What are you playing right now?

[Lone Wandering Courier]

I started another playthrough of postal 2 and apparently the garry coleman books give you a powerup now

 

[Miller]

The Division 2. I have finally finished the final mission that I refused to play for months because of the shitty boss gimmick. I found a couple of random players who helped me so now I am starting the new hunting season. I absolutely do not give a shit about the story because I can't stand most of the self-insert characters that the new studio added last season.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Just finished Assassins Creed Mirage. It was the right combination of modern AC and the old stuff, a nice little throwback. The Assassin's Bureaus look like the ones from the first game, and they're in the middle of building the fortress from the first game too. The story was simple enough, there's a conspiracy going on involving the poor being abused, so our guy goes in and discovers what's up.

But what I loved best was that they took out all the excessive weapon upgrading and management from Odyssey that caused me to quit, plus the levelling system that meant some targets couldn't be assassinated right away. And I didn't need to do every side mission to beat the next story quest, it just helped make things easier.

How was the Zane Rebellion story? The massive Black plantation revolt in Medieval Oraq?

 

[Baklava]

Tried out Sigil II since John Romero released it recently. Haven't finished but it's pretty challenging, definitely designed for higher difficulties. I've watched some of his level design streams while working on it, kinda cool to see how the sausage was made. About to try the demo for Alisa, which is a survival horror-y sort of thing with classic Resident Evil vibes from what I can tell.

 

[Yandex Captcha Solver]

With Last Epoch being brought into 'alpha' and seeing they still haven't finished their campaign. Decided to pick up Grim Dawn after not finishing it before. Dumped 50ish hours into it, completed the all the DLCs. Doing a run with my main character in veteran mode, hopefully getting to level 100 from 85 and finish up all the faction reputations along the way. After finishing up on veteran may give ultimate a go and see where that goes.

Glad I picked it back up, seeing mobs disappear with big numbers is always fun.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Finished Not For Broadcast, a fun FMV game about running the A/V stuff on a live news program. I am a sucker for FMV games so it was a pretty easy sell for me. The humor is very dry British, so YMMV there.

Playing Neon Abyss now. Cool roguelike, nice aesthetic. But not very challenging. You can blunder your way through it and still beat every boss.

Nobody seems to be interested in this around here (I sometimes use the search function to dig up what Kiwi Farmers have said about things).

Not for Broadcast is absolutely based. Basically anticipated the Canadians' euthanasia nightmare, has Black Alex Jones turn out to be right, has Black Kanye turn out to be right, has the radical socialist government use antinatalist propaganda spread by a troop of fags pretending to be straight people.

 

[marvlouslie]

In between rounds of Fortnite, I've recently begun playing Star Trek Armada II again. God, I forgot how fun it was just to spam Galaxy class / Sovereign class ships and lay waste to enemy bases. There's just something about these older Star Trek PC games that appeal to me more than anything modern Star Trek could ever do.

 

[Lurkerish Kandor]

I've just been playing a mash of Doom mods for a series I've called Hideous Afterglow.

Hideous Destructor is a super-autistic and very based "realism" mod that goes down to the level of having to manually operate your firearms (it's like a much better version of those Receiver gun-sim games), and I layered that over the "Sterilized" version of the levels from Ashes: Afterglow. Couple of bugs early on that mean you have to noclip to progress, but provides some really good post-apocalyptic urban and semi-rural environments. Can't recommend it for anyone who's not EXTREMELY sweaty though, because Hideous is punishing as fuck and can't really be enjoyed casually, unless maybe playing it on the absolute easiest difficulty.

Finished recording, editing and rendering out the last episode tonight, so I've got a bunch of things on the list:

Need to finish off Nioh 2, because I keep getting like halfway through and falling off. It's ostensibly a looter-slasher but I barely engage with the loot grind because actual gameplay is fucking awesome, like a Souls game on crack.
Going for the last 4 or 5 achievements I have remaining on Dragon's Dogma 1, and I plan on doing a sort of narrativized review of it when I finally go to scratch off "Kill Death" as the last cheevo.
I've been taking a look at some romhacks for old Metroid games, but frankly a lot of them suck and amount to making world traversal as tedious as possible and making platforming as restrictive as they can, and then overcompensating with lighting effects and unnecessary animations. Here's an example from Metroid V I T A L I T Y (yes, they write the title like that):

Spoiler: I'm not saying it WILL give you a seizure, I'm just not comfortable in a legal sense saying it won't

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

Restarting Pathologic 2. Many of you probably already know what it is. Hard to explain, but it's an open world (not in the sense that's usually meant) game where you play as a doctor in a plague-afflicted Siberian village. Horror, supernatural, but not like... ghosts and monsters. It's very surreal and bleak in tone with lots of obtuse dialogue. Fever dream feeling. It's survival horror, I suppose you'd call it, because there are looters and such out that pose a huge threat, you have to feed and drink and keep in good relations with the locals while supplies dwindle in an increasingly distorted society falling apart, all of that.

On the first go I found the intro (some wanky artsy stageplay framing device bullshit followed by a dream sequence that isn't clear its a dream sequence with multiple false awakenings) repulsive. This time, knowing exactly when it would end, I was able to enjoy it a lot more and so far (still on first night) I have been very engaged. It's set you up with this plot about being framed for your father's murder, that's why the locals (in addition to other hysteria going on) are so hostile. It aims for the feeling of walking down streets aware of people you used to know staring you down, doors being locked on you, that kind of stuff. The sound design is very good, hard to describe but the music is kind of sparse (not a lot of heavy instrumentation) and creates a sense of bad anxiety with occasional organ-like sounds. The town is mostly normal but then there's weird shit like staircases to nowhere or big sinister geometric shapes scattered around among it. The atmosphere, basically, is very impressive and the writing of the dialogue (not voiced) has carried its weight so far.

I'd compare it (against games I've played) to Prey, We Happy Few (only in the sense of a normal town of familiar people that has turned hostile), and Dead Rising (only in the sense of strict time limits to achieve things over a fixed period).

 

[Mr Sister]

Balatro has taken me over, I bought it less than 36 hours ago and have over 20 hours played already. The roguelite elements combine perfectly with “make the number big” to be crazy addicting. I’m almost thankful I am too sick to do anything else right now

 

[Incel Death Note]

Playing Kingdom Come Deliverance. It can be frustrating, but when it's good it's really good.

Restarting Pathologic 2. Many of you probably already know what it is. Hard to explain, but it's an open world (not in the sense that's usually meant) game where you play as a doctor in a plague-afflicted Siberian village. Horror, supernatural, but not like... ghosts and monsters. It's very surreal and bleak in tone with lots of obtuse dialogue. Fever dream feeling. It's survival horror, I suppose you'd call it, because there are looters and such out that pose a huge threat, you have to feed and drink and keep in good relations with the locals while supplies dwindle in an increasingly distorted society falling apart, all of that.

On the first go I found the intro (some wanky artsy stageplay framing device bullshit followed by a dream sequence that isn't clear its a dream sequence with multiple false awakenings) repulsive. This time, knowing exactly when it would end, I was able to enjoy it a lot more and so far (still on first night) I have been very engaged. It's set you up with this plot about being framed for your father's murder, that's why the locals (in addition to other hysteria going on) are so hostile. It aims for the feeling of walking down streets aware of people you used to know staring you down, doors being locked on you, that kind of stuff. The sound design is very good, hard to describe but the music is kind of sparse (not a lot of heavy instrumentation) and creates a sense of bad anxiety with occasional organ-like sounds. The town is mostly normal but then there's weird shit like staircases to nowhere or big sinister geometric shapes scattered around among it. The atmosphere, basically, is very impressive and the writing of the dialogue (not voiced) has carried its weight so far.

I'd compare it (against games I've played) to Prey, We Happy Few (only in the sense of a normal town of familiar people that has turned hostile), and Dead Rising (only in the sense of strict time limits to achieve things over a fixed period).

That game really stresses me out with the scarce resources, save system, and hard time limits that can softlock you. I feel like if I can just get it to click it'd be really addictive.

 

[cold comfort]

Picked up Pacific Drive and enjoying it so far. It's got a cozy vibe and I like taking care of my car. But my enjoyment took a dip when I built the customization station and (Queer pride sticker pack unlocked) showed up on the side of my screen. There are 22 fucking lgbt pride flags in this game covering everything from Abrosexual to what ever the fuck a Neutrois is. And to top it off there is a BLM flag mixed in. Was this in the demo?

Sick to fuckin death of this shit. Thanks for saving me 25 bucks.

 

[Kit Marz]

I've been playing a lot of Baldur's Gate III recently. I've been playing my solo campaign and campaigns with my brothers. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's a game where each of my characters actually feel different to play as and I've taken steps in each campaign where the story has been different. I like the Elder Scrolls games, but each playthrough usually ends up feeling the same no matter what I try to do, this game actually makes it feel like I've affected something.

 

[Mr.Miyagi]

Falling down the Dominions 6 rabbit hole. I'm still absolute shit at it, but it's fun just to experiment with different ideas versus the bots and see what kind of nonsense happens. There's so much mechanical depth that you could probably play the game for ages and still find new things to try.
I also have played a little Solium Infernum based on the recommendation of someone on here. It's really well-done from what I've played so far. I've seen some negative reviews about the AI being poor, which isn't too surprising. Between it and Dom6, it's making me reconsider my aversion to async multiplayer.

 

[Dupree Home Edition]

Halo Infinite babyyy, what a fun game. If you ignore the microtransaction drama (which you should because it's gay reddit slop) it's a blast. Really sad that there weren't more varied environments in campaign since its pretty much confirmed that there won't be DLC

On a related note, why does this screen exist in video games in 2024? The "Press Start to Play" screen is a relic from arcade machines that wouldnt let you play until you inserted a coin, why not just go to main menu???

 

[Miller]

On a related note, why does this screen exist in video games in 2024? The "Press Start to Play" screen is a relic from arcade machines that wouldnt let you play until you inserted a coin, why not just go to main menu???

Don't forget that after you pressed start (or enter) the main menu doesn't load properly because the game has to connect to their service.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

@Incel Death Note That's what's ruining Dead Rising for me. I've gotten up to the tunnels mission with this asshole charging me with a car and I hate it. The game is janky trash and most of its purposeful design decisions are terrible but I can't not play it either because the same things that piss me off are what's compelling about it. But I don't really know how I'm going to cope with this asshole. I don't know if I have enough time to fetch the maintenance tunnel key and run around the mall (I didn't know I should have done that during down time, how could I see this coming).

In Pathologic I've already gotten enough deaths to trigger the play scene. I know ways to play to keep the deaths down, but still, it will throw someone quite fast at you.

Halo Infinite babyyy, what a fun game. If you ignore the microtransaction drama (which you should because it's gay reddit slop) it's a blast. Really sad that there weren't more varied environments in campaign since its pretty much confirmed that there won't be DLC

On a related note, why does this screen exist in video games in 2024? The "Press Start to Play" screen is a relic from arcade machines that wouldnt let you play until you inserted a coin, why not just go to main menu???
View attachment 5765453

The obvious answer to me would be that it makes it so that if you have the game booting up (which is fast nowadays, but still) and you need to wander off your game won't accidentally load some menu, or even start into the game proper, just because something (like a cat) knocks your controller around/treads on your keyboard.

Started up a Mafia III replay. I'm bummed out. I've posted about it on here before about liking how it depicted racial conflict, particularly compared to RDR2. But I think I just didn't realize how aggressive it was with the race stuff way back that first time. And then I forgot most of it. It's pretty bad, at least at the start.

 

[M3xus]

Nienix, a sci-fi twin-stick ARPG where you fly a little spaceship and murder many, many dudes to get to the fabled Nienix. Controls okay on KB+M and I'd rather not use my controller even if Steam says it'll work okay. There's a wide build variety and the development team is small, but attentive to feedback.
Also, Elden Ring's Convergence mod. I like the new spells, but I'm not 100% sold on the revamps to existing areas. Morne, for example, now has a whole town around it that you're expected to traverse to get to Castle Morne (unless you find the tunnel), which I liked, but Morne itself was revamped to be more non-linear and it felt like a slog to get through. Stormveil confused me enough I had to look up a guide, and it turned out I'd gone the wrong way following the "proper" path from vanilla. Now I'm on Liurnia and taking a short break before diving back in.

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

Frostpunk 2 is supposed to come out soon so I've been playing the first one a little bit in between other games. It looks really good, the map looks much bigger and there looks to be more interesting mechanics. The first one isn't a masterpiece or anything, but it's a solid little game and I enjoyed it. I don't usually like "city building" games, but the setting and art style caught my attention. Worth playing if you haven't.

 

[Almighty Space Duck]

Picked up Resident Evil 5 and 6 because I need to have some dumb fun.
My Last Epoch play through has ground to a screeching halt due to bugs with two of my side quests. Unfortunately they both reward skills points and the only fix is to make a new character so fuck that.