What are you playing nowadays? Share yo' thoughts.

[igor_kavinski]

Glados is such a well written female antagonist, her barbs and quips just hit my wife different and draw her into the game in a different way than they did to me.

How far has she/your daughter gotten so far? After a certain point (when you get outside the lab), the puzzles stop making sense. Or I'm just really bad at thinking about portals in open areas, instead of confined ones.

 

[sze5003]

The entropy centre is also similar to portal. I have it but have not tried it yet. Recently finished portal with RTX and it was a fun experience but after a while the puzzles do get annoying. I can't remember if I beat portal 2 a long time ago but I remember getting frustrated as well in that regard.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Also playing Hogwarts Legacy and i have mixed feelings about it. It seems to bundle a lot of fetch quests in the guise of main quests. I'm hoping it picks up gameplay wise. Such a beautiful looking game though.

- Spoilers: It doesn't. The game is like a huge demo or proof of concept more than anything else. I liked the game cause its low stakes, pretty, and very well executed. But its really a very paint by numbers Ubisoft-esq open world game.

I hope we get something much more Bioware-esq in the inevitable sequel.

How far has she/your daughter gotten so far? After a certain point (when you get outside the lab), the puzzles stop making sense. Or I'm just really bad at thinking about portals in open areas, instead of confined ones.

- Still pretty early in the game, where Glados is still the primary antagonist. When I played it I didn't have too much trouble, but there were definitely a handful of rooms in the caves that absolutely stumped me and I had to look up the solution. That said, my wife is having a rough go of "thinking outside the box" even within the sort of tutorially initial test chambers.

 

[Remobz]

Heroes and Generals was the ONLY game I played since 2015 and yesterday the servers closed for good. It worked great on my old integrated Intel graphics laptop. Now, I am in withdrawal mode and sad the game is gone forever.

No clue, what to play now WW2 style and not so harsh on lower end laptops.

 

[sdifox]

Heroes and Generals was the ONLY game I played since 2015 and yesterday the servers closed for good. It worked great on my old integrated Intel graphics laptop. Now, I am in withdrawal mode and sad the game is gone forever.

No clue, what to play now WW2 style and not so harsh on lower end laptops.

There is always enemy territory

 

[Remobz]

There is always enemy territory

Thanks. I will look into Enlisted as well. Still sad though Took me years to grind for stuff in that game. Just feels like years wasted for nothing in some ways.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Beat Wolfenstein: Youngbloods.

Very solid game. Gunplay is fast and light, movement is floaty and arcady, leveling up feels meaningful and fun (and the guns end up looking absurdly cool), the Twins are appropriately obnoxious (be anywhere near teenagers for 15 minutes and you'll see MachineGames has done a superb job of capturing the cringiness).

If you get it for $5 and you know you're getting a looter shooter in the Wofl universe then you'll be very very happy.

 

[thejunglegod]

- Spoilers: It doesn't. The game is like a huge demo or proof of concept more than anything else. I liked the game cause its low stakes, pretty, and very well executed. But its really a very paint by numbers Ubisoft-esq open world game.

I hope we get something much more Bioware-esq in the inevitable sequel.

Ahh...this was my biggest fear. Nothing makes me push to get to the next objective. I mean, everything is so pretty and perfectly presented but it feels like there's something seriously missing. Bioware-esque would be something incredible. I mean, imagine DA-Origins with the same visual assets as Hogwarts Legacy.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Since I can't play Witcher 3 Hearts of Stone around the kiddos I've fired up Jedi Fallen Order to play while the kids are watching.

Was a little rough at first but I'm wrapping up Zeffo and will be heading to Kashyk next and the game is quite a bit of fun, sort of a Souls-Lite. Great graphics, runs great on my old 980Ti, and the kiddos are quite into the gameplay and the story.

Biggest gripe, and its not a good one, is that for a game that is reliant on timings its far too easy to get locked into an animation and take a cheap hit because you can't cancel out of the animation. Force Push was driving me nuts because there is a solid half second wind-up animation before anything starts getting pushed, and given the game is much bigger on parrying than it is on dodging the fact that you can get locked into a long wind-up overhead slash animation without the ability to parry does make me grit my teeth a bit.

But level design is fun albeit a bit samey (every planet is just a series of canyons).

The game feels like a solid proof of concept and as far as Star Wars games goes it does what it needs to do (be a good game with a thick coat of Star Wars all over it).

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have played too much Kenshi. This playthrough playing with the Universal Wasteland Expansion. It adds a ton to the game.

 

[Mai72]

Watched some Diabloe 4. Not bying the game, but it got me back into Titan Quest.

And so, I'm currently playing Titan Quest and State of Decay2.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Between Borderlands 3, Grim Dawn (D4 can't hold a candle to GD), and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I don't have an ounce of free-time to visit any websites. It's an incredibly difficult situation to be in because before TotK came out, I had to decide between BL3 and GD when I came home from work, but with my PC being downstairs and my consoles being upstairs, it's difficult to find time to visit my PC these days. Unless Resident Evil 4 goes on sale this year, I don't foresee me playing anything else.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Heroes of Might and Magic 3…again

Diablo 2 Ressurected

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Deeper into Jedi: Fallen Order. I've gone deeper into the passive buff portion of the skill tree (more health and force) and I find the game much more enjoyable.

Wrapped up Ilum and I finally feel like I have the tools to really enjoy the combat. I've gotten more patient with parrying and while I'm still not great at parrying at least I'm not punished as harshly for failing.

The biggest design flaw at this point is that souls combat really isn't good when dealing with 3+ enemies. Like, I can't block multiple blaster bolts, parry multiple off time melee attacks (some of which are unblockable) dodge and attack at the same time. Some fights just have to devolve into button mashing and you're just going to lose some part of your health.

 

[CP5670]

Make sure you get all the stim upgrades. I ended up playing through most of the game without even realizing they existed, which made the game much harder than it should be.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Make sure you get all the stim upgrades. I ended up playing through most of the game without even realizing they existed, which made the game much harder than it should be.

-Up to 6 stims right now. Frankly the most valuable "secret" and the real reason I search every nook and cranny.

Cosmetic trash is whatever but when I reach those gold crates the hard dopamine hits.

 

[JTsyo]

I had ended up with a copy of Tower of Time. Playing through it now and it's a pretty good CRPG.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Hearts of Stone is *GOOD*

 

[DAPUNISHER]

When I read someone say they couldn't get into Witcher 3, I'm like - yeah I was like you once. But I got better. I'll be firing it up here in a little bit to see how ARC does with it, including RT.

ARC has me drifting through games to test it out. Longest I've played a single title is maybe 4-5hrs since getting it a few weeks ago. I will do another playthrough of Fallen Order, being Gen X, Star Wars stuff is my bag.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

When I read someone say they couldn't get into Witcher 3, I'm like - yeah I was like you once. But I got better. I'll be firing it up here in a little bit to see how ARC does with it, including RT.

ARC has me drifting through games to test it out. Longest I've played a single title is maybe 4-5hrs since getting it a few weeks ago. I will do another playthrough of Fallen Order, being Gen X, Star Wars stuff is my bag.

-Dude, just Ddddddduuuuudddddeeeeee holy **** Hearts of Stone is just... how? Gaunter O'Dimm, Olgierd, Iris and her painting, Vlodomir... just top notch cinematic RPG goodness.

An absolute masterwork of directed narrative. Nice tightly constructed narrative that keeps pushing you forward wanting more.

Haven't beaten it yet but god damn I'm having a good time.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

When I read someone say they couldn't get into Witcher 3, I'm like - yeah I was like you once. But I got better. I'll be firing it up here in a little bit to see how ARC does with it, including RT.

It was amazing when I played it in 2015, but I don't think I'd be too into it playing in 2023. The graphics were such a huge part of the wow factor of the game for me. The story was strong and the world interesting but the combat was kind of meh which causes it to not compare too well to more modern games like God of War Ragnarok IMO.

 

[CP5670]

-Dude, just Ddddddduuuuudddddeeeeee holy **** Hearts of Stone is just... how? Gaunter O'Dimm, Olgierd, Iris and her painting, Vlodomir... just top notch cinematic RPG goodness.

An absolute masterwork of directed narrative. Nice tightly constructed narrative that keeps pushing you forward wanting more.

I love how Gaunter looks like such an average guy that blends in the background. I didn't even notice that you met him at the beginning of the base game until people pointed that out. He gives his victims exactly what they wished for. One of the best game villians ever written. The Vlodomir part is hilarious and feels like a precursor to Johnny in Cyberpunk.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

It was amazing when I played it in 2015, but I don't think I'd be too into it playing in 2023. The graphics were such a huge part of the wow factor of the game for me. The story was strong and the world interesting but the combat was kind of meh which causes it to not compare too well to more modern games like God of War Ragnarok IMO.

- The latest patch added an Ultra+ mode that ups the visuals even in DX11 (so performance is still solid). Game looks absolutely fantastic still.

I love how Gaunter looks like such an average guy that blends in the background. I didn't even notice that you met him at the beginning of the base game until people pointed that out. He gives his victims exactly what they wished for. One of the best game villians ever written. The Vlodomir part is hilarious and feels like a precursor to Johnny in Cyberpunk.

- Its kinda cheeky that his initials are a play on the cruelty and evil of the Witcher World. G.O.D.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

K, beat Jedi Fallen Order.

Pretty ok Souls-Lite. Felt like I had a pretty good grip on things till the final boss fight. Tended to get smacked down once or twice before beating a boss or special beast but holy crap.

Trilla was fast, cheesed a bunch, and did an absurd amount of damage. Attacks also didn't follow a really discernable pattern and there wasn't a lot of telegraphing what was happening. Got absolutely beat down 10-12 times.

Finally slowed things down a lot, timed my blocks and got my hits in when I could. Really, really cheesed the portion where the probe droid shows up and she throws her saber. Three good blocks of her saber throw and she's take damage, and so long as I didn't kill the droid she's just keep doing it (with the occasional ground pound thrown in).

So I just kept her in that loop while taking off a third of her life until I finally had to kill the droid (she was popping those flash bang grenades) and was able to beat her down for the last portion of the fight. As frustrating as it was, it did feel good to really have to work for my win. Kids were watching too and let out a huge cheer when I finally won so it was a nice "team spirit" moment.

The final payoff sequence after the fight helped make it worth it. Note to all devs, if you're gonna give me a real mf'er of a final boss fight, put a nice long tail sequence on the ending so I feel rewarded for my effort. Fallen Order did this pretty nicely.

Guess it's time to wait for Survivor to go on sale for $5.

Unfortunately with the wife beating Hogwarts and Portal and me beating Fallen Order, we don't have any narrative based games to play in lieu of evening TV with the kids, so I'll have to find something appropriate.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

I know it's a PC thread but just finished Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and it's a coinflip between it and Bloodborne for my game of the century. Which makes me think I'm an idiot for spending $160 on a cpu (i5-12400F), $160 on a board (MSI Mortar B660m DDR4), and $380 on a gpu (RX 6700 XT) when my two favorite games this last 23 years have ran at 30 fps with lots of frame drops and poor frame pacing. Then again I did really enjoy running Elden Ring and Yakuza Like a Dragon at 1800p60 on this system and Elden Ring looked so much better on it than it did playing the PS4 BC mode (to get 60 fps) on my PS5, as my cpu at the time (Xeon E3-1231v3) was too slow to run the game well so played it on console.