What are you currently playing?

[Worgen]

Still working my way through Evil West, just killed Brunch. Kinda a bullshit boss fight, till I remembered my electric ultimate, then it wasn't bad. I have to stop just sitting on that power and start using it against enemies with too big hp bars.

 

[Bartholen]

More Total Warhammer 2. It's not good for me. How many times do I need to teach me this lesson, old man? I restarted the Kroq-Gar campaign no less than 4 times, because every other time it stalled to impossible, interminable quagmires and I'm pretty sure the game bugged out on me once. Much like the Imrik campaign, the geography screws you super hard with Kroq-Gar: you start off in basically an isolated corner, and need to force forward a very specific path to get the objectives. But not only that, there seems to also be a specific sequence in which you need to do things for the campaign to be viable in any way. Because there are so many ways it can go wrong and so many factions that can grind your progress to a halt.

1. The Skaven to the north of the starting location will bloom super fast into two full stacks which refuse to move, and the only way to deal with them is to wait for a full stack of your own, which can take like a dozen turns due to how little resources you have.
2. Hag Graef, unless dealt with early on, and which lies in the literal opposite direction of all your objectives, has the chance to utterly screw the campaign due to how broken a lord Malus Darkblade is.
3. Clan Mors, thanks to them having the Underway and you don't, can pull you into an endlessly enraging game of cat and mouse, stalling your progress for like 20 turns.
4. The longest attempt ended at around turn 150-ish, which is where I believe the game bugged out. Lords I'd defeat completely and utterly would turn back up in like 2 turns with a full stack, effectively negating any progress I might be able to make.
5. The attempt I was running before uninstalling the game again was the most successful, but I could see it being a slow grind to eliminate Khemri and take over not-Africa.

The biggest problem with the campaign is how it forces you to expand into territories unsuited for the Lizardmen playstyle. They're a slowly progressing and slow-moving army with a lot of building requirements for good support, but the areas the game pushes you into simply don't have the proper logistics for it. So as you push more and more outward, the further you're getting from your best base of operations, and spreading yourself thinner. Which effectively forces you to build up suboptimal areas for closer support, or take a chance on the dice that the more optimal areas won't get buttfucked by rebellions, orcs and beasmen.

I've also noticed a pretty funny quirk with the auto-resolve system: the Tomb Kings have an ability that basically gives them huge buffs when defending or something. Queen Khalida attacked one of my garrisons alone in this stance. Due to how weak default garrison armies are, the game projected the auto-resolve as a Crushing Defeat, despite it being literally one lord against 5 full units. I just sent my units at her and basically killed her by a thousand cuts, giving me a Decisive Victory in what the game projected as a Crushing Defeat. Kinda funny.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Wish I could play Total Warhammer, but my computer isn't good enough.

 

[meiam]

Wish I could play Total Warhammer, but my computer isn't good enough.

Its still built from the first one, which came out probably like a decade ago at this point, so the requirement aren't too crazy for it.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'm in a kind of groove of switching between My Time at Sandrock and Starfield. It's kind of a strange feeling as well. I'm liking Sandrock, but not as much as I enjoyed its predecessor Portia. And I'm liking Starfield, but not quite as much as I enjoyed any of the Fallout titles or The Outer Worlds. And I can't help but think I'd be enjoying both more if I hadn't been so satisfied by Tears of the Kingdom just months ago.

 

[AllMondayEveryday]

Decided to take a break from my Durge run Baldur's Gate 3 and install Cyberpunk. I got the game and started a Corpo run a year ago after I finished watching Edgerunners, where I got 2 hours in. MAN is this game gorgeous to look at. Every interior and every character's animation and voice acting is just polished to a sheen. Even during the broken state the game was released in, it makes Starfield look even more outdated. I am at the mission where we have to steal the relic. While the main quest design and presentation is a little too railroadey for what's supposed to be an RPG/immersive sim, the experience is still pretty immersive and interesting.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Still working my way through Evil West, just killed Brunch. Kinda a bullshit boss fight, till I remembered my electric ultimate, then it wasn't bad. I have to stop just sitting on that power and start using it against enemies with too big hp bars.

How are you enjoying the combat?
I played this game and while I did like it, I got really annoyed with that camera up against the right shoulder with enemies flying around off screen thing that has become popular of late. I also probably shouldn't have played it so soon after completing God of War Ragnarok.

 

[Worgen]

How are you enjoying the combat?
I played this game and while I did like it, I got really annoyed with that camera up against the right shoulder with enemies flying around off screen thing that has become popular of late. I also probably shouldn't have played it so soon after completing God of War Ragnarok.

Overall I'm enjoying combat. I don't mind the close camera, especially since enemies seem to kinda be willing to be less aggressive offscreen... well slightly and they also kinda just stand around when your doing the electric punch combo... mostly. Really my main issue with it is that till I remembered my ult, big enemies would take awhile to beat down. Also the electrified enemy punch combo is a bit tedious and needs at least a second combo to break it up.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Due to highly sensitive matters of national security, cannot yet divulge much of the classified top secret documents recently obtained from my shadowy network of international spies - already had to shake off 3 tails on the drive here after finding out they bugged my apartment from top to bottom. Commander of the newly hired 24hour private military guard patrolling the windowless safehouse am currently bunkered down in just got fired for cheekily asked if videogames are taking themselves too seriously these days. We can't have attitudes like that weakening our last line of defense. And yes I am sleeping a gun under my pillow. Well, 6 guns. And a grenade. Launcher.



Weirdly isn't even a game I've seen much enthusiasm for neither. and how confidential can it really be when I only signed up cause it was advertised on mainstream gaming websites anyway.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

How are you enjoying the combat?
I played this game and while I did like it, I got really annoyed with that camera up against the right shoulder with enemies flying around off screen thing that has become popular of late. I also probably shouldn't have played it so soon after completing God of War Ragnarok.

Since we were discussing TW3 earlier, have you played it since the Next Gen update? They added this type of camera as the default view. I tried it for a while, but in places like dark caves with ledges or stairwells of ruins it can feel like you’re almost rubbing shoulders with Geralt through the screen lol. I put it back to the normal view.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Since we were discussing TW3 earlier, have you played it since the Next Gen update? They added this type of camera as the default view. I tried it for a while, but in places like dark caves with ledges or stairwells of ruins it can feel like you’re almost rubbing shoulders with Geralt through the screen lol. I put it back to the normal view.

Yeah I played the next gen update. New default camera sucks, but indeed it was clearly done to match the trend of such games that happened since TW3 originally launched. It is actually ok for just walking around and exploring, but not for combat or horse riding IMO.

The other default settings like the "alternative" movement and such are good though. Just stuff that came from years of player feedback.

There are a whole bunch of changes with skills and perks that are rather interesting if you get into the details- the best one is that none of the skills have a max of 5 upgrades so you can spread your skill points and get more skills faster. But you're still stuck with the same number of skills slots- if you know the tree well, it just means you can get OP skills like Refreshment earlier and breeze through the game even easier.

But yeah the best thing is of course the visuals and that is the reason to play the upgrade.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

I started playing Shovel Knight. It's fun! Definitely frustrating in parts though. But so far it's doing exactly what I wanted it to- give me something to play in short doses and, if I want, while listening to other things.

 

[Worgen]

I started playing Shovel Knight. It's fun! Definitely frustrating in parts though. But so far it's doing exactly what I wanted it to- give me something to play in short doses and, if I want, while listening to other things.

There is a lot of Shovel Knight and its all great, but be careful about playing Plague Knight right after Shovel Knight. They have almost the exact same levels with just a few new areas. The story is cute, but doing the same stages can be tedious even though they play different.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Its still built from the first one, which came out probably like a decade ago at this point, so the requirement aren't too crazy for it.

I've tried running it on my computer before and it chugs. I could probably lower the settings and run it but, ehhh, I'll get a new PC someday. Maybe sooner rather than later as Windows 7 isn't really being supported at all anymore.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Been playing Mario Odyssey and it's... ok. It's good I guess, but I don't know it feels lacking compared to previous Mario games. 64, Sunshine, and Galaxy were all great games and the movement always felt really good. Odyssey's controls honestly feel a little stiff, and I've just reached New Donk City and thus far the game has been utterly lacking in good platforming challenges. It's mostly about exploring every nook and cranny for one of the nine thousand power moons hidden throughout the game. Most of them are extremely obvious as well.

More than ever before Mario feels like a kid's game, especially with all the aggressive tutorialization worthy of even Skyward Sword. Not only does the game have a character in every level dedicated to reminding you the Action Guide exists, and not only are you forced to listen to the hat explain a move to you every single time you travel between levels (after skipping through 4 different cutscenes), not only are there signs in front of places that you need to use a move that brings a popup onto the screen for far too long showing the move being done (I can't not read a sign in a video game, what if this time it's something interesting!), but the game will always display the button combination to do whatever move it wants you to anyway! And no, there isn't an option to turn off tips.

There are also a ludicrous number of coins in the game. I currently have over 2000 stockpiled having bought everything available and new items pop up for, like, 100 coins.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

So Watch Dogs 2 does the incredibly fun, classic Ubisoft move of having enemies wearing fucking beanies surviving headshots. Man they really are built different over there.

 

[Drathnoxis]

So Watch Dogs 2 does the incredibly fun, classic Ubisoft move of having enemies wearing fucking beanies surviving headshots. Man they really are built different over there.

Kevlar beanies.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

So Watch Dogs 2 does the incredibly fun, classic Ubisoft move of having enemies wearing fucking beanies surviving headshots. Man they really are built different over there.

The might be because every gun in Ubisoft games is secretly just a peashooter.

Yes the theme of the day (or month, why not) is vegetables, people. Eat ‘em!

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

There is a lot of Shovel Knight and its all great, but be careful about playing Plague Knight right after Shovel Knight. They have almost the exact same levels with just a few new areas. The story is cute, but doing the same stages can be tedious even though they play different.

I bought Treasure Trove and a bunch of a other games and my thinking was to alternate between a Shovel Knight and another game, and play the Shovel Knights in release order. I dunno we'll see how that goes.

I'm in the second map and the games gets really challenging for me. I should point out that I quit other recent 2D platformers like Ori because the platforming gets too tough for me. I read that SK is not as hard so I hope the difficulty doesn't spike too much. So far my unsurmountable walls have been optional areas so that's fine if I don't beat everything but I'm hoping that doesn't lock me out of important upgrades.

The thing that attracted me to the game other than just wanting a throwback platformer was to see how level designs work based off of simple gameplay elements. The last area I beat was sort of a water level but there's no swimming so the presence of water just makes jumps a little different... it was pretty cool.

 

[Worgen]

I bought Treasure Trove and a bunch of a other games and my thinking was to alternate between a Shovel Knight and another game, and play the Shovel Knights in release order. I dunno we'll see how that goes.

I'm in the second map and the games gets really challenging for me. I should point out that I quit other recent 2D platformers like Ori because the platforming gets too tough for me. I read that SK is not as hard so I hope the difficulty doesn't spike too much. So far my unsurmountable walls have been optional areas so that's fine if I don't beat everything but I'm hoping that doesn't lock me out of important upgrades.

The thing that attracted me to the game other than just wanting a throwback platformer was to see how level designs work based off of simple gameplay elements. The last area I beat was sort of a water level but there's no swimming so the presence of water just makes jumps a little different... it was pretty cool.

Err... hmm. I'm not sure if the platforming will become too much for you. I can't really judge since I'm really good at platforming. But, Shovel Knight does give you additional tools that can help with platforming. So hopefully you can enjoy the game to the end.

I caved in and bought the Turok 3 remaster. Pretty good so far, I remember renting it back in the day and not being that into it. I don't think the music is as good as Turok 1 or 2, but it is more orchestral then those games, which were mainly drum. Weapons feel pretty good and enemies aren't as bullet spongy as they were in 2, there is also a kinda neat battle damage system where enemies seem to blow apart based on where you shoot them, like shooting off a limb or head.