Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 24th

I finished Octopath Traveler. Same as last week, it’s really mediocre, most of the stories are boring and some are really bad, because your party basically doesn’t exist anymore, once you’ve started a chapter with a character. I just played through the character stories and didn’t do the omega secret true final boss whatever.

Edit: no ultrawide support, but there is a patch / trainer, but it messes up the UI a bit (not an issue 90% of the time). It runs perfectly on an OLED Steam Deck, locked 60fps, at highest settings.

Then I started Tunic a few days ago. You know about that story, how FromSoftware’s Miyazaki apparently made the Souls games the way they are, because he’d play games as a kid without understanding the language, so he had to just figure stuff out? That’s Tunic. The game is mainly Zelda, of course some Souls-like elements (can’t miss those in modern games) and in the end it’s also The Witness. I just beat the game and got the normal ending (maybe bad ending), but you also get a game over screen and are told you can try again for another path. I did find a lot of stuff, but I don’t know if I have it in me to go for the true ending or something all by myself. This means I’ll probably look stuff up, so I’m not sitting around for hours.

Edit: like Octopath, no ultrawide, but I haven't looked for patches. Runs well on the Steam Deck, but needed to turn down settings a notch, otherwise it felt a bit choppy, even at 60fps.

I played thru Octopath Traveler, and the story doesn't tie everyone together until that secret last boss. Nothing much interesting in the writing until that part, I guess.

I read that Octopath Traveler 2 rectified that, and it's one of the best JRPG of this year. I bought that on sale, but haven't touched it yet.

I dropped Tunic halfway thru, the combat just doesn't gel with me.
- I think two or three stories briefly mention that last boss, so it wasn't too hard to figure out that something is there, but the game just makes it so unappealing and uninteresting to actually look for it, that I just can't be bothered.
  
  I'll probably eventually get the sequel. Like you said, I've basically only heard praises of the game, but it's gonna be some time before I do.
- I played both Octopath Travellers games. The second is definitely a step in the right direction in terms of cohesion. There's also now a piss easy final boss, as well as an impossible-if-you don't-follow-a-cheese-strategy-online secret final final boss. Merely being level 99 doesn't cut it. Ugh. Octopath Travellers games are so charming but the devs still haven't figured out how to end them in my humble opinion.

I'm coming up on the end of Wargroove 2. It's a solid iteration on the first game, with a few new units and mechanics. It's some solid Advance Wars gameplay, and arguably better.

I started playing The Outer Worlds basically right after Starfield, and it's hard to come up with anything that Starfield did better, honestly. This is just a better version of that, for the most part, and with a good sense of humor on top of that.

I've been trying to get to Master rank in Street Fighter 6, and I'm in Diamond 3, inching closer. I'll get there in due time. This game is great for a first version, but it sure would be nice if the input reader was more consistent and if Zangief's lariat hit behind him.

I started playing The Outer Worlds basically right after Starfield, and it's hard to come up with anything that Starfield did better, honestly. This is just a better version of that, for the most part, and with a good sense of humor on top of that.

Lol, I've actually been thinking of replaying it at some point because as soon as I started becoming frustrated with Starfield, I remembered that we already have a way better "Fallout in space" game.

Also, Parvati is my fellow ace BFF. So fucking happy I got to connect with a character, help her find romance, and not be the fucking center of attention for once. Wish RPGs did that more.

Got a few on the go because I recently got a Switch.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder: just about 100%.

Metroid Dread: awesome.

Moonlighter: great for a few minutes here and there.

Axiom Verge: for when I get stuck in Dread.

The to play pile is growing, so I better finish one of those soon. Hades and Iconoclasts will have to wait a bit.

I was so impressed with Metroid Dread, like seriously. As a long time fan of the series I was going to buy the game anyway but it's just such an impressively polished and put together piece of art. I was deeply impressed with it. I'm also a big fan of the direction it's taking the lore into.

Edit: can't get the spoiler tag to work so I just removed the second half of my comment sorry
- Dread was great, but the EMMI sections were not fun at all. Especially since you could walk into the room and immediately die with no way to stop it.
- I didn't see it so nothing was spoiled. I'm trying not to read the guides but I do want to know when the last PNR is in case I need to explore a little.

I have three games on the go at the moment. Gotta enjoy those few weeks off from university, when I actually have some time.

Empyrion: playing this with my partner. This really feels like a game that could be amazing if the devs gave it a bit of polish, cleaned up the bugs, and updated the in-game information with the current game mechanics. There's something deeply frustrating about not knowing how to do something, and every post on Steam community and Reddit has a different answer, and very few of those answers are correct in the current version of the game. It's a shame, because I'm really loving the actual gameplay. I spent most of today rebuilding my ship: suffice to say, the NPC faction that blasted holes in the previous version of the ship are going to rue the day they blasted holes in my ship. I have shields and a lot more guns. 😈

Earthlock: still enjoying this. Delightful RPG in the style of 90s Final Fantasy games. The storyline isn't wowing me. It's fine, very standard fantasy, but it doesn't stand out as anything really amazing. But it's a nice, easy-playing game with a lot of nice elements. It's cute, the gameplay mechanics are interesting, and the puzzles are just the right balance between too easy and too hard. And I can plant trees that, for some reason, spawn frogs around them. I have no idea why, but I'm not complaining. 🐸

Maneater: I really had no idea how much I needed this game in my life until I started playing it. It's been a rough couple of months, and something about being a shark on a quest for vengeance is incredibly cathartic. Those people in that fancy yacht totally had it coming. My glee definitely did escalate once I moved into an area with lots of rich people. More golf courses should have electric sharks sliding through them, chomping on the golfers. 🦈

We bought a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic V from GOG since I had never actually played any of them. It's from 2006, and is in a genre on the edge of my interests.

We also picked up 2 copies of Satisfactory to play together, but were too sick to deal with the bugginess of actually getting multiplayer to work.

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you all are staying healthy ❤️

Decided to finish up my Mimimi collection now that they're shutting down and I'm now in full stealth tactics mode.

I've been playing Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew and man, I never realized how much I miss tactical stealth games. Having so much fun.

Immediately made a beeline for the Yuki (from Shadow Tactics) DLC as soon as the option opened up.

Love that rascal and her having adopted Kuma is just perfect.

It has a super varied cast of characters as well, and I haven't unlocked them all yet, but enjoying the ones I have so far.

I also find it kind of funny how "save-scumming" is treated as an integral mechanic in the game. Like, you don't have to do it at all, but if you want to, the game encourages you to enjoy it and not feel bad about it as long as you're having fun.

nier automata on the deck, a friend gifted it to me for my birthday

Pokémon mystery dungeon red rescue team. I’m going to work my way up through the mystery dungeons.

Booted the old Warframe and Path of Exile accounts back up. It's been a hot minute.

Those two old games are still fantastic. And they just keep getting bigger! There's always new content coming out.

I'm also trying out a new build in Baldurs Gate 3, which is always fun.

I finally picked up Subnautica Below Zero. For some reason I had it in my head that it was an expansion or 1.5 type release rather than a full sequel, so I had put it off longer than I would have otherwise.

I've played a handful of survival/crafting games since completing the first Subnautica a couple years ago, and nothing I've seen or played does what Subnautica does so well: the progression path is perfectly tuned and focused to keep you obtaining new things at just the right pace while enabling further and further exploration. There's a really addictive feeling of empowerment that comes with each accomplishment, going from bare swimming to zooming with the seaglide, to building a better tank to stay underwater longer, to eventually having massive vehicles and scanning equipment and defensive weapons. Mix it all together with the excitement from finally reaching and exploring new spaces you could only glimpse before, finding new supplies and equipment, and it's just an incredibly fun and rewarding time.

I think a common complaint with Below Zero was that it didn't do enough differently, but that doesn't bother me at all. I think the biggest problem I have with other survival/crafting games is that they all seem designed for perpetual play (e.g., No Man's Sky). Both Subnautica games are single-player at their core, with the attendant intentional elegance, and Below Zero strikes that near-perfect balance as well as its predecessor (so far).

I just finished The Invincible. Runs like dogshit on my system (i5-9600 16Gb/RX6650XT 8Gb), but very engaging for a walking simulator. About ten hours long and very little replay value unless you're a completionist. Recommended if that sounds like your cup of tea, but don't pay full price.

@chloyster Still playing Stardew Valley. But I just got a dock to my Deck, and an SD Card. Moved all the remaining games from my PC to my External Drive, plugged that shit into the dock and installed whatever the fuck I'm not finished yet or wanna play. Fuck yea, let the fun begin!

I picked up Cobalt Core on a whim during this current Steam sale. I don't really play deckbuilders, but this is a super fun game. It's a roguelike with heavy FTL vibes. I have yet to get that far in it because...

I've been playing tons of Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. I bought it during the summer sale on Steam, but only started playing it now. It's a mystery game similar to the Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney games (probably because it's made by Shu Takumi, who also made PW/AA), but instead of investigations and court cases, the main gameplay revolves around limited time travel and then trying to make Rube Goldberg machine-style scenarios to prevent people from dying. And some of the challenges are, well, challenging to figure out how things work together and in what order to use or manipulate items. It's fun.

Picked up Lies of P yesterday. I am enjoying it a lot, and a lot more than I thought I would. I saw some pre-release playthroughs that left me hesitant, but it is on GamePass, so I figured why not.

It is a great mix of FromSoft concepts, pulling a lot from Bloodbourne and a little from all of them. Highly recommend if anyone wants a soulslike but don't want to play Elden Ring again.

Diablo 4: Season 2 - Still working on farming for Midwinter Blight. But I finally hit level 100 in doing so, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Slender: The Arrival - Apparently I got around to this just in time for the 10th year anniversary update, and I must say I was super impressed with the overhauled graphics. There were a few areas that I wished hadn't been very chase heavy, because I would have loved to explore the surroundings more. I guess they also added a chapter or two. It wasn't a bad play overall, and there was some great tension and scares, even if a few of them were cheap jumpscares. I've read that the devs will be expanding on it over the next year with new DLCs and multiplayer (of all things, after ten years lol), so I'll have to keep my eye out for whenever those drop.

Today for Christmas I finally got an Xbox Series X, so I have a nice little line up of games that I've been nearly dying to play. Right now I'm trying to decide between playing Alan Wake 2 or the Dead Space remake first. Dead Space is one of my favorite franchises, but I also adore the first Alan Wake game. Either way, I think I'll be looking at a good time this week.

Right now I'm playing Begin Again: Tale of Two Wastelands, it's a mod for New Vegas that let's you play through FO3 and NV like they're two halves of a whole game.

I'm rounding off the year with The Last of Us Part I and so far it lives up to my expectations (and even more).

I've also been playing some PSVR2 recently, I recently completed Moss and just started RE: Village (and it seems I've almost got my "VR legs", I wasn't really feeling nauseated after the first session).

Did you watch the show before playing? I did, and I'm wondering if it is worth it to play once you know the whole story
- Do you like stealth?
  
  The story is fine, and they do a good job mixing it into the gameplay, but it's not one of my favorite games for the story. (On higher difficulties) It's an excellent stealth game that has really well designed encounters with very believable AI and uses resource scarcity to make every action have weight.
- No, I didn't want to spoil myself at all, so I'm not sure how the two compare tbh. I would imagine there are still some slight differences and/or you might want to play on a more challenging difficulty if that's your thing?

Been putting a lot of hours recently into Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader. It's been a while since we've seen a really high quality 40k game. Most of the popular (and good) Warhammer games take place in Age of Sigmar and not 40k. (Boltgun being a notable recent exception here)

But damn, Rogue Trader really hits the nail right on the head so far. I've never played Dark Heresy tabletop so the ruleset takes a little getting used to for someone primarily familiar with Pathfinder rules, but once you understand the basics the rest of the game falls right into place. The lore is spot on and the adventure is fun and interesting. Highly recommend to tabletop fans and Warhammer fans each separately, and if you're both like I am, it's a must buy.

I know very little about 40k or Warhammer in general, but want to give Rogue Trader a shot. I've read a bunch of positive comments about the game, but since it's Owlcat, I'll wait some months for patches to fix the game.
- I've only just recently gotten into Act 2 but so far I haven't come across a single bug, actually. Seems very polished. It does require a bit of a Warhammer primer before coming in if you want to know what's going on though. The game does a good enough job of explaining things that are important within the game but a lot of the context and fine details will escape you if you don't know at least a little about the 40k setting at large.

I finished the first Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney from the remake trilogy
- The game is really frustrating, because at times it feels more like you're supposed to guess what's the developer want you to do, instead of presenting things based on logic / evidence to the witness' statement
- The writing can be very awful, some characters are just straight up annoying in order to pad the game. People veer off conversations all the time, trying to be funny, but they are not. And the melodrama that's supposed to convey the character's feeling, can be repeated on every new scene that it's very tiring to play thru it.
I've also finished Curse of the Monkey Island
- It's still a such a hilarious delightful game. Many people stopped by my stream to tell me that they love this game. I was expecting to the game to be not clicking with me since Ron Gilbert departed after Monkey Island 2, but apparently it's still a very good game.
- My main complaint is the clicking mechanic, where you need to click and hold to bring up the talk / observe / use option.
I'm currently replaying God of War (2008)
- Apparently I forgot to upload my save to the cloud, so I can't do NG+
- It's still a very good game. I'm at the Alfheim region now, and unlike Horizon Zero Dawn, I have yet to feel fatigue replaying this game. Maybe it'd happen later in game

I've been playing Open RCT2, I'm working through every scenario. The game is way easier now that I'm not eight years old and I've watched a view videos that talk about the mechanics of the game.

Husband convinced me to jump into War of Rights with him, so I bought it (currently 50% off on Steam) and we've been nubbing around together.

Almost finished Dead Space (remake). What a game, wow. GOTY for me. Kept me hooked, doesn't happen often.

Steelrising - extremely interesting setting, brilliant even and a decent but not great game

I am enjoying BG3, still, and it definitely scratches the tabletop fix I haven't been able to fulfill.

I also returned to No Man's Sky for a hot minute, and also still play TIE Fighter via GoG. Gotta go with that classic Lucas Arts 90s Gold.

I finished Octopath Traveler. Same as last week, it's really mediocre, most of the stories are boring and some are really bad, because your party basically doesn't exist anymore, once you've started a chapter with a character. I just played through the character stories and didn't do the omega secret true final boss whatever.

Then I started Tunic a few days ago. You know about that story, how FromSoftware's Miyazaki apparently made the Souls games the way they are, because he'd play games as a kid without understanding the language, so he had to just figure stuff out? That's Tunic. The game is mainly Zelda, of course some Souls-like elements (can't miss those in modern games) and in the end it's also The Witness. I just beat the game and got the normal ending (maybe bad ending), but you also get a game over screen and are told you can try again for another path. I did find a lot of stuff, but I don't know if I have it in me to go for the true ending or whatever. If I do, I'll probably look stuff up, so I'm not sitting around for hours.