Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 1st

With the release of the Dark Souls 2 Lighting Engine mod, I've been motivated to pick that game back up again. I played DS2 for the first time about a year ago, got maybe a third through, and then kind of fell off. It's fun to be back in Drangleic! Last time I was rolling a Paladin-type character with Faith and melee weapons, this time I'm interested in making a huge-sword type build and pivoting to hexes in the later game. The lighting mod also let's you mod in HDR if your monitor is capable, and boy howdy does it look incredible with the improved lighting and HDR 🤩

Edit: here's some screenshots i took capturing how bright Majula is, and capturing the added shadows.

I bought 7 Days to Die about a week ago and put it on my Steamdeck right before a transcontinental flight, and since I started it on that flight, I haven't played much of anything else.

I don't know why but it's kind of perfect for me right now, right between Ark and Project Zomboid and I feel like I have a lot of control over the pace of the game. Its nice.

I’m 40 hours into Persona 3 Reload. This is my first Persona game, and I’m enjoying it a lot. It was recommended to me after I got deeply into the two most recent Like a Dragon games, which I enjoyed immensely.

I’m having a good time with Persona 3 too. I’m playing it on easy and just enjoying the experience. I think I would have burned out on it about 20 hours ago if I was playing on a higher difficulty level and getting my ass beat in every boss fight. I wasn’t sure I would be into it with the high school setting, but that turned out to not be an issue.

I fully intend on playing it as far as rolling credits.

Playing through the Trails series, just finished the Crossbell arc which was fantastic.

Tried playing Tales of Arise, but I'm not really liking it. The combat seems fine for now, albeit a bit clunky, but the story started off really weak and after the first lord I'm not really interested. I got Vesperia too, so I might try that.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana on Vita.

Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade on Steam Deck emulated.

Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom on PS3.

More of the new World of Warcraft Expansion. I've leveled four characters to 80 now, and equipped two of them. My Monk and Paladin are basically "done" for now, and I'm kinda waiting for the higher difficulty stuff. Next week I'll focus on gearing my two other characters, a Mage and a Druid. While the Monk is definitely my favorite to play, the Paladin and Mage aren't too far behind. Only the Druid is a bit underwhelming, since stuff just dies too fast right now, and I need to apply DoTs to anything to do any real damage (Balance spec).

I started The Witcher 3 for the second time. I tried it a year ago and I kept getting absolutely wrecked by the ghost thing in thr very first crypt so I gave up but this time I killed it straight away so who knows what I was doing wrong last time! Also, probably a bit controversial but I refuse to learn how to play Gwent, I don't have the time or patients to learn a card game inside an already massive game

I also started and finished American Arcadia this weekend and I absolutely loved it. I'm trying to play shorter games that I wouldn't usually play in between The Witcher 3 since its long. AA is probably one of the best games I've played. The story is fantastic and the gameplay is pretty basic, which suits me. It doesn't take itself too seriously and has some fun twists at the end.

I've also been playing Supraland, its a pretty fun, chill game. The areas aren't very difficult and the upgrade system is fun. I love the funny dialogues from the NPCs and again its a fun game that doesn't take itself seriously and I find myself smiling while playing it

Persona 5 Royal Reloaded II on steam deck

Just started Summon Night: Swordcraft Story. So far I'm enjoying trying out all the different kinds of weapons and picking up hints about the game's unique worldbuilding. Now that I'm out of the tutorial section, I'm looking forward to seeing the story pick up and hoping to find a little more variety in the design of the upcoming dungeon levels.

Sorry for the double post, but I DID play something new this week: The demo for the Casting of Frank Stone.

LOVED IT.

It's a narrative horror game and those tend to be out of my price range at the start, because I only buy a game if I get at least an hour of play time per dollar spent, but still, it's spooky and fantastic.

I'm two missions away from the end in Alien: Isolation. This weirdly enough has been one of the most difficult playthroughs that I've done of this game. I accidentally soft locked myself while in the reactor area and spent waaay too much time in that area. But I'm finally passed it, so I hope things go a little smoother to the end.