The currently playing and random game thoughts thread (Jan 2 to Jan 8)

[ZedClampet]

Well, it's back to work for me this week. I usually game a little early in the morning and then in the evenings some. Usually I game with my son at night, so we'll probably be continuing our A Total War Saga: Troy game. We're maybe 60 turns in and nowhere near the end. I'm about to go to war with a faction I don't want war with just to move the game along. They are basically the same rank as I am, so it's a little stressful. I have a territory that's a little spread out and not that many armies.

I do have a single player campaign going. I'm playing Achilles, and he's portrayed as bipolar, which is very hard to handle. If you don't do things the way he wants, he gets more and more furious, which then causes random events you have to respond to. Most of the time, none of the options are good. During one turn the other night I had four factions declare war on me. This made Achilles depressed and caused more events. I've learned how to handle him a little better now, though.

 

[Johnway]

I was hoping to get my final lootbox from path of exile but the delirium everywhere event has been nothing short of a bust. Monsters simply do way too much damage and have far too high resistance. So its a crapshoot sometimes you survive other times the delirium is so thick that the monsters have close to 100% deal more damage and resistance to damage. heres hoping that GGG fixes it or sod it, i'll just not bother with trying to get the last lootbox. I didn't get hideout parts and i even got some cosmetics so i've come out a winner in my books.

besides that still playing shadow of war. 20 hours in and it feels far too repetitive now. atm its hovering around 7/10 imo. But we'll reserve judgement until the end.

 

[Frindis]

Assassin's Creed Origins for the first time as I got it for a good deal on Epic Games. The story is supposedly one of the best, which is one of the reasons I'm buying it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Assassin's Creed Origins for the first time as I got it for a good deal on Epic Games. The story is supposedly one of the best, which is one of the reasons I'm buying it.

I need to go back and finish that. It's a good game, but I tend to burn out on Ubisoft games after awhile. I loved the setting and the combat was better than your typical AC game. The story was pretty good. Some of the side quests had interesting/funny stories as well, although Ubisoft puts way too many low effort side quests in just as padding.

Personally, I could do without all the padding. If you aren't going to make a great side quest, then don't make one at all. Let the game be 30 hours instead of 60.

One thing that really annoyed me at the beginning location of the game was how every time you were spotted by a guard anywhere, no matter where you were or what you were doing, it ended up in a fight with reinforcements called. After your first mission, you couldn't even just walk down the darn street without getting in a fight. But if I remember correctly, that was just the first area. After you leave that initial city, it calms down a lot.

One word of warning is that the game doesn't scale to your level, so you kind of want to stick to the plan. Early in the game I saw the pyramids rising up in the distance and decided to go have a look. I made it to them without incident, but there were some hyenas there. When I first saw them I wasn't worried because I'd already killed a bunch of hyenas, but these basically one shot me.

 

[Zloth]

30 instead of 60!? I spent 240 in Odyssey!

Oh, that reminds me, I put some of my stats in on the HowLongToBeat site: ZlothZloth's Stats | HowLongToBeat

Still have quite a few more games to put in.

 

[ZedClampet]

30 instead of 60!? I spent 240 in Odyssey!

Jiminy Cricket! What the heck were you doing?

 

[DXCHASE]

Well, I received a grant (money that you dont have to pay back) that I had written to/applied for going back to school at my age, so im pretty happy about that. Cannabis is becoming a serious industry! lol, well i also peppered in COVID-19 problems ive had to deal with but, its nice to have costs of the semester covered. This also helps me complete my new PC build, which im excited for, but i might just hold out until i can get some DDR5 before i finish building it.

So as for gaming, ive been playing this game called Beyond The Wire. The game has about ~100 players and has been in early access for over a year now by a small independent studio. I have only recently gotten into it, its a WW1 MP shooter. I loved Battlefield 1 and the whole WW1 aesthetic so i picked it up with my latest Humble Bundle Choice purchase of mine and i have been having fun with it. Its very janky, clunky controls and other stuff I can complain about, but it has its moments of fun WW1 trench warfare, a fun melee system and a lot of different companies to be apart of. They even have canadian forces!

 

[ZedClampet]

They even have canadian interpretive dance teams!

FIFY

Are there enough players to get matches made? Sounds kind of fun. Might gift my copy to my son.

And congrats on the grant! Don't smoke all that extra money, Cheech.

 

[Zloth]

Jiminy Cricket! What the heck were you doing?

Yeah, completionists are taking 100 hours less. I left it with 8 achievements waiting. Still, I did the vast majority of quests. Plus, I do tend to stop and take in the sights. Or even just setting a marker on the other side of the world and letting my horse drive there while I gawk at the landscape. Double-plus, I tend to do games at harder difficulty, which means getting kilt and having to re-do things... kinda often.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've reached the 4th chapter of Loop Hero today, after which I quit the game because I didn't feel like starting yet another expedition. The game is a bit too grindy, making you redo the previous chapters a bunch of times to get the resources to upgrade your camp to get a few more bonuses that'll help you survive the next chapter. It just feels like there's a bit too much padding, I'm ready for the game to be done soon. Which is a bit of a shame, as the world building is pretty good, but you see too little of that in between all the grinding.

 

[Frindis]

@ZedClampet Thanks for the heads up

 

[ZedClampet]

I got invited to a game of 7 Days to Die, which is the poster child of dumb game logic. I like the game, but there is so much eye rolling. For instance, you are supposed to be scavenging everything. So I'm wandering through a building and it's too dark to see. I come across a working flashlight (it's turned on) and the game won't let me pick it up, even though flashlights are something you can buy or craft and use. But the worst part is the cooking. I killed a couple of chickens and got some raw meat, and I had found some potatoes and eggs. So what could I cook? Nothing. I need to find the recipe for Chicken Marsala or something before I starve to death.

And then I died because I was trying to open a locked door and a zombie on the other side of the closed door punched me through the still intact door. Hey, it's only been in early access for 8 years. What more do you want?

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

Started playing DOOM Eternal couple of days ago. Let's just say my first contact ended with "huh, it's 6 AM already?". IT'S SO GOOOOD.

The level of polish, design of everything, ugh so good. Having a blast playing on hard-ish difficulty (can't remember which one exactly I took lol, first time meeting Marauder wrecked my ass). And I love exploring and finding all those secrets and easter eggs like dopefish.

 

[COLGeek]

Started playing DOOM Eternal couple of days ago. Let's just say my first contact ended with "huh, it's 6 AM already?". IT'S SO GOOOOD.

The level of polish, design of everything, ugh so good. Having a blast playing on hard-ish difficulty (can't remember which one exactly I took lol, first time meeting Marauder wrecked my ass). And I love exploring and finding all those secrets and easter eggs like dopefish.

I liked the game as well, except for all the parkour stuff. Not my bag, The rest of it was a blast.

 

[Brian Boru]

Anyone try Lemnis Gate ?
Premise seems really innovative and possibly great fun.

 

[ZedClampet]

Anyone try Lemnis Gate ?
Premise seems really innovative and possibly great fun.

It does seem different from your average PvP stuff. Unfortunately, it also looks like it's pretty dead. Hardly any user reviews and I saw complaints about waiting time in the forums. A real shame. Unless you are EA or Activision, making these FPS competitive games is a real crap shoot, and it seems like they mostly either fail or settle in with a small but dedicated fan base. Hopefully, this will be the latter case. Of course, you have to sell those few people a lot of hats to keep the servers running.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Assassin's Creed Origins for the first time as I got it for a good deal on Epic Games. The story is supposedly one of the best, which is one of the reasons I'm buying it.

I have Origins, but I've only played like an hour or two of it. I need to pull it back out sometime. So far, Black Flag is my favorite AC game. I love the pirate ship setting.

But man, I don't know when I'll be able to play Origins. I don't have a lot of gaming time. Right now, I'm playing Dishonored 2. After that, I'll probably be tied up with Rise of TR and Shadow of TR soon because, darn it, Epic had them for free. Lol. Too many games to play, and not enough time.

 

[ZedClampet]

Random thought for the day: Even though the Desert Dunes is listed as the 4th starting location in Satisfactory, it is actually the easiest location. Most players think it must be the hardest starter area because it is listed last. Actually, it's listed last simply because it was added as a starting location some time after the first three. It is actually the most resource rich area in the game, the easiest to build in, and enables vast numbers of coal generators to be built.

 

[Mazer]

Random thought for the day: Even though the Desert Dunes is listed as the 4th starting location in Satisfactory, it is actually the easiest location. Most players think it must be the hardest starter area because it is listed last. Actually, it's listed last simply because it was added as a starting location some time after the first three. It is actually the most resource rich area in the game, the easiest to build in, and enables vast numbers of coal generators to be built.

This is useful info for me. I've only started two games in Satisfactory, the first was two updates ago and started in the first location, and the second was started and abandoned shortly before Update 5 in the second location which just never grabbed me, might have to try out these dunes.

I'm also thinking of modding out the hostile wildlife, Satisfactory is one of my go-to podcast games and without audio most sessions involve repeatedly having the piss scared out of my by those big lizardy lion things slamming into me from behind while I'm smelling the flowers. Can you recommend any other QoL mods?

 

[Brian Boru]

Slipways looks like a really nice indie 3X game—there's no eXterminate.

Slipways on Steam

Weave isolated planets into a vast trade empire. Hatch plans. Research game-breaking technologies. Still be done in time for lunch. Enjoy the endless possibilities of a space grand strategy game in 60 minutes flat.

store.steampowered.com

Dev continues to update it, which is a good sign. It's essentially a space economy and trading game, where the objective is to get each planet what it wants and thereby level up.

Each play is different due to procedurally generated map, and there are 5 alien races in the picture also. Mostly a sandbox game, but there's a leaderboard mode and also a campaign was added recently.

 

[Pifanjr]

I decided to give up on Loop Hero for now, not sure I'll get back to it. I tried Aztez, which looks fun, but it doesn't work very well on a keyboard and my wife is using our controller (we have another one, but I'm not sure where it is).

So then I tried Halcyon 6, which seems interesting so far, but it also bombards you with a ton of information without really giving you the information to parse any of it. It seems like the type of game you need to restart a few times as you learn more and realize you've been doing it wrong. I've been having fun with it so far though.

My wife also decided she wanted to try Minecraft, so I spend some time figuring out which version to use, what our passwords were and getting everything downloaded, getting a mod for controller support for my wife and then I couldn't connect to my wife's game, so we gave up and played some Stardew Valley with one of our friends until another friend managed to set up a server. I haven't played in a few years, so there's a lot of new content to discover.

 

[Brian Boru]

my wife is using our controller

…

she wanted to try Minecraft

Anyone else sensing this girl is on a slippery slope?

Should we warn him?

 

[ZedClampet]

This is useful info for me. I've only started two games in Satisfactory, the first was two updates ago and started in the first location, and the second was started and abandoned shortly before Update 5 in the second location which just never grabbed me, might have to try out these dunes.

I'm also thinking of modding out the hostile wildlife, Satisfactory is one of my go-to podcast games and without audio most sessions involve repeatedly having the piss scared out of my by those big lizardy lion things slamming into me from behind while I'm smelling the flowers. Can you recommend any other QoL mods?

For QoL mods, you might consider:
Passive Mode-no enemies or poison gasses
PermaDay-no night time. You can always see!
No Fall Damage
Additional 300 Slots Inventory
Fast Forward-just waiting for things to craft for the space elevator? speed up time
Structural Solutions-gives you a bunch of new walls and foundations to play with.
More Decorations-if you are into that. gives a ton of things to place around
Full Health Regeneration - regenerates health over time


If you want to get a little cheaty or play in creative mode there's always these:
Progressive Trains and Drones - get them earlier in the game. Also, drones don't require the insane end-of-game recipe for batteries, which makes them kind of useless. Unfortunately, they still can't carry much.
OR
DI Transportation - Improved trains and drones with a new battery recipe for drones, and drones can carry about 4X as much. Can't unlock until tier 6, but at least you'd get some use out of them.
Advanced Logistics - An earlier unlock of smart splitters that allows you to determine how many items go which directions (for instance, you could send 3 items to the middle conveyor and one item to the left conveyor)
Just Fly (lets you fly)
Refined Power - Adds things like solar power and wind turbines. But it also adds a ridiculous Dyson Sphere.
Faster Manual Crafting (speeds up the crafting bench)
Storage Teleporter (use this to teleport items from one area of your factory to another. I use it some playthroughs to create a warehouse without having to run conveyors there for everything.)
Fluid Sink and More (gives you a pipe end that dumps excess water, or any other fluid. It makes aluminum and nuclear processing easier. You might want to play at least once without it to get the intended challenge. Also gives you a water drill so that you can drill for water anywhere. That's a huge cheat because running pipes around and having to contend with gravity is a big part of the fluids update. Again, that one might be better just for a relaxing second playthrough)
Craftable Slugs (yep, you'll be able to overclock basically everything--you'll need a lot more power though)
Geothermal MK0 (an energy cheat. gives you a 10000 megawatt geothermal power plant. Again, that completely changes the game and may be better for a second playthrough, but if you are playing with craftable slugs, you might want to consider it)
Infinite Storage Container
Item Spawner (this is the creative mod)
Magic Splitter-Takes stuff off a conveyor belt and distributes it to any machine that needs it. I used it on one playthrough to play without conveyors at all. Wasn't as much fun, to be honest, but a lot of people use it, so I thought I would mention it.

 

[Brian Boru]

Browser Word Game, like Mastermind board game.
Word games are a lifelong fav of mine, whether paper, board or digital. I like this one.

Remember Mastermind?
Wordle is similar, but with words instead of colored pegs.
There's one puzzle a day. Below is my effort for today's—see how you go!

Wordle 199 6/6
⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟩⬛🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Guy who made it, his name is Wardle—so we know where he got the idea for the game name!

More about Wordle

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

@Pifanjr I spent about 30 hours on Loop Hero and didnt finish it either. Really liked how unique it was, and also the fact that it was easy to play almost as an idle game. That style or turn based just suits my lifestyle at the moment. I remember being quite excited when I found the ways different tiles combined when placed next to each other. There's nothing else quite like it, that Ive played at least.

Not been playing much as Ive been away from home. Before that I managed to get about 20 hours into Cyberpunk 2077. Really good so far if you dont have any expectations for it, and treat it like an action movie story. Only bugs to report at this point are pedestrians glitching in and out of existence right in front of the camera. Medium settings look pretty good and stay around 60 on my rig.