So, what're you playing?

[Reg]

If you haven't heard of the latest thing upsetting people that preordered Hogwarts Legacy it turns out that console users will be able to download it in advance of February 7 and will be able to start playing at their local 12:00 am February 7th to take advantage of the full 72-hour early access

But that doesn't apply to PC users who won't be able to do anything with the game until 10:00 am PST. Not even early downloads.

I think it's kind of stupid but I'm not having a temper tantrum. However, the reaction on social media is about what you'd expect.

[Riggswolfe]

If you haven't heard of the latest thing upsetting people that preordered Hogwarts Legacy it turns out that console users will be able to download it in advance of February 7 and will be able to start playing at their local 12:00 am February 7th to take advantage of the full 72-hour early access

But that doesn't apply to PC users who won't be able to do anything with the game until 10:00 am PST. Not even early downloads.

I think it's kind of stupid but I'm not having a temper tantrum. However, the reaction on social media is about what you'd expect.

And if you have an Xbox you can get it even earlier by setting your region to New Zealand. Something I'm sure Microsoft knows about but hasn't bothered to fix. Not possibly on a Playstation sadly.

That said, I've seen other games do this before and it always seems to be a dumb move PRwise. Just set it all to the same thing.

[Velorath]

Just get the Pixel Remasters coward.

Also following my surprisingly tedious replay of Planescape: Torment, I went back even further and played through Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (which I've owned a few time in compilations but never played). Once I got the hang of it, I actually enjoyed it a bit, although the magic system remained tedious enough through the end that I almost never used it. Going to level up my characters there a bit more and then import them into Wake of the Ravager.

[Khaldun]

I sort of felt the same way about Planescape on a replay. I'd forgotten how much moving through the map and the story involves a lot of tedious repetition (not the dying-and-learning part, that's fine).

[01101010]

If you haven't heard of the latest thing upsetting people that preordered Hogwarts Legacy it turns out that console users will be able to download it in advance of February 7 and will be able to start playing at their local 12:00 am February 7th to take advantage of the full 72-hour early access

But that doesn't apply to PC users who won't be able to do anything with the game until 10:00 am PST. Not even early downloads.

I think it's kind of stupid but I'm not having a temper tantrum. However, the reaction on social media is about what you'd expect.

And if you have an Xbox you can get it even earlier by setting your region to New Zealand. Something I'm sure Microsoft knows about but hasn't bothered to fix. Not possibly on a Playstation sadly.

That said, I've seen other games do this before and it always seems to be a dumb move PRwise. Just set it all to the same thing.

There are already people playing this game. They got a physical copy from somewhere and rumor was some online shop was selling keys. PC only I think for the digital keys. I gave up caring about the whole being first bullshit 20 some years ago because it really doesn't matter, especially so for single player stuff. Online, maybe I can see, but still.

[Rendakor]

I refuse to engage with Harry Potter franchise stuff, period (never read the books or watched the movies) so the Rowling drama/game thing is meaningless to me  

I am still playing quite a bit of FFXIV, Horizon: Zero Dawn on the PS5, and I went back and re-started playing FF3 on my phone while I was on vacation (I never got super far after buying it back when it was first released). I downloaded FFVII "remastered" from PS+ last night and started a game. I kinda want to re-visit all the classic Final Fantasy games which may end up with me just hooking up my original Playstation to my TV somehow since it looks like that is going to be the most likely way to be able to replay FFIV and FFVI (if I can track down the playstation re-releases of those) and I own 7,8, and 9 already.

Maybe I will need to buy a used SNES and the cartridges for them O.o

But I may just nope out of this idea lol.

As Vel said (but did not quote you and we've moved a page), play the Pixel Remasters. Or, like...an emulator?

[Zetor]

All y'all with the Final Fantasy (esp VI) nostalgia just need to play Chained Echoes already.

Just get the Pixel Remasters coward.

Also following my surprisingly tedious replay of Planescape: Torment, I went back even further and played through Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (which I've owned a few time in compilations but never played). Once I got the hang of it, I actually enjoyed it a bit, although the magic system remained tedious enough through the end that I almost never used it. Going to level up my characters there a bit more and then import them into Wake of the Ravager.

Dark Sun 1 was Baldur's Gate before Baldur's Gate (with a better combat system, natch). However, Wake of the Ravager was super buggy at the time (and combat gets ridiculous at the end, but that's high-level AD&D for you - see also: DQK and POD). I wonder if fans have made a modern fix/patch for it like they did with TOEE...

[Zetor]

Playing Fire Emblem Engage now, getting into the mid game (chapter 14ish). The gameplay and map design are absolutely top notch, better than Conquest (my previous favorite), and the emblem ring system works surprisingly well. Maps are decently hard, but have plenty of QoL and the rewind function is also back.

OTOH the story/writing/characters are... not good, but at least it's a 'silly Saturday morning cartoon' kind of bad (I mean come on, the main character does an anime power up / BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL scene in the intro without a hint of irony). The emblems themselves are just fanservice for all previous games, which just adds to the cheese factor. That said, I prefer this self-aware silliness 100 times to the incoherent garbage that was FE:Fates, or the mediocre dialog skip simulator known as Triangle Strategy...

(This game by itself justified the Switch's continued existence for me, fwiw. Also worthy of double posting, apparently.)

[Chimpy]

Oh nice I never saw the thing about the pixel remasters, I will just do that I think.

Thanks!

[Riggswolfe]

Well, I finished Death Stranding. The gameplay did improve though I never did use a single zip line! I quite liked some of the characters, mostly the core "good guy" group: Deadman, Heartman, Lockne (especially), and Fragile! I wasn't fond of Higgs, he was just annoying (though I did like the final battle with him even if it didn't make a lot of sense since he was basically super powerful and literally untouchable before the fight) and the other boss fights were...lame. They were basically just bullet sponges with no interesting attacks and not having them wouldn't have impacted the story. I did quite like how things played out with the "final boss" even if the motivations for why they played out that way were a bit obscure.

Now I'm playing an older game called Beyond Two Souls. It has presented a bit of conumdrum for me since it stars Elliot Page back when he was Ellen Page. So talking about it to a friend the pronouns got a bit confusing for me if I'm honest. I do like the story so far. I may try Detroid: Beyond Human next if I have time before The Game That Shall Not Be Named!

[rattran]

Well, I finished Death Stranding. The gameplay did improve though I never did use a single zip line! I quite liked some of the characters, mostly the core "good guy" group: Deadman, Heartman, Lockne (especially), and Fragile! I wasn't fond of Higgs, he was just annoying (though I did like the final battle with him even if it didn't make a lot of sense since he was basically super powerful and literally untouchable before the fight) and the other boss fights were...lame. They were basically just bullet sponges with no interesting attacks and not having them wouldn't have impacted the story. I did quite like how things played out with the "final boss" even if the motivations for why they played out that way were a bit obscure.

I found the ziplines to be the most fun in the game, but the story varied between awful, and really awful.

[Riggswolfe]

Well, I finished Death Stranding. The gameplay did improve though I never did use a single zip line! I quite liked some of the characters, mostly the core "good guy" group: Deadman, Heartman, Lockne (especially), and Fragile! I wasn't fond of Higgs, he was just annoying (though I did like the final battle with him even if it didn't make a lot of sense since he was basically super powerful and literally untouchable before the fight) and the other boss fights were...lame. They were basically just bullet sponges with no interesting attacks and not having them wouldn't have impacted the story. I did quite like how things played out with the "final boss" even if the motivations for why they played out that way were a bit obscure.

I found the ziplines to be the most fun in the game, but the story varied between awful, and really awful.

I liked the characters quite a bit. The story was  intriguing at the end with the Extinction Entity but I do wish we had a better idea why this one was different than the previous 5. In general though the story was...alright? I didn't hate it, didn't look forward to more of it. It was just there.

Probably my biggest issue with the story was things like getting those holocalls where someone talked to me for 5 minutes about something I'd already figured out. It felt like the gameplay constantly got interrupted by stuff like that.

[Reg]

For anyone that cares - It turns out you actually can preload it right now on Steam. It just won't go live until 1 pm EST.

[01101010]

For anyone that cares - It turns out you actually can preload it right now on Steam. It just won't go live until 1 pm EST.

Which game is this now?

[Reg]

I can't believe I didn't say. Hogwarts Legacy.

Edit: It's 1:08 and rather than letting me start the game, it's given me an update so large it's basically reinstalling the entire game.

[Khaldun]

They're deleting the goblins and patching in trans characters.

 

[01101010]

I'm not forking over an extra $10 for and extra 3 day early release. I'll wait till the weekend.

[Reg]

I bought it for the pets more than the advance start. The real reason I had to have the game is that it's the first game that's come out that my old PC couldn't have. I got a new one a couple of months ago and it's nice being able to run at max settings for a few weeks before it becomes obsolete. :)

[Trippy]

I liked the characters quite a bit. The story was  intriguing at the end with the Extinction Entity but I do wish we had a better idea why this one was different than the previous 5.

They might explain it in the sequel but my take is that the other Extinction Entities weren't intelligent, or at least not as intelligent as humans, so this time around the EE had more control over the event(s) than the others.

[Riggswolfe]

I liked the characters quite a bit. The story was  intriguing at the end with the Extinction Entity but I do wish we had a better idea why this one was different than the previous 5.

They might explain it in the sequel but my take is that the other Extinction Entities weren't intelligent, or at least not as intelligent as humans, so this time around the EE had more control over the event(s) than the others.

Yes and no. It also made it sound like it had no choice and eventually it'd happen.

Anyway, playing Hogwarts Legacy and it's a really fun game. It's quite well made and if I have any complaints so far it is that the dialogue system is pretty shallow. The rest of it is great. I've played about 6 hours and have barely touched the main story. It's all been collectibles and side content and exploring for me so far. The characters are all well made. There is a trans character that I've met. There seems to be decent racial diversity. I don't know about sexualities but in fairness, the game doesn't have any content regarding romances between characters. No one so much as flirts with anyone else that I've seen.

[Sky]

I remember almost nothing of the plot or characters of that game. It was truly awful, I mean Hard Man and the god guy is Higgs (was his last name Boson?)? Was this written in jr high school?

Weathering the elements and ghosts to build the perfect traversal routes across the mountains, however, is one of my pinnacle gaming moments.

Fascinating how wide apart experiences can be.

[Khaldun]

Yeah, I looked up some of the plot after reading this discussion and I was like "I barely remember any of this" and the most it stirred in me on reading was a vague sense of irritation.

[Riggswolfe]

I remember almost nothing of the plot or characters of that game. It was truly awful, I mean Hard Man and the god guy is Higgs (was his last name Boson?)? Was this written in jr high school?

Weathering the elements and ghosts to build the perfect traversal routes across the mountains, however, is one of my pinnacle gaming moments.

Fascinating how wide apart experiences can be.

I finished it a few days ago and barely remember the story, such as it is. I only really liked the final boss (and her story at the end) and those characters I named. The story up until that point was basically just excuses to send you on fetch quests.

I found the terrain in the game to be super annoying because of how many damned rocks they put everywhere. And I got tired of the damned rain and ghosts. They weren't challenging, they just slowed me down. Literally since the game insisted on bringing me to a complete stop when ghosts would show up to do the little animation of my thingy coming up and whirring around.

[Samwise]

I found the terrain in the game to be super annoying because of how many damned rocks they put everywhere. And I got tired of the damned rain and ghosts. They weren't challenging, they just slowed me down. Literally since the game insisted on bringing me to a complete stop when ghosts would show up to do the little animation of my thingy coming up and whirring around.

Ah yes, I had forgotten what specifically it was that made me uninstall the game, but now I'm remembering the absolute tedium of slowly picking my way around a field full of fucking ghosts while the whirly thing beeps at me.  The world's worst Minesweeper remake.

[Trippy]

I liked the characters quite a bit. The story was  intriguing at the end with the Extinction Entity but I do wish we had a better idea why this one was different than the previous 5.

They might explain it in the sequel but my take is that the other Extinction Entities weren't intelligent, or at least not as intelligent as humans, so this time around the EE had more control over the event(s) than the others.

Yes and no. It also made it sound like it had no choice and eventually it'd happen.

That's right the Event is being delayed by the EE when the story ends. Presumably the sequel will be an attempt to end the cycle.

[Trippy]

I found the terrain in the game to be super annoying because of how many damned rocks they put everywhere. And I got tired of the damned rain and ghosts. They weren't challenging, they just slowed me down. Literally since the game insisted on bringing me to a complete stop when ghosts would show up to do the little animation of my thingy coming up and whirring around.

There's a setting to turn that off (after the very first time).

[Riggswolfe]

I found the terrain in the game to be super annoying because of how many damned rocks they put everywhere. And I got tired of the damned rain and ghosts. They weren't challenging, they just slowed me down. Literally since the game insisted on bringing me to a complete stop when ghosts would show up to do the little animation of my thingy coming up and whirring around.

There's a setting to turn that off (after the very first time).

I toggled that setting to "First time only" but it kept happening. I don't know. Maybe it got broken in a patch or something.

[Trippy]

Well that's unfortunate. Though us OG players didn't even have the option of that toggle back in our day.

[Rasix]

My Valheim run hath ended. After looking for Moder's spawn for roughly 4 hours, I died at night on a remote mountain top to two 1 star wolves. Womp womp.  I could probably get the gear back, but eh, not having any pointers to where the f'ing dragon is hiding is tiresome. Also, no ruins to give me the waypoint. Only 1 or two potential ruins, but they were nothing.

I guess it's Harry Potter time or revisit/backlog season.

[Sky]

I was getting annoyed at Resident Evil 7's scripted fight/chase sequences, but they're not terrible with their autosave and sometimes messing up a bit is pretty awesome anyway.


Loved it and decided to skip the walkthrough and just groove on the weird house vibe like I enjoy anyway ands not sweat the crappy scripted stuff. For me 90% of my RE enjoyment is just vibing in creepy environments, the action usually takes me out of it.

Still digging Midnight Suns, though I've maxed out pretty much all my character's skills so it's mostly just doing friendship crap and getting around to finishing the story missions now.

Wanted to finally get around to Miles Morales so I started a replay of Spider-Man. My main gripe about that is same as my PS4 playthrough, the controls are good but I get rusty really quickly with combo-based control schemes, so...

I binged Elden Ring too hard and needed a breather after almost 60 hours. Such a great game and I tend to hate boss fights in general. Like Dead Cells, Elden Ring is so good I feel it elevates it above genre preferences.

[Khaldun]

Started Midnight Suns.

The banter is excrutiatingly bad.

[Velorath]

Some of the characters are more tolerable the others. I liked the Midnight Suns better than the Avengers on the team.

[Khaldun]

Yes. Whomever is voicing Tony Stark is awful.

And the Avengers' dialogue generally feels like it is written by someone who failed his screenwriting audition to be in an MCU writing room. The Midnight Suns feel better written generally (and closer to their comic incarnations).

[Velorath]

Also I made the mistake of playing a male Hunter for my playthrough (I'll do a female playthrough when I go through again after all the DLC is out). The voice actor is a bit too wooden with the dialogue. I think Blade is probably one of the best written characters and Michael Jai White does some solid voice work there. I kinda like that Magik generally doesn't respond positively if you try to pick the nice guy dialogue options with her. Also a nice touch that they got the actress who played Nico in the Hulu Runaways series to voice her character, not that I ever watched that show. Ghost Rider is ok. Wolverine when he eventually joins has some good moments. The bickering between Strange and Iron Man is rough though and Iron Man in general is unlikable throughout.

[Khaldun]

That's about right.

Captain Marvel is also kind of annoying.

Female Hunter is much better.