A positive thread about what you're currently playing

Playing Elex at the moment very hard game at the beginning but now i got used to it and it's pretty amazing.If u can get used to some clunky combat mechanics i would say this is my favorite western RPG since Witcher 3.

Started a new job recently, so have just been playing Borderlands 3 with no voices or dialogue. I couldn't tell you why or how, but I have purchased most of the DLC for a game I don't really like, actively hate the characters and storyline, and intensely dislike Randy Pitchford.

If it's not that it's Flip Solitaire on Apple Arcade.

Finished Dark Souls 2 and I continue my love/hate relationship with that game. It is amazing for what it tried and what it became (*cough* Sekiro *cough*) but holy crap is it just mean in ways From hadn't been since Demon Souls

So, as a palette cleanser, I decided to play A Plague Tale: Innocence because of course I did. I am sure there is other stuff going on in my life but this is the first time in decades that a video game has given me nightmares. The lighting and rat tech is so good that I have woken up multiple times over the past week or two thinking the walls are moving.

And narratively, I love it. The intro is very reminiscent of Yakuza 3 in that I am sure some people will hate it but I loved how much time the game went in to making me give a shit about Amicia and Hugo and it pays dividends later. As the game goes on you start to find out more that makes you question what is REALLY going on but... it doesn't matter because Hugo is your little brother and you need to protect him.

Mechanically... yeah, this is definitely an adventure game and it is full of bullshit to the point I had to bing the solution to a few of the puzzles. But mostly it flows

I think I’m about half way through Skyward Sword HD and I’m mostly enjoying it. I didn’t have the experience of the Wii version to taint the experience, so it just sort of a new Zelda game to me, and the first one in a long time I’ve played with the old structured formula to it that got shed for BOTW.

It’s nice, I’m really enjoying it for the most part. I totally see some remnants of what people didn’t like about it ten years ago but it’s all mostly acceptable to me, and the switches gyros work way butter than a Wiimote likely ever did. I do have to take a day off from it here and there because some of the controls straight up give me wrist pain, but I would mostly recommend it to those that didn’t play it on the Wii.

Currently playing through Bloodborne. I picked up and put this game down like 10 times but I think this is when I finally finish it.

The furthest I’ve made it before was up to Rom and now I just made it to the second half of the Old Hunters DLC where I know people say the hardest boss is at. So I’m hoping I don’t give up again, but I guess we’ll see.

Lots and lots and lots of Guild Wars 2

Thats really it. Though, I may have to step away due to binging it so hard.

Been obsessed with Larcenauts on the Oculus Quest (also exists on PCVR). It's a type of hero brawler in the vein of Overwatch and Paladins etc. I like it a lot, and I'm pretty damn good at it :D Having so much fun learning the different classes and being a sassy lady while I blink around the map with the equivalent of Tracer in this game. "Being Tracer" is really fricken cool.

There's a bit of jank now and again, but I really don't care. It's so much fun to just swosh around at high speeds in a twitch-shooter in VR. Can't get enough of it. Although the summer has really made VR a disgusting affair in terms of sweats... So nasty.

X-Com 2 Collection [Switch]: This game rules. So far it seems pretty similar to the first game, but I'm only a few hours in, so I'm looking forward to seeing all the crazy new abilities and enemies. It runs reasonably well on the Switch, too, although it has some kinda long load times and the frame rate a bit unsteady at times. There's also some weird UI issues when objects blocking the camera make it hard to select the tile you want, especially when there are multiple stories involved. But overall, this game is very fun and addictive and will no doubt cost me many hours of my life. This also includes War of the Chosen, so I'm looking forward to checking that out after I get through the original game. I was willing to pay $50 for this but, to my surprise, it's on sale for $15 on the eShop now. Amazing value for this package.

Man, remember when that weird trailer came out for the new X-Com that looked like a first person shooter, and all the fans of the original game were incredibly disappointed? And then there was a proper turn-based tactics sequel that was announced and became a huge hit, so everybody just kinda forgot about the mediocre action game?

Yeah, that was awesome.

@gundato: @luissrod: I just picked up Dark Souls again (thanks, Borne to Run). I think this is my third attempt to like this game and definitely the most progress I've made. I've had a few good sessions and I'm starting to see what people like in this game... then last night I fought the Capra Demon several times and I'm fighting the urge to never play this game again. Apparently he's tough for a lot of people, and I think I'm under-leveled, but still. It just feels like a super cheap encounter.

Picked up the The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and couldn't put it down. Phenomenal value IMHO.

I found the story very engrossing. The (main) characters were all really well-realized. The music was awesome.

The localization was amazing too! There was a lot of funny writing, and plenty of wordplay both subtle and unsubtle, and sometimes bilingual too.

The "dance of deduction" mechanic was a neat addition. In terms of logic there was nothing difficult there but I thought the focus on looking at scenes from different viewpoints was an effective hook. The associated fully animated scenes + "cinematic" camera were also a nice change of format from the other (traditional) parts of the game that keep the screen relatively static.

As usual the twists got crazy by the end. The final deus ex machina was unexpected and IMHO hilarious.

I think the only bummer was not being able to pet the dog. But hey at least there's a really cute dog in it! Also some cats.

Obviously (pfp) I'm a fan of the series but it's worth noting that no prior experience with these games is required to jump into this: the two games in this collection are independent of the other games.

Tried for months to get that Shark Attack trail from last season's tournament reward pool in Rocket League, never got it, was bummed, had some points left over and at the end of the season they convert those into rewards even if you don't reach enough for a standard unlock, and somehow, by the luck of the draw, they read my mind as I was awarded the one item I had spent all that time trying to get when I logged into Season 4...

I picked up Boyfriend Dungeon. I'm about an hour or so in. It's a supremely goofy rougelite where you date your weapons, who also transform into people. The weapons get stronger as you go on more dates with them. Combat is pretty basic. It's probably not the game's strongest asset, which is weird for a rougelite, I guess. But you're mostly there to smooch swords.

I’m playing uncharted 1 for the first time on my ps3. I’m at chapter 12 right now (about 5 hours in) and I’m having fun. This is the first third person shooter I’ve played I think and the first one on console as well. There have definitely been some embarrassing deaths due to my inexperience but I’ve been able to manage. Don’t really like the motorboat sections all too much but it ended quickly enough. it’s been a good time overall so far

Just finished Nier Replicant ending E (!!!) which made me immediately start a new playthrough of Automata. Both such incredible games. Also starting to really enjoy my time with The Ascent.

Well, I'd been playing the popular iPhone game HotStock for about 3 weeks now after finally getting fed up with randomly checking websites all year and finally came away with a PS5 from Wal-Mart due by October 5th. So...it worked? I'm pretty giddy, even though in the light of day I'm looking at a release calendar that still has me mostly excited to replay old games on new hardware (though I do love Ghost of Tsushima and am really curious to see GTA V...yet again...). I do count myself among those very interested by the Guardians of the Galaxy preview as well.

Anyway, otherwise it's just been the usual Civ VI and MLB The Show while listening to podcasts addiction! Which is just fine but I've now got two months to break myself of this awful cycle!

I've been playing and just finished the main story of Monster Hunter Stories... on my Android.

I never thought I would play a mobile game for upwards of 40 hours, but the game is fun, looks good and has enjoyable story and characters.

Considering the original is a DS game, it is also probably the best port I've ever played. It plays smoothly and everything feels like it's designed for a single touch screen (except one or maybe two instances where some text mentions a 'bottom screen').

Monster Hunter Stories 2.

I LOVED the original on 3DS, and I even bought the iOS release in a hope that it was a thumbs up to Capcom thinking about making a sequel- and I GOT MY SEQUEL! Its largely the same mechanics with a lot of quality of life improvements. Its also a beautiful game.

I just saw this! thats awesome! I was really impressed with the mobile release- it looked better than the 3DS release and they made no compromises for mobile save amiibos of course. BTW the amiibos from the first game rule- you can even swap riders.

I consider myself a experienced player of third person shooter on consoles, yet I had several awkward death in Uncharted games. I think Naughty Dog just did not design those as well as Epic designed Gears games.

Ender Lilie, a very NieR and Dark Souls like Castlevania like. So far so good after beating 2 bosses.

Just finished the Metro Exodus Sam's Story DLC. Including the level from this DLC, ME might be my favorite FPS since Titanfall 2. Now going through Kingdom Come Deliverance, seems pretty good so far, though I can understand the save mechanic complaints. Will probably go back to RDR2 when I reach a stopping point in Kingdom Come.

It's a slow, immersive, and inconvenient games kind of phase I'm going through.

@mrangryface: Haha I didn't realize it looks better than the 3DS version, I guess maybe just from the resolution?

And wow those amiibos do look awesome!

I finished two really good games this week.

The first, Chernobylite, is a sort of run-based shooter across several open world hub maps, wish base building and non-liner narrative. It does a really interesting job blending a bunch of otherwise disparate elements, and I quite liked it. The Sci-Fi story of it is fairly good too, like a mix between Stalker, cosmic horror, time travel and post-cold way spy shit. Nothing is wholly original, but the blend is very enjoyable.

The other is Road 96, which is also sort of a run-based game? A rogue like walking sim? A first person adventure game that has random narrative parts? I’m not really sure what to call it, I guess adventure game is the closest. You play as a series of faceless teens trying to flee your country before an election potentially solidify s another ten year term for an openly fascist leader. You run into the same 8 or so characters as these different kids you play and slowly see their stories intertwine and converge. The random elements makes some of the seems really easy to see and the jank can be distracting, but the core of it has a lot of hearth, there are fantastically clever bits to the stories, the voice cast is mostly fantastic, the music is dope as fuck and there is a surprising amount of good and goofy humor for a game that is about escaping fascism.

@tartyron: I finished two really good games this week.

The first, Chernobylite, is a sort of run-based shooter across several open world hub maps, wish base building and non-liner narrative. It does a really interesting job blending a bunch of otherwise disparate elements, and I quite liked it. The Sci-Fi story of it is fairly good too, like a mix between Stalker, cosmic horror, time travel and post-cold way spy shit. Nothing is wholly original, but the blend is very enjoyable.

The other is Road 96, which is also sort of a run-based game? A rogue like walking sim? A first person adventure game that has random narrative parts? I’m not really sure what to call it, I guess adventure game is the closest. You play as a series of faceless teens trying to flee your country before an election potentially solidifies another ten year term for an openly fascist leader. As you travel to the border, the can earn money, get killed, play mini games and meet the same 8 or so characters as these different kids you play and slowly see their stories intertwine and converge. The random elements makes some of the seems really easy to see and the jank can be distracting, but the core of it has a lot of hearth, there are fantastically clever bits to the stories, the voice cast is mostly fantastic, the music is dope as fuck and there is a surprising amount of good and goofy humor for a game that is about escaping fascism.

I checked out Splitgate and ended up really enjoying it. There's so many movement mechanics going on that I'm not really sure I'm playing "optimally" ever. I don't love how you can't see through enemy portals, but I get it from a rendering perspective why they'd do that, and it feels amazing when you blind fire through a portal hoping to frag somebody, and actually get a kill. It's oddly satisfying in a way that Halo games haven't been. Maybe it's because I'm on PC and I'm getting matched with a lot of console players, so I'm topfragging in most of my matches. I tried to go back to CoD Warzone to play with a friend who's still playing that aimbot shitshow still for some reason, and it drove home just how little fun I was having in sweaty competitive shooters before. There's something lighthearted and fun about Splitgate that I am really into. Reminds me of older arena shooters like UT99, good ol' Blood Gulch on Halo, and Quake 3 railgun matches. For $0, it's an incredible time.

Aside from that, I bought an RG351V and installed umpteenjillion ROMs on it, have been checking out a bunch of stuff I missed over the years or got curious about from this site and others, like Devil's Crush on TurboGrafx and the Japan only release Kyuutenkai on PSX. And my man Jeffy B got me thinking about real ass pinball, to the point where I scoped out an Addams Family table on Craigslist... $6200 isn't SOOOO much money, is it? :( EDIT: A further thought occurred to me -- that it would be far cheaper to build a Tate-style MAME cabinet with an ultrawide monitor, load it up with Demon's Tilt, and Bob's my uncle. Oh lord, my basement is going to have some strange projects in 2022...

now i`m playing humankind/ fnd its somrthing new for me after civ VI

RIMS is a terrible name for a motorcycle game but it has made some great use of the DualSense. So much about learning to ride is about feel and feedback and this really is handled well. The speaker kicks in when your tyres squeal, the vibration lets you know when the limits of adhesion are about to pop.

Looks real slim on bikes but the riding seems solid so far.

I'm playing The Surge 2 (Game Pass) and I'm having great time. First small area wasn't very interesting but after that tutorial section you start playing that souls-like jam and exploration of those levels is a joy. They really improved level design A LOT (it was my biggest issue with The Surge 1) and I'm here for it.

Been slowly chunking through Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle after randomly discovering its deluxe edition on sale for $20. And by slowly I mean just two or three encounters at a time. Seems like a genuinely clever take on the XCOM formula, though I've only had Luigi with me for a handful of fights so I can't tell just how much is in the game yet of course.

For whatever reason I actually went on a huge splurge this weekend on PSN's Indie/Under $20 sale; I figured with a PS5 finally on the way, I ought to catch up on a bunch of stuff from this generation I passed over. Coffee Talk is a game I've listened to a How Did This Get Played?! episode, re-watched the Quick Look, and played about half of. I mostly agree with all six people I've heard talk about this game that it's quite dull and not particularly well written, but the music is pretty great and I can pretty confidently say this is The Most Tumblr Game I've Ever Played. I might not feel like I'm actually roleplaying a barista in the game itself, but I certainly feel like I'm roleplaying a cosplaying, shy, intensely into memes and kindness animé convention attendee in real life while the game is on.

Everything was also on sale for $2.99, and well worth it! I finished the tutorial in about an hour, laughing out loud and nodding thoughtfully all along the way. Once the tutorial is complete it seems like there's not much game left other than completing the encyclopedia, but the trophy lust might just convince me to throw it on as a screensaver every so often until I get something like my sixth platinum ever while doing almost literally nothing.

I'll be checking in as I dip into the rest of the list, which as I said, is long: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Scarlet Nexus, The Sexy Brutale, Night in the Woods, Zone of the Enders: 2nd Runner (this I've beaten before), Donut County, Ghost of Tsushima's expansion and multiplayer, Dishonored 1+2 with all DLC, Prey, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Yakuza 6, Bully and Ruiner!

...Why did I buy a PS5?!

Slayer's Testament

Doom 2016/Eternal on the Quake engine

I've been playing Descenders, which I thought was still in Early Access but apparently it's not, and it's a great time. It has fun tracks, it feels really good to play and it's not too difficult, which is nice in a roguelike-like game.

My GPU subscription expired, so I've only been able to play 3 games. I got Dying Light, X-com 2 for my birthday, and Injustice 2 because I got it while it was on sale for 10 bucks, along with Sub-Zero, Red Hood, and Hellboy later on. I like the immense customization of the game, and that it's not really that hard to get somewhat decent at compared to other fighting games like Tekken, which ended up just depressing me. If I get back online, I might actually be halfway-competent at it.

I have been playing Pick.Cards game now. It's a party card game and it's for adults. It's very enjoyable to play with friends.

Been replaying Hypnospace Outlaw to kill time before Psychonauts 2. I last played almost 2 years ago, and it's weird to see how much new content they stuffed into that game. It's a really good, goofy.... point and click? with some pretty clever puzzles. The music is surprisingly good. It also strangely scratches that nostalgia itch, being "of particular age". It really reminds me clicking around early-internet pages as a kid.

Nier Replicant: This is very much the "Kiwami 1" to Nier Automata's Yakuza 0. It's what it says on the box: an HD update of a 10+ year old game. Where as Automata feels current which went a long way as to why Automata was the one that put the franchise into the mainstream, Replicant feels exactly like a game from 2010--warts and all. It's not bad; it still features the series' fantastic soundtrack, the combat is fun, and the VA really does good work on selling some of the more ridiculous moments, but the story, especially in comparison to Automata feels particularly clunky. I'm also not a fan of having to replay entire sections of the game. I know this is a thing with the Drakengard and Nier series to get the full ending, but Automata at least makes it worth your while to get the ending. I'm on my second playthrough and it's a chore having to sit through the same cutscenes and perform the same quests despite having done them already.

The little bits of new dialogue and content meant to provide certain context to situations isn't really enough to distract that I'm fighting the same bosses again.

Psychonauts 1 for the first time. Holds up reasonably well, an adequate platformer with creative environments and strong writing.

I just beat Dishonored 2 for the first time and holy shit I cannot believe how long I slept on it. Easily a top 10 all time favorite game. The attention to detail and possibility space is incredible across the board. It reminded me strongly of Titanfall 2's campaign (and not just because of similar time travel mechanics). Both games have the chutzpah to spend single levels on ingenious conceits that lesser games would stretch to fill dozens of increasingly tiresome hours. I have not been as excited to play a game in years as when I first walked into the Clockwork Mansion and realized what was going on. It's insane to me that Arkane has chronically failed to get high sales, because between Dishonored and Prey they are easily one of the best developers in the business. I hope the streak continues with Deathloop and Redfall, and I hope the financial security Microsoft ownership brings will let Arkane get even crazier and more ambitious over the course of this generation.

The PS4 version of Hades. This is the first roguelite I've ever beaten (29 escape attempts), and it's thanks to how it always feels like you're progressing, be it by upgrading your character, upgrading and unlocking weapons, and learning how to deal with the various enemies. The writing is pretty strong and as a long-time fan of mythology it was fun to see how they weaved the prince into the already existing lore in a way that felt completely natural.

My main complaint about the game is the relationship / Nectar / Ambrosia mechanic. It feels completely under-explained, the rewards scattershot and random, and after getting the ending credits I am still nowhere near filling out any character's hearts, especially since they have the locked heart which I had no idea how to unlock anyway. There are also so many characters and they have so many hearts filling even a couple of them feels like a fool's errand. So it's pretty underwhelming and disappointing. I don't have the time or energy to do 100+ more rounds.

The difficulty slider / Heat system is also terrible since progress is glacially slow, and bound to each weapon. If escaping with any weapon raised the heat limit for all weapons, and if you received rewards for all the lower ranks when beating a higher rank, it would be much less of a grind and much more enjoyable. Anyway, I did enjoy my time with the game all the way to the credits, and have beaten it with every weapon (Adamant Rail SUCKS, though). I will keep it installed for when I have 20 or so minutes to spare in the future.

@theonewhoplays: I just got into Hades myself (thanks, Game Pass). I think I'm currently on run 22 and I'm going through the Satyr Tunnels for the first time. I'm really enjoying the game so far, it feels very much like the culmination of everything Supergiant has done up to this point. I do think my penchant for mythology helps keep my interest on those occasional runs when I don't make a lot of progress. It's always interesting to see a new author or creator take on something that has been told and retold so many times.

Hot take: I think this game might be pretty good.

@constantk: The game really clicked for me as soon as I got access to weapon aspects and started doing really specialized builds. After you've done using gems to renovate the dungeons, I would recommend spending gems to buy keys to unlock more upgrades in the mirror. The extra upgrades helped me out a ton, and it was satisfying seeing how you could combine/abuse the various boons and weapon abilities.

Doom (1993) - Man, I worried this might come with some problems as a new player in 2021. It holds up really, really well. I played on Hurt Me Plenty which felt pretty generous with the ammo and health pickups. That game does momentum really, really well. It also does exploration pretty well. Some of the maps are labyrinthian but you can get away without the map until maybe the penultimate teleporter puzzle?

It feels like an arcade game and amount of enemies you face makes Quake look rather tame by comparison. Also, Thy Flesh Consumed can die in a fire. The first two levels of that episode are hateful.

I just played through Days Gone.
I had a lot of other games to play when it came out and the reception seemed kinda meh, so I didn't bother trying it.

The story, characters, world and gameplay. I enjoyed it all.

I just finished Omno, a very relaxing puzzle game. the puzzles are easy, the game looks nice, it was very pleasant to walk around. i enjoyed it.

I fell hard down a Factorio hole. That game is terrifying. I've played a lot of games that felt like time vacuums, but Factorio is on a completely different level for making entire portions of days disappear.

"I'm just gonna do this one thing that takes 15 minutes. That's it." *Boom* 4 hours pass instantly.

The need to optimize can take over all other needs. Sleep? Food? Water? Who needs them when you can spend two hours making a conveyor belt of steel beams and plastic bricks reach their destination 5 seconds faster.

Recently, two totally unrelated coincidences combined into a blissful gaming experience. Sometimes the stars just align the right way.

First, I stumbled over a certain podcast made by some obscure internet dudes. One of them is called Will, the other one is called Brad, and their show is called "Brad & Will Made a Tech Pod." And that podcast is very enjoyable to listen to, and highly recommended.

Furthermore I discovered that I still own Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction on Battle.net, so after 11 years of abstinence I got back into that game. Decided to go offline single player for convenience, so I installed the PlugY mod (for unlimited stash, shared stash and access to the ladder-only World Events) and rolled out my favorite D2 class, a Necromancer.

I'm having a great time! A good ARPG (maybe still the best one, even though I personally might prefer Torchlight 2) and a banger podcast to listen alongside to: Still a winning combination in 2021! It's been fun diving back into old Diablo 2 forums I hadn't visited in a decade for build discussions and having my skellingtons hew their way through Nightmare and the beginning of Hell.

Wonder if I'll be able to take on Uber-Diablo again once I'm through...