What are you currently playing?

[Dirty Hipsters]

It does sound like a really interesting game and I've had it in my library for a while but It also sounds like quite a commitment, which is why I haven't played it yet. Also, the super hard reputation it has. But then again, I ended up liking FROM games so maybe thats not as big a deal as I think it would be.

Actually the fact that it's not really that much of a commitment is what I really like about it. I like to pop on when I don't really have a lot of time, but have like 20 minutes to do a quick dungeon. You can exit the game at any time and it constantly saves your progress (souls style), and most dungeons aren't too long. It's a nice thing to play in between other games.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I dunno about a commitment, I mean the fights are pretty self contained, so you can finish a dungeon run, go back to town, and stop for the day if you want. You can also put it on an easier mode (which I do, and it's still pretty difficult), if the amount of difficulty is a problem. I usually play it in spurts, with a specific goal in mind, usually getting a particular hero to their next level, or unlocking the next upgrade in town, which means farming for the upgrade materials. But you can stop it pretty much whenever you want. It's not like Souls where you can only save at a campfire and anything after is lost if you quit. The autosave in the game is pretty generous, though I can't recall offhand if you autosave while in the dungeons themselves? I think if you camp it counts? So in theory you could camp mid-run, and then stop for the day.

It's really not that bad. Seriously I fucking HATE FromSoft games, and I enjoy DD just fine.

AFAIK DD uses a persistent autosave system like Souls, so it's constantly saving whenever you do anything or upon exiting the game. I think manual saves are an option only as a cheat/mod, but may make the game unstable/corrupted.

 

[EscapeGoat]

I've just finished playing The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I needed something a bit briefer as a palate cleanser after playing nothing but Assassin's Creed Odyssey for about 4 weeks, and this seemed as good as any. I quite enjoyed it; I do like interactive narratives try and do something a bit different and Ethan Carter certainly offered that at least. I'm not sure I entirely agree with the glowing reviews I've seen of it on Steam and elsewhere, but it was definitely an interesting (not to mention a wee bit creepy) experience.

 

[wings012]

I don’t care for Halo much but that’s pretty impressive from what I hear.

ODST isn't that bad difficulty wise, even on Legendary. The worst is Halo 2, where it's downright unfair and brain aneurysm causing. 1 is pretty difficult too.

 

[happyninja42]

ODST isn't that bad difficulty wise, even on Legendary. The worst is Halo 2, where it's downright unfair and brain aneurysm causing. 1 is pretty difficult too.

Never was a fan of HALO, but damn if they didn't make 2 trailers for a couple of their games, that I genuinely think were really solid short films.


I fucking love that trailer. No qualifications, just some solid ass cinematography and storytelling.


This one is also just really good visualization.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I got this a while ago but it was a big one to check off -

Spoiler

And back on the mantle where he belongs-

Now I’m into the exotics, but at least it’s free of the “perfect” quality stipulation. Also closing in on the Grin and Bear it trophy, where you have to get attacked by a bear and kill it, x 18.

Would like to know how they came up with that number. Best I can surmise is the game release in ‘18?

Anyways, after these two things the worst part left will be getting gold in over five dozen more missions, since I originally only ever got a handful if that.

In any case, regardless of making actual progress this is still one of the ultimate cases where just playing to take screenshots in photo mode is enough of an excuse. Really liked this shot when the fog was thick one night, with only moonlight to guide me.

I’d like to also get a full 24hr cycle time lapse of someplace like Roanoke Ridge in the woods, preferably with various weather. The color grading when the ground is dry vs wet is outstanding. Reminds me of some of the places I used to go as a kid.

 

[happyninja42]

Started playing Crusder Kings 3.

It's....interesting I guess. Not very familiar with Paradox games that much, I dabbled with Stellaris, but never really got into it, which is odd because I love scifi.

I find it a little frustrating, trying to navigate the UI a lot of times. For the most part it's really good, but there are some places where I'm screaming at the screen like "why can't I find this information?!" Also there were some times I couldn't assign people to my council, for no good reason. Like I couldn't assign my daughter-in-law to my counsel as my financial administrator, despite her being tailor made for such a job. But I could assign her husband (my son) to the counsel just fine, and some random fuckwad from my court who just showed up. HE'S fine to put in charge my duchy's finances, but my own extended family? Who is ideally suited due to multiple income related traits, a high education, she's not eligible for the role....and the game tells me NOTHING about why this is.

I also just couldn't revoke my son's right as heir, despite him being a known murderer (there was an entire little campaign about finding out he's a serial killer), and even though my character was insanely religious, like bordering on having enough Faith to make my own variation on catholicism, I couldn't do anything to say "yeah no he's an insane, pox ridden, lecherous, adulterer (something that is a sin) SERIAL KILLER....I'd kind of like my other kid to be ruler. But no, there's no way to revoke his inheritance (that I could find anyway). Excommunicating him and exiling him from the kingdom does nothing to revoke his inheritance. It just makes him not like me...whoopty doo, that was productive.

I'm finding it somewhat engaging, but equally frustrating on a lot of levels.

 

[Dalisclock]

[QU

Started playing Crusder Kings 3.

It's....interesting I guess. Not very familiar with Paradox games that much, I dabbled with Stellaris, but never really got into it, which is odd because I love scifi.

I find it a little frustrating, trying to navigate the UI a lot of times. For the most part it's really good, but there are some places where I'm screaming at the screen like "why can't I find this information?!" Also there were some times I couldn't assign people to my council, for no good reason. Like I couldn't assign my daughter-in-law to my counsel as my financial administrator, despite her being tailor made for such a job. But I could assign her husband (my son) to the counsel just fine, and some random fuckwad from my court who just showed up. HE'S fine to put in charge my duchy's finances, but my own extended family? Who is ideally suited due to multiple income related traits, a high education, she's not eligible for the role....and the game tells me NOTHING about why this is.

I also just couldn't revoke my son's right as heir, despite him being a known murderer (there was an entire little campaign about finding out he's a serial killer), and even though my character was insanely religious, like bordering on having enough Faith to make my own variation on catholicism, I couldn't do anything to say "yeah no he's an insane, pox ridden, lecherous, adulterer (something that is a sin) SERIAL KILLER....I'd kind of like my other kid to be ruler. But no, there's no way to revoke his inheritance (that I could find anyway). Excommunicating him and exiling him from the kingdom does nothing to revoke his inheritance. It just makes him not like me...whoopty doo, that was productive.

I'm finding it somewhat engaging, but equally frustrating on a lot of levels.

It's kind of the problem with Crusader Kings and Paradox in general. They have a steep learning curve, a lot of interlocking systems and they're not good at telling you how to do things(Stellaris was better about this).

It's one of the reasons I've owned CK2 for a while, but every time I try to get into it I keep running into the "I have no idea what I'm doing" problem that makes it hard to enjoy.

 

[happyninja42]

[QU


It's kind of the problem with Crusader Kings and Paradox in general. They have a steep learning curve, a lot of interlocking systems and they're not good at telling you how to do things(Stellaris was better about this).

It's one of the reasons I've owned CK2 for a while, but every time I try to get into it I keep running into the "I have no idea what I'm doing" problem that makes it hard to enjoy.

Yeah that's kind of where I am. I mean, CK3 had this neat thing "ok so your 'tutorial' to test your ability with the systems we just explained, is to totally conquer Ireland!" And I thought "Ok cool, that seems reasonable, it's a relatively small landmass by comparison, it's an island, so less risk of outside invasion, it's a unified religion, so no real faith based conflicts at the start. Sounds good!" Utterly failed to accomplish anything really in the style I wanted within the lifespan of my first dude. Got smashed by raiders and other junk. And I'm just like...ok so what's the appeal here?

I've since had more success, and thus fun with it. But I dislike having much control over how my character plays. Like, I WANT to play an atheist, and (in theory at least) establish an atheistic society. But I'll be damned if I can figure out how to do anything like "change my religious stance" outside of a random event where I come across some book/person who makes me go "hmm, they seem to have good ideas". Like I can't just CHOOSE to not believe anymore, maybe paying out all my faith currency to do so. And yet, the game clearly acknowledges atheism, and godlessness, because I see people all over the place with personality tags of "Something Atheist" or "Godless Something" , which tells me dick all about them, because immediately below it, it says stuff like Irish Catholic. Well ok game, which is it? Are they actually an atheist? And if so, how the hell do I know that? And if they aren't an atheist, and are actually catholic, then what the fuck does this indicator of their personality actually MEAN?!

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Anomaly Planets, they've been around at least since Next though.

Oh right, hadn't seen them before. Nevermind! Home planet underwent some massive changes and gave it weird giant teddy bear creatures at least.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Went ahead and got Darkest Dungeon. I'm going in on Radiant (baby mode for babies difficulty). By coincidence also playing lots of This War of Mine. Don't know what it is but I like this cut-your-losses style of gameplay. In TWOM you're never going to have too much of anything and all it takes is one bad day for things to go south. You're never going to have everyone happy, well-fed, well-rested, healthy and uninjured, so gameplay is a series of compromises where you choose between the lesser of two evils or two good things you can't have at once. RNG is tough but every time you think you're fucked there's a (morally reprehensible) out. The ability to reroll before the end of the day if you're not happy with the outcome is welcome as a last resource too although I generally prefer to roll with the punches.

 

[laggyteabag]

Replayed Halo 3 ODST for its launch on PC, and it is a fun time.

The campaign is short and sweet, and the gameplay (like the other Halo games) has barely aged - even if the ballistic automatic weapons could feel meatier. The story isn't much to write home about, and you barely spend enough time with the characters to care about anyone or anything, but the mission variety, music, and scenery make it well worth trying (and probably beating, because it is so short).

Otherwise, im back to making my way through Dragon Age Origins, and im still having a good time. Just in the middle of a dungeon during the elves portion of the story, and im wishing that I picked a mage over a rogue, but luckily I can just swap between my characters if I feel like trying something new.

Thinking about maybe ditching Leliana for another mage or something, because her sitting in the backline, peppering enemies with arrows isn't nearly as impactful as someone turning people into icicles, healing my allies, or spamming debuffs. Unfortunately for me, she just so happens to be one of the few characters to continues to be relevant for the sequels, so having her in my party seems quite beneficial, if I still plan on playing 2 and Inquisition - at least from a story perspective.

 

[happyninja42]

Replayed Halo 3 ODST for its launch on PC, and it is a fun time.

The campaign is short and sweet, and the gameplay (like the other Halo games) has barely aged - even if the ballistic automatic weapons could feel meatier. The story isn't much to write home about, and you barely spend enough time with the characters to care about anyone or anything, but the mission variety, music, and scenery make it well worth trying (and probably beating, because it is so short).

Otherwise, im back to making my way through Dragon Age Origins, and im still having a good time. Just in the middle of a dungeon during the elves portion of the story, and im wishing that I picked a mage over a rogue, but luckily I can just swap between my characters if I feel like trying something new.

Thinking about maybe ditching Leliana for another mage or something, because her sitting in the backline, peppering enemies with arrows isn't nearly as impactful as someone turning people into icicles, healing my allies, or spamming debuffs. Unfortunately for me, she just so happens to be one of the few characters to continues to be relevant for the sequels, so having her in my party seems quite beneficial, if I still plan on playing 2 and Inquisition - at least from a story perspective.

Ah, DA: O, that game is one of my favorite memories of finding a way to kind of exploit game mechanics, but in a way that was super fun to do.

So, I found, that if you have someone built as a ranger, and give them that ability to summon a wolf, for a split second, when you summon that wolf, they have the full list of behavioral IF/THEN to tailor their pattern of actions. You could tell them to assist someone else's attack, you could tell them to attack certain types of enemies, all the stuff you could do with a normal companion. And I found it HIGHLY fun to make a wolf pack. So, my team consisted of me as a hunter with a wolf, 2 other heroes that I built down the hunter tree to also have wolves, and then my glorious warhound. And basically I had him built to instantly attack any caster types ( I think it was based on lowest health? Which usually meant, at the start of a fight, the clothy mages in the back row). I'd have him do a wolf dash and charge them, knocking them down, then proceed to bite them while down, and I would tell each of the summoned wolves, to assist him as primary target. So, what would happen, EVERY...single...time, was we'd start a fight (I'd already have the wolves up), the robe wearing squishy boys in the back would start to waggle their arms to try and nuke us or whatever....and you would see 4 canines, just bum rush the dude, and bury him in wolf flesh, after which he would promptly die screaming, while me and the 2 leggers would shoot arrows into the other dudes. Then we'd watch as the pack, fresh from their squishy appetizer in the back row, would turn to a new target (usually "Someone attack Me"), and repeat the process. It was some of the most fun I've had actually trying to min/max, exploit a game system ever. Plus it was just fun as hell to watch.

Those doggos were the true heroes of the realm.

 

[meiam]

Started playing Crusder Kings 3.

It's....interesting I guess. Not very familiar with Paradox games that much, I dabbled with Stellaris, but never really got into it, which is odd because I love scifi.

I find it a little frustrating, trying to navigate the UI a lot of times. For the most part it's really good, but there are some places where I'm screaming at the screen like "why can't I find this information?!" Also there were some times I couldn't assign people to my council, for no good reason. Like I couldn't assign my daughter-in-law to my counsel as my financial administrator, despite her being tailor made for such a job. But I could assign her husband (my son) to the counsel just fine, and some random fuckwad from my court who just showed up. HE'S fine to put in charge my duchy's finances, but my own extended family? Who is ideally suited due to multiple income related traits, a high education, she's not eligible for the role....and the game tells me NOTHING about why this is.

I also just couldn't revoke my son's right as heir, despite him being a known murderer (there was an entire little campaign about finding out he's a serial killer), and even though my character was insanely religious, like bordering on having enough Faith to make my own variation on catholicism, I couldn't do anything to say "yeah no he's an insane, pox ridden, lecherous, adulterer (something that is a sin) SERIAL KILLER....I'd kind of like my other kid to be ruler. But no, there's no way to revoke his inheritance (that I could find anyway). Excommunicating him and exiling him from the kingdom does nothing to revoke his inheritance. It just makes him not like me...whoopty doo, that was productive.

I'm finding it somewhat engaging, but equally frustrating on a lot of levels.

Women can't be assigned most position on council, only spymaster usually (cause spymaster wasn't an official position). Revoking title is made hard by design, so that you can't easily control your inheritance. If you're the head of the dynatsy you can revoke his inheritance, there's also some "gamey" way to remove them, like sending them out to battle alone so they get killed (in CK2 you just send them out at sea for awhile and they'd get sick). You can arrest them and throw them in the dungeon to negativly affect their health, but that comes with downside and might not work. Next patch will make this much easier for catholic since you'll be able to force your kid to take the vow (become monk) and disqualify them from inheritance. The UI is a bit of a disappointment compared to CK2, there's a lot of information that used to be easy to find but is almost impossible now.

As for playing as atheist, you need to go into learning focus and some event can pop up that will let you down the cynism route, once you have the trait (not easy but not impossible) you can educate you're children to make sure they get it. You can't officially be without religion (in fact being a non believer is something you can be blackmailed for), but you can change you're faith to be a lot more cool about these things.

 

[happyninja42]

Women can't be assigned most position on council, only spymaster usually

Oh right, I forgot about that. Dumb shit there but, oh well.

As for playing as atheist, you need to go into learning focus and some event can pop up that will let you down the cynism route, once you have the trait (not easy but not impossible) you can educate you're children to make sure they get it. You can't officially be without religion (in fact being a non believer is something you can be blackmailed for), but you can change you're faith to be a lot more cool about these things.

So it's still down to pure luck if that particular choice comes up. Which is lame, because the character I started as, WAS a learning focus (she even got bonus xp for her background), and I even made a choice to always pick what seemed the most secular/skeptical options when given choices. And yet somehow, in a way that I still don't understand, this just reinforced her faith, to the point she was almost the 4th tier of faith (without actually putting points into the Faith related tree mind you, not at first anyway), and if I had saved her piety score, I could've founded a new branch of catholicism. Which I seriously considered, but ended up spending several hundred piety on...something I forget, I think excommunicating her son.

So that's less enjoyable, that it's still pure chance, especially when it seems like my choices had the opposite effect on the results reflected in my stats. "Question things, study things, ask questions, don't just take stuff on faith" Result: Your faith in god is affirmed and the church loves you! you are a beacon of religious devotion! Me. ( -_- )

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished Inmost. It was.....interesting. It's definitely one of those "Art" platformer games that have found a niche the last decade or so and that I have a weird soft spot for (such as GRIS). This one in particular is three storylines each with its own playstyle and don't appear to be linked except they are....kinda. One is a little girl, who has adventures around her house, but since she can't jump she spends a lot of time climbing on(and wrecking) things with some dialogue and exposition. One is a knight who slays dark blob monsters while a narrator prattles on about pain and flowers and darkness (She does a good job though with the material she's given, so it's not awful to listen to even if it is a bit overwritten). The longest segment is a man exploring an ever broadening map with lots of backtracking and plays like a metroidvania with a small but satisfying map. The 3 viewpoints switch at predefined points so it's not like you can just play one character, finish and then move on to the next, which is good for breaking up the gameplay but bad if you were getting invested in that particular section. However, the switches occur roughly ever 10-20 minutes of gameplay it helps the variety.

The graphics are pretty good(it has a color palette like a gameboy but much better definition), it's got some nice music(mostly piano used for somber tones). There is a plot and it's kind of sad and moving, but it's also....really poorly told. Mostly because the game suffers from a love of SYMBOLISM and METAPHOR to the point it's difficult to tell exactly what the hell the real story is. Even after finishing I'm not sure, but to quote Yahtzee "It's about Depression, because they all are".

Really, Inmost is a good game and there's pretty decent story underneath it all, but while the 3 different gameplay segments are well done, they don't really connect very well(or maybe at all) and thus the story is really difficult to actually discern because of the layers and layers of SYMBOLISM and METAPHOR. The narrated segment about pain and flowers and darkness sounds like a pretty good fable type story, but it doesn't really do a good job of explaining what's really going on.

Contrast to Celeste which feels similar but Celeste feels like it did this much better because it's a lot more focused and the symbolism is a lot more straightforward. Yes, Celeste also deals with depression(to an extent) but Celeste is focused on one main POV character and using the struggle to climb the mountain as a very good metaphor.

On the bright side, you can easily finish it in a setting or two(it's like 4 hours long at most) so it's lack of clarity don't count too heavily against it and if you want to play a platformer with some nice atmosphere and ambition, give it a shot. For $15 that it's asked on GOG, it might be worth it.

 

[Catfood220]

So, I I have totally given up on Ghost of Tsushima, the story is ok, the combat is fine and the game is pretty to look at. But it is so dull when you aren't doing a mission. This should not of been an open world game because there is nothing to do when you aren't in a mission, other than fight the same for or five blokes over and over again every now and again. So yeah, I'm done and this will be traded in at some point.

So what am I playing, well I went back to the last time Sucker Punch put out a fun game and that is iNfamous: Second Son and even if it is the third best of the games, the amount of fun I'm having with this game is instantly greater than Ghost. I'm playing as evil Delsin so running and leaping around being a dick to everyone is so much fun. I have no idea how Sucker Punch managed to create such a dead world when they have shown that they can make a world that feels lived in and alive with the iNfamous series.

Anyway, I also recently played and completed Donut County, a strange little indie game where you play as a hole that you steer around sucking up objects, starting with stones and grass, gradually getting bigger until you are sucking up buildings. The story is quite funny, even if the dialogue is a bit cringeworthy, but I think that's the point. Plus its an easy platinum if you care about that sort of thing. Check it out if you fancy something a bit different.

 

[Rean]

I'm currently playing Hades, and it's probably gonna end up as my game of the year. It's easily the best example of a roguelike that perfectly integrates story and gameplay, and has fantastic gameplay, sound and art design.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Dooky Doom eternal. This game is hard. Why is it so hard? Ok, yes maybe i picked the hard mode, but it's never usually that hard! It's a rare feeling to have where you can actually sense the limitations of a controller as opposed to a K&M with hardly any personal experience around the latter. The many directions i need to point simply just cannot be pointed at in time, the many buttons for specific weaknesses oft confused in the panic of the moment. Damn. Still, i think i prefer it over the original, it has more game in it, more variety, wackiness, scale, story, seems like they wanted to go nuts with the concept and nothing stopped them.
Although the first message upon starting the game being "Checking your online privileges" sets off a kneejerk inner response of "check your own online privileges, you cheeky kunt...i payed for this physical game disc!" So there's that. And seeing the doom slayer is offputting, knowing he's just generic shooter protag flesh dude is boring. If it were me, i would've stylistically hidden any hint of flesh and face from the camera so the viewer can imagine whatever flavour of beefcake they'd so desire, as it wouldn't lose anything for it.
Also, i find yahtzee's take on it quite contradictory, as he claims its just more of the same but then goes on to say it demands a different more strategic playstyle, which it certainly does, but means it cannot therefore only be more of the same. It does feel a different beast for sure.

Oh well, should get back to relentlessly dying while wishing i wasn't too stubborn to turn down the mistakenly judged difficulty setting i suppose.

 

[Chimpzy]

Dook eternal. This game is hard. Why is it so hard? Ok, yes maybe i picked the hard mode, but it's never usually that hard! It's a rare feeling to have where you can actually sense the limitations of a controller as opposed to a K&M with hardly any personal experience around the latter. The many directions i need to point simply just cannot be pointed at in time, the many buttons for specific weaknesses oft confused in the panic of the moment. Damn. Still, i think i prefer it over the original, it has more game in it, more variety, wackiness, scale, story, seems like they wanted to go nuts with the concept and nothing stopped them.
Although the first message upon starting the game being "Checking your online privileges" sets off a kneejerk inner response of "check your own online privileges, you cheeky kunt...i payed for this physical game disc!" So there's that. And seeing the doom slayer is offputting, knowing he's just generic shooter protag flesh dude is boring. If it were me, i would've stylistically hidden any hint of flesh and face from the camera so the viewer can imagine whatever flavour of beefcake they'd so desire, as it wouldn't lose anything for it.
Also, i find yahtzee's take on it quite contradictory, as he claims its just more of the same but then goes on to say it demands a different more strategic playstyle, which it certainly does, but means it cannot therefore only be more of the same. It does feel a different beast for sure.

Oh well, should get back to relentlessly dying while wishing i wasn't too stubborn to turn down the mistakenly judged difficulty setting i suppose.

I did the same thing playing Doom Eternal, going straight to Nightmare and playing it like I did Doom 2016. And promptly started getting cornholed in my immaculate heinie by pineapple-cocked demons in the latter half of the game. Also, no overpowered Rich Get Richer + Gauss Cannon Siege Mode combo cheese anymore. Sadface. Until I learned that using all the new toys if the magic key to dicking down all comers and becoming the omega chad.