What else are you playing right now?

[FourSpeed]

1 hour ago, Greycat said:

DCS freed some money from my wallet with recent sales. Finally got that F-5. Now to actually be able to *get* a good flight sim setup (no real room for it in my current situation. Just couldn't let the sale pass.)

I hear that.  I tried out several A/C during the recent free month-long trial and ended up picking up a couple more of them myself... 🙂 

 

As for my setup, it's barebones simple -- a Logitech Extreme 3D flight stick (with twist handle for rudder), and a homemade headtracking ballcap using FreeTrack (similar functionality to the commercial TrackIR product). 

 

Across the various simulators that I enjoy, that setup works well enough for me to "fly" pretty much anything from WWI bi-planes in RoF all the way up to modern jets (AV8B, F-15, F-16 & F-18) and helicopters (UH-1, S342 Gazelle) in DCS.  In FSX, I occasionally fly airliners (primarily 737), GA planes (Cessna 152 & 172, and the Mooney Bravo), and their F-18 and Jetranger Helo, along with a few other freebie planes downloaded from the internet.  Fun Stuff! 

 

Cheers,

4

 

[Greycat]

Heh. I'm worse with WW1 aircraft in Rise of Flight. Little too hamfisted to keep them from spinning or stalling out. FUn to try though.

[Sakai]

In case people haven't noticed Master of Magic is now available on Steam. 

[Sakura Tenshi]

My other games are minecraft, Final Fantasy XIV, and For Honor.

[Agent Archer]

I'm playing Freedom Force and I'm playing with mods.

 

Here is the screenshot of an unlucky thug.

 

[Yomo Kimyata]

Since COVID hit, I've been playing a lot of Catan and Civ V online with old friends.  I use "old" to mean both "long-time" and "they're really freaking old."

 

[Bill Z Bubba]

Has anyone else lost all desire to play anything else since CoH is back? Steam sale is on. Want Borderlands 3 and Doom: Eternal but all ... meh ... I can wait until all the DLC is bundled. Fired up Fallout 4 the other night (over 3000 hours) and lasted 10 minutes. It's CoH all the time nothing else now.

 

I really missed this game.

[ImpousVileTerror]

Yeah, pretty much, Bubba.

I've fired up Ziggurat, Worms W.M.D., and Darkest Dungeon about a dozen times each in the past year.   All the rest of my play time?   City of Heroes or (virtual) tabletop roleplaying campaigns.

 

  . . . sometimes both at the same time, but don't tell my fellow tabletoppers that!

[westrale]

Playing One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows and Doom Eternal. Was playing FFXIV until my Cutscene Threshold/Patience was Exploded.

[Razorback_Yeah]

On the same vein as City of Heroes "coming back", I have been invested in WoW classic. The nostalgia factor is huge, along with the amount of time it takes to get a character to max level, and you can do it solo. Just like in CoX, leveling a character feels like it has so much meaning since you're bringing the character up to do end-game with people. (Ideally friends).

 

As a lover of PvP in MMOs, Dead by Daylight has had me sold for a couple of years now. Immediately qeue for 5 player PvP bouts. One murderer (with plenty of licensed characters: Michael Meyers, Freddy Krueger, Amanda (the pig mask) from SAW, Leatherface (Bubba) from Texas Chainsaw, The Demogorgon from Stranger Things, and most recently Pyramid Head from Silent Hill) versus 4 survivors.

Pure, raw, player versus player with an added element of teamwork/betrayal when you play the survivor side.

More additions to this vein of online PvP are the shooter examples that I am currently enjoying: both Hunt Showdown and Valorant scratch my online FPS itches.

 

If you're looking for single player games, it's almost overwhelming right now the amount of titles that are both cheap and impressive.

I would recommend Disco Elysium to anyone that enjoys CoX, reading, and is looking for a good single player timesink. Literally a playable post-apocolyptic novel. Fantastic and refreshing in execution.

Currently playing Last of us 2 with the lady, super satisfying to play with extremely fluid and cinematic gameplay.

Recently beat Batman: Arkham Asylum remastered. Great morsel of a game, a contained display of Batman lore that is super satisfying to explore. 

Always an easy recommendation, anything from the Assassin's Creed series. The Ezio collection has classic gameplay and plenty of it. Syndicate has a bewildering example of London to explore, and the latest few additions (Origins / Odyssey) have much more RPG elements (gear, numbers, skill trees) if that is more your style. 

 

The biggest response to "what am I playing?" that I have is that I am playing what my friends are playing. Video games are an easy way to remain social, especially during a pandemic and the mounting reality of friends moving away from eachother. Free games on Ps4 really help with this function, and PC has always been good about this, especially with stuff like Homecoming being free.

I'll end my post with this: have any of you been able to sell homecoming to friends that have never played CoX before??? I have at least 3 or 4 friends where this is the case: I know they would like the game, especially the fact that it is free and runs on both Mac and Windows and the character creator is literally unmatched. But, alas, I have not been able to sell any of them yet.

 

Razorback_Yeah

[Greycat]

And as an example of how to get people to *quit* playing your game - Diablo III started a new season with a "buff" (I guess.) Which makes an obnoxious constipated whale noise every 3 minutes while firing off useless elemental effects that are triggering migranes in people while (some) fill the screen. Well, maybe not the snowball that rolls so slowly a rooted stone tanker could outrun it.

 

I think I lasted 20 minutes before saying "nope, I'm good for another 6 months or so." (Honestly, I don't actually like the game that much, but it's there for that urge to play that hits about every 3-4 months. Usually lasts a week at most.)

[MunkiLord]

Gave Far Cry 5 another shot the last few days, and I just don't think it is very good. Still haven't finished Doom Eternal, FF7 Remake, and I just started The Last of Us(first one), so I haven't been able to settle on another game recently.

 

  

On 7/2/2020 at 3:07 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

Has anyone else lost all desire to play anything else since CoH is back? Steam sale is on. Want Borderlands 3 and Doom: Eternal but all ... meh ... I can wait until all the DLC is bundled. Fired up Fallout 4 the other night (over 3000 hours) and lasted 10 minutes. It's CoH all the time nothing else now.

 

I really missed this game.

If you can get Borderlands 3 edition with all the DLC for a good price I say go ahead and pick it up now. I do think waiting to play it is a good idea though since the developers seem to be constantly tweaking the endgame and things seem to still be changing rapidly at this point. Plus there is one more planned big DLC and each one so far has raised the level cap which almost completely negates all the gear you grinded for previously. Which isn't the worst thing in the world, but the timing of me hitting the endgame and huge patches shortly after in BL3 and Division 2 has made me a little shy on loot based games.

 

But Doom Eternal is just fucking awesome.

[Fortuneteller]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:28 PM, Greycat said:

And as an example of how to get people to *quit* playing your game - Diablo III started a new season with a "buff" (I guess.) Which makes an obnoxious constipated whale noise every 3 minutes while firing off useless elemental effects that are triggering migranes in people while (some) fill the screen. Well, maybe not the snowball that rolls so slowly a rooted stone tanker could outrun it.

 

I think I lasted 20 minutes before saying "nope, I'm good for another 6 months or so." (Honestly, I don't actually like the game that much, but it's there for that urge to play that hits about every 3-4 months. Usually lasts a week at most.)

Why are you playing that abandoned game when you could be playing the wonderful Path of Exile? 😛

I've been playing some STALKER. Specifically the Anomaly mod for d/load on moddb.com. It's really great, incorperates all the maps from all stalker games into one. Runs on the new(ish) 64 bit executable, so very little crashing now. Link, if anyone is interested in Slav squat simulator 2020 https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly Oh, it's free by the way.

Also been playing some EDF 5, because those giant ants aren't going to blow themselves up. Someones gotta do it.

To save our mother Earth from any alien attack
From vicious giant insects who have once again come back
We’ll unleash all our forces!
We won’t cut them any slack!
The EDF deploys!

Finally i been playing a fair bit of Hearts of Iron 4, with the 'Old World Blues' fallout mod. It's pretty great, has the west coast of fallout mapped and full of warring factions.  Here's a link if you're interested https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1303741106 The 'Tlaloc's Demise' addition to the mod add an interesting group of mexican wastes factions to the south, under the protection of the dying Petro Chico AI, Tlaloc. And the 'Trouble in paradise' update adds events for New Canaan, Joshua Graham, the White Legs tribe and links to the events of Honest Hearts in Fallout New Vegas. Oh HoI4 is currently on sale, probably like 10 USD aroundabouts.

[tripthicket]

Every few months I start feeling a little burnt-out with City of Heroes. I end up backing away for a few weeks, then I wake up one day and fire it up, carrying on as normal. I'm in one of those troughs now, and am casting about for a diversionary pursuit. As a casual gamer, I've not been attracted to first-person shooters, and I don't think I'd be any good at console games period, being a PC fan. I have played Guild Wars in the dim past, but that was 2 computers ago, and my account is long gone. I am interested in trying out similar games; thus this post. Specifically, how good is Dungeons & Dragons Online? Neverwinter Nights? Neverwinter, which I understand is a separate beast? Oh, forgot to mention I tried Guild Wars 2 for about 5 minutes, but it left me cold...then. As you can tell, I'm looking for something in the swords-and-sorcery dept.

 

Has anyone tried the games I've mentioned? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Would you recommend anything? Warn me away? Maybe there's a game in this genre that's great that I need to know about! Thanks to all for any opinions and recommendations!

[TheOtherTed]

16 hours ago, tripthicket said:

Has anyone tried the games I've mentioned? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Would you recommend anything? Warn me away? Maybe there's a game in this genre that's great that I need to know about! Thanks to all for any opinions and recommendations!

DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) is the only MMO that reminds me of City of Heroes.  Quests are instanced, and can be set to different difficulties (although you have to work your way up through the difficulty ranks).  Teaming is a thing, and "utility" classes (rogues, artificers, and such) are a very big thing.  Multiclassing gives you lots of flexibility in your advancement - in fact, many of the recommended builds "splash" into a level or two of a different class (sometimes even two or more extra classes).  Gear does exist, and you do need to keep it current, but you dont' have to swap out everything once or twice every level.  Typically any item will remain relevant for 3 or more levels - at least, that's been my experience.  Plus, there is some potential for outfit customization, if you're willing to pay for it (subscription or buying DDO points).  I'd recommend trying it, especially if you can convince some friends to try it with you.

 

Neverwinter is terrible.  Cryptic took what it used to be good at, and threw it all out the window for Neverwinter.  And, yep, Neverwinter Nights is a different thing, but I've never played it.

 

Guild Wars 2 is something that I would like to like, but many of the mechanics feel too "gamey" for my tastes.  Thieves, for example, don't sneak - they teleport.  And not very far, at that.  Most weapons can be used by multiple classes - but they do very different things in the hands of each class.  Just too weird and gimmicky for me.  Plus, character art has the same problem as GW1, IMO - the characters and outfits all look like something that American artists designed to appeal to an Asian audience.  That said, it's pretty, and I'm one of those crazy nutjobs who like chasing down exploration points (which usually involve a jumping puzzle).  I poke my head in maybe once every 2 or 3 years.

 

For swords and sorcery, you could do worse than Elder Scrolls Online.  The character art is a bit weird (to my eyes, all women look like string beans and all men are "pocket Hercules").  However, it is the only MMO that I know of where a thief can be a genuine, bonafide, card-carrying, lockpicking, pickpocketing, larcenous ne'er-do-well (DDO has lockpicking and disarming traps, but it's standard dungeon stuff).  That alone kept me playing for a solid year.  It also allows a lot of versatility in character design - each weapon, armor, and crafting category, as well as each "class," in-game guild, and supernatural (vampire or werewolf) has its own advancement tree, allowing all sorts of combinations.

 

But, like anything, it's not to everyone's tastes.  And, like anything, I don't claim any of the above to be objectively true.  Heck, you might even like Neverwinter - weirder things have happened.

[Wobegone]

22 hours ago, tripthicket said:

Has anyone tried the games I've mentioned? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Would you recommend anything? Warn me away? Maybe there's a game in this genre that's great that I need to know about! Thanks to all for any opinions and recommendations!

 

Even after all these years I still love to fire up a Baldur's Gate-Baldur's Gate 2 run.  They're available on Steam.  I also do a Neverwinter Nights (or 2) run every year or two.  I also still get milage out of Civ 5 and less so Civ 6.  Mass Effect 2 is another I'll fire up once in a while (I also love Mass Effect but he combat is terrible).  Same for Mass Effect 3 multi-player.....still have no problems finding Gold teams.  

[AboveTheChemist]

A couple of months ago I got the urge to play EverQuest again (Project 1999, which I had not played in about a year and a half), but that only lasted a couple of weeks. More recently, I have dusted off my copy of Icewind Dale and am slowly taking a fresh party through that game.

[Greycat]

On 7/11/2020 at 4:19 AM, tripthicket said:

Has anyone tried the games I've mentioned? Thumbs up, thumbs down? Would you recommend anything? Warn me away? Maybe there's a game in this genre that's great that I need to know about! Thanks to all for any opinions and recommendations!

Don't get Neverwinter NIghts - an excellent RPG - and Neverwinter - an MMO - confused. Neverwinter is... eh... ok... ish. Or was many years ago. NWN is something you should really experience.

[RikOz]

*sigh* With this pandemic thing keeping me out of work for more than four months now, I eventually needed a change of scenery from playing CoH ... I mean, I can only play the same game so many hours a day. So I broke out my bass guitar and started playing that more, and then I bought a new electric guitar, since I'd been without one for a while, and I've been relearning a bunch of the old songs I used to play on guitar before the bass became my "main".

 

And, well, I re-upped my WoW account, and have been getting in on the tail end of the Battle for Azeroth expansion before the next expansion comes out. Of course, in my absence, Blizzard introduced a swell new mechanic that, as is typical of Blizzard, is probably great if you participate in a lot of group content, but utterly sucks for solo play. It's called "Corruption". Your new gear can randomly drop with a Corruption score on it. Corruption has the benefit of increasing your combat power in various ways, but this is balanced by various deleterious effects. Specifically, your own gear randomly tries to kill you. So I come back after a year away, get a couple of my alts to max level and start trying to gear them up, and before I understood exactly how Corruption works, one of these characters had accumulated a quite high Corruption score, and next thing I know I'm fighting some basic random mob and suddenly all these Corruption effects go off and I'm dead to some random crab.

 

Brilliant!

[CursedSorcerer]

On 7/2/2020 at 1:07 PM, Bill Z Bubba said:

Has anyone else lost all desire to play anything else since CoH is back? Steam sale is on. Want Borderlands 3 and Doom: Eternal but all ... meh ... I can wait until all the DLC is bundled. Fired up Fallout 4 the other night (over 3000 hours) and lasted 10 minutes. It's CoH all the time nothing else now.

 

I really missed this game.

While CoH isn't the only game I play on PC, I have noticed that I've hardly touched my Switch or Nintendo 3DS since I've gotten CoH back.

[Ashington]

Warframe

 

 

[Skyhawke]

If it's not COH, I'm either playing The Division 2 NYC expansion with friends or Dragon Age Origins (which I've been pecking away at with spare time so, it's been a couple months of playtime and I'm just getting ready for the Landsmeet)

[tripthicket]

I had repurchased the original Guild Wars last month and was plinking around with that. It too was like coming back to the old hometown. Spent a few weeks running around until a friend interested me in BattleTech by Hare-Brained Schemes (sp?). I had never played, tabletop OR online. When I looked, Humble Bundle had the entire collection on sale at 75% off. Now I'm playing that and having a bit of a blast!

[Fortuneteller]

On 8/17/2020 at 7:12 AM, Ashington said:

Warframe

 

 

 

My condolences for the upcoming divorce. /s

[Kyksie]

On 7/14/2020 at 3:06 AM, Greycat said:

Don't get Neverwinter NIghts - an excellent RPG - and Neverwinter - an MMO - confused. Neverwinter is... eh... ok... ish. Or was many years ago. NWN is something you should really experience.

Neverwinter Nights the singleplayer game is great if you like 3/3.5 D&D. GOG.com gives it away for free every so often.

 

The Neverwinter MMO is terrible and should be avoided. It looks nice and is a smooth ride to top level, but the endgame is a WoW-like treadmill of 'run raids to get gear which lets you run harder raids'. The really top gear requires crafting materials which cost real money, and the playerbase is the unwashed masses who infest every FtP game. Stay away.