What are you currently playing?

[RhombusHatesYou]

it does feel like I'm actually managing stuff. Which is more then I felt in DAI.

In DAI, apart from a few squads worth of bods you see hanging around, you only have other people's word that the Inquisition has anything to manage.

 

[Dalisclock]

In DAI, apart from a few squads worth of bods you see hanging around, you only have other people's word that the Inquisition has anything to manage.

Yeah, the Army that fights near the end and the assault on the fortress just kind of appears and disappears as needed. Otherwise it's pretty much nowhere to be seen.

 

[meiam]

Finished Act 2 of Pathfinder WOTR. Act 2 introduces you to crusade mode which is a lot like the exploration in Kingmaker but now you're moving armies around the map and fighting demon armies. But you still need to take your adventuring party to visit locations so the army also scouts and basically clears the path. Occasionally you run into places where you actually need to use your party to clear the path for the army, like an choke point that is a perfect ambush location.

It's not too long and it's basically a march to the fortress city of Drezen, which fell to the demons decades before, and the act finale is basically assaulting Drezen because it's a vital keystone to retaking the rest of the worldwound(basically a big demon infested wasteland with a hell portal in the center). Once taken(and it took me like 3 days to take it), it acts as the home base for the rest of the crusade, which is meant to push the other 80% of the way to the center of the worldwound.

But yeah, it's a lot better paced then kingmaker and while the crusade battles aren't particularly great, it does feel like I'm actually managing stuff. Which is more then I felt in DAI.

I also got to pick my mythic path and went with Azata which I guess is like a superhero of sorts, like a chaotic version of an angel I guess?

Azata is what would happen if the world runned on staurday cartoon logic and friendship was really power.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I finished Serious Sam 4, and let me tell you, that final boss fight absolutely demolished any sort of goodwill I had for the game. Having to pilot a huge, clunky mech against homing fireballs that can't be shot down if they get too close, eye beams that basically say "no, you don't get to win now" (unless you get behind the bastard, in which case you run the chance of getting too close to the giant teleporter behind him and being instagibbed), and an endless swarm of flying robots that gleefully chip away at you- it is the biggest pile of bullshit I have encountered in many a year, and I have uninstalled the game with zero intent to ever touch it again. Even Serious Sam 3 never pissed me off this much.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Yeah, the Army that fights near the end and the assault on the fortress just kind of appears and disappears as needed. Otherwise it's pretty much nowhere to be seen.

Maybe they're on zero-hour contracts or day labourers.

 

[Worgen]

I finished Serious Sam 4, and let me tell you, that final boss fight absolutely demolished any sort of goodwill I had for the game. Having to pilot a huge, clunky mech against homing fireballs that can't be shot down if they get too close, eye beams that basically say "no, you don't get to win now" (unless you get behind the bastard, in which case you run the chance of getting too close to the giant teleporter behind him and being instagibbed), and an endless swarm of flying robots that gleefully chip away at you- it is the biggest pile of bullshit I have encountered in many a year, and I have uninstalled the game with zero intent to ever touch it again. Even Serious Sam 3 never pissed me off this much.

You just keep dashing to avoid the fireballs and just sweep the guns over the bots to shred the bots and just keep shooting and rocketing the boss.

 

[wings012]

Tried out Trepang2. It's fun for a while, plays like a higher octane version of FEAR. While it has a lot of FEAR-isms to it, I do think you have to approach the game differently than FEAR. It definitely encourages more aggressive play, especially since enemies drop armour so that will keep you topped up as you go along. Kinda felt like I wanted to or needed to take cover in FEAR whereas I just want to be moving and attacking the entire time in Trepang2.

Sadly the game doesn't provide very good context for what's going on. There's dudes saying stuff, but I was going from killing military dudes to acid spewing zombies so yeah. Not sure what's going on.

Also got Battlebit Remastered, which is bundles of fun. 127 v 127 chaos. It's a battlefield-ish game. I think all the buildings are destructible. There's so many people in each match that it's a constant breeding pool for all manners of nonsense. Still not very good at the game but I'm unlocking stuff and finding a playstyle I'm more comfortable with.

 

[sXeth]

So yeah that foray back into Destiny. That hit a wall relatively quick. After watchin 3 different videos and having no idea what of the bundles even contained what, even the dedicated friends in the thing were like "yeah, don't buy these things for full price, wait for a sale" on the actual 3 expansions (also apparently dungeons, which are Raids little brothers, are not included with their adjacent expansions, cost the ingame silver instead and are conveniently priced at 15 dollars of whatever when the packs come in 10 and 20 flavours)

The general consensus was just yeah, considering I could get Remnant 2 cheaper then <whatever the current state of light is> expansion prolly that.


On the other less irritating live service space shooter, the newest Warframe is a pretty neat teleporting shotgunny big sword man.

Was supposed to literally be carrying on in WIld Hearts now on stream, but rolling thunderstorms ad power outs.

 

[Dalisclock]

Azata is what would happen if the world runned on staurday cartoon logic and friendship was really power.

Honestly that kinda sounds fine. I've done two diplomatic council meetings and I'm already annoyed by the Kitsune lady. Particularly the bit where she goes "Oh, the queen already made the decision for you but you need to rubber stamp the idea." And then gets miffed when I reject her suggestions(I've sided with someone else both times).

At this point I'm basically going with anyone but her just to tweak her Vulpine ears. I have no doubt there will be consequences later but the Queen put me in charge of the crusade(without giving me a say in the matter) and I'm gonna run it as I see fit. If she doesn't like that, well, maybe she shouldn't have promoted me.

I mean, Lady, as far as I know I'm not even a member of your fucking army and you appoint me Knight Commander? You have no right to complain I'm not running things exactly the way you would prefer considering you didn't even bother to vet or train me.

 

[Absent]

Will I ever stop playing Shadows of Doubt ?

 

[Elvis Starburst]

After finishing up the monolith that was doing almost 100% of Tears of the Kingdom, I got a new game that has had my interest for awhile... 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I just got done the game not long before writing this message.
There are few games I wish I could experience for the first time again, and holy hell this was one of them. It hooked me super quick, and I was questioning everything just as much as the cast was from start to finish. Seeing all the pieces lining up was exciting, as it is very similar to how I like to lay out plot threads in my own stories, and I think I can say I enjoyed nearly the whole experience. What a fascinating title.
I can finally understand why it has a full price tag. Buuuut, getting it half off wasn't too bad either~ Still would've been worth it at full price in the end, but, I didn't really know that going in so the sale on the eshop was the push I needed to finally give it a look

 

[Chimpzy]

Sonic Triple Trouble

Or rather the fan-made remake. It takes the Game Gear game and reimagines it in the style of Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It's pretty good actually.

 

[Dalisclock]

After finishing up the monolith that was doing almost 100% of Tears of the Kingdom, I got a new game that has had my interest for awhile... 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. I just got done the game not long before writing this message.
There are few games I wish I could experience for the first time again, and holy hell this was one of them. It hooked me super quick, and I was questioning everything just as much as the cast was from start to finish. Seeing all the pieces lining up was exciting, as it is very similar to how I like to lay out plot threads in my own stories, and I think I can say I enjoyed nearly the whole experience. What a fascinating title.
I can finally understand why it has a full price tag. Buuuut, getting it half off wasn't too bad either~ Still would've been worth it at full price in the end, but, I didn't really know that going in so the sale on the eshop was the push I needed to finally give it a look

13 Sentinals is really interesting experience and I don't think it would hit nearly as hard on the 2nd run. It's best going in Blind to get the full effect of the plot.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Breath of the Wild. Holy crap, I HATE stasis puzzles. I'm breaking all my weapons and I can't fricking aim it! Good lord, and they are so bloody precise and on a timer and there is no way to tell if you are standing in the exact right spot or a couple degrees to the side, which will send the thing flying off the mark.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

13 Sentinals is really interesting experience and I don't think it would hit nearly as hard on the 2nd run. It's best going in Blind to get the full effect of the plot.

No doubt, definitely a one and done sort of thing... which is why I wish I could experience it for the first time again. Though I cannot, I enjoyed it greatly the first time through

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Lots of fun with Rogue Legacy 2. Just beat the sixth boss. Started off with a relic that added 105% damage so long as I never got hit. Coupled with the insane DPS from the gunslinger I basically broke the fight. Had a similar experience with an archer whose arrows could conveniently phase through walls and barriers: again so absolutely broke the game I got to map out every room in every biome of the game and kill TWO BOSSES, both first tries, without dying. Probably a one in a million throw of the dice for me. I've never seen that trait again in the game.

The game tends to lure you towards horrible character traits by giving them gold multipliers. No invulnerability windows, no healing, paralysis, blackouts... So paradoxically playing the more deficient characters is how you level up, because the average Joe's of Rogue Legacy 2 don't make a lot of cash. At least nominally. It's a nice way of balancing the game. And I will always basically pick anybody with a ??? trait just to log down what it does. Same with ??? relics - register everything the fuck down.

One thing I don't like about Binding of Isaac is how pills have inconsistent effects from one run to another. I get it. Quite a few of them are debuffs, and there would never be a good reason to lower your speed or damage or health, so of course they only make sense as part of a gamble. But conversely there's never a reason not to gamble. The positive effects generally outweigh the neutral and negative ones.

I think in the end I'd just rather know what I'm choosing, and make it part of a tactical tradeoff rather than a totally good or bad thing.

 

[Hawki]

FIRE EMBLEM HEROES

Spoiler

For anyone who's been following my posts on FEH, you may have noticed a recurring theme of me wondering when Book VI would inevitably disappoint me. In a sense, that point in time has arrived, but the level of disappointment isn't too severe. Basically, we've transitioned from Embla's internal conflict to the big bad phase - Lady Embla, the patron deity, has arrived, and she's a very bad person who does very bad things for very bad reasons. Yeah, I don't find this as interesting a revelation as Embla's civil strife, but that being said, it's not a complete loss.

Anyway:

-So, Embla's kind of got this sort of body-hopping thing. We've seen her curse manifest in those who carry her bloodline before (e.g. Letzia, Veronica, and Bruno, but we don't talk about him, no no), but this seems to be a case of her body hopping and being exorcized. Sort of. Yeah, it doesn't help that there's a limitation in graphics here.

-Askr turns up and the characters set out for his realm. In what's actually a decent twist, the characters start asking what his plans are to defeat Embla, including Veronica, only for Askr to realize that Embla's possessed her, and apparently has done so for quite some time. Ergo, they're able to 'defeat' her, but Veronica has to be left behind as the others enter Askr's realm.

-So we enter Askr's realm, which is...alright, the cosmology is weird. It's basically a 'hub world' with portals to numerous worlds (this may be an esoteric comparison, but think of The Wood Between the Worlds in Chronicles of Narnia), yet he explicitly refers to the Nine Realms that Yggdrassil in his realm runs through/connects to. So, are there nine realms, or infinite realms, and is there a difference between a "realm' and a "world?" Eh, probably. The cosmology isn't as confusing as you might think if you've played everything up to this point (as I have), but it does come across as real-world mythologies being transplanted into a fictional setting regardless of said setting's pre-existing context.

-Another point, as I've said quite a few times - Ash is just boring. BORING. Said this before, I'll say it again, I don't find her interesting as a character. It's not like Elm is any better, but FFS, Askr's been with us only a fraction of the time Ash has, and he's a far more interesting character, especially since there's hints he's on borrowed time. It's actually a sort of weird inverse where the antagonists are more interesting than the protagonists - yeah, Elm isn't interesting, but Embla isn't too bad, and Letzia is an interesting character, even if she's AWOL right now.

So, yeah. The story of Book VI has had a step down, but it's not as drastic a step down as some other examples.

DIABLO IV

Spoiler

I don't have that much to say about D4, since I haven't really progressed in the main storyline, and have just done side quests up to this point effectively. Still, I've got some random thoughts:

-So I redid part of Light's Watch as part of a side quest, and something caught by eye, namely a tapestry. Not that it was ever short of tapestries, but this one appears to show Cathedral of Light warriors/knights defeating Zakarum warriors/knights on the field of battle. If I'm right, if this is an historical event that occurred between D3 and D4, then I love the implications here. Not only has Inarius reformed the Cathedral of Light, but he's swept away any potential rivals to represent the Light on Sanctuary. Zakarum's gone from a corrupted force to the undergods, and Inarius is still a dick. Mwah (French kiss).

-I reached Yelesna, and like everywhere else, life sucks here. On one hand, the villagers outright say that if not for the Knights Penitent, they wouldn't be able to survive. On the other, whereas hangings were a rare occurrence, now there's a hanging every week. First side quest had me follow a woman out of town to find her husband skinned by a succubus, yet still alive, begging for more pain. Yeah...like I said, I don't have much new to say, but again, Yelesna reinforces that not only does life suck in Sanctuary, but the "good guys" are mostly only as good as it serves their own purposes. Either your town gets overrun by demons and wolves, or you get to enjoy draconian rule with capital punishment. Sucks to be you, I guess.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I suck at math.
If there're 15 classes, 16 spells, 56 traits and 69 relics, and a character is randomly generated with 1 class and 1 spell and anywhere between 0 and 2 traits OR relics (or a combination of 1 trait, 1 relic)... how many possible combinations is that?

 

[Drathnoxis]

Lots of fun with Rogue Legacy 2. Just beat the sixth boss. Started off with a relic that added 105% damage so long as I never got hit. Coupled with the insane DPS from the gunslinger I basically broke the fight. Had a similar experience with an archer whose arrows could conveniently phase through walls and barriers: again so absolutely broke the game I got to map out every room in every biome of the game and kill TWO BOSSES, both first tries, without dying. Probably a one in a million throw of the dice for me. I've never seen that trait again in the game.

The game tends to lure you towards horrible character traits by giving them gold multipliers. No invulnerability windows, no healing, paralysis, blackouts... So paradoxically playing the more deficient characters is how you level up, because the average Joe's of Rogue Legacy 2 don't make a lot of cash. At least nominally. It's a nice way of balancing the game. And I will always basically pick anybody with a ??? trait just to log down what it does. Same with ??? relics - register everything the fuck down.

One thing I don't like about Binding of Isaac is how pills have inconsistent effects from one run to another. I get it. Quite a few of them are debuffs, and there would never be a good reason to lower your speed or damage or health, so of course they only make sense as part of a gamble. But conversely there's never a reason not to gamble. The positive effects generally outweigh the neutral and negative ones.

I think in the end I'd just rather know what I'm choosing, and make it part of a tactical tradeoff rather than a totally good or bad thing.

Binding of Isaac was made in a time when roguelikes were still somewhat taking inspiration from Rogue. Identifying randomized items was a large part of early roguelikes, though you generally had a lot more options than to just randomly try everything.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I suck at math.
If there're 15 classes, 16 spells, 56 traits and 69 relics, and a character is randomly generated with 1 class and 1 spell and anywhere between 0 and 2 traits OR relics (or a combination of 1 trait, 1 relic)... how many possible combinations is that?

I might be wrong but I think it's 1.89 million.