1y ago

The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 18-09-2023

Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!

Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.

64 comments

Vampire Survivors

Starfield and Final Fantasy 14. Both have been hard to find time for with general lack of time in life.
Starfield: still enjoying it a lot. I know it is going to bore me eventually, but for now the exploration and personal narrative I've been rolling with have been enough to keep me interested.
FF14: My static fell apart and we've given up on Savage raiding for this tier. There is a huge backlog of activities I haven't been able to do this whole time while Savage prog occupied 90% of my time in-game, but now I can't choose where to start.

Starfield and Brotato
Getting bored. Starfield is just a buggy mediocre FPS. Everything else in it is giving me serious 'no man's sky' vibes and not in a good way.
- Starfield is a classic case of some misleading marketing on purpose, and, well, it just falls into the perpetually doomed category of games/media that will always suffer from extremely high expectations: sci-fi/space/cyberpunk. The imagination wanders especially far with games like these, and there's little to none us, the consumers, and they, the devs and publishers, can ever do about it.
  That being said, you're right in not praising the game. It's a niche fun in my opinion, and only shines if you take it for what it is, but not for what it seemed to have been marketed as.
  TL;DR Stafield is a Bethesda game through and through, but with a coating some Microsoft PG-13 "play it safe" attitude.

Starfield, like a maniac.
- Yeah, me too. Just shy of 140 hours in and still having a blast.
  Just joined the Crimson Fleet for the first time, got my first custom spaceship that I'm happy with, still haven't completed the UC questline, hardly dug into outposts at all...
  I may be here for some time :)

Armored core 6. Finished one ending yesterday and on ng+ today. I'm way more invested in faceless characters than I thought I could be and there was an unexpected anime like fight that hit me in the feels

Got yuzu running on Ubuntu so I'm finally play breath of the wild ! I don't normally pirate games but I don't want to buy a switch for one game .
- Funnily enough playing BotW on CEMU was what got me to get a switch, it was just so good I wanted to play it without any caveats or messing with settings or working around the gyro controls and the allure of playing it portably anywhere was high.
  
  The only problem I'm having now is the gyro controls . Only found one temple so far that needs it but I'll probably be able to get that works with one of my controllers .

I've lately finished my first playthrough of Katana Zero. Wondering about whether I should leave well enough alone or try for another ending. I might not have time honestly.

Recently just got into Tunic! Amazing game!

Ac Odyssey. Hopefully finish it soon. Been good but a bit of a long slog. How would I know which quest is just a standard fetch or which one is worth it.
- The quests you get from the quest boards, especially the ones with the hourglass icons can be pretty much blanket ignored. Otherwise you can tell when talking to the quest giver if Alexios/Kassandra accepts the quest generically and doesn't respond to anything the giver says very specifically other than "I'll take care of it" or things like that.
  I love the shit out of that game, have been world exploring and only doing the unique side quests.
  
  Fantastic news. I've not really used any of the boards. Too many quests already
- I love AC. Or... did.
  AC Odyssey was the first one in the entire series I couldn't push myself to finish. I used to love just bumping around eliminating every single map icon, but Odyssey was way, way too big, and having my zen ruined by bounty hunters all the time was exhausting.
  I heard Valhalla was even worse. It was the first one I skipped after playing each one since the original (even some of the 2D ones).
  
  You can just pay off your bounties instantly at any time from the map screen, and I've always had so much money in that game that I've never had to deal with a bounty hunter unless I wanted to, and I don't even sell any gear, I dismantle it all.
  If you're a compulsionary completionist then the game is probably too big, but they make it as friendly as they can to not have to complete the world. Unique gear drops only seem to come from unique Cultist leaders or checking vendors, and there's no achievements for completing all map markers, it's just supplemental content for XP and some gear or if you just really want to do it, there's no huge cost to just moving on to actual quest content if you want.
  They don't tell you when you've completed a whole region for a reason, to disincentivize completing it all unless you're a madman. I'm doing world completion just because I like grinding the game, but it's been two years in the making with big breaks in between, and if you ever feel like your gear or levels are behind the curve and you have to grind, the difficulty settings can be changed and can be set as forgiving as you like, they actually alter the level scaling and RPG aspects.
  I think it's a great game worth playing, but you do need to be ready to tell yourself when enough is enough because they give you too much for weirdos like me that just wanna experience it all over a really long... Odyssey.
  
  Yeah. I beat Odyssey completely. Absolutely loved it. I'm a huge fan or Norse mythology so I thought Valhalla would just totally captivate me but... I got bored! It was just too much. Started to feel incredibly repetitive.
  
  I really enjoyed it. Beautiful scenery to explore but it is annoying with bounty hunters. There's just too many quests. I think Valhalla was actually better in this regard. Honestly all games are repetitive. Most RPGs have a lot of fetch quests or something similar.
  It's not too bad of the game is 40 hours or so. It really grinds you down if it's so big with millions of exactly the same quests. Each island each city.
- That game is unbelievably long, especially it you do the dlcs

Sea of Stars has been the only game I made time to play in months.

I recently introduced Untitled Goose Game to my 10 year old daughter, and now that's all she wants to do with me every evening after her little sister goes to bed. So... That's pretty much all I've been playing.
We'll see what the next obsession will be.

Loving Starfield! Its not perfect but still very fun 😀

My third time through factorio. This time with K2+SE mods. It's taking a long time. Most of the time I'm waiting for my rockets and leave it afk for hours. Total play time 800+ hours, most of which I swear is afk! I've almost set up an outpost for every resource now, so that should make my life much much easier.

Diablo 3 season 29 started last Friday and loving it!
Finally solo self found leaderboards!
Also enjoying the seasons theme, small areas with random mobs, elites, gobs and rift guardians.
Having more fun than playing D4.

Xenogears using EmulationStation on Steamdeck.
Dope game so far, been a while since I played a good old school jrpg.

Trying to get all the tags in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. Getting close, but sone spot are well hidden.

Replaying red dead redemption 2 for the third or fourth time, just chilling around in chapter 4. and some battlefield one multiplayer.

Recycling my comment from the other day. I am close to finishing The Outer Worlds. The game has a somewhat mixed reception when it comes up in discussions online and I think it's mostly because the developer Obsidian made New Vegas and Outer Worlds apparently is the worse game. So, I never played New Vegas and therefore can't compare the two. I do enjoy my time with Outer Worlds very much!
it's basically the same formula as Fallout 4 but in a humorous space setting with better gunplay. Or, alternatively Borderlands with a ton more talking and decisions and worse gunplay. In any case a lot of shooting and looting.
different builds are possible but not as significant different as in Borderlands. But since it's not a massively big game it didn't matter that much to me. After a couple of changes I kinda kept investing mostly in my handgun, my companions and personality skills to pass more skillchecks.
what I like: the stories the game tells! Be it the main quest line or quests for factions or your companions. All have a nice sense of humor to them without getting too silly. For example there is a dude in a wurst factory and you get sent there to end whatever he is doing there (hint: it's more than producing wurst from spacepigs). And there are a number of ways you can approach this: guns blazing, trying to sabotage the factory or sneak in and just kill the guy.
also: great soundtrack and overall sound design! The jingle that plays when you level up is just great!
also: while not a massive big game there are a lot of different places to go and explore. From abandoned settlements in some sort of desert to a big city where only rich people live and everything in between.
meh: so many drinks, lotions and food items that give you different boosts. Problem is that there are so many different items it's hard to keep track which one does what. I abandoned pretty much all of them and only kept Adreno (restores energy).
meh: fast travel can be annoying because most of the time you have to fast travel back to your ship and then from there select another planet/spacestation and then land your ship and then again fast travel to wherever you need to go to. So it's potentially three (not very long, though) loading screens if you need to go someplace different.
decisions do matter in quests but the general direction of the story is set.
- I accidentally bought the outer worlds mistaking it for the outer wilds. I beat it but was annoyed the whole time lol.
- Played Outer Worlds earlier this year, and I agree with your assessment. I did play Fallout New Vegas later on, and while New Vegas felt bigger, I think I enjoyed Outer Worlds a bit more. Mainly I think the humor hit more consistently FOR ME in OW, and I really think the humor kind of makes the game. But of course humor is very subjective, so I understand why a lot of people prefer FNV (not to mention it has a certain built-in cachet from all the other Fallout games).
  Anyway, I enjoyed it, I'm glad I played it through to the end, but I wouldn't play it again (e.g. to try different playstyles or run through with different companions). Glad you are also enjoying it!

Trying to beat the high alchemist in Noita, but I haven't been able to find a personal fireball thrower spell to stick on the high alchemist. I mostly end up dying anyways through normal progression

Starfield, BG3, Battlefield 2042. Whenever I actually get time to play any of them.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon! It's on steam sale for $12 reg version, but I bought the Hero Edition for $14. It has two extra job classes and something else I've forgotten. I'm 4 hours in and it's been a LOT of character and plot set up while just scratching the surface of their turn-based combat. The story is pretty good so far and full of Japan's particular brand of uncanny fringe humor that I'm expecting to snowball as time goes on.

Path of Exile, BG3, Last epoch...

Still playing BG3. About 120 hours in, still my first playthrough, but I think I'm getting close to the end. Wouldn't be surprised if it takes me another 15-20 hours to get there though. After that I need to decide if I want to play through again with different characters/choices, or do something else first (recently got Tiny Tina in a bundle and looking forward to playing that).

Street fighter v

Red Dead Redemption 2. Trying not to rush through the story and just explore. Can't get enough of this game.

Crab champions and classic wow
- Crab champions is great. I love Noisestorm's music.

I randomly got hit with the urge to play the ps2 mascot games. I've started picking them up for cheap to rip and load onto my Steam Deck. I've finished the first Ratchet and Clank and Sly Cooper games. Now started on Going Commando, with plans for the rest of both of their ps2 games and the Jak and Daxter trilogy. I've played all of Ratchet and Jak before but Sly is new to me, minus maybe half of his 4th game.
And still chugging through BG3 with my wife. It's been hard getting time for the longer play sessions it requires lately but we'll get through it eventually.

Upgraded my PC recently. I can now run Half-Life: Alyx, so I'm playing it. Best virtual reality game ever in my opinion.

Baldur's Gate PS5. Co-op.
Currently takes about 6 seconds to swap between characters. Every time. Every turn. Click, clunk, click, clunk.
Playing really thoroughly, we're up to 60 hours, level 7, and just starting Act 2.
It's bad design that part of Act 1 is behind the exact same prompt as the end of Act 1. I nearly missed a whole zone there, as well as an awesome weapon.

Finished first Quake recently (EXCELLENT game, still very much playable even after nearly 3 decades, definitely 9/10), and currently playing Perdition's Gate, it is kinda unofficial Doom 2 expansion released in 1996, and it had chance to be included in Final Doom (which are two additional official episodes for Doom 2), but ultimately it was decided against it.
Perdition's Gate is kinda interesting as it has some unique elements and I genuinely enjoyed it even though there are probably much better Mega WADs nowadays, later maps are too short though, and it looks like they have made them only to accomplish 32 maps total like in the original game. Secret maps are also... odd... definitely not bad, but.... just odd (and disappointing to some extent I guess), although I am not going to spoil them for you. Also the locations for secrets are also weird.
Interesting and odd is I think the best description for this Expansion/WAD.

I'm leaveling up all my familys' favorite ssx tricky characters cause otherwise we all play as Moby when I visit (the only character I play as normally). Mac, Kaori, JP. Probably won't be unlocking uber-boards on all of them, but we'll see

Demonologist. Early access. Still needs work, but it's fun

Playing Red dead redemption 1, now that they released it on the new PS
It really irked me to pay what they priced it at but I just didn't want to wait anymore

Finishing up Yakuza 6. Outside of that, I've been playing a mix of ESO and Guildwars 2, and enjoying some Rimworld, and Binding of Isaac. The last one basically never leaves my steam installation

RE1 HD remake (had played only about half of the GC one)
Such a wonderful game. For someone like me who grew up with the original, probably the best remake ever made. It's the same, but so much better.
Oh, and Lord of the Rings Battle for Middle Earth 2. Possibly still the best RTS ever made. Change my mind.

I just picked up Shadow of the Tomb Raider after not having touched a Tomb Raider game since PS1, and still never finishing them. It's pretty good! It feels a lot like God of War but with Lara Croft. Makes me want to pick up the previous iterations to get more of the story, since I'm a bit lost, but it's easy to fill in some of the blanks.

I stopped playing on console as my friends don't play anymore. So i went to BGA and i'm having a lot of fun playing King of Tokyo, District noir, Oriflamme and Conspiracy (abyss).

Trying to play wow classic hardcore with my group of friends. So far I'm the only one who hasn't died and it's frustrating trying to group up now since we're all wildly different levels.

I'm playing ghost recon breakpoint these days, fun game

Just quit bg3 because it was too buggy. I literally can't beat the final boss so fuck larian hard in that regard. They are getting a real free pass on bugs due to pent up DND demand.
Onto starfield which is probably going to be a mess too 😑
- I also quit it, we can share the downvotes lmao

64 comments