What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Played another round of This War of Mine. This time I made it to the ceasefire in 45 days. Everything went down more or less the same as the first time, maybe even more smoothly since I had some idea of what the hell I was doing this time around. I guess every campaign is more or less the same once you figure out a system for yourself. To be fair I was using 3 survivors again, more or less equal in pros and cons to the first 3 survivors I used. Still haven't tried one of the loadouts with the useless kids.

 

[blue heartless]

Oh, cool, another mahjong enthusiast. I haven't played online in a while, but I usually use Tenhou, even though it's a bit more basic. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, just an active community on a stable client, and Tenhou's always provided that for me.

TBH, I've never heard of Mahjong Soul. What's it like?

It's mahjong with gacha where you collect an assortment of waifus and husbandos, voice packs, and outfits. There's also an affection element to the characters you play as, though I'm not sure if any of it impacts your ability to play the game.

For what my opinion is worth, the client works really well and there's a log so you can go back an look at your games which is really helpful for reviewing hands.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Despite my last post I've still been playing a bit of Crypt of the Necrodancer. Made it to the Dead Ringer boss with a lucky loadout before dying.

Also started Dead Rising 2. I'm kind of astonished how similar it is to the first game, pretty much a straight rehash. It's fine since I really liked the first game when I played it earlier this year, I just expected more changes. I guess you stick with what works.

Edit: Got to the Necrodancer as Cadence and it's kind of a BS fight. Not only are you suddenly lashed to a second character who has no good items and you haven't been upgrading, it forces you to use a completely new weapon which does absolutely nothing against every swarming around except the Necrodancer. By the time I figured that out dear ol' Dad was dead and I lost. Here I thought I would use the scroll of gigantism I'd been saving for half the game and wipe him out in a hit or two with my +4 damage obsidian rapier, but no. It's always fun when a game throws completely new mechanics at you in the last second and if you don't master them instantly you have to replay the game. Oh wait. No. It's terrible.

Anyway, I just beat him in the boss trainer mode and am calling that good enough. I feel like I've won anyway, even if the game doesn't recognize the fact. Now I can move on with my life.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Been playing Genshin Impact, which I am genuinely surprised has not been brought up in these forums so far.

It's DEFINITELY designed to wring you out for all the money you have, but honestly, it'll take a good few more hours before you really need to start paying to win. I have never seen such production value in a free to play game before, and I quite enjoy it. I started playing only because it was something I could see me and my girlfriend playing together (which ironically, we have yet to be able to do).

I plan on dropping it the moment I hit a paywall, but for now it will do as a quarantine game to play while I don't have access to better games.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Crackdown 3. Ok, I get it. It's not the ZOMFG NEXT GEN BLOCKBUSTER CRACKDOWN people were expecting, but just a couple hours in, I'm immediately reminded of the mindless fun of the first game that gave the franchise legs to begin with. Yeah, they do a bit much in exposition this time out (two narrators yaking in my ear the whole time?) trying to focus on a story that really is in the back seat to the action, but it's a good game. I already like it better than Crackdown 2 which I really enjoyed.

 

[happyninja42]

Crackdown 3. Ok, I get it. It's not the ZOMFG NEXT GEN BLOCKBUSTER CRACKDOWN people were expecting, but just a couple hours in, I'm immediately reminded of the mindless fun of the first game that gave the franchise legs to begin with. Yeah, they do a bit much in exposition this time out (two narrators yaking in my ear the whole time?) trying to focus on a story that really is in the back seat to the action, but it's a good game. I already like it better than Crackdown 2 which I really enjoyed.

Yeah I was highly annoyed that it's not on the PS4. I loved CD1/2, and forgot they made a 3 to be honest. Then I watched NerdCubed play around with the game's admin features, where it lets you just spawn stuff, play with your stats, and basically just sandboxes everything, and remembered how fun it was.

Some games do benefit from changing things up, so they don't stagnate. Other games, something new isn't really what the appeal is. I grow weary of the demand/expectation for constant innovation when it comes to games. Some things are perfectly fine how they are.

 

[BrawlMan]

I grow weary of the demand/expectation for constant innovation when it comes to games. Some things are perfectly fine how they are.

You can blame that on the industry itself, Nintendo (the most guilty of this), and indecisive fans that can't make up their mind and complain, regardless of gettting what they want or not. At the end of the day, I just want to play a fun game. Sometimes I want to play a game that makes me think. There are times I just want to chill out and relax. That's why I play games like Rez, Lumines, Child of Eden, and Tetris Effect.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Yeah I was highly annoyed that it's not on the PS4. I loved CD1/2, and forgot they made a 3 to be honest. Then I watched NerdCubed play around with the game's admin features, where it lets you just spawn stuff, play with your stats, and basically just sandboxes everything, and remembered how fun it was.

Some games do benefit from changing things up, so they don't stagnate. Other games, something new isn't really what the appeal is. I grow weary of the demand/expectation for constant innovation when it comes to games. Some things are perfectly fine how they are.

Yeah, I think that was a large part of Crackdown 1’s appeal. It sold largely because it came with the Halo 3 beta everyone wanted to get there hands on, but people stuck around because the game was self-aware; it knew it was a chaotic playground and it owned that fact. It let go of the steering wheel and let the player have fun; a friend and I spent the better part of 20 minutes piling up explosive items just to see how big a mushroom cloud we could make just for fun, and the game encouraged that. Crackdown 2 tried to over complicate that simple formula a bit without changing enough else to make the convolution feel necessary, like, you know I don’t really need a reason to track down all those red dots on my minimap, right? I was gonna kill ‘em anyway. Crackdown 3 is very much back to 1’s roots. It feels easier, but much truer to form. The one thing I don’t like is how much they throw at you; every 10 seconds the narrator is chiming in and trying to give your actions weight within the “story,” but myself and most players pretty much just want to get back into the frenetic fray.

You can blame that on the industry itself, Nintendo (the most guilty of this), it indecisive fans that can't make up their mind and complain regardless of gettting what they want or not. At the end of the day, I just want to play a fun game. Sometimes I want to play a game it makes me think. There are times I just want to chill out and relax. That's why I play games like Rez, Lumines, Child of Eden, and Tetris Effect.

I love Lumines; I’ve got hundreds of hours in that one, and I probably haven’t gotten much better at it, but it’s certainly a “chill out” game.

 

[ObsidianJones]

So... does anyone own A.) A Nintendo Switch and B.) Overwatch?

I want to be a Lucio Otherkin.

 

[Gergar12]

Been playing Genshin Impact, which I am genuinely surprised has not been brought up in these forums so far.

It's DEFINITELY designed to wring you out for all the money you have, but honestly, it'll take a good few more hours before you really need to start paying to win. I have never seen such production value in a free to play game before, and I quite enjoy it. I started playing only because it was something I could see me and my girlfriend playing together (which ironically, we have yet to be able to do).

I plan on dropping it the moment I hit a paywall, but for now it will do as a quarantine game to play while I don't have access to better games.

I brought it up. It's a good game unless you want a specific character.

 

[happyninja42]

So... does anyone own A.) A Nintendo Switch and B.) Overwatch?

I want to be a Lucio Otherkin.

Haven't played OW in quite a while, but I did love Lucio. Partly as just a character, I've always had a love for support/healer classes. But I just love his entire story. A DJ in an underdeveloped country, that gets his hands on some hardlight technology, and is now basically a musical green lantern/robin hood. So now he heals and protects with the power of Sick Beats, to try and music the world into a better version.

That is the kind of character motivation that I am 100% down for.

I'm reminded of this clip, involving another character from OW that I really enjoy

 

[Xprimentyl]

Tried Subnautica for about 15 minutes, and nearly had a panic attack. I really don't like the idea of being stranded in open water, and this game pretty much nails what I imagine that experience would be. Struggling to keep my head above water as hunger set it was particularly jarring. I tried swimming to the crashed ship, and it felt like it was taking forever, then the radiation warnings went off, the sun started going down, my health got down to nearly nothing, and I turned it off. I'll give it another go, but I'm going to watch some beginners tutorials first so I don't feel entirely helpless.

 

[Chimpzy]

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods pt1

It's more Doom Eternal, which depending one your stance on that game is either a recommendation or the opposite. It has all the ups and down of the base game, and while it does bring some new content to the table, it doesn't do anything to shake up the core gameplay loop. Anyway, 3 new levels, 3 new enemies (4 if you count the giant version of the ground tentacle), 1 new boss, but no new weapons or additional functionality for existing ones. The levels are pretty fun, got some nice visual design to them, and should last you about 3-5 hours depending on difficulty and/or secret hunting. The new enemies are imo the worst part of the dlc. The peekaboo'ing eyeball turret and new Maykr type are kind of annoying, since they both have states in which they're completely invulnerable, but manageable.

But the worst is the Spirit, which uses the Summoner model from the first game. It's shtick is possessing other enemies, making them faster, hit harder, seemingly stagger resistant and waaaay bullet spongier. These suck to fight, because once you kill their host you have a limited time to kill the Spirit itself before it possess another one (which will invariably be the toughest thing on the field), which can only be done with one of the alt fires of one specific weapon. Seriously, fuck these things. They are super unfun to fight.

Moving on. Boss fight is fine. Not really fond of how it relies on ads, but that's every boss fight in Eternal. Anyway, plotline is advanced, some revelations are made that will surprise no one who paid attention during the base game, and it all ends in a cliffhanger.

 

[Dreiko]

Been playing Genshin Impact, which I am genuinely surprised has not been brought up in these forums so far.

It's DEFINITELY designed to wring you out for all the money you have, but honestly, it'll take a good few more hours before you really need to start paying to win. I have never seen such production value in a free to play game before, and I quite enjoy it. I started playing only because it was something I could see me and my girlfriend playing together (which ironically, we have yet to be able to do).

I plan on dropping it the moment I hit a paywall, but for now it will do as a quarantine game to play while I don't have access to better games.

We actually were talking about it some pages back.

And man I don't get how it's designed to make money when it's f2p and everything you fight is easy. The only thing the units that are higher on rarity do is like, boost farming efficiency cause their triangle moves hit harder. You still will need to actually know what you're doing and mix elements right.


In a game that is like this, more of an action game, you do not need good units if you're good at the game. You just need to be skilled. So being completely f2p and never spending any money is imminently doable here.


So yeah, I'm confused that there's people convinced there's gonna be some sort of paywall just because...other games had ones? Well, fate grand order doesn't, and it's the biggest gacha around, so it's not like there's no exceptions to the rule.

 

[CaitSeith]

I decided to replay Legend of Mana and attempt to get all the quests in a single playthrough. I recently watched a LP where they take a dive into the weapon and armor tempering and, oh boy, it's one of the most complicated upgrade systems I have yet delved into.

 

[meiam]

I decided to replay Legend of Mana and attempt to get all the quests in a single playthrough. I recently watched a LP where they take a dive into the weapon and armor tempering and, oh boy, it's one of the most complicated upgrade systems I have yet delved into.

Fucking love legend of mana.... except the combat is so freaking boring, and every area always has the same enemy composition so when you're running back and forth in a level you end up fighting the same enemy over and over again.

But everything else about it is stellar, the art style is phenomenal, the music is incredibly solid and varied, some of the quest have really interesting story in them (including the main quest), there's so much content with garden, robot, magical instrument, ranch, blacksmiths. I think I ended getting most of the quest on my last attempt without a guide but I messed up Niccolo.

If your fan of overcomplicated weapon system, vagrant story and dark cloud 2 have that cover too.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

And man I don't get how it's designed to make money when it's f2p and everything you fight is easy. The only thing the units that are higher on rarity do is like, boost farming efficiency cause their triangle moves hit harder. You still will need to actually know what you're doing and mix elements right.

In a game that is like this, more of an action game, you do not need good units if you're good at the game. You just need to be skilled. So being completely f2p and never spending any money is imminently doable here.

It's not about the difficulty personally, for me it's about the interest. The free characters you get are fucking boring. You'll only ever really get to use 4 at a time, and using the same characters for hours and hours on end is a drag. And you cannot deny that the most interesting and fun characters will either take insane amounts of time to get for free or cost you unreasonable amounts of money.

And this is all from a perspective of someone who isn't even halfway done with the story missions available, what will happen once I reach the "endgame"? From what I've heard, the game loses all momentum because all that's left to do is try and grind for better characters and gear.

I brought it up. It's a good game unless you want a specific character.

I really wanted that wind archer guy. The only archer I have right now is the free one and man is she lackluster. I always gravitate towards archers in games, so not having a decent one is killing me. But no way in hell am I paying real money for what, barely a 1% drop rate or something?

 

[Dreiko]

It's not about the difficulty personally, for me it's about the interest. The free characters you get are fucking boring. You'll only ever really get to use 4 at a time, and using the same characters for hours and hours on end is a drag. And you cannot deny that the most interesting and fun characters will either take insane amounts of time to get for free or cost you unreasonable amounts of money.

And this is all from a perspective of someone who isn't even halfway done with the story missions available, what will happen once I reach the "endgame"? From what I've heard, the game loses all momentum because all that's left to do is try and grind for better characters and gear.

See, none of what you're describing is pay 2 win though, so I feel like you're moving the goalpost.

Whether someone is boring or not is entirely subjective, I love Amber for example, meanwhile the wind archer dude looks lame to me. So yeah, the game is not p2w and whether the chars you get are cool or not will vary depending on your tastes...like with every other normal game out there, only this one you get to play for free.

The other chars outside of the free ones are just bonuses basically, extras. You will chance upon some of them but they are not the core of the experience. Also, if you REALLY want someone that badly, you can save your pulls and pull for them. Every 90 pulls you get a free max rarity unit guaranteed due to the game's pity system. It takes a while but if you can't live without someone then you have this option. For me I think it's more fun to just get random varieties of stuff so I just pull whenever llol.


As for the endgame stuff (after you've played for like 100 hours already basically) you can still f2p and beat everything. The game just doesn't let you grind endlessly and overlevel your units way beyond the current hardest stuff as quick as some people like. It's still not p2w even there. The trick is not playing for 10 hours a day every day and doing everything asap, just playing an hour a day so they can put out new content by the time you beat it all is sufficient.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

So... does anyone own A.) A Nintendo Switch and B.) Overwatch?

I want to be a Lucio Otherkin.

Overwatch? It's Roadhog time!

On the Switch...ew no.

I'm honestly shocked that anyone would want to play a competitive shooter on the Switch.

 

[Dalisclock]

Tried Subnautica for about 15 minutes, and nearly had a panic attack. I really don't like the idea of being stranded in open water, and this game pretty much nails what I imagine that experience would be. Struggling to keep my head above water as hunger set it was particularly jarring. I tried swimming to the crashed ship, and it felt like it was taking forever, then the radiation warnings went off, the sun started going down, my health got down to nearly nothing, and I turned it off. I'll give it another go, but I'm going to watch some beginners tutorials first so I don't feel entirely helpless.

I hate to tell you this but if you've got thalassophobia, this is either going to be the best horror game ever for you or the absolutely most terrifying. You're gonna be going deep before it's all over and there's scary shit in those waters.

On a more useful note, just focus on getting food and water to start with. Then you can focus on exploring around your pod and crafting upgrades to your O2 tank as well as some vehicles and such to help get around.