So...What Have You Been Playing At Home?

I figured with everyone being quarantined right now due to COVID19, I'd make a topic to discuss what people has been playing to cope with COVID19 and being indoors.

Gaming has always been an escape for me during hard times in my life. Seeing the daily news cycle has started to get to me, as well as being locked indoors. That said, I've also taken it as a means to start getting through some games in my backlog. Ever since being quarantined I've completed Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Gears of War 2. Lately, I've been playing a mixture of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Yakuza 0 and Gears of War 3. Today I tried out Bleeding Edge and Killer Instinct. So, I'm going to continuing to explore game worlds I otherwise wouldn't have - like downloading Phantasy Star Online 2.

What about you guys, what have you been doing to pass time and to destress from the COVID19 news cycle?

Bought Modern Warfare hours before I was ordered to move off my campus. Mostly settled into my new place now so I'm hoping to get into it soon. Also want to wrap up Assassin's Creed Odyssey and start in on the DLC.

Dragon Quest XI. I bought it on release day for the Switch and got about 15 hours in but fell off it. Picked it back after the stay-at-home order, and basically played it all weekend. Turns out a simple, innocent, and ridiculously long JRPG is a pretty good lockdown game.

I also have Octopath and FE: Three Houses sitting in the backlog. That's like... 200 hours for all three games if I do reasonably completionist runs? Perfect.

For some reason I fell back into Titanfall 2's Frontier Defense mode.

What a great game, you guys. Good grief.

Been playing a couple hours of Animal Crossing, of course. I bought my Mom a Switch for Christmas (for Ring Fit) and convinced her to pick up AC since she's working from home. So I've been helping her figure out how to play and she seems to be enjoying it a great deal. The online experience takes some getting used to, though.

But mostly been replaying the Trails of Cold Steel series after picking of Cold Steel 3. Just finished the first one and getting started on 2.

Chipping away at DOOM Eternal when I can find the motivation, grinding Diamond Dynasty programs in MLB The Show 20 otherwise.

During the weekends I've been playing a lot of COD: modern warfare/warzone with friends.

During the week I'm not usually home from work before 7pm and I'm not in the mood for anything fast. I really enjoy point & click adventure games where I can take my time to enjoy a story and figure out some puzzles when I'm kinda tired.
I just replayed Technobabylon and I'm now playing Lamplight City.

During the start of this month I felt my occasional disinterest for games reach an all time peak and I didn't think I would actually get anything this month despite a number of anticipated releases but several hours and missions into Nioh2 and loving the push and pull of all it's difficult encounters. Tons of reviews and write ups have convinced me to get Doom Eternal.

Now after watching Abby's stream I'm wondering if Animal Crossing New Horizon is something I might enjoy.

Currently playing RDR2. See yah around!

A little Bloodborne, a lot of Judgment, and too much Fire Pro. Really wanted to get in on Animal Crossing, but unfortunately don't feel comfortable dropping four hundred on that and a Switch right now or the foreseeable future. May get Dreams and/or RE3. Also been adding stuff to Retroarch on my Playstation Classic, updated to the latest version, gonna try out some of those cool looking OpenBOR games.

I bought all the new games, which is not something I usually do.

So I've bought Doom Eternal, Animal Crossing and Half Life Alyx... and those games are taking up my isolation time.

On top of that, a modded up version Final Fantasy 7 on PC. They've just released a tool which makes the game moddable... as in, it allows you download and activate and de-activate mods without messing with files, as you'd expect from a modern game. And it's been pretty fun.

Just signed up for game pass a couple weeks ago, so I've been poking around on there. Played some Sea of Thieves with friends, started on the new Ori, and poked around a bit with Dead Cells and F1 2018. Game Pass is a pretty great deal, if you weren't sure.

I work from home, so all in all this isn't so different from what I was doing before the pandemic. But I've been playing Hypnospace Outlaw, mostly. I'm almost done with Max Payne 3 but a mysterious crash bug has kept me limited to 30 minute and one hour sessions. Bought R6 Siege on sale last night for my PC.

My PS2 comes back from eStarland tomorrow as well, so looking forward to finishing my playthrough of MGS2 and then probably starting MGS3.

My home time just started so I'm a bit up in the air on things to do. HL: Alyx hit so I've been doing that a bit. Annnd that's all I've felt like playing, if only in small bursts.

I was in the middle of MHW: Iceborne a few weeks ago on PC but got distracted and now I'm not really in the mood for it. I just ordered Monster Energy Supercross 3 as it was suddenly 50% off through some third party seller on Amazon today. I tossed in MediEvil for $25 because.. Eh, whatever. Though that is probably going to end up on PS+ sooner than later.

I was playing a little bit of Solitairica again, which continues to be the only phone game I've found to be good. I was bored and browsing through the list of hundreds of top games on the Google Play store and yea.. Mobile games are no bueno.

Honestly, as of last night, Satisfactory is really what I want to be playing right now. I was in the closed Alpha way back and its the perfect example of something that I enjoyed but couldn't mentally lose myself in it because no free time. But I want to wait til it comes to Steam so.. Can't play that.

Yea, just not really feeling anything at the moment. No other hobbies I'm in the mood for right now and don't have any car projects to work on. Tons of movies, and don't feel like watching any of those.

Half-Life Alyx here at the moment.

And I'm not sure whether I totally like it or not. I just came across the first bit of what I'd consider actual bad game design.

There's a section in the game where you get the torch/flashlight and once you've gotten past there after shooting stuff you navigate a bit with a padlock on a door. If you've just used up all your bullets you cannot progress further because you need bullets to shoot the padlock off. You would have to reload a save and be extra careful with your bullets now knowing there's a locked door beyond the section you are in.

I just couldn't believe that valve would do that. I thought they play tested their stuff to death?

The door in question:

I've just been sporadically jumping from game to game while running folding@home; specifically Wolfenstein Youngblood, DBZ Kakarot, Gears 4, River City Girls, Hyrule Warriors, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and Doom Eternal.

Too many options, and too much time on my hands.

Most of my time has been spent getting my online courses together, it takes a massive amount of time. Way more than you'd expect.

When I do get to game, I've been playing marvel ultimate alliance 3. New DLC coming out soon plus it's a fun game to play.

Playing Outer Wilds. Fantastic, amazing game. Except I am kinda stuck. But, slowly making progress and not giving up!

Also, for some reason, a lot of Dr. Mario (NES version) on Switch. It's the perfect distraction for one half of my brain while the other is listening to a podcast.

I am kind of playing Nioh 2, but I got a new sound system so I've been playing other games too. I've never been able to get a Nintendo console to do surround sound, and in this case, the Switch as I've never upgraded past Toslink. Now that I can do all modern sound formats (aside from DTS:X) I'm good to go and pretty much future proof for next-gen too. Point is though, I've gone back to Breath of the Wild and I'm enjoying it more than ever. Sound is a huge thing for me alongside visuals and having only 2.0 audio (despite having a 5.1 system) put me off when it came to playing the Switch so I rarely did. I've played more Switch in the past couple of days than I have in... years? I'm still playing The Division 2 from time to time and it does Dolby Atmos pretty well.

I'm just kind of testing whatever game comes to my mind as the thing that excites me most is what games sound like on this system. I am bummed that for the entirety of April and perhaps even past that, I may not have the funds to buy the new games I want to play due to this virus as I need to prioritize spending. It's ironic in more ways than one, but The Division 2, like the first one, is a game I can play just to relax. Now with Dolby Atmos the immersion is enhanced further. I just walk around looking at the environments and listen to it all, and though I enjoy the shooting, sometimes I roll my eyes and run away from combat so I can soak in the atmosphere alone some more. The Division games have been some of my go-to games in times of stress, and sadness.

Grand Prix Legends. I'm dragging myself round the back of the grid 20 seconds off first and still enjoying it.

lately I only play with my dick

found a cool site and jerk off day and night

https://gaypornmoviestube.com/

I've been running around in The Division 2 collecting all of the collectibles. I think I'm going to switch it up today and try out Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales. The first expansion for X4: Foundations comes out on the 30th I think so I might check that out as well.

I really wish I had a PS4 right now. This is the perfect time to play God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man, Uncharted 4, and whatever other exclusives they've got that I might like. Buuuut I'm not dropping hundreds of dollars on that right now.

Edit: Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is free to play on PC this weekend. I've heard it's not good, but I'll check it out for free.

Well I still work full time so I don't have any more time for games than usual. I'm slowly making my way through Hollow Knight, trying to beat all the pantheons and flawless ascended bosses in Godhome. Honestly I don't think I'm ever going to beat it while having a job. I just can't dedicate the amount of time required for me to get good enough to complete these challenges. I've played a lot of difficult games, but this might be the most challenging thing I've ever attempted in a video game. The only thing I can think of that is comparable in difficulty was completing Boss Rush as the Lost pre buff in the The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. That took me like 2 years to complete.

I started playing Outer Wilds a while ago, but haven't touched it in a couple weeks after getting insanely frustrated at one point. I think I would actually enjoy watching somebody play through the game more than actually playing it myself.

Just finished DOOM Eternal. I'm going to play campaign again right away to get all of the secrets and finish the slayer gates. What an exhausting game.

Also going to be playing Half Life on the side since I've never played it. It so far surprisingly holds up. I've gotten lost a few times though.

And for multiplayer I am making my way through The Division 2 and Monster Hunter World with a little side of Apex.

Yes, this is all because of the quarantine. There's really nothing else to do besides mixing in some movies or television.

I’ve been going through a big round of clearing out my backlog. Since being stuck at home I’ve finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3. I’ve been playing those, along with Yakuza 0, Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Gears of War 4.

Picked Dishonored 2 back up. I really liked it when I first played it but just wasn't in the right mindset at the time. Had to start over from the beginning cuz the game's pretty dense but was glad to do so. Almost back up to where I first left off. and really enjoying it so far.

Reductively speaking, it's BioShock meets Hitman. The game is a 1st-person game with super powers set in an incredibly detailed steampunk world with terrific aesthetics that's waiting for you the explore every nook and cranny and it's designed as a sandbox murder puzzle that's most rewarding when solved quietly, undetected.

So far the one issue that's cropped up here and there is the A.I. alert detection. There have been points when I couldn't figure out why some enemies were triggered. The times it happened I reloaded and it wasn't replicated. I hope this is not something I'll run into too often. It hasn't been too frequent of an issue, just something I think can and does occur on occasion.

Playing on console and it has a quick save feature which I really appreciate, tho the quick load is anything but quick. The writing is good but the fact that I'm stopping and reading a page of text every 15 seconds really breaks the pacing of the game. It's not a Dishonored 2 exclusive issue, in fact, it's sort of an epidemic that designers need to re-examine and solve.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is my first in the series and whenever I open it up I somehow lose about 4 hours of time, so I assume it's pretty good. Very adorable in just about everything it does. I've also been playing Borderlands 3 occasionally since that dropped on Steam.

But mostly I've been playing Total Warhammer 2. Oh boy, I've been playing a lot of Total Warhammer 2. There are 2 campaigns: Vortex (a Total Warhammer 2 specific Story campaign) and Mortal Empires (a sandbox, all factions from games 1 and 2, take over the world type of campaign).

Currently running a Vampire Coast, Ghost Opera Singer Lady named Cylostra, Vortex campaign. Taking occasional breaks for a Tomb King's Mortal Empires campaign, because High Queen Khalida is awesome and Tomb Kings are my favorite faction (and I've already finished a Vortex campaign with her). I also finished a Skaven (Clan Skyre) Vortex campaign recently, which was dope.

Every Tomb King battle can be summarized as "Throw Skeletons At Them", and if that doesn't work? More Skeletons. Drown the enemy in those clanky bois. What if I lose an entire stack of skeletons, you ask? Well you have literally zero expenditure on armies as the Tomb Kings so just make some more goddamn skeletons until the enemy dies via calcium overload. And then later on you can build those cool fuckin' buildings that let you make some goddamn Murder Sphinxes, animal headed statues that have giant scimitars or greatbows (that can take down fucking walls and towers), snakelike naga cavalry (some that spit acid from short range), titanic eye-laser cat statues and robot scorpions, giants made out of bone that shoot telephone pole-sized ghost arrows and artillery that fires the souls of your enemies at also your enemy. Also their standard catapult is called the Screaming Skull Catapult. Tomb Kings are the best. They also have chariots and more regular cavalry but I've never been great at microing them.

Meanwhile, Clan Skyre has fucking nukes, so that's a plus. Vampire Coast is also a heavy ranged faction, but they just use regular ass blackpowder guns and it's also awesome. Learning to put your melee in chevron formations so your gunners can just fire down the entire length of an enemy melee unit is so rewarding. Also Queen Bess is a fuckoff huge cannon that fires like 4 explosive barrels strapped to each other. Also x2: Necrofex Colossus. It's a walking zombie pirate ship that fires a triple barrel cannon from it's arm.

I have been playing far too much Total Warhammer 2.

Also this was the trailer for the Tomb Kings. We do not serve, we RULE!

I can't believe Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord just came out in early access today. I almost want to wait for the whole package but I might give it a try now. Huge fan of the series and been waiting for this for years.

Working my way through Nioh 2, while occasionally playingsloggingmy way through Doom Eternal. I'm not sure if I'll find the willpower to finish that one.

Also considering starting up Hitman 2 again, since I never played any of the new maps released after the game came out.

I went from Crisis Core to Final Fantasy X-2.

Yes.

Spinning my wheels at the moment. I could work on the backlog but I've really ran out of ideas. Bouncing between Assetto Corsa and Pro Evolution Soccer 2020. The latter is annoying me because I'm the kind of person who like to spend in the transfer market. I've somehow beaten Arsenal 2-1 with Joelinton scoring both. Just gonna shrug my shoulders at that one.

I'm in a weird situation where my province, BC, isn't at the stay-at-home phase and may not get there for some time. Not leaving the house unless absolutely necessary. I personally had a minor medical scare last week and was advised to work from home but that's been somewhat resolved and I'm back at the office today.

So for last week, I played Battle Chasers: Nightwar and finished that off last week. Really enjoyed it. Now I'm on to Borderlands 3 DLC. Cleared out the arenas and the takedown solo late last week. Started the casino heist over the weekend.

Yakuza Kiwami
Liking ist so far, but I don't have much time to play with teh working from home.

Just about to finish DOOM Eternal, I have Resident Evil 3 and Persona 5 Royal for next week, that combined with Animal Crossing should keep me busy for the next few months. Not sure what game I am gonna get next maybe I should add Doom 64 to my list, I want to see the story in that game.

Completed games/played a few rounds of: Void Bastards, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Armello

Currently playing: Animal Crossing, Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero, No Man's Sky, Tetris Effect, Bloodborne, Ring Fit Adventure. Mini Metro, Love Live All Stars, Threes

May pick up and play: Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 2 Remake, One Step From Eden, Hitman 2

Didn't expect to be able to play so much more since I'm working from home, but dropping the commute does make a big difference!

I've been using the opportunity to get through my home console backlog after finishing my first playthrough of Three Houses!

First, I went back and finally replayed Infamous 2 on Hard Mode, which I've wanted to do since college. Game still holds up great for the most part!

Now I've plugged in the good old Wii and I'm going through Donkey Kong Country Returns, my first game in the series. So far, so good! It's really fun to play and speaks to my completionist tendencies with all of the collectibles to get. It's pretty much like a harder Kirby in that going for everything feels like the true experience (except time trials, screw that). Some of those puzzle pieces are totally ridiculous though. Yelling at the TV has been a thing lol

With this time being perfect to get into last years backlog I've been mostly playing....

FTL and Guild Wars 2 :/

I got back into Runescape (RS3 specifically). Really enjoying the idle rpg aspect to it and extras.

I've spent most of my time playing board games with my board game group using online forms of gaming and discord so we can chat.

Video game wise I've gotten back into Breath of the Wild after watching the Bradth of the Wild video.

I recently started playing the Elder Scrolls Online. I've never got into MMOs and don't think I'll be engaging in that side of it that much, but as a fan of the TES series it's neat just experiencing the world and lore. Basically I just want to wander around doing quests at this point... nothing that requires too much thought or planning.

It's been a whole lotta soulslike this week with Nioh 2 and Sekiro. The combat in both games is great, with sekiro offering far better world and atmosphere, but Nioh having the benefit of variety and co op.

Playing then both is probably a great way to ensure that I dont finish either of them but I'm having a lot of (frustration) fun so far.

Played through Dragon Age 1 and 2 for the first time, and started Inquisition. But now with everything coming out I’ve finished Doom Eternal and my first playthrough of RE3, and am working my way through Persona 5 Royal.

On top of that I’ve started another playthrough of Majora’s Mask on 3DS, after hearing Abby talk about it on that Link to the Past stream.

I am one of the lucky people who got FF7 Remake on Thursday so been playing a little of that while not at work and before that Doom Eternal and Nioh 2. Enjoying all 3 a lot!

Bought my partner Animal Crossing so lots of isolation video games on the go.

I bought Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. I didn't want to do it at launch because it didn't look great, but since they've updated it and it was relatively cheap I went ahead and got it. I think it's very good so far. I like the setting of Auroa a lot. It's ranking up there with my favorites of Ubisoft's open worlds. Going it alone (with no squad) adds (albeit, forces you to play with) more options when going about taking out bases. Or, in my case, depending on how many enemies are in a place, infiltrating bases with minimal casualties similar to how I might play a Splinter Cell. While it feels like Ghost Recon, it also almost feels like an open-world Splinter Cell game that we never got, not to mention that there is a lot of Splinter Cell stuff in the game now, from equipment to story/characters. There is also some Terminator stuff in there regardless of DLC, and I find that hilariously dumb.

Now that you can customize your difficulty extensively, it's a lot easier to play the way you want, and it makes it more fun than it otherwise would be. I am having a lot of fun just taking it slow and clearing the map of every question mark. I haven't done any of the story missions yet aside from the intro and going to the 'HUB' area, but I've put in around 15 hours I'd say. The game sounds great and looks fantastic too for the most part. I'm not sure if the game was buggy at launch, but I haven't run into anything worth noting. I wish, like other recent Ubisoft titles, it used Dolby Atmos because the weather/environmental effects, and technological stuff would be even more impressive sounding. I can't say I am disappointed in it, but I do wish that it had some extra stuff, like manual saves (and, as already mentioned: Atmos.) Either a manual save system, or the game saves the number of enemies you take out at a base as it takes a while to go through a base and starting it over if you die kind of sucks.

So yeah, Breakpoint is currently the game I am primarily playing and enjoying. Currently, money is not coming my way as I am not working (temporarily laid off), so while I want to play Resident Evil 3, buying it at full price is something I am not sure I want to do.

I can't believe it took a suspension of football for me to really get into PES 2020. I'm starting to understand it now. I'm now sitting 3rd in the table with Newcastle in my second season. I'm still drawing or winning games by small margins but the teamwork stat is now right into the 90's. It seems to hold a lot of weight when it comes to your team's performance.

Now I just want to see how players develop in this. I've been plucking free players to plug some gaps and youth players. I wish there was more mystery to the youth team but it still is, "Here's a 16 year old version of a player you've heard of."

I bought Doom Eternal and yet the game I'm putting a ton of time into is.. The Surge 2

Initially I was skeptical of the sequel because it didn't seem to be going in a direction I would like. I decided to wait and I was rewarded for my patience because lo and behold, it's now on Game Pass. I played the original and really loved it, incidentally also through Game Pass, and I gotta say the sequel is just as much of a fun time sink.

Most of my fears about it are sort of true. The production quality didn't really go up. The story took a weird detour and the atmosphere from the original is completely gone. In a way this game reminds me a lot of Doom Eternal where it's a sequel that gives you a ton more of that same game but with some weird difficulty ramps and new systems. The first game had a really cool premise of being a regular assembly line worker taking on a job at this big future company and then through a strange incident.. a surge if you will... everyone in the place goes haywire and you're just trying to make your way out. There were strong Dead Space vibes of using these construction tools as weapons and armor. Surge 2 decides to go from a fun indie-sci-fi flick to a summer blockbuster without the budget. Now it's a city, there is a huge nano-virus, it's all blown out in scale but the production values are still kind of B-tier with the city having a ton of repeating, low quality textures. Also none of it really looks like anything. Technically it's a city but not really.. it's a weird mix of stairways and plazas that make no sense with rubble and debris filling in every corner and blocking off access. I mean it's alright but it does have a rough look to it.

The combat continues to be great though. They introduced this directional blocking move which much like Doom Eternals many new systems is a necessity to defeat some bosses unless you really want to turn each encounter into a slog. It's awkward in execution and the timing seems to be weirdly specific for each enemy despite the animation - some guys you need to parry really early to get it to come out while other enemies need you to be right on point when their attack would connect with you. It's weird, I don't love it, but with a bunch of levels and high armor I've gotten decent at it simply because missing doesn't mean death. Once you level up in the game and get a lot more room for error, experimenting during fights isn't as strenuous or as deadly.

I think the dev team really fell in love with the idea of shortcuts because the semi open-world map of the Surge 2 is absolutely littered with them. Once you unlock an ability to go up and down ziplines you will unlock so many ways to go back and forth between areas that half of them seem absolutely superfluous. Once again, with better production values this would have been amazing. As is it is fun but you are constantly running through bombed out buildings and run down streets.

The bosses are where the game seems to get uneven. You can be cruising through an area and hit a boss that will get you stuck for a while. Your mileage will vary of course, maybe I'm just not that good, but the first major boss gave me a good deal of grief. Then it was smooth sailing until a ways down the road I hit another boss that I just couldn't dial in. Of course in true "souls" fashion, I went to sleep, next day came back to the fight refreshed and clear of mind and got it on my first try.

Focus Home Interactive are keeping the B tier alive for better and worse. Surge 2 is a lot of fun but sadly as a sequel it doesn't do much to elevate it past that B-tier grade. Surge 1 was this great beginning and I was hoping the sequel would be bigger and better. It's bigger alright, and there are a ton of smart changes that make it a better game overall, but it's not the jump in quality I was hoping for. I do wish them all the best and hope that they make another one of these - but seeing as even me, a big fan of the first game, didn't go out and get this game on launch day I dunno how well it sold. I'm a scumbag and I'm sorry, but if you're in the mood for some really solid B-tier souls with a unique identity - hey give it a go for a $1 on Game Pass.