What are you currently playing?

[wings012]

I tried playing Path of Exile again. The last time I played was many years ago where there were no leagues and only 3 acts. I didn't exactly want to but my friends were playing so I decided to just give a chance.

Yeah, just couldn't get into it and the league harvest mechanics are just so convoluted. But really it's just me, I'm not into the whole Diablo style clicky ARPG type of games anymore. I played Grim Dawn with my friend some time back and while we did make it through the story once - I would find myself falling asleep while playing it. It didn't help that whatever character build I was running could just spam skills and walk through everything so my brain just turned off after randomly clicking and smashing all my skill hotkeys. I had trouble staying interested in Torchlight 2 as well.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Got 4 and 5 for PS3 from PS+. Will it matter if played out of order?

Yes. At least one major part of 5 won't make sense if you don't play 4 first.

 

[BrawlMan]

Been playing Ghost again. I'll add more details in the other thread. Playing Battle Circuit right now to unwind. Maybe some SFV later too.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Still working RDR2, chapter 2. So far not much going on. The game is slowly unlocking various aspects through missions, such as poker, the stables, hunting, the mobile camp, etc. I've unlocked a couple upgrades to the camp, notably the fast travel map.

Plot itself is leisurely. I'd call it slow but I'm enjoying the lazy pace at which it introduces the characters and lets you just get comfortable with the camp and the world, though not without highlights. Particularly "A Quiet Time" where LENNY! and Arthur go to the saloon for a drink or two.

Spoiler

The Wanted system is weird and somewhat unexpected. I was dismounting my horse, accidentally fired my gun into a hitching post and got a "Witnessed:Vandalism" warning. I accidently shot another mans horse at a hitching post while trying it get off my own horse, getting "Witnessed: Animal Cruelty" and later beat up a man as part of a mission to collect on Herr Strausses Usury to get an unavoidable(I guess) bounty for assault. Only 5 dollars but I don't think it's possible to not get that bounty. Some of the crimes don't end up giving me a bounty while others do, because some I ran away when the "Investigating" warning came up.

Also, apparently I'm not allowed to loot the saddlebags of a horse I don't own? Total BS. I can duel someone in the street on the spur of the moment, kill them and nobody seems to care.I guess what is and isn't considered a criminal bounty-worthy crime is a little confusing.

Also, I'm getting the distinct impression nobody really likes Uncle and it's unclear if he actually does anything in the camp(at least so far). So far he seems like a lazy bum who complains about his LUMBAGO a lot. Sorry, "TERMINAL LUMBAGO", which I'm pretty sure isn't actually a thing, nor has ever been a thing.

Uncle. Yeah, he’s like the lazy gatekeeper for camp.

Agreed the wanted system is a bit wonky. Be very careful riding your horse through Saint Denis. They are “civilized” folk that are just itching for a chance to cry foul.

The easiest way to keep the trigger finger in check I found when you’re in more, uh, sensitive locales is just get in a habit of holding L2, since that initiates the conversation prompt anyways, and L1 will holster if you accidentally draw a weapon. In the grand scheme of things, a few mishaps here and there thankfully don’t mean much, and the easy payoff ends up being kind of a blessing. Or alternatively, spend your money beforehand, turn yourself in and sleep it off in jail. But once you start making good money from missions the former pretty much always makes most sense.

Are you generally playing as good Arthur or bad Arthur? Story wise good has the better payoff (naturally) but gameplay wise I’ve read bad can be interesting. I thought about doing that to see the other contrasts, as I finally tried the game on PC this weekend since wifey and sis were busy on my PS4. It runs better than I expected on a GTX 1070 8GB. Benchmarked in the mid 50’s with only a few frame spread and have most settings on Ultra, with only shadows, AA and tessellation on Medium. Some of the key bindings take getting used to though. I like mouse aiming but a lot of other commands feel more natural with a game pad.

 

[Chimpzy]

Well, eventually you're going to have to do that to unlock more skills, substories, and locations. As well as an entirely new playable character, and a means to get enough money for the third and later rings of upgrades. But are you at least enjoying the distractions?

It's goofy, overly dramatic and very, very Japanese, but that's fine, I'm having a good time.

 

[gorfias]

Yes. At least one major part of 5 won't make sense if you don't play 4 first.

Thanks for the tip. I think I have room for r on my PS3. It is available for download to me for free as it is part of my PS+. I have 5 already but have not played it.

That's a game I really feel shows what a "Walking Sim" can really aspire to, and not garbage like "Dear Esther". The cannery bit was particularly wonderfully done, though as a father of a small kid, the bit with the bathtub was hard to take. Poor Gregory

Dad here as well. That was hard. Saw an article about Last of Us 2 and people hating that you have to do objectionable things to move the game forward and the article goes on to state that is an issue since forever, including before COD MW2. This happens a lot in games. Uncharted is great fun but Nathan, if you think about it, is drenched in blood. This was particularly noticed by me in Red Dead Redemption 2 early on. The Train Robbery is not simple mischief. You have to gun down a lot of innocent people. Most times, I think the argument silly but sometimes, I get what they are writing about. Of course I can tell the difference between a game and reality, but it can still not sit well.

As to Finch, favorite scenes also included the deer scene and the playing on a swing part.

I do like Dear Esther a bit. It is old and experimental. It is in Direct X 9. It was the start of something good, something that lead us to Finch. I haven't finished "Everyone's Gone to the Rapture" or "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter". Unlike Finch, I don't know if I'm headed in the right direction or what my progress is. Carter is pretty dang good looking though.

 

[Silvanus]

Played through the Nioh 2 DLC a few days ago; now working on NG+ on Blasphemous (introduced in another recent DLC, with extra bosses and stuff).

Beaten the first new boss, but finding the second one pretty tough.

 

[The Eupho Guy]

I cleared the first boss of Othercide tonight. It took me 4 or 5 runs to get past it, but I'm starting to get a better feel for the skills now, so the next runs should be a bit smoother. Being able to start characters at level 4 will definitely help too...

 

[Dalisclock]

Uncle. Yeah, he’s like the lazy gatekeeper for camp.

Agreed the wanted system is a bit wonky. Be very careful riding your horse through Saint Denis. They are “civilized” folk that are just itching for a chance to cry foul.

The easiest way to keep the trigger finger in check I found when you’re in more, uh, sensitive locales is just get in a habit of holding L2, since that initiates the conversation prompt anyways, and L1 will holster if you accidentally draw a weapon. In the grand scheme of things, a few mishaps here and there thankfully don’t mean much, and the easy payoff ends up being kind of a blessing. Or alternatively, spend your money beforehand, turn yourself in and sleep it off in jail. But once you start making good money from missions the former pretty much always makes most sense.

Are you generally playing as good Arthur or bad Arthur? Story wise good has the better payoff (naturally) but gameplay wise I’ve read bad can be interesting. I thought about doing that to see the other contrasts, as I finally tried the game on PC this weekend since wifey and sis were busy on my PS4. It runs better than I expected on a GTX 1070 8GB. Benchmarked in the mid 50’s with only a few frame spread and have most settings on Ultra, with only shadows, AA and tessellation on Medium. Some of the key bindings take getting used to though. I like mouse aiming but a lot of other commands feel more natural with a game pad.

Good Arthur. Good tends to be my default unless I'm seriously peeved at everyone or there's significant benefits to play bad over good. Also, not constantly being wanted is nice. Though even "Good" arthur isn't a saint, considering certain missions still require you to beat the crap out of some people. In particular the debtor missions for Herr Strauss(like that poor guy who is dying of something and really has nothing to pay you).

Most of the bounties so far haven't been bad but I recently did that mission where you get Micah out of jail in strawberry and now I have a massive $300 price on my head. The game prompts me to put my mask on after everything goes to hell but I honestly don't think it matters much. I'm not even sure it's possible to avoid it so now I'm essentially locked out of Strawberry unless I want bounty hunters all over me.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Good Arthur. Good tends to be my default unless I'm seriously peeved at everyone or there's significant benefits to play bad over good. Also, not constantly being wanted is nice. Though even "Good" arthur isn't a saint, considering certain missions still require you to beat the crap out of some people. In particular the debtor missions for Herr Strauss(like that poor guy who is dying of something and really has nothing to pay you).

Most of the bounties so far haven't been bad but I recently did that mission where you get Micah out of jail in strawberry and now I have a massive $300 price on my head. The game prompts me to put my mask on after everything goes to hell but I honestly don't think it matters much. I'm not even sure it's possible to avoid it so now I'm essentially locked out of Strawberry unless I want bounty hunters all over me.

That’s the polarizing thing about it, with the story missions forcing your hand in a way and designed on a string to drive the narrative, leaving free roam for everything else. The story-based bounties are basically the game’s way of gating off certain areas. That of course only invites challenge.

For example there is a horse challenge where you have to ride from Van Horn to Blackwater in a time frame without touching water, and some people have actually done it in Chapter 2. I was happy enough just doing it at all, as weather doesn’t always cooperate over that distance.

 

[Dalisclock]

That’s the polarizing thing about it, with the story missions forcing your hand in a way and designed on a string to drive the narrative, leaving free roam for everything else. The story-based bounties are basically the game’s way of gating off certain areas. That of course only invites challenge.

For example there is a horse challenge where you have to ride from Van Horn to Blackwater in a time frame without touching water, and some people have actually done it in Chapter 2. I was happy enough just doing it at all, as weather doesn’t always cooperate over that distance.

I figured it was kind of a gameplay/story integration thing, where they're trying to enforce the whole "Yes, you are WANTED" aspect of the story and pushing you into or out of certain regions. I haven't tested it but apparently trying to get close to Blackwater or even the Western Parts of the map causes Bounty Hunters to spawn ad infinitum.

Granted, I've also read that the Western parts of the map(New Austin/West Elizabeth) are somewhat unfinished and the devs gated those areas off by the storyline to mitigate how much people would notice. Like apparently you can't go to Mexico in this game but people have glitched into it and found it surprisingly detailed for an area you can't go into without glitching.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I figured it was kind of a gameplay/story integration thing, where they're trying to enforce the whole "Yes, you are WANTED" aspect of the story and pushing you into or out of certain regions. I haven't tested it but apparently trying to get close to Blackwater or even the Western Parts of the map causes Bounty Hunters to spawn ad infinitum.

Granted, I've also read that the Western parts of the map(New Austin/West Elizabeth) are somewhat unfinished and the devs gated those areas off by the storyline to mitigate how much people would notice. Like apparently you can't go to Mexico in this game but people have glitched into it and found it surprisingly detailed for an area you can't go into without glitching.

They’re actually still fully realized territories, but not really relevant early on. Not sure how much you’ve seen spoiler wise but I’ll only say the gap between the two games gets mostly bridged, so those areas have to kinda wait for their time to shine.

Mexico though is a different story. That’s considered out of bounds by any metric as far as anyone can tell. The chances of any story DLC are slim, but I always thought it would be really cool to do the Blackwater heist, and perhaps some events surrounding it.

 

[Dalisclock]

They’re actually still fully realized territories, but not really relevant early on. Not sure how much you’ve seen spoiler wise but I’ll only say the gap between the two games gets mostly bridged, so those areas have to kinda wait for their time to shine.

Mexico though is a different story. That’s considered out of bounds by any metric as far as anyone can tell. The chances of any story DLC are slim, but I always thought it would be a really cool to do the Blackwater heist, and perhaps some events surrounding it.

I've seen a fair bit of spoilers such that Arthur dies of TB eventually and having played the first game I can infer a fair bit about what happens between now and then. That and Dutch apparently starts going on about "Plans" at some point, but it hasn't set in yet.

I mean, it's the nature of prequels in general. When you see 4 members(aside from Abigail, who wasn't a gunslinger and Jack, who was like 6) of the Van Der Linde gang in RDR1 and a whole lot more in RDR2, set 12 years prior, you know a fair bit of them are either not going to survive or ceased to be important to the plot(exile, went way off the grid, went to jail, turned state's witness, etc).

From what I understand, we never to get to see the Blackwater Heist/Massacre, and while it could be cut content, it looks like at this point in time that was a stylistic choice. Justified because Arthur wasn't there, so he couldn't see it firsthand, though WHY he wasn't there is curious. In fact, it sounds like it was half-assed or possibly a set up, from what I've gathered. Not seeing it firsthand lends it ambiguity and makes you question how much of it was Dutches fault and how much was bad luck(shooting a civilian makes one question how stable Dutch was).

Personally, it almost sounds like a shout out to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. For those who haven't seen the film, it depicts the events surrounding a diamond heist gone horribly wrong and turned into a massacre. The growing evidence it was a setup has the surviving robbers growing paranoid that one of their number is a police spy but the heist itself is never shown, only described.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I've seen a fair bit of spoilers such that Arthur dies of TB eventually and having played the first game I can infer a fair bit about what happens between now and then. That and Dutch apparently starts going on about "Plans" at some point, but it hasn't set in yet.

I mean, it's the nature of prequels in general. When you see 4 members(aside from Abigail, who wasn't a gunslinger and Jack, who was like 6) of the Van Der Linde gang in RDR1 and a whole lot more in RDR2, set 12 years prior, you know a fair bit of them are either not going to survive or ceased to be important to the plot(exile, went way off the grid, went to jail, turned state's witness, etc).

From what I understand, we never to get to see the Blackwater Heist/Massacre, and while it could be cut content, it looks like at this point in time that was a stylistic choice. Justified because Arthur wasn't there, so he couldn't see it firsthand, though WHY he wasn't there is curious. In fact, it sounds like it was half-assed or possibly a set up, from what I've gathered. Not seeing it firsthand lends it ambiguity and makes you question how much of it was Dutches fault and how much was bad luck(shooting a civilian makes one question how stable Dutch was).

Personally, it almost sounds like a shout out to Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. For those who haven't seen the film, it depicts the events surrounding a diamond heist gone horribly wrong and turned into a massacre. The growing evidence it was a setup has the surviving robbers growing paranoid that one of their number is a police spy but the heist itself is never shown, only described.

Good points. Yeah it’s probably one of things things best left a mystery.

Speaking of mysteries, Rockstar kinda takes a page from FROM regarding several really helpful gameplay mechanics. Worth a look -

Red Dead Redemption 2: Hidden Controls and Tricks - RockstarINTEL

Here is a compiled list of some hidden tricks and controls for Red Dead Redemption 2 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This list was compiled by a lovely Reddit user of the name u/Cloud_Motion and some other reddit users! Hats off to them. Holding start brings up the map straight away...

rockstarintel.com

 

[xmbts]

Well with all this free time I have these days I've been all over the place. I've been on Fall Guys, working on the Batman Arkham games for the millionth time, poking at Xenoblade remaster, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Final Fantasy XIV, showing my roommate Deadly Premonition, getting dragged into Smash Ultimate and Mario Kart here and there, and I've really been craving a good Pokemon game but I don't want to delete any of my old files.

 

[McElroy]

Borderlands 3 since you can play it for free for a few days.
Guns are super abundant and the stats are overflowing. Gameplay is alright but very easy thus far (and of course good that the platforming is properly implemented now). Writing is the same cringe as before and the characters are just mind-blowingly embarrassing.

 

[Agema]

I'm playing Underrail.

It's... a bad game. That should be a good one, and at least some people will love.

It's very recognisable in a Fallout-y (1&2) sort of way. It's got a stupidly high learning curve, which is annoying: you have all these apparent options for character development, but in fact the mechanics force min-maxing, so really you have a choice of min-max builds. This means you can start a game, and 20h in realise it's fatally flawed and have to start from scratch. Or you spend hours checking forums before you even start, because then you'll hit the difficulty wall, but at least you won't have wasted them with a useless build that needs to be scrapped.

Having got past the crunch and realised min-maxing isn't wankery but necessity, I'm now stuck in the huge, sprawling play area that requires vast amounts of dull trudging around to fulfill missions that are never quite as exciting as you'd like them to be. And there is so much trudging. I mean, there's loads of hours of gameplay - it's just a lot of it isn't fun.

I have about 3 games in EA that look really good from the existing material but won't be fully available for months (if not over a year), and I've run out of everything else, but I just know if I can suffer through Underrail long enough for Wasteland 3 to arrive (2-3 weeks, assuming no last minute delays). Maybe I should play Wizardry 8 again. That was a great RPG.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Having got past the crunch and realised min-maxing isn't wankery but necessity, I'm now stuck in the huge, sprawling play area that requires vast amounts of dull trudging around to fulfill missions that are never quite as exciting as you'd like them to be. And there is so much trudging. I mean, there's loads of hours of gameplay - it's just a lot of it isn't fun.

I have about 3 games in EA that look really good from the existing material but won't be fully available for months (if not over a year), and I've run out of everything else, but I just know if I can suffer through Underrail long enough for Wasteland 3 to arrive (2-3 weeks, assuming no last minute delays). Maybe I should play Wizardry 8 again. That was a great RPG.

I don't mean to be facetious, this is a serious question, but doesn't Wizardry 8 have the same thing where if you don't minmax, you'll eventually get stuck and have to start over after reading a guide to how to minmax your characters properly?

 

[gorfias]

Dang my short attention span. I need to complete some 10 other major games I have gotten pretty well into and have been distracted by Outerworlds. The game is great: what Fallout 4 should have been, only prettier. Outerspace rather than a wasteland. (Played some Plague's Tale today too: very pretty game... but is it going to be one long escort mission?)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Overcooked. Could probably beat the game in the space it's gonna take me to write about it but I haven't been dedicating much time to gaming recently and when I do I'd rather try and retry a level until I get the 3 stars than skip over to the next. Levels before 6-1 aren't that hard to ace - every level is essentially a puzzle where you figure out the one specific strategy that kills by shaving off the seconds and keeping both cooks busy at the same time. It's entertaining enough, comes with some free DLC and surprisingly couch co-op works fine on one controller, so there's some replayability to it. Still wish it was longer though. And the horrid spelling gets on my nerves.