So, what're you playing?

[Mosesandstick]

Yup, the first one is wit the Mako (the truck) and lots and lots of driving. Not sure if you could get around it with mods on PC.

If ME3 had a better ending I'd be tempted to replay the series, I missed out on ME1 and ME2 DLC and it'd be interesting to have a FemShep experience. Though I also wouldn't want to experience the Mako driving.

[Cyrrex]

You say that like Shep isn't already obviously a female.

[Mosesandstick]

That's a good point I picked a male Shepherd because it seemed like the default in ME1 and never changed after.

[Rasix]

I'm playing too much.

Animal Crossing is pretty much in maintenance mode. I just play for the daily visitors, recipes, and fossils. New month, so there's new bugs/fish.

I bought Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition for Switch and have played a little bit. It's what I remember it being when I played it on the Wii. It's a bit better looking than my memory, but I've only been playing it undocked. I don't really ever play it on the TV anymore.

Persona 5 Royal is great, but the Okumura fight in this one is complete balls. I don't remember it being this hard in the original. It's timed as well, which sucks when you haven't memorized the wacky buff and debuff names.

I downloaded Factorio. Ohh boy, that was a mistake. I stayed up an hour later than I meant to last night. I'm doing the campaign, but is there a "recommended" way to play this or should I just continue on with the campaign for learning the ropes?

[Trippy]

You say that like Shep isn't already obviously a female.

Jennifer Hale is indeed best Shep.

[Sky]

I'm in post-awesome game swampland. Days Gone was just amazing but trying to find a new jam to follow up is tough.

I /loved/ Mafia 2 (and 1 but 2 was a gem), so I sucker bit on the new bundle. Only ragret is that the PS4 port is the laziest and the PS4 Pro version is a massive downgrade to the point of being broken (and it also downgraded some of 3, oddly). So I shelved that in hopes it gets a fix/performance patch combo.

Tried The Last of Us, but it's feeling wicked dated after just finishing DG. And after playing through some of Mafia 2 and 3, the stealth/cover combat thing is feeling old (DG uses it a lot as well, but has a ton of freedom in allowing you to avoid it pretty regularly).

I ended up back in minecraft for a while, playing MC Eternal which is a pretty good pack. But I hit the same wall where I need to do a huge grind to get some stuff unlocked and it's just tiring (though Eternal is better than a lot of dickpunchers like Project Ozone). I got turned off when I realized he's disabled all the creative flight items. I'm happy I cheated to check it out, because the new magical crops replacement is even grindier than the original (now with broken agricraft/waila crop data). Blah, but at least I didn't waste a month grinding to supremium gear to find out it was well and truly disabled.

Someone was playing No Man's Sky on steam so I decided to fire that up and I've been putzing around a bit there. It lacks the balance of Days Gone for 'chill vs tense', but it does the chill stuff fairly well.

At this point I'll probably just head back to DG, though I might try a new game, as the NG+ feels a bit too OP, even for me (I tend to enjoy OP stuff). Was hoping for a good PS+ selection this month, but meh shooters meh thumbsticks meh.

[Trippy]

Tried The Last of Us, but it's feeling wicked dated after just finishing DG.

The mechanics in The Last of Us have never felt good. Many/most people end up playing through it on the easiest difficult just to experience the story.

[01101010]

Tried The Last of Us, but it's feeling wicked dated after just finishing DG.

The mechanics in The Last of Us have never felt good. Many/most people end up playing through it on the easiest difficult just to experience the story.

Gave up after not being able to figure out how to aim and shoot a gun without drifting all over... At least it was free on PSplus.

[Trippy]

Yeah the gun sway is a problem especially if you aren't already used to console shooter controls.

[Sky]

It amplified how good Days Gone really was. I hate console shooters and DG was fun as heck. Can't overstate how much the motion aiming helped (since I'm already a 'leaner').

[01101010]

Yeah the gun sway is a problem especially if you aren't already used to console shooter controls.

Yeah but I never had issues in other shooters like Division or Destiny. Last of Us just felt completely foreign.

[Trippy]

Those games don't have the same kind of intentional "let's making shooting awkward to simulate a panic situation" design. It's the same thing as Capcom using the crappy unresponsive tank-like controls in most of their Resident Evil games even when they know how to do it better (see: Devil May Cry).

Edit: I say intentional cause you only need to look at Naughty Dog's own Uncharted series to see that they intentionally made shooting in TLOU feel awkward.

[Draegan]

I really don't have any games that I'm playing.

POE is most likely done until the new league now. Did a few things late and I'm satisfied.
Monster Train is great, I'll probably load it up again.
Dota Underlords desire to play comes and goes and it's basically gone right now.

I need to play Breath of the Wild on switch I guess.

[Falconeer]

I'm playing Phantasy Star Online 2.

Phantasy Star is one of my favourite franchises/settings ever (mostly the offline games, specifically 1, 2 and 4), and the game is a very Japanese thing, with fun action combat and enough loot mechanics. It is not a great game, but it's a good time waster while allowing me to reminisce on the old classics.

EDIT: Coincidentally, I am killing time while waiting for The Last of Us 2, which is due in 15 days. Put me in the camp that considers the first Last of Us a fantastic game.

[Sky]

Does The Last of Us ever give me a minimap? I put in another session last night, and other than fighting the controls, the lack of direction and just looking around for an open window or whatever to figure out where I'm supposed to be going is getting really aggravating. In one section, I just ran past everything as fast as possible because while I was trying to magically figure out the route my character clearly knew I kept getting discovered by enemies while I was trying to stealth around. Dudes just constantly popping up behind me.

Kind of wish I had tried playing this before Days Gone!

edit: or even a map screen. I know it's a linear game, but I hate games without maps!

[Trippy]

No in-game map.

[Rasix]

No in-game map.

Not all games can be Days Gone. As far as I remember, isn't Last of Us completely linear?

Factorio really is something. I haven't played a game that just gobbles up your time like this in a while.

[Hawkbit]

I made it 1/3 through TLOU before I quit, and I remember it being very linear like Uncharted. I appreciate the visual appeal of this style of game but I don’t care for the actual gameplay.

I’m trying to figure out it TLOU2 is linear or open world and can’t determine from the early info.

[Falconeer]

The gameplay was nothing special but the story and mise-en-scène are what made it the masterpiece that it was.

[Sky]

The gameplay was nothing special but the story and mise-en-scène are what made it the masterpiece that it was.

That's why I'm hanging in there for a bit. Also Days Gone helped give me more early game stamina because it took a while to lure me in.

The main screen when TLOU boots up is one of the best things ever, too. I'd love that for a screen saver, but I've wanted full game engine screen savers since the 3d blaster came out.

[Trippy]

I’m trying to figure out it TLOU2 is linear or open world and can’t determine from the early info.

From what I understand it's kind of in-between. It's a lot more open than the first but it's not Ubisoft-levels of openness.

The Last of Us Part II - Inside the Gameplay | PS4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NdGeJNB5eY&has_verified=1#t=5m16s (age restricted)

[Mandella]

Does The Last of Us ever give me a minimap? I put in another session last night, and other than fighting the controls, the lack of direction and just looking around for an open window or whatever to figure out where I'm supposed to be going is getting really aggravating. In one section, I just ran past everything as fast as possible because while I was trying to magically figure out the route my character clearly knew I kept getting discovered by enemies while I was trying to stealth around. Dudes just constantly popping up behind me.

Kind of wish I had tried playing this before Days Gone!

edit: or even a map screen. I know it's a linear game, but I hate games without maps!

Yeah I tried it right after playing Horizon Zero Dawn. Big mistake.

I plan to go back and finish it one day, probably on easy.

[Cyrrex]

The gameplay was nothing special but the story and mise-en-scène are what made it the masterpiece that it was.

That's why I'm hanging in there for a bit. Also Days Gone helped give me more early game stamina because it took a while to lure me in.

The main screen when TLOU boots up is one of the best things ever, too. I'd love that for a screen saver, but I've wanted full game engine screen savers since the 3d blaster came out.

Yeah, I would agree with the “masterpiece” designation, and it had nothing to do with the gameplay (which I thought was fine for the time, but not sure I could manage it for another complete go-around).  If you are a sappy bitch like me, it will hit you right in the feels. 

I am kicking around the idea of another playthrough, just to get ready for the next one.

[Sky]

Thus far TLOU has at least been pretty respectful of my time with checkpoints around combat. The amount of times random dudes have magically showed up on my 6 has been ludicrous, the combat is so bad. I can take it in small doses, but it sucks that what otherwise seems like a pretty good (if linear af) game is hampered by the actual game part.

[Samwise]

as I'm sure I've said here before, TLOU is a great zombie movie with a mediocre game shoved into it.

[Rasix]

There are enjoyable bits of gameplay, but then there are some clacker sections that are pretty miserable. Joel beasting on humans tend to be some of the brighter moments. It's rather chilling when someone tells you "Ok Joel, go do your thing", when your thing is "murdering people with relative ease".

Factorio is gobbling up time like it's a early 2000s MMO. There's so many "how can I?" moments. Part of this is tutorial campaign mission being woefully inadequate in expressing just all of the shit you can do.

P5 Royal is getting to the juicy parts. I completely forgot about how this ends. I do remember it kind of going on forever, but we'll see. I've got 11 days to finish this.

[Hawkbit]

I wrapped as much AC Greece as I could stomach. I really liked the final DLC for the first night and then just lost the desire to ever log in again.

So now I’m giving Days Gone another shot based on Sky’s tips. It’s pretty good, but it’s almost too tense. There’s at least four different groups of folks that want to kill me and one of them is all over the map and never goes away. I would not last long if this game was irl.

[Riggswolfe]

ME3's ending still infuriates me and is the moment that I now consider the first definitive sign that Bioware was losing its mojo. Now I've given up on them altogether.

I just finished the Outer Wilds thanks to Gamepass. I highly recommend it. Note, this isn't the Outer Worlds which I also enjoyed. Outer Wilds is a game that is very hard to describe. It's a space game that is a combination puzzle solver and mystery. No action. No gun play. Pure exploration and problem solving. And the ending is...well, I won't say just in case any of you try it.

I'm about to start Resident Evil 3 since it was on sale. Mostly pure nostaliga for me. Also dabbled in Dragon's Dogma recently but stopped playing. The game just feels like it has too much walking across the map and the constant fights got old for me.

[Velorath]

Outer Wilds is supposed to hit Steam on the 18th so I'll be playing it around then, unless it ends up on the PC gamepass.

Waiting for a bigger sale on RE3 since I've heard it's pretty short.

[Rasix]

Outer Wilds just didn't click with me. I really hated the controls. It's odd because a lot of people really love that game. I'll give it another shot one day, because I bought it and I don't think I got my money worth yet.

Factorio is great, but the free play is just OK. I could use a bit more direction I guess.

[Sky]

Factorio is great, but the free play is just OK. I could use a bit more direction I guess.

That's why I like "quest"-based minecraft. You can pretty much ignore the quest book if you want, but when you hit a lull it can provide you some ideas of what to mess with next.

[Riggswolfe]

Outer Wilds just didn't click with me. I really hated the controls. It's odd because a lot of people really love that game. I'll give it another shot one day, because I bought it and I don't think I got my money worth yet.

First time I tried to play it I was just "meh". I retried it and after exploring my first planet and going "huh, I wonder what this is" and getting surprised by one of the game's big twists I got hooked. Slight spoiler but it's something you'll come to discover extremely quickly:

[Sky]

I just finished the Outer Wilds thanks to Gamepass. I highly recommend it. Note, this isn't the Outer Worlds which I also enjoyed. Outer Wilds is a game that is very hard to describe. It's a space game that is a combination puzzle solver and mystery. No action. No gun play. Pure exploration and problem solving. And the ending is...well, I won't say just in case any of you try it.

I just grabbed it on PS4 and I'm into it. Nice change of pace!

[Mosesandstick]

Finished the Titanfall 2 campaign. Short and sweet, with some good levels, though the plot is a bit hammy.

[Triforcer]

Three years too late, I got into Friday the 13th (online asymmetrical horror).   

Mechanically, the game is far behind Dead by Daylight.  But dayum, the "horror" atmospherics are so much stronger (I jumped more in a week playing F13 than two years in DBD).  Too bad the game will never again be updated (except for bugfixes) because of an IP rights lawsuit.