What are you playing? (Redux)

[The Brain]

SPI's Highway to the Reich.



It has Panzers,  Paratroopers and XXX Corps......

XXX Corps?

[PDH]

SPI's Highway to the Reich.



It has Panzers,  Paratroopers and XXX Corps......

I remember Victory Games had Hell's Highway that was fun - on paved roads motorized units had basically huge movement (unlimited? - been too long).  The goal was to break out on the initial turns and try to get as far up the road as possible - flanks be damned.

[11B4V]

Yea, good game there too.

[Syt]

Ok, I may have reached the point in FF14 where I either quit or need a break. I've reached what is called the ARR patch content (i.e. the end game content patched in between the A Real Reborn release and the expansion Heavensward. The main scenario questline (MSQ) continues, and the game throws a whole bunch (10-20?) dungeons and group trials at you. Some of them are based on previous dungeons and bosses, though heavily revamped, and often a continuation of a previous story, so it's not just "old content, but harder". Trial bosses get new mechanics etc.

And of course I could just continue the MSQ, but I look at the dungeons list (and the 7 or so open quests attached to some of them), and I'm thinking "ugh." I've gotten over my anxiety when grouping up with people, but I can't be bothered. Learning the mechanics of each place, at warp speed, because most parties will rush through the content gives me a headache (and this is still pretty straightforward stuff) and stresses me out (during this phase, avoid these attacks by doing this, also, in the final phase there are some mechanics you have to mitigate properly or risk a party wipe). It's all low stakes and even wipes don't matter much at this low level, but UGH.

I like pretty much everything else about the game, except this content. It might be different if I could do dungeons at my own pace. And the thought of farming them for currency, or to level new classes really, really wearies me.

[celedhring]

And that's why I don't miss playing MMOs.

[Syt]

Now don't get me wrong. I've really enjoyed my time with the game. And there's plenty of activities outside of dungeons/raiding to explore (crafting is its own minigame with skills etc), additional classes to level, and dungeons generally are not very difficult during the main story, so you will be able to make it through the end. Generally, if you can find groups through the Duty Finder (the game's version of queuing for PUGs), it will be quite manageable, and for harder (optional) challenges you will need to go through the Party Finder (where people advertise what they're looking for) or join a "static", i.e. a regular group of people who learn to play together as a team.

So I should clarify that the difficulty of dungeons and trials is not putting me off, but I just don't find them fun. I know people are farming their daily dungeons, and many think, "yay, new combat challenge" when they unlock them or, "ooh, wanna see the story of this", and I'm thinking mostly, "Ugh, let's get it over with." The wait is rarely more than a few minutes, and the runs are usually 10-20 minutes, so it's not a huge time commitment.

It's a shame, because I enjoy pretty much everything else around the game. The community is super friendly and helpful (including during dungeons, if you ask for info or just joke around), the world is cool, and the story was interesting, and I can see why so many people have flocked to the game in recent months and years. Some of the grinds are fine for me (e.g., daily quests from "beast tribes"), but looking at my quest log with a bunch of dungeons waiting to be cleared, and looking at the number of dungeons later in the game (optional and story wise) this is a deal breaker for me. 

[11B4V]

SPI's Highway to the Reich.



It has Panzers,  Paratroopers and XXX Corps......

I remember Victory Games had Hell's Highway that was fun - on paved roads motorized units had basically huge movement (unlimited? - been too long).  The goal was to break out on the initial turns and try to get as far up the road as possible - flanks be damned.

That one is on the list to revisit. I have the redone counters for it off CONSIM. Though it's after GMT's next war series and MMP's Battalion Combat Series.

[celedhring]

Been playing the new Pathfinder game (Wrath of the Righteous). It does feel a lot like "more of the same" compared to Kingmaker, with lots mores classes and such. However, I've found out I might be over all these Infinity Engine revival games. The story and faithfulness to pen and paper RPGs are nice, but combat feels dated and gets really boring really quick, and there's too much of it.

[frunk]

I've played quite a bit of Noita lately.  Haven't gotten past the Hiisi Base yet, where the difficulty seriously ramps up.

The crazy wand combinations along with the endless variety of the particle physics makes it an enjoyable ride.

[Caliga]

Arkham Horror LCG

Oh and this looks cool
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1192053011/the-call-of-cthulhu-illustrated-by-baranger?fbclid=IwAR1zpW2nLP4Fk3JPQAo17jIFKP4k5D-fJBkF9bXwV5eYXWQiBqVtfZ70yD4

I got Arkham Horror LCG last month as a way of playing Cthulhu-themed games with my homies at houses other than mine, since Mansions of Madness is just too unwieldy to transport with all its expansions.

It's pretty fun.  I only have the core set so far but I'm enjoying it solo.  Planning on trying it with my wife this weekend and friends soon-ish.

[FunkMonk]

Playing games exclusively on Steam Deck now.

Diablo 2 Resurrected plays great on the Deck. I'm a bit burned out on D2 now though so I've stopped after a month of it being my main game.

Now I've just started Final Fantasy XIV Online. Plays great as well and I'm enjoying playing an MMO for the first time in years. The game was also built for controllers so it feels good.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Finished the latest halo a few days ago. Was nice

[Syt]

I decided to give The Outer Worlds another try this weekend. I played two hours, had lunch, and then decided to give Drox Operative 2 a quick try - and ended up playing most weekend. 

I didn't quite gel with the first game, and even though the 2nd one seems to be firmly "more of the same", it clicked for me a lot better.

The premise is simple - ARPG (Diablo) in space. You're a Drox Operative, from the Drox Agency, and your job is to pacify a randomized sector. The sector is populated with a number of races who essentially play a 4X game against each other: colonizing planets, espionage/sabotage, basic diplomacy, warfare, etc. Pacifying can take various forms: allying with everyone (and them to each other), being allied to the last remaining faction, making everyone afraid of you, becoming "legend" by killing a number of legendary monsters/enemies, or conducting a number of Drox missions (which are usually, "have these two factions go to war with each other", "make those guys the strongest faction" etc.

Once you "win" a sector you can move on to the next, more difficult, sector with your ship.

The maps are filled with treasure chests various derelicts, anomalies, and caches that might spit out enemies or goodies, you gain standing with factions by doing quests for them (bring good x to planet y, bounties, kill x number of enemies, attack other faction etc.). If you ignore quests, some of them can escalate. If you fail to protect a colony from raiders, it could be wiped out. A colony with unrest might rebel and secede. Etc.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day, the main gameplay is moving around the map and making things explode. I admit I find the turn based combat of Relic Space a bit more interesting (and it's quite possible to screw yourself by ending your turn within range of too many enemies who rip you to shreds before you get to go again in classic roguelike fashion). However, DO2's real time combat is a bit more chaotic and fast paced. Real downside is the mouse cursor - it's dark purple, in front of a dark (or purple-ish) space background and is extremely easy to lose int he heat of combat. The issue has been raised a lot with the developer, but it seems they never added a high visibility option.

There's a decent amount of weapons and equipment variety, plus potions energy/shield boosters, and of course you're chasing for ever bigger numbers. The ship upgrade system is a bit weird. Instead of buying new ships, you invest skill points in unlocking more slots (heavy, medium, light) which will then give you a bigger ship. I'd much rather buy/capture new ships. Each race you can play as has a different base ship model and race specific skill trees to unlock. The one I play as has a bonus to minions fighter combat, so I'm roaming the map with 3 light and 3 normal fighters who help shredding enemies quite nicely, while I take shots with whatever is the weapon with the biggest number on it.

It's repetitive, and not exactly story heavy. However, weighing which factions to support/oppose adds some spice (your initial facorite might end up at war with everyone else, or someone else might be far ahead of them), and I think the Drox missions might be the more challenging ones - making two factions go to war if they don't have contact with each other or sit on different ends of the map can be hard.

Apropos maps - before each round you get to choose the size of the sector. Smaller sectors are better for leveling - large ones have you reach the current sector's cap at some point, and then it becomes a bit tedious to clean up everything/uniting the factions. When you finish one sector, the game recommends the next sector to start at one level below your current ship's level which (at sector 3) seems fine, though the difficulty of enemies does ramp up, and you will start thinking about adding much more resistances/defences than you had initially.

One thing I appreciate (and I'm not sure if this was in DO1) is that you don't have to pick up quests to fulfill them. If a faction has a bounty on someone and you kill that enemy because you randomly ran into them, you can complete the quest. Also, unless the quest requires delivery of something to a specific place, you can just claim your rewards from your diplomacy screen which helps a lot with the tedium of running back and forth to your quest givers.

Only trade seems a bit useless - usually races don't have better gear than what I already have/looted, and often I can't sell everything because they run out of cash. You can still donate stuff to them for free which gives you reputation with them at least.

It's overall a fairly repetitive game, with some strategic decision making thrown in, and dangling the carrot of new unlockable races (if you help minors to ascend to becoming regular factions) helps, too, but mostly this feels like a nice little game to play while listening to podcasts and the like.

[frunk]

I decided to take on the Spaghetti track in Trackmania.  It's a rather infamous ~2 hour track in a game that considers tracks longer than 1 1/2 minutes to be lengthy

After a couple 10 minute test runs I completed it in 2:12:11, which was 11 seconds short of Gold Medal.  The track itself isn't that difficult apart from lots of blind jumps/turns and sections that can cause you to go down a wrong path which is potentially disastrous.  I might make another attempt to get a sub two hour.

[Syt]

Nice.

I remember on Audiosurf, using some extra long songs to create tracks (12-30 minutes), esp. of the metal variety, would become quite strenuous, so kinda dreading a 2+ hours course.