whatchu playing now

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.

i try to avoid talking about my professional life on here

13 sentinels was my 2020 goty. a switch port is getting released next year

yeah i saw that and figured i'd better play it before then because its one of the games i used to justify buying my ps4 lol

the others were persona 5 (played first 30 hours, never finished), judgment (played first half, never finished), death stranding (got a pc release, never played it anyway), and getting falcom games at release rather than waiting for a late and buggy pc port (didnt end up playing any of them before the pc versions came out and also they fixed their port issues). solid purchase overall imo

i'm "playing" increlution, an incremental spreadsheet-type game. there aren't many choices to make, you just do any job for a half hour and then there's a reset and the jobs you did become a little faster, letting you get a little farther into the story. it's silly and relaxing.

there's a demo on steam that lasts around 8 hours and the full version is $3.

Rounds, from Landfall games (Stickfighter). Similar game, loser of each round gets to pick an upgrade. Mad fun for 2 peeps.

Spoiling myself on late-game Inscryption via the Waypoint stream. Man, this game really goes places.

I started Ghost of Tsushima, seems pretty fun so far! However, when I'm trying to be stealthy, I'm having a lot of trouble actually seeing the enemies. I haven't fiddled with the display settings outside of increasing brightness, but it's entirely possible that my decrepit eyes are deteriorating even more.

Messed around a bit with the 2d ios version of rocket league. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it (i hate virtual buttons) but it's fun to see how they translated the game to 2d.

i'm playing Tsushima now too. pretty early on you get an ability called Focused Hearing (press the touchpad) that lights up enemies in red so you can see them better (and see them through walls etc)

trying Rounds soon, i love that kind of thing. Thanks Ste

9 bucks for Romancing Saga 3 on Switch atm

I still haven't finished Metroid Dread as I have a tendency to burn out on hard games and put them down for a while...the same thing happened with Celeste, iirc, though I did eventually come back and beat the main game. In the meantime, I am once again getting wrapped up in...Morrowind, of all things. This game is dated and busted and it's beautiful and I love it.

Ah thanks orifex! As it happens I think I've chosen the other mission, I'll change it up the next time I pick the game up.

Like ciderpress I have also started 13 sentinels and it took a while for the story to catch me but about 40% into the story chapters and I can finally say I'm hooked. I've also completed the first "area" of combat (not the tutorial missions, the ones after) on normal and... I hope the strategy of it gets better. It feels like I'm utterly dominating it, and not learning any actual tactics that might help w the difficulty bump? Hopefully when I start the next zone it'll open up, but at least I'm v much here for the story now (it rly took a while, I may have started w the worst first story tho - no spoilers but if you're planning to play, don't randomly pick Megumi to start) (also maybe it gets better but it hasn't yet)

Extremely considering another run of Last Of Us 2 but on hard this time

I seem to remember doing the first one on “Extreme” or “Survival” or whatever and you lost the ability to visually sense enemies through walls which was utterly terrifying

Subnautica: Below Zero is so addictive when you get used to the freezing to death or drowning dynamic and learn to start standing near heat emitting flowers and scanning everything in sight and going back to your little pod to rend more good stuff like flippers and bottles of water on the 3d printer. It's an almost perfect game and quite cheap as well.

Attempting to beat 3 boss cell mode in Dead Cells. been trying off and on for a year but I always flub it in the mid-late stages. Also never beaten Scarecrow.

Having tons of fun in Ghost of Tsushima, even though the writing is loads worse than Witcher -- the combat just owns.

Still playing NBA 2K22, 60-something games into my first NBA season. I'll be grinding it out for a lonnnnng time if I'm gonna get into the Hall of Fame. (...and if I want to buy a scooter)

are you doing mycareer?

yup

any tips? i don’t play it but my kids are obsessed

#1 - change game time to 12 minutes per quarter, you want that time to boost your stats

#2 - go to coach settings and allow on-court play-calling/play-action, I turn it on for everyone so you can see where ppl are actually supposed to go. after that things were WAY easier

#3 - Def spend some time to find a build you like when you create the character, because you can't really change your path without starting over. Thankfully, the game does let you test out the build before you confirm. You may want to look up best player builds online before you commit

You can eventually make most builds work - the one I went with is far from optimal - but in any case your dude will suuuuuuuuck for some time before you get into the rating in the 80s (unless your kids already unlocked Rebirth which lets you start new builds at 90). Don't feel bad about quitting out of games/plays early on to get a better result in college/G-League. Or even start over entirely if you haven't drafted yet!

That said it seems like the most effective builds in this year are "Paint Beast" style (Center/PF/big def/rebounds/dunks) and crazy handler/3-point snipers ala Steph Curry/Kyrie

All the shop items - clothes, vehicles, etc feel insanely expensive at the beginning before you get a salary - and some of it still is - but don't sweat it, just work on your guy. You'll eventually get more money through endorsements and quests and crap

i read a tip that was said to turn Coach auto-calling plays on but i haven't tried it yet, i should. but it seems like that already happens if you idle with the ball for too long

tetris 99 is very fun/addictive

splatoon 2
I’m good at it but still can’t make X rank

i started LoU2 again and it's just too bleak rn. can't do it.

that's when i realised i never played uncharted 4. one way or the other naughty dog's gonna get me

here we go

Sunless Skies. Again. Rescued corrupted save files. It’s a perfect game for a melancholy sort of mood. Also, it’s beautiful.

i keep looking at that one, and Sunless Seas or whatever it's called. is there a lot of gameplay or is it mostly visual novel reading?

It’s a mix. Sunless Skies is the better game ito things you can do, in both you can engage in fights in the sea/sky, but it’s heavily text based and best avoided if you don’t like that kind of thing. However, if you like story-based games, then it’s great. So much depth.

i played a bit of Fallen London at the time and i liked it but i've gotta be in the right mood i think. do love a good VN tho

echoes of the eye expansion pack for outer wilds is fantastic.
divinity 2: original sin, haven’t got deep into it yet and maybe it’s only really worth it if you’re doing multiplayer
and no doubt me and my brother will be playing some rocket league when he comes round this evening.

xp definitely a mood based game, have been playing FL/EB on and off for nearly a decade or so, real feast or famine stuff

i beat kyrandia 3 yesterday and was rewarded with the geekiest end credits ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLiR18dyQ

starts at 5:18

multiplayer/co-op heavily, heavily recommended for DIV2.

those credits are nice

Anyone else playing Wildermyth? It's the first game in which I've actually tried the multiplayer.

yes, i'm playing! i'm not too far, maybe 2-3 hours in. I don't have a good feel for the scope of the game yet - is it the kind where you play through it multiple times, getting a different story each time? if so, how long is each one of those runs? and I didn't even know there was multiplayers

i have to say, i am not a fan of the art style of the narrative parts

https://i.imgur.com/LJZdv2D.jpg

i understand why - probably a small team, low-budget, they want to be able to have lots of generated, randomized characters so they need a simplistic style where they can crank those out. but this style, in particular, really reminds me of a lot of horrible animated youtube explainer videos where some guy (always a guy) teaches you all about fiat currency in 10 minutes or less with stick figures