The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion
The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion
Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!
Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.
Signalis (on Switch)
The music, the sounds, the visuals create a perfect mood. I’m not far into the story, but for now it’s very intriguing. One of the few games where I don’t mind the backtracking. Despite the retro look, the game is very immersive.
There is some clunkiness tho. Might be better on a PC.
If you like sci-fi with a bit horror, ambiguous storytelling, gloomy atmosphere, try it.
Got back into Super Metroid Randomizers, also still playing BG3 😊
World of Warships. Started jumping back into that recently. I dunno why but it's weirdly peaceful and relaxing for me to play. Might be because I grew up sailing on the ocean due to living on an island.
I do have Alan Wake 2 that I really need to play but I'm also playing Control and Alan Wake 1 at the same time to prepare for AW2. It's... a lot. But Control I've played a half dozen times and will always love. Alan Wake 1 I've never actually played but after learning of the shared world in Control I have been meaning to get around to it. Enjoyable so far but I'm barely into it.
Then there's also God of War Valhalla on the side. Always fun as fuck. Free DLC too. What's not to love?
Oh and Slay the Spire. Silent go brrrrrr.
Slay the Princess. Just discovered it, 100% it already. I love it so much. The soundtrack, the art, the plot, the voice acting, it's just so awesome. I don't normally like horror VNs (looking at you, ddlc!) but this one is less shock horror and more actual depth to it. You can feel the love put into the game. Sorry if this sounds too much like an ad, just hyperfixating a little :)
Oh and I think the snipers in the current Fortnite season are wayyy to annoying.
Friend of mine got me into Lethal Company. Absolutely love it.
FINALLY getting into Hollow Knight in earnest. I have to say: holy shit this game truly deserves all the accolades it was given. Absolutely adoring it.
Still BG3, and probably will be for a long time. As well as tabletop DND now, since the game inspired me to finally give DMing for friends a shot.
Finally finished Halo 2 and it was a slog. Now on to Halo 3 and straight away more fun, better movement and better gunplay than halo 2.
Finished Zero Entropy 2 and wow. Its canon in my mind. Feels like Half Life 2 Opposing Forces Episode 2 if valve had shown us the combine side. Now will 3 come? 3 is cursed so I just putting it to one side.
Finished Pony Island. Weird game. Not too sure what was going on but ok. Its off the list now.
And heroes of the storm ofc. Started storm League with a friend and we are having a blast together. Aram when I am solo.
Planetside 2, recently started it up again and it's still fun.
still Avatar and since I got Alan Wake 2 in the Epic sale I started to replay the original. The free remaster you got with Alan Wake 2 unfortunately has some nasty visual bugs on amd hardware and too often shatters my immersion with glitches and black screens, but since it only ups the assets I'm fine with the original which is still an awesome looking game and perfectly playable in 2023.
My kids and I have been on a Vermintide 2 kick. Its so damn fun when you're sitting next to each other.
BG3 and replaying FalloutNV
Was coming back into Minecraft but wanted to make the game feel more spicy because vanilla survival has gotten boring for me, so I've been playing the latest April Fools snapshot "The Vote Update" in hardcore, with a personal rule that I cannot say "Do nothing" to any vote.
I did lose my first world to "Replace Creeper spawns with Warden" but the second world has been going well, and it's definitely a more chaotic and interesting way to play the game.
My friendly neighborhood. It's pretty excellent. Visuals are consistent and have a pleasant aesthetic and I never found the controls to cause problems. I was kinda hoping weapon flip could be a parry but it seems to be just for the hell of it. Good map mechanics for tracking completion of areas. Nothing majorly scary for me at least but the occasional startle.
Anyone wanting to do the achievements I recommend doing the fight the boss normally one before the pacifist one as I think it's easier. Also if you plan on doing a NG+ run, doing the nope ending (nope on home after encountering pearl) will erase the ng+ file so start a new save for that. I haven't finished them all but if I didn't lose my ng+ save this way I probably would have been able to get them all in one sitting.
Started playing minecraft again, wanted something cozy to play during the holidays. I always end up committing to a really big build and then lose interest halfway through, so we'll see how it goes
Running the new Warframe content and diving back in to It Lurks Below.
Baldur's Gate 3 Continuing to make my way through this behemoth in 2 player coop, tricky to align schedules but damn it's great. Running a Spore Druid and by Act 3 it's often hard to walk around with how many summons I can have at one time. Love it.
The Finals One of the most refreshing FPS games I've played in years. At first I felt my age fighting against the speed of the game, but I soon got the hang of it and now I'm a Light demon myself. Here's hoping the game keeps its current momentum, because there's nothing like digging through the roof with a sledgehammer and wiping out the team you land on as they flail and panic.
Ive been playing this non-stop. Why? Im not sure. But theres something just so satisfying about tearing down a spaceship in 0 gravity. Wish it had a VR option, would seriously consider investing in a VR headset to play it that way.
UPDATE (2023/12/21): ~110 hrs of New Vegas playthrough finally finished. Finally finished my playthrough as Mercenary Anarchy Courier.
spoiler
Not sure if FPGE did alter something but after finishing the playthrough, it feels the "warmness" vibe of post-post apocalypse of Fallout gone when Hoover Dam battle is near and finished, perhaps because NCR is wiped out, definitely the writing still ok as the only way to make the game "Win" is you do not finish the game if you do not want to make bad decision for Mojave Wasteland. Maybe I will try to explore a bit post-ending with this FPGE mod.
While I am glad I finished this playthrough, I also had bit of "guilty pleasure" from finishing this one as much as time consuming it is while also I want to finish it as soon as I can because dragging on playthrough would make it even unpleasant for me to finish it due to busy stuff RL, same reason why I rarely want to pick up JRPGs nowadays because most of time having 60 hrs - 80 hrs minimal to complete is bit painful for those who had busy life. At very least I glad I am done with it.
While also few days ago I tried to emulate WMMT5s on PC, thought to try multiplayer with private client, ended up disappointed as it seems every discord server that "facilitates" the community is closing down their invite link or maybe threatened by Bandai Namco because most of these people play a game that still active on Arcade Cabinet and emulate them on home using a software on their own PC. At the same times I wonder why Bandai Namco would not bring these arcade games into PC while the said system (the Arcade) actually PC system in disguise since the demand is still there for Wangan racing genre although not as much as something like mainstream Arcade Racer (e.g FH5, Crew Motorsport etc). I do not know the latest Initial D the Arcade Stage since I do not have interest in Touge racing.
Planning to get NFS 2015 in winter sale, want to complete my NFS Collection on Steam and experiencing NFS 2015 in retrospective as back during release I did not managed to play it due to lack of interest.
Clocking in at ~100 hrs on my current annual New Vegas playthrough, I'm trying to finish this one as my previous playthroughs always end abruptly nearing the End. The options to solve a problem/quest is what makes this game never be boring and you can RP anything you like (although I have not tried Legion Courier, maybe in future). At the moment I am on my way at the start of Lonesome Road as before concluding the story in Hoover Dam battle.
Viva New Vegas with JSUE tweak makes the game feels like classic Fallout and force player to be resourceful and use every features that the game offer, however I do not recommend to use JSUE tweak if you only played Bethesda Fallout game as Fallout 1 and 2 is a bit infuriating in term of early game difficulty (if you do not know what to do), stick to Vigor Lite if you want closer to vanilla easy difficulty.
is always geometry dash
Just finished Pentiment. It was a wonderful, miserable experience. Don't know how people can stomach multiple playthroughs.
Also just finished Doom Eternal. Mixed feelings overall but I like the idea of the counter-heavy combat system. I just wish they dialed back the number of mechanics a bit.
My current addiction is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I was skeptical at first but man do I love the immersion in this game. The minigames like alchemy and lockpicking are fun and engaging. The combat is kind of Mordhau-lite which means it requires more thought than just spamming attack. The dialogue is surprisingly funny at times, the story interesting enough, and the voice acting is solid. And I like how the quests aren't all simply "go to the marker"--you have to actually follow clues and pay attention.
I bought Alan Wake 2 literally a day before the sale, not thinking it would go on sale. And now I'm waiting for a patch anyway because some lighting bugs were introduced in the last patch. Oops. Kinda sucks but I'm still very excited to play it!
Skyrim, yet again.
I've been playing the original Doom for the first time over the last few days, and just beat it today. It was really good and I can see why it was such a big deal at the time. It was a significant improvement over Wolfenstein 3D in every way, not just technically, but also in terms of level design and story.
Jumped back into some Division 2 lately with friends. Been fun power level my mates who aren't level 40.
Gta online, v rising, planetside. Picked up atomicrops on my switch again and I’ve miraculously made it past year one given the face I have no idea what I’m doing
I wanted to play Star Wars Rebellion, but my copy is doing a thing where all the icons in-game are upside down. Apparently it’s a known issue running the game on newer OS (How? WHY?!) but until it’s fixed I can’t really play.
I’ve been playing Call Of Duty 2 as part of taking notes about the roots of the series. Not sure if there’s enough meat for a proper essay but I will see.
I really can’t wait for Christmas break to immerse myself in something. Maybe Deus Ex.
I'm years late but I finally started bravely default and I'm kicking myself for sleeping on it for so long.
Armored Core 6, they added ranked matches today.
Dark Souls 1, want to finally 100% it.
Minecraft, because it's always nice.
I've played 20 hours of foxhole in the last week. I'm not addicted. Totally not...
That free giveaway Desolate co-op. It's like STALKER-lite mixed with Generation Zero.
A neat little early access open world action RPG called The Bloodline.
Starfield a bit, working on getting a Voyager III.
Vampire Survivors when I just want something simple to play.
Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze on Switch.
I continue to feed my X4 addiction. Picked up the DLC during the Thanksgiving sale. I'm on my second play, about 35 hours in. Realized I've made a lot of mistakes, but that's half the fun.
Recently decided to give 'Oxygen not included' a try. Still learning the ropes on getting basics sorted out and what is the best path for research.
I've been playing Marvel Midnight Suns since buying it during a sale and man I cannot believe I missed this game around release, it's incredible!
I'm not very familiar with marvel outside of the older cartoons and some of the MCU, so I find myself very surprised to find myself really enjoying the non-avengers cast here.
I had never even heard of Magik before this game, and I didn't know Blade was marvel. Also I love this version of ghost rider. The skull helmet is badass.
In any case I'm shocked at how well the cross between XCOM and a deck builder plays, every character feels distinct from each other while the decks can be customized to lean into different parts of their kit. (Except for Deadpool. I can't seem to make his kit work very well )
The story is pretty meh though I love hanging out with the large cast between missions. It can feel pretty disjointed though, especially with the dlc missions sprinkled in.
Good old modded Terraria once again. Thorium + Overhaul + Eternity mode with a friend is pretty fun. Turns out Thorium's sword sheaths are fucking cracked with Overhaul's sword changes. I one-shot several bosses and had to stop using them lol.
My other friends started playing RLCraft recently, which has got me in the mood to play a hardcore Minecraft modpack. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding any that aren't either complete BS (my issue with RLCraft) or feel incredibly unfinished (like RotN, where over half the guide book entities are placeholder text and the wiki link on the main page leads to a dead wiki).
Kinda in between games, I'm currently playing genshin/star rail as fillers while I decide on something better to play. Occasionally I play pandemic legacy season 0 on tabletop simulator and it's a blast! Always love some pandemic legacy
Between Breathedge and call of juarez: gunslinger at the moment
I just started Fire Emblem: Three Houses, my first Fire Emblem game. Bit confusing to me, but so far very fun.
Just finished Signalis, got the "Promise" ending. Feel pretty empty after that, it's such a good game and is further proof that games don't have to have incredible graphical fidelity or huge teams to be fantastic and look great.
I started playing Zero Sievert again and have been thoroughly re-addicted.
I just finished Yakuza 3. I have loved 0, 1, and 2. 3 was tough simply due to the lack of music cues. There is so much time spent listening to "ambient_beach.mp3" or "bustling_small_city.ogg" that it was getting tedious. The story is great and it shows off a side of Kiryu that hadn't been developed and was great fun to see. The gameplay was so-so. Stiff and of the era. I'm currently taking a short break before I dig into Y4. I'm really excited to get up to LaD and that game style, but I am enjoying the story to get there.
I think Against the Storm gave me carpal tunnel. The game itself is fine, but by the nature of it, you don't complete your cites and the run ends abruptly. The hub world doesn't feel inviting or rewarding, as much as they tried. Maybe a few tweaks would get it from good to fun
Death Must Die and Roboquest.
Binding of isaac online, its so fun being able to Play it with your friends without local multiplayer reliably
With the addition of Honour mode in BG3 I decided to finally start a Dark Urge playthru for the first time. It's been a wild ride, Shart and Gale died and I almost lost everyone in my party lol.
ULTRAKILL, the first layer of Act III is finally out!
Nier Replicant, i had great fun going through >!dreams!< in Forest of Myth, that was really interesting change of gameplay.
I got addicted to a cabure game , I wish they have expanded the scope of this since it is sooo good, Oh yea it also has beatem up and really good story.
Spiral Knights and CSD3 with gf, Black Ops III campaign on realistic with a friend, and some Skyrim by myself.
A lot of Spider-Man remastered. I played it when it first came out on ps4, then lost the disc. The remastered version has the dlc though, so that will be new. Also a bit of ark survival evolved to date my creative gaming needs, and some terraria with family.
Among other things I've been playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. GAMMA which is an expansion of stalker anomaly which is a mod rehash of the original stalker games. It's a single player immersive-sim/fps/looter-shooter/survival/sandbox game set in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Very tough, but has been really fun (maybe a bit infuriating at times). I recommend it to those who like a bit of pain. It has replaced single player Tarkov in my rotation for now.
I've been exploring the zone, finding and repairing guns, sitting at campfires, fighting bandits and boars, and running away from other more dangerous things.
Also it's completely free btw.
I just finished A Plagues take and Before I Forget. So I’m between story games at the moment.
I’m going to be playing a heck of a lot of euro truck simulator 2 because it’s the holiday challenge and I find the portals to the snowy areas cool because I’ve always wanted snow in the northern countries. The physics are pretty cool.
I typical replay Earthbound this time of the year because it’s just a nostalgic time and it’s my favorite game, so I’ll probably play that by the light of the Christmas tree this week, either on my GBA, my pi zero 2 powered Gameboy, or my pitendo cart.
WH40K Rogue Trader. It’s pretty good if you like that kind of thing. ‘Campaign’ bit of the campaign is significantly better that WOTR in my opinion
I tried to get GTA V to work in VR with the Real mod but it looks like Take 2 has patched it out and threatened to sue the modder if they continue to update it.
I don't understand why they would do this. They don't want players revisiting the game again to play in VR? Would that be bad for business or something? I seriously don't get it.
Cultic
That's it. I don't have a lot of time to play with myself. Yes the joke is intentional.
Trying Sea of Thieves for the first time. Been interesting.
On the PS5 I'm busy leveling my characters in TMNT shredder's revenge and try to complete every objective in story mode. I have 3 objective left and they're all not getting hit a single time while getting through the stage. They seem to be impossible for me, but will keep trying.
On my steam deck I'm playing dead cells. I haven't completed a single run yet but having lots of fun. Trying to time dodges and not face tanking everything is my biggest thing to do while playing it. I just love going at it at the enemies.
This week beaten Mario RPG for the first time ever. Fun game, bit short and easy. Post game though, the rematches with the bosses are really something else. I don't know yet if i want to go through all of that but who knows. Getting the 30 and 100 consistent jumps on a enemy is so hard to do. The first 10 you get much leeway to do them but after that you really need to time them. 28 is my highest yet...
End of this week i have 2 weeks off from work and i will begin playing Baldurs gate 3. Got for cheap on my xbox. Looking forward to that.
Bg3 and The Finals, depending on my mood.
Bg3 is great, super happy that they fixed some of the worst bugs in the last patch (like being shot at by enemies through the floor when you are on the 2nd floor of a building).
The Finals definitely needs some balancing changes made, but I'm still enjoying it. Excited to see how the game grows, it will probably replace Apex Legends for me if they keep fixing it.
My brother got me Lethal Company and I've been enjoying being told what to do and how to survive by a random 13 year old through a walkie talkie while 2 other random 13 year olds try to hit me with shovels and ladders.
I just finished GoW Ragnarok Valhalla, really enjoyed the story and it feels like a nice place to leave it for a bit. Would like to see what else the modern Santa Monica can do
Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 4
The nostalgia + the recent news about the sequel of BT3 got me, I decided to fire this up in my smartphone with my Razer Kishi and Aethersx2, so far it runs very well, although I decided to play the story, so I haven't played that much with those new characters lol.
Just wanted to mention Champions of Regnum, if anyone wants a simple rvr open pvp mmo. It is tab target and old school, slightly more advanced graphically than DAOC. It’s a fun easy casual game for players to drop in and join in the rvr war when and if u like. The war tends to be hilarious because there are 3 realms and the number of wacky shenanigans that happen is quite unpredictable. There is a significant grind, but this game is so much chill fun at the end, it’s worth 10+ years of playing for one character.
Trying to replay the early ac games. After finishing ac brotherhood, tried to get revelations running on steamdeck... for an hour. The issue as no surprise was drm and ubisoft. They had an old uplay launcher burned into the game, so I had to install a newer one with proton tricks. (This video saved me)
So bit annoyed, started the game and there have been some questionable changes, some buttons are switched around, there are now two weapon wheels, hookblade feels a bit clunky, but I haven't gotten far yet.
Dunno why, but it feels a bit bloated, the parkour feels worse, and Ezio always want to jump into haybales for some reason.
Better question, what was I playing? Since I completed Metroid Fusion in exactly 2 hours according to the in game timer. And since I set up a DS emulator on my Laptop I've been playing New Super Mario Bros for the first time in years, as well as replaying Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team.
Just wanted to mention Champions of Regnum, if anyone wants a simple rvr open pvp mmo. It is tab target and old school, slightly more advanced graphically than DAOC. It’s a fun easy casual game for players to drop in and join in the rvr war when and if u like. The war tends to be hilarious because there are 3 realms and the number of wacky shenanigans that happen is quite unpredictable. There is a significant grind, but this game is so much chill fun at the end, it’s worth 10+ years of playing for one character.