What are you playing right now?

[Miller]

I would rather be playing a Battlefield game set in Vietnam.

I wish we got a new Battlefield Vietnam instead of BF2042.

 

[Kulee Baba]

Hypnospace Outlaw, a late 90s internet simulator where you play a fucking jannie that investigates/bans user created webpages.

Everything about it reeks of AOL/Geocities and it's downright fucking hilarious.

I finally just picked this one up and God it’s amazing. I have no qualms about paying for an indie that has such love and care put into it. How it lampoons and affectionately recalls 90s MacOS/Windows is so incredibly good. A game that has Sticky Notes and Screensavers I love it so much! I’m still way early in the game I’ve just had fun toying with the OS.

Spoiler: Minor Spoiler

I finally had my Desktop organized in the way I liked it. Then after closing my browser I find out my “Launcher” Icon went berserk and begun eating all my desktop icons. I freaked out like it was happening to my real desktop! I left the game and googled what I needed to do to fix it.

I proceeded to laugh for a full minute straight realizing how so insanely immersed I’ve been absorbed into this little indie game. It just brings me back to childhood when I used to toy around with the family PC playing with crappy shareware. And I’m not even getting into the whole “Hypnospace” sites with all its lovely shitty gifs and midi music. 10/10 Work of Art for me.

 

[WelperHelper99]

Playing MGS1 on the switch from the collection I got 20 bucks off. Dealing with revolver ocelot rn. He's annoying, partially because I don't have extra rations.

Also World of Warships. Leveled up my American destroyer to level 6 and got a premium south American BB with coal I saved up. Both are fun and powerful in their own ways. 7 dual guns on the Rio DE Janereo, not a lot of armor pen, but are good fire starters.

 

[Vibe_Guy]

'ery noice vidya gaems, 11 outta 10 would rage quit after a 12 hour gaming session again

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Bunch of stuff, was that big sale on Steam.

Most notably today, Metro: Exodus. It made a very bad impression at first. My first experience with Metro was buying Last Light Redux or some such on some huge sale, physical copy from GameStop. It was so fucking boring that I couldn't get through more than the first several levels. But I had an interest in Exodus' train and above-ground rural Russian settings, so I tried to give it a chance when it was free on Steam. And it turned out it's just fucked on Steam, all kinds of settings are borked, particularly as pertains to audio. So I gave up in disgust. Then wound up getting Exodus anyways, so I don't have the background.

And at first it was a linear, boring tunnel-crawling piece of shit too, and my thought was "this is just Fallout's nuclear apocalypse bullshit in Last of Us' format, except bad, bad in every way." And then as soon as it gets to Volga River it's awesome. I like this, very entertaining. Kind of dull, clunky gameplay, but atmospheric and immersive and the use of hub levels (instead of linear or open world) feels nostalgic.


I've also been playing Portal 2 and it's a massive improvement over Portal 1 in every way. Way more spectacle with the facility, doesn't just feel like someone slapped together some bare rooms. Actual visual design. More characters and all of them are great. More puzzle concepts. I can see why people creamed themselves so hard over it. Very enjoyable.

Civilization 6 is okay. I played Revolutions long ago as a kid on a phone, and never really liked it. Could not for the life of me get into Civ 3. This one I can get, although I do suck at it and I feel like the whole design of the game is a little too cartoony, not visually - I actually approve of that choice - but rather everything else. There's something missing from the edutainment aspect, the quotes all suck, no cutscenes or anything when you level up a government or like. And ages run by fast. But I really enjoy tending my cities and making headcanon explanations of my environment, like interpreting the economies of them or social structure and the geogrpahy and all that.

Uplink is fine. It's interesting, but it's not all that FUN to play. I think you could almost call it a roguelike since there's permadeath. That one has you as a hacker, and it's trying to ape the movies where hackers are portrayed as dudes that type really fast in a speed competition against each other. The hacking itself is just running programs, apparently the experience comes from more complex processes, intelligence (like, having to scope out servers, do preparatory work), the way you get traced or try to trace other hackers, having to literally type and navigate an intentionally shitty UI quickly, and so on. Basically everything you do gets you some heat and if you don't deal with it properly you will get a game over and no explanation of why. It suffers a bit in that it seems like there's a big difficulty spike before you get the resources to deal with it, and a gap between the most basic-bitch missions and things with any meat.

Curious Expedition sucks. Didn't refund it, sucked that one up since it was so cheap, but it's no good. Really like the concept, but this thing has ass gameplay (don't understand why anybody likes it, it's like playing Candyland with how bad the RNG is and how tight resources are) but the theming is ass too. The explorers are all Redditbait (like, no Lawrence of Arabia or Allan Quatermain or such, you get Harriet Tubman, Rasputin, and fucking Lovecraft trekking around in the goddamn jungle), you don't actually starve or anything, just go insane. I was disugsted when the very first insane event I got was my soldier eating my native guide for no fucking reason, just happened, no ability to do anything about it.

Condemned was a disappointment because I couldn't really run it properly. Horrific framerate problems and such that weren't worth dealing with, just too old and badly maintained of a game. Shame, because the parts I put up with were agonizingly creepy. I refunded that one.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

Civilization 6 is okay. I played Revolutions long ago as a kid on a phone, and never really liked it. Could not for the life of me get into Civ 3. This one I can get, although I do suck at it and I feel like the whole design of the game is a little too cartoony, not visually - I actually approve of that choice - but rather everything else. There's something missing from the edutainment aspect, the quotes all suck, no cutscenes or anything when you level up a government or like. And ages run by fast. But I really enjoy tending my cities and making headcanon explanations of my environment, like interpreting the economies of them or social structure and the geogrpahy and all that.

I've always felt very autistic when I say this, but the writing in Civ 6 feels demonstrably worse than previous entries. There really does feel like there's a lack of "gravitas" in contrast to 4 and 5. The quotes chosen for techs/wonders are almost all this very snarky/jokey tone, compared to previous games, where you had some serious and thoughtful ones, interspersed with some stuff like Leonard Nemoy going "Beep. Beep. Beep." Not to mention that Sean Bean's reading feels very phoned-in to me, personally.

Condemned was a disappointment because I couldn't really run it properly. Horrific framerate problems and such that weren't worth dealing with, just too old and badly maintained of a game. Shame, because the parts I put up with were agonizingly creepy. I refunded that one.

The PC port of Condemned is a real wreck, which is a real shame, because I remember having some great fun back when it released on my old 360. If you wind up trying again at some point, you might have better luck with the PCGW fixes. Here's to hoping that 360 emulation reaches a decent point some day, with all those titles that got stuck with half-assed ports.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

@Mr.Miyagi Exactly, every quote is some bullshit from a pop culture figure or whatever. No gravitas, as you said.
Incidentally, and I'm sure you've picked up on this, Paradox has the same problem nowadays in their games.

I also dislike how much the concept of a wonder or civilization has been cheapened. I do approve of having variety, like including people like Zulus and whatnot, but it's fallen really far. First giving the likes of Scotland, Australia and Canada their own civs, then having random fuckos like the Cree (no Iroquois, Cherokee, Mississippians, Puebloans, Comanches, or any other such, fucking hunter-gatherer Cree) be civs, and so on.

Edit: As long as I'm autistically ranting, I really feel like they should have had the Industrial Age have the choices of govt be Constitutional Monarchy, Absolute Monarchy, and Republic, or Monarchy, Republic, and Dictatorship (perhaps), or Reactionary Monarchy, Republic, and just "Revolutionary," or any other such split that fits with the Napoleonic/Victorian era. And then kick back Communism, Fascism, and Democracy to later. It's weird how it mixes up political movements of the 1900s with tech levels of the 1800s.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

American Truck Simulator got a new map expansion DLC recently, and I completed the world of trucks event associated with the launch of the dlc

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

American Truck Simulator got a new map expansion DLC recently, and I completed the world of trucks event associated with the launch of the dlc

I am quite interested in if they ever cover my state, they're creeping towards it. Would like to see what their simplified interpretation of it would look like.

 

[Illidan Stormrage]

Been hooked on Miasma Chronicles for the past several days.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

@Mr.Miyagi Carl Sagan is a Great Scientist in this garbage. Kill me.

 

[Action Orange]

Just copped a sweet 1cc in metal slug 1. Been working on it for quite a while, so I'm over the moon to have finally conquered this game. I'm also working on a final fight 1cc, and will probably move on to Metal Slug 2 now, which I've heard is even more difficult than the first one lol.

 

[VanyaMotorbike]

#1 Dave the Diver - it's a really good time. It has a lot of personality and charm. The story and gameplay mechanics develop very nicely from what starts out as a very simple game (You collect fish for a sushi restaurant by diving and harpooning/shooting/stabbing and then you help out the restaurant at nighttime by serving food and drink ... but a lot happens as you go on and explore the ocean and grow the business). It is also really good on Steam Deck

#2 Stray - I had this on my wishlist for ages and bought it in the recent sale. You play a cat exploring a dead city inhabited by robots. It is simple in terms of its gameplay so far, but the city is very evocative and I feel it's building towards a sad conclusion. I like it so far

I am also planning to start Cyberpunk 2077 soon and I am playing 7 Days to Die on and off although that is a game that has been permanent for me for years

 

[MaxPayne]

I started Neir (the remake of the first one I think) and planescape torment. I've also been playing through Tony Hawks Underground 2 here and there and restarted Batman Arkham asylum this weekend because my wife likes batman.

I got cyberpunk a couple months ago because the DLC had come out and everyone said the bugs are fixed. It was a complete waste of 70 dollars and painfully boring. Like the border patrol intro was kinda cool but afterwards the games just dull. I played it twice and haven't touched it in weeks.

 

[Liquid Kent]

Will Cyberpunk 2077 again since Phantom Liberty is out.

On an Assassin's Creed binge as I got AC: Rogue working again after Ubisoft did some weird stuff with their launcher that did not allow me to play Rogue at all (slaving the launcher to GoG Galaxy as an alternate launcher worked, as disconnecting the laptop power and peripherals, THEN booting Rogue up before reconnecting everything worked also)

Sporadically in AC III again. Will Quake (The Remastered Steam edition) again soon as well.

I can never say it enough. Rogue is peak Creed. (Next to Origins)

 

[Poop A Loop]

I finished cyberpunk as well and it was a good 7/10 for me. The missions were too generic and the characters weren't expanded on enough for me to really get into it, but it was still pretty good as a $20-$30 distraction. Kind of like a popcorn movie you know isn't going to be groundbreaking but you aren't in the mood for something deeper and just want to shoot stuff and feel cool.

I think part of the problem may just be that I'm burned out on open world games. There were definitely good missions and good characters but the impact and weight of what was happening gets lost when you get punted out into the open world and are bombarded with side missions or extra dialogue that doesn't even build on the story. I would have enjoyed it way more if I could just choose what side missions to do from a menu rather than driving or fast traveling to a point while dodging phone calls and other mission prompts on the way.

There definitely could have been things I missed that would address my problems with it, but I got tired of doing shallow side missions that I thought would have fleshed things out but instead were basically radiant quests. The companion missions were all pretty cool though.

Cyberpunk reminds me of FFXV: tons of potential that got wasted because the devs got stuck in scope creep and redesigns then had to hurry to launch.

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

I finished cyberpunk as well and it was a good 7/10 for me

7 is too high imo. I gave it a replay with the DLC, because I pirated it and it was an easy update. The DLC made the game better and worse in some aspects. There is potential for a good solid game but it's just not there. It's kind of boring overall and just too fucking easy. On the hardest difficulty it's a joke, even if you purposely gimp yourself like I did. However, it is playable. It's like a 5/10, playable but not memorable.

Unfortunately I didn't listen to people here and pirated Starfield, it legitimately isn't even worth pirating. I gave up roughly 14 hours in. Even if you ignore the woke pandering nonsense, the game is just fucking boring. In the 14 hours I played I cannot remember anything about the game except I'm special, my robot's name is Vasco, and there's a couple pirate fleets. I was barraged with non stop quests and they're all ass, the way you traverse the world is fucking retarded. It honestly feels like it was meant to be an MMORPG and was scrapped at some point. There's no reason for every fucking area to be instanced. It's so fucking boring. Painfully boring, where I found that most of the 14 hours of playtime was spent reading kiwifarms on my other monitor. I had to force myself to launch the game and was hoping the "it gets better" claims held water. They did not, it just got worse. I feel like in the few short hours I played the game that I experienced everything it had to offer in terms of gameplay. There's not much. The best part of the game, ship building, is locked behind a terrible UI. Selling cargo is also a fucking nightmare, and an odd nitpick but sleeping in game takes way too much fucking time. It shouldn't take like 4 minutes in real time to sleep away 24 hours in-game.

Anyway, I just pirated baldurs gate 3 and within the first 2 minutes a mindflayer is putting sperm from the monsters in the movie Tremors into my eyeball and I'm yanking brains out of corpses that become a controllable party member. I'm probably going to purchase it.

 

[Croaking Spider]

I just picked up Risk of Rain Returns a few days ago, and it's absolutely beating my fucking ass. I'm having a good time with it as someone who enjoys sidescrollers, but as someone who put hundreds of hours into Risk of Rain 2 without having played the original, it's definitely come with growing pains.

From what I've read, the art overhaul, the added RoR2 content, and some quality-of-life improvements are a real upgrade to the original game. My biggest gripes are loot being barren even by Risk of Rain standards at times and the fact each map has 6 layouts makes it more confusing to get my bearings in stages. I'm sure it's like RoR2 in a sense that I'll eventually get used to knowing where chests and teleporters have tendencies to spawn once the levels feel more familiar.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

Yesterday I decided to make an attempt to learn how to play Picross, and god help me, I actually enjoy it. i got the Genesis & Master System edition on the Switch, and even though it's confusing at times, I'm geting the hang of it.

 

[Miller]

I've re-installed Fallout 3 because I never played it (I stopped at Megaton and couldn't stand the shitty textures). I've added a bunch of mods to fix that, started over and I like it.
By the way, does anyone know if there's a mod to fix the mouth animation for the dialogues? I don't like being forced to run the game at a locked 60fps.