The Video Game Thread: What are you Playing?

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Bunny and I have got a lot of mileage out of Dying Light. Getting 7 years of polish and DLC for $15 bucks is an incredible deal. If you have a best bro or gal to play with I almost consider it a must-buy.

We picked up Dying Light 2 since it is discounted for the Steam Summer Sale. It was released this year so obviously it isn't going to have the polish of its predecessor but unfortunately the parkour is disappointing. Jumping feels "floaty" like you are on the moon. This article pretty much sums it up:



So far Dying Light 2 is not as scary or challenging as the original. Your dude is a helpless weakling at the start but after some improvement things quickly change. We are level 3 and already raiding Dark Hollows and Forsaken Stores by daylight (something the game repeatedly warns you not to do), rarely bothering with the stealth mechanic because it's easier to simply aggro all the infected and kill them for the sweet, sweet trophies. Don't get me wrong, the game is pretty fun in it's own right but it's not holding up to the original. I imagine things will change with polish and DLC.
Thanks for that. I'd been on the fence about getting it in the Steam Sale, or wait until it goes down more. I think I'll wait.
 
Thanks for that. I'd been on the fence about getting it in the Steam Sale, or wait until it goes down more. I think I'll wait.
It's hard for me to say whether or not to buy it. The discount is significant for a game that was released only a few months ago. I imagine the game will be significantly improved with DLC and updates over time.

On the other hand Dying Light 2 is lacking the sheer terror and exciting challenge of part 1. Except for a couple confusing quests, we avoided guides and walkthroughs for part 1 and found it thoroughly satisfying when we became seasoned volatile hunters.
 
I've just been reading a UESP article on the original concept for the Elder Scrolls III, before Bethesda did a major redesign.
It's interesting to see the complete split in design philosophies and imagine what a drastically different game we might have had compared to Morrowind.
More interesting is that some of the designers took the original plot and did a forum role-play after Morrowind came out. Elements from the roleplay even worked their way into some of the lore documents for Oblivion.
 
Ah good, there goes Xenoblade's JRPG super intense third act turn.

My but it's a good thing that the newest game is coming out at the end of the month, because otherwise I might just have needed to take a few weeks off to process that. 8|
 
Currently I'm in a gaming rut of Star Trek Online and Civ 5.
STO is pretty much a clock punching exercise at the moment as theres been no significant organised content in years now, just the occasional new mission tied into something in the latest Star Trek TV/Movie...which you are then expected to repeat daily for 3 weeks to earn a mid-tier item set that 50% of people dump in their bank and never use again.
Civ 5 because, well its Civ 5. I tried 6 and hated it - Civ5's encouraged good city placement for best growth/potential, but Civ6 turns that up to eleven, then hits the overdrive. Plus the awful cartoon leaders. Why can't they bring back the animated advisors from Civ2?

I'm eagerly awaiting Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6 and considering buying Cyberpunk 2077, but my current dual 970s in SLI are getting a bit old and glitchy and so I've been waiting for RTX3070s to dip below £500 before I upgrade.
 
I played Sonic the Hedgehog last night after quite a few years of no video games. I only got as far as the second act of Labyrinth Zone.

I think the very first time I ever played it, that was where I ended my first credit as well.

The partner and I are back to playing Super Robot Wars 30 and have been for a couple of weeks. The characters seem to be in the process of getting their end game story upgrades, so we're closing in on the final missions. And then when we complete it... I guess we have to pick the other main character option and start New Game Plus. I suppose that's fine, but the game and the character/mecha mix is definitely not anywhere near as good as Super Robot Wars V or even X. I really hate how much main story stuff revolves around the units from Majestic Prince and GaoGaiGar.

I bought an OLED Switch to play... Sega Ages Phantasy Star. Yep, I paid $350 just so I could play a Sega Master System game with automap. Not enough reason for you? I also got it so I could play the Dragon Quest 1-3 remasters on my TV with a controller instead of my phone.

I think I'm past the halfway point in Phantasy Star. Everyone has their endgame equipment, but I still need to finish the ice planet dungeons before I head off to kill Lassic.

I'm planning to pick up Soul Hackers 2, but I was also thinking of diving into Persona 5 Royal or Trails of Cold Steel after finishing off Phantasy Star. Either one of those would be long enough that I'd still be working on them when Soul Hackers 2 releases. So... dunno yet.
 
After having it for many years I finally completed Black Mesa, the Half-Life 1 unofficial remake. The improved Xen levels had some great visuals and would make a great Sword(or perhaps crowbar) and Planet setting.
It's been a while since I played any Valve games, I was introduced to them years ago during the winter break of my freshmen year. I had decided to stay on campus that quarter and I got a bunch of their games on sale. I spent the whole break eating pizza and working my way through them, starting with Portal 1&2 followed by Half-Life 2 and it's episodes. When I got to the original Half-Life I, for whatever reason, wasn't able to get it to work on my pc. I played Black Mesa instead since it was free at the time and was only missing the Xen levels.
 
Now Bayonetta 3 has a more full scale trailer, giving a better sense of the gameplay, the fact that some of the familiar characters will be back, and how off the wall the story will be. I'm very much looking forward to it (as somebody who only started playing the series after the prior trailer came out).
 
Nice! Are they actually shipping now? All I was able to do was pay to sign up for the waiting list last time I looked.

I mean, not that I really need it, as I would rather use my 3090 based desktop, but my son *really* wanted one...
 
Nice! Are they actually shipping now? All I was able to do was pay to sign up for the waiting list last time I looked.

I mean, not that I really need it, as I would rather use my 3090 based desktop, but my son *really* wanted one...
Yeah, quite a few people have them in hand. To give you an idea of how far they've gone on my variety- I ordered 6 hours after the pre-orders opened, and am just getting to actually place my order.
 
Bunny bought us each copies of Stray. It's the best seller on Steam right now. I was a bit concerned it was overhyped but after playing I can confidently say that if you like cats it's pretty much a must-buy


Immortal Tactics: War of the Immortals is a simple early-access fantasy tactics game by a solo dev out of Germany IIRC. Early access in this case does not mean a lack of polish but that there is more content to come. It's on sale and worth the 12 bucks IMHO. The advertising blurb is misleading, it's not really a roguelike and there is no exploring- just a series of straight battles with minimal story.

 
Just got my Steam Deck in- Played the Ascent on it yesterday and it was a blast! I can definitely say I don't regret the purchase. More updates as I use it more.
 
So I spun up the current version of Warzone:2100 and the AIs are way, way better. Even on moderate settings it's quite hard to win a skirmish game against the bots on most of the maps.
 
I started playing Cyberpunk 2077 again, and it's works a lot better on my Deck. I didn't know if I'd be able to do it because I generally can't play FPS type games with a controller, but it just works on Deck. I'm installing other FPS to see if I have the same experience.

I also got Ubisoft connect installed on it, and am installing Ghost Recon: Breakpoint to see how it does.
 
Keep returning to Imperialism 2 - I struggle to engage with new games at the moment, and Imperialism 2 provides a constant stream of difficult decisions to make. Brilliant design.
 
Hades is on sale on Steam right now. I finally decided to pick it up. I am happy to say it lives up to the hype. It nails the satisfying game loop of action, death, exposition, upgrade and try again (many games try but few succeed). Death isn't frustrating and I don't feel pressured to develop an optimized strategy to avoid it. leaving me free to experiment. Procedurally generated dungeons are hard to do right but again Hades nails it. The lore, artwork, and voice acting is top notch.

 
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It's so annoying to be within sight of the ending of a JRPG that you've sank more than 150 hours into (spread over several years) and need to wait because you know that last stretch is going to take a few hours that you don't want to be interrupted and will probably need time to process the ending afterwards and it's going to be days before you have that kind of comfortable time.
 
Been refinishing Campaign mode on Railroad Tycoon 2 Gold Edition for Dreamcast emulator. Still got my old VMU save, but modern save/load state are sooo fast and convenient. :heart: Found out in this console version you can't use lading waypoints* or progressive car scheduling** to get gold on "Ich Bin Ein Berliner." :brokenheart:

Reread the manual with a fine-toothed comb, and tried previous PC version tactics several times in various ways. No luck. Without that best I could get is bronze. :skeleton:

*Lading Waypoint - pick up cargo from station A and drop it off at station B, so that it can be picked it up from station B and drop it off at station C. Useful for drawing several nearby cargoes at different stations to one central hub for combined transfer.

**Progressive Cargo Scheduling - scheduling picking up cargo from consecutive station in an increasing size pile to be dropped off at a final end point. Pick up A, B, & C consecutively then drop off at D; 1. A, 2. AB, 3. ABC, 4. arrive D deliver ABC.

So now I am just finishing Puzzle Boys, old Famicom Disk System puzzler... and trying out old ZX Spectrum text adventures. God, I forgot how fussy those text adventures could be. :angry: "I don't know what that means. What do you do?"
 
I'm back on Dwarf Fortress after I don't know how long. The fortress is going strong, but came very close to being wiped out by a werepanda that wandered by before I had a proper military. Fortunately it transformed back into a dwarf and my hastily assembled militia was able to drive it off with no causalities or were-infections, and are now training into a properly equipped military force. Now I'm working on expanding the living areas after subsequent migrant waves put me over present capacity.
 
I got Digimon Survive on the Switch for the partner last week. He tells me that he's already closing in on the endgame. It's been great seeing him dive into it and enjoy it.

I tried to play Resonance of Fate on the PS4. I've bought this game four times: as a disc for the 360, a disc for the PS3, a download for the PS3, and finally a download for the PS4. I played it a little back on the 360, but didn't even get past the prologue. The PS3 disc hasn't even been opened. The download PS3 version has only had bits of the tutorial played. So the PS4 version is the first time I've spent serious time with the game, and I put in about 20 hours.

And after buying four copies of the game and playing the fourth purchase for that amount of time, I realize that I do not enjoy Resonance of Fate. From the first boss onward I started to feel that I just did not understand the combat system. As I kept playing, every time I felt like I was starting to understand what I needed to do, I'd then have an encounter whether a random encounter, an arena battle I'd already dealt with handily, or a sub-boss which would completely trounce me and point out that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I felt like I was failing to make any progress, not only in terms of not growing in understanding of the game, but also in terms of how the game felt and the progression of the plot. I was 20 hours in and nothing had happened and I was still fighting pretty much the same enemies.

After having a sub-boss slaughter me time and time again and not having a clue what I was doing wrong in my play, and then having a random encounter which I had dealt with without a scratch dozens of times suddenly wipe out my party thoroughly and completely, I realized I was not having fun with the game and didn't have any idea what I could do to have fun with it. Everything was grey and abstract and unintuitive.

I wanted to like the game. I generally liked what I saw of the characters. But the gameplay experience was inaccessible. And I can understand a game with a slow burn plot, but I was 20 hours in and seriously NOTHING HAD HAPPPENED. I had been given a hint of Vashron's background. Some hijinx had occurred, and some pretentious (presumably) villain monologues had been shown far away from the immediate story of the heroes. What was that shit in the opening cinematics of the game that opened the story? Still no idea. Instead, go collect "Energy Hexes" and lay floor tiles or worry about "bezels" in some super abstract mechanics.

I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't understand how I'm supposed to play the game, and therefore I'm not having fun. I decided to drop the game and move on, because it simply isn't worth trying to play it. I wish I had figured this out before I bought the game 4 times. I guess purchasers like me are why games like this and Tactics Ogre keep on getting re-releases.

So, I flailed around looking for a new game to play while I was waiting for Soul Hackers 2. The core difficulty being that want to have whatever game I pick completed and wrapped up by August 26 so I can start Soul Hackers 2 clean.

I remembered I have Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure for the PS1. I've heard it's very short and the absolute opposite of difficult. I decided to give it a shot.

I've had Rhapsody for 20 years. I bought it from a used game shop for $30. I've only played it once before. After I first acquired it, I booted it up to make sure that it worked. I played long enough to get to the first combat, said "looks good", and then put it away until now. This was my first time diving into the game.

It turns out that Rhapsody is an extremely good fit to my current mood and an exceptional balm to heal the burns that Resonance of Fate have left me with. Rhapsody immediately gets into and embraces a very silly story of a girl trying to get together with a prince. It's a simple story, but it's presented well complete with singing musical numbers. The whole thing has a delightful 90s anime vibe to it. There's not a drop of pretentiousness to be seen. Then there's the difficulty; the game has none. The game is ludicrously easy. Level ups are common and quick, and heal characters back to full to boot, just making the easy difficulty even easier.

If any difficulty comes from Rhapsody, it's the dungeons. They do take a little bit of thought to navigate. They can be confusing. But as of yet, I haven't had to actually map anything. So far I've been able to conquer each dungeon I've been confronted with by the time honored techniques of right-hand-on-the-wall, a bit of trial and error, and a bit of memorization and exploration.

I think I'm probably about halfway through Rhapsody already and I've been playing extremely casual. So far the game is well paced and fun, not to mention brilliantly colorful, including characters the game wants me to get to know. In other words, it's the complete opposite of Resonance of Fate.
 
G Gabriel I feel you on Resonance of Fate. I played and finished that game, way back on my Xbox360. I remember the plot moved at an absolutely glacial paze. I think, I was 40 hours into the game before anything really happened story wise. I also never really felt, I understood the combat system. But I overall liked it enough to complete it. Will probably not replay it though.

Like Voros Voros, I have finished Elden RIng. Defeating all the main bosses that is. Even though there's plenty of stuff, I haven't seen in the game. I need a long break from it. It's over a month since I finished it. Haven't felt compelled to play more of it yet. Probably will at some point though.

I got the early access of Baldur's Gate 3, as a gift. Have been playing it non-stop since. It's really good. At first it reminded me a lot of the Original SIn games. Graphically it looks like them and it also has all the environment interactions of those games. You know, throw a grease bottle at your enemies, then light it on fire with a candle. Fun stuff.
Some complaints I have, is that the combat have been quite easy. There's no difficulty options in early access. Aside frome two fights so far, my group has never really been in danger of dying. One of the challenging fights was with a nest of phasespiders. This was mostly hard, because I was down to only cantrips on my spellcasters and low on other resources. The other fight I won't mention, since that would be a spoiler.
I also have issues with the inventory system. Every character has their own backpack and equippable item slots. Any usable item you put into a character's backpack, gets automatically added to the useable items bar in the ui. This is really overpowered. I feel, that every character should have a number of equippable item slots just for usable items. You can also freely enter the inventory at any time, even during combat, and use items that way. Even from another character's backpack. They should just make the backpack party based, which would also reduce inventory management.
The last thing, is that damm chain link party system Larian uses. I just don't get it. It makes it way to fiddly, whenever you want finer control over individual characters. Why don't they just use something like the original BG games, which other contemporary CRPGs do.
These complaint aside, I really like the game. I'm not that far from the early access end point, I think. I know, that when I reach the end I want it to continue. Well, there's not that long to the game's full release at least.
 
Been playing Horizon Dawn. The various data remnants you find around point to the designers being fans of Cyberpunk and/or Shadowrun. Advertisements for online bookies to bet in the next Corpwars bracket, things like that. Kinda cool. There's mention of one corp in particular, starting to get the idea that what caused TEOTWAWKI was good old Corporate Fuckery.
 
Been playing Horizon Dawn. The various data remnants you find around point to the designers being fans of Cyberpunk and/or Shadowrun. Advertisements for online bookies to bet in the next Corpwars bracket, things like that. Kinda cool. There's mention of one corp in particular, starting to get the idea that what caused TEOTWAWKI was good old Corporate Fuckery.
My primary interest in the game was uncovering the lore and discovering how the world got to be the way that it was. The lore was top-notch and revealing it was immensely rewarding.
 
I am enjoying Cult of the Lamb. The gameplay loop really works. You alternate between Zelda-style dungeons or managing your cult. If am I sick of one I just do the other and the hours fly by. I don't think the cinematic really does the game justice and don't let the cutesy graphics fool you- it's quite dark! It's a solid new release, no bugs or anything AFAIK. Unlike most games out there it is worth paying full retail.

 
It's funny- my Steam Deck is making me revisit games that I haven't played in a while. The ease of starting along with being able to play it in the living room instead of staying cooped up in my office is unbeatable.

Up right now - Shadow Complex

 
Been playing Horizon Dawn. The various data remnants you find around point to the designers being fans of Cyberpunk and/or Shadowrun. Advertisements for online bookies to bet in the next Corpwars bracket, things like that. Kinda cool. There's mention of one corp in particular, starting to get the idea that what caused TEOTWAWKI was good old Corporate Fuckery.

My primary interest in the game was uncovering the lore and discovering how the world got to be the way that it was. The lore was top-notch and revealing it was immensely rewarding.
I got distracted by work and never finished it, but I really liked the setting and art design on that game a lot. I'd like to go back and finish it one day.
 
I've been playing lots of Conquest Of Elysium again.



That game really draws me in every time. It's a bit of a tough nut to crack at first, and you have to be okay with just randomly losing earlier in the game until you understand how your class/race is supposed to be played.

Also, while somewhat complex and not easy to get into, it's nowhere near as inaccessible without guides as Illwinter's other series, Dominions.

But the game triggers my "just one more turn!" like nothing else :hehe:

If you want to give it a go: Definitely turn on battle reports! Otherwise, you'll be forced to watch every single battle, which gets annoying once you have more than one army.
 
Anyone have any last recommendations for the 3DS?

I've realized I absolutely NEED to pick up 7th Dragon III Code VFD. I'm considering Dragon Quest VIII, but I'm wondering if I'd really want to play it on the 3DS rather than the PS2.

Also thinking about Etrian Odyssey V, Etrian Odyssey Nexus, Persona Q2, and Strange Journey Redux. The thing with those is that I already have Etrian Odyssey 1-4 as well as the redos of 1 and 2, the DS Strange Journey, and the original Persona Q. And I haven't been jumping at playing them. I see a lot of word that Etrian Nexus is really good, but it seems that the Etrian series has a lot of "the latest installment is the best EVAR" type of energy around it.

(Really shocked there wasn't an Etrian game for the WiiU. That might have been the only reason to buy that system. I wonder if now that there are no dual screen systems that the Etrian series is dead? The dual screen and touchscreen mapping is pretty much a core identity of the series. Probably one of only a handful of the dual screen touchscreen games where the gimmick actually justified itself.)

I noticed that the Style Savvy games became a series! That kind of blew my mind. I grabbed the first one back in the day thinking it would be one of those super obscure one offs. But it's actually pretty neat. Anyone know if there's any real reason to grab one or more of the sequels?

Action games on portables aren't really my thing, but if there are any CAN'T MISS types of those games, please at least recommend those too.
 
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