What games are you playing now?

The Anthem Saga continues…. No one else playing anything?

Anyway, the story has taken a turn for the better. A couple of nice characters have been introduced - and it's getting interesting. I have to say I'm very impressed by the performances as well - and the nuances of the facial animations seem to get better as the game goes along.

I also have to officially nominate Anthem for best moment-to-moment gameplay of all time. I mean that - it's like they combined the recent Doom with something like Ninja Gaiden. Ultra tight and satisfying.

At least, that's how I feel about the Interceptor. Maybe it's just a lucky match for my playstyle and preferences - but I'm hearing a lot of players really enjoying their own particular favorite Javelins.

What remains up in the air is the long-term viability of the formula. I don't know how long it will take me to finish the story, but for this subgenre the story is basically the introduction.

It's already miles ahead of Destiny 2 in terms of character build options - and Bioware learned a few lessons from Blizzard when it comes to not holding back on the power. In Destiny, it's a slow crawl with tiny incremental power increases - and they're terrified of letting you actually kick ass.

In Anthem, kicking ass is the default gameplay - but, unlike Warframe, it's actually required to play well to succeed - and that's playing on normal, with or without a party.

Of course, that's just based on my experience - but I'm usually pretty good at making such estimates.

Again, it's a looter shooter and it's not the next Mass Effect or the next Doom. It's all about progression in an extremely beautiful environment with superb gameplay.

After around 10 hours, I'm reasonably comfortable claiming this is a big success - and I hope they will sell a zillion copies. Not for EA, but for the future of a game which oozes potential.

Well done, Bioware.

As for negatives:

The loading times are a pain, but they're shorter than the demo. If they can reduce them by, say, another 20-30% they won't be a real issue.

The Fort Tarsus sequences are odd. I usually enjoy kicking back in hubs after a mission - but in this game the contrast between walking around and talking to NPCs and being on a mission is pretty glaring. It's like you're playing two entirely different games and they don't gel as well as I would have expected.

The actual dialogues are decent enough - but it's one of the worst examples of meaningless dialogue options. You only ever have two options - and it's even worse than Mass Effect in terms of your character saying something you can't predict. If you ask me, they should have done away with these choices altogether - as it would flow better and the game just doesn't seem to support a great C&C story anyway.

I think that's about it.

Contrary to my initial impressions, this could be an actual evolution of the genre - and not just another variation.

Highly, highly recommended for fans of looter shooters.

I decided to spend most of the day playing Destiny 2 since the Valentine event is up. I'm so addicted to pink now I love my pink Sparrow!

Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
Oh boy - this game rocks! Better late than never

For the uninitiated:
VP2 : S is a highly experimental jRPG, that feels absolutely unique to this very day.
Its complexity rivals most hardcore western RPGs, it looks and sounds great (even today), its story is surprisingly pleasing for a Japanese title that messes with European myths, and if you are willing to understand its intricate systems, it plays very very very well.

Wanted to check it up but… No such title on Steam.

Originally Posted by joxer
Wanted to check it up but… No such title on Steam.

Its a PS2 game, and I think that you need an emulator on PC to run it.

Started Nioh and enjoying it, so far i think its harder than the souls games but im only in the isle of demons area; sadly on pc version k+m icons dont show up in popup and after 3h in it still trying to remember all keys from combos, stances and stuff.

Other than the lack of prompts how are kb/m controls ?

Originally Posted by porcozaur
Started Nioh and enjoying it, so far i think its harder than the souls games but im only in the isle of demons area; sadly on pc version k+m icons dont show up in popup and after 3h in it still trying to remember all keys from combos, stances and stuff.

Originally Posted by joxer
Wanted to check it up but… No such title on Steam.

Originally Posted by SpoonFULL
Its a PS2 game, and I think that you need an emulator on PC to run it.

Yep it's a PS2 game I haven't played it in years.

The PS2 was the best console generation for JRPGs.

Think I'm going to replay Shadow Hearts, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, & Shadow Hearts: From the New World. If no one played them yet do so they are good games.

I'm playing a modded Oblivion. Mostly Ayleid Steps/Mage Guild stuff. Unlike most games I play, I enjoy Oblivion at level 15+, so I basically give myself a bunch of gold and unlimited training to hit that level. After that I dump the leftover gold and start playing.

I really enjoy the main quest in Oblivion, so I always play through it. I find the Oblivion gate dungeons to be overly repetitive though, so if someone has a good mod that changes that let me know. Otherwise, I have a mod that allows you to close the non-main quest gates by clicking on the frame You lose the loot except for the sigil stone; which is the best loot in there normally.

Breton Custom mage, level 15 with Destruction, Conjuration, Mysticism, Restoration, Blunt, Marksman and Light Armor. I have sneak and alchemy pretty high too.

Man, I'm loving this Enderal game, but it's such a dark environment that I don't know if I'll stick with it. I can barely see the game even during when it's daylight within the game, and when it turns to night, forget about it. Turning up the brightness or gamma settings seems to make no difference at all, so for now I'm at a loss.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Man, I'm loving this Enderal game, but it's such a dark environment that I don't know if I'll stick with it. I can barely see the game even during when it's daylight within the game, and when it turns to night, forget about it. Turning up the brightness or gamma settings seems to make no difference at all, so for now I'm at a loss.

Make sure your Monitor is set to full color range. I actually figured out that my HDMI Monitor was actually running on TV mode, where the white and black end spectrum is washed out. Only saw that because on my second screen where I got OBS running for recording everything looked much better.

https://pcmonitors.info/articles/cor…-and-amd-gpus/

Hmmm, I see the 32 bit option, which my monitor is set to, but I don't see a dynamic range option. That might be a real issue because I don't see colours well at all, never have. Also, since I now live in Florida, my home is much brighter compared to when I lived in Canada.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Hmmm, I see the 32 bit option, which my monitor is set to, but I don't see a dynamic range option. That might be a real issue because I don't see colours well at all, never have. Also, since I now live in Florida, my home is much brighter compared to when I lived in Canada.

The option will only appear on hdmi. If you are using DVI or VGA it should be fine.

I use display port. I started the game but didn't go very far - though in my case I dind't have a darkness issue at least for the first 5 minutes i played while I looked for daddy.

Originally Posted by Kordanor
The option will only appear on hdmi. If you are using DVI or VGA it should be fine.

Metro: Exodus (PS4)

Just a couple of hours in, so far I like it.
The usual Metro quirks are in full force though: scripted events are very glitchy and the whole game has a slightly uneven feel.

Sadly, my gaming time is up for now - but I'll get a bit more in next weekend.

The Anthem day 1 patch looks really good - and will possibly fix the majority of the technical issues, including the worst one: long loading times.

That said, all the Frostbite engine games I've played have had long load times - so I doubt it will be entirely fixed.

But I don't see any reason to play anything BUT Anthem. It's definitely going to keep me busy until March 12 - when Division 2 arrives.

My first-world problem will be how to stick with one over the other, because they're too similar to be enjoyed simultaneously - I fear.

I'm kind of getting a bit tired of gaming right now. Serpent in the Staglands has an audio bug and other games aren't pulling me in. Might be time for a good break for awhile.

A break is good; I recommend you work on your push up - i hear if you manage to do 40 you will live forever.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
I'm kind of getting a bit tired of gaming right now. Serpent in the Staglands has an audio bug and other games aren't pulling me in. Might be time for a good break for awhile.

Risked ATOM RPG and to my surprise it's not bad at all. Earlygame.

The story is… Okay at best. Humor is cringy but at least it exists.
Stats, skills and perks are let's say okay, nothing fresh nor innovative there so it's kinda "been there, done that" boring, on the other hand it doesn't repeat FO3 fail by cutting "crazy wasteland" out and making a separate perk out of it.
There is no voiceover outside of cutscenes, but there are subtitles by default thank god.
Graphics is classic Unity trash, use of green while highlighting useables/containers is fail and will cause eyesbleed.
Combat mode is not hexagons any more which is kinda odd at first but I've adapted to it fast.

Earlygame you'll get the feeling it's Fallout 1 spinoff. FO1, not FO2. Which is kinda shame as I hoped for somewhat more epicness.
There is no handholding outside of marking points of interest on your worldmap by NPCs, but you can find all of these and even more by freeroam, just as in good old Fallouts.
Some things are too easy and some too hard on normal difficulty. Earlygame. Lockpicking? Seems you can break any lock. Pickpocket? Even 50 is not enough to pickpocket anything, I mean… WTF? The first kill someone quest for "lawful" character makes the duel not normal but superhard because you'll have pathetic weapons and only one bullet and the guy outlevels you - the only way to win it is reload and retry. For "nonlawful" character it's easy, you lie that you killed him and get a proper pistol with a bunch of bullets and then you can finish the job.

Quite a few quests can be finish in more than one way which is great.
I also love secrets and hard to spot stuff - there are a few early already. If you don't explore the first village thoroughly you'll miss a fisherman who gives you a sidequest where the reward is an absolutely awsome perk. Another very useful perk later you can learn by reading (use) a certain book - you don't have to steel this book to read it! There is a certain miniboss that doesn't like light (won't spoil!). Finally, there is a heavy stone I couldn't move probably because of not enough strength (waiting to find some +STR drugs).

Hunger system added to the game is kinda tedious. Not sure why devs did that, it's silly. You won't have a food problem at all so it's kinda pointless.

If you loved Fallout 1, ATOM RPG, especially at it's current price, is worth checking.
If you didn't love Fallout 1 but just liked it, can't recommend this one to you. Skippit and wait for it's sequel.

Meanwhile, although it's not something awsome, I'm having a blast with it.

I really want to play ATOM but I keep hearing that it is likely to get more patches/updates, so for now I'm still romping around Enderal. Considering the game cost me nothing, I'm having a great time, the fights are pretty tough and the story has me running from one quest to the next!