What are you currently playing?

[Drathnoxis]

Despite my last post, I'm still playing Crusader Kings II. It's more fun if you start as a count surrounded by a bunch of other counts and can work your way up.

What gets me though, is just how badly the game presents it's information to the player. It's amazing how few logs there are in the game. There's no message log for messages or decisions you've made previously. There's no character log for the major events or changes in a character's life. Heck, I find it really difficult to even tell who a character is by looking at their character panel. I'm not sure how to keep track of what wars or the political situation of my neighbors are. Finding people to marry who have claims near me is a nightmare. Place names in general are just a mess. There's about a 1000 counties, duchies, kingdoms, and empires and blah blah blah. I can't keep track of what's even next to me by name. There's just too much. It's all just a big mess of names and names and names and you need to go through 5 different menus to sort anything out. The game is a little too random, as well

 

[Dalisclock]

Despite my last post, I'm still playing Crusader Kings II. It's more fun if you start as a count surrounded by a bunch of other counts and can work your way up.

What gets me though, is just how badly the game presents it's information to the player. It's amazing how few logs there are in the game. There's no message log for messages or decisions you've made previously. There's no character log for the major events or changes in a character's life. Heck, I find it really difficult to even tell who a character is by looking at their character panel. I'm not sure how to keep track of what wars or the political situation of my neighbors are. Finding people to marry who have claims near me is a nightmare. Place names in general are just a mess. There's about a 1000 counties, duchies, kingdoms, and empires and blah blah blah. I can't keep track of what's even next to me by name. There's just too much. It's all just a big mess of names and names and names and you need to go through 5 different menus to sort anything out. The game is a little too random, as well

This is pretty much my experience with the game. I want to really get into and like it, but every time I try, I run into this massive complex system of interlocking gears and mechanics and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. It's not so much a learning curve but a learning cliff that goes straight up. Someday I will sit down and try to learn the damn thing enough to gid gud at it. Someday.

Huh. Has the universe reached heat death already? Man, time does fly.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Just played The Stanley Parable for the first time yesterday, despite owning it for like 3 years now.

It's a clever little game. It's not quite as clever as it thinks it is, but it did make me laugh a few times. I'm also a sucker for a good narrator.

Of the walking simulator type games that I've played, it's the only one that seems to actually have something interesting to say and it's the only one whose design I actually found interesting. Looking for more and more ways to mess with the narrator is enjoyable and it's a good distraction for an afternoon when I wanted to play something but didn't want to put in a lot of energy.

 

[Drathnoxis]

This is pretty much my experience with the game. I want to really get into and like it, but every time I try, I run into this massive complex system of interlocking gears and mechanics and I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing. It's not so much a learning curve but a learning cliff that goes straight up. Someday I will sit down and try to learn the damn thing enough to gid gud at it. Someday.

Huh. Has the universe reached heat death already? Man, time does fly.

I just converted my tribal government into a merchant republic and suddenly I have too many holdings and need to figure out vassals, republic succession, and tons of other things all at once. Everything has been flipped on its side and all I wanted was to avoid another title loss on succession and to make a lot of money :/

 

[Gordon_4]

Mass Effect 3, and I’m tempted to install the Expanded Galaxy mods.

 

[laggyteabag]

Just finished up Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and yeah, whilst the gameplay loop was really enjoyable, the story was so painfully dull that I didn't really care at all about why I was doing what I was doing. I dont really mind generic stories, so long as they are told at least somewhat competantly, but the story in this game seemed to be so barebones, that the premise for each mission was basically "follow the clue, and find the next one" - aside from the first and last missions.

On the plus side, I gave myself a target of completing 30 games this year, and I have just done that. Pretty impressive seeing as it is only June.

Next stop, Bulletstorm.

 

[Silvanus]

Finished Doom Eternal today.

That'll be the 8th game finished since lockdown started (+ 2 platinum trophies).

 

[Dreiko]

Still playing utawarerumono, about 20 hours in, most of the ensemble has gathered, headpats galore continues. Also bunch of heart-wrenching events out of nowhere. Feels aplenty.


On a different note, I actually decided to try an fps which I am not too experienced in outside of my younger days of playing quake 2-3. About the only ones I played in the last decade were team fortress 2, bioshock infinite and doom so I tried doom eternal. I wanted to learn a bit more so I started it at the ultraviolence difficulty (one stage above the normal one) and I gotta say I really enjoy what they did with mobility in this game. I'm only like 3 missions in but I unlocked things like air mobility and airdash recharge and those types of perks first because it seems in this game if you stay still for half a second you'll be shot from 12 different directions. Outside of a few cramped layouts where you gotta plan things out just right it feels the challenge mainly is in learning the layout of the stage, just knowing where the teleporters and the jump launchers are and planning your course as you shoot everywhere along the way.

Still not used entirely to the rhythm of when to set dudes on fire and when to throw grenades and those kinds of things, I'm so busy trying to not die and shoot back that it kinda takes up all my attention. Though I do feel I'm getting better cause the first purple key challenge room took me a bunch of tries but I did the second one in like 2 of em. Hitting things' weakspots in those frenzied situations is iffy but I am getting used to doing things like setting things on fire while running and shooting. I dunno why but moving my finger off the analogue for half a second to press the flamethrower button feels insanely stressful like driving with no hands haha.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Getting further into Dark Souls. Made it to the Depths bonfire and I know where to find the next boss; there's an NPC summon sign nearby, but I'm going to give it a shot on my own first.

Also found out that Dead Space, which I bought years ago and didn't work on my PC when I did, now works on Windows 10. I'd heard nothing but good things, so I decided to give it a look. It's not bad, I'll probably finish it, but I doubt I'll replay it like I do Resident Evil 4, which it seems to be taking all of its cue cards from.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Getting further into Dark Souls. Made it to the Depths bonfire and I know where to find the next boss; there's an NPC summon sign nearby, but I'm going to give it a shot on my own first.

Also found out that Dead Space, which I bought years ago and didn't work on my PC when I did, now works on Windows 10. I'd heard nothing but good things, so I decided to give it a look. It's not bad, I'll probably finish it, but I doubt I'll replay it like I do Resident Evil 4, which it seems to be taking all of its cue cards from.

I remember playing the demo on PS3 and it having excellent sound design. Might pick it up on PC someday if it’s cheap ie <$10, but I’ve read it’s kinda better to play it with a gamepad due to some weird mouse acceleration issue, or maybe it was caused by a vsync glitch. Hell maybe Windows 10 corrected that too.

 

[BrawlMan]

I remember playing the demo on PS3 and it having excellent sound design. Might pick it up on PC someday if it’s cheap ie <$10, but I’ve read it’s kinda better to play it with a gamepad due to some weird mouse acceleration issue, or maybe it was caused by a vsync glitch. Hell maybe Windows 10 corrected that too.

I got Dead space 1 and 2 on my 360 for cheap. I still got to remind myself to pop those in. I'll probably pop into first, since that's the best of the trilogy and I've already played one before with my brother.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I remember playing the demo on PS3 and it having excellent sound design. Might pick it up on PC someday if it’s cheap ie <$10, but I’ve read it’s kinda better to play it with a gamepad due to some weird mouse acceleration issue, or maybe it was caused by a vsync glitch. Hell maybe Windows 10 corrected that too.

It definitely didn't fix the mouse acceleration issue, but I think there's mods for that, or you can just use a gamepad if you have one. Pretty much any Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller can be plugged straight into your PC, in my experience, since Microsoft makes them both.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

It definitely didn't fix the mouse acceleration issue, but I think there's mods for that, or you can just use a gamepad if you have one. Pretty much any Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller can be plugged straight into your PC, in my experience, since Microsoft makes them both.

I’m partial to DS4 but even if it doesn’t have native support, there’s DS4Windows.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I’m partial to DS4 but even if it doesn’t have native support, there’s DS4Windows.

That's good, then.

Also I managed to ring the second Bell of Awakening, so that's significant progress in Dark Souls.

 

[Dalisclock]

That's good, then.

Also I managed to ring the second Bell of Awakening, so that's significant progress in Dark Souls.

How did you "enjoy" blighttown? Are you planning on getting a timeshare?

 

[NerfedFalcon]

How did you "enjoy" blighttown? Are you planning on getting a timeshare?

I will say that Blighttown made me do something I've never done in an RPG before and evaluate my gear on criteria other than damage resistance. Running through the poison swamp was a lot easier in the Tattered Cloth set than the Elite Knight set, and figuring that out felt like a huge step. The town itself also has a pretty interesting design that actually teaches you something useful for fighting the area boss: when one wrong step can leave you falling to your death above, it's easier to not take a wrong step into a pool of lava below. It only took me two attempts to beat the boss once I figured out where they were.

The blowdart snipers are still bullshit, and the lack of landmarks made figuring out the layout much more difficult than any of the other areas so far (except the Depths, which had the same problem), but overall I don't think Blighttown is nearly as bad as it's made out to be. Then again, I didn't have any framerate drops either, so that's probably part of it.

 

[Dalisclock]

The blowdart snipers are still bullshit, and the lack of landmarks made figuring out the layout much more difficult than any of the other areas so far (except the Depths, which had the same problem), but overall I don't think Blighttown is nearly as bad as it's made out to be. Then again, I didn't have any framerate drops either, so that's probably part of it.

At least the Snipers don't respawn once you kill them. FROM has some (small) mercy. Out of curiousity, were you aware of a particular item that makes traversing the swamp easier? It's not in the swamp, but rather requires some very creative backtracking.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

At least the Snipers don't respawn once you kill them. FROM has some (small) mercy. Out of curiousity, were you aware of a particular item that makes traversing the swamp easier? It's not in the swawmp, but rather requires backtracking to an area you wouldn't think to backtrack to.

The Tattered Cloth Set gave me enough poison resistance to cross the swamp without getting poisoned and needing to eat a Purple Moss. I don't remember where I found that, but I think it was in Blighttown. I wasn't aware of any other way to do it, but I got through fine, so it doesn't really matter.

 

[Dalisclock]

The Tattered Cloth Set gave me enough poison resistance to cross the swamp without getting poisoned and needing to eat a Purple Moss. I don't remember where I found that, but I think it was in Blighttown. I wasn't aware of any other way to do it, but I got through fine, so it doesn't really matter.

You probably don't need it at this point. If you decide to come back later in the game, it might be worth searching for.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rank 85 on RDR2 online, following 107 days of consecutive challenge streaks (and little else, I always get disconnected from "events"). It's purely ritualistic at this point.