Last week I did a music thread.
This time I thought it was time for a gaming thread. What's everyone playing?
I've been playing Dungeon Deathball, a fun little indie roguelike sports/puzzle/tactics game. That in turn makes me want to get back into Blood Bowl 2. Also played a little bit of Slay the Spire, recently.
Factorio.. New expansion just dropped and I'm about 200 hours into the current run
Same. I'd send help, but I need it, too.
"You must construct additional recyclers."
"You must construct additional recyclers."
"You must construct additional recyclers."
I see the expansion and want to play it.
But I know the second I start it's going to take over my life for at least a few months and I'm not ready for that kind of commitment.
I am still recovering from the last time I played and ended up with a 700 hour factory that transitioned into optimizing my IRL hardware over optimizing the in-game factory.
I genuinely believe my time with that game fucked up my dopamine system. It would be unwise to ever return, but my god is it a beautifully designed game.
Oh fuck, I gotta get me some of that.
Run you fool. It will consume you entirely.
"I stared into the abyss for so long that the abyss stared into me. In me it saw another abyss. It was Factorio. Then the abyss cried out in terror and was silenced."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF_aN3QOCIo
That villain's voice actor brings back a lot of memories.
I think the one reason I don't play more Factorio is that you (at least at the start) have to control a single unit to do all your construction, and that really slows a lot of the gameplay down in a way I don't find fun. I wish I could figure out how to get myself (mentally) past this because otherwise I really like the game. There any mods or tricks you know of that would help?
My advice would be to make blueprints of the basic stuff; anything like a steel furnace array or a set of electric miners etc., figure out once, and then make a blueprint of it. It's way easier to place stuff down to fit a blueprint than it is to just place things down off memory, even for obvious or simple things, and that gets you to the point of automating construction bots that much faster.
I'd say it's entirely reasonable to have bots within four hours of starting the game, even if you don't really know what you're doing. And the bots of course solve the 'single unit' problem.
Basically automate everything.. you should be past the early game after about 30 minutes and have construction robots around the 1.5hr - 2hr mark. I like the early game because for me it's more of a speed run, how fast can I get to construction bots and I create blueprints to optimise for this. Making blueprints that are simple and quick to hand build makes a ton of difference early game. Once I unlock both I move to my more complex and efficient blueprints. Though a lot of this I need to optimise now for Space Age.
Best tips I can give for early game is automate your assemblers, inverters, belts (plan this for red belts as you want to move to them asap) and then miners to start. That way you can just focus on building and expanding and exploring. I don't bother much with defence until I unlock bots but that is only because I rush to get to them before the natives get angry.
Hope this helps in any way
Same here. I'm typing this while waiting for my railgun prerequisites to finish so I can build a fusion-powered spaceship and reach the edge of the solar system. That "Beat the game in 40 hours" achievement is going to be really tough to get.
Yeah I think getting through the early game there is going to make the biggest impact. And probably bug planet.... fucking bugs...
All the planets seem simple enough to drop in and build big and jump off with the right blueprints
Robocop. Superior plot to robocop 3. Good old school fps.
That game really surprised me -- I might run through it again with the New Game+.
Recently finished Astlibra on the recommendation of someone from here. Very enjoyable but the last chapter / end game was meh.
Currently playing Pathfinder WOTR with the wokeless mod and it has been great, an actual "return to form". I've not finished one playthrough and I'm already thinking about my next one.
Wokeless mod, you say? Tell me more.
I bounced off both pathfinder games pretty hard. They seem very needlessly overcomplicated.
Is on basemods. Is not even half-assed, it replaces character portraits, voice and dialogue.
https://basedmods.eth.limo/mod/bafybeicmftc6yfodorahgaqc24rouivxwjsc6sx4uldrflcxins5crhmjq/
Is there a similar mod for Baldur's Gate 3?
No bundle but rather several mods that you can install. You can de-diversify the game and even make your companions not be gay. There is also a mod that replaces Dame Aylin with Ser Aylin. If you want you can also make Wyll white.
Honestly, I understand the hype but BG3 will never work for me. The story itself is bad and they ruined the Illithid lore. There's also stuff that I hated where like the game clearly wanting you to chose certain path just because either feminism or race or the fact that Jaheira is just a skinsuit, nothing about her is Jaheira.
That was probably me, and I only know about it because someone else on this board made me aware of its existence in a thread about games that weren't doing the whole ugly modern art thing. It really is a hidden gem.
It was great. One of the best new games in recent years. My objections come to the last chapter, or not even sure what that was, when you go again in all the areas and then do random dungeons and the final boss was incredibly meh. Not to mention the story did not make sense.
Anyway. Remove that and it was a great game.
All I know is that the gameplay was some of the best in the business, there were pretty anime girls and that when the credits finally rolled I felt emotionally drained in a good and that there are very few games that can achieve that.
I really need to pick up the Gaiden that came out earlier this year at some point.
Ys X: Nordics
I forgot how much I liked japanese action rpgs.
Ys X: Nordic. Finally got the English translation and pretty fun.
Tactical Breach Wizards, Satisfactory now that it's 1.0, and messing around with setting up an Eve Online private local server as a curiosity project somehow turned into starting playing the actual live version. A little hustle and I'm a 2.5 billionaire after 4 weeks solo F2P.
Recently bought the entire DOOM franchise on Steam for $28 and am having fun with that. Sale is still ongoing if anyone cares to add cheap DOOM games to their Steam library.
The classics (Doom 1 and 2) are abandonware and there's modernized engines that run them much better on modern hardware, so I wouldn't pay for those.
Pre-hurricane I was playing Satisfactory nearly every day. Post-hurricane I've been playing: Tiny Rogues, Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver and Civ 6.
Mostly retro, or replaying games I haven't played in a few years.
The Ninja Warriors Return
Mad Max
Pocky and Rocky Reshrined
Shining Force II
SimCity 4
Warhammer 40K Dawn of War II
I been alternating Monster Sanctuary and the remake of Romancing Saga 2.
Monster Sanctuary is probably everything a Pokemon game should have been a long time ago, and it managed to seamlessly blend a full Metroidvania into the capturing system. Which means its beneficial to try and capture everything because it might have a new or upgraded utility or traversal ability, rather than catching just for the sake of it. And because every battle is 3v3 its a lot more about synergy between monsters rather than pure stats.
Which is why the tiny mushroom at the start of the game that in any other would be a throwaway temp guy is actually one piece of the strongest team comp (Poison Eater).
And having never played a single SaGa game, I picked the remake on a whim. And the freedom of character building and non-linear progression in the game is mindblowing for a game now, let alone from the SNES era. Being able to just decide "you look like axes and earth magic" and then build a guy that way because you gain exp with whatever you used that battle is incredibly nice.
I'd also be a liar if I didn't say one of the factors that pushed me over was seeing the big titty anime girls you can recruit, which meant the remake was likely very mildly censored if at all.
I'm playing Warhammer Online: Return to Reckoning. Private server for the old MMO. It's a lot of fun if you like open wide pvp.
Still play Out of the Park Baseball every day, but I've been blessed to have a great online league that's been going with the same core group for 6+ years.
I play NBA2k16 for my repetitive mind-off time
I've been replaying the retro FF games -- just have a replay of 6 left.
(For the curious, FF1 - B+ tier / FF2 - F tier / FF3 - B tier / FF4 - A+ tier / FFV - B+ tier / FF6 - S tier (obviously) -- I liked 3 way more than I expected, and 5 was a lot of fun throughout)
Still on Warframe, I'll maybe play a NEW game if that Kingmakers turns out to be good or when Kingdom come deliverance 2 releases.
Though there's an update coming out which has you in an alternate 90s setting with the kind of music too so be playing that for the nostalgia alone as the 90s TRULY was the best.
Darktide with some friends and talked another guy into trying Stellaris over Thanksgiving.
Bought Darktide at launch (Xbox) and for an impulse buy, it's become my main time killer at 300 hours so far and still going strong.
The 40k aesthetic is so much more fun than Vermintide. I'm only level ~20 with my first character, so I might be missing something, but it feels like there's nothing to do with all the currency if you have weapons you like. The cosmetics leave a lot to be desired. But the core game is solid, especially with a crew.
Yeah, aside from buying the mediocre cosmetic stuff at the commissary, money is only good for weapon upgrades. Now that those are locked behind mastery levels, you can burn it by buying stuff from the requisition shop and upgrading the rarity through Hadron, then sacrificing it to shortcut the mastery levels grind. At later levels you'll have tons of resources to burn but it's still pretty shallow.
Clever, thanks!
CKIII -- the administrative government type is interesting, and the landless adventuring was overpowered, but has been tuned back. I've been getting a lot of mileage out of the mods RICE & VIET; and also the mods Hiraeth & Veritas, which rework lifestyle perks and dynasty legacies. (they aren't entirely compatible, but both sets of mods add a lot to the flavor of the game.)
Zero Sievert has hit 1.0-- I have been killed in all sorts of Slavic Zone themed ways.
I also re-downloaded Medieval Dynasty, with an eye towards starting over.
My friend group has also been getting good co-op play out of Green Hell. Imagining the 4 players as clones of the protagonist going through a frenzied hallucinogenic mushroom fueled montage of frenetic activity adds a nice flavor to the experience. That and jokes about "died to thrust" from "the donger tribe" (If you know, you know. Mind the NSFW on googling the tribals.)
Going back and forth between modded Skyrim, Sims 4, and Baldurs Gate 3
Ahh, the eternal Skyrim.
I joke that I’ll be playing Skyrim in the old folks home. And I have little hope for Elder Scrolls 6
Soul Hackers 2 on XB1, Atelier Thighza-- I mean Ryza 2 on PS4, and some retro Genesis and PSX romhacks on my RG40XXH.
space marine II got a mate into wh, so we've been doing tabletop instead, gunna give boltgun another go in a bit.
I picked up ye olde Diablo again last night on account of my main rig deciding to kill itself and also because a coworker and I were reminiscing about it this week. I forgot that you have to click for every single swing of the weapon and can't just hold down the mouse button.
Been playing Crackdown 1 a bit -- that game is pure fun. It's designed so well, and it's surprising how good the AI and destructibility is. Visually it also still holds up. The Agents could be used in today's game and no one would think they were from a game that came out 17 years ago.
Assassin's creed 2, legacy of Kain and elite dangerous for the most part
Poe, frost blades of kata slayer.
Think I'll fire up some rimworld, coming off being burnt out so it's time for questionable ethics again.
Just started the Etrian Odyssey franchise via the Steam HD versions (pirated). Pretty tough. Also it's a bit sad that sidequests are of so little worth. Completing the map is fun though.
Rediscovered Zachtronics solitaire collection for short blasts. Occasional Mahjong Soul for the same purpose. Got 13 orphans the other day. Matchmaking with chingchong ragequitters is still infuriating bullshit however.
Also got a run of Ys 9 on the back burner over several months. It's been very comfy gaming although not quite as excellent as 8. At least I anticipate a better ending than the one in Ys 8, because it would be hard to come up with worse.
I've been trying to make something with clickteam fusion 2.5, but in the meantime I've just been hopping on and off minecraft, and I am considering returning to Dynopunk at some point in the future.
I have a couple of ideas for games to buy, but I don't know if I will go through with them.
Right now, flipping around between Company of Heroes 3, Railroader, Anno 1800, and WARNO. Although I am about to give another shot to Terminator Dark Fate: Defiance. It just takes some getting used to because it plays very differently than a lot of RTS games out there. I may also go an actually finish Last Train Home since I was so close to Vladivostok when I fell off of playing it.
I've been playing through the strategic command series of games. Thoroughly enjoying them.
Same as usual: Playing the Dead Space series as something to do while a podcast or long-form Youtube video plays in the background.
As for games that I actually put my attention to, I finished The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom a while back. It was an alright time.
Kind of in between real games to play at this point. Been casually playing Stranger of Fantasy and while not great it is kind of fun.
I miss playing an MMORPG and being invested in it, but in general they tend to feel like a waste of time and TOO much of an investment.
Elin just dropped yesterday. Probably a total unknown for many here, but it's the sequel project for Elona. Made by the same guy over like a 10 year span or some shit. Basically just Elona 2.0 which is a huge endorsement if you have any interest at all in a bizarre, heavily Japanese, open-world Roguelike. It's a pretty unique experience.
just got back into oxygen not included, hadn't played it in forever.
gonna try to build a full Rodriguez on top of a thermo-nullifier, try to get some oxygen going.
Dynasty Warriors 4. I went through DW3 last year trying to get every achievement through RA. It ended up being too long and tedious. I'm trying to do the same thing with DW4. I may end up going back to DW3 later.
I tried the MH:Wilds Beta. And I'm still seething about not being able to recreate my character from World, because they threw out the hairstyle that I used. (I'm autistic like that...) But we need 2 undercuts, 1 mohawk, 1 pompadour and at least 3 fugly Karen cuts.