What are you currently playing?

[Chimpzy]

Playing Wonderful 101 Remastered. Loving it, despite being kind of bad at this type of game. I'm especially being thrown off by dodge and block being on the triggers and not the face buttons. Combat is a bit chaos to boot, and It"ll take me some time to get used to it. It's so much goofy over the top fun tho. Maybe a little too. I find I can only play it in like one hour bursts, because there's just so much going on it drains my focus quickly, which I'm not saying is a bad thing. Anyway I'm playing on PC so it runs at that buttery smooth 60. I also like how the loading screens let you practice your moves, or, I would if they weren't over so fast I don't even get to move.

I have to wonder if the next few acts are as long or if Act 2 is the outlier here. a

Yes, it is the outlier. Without spoiling anything, Act 1 is roughly 20% of the game, Act 2 about 50%, so you're played through the bulk of the game. The remaining acts are a fair bit shorter than Reaper's Coast, depending on how much of a completionist you are from here on.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yes, it is the outlier. Without spoiling anything, Act 1 is roughly 20% of the game, Act 2 about 50%, so you're played through the bulk of the game. The remaining acts are a fair bit shorter than Reaper's Coast, depending on how much of a completionist you are from here on.

I don't have to do every quest(and I left a few uncompleted in reapers coast), it's more of doing enough to feel prepared(though having greatly expanded my skills) for the challenges to come. I finished Act 1 without too many issues but Act 2 I had problems with running into Beef gates all over the place because the map is all schizo as far as what level you're supposed to be at, and considering you're expected to be level 6-7 by the time you get there and level 15-16 by the time you leave it's crazy easy to walk into a curb stomp.

I'm really just interested in finishing the Origin quests(Sebille, Lohse, Red Prince and Fane) aside from the main plot, since those seem to have more payoff anyway. I've done everything for them I needed to do thus far and most of them have another step or two to be done on the nameless isle.

Update: Finished the nameless isle and now I've reached Arx, so hopefully I'm closing in on the end. None of the fights in Act 3 gave me much trouble(and I used the lava trick on the Sallow man, which was awesome). I love the game lets you do that ."Oh, look, I have a spell that lets me move some lava over here, and I have another spell which can teleport something/someone into that Lava, which counts as an Insta-kill. *Laughs manically*". While the Geo mod mechanic isn't always terribly useful and in at least on case if is fucking annoying, such as that one fight in the Blackpits(if you've played it, you know exactly the one I'm talking about), it's still rather cool when properly applied.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Just finished Assassin's Creed II. Wasn't really a huge fan...

Overall, there was some fun to be had, and it was probably an improvement on the first game in a number of ways, but I am definitely done with this series, and hopefully Ubisoft games, for good.

I much preferred the 1st game as it was structured like a Hitman game but with the added task of getting your own info (which wasn't handled well) vs just doing the hit. It was very Hitman-lite but the same structure was there. Whereas AC2 basically became GTA as far as structure goes. I was done with the series as well because of AC2, the 1st game was something to build on but AC2 was like "fuck it, we're going the simple and easy path". I haven't played any AC afterward but it seems like they do nothing but throw paint at the wall and see what sticks from tower defense elements to ship combat and now it's an RPG I guess. I don't really feel AC is that representative of Ubisoft: The Game as stuff like Far Cry and Watch Dogs is a lot different than AC. Both Far Cry and Watch Dogs have a stealth system (but not the actual assassin game that's fucking about stealthily killing targets) and they have decent systemic elements. The problem is that you play one or two of them and you kinda have your fill of it because every game is so same-y.

 

[CaitSeith]

I'm still playing Persona Q. I finished the P4 route, and now I'm at the mid of P3 route in NG+. In general I enjoyed the P4 route more so far, but by a close margin.

 

[Dalisclock]

I much preferred the 1st game as it was structured like a Hitman game but with the added task of getting your own info (which wasn't handled well) vs just doing the hit. It was very Hitman-lite but the same structure was there. Whereas AC2 basically became GTA as far as structure goes. I was done with the series as well because of AC2, the 1st game was something to build on but AC2 was like "fuck it, we're going the simple and easy path". I haven't played any AC afterward but it seems like they do nothing but throw paint at the wall and see what sticks from tower defense elements to ship combat and now it's an RPG I guess. I don't really feel AC is that representative of Ubisoft: The Game as stuff like Far Cry and Watch Dogs is a lot different than AC. Both Far Cry and Watch Dogs have a stealth system (but not the actual assassin game that's fucking about stealthily killing targets) and they have decent systemic elements. The problem is that you play one or two of them and you kinda have your fill of it because every game is so same-y.

The newer AC(Origins and Odyessy) actually do have a bit of a stealth system(though ironically the social stealth is gone now), where night vs. day actually matters a bit, different gear affects how sneaky you are, etc.

 

[Dalisclock]

Just finished Assassin's Creed II. Wasn't really a huge fan. The plot was really boring and none of the characters had any sort of depth at all. Ezio really had it in for the big bad but I could never quite see exactly what the guy even had to do with the death of Ezio's family. I thought we killed the guy responsible within the first hour, although the big bad did look a lot like him, maybe they were the same guy and I never caught on.

Speaking of the big bad, Ezio has this really weird pivot point where he refuses to kill him for no reason at all. "Killing you won't bring my family back." What? Ezio, you kill guards for literally no reason. You killed the guards of the guy you were trying to save because they were in your way of saving the guy. Of all the people you could have spared, the evil pope is probably one of the least deserving.

The pope was the ringleader behind the whole thing, so naturally ezio felt he needed to kill everyone until he reached the top....and then stop.

Yeah the whole Pope thing is played really wierd. They have him cornered in Venice and then just let him wander off because reasons. Ezio finally gets to him in the vatican and then lets him go despite going through all that trouble. The official argument is that he didn't die until later but in that case why keep using him at all? Why keep putting ezio in stuations with him where he's not allowed to kill him and have the most transparent reasoning for it?

And then there's the fact they have Ezio engage in a fistfight with him in the Sistine Chapel just before that doesn't do much for the "Keeping in line with history" argument.

AC plays fast and loose with the History stuff when they want. Sometimes it works and sometimes it really, really doesn't(The Jack the Ripper DLC in Syndicate pushes my buttons hard in this department).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Saw Inglorious Bastards (the original 1978 movie) and it made me feel like killing some nazis myself, so I'm on Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. I've been saying this a lot lately but it's basically the same game as before, just a bit smaller/shorter. Except here I give a damn about the characters, and the versatile gameplay blends action and stealth nicely. So I'm having lots of fun with it.

I also think it's kinda weird how there's been no noticeable graphical update between games, especially considering I played the first one on PS3.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

Just nabbed Jet Lancer on my Switch. Very fun! Feels like a nice evolution to Luftrausers without actually being made by Devolver Digital

 

[Buyetyen]

I've been binging The Sims 3 again, waiting for The Outer Worlds on Steam. Pity me.

 

[Hawki]

So, here's a thing. I've lost acess to The New Colossus because it's no longer on Xbox Game Pass. In case any of you know, if I purchase a digital edition (or heck a physical one), would I be required to start over, or would the pre-existing file save my progress?

In the meantime, I've started playing Resident Evil: Revelations 2. It's, um...basically RE meets Saw with a touch of Silent Hill (hello not Pyramid Head enemies). But I mean that in a good way. Very atmospheric, certainly better than Rev 1. Right now I'm in the forest, and, yikes. Body horror? Yes please.

 

[zoey]

Somehow with the closures and all that, I haven't played much. I have to cope with calculus without friends, from home(strange twist of fate), and I came across this game Variant:Limits, which is about playing one's way through to calculus nirvana! Implicit differentiation - watch out, here I come.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Got all the heads on pikes in MK11’s Krypt and awaiting Aftermath, so now back into Dark Souls 3 to hopefully finish the DLC before that.

Now, I know Papa Ariandel and Sis Friede shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but that third phase...is messing me up a spell; even making Nameless King look bork by contrast, and I’d say a good step up from Lady Maria as well. I beat Nameless with like 5 or 6 Estus left but BlackFlame is ridiculously relentless with her dark bombshells, deep freezes, tracking hook n slices and invisible bs. Closest I got was within a couple hits a couple times. I’m usually running and rolling around too much to get much offense in when she does leave an opening, and then chugging Estus like it’s going out of style whenever she damn near one-shots me.

My problem is I’m probably getting greedy as usual, but it’s also been late and I’ve been tired the times I’ve tried. Not a good combo for three phase fights.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

After three nights of trying, Sis Friede, Father Ariandel and BlackFlame Friede have been reduced to ashes. Ironic it took this long considering I got to the last phase on my second attempt. It was dumb luck I think, because it took actually learning the patterns and openings of these first two phases to really feel comfortable with them.

Then that final one was what really had me reeling, and pretty well surpassing Fume Knight, the Bloodborne Old Hunters bosses and most recently even Nameless King just beforehand. For some reason she was a hell of a handful. Let’s see...highly aggressive with stamina for days to easily close distance when she wants, dark and frost magic up the yin yang, most attacks taking well over half a life bar and you’re forced to wait through more of that for a small chance to heal, and oh yeah she turns invisible.

I think if I had tried her in the AM when I was fresh and not at the very end of the night when I’m already tired I could’ve had her down much sooner. Definitely came close several times. Was one of my most satisfying victories in any case.

Now I’ll probably just head to the base game endings; backed up a save to get at least two of them, but I’m pretty sure I botched my chance on the more hidden one. I’ll head through The Ringed City before starting an NG+ run.

 

[Dalisclock]

Closing in on the end of Divinity Original Sin 2. Still running around Arx, chipping down the quests and such. The Nemesis Demon ambushes threw me for a loop and some of the boss fights have been tough. In fact, the entire area is a bit of a difficulty spike, with one big fight before you can even enter the city. I still need to do the Doctor and the Consulate before the Cathedral so I can tie up Lohse's and the Red Prince's arcs. Really like how the plotlines that have been running, generally in parallel, through the game are starting to come together and get resolved, though the dwarf one has felt a bit underdeveloped(and I blame that on the games scaled back scope in dev). Maybe if I had Beast in my party parts of Arx would feel more fleshed out but the game only let me take 4 in my party.

I realize part of what makes this game take so long is my pathological urge to search and loot everything that isn't outlined in red because there's so much loose change and free spells to be found, not to mention special arrows and grenades, which are always useful. Not to mention anything that isn't useful can be sold to buy better armor and weapons and such. All the good armor/weapons are pricey but I've got a ton of cash at this point and I haven't even been stealing much. Mostly because of the "Take everything and then sell it" trope that RPGs live off of(why wouldn't a cheese vendor buy 20 swords from a group of strangers).

One minor gripe is how some of the ambient speech in the Markets get a bit annoying with the repeating. Driftwood had that one dwarf who kept talking to all the stall vendors over and over again, and now, every time I go shopping in the central square in Arx, I have to listen to the same two ladies batting the same 10 lines back and forth with almost no break in between. I don't even mind the conversation, but it grates hearing it 5 times in a a few minutes.

 

[sXeth]

Wandered back into Fallout76 to see what the updates have added.


Which is prettymuch nothing. There's NPCs now, but they're dull bland and uninteresting. The new quest just kind of is garbled nonsense unless you start over completely too, I'd basically already finished it. (Not helped by the voice audio being barely audible on PS4, even with the slider at max).


A few new enemies, mostly bandits that are indistinguishable from Scorched save by their nametag, Some floating things that seemed horrifically broken isnce level 4s could almost instakill my level 90 character.


Camp building is still buggy AF. Inexplicable "not enough support" issues, damaged parts that can't be repaired, etc. It looks like they upped the amount you can build a bit (or fixed a bug devouring the capacity maybe, but thats about all.


Shop prices are obxnoxious as ever. The world events are all the same schlock, didn't even notice a new one, not that they're memorable enough to stand out,

 

[Trunkage]

Closing in on the end of Divinity Original Sin 2. Still running around Arx, chipping down the quests and such. The Nemesis Demon ambushes threw me for a loop and some of the boss fights have been tough. In fact, the entire area is a bit of a difficulty spike, with one big fight before you can even enter the city. I still need to do the Doctor and the Consulate before the Cathedral so I can tie up Lohse's and the Red Prince's arcs. Really like how the plotlines that have been running, generally in parallel, through the game are starting to come together and get resolved, though the dwarf one has felt a bit underdeveloped(and I blame that on the games scaled back scope in dev). Maybe if I had Beast in my party parts of Arx would feel more fleshed out but the game only let me take 4 in my party.

I heard they rebalanced Arx since release. Sounds like that is a no

 

[SckizoBoy]

The Warden & the Paunch DLC dropped last night for Total War: Warhammer II, so I spent most of today productively not studying and getting to know Eltharion and his penchant for throwing pokeballs(!)

 

[Dalisclock]

I heard they rebalanced Arx since release. Sounds like that is a no

I didn't play the original, PRE-DE version so I can't compare. But yeah, I got there around level 17 and found everything was at least level 18 or higher(and considering you can't really grind in this game and each level means a lot, it was a bit rough starting out). I've heard ARX is a little better now as far as closure is concerned and I haven't seen any of the bugged quests that I'd heard about.

 

[happyninja42]

Just finished playing XCOM: Chimera Squad.
It was a fun experience overall, and a nice, relatively short spinoff to bide me over until whenever the next mainline game comes out. The breach mechanic is very nice, and works well mechanically and thematically. The agents felt very distinct from each other in terms of abilities, though I really did miss the customisation of the previous games.
As for the negatives the voice acting and the characters themselves weren't particularly great, the game had plenty of glitches (I had restart the last encounter of the final mission because I got stuck in an endless loop), the bosses all felt like regular enemies with more health, some agents were much more useful than others, the game felt easier overall than the previous two entries (but still challenging enough to be fun), and there wasn't much variety in missions.

Yeah I'm actually replaying it now with a new set of squad members, the ones I didn't unlock in my first playthrough. The thing I found the most enjoyable, was the character banter between missions. Terminal in particular, had some great lines, especially when she was messing with Verge and her accent. I enjoyed the ability to manipulate the turn roster, and that became Terminal's primary function. She basically became a submachine gun wielding Time Lord, with the set of abilities I gave her, as well as that grenade that give someone 2 turns immediately. She like, NEVER actually shot her gun. Between giving an ally a free action every 3 turns, pushing an enemy down the turn roster by like 5+ slots, tossing out heals, using that grenade, using the team ability that moved somebody up to next in line, by the time something might need to be shot, those things were off cooldown and she'd do them again. It was insane. I also loved Zephyr, oh my god Zephyr was so much fun. I wanted an entire squad of Zephyrs. Oh and Verge too. He got super scary at the end, fully maxing out his Neural Network abilities, where he's controlling like 4 people at once, healing himself as a result of that, hurting them all at once, bypassing armor, and also stunning them so they don't take as many actions. He was on par with Terminal for "I'm too badass to need to use my gun."

I liked the game, mostly because it did away with a lot of the things that turned me off of XCOM 1&2 with repeated play. The tedious map crawling, the illogical nature of the entire team's stealth being broken because one person's stealth is broken. Having a melee/stealth build for a character, but making it basically impossible to actually sneak attack someone in melee without breaking stealth. Running around looking for that last alien, based on sound echo clues. Just, right to the fighting, move to the next one.

I was disappointed there wasn't a sniper class (not really anyway), but it was fun to build teams with some insane synergy off each other, and just clean house.

I feel your pain about that lockup problem. I had that a few times myself. It seemed to pop up whenever I had someone either just hit the End Turn button in the top right, or use that one ability that gave them a dodge/defense boost for one turn. It didn't happen too often though, but it was very frustrating when it did.

I definitely enjoyed it.

OT: I'm dabbling with Atom RPG, but....frankly I just don't find the original Fallout type of gaming system very fun. It's tedious and slow, and dull, and I just don't feel invested in what's going on.
I'm also finishing up AC: Odyssey with my wife, though I'm not sure what new roaming game I might play with her.

 

[Chupathingy]

Yeah I'm actually replaying it now with a new set of squad members, the ones I didn't unlock in my first playthrough. The thing I found the most enjoyable, was the character banter between missions. Terminal in particular, had some great lines, especially when she was messing with Verge and her accent. I enjoyed the ability to manipulate the turn roster, and that became Terminal's primary function. She basically became a submachine gun wielding Time Lord, with the set of abilities I gave her, as well as that grenade that give someone 2 turns immediately. She like, NEVER actually shot her gun. Between giving an ally a free action every 3 turns, pushing an enemy down the turn roster by like 5+ slots, tossing out heals, using that grenade, using the team ability that moved somebody up to next in line, by the time something might need to be shot, those things were off cooldown and she'd do them again. It was insane.

I did like how some characters had such useful abilities that they basically proved their worth without firing a single bullet, like Terminal, Verge and Cherub. And then you have guys like Blueblood high noon-ing everything in sight and Axoim Hulk smashing his way across the room.