So, what're you playing?

[Mandella]

7 Days was turning into a giant time suck, so I decided to snag Dead Cells on sale and have been bouncing between that and Wreckfest for more defined sessions.

Wreckfest is by far the best racing game I've played since Race Car Destruction Set. So happy I got that one instead of Forza. I prefer old beaters to supercars, and navigating wrecks on a tarmac course just doesn't get old.

I know whatcha mean about 7 Days. I probably put another thirty hours in A20 before getting bored with zombies again, so I reinstalled Dying Light...

 

[Sky]

Dying Light is sitting at the top of my Steam recommended games in my library...seems like my kind of thing but not sure about 1st person parkour stuff. Last night I started up a new game of 7 Days with the new patch, it definitely helped the early game with a few more books (mailbox drops fixed) and less aloe cream (which was nice but I had a chest of it almost immediately on my previous save!). 7 Days nails my vibe of chill gameplay with nuggets of action like few other games have.

The new build system is bananas, I had been casting iron bars as usual for my first survival base and realized that bars are now an option in the shapes menu! So I can make a really nice ghetto starter base with cobble bars. Doesn't make sense but it's awesome and you can build a solid and also decent looking base starting day 1 now. I also got a workbench schem on day one from looting the broken workbench at the trader, so a definite solid start. I'm still down to explore the new POIs, there are just so many new and updated things.

[Mandella]

Yeah, I fortified a nice little auto shop right off the bat -- it's fine as long as no Horde Night. You need to advance the Living off the Land skill all the way up to get a reasonable amount of crops to grow though.

I think you might like Dying Light as the parkour stuff is done really well, and is fun to boot. It's another game where the main point is avoiding zombies instead of fighting them, but you get plenty of chances to fight too, and you can choose to lean to a violent build or a runner build, or mix it up.

You don't get to build stuff on the terrain though, although you can craft all sorts of interesting weapons. The emphasis is away from guns, although those do exist. They will also summon every zombie in town...

I quit playing "for a while" when they dropped in a bad patch that broke ziplining for some. That was in 2015. They seem to have fixed the problem as far as I can tell so far.

[Sky]

I get nervous about using POIs for bases, though in hindsight I could just cancel a quest that sent me to my base's POI (thus avoiding the POI reset). In A19, though, once my gamestage and trader level was a bit higher, I just used houses across the street from traders (I had 4 of the old 'cities' in a tight square, so I could load 4 quests up at a time). The first couple hordes, I always just get on top of a POI, they can rarely trash an entire POI in a night that early (assuming you havent pumped gamestage), though it does tend to mess up the POI really well.

The new zombie crawling ability (to squeeze through 1-block holes) has scared the crap out of me multiple times, which is refreshing in a game that has been around so long. I'd like to play this one at least long enough to get into drones, though as I tend to play a melee character that might be a while (it's been hard to multispec for years now).

[Sky]

I did give Dying Light a more serious try this weekend (had a surprise 3 day weekend thanks to snow, we NEVER used to close for snow!). I almost immediately remember what turned me off initially: their habit of taking over the camera and swinging it around wildly, inducing some nice nausea. It was still there, but it's worst in cut scenes. So I just kind of started poking around the city and found the playable zone that's initially open is pretty big and has lots to check out.

Learned a bit about traversal and fighting, probably leveled up a bit too much, as I got some more advanced zombies chasing me. Still not a huge fan of the parkour stuff, but thus far it hasn't shoved me into an unenjoyable chase sequence. Also likely need to stop messing around because I can't seem to unlock any new safe zones and it never turns to night :D 

[Mandella]

It's been so long since I started the game I have no memory of any cutscenes at all. So they don't even start the day/night cycle until you progress the story? Well the good news is once you get open world you can pretty much play it as you want, plus the camera just stays first person.

The main story isn't that bad though, so far.

[Sky]

So I'm 23 hours into Dying Light, having a lot of fun just exploring and finding secrets and stuff. Have yet to increment the Airdrop mission to start the night cycle 

I guess I should get around to playing the actual game at some point...

[Zetor]

Played through Cyberpunk 2077 -- surprisingly enjoyable overall, much better than I feared (based on the amount of hate it got at launch). I guess 15 months of patches were enough to fix most of the broken shit, even if I still saw a random t-posing NPC at some point and got randomly stuck in the ground 3 times (quicksave+quickload fixed it though). Overall I liked it better than the nu-Deus Ex games (this game has a lot more content and most of it is pretty damn good... though nu-Deus Ex still has the edge when it comes to set pieces), it was definitely worth the money.

... welp, according to Steam, a 40 (60?) gigabyte monster patch / rebalance / overhaul / etc for the game just dropped today. fml.

[Hawkbit]

Yeah, its the console version fix and pretty much the miracle patch we were hoping for. I waited to play it, so I'll be seeing as fresh.

Playing through HZD again, in preparation for HFW.

[Rasix]

I'll definitely give Cyberpunk another playthrough at some point. I liked it well enough for what it was, sure it was a mess, but it was pretty neat. Now it'll hopefully just be less shitty.

New PoE patch is fantastic. New bosses are maybe a bit undertuned, but so far I've just fought the story mode versions and this build has fairly high DPS uptime.

[Khaldun]

I finally pushed into Jedi: Fallen Order and I just cannot love it. It's not bad but it's not good either.

[Trippy]

Yeah there's way too much traversal and puzzle solving and not enough "pew pew voom voom" for my tastes. Also the protagonist has an extremely punchable-looking face.

[Sky]

I actually enjoyed Fallen Order quite a bit. I was replaying it on the new pc and remembered my one complaint. That ice world mine. The map system suuuucks and there is a certain point where I had most of it unlocked and could not for the life of me figure out how to get out of the stupid mine or find the next quest waypoint, even with online maps/walkthroughs. I almost quit the first time, and when I felt it happening again the second time (I can't remember what I did the first time!), I 'took a break' from the game (and haven't been back). I liked the overall balance of gameplay stuff without too much combat.

Speaking of things that bug me in video games, the keybinds in Dying Light might be what breaks me. I've been struggling (in my extended prologue play) to get all the stuff jammed into my basic wasd setup, even with a couple extra mouse buttons. Clearly designed for controllers but 100% not a game I would ever play with a controller. Bummer, because it's starting to grow on me the more I play it. But even with just a few combat moves opened up, it's awkward to control.

[Khaldun]

If nothing else I kept wanting that a Jedi who'd been trying to hide and working in a shipyard wouldn't be above throwing a few grenades now and again because fuuuuuck me there are so many places in that game where one grenade dropped on some fucking monster would help a ton. Yet another thing to hate the Jedi for: they'd rather see a padawan who is having to learn lightsabering by himself die than just chucking some explosives around here and there. I mean, the Jedi are ok with using blasters *in spaceships* so what's the problem with carrying a gun and some bombs for situations where that's the best thing?

[Cyrrex]

Clearly designed for controllers but 100% not a game I would ever play with a controller.

Why?  It plays great with a controller.

[Sky]

I do not like 1st person with a controller. Thumbsticks are garbage vs mouselook.

[Cyrrex]

I normally would agree, but I think there are rare exceptions.  Like this one.

[eldaec]

So I just finished Evil Genius 2.

It isn't very good.

Doesn't really have a game loop, resources are easy to come by, and the base is super easy to build to the point where it is 'good enough', then you just click on the schemes the game tells you to click on until you win.

[01101010]

Downloaded Outriders on XBOX game pass. Pretty fun... mostly a Destiny clone and has some pretty good depth to it for what it is.

[Samwise]

So I just finished Evil Genius 2.

It isn't very good.

Doesn't really have a game loop, resources are easy to come by, and the base is super easy to build to the point where it is 'good enough', then you just click on the schemes the game tells you to click on until you win.

I hovered over the button to buy it for a while, because I really liked the original, but after seeing the reviews decided I'd at least wait for a sale.  Womp womp.  Thanks for the confirmation.

[Trippy]

The base game is on Xbox Game Pass.

[Setanta]

Downloaded Outriders on XBOX game pass. Pretty fun... mostly a Destiny clone and has some pretty good depth to it for what it is.

I played since release - it's my go to when I'm sick of Destiny 2 and have OD on Warframe. I don't see it as a Destiny clone, it's quirky and janky but fun - I need to look at it again now that they updated it, previously I could run the T15 expeditions on the Technomancer any pyro with my other 2 classes being hit and miss on the timer. I think they've removed the timer now havent they?

[01101010]

Downloaded Outriders on XBOX game pass. Pretty fun... mostly a Destiny clone and has some pretty good depth to it for what it is.

I played since release - it's my go to when I'm sick of Destiny 2 and have OD on Warframe. I don't see it as a Destiny clone, it's quirky and janky but fun - I need to look at it again now that they updated it, previously I could run the T15 expeditions on the Technomancer any pyro with my other 2 classes being hit and miss on the timer. I think they've removed the timer now havent they?

I literally just started playing Sunday and have each of the 'classes' to 13-15ish so I have no idea. I equated it to Destiny given the main hub area and the zone to the open area with mob encounters as you move thru along with the loot drops and abilities determined by class and what you add to your active use slots. Actually like this game better than Destiny for whatever reason... but I am not playing it seriously for progression, mostly just to shoot stuff and use some cool abilities. You know, the filthy casual type gameplay. 

[Rasix]

PoE league has been pretty great. The new atlas is waaaaaay better than the conqueror expansion. I'm at 115/117 completion without a lot of effort put into it. New bosses are accessible in their story mode versions and the the actual versions aren't much harder (if at all if you don't roll the invitations). Currency and map sustain have been super easy. The atlas passive tree is also fanastic if you just want to blast maps without much thought. You can easily tailor it to whatever you want to run.

I've also been really lucky this league compared to past leagues. This mostly affects a future big budget character as my explosive arrow ballista hierophant worked with pretty low budget. I also got lucky in that I dropped a some decent gear for it and managed to 6 link a Hyri's Ire in only a few fusings.

I'm leaning towards trying Elden Ring. I guess. I haven't really played much of a Soulsborne since my imported Demon's Souls on the PS3. 

[Rasix]

To continue, I think I may need to stop playing clicky ARPGs for a while. I'm having some wrist/hand issues that just seem to be getting progressively worse. I'm not sure if it's due to playing tennis, a small fall where I landed awkwardly, or the PoE leaguestart that's the main culprit, but I think the combination of the 3 has put me in a bad spot. At least playing Elden Ring doesn't seem to exacerbate it.

 

[Phildo]

The most my wrist has ever ached was after spending some time playing through the Mass Effect trilogy when the anthology dropped last year.  Had to take a few days off to recover, should've played it with a controller as god intended.

[Rendakor]

Outriders felt like Destiny + Gears of War, yet somehow worse than either. I was playing it for a few days because it's on XGP, but it just didn't grab me.

[Setanta]

Outriders felt like Destiny + Gears of War, yet somehow worse than either. I was playing it for a few days because it's on XGP, but it just didn't grab me.

Give it another go is my only advice. I sank over 500 hours into it I enjoyed it so much. And that's before the QoL patches kicked in. I was Soloing T15 content with one of each class and having a ball.

In the meantime, I bought the Destiny 2 expansion and just can't get into it. It seems I just don't care enough anymore about the game.

[Falconeer]

Loved Outriders. More than The Division, which I also liked a lot, and way more than Destiny 1 or 2. It's my "hidden gem award" from the last couple of years.

[Samwise]

I've been playing Starcraft 2 (the single-player campaign), having had it on my to-do list ever since it came out... 12 years ago?  Fuck, it's been longer since SC2 came out than it was in between when SC2 came out and when I was playing SC1 and occasionally writing for battlereports.com.  Not sure what inspired me to finally install it, but it's been a fun nostalgia trip, uncanny-valley cinematics and all.

[Count Nerfedalot]

No Man's Sky - just finished Expedition 5.  You get a cool sentinel quad companion as the final reward.  And you are forced to learn to tame and use pets, which turn out to be at least marginally useful sometimes, which is more than I expected!    Though I did have more fun just collecting wildly exotic cool looking critters just for giggles than trying to get any utility out of them.  I would love to be able to deploy all of them as zoo exhibits or minimally active pets in bases and freighters or something.

Wildermyth - very relaxing turn-based tactical, with interesting story-telling elements.  Great for just zoning out and chilling.

Thea:The Awakening - old-ish turn-based survival/4x ?  not sure how to categorize it, but it seems right up my alley, yet I never get very far in it before being distracted by something else.

Horizon: Forbidden West - The Countess and I are playing together on the couch again, passing the controller back and forth.  I do most of the combat, she does most of the jumping puzzles and such.  There seems to be no tutorial (or I'm just blind and not seeing it) and it is MUCH harder starting out than HZD.  Controller-throwing walk away to cool off hard.  Or maybe I just suck due to age. Not having even turned on the PS4 since we finished the first run through HZD may be a contributing factor to the controller frustration. As was an apparently glitchy controller with several buttons that worked, oh, 90-95% of the time. But with no manual, no tutorial, and minimal in-game hints, it is super frustrating,  We have to youtube how to do something every hour it seems, and that is a PITA with our living room setup. If it wasn't for the graphics and story (neither quite as awe-inspiring the second time around though) I doubt we would continue, but so far it's still a little more fun than it is frustrating and hopefully we can learn the controls well enough to compensate for our ageing arthritic hands, slower reflexes and bad memories.

Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire - absolutely the best turn-based 4X ever.  Even with outdated graphics, embarrassingly stupid AI, and sometimes painfully crippled user interface which all too often will not let you see the information you most need to see when it's most relevant to a decision you are having to make.  The amount of detail and thought put into so many aspects of the game like the technology tree make it obvious this was a true labor of love.  Sadly, good, deep games with lots of work put into building a coherent and rich setting just don't provide enough return on the investment to be worth making anymore, or so it seems.  I hate that Brian Reynolds gave up on making good games and migrated to social media based crap, but guy's gotta make a living.

[Fraeg]

Lost Ark is uninstalled as is New World 

Have not played Guild Wars 2 in many years and have decided to give it a look

[Setanta]

I have the new Guild Wars 2 expansion, but the class changes (since I last played it in Vanilla) have changed so much that I'm lost. Also, I have no mount - there were none in game when I last played. I do have 2 of each class at 80, waiting for me to play again though.

[Trippy]

There seems to be no tutorial (or I'm just blind and not seeing it) and it is MUCH harder starting out than HZD.

The very initial section with Varl and the Far Zenith base was the basic tutorial. For combat the fighting pits all have tutorials based on which weapon types or moves (via the skill tree) you've unlocked. Talk to the dude and pick the tutorial section on the far left. The hunting grounds, while not exactly tutorials, will also let you practice certain techniques. I.e. if the weapons vendor sells a particular type of weapon there then one of the hunting challenge there will likely be associated with you using that weapon type.

[Sky]

I am still jamming with cyberpunk, I had been hoping to find something to distract me from the Elex 2 launch, just to wait out the inevitable first few patches. 2077 is just a redonk looking game with ultra ray traced stuff on. I'm kind of on the fence where I want a flashlight (cmon, I have swords in my arms, everything glows, can I get a light?) but also the dark lighting works so well for atmosphere that at this point I'm barely missing it. Doing a netrunner/stealth/blade build. Netrunner can be boring (clearing enemy camps from inside my car) if you play it that way, but I've been trying to integrate it into my corpo assassin stealth vibe and it really feels nice.