whatchu playing now

xp On the one hand absolutely positively the best non-Nintendo console ever. On the other hand, scientists so preoccupied with whether or not they could recreate the FFVIII ballroom scene in real time, they didn't stop to think if they should...

only one mention of days gone itt, wasn't even nominated for C&P 2019, i feel like i didn't know anything about this game on its release even though it was apparently heavily advertised.

i've been consistently surprised? delighted? by the dialogue and narrative decisions at points in this game. the setting itself is nothing super special but the voice direction and acting is spot on (when it wants to be), and there's a couple of genuinely neat story twists (including one that's subtly "built in" to the ux), i am really enjoying this game!

also, forza horizon 5 is a maximalist absurd joy.

and back 4 blood is satisfying/exactly what it needs to be

jackbox 8 is good but doesn't (yet?) hit the highs for me of previous packs.

i started fucking with Green Hell and i liked it but gotta dive back in at some point. interesting survivor game.

(looking at my lists to see what i haven't talked about yet. i've been playing a lot lately!)

humankind feels like a solid civ vi competitor, but after finishing one campaign i haven't had the urge to go back. i should when im done with all that other stuff above.

i started the somnium files bc those spike chunsoft games are a guilty pleasure, but i didn't have the stomach for it. might go back might not.

i got stuck 5 minutes into cruelty squad, i hate getting stuck 5 minutes into anything so i didn't go back >:(

oh and loop hero is decent!

i wanna play forza horizon 5 badly but also want to wait and play it on a Next-Gen console even though 4 looked and ran great on my pc. car games feel like they demand new hardware as part of the experience

in my circle days gone mostly got dunked on for being the n+1th gritty open world checklist game of the generation as well as the n+1th zombie survival game. and also for having a main character named Deacon St. John

i can tell ya that FH5 runs pretty much the same as FH4 on my pc, and both ran far better than a lot of non-car stuff does! (my pc is... 1 year old? but only ("only") a 1660 TI in there so it's not like i'm tracing rays or flopping a lot of gigs here)

and re: days gone, i have a lot of patience for variations on a tired theme, and i gotta say a lot of moments in this one really feel like they just do a way better job than i expected. it's an extremely assured and surprisingly subtle character story handled with a maturity and grace i wouldn't expect from a game with... yeah, a guy named deacon st. john

played a bit of FH5 earlier, not into driving games at all but even I can tell how well made it is. also first time I've noticed how effortless everything is made to feel with the new fast hard drives, no loading screens or wasted time, just 4K dopamine hit after hit poured into the eyes.

i didn't think i was into car games until i first tried forza horizon, the open world checklist/collect-a-thon formula really really works for that type of game, much more than action/adventure/rpg type games imo

pretty obvious in retrospect though that the genre thats about traversal rather than discrete points of interest would make the best open world games

I wish Horizon had more collision objects. Everything is so easy to drive through. I'm practically swimming through an offroad area while my Lambo does one drift after another through the cabbage patch or whatever to keep my multiplier ... it's just so inane. Meanwhile, the announcer is patting you on the back and calling you a genius. Then it's back to the big wheel to get another free car!!

Back 4 Blood has been my regular looter shooter lately. It's surprisingly playable in short bursts which helps a lot. I like the card system.

Thought you were talking about horizon zero dawn for a second

thats whats good about it though, its an arcade racer, not a sim

I think it's pretty extreme even among arcade racers but ymmv!

i am playing metroid dread now and loving it.

and i recently admitted to myself that i will, i will buy the steam deck thing when it comes out. it is the perfect solution for my situation, at least.

Doing my annual dive into Project Ozone, which is an absolutely balmy Minecraft modpack that for some reason I get the itch to scratch when Christmas starts to approach.

Was playing Wolfenstein New Order, but it's been a few weeks, because I think I forgot I was even playing it. Last thing I remember I was fighting Nazis on the moon, which is about as smart as the game gets.

I'm higher on Forza H5 now that I've actually played it lol

i've never played any racing games beyond mario kart. is there one that's good for me if i don't really care about realism or being good at racing but just want to drive cool cars around in interesting/beautiful environments?

the game you are looking for is forza horizon 5 imo! (if it feels too simm-y, which i don't think it will, you can set controls to "arcade", but "standard" is imo still more fun for a not-frequent car driving game person)

agreed

thanks but i should have clarified: something i can play on PS4 or (i'm guessing not) switch

Burnout Paradise Remastered is a good PS4/Switch bet. For Switch, I've head good things about Cruis'n Blast.

yeah unfortunately this is the one and only space where microsoft has the best-in-genre game as an exclusive. i don't even know if anyone else is making open world racing games.

oh hah i didnt know burnout paradise had a port, that works i guess

i was gonna mention burnout as well. that's way more on the arcade side, but it's extremely fun.

Well tonight I *was* supposed to be playing San Andreas Definitive edition. boy Rockstar really screwed this launcher up didn't they.

the hordes were so good in DG

Speaking of "Wolfenstein," I kind of wanted to get it over with so that I could move on to something else (maybe Dark Souls 2?), but this might be the first game I've bumped into where the difficulty level is so unbalanced. That is, I played most of it on regular difficulty, but then there's this difficulty spike toward the endgame that's forced me to toggle between modes. Kind of annoying.

My first PS5 title: NBA 2K22. Honestly doesn't look THAT much better than previous generations, but it's fine. I got it as a peace offering to my brother who's a die-hard NBA fan.

That said - it's been a while since I played a 2K title but I forgot how many moves there are for shooting, dribbling, etc. Feels like I'm playing Tekken with the sheer number of inputs, like you really can't just hit the shoot button - you'll accidentally pull some bad moves with the stick directions.

They really are like fighting games. There are way too many moves to learn.

imo don't pull back on the right stick for shooting, use 'classic shooting mode' or whatever where you use the button

Farming Sim 22 !! obv

All honesty, it's probably the first release they've done in a while that doesn't require a shit load of patches to fix. Works great at the moment, I have seen a couple of floating deer, some nice improvements including manual gear changes now. Graphically barely any difference between 19 though. Bale handling is vastly improved which is a great thing.

I was having my doubts but now I'm 8 hours in SMTV has finally grabbed me by the neck, welp there go the next three weeks then

the hordes were so good in DG

― Qamon (||||||||), Saturday, November 13, 2021 3:35 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

i ended up beating everything except for the hordes -- they're fun as hell but i'm not really interested in doing all of the components hunting between hordes to get all my molotovs/explosives topped up again. it's a shame the end game doesn't just let you buy that stuff (or does it?)

the third act loses a lot of steam for me, i was reaaaallllyyyy high on it during what i guess i'd call act 2 -- but it closes out satisfyingly enough, really enjoyed it!

also i rolled right from days gone into SMT V, which i have put an embarrassing amount of time into since it came out, uh, 2 weeks ago? liking the little QOL increases vs 3 and 4, the former of which i never beat because i started getting cheesed off with a particular dungeon where you have to fight four bosses with different weaknesses but they all look kind of the same and i kept accidentally bringing the wrong demons to each fight.

It's already terrible that NBA 2K22 forces you to be in their always online semi-MMO world, but really straight up depressing that you have to play online matches to finish some of the quests for your single player game. Unsurprisingly toxic community.

finally started 13 Sentinels and wow this may be the most designed-exactly-for-me game of all time

i remain curious about that game

my kids have gotten back into subnautica after spending approx 11 months straight playing only 2k and i'm very happy about it

oh thank god, that must be a relief. just the SOUNDS of sports videogame franchises, all the sponsored music they play inbetween games, the loading screens, all that - it's living hell. the first thing i do whenever buying a sports game is going into the audio setting and turn off all the music everywhere possible

i think 90% of "2010s rock" i've heard has been via a sports game

otm

i haven't played subnautica in a while - does it have music? if it does, i think i turned it off there as well so i could just enjoy the muted sounds of being deep below the surface and then rising up into the air and hearing all the other frequencies wash in

i can't remember but it's v soothing in any case

except when you get chomped by something and are struggling to breathe and die

i think there's an option when you start a new game to put it into "chill" mode and take all the survival parts out

subnautica and chill

I want to say that Subnautica doesn't have music.

Also the stars have finally aligned at the Mailman talking about the NBA here.