The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

Starfield. Trying to stay away from some of the negativity online about it to not to make me aware of my own poor standards and am loving it so far.

I'm convinced there's so much negativity online because the people who are enjoying it are so sucked in that we aren't online.

I already have 32 hours. 😬
- There's that, but also, it didn't come out on PS5. There will be fanboys jumping on the negativity train because they want an Xbox exclusive to look bad.
  
  (I'll be playing on PC, but the console wars are still very much alive and well for some players)

Baldur’s Gate 3. Still my first run with a friend, we do not want this to end at all. We take our time as much as we can, exploring everything. It’s so much fun, we’re absolutely into the story.

I can’t imagine the feeling of emptiness once we finish this.

I'm enjoying every minute of BG3. Taking it slow and savoring it. Explore an area, finish an encounter, long rest and then stop.

Similar experience here. The game is very impressive and immersive.

I was halfway in ACT II only to realize that I haven't even met with Gale (a companion that you can recruit). I went back to do the Gale's quest recently and discovered what practically counted for me as 10 hours of new content in ACT I.

Now, I think I concluded the story lines of ACT I and can move back to ACT II.

Still playing Slay The Spire and Hexcells as my “podcast games”.

Started Halls of Torment. Really cool aesthetically and some interesting boss designs. Hope it distinguishes itself more from Vampire Survivors though. Especially in having more incentives to keep playing than “numbers go up”. There are some minor story things and unique aspects of some maps that I think could really set this game apart.

Also playing Super Mario Sunshine. Honestly probably my least favorite 3D Mario to date. Besides feeling very clumsy it has some pretty sloppy level design here and there. Still a decent game, but having played Odyssey this game feels very dated.

Aw, Sunshine is my favorite title, but I can't find myself disagreeing on the "Odyssey makes it feel clunky" note. The only point of note for me is that Sunshine feels much more open world than Odyssey does. Probably the nostalgia speaking...
Halls of torment is really fun. Not only can you keep unlocking stuff for a long time, you can run multiple different builds on each character to keep things interesting.
I do feel Halls of Torment does a good job of separating itself from Vampire Survivors. There is actual aiming and an attack button if you want and there's Diablo style gear you can equip before and during runs.

What it is not good at is visual clarity. I very frequently take damage or even die because I couldn't see something over all the stuff my character was throwing out. VS also has this problem but it's lessened by the fact that by that point everything's probably dead in 2 seconds anyways.

Back to Crusader Kings 3, finally going to get me that Dynasty of Many Crowns :p

It‘s insane how hours on end just disappear when playing that game

Dusk, not sure if anyone here knows about it though. Pretty good game.

The shooter? I know of it, I've seen Civvie11's videos on it; haven't tried it myself yet. In the same vein, I have played Cultic, which is very similar and also a pretty good game (underselling it).
Too fast for an old man

Still playing Stationeers. If you want detailed survival game, Stationeers is it. Grind for ores to smelt and make parts. Blow up your base, cause you forgot ice melts in your hand. Suffocate cause you forgot to close your helmet when you left your base. Did you turn that gas mixer off? What's that noi...

This is the first time I hear about this game. Checking it out, it definitely looks like something I'd enjoy. Thanks for the tip! 👍

On my second playthrough of the witcher series and on witcher 3 now, and man... I've missed this game! What I didn't miss however was that goddamn leshen in velen. On my first time playing w3 I got massacred by it, this time I remembered roughly where it was, and while on my way to a side quest I did my best to avoid it. Well, I ride around in the forest, trying to remember where it was, I run into it. I see him just in time to stop and wait for him to walk away from me before moving on myself. Unfortunately his wolves noticed me and I had to make a run for it. Managed to get away alive and paused the game to take a little breather and to vent to my roommate. After unpausing the game, the freaking leshen teleported right in front of me! Had to make a run for it again, and wait for it to leave the area so I could continue my quest. Leshens are the truly terrifying monsters in the witcher, and I love their design, just don't love running into them (especially with a high level difference). Still, this has once again made me think about getting a leshen tattoo.

I've been talking to anyone who would listen about Your Spider. This is possibly my all time favorite indie horror game, and the fact that it only has three reviews feels like an injustice to me.

I was playing BG3, but I randomly jumped into X-Plane 12 and now have the flight sim bug. Once you learn how to do things it's quite relaxing just picking some random locations and doing some flights in a nice plane model.

I'm still playing Project Zomboid at the moment, it's very intriguing when you make the zombie slower and more fragile, but double their population. 1v10 is doable this way, but a missed swing still mean death lol.

I did 2 survival runs in the last year, both near Rosewood, I had never been and it was nice to have a change of scenery. Can't wait for the next big update, I'll be back for another run for sure! We used these settings on our dedicated server:

1200% reading speed

250% XP

Higher Weapon spawn

Lower Generator fuel consumption

Cars have a higher change to have a little gas in them

There is less food loot to balance the above out
- Rosewood is nice, there's a very easily defensible place i can hole up, a bit out of the town center so it doesn't have high concentration of zombies, and near a police and fire station so weapon(fire axe, gun) is easy to come by.
  
  Though the helicopter event will make you get trapped inside a place you can't escape lol.

I just picked up Sea of Stars earlier today - i'm about a hour in and enjoying myself so far, no complaints. Otherwise, I picked up Pokemon Go in the past week & i'm really enjoying it. It turns out that a lot of my friends are still playing, and the Pokemon Go Plus+ I use for sleep tracking also gets bonuses in Pokemon Sleep if you use it for Go. Now i'm playing both!

I've been giving Blood a go, I missed out on a lot of shooters back in the day so when I play them now you can see how many modern games were inspiresd by these old giants, it's also really obvious why people love this game and have used it for inspiration

Very cool! Check out F.E.A.R.! Cool level design, story, pretty decent AI. Old but gold. Also scary ;-)
- I have played Fear! I think I've played both 1 and 2, they were great run and gun games

Playing BG3 with my gf. We’re having a blast.

Alone I’m playing Motorsport Manager. And old game and nothing like football manager that I played a lot in the past. It’s not great, it’s basic and I know I will only do a couple of seasons but it has been keeping me up at night and going to bed late so that counts as something. I’m definitely having fun and it’s a chill game.

A couple of months ago I was playing RDR2 but I stopped about halfway and haven’t gone back to it. The game is ridiculously good looking and the world is great but honestly the gameplay is such a slog. Most quests are basic af. I wonder how it got this much praise tbh

I should play BG3 and get out of Act1. Buuut it's starting to be so long since I last played it that I am lost in where I was and were doing. And I honestly don't like the zone designs with all their open emptyness while at the same time being soooo cramped. What does it take to walk from the druid's encampment to the goblin temple? Two minutes? Three? Cooooome on. Would have preferred the druid's having one map, then world map travel to goblin's and then zoom in on their lair. Condense the adventure while keeping distances plausible. So I'll keep on looking at my small settlers as I keep building their settlement in Farthest Frontier.

I'm not sure if it helps you at all, but there some waypoints you can jump to. In fact, there are waypoints both right near the druids grove and one in the goblin encampment.

In regards to what you're doing, there are journal entries that keep track of quests step by step so you can see what you've learned in each as you've progressed.

I'm stuck in a loop of League Of Legends and Escape from Tarkov. I hate myself for it but they are both so addicting I always want more.

I haven’t had a ton of time for gaming lately, but I did get in a quick session of Lords Of The Realm II.

This is my comfort food of games.

Dark and Darker, Starfield, Factorio.

Trimps, Rimworld

Pokemon Black 2. Always, forever.

Recently I've been playing a massive minecraft map called Drehmal, which got a big update a few weeks ago. It's kinda like if someone made an elder scrolls game in minecraft, with lots of exploring, loot and lore to find. Unfortunately I think something about the map, either the mods needed to play it or the size, doesn't agree with my computer and I will get a crash after a few hours of play. So maybe I should find something else.

Final Fantasy 7 OG with HD textures and Echo-S mod (full voice acting).

It is a much better game than the so-called remake.

Why do you feel the remake is bad
- I don't think the remake is a bad game, but I enjoy the original better because:
  
  I prefer the original ATB combat better than the remake's action hybrid
  
  The original has much better pacing, the remake has a lot of padding
  
  The original feels more open for exploration, while the remake feels very linear
  
  The remake added some nonsensical story

Just got the platinum trophy for shadow of the Colossus remake and now I'm playing some spiderman miles Morales

Stranded Deep - that game has snuck into my dreams.

Finally finished a few things that were keeping me working at home after work and was able to dive back into Mass Effect 2 (in the remastered trilogy). I'm enjoying it a lot, I just recruited the final squad member.

Before that, I did the missions on the Krogan homeworld and really enjoyed seeing how my companion from ME 1 is doing. I also like my Krogan squad member a lot, so it was nice.

DiRT 5. It‘s an HDR spectacle but the driving itself feels god fucking awful, ngl lol

Elden Ring, Frost Punk, Brotato and still after 2000 hours Deep Rock Galactic.

Big Ambitions dropped EA 0.3 last week. So I am retro fitting all my retail outlets with security while setting up the new stores and HQ employees.

I have no access to Starfield (I only have ps5 and steamdeck) so I'm back to No Man's Sky once again!
This game just gets better for free and I can honestly play it every weekend. It's a masterpiece in my opinion and while I'm sad I don't have access to Starfield I'm in no rush for another space adventure just yet.

I thought Starfield played "fine" on steamdeck.
- I've heard it's 30fps with dips in bigger areas but tbh I want to enjoy it on a big screen as the environments look absolutely beautiful. I might get a PC at some point or an xbox so I'd rather wait.

I'm nearing the end of Graveyard Keeper. Pretty fun so far!

Hunt showdown. Keywords : butt clenching, unforgiving, gloomy and fun

I finished TotK after playing for months (loves it, it’s amazing, etc) and went straight into Metroid Dread. I enjoyed it, but what a let-down after remembering Metroid Prime. I can’t remember if I played all of those, but they were a real fresh take on the franchise. Dread feels like a step back. I don’t think I’ll be doing another run in Hard either, because it was already hard enough.

I don’t have anything in the pipeline to play either. I would like to go BG3 or Crusader Kings 3, but I have so little time for PC games. I did play the Sea of Stars demo on Switch so I may pick that up instead.

I can chime in as someone who has been playing both Baldur's Gate 3 (when my and my friends schedule allows) and Sea of Stars - Sea of Stars is fantastic and great on the Switch. Beautiful pixel art and the combat is a lot of fun.
- Lol I bought it about 20m after typing this up. I would have replied sooner but I was busy playing 🤣

Battlefield 2 online, Starcraft II and Halo CE

Chronicon. Impulse purchased it a week or so ago.

Who needs Diablo IV or maybe even PoE when we have Grim Dawn and Chronicon.

StarCraft Mass Recall. I discovered that StarCraft 2 is free to play recently, and someone modded in the entire SC1 BroodWar and a couple other campaigns

Definitely downloading this tonight lol. Brood Wars was my whole teenage existence

I keep doing breaching-plans in Doorkickers 2 and building bases in Stranded Alien Dawn.
I also fell back into Valheim with a new friend gang.

Playing Sea of Stars on gamepass, and Baldur's Gate 3, co-op with my wife. Sea of Stars is pretty fun and kind of relaxing. I want to like BG3 more than I do. Lots of frustrations with the combat, and the waypoint/journaling system.

I decided to take a break from Bloodborne when I found Mass Effect Legendary Edition on sale for $12. I'm doing a playthrough of those games since I haven't played the Legendary Edition yet.

Been playing The Binding of Isaac a lot for the last couple weeks. I'm approching 500 hours total and Tainted Lost is breaking my will nearly everyday 🙃. I want to finish Disco Elysium, but my ADHD is really bad lately, so I end only playing Isaac since it's my confort game.

Started Starfield of course and have been really enjoying it. I love the RPG elements already and it’s been a long time since I really catered a character to my liking rather than just taking the default. It’s giving me the same awe I had when I first played Mass Effect over 15 years ago (though I’m not sure if anything can beat that experience especially when you go to the Citadel). Action is fun and I like the three different POVs you can pick. Only complaint is the HDR seems a bit off where things look a bit greyish especially in the opening period.

Outside of Starfield, I’ve been playing Limbo again seeing it on GamePass. Never finished it when I was playing it on Android so finally going to give a chance to it now.

Finished up Banjo Kazooie last night. Always good for a quick playthrough. Still BG3 with my wife as time allows. Not quite sure what solo game to pick up next.

Was just playing The Sims 4 on my PC.

I also just got a Switch OLED, which will arrive by mail in a few days (delayed due to almost being sold out). I’ve also gotten cartridges of Breath of the Wild and Minecraft Dungeons for it so I’m excited.

League and Valorant

The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 04-09-2023