What are you playing?

[figmentPez]

Mass Effect 2

Holy crap, that was a hell of an ending. I really want to punch the Illusive Bartlet in his smug face, though.

The UI is less bad than in ME1, but it's still a hot pile of garbage. Especially weapon descriptions. I don't need to know the fictional history of the weapon's manufacture. I need to know what the gun does! How does it compare to other guns? Stop dumping lore ahead of pertinent information. Even if I want to read the lore, I'm only gonna read it once. I'm gonna need to look at technical info a lot more, and this game series sucks at highlighting the most pertinent information.

I think I need to take a break and play something else before I go to ME3, though.

 

[bhamv3]

I need to know what the gun does! How does it compare to other guns? Stop dumping lore ahead of pertinent information.

Once again, this is fixed in the next game.

 

[Squidleybits]

Little Kitty, Big City has now been released.

 

[Yoshimickster]

AND taking another break from Hades 2, god DAMMIT I love this game, just when you think "Hey, can they cram anymore obscure Greek mythology in there?" They answer "FUCK YEAH WE CAN-its Hades mother fucker!"

 

[Dave]

I’m not playing anything and I really want to. I need to win the lottery so I can retire and not have to work 50-60 hours a week.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Cyberpunk 2077

So I'm going to come out and say it, I was a cyberpunk hater back in 1.0 when the game launched. Even outside of the terrible bugs and poor performance, my biggest problem was the story. They forgot to put punk into a cyberpunk game. I mean, I get the ghost of an anarchist bisexual punk rock terrorist stuck in my brain, and the game wants me to treat this as a bad thing? When Johnny Silverhand said lets burn this city, I wanted to be able to agree. Smash the system! But it wasn't meant to be.

Now, however, they've really added a -lot- to this game. It's not the same game anymore. Extra story bits, tons of free dlc additions, the Phantom Liberty story expansion is pretty good... plus this is the only game that can even begin to tax the gpu of my new rig, and goddamn does it look pretty. So yeah, this isn't anywhere near the same game as it was three years ago, and it's actually pretty damn fun now.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Cyberpunk 2077

So I'm going to come out and say it, I was a cyberpunk hater back in 1.0 when the game launched. Even outside of the terrible bugs and poor performance, my biggest problem was the story. They forgot to put punk into a cyberpunk game. I mean, I get the ghost of an anarchist bisexual punk rock terrorist stuck in my brain, and the game wants me to treat this as a bad thing? When Johnny Silverhand said lets burn this city, I wanted to be able to agree. Smash the system! But it wasn't meant to be.

Now, however, they've really added a -lot- to this game. It's not the same game anymore. Extra story bits, tons of free dlc additions, the Phantom Liberty story expansion is pretty good... plus this is the only game that can even begin to tax the gpu of my new rig, and goddamn does it look pretty. So yeah, this isn't anywhere near the same game as it was three years ago, and it's actually pretty damn fun now.

I'd like to add to this, after another several hour gaming session where time just gets away from me, that if this game had launched in the state that it's in now, it would have been considered a masterpiece. If you played Starfield and was turned off by how really bland it was, and you want a proper sci-fi "Bethesda" style game, this is it. And I put Bethesda in quotes here because the style of this game is how Bethesda fans pretend Bethesda games are.

 

[bhamv3]

I felt like sharing my progress on my current Stardew Valley farm.

Spoiler

Spring 3, year 3. I'm quite proud of the fact that all my sprinklers have pressure nozzles on them, and that I'm only using deluxe scarecrows.

Further planned improvements include:
1. Another barn for ostriches. I have the egg and the recipe for an ostrich egg incubator already, I just haven't gotten around to building the barn and hatching them.
2. There's space next to my orchard for more stuff. I might put a slime hutch there, but to be honest I've never found slimes to be worth it. I might put more fish ponds there, if I can find cool fish to raise. Alternatively, more fruit trees.
3. Aesthetic improvements, right now a lot of my farm is bare dirt, I'll probably put down flooring and paths and decorations after I've finalized where everything goes.

Then after that comes making enough money to buy my way to Perfection, because I really can't be arsed to max out my friendship with everyone, craft every item, or cook every recipe.

 

[PatrThom]

Hades 2

WELP-good bye friends, this game is going to absorb my soul just like the last one did, especially if they have Nectar in it.

--Patrick

 

[Far]

I don't think early access is inherently bad, 99% of the time absolutely, it just requires smarter consumers than we have to navigate expectations, more trustworthy devs which are in short supply and a more stable market and industry than we currently have. Since exceptions will never outweigh the norm, which is poorly implemented EA, it is something to absolutely be wary of.

That said Hades 2 launched into EA with more content than the first game had at it's launch and more complete than most fully launched games do in today's landscape.

 

[Bubble181]

EA as in "pre-ordering customers can access a week earlier so we can do a soft launch and work out last minute kinks" is once thing. EA as in "we're releasing the game half finished and by the time we declare it finished the hype is long gone and everyone has moved on" sucks.

 

[Ravenpoe]

EA as in "pre-ordering customers can access a week earlier so we can do a soft launch and work out last minute kinks" is once thing. EA as in "we're releasing the game half finished and by the time we declare it finished the hype is long gone and everyone has moved on" sucks.

Alternatively, Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access for THREE YEARS and managed to keep all its hype going right into release.

 

[Dei]

Baldur's Gate 3 only ever released the first part in EA though.

 

[Ravenpoe]

Baldur's Gate 3 only ever released the first part in EA though.

Sure, EA was only ever act 1, but act 1 is pretty fucking long.

 

[GasBandit]

There are some EA success stories, like Satisfactory, Factorio, Subnautica, and yes, Baldur's Gate 3.
But there's also plenty of examples of how it can go wrong.
Gnomoria, probably one of the best "ease you in to Dwarf Fortress" DF clones out there never quite got finished because its dev vanished before it could leave EA.
Space Engineers and Empyrion peaked early in their EA cycle, and by the time they launched for real, their playerbase had dwindled away to only the hardcore enthusiasts... which is unfortunate for a multiplayer sandbox game that relies on other players to be the endgame content. Additionally, their Steam Workshops are choked full of deprecated mods and player content that no longer are applicable to the new versions of the game, and most of the dedicated modders have moved on.
And for all we're still enjoying it, Valheim's glory days have pretty much come and gone, despite still being in Early Access. They're just now releasing the next (and not even the last or second to last) biome update that's been in the pipe for at least a year or two.

It's rough, because for some of these games, if not being able to get the cash infusion that EA provided, we might not have been able to play them at all because they'd never have made it to market at all. But the tradeoff is the peak of the game will often come long before it's even feature complete.

 

[AshburnerX]

From what I understand, the Space Engineers people have basically decided to redo the entire engine so they don't have to deal with the spaghetti code anymore and so they can do stuff like proper liquids. More power to them.

 

[GasBandit]

From what I understand, the Space Engineers people have basically decided to redo the entire engine so they don't have to deal with the spaghetti code anymore and so they can do stuff like proper liquids. More power to them.

I'll believe it when I see it. 90% of Space Engineers was just lifted, unchanged, from their previous game, Miner Wars. But I guess at least it isn't Unity, like Empyrion.

 

[Vrii]

Wildermyth got a pretty sizable DLC today - roguelite mode and a new story campaign, plus who knows what in terms of events and items and stuff.

So far I can say that the roguelite feels exactly like I'd expect/want it to, one run in.

 

[figmentPez]

Little Kitty, Big City

Aside from being rather short, this is a beautiful, happy game. The visual style, the humor, the animation, the sound design, everything about the look and aesthetic of the game are great. It's charming from start to finish, and full of cute little touches.

Took me a little shy of 4 hours to do 95% of the things to do in the game, while I was intentionally taking my time and being silly about things, and another 2.5 hours to grind out 100% of the achievements, some of which ask you to repeat the same task a lot.

Aside from wanting more to do, my only real complaint was broken Playstation controller support. It correctly detected my controller, and showed appropriate glyphs, but some key menus were broken while using it. Both the emotes and the fast travel map couldn't be controlled without enabling Steam Input, but that caused the vibration to occasionally get stuck on. Hopefully that will get fixed with a future patch, and in the meantime there are multiple work arounds. (Like temporarily using my mouse to use the fast travel. Or using Steam Input and turning that off and back on if the vibration glitched.)

 

[Yoshimickster]

Wolfstride

A fun dark comedic RPG about a mech team piloting a mech suit they inherited after a funeral. Earn money for parts, engage in stories throughout the town, and occasionally actually battle in mech fights, its AWESOME!

 

[Krisken]

Little Kitty, Big City

Aside from being rather short, this is a beautiful, happy game. The visual style, the humor, the animation, the sound design, everything about the look and aesthetic of the game are great. It's charming from start to finish, and full of cute little touches.

View attachment 48216View attachment 48217View attachment 48218View attachment 48219View attachment 48220View attachment 48221

Took me a little shy of 4 hours to do 95% of the things to do in the game, while I was intentionally taking my time and being silly about things, and another 2.5 hours to grind out 100% of the achievements, some of which ask you to repeat the same task a lot.

Aside from wanting more to do, my only real complaint was broken Playstation controller support. It correctly detected my controller, and showed appropriate glyphs, but some key menus were broken while using it. Both the emotes and the fast travel map couldn't be controlled without enabling Steam Input, but that caused the vibration to occasionally get stuck on. Hopefully that will get fixed with a future patch, and in the meantime there are multiple work arounds. (Like temporarily using my mouse to use the fast travel. Or using Steam Input and turning that off and back on if the vibration glitched.)

I loved playing through this game
Yeah, it was short, bit it was rather sweet

 

[Dave]

Playing a new game released May 31 called Soulmask. It’s a survival style game that borrows heavily from other games but does so in a way that is actually pretty fun. It’s kind of a mind-fuck since you don’t play as a single character - you play as the mask. You can take over and control any character you’ve recruited and set the others up to work in the camp. It’s got better social controls than PalWorld or Conan, and if you’ve played Myth of Empires you’ve played this base game. And the outhouse is amazingly hilarious.

If anyone is interested in playing let me know. I have a server and everything.

 

[Squidleybits]

I’ve gotten back into Diablo 4. Season 4 is a lot of fun. They have changed the battle pass a bit so you can buy the premium for a lower amount than before and pay extra for the level skips if you want.

I’m done the battle pass, but am still working on the journey. There are a bunch of bosses I need to spawn that I need to Google.

 

[Squidleybits]

In one week, Squishmallow the Necromancer has reached level 100, finished the battle pass and is almost done the final part of the seasonal journey.

I have four tasks left:

10 world boss kills (not super worried about this one although it could take some time/luck to be online)

kill Echo of Lilith. I tried and got trampled.

kill Tormented Duriel. Is this doable solo?

kill Tormented someone else.

I think I need two of these. Has anyone here tried the Tormented bosses? The level 75-85 versions are very manageable and I’m soloing higher level nightmare dungeons although nowhere near level 200 enemies yet. Maybe 130ish?

 

[Tinwhistler]

Finally finished the All-In-One #151 p-go quest to secure my shiny Mew.

 

[figmentPez]

I've been playing Oxenfree via Netflix's cloud gaming. I could have played the GOG copy I got a while back, but I curious about what games work with streaming. Yesterday I tried Bee Simulator via Amazon Luna, and it wasn't good. It looked okay, but the input latency was just at the edge of playable, and I eventually had to quit because I was getting motion sickness.

Oxenfree, being a point-and-click adventure game, is working just great, though. I don't even notice whatever latency is there. The game is really creepy, but I'm enjoying it a lot. I'll definitely keep playing.

I'm kinda baffled that Luna has been mostly pushing action games. Every month they seem to have a racing game, and they've currently got Fallout 3 and New Vegas, plus Fortnite and LEGO Fortnite. None of these games really lend themselves to the latency problems that cloud streamed games have. Way back I tried playing Control, and I just couldn't do it. Longer load times and worse graphics on my local PC were much better than feeling like I was trying to drag my aim around with rubber bands.

It'll be interesting to see what games will be offered when the collaboration of GOG and Luna finally goes live.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I've owned Stardew Valley for a long ass time, but never played more than like an hour of it. I expected it to be like harvest moon, just a cute little farming game.

This time though, this time...

I start off farming, but the towns people keep wanting me to go be social. I just want to stay home and farm. Now I gotta learn how to make friends so I can help the mayor hide that he's boinking the animal saleswoman.

Now I'm over a year in, and I'm in a completely new area, going on ancient quests in the desert while fighting mummies. What happened to my farm? Who is going to feed my ducks? How did all this happen?

This game just keeps getting fucking bigger.

 

[figmentPez]

Okay, I swear something is going wrong beyond my just being oblivious as to what thread I'm trying to post to. I can understand how I might post to the wrong funny pictures thread, or the wrong news thread, but I have zero fucking clue how I managed to originally post this to the Baldur's Gate thread.

Telltale's The Walking Dead

I first started this four years ago. I played one episode, and then set it aside for a year. Played episode 2, and set it aside for two years. Today I finished episode 3. The voice acting and story are excellent, but holy crap this game stresses me out. Ep 3 wasn't as bad for me as Ep 2 was, so it probably won't take me years before I continue on with ep 4.

Re-Volt (actually RVGL the modern re-write of the game)

I remember playing the demo for this game over and over when I was younger, but like so many other games it just never got purchased. I bought it years ago when it was released on GOG, but I couldn't get it to work with any controller I owned. RVGL makes it much easier to get the game running and working with modern controllers.

Sadly, this just doesn't click with me. Well, the beginner races are okay, but the difficulty rapidly gets to the point where it's just not fun for me. Maybe I just suck at racing games, but everything feels way too twitchy. In a game where there are weapon pickups, it just feels weird to me that it's so easy to spin out of control on nearly any corner. I managed to beat the second racing circuit, but the new courses that unlocked are full of very narrow passages, tight turns, and overall confusing layouts. Way too stressful for me to be able to handle at this point in my life and state of health.

 

[GasBandit]

Re-Volt (actually RVGL the modern re-write of the game)

I remember playing the demo for this game over and over when I was younger, but like so many other games it just never got purchased. I bought it years ago when it was released on GOG, but I couldn't get it to work with any controller I owned. RVGL makes it much easier to get the game running and working with modern controllers.

Sadly, this just doesn't click with me. Well, the beginner races are okay, but the difficulty rapidly gets to the point where it's just not fun for me. Maybe I just suck at racing games, but everything feels way too twitchy. In a game where there are weapon pickups, it just feels weird to me that it's so easy to spin out of control on nearly any corner. I managed to beat the second racing circuit, but the new courses that unlocked are full of very narrow passages, tight turns, and overall confusing layouts. Way too stressful for me to be able to handle at this point in my life and state of health.

I still think ReVolt is best played on the Dreamcast. I recommend getting a copy of Flycast

 

[Frank]

I've owned Stardew Valley for a long ass time, but never played more than like an hour of it. I expected it to be like harvest moon, just a cute little farming game.

This time though, this time...

I start off farming, but the towns people keep wanting me to go be social. I just want to stay home and farm. Now I gotta learn how to make friends so I can help the mayor hide that he's boinking the animal saleswoman.

Now I'm over a year in, and I'm in a completely new area, going on ancient quests in the desert while fighting mummies. What happened to my farm? Who is going to feed my ducks? How did all this happen?

This game just keeps getting fucking bigger.

It goes on forever. The friend I'm living is way into it. She's got a dozen different farms for different achievements. Her telling me about fighting the ultimate dragon with the star sword you get from the bottom of something or other and I'm like, "Hrr hrr, I can water my potatoes."

 

[Squidleybits]

I was able to solo Tormented Duriel and the season journey is done. I have no idea how I managed that as he’s level 200 and the level 100 Lilith smushed me.

 

[Frank]

Trying to play Elden Ring without QoL improvements so I can enjoy the online portion. I only get through like 20 minutes tops before I have to tap out, but this playthrough I intend to find all the NPC stuff I missed. I looked up a guide.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eldenring/comments/tjmodv/all_npc_interactions_in_elden_ring/

I will NOT be bothering to do all the NPC stuff, there is too much.

 

[figmentPez]

Journey to the Savage Planet is one of the best games I've never heard of. If it hadn't been part of Prime Gaming it would have completely passed me by, and that's a shame because there's a lot to like in this.

The battle against the Floopsnoot Matriarch is one of the best times I've had shooting glowing weak points in a while. No real spoilers here, giant space alien, shoot the glowing spots, jump and dodge attacks while doing so, figure out how to get past shields when the glowing spots get blocked. It could be a boss in a Metroid Prime game (if those games had standard FPS controls). It was really well done, though. The pacing and the difficulty were fantastic. I was zipping along during the first phase, and by the final third I was scrambling between health pickups.

I'm still mildly lamenting the lack of a map, but I haven't gotten outright stuck at any point, and while the game is absolutely packed with collectibles it seems like it doesn't expect you to actually find anywhere near all of them to progress. (For instance, I've already maxed out my health, but that happened before I hit 60/100 collected of the upgrade material.)

Journey to the Savage Planet is now part of Game Pass on Xbox and PC. I highly recommend checking it out.

 

[Frank]

Dragonflies are the worst enemy in any video game ever. Like seething irritation at dealing with them in any way. They're the fucking worst and they're fucking ubiquitous to the entire first half of the game. They're fucking everywhere.

I'm glad I didn't buy Erdtree at this point. Fuck this game.

edit

I was very angry when I wrote this, lol.

 

[Dirona]

Satisfactory

This was a mistake. I blame @Eriol since he bought it for me.