What have we all been playing recently?

poking around a bit more in ME:Andromeda while i wait for the Trials of Mana remake. it passes the time and i get to psyker at stuff and then shoot it. or shoot it and then psyker at it.

 

to my extreme surprise, I do not like Terraria very much

 

Playing... way too many Elder Scrolls games, which isn't good for productivity at all!

The story was that I got Skyrim on a Steam sale, so that took up a huge chunk of time, and then I got into the Skyrim modding scene, which I hyperfixated on for a while. Concurrently to that, I got Morrowind and Oblivion on a GOG sale, and finished almost all of Morrowind - all I've got left is about half or so of Tribunal but the dungeon design in Mournhold is just such a slog so I'm reluctant to get back into it?

Oblivion is also on the obvious "I really want to play through all of this" list but... it keeps crashing every 10 minutes in my current playthrough despite all the attempts to troubleshoot it. I cry.

Am currently onto ESO, which I also got on a sale and... you know where this goes. Send help.

 

one of us, one of us
(I have an eso toon of every free class and I'm attached to all of them, Send Help here too)

besides eso I've been sucked back into Audiosurf (2, technically, though I own both) recently, at least partly bc it takes just enough brain energy to keep me entertained without being particularly high-effort or taxing after a long day at work

 

Muahahaha I've gotten my boyfriend and my little brother into Secret World Legends >:3

(This is extra good because the horror vibes are too strong for Kit or sib in law to be interested and you can only play solo in an MMO for so long)

 

Trials of Mana is pretty and good and I love it!

 

I finished Disco Elysium a few days ago and its such a cool game!
Its a narrative mystery game, no combat (and what combat elements are present are done through the story)
I think the writing is fun and I lovee the characters, I think with the way you can build the player character (who is a set guy with a specific backstory but who he is now is up to you, given his thinking is flexible and affected by amnesia)
Allows for replayability! Cause the different skills you get for passive and active skill checks change how your character perceives the world and solves the mystery
Plus theres cool side quests you can do that actually can help with the main story

 

*banging fists on table* Nether! update! when!


I'm nonsensically proud of Disco Elysium being so popular. I've been following the development since it was still called No Truce With The Furies :D

 

Tbh it deserves to be more popular!
((Well so theres more available fanfic haha XD))
But really, it is quite delightful, and I thank my friend for telling me 'hey you will like this play it'

 

Who is playing Chocolatier in the year of our lord 2020?

It me

 

pathologic classic hd was on Big Sale a couple days ago so now i'm playing THAT TOO despite it being a bit of a mess
So far I'm having fun!! Though I will admit I definitely wouldn't be if I didn't know what I was in for. Also I'm only on day 3. also i've been skipping super many quests because the Main Quest is what matters and I need to prioritise, damn it
I'm so excited to get the chance to fall in love with my faves all over again AND get to know the characters we don't get to talk to much in Pathologic 2!!! big hype
seem to be a bunch of funny moments amidst all the tragedy and stress in this one too although so far nothing has come even close to the comedic brilliance that is the time in Pathologic 2 where someone asks you if you brought a baby to the town hall and your response options are
1. You thought I brought in a baby?
2. You thought I brought in a baby?
3. You thought I brought in a baby?
bc i still think that was hilarious

 

I love the Pathologic games so much. I can't wait for the other characters to be updated into 2, because the Changeling's story was incomprehensibly translated. I know the translation was updated for the HD version but I have to complete one of the others first and Bachelor is boring and the combat system is awful so I always get fed up with the Haruspex. I wish saves from the original version transferred over to HD so I wouldn't have to do that all again.

I really, really loved Pathologic (I found it when I discovered their other game, The Void) and I'm so glad people are getting into it. Every time I tried to get people into it before people were like "what the fuck is this, I'm not playing that"

 

I'm really glad I played 2 first because otherwise I don't know if I'd've had the patience to finish 1
(I mean, technically I still don't, but I do believe my burning curiosity wrt the Bachelor & Changeling storylines will be enough to pull me through)
I haven't heard of The Void! Should I look it up?

 

It's very different but, IMO, a very good game. It's an art game, sort of, both about art and (again, sort of) art-as-gameplay. (It's also not about art. It has a lot of Pathologic's "what the fuck is going on here" and is very open to interpretation)

 

The Cinders mod for Dark Souls 3. There's a lot of nice little quality of life changes, like being able to level up at the bonfire or the appearance changing things no longer being rings but items you drink which have infinite uses. In addition to that poise now functions like it did in the first game and fp regenerates over time. There is also a large amount of new spells, rings, and other items. This has made Dark Souls 1 style magic and tank builds possible again. If you felt like 3 nerfed your preferred playstyles then there is a good chance that Cinders has fixed it. Whips also strike faster. I'm not sure how good they are but they are notably faster than the original game. There's also guaranteed gear drops off enemies now, more of them, so you never have to grind for equipment sets. Ever.

In general I feel that Cinders is a significant step up from the base Dark Souls 3.

 

Just played through the demo of Gloomwood, which is a neat looking Thief inspired survival horror that's going to be published by New Blood Interactive. Dusk Dev's one of the two designers on the game. It's got unsettling sound design and creature design. The stealth is fun and the demo map is a promising thing. Aesthetically it's a gothic horror type deal in a vaguely Victorian England city. I'd definitely suggest giving it a shot if you haven't already.

 

Got through the Ultrakill demo. I am kind of just. Vibrating with a murder high right now. Very, very good demo shows a lot of promise for the fullgame. It's basically taking the arena shooter format of things like Serious Sam and pumping that shit up to 11 with things like dashes, slides, and wall jumps. Your weapons have various alt fires that you can purchase for points. These are all real neat. Game is very fast pace. It's also checkpoint based and not like something you can quicksave through. You die you push R to restart at your latest checkpoint. To regain health you collect blood from your foes by way of being near them when hurting them. Meaning that hanging back and chilling may well get you killed. Can't stay still. Gotta keep moving. Gotta keep shooting. You have unlimited ammo. Music is boss. Please play this thing it's great holy shit.

 

Getting into Them's Fightin' Herds. It's a fighter that used to be an MLP fangame before Hasbro C&D'd it. Now it is an original IP. It's actually really fun. Yeah it's a degenerate combo based game but like. It has a REALLY good tutorial. Explains things well and even shares some tips that new players might not know about. Like how holding down+back also charges for charge moves. The game's got a fun storymode. Kind of like an RPG but the battle system is a fight game, and this teaches you more fundamentals. And then there is. The Pixel Lobbies.

So the pixel lobbies are, as they sound, lobbies where you have a little sprite. You can dress up your little sprite and frolic in the cute little cities and towns. Here you can challenge people to matches, ask them to train, fight over chests full of salt with which you buy hats, and go to the fight shrines which function by arcade rules (winner keeps playing, loser goes to the end of the line). There's also a social pve experience where you fight AI enemies and explore and collect salt and treasures. But most importantly you can talk to people. There is both text and voice chat available in these lobbies. And since the game is PC only right now this means you've got access to a keyboard.

Which means I can do things like have after game chats with people. Like today I did some matches with an Arizona player who did rope spam at me. They apologized after and I was like no yeah that's cool it was actually good to have to learn how to avoid the lasso spam. It was a fun little moment. A social moment. Fighting games are, by their nature, social experiences. And it's really, really cool to be playing one that is actively working to solve the issues online matchmaking have created. Which is that the games often feel soulless and it is often more nervewracking to play. In addition to good ass netcode you finally, finally get to go back to having social experiences with people and talk to them. And you get to do this without having to find and go to a locals. You legit just need the fucking game and an internet connection. This is magical. I love it. A lot.

I will say if you do try this game out. Do yourself a favor and buy an ethernet cable before you play online. People will know if you're on wifi and while some people won't give a shit, there's going to be someone out there who will call you out on being a wifi warrior. Really, do this with any fight game. You want a connection as stable as possible and no amount of strong wifi connection is going to save you from packet loss.

Anyway. Like that aside. I'd say if you're interested in fighting games but feel intimidated by them. Then TFH gets my recommendation.

 

Been back in Anarchy Online and enjoying it a lot more than i expected to when i poked my head in for a nostalgia hit. The complexity and slower pace are being good to me and the janky graphics aren't bothering me that badly.
Also been playing Battletech in MegaMek, against the AI bot it comes with, and that's been a lot of fun.

 

Elite Dangerous. I was obsessed with the original Elite back in the 80s and the modern remake is everything that game wished it could do but had to fit in an 8 bit micro. It's grindy as fuck and has no real storyline or endgame, it's purely a sandbox, but so was the original.