What are you currently playing?

[Hawki]

So, basic stuff:

QUAKE CHAMPIONS

-On the verge of quitting this for various reasons. But even those reasons aside, I've managed to find one live match, and, well, I died. A lot. That's not really the fault of the game, but as far as I can tell, it's only the top dogs that are top dogging, and I don't really have the inclination to "git gud" in this case. Not when it's borderline impossible to find matches anyway.

-Really find the lore aspects frustrating. That may seem strange, since Id has never really focused on story (and certainly never for Quake), but looking at cosmetic descriptions, either there's a lot of planning for Quake lore if you assume that everything is linked together, or this really is completely random stuff under the premise of champions coming from different realities to kill each other for shits and giggles. For instance, one of the champions' descriptions (it's the guy with the mobile turret) mentions a "Machine War," so is this a synonym for the war with the strogg, an alternate reality version of that war, a future, completely different war (since the space-tech described seems more advanced than the GDF), or is it just terminology plucked from nowhere? It's probably useless to ask, since the Quake fanbase has often been anti-story (not apathetic, anti) in my experience, but, well, what can I say? I sniff lore, I keep sniffing.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT

-So, I've re-subscribed. Remember that WoW story I mentioned ages ago? Well, I finished the detour into Starship Troopers, so now I'm back in WoW, grinding, because I really want to be able to get to the Arathi Highlands, because there's a flashback set in (former) Stromgarde, and being able to jump from the game to the Word document has worked wonders in a lot of cases (since most of it is set in Dun Morogh).

-That aside, you might also remember that I kind of got myself into a corner with my human warrior dying, being left broke, and with some gear destroyed to the point it needed repair to function, so I thought that would take ages. Actually, it took me less than 30 minutes, thanks in large part to going back to Elwynn, and slaughtering murlocs. Which, as any WoW player can tell you, is nice catharsis.

Yes, I'm slaughtering frogs. Right now, I don't care. 0_0

XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2

-Nothing new to say here yet, move along, move along.

 

[laggyteabag]

I watched a review on YouTube for Frostpunk fairly recently, so I decided to replay that game, because there have been a few new scenarios that have been added since I last played it.

So far, I have completed the main story A New Home scenario, as well as The Arks, and The Refugees.

A New Home was pretty straight forward, and is very much vanilla Frostpunk. Build your city, wrestle with the morality of the policies that you may/may not be putting into place, and wait out a massive storm that is heading your way. I managed to complete it on my first couple of tries, even without going down the rabbit hole of becoming a fascist dictator. It was pretty close towards the end. By the time the storm peaked, I had ran out of food, and coal, so everyone in my city was starving, ill, and freezing, but I managed to ride it out - probably just in time.

The Arks is an interesting scenario, because you start the game with a small group of skilled engineers, and no one else. No one is coming to your city, either. So you have to survive, make sure that your seedling arks don't freeze, and (optionally) donate a hefty amount of resources to a nearby city. But you only have about 40 dudes to go around, so you really have to rely on these giant steam robots to do the dirty work for you. I mostly found this scenario to be quite easy. You barely have to worry about food, healthcare or housing, so you can mostly just focus on coal, steel, and scouting for steam cores so that you can build more of these robots. Pretty fun seeing about a dozen giant robots moving around your city, though.

Last night I managed to complete The Refugees, which was brutal. This was very much so the opposite of The Arks, in that instead of having very few workers, you had arguably too many. Every other day a new group of 20 or so people would arrive at your city, which came with it the additional need for housing, heating, food, and healthcare. Then eventually, depending on your choices, you can start to accept groups of 100 or more, many of which are sick. Unless your logistics are up to the task, you will be faced with massive shortages of almost everything. I had to restart this scenario maybe a dozen times, before I eventually found a tactic that worked for me - ie, constant overworking, child labour (thanks kiddos), and enough propaganda to keep everyone happy. Worked out in the end, and I was quite pleased with myself.

Next up is The Fall of Winterhome, which is the hardest scenario of them all, if memory serves.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Made my way down to Deeproot Depths and did some rudimentary scavenging, then off’ed the crucible knight Siluria. Didn’t open the big door at the bottom of the pit and am glad I checked a wiki for this because it apparently locks out all other endings (and I don’t want to be Ranni’s gopher again).

Also trying out new weapons, sort of. I started off with a Lordsworn SS but powerstancing them is more fun than everything else I’ve tried so far in between. Even better than greatswords, colossals, or even katanas, because they are quicker with a sexy move set and still have enough staggering power when 2H’ing one. I put Cold on one and Bleed on the other for now and it’s been, well, pretty cold blooded. I also keep a Manor Towershield on hand for when things get too hairy.

Oh, and finally visited Jarburg. What a charming little nook these fragile folks have. It turns out I can’t be a potentate yet due to having non-slippery fingers. Will seek to change that.

 

[laggyteabag]

Just finished The Fall of Winterhome, and it wasn't exactly difficult, as much as it was just punishing.

In this scenario, you are taking over from a previous leader who started a civil war and left half of the city in ruins. They were also absolute dogshit at laying out the city, too, because there is so much wasted space. No wonder everything went to shit.

So when the game starts, you already have half of your lawbook signed, and the streets are littered with rubble, which you need to clear out. Eventually, you discover that your generator - your only source of heat - is faulty, and you need to start preparing your evacuation.

What follows is a mad dash for materials, as you try and cram as many people and resources onto a train as possible, whilst leaving enough people behind to take care of what remains of the city, and build the train.

In the end, I left about 200 people behind, with the train half-built. Riots in my city were frequent, there weren't really enough people left to gather any significant resources or take care of the wounded, and the generator was about to explode. So I bailed.

This game is depressing.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I don't know why I decided to try Sifu again, it's too hard and annoying. I just love the style and what the game CAN be for me but I kind of still hate it.
Haven't completely given up, I'll still try to make some headway when I'm in the mood for punishment, but I'm looking for something else.

So I'm gonna try Genshin Impact just to try something new and free.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Jumped back into RE2 Remake to check out the next-gen upgrade (and also it's RE2 Remake and it's fucking great), and it's... alright. It's definitely better looking, but all this talk of ray tracing has left me slightly disappointed in the end result. It certainly helps in giving the scenery a bit more volume, but beyond that it's seriously lacking. Also, a LOT of ghosting present, which might've been in the PS4 version as well but it certainly more noticeable now.

Also, ran into a few bugs with Mr. X, where after throwing him off my track after he gets initially activated at the helicopter, he seemingly vanished from the gameworld even when going into rooms and picking up certain items to explicitly trigger him. Even loudly dispatching a Licker did nothing to activate him. Only after getting the electric part from the Clock Tower did he feel like showing his face again. This has never happened before in all my playthoughs on the PS4, so I can't help but feel this is a bug in the PS5 version.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Jumped back into RE2 Remake to check out the next-gen upgrade (and also it's RE2 Remake and it's fucking great), and it's... alright. It's definitely better looking, but all this talk of ray tracing has left me slightly disappointed in the end result. It certainly helps in giving the scenery a bit more volume, but beyond that it's seriously lacking. Also, a LOT of ghosting present, which might've been in the PS4 version as well but it certainly more noticeable now.

Also, ran into a few bugs with Mr. X, where after throwing him off my track after he gets initially activated at the helicopter, he seemingly vanished from the gameworld even when going into rooms and picking up certain items to explicitly trigger him. Even loudly dispatching a Licker did nothing to activate him. Only after getting the electric part from the Clock Tower did he feel like showing his face again. This has never happened before in all my playthoughs on the PS4, so I can't help but feel this is a bug in the PS5 version.

Devs really shouldn’t waste their time doing this kinda thing since retro-fitting these tech improvements almost always yields questionable results. I’d like to see what they can do with it in Ragnarok or something from the ground up.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Devs really shouldn’t waste their time doing this kinda thing since retro-fitting these tech improvements almost always yields questionable results. I’d like to see what they can do with it in Ragnarok or something from the ground up.

I think it depends on how much they're willing to invest on a free upgrade. You look at the free upgrade patches for God of War '18 and The Last of Us 2, and they look pretty good. I think this is more a case of 'this is all Capcom is willing to do'.

 

[Hawki]

So, got a bit further in XC2. Random thoughts:

-Getting more of a sense of the combat now. Took me 30hrs, but getting there. I'm not sure if I can call it 'deep' per se, but starting to get a hang of how to chain combos, and the choices I have to make. For instance, Mythra's light element is a heavy hitter, but light doesn't chain together well with the more regular elemenets that most of the characters have access to.

-That said, I'm not really comfortable with Rex's blades. I get into a rhythm, but I always feel that I could do better. In part because sans Mythra/Pyra, I've found myself using common/rare blades more than legendary blades, and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that I'm probably not meant to do that.

-I'm sure I'm not the only person to point this out, but the levelling system is bonkers, given how a lot of the time, you need to stay in an inn to gain levels, even though you can technically just grind your way through the game. The result being that last time I stayed in an inn, I gained 7 levels all in one go. 0_0

-So, Indhol's capital is pretty neat. A bit empty, but neat. Suffice to say, this is a case of "go big, or go home."

-So, the wiki has spoiled things for me a bit, but is anyone supposed to look at Amalthus and not say "geez, I bet this guy's going to turn out to be evil." I mean, it's a JRPG, it's kind of required by law that the church is really secretly evil, but come on, it's not even hiding things.

-So I mentioned last time about the relationship between Rex and Pyra being more mature. Right now, the jury's still out on that. For instance, when Pyra is discussing things with Brigid, the dialogue is slightly more weighty, but it's too early to say yet.

-So, I mentioned awhile ago about death/decay being a key theme of sorts with the game. Well, it seems I was right, given how Amalthus and Mythra look at the mural depicting the creation of Alrest, with Amalthus wondering if humanity's regressed since then. This isn't some in-depth discussion, don't get me wrong, but the mural itself does bring up imagery that might be associated with Abrahamic faiths - the 'fall' of humanity, and the titans being depicted akin to angels. Heck, even Mythra's had angelic iconography, sans the, y'know, cleavage...

Damn it, this game frustrates me sometimes.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played Final Vendetta...

It's good, but man, there are design decisions I don't agree with. I will give Numbskull Games credit for adding a block button, a button dedicated to kicking gang members when they're down, and the cool hidden moves you have to figure out yourself, but this game is hard. For the right and wrong reasons. There are not that many options. Arcade mode is the story mode, and there are no continues. You read that right. The other modes, Survival, Boss Rush, and Training, are locked behind beating Arcade mode. There is only Easy and Hard. Ultra, the hardest difficulty, has to be unlocked by beating hard with Miller (Mighty Glacier of the group). That is padding and fake replay value to a high degree.

As being touted as the "better/truer successor" (Gaming Slopes) to Streets of Rage or the next Final Fight, FV falls flat. For whatever problems SOR4 has, it's got accessibility and difficulty options. Plus, all those bonus options. The no continue thing is only done for Arcade mode. After beating the Story mode first. Why couldn't Numbskull just do that? As far as successors goes: I am giving that to The TakeOver. At least you get unlimited continues (on Normal or Easy only). Streets of Rage 4 is still king in terms of modern 2D retro revival brawlers. Though Shredder's Revenge might be sharing a spot.

Final Vendetta is a fine game, but there difficulty issues that hold it back. If you're looking for another Streets of Rage though, just play SOR4, The TakeOver, or even Fight n' Rage.

@Worgen, just shouting out to let you know my opinion as well. I am gonna go back to Shredder's Revenge.

 

[Worgen]

@Worgen, just shouting out to let you know my opinion as well. I am gonna go back to Shredder's Revenge.

Thanks for the heads up. I was curious about it, but with Shredder's Revenge, ff7 remake suddenly coming to steam, and trying to finally beat Dawn of War 3, no idea when I would get around to Final Vendetta.

 

[BrawlMan]

Thanks for the heads up. I was curious about it, but with Shredder's Revenge, ff7 remake suddenly coming to steam, and trying to finally beat Dawn of War 3, no idea when I would get around to Final Vendetta.

Dude, take all the time you need. You are definitely in no rush. Final Vendetta is not a must buy. Shredder's Revenge is the better game. I suggest waiting for an even bigger sale.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Just finished Minit.

It's a short, Zelda-ish puzzle game where you're trapped in a 60-second timeloop. So you have 60 seconds to complete an errand, reach a point, solve a puzzle, kill a bunch of enemies or whatever, at the end of which you die and respawn at your house. The world resets but you keep anything you've collected so far. The theory sounds stressful but in practice this means whatever you have to do takes less than a minute to accomplish, and if you fail you never waste more than a minute trying. Actually once you figure out where to go and what to do, you get more than enough time to do it. You eventually unlock more respawn points (and a fast travel) as you explore the world, which in turn complicates it because past a certain point you could be anywhere within 60 seconds.

It's a very, very short game. I beat it in a couple of hours, and NG+ (which sets the timer to 40 seconds) in a little over an hour. But it makes the most out of its selling point and its a lot of fun to complete.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Ziggurat 2. This snuck out like a meek and shaven weasel with its tail between its legs. what gives? wasn't the first game kinda beloved? wouldn't there be an established fan/interest base to fire up by promoting this, like at all? Regardless, having never played the first, can't compare the two, but it's cathartic FPS arena roguelite fun. Usually magic feels awfully weightless in most games, however this puts the effort into the audio-visual and rumble feedback to add something a little more tangible to your eclectic carnage. Is tricky at first but am now on a bit of a roll. One annoyance is wanting to play as the female character, but the ranomised bonuses on your loadout selection page always lands on the male character, and I need those damn bonuses for my feeble skills and dire patience! Still weird even Redout 2 got more promotion than this though. Talking of.

Redout 2. It's wipeout. But the sequel to the last game that was also wipeout. Except with more movement challenge like side strafing, midair spinning, midair nose pitching and track-level nose pitching when the path curves upwards or down. There's also a rewind mechanic now. And 2 seperate boost functions. And a heat level monitor. Is not easy to remember all these things in the split seconds required during 800 mile-an-hour looping corners. So it's not easy. Though it looks and feels nice to play, with a lotta colour and track variation. Where's the fucking soundtrack though? I've turned my volume up higher than ever before, yet the alleged soundtrack is still barely audible. This is absurd, unnecessary criminal genre negligence! Am determined to one day find out why game devs are so bloody afraid of equal volume with their own music picks, as this is getting ridiculous now. Oh and the game needs a bit of polish around the 'track landings after a scary gap jump need to be a solid object for your vehicle to land on, actually' area. And the reverse-time tutorial seems bugged to trap you in slow motion 8/10 times after using the function when it tells you to. Other than that, is better than the first I suppose.

 

[BrawlMan]

Redout 2. It's wipeout. But the sequel to the last game that was also wipeout. Except with more movement challenge like side strafing, midair spinning, midair nose pitching and track-level nose pitching when the path curves upwards or down. There's also a rewind mechanic now. And 2 seperate boost functions. And a heat level monitor. Is not easy to remember all these things in the split seconds required during 800 mile-an-hour looping corners. So it's not easy. Though it looks and feels nice to play, with a lotta colour and track variation. Where's the fucking soundtrack though? I've turned my volume up higher than ever before, yet the alleged soundtrack is still barely audible. This is absurd, unnecessary criminal genre negligence! Am determined to one day find out why game devs are so bloody afraid of equal volume with their own music picks, as this is getting ridiculous now. Oh and the game needs a bit of polish around the 'track landings after a scary gap jump need to be a solid object for you vehicle to land on, actually' area. And the reverse-time tutorial seems bugged to trap you in slow motion 8/10 times after using the function when it tell you to. Other than that, is better than the first I suppose.

I tried the first Redout two different times, and it didn't work for me. Especially with me already having the Wipeout Omega Collection. I did not even know they made a sequel. From what you're describing, the game is more of the same, but worse in certain aspects. I rather just play The Omega Collection again, or Fast RMX.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

I tried the first Redout two different times, and it didn't work for me. Especially with me already having the Wipeout Omega Collection. I did not even know they made a sequel. From what you're describing, the game is more of the same, but worse in certain aspects. I rather just play The Omega Collection again, or Fast RMX.

Yeah I dropped off the 1st pretty early as well, though not sure if it was the game or another better game, or both that caused the drop-off. The sequel defo has more money pumped into it while still a budget price and with a chunky looking campaign mode.
The Omega Collection is defo great, the most polished of the genre for sure. Only it has one frustration for me, being the variety of the tracks feels mostly samey: apart from like 2 memorable ones, the rest just seem like an interchangeable mass with the closed-off way they design the metal cupped lanes so you barely get to interact with the cool future outside world at all. That's where I still hope other games can improve, and in some ways it appears Redout 2 has managed that area a fair bit better. However, the need for a patch or two along with the higher challenge does make it harder to recommend straight away.

 

[Dalisclock]

Getting close to done with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I've got two character stories left and the final battle area to beat.

Without going into anything that would be spoilers(which at this point would be almost everything), I think I've figured out what this game reminds me of. Xenogears. This feels like the 2nd coming of Xenogears in a way due to how it just keeps tossing twists at you based off a bunch of different sci-fi concepts.

 

[Worgen]

I got FF7 remaster intergrade since it finally came to steam and holy crap is it good. Like, I had heard that it was good, but it really is damn good so far and I am still amazed that Square put in the effort.

Also, working on DOW3 still, got past the level that kinda blocked me (through difficulty and crashing) the first time I played it. Story is fun, enjoying the gameplay, the first time I played I'm not sure I noticed how awesomely animated a lot of stuff is, like there is a ton of detail in the animations and buildings and such. Especially the ork ones, just watching them be built is fun.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Super Skelemania

It's a mini Metroidvania. Beat it in a little over an hour but apparently you can speedrun in under 17 minutes.

Like Xeodrifter, you crashland in some alien planet and have to escape. But there's no clear theming. The plot is boilerplate sci-fi, but you're a skeleton (ok) and you're running around banging on gongs and bells (ok?) and you fight some vaguely Satanic creature at the end (...ok) and you escape by shooting up into space (fuck it). Also apparently you get a (literal) skin by banging on the gongs in a certain order, not that the skeleton seems to be motivated by the desire to be a "real boy" - or really anything.

The combat is perfunctory - everything dies in one hit, and most enemies act as obstacles more than anything - so the meat and potatoes is in the platforming, which is a lot of fun. Most of the abilities you unlock around the planet add to your mobilitiy and work towards reaching new areas but also get added to the general repertoire of what you'll be dealing with as regular platforming challenges. It's fairly tight, with some twists to the usual moves and a nifty dependence on momemtum and precision that never felt like a burden. Aside from one specific jump near the beginning I don't believe I ever died once, not even to the paltry two bosses along the way.

I got it for $0.49 and can definitely recommend it at that price range.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Mount and Blade Warband, the original.

I saw Tom & Ben of the Yogscast stream the "Warsword" mod (Warhammer but with a slightly different title in attempt to avoid a cease and decist). That encouraged me to give the game a go again and I'm really enjoying it despite it's aged jankyness.