Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 21st

Picked up Palworld and started it today. It is pretty fun and, as long as they patch it and support it, it could be a fantastic time waster.

I just finished Portal Revolution. Puzzles were high quality. Story, script and voice acting was meh. Now I'm playing Outriders, which I bought during the winter sale. Super mid game, very formulaic gameplay. Story and visuals are kinda cool.

I'm playing through portal rev now. Every time I finish a section of traveling I feel like I'm a genius solving all the little 2 or 3 step puzzles. Then the path opens up into one of the huge puzzle rooms and I'm like shit where do I even start this looks impossible.

I'm getting through it all and enjoying the journey.

We bought Palworld yesterday, probably play that most of the week. It mashes up a lot of games and has some nice QoL updates from similar games (like Ark)

I'm about to play Ico and Elder Scrolls Online

Ico is such a wonderful game. I wish I could play it again for the first time.
- Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are two of my favorites. I even loved The Last Guardian, in spite of its flaws.

Picked up Another Code Recollection. Never played the original on the 3DS, and I'm really enjoying it.

Sill playing Aurora. Missle combat is very different and it took a while to learn. I'm hitting my stride now I feel.

Also in the middle of Citizen Sleeper. An RPG where you're playing a transhuman cyborg traped on a space station. It's been interesting. I would compare it to Disco Elysium. That title obviously had a better budget but Sleeper holds up well.

I just finished Spider-Man Miles Morales. So I'm gonna be starting Spider-Man 2 soon.

If i'm not sim racing, its BattleBit, Noita or Baldur's Gate. Lots of fun!@

I've been playing a ton of Pillars of Eternity still. I think I can wrap up Kana's quest before I head into Act 3. I've got a lot of irons in the fire of my quest log that look like I need to advance the plot or level up more to finish them, so Act 3 is maybe when they intended for me to finish those.

Still mainly Diablo 4, but a lot less this week. I finished my seasonal goals faster than I thought, and have been slowly mopping up some of the stuff that's season independent. I filled out the map, found the Altars (3/4 by myself the rest with a guide), and also did all the dungeons to unlock the legendary aspects, but I guess those reset, and you have to do them again in the new season (or just the ones you're interested in).

Then I also did more Soulstone Survivors runs. So far I've been mainly playing as the default class, the barbarian, and unlocking everything for him. There's so much stuff, and then do a lot more for all the other classes as well. It's fun, though still lacks a bit of variety, mainly in the levels.

I've been playing Red Dead Redemption (the first one) and I'm enjoying it a lot. I've decided to play without the on-screen map and it does wonders for immersion, recognizing areas, locations, where people are, etc. I highly recommend it!

I really like that in RDR2 you can disable the mini map and replace it with a plain compass. It has the added feature that you can briefly show the mini map again if you need to get your bearings, and it disappears after a short delay. Definitely helps with the immersion.
I might just try that someday. The idea is intimidating but sounds like a new level of fun. Have to try to emulate it on PC though
- Emulate the Switch version. It works far better than trying to the get the PS3 version to run.
  
  If you like the idea of playing a large open world game without a minimap, I can also highly recommend the first two Gothic games, Gothic II in particular. Maps for this game can only be bought, found or stolen and they don't show your position. Since every location is hand-crafted and unique, you won't actually miss having a minimap. Even two decades later, these titles still wipe the floor with most open world games in terms of world design.
I remember being very unimpressed with RDR, though that could be because I rushed through it the week before the sequel came out. In my experience rushing through a game like that ruins the experience completely.

What is it you enjoy most? Open cowboy world or the story or something else? Might have to go back to it (and actually finish the sequel lol)
- Well I'm not a huge gamer, specially since I have a kid, but I was expecting GTA with horses, but I'm enjoying it a lot (I don't really like GTA) anh I had not played this game, since I never had a console, but it came out for switch and I went for it. I'm not going to try to sell it to you. The no-map immersion is a big factor, I guess, which is new for me!

Currently into Triangle Strategy's New Game+. I'm enjoying that game way more than I thought I would. It's a fun, charming successor to the strategy JRPG. It has few tropes and the mechanics have been streamlined while maintaining challenge. Surprisingly low magic as well. I mean there are plenty of magic users, but no monster, no supernatural armageddon and the end game is not "kill god". It does have that peculiar JPRG theatricality, so you need to be fine with that.

I'm currently playing V Rising with a friend on a private server. I like survival games but I hate PvP, raiding and griefers. So far it's pretty good fun! Like a mix between a Diablo-like ARPG and something like Valheim. You don't need to grind resources so much, you collect plenty just playing. The focus is more on combat. Some bosses are pretty tough and progress is gated behind them.

Dave the Diver! It looks so goofy but give it a shot. It's got hilarious cutscenes, and a really well executed blend of roguelike, restaurant game, resource management, and story RPG.

My time I'd normally use for gaming has gone in to starting to learn FreeCAD, which I guess I could argue is an open world builder game.

My son and I are like 95% done the end-game content in the Super Mario RPG remake, only Culex 3D remains! It’s been a total blast. My biggest struggle is finding more games like this.

We’ve loved all the Paper Mario games we’ve been able to play (original, Super, TYD, and Origami King…. unless I’m forgetting one), but trying out miscellaneous JRPGs hasn’t had any success with him yet. He’s too young for a lot of games, but seeing things from that pre-tween point of view I also feel like we all could do with more games that aren’t fueled by adolescent angst or grim brooding. Bright, fun adventure on a foundation of silliness paired with great music is such a good recipe.

The Mario & Luigi games are similarly approachable and good RPGs, Superstar Saga (the first one) especially. They are handheld games so maybe a bit more difficult to play together with someone, though you could emulate them very easily to play on a more suitable device.

Sea of Stars also might be worth a try. Takes a lot of inspiration from Paper Mario.
Have you played Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling yet?
- We tried it once, but it didn’t grab my son’s interest at the outset. I’m going to have us try again as I’ve heard nothing but praise for it.

Tried out Palworld a couple of days ago on Game Pass.

Not really my thing. People focused on the monster catching "Pokémon with guns" stuff, but it's still a survival/crafting/building game at its core, and I rarely ever enjoy those (there are like three exceptions total). Glad other people are enjoying it, though.

Might go back and replay Cassette Beasts at some point. Also, buy the deluxe edition with the DLC and all (I know it's small and short, but I don't mind) because the devs deserve every cent. Soundtrack as well, because it's fucking awesome.

Kind of funny how I never cared about "catching 'em all" when it came to any of the Pokémon games, but I was more than happy to record everything in CB given the right motivation.

EDIT: Yeah, Cassette Beasts has been fun again. Also, I really like the DLC monsters. It is short, but it's still a fun little experience. Started a new run with randomised monster locations and types and it feels like a different game entirely. Had to try a few times due to RNG fucking me on the first two runs, but third one is going well so far (although I don't know if I'll ever get used to Telekitty not being lightning).

Currently, I play Alwa's Awakening on the Evercade. Very cute and hard, at times, metroidvania.

I started playing unsighted. Its the first game I've been seriously playing since november 😅

About 40% through Hogwarts Legacy at the moment. It's been great so far, very impressive especially coming from the old HP games on PC. Fixed up some performance issues with the Ascendio mod, and all works fairly well on my (ancient, circa 2014) rig.

Elden Ring getting ready for the DLC.

I have a lvl 1 char that I've beaten about 90% of the game with, gathered most of the items and spells that's taken me about 7 months to get this far.

The plan is to beat everything but the last fight as lvl 1 so I can build to whatever is needed.

Couldn't you also just save a respec item to burn whenever the DLC drops?
- Respeccing doesn't drop your level and I'm hoping with all the returners and new players the DLC brings that I can sunbro low level content like Stormveil and the early caves again.
  
  After my fill of that I'll level up to whatever content the DLC is geared to.
  
  Plus this will give me a lvl 1 backup with most gear and spells for build testing.

Started Palworld today.

I never realized how much I needed shotgun wielding sheep in my life.

Just finished Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time. I had it since release but it grew on me very slowly. Focused more on it after the release of 2.0 and it quickly became one of my favorite games ever made. Highly recommend.

I wanted something more linear so I finally started playing God of War (2018) with the intention to finish it. I started it back in 2018 a few months after it came out but it was hard to get into since the combat didn’t feel as free or open-ended as the games I was used to like Spider-man, the Arkham games, or Dark Souls but it’s okay imo. I’m hoping the story has better payoff than the combat does.

I had the same reaction to God of War, with reverence for the combat in those other games you listed as well. Do you typically enjoy character action games? They all kind of felt the same to me, and I couldn't really get into the combat in them even though I ought to be into it on paper. Then Hi-Fi Rush came along and made that genre make sense to me. Now I've gone back through most of the Devil May Cry series and plan on giving God of War another shot when I find the time.
- I’m not sure I know what a character action game is. God of War feels a little grating to me because there are enough enemies who feel like they’re programmed to be challenging and aren’t naturally challenging. I know some enemies from the Spider-man and Arkham games are technically the same, but they ride the other side of the line that defines immersion. DOOM 2016 and DOOM: Eternal are better examples of games with combat mechanics which encourage you (sometimes very strongly) to play the game a specific way, but lets you try to play it your way if you want, or can’t play the way it encourages.

Diablo 4: Season 2 - Completed the Season Journey thanks to some nice randoms hanging out outside of Duriel's dungeon. That is one thing that I do like about playing D4, there's always someone hanging around somewhere to help you out. And if the end of the first two seasons are anything to go by, I'll definitely be needing those someones towards the end of every season.

Diablo 3: Season 30 - Finished Chapter 1-3. Working on Chapter 4.

Firewatch - I picked up this game on GamePass because I needed a little break before I started a new game plus run of Alan Wake 2 and wanted something that wouldn't take me more than one night. I knew going into this game that it was going to be "solving" a mystery, but I did not expect it to play out the way it did, or it to be such a story driven game. Even starting out in the first 10ish minutes I didn't expect the game to go in the direction that it did. It was a bit of a slow burn (wink wink nudge nudge), but it was a lot of fun, especially since it's one of those games where you come up with a theory of what's going on and then second guess yourself over and over. Plus the whole time I was walking around from objective to objective, I kept having the thought of how cool it would be to just roam around without a looming goal hanging over my head, and lo and behold, after I finished the game, a free roam setting was unlocked.

Alan Wake 2 - Gave in and started a new game plus. This game has got me in a chokehold right now, even with its many, many problems that keep popping up. Kind of wish some more was changed based on the events of the first playthrough, and I'm not a big fan of how they treated ng+ inventory or some gameplay decisions that Remedy made, but I'm still having fun.

That is one thing that I do like about playing D4, there's always someone hanging around somewhere to help you out.

When I started, I was super disappointed, because the world was basically empty, except for towns and some of the events. I was hoping it's because I started so late, and I was kinda right. However on the higher difficulties, there are a bunch of people at the different hot spots all over the world, which gives me hope for the new season, that it's not just going to be empty 90% of the time.

Palworld. So much palworld.

I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 for the last few weeks and somewhere Warframe here and there when I don't have enough time to get list with BG3.

Lies of P is a solid game! It really clicked for me after the 4th main boss. Heavy, slow weapons seems to be more useful in a second playthrough, and I'm finding some NG+ fights easier than the original NG fights.

Aside from that, I've been playing M&B Bannerlord with lots of mods. Not an amazing game, per se, but still very nostalgic for me.

I looked at this game because it got a day one release on Mac and looked cool. May have to check it out.
- I didn't know it was released on Mac at all! I hope you enjoy it if you pick it up. The game gets pretty hard, but if you are willing to learn the boss patterns it's a ton of fun.

I've missed this thread for a few weeks already (as in, I didn't see it). Completed Disco Elysium twice since then, amazing game! Very sad that there's not going to be a sequel; the world is fascinating,, as is the style of gameplay.