Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 30th

Anyone tried Mudborne?

Released just last week, great fun frog game. It seems like a stardew valley x terraria type thing with some own interedting systems like frog genetics.

Finally got to play Heavenly Bodies !

So chaotic. I love it.

I just beat Rayman legends (though not to completion) on my Steam Deck. Rayman Origins was better IMO. Next Steam Deck game is Disco Elysium, a friend wants me to play it so we can discuss it. Thus far it seems really well made but I'm extremely early (I just finished the first conversation).

Also been playing Killing Floor 2 with some friends on my desktop here and there. Doing the whole spreadsheet analysis of the game's weapons and classes. I often can't enjoy casual coop and pvp games unless I can do in-depth analysis and theory crafting.

Also about to start playing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PC) on my desktop in my quest to check off every Ubisoft game I own. I recently beat Advanced Warfighter 1 and 2 on 360 (XB1 emulation) and can say they're solidly enjoyable semi-linear cover shooters of their era. I even played Ghost Recon 2 & Summit Strike on OG Xbox before that (I like to play through the entire series of games from original release). Look forward to seeing how they evolved the series before they turned it into open world Ubi-slop with Wildlands & Breakpoint.

Also about to start my first playthrough of Last of Us Part II (PS4) in anticipation of the second season of the show. Technically restart, I've played the first 5 hours or so already, but lost my save file.

And finally, I hope to try and get back into Skyrim VR. but I'm already pretty overloaded so I'm doubtful I'll have time to continue my current save this week.

Def agree on origins > legends. Origins is one of my all time faves. Legends is still great tho

Currently playing Helldivers 2, Roots of Pacha, and I Am Future

I finished the Siege of Dragonspear and even Black Pits expansions of Baldur’s Gate 1, and have now started Baldur’s Gate 2 Shadows of Amn.

I’m not far in yet (chapter two) but already get the feeling this is much deeper and has many more options than the first game - which was already quite good. I think I’m going to like this one.

Enjoy it! BG2 is still my favourite in the series, even having played BG3. Savour ever line David Warner utters as Irenicus, there have been few performances so perfect in a video game even all these years later.

Replaying links awakening and the oracle games. Been on a 2D zelda kick lately and LA is my fav.

Currently playing The Talos Principle 2, on the PS5. Almost finished.

Chrono Trigger with my wife. Having a blast with that. Almost done Metal Gear Solid on Extreme difficulty. That game is a true masterpiece. The extreme modes in MGS make them even better if you ask me.

Finished MGS2 a couple days ago. Those final codec calls are prophetic and terrifying. Another masterpiece.

Playing through MGS3 for the first time with my buddy too. Good fun.

I loved MGS 1 and 2 but I'm some kind of freak because I just could not get into MGS3 and people fucking obsessively love that game.
- I'm kinda feeling the same. The MGS3 story/execution is much weaker than 2 IMO but there are some cool gameplay advancements over 2. Oddly its just much less immersive as an experience, but its still quite good.
A fellow Chrono trigger player! I'm almost done with it I think. Feels like there's just side stuff to do at this point.

I've finished No Nine Sols and Islets, now staring Unbound: Worlds apart, next in queue is Tunic and Spelunky.

NNS is a really great souls-like metroidvania.

Islets is on the other hand totally chill one.

Randomly trying games on my phone, I downloaded Infinity Nikki and I've been hooked for the past few days.

I like the customization, especially when compared to the more limited one in FFXIV, although I wish it had dyeing (and more jackets). Compared to other gacha games, I like how "the grind" is more focused on crafting clothing instead of just leveling up, although resources (and by that I mean the timed energy) feel a bit too scarce.

Screenshot from Infinity Nikki of the titular Nikki wearing a pink dress with a black jacket.

I finally finished Trails of Cold Steel II, or more accurately I watched the final story cutscenes because I gave up towards the end of the final dungeon (Which I'm glad I did because it otherwise would have been a waste of time).

The duology was really bad, I don't think there's anything positive I can say about it, other than that it's finally over (hopefully III is actually better as I've heard). I've already complained about the characters in previous, so I'll now complain about the rest.

rant + various potential spoilers up to and including CS2

The overall story felt pointless, at best it added nothing to what was already established, at worse it made the civil war feel like a joke. I think it would have been better to just skip to the end as what was mentioned in Azure felt bigger than what actually happened in CS.

The writing is childish and really doesn't fit the setting it's trying to build. The supposed war doesn't feel like an actual conflict.

This was an issue with the previous games too, but this time it feels like it's done to a ridiculous amount: the bosses either escape because the were "holding back" or a more powerful ally comes in and solves the situation. The game doesn't want to remove anyone from the story, so everyone just leaves every fight and no one ever dies (I'm pretty sure there are 3 deaths in the whole war, and one of them I'm sure is another fakeout).

I don't find Ourobororos that interesting of an enemy, their motivations are too vague and I find the current active enforcers boring characters.

Crow feels like a waste of a character. He's the only one I feel had any potential, but he has barely any screentime (in both games) and the way Class VII is obsessed with him feels really weird and unmotivated.

Overall I think the two games were bad in the worst way possible: they were a boring waste of time.

If you didn't like the story in Cold Steel so far, I don't think the next game probably isn't going to change you mind. I think it actually gets even worse.

Azure and Zero are definitely my favorite games of the series, since they just don't have anything to do with the rest of the story, until the very end.
- I'll probably wait a bit to play III, but I've heard it's alright from people who hate I and II. Although I've also heard that IV is not good.
  
  Azure and Zero are definitely the best ones, I really liked FC and SC, although they do have some problems (the first half of SC is pretty bad, and the same problem with ouroboros I mentioned before) and I think 3rd has an interesting story, but bad gameplay and pacing.

I started a Minecraft modpack called “Raspberry Flavoured”. It stood out to me because it boldly reworks many vanilla mechanics, while focusing on keeping a mostly vanilla playstyle. Villagers, the end, XP and enchanting, all completely removed. It reworks early game progression to use copper in place of stone, and copper has now become one of the most useful resources. It does have Create, so late game looks like it’ll be heavy on automation. The recipes are changed so early game still has mining, chopping and smelting. But it’s a breath of fresh air so far and the mods are incredibly well integrated!

Just playing War thunder and STRAFTAT

A feel days ago i got a discount for the x franchise on gog and got most of the games, now i'm playing the first one and enjoying a lot, even tho it shows the age of the game is so relaxing to just drift into space listening to the soundtrack and slowly upgrading the ship