What are you playing right now?

I downloaded Witcher 3 and Death Stranding today, I’m not sure what to start on though.
I hear both have immersive worlds and good stories.
I also hear Red Dead Redemption 2 is good.

Since I don’t have a ton of time to play, it comes down to which one has the most fun and rewarding gameplay.
Any suggestions?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Douglas Mortimer
Jack Hoffman said:
Since I don’t have a ton of time to play, it comes down to which one has the most fun and rewarding gameplay.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Death Stranding has the standard Kojima plot where they use words in strange ways that obviously don't mean what you think they should, and you won't really know what's going on until near the end. But overall its gameplay is pretty Zen unless you screw up and suddenly there's a tentacled whale trying to eat your face.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jack Hoffman
Mostly FFXIV at the moment since I was out of state when DT dropped. Just got my main to 100, almost done with MSQ I think? Got to the last area, so now I'm running around on my heal and tank jobs to suck up more xp from discovering areas and getting them past that 100 line.

Occasionally some V Rising, too. Been writing a lot more recently so haven't been playing stuff as often.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Douglas Mortimer
Just downloaded red dead 2, never played it before, gonna hold off until the weekend probably.

I have a few brand new sealed games that I'm not interested in to sell or give away, since gamestop won't accept unopened games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Douglas Mortimer
Jonah Hill poster said:
Just found out you can download the original versions of StarCraft and StarCraft II on Battle.net

I have not used my PC for weeks, and right now, I need a reason to get back on there.
Click to expand...
That's actually really cool to hear, I wasn't sure how Diablo 2 and SC were being handled. I was kinda annoyed having to find a version of the original WC3 that had all the modern compatibility updates a week or so ago.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jonah Hill poster and Douglas Mortimer
I tend to only really play older games, I think the last good game that got released was RDR2 because ever since a bunch of weirdos infiltrated the games industry and injected their ideologies into every fucking new video game release, I feel that I'm no longer the target audience for modern video games, but I'm currently playing the Silent Hill 2 Remaster which I am finding enjoyable.
 
  • Feels
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: Jarch6, Jonah Hill poster, Douglas Mortimer and 1 other person
The way my poor demented brain works, I tend to binge a game until I can't bring myself to play it again for awhile, then move on to my next temporary obsession... My current "victim" is Satisfactory... Fun times to be had for many hours into the future!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Douglas Mortimer
Anonitolia said:
Just started playing the original Baldur's Gate (classic edition) and god, all I can say is WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL MY LIFE?
Click to expand...
Indeed. Most people these days don't really bother with it. But back when it came out it was fucking groundbreaking. But it still holds up as an exceptionally well made game even today

Anonitolia said:
This is the kind of shit I would've wasted my entire life on as a kid, the fact that I was too lazy to figure out how to play this earlier is a tragedy.
Click to expand...
I pretty much did that when it came out, picked it up as a completely impulse buy back in 98 and got pretty much obsessed with it. They really did put a hell of alot of effort into every aspect of the game. Though given its not really sold as a physical game anymore new players are missing out on the exceptionally well made paperback manual it originally came with. Still have mine and the strategy guide (though it has a few glaring inaccuracies) It was manufactured with higher quality than some books are these days, which tells you they really gave a shit about what they were doing

Anonitolia said:
The ambience, too. As I said, I've barely even played an hour of this. I've gotten up to the second inn by now and formed a party of four
Click to expand...
Just a word of warning cause this isn't really made clear early on, alignment matters when it comes to party members. Good and evil party members are not a wise combination long term. On that note, you'll be surprised at how many potential party recruits you'll come across just exploring areas so don't be in too big of a hurry to decide who to put the effort into keeping long term

Anonitolia said:
I wish games still made their UIs look this good.
Click to expand...
Indeed. Whoever was in charge of UI design should absolutely be commended. Even bioware itself seems to have lost the plot on that one over the years. The enhanced edition fucks it up unfortunately and changes it to one that looks more like the UI from the sequel

Anonitolia said:
I've basically done nothing so far and yet I've had more fun just existing in this world than I have in almost any other, more recent RPG. Absolutely love it to bits.
Click to expand...
Yeah few games do atmosphere as well as BG1. Hell they even put in hundreds of readable books that go into lore that has nothing to do with the game itself and is just world building. Not to mention the time and effort they put into coming up with stories and backgrounds for most of the items and equipment in the game

Also keep in mind you can export your character and import it into the sequel, which does effect some things like spells, items and some past history

Always keep at least a couple antidote potions on hand just in case and always bring more arrows/bolts/sling ammo than you think you'll need. You'd be surprised how quickly you can run out of it. and it doesn't hurt to keep a few special arrows on hand either like poisoning or exploding ones. They can be useful. and keep in mind that aside from BG2 there is also icewind dale, which is set in the north and uses the same engine. Its basically BG1 in a different setting, on a smaller scale and much more combat focused

That said i've been fucking around with clanfolk for the last week or so. My homestead seems to be doing decently well. The oldest generation I started the game with is largely dying off but at this point i've got a decent oat farm up and running, have a small chicken and pig industry going and hope to get a couple sheep and a cow or two in the next couple years. Basically living off of eels, hunted animals, fish, dried mushrooms and brose at the moment. But i've started a small neep field that i'm hoping to spend the next two years producing seeds from so I can get a large enough production of them going to start expanding the available food options. I'd like to get onions and kale going as well but I don't have any naturally occurring access to either of them and haven't been able to buy any seeds from traders to start my own seed production unfortunately. So unfortunately food options are limited and I won't able to provide haggis for my clan for some time yet. No tartan production yet either but I did manage to get enough resources together to produce a set of bagpipes. Its pretty funny to see them start every morning doing this weird combo of bagpipes, harps and flutes after breakfast. Not a sound you'd expect to hear in scotland
 
  • Like
Reactions: Douglas Mortimer and Fag Albert
WonderWino said:
Indeed. Whoever was in charge of UI design should absolutely be commended. Even bioware itself seems to have lost the plot on that one over the years. The enhanced edition fucks it up unfortunately and changes it to one that looks more like the UI from the sequel
Click to expand...
Which reminds me:

I'm from the era of Ps1/ps2 (I got in late because Europe) and a stylized UI has always been super fascinating to me. Older games just had much more charm in the way the menus looked. It's a weird autistic thing to praise I guess but it adds some atmosphere I think.

Same with the manuals. I miss the days of old thick manuals. Granted it's not that feasible since most games are digital and even fewer people read the manuals but I have a fondness for them.

Spill said:
I tend to only really play older games, I think the last good game that got released was RDR2 because ever since a bunch of weirdos infiltrated the games industry and injected their ideologies into every fucking new video game release, I feel that I'm no longer the target audience for modern video games, but I'm currently playing the Silent Hill 2 Remaster which I am finding enjoyable.
Click to expand...
Same really. It's bittersweet.
WonderWino said:
Indeed. Most people these days don't really bother with it. But back when it came out it was fucking groundbreaking. But it still holds up as an exceptionally well made game even today
Click to expand...
This is both interesting and sad. I had a conversation with someone who cared not about the older games and considered them "ancient" but was obsessed with BG3 because gender fuckery.

It's a bit depressing watching people not caring about the two games before 3 because it doesn't cater to their kinks when the games, from my understanding, hold up well.
 
  • Like
  • Agree
Reactions: Drag-on Knight 91873, Douglas Mortimer and WonderWino
Tried out a fair few games during the turn-based Steam Demo fest as well as a select few others recently:

Sternly Worded Adventures (demo)
  • Accepted words that Scrabble night with grandma wouldn't, like cunty
  • Good at dealing with technical terms, like Lysine, Formic
  • Interesting 'last chance' mechanic when you hit 0 health
  • Bonuses awarded for using a specific word group (bone-related terms against skeletons) was very fun.
  • Minigames were familiar to word-puzzle lovers, like Worlde.
  • Items seemed interesting enough, but economy was off.
  • World felt pretty dry - there isn't much beyond "go to X and kill enemy", no set-up or NPCs surrounding it. Started getting dry in the demo, so would personally find it too dry as a free-time game. Would be alright as a time-waster during work while waiting for lab readings/new customers etc..
Burden of Command (demo)
  • Good concepts, would need to play more to fully form an opinion
  • Had a lot of cases of "You have 12 turns to do this objective, but on turn 7 X happens and on turn 3 Y happens if Z hasn't happened, meaning you lose 2 turns". It was fun to have the situation be dynamic, and I suspect it was a deliberate thematic choice for the training camp war-game tutorials - but it would be a bit frustrating to succesfully set up a large maneuver instead of feeding men into untenable positions to quickly capture an objective that you can't hold, just to trigger some code that means the rules don't get changed willy-nilly.
  • Depending on how it's handled, needing to do a bad move to appease HQ might provide engaging gameplay, but it's a fine line - especially since your esteem with your higher-ups/lower-downs seems to be cleanly divided along an objectives taken/casualties sustained line. One or two missions in a large campaign where you have fresh-faced men perched just outside of the main objective, but get told to call off the attack because you weren't 'decisive' enough early on might be engaging, but if half of them have stuff like that it'll detract too much from the "your men are living breathing humans whose lives you're responsible for" feeling
Dobbel Dungeon (demo)
  • Extremely competent indie game, both in terms of gameplay and visuals - it's made by two people, yet teams of two-hundred people rarely make this tight of a game. Basic gameplay loop is rock solid.
  • NPCs you have to protect can be controlled and have basic movesets, meaning you don't have to protect headless chickens (apart from the missions in which you have to protect actual chickens).
  • Adaptive music is a nice touch, though it's basic and unvaried in its implementation.
  • Could ape other games in the genre a bit more in terms of dice interactions, like the increase/decrease dice value seen in stuff like Dice & Fold (where increasing a 6 gives a 6 and a 1 dice). A lot of stuff lifted from 5E Dungeons and Dragons, which feels risky, but might be covered by the OGL.
  • One of the characters is literally just Bowsette, and while the overall aesthetics are kid-friendly it does have a degree of adultness to it. I grew up with games having sexualized characters, but it's still clearly designed for adults despite the kid-friendly aesthetics - if it were a bit more buttoned-up I might very well play it with younger family members, but as it stands I would feel a bit icky about it.
  • Enemy/objective variety is good for a first 'act', but it will need more to be a complete game.
Fight Life: Vanguard (demo)
  • Visuals are good, but gameplay is basic - lack of damage types/resistances means that unit composition is just a question of damage output, which is only augmented by the lack of special unit abilities (spear units can't fend off units in overwatch or attack enemies at range for example). Might change with higher-level units.
  • Lack of pre-fight deployment means you might end up with weak units facing the enemies while the defensive units are at the back, forcing you to act with them first.
  • Might be worth picking up on the cheap, but nothing special.
  • Seems to favour campaign play, so hard to get a full picture based on the demo.
Sultan's Game (demo)
  • A game in the vein of Cultist Simulator (or its mobile predecessor I can't remember the name of), which despite its genre and it being a Chinese game (so not my bag at all), I found to be enjoyable
  • A lot of unstated mechanics/rules that you have to seek out, but become intuitive once you know about them.
  • Thematically and artistically great
  • Balance is awry but accomodating - I wasted heaps of gold on boosts to bathhouse interactions that didn't pay off due to horrible RNG, while low stats on my wife + servant for household managment still paid dividens.
  • Fairly good story potential when faced with a seemingly impossible task
Monomyth
  • A crossbreed of Dark Messiah and Legend of Grimrock. Real mixed bag that should still offer hours of fun, but just as much frustration.
  • Progression is horrible - as a naked dude with no skills wielding a tree branch, you'll kill the most basic enemy in 4 charged-up hits and die to 2 hits from them. Speccing into nothing but melee weapons, Strength so you hit harder and can use heavy armour along with Vitality to sustain hits, your chainmail-wearing warhammer-wielding character kills the same basic enemy in 3 charged-up hits while still dying in 2 hits from them.
  • Preparing healing- and combat items like you might expect is useless since your time-to-die only allows for LMB on the enemy, retreat, rinse and repeat. Frantic improvisational combat like in Dark Messiah isn't feasable since it deals basically no damage and takes too much time. There are also a lot of infinitely-resuppliable fountains that let you get as many full-healing potions as your patience and inventory alllow for, which combined with the tanky enemies, means combat devolves into LMBing the enemy while chugging health potions. Slimes are an aggregious example of this.
  • Since the game has a lot of exploration and running back-and-forth, you alternate between running around naked at Quake-esque speeds only to put your armour back on when running into an enemy to hopefully die in 2,1 hits instead of 2 hits.
  • Clearly a very low-budget game with its heart in the right place, but you'll run into several walls at which point you'll think "Do I really want to continue playing this?".
  • Would love to see a developer playthrough where, despite universal knowledge of the game, he'd still have to hit normal a normal enemy, back off, and go back up and hit them ~60 times to kill them (sewer humanoid, of which there are ~10).
Diablo 2 Remaster
  • Unless you desperately want to introduce Diablo 2 to someone who can't get into old games, make a wide berth around this one. It introduces a host of issues, large and small, that simply weren't present in the original version.
  • Graphics are good, but some items have become reskins where they previously had unique visuals. Items that were different but didn't have unique visuals haven't been given unique visuals, despite there being ample reason to do so.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: Jarch6, Drag-on Knight 91873, Jonah Hill poster and 1 other person
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back