So, what're you playing?

[lamaros]

I really enjoyed Deadfire as well. One of the better story driven RPGs of recent years, though it falls apart a bit at the end imho. I think it's pretty much a universal improvement over the first Pillars mechanically.

Same. I didn't finish it, but I enjoyed it a lot. Especially turn based mode.

[Khaldun]

Looks like the missing premade human empires in Stellaris are just disappearing because of an odd bug, not a developer's plan.

[HaemishM]

I played about 5-10 hours of Pillars of Eternity 1 and it just fell flat for me. I don't know if it was all the reading or the somewhat antiquated feeling RPG system, it was good one day and then something about the first big quest in the castle just left me with no desire to return to it.

[Setanta]

I've been working through the Outriders storyline. I'm actually enjoying it. Doesn't have Destiny 2s excellence in gunplay, but it really fills a 3rd person looter shooter itch nicely. I haven't experienced any of the bugs that people are talking about. It's not really quite finished, but it's fun.

[Hawkbit]

I've been working through the Outriders storyline. I'm actually enjoying it. Doesn't have Destiny 2s excellence in gunplay, but it really fills a 3rd person looter shooter itch nicely. I haven't experienced any of the bugs that people are talking about. It's not really quite finished, but it's fun.

This might be my favorite looter shooter. It's not the best game and I suspect it won't see DLC or a sequel, but I'm having a lot of fun with the story. The game systems are fairly forgiving, though the always online stings a bit.

[Sky]

Other than a handful of PS exclusive, one of the main selling points of a console for me has been playing football. Whilst upgrading my PC, I noticed that for the first time since 2008, Madden is available on PC! Thanks, Microsoft xbox strongarm division!

Now, the game sucks, and I was actually on boycott...but I am ok with letting my money speak here....since Steam threw it up for $15. Game still sucks, but now it sucks in smooth-ass 4k/60 on a silent pc (except for the fan ramps when the game inexplicably (but probably linked to uncapped frames in the menus) decides to, same as it did on the PS4 Pro for the 2 versions I had on there. Got damn EA.

Anyway, added pc Madden and PGA 2k21 (cough the golf club 3) to my PC rotation. Also been playing some 7 Days, which is a decent test game for the new pc. Rocksmith up and running on the new pc, going to have to prune the DLC folder, there are reports that once it gets in the neighborhood of 2000 songs, random instability ensues...

[Khaldun]

I did a couple of rounds of Endless Legend earlier this week. It took me a while to remember how the different factions play--it's really the opposite of Civ VI in that respect, the factions play so very very differently from each other. I just can't quite figure out how to describe what's missing from it or what doesn't quite work but just as the last time I played it, there's something that doesn't quite hang together.

[Sky]

I've given up looking for a modern version of FFH2 :(

[Khaldun]

That might be why it doesn't quite work for me, because it feels kind of close to FFH2 but not close enough.

[Typhon]

Khaldun, I know you like Stellaris, and you seem to like similar games to me, and so I keep trying again to find what it is that I'm missing and I keep failing.  I think maybe my issue is that it's not turn-based and I can't seem to get a handle on... waiting. 

When you are playing do you change the game speed?  What exactly do you find yourself doing minute to minute?  If, "patiently wait for something to happen", is the answer maybe I'm just not equipped to play this game.

[lamaros]

I started playing loop hero on the weekend.

It's a nice concept but the game is repetitive and grindy and despite that I still keep playing it and it's distracting and hours disappear and I sorta hate myself and this is why I just don't buy games anymore...

[lamaros]

Khaldun, I know you like Stellaris, and you seem to like similar games to me, and so I keep trying again to find what it is that I'm missing and I keep failing.  I think maybe my issue is that it's not turn-based and I can't seem to get a handle on... waiting. 

When you are playing do you change the game speed?  What exactly do you find yourself doing minute to minute?  If, "patiently wait for something to happen", is the answer maybe I'm just not equipped to play this game.

I was hooked for a little. I only really like turn based games these days too.

Just pause and then a faster speed/general pondering and planning, up until late game when it all sorta falls apart anyhow.

[Khaldun]

I love the pace of turn-based games, so that's not it, really. I love the slow burn, etc. It's relaxing. I often read a bit while turns are unfolding.

The only thing I don't really love is when you cross that magical moment where you know it's all over more or less--you've eliminated enough opponents, you have an alpha stack they can't stop, etc.

Stellaris does a reasonable job of trying super-hard with the endgame crisis of upsetting that apple cart, but that either leads you to go hyperfreaky trying to get ahead of the crisis or it leads to fucking tedium where you spend a bunch of time stuffing the endgame fuckers back into the dimensional hole they came from. It doesn't feel like getting viagra when you're old, it feels like being the emperor of all and having to fill out eighty thousand forms to finish off the win. It's a really tough design problem--what can you do to throw a wrinkle into 4X on the last of the Xs that doesn't feel like "hah, you thought you were gonna win but now LOOK, fucking volcanos and also Superman is working for the bad guys, hah".

Alpha Centauri did this pretty fucking amazingly I thought--there was an "endgame crisis" that made perfect narrative AND gameplay sense and that played out differently depending on who you were playing. That's about it as far as "slow, easy, let it all unfold, cross the verge to victory and WAIT" goes. Crusader Kings II and III is a better game pacing in many ways--it's not "cross the bridge to conquering everything and now it's boring", it's "your dynasty is doing well but whoopsie the next generation are insane incestuous witches, this might get messy".

[Sky]

Since I already mentioned FFH2 

Amazing endgame mechanic with the armageddon clock, the literal four horsemen showing up on the map...and factions that can use that scenario for a win condition (or shut it down completely).

[Khaldun]

Yeah. It's very plainly what the designers of Endless Legend were trying to imitate, at any rate--a change in the pace and stakes if the game goes on long enough. In FFH2, I'd sometimes dilly-dally just so armageddon would start because it was fun even if I was trying to stop it.

[Typhon]

 

Thanks both for the answers.

[Hoax]

For me Stellaris really shines playing with others or as a CK2 style game if you hand create all of the empires yourself and boost the primative civs to max and then just watch things unfold.

[Cyrrex]

Persona 4 has been on sale for a few days on steam, so I finally caved in.  Definitely worth the 14 bucks or whatever, and looks really crisp in 4k.  Binge played it for more than 6 hours on the first go.

[Sky]

4k is definitely a noticeable improvement in quality, the fiancee was remarking on how amazing 7 Days looked...and that's a janky ANCIENT game (cough I mean unreleased new title).

GTA V in 4k is ridiculously nice, though after updating my drivers I'm having an issue with some textures loading in very low res, which is kind of a bummer. The best textures included in the game were surprisingly crisp, even on my honkin' tv. Definitely the heaviest game I've tested on the new rig, which just brushes most things aside. But it looks amazing and it one of her favorites for background noise while she's reading. The radio stations, ads, tv stuff, talk radio stuff, street chatter....so well done. Collecting cars, driving around checking stuff out, and the sound work have all been my main reasons for playing, I have to push myself to do story missions (many are fun, but they can be a mixed bag, and I've stalled twice around the stock market stuff!). So the graphical upgrades you can just barely run in 2021 on a high end gaming pc are butter on the biscuit.

If I can solve that texture issue. Still looks great, but it's constantly punting you out of the immersion, which sucks.

[Reg]

So I'm about halfway through preloading Mass Effect : Legendary Edition. Has anyone else decided to spend money on it? I'm ready for a replay of 2 and 3 but I'm not sure how well I'm going to do with Mass Effect 1. Hopefully, they've updated it to the point where it's not too old style for me to handle.

I hear they've redone the Mako controls at least. Hopefully, that'll help.

[Velorath]

Just replayed through the games last year with various PC mods, so while I'm curious about the changes to ME1 I'm not in a hurry to buy this right now. If ME3 multiplayer had been included it probably would have been a day 1 purchase for me though.

[Sky]

My problems with GTA V were all because it wasn't logging in to Social Club 

I couldn't save my graphics settings properly and was config filing everything 

[Khaldun]

I'm doing ME again all the way through. I never did a FemShep so that's what I'm in for, plus this time I'll do better with the suicide mission in ME2 and finally actually finish ME3.

[Reg]

That's pretty much what I'm planning too. I've never done a FemShep run but I did manage to ace the final mission of ME2 on my first try. Then I went on to play ME3 but burnt out just before the final mission.

That's probably for the best. If I'd finished ME3 I'd just have been pissed off by the shitty original ending.

[Cyrrex]

I mean, if you never played FemShep, you never really played ME.

[Reg]

So who is the most fun character to romance as a FemShep?

[Falconeer]

Garrus, hands down.

[Cyrrex]

Have been playing Persona 4, but the boy has my controller so I fired up the original Divinity (after having recently played and LOVING number 2).  I tried this game years ago when it came out, but it never clicked.  My assumption that it might now feel more playable after finishing 2 was correct.  I like it quite a bit, even if it is clearly the lesser of the two games.  Really looking forward to these guys finishing BG3, they know how to make games.

[Reg]

Hah. I'd forgotten that I downloaded a mod to bypass all of the obnoxious mini games years ago. Now I can either hold my nose and deal with them again or wait awhile for the mods to be updated to work on Legendary.

[Khaldun]

ME1 has some nice improvements but a lot of it does take you back into an era of gaming that had some dumb design conventions. Navigating the Citadel is as aggravating as ever, and some of the non-mission ME planets, even with a better Mako, are just so dumb. No wonder the Reapers have come to exterminate the galactic civilization, the starships carry rovers built of flubber and no one carries a small flyer unit instead for getting around mountainous planets. Still the core stuff remains fun and oddly compelling. I had forgotten all about the nice Spectre on board as you go to Eden Prime--I was like "wait, is this the bad guy? I don't remember him being nice like this, but this guy isn't Garrus."

[Sir T]

I remember being really upset when that nice Specter bought it. He was one of the characters in ME1 that stuck in my head for years afterwards. He just had something that made him compelling. I think it was the way he was so egalitarian and just a real professional. A much less annoying Solid Snake who actually treated people as valuable, I suppose.

Anyway, on "what are you playing," news, Ive been playing Fallen London for the last few months. Its basically a text based Gothic RP game, based on doing challanges where you increase your base stats, and where you load up on materians which you can combine or sell to get higher value stuff to let you achieve goals.

The big BIG plus is that you only need to devote a couple of minutes a day to it. You get an actipn every 10 minutes of real time, and without paying money you can store up to 20 actions, which is about 3 hours and 20 minutes where you don't have to look at the game. This really reduces the grinding as you can do other stuff and then tab back to the game when you have a free moment, press a few buttons, and then go back to whatever you are doing.

One of the big pluses is the setting which is appropriately bonkers but very interesting. The writing is also excellent. The Problem? The game loves to hint at stuff but not actually tell you anything. For example your character should know basic stuff such as what rubbery men are, but the game gives you no explination as to what exactly is the deal with them and what their social status is. to find out the answers to questions it poses would probably take months.

Another problem is that there is no way to "win" you can keep playing forever doing this or that goal. There is a way to Lose, namely play the "Seeking Mr Eaten's name" storyline, an unpleasent horror story, the end of which is the biggest secret of the game but if you go that route your character gets put out of use once you find the big secret. And its really difficult and not fair.

There are 4 "ambitions" which are goals and long ass stories. And I'm following the Hearts desire storyline. And then there is another problem, it occasionally likes to throw red herrings at you as a joke. At one point you are presented with 3 choices, one of which is to gie a character 5000 Nevercold Brass slivers. So after a LOT of pressing the same action over and over to get 50 slivers, and finally spending 100 echos to buy the bloody things, the character just runs off with 500 of them, revealing that particular choice which I gound a lot for was a red herring meaning I have to do one of the other 2 choices - one of which is based on you getting dreams randomly, and the other getting a ship, which needs you to gather a ton of resources and the game does not directly tell you what to do to even start.

Needless to say, I'm at the end of my tether with it. The biggest reason to keep going is, again, the lack of real time investment which paradoxically makes it an easy thing to fiddle with.

The wiki is actually pretty awful and tells you kinda how to do stuff but not really. And does not have a "what are rubbermen" section

Anyway, it's worth checking out and is reasonable fun. but like all FTP stuff it has a wall which only money can cross. With the boat, for example, I can give 30 fate (about £6) to skip that grind. The subscription is £7 for double actions and more random cards, which is reasonable. If you try it your first goal should be to get your stats to 100 via stats or objects  to become a "person of some importance" which opens a whole lot of stuff up to grind for, and makes some early grinds a lot eiaser.

https://www.fallenlondon.com

Also this is the same company that does "sunless Sea" and "sunless sky" and the world if those games is the same as this one. You don;t need to play this game to play the others though.

[Falconeer]

Sunless Sea is one of my favourite games of all time. After that I've tried to get into Fallen London and unfortunately for as well written as it is, I don't care for browser RPGs anymore. They were amazing twenty years ago though.

I can attest, as I did many times before, that the writing and lore and world building is incredible. But hey we live in a world where a few did not love Disco Elysium so not everyone will be saved.

[Sir T]

Did you try Sunless Skies? I bought it and ran through the tutorial, and it looks incredible. I want to complete a game of Sunless Sea before I get into it though. Visually S Seas is pretty bland, whereas in S Skies the visuals are incredible and the interface is far better.

As mentioned, I've played a bit of Sunless Sea and its a pretty good Cannibalism simulator. I haven't won a game yet, though I'm doing well in my current game.

[Khaldun]

Whoops, forgot how much less forgiving combat is in ME2.

[Khaldun]

Also forgot: ME2 is really a pretty amazing game. It's still top flight when it comes to characterization, voice acting, character animations, and narrative (small and large). Plus a ton of clever small touches. Even the characters I hate I hate for good reason, except Jacob who is just fucking boring and has a serious dental problem.