What are you playing?

ESO - Morrowind made a poor first impression but I've got the interface and controls the way I like it now and I'm enjoying it while I rest
 
So I bought Slay the Spire yesterday as my Steam sale treat (a game I own on Switch already) instead of one of the 53 games on my Wishlist.

One and a half days later and 13 hours of game time like 23/56 achievements later. Hey guys, I think I like this game still.
 
I thought I did too and a friend gave me Pokemon Eevee for Christmas last year and I played it for 30 minutes and decided I didn't actually miss Pokemon, I missed being 13.
Eh, I dont blame you for that reaction. I bought it too as something Jun and I could play together since it was a watered down version. We didn't last too long either. I still think the mainline games are worth a buy.
 
Eh, I dont blame you for that reaction. I bought it too as something Jun and I could play together since it was a watered down version. We didn't last too long either. I still think the mainline games are worth a buy.
On the flip side, I played something like 300 hours of let's go Pikachu after not playing since x/y, most of that time online battling, and loved every second of it. Sword and shield come out and I get bored of it within an hour, maybe I just was burnt out by then
 
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On the flip side, I played something like 300 hours of let's go Pikachu after not playing since x/y, most of that time online battling, and loved every second of it. Sword and shield come out and I get bored of it within an hour, maybe I just was burnt out by then
Something I haven't like about newer pokemon games is how long it takes to get through the tutorial and get to the meat and potatoes of what makes pokemon fun. And the meta game is so extensive now that it's not fun at all to fight with pokemon obsessive randos, a reset and a tonal shift would be good for this series
 
Man, hauling ass and losing almost no runs for any of the characters has given me this unearned confidence in Slay the Spire. Then I hit ascension 5 and the wall was put up. Oh yeah, my skills are only suitable for the lower level ascension runs. Once that math starts ticking outside of norms I start making terrible mistakes and just getting crushed.

I need a guide for exhausting cards with the Ironclad I think. I'm not sure how to make it work right.
 
I need a guide for exhausting cards with the Ironclad I think. I'm not sure how to make it work right.
This is a bit outdated, but it might give you some of what you're looking for:



The channel has a couple more discussions about specific Ironclad exhaust cards, full run vods of decks with those synergies, and god knows what else if you want more to work with. He's doing a challenge on his stream at the moment as well - 130 Ascension 20 heart kills in 30 days. Shit's crazy.
 
Thanks for that. I will check it out.

So I decided to play Fallout 4. Going into it realizing that the story is beyond stupid and it's a God awful RPG, but it is a fun playground. First thing, the opening is so dumb. Second thing, the way Fallout 4 reinvigorated power armor is fantastic. It's so much better than every previous game where it was just the best armor. Third, blowing your load with the Deathclaw right off the bat? Why? Especially since you won't see anything that cool for a VERY long time possibly. Fourth, I killed Mama Murphy asap with drugs because the only thing I like less than Preston Garvey is that old dipshit. The shitty couple went from hating me, to still hating me so no big loss. Me and Sturgess are still bros. He should have been a companion.
 
Been playing Back4Blood.
It's the Left4Dead creators taking what was good about Left4Dead and updating it into a new game that has the same first person action awesomeness you can expect from the Left4Dead series such as swarms, unique areas, and great character banter. But then it expands on all of it by utilizing a sort of leveling up system that you have full control of, giving you several dozen different types of weapons you can find and upgrade with modifications, a looting system that allows you to purchase items and team upgrades between levels, and 8 choose able characters, each with their own bonuses.
Downsides that I have found are
* The mutation ridden (this world's version of special zombies) are not as unique as the ones in the Left4Dead games. Boomers, chargers, spitters, etc were all very distinctive in those games. These ones seem to have 4 types but each shape has 2-3 different sub-types but they all just kinda look the same. Tall Boys and Crushers for example are both these tall lumbering zombies with one giant arm, but the only difference between them seems to be the tallboys smash you with the arm and the Crushers grab you with them. I'm sure there are some visual differences but they seem so close it's really not obvious to me.
* There are three difficulty settings (Recruit, Veteran, and Nightmare) but so far myself and my friends have only managed to survive Recruit. Veteran is such a drastic increase in difficulty we can't even imagine how much of a mess nightmare will be.
 

GasBandit

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Been playing Back4Blood.
It's the Left4Dead creators taking what was good about Left4Dead and updating it into a new game that has the same first person action awesomeness you can expect from the Left4Dead series such as swarms, unique areas, and great character banter. But then it expands on all of it by utilizing a sort of leveling up system that you have full control of, giving you several dozen different types of weapons you can find and upgrade with modifications, a looting system that allows you to purchase items and team upgrades between levels, and 8 choose able characters, each with their own bonuses.
Downsides that I have found are
* The mutation ridden (this world's version of special zombies) are not as unique as the ones in the Left4Dead games. Boomers, chargers, spitters, etc were all very distinctive in those games. These ones seem to have 4 types but each shape has 2-3 different sub-types but they all just kinda look the same. Tall Boys and Crushers for example are both these tall lumbering zombies with one giant arm, but the only difference between them seems to be the tallboys smash you with the arm and the Crushers grab you with them. I'm sure there are some visual differences but they seem so close it's really not obvious to me.
* There are three difficulty settings (Recruit, Veteran, and Nightmare) but so far myself and my friends have only managed to survive Recruit. Veteran is such a drastic increase in difficulty we can't even imagine how much of a mess nightmare will be.
I played during the beta with the usual suspects, and I came away from it really not liking the deckbuilding part of the game. I understand it's there to increase replayability, but I just don't like it. It seems to me, also, that the so-called L4D creators forgot what made L4D so great was its casual accessibility. You didn't have to manage different kinds of ammo for different kinds of weapons. There was barely an inventory system at all. You may not have started with the best weapon but at least what you had was serviceable and upgrades were easy to find and all over the place.

Anyway I don't want to repeat all the griping I did back when I played the beta, but reading the reviews from the game, it seems to me the developers did not learn/listen much since then.
 
I played Psychonauts 2 earlier this year and while I liked it, I had the feeling I would like or appreciate it more upon reading some articles or watching some video essays on it. Or maybe a full replay of the game.

And that's exactly what happened, as I'm replaying Psychonauts 2 now, with the knowledge of what I know from playing through it already. There are SO many layers to character actions and especially within the mind levels of the Psychic Six that I didn't pick up on the first time around. The lines delivered by characters within the minds is amazingly layered once you know the whole backstory. It reminds of me of Edgar Wright films where there's so many little things you don't catch in your first time watching it.

Some of my criticisms still stand, though, like the lack of emphasis on the new batch of kids in the game. The spotlight is very much centered on the Psychic Six; they're the foundation for the overall story. Unfortunately, it's at the expense of these new kids, who seem like they'll be in the game a lot at first, but they're quickly forgotten. When they do pop up, like when they're inexplicably with Raz for his family reunion, it just feels weird. I recall they appear almost out of nowhere in the final part of the game and it just isn't as organic as the rest of the game.

But honestly, the more I think about it and the way this game tackles real mental health issues, I think it might stand above the first one for me. It handles mental health in a more nuanced way and it's greatly appreciated.
 
What is with the load times in Fallout 4? It's like I'm playing a PS3 game. SSD gaming has spoiled me and these 45 second to a minute load times between cells is killing me.

So I installed a load time enhancer mod and I don't know how to make it work without Vsync being on, which even at 60 fps (why is this a hard limit Bethesda? FUCKING WHY?) is like watching a slideshow compared to the gsync 165 hz monitor I'm used to.

Easy to forget sometimes this is a 20 year old game engine that even at it's birth was barely held together with spit and gum but it will remind you, crushingly so, at times.

I'm reading tweak guides for the mod and apparently there is no way to fix this. It's either live with infinite life consuming load times and good fps or limit the fps to 60 (I know, first world problems) and get reasonable load times. I don't think I've played a 'AAA' game in the last decade so poorly optimized for any modern hardware (that was modern at the time of release even). Apparently going over 60 fps causes weird time issues in the game (like ghouls basically teleporting when they attack, I remembered them being quick and lunging, but covering like 100 meters in two seconds seemed a bit much) which I noticed but didn't really acknowledge. Mole rats do the same thing. They'll burrow and explode out of the ground at the same time, effectively teleporting.

Yeah, trying to play at 60 fps with the input lag of vsync is not what I PC game for. It feels like shit. Either way is a compromise I'm not willing to make, so I guess this brief foray into trying to enjoy Fallout 4 is over.
 
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So I installed a load time enhancer mod and I don't know how to make it work without Vsync being on, which even at 60 fps (why is this a hard limit Bethesda? FUCKING WHY?) is like watching a slideshow compared to the gsync 165 hz monitor I'm used to.
I dunno if this is still a thing that happens but if you had your fps cranked up in Skyrim or Fallout 4 previously, it completely fucked with the physics engine. To the point where whenever you'd enter a room everything that could be moved would go flying like you were the personification of a hurricane.

 
Into a Darkest Dungeon fix right now after watching some streams of Darkest Dungeon 2 being played.
I've always enjoyed the game but would lose interest after a few in-game weeks as my teams would utterly destruct due to stress and then my Hamlet to bankruptcy. I just wasn't very good at stress mitigation.
Getting back into it, I've had a blast checking out some other folks playing on Twitch/YouTube (OldManSethus, ShuffleFM) and working my way through. The Steam Sale put the price right down to dollars so I picked up all the DLC as well. :)
The art, music, narration, animation - just all so good. Lots of hard choices to make too. :)
 
Into a Darkest Dungeon fix right now after watching some streams of Darkest Dungeon 2 being played.
I've always enjoyed the game but would lose interest after a few in-game weeks as my teams would utterly destruct due to stress and then my Hamlet to bankruptcy. I just wasn't very good at stress mitigation.
Getting back into it, I've had a blast checking out some other folks playing on Twitch/YouTube (OldManSethus, ShuffleFM) and working my way through. The Steam Sale put the price right down to dollars so I picked up all the DLC as well. :)
The art, music, narration, animation - just all so good. Lots of hard choices to make too. :)
Last played that years ago in early access, sounds like I should give it another chance. Usually with survival games I'll fall into a tedious routine to stay alive and I'll quit when I get bored of doing the same things over and over all for nothing. Cracking up and losing everything when I spiral sounds like a good time

Edit: if you don't mind early access, I'd recommend World of Horror. It's a very Junji Ito inspired procedurally generated adventure game. Saving was disabled in the last build I played, but sessions can run from having to complete one to five short stories with random elements so it's not likely to waste your time if you don't want it to
 
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