What are you playing right now?

[factotum]

In regards to DOS 2: Isn't that game brand new? Bug fixes should be released as ya'know...bug fixes. They're basically saying "Hey, our game was a buggy mess before, but if you wanna give us ANOTHER 70 dollars, you can play the version we should have released in the first place." They did this same thing with the Enhanced Edition of the first game.

With D:OS2 (and I'm pretty sure this was also the case with the first game--it certainly was with Kickstarter backers) the enhanced edition is free to anyone who already owned the game? So they're hardly asking you to buy it again.

As for Witcher 3, I don't remember having a big problem with the controls. I played it entirely with mouse and keyboard, never tried a controller.

[Rynjin]

Can confirm, I have Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced and I didn't play the original game all the way through. I certainly didn't buy it twice.

[Doorhandle]

I seem to be one of about eight people in the universe who really did not like Civ VI; I just found the game ridiculously cluttered. I recall for instance playing as Egypt, and realizing that there were about four different ways to build a religion-generator, depending whether I wanted to build a district, inside a district, inside the city, or on its own tile on the map, which was rather ironic since Egyptian polytheism doesn't even count as a religion under the game's systems. And the trade routes for roads system is just a micromanagement nightmare.

Late game warfare in Warlock gets weird. Things like building land bridges becomes very popular, as does dealing with the post-apocalyptic hellscape that rampant spell abuse turns the map into. And if you play with the Dwemer invasion turned on, the game is just brutally hard.
The thing to remember about Age of Wonders is that the strategy layer is basically only there to give context to tactical battles, which become really excellent once you start unlocking second tier units.

Archmages are one of the more straightforwards classes. You don't get any particularly good units you can build, so you basically want to rush the Abomination or whatever the astral squid is called. The huge advantage of the squid is that, as a summon, you can drop them into whatever army needs reinforcement. This makes it easier to get to get a stack with a couple of them, which is handy for absolutely wrecking some enemy towns. Because you can also get lots of casting points, you can basically substitute magic for unit flexibility.

TBH, Civ didn't wow me either, I just reckon there a lot more depth to it's gamplay. A cluttered UI doesn't help, granted.

Warlock endgame is pretty wacky, I agree.
And the Dremer are bastards: so satisfying to see their homeworld destroyed by Warlock 2.
The final world of the Warlock 2 campaign is pretty hard too, but at least your units can heal. The Naga's constant oceaning is a pain in the ass, but their final world is nowhere near as hard so it balances out.

I'll keep that in mind for archmages: hunker down and tech up.

I didn't end up making it to GOW yet: Damn you steam sale!

Streets of Rouge was pretty hilarious, but didn't have anywhere near as much longevity as I hoped: hopefully will be improved by full release. Though to be fair, it's more fun played like Grand Theft auto than actually fulfilling the missions properly.

Planetary annihilation is every bit the absurdity I thought it was...but it even extends to the AI! Normal is too wimpy to fear at all, while the next jump, "hard," would have peeled my eyes through my nose if I hadn't managed to sneak a metal planet while everyone else was busy. Even then I could have lost, if I didn't eventually take the time to figure out how to fire the lazer more than once. Very nearly got buried under approximately a hundred attack satellites.
In general, the first person to sneak offworld seems to have a massive unfair advantage, what with being able to expand free of reproach.
...honestly, the game as a whole could be better if it was just a superweapon tennis match, with 5 players in a 15-planet system all flinging titans, planets, and nukes at eachother.
All in all it's probably good for a few more laughs before I start working on the rest of my backlog.

On Age of Wonders classes, I've always enjoyed the Theocrat. I like their spells and the flavor of their abilities. Unfortunately they're probably one of the weaker overall heroes with their capstone ability (resurgence for the entire army) not applying to their Tier 3 and Tier 4 units. You have to rely on chance or summons to get powerful units that synergize with your main hero. It's usually possible to do, but it's not guaranteed.

Can confirm, Orc theocrat is easily one of the more fun classes...though there's an art to maxing their effectiveness. Look at the steam guide for them. It's slightly (only slightly) more complex than "tech up your final units and then steamroll(literally with the dreadnaught) the map."
Also, theocrats as minor heroes are fantastic because 50% of their abilities screw over undead and undead are everywhere on the main map.
...By the way, how are you supposed to win the game playing as a good guy? I usually just invade my way to victory.

[Anteros]

If the DoS remaster is free to people who bought the game then I take back what I said. I haven't seen that reported anywhere though.

I certainly seem to remember paying for the original and also the EE version, but maybe I'm wrong. It has been quite a while.

T
Can confirm, Orc theocrat is easily one of the more fun classes...though there's an art to maxing their effectiveness. Look at the steam guide for them. It's slightly (only slightly) more complex than "tech up your final units and then steamroll(literally with the dreadnaught) the map."
Also, theocrats as minor heroes are fantastic because 50% of their abilities screw over undead and undead are everywhere on the main map.
...By the way, how are you supposed to win the game playing as a good guy? I usually just invade my way to victory.

You basically can't win as pure good because there's always one or two enemies who won't ally with you, but also won't declare war on you. You end up just staring at each other forever once everyone else is eliminated. Sometimes you can get them to ally with you if you have very good relations and then bribe them with like 3,000 gold. The AI is waaaay too reluctant to ally for some reason, even when you're a billion times more powerful than them. I usually just consider the game won when it gets to this point and quit though. Either that, or I accept that I'll have to commit a few evil actions and start a conflict.

Typically the challenge is gone by the time you hit this late in the game though and you'd just be auto-calculating your way to victory. Unless you just enjoy steamrolling the weak computer AI over and over. The game needs a patch or mod to change the AI aggression and competency desperately.

I suppose I could play online, but I'm quite certain that anyone playing online at this point would steamroll a casual player like me easily.

[warty goblin]

I'm with you there. The pollution mechanics are also interesting because of some of the decisions made in the tech tree, where if you don't have Creative (which is straight up broken) there's a case where a top pollution handling tech and a top factory tech are in direct opposition, and a bunch of cases where the decisions of where in the tree pollution and industry techs are placed can lead to interesting decisions.

On your suggestion I reinstalled the new Master of Orion, and just wrapped up a game. I ended up winning a diplomatic victory as the meklar, since destroying Anteres was going to be very difficult and I was about three bribes away from diplomatic victory. Overall I quite liked it, the pieces felt quite sensible, and the game's general aversion to percentage bonuses meant things were seldom super-swingy. No building something or losing something and suddenly your entire economy tailspins, which annoys me no end.

You should. They're an incredibly fun class, and if you replay the Halfling campaign you'll get to play a decent amount of them. Plus, the Halfling campaign involves nagas, which are either the most fun or second most fun independant city depending on how you feel about faeries.

Fairies are just the best. They're like adorable little commandos.

You basically can't win as pure good because there's always one or two enemies who won't ally with you, but also won't declare war on you. You end up just staring at each other forever once everyone else is eliminated. Sometimes you can get them to ally with you if you have very good relations and then bribe them with like 3,000 gold. The AI is waaaay too reluctant to ally for some reason, even when you're a billion times more powerful than them. I usually just consider the game won when it gets to this point and quit though. Either that, or I accept that I'll have to commit a few evil actions and start a conflict.

Typically the challenge is gone by the time you hit this late in the game though and you'd just be auto-calculating your way to victory. Unless you just enjoy steamrolling the weak computer AI over and over. The game needs a patch or mod to change the AI aggression and competency desperately.

I suppose I could play online, but I'm quite certain that anyone playing online at this point would steamroll a casual player like me easily.

I've never had that problem, at least with the seals victory turned on. As soon as I cap a couple seals, everybody and their uncle will declare war on me, alliance or not. Generally I like to do that before I've gotten super far ahead, so that the AI can actually hit back effectively, which leads to some pretty good fights.

Really, I find the AI in Age of Wonders III to be pretty much right where I'd want it. It can play the game credibly and I can usually figure out why it does a thing - declare war so I don't get a seals win, etc. This means I can engineer the sort of game I want to play without a lot of bother, and without playing in a really absurd way.

[Zevox]

I've just finished the new God of War. Damn, but it's a really good game. Easily better than its predecessors in every meaningful way. And of course, there's some obvious sequel setup near the end, and that makes me eagerly await that sequel. I didn't get this one when it launched because I was skeptical of the new direction they were taking it for a few reasons, but after playing this, it's pretty much guaranteed I'll grab the sequel immediately.

Spoiler: Likely sequel content.

Show

I really hope that can make the inevitable Thor fight as fantastic as the Sigrun one from this game. And possibly the likely fight with Freya, especially since it's set up that she was the original Queen of the Valkyries, and those were by far the best boss fights in this game (or any of the God of War games).

Meanwhile, also been playing a lot of BlazBlue Cross Tag this week, with roughly half of its announced DLC now out. I knew it was coming, but dang, I cannot settle on a character in this game. I spent the days after launch playing Platinum/Es, moved back to my beta team of Ruby/Weiss, then tried Ruby/Blake. Then the DLC hit and I've been playing variations of teams with Yang, pairing her with Ruby, then Blake, then Naoto. Really want to try Jubei out as well, and do some more Persona-centric teams like Yu/Chie, Chie/Yukiko, or mix some of them with Ruby or Yang. And when the rest of the DLC hits in August, this will only get worse.

There hasn't been a fighting game with this many characters I really want to play outside of Smash Brothers. The difference is that in Smash the game's simple enough that I can just play a bunch of characters with relatively little problem, but BlazBlue is more complicated and I need to learn a lot more to play these characters effectively. Love it to pieces, but dang, it's almost too much of a good thing.

[Ebon_Drake]

Currently playing Life is Strange. Just finished Episode 2. The mechanics are kind of awkward in a way that I'll probably never be fully happy with and it's a little more pixel-hunt adventure gamey than I expected. Hopefully the "find 5 bottles" section of Ep 2 is as far as it goes in that direction, but I'm not holding my breath. I also wish it gave more leeway to explore previous areas since I missed half the photos in Ep 1. However, the story's good and engaging and as it's a narrative-heavy game that's the main thing. Never have I been so terrified of the phrase "This action will have consequences", especially when all I did was water a plant or open a cupboard!

I've been trying to play more from a consistent characterisation perspective than trying to make the optimal choice each time - not least since it's a blind first play and picking what seems like the best choice in the moment can lead to worse things happening further down the line. I also feel there probably aren't optimal choices a lot of the time anyway, just different kinds of bad. I'm looking forward to seeing just how badly I end up accidentally screwing everything up.

Spoiler: End of Episode 2

Show

I came within a step of saving Kate, but botched it at the last hurdle. I actually thought I'd succeeded for a moment since she said she was stepping down, but then it threw up the last question where I had to pick the right Bible passage. I'd seen them in her book and knew which of them I'd need to pick, but the options just gave them as Proverbs 21:12 and Matthew 18:10 (or whatever) so I couldn't remember which one was which. I don't have a Bible and didn't have another means of looking it up to hand, so had to do a blind pick and ended up going for the wrong one. FAIL.

[Anteros]

I've never had that problem, at least with the seals victory turned on. As soon as I cap a couple seals, everybody and their uncle will declare war on me, alliance or not. Generally I like to do that before I've gotten super far ahead, so that the AI can actually hit back effectively, which leads to some pretty good fights.

Really, I find the AI in Age of Wonders III to be pretty much right where I'd want it. It can play the game credibly and I can usually figure out why it does a thing - declare war so I don't get a seals win, etc. This means I can engineer the sort of game I want to play without a lot of bother, and without playing in a really absurd way.

I disagree about the AI. It's way too passive for my tastes. Then again, I've never liked the style of gameplay and the arbitrary time restriction on the game that the seals create. Maybe I need to give them a few more tries.

[LibraryOgre]

On the computer, I've gone for another run at Mass Effect, this time with a Sentinel-turned-pseudo-Vanguard, who will become full Vanguard in ME2 and 3... I like to have electronics and Decryption on my ME1 character, and there's not a huge difference between a Vanguard and a Sentinel in ME1, except for the presence of shotguns.

On my phone, I've been playing Empires & Puzzles. It is basically Bejeweled with a bare veneer of story-game elements... sure, I'm going after this evil overlord, but I only hear from him when I clear an area.

[warty goblin]

I disagree about the AI. It's way too passive for my tastes. Then again, I've never liked the style of gameplay and the arbitrary time restriction on the game that the seals create. Maybe I need to give them a few more tries.

It could be a bit more active yeah, but I'd far rather have it than something like the utterly spastic AI of modern Civ games.

The thing about the seals victory is that yes, it's gamey as hell. But it's a great way to focus conflict for the last section of a game. I've had some really good multi-stack throwdowns over seals, or to knock out an AI city nearby, and it's a much more pleasant endgame than chasing down every last AI city on the map. And because you need to hold multiple seals, the AI is proactive about attacking them, and they respawn powerful stacks on their own, it can actually push my limits in terms of keeping multiple effective armies in the field. Mind, this could also be because I'm not very good at the game; I'm actively terrible at most games so this wouldn't surprise me at all.

[Cespenar]

Currently playing Life is Strange. Just finished Episode 2. The mechanics are kind of awkward in a way that I'll probably never be fully happy with and it's a little more pixel-hunt adventure gamey than I expected. Hopefully the "find 5 bottles" section of Ep 2 is as far as it goes in that direction, but I'm not holding my breath. I also wish it gave more leeway to explore previous areas since I missed half the photos in Ep 1. However, the story's good and engaging and as it's a narrative-heavy game that's the main thing. Never have I been so terrified of the phrase "This action will have consequences", especially when all I did was water a plant or open a cupboard!

I've been trying to play more from a consistent characterisation perspective than trying to make the optimal choice each time - not least since it's a blind first play and picking what seems like the best choice in the moment can lead to worse things happening further down the line. I also feel there probably aren't optimal choices a lot of the time anyway, just different kinds of bad. I'm looking forward to seeing just how badly I end up accidentally screwing everything up.

Spoiler: End of Episode 2

Show

I came within a step of saving Kate, but botched it at the last hurdle. I actually thought I'd succeeded for a moment since she said she was stepping down, but then it threw up the last question where I had to pick the right Bible passage. I'd seen them in her book and knew which of them I'd need to pick, but the options just gave them as Proverbs 21:12 and Matthew 18:10 (or whatever) so I couldn't remember which one was which. I don't have a Bible and didn't have another means of looking it up to hand, so had to do a blind pick and ended up going for the wrong one. FAIL.

Your perspective towards the choice system is pretty reasonable and I found that that makes the game much more enjoyable than one with a constant search for optimal choices.

Also, not to spoil anything, but the consequences really don't create a "really bad" state that could be avoided by meticulous attention to details or whatnot, so at least you can get a bit comfortable in that regard. The Kate thing is probably the biggest impact you can have with your choices on the game, other than the ending decision.

[Zombimode]

Your perspective towards the choice system is pretty reasonable and I found that that makes the game much more enjoyable than one with a constant search for optimal choices.

Also, not to spoil anything, but the consequences really don't create a "really bad" state that could be avoided by meticulous attention to details or whatnot, so at least you can get a bit comfortable in that regard. The Kate thing is probably the biggest impact you can have with your choices on the game, other than the ending decision.

Hunting for "optimal choices" in Life Is Strange 2 is kinda missing the point. You're not some highly competent specialist, you're just some stupid teenage girl. It IS a coming of age story and making decisions, learning to live with the consequences of those decisions and understanding that matters can be more complicated than your teenage mind originally thought are all part of it. And I think the game is excellent in delivering that experience.

[Anteros]

It could be a bit more active yeah, but I'd far rather have it than something like the utterly spastic AI of modern Civ games.

The thing about the seals victory is that yes, it's gamey as hell. But it's a great way to focus conflict for the last section of a game. I've had some really good multi-stack throwdowns over seals, or to knock out an AI city nearby, and it's a much more pleasant endgame than chasing down every last AI city on the map. And because you need to hold multiple seals, the AI is proactive about attacking them, and they respawn powerful stacks on their own, it can actually push my limits in terms of keeping multiple effective armies in the field. Mind, this could also be because I'm not very good at the game; I'm actively terrible at most games so this wouldn't surprise me at all.

I tried a seals game today and the AI does seem a bit more aggressive. I didn't have time to get past the early game though, so it's hard to say for sure.

I wonder if this aggression carries over into the Beacon mode. Something to test later.

[Lector87]

After finishing my BG2 solo Cavalier run, I took a look at all the amazing games that have come out in the last couple years, went into a seizure of choice paralysis, and naturally opted for a game from 1996.

I'm playing the original Diablo, Belzebub mod, as a Rogue. Hot diddly DANG does that game hold up. Few things are more satisfying than the distilled essence of dungeon-crawler.

On a whim, I decided to screenshot-blog the playthrough, and messing about in Tumblr led to some basic but gratifying lessons in how CSS works.

[warty goblin]

I tried a seals game today and the AI does seem a bit more aggressive. I didn't have time to get past the early game though, so it's hard to say for sure.

I wonder if this aggression carries over into the Beacon mode. Something to test later.

The AI mostly gets going when somebody knocks the neutrals off of a seal for the first time. Then a very chummy sort of situation turns into a hot war real fast.

[Ebon_Drake]

Hunting for "optimal choices" in Life Is Strange 2 is kinda missing the point. You're not some highly competent specialist, you're just some stupid teenage girl. It IS a coming of age story and making decisions, learning to live with the consequences of those decisions and understanding that matters can be more complicated than your teenage mind originally thought are all part of it. And I think the game is excellent in delivering that experience.

Yeah, my approach is "I'm shy, awkward and somewhat afraid of confrontation, but also kindhearted and try to be nice to people" and am trying to go for options that feel true to that. I'm also going for being way more friendly with Chloe than is probably healthy. I'd be interested to do some more runs through to try out some different options and see how much it changes the game, but then I also said that about Witcher 2 and never actually did it.

I also have Before The Storm lined up for afterwards, where I plan to be a total ass.

[rooster707]

Finished XCOM: Enemy Unknown, finally, after around five runs that just kind of trailed off partway through. Now I’m starting Subnautica, the first game in my Summer Sale haul. I’m about three hours in and liking it so far, but I feel lost pretty much all the time. I don’t really know where I am, what I should be doing, or where to find the resources I need. I’m not sure if it’s the game’s fault or mine, but it would be nice to have a map at the very least.

[JNAProductions]

Tales of Maj'Eyal

As in, like, right now.

As in I'm streaming it.

Find it here.

Edit: No longer live.

[Knaight]

Tales of Maj'Eyal

As in, like, right now.

As in I'm streaming it.

Find it here.

Apart from the streaming, that makes two of us (though I'm close to calling it a night). It's an excellent game, and the new content has been fun so far.

[Silverraptor]

Finished XCOM: Enemy Unknown, finally, after around five runs that just kind of trailed off partway through. Now I’m starting Subnautica, the first game in my Summer Sale haul. I’m about three hours in and liking it so far, but I feel lost pretty much all the time. I don’t really know where I am, what I should be doing, or where to find the resources I need. I’m not sure if it’s the game’s fault or mine, but it would be nice to have a map at the very least.

Spoiler: Subnautica Map

Show

Here's a good map for resources and creatures in the different regions.

[Cespenar]

Apart from the streaming, that makes two of us (though I'm close to calling it a night). It's an excellent game, and the new content has been fun so far.

Is there some new new content? I last saw the Possessor, which was fun.

[Knaight]

Is there some new new content? I last saw the Possessor, which was fun.

The Forbidden Cults expansion came out a few days ago. It's closer to Ashes than Embers, mostly adding new classes, a new race (or more than one, I didn't count), new dungeons, new lore, etc.

These new classes include one that's basically a weird hybrid of the Reaper, Alchemist, and Oozemancer, and that's the one available from the beginning. I've been having a lot of fun with it. The other I don't really know, but what little I've seen indicates that you get to deliberately kill yourself under certain conditions to damage opponents instead of dying, so I already approve.

[Cespenar]

The Forbidden Cults expansion came out a few days ago. It's closer to Ashes than Embers, mostly adding new classes, a new race (or more than one, I didn't count), new dungeons, new lore, etc.

These new classes include one that's basically a weird hybrid of the Reaper, Alchemist, and Oozemancer, and that's the one available from the beginning. I've been having a lot of fun with it. The other I don't really know, but what little I've seen indicates that you get to deliberately kill yourself under certain conditions to damage opponents instead of dying, so I already approve.

Cool. I guess hoping for something like a new campaign is too much at this point, but eh. I had enjoyed the orc campaign pretty much.

[rooster707]

Spoiler: Subnautica Map

Show

Here's a good map for resources and creatures in the different regions.

Thanks! Right now I’m still trying to figure things out for myself, but once my self-control inevitably fails this’ll be very useful.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Shadowrun Returns (thanks, free games thread!) & Harvest Moon Stardew Valley. Weird combo, I know, but when I get home, sometimes I feel the need to forget about the world by growing some turnips, and sometimes I need to have my robot minions mow down everything with automatic fire.

Still contemplating what to buy for the summer sale. Seriously considering the oter two shadowruns & maybe the nuMoO, but I'd appreciate some recommendations along those lines.

GW

[Anteros]

The other two Shadowrun games are much better than Returns in my opinion. I'd definitely recommend them highly if you're enjoying returns.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The other two Shadowrun games are much better than Returns in my opinion. I'd definitely recommend them highly if you're enjoying returns.

Huh. I think i saw them both heavily discounted, so I'll take that into consideration, thanks. What makes them better, though? I am enjoying the fast progression - fights are satisfying but short enough I can get through a few in a session, whereas in XCOM, I usually struggle to complete even one battle.

(Also, I found the naming of the series quite confusing - took me a while to establish that "X Returns" is actually NOT the second game in the X series. Now, I understand that they aren't true sequels, but which one came after returns?)

GW

[Cristo Meyers]

Huh. I think i saw them both heavily discounted, so I'll take that into consideration, thanks. What makes them better, though? I am enjoying the fast progression - fights are satisfying but short enough I can get through a few in a session, whereas in XCOM, I usually struggle to complete even one battle.

(Also, I found the naming of the series quite confusing - took me a while to establish that "X Returns" is actually NOT the second game in the X series. Now, I understand that they aren't true sequels, but which one came after returns?)

GW

Dragonfall is the second game.

Dragonfall and Hong Kong are just more fleshed out story-wise and mission-wise than Returns was. Everything's just a bit more robust, making Returns feel kinda like a test run.

[Anteros]

Huh. I think i saw them both heavily discounted, so I'll take that into consideration, thanks. What makes them better, though? I am enjoying the fast progression - fights are satisfying but short enough I can get through a few in a session, whereas in XCOM, I usually struggle to complete even one battle.

(Also, I found the naming of the series quite confusing - took me a while to establish that "X Returns" is actually NOT the second game in the X series. Now, I understand that they aren't true sequels, but which one came after returns?)

GW

Better characters, better storytelling, more streamlined experience, more options in character building and more options in ways you can approach missions. Just my personal opinions of course. Hong Kong starts a little slow if you're like me and want to talk to every single NPC, but it picks up and is the strongest game overall in my opinion.

Returns is a perfectly fine game in its own right, but it's hard to go back to it after playing the other two.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Returns is a perfectly fine game in its own right, but it's hard to go back to it after playing the other two.

That's OK, I figure I won't ever replay it anyway since it's too plot-driven for me to go through it again. I had to restart it a couple of times once I understood the classes a bit better, but I don't see myself playing it through fully a second time.

GW