What Video Game Are You Currently Playing?

[BoxY]

I'm back on the Path of Exile horse for the new league, I'm not sure if I'm going to go full grind mode on it this time or just play occasionally. Either way I'll still be poor as usual :)

[Chow Yun Thin]

I've been playing Diablo II non-LoD for the past month. Although I log in at the start of every month to refresh my characters, I haven't played in about a good dozen years because most of them are stuffed full. I decided they needed room and to dump their lower-level stuff onto a new guy. I had heard of a hammerdin (Paladin that uses Blessed Hammers) and wondered why they were so maligned, so that was what the new guy was gonna be.

 

Blessed Hammers spiral away from the Paladin when cast, so they are finicky as hell to hit enemies with. In open areas, I cast a few hammers quickly and run away to lure enemies into the cyclone. It's always nice to see an approaching enemy get sideswiped by an errant hammer not meant for them. In close range or tight spaces, I try to have the enemies above the hammerdin as the hammers seem to hit there fairly consistently (pending lag). On the good side, they do fairly good damage and few monsters have any resistance from the hammers.

 

Mana Burn monsters are a fucking bane to spellcasters and it sucks ass to try and hit such monsters at close range with the hammers. My only real solution is to bring mana potions with enough regen to keep using the hammers, but not enough to top off the mana meter instantly and get vaporized when getting hit by one of these monsters. Even worse if they spawn with extra speed, so a pack of them often gets the drop on me and I can't do much but quit.

 

Now I'm having the same problem with my hammerdin that I have with my other characters (and games with loot systems in general): no space in my inventory because it's filled with stuff that I think I'll need. I had my highest-leveled character spend otherwise-worthless gold gambling for rare Paladin amulets and now his backpack is filled with jewelry that gives stat boosts OR resistances OR other nice mods. I basically have analysis paralysis because I'm trying to choose the right jewelry with stat boosts to allow him to wear his gear while keeping resistances high and there's never one perfectly suited for the job, and that's not even getting to giving jewelry to the other characters to make up for their deficiencies.

 

So far, I've gotten the hammerdin to Act 2 Hell. I do not look forward to getting the Act plot device in a bunch of sand tunnels where I can barely attack enemies. I think I'm gonna use him to generate corpses for a skeleton/Corpse Explosion Necromancer who's stuck in Act 4 Nightmare, thanks to having no real way of doing so (no permanent Merc in non-LoD and Attract is really slow). Most of the corpses will disappear when I switch characters, but I'm hoping the hammerdin will make enough for the Necro to get to them and raise a few skeletons.

[TenenteZashu]

Re-playing San Andreas probably for the 25th time as I wait for the Ancient Gods part 1 to be released

[Vile]

I should have saved it for this month but I finished Soma yesterday, first person survival-horror from Frictional Games, creators of the Amnesia series.  It was good, but depressing.  That's another game ending that'll stick with me for a bit.

 

Also been playing Hades which has been a lot of fun.  I have played Bastion and Transistor (not Pyre yet) but it seems like Supergiant consistently delivers the goods.

[bobstremglav]

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (hyper-realistic survival rogue-like; PC)

Adventure Island (NES)

 

Plus very many Atari 2600 games

 

P.S.: Among Us, android version

[Lila Feuer]

Got Animal Crossing: New Horizons like three days ago and can't stop playing it. It's my first AC game too.

[Master O]

Capcom's classic fighting game "Vampire Savior," aka "Darkstalkers 3".

[Terrcraft]

Sonic Unleashed.

One of the better 3d sonic games. Way better than the Metacritic score (54) suggests tbh.

[joepallai]

Picked up Grimrock II today and will be playing that for the next couple of days.   I really enjoyed the first one and the fact that it includes an editor is just the icing on the cake.

[Percy T]

I've been playing old ps2 games with my cousin for the last few days, and we're having a blast.

- Timesplitters

- Jak 3

- Tony Hawk's Underground

- The Simpsons Road Rage

And I also helped him beat Ocarina Of Time on N64 for the first time ever.

[MrDeAD1313]

Phasmophobia with @Count651@Miss Bubbles

[kawadec]

- BPM: Bullets Per Minute. Between my liking of shooters and rhythm games I'm certainly the target audience for this one. I suck at staying alive (staying on beat while evading those dang bats is somehow harder than I expected), but it's been a blast.

 

- Until You Fall. VR hack-and-slash roguelike that's also quite addicting. Finally got past the boss fight with the two supercharged hammer bros (an encounter that gave me some real Doom 1 Bruiser Brothers vibes) through a combination of the ritual dagger's fireballs and the sheer health-melting power of the axe.

 

- Genshin Impact. Decided to give this one a try and see if it can suck me in. Strikes me as an MMO Breath of the Wild that's using the dreaded/effective gacha model to keep the devs' lights on. Personally I couldn't get into Breath of the Wild's schtick, but hoping the combat and exploration here manages to sell the experience once things get going. The elemental interactions on attacks are kinda interesting, and weapons don't break, so there's a couple points in its favor.

[Lizardcommando]

Super Mario 35. It's Super Mario Bros. but done in a "battle-royale style" platformer. Seems almost really straightforward but there is a surprising amount of strategy involved with the game. Once you get into it, the game can get really addicting.

[CyberDreams]

Final Fantasy VII on XB1. I've only briefly played it before so i don't really know the game or the series so i figured i'd start with VII and it was on sale. So far i actually like it a lot. There are a few "boosters" that make it easier for beginners (like me) that you can enable at any time such as: restoring party members' max HP, MP and filling their LIMIT gauge at any time and you can toggle random encounters on/off also. I can see why this game is such a classic. The story is really, really good. I don't even mind the blocky characters tbh. I mean, i play Doom and Quake so why would I? Haha!

 

SNK 40th Anniversary Collection on XB1. It has a bunch of vintage SNK games including Ikari Warriors, Beast Busters and Prehistoric Isle and it also includes a museum as well as a soundtrack area. Unfortunately it doesn't include the soundtracks for every game and i've been having control troubles with some games. Once in a while the character (or w/e i'm playing as) will float upwards toward the top of the screen, no matter what game i play or what controller i use. The game has its issues but if you catch it on sale it's good fun.

 

Doom/Doom II on XB1. Still playing the newly added WAD's. Actually i'm still going through TNT on HMP difficulty (or trying to at least). I might need to tone it down a bit. I still suck with a controller lol.

 

Doom/Doom II on PC. I still mess with WAD's on PC but not as often anymore unfortunately. When i'm feeling good i'll play through a few maps though.

 

 

[Phobus]

It's taken me eleven years to get round to it (my brother bought it on our Steam account when it first came out), but I started Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II last night. Playing on Normal/Sergeant and just going to go through the campaign once, trying to get a full experience. I've read around the game a little, so I'm aware that there's rewards for going fast, keeping my guys on their feet and killing all opposition. Hopefully it doesn't pull me away from NaNoWADMo too much, but it looks pretty good from my initial hour or so of playing!

[Triangle Box Studio]

Just been randomly playing GTA V.

[seed]

The Build games and still Sithing the hell up in KOTOR 2.

 

Damn that game is so much fun :D , and I've generally managed to master it now - DS at least, since I have basically no interest in a LS playthrough. Got both a male Jedi Sentinel and a female Jedi Guardian, the Sentinel is great with Force powers due to how many points I have with him, and the Guardian is somewhere in between, but managed to make her devastating in melee combat without realizing - so much so that, by the time I got to Onderon at level 24 or so two Master Power Attacks with Fury utterly destroyed the Jedi masters. My Sentinel is weak with melee. I've also noticed the Marauder is hands down the best prestige class for DS, no argument there.

 

I've also learned how to best deal with the HK Factory, which was... less than enjoyable the first time around, and while I'm not quite mowing through droids now, they go down quite fast. And I've also Jedified all my companions, found and optimal and very easy route for it that by the time I reach Nar Shaddaa (second planet for me, I prefer going to Dantooine first to get my lightsaber, but I hate how tough Vrook is at that stage, good thing the tables turn later on) they're all done. But there are some I don't bother with since they just don't really offer much. The farthest I got with HK-47 was to its final Influence check but didn't manage to get past it, not that I tried too hard though, and with Goto I didn't bother at all, he's weak and all you get is learning he's actually a Republic droid.

 

I also have mixed feelings about Bao-Dur since he can't wear any robes at all, just regular armors, and for that it's... kinda pointless since they don't allow the use of Force powers anyway, only the Jal Shey and Malak's armors allow it, but he can't wear either of them anyway. He never manages to get too many Force powers either, even Atton gets a few more by the end of the game, and Brianna/Disciple, Visas, Kreia, and the player just eclipse him in this department. Maybe I don't know how to best build him, but frankly turning him into a Jedi doesn't pay off much. Most online discussions I've read seem to tell the same story, he's not that good as a Jedi.

[hybridial]

50 minutes ago, seed said:

Damn that game is so much fun :D , and I've generally managed to master it now - DS at least, since I have basically no interest in a LS playthrough.

 

 

I don't know if I ever will play Kotor 2, I know its meant to be pretty good but it's just, finding the enthusiasm these days, but I just want to bring up, that I played through the first KOTOR. And I kinda liked it, I liked it more than Dragon Age for sure. 

 

And the thing is, I am very much predisposed to play the good guy in these games. And Kotor was the only one ever that through how absolutely annoying a certain character is who's name rhymes with Spatula was, and just the general lack of depth in the storytelling by the time it reaches the finale of the story (there's good stuff early on but there's just nothing towards the end) that I very consciously decided to stick my lightsaber through rhymes-with-spatula and then the game made me do it to the characters I didn't fucking hate. I mean, sure. It's fucking worth it XD 

[Kokoro Hane]

Since the Spooktober VN jam recently wrapped up the beginning of this month, I've mainly been playing some of the entries that look the most interesting to me. "ChainMail" was a damn good use of the e-mail system code. That has to be one of the simpler entries yet so effective. "Last Meal at Cafe Mori" was a surprisingly warm entry, with cute animations and being able to make desserts with a magic blender, I loved that mechanic. And then there's "Ann Heard Voices" with stereo voice acting and making puns the most sinister thing ever. So yeah, my October is mostly being filled with creepy visual novels. 

[seed]

1 hour ago, hybridial said:

I don't know if I ever will play Kotor 2, I know its meant to be pretty good but it's just, finding the enthusiasm these days, but I just want to bring up, that I played through the first KOTOR. And I kinda liked it, I liked it more than Dragon Age for sure. 

 

And the thing is, I am very much predisposed to play the good guy in these games. And Kotor was the only one ever that through how absolutely annoying a certain character is who's name rhymes with Spatula was, and just the general lack of depth in the storytelling by the time it reaches the finale of the story (there's good stuff early on but there's just nothing towards the end) that I very consciously decided to stick my lightsaber through rhymes-with-spatula and then the game made me do it to the characters I didn't fucking hate. I mean, sure. It's fucking worth it XD 

 

You're thinking of Bastila, heh.

 

I'm in the process of watching a KOTOR 1 LS playthrough currently, and honestly I think the story is better in 2 than in the first one, and I like the characters a bit more too, although it could have used someone more like Jolee Bindo. Atton is fine, Kreia is my waifu, Visas is extremely chill, Brianna (Handmaiden) is great too but for some reason I can't teach her anything (wtf?), HK-47 is full of wisecrack just like me and I love that, Goto is relatively interesting, at least its personality, Hanharr is ruthless as heck, and Disciple/Mikel is fine too - also the smartest male character with ease, but he's so balanced and nice I can understand why apparently a lot of people hate him, despite being interesting and also quite powerful with melee. He also gets a good set of Force powers too by the end.

 

Bao-Dur however is a bit underdeveloped, this is actually where the game is visibly rushed even with TSLRCM. Bao vanishes physically after the player fails Kreia (or the Jedi try to cut them from the Force at the Enclave for LS) and only still shows up on Malachor V via holograms. He was supposed to show up at the HK-50 factory alongside HK-47 but instead, you only play as HK for its entirety. Hanharr is also a huge plot hole for DS as after landing on Malachor he vanishes entirely from the game. Missing from the cages, Kreia doesn't mention him in his prediction, and doesn't show up in any cutscene either. For LS at least he shows up one last time to face Mira and gets killed, but for DS, he disappears.

 

As for me, it's not that I'm not willing to play the "good guy" - although at least in KOTOR 2 I don't even think such a thing exists since both paths reach the same destination, the journey and means at disposal are different mainly -, but rather because over the recent years I have simply grown weary of the Jedi, the Republic, and their forced narrative. Jedi and Sith are both really just different sides of the same coin than the black/white narrative that's usually shoved, and are in absolutely no way saints - hypocrites, arrogant, ultra secretive and deliberately repressing knowledge, raising Jedi in a cult-like style, deathists, preferring stagnation over progress or change, often preferring inaction or pointlessly "debating" over practical solutions, weak (I mean, let's be serious, how often do groups of Jedi need to take down one Sith Lord, or two... ), authoritarian, and the list can really go on - I've noticed in online discussions that the folks familiar with the Extended Universe in particular seem to be able to really conjure up long laundry lists against them. Speaking of KOTOR 2 specifically, I think both Kreia and Atton were right in their own way about them as well, Kreia because one cannot truly understand anything if they're unbalanced and embrace a singular idea - and were better off defeated -, and Atton, well, because the universe maybe really would be better off without Jedi hypocrisy and their dirty little secrets ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . So you could say it's kinda like an ideological conflict, and sure, I'm probably just taking things way too serious for something that isn't real, but hey :p .

[hybridial]

@seed Well, if you just consider Star Wars by the original movies it's pretty clear they are just meant to be face value fairy tales where good triumphs over evil, and really anything more complex than that isn't coming from the initial source. Obsidian have tended to like moral ambiguity in the stories they do so I wouldn't be surprised if it very much explores the force dichotomy with more interesting nuances than it was in the original source, but I have to say I don't think it resembles the original intent at all when you start going in that direction and I think the simplistic setting kinda falls apart, because there's not much to hang any of it on other than a messy hodge podge in which different creators did their own thing and there's a lack of a cohesion to it all, it's really the same issue I don't like Marvel and DC's superhero comics that much, because one point of view is often entirely contradicted in stories about the same characters and for me that's just too convoluted and confusing, and I will also go ahead and say unless it's The Watchmen which did do it well, I tend to roll my eyes at edgy super hero material because I think it's ugly and against the point of why most of those characters were created, and there's lots of things you can be cynical in, why super hero stuff? it seems childish to me. 

 

In a way I can see why Disney wanted to scrap it all and try to start fresh but then they made terrible, terrible movies with no uniting vision so they did nothing to fix the problem, they just brought it fully into the main canon movies. 

 

 

[seed]

23 minutes ago, hybridial said:

@seed Well, if you just consider Star Wars by the original movies it's pretty clear they are just meant to be face value fairy tales where good triumphs over evil, and really anything more complex than that isn't coming from the initial source. Obsidian have tended to like moral ambiguity in the stories they do so I wouldn't be surprised if it very much explores the force dichotomy with more interesting nuances than it was in the original source, but I have to say I don't think it resembles the original intent at all when you start going in that direction and I think the simplistic setting kinda falls apart, because there's not much to hang any of it on other than a messy hodge podge in which different creators did their own thing and there's a lack of a cohesion to it all, it's really the same issue I don't like Marvel and DC's superhero comics that much, because one point of view is often entirely contradicted in stories about the same characters and for me that's just too convoluted and confusing, and I will also go ahead and say unless it's The Watchmen which did do it well, I tend to roll my eyes at edgy super hero material because I think it's ugly and against the point of why most of those characters were created, and there's lots of things you can be cynical in, why super hero stuff? it seems childish to me. 

 

In a way I can see why Disney wanted to scrap it all and try to start fresh but then they made terrible, terrible movies with no uniting vision so they did nothing to fix the problem, they just brought it fully into the main canon movies.

 

Yeah, pretty much, this is why looking at these SW sources is a bad idea if you want nuance, but even there it isn't quite so black/white if you pay attention to some details. Some. But otherwise you're right.

 

The thing about Marvel and DC is that, well, considering they go through so many hands and visions, with each writer doing whatever they want, conflicts and contradictions are all but guaranteed - see Moon Knight for instance, which is quite a convoluted mess due to how various writers tried to reinvent the character multiple times. Even the Batman Beyond comics are convoluted a bit now, especially since with Rebirth, they've retconned certain elements from the TV show, namely Terry's mother who died in a war now. Also Barbara and Dick are not as old anymore. And Damian took Ra's place as Head.

 

This is why I choose to not read too much into them, but only get the essence and general idea, because if you think deeper or too much about it, the issues begin to stand out like sore thumbs, so I treat each series/run as its own thing and appreciate it, or not, for what it is, instead of concerning myself with issues like continuity and consistency. You will find no such thing here.

 

This clash of visions is quite apparent in the new SW trilogy as well. For how good the first two movies were, the troubled development of the last one made it end on a very low note, and the lack of a unified vision across the entries only added fuel to the fire.

[Chopkinsca]

I was a good 5 or 6 hours into Avernum 4 when I just had to restart. It was starting to really really bother me that I forgot to change my mage's robe colours from brown to blue (so he matched his profile picture. This is my second time playing the game and it is a lot of fun.

 

I'm replaying the whole Avernum series and am currently on Avernum 4, which I only played once before. The first 3 games I've played 3 times now and they just a bundle of fun. I've only played 4 - 6 once, so my memory of them is a bit fuzzy. Then again, my memory on anything if very fuzzy. Then I have the remakes of the first three Avernum games, which I also only played once.

[Swordofdanu]

Only just found Project Warlock on PS4, Holy shit it's good, really scratchs that Doom feeling. 

 

Does Ion Fury ever go on sale? 

[DooM Bear]

Been playing the pants off Pokémon Red and Blue (the old gen 1 ones) recently :-D

 

Man it brings back so many good childhood memories :’-D

 

Even remembered how to do the Missingno. and Mew glitches 15-20 years later XD

[seed]

Duke 64 via Rednukem.

 

This version of Duke is quite nice honestly, with its difference to the maps, weapons, and sprites. The sprite work is definitely better here than it ever was on the PC version, particularly the Troops, who seem to be based on an old design from back when they were blue, much their features are a lot more detailed now than ever.

 

The new effects are pretty cool too, although they can sometimes make seeing things a bit more difficult, notably bosses, but not to extreme levels. The RPG was also replaced with a grenade launcher of sorts in this version, and the Chaingun is now an SMG akimbo.

 

Some maps reference areas seen later in the game, while others make an early entrance, like a Duke Burger building already existing and being visited as early as E1L2, which was also renamed from Red Lights District to Gun Crazy.

 

Some alterations do seem to have been made due to technological limitations however. The original sky on E1 is gone now, replaced with a blue one, so the episode is technically set during day time now. And while it brought some visual enhancements, it also has some drawbacks. For one, the sector lighting is quite flat, and the paletted look is completely gone. I could live without the palette, but the darkness of various maps and areas was surely lost now that the game is flat as a pancake. Some secret exits are also gone, and the map order was changed in places as a result.

 

Duke's voice acting is slightly different too, same for his lines, and the ladies can no longer be interacted with at all, or killed, but can be saved, so it seems to have some censorship put in place, but due to the way it was done, I don't mind it at all, I've seen way worse. So all things considered, I'm quite liking this version so far, but I feel that it could have been even better. I would have surely loved to see colored lighting a la Doom 64 or PSX Doom here, but I guess you can't have them all.

[[McD] James]

Ducktales: Remastered. It's fantastic. 

[Lila Feuer]

On 10/19/2020 at 2:13 AM, seed said:

the ladies can no longer be interacted with at all, or killed, but can be saved, so it seems to have some censorship put in place

Just wait til you find what they did to the hanging cocooned women lol. They figured since violence doesn't seem to be an issue, why not showcase the hypocrisy of that. It won't be until Dark Side tho.

Also wait, you can just play Duke 64 on PC now like the release of the PS1 version's exclusive fourth episode? Never tried Rednukem btw.

[Doom_Dude]

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. I started a new game and have made it passed whatever stuff I was doing the first time. I have yet to do the final battle and I started exploring parts of the Bitterblack island. Pretty fun RPG with a nice combat system and a limited open world map. The map is... decent but it should have been more open with more ways to travel between the larger areas. You end up going through the same narrow paths to get to the slightly larger area which becomes tedious at times. At least there's a fast travel system where you can plop down destination crystals and beam to them whenever you want and you can move them about but you only have several to place. Some of the enemies are hard as hell until you level up, which is nice and you're able to run away from battles that aren't going well. lol The inventory is kinda ok, bordering on meh, which is a grid system but for some reason things like potions are not alphabetical so it's hard to find and there's a lot of different potions and samey looking icons. For some reason the equipment menu is in the ummm menu but not in the inventory tho you can equip armor / weps in the inventory you just don't see the stats and you have to see it to get what I'm on about...so yeah, that's odd. There is a huge storage space you can dump all the extra stuff in and you can craft stuff but I found that not very interesting. I haven't finished the end boss yet but there's supposed to be content after the final battle and new monsters n stuff. I wish the game had more dungeons that aren't quest related places... the game could use those for sure.

[bobstremglav]

Abrams Battle Tank for MS-DOS

 

The plot is about Word War 3, started by USSR against Germany. USA/NATO join the game, with their modified tanks which costs $1 000 000.

 

You play as team of one Abrams. Before missions you get what to do by tellings of black commander. Then you choose which ammo you would take and go in fight.

 

Maps are large, and funny, but in fact you only one who can stop everybody - there usually 10-30 enemies against you, while your allies don't do anything useful.

 

With it, don't feel myself like Rambo - ПТР-80 (PTR-80)(If not wrong) are just horrible, these men with rocket launchers almost impossible to hit until you get too close, while they gonna shoot in you. There also helicopters, tanks and other vehicles. And your stupid allies, which you still don't should to kill.

If one thing broken, everything can go wrong, especially if it related to fight. One time my visions for shooter were broken, so to see outdoors I was forced to play mostly as driver.

 

You have 3 types of ammo, machine gun, smoke gas, thermovision (I don't know how it works against tanks, since you see them fully...), zoom, and some other stuff like auto-aiming.

Indicators of other members can be useful. As commander you can use map, as driver - see more accurate speed and fuel.

 

There also enough of some other things - rivers, bridges, bases (every map include at least one your base, there you can heal tank and refresh ammunition)

 

Missions... Okey. Break bridge, free the base, defend your tanks. But always to do all this, you anyway need to shoot... some Ts, MiS and PTRs.

 

EDIT: ТМ-5 EVEN WORSE. THEY KILL YOU FASTER THAN ПТРs, THEY SHOOT FASTER THAN YOU, THEY SEEMS TO MOVE FASTER THAN YOU. ONE SUCH KILL ME WITH 4-5 SHOTS ON 6TH MISSION (OUT OF 8), AND NOW, I FORCED TO START WHOLE GAME FROM BEGINNING.

I hate ТМ-5 more now. Thanks, allies...

 

EDIT: I didn't read manual fully, so maybe I looks stupid. But maybe ПТР enemies aren't actually rocketers, since ПТР can means "ПротивоТанковое Ружьё" (AntiTank Rifle), just their projectiles looks like anything that vehicles shoot at you, and who wield such weapon in reality on shoulder and shoot with such pose?

I dunno, maybe that prank of translators, and they named enemy wrong, or ПТРs actually are riflemen, just developers were lazy to draw bullets... I dunno, I just player

Now I getting why some translations not really good.

Edited October 26, 2020 by bobstremglav : 1.Buttheat; 2.What if...