What are you currently playing?

[SckizoBoy]

More Total War: Warhammer II post-Wood Elf update. They've slowed the campaign a little (higher pop growth requirements). I approve, as usually it's a race out of the gate to get to higher tier unlocks ASAP with an early game that lasts virtually no time at all. A longer early game suits me fine.

 

[Xprimentyl]

That's definitely not true. The controls in DS3 are much more responsive than DS1. I replayed them back to back recently and there is a much larger delay on your attacks in DS1.

The thing is, enemies in DS3 are much faster and more aggressive than in DS1, the parry has fewer active frames, and blocking takes a lot more stamina. So while your character moves much more responsively enemies are also more punishing and their attacks come out faster and are harder to predict, so it may feel like you are less responsive because enemies give you a smaller attack window.

You're probably right. Never had a problem with DS1 lag, but DS3 baddies are quick on the draw (read: reading my inputs and capitalizing when I flask up or drop my shield to attack.) It's getting better, but I'm still not confident enough to two-hand yet...

 

[Mister Mumbler]

So quick update on my space road trip; made it over halfway so far, but the last few stops are much farther spaced out than previous ones. Just picked up Project Wingman on Steam (wish I had known about the GOG version though...), so I'm going to play a bit of that to break up all of the space.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Still playing Talos Principle. Only 4 more puzzles to go. I wanna be done with the game but I don't want to look up a walkthrough at this point. Might as well pull through. The temporal clone gimmick sucks and makes everything into 4D chess.

 

[happyninja42]

Still playing Talos Principle. Only 4 more puzzles to go. I wanna be done with the game but I don't want to look up a walkthrough at this point. Might as well pull through. The temporal clone gimmick sucks and makes everything into 4D chess.

Yeah Talos Princicple is definitely a game that I should add to the "Games you love...except for the whole game part" thread. The whole story and concept of it is something that genuinely hit me when I first played it. The amount of annoying puzzles I had to go through to accomplish the ending, not so much.


OT: Playing Just Cause 4, which my wife is loving to death so far, because I keep killing myself by smashing into the side of mountains while in wingsuit mode. The amount of insane buffoonery you can get up to in that game is just hilarious. Some of the missions are bit annoying as shit though, as far as how often enemies perfectly time hitting me in the face with a rocket as I'm trying to climb into a plot important vehicle, and getting flung away. It's frustrating as hell, but then I fuck up and splat on a cliff wall, and my wife falls off the couch laughing, and my frustration sort of melts away. So it's give and take I guess.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Yeah Talos Princicple is definitely a game that I should add to the "Games you love...except for the whole game part" thread. The whole story and concept of it is something that genuinely hit me when I first played it. The amount of annoying puzzles I had to go through to accomplish the ending, not so much.

I find I need to frequently take a break from the game, for a change, since there's no downtime. And I've given up on the hidden stars. 4 out of 30 is enough. But so help me god I'm sorting those 4 final red sigils on my own. I'm in too deep to cheat at this point.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finished Transistor. A decided, meh, from me. Mixing powers together was kind of fun, but the controls felt clunky, the predicted turn outcomes lied far too frequently, and having to simply run around waiting for turn to recharge sucks hard.

The story on the other hand was impenetrable. I mostly get it by the the end, but it wasn't an enjoyable experience. I never felt invested in what was going on, or really understood where the characters were headed or why they were headed there. It was like watching a foreign film with bad subtitles, or like reading a book with the first 100 pages torn out and every third page after that. Didn't help that Red and the sword were just not very interesting characters and the one sided dialogue really didn't do anything for me. Most of the dialogue was just stuff along the lines of "oh no, look at what's become of the town! This is where we used to eat! So sad!" Making Red mute was probably a major misstep. A bit of back and forth banter would probably have helped their characters and made things more interesting. Maybe.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm finished the game and I hope Pyre and Hades are better.

 

[meiam]

Finished Transistor. A decided, meh, from me. Mixing powers together was kind of fun, but the controls felt clunky, the predicted turn outcomes lied far too frequently, and having to simply run around waiting for turn to recharge sucks hard.

The story on the other hand was impenetrable. I mostly get it by the the end, but it wasn't an enjoyable experience. I never felt invested in what was going on, or really understood where the characters were headed or why they were headed there. It was like watching a foreign film with bad subtitles, or like reading a book with the first 100 pages torn out and every third page after that. Didn't help that Red and the sword were just not very interesting characters and the one sided dialogue really didn't do anything for me. Most of the dialogue was just stuff along the lines of "oh no, look at what's become of the town! This is where we used to eat! So sad!" Making Red mute was probably a major misstep. A bit of back and forth banter would probably have helped their characters and made things more interesting. Maybe.

Anyway, I'm glad I'm finished the game and I hope Pyre and Hades are better.

Hades is definitely their best game (haven't played Pyre yet, but everything heard was along the line of "cool concept but meh gameplay"). Transistor was a bit meh, after bastion it was more polished but less interesting, it felt too close to bastion like they were trying to reproduce their success (reliance on narrator in post apocalypse world).

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I picked up Persona 5 Royal for half price a while back, and as someone who beat Persona 5 and nearly beat it in NG+ immediately after: Royal's reworks to the RPG side have improved the game massively. Dungeon reworks, enemy/Persona reworks, skill reworks, brand new features worked in - it's amazing to see how they improved what was already one of the best JRPGs I've ever played. Not really sure about story changes yet, since not a lot of them have occurred even 10 hours in besides the intro and a couple of brief appearances of Yoshizawa, but that barely needs changing as far as I'm concerned.

I finished the first Palace (in one run, for the first time in... any Persona, I think). Now I just hope they didn't nerf the main bosses into irrelevance like they did in P4 Golden.

 

[laggyteabag]

Still marathoning some Total War Warhammer 2.

Still on my first (Mortal Empires) campaign playing as the High Elves/Tyrion, and, how long to these things go on for?

I get that im a new player, but im 100 turns in, and I have barely even expanded past my starting continent (Ulthuan), and I zoom out onto the main map, and it looks like I have barely even scraped the surface. Am I playing too defensive?

Maybe I should give the Vortex campaign a shot.

On the plus side, I definitely feel like I am a lot more confident with how to actually play the game, so maybe a new campaign wouldn't be such a bad idea.

 

[Dalisclock]

Dark Souls 3: The Darkening....again

So after a lot of annoyance I finally made it through the Irithyll Dungeon and the Profaned Capital down to Yhorm. Getting down to the bottom of the dungeon into the capital wasn't that bad, but I found SIgward in the Dungeon and must have wasted a solid hour or so trying to figure out how to get to him. Turns out I needed to jump into a window in the profaned capitol...on a rooftop, to reach a ground level cell in a pit in the dungeon....because that makes total sense geographically. You know, I get it, space and time are all warped and crazy and shit in Lothric but the only way to reach that cell is to jump in a window. There's not even a blocked route elsewhere I can see.. Like how does that make any sense?

I like FROM's level design a lot of the time but there's bit like this that hurt the immersion because I have to ask "In what world did that floorplan make sense?" I'm even trying not to question the whole issue with Giants stuck in rooms with normal sized doorways(unless they started out really small or something?) but it's hard not to think of these things when FROM just makes it obvious.

Anyway, the Yhorm fight was fairly easy with Siegwards assistance and the Storm Ruler. Yhorm could barely keep on his feet and I swear he wasn't even doing me damage when he did hit me but you know what, I'll take it.

OTOH, the game is apparently getting it's revenge with the Dancer, who is continually kicking my ass right now. I've managed to kill her once as a summon but have been unable to replicate my victory in my universe, so the old girl is definitely showing me dancing isn't all she's good at. Maybe she's Hangry? If I give her a sandwich will she leave me be or at least stop to chow down? At least I get to look at her creepy but shapely butt(which is very nice for a creepy monster lady, so there's that).

Also, Like Bloodborne, the Sky has decided to tell me things are going down, because it's gotten a lot darker and redder, with The sun turning into a massive darksign. Or it could be nothing? I mean, when has creepy astrological/atmospheric phenomenon ever been a sign of ill fortune in a fantasy setting....

 

[meiam]

Still marathoning some Total War Warhammer 2.

Still on my first (Mortal Empires) campaign playing as the High Elves/Tyrion, and, how long to these things go on for?

I get that im a new player, but im 100 turns in, and I have barely even expanded past my starting continent (Ulthuan), and I zoom out onto the main map, and it looks like I have barely even scraped the surface. Am I playing too defensive?

Maybe I should give the Vortex campaign a shot.

On the plus side, I definitely feel like I am a lot more confident with how to actually play the game, so maybe a new campaign wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Mortal empire can last quite a long time, but if you've already cleared all your starting continent region then you've already won and now are just doing busy work of expanding (I rarely play pass this point). The world is massive, but its more so that every race can have their own little starting area, you can paint the map your color but it tale forever.

They tried to fix this issue in vortex t give it more of an objective and let the AI compete with you in indirect way. Sadly the vortex massivly screw with you in way that are not interesting imo. Massive enemy army will spawn in your territory, specifically in area that poorly defended and will just go on rampage, its not enough to actually be a threat but its quite annoying having to rebuild city from scratch every time.

If you want more focus, the empire of man in mortal empire has a bit more of an endgame, massive chaos army will spawn to the north of your territory which you have to defend from, you can also participate in that if you're dwarf.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Wow... Took me... four hours to take out the APC in the rainy stealth section where Nadine is pinned. With a lot of trial and error and waiting pretty long to watch patrol routes. Suppressors are utterly useless on Crushing, since they see you even if you're aiming from tall grass and almost everyone wears helmets. I hope this was the worst part of the game. Nothing in the old Uncharted games was as hard as this forced stealth. I wish you had more options if they're gonna force it, like distractions.

That's where I stopped my attempt on Crushing, after 2+ hours of trail and error.

Done with Lost Legacy Crushing. The climax is the best setpiece in the whole series, in my opinion. There's more going on than in the similar one in Uncharted 2. Helps the sense of satisfaction and reward that it is at the end. It genuinely excites me.

It also does the scripted Boss fight better than Uncharted 4. I mean, by the end you're really just hammering the square button, but it feels very satisfying to gang up on Asav with Nadine and just beat the shit out of him.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Done with Talos Principle. Never picked up a walkthrough. Final puzzles were Time Crawls, Seven Doors and Criss-Cross Conundrum in World C. Taking breaks helped *wonders* - every solution seemed obvious every time I went back in and took a good look at the map. As satisfied as I am with the game I do wish it had more variety than just weighing down buttons and redirecting lasers. Every world incorporates new gimmicks to add more variety and difficulty, but why not make it so every world has a different kind of puzzle? And not to be too nickel and dimey but... 50 bucks? Glad I got it 90% off. I'd even price it as high as $10 or $15. But this is not a $50 game.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dark Souls 3: The Darkening....again

So after a lot of annoyance I finally made it through the Irithyll Dungeon and the Profaned Capital down to Yhorm. Getting down to the bottom of the dungeon into the capital wasn't that bad, but I found SIgward in the Dungeon and must have wasted a solid hour or so trying to figure out how to get to him. Turns out I needed to jump into a window in the profaned capitol...on a rooftop, to reach a ground level cell in a pit in the dungeon....because that makes total sense geographically. You know, I get it, space and time are all warped and crazy and shit in Lothric but the only way to reach that cell is to jump in a window. There's not even a blocked route elsewhere I can see.. Like how does that make any sense?

I like FROM's level design a lot of the time but there's bit like this that hurt the immersion because I have to ask "In what world did that floorplan make sense?" I'm even trying not to question the whole issue with Giants stuck in rooms with normal sized doorways(unless they started out really small or something?) but it's hard not to think of these things when FROM just makes it obvious.

Anyway, the Yhorm fight was fairly easy with Siegwards assistance and the Storm Ruler. Yhorm could barely keep on his feet and I swear he wasn't even doing me damage when he did hit me but you know what, I'll take it.

OTOH, the game is apparently getting it's revenge with the Dancer, who is continually kicking my ass right now. I've managed to kill her once as a summon but have been unable to replicate my victory in my universe, so the old girl is definitely showing me dancing isn't all she's good at. Maybe she's Hangry? If I give her a sandwich will she leave me be or at least stop to chow down? At least I get to look at her creepy but shapely butt(which is very nice for a creepy monster lady, so there's that).

Also, Like Bloodborne, the Sky has decided to tell me things are going down, because it's gotten a lot darker and redder, with The sun turning into a massive darksign. Or it could be nothing? I mean, when has creepy astrological/atmospheric phenomenon ever been a sign of ill fortune in a fantasy setting....

The Dancer was the biggest surprise for me. As a melee build I went for an aggressive approach, trying to be somewhat unpredictable in my attack patterns themselves after baiting her gangliness, and it worked out after a few attempts. Later bosses certainly made up for it and destroyed my confidence though.

I also think Bloodborne’s moon is far more soothing an omen than the dark sign in 3. I haven’t quite decided what to make of that yet, even months later.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I picked up Persona 5 Royal for half price a while back, and as someone who beat Persona 5 and nearly beat it in NG+ immediately after: Royal's reworks to the RPG side have improved the game massively. Dungeon reworks, enemy/Persona reworks, skill reworks, brand new features worked in - it's amazing to see how they improved what was already one of the best JRPGs I've ever played. Not really sure about story changes yet, since not a lot of them have occurred even 10 hours in besides the intro and a couple of brief appearances of Yoshizawa, but that barely needs changing as far as I'm concerned.

I finished the first Palace (in one run, for the first time in... any Persona, I think). Now I just hope they didn't nerf the main bosses into irrelevance like they did in P4 Golden.

I don't even think they sell Royal in Canada. I've never seen it in a store here. It's weird.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I've been going through a pretty bad time lately and have been spending more time gaming than usual. Currently splitting my gaming time between Factorio and Kenshi.

I just got Factorio. It rules. I like it. I might like it too much. There's something just fundamentally pleasing about building and optimizing a system, and Factorio does that better than any game I've ever played. It starts small and keeps adding more and more complexity. I particularly love that I occasionally forget how parts of my factory work, it's become this arcane system that, despite my building it, is too complicated for me to fully take in. I could tear it all up and build something clean and streamlined, but there's always new stuff to think about, and I know it will just get messy again so why bother.

Kenshi I've owned for a while. It took me a while to get into, but I find it really fascinating. I'm doing a challenge/roleplaying run with a small party of only hivers. Currently it's only an exiled Hive Prince and Beep. We got enslaved by the Holy Nation for not being human enough, which turned out to be great. We are power levelling toughness by getting beaten up by guards during escape attempts. Beep has lost an arm. He does not care. He knows when we finally escape he will become cyber-Beep. It's also a good roleplay motivation to take revenge on the Holy Nation later, which I think will be the ultimate goal of the campaign.

I feel like you have to roleplay to make Kenshi fun, as it's easy to break if you don't set restrictions on yourself, but if you do find a way to limit yourself it is really fun.

 

[Chupathingy]

Platinum'd all of the flashback levels in Crash Bandicoot 4. That second last one was a ****, but the final level was surprisingly manageable.

 

[happyninja42]

Kenshi I've owned for a while. It took me a while to get into, but I find it really fascinating. I'm doing a challenge/roleplaying run with a small party of only hivers. Currently it's only an exiled Hive Prince and Beep. We got enslaved by the Holy Nation for not being human enough, which turned out to be great. We are power levelling toughness by getting beaten up by guards during escape attempts. Beep has lost an arm. He does not care. He knows when we finally escape he will become cyber-Beep. It's also a good roleplay motivation to take revenge on the Holy Nation later, which I think will be the ultimate goal of the campaign.

I feel like you have to roleplay to make Kenshi fun, as it's easy to break if you don't set restrictions on yourself, but if you do find a way to limit yourself it is really fun.

Yeah I keep wanting to dip into Kenshi, but it always seemed to be pretty janky when in EA. Has it been fully released yet? Haven't looked into lately. It seems like it's an interesting sandbox for running your own little story simulations

 

[Terminal Blue]

Yeah I keep wanting to dip into Kenshi, but it always seemed to be pretty janky when in EA. Has it been fully released yet? Haven't looked into lately. It seems like it's an interesting sandbox for running your own little story simulations

It has been released. It's still pretty janky to be honest, but it's extremely moddable and it's possible to mod out a lot of the jank.

I'd say the biggest obstacle is actually just how hard the early game is, especially if you run with a small party(which I think is the most fun way to play). Your characters start out incredibly weak, and the only way to get better is to get beaten up a lot (and ideally, to keep fighting while you're extremely beat up). It's part of the appeal, your characters are not chosen special people, but it can also be frustrating because you're so limited at the beginning. This is why I think being enslaved is actually a benefit in the early game, because it allows you to train in relative safety. You're basically Conan the barbarian pushing that wheel for a while until you escape and use your hench physique to become a great warrior.

There's no story in Kenshi, but the worldbuilding and environmental storytelling is really good. It's kind of fun to piece together the story of how the world got so messed up.