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

[Zoraptor]

I haven't had a significant bug yet in, uh, 90 minutes of play.

It wouldn't be a gothic like if it didn't feel just the slightest, smallest smidge janky and have a plethora of minor bugs; they're part of the charm. Along with getting brutally murdered by the first bit of fauna you meet.

Edited Thursday at 10:31 AM by Zoraptor

[marelooke]

11 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

Yeah, I get it's a main aspect of the game, ofc (not a peaceful game, lol), I just meant there seemed to be at least one early (?) quest/thing where you could do it that I saw, and sometimes that means there's more like that - like the kinds of constant run/avoid speed runners might take advantage of. But I have no clue, maybe they were using some glitch to their advantage, or it was still a tutorial area with different rules or something.  It does look (story, npc) cutscene heavy but Chinese games I've tried before, it probably won't bother me much (vs. US games). I was planning on using original language/subtitles (even if text translations aren't always awesome), the Eng dialogue/dub/whatever sounds horrid.

Combat mechanics probably are a bit more than I want - I find constant parrying/dodge timing annoying/difficult AND tedious/boring vs. exciting/gratifying - but I'll probably try it at some point. If it was offline I'd just mod it but - plus re: waiting, I'm curious if they'll actually mellow out the supposed multi-multi menu nightmares a bit. they've supposedly said they're "looking at that" re: complaints.

Apparently the problem isn't just the translation, some of the lore supposedly is obtuse to the Chinese players as well per this Reddit post of a Chinese player.

The English voice acting has mostly been fine, at least with a female MC, I don't dare try Chinese since some of the text assumes Chinese, and things do get cut off occasionally, especially when it comes to on-screen tips. Though there's some weird issues sometimes like where the subtitle runs behind one step with the spoken dialogue, or the lines are assigned to the wrong person, which is hopefully less of an issue in Chinese.

I've yesterday finished the final boss we have access to for now, which seems to wrap up the Kaifeng storyline and I did have some trouble, though I managed it in one try in the end. I guess one tip for combat is to use the Healing Fan as an offhand, as well as to look into the weapon combinations in general, I found this video helpful to explain how I picked wrong initially  

 

[HoonDing]

Of Vodka and Borscht

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, Zoraptor said:

I haven't had a significant bug yet in, uh, 90 minutes of play.

It wouldn't be a gothic like if it didn't feel just the slightest, smallest smidge janky and have a plethora of minor bugs; they're part of the charm. Along with getting brutally murdered by the first bit of fauna you meet.

Yes, Gothic like ES scrolls are expected to have bugs when first released

This feedback about how buggy it is comes from Codex and people playing it  but I never take that too seriously

You much more objective and you not prone to hyperbole and drama around how stable it would be 

But Im interested in what you think after 10 hours because the one guy listed about 10-12 bugs around quests and he had clearly played it for  a while 

 

[melkathi]

I hear for Gothic like games, studios actually hire professional bug devs to add the right bugs to the games.

[HoonDing]

That game looks too eurojank even for eurojank that it has to be a parody

[Zoraptor]

It is a bit like what you'd get if you described Gothic to an alien race and they decided to try their hand at it to replicate literally everything about it. Apart from everything else I also haven't met a single woman (one women, not a romantically unattached woman. It's Piranha Bytes like, not Bioware like. Sorry Bruce) in my brief sojourn. 

I did catch a fish, and squashed some bugs (hmm) for a quest, so there are some animals I'm a genuine threat to.

Edited Thursday at 07:34 PM by Zoraptor

[HoonDing]

Feels great in these Gothic-likes to finally become powerful and then revisit places on the map to clean house.

But the most enjoyable is really to be able to pick up whatever you want without having to worry about getting encumbered.

[Wormerine]

Finally a sequel to the best Total War game:

I try to not get too excited. To be frank, most of the time I spent in Medieval II was with mods (mostly Stainless Steel), and no other Total War experience managed to scratch an itch that heavily modded Rome and Medieval II could. I was hyped for Shogun2, but never managed to get into it, and none of later TW caught my attention - I tried Warhammer for a bit, but felt rather simplistic (I mean to give it another go now when I have a PC that could enjoy the looks better).

Anyway, classic Total Wars got GOG release. Picked up Medieval2 and might give it another go at some point. We will see if nostalgia googles hold up. 

edit. Oh, and Empire. I have a weak spot for it. Such a messy game, but also somewhat inspiring. I loved the setting, and innovation and I just wish it would be a more polished release. 

Edited Thursday at 10:58 PM by Wormerine

[Hawke64]

I have finished Horses. The only reason for the Steam ban I could see is that Valve really dislikes non-gratifying sexual violence (1 scene). Otherwise, it is a short walking simulator. The controls are unrebindable, the game saves every ~5 minutes, the scenes can be replayed after completing the game. It does not say anything new nor is particularly enjoyable to play (seems to be linear), so, unless one wants to support the developers, it is safe to skip. 

I have also played Atlas Fallen and so far it feels good. It also does not use UE5 (may it be sunsetted soon), so the performance is stable. The most memorable moment so far is the battle against a mini-boss and most of it I was able to spend mid-air ascending higher and higher along with the boss and it was not a scripted scene. In terms of story, it articulates more persuasively "theocracies and authoritarianism are bad" than Horses. 

A slightly longer review for Horses:

Spoiler

Horses is a mostly-linear walking simulator and it takes ~3 hours to complete. If it was not clear, the game covers the topics of institutional violence, human and animal rights. There is not much horror per se (there is only one situation where the protagonist is endangered), but a more subtle oppressive atmosphere. 

To add to the list of warnings, at one point animal cruelty is discussed in a dialogue and the protagonist has to dismember and consume an animal corpse in order to progress. 

The game does not exactly say anything new - the christofash like to project their suppressed desires onto other people and act on them when no one's looking. I suppose, the only fresh angle here is the sexual violence being explicit rather than implicit, because, as Steam demonstrated, it tends to increase the age restrictions. I'd like to mention that, like with the developers' previous works, it is not gratifying. 

I suppose, the game also shows that abuse survivors can choose to perpetuate the cycle of violence as well as to break it. As in permanently repelling the attacker, not singing kumbaya together, refreshingly so. Though, the antagonist being an overweight older adult, who might be autistic, while the main character and the "love interest" being young and athletic seem much less appealing. 

The narrative fares somewhat better if one assumes that the "horses" are the stand-in for the domestic animals, rather than humans. At least, it points out the ridiculous cruelty inflicted upon random sentient beings, so the human animals can find pleasure in consuming their corpses or bodily fluids. One can wonder what happens to male calves, so their mothers can lactate. 

There are a few dialogues and it is possible to respond with emojis, but it did not look like the responses changed anything. Most of the gameplay consists of walking around the relatively small farm area and completing simple tasks. Occasionally, the journal, the "Daily Tasks", does not describe correctly what is required to complete the day, but walking around usually triggers the next step. As the content warning suggested, a lot of the sequences are linear and questionable actions are mandatory to progress (i.e. the protagonist unavoidably spends 13 days without a spine). The limited freedom leads to disconnect from both the avatar and the story. If the lack of agency and choice is a design decision, it is a poor one. Then again, too many people contribute to atrocities as long as it does not affect them directly. 

The movement in general feels slow and uncomfortable and the controls are not rebindable. There are 2 timed sequences but completing them successfully does not seem to be required to progress. There is also 1 puzzle at the end. At a few places, the interactive objects are drawn attention to by adding a separate screen with them which is, to put it mildly, almost useless. Usually, the interactive objects are slightly highlighted, but it can be hard to see. 

There is an intentional dissonance between the "horror" scenes followed by the more arcade-like ones and it is not a bad thing, but, as mentioned, if there is no choice (e.g. I could not grab the axe and axe the farmer after one of the "horses" died), there is no connection. Arguably, the only choice is the same as with Spec Ops: The Line - to stop playing. 

The visual style consists of relatively low-poly models and a black-and-white "old cinema" filter. There are occasional short video sequences. The game is VA-free, though I find showing the subtitles on separate screens after the facial animations play out to be quite annoying. The sound design is present and the camera noises are ever present. 

The game saves into the chosen slot at the start of every scene (usually, a day), which are ~5 minutes apart. While it is possible to save into a new one, it requires a manual action and after completing the game, the chapter select function becomes available, with the names being not quite descriptive (e.g. Day 10). 

Overall, if the game is considered separately from the Steam ban, it is a short linear walking simulator without any significant qualities and lacking the most basic accessibility features. 2.5/5, rounding down. 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Hawke64
Updated the review.

[kanisatha]

How in hell do you guys finish playing games so quickly?! Do you just not go to work, don't eat, don't sleep, just play, play ,play?! It takes me many months to get through modest sized game. 

[Hawke64]

1 hour ago, kanisatha said:

How in hell do you guys finish playing games so quickly?! Do you just not go to work, don't eat, don't sleep, just play, play ,play?! It takes me many months to get through modest sized game. 

Horses in particular took 3 hours. Otherwise, I was on AL last week (still have a few days to spend until 2026) and Black Geyser was of reasonable length (~35h for the first playthrough, 8h? for the second) to play. I also WFH 3 days per week and it is glorious as it cuts down ~130 minutes of commute per day.

I would not try to play anything Ubisoft-like and currently just listening to the other gamer in the household playing Rogue Trader. I like Owlcat, but the turn-based combat and their density of encounters fill me with dread. So, might try in a year. 

[melkathi]

I finished Greedfall.

After that one big bug, it was bugfree.

I enjoyed it. The writing improves over the course of the game. It felt a bit awkward in the beginning, as if it needed to figure out what the social position of your character is - npcs were acting as if random guard and your character were equals, making me long for a reply of "You seem to mistake this for a democracy. Oh, you don't know what a democracy is? It is the system in which your opinion and consent theoretically matters."

They managed to give the impression of choices that matter well. 

Spiders' best game hands down.

Edited 13 hours ago by melkathi

[Tale]

I still can't get over Dispatch.

I'm playing a bunch of dumb crap. Somehow I sucked myself into Wuthering Waves, a free to play GACHA game. Gameplay is kind of fun, story is nonsense, but the visual design with the environments is a screenshot factory.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion reminds me of the days at the arcade. Which is nice. I put so many quarters back in Children of the Atom. I hope they do  a Cyclops DLC or update.

[Katphood]

Zombie Army Trilogy.

That MG 42 wielding super zombie just ruins the whole experience.

How am I gonna defeat that thing? Four dynamites, two hand grenades and this thing is still up. I'd have better odds against a sherman tank.

[HoonDing]

Just like in ELEX I, Caja romance bugged out (?) and so I have to romance Nasty (lol) or Nyra

[Mamoulian War]

Played a little bit today with creating scripts for MKvsDCU Kombo challenges. This time for Sub-Zero. Took half the time than last time, so it seems, I am getting more used to it. Second Kombo Challenge Trophy unlocked  20 to go 

[Hawke64]

On 12/5/2025 at 10:40 PM, melkathi said:

I finished Greedfall.

After that one big bug, it was bugfree.

I enjoyed it. The writing improves over the course of the game. It felt a bit awkward in the beginning, as if it needed to figure out what the social position of your character is - npcs were acting as if random guard and your character were equals, making me long for a reply of "You seem to mistake this for a democracy. Oh, you don't know what a democracy is? It is the system in which your opinion and consent theoretically matters."

They managed to give the impression of choices that matter well. 

Spiders' best game hands down.

I am glad that you enjoyed the game. If I remember correctly, the choices do matter there. Especially one of the companion quests.

Could you please share your thoughts on the ending? I have played the other Spiders' games and would probably prefer the style/narrative of The Technomancer. 

Spoiler

Both Bound by Flame and Greedfall had a "drama for the sake of drama" choice that annoyed me in both situations. In Greedfall in particular, your external* objectives are to increase the Congregation's power, find a cure for the plague, and prevent your cousin from dying due to his own lack of wisdom. So, when they conflict at the end, I was puzzled why I could not explain with my maxed out charisma that no one needs a random island in the middle of nowhere when you can have the continent. Well, excluding the plague cure, but I think it was something along the lines "stop inhaling smoke and drink machine oil, lol" and was already known to the protagonist. Neither was I able to leave the dearest cousin to do whatever he wants with the island and return home with the information, which still would count as 1.5/3 goals completed. Thus, it was stabbing him and getting the 2/3 or joining him (why?) and still getting 2/3 (kind of - I do not remember if he waved the Congregation flag for it to count). 

*the internal ones in-character have more options, I think, (e.g. saving the world or finding the PC's connection to the island) and they might be acknowledged by the game to some extent. 

In Bound by Flame, it was

Spoiler

2 companions could not split the party and each do separate things at the same time. Like, I did not need either of them for the boss battle and had to do the battle whether or not I was going to open the gate to save the small elven army. 

And in Mars: War Logs, 

Spoiler

For some reason, the rebels mistakenly thought that 2 machine guns were more dangerous than the protagonist and did not go and meat-shield the target NPC. 

The Technomancer was the only Spiders RPG-adjacent game free of such situations. 

I think there was some similar choice in Steelrising, but I got a satisfactory outcome on the first try, so did not dig further. 

So, I found it frustrating. 

[melkathi]

With the companion quests it is especially Kurt's quest that really matters, 

Spoiler

as it decides on whether he sides with the Coin Guard during the (probably CIA funded) coup attempt or if he warns you and helps you stop the coup. Which in turn apparently affects if you manage to warn the other two nations or not and possibly have to help retake those cities.

I understand the ending is affected by a number of things but will always end in the confrontation with that one major choice.

Spoiler

The game basically has six factions. Each have their questline and important choice.

 

1) The Natives: the important choice is who becomes High King. Derdre will chase all colonists off the island. Ullan will integrate into foreign culture to get rich. Dunncas will try to keep the island's culture without breaking all contact with the colonists. Practically Dunncas is the only choice that aligns with your goal of stopping the malichor - he is the only one of the three who has a plan to heal the continent.

2) Theleme: you choose what to do with the truth about their religion. That in turn decides whether they stay a inquisition run theocracy or become a more tolerant society of sages... in a way turning their leader more into a Dalai Lama than Torquemada.

3) Bridge Alliance: your choice is about morality and science. Human experiments bad or human experiments necessary for science and keep your morality out of the way of progress?

4) Nauts: if they stay a closed, secretive organisation or whether they open up.

5) Coin guard... I don't know if there are any real choices, as the coup happens during the game and you have the consequences right there and not in epilogue slides. Though I guess there is the Egon quest line.

6a) Congregation: The Constantin choice really is the choice. Choose to side with him, and you claim the whole island for the Congregation but doom the whole world to the malichor. Kill him and cure the world and strengthen the Congregation's position - Let's be honest, you are a thousand times more capable, so killing him in reality is the best choice for Congregation power on the island.

6b) de Vespe: there is no real choice, just a matter of finding all the evidence and how good your standing is with Theleme and the Bridge Alliance at the time. I enjoyed very much how that worked out. I first went to the Bridge Alliance, where the de Vespe ambassador got kicked out by the governor without me having to say a thing. Then I went to Theleme, where the de Vespe guy didn't even attempt to talk to the governor because they felt working against me was hopeless. Instead I found them in the bar getting drunk.

 

 

I was happy that the game allowed me to do all good choices. A lot of games (Tyranny, Outer Worlds, Pillars, Wasteland, New Vegas all come to mind) make choices that matter into binary choices (or New Vegas into a four way choice of Faction A or Faction B or NPC C or none of the above) - Greedfall lets you choose everyone. With Theleme and the Bridge Alliance at war, in most games doing quests for one side would lock you out of the other side. I like that it doesn't. I was prepared to choose the Natives and be locked out of Theleme and Bridge Alliance content, only to find out that suddenly everyone liked me.

In the end I had all five factions provide me with troops to fight Constantin.

 

I get that people think the devs wrote a naive fairy tale ending, but I find it refreshing not to be driven from one forced binary choice to the next, like a Telltale game, to be given the illusion of choices that matter. Do you want vanilla or chocolate ice cream is not a meaningful choice - you still get ice cream at the end. It was simply arbitrarily decided I get to only have one flavor (I still buy two scoops, as I don't get refunded half the game's price for never playing the other choice).

[Malcador]

WoW added housing, so wasting time confirming the fact that I have no style.

[melkathi]

We could have told you that for free.

Remember what the goblins say: Time is money

[Malcador]

Well, I did a nice exterior at least, cobblestones and bushes. Some people have done nice work though. 

Waiting for someone to make a Swastika house or something edgelordy and then they'll handcuff us all