The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 27-07-2023
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.
I'm 60 hours deep into Balders Gate 3 so I've been trying to chill out and not play until full release next week. Ive been having a lot of fun with Dave the Diver in the meantime.
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2, in anticipation of Baldur's Gate 3. I got to the start of Act 2 about four years ago, and just never came back to the game. I always meant to pick it back up, so I started a fresh character and am nearly back to that point now.
Cult of the Lamb. I beat it back in November but picked it up again after the developers added a lot. I've been enjoying my replay. The new additions and changes fixed some of the things that annoyed me on my first playthrough.
TF2 has recently released an update that allows server owners to have up to 100 players connected at once. Not officially supported, but up to 64 players seems to be stable enough (even more so if you run a server plugin to remove player cosmetics). So that's been taking my attention recently. 64 player SZF was gloriously chaotic.
I've been getting into the Green Lantern superhero, so I bought the 3DS and X360 games. 360 game is still on it's way, but personally I can confirm that the 3DS game is typical of what you'd expect from a licensed game. Really low frame rate (10s to 20s) the second anything is on screen alongside Green Lantern, which makes me wonder how the DS version of the game ran if at all. It does have some neat things going for it, the combat it is alright despite the low fps, but really It's just a time waster for by breaks at work. I also impulse bought the Heroclix Sinestro Corps War Sinario Pack, and maybe I'll get a friend to indulge me with a game or two.
I recently set up a private Valheim server for me and a friend. So far it's great fun. We just made it to the mountains tier. It's a bit grindy, but a very fun and relaxed grind.
Red Dead Redemption 2.
I remember picking it up when it was new but I didn't have the time to really get into it, plus the first chapter is very slow, so I didn't give it a proper chance and put it away. I'm very glad I gave it another shot though, because it's such a good game. I'm almost finished the second camper now I think.
I'm playing Subnautica: Below Zero and I'm enjoying it very much. Even compared to the first one. It even runs better on my modest rig and I don't mind the new additions as much as some people seemingly did. Playing those games without checking infos/wikis on the net is what make them specials imo (just like Outer Wilds). It's all about the sense of wonder and figuring out stuff by yourself.
X4: Foundations. Just started a new playthrough with the Kingdom End DLC.
Its the closest to Eve online, except being offline, singleplayer, pausable and moddable. It supports many playstyles and can also be played semi afk, which i like.
At times it can be incredibly frustrating because the UI is complex and the AI of your fleet members can be very stupid.
Still i enjoy just doing my thing, playing for a bit, save and continue later. Not a lot of games support this. Others that do for me are Factorio/DSP and Drox Operative 2
I’m having fun with Jedi Fallen Order on my Steamdeck. One thing that caught me off guard is how imho good the facial animations are…but maybe I don’t play that much aaa anymore so that may be standard nowdays.
I've been slowly playing through Vampire Survivors again with each hero only using their starting weapon. I did the lightning ring dude on the first map the last time. Only barely made it to 30 minutes with that one.
I'm trying to play the lastest Duviri Paradox in Warframe, but man this is such a boring slog. Imagine if you took the most horrible clunky combat from the Soulsborne games and combined it with the most infuriatingly random roguelike RNG, and then you added the most insane grind to it in order to make your character not instantly die from the weakest of enemies.
Needless to say, I do love Warframe, but by the gods I thoroughly hate the Duviri Paradox with a passion I usually just reserve for Soulsborne games.
Jagged Alliance 3. I loved JA2 1.13 to death, and while JA3 kinda pales in comparison so far, I do love the fresh content. Hope modding will take off for it.
Pikmin 3 Deluxe - Finished the story and started the side missions. It's been super fun. Such a huge leap over 1 and 2. I played 2 immediately before 3DX, and I didn't care for it. The dungeon structure didn't do it for me, but 3DX has been wonderful, albeit very easy.
Final Fantasy XVI - I've been very slowly trucking along through this. I took a break after I had a family tragedy recently and wanted to focus on happy games while that was happening, but I'm getting back into this and hoping to finish soon. Really liking it. It's fun, the story is good, the characters are interesting. It's just a solid game. Wouldn't want every FF game to be this going forward, but I'm not upset XVI is what it is.
Destiny 2 - Just leveling the season's battle pass mostly. I don't play D2 hardcore these days. Just to the story and hop off. The story for the season has been over, so I just hop on for a little bit each weekz turn off my brain, and level a few times while listening to a podcast. It's my comfort food game, though I think I'm the most disinterested I've even been in this game.
I have been playing wolfensteim 3d but moded in its brutal form, "Brutal wolfenstein by Ziomcall" or something like that. Its real nice. Ads weapons like a flamethrower and some moves like kicking, modifies levels so that areas are not 100% claustrophobic dungeon tunnels, updated soundtrack and of course: gore, lots of it. Real nice, recomend if you are nostalgic or have a potato laptop and whant a decent ww2 boomer shooter (i.e. me). Its kinda hard in the hurt me plenty dificulty which is like normal but not really. Im in chapter 4 right now. Shit gets crazy on the gameplay department. Only works whit gzdoom and if you have trouble running it then turn of all lighting in the options. Other than that, works like a charm.
I was on E2M6 before work got extremely hectic and I put it on pause for a while. Now that I’m finally getting back to it, I love it so much. It combines two things I love: boomer shooters and Warhammer. To extend my playthrough, I'm playing it how I play classic Doom: Boltgun start only, no saves (death means I start the whole level over), and Exterminatus difficulty. It's gotten challenging but I love the mastery that comes from playing a map from the beginning again.
Any boomer shooter fan is doing themselves a disservice if they don't check it out.
Jagged Alliance 3 - very good sequel to JA2, more of the same with enough tweaks to make it fun and the campaign has thrown enough curve balls to keep me interested. Like the original it doesn’t hold your hand, which is good. Strongly recommend if you liked the original
I've been running through Into the Radius. It's in the easily top 3 VR games for me, it's does a incredible job at immersing you into the world which is basically like Stalker. Coming back from harder missions I've felt mentally exhausted just from how stressful it can get. But that stress is so addictive.
I just started with Cassette Beasts, as it was finally on sale on Switch and I cannot get myself to play a Pokemon game on anything but a portable console. Just feels wrong.
It is... the strictly better Pokemon game, as people told me it'd be. I keep looking for issues compared to the classic games, but no, they did it all slightly~notably better. And wow is the soundtrack fantastic. And wow is the theming incredibly well done, with the walkman as the battle menu as the cherry on top.
Highly recommended. I cannot say much about the story so far, but what I've seen is indeed interesting.
Just finished the main story of Pikmin 4, now working on the post game content. Also played a little bit of Cassette Beasts with the gf and it's an interesting game, pretty fun for the couple hours I played it.
I don't typically play much video games but this time I decided to start up an old one that I never finished. Tenchu fatal shadows. I'm also trying to play through Evo search for Eden
I plucked up my courage and I started Resident Evil 2 Remake. I finished Leon part. Doubting if play Claire part or not. Also I finished Inscryption. I'm now trying to finish the Warzone 2 battle pass since It ends in a few days.
Baldurs gate 3. Thought it would be more complete since it's coming out soon. Still good though.
I've always had trouble getting into these isometric rpgs for some reason. Divinity, wasteland, old baldurs gate, even dragon age origins. Somehow the disconnect between the control and the character gets to me.
I'm going to try to get deep enough into this one though so that the story can actually shine through
I am waiting for Baldurs Gate 3 to release and in the meantime I was just staring at my screen buuuut just got the word that both of the Zelda Oracle games are now on Switch Online or whatever it is called, so that is how I will spend my weekend:))
The Mass Effect trilogy and simultaneously making a guide in Notion containing who to bring for unique dialogue, collectibles and instructions if they're not given in game.
Finally got around to playing Vermintide 2. Holy crap, I LOVE this game. Me and my girlfriend have been playing it, trying out all the classes and weapons. It is amazing how much build diversity there is in Vermintide.
Almost done with Pokémon Shining Pearl.. which has not been as bad as I expected. I mainly went for it to play with my 'mons only compatible with BDSP.
Just grinding the Grand Underground for mysterious shards now to catch all the legendaries in Ramanas Park.
Still just playing Team Fortress 2. This is how it usually goes with me; I pick one or two games at a time and play em into the ground. Relearning how to play Scout, which I was never very good at to begin with. Takes a lot of twitchy reflexes and quick reaction time, even moreso than the other classes except perhaps Sniper when flick-shotting.
I've been playing Neon White for a few days, it's been in my backlog for a while haha. I had a lot of fun replaying levels to get an Ace & gifts. I'm currently at chapter 7. The story segments are cringy, but that's part of its charm.
I spent more time gaming this month than any other this year and finished NO games. That’s what I get for devoting equal time to three big time-suckers.
I’m nearing the final act of Dragon Quest V on the DS. Mixed feelings but overall enjoying it. Coming straight from Chrono Trigger to anything else in that era is just unfair though.
I’m taking my time with Elden Ring and loving it. I love entering a new area and getting a stunning vista to take it all in. It’s a beautiful game.
Playing Battlebit about once or twice a week with some friends. It’s perfect for my friend group.
I've started playing Techtonica, or if you prefer, "underground satisfactory". One interesting mechanic is that research creates a sort of bulky waste product and you have to find a place for it.
Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, and experiencing extreme levels of nostalgia. My goal is to play through every HD Remix and reexperience the joys of my childhood before finally seeing what Kingdom Hearts 3 is about.
Armored Core 3! I was interested in AC6 coming out in a month, so I decided to jump into the older games to get a taste of the series beforehand. AC1 was very clunky and difficult for a newcomer to the series, that's for sure. After a bit I decided to skip to 3 since I heard it was a good entry point to the series.
I've been having so much fun! I spend way more time customizing and tweaking my mech and theory-crafting new builds than I actually spend doing missions. I've mostly done arena fights, since they're less stressful (no ammo or repair costs), but the entire game is great so far.
Now having played this, I'm more excited for Armored Core 6 than I thought I would be, and I cannot WAIT for it to release.
I've been going single player as of late. A lot of the outer worlds spacers choice and gates to hell Ostfront. Fighting against corporatism and fascism
Trying to beat Tails of Iron on the hardest difficulty. The game was fun and somewhat challenging on normal and I did 100% it. The hardest difficulty feels random and just unfair at times and honestly isn't very fun to play. But I'm determined and have reached the last area, so hopefully I'll succeeded this weekend.
Pikmin 4. It's real good. I was always more interested in the environmental puzzles than the combat so the lower difficulty suits me just fine. I got to credits yesterday, then
turns out there's a whole extra pikmin 1 campaign in there and seems like at least one more area in the main campaign. Must save Oatchi!
I've started playing Ys 9: Monstrum Nox. It's a quite charming action RPG. I played Ys 8 a few years back and generally found it enjoyable, so wanted to give it a shot. Not the most complex game (so far), but definitely fun!
Xenonauts 2 Early Access - got to the end of playable content.
What is there already is solid, and I have no doubts the full game will be really good. It feels like somewhere between 30-50% along the plot has been added. The game on display right now is not worth the listed price, so anyone not super duper interested in seeing it take form along the way should hold off until release.
Finally started playing Chrono Trigger. I've never been a huge fan of older games or JRPGs, but what I heard about the quality of the game and it's story interested me enough to give it a shot regardless. So far I'm actually enjoying it a lot!
I suckered myself into another Hollow Knight playthrough, so that's been my week. All I've got left are the round-2 dream bosses, and the dreamers themselves.
Not sure what I wanna pick up next. Pikmin 1&2 before 4? I never actually played 2. Persona 5: Strikers? God of War 2018? Final Fantasy 7 Remake? Horizon: Zero Dawn? Finish Hyrule Warrior: Age of Calamity?
I'm shuffling around a couple of games, when I get tired of one I go to the next, and so on until I hopefully beat them all.
The current one is Monster Hunter: World, followed by Desperados 3 and TLoZ: BotW.
Been dabbling in a lot of games lately. Battlebit has been taking most of my game time for the last few weeks. Is it just me, or have servers been getting laggier?
On the single-player side, I've been slowly making my way through Asterigos, which is a Zelda-like from last year. Enjoyable combat, gorgeous settings, but I can't help being reminded of a post on r/truegaming about how bad writing can ruin a game. All of the dialog feels way too modern for its own good (which isn't helped by the "aspiring voice actor" grade acting), and most of the plot points have been boring or predictable.
I also have a guilty pleasure in f2p trash like Smash Legends and Flash Party. Judge me all you want.
Could we add a date to the titles going forward, rather than numbering them? I was attempting to start this weekly discussion myself, and have been posting it on Sundays for the last few weeks, but I'd be happy to cede to this thread from you if you'd like, @quinten@lemmy.world