What game are you currently playing?

[WarChiefZeke]

In between powering up my halfling druid on Everquest - which i'm still doing and is highly addicting - the only other thing i'm doing is revisiting an old favorite of mine, Legend of Legaia.

Legaia uses a turn-based martial arts fighting system where you are choosing individual attacks (weapon attack, low kick, high kick, right punch, etc.) that you can chain into various special moves (high kick, low kick, high kick becomes a backflip attack for the main). These special attacks aren't shown to you, you have to discover them. As you level up your combos become longer and the specials flashier.

Because the last attack of your special move becomes the first attack for a new special move (because backflip ends with high kick, another backflip only needs low kick, high kick), there are many ways to chain together different specials. Many of these look quite good for their time and the sound effects make the blows feel heavy and satisfying.


Because of this I don't get bored with even random mobs. It's fun to try a new combo and kick the shit out of something.

Legaia is a post-apocalyptic setting. There are very few human cities left. The story is all over the place. God created a race of magical stone golems called Seru to aid humanity. God is half-human and half-seru. A corrupt class of nobles experimented on Seru to destroy the world using something called "Mist" to drive them crazy but really it's more like the evil Seru did it. An order of warrior-monks who have sworn off all Seru play a big role.


There is a great variety in music and all the tracks are catchy and good. It definitely has its own unique sound and it adds to the gameplay. The boss music in particular is quite good.

 

[Chronicler]

I've been getting back into Guild Wars 2. Been maybe 11ish years since I had a computer that could play it properly. My brother got himself a fancy new computer and he gave me his old one, so now I can play modern pc games.

Having a blast! This game was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner back in the day. Put 3000 hours in during the year or two I was able to play it. And it's still as fun as it ever was. And there's all sorts of fun new stuff to discover!

They even brought back a lot of the old stuff that used to be gone forever. When I was playing they were doing something they called "The Living World", where they'd just kind of come up with some new events on some map or another constantly, and then immediately retire it once that part of the story was over. I guess at some point they decided it was really uneconomical to be constantly going through the work of creating new content only to immediately jettison it from the game after a few weeks, so they brought it all back. All those old events and bosses and stuff I had fun with back in the day can now be revisited!

 

[BelgarathMTH]

I've been getting back into Guild Wars 2. Been maybe 11ish years since I had a computer that could play it properly. My brother got himself a fancy new computer and he gave me his old one, so now I can play modern pc games.

Having a blast! This game was my breakfast, lunch, and dinner back in the day. Put 3000 hours in during the year or two I was able to play it. And it's still as fun as it ever was. And there's all sorts of fun new stuff to discover!

They even brought back a lot of the old stuff that used to be gone forever. When I was playing they were doing something they called "The Living World", where they'd just kind of come up with some new events on some map or another constantly, and then immediately retire it once that part of the story was over. I guess at some point they decided it was really uneconomical to be constantly going through the work of creating new content only to immediately jettison it from the game after a few weeks, so they brought it all back. All those old events and bosses and stuff I had fun with back in the day can now be revisited!

Nice to meet another MMO player in these parts.

I'm probably going to play GW2 again eventually. I only ever went a little way into it. I tried three different classes and two races, and I started over several times. People that know me around here know I'm a chronic restarter.

The personal character stories were interesting. I wasn't crazy about all the jumping puzzles, especially as they started to get harder, but I got into the mindset that I wanted to play for map completion, and I had to do at least one jumping puzzle on every map to complete it, including in the main cities.

It was quite fun overall for a time, which is why I think I'll eventually give it another go, but on my first time, I started to find it a little tedious with the map completion play loop I had set for myself, especially after I realized I needed to go back and do all the other low-level racial starting areas to complete my goal.

I only ever progressed the main story in the base game up to the point where I went to the second big city and had helped to form an alliance. I was into it at that point, but I had all those unexplored maps back in the other racial starting areas calling to me.

I should probably come up with a different play plan like focusing story instead of completing maps, but I don't think my completionist nature will let me do that.

I will say for GW2 that it's maybe the best of the big, popular MMO's for player freedom of activity. I think it combines the best of sandbox MMO's, "theme park" MMO's, and story-driven MMO's into a very interesting and unique hybrid. Also, the mounted riding physics in GW2 can't be beaten.

 

[Chronicler]

Nice to meet another MMO player in these parts.

I'm probably going to play GW2 again eventually. I only ever went a little way into it. I tried three different classes and two races, and I started over several times. People that know me around here know I'm a chronic restarter.

The personal character stories were interesting. I wasn't crazy about all the jumping puzzles, especially as they started to get harder, but I got into the mindset that I wanted to play for map completion, and I had to do at least one jumping puzzle on every map to complete it, including in the main cities.

It was quite fun overall for a time, which is why I think I'll eventually give it another go, but on my first time, I started to find it a little tedious with the map completion play loop I had set for myself, especially after I realized I needed to go back and do all the other low-level racial starting areas to complete my goal.

I only ever progressed the main story in the base game up to the point where I went to the second big city and had helped to form an alliance. I was into it at that point, but I had all those unexplored maps back in the other racial starting areas calling to me.

I should probably come up with a different play plan like focusing story instead of completing maps, but I don't think my completionist nature will let me do that.

I will say for GW2 that it's maybe the best of the big, popular MMO's for player freedom of activity. I think it combines the best of sandbox MMO's, "theme park" MMO's, and story-driven MMO's into a very interesting and unique hybrid. Also, the mounted riding physics in GW2 can't be beaten.

Yeah, I think I was kind of similar when I started. Wanted to 100% explore every map before I moved onto the next.

Think I did all of Caledon Forest and The Brisbane Wildlands before getting frustrated and roaming free. I wasn't looking up any guides so that took like a solid couple months, during which I far outlevelled the zones I was playing in.

Wasn't the biggest deal because they scale you down to the zone's level, but it's still like, levelling is supposed to be fun because you're opening up new areas to explore and play in, and I was specifically denying myself that with this approach.

Eventually did go back and 100% all the mainland tyria zones. But by that point I'd played in them all so extensively it was mostly a matter of looking up a guide to find a handful of easy to miss spots I hadn't hit. I seem to recall there's a solid 1 or 2 spots in each zone that you'll just flatout probably never find on your own. Or at least, I wouldn't have found them, anyway.

 

[Skatan]

Stalker SoC EE or remaster or whatever it was called. Had a free copy from somewhere and decided to try it. It was a lot more fun than I had imagined and ended up getting invested into the run. I think I might be around halfway through the story already, though I have not spent a lot of time on side missions. Unfortunately most of the plethora of mods this game has doesn't work for this version, but the vanilla is perfectly fine to play as it is.

The gunplay is atrocious, hah. I've kinda learned it by now but apparently they added "leveling" in the game by making later guns better to hit where you aim to simulate your inexperience to start. At least according to some dude on Reddit. If they did I would have much preferred some kind of leveling system, even if ultra basic, cause it's quite infuriating to have bullets "disappear" (miss) even at point blank range where it should be impossible. Vs zombies for example I just run straight up and stab them with the knife instead of staying a bit back and shooting 30 shots to hit 3 times, hah. It's weird, but the atmosphere is thick, brooding and amazing and well makes up for the rest.

 

[Chronicler]

Guild Wars 2 has a beta going on right now, to test out the new specializations for the upcoming expansion.

But also you can use it to just try out any of the specializations, which is handy for me because I haven't unlocked them all yet.

Was able to put together a couple builds I really liked. One is just a build a prominent online personality put together. They call him "Snow Crow" and I just cribbed it off his website verbatim. It's really fun to play with so now I know what I wanna unlock next on that character.

The other is something I brewed together myself using the new necromancer specialization. Since it's new nobody's quite sure how to use it yet, but I'm noticing it actually plays very nice with some abilities I really like, but which haven't had much synergy with the existing specializations. So I'm pretty excited to see what that looks like when the expansion actually launches and they've put all the finishing touches on it.

 

[JustKneller]

I'm taking a little break from the repetitive simplicity of Elite Dangerous for The Long Dark. This game will never make the "last game you've finished" thread because there is no finishing The Long Dark. You survive until you die of something. I've been playing for a week now and I'm adding this to my 5/5 games list. There are very minor things I can nit about, but nothing that really brings the game down.

The basic premise is that there has been a geomagnetic event and the protagonist is a bush pilot that has crash landed on a fictional island loosely based on Vancouver. As far as I've seen, I'm the only living person on this island. There are occasional (frozen) bodies here and there, but so far no other survivors. There is some wildlife, some of it dangerous and some of it dinner (with enough skill). There's no getting off the island, and resources are limited for the most part. I think it might be possible to survive indefinitely, but after a long enough timescale, that probably involves running around with a handcrafted bow and wearing the skins of animals to stay warm. That definitely has verisimilitude.

I'm currently playing on the second to lowest difficulty, the recommended start for new players. After about a week, I think I'm on my third or fourth game. I've died from a wolf attack (maybe two), hypothermia, and possibly something else I've forgotten. Despite the fact that I'm stuck in a ravine and I can't find a way back to the base I've set up, my current run is starting to get a little comfortable, so I may start over soon and bump the difficulty. My days are spent wandering around for resources (food, tools, etc.) but there is no objective that I'm really building up to. It's just trying to survive. It's pretty clever how they designed it so that I have no real objective, but I still feel like I accomplish something by working out how I'm going to continue to survive. And, every step of the way, I learn a little more on how to make survival more sustainable.

My only real nit is that the map isn't random. So, the thrill of discovery will be limited. However, resources are randomized so subsequent playthroughs are different from each other. I'm not mad about the non-random map, either. Since there isn't a compass, quest markers, and even the mapping system is rudimentary, it's going to take a fair amount of time to even learn the map since I'm pretty much just triangulating with landmarks.

My only other nit is that days pass by too quickly. Two hours makes up an entire game day (and two more for night). However, you can thankfully change this to four, six, and eight hours. Two is way too short. You can't really explore far or enjoy the views. You really have to just stick to task. In a way, it somewhat makes the game easier because it gives you more time to get things done in a day, but it also makes things harder because it gives me more time to get more distance from a "safe" place. Even with six, I spent my last day getting not very far from the cabin I've found in this ravine, just poking around and looking for a way out and back to base. I have an idea for my next day, but it will probably have me sleeping out under the stars another night because I have a long trip ahead of me. Still, for my next game, I'll probably bump the difficulty up by one and maybe drop the timescale to four for a little more pressure.

I'm currently basing in a seaside cottage that has decent access to (a few renewable) resources. Very few things actually respawn in the game, certainly not enough resources to keep you going indefinitely. However, things sometimes wash up on the shore and that can be just enough to keep you going even if inland scavenging is tapped out. You can just barely see my cottage in the upper right.

Spoiler: cottage

It's a pretty safe neighborhood, except for the occasional wandering wolf. Wolves can easily be the death of you if you get into a fight with one, so they are best avoided. They can smell you from pretty far, especially if you're carrying meat from a hunt. And, they will stalk you. The speck in the distance on the ice here is a wolf, but I wish I was still further from it.

Spoiler: Wolf

I've started taking longer expeditions rather than staying close to home. It's pretty much the only way to find rare resources, but I also just want to explore the place. Here, I've found myself caught outdoors at night with no shelter. However, I have good clothing, a decent bedroll, and was able to scrounge enough wood to keep the fire going all night. I also found a site tucked out of the way so I didn't need to worry as much about wolves or bears. Plus, there was a nearby rabbit hutch, so I have dinner cooking at the fire.

Spoiler: Camping

I've found some interesting notes from the previous residents of the island. One of them led me to a vista with a great view of the northern lights.

Spoiler: Northern Lights

All in all, this is a great game. More so than most any other game I've played, I can just hop in and be in the moment and what I'm doing at any giving time is what I want to be doing (rather than grinding for a particular goal).

 

[Antimatter]

The Long Dark has a lukewarm reputation among some of its players regarding the post-launch support, but that level of detail eludes me, as I wasn't part of their fandom and don't know the ins and outs of it. To me personally, the game always seemed fine, and it's spectacular it's based on the real-world Vancouver Island. All screenshots I saw have some charm to them.

I'm back to playing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. After all, I never really completed the game, and in my previous attempts at playing it, I always found some distraction in other games. Hopefully, it sticks this time.

Playing as a Warpriest. The (main) party includes Seelah, Daeran, Ember, Wenduag, and Woljif. I'm enjoying new features they've added to the game, such as new spells, a companion (from DLC), new quests, and also experimenting with new classes/kits for companions. For example, Wenduag is a Manticore Shifter this time, and not only does the form fit her cat-spider mongrel nature, but it's a powerful ranged class.

 

[JustKneller]

The Long Dark has a lukewarm reputation among some of its players regarding the post-launch support, but that level of detail eludes me, as I wasn't part of their fandom and don't know the ins and outs of it. To me personally, the game always seemed fine, and it's spectacular it's based on the real-world Vancouver Island. All screenshots I saw have some charm to them.

All the more reason to be a patient gamer. I'd hate to have been someone who went in early, experienced an unfinished mess, than taken a pass on what eventually becomes a gem.

 

[Chronicler]

Playing launch day seems like a bad time all around these days.

It's basically for the superfans. People who wanna pay extra for the privilege of playing the early unfinished version.

I'm not as harsh on that as I used to be. I think there is a genuine market for it. I'm sure a lot of Beetles Fans would pay out the nose to listen to the early drafts of all their favorite albums.

But there's not a whole lot on the market I feel that way about. Generally I'm pretty happy to buy it after the price has been slashed and the game's been finished.

I do plan to try and get in on the ground floor of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 expansion though, so there's that.

 

[mlnevese]

All the more reason to be a patient gamer. I'd hate to have been someone who went in early, experienced an unfinished mess, than taken a pass on what eventually becomes a gem.

I'm still waiting to play Rogue Trader for this reason. All DLCS will add to the main story and I probably will not have time to replay a 150+ hours game. When I play, I want to see the full story

 

[Skatan]

Trying out a free copy of the old Spelljammer game on GOG. I have quite literally no idea what I'm doing but clicked around and managed to find a way to navigate to a planet. Wish me luck! I'm orbiting the planet of Coliar.

EDIT: Well, that didn't go particularly good, hah. Lost my first random encounter and doomed the whole galaxy.

 

[WarChiefZeke]

Let us know how that Spelljammer game is! I always wanted to try it, it's on my list, but the Gold Box games are so long and with such large investment I don't know if I will ever get there. I mean, you need to have both the cluebook and graph paper at your side to properly play some of these.

Right now I am both playing a tabletop game of Dark Sun, and going through the two Dark Sun games- Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager.

I have always loved the magic system of this world, how everything is tied to nature and everyone is essentially one form of druid or another.

For tabletop, I put a lot of time and effort into a background and overall goal of this adventuring party. I had to learn psionics from the ground up. But i'm having a fantastic time. Starting with Black Waters, then will go to Merchant House of Amketch, then will do Marauders of Nibenay before leaving the official books and beginning our own adventure down to the Forest Ridge and eventually the Jagged Cliffs where the last life-shapers live.

 

[Antimatter]

I'm continuing my P: WotR playthrough and having a lot of fun with it. But since Hades 2 just released and is receiving amazing review scores, as well as players' praise, I decided to fire it up and play for around 1 hour. I can already feel that the combat is different and deeper in this game, with a slower pace and more nuanced mana management. Having the MC as a spellcaster is a change, and they've tried to provide you with a lot of tools to feel that you can wield magic.

The "hub" is bigger, has more characters (at least it seems that way), and the game offers more dialogue than Hades.

I can immediately tell the game manages to improve on the first installment (even while that was a big challenge) and it plays a bit differently. Although, all your gaming experience doesn't go away, as you (the player) recognize familiar patterns (e.g. that offering a gift to your skelly teacher leads to him offering you a keepsake that essentially provides you 1 additional life at 0 hp).

I don't even need to say this, but the game's art style, soundtrack, and overall vibe remain spectacular.

Spoiler

Oh, and in that 1 hour I had 2 "runs", so Hades 2 is still ideal if you don't have much time to play in one session. You get more powerful, learn more about the story, and progress the game, even if your short run ends by an unfortunate death.

 

[Black Elk]

I haven't played any game in what feels like months and months, blah, but I have been listening to the Hades II music while doing laundry all day with my dogs hehe



I like the villainous carnival of it all. Feels like Noctober, with thrash synth harpsichords and whatnot



Spin and drain, rinse and repeat, tricks, treats, I'll take it lol

 

[Alesia_BH]

I recently made Master rank in Street Fighter 6 with my preferred character, Lily.

This was over due. For more than a year now I've had the requisite skill set to reach Master rank. It was just a matter of putting the time in. Last night I decided to set aside a couple hours to get it done, meeting the mark on the strength of two win streaks, one 9 games long, the other 8.

SF6 is my first fighting game, so I have no basis for comparison whatsoever, but I've been satisfied with the experience. I am -and always will be- more of a RPGer than a fighting game afficiando, but I can recommend SF6 to those looking for a change of pace. There's even an RPG like training mode, World Tour, suited to helping RPGers make the transition.

(With SF6 feeling "done" to me, at least for the time being, I'm likely to try something new semi-soon. The obvious choice would be BG3, which I own but still haven't downloaded...)

 

[WarChiefZeke]

Wow, master rank in your first fighting game! That's pretty impressive. I played fighting games casually for years before I jumped into the competitive scene. If you ever play Injustice 2, MKX or 11, or any older fighting game before 2011 at a high level, I am always up for a match!

I love Tyranny and just recently played it again. It can be beaten in a weekend so it's not a huge investment, but the world is full of intrigue and mystery and its one of my favorite settings of all time. It has been treated entirely unfairly in my mind, with its lack of marketing never letting the game get off the ground in a very similar way to Pillars 2.

Kyros is one of the best villains of all time in RPGs.

 

[Alesia_BH]

Thanks! There are ways of making it sound semi-impressive. For example, in a game that has sold over 5 million copies, I’m the 644th best Lily in North America.

The reality, though, is that virtually no one plays my character, and I specialize in exploiting the player base’s lack of matchup knowledge. I’m less a fighting game player, and more a game theorist who understands the power of frequency dependent effects, lol.

I’m sure I’d be exactly no competition for someone like yourself, who’s studied the genre and competed seriously.

 

[WarChiefZeke]

Thanks! There are ways of making it sound semi-impressive. In a game that has sold over 5 million copies, I’m the 644th best Lily in North America.

The reality, though, is that virtually no one plays my character, and I specialize in exploiting the player base’s lack of matchup knowledge. I’m less a fighting game player, and more a game theorist who understands the power of frequency dependent effects, lol.

I’m sure I’d be exactly no competition for someone like yourself, who’s studied the genre and competed seriously.

I completely understand! My main in Injustice 2, the fighting game i'm best at, is Gorilla Grodd. I often can win fights solely by matchup knowledge: nobody else plays Gorilla Grodd so they are often left guessing as to what I can and can't do.

Still, it's something to be proud of! Forgotten characters are often forgotten because they are more of a challenge to win with.

 

[Nimran]

I was pleasantly surprised by Digimon Story Time Stranger. I didn’t expect a Digimon game to be that good.

Some of my friends have expressed an interest in Warframe, so I’m going to try and get into that soon.

Also, yes, I am still around. I’m not as active since I got my job, but I’ll still pop in occasionally.