What are you playing? (Redux)

[The Brain]

Yeah, I haven't played it in a while but I use it as a way to listen to music.

[celedhring]

Ok, guess I will pass then. The story and atmosphere was always the big draw for me from D2. There's a bunch of cheaper ARPGs out there (and PoE). I actually have Victor Vran and a couple of Van Helsings still unplayed in my steam library.

[frunk]

I played way too much Motorsport Manager yesterday.  Surprisingly addictive.  Half off right now too.

[crazy canuck]

Well, I might break my VG duck. I spotted Diablo 3+Expansion at a pretty nice discount at my local game store. How does it compare to more recent action RPGs? (i.e. the Grim Dawns, Victor Vrans, or even Path of Exile). D2 was one of the defining games of my youth.

First, it is nothing like D2.  The closest thing to D2 these days is POE.

Second, D3 is repetitive - it is basically doing timed runs to a boss kill over and over again.  I uninstalled it a while ago.

edit: oops you didnt need more talking out of it

[Syt]

16 hours into Dark Souls II - Scholar of the First Sin.

So far, I don't like it as much as DS1. DS1 had an atmosphere of decay, despair, and desolation, plus demons and general WTF.

DS2 looks brighter, and is generally "ruined castles with zombie knights" so far. The level design feels less inspired.

Combat is different and feels a bit off. DS1 you could start with sword and shield and make progress (block enemy which gives you opening for attack). DS2 takes a while to give you a shield that doesn't have any "bleed through" physical damage, and generally wants you to dodge/parry much more than DS1, at least in the start so far (I want to go with a strength/tanky build). In general it feels a bit less responsive/sluggish, which is weird, since DS2 runs at 60FPS, whereas DS1 is at 30 (unless you mod it).

It doesn't help that your max health takes a hit every time you die (you can mitigate that effect by using human effigies to restore to full health). Additionally, some animations have been slowed down, like when you take a swig of healing potion. Again, this can be mitigated by leveling a certain attribute. And carry weight/stamina have been split in two different attributes.

Another change is that enemies stop reappearing if you kill them often enough. Which has currently led me to "clearing" (=farning) an area before progressing. On the plus side, I picked up 6 followers yesterday, and another 10 today, with usually around 10-12 people watching at a time. 

[frunk]

I played way too much Motorsport Manager yesterday.  Surprisingly addictive.  Half off right now too.

Started a new game in the lowest league, barely won the league in the second season with a stunning 1/2 finish in the last race.  Passed on promotion as I didn't have the infrastructure yet.  Season 3 I dominate most of the way.  Heading into the last race I have a 37 point lead, which should be enough as long as I do ok.  First lap my number 1 driver crashes, number 2 puts in a mediocre finish at 12.  I thought even that was enough, but I forgot the last race was worth double points.  The chairman was not happy, but I kept my job.

[Pedrito]

I played way too much Motorsport Manager yesterday.  Surprisingly addictive.  Half off right now too.

Started a new game in the lowest league, barely won the league in the second season with a stunning 1/2 finish in the last race.  Passed on promotion as I didn't have the infrastructure yet.  Season 3 I dominate most of the way.  Heading into the last race I have a 37 point lead, which should be enough as long as I do ok.  First lap my number 1 driver crashes, number 2 puts in a mediocre finish at 12.  I thought even that was enough, but I forgot the last race was worth double points.  The chairman was not happy, but I kept my job.

It IS addictive.
My best game so far has run a course similar to yours:
first season, placed third in the lower league;
second season, won the league but refused promotion for budget problems;
third season, easily won (almost all the races finished between 1st and 3rd position), and accepted promotion, because I thought I had raìised enough money, but during the fourth season I resigned because, although I've spent almost all the money for the best possible car and a couple of improvements to the buildings, I was unable to meet the expectations of the board.

L.

[frunk]

Started a new game in the lowest league, barely won the league in the second season with a stunning 1/2 finish in the last race.  Passed on promotion as I didn't have the infrastructure yet.  Season 3 I dominate most of the way.  Heading into the last race I have a 37 point lead, which should be enough as long as I do ok.  First lap my number 1 driver crashes, number 2 puts in a mediocre finish at 12.  I thought even that was enough, but I forgot the last race was worth double points.  The chairman was not happy, but I kept my job.

Fifth season I move up a league.  Due to financial mismanagement I don't do that well, but I manage to scrape into 7th when the chairman was looking for 6th.  Sixth season is a complete disaster.  I straighten out the books, but my number 1 driver either crashes or gets hit in just about every race.  Number 2, with pretty much the same orders, drives clean but fails to get points.  When number 1 gets a 4 week injury after one crash I plug in the reserve driver who promptly crashes and gets a season ending injury.  I get fired before the end of the season.

[Alcibiades]

Started a new game in the lowest league, barely won the league in the second season with a stunning 1/2 finish in the last race.  Passed on promotion as I didn't have the infrastructure yet.  Season 3 I dominate most of the way.  Heading into the last race I have a 37 point lead, which should be enough as long as I do ok.  First lap my number 1 driver crashes, number 2 puts in a mediocre finish at 12.  I thought even that was enough, but I forgot the last race was worth double points.  The chairman was not happy, but I kept my job.

Fifth season I move up a league.  Due to financial mismanagement I don't do that well, but I manage to scrape into 7th when the chairman was looking for 6th.  Sixth season is a complete disaster.  I straighten out the books, but my number 1 driver either crashes or gets hit in just about every race.  Number 2, with pretty much the same orders, drives clean but fails to get points.  When number 1 gets a 4 week injury after one crash I plug in the reserve driver who promptly crashes and gets a season ending injury.  I get fired before the end of the season.

After promoting it is pretty damn difficult to get on par.  Game is really good, but qualifying and tweaking the car before every race starts to feel very repetitive. 

[Syt]

Dark Souls II

Made it through Harvest Valley and Earthen Peak to the Iron Keep, aka PVP hell. Burned a human effigy to stop invasions ... but then you get invaded by NPCs.

Got smashed a few times by Smelter Demon and decided to farm the area for a bit. Finally got invaded by a guy who was doing nothing but throwing stuff at me. Realized late that what he threw were corrosive bombs, so he broke part of my armor, and two rings. Over 11k souls in repair bill.

On the plus side, my Winged Spear and Bastard Swords are both +7, and I have the Pursuer Greatshield.

[frunk]

After promoting it is pretty damn difficult to get on par.  Game is really good, but qualifying and tweaking the car before every race starts to feel very repetitive.

I do wish I could save car setups, ideally marked for a given track.  I sim qualifying, which is certainly sub-optimal but keeps me interested and reduces the repetition.

After getting fired I got a job with the last place tier 1 team.  I pull them up to 6th before the end of the season (getting points in one lucky race with 5 cellar teams).  In season 7 (first full season in tier 1) I manage a 1/2 which should keep me out of trouble.

[Syt]

Well, I'm, uhm, taking a break from DS2SotFS.

I'm 8 hours into DS3 now, though, just made it to the Undead Settlement.

I like this game infinitely more than DS3 at this point. The environments so far are gorgeous and I've spent a good time just taking in all the detail in the environments, something that DS1 was good at, DS2SotFS had little of, and DS3 has (so far) in spades. I was probably 10 minutes in the cathedral where you get the banner to gawk at the design.

I mostly love these games for the lore/world design, so DS2SotFS felt like a letdown to me, and that it served mostly to offer a starkly improved challenge to veterans.

Started as Warrior and sticking with my Axe so far (+2!), plus Longbow. I found the Astora Straight Sword, but don't have enough faith. Also have the Silver Eagler Shield, but that low stability ...

Needed 4 tries for Iudex Gundyr, and 5 or 6 on Vordt. Although I spent some time farming souls from the fire breath attack from the drake (dragon?).

[Josquius]

Finally started XCom 2, its very good.
The stealth stage of battles is a nice touch. Though I hate the whole enemies standing in a field until uncovered at which point they dash for cover thing. They should already be manoeuvring before you find them. The way it works is just...bad.


Victoria has been on my mind lately.
Any decent mods for Vicky 2 appeared in recent years?

[Ed Anger]

I continue to play World of Tanks. Even spent 50 bucks on imaginary gold.

The Seedy jackasses continue to knock my Hetzer off cliffs. Playstation fags. 

[FunkMonk]

Hetzer gonna Hetz.