What are you playing right now?

[NeoVid]

I've surprised myself by getting hugely interested in Battlefield 1 again, partly because just about everything we complained about at launch is fixed. Also, getting those Operation Campaign rewards is addictive.

[PopeLinus1]

I’ve started to play Orgins, and in that game you get to be an Egyptian pirate.

Oh it’s buggy, but I was forged from the fires of Bethesda softworks.

[rooster707]

I’ve started to play Orgins, and in that game you get to be an Egyptian pirate.

Oh it’s buggy, but I was forged from the fires of Bethesda softworks.

Wait... Origins has boats?

Maybe I’ll check it out after all...

[inexorabletruth]

I've got a few games in rotation at the moment, which is unlike me. Usually, I pick one game and obsess over it until I've beaten it, then done a second run through to discover every secret/Easter Egg/Acheivement/what-have-you, and then a final speed run with some self imposed handicap just to see if I can do it, before moving on to something else.

Spoiler: Play by Post

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I'm running A Madness in Hepmonaland, an insanely expansive sandbox for low-op builds. We've had the campaign running for about 3 years now.

Spoiler: Console

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Skyrim. I'm late to the game on this one, and finally understand what all the fuss is about. I love the game and struggle with restraint... I have a really hard time turning it off and getting back to real life.

Rocksmith. It's one of the finest guitar/bass tutorials I've ever seen and tons of fun to play.

Rock Band 2: I play this with my son. He's 7 and plays the drums on Expert mode. I'm in awe of him.

Spoiler: Tablet

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Forge of Empires. It's... eh... ok. I picked it because sometimes I want to kill 10 or 20 minutes. I wouldn't call it a good game. It's good enough to be a distraction, but lame enough to be easy to put down and walk away from it at a moment's notice.

[Jama7301]

I picked up Mario Odyssey again after some time away, after clearing the main game and some extra stuff. Game is still like a warm blanket of cozy happiness.

[PopeLinus1]

Wait... Origins has boats?

Maybe I’ll check it out after all...

Oh yeah, I was not expecting it to have such a fun boating system.

Hour one:
Oh cool I can use boats in this

Hour two:
Hahahaha all your wealth is mine! mine!

[GameOmen]

Diablo II!!!! :) the best game ever. Playing CS too.

[Lector87]

Monster Hunter World!

Which might be the answer for a good long while, given how much content there is and how little time I have these days...

[DigoDragon]

I just recently finished Torchlight 2 for the first time ever as a level 55 Embermage. It was alright, though the ending left me wanting a little. I played around a little with the map dungeons, but I think I'm done with game for now. Probably go finish my Fallout New Vegas game (for the first time ever). >.>

Oh man, I love that game. Part of it is likely nostalgia but it's still among my favorite games, period. I wish Lufia 3 and "4" were a bit better than they happened to be, then we might have gotten more sequels...

Another fan of Lufia II: RotS here, though it was the only game in the series I played. I had a lot of fun with it, and I remember the long hours spent fighting that... egg dragon twice to get the best equipment in the game. Heh, the egg puns were amusing. :3

[Kato]

Weird combination now for me..

Twilight Princess, because need to do these stupid Zelda games I skipped for stupid reasons... My heart is not in it yet..

Badass Hero: neat game but I still terribly stuck at it. It's a rogue-like with upgrades so maybe I can grind away my lack of skill.

Final fantasy V Advanced Randomized. (that is all abilities are randomly distributed among classes which really throws a wrench in my usual play style. But it makes a game I feel like I can beat with my eyes closed (mostly) challenging again which is a really good thing.

[Silfir]

It's a rogue-like with upgrades so maybe I can grind away my lack of skill

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

[Lord Raziere]

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

you mean how I play Fallout 4? Just me my ripper and/or super sledge/Shishkebab all upgraded in my power armor and go around charging at fools and killing them in one blow.

[Zombimode]

After some Deliberation I settled with..... Pool of Radiance.

Yes, the '88 one.

It is the oldest game I've ever played in ernest, but appearently I don't care for that.

I'm in the endgame now, and it has been an absolute blast.


First, the historic significance. I was not Aware how influential PoR was until I played it and could see all the references newer games where making.
Especially for Baldurs Gate I had no idea how much BG is a continuation of a Tradition started by PoR.

Sure, the game has it's issue, but I was able to either adapt to them (like the control scheme) or learned to live with them.


And aside from the issues, Pool of Radiance is simply a very good game. It has a clear structure, the controls while a bit awkward at first actually do work quite well, the Scenario and Encounter designe is interesting and varied. It employ some systems to reduce tedium, but is not affraid of breaking with those Systems to create specific Scenarios:
- having to map every dungeon can be tedious. Having to map a dungeon once in a while is a wellcome Change of pace and can be an interesting challange
- neverending random Encounters are a big turn-off for me, so that you can "clear" a map in PoR is a great Feature for me. But making some areas not clearable can create a feeling of danger in these areas otherwise not possible.

It is challenging without being frustrating (most of the time). The lines between "challenge", "Frustration" and "tedium" are fine and that PoR manages to Keep those lines most of the time is a Testament on this game's good design.

There is also something to be said about the game's Scenario and presentation of the world:
The Fantasy world in PoR is neither "whacky" nor moralizing. While the player-controlled adventuring Group kills Kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins etc. by the hundreds, the game does neither demonize the Player for doing so, nor does it remove the Need for remorse by making the enemy "ok-to-kill".
You can interact with the enemy on occasions and it is quite clear through those interactions that your enemies are of normal intelligence and sentinence. They behave in ways you would expect from soldiers/mercenaries.
PoR is mature in the sense that it is not heavy-handed also doesn't bend over backwards in the world-building to facilitate a care-free gaming environment.

[ufo]

I got very hooked on Dead Cells. Think it’s still early access, but was RPS game of the year anyway. Challenging, fast-paced acrobatic platformer combat/unlock-‘em-up roguelike. For me it hits the same spot as Binding of Isaac, Sundered, Mark of the Ninja. If those seem very different it’s because Dead Cells does a lot of things very well.

[NRSASD]

Kingdom Come Deliverance and FTL!

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a very, very flawed masterpiece. It has problems, some trivial, some severe; some are bugs, some are built into the system. That being said, it's the most fun and ambitious game I've played in a long while, and it actually sticks the landing. It promises the world on a silver platter, and it actually delivers. Granted, the platter is made of quicksilver and the world twitches and shudders occasionally, but I'm so impressed that they managed to make it happen at all I can forgive a lot.

FTL is FTL. Possibly the best roguelike ever made. Certainly the best spaceship roguelike.

[Kato]

Goodness, what's next? "It's a first person shooter, except it's not first person and you don't shoot anything"?

I don't quite see the problem. You're not forced to use the permanent upgrades and their impact on the difficulty varies. What's wrong with giving players options?


I loved FTL and while I was never really perfect I used to beat it quite reliably a while back. I tried picking it up again a few times but somehow it didn't get me hooked like it used to. I don't know why.

[Cespenar]

I loved FTL and while I was never really perfect I used to beat it quite reliably a while back. I tried picking it up again a few times but somehow it didn't get me hooked like it used to. I don't know why.

Eh, it's a pretty good game, but its linearity undermines its replayability a little. Even a couple of wins feel like enough FTL for me.

[ufo]

Kingdom Come Deliverance and FTL!

Kingdom Come Deliverance is a very, very flawed masterpiece. It has problems, some trivial, some severe; some are bugs, some are built into the system. That being said, it's the most fun and ambitious game I've played in a long while, and it actually sticks the landing. It promises the world on a silver platter, and it actually delivers. Granted, the platter is made of quicksilver and the world twitches and shudders occasionally, but I'm so impressed that they managed to make it happen at all I can forgive a lot.

FTL is FTL. Possibly the best roguelike ever made. Certainly the best spaceship roguelike.

I haven’t played the game so I can’t speak to it’s strengths but FYI one of the main developers of KCD and the studio’s founder, Daniel Vavra, is a self-styled gamergater and has expressed some pretty vile racist sentiments.

FTL is the bomb tho.

[Silfir]

Half the reason I'm actually posting this rant is that any danger that the thread devolves into a discussion of Gamergate (and subsequent closing by moderator) is worth fighting with fire.

I don't quite see the problem. You're not forced to use the permanent upgrades and their impact on the difficulty varies. What's wrong with giving players options?

Oh, nothing, of course. I'm not at all debating the game's quality. I'm not objecting to you praising it. For all I know it's the best game on the planet Earth that I haven't played.

It's just not a roguelike. To their credit, the developers of Badass Hero opted for "rogue-lite" on the Steam page - they know it's not a roguelike.

You can play it like one, sure. Last I checked, nobody called Diablo II a roguelike because it has a Hardcore mode. You can play any game in a way that's different from the way it was designed; that doesn't mean it ends up in those genres. Super Mario 64 isn't a racing game just because hundreds of speedrunners race against each other every day to see who can beat it the fastest. (For the record, I agree that if Diablo II had been released with only Hardcore mode as the default, I wouldn't grumble all that much if it was called a roguelike today. It's still very different from the roguelikes I knew when the term meant something very specific, but I know those days aren't coming back.)

We're at a point where the term is so diluted in common usage that it can apply to pretty much anything. Games have had randomly generated content for the purpose of replayability for almost as long as games existed (certainly longer than video games existed - card games, dice games, what have you), and we're at a point where it's anyone's guess why some games that do it are called "roguelikes" because of it and others aren't.

The one thing that I insist on - in hopes of retaining at least some of the term's usefulness - is that, in a roguelike, death means you start at the beginning. If the game has a meta progression system - say, because you retain currency that you can use to upgrade your player character in future runs - it doesn't have true permadeath, and thus it's not a roguelike.

Again, the people behind Badass Hero know this, and therefore they call it a "rogue-lite". That's a good thing - at this point "rogue-lite" is far more useful as a term than "roguelike" is, because it describes a narrower set of expected features. Please don't undercut their efforts.

[warty goblin]

I've never really cared for the whole get upgrades and start over when you die mechanic because it's just a fancy way of dressing up grinding until you're not a newb anymore. I really don't care what people call it.

[NRSASD]

I've been excited for Into the Breach, the next game from FTL's developers, so I decided to reinstall FTL and fell madly in love again. For me, the joy comes from taking weird combos of weapons and tactics and making them fit.

My most recent ship was a mantis clone boarding ship with 2 Flak cannon Mk IIs, which meant we constantly boarded every ship we encountered while shelling it indiscriminately, regardless of whether or not they had O2. Our boarding team dies? No problem, wait 15 seconds and they'll be back on the enemy ship. Waaaay too funny

[Silverraptor]

Going to be playing Stellaris on Tuesday when the entire game changes with the release of 2.0. Going to be a great day!

[Jama7301]

Fired up Owlboy for the first time last night. Seems like it'll be interesting enough.

Resubscribed to Final Fantasy XIV, in hopes that I can finally clear the main storyline from the base game's story. The grind from 49 to 50 is bad (for someone who doesn't like doing dungeons or playing with other people).

[Kato]

The one thing that I insist on - in hopes of retaining at least some of the term's usefulness - is that, in a roguelike, death means you start at the beginning. If the game has a meta progression system - say, because you retain currency that you can use to upgrade your player character in future runs - it doesn't have true permadeath, and thus it's not a roguelike.

Again, the people behind Badass Hero know this, and therefore they call it a "rogue-lite". That's a good thing - at this point "rogue-lite" is far more useful as a term than "roguelike" is, because it describes a narrower set of expected features. Please don't undercut their efforts.

Hm.. not to delve too deep into it but to me a rogue-like is mostly determined by the permadeath aspect, little more. I guess you could include the "no upgrades" to differentiate it from rogue-lites, a term I frankly haven't noticed often enough yet to include in my regular vocabulary, but to me it feels more like a sub genre, than a different one.
I mean, depending on how strict you are, is a rogue-like allowed to have anything that carries over? i.e. can I have unlockables or does that invalidate it, too? Because then I'd be hard pressed to name a true rogue-like, although I will admit I only played a handful.
Sure, if you just want the randomness and some penalty for dying there's a loads of games that one could include and I will disagree falls into the genre, but some unlockables don't seem a problem to me. (Not that I really want to make a huge point out of what is(n't) a rogue, I'm just curious.

[Silfir]

Hm.. not to delve too deep into it but to me a rogue-like is mostly determined by the permadeath aspect, little more. I guess you could include the "no upgrades" to differentiate it from rogue-lites, a term I frankly haven't noticed often enough yet to include in my regular vocabulary, but to me it feels more like a sub genre, than a different one.
I mean, depending on how strict you are, is a rogue-like allowed to have anything that carries over? i.e. can I have unlockables or does that invalidate it, too? Because then I'd be hard pressed to name a true rogue-like, although I will admit I only played a handful.
Sure, if you just want the randomness and some penalty for dying there's a loads of games that one could include and I will disagree falls into the genre, but some unlockables don't seem a problem to me. (Not that I really want to make a huge point out of what is(n't) a rogue, I'm just curious.

Upgrades aren't roguelike because they stop a game from having permadeath. If you don't get reset to zero you don't truly die. You're playing one big game instead of making multiple attempts.

Unlockables are a different issue. Classical roguelikes unlock all classes and races from the beginning. At the very least, unlockables don't break permadeath in the way that a meta progression system involving character upgrades does. Ideally the extra options just provide different ways of playing the game, not inherently superior ones.

[rooster707]

Finished Torment: Tides of Numenera today. Overall, I think I liked it about as much as Planescape - I liked the setting and science-fantasy feel more, but the ending felt a little rushed and wasn’t nearly as satisfying.

Starting up Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin now. Haven’t quite got a feel for the combat yet, but the graphics are a lot nicer than the first game.

[enderlord99]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

[Lord Raziere]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Se, what you do is, you get good, while eating a banana. the potassium is vital to the multi-tasking challenge to get used to doing so, I'm currently doing this with Shantae while eating one right now, beat a whole level while making this post, all thanks to the banana. little known secret it is.

[rooster707]

How do so many people list games on this forum while playing them, without messing up their gameplay as a result?

Mad skills. That’s all there is to it. It would have been funnier if you hadn’t already made that joke three pages ago.

[enderlord99]

It would have been funnier if you hadn’t already made that joke three pages ago.

I don't know why there was a smiley on my original, because I wasn't joking. Unless I was, and just forgot; that's certainly possible.