What are you currently playing?

[CM156]

Months later and I'm still playing Animal Crossing. I haven't time traveled at all, but by visiting other islands in the southern hemisphere, I almost have a complete collection in the museum. Just need the dung beetle and the lobster and then it will be complete.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Months later and I'm still playing Animal Crossing. I haven't time traveled at all, but by visiting other islands in the southern hemisphere, I almost have a complete collection in the museum. Just need the dung beetle and the lobster and then it will be complete.

I did like New Leaf, but only played it for a couple of months and then never touched it again. The main reason I haven't gotten New Horizons is that I'll probably end up doing the same thing and paying a lot more than $30 for it. Also, that New Leaf didn't require me to get new tools every 10 minutes for no reason other than padding.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished the main story of RDR2. While the missions at the end kinda lost of variety(Sniping at van horn, another Goddamn train), the side missions were rather touching, particularly the one with the widow(though I liked hanging out with the Veteran, Hamish, for different reasons). Yeah, watching Arthur slowly waste away was rough, which made the endgame feel quite moving. Oh, and watching Dutch go even further off the deep end the closer it got to a conclusion. I'm not sure if he thinks everything happening is part of his plan or he's just trying to convince everyone else, but it looks like most people weren't buying it regardless, considering how many people just left by the end.

The whole final arc with the Native Americans does feel like an obvious call-back(call forward?) to the West Elizabeth Arc of the first game, where Dutch has made himself the leader of a particularly desperate group of Native American men who have clearly given into rage and despair due to what has been done to them and evidenced by the fact InsaneDutch is the best hope they think they have. And here it seems to end just as badly, with Dutch and Arthur making things worse for everyone. Arthur was at least trying to do something noble....Dutch OTOH seemed to be very cynical about the whole thing "We can slip away in the Chaos". Part of the "PLAN", I'm sure.

I am gonna nitpick a little about the final mission. Basically, that Micah follows Arthur to the top of the mountain in the "Go with John" ending when you'd think him and dutch would be far more interested in going to get the money from the caves. Arthur and John are getting the hell out of there and it's hard to see whyMicah care so much, especially since Arthur was on his last legs anyway and they flat out abandoned both of them to the Pinkertons not long before. Also, the fact the Pinkertons are hot on your tail going up the mountain(why Arthur stays behind to let John Escape) but just vanish without a trace once Micah makes his appearance. Also, that fight at the end was giving me MGS4 flashbacks.

 

[Hawki]

I finally forked out the money for a Switch and continuing my Star Fox playthrough, I got Starlink.

I hate it. I really hate it. Go to place A, shoot bullet sponge enemies, harvest their remains, go to place B. FFS, the game opens with a space dogfight, but nup, more open world nonsense.

And y'know what? This game is really Mass Effect: Andromeda lite. Don't believe me?

The Starlink/Andromeda Initiative journeys to the Atlas system/Heleus cluster where they encounter the Forgotten Legion/Remnant, which were created by the Wardens/Jardan, and maintained the creation/terraforming of the Atlas/Heleus worlds. They make allies with aliens, and come into conflict with the antagonist/Archon, who wants to use the technology for their own purposes. Cue exploration over desert planets and visiting extractors/temples to accomplish goal's.

Difference is, while I've criticized Andromeda a lot, Starlink makes it look like bloody Shakespeare.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

Currently playing Alice: Madness Returns on Nightmare. It's hard.

I also played American McGee's Alice on Hard right before, some things don't hold up as well but the atmosphere/visuals/story are still worth a playthrough.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Finished the main story of RDR2.

I am gonna nitpick a little about the final mission. Basically, that Micah follows Arthur to the top of the mountain in the "Go with John" ending when you'd think him and dutch would be far more interested in going to get the money from the caves. Arthur and John are getting the hell out of there and it's hard to see why Micah care so much, especially since Arthur was on his last legs anyway and they flat out abandoned both of them to the Pinkertons not long before. Also, the fact the Pinkertons are hot on your tail going up the mountain(why Arthur stays behind to let John Escape) but just vanish without a trace once Micah makes his appearance. Also, that fight at the end was giving me MGS4 flashbacks.

It’s possible that Micah didn’t like his standing with Dutch being threatened by Arthur, and wanted to prove his loyalty by “killing the traitor”. As far as he knew Arthur was chasing after Dutch and him to set things right, so he needed to end it one way or another to officially take his place by Dutch’s side.

But yeah, it’s funny how the Pinkertons stop shooting at them for the dramatic moments. One of those cases where narrative and the need to have the shooty shooty bang bang gameplay finale didn’t exactly flow so well. Before Micah’s ambush it’s merely implied at best that Arthur more or less cleared them out.

Having said that I would’ve much preferred the ending to take one path or another more organically based on your honor ranking upon reaching that point. For instance regarding the money in particular, since someone can play either a complete scoundrel or damn near the opposite, it feels disingenuous and out of character to take a drastic turn for the worse or better based on an A or B choice right at the end. The fact that there’s really not much difference between the “good” or “bad” endings for either helping John or taking the money besides Micah either sparing or killing Arthur makes the choice ultimately feel a bit hollow and like a bit of a red herring, no pun. One could argue it’s kept vague and ambiguous enough that a change of heart in the heat of the moment is still plausible, but it makes the ending feel less distinctive and authoritative than it should be for such an epic arch up to that last few minutes.

Thankfully the epilogues’ more definitive conclusion made up for that questionable execution, imho.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Defeated Genichiro again. I've now made it back up to where I was before in Sekiro, except playing on PC instead of PS4 this time. Everything after this, I don't know about.

Managed to pick up some leads from NPCs; based on what I've heard from them and from other players, looks like Senpou Temple is the next place to go.

 

[Trunkage]

Months later and I'm still playing Animal Crossing. I haven't time traveled at all, but by visiting other islands in the southern hemisphere, I almost have a complete collection in the museum. Just need the dung beetle and the lobster and then it will be complete.

I'm buy this for my partner for her birthday soon. Hearing it last soon long give me confidence because we've never played an animal crossing

 

[Dalisclock]

It’s possible that Micah didn’t like his standing with Dutch being threatened by Arthur, and wanted to prove his loyalty by “killing the traitor”. As far as he knew Arthur was chasing after Dutch and him to set things right, so he needed to end it one way or another to officially take his place by Dutch’s side.

But yeah, it’s funny how the Pinkertons stop shooting at them for the dramatic moments. One of those cases where narrative and the need to have the shooty shooty bang bang gameplay finale didn’t exactly flow so well. Before Micah’s ambush it’s merely implied at best that Arthur more or less cleared them out.

Having said that I would’ve much preferred the ending to take one path or another more organically based on your honor ranking upon reaching that point. For instance regarding the money in particular, since someone can play either a complete scoundrel or damn near the opposite, it feels disingenuous and out of character to take a drastic turn for the worse or better based on an A or B choice right at the end. The fact that there’s really not much difference between the “good” or “bad” endings for either helping John or taking the money besides Micah either sparing or killing Arthur makes the choice ultimately feel a bit hollow and like a bit of a red herring, no pun. One could argue it’s kept vague and ambiguous enough that a change of heart in the heat of the moment is still plausible, but it makes the ending feel less distinctive and authoritative than it should be for such an epic arch up to that last few minutes.

Thankfully the epilogues’ more definitive conclusion made up for that questionable execution, imho.

It just feels wierd though since Micah prides himself on being "The Survivor" and right now the Pinkertons are chasing Arthur and John up the Mountain, so it makes perfect sense for Micah at least to run any other direction while they were distracted. Especially since going UP the mountain means it's easier to get trapped up there(another bit that gets glossed over). And it seems Dutch had already abandoned both Arthur and John at least once so doing it again is perfectly in character for him. THen again, Dutch is also losing it and making extremely terrible, nonsensical decisions(Breaking John out of Jail is too Risky but LET'S GO TO WAR WITH THE US ARMY, ARTHUR) and Micah is extremely petty so I guess it works, kinda sorta.

I do really like the "Red Dead Redemption" mission, so I'm willing to let it slide, but it does feel awfully convenient that the PInkertons were doggly in pursuit and then just despawn offscreen when it's time for the big dramatic brawl up there on the top(I almost imagine there were a couple of pinkertons off camera standing there watching the fight the whole time, waiting to see which one would win).

And yeah, totally agree on how it would have felt more organic for the ending you get to be based on your honor rather then a binary choice, especially when it's a clear "Good" vs "Bad"(or more notably, "Family" vs. "Money") dynamic with some very obvious thematic changes to the mission if you choose one over the other(One has you ascending to a clear, beautiful dawn to help a loved one, the other has you descending into a dark, burning cave in pursuit of blood stained money so it's not like it's being subtle what route you took).

Hell, it's not like it's that hard to manipulate your honor meter if you really wanted to see both versions(assuming you didn't want to do a 2nd playthrough where you play good instead of evil and visa versa) or just youtube the other ending.

 

[Dreiko]

Got back to Divinity OS 2. Am around 60 hours in, fought a bunch of oil and fire slime monsters in an oil rig, took like a good hour to get through that encounter, super epic!

Defeated Genichiro again. I've now made it back up to where I was before in Sekiro, except playing on PC instead of PS4 this time. Everything after this, I don't know about.

Managed to pick up some leads from NPCs; based on what I've heard from them and from other players, looks like Senpou Temple is the next place to go.

That temple is the most beautiful area in the whole game. You're in for a treat!

 

[CaitSeith]

Finished Danganronpa V3. That last part didn't go out the rails; the rails decided to call it quits and went to watch the spectacle from afar while drinking pina colada...

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finished Danganronpa V3. That last part didn't go out the rails; the rails decided to call it quits and went to watch the spectacle from afar while drinking pina colada...

Yep. That was quite a spectacle. 2's still my favorite, but I really liked 3 as well, even that ending. The postgame rewards are actually fairly substantial, though if you don't want to bother that's totally understandable too.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yep. Certain players are already wasting their life, time, and energy doing what you just described. Even the cheating and hacking.

It's hard to recommend the game but I did get a kick out of it playing it with my girlfriend for a couple of sessions.

 

[SilentPony]

I just finished Subnautica. Not bad. Loved the underwater exploring, I just wish there was more if it. There are like 3 or 4 biomes you actually need to go into to actually complete stuff. And the Leviathans...man what a let down. I checked the Wiki and there are like 25 Reaper Leviathans and after I repaired the Aurora's reactor I never saw any again.
The ghost leviathans are scary, but there only at the map edge with a little baby easy to be dodged later.
And then there is the comically out of place underwater dragon, the Bowser Leviathan. A literal firebreathing dragon who looks like something from a completely different game. Like its design is completely different, his mechanics are different, even his textures look unfinished, like he's still in Beta.
The entire game the major threats are the leviathans and not only are they barely in it, they're not very good, glitchy and very very easy to avoid. I got attacked all of 2 times, and that was when I was actively trying to scan a Reaper and the Bowser. The ghosts just seemed chil with me and didn't care, so live and let live.
Also I don't think they meant for me to build my primary base on dry land, because it utterly wrecks base mechanics. Full sun is great for solar panels, if the base parts are not underwater they don't detract from the structural integrity of the base, BUT reinforced parts on above water parts does ADD to it.
So by the end I have a sprawling base, mostly above water, with strength nearly 500, when strength 10 is considered good.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Got back to Divinity OS 2. Am around 60 hours in, fought a bunch of oil and fire slime monsters in an oil rig, took like a good hour to get through that encounter, super epic!


That temple is the most beautiful area in the whole game. You're in for a treat!

It also has one of the most fun mini-bosses in the game.

 

[meiam]

I finally forked out the money for a Switch and continuing my Star Fox playthrough, I got Starlink.

I hate it. I really hate it. Go to place A, shoot bullet sponge enemies, harvest their remains, go to place B. FFS, the game opens with a space dogfight, but nup, more open world nonsense.

And y'know what? This game is really Mass Effect: Andromeda lite. Don't believe me?

The Starlink/Andromeda Initiative journeys to the Atlas system/Heleus cluster where they encounter the Forgotten Legion/Remnant, which were created by the Wardens/Jardan, and maintained the creation/terraforming of the Atlas/Heleus worlds. They make allies with aliens, and come into conflict with the antagonist/Archon, who wants to use the technology for their own purposes. Cue exploration over desert planets and visiting extractors/temples to accomplish goal's.

Difference is, while I've criticized Andromeda a lot, Starlink makes it look like bloody Shakespeare.

You know... I sorta liked starlink... in theory, in practice its pretty awful. I liked the basic gameplay, moving around on a planet felt pretty good and combat was sorta enjoyable, I liked that different pilot would give team wide bonus so you'd want to keep switching people around to level most of the team and most character would specialize in certain gameplay which kept things mostly fresh. Suprisingly the space combat was also enjoyable, and fighting against the massive ship was pretty good.

Buuuuuut, all of that was wasted by the monetization model. Pretty much everything just came from DLC, new character, new ships, new weapon. So exploration wasn't that rewarded, you'd just get new accessory which didn't matter all that much around mid game since you can make high tier by combining low tier one, so you can quickly max out the stuff you use. Plus the few weapons and ships you get in the base game get repetitive very quickly since there's so few of them. And you can quickly get the important skill for all the free pilots.

Of course even if that was fixed the game still has plenty of problem, the story is a complete waste with every character clearly being designed by commite to hit target kid demographic. It constantly force you to go back to place you already cleared and some later enemy are real bullet sponge, so gameplay start dragging down around mid game.

Overall I think there were all the ingredients for an awesome game, but it turned into something that's less than the sums of it's parts.

 

[Dalisclock]

I just finished Subnautica. Not bad. Loved the underwater exploring, I just wish there was more if it.

There's a Sort of Sequel in Early Access right now. Takes place in the Polar Regions.
The only reason I haven't picked it up yet is because it's still Early Access. I full plan to grab it once it hits full release.

 

[Hawki]

You know... I sorta liked starlink... in theory, in practice its pretty awful. I liked the basic gameplay, moving around on a planet felt pretty good and combat was sorta enjoyable, I liked that different pilot would give team wide bonus so you'd want to keep switching people around to level most of the team and most character would specialize in certain gameplay which kept things mostly fresh. Suprisingly the space combat was also enjoyable, and fighting against the massive ship was pretty good.

Buuuuuut, all of that was wasted by the monetization model. Pretty much everything just came from DLC, new character, new ships, new weapon. So exploration wasn't that rewarded, you'd just get new accessory which didn't matter all that much around mid game since you can make high tier by combining low tier one, so you can quickly max out the stuff you use. Plus the few weapons and ships you get in the base game get repetitive very quickly since there's so few of them. And you can quickly get the important skill for all the free pilots.

Of course even if that was fixed the game still has plenty of problem, the story is a complete waste with every character clearly being designed by commite to hit target kid demographic. It constantly force you to go back to place you already cleared and some later enemy are real bullet sponge, so gameplay start dragging down around mid game.

Overall I think there were all the ingredients for an awesome game, but it turned into something that's less than the sums of it's parts.

I'm up to the second planet, and there's already a sense of monotony. Go to X, shoot at bullet sponge enemies, rinse and repeat.

Serious question, is it viable to keep to the main quest and not bother with side activities, or is grinding required? I kind of want to just get the game over and done with.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Currently playing Alice: Madness Returns on Nightmare. It's hard.

I also played American McGee's Alice on Hard right before, some things don't hold up as well but the atmosphere/visuals/story are still worth a playthrough.

Oh, American McGee's Alice, that brings me back. Weird and dated but not bad.

Speaking of weird an dated, still playing Doom2 mods, in this case Brutal Wolfenstein, which is like Brutal Doom, but using Wolfenstein levels and enemies and weapons. Do like...especially as I probably have Wolf3d somewhere, but on floppy disks, and no longer able to use them.

Playing it on the easiest difficulty and it's still hard, though. Some levels just throw oodles of Nazis and not many health pick ups or ammo at you.

 

[SilentPony]

There's a Sort of Sequel in Early Access right now. Takes place in the Polar Regions.
The only reason I haven't picked it up yet is because it's still Early Access. I full plan to grab it once it hits full release.

Ill have to look into that. The premise of the game is great, the execution is just a little slow and shallow. They make a big deal of the reaper leviathans, they're the real deal legit big bad. Okay where are they? Oh a few over there, and a few over there. Okay do I ever need to go over there? Once, in the beginning of the game. And do the reapers ever travel to other locations? Nope, they're just over there. And I have no reason to ever go back there? None. So they're not really a threat so much as a temporary annoyance...once. Basically.