What games are you playing now?

Pladio said:

Les goûts et les couleurs ne se discutent pas as the francophones would say.

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Très bien, mon ami!

Alors buvons, mon ami!

Taking a small break from Everquest two, and rolled a new character on the Aradune server for Everquest one. Since I was fortunate enough to have met Brad twice, it seemed the right thing to do. The server got off to quite the rocky start, but eventually I got my nifty rogue up to fifty in a matter of a few days. I'll likely be going back to EQ2 once the Kunark expansion is released....or re-released, depending on how you look at it.

Having tried out a few Switch high-profile remasters (Bioshock and The Outer Worlds) -- and disappointed…
… I reverted back to the tough-but-wonderful SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions.
Poured over 100 hours in it, so it officially joins Skyrim, Zelda and Picross for the most played game on my humble Switch.

Cannot praise it enough, try it out if you like:
- simple, tactical and extremely brutal turn-based battles (absolutely no trashmobs here!)
- abundance of choices and consequences
- well-realized lore and gameworld
- party player customization options
- lots of gameplay systems neatly interlocked
- excellent non-linear exploration
- simple but spot-on presentation
- great music
- witty dialogs

Do NOT play this game if you are:
- short tempered - gameplay relies on experimentation and RNG-based improvisation
- like dramatic stories - the story is decidedly back-seat here
- want to re-experience D&D, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, etc, etc -- this is a VASTLY different game, no comfy shoes effect here
- like next-gen presentation - this game was born on mobile (Joxer: INFIDEL!!!!!), so it is functional instead of flashy.

For me, this game functions as the niche RPG for the hardest of the hardcore of this decade, as Wizardry did back in the 80's.

Stronghold HD is proving to be a real champion for me. I've now fully completed the primary Military Campaign, the primary Economic Campaign and am now working through the Economic Missions, with just a couple or so left. Then there's still lots more content available in all the siege and defence scenarios. I've been in the game for weeks now and still have weeks of content left to look forward to.

The only mission I had to check up a walkthrough so far was for the infamous Mission 15 of the Military Campaign which, apparently, has been made much harder by the HD version and is one that seems to be almost universally 'looked up' by anyone who plays it. Pick any forum discussing the game and there's a tread or two on this mission.

Other than that, it's surprising how much depth the simple game mechanics can provide, constantly challenging you to think outside the box and work out how to defeat a seemly impossible scenario.

The one I'm currently on is just called The Wolves, one of the last economic standalone missions, and I've lost this map about five times so far. I'm not giving in yet, but I had a sneak preview of thread titles on a general google search to research how many other people had problems with this map [but not reading any content yet]. It would seem only one person on the planet has even talked about this mission to the outside world, one Youtuber who's done them all on Very Hard difficulty. Well, thank heavens for that guy, he's there if I need him!

"The People Woooorship you, m'lord!"... "The People are UnSURE of you, m'lord"... "The People HATE you, m'looord".

"Granary stocks are dwindling my lord."

"Workers needed"

"Archers... READY"

"There is a fiirre in the castle m'lord"

"The enemy has Breached the walls Sire!"... "The enemy is upon us, m'lord!"

[Yes, it has amazingly perfect voice acting all round].

Stronghold was indeed fantastic. I remember loving the campaign, and as generic as the enemies you would battle, seem at first (The Pig, The Wolf, etc), surprisingly I still kind of remember their temperament and mannerisms.

I just started my playthrough of

The Last of Us Part 2

I'm only an hour into it, and I've put it down right at a moment when things seem to be ratcheting up towards something awful. I wanted to get into it right after the launch, but I'm too tired to fully enjoy it, so I'll leave it for tomorrow.

But it's looking pretty great. Graphics, sound and gameplay are pretty much top notch. But that's not the worrying part. I'm curious but also a bit scared about the story. I think the drama with the leaks has gotten to me, at least a little bit. I don't remember ever going into a game with dread.

We shall see. I'm not upposed to a divisive plot, as long as I feel it's earned.

I've reached a particular plot point in The Last of Us Part 2. One that is sure to be divisive as hell. After a couple of hours processing what happened. I think my review of it is: Masterfully done, but now I am empty inside. Seriously, I felt all my energy drain out of me, and just wanted to sleep.

But after some hours, I think I'm better. And I think I like what they did. But I'm not done with the game. I've still got a long way to go. But one hell of a boot up the arse. Some are really gonna hate it.

One thing is for sure. Neil Druckmann has balls of steel. And I wonder if the studio and Sony are gonna hate him for it. They don't care about risky decisions. They likely care more about not challenging their audience, and keeping them happy and content.

danutz_plusplus said:

I just started my playthrough of

The Last of Us Part 2

I'm only an hour into it, and I've put it down right at a moment when things seem to be ratcheting up towards something awful. I wanted to get into it right after the launch, but I'm too tired to fully enjoy it, so I'll leave it for tomorrow.

But it's looking pretty great. Graphics, sound and gameplay are pretty much top notch. But that's not the worrying part. I'm curious but also a bit scared about the story. I think the drama with the leaks has gotten to me, at least a little bit. I don't remember ever going into a game with dread.

We shall see. I'm not upposed to a divisive plot, as long as I feel it's earned.

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I hope you're having a great fun
The current metascore for TLoU2 is 95/100, with 94 critic reviews and a lot of 100s. Damn, my physical copy will take ages to arrive.

henriquejr said:

The current metascore for TLoU2 is 95/100, with 94 critic reviews and a lot of 100s. Damn, my physical copy will take ages to arrive.

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I'm going to start using Opencritic instead of Metacritic, because I can't stand the user score system. It's pointless. Almost everyone just rates everything a 0 or a 10, narrow-minded agendas about, and half of the scores pop up before the people posting them could have played a fraction of the game. I don't give a shit whether one thinks TLoU2 is a great game or a disappointment or whatever, on no planet it is a 3.3 game out of 10.

I'm about to play Warhammer: Chaosbane. I had it on my wish list for awhile, but apparently it really sucked when it was first released. But now, they have done alot of patching and added a lot of content for free, and so I'm taking advantage of a great offer on steam.

Not only is the game 65% off, (under $20) but you can try it out for free over the weekend on steam right now, a "play for free" type deal that steam does sometimes for various games.

henriquejr said:

I hope you're having a great fun
The current metascore for TLoU2 is 95/100, with 94 critic reviews and a lot of 100s. Damn, my physical copy will take ages to arrive.

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I'll be curious to hear your opinion.

I'm about 7h into it, but I've not gotten very far since I literally explore everything. That's one thing this game has got in spades. The atmosphere and exploration and environmental storytelling is unmatched. Regardless of what you think about the story, all other elements are superb. I could spend forever exploring crumbled buildings, abandoned structures and underground facilities.

I'm still awful at the shooting part, and most cases if all hell breaks loose, I need to cheese it and run around, trying to melee enemies as much as possible, and then try and use a shotgun. I'm hopeless with a pistol or anything that requires precision. I am playing on Hard, since I don't want it too easy. But I have repeated a lot of combat set pieces. One thing that this one does way better than the first game is how frequent the save points are, if you don't leave the game. Most of the time that is. Other times it does seem to restart your whole combat setpiece.

And oh, man does it look gorgeous. I don't think I've seen foliage and trees/grass as lush as in this game. Amazing.

danutz_plusplus said:

One thing is for sure. Neil Druckmann has balls of steel. And I wonder if the studio and Sony are gonna hate him for it. They don't care about risky decisions. They likely care more about not challenging their audience, and keeping them happy and content.

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It hit me hard, especially during the "coat" scene afterwards. I don't understand people who read this in the leak and proclaimed worst game ever, though. I will at the very least see the story through before I decide how good it is.

I'm sure the studio is 100% behind the game and Druckmann's direction, considering he's one of the main decision makers at said studio. Have you watched the documentary about the making of the first Last of Us? Good stuff. Naughty Dog isn't comprised of pencil-pushing non-creatives.

Sony, I'm sure they will love him in direct proportion to how well the game does financially. Naughty Dog has been a big feather in Sony's cap. Exclusives that receive awards and critical praise AND sell well. What's not to like? Not to mention the upcoming HBO show.

On a different note, I can't even imagine what Naughty Dog will be able to do with the PS5. The graphics are astounding. I knew they would be, having recently played Uncharted 4, but still. My heart catches in my throat sometimes, the characters can look so realistic, especially when the camera isn't directly on them.
And the environments, yeah. The level of detail they layer their games with is nonpareil.

JFarrell71 said:

I'm going to start using Opencritic instead of Metacritic, because I can't stand the user score system. It's pointless. Almost everyone just rates everything a 0 or a 10, narrow-minded agendas about, and half of the scores pop up before the people posting them could have played a fraction of the game. I don't give a shit whether one thinks TLoU2 is a great game or a disappointment or whatever, on no planet it is a 3.3 game out of 10.

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Yeah, I also don't get how Metacritic users in general rate this game 3.3/10. That's why I cited in my response above only the metascore.

danutz_plusplus said:

I'll be curious to hear your opinion.

I'm about 7h into it, but I've not gotten very far since I literally explore everything. That's one thing this game has got in spades. The atmosphere and exploration and environmental storytelling is unmatched. Regardless of what you think about the story, all other elements are superb. I could spend forever exploring crumbled buildings, abandoned structures and underground facilities.

I'm still awful at the shooting part, and most cases if all hell breaks loose, I need to cheese it and run around, trying to melee enemies as much as possible, and then try and use a shotgun. I'm hopeless with a pistol or anything that requires precision. I am playing on Hard, since I don't want it too easy. But I have repeated a lot of combat set pieces. One thing that this one does way better than the first game is how frequent the save points are, if you don't leave the game. Most of the time that is. Other times it does seem to restart your whole combat setpiece.

And oh, man does it look gorgeous. I don't think I've seen foliage and trees/grass as lush as in this game. Amazing.

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i'll be posting my impressions as soon as I get it. but again, I'm pretty sure it will take quite some time to arrive at my home. I kinda "preodered" it - I mean, I redeemed some points from an air miles program in which I participate for this game (note: I don't know if this last sentence makes sense, I dont know the correct expression used for those programs where you accumulate mileage points for flying). Until now, I haven't received any e-mails telling me the game has been dispatched

As for exploration, I also like this feature. The first game has some degree of exploration though not so heavy. But I always liked to think "If they make a proper The Walking Dead game where you enter houses and buildings scavenging for ammo, foods, etc, they could start from here, from this kind of exploration TLoU already has and improve it". If you're telling me TLoU2 has lots of exploratory areas, more deeper than the first game, then I already fell in love with it

As for shooting enemies, I'm not also the "best trigger in the Old West"

henriquejr said:

If you're telling me TLoU2 has lots of exploratory areas, more deeper than the first game, then I already fell in love with it

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Not immediately, but yes, it opens up. It is not a strictly linear "tunnel" game like the first (or the Uncharted games)

Just popped in to say I hate aiming with controllers. With a passion. I almost broke my headphones due to these stupid things. Slugish as fuck when you want the cursor to move, and then you can't stop due to inertia. Worst peripheral ever. Whoever came up with it should have his professional license removed.

Why the fuck won't console developers also adopt keyboard and mouse as an option. The PS4 supports it, but it's also up to individual devs to do so. But why doesn't Sony force its first-party developers to do it, if they officially support k&m.

I know I might be in a fit of rage right now, but I'm seriously considering just spoiling the whole plot for myself, and avoiding all the frustration which comes with aiming on these fucking things.

That's it. That's my rant.

EDIT: And before anyone recommends those adapters that adapt k&m input to controller, they don't seem to work very good. At least the one I got is all over the place with consistency. And it also doesn't help that all in-game prompts are using the controller buttons.

Sony and the other devs should absolutely be ashamed of themselves. It would take absolute minimal effort to make the game work perfectly on k&m. Multi hundred million dollar game budgets, and they don't make it work on a k&m. Fuck that. But they like to show off how accessible their game is. And how sightless people can play it. But they can't do support for a fucking mouse? This just proves that all that inclusiveness that they constantly tout in marketing is just bullshit.

Ok, decided to no longer fight the system, but work with it. I decided to stop engaging enemies head-on, and just use aimable weapons as little as possible. It's working fine so far. I'll see further on how this works, I knew this was the way to go, especially in a stealth-based game, but I guess my patience was limited and my irritability was high.

And I'm back to loving the game. I still dread combat encounters, but at least the save system is more forgiving sometimes.

Juggling through the first tomb raider reboot, v rally 4 and warhammer chaosbane.

I'm playing the same games I always play: Morrowind and Mount & Blade only now I've switched from Warband to Bannerlord.

An Elder Scrolls game? Wow, that IS retro. I hear they're going to try and bring that franchise back from the dead sometime in the next few years. Dunno if it'll be any good though, all the original people involved have probably moved on.