What are you playing right now?

[SadExchange]

Well since the first Steamworld Dig has been released on the switch yesterday, I’m making my way through that in between weekly campaigns in Darkest Dungeon

 

I will say between Steamworld Dig 1 and 2 and then Steamworld Heist, these devs have a good thing going, especially on this device.

 

Anyone play Owlboy? That releases sometime soon on the switch and I seem to remember hearing good things about and wanted to check to see if anyone had anything to say about it.

[Bartimaeus]

​Fantastic artwork. Fairly mediocre (and sometimes a little off-putting) story and writing, and the gameplay isn't much better than that. It's not a bad game by any means, but I was unfortunately pretty disappointed in it when it came out, .

[Majek]

Playing some MHW. Have some trouble getting used to combat, i'm missing a lot because of bad positions and timing. But i've made it far enough that i can capture monsters instead of killing them... which i guess should give me (or at least a higher chance) better loot for crafting stuff.

 

Also i saw some interesting "indie" games released not so long ago. BUt i can't decide which one i should try first if any. Iconoclasts or Celeste. hmm

Edited February 3, 2018 by Majek

[GhostofAnakin]

More Destiny 2.  Getting sidetracked doing these public events and running around looking for those coins and raw material that you turn in for faction approval.  At some point, I really do have to try and save the universe.

[UrbaNebula]

I'm currently replaying Fallout: New Vegas with three different characters.

 

I'm also working my way through Pillars of Eternity in order to complete it before Deadfire drops.

 

Finally, I'm playing PUBG most nights with a few friends.

[Jozape]

Well I've been playing through Hong Kong slowly but I finally completed the first campaign. I really like the plot in this one; It is very large scale still but it's not save the world material , and it's a very personal one with lots of opportunity for meaningful role-play with Duncan about the main issue... And later on Raymond. It was a little annoying improvising some of the history bits at times but they seemed to have been written with for easy consistency at least. If I re-play I'll read all about what the PC possibly did before arriving in Hong Kong.

 

Getting the bad out of the way first: I still think they completely ruined the Matrix. I don't know what they were thinking. This is easily the worst part of the game and the only part that was worse between this game and Dragonfall, with the possible exception of the history bits sneaking in. Your history could remain more mysterious and vague in Dragonfall which is both a positive and a negative. The UI is still bad and documentation still uninformative. There are lots of end-game bugs... I couldn't finish Duncan's story because of them.

 

On the plus side there is lots of writing in this iteration of Shadowrun -- more than Dragonfall even -- and this time no character was spared from good writing. All of the companions are great, from Racter and his innocent psychopathy and his ageless cybernetic dream, to is0bel and her wrestling with her memories of the Walled City throughout her life. Gobbet, Duncan, Ambrose, Maximum Law, Spider Shen, Reliable Matthew, the Kai Fas, Auntie Cheng, Crafty Xu, the accountant-turned-vampire, Gaichou though I unfortunately killed him, the plastic-faced man, and etc... Nobody was spared this time. And much of the game your interactions were tracked with them and would later be acknowledged or influence their behavior which is nice. It was hilarious when I had to explain to Law what he was doing made him a liability and he finally understood Heoi wasn't just a wild west flick.  The only really lost opportunity is that I wish there were still more times that Duncan was really on edge. There should have been more leash-work, imo. What was there was too easy.

 

Oh, and the music, environment, art... all fantastic in this one. Easily my favorite of the 3 in these aspects, though there were oddly some performance issues in Heoi. But hey I can sit there and listen to the Heoi theme all day with its beautiful lights and fancy traditional Chinese characters. I assume they are traditional characters and not simplified ones, anyways.

 

But yeah, the best Shadowrun. I think I still need to play the bonus campaign so I guess I'll do that next.

[Humanoid]

I want to install Promods, which is like, *the* mod for ETS2. But to do that I need the France expansion. And that's full price from everywhere at the moment, despite the Italy expansion having just been released. So either I have to roll back my patch version to install an older version of the mod, or I have to buy a full price title, unheard of in this day and age.

 

It's like Skyrim mods requiring Dawnguard all over again.

[Raithe]

Remembered that I'd picked up The Bureau: XCom Declassified for free from Humble the other month, so installed and did a bout of escapism playing it over the weekend.

 

Not too bad, saw part of the twist coming. The combat was fairly so so, but it did feel quite short as a storyline, and you didn't really have that much of the "capturing alien tech and developing it."

[Tale]

I'm addicted.

 

New game of Stellaris. I'm playing Driven Assimilators again, but the different thing about this one is I force spawned two Determined Exterminators. We're best friends! And have conquered over half the galaxy. With some temporary help from an Awakened Empire, we've crushed 3 out of 5 Fallen Empires, then turned on the AE and have crushed 4 of them.

 

I have Machine World terraformed the Spiritualist Holy Worlds, leaving the Spiritualists with only a single world to seethe and rage upon.

 

Currently trying to figure out how to get to and help a Machine Uprising a couple empires over.

 

Federations are kind of funky. It's a federation of me and two Exterminators, but they tend to refuse to fight wars when one empire gets stuff and they don't. And they don't want anything if the empire we're fighting is far from them. Killing meatbags just isn't enough for them. So it has to be some neutral goal where nobody gains anything, like Humiliation or Liberation. Or... Vassalization. So I can conquer whoever I want, so long as I let the meatbags live serving me. This seems inappropriate for Exterminators. But it's working out for me because I get to take all the gains in the future when I eventually integrate.

 

The real theme behind this campaign is organic zoos. I started the game trying to conquer empires before the exterminators did so I can save the inhabitants. And now that I've started Machine World terraforming everything, I'm moving the organics to habitats above their home systems. I also lucked out by getting The Preserve and have built my own preserve type system on a ringworld. These will be safe from the terraforming.

 

By the time the game is over, there will be less than 20 of any organic species left. Aside from the three "best" specimens that I gave a full ringworld quadrant to.

 

Fun thing about getting The Preserve is one of the Exterminators gave it to me. He was the main defender in a defensive war, so he could have kept it to himself. Such a nice gift.

[ShadySands]

Deadfire beta. Playing as a wizard (as I always do) and had to cheat my stats to a point where I thought casting felt good to me.

[Bartimaeus]

​Furi, got through a few more fights, and then it ended my game and erased my save file because I apparently sat around in a room too long. Uh, okay: uninstalled. Who the hell decided that was a good idea? The gameplay's not so good that I want to redo them all...

​

​Okay, I looked it up on the wiki. Apparently, if you stay in that area for 5 minutes, it ends the game. Unfortunately, I was playing with Cheat Engine on 10x speed to get through the bad lame story bits that didn't matter, so that was actually only 30 seconds for me. That's partially my fault sort of, but why did it have to actually erase my save game? I was halfway through the game already, I don't want to start over...

Edited February 5, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[Hurlshort]

Going to give the Far Harbor expansion a try in Fallout 4 and go in with a more open mind about the action crafting game that they have turned it into.

[LadyCrimson]

Going to give the Far Harbor expansion a try in Fallout 4 and go in with a more open mind about the action crafting game that they have turned it into.

For some reason this made me imagine characters pulling out balls of yarn to knit sweaters to pass the time after diving off high cliffsides. Or maybe while taking a lunch break sitting inside their mech-suits.

[majestic]

Bought Celeste for my Switch. Will probably be playing that soonish.

[HoonDing]

What gets me about the whole "crusade" nonsense in Mask of the Betrayer is that whoever is God of Death could snuff everyone out with but a thought. But it never happens because muh plot. It's like sitting around doing nothing while your home is infested with termites.

[Bartimaeus]

​What makes you figure they could do that?

[HoonDing]

I looked it up in Faiths & Avatars.

 

Greater Powers

 

In addition to the abilities detailed above, greater powers can do practically
anything. They stand at the top of the pyramid of deific power, and their resources
are nearly limitless. Some of their additional abilities include:

 

Shapelifting: Greater powers can transform themselves into any object,
animate or inanimate, of any size. In some cases, beings of this stature
have been known to assume planetary proportions.

 

Magic Resistance: Greater powers are 100% resistant to mortal magics,
75% resistant to the magic of deities of lesser ranks, and 50% resistant
to the spells of other greater powers.

 

Saving Throws: All greater powers are assumed to automatically make
all saving throws required of them. This is a reflection of their great abilities,
mental powers, and physical stamina.

 

Planar Travel: Just as they can teleport across space without error, so
too can they travel between the various planes of existence at will.

 

Sensing Ability: These beings are practically omniscient. They always
know what is happening on the entire plane they inhabit and the planes
that any of their or their allies’ worshipers or holy objects are currently on.
They also know what is happening on the plane that anyone or anything
that speaks one of their names or titles is on for a year after the name is spoken.
In many cases, they can accurately predict the precise actions of mortals
and other deities based on their vast knowledge. Unfortunately, this
sensing ability can be blocked by the conscious effort of powers of equal
stature.

 

Creation: Greater powers can create any object, animate or inanimate,
they can think of. This process is draining, however, since they are converting
their own energy stores into physical objects. Therefore, the deity
must rest for one turn per ton of mass she or he wishes to manifest. Thus,
the creation of a 10-ton stone statue would require that the deity rest for 10
turns (100 minutes) afterward.

 

Life and Death: Greater powers can kill any living mortal creature
with but a thought. Likewise, they can bestow life upon any slain mortal
being anywhere. Of course, another greater god can reverse this effect immediately
if so desired.

 

Multitasks: Greater powers can perform any number of tasks at once.
Of course, natural limitations based on their current physical form may
apply, but there IS never a penalty on their actions due to complexity.

Avatars: Greater powers can employ up to 10 avatars at a time, moving
them between planes at will. If one is destroyed, they require one day to
make another.

Edited February 5, 2018 by HoonDing

[Bartimaeus]

But doesn't that say that *any* greater power could do that, not just a greater power who also happens to hold the death domain? I mean, I guess the god of death could start killing people and then immediately start destroying their souls (maybe?) so that they can't be raised, but Ao and the other deities wouldn't stand for that for long - didn't Kelemvor get slapped around for trying to do the opposite? Can't see how the other gods wouldn't try to stop that.

​

​​Yes, I'm reading now that both Kelemvor and Mystra were yelled at by the other gods for their favoritism and unbalancing of the realms, and it was put a stop to. So yeah, can't see how that'd work out.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

Why would even a single god oppose Kelemvor killing anyone who tries to take down the Wall of the Faithless? They need that Wall to keep their worshippers and their power.

[Bartimaeus]

​Sorry, I'm a dummy, and was missing the greater context of "attacking the Wall". I think that's really up to Kelemvor. It seemed to me that a part of him hated the Wall (hence why he originally stopped using it, but was eventually forced to return to it after he was found to be screwing everything up and possibly risking his godhood because of it). So maybe it was his way of rebelling against the other gods, letting attacks to continue on it while only putting up a half-hearted fight so that he could claim he was defending it to the other gods. I was also under the general impression that though deities have those kinds of powers, they are not really supposed to use them except in extreme cases - direct interference will just lead to other gods directly interfering. This may be one of those extreme cases (attacks directly on a god's home subplane would seem to qualify), but Mystra, for example, seemed to still oppose the Wall of the Faithless - perhaps she would prevent something like the instant death from happening. I think the subtle resistance thing, and perhaps a sort of general kindness on the part of Kelemvor, is more likely, though - he appeared to have a better understanding of the plight of mortals than most, and probably wasn't really in the business of coming down as harshly as he possibly could on people trying to (in their minds) do a valiant act that he once would've strongly agreed with.

Edited February 5, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[Malcador]

Random urge to replay Wing Commander 2 so I am doing that.  Brilliant ****pit design by Confed on some of them, I have to say.  But at least this is better than playing it on keyboard like I did in the past.

[Majek]

Bought Celeste for my Switch. Will probably be playing that soonish.

Do tell if it's as good as internetz sez.

[GhostofAnakin]

More Destiny 2.  I'm still not very proficient with it, but there's something really fun about firing that Void bow that tethers enemies together into a group of hostiles.

 

I've now unlocked all three classes for the Warlock and Hunter.  Haven't touched the Titan class yet, similar to Destiny 1 where I only started using the Titan class after I'd exhausted everything there was to do with the Warlock and Hunter.

[Keyrock]

Capturing monsters seems way more ethical than killing them in MHW.  Now, I don't have to slay the creature, I just beat it up really really bad with a giant hammer, then hold it hostage for a while, before releasing it back into the wild.  Conscience = Cleared.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Capturing monsters seems way more ethical than killing them in MHW.  Now, I don't have to slay the creature, I just beat it up really really bad with a giant hammer, then hold it hostage for a while, before releasing it back into the wild.  Conscience = Cleared.