The currently playing and random game thoughts thread (Jan 16 to Jan 22)

[ZedClampet]

Martin Luther King Jr edition

Been playing God of War, although I got frustrated with a puzzle and quit (temporarily) just a few minutes ago. Great game. Parts are a little hard for me to navigate because I'm directionally challenged in games, but I'm having a blast anyway.

Have finished a co-op and a solo campaign in Total War Troy, and am looking to change heroes and dive back in. In my solo game, I got a pop-up I've never seen in a Total War game before that told me I should up the difficulty. I ignored it because I was having fun cleaning up the map.

 

[ZedClampet]

Random thought child brag: Congrats to @GuidoTheGamer who is going to the state finals in three different engineering categories and also in board game design. The wife is proud of his biomedical engineering entry, but I'm liking that board game, myself

 

[Brian Boru]

Attaboy @GuidoTheGamer, that's impressive—unless you're in Wyoming or Vermont, of course

So it's obvious where the game board gene came from. Great to deduce your mom put some brains in the family

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Grats Guido!

I'm still tempted by God Of War but Dying Light 2 is due 2nd February. I'm also away at the end of the month for a week, so its almost certainly gonna be a summer game for me. Still finishing up Cyberpunk2077, got to the last main quest mission and decided to clear up some of the side quests too. The story is just OK, but the game is decent fun, though still more than a bit janky.

Also just started another Battle Brothers campaign, bumped up the difficulty and went back to ironman. It'll end in tears no doubt, but its going OK at the moment.

 

[Pifanjr]

My daughter was just picked up by my mother, my wife is still asleep and I'm only working a half day today, so I'm going to play a bit of Warhammer 2 now.

 

[ZedClampet]

My daughter was just picked up by my mother, my wife is still asleep and I'm only working a half day today, so I'm going to play a bit of Warhammer 2 now.

Time to do a Last Defenders Vortex campaign and Dread Saurian your way to a cakewalk victory. Or maybe do a Chaos campaign. I love their infantry.

 

[Pifanjr]

Time to do a Last Defenders Vortex campaign and Dread Saurian your way to a cakewalk victory. Or maybe do a Chaos campaign. I love their infantry.

I continued my Repanse campaign and took a few more settlements from Settra. I'm only half way though of the victory condition of 2000 chivalry though and I'm almost out of Settra. There's a few settlements of Clan Mors on the other side of the mountain, but it seems I'll have to set sail to find enough enemies to get the chivalry I need. Either that or go to war with the lizardmen, but I'd rather not. They're not very good at being trampled.

I'll probably do a Vampire Coast campaign after this, as it's the only faction I have bought all DLC for that I haven't played a Vortex campaign with. I don't have a lot of money to spend right now as we're going to be moving in a few weeks, so even considering all the DLC will probably go on sale when Warhammer 3 releases I'll probably refrain from buying any.

 

[Withywarlock]

I'm giving Halo: Infinite's multiplayer a try. It's OK, it's more Halo, if a bit confusing with all the new weapons I've not touched it since 3: ODST. I might be tempted to buy the Battle Pass as - at the time of writing this - there's 105 days left to get to tier 100. And I like how you actually know how much XP there is, unlike Call of Duty where it's just numbers. I've come to learn time is the biggest factor for the Warzone & Co. XP gain.

 

[ZedClampet]

Attaboy @GuidoTheGamer, that's impressive—unless you're in Wyoming or Vermont, of course

So it's obvious where the game board gene came from. Great to deduce your mom put some brains in the family

My dad's brains skipped a generation. He has a lot of patents, some of which you may use every day. He's the reason you can drink out of plastic bottles. He invented the additive that prevents plastic from leaching out into your drink. He also invented an additive that made plastic much stronger. All those trashy street signs like the golden arches were not possible before. His other "famous" invention was the precursor to Lumenal (used by law enforcement), which he created while in the military.

My personal contribution to the world has mostly been a rambling series of complaints, but my son may well continue on where his grandpa left off.

Edited to say that my brother also missed the brains. He's an actor. He just plays bit parts on television, usually on ID Channel or Discovery (a lot of those shows are filmed here in Knoxville, TN) and he has a regular gig playing the sheriff in a huge dinner theater in the Smokey Mountains area (big tourist draw). It's kind of like Dixie Stampede if you've ever heard of that.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

My dad's brains skipped a generation. He has a lot of patents, some of which you may use every day. He's the reason you can drink out of plastic bottles. He invented the additive that prevents plastic from leaching out into your drink. He also invented an additive that made plastic much stronger. All those trashy street signs like the golden arches were not possible before. His other "famous" invention was the precursor to Lumenal (used by law enforcement), which he created while in the military.

My personal contribution to the world has mostly been a rambling series of complaints, but my son may well continue on where his grandpa left off.

Edited to say that my brother also missed the brains. He's an actor. He just plays bit parts on television, usually on ID Channel or Discovery (a lot of those shows are filmed here in Knoxville, TN) and he has a regular gig playing the sheriff in a huge dinner theater in the Smokey Mountains area (big tourist draw). It's kind of like Dixie Stampede if you've ever heard of that.

That's really awesome about your dad's accomplishments.

We go through Knoxville a lot when we vacation in Gatlinburg or Carolina Beach. A few years ago, my wife and I went to the very last season of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses in Knoxville. The symphony hall there is kind of uncomfortable for a tall person like me, but it was an amazing experience.

 

[Ryzengang]

Most of my time recently has been in Trails in the Sky. Really an excellent game and my favorite JRPG so far. The characters are fantastic and I'm really enjoying the story. Currently on the final chapter so still a bit to go. I already bought the second chapter so I'll probably be hopping into that after I finish. I've also been playing Borderlands 3, which has been excellent and I imagine I'll be returning to it for quite some time. I do have God of War downloaded and ready to go but I don't want to start it just yet.

 

[ZedClampet]

Just for completion purposes I have another brother who got a few of the brain cells. He's a software developer.

In other news, Total War Troy can be absolutely relentless when you are playing as Achilles. No other factions really like him. I'm at war with so many people.

Played some more God of War today. Still enjoying it.

 

[Pifanjr]

I just got an email from my IT department asking me to remove all gaming related software from my work laptop. I wonder what triggered that, as I've been using it to play games pretty much since I started over 2 years ago.

 

[Brian Boru]

I wonder what triggered that

Someone probably downloaded a game which had a malware payload. Of course, the new policy has to be 'fair', so non-idiots get to suffer the consequences too.

 

[Pifanjr]

Someone probably downloaded a game which had a malware payload. Of course, the new policy has to be 'fair', so non-idiots get to suffer the consequences too.

I suspect it's either that or they decided to implement new rules since everyone's working from home. Though there is a chance it's mandatory for some certificate they're trying to get as well, as my company does do work in the medical field.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm getting stupidly ethical and emotional in my solo Troy game. The campaign is over, and I decided I wanted to take over the entire map, but that involves attacking factions that have supported me from the beginning. I know it's dumb, but I feel seriously conflicted about doing that. I think I'm just going to start a new campaign.

@Pifanjr if you are used to TWW2, you'd be surprised at how annoyingly aggressive AI factions are in Troy. When they declare war on you, as they do quite frequently, they damn well mean they want war. It's not like TWW2 where someone on the the other side of the map declares war, but you never actually see them. In Troy, if someone declares war, that means they have ships on the way at the very least.

The AI is very different in Troy, both on the strategic map and especially on the battlefield, where it is much improved. I wonder how much of this will be in Warhammer 3? I noticed while modding there are a bunch of Warhammer 2 files mixed in with the Troy files. I don't know if this is an indication that each one is building off the other and whether that would include Warhammer 3 or not.

 

[Ryzengang]

Just a morning thought looking at twitter: man, Microsoft acquiring Activision-Blizzard is absolutely wild.. It'll be interesting to follow to see how things get shaken up.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm getting stupidly ethical and emotional in my solo Troy game. The campaign is over, and I decided I wanted to take over the entire map, but that involves attacking factions that have supported me from the beginning. I know it's dumb, but I feel seriously conflicted about doing that. I think I'm just going to start a new campaign.

It would be a lot easier in my current campaign if I just destroyed the Dwarfs in the mountains near my starting position so I can complete my province, but they've been good allies and the Dwarfs are generally on good terms with Brettonia.

I prefer roleplaying the faction I'm playing. So as Brettonia, that means not declaring war against order factions unless necessary.

@Pifanjr if you are used to TWW2, you'd be surprised at how annoyingly aggressive AI factions are in Troy. When they declare war on you, as they do quite frequently, they damn well mean they want war. It's not like TWW2 where someone on the the other side of the map declares war, but you never actually see them. In Troy, if someone declares war, that means they have ships on the way at the very least.

The AI is very different in Troy, both on the strategic map and especially on the battlefield, where it is much improved. I wonder how much of this will be in Warhammer 3? I noticed while modding there are a bunch of Warhammer 2 files mixed in with the Troy files. I don't know if this is an indication that each one is building off the other and whether that would include Warhammer 3 or not.

From what I understand, Troy is made with the same engine as Warhammer 3 and a bunch of the features have been ported in some way to Warhammer 3. Better campaign and battle AI is an exciting prospect, as that is probably one of the weakest aspects of Warhammer 2.

Microsoft acquiring Activision-Blizzard

Satya Nadella says the deal “will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms”

Yuck.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Just a morning thought looking at twitter: man, Microsoft acquiring Activision-Blizzard is absolutely wild.. It'll be interesting to follow to see how things get shaken up.

Unbelievable. Everything owned by Tencent and Microsoft in the end.

 

[Brian Boru]

attacking factions that have supported me from the beginning. I know it's dumb, but I feel seriously conflicted about doing that

Oh yeah, I'm the same. That's why in Civ4 I avoided the Obliterate Everyone victory condition, and went for Domination if I was throwing my weight around.

RTSs are easier that way, since everyone's your enemy from the start

 

[Pifanjr]

Oh yeah, I'm the same. That's why in Civ4 I avoided the Obliterate Everyone victory condition, and went for Domination if I was throwing my weight around.

RTSs are easier that way, since everyone's your enemy from the start

Age of Empires allowed you to make friends with the computer players, which was pretty neat.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

My thought today is, I wish I hadnt selected the 'Quit and retire' option instead of 'Save and quit' on my Iron man Battle Brothers save that was going so well. 20 hours gone, and the early game is the hardest part by far.

 

[Pifanjr]

My thought today is, I wish I hadnt selected the 'Quit and retire' option instead of 'Save and quit' on my Iron man Battle Brothers save that was going so well. 20 hours gone, and the early game is the hardest part by far.

My condolences to you.

I need a sad "like" emoji for this post.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

My thought today is, I wish I hadnt selected the 'Quit and retire' option instead of 'Save and quit' on my Iron man Battle Brothers save that was going so well. 20 hours gone, and the early game is the hardest part by far.

I don't know anything about that game, but why in the world would they even give you that option?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I don't know anything about that game, but why in the world would they even give you that option?

I guess its a roleplaying thing, theres an achievement for retiring a company over a certain number of days old. the game goes on forever otherwise afaik.

I think in a battle the option is in a different place to when you quit from the world map. You dont always get to see exactly what youre going to fight before you start, and when the battle loaded I realized I dont have time for this one at the moment and noped out.

Dont usually quit from the battle screen and so didnt really pay attention until I was at the menu and it had deleted my save already. Bad bit of menu design for sure.