Author Topic: What are you playing right now?  (Read 613924 times)

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Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: What are you playing right now?
I've also watched a friend play Outer Worlds, and I like to think it is set in an alternative Fallout universe in which the Great War did not happen.

The history of Earth doesn't really come up; Outer Worlds is really much more concerned with the present and future of the Halcyon Cluster, then looking back to Earth.

There is a Earth-centric plot thread though:
Spoiler:
... and it is basically a long from execution of these lines from "The Internationale":

There are no supreme saviours
Neither God, nor Caesar, nor tribune.
Producers, let us save ourselves,
Decree the common salvation.


Throughout the game, you get hints that no one has actually gotten a message back from Earth in years - people keep sending them and they keep getting buffered in the communications network. Also the Earth Directorate appears to have pulled out all its ships, and no ship has returned after making the skip jump to Earth. It is setting you up to not hold out for some intervention from the outside, so there is no reason to deferr taking a stand with or against the Board.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Both the Alicorn and Scream / Rage were awesome boss fights. That makes this the SECOND time Strangereal has ripped off the plot of a Tom Clancy book for a plot! Hunt for Red October, and Sum of All Fears for Ace Combat 5.
Since Metal Gear ended, AC is now my favorite source of semi-realistic near future combat games.

 

Offline 0rph3u5

  • 211
  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
After finishing The Outer Worlds I though I give some re-masters a try...

I nepotismed a PR-code for Warcraft III: Reforged - and yeah, it's not good; I mean it is still Warcraft III, which means while it lacks the variety of StarCraft II's single player it makes up for it with a much more satisfying base game. The gaphical update are ... well, I won't say that I never was a fan of the exaggerated Warcraft-aethetic, but we were all stupid teenagers ... but there is some good and a lot of bad decision making here (probably because someone wanted to make a much more substatial upgrade but then ran into the RTS fans and Blizzard RTS fans in particular)

Also picked up the Uncharted-Remasters off my PSN subscription ... and much like with The Last of Us, I will not deny the quality of the game but it fails to connect with me; I mean, I do "a camp thing" for Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and a lot of old "dark continent" adventure literature, but Uncharted seems to actively designed to resist such a reading.
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
I'm playing MetaDoom on the Doomworld Community Chest 2 mappack, would reccomend. Nice mix of franchise enemies, and weapon abilites. They even included the Holy Water Squirtgun. That's a real obscure Doom weapon right there! Shame, there's no UnMaker.

I had to kill the Doom 2016 Spider Mastermind with a Berserk pack in a small room though. Nail biting stuff. Otherwise that mapset is great.



On the other hand I returned to Throne of Bhaal, and I was rampaging through Sendai's Enclave until I got stuck at silly Ogremoch. Earthquake and two Squared up fists hurt more than an Army of Drow and Elementals, Apparently.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

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  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
I came around to finally playing Saints Row: Gat out of Hell (PC) in the lats few weeks.
It's a bit barebones in the story department but as a standalone DLC is actually not bad, you get a new open world with its own share of wacky weapons and abilities and it's still pretty fun.
The lack of radio is a bit disappointing, I sort of miss having The Touch playing in the background while doing wacky superpowered hijinks.
Still, I'm trying as with Saints Row IV to do all the single player achievements, a problem of not having much story is that all the challenges will be relagated to the post-endgame instead of being able to be more distributed during the main story gameplay.

I have also finished LA Noire (PC)
I think they might either have cut a lot of story content or tried for something more subdued and failed, because goddamit I was almost expecting a plot twist in which we discovered that Phelps' family was some sort of PTSD-induced delusion or something before the last segment of the game and even then you barely see them.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2020, 09:05:30 am by Det. Bullock »
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
I have also finished LA Noire (PC)
I think they might either have cut a lot of story content or tried for something more subdued and failed, because goddamit I was almost expecting a plot twist in which we discovered that Phelps' family was some sort of PTSD-induced delusion or something before the last segment of the game and even then you barely see them.

Does that the include the reworked language on the interrogation/witness questioning commands?

And no, you didn't miss any on-screen content but in the tradition of Noir-protagonists Phelps is just a horrible human being if you look at him objectively (in a Noir-story is everyone is a repulsive human being, its just a matter of degree - unless they are dead, then everyone gets to project onto them what they need in order to rationalize going on) ... leaving certain aspects undepicted might just be choice to avoid repulsing you as the audience too early (which the original "random fit of abuse"-interrogation commands usually brought on anyway)
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline Det. Bullock

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  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
I have also finished LA Noire (PC)
I think they might either have cut a lot of story content or tried for something more subdued and failed, because goddamit I was almost expecting a plot twist in which we discovered that Phelps' family was some sort of PTSD-induced delusion or something before the last segment of the game and even then you barely see them.

Does that the include the reworked language on the interrogation/witness questioning commands?

And no, you didn't miss any on-screen content but in the tradition of Noir-protagonists Phelps is just a horrible human being if you look at him objectively (in a Noir-story is everyone is a repulsive human being, its just a matter of degree - unless they are dead, then everyone gets to project onto them what they need in order to rationalize going on) ... leaving certain aspects undepicted might just be choice to avoid repulsing you as the audience too early (which the original "random fit of abuse"-interrogation commands usually brought on anyway)

The PC version is still based on the original version so we still have the even more non descriptive language for interrogations.
Personally I think the game story is all the worst for it, I would have found it more interesting if they avoided making his flaws a surprise and went more for the slow moving train wreck approach which is also a noir thing.
Put like this it doesn't as much make Phelps look better, because it's pretty clear the war left the guy messed up, a few snippets showing him being somewhat distant from his family strewn around the story would have fleshed it out more instead of it coming out of the blue.
That's why I suspect that a lot might have been cut given the troubled development the game had, all that mocap they used probably couldn't all be properly finalized and they just did the bare minimum to ship the game. But of course it might just be videogame people being inept at storytelling.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
I would have found it more interesting if they avoided making his flaws a surprise and went more for the slow moving train wreck approach which is also a noir thing.

While I agree on the slow-moving train wreck-thing, I never had the impression that his flaws were particularly hidden - though they may not present themselves as flaws as they tend result in behaviors we today would look favourably upon, e.g. his sense of justice, which if you examine how out-of-step with the times it can be, will read as a blooming martyr complex (you know, "by taking on the most impossible task and chosing the most ardous way to do it, I make the world right through self annihilation")

... or maybe that's just because I had a lot of the those "ups, I pressed the man rage-button again"-moments early in the game
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline Androgeos Exeunt

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Shame, there's no UnMaker.

You sure about that? Or do you mean the map pack doesn't include Unmaker pickups?
My blog

Quote: Tuesday, 3 October 2023 0133 UTC +8, #general
MP-Ryan
Oh you still believe in fairy tales like Santa, the Easter Bunny, and free market competition principles?

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Shame, there's no UnMaker.

You sure about that? Or do you mean the map pack doesn't include Unmaker pickups?

I found it. Posted a picture of the discovery on the Discord.

 

Offline Det. Bullock

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  • Madman in a box.
Re: What are you playing right now?
Brutal Doom v21.
The first Doom in “classic” mode (that is with the original arsenal with only a few tweaks here and there) is fun, in Doom 2 however I missed the ability to shoot one barrel at a time for the super shotgun so I reverted to the normal Brutal Doom settings.
It has become much more customizable since the last time I played, there is even a separate option menu to tweak all the additions.

Other than that in the last few months I did some backlog clearing:

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell (PC)
It's a bit barebones in the story department but as a standalone DLC it's actually not bad, you get a new open world with its own share of wacky weapons and abilities and it's still pretty fun.
The lack of radio is a bit disappointing, I sort of miss having The Touch playing in the background while doing wacky superpowered hijinks.
Still, as with Saints Row IV I did all single player achievements, a problem of not having much story is that all the challenges are de facto relegated to the post-endgame instead of being able to be more distributed during the main story gameplay.

I tried Serious Sam 2 but it’s kind of meh and a bug damaged my save at a certain point so I just uninstalled it.
The gunplay felt a bit flat compared to First and Second Encounter and the art style is a weird mishmash of cartoony and uncanny valley.

The First Encounter and The Second Encounter in Serious Sam Fusion however are a completely different matter, the graphics may have new fancy effects and physics but the feel is still there.

I've also for the first time played and finished (always using Fusion) Serious Sam 3: BFE.
It has some odd stylistic choices at the start, if you just looked at screenshots you'd be forgiven if you thought this was another drab military shooter because it very much looks like it rundown middle eastern setting included. But then you hear Sam quip after tearing a Gnaar eyeball with his bare hands and you notice that the movement speed is not nerfed like in SS2. They somehow decided to introduce weapon reloading and some weapons are inexplicably missing or changed, I miss the charm of the retrofitted Tommy gun and the .45 revolver, now substituted by a pastiche of modern military rifles and a pastiche of various magazine fed semiauto guns. There is the option of iron sights for a couple of weapons but it's really not necessary and the unlimited sprint function given the unaltered movement speed from the first two games is more useful to go back and forth through the huge levels without losing too much time than a central mechanic like in modern military shooters. Even most of the silliness now seems confined to Sam quipping, there seem to be next to none of those slapstick secrets and enemy encounters of TFE and TSE (save for a secret in the first level of Jewel of The Nile that also reintroduces the laser rifle and the sniper rifle).
Fortunately at least after the Standard Middle Eastern Urban Battlefield(TM) of the first levels we get something more in line with the classic games though this time it's broken up by often puzzle-centric subterrenean sections.
I like that instead of making you inexplicably take damage when you get too far into the desert now you just have a humoungous alien sandworm eating you, you can even see the things hominously jumping out of the sands in the background.
For some reason NETRICSA now requires you to sit through an animation to read all the info on weapons, enemies and levels.
It looks like some weird experiment in introducing some more stereotypically modern elements into the mix but overall works better than SS2.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (PC)
Fine in the first levels but after that my complete incompetence at straight platformers made the game a bit too much of a chore. I wanted at least to complete it but the game docks you points if you die too often and you need the "stars" to unlock the bosses to proceed to the next block of levels so it's probably out of my league.

Dust: An Elysian Tail (PC)
I played it for four hours without noticing and this including the way too difficult first boss encounter, afterward with a few levels and gear the game become much more manageable.
The graphics are gorgeous (I'm a sucker for 2D animated games) but given the particular style used the term "furryvania" keeps popping into my head.
"I pity the poor shades confined to the euclidean prison that is sanity." - Grant Morrison
"People assume  that time is a strict progression of cause to effect,  but *actually*  from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more  like a big ball  of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." - The Doctor

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Dust: An Elysian Tail (PC)
I played it for four hours without noticing and this including the way too difficult first boss encounter, afterward with a few levels and gear the game become much more manageable.
The graphics are gorgeous (I'm a sucker for 2D animated games) but given the particular style used the term "furryvania" keeps popping into my head.

Aw, I loved that one! Great music.

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Prior to yet another FS campaign replay, I've been playing a lot of Warframe. Which A: is an extremely good 3rd person horde action game, B: totally free, and C: extremely fair when it comes to its "buy stuff for cosmetics, not for gameplay bonuses" model.
The story is also surprisingly good, being a cross of Dune meeting Space Ninjas with a dash of A-N-I-M-E.

 

Offline Mongoose

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Re: What are you playing right now?
The past couple of years I've really only been playing TF2 during the Halloween events, but the bug bit me hard a few weeks ago and I've been jumping back in regularly.  I've definitely missed it; I just wish my old community server group was still around.

 

Offline Su-tehp

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Season 20 on Diablo 3 just started a week ago, so I'm playing that. Season journeys are awesome!
REPUBLICANO FACTIO DELENDA EST

Creator of the Devil and the Deep Blue campaign - Current Story Editor of the Exile campaign

"Let my people handle this, we're trained professionals. Well, we're semi-trained, quasi-professionals, at any rate." --Roy Greenhilt,
The Order of the Stick

"Let´s face it, we Freespace players may not be the most sophisticated of gaming freaks, but we do know enough to recognize a heap of steaming crap when it´s right in front of us."
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"The meaning of life is that in the end you always get screwed."
--The Catch 42 Expression, The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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  • Oceans rise. Empires fall.
Re: What are you playing right now?
Dust: An Elysian Tail (PC)
I played it for four hours without noticing and this including the way too difficult first boss encounter, afterward with a few levels and gear the game become much more manageable.
The graphics are gorgeous (I'm a sucker for 2D animated games) but given the particular style used the term "furryvania" keeps popping into my head.

Aw, I loved that one! Great music.

+1



I just got Doom Eternal as a bribe to help with someone's Destiny 2 grind and pvp - so no question what I will be playing in between FREDing sessions
"As you sought to steal a kingdom for yourself, so must you do again, a thousand times over. For a theft, a true theft, must be practiced to be earned." - The terms of Nyrissa's curse, Pathfinder: Kingmaker

==================

"I am Curiosity, and I've always wondered what would become of you, here at the end of the world." - The Guide/The Curious Other, Othercide

"When you work with water, you have to know and respect it. When you labour to subdue it, you have to understand that one day it may rise up and turn all your labours into nothing. For what is water, which seeks to make all things level, which has no taste or colour of its own, but a liquid form of Nothing?" - Graham Swift, Waterland

"...because they are not Dragons."

 

Offline General Battuta

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Destiny sucks

 

Offline spart_n

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Re: What are you playing right now?
Most of my friends with their fancy schmancy PCs are playing doom eternal. Suckers, I got endless content with classic doom and its mods.

internal screaming

 
Re: What are you playing right now?
Destiny sucks
To be fair (to beh faaaaaaaih) he said Destiny 2, which as I've heard, doesn't suck

 

Offline The E

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Re: What are you playing right now?
While that might have been true at one point, it very definitely does suck now.
If I'm just aching this can't go on
I came from chasing dreams to feel alone
There must be changes, miss to feel strong
I really need lifе to touch me
--Evergrey, Where August Mourns