What are you playing right now?

[Hurlshort]

I'm still swimming around in Subnautica. Must go deeper!

[Katphood]

Bought the remaster Secret of Mana. I was a big fan of the original and farmed the hell outta it multiple times as a kid. I'm really enjoying the hell outta it so far, it feels just like the old combat and while the VA isn't stellar and the people's mouths don't move, doesn't bother me a bit because I'm looking at this stuff as just extra bonus. Also I read complaints about the AI and while it's terrible, it always was. You eventually just started running certain ways by reflex to not get them stuck.

Can't wait to kids come home to try out the multiplayer.

Finally, a review I can trust.

[Tale]

Apocalypse

 

I do not think I like Marauders, no sir. Had a crappy start, no primitive species close to me, only 2 planets that my cyborgs had more than 40% hab on and one of those is a 12. I'm surrounded by spiritualists. But on the upside, I have managed to get my fleet and tech up so that nobody attacks me. Instead my only neighbor who isn't a spiritualist rivaled me earlier and keeps sending Marauders after me. I actually fought off the first one.

 

Now the second one comes and someone else nearby invited me to a war against our shared neighbor. So I have a marauder fleet twice the strength of my two combined fleets ravaging my systems and my only chance at making a friend appears. So now I'm fighting a war while being raided. What could go horribly wrong?

 

On the plus side, I do have a claim on a primitive in the guy we'll war against. So my expansion plans are back on the table. I also have a ton of uncontested space to the south. The only other guy down that way doesn't completely hate me and is busy fighting a rebellion.

[Malcador]

Went back to Stellaris, figure I'd try to master what I have...or at least become passably competent at what I have.  Certainly is tricky playing as a Xenophobe.

[marelooke]

 

[i also liked where DiMA questions your humanity because you can't remember anything from before the start of the game. Existential philosophical question with a sauce of self-awareness.

True. That line really made me think twice about the game itself. I think overall Fallout 4 is a very fun game even if it's not necessarily a good RPG. Sure, there aren't many choices to be made but I like how they dared to experiment with the idea of Vaults and their purpose. It's fun to see the outcome of the experiments the government planned before the war since some of them have gone absolutely sideways with results that no one ever expected. Vault 118 was a good example of that.

 

 

It's a fun game, once modded, and some of the side quests/stories are pretty good (liked the entire Nick Valentine story), but it's hard to call it a "good" game, there's just too much wrong with it (starting with a terribly bad main quest. The premise of being frozen had potential, most of it squandered) for it to deserve that rating and without mods I most likely wouldn't still be playing at all.

 

If anything I get the feeling that Bethesda is relying more and more on modders to make their games even playable. Skyrim, for one, I found perfectly playable without any mods (and that's how I finished it first time through). My attempt at trying to play Fallout 4 without mods just made me shelve the game. We'll see when the next game comes out whether this is a trend ...

[majestic]

I'm also on a new Stellaris game what with the major changes and the new DLC. My little machine empire is doing quite well, but I accidentially annoyed a neighbouring empire by... accidentially closing borders. I mean I meant to close my borders, just not with them. Ah well. I wonder if I'll ever see the synthetic or spiritualistic ascension paths. Playing a hive mind without having to worry about ethics drift and factions is just too tempting. Especially since I like larger galaxies.

[SonicMage117]

Outcast: Second Contact...

 

People should really stop living in the past and playing the outdated voxel pos because this remake is so damn beautiful and better in every way *unless you are stuck on nostalgia*

 

 

What's improved:

Controller support

4k support

Updated graphics

Unity Engine

No ugly voxels

Cut out the horrible cut-scenes for cool graphic novel art segments

Better animations

Restored content not available in mods for the old one

Updated u.i

They changed the main character's appearance so he actually looks human now

 

The same:

Horrible lip-syncing just like the old one lol

Same a.i for stealth, combat

 

What's worse?

Nothing can be worse than the old classic, if we're being honest, the old one was revolutionary in 1999 but quickly aged to a heaping pile of **** and is pretty horrible in every aspect now.

 

The price:

It's $34.99, that's a hefty price compared to the original which runs for $4.99 but a smart person will not complain about this since - as said before - the new remake is better in all ways. Plus, the remake was briefly on sale for $13.49 so really it was available for only a bit more than the original.

 

To end, yes, I've still my boxes version of the original release of Outcast, I also have Outcast 1.1 and now I have Outcast: Second Contact so my word is solid here as a long time Outcast fan. This is the Outcast we've been waiting for.

[majestic]

Tried sneak attacking my annoyed neighbor, with the effect that I lost three systems to a major counterattack I wasn't exactly ready for. Started to rebuild my forces while expanding a bit. Guy next door kept claiming systems and declared war. I thought I was done for but luckily for me most of his fleet were still the missile bearing corvettes from before and my shiny new destroyers came with point defense installed.

 

'Twas fun seeing the two fleets evenly matched at first with the enemy fleet power dropping to half in a few seconds. A status quo peace offering left me with getting most of my old systems back.

 

The new war system is pretty nice. It's too early to judge but so far warfare feels much more lively and less static than before.

[Darque]

Pillars of Eternity - PS4 edition.

[Katphood]

Fallout 4

 

I am starting to like Far Harbor. The place is more fun to explore compared to the commonwealth.

 

 

I killed that badass Sea Creature and then heard Longfellow's story about it.

 

 

Kind of wish I had Longfellow with me when that happened but you can't have 2 followers and I heard that Nick Valentine is the most interesting companion to have around in Far Harbor. Any suggestions for Fallout 4: Nuka World? Who should I take with me?

 

Longfellow maybe?!

Edited February 25, 2018 by Katphood

[GhostofAnakin]

Pillars of Eternity - PS4 edition.

 

How is it?

 

PS.  Hi, stranger.

[Tale]

I think this ironman game of Stellaris is over.

 

Y'know how I was terrified of Crisis before, but ended up crushing them? Well, they're terrifying again. More than a bit. And it's a long war of attrition I will lose.

 

600k+ defense fleet on a hub in the middle of my empire. And the largest combined fleet I can put together is about 250-300k. Cleary, in 2.0, that Crisis slider isn't joking.

 

I could sit around, containing them. If you clear out one of their stations, they'll come back for it, park their fleet, and wait for a constructor. During which you can attack a different station. And they'll never move forward. Unless I make a mistake and end up getting jumped by a fleet.

 

I could do that, for 300 years until repeatables let me make a dent in their defense fleet. I could. I won't.

 

The most boring part about it is that's not even my containment strategy, I learned it after figuring out why the Contingency hadn't killed everyone else already. The rest of the galaxy is worse off than me, but even they're keeping the Contingency secure. They're just losing all their fleets while they're at it. So I don't even get to see them eat everyone up.

 

It was an interesting run, but a boring middle, and such a letdown of an end. There was no upstart awakening, nor Khan awakening. 2200-2350 consisted of me having to fight multiple wars against 3 or 4 empires at a time. I lost a single uninhabited system once. 2350-2420 consisted of me looking at my shiny Colossus and Titan before trying it out on the most obnoxious of those aggressive attackers. The War In Heaven happened, and ended, shortly before the Contingency appeared. Without accomplishing much other than forcing a League of Non-Aligned to form.

[Zoraptor]

Finished Pillars of Eternity, finally, and it's... an odd feeling. Overall impression is very similar to what I thought of Baldur's Gate 1, there's a lot of potential there but the execution varies from a bit off to well off in places.

 

There's a lot of pretty boring filler combat and considering the emphasis on balance in PoE the more difficult encounters were still ruled by status effects, summons and the like as much as BG1 was, and that resulted in most of those fights having an almost binary result- I either won fairly easily with little damage or got roflstomped quickly. Character progression felt rather poor, like nothing much was changing on level up, but there clearly was significant progression happening since monsters got easier. Setting was fine, story was fine and while I would have said it was not particularly memorable I did restart a year old game and could remember the details, so it clearly was memorable.

 

I guess that sums it up pretty well actually, it's a well designed game with pretty maps and decent progression plus some interesting story/ concepts and battles; but it frequently feels like a far worse game than it actually is. That I suspect is why it took me three attempts to finish and I don't feel any great enthusiasm for it, yet played it 120 (!) hours.

[ShadySands]

Did you play through the White March? To me it was the best part of the game.

[Darque]

 

Pillars of Eternity - PS4 edition.

 

How is it?

 

PS.  Hi, stranger.

 

Hey yourself!

 

Also, it's pretty good, though I've only started a few days ago. Reminds me a lot of Baldur's Gate.

[Zoraptor]

Did you play through the White March? To me it was the best part of the game.

 

Yes. I'd agree that it was better overall than the main game, due to being a bit more focused.

 

But that does remind me of one of the peeves I had which I forgot to mention- I hit the level cap before even starting WM2. That was probably the worst level cap imbalance I've seen since KOTOR where I hit the cap about 2/3 of the way through the game and it really made any filler combat feel like filler.

[Orogun01]

Tried sneak attacking my annoyed neighbor, with the effect that I lost three systems to a major counterattack I wasn't exactly ready for. Started to rebuild my forces while expanding a bit. Guy next door kept claiming systems and declared war. I thought I was done for but luckily for me most of his fleet were still the missile bearing corvettes from before and my shiny new destroyers came with point defense installed.

 

'Twas fun seeing the two fleets evenly matched at first with the enemy fleet power dropping to half in a few seconds. A status quo peace offering left me with getting most of my old systems back.

 

The new war system is pretty nice. It's too early to judge but so far warfare feels much more lively and less static than before.

For a second there I actually thought that you had attacked you neighbor.

[ShadySands]

I got absolutely destroyed in my latest Stellaris game when both of the first two empires I encountered declared war on me.

[Rosbjerg]

I'm glad to see that this new trend of 'losing is a part of the story' is taking hold in gaming. The focus on constant gratification, winning and 'fun' (ie players feeling in control) in the 00s and early 10s, really ruined a lot of good storytelling opportunities imo. No challenge, no investment.

[SonicMage117]

Agreed.

 

That's kinda like every movie with a hero and villain. The first fight, the hero loses, the second fight, they win lol

 

It night be cliche but yeah, in games it makes a bit more sense and strangley enough, makes your character progression more rewarding rather than your character being a bad@$$ from start to finish.

 

Sometimes to be weak is to be strong (alternative factual data confirms) but also has been true for human logic throughout the ages since compassion has showed as a sign of weakness to the rulers of Harthog but the slaves then defeated them. Interesting piece of the matter I thought and for gaming to embrace that, even moreso.

[the_dog_days]

I got absolutely destroyed in my latest Stellaris game when both of the first two empires I encountered declared war on me.

 

"For you, the day ShadySands graced your village was the most important of your life. But for him, it was Tuesday."

[Chilloutman]

I got absolutely destroyed in my latest Stellaris game when both of the first two empires I encountered declared war on me.

I got stomped like 3 times from latest patch. I am unable to win my first wars, I have always feels on other side of my empire and they move SOOO SLOW

[Malcador]

Got Utopia for Stellaris as it was sanely priced. Tried a little bit yesterday, certainly sounds like a whole new game. Still have not won a game of Stellaris, heh.

[Chilloutman]

Got Utopia for Stellaris as it was sanely priced. Tried a little bit yesterday, certainly sounds like a whole new game. Still have not won a game of Stellaris, heh.

Utopia or Apocalypse?

[Malcador]

Utopia, but the 2.0 patch had the changes to travel, etc. no ?. Apocalypse is far too expensive for me right now, damn Paradox.