What games have you been playing lately?

[InsufferableCynic]

I just started a heavily modded playthrough of Oblivion.

I feel like this game is unfairly maligned, at least in it's modded form (plenty of the criticism of vanilla is justified).

Coming off Morrowind, I get why people were rightly upset, the world is far more boring and many of the gameplay additions - levelling everything - are very stupid.

Now that we have mods to fix the level scaling and a lot of other things, it's pretty good.

Yesterday I did a quest where I have to figure out who stole a painting from a castle. The quest had multiple endings, and didn't simply give me quest markers pointing exactly where I needed to go. That was a huge breath of fresh air coming off Starfield which has extremely woeful quest design.

Compared to Bethesda's modern game design, Oblivion is a masterpiece, and coming off one of their newer titles is probably the best way to enjoy what it has to offer.

 

[Gift of Denial]

Bad Mojo - a graphic adventure where you play as a cockroach surviving as you cross all the corners of a very revolting building, full of trash, filth and bugs - all these environments mostly created thanks to real-life photographs, which gave the game a very detailed and, to use a word, "hyperrealistic" feeling which works very well in a game mostly about exploring the grime of daily life - and delving into the surprisingly very human portrayal of the person responsible for and reduced to live among all that grime.

 

[tosiris]

I barely find time to play video games, but on my days off, when I have nowhere to go and nothing to do, I begin to play various games. I feel like I have to catch up on the latest updates and releases, and it's so much fun when you suddenly have new missions to complete. Recently, I got hooked up on the Valorant game. When I began to play it in the afternoon, I didn't even notice how the time passed. Besides, my friend recently shared with me how to play with Valorant hacks. I'm not a fan of cheating, but sometimes it helps when you have only one day off, and you don't wanna waste time going through the same mission again and again.

 

[Roach]

Recently, I've found that the things I used to enjoy like videogames and anime don't really excite me like they used to. That being said it's been a couple months since I last played anything out of my own volition. I say "my own volition" cuz my lil bros have been egging me on to play fortnite and this neat stickman fight simulator game. Fortnite so they can finish quest and get skins, and I bought them this Stickman fighter game cuz they're always watching stick fight animations. It's called "Your Only Move Is Hustle" and it's kinda like chess where it's one move per turn and you gotta lock your moves in. I promise I'm not shill, I just enjoyed playing with my bros even if they dragged me in it...

 

[PatHeadroom]

Completed the Phantom Liberty expansion. Not really into modern games. But this one tickled my fancy.

Also spent the last three months playing through Persona 4 on the switch. Great game that holds up today. And it was my first full play though.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

I just started a heavily modded playthrough of Oblivion.

I feel like this game is unfairly maligned, at least in it's modded form (plenty of the criticism of vanilla is justified).

Coming off Morrowind, I get why people were rightly upset, the world is far more boring and many of the gameplay additions - levelling everything - are very stupid.

Now that we have mods to fix the level scaling and a lot of other things, it's pretty good.

Yesterday I did a quest where I have to figure out who stole a painting from a castle. The quest had multiple endings, and didn't simply give me quest markers pointing exactly where I needed to go. That was a huge breath of fresh air coming off Starfield which has extremely woeful quest design.

Compared to Bethesda's modern game design, Oblivion is a masterpiece, and coming off one of their newer titles is probably the best way to enjoy what it has to offer.

Turns out I'm a fucking idiot and you should ignore all of my opinions.

On a whim I tried Morrowind, oh my fucking God it's like night and day and Morrowind is just orders of magnitude better in every possible way.

Don't play oblivion, it's a waste of time. Play Morrowind. And for the love of God don't make the mistake of using the 100% accuracy mod. Missing hits is a core part of the game and is only annoying for an hour or so before you get used to it. On the other hand, all of the 100% hit mods totally mess up the balance because even when the damage is adjusted you still stagger enemies like crazy.

 

[Gift of Denial]

I've been playing Spark the Electric Jester,



This is a sensational game - a one man project (excluding the music) made by someone that made a fair amount of high quality Sonic fangames, and that decided to translate the knowledge he got from these as well as years playing Sonic games into his own creation. But it's far from a Sonic clone, nor any sort of "homage", "love letter", "retro throwback" - it's a game that stands on its own and for me it's actually superior than any of the games it's influenced by - the product of learning from the games he loves, what made them work and what were their flaws, rather than trying to latch onto them. The maps are incredibly expansive and always in constant movement, it never stops pushing you forward at high speeds without any single moment that felt like a crawl. It rewards mastery but only as a way to increase the enjoyment of the game, as the fun of it comes from enjoying the speed and agility of the main character, and not in order to artificially increase the challenge.

I heard great things as well of its two sequels - this time on 3D, and for what I know, they are even better than the first game. I will play them around christmas.

 

[GothMonk]

I've been playing Left 4 Dead 2 recently. It brings back a lot of memories, still can't get those GMod Videos out of my head.

 

[Boxerdog]

People been telling me disco elysium was shit, political yadda yadda yadda, so i went in with the lowest of expectations and was pleasantly surprised when it was mostly a straight forward detective story, the political part was barely there and when it was it was just average.

The game was pretty good and i would've given it a 9/10 were not for the god awful ending, its one of the sharpest drops in games i have ever seen from being 9/10 to a 7/10.
Dark souls notorious drop its nothing compared to this, The biggest payoff was of a side quest that was borderline a joke from the game.

I would still recommend it to people, but i also would tell them that there is no payoff and the so called politics part that people form all sides been raving about its actually pretty uneventful and mediocre.

7/10 maybe even 6.5/10, could've easily been a 9. Disappointing.

 

[Dolfin]

People been telling me disco elysium was shit, political yadda yadda yadda, so i went in with the lowest of expectations and was pleasantly surprised when it was mostly a straight forward detective story, the political part was barely there and when it was it was just average.

The game was pretty good and i would've given it a 9/10 were not for the god awful ending, its one of the sharpest drops in games i have ever seen from being 9/10 to a 7/10.
Dark souls notorious drop its nothing compared to this, The biggest payoff was of a side quest that was borderline a joke from the game.

I would still recommend it to people, but i also would tell them that there is no payoff and the so called politics part that people form all sides been raving about its actually pretty uneventful and mediocre.

7/10 maybe even 6.5/10, could've easily been a 9. Disappointing.

I've also finished a playthrough and probably got the same anticlimactic ending. (I may have done the same side quest.) My take is that it's the "you didn't beat the game" ending that results from not completing any particular chains of events that lead to better endings. Without spoiling myself on the game, I have no way of knowing other than starting a new game and taking some bolder courses of action.
The political content is deliberately low-impact. Disco Elysium is the closest a game I've played has ever come to including real-ish politics as part of the world without making the game about politics or prescribing one perspective or another as the "best" path. It's necessary to explain why things are the way they are in Martinaise and to give complexity to people's motivations and opinions (what people say they believe/support versus what they really want and do and how that affects the world). That's why it's so good: the devs remembered that they're storytellers, not pundits. Seemingly no other game dev can keep it in their fucking pants. (I would welcome some recommendations for games that tackle the subject this well.)

 

[Boxerdog]

I've also finished a playthrough and probably got the same anticlimactic ending. (I may have done the same side quest.) My take is that it's the "you didn't beat the game" ending that results from not completing any particular chains of events that lead to better endings. Without spoiling myself on the game, I have no way of knowing other than starting a new game and taking some bolder courses of action.
The political content is deliberately low-impact. Disco Elysium is the closest a game I've played has ever come to including real-ish politics as part of the world without making the game about politics or prescribing one perspective or another as the "best" path. It's necessary to explain why things are the way they are in Martinaise and to give complexity to people's motivations and opinions (what people say they believe/support versus what they really want and do and how that affects the world). That's why it's so good: the devs remembered that they're storytellers, not pundits. Seemingly no other game dev can keep it in their fucking pants. (I would welcome some recommendations for games that tackle the subject this well.)

Spoiler

I done all the side quests, that is why so disapointing.

There is only one ending that is not a game over, you find the guy whodonit who was never a suspect and he is in a location that you can never go till the end of the game. the whole detectiving is performative because it does not matter, the guy will always be somebody you had no idea who it was till 5 mins to the end.
Persona 4 is a better detective game, and that is not a detective game disco elysium is, Trying to solve a case while being a fucked up detective cop its the whole point of the game.

The politics is whatever its funny when its satire and eyerolling when serious, but it was only serious a couple times, they're more like funny banter than something that actually affects the game. The board game you can play with kim its more politically charged than the actual real game.

The phasmid was the only payoff and even then its made kinda of moot for being kinda deux ex for the real killer.

Politics games are a whole another beast lol, try Suzerain or Conflict:meps.

 

[ALIXX-]

I've been really, really hooked up in Hearts of Iron 4 these days. I only play mods though, vanilla is just bland for me (plus Paradox's DLC policy being shit).
I'm also playing TF2, that game is one of the best online games that have ever existed with no doubt

 

[i_am]

gmod realism

 

[i_am]

I've been really, really hooked up in Hearts of Iron 4

paradoxmaxxed

I only play mods though, vanilla is just bland for me (plus Paradox's DLC policy being shit).

bro u crazy for not buying 10 dlcs for the low cost of $10k

I'm also playing TF2, that game is one of the best online games that have ever existed with no doubt

i havent played that in years

I also really like World of Horror. As a big Junji Ito fan it's great to see so much love poured into that kind of style.

yeah that games very cool and the soundtrack was rent free for a while, though i stopped playing because i think it took years for a substantial update to happen

Yume 2kki

very cool game

Not playing but really want to get back into Ark Survival Evolved....

i played ark years ago with my cousin and had lots of fun despite the fact that we couldn't play for shit because of bugs and the fps regularly dipped to 5 despite having the recommended specs

Is there a point in these new Switch Zelda games where it "clicks?" I've played some BotW and it feels like I'm just dicking around the plains with Bobolikins

i dont particularly see the appeal in it from what i've seen and heard over the years. An open world map where you can go anywhere is almost always boring due to the vast canvas of the map forcing devs to cut costs and time by copy-pasting a bunch of stuff across it. the landscape itself doesnt look impressive either, seems like nothing but long flat plains with some mountains and hills here and there.

i'm a level designer and love creating maps for games, one of the most important things you should do is keep everything tiny because a high quality short-experience is significantly more impact than a big drawn-out sandbox full of haphazardly placed stuff. The most entertaining part of level design is working with the player by giving them limitations on what they can do, forcing them to improvise, adapt and overcome it.

Stuck on a floor with zombies as an elevator slowly descends to your location? that's tension and suspense for the player​

Going up a staircase as explosive barrels are being pushed down it by enemies? that'll make the player keep on their toes​

a seemingly innocent was secretly full of traps? the player will have fun learning about this environment and how to tackle it​

​

These were a few examples of scenarios that could only really work with more linear games. None of these are compelling if you had the freedom to just dig a wall and go somewhere else. Limitations are the cradle for creativity and fun but to most people, "freedom" sounds inherently good and more exciting, so that's why BOTW and TOTK are incredibly popular with people who don't really play games. it's good if others find it fun but i just see as it open world slop

​

I am actually playing Rimworld. Great game... However, I'm already getting a little bored, so it's possible that I'll soon abandon my colony. But I will probably return to this game more than once in the future.

same, i was looking into buying the DLCs to renew my interest but gave up after seeing they were around $50 reach in my region

just got back into wizard101

remembering this game existed is like a fever dream, i prefer pirate 101 even though i literally dont remember much from either

danganronpa.......

thats crazy tell me who the danganronpa was when you finish the games

Cool game, I don't vibe much with the signal decoding stuff, but it's nice to explore the big map (and the dev did a fantastic job of emulating the Source engine quirks on Unreal Engine)

i played this a lot recently, it really spooked me out for the first 20+ days before slowly realizing there unfortunately wasn't much in the game to experience simply because all the interesting stuff were rare and had to sought after--and ultimately not mattering outside of spectacle. it originally gave me the vibes of Darkwood where it's juxtaposing the bright day meant for exploration and maintenance with the tension and unknown of the atmospheric night, but it fails to deliver it because you're sort of unable to die, and you can also get a cat robot do wageslave for you.

the thing i liked most was the ability to make the base my own; very rare for a game to let you clean all the decals and props inside of it--especially for a horror. i covered all the windows in curtains so i wouldn't get scared of anything potentially peeping through them, i created a tower of boxes to climb if anything breaches the base, i had paintings and posters of media i images i inserted into the files and last but not least, a TV blaring at least a dozen mp4 files. it makes me think that coziness requires discomfort in order to be effective. It's also why i probably felt indifferent to it once i realized there wasn't a threat at all.

all that aside, i just give it a meh rating. expectional execution in atmosphere initially but devolves into boring wageslaving and being horrified of horror that doesn't exist.

what is it with everyone suddenly jumping back into minecraft lately? you're like the 8th person ive seen do this in the last week. why do i want to jump back in too??

i think it's simply because minecraft is the only (mainstream) game of our time that actually has a fully moldable world. Most building games just have you building props atop pre-defined meshes (i.e fallout 4 settlement building). i dont think minecraft is interesting to me though because the gameplay elements don't really interact with that fact, all enemies and hazards can be nullified by dirt blocks.

Replaying Deltarune because the games are pretty easy with one hand.

sus

But currently playing through Entropy: Zero 2. Free game I highly recommend on Steam with a crazy storyline and great dialog.

that game was crazy as hell and i loved it. it feels like half life 2 but with fun and feel-good shooting gameplay

I've pumped maybe 60 hours into Deep Rock Galactic in the past month. Pretty good.

truuue

 

[ALIXX-]

bro u crazy for not buying 10 dlcs for the low cost of $10k

The DLCs dont have funny paths where you can establish national socialist theocratic technocracies where you kill 90% of the population. Total scam

 

[i_am]

The DLCs dont have funny paths where you can establish national socialist theocratic technocracies where you kill 90% of the population. Total scam

paraslop on their way to add a universally good feature for their game so they can bundle it with the most boring dlcs to sell them

 

[ALIXX-]

paraslop on their way to add a universally good feature for their game so they can bundle it with the most boring dlcs to sell them

Thank god for all of the mods that come with DLC features added free

 

[containercore]

Fell into a slump last august/september due to severe burnout. I was stressed out to say the least! The only thing I had energy for was playing Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move, a game I've played on and off periodically. I ended up getting some pretty insane scores during this period. The following video I would say demonstrates some truly high level play (but ofc I'm not a world champion of any kind):


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uWty1UjXfA


The simplicty and elegance of this series is truly remarkable. It has only a handful of mechanics but their implications provide the games with incredible depth. The carnivalesque music and atmosphere in 3/'99 really make it something special. In terms of purity and presentation, it may be the crown jewel of the series. The cheerful colors and sounds disguise a brutal game of strategy and improvisation.

 

[brentw]

Spoiler

I done all the side quests, that is why so disapointing.

There is only one ending that is not a game over, you find the guy whodonit who was never a suspect and he is in a location that you can never go till the end of the game. the whole detectiving is performative because it does not matter, the guy will always be somebody you had no idea who it was till 5 mins to the end.
Persona 4 is a better detective game, and that is not a detective game disco elysium is, Trying to solve a case while being a fucked up detective cop its the whole point of the game.

The politics is whatever its funny when its satire and eyerolling when serious, but it was only serious a couple times, they're more like funny banter than something that actually affects the game. The board game you can play with kim its more politically charged than the actual real game.

The phasmid was the only payoff and even then its made kinda of moot for being kinda deux ex for the real killer.

Wow, I'm glad I never actually gave it a shot, that is rage inducing. WTF?

 

[brentw]

Haven't been playing a lot, what with the baby taking up all of our time.
I started playing the Genisis game Landstalker.

We recently got Super Mario Wonder, but haven't had time to play past the first level ... since we want to do it co-op.

I've also fired up some ol' Civ V (by far the longest playtime of all of my steam games) and started a new game to play during downtime at work.
Yeah, I should probably use that time more constructively but my brain is fried from lack of sleep (because baby).