What games are you playing now?
- Thread starter txa1265
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I will never be playing FO76.
Currently playing randomly depending on mood:
- Arc The Lad Twilight of the Spirits: They just added it this month to PS Now so I'm checking it out, so far so good. They also added Wild Arms 3 so it was a pretty good month for my taste.
- Battletech: I'm playing a couple of missions every few days, still loving it.
- Europa Universalis 4: After about 6 months of EU4 rest I started a campaign with Burgundy, was scared of France when I started but so far it hasn't been an issue because of my Austrian buddies.
- Arc The Lad Twilight of the Spirits: They just added it this month to PS Now so I'm checking it out, so far so good. They also added Wild Arms 3 so it was a pretty good month for my taste.
- Battletech: I'm playing a couple of missions every few days, still loving it.
- Europa Universalis 4: After about 6 months of EU4 rest I started a campaign with Burgundy, was scared of France when I started but so far it hasn't been an issue because of my Austrian buddies.
Yeah the EEs are good! What class have you gone with?
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Agreed, the enhanced editions have all been worth the purchase for me, at least so far. I've dabbled in the NWN one, but haven't fully played it as of yet. The Baldur's Gates games were both fun.
I decided to roll an archer and do an evil playthrough. It gives the game a totally different tone and feel, considering I'd always used to play a straight forward chaotic good fighter. I haven't played BG in years and I'm loving it.
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Good stuff! I've been meaning to try an evil playthrough for a while (possibly with a cleric or a thief) and aim for an entirely evil party rather than the usual mixed bag. I'd be interested to hear your reflections when you finish.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Blew through the second generation of Phantasy Star three yesterday, got about an hour into the third before I stopped for the afternoon baseball game. Today I might finish the last generation, and then I might be going to Phantasy Star four next.
I could never bring myself to play the evil side 
Drithius
Magic & Loss
This game is intriguing. Tempted to try it out - just how well can you tech up your commune (I'm a big fan of factorio), how are attacks handled?
P
purpleblob
Guest
I'm playing on easiest difficulty so my colonists started off with pretty good tech. Can pretty much build a shelter with electricity straight away providing you have enough material to build things. So I now have a nice air conditionerd/heated, brightly lit house powered by solar battery. I'm currently researching on making drugs and biotic body parts etc
I think the end goal (if you want to follow the story line) is to eventually build a ship and get off the planet you crash landed.Attacks mechanic is pretty fun. You can get attacked by mad animals, pirates and other raids randomly. I've managed to survive for just over a year now, recruited 4 people (and I killed one of them because she's pyromaniac and kept setting house on fire… Sigh).
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Finished Phantasy Star three today, not quite nearly as long as the previous game. There is also a fair amount of back tracking throughout the game, which isn't my favourite activity, but then again it certainly eliminates any need of grinding at all.
Got about thirty minutes into Phantasy Four, which I suppose I'll be getting back to on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Got about thirty minutes into Phantasy Four, which I suppose I'll be getting back to on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
vurt
serial 𝓶𝓸𝓭𝓭⻤
Still on ELEX, now on chapter 4. 45h in. It's a good game but i still have that feeling that the world is a little bit.. dry/boring. One glance at a new area (e.g snowy area) and you have basically seen all the meshes and textures that particular area has to offer. It has extremely low variety in for example flora and some of the textures can be highly questioned (huge rocks as totally flat textures - i thought we stopped doing that in ~'99..).
The world mesh itself is very, very low-poly for a modern game, reminds me a lot of Gothic 2 - very blocky hills, cliffs etc. It's not what you expect in a modern game. I can also tell from looking at e.g tree trunks that they were once more hi-poly and and as some quick remedy for performance they have reduced the polycount on them. The trunks are square and have the typical stretched texture parts (which are introduced when you run meshes trough e.g "Polygon Cruncher".) It's not their best looking game.
Overall i think the game is way too drawn out, but this is a problem for many or even most games. I much rather have a 25h good focused, non-BS game, than a 50-100h one which is just drawn out for the sake of it. "How can we make these conversations as long as possible?", "how many of these types of quests can we do before the player is getting too pissed off and bored?" I wish game devs would not have to do that, but unfortunately there's a demand for so called "long" games. These games aren't long, they are drawn out. It's never considered a good quality for books, it's not considered to be a good quality for movies. But somehow, for this industry it's always good.
Half-way though, the game would have benefited greatly from introducing something completely new to the player. In this game it would have made a lot of sense to make something fun with the jetpack, like being able to fly long distances horizontally. But nope, you get nothing (so far), it's the usual upgrades in armor and weapons. Joining a faction does very little to change the gameplay in any way.
Overall i like it, but it's not Gothic 2-fun, much due to it feeling less focused and being more sloppy overall (which comes almost naturally with the much bigger world i'd say).
(wow, this got way too long..)
The world mesh itself is very, very low-poly for a modern game, reminds me a lot of Gothic 2 - very blocky hills, cliffs etc. It's not what you expect in a modern game. I can also tell from looking at e.g tree trunks that they were once more hi-poly and and as some quick remedy for performance they have reduced the polycount on them. The trunks are square and have the typical stretched texture parts (which are introduced when you run meshes trough e.g "Polygon Cruncher".) It's not their best looking game.
Overall i think the game is way too drawn out, but this is a problem for many or even most games. I much rather have a 25h good focused, non-BS game, than a 50-100h one which is just drawn out for the sake of it. "How can we make these conversations as long as possible?", "how many of these types of quests can we do before the player is getting too pissed off and bored?" I wish game devs would not have to do that, but unfortunately there's a demand for so called "long" games. These games aren't long, they are drawn out. It's never considered a good quality for books, it's not considered to be a good quality for movies. But somehow, for this industry it's always good.
Half-way though, the game would have benefited greatly from introducing something completely new to the player. In this game it would have made a lot of sense to make something fun with the jetpack, like being able to fly long distances horizontally. But nope, you get nothing (so far), it's the usual upgrades in armor and weapons. Joining a faction does very little to change the gameplay in any way.
Overall i like it, but it's not Gothic 2-fun, much due to it feeling less focused and being more sloppy overall (which comes almost naturally with the much bigger world i'd say).
(wow, this got way too long..)
Still on DKS having reached the 2nd part I must be on fire. The game is ok not quite as good as I first remembered but not bad. Like all divinity games there can be points of confusion.
I think you notice all these things because you have worked on mods and seem to be very familiar with gaming artistry. I would never even have thought to look at those points
I haven't played through it yet, but from what I have read about the game from other watchers, it does seem like they made the game too long. I think the same was true for Gothic III (which I played for over 100 hours and never finished).
vurt
serial 𝓶𝓸𝓭𝓭⻤
I think you notice all these things because you have worked on mods and seem to be very familiar with gaming artistry. I would never even have thought to look at those points
I haven't played through it yet, but from what I have read about the game from other watchers, it does seem like they made the game too long. I think the same was true for Gothic III (which I played for over 100 hours and never finished).
Yeah i got close to finishing G3, but didn't. I think it's rare that i feel "oh man, i can't wait to see how this one ends!". I can probably count those moments in games on 1 hand.
This trend with "long" (=drawn out) games must be something introduced by demands from kids? I mean for them games are very expensive so of course they want them to be as long a possible and demand it, to get their money's worth. I really wish devs would not listen to it, it makes games so much worse. What if it was introduced for movies.. "i won't watch if its not at least 4h!!!!" the horror… movies has gotten longer though, but within bearable range.
BoboTheMighty
SasqWatch
All it needs now is one of those Flora overhauls. Leafs and shrubbery, tall grass and small grass, from the hills to the plains!
D
Deleted User
Guest
For large open-world RPGs I love when they're epic in scope and length. But not every game needs to be the same. I like the 100+ Elder Scrolls/ELEX epics and also the 40 hour Vampire: Bloodlines or 20-25 hours Chrono Trigger, etc..
Speaking of Bloodlines, that's what I'm playing now. Second run through it, this time as a stealthy Nosferatu (first time was a Tremere with blood magic.) I'm reminded again why I thought this was the best RPG I've ever played at the time (first played it a few years back.) This playthrough has been much different so far. I've noticed a ton of little dialogue details, choices and things playing out differently than my first run. Really enjoying it. And to those who asked about installing the Unofficial Patch, it's dead simple. Just download the patch (linked on Steam in the Guides section) and then just open the .exe and install it like anything else. It does all the work for you.
I'd recommend installing the Plus version of the patch (you'll be prompted during installation to choose Plus or Basic) as it's a completely seamless experience and the restored content/tweaks are all high quality and blend in perfectly. The game still looks great, a little dated but still very nice. It's really a must-play CRPG. There's a staggering amount of love that went into this game and it shows greatly. It's hilarious at times, yet deep, dark, sometimes disturbing, creepy or even downright scary at times (that damn hotel ) Lots of choices to make with surprising twists and consequences. Great story with multiple endings. Astoundingly excellent atmosphere and lore. Faithful pen and paper adaptation of the ruleset. You'll never look at RPGs the same way again IMHO. It sets the bar way too high.
Speaking of Bloodlines, that's what I'm playing now. Second run through it, this time as a stealthy Nosferatu (first time was a Tremere with blood magic.) I'm reminded again why I thought this was the best RPG I've ever played at the time (first played it a few years back.) This playthrough has been much different so far. I've noticed a ton of little dialogue details, choices and things playing out differently than my first run. Really enjoying it. And to those who asked about installing the Unofficial Patch, it's dead simple. Just download the patch (linked on Steam in the Guides section) and then just open the .exe and install it like anything else. It does all the work for you.
I'd recommend installing the Plus version of the patch (you'll be prompted during installation to choose Plus or Basic) as it's a completely seamless experience and the restored content/tweaks are all high quality and blend in perfectly. The game still looks great, a little dated but still very nice. It's really a must-play CRPG. There's a staggering amount of love that went into this game and it shows greatly. It's hilarious at times, yet deep, dark, sometimes disturbing, creepy or even downright scary at times (that damn hotel
) Lots of choices to make with surprising twists and consequences. Great story with multiple endings. Astoundingly excellent atmosphere and lore. Faithful pen and paper adaptation of the ruleset. You'll never look at RPGs the same way again IMHO. It sets the bar way too high.Funny, I don't like openworld games anymore. Give me a nice set of levels that don't hurl everything at me at once, gives me time to appreciate the atmosphere and art more. Sure levels can be connected by a hub, the difference with openworld would then be less fetch quests.
I loved the new Deus ex games for that (exploring the bank in Prague, the TV station headquarters etc), or Dishonored 1 (the bridge, the tower in the end level).
Liking Andromeda so far, albeit it being openworld. Always loved the ME setting and aesthetic, + there is some BioWare story guiding me along.
However, throwing too many quests at me at once I have the habit of just starting to follow the quest markers and start to speed through everything. I feel like I don't have to look at the game world anymore, just follow the quest marker all the time (if there was a minimap you could just put it in the middle of the screen).
I know this is my fault but still I'd argue for level-based design and not have too many quests available at a time (kind of holding my hand more), gives me time to savor everything so much more.
I loved the new Deus ex games for that (exploring the bank in Prague, the TV station headquarters etc), or Dishonored 1 (the bridge, the tower in the end level).
Liking Andromeda so far, albeit it being openworld. Always loved the ME setting and aesthetic, + there is some BioWare story guiding me along.
However, throwing too many quests at me at once I have the habit of just starting to follow the quest markers and start to speed through everything. I feel like I don't have to look at the game world anymore, just follow the quest marker all the time (if there was a minimap you could just put it in the middle of the screen).
I know this is my fault but still I'd argue for level-based design and not have too many quests available at a time (kind of holding my hand more), gives me time to savor everything so much more.
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