What games are you playing now?

[Redglyph]

This War of Mine, inspired by the Bosnian War. I had already been intrigued by this game, and when I saw the news about the devs and GOG's action it reminded me of that. The donation in itself must be negligible since the price is currently so ridiculously low (4 Euros), there are better channels for that, but it was a good excuse all the same.

I've played a little bit only, but this is a properly depressing game. The characters have barely enough to survive and they get robbed and wounded (if not worse) on top of it. I knew it, yet I had to try, and I'm still not sure it's for me.

 

[crpgnut]

I'm playing a survival game, called Icarus. This game has at least co-op and maybe multiplayer too, but I play it single player only. There are a couple different modes and I play one that is mission based. You land on Icarus and are given a specific goal. Mission one is a one week mission to prove you can survive on the planet. You have to harvest oxygen, build a shelter, and prove you can make your own weapons and armor and survive for a bit. The next mission has you place three radar beacons to map the nearby quadrants.

I think it is released, but still being worked on. Seems to hit most of my survival cravings. It has a robust crafting tree and also a nice set of talents.

 

[SirJames]

Lost Ark - playing it slow like a single player game and I enjoy myself
ELDEN RING - my 1070 is struggling a lot even with low settings… (for a DS fan this game in like a evolution… so fun) I wish that I had a better video card

Lost Ark - I'm trying to not cap out on rested and do my chaos dungeons but I'm definitely far more interested in Elden Ring, at the moment.

ELDEN RING - 1070 should be fine. That's the recommended spec. My CPU is 11 years old with a "new" 1070 and I'm running on HIGH with motion blur off in1080p. It stutters a bit sometimes but it's mostly very smooth. Very rarely I've had the game do a 1 second freeze. I've also had 3 crashes.

I've got a friend with a brand new 3090 rig who says it's completely unplayable and another with a 3070 who says it's fine. I'm really not sure whats causing the performance issues on some rigs.

What else could I quickly say about ELDEN RING?

The stealth system works really well now and I use it a lot. I love having jump key and jump attacks are great. The mount is really nice to use and mounted combat is very powerful. The weapon art system is nice and it's good to be able to change your weapon damage type around so easily. The magic flask buff system is alright and the buff seems to last a decent length of time. The Great Rune system is a bit weak and I never use it because it's so rare to find the charge pieces. The spirit summons system doesn't let you use it very often which is unexpected and a bit disappointing.

 

[JFarrell71]

The spirit summons system doesn't let you use it very often which is unexpected and a bit disappointing.

Are you talking about the ashes? Because I think it's incredibly powerful and I was shocked to find they aren't one use. Siccing four ghost wolves, for example, on enemies dramatically changes the difficulty of a fight.

I also love that the jellyfish has a name.

 

[SirJames]

Are you talking about the ashes? Because I think it's incredibly powerful and I was shocked to find they aren't one use. Siccing four ghost wolves, for example, on enemies dramatically changes the difficulty of a fight.

I also love that the jellyfish has a name.

Yeah, the jellyfish is an alright distraction. It just feels like most of the time when I go to use them they're disabled. Most of them just get squashed but I do need to upgrade them.

 

[Qayto]

This War of Mine, inspired by the Bosnian War. I had already been intrigued by this game, and when I saw the news about the devs and GOG's action it reminded me of that......

I found This War of Mine very emotional. Perhaps too depressing to be considered a game, more an experience. It ought to be on every school curriculum.

Last night I nearly finished Elex one again, the last big fight just frustrates me. I am currently downloading Elex two.

 

[crpgnut]

Just a little follow up on Icarus. This game isn't really ready for prime time even though it is supposedly released. There are several gaps that need to be filled in for the game to really feel done. The biggest minus is that there is no way to carry gear or even buildings from one mission to the next. There are a few things you can buy in a store that do carry over, but the game just doesn't have any type of feel for being a real place, which is vital for a survival type.

 

[Philistine]

I played enough of AC Valhalla to know I'll pick it up down the line when Complete Edition drops below my $30 threshold, although it has the most bizarre levelling. You get skills from books that have to be found, and abilities you pay for with points on a Path of Exile type web which is blacked out except for nearby nodes. This makes it impossible to plan a build without Google!!
I just started Gothic 1. I decided to join Old Camp after visiting all 3, but Diego wasn't having me after I did all the Old Camp quests. I had to google that to find you have to be Level 5, and I'm only Level 3... guess I'll have to go back to the other camps and do their quests too.

 

[JDR13]

After trying out Elden Ring and Elex II, I'm now back to playing Dying Light: The Following. I'm about 90% through, and I want to finish before I start playing something else in earnest.

I'm hoping one or both of the aforementioned games get another patch by the time I finish.

 

[basharran]

I've dusted of Caesar III with the latest version of the Augustus mod. Maybe still one of the best historic city builders?

 

[Kos]

xPiratesz while I wait for Distant Worlds 2 (I loved the first one) and Old World.

 

[henriquejr]

Last weekend I paused Dying Light 1 a little so I could try something "different" (for me): I decided to play Path of Exile for the first time. I've been totally out of the aRPG scene for quite a looooong time and I suddenly got the itch to try this one.

Of course, so much time without playing aRPGs has both advantages and handicaps. For one, I'm seeing this game with brand new eyes to the genre, everything seems to be so fresh to me. I don't feel dwarfed by its gigantic skill tree (skill forest???? ); on the contrary, I'm learning to navigate thru it, judiciously allocating my Marauder's hard-earned skill points. Also, I don't mind the game's story/writing, I didn't choose Path of Exile because of them.

But then, so much time away takes its toll. First, all that chatting while I play. Oh my… Diablo II was so quiet, so silent Second, I don't understand the concept and the rules of Leagues or Seasons or whatever they call it. So much so that I preferred to create my character in the Standard league (I just wanna to play the game single-handedly, may I?)
Also: the inventory management, oh God! At least it's not so different from Diablo II

All in all, I'm liking the game. Even the concepts I still don't get, I'm aware that's only a question of getting used to the game.

EDIT
As a side note, I started playing Path of Exile on PS4 expecting to share the character I first created there with Steam. As I've found out later, that's not possible. A pity that the game doesn't support cross-platform between PC and consoles (only between PC and Mac)

 

[Carnifex]

After reading a bit about Cris Tales, I had purchased it quite some time ago and never got around to playing the thing! Somehow it simply got lost in the back log, so I fired it up about an hour ago and I'm going through the prologue right now. So far it seems to be a charming jrpg, initially it seems a bit basic yet I'm very early into the game, I'm sure it'll pick up!

 

[largh]

Found some time to test Expeditions: Rome. Eight hours in and enjoying it a lot. I selected a female character and find the dialog well done. It may not be entirely historically precise, but it does not bother me. The game is made for our time anyway (as any chronicle was written for that time). I like how story driven the game has been so far. The only thing that bothers me are the legion battles but luckily there is the auto-resolve button, so not a big deal. I understand why they added such battles but for some reason no-one has gotten these "grand-strategy" elements to work well in an RPG yet.

 

[Redglyph]

Found some time to test Expeditions: Rome. Eight hours in and enjoying it a lot. I selected a female character and find the dialog well done. It may not be entirely historically precise, but it does not bother me. The game is made for our time anyway (as any chronicle was written for that time). I like how story driven the game has been so far. The only thing that bothers me are the legion battles but luckily there is the auto-resolve button, so not a big deal. I understand why they added such battles but for some reason no-one has gotten these "grand-strategy" elements to work well in an RPG yet.

I think it was intentional not to have historically-accurate events, to give enough freedom to the player and to create a consistent and interesting story. I suppose it's the same for games like Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis. It's a good motivation to brush up a little history.

The battles are probably the most argued feature of the game, I'm waiting a little bit before playing again in the hope they release their new version of it.

As you say, it has never been a huge plus to add those elements, maybe an RPG doesn't mix well with other types of game? Still, I think it's one of the games which does the best job of integrating this extra layer into an RPG.

 

[largh]

I think it was intentional not to have historically-accurate events, to give enough freedom to the player and to create a consistent and interesting story. I suppose it's the same for games like Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis. It's a good motivation to brush up a little history.

I listened to a popular scientific podcast where a historian was explaining how and why chronicles (including the bible) were written. The bottom line was basically that they were often politically inspired works of semi-fiction reflecting the time they were written. One should not interpret them as "truth" but combined they could tell something about what actually happened. That made me think that the same still goes on, for example in games. To me the historical freedom the devs have taken just make Expeditions: Rome better rather than worse.

As you say, it has never been a huge plus to add those elements, maybe an RPG doesn't mix well with other types of game? Still, I think it's one of the games which does the best job of integrating this extra layer into an RPG.

I think it could mix but perhaps we underestimate the challenge of making the mechanics of a grand strategy enjoyable, and perhaps the copyright law protects games such that directly copying enjoyable grand strategy elements is not allowed. I am not sure about the second stipulation. WotR apparently tried to copy HOMM but according to the comments here, they did not manage to make it as enjoyable as the original. How hard it can be to make a simple, yet complex, board game to simulate large scale battles? Perhaps it is programming the AI that is the difficult part. The only strategic mini-game in an RPG I can say I enjoyed was Gwent.

 

[Redglyph]

One should not interpret them as "truth" but combined they could tell something about what actually happened. That made me think that the same still goes on, for example in games. To me the historical freedom the devs have taken just make Expeditions: Rome better rather than worse.

That's a good point!

I think it could mix but perhaps we underestimate the challenge of making the mechanics of a grand strategy enjoyable, and perhaps the copyright law protects games such that directly copying enjoyable grand strategy elements is not allowed. I am not sure about the second stipulation. WotR apparently tried to copy HOMM but according to the comments here, they did not manage to make it as enjoyable as the original. How hard it can be to make a simple, yet complex, board game to simulate large scale battles? Perhaps it is programming the AI that is the difficult part. The only strategic mini-game in an RPG I can say I enjoyed was Gwent.

I think Owlcat just didn't have enough time, they made that very late in the development. A board game shouldn't be too difficult to make, but wouldn't it feel out of place in a RPG game? Maybe not, after all we accept the turn-based combat, even on hexas in the case of Expeditions. And yet it feels a little unwelcome to me in WotR, for some reason. Maybe it's personal.

If the battle is too complex, more like grand strategy game, it's getting too far from the RPG style and could alienate many players. And it takes more time to develop. If it's too simple, it's uninteresting and feels cheap. So I think it's just difficult to find the soft spot. Logic Artists avoided that and aimed at something very simple, almost RNG-only, and players felt it was perhaps too simple, or at least too random.

Yes, Gwent was well done. It's a nice way to introduce a mini-game, because the characters actually play it in the game, with the same format (it's not a representation like a board for battles), so it's doesn't break the RP immersion. And it's not too long nor too complex.

 

[Redglyph]

As if on cue, a fresh update on legion battles
https://community.expeditionsseries...legion-battle-update-and-gamepad-support-r26/

And they estimate that

The legion battle system may be released within the next couple of weeks

 

[crpgnut]

Still playing Icarus and the game starts to shine with one more player. My brother, who lives about 6 hours away in Chicago, has the game too. We're playing through the missions and we're both decent at the lower level missions and get crushed if we face the tougher critters. We're using crafting to offset our lack of twitch skills as you can easily build little hunter shacks as you progress through the missions.

The game really is moderately fun in single-player but shines in co-op.

 

[Philistine]

Finished Gothic 1 and rolled straight into G2. G1 was ok, not greatly impressed. I still prefer Morrowind from the same year.

Spoiler

I was surprised by getting banished from my faction midway through the game! That's never happened before.