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

[Wormerine]

ok, finished Silksong. 100% completion, all achievemnents unlocked, but 4 ones speedrun and ironman related.

I liked it very much. I have nitpicks, though a lot of it is related to optional content so I don't know how to feel about it. Some 100% requirements I thought were unreasonably tedious or obscure, but then again, it is completely optional to do so . I am sure someone figuring some things out, for me it was googling things out once I run out of ideas and went "how the heck was I supposed to find that?!".

Not as good of a metroidvania as Hollow Knight, but much better action-platformer. Loved movement, really liked combat. Most bosses are excellent, few are tedious. Ah, I wasn't too fond of act3. The bosses that become available there are great, but overall I am not sure of the new content available there required an entire new act3. Then again, I thought Castlevania's reverse castle was a bit lame as well. 

[Hawke64]

I have finished Atlas Fallen on the highest difficulty in NG+. The interesting part is that the tools available (the weapon upgrades, new armour sets, and the more powerful Essence Stones) effectively offset it - while the bosses could 1-shoot me, I also was almost instantly and constantly at high Momentum (which additionally meant higher damage to me) and able to use the Shatter attacks with a lot of i-frames repeatedly. The longer battles were somewhat challenging, especially as the screen was getting more "noise" (from the weapon particles to the number of opponents), but, overall, it was easier than the first playthrough. 

The only issue is one of the randomly appearing battles with various modifiers. The foes to be faced vary, but the reward progression is static and carries over between the NG cycles. The thing there is that it is not hard to get hit once and the battle despawns after that. I assume, if I reloaded, the same battle would have been accessible at the same spot, but I have not tried. The regular random battles have an auto-save nearby and the main story ones can be restarted from the start of the encounter which is incredibly convenient. 

I am satisfied with the experience and might try replaying it in a few years. 

On a random note, the NG+ armour sets look much better than the NG ones. They are more detailed and more fitting. 

[Malcador]

Arbiter build for my Paladin in D4 is fun, I enjoy just clicking a button and letting my wings melt everything. 

Edited Wednesday at 09:22 PM by Malcador

[majestic]

17 minutes ago, Malcador said:

Arbiter build for my Paladin in D4 is fun, I enjoy just clicking a button and letting my wings melt everything. 

In a similar vein I'm playing a Crackling Energy Sorceror. Basically just press one button and watch everything die. Fun, reminds me of Season 2. 

[LadyCrimson]

Enshrouded:  for some reason I thought this was an online/MP-co-op focused survival/exploration/building and questing game, - also, early access - so I've ignored it. Then learned recently it can be Offline/SP. Then I learned you can customize difficulty/combat options a fair bit - including a setting where maybe 90% of enemies would ignore you until you attack first - or the usual reduce enemy damage/health while increasing player health/dmg etc.

It was on a bit of a sale, bought it. So far it seems ok - the exploration/world aspect seems fun. Seems to be one of those games where it'd take quite a while to figure out how all the crafting, building works. Might even need a wiki for finer points, game doesn't really explain much re: certain things, learn as you play.  Not saying it's complex, just a bit confusing here and there. Combat has dodge/parry but overall also seems to be more akin to general rpg then "souls like". Like, I made a 1st wand that has a ranged attack and so far (on my ez-cozy settings anyway) I've only had to spam its attack like it's Path of Exile.

Building in the new-game start is a bit confusing/awkward but also would scratch the obsessive-brain tendencies if that's one's thing. At some point one needs npc villagers and workers to upgrade one's base/s. Or something. Tame pets (?), farm, all of that. Anyway - I made a first small base/did stuff in starter area and it was good enough I'll press forward. My main interest was the exploration/building factors.

Edited Friday at 11:54 AM by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

Enshrouded lets you rebuild an entire world. It's probably the best crafting/building game out there right now.

[LadyCrimson]

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

Enshrouded lets you rebuild an entire world. It's probably the best crafting/building game out there right now.

My main quibble is the early building, where you only have these really tiny "blocks" you can make. Takes 100's just to make a small house for the rested stuff, and too much time, placing one at a time. Too used to 7 Days and the bigger blocks/fast speed of making a large home box, so to speak. I get there's crafting larger (prefab?) wall/other pieces to use with crafting hammer but I barely started on that (just got the blacksmith - who keeps getting in my way with his wandering).

The starter base spot, I kept being pestered by wolves, who would enter the base zone even tho game seemed to indicate you're "safe" in there. Finally got smart and built a short-height perimeter wall around the whole base-zone. Took forever with those tiny stones, but it worked.

I like that there's climbing and grappling hook for traversal. Little pathways/caves to find. Still have to get the glider/flying thingie.

EDIT: I have a feeling this is the type of game where I might start over after a few days of learning.

Edited Friday at 02:49 PM by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

1 hour ago, LadyCrimson said:

My main quibble is the early building, where you only have these really tiny "blocks" you can make. Takes 100's just to make a small house for the rested stuff, and too much time, placing one at a time. Too used to 7 Days and the bigger blocks/fast speed of making a large home box, so to speak. I get there's crafting larger (prefab?) wall/other pieces to use with crafting hammer but I barely started on that (just got the blacksmith - who keeps getting in my way with his wandering).

The starter base spot, I kept being pestered by wolves, who would enter the base zone even tho game seemed to indicate you're "safe" in there. Finally got smart and built a short-height perimeter wall around the whole base-zone. Took forever with those tiny stones, but it worked.

I like that there's climbing and grappling hook for traversal. Little pathways/caves to find. Still have to get the glider/flying thingie.

EDIT: I have a feeling this is the type of game where I might start over after a few days of learning.

Oh no, don't use the tiny blocks! You can switch between 1x1, 2x2, and 4x4. I think you use alt to switch sizes.

[LadyCrimson]

1 hour ago, Hurlshort said:

Oh no, don't use the tiny blocks! You can switch between 1x1, 2x2, and 4x4. I think you use alt to switch sizes.

I see no such option available (pic), and Alt just switches hotbars.  If it's an option later, I'd guess one has to acquire the ability from something first. Either npc/quest and/or building something which opens up another option. That part is confusing because you build a cheap sleep pad and suddenly game/menu lets you build an actual bed with the resulting mattress as material requirement. Kinda makes one feel forced to craft everything to see if anything auto-opens up.

Anyway, started over. Which led me to discover that if you don't create a new character, the game actually starts a new game with previous/last selected character with all backpack/hotbars retained for a head start. A handy feature for later to avoid early grind I guess, but not what I wanted so I made a new avatar. And built another tiny-stone wall. lol

[Sarex]

Got BG3 and figured out that GOG doesn't work (won't install games) on my cursed version on win 10.  Kind of a pain in the ass to boot win11 whenever I want to play a game, but whatever...

[Hurlshort]

3 hours ago, LadyCrimson said:

I see no such option available (pic), and Alt just switches hotbars.  If it's an option later, I'd guess one has to acquire the ability from something first. Either npc/quest and/or building something which opens up another option. That part is confusing because you build a cheap sleep pad and suddenly game/menu lets you build an actual bed with the resulting mattress as material requirement. Kinda makes one feel forced to craft everything to see if anything auto-opens up.

Anyway, started over. Which led me to discover that if you don't create a new character, the game actually starts a new game with previous/last selected character with all backpack/hotbars retained for a head start. A handy feature for later to avoid early grind I guess, but not what I wanted so I made a new avatar. And built another tiny-stone wall. lol

You neeed the crafting hammer, I believe, and the workbench.

 

Edited Friday at 09:45 PM by Hurlshort

[LadyCrimson]

45 minutes ago, Hurlshort said:

You neeed the crafting hammer, I

Yeah, I'm an idiot. It occurred to me after I wrote that post.  >.> First time I tried to use it, it kept telling me I was missing stuff to use it, so I assumed I needed something special like another item or whatever. Guess you just need the mini blocks in hotbar. But looking at the shapes available, it's pretty lacking/limited where in some cases I could be more creative with the tiny blocks - 7days has like 100's of shapes (and doesn't need a "crafting hammer" wielded). But 7days type of voxel is "anything in a voxel square fills the whole voxel", so two things can't occupy the same square/space, so it's limiting in that fashion.

Not a big deal, I usually don't go too crazy/fancy with building. Seems like Enshrouded I may just make basic bases and then leave it alone.

I am becoming mildly annoyed with the building UI interface and other minor things tho. It feels awkward and clunky for some stuff. That said, the exploration has been great so far. I'll probably focus on that until I've done the whole map, which seems pretty large.

Edited Friday at 10:30 PM by LadyCrimson

[Hawke64]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

Got BG3 and figured out that GOG doesn't work (won't install games) on my cursed version on win 10.  Kind of a pain in the ass to boot win11 whenever I want to play a game, but whatever...

In case it might help, GOG offline installers unpack everything through the system drive, so you'd need ~140GB of free space there for it to work, regardless of the selected installation drive. This is one of the main reasons why I avoid GOG for larger games.

Why the developers stopped giving a f* about optimisation is another question. 

[Wormerine]

13 hours ago, Sarex said:

Got BG3 and figured out that GOG doesn't work (won't install games) on my cursed version on win 10.  Kind of a pain in the ass to boot win11 whenever I want to play a game, but whatever...

Strange, It says it supports windows10. I was initially to suggest Linux, as BG3 has apparently a pretty great Linux support, but it seems GOG doesn't support Linux? Laaaame

[Sarex]

26 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

Strange, It says it supports windows10. I was initially to suggest Linux, as BG3 has apparently a pretty great Linux support, but it seems GOG doesn't support Linux? Laaaame

5 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

In case it might help, GOG offline installers unpack everything through the system drive, so you'd need ~140GB of free space there for it to work, regardless of the selected installation drive. This is one of the main reasons why I avoid GOG for larger games.

Why the developers stopped giving a f* about optimisation is another question. 

The issue is on my end, something changed in my build that is not letting some apps write files even when ran as admin. That is why I said it's cursed. I have a portable ssd with windows 11 and that is what I use to play games. Waiting on my new m2 drive to arrive and then I'll reinstall windows.

[majestic]

Made a Paladin in D4. Instead of levelling normally, I just farmed 15 or so Whispering Tree gifts on my main. It basically boosted the Paladin to almost max level and gave him enough ancestrals and aspects to come out ready for Torment IV farming (with some gambling for a unique ring). Basically the same gameplay. Charge into a group of enemies and watch them die. Just pressing evade instead of casting Ball Lightning.

[Humanoid]

Bought myself the Moza Trucking Bundle and add-on stalks with the intention of playing the new Nordic Horizons expansion for Euro Truck Sim 2. Alas, stock for the stalks was delayed and I won't get it until next year.

Using the wheel by itself has been a big change from the old Logitech G920 I was using, mostly due to the wheel being approximately double the size. However, I don't think I could recommend using it in this mode without the stalks because the missing inputs stick out like a sore thumb. There simply isn't a conveniently accessible button binding for gear shifts (no paddles on a truck wheel obviously) and indicators. My feedback as it stands, therefore, is to buy both the wheel and the stalks or to buy neither.