What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

every once in a while I go back and play Red Alert 2 or 3, and now is one of those times.

S'BASSE

https://archive.org/details/psxgames

Dark Cloud, old PS2 game. It's aight 

  On 12/30/2022 at 2:49 AM, usagi said:

visually RE7 holds up super well. whatever the team baked into the RE engine to give it that realistic look and feel without costing an arm and leg computationally makes it so that the whole game functions very smoothly and looks amazing doing it. it's pretty impressive in a world where games are increasingly experiencing performance issues on launch. also, unrelated, the music that Lucas blasts when you enter his side of the house sounds exactly like The Body and I loved it.

I've now moved on to Prey.

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Prey is also excellent. I played it on hard, and it legit builds real tension.

I just started A Plague Tale: Requiem. I loved the first, but this hasn't grabbed me yet.

I'm playing Spyro trilogy on switch. I’m really irked by the “run” button. Why they couldn’t do mario controls where you hold down the run button while walking to run instead you hit the run button while not touching the control pad and spyro runs all over. Makes it very difficult for precise jumps that require a running start. One bit of a level i needed to do to 100 percent it i must have died 10 times. 

  On 1/1/2023 at 2:10 AM, onecaseman said:

Prey is also excellent. I played it on hard, and it legit builds real tension.

I just started A Plague Tale: Requiem. I loved the first, but this hasn't grabbed me yet.

funny how similar Prey is working out for me compared to my first playthrough of Bioshock over a decade ago, a game Prey clearly pays tribute to. I was feeling a bit mixed about the combat and the general pacing of the game until I got to the 'garden' area and now it's really starting to click. the surprise in the lift area was a great touch.

Prey 2017 is perhaps the closest game there is to a System Shock game that isn't System Shock. One of those titles I keep coming back to at least once every year.

Hell, even that Looking Glass video call system in-game is dead giveaway homage to the original TTLG team behind the aforementioned classic.
 

citizen sleeper - interactive sci fi novel, quite haunting

last call bbs - bite-sized logic puzzles, zachtronics

mgs3 subsistence - 60s kojima, boss

Another fresh Atomic Heart teaser...supposed to drop as soon as next month I think

  On 1/3/2023 at 8:54 AM, ambermonk said:

Prey 2017 is perhaps the closest game there is to a System Shock game that isn't System Shock. One of those titles I keep coming back to at least once every year.

Hell, even that Looking Glass video call system in-game is dead giveaway homage to the original TTLG team behind the aforementioned classic.
 

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Speaking of System Shock...the Nightdive remake is almost upon us. Two more months...

 

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also the classic 0451 door code, knew to expect that somewhere at the start of the game.

while Prey is very SS spiritually, it doesn't have the same look and feel to it. everything looks and feels a lot more bright and sleek and polished. I think this is mostly a function of Arkane's engine and player physics. it's not a detriment to the game once you get used to it, it's just different from, say, the dark and grimy feel Rapture or the Von Braun had. shadows on Talos 1 don't 'feel' as murky.

  On 1/3/2023 at 8:37 PM, ambermonk said:

Another fresh Atomic Heart teaser...supposed to drop as soon as next month I think

 

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Even if the game doesn't turn out good at least we'll have a new Mick Gordon soundtrack to spaz out to 

Got to try Switch Sports Golf with the kids, it’s pretty blah. The joy-cons just cannot replicate Wii Motion+ like the old Wii U version did. SAD!

Divinity Original Sin 2 is so much fun. Wish I wasn't such a lone wolf gamer so I could experience the co op it offers, the fact that you can have a conversation while your friends are doing other things is crazy to me.. The strategic aspect though, damn, you can win a fight you thought was impossible after an hour of trying again and again.. Feels a little like Dark Souls on pause

  On 1/4/2023 at 2:30 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Got to try Switch Sports Golf with the kids, it’s pretty blah. The joy-cons just cannot replicate Wii Motion+ 

Played the bowling one with my nephew, definitely seems more forgiving than the Wii version - used to always get a huge curve on the ball, this time it was basically a spare or strike every time.

Just go into this channel:

  On 1/4/2023 at 2:51 PM, mcbpete said:

Played the bowling one with my nephew, definitely seems more forgiving than the Wii version - used to always get a huge curve on the ball, this time it was basically a spare or strike every time.

Yeah the physics in that bowling are pretty stiff. The bowling in Clubhouse Games is superior in every way.

  On 1/4/2023 at 5:53 AM, usagi said:

also the classic 0451 door code, knew to expect that somewhere at the start of the game.

while Prey is very SS spiritually, it doesn't have the same look and feel to it. everything looks and feels a lot more bright and sleek and polished. I think this is mostly a function of Arkane's engine and player physics. it's not a detriment to the game once you get used to it, it's just different from, say, the dark and grimy feel Rapture or the Von Braun had. shadows on Talos 1 don't 'feel' as murky.

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Yeah it's too much of a divergence from the 'Shock games aesthetically to have that shadowy, decaying vibe. I think Arkane were going for a 1960s Cold War-esque retrofuturism look - made more obvious by the "space race" references eluded to by the scattered bits of game lore in loading screens.
 

  On 1/4/2023 at 10:11 AM, Squee said:

Even if the game doesn't turn out good at least we'll have a new Mick Gordon soundtrack to spaz out to 

I remain optimistic. Had my eye in this one since 2017. I heard Atomic Heart underwent development hell for a while like Doom 2016 - another thing in common among the two titles.

  On 1/4/2023 at 2:30 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Got to try Switch Sports Golf with the kids, it’s pretty blah. The joy-cons just cannot replicate Wii Motion+ like the old Wii U version did. SAD!

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Wii Sports Golf was great fun. wish i still had

I finished the main Prey story and am now playing the Mooncrash DLC. this shit is wild. practically a new game unto itself. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it works but the recursive nature of it allows for many possibilities that I can't fully understand yet. the corruption countdown really lights a fire under your ass, you can't play it easy but at the same time you can't be reckless either cos you can get killed easily. it creates a tension that I both enjoy and dread at the same time. Arkane obviously took what they learned from this and put something similar in Deathloop.

  On 1/7/2023 at 9:59 AM, usagi said:

I finished the main Prey story and am now playing the Mooncrash DLC. this shit is wild. practically a new game unto itself. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it works but the recursive nature of it allows for many possibilities that I can't fully understand yet. the corruption countdown really lights a fire under your ass, you can't play it easy but at the same time you can't be reckless either cos you can get killed easily. it creates a tension that I both enjoy and dread at the same time. Arkane obviously took what they learned from this and put something similar in Deathloop.

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I think they were going for the whole "roguelike" appeal with Mooncrash. You can buy those hourglass things in-game to roll back the Corruption meter, but they're not cheap. Pretty sure the Corruption mechanic itself is a nod to the constant-rising difficulty meter from Risk Of Rain.

I haven't played Deathloop yet though. If it's as you describe, then I might give it a go.

I'm currently extremely obsessed with The Witness. Yesterday I woke up suddenly remembering the pattern of a tough puzzle, and I suddenly knew how to solve it, had to take notes on the spot. Can be quite problematic during work hours

  On 1/7/2023 at 11:39 PM, Stock said:

I'm currently extremely obsessed with The Witness. Yesterday I woke up suddenly remembering the pattern of a tough puzzle, and I suddenly knew how to solve it, had to take notes on the spot. Can be quite problematic during work hours

Yes! I spent most of the summer obsessed with this game. Solved a lot of the stuck puzzles away from the computer. The game definitely encourages stepping away for a bit or exploring the world. 

^I hope they can do a VR port of that

Just finished this puzzle game today. I heard good reviews and while I honestly keep thinking I’m not a fan of the genre I must say that both this and A Fisherman’s Tale were really fun experiences in VR. As the name implies each mission gives you ample opportunities to die in a variety of ways as you have to scrounge around your area (this is a stationary experience however, no room scale option) for clues, secret compartments, etc. in order to avoid getting murdered and help spoil the plans of a large scale nuclear attack.

the whole 60’s bond-era setting with quirky humor definitely has been done a hundred times before but I do think it was well executed here. I prefer room scale experiences generally speaking so it took me until the second mission to warm up to this and begin to enjoy it. Thankfully the puzzles not only got more complex and involved as the game progressed but also felt more immersive and fun to get through. I was stumped for way longer than I would like to admit in the Wine Cellar though. Overall it was a cool experience and I’m glad I picked it up while it was on sale. For someone who doesn’t have much playroom, or who may be a newcomer to VR, I think this would be a great introduction alongside something like beat saber.  9 missions total which wound up giving me a decent amount of gameplay. The only thing that sucks with this, like most other puzzlers, is that since I’m done now I don’t really see there being replay value. 

  On 1/7/2023 at 9:29 PM, ambermonk said:

I think they were going for the whole "roguelike" appeal with Mooncrash. You can buy those hourglass things in-game to roll back the Corruption meter, but they're not cheap. Pretty sure the Corruption mechanic itself is a nod to the constant-rising difficulty meter from Risk Of Rain.

I haven't played Deathloop yet though. If it's as you describe, then I might give it a go.

best strategy I've found is to start with Joan (engineer) who, once maxed out with neuromods, is the obvious best choice for doing a sweep across the entire map, clearing out enemies, repairing doors, amassing materials, fabbing items (primarily neuromods and corruption slowdowns), finding the best available weapons and getting a really high starting sim point score - all in order to set up smooth subsequent routes for all the other characters.

this game continues to blow my mind. there are some very cool emergent experiences coming out of this which are a product of all the various recursive mechanics meshing together well. the impending doom of the timer, the feeling of being a lone survivor scavenging hurriedly amidst ever present danger, and story quests/bits of lore peppered seamlessly throughout all function great together. I'm honestly enjoying this more than the main game.

I just had a run where I farmed 100+ neuromods with Joan on a first pass, then did as many other characters' quest lines as I could, with the explicit aim of not letting everyone escape cos that would end the whole game. I had 4 characters escape and decided to play the 5th (Riley, the director) on a whim, expecting to just fuck around and maybe scavenge some last leftover scraps for a couple of extra upgrades before letting her go down in a blaze of glory. I ended up doing her quest line and getting just enough neuromods to acquire the necropsy ability, which suddenly opened up me up to harvesting a lot more typhon material and thus allow for fabrication of more neuromods. so I've decided to push this as far as I can go and let the corruption timer tick up to max to spawn new enemies to let me keep going as long as I can.

right now, I have barricaded myself in a room just off the fab room in the Pytheas labs, I've just hit corruption level 4, and I think I just heard a Nightmare spawn nearby. I'm about to get fucked up. shit is awesome.