The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 20-07-2023

Dave the Diver! Honestly one of the most fun games I’ve played in a long time

I've been replaing "The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess" and loving the Nostalgia throwback.

I have been replaying Divinity 2. I had forgotten how good this game plays and looks. AND I was watching a "Let's Play" of DOS2 and noticed I missed some areas and stuff I didn't know I could do. So much dept and different ways to do things.

I was replaying DOS2 on my Linux gaming PC with an XBox controller because I think the controller will play similar on Baldur's Gate 3.

Fun days ahead soon exploring the world of Faerun and Baldur's Gate.

Exoprimal. It’s the exact dumb fun I want it to be with its own little sense of humor that actually works somewhat. If you have Gamepass it is a no-brainer. I’m not sure about $60 or $70 or whatever it’s retailing at yet but this will undoubtedly be a game with a huge surge in users when they start selling it for $30 and under. The PvPvE format works very well for it, it gives you a real sense of urgency and has you moving very quickly. Gives the fights and deaths real stakes that aren’t just resetting progression or something.

Battlebit, it's everything I wanted in the latest Battlefield titles and more, but made by 3 indie devs. Map votes, weapon attachments, classes, local voice chat, destruction, scoreboard, night mode on all maps... It's great.

Witcher 3

Never played a Witcher before and I knew I’d like it so I picked it up in the steam sale and man, I was right. I love it so much.

I'm waiting for Baldur's Gate 3, I've been saving myself from spoilers ever since early access started. I got some time off work for the launch of the full version that's a couple of weeks from now, and plan to sink some good hours into that. Until then I'm wasting time with random games like Brotato, hades, hearthstone battlegrounds, diablo 4, civ 6 and a whole bunch of others.

I've been working a lot, so I've been decompressing with No Man's Sky

Playing Subnautica (original) for the first time and absolutely loving it!

I’ve finally gave in and tried Vampire Survivors… what have I done. I didn’t realize it was 3AM by the time I put my handheld down and suffering at work today.

Outside of that been casually replaying Halo CE and **Midnight Club 2 **

Just finished TOTK so now I'm starting Diablo 4

Days Gone. New to me. My pet peeve is that the motorcycle is a piece of junk. It's got like 1.5 gallon gas tank and gets something like 2km/gallon. Or maybe it's 1 mpg, but the game uses metric for distances and imperial for volume.

I’ve been playing Metroid Prime: Remastered. It’s amazing to see the beauty of the world in this game, but kid me must of had way more patience for the backtracking

Minecraft for the first time! With my 5 y/o who sits on his tablet. It's dangerous for us both.

I don't spend too much on games and only buy if they're on sale.

Recently bought sleeping dogs for $2 and finished it 2 days ago. It was a 10/10 experience. Definitely suggest everyone to try it.

Other than that I've been playing Deep Rock Galactic.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition!

Got into Rimworld for the first time and I've gone down such a rabbit hole that I don't know if I can ever stop. I've never played such a completely engrossing game before.

7 Days to Die - Incredible game, when it's modded, it never gets old

Guardians of the Galaxy - everything is amazing except the combat. The combat is really, really mind numbing and repetitive. Makes me wish the game would just be over already.

Dinkum - Pretty bland. Its fun at first but you quickly start asking yourself why you're even doing the grind.

Planet Crafter - More addicting than fun. But still an overall enjoyable experience.

PlateUp! - play this with my wife. Very fun and very challenging!

Skyrim

Outer Wilds

Dave the Diver .... This game took me by surprise.. it is SO addictive!

Also Witcher III which I've played before but I've lost my save games and it was in summer sale at Steam including the add-ons I don't know yet so I couldn't resist ❤️

• Chilling out to No Man's Sky after not playing it for a long time. A great game to zone out to.
• Revisiting The Outer Worlds, just as good as I remember it being

Nothing, sadly, way too much work. But I'm planning to get back to my backlog soon.

Cyberpunk is really good

I practically live in Hyrule (TotK).

Same thing I always play. Old school RuneScape

Taking a break from DotA 2 atm.

Filling the free time with Binding of Isaac and Factorio.

Lost and Jakob runs costing me my last nerves

Slay the spire. Advancing ascension levels with all characters.

Did a second playthrough of XCOM Enemy Unknown, and now I'm on to XCOM 2, which I never got into more than a few missions.

Conan exiles

Control, story based, owned it for awhile and I finally have the GPU to play it.

Next is The Wircher III as I plan on reading the books. Currently finishing The Three Body Problem series.

Still playing Street Fighter 6 daily. What an absolute gem of a game, and has taken most of my time recently. Hyped as hell for Rashid, and probably going to try and get my Manon to Diamond before he releases.

Started a bit of Baldurs Gate 3, loved it, and decided to just wait til it releases in a couple weeks now. So have played a bit of Forza Horizon 5, I never came back at the launch of the Rally DLC, but have been really enjoying it, and is a nice twist on the formula(time trial with call outs rather than the braking line), definitely worth trying if you missed it like myyself.

Other than that, about to start Season 1 of Diablo 4... I am not overly excited, and this will probably be the make or break for me on if I continue to check it out every season or not.

Dead cells.

I discovered it when it was mentioned in a book by Cory Doctorow. It's an absolutely fantastic rogue-like game.

Been playing Cultic on Steam Deck and Street Fighter 6 on PS5. Cannot wait for the new Armored Core!

Death standing, trying to keep my sanity while delivering cargo in mountains without the baby.

I finally caved in and started playing Spiderman Remastered. The combat is pretty simple but it's a lot of fun, and swinging around the city feels great. For some reason the game really likes making you play as MJ and Miles in bad stealth missions though. They're just so boring and I try to speedrun through them but every other mission just wants you to not play as spiderman and it's killing the pacing for me.

The story is also a little disappointing. There's so much spiderman material out there and it feels like they decided to do something more kid-friendly, at least so far. The villains are over the top, it doesn't feel like there's any stakes or drama and everyone is just really shallow. I'm still halfway through so maybe the ending will surprise me (doubt it).

Overall I'd say it's a fun game, but it's not really Amazing or Spectacular.

Diablo 4

Good old Sid Meier's Civilization - Beyond Earth. I really love this game for it's slow pace and depth.

Star Wars Jedi Survivor, similar to old one but you know, it feels good being a Jedi🔥

Jagged Alliance 3. New game from Haemimont (Tropico/Surviving Mars). It's way different than those other two games, but I'm enjoying it so far.

I have been absolutely loving Dave The Diver, it is super cute.

Permanently Deleted

Divinity original sin 2. The anticipation of BG3 has got me re playing old rpgs and trying out some new ones.

I'm off the bike for a few weeks with a right arm radial head fracture after I biffed it hitting a pothole while checking my map, so I'm using it as an excuse to play the Tale Of Two Wastelands mod for Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Trying to see how much of both games I can get through before I'm cleared to bike again.

I've been really enjoying Halls of Torment, it's like if Vampire Survivors and Hades had a child.

Darktide.

It's bad and I should feel bad for playing it, but once you get past the absurdly long load times, janky cutscenes, regular crashes and absolute lack of any story or plotline, it's got remarkably addictive gameplay, and it's the only game that actively encourages your inner fanatic to pick up their boltgun and chainsword and KILL THE HERETICS.

It's like finding a kilo of PCP laced weed at the bottom of the dumpster behind the 7-11. I shouldn't like it, and it will probably kill me, but for some reason I can't stop smoking it.

Playing Divinity Original Sin 2 one more time with a couple of friends before Baldur's Gate 3 launches. Aside from that, also been trying out Wildermyth and it's been fun so far.

Picked up Hades again after Hades 2 was announced. It’s still fantastic. Can’t wait for the sequel.

Apex Legends: Been playing since Season 0 with my SO and brother and I think it's honestly the longest I've ever played a single game. The gunplay just feels so good.

Tears of the Kingdom: Still working my way through it, taking my time exploring. Honestly it's such a great game, but I have to say the resource gathering is getting a little tedious. I like the weapon durability mechanic from the angle of being forced to switch up your fighting style, but I wish there was a way to repair weapons between fights.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Bio Prototype

Didn’t play the first one, but I’m hyped for Remnant 2.

Discovered Remnant 2 last week 😃

It’s not out until the 25th 😕

Early access is available the 21st 🙌🏻

Realizing I’m out out town 20th-23rd 💀

Project Diablo 2 :)

This week I've used the Game Pass availability as an excuse to play through Grand Theft Auto V (and to be reminded of all the reasons I dropped it in the first place). I've also played through The Case of the Golden Idol, which is too goddamn short; I need more puzzles. I've only got one DLC puzzle left and I am going to take it slow and savour it. I'm also a decent way into TOEM and have started on Techtonica because, you know, Game Pass.

BattleBit and Fifa23

Not playing yet, but I am SO excited for Remnant 2. It's one of the few 3rd person shooter games that I stuck with.

Obduction. By Cyan, the studio that made he Myst series. It's an adventure game with intricate puzzles, and it's been blowing my mind for the last few days.

Subnautica

Always playing Kenshi. Just can't put it down.

Also just reinstalled Seven Kingdoms AA for the 100th time. Still one of my favourite games.

I’ve been heavily into iRacing lately. Just upgraded my rig and pedals! When I’m not playing that, I have a Madden franchise with my friends that’s been going for like 20 years in game and that’s been a lot of fun.

Other than that, dipping my toes back into Civ, and trying unsuccessfully to convince my friends to try Barotrauma again…

According to Steam Fallout 4, Big Ambitions and Factorio.

Been playing a lot of Binding of Isaac recently. Gotten pretty far too! Just unlocked Ashpits and mausoleum so theres bunch more to do now

Just beat tears of the kingdom. I think if totk had been released instead of botw it probably would've been one of the best games ever made... But with it being a follow up to botw it just felt way too similar for me to enjoy it. I essentially 100%ed botw so had no desire to just redo it again in totk. Basically just ran through the main story, did whatever side quests were easy, then fought Ganon. In a vacuum it was still a great game but I was sad it was so similar to botw.

Now playing the system shock remake. I beat 2 for the first time a few years ago and loved prey so have been excited to start it. Enjoying it so far for sure.

No mans sky. Had it for a while, time to explore planets.

Pokemon Crystal Clear! It's a Crystal romhack that adds in a fuckton of QoL changes and customization. Currently up to 1248 soft-resets, waiting for a shiny Snorlax. Also had to defeat him 250 times to get a chain going that helps with the odds of getting a shiny.

EDIT: Got my shiny Snorlax! Named her Blueberry. c: Strength, Belly Drum, Amnesia, and Defense Curl while holding Leftovers is one hell of an effective moveset.

Started Remnant with a few friends, we played about 4 hours and are all dark souls/elden ring vets and were having a really rough go at it... Turns out I forgot I had set the difficulty to apocalypse (the hardest difficulty)...

Like 3 months ago I bought Mi first dedicated graphics card: an used rx570 and, after many years on my list, I grab Black Mesa in discount like 2 weeks ago.. That and doom 2016 are the games I'm into right now...

Playing through sekiro . Damn that game is hard at .

Finishing up TotK and Pokémon sword. Also replaying dark souls 2.

Finally found time to get into Read Dead Redemption 2 and I must say it's pretty great. Game releases in the past decade have been a conveyor belt of garbage but this one is the exception.

Bouncing between Xenoblade 2, WoW classic, BotW, and Gregtech. I have little time on weekdays- only an hour or two to screw around before work.

as always Guild Wars 2...

Hunt: Showdown!

Exploring the Bayou in my holidays. Enjoying to play in different day- & weather type and it looks nice.

Actually finished both my current games and a freebie.

Luigi's Mansion 3 started great but its pacing feels bizarre by the end. The floors started feeling pretty long and then you have two boss only flaws in a row, then a good floor followed by two more boss floors. Maybe busting out so many variations hurt it be size the ordinary floors always felt the most enjoyable.

Tunic started off enjoyable but the gameplay never hit and the last secret I did made me angry with how it was presented.

Looking to finish Hogwarts legacy before I leave for vacation since i hate how it plays with a controller, and I'm taking my deck on the road, so no mouse/keyboard.

I'll probably finish breath of the wild and give a crack to emulating tears of the kingdom while away, fallback will probably be either Yakuza 3 or something like that.

Bloodeborne and TOTK

Halls of Torment. $5 game on steam that is like a Vampire Survivors clone, but with more rpg elements to it.

Backlog… so Far Cry 4

Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Playing Forza Horizon 4 and Super Mario Odyssey right now. Games I have had on my backlog for too long.

Currently trying to get through FFXVI, but there are times it feels like a slog. Am in the midst of one if these low points right now.

As for what I’ll be playing, my StepmaniaX compact machine shows up tomorrow, so I’ll have that to assemble and play.

Lots of sf6, getting ready for my trip to Evo.

Just wrapped up getting gold on every license in GT7 last night. Looking at the rest of the trophies and aiming for my first platinum.

Have put a fair few hours into Space Haven, but think I may have reached the end of the playable content I enjoy for now. Maybe I need to do a pirate run…

Been playing a lot of vampire survivors this week, it's quite relaxing after a long work day. But it's pikmin 4 day now, that'll be my whole weekend.

Playing The Fractured But Whole for almost a month now, it's a pretty enjoyable experience and it feels just like playing an episode of the show, liking it a lot so far.

Star citizen.Tried it during the free fly event, loved it. Even though it's a piece of shit, it is one of the best pieces of shit I have ever seen/played.

TES Skyrim - It's like a hideout for the past 11 years. Grim Dawn - Use it to get rid of the stress. The Sims 3 - When I want to build something.

My nephew is really into Plants vs Zombies, and I'll admit, it's sucked me in too. I'm trying to impress him by getting my name at a respectable position on the Endless Leaderboard on Xbox, but I'm having some trouble with my controller missing button presses when I go to arm a Cob Cannon for missile launch.

I can't believe I'm actually considering upgrading to an Xbox Series S in order to get smoother performance out of Plants Vs Fucking Zombies...

Nearing the end of Trails of Cold Steel IV after spending the past several months working my way from Cold Steel I. I'm planning to get Trails into Reverie at some point, but will probably play the fan-translated Kuro no Kiseki first.

Eternal Return just launched out of beta so I'm going to be grinding that for the foreseeable future.

This week has been keeping up with Honkai Star Rail dailies. I haven't done the new patch content yet, but I'm just spending my energy getting resources and leveling my team.

Beyond that, I've been grinding some casual matches in Street Fighter 6. My local card shop is hosting a small tournament on Saturday, and I at least want my BnB combos to land. I don't think I'll win, but playing in Platinum is at least showing me where my weaknesses are.

Last but not least, I got Baldur's Gate 3 for the early access bit. It's fun, if a bit slow, and can be pretty punishing. Not sure if I'll play the full game by save scumming or just living (and dying) with the consequences of my actions.

Nothing at the moment because I bought a new GPU and power supply, and somehow borked my whole computer just installing than.

Wife and I are trading off between Harvestella (mostly her) and Outer Worlds (mostly me). In Outer Worlds I'm on the third planet and rather enjoying the examination of extremism. It's fun. In Harvestella I'm still in late Spring, just got to the first set of branching quests. I'm a sucker for JRPGs, so I'm really excited to share this with my wife. Her favorite game is Stardew Valley, so it is that right crossover of genres to get her into JRPGs. Which reminds me, we were playing Chrono Trigger together a few years back and stopped at the Black Omen because of some family emergency. Like, three hours to go until we were done unless we wanted to go for all the endings. aaaaaaaaaaa

I picked up 2 copies of Helldivers for me and my partner during the steam sale. Game is great fun and runs smoothly on steam deck. Totally worth $5.

Been playing a couple different things, when I have time and energy after work. Occasional heist in Payday 2 to get back into it before 3 comes out. Finally got a switch, so starting to check out breath of the wild and super mario oddessy as well.

I’ve been bouncing between final fantasy XVI and Jedi survivor. Slowly making my way through the games and enjoying both.

Supersymmetry minecraft modpack, it's an alpha gregtech Minecraft modpack, pretty cool (a youtuber is doing a supersymmetry smp tomorrow, and I'm gonna be in)

Ghost trick

I was playing Arkham Asylum since it was the only Arkham game I didn't finish as yet

I’m all into TOEM at the moment. Cute little game!

Nox Archaist - Wasn't expecting much, was blown away. Definetily not for everyone, but personally I think it's the most engaging game I've played this year. Surpasses even Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

And just to make it clear: this is not a shit post. I really enjoy Nox Archaist so much.

Game called Necesse. Still early access but what's out now feels like terraria (pre hard mode only) mixed with a colony sim. Super excited to see where it goes in the future.

For now I'm playing Battlebit Remastered and Remnant From the Ashes whilst I wait for the Early Access release of Remnant 2.

The Isle (beta branch)

So much fun growing up as a Dino in a Dino eat Dino world. At the best of times it can be scary as hell.

I got myself Cult of the Lamb, finally, and it's been an absolute blast.

Outside of that, I play a lot of ESO, and am trying to finish up the dead god achievement in Binding of Isaac. Both are also fantastic

I have been playing the first season of Diablo 4 and it's been fun, not because of Diablo but because it's what my friends are doing.

Played through Persona 4 Golden this week and to fix my post persona depression I started Persona 5 Royal today.

I've been playing a lot of rainbow six siege quick play and call of duty MW2's DMZ game modes. I feel like one gives me the tactical fair shooter, and the other gives me a meaningfully paced combat loop.

Im a little pissed that the battle pass for diablo 4 doesn't work with my regular character. I just feel so estranged from that game since it costed so much and the combat and tasks just felt so dry. I guess the upside is that I have 90 days of the pass to hack away at it which isn't terribly pressing. I just wish their monetization strategy was like Halo Infinites battle passes where you could choose which one to progress on.

I've been playing Exoprimal. I definitely wouldn't have paid $60 for it, but it's actually pretty fun - even though it's primarily PVE, it really scratches the role-based hero gameplay I wanted out of Overwatch's smoking wreck. In fact, keeping the shift primarily away from PVP (usually until endgame of each round) makes it so if you're getting bodied by a much better team, you still get to play before having your group inefficiencies exposed at the end. That's much better than an entire match being miserable with constant respawning.

Voices of the Void. It's a pretty sweet indie game on itch that's currently free. You play as a scientist who's been sent solo to man a radio observatory and send back any interesting radio signals you can find.

The game is still a "demo" but you can play everything that's been developed so far and it gets regular updates. It's being made in unreal engine but it's been dressed up to look like a hybrid of goldsrc half-life and Gmod. There are a lot of different signals, some boring, some... interesting, along with a lot of Easter eggs, secrets, places to explore and some forms of silliness. There are horror elements to the game, but I wouldn't say that it's really a horror game (unless you find aliens scary) because it tends to be pretty chill (though sometimes shit hits the fan).

It's free. Go try it. If you get into it and want help finding secrets, join the dev's discord. People catalog the stuff they've found there. Tbh it almost feels like you're stepping back in time to the time when your friend told you that he unlocked Luigi in Super Mario 64.

Finally got into X4: Foundations after remapping all the controls and I’m about 300 hours down the rabbit hole total and 90 on my current save.

An Advanced Electronics and Turret Component bottleneck is crippling almost every faction preventing ship and station building.

I’m desperately trying to get my own stations producing while fighting off a Xenon invasion of the Free Families which has so far claimed 3 systems.

I started playing Sekiro and died so much I gave up. I moved on to RDR2.

Phantasy Star online 2: New Genesis

Waiting for Remnant 2 July 25 and Wayfinder August 15

I just beat aliens: dark descent. I thought it was pretty descent overall. Its kind of a real time strategy with slowmo or pause. It feels a lot like xcom but not turn based and honestly just less tactical overall as you can't issue individual commands, only commands to the whole squad. With that being my main criticism, I still enjoyed it as it did the Aliens feel pretty good, although parts of the plot were pretty silly. 7/10.

XCOM2 and PGA Tour and watching my wife post Skyrim.

A bunch of ocarina of time randomizer and World of Warcraft.

Asseto Corsa Competizione, back into it after a while. Working on my new profile's safety rating to be eligible for some leagues. The newer cars are fun, but I keep getting taken out by lower rank players which is making progress slow.

I will probably load up Transport Fever 2 this weekend. I got it on Summer Sale and really enjoyed the 2-3 hours or so I've put into it so far.

Should probably squealeze in some Diablo 3 but not very motivated. Also, very excited for Baldur's Gate 3 finally coming out. Gonna Bard it up!

Diablo IV new season has started! I'm only few hours in but it's quite fun so far. Lots of people so live events are much more full. Weirdly enough the servers seem to be more stable too. I still hadn't had much luck with the new gimmick of putting hearts into your rings but it seems fun. The battlepass is quite interesting too. The season 0 lacked direction I feel unless you we're really hard core - now it's more approachable for casual market.

The Outer Worlds came up on humblebundle choice this much and I've just reached the second zone in the game and honestly it's awesome. People were reviewing that it's quite shallow and underdeveloped but I kinda like smaller feel. The story and production is entertaining - it feels like Fallout but more wackey. Some parts do feel like it could use more "RPG" though. Like the first big choice of the game didn't feel that impactful.

Just started Phoenix Point today. Really itching for some fresh XCOM and I don't want to play too much Xenonauts 2 before full release.

OrnaRPG, TotK and D4

Wife and I have been working our way through Sons Of The Forest while we wait for Baldurs Gate, I'm hoping to get some time to myself soon so I can keep playing Metal Gear V

I've been getting started with Techtonica and continuing to play Diablo IV - looking forward to giving a new seasonal character a go in D4

Finally reached Phase 4 fornthe first time in Satisfactory, so I started another playthrough of Hollow Knight to celebrate.

Ys 8. My first Ys game and damn it is awesome..

I've been absolutely addicted to Enter The Gungeon, tryna get all the achievements. Probably the GOAT roguelike

Sekiro. It's hard.

Any map-staring enthusiasts? I've been playing Europa Universals 4 lately.

Started as Ethiopia, got up to Egypt before the Ottomans but they got Syria. I got all of the Arabian Peninsula and nearly all of East/Central Africa, but I've been so behind in tech that I can't actually challenge the Ottos (kept them at bay by allying a strong Poland/Commonwealth). Finally, around 1600 I'm caught up and about to start making my final push towards Constantinople.

Just started Dave the Diver, about 15 hours in. It has a fair bit of content and the "mini games" don't feel too out of place.

Also felt the itch to spin up a new minecraft mod pack instance, so I started feed the factory, a mod pack inspired by factorio. Encourages you to build big systems in bulk with rows and rows of massive machines. Very satisfying. I also hate dealing with mobs, and the mod pack is basically in peaceful mode, focusing primarily on building, so it's right up my alley.

Finally getting around to Assassin's Creed Origins. As a lifelong fan of the franchise, I'm still coming to grips with the changes, but it is not bad at all.@quinten

A bit of Oxenfree II. It's good so far. Their previous game Afterparty was a pretty limp experience IMO, but they've won me back. It's been a weirdly nostalgic time and the writing is solid. It leans on much of the lore of the first title, which means the mystery isn't so interesting this time around. But we'll see how it goes, it might surprise me.

Elden Ring. Vyke's War Spear and Madness only run. You can get the spear without a single fight.

I recently finished Storyteller. It's a short game and you can finish it in a day, but boy does it look gorgeous and boy does it keep your noggin activated.

Currently Dave The Diver. Vampire Survivors here and there when I need a quick fix. And Two Dots on the mobile phone. Been playing it for two days, which makes it pretty good.

I’ve been playing Helldivers. Local 2 player co-op with an additional +2 online. Arrowhead, if you can hear me, please let the sequel have this as well. The multiplayer/co-op is what has given this game its longevity. It’s so much fun plain and simple!

it's a lot of 7d2d lately, with the new updates that hit recently. not a super huge fan of some of the changes to progression, but it's at least reignited my interest in wasting another 800 hours smackin tress and shooting zombies.

Just finished Rayman Origins. Nearly a decade old but the game still looks incredible. Moving on to Zelda Link Between Worlds on 3DS now

I was planning to play Diablo 4's first season this weekend, but the patch was an absolute middle finger to the entire player base. And the seasonal theme wasn't that interesting to begin with. So now I'm not playing much of anything.

Finally a bit of Counter-Strike 2. Almost felt guilty for not being able to play much despite getting the coveted beta invite.

Testing out the new WoW talent system and likely will swap back to private servers while I wait for one called Project Epoch. That and Skyrim on switch or Among Us if my kids make me play with them.

Hogwarts Legacy for PC. It’s a blast. There’s so much to do and explore. I’ve logged twenty hours and I’m not even halfway through the main storyline.

Been playing wrath of the righteous and Ghost Of Tsushima