What are you currently playing?

[Dalisclock]

I like how that sounds. It's a big plus for people who don't have oodles of times to spend iterating what you just did to get anywhere, because for some trial and erroR-NG reason it wasn't correct. As a big SoulsBorne fan I'm well versed in rerun's, but from what I've played of DD it takes that a few notches higher in terms of making any progress. At least in Souls you can make a quick suicide run through an area to snag some loot, die and still be no worse for wear. The quick pace also sounds kinda refereshing.

You loose your boons(buffs) when you die but the weapons you unlock(and you can prioritize getting keys to unlock weapons early on if you want) and stat upgrades you buy stay unlocked, but you earn boons in like every room you clear so it's not a big deal. In fact, it gives you reason to experiment with different combinations of weapons and boons.

One of the reviews I was reading was going over how even if you suck at the game you could eventually stat grind enough to power though, though I think the combat flows really nicely and the challenge curve is reasonable. The most difficult part so far is just figuring out what works, the boons, etc, but as I said, I've done like 2 runs so I'm still learning the game so I may be mistaken about just what carries over.

If you played Bastian, the combat is a lot like that, especially the way you can find a weapon and upgrade combination that works for your playstyle. The biggest thing to know about difficulty is that you don't have any health restoration items, and while you can pay to restore your health in certain places mid-run, get boons for health bar upgrades for a run and even get a boon that restores health slowly, your health, for all intents and purposes is gone for the run once you take damage, so avoiding damage is a big deal. It's an adjustment but not nearly as bad as I imagined it would be so far.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Though one could argue having to cut loose people or at best take weeks and weeks to get them back into the game because of how broken they are is essentially the same as them being useless after a bad(or unlucky run). It's not XCOM level of Code Black that leads you into a death spiral because you can't catch up, but it still means your best team might be essentially done for a while.

Usually you won't lose people for weeks and weeks unless you keep letting the negative stats build up until they're really bad. A single bad run will only net you like 2 negative stats at most, and usually not even that.

How fucked up your characters get will depend entirely on how much you prioritize getting them unfucked. If you're treating them as expendable and not paying for them to get de-stressed or cured then be prepared to have to replace them or for them to require a few nice long expensive vacations to get sorted.

 

[meiam]

Usually you won't lose people for weeks and weeks unless you keep letting the negative stats build up until they're really bad. A single bad run will only net you like 2 negative stats at most, and usually not even that.

How fucked up your characters get will depend entirely on how much you prioritize getting them unfucked. If you're treating them as expendable and not paying for them to get de-stressed or cured then be prepared to have to replace them or for them to require a few nice long expensive vacations to get sorted.

Unfucking them is so expensive and higher level dungeon aren't much more rewarding than lower level on, so firing and re hiring is usually much better. Maybe keep a few one who get a bunch of really good quirk so that you can lock them down later on. But the game was definitely made with the idea that you're just going to churn trough hero.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Unfucking them is so expensive and higher level dungeon aren't much more rewarding than lower level on, so firing and re hiring is usually much better. Maybe keep a few one who get a bunch of really good quirk so that you can lock them down later on. But the game was definitely made with the idea that you're just going to churn trough hero.

It's like an allegory about management and hiring employees. It's expensive to actually take care of them, making sure they aren't too overworked and stressed, and allowing them to take vacations (at the brothel).

Better to just work them until they're useless and hire new ones. There's always a new employee around the corner, why treat your current staff well?

 

[NerfedFalcon]

After seeing large amounts of praise heaped upon it here and elsewhere, I've decided to pick up Hades on the Switch and give it a try myself. Haven't started it yet, will update when that happens.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

After seeing large amounts of praise heaped upon it here and elsewhere, I've decided to pick up Hades on the Switch and give it a try myself. Haven't started it yet, will update when that happens.

I’d probably do the same if I was looking for an new game, but I haven’t even dented many older games yet.


Oh well. Finally got the Grin and Bear It trophy in RDR2. Now all that’s left is the one for 70 gold medals in missions, studying and skinning *all* animals in the compendium, getting 100% and I have to go back and get the Friends or Benefits one that I missed.

 

[BrawlMan]

Crash Bandicoot 4. My God............


This a great sequel and is better than all of the other sequels that came after 3. The game has earned the title of Crash 4. The game play while similar has defintely been improved upon without straying to far, but adding new elements that flow or do not go overboard. The new mask powers are fun, Tawana's a neat new addition whenever you have the option to play her levels, and love how there is a modern and classic mode for lives. This game even has Sonic rail grinding. For 3d platforming fans, I highly recommend you get this, if you have not already.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

SteamWorld Dig 2

Makes the first SteamWorld game feel like a demo for the sequel. The first game is maybe a couple of pegs above an incremental game: you mine ore, you go to the surface to sell it, you use the money to buy upgrades for your mining equipment, rinse and repeat. It's very short, looks like a rudimentary Flash game and basically consists of 3 dungeons and a boss. But the gameplay loop is really fun, "just 10 more minutes" kind of addictive and above all it's a viscerally satisfying experience.

SteamWorld Dig 2 takes that and builds something that feels like an actual full-fledged game. Everything it does is bigger, better, more polished, more elaborate. Traversal is more fluid (any game with a hookshot and/or a jetpack is my friend), the upgrades are a bit more versatile (they can be modified with upgrade tokens), there's some nifty puzzle rooms, the platforming has been streamlined and the game is generally more accomodating. It also feels like a proper Metroidvania, with a vast interconnected web of caves and underworlds gated behind specific abilities (but allowing for some major sequence breaking) instead of a series of linear dirtboxes like the first game.

There's more of an emphasis on plot this time around, as lighthearted as it gets. The plot of the first game was made up by an intro and an outro; this time around you feel like you're part of a developing story. And as basic as it is, it's much more motivating when you're working towards something specific.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finally finished HR1 in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate; the guy I've been playing it with is in the 260 range, but he uses fairly low-power gear so he doesn't just kill everything for me instantly. Still working on 3* quests offline.

Hades is good. The characters are all pretty likeable, the combat is like Bastion except a lot more mobile and fluid (and I liked Bastion a lot already), and the developers clearly put a lot of effort into researching Greek mythology instead of just relying on common knowledge. So far I've beaten the mid-boss of the second area, but haven't yet reached the boss.

 

[gorfias]

On PC, I just tried Paths Of Exile, a free to play Diablo clone. It's early but I find it is extremely engaging so far. I will play some more ASAP.
PS4 I played some more Detroit Almost Human. It's like a Tell Tale game with photo realistic graphics rather than cell shade.
PS plus free games drop today. I think my ADHD is going to distract me again.

And I've wanted to pay these: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-plus-free-games-for-october-2020/1100-6482774/

Much, much better offering than Gold IMHO. I think they're trying to get me to buy their Pass.

Also, this afternoon I think another Humble Bundle may drop.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Was thinking of getting Blasphemous too. I'm sold on the aesthetic alone but the game seems to be pretty divisive even among people who've played it to death.

To me the platforming felt off. Something about the movement of the character didn't feel quite right either. I quit very early on though since it just felt like a lesser Hollow Knight, maybe it actually gets better further in.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Went ahead and got Darkest Dungeon. I'm going in on Radiant (baby mode for babies difficulty).

Worst part about Darkest Dungeon is the walking speed. I gave up on the game in the last dungeon because I couldn't stand the hours of slowly trudging across the screen that were required every time I lost a character and had to grind up a new one because of a random string of enemy crits or whatever. Radiant is a good idea. I was playing original mode or whatever and it kind of sucks.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

To me the platforming felt off. Something about the movement of the character didn't feel quite right either. I quit very early on though since it just felt like a lesser Hollow Knight, maybe it actually gets better further in.

I'm tracking HK and waiting for a sale (not that I don't think it's worth the 15 bucks but that's a PSN rule of mine). Everything is half off sooner or later and having the backlog I do it's pointless to pay extra just to have it sit there. I'm done with Guacamelee and the SteamWorlds and currently sitting on Guacamelee 2 and Strider; the endgame is I play pretty much every indie Metroidvania of some reputation I've missed out this generation. So waiting on HK, Axiom Verge, Dead Cells and Celeste (is that even MV?). Blasphemous is 60% off so I'll probably get it next if I can budget it.

 

[Piscian]

I can't seem to put "Slay The Spire" down since I picked it up on switch a couple months ago. I generally spend at least an hour a day playing. I don't tend to play Rogue like games because they're intentionally randomly difficult in an obnoxious way I find off-putting. I like Slay the Spire because everything is super technical and theres less emphasis on randomness and more on your own skill. Each battle largely comes down to you doing a lot of math and planning. I think it also appeals to me as a CCG player. Paying attention to your deck as a whole and where your hand is heading each battle. Despite having beaten the game on regular with all classes and now going through NG+ with of the classes I'm still figuring out how some of the cards work in the context of the overall game.

I recently picked up a Samsung Odyssey G9 Ultrawide so I've been going back and playing Burnout Paradise. I'm very frustrated because so far Burnout Paradise is still the only good racing game that gives you the freedom to drive around a city GTA style racing and battling cars at will, not to mention all the secrets you can find. I remember when the first Trailer for "The Crew" came out


I lost my mind, but as with all things Ubisoft that turned out to be a big dumpster fire. Still pining for a good Openworld racing game to appear.

 

[meiam]

I'm tracking HK and waiting for a sale (not that I don't think it's worth the 15 bucks but that's a PSN rule of mine). Everything is half off sooner or later and having the backlog I do it's pointless to pay extra just to have it sit there. I'm done with Guacamelee and the SteamWorlds and currently sitting on Guacamelee 2 and Strider; the endgame is I play pretty much every indie Metroidvania of some reputation I've missed out this generation. So waiting on HK, Axiom Verge, Dead Cells and Celeste (is that even MV?). Blasphemous is 60% off so I'll probably get it next if I can budget it.

Yeah that's what I do, my steam wishlist has over 300 titles in it and it's just ranked by discount, I grab game when there's a big discount on them. It's shocking how quickly some game go on discount, I think ACdyssey was 50% within a few months of release.

Of those you listed I played dead cell, it's fun but the more you play the worst it gets in some ways. As you play you unlock more weapon that can randomly spawn in level/shop but a lot of the later stuff isn't very good and there's no way to find out before unlocking it. So it gets harder and harder to get the weapon you want witch is not very fun.

 

[happyninja42]

CK 3, though seriously screw that game. No matter what tactic I try, I can't even get 3 freaking counties to make a duchy before the AI decides to just slam tons of alliances on my head. If it's not random raiders JUST deciding to come raid me when I start a war for that final county, it's a metric ton of allies joining the war against me and killing me. I can't form my own alliances because I don't have enough children if I pick certain leaders (one dude is already 67 when you pick him), but if I don't get a duchy, there is a high risk of losing the game due to inheritance. I start to seige the town of the county I want, and of course a little band of jackasses sieges my own town back. So i have to either just assume the losses (and possibly my entire line because that's just my luck with that game), or break off my siege to go break their siege, and then run back and try and restart it, as all progress is lost.

I'd like to enjoy the game, but it seems to be actively trying to prevent that.

 

[meiam]

CK 3, though seriously screw that game. No matter what tactic I try, I can't even get 3 freaking counties to make a duchy before the AI decides to just slam tons of alliances on my head. If it's not random raiders JUST deciding to come raid me when I start a war for that final county, it's a metric ton of allies joining the war against me and killing me. I can't form my own alliances because I don't have enough children if I pick certain leaders (one dude is already 67 when you pick him), but if I don't get a duchy, there is a high risk of losing the game due to inheritance. I start to seige the town of the county I want, and of course a little band of jackasses sieges my own town back. So i have to either just assume the losses (and possibly my entire line because that's just my luck with that game), or break off my siege to go break their siege, and then run back and try and restart it, as all progress is lost.

I'd like to enjoy the game, but it seems to be actively trying to prevent that.

Dunno where you're trying to start, but in a lot of cases a legit strategy is to become the vassal of a nearby big power. Also you can restart teh game pretty quickly, your starting character attributes will have big impact on the first few decades, which are the most important one. If you need money, get golden obligation and send you're spymaster to snoop for secret in an rich part of the world. You'll easily get more gold this way than trough your starting territory, which should help to buy merc.

 

[Dalisclock]

So waiting on HK, Axiom Verge, Dead Cells and Celeste (is that even MV?). Blasphemous is 60% off so I'll probably get it next if I can budget it.

Just to interject, Celeste is not a MV. It's a difficult platformer probably closer to Super Meat Boy but with a strong "You can do this!" theme.

It's still damn good though and as someone who has no interest in super meat boy or I wanna be the guy, and who NEVER wants to do the White Palace in HK again, I really, really loved it.

 

[Gergar12]

Star Wars Squadrons. Don't buy it for the multiplayer. Unless you have a group of friends you will always lose if against a premade team with premade plans. If anyone knows of a multiplayer game where you can play randoms against randoms, I will straight up go buy it right now, but I can't find it because developers discriminate against people like me who are introverts 0/10.

Edit: Also you can get spawn killed pretty easily in the game.

 

[gorfias]

I can't seem to put "Slay The Spire" down since I picked it up on switch a couple months ago. I generally spend at least an hour a day playing. I don't tend to play Rogue like games because they're intentionally randomly difficult in an obnoxious way I find off-putting. I like Slay the Spire because everything is super technical and theres less emphasis on randomness and more on your own skill. Each battle largely comes down to you doing a lot of math and planning. I think it also appeals to me as a CCG player. Paying attention to your deck as a whole and where your hand is heading each battle. Despite having beaten the game on regular with all classes and now going through NG+ with of the classes I'm still figuring out how some of the cards work in the context of the overall game.

I recently picked up a Samsung Odyssey G9 Ultrawide so I've been going back and playing Burnout Paradise. I'm very frustrated because so far Burnout Paradise is still the only good racing game that gives you the freedom to drive around a city GTA style racing and battling cars at will, not to mention all the secrets you can find. I remember when the first Trailer for "The Crew" came out


I lost my mind, but as with all things Ubisoft that turned out to be a big dumpster fire. Still pining for a good Openworld racing game to appear.

I like the Forza Horizon series a lot but own PS3 Paradise City, Xbox and PC HD Paradise City. Just the best. And I want that monitor! What are you using it on? I have an RX 480 I don't think could do it justice.
ITMT: PS+ dropped today with Need for Speed Payback. I gave it a brief try. Not the Paradise City killer.