The Currently Playing & Random Game Thoughts Thread (March -2 to 5)

[Ryzengang]

Recently I've been playing Borderlands 2 and Risk of Rain 2 (a new expansion just released) with some people. Naturally, I haven't made any progress on God of War or the rest of my backlog for about a month at this point. Regardless, Risk of Rain 2 is a excellent game despite me not liking the roguelike genre more broadly. It's on sale at the moment and I would recommend it if it looks up your alley. Along with Hades its one of the only roguelikes I've enjoyed to a large extent.

 

[ZedClampet]

Wife and kid are going clothes shopping tonight. Clothes shopping with my wife is...indescribable, so I will have the whole house to myself until the stores close. Going to start a new Kislev campaign, maybe on Hard this time. Last time, I didn't take my Lord to level 50 because I skipped a lot of fights, but I want to see how good she is when she is maxed out.

Can't play Dying Light 2 by myself or my son would murder me, so Warhammer 3 it is.

 

[Johnway]

Still playing pillars of eternity. So far very few quests have been completed because my characters just didn't have the skills, level etc to complete them. That said, i've managed to get to Act 2 so hopefully i'll have time to go back and do some of the side quests.

 

[mainer]

Just finished our nightly session of Dying Light 2. I'm really, really loving that game. The parkour is so fun, and I hate parkour. Plus, the story is non-stop, which I appreciate.

That's very encouraging for me, that you hate parkour, but love it in this game. The parkour elements have been the major element that's stopped me from buying this game. Seems like it has a decent story too, which I also very important to me. Maybe on the Steam Spring or Summer Sale.

 

[ZedClampet]

That's very encouraging for me, that you hate parkour, but love it in this game. The parkour elements have been the major element that's stopped me from buying this game. Seems like it has a decent story too, which I also very important to me. Maybe on the Steam Spring or Summer Sale.

I'm playing co-op, so it isn't as easy to pay attention to the story, but parts of it have seemed a little disjointed. On a couple of occasions, I've asked my son, "Why are we doing this again?" But it may just be my co-op attention span causing the problem. Overall, I've really enjoyed the story. It's not groundbreaking, but fun, and the side missions have fun stories, too. I haven't once felt like a side mission was just tossed together as filler. Even if it's basically just a fetch quest, a lot of care has gone into the story for the mission, which makes it seem like it is more than it is.

The parkour is amazing to me. I'm normally bad a parkour, but now I'm running, jumping, climbing, etc. like it's second nature. By this time, I've leveled a bit, and it's getting more and more fun to maneuver around the city. In the beginning, the parkour stamina bothered me, but I'm basically past that point in the game now. The only problem I'm having right now is that I keep forgetting to adjust my gamma. If I miss a jump and I'm on the ground at night, I can barely see anything and am having problems getting back up on the buildings. There is a gamma setting. I just never think about it unless I can't see, and then it's too late because I'm in a pile of zombies.

Also, I think they've made night far less intense than it was in the first game. Either that or I'm not as big a pansy. Not sure which it is.

 

[Colif]

the moment when you don't remember any of the keys.

I don't think he has much left to do in Platinum. wonder if I killed boss. I think he decided it was easier than noobium. Its been a long time since I seriously played it. His resurrect count is a lie but he feels his only death was due to a bug. One hit killed by a boss.

stats have been radically reduced since then

games been made "easier" to understand. Lies.

 

[ZedClampet]

Finished a TWW3 campaign in one session.

 

[ZedClampet]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Someone deleted the "Are PC gamers really superior to console gamers" thread. I'd already written two paragraphs comparing my virility to that of a console gamer's.

 

[Colif]

I guess the op made a mistake somewhere. We generally don't delete posts if they have answers... depends what op does.

 

[Pifanjr]

That image almost makes we want to try out Sacred 2. I just love the dozens upon dozens of modifiers. Though I'm kinda missing the random semi-useless ones from Sacred 1, like extended day/night or a chance for gold to drop every time you hit a monster.

 

[ZedClampet]

Wife came back inside this morning and said, "The car isn't working. There's water in the carburetor."

I said, "What? You don't even know what a carburetor is. How do you know there's water in it?"

She said, "Because it's in the pool."

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRs0OqV4uSc



Classify this under "Random Thoughts"

 

[Colif]

That image almost makes we want to try out Sacred 2. I just love the dozens upon dozens of modifiers. Though I'm kinda missing the random semi-useless ones from Sacred 1, like extended day/night or a chance for gold to drop every time you hit a monster.

that is only page 1 of them though page 2 isn't as long, mostly white text

I need to start again, I don't remember 1/10th of the game. looking at items I have and think, is this good, what are the icons in bottom left of screen... im sure they are bonuses or something.

I don't have as many characters as I thought, and I don't know who I was playing last. Need to find some guides for builds as this isn't a game you can respec in. Mess up and its restart time.

My memory of Sacred 1 is even harder to make clear. I remember some of the hidden items and the holiday resort in the desert.
it was last game I played a ranged character in. Bows were op in that game. It wasn't same in Sacred 2.

 

[Johnway]

been cycling through several Snes games at work atm. i was playing secrets of mana and the combat wasn't too bad until i got to the bloody witche's castle. The entrance with the 2 werewolves was able to just stun lock your characters till death. but what really drove me over the edge was the bloody magic. Bosses can just cast magic attacks indefinitely and you can't avoid them at all!

So i moved over to zombies ate my neighbours and yeah... i think that game is eating away at my sanity as well. The enemies are starting to irritate me now. Making more progress then secret of mana though.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Wife came back inside this morning and said, "The car isn't working. There's water in the carburetor."

I said, "What? You don't even know what a carburetor is. How do you know there's water in it?"

She said, "Because it's in the pool."

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRs0OqV4uSc



Classify this under "Random Thoughts"

And it was more disappointing that she came back from clothes shopping too early and you had to stop gaming.

 

[Zloth]

Either that or I'm not as big a pansy. Not sure which it is.

{Palpatine voice}You have grown strong! Now strike down this co-op game and face the terrors of the deep in Subnautica!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Someone deleted the "Are PC gamers really superior to console gamers" thread. I'd already written two paragraphs comparing my virility to that of a console gamer's.

Oh, which side did you take?

 

[ZedClampet]

{Palpatine voice}You have grown strong! Now strike down this co-op game and face the terrors of the deep in Subnautica!

I kind of misspoke or wasn't really clear. Night during the original Dying Light was concerning, not scary. It's very rare that I actually get frightened in games even though I play horror games quite a bit. I was actually surprised that people found Subnautica scary because I thought it was one of the most relaxing games I ever played. Even at the end in the volcanic caves, I was just in awe of how amazing the environment was. Subnautica was one of my all-time favorite games. I really do need to reinstall Below Zero and finish that up.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Crusader Kings 3 is very good.

Haven't bought the Royal Court DLC as 30 is a bit steep for an add on, I'll wait for a sale. But they have added a free update to the base game 'Fleur de Lis'. Now you can commission artifacts like crowns, weapons armours, that give small stat boosts and some extra events. There's also an expanded court management side, kind of a lower council that gives you small benefits in exchange for a monthly gold wage. There's a Jester who can help out with stress relief one that gives more control per month, one more piety and so on. 8 in total iirc.

The game keeps on giving, nearing 200 hours I feel like I understand plenty but not quite everything, but at the same time the game is satisfying to play when you are still learning, and its possible to do OK without really understanding all the nuance even after just a few hours. Brilliant design IMO.

Elden Ring is spectacular, I'm getting Skyrim like moments of awe from parts of the open world, and Dark Souls like satisfaction from the combat. If you like either its worth a shot. Nothing else quite like it.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Elden Ring is spectacular, I'm getting Skyrim like moments of awe from parts of the open world, and Dark Souls like satisfaction from the combat. If you like either its worth a shot. Nothing else quite like it.

Now you're messing me up! Skyrim is my favorite game, but I hate Dark Souls. So I don't know what to think.

Some of the things I love about Skyrim are the exploration, and the storylines of the quests. I'm getting the idea there isn't much of that. What do you think?

 

[Zloth]

I'm picking up Age of Wonders: Planetfall again. I played it some before but put it down when I found out what features were coming up in the final DLC. The DLC has been out for quite a while now and development has stopped, so it's long since past time to get in and play.

That new feature would be a galaxy metagame. When you finish a game, your heroes/commander get xp and such in the meta game, which they can then bring into the next game you play. Looks like it will be pretty fun, assuming I play through more than once or twice.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Now you're messing me up! Skyrim is my favorite game, but I hate Dark Souls. So I don't know what to think.

Some of the things I love about Skyrim are the exploration, and the storylines of the quests. I'm getting the idea there isn't much of that. What do you think?

Its still a Dark Souls game, if you actively hate Dark Souls combat, it'll be a very hard sell. If you're willing to give it a decent try I personally think it's a bit easier than the older games, because there are many more options to leave and power up, and also summons you can use that make things much easier. Still pretty much any enemy in the game can kill you if you're not paying attention. They'll be hiding above doors and there are traps that one shot you just as before, and youll have to repeat sections of levels if you die with everything respawned as usual.

Assuming youre still reading

Exploration for sure, its a pretty big and strange world. What's a bit different is the lack of a mini map and ? on the main map. I remember you really liked BOTW, and its a kind of similar map system. You put your own map markers down where you find things you want to come back to later, hard fights, merchants etc. Locations are shown once you found them, it doesnt tell you if youve cleared them though. The main quest general direction is shown on the map, but you're much better off exploring, youll need to upgrade weapons and equipment with stuff you find to make things easier.

There is a compass in the UI, and you can add your own waypoints to help you navigate. You can also fast travel from anywhere to 'sites of grace' which are the level up/save points, and there's a horse if you want to run about outside of dungeons.

Quests are there, but the way they're done is very different to anything else. You wont find any collect 100 of these or kill 10 of these type things. There's no quest log book, you'll have to make your own notes or remember. NPC's will mention things and maybe where they might be, and if you come across the item or other NPC youll have to remember to bring it back to them or talk to them about the thing. Then youll have to remember or mark where the other NPC was on the map, and they arent always where they were before .

You dont get XP (runes) from quests. But you might get items, skills or lore, and there aren't anywhere near as many as in most other open world type games. I am relatively early on still and I think that's still the case here.