Gaming What Are You Playing?

[Charles]

Currently I'm hooked on Star Wars: Battlefront; opinions of the game is polarizing to say the least, but I love it because it reminds me of classic shooters like Goldeneye. It's simple, elegant, looks fantastic, and doesn't allow your own teammates to kill you for your stuff.   I also adore the map design and character balancing. My favorite mode is "Heroes vs. Villains."  The best way to play is selflessly--being willing to heal your teammates as Leia and The Sith Lord--and throwing yourself at overpowered heroes when it's your turn to play as the grunt.

I'm not into the whole Call of Duty craze and Halo is ultra competitive. Star Wars is easy to pick up for a little bit and I hope that future installments are as deep as the old versions of the game. I'm a bit turned off by the high price of the season pass, so I'll have to see if future DLC is worth it.

[Magus]

Dragon Ball Xenoverse has been taking up a lot of my time. Shocking because I tend to stay away from the anime games, especially now. But I was watching a bit of DBZ abridged (the only way I can actually watch DBZ now) and got all nostalgic and wanted to create my own DBZ character. Despite the amount of flaws I'm finding with the game (main one being buttons can be unresponsive at times) I'm having a lot of fun. Back then when I had no interest in RPGs at all, the grinding was one of my concerns. I like the way it's handled here. When it comes to grinding I don't mind fighting over and over (part of it I think has got to do with my love of Street Fighter 3-4) I think right now my character is at level 62, a male saiyan, has super saiyan 2 along with the perfect kamehameha. Gotenks is my trainer (currently looking for Frieza) 

As much fun as I've been having with DB Xenoverse, there are times where this game can get to the point of getting you beyond raging limits. There's this one parallel quest where you're fighting all super saiyans and each pairing gets tougher. I got to the last pairing and all they were doing was spamming Super Kamehameha's. If you weren't fighting the mechanics themselves this fight would be alright, but having unresponsive buttons, invisible walls (I got some huge issues with this one) and an unforgiving camera is too much. You won't have enough time to charge your ki, and it's too much like right trying to fight hand to hand (good luck with that since everybody seem to be able to block behind them). Your items won't get you too far either since you only have 4 slots and you use 1 and that one is done for good until the fight is over (yet I have roughly 10-20 healing items in my bag and I can only use 1 per fight, whatever).

I also started up a Mass Effect run once again. And then of course I'm still playing Street Fighter 3&4

[Shinmaru]

Wrote a big ol' tweet thing about most everything I beat last year if anyone is interested. Undertale ended up my favorite current game I beat, while Shadow of the Colossus was my favorite older game that I beat.

Recently I played Tales from the Borderlands. I have zero interest in anything Borderlands, but Tales is a ton of fun -- very funny while not seeming like it's trying too hard for laughs (which is a failing of a lot of video game humor, I find), plays with the particular perspectives of its dual narrators in fun ways, and if you've played any Telltale games in the past, it riffs on the conventions and expectations of those types of games in amusing ways. Underrated game from last year.

Also played through The Wolf Among Us. Kind of rolled my eyes at the premise (classic fairy tale characters, but EDGY NOIR!!!!!), but found the story more interesting when it became about victims and institutions of power. Not perfect by any means, but it gave me a lot more than expected.

Stalled a bit in Batman: Arkham Knight. Enjoying the bits that are like Asylum/City; however, I hate everything having to do with the Batmobile. It's so much more fun flying around the city as Batman -- I dislike being corralled into slower transportation. The shooting sequences are also incredibly boring. 

I was sick this week so the only game I really had the energy to play was Downwell. Scratches a similar itch that Spelunky did when I got OBSESSED with that game a couple of years ago. 

[John]

My most-played game right now is Dirty Bomb, far and away. Which makes me feel kinda, well... dirty (sorry) because it's basically just another F2P class-based shooter in a sea of F2P class-based shooters. I'm not quite sure what the draw for me is. It could be that you have to unlock classes very slowly (unless you pay money for them), so you kinda cherish each one and learn its ins and outs instead of writing it off after one or two difficult rounds. Or maybe it's just the fairly gentle skill slope.

I've also been playing lots of roguelikes in the last few years. I've taken all sorts of 'em around the block: Nethack, Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup, Sil, Caves of Qud, ADOM, etc. But the one I keep coming back to over and over is Brogue, which is an absolute miracle of emergent gameplay. Eschewing all the cumbersome character stats that most roguelikes use, Brogue only measures you in terms of Strength and Health, and everything else is up to the items you find and how ingeniously you can play them against the various terrain and enemy types. The game's UI has an unheard-of level of polish and usability relative to other traditional ASCII roguelikes as well. If you've been looking to get into the genre but have been too intimidated, definitely try Brogue. It's a great example of "easy to learn, difficult to master".

 

I was sick this week so the only game I really had the energy to play was Downwell. Scratches a similar itch that Spelunky did when I got OBSESSED with that game a couple of years ago. 

Dude, Downwell looks so fun. I've been meaning to pick it up, and now more so because Spelunky is one of my all-time favorite games.

[Shwa]

Currently playing 2 games at the moment, with one having the most of my attention since I'm currently at a stopping point with the other two:

The Division:

I have to say this is the first shooter I've enjoyed since the Halo series that I've actually liked and can't wait to get home from work to play.  It's fast paced,deeply involved with a believable story line, and the online interaction is on point.  I've only seen a few glitches, but that could be accounted to the numerous players playing on different servers, so it's really no fault to the game itself.

Lego Marvel Avengers:

Though campy and cute, Lego has never shy'ed away from making amazing games.  Whether it be from our childhood to whats currently trending, their games are interactive, action packed and memerable to the players.  I enjoy this game because it covers a lot of the major marvel cinematic universe from Captain America to Thor and more.  The players are treated with in game voiceovers from teh movie to specific events, and there are lots of hidden contents to unlock characters withing the MCU. 

[James]

Hey Shwa, what platform are you playing The Division on? If it's PS4, then feel free to add me to PSN... my name on there is white-pikmin.

Here's what I'm playing at the moment...

Dark Souls III

Still playing this and adoring it. I'm almost 60 hours in, but I'm not yet finished the game. I've just finished Lothric Castle, so I'm near the end. I veered off and did some optional areas, and I've done quite a bit of cooperative play. I love the Souls series, and I'm almost sad that Dark Souls III is coming to an end for me. But I guess there's always NG+ and a second character to try...

The Division

Since DSIII came out, I've been off The Division a bit. But I will return to it! It's a bit repetitive and bland in places, but overall I'm enjoying it quite a lot. As you progress and your load out options increase, the game becomes more diverse and enjoyable. The re-creation of New York City itself is worth the price of admission (almost)! It's really beautiful, and very accurately re-created from what I can tell.

Destiny

Yes, I still play this a bit here and there. It's getting a bit lackluster now, even with the latest patch (although the weapon and armor infusion is a lot better now...)

I'm pretty much awaiting Destiny 2, though.

Aside from that, I still dig into Cities: Skylines now and then. And lately I've been playing Tropico 5 a little bit (it was free on PSN this month - what a great deal!) The Tropico games are always a good way to melt away a few hours. :P

[NORBIN]

Playing through Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair hence the avatar. It recently got released on PC through Steam (along with the original) and I've pretty much just been binge-playing whenever I get the chance.

It's been a whileee since I played the first game too so everything feels fairly fresh & new to me despite being mostly the same gameplay wise. It's a VN at it's core but has tons of other gameplay elements like rhythm, puzzle and other types of "mini-games" I guess you could call them.

I'm glad I didn't have to end up spending $100+ just to get a Vita to finally play it. :P

[Redd_vs_Nero]

Current games eh? Well lately I've super been into Monster Hunter World. It's a beautiful looking game and fun to play. Also been checking out Dragon Ball Fighterz and replaying Gundam Breaker 3 (I love that game.)

[James]

At the moment I'm playing Bloodborne for what feels like the millionth time. It's just that good. I'm also playing Far Cry 5 (which I'm quickly tiring of). Sea of Thieves and Sunset Overdrive also make their appearances now and then.

I'm eagerly awaiting God of War at the moment. I think this Sunday will be all about that. ;-)

[Allamorph]

Horizon: Zero Dawn is amazing and I want everyone to know.

At the moment I'm playing Bloodborne for what feels like the millionth time. It's just that good. I'm also playing Far Cry 5 (which I'm quickly tiring of). Sea of Thieves and Sunset Overdrive also make their appearances now and then.

I'm eagerly awaiting God of War at the moment. I think this Sunday will be all about that. ;-)

I may have someone you should get to know.

Edited May 10, 2018 by Allamorph

[James]

On 10/05/2018 at 10:49 AM, Allamorph said:

Horizon: Zero Dawn is amazing and I want everyone to know.

I may have someone you should get to know.

Oh? :P

[Chaos]

I haven’t been playing much except myself. Divinity: Original Sin every once in a while. Sometimes I’ll pop in Skyrim or Mass Effecf for some mindless nostalgia. Hmm, might be why I’m posting here... lol I kid, I kid. 

 

Actually picked up playing Dungeons and Dragons again around the start of the year with some friends and coworkers. That’s been occupying more and more of my free time. Doesn’t feel as stagnant as any of the Far Cry series or Destiny. Getting back into that just reminds me of all the old text RPGs on here. Reminds me of creativity. 

 

Why do games feel so boring nowadays?

[John]

Could be that as you get older, social and capitalist pressures make you feel guilty for ever spending large chunks of time idly. Or it could be that the ever-mounting sense of life's precious brevity does the same. There's also the fact that most games are still made to appeal to adolescents, and you're probably just outgrowing their aesthetic appeal and crave something more meaningful or at least artful. And like you sort of alluded to with D&D, most video games don't fill people's needs to build and maintain real friendships (unless it's local multiplayer), and tabletop games do.

The new Mario Tennis slaps though.

[James]

On 10/08/2018 at 2:43 PM, John said:

Could be that as you get older, social and capitalist pressures make you feel guilty for ever spending large chunks of time idly. Or it could be that the ever-mounting sense of life's precious brevity does the same. There's also the fact that most games are still made to appeal to adolescents, and you're probably just outgrowing their aesthetic appeal and crave something more meaningful or at least artful. And like you sort of alluded to with D&D, most video games don't fill people's needs to build and maintain real friendships (unless it's local multiplayer), and tabletop games do.

The new Mario Tennis slaps though.

My problem is that I buy far more games than I actually play. Growing up, there were always certain games I missed out on, and in some way I feel like I'm "catching up" now. But I don't have time to play them all. Also, it doesn't help that Assassin's Creed Odyssey takes 50-bazillion hours to finish, so it kind of sucks the oxygen out of the room for every other game. :-\

[John]

Yeah, getting into one new game is like starting in on a new TV series: it's gonna take at least 10 hours and maybe upwards of 100. It's a huge time sink.

[Magus]

Happy New Year everyone.

I think I'm at that point where games are being put on the back burner for a bit. I can always find the time to play it's just that a lot of these newer games don't do much to interest me. I will admit that I've become a lot more fickle with what I play. For the most part I will play just about any fighting game if folks are interested in playing, but Street Fighter 3rd Strike is the main fighting game you'll catch me playing. I was playing Street Fighter 5 but had a hard time finding a character to stick with. I've even dabbled into Dragon Ball Fighterz for a little bit as well. Only game I refuse to play is Smash Bros. Don't ask, long story there. (Oh, Tekken 7 is life)

In any case, outside of fighting games Nioh has all of my attention. I've never been into the Souls-like games because I hate stamina bars. I come from playing games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden (Xbox). I hate feeling limited in my options. If it wasn't for Nioh's combat I wouldn't touch this game. If you customize William right, you could essentially turn the game into Ninja Gaiden (at the cost of damage for style). Story-wise, I'll concede that the story is your typical Team Ninja type of silliness so it's not worth looking into, but I'm a sucker for samurai/ninjas and I'm always looking forward to Japanese history. Another thing Souls might have on this game is that Nioh have more of a mission-like structure instead of being open world-like so I can see people being turned off of that. I love this game though because of the combat alone and its customization. 

Anyway, other games I have but have yet to get to; God of War and Zelda Breath of the Wild

And since I've last been here of course I'm waiting on Devil May Cry 5 and Ghost of Tsushima.

I'll try to at least check in every weekend.

[James]

Right now I'm playing:

Persona 4 Golden

I had bought a Vita a while ago and kinda just left it collecting dust. I didn't get Persona games...I kept dying in Persona 4 Golden, heh. But then I played Persona 5 and I began to understand how you're supposed to play these games...so I've now gone back to Persona 4G and I'm loving it. I just picked up Freedom Wars as well, which I'm keen to try out.

Ghost of Tsushima

What can I say about this? It's getting rave reviews. It's really good. I'm slowing down on it a bit more now though...it's a very large game, and starts to feel a bit repetitive. But it's still lovely. I'm chipping away at it here and there.

Catherine Full Body

Never played the original version of this, so I was keen to try it out on PS4. I'm enjoying it so far for the most part. 

Pillars of Eternity

This is my first real go at a CRPG (even though I'm playing on console). I've never been able to get into CRPGs really - never had the patience. But I'm giving this a serious shot, and I'm generally enjoying it. It's really fantastically written. I've mostly got the hang of how combat works, but there are some things that confuse me and aren't explained well in-game, so no doubt I'll be hunting for some tips on YouTube. ?

[Boo]

Trials of Mana, yo. Seiken Densetsu 3 Remake. They killed the Coop option, but it's still a sweet trip down memory lane.

[Allamorph]

Bit of a lag, so updating with things I have played in the past while.

Control – Very interesting, very well-written (in my opinion) paranormal action/adventure from the makers of Alan Wake.  I've loved weird, twisting stories ever since I watched Event Horizon and Ghost In The Shell, and Control certainly takes some oddball turns.  The Foundation DLC was decently challenging and also well-written, as was the AWE tie-in to Alan Wake (although it was a tad short, I thought).

Fire Emblem: Three Houses – I sort of let this one languish a bit while I was transitioning out of the Navy because the series does tend to take a fair bit of mental involvement, but I'm picking it back up and starting to work through it again—mostly because I convinced someone I know to pick it up as well, and I need to get farther in it so they can pick my brain without me looking like a Big Dumb lol.  This one's a weird one in the franchise for me, even taking into account the absolutely heinous offenses to the title that Awakening/Fates were.  I actually like a lot of aspects of it; and I can overlook the fact that, once again, the main character is a self-insert.  The part I'm having trouble getting used to is that, after a certain point in the story, your roster is hard locked, as far as I can tell.  You still have more people available than you have map slots, generally, but recruiting additional characters is a bit of an effort investment, and after a certain point it's basically no longer possible, which ... presents some interesting tactical scenarios, I think, which is fine.  I'm just not used to having this little flexibility or depth in my bench.

Edelgard is a bamf tho

Endless Space 2 – Oh my god, this game is hands-down The Most Visually Gorgeous RTS I have ever played in my life.  The overall empire-building mechanics are really interesting, and include not only resource management but population-distribution optimisation.  The maps are ******* beautiful and genuinely feel enormous when you make them enormous, which is a recurring problem I've had with the Civilisation franchise, specifically 5 and 6.  The various playable species genuinely feel distinct to play, and the developers even experimented with unique colonisation mechanics: one species simply buys colonies instead of having to send a colony ship there; another has to have a specific type of ship in system orbit to initiate control and only receives partial benefits if the ship is moved; and another slowly spreads across the galaxy in a network of metaphysical kudzu vines, providing movement bonuses to itself and allies, and impairments to other players.  Each game has a campaign-style quest system that automatically progresses as the game goes on, as well as a random-event system that can affect one or more empires in various ways, and each species has its own internal campaign which can also be progressed independently of the main quest line or the game itself, and is written to the flavor of the specific species to provide additional lore about them.

Arknights – It's like Fire Emblem, to me, except tower defense instead of chess.

[Tenin]

Valorant

Even though I think it's a terrible game I keep playing it for the sake of getting better at it. I guess I'll get better hand eye coordination though lol. The community pretty toxic though and smurfs everywhere.?

Stellaris

Super fun with or without mod. I can easily lose hours just playing, even if it's just designing ships. Debating if I should buy the DLCs. 

[James]

Has anyone played Half-Life: Alyx? I can't believe OB has been around for so long that we actually saw the arrival of Half-Life 3 (well, kinda).

Playing through Half-Life: Alyx has prompted me to (yet again, for the millionth time) play through Half-Life 2. It's incredible to me just how well that game has held up. It still looks and sounds amazing, and the gameplay is as sharp as ever. It's really stunning - definitely one of my favourites.

Also, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is pretty good. It's definitely bringing back memories. The series really holds up well.

[Petie]

I'm ashamed to say I haven't actually finished it yet but I have been playing Alyx and it's an outstanding experience.

When I heard it was coming out, I realized I had never actually played the original games so I played through all of Half-Life (and its expansions), and then all of Half-Life 2 (and the follow-up episodes) before starting Alyx and really had a blast finally experiencing them.

[James]

5 hours ago, Petie said:

I'm ashamed to say I haven't actually finished it yet but I have been playing Alyx and it's an outstanding experience.

When I heard it was coming out, I realized I had never actually played the original games so I played through all of Half-Life (and its expansions), and then all of Half-Life 2 (and the follow-up episodes) before starting Alyx and really had a blast finally experiencing them.

That's cool. I'm playing Alyx super slowly so that it doesn't end too soon, heh.

Like you I'm also playing through the earlier games as well. Are you playing Half-Life: Source or Black Mesa? I highly recommend the latter. Although it's created by a fan community, I'd say it's really the definitive version of the original game. And Half-Life 2 is simply incredible. It remains an amazing game even now in 2021.

Out of curiosity, where are you up to in HL: Alyx?

[Petie]

I played the original Half-Life when I went through my pre-Alyx run. I do have Source and messed around a little in Black Mesa after the fact but really wanted to experience the original before diving into Half-Life 2. I intend to go back and play Black Mesa properly eventually, though. And yes, Half-Life 2 was outstanding, no arguments there.

I don't remember exactly where I left off in Alyx but I'm pretty sure I'm nearing the end. I do intend to take another run through it on the easiest difficulty (I'm playing on normal now, I think) to pick up a few achievements I missed along the way though. Even knowing where it's going for a second playthrough, I think it will be just as good.

[Boo]

Playing mostly boardgames and tabletops, because, well, yo. Epic.