What are you playing?

Disco Elysium:

My character is a drug addict apocalyptic hobocop who spends most of his time intoxicated to keep his inner demons quiet, and the only reason my partner puts up with him is because once you drag his hungover ass to the crime scene he can rainman what happened.
Dr House, PI?
 
I picked up my previous playthrough of Divinity: Original Sin 2, and found myself right before the mirror match at the end of Act 3. Not a good place to be for someone trying to recall how to play the game, and the specific builds and strategies being used. It took me about 30 minutes of dying before I got through that part of the game.

And then we got to the romance scene, and to my surprise, instead of the usual scene in a special room on the ship, the romance scene took place in the Hall of Echoes instead. I have no idea why that happened or what I did differently this time around, but I was pleasantly surprised. Even after so many hours over so many playthroughs, this game can still surprise me.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
@Celt Z , @Emrys , and I have been playing LOTS of Viscera Cleanup Detail. Since the last time I'd played, they added in a sort of secret overarching plot, and a lot of easter eggs.

Of course, the game is absolutely RIFE with references, and the collectables are no different.

We found Isaac's helmet from Dead Space, a bolter from Warhammer 40k, Luke's lightsaber from Star Wars, and the keycard, shotgun, and armor from Doom. Packed em into the trunk and hauled them back to the office for display.

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Oh, and we also found a T-800 endoskeleton. This guy was a BITCH to fit in the trunk. I thought this the most appropriate place to display him.

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GasBandit

Staff member
When do you guys tend to play? If there's room, I wouldn't mind jumping in some time.
While it's ended up we're mostly playing evenings after 8pm eastern, we don't really have a "schedule" and we don't always play the same game (Sometimes Valheim, sometimes Don't Starve Together, sometimes VCD, sometimes something else).

We're quickly approaching the time to move on from VCD, but that said, if you want to play, we can probably work out a time that works. A single game generally takes between 2 and 3 hours, so if you can block that time off, we can work it out.
 
Picked up Evil Genius 2.
If you like sim games it's probably for you.
The overworld "scheme" selection system isn't very intriguing, but the fun part is lair design and trap layouts.
 
Read abut Deadly Premonition and decided to try the Switch port in between rounds of The New Colossus. After two or three hours, I can say that it's bizarre, there's no reason whatsoever for the shooting parts that I can discern, and the driving is godawful. I love it so much and the sequel should be arriving today.

Seriously, the music they chose to put behind the serious discussions of a disemboweling is worth the price of admission alone.
 
That's a funny story. So, I listen to Jimquisition (James Stephanie Sterling's podcast with Laura K Buzz and Conrad Zimmerman) and Jim was basically told by the devs of Deadly Premonition that Jim's constant evangelizing of the game was part of why it got a sequel. They even sent them their own version of the Switch game with Jim on the cover as a thanks.

Deadly Premonition 2 is transphobic as FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK and both Jim and Laura (who is also trans) really didn't like it. They both joke about what a mistake it was to be part of why DP2 got made.
 
That's a funny story. So, I listen to Jimquisition (James Stephanie Sterling's podcast with Laura K Buzz and Conrad Zimmerman) and Jim was basically told by the devs of Deadly Premonition that Jim's constant evangelizing of the game was part of why it got a sequel. They even sent them their own version of the Switch game with Jim on the cover as a thanks.

Deadly Premonition 2 is transphobic as FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK and both Jim and Laura (who is also trans) really didn't like it. They both joke about what a mistake it was to be part of why DP2 got made.
Podquisition
 
When I get around to playing it, I'll try to remember to come back here and post my impression of the game and it's handling of that.
 
The reviews are mixed, how does it compare to EG1?
Never played the first that I can recall.
I can see how this one could get repetitive. There isn't a lot of variety. There are only 4 villains and only 3 hideout layouts to choose from. No scenario variations that I can see.
It's worth the Steam price to me at least.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Never played the first that I can recall.
I can see how this one could get repetitive. There isn't a lot of variety. There are only 4 villains and only 3 hideout layouts to choose from. No scenario variations that I can see.
It's worth the Steam price to me at least.
Ah. Well, consider that EG1 only had THREE villains and ONE hideout layout to pick from ;)

But it seems to me that a lot of the negative reviews I've read come from people who didn't play EG1 either. The world domination aspect of it was always just a "send flunkies somewhere, and see how many of them die and if they succeed by reading it in a report later." The fun part of it was always designing the base and laying traps for the agents that come to try to investigate you.
 
Ah. Well, consider that EG1 only had THREE villains and ONE hideout layout to pick from ;)

But it seems to me that a lot of the negative reviews I've read come from people who didn't play EG1 either. The world domination aspect of it was always just a "send flunkies somewhere, and see how many of them die and if they succeed by reading it in a report later." The fun part of it was always designing the base and laying traps for the agents that come to try to investigate you.
You'll probably enjoy it then. Building the base and laying the traps is the bulk of the game. I've seen some pretty clever trap configurations via youtube that some players have created.
 
I pre-ordered Pokemon Snap. Photography and Pokemon....two of my favourite things.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Pokémon battles and warm woolen mittens
Snuffles and hobos, a fry-up with wings
These are a few of my favorite things.

Milky Way pictures and posting on forums,
Jigglypuff singing and headslapping dumb-dumbs,
Wild owls that fly with the moon on their wings;
These are a few of my favorite things.
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(Yes, I'm aware I suck at making rhyming schemes and metrum work)
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Sunday I "attended" an online reunion of the Warhammer Online guild I founded 15 years ago. Warhammer Online is still playable as "Return of Reckoning," for free, and a lot of the guys are still playing it there after all these years. We had around 25 in attendance.

It was really good to see the old crew. Most of these folks were people I'd hand-picked to join the guild way back in the day, and we had a really good time running as a guild warband one more time, participating in RvR and pushing the forces of Destruction all the way back to their capital city.

Maybe I'll still pop in and play with them from time to time. After all, I left the game (really the dev/publisher, EA) not the people, and now the guys running the server are constantly making tweaks and rebalacing the way that Mythic/EA should have but never did.
 
Man, I remember the AAA guild I used to run... Been forever. Let's see... My voice president died of lung cancer. My secretary died in the army (he was Israeli and went to fulfill his service). The "youth leader" (in charge of getting and training new recruits) committed suicide.
The admin who helped me found it, last I heard, was in a mental health facility.
You know, I really don't hang out with the most healthy and stable bunch, do I?
 
The most stable guild I've been involved with is the one I joined 2 years and am still with... and most of them have been playing WoW since Vanilla, so they've known each other for years and years. Every other one?

- Imploded because Guild Leader was a dick (at least 5 times)
- Imploded because game ended (at least 3 times)
- Imploded because Guild Leader and her husband was cybering with folk and giving them favoritism (twice)

My current guild is great though. Everybody more or less gets along, knows each other very well, and knows how to handle each other without things getting intense. Really enjoy it.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 with Emrys and Celt Z, and it's off to a really rough start. I had forgotten how shit the start of divinity games always are, with everything outleveling you and the awkward controls meaning you stumble into encounters for which you are stupidly underleveled, accidentally steal or piss off everyone, or through no fault of your own utterly fail persuasion checks that end up with you having to kill or be killed by people you were trying to make friends with.

It's frustrating because I know this game is SO good, and I think Celt Z and Emrys are both so unimpressed as to be ready to drop the game entirely.
 
Playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 with Emrys and Celt Z, and it's off to a really rough start. I had forgotten how shit the start of divinity games always are, with everything outleveling you and the awkward controls meaning you stumble into encounters for which you are stupidly underleveled, accidentally steal or piss off everyone, or through no fault of your own utterly fail persuasion checks that end up with you having to kill or be killed by people you were trying to make friends with.

It's frustrating because I know this game is SO good, and I think Celt Z and Emrys are both so unimpressed as to be ready to drop the game entirely.
It's just not the same when someone isn't planting stolen goods on Snuffles to watch him get in trouble.
 
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Playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 with Emrys and Celt Z, and it's off to a really rough start. I had forgotten how shit the start of divinity games always are, with everything outleveling you and the awkward controls meaning you stumble into encounters for which you are stupidly underleveled, accidentally steal or piss off everyone, or through no fault of your own utterly fail persuasion checks that end up with you having to kill or be killed by people you were trying to make friends with.

It's frustrating because I know this game is SO good, and I think Celt Z and Emrys are both so unimpressed as to be ready to drop the game entirely.
Where are you guys at?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Where are you guys at?
We're still in Fort Joy. It has been a calamitous cavalcade of errors. We've died and had to reload SO many times. Celt Z is playing Lohse, and made the mistake of talking to the elf seer girl and it kicked off a fight in which we massacred all the elves in the cave and we didn't revert it because it's THE ONLY FIGHT WE HAD WON UP TO THAT POINT. Just... everything is a mess and yet we're grindingly, haltingly, screechingly stumbling our way forward.
 
Then I can definitely say to Celtzy and Emrys that it gets better. As your characters grow stronger in the game and you learn how your powers work, you'll be able to pull off impressive feats of chicanery in combat and kill everything in your path.

Also, unexpected curveballs like what happens when Lohse talks to Saheila are part of what makes this game so memorable. Not everything is going to go according to established fantasy RPG tropes.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Then I can definitely say to Celtzy and Emrys that it gets better. As your characters grow stronger in the game and you learn how your powers work, you'll be able to pull off impressive feats of chicanery in combat and kill everything in your path.

Also, unexpected curveballs like what happens when Lohse talks to Saheila are part of what makes this game so memorable. Not everything is going to go according to established fantasy RPG tropes.
I can tell you this much, when we go back and are strong enough to take out those damn crocodilians, it will be SO sweet.
 
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