Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!
Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.
I dipped back into Civilization 5 again recently. For the first time in a playthrough I asked another civ to go to war with me against another and they actually said “yup let’s do it.”
We crushed Genghis Khan together. I took his capital, liberated the city states for the alliances/negating warmongering penalties, and left him with a single landlocked city. I warned you not to touch Sydney, you butt.
We’ve been playing a lot of co-op (just finished the new Turtles game) and competitive games against each other, so Lumines (had it on Xbox Live Arcade and installed it on my Series S for some PSP/Xbox 360 nostalgia) has been given a good run. PlateUp! looked like Overcooked but a little bit different (you get to move the kitchen and tables around); soon after, I realised I take these types of games too seriously and become kitchen Nazi, ordering people around and generally not enjoying my time.
Brotato for some sessions in between as it’s on Game Pass (already completed quite a few characters - some level 5 - on PC) and so easy to pick up.
Having only tried it on the Switch (and it looked/played awful), we loaded up Fortnite based on a student’s recommendation (he is only 11 though); it’s actually pretty fun! We won half of the time out of a hundred people, can do couch co-op (was a little fiddly to get started), but is a large-map, relatively sparse experience until you get into vehicles and track people down. The missus warmed up to it after a game or two and now enjoys pratting around on the motorbike and acting as bait so I can destroy waves of kids.
Roguebook: I’d been lucky enough to stumble upon Cobalt Core which I’ve since finished and needed another Slay the Spire-esque game to scratch that itch. Roguebook is almost it, it still needs polish but that is unlikely to come. Runs are quite long, and the map system, while expansive and fun to explore/strategise around, makes it a bit too much at times. I had it on my wishlist a fair while and it handily appeared in a recent bundle, so I can’t complain much. I’ll get a few more hours out of it (there are four characters to unlock, and you use two - and their cards - in each run) before moving on. The style is nice, the music motivating enough, although the enemies aren’t the widest in variety. A fine little game that serves its purpose.
Baldur’s Gate 3: I just loaded it up on my Mac (Air, M2)… the framerate isn’t there. It’s a bit choppy, has a fundamental bug which I had to find a workaround for (controller was recognised as two players for some reason), and generally is a fiddly game in the 40 mins I just put in. I’ll tweak the graphics a little more and see if I can get a smoother experience before putting it down. I don’t have any plans to get a gaming PC anytime soon so I’ll give it a go in a year or so I reckon.
Haven’t played anything these last several days, save a little bit of Cogmind. I don’t really enjoy traditional roguelikes, because there’s usually no real incentive to play them (i.e. story, atmosphere, engaging gameplay etc.), and, honestly, I just suck at them lol. But I do keep coming back to that one, because it’s just so immersive! And, for some reason, I get Blame! vibes from it; I guess it’s because of the whole abandoned facility full of robots thing.
Some other things I’m planning to do:
I’ve finished the main story of Yakuza 0 and now plan to do the remaining substories. After that, I’ll finally move on to Kiwami
Finished one ending of Lunacid, and will try to get to the rest (plus collect all the weapons and magic rings). While I tried my best to not use wikis or guides (so as not to spoil the secrets), I think this time I’ll probably need one. Well, FromSoft and FromSoft-inspired games really do be like that lol
Almost hit 200hrs in Noita and somehow it’s still fun. It’s my go to when I don’t have energy for VR, and the first non-VR title that’s really grabbed me for the past few years. Really great game for shorter play sessions.
Something about a non twitch shooter where you have to think about your squad a little bit feels so good in a sea of 360 no scope garbage. My last favorite online shooter was The Division 2, so maybe tight, squad gameplay is just my thing.
The missions can get a little samey, but since the terrain always changes it’s still nice to explore around and have new experiences. But also it feels like there is so much room you add new missions and planets and bad guys.
Finally, a live service game that kind of makes sense thematically.
I still have the helldivers itch but bugs are starting to diminish my enjoyment. The last few days in particular have been extremely buggy. My weapons have disappeared, extraction has bugged out, side objectives autocompleting (I couldn’t activate a radar on one mission because it completed itself), lairs not completing despite destroying all the spawners, mobs spawn right next to me, I’ve gotten stuck inside terrain, kicked to orbit by poor connection, crashed the game.
The game is great when it works, but it’s definitely unstable right now.
I’ve been playing Division 2, finding a lot of fun gear that promises skill enhancements to the team on various activations - but it ends up feeling irrelevant when most players you team up with use rush tactics that dump everything into damage, meaning there’s no time to process those.
I really like the feel of action games that punish players for acting too quickly; rewarding more deliberate gameplay (even if the net result isn’t really “hard”). I wonder if Helldivers would meet that, but I didn’t like the first game and it sounds like they have server issues.
Cyberpunk has really come into its own. I just wish it had more cosmetic options, outside a few iconic outfits there aren’t many options for good looking clothing unless you want to look like a member of a grunge band or go full casual daywear.
I slept on Risk of Rain 2 for a long time but finally tried it out and damn, they did a great job converting the original from 2d to 3d.
Still picking away at Hades achievements, too. I’m at over 90% now and will trigger another one once I get back from my current run. 3 more after that: one grindy one, one gifty one, and one with a lot of heat. Might also go for 100% on the relationship bonds.
Bought all 3 RoR games. Terrible on all 3. Probably because I don’t stick to the games. I feel defeated and stop playing…just to start again a few months later.
I somehow didn’t realize there were 3 of them lol.
But yeah, these are definitely games you need to stick with and unlock stuff for progression. I didn’t make it past like stage 2 or 3 until I had unlocked a couple other characters.
And with the way the items stack, you lose versatility but gain power if you use the 3d printer to convert all of your powerups into a single one (though not every powerup is worth it, at least I think). I still haven’t beaten the game for the 2nd one, but I’m making it to the last level more consistently now.
My experience in ROR2 was, in the tutorial, I was told “You did it! Now head to the teleporter that takes you to the next level.” I had no idea where it was or what it looked like, and could not consider the question for 10 seconds because the level quickly built up with more and more infinite enemies.
I hate roguelike games in general because that randomization leads to some very, very uncontrolled and uncurated experiences where it throws the worst shit at a new player.
I liked the card tactics, but I got very quickly bored of all the story conversations; given the way they seem to be connecting to the most obscure Marvel comic lore and characters. I’m sure it’s amazing to some people, but I could not give less of a shit who the “Original Midnight Suns” were, or even the lore behind my playable character.
Maybe when I return to it I’ll just start skipping any dialog not related to the core story.
Not mods per se, but there’s walk-through guides living up to their name by walking you through every step of every puzzle. As someone who loves CRPGs but is absolutely awful at puzzles, they’ve saved me countless hours in BG3 alone, let alone game’s in general.
An example search string would be “Baldurs Gate defiled temple puzzle”
As for the barrels, I can’t find one about those specially, but the Fair Fire mod removes unavoidable fire damage fromsurfaces, so that might be of interest 🙂
League of Legends: I try to get diamond before Riot removes Linux support.
Mushy Score: I a lot of testing before releasing the game.
Spiritfarer: Just to have something relaxing alternative.
Witcher 3 Quit smoking and drinking a few months ago and been going through my backlog to keep my mind busy. Started with Skyrim, then assassins creed Valhalla and now Witcher.
Not sure what I’ll do next. I have fallout 4, assassins creed origin and odyssey. All these games I’ve started and never finished and would like to finish.
I’m about 45h in. So far I’ve completed most side stories, the Pokemon League and I’m now doing Dodonka Island. Still have most of the main story before me, didn’t even had a fourth party member for close to 35h. It’s still great.
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