Weekly "What are you playing" Thread || Week of July 9th

Chloyster [she/her]@beehaw.orgmod to Gaming@beehaw.org – 79 points –

Hey all!

Figured we’d try something like this. Let me know what you all think, and if you have any feedback on what you would like a weekly thread like this to look like. Thanks

What are you all playing? Anything you got from the steam sale you’re enjoying?

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Stray!

And I did get it from the Steam sale.

It had been on my radar for quite some time. Partly because it's gotten such great review and partly because it's from Annapurna, they seem to release pretty sweet games.

And it's great! Highly recommended. :)

Kinda found that the game falls away somewhat around the final third. Don't want to spoil anything for you, but I'll say that I found the games moment to moment a bit lacking. Real shame as the first hour or so is genuinely pretty good.

I'll try to remember to report back when I've finished it and let you know what I think!

Star Wars Jedi Knight Academy! Enjoying an old game that my parents wouldn’t let me have because it was “too violent”

Also FTL! Snagged it for $2 on Steam.

Wow, both of those are among my all time favorite games. Good taste!

For me, I am playing through Oblivion for the first time!

After seeing the starfield trailer I figured it was time for me to fill in this gap I had in the bethesda library. I am using some mods from the "through the valley" mod list and have been having a great time so far. The game is really goofy, but the exploration has been great so far. Also got the mods set up on my steam deck, and its been working great!

I've tried to get into Oblivion a few times and never stuck with it. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game and it's hard to go back.

Also open world games are kind of daunting these days... I like the idea of spending hundreds of hours exploring a game but I don't actually have the hours to do so.

Yeah I def feel that. Having it on steam deck helps a bit though. Feel like I can chip away at it, especially during travel times

oblivion is so good, the goofiness is the biggest draw for me ^_^

I found it way too late and couldn't get over the dated graphics, but I LOVE Skyrim. I've put 300 hours into it just exploring, haven't even finished the main campaign.

Wow, for the first time! Such a great experience. The goofiness adds charm. So many of my best and weirdest moments are from that game.

Just started playing Hollow Knight again and I’m HOOKED. I love almost everything about the game so far from the music, the visuals, and the gameplay. Although it gets mighty frustrating when trying to platform through those fucking thorns or off the bouncy purple mushrooms but I take my break and then I’m back at it again :)

I picked it up again this week, too! The ambience is perfect, really on point for immersion.

Not sure if those mushrooms you mention have been in my way, but at the moment I cannot beat those damn explosive jellyfish in a reliable manner. Breaks definitely help; after a while I'm filled with determination.

I hear ya on the determination part, playing last night I was hit with the realization of truly how big the in game world is and I want to know all about the L O R E. But I’m trying so hard to restrain myself from watching a YouTube synopsis like I usually would for something like Dark Souls.

With those jellyfish, if you’re talking about the ones in Fog Canyon my tip is to kill the little ones and just avoid attacking the bigger ones altogether. The explosives the big guys have are so powerful and I don’t think I have been able to avoid said explosives except maybe a couple of times. But keep on chugging my fellow knight :)

I beat my head against Hollow Knight when it was released and set it aside after a while. I recently went back and somehow was able to get through it (I'm convinced they made it easier vs me getting better).

Make sure to explore and find all the story and world building tidbits. It's definitely worth digging into, and I love some of the little side stories and character interactions as you go deeper into Hollownest.

You probably got better, but!

As I understand it, the initial release of Hollow Knight had some absolutely awful input lag and other performance issues. If you first played in the initial patches, you likely experienced this.

Hollow Knight is one of my all time favorite games. I replay it via randomizer quite frequently.

Definitely, I’m doing my best to try and do everything I can without a guide (unless I get stuck). Plus, if I miss anything I probably will do another play through or something because I find the game to be very comfy especially when you get into a groove.

Been playing Heaven's Vault, a game I kept seeing recommended for people who liked Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn. There's this big overarching mystery to solve, and a core part of the game is translating a written language. There's limited options you're given for what each word means, but you still have to compare symbols and use context to make deductions, it's very cool.

Great explanation. I’m greatly intrigued. Thanks!

Oh god yes, Heaven's Vault is great. I love love love that the language rules are so consistent that once you learn what an individual symbol means and roughly how the order-of-operations work, you can make some very educated guesses. Especially on a second go-around, you feel like you're making way more progress than your first playthrough.

Okay so I'm continuing with my Bloodborne play through. Made some progress the last two nights and I feel like I've finally accomplished something.

I also started a few smaller games on my 'Deck, namely Spin Rhythm and Bleak Sword DX.

Been playing Assassin's Creed Odessey lately. It's fun and big, but I think, ultimately, Origins was a better game. There was a lot more cultural diversity present and they changed some mechanics for the worse imho. But it's kinda cool how smooth it runs on my Linux machine!

I actually liked Odyssey way more than Origins. Haven‘t even played Origins through, simply didn‘t hook me.

I played a decent amount of Odyssey (didn't get close to finishing it) but bounced off Origins pretty quick. What mechanics did they change in Odyssey that you miss? Might be worth going back to play it if I know what's different!

What made AC Origins superior to AC Odessey for me was the scenario. Origins pulled me right into the protagonist's emotions and motivations. Whereas in Odessey I never really got why I was supposed to massacre masses of Athenians, then Spartans, then Athenians, then some more Spartans...

Just picked up Terraria and I'm loving it. I played Starbound a while back and read that it was more or less a spiritual successor to Terraria. Terraria has all the things I wanted to see from Starbound. The crafting system is so expansive. The difficulty is real though, I travelled through 2 biomes and hit something with large beetles and cave worms that chomped me to death. Zombies, floating eyes, and slimes were no problem. Same for the mobs in the desert, easy...but once I hit that 3rd biome I was in trouble, even with my metal armor.

I had been making steady progress in Expedition Rome from the sale, but then the siren song of RimWorld pulled me back again. My melee moleperson cult is going strong!

Currently playing Horizon: Forbidden West. I love it but it can get somewhat tiring after a while. It’s my third open world game in a row and I definitely feel the need to play something smaller and more focused.

I'm playing a heavily modded Fallout 4. I got a mod where you can start more like a regular RPG and choose your backstory and where you start, and all of the dialogue relating to Sean has been taken out. It's great, way more fun. My character is a drunk who washed up on Nordhagen beach and is living with the settlers and killing raiders for them and building them a nice house :)

Pokemon Violet. I'm trying to complete the Pokedex as much as I can, as I try to ignore the blatant perfomance problems of the game 😅 But I really like the game and its open world nature.

It's so irritating that S/V could have been the definitive Pokemon experience but it ended up being what it was. I guess I can't really blame them for not putting the effort. I mean why should they when everyone bought it anyway (I did too, I'm part of the problem)

I guess for me there was so much fun to be had grinding out an optimized team by breeding and training them up, and the new games sort of trivialized all of that. Totally understand why, but it took a lot out of it for me.

The open world in them is nice initially, but imo they failed to make exploration rewarding enough, so really it's like... What's the point.

I still like catching 'em all but it even seems like they've de-emphasized that.

Sorry to rant just an old Pokemon fan who can't really move on.

Path of Exile. I can't even say it's great. It's OK. But they must have nailed that Diablo-esque addictive quality because I can't stop.

It takes awhile for Path of Exile to truly click. I think it's the best ARPG ever made, but the initial learning curve is pretty steep. Things really open up in the endgame. And we have Path of Exile 2 right around the corner which is awesome.

Interesting. What counts as the endgame? I'm in Act 9 now.

So once you complete the campaign you will begin maps. There are 3 tiers of maps, you have white, then yellow, then red. I consider mapping to be the endgame.

If this is your first build, the endgame will be rather punishing and you might not make it very far. It took me until my third character roughly before I was able to successfully push into red maps and beyond. There are special bosses to hunt down, and all the side content like Heist and Delve are very rewarding and fun.

Additionally you get another passive tree that allows you to customize your mapping experience however you want. Zizaran has a really nice video going over the endgame. It's quite long, but very helpful. https://youtu.be/uf4wnvkS-mI

addictive quality

That's exactly why I stopped playing that. I realized it was addictive rather than fun, and I could no longer stomach the business model based on annoying the player into paying (by deliberately making inventory management a living hell and then selling stash tabs to alleviate the problem).

I'm paying through Skyrim for the first time. I had tried it once before as a teen but didn't really know what I was doing and gave up.. Now I've got it loaded up with mods and am thoroughly enjoying myself!

I actually started playing the Dishonored series in the remastered edition. Missed them, back when there were new and I am totally loving it so far 🙂

Northgard to destress. Diablo IV with the lads.

Almost picked up Against the Storm on sale but haven't done it yet.

Recently downloaded Duckstation and am playing through Xenogears for the first time.

"The Ascent" on gamepass. My buddy and I are always looking for fun coop games, and I saw the trailer for this and thought it looked fun. We are only a couple hours in but so ar it's been a pretty enjoyable cyberpunk twinstick shooter with some great visual design. There are some bugs and the shooting takes a while to get used to but lots of fun so far!

All the hype around the My House Wad last month got me interested in playing Doom II so I'm working my way through it this week. I played through the first Doom ages ago, but just never got around to the sequel. Looking forward to diving into the Doom 2 modding scene when I've played through it.

Oh man check out brutal doom if you haven't already - then there's brutal doom black which is harder and has some abilities from the modern dooms

What a treat. As a child of those times, Doom has a special place in my heart and is a blast to replay, especially with a modern engine.

Cyberpunk 2077 with a bunch of mods. The Enemies of Night City mod is actually making the game interesting and somewhat of a challenge.

Grinding through nightmare dungeons in Diablo 4, and because I fell down a YouTube tutorial hole I'm retrying Frostpunk. Hopefully I can stave off the guilt from slapping makeshift prosthetics on orphans long enough to finish it this time.

Roguebook was one of the Prime Gaming free games recently so I started playing that. Very fun. It does feel very easy to get overpowered, which is one of my favorite things a roguelike can do. I've already been able to beat it twice out of three attempts, so it's probably undertuned, but I'd prefer that over the alternative.

I also dipped into WH40K: Mechanicus, which was free on EGS a while ago. That game is much less fun. The UI is kind of clunky and the upgrades and gear are very underwhelming. It seems difficult to really get synergies going with any of your characters. Probably will not even finish a run.

I've been playing Breath of the Wild emulated on my PC. First time playing it.

Diablo IV mostly right now. I’m level 45 and barely getting started on Act II. I need to catch up, but there are so many side quests.

I also picked up Dead Cells for the Switch yesterday. Seemed more appropriate on the Switch than on PC. So far, it’s a lot of fun.

Do yourself a favour and stop doing side quests. Focus on the main story, those side quests can be done later on or not at all. Otherwise you will end up over level 50 but the main quest caps at level 50; so you will be sort of wasting time fighting stuff lower than you.

That’s my focus right now.

You'll also be able to get those side quests done much faster after you get your horse.

Picked up Diablo 4 to play with my friends, been enjoying it so far. Also still playing Single Player Tarkov here and there and a colony management game called Going Medieval.

Battlebit has been pretty much it for my limited dedicated gaming time. Super fun, easy to drop in and out of.

On my phone I've been working through the puzzle game Snakebird. Also very fun for when I only have 5 minutes or so.

I have finished Final Fantasy XVI today. May continue Triangle Strategy and Dave the Diver now.

Taking a break from Diablo 4 till the season starts, played and finished Grim Fandango. Great game.

Now thinking about setting up a Minecraft server for me and my daughter.

Frostpunk and Diablo 4. Frostpunk is my first civ management game in a while (played lots Age of Empires and Age of Wonders back in the day) and OH MAN is this game good. Diablo is...compelling enough but not better than 3. Dislike the online aspect mainly but overall the game has its merits.

Love this thread idea BTW!

I've been really into Lord of the Rings Online with my buds, MMOs aren't for anyone but if you really like LoTR it's an absolutely phenomenal experience.

The two games I've played the most this past week are:

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me - It's half off in the sale. The latest Dark Pictures Anthology narrative horror game. I love these games, currently working through a second playthrough and trying to save everyone this time. Also, this developer has several other titles if you like narrative horror. My faves are Man of Medan, The Quarry, and House of Ashes.

Halls of Torment - A Vampire Survivors derivative, and I think, a pretty good one. Has a dark, 80's era fantasy aesthetic. There's a lot of content here for an early access title too, and it's only $4.

Cyberpunk 2077. It’s been ages since I actually decided to pick up an RPG and get into it. I’m enjoying it so much.

i've been playin Kid Icarus: Uprising, its really fun! i wish it was easier to control on emulator tho

Played it a long time ago on the original hardware, such a bonkers game. Wish the series would've had a full comeback.

Hey!

From the Steam Sale, some casual games about playing with the odds:

  • Peglin is quite fun and short. The more pegs you hit, the more it damages an enemy. Highly replayable with all the modifiers making each game unique.
  • Roll is similar, modifying dice to get the highest score in 2500 rolls. There is way more complex calculations, but I like how messy it gets.

From the ones already on the library, just Hollow Knight which has been a delightful yet frustrating experience. The soundtrack is stunning, and I love me some platforming challenge.

Ohhhh yeah peglin is solid. I have also checked out round guard which is a similar idea but has some differences too. I like the aesthetics of peglin more but I think the gameplay of round guard is more fun. You should check it out!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly on Ironman mode. Starting my 8th run. Haven't even made it close to chernobyl with any of my past characters yet. I honestly like it, makes the endgame that much more intriguing when you get closer each run.

If anyone is interested in a hardcore survival FPS game that is highly customizable to your preference give it a try. It's free to download and it is a standalone game so no need to own any previous titles 👍

I've been playing days gone a whole lot recently along with some Stardew valley and Witcher 3 and I got dark souls 2 on the sale as well

I recently joined a Survival multiplayer server on Minecraft for the first time and I am having so much fun. The community around it is so positive I really look forward to hopping on every day haha

Pikmin 2, Subnautica, Dome Keeper on the Steam Deck, Zelda TOTK on the Switch and revisiting Civ V on my main pc.

My favorite game is to score deals on video games and then watch my kids play them afterwards. I bought Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on release ($70) saving by using Nintendo game vouchers (2 games for $100) purchased with Costco eShop cards ($100 value for $90). I've been watching my daughter play these past two weeks while combing through Steam's summer sale. Another pro-tip is whatever game I find on sale @Steam, I can (usually) find the same game on Fanatical.com for a few dollars less and score a 5% coupon for the next puchase.

I cannot stop playing Oxygen Not Included. Apparently my idea of fun is simulating fluid mechanics and learning about heat transfer and gas diffusion in the middle of the night

I just bought Subnautica and Cities Skylines, so I'm looking forward to playing them both.

Subnautica has been an absolute blast on the deck.

It hits the same exploration spot for me as the Switch Zelda games do.

Beautiful game.

Mass effect series, on ps5. I’m on MA2 right now.

I finished a playthrough of the legendary edition of the trilogy earlier this year. Still great and after all the time that's passed since the original ME3 release I can almost accept the ending(s).

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I've been working my way through Cross Code in the evenings after I get back home, and it's as excellent as everyone says it is! I keep trying to decide what other games it reminds me of the most, and surprisingly I think I'm starting to settle on Legend of Zelda (the older ones, not BotW/TotK).

The way it gates progress, the level & dungeon design, etc just really seems to be a part of that tradition. The moment to moment gameplay is pretty different though, and pretty unique at that!

Really though it's just been a nice escape in the evenings. It's challenging enough that sometimes I decide to leave a tough fight or puzzle to pick up the next night, but it's not punishingly hard and I feel like it respects my time.

Crosscode is great, the animations are so buttery smooth, and the character portraits are super expressive. It's one of those games that feels really fun and rewarding to explore and secret hunt.

Only thing that put me off was trying to suss out the jumps and platform height in some areas, because it is shockingly vertical for a top-down game.

Yeah that certainly took a little getting used to! I think can pretty much read the heights of everything now, but there was definitely a little while when I was accidentally jumping into the sides of ledges that were actually higher up than me!

Pillars of Eternity and some Cyberpunk in between.

I'm currently 100%ing AC Revelations on the switch. It'll take a while, possibly more than the first two combined

I am playing through the legend of heroes: trails series just finished cold steel and started cold steel 2.

I've been playing through Powerwash Simulator on Gamepass recently, among other things. The game has just enough going on to keep you engaged while also being super zen (until you're trying to find those last 6 things that are only 99% clean agggghhhhhhh). Progress goes at what seems like the perfect rate, you're never spending long cleaning an individual item, yet there's so much to clean that you get a pretty good sense of accomplishment from finally finishing a map.

It's pretty good for playing in the background too during useless wfh meetings while being able to stay fairly attentive

Honestly it's ADHD heroin. Every little 'ding' you get when you finish an item is a dopamine hit, and some jobs feel overwhelming at first but as you get started and work your way up structures, you start making a plan to hash out certain parts and go from bit to bit until suddenly, it's all clean.

Just make sure to turn down the water noise, because it's definitely hard to hear anything over PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I started replaying Grand Theft Auto V since it was added to GamePass. Aggalos, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever, Tunic, and started replaying The Elder Scrolls Online.

I’ve been all over the place lately, haha.

Been making my way through totk. I think I enjoyed playing the first one more but it's still pretty good. I'm stuck at the lost woods though, have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I might have done a main quest early so maybe I just have to progress to that point?

I haven't done it, but there's two ways I have heard of to get in the lost woods: either from the depths or go and do all the "tears" quests

This week? I barely grabbed a few minutes on TotK, about to grab a few sage masks.

Currently, though, I’m playing TotK and Garden story. I finished Shredders revenge last week and am about to start Planet of Lana.

TotK is all consuming and so incredible, but I take breaks with other stuff and have REALLY been enjoying Garden story—cute, kind, and delightful.

I picked up Diablo 4, and also had to sign up for Playstation Plus since it's always online... Ended up spending more time playing the games from the Plus catalog. The story is surprisingly good - I always though D3's story was kind of dumb, but the atmosphere in this one is great, to the point where I'm often not listening to a podcast when I play (at least until I finish the campaign)

I played through Stray in a few days - incredibly charming game. In a way it almost reminded me of Chibi Robo, since you're a little guy exploring a human-sized environment. Definitely recommend it.

I also did a run of Until Dawn, which I played years ago. I always intended to replay it but it's hard to motivate myself to redo a story-heavy game like this where it's going to be a few hours before things really start branching off in interesting ways. I really like how they play with different flavors of horror, from slasher to paranormal, to play with your expectations if you're a genre-savvy horror fan. Going to check out The Quarry sometime.

And I'm playing Alan Wake, for another TV-show-esque horror experience. The Stephen King and Twin Peaks inspiration is pretty obvious but I like both of those things. Combat is a little frustrating, though, it's easy to lose track of enemies if you're fighting a group, and the cinematic slow-mo sometimes gets annoying.

X4 Foundations. The Kingdom End expansion is awesome and I absolutely adore everything Boron. Just yesterday I finally broke the mexican standoff my fleet (and that of the Argon) had with the Xenon. For multiple real life hours, we had our fleets parked menacingly at the respective ends of the jump gates that connect two sectors. I charged through the gate with my entire fleet after the Xenon sent through a large portion of their fighters (which got obliterated by my ships) so only their capital ships were remaining. Had to hit the bed during a short break in the battle, though, so the outcome is still to be determined.

In other news, I'm also playing a lot of The Isle again and having a lotta fun with the new dinos and mechanics that have recently been added/tweaked. I'm positively surprised how chill many deino (crocodiles basically) players are about sharing the rivers with beipis (think penguins but in tropic climate)

Fire Emblem Three Houses again - So much changes between the 3 different stories in that game, it is so much bigger than I initially realized. When my partner was talking about what happened in their playthrough and it didn't at all resemble my Golden Deer playthrough I realized I'd have to get back to it one day.

Getting pretty deep into FF16, really enjoying it still, the combat seems to be opening up which is making it more fun, will try and do all the side quests before the end, but will see how it goes.

Also playing FF16. I really enjoy the combat mechanically but feel like it takes too long for how fast paced it is.

I also feel like the animations are a bit stiff compared to 15.

i'm running psychonauts 2, really loving the level design and story and characters. it has really really good gay representation too!

I liked it, it's certainly an improvement on the first game, but I do kind of miss the snark the first game had that set it apart from other adventure platformers. The characters, especially Raz, seem a lot less, I don't know, jaded, cynical? I get that they probably had to tone it down a little bit because there was certainly some crap they got past the radar in the first game that probably wouldn't fly today and they wanted to appeal to a wider (and younger) audience, but it almost makes the returning characters feel less well-rounded than they were. It's a weird juxtaposition, but I guess some tonal shift is to be expected over 14 years.

I just started going through the Resident Evil series with my friends and we're still on Resident Evil 1 (the 2002 remake), but it's a blast! I love the atmosphere and how terrifying the crimson heads are.

The gameplay and movement is a bit frustrating but I think that's the point, and I know later games have easier controls, so I'm just enjoying a historical look at an old game.

I'm really looking forward to seeing/experiencing the different evolutions that RE goes through over time. Not looking forward to Code Veronica though, cuz I know it's really really hard :(

Yesssss resident evil is one of my favorite series. 4 in particular (both of and the remake) are in my top 5 all time. I hope you have fun! The 2002 remake is one of the best remakes ever made imo

I just finished Call Of Duty Black Ops - Cold War, and it was kind of ¯_(ツ)_/¯. The campaign was short and the story felt kind of patched together - graphically it wa surely top notch, but I guess nothing will ever come close to MW2.

im addicted to hogwarts legacy. i cannot stop playing. must 100% complete it

Yeah NGL I loved that game. I obtained it... Maybe not legally so that I wouldn't give JKR money. But oh man did the kid in me who grew up with those books absolutely love it.

Though... The slytherin dudes plot goes kinda Hog wild.

Didn't this game have a massive controversy over homophobia or something?

no clue i never looked into that so i have no idea what its about

I'm playing through The Last of Us: Part 2 for the second time. I was inspired by watching HBO's adaptation, so I played through part one remastered and then started on Part 2 on my PS5. It's even better this time around as the PS5 60fps patch was released about a week after I first completed it!

Then I've got a stack of other large games to get through including Death Stranding and Cyberpunk 2077.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a blast.

Early access is more fully-baked than many full releases. The story is intriguing, and seems to react in a very flexible way to dialogue as well as actions in the world. The D&D nostalgia is awesome, and it seems that Forgotten Realms is more familiar to me than I thought.

It’s gorgeous. It feels great. It’s fun.

Fun fact: if you get the early release, you get a free upgrade to digital deluxe when it releases Aug 3 I think. Not a shill, I just love gaming.

Last of Us part II. I have to say that I liked part I more - the second part's artificiall padding is way too obvious. But I love the atmosphere.

On mobile, I'm finally getting into Archero, but man, the red dot spam is wild.

Necromerger is still really fun a couple of weeks in.

BattleBit Remastered! If you're a fan of Battlefield games, this game is what you've been waiting for!

I got Final Fantasy XVI less than a week ago, and have been playing **quite **a bit of it since then. The combat's felt really fun and fluid (especially with the quick and easy element swaps), and I've found the story and characters really engaging so far.

I also picked up Tunic in the Steam Summer Sale. As a lover of the Zelda games and Soulsborne-style games, it's been on my radar for a while, but it was nice to catch it on 30% off. I haven't been disappointed so far; it can be a little sparse on information, but it's been really fun exploring the world (and just what your character is capable of), and the artstyle is just adorable.