What games are you playing now?

Philistine said:

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.

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Playing a game two decades after it was released usually isn't going to leave the same impression.

True, noone plays tetris any more, everyone is on match3 decadence on phones now.

I've finally got around to playing the DLCs for The Outer Worlds.
Finished the "Gorgon" one, part way into the murder mystery one. I'm enjoying them. Just gotta ignore the loot more often, as it leads to unnecessary busywork that detracts from my enjoyment of the rest of it.

crpgnut said:

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

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I find that co-op increases the enjoyment of most survival games dramatically.

My son and I have been co-oping Generation Zero, a game that is the very definition of style over substance, but we've had some pretty epic moments defending an abandoned house or church from psychotic robots. Having a wingman means you can feel a bit more confident about taking risks, and great moments can arise from that.

I'm a few days into Cris Tales now, and while such parts of the game are a bit too action-y for me, notably the possible additional attack/parry devices, for right now I'm sticking it out. The exploration is fun and the character interactions are pretty amusing, while the combat mechanics are tough even without the quick time gimmicks.

JDR13 said:

Playing a game two decades after it was released usually isn't going to leave the same impression.

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I wasn't comparing it to today's games. I suppose my biggest issue is how little content there is for an open world rpg. I finished it in 40 hours, but many finish it in 20. Morrowind I only completed once, because I forced myself to quit because I kept restarting with new character ideas.

Philistine said:

I wasn't comparing it to today's games. I suppose my biggest issue is how little content there is for an open world rpg. I finished it in 40 hours, but many finish it in 20. Morrowind I only completed once, because I forced myself to quit because I kept restarting with new character ideas.

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Even if you're not consciously comparing it to today's games, playing a game for the first time 20 years after it was released isn't going to be the same as playing it back then.

Personally, I think Gothic has aged better than Morrowind, but I played both of them at release. Neither of them are going to impress anyone today though.

I'm still romping around in Cris Tales, ran into a named that had me switch out a party member and level someone else up, because I thought it might work better than the lame mage. There are some issues with the game, characters coming and going after you've spent time gearing and leveling them up, which isn't super-friendly. I want to see how it all ends because the main story and side quests are interesting, so finish line here I come!

Recently bought Mass Effect Legendary Edition, in order to finally play ME3. Finished up some leftover DLCs from ME2, including the Shadow Broker. Cinematics, character and story presentation, as well as NPC interaction were just as fantastic as I remembered them. The gameplay was repetitive though, side missions felt lifeless and after a few sessions and the rush of playing, I often had a guilty feeling of having wasted my time.

So instead of transitioning into ME3 I switched to ELEX. It's big and a bit of a slow burn, but much more enjoyable in the long run. Exploring, interacting with characters in the world and experiencing the story bits feels much more rewarding, so after each long session I usually feel like it was time well spent.

I don't blame you for not continuing with Mass junk three, that's when I bailed on the franchise and demanded a refund. You'll have a lot more fun with Elex!!

After finishing Cris Tales today, next up for me will be Final Fantasy three, the new pixel version. I got this some time ago, so it should have no issues with needing updates or such. The last time I played this game was six years ago so I'm looking forward to getting back into this!

Liking Gothic 2 a lot with much more to do. Just started Chapter 2 after clearing the map of all creatures except Wargs, Shadowbeasts, the Black Troll, and the "Snorting Beast". I was L11. I've seen that some get to L20 - I have no idea how that is possible!

Call me a pervert or something, but I'm having a great time with Stranger of Paradise: FF Origin (XSX)

The game gets a lot of undeserved flak, which I think is due to two factors:
- extremely bad release timing (Elden Ring, anyone?)
- stupid gamer "expectations" (more on this later)

About the timing:
YES, this is a Soulslike game, and I think it is perfectly OK to play along with Elden Ring: ER is open-world and depressing, while SoP is linear and bombastic.
Needless to say, SoP is very competent in the gameplay department, as expected from the creators of Nioh and may other great action games.

About the expectations:
YOU NEED AN OPEN MIND to really enjoy SoP.
The game is not your average jRPG melodrama. In fact, SoP is one of the most meta satires I've ever played (think Stanley Parable, or Deadly Premonition). The game satirizes just about everything: Final Fantasy, the Souls-genre, the player, loot whoring, you name it. This is a very clever, very funny game -- and like the best jokes, the intellectual wit is hidden behind the dumbass delivery.

All in all: Team Ninja did the same in SoP as they did in Metroid: Other M (another great game with undeservedly bad reputation). A clever deconstruction of an established game, DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE BRAINDEAD HARDCORE.

For The Warp!!
How games should be done. ==> The devs openly said that they delivered the full game and not much will change after v1.0! YES! This is exemplary development! Finally I found a game that is FINISHED FOR GOOD! So there is no danger of new features I'll never see, if I now play the game to the end and features will be added later.

Fun, excellent design. QoL features. Don't understand the mostly negative recent reviews??

Of course I cheated the hell out of the game by giving money and often quit the game to heal up my ship. Recently since I only missed two bosses in different paths / systems, I concentrated on finding those two bosses to enjoy the last bit of fun visual morsel this game can offer. I beat them, they were amazing and now the game is finished. DONE!

It was a really nice short game!

Philistine said:

Liking Gothic 2 a lot with much more to do. Just started Chapter 2 after clearing the map of all creatures except Wargs, Shadowbeasts, the Black Troll, and the "Snorting Beast". I was L11. I've seen that some get to L20 - I have no idea how that is possible!

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Did you clear all the orcs around the Old camp? I think last time I played that is where I got most of my levels by clearing every single one of them. I must warn you though that is does make the rest of the game fairly easy if you do it.

bjon045 said:

Did you clear all the orcs around the Old camp? I think last time I played that is where I got most of my levels by clearing every single one of them. I must warn you though that is does make the rest of the game fairly easy if you do it.

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You mean inside the Valley of the Mines? No you don't get access without cheating until Chapter 2. There are 3 I think around Khorinis, and I killed the scout, but not the others in Chapter 1. I just finished the Jharkendar and reached L21. Entering VOM today. I have decided not to use the Claw of Beliar for rp reasons.

Since I've been binging Walking Dead stuff for the past few months, I thought I'd give the TellTale Walking Dead games a try, since I heard a lot of good stuff about it years ago, but never touched it. And it's been on my list for forever.

And, I'm not really feeling it with the game. I'm likely not in the mood right now, for this sort of game, but I'm also a bit surprised at how rudimentary it all feels. I can accept that it's basically an adventure game with plot decisions, but it feels so streamlined and railroaded, that there is so little to explore in most environments. Of course, I haven't even finished Episode 1, of Season 1, so I'm not gonna take a definite stand on it. I'll likely get back to it later on, when I'm more in the mood for this sort of game.

Also, another thing I find very weird is the mood of the game. Could be due to the graphical style, but I'm feeling a lot less depressive mood. It's kind of hard to take it very seriously.

danutz_plusplus said:

Since I've been binging Walking Dead stuff for the past few months, I thought I'd give the TellTale Walking Dead games a try, since I heard a lot of good stuff about it years ago, but never touched it. And it's been on my list for forever.

And, I'm not really feeling it with the game. I'm likely not in the mood right now, for this sort of game, but I'm also a bit surprised at how rudimentary it all feels. I can accept that it's basically an adventure game with plot decisions, but it feels so streamlined and railroaded, that there is so little to explore in most environments. Of course, I haven't even finished Episode 1, of Season 1, so I'm not gonna take a definite stand on it. I'll likely get back to it later on, when I'm more in the mood for this sort of game.

Also, another thing I find very weird is the mood of the game. Could be due to the graphical style, but I'm feeling a lot less depressive mood. It's kind of hard to take it very seriously.

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I finished the first season but didn't find it compelling enough to get the others when they were released. It doesn't change much after the first episode as far as being a railroaded experience. It's all about the story and the decisions you're allowed to make.

If you're still in a TWD mood, and don't mind something more actiony, look for a copy of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. It's a first-person shooter where you play as Daryl, and it's voiced by Norman Reedus. It's not a great game by any standard, but I found it fun in a braindead sort of way.

Telltale games are extremely railroaded. They make a big deal of how impactful your decisions are but it's really a complete lie. The only thing that will ultimately vary in any of them is 20% of the dialogue.

When I played WD season 1, I was at the point where I was still allowing myself to think that choices mattered, so I enjoyed it. Probably the only Telltale game I'd recommend now* is Tales from the Borderlands. It's still railroaded, but the characters, story, etc are the best they ever produced, imo.

* The only Telltale game I'd recommend from the games that became associated with Telltale. They started out by making traditional point and clicks, and I'd still recommend those, particularly the Sam & Max ones.

Telltale games make for good Let's Play watches on Youtube, beings as they are mostly short films and its fun seeing why people choose different dialogue options (when they don't change much/anything). I watched the last series of Telltale's Walking Dead on Youtube and it was a good experience to nod off to at night, had a good bedtime story vibe.