The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

Quinten@lemmy.worldmod to Games@lemmy.world – 106 points –

Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!

Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.

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Bg3 but its going to take a while to finish how things are going!

I’m playing coop online with my friend now. (Just started, since he’s on Xbox only.)

Since we only play like 4 hours/week, and about half the time our gaming “appointment” gets cancelled because of adult responsibilities, I think it’ll take us a good year to get to the end lol

Signalis (on Switch)

The music, the sounds, the visuals create a perfect mood. I’m not far into the story, but for now it’s very intriguing. One of the few games where I don’t mind the backtracking. Despite the retro look, the game is very immersive.

There is some clunkiness tho. Might be better on a PC.

If you like sci-fi with a bit horror, ambiguous storytelling, gloomy atmosphere, try it.

For what it's worth, I found the PC vers clunky also. I wanted to get into it more than I did unfortunately.

It's not game breaking. the clunkiness shows in combat situations, but you can just do 'dark souls run past the enemies' in most cases. I like this game for the atmosphere and story mostly.

This game has been on my steam wishlist for quite a while. Looks like it'll scratch that old school resident evil itch.

I wasn't a big fan of the old RE games (could never get used to fixed cameras), but Signalis works for me. Still haven't finished it, free time seems precious commodity these days, but come the next weekend I'll hopefully definitely will have the time to continue the game.

I found the game very rough around the edges, and had to look at an internet guide to tell me where to go in the last level, but it's a game really worth playing for the atmosphere and story alone.

There's a great video essay on YT that takes a deep dive into the story and symbolism of the game, which I really recommend watching after finishing the game, if you're into that form of content. A complete story breakdown of Signalis.

Still not finished Signalis.. struggling a bit with free time for gaming. Just wanted to say, I do play games for story and/or atmosphere. Like watching a movie, and I do like my movies to have a story or atmosphere.

I hated the gameplay (for being very easy) and the story was meh on Death Stranding, but the mood and the feel of that game won me over, so I finished it and even went back to try 100%ing it.

My job makes me having social interactions for most of my day, so a game that gave me the feeling of isolation and loneliness like Death Stranding 2 or 3 hours before sleeping was kind of pensive at the time. Few weeks after finishing the game, Covid happened, and since then I had few instances of isolation IRL, and it wasn't nearly as introspective as Death Stranding. So I look fondly on that game even tho all the gaming aspects of it were boring IMO. Just the atmosphere was great.

So yeah, I can consume any media if the atmosphere and/or story is enjoyable or challenging (in a positive way)

I will check the video, I like video essays.

I can relate to that. These days I find myself gravitating more towards calm/introspective games that let me sit back, explore at my own pace and relax.

Wish you a good day, and I hope you are enjoying the holidays :)

Replaying Control again, having a hard time trying to pass a level of the Foundation, so I'm progressing in the story right now and I'll go back to it later

This has been in my backlog for years. Maybe I’ll play it next. But I did just get horizon zero Dawn ultimate or whatever it’s called in the steam sale

I played through Max Payne 1 and 2 because they were on sale. Absolutely loved them even if they're 20 years old. I was about to go on a Remedy kick because I heard Control was a ton of fun as well but then I realized Alan Wake was on the list and I just cannot enjoy that game despite trying it out several times.

Slay the Princess. Just discovered it, 100% it already. I love it so much. The soundtrack, the art, the plot, the voice acting, it's just so awesome. I don't normally like horror VNs (looking at you, ddlc!) but this one is less shock horror and more actual depth to it. You can feel the love put into the game. Sorry if this sounds too much like an ad, just hyperfixating a little :)

Oh and I think the snipers in the current Fortnite season are wayyy to annoying.

Friend of mine got me into Lethal Company. Absolutely love it.

World of Warships. Started jumping back into that recently. I dunno why but it's weirdly peaceful and relaxing for me to play. Might be because I grew up sailing on the ocean due to living on an island.

I do have Alan Wake 2 that I really need to play but I'm also playing Control and Alan Wake 1 at the same time to prepare for AW2. It's... a lot. But Control I've played a half dozen times and will always love. Alan Wake 1 I've never actually played but after learning of the shared world in Control I have been meaning to get around to it. Enjoyable so far but I'm barely into it.

Then there's also God of War Valhalla on the side. Always fun as fuck. Free DLC too. What's not to love?

Oh and Slay the Spire. Silent go brrrrrr.

FINALLY getting into Hollow Knight in earnest. I have to say: holy shit this game truly deserves all the accolades it was given. Absolutely adoring it.

I just started Returnal yesterday evening. I have a PS5 Dualsense as PC controller and let me tell you those haptics are really something.

I played it on PC and loved it even without the fancy DualShock features. I bet they're awesome.

I love how fast and responsive the movement is.

Yeah, movement is great. It's also hard as fuck, at least for an old fart like me (I'm 46).

Still BG3, and probably will be for a long time. As well as tabletop DND now, since the game inspired me to finally give DMing for friends a shot.

Finally finished Halo 2 and it was a slog. Now on to Halo 3 and straight away more fun, better movement and better gunplay than halo 2.

Finished Zero Entropy 2 and wow. Its canon in my mind. Feels like Half Life 2 Opposing Forces Episode 2 if valve had shown us the combine side. Now will 3 come? 3 is cursed so I just putting it to one side.

Finished Pony Island. Weird game. Not too sure what was going on but ok. Its off the list now.

And heroes of the storm ofc. Started storm League with a friend and we are having a blast together. Aram when I am solo.

Planetside 2, recently started it up again and it's still fun.

Dave the diver and made the mistake of trying vampire survivors, that thing is fucking addicting to me. Already had a taste of it with halls of torment but this type of game really gives you that "just one more run" feeling

Man, I just don't get that from vampire survivors. I loved Binding of Isaac and can't stand vampire survivor or brotato as the endless waves just seem... Boring and then the builds seem obvious and usually pretty easy to force.

I just never get that pull to do one more round.

That's the thing, I don't understand why these games feel so satisfying to play, I have so much good stuff on my library to play and this simple ass game where just pretty much grind your way to the end like you said to the other user is what keeps me entertained

It's a chore to do that requires little direct thought or input in a complex world full of too much to do? Seems like it scratches a similar itch to the cosy gamers accept with more fun to the audience that doesn't like pulling weeds

I just started playing Vampire Survivors, how do you force a build in the game? I didn't even realize it was an option.

Well you need to grind a bit to unlock stuff and get the gold but you can get the option to reroll and then lancet and laurel are the main things to being practically unkillable with enough leveling.

But for early level seriously just upgrade whip and get the heart. You now heal and do near constant damage. And then get garlic and just work on maxing out any item one at a time. And you will keep going until the waves become bullshit. Keep doing until you literally grind ypur way to buying your way into the end game.

Yay needless grinding.

My friendly neighborhood. It's pretty excellent. Visuals are consistent and have a pleasant aesthetic and I never found the controls to cause problems. I was kinda hoping weapon flip could be a parry but it seems to be just for the hell of it. Good map mechanics for tracking completion of areas. Nothing majorly scary for me at least but the occasional startle.

Anyone wanting to do the achievements I recommend doing the fight the boss normally one before the pacifist one as I think it's easier. Also if you plan on doing a NG+ run, doing the nope ending (nope on home after encountering pearl) will erase the ng+ file so start a new save for that. I haven't finished them all but if I didn't lose my ng+ save this way I probably would have been able to get them all in one sitting.

Phantasy Star IV
Monster Hunter World
City Skylines 2

My kids and I have been on a Vermintide 2 kick. Its so damn fun when you're sitting next to each other.

still Avatar and since I got Alan Wake 2 in the Epic sale I started to replay the original. The free remaster you got with Alan Wake 2 unfortunately has some nasty visual bugs on amd hardware and too often shatters my immersion with glitches and black screens, but since it only ups the assets I'm fine with the original which is still an awesome looking game and perfectly playable in 2023.

How are you finding Avatar?

It looks intriguing for sure though I have heard comments that it’s sort of the typical Ubisoft hunt the icon type game with in Avatar world skin.

I really like it and since there are no Icons or compass it's really not that type of game. I have the impression that most of the people just repeat the nonsense they heard somewhere.

Yes they are outpost but you don't have to clear them like in FarCry, you can simply follow the story or some some nice written side quests or just explore the world on your ikran. The traversal through the world is amazing and really well done by massive and on top of that you have an unobtrusive gear and skill system for your character.

So overall the game is really good and gets really amazing if you're a fan of the movies or the world.

Started playing Cyperbunk again. (Latest patch as of now. PC) can still bug/glitch out.

I poured dozens of hours into 2.0/2.1. It's a really enjoyable game but I got burnt out trying to complete all the side gigs. Also there's still constant noticeable bugs.

Going into photomode in a moving elevator. You can teleport out. (This is an egde case senario. Not encountered in average gameplay. Not mad at this one)

But if you drive your car into water, you cant get out of the car. That is easily encouterable in everyday gameplay. Slightly more mad/dissapointed that this is in the game.

Was coming back into Minecraft but wanted to make the game feel more spicy because vanilla survival has gotten boring for me, so I've been playing the latest April Fools snapshot "The Vote Update" in hardcore, with a personal rule that I cannot say "Do nothing" to any vote.

I did lose my first world to "Replace Creeper spawns with Warden" but the second world has been going well, and it's definitely a more chaotic and interesting way to play the game.

Give Vintage Story a shot. It’s Minecraft as a survival game and much more than that.

Looks beautiful too.

I'll definitely look into it, I have had a couple friends play it before actually, so they might be able to give me a steer on how to play.

Have you explored any Minecraft modpacks yet?

I have, and generally I get overwhelmed with how complicated they can get, especially the really popular modpacks that add magic and stuff like that.

I usually end up making my own "Vanilla+" kind of modpack, but I've gotten bored with most mods that I would usually add to that.

With that being said, I might try adding only a few of the more technical mods and seeing if I enjoy that.

Just finished playing metal gear solid peace walker and now I'm play through MGS 5 again ! Love all the MGS games.

If you could recommend only one for someone new to the games, which would it be?

MGS3 (first game chronologically and best standalone game) or Ground Zeroes which is basically an introduction to MGSV.

I would say MGS 2 or 3 or hard to choose . If you want something in the modern day go with 2 or if you want cold war ear go with 3 . MGS 3 is longer and has a lot more cool unlockables too . MGS 1 is amazing too but definitely shows its age . If you can't tell I'm a huge MGS fan lol .

Here's my collection of MGS games !

Probably part 2, because it’s got the best evolution of the originals gameplay, without going too crazy deep into mechanics like the later games do.

Gta online, v rising, planetside. Picked up atomicrops on my switch again and I’ve miraculously made it past year one given the face I have no idea what I’m doing

Jumped back into some Division 2 lately with friends. Been fun power level my mates who aren't level 40.

I'm years late but I finally started bravely default and I'm kicking myself for sleeping on it for so long.

UPDATE (2023/12/21): ~110 hrs of New Vegas playthrough finally finished. Finally finished my playthrough as Mercenary Anarchy Courier. ::: spoiler spoiler Not sure if FPGE did alter something but after finishing the playthrough, it feels the "warmness" vibe of post-post apocalypse of Fallout gone when Hoover Dam battle is near and finished, perhaps because NCR is wiped out, definitely the writing still ok as the only way to make the game "Win" is you do not finish the game if you do not want to make bad decision for Mojave Wasteland. Maybe I will try to explore a bit post-ending with this FPGE mod. ::: While I am glad I finished this playthrough, I also had bit of "guilty pleasure" from finishing this one as much as time consuming it is while also I want to finish it as soon as I can because dragging on playthrough would make it even unpleasant for me to finish it due to busy stuff RL, same reason why I rarely want to pick up JRPGs nowadays because most of time having 60 hrs - 80 hrs minimal to complete is bit painful for those who had busy life. At very least I glad I am done with it.

While also few days ago I tried to emulate WMMT5s on PC, thought to try multiplayer with private client, ended up disappointed as it seems every discord server that "facilitates" the community is closing down their invite link or maybe threatened by Bandai Namco because most of these people play a game that still active on Arcade Cabinet and emulate them on home using a software on their own PC. At the same times I wonder why Bandai Namco would not bring these arcade games into PC while the said system (the Arcade) actually PC system in disguise since the demand is still there for Wangan racing genre although not as much as something like mainstream Arcade Racer (e.g FH5, Crew Motorsport etc). I do not know the latest Initial D the Arcade Stage since I do not have interest in Touge racing.

Planning to get NFS 2015 in winter sale, want to complete my NFS Collection on Steam and experiencing NFS 2015 in retrospective as back during release I did not managed to play it due to lack of interest.

Clocking in at ~100 hrs on my current annual New Vegas playthrough, I'm trying to finish this one as my previous playthroughs always end abruptly nearing the End. The options to solve a problem/quest is what makes this game never be boring and you can RP anything you like (although I have not tried Legion Courier, maybe in future). At the moment I am on my way at the start of Lonesome Road as before concluding the story in Hoover Dam battle.

Viva New Vegas with JSUE tweak makes the game feels like classic Fallout and force player to be resourceful and use every features that the game offer, however I do not recommend to use JSUE tweak if you only played Bethesda Fallout game as Fallout 1 and 2 is a bit infuriating in term of early game difficulty (if you do not know what to do), stick to Vigor Lite if you want closer to vanilla easy difficulty.

I'm currently reolaying Fallout 3 since I last played it around release time on the 360. This time playing on PC. I plan to move on to New Vegas (which is my favourite) afterwards. What is JSUE and what does it do?

JSUE is reworked version of JESawyer tweak mod. It was created by one of original Fallout designer Josh Sawyer but the original version of the mod is gone and people recreate their own as to make improvement out of it (in term of the scripting effectiveness and newer code standard of New Vegas Extended Script modding).

The list of the changes is huge as it overhauls some stuffs within the game. Here is the list of the changes if you are interested to read them. Things that I noticed when I played with it is that you had to make use of Ammo types mechanics, you had to use AP ammos to punch those Super Mutants, Deathclaws or anything that have high DT otherwise you wouldn't punch their HP much through their thick skin/armor, Hollow Point ammos are ok if you want to save some bullet on lower armored High HP enemies. Carry weight is even more lower than vanilla (though you can change it in .ini file; I don't recommend to add more than +50 lbs of carry weight to keep it in spirit of the tweak) which forces you to planning ahead during exploration and use those Mojave Mailboxes when you want to transfer some stuff from locations. Survival skills worth the investment in this tweak as chems item is more rare. On my playthrough, I find Hardcore Mode with this tweak really good combination as to make food, chems, drinks and beverage more useful than simply to restore (or buffs) your character stats.

Oh another tip, if you have both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, consider to try Tale of Two Wasteland on your next playthrough, it simply better experience if you want to play Fallout 3 as it use New Vegas engine which more mod supported than 3 version (finding modern mod and bug fixes for 3 is harder than New Vegas based on my last Fallout 3 playthrough).

In my opinion both game are great in their own way and Bethesda did good job saving the IP on Fallout 3 (Bethesda bought Fallout IP when Black Isle/Interplay bankrupt). Without Fallout 3, New Vegas can not exist.

Hardspace Shipbreaker

Ive been playing this non-stop. Why? Im not sure. But theres something just so satisfying about tearing down a spaceship in 0 gravity. Wish it had a VR option, would seriously consider investing in a VR headset to play it that way.

Baldur's Gate 3 Continuing to make my way through this behemoth in 2 player coop, tricky to align schedules but damn it's great. Running a Spore Druid and by Act 3 it's often hard to walk around with how many summons I can have at one time. Love it.

The Finals One of the most refreshing FPS games I've played in years. At first I felt my age fighting against the speed of the game, but I soon got the hang of it and now I'm a Light demon myself. Here's hoping the game keeps its current momentum, because there's nothing like digging through the roof with a sledgehammer and wiping out the team you land on as they flail and panic.

I've been playing the original Doom for the first time over the last few days, and just beat it today. It was really good and I can see why it was such a big deal at the time. It was a significant improvement over Wolfenstein 3D in every way, not just technically, but also in terms of level design and story.

Running the new Warframe content and diving back in to It Lurks Below.

Just finished Pentiment. It was a wonderful, miserable experience. Don't know how people can stomach multiple playthroughs.

Also just finished Doom Eternal. Mixed feelings overall but I like the idea of the counter-heavy combat system. I just wish they dialed back the number of mechanics a bit.

My current addiction is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I was skeptical at first but man do I love the immersion in this game. The minigames like alchemy and lockpicking are fun and engaging. The combat is kind of Mordhau-lite which means it requires more thought than just spamming attack. The dialogue is surprisingly funny at times, the story interesting enough, and the voice acting is solid. And I like how the quests aren't all simply "go to the marker"--you have to actually follow clues and pay attention.

I bought Alan Wake 2 literally a day before the sale, not thinking it would go on sale. And now I'm waiting for a patch anyway because some lighting bugs were introduced in the last patch. Oops. Kinda sucks but I'm still very excited to play it!

Started playing minecraft again, wanted something cozy to play during the holidays. I always end up committing to a really big build and then lose interest halfway through, so we'll see how it goes

Returnal

I completed this amazing game, but I'm still trying to complete all the ciphers in the last biome, and it's taking forever.

I got this too and honestly have to say it's not my type of game. Feels a little repetitive with no goal besides salvaging enough scrap to meet the next quota.

Maybe I'm missing out on some hidden features, but the group plays a bigger role in enjoyment than the game for me.

Eidolon. Nice little gem, very relaxing and I’m constantly wanting to find the next scrap of info. I’ve been compiling them into a timeline as best I can.

I feel like this gem of a game has pretty much been forgotten. Never expected to see someone mention it. Very atmospheric and one of my favorite walking simulator games.

Yeah and it's almost impossible to find any info about it because of some stupid Warframe thing that uses 'Eidolon' in the title. Get out of here with that AAA microtransaction crap game. :-)

I've played 20 hours of foxhole in the last week. I'm not addicted. Totally not...

I wanted to play Star Wars Rebellion, but my copy is doing a thing where all the icons in-game are upside down. Apparently it’s a known issue running the game on newer OS (How? WHY?!) but until it’s fixed I can’t really play.

I’ve been playing Call Of Duty 2 as part of taking notes about the roots of the series. Not sure if there’s enough meat for a proper essay but I will see.

I really can’t wait for Christmas break to immerse myself in something. Maybe Deus Ex.

I just started Fire Emblem: Three Houses, my first Fire Emblem game. Bit confusing to me, but so far very fun.

Recently decided to give 'Oxygen not included' a try. Still learning the ropes on getting basics sorted out and what is the best path for research.

That free giveaway Desolate co-op. It's like STALKER-lite mixed with Generation Zero.

A neat little early access open world action RPG called The Bloodline.

Starfield a bit, working on getting a Voyager III.

Vampire Survivors when I just want something simple to play.

Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze on Switch.

I'm playing a game called "eat and drink my childhood trauma."

I heard this has a pretty rough beginning, but it all turns out okay by the end.

Armored Core 6, they added ranked matches today.

Dark Souls 1, want to finally 100% it.

Minecraft, because it's always nice.

Between Breathedge and call of juarez: gunslinger at the moment

The newest path of exile build with my newest custom build.

Man I want to love PoE but it seems like you can't enjoy the game after a certain point (not even close to endgame) without following a build guide which I really dislike doing.

Well, until you start understanding the game mechanics, you can follow a build guide.

I do not, and I roll my own builds, and I will say they are generally quite successful. I can get ideas from guides, or other builds on poe.ninja, but then I still research and adjust to my liking, budget, and playstyle.

Rolling a build is more than half of the game for me, and I spend a lot of time tuning and testing.

So yeah I'd say there are several layers to playing PoE:

  • Playing the campaign and a few maps casually without looking something up. It is still a great experience to discover things and the complexity at your own pace. You won't get to do the true endgame though, but it is an experience you can have only once, so I would personally recommend to go through it and see how you like it.
  • Go with a well described build by someone else. You can reach the endgame, learn how the game works, how the mechanics work, how the market works, how farming works, and lots more things.
  • Start rolling your own build. It's like switching games at this point, theorycrafting a build is the true game, and POE is just a frontend for testing your build. And it feels awesome when you succeed and complete something you can call your own and see it do well. And it is iterative, you learn how building a character works so that you can do even cooler things next time.
  • And also do achievent/challenge hunting.

I've only followed a build once. And it was fun. Then I rolled my own, and it was more fun for different reasons.

But definitely needs a lot of time investment long term. It should probably take a couple of years for you to be able to claim you know what you are doing. But thankfully, the game respects you and does not demand your immediate time investment. You can play at you own pace. I have work and family, I play for a couple of hours every few days mostly. And it is fine. No one is pressuring me with daily quests and shit like that. I play because I feel like playing. I pause and play other games no problem, depending on my mood. It's great.

Kinda in between games, I'm currently playing genshin/star rail as fillers while I decide on something better to play. Occasionally I play pandemic legacy season 0 on tabletop simulator and it's a blast! Always love some pandemic legacy

Good old modded Terraria once again. Thorium + Overhaul + Eternity mode with a friend is pretty fun. Turns out Thorium's sword sheaths are fucking cracked with Overhaul's sword changes. I one-shot several bosses and had to stop using them lol.

My other friends started playing RLCraft recently, which has got me in the mood to play a hardcore Minecraft modpack. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble finding any that aren't either complete BS (my issue with RLCraft) or feel incredibly unfinished (like RotN, where over half the guide book entities are placeholder text and the wiki link on the main page leads to a dead wiki).

I just finished Yakuza 3. I have loved 0, 1, and 2. 3 was tough simply due to the lack of music cues. There is so much time spent listening to "ambient_beach.mp3" or "bustling_small_city.ogg" that it was getting tedious. The story is great and it shows off a side of Kiryu that hadn't been developed and was great fun to see. The gameplay was so-so. Stiff and of the era. I'm currently taking a short break before I dig into Y4. I'm really excited to get up to LaD and that game style, but I am enjoying the story to get there.

Just finished Signalis, got the "Promise" ending. Feel pretty empty after that, it's such a good game and is further proof that games don't have to have incredible graphical fidelity or huge teams to be fantastic and look great.

I started playing Zero Sievert again and have been thoroughly re-addicted.

Damn. this look like lots of fun! Going to add to my wish list for now.

I like how the moment-to-moment is still strategic and tense, but its not as brutal as something like tarkov. (By default when you die, you keep what you went in with)

I continue to feed my X4 addiction. Picked up the DLC during the Thanksgiving sale. I'm on my second play, about 35 hours in. Realized I've made a lot of mistakes, but that's half the fun.

I've been playing Marvel Midnight Suns since buying it during a sale and man I cannot believe I missed this game around release, it's incredible!

I'm not very familiar with marvel outside of the older cartoons and some of the MCU, so I find myself very surprised to find myself really enjoying the non-avengers cast here.

I had never even heard of Magik before this game, and I didn't know Blade was marvel. Also I love this version of ghost rider. The skull helmet is badass.

In any case I'm shocked at how well the cross between XCOM and a deck builder plays, every character feels distinct from each other while the decks can be customized to lean into different parts of their kit. (Except for Deadpool. I can't seem to make his kit work very well )

The story is pretty meh though I love hanging out with the large cast between missions. It can feel pretty disjointed though, especially with the dlc missions sprinkled in.

I got addicted to a cabure game , I wish they have expanded the scope of this since it is sooo good, Oh yea it also has beatem up and really good story.

On the PS5 I'm busy leveling my characters in TMNT shredder's revenge and try to complete every objective in story mode. I have 3 objective left and they're all not getting hit a single time while getting through the stage. They seem to be impossible for me, but will keep trying.

On my steam deck I'm playing dead cells. I haven't completed a single run yet but having lots of fun. Trying to time dodges and not face tanking everything is my biggest thing to do while playing it. I just love going at it at the enemies.

This week beaten Mario RPG for the first time ever. Fun game, bit short and easy. Post game though, the rematches with the bosses are really something else. I don't know yet if i want to go through all of that but who knows. Getting the 30 and 100 consistent jumps on a enemy is so hard to do. The first 10 you get much leeway to do them but after that you really need to time them. 28 is my highest yet...

End of this week i have 2 weeks off from work and i will begin playing Baldurs gate 3. Got for cheap on my xbox. Looking forward to that.

My brother got me Lethal Company and I've been enjoying being told what to do and how to survive by a random 13 year old through a walkie talkie while 2 other random 13 year olds try to hit me with shovels and ladders.

With the addition of Honour mode in BG3 I decided to finally start a Dark Urge playthru for the first time. It's been a wild ride, Shart and Gale died and I almost lost everyone in my party lol.

A lot of Spider-Man remastered. I played it when it first came out on ps4, then lost the disc. The remastered version has the dlc though, so that will be new. Also a bit of ark survival evolved to date my creative gaming needs, and some terraria with family.

Spiral Knights and CSD3 with gf, Black Ops III campaign on realistic with a friend, and some Skyrim by myself.

Binding of isaac online, its so fun being able to Play it with your friends without local multiplayer reliably

Bg3 and The Finals, depending on my mood.

Bg3 is great, super happy that they fixed some of the worst bugs in the last patch (like being shot at by enemies through the floor when you are on the 2nd floor of a building).

The Finals definitely needs some balancing changes made, but I'm still enjoying it. Excited to see how the game grows, it will probably replace Apex Legends for me if they keep fixing it.

The balance in the Finals is a weird one. I can absolutely understand feeling like it needs some balance changes, but honestly the more I play against things I consider BS the more I feel like it's actually pretty balanced and every class has tools that make them feel powerful. I would absolutely give it another month of no balance changes to see if something is actually too powerful. I wouldn't want a reactionary balance because IMO each class should have something that makes them feel powerful, it makes the game more fun.

The only thing I don't like is the countdown not stopping when someone is stealing the cashout. At a certain point you just give up trying to steal it because you just know you don't have time to make the steal. For instance I've wiped at a bad time and respawned just far enough to know I won't make it to the cashout with enough time to steal, so I just sit there for half a minute waiting for the match to end because I already know I can't win.

Cultic

That's it. I don't have a lot of time to play with myself. Yes the joke is intentional.

I just finished GoW Ragnarok Valhalla, really enjoyed the story and it feels like a nice place to leave it for a bit. Would like to see what else the modern Santa Monica can do

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 4

The nostalgia + the recent news about the sequel of BT3 got me, I decided to fire this up in my smartphone with my Razer Kishi and Aethersx2, so far it runs very well, although I decided to play the story, so I haven't played that much with those new characters lol.

Trying Sea of Thieves for the first time. Been interesting.

I just finished Mario Wonder. I haven't collected all of the flower coins or topped all of the flag poles to get the Super secret ending. I'm not sure if I want to master the time trials to do that.

How do you find the overall quality of the game? I thought it was cute and in general feels a little easier than Mario Bros Deluxe.

Then again I'm only at the initial stages, keep getting sidetracked by other stuff.

I haven't played through a full Mario game since Super Mario World. There's a lot of fun game mechanics changes from level to level. But overall it's basically the old games but "for kids". There's no difficult mechanics like the cape, nothing that you really have to backtrack for with power ups, no really crazy secret exits.

No idea how that compares to Deluxe. But it is very easy outside of a few levels.

Some levels are weirdly difficult though. The last special (as far as I know because I couldn't do it) is totally unreasonable. I got stuck at two points, one using any character or yoshi, and a different one using nabbit due to his different damage mechanics.

I agree with no exits being crazy, but I did have some plain sight yet invisible moments trying to gety area 100% marks.

Are you talking about the final special or the final final after you 100% everything in every level? I never did final final. I'm not sure if I want to go through the time trials to 100% everything.

There are a few 5 star levels that gave me trouble. And you're right, some of them are very unexpected. But overall it was pretty easy.

The one hidden behind pretty much everything else. I think I was missing two save checks though. It's a cursed all badges run with like 2 or 3 per checkpoint and the checkpoints are placed in a way that requires redoing some pretty precise inputs. I mainly got stuck at hot/cool rocks and invisible Mario on bouncy bumpers that spin.

The normal invisible Mario badge challenges were annoying enough. Those triangle spinning bumpers are bad enough. Having both sounds like the most unfun challenge I can imagine. I think that alone is enough to convince me I don't need to 100% everything.

I tried to get GTA V to work in VR with the Real mod but it looks like Take 2 has patched it out and threatened to sue the modder if they continue to update it.

I don't understand why they would do this. They don't want players revisiting the game again to play in VR? Would that be bad for business or something? I seriously don't get it.

Among other things I've been playing S.T.A.L.K.E.R. GAMMA which is an expansion of stalker anomaly which is a mod rehash of the original stalker games. It's a single player immersive-sim/fps/looter-shooter/survival/sandbox game set in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Very tough, but has been really fun (maybe a bit infuriating at times). I recommend it to those who like a bit of pain. It has replaced single player Tarkov in my rotation for now.

I've been exploring the zone, finding and repairing guns, sitting at campfires, fighting bandits and boars, and running away from other more dangerous things.

Also it's completely free btw.

I'm about to start a playthrough for the first time myself. I couldn't believe that it is actually stand-alone. I thought for sure you'd need to have the OG Stalker games but you don't and it warns that you shouldn't install over them if you have them either.
I never could get myself into the originals but I'm looking forward to GAMMA.

I never could either. I recommend you configure the durability for dropped guns and armour in your mod config. The game can be very stingy as set to default. Good luck!

Do you find that when you walk over sharp level geometry that the camera doesn't smoothly transition up/down? I really want to enjoy GAMMA but the constant jerkiness of the camera was really off-putting to me. Even moving the camera left and right feels like it's moving 1° at a time. It doesn't feel smooth whatsoever but maybe it's my settings or my ultra wide monitor.

I also run an ultra wide monitor. The sharp geometry thing happens to me too, mostly inside houses where there is like a small lip between rooms, or on stairs. Otherwise the camera seems fine. Maybe playing with the sensitivities or fov might help. Fov also seems to be calculated in a weird way, I have it set to 90 but it feels a lot wider.

Maybe it's just low fps? I'm only getting around 70 fps with a 3080 (3440x1440) at mostly default graphics settings (but it feels smooth enough for me) .

Hmm maybe it's the FOV or something. I'll play around with some settings to try to get higher FPS and see if it helps.

Thanks!

I just finished A Plagues take and Before I Forget. So I’m between story games at the moment.

I’m going to be playing a heck of a lot of euro truck simulator 2 because it’s the holiday challenge and I find the portals to the snowy areas cool because I’ve always wanted snow in the northern countries. The physics are pretty cool.

I typical replay Earthbound this time of the year because it’s just a nostalgic time and it’s my favorite game, so I’ll probably play that by the light of the Christmas tree this week, either on my GBA, my pi zero 2 powered Gameboy, or my pitendo cart.

WH40K Rogue Trader. It’s pretty good if you like that kind of thing. ‘Campaign’ bit of the campaign is significantly better that WOTR in my opinion

I think Against the Storm gave me carpal tunnel. The game itself is fine, but by the nature of it, you don't complete your cites and the run ends abruptly. The hub world doesn't feel inviting or rewarding, as much as they tried. Maybe a few tweaks would get it from good to fun

Nier Replicant, i had great fun going through >!dreams!< in Forest of Myth, that was really interesting change of gameplay.

Trying to replay the early ac games. After finishing ac brotherhood, tried to get revelations running on steamdeck... for an hour. The issue as no surprise was drm and ubisoft. They had an old uplay launcher burned into the game, so I had to install a newer one with proton tricks. (This video saved me)

So bit annoyed, started the game and there have been some questionable changes, some buttons are switched around, there are now two weapon wheels, hookblade feels a bit clunky, but I haven't gotten far yet.

Dunno why, but it feels a bit bloated, the parkour feels worse, and Ezio always want to jump into haybales for some reason.

Brotherhood was so damn good. Odyssey is the most recent one I've tried since and it didn't come close to Brotherhood for me.

Just wanted to mention Champions of Regnum, if anyone wants a simple rvr open pvp mmo. It is tab target and old school, slightly more advanced graphically than DAOC. It’s a fun easy casual game for players to drop in and join in the rvr war when and if u like. The war tends to be hilarious because there are 3 realms and the number of wacky shenanigans that happen is quite unpredictable. There is a significant grind, but this game is so much chill fun at the end, it’s worth 10+ years of playing for one character.

Better question, what was I playing? Since I completed Metroid Fusion in exactly 2 hours according to the in game timer. And since I set up a DS emulator on my Laptop I've been playing New Super Mario Bros for the first time in years, as well as replaying Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Blue Rescue Team.