The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

I recently bought Cyberpunk 2077, and finished it.

My reaction was: wow, what a sick game!

Dusted off the old Nintendo 64 to play some StarFox 64. It still holds up great.

fuuuuuck I remember that game. Topsy turvey but suuuuuuch a good control system.
- The controls hold up better than something like Star Wars Rogue Squadron, which I surprised myself to discover. I have great memories of Rogue Squadron but the controls are stiff in all the wrong ways while StarFox is comparatively easier to fly even in the non-linear arena areas.
  
  Visually StarFox is obviously dated, but because it opted for big low detail style to begin with it isn’t difficult on the eyes the way “realistic” N64 games look today.

Picked up The Longing, and I've been working my way through it little by little.

Excellent game. Way more depth and much better paced than I anticipated. It's an idle game that commits to the bit. Fire it up, wait 400 days, and you're done. There's other stuff to do within the game, but it all takes time, and it's all optional but pleasantly engaging.

I give my little shade a task, then let it run in the background while I do other things, and now I'm suddenly 8000 words in to writing some fan fiction I've been bouncing around in my head. It's been a very productive week.

Age of Empires IV because of this video (1h25m) about onboarding new players to real time strategy games.

Currently, I'm in between games. Tried Divinity Original Sin 2, my first CRPG, but it felt overwhelming. Planning to revisit it during Christmas break.

Gave New World a shot, found it boring, got a refund. I would rather spend those $20 on something better.

Enjoying the Tony Hawk remaster, likely to finish it in the next week or so.

Playing GTA IV, but it's gotten dull after 3 hours. The story is interesting, but the gameplay feels like I'm just running errands.

I found the gameplay of GTA 4 and 5 to be "drive across town to watch a custscene" at their core, but GTA4 is very enjoyable if you a) relax into it, stop trying to take control and just accept that you're kind of playing a movie, and b) get good at the driving, which has a surprisingly high skill ceiling. The feeling of just running errands won't fully go away but the story builds and the missions get more exciting.
- Part of why I liked RDR2 so much was it felt like being IN a Cohen brothers movie. Really did feel like "playing" a movie to me. The production value was just off the charts.
Yeah, Rockstar open world games are dull gameplay wise. The only thing that can make you push through is if you like the cutscenes/story.

Fallout 4. Modded up the wazoo with the StoryWealth collection.

Reminds me of New Vegas and the originals games now. Far more content and things to randomly discover. Not just tacky boob mods.

Gave Fallout 76 a shot again after trying it early in it's release and quitting due the travesty it was (also because I was disappointed in Starfield). It's good now, very similar feel to 4 though with some differences. It's a Fallout game so not perfect but the feeling of endless possibilities you get when stepping out of the vault for the first time is classic Fallout.

Not much gaming time, but i started Against the Storm which I liked.

Cocoon

Tiny Thor

Sea of Stars

El Paso elsewhere

Edit: Kena Bridge of Spirits

How is El Paso Elsewhere? It looks really good
- El Paso Elsewhere is quick fun, albeit, fatiguing for me personally. I've been playing it in bursts.
  
  I'd say you just have to take it at face value, as far as story goes. It's part of the charm though, that it's kind of just... wacky?
  
  The guns are pretty fun. They could've been better, sure, but they're generally pretty good.
  
  I think the music is where this game really shines though. The soundtrack is just kick ass. Well worth a play, even if it was only for the music. I'd go so far as to say I'd purchase the music separately.
Just started sea of stars myself! The music and the visuals for now are absolutely beautiful!!
- Agreed, it's really good. I thought I was done with JRPG's. Generally, they're too slow paced for me and I don't have as much time as I used to. I've really enjoyed this one so far though.
  
  One of the features that I like is how even though the combat is turn based, it still feels active because of the timed button presses for attacking and defending. It definitely gives the traditional gameplay mechanic a breath of fresh air.

I've picked up Battlefield 5 again because of the recent hype. There's the most players there's been for a fair while. It's a lot of fun. I am quite bad at it though.

Battlefield games are fun! Unfortunately, I live in in a region where the servers are filled with hackers and EA doesn't do much to punish them.

I'm still going through Spider-Man 2 as my main game.

I was fortunate to get a new OLED recently that does the 120hz/40fps modes and all those wizbangs, and things kinda finally feel "next gen." Smooth gameplay with little sacrifice to visuals (ray tracing is still on). Yeah yeah, it's not a 4090ti or whatever. But I'm in my living room with a giant 4K screen and surround sound and it's great.

I think with the much better SSD speeds of the ps5 and xbox, along with this 120hz business, I'm finally like "oh wow, ok. That's cool." The newest Ratchet and Clank in this setup is insane. There's probably an argument that you shouldn't have to buy a new TV to get these visual benefits and whatnot. And that's fine. But I'm fortunate to be able to get the fun toys, so I'm having a real good time.

I've been playing "will I be able to get Genshin Impact running in Linux in a way that is comfortable for me?"

(AAGL runs it, but I've only managed to get it full-screen or 1920x1080 in a borderless window pinned in the center of my screen. I'd like to drag that 1920x1080 window down close to the lower-right corner, but can't figure out how to move it or get it running with normal draggablr window borders). Arch+xorg+kde+nvidia. Couldn't get it to install either Lutris and haven't tried other launchers.

I‘m ngl, I‘ve got hooked by Payday The Heist. It‘s absolute fucking bs, but it makes me wanna bs back even harder. And I found a couple nice guys to play the highest official difficulty with so I‘m having fun. Very fortunate considering the game averages 25 players nowadays.

Probably gonna move on after I‘ve gotten all trophies, but I might return for some runs if the guys need a fourth! I would‘ve never thought I‘d enjoy it this much.

Remnant 2. I watched Iron Pineapple's review back when it released and got excited. It went on sale a couple weeks ago and I convinced several friends to get it. It's been great. I'm just getting to the point where I can play around with different builds. The set pieces look great and the writing and lore has surprising depth, especially for a co-op shooter.

Two Animal Crossing at work since boss on vacation and we are some what slow. And at home enjoying the new states on American Truck Simulator.

Oklahoma and Texas.

Kingdom come deliverance

Just got Witcher 3 for the Steam Deck OLED

whatyearisit.meme

Did you have a regular Steam Deck before the OLED?

How are you liking it?
- I did. I signed up and got one of the first. Gifted it to a friend after getting the OLED model.
  
  The screen size difference is a big upgrade. I love that KDE is a button away. It seems to run cooler?
  
  Issues: Holy hell was it a mess on release day. Wifi doesn't work out of the box. I can't believe it shipped like this. I spent hours debugging and finally figured out I had to disable the 160 mbs lanes on my router to get the wifi to work. What a disaster. Like I literally couldn't even get through the setup screens because of this issue. It should be resolved via updates, but jesus christ get your wifi drivers fixed before shipping valve.
  
  This version feels more like a portable PC with the KDE desktop being built in. Its just right there. I loved my first steam deck. I love this one more. My wife is annoyed I got her a switch instead of a steam deck. Probably gonna sell her switch.

I’ve gotten back into Warframe on Steam/PC recently. I’ve been pretty busy with work, so it’s nice to have a game where I can log in, do a mission or two, log off, and get back to work in 20 minutes or so. I like to play it when I need to take a short break from work, too.

I’ll probably be playing this until Spider-Man 2 gets around to releasing on Steam.

I was just about to post Warframe as well - though on PS5 rather than PC.

Is definitely scratching an itch!

I just started Breath of The Wild after finishing the Batman Arkham Knight.... Am I destined to be a noob in open world games lol.

I thought BOTW would be a cake as Twilight Princess, but heck, it could be hard sometimes.

How are you liking the open world?
- Well, I'm on the side of the people who don't like the soundtrack in the wild, for me it feels boring and uninspiring and don't get me started with the shrine tracks lol, I'd rather put a playlist on my end of the old tracks if it supported Spotify like the PS4 does.
  
  Aside from that, the world is pretty great, quite empty but never boring because it always has some subtle highlights which keeps you wondering, should I go to that place, should I go to that other place that I'm seeing?
  
  Which is much appreciated in an open world game.

I've finally started playing Deep Rock Galactic and I'm kicking myself for not getting it much much sooner.

Is it a game you can play solo comfortably?
- I started out solo just fine. However matchmaking is good and the community is great so don't avoid joining up with others it's definitely worth a shot!
  
  Rock and stone!
- I have only played a couple of games solo but it seems to work well. The game gives you a robot companion on solo missions.

I've been going through classic FPSs in bulk. Doom, Unreal, Quake II, Duke Nukem 3D, etc.

Slime Rancher and Cyberpunk 2077

Lies of P, can't believe this is the first action game from a indie studio

Chained Echoes as recommended by a friend. What. A. Game!!! 30 hours in now and i can easily see myself going 100 hours on this. Beautiful story, art and mechanics, tons of old school jrpg feels. Love it

High On Life. I'm usually not big on FPSs, but the writing is so dumb/hilarious that I'm still having a blast. Also, that dino love story b-movie that's on the TV in the living room — I gotta check that out IRL.

Grim Dawn with a couple friends, games great, 8 hours flew by, felt like a kid enjoying a game again after so long

System Shock: EE
System Shock: RE
Deus Ex
Mortal Sin

Been busy:

Finished all of Mario wonder, got platinum for robocop rogue city and finished sea of stars on my steam deck.

Robocop was so much fun to play and felt like it could have been a new movie in the series.

Playing now dead cells on my steam deck, got my very first Xbox ever during black Friday, the series x and started playing tunic on it and on the PS5 I'm busy with tnmt: shredder's revenge.

Tunic is being a blast. Love the ingame manual you discover during the playthrough.

Got back into Civ VI after a while and I'm continuing my playthrough of every Civ. Currently playing as Qin Shi Huang (Unifier) and crushed Georgia because they declared a surprise war on me.

Also, I made this turkey in KSP for Thanksgiving

Pokemon FireRed--I'm playing it in Japanese to work on my reading and speaking

RoboQuest has been my main jam for a bit, decent little roguelite shooter. I like how you unlock travel to different areas by finding things from other paths.

Wish it scaled to more than 2 player though...

A mix between Lego Indiana Jones on PSP and Assassins Creed Syndicate. Hurray free givaways

Dirt Rally 2.0

An unhealthy amount of City Skylines: 2.

I am also addicted to building "Quays"

Just finished Mario Wonder in like a week - a delight to play but too easy and way too short to 100% a game.

Currently playing Dave the Diver and understanding why it has such good reviews. A solid little game - just expect a game that literally everyone can agree is pretty good, maybe not a game you'll think is great.

Also currently loving Monster Train. Horrible theme, bad art style, and the sound effects are off-putting, but the gameplay is top notch. Very very fun. I was playing a bit of Across the Obelisk trying to capture that Slay the Spire addictive deck-builder feel, and where I enjoyed the latter (particularly for multiplayer) I never was dying to play it, just enjoyed it while I was. Monster Train I'm definitely looking forward to playing tonight, or maybe today during a boring meeting.

And of course DoTA. Always DoTA. For me it's still the best game ever made, and they keep getting better with new content, fixing community toxicity issues, trying to help the skill wall, etc. I took two years off with my daughter's birth, but I've been playing again for a few months and it's better than ever.

The last special stage (assuming there isn't more stuff after the one I'm thinking of) on Mario wonder isn't easy. Fuck that level. The checkpoints are placed to make you redo the most irritating parts and I couldn't get past bouncy invisible section. Even playing nabbit or yoshi didn't really help because they have different jump and damage reaction mechanics. I would have agreed with the over hyped reviews if not for the brain damage causing childishness of the story, dialogue, and 'voice' work.

I've been playing a bunch of Rogue Tower lately, going for some of the achievements. Finally got sticks and stones, but it was kinda disappointing because I got the polygon mobs instead of the missile ones and looking at the monster information, they are easier. I wanted to see if that setup would have taken on the missile mobs that kept killing me in wave 38 or 39.

Picked Wandering Sword back up with the intent to finish. I guess I wasn't as far in as I thought because I'm still at it, but I'm OP enough that speeding through should be viable soon.

I've just started Dragon Age: Origin. I've never played a Dragon Age game, I'm a couple hours in at this point. If anyone has any tips or advice, that's be appreciated! Playing a Rogue Elf. I'm enjoying the lore and the world so far.

Stardew Valley year 3 starts. I don't understand why this game is so addictive.