What are you playing right now?

[MerriedxReldnahc]

After years of my only Elder Scrolls game being Skyrim (and Blades but that doesn't really count) I recently got Oblivion, I'm not very far into the game but I'm already having a lot of fun with it. It's interesting to see where it shares similarities with Skyrim and how it differs. I specifically got the game of the year edition so that I have the Shivering Isles DLC, because fuck yeah Sheogorath

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

I went and gave Age of Wonders: Planetfall a shot. I had previously bounced of Age of Wonders 3 at the start, so I initially hadn't looked into Planetfall, but it's pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised to find it actually has a campaign mode with multiple choices and endings. I'm still getting a hang of the systems, but it feels like a good evolution of things, with influence from other staples in the genre. The tactical combat is interesting, though the autoresolve system seems to really be hit-or-miss in regards to how fucked you get (Very low risk battle? Boom, your hero and all your units are dead with 0 kills!) Having a retry button and an undo move button in combat are good for learning, at least.

I'll probably go back and give AoW3 another shot. If somebody has any suggestions on other 4x games I might've missed out on, let me know. I need my fix.

 

[T-21]

Bit a bullet on Valorant today. Every guns feel awkward to handle and barely hits anything, even when you crouch or stand still. Played it for like few hours, then I gave up.

Notes:

• The RIOT account can be create with burner email and no need to add phone number.
• Never play the game with your personal computer, due to its intrusive kernel level anti-cheat, Vanguard. If you value your privacy, that is.

 

[JamusActimus]

expedition rome and engage starting tomorrow

 

[xXEddie.DurellXx]

Satisfactory

 

[Involuntary Celebrity]

I'm three days into From The Depths and haven't started the game yet

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

This doesn’t really fit the topic well but didn’t feel worth it’s own thread:
Im honestly not enjoying Terra Invicta very much (it is way too slow and clunky to play), but I am obsessed with its depiction of space, and I think I’ve got the big picture of it now.

In warfare, terrain is, ultimately, a concept where choice of location gives one army an advantage (somehow) over another, perhaps dependent on troop type, conditions of the army (offense vs defense), commander, etc., weather being an element of terrain (predictable patterns, like russian mud), and the relationship of terrain in one place to terrain in another through their adjacency. That’s the whole point of it. Warfare, whether in a tactical or a strategic level, involves planning out a procession through different terrains to try to maximize your advantage.

In a lot of space games, the same is true there, though they do it by using flashy, space opera fantasy stuff like asteroid fields where the asteroids are like boulders flying around (lol) or cloudy nebulas like a pea soup fog (lol), or some bullshir made up anomalies.

Terra Invicta disposed of that, but it has something absolutely remarkable, because in it terrain is not defined by its fixed relationship to other terrain or by the advantage it confers, but instead by the fact that it is constantly moving, the time to get between places changes. Also, in the environment of space, most anything can get anywhere in some amount of time, so it’s not a question of “how long a March?” But instead “here’s the function of how much fuel for how long, make your choice.”

It’s an environment where all combat ground is the same, but the ground is constantly shifting, and it’s that predictable unpredictability - to know that things will be at a certain distance, but to not know how, due to the unpredictability of war, this may change the relative relationships of the potential battlefields to each other down the line. It’s like a world where Britain in WW2 could just float away from Europe and sidle next to Japan, with all the strategic implications that would entail.

Fascinating. I’d like to see someone make a very stripped down wargame based around that premise, like Interplanetary does in an arcadey way with its missile gameplay. Just a handful of ships, don’t need to care about whether I have an Advanced Turbophlebotinum Antimatter Drive 7.8283 or whatever. Just, the relative positions of things move, and your speed is governed by how much fuel you’re willing to expend to get there. Two very simple premises off which to build a completely unique style of warfare.

 

[Involuntary Celebrity]

Update: I finally got into the campaign and won a fight then got my shit pushed in, went back to design mode for a whole day, tried the campaign again and got my shit pushed in after two fights.

I like build-shit-and-kill-shit games but this is almost too autistic even for me. But if you want a game where you have to connect every fucking piston to cam shafts manually while making sure your carburettors, superchargers and turbochargers are all hooked up to each other properly with correct exhaust routing for giant engine blocks to power your warships efficiently (this also applies to alternative forms of engine and also designing huge ammo feed systems/laser energy pumping conduits/particle accelerator tubes/missile gantries for just about every gun) while thinking about redundancy and heat signatures and buffers for spall damage from the thousand kinds of weapons you might face on top of centre of gravity, buoyancy and drag and 30 kinds of transmission sensors/radars/IR cameras/laser rangefinders/sonars maybe give it a try? Just be warned I'm understating things a bit.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Bought a ton of shit to go with my new gaming desktop, but today the ones I tested were Hunt: Showdown and more Isonzo.

Isonzo I really like. My main shooters used to be BF1, Titanfall 2, much less often Rainbow Six Siege and very rarely Team Fortress 2. Now, playing Rising Storm 2, it's often very frustrating because it feels like you die randomly. If you creep slowly, moving from cover to cover and trying to stay low, you just waste more time before dying randomly. It's just that on occasion you happen to find yourself in the right position to kill 10 gooks in a row. I found that where I was enjoying it more was in the trenches (never realized just how much trenches mattered in more modern wars) and tunnels, and defending buildings, basically places where the cover is everywhere and you can sort of just work one corner at a time but at the same time you can risk going over the top to reposition (and face the threat of it happening to you).

Isonzo, of course, is built around that being a semi-casual, semi-tactical shooter (one shot to kill and no kill cam, but squad spawn and some gadgets) of the Italian Front of WW1. Why the Italian Front? Beautiful, otherworldly scenery and it has a way higher player count than Verdun and Tannenberg. And the player count is still dogshit, but as long as I can at least get games I was willing to pay, and this one has wonderful bots, bots that are as stupid as bots usually are, but I really don't notice what I'm fighting most of the time and while a match tends to start with mainly bots it naturally fills in. I was worried that the reliance on bolt actions would make it too punishing for someone who's aim sucks, especially on PC; in Rising Storm one-shot-kills + automatic means you can get kills firing at any movement you see. But somehow it doesn't. Everything else about the game is clunky and jank (is that really realistic?), but I find that I'm able to fight reasonably well and enjoy having engagements where I've got lots of cover, interesting terrain (especially the wonderful verticality of the Alps, and some of the cave-and-bridge stuff puts BF1 to shame), generally understand what I did wrong when I die. I also enjoy how the classes all have essentially the same firearms and differ just in their gadgets (in contrast to BF forcing you take a gun you don't want with a gadget you do, or vice versa) and the badass feathered-hat and bicorne uniforms.


Hunt: Showdown was one of those things I got without doing a lot of research, basically knew it was a coop horror monster hunting game with a loose Deep South/Old West setting. At first glance (tutorial and one horrible failure of a solo run) it reminds me a ton of Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, and in the tutorial that's a little boring because you only have zombies milling around. Which still sent my blood pressure through the roof, I'm a huge coward about horror games, almost unbearable. Undead Nightmare I did like a lot and Dying Light too. But where shit got crazy was in the solo run, turns out there's all kinds of bizarre fucked up nightmare stuff in the Bayou - flaming men running around setting you on fire, horrible people with giant bee hives growing out of their sides - and the scenery comes from just a sort of swamp zombie hicksploitation vibe to like a painting of Hell, great use of fire on the map (raging inferno in a forest). Absolutely appalling.

 

[Canoodler]

I'm currently playing Yoshi's Crafted World, and I'm having fun with it.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

I wanted to try Cartel because I knew normalfaggots got assblasted that it had Black gangbangers as enemies in it, but apparently it's not available. The game is... okay. It would be too harsh to say mediocre but it's not especially good. Has a comic book like aesthetic and a framing device of being a man lying about killing every major historical gunslinger singlehandedly in a saloon, which is used in interesting ways because feaures of the landscape will change as he makes up shit, he'll revise misunderstandings, and sequences where he describes how something would have played out that didn't actually happen. Plays very loose with reality. It's kind of cool that it draws mainly from historical events, but of course since this is a game things like, for example, Billy the Kid's escape from Lincoln County jail wind up killing dozens of people instead of, you know, two. The gameplay is very punchy and frantic - it does'nt have to be, but that's how it's fun to play, by spamming revolver fire everywhere - and has nice features like dodging bullets that are better than the slow motion gunslinging mechanic that's gotten really old and cliche by now.

I think it's interesting how it did duels. Duels are a big thing in cinema but somewhat hard to do in games well where you press one button to aim and one to shoot. The last one I saw that did duels in a cool way was Ghost of Tsushima, where you had the option of initiating a fight with a timing minigame where you can chain one-hit-kill enemies, but if you mistime it you take massive demand, and you forego the option of going in with stealth or trickery. Used it to work in the samurai movie trope of the swordfight that's basically its version of the standoff. Red Dead Redemption 1 also had a really cool portrayal of the showdown in its team deathmatch mode, where at the start of a round the two teams would be lined up, point blank range. Winning the initial showdown didn't really matter any more than any other kills, but it was always fun seeing its descent into chaos, half the line obliterated in the first second, then both sides rolling, jumping for cover, as it turns into a normal gunfight.

The way Juarez does it is that you have two variables, speed (is your hand properly above your gun) and focus (are you paying attention), and then the actual act of shooting is a three click process (draw, aim, shoot). You have to basically constantly adjust your keys to keep your hand centered while keeping the mouse on the enemy to get focus up (representing your slight fidgeting and them pacing a bit). It can feel clunky, but I think it's probably about the best way you could do gun duels. I wish, if someone makes another Western game, that it takes those concepts and Ghost of Tsushima's approach and allows you to call out enemies for a showdown at the start of a gunfight.

 

[WorldEater]

Cthulu: Death May Die

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

Recently learned about Call of Duty MWR having an active community on PC and decided to install it myself. Some people are playing it through the actual official client, but a number of people are instead playing it through the H1 client (which is actually how I played it). I probably could've played several rounds, but due to time I only played 3 full rounds. a youtuber has been leading the charge in reviving this game on PC and there is an active steam group going. I never got to play MWR when it came out, so being able to play it now has been fun. I know MWR is pretty pricey on Steam, but you can get good deals on sale. In fact, roughly a couple years ago a bundle containing Infinite Warfare, IW's map packs, and MWR were all sold together for $32/$33 and that's how I ended up getting it. I think I meant to play the zombies mod in IW with a friend, but we ended up not doing it for some odd reason.

Other than that, I've been spending time playing Fallout 4 with various mods. Some of which are new to me, and others I haven't tried before. There is a mod that adds a fictional AR15 style laser rifle that is kinda interesting. I'm using that with another mod that makes energy cells to act as batteries. Odd thing is though that many of the free creations club items I claimed in the past don't show up as purchased and I don't know why. Other than that though it has been nice returning to this game again after several months.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

been playing alot of dynasty warriors 5 XL. its just fun min-maxing your favorite characters and getting the best gear. nothing like playing a 5 star stage on chaos difficulty when a simple archer can spell your death.

 

[Involuntary Celebrity]

i finally made a plane that can fly
to do this i had to research how to translate the lift/thrust/mass/drag lines the game simulates into a stable aerodynamic centre for wing/tail placement and configure the AI with literal fucking calculus in order to smooth the pitch adjustment properly relative to the dynamic drag vector (due to manouvres or different altitudes).
this took 8 hours, not counting my previous failjets

i am possibly in too deep

however by some fluke it owns; it's super fast and can even tank some AA thanks to my autistic angled armouring job, on top of being relatively compact and only having passive radar/IR so it's somewhat hard to target in the first place.
after a lot more fiddling with guidance/warheads it can vomit out like 24 anorexic torpedos on each bombing run that track targets with thrusters as they fall before engaging sonar and full thrust in the water, which rip warships 5x as expensive apart ass-first like a school of fucking pirahnas.
and if they miss landing with the right sonar cone... there's a lot of them, and I added magnets

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

There's something very comforting and awe-inspiring about watching my command module float over the Earth in Kerbal Space Program. I was never a hard science kid (aside from some interest in the celestial bodies aspect of astronomy and electrical circuits), but as an adult I recently became interested in spaceflight, first as the Space Race and then later (from realistic science fiction) modern asteroid mining and space industrialization concepts.

Superhot is kind of frustrating and disappointing. The basic concept of the game is okay, maybe a little overpriced and I don't especially like its aesthetic. (I thought I would, but silence and glass men don't do much). It's kind of like an anti-Hotline Miami, everything about it (the glamorized ultra-violence, the plot based around 2deep4you video game violence commentary, near-instant restarts with tons of enemies spraying bullets everywhere and tight movement to avoid it, etc., but unlike Hotline Miami it's minimalist, it swaps out grotesque gore and an ugliness for dehumanized simplicity, and it plays slow and puzzle-like instead of encouraging frantic twitchiness. (Hotline Miami is more fun.)

The plot is total wank, too, and it doesn't have the decency to bury its head in shame, but instead plays tricks like babby's first creepypasta, jerking you out of the game every couple of levels, screwing with you pointlessly (i'm gonna make you move around a jail cell, now I'm going to make you shut the game down and reopen it, now I'm going to make you press the same two buttons back adn forth). If I hadn't already refunded some other games recently, I'd refund this out of pure disgust for the undeserved smugness of the developers.

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

There's something very comforting and awe-inspiring about watching my command module float over the Earth in Kerbal Space Program.

Can't wait for KSP:2, since it was recently free on Epic it made me tinker around in it again. I'm excited for 2.

Been taking a break from EvE online to play through RDR2.

 

[Belvedere]

Finally decided to start @Vyse Inglebard 's beloved Skies of Arcadia Legends. I'm about an hour in and it is old comfy JRPG goodness. I'm finding the graphics endearing despite their low poly nature. Goes without saying, I'm playing it through an emulator because even though I do own a Gamecube, the Ebay scalper prices for an original copy would be better served towards buying a new GPU.

 

[Vyse Inglebard]

Finally decided to start @Vyse Inglebard 's beloved Skies of Arcadia Legends. I'm about an hour in and it is old comfy JRPG goodness. I'm finding the graphics endearing despite their low poly nature. Goes without saying, I'm playing it through an emulator because even though I do own a Gamecube, the Ebay scalper prices for an original copy would be better served towards buying a new GPU.

Pro tips:
1. You can skip the battle animations if you happen to get sick of them by pressing the A button (or the equivalent on your emulator).
2. The random encounter rate is high, both in dungeons and while sailing. Later in the game, you will unlock a feature that lets you sail above the clouds, thus, alleviating the rate while sailing.
3. You will find Moonberries throughout the game to give your characters super moves during battle. THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT SUPER MOVES TO INVEST YOUR MOONBERRIES IN:
a. Delta Shield (Aika): blocks every magic attack. Yes, I said EVERY magic attack. And you get it fairly early on in the game. This technique also blocks friendly support magic, such as Sacri (healing); fortunately though, Magic-emulating items such as crystals, boxes, and glyphs are not blocked by Delta Shield. so just stock up on those.
b. Justice Shield (Enrique): halves all damage taken by you and your crew.
c. All of Vyse's, especially Pirates' Wrath. The high SP cost makes Pirates Wrath more suitable for boss battles than random encounters, although it is useful against high HP targets.
4. Try to go for as many Discoveries as you can. More gold and world-building are always a plus.
5. Keep that Swashbuckler Rating up! During certain moments in the story, you'll be presented with multiple choice answers to specific questions/quandries. You will hear a noise after making the correct choice.
6. Try to tackle any wanted battles you can. More story, more experience, and you're required to do so once in order to keep your Swashbuckler Rating up.

Happy sailing!

 

[Belvedere]

Pro tips:
1. You can skip the battle animations if you happen to get sick of them by pressing the A button (or the equivalent on your emulator).
2. The random encounter rate is high, both in dungeons and while sailing. Later in the game, you will unlock a feature that lets you sail above the clouds, thus, alleviating the rate while sailing.
3. You will find Moonberries throughout the game to give your characters super moves during battle. THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT SUPER MOVES TO INVEST YOUR MOONBERRIES IN:
a. Delta Shield (Aika): blocks every magic attack. Yes, I said EVERY magic attack. And you get it fairly early on in the game. This technique also blocks friendly support magic, such as Sacri (healing); fortunately though, Magic-emulating items such as crystals, boxes, and glyphs are not blocked by Delta Shield. so just stock up on those.
b. Justice Shield (Enrique): halves all damage taken by you and your crew.
c. All of Vyse's, especially Pirates' Wrath. The high SP cost makes Pirates Wrath more suitable for boss battles than random encounters, although it is useful against high HP targets.
4. Try to go for as many Discoveries as you can. More gold and world-building are always a plus.
5. Keep that Swashbuckler Rating up! During certain moments in the story, you'll be presented with multiple choice answers to specific questions/quandries. You will hear a noise after making the correct choice.
6. Try to tackle any wanted battles you can. More story, more experience, and you're required to do so once in order to keep your Swashbuckler Rating up.

Happy sailing!

Thanks a bunch for the pro-tips, I'll keep them in mind during the playthrough. It is one of those games that have always been on my playlist for years but there's just so much other stuff vying for attention that it always kept falling by the wayside. I'll let you know my thoughts on it after it is finished.