What are you playing right now?

[factotum]

Bit late to the game, I know, but I've just started Bioshock: Infinite. About three hours in, and while the story is good, I'm not absolutely convinced about the shooting mechanics yet--which is a bit of a problem, since that's mostly what you do in the game! Struggling to put my finger on what doesn't feel right about it, though.

[warty goblin]

I must admit, approving heartily of any game containing Stompy Death Robots.

Stompy Death Robots improve nearly anything. And in Dawn of War II, flamethrowers are included in basic Stompy Death Robot package. Users are free to swap out the flamethrower with a high-powered gatling gun however if they want longer range and don't mind sacrificing some punching capability. You can also upgrade some of your squads to wear super-heavy power armor that effectively turns them into adorable mini Stompy Death Robots, who can be outfitted with missile packs, wrist-mounted machine guns or extra powerful punchy fists.

Mind, you have to get reasonably far into the story before you get access to your Stompy Death Robot, but that's appropriate. One must work for the best things in life, like crushing alien scum in a giant robot fist then setting them on fire.

[rooster707]

Finished Prey, loved it. For a lot of reasons, but I’m not very good at articulating this sort of thing so I’m just going to say: If you like Deus Ex, Bioshock, or Dishonored, go play Prey immediately. It is incredible. Also, avoid spoilers at all costs.

[Cespenar]

On the upside, it turns out I really like Dawn of War II. It's like XCOM, except somehow it avoids a bunch of the stuff that always drives me up a tree in XCOM. Like a distinct lack of indecipherable LoS and elevation issues, a vastly reduced number of missions that go pear-shaped because I clicked one tile off where I meant to, machine guns actually acting like proper machine guns, loading times that don't take fifteen months, actually meaningful but optional strategic objectives implemented in the tactical maps, and a sensible soft time limit system. Oh, and giant stompy death-robots right in the base game, that's worth quite a bit.

Yes, DoWII is pretty awesome. I'd agree that along with Company of Heroes, it's one of the few games that a machine gun really feels and acts like a machine gun. You can actually prepare kill zones and whatnot. Also their cover mechanic is incredibly user-friendly while still having tactical depth. I was a bit miffed to find out they threw out cover in DoWIII just like that.

Finished Prey, loved it. For a lot of reasons, but I’m not very good at articulating this sort of thing so I’m just going to say: If you like Deus Ex, Bioshock, or Dishonored, go play Prey immediately. It is incredible. Also, avoid spoilers at all costs.

Yeah, going into it blind, I wasn't expecting such a good game. Also, I'd argue that the main "ambush" gimmick of the basic enemies is one of the best gimmicks within the genre.

[NRSASD]

Prey is a really, really, really good game. Quite the pleasant surprise. I especially appreciated how thematically creepy the enemies were too, what with all the flickering lights, sparking electronics, and whispers that surround them.

One of my favorite moments was when I got surprised by a voltaic enemy that cornered me accidentally. I was going to escape by diving through a door, but the voltaic field surrounding it knocked the door controls offline just by being nearby.

[warty goblin]

Yes, DoWII is pretty awesome. I'd agree that along with Company of Heroes, it's one of the few games that a machine gun really feels and acts like a machine gun. You can actually prepare kill zones and whatnot. Also their cover mechanic is incredibly user-friendly while still having tactical depth. I was a bit miffed to find out they threw out cover in DoWIII just like that.

What's odd is that I was pretty disappointed with it when it came out; IIRC I basically wanted Company of Heroes but with Space Marines, not this hero squad + loot drops nonsense. But when approached on its own terms, instead of the "Dark Crusade in the CoH Engine!!!" expectations of my younger, dumber, self, it's decidedly excellent.

Speaking of the loot, the game does a good job of supporting different playstyles and loadouts for each of the squads, and forcing hard tradeoffs between them. I mean sure a lot of it is the same stuff as before, but with bigger numbers, but a lot of it isn't. A heavy bolter isn't a plasma cannon isn't a missile launcher, and the game gives you enough intel before a mission to make a sensible choice between them. I'm genuinely unsure whether I prefer my force commander to rock terminator armor or regular armor with an iron halo, or whether the assault marines should go chainsword or power fist.

One of the things that it does exceedingly well is to give incentives for interesting tactical play with the experience system. You want to play fast because you get points for that, but you also want to kill everything and keep your squads from going down. Right there you've got three factors that trade off against each other, along with rewards for securing secondary map objectives. So it's perfectly reasonable to decide that because I already hold the secondary objectives on this map or don't need another Shrine, I'm going to ignore the majority of enemies and just bum-rush the final objective, or to go slower and absolutely murder all the faces to death. It seems to me to be in some ways a smarter system than XCOM's perma-death, because losing a soldier is such a high price the optimal play is nearly always slow and cautious (or in XCOM2 as slow and cautious as you can get away with inside the turn limit).

Another feature I'm very much enjoying is that it gives you enough space and mechanical support to make tactical retreats worthwhile. Not all the time, but there's definitely been a number of missions (mostly involving killing tyranid hives) where it's necessary to fall back and regroup, or find a new angle. In one case I tried to cut my way through a path that turned out to be between two tyranid spawn buildings, and was utterly unable to beat through. So I pulled by my tactical and devastator squads to solid cover and used them to blow up most of the tyranid spawns, while the assault marines and force commander flanked right and eventually hammered their way through to destroy the first spawn.

I'm also very much enjoying getting to fight three substantially different types of enemies. Orks are very straightforwards, and generally the easiest to grind up into a fine paste. Eldar are squishy, but hit hard and can easily disrupt a static position, requiring a fast but controlled assault. And tyranids are just another thing entirely, the game really gets across the feeling that there's absolute loads of these bastards, and their frequent attacks from the rear and the occasional mega-swarm makes them just plain unnerving. The mission they show up for the first time is really well done, there's no fancy cutscene or anything, just holy cow these ugly suckers are everywhere and things are going downhill fast and what the hell is going on?

I figure I'll probably wrap it up this evening, and I've enjoyed it immensely. Maybe it's that being overrun by absolute swarms of problems is an excellent metaphor for finishing grad school, but I'm glad I reinstalled it.

[Yora]

I've been playing Knights & Merchants for the last week, a game that I very fondly remembered as being one of my favorites when I first started playing computer games.

Apparently I only ever got to the fourth level, which took me maybe 4 hours to get to. I believe it was more that I was playing around with the game in the first levels, instead of "playing the game". Which I think wasn't that uncommon with the games I had back then. They were fascinating things to interact with, but many I never really played much as intended.

Now that I have completed the first seven levels, I am concluding that this game is actually rather dull. With the basically nonexistent control you have over your workers, building a settlement is really slow. And you soon (though it still takes some 3 to 4 hours) get to a point where everything is so crowded that the AI can't properly handle transport of goods anymore and it sometimes takes ages until someone finally goes to a quarry to pick up a stone that has been lying there the whole time.
And worst of all, base building is always exactly the same. The pure combat levels are more varied, but they are really trial and error. The first time you just have to sit and watch from which direction what types of enemy troops are advancing on your position so you can set up your own troops accordingly. But controlling your own troops takes a lot of time and you have no warning what is coming out of the fog of war, that reacting to things as they happen is pretty much impossible.

I worked myself all the way through Settlers II, even though I now question why, but Knights & Merchants is even slower with less options to direct things. It was fun to return to it, but now I learned what type of game it really is, and I don't like that much.

Instead I installed StarCraft again.

[Cespenar]

I figure I'll probably wrap it up this evening, and I've enjoyed it immensely. Maybe it's that being overrun by absolute swarms of problems is an excellent metaphor for finishing grad school, but I'm glad I reinstalled it.

If you're on the point of replaying it, have a look at its two expansions as well. I found them to be pretty solid as well, and Retribution has the funny options of playing the campaign as Chaos, Eldar, or even Tyranid.

I worked myself all the way through Settlers II, even though I now question why, but Knights & Merchants is even slower with less options to direct things. It was fun to return to it, but now I learned what type of game it really is, and I don't like that much.

Instead I installed StarCraft again.

Yeah, I tried K&M a few years ago as well, and a bit of a meh. I think Stronghold 1 aged much better, though of course it's not as old as it.

[Starbuck_II]

Ran one playthrough of #Wargames. Basically surrounds hackers hacking stuff.

It was very fun. Interesting what you focused on changed how story went.

[Velaryon]

I've picked up Shovel Knight again and have been hunting down trophies and setting challenges for myself.

I managed to beat the game without using any relics. Then I managed to beat it without picking up any meal tickets (so only having your starting health). That one was hard. Now I'm trying to beat the game without spending any money at all... which means no relics AND no buying meal tickets, only using the ones I find. It's tough, but I think with time and patience I can do it.

[Cristo Meyers]

Just finished Far Cry 5. The upside? Just about everything you may've read about it is true: Hope County is beautiful, exploring is fun and interesting, there's plenty to see and do, and sneaking about (or charging in screaming like Leeroy Jenkins) enemy outposts is a pretty good time. You're not pigeon-holed into a single playstyle, so you can go about things however you want (though stealth is pretty much king).

The downside? Everything you may've read about the game is true. The story is borderline nonsensical, the four antagonists a pack of lazily written flat characters, and the ending can at best be described as shock for the sake of shock (and poorly done shock at that). By the end of the story the only thing I could think was 'thank god that's over.' Unfortunately it also killed my desire to do anything else.

It was a decent enough game, in truth, but its got a big albatross around its neck.

I think I'll hit up Witcher 2 next. It's been sitting there for a long time waiting for me to see if it really did fix the issues of uninteresting/cumbersome combat/gameplay of the first game.

[Yora]

Witcher 2 is a huge leap in development as gameplay goes. It feels like a very different kind of game, but retains the depth of characters and story that were the strength of the first game. 2 and 3 handle a lot more like console action adventure games. Traps, and especially bombs are a really nice addition to combat. Since you can always make more of them, one shouldn't think of them as consumable items to keep for emergencies, but as another part of Geralt's abilities next to his swords and signs.
The only thing I don't like about the gameplay in 2 and 3 is the exess of crafting. It's better than the weapon enhancements of the first game, but I could have done with simply finding better swords and armors on occasion. Other than that, they are close to my ideal RPGs.

I'm playing Starcraft now and I am remembering how incredibly dull the Terrans are in the campaigns. Zerg and Protoss are where all the great stuff happens.

[Cristo Meyers]

Witcher 2 is a huge leap in development as gameplay goes. It feels like a very different kind of game, but retains the depth of characters and story that were the strength of the first game. 2 and 3 handle a lot more like console action adventure games. Traps, and especially bombs are a really nice addition to combat. Since you can always make more of them, one shouldn't think of them as consumable items to keep for emergencies, but as another part of Geralt's abilities next to his swords and signs.
The only thing I don't like about the gameplay in 2 and 3 is the exess of crafting. It's better than the weapon enhancements of the first game, but I could have done with simply finding better swords and armors on occasion. Other than that, they are close to my ideal RPGs.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'd heard way back when. I remember I got it sometime when it went on sale for cheap in response to what I was hearing and as a test bed to see if I would move on Witcher 3.

The fact that now Witcher 3 recently went on sale for $20 shows just how long ago that was.

[Drascin]

Honestly 3 is much better than 2 in every way. I beat Witcher 3, but didn't last an hour into 2 before going "christ these controls suck", turning the game off, and never picking it up again.

[Cristo Meyers]

Honestly 3 is much better than 2 in every way. I beat Witcher 3, but didn't last an hour into 2 before going "christ these controls suck", turning the game off, and never picking it up again.

I'll keep that in mind. This year is pretty slim pickings for me in terms of new releases. After the aforementioned Far Cry 5 the only other game on my radar is Total War: Three Kingdoms. So gambling on 3 even if 2 doesn't quite pan out might be worthwhile.

[Jama7301]

So one night I pulled my 3DS out with the intent of doing a few picross puzzles before bed, and noticed that I still had Tomadachi Life installed.

Boy oh boy, I forgot how off-beat that game was. Now I turn it on every few days, something I haven't done in years, and just mess around. It's not a good game, but it is a pretty novel experience in small doses.

Been ramping up towards the end of Final Fantasy X HD so I can return to Persona 5 and/or start FFX-2 HD.

Picked up Splatoon and Disgaea 5 for the Switch, which give me a few more options when the TV is occupied. Digging Disgaea 5 so far, and Splatoon is still fun times.

[Zombimode]

Tyranny. It is a really good game.

And I get the Impression that is is somewhat underappreciated. Maybe because many People where disappointed in one way or the other by Pillars of Eternity.
But ignoring Tyranny on that Basis is a mistake.

While both games look similar, they are actually anything but. The Quality of the Setting lore, the characters and the writing in General is just miles ahead.
And even the gameplay: while Tyranny uses the same "building blocks" as PoE, how the game actually plays out is drastically different.

[NRSASD]

@Zombimode- How far are you into Tyranny?

I very much... appreciated (enjoyed is definitely not the right word) Tyranny. The lore is second to none, the characters and concepts are very, very well done, and it's a truly unique take on the rather bloated line up of fantasy settings. The spell crafting system is very, very cool, and the freedom to choose which faction to support is pretty awesome. Also, the conquest system is the best intro to a game I think I've ever seen.

That being said, the fights got monotonous for me. There were a lot of questions I wish had been answered better. And finally, this game is dark. It deserves all the praise I can muster for it's unflinching, honest portrayal of how people cope with living under honestly evil regimes, but it's not funny. I strongly recommend that anyone who's interested in playing should do so, but you're in for a very interesting and thought provoking experience; not a happy one.



I've been playing Sunless Sea again. A game who's world building and lore is matched only by its frustrating mechanics and harshness. I really enjoy it but it's not for everyone. Kind of like Euro Trucker but set on a subterranean lovecraftian ocean where you smuggle souls to Hell. It's complicated.

[Zombimode]

@Zombimode- How far are you into Tyranny?

I very much... appreciated (enjoyed is definitely not the right word) Tyranny. The lore is second to none, the characters and concepts are very, very well done, and it's a truly unique take on the rather bloated line up of fantasy settings. The spell crafting system is very, very cool, and the freedom to choose which faction to support is pretty awesome. Also, the conquest system is the best intro to a game I think I've ever seen.

That being said, the fights got monotonous for me. There were a lot of questions I wish had been answered better. And finally, this game is dark. It deserves all the praise I can muster for it's unflinching, honest portrayal of how people cope with living under honestly evil regimes, but it's not funny. I strongly recommend that anyone who's interested in playing should do so, but you're in for a very interesting and thought provoking experience; not a happy one.

Just started the second act, more or less.

You do raise some good points. Tyranny reminds me of Age of Decadence, an extraordinary game by itself. While AoD explores othere venues with its setting and game design than Tyranny, both games present a rather dark setting and athmosphere which makes then comparable in this regard. And I think these games in comparison make for a good case study in the difference between the "dark" and the "grim dark". While AoD is far from the likes of Warhammer 40k with its completely unserious setting, AoD still presents a dystopian world that is almost dead with the few remaining people still cutthroat and prone to atrocities, the gravest of which are possibly done by yourself, the player. You can indulge yourself for a weekend in this crapsack world and let the game show you what a person you could become if the straits are dire enough. I want to stress this: AoD is a remarkable game and I love the lore. But in the end, the setting is actually not all that relatable: it is too dark to feel real. It verges on being grimdark.

But the setting of Tyranny is different, and argueably a more mature approach. While the Overlord and the Archons are far removed from humanity (but there is still a lot of depth in their portrayal), all others are uncompromisingly human. In addition, we had* our tyrannts, we had* our imperialistic nations, and we had* the cases were these two would fall together.

And the thing is I feel that almost all of the major setting details, characters and factions are instances of archetypes we already have seen countless times before. And they are archetypes that lend themselves to a more simplistic portrayal.

Also, while I praise the stuff that is most important to me (lore, characters, aethetics), let us not forget the little triumphs in game design. You have already mentioned how well the Intro ("Conquest") is done. Can we put a spotlight on how well the exposition is handled in this game?

*Argueably, we still have, in all three cases. But this would be topic for a different forum.

[warty goblin]

If you're on the point of replaying it, have a look at its two expansions as well. I found them to be pretty solid as well, and Retribution has the funny options of playing the campaign as Chaos, Eldar, or even Tyranid.

I actually grabbed Chaos Rising right after I posted that, since I wrapped up the base game. I like Chaos Rising, though I'm not 100% sold on their changes to consumables. While I thematically appreciate not being able to count on resupply during a mission since support require specific supplies now, the fact that consumables still start at less than full capacity makes them simply too potentially scarce to be much use. So basically I only use grenades on Tarkus and health packs on Cyrus, because they get abilities that make them use energy instead of supplies, and the others just aren't worth it anymore, which is sad.

On the other hand, melta guns! Dreadnaughts with melta guns! And grenade launchers! I really love the variety of loadouts that are viable for each character - even given a specific character build. So many games really fail to deliver this (XCOM I'm looking at you here), and it's too damn bad because it really ups the number of meaningful decisions and strategies.

Also, the corruption system is scary. It's one of the rare times when such a thing really works, because the lure it offers (more power) is a genuine incentive in the game, i.e. I'm actually tempted by it for mechanical reasons. I don't even mind that the rewards for not being corrupted aren't as good, because they shouldn't be as good; it's an RP decision with appropriate mechanical consequences and I love it.

[Cespenar]

I actually grabbed Chaos Rising right after I posted that, since I wrapped up the base game. I like Chaos Rising, though I'm not 100% sold on their changes to consumables. While I thematically appreciate not being able to count on resupply during a mission since support require specific supplies now, the fact that consumables still start at less than full capacity makes them simply too potentially scarce to be much use. So basically I only use grenades on Tarkus and health packs on Cyrus, because they get abilities that make them use energy instead of supplies, and the others just aren't worth it anymore, which is sad.

On the other hand, melta guns! Dreadnaughts with melta guns! And grenade launchers! I really love the variety of loadouts that are viable for each character - even given a specific character build. So many games really fail to deliver this (XCOM I'm looking at you here), and it's too damn bad because it really ups the number of meaningful decisions and strategies.

Also, the corruption system is scary. It's one of the rare times when such a thing really works, because the lure it offers (more power) is a genuine incentive in the game, i.e. I'm actually tempted by it for mechanical reasons. I don't even mind that the rewards for not being corrupted aren't as good, because they shouldn't be as good; it's an RP decision with appropriate mechanical consequences and I love it.

Yes, I liked the resupply mechanics of the main game as well. The energy upgrade for Cyrus meant that you can solo entire maps with him just by throwing remote detpacks from stealth, which makes it a bit cheesy. But still, half-broken abilities in single player games like these also have their particular charms.

And yeah, I think this was one of the games where the usual chaos/corruption gimmick was handled especially well. Also, hopefully without spoiling much, the corruption mechanic has some effects on the story too, so be extra aware about that.

[Anteros]

I've been playing Far Cry 3, because 5 made me want to play Far Cry, but couldn't hold my interest itself.

The problem with Tyranny is that it's simply unfinished. The parts of the game that actually exist are great, but the ending left a lot to be desired.

[NRSASD]

@Zombimode- At the risk of sounding like a parrot, you also raise some really good points.

I never thought of comparing Age of Decadence to Tyranny but I should have, because you’re right, they’re both very dark, brutal games with a lot of choice and a very different tone.

Even though you can do some truly horrendous things in Age of Decadence (nuking cities, exploding dozens of slaves for !!SCIENCE!!, etc.), it never hit me the same way Tyranny did. While all the characters in Age of Decadence are realistic, none of them are truly sympathetic. Everyone has ulterior motives and inner darkness, and you the player are free to play them off each other for your benefit; free to smash all their delicately arrayed schemes like the wrecking ball you are. Everyone (except the mountain village) deserves whatever terrible things befall them during the game, at least to some extent.

Tyranny though… Tyranny is different. There are no saints in Tyranny’s world, just like AoD, but your character is unarguably evil. The player’s choice is between whether they embrace evil or try to mitigate it. When you’re asked to pacify a region, how far should you go? Are you willing to overlook a suspicious shipment of what is probably food to a village that’s starving, even though it might be supplies for the resistance? Will you kill all the resistance fighters in a town? Their families? Torture them to death at noon as a warning to the others? Sell them into sexual slavery? Force them to murder their families? Tyranny not only asks these questions, it demands that you answer them or face the consequences from your superiors. If you spare this village, your bosses will raze three more just to make sure the locals will appreciate your mercy for how rare and special it is.

What’s so heartbreaking about Tyranny is that while there are a lot of scum in the game world, there are a lot of decent people just trying to blend in on all sides of the war. The Disfavored are truly honorable, just like the Scarlet Chorus is truly tolerant; but they take these virtues and weaponize them, using them to justify and perpetrate atrocities that all too familiar to our own real life world. Obsidian really outdid themselves portraying just how painfully human their characters are, even when the world as they know it is collapsing around their ears.

What faction are you supporting currently? I did a full playthrough as Disfavored and again as Resistance. I liked the Resistance storyline better, mostly because you see why the Tiers collapsed so easily when Kyros arrived, but I really enjoyed both storylines. The Disfavored in particular really shows why some buy into the racial supremacy arguments while simultaneously condemning them vehemently. Very deft writing from Obsidian once again!

[The Glyphstone]

I loved Tyranny, but never actually finished it - the entire game felt like it had a third chapter accidentally left off the final product.

[warty goblin]

Wrapped up Chaos Rising. I liked everything about it, except the final boss fight, which was just plain horrible. And not in a good, Nurgle-ish way, just a giant sack of hitpoints that took bloody forever to chew through. Thank heavens for dreadnaughts with max health and self-repair.

Everything else was great. I finished with all squads completely corruption free, and thought the game struck a very good balance in terms of making it easy to become corrupt through carelessness or convenience or flat out wanting all the power, but relatively straight forwards to avoid if you didn't want to. It might be the only instance of a point-based morality system that was actually basically excellent throughout.

[Cristo Meyers]

I loved Tyranny, but never actually finished it - the entire game felt like it had a third chapter accidentally left off the final product.

I've read about Tyranny, and it does sound really interesting, but I keep getting a Baldur's Gate 2 feeling every time I think about trying it so I'm a bit gun-shy.

After attempting to play BG2 I found after a while that the gameplay just wasn't for me and I couldn't get past it. Plus, since I'd already read about it so much (this was before the game was readily available), I was already familiar with the story and quirks. Since Tyranny is very much in that style of game I'm worried I won't be able to get past that.

[Doorhandle]

I have been playing the piss out of monster hunter world. It's quite grindy but I find I don't mind it so much, particalry as it's grinding on boss fights rather than grinding on random arbitrary mooks. I've hit hi-rank and have been trying to get enough bones to make the Zorah-magdelos set and give myself an edge...but keep getting distracted to make random armor sets and weapons that will be outmoded soon.

By the way, is there a monster-hunter thread on these forums?

[rooster707]

By the way, is there a monster-hunter thread on these forums?

Yeah, it's right here.

[Anteros]

I've read about Tyranny, and it does sound really interesting, but I keep getting a Baldur's Gate 2 feeling every time I think about trying it so I'm a bit gun-shy.

After attempting to play BG2 I found after a while that the gameplay just wasn't for me and I couldn't get past it. Plus, since I'd already read about it so much (this was before the game was readily available), I was already familiar with the story and quirks. Since Tyranny is very much in that style of game I'm worried I won't be able to get past that.

You might be right. The gameplay is probably the worst designed part of the game. It's very unbalanced and clunky. The system underneath it is interesting, but if you don't like these kinds of games then you probably won't like this one.

Tyranny though… Tyranny is different. There are no saints in Tyranny’s world, just like AoD, but your character is unarguably evil. The player’s choice is between whether they embrace evil or try to mitigate it. When you’re asked to pacify a region, how far should you go? Are you willing to overlook a suspicious shipment of what is probably food to a village that’s starving, even though it might be supplies for the resistance? Will you kill all the resistance fighters in a town? Their families? Torture them to death at noon as a warning to the others? Sell them into sexual slavery? Force them to murder their families? Tyranny not only asks these questions, it demands that you answer them or face the consequences from your superiors. If you spare this village, your bosses will raze three more just to make sure the locals will appreciate your mercy for how rare and special it is.

I had quite an easy time going through the game on my first playthrough without doing anything evil. You just have to...not be evil when given the opportunities to do so.

[Kato]

Finished Skyward Sword, I might go look for the last heart pieces and try to win the boss rush (which I already should have done if I had not lost to the effing Imprisoned which never happened to me before and it was the second to last and only the stupid horde battle was left and I'm still angry..)
Anyway, I had a blast with the game. Maybe a few minor things to complain about but in general I loved it.

Next is probably Last Story. Or Xenogear Chronicles. Haven't made up my mind yet.