A positive thread about what you're currently playing

Danganronpa V3 is so good you guys! Seriously one of the best mystery games I've every played. If you can get past the anime tropes then the latest game has quite possibly the best written mysteries every put into a video game. (I also adored its ending).

Its a shame its a full 60$ and you really should play the first 2 games (thought no need to play the shooter) to get the full experience. Still, if you enjoyed the first two games, then you'll love this one. And if your on the fence, go check out the V3 demo. Its spoiler-free and gives you a very good idea of what your in for regarding everything -except- just how tightly written the narrative is mystery wise. Seriously if you can see 'who dun it' coming before the characters themselves start to work it out, your smarter then me.

Honestly its a shame no one else seems to have played or liked this much, aside from similar "The mystery element is so good..but the anime!' from waypoint' opinion-piece I read. Still, 5/5 stars for me. Top 5 games of the year I've played. Just a fantastic experience from start to finish.

I only just finished Prey and can soundly recommend it. It's the best Bioshock game since Bioshock. I kind of feel inappropriately indignant that so many merely shrugged after playing a little of the game; Prey is fantastic and deserves better than uninspired malaise.

Also, check out The Black Watchmen. I'm not sure how I could accurately describe the game, but it's a puzzle/internet-sleuthing game. It is unlike anything I've played before. I'd recommend at least giving the Steam store page a view.

@mylifeforaiur: The Black Watchmen looks fascinating, I've never seen anything like it.

I've been playing that Tooth and Tail multiplayer, phew I'm bad at RTS's but I can at least enjoy this one. Slow enough for me to wrap my head around it.

Playing Wolfenstein New Order in anticipation for New Colossus and it's really fun so far. Weapons feel great, maps are large and intricate, good challenge on Bring'em On difficulty. Getting pretty hyped for New Colossus.

After a long torrid love affair with XCOM2: War of the Chosen I've been able to branch out a bit more. I might have to do one more play through to be sure but fighting the Chosen might be some of my favorite boss fights ever.

Finished the story mode for Tekken 7 and that was just straight up banana pancakes. Really feel like they could've found even crazier ways to shove in more characters into that campaign but I suppose I still have the character endings to pursue or just look up online.

Finally started digging into Pyre (or Paar depending on your accent). Wish I had started this sooner because dang what a wonderful sense of styyyyyle this game has. Something about the setting and the journey makes it feel very much like a DnD campaign only instead of doing grid based monster encounters you're playing celestial rugby.

@boonsong: I played both TNO and TOB earlier this year after grabbing them on sale. Really enjoyed both of them, great games. Make sure to pick up The Old Blood next if you haven't already!

Fallout 3. ...hopefully. Various patches and performance mods seem to get it working on Windows 10. Not sure if I want to go vanilla or not.

XCOM 2 War of the Chosen has become one of my favorite games of all time. It's up there with Elder Scrolls, Witcher, and Mass Effect. I've played through it twice already and I'm ready for a third, this time with another layer of mods.

I should be playing the Fallout 4 DLC, the first Shadow of Mordor in preparation for the second, or Divinity: Original Sin II, but all I really want to play is more XCOM!

BioShock, excellent ambiance for October, great halloween game.

I just had a blast playing through Yakuza Kiwami. What a silly, well written, fun game.

Gonna play Steamworld Dig 2. I'm super hyped for Assassins Creed: Origins myself, been looking up a ton of footage about the game and its been shaping up very nicely. I'm fairly certain that if you enjoyed The Witcher 2 and 3 or even just enjoy games playing in ancient egypt, changes are high that you will enjoy this game.

@facelessvixen: Don't go into town without using the unofficial patch at least. The game itself is bad without it.

Last time I checked, it should run fine under Windows 10.

Dream Daddy is really, really good. The goofs are pretty solid most of the time, but I've been surprised by how heartfelt it is. I've cried multiple times. I also love how they shake it up with unexpected mechanics on dates. I really hope some folks on the crew bother to play some of it for GOTY, because it really is lovely.

Still playing Street Fighter V most nights. Nier Automata has kinda lost me, for the time being.

@awesomeonsum: Playing Old Blood right now and yeah it's good. I kind of miss the cut scenes and heavy narration but I understand why they would want to cut down on that for a much shorter and smaller campaign.

I'm currently NOT playing Persona 3 FES anymore. After more than 100 hours playtime I've finished The Journey today. Pretty stoked about that, a little bit exhausted from some intense grinding sessions and emotionally drained. Since I also just managed to beat the Reaper today, the game kinda peaked for me - not only storywise but also with regards to gameplay - in its final hours. Currently winding down by listening to the soundtrack, pondering whether I should start a ng+.

After a lot of stressful work load I have sort of put a lot of my story games on hold it seems, so I started playing Battlefield 1 again and even bought the season pass. I forgot how much fun this game was. Having a real blast. Even wen I was being slaughtered by a sniper. I think it ended 0-9 in his favor. Even wanted to send the guy a compliment because I was laughing every time I died.

Been playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate, and I love it. The progression is great, the combat is good, the atmosphere is amazing and the world is beautiful. I love the victorian london era. I'm mainly playing as Evie but I like both protags. I'm so happy that you can basically play this however you want, no part of the map is locked and you'll never see the "death fog" and desynch like in many previous games.

I'm about 20 hours in, maybe more and I did most of the side content while doing very little story and it's amazing that you can do that. It's not because the story sucks or something, I just like to explore and do side stuff in open world games first. It's been good so far, I like the characters and historical figures that appear and can't wait to play through the rest. I just love open world games.

I played through every AC game except this and Unity and I got this on sale a while back. I'll definitely pick up Unity someday and I'm crazy excited for Origins. The series is going in a great direction in my opinion. I'm playing on PS4 and it looks great, especially at night, though the framerate can dip sometimes often during carriage chases, but I'm not annoyed by that stuff too much.

Aside from that I bought a New 2DS XL (black one with a blue outline) it's my first nintendo console/my first ever handheld!. I got Pokemon Sun and Fantasy Life. It's my first pokemon game, too! It's been really fun so far and when it comes to Fantasy Life it's also amazing. It's like stylized miniature Elder Scrolls on 3DS. Again, I love open worlds/rpgs/sandboxes so both of these seemed like a great pick. I'm definitely going to pick up Animal Crossing too, but I gotta clear my backlog a bit. That said, I honestly don't care about portability so it'll probably never leave my house. I just wanted to pick up a nintendo console and experience some great games, so it was between this and Switch and I decided to get the New 2DS and enjoy the huge library and then pick up the switch in a few years after some revisions and price drops. Plus, my PC and PS4 backlog is huge so I'm not gonna complain about lack of titles to play. One thing that is a bit of a bummer is that nintendo games seem to really hold their price, while on other platforms stuff gets cheap super quick, but that's just how it is, I guess. Recent introduction of Nintendo Selects that have permament price drop makes up for that a bit but still.

Lastly, I've been slowly playing through Divinity Original Sin 2 ever since the full release. It's obviously great, I've been super hyped since they announced it. Loved the first one and I generally enjoy Larian's output. I'm about 35 hours in, playing as a custom polymorph/summoner undead lizard with Fane, Lohse and Red Prince in my party. I'm probably 1/3 through Act 2. It's just incredible and might be my GOTY. This year's been really full of amazing games and it's such a great year to play! Too many games, not enough time!

I beat Golf Story, Steamworld Dig 2, and am very close to finishing Cuphead. All a blast, and I watched over 15 movies I've not seen whilst beating the first two, so got a hell of a lot done. My multi-tasking skills have improved a lot since I got the Switch and a phone. It's bliss.

Bought Sonic Mania and Slime-San today on Switch. Blitzed through the first two Sonic levels, and wow, they're more than just retreads; I was wrong for judging it. The twists on the designs get even more twisted in the second acts, and flow exceptionally well (so far). It looks, feels, and sounds fantastic to me. Haven't tried Slime yet.

Due to Waypoint's "Waypoint 101" series, I hopped back into my mid-game save of Wolfenstein: The New Order that I had never finished. After about 10 minutes of going back and forth into settings to look at keybindings, I slowly started getting used to the game again. By the time I got to a hallway filled with Nazis, I had remembered how the perk system works and how fantastic it is, and that one of my challenges was to mow down 3 Nazis with dual-wielded assault rifles, without letting go of the trigger.

Two magazines and one hallway full of dead Nazis later, I had a new perk and was fully back into that game. The story is still pretty good, and it has some incredible character moments ("I learned to fly."), and the gameplay is pretty solid. Waypoint stopped right where I did back then, so it was perfect timing to jump back in, having just listened to their recap of the game to that point.

Also Mick Gordon made some awesome music for it. Not as metal as DOOM, but still great.

I fixed the stuttering in The Evil Within!
A while ago i tried to play the first game on PC but couldn't due to the input lag associated with the 30fps mode, and the nausea inducing stutter in the 60fps mode. With the sequel now out i was inspired to try again, and by using a command to unlock frame rate completely and setting an outside lock of 118fps i am now able to play the game...well, after also enabling an FOV fix to play the game without telescope vision.
It remains to be seen if frame rates higher than 60 will break game mechanics, and i'm sure the FOV adjustment will mess things up a bit, but here i am at last.

@capum15: I wish the sound design in TNO was better. The soundtrack is great but some of the music is mixed way too low compared to the sound effects. For example, this track by Fredrik Thordendal plays when you get in the mech for the first time at the concentration camp. It's supposed to play at the moment you start mowing down Nazis, but it gets totally drowned out by all the shooting and explosions. I hope Wolfenstein 2 fixes that, I want to hear louder chugging riffs while I shoot down Nazis.

@boonsong: Yeah I hope 2 has better mixing. That song is awesome but I definitely can't remember it very well from that part of the game. The cutscene cues have been pretty great though.

I hope I can finish it tonight. I feel like I'm pretty close but I have no idea what's up next.

Also I just want to say, the Bridge cutscene was fucking awesome.

Edit: Also when you die on that level by falling, he says to himself "Stupid way to die." as it fades to black and I found that hilarious. I also found it because I didn't look down when descending some stairs and never noticed the giant, obvious hole in the ground.

@capum15: Oh yeah that bridge cutscene is something. The spike ball thing is such a weird but cool idea. And I think I did the same thing, falling of the bridge. Game has a lot of neat attentions to detail.

I'm having a lot of fun with a lot of games right now! Almost too many in fact... playing Guild Wars 2 again, after the very good new expansion dropped. Also playing Warframe a bit, trying out the expansion there.
Having a blast with Shadow of War, where I last captured a troll who only says "I don't know!", which I hope to place as an Overlord. Just the idea of some random player attacking my citadel and having to fight that guy makes me smile.
And I am almost halfway in A Hat in Time I think!
And Mario Odyssey is so close!

I've been playing Uncharted: Lost Legacy and am really loving it. Uncharted 4 was the first Uncharted game I liked, TLOU seemed to be where Naughty Dog learned how to write interesting and engaging characters, and these last two Uncharted games are so much better because of it.

Chloe is quite the charmer, and her interactions with Nadine are great. It looks amazing, the animation is awesome, and the combat is fine--basically everything Naughty Dog is known for at this point.

Something about the main setting and smaller scale story has really hit for me. And that opening segment was really thrilling and probably my favorite couple of chapters in a Naughty Dog game so far.

Finished Life is Strange over the weekend. Really heavy last couple of episodes that made the time travel feel more than a gimmick. Good job.

I've been playing Stardew Valley. Quite relaxing, something I especially look forward to.

@shindig: if you enjoyed LiS, I highly recommend Before the Storm. Episode 2 is coming out Friday!

I've been playing Prey after hearing Danielle Riendeau's love for it and wow, it's really good so far. I'm a big fan of Bioshock 2, Dishonored, Deus Ex, Half-life etc. and it really gives me that feeling.

So, as it turns out, Stories Untold is pretty good. I just finished the third story. There's definitely some stuff in this game that Drew would love...

Apparently my hype for Mario Odyssey couldn't wait until the game actually releases, so I decided to go through the one Mario game I own that I haven't completed yet: Super Mario Sunshine!

To be honest, I didn't take to this game at all the first time I tried it out.

Now, though, I'm having a much better time with it! Collecting all the Shines is as fun as ever, the world actually has a lot of interesting nooks and crannies to explore and you're always rewarded for it, FLUDD really does change the way you platform, and Mario just feels adorable in this game for some reason.

Despite some Shines being gated off through blue coins, so far they really haven't been hard to find if you just use typical game logic. Of course there's one there, that's exactly where they'd put it!

I can already feel my Mario completionist lust returning. All the Shines WILL be mine!!

Oh, also playing Dragon Quest 8 on my phone. It's my first Dragon Quest and I'm actually having more fun than I thought I would. Toriyama's art style looks great, the combat feels good, I like the way the leveling system compels you to experiment where you wouldn't bother in other games, and the world has a kind of simple charm to it that keeps bringing me back. And for some reason, I have a feeling the story's really going to hook me later on.

Also, having access to it at pretty much all times does wonders for grinding. It feels like so much less of a chore now that I can do it on the way to and from an event, while waiting for food at a restaurant, etc. It really helps the game keep its sense of momentum that it would have lost on a console or traditional handheld.

Cuphead has been this giant boulder I am sinking hours into, trying to get A+ ratings on every boss and I'm really enjoying the progression. I love getting past the first stage of a boss, then to the second then to a final stage. Then its beating the boss (with like B- rating). Then it's working on parries and not getting hit. There are runs where I get an A rating but it's not an A+. I'm usually one for getting past a stage and moving on in games, but Cuphead has me comitted 100% A+ across the board. I'm like 10 hours in and working on the second island. I know it's going to be a long time until I get to the end and I am very ok with that.

Started The Last Guardian last night. Two things immediately stuck me --

How incredible the sound design is and how incredible the animation is.

Shadow of War. I've been having an unabashedly fun time with it and I've only *just* left MInas Ithil, 17 hrs so far clocked in. Runs great on PC, not the best looking game but wild when there's 30 plus orcs on screen at once. Had a real terse/rollicking back and forth with Nakra the Machine (formerly Nakra the Turk Slayer) where he got up to level 21 and kept humiliating me/refusing to kill me which made it even MORE frustrating when I couldn't kill him, getting so close multiple times and then finally doing him in and getting a Legendary piece of gear for it. And then after I dismember him another Uruk comes up and makes a comment about it before fighting me! Game seems huge but hungry to play more!

Chipped three more games off my backlog today. Finished Cuphead! Have three bosses left to get As on, but that seems fairly attainable. What a brilliant game.

I also beat: Absolute Drift. Looks, plays, and sounds great, but gets repetitive pretty quickly; I was bored before the end. Very decent, though.

Finally: Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Genuinely loved the style of storytelling, how the narration unfolds before your eyes in the game world. People often interrupt the story to correct or recount their own version, which manifests visually in the level design also -- fighting a bear, for instance, when someone calls BS on your story and it disappears, that kind of thing. Very clever. The shooting mechanics are damn fun also, especially dual-wielding revolvers. I really liked it.

Next up is Resident Evil 7 which I got on my birthday back in Feb but never touched for some reason. I'm about two hours in and think it's fantastic so far.

Also about 90mins into Amnesia: TDD. Will hopefully finish them both on Halloween night (that's my challenge).

I started a new game of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition again on my new PC with a shiny new card in it. Man alive it's really like a different game than the PS3 version. DSfix helps a lot. It's like a warm spooky blanket to get back in there and kill those gargoyles and get the claymore and not really have the expectation of finishing it. Just having a good time because of how good that game feels. It's nuts. Cook Serve Delicous!!! 2! is incredible but it makes my wife way too nervous so I have to play it alone lol

@waterfallsuite: With the HD texture pack it looks even better, check it out.

https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls/mods/446/?

With the news of Visceral being closed, I felt like playing Everything or Nothing again. Haven't played it in eleven or twelve years. I kind of still like it. I could go for another game like this, but obviously with better writing, levels and without auto-aim. People would call it an Uncharted ripoff, but screw those people. I don't think Visceral was ever good at making horror games. Dead Space was always far too much a shooter to be scary.

Sonic Mania - This game perfectly blends nostalgic callbacks with new stuff. It doesn't just feel like I'm playing a new Sonic game, it feels like I'm 10 years old in 1992 playing a new Sonic game. I'm not even one of those weirdos that kept on loving Sonic games my whole life...I fell off hard after Sonic 2 and never looked back. The insanely positive reviews are the only reason I even considered buying this, and I am very glad I did.

@boonsong: It definitely does. I finished the game a day ago and it has more great moments in it. They even use the crazy magic ball again!

Also the game had two moments close to the end that kind of fucked me up for a bit. The various moments with Max Hass and Klaus Kreutz both at the start of that certain mission and at the end of it was one, but the biggest by far was in the middle of the mission - Jimi fucking Hendrix. That scene just hit me. Even gunning down the Nazi afterwards felt hollow. Caroline becoming Superwoman helped, though.

The ending monologue referencing The New Colossus poem (I wonder if they had planned it out or just went "Oh hey, this ties into that thing!") was also a great moment. I very much want the sequel now, but also Super Mario Odyssey hits same-damn-day.

I'm still not entirely used to how squirrelly the controls can be, but I'm enjoying Yoshi's Island. Each level I've played so far has been bright, colorful, fun to run around in.

Played through the entirety of Alundra, for the PSX. Despite some occasionally poor puzzle design and precision platforming, that's a pretty good Zelda-ish game. I had only played the sequel, which is considerably more linear. Was pleasantly surprised by how good the exploration was in that game. Also, man that game gets pretty dark.

I got Bloodborne during one of the last PSN flash sales and this is my first time playing a "Souls"-type game. I still haven't defeated a boss yet but I'm getting close. Yet as much as it can be frustrating, I enjoy it a lot. I love the feeling of accomplishment just from reaching a new area and making it out alive.

Also playing Cuphead, and what is left to say about that game? It's fantastic and it's one of my favorite games of the year. Made it to world 3 and every time I think I am going to hit a wall, I come back and patterns start to emerge. It's euphoric to finally see that Knockout screen.

I'm actually enjoying ME: Andromeda more than the original trilogy. People online had me thinking the game was terrible. Although I will say I absolutely hate this ice planet.

Far Cry 3. Vaas' monologue still gets me.

Playing Shadow of War on Nemesis difficulty. One of my coworkers took last week off for his birthday and nearly 100% it but he said that normal was kind of unsatisfying so I decided to start it on Nemesis which means its relatively easy to die even to a random pack of Orcs. Big item upgrades feel like a significant power increase. I had one point where I had died 3 times in a row and was considering knocking it down to normal but then I got a few really good upgrades that increased my survivability significantly.

The game doesn't have an hour count that I know of but I'm probably about 12 hours in, Act 2 in the first area, nearly ready for my first siege, just trying to make sure I've installed my warchiefs before I go in. Really enjoying it and I'm curious how I'll feel when I'm in the endgame since from Brad's description it sounds like a real grind.

I felt pretty great about Akuma slipping on that banana peel in the middle of a trying to do a Raging Demon on me.

I know Dan is supposed to be the comic relief in these games, but that dude has never done anything for me. Birdie is just a treasure through and through though.

Been spending too much time in the "disappointing games" thread so I'm here to balance it out a bit.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has been fantastic to pick up and play a few hours every now and then. The writing, the world, and the gameplay all feel so well crafted and considered that playing and accomplishing nothing in the time I have to play it still feels satisfying and rewarding. I'll attribute some of that to the combat being a one-time affair, so you know grinding isn't really a thing, and no fights feel pointless/padded. I somehow managed to put 40hrs into it and feel like I'm not even halfway through the game yet.

Just started Tales of Graces F today since Berseria is still full-price (Tales games usually plummet in price so i'm surprised that one is still up there), and after hearing how awful its characters and story apparently were I gotta say none of it has been a bother in the first few hours. I doubt the story will go in the direction I want it to go in, since Tales games never get dark, but I'm enjoying the writing of anime children in a video game which is not something that happens often.

Picked up a Switch and started playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. This is my first Mario Kart since the SNES - could stop grinning like an idiot. The nostalgia trip is a good one, even the wife loves it. The colours and the character animations are top flight, one of those games that 20 years from now when there is a Switch Mini that'll still play as well as the day it was bought.

Still hopping back on Destiny 2 from time to time to raid with people in the Gb clans here. Right now my group is trying to finish the Prestige Raid. We're halfway through and the baths are kicking our ass. I love it though. The extra challenge makes it worth it when it's finally beaten.

I have been obsessed with this game. I have like 140 hours logged in Steam, have two playthroughs going, and haven't left the second Act yet. Can't recommend it enough.