So, what're you playing?

[Riggswolfe]

Thanks, decided the DLC's a bit too steep for the amount of time I'll likely be putting into the game. Even with the slowed xp rate, I hit 60 a couple nights ago. I'll likely just explore with my enforcers a bit and not worry about looking bad, since I just made my first epic set of....the same armor I've been wearing for most of the game. Seems a shame to have so many cosmetic options and basically one set that's clearly ideal for any given playstyle.

Anyone who played on our minecraft server knows I'm definitely not about building cool things. Though I did make my 2nd dumpster base into a pyramid in this one!

On the other hand, I did apparently unlock a bunch of crap from the daily challenge stuff that I guess goes on my next character? So maybe I'll look into Siptah at some point.

Siptah does add some interesting stuff, even to the base game. I believe they were going to add in a way to travel between Siptah and the base game but I don't remember if it ever happened.

 As for cosmetic looks and such there are mods that let you use whatever look you want by basically making a simple transmog system. I doubt mods work on official servers but a lot of the private servers use that mod among others. Conan Exiles is, in my opinion, a great game to play on private servers. I've got probably 2000 hours in it, all on private, modded servers and because I'm a nerd, roleplay servers. Quite fun and I've actually learned a lot of Conan lore because of it as some of the servers are super strict about the lore. "You want to play a Nemedian? Ok, make sure you've read up on them and play them right."

[Sky]

Much of my enjoyment is predicated on it being a single player game with me as server admin. I cut out most of the mmo-style cruft and make it more of an action game.

I did forget about the mods for cosmetics and whatnot. Should probably check that out, though I didn't care for most of the mods I tried other than thrall remote and minimap (they're both wicked lightweight). I had a dmg panel thing but realized idgaf about dps 

[Chimpy]

I had forgotten there was any levels or combat in that game other than “bludgeon the npcs to turn them into slaves” but that facilitates the building of cool shit.

I do miss my Roman Colosseum on the Bat Country server though.

[lamaros]

Played a bit of Roadwarden. It's fun enough for a few hours.

[Khaldun]

You can get some cool shit with the dailies (or just shelling out a bit of money for Crom Coins). I honestly don't like the look of some of the DLC architecture.

[Reg]

So what's the word on Diablo IV? There's no thread about it here. I just received an email from Blizzard telling me to pre-order for access to the closed beta that starts tomorrow and that was the first time I'd heard they were even working on a sequel.

[Sky]

I had forgotten there was any levels

If I hadn't turned down the xp rates, I would've hit the level cap in a couple days. Good for servers, maybe, but kills the progression in single player. Newb valley actually stayed challenging for a while, which was nice.

[Khaldun]

I also turned down the XP rate to make it exciting and to make the ability to build really big shit some actual work. Once you've got map teleporters (and now you can have sorcery-based teleporters too) built near to entry points for black ice and meteor collection, it gets a bit more "oh yeah, same old same old". A decent amount of it still turns into a version of Pokemon where you're trying to catch all the cool thralls and get the cool outfits. There's also a kind of pervy vibe to it that's impossible to get away from in terms of having a bunch of near-naked slave dancers gyrating around your various hangouts.

They never did work out a way to take a developed character from the original map to Siptah and back again and the devs are now guarded that they ever will.

There's a sorcery dingus that makes it possible to recover a corpse from a dungeon that takes some endgame risk out of the mix.

I like the mod that lets you continue to gain levels, by the way. Sure, you become ridiculously OP, but there's still some progression.

The events they have added are fun but they had to disable some of them (good ol' Funcom) because they don't always function correctly. There's one at the desert city that ends with a three-skull baddie of some kind--I end up always having to run them around a base while my thralls plink arrows away at the baddie, otherwise it's a guaranteed kill on one or more lvl 20 thralls in melee.

[Hoax]

So what's the word on Diablo IV? There's no thread about it here. I just received an email from Blizzard telling me to pre-order for access to the closed beta that starts tomorrow and that was the first time I'd heard they were even working on a sequel.

Diablo 3 sucked. Diablo Immortal was one of the most fucked up mobile game microtrans things ever made?

The word is nuBlizz hasn't made a good game since ....  ?

2010 if you think SC2 was good? I heard they didn't utterly fuck up the most recent WoW expansion which is not what I heard about the 2-3 before that one so I guess you could count that. Don't ever come at me with anything about OW being not shit. I don't want to hear that.

I'll buy a $4 KFC sandwich* and try it this weekend but I wouldn't trust Blizz to organize a child's birthday party at this point let alone make a video game.



*this is a totally real promo, make sure you order online or thru the app and pick something that has the red banner that says it gives you Diablo beta access

[Velorath]

Diablo 3 sucked at launch but got quite a bit better and has still be fun enough to go back to for seasons every now and then. Certainly it's more fun to actually play than say, PoE.

[Rendakor]

I agree with Hoax much more than Velorath on this point. They patched the worst of the suck out of D3, sure, but the itemization has always felt soulless because of the reliance on sets. Combine that with the utter lack of investment into a character build due to the skill system, and the game just doesn't appeal to me at all. I know everyone talks about how it feels better, but I want good itemization and build customization from my ARPGs. I play actual action games when I want good feeling combat.

All that said, D4's open beta is next weekend, and PoE's devs have been working hard to patch the fun out of that too, so who the fuck knows.

[Count Nerfedalot]

moved to the correct thread

[Velorath]

Morbius DLC for Midnight Suns just dropped. Just Storm's DLC left to release now.

[Setanta]

Morbius DLC for Midnight Suns just dropped. Just Storm's DLC left to release now.

If the game had less dialogue and more game, I'd go back and give it another go. But after an hour it felt stilted. Did I miss something with it?

[Falconeer]

No, you didn't. It's supposed to be many things in one, and unfortunately some of those things can ruin the other parts for some people. It all workds great together for me, but I can understand those who don't care at all about the social crap, or the exploration, and would like to focus on the fights. This is not that game.

[Khaldun]

It's a weird mix but nothing in it is good enough by itself to want to do without some other component. If it works at all it is because it all blends together in a way that it probably shouldn't.

[Sky]

That's my take on Midnight Suns, too. I got a lot of mileage out of it and liked all the systems just enough that everything coalesced well for me. I did burn out grinding some skills and whatnot for my kids, had a few of them to almost godlike power levels with some great combo builds. Holding off until Storm DLC comes out, then some patches, then I'll finish off my run (having only dabbled a bit with DP before moving on).

Still enjoying Conan, though I'm OP af after playing thrall collector in the northlands for a while. The arena dragon's breath weapon actually made me uncertain for a minute (but the game telegraphs so clearly it was still a cakewalk). But my favorite recent surprise was the inclusion of a Frazetta easter egg in the Death Dealer in the Black Keep. Cool nerd vibes when I stumbled into his room! For the last couple dungeon runs I've just been using a thrall-based strat, 20 Authority (+80% thrall dmg) + thrall buff food (+12%) + thrall buff armor (+50%). Then I use an ancient polearm and stabby stab from a safe distance letting them hold aggro. Cakewalk, reminds me a bit of playing a necro in EQ a bit.

[Sky]

So my 2 OP thralls continue to mop up pretty much anything except real heavy dot/breath weapon stuff, so I've been skating through the Conan endgame and just enjoying the vibe. Pretty close to done, though I may keep it around to poke into the corners of the world I haven't explored yet and do a few dailies here and there.

Fired up Pathfinder Kingmaker and it's a pretty cool game. Fits a niche I didn't realize I had been jonesing for so hard. Main gripe is being stuck with portraits that all seem to be npcs/companions you actually recruit, which is weird. And then trying to make a voice match a portrait. Seems oddly limiting in a game with such wide character options! I went with a NG half-orc rogue, which has been enjoyable enough thus far. I forgot how much I dislike the old d&d trope of having to rest to relearn spells all the time, though.

Bumped over 600 hours in Rocksmith at some point recently. Happy to get over my foot injury that has slowed my playing, last few sessions have all been in the ~2hr range and the very last one I didn't even realize it (no fatigue or sore fingers at all). If you're wondering what a foot has to do with playing bass, it's my timekeeping left foot, on drums it's the hi-hat/snare foot. Knew I was feeling it again when I hit 90% on a cold playthrough of a new Opeth track (new to me, not new new).

[Khaldun]

The only problem with Kingmaker is you can fuck yourself over pretty hard as far as the endgame goes without realizing it until much later.

[Phildo]

Fired up Pathfinder Kingmaker and it's a pretty cool game. Fits a niche I didn't realize I had been jonesing for so hard. Main gripe is being stuck with portraits that all seem to be npcs/companions you actually recruit, which is weird. And then trying to make a voice match a portrait. Seems oddly limiting in a game with such wide character options! I went with a NG half-orc rogue, which has been enjoyable enough thus far. I forgot how much I dislike the old d&d trope of having to rest to relearn spells all the time, though.

Lots of portrait packs available for Kingmaker and Wrath.

[Sky]

The only problem with Kingmaker is you can fuck yourself over pretty hard as far as the endgame goes without realizing it until much later.

There's literally no way I'm going to make it to the endgame, so I'm probably fine with it.

Thanks for the portrait link, too bad mods need to fix a pretty prominent flaw in a long-playing rpg that would take a few minutes for a dev to add.

[Riggswolfe]

The only problem with Kingmaker is you can fuck yourself over pretty hard as far as the endgame goes without realizing it until much later.

There's literally no way I'm going to make it to the endgame, so I'm probably fine with it.

Thanks for the portrait link, too bad mods need to fix a pretty prominent flaw in a long-playing rpg that would take a few minutes for a dev to add.

I've never finished Kingmaker. I love long and in-depth RPGs but that one? It drags on and on and on and some odd choices can make it an extremely annoying game. These range from odd combat balancing (especially in the early game) to arbitrary deadlines to complete quests and missable content.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, if you're going to have deadlines, you have to build everything around that--you can't also be doing the "take your time, explore the map, etc.". The next game has some of the same pacing issues--the late game is super-tedious.

[Sky]

Outward, one of my recent favorites, has a short timer to pay a fine or something at the start of the game. If you don't, you're shut out of your only free house (read: storage chest and crafting stations) for likely dozens of hours, severely raising difficulty. I was lucky enough to quickly complete the quest that lets you circumvent the payment (earn a favor). Great game, need to dig back into that one at some point.

[Rasix]

For Kingmaker, I just installed a mod that made the kingdom stuff them never fail and resolve in a turn. It wasn't what I was interested in, so I just decided to skip it. Rest of the game was fantastic, if a bit long.

Finished Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Umm, interesting game. Not sure I can recommend it, as it was pretty middling as a JRPG and super long. However, it was really weird in a great way and told a pretty cool, touching story.

Started Satisfactory. This is neat. I think I prefer Factorio, but seeing your factory from the ground level is visually amazing. The road to power automation is a bit longer than I'd like in this type of game, but it was easier to accomplish than I thought it would be. Looks like there's still the story left to implement, so not sure if I'll keep playing much longer.

PoE league on Friday. My arm is mostly ready.

[Rendakor]

I played a decent amount of Satisfactory (just checked, 64 hours, though some of that might have been idling) and enjoyed it. That was in early 2021, so I bet they've added a lot more since.

Factorio I think I bounced off of because of the combat shit, and having to actually like, walk around as a dude. If it was just controlled like an RTS and didn't have aggro mobs it would really be my jam.

[Velorath]

Played through the RE4 remake 3 times (playthrough 3 was on the hardest difficulty, but with the infinite rocket launcher so it took under 4 hours). Yeah, they took the original and improved on it. Excellent stuff.

[Riggswolfe]

I've been replaying Jedi Fallen Order and Dragon Age Inquisition. Lately I find myself going back to previously played games a bit I think because it's more or less comfort food like rewatching a TV series I enjoy or something.

One thing I've enjoyed in Jedi Fallen Order is since I know how it all works and they put in a New Game+ I'm taking my time and even sort of mindlessly ground out some skill points on Dathomir a time or two simply so I can be as powerful as possible. I'm quite looking forward to the sequel as it looks like an improvement in the areas it really needed it (mostly on the "RP" side of things with a hub town, side quests, a shop and tons more customization of your character.)

[Zetor]

Been playing the hell out of The Last Spell since it finally got released a month or so ago, and it's really good. It's hard to describe in an elevator pitch since it's like 2.5 games in one: "They Are Billions x XCOM x Slay the Spire with random loot" is probably as close as it gets. Even the genre is hard to pin down: roguelite tactical RPG with tower defense elements and Darkest Dungeon vibes (thankfully not as rote / formulaic as DD) I guess? The soundtrack is also pretty legit, it's a Mick Gordon-esque metal + synth mix with the slower synth parts more emphasized during the building phase, and the metal parts more emphasized during the combat phase.

Basically, a mage (named after one of my many countrymen who made the world a more place) invents a magic nuke and shit goes south, ending with you having to fight progressively harder waves of zombies for X nights so they can't get in ur base and kill ur mans that are trying to cast the spell that removes all nukes magic from the world. There is definitely a 'meta' feeling to the gameplay with the use of certain weapons / stats / talents, but it's varied enough that I still run into a lot of ~tacticool~ decision making fun times at 89 hours (contrast this with, say, Triangle Strategy where the gameplay became pretty stale about 4 hours in). It's mostly due to the high levels of randomization in everything, I think -- there are a lot of situations where I have to make the best of what I have instead of trying to go for unbeatable_meta_build_01, and of course there are all the roguelite unlocks as extra lizard brain motivation. One part that's a bit "eh" is town building: since it can't really be really randomized, there are definite 'build orders' for higher difficulties... but that's inevitable I think.

Some negatives: it plays OK on the Deck, but it eats battery like crazy. The controller interface is also not the best... this is definitely a mouse/keyboard game, accessing all parts of the town management interface can get kinda obnoxious at times. Controls are fine during the most important part (tactical combat) though. It's also made by the French. hon hon hon

[Sky]

One thing I've enjoyed in Jedi Fallen Order is since I know how it all works and they put in a New Game+

My favorite part of NG+ is having an outfit option that's not a poncho.

[Riggswolfe]

One thing I've enjoyed in Jedi Fallen Order is since I know how it all works and they put in a New Game+

My favorite part of NG+ is having an outfit option that's not a poncho.

The Inquisition outfit? Yeah but I can't bring myself to use it. One thing that looks great in Jedi Survivor is the tons of customization they put in: Jacket, undershirt, pants, hair style, beard... And now BD-1 can be customized too besides just color. You can change his eyes and legs and stuff. They really added to that part of the game and I'm here for it.

[Rendakor]

Been playing the hell out of The Last Spell since it finally got released a month or so ago, and it's really good. It's hard to describe in an elevator pitch since it's like 2.5 games in one: "They Are Billions x XCOM x Slay the Spire with random loot" is probably as close as it gets. Even the genre is hard to pin down: roguelite tactical RPG with tower defense elements and Darkest Dungeon vibes (thankfully not as rote / formulaic as DD) I guess? The soundtrack is also pretty legit, it's a Mick Gordon-esque metal + synth mix with the slower synth parts more emphasized during the building phase, and the metal parts more emphasized during the combat phase.

Basically, a mage (named after one of my many countrymen who made the world a more place) invents a magic nuke and shit goes south, ending with you having to fight progressively harder waves of zombies for X nights so they can't get in ur base and kill ur mans that are trying to cast the spell that removes all nukes magic from the world. There is definitely a 'meta' feeling to the gameplay with the use of certain weapons / stats / talents, but it's varied enough that I still run into a lot of ~tacticool~ decision making fun times at 89 hours (contrast this with, say, Triangle Strategy where the gameplay became pretty stale about 4 hours in). It's mostly due to the high levels of randomization in everything, I think -- there are a lot of situations where I have to make the best of what I have instead of trying to go for unbeatable_meta_build_01, and of course there are all the roguelite unlocks as extra lizard brain motivation. One part that's a bit "eh" is town building: since it can't really be really randomized, there are definite 'build orders' for higher difficulties... but that's inevitable I think.

Some negatives: it plays OK on the Deck, but it eats battery like crazy. The controller interface is also not the best... this is definitely a mouse/keyboard game, accessing all parts of the town management interface can get kinda obnoxious at times. Controls are fine during the most important part (tactical combat) though. It's also made by the French. hon hon hon

I had not realized this was out of early access; bought. I also thought it was going to be more tower defense and less tactical combat; the fact that it's the opposite is a pleasant surprise. I haven't tried it on the Deck yet; if it'll run on my laptop, I might just use that when I'm traveling because the mouse is key.

[Zetor]

I played the entire campaign on the deck (mainly during two business trips) and it was fine other than the battery issue (I FPS-locked to 40, probably helps a bit). You can do everything with a controller, but the UI works way better with m/kb -- mouseover tooltips and hotkeys are the standouts, but it's also nice to have granular zoom via mousewheel etc.

And yeah, the tower defense part is secondary.

[Sky]

I tried another run of Project Zomboid, but again couldn't find a decent working solution for displaying on my 4k monitor. It's a better experience on the Deck, except for the controls. Anyway, digging around this time led me back to the same forum thread, so I guess it's time to stop pining away to play this game. Really sucks, I want to jump back in as it's been years since I've done a decent session (it was fine on my 1080p monitor and 970 lol).

I'm dying for a casualish survival/zombie game, ended up back in 7 Days AGAIN because it's really the only game hitting it right anymore. But I've played so damned much of that over so many years that I'd reallly like something new. Look at the /played hours I had in Dismantle, just because it was something with a decent vibe and nowhere near the great games 7DtD and PZ are.

In fact, 7 Days is kind of my go-to for a minecraft-like, because modded minecraft is just so bloated at this point and ye gods the launcher drama.

[lamaros]

The Iron Oath had an update so I gave that another spin. It's still a bit light on though, so after a little play I ended up downloading Battle Brothers again...