The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion
The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion
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.
Dirt 5, dirt rally 2.0. I must hate myself because it’s snowing and I drive a forklift outside
I dug out my old Logitech Driving Force GT from the closet and blew off the dust. I haven't gotten into a new (to me) racing game since Gran Turismo 5. The hardcore simulationist trend doesn't interest me, I miss proper career modes and I have just had some awful bad luck with games being broken. I just occasionally revisit some classics.
So after many enthusiastic recommendations I grabbed Forza Horizon 5. My first impressions were great. The intro was a lot of fun, with the big set pieces causing me to fight my wheel as it bucked after being long out of practice.
But this was not representative of the actual game. The vast majority of the content is filled by fairly normal races with long stretches driving to them, back and forth across the same stretches of empty open world. It's sort of like a Ubisoft game, but just cars.
This still could have been a good time. I like the driving model well enough, there is a large selection of cars and the environment, while bland, is certainly much less of an eyesore than what awaits me if I go back to play Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the umpteenth time.
I've got some criticisms of the actual racing (the way it generates opponents and their vehicles sucks, the tracks are boring), but what really killed it for me was this slowly creeping, eerie discomfort that built up in the back of my mind over hours until it became overwhelming. The vibes are fucked.
This is Fortnite, the racing game. It's full of cameos and tie ins with influencers. Brands are plastered everywhere. Microtransaction adverts in most menus. Everyone talks in this creepy, corporate approved "wholesomeness" and aware of how "epic" what they're doing is. There is a really uncomfortable tension between this huge festival that completely empties Mexico of pedestrians and how much the game fetishizes Americaness.
I wanted to scream during a sub-plot where you race a bunch of rich douche bags who are beefing with some guy at the festival. The game throws out shit like "they shouldn't be discriminated against for their money, they can't help the fact they are rich" and talks about fucking therapy. All the writing is this bad, I hate every single character in these inexplicably unskippable cutscenes.
The radio selection is dogshit too.
It's absurdtpo me how basically no racing game company realizes that one of the key points to have your game be fun is to have some kind of progress. Contemporary racing games literally just throw cars at you in hope to make it fun by constantly giving you new toys.
I get that this is a thing that sells to the masses who /want/ those shiny new toys, but man. Imagine if a big studio actually took the time to improve on the vintage NFS progression formula :(
I hate that a lot of the ones with a progression settle on XP to unlock tiers of cars rather than money and buying them too. I liked going to the used car dealer ship in Gran Turismo and seeing what I could afford.
Contemporary racing games literally just throw cars at you in hope to make it fun by constantly giving you new toys.
Forza Horizon 5 is bizarre for this. It has an acquisition system, but right after the intro you pick one of three cars, all new and not cheap. Then you get a custom rally car from the next race. A bunch of unlocks are going to give even you more cars afterwards, and will keep doing so regularly.
Like hang on, maybe let me work up from one of your cheap, older cars first and work my way up?
But this is also the game that unironically calls you "superstar" from the jump and sucks you off constantly.
We're late but excited to roll out our dedicated Ark server! The wife and I are enjoying taming dinos and making thatch huts.
Ark is so good! Do you have any adjusted collection rates or mods? I have been looking for another friendly community server to get back into the game. I have about 2k hours on steam in Ark, but I only play on chill servers with nice people, and usually we have to form those ourselves
We're definitely enjoying it!
We're also barely digging into any wiki or walkthrough to keep experience super green and just learning on the fly. I'm sure we'll start looking stuff up soon enough but for now we are woefully ignorant. No mods yet.
I'm certainly considering opening up ports if the kids start playing with us (while they're at the other parents house), but for now I'm only running the server while we're playing.
Any tips or tricks for the early game?
Roboquest! It's a combination of DOOM and Borderlands, but in roguelike form. Super smooth gameplay, well optimized, and it looks great.
Shame that it's only 2 players!
I olayed that as well. Really fun. When i started i thought that it would be a nice way to kill an hour or two. Suddenly it was 5 hours later and 3 in the morning. Have you played crab champions? Really smooth gameplay and like roboquest on crack
Baldurs gate 3 on my steam deck. Great game so far though I wish it ran a bit smoother on the deck. Maybe I'll try to tweak it some more.
I've played a few hours now of BG3 and i have a hard time getting into it.
I never played a D&D game in my life but want to give this a try.
I'm just so clueless what to do with classes, jobs, etcetera.
But the game looks great and story is interesting so I'm eager to see how it plays out.
in my experience, you can get pretty smooth gameplay at the cost of graphics, or pretty decent graphics at the cost of smoothness and fps.
I have mine set to pretty ok-ish settings for both. but then I tend to swap between handheld and docked for most games. so I'm kinda used to the graphics by now.
hope you find a setup you like <3
I had okish graphics at 45fps, dropped it down to 30 and it feels overall better now
I've played a few hours now of BG3 and i have a hard time getting into it.
I never played a D&D game in my life but want to give this a try.
I'm just so clueless what to do with classes, jobs, etcetera.
But the game looks great and story is interesting so I'm eager to see how it plays out.
I'm just so clueless what to do with classes, jobs, etcetera.
Don't worry about trying to pick the "best" or "strongest" thing, just do the thing that sounds fun. There are different ways of handling things so you don't have to worry about doing it the "right" way, just pick something that works for you and go with it. If you really want you can worry about maximizing your build or playing a different class in a second run.
Also tried getting into it. I put ~10 hours in but I just played less and less every day until I stopped entirely. One thing I never really got used to was the camera controls for example.
But I also played alone, so I think this game is more fun with friends.
Been playing a lot of Valheim and Trailmakers this week to get myself in the mindset for the upcoming Enshrouded EA release
Just tried the portal: revolution. Obviously missing GLaDOS' voice, but the puzzle are neat so far.
Been playing this too, it’s great.
Unfortunately am hitting some hard lockups in the last chapter or two on Deck so have put it down for now - seems to be a common issue based on some forum posts and ProtonDB.
I played through Portal Reloaded just before this which was excellent too, the puzzles are SUPER hard though, way harder than Revolution.
Guitar and a bit of ukulele since a few months
lots of pokemon here! I've got a randomized version of Black on my phone, trying to shiny dex Moon and am slowly going thru the story of Violet
Have you played Pokemon Unbound? Always hearing good things about that one but never tried myself
Enderal. Went in blind. So far, lots of screaming and running from spiders when my mana runs out. Story and dialog actually has some meat, so am enjoying.
I've been playing some Terraria recently with friends. I still don't really have too much of an idea what I am doing to be honest. Seems like a game that would be hard to beat without the wiki. It is fun though since I have some help, hope I can continue learning.
I've tried it a few times and I have no idea what I'm doing. It seems like a fun game but I'm overwhelmed with everything it's got to offer.
Think I'm going to use a beginners guide the next time.
The wiki is your best friend. When we started we were clueless but it really does a good job of hooking you in. Keep giving it time and you will enjoy it! Eventually it will start to click.
I am still getting through Red Dead 2, just got back into it recently. Playing some Red Dead Online with a buddy too. Roleplaying an outlaw is loads of fun!
Have been playing and just finished Geodepths. Really nice indie dev first person mining, smelting, resource gathering on an alien planet type of game. Wish it had lasted longer to be honest.
Way too much World of Warships
(With Factorio in the background) I'm having a lot of fun with Against the Storm. Excited to play the 1.1 update that arrived today!
Age of Wonders 4! So good. The the art, the lore, the game play, the everything.
God of War: Ragnarok. I'm loving it, about 35 hours in so far and I think I'm getting near the end? But I've also skipped a lot of side quests. I'm playing on the second hardest difficulty, but I have had to lower it twice for (optional) boss fights. Some of the optional bosses are ridiculously challenging, which is the point, but after 30 deaths I usually decide I'd have more fun just lowering the difficulty and getting it over with.
Just picked up a copy of Like a Dragon: Ishin from my library. Hoping to have some fun there.
Also, I got Worldless but haven't played it yet. It looks really fun.
Football Manager 2024
I wouldn't even call myself a football fan but the management part if very fun. Currently in the 6th tier and working on promotion.
Circuit Superstars
I bought the Switch Version so I can just pick up and play whenever and so far it is very good. It's a nice mix of arcade racing with some realistic parts like pit stops and tyre wear. Hopefully online racing is still populated so I can give that a go.
Just started Lost Odyssey. I'd heard it was like a Final Fantasy game but I don't think I was prepared for just how much Final Fantasy X DNA is in the game. Mostly enjoying so far.
Black Ops III Zombies, Jedi Fallen Order, Spiral Knights.
I‘m having trouble remembering all the convoluted stuff in zombies to be able to progress through the maps, but it‘s fun af!
Playing Metro 2033 Redux at the moment, finally got my new gaming PC and Metro Exodus with full Ray Tracing has been on my radar but wanted to start from the beginning since I haven't played this series before. You can clearly tell it's made by ex S.T.A.L.K.ER. devs and sometimes you get weird almost deja vu, like the guitar playing around camp fires. Overall the setting and atmosphere is really cool. The lore seems interesting but the actual plot hasn't been stellar so far. Gunplay is okay.
Just finished the Trolley Combat mission, and it's been a hot minute since I played a level in a game that bad and unfun. Here's hoping the final stretch is better.
Re4 remake. Pretty good so far, but Ashley is such a pain.
They made her significantly less of a pain in the remake. And they kept they that you can hide her or she just stays out of the way in a lot of fights. And doesnt have a health bar. Big improvements comparatively in my opinion.
I’m addicted to Grand Turismo 7 right now. I don’t play anything else which is rare with me. I even got to the point where I bought PS VR2 just for this game.
I have yet to pick up a PS5, but when I do, GT7 is the first game I’m picking up! What are you enjoying the most from it?
It’s the sense of speed and degree of realism odd higher than in Forza games. GT Sophy AI is also amazing. It adds personalities to the AI cars so they no longer follow predefined lines but they block, attack, crash or spin from too much throttle.
Across The Obelisk, love me a roguelike deck builder
Last night I finished the last of us 1 remastered. It was my first time playing the game and enjoyed very much. Ellie is such a badass.
Will return to it soon and see if I can get platinum for it.
Grinding levels in Fortnite and annoy people with my Peter Griffin and "bird is the word" song and dance.
Also playing some pinball FX and dead cells.
Baldurs Gate 3 with two other buddies. So many memories. Looking forward to another play through so I can see all of the things the we didn't get to. And then go again but evil.
Play a few turns off Age of Wonders 4 while working.
And when I'm in the mood and have the patience, Pathfinder wrath of the righteous and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
I have trouble focusing.
Act 2 of Cyberpunk 2077. Games crashed like 3 times so far.
That also happened to me in the first 10hours,and then never again.
I am so stupidly addicted to Vampire Survivors right now.
That was my first "i cant believe how fun this is" in a while. And all the DLC is cheap and adds a good chunk to the game for how simple it all is. And addictive.
Fallout 4! I'm playing on Survival mode for the first time and having a lot of fun. I have a ton of mods installed too, but nothing to make it easier really lol
I’ve found that mods like iHUD, removing the cash register sound for XP, directional pipboy light, flashlights, darker nights, and storms (these can be set to be just visual rather that radiation inducing) all help make the game more immersive without dramatically changing the difficulty.
I do enjoy the health rebalancer which removes scaling health and instead makes some enemies baseline tougher and some weaker. IIRC it also makes headshots on humans instant death. No more blasting away at some scaled raider as they just keep attacking.
Recostuming the Minute Men in something closer to surplus military clothes makes them instantly less lame.
Also replacing all the pipe guns with weapon packs of real world handguns and machinepistols is for me nessesary, as I do not at all enjoy the FO4 pipegun designs.
Finally, the backyard bunkers mod allows a bomb shelter with a hatch you can place inside a settlement. Going inside moves you to a private space. NPCs won’t barge in and it’s a safe place to store extra gear.
Replacing pipe guns and re-clothing the minutemen sound like good ideas! I'll have to look into those
say hello to Preston for me,
I started playing Pikmin 4 this week. The opening tutorial was pretty slow but once that was done and the game opened up I have started to enjoy it. First time playing a Pikmin game so wasn't too sure if it would be something I'd like but looking good so far!
Actually finished my first run of Baldurs gate after leaving it in act 3 over the holidays. Picked up Disco Elysium to give a bit of a break while I decide whether to do a second run or not
Go evil next time, you get some different companions and stories. How's Disco?
Been playing Sons of the Forest. Visually stunning, this is good looking game. I like how it can be played as a shooter or an adventure or base building or combination of all three. The map is huge, backstory mysterious and the atmosphere is incredibly immersive, particularly in the caves which are creepy AF.
How does it compare with the original Forest? I liked that game, but after you explore all of the caves there's not much to do. Building is fun, but I think some stronger enemies were needed.
It's an improvement. The enemies continually increase in strength and number. More weapons and the map is bigger. I'm avoiding using the cheat maps for the most part and it feels like it would take a very long time to complete. I'm playing it on normal difficulty.
The game is still in beta for another month and building options are somewhat limited, which I assume will be expanded. If you liked the original, this one makes a lot of sense.
I'm away from my PC/consoles for the next year but I've been all over Polytopia on mobile. Easy to learn hard to master. Very complex little game that I can play through a few times a day with lots of replayability.
I'm getting back into battletech recently. The story is decent, and I just love the mechanics. I just got lucky with an AC20+++ (giant canon, the +++ means improved stats). I put it on a medium mech (wolverine), which meant no room for anything else except almmo and armor. But it doesn't matter, it goes BOOM. Very boom.
Just got RPCS3 set up on my laptop and now I just gotta see if my laptop can handle it or not. If not, I'm continuing to stick to solitaire and mahjong on it for a while.
Otherwise, I've just been addicted to both Backpack Hero and Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate. Though, I'm less inclined to play Backpack Hero since my story mode save got wiped after I went to the main menu after losing a run.
Cyberpunk 2077,insanely good game
I'm a little late to the game, but I started playing Breath of the Wild on Ryujinx (I learned in December that my secondhand Switch is jailbreakable). And now I see why so many people loved it.
It also gave me strong Elden Ring vibes when gliding through the world, so I see where ER got its inspiration.It has me excite to play TotK right after.
Just finished Uncharted 4 for the 2nd time. Now starting Uncharted the Lost Legacy.
I would have been playing baldurs gate 3 with my buddy who is on vacation and has only his mac book, but because of the differing versions, because mac version is behind by two weeks, and steam needing to have the up to date version of the game, we can't...
Finished up Greedfall on Sunday, just in time to get my hands on Sovereign Syndicate (launched on Monday). So far, so good.
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. Been in an SF6 slump so changing it up has been refreshing. Not super into the anime style of it but the gameplay is incredibly fun. Its also a really well put together game with a good single player and a Fall Guys rip off thats also really fun.
Also old school runescape because the grind never ends.
Warframe has been consuming basically all of my game time. It took a long time of playing off and on for it to really click with me like it has now where Ive stuck with it. I'm actually a bit glad though because it's left this ocean of different things in the game I can do and it's been great.
Total war Warhammer 3, been playing with a group of 6 in a campaign. Mainly just been doing beastmen and empire. But been getting into some DLC races so they've been a lot more challenging.
Ravenswatch is a really fun roguelike that's great solo, but the multiplayer is also really fun. Every character gives you a totally unique gameplay so it doesn't get boring with time. I'm really excited to see what the game will look like when it's released, but for an early access game it's great and doesn't suffer from lack of content because it's challenging and has a nice variety of enemies so if somebody is on the fence about it, I recommend trying it out.
Been working on Demon's Souls remake. I bought the original when it first came out but never finished it. In fact, I didn't even like it. I've come around to loving souls games and Bluepoint has done a FANTASTIC job with DS, it feels so good to play compared to the original which had a really floaty feel that I hate. I really hope they get to remaster Bloodborne in the future, I haven't played that one at all.
still playing https://www.pathofexile.com/