Author Topic: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E  (Read 282530 times)

CF7

  • Can you feel the LOVE tonight?
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #870 on: June 07, 2018, 10:46:30 AM »
So, i after numerous attempts at trying to defeat Star Devourer in EOV with our tabltetop party (we made it based on sugestions during one of our tabletop gaming sessions, consisting of Harbinger, Dragoon, Fencer, Botanist and Necromancer) i finally gave up. The party always sucked at damage department, and considering how SD fight is basically one huge dps check, it's become apparent that it is more or less impossible with any setup i tried with these classes.
So, i think now i'll pick up Strange Journey Redux. When i first played the original on DS i gave up on Sector Eridanus. That place sucked hurd, so let's see if this time i'll actually beat it.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2018, 08:28:14 AM by CF7 »
Sometimes rumors are just... rumors

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #871 on: June 07, 2018, 04:28:44 PM »
Still on Strange Journey Redux, just completed Sector F. MVPs so far are my Mad Gasser with Debilitate and Tetrakarn, my Koumochuten that's just a good all-around beater, and Kingu with Luster Candy for party buffs.

Validon98

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #872 on: June 09, 2018, 09:13:28 PM »
So about a week or so ago, I was finally able to get my hands on Genius of Sappheiros V and Devil of Decline W, and just finished the main game of the latter, a bit underleveled than usual too. It's... well it's different, has some similarish issues to the original (hey learning weapon skills is rough still because your element level never freaking increases at a reasonable rate), but still pretty good overall.

EDIT:



Since I don't want to double post, there's GoSV beaten too. Hurray!
« Last Edit: June 20, 2018, 03:56:43 AM by Validon98 »
Derping at Touhou since June 2012, derping at RPing Touhou since Feburary 2013.

Devil of Decline Partial English Gameplay Patch!
Let's Play Nightmare of Rebellion!

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #873 on: June 23, 2018, 02:29:56 AM »
asdf why

My PS Vita's been having troubles recently; the left stick was some sort of screwed up. So I bought a new stick, installed it yesterday.

Nope.

So I took the whole left board out, sprayed it with contact cleaner.

It worked.

Now, though, the PS button is now fucked. argh

I just want to play my otomeges without spending yet another HDMI slot on my straining TV for a PSTV.


EDIT: So, anyone who was aware of early Overwatch character concepts might remember the cat with a jetpack. They've just kind of one-upped that with a hamster Tank. Complete with ball form, pinballing into enemies, and overall a bane for tightly packed enemies. 100 personal shields for every single enemy in a short range? Pair that with Graviton, and he can come in like an actual wrecking ball.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 05:54:26 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
Let's Play: BIT.TRIP FLUX | Let's Play: Malicious | Skyward Sword: Shieldless Final Boss | Skyward Sword: Boss Rush! | Ace Combat Infinity: Campaign in the X-02 Wyvern


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CF7

  • Can you feel the LOVE tonight?
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #874 on: July 05, 2018, 09:21:30 AM »
Still playing Strange Journey Redux. Add it's kind of weird.
You have access to Womb of Grief, but demons out there are stronger than in "main game". As a result Womb of Grief is kind of fun and challenging, due to harder enemies, but then i go to the sector i am supposed to go for the story progression i am overleveled for it. Oh, well, it's still fun.
Edit: Just cleared sector D. Frost Cannon i got like at the start of Sector C is still the best gun in the game.
Edit Edit: Fuck Sector E. Going from confusing 2 layered mess, to confusing teleported maze, to 2 floors swiss cheese puzzle to the boss itself.
« Last Edit: July 17, 2018, 01:35:39 PM by CF7 »
Sometimes rumors are just... rumors

Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #875 on: July 05, 2018, 12:22:14 PM »
So I roflstomped my way through the Etrian Odyssey 5 base game and now I'm doing the postgame stuff. I got maybe 3 rounds into the Dryad fight before seriously reflecting on my decisions. The killer attack debuff/defense buff combo that got me through basically everything up until now was basically ignored and 4 characters in my party were wiped in short order. I barely had the chance to fight back. I'm sure the answer to this problem is something along the lines of "use the tank class" or "status effects will save you from everything" but that sort of thinking leads to all sorts of problems. I haven't liked the tank classes in these games because it usually takes them 10 levels to get the same defense buff that the stat buff classes have access to by default. They get a bunch of tricks but it typically takes forever to reach and really haven't been enough anyway, so I don't have one and I ain't got time for training one up. The status effects option sure looks appealing and Harbinger = best class but this line of thinking tends to fall short right when I really need it. I have also reached the postgame using the Shaman and Rover's ridiculous passive heals and this is the first time it hasn't been sufficient. I dunno though.

The disappointing thing is that this is exactly what caused me to quit EO:U2. It's an important level cap boss hurdle that's probably addressed simply by using something I haven't touched on before or I didn't make use of some class/skill I just found too straight up dull to use before.

Edit: Aaaand I spoke too soon. Harbinger = best class!
« Last Edit: July 06, 2018, 12:34:58 AM by Reddyne »

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #876 on: July 06, 2018, 03:57:36 PM »
Completed as much of Berseria as I could before the final dungeon. It's a fun game! It's probably my favorite of the Tales games at this point, beating out Symphonia and Xillia.

Validon98

  • Deathguard Night Sparrow
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  • Harbingers, yo.
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #877 on: July 06, 2018, 09:34:35 PM »
At this point I've finished the expansion final boss in Genius of Sappheiros V, something I haven't even done in the original version of the game! And at this point I think I've come to the conclusion that GoSV is such a major improvement over the original, at least in my opinion, that it currently rivals NoR for my favorite of the SB games. A long way from original GoS being my least favorite!
Derping at Touhou since June 2012, derping at RPing Touhou since Feburary 2013.

Devil of Decline Partial English Gameplay Patch!
Let's Play Nightmare of Rebellion!

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #878 on: July 16, 2018, 04:42:10 PM »
Currently playing Odin Sphere Leifthrasir C: Guess I'm going to finish it tonight~ i really like this game, even if the gameplay isn't very original, the characters are very appealing (Velvet <3) and the story very catchy as well. Some soundtracks sound magical, too. I don't want it to end T-T

Reddyne

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #879 on: July 23, 2018, 01:07:58 PM »
So, i after numerous attempts at trying to defeat Star Devourer in EOV with our tabltetop party (we made it based on sugestions during one of our tabletop gaming sessions, consisting of Harbinger, Dragoon, Fencer, Botanist and Necromancer) i finally gave up. The party always sucked at damage department, and considering how SD fight is basically one huge dps check, it's become apparent that it is more or less impossible with any setup i tried with these classes.
This is exactly where I just stopped too. My  party experienced very few hiccups from one end of the game to the other, but just fell apart at the Star Devourer. Sure I could go bonkers by spending 10 hours rearranging things but I ain't got time for that. Still, this was my fave EO game and Harbinger wound up being my favorite class with Rover close behind. It was encouraging enough to inspire another shot at EO:U. And this time, I don't think I'll underestimate the power of a tank class. Still wanna make Arthur a hexer, though!
« Last Edit: July 27, 2018, 12:51:55 PM by Reddyne »

TA-DAAAAAAA! 61 blood donations and counting! 
Best Mile: 5:30
Best 5k: 18:07
Best Marathon: 3:23:16

CF7

  • Can you feel the LOVE tonight?
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #880 on: July 24, 2018, 07:06:40 AM »
More Strange Journey Redux.
Made it to sector G. Welcome to the Labyrinth of Illusions! aka FUN times ahead!
It's kinda hilarious, that i have Gate Search E and Unlock E, but haven't even found Unlock C & D and Gate Search D yet.
Sometimes rumors are just... rumors

Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #881 on: July 24, 2018, 03:03:18 PM »
Still playing Forza here and there, but instead of that particular usual rambling, I've been digging through the backlog a bit and recently finished up both Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition and Shadow Warrior (2013). For a relatively mindless hack-and-slash and for a throwback modern FPS, I'm genuinely impressed that both had some seriously interesting (or at least immersive) story moments. Force Unleashed is, like, so firmly okay for most of the game that it's a struggle to recommend, but I don't regret sinking the time into it now that I was able to do so with a graphics card that can actually render the sky (Intel chipsets cannot. For some reason). I'll admit I never did get to finish the proper in-game Sith ending myself since it was leaps and bounds above the rest of the game in difficulty (requiring me to actually have a plan of attack, unlike everything else). The Jedi ending battle was almost hilariously, comically easy.

Either way, you can boot up the DLC as a separate save, and it adds a very fun Jedi Temple level (bar one stupid non-puzzle that's just finicky) that I feel would've probably really improved the game were it included in the main title (though I enjoyed experiencing it as a finale after clearing all other stories), as well as two what-if levels that involve you, as a Sith Lord, derailing and destroying Star Wars canon. Not gonna lie, this is what got my attention... though it felt very Spec Ops: The Line, in terms of feeling awful for railroaded player actions and the only 'good' route being to stop, which became increasingly tempting throughout Tattooine. Hoth, though, got so ludicrously overkill that it wrapped back around to fun and funny even while existentially mortifying.

Shadow Warrior is... well, I got it for free in a giveaway a while back and skimmed over it. Gory remake of a raunchy FPS, sounds like a whole lot of words I don't like. However, where 1997's Shadow Warrior has a whole host of culturally insensitive humor (remember, this is three years before Deus Ex and its Rucky Money, and in this case it's absolutely deliberate) and constant raunchiness in a last-minute attempt to convert the game to match Duke Nukem's success, 2013 hews a bit closer to the original intent of a relatively serious story and setting that mashes a whole bunch of cultures and pantheons together. Playing on controller, I struggled with the controls a decent amount of the time, died from fall damage at least double the amount of times I died from anything else, and found some enemy types to just be a nuisance when I never put together what best exploited their weaknesses. The final boss is weaksauce and a whole lot of stuff isn't the most satisfying. That aside, those things stand out because most of the game is a magnificent battle of bullets and blades, that somehow manages to rein in the jokey tone without at all losing it. Like... I was reminded of Saints Row, where madcap chaos and genuine character development somehow co-exist beautifully. Lo Wang still makes constant Wang jokes, but they're now actually paced in a way that they're pleasantly surprising when they arise. Slashing through demons is viscerally satisfying. Slashing through demons in a spinning slash that heals you, moreso. Blasting an enemy shield away with a shotgun feels awesome, dueling a lead antagonist is great fun (I didn't realize those boss battles were added to the game and weren't even there at first), and boss battles are... well, I guess this is corny to say, but this is a game that isn't afraid to be video gamey. Locked doors you have to find keys to, big arenas for bosses, cool setpieces for the sake of them. It's all paced to never really allow any tedium, going full throttle pretty much the entire time and never really just asking you to backtrack or endure with nothing to immediately do. It's classic design sensibility with modern tastes, and as somebody who usually sucks at this kind of game, I still had an eff-ton of fun. Kinda sad it's over, especially as the sequel took a hard turn into online co-op... but hey, there's always New Game Plus!

On the obligatory racing game note, I've now hit Level 255 in GRID Autosport and I'm still having fun with it. Definitely one of the titles I've gotten the most long-term enjoyment out of, and I'd still highly recommend it.

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #882 on: July 24, 2018, 04:08:21 PM »
Ooh, glad to hear someone else tried Shadow Warrior 2013. One of the few modern games that I care about and still play through once in a while.

That said, New Game Plus is nothing special. Just another playthrough but with all your stuff carried over from the last time. You can play on a higher difficulty, but I find it more interesting to start from scratch every time. It might be useful to unlock those "get all upgrades" achievements or play around with big guns for longer, I guess, but that's about it. Might be just me though.

Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #883 on: July 24, 2018, 09:21:34 PM »
I too came at Shadow Warrior 2013 late (probably played it in '15 or '16), and was pleasantly surprised.  It doesn't go all the way back to 90s FPS design-styles where each level is a maze, pre-populated with enemies that can and will start moving around on their own, but it does manage to be very fast, very enjoyable "battle of bullets and blades" as you put it.  I rarely take a liking to modern shooters, but I did to SW 2013 which makes it very noteworthy in my book.  I think I even liked the campy humor too. 

I recall enjoying it so much at the time that I replayed Shadow Warrior several times to master all the difficulties.  My advice for anyone who does this is not to take the final, max difficulty too seriously (the one that removes all checkpoints, so if you die you have to replay the entire chapter).  In the final regular level of the game, the very last room is a huge arena battle against waves of regular enemies and mini-bosses teleporting in.  Great fun, but not a great showcase for the game's mechanical balance.  With so much happening at once and those cheap warping katana enemies biting off your health with no warning, you can't beat it consistently.  Or at least I couldn't, even with lots of practicing on the difficulty one step lower.  Any "normal" playthrough gets past that room because there's a checkpoint right before it to smooth out your luck, but when you suddenly are forced to replay, like, a 1+ hour long level for each attempt at that final room... well like I said don't take the maximum difficulty too seriously if you hit a wall.
« Last Edit: July 24, 2018, 09:26:46 PM by dosboot »

nav'

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #884 on: July 28, 2018, 10:06:44 PM »
Morrowind content + Oblivion engine = Morroblivion. You might say that playing arguably the best Elder Scrolls game on this particular engine is folly, and you would be right, but I consider this to be a rather unique way of reliving old memories. Oblivion's improvements like the superior combat and (to some extent) the fast travel system collide with instability, plentiful bugs and dubious design decisions. Bandits in dungeons sometimes fight each other before eventually turning on me. The faction system is implemented in such a way that makes Camonna Tong thugs attack me on sight, which can be problematic in places like the Council Club in Balmora. Early Ancestral Ghosts inexplicably have 170 HP - just barely less than a Golden Saint! - which makes low level excursions into ancestral tombs not worth the time and effort. On the other hand, the Staff of Magnus now has Absorb Health 25 points for 20 seconds, which means you're invincible as long as the spell isn't reflected back at you. Paralysis spells are very cheap to cast and last much longer than their base duration, as many creatures take a long time to get back up on their feet. Then there are the mostly harmless, hilarious bugs like prisoners in Fort Hawkmoth escaping their cells through walls and chatting with fort guards. Speaking of which, if two guards talk to each other, their dialogue consists entirely of "What say you?" uttered several times by both parties until one of them resumes their patrol and leaves.

The list of bugs and problems goes on, including frequent crashes to desktop, but while many would find this state of affairs to be unacceptable, I'm actually somewhat glad that an endeavor as massive as porting Morrowind to Oblivion exists at all and (mostly) works. Despite the many problems it's still fun and perfectly playable, and so I can see myself spending 50+ more hours on Vvardenfell. And hopefully, when I revisit the game again in a few years, the Tamriel Rebuilt recreation of mainland Morrowind will have been completed...
Рабинович глядит на плакат ?Ленин умер, но дело его живет!?
? уж лучше бы о он жил!

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #885 on: September 14, 2018, 06:03:33 PM »
Been having too much fun in Oblivion myself lately. Took me a few restarts before I understood how to play the game and not get steamrolled by the world's rubber-band leveling, but having quite a blast now.

Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #886 on: September 15, 2018, 09:57:23 PM »
Still holding off on a Shadow Warrior replay/NG+ for a while, but I think I'll dive right back in when my rig is upgraded. I definitely think I'll hold off on going full-bore with the difficulty because hoo boy, yeah, that final room soundly whupped me before. I've found that when getting a bit stressed out and wanting something to just unwind with, the pack-in bonus Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior has been surprisingly soothing. It's nice to just... not have to think too much. It's a tad gruesome, but amusing moreso. There's no real high-stakes chaos (unless you purposefully add a timer) and it's just you and the mess you left in the opening level of Shadow Warrior 2013 proper. It's kinda nifty, having the repercussions and aftermath of something else you took part in. It might just be a matter of mopping and picking things up and tossing them in the incinerator and mopping more and then bloodying the mop too much and smearing the blood everywhere and hastily washing it off in a small stream and running back, but... it's just nice. Which "clean up the scene of a bloody gunfight" doesn't usually sound like.

Tried Forza Horizon 4's demo! It... didn't click for me. Like, it looks fantastic, but "you're a rookie and you're establishing your racing life at the Festival!" is not something I actually personally want right now. Not after I was just the boss of the Festival in the previous installment and was orchestrating cross-country rally races through the rainforest before connecting an entire archipelago with frickin' gigantic Hot Wheels track and launching supercars off into the ocean. The bar is too absurdly massively high and I already got *exactly* what I wanted more than I could ever want again. So... probably count me in when they announce some crazy expansion, but I can hold off for now. (The Bond cars look amazing, and I have a soft spot for the DB5 and the submarine Esprit, but I want crazy high-octane chases to use 'em in! I thought it'd be something more like FH2:F&F.)

So, trying to break free from Forza for a bit, I went back to Need for Speed: ProStreet, a game I got and then just... didn't play much at all, since I wasn't impressed by the kinda weird event format (you don't choose individual races; you go to Race Days that include several of them grouped, and progression is made by a different score that's calculated from your finishing position, time, and damage taken) and the random drops (yep, those weren't introduced in Payback, the best parts being absolute luck to obtain has been a problem since even the beloved 2005 Most Wanted). But, figuring that the alternative was that the disc just sat there, I figured I'd just play whatever seemed interesting, and it's growing on me. It absolutely feels like they just weren't quite done within the timeline, and it suffers from not being what people really wanted then. I skipped it when it came out because, to me, the NFS series was about street racing, and "take it off the streets to the track!" was "Oh. No thanks."

The music is pretty excellently done. What brought me back was actually hearing some of Junkie XL's original songs for it and going "oh, man, out of the whole series, that only got used in ProStreet?" (Mercifully, some got patched in to NFS2015, but that ended up equally infamous as "the one with no pause button".) Every style of gameplay is pretty heavily separated, and they're all an existing kind of gameplay from the series repurposed. Grip races are sorta like the URL races from NFSU2 but with nitrous, Speed races (the best part) are very old-school NFS1 style point-to-point events at ludicrous miles per hour, and Drift and Drag are about how they were in the Underground era. The thing is, all of these but Drift get gimmicky variants to break things up without actually adding more tracks (Speed has not just races but Top Speed Runs where your speed through various checkpoints is totaled up, Grip has Sector Shootout where you have to post the best time on each portion of the course, and Drag has Wheelie Contests that are functionally just drag races with the focus being style over speed). So a massive bulk of the game is hardly racing so much as some weird ruleset that shows up here and never gets used again.

Most of all, I feel like this game suffered from being something the fans didn't want and forcing an extreme sudden U-turn; if it had more improvement and support and if there was continuity from here, more of it would matter. The protagonist, Ryan Cooper, is repeatedly referred to by name specifically as Ryan Cooper and you are listed on leaderboards as Ryan Cooper and announced by the DJs as Ryan Cooper. Despite all this, Ryan Cooper doesn't even get a face or any lines; he just wears a helmet and gestures occasionally. The rest of the cast is similarly decorative. The DJs repeat their lines constantly. None of the cast from this game ever returned (except in the PSP version of Need for Speed: Shift, surprisingly), until out of nowhere, ten years after, NFS: Payback decided to bring back the Noise Bomb crew in a far larger role than they actually had in ProStreet (and actually have Ryan Cooper's ability to magically win absolutely everything ever and become Street King actually finally referenced by anyone!).

The other major failing is the arcade street-racing physics being directly plunked onto circuit racing, which... doesn't entirely work. NFS: Shift had more success with purpose-built physics for it, in my opinion, and Shift 2: Unleashed brought the concept of "Need for Speed with professional racing" to its apex. (The Tokyo course in those games is actually a direct recreation of the Tokyo Dockyard course from ProStreet, but the rest is original.)

All in all, it's mostly been a very intriguing time capsule, seeing the cars of 2007 (mostly; there are some concept cars included that bring the model years up to 2010!), a unique musical and visual style, and most importantly to me, some fantastic courses and locales across the world. There's definitely some value now, to going back and tearing around the highways of Tokyo (with the tallest thing in the landscape being Tokyo Tower, no Skytree yet!), the oval at Texas World Speedway (sadly, despite its history, a long-defunct course now that's just a massive asphalt grave for flooded cars), the Porsche test track at Leipzig (gotta force in that reminder that EA had the exclusive license to Porsche in there somewhere!), and various wonderfully chosen locales that very scarcely showed up again. A personal favorite is the Autobahnring; instead of the usual Nurburgring for Germany, they just close off the Autobahn and leave it similarly twisty and perilous, with ridiculous Talladega-esque banking that you're probably going to fall off of if you can't make 225mph.

It had a lot of great ideas that they just didn't quite flesh out yet. It's a shame that it's more a curiosity than anything in hindsight (it's honestly consistently pretty frustrating to play!), but it's an intriguing one, as they took a very big gamble and a lot of these decisions ended up lasting to later in one form or another. There's a lot of return to form - having set courses, the antagonist being just some guy who thinks you can't drive better than him rather than having a nefarious plan, a worldwide setting instead of just fictional Americana, a focus on just improving a small stable of cars rather than collecting them all - and a whole lot of newer stuff, like keeping the focus firmly in affordable cars, occasionally remixing the same few songs to fit different situations (which would become much more prominently the style of Shift 2: Unleashed), and naming the protagonist (which has yet to go over well even once).

Essentially, this would be the start of the end for the development team at EA Black Box, as they hastily turned back to street racing with the mediocre NFS: Undercover, and then made an attempt at a saving throw with the cinematic NFS: The Run. It wasn't bad, but, again, it wasn't what people wanted and it didn't really feel finished, so they rolled a 1 on that and went under, taking their Skate series with them (the greater loss between the two series, IMO, even if NFS has been completely rudderless in terms of figuring out what it wants to be since... but, granted, it was kinda like that before.)

If nothing else, I can be amused by now having two games that name Sears Point / Sonoma Raceway as Infineon Raceway, when it had that title for about a decade and nobody really called it that.

nav'

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #887 on: September 20, 2018, 04:58:02 PM »
Finally started up Europa Universalis IV for real (or not, we'll see; so far all my experience comes from Let's Plays, the wiki and some minor dabbling). It's generally recommended to start out with a strong nation to allow for some margin of error, so of course I picked a Native American OPM instead - Mikmaq. This playthrough is meant to be a learning experience and as such isn't Ironman; I have already reloaded a few times after some game mechanic caught me completely off guard.

It's immediately apparent that the lack of claim fabrication makes expansion extremely difficult for Native tribes, limiting your options to no-CB wars and slow colonization. Federations are another significant factor. Together with advancement and institution penalties, and the necessity to invest tons of monarch points into government reform, all this makes for some harsh conditions. I have currently reached a rather peculiar phase where almost everyone on the continent is completely out of manpower, but the intricate web of alliances, federations and truces means there's a lot of free land everywhere and no real way to grab it. Well, at least I have learned how to milk other tribes for money using the Humiliate casus belli. Time to build some native buildings. Do I go for buildings affecting tax modifiers, or rather goods produced in my tobacco provinces?

Or perhaps I should simply play as Poland instead.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2018, 05:39:40 PM by nav' »
Рабинович глядит на плакат ?Ленин умер, но дело его живет!?
? уж лучше бы о он жил!

Pywackett-Barchetta

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #888 on: October 03, 2018, 08:25:13 PM »
Started messing about in some of the F1 games from Codemasters again. I adore F1 2013 for its 80's and 90's content alongside the then-modern stuff, and allowing you to mix-and-match the carsets with different tracks from different eras, but didn't really do much in the other titles up to 2015 besides the challenge missions (since they don't repeat annually). I checked out F1 2014 some more, figuring that I'll likely be upgrading the video card a bit soon (actually, there's no video card in this set up, just some really good integrated graphics) and F1 2015, being their first jump to XB1/PS4 type biz, also includes the 2014 line-up. I figured I'd give the Season Challenge mode a go, as it wasn't entirely clear to me before what it was.

Turns out, it's a mode where you go through an abbreviated version of that year's F1 season, starting on a low-end/backmarker team. Out of your competitors, you choose a Rival to take on for a best-out-of-three competition; if you win against them, you get their ride. Thus, to win the championship, you've got to work your way up the ranks, choosing stronger opponents to take on and defeat to get their equipment.

It's Super Monaco GP. And it's fantastic. Combining the arcade-style easy-to-follow jump-in-and-play game mode with the realistic tracks and rosters and gameplay actually works phenomenally. I'm already replaying it on Hard and look forward to messing with the mode again in the other titles before 2014 (apparently, it got axed in F1 2015 onwards).

Naudiz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #889 on: October 10, 2018, 02:47:00 AM »
I don't play too many games, but a game/series that I've followed for a while now is The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth). It's one of the only games for which I've put forth the time and effort to get a 100% clear on the latest DLC. Something about the gameplay just keeps reeling me back in, and I'm craving the Repentance expansion.

Anyone else here a fan of TBoI?
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commandercool

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #890 on: October 11, 2018, 01:55:32 AM »
I don't play too many games, but a game/series that I've followed for a while now is The Binding of Isaac (Rebirth). It's one of the only games for which I've put forth the time and effort to get a 100% clear on the latest DLC. Something about the gameplay just keeps reeling me back in, and I'm craving the Repentance expansion.

Anyone else here a fan of TBoI?

I couldn't get into the aesthetics of it, but I've been playing Enter The Gungeon absolutely nonstop lately and it's similar. It's pretty much ruined my ability to play any other game, I can't put it down.  :D

Not that you need another game when you keep getting reeled back in, but if you want a similar experience with less edge and more ridiculous guns definitely check out Enter The Gungeon.
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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #891 on: October 11, 2018, 10:05:33 PM »
Playing good old Doom all of a sudden. It's unbelievable how well this game still holds up (after 25 years!) and how it commands me to play it time and again. I picked up where I left off last winter, which was year 1996 of Doomworld's top 100 WADs. Currently plodding through Memento Mori, a very good megawad for the time. Most maps are fun, though some have too little armor for my taste (that is, none at all), which does not mix well with hitscanners. Can't stop dying.
Рабинович глядит на плакат ?Ленин умер, но дело его живет!?
? уж лучше бы о он жил!

Naudiz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #892 on: October 12, 2018, 01:21:25 AM »
I couldn't get into the aesthetics of it, but I've been playing Enter The Gungeon absolutely nonstop lately and it's similar. It's pretty much ruined my ability to play any other game, I can't put it down.  :D

Not that you need another game when you keep getting reeled back in, but if you want a similar experience with less edge and more ridiculous guns definitely check out Enter The Gungeon.

Ah yes, Gungeon. I picked it up before a couple years ago and couldn't quite get into it at the time. It's still in my library, though; I should give it another go when I have a stretch of free time.
I've heard a lot of good things about it, though. Roguelikes/roguelites are typically well-done games, in my experience.
Co-developer of Servants of Harvest Wish, Sapphire Panlogism, Comatose Chaos, Treasure Castle Labyrinth, and more.
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CyberAngel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #893 on: October 12, 2018, 06:41:46 AM »
Playing good old Doom all of a sudden. It's unbelievable how well this game still holds up (after 25 years!) and how it commands me to play it time and again. I picked up where I left off last winter, which was year 1996 of Doomworld's top 100 WADs. Currently plodding through Memento Mori, a very good megawad for the time. Most maps are fun, though some have too little armor for my taste (that is, none at all), which does not mix well with hitscanners. Can't stop dying.

Classical megawads like MM1/2 and Requiem do seem to be quite a mixed bag. They have some really great level ideas (especially for the time and vanilla engine) and some incredibly lame ones. And personally, it's questionable whether it's worth suffering through the latter to see the former. That said, MM were positioned as wads designed mostly for co-op, and it shows in quite a few places. Still possible to play them alone but the difficulty can get pretty unreasonable sometimes. Guess they forgot to balance it for singleplayer, and multiplayer balancing was hit-and-miss those days (seriously, even the original is guilty of that, like extra CYBERDEMONS of all things).

EDIT: Oh yeah, I've played the classic PS1 Resident Evil games these days and... didn't quite like them. Extremely limited inventory space and, as a result, frequent backtracking just killed any interest that I've had.
« Last Edit: October 12, 2018, 06:58:40 AM by CyberAngel »

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #894 on: October 12, 2018, 08:11:31 AM »
That said, MM were positioned as wads designed mostly for co-op, and it shows in quite a few places. Still possible to play them alone but the difficulty can get pretty unreasonable sometimes.
Oh, so that's the reason why balance seems somewhat iffy at times. There's usually more than enough ammo, but issues like a complete lack of armor or giving out ammunition for weapons that can't be found on the map stand out a bit. I initially guessed the maps were meant to be played subsequently, but that'd be strange for a compilation WAD.

That said, it's fun enough and I can get through the particularly deadly maps using a couple saves (heresy, I know). It's sort of my goal to (re)discover most of the classic megawads. Still easier than stuff like Ancient Aliens or Sunlust. If things become too hairy, I can always resort to watching UV-max runs. These days every notable WAD has a ton of LMPs and multiple Youtube videos available. Memento Mori itself has over 100 hours worth of demos on DoomedSDA!
Рабинович глядит на плакат ?Ленин умер, но дело его живет!?
? уж лучше бы о он жил!

commandercool

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #895 on: October 13, 2018, 04:32:23 AM »
Ah yes, Gungeon. I picked it up before a couple years ago and couldn't quite get into it at the time. It's still in my library, though; I should give it another go when I have a stretch of free time.
I've heard a lot of good things about it, though. Roguelikes/roguelites are typically well-done games, in my experience.

It got a recent update that took it from good to great in my opinion. It increases the appearance rate of keys by a lot which makes runs a lot less random, and in return it adds some pretty deadly new minibosses and several new (and common) kinds of mimic to fuck with you. It's ultimately an easier game, but in a good way that feels more skill-based. If you haven't played since the update then checking it out again is definitely worth it.
I made a PADHerder. It's probably out of date though.

Ionasal kkll Solciel

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #896 on: October 13, 2018, 08:32:43 AM »
I recently completed Valkyria Chronicles 4, and seriously, fuck these special tanks.

The main Rival tank doesn't give you the luxury of getting behind him and whaling on his radiator with Lancers, because his radiator's on his goddamn front hood, melting his turret; and the primary angled AT weapons (anti-armor Grenadiers and the one AT Ace sniper rifle) are both pretty poor at actually harming the bastard. Oddly, it seems like it originally had the radiator somewhere else; the squad only bitches about the radiator's location after we've already encountered it a few times.

The mega-tank of the game
Spoiler:
is literally amphibious Batomys. Shred its defense turrets, and it's just waiting four turns to take the radiators out, one per turn because they don't want you to bring in a Lancer for each individual radiator and nuke it in a single go
. At least it requires Lancers and not literally any infantry unit with grenades.

It's strange to realize and confirm that Valkyria (in actual Valkyria mode, and not slugging around a full machine gun) are technically classified as Reinforced Infantry. Triple Shocktroopers don't do much to one's health bar, but a single Shocktrooper Elite with a Flamethrower (which ignore cover defensive bonuses) can shred that bar real damn quick.


Also, it's kind of hilarious how the Paragon levels influence damage. With high-grade armor, basically only Snipers, flamethrowers, grenades, turrets (mounted and tank), and direct hits with Lancers deal tremendous damage per body shot; headshots on your end are now even more vital than before (and with Scouts, often not enough even then), while enemies and your interception fire often still allow the runners to make it to their location, though if there's a lot of Shocktroopers, likely not.
« Last Edit: October 13, 2018, 08:39:24 AM by Ionasal kkll Solciel »
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Naudiz

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #897 on: October 14, 2018, 01:35:29 AM »
It got a recent update that took it from good to great in my opinion. It increases the appearance rate of keys by a lot which makes runs a lot less random, and in return it adds some pretty deadly new minibosses and several new (and common) kinds of mimic to fuck with you. It's ultimately an easier game, but in a good way that feels more skill-based. If you haven't played since the update then checking it out again is definitely worth it.

Ohohoh. That sounds pretty promising. I'll be sure to check it out soon, then.  :V
Now... to set aside all of my obligations in the way!
Co-developer of Servants of Harvest Wish, Sapphire Panlogism, Comatose Chaos, Treasure Castle Labyrinth, and more.
I'm the dog that makes your game and calls you a bitch.

CyberAngel

  • Retired
Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #898 on: October 16, 2018, 08:46:27 AM »
So, one thing led to another, and I tried out Skyrim. It's... actually pretty great! I'd even say it's a model Elder Scrolls game, really, with the usual upsides and downsides. And mind you, this is coming from someone who used to hate on it. Well, I also hated on Oblivion until I played it, and I can say that such hate usually comes from salty kids with old trash for computers just because they can't run it  :D

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Re: Games You're Playing Right Now Thread VI - Even in this thread, F O E
« Reply #899 on: November 12, 2018, 02:15:24 AM »
I've also been revisiting Doom since I got into WADs recently, and I'm most of the way through Hell Revealed with the conditions of UV, pistol start every stage and no mid-level saves (and no prior level knowledge obviously). I am slowly going mad but have eventually made it to map 26, which for my money is maybe the most difficult so far. Other contenders have been map 13, map 14, map 32 and maybe 23. While I am enjoying my time with this, I am definitely never going to play it again after I'm done with it. :V

EDIT: Oh, and I went through Atelier Ayesha Plus. Two runs, got all the endings. Good stuff, as expected. Escha and Logy Plus soon!
Let's fight.