What are you currently playing?

[Worgen]

Still playing Nioh 2, though I don't know how much longer. I'm genuinely experiencing pain now in my wrist, that is possibly carpal tunnel, likely from 40 years of frantic joystick wiggling (not that, that's my other hand, it's fine), button mashing, keyboard surfing, gaming life. And the level of tension I find in my wrist due to holding the controller while I get frustrated with Souls combat, actually hurts. So, I might have to retire it long term, we'll see.

I get that also. The way I counter it is by generally not playing really long gameplay sessions, also by moving between mouse/keyboard and controller games and now joy stick games since I got a fighting stick so I use that for some games too.

Currently warframe had a new patch for railjacks come out and I've been having fun there. Along with the awaited Doom Eternal DLC 2 which game out a couple days ago and is awesome. I also finally finished the villian campaign in Dragon Ball Z FighterZ so I'll move onto the android one next. I picked up Enter the Gungeon again too and have been messing around there and finally Dead in Vinland, I need to play more of it but its easy to get sucked into in the morning and come out at night.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

drags on imaginary cigarette That's a name I haven't heard in years. Actually, it has online play as well, and while the latency can make it difficult, the game itself is so wacky that it barely matters and you can still have fun with the antics.

I tried online and didn't have any latency issues, but I find it's not as fun as playing against a friend on the couch. I'm having fun playing against my girlfriend as it is.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Decided to move on to 2017's Prey after finishing Symphony of the Night (which started well, but the second half wasn't very good.) I'm not normally good with 'immersive sim' type games, since I usually don't think of clever solutions and tend to just go straight for the 'sneak until spotted, then shoot' approach. And since Prey doesn't even give you a gun right away, that's not particularly effective. I also never know what to spend my skill points on.

Still, I'm enjoying the atmosphere, and the mystery looks pretty interesting.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Anyone here play Deep Rock Galactic?

My friends and I were thinking of getting it for some coop shooter fun, but we have no idea which DLCs are worth getting. Any suggestions?

 

[Dalisclock]

Anyone here play Deep Rock Galactic?

My friends and I were thinking of getting it for some coop shooter fun, but we have no idea which DLCs are worth getting. Any suggestions?

I don't but a coworker mentioned playing a couple days back. I could hit him up next time I see him(in a few days) and ask him his opinions on the DLC.

 

[sXeth]

Doom Eternal DLC (yeah I actually made the rare decision, and bought the bundle on that one).

The story beats are like... kind of intriguing. But they're kind of doubling down on the enemy stuff. Theirs new enemies that literally can only be hurt by specific weapons (usually the first tier of guns, like the figured out no one really used them after getting the more advanced ones), or in one case, by a specific mod on a gun.


Platforming doesn't seem quite as common, you can grapple onto pre-defined points with the Super Shotty's meathook now as the new gimmick there. The silly Mario levitiating spinning fire rods are back too.



And reinstalled Monster Hunter to kind of wrap up the added free content there, with Alatreon and Fatalis (and I think I might still need to beat Furious Rajang, come to think of it,).

 

[Worgen]

Anyone here play Deep Rock Galactic?

My friends and I were thinking of getting it for some coop shooter fun, but we have no idea which DLCs are worth getting. Any suggestions?

I've been playing it off and on since it launched. You don't need any of the dlc for it since its all cosmetic but it can be fun to have.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I've been playing it off and on since it launched. You don't need any of the dlc for it since its all cosmetic but it can be fun to have.

So it's all just weapon and armor skins, none of it is weapon packs or anything like that?

Good to know, thank you.

 

[Worgen]

So it's all just weapon and armor skins, none of it is weapon packs or anything like that?

Good to know, thank you.

Yeah, just skins. Fun to have and good if you want to further support the devs but no new weapons, just skins.

 

[Silvanus]

Final Fantasy IV, in my quest to complete all the main-series entries.

Also recently replayed A Link to the Past. It wasn't as obtuse as I had remembered after all.

So, yeah: old SNES games, because I'm old-school & cool.

 

[Dalisclock]

Started replaying Stardew Valley for the first time since it came out, partially to see what's been added from 1.0 release(when I played it) to 1.5 where it is now. Still as good as I remember it, though now there a number of new options, like the new farm layouts, each of which have advantages and disadvantages. I picked Forest, because while you have less farmable land, you have a lot more trees available and wood is needed in large amounts for all the buildings and building upgrades and I never used nearly all of my available farm space on the standard layout in my original game and still never wanted for money after the first year.

Also was inspired somewhat by Yathzee talking about the New Harvest moon game and apparently how....not good.... it is, like somehow the devs not only didn't learn from games like Stardew Valley(which was a love letter the HM/SoS games), they also failed to grasp why people like said games. And made me realize I was in the mood for a chill lite farm game.

And while it's hardly a brutal early game by any means, you really do lack resources in any real way until you start getting a few crops harvested and make some money(not to mention you get tired really easily, have a very small inventory and food relative to your income is very expensive to start so eating to recover energy is not super feasible). Later you're rolling in dosh once you get a good cycle of plant/harvest/process and some ranching going to supplement but right now I'm begging for a rainy day so I don't spend half the morning watering crops from my piddly watering can I can't upgrade right now.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rocket League

Found out a couple of days ago it's been F2P since September last year, decided to try it out. I like it marginally better than the average football game, since the matches are short and it pays to hang back. Just won my first online game 2v2. But I'm not that into it, frankly. I don't like playing online because fuck relying on randos for my downtime entertainment, and offline 1v1 is about as fun as playing 1v1 football IRL.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Celeste

Fuck Rocket League, I'm playing Celeste.

Aesthetically it's all over the place - the overworld is PS1 era polygonal, the levels themselves are retro pixelated and the character art for speech bubbles and title screens looks bog-standard CalArts. It's also supposed to be this deep, meditative reflection on anxiety and whatever issues the creator of the game was/is dealing with at the time, but in typical Millennial fashion is also trying to be chummy and sardonic, undercutting earnestness with attempts at comical asides and lame internet humor. Those collectibles? Yeah, they do nothing. Lol.

I like the gameplay though. It's basically a bunch of 2D puzzle rooms where you jump, dash and climb walls and platforms while avoiding pits and spikes, nothing out of this world, but overall offering a decent challenge. I like how difficulty ramps and the way the game parses moves and techniques while letting you figure out plenty on your own. Like when I realized the boss that chases you is actually mimicking your own moves, so you have to plan ahead when looping around an area hitting switches and picking collectibles. Anyway, soon you're pulling off pretty complex gauntlets and it all feels fairly intuitive.

 

[Dalisclock]

Celeste
Fuck Rocket League, I'm playing Celeste.

Aesthetically it's all over the place - the overworld is PS1 era polygonal, the levels themselves are retro pixelated and the character art for speech bubbles and title screens looks bog-standard CalArts. It's also supposed to be this deep, meditative reflection on anxiety and whatever issues the creator of the game was/is dealing with at the time, but in typical Millennial fashion is also trying to be chummy and sardonic, undercutting earnestness with attempts at comical asides and lame internet humor. Those collectibles? Yeah, they do nothing. Lol.

I like the gameplay though. It's basically a bunch of 2D puzzle rooms where you jump, dash and climb walls and platforms while avoiding pits and spikes, nothing out of this world, but overall offering a decent challenge. I like how difficulty ramps and the way the game parses moves and techniques while letting you figure out plenty on your own. Like when I realized the boss that chases you is actually mimicking your own moves, so you have to plan ahead when looping around an area hitting switches and picking collectibles. Anyway, soon you're pulling off pretty complex gauntlets and it all feels fairly intuitive.

The strawberries slightly change the ending card, though not in any way that's gonna make you want to replay if you weren't already enamoured with it. The Cassette tapes open "B side" versions of the levels and then "C Side". The Crystal hearts don't do anything in the main story, but if you decide you want to attempt chapters 8 and 9, you need to find them to unlock the levels. Considering Chapter 8 is harder then the preceding stages and chapter 9 turns the difficulty up to "You must be coked to the gills to even have a chance" level(I youtubed it, because I wasn't gonna search out all the crystal hearts just to get the ticket for the OMFG Insanity of Chapter 9).

How far have you gotten, if I may ask? I only ask because I felt the story/character motivation got better as you got farther into the game. Notably around chapter 5/6.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

The strawberries slightly change the ending card, though not in any way that's gonna make you want to replay if you weren't already enamoured with it. The Cassette tapes open "B side" versions of the levels and then "C Side". The Crystal hearts don't do anything in the main story, but if you decide you want to attempt chapters 8 and 9, you need to find them to unlock the levels. Considering Chapter 8 is harder then the preceding stages and chapter 9 turns the difficulty up to "You must be coked to the gills to even have a chance" level(I youtubed it, because I wasn't gonna search out all the crystal hearts just to get the ticket for the OMFG Insanity of Chapter 9).

How far have you gotten, if I may ask? I only ask because I felt the story/character motivation got better as you got farther into the game. Notably around chapter 5/6.

I'm on chapter 3, still pretty early, so these are all first impressions. Game makes a joke about how strawberries do nothing and it's 100% ok if they don't, I just hate when self-referential humor is supposed to make up for laziness. Or for that matter having a "deep" conversation that ends with a guy yelling #yolo. I dunno. God forbid I take your own dumb story seriously, devs. And I *especially* hate a story that is purely metaphorical and doesn't have a surface level narrative. I feel like the game doesn't even bother pretending that the mountain is there at all, and this is isn't somehow about surmounting anxiety (and nothing else). A better game would sell me on the premise before trying to wow me 20 minutes in by telling me what the story really is about.

For the record I like the game, at least from a gameplay perspective. And I can tell it's chasing its own vision, which is great, I just don't like the way it's presented at all.

 

[Kyrian007]

Started replaying Stardew Valley for the first time since it came out, partially to see what's been added from 1.0 release(when I played it) to 1.5 where it is now.

I started that same thing a couple of weeks ago. I'm still not even far enough along to have seen a lot of the new content, but some of the improvements that are available early are pretty good. I especially liked secret notes, and the new community job board that has larger and longer term tasks that are much harder to complete... but many of them pay off in more ways than just gold. Secret notes not only have a few new quests, but also have the benefit of filling in some of the "likes" in the list of gifts for others.

But unfortunately I've had to stop now that new DLC for "The Outer Worlds" has dropped. I'm still leveling up a newer character to go through the content so it may be a while before I get back to Stardew Valley. Hopefully I can do so before the full release of My Time at Sandrock, follow up to My Time at Portia which was the HM like game that stole me away from Stardew Valley the first time I was going through it.

 

[Dalisclock]

I started that same thing a couple of weeks ago. I'm still not even far enough along to have seen a lot of the new content, but some of the improvements that are available early are pretty good. I especially liked secret notes, and the new community job board that has larger and longer term tasks that are much harder to complete... but many of them pay off in more ways than just gold. Secret notes not only have a few new quests, but also have the benefit of filling in some of the "likes" in the list of gifts for others.

But unfortunately I've had to stop now that new DLC for "The Outer Worlds" has dropped. I'm still leveling up a newer character to go through the content so it may be a while before I get back to Stardew Valley. Hopefully I can do so before the full release of My Time at Sandrock, follow up to My Time at Portia which was the HM like game that stole me away from Stardew Valley the first time I was going through it.

Stardew Valley I'm still in the first spring, just unlocked the furnace(and built one) so I can smelt copper(Nice of clint to give me something to do that instead of charging me for it) and I should be able afford the chicken coop shortly. As far as improvements, while I'm not sure if this was the game in 1.0, I like that once the community center bundles are unlocked, I now have a tab on my menu that allows me to see what I need for bundles without having to waste time going over there.

I played My Time at Portia a year ago and rather liked it, so I'm looking forward to My Time at Sandrock and see what they do with it. I still think Stardew Valley is a better game but My Time at Portia scratches a different itch with it's craftsman focus(and watching the town slowly grow and evolve because of your contributions). I just kinda wish the dungeons hadn't been linked to plot progression. Not that any of them are awful but it feels like a distraction from why I'm here.

I picked up TOW a while back on sale but haven't gotten around to it yet. Once I do, I'll decide if I want to spend money on the DLC.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Got to the big bad ape in Sekiro. Nearly finished him first try too, although I think my composure got shaken being so close only to have him thwump me into the wet ground like an angry maniac ape. I only got to his headless phase once more out of like five or six tries. I also had to sell a ton of ash to buy more spirit emblems, because the oil/flame vent combo is too good to overlook. My final attempt he instilled me with Terror shortly after losing his head, so I decided to take a break.

Switching gears and back to MGSV, I’m very close to the hero status needed for that trophy before committing to make a nuke, and becoming a demon. I finished mission 34 but apparently need to do more side ops as there’s no more main mission available yet. So be it, I went back to Mission 6, which might be the longest one in the game I can recall, if you don’t have a zone at the ruins. I used D-Horse to sneak up to the Eastern Relay area and went wild with smoke grenades to get the prisoner early. It was odd watching the cutscene that followed which was clearly meant to take place in a far more tranquil setting.

Then the OCD in me had me taking the extra time to capture the ruins non-lethally. All to get the trophy which for some reason didn’t pop the initial attempt years ago now. Back to side ops, I read about a neat trick to lure wandering soldiers with a certain song (or more accurately, a hum), and then added a cardboard box for the element of surprise. That was grin-worthy.

AFAIK the game (while admittedly pretty old by now) doesn’t have a companion app, but it could certainly use one with all the real time stuff going on between MB and FOB shenanigans. Even after maxing out simultaneous developments I still have over 8 million or so GMP. Although on second thought, it’s probably a good thing I can’t keep a constant eye on this stuff because it would pretty much ruin the dopamine effect of coming back to a bunch of cool new gear and rewards.

 

[Dalisclock]

Got to the big bad ape in Sekiro. Nearly finished him first try too, although I think my composure got shaken being so close only to have him thwump me into the wet ground like an angry maniac ape. I only got to his headless phase once more out of like five or six tries. I also had to sell a ton of ash to buy more spirit emblems, because the oil/flame vent combo is too good to overlook. My final attempt he instilled me with Terror shortly after losing his head, so I decided to take a break.

I felt that once I got him to headless phase he was easier, once I figured out how to bait one particular attack. It was getting him that far(because he doesn't look like he can be blocked or parried in phase 1 and he fights like a giant angry toddler) that was the big thing for me.

What's really fun is if You fight him and his buddy at the same time in a cave. It's phase 1 and phase 2 in a smaller arena at the same time. That sound you hear is Miyazaki's laughter at your suffering.

 

[Pomi]

Finished Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, for the fifth or sixth time. I continued my low level runs and finished at level 10 with no party member upgrades. I did KO a few unnecessary enemies because there's some that have a really low chance to flee after using a fright mask, so I would use 2 and then just KO the rest. However, I think that level 9 might actually be the lower limit though.