What else are you playing right now?

[InvaderStych]

Another Civ VI update.

 

Going after a cultural victory with French Eleanor has an interesting side effect.  Each great work in a city causes -1 loyalty in a wide range (9 tiles!).  I wound up assimilating the entire Aztec empire just by stacking GWs in border cities.  Turned out to be a snowball effect after taking the first two as they also had huge GW collections.  Pangaea map was a lucky draw on this one.

 

Not shown to the northeast, several smaller cities I snapped up from Portugal.

 

 

 

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Slight detour for one I'd like to play if it wasn't PS-only.

 

Intensely stylish, pared-back visuals optimised for frame rate and smoothness, wears its movie inspirations on its sleeve. And the soundtrack, of course.

[Techwright]

On 8/14/2022 at 11:36 AM, Krimson said:

Sometimes I play No Man's Sky and make big bases.

I just installed a new video card and did something I thought I'd never do: return to No Man's Sky.  When I left it in Jan 2021, I felt I'd tapped it's full potential as far as I was interested.  Turns out they've been busy this last year and a half, and what I saw as the extent of the game before, is more like chapter one.  I'm on a  learning crash course, but had enough time this weekend to wipe out a fully functional but very utilitarian box-building base and replace it with some better.  Since I built next to a small trading outpost on a safe planet, I hit upon the idea of adding a small open-air bazaar.  The base is still under development.

 

[Chrono-Bot]

I've been playing Outer Worlds after my brother got it for me with the express request I discuss it with him and it's been a delight. I'm 35 hours in, Parvati is the best, Martin Callahan is horrible/hilarious, and the silly parts of this game are very silly but I'm really starting to get into the overall plot a lot more. I'm not going very fast because I like to wander and read everything.

 

Started stealing everything like a gremlin by this point.

[Techwright]

21 hours ago, Krimson said:

They totally overhauled Freighters recently, changing the building parts and allowing for more extensive builds which include windows and doors that let you go outside. On purpose. I think the most recent expedition is still running, and that one starts you out as a freighter captain on the get-go. Since you can have nine saves now, it might be a neat way to get back into things. 

Thanks for mentioning "nine saves now".  I was not previously aware.  Freighters I never got into the first time around.  In fact, I had some odd element come up while playing last weekend that makes me think I must have acquired a freighter right before I quit before, though I don't remember doing so.  I wonder where I left it parked? 🤔   I'll look into those freighter game upgrades when I have time.  I also need to get into a PUG mindset.  I've done everything solo up to this point, finding nothing interesting in teaming, but that is going to change soon...Right after I upgrade all 12 remaining bases I left behind the first time 'round.  😁

[Goth Bunny]

My games are Black Desert Online and City of Heroes. Been thinking about trying Guild Wars 2 though.

[DarthMaxus]

I've recently bought and gotten into Doom Eternal, one of the games I built my new computer for.

 

I've gotten through Hell on Earth and Exultia so far, and have yet to get everything in the latter stage. I believe the only things I need to get from that stage now are some toys, a CD and a cheat code.

[Robin1996ify]

Since this is October, I'm replaying Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines for the nth times.

[Troo]

Superfuse

"City of Heroes meets Diablo" hmm..

 

 

[WanderingAries]

Finished trophy hunting on the remaster of TLoU1. It's a bit prettier of a game and the accessibility controls are awesome. It's nice being able to pause / adjust gamma, etc / unpause. I stumbled back into Fallout 4 and it's already a different game-ish since I originally played before the DLC was out.

[TalynDerre]

I have started playing Overwatch 2 now that it's free to play.  It's fun so far, but I don't know how long I'll play it.

[biostem]

On 10/18/2022 at 5:37 PM, TalynDerre said:

I have started playing Overwatch 2 now that it's free to play.  It's fun so far, but I don't know how long I'll play it.

Is there a single player campaign, yet?  I kinda like the art style/character designs, but didn't play the 1st one because I have zero interest in PvP...

[Techwright]

On 11/2/2022 at 8:50 PM, biostem said:

Is there a single player campaign, yet?  I kinda like the art style/character designs, but didn't play the 1st one because I have zero interest in PvP...

That was pretty much my thought.  When I heard that Overwatch was a superhero gig, I was intrigued, but pure PvP drained all interest.  I'm fine with voluntary PvP and have done so before, most notably in WoW.

 

[TalynDerre]

It's a hero shooter - it plays like a cross between Team Fortress 2 and WoW.  Its monetization is just The Worst, and it is deservedly getting a lot of flack for that, but it is a slick FPS with well-defined classes that is fun to play, and as long as you don't care about cosmetics (and I don't) it's totally free.

[Disruptor]

I was playing Moonbreaker a new digital miniatures game from Unknown Worlds (Subnautica & Natural Selection I & II) and before that MultiVersus a f2p platform fighter from new dev playerfirstgames but I burnt myself out on them. Ended up getting back into CoH heavily for the time being.

[huang3721]

Gris. Not sure what I am playing right now.

 

It is beautiful, though.

 

[HughesStewart]

Aside from City of Heroes and Call of Duty, I enjoy playing Rocket League. I discovered this game while scrolling through skycoach.gg, a gaming community site. I was intrigued by the concept of playing soccer with high-flying cars and immediately decided to try it out. Over time, I got better at the game, and now I play it regularly with friends online. Rocket League is a fast-paced, adrenaline-fueled experience that always keeps me on the edge of my seat. Whether I'm scoring goals or making incredible saves, I never get tired of playing this game. I highly recommend giving Rocket League a try.

Edited January 31 by HughesStewart

[Techwright]

Just started playing the free survival game Arid.  Other than the fact that my character has the jumping/climbing ability of a legless horse and at times seems to have their eye level set to that of a hobbit's, I'm quite enjoying it so far. 

[Greycat]

Here's one. I found (a) my Command and Conquer: Generals CDs *and* (b) patches that would let it work widescreen in Windows 11.

I've binged the Chinese and GLA campaigns, one day for each. Runs rather nicely, though the controls feel wonky after all these years of playing other things.

 

Having found som eother CDs, I might see if I can get Mechwarrior 3 or 4 running... think one of those disks was Mechcommander, or MC2. (If I want to get really crazy, might try Subwar 2050, which I kind of wish someone would modernize. Think that'll need DOSBox, though.)

[Techwright]

I put my other gaming on pause to try out a host of demos during Steam's big demo event this month.  Of the many I've tried so far, I keep coming back to Dreadful River.  Just in the few days that I've played it the game's team have made a host of improvements, including increasing the number of opponents on the river.  In talking with the devs, their goal is to unlock landing for fighting and exploration in the next few days.  They seem to be very responsive to feedback right now, and one of the four suggests I made was responded to and in the patch the next day. I've never seen that kind of speed before.

 

I've read some gamer comments referring to this as a "tower defense on a river" game.  There is that, but when fully functioning, it will also act similar to classic hero questing games.  Here's a link to one person's sampling of the demo.  Keep in mind their version of the demo is 11 days old now (as of this writing) and many improvements have been rolled out in just that short time.

 

I've found the tactic here is to not just float into a fight, but to keep the raft constantly rotating/revolving to spread out damage, and add it speeding up, slowing down, strategically dropping anchor or running aground, even tacking back upriver.  At the first town you stop at for supplies, they will give you a sail to improve speed and maneuverability.

 

 

They hope to roll the full game out before March 1.

Edited February 9 by Techwright

[SeraphimKensai]

Despite what anyone's convictions hold them to and the fact that there is no multiplayer, a friend gifted me a copy of Hogwarts Legacy as we used to geek out about Harry Potter quite a bit.

 

I've played a couple hours and so far the game seems really well done. it's almost like being transported to Hogwarts.

 

An interesting note is that most of the characters refer to the player character using the they/them pronouns despite whether you pick being a witch or a wizard. So it's a bit of a nice gesture in spite of some of the comments from the author of the book series in recent years.

 

 

[UltraAlt]

16 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

An interesting note is that most of the characters refer to the player character using the they/them pronouns despite whether you pick being a witch or a wizard. So it's a bit of a nice gesture in spite of some of the comments from the author of the book series in recent years.

 

I have to say, how hard is it to say he, she, or they based on not only what sex of character that the player picks but what pronoun they want to use?

Sure, use "they" before the player picks, but once the player picks, the game should know what they picked and be able to respond accordingly.

You don't even have to record a full track for each. Just edit the tracks and substitute the correct pronoun; do it in advance and make three tracks or simply add it in on the fly. The sound file for the pronoun would be tiny and it could be kept in memory at all times to get dumped into the dialog.

 

I understand that it is a little more complicated with voice acting line manipulation, but the AE can recognize if you character is female or male and address them as such if you know how to program the AE dialog. You could do it day one of the AE.

[The City of Heroes knows what "sex" your character. I'm not sure if it is limited to the first character slot pick ,or not. I haven't tested it that far. But I use this mechanic in my AE arcs.]

I just don't understand why other games are so far behind on this.

 

In DCUO, you are called a pink-skinned human male. Regardless of your characters sex - which the game should know. Regardless of the skin color, that you pick off of a palette. And, regardless of any kind of origin you might have for your character - which it could know. And since all times it references these things it is all in text dialog, there really is not reason that it can't insert in the player's picks for these kind of things.

Edited February 10 by UltraAlt

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

I'm a few years late to this one as it's only just gone on mobile, but Stumble Guys does have that ludicrous yell-at-the-screen just-one-more-go replayability, as well as party and friends modes.

 

Speaking of party games... enjoyed playing Jackbox Party Pack 3 with friends and family at Christmas and tempted to get it myself.

Neat idea: you only need one copy of the game running, then as many people as can fit play through a web interface on their phones.

Given what my friends (and, surprisingly, family) are like, things got slightly filthy quite quickly in a Switch-Against-Humanity type manner, but memorably funny.

[EarlLee]

Grand Theft Auto V. A very good game with good graphics. It's actually hard to imagine video games in 2013 with stunning 4K graphics (of course when you can play 4K with your device), and if you're lucky enough to have an RTX 3090 and an 8K monitor, your mind will definitely see 2013 2021 games have better graphics than 2021 games or even future games, even PS5 games who knows. As such, it also has a user-friendly interface and is really easy to use if you know the basics of game control on PC and consoles.

[ThaOGDreamWeaver]

Wondering if I should order the new LOTR game? People seem to like it…

https://amp.theguardian.com/games/2023/may/25/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-daedalic-entertainment-nacon-video-game-review