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What video games are you playing? (1 Viewer)

Making good progress in Silksong. About 7 hours in.

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Anthony Martino said:
I've got a backlog of games I picked up on sale recently. Just completed one and started another, didn't really love either one unfortunately

The Outer Worlds

Made by a lot of the guys behind one of my old-time favorites, Fallout New Vegas. While it's colorful and runs well, there was a significant lack of variety in weapons, armor, enemies, missions, etc.

There seems to be a single-running gag throughout where everyone talks to you in corporate-advertising speak, which is funny the first few times, but loses its luster around the 27th time the joke's been done.

Exploration is never really rewarded. You may encounter a "named" larger version of some of the animal enemies, or find some hidden containers with loot. but you're never actually rewarded for it, you'll just find the same generic loot you get everywhere else.

There's some special "science" weapons, but they're gimmicky, never felt useful or satisfying, etc. And even "named" weapons or armor you find aren't anything special, you can find generic armor with better stats.

The banter between different characters in your party was enjoyable throughout the game, and missions can have a variety of ways to resolve them (and multiple endings possible) but overall the game was underwhelming for me.


Aliens: Dark Descent

The Aliens franchise of games has a mixed history, with many flops, and a few standouts. I have Alien: Isolation, but haven't played it yet. Snagged it free but not sure it's really the type of game that appeals to me, but is supposed to mimic the first Alien movie in tone/approach.

And then Aliens: Dark Descent you get to control a badass squad of marines taking on the Xeno threat, trying to mimic the 2nd movie in the franchise.

The visuals, atmosphere, sounds, etc. are all there. But the problem for me is that this game isn't about playing out a power fantasy of leading a badass group of marines into combat.

Instead, the game wants you to play it like a stealth game, doing everything you can to avoid combat with the Xenos, and punishing you for getting into scraps.

I get it from the perspective of the marines in the first movie getting their butts handed to them. But the game is overly clunky in moving your squad around, trying to find cover and hide before an alien drone spots you and then initiates a hunt where aliens come out of the woodwork at you.

There's containers and bodies and datapads to loot, but they're often hard to see/find and this can be a chore as well.

Even on the "story" mode the game can be pretty punishing, with your squad racking up huge amounts of stress or injuries, further weakening them.

So while the atmosphere is great, the gameplay forced stealth too much and not enough fighting to appeal to my tastes. Levels are long and massive slogs, and you'll often have to pull your squads out and return to finish them in multiple sorties with fresh troops. Your marines don't level up by killing xenos, but by completing objectives, so there's no reward for holding off particularly nasty hunts against your squads.

I only played this about 4 hours before I decided it wasn't for me, so maybe it gets better the further you go and the more weapons/abilities you unlock.



So that leaves me with the next cast of games on my list:

Red Dead Redemption 2
Total War: Warhammer III
WarTales
X-4 Foundations



I'm installing Red Dead Redemption 2 next. It's an older title from 2018, but has been lauded as one of the best gaming experiences of all time. I know I really enjoyed The Witcher 3 and the storylines and characters/experiences I had there, so I'm hoping RDR2 delivers on all the hype I've read over the years.

I understand the opening act is a bit slow and the game doesn't really take off until you're out of the mountains, so I'll give it my best and hoping to find an memorable experience with this one.
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OMG YOU FUCKING NEANDERTHAL, YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED RDR2 YET?

Sorry, had to get that out my system, but I'm envious.

I played it on PC as well, and it's one of the best the stories out there. You can't speed run it in 30-40 hours though, it's a lifestyle. If you love the Old West (and you should, Captain 'Murica!) enjoy all (well, some of) the tedious mini-games in there and be prepare to pick flowers and do all (yes, all If you can find them) the side quests, it's really worth it. Any NPC flag you down, you stop no matter what you're doing. They'll still be around unless you're gunning through the story line though, and you can rack up as many side quests as you want. If you loved New Vegas, there's tons more side quests here.

I also have Alien: Isolation which I haven't played (I paid for it for it though, freeloader!) but it's also/very much a stealth game and much more suspension than some of the blast'em games.

I'm still spending my time in Arma Reforger. There's tons of Coop missions you can download and some SP missions as well. I'd suggest some modern mods though, unless you're a cold war fantatic loving iron sights and no NVGs in pitch black darkness.
 
MrCatPants said:
how hard is it compared to hollow knight? I made it to radiance, but refused to go past that after getting trucked over and over.
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I've not felt anything so far has been too difficult. I never even went as far as to get to radiance in a Hollow Knight. I stopped just short of that, path of pain, and the end game gauntlet stuff.
 
Rakrul said:
OMG YOU FUCKING NEANDERTHAL, YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED RDR2 YET?

Sorry, had to get that out my system, but I'm envious.

I played it on PC as well, and it's one of the best the stories out there. You can't speed run it in 30-40 hours though, it's a lifestyle. If you love the Old West (and you should, Captain 'Murica!) enjoy all (well, some of) the tedious mini-games in there and be prepare to pick flowers and do all (yes, all If you can find them) the side quests, it's really worth it. Any NPC flag you down, you stop no matter what you're doing. They'll still be around unless you're gunning through the story line though, and you can rack up as many side quests as you want. If you loved New Vegas, there's tons more side quests here.

I also have Alien: Isolation which I haven't played (I paid for it for it though, freeloader!) but it's also/very much a stealth game and much more suspension than some of the blast'em games.

I'm still spending my time in Arma Reforger. There's tons of Coop missions you can download and some SP missions as well. I'd suggest some modern mods though, unless you're a cold war fantatic loving iron sights and no NVGs in pitch black darkness.
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I stopped playing RDR2. The controls were horrible and clunky and completely ruined the experience for me. I can only fall into the fucking freezing river in the mountains while on horseback so many times before I want to punch my monitor

I've moved on to WarTales which has a lot of depth to it, but it doesn't explain everything all that well. So it's a game where you're going to start, learn some shit, get that "aha" moment, restart, learn some more shit and start all over again.

Still enjoying the game loop it offers at least.
 
Man, Silksong is kicking my ass. I just started Act 2. I find it quite a bit harder than HK, and feel like the game does not respect the player's time - the boss runbacks and farming in particular are painful. Some of the gauntlets are f'n brutal and those can have worse runbacks than the bosses. And they barely added any quality of life improvements over the original. I feel like it's difficult just to be difficult in many areas.

Gorgeous game though, with some amazing gameplay. The platforming is a blast. So I'm still slowly powering through, just sick of getting stuck for an hour+ at a time so often. I wouldn't mind a big nerf lol - if I was playing on PC I'd be all over the mods, but I went Switch.
 
raynmanas said:
Man, Silksong is kicking my ass. I just started Act 2. I find it quite a bit harder than HK, and feel like the game does not respect the player's time - the boss runbacks and farming in particular are painful. Some of the gauntlets are f'n brutal and those can have worse runbacks than the bosses. And they barely added any quality of life improvements over the original. I feel like it's difficult just to be difficult in many areas.

Gorgeous game though, with some amazing gameplay. The platforming is a blast. So I'm still slowly powering through, just sick of getting stuck for an hour+ at a time so often. I wouldn't mind a big nerf lol - if I was playing on PC I'd be all over the mods, but I went Switch.
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Playing Donkey Kong Bananza. Man, is that game a joy to play. I've literally spent hours just destroying the environment and exploring everywhere without once getting on to the main story. Highly recommended if you have a Switch 2.
 
Vinman said:
Diablo IV for now, but it's becoming quite repetitive and I'll probably drop it before the upcoming season.
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Agree with this. Diablo 3 was our 'family' game that I played with two of my sons using split/shared screen on PS4. Myself and my middle son (now 14) played 100's of hours, him even more than I did. A co-worker knew we loved it so much, he even picked up a D3 poker chip set at Blizzcon.

We both got D4. Before I even put much time into it, my son tried it out and gave it an honest try. Couldn't get into it and went back to D3. I figured he was just stubborn, gave it a try. Also just couldn't get into it. Mention that on Reddit and they will downvote you into oblivion. I just don't get it. Like you sai, just repetitive and not that interesting.

Also fun fact: I was so into D1 that my girlfriend (which I later married) almost left me because I was playing it too much and ignoring her. She had already arranged to move in with her sister and I talked her out of it. Stupid me! Should've let her go lol! I ended up marrying her, then divorcing a few years later. Playing more D1 could've saved me a lot of money and frustration.
 
warewulf said:
Agree with this. Diablo 3 was our 'family' game that I played with two of my sons using split/shared screen on PS4. Myself and my middle son (now 14) played 100's of hours, him even more than I did. A co-worker knew we loved it so much, he even picked up a D3 poker chip set at Blizzcon.

We both got D4. Before I even put much time into it, my son tried it out and gave it an honest try. Couldn't get into it and went back to D3. I figured he was just stubborn, gave it a try. Also just couldn't get into it. Mention that on Reddit and they will downvote you into oblivion. I just don't get it. Like you sai, just repetitive and not that interesting.

Also fun fact: I was so into D1 that my girlfriend (which I later married) almost left me because I was playing it too much and ignoring her. She had already arranged to move in with her sister and I talked her out of it. Stupid me! Should've let her go lol! I ended up marrying her, then divorcing a few years later. Playing more D1 could've saved me a lot of money and frustration.
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If you're being downvoted on Reddit it's because you're spitting too much truth
 
Anthony Martino said:
If you're being downvoted on Reddit it's because you're spitting too much truth
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100%

I shouldn't care because my Karma is 14,273. Though I still don't bother replying on there unless I don't think I will be downvoted. Like politics, people can't seem to respect that someone disagrees with them.
 
warewulf said:
From 2016. The kid on the left is now 14.
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Sweet! Any chance on getting a splayed shot of the playing card deck?

I collect unusual decks like that, and bought the Arkham Asylum LE just for the two villain decks. LOL
 
Vinman said:
Sweet! Any chance on getting a splayed shot of the playing card deck?

I collect unusual decks like that, and bought the Arkham Asylum LE just for the two villain decks. LOL
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I'll try to get a shot. We just moved, so hopefully my son knows where the chip set is lol. I was originally telling him to not open either deck, figuring they might be worth something someday. That made him distraught because he really wanted to open it. We settled on opening one deck, but not the other.
 
Got Borderlands 4, it's fine. More pew pew gunplay, more funny writing, you know what you're getting with it.
 
Kain8 said:
Got Borderlands 4, it's fine. More pew pew gunplay, more funny writing, you know what you're getting with it.
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I've found the series to be on a bit of a downward spiral and along with a lot of other people, I did not enjoy BL3 in the least. BL3 kinda jumped the shark and was neither funny nor fun. The original Borderlands is one of my favorite games and I really liked BL2 a lot.

So I'm being more careful this time around, and will probably grab BL4 on sale if some of my cohorts recommend it.
 
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Vinman said:
Diablo 3 on PS4 was like a dream come true for me and I put a crapload of hours into that game.
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Same! I had it on Xbox 360 and was able to transfer my characters to PS4. Curious if there's a record of how many hours I put into it. Between myself and my kids, I'd guess 500+ hours. We used to play for an hour+ before their bed time. Got chewed out a few times by my wife for keeping them up haha.

My 14yo has the most hours. He researched how to be able to gather items and go to 'whimsyland' (rainbow land) any time he wants. He's done many other easter eggs.

Then I bought in on PC because it was super cheap on sale. I 'speed leveled' one character, then don't know if I ever played it again because I couldn't transfer my characters and my kids don't own it.
 
Wartales has a fun game loop with a variety of things to keep you busy. I've only played the Vanilla version without any DLC.

I found the initial start to be difficult being new to the game, trying to ensure I had enough food and gold for my troops.

There's a lot that isn't explained well in the game, from mechanics to certain quests being an absolute pain in the butt. But eventually you figure it out and food and gold aren't an issue. I did scale back my party size as I found large battles to just be a major drag (encounters scale with your party size), so generally kept my party size around 7-9 mercs.

I played on Region-Locked mode, fwiw. I did enjoy the feeling of progression/power as I'd return to a lower level area and be able to mop the floor with encounters there. Was impressed with how powerful my Archer wound up becoming, would absolutely delete multiple units at a time with a legendary bow. I never recruited a crossbow or pugilist.

I absolutely hated the fourth region with all the mosquito swarms and just found that area overly depressing, although I suppose it provided a variety as far as appearances and encounters.

I just stopped playing and uninstalled the game near the last part of the Drombach quest (the final region in the game), where you have to capture 3 plague-ridden. It was just unnecessarily frustrating and delivered me zero enjoyment or fun.

I enjoy a challenge in my games for sure, but there are a number of games that just toss stuff in that drains any enjoyment out of them, and that part of the quest was one for me (similar to how I stopped playing Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous in Nenios annoying puzzle quest in the final act of the game).

Overall for me the game was just ok. It definitely felt like it could use more polish and better explanation of mechanics (I didn't find out into midway through about helmet stamps). My troops on the map would often get stuck pathfinding because of certain terrain and that could be frustrating if you're trying to run from guards and suddenly your troops just stop and you have to manually take over control and pathfind around an obstruction.


Right now downloading Total War: Warhammer III to give that a shot. Was a big fan of Rome and Medieval Total War games back in the day, so hoping this one is enjoyable. My recent game experiences haven't been great, and I'm not sure if it's an issue with the games specifically or just a change in me as I've grown older.
 
So was a bit irked at the start with Warhammer III. It seems in order to unlock most of the factions you need to either buy DLC or own the previous games in the series (Warhammer I and II)

I have no access to Dwarves, Elves, even The Empire (human).

At the moment I don't feel like paying $15 (sale price) to buy the previous games in the series that I won't even be playing, just to get access to them.

I'm trying out Brettonia, which is a human faction but more like the Knights of Camelot, very knight/cavalry heavy. Want to make sure I enjoy the game enough before I start putting more money into it.

I think my wife actually got a code for this game free awhile back, so there's that at least.
 
I managed to find Warhammer 1 and 2 Total War for $20 total and snagged them, which unlocked a ton of factions in Warhammer 3

Playing a Dwarven campaign and having a blast. Their frontline infantry are heavily armored and hold well

Then they've got crossbows, gunners, catapults, cannons, flamethrowers, gyrocopters and bombers.

It's an absolute blast blowing orcs, goblins and skaven (rats) to holy hell in mountain passes.

Been awhile since I've had this much fun.

The work that went into different mechanics for all the races, factions and leaders, the animations and sound, you can just feel the passion behind it
 

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