The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (19 June to 25 June)

[ZedClampet]

I'm wondering if these DLCs offer any more or less challenge than the main game.

I thought they were about the same challenge level, fwiw.

Just finished a few more races in Grid. Was kind of surprised by the "electric" race that lets you run through power-ups on the track. That's definitely not my thing. I ignored them (but accidentally hit one of them) but still finished 26 seconds ahead. Yes, that's kind of boring, but I'm going to wait until after the story is over to raise the difficulty. Those cars, whatever they were, were really fun. The trucks, on the other hand, really sucked. Not looking forward to my next race with those.

I may just power through the rest of the story tomorrow.

*****************

My castle in V Rising is ridiculous, absolutely huge. Glad I spent the time at the beginning of the game finding a spot with lots of room. I think I have all the sections we'll need for the rest of the game, but I'm not entirely sure about that as we still can't see a lot of the bosses because we are too low level (50).

My son and I make a good team. He only cares minimally about the castle and all the crafting rooms or our team of thralls, so I take care of all of that. Meanwhile, he can solo the bosses while I concentrate on staying alive, although I do try to do as much damage as possible, and I did have to revive him in the middle of a fight today. He's also great at going and getting supplies, which can be quite challenging. There are enemies just about everywhere, many of them as strong or stronger than you are.

For me, fighting has been about finding the right abilities to match my style of damage avoidance. There are a ton of different ones to pick from, and you can run 5 at a time. One of my favorite things is just to walk out of the castle to the road and fight whoever I come across while I try new abilities out. If I die there, it doesn't matter. I can just run back out and grab my stuff. Some pretty bad dudes walk by sometimes, like a level 60 vampire hunter, and sometimes he has people with him (I think that's actually an accident--they just happen to be in the same place at the same time).

Will be sad when this game is over.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Frindis - I really need to give Witcher 2 another try, I loved both Witcher 1 & 3, but for some reason just couldn't get into W2 and was never able to get very far into the game. It's been quite a few years ago so I don't actually remember the reasons, so maybe now I'll see it in a new light or have a different perspective.

I have no idea why at this point, but for some reason, I played quite a bit of Witcher 2, but didn't finish it.

I would love to see them remake 1. I just couldn't get into that one. Didn't like the weird combat, at least it was weird to me.

 

[Brian Boru]

My son and I make a good team

As good as Stavros Flatley?

[6 min video, action starts ~2:20]

 

[Frag Maniac]

I thought they were about the same challenge level, fwiw.

Just finished a few more races in Grid. Was kind of surprised by the "electric" race that lets you run through power-ups on the track. That's definitely not my thing. I ignored them (but accidentally hit one of them) but still finished 26 seconds ahead. Yes, that's kind of boring, but I'm going to wait until after the story is over to raise the difficulty. Those cars, whatever they were, were really fun. The trucks, on the other hand, really sucked. Not looking forward to my next race with those.

I may just power through the rest of the story tomorrow.

Bummer, I was worried Legends might have silly arcade crap like that. Are you saying those electric races are optional though? From what you're saying, you may like GRID 2019 more. It's mostly all real cars and tracks, save for a very small percentage of fictional stuff, but the Crescent Valley tracks (fictional) are really quite good. There's going to be some classes of vehicles you probably won't like if you didn't like trucks in Legends though.

 

[ZedClampet]

Bummer, I was worried Legends might have silly arcade crap like that. Are you saying those electric races are optional though? From what you're saying, you may like GRID 2019 more. It's mostly all real cars and tracks, save for a very small percentage of fictional stuff, but the Crescent Valley tracks (fictional) are really quite good. There's going to be some classes of vehicles you probably won't like if you didn't like trucks in Legends though.

They aren't optional, sadly. I just meant that I didn't hit the power ups. I didn't use them.

There's going to be some classes of vehicles you probably won't like if you didn't like trucks in Legends though.

I'm used to crazy terrible handling vehicles. These trucks don't handle terrible. They just aren't fun to drive, but maybe when I get out of story mode, I cane tune them for racing and add some oversteer.

 

[McStabStab]

Chivalry 2. I haven’t had this much fun in a multiplayer only game since… well… Chivalry 1.

With PCG hosting their front page article about hero shooters it reminds me that sometimes its the most fun to be a nameless foot soldier. The pressure is off to be the savior of the team. Play your role, focus on the objectives, and you don’t have to be the hero. I go to bed every night much happier than I ever did playing Apex or Siege!

 

[Pifanjr]

Played some more Gloomhaven this weekend. We finally finished the personal quest of our friend's character a session or two after he reached max level. This is also only the second character we have retired. I also decided to shelve my current character except for scenarios where I can advance his personal quest, as I'm getting a bit bored with him. My first character required a lot of proper set up and positioning, while this one just shoots stuff from a distance. It also doesn't synergize well with my friend's new character, which is more reason to switch.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think EA is trying to kill me. I canceled my subscription, and they said, "We'll miss you, friendo." The last person I heard say "friendo" was Anton Chigurh, and people missed the folks he said that too, as well.

The reason I'm canceling is because I'm going to temporarily subscribe through Steam until I'm finished with what I want to play. Why Steam? Because out of Origin, Xbox Game Pass, and Steam, Steam is the the only one that you can find the 2019 Grid game on. It doesn't show up in either Game Pass or Origin. Why? Probably because they are wanting to push Grid Legends on everyone.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I think EA is trying to kill me. I canceled my subscription, and they said, "We'll miss you, friendo." The last person I heard say "friendo" was Anton Chigurh, and people missed the folks he said that too, as well.

The reason I'm canceling is because I'm going to temporarily subscribe through Steam until I'm finished with what I want to play. Why Steam? Because out of Origin, Xbox Game Pass, and Steam, Steam is the the only one that you can find the 2019 Grid game on. It doesn't show up in either Game Pass or Origin. Why? Probably because they are wanting to push Grid Legends on everyone.

OMG, that has to be sarcasm, because at worst, "friendo" seems like a mere attempt at using hipster speak, more than a threat. It kind of reminds me of some of the call center support staff I've dealt with, like a very Indian sounding guy that said, "Hey dude, how's it going, my name is Skip!"

If you've never seen the movie Outsourced, I highly recommend it!

I certainly hope GIRD 2019 and Steam works out for you though, otherwise I'm going to be watching out for Frag's trying to kill me accusations, because I'm the one that recommended the game. And No Country For Old Men references scare me too, because at 64 I'm probably one of the oldest men here!

Seriously though, after what you said about being used to poor handling vehicles, I don't think I have anything to worry about. Plus a TON of people still prefer Steam over the Johnny come lately digital distribution platforms.

Let me know what you think of GRID 2019 after you get into it a little ways, which can take a bit of time depending on difficulty settings.

 

[Frag Maniac]

They aren't optional, sadly. I just meant that I didn't hit the power ups. I didn't use them.


I'm used to crazy terrible handling vehicles. These trucks don't handle terrible. They just aren't fun to drive, but maybe when I get out of story mode, I cane tune them for racing and add some oversteer.

I just found out Legends has more than one type of truck, Stadium, and Dumont. The Dumont is the type of truck GRID 2019 has, which look to be more slippery handling than Stadium trucks. My guess is you were driving a Stadium truck. Of course as mentioned before though, settings matter too, especially level of assists when it comes to slippery handling vehicles.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

If you've never seen the movie Outsourced, I highly recommend it!

There was a TV series based on that movie. I watched it all, and it was great. I was sad when they canceled it.

 

[ZedClampet]

OMG, that has to be sarcasm, because at worst, "friendo" seems like a mere attempt at using hipster speak, more than a threat. It kind of reminds me of some of the call center support staff I've dealt with, like a very Indian sounding guy that said, "Hey dude, how's it going, my name is Skip!"

If you've never seen the movie Outsourced, I highly recommend it!

I certainly hope GIRD 2019 and Steam works out for you though, otherwise I'm going to be watching out for Frag's trying to kill me accusations, because I'm the one that recommended the game. And No Country For Old Men references scare me too, because at 64 I'm probably one of the oldest men here!

Seriously though, after what you said about being used to poor handling vehicles, I don't think I have anything to worry about. Plus a TON of people still prefer Steam over the Johnny come lately digital distribution platforms.

Let me know what you think of GRID 2019 after you get into it a little ways, which can take a bit of time depending on difficulty settings.

I'm sure I'll like it fine. I'm still enjoying Legends despite the electric races. I kind of want to compare the two and see if the driving is the same. I'll probably play both games (and still Forza Horizon 5, as well).

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm sure I'll like it fine. I'm still enjoying Legends despite the electric races. I kind of want to compare the two and see if the driving is the same. I'll probably play both games (and still Forza Horizon 5, as well).

By the look of it and how it's designed as far as what vehicles and types of races, it would appear Legends is aimed at a more arcade prone audience, but I have no way of knowing how the same vehicles would compare to GRID 2019 handling wise since I've not played Legends. So I look forward to your assessment once you've sampled some of the same vehicles in GRID 2019.

I've been trying to find video reviews on how the two compare handling wise, and vague videos like this are all I've found so far.

He doesn't specify anything about handling or how the two compare difficulty wise, but the Legends video clearly shows a MUCH faster 1st sector time of nearly 3 sec over GRID 2019. On Hard difficulty (2nd to hardest), there were many events where I really had to work hard on getting pole position via hotlapping. The graphics on track while racing also don't look as good in Legends, with less realistic colors, and a very blurry vs detailed looking track surface.

 

[ZedClampet]

By the look of it and how it's designed as far as what vehicles and types of races, it would appear Legends is aimed at a more arcade prone audience,

That's what I'm guessing, too. I guess we'll see.

I'm really annoyed with myself. I decided I didn't want to play the story today, so I started up the first championship series. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the difficulty (it's on Hard, but that's the middle difficulty now) and now it won't let me change it. I have to finish the championship before I can change it. That's ridiculous since I'm playing single-player, but every time I start a race, it tries to set up a multiplayer lobby even though I'm playing offline, so I guess I'm playing by the multiplayer rules. So I'm going to play an entire championship now with 25 second victory margins. Great. Avoiding that is why I switched from playing the story.

 

[Zloth]

@Brian Boru - did you ever get a MGS5 start?

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm really annoyed with myself. I decided I didn't want to play the story today, so I started up the first championship series. Unfortunately, I forgot to change the difficulty (it's on Hard, but that's the middle difficulty now) and now it won't let me change it. I have to finish the championship before I can change it. That's ridiculous since I'm playing single-player, but every time I start a race, it tries to set up a multiplayer lobby even though I'm playing offline, so I guess I'm playing by the multiplayer rules. So I'm going to play an entire championship now with 25 second victory margins. Great. Avoiding that is why I switched from playing the story.

Are we talking Legends or GRID 2019?

 

[ZedClampet]

Are we talking Legends or GRID 2019?

Legends. I haven't signed up on Steam yet to get 2019.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Legends. I haven't signed up on Steam yet to get 2019.

Ah, I figured maybe it was Legends, because I don't recall having any such problem with GRID 2019.

 

[Brian Boru]

@Brian Boru - did you ever get a MGS5 start?

Nope

 

[Pifanjr]

I watched a little bit of my friend streaming himself and two friends playing Phantasmagoria Phasmophobia the other day and it looked pretty fun. It was also surprisingly engaging just to watch them screw around.

 

[ZedClampet]

I watched a little bit of my friend streaming himself and two friends playing Phantasmagoria the other day and it looked pretty fun. It was also surprisingly engaging just to watch them screw around.

Phantasmagoria has multiplayer? Or do you mean Phasmophobia?

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru Hey, do you have the Command and Conquer Remastered Collection?

 

[Pifanjr]

Phantasmagoria has multiplayer? Or do you mean Phasmophobia?

Ah, that's the one. I let Google autocomplete it as I was trying to figure out the name and Phantasmagoria sounded right.

 

[ZedClampet]

Ah, that's the one. I let Google autocomplete it as I was trying to figure out the name and Phantasmagoria sounded right.

It's a fun game, but I like Ghost Exiles better. it has more for you to do. A lot of it is a rip-off of Phasmophobia, though.

*************

In V Rising I have created a second building close to the main human settlement. The sign on the front says, "The Lovable Vampire Center for Human Assistance". The kind of assistance that is going to take place there is that humans will wait patiently in cages for their chance to donate blood. In exchange, I will be providing dinners of fish and rats, but mostly rats because I don't have time for all that fishing. I consider it a sort of outreach program.

 

[Zloth]

Nope

Rearranged alphabetically! Errrr, I mean... sorted!

By the way, if you put in a directory called CustomSoundtrack in the game's main directory, you can drop in your own .MP3 files to use for the helicopter's music. (I forgot all about that, but it was in my review!)