So, what're you playing?

[Khaldun]

The freighter. Yeah, I know I can summon it. I've gotten offers to buy lots of others. I just haven't bothered. When I need credits I go to a storm crystals planet, I started working on a town's issues, but I tend to play in bursts and not in a super min-max kind of way.

[Khaldun]

Man, I don't think I've ever seen a game on Steam with tens of thousands of reviews where the rating is at 25%. Battlefield 2042 must really, really stink.

[Falconeer]

I think the worst rated game ever, up to a few weeks ago, was "eFootball 2022", the game that used to be Pro Evolution Soccer. Sigh. 12% positive, recently raised to a whopping 19%.

[Trippy]

Man, I don't think I've ever seen a game on Steam with tens of thousands of reviews where the rating is at 25%. Battlefield 2042 must really, really stink.

The game design is fundamentally flawed. That on top of the typical Battlefield launch issues and technical problems is what is causing all negative reviews. The Specialist character system is basically designed around its new “extraction” mode Hazard Zone. In that mode Specialists make sense. They don’t make sense in the traditional Battlefield Conquest and related modes but for some reason Dice kept them in those as well. And the maps are way too large and poorly designed (though granted poorly designed maps is kind of a “feature” of Battlefield at this point) despite having increased the max player counts to 64 x 64 for the platforms that can support it. They will need to bring back classes and come out with some better maps and fix the damn UI before the game will be comparable to the most recent releases.

As I mentioned here I’m going to wait a year or so to get it at a steep discount and have some fun trying out the Portal mode maps people have created.

[Count Nerfedalot]

Personally I have zero interest in the new settlements stuff in NMS.  Whiny people sitting around doing nothing but complain about their problems and expecting you to do all the work to solve them for them is bad in enough in real life!

[Sir T]

Picked up Warhammer 40K : Mechanicus on a GOG sale, and I'm having a complete blast with it. It's a turn based squad shooter a-la Xcom, but there's no cover (either terrain blocks your shot or it doesn't) and no overwatch as you're not Space Marines. Rather than a map, the missions are given to you through various NPCs on your ships bridge, and it's basically you robbing some Nekros tombs blind before they fully wake up and chase you away. I'm using some Steamcommunity guides to help me play through it.

Highly recommend. I don't even like W40K lore and this is still great fun.

Review here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YirkpurLHkU

[Falconeer]

Loved Mechanicus. Stopped playing without a good reason but I have only good things to say about it.

[rattran]

Saw that Dysmantle had hit 1.0, so I picked it up. Good little game. The conceit of 'everything is breakable' turns out to be fun in their execution. Well worth the $13

[Sky]

Nice, Dysmantle is on my short list of stuff to mess around with.

I've been back into XCom 2, imported my awesome character pool so my A-Team is Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Peacemaker (Iroquois founder), Lamont Sanford, and Flava Flav. Such a good game, easy to jump in and out but hard to put down. I bought a couple sale tactical games (Gears and the indie lovercraft one which is nice...has a demo too) because I've been enjoying that style lately.

Took a bit of a break from Wreckfest because I was playing way too much. It might be the perfect racing game for me. Reminds me of when I was a kid in the pits of regional small tracks when my dad was racing NASCAR in the 70s.

And of course the usuals like Madden and Rocksmith.

[Rasix]

Picked up Inside for the Switch since I've been meaning to play it but have always put it off. This wasn't as good as I remember Limbo being. The controls weren't great and the visuals/tone really didn't grab me like Limbo. The amount of child death, however, is exactly like I remember (not a fan). Worth passing maybe a couple of hours with, I guess. I'm nearly done but probably won't finish it. The current puzzle I'm on is extra annoying.

Got RE8 on a Black Friday deal and am looking forward to playing that through once I tire of PoE. It's surprising how much this PoE patch/league has kept me engaged despite how mediocre the actual league mechanic is. I still think they've slowed down the game too much and perhaps made some content a little too difficult for casual players (wtf I can't beat Sirus anymore?), but the amount of decluttering and QoL they put in this patch has been great.

[Rasix]

Is Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous in a state where people would recommend it yet? I know at launch there were some issues. I did like Kingmaker outside of the whole king making process.

[Khaldun]

I think the endgame is a structural mess but it's not all that buggy. There's a lot of small bugs and irregularities along the way.

[Phildo]

Owlcat Games has done a good job of continuing maintenance, though.  They just pushed out another patch today, and have been doing so regularly since launch.  Depends on your tolerance for UI bugs and the occasional item not doing what it says it should.  There are a few skills that are like that as well, but they're limited to less interesting classes and respeccing is free.

[Zetor]

Yea, what Phildo said. I played/finished both Kingmaker and Wrath at launch and Wrath was/is in waaay better shape. Kingmaker was literally broken (as in, you couldn't finish the game) back then, but the bugs in Wrath were either in side content and/or certain skills/abilities/gear.

Also, rule-related bugs (in the player's favor) have been around forever in both games and are incorporated into character build strategies for higher difficulties. For example, Crane Wing is supposed to only give +4 AC if the character has one hand empty, but it works when dual wielding / using a shield / 2-hander. Hellfire Ray double-dips on some damage modifiers that can make it do obscene damage later in the game. I think (Greater) Vital Strike can also crit when it's not supposed to be able to. Etc.

[Mosesandstick]

Finished Baldur's Gate 2, it wasn't bad and there were definitely parts I enjoyed, but overall I'd say it wasn't worth playing apart from for it being historically noteworthy.

Also finished off Gunpoint, an old indie gem. My favourite kind of game - short, sweet and to the point. It wasn't amazing but solid gameplay and story and it did very few things badly.

[Rasix]

Just a bit into Chapter 2 and Wrath of the Righeous is a lot better than Kingmaker so far. The voice acting, writing, and plot are just leagues better. No cringy ass Amiri character making me want to stop playing, although Daeran's character is kind of annoying. I just don't find him necessary, so I interact with him as little as possible. The HoMaM portion so far is forgettable, but I'm still very early in. At least it isn't ball-breaking as of yet.

There's quite of bit of impactful decision making early on (at least it appears that way). This one may necessitate a replay. I just hope I can finish it before the yearly massive Q1 PoE update.

[Falconeer]

I am playing a shitton of Gloomhaven digital, and I can't stress enough of much better it is than I was hoping for. As a coop video game experience to have with a stable group of friends is one of the very best I've ever had, and I am tempted not to count it because it's a board game after all, but the digital version takes the board game and replicates it 1:1 removing the fiddling, the ambiguity of rules interpretation, and all the fiddling. So it's a great board game, but it's way better as a video game.

Also, I am TRYING to play a lot of 18Korea, another board game disembodied in video game shape, but I can't find people to play it with and so I am running local games against myself while basically finding bugs for the Devs to fix. That sounds pathetic I know.

[Khaldun]

Finally dove back into Persona 5 and I'm really hooked.

[Falconeer]

So good.

[Rasix]

Ethan Winters is just so dumb.

[Sky]

I've been back into Empyrion. So janky but so awesome. First time I did it the hard way and tried building all my own structures from scratch. This time I've been leaning on the schematics and workshop stuff, found a guy who has made a ton of pretty nice pieces with actual upgrade instructions embedded in the structures. So I was able to get a few cheap fighter jets to beat up before I get to shielded vehicles, which was my initial stopping point the first go-around. Not having shields means watching enemies blow parts off your lego ship until your cockpit gets popped...

[Sky]

After messing around upgrading a few of my favored pre-builts in Empyrion, I finally got to the point of loading up a creative world to build my own.

That was far more fun than I expected, even within the limitations of the engine. I ended up with a prototype POI buster (heavy attack, some light support and storage) that I thought was kind of clunky to fly. Took out all the steel and replaced with carbon fiber, still clunky. Stripped the carbon out, just flew the skeleton, still drives like a truck. Ah, well. Put the carbon fiber back on it and built it in my survival world (after saving the creative template: just throw the mats in the factory and wait for it to finish).

Flies way better than my other ships, has a decent amount of utility, and can tackle the basic system's POIs fairly well. This game keeps managing to keep my interest.

I also played some more UFC 3 on the PS4. Something clicked with the ground game controls and now suddenly I'm starting to understand the system and get tapouts for the first time (I've played maybe a half dozen fighters through retirement as strikers). Had one bout that got really intense with back and forth ground work and found a new appreciation for the game. Too bad UFC 4 isn't available for PC.

[Cyrrex]

I am still on Kingmaker.  Not sure why I ever waited on it, this is exactly the sort of shit I like.  It is like a more modern NWN or something.  Pathfinder rules are just wacky 3.5 anyway.  I just set the kingdom management to Super Duper Easy so that I don't have to care much.  At least so far.  It isn't exactly Divinity 2, but well worth the low price I paid.

[Raguel]

Did someone recommend Endless Legend to me? For some reason it's on my Steam's wishlist but I have no memory of this game.

[Khaldun]

"I have no memory of this place".

I dunno, we've talked about it periodically here? It's...ok. I don't hate it and I don't find it satisfying. I play it now and again and appreciate some of the design ideas in it and never feel compulsive attachment to it.

[Draegan]

Did someone recommend Endless Legend to me? For some reason it's on my Steam's wishlist but I have no memory of this game.

It's been talked about in the years past. Probably in the Civ threads from like 5-6 years ago.

[Fraeg]

made it to lvl 53 of New World only got in a couple pvp fights.... The world was beautiful, I actually enjoyed the crafting... I lagged behind the leveling curve of all my friends... now they are gone... World of Tanks bound yet again I am.

[Sky]

Saw that Dysmantle had hit 1.0, so I picked it up. Good little game. The conceit of 'everything is breakable' turns out to be fun in their execution. Well worth the $13

I snagged this one for myself as an xmas gift and it's a nice, fairly casual game. Basically an exploration game, some puzzles and lots of breaking things to make new things. Combat is fairly mediocre but not difficult, I was hoping for something a little more along the lines of How to Survive's ranged stuff (dual thumbsticks), but this one maps the camera to the right stick, so I just stick to melee. Soundtrack does a lot of work setting the mood, as well.

[lamaros]

Been playing some civ 6 after getting Gathering Storm.

Enjoyed it enough to binge a whole hot covid weekend with it, though that might just do me. I reckon it's pretty good, though some of the usual issues with AI obviously remain.

[Rasix]

Finished RE8. This was a lot better experience than 7. Better story for sure, better action, better voice acting and characters. The gunplay was less limited as it wasn't such a chore to maintain ammo. It did get a bit short at the end, but that was likely due to some scuffed boss attempts that actually succeeded.

I really wish they would ditch the escape room level concept. It just isn't fun. Plus this one added creepy dolls and possibly the most horrific RE monster ever seen. That alone will make sure I never replay the game. Only thing worse could have been clowns somehow making their way in.


More Wrath of the Righteous. Because this game always has more. There's just so much of it. It's a bit overwhelming, but it's a much improved experience over Kingmaker. The engine could use some work, this thing kind of chugs for not looking all that great.

[Khaldun]

I should finish Wrath. I am at the last battle or two, but I just got kind of bored near the end.

[Rasix]

I should finish Wrath. I am at the last battle or two, but I just got kind of bored near the end.

I don't see how someone could not get bored. Act 3 was basically an entire game in length. I'm at 70 hours (holy sheeeit) and still like mid act 4.

[Tebonas]

Yeah, Wrath is an absolute monster of a game. I admit I am a bit of a sidequest completionist and played around with the character creator more than any sane person would, but my final play time is 216 hours (with only 34% of the achievements, WTF?). The good news is the average playtime on GoG is 87 hours, so you should be near the end  

[Khaldun]

The developers really need help understanding how to do narrative. Like, I get the old 3.5 edition "demons and gods can't be killed for good on the Prime Material Plane" thing, but having to fight the same bugger three times over really kills the tension and the sense of achievement. I've already played through stuff that feels like it could have been the Final Kill Foozle battle about five times now and at the end of my last fight my NPC allies were like "ok, are you ready to go kill Foozle again?" and then they added "Hey there's some side quest Foozles that we need you to do too, could you add those to your to-do list?"

That was where I was like, "Actually I'm ready to play another game now, cya".

[Hoax]

State of Decay 2.

I loved the first one. The 2nd is more of the same. Really quite fun co-op would recommend. Even solo its nice. I could go for even more sim/base elements but its quite fun. Anyone have it?  Oh its on gamepass and you can crossplay with xbox people if you know any.