bothering me about people's views and reviews of games recently, namely this argument that '2' is just a bigger and more polished version of '1' and therefore it's somehow not a good game worth playing. No one seriously made this claim with past '2's, most notably D:OS2 which *was* merely a bigger and more polished version of '1'. But now, those very same people (pro and amateur reviewers alike) who gushed over games like D:OS2 are pushing this silly claim about TOW2. I chalk it up to a very dangerous increase in an entitlement mentality among people in recent years.

[Malcador]

Playing Dispatch, Youtube was spamming it to me and it seemed interesting.  Not too bad so far, working with annoying people I want to end 80% of the time is too close to my day to day life though. Invisigal is tiring, though

[Theonlygarby]

Went back to KCD2 now that all the DLC is released.  Haven't actually got to any of them yet.  However, this is why I think im a full on hater now.  This game is great, really checks most of the boxes for RPG games for me.  Even then, I'm still not having that much fun with it.

 

Its a problem when my GOTY isn't even fully engaging to me.

[Wormerine]

On 11/9/2025 at 4:03 PM, kanisatha said:

namely this argument that '2' is just a bigger and more polished version of '1' and therefore it's somehow not a good game worth playing. No one seriously made this claim with past '2's, most notably D:OS2 which *was* merely a bigger and more polished version of '1'. 

Well, it can be a valid criticism if a sequel fails to bring much new to the table, but I think both D:OS2 and OW2 are a major step forward from first installments and not just more of the same. In case of OW2 I would chuck those comments as "it is not New Vegas". And it is not. It is still very streamlined RPG with very silly premise. OW2 is very much a sequel to OW1. And I think it is pretty good, even if some aspects of it still don't grab me. 

[Wormerine]

3 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Went back to KCD2 now that all the DLC is released.  Haven't actually got to any of them yet.  However, this is why I think im a full on hater now.  This game is great, really checks most of the boxes for RPG games for me.  Even then, I'm still not having that much fun with it.

Oh, that's a shame. I bought the whole package. It's next in line after Outer Worlds2. Did you feel the same about the KCD1?

Finished Alters. I really liked it, though I felt the game started to run a bit out of steam at the end. They tried to shake things up in unexpected ways, and while it did have some narrative impact, it did greatly undermine gameplay making the final zone a bit dull. Not a brilliant game quite original, and quite enjoyable. It's a kind of a game where individual elements aren't that spectacular, but as a whole it's quite neat. Recommended at a right price point. 

[Hurlshort]

I've been really trying to slow play OW2 and investigate every corner. There is a lot of fun little areas to poke around in. The combat also seems way better than the original. Sneaking is a good deal more engaging, for sure. 

[Theonlygarby]

6 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Oh, that's a shame. I bought the whole package. It's next in line after Outer Worlds2. Did you feel the same about the KCD1?

Finished Alters. I really liked it, though I felt the game started to run a bit out of steam at the end. They tried to shake things up in unexpected ways, and while it did have some narrative impact, it did greatly undermine gameplay making the final zone a bit dull. Not a brilliant game quite original, and quite enjoyable. It's a kind of a game where individual elements aren't that spectacular, but as a whole it's quite neat. Recommended at a right price point. 

No i loved KCD right from the start... I also got it when it was super buggy and new.  Even then I loved it.

 

I think its just a phase.  It'll take something to click for me to get out of it.

 

KcD2 is very good though.  It's better in pretty much every way.  Other than,  I would say the story pacing is a little weird for me.  Also it is missing the whole "from a peasant to hero" aspect...  you are fairly competent to start.

 

 

 

 

[BruceVC]

I finally started on my first Skyrim\LoreRim playthrough on Sunday

It took me so long to start because I was doing comprehensive research on what additional mods to add and more importantly how you add more mods without breaking the massive and complex LoreRim modlist

I settled on about 7-8 new NPC mods and some adult mods but end of the day LoreRim already has 4000 + mods so you really dont need to add much. Most of the mods I wanted to add were already included

I also spent time watching several LoreRim config and starting tips YT videos. It uses Requiem and I wanted to prepare myself for what is different. You cant just jump into LoreRim without understanding the differences and I also have never played Skyrim

But adding new mods requires a process where you need to run  Requiem Reqtificator and Synthesis patching every time to try to ensure stability 

 

And I had some issues with Synthesis where it wouldnt run any patches but after advice from Synthesis discord I was able to resolve it by deleting the Synthesis Temp folder

The most " difficult " part of LoreRim was initially understanding all the new menus around commands and hotkeys, that took me 3-4 hours because of how mods change things. For example I use the Arrow keys for movement and I noticed immediately that Down arrow was drinking my Magicka Potions. I couldnt see why and none of my Internet searches helped, they had lots of links about other LoreRim issues and how to configure .ini files for hotkeys but not this specific anomaly. Then I asked the question on the LoreRim Discord server and 2 people responded,  its linked to a specific mod called Swift Potions and you need to use F7 to change this behaviour and reset this specific hotkey

The LoreRim Discord has the most information but its very busy and you not guaranteed to get any answer or even the right answer like  all Discord sites. But  now I know which channels to ask specific questions. That is definitely the right place to get answers to everything around LoreRim and the creator of LoreRim  and other serious mod creators are active. Biggie built LoreRim and he is really one of the most interesting and friendly people in the modding community

So I finally started LoreRim and I selected the Alternative Start in an Inn called the Sleeping Giant in Riverwood. Im a Breton and I have decided to become a battlemage. Each race in Lorerim has really different stats and advantages. You have to take time to think about how you want to build your character and I love that about the game. The RP is massive

I am not going to initiate the main quest until much later, maybe level 30. Because Dragons are very hard as they should be and I want to explore the world and understand all the mechanics before its impacted by the Dragons

And its  an amazing starting  journey, I have this massive open map with no markers and I can do anything I want. Its the best example of open-world and sandbox I have ever experienced.

At the moment Im just doing Riverwood easy quests and Im going to focus on level advancement and becoming effective in combat, I prefer  first person view for combat but ostensibly third person is better for combat? Requiem also has meaningful survival mechanics so you have to constantly be aware of food, sleep and weather conditions

And I killed my first mudcrabs and wolves, Im HARDCORE !!! 

[melkathi]

I find first person better for combat.

 

The most important mod for me (besides no random dragons) is the alternate start one. It still allows you to get a rumour about Helfen and be the first to get there after it's destruction, and link into the main quest, but the different starts really help make your character yours.

[Sarex]

Kind of forgot I had gamepass. Looking through the library I landed on The Alters. 

[Wormerine]

55 minutes ago, Sarex said:

Kind of forgot I had gamepass. Looking through the library I landed on The Alters. 

Yayy, I hope you will like it too. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Wormerine

[melkathi]

In retrospect, the biggest difficulty in original Starcraft comes from the horrendous pathfinding. 

Where you click and where the unit goes sometimes, randomly coincide.

[Sarex]

6 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Yayy, I hope you will like it too. 

So far so great! Simple gameplay mechanics, but enough of them to make it interesting.

[majestic]

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

It's just a bigger and more polished version of Clair Obscure: Expedition 34.  

*ba dumm tis* If you don't get the joke with 34, then you just haven't played the game yet. Go and fix that. Unless you're @Bartimaeus and are very likely to be creeped out the by character looks. 

Not sure what I can or want to add to the discussion at the moment, other than to join in with the superlatives. Outside of the same-y and "feels generated by AI, but art direction clearly says it they were crafted deliberately" hallway-shooter style levels, it is easily game of the decade material. Well, if one just ignores the mini-games found in the beach areas. If you're not like me and can let go of an achievement (and, uh, don't really want the swimsuit outfits for your characters anyway), just don't bother. 

Given the small team that made the game, the problems with the level designs can easily be forgiven. The minigames though, dunno, really. Someone tested those and left them in. 

The other things in the game that almost drove me mad are very much my own fault. It's not the game's fault that I spent almost twenty hours going through areas I very clearly wasn't supposed to be yet, just because it is possible with the combat system. Also not the game's fault that the areas of the final part of the game that weren't designed for super high level parties are pretty lackluster with an overpowered party.

I mean, after all, you're not really supposed to grind levels from the mid 20ies to the early 80ies in Frozen Hearts - especially not before finding the limit break pictos.