Scored the Ratchet & Clank Collection for PS3 on Ebay this week, cannot wait to play
I just started tears of the kingdom a few days ago.
Oh man, what I wouldn't give to be able to experience TotK for the first time again. You're in for a great time. :)
I finally played through it earlier this year, well worth the wait.
We'll see you in a few weeks mate.
civ6! ive never played civilization before, but my kid says its great and it was on sale for 3$
If you don’t enjoy it, don’t discount the franchise. Personally I prefer civ 4 over civ 6, and civ 4 has the bonuses of 1) being the only video game to ever win a Grammy award and 2) extensive voice work by Leonard Nimoy
I liked 5 because a few large cities (going tall) was way more viable, which I prefer over making tons of little cities (going wide).
I'll back up that Civ 4 has been the best entry in the series so far.
Civ 5 is when they dropped unit stacking, which made combat much slower and more finicky since you couldn't just build up a massive deathball and tear across the map, and Civ 6 doubled down on that design space by tying city upgrades to individual tiles as well. They're not bad changes, and they do add more strategic depth to the combat and city-building, but they do make an already slow game substantially slower, since combats that used to be done in a turn or two now require several turns of rotating and repositioning units to get them in and out of the fight.
Civ 4 was the last "pure" civ experience, building off and adding to the previous games without sweeping mechanical changes to shake up the meta.
what did you not like about 6?
Too clunky and slow paced for me compared to previous installments. Also not a huge fan of how the different victory conditions/requirements were balanced compared to older games. They just crammed too many new mechanics in there for the game to flow like it used to. If you’ve never played civ before these things may not even bother you since you have no previous experience with earlier installments to compare it to.
thanks! ill try 4 if 6 seems annoying with those characteristics
Super Mario Sunshine, going for my first 100%
Is it patience if I've already played it? The wife and I are running through metal gear solid 3 after beating 2. PS3 emulator is snappy and the metal gear HD collection is pretty good!
Maybe metal gear solid peace walker can count as patient, as I haven't played that yet.
PS3 emulator is snappy
RPCS3 is a great emulator! They can be a pain to set up or tweak for performance but that one in particular is a very smooth experience.
Having some trouble getting peace walker going on the emulator. Not a lot of issues to find while searching either. Bazzite on either AMD or Intel with Nvidia GPUs.
So in the meantime, we have dusted off the PS3 to use my mgs4 disc hah!
I’ll be heading back to the Zone with one of the STALKER games in order to satisfy the craving I got from the STALKER 2 previews recently. I’m leaning towards Clear Sky as I’ve played SoC and CoP much more.
Ugh yeah that's tempting to reinstall once again. Last time I did the Call of Chernobyl mod which combines all three game maps and was pretty awesome. I hear Anomaly is really good too.
As much as I appreciate the modding scene for STALKER, I’m a whore for the vanilla experience. I fired up Anomaly and it seemed awesome, but I wanted the familiar beats of the original. One of these days I’ll give it a proper try.
Got the first Moving Out game on supersale and my kids are loving it. I'm always on the lookout for coup coöp games to play with them.
I am on a quest to play through all of the classic FPS. So I will put some time in Doom64.
Megaman 8-bit Deathmatch, Heroes of the Storm, Pizza Tower, and DnD!
I started Red Faction Guerrilla (Steam Edition) a couple of weeks ago. Solid game from 2009. Though the game world does feel a bit empty.
I have seen credits on that game probably three times since it's launch. Anytime they release it on a new platform I instinctively snap it up.
I do agree that the world feels pretty empty, but it is Mars in their defense. The gameplay loop is so good though. And sometimes there's no better feeling than grabbing a sledgehammer and leveling a building.
Hopefully you're able to make it through! There's a little bit of variety introduced to the environment around the half to three quarter mark.
Still spreading managed democracy in Helldivers 2. Waiting for the Elden Ring DLC to land though!
That's not very patient gamer of you lol
I'm about to leave town for the weekend so missing out on most of the new patch. Hope you dispense some liberty on my behalf!
FOR THE CHILDREN! 🫡
Probably Bowser‘s Fury (Switch), Balatro or Trine 5 (PC), and Marsupilami (Deck) for me!
Damn up to Trine 5, better dive back in
Just got red dead 2 for sale on console for 20 bucks, planning on starting it tonight.
Oh man, enjoy. In some ways RDR2 is the best game ever. Some of the side encounters and story twists are top notch, and the game is gorgeous even on my ancient PC or Steam Deck. For some reason I stopped playing halfway through (I think I got distracted by Deep Rock Galactic over the holidays) but really need to pick it back up.
Thanks, I've heard a lot of people enjoyed it so I'm pretty excited! I do that a lot with longer games, play like half then come back months later
Just started a molded fo4 playthrough because the whole series was like $20 on steam. My intentions before settling on fo4 was 100% to get rdr2 but nixed that when I saw it was still like $50-$60 on steam.
Jak 2 (OpenGOAL) on the pre-owned Steam Deck I bought on Tuesday. Just very excited to be playing PS2 games on a portable device.
I'll be playing work 🥲
Besides that I'm currently playing Paper Mario for the first time (I don't know if remakes count on this sub).
Also Noita, if you like exploration and tinkering, and can find humor in dying a lot to physics or yourself, then I highly recommend. You could sink endless hours into it; beating the main portion of the game is jokingly referred to as the "tutorial".
Noita is so neat!
It's like if someone made a roguelike out of those sand physics flash games that were popular when I was younger.
Some of the high concept type of spells you can make eventually is insane. You truly can play with forbidden magic except it's sawblades and nukes.
Noita just has that genuine sense of awe and exploration I've only experienced in OuterWilds (Also a really good game, progression is story and information based, do not spoil).
If I could mindwipe one videogame and replay it, it's 100% gotta be Outer Wilds.
I have seen Noita recommended so many times for deep/complex games or games with a cool magic system.
I have also never fired and bought it because I don't tend to like roguelikes and I hear it can be very frustrating, though some mods help with that. Not sure if I should buy.
(Or I could just see if a friend would let me try theirs first :P)
Just started Skyrim, first playthrough. Full weekend tho for this dad. Not as much free time as in my 20s.
Gonna finish my second playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 and then ask myself what to play next.
Elden Ring FINALLY clicked for me. I bought it on launch (not very patient of me, and I recognized it as a "great" game but for a variety of reasons just wasn't for me. Im replaying it like a lot of people have been and I actually specced my person correctly and its a lot more fun now. Maybe I can experiment with other eventually but a balanced build has been so nice.
SKALD is also high on my list.
I still waffle on elden ring. I love it, but man do I hate certain parts when I'm trying out different 'ideas' I have. My second character used the holy wrist blades thing, and boy was
::: spoiler spoiler
the final boss a removed until I figured out what I was doing wrong.
:::
Elden Ring. I decided to go into the DLC with a new character and getting him setup so he's ready to jump in. Gathering smithing stones and other mats, killing Radahn and Mohg, and getting some weapons whenever I finally decide what build I want to start with. Put a couple hours in so far and really enjoying it.
Yep it's Elden Ring for me too. I've been running my second character (pure sorcery) on and off for a while but the hype has me back in it. I'm a little tired of the gameplay and way more into the lore now. Hoping the new weapons and abilities give it a fresh feeling.
I think I should pick up a city builder, but not decided between Skylines 2, Manor Lords, or ???
Cities Skylines 1
Better than 2
especially now that all dlc is out and we have a complete and mature game
maybe 2 will be this good in another 6 years
Reviews for Skylines 2 are Mixed, which suggests you should play Manor Lords (Very Positive).
i like it but i feel it still needs a bit more time.
workers and resources is a nice game in this general style.
I watched a quick trailer for Workers and Resources and the part focusing on a bus driving made me think of a head-in-the-clouds fantasy cool thing:
a city builder game. Click on a truck driving through to switch to a driving sim (think American/Euro Truck Simulator), on a train to a train sim, on a bus to a bus sim… Click on a person walking on the street and you get a The Sims-like interface and get the ability to switch into that game mode. And even though this is probably highly unrealistic and already too much, so why am I even thinking about scope, you could limit scope by locking to just this one city. Any vehicle routes out of the city have the vehicle disappear when you get to the city border. Sims already limited itself to one town/city, do that the same way.
After reading a few reviews for W&R apparently it scratches both a Transport Tycoon-type itch and regular city builder itches, so sort of like my above idea—a few games in one. Apparently it can be micromanagey, which appeals to me when I'm in a certain kind of mood.
simcity 4 had some limited click on a car to control it mechanics with the rush hour expansion
you could sorta follow individual sims too, it was cool.
Going to keep building my factorio factory. Almost done with industrial revolution 3. Should be done in another 40 hours or so...
My wife's been hogging the PC for months now playing Baldur's gate. She finished 1 last month and now working her way through 2.
Golf
It's not too old, released in 2017, but after over a year of being in my steam library I just installed Yooka-Laylee on my deck and got through the tutorial. So far it's a really fun game.
picked up No Man's Sky the other week at 50% off and really enjoying it
Just started Subnautica new zero. The first Subnautica was incredible, having fun with this one so far.
I started the game Playing Kafka. It is a small and free game on iOS and Steam, but it’s really good.
I am playing Max Payne on my iPad too. It creates a retro vibe.
I am playing Monster Hunter: Rise too, When I have nothing to do, I take out my Switch Lite and defeat the monsters.
RDR1
After finishing Pillars of Eternity (I even backed it haha) in the Fall, I decided to replay (played twice back in the day) Baldur's Gate II, but after paying off the Shadow Thieves, I decided to play Pillars of Eternity 2, to put a dent in my other RPG's that have been piling up. I have to make room for Baldur's Gate 3 and soon to be released Avowed.
Oh and Age of Mythology: Reborn. The original was like crack to me
I just finished both Borderlands 3 and God of War (2018) so I'm in gaming limbo again.
Leaning toward Stardew Valley, Noita, or finally buckling down to finish Far Cry 3.
You can give My time at Sandrock a go, it is similar to Stardew Valley but with a more linear story. Still the game has plenty of content to keep you entertained for a longer period of time and it is enjoyable, and chill.
I recently started a new Stardew playthrough after leaving it for a couple years. Damn that game is so good. It's like a perfect little dose of relaxation.
I recently started playing Noita. Can confirm, much time is needed for such a simple yet intensely complex game. Incredibility fun, enormously infuriating, also all your own fault. Perfect 5/7 would recommend
I've started and bounced off Noita a couple of times already. It's been fun but I do need time to dig in and wrap my head around the mechanics.
I'm stuck on wand building at the moment. I've watched a couple video guides explaining how it works, but something still isn't clicking. None of the wands I'm making have worked the way I expect them to, and I'm not sure what I'm not understanding.
It is a little confusing and I agree that they don't always work the way I expect. I will say that going for a single type will ultimately hold you back if you just aren't getting the proper spells. Best to just generate something that works to some degree.
Cast delay and recharge rate are the two most important stats outside of "shuffle" in which you always want "no". Cast delay is the time between spells and after all of them are cast, recharge rate is the time before casting the new full spell list.
The order in which you place spells is important and I still have to mess around with them a bit since I don't understand it as well as I thought I did. But there are casting "blocks" which is like a set of commands. This is why you want shuffle "no" because then it will always cast left to right. Casting a trispell will cast whatever spells are in the next 3 slots (at the same time) including another trispell, which will then add the next three blocks (as an example). Then you have to do some math to see what all the cast delay and recharge rate total numbers are. That's how you see what your wand will ultimately do. If you can get cast delay to 0 or lower it will chaingun but pause almost like a shotgun if the recharge rate is higher than the cast delay. The wand will always be held back by the larger of the two (cast delay or recharge rate).
IDK if this clarified or helped at all but if you have more questions I might be able to answer or provide resources for you.
The issue I've been trying to work out is getting modifiers to work consistently. My understanding is that modifiers are supposed to stack and affect the next projectile spell to the right, but they either don't apply at all or will apply sporadically, and I haven't figured out what rule I'm missing.
I assume some modifiers just don't work with some projectiles, but the game doesn't seem to communicate whether this is the case. I also suspect it has something to do with shuffle, as you warned against, but I haven't been getting any non-shuffle wands for experimentation, and my starter wand doesn't have much mana to work with.
It doesn't help that I can only experiment with builds in the airlock chambers between levels.
The specific issue I remember having last night was that I couldn't get the pentagon shot modifier to apply to any of my projectile spells no matter what I did.
I did get the flametrail modifier working consistently, so I'm doing something right, but I'm not sure what was different between that and the pentagon spread modifier I was trying.
Modifiers (generally) cost mana too, so you have to add that mana cost to each cast of the wand. If you have a 5 mana cost spell and a 30 mana modifier, you end up with 35 mana per cast. If your wand has a total capacity of 100 mana and a recharge rate of 100MPS, you'll get 2 casts with the modifier (70 total mana) and one cast without until you regen to a capacity total of 35 mana (or greater) to cast with the modifier again. If you have a dual or tri cast spell and put the modifier before that, it will apply the modifier to the whole cast block adding the modifier mana requirement to each spell in that block. If at any point that exceeds your capacity, it won't add the modifier at all.
Right, so if you have 3 spells on a shuffle wand, and 1 modifier in front of one, than the modifier will only affect the cast "block" of that one spell. Since it is a shuffle wand it can choose to cast any of those three which gives you a 30% chance of casting a modified spell. This is why non-shuffle is so important. You can always tell if its a shuffle or non-shuffle wand by whether it has a gemstone on the wand. If it does have one, it will be NON-shuffle, if it does NOT have a gem, it will be shuffle.
A non-shuffle gives you consistency and the ability to make those spell "blocks"
That's part of what makes the game tough is how you only get to tinker with the wands in those mid-way points, unless you get a perk that says otherwise. But a pro-tip, your second wand, the bomb wand, you can switch your main wand's spell to that and it will usually work in a pinch to give you a rapid fire shot with low mana regent. Not optimal, bit functional when no other options exist.
The pentagon one, IIRC, if used with a single spell will just shoot around you in 5 directions. But if you have a trigger spell you place it like so [Trigger spell] [Pentagon] [damage spell]. I believe pentagon has a pretty high mana consumption so that may have prevented you from having the total capacity needed to successfully cast it. Therefore you would have just casted an unmodified spell.
LMK if you need more info!
I was not counting mana cost, no. So it'll just drop modifiers if it doesn't have enough mana, and still cast the base spell? That does explain some of the behavior I was seeing. I figured it would fail to cast entirely if I didn't have enough mana for the full block.
One theory I had, if you can confirm, is that shuffle doesn't just shuffle spells, it shuffles all spell nodes.
So if I have a 4-slot shuffle wand with:
PPMP
(P = Projectile Spell, M = Modifier)
I was thinking the cast table could either be:
P1 - 33%
P2 - 33%
MP3 - 33%
Or
P1 - 25%
P2 - 25%
MP3 - 25%
P3 - 25%
Depending on whether the modifier block was a valid place for the shuffle to land.
I was planning to try to build some wand experiments to differentiate which of these scenarios is true. Good to know that mana can be a confounding variable.
Edit: Also, is shuffle fully random or does it draw without replacement like a deck of cards until all stored spells are cast and it can recharge? Just thought of this and realized I hadn't tested for it.
You know, I'm not actually entirely sure if it sees the modifier as a valid selection, but yes, it will kill a modifier and cast a non-modified spell if it does not have the capacity. The only time it will not fire at all is when 1) the base spell has a greater cost than total capacity. Or 2) you are out of casts for spells that have a cast limit (donated by a number within the spell's block).
A shuffle wand will always cast all spells available in the selection before hitting the recharge, I can say that for sure. So if you have 5 spells each at 20% chance, then you cast one, you have a 25% for each of the remaining four, then 33%, then 50% then you will 100% cast the spell you haven't cast yet before the wand goes through recharge and all spells become available again.
When talking about dual casts and tri-casts I'm not entirely sure how it resolves what to cast when mana capacity is an issue, but I believe it goes left to right, and checks the validity against your capacity, yes=cast no=not cast which would be why someone would end up casting a couple, but not all of, a block's spells.
Spells and modifiers all can add (or remove) mana, modify cast delay/recharge delay. So do keep an eye on how that all gets changed based on what spells you use. One spell selection could be the difference between chaingun or a slow firing one shot. Some spells have 1 second delays built in (which technically can be overcome)
That makes a lot more sense now. Thank you. I know where to look for troubleshooting next time I play.
Frosthaven. Specifically the physical version
Satisfactory on the Steam Deck
I'm curious how the latest version runs. I haven't tried it since the Unreal Engine 5 update. Kinda waiting to jump back in at the 1.0 release.
I didn't change any additional settings since I last played a few updates ago. Seems to run pretty good. Though I apologize I don't have what I've adjusted handy to share.
I just started a free character on Dark and Darker since it's back on Steam. The gameplay loop is satisfying, and I feel ready to start playing teams and learn to fight other players.
Still playing through Thirsty Suitors on my deck on the TV. About 4 hrs in. It’s got an interesting story in there, but the fighting gets tedious sometimes and honestly, I wish I were encountering more of my exes. 7/10 so far
Also playing my second run through of BG3 with my buddy whenever we both have time. 10/10
And unrelated to gaming, I’ll have the 24 Hours of Le Mans on in the background
I just finished Star Trek: Resurgence last evening, so I'm now trying to decide what to start next! I'm currently trying to pick from Battletech, Dune: Spice Wars, and Desperados III, or maybe even something else. I'm looking forward to the Steam summer sale, I've got a few more games I've been eyeing up for a while.
Playing through ff7 rebirth and was trying to finish a dragon age origins play through I've had going on since 2022. I've had rebirth since launch but I've only really had a chance to play it from last week as I've been ill most of the year until recently. Also have dragons dogma 2 which I haven't played much for the same reason.
Gonna finish Escape Academy with my partner! I only bought it because doseone did all of the music (Enter the Gungeon, 13&God, and one of my favorite albums: “Less is Orchestra” (Look it up please, listen to Fact Colossal or The Deadener) (RIP Alias)
Charming game with cheesy dialogue and great puzzles. Never have done an escape room before and we’re crushing it so far. Do NOT play alone. Must be played with a partner.
I've been really enjoying my current Pathfinder:Kingmaker run going for the true ending.
After watching the new dune movie I got inspired to play through a campaign on Dune: Spice Wars. So probably that!
Perhaps not very patient gamer, but I think I'll give Another Crab's Treasure a go.
It's very hard for me to feel motivated to play new games nowadays, but that one did spike my interest - seems more fun than Elden Ring tbh, which kinda feels like a generic souls-like - and it's got great reviews and isn't too expensive, so I think I'll try it out.
Civilization III
I'm impatiently waiting for next week-end when the Elden Ring DLC releases. It counts if I have to wait, right?
Kiddos have gotten back into the Pokemon card game so we're likely playing Pokemon TCG Live
Also hoping to finally break in the Nexalis ttrpg I've had on the shelf for a while now with the teens
Some more high-fi rush
Boom Blox Bash Party with the wife and maybe House of the Dead Returns
I finally 100% Arkham Knight after 9 years, completing all the Community Challenges trophies, including Requiem for a Killer challenge (the one where you have to do a 400+-combo in a endless combat challenge to reach and defeat the secret boss).
Think I'm gonna install Red Dead Redemption 2 next. Finished RDR for the first time last year and wanna finish the sequel, which I started a few years back on the PS4 but dropped.
I just played some Stardew multiplayer with a friend. First time I have broken out the game in about a year, and what with 1.6 being newly out, now I feel like playing singleplayer…
Also multiplayer Minecraft with friends.
When I was a kid, I played so many more games on my own initiative. Now that I'm older I seem to need to be incentivized to play a game by "your friend is playing this game!" But that does set me in more of a gaming mood afterwards…
I might play Valheim, mostly for building on my island.
I have gotten back into non-patiently playing Helldivers, but I think I'll spend the weekend playing Hex of Steel, CtA:Gates of Hell and Dawn of War:Soulstorm with thr Unification mod, same as I've been doing all week.
Well that, and watching the 24h of Le Mans race, this saturday!
Weekend just hit again and I'm looking forward to diving back into Tunic this Sunday. I'm a good way through it, but can only play an hour or so at a time.
I was honestly unimpressed to begin with, but the overall vibe, and detail of the manual pages, won me over.
Sakuna on the Nintendo Switch. It was on sale and I wanted to try it for a long time.
I just beat NieR: Automata (round 1, of it, anyway) and am debating whether to play through the second part of the story or just skip to the prequel game.
Hard space: Shipbreaker
I'm 25 hours into FO: New Vegas so will be continuing that. I have finally got into it on this, my third attempt to do so.
I used the viva new Vegas mod guide and everything has run so smoothly and generally been a great experience so far so slowly making my way through it and finally enjoying it :D
Stupid games and win stupid prizes.
Monster Sanctuary! And helldivers 2
just about to crack on star ocean for super famicom on my ps vita. its crashed a couple times tho so plan b is phantasy star and/or castlevania 3. i fidget a lot, i'll probably 5 different games before bed.
It's not a patient game yet, but I caved and got Alan Wake 2 the other week. In the early stages so far (the game's quite scary!) but loving it.
Scored the Ratchet & Clank Collection for PS3 on Ebay this week, cannot wait to play
I just started tears of the kingdom a few days ago.
Oh man, what I wouldn't give to be able to experience TotK for the first time again. You're in for a great time. :)
I finally played through it earlier this year, well worth the wait.
We'll see you in a few weeks mate.
civ6! ive never played civilization before, but my kid says its great and it was on sale for 3$
If you don’t enjoy it, don’t discount the franchise. Personally I prefer civ 4 over civ 6, and civ 4 has the bonuses of 1) being the only video game to ever win a Grammy award and 2) extensive voice work by Leonard Nimoy
I liked 5 because a few large cities (going tall) was way more viable, which I prefer over making tons of little cities (going wide).
I'll back up that Civ 4 has been the best entry in the series so far.
Civ 5 is when they dropped unit stacking, which made combat much slower and more finicky since you couldn't just build up a massive deathball and tear across the map, and Civ 6 doubled down on that design space by tying city upgrades to individual tiles as well. They're not bad changes, and they do add more strategic depth to the combat and city-building, but they do make an already slow game substantially slower, since combats that used to be done in a turn or two now require several turns of rotating and repositioning units to get them in and out of the fight.
Civ 4 was the last "pure" civ experience, building off and adding to the previous games without sweeping mechanical changes to shake up the meta.
what did you not like about 6?
Too clunky and slow paced for me compared to previous installments. Also not a huge fan of how the different victory conditions/requirements were balanced compared to older games. They just crammed too many new mechanics in there for the game to flow like it used to. If you’ve never played civ before these things may not even bother you since you have no previous experience with earlier installments to compare it to.
thanks! ill try 4 if 6 seems annoying with those characteristics
Super Mario Sunshine, going for my first 100%
Is it patience if I've already played it? The wife and I are running through metal gear solid 3 after beating 2. PS3 emulator is snappy and the metal gear HD collection is pretty good!
Maybe metal gear solid peace walker can count as patient, as I haven't played that yet.
RPCS3 is a great emulator! They can be a pain to set up or tweak for performance but that one in particular is a very smooth experience.
Having some trouble getting peace walker going on the emulator. Not a lot of issues to find while searching either. Bazzite on either AMD or Intel with Nvidia GPUs.
So in the meantime, we have dusted off the PS3 to use my mgs4 disc hah!
I’ll be heading back to the Zone with one of the STALKER games in order to satisfy the craving I got from the STALKER 2 previews recently. I’m leaning towards Clear Sky as I’ve played SoC and CoP much more.
Ugh yeah that's tempting to reinstall once again. Last time I did the Call of Chernobyl mod which combines all three game maps and was pretty awesome. I hear Anomaly is really good too.
As much as I appreciate the modding scene for STALKER, I’m a whore for the vanilla experience. I fired up Anomaly and it seemed awesome, but I wanted the familiar beats of the original. One of these days I’ll give it a proper try.
Got the first Moving Out game on supersale and my kids are loving it. I'm always on the lookout for coup coöp games to play with them.
I am on a quest to play through all of the classic FPS. So I will put some time in Doom64.
Megaman 8-bit Deathmatch, Heroes of the Storm, Pizza Tower, and DnD!
I started Red Faction Guerrilla (Steam Edition) a couple of weeks ago. Solid game from 2009. Though the game world does feel a bit empty.
I have seen credits on that game probably three times since it's launch. Anytime they release it on a new platform I instinctively snap it up.
I do agree that the world feels pretty empty, but it is Mars in their defense. The gameplay loop is so good though. And sometimes there's no better feeling than grabbing a sledgehammer and leveling a building.
Hopefully you're able to make it through! There's a little bit of variety introduced to the environment around the half to three quarter mark.
Still spreading managed democracy in Helldivers 2. Waiting for the Elden Ring DLC to land though!
That's not very patient gamer of you lol
I'm about to leave town for the weekend so missing out on most of the new patch. Hope you dispense some liberty on my behalf!
FOR THE CHILDREN! 🫡
Probably Bowser‘s Fury (Switch), Balatro or Trine 5 (PC), and Marsupilami (Deck) for me!
Damn up to Trine 5, better dive back in
Just got red dead 2 for sale on console for 20 bucks, planning on starting it tonight.
Oh man, enjoy. In some ways RDR2 is the best game ever. Some of the side encounters and story twists are top notch, and the game is gorgeous even on my ancient PC or Steam Deck. For some reason I stopped playing halfway through (I think I got distracted by Deep Rock Galactic over the holidays) but really need to pick it back up.
Thanks, I've heard a lot of people enjoyed it so I'm pretty excited! I do that a lot with longer games, play like half then come back months later
Just started a molded fo4 playthrough because the whole series was like $20 on steam. My intentions before settling on fo4 was 100% to get rdr2 but nixed that when I saw it was still like $50-$60 on steam.
Jak 2 (OpenGOAL) on the pre-owned Steam Deck I bought on Tuesday. Just very excited to be playing PS2 games on a portable device.
I'll be playing work 🥲
Besides that I'm currently playing Paper Mario for the first time (I don't know if remakes count on this sub).
Also Noita, if you like exploration and tinkering, and can find humor in dying a lot to physics or yourself, then I highly recommend. You could sink endless hours into it; beating the main portion of the game is jokingly referred to as the "tutorial".
Noita is so neat!
It's like if someone made a roguelike out of those sand physics flash games that were popular when I was younger.
Some of the high concept type of spells you can make eventually is insane. You truly can play with forbidden magic except it's sawblades and nukes.
Noita just has that genuine sense of awe and exploration I've only experienced in OuterWilds (Also a really good game, progression is story and information based, do not spoil).
If I could mindwipe one videogame and replay it, it's 100% gotta be Outer Wilds.
I have seen Noita recommended so many times for deep/complex games or games with a cool magic system.
I have also never fired and bought it because I don't tend to like roguelikes and I hear it can be very frustrating, though some mods help with that. Not sure if I should buy.
(Or I could just see if a friend would let me try theirs first :P)
Just started Skyrim, first playthrough. Full weekend tho for this dad. Not as much free time as in my 20s.
Gonna finish my second playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 and then ask myself what to play next.
Elden Ring FINALLY clicked for me. I bought it on launch (not very patient of me, and I recognized it as a "great" game but for a variety of reasons just wasn't for me. Im replaying it like a lot of people have been and I actually specced my person correctly and its a lot more fun now. Maybe I can experiment with other eventually but a balanced build has been so nice.
SKALD is also high on my list.
I still waffle on elden ring. I love it, but man do I hate certain parts when I'm trying out different 'ideas' I have. My second character used the holy wrist blades thing, and boy was ::: spoiler spoiler the final boss a removed until I figured out what I was doing wrong. :::
Elden Ring. I decided to go into the DLC with a new character and getting him setup so he's ready to jump in. Gathering smithing stones and other mats, killing Radahn and Mohg, and getting some weapons whenever I finally decide what build I want to start with. Put a couple hours in so far and really enjoying it.
Yep it's Elden Ring for me too. I've been running my second character (pure sorcery) on and off for a while but the hype has me back in it. I'm a little tired of the gameplay and way more into the lore now. Hoping the new weapons and abilities give it a fresh feeling.
I think I should pick up a city builder, but not decided between Skylines 2, Manor Lords, or ???
Cities Skylines 1
Better than 2
especially now that all dlc is out and we have a complete and mature game
maybe 2 will be this good in another 6 years
Reviews for Skylines 2 are Mixed, which suggests you should play Manor Lords (Very Positive).
i like it but i feel it still needs a bit more time.
workers and resources is a nice game in this general style.
I watched a quick trailer for Workers and Resources and the part focusing on a bus driving made me think of a head-in-the-clouds fantasy cool thing:
a city builder game. Click on a truck driving through to switch to a driving sim (think American/Euro Truck Simulator), on a train to a train sim, on a bus to a bus sim… Click on a person walking on the street and you get a The Sims-like interface and get the ability to switch into that game mode. And even though this is probably highly unrealistic and already too much, so why am I even thinking about scope, you could limit scope by locking to just this one city. Any vehicle routes out of the city have the vehicle disappear when you get to the city border. Sims already limited itself to one town/city, do that the same way.
After reading a few reviews for W&R apparently it scratches both a Transport Tycoon-type itch and regular city builder itches, so sort of like my above idea—a few games in one. Apparently it can be micromanagey, which appeals to me when I'm in a certain kind of mood.
simcity 4 had some limited click on a car to control it mechanics with the rush hour expansion
you could sorta follow individual sims too, it was cool.
Going to keep building my factorio factory. Almost done with industrial revolution 3. Should be done in another 40 hours or so...
My wife's been hogging the PC for months now playing Baldur's gate. She finished 1 last month and now working her way through 2.
Golf
It's not too old, released in 2017, but after over a year of being in my steam library I just installed Yooka-Laylee on my deck and got through the tutorial. So far it's a really fun game.
picked up No Man's Sky the other week at 50% off and really enjoying it
Just started Subnautica new zero. The first Subnautica was incredible, having fun with this one so far.
I started the game Playing Kafka. It is a small and free game on iOS and Steam, but it’s really good.
I am playing Max Payne on my iPad too. It creates a retro vibe.
I am playing Monster Hunter: Rise too, When I have nothing to do, I take out my Switch Lite and defeat the monsters.
RDR1
After finishing Pillars of Eternity (I even backed it haha) in the Fall, I decided to replay (played twice back in the day) Baldur's Gate II, but after paying off the Shadow Thieves, I decided to play Pillars of Eternity 2, to put a dent in my other RPG's that have been piling up. I have to make room for Baldur's Gate 3 and soon to be released Avowed.
Oh and Age of Mythology: Reborn. The original was like crack to me
I just finished both Borderlands 3 and God of War (2018) so I'm in gaming limbo again.
Leaning toward Stardew Valley, Noita, or finally buckling down to finish Far Cry 3.
You can give My time at Sandrock a go, it is similar to Stardew Valley but with a more linear story. Still the game has plenty of content to keep you entertained for a longer period of time and it is enjoyable, and chill.
I recently started a new Stardew playthrough after leaving it for a couple years. Damn that game is so good. It's like a perfect little dose of relaxation.
I recently started playing Noita. Can confirm, much time is needed for such a simple yet intensely complex game. Incredibility fun, enormously infuriating, also all your own fault. Perfect 5/7 would recommend
I've started and bounced off Noita a couple of times already. It's been fun but I do need time to dig in and wrap my head around the mechanics.
I'm stuck on wand building at the moment. I've watched a couple video guides explaining how it works, but something still isn't clicking. None of the wands I'm making have worked the way I expect them to, and I'm not sure what I'm not understanding.
It is a little confusing and I agree that they don't always work the way I expect. I will say that going for a single type will ultimately hold you back if you just aren't getting the proper spells. Best to just generate something that works to some degree.
Cast delay and recharge rate are the two most important stats outside of "shuffle" in which you always want "no". Cast delay is the time between spells and after all of them are cast, recharge rate is the time before casting the new full spell list.
The order in which you place spells is important and I still have to mess around with them a bit since I don't understand it as well as I thought I did. But there are casting "blocks" which is like a set of commands. This is why you want shuffle "no" because then it will always cast left to right. Casting a trispell will cast whatever spells are in the next 3 slots (at the same time) including another trispell, which will then add the next three blocks (as an example). Then you have to do some math to see what all the cast delay and recharge rate total numbers are. That's how you see what your wand will ultimately do. If you can get cast delay to 0 or lower it will chaingun but pause almost like a shotgun if the recharge rate is higher than the cast delay. The wand will always be held back by the larger of the two (cast delay or recharge rate).
IDK if this clarified or helped at all but if you have more questions I might be able to answer or provide resources for you.
The issue I've been trying to work out is getting modifiers to work consistently. My understanding is that modifiers are supposed to stack and affect the next projectile spell to the right, but they either don't apply at all or will apply sporadically, and I haven't figured out what rule I'm missing.
I assume some modifiers just don't work with some projectiles, but the game doesn't seem to communicate whether this is the case. I also suspect it has something to do with shuffle, as you warned against, but I haven't been getting any non-shuffle wands for experimentation, and my starter wand doesn't have much mana to work with.
It doesn't help that I can only experiment with builds in the airlock chambers between levels.
The specific issue I remember having last night was that I couldn't get the pentagon shot modifier to apply to any of my projectile spells no matter what I did.
I did get the flametrail modifier working consistently, so I'm doing something right, but I'm not sure what was different between that and the pentagon spread modifier I was trying.
Modifiers (generally) cost mana too, so you have to add that mana cost to each cast of the wand. If you have a 5 mana cost spell and a 30 mana modifier, you end up with 35 mana per cast. If your wand has a total capacity of 100 mana and a recharge rate of 100MPS, you'll get 2 casts with the modifier (70 total mana) and one cast without until you regen to a capacity total of 35 mana (or greater) to cast with the modifier again. If you have a dual or tri cast spell and put the modifier before that, it will apply the modifier to the whole cast block adding the modifier mana requirement to each spell in that block. If at any point that exceeds your capacity, it won't add the modifier at all.
Right, so if you have 3 spells on a shuffle wand, and 1 modifier in front of one, than the modifier will only affect the cast "block" of that one spell. Since it is a shuffle wand it can choose to cast any of those three which gives you a 30% chance of casting a modified spell. This is why non-shuffle is so important. You can always tell if its a shuffle or non-shuffle wand by whether it has a gemstone on the wand. If it does have one, it will be NON-shuffle, if it does NOT have a gem, it will be shuffle.
A non-shuffle gives you consistency and the ability to make those spell "blocks"
That's part of what makes the game tough is how you only get to tinker with the wands in those mid-way points, unless you get a perk that says otherwise. But a pro-tip, your second wand, the bomb wand, you can switch your main wand's spell to that and it will usually work in a pinch to give you a rapid fire shot with low mana regent. Not optimal, bit functional when no other options exist.
The pentagon one, IIRC, if used with a single spell will just shoot around you in 5 directions. But if you have a trigger spell you place it like so [Trigger spell] [Pentagon] [damage spell]. I believe pentagon has a pretty high mana consumption so that may have prevented you from having the total capacity needed to successfully cast it. Therefore you would have just casted an unmodified spell.
LMK if you need more info!
I was not counting mana cost, no. So it'll just drop modifiers if it doesn't have enough mana, and still cast the base spell? That does explain some of the behavior I was seeing. I figured it would fail to cast entirely if I didn't have enough mana for the full block.
One theory I had, if you can confirm, is that shuffle doesn't just shuffle spells, it shuffles all spell nodes.
So if I have a 4-slot shuffle wand with: PPMP (P = Projectile Spell, M = Modifier)
I was thinking the cast table could either be:
P1 - 33%
P2 - 33%
MP3 - 33%
Or
P1 - 25%
P2 - 25%
MP3 - 25%
P3 - 25%
Depending on whether the modifier block was a valid place for the shuffle to land.
I was planning to try to build some wand experiments to differentiate which of these scenarios is true. Good to know that mana can be a confounding variable.
Edit: Also, is shuffle fully random or does it draw without replacement like a deck of cards until all stored spells are cast and it can recharge? Just thought of this and realized I hadn't tested for it.
You know, I'm not actually entirely sure if it sees the modifier as a valid selection, but yes, it will kill a modifier and cast a non-modified spell if it does not have the capacity. The only time it will not fire at all is when 1) the base spell has a greater cost than total capacity. Or 2) you are out of casts for spells that have a cast limit (donated by a number within the spell's block).
A shuffle wand will always cast all spells available in the selection before hitting the recharge, I can say that for sure. So if you have 5 spells each at 20% chance, then you cast one, you have a 25% for each of the remaining four, then 33%, then 50% then you will 100% cast the spell you haven't cast yet before the wand goes through recharge and all spells become available again.
When talking about dual casts and tri-casts I'm not entirely sure how it resolves what to cast when mana capacity is an issue, but I believe it goes left to right, and checks the validity against your capacity, yes=cast no=not cast which would be why someone would end up casting a couple, but not all of, a block's spells.
Spells and modifiers all can add (or remove) mana, modify cast delay/recharge delay. So do keep an eye on how that all gets changed based on what spells you use. One spell selection could be the difference between chaingun or a slow firing one shot. Some spells have 1 second delays built in (which technically can be overcome)
That makes a lot more sense now. Thank you. I know where to look for troubleshooting next time I play.
Frosthaven. Specifically the physical version
Satisfactory on the Steam Deck
I'm curious how the latest version runs. I haven't tried it since the Unreal Engine 5 update. Kinda waiting to jump back in at the 1.0 release.
I didn't change any additional settings since I last played a few updates ago. Seems to run pretty good. Though I apologize I don't have what I've adjusted handy to share.
I just started a free character on Dark and Darker since it's back on Steam. The gameplay loop is satisfying, and I feel ready to start playing teams and learn to fight other players.
Still playing through Thirsty Suitors on my deck on the TV. About 4 hrs in. It’s got an interesting story in there, but the fighting gets tedious sometimes and honestly, I wish I were encountering more of my exes. 7/10 so far
Also playing my second run through of BG3 with my buddy whenever we both have time. 10/10
And unrelated to gaming, I’ll have the 24 Hours of Le Mans on in the background
I just finished Star Trek: Resurgence last evening, so I'm now trying to decide what to start next! I'm currently trying to pick from Battletech, Dune: Spice Wars, and Desperados III, or maybe even something else. I'm looking forward to the Steam summer sale, I've got a few more games I've been eyeing up for a while.
Playing through ff7 rebirth and was trying to finish a dragon age origins play through I've had going on since 2022. I've had rebirth since launch but I've only really had a chance to play it from last week as I've been ill most of the year until recently. Also have dragons dogma 2 which I haven't played much for the same reason.
Gonna finish Escape Academy with my partner! I only bought it because doseone did all of the music (Enter the Gungeon, 13&God, and one of my favorite albums: “Less is Orchestra” (Look it up please, listen to Fact Colossal or The Deadener) (RIP Alias)
Charming game with cheesy dialogue and great puzzles. Never have done an escape room before and we’re crushing it so far. Do NOT play alone. Must be played with a partner.
I've been really enjoying my current Pathfinder:Kingmaker run going for the true ending.
After watching the new dune movie I got inspired to play through a campaign on Dune: Spice Wars. So probably that!
Perhaps not very patient gamer, but I think I'll give Another Crab's Treasure a go.
It's very hard for me to feel motivated to play new games nowadays, but that one did spike my interest - seems more fun than Elden Ring tbh, which kinda feels like a generic souls-like - and it's got great reviews and isn't too expensive, so I think I'll try it out.
Civilization III
I'm
impatiently waiting for next week-end when the Elden Ring DLC releases. It counts if I have to wait, right?Kiddos have gotten back into the Pokemon card game so we're likely playing Pokemon TCG Live
Also hoping to finally break in the Nexalis ttrpg I've had on the shelf for a while now with the teens
Some more high-fi rush
Boom Blox Bash Party with the wife and maybe House of the Dead Returns
I finally 100% Arkham Knight after 9 years, completing all the Community Challenges trophies, including Requiem for a Killer challenge (the one where you have to do a 400+-combo in a endless combat challenge to reach and defeat the secret boss).
Think I'm gonna install Red Dead Redemption 2 next. Finished RDR for the first time last year and wanna finish the sequel, which I started a few years back on the PS4 but dropped.
I just played some Stardew multiplayer with a friend. First time I have broken out the game in about a year, and what with 1.6 being newly out, now I feel like playing singleplayer…
Also multiplayer Minecraft with friends.
When I was a kid, I played so many more games on my own initiative. Now that I'm older I seem to need to be incentivized to play a game by "your friend is playing this game!" But that does set me in more of a gaming mood afterwards…
I might play Valheim, mostly for building on my island.
I have gotten back into non-patiently playing Helldivers, but I think I'll spend the weekend playing Hex of Steel, CtA:Gates of Hell and Dawn of War:Soulstorm with thr Unification mod, same as I've been doing all week.
Well that, and watching the 24h of Le Mans race, this saturday!
Weekend just hit again and I'm looking forward to diving back into Tunic this Sunday. I'm a good way through it, but can only play an hour or so at a time.
I was honestly unimpressed to begin with, but the overall vibe, and detail of the manual pages, won me over.
Sakuna on the Nintendo Switch. It was on sale and I wanted to try it for a long time.
I just beat NieR: Automata (round 1, of it, anyway) and am debating whether to play through the second part of the story or just skip to the prequel game.
Hard space: Shipbreaker
I'm 25 hours into FO: New Vegas so will be continuing that. I have finally got into it on this, my third attempt to do so.
I used the viva new Vegas mod guide and everything has run so smoothly and generally been a great experience so far so slowly making my way through it and finally enjoying it :D
Stupid games and win stupid prizes.
Monster Sanctuary! And helldivers 2
just about to crack on star ocean for super famicom on my ps vita. its crashed a couple times tho so plan b is phantasy star and/or castlevania 3. i fidget a lot, i'll probably 5 different games before bed.
It's not a patient game yet, but I caved and got Alan Wake 2 the other week. In the early stages so far (the game's quite scary!) but loving it.