What are you playing right now?

[Zevox]

Took the BB Tag beta online today, and yep, I am hooked. Tends to be how that goes with ArcSys games, granted, but damn, they've done a really good job with the team mechanics in this game. With the multiple assist per character, different tag-in methods, and the alpha counter where your partner jumps in to save you this feels more like you're playing two characters working in concert as a team than any other team fighter I can remember - save maybe MvC Infinite, but without quite the ridiculousness that game's overly-open tagging system lead to (though the one mechanic that lets your assist character stay out and keep doing repeated assists for a while might come close to that).

I'm really liking the RWBY characters, too, especially Ruby herself (even though I thought I'd like Weiss more from my pseudo-training mode play, go figure). I could see myself sticking with her even once I've got my BlazBlue characters available to me - maybe pair her with Platinum or Jubei, or even Yang, who I'm definitely looking forward to trying once the full game comes out now. Ruby and Weiss definitely work well together too, it's been easy to start making team combos for them. And it's actually really nice to be back in a game with a more open combo system - much as I love Dragon Ball FighterZ, the combo paths in that game are definitely fairly restricted and same-y among most of the cast. Definitely doesn't feel that way with this one.

[Anteros]

Can anyone recommend any good dungeon crawler games? Looking for something with a customizable party that's turn based. Something like Darkest Dungeon but with less tedious repetition and maybe a touch less RNG although I do like some rng elements. I used to play a lot of games like this when I was younger and I've got a bit of nostalgia itch to scratch.

[Knaight]

Can anyone recommend any good dungeon crawler games? Looking for something with a customizable party that's turn based. Something like Darkest Dungeon but with less tedious repetition and maybe a touch less RNG although I do like some rng elements. I used to play a lot of games like this when I was younger and I've got a bit of nostalgia itch to scratch.

It's a bit odd, but Legends of Grimrock II fits these requirements just fine, except for turn based.

[factotum]

It's a bit odd, but Legends of Grimrock II fits these requirements just fine, except for turn based.

Um, Legend of Grimrock 2 *is* turn based, isn't it? Or am I confusing it with the first game?

[Knaight]

Um, Legend of Grimrock 2 *is* turn based, isn't it? Or am I confusing it with the first game?

I don't think the first one is turn based either, but I haven't played it. There's a grid movement system, and there's a tick system on which everything else moves on the grid, so it's not really an action game or similar (hence the recommendation being made at all), but it is real time.

[Anteros]

That one does meet most of my requirements, but the non turn based nature of it turned me off. With the way I had built my party I was having to click different things like 5 times a second in combat which got tedious very shortly.

[Cespenar]

That one does meet most of my requirements, but the non turn based nature of it turned me off. With the way I had built my party I was having to click different things like 5 times a second in combat which got tedious very shortly.

You could have just built a passive party and mainly played the flank-dance game without clicking a lot of things?

I'm just saying because it's a great game of which the combat is just a part. The exploration aspect and the variety and brilliance of some of the puzzles are what makes it somewhat unique in its place right now.

[Wookieetank]

Can anyone recommend any good dungeon crawler games? Looking for something with a customizable party that's turn based. Something like Darkest Dungeon but with less tedious repetition and maybe a touch less RNG although I do like some rng elements. I used to play a lot of games like this when I was younger and I've got a bit of nostalgia itch to scratch.

If you have access to a NDS or 3DS, the Etrian Odyssey series is great dungeon crawlery fun. Tough as nails, but its usually fair. There's also Persona Q, but you don't get to customize your party, just tweak what abilities they have.

For PC there's a few of different stripes:
Might and Magic series is good classic fun and on gog for cheap. I highly reccomend M&M 4-5 they have a really cool vibe going on.
Avernum, Geneforge, and Avadon series are all iso-view, but they very much play like dungeon crawlers.
For more roguelike dungeon crawling there's: Tales of Maj'Eyal, ADOM and Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

I'm sure I can come up with more once I have my steam library in front of me XD

[Triaxx]

While it's dungeon crawler aspects are suspect to non-existent, Fallout Tactics is a fun Turn-based strategy game. (Including a false real-time mode), or there's also the original Fallout 1/2.

[Anteros]

You could have just built a passive party and mainly played the flank-dance game without clicking a lot of things?

I'm just saying because it's a great game of which the combat is just a part. The exploration aspect and the variety and brilliance of some of the puzzles are what makes it somewhat unique in its place right now.

I could have, but it takes a lot of fun out of the customization if you have to build a certain way, and the customization is my favorite part.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've played a lot of these before, but there's a few that are new to me. I'll take a look at them.

[Yora]

I'm playing Redout, which is a pretty good Wipeout clone. It's fun, but I don't see it having a long lasting draw either. The best Wipeout clone is still Star Wars Racer, which had much longer and visually more interesting tracks. Even the longest track I've seen so far is shorter than some of the shortest ones in Racer.

[Kato]

I've bought Enter the Gungeon because I was curious and it was on sale last weekend. It's not bad but... I effing suck at it. I haven't played too much but right now it's disheartening.

I also started Last Story a while back but it somehow lacks anything that makes me want to play it without actually being bad.

And I played three or so hours of Xenoblade Chronicles. It seems fine except it also feels like an MMORPG for one player. Which makes me afraid what is coming up in the future.

[GloatingSwine]

And I played three or so hours of Xenoblade Chronicles. It seems fine except it also feels like an MMORPG for one player. Which makes me afraid what is coming up in the future.

It isn't.

Its sidequest structure has a bunch of "beat up X drop bears" type stuff in, but the game itself is very much a single player narrative driven experience.

[Cespenar]

I've bought Enter the Gungeon because I was curious and it was on sale last weekend. It's not bad but... I effing suck at it. I haven't played too much but right now it's disheartening.

I'd suggest Nuclear Throne or Binding of Isaac instead. Enter the Gungeon is decidedly... meh.

[Triaxx]

What genre is Gungeon?

[Lord Raziere]

I've been playing The Old Republic MMO, and my smuggler on Nar Shadda made some pretty interesting and varied choices in no particular order:
-mad surgeon disguise guy I did not accept his offer of giving the Republic screwed surgical procedures to steal face and give them to other people. but I think spared his life for some reason? maybe? I forgot but I think I made the right choice.

-I killed Commander Vergost even though he claimed to have info the Republic needed. guy was a total genocidal maniac though, so I'm not too broken up about it, I'll accept the dark side points

-the jedi that got turned dark side though, THAT guy I kept alive to be redeemed, because he was once good and got tortured by this screwed imperial war camp/prison, so there is potential for him to recover, especially since he was speaking like a B-movie villain, not real evil so its like "dude your totally just coping with the screwed up stuff by claiming to be super-evil now"

-the whole shanjaru storyline was......interesting. Ok so first the light side option was lying to someone that I'm actually the smuggler that was supposed to smuggle the shanjaru out, so cool, then I go find the place to pick up the shanjaru and I come to this screwed up picture:
picture this environmentalist girl just trying to save this creature called a shanjaru in an energy cage, with this mad scientist looking jerk standing outside, the mad scientist when I come in talking up how how his experiments are his children in a creepy manner and being all like "my science is great, you can't possibly tell me to get rid of it" and the environmentalist says the mad scientist wants to make a slave race out of genetically modifying the shanjaru and I'm like "thats screwed up" and the scientist is like "no its science and progress, screw morals" and I'm like "no, stop that" and he is like "let me live, I'm a genius" "no screw you, you put this girl in a cage and are a creepy evil person trying to make self-created slaves, I'm killing you, your genius won't help anyone" accepting the dark side points again then it turns out that the environmentalist girl in the cage is dying because creepy mad scientist loaded her up with a bunch of diseases in retribution for trying to take the shanjaru from him or something like that and she tells me to shoot her and I'm like "okay" because the other options are either (Dark Side): just letting her die in the cage slowly and cruelly. (Light Side): freeing her and just HOPING that the diseases will somehow be cured, when THIS IS NAR SHADDA! THIS IS A CITY-PLANET, FULL OF CRIMINALS WITH LIKE, BAD TO NO HEALTH CODES! I let this girl go free hoping she'll get better and she'll probably start spreading an artificially engineered pandemic made by mad scientist guy and kill EVERYONE ON THE PLANET! So yeah, I shot her, gaining no light or dark side points in the process. for the safety of everyone.

Of course her last request was that the shanjaru species would somehow be saved but I didn't care about that, because a shanjaru is like this weird dinosaur-doglike thing that I forgot the significance of and is kind of just this big animal macguffin, so I didn't bother, then I killed a few guys to get a my wookie friend from the stupid hutt guy and blast off to some other planet that doesn't have screwed up moral choices as Nar Shadda. like Alderaan! wait its full of backstabbing nobles, there is an Imperial plot to BLOW UP A THING! and the Republic is drafting me to take care of? darn it.....

[Yora]

I actually got Star Wars: Racer working on Linux with a PS3 controller and it was mostly rather painless.

I like the tracks a lot more than those of Wipeout HD and Redout, but I realize this game is really simple. I think I could speedrun it in under 3 hours, ever after not having played it in over 15 years.

[Kato]

What genre is Gungeon?

It's very similar to Isaac but more... Elaborate? Bigger rooms, more items / skills (maybe? I'm not aware of the complete extent of either but it feels like it), probably the biggest difference being its also bullet hell, especially the bosses.
Also, it has a goddamn wiki incorporated which is something Isaac seriously lacks (or lacked last time I played it)

[Cespenar]

What genre is Gungeon?

I think they call them "Twin Stick Shooter"s. Or top-down roguelite shooters, more descriptively.

It's very similar to Isaac but more... Elaborate? Bigger rooms, more items / skills (maybe? I'm not aware of the complete extent of either but it feels like it), probably the biggest difference being its also bullet hell, especially the bosses.
Also, it has a goddamn wiki incorporated which is something Isaac seriously lacks (or lacked last time I played it)

I wouldn't say more elaborate than Isaac. Isaac has way more depth in its gameplay, almost comparable to a true roguelike. Also its item system again is much more detailed than Gungeon.

Oh and it has a detailed wiki alright. Actually some aspects of the game could be too complicated without glancing at the wiki once in a while.

[Kato]

I wouldn't say more elaborate than Isaac. Isaac has way more depth in its gameplay, almost comparable to a true roguelike. Also its item system again is much more detailed than Gungeon.

Oh and it has a detailed wiki alright. Actually some aspects of the game could be too complicated without glancing at the wiki once in a while.

Why is Isaac only "almost comparable to a true roguelike"?
I guess I never played Isaac dedicated enough to know all the items available. But with "more elaborate" I meant rooms are not limited to standard size, the dungeon layout seems a bit less restricted, the graphics look far... Well, like more work went into them. (I'm aware the graphics are part of Isaac's charme, but still). I also feel like there is a wider variety of enemies but that could be totally wrong.

Isaac has a wiki? In game? That must be (kind of) new, because I remember quite clearly having to look up every item I found because testing a one use item and totally wasting it is fun! And not telling you makes the game harder no, I get it, but it's still annoying. Unless you play enough to memorize everything.

[Cespenar]

Why is Isaac only "almost comparable to a true roguelike"?
I guess I never played Isaac dedicated enough to know all the items available. But with "more elaborate" I meant rooms are not limited to standard size, the dungeon layout seems a bit less restricted, the graphics look far... Well, like more work went into them. (I'm aware the graphics are part of Isaac's charme, but still). I also feel like there is a wider variety of enemies but that could be totally wrong.

Isaac has a wiki? In game? That must be (kind of) new, because I remember quite clearly having to look up every item I found because testing a one use item and totally wasting it is fun! And not telling you makes the game harder no, I get it, but it's still annoying. Unless you play enough to memorize everything.

What I meant was that regular roguelikes like Nethack and ADOM have gameplay detailed enough to make ten "roguelites", and Isaac's item system is like halfway in between. I can understand the charm of Gungeon's more polished look, but the rooms were really repetitive in Gungeon as well. And I wouldn't be too sure about the enemies -- Isaac has a lot of them.

Nah, Isaac has a normal wiki. Like a website. I assume you mean an in-game encyclopedia of some sorts. Also, not to be totally antagonistic, but "learning by playing" is a common game trope. Found in almost all roguelikes as well as most "high-skill" games like Dark Souls. If you don't want to go that path, internet wikis are always there to help.

[GloatingSwine]

What I meant was that regular roguelikes like Nethack and ADOM have gameplay detailed enough to make ten "roguelites"

The distinction "Roguelite" is usually understood to mean "there is some amount of progression between playthroughs".

In Isaac new items unlock in response to certain conditions being met, for instance, and the full game is explicitly not available on the first playthrough.

"Genuine" roguelikes tend to have absolutely everything available from the start and leave the player to get on with it.

[Cespenar]

The distinction "Roguelite" is usually understood to mean "there is some amount of progression between playthroughs".

True, but there is also a distinct system depth difference between the classic roguelikes and the modern roguelites, which, even if it's not the intended classification, I assumed would be understood by players of both subgenres.

[Silfir]

The distinction "Roguelite" is usually understood to mean "there is some amount of progression between playthroughs".

In Isaac new items unlock in response to certain conditions being met, for instance, and the full game is explicitly not available on the first playthrough.

"Genuine" roguelikes tend to have absolutely everything available from the start and leave the player to get on with it.

There is a distinction to be made between meta-progression systems designed to make future playthroughs a) easier (so dying is expected - you die over and over until you've gotten good and the game easy enough through upgrades for you to succeed), those designed to make future playthroughs b) more varied (adding extra items to find and other content, but only as "sidegrades" - the game might even become more difficult if the new items in the pool are weaker) and those that aim to add variety only through providing c) different starts (that play differently, but again aren't necessarily stronger or weaker than already existing options).

The term "roguelite" has stuck for games that do any of these, which makes it a poor predictor of just how far away a game has drifted from roguelike principles. A game that does a), for instance, is fundamentally not-a-roguelike-whatsoever, whereas a game like TOME is a classic top-down turn-based dungeon-crawling roguelike in every way, except it also does c) (only 7 out of 33 classes are available from the beginning), which by your definition puts it in the roguelite pile.

These three types of roguelite play so differently from one another that they really deserve different names altogether - like "type A roguelite" or something like that. Would make it a lot easier to navigate today's indie game market.

True, but there is also a distinct system depth difference between the classic roguelikes and the modern roguelites, which, even if it's not the intended classification, I assumed would be understood by players of both subgenres.

There plenty of classic roguelikes that don't have nearly as much system depth as ADOM or Nethack. Don't confuse a feature that many big-name classic roguelikes share with a defining feature of that genre. It's quite possible for a modern "roguelite" to have more depth than even ADOM.

Humans tend to be larger than cats, but lions are still closer to being cats than they are to being human.

[LibraryOgre]

GalCiv2. Haven't had much time with it, so I'm still learning, but really enjoying it.

[Triaxx]

Let me know how you like it when you look up and ten hours have passed.

[rooster707]

Started Metal Gear Solid V. It’s very complicated and confusing (especially since this is my first MGS game), but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun once I learn how things work.

[Silverraptor]

Started a let's play of Oxygen not Included. Decided to make it more fun by having viewers or playgrounders become my duplicants. So as a shameless self promoting to another thread, If anyone would like to volunteer to be in my Oxygen Not Included Let's Play, please let me know!

[Jama7301]

Started Metal Gear Solid V. It’s very complicated and confusing (especially since this is my first MGS game), but I think it’s going to be a lot of fun once I learn how things work.

I really enjoyed the... dozen to twenty hours I put into the game. Didn't get anywhere close to finishing, but I enjoyed moving around the map and engaging with the enemies. Spent too much time rambling around my base though.

[factotum]

Let me know how you like it when you look up and ten hours have passed.

And that's just the time you spend designing the Liberator from Blake's 7 in the ship designer.