The Video Game Thread: What are you Playing?

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
I have been waiting for years for Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm. I've just done two tutorials so far, but I am not at all disappointed. The Flashpoint Campaigns series are probably the best games I've played for actually giving the feeling of operating as a commander. Your initial plan and disposition is critical, because once units are in contact it is extremely difficult to do anything with your troops, and you're mainly left working out where you are going to want your reserve to be in 30 minutes or an hour.

Not cheap, and not for anyone looking for a casual game.


 
Three more recommendations.

Red Dead Redemption 2: I don't think you really need to have played the first to enjoy this. It's quite long, but it has some of the subtlest characters I've seen in gaming and uses the medium of computer games to enhance this, especially the gang leader Dutch van der Linde, and explores the decline of the West from an honest point of view. Excellent voice acting and music as well. I'd recommend doing the story mainly and not the million side quests.

Kingdom Come: Deliverence. Rural Czechia simulator. Again quite long, but has plenty of systems and mechanics that add to the immersion, e.g. mixing your own herbs, long quest where you reenact monastery life. Story stays low key and appropriate for the time.

Ultrakill: Probably one of the best FPS games I've played. Loads of features so you can set the challenge at whatever level you like. Overall frenetic and fast paced and good bosses that make use of the mechanics, which is rare for FPS games. Still in development, but the first three parts are out.
 
I kinda burned out on Rockstar's approach to open world play but I've gotta go back and finish RDR2 to see what I make of it since it gets so much praise.
 
I kinda burned out on Rockstar's approach to open world play but I've gotta go back and finish RDR2 to see what I make of it since it gets so much praise.

I think the only issue with RDR2 is that its really long. I think they could have shortened the game a bit without really detracting from its value. RDR was just about right, length wise... RDR2 was long to the point where I really wanted it to end, and that's not good.
 
I've been in the mood for western media recently. Undoubtedly influenced by the Colt Canyon game. But I started playing (actually replaying) the original Red Dead Revolver.
 
I think the only issue with RDR2 is that its really long. I think they could have shortened the game a bit without really detracting from its value. RDR was just about right, length wise... RDR2 was long to the point where I really wanted it to end, and that's not good.

I have played RDR, but for some reason have no desire to play RDR2. I was a little curious though, so I checked some let's plays on Youtube. There's a channel that has a video with just the cutscenes. Length of the video is 19 hours. That's a lot of cutscenes.
Hideo Kojima must be jealous. The similar video for MGS4 is "only" 9 hours. 90 minutes of that being the ending cutscene.
From watching that video. I must say that the characters of RDR2 are very well done. It was an excellent 19 episode western serie.
 
Very late coming to Death Stranding, which I believe I picked up just around the time Covid hit. The upcoming sequel and director's cut release reminded me that I had it and hadn't played it yet. Just started and while the cutscenes are Kojima-typical length I do really enjoy the exploratory and non-combat focused play, I often get tired of shooting people in the face in videogames. I can't believe that Kojima was allowed to make this big of a game so weird.




Also inspired me to pick up Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain from Steam's Winter Sale. I'll tackle it once I'm done DS even though I tend to suck at stealth games.

 
Very late coming to Death Stranding, which I believe I picked up just around the time Covid hit. The upcoming sequel and director's cut release reminded me that I had it and hadn't played it yet. Just started and while the cutscenes are Kojima-typical length I do really enjoy the exploratory and non-combat focused play, I often get tired of shooting people in the face in videogames. I can't believe that Kojima was allowed to make this big of a game so weird.




Also inspired me to pick up Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain from Steam's Winter Sale. I'll tackle it once I'm done DS even though I tend to suck at stealth games.



Man, I'm pretty sure that Death Stranding was free on Epic on Christmas Day, but I didn't have time to even get to the computer to claim it... :-/
 
Man, I'm pretty sure that Death Stranding was free on Epic on Christmas Day, but I didn't have time to even get to the computer to claim it... :-/
It was. Sucks that you missed it
 
Finished the campaign for Solasta Crown of the Magister. Did as many side quests as I could. Total play time ended up being around 70 hours and finished with 11th level characters who had earned enough xp for 12th. I went classic four and did it with human fighter, dwarven cleric, halfling rogue, and elven wizard.
 
Finished the campaign for Solasta Crown of the Magister. Did as many side quests as I could. Total play time ended up being around 70 hours and finished with 11th level characters who had earned enough xp for 12th. I went classic four and did it with human fighter, dwarven cleric, halfling rogue, and elven wizard.
I enjoyed it. The plot and dialogues were bog standard, to me, but many of the fights were interesting and the engine was solid. There also seem to be a decent number of people making adventures for the system.
 
Thanks to Christmas and the kindness of friends I have a ton of good games on my docket. Right now I am enjoying Gears Tactics. I play a lot of turn based strategy games but this one is particularly satisfying at the tactical level. It is a rare and pleasant surprise to see fire and maneuver actually work in a game, where you pin or channel the enemy with firepower while your maneuver elements destroy them by flanking, grenades, and close combat. Only $10 on Steam right now.

 
Stan Stan Spellslinging Sellsword Spellslinging Sellsword - should I go ahead and get the DLC at the beginning? Or is that better once I've gotten into it?

The DLCs mainly add classes - you can play without them but you might feel restricted if the base game doesn't have preferred classes.

Primal Calling is mainly about getting the barbarian and druid classes - get it if you want to play those, otherwise not so much. Also adds 6th level spells and 12th level.

Lost Valley adds a 2nd full length adventure. Some don't care for it but I liked it. As it's a whole new adventure to start with 1st level characters, I'd wait until you've played through the base game and see if you have the energy to do it again.

Supporter Pack is just visuals like pretty dice and pretty weapons so I didn't get it.

It looks like a new DLC dropped last week, which I don't have - Inner Strength. It adds warlock, bard, and monk, along with more feats (there are few good feats to choose from in the base game, and I often just picked stat increases). Maybe I'll get this and pick a fan made adventure to run through.

Note on being OGL 5e but not full 5e - the game can use only the subclasses used in the free Basic rules. To flesh things out, the game makes its own subclasses, which are fine but it makes the game slightly different. They also make many of their own feats, which tend to be weak.
 
Steam says 53% of my playtime in 2022 was in Jupiter Hell. Trying to make the jump from Ultraviolence to NIGHTMARE! and the game is not respecting my good intentions.

Otherwise, I'm playing A Plague Tale for a friend and a lot of Street Fighter III: Third Strike (the third game in the SF3 series) but my execution just isn't good enough to keep up with my fundamentals.

Been checking ProtonDB to see how much of my library I'm going to get to keep when I leave Windows behind forever.
 
My wife's playing Tactics Ogre; Reborn on the PS5.

HugeUglyDutchshepherddog-max-1mb.gif
BlackandwhiteMealyAruanas-max-1mb.gif
OffensiveDependentAfghanhound-max-1mb.gif
 
The DLCs mainly add classes - you can play without them but you might feel restricted if the base game doesn't have preferred classes.

Primal Calling is mainly about getting the barbarian and druid classes - get it if you want to play those, otherwise not so much. Also adds 6th level spells and 12th level.

Lost Valley adds a 2nd full length adventure. Some don't care for it but I liked it. As it's a whole new adventure to start with 1st level characters, I'd wait until you've played through the base game and see if you have the energy to do it again.

Supporter Pack is just visuals like pretty dice and pretty weapons so I didn't get it.

It looks like a new DLC dropped last week, which I don't have - Inner Strength. It adds warlock, bard, and monk, along with more feats (there are few good feats to choose from in the base game, and I often just picked stat increases). Maybe I'll get this and pick a fan made adventure to run through.

Note on being OGL 5e but not full 5e - the game can use only the subclasses used in the free Basic rules. To flesh things out, the game makes its own subclasses, which are fine but it makes the game slightly different. They also make many of their own feats, which tend to be weak.
Thanks! And now I just bought Inner Strength LOL
 
Thanks to Christmas and the kindness of friends I have a ton of good games on my docket. Right now I am enjoying Gears Tactics. I play a lot of turn based strategy games but this one is particularly satisfying at the tactical level. It is a rare and pleasant surprise to see fire and maneuver actually work in a game, where you pin or channel the enemy with firepower while your maneuver elements destroy them by flanking, grenades, and close combat. Only $10 on Steam right now.


Did you have to give me something else to buy?
 
I think I'm gonna take a break from Bayonetta and go back to Xenoblade for a while.
 
Finished a few more free adventure game prologues (demos) on Steam. A few stand outs, particularly Tiny Bunny: Prologue.

Also finally saw Faith 3 longplay video... amazing. The Faith: Trinity package deal has rocketed up to my next must buy when I can. That whole series rocked, 2-bit & rotoscope aesthetics, one-button gameplay, writing & humor, and dripping atmosphere. Tour de force. Airdorf pulled a hat trick.
 
Resist their mind control! Go play one of the several hundred (or thousand) games you already have! :-)
Dear God, is that the norm now?! Fucking Steam.

I have all of three games I haven't finished yet, two of which I'm in the process of playing.
 
Dear God, is that the norm now?! Fucking Steam.

I have all of three games I haven't finished yet, two of which I'm in the process of playing.

Nice work. My little quip was more pointed at myself, as I do have a ton of stuff I've bought cheap or received free via Steam, Epic or GOG, and they have been hammering away with the ads to get me to buy more! "Play the games you own!" is what I tell myself. *

* - doesn't seem to work with table top RPG's, as I own more of those than I can play in the limited number of years I have left lol.
 
Just finished first run of Dark Souls: Remastered.

Pretty good overall, though controls are clunky in some places.

6pV5BYG.png

I have yet to play a Dark Souls(or similar) game. I watched my son play a bit of one of them, and he looked like he wanted to throw the controller. My problem is I will throw the controller lol. Maybe one day, when I don't like the controller I have anymore...
 
I have yet to play a Dark Souls(or similar) game. I watched my son play a bit of one of them, and he looked like he wanted to throw the controller. My problem is I will throw the controller lol. Maybe one day, when I don't like the controller I have anymore...
I've only ever had that impulse when playing Mario Kart online, but I've found that it helps to have alternative, softer things close to hand. Pillows are good for that.
 
I recently picked up Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Remastered in 2021) for nostalgia reasons. The graphics and visuals are very nice. The gameplay is good but still suffers from some flaws which makes the game get boring quickly.
 
I went and looked at the steam workshop for Dwarf Fortress Mods. I've downloaded a couple of the popular ones, Beards for Dwarf Women, Stone Beds, see through engraving designations, etc.
One odd not though, one of the most popular mods is milkable gorillas.
People are strange.
 
I went and looked at the steam workshop for Dwarf Fortress Mods. I've downloaded a couple of the popular ones, Beards for Dwarf Women, Stone Beds, see through engraving designations, etc.
One odd not though, one of the most popular mods is milkable gorillas.
People are strange.
You've clearly never had the pleasure of drinking a tall glass of warm gorilla milk.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top