What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

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playing my way through FFXII zodiac age (2020 update on PS4)

great game, great music, great battles, absolutely ludicrous story. square had been watching too much LOTR and the prequels in 2005....

I'm cursed with FF12 - I've never actually finished it. I've gotten roughly 80hours in maybe 3 or 4 times and then my data gets corrupted...

Time for a retry I think.

Marvel's Spider-man. Love it!!! 

My friend wants me to play og final fantasy 7.

I've never gotten into rpgs. To me they are just finding out which attacks are best on which enemies and then grinding. I might or might not. 

I don't ever visit this thread so apologies if it's been mentioned already but my favourite game currently is Lonely Mountains: Downhill.  I haven't heard many people talking about it so perhaps it will be new to you, but it is an absolutely fantastic game.

I'd say check out the trailer but be aware the music misrepresents the game pretty heavily. Essentially it's a physics based game where you ride a bike down a mountain. The beauty of it is how you always feel like you're riding on the cusp of wiping out. The mountains are beautifully designed with graphics that are heavily stylized but are perfect at evoking the theme of nature without ever distracting you from your objective. The way the bike handles is perfect and immediately accessible. What I love about it is that you don't get penalised for going off of the beaten track; as long as you're not riding in a dangerous way or taking too big a fall you can pretty much take any route you want to get to the next checkpoint/finish line. Also  say the trailer misrepresents the game because it has that douchey rock music over the gameplay. The actual game has no music at all. You only have the relaxing ambiance of the wind blowing, the birds singing and the sound of your tyres against the ground. It's super comfy.

The game has multiple bikes to unlock which handle differently or have better grip or suspension to allow you to take riskier routes to the finish line. There are challenges that try and get you to finish under a certain time while limiting the amount of crashes you have (you crash a lot). It never feels unfair and the challenges never feel out of reach. It's super satisfying to try and improve your times.

Anyway I think it's great value for a sub £20 game and I can't recommend it enough. I played it pretty much all of last weekend and still am looking to improve my times on certain routes. I say this as someone who wasn't particularly enthused by the theme of riding a bike in a video game. It's a perfect lockdown game. Give it a go!

Because of the lockdowns, Splatoon 2 is having a bonus Splatfest this weekend:

  On 5/21/2020 at 2:34 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Because of the lockdowns, Splatoon 2 is having a bonus Splatfest this weekend:

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Those are certainly two of the most splatable condiments...

  On 5/21/2020 at 9:20 AM, yekker said:

My friend wants me to play og final fantasy 7.

I've never gotten into rpgs. To me they are just finding out which attacks are best on which enemies and then grinding. I might or might not. 

Do it!

Started Chex Quest HD last night after finishing Prey on hard difficulty, which actually gets easier as you progress with numerous upgrades. But it turns out both games have an Arboretum map/section.

I still need to try Subnautica and/or P.A.M.E.L.A. this summer. But Void Bastards is very tempting again.

I just finished Days Gone. It was pretty good, surprisingly long with a lot to do in the open world. It got very glitchy in some parts, which was disappointing.

I think I'm going to start Obra Dinn next.

It sounds like the physical Bioshock Collection on Switch is basically pointless, requires a 31gb download, and only contains the first 3 chapters of each game.  Way to fail.

https://techplusgame.com/bioshock-the-collection-31-gb-download-switch/

Rubin, you might like this but I'm playing plague knight again. Been at least a year since I played it last... About 3/4 the game... Long forgotten everything about it so I deleted the file and started fresh. Great game though a few controller throwing moments 

Playing those MiSTer CPS1 cores

  On 5/21/2020 at 9:20 AM, yekker said:

My friend wants me to play og final fantasy 7.

I've never gotten into rpgs. To me they are just finding out which attacks are best on which enemies and then grinding. I might or might not. 

it's a little bit more strategy than that.. plus there's a bizarre, moody and hilarious story attached to the battles. and in ff7's case, definitely one that has entered into pop culture canon in both the east and west. for me the og 7 is still held back by the graphics (and yes i played the shit out of it as a kid) but it holds up. its on the switch for like 10 bucks. fun game

  On 5/27/2020 at 6:20 AM, dr lopez said:

it's a little bit more strategy than that.. plus there's a bizarre, moody and hilarious story attached to the battles. and in ff7's case, definitely one that has entered into pop culture canon in both the east and west. for me the og 7 is still held back by the graphics (and yes i played the shit out of it as a kid) but it holds up. its on the switch for like 10 bucks. fun game

I guess I should give it a shot considering the love it gets from EVERYONE. Who knows, maybe it will be my gateway into rpgs if i like it 

  On 5/27/2020 at 6:49 AM, yekker said:

I guess I should give it a shot considering the love it gets from EVERYONE. Who knows, maybe it will be my gateway into rpgs if i like it 

side story here. but everyone, meaning the gaming community, seems to love chrono trigger but i played through the whole thing and only moderately enjoyed it by the end, and I mostly realized these type of rpgs arent really for me.  the music was amazing and the environment artwork great, which are what kept me playing it. But i felt that too much of it depended on me giving a shit about the story.. which to me was completely ridiculous and had too many characters that i did not, in fact, give a shit about

JRPGs are all ridiculous and often make no sense, bizarre choices, hammy dialog, very schmaltzy writing - to me, they have a self-acknowledgment of how over-the-top they are, especially the JRPGs from Square. Kingdom Hearts epitomizes this. I never get this sense from Western RPGs or stories in games like bioshock - there's a very irritating self-seriousness that turns me off. That it's "about something". Even the "funny" RPGs like GTA the writing is really shitty and self-regarding. The torture scene in GTAV comes to mind. Far more cringe than Sephiroth being emo for hours, because after all... it's a fucking stupid video game.

first comp games in aeons, lockdown prompted:

Post Scriptum - WWII in your face. Forgot how many twats there are in 24/7 gaming land, but the squad leaders are solid, just sprinkle D-Day, bridge at Arnhem & general allies vs nazi ridiculousness. Fun for an hour. The sound design is incredible.

War of Rights - US civil war line battles, historically accurate maps like Harpers Ferry is particularly well done (spookily so when you've walked all over that place irl). Fun for an hour.

  On 5/27/2020 at 4:14 PM, dr lopez said:

JRPGs are all ridiculous and often make no sense, bizarre choices, hammy dialog, very schmaltzy writing - to me, they have a self-acknowledgment of how over-the-top they are, especially the JRPGs from Square. Kingdom Hearts epitomizes this. I never get this sense from Western RPGs or stories in games like bioshock - there's a very irritating self-seriousness that turns me off. That it's "about something". Even the "funny" RPGs like GTA the writing is really shitty and self-regarding. The torture scene in GTAV comes to mind. Far more cringe than Sephiroth being emo for hours, because after all... it's a fucking stupid video game.

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i take your point, and i agree in that i have even less appetite for stories in western games that try to be slick, but tend to age horribly..

i think i phrased it too harsh.. for example in chrono trigger at least it uses the time travel mechanic to a ridiculous degree to take you to some crazy locations and time periods.  but i guess nowadays i mostly just play indies that have either no story or just enough as a pretext for interesting gameplay.  so i found myself mashing skip through a lot of the talking in chrono trigger, while for some people that is central to the game.

just finished Control. Really cool game, has a great lynch/SCP/cosmic horror thing going on, and never really gives you the full picture (it works well). Guess I'm gonna have to finally check out Alan Wake!

Return of the Obra Dinn was pretty cool. I got all the fates correct, but it took some doing.

With The Last of Us Part II coming so soon, I'm not sure I'll start something else before then.

Tetris Effect Soundtrack now available on Bandcamp: https://enhanceexperience.bandcamp.com/

Alan Wake is pretty cool! Make sure to play the dlc

  On 5/28/2020 at 6:46 PM, Joyrex said:

Tetris Effect Soundtrack now available on Bandcamp: https://enhanceexperience.bandcamp.com/

I like Tetris Effect - but those vocal tracks are absolutely terrible. Some of them reminds me of...

  On 5/28/2020 at 1:51 AM, luke viia said:

just finished Control. Really cool game, has a great lynch/SCP/cosmic horror thing going on, and never really gives you the full picture (it works well). Guess I'm gonna have to finally check out Alan Wake!

 

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Alan Wake is out on Game Pass