The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (Feb 20 - 26)(ish)

[mainer]

Do any of them time out?

Not that I've ever seen. I always try to complete them before I get near that last mission, so I think there's a "point of no return" but it's way late in the game. I always go out and do a few missions, or one story mission, them come back to the citadel to sell excess armor/weapons and upgrade mine, as well as companions.

It also pays to do go around on the Citadel and talk to people again, as some of them have more quests to give you. Or you could go to a bar and watch Shepard dance, which is always good for a laugh.

Got to my first thresher maw in Mass Effect 1. I know they'll probably get easier to fight the longer I play, but it's tough for me now. I kept dying and didn't have the time to keep trying to beat it.

@Zloth mentioned something like this in another post. ME1 Legendary changed the default Mako control scheme, but you can go into the options menu and change it back to the original Mako controls. Driving might be bumpier, but the combat controls, especially with Threshers, are much easier to use. You can switch back and forth.

 

[DXCHASE]

Been having a blast on my week off with Destiny 2 and Lost Ark. I'm loving the campaign in destinys new expansion and loving the tweaks to their guns/abilities and the new version of baddies to kill. Lost Ark is just such a big game and its fun to say the least.

My thought is about Elden Ring and it being the best reviewed game ever. Its just a dark souls-like game to me, ive seen the gameplay and thats just all i see. I might grab it on a deep discount because i dont totally hate these style games, i just dont see why its so great as compared to things like Zelda and stuff when it comes to the best reviewed games of all time.

 

[Zloth]

Got to my first thresher maw in Mass Effect 1. I know they'll probably get easier to fight the longer I play, but it's tough for me now. I kept dying and didn't have the time to keep trying to beat it.

The Mako never gets any stronger, it's the same the whole game. You'll learn to do better, though.

And like @mainer said, if you are using mouse/keyboard, turn OFF the 'relative controls' thing.

Might play some Atlas or Dying Light 2 or just go to bed now. Not sure.

Getting rest is definitely good. AND plenty of fluids! And Dove Bars.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

The Mako never gets any stronger, it's the same the whole game. You'll learn to do better, though.

And like @mainer said, if you are using mouse/keyboard, turn OFF the 'relative controls' thing.

Nah, I'm playing it on Xbox with a controller. I know it probably won't get stronger, but I just figured I'd get better at it as I gain more experience. I need to get better at controlling the Mako and figuring out strategies.

 

[Johnway]

day 3 of subterrain and oh dear god it just gets worse. At first i just had to contend with degrading weapons, armor, hunger/thirst/sleep, oxygen/heat, infection and the mutants. Now I've just realized now i have to work on replacing energy cores for the reactor as well! power is pretty much your life source it powers all your machines, keeps the infection at bay and environment control (heat and oxygen) lose all power and you're good as dead.

The batteries slowly decay and if the reactor gets too low and the energy consumption exceeds it? prepare for a melt down and it becomes a mad dash back to base to replace them.

Repairing them isn't really a viable option as repair in the early stages is only up to 50%. With the number of cores, the time it takes to repair them all they'll decay back to low levels and if not run out as well! So it looks like i have to keep building new or better ones and with finite resources. its quite literally a ticking time bomb. Not to mention means my exploration (and game progression) just grinds to a halt. Which is a shame as i was starting to enjoy exploring the Mars facility and making progress even further into the city.

One solution is to build bigger better batteries/cores. The only problem? I need blueprints to upgrade the printing machine to build them. The blueprints are located in further areas where i need more power and if I'm not generating enough power i can't travel there to get the blueprints!

So my only option? build new ones and replace as many as i can all at once before they all decay again and i'm back to square one! i might literally be in a dead man walking scenario.

Not entirely sure i want to continue tbh. Its starting to getting tedious to the point i think i might move on altogether!

 

[Ryzengang]

Elden Ring is downloaded, so that's ready to go whenever I want to start it. I should be smart and actually finish God of War first, but I am definitely feeling pulled towards Elden Ring currently.

 

[Zloth]

The way all the big name games are coming out, it seems like it should be November!

 

[Ryzengang]

With the Steam Deck launching yesterday, I've been watching the reviews and trying to decide what I want to do. I have a Q1 reservation and my deposit went through within the first 15 minutes of it becoming available, so I'm guessing it won't be super long before I get my email. I'm still pretty on the fence overall. I do want the Steam Deck, but I'm not sure if it's going to be too niche a device to justify buying it. Additionally, game compatibility is still a significant concern for me. I understand why, but existing reviews don't spend a lot of time discussing compatibility and mostly focus on major titles. But what if I want to play a more obscure indie title from a decade ago? How much fiddling around do I really want to do in order to get such games running?

Ultimately, I feel in a bit of a tough spot because I can definitely feel the effects of scarcity working on me. With the chip shortage and Valve's past track record (e.g., the Index) how long will it be until this thing is available more generally? If I pass on it now, when will I be able to secure one in the future? If this was clearer I would have much less problem passing on it for now and picking one up at a later date. Still, as it currently stands, it could be a very long time before general availability is a thing. While Valve has laid out the time table for the Q1 units, I get the sense that it's a little misleading. These seems a bit like a "tip of the iceberg situation" where the majority of orders are backloaded to after Q2 2022. So while it seems that orders will move smoothly in Q1 and Q2, the "after Q2 2022" orders seems to be labelled as such because it is a "who knows" type of deal.

Nonetheless, I've rambled enough and I'm just sort of organizing my thoughts on the topic. I still have at least a week before I'll get an email and 72 hours to decide once I do get the email.

 

[Zloth]

Speaking of Steam, it was sure having issues Thursday and Friday night, at least for me. I flat out couldn't log in to Steam on Friday night for a while. Were all the Elden Ring players breaking it, or was that a coincidence? Oh well, whatever it was, it's gone now.

I think I did something wrong in Subnautica: Below Zero. I've gotten two of the body parts (the skeleton in the pretty garden room and the one WAY deep past the leviathan) but there aren't any more leads on Architect stuff. I vaguely remember the ghostly voice saying something about something important being near over on the western island? Maybe there was something there I missed. I've got access to some berries that should distract the big bear-monster things, guess I should try those out.

P.S. The 'creative mode' is hugely useful! The game doesn't tell you things about what you're making, like how big that storage module is going to be. It's hard to decide if it's worth the resources without knowing those details. I guess you could save just before making the thing, make it, and quickly quit out if you don't like it - hoping the game doesn't autosave before that point. It's a lot better to simply save the game, quit out, start a creative mode game, and make whatever-it-is, though. That lets you play around with it, too! You've just got to resist the urge to go exploring with no food/breathing/depth limits.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Started playing A Plague Tale: Innocence. So far it's an awesome game.

 

[Zloth]

Started playing A Plague Tale: Innocence. So far it's an awesome game.

I bought that in the winter sale. It's on the soon to play list!

Found my third part in Subnautica - now I've got to figure out what to do with them.

 

[Pifanjr]

I started a new head-to-head campaign in Warhammer 2 with one of my friends. He's playing Yvresse and I'm playing Settra. Yvresse starts with two settlements quite far apart, with one of them only two settlements from the starting location of Settra. So I attacked him in the first few turns and claimed my first victory against a human opponent.

Overall, head-to-head is a bit of a weird experience. On one hand, fights against a human opponent are definitely more interesting. My friend definitely has a better strategy than the AI, but it's also a lot easier to surprise him and take advantage of him being distracted somewhere else. On the other hand, you lose more troops to auto-resolve for small battles you could have done better manually, but you don't want to force the other player to fight trivial battles.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Plague Tale is good, bit linear but good looking and plenty of fun.

I would like to be playing a little more Elden Ring, but unfortunately my daughter has a cold. So I'm tied up entertaining her, luckily enough she likes playing Mario Vs Rabbids Kingdom Battle with me quite a bit so I dont mind too much. Might have to pick up Luigis Manison if we finish it. For the kid you understand.

 

[Pifanjr]

she likes playing Mario Vs Rabbids Kingdom Battle with me quite a bit

That reminds me that I've also been playing quite a lot of Spiritfarer with my daughter.
I don't think the game would stay interesting if I would play it by myself. The trips on the boat between destinations can take quite long and the only thing you can do while you wait is to process the various resources you find in the various buildings you build on the boat.

However, playing with my daughter adds a whole new dimension to the game. Since either of us can activate the row boat when we're at an island and it takes both of us off the boat, there's suddenly a lot more pressure to get stuff done in time.
Also, she insists on me playing as the cat while she plays the "witch", as she calls it, which means I cannot initiate conversation with anyone. Which means I also have to goad her into talking to the characters to advance the plot, which isn't easy because she can't read and isn't interested in the story. In fact, she'll often abort conversation midway through, meaning we have to start from the beginning when I get her to start the conversation again. I often have to advance the plot by using her character when she goes to the toilet or when her controller disconnects (which happens frequently), at which point I get control of the main character and have to rush to talk to people before she reconnects or demands me to reconnect the controller for her.

We also make up a bunch of our own games within the game, such as trying to catch the seagulls that land on the boat (they cannot be interacted with and just fly if you get close). Another favourite is when we reconnect her controller and both get control of the main character, at which point she tries to go somewhere and I have to try to stop it. Her controller takes priority for going left or right, but she can't stop me from making the character jump up or down.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

@Pifanjr I picked up A Short Hike becaue you mentioned it before, she also likes that a lot. Being a sort of sandbox she can wander around there and experiment. She spent quite a while just running around in circles in the race some way up the mountain path. Also laughing herself silly when she found you can bounce off of unbrellas high in the air, hitting the beach ball with a stick etc.

With Rabbids she doesnt have much of a concept of numbers more than 10 let alone % to hit chances even if the games simplified. I let her choose the team and what gun we pick out and then do the story missions. She gets to move the team around on the world map and pick up coins. She also does the challenges on the early levels, because you keep the more powerful guns and extra health and the enemies stay the same. Shes gathered the basics of how to control the characters and move into cover from it. Its fun to watch her work things out.