whatchu playing now

I thought of something else I played recently: WSOP Full House Pro poker on xbla.

I am in a bad place. ;-)

GTA5 in the evenings, still searching for those hidden items
Or Lego City Undercover on occasions.

Any other time I struggle to find time or energy to play anything else right now, I'm trying to design and develop my own games and I find that a struggle in itself.

Games that I *should* be playing anyway...

Pinball FX, really really should fire this up more often
Rayman, not even installed this yet
Red Dead Redemption (still not bothered to attempt the final mission)
Fallout3, embarrassingly never finished this either
Fuel, after having to purchase new PS3 I'll have to start all over again.
Just Cause 2, dropped off the radar a bit, dip into every now and again to get that 100% status
Minecraft/FTB, my only reason for not playing this more often is its just too daunting. In terms of time wasting goes this is the mother of all. FTB packs have basically kicked this game into mind blowing status imo.

(With the exceptions of Pinball and Rayman you might notice a distinct pattern in the games I like)

picked up gta 5 again just to round off the epsilon missions. i was convinced there would be a big heist at the end of all of it, because ripping off the scientologists seemed to make sense and how else would i ever get the cash to buy the golf course etc. so the only one getting ripped off was me :( officially done with this game.

also just finished xcom enemy unknown which i loved to bits. besides it was just long enough to keep my interest through the whole thing.

not really sure what to go with next. ps+ gave me lots of options. i'll probably get going on tomb raider, as soon as i stop struggling to like pes2014.

dayZ and nothing but dayZ. the slow small little updates that come out every couple of weeks just make it that little bit more appealing every day. i try not to think that's there's no real goal or 'end' to it.

Dude, FRACT OSC is out. It's fun, but giving me a lot of flashbacks to Myst, due to heavy puzzles with occasional symbolic language hints. You're exploring this long abandoned machine world and you restoring operation to a giant synthesizer that you wander around in.

SMT4, the soundtrack for this game is so good, running around a post-apocalyptic Tokyo to synthy krautrock <3 http://youtu.be/SG_gB4kb2oA

Oh, FRACT sounds great, might have to grab that.

The only thing I'm playing at the moment is Letter Quest on my ipod. It's quite good but nothing mindblowing.

portal 2 (3rd time), ni no kuni, assassins creed 4, dork souls

FTL and could be on this for a while now that I feel like I finally understand how to play it

im obsessed

so many ships still to unlock and haven't even touched advanced mode...

I've been playing Kingdom Of Amalur, a game that apparently lost the taxpayers of Rhode Island $75m, recently. I kind of hate myself as it's another massive Skyrim-style time sink, but it's quite good fun.

what IS advanced mode

i havent even begun boarding as a tactic yet

sorry "advanced edition"

As a reminder, FTL: Advanced Edition is a free content expansion for FTL. All current (and future) customers will receive this update regardless of where they purchased it. Prior to release, we will post detailed instructions on how to get the update from whatever digital vendor you originally purchased FTL.

http://www.ftlgame.com/?page_id=106

New systems (clone bay??), new race, new ships, just lots more stuff, and it was released as a free sort of patch. It's a toggle option when you start a game, you can choose standard or advanced.

I've been playing Kingdom Of Amalur, a game that apparently lost the taxpayers of Rhode Island $75m
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Thursday, April 24, 2014 3:45 PM

ah yes the curt schilling rpg

oh yeah i'm playing dragon's dogma. i've given up on it twice before so i'm determined to finish it this time. the controls are lacking but it has some of the best gfx i've seen in an rpg. makes dark souls 2 look like shit by comparison anyway.

http://cdn.destructoid.com//ul/266639-curt-shilling.jpg

dragon's dogma was good fun, at its best early before everything becomes too easy, so i encourage you to not progress the story at all until you have been everywhere. one of the best and most unique things it has are the giant wandering monsters that really felt like epic fights, at least until my gang quickly got OP'd. helps if you resist the temptation of the broken pawns that are available early.

infinity wars + starbound

helps if you resist the temptation of the broken pawns that are available early.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, April 24, 2014 4:29 PM

what are the broken pawns. i've just been using the free low level ones and trading them in every so often. groups of bandits on the roads are still kicking my butt

i got one real early with an ordinary woman's name, Karen i am fairly sure, and her owner had limited her level but she had maxed-out, late game rare gear and was a total powerhouse

whatever the fighter class is. i got another midway thru with a more forgettable fantasyish name, also a female fighter.

Dammit, Fract really _is_ like myst. I can't find the symbolic to detangle the tune I'm supposed to play to solve the final puzzle in one of the areas.

Final Fantasy - NES
Assassin's Creed IV - PC
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX - PC
Castlevania: Rond of Blood - T16
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PSX
Metal Gear Solid - PSX
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance - PC
Metal Gear Solid 2 - PC

you livin' the life, Adam, respect

finished saints row 4
tried diablo 3 again - meh so spammy
maybe back to metro 2033

"Finished" Portal and Fez, loved both. Seems like there's still aftergame stuff for me to do, which is cool.

I'm a good way into the first God of War, and I can't be sure but I think I might kinda hate it. The brutal waves of super tough enemies are awesome, and some of the puzzles are pretty good, but creating Indiana Jones-esque deathtraps with a shitty camera and sketchy controls was the fucking worst idea ever. I've wasted so much of my playtime on failing to kill everything onscreen within a set time before falling to my death or being crushed or sliced up by shit that I can barely see in front of me that it's kinda become a chore for me to continue. I might just be hating the PS2-ness of it, though.

I've been surprisingly digging a lot of arcade-y stuff that I've gotten cheap from PSN recently. Super Stardust and Wipeout took me a little while to get used to but they're amazing once I'm in the zone. Just got Retro/Grade, which I haven't played much but which has an awesome conceit (basically a rhythm game disguised as a shooter that runs in reverse). The Space Invaders update also seems like good value.

This weekend, I hit 50% completion and the 100 hour mark near-simultaneously on Just Cause 2. Clearing a few areas in the game has become such a reliably perfect way to decompress at the end of the day.

kotor + bg2

getting myself psyched + ready for pillars of eternity i guess

xps I played GoW 1 for the first time... a year ago? Maybe two? Felt some of the same frustrations as you, but I'm still planning to truck on through to the others at some point. I can see how it all would've been far more impressive back in 2006, but some of those levels and dungeons are awfully designed.

What build you going for in KOTOR, Mordy?

i guess soldier guardian. tbh i'm kinda more interested in my bg2 half-elf cleric/ranger build (so OP apparently it's ppl's fave for soloing the game). (thought about playing a wild mage too.)

Streets of Rage 3
Bare Knuckle III

So BKIII is the Japanese version of SOR3 and it is WAY easier. This does not mean it is easy though, it only means it is possible to get through stage 1 without using a continue. American version of Streets of Rage 3 is one of the more difficult games I've ever played.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWsJPJ19DA

That level with the bulldozer is all-time unfair.

all that and he's beat by a girder

i love the energy meter for 'wall'.

i guess i only played Streets of Rage 1 & 2.

man why doesn't axel just jump over the damn walls

sor3 is weird. it seems like it admits to tactics then it doesn't really.

I think after you get past the stage where you are fighting kangaroos and evil dominatrix clowns they just figured they could get away w that.

Played 2-player Hyperstone Heist for the Genesis last night. Got to Super Shredder and then we died and we were out of continues! The music in that game is incredible. Orchestrated speed metal.

i'm still playing bg2.

eu4 always with the eu4. genovese colonial empire.

wish i could get into eu. each time i load it up there are like 300 tutorials

if it helps you still won't know what the fuck is going on if you sit thru the tutorials

Sadly not as into Mirror's Edge as I'd hoped (hinges way too much on barely-disguised quick time events, which fuck that). Surprisingly way more into the first Metal Gear Solid than I expected (tough but mostly fair, cutscenes and dialogue that are reasonably well-written and not totally perfunctory, generous with the game saving, and the controls and camera, while occasionally obnoxious, are better than those on a lot of the PS2 games I've played). I still haven't been able to get past the first boss yet, though, so we'll see how long my admiration lasts.

is there some kind of amazing online tutorial that will teach me how to play?

there is a lot of user and wiki content so possibly but i'm not aware of anything myself. i think you just need to start playing it with the expectation that you won't know what you're doing for a long time. start with france: raise a big army and start some beef. you can go a long way with them without having to worry about some of the more arcane stuff for a while and you will pick up a good foundation in manpower/supply, tech advancement, diplomacy, religion. you can dip your toe into trade and colonies if you want but you'll still be able to do plenty without. and you'll have the immediate objective of unifying france to get your teeth into, which definitely helps the transition into the sandbox. you'll always have something to do with them and that is certainly not always the case elsewhere.

have any of you played crusader kings 2 and can you take the same approach there? tried to get into it but get caught up on figuring out how levies work and what a demesne is and somehow the game had me entering into an affair with my own wife

I only know of it from Carbot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lwSXSOzRjk

I put about a good 20-25 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2 and have some things to say, haha.

Played a few hours of the 1st one a few months ago. Thought it had the bones of a really cool game, but it very much felt like a PS3 game, so seemed like a sequel that took its ideas to the next level sounded perfect. Set it aside knowing 2 was around the corner.

DD2 starts out kinda boring, then opens up and gets interesting, and then unfortunately gets boring again. It doesn’t feel like a significantly updated iteration of the first one. I’m totally down with fast travel being not something you can rely on, but I quickly found my journeys across the map to be repetitive. Same cycle of goblin camps every 30 yards, occasional big monster, some caves to explore that typically aren’t that interesting, treasure chests that are always “hidden” in the same types of areas. After Elden Ring, that kind of open world feels ancient.

Quests are dull and rote. The “emergent” gameplay scenarios that are played up aren’t exactly filled with variety. You kinda see the same sorta stuff happen pretty regularly. Not a lot of enemy variety either.

It gets very easy once you get your character’s class high enough. Game more than subtly suggests to try out new classes, but after spending a lot of loot on upgrading class specific gear I’m not too keen on starting fresh every few hours. And I think having to constantly change your class to keep the game interesting is kind of a cop out of game design.

So IDK, I put it down for now. A lot of the potentially-alienating-to-casuals features aren’t really the problem for me. I’m a From guy, so that’s what made me interested.

Played it on PS5. 30 fps, which is disappointing, but performance problems haven’t been much of a problem.

Two point and click games: strangeland and the excavation of hob's barrow. Strangeland is directly inspired by i have no mouth and i must scream, and does it well. Hob's barrow is a slow burn paranormal investigation sort of like gabriel knight. It's let down by an ending where the player character does a dumb thing that you can't control. These games both scratched an itch but i'd like to find some more innovative games in the genre.

we talked about 'hob's barrow' last year, enjoyed that and the similar (style wise anyway) 'the case of the golden idol'

will checkout strangeland

Hobs Barrow stars Karlach! I haven't played it yet but the comparison to Golden Idol has piqued my interest.

Hob's Barrow has cutscenes that look like rotoscoped footage into pixel art. I liked those. Its gameplay is very different from deduction games.

helldivers 2 is fantastically dumb fun, 'live service' done right. i recall bouncing off of destiny 2 after about 15 minutes. surprisingly nontoxic and friendly atmosphere among players for the most part also

finally got sick of hades, just in time for hades 2 early access (i think)

Venba is a real heartfelt treat. If I'm a little teary while playing, it's because of all the onoins I have to chop

Finished Venda in a few sittings. Lovely lovely lovely game

It's actually my favorite game from last year, and they also released the cook book as DLC recently.

I'm intrigued to check out Animal Well, published by Videogamedunkey's Bigmode. 89 on opencritic, written up in NYT... pretty good day-one scenario for a solo dev: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/09/arts/dunkey-animal-well-bigmode.html (sub required)

i bought it. reminds me of batbarian, but easier. 60MB install size lol.

i played the first 10 minutes of it at an expo, it looks/sounds nice but i didn't really get a sense of whether it was going to get elaborate and puzzley or just ride on aesthetics

early impressions sound like it's the former, or at least that there's additional layers of more obtuse puzzles beneath the main game. i'll give it a try this weekend

have heard interesting things about it. can you turn off the scanlines?
got burned out on Monster Hunter with 4 and hadn't played the series since, but had a pang to play again so picked up Rise the other week when it was cheap. still the same basic game but there's been lots of great QoL improvements making it much easier to play, riding around on my dog while whetstoning/eating/etc never gets old.

the only option in the options menu is "turn off scanlines"

I think I'm pretty far into Animal Well. Very interesting powerups, not things you would suspect from a Metroid-inspired game. There are moments that really feel like it's a Dunkey Type game, where something unexpected happens and I think to myself "I meant to do that".

There are some cryptic bits that I haven't figured out yet. Possible spoilers: I think there's something going on with the pillars in the swordfish room, possibly a song you can play on the flute? But I haven't found anything that works. The only song I have found is the warp song.

Between Horizons seems promising except that the early Steam reviews say that its UI is pretty annoying: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1921980/Between_Horizons/

animal well is really really good, closest any game has gotten to la mulana

starts out as a very solid exploration/puzzle platformer and then slowly gets more elaborate and cryptic, but executed much better than say, fez

woah wasn’t on my radar at all but looks really cool

i beat the normal game. i need to continue, obviously.

games with similar cryptic quests: environmental station alpha did a similar thing with an optional post-game quest. Both games tiny spoiler: it had parts of a code written on the walls too. And ESA has an area directly inspired by La Mulana. Axiom Verge 1 also has a small well-hidden quest. Tunic and Fez are other ones.

finally playing case of the golden idol and yeah this is the sort of thing i like

yeah it's great

'little kitty big city' is fun so far. sort of like 'untitled goose game'

oh i got to the point in animal well where it just fully becomes fez-style ultra-cryptic codes and i think that's enough for me.

it was pretty good up until that point, though finding the last few eggs was a bit too tedious. it was really really good for a bit but that didn't really last long enough and now i'm slightly underwhelmed.

i really love the la mulana type of cryptic puzzle but not the fez type, in short

i like both style of puzzle.
I still need to find 7 eggs. i solved one of the big puzzles without looking at hints, which i was proud of the one with the symbol pillars. i think I've found 4 rabbits, which seem to do nothingness. haven't looked at any big discussions of the game yet.

finished case of the golden idol, good stuff, glad they're making a second game, i will be there day 1

next up in my 'well-regarded indie games that snuck by me' queue is void stranger

i finished obra dinn earlier this month. started it years ago but got stuck. looked up some general game tips and that was enough. great game, 10/10.

I tried a little bit of Animal Well last night, the lack of hand-holding is not sitting well with me so far.

I've also been playing Hexcells, soothing ambient Minesweeper-like but without ever needing to guess. I'm not as gaga about it as this guy but it's nice.

hexcells does rule, i have dumped many many hours into it

Tametsi is, I think, better, though Hexcells Infinite is good because a) it's actually (practically) infinite, and b) it's the right length for "about ten minutes", whereas for Tametsi it might take you ten minutes of scribbling to lock down the first move (not often!)

I beat the second phase of animal well then looked up spoilers.

Around half of phase 3 is doable by a single player -- but the other ones aren't. One can't be done on steam deck because you need to shake the window of the game. another wants your computer to have a printer connected, but there's a very hidden alternative way to get the code. Phase 4, involving the poster, is completely impossible solo. I wish they had put in clues for harder parts of phase 3, then put all of the ridiculous stuff in its own restricted area.

I was right that Fez and Tunic were inspirations as there are codes to turn your character into the characters from those games. (These are just for fun and aren't a part of any other puzzle.)

All in all I loved the game.

High praise for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24156442/lorelei-and-the-laser-eyes-review-steam-pc-nintendo-switch

saw that one the ohter day, looks cool

Cryptmaster also looks cool whatever it is - word game based first-person dungeon crawler?

cryptmaster has a steam demo which i have now completed. seems like a good laugh

Animal Well question: I've gotten the flute and I'm gearing up to do the m disc shrine but I don't know how to fast travel. I've seen the code online and I've input it while holding down the whistle button but nothing happens. I've played the song right next to the fish and all.

You need to hold the direction you want and tap the button. Wasn't what I was expecting either.

Thanks! Would never have figured that out myself.

I just realized that Hexcells is a horror game.

Like.. existential?

I'm terrified of clicking the wrong cell, and I physically react every time I do!

i was enjoying case of the golden idol but it has a pretty serious save bug on switch, in that if you exit the game it doesn't save your progress. you click continue game and it drops you back into the first level. i googled and their workaround is a button combo that allows you to skip levels to get back to the level you were on, but that doesn't help if you were near the end of one of the more detailed levels (as i was) because you have to decide whether to redo all the work or just skip it. anyways, fun game and i'll just deal with it but it seems like a big problem that the developer should fix

I hit that bug on Idol too. It wiped my entire save. I never went back after that despite really enjoying it.