What Are You Playing: 9 Years since the Last Dragon Age

[LibraryOgre]

New thread, same as the old thread. Please, just don't be jerks. It's "9 years since the Last Dragon Age" because
a) It's true, as of this writing.
b) I'm the mod and sometimes I get to flex my powers for trivial reasons.

So, I've been playing Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw, and I've gotten to a VERY frustrating bit... Orzu wants me to disable some cops, just so they'll leave his shipments alone. No problem, in theory.

In practice? The missiles he gives me are dumbfires. No guidance. Do you know how hard it is to hit frickin' police interceptors with dumbfire missiles when you're in a Beluga?

[Rynjin]

Mod abuse! Mod abuse!

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm guessing we need to make the Darkspawn cry like an anime fan on prom night. Be ready, because Dreadwolf was cancelled in favour of Warden No. 9!

[Wookieetank]

Re: Downer endings

Sign me up as well. Also a big fan of bittersweet and/or obscure endings as well. Personal favorites (off the top of my head):

Spoiler

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FF VI
FF VII
FF XIII-2
Last of Us 1 & 2
Arc the Lad 2

[WritersBlock]

I'm cooler with games that have a bad ending or 2 and a good or at least better ending that you have to work and/or make the right choices for

Spoiler: In no particular order

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Vampire the masquerade: Bloodlines(Malk girl ftw), Tokyo Xanadu, Metro: Last light, most of the Neptunia games, Breath of fire 2, Live a Live (the original, NOT the butchered remake), Witcher 3 and quite a few others.

[Psyren]

I'm totally on board with the Dragon Age title Now it's all technically on topic!

As for what I'm playing, I gave up on Starfield (thanks to GamePass I didn't pay for it outright) and am doing another BG3 run with a slate of mods. That and MK1 should tide me over until AC6 and Spiderman 2 drop, then I should hopefully/finally have room in my schedule for Remnant 2. This has honestly been a much better year for gaming than I expected.

[AlanBruce]

Finally got platinum on Lies of P.

I will praise its art direction and music- the studio certainly went above and beyond to stun their consumers visually. I still find immense issue with their combat mechanics and the gross over inflation of enemy’s HP & attack on repeated playthroughs. Issues, I hope, the studio will take into consideration since the endings hints at them taking on other children’s stories.

[tonberrian]

I'm playing Ck3 again. It's fun, but repetitive.

[Jophiel]

Wrapping up my 3rd BG3 run then shifting gears to Cyberpunk 2077. Played it on release and enjoyed it (I have a pretty good PC so maybe avoided some of the tech issues) but that was a few years ago now and since I only remember the general plot outlines and they rejiggerated all the systems, why not jump in a second time?

[Sapphire Guard]

I haven't played the DLC, but I liked the Cyberpunk endings on the base game. You can accomplish a lot, but not everything.

Still playing DA: Origins, but saying much more will release another wall of spoilers and things that should be spoilered but aren't. They're doing a good job of making every story quest feel different, and I like how every random encounter is a legitimate threat, so you have to actually think about 'is it worth travelling more than I need to?'

Spoiler: ashes quest +mage tower

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The decisions are getting easier. I'm trying to play a pragmatic dwarf who will ally with anyone in aid of fighting the blight( I broke character in Orzammar, because making golems was just too grisly a fate even though it would be super useful), and Orzammar and Redcliff had relatively tricky decisions, but it was not difficult to side with the nice polite knight man rather than the human sacrifice cultists. The cultist dungeon was a bit routine, but the gauntlet was fun.

I do like the gauntlet, I had Leliana and Alistair in my party, the two sincerely religious members, which got good interactions.

As for the mage tower, obviously I'm not going to slaughter the mages I need in my army, even though there is about fifteen left in the whole tower, including the Tranquil who cleans the stockroom.

[LibraryOgre]

So, I've been playing Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw, and I've gotten to a VERY frustrating bit... Orzu wants me to disable some cops, just so they'll leave his shipments alone. No problem, in theory.

In practice? The missiles he gives me are dumbfires. No guidance. Do you know how hard it is to hit frickin' police interceptors with dumbfire missiles when you're in a Beluga?

On the other hand, I did not realize I had enough money to buy a Dingo, buy some extra weapons for it, and get it otherwise kitted out, and will likely have enough money to go back and buy back a Beluga, flat footed. Still wish I could keep a stable of ships, though.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

As far as what I'm actually playing, instead of commenting on what other people have been, I finished up all the endings in Armored Core 6 and did everything aside from S-Rank all missions. Incredibly happy FromSoft brought the game back the way they did and it seems successful enough that we'll be seeing more of it in the future.

Also finished Starfield. I'm not a huge fan of Bethesda games, but I got it on an accidental sale. I found it okay. It was enjoyable enough to do most of the faction missions and complete the main quest, but I'm done with it after about 50h played. I didn't have high expectations so I expected most of the flaws. Its combat isn't great, most of the exploration is shallow, the characters are stiff, and the stories aren't anything special. Basically how I've felt about every Bethesda game going back to Morrowind. The one thing they do well is the setting; Starfield's optimistic view of the future is refreshing after so much chasing the post-apocalyptic and cyberpunk trends. It has its dark underbelly and I'm not sure if they intended it to be read that way, but at least on the surface it has a positive vibe about humanity's future.

So after all the mech tinkering and ship building, I found myself drawn back into Space Engineers. Started playing the Ares at War mod scenario which adds more stuff to the single-player survival game and it's a good backdrop for getting elbow deep in finding problems and building machines to solve them. Haven't shot up off the first planet yet, but I'm getting there after setting up an assembly plant and work area, mining out a staggering amount of iron, and finally tracking down nickel and cobalt to make the necessary parts for ships. I wish I had more people to play with. It's always more fun seeing what everyone builds together than doing it all yourself.

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler: Dragon Age, mostly mud-Origins

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Don't let their weak abilities in this game fool you, Templars are legitimately powerful warriors who'd serve as a hard counter to Emissaries and Omegas. Unfortunately both the mages and Templars were decimated in Uldred's rebellion, and Gregoir doesn't feel confident they can keep everything together if they have to divide atren between mages and Darkspawn, and the game literally gives you the item you need to save the mages so killing them makes little sense.

The Templar powers in later games actually are powerful enough to make their specialisation worth it, the issue is that in Origins the role of lyrium in them hadn't fully solidified and you can't take it to supercharger the talents.

Also you should generally do the mage tower first, because Wynne is the only decent bon-Warden healer until level 14.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I should play Masquerade: Bloodlines, it's been sitting in my Steam Library for years.

*runs off to install*

[WritersBlock]

Just make sure to get some good community mods/patches for the best possible Bloodlines experience. Start with the latest version of the unofficial patch (and get the plus patch as well for some restoration of cut content including yet another ending) In fact I may just reinstall bloodlines and do yet another playthrough. (Hot malk girl again most likely) Fair warning once you do a Malkavian playthrough it may be hard to go back.

[halfeye]

IL*2 Stumovik Ultimate Edition.

Dragon age origins.

Spider Solitaire.

Go on KGS.

I can always beat Spider solitaire on two suits, but it's dangerous, I can easily lose a day.

[Olive_Sophia]

Riichi Mahjong. I've been interested in the game for a few years, but I'm really starting to improve now that I've got a better understanding of the more advanced defensive strategies.

[Cygnia]

Couple days ago, I played To The Moon. Interesting and definitely tugs at the heartstrings.

[Batcathat]

Couple days ago, I played To The Moon. Interesting and definitely tugs at the heartstrings.

I played that years ago and remember liking the story but thinking it might as well not have been a game at all, since the actual gameplay was pretty insignificant.

[Cygnia]

I played that years ago and remember liking the story but thinking it might as well not have been a game at all, since the actual gameplay was pretty insignificant.

Yeah, it's pretty much a walkthrough/visual novel. It's got a couple of follow-ups though that I'm curious about though. Finding Paradise was on sale, so I snagged it. Might do the same for Imposter Factory once its price drops.

[warty goblin]

It was anniversary patch in Warships this month, which coincided with another dockyard and a half decent battle pass, so a lot of crap to grind through. Got that done, the dockyard ship is unusually actually good, so now I can devote myself properly to Cyberpunk and BG3.

As a palette cleanser I picked up En Garde, a fun little fencing game about being as swashbuckling as humanly possible. The combat is vaguely old-school Assassins Creed, lots of waiting for strikes so you can parry-riposte, but with some fun differences. Rather than politely waiting their turn, multiple enemies attack at once, using unblockable strikes you have to dodge, they know you'll thrash them one on one, and try to stop you from being able to fight a single person at a time. So you have to break them up.

Fortunately the Apocalypse Boot Of Doom, last seen in Dark Messiah, has come out of retirement to help you. So to isolate dudes you kick them, kick them off of stuff, or kick stuff into them to surprise or stun them. You can pick up bottles and throw them at dudes too. It's very fun and easy and just looks nifty, while keeping you clued into your environment.

[WritersBlock]

Speaking of "Boot of Doom" I still need to finish Dark messiah of might and magic sometime.

[tonberrian]

Disgaea 7 is out. Looking to pick up the complete edition on the switch, because i love disgaea and i love the switch.

[warty goblin]

Speaking of "Boot of Doom" I still need to finish Dark messiah of might and magic sometime.

It's a fun ride, has what I still consider to be the best first person melee I've played. The last few levels however are pretty much the worst. Ghouls everywhere, and ghouls are no fun at all to fight, since they hardly stagger, are really hard to block, and generally don't participate in the fun brawly combat, preferring instead to simply hit you for shockingly high amounts of damage.

edit: also Dark Messiah has crafting that is actually fun! And limited! And involves minimal menus! It's possible, but nothing else that I'm aware of has followed suit. I blame Minecraft.

[Erloas]

Still playing BTA for Battletech and having fun. I finished the campaign flashpoints, so I'm heading north to befriend the Kurita and get more C3 equipment. Then I'm going to try jumping into clan space more and pick up some of their good stuff. I'm hoping they're a bit more challenging, as most everything else has been pretty easy. With the exception of a few flashpoint missions, since they're still limited to 4 mechs, and those can be hard, especially the campaign ones where you have to keep Kamea alive, but she's just a big sitting duck in her Atlas, which I ironically had to hide while all my smaller, but much faster mechs, softened up the enemy enough for her to come out of hiding.


I'm cautiously optimistic for Cities Skylines 2. I liked the first, but it had some issues that needed to be fixed with mods, and Paradox is well known for putting a lot of interesting things behind DLC. Mostly though I'm not sure if I'll have that much time to really play.

Also I see Lamplighters just came out, and I'm a fan of the other HBS games, and turn based games in general. But so far the reviews aren't great. I'm not sure if I should give it a shot now (free with gamepass) or wait a while for them to fix some things.

[Corlindale]

Got Persona 5 Royal for the Switch and been playing that a bit. I played the base version on PS4 when it released and got fairly far before life distracted me, as it is wont to do. I hope I get a more realistic chance of finishing it this time by having convenient access on the Switch.

It's been fun getting back to it. Only around the end of the second palace now, so still early days. And the familiar, slightly stressful feeling of wanting to do a thousand things at once is already back. But it seems Royal is a bit more generous with time slots, at least. Plus it has more tools for regenerating SP right out of the gate, making it more realistic to do palaces in the lowest possible amount of days.

Also I ceremonially deleted Slay the Spire from the Switch (that game is the true Time-Eater) after finally reaching my twin goals of A20 wins with all characters and Heart wins with all characters. I'm not going to try for A20 Heart wins, I was already addicted enough as it was.

I also need to get fully into BG 3, but that's on my PC and it's much more practically difficult to get to play on that in this busy life.

[Form]

I had bought Phantom Liberty and was hoping to get around to playing it, but I've actually gotten sucked into doing another playthrough of Disco Elysium. This time I'm playing a much friendlier cop, instead of the as nasty as possible individual of my first playthrough. And this time I will *not* betray the Horrific Necktie by exchanging it for a scarf. I'm sorry, Horrific Necktie, you are my best friend and this time I'll stay true to my bratan!

[LibraryOgre]

Picked up Baldur's Gate 1: Enhanced Edition for funsies. I last played the game before Siege of Dragonspear, so I'm working my Paladin (Cavalier) up to that. She's got wonderful stats, and I'm concentrating on two-handed swords.

The game, even as an enhanced edition, shows its age, and some features you miss from later games are really evident... like non-played NPCs still getting XP (so you don't have to grind the entire party), or easy companion management. The EE-added NPCs are especially bad for this, IMO.

[Mx.Silver]

The thing with the original BG is that the intent was you'd pick-up 5 NPCs that complemented your character and pretty much just stick with them throughout the game unless one of them permenantly died/got fed-up with you, or you found someone later who you liked/fit the role better (hence why quite a lot of them have conflicts with each other). The 'recruit a pool of people you can swap in and out of the party' design wasn't a really a common thing yet.

[Batcathat]

I think another problem with the NPCs of the original Baldur's Gate was that they were very spread out, so quite a few weren't available until pretty late into the game. On one hand, it makes sense that not like fifteen potential adventurers just hang out in the first town you get to, but it also means that despite playing the game fairly regularly since it came out there are some NPCs I've basically never used since they show up so late (and I don't really like making big changes to my party after a while, though that's admittedly a me problem).

On a completely different topic, as I mentioned earlier I've started playing Dragon Age 2 again and I have to say that for all its gameplay flaws... playing a force mage is so much fun. I don't think tossing groups of enemies in all directions across the battlefield will ever get old.