The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

Baldur's Gate 3 is so good, and this is coming from someone who struggled to get into isometric CRPGs in the past (really wanted to get into Divinity: Original Sin 2, but couldn't make it stick; I'll probably have to revisit that after loving this so much). Definitely give this one a go!

Right? BG3 seems like it's going to be a gateway game into more CRPGs for me. I think I'll try my best to enjoy Divinity OS 2 afterwards as well, but I think my problem with that game is more about the unbalanced, nonexistent class structure and random difficulty spikes rather than the genre, which BG3 fixed by using tried and true D&D rules. But maybe I'll see it from a different angle and appreciate it more.
I've started playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 at least a dozen times and just couldn't get into it enough to keep going. To me it feels like it would be best played as multi-player experience, and frankly I just don't have any gamer friends willing to play it with me. I just bought BG3 because of this post, so really hoping I don't run into this same dilemma.
- I tried Divinity OS 2 split screen with a buddy, the game requires too much saving and reloading to have an enjoyable time in multiplayer mode tbh.
This is exactly my experience. Always liked CRPGs, but I've literally never finished any of the classics, or any traditional CRPG for that matter (closest would be Disco Elysium or Dragon Age: Inquisition for me). But BG3 is really hitting for me. I absolutely love it, and I want to give more of these a try once I finish it.

BG3 with the wife, Diablo 4 with my brother, Hades by myself. It's the golden age of gaming, friends.

Seriously. I’m never upset about a game delay these days because there are already so many games to play that I literally will not be able to get to in my lifetime. I’m still mostly catching up on games from the last few years and can’t imagine when I’ll even get to most 2023 games!
- One of my kids is playing Joust on the Atari and the other is on the last dungeon in NES Legend of Zelda. They play Grounded on PC together. My daughter is really into Crusader Kings 3. And my son will never stop playing Minecraft with his buddies.
  
  You could never touch a game from the 2020's ever and still never run out of great games.

the outer worlds and fallout 4 in preparation for starfield and phantom liberty, I can’t wait 😩

Shoot, that's a good idea - I need to get on those before it comes out as well! Such entertaining games.

BG3 - finally got myself out of the early access area

Is that where the Gith is? If so I'm still in the ea area lol but I never played it.
- Yes
Same here. I'm about to enter the Underdark and I'm very excited!
- Nice, I had a blast in the underdark

I'm rotating between 3 not so new but fun games: Hades, Remnant: from the ashes and Celeste..

All 3 are amazing!

Girlfriend and I have been playing through the Zelda games. She’s playing Twilight Princess, and I’m playing Breath of the Wild.

Started playing Baldur’s Gare 3 a couple of days ago. Finally got my character created.

My girlfriend loves teasing me about how long it took for me to decide on a character. Playing a druid and have absolutely no regrets. Love talking to animals!

The only things I get fomo over are mechanics I discovered a bit later or didn't remember to use in certain situations. My mind is continually blown by the depth and versatility of Baldur's Gate 3.
- I actually restarted two times because I changed my mind. I finally just accepted that I will be doing multiple play throughs.

Remnant 2 has been occupying most of my free time lately.

I'm still heads down into BG3... I don't see myself coming back up for air anytime soon.

Trying to finish Final Fantasy 16 this week. I'm about to start the final quests after I finish up some side stuff. It's kind of crazy how different the side quests at the end are compared to the beginning. They're so much better with a ton of character development.

Also working my way through Pikmin 4. Loving every second of that one. It's just kind pure joy in game form. So colorful and fun.

Will probably try to max out my season pass in Destiny 2 as well, if I have time. The game is about as boring as it's ever been, but I'm too deep to stop now. May as well play until Final Shape then hopefully call it a day on that one.

Played the Payday 3 beta on and off a bit, I love the feel honestly. Much more like 1 than 2 I think. Other than that, Rimworld had a new mod for vehicles drop so I’ve been playing around with that too. A little buggy but otherwise a great addition and an opportunity to role play a max max colony!

Tried Atomic Heart for an hour or two and I think I’m done with it. I found the loot collecting tedious, the upgrades felt excessive and padded, the characters overbearing, and combat was just okay. I think this could’ve been massively improved by cutting 30-50% of the play length by streamlining loot and progression and cutting weaker content. But I’m almost always the one saying games are too long and could be dramatically improved by cutting.

Finished another storyline in Octopath Traveler (1). I’ve finished 4 of the 8 main stories now. I still enjoy it, but just a little bit at a time.

Put a bit of time into Jedi Fallen Order. I’ve enjoyed it a lot more after dropping difficulty to baby mode and just blasting through story. Something about the movement or progression or exploration feels tiring to me. Especially backtracking through worlds I’ve already visited once or twice. I’m maybe halfway through and debating just watching a YouTube video for the remainder of the story…

Still making progress in Tears of the Kingdom. Maybe 25-30 hours in. I’ve started using the official guide’s “companion” for sections I’ve personally completed already. I really like how they wrote it as spoiler free as possible, with suggestions of landmarks or quests to get to that make sense for each section you’ve done. I had completely missed a couple armor sets that will be very handy!

Path of Exile, I don't know why but I'm playing more now that the season ends in 10 days rather than when it launched. First time playing SSF, and I will do it in next season too.

DOOM (1993): I like it. First time playing it, just finished "knee-deep in the dead" and started the next chapter!

Shadow of the tomb raider: gameplay is fun but the story isn't as fun as the previous games. Something just feels off to me.

I also just bought most of the resident evil games in the new humble bundle, have only played a little of 1 remaster, a year ago, and 5, about 10 years ago. I like weird scifi horror and this seems like just that, so hope I'll like it, when I finally get around to playing them!

Can never beat Doom. If you're PC you should consider the mod Brutal Doom, updates the engine and is relatively easy to do.
- Oh, why is that? I'm playing it on the steamdeck, so I'll check it out!

I started playing Pillars of Eternity II about a month ago, then I was gifted BG3... and dammit, I'm going to finish PoE first. It's a very enjoyable game. Lighter in tone than the first one and a bit less brutal with the lore. This time I have a good idea who the pantheon are, but I still occasionally find myself confused about people and place names. I used my saves from the first game to start this one, but I have very little recollection of what the hell I did back then, so maybe I should have started fresh.

Sniper Elite 5, and I'm honestly pretty disappointed in it. The Sniper Elite games have always been my "comfort food" series. Nothing too complex, just popping some Nazis in creative ways when I want a no-brainer, relaxing night. Five, though.. I don't know. It feels so dead and way too easy, even after increasing the difficulty. I never change guns in this one because it seems to make little difference, and the guns are boring anyway. There's no joy for me in the nut shots anymore :(

Jumping back into Skyrim. Spent the week modding the absolute tits out of it. May not actually play it until next week

Just started The Case of the Golden Idol a few days ago, and I think my brain is going to melt any moment now lmao

I can definitely see the brain tiredness! I blasted through in a couple days and probably would have enjoyed it even more if I’d slowed down haha. It’s such a gem of a game. I wish there was more like it, but the only game that gave me the same feeling is Return of the Obra Dinn.

I picked up my Elden Ring save again and finally got the courage to tackle General Rhadan yesterday and sucessfully beat him. Now I got a few quests to fulfil ans find the second medallion half to get to the lift.

Other than that I'm playing Sniper Elite V4 for the first time, which is fun to play for a few hours a day.

Just waiting for Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew to release next week :)

Just finished Dishonored 2. Yeah, I know I'm late to that party. It was on sale so I thought I'd give it a try. It was OK. Seemed a bit derivative, perhaps a bit too similar to the Bioshock games. It was also tougher than I was expecting; particularly once I started trying to be stealthier and to get the no-kills checkmark at the end of each level. Needed lots of save-scumming and still didn't manage to no-kill all the levels in which I made an attempt at that. Ending was a bit meh, despite having low chaos at the end. Got my money's worth though, so I can't complain too much.

BG3, Tales of Arise, and doing my dailies in Genshin Impact.

I'm playing Vampire Survivors. Saw it mentioned here in a thread the other day. Really fun game for €5!

Have you seen HoloCure? Same basis, but with cute anime girls, completely free (because it's a fan-made project) and arguably more addicting?
- I have to check this out lmao

Just started Deadline. Pretty fun rouge like FPS that runs well in proton.

I think you meant Deadlink, but yeah that's what I was gonna put too. Really gripping. Dying in it gives you that bittersweet push to make you want to try again.
- Yep it's like if Doom and Hades had a kid that is going through a cyberpunk phase.
  
  It also looks really good!

Been dieing to lu bu for most of my time playing games today. I like wo long, fun game, but i suck at counter striking in every game i play, and it seems like the only way to beat this dude. He might be the cause for putting this game down.

Hold the block button while you deflect, if you miss the timing you'll just lose some stamina instead of dying.
I'm nowhere near him and I put that game down already. A bit too reaction heavy for me. Barely got through initial Bloodborne.

Finished SuperLiminal last night which I really enjoyed, really intuitive and flow inducing game that makes you think and has a nice message to it. Started Shadow Warrior 3 but I'm not sure it's for me. Biggest recent ones have been Brutal Doom (Extermination Day) which is unbelievably good and Halls Of Torment (Vampires Survivors but like Diablo)

I’m casually playing through season one of Diablo IV. I’m trying Necro out and it’s been pretty fun

Just started DaemonXMachina after about a year. It's not bad - nice anime-esque mech shooter game, very Gundam.

I spent way too much time yesterday playing Blackice. It's a FPS game in a tron-like world. Graphics are in line with the colors and blocky edges. It's not a super deep game, but it's really cool when all the colors are splashing around and monster/programs are everywhere. It's an indie built by I think just 2 guys. Plenty to explore, unique items and modifiers.

I've owen it for a bit, but noticed there were a few updates so I installed it again.

Also, Division 2 and Battlebit. There's a trend.

Finally finished all Elden Ring achievements this week (on the same save file too, with NG+2). Already getting withdrawal, need DLC injected into my veins.

Started Blasphemous (been in my backlog for a while), feels like I'm back in Hollow Knight but everything got even more Dark Soulsy.

Also enjoying new Overwatch update with friends and waiting for the next update of Genshin Impact.

On the back burner, a cute little Minesweeper puzzle collection called Tametsi whenever I need to switch up my brain activity.

I’ve been playing Baldurs Gate 3 while being exceptionally bad at it as well as iRacing when I want to play something I know, but am still bad at

Jagged Alliance 3 on hard. It's been pretty fun streaming it, a few choices but really I just enjoy making the map turn blue.

A few nice callbacks to JA2, decent voice acting. Running cheapest mercs I can get away with because the diamond mines keep running dry and I'm barely breaking even most of the time.

It's a fitting successor to JA2 and I hope there are expansions in future.

Haven't really had much time to play, but I've been playing a little bit of Black Mesa here and there when I do. It's a remake of HL1 in the HL2 engine. Would recommend.

Excellent game. Such an improvement on a classic.

I recently started streaming and have begun playing a few games I never played before. I think it's fun playing games I never considered with an audience, though rarely I have a viewer that isn't my best friend or my wife. Today I played Doki Doki Literature Club for the very first time, and recently tried Undertale and Humanity for the first time. I might do Hollow Knight next but I haven't started that one yet

Finally bought Last of Us part 1 remaster for PC. Loving the nostalgia and they really did a great job with the graphics etc. def doesn’t feel like playing a 10 year old game.

The og Re 4 made me rage so hard that i installed Genshin impact.

Really enjoying it so far. Only other MOPG I've played yet was Guild wars 2 and I'm definitely having more fun with Genshin (you just don't have the online element as much). Very similar to BOTW, but with a more in depth combat system and pretty fun character building. Monetisation is pretty held back thus far, can definitely recommend giving it a try.

spoiler

I just really wish they let me have Fischl ;_;

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That's how they get you hooked up on the good stuff, stay strong 💪

Memery aside, fun of Genshin Impact is inversely proportional to how much you care about rolling the gacha. It is very much a self control check, but if you pass it, you do get that F2P BotW experience

Started Guardians of the Galaxy a couple of days ago. Story is not great but good. Characters and the dialogs of them each other is actually pretty fun. Gameplay wise it's not special but manages to keep me playing. The system used for commanding your team is fun to use, additional move sets feels like you're in the Marvel universe.

Enjoying it so far.

I've picked 30XX back up, since it came out of Early Access yesterday. It's a really cool Megaman X/Roguelike platformer with Playstation-esque visuals and gameplay that's tweaked to perfection. Recommended HARD. In the interest of shrinking my backlog, I installed World of Goo last night, though I didn't get a chance to play it. It's well-reviewed though, so I'm looking forward to it.

I've just started a new game in Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen on my switch. Surprised at how well it's held up

I played Life Is Strange for the first time.

I enjoy a good Heroes or the storm. It's literally the only MOBA I can get my head around. No items, last hit and the like. Nore than one map and I only play Aram.

Some CSGO with the friends occasionally ( read - getting carried ).

I still have to finish ff7 ( near the end ) and intergrade ( not started ). Sifu is collecting dust as well. That was pretty interesting as well...

I bought diablo 4 and while I enjoyed the story ( although it takes them way too long to give you a horse ), I am not up for that grind. I still feel I'd circle back to d2 for grinding than this.

Just forza, once a week

Finished up (mostly) Tunic early this week. Still working on translating the manual, and trying to think up more ideas for the (presumably) final final post-game puzzle.

If you're interested in exploration/discovery/puzzle games, I'll recommend it, with 2 caveats:

A) The combat system is really not good. Particularly with regard to boss fights. I've played all the optional post-game stuff in some BRUTALLY difficult games: Hollow Knight, Celeste, Dark Souls, Elden Ring... but THIS game is the one that broke me. Not just cause it's difficult, but it's difficult for all the worst reasons. Point being, don't hesitate to just drop the difficulty or turn on no-fail mode. It's not worth it.

B) Don't just write off the in-game language as puzzle only for puzzle enthusiasts. It is optional, but I wish I had been putting effort into solving it, little by little, since the beginnig. It would have been really satisfying to solve some of the other game puzzles that way.

I started Tunic yesterday and rang the first two bells (east and west). Loving it so far. Too bad work will get in the way for the most part of the week, I can't wait to delve into the game again :)

Valheim. Just crafted iron scale armor for the first time with my wife and it looks bad-ass as fuck. If we weren't playing this I'd either be playing STALKER (as usual) or taking a second stab at The Witcher 3.

I’m just hooked on dead cells with a smattering of rocket league.

Did start Hyper Light Drifter and looking forward to getting more into it

Medieval Dynasty. The best way to describe it is a medieval crafting/survival game that later adds in building and town management. Your goal is to ensure your legacy by getting a wife and producing an heir. Honestly, this game is time consuming but quite relaxing (aside from aggressive animals and the occasional bandits). There's plenty to do, such as hunting, gathering, fishing, farming, animal husbandry, tree felling, as well as building and decoration, managing villagers' jobs and statuses, and building your dynasty. What's more, they are currently in a closed beta testing multiplayer with a new map! Highly recommended!

The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 10-08-2023