So, what're you playing?

[Khaldun]

On jank: tried Kenshi. Refunded it after less than an hour. There may be something here, but good god, I haven't seen a game this ugly that controls this bad in a long time. I don't think I'd be able to deal with these camera controls for a $30 price tag. I get that it is eventually like some sort of Mount & Blade / Dwarf Fortress hybrid and that it's an indy passion project, but this is just too raw.

Started Into the Breach. It's OK. It's a puzzle game, and I generally don't want a puzzle game at the end of the day. Too much thinking. I don't get the critical knob slobbering over this title, but I'll probably play some more of it.

I just keep starting it and quitting because it is simply so fucking ugly and the controls are so inexcusably bad. I should have asked for a refund too, but. I have high tolerances but there is just something of the mismatch of ability to ambition here and the inability to choose a graphical approach appropriate to the skills of the creators that is kind of offensive.

[Yegolev]

Warframe
Mordheim

[Yegolev]

Vermintide II

The old barkeep, Lohner, seems to be playing Mordheim, which almost fits, really.

[Shannow]

Space Engineers. Doing a half assed radicalthon on the discord channel. There’s a game here somewhere.

[Rasix]

Started with the PoE Synthesis league. Both builds (minion necro, spark inquis) I've tried so far are pretty awful early on. Early game in all ARPGs seem to be garbage.

Also, Horizon: Zero Dawn. Game decided to completely reinstall itself when I started up again. That was fun.

I think I'm done with Into the Breach. Gameplay loop just isn't that interesting to me.

[Falconeer]

Can't stop playing Apex Legends. Can't.

[disKret]

Can't stop playing Apex Legends. Can't.

The same! Back to old grinding times. And so much tension I didn't feel for years. I'm playing with my kids which is another good side of it.

[Falconeer]

Ah, me too. My son is totally invested and we are dedicating absolutely too much time to this, but it's addicting even when you are as bad as me. For ten bad drops, there's that one game where you wipe out a whole squad in an epic gunfight and that rewards you for all the previous two hours on which you slammed your mouse in rage at the n-th Mozambique while your enemies land on a Peacekeeper.

Hell, we are in that phase where they delay the Battle Pass release (yesterday) and our day is ruined. Fuckers.

[disKret]

Ah, me too. My son is totally invested and we are dedicating absolutely too much time to this, but it's addicting even when you are as bad as me. For ten bad drops, there's that one game where you wipe out a whole squad in an epic gunfight and that rewards you for all the previous two hours on which you slammed your mouse in rage at the n-th Mozambique while your enemies land on a Peacekeeper.

Hell, we are in that phase where they delay the Battle Pass release (yesterday) and our day is ruined. Fuckers.

 

I thought that Battle Royal games are not for me.
The only bad side of the game is realizing that age is already a fucking thing for me - we are winning with 23 kills with me contributing 4 :(

[Falconeer]

Same here. Also, I see very well with my glasses but turns out that in a videogame that requires to spot moving enemies sometimes as small as a pixel my eyes are not good enough anymore. I guess it has to do with the time it takes to put things into focus. At 45, even if my hands very godly, and they are not, my eyes are not keeping up so I often miss enemies that are just there in my field of view and only notice them when they start shooting at me. Very weird to realize this and how real it is.

[01101010]

I just can't get into team deathmatch games anymore. I gave Overwatch a shot which verified that I am done with that game mode. I got my fill of PvP back in my Planetside days, and now I am sticking to PvE stuff in my twilight years.

[disKret]

I just can't get into team deathmatch games anymore. I gave Overwatch a shot which verified that I am done with that game mode. I got my fill of PvP back in my Planetside days, and now I am sticking to PvE stuff in my twilight years.

I was in the same spot but Apex is more fun. More ppl to shoot. Give it a try.

[Falconeer]

In fairness, it's kind of hard to pinpojnt why this game is fun or more fun than other Battle Royale. So many games end up lasting 50 seconds, landing in an area where other people get a gun before you and melt you in 2 picoseconds, or even just punching you to death while you thought it was your turn to kill them cause YOU got the gun.

I believe it's:

- Movement. Running, sliding, climbing is just great and so smooth. Even Anthem where you are supposed to fly freely felt incredibly wooden and stiff compared to this (I know it's not a FPS) It's a level of freedom rarely experienced in FPS these days. Works wonderfully with the kind of game.
- Respawns. Having a chance to recover a gane thant seemed hopeless because two of your mates died early sets the ground for sme epic stories AND allows for everyone to feel more involved even after they have been killed.
- Pings. Being able to ping everything, from gear to location to enemies with the characters actually voicing that on top of the visual cues is a game changer. There is really no need for voice communication, and that's huge for this kind of games. Overall, the game does such a good job at providing feedback on everything that is happening (damage inflicted, direction you are being shot from) that even when you suck you are under the impression that you are not lost.
- Guns. They all feel really good and fun to shoot with, In fact...
- ...Sounds. They really nailed down all of the gun sounds, they are all very satisfying and make it easy to tell one gun from the other. Not to mention the directional stuff, you can really tell where your enemies are approaching from or where a distant gunfight is happening. Great stuff that seems minor but here contributes to the overall greatness.

Again, most games end in 10 seconds and everyone seems to be either a cheater or the next pro player. But there are so many tiny moments of satisfaction that even bad players like me seem to be able to find the fun.

[Shannow]

Its easy:

PUBG's gun modelling etc makes it stupidly hard to hit anyone

Fortnite Third Person View and Building = Teh suck.

So make a game in first person with no building and a chance to actually shoot someone and tada...you have yourself a game.

[luckton]

Still playing Anthem. Taking my time on the way to 30; hard to put in decent time when you work 12 hour days + overtime + family stuffs.

Yes, totally aware of the issues, and cognizant that the Division 2 actually appears to have their shit together. I don't regret the purchase yet; the flying and theme really have a good hold on me. Div2 may have it's shit together, but it's really hard to go back to running around on the streets after being able to fly and juke with ease.

Once I hit 30, I'd like to think they'll have a better plan in place for addressing loot problems and such, but we'll see. I'll wait for Div2 to go on sale before I grab it.

[Sky]

Back to minecraft, because I'm in 'fuck humanity' mode 

Still chipping away at Andromeda now and again, it's slotted in as a quick fix where I can jump in for 15 minutes and run a quest or whatever. It's not a very good game, but I think I paid $5 for it, so I've gotten my money's worth.

I'm also still plugging away with my Browns team on Madden. In season six now, every off-season I worry the AI is going to lose all my good players and hire a bunch of scrubs. For now I'm treating it like a difficulty slider but have only lost a couple of my good players, but many contracts are up and the guys will likely retire or leave. I should focus on learning the front office stuff, and it does seem interesting (I know what skills I'm looking for at each position and micromanage the depth charter constantly). But it also turns into a huge pain in the ass, the entire system is too opaque in the UI, and I always end up letting the AI handle it. aintnobodygottimeforthat.gif

I want to get back and do the Spider-Man DLCs, at some point I want to slot that into where Andromeda is. I try not to play too many games with different control schemes at once :)

[Sutro]

Inexplicably, and for $25/month, I've been playing WWIIOnline again (there's cheaper ways to play, I'm just a whale I guess)

Can also play for free, but as a rifleman only. Tomorrow, there's an event where EVERYONE gets access to all weapons for free. Normally they just do this between the campaigns in intermission.

[Falconeer]

I have always wondered how could WWII Online be still alive. How many players do you believe are still there? And is the subscription really 25 a month? Or are there cheaper ones?

[Sutro]

Can subscribe for as little as 7.99/month or just play the rifle for free. As far as people still playing, it's actually a little hard to say. You have dozens (hundreds?) of people who maintain their subscription but don't play simply because they support the idea of a historical simulation game even though they tired of the gameplay long ago. Many of these subscribers are now in their 60s and 70s; remember the average age of the WWIIOL subscriber when it released was solidly in late 30s/early 40s and it's now been out 18 years. When I first played in 02 I played with several actual WWII veterans.

Concurrent users is pretty low and that's been structurally damaging to the game because it's not designed to function at sub 50 concurrent players which it frequently does in off hours. There's a new redesign patch coming out in a couple weeks that restructures the High Command/supply metagame to cope with this reality.

[Falconeer]

Fascinating. Really.

[Jeff Kelly]

Baba is you is a great puzzle game where you actually manipulate the rules of the game to solve the puzzles.

It starts out with four simple rules

Baba is You
Rock is Push
Wall is Stop
Flag is Win

Rules basically consist of elements on the map you can manipulate and recombine. For example if you remove the element "stop" from the rule "Wall is stop" then you can walk through walls. If you combine rock and wall to Rock is Wall all rocks turn into walls etc.

As the puzzles get more complex additional rules are added and the solutions get more elaborate.

It's a great idea to let you manipulate the rules of a puzzle via a simple grammar and Sokoban style movement and leads to all kinds of creative solutions.

I suggest you watch the first two or three puzzles to get an idea about the game, it's all you need to know to see if you'd like it.

[Yegolev]

Found that there was some sort of mini-sale on PSN for Warhammer games and managed to spend $75 but saved $65. Got the Mordheim DLC even though I haven't exhausted my first warband, also the Vermintide 2 DLC. Then I bought Inquisitor Martyr even though all the reasons.

What I really played last night was Warframe, doing the bidding of that radio lady. Hopefully I can grab one of those Umbra formas before the event ends.

I also started The Witness and sometimes it fits a mood.

[Draegan]

Even POEs new league can't shake me from Auto chess.

[Shannow]

Free Steam weekend of xcom 2 and its on sale for 15 bucks.

[Yegolev]

Space Hulk Tactics made me want to play the table game.

[Sky]

I had been messing around a bit with Enigmatica 2, but was missing some of the features I'd gotten used to with Stoneblock (which was put together really well). But I also missed the whole overland world thing, being stuck in a solid stone world gets obviously claustrophobic and bland (and I like exploration gameplay).

So I noticed FTB published Stoneblock 2, adding some more refinement to what was already a refined pack. Only downside so far is they took out Refined Storage (the AE2 style mod), I loved the simplicity of that mod. AE2 is overall better, but gets way too fiddly. And they removed even more outdoor gameplay, because the mining dimension is now also a solid block (and I believe the End may be, as well).

Autoclimbing ladders at turbo speed is pretty nifty.

[Rendakor]

Does Stoneblock 2 still have AE2? The Curse page for it has fuckall for info. How OP can the quest rewards get?

[Sky]

Yeah, it uses AE2.

Quest rewards have definitely been toned way down from the original. So far I think the only two good items I've gotten were climbing gloves (meh, mostly...but handy) and a tinkers' laser gun that looks cool (but I don't have power up yet).

I mean, in Enigmatica 2 I got 64 cryoflux ducts from one of the first quests  In Stoneblock 1 I had something like 5 or 6 64k storage drives for both AE2 and Refined....the combination of reward nerfs and no chest loot has made it a bit tougher and a little less exciting.

[Rendakor]

Good to hear. I'm torn between starting Stoneblock 2 or Project Ozone 3. PO3 (even on normal) certainly seems more dickpunchy, and they've opted for some sort of quest currency instead of random loot to mixed results. SB2 on the other hand is being described as more of an incremental upgrade to SB rather than a major new version, which has me hesitant.

[Sky]

The change to dimensions all being solid definitely captures the intended feel better for SB2.

PO2 was one of my favorite packs, so I loaded up PO3. Forgot about editing out John Cena.  Otherwise, too early to say much except I prefer the old quest reward system.

Either way, it's good to see minecraft looking healthy. It was a bit touch-and-go during the 1.7/1.1x rift.

[MisterNoisy]

Been playing Generation Zero with my brother.  It's way buggier than I'd like, but we're still managing to have fun with it anyway.  The shooting is fun, the stealth is occasionally frustrating and the story comes out in dribs and drabs.  Visuals and audio are pretty fantastic.

I've seen multiple people say that it feels like they made a BR map and put this game into it at the last minute, and I can totally see where they're coming from - something seems...  missing, but I'm not sure what exactly it is (besides polish).

[Yegolev]

Path of Exile on PS4 UI is one of the worst things I've ever been subjected to.

[Sky]

Good to hear. I'm torn between starting Stoneblock 2 or Project Ozone 3. PO3 (even on normal) certainly seems more dickpunchy, and they've opted for some sort of quest currency instead of random loot to mixed results. SB2 on the other hand is being described as more of an incremental upgrade to SB rather than a major new version, which has me hesitant.

Went back to Stoneblock 2. I was actually digging my skyland world in PO3, but the (I'm guessing here) Abyssalcraft demon animal screeches were driving me insane. I may try it again without that mod, or see if something is exposed in the config file that's not in the in-game config (to remove the screeching). Loud blood-curdling screams every 30 seconds or so? Why?

[Kail]

Played around a bit with Destiny 2 finally.  It's not a bad game, but man, as someone trying to wade through their gigantic backlog, I am getting really annoyed at how terrible 99% of all game tutorials are.  It's just amazing how often you are forced to sit through information you already know or don't need, while information you DO need to know is just kind of brushed over or not mentioned at all.  It's like it's specifically designed to be as unhelpful as possible.  Are we really still THAT BAD at this?

Like, Destiny 2, for example.  The first Destiny never came out on PC, so if you're grabbing the PC version, you'd think maybe there'd be some expectation that you never played the first game, so they'd explain the setting or something.  They don't really do that.  All the backstory you get is this two minute video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXDmX5rJC8E which basically says "this big ball thing came to Earth and it was pretty great but a bunch of aliens wanted it and you'll have to fight them" which might work if that was all the relevant info, but, of course, it's not.  The game starts in medias res (I am seriously starting to hate when devs do this) with explosions and combat and characters you don't know screaming terms you don't know while you have to fight with abilities you don't know so you can lose them all in five minutes... so that when you gain them all back ten minutes later it'll feel like "progress."

Basically:
*explosions, fire*
Guy 1: "Guardians! Get to the command ship, I'll defend the last city!  That's apparently a place that exists!"
HUD: BLUE CUBES +3
Guy 2: "A ghost is telling me these guys are Red Legion, but that can't be!  For some reason!"
Guy1: "Move, move, move!!!"
HUD: ATTENTION AN UNLABELED STATUS BAR IS MOVING TO THE RIGHT BEEB BWOOOOOP
Girl 1: "They're putting a device on the traveler!  I'll get to the speaker!"
Guy 2: "HURRY EVERYONE IS DYING"
HUD: MEGA BURST READY
Robot: "It's blocking the light!  I'm losing all my traveler powers, like the ability to de-entangle all your equipment slotted phase nodes!"
*player is automatically beaten up in cheesy cinematic*
Villain guy presumably: "I bet you weren't expecting ME!  I've captured this other guy now, you have no chance!"
Other guy: "I blame you for this failure!"
*cinematic of bird and triangle doing weird prophecy stuff*

----TUTORIAL-----
Press W to move forward!
Me: I KNOW MY FUCKING KEYBINDS ASSHOLES WTF WAS ANY OF THE REST OF THAT

[Ironwood]

It is, in fact, a bad game.