What are you playing nowadays? Share yo' thoughts.

[Sam25]

Started with Syberia 3 after completing Syberia II over the weekend. The first thing that set me back was the entire change of the controls in this game!! They wanted to shift from the point & click mechanism for movement of Kate Walker into a more fluid movement with the use of WASD or arrow keys on KB. Problem is the entire movement with the KB controls feels bad and accompanied by terrible camera angles when moving add to the misery. Sometimes it's just odd to get into areas in the world because you accidentally bump your character into objects while moving. Just feels awkward and to think this isn't really a very old game.

Story seems decent as of now so working through the above issues and since I have picked up the series will like to complete it all the way now.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Well, Borderlands 3 was fun but it didn't grip me like Borderlands or Borderlands 2 did. Finished three characters to max level and saw what the game had to offer. I could definitely see some new DLCs bringing me back like they did with BL2, but they would have to be pretty good. At first, I didn't even like the idea of being able to find legendary gear so easily, but it didn't take me long to recall how frustrating it was in the past games trying to get a specific piece of gear to fill our your build only to spend 100 hours farming the same boss and never get it so that actually turned out to be a good thing in the end. Didn't really care for how they handled the story but I guess GoT was pretty popular at the time so they had to play to the fan service and just start killing characters off for funsies.

Started Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord and it's a direct upgrade from Warband. Tons of QoL changes that I had been wanting in the first game and it seems like the modding community is a bit more active for Bannerlord and the big mod makers from Warband have moved over as well.

Escape From Tarkov just had their bi-annual wipe so everyone is back at level 1 with a fresh account, but all my friends have stopped playing for one reason or another and I don't really care to play solo (despite playing for seven years now) so unless I can find some new people to play with, I might drop Tarkov for a while.

 

[KMFJD]

I'm seeing a lot of people rave about this game, it's a medieval tarkov style game, it's $35 atm but there's some lawsuits going on between the developers and their former employers at Nexon so there is no telling how long it will stay up

Dark and Darker

An unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure. Band together with your friends and use your courage, wits, and cunning to uncover mythical treasures, defeat gruesome monsters, while staying one step ahead of the other devious treasure-hunters.

darkanddarker.com

 

[Stg-Flame]

I'm seeing a lot of people rave about this game, it's a medieval tarkov style game, it's $35 atm but there's some lawsuits going on between the developers and their former employers at Nexon so there is no telling how long it will stay up

Dark and Darker

An unforgiving hardcore fantasy FPS dungeon PvPvE adventure. Band together with your friends and use your courage, wits, and cunning to uncover mythical treasures, defeat gruesome monsters, while staying one step ahead of the other devious treasure-hunters.

darkanddarker.com

As much as I love Tarkov and considering I've been playing it for seven years, I'm still hesitant of anything claiming to be in the same vein as Tarkov. I do love medieval stuff so I'm pretty interested to see where this goes.

 

[Sam25]

Completed Syberia: The World Before a couple of days back...

What a lovely game... it was so richly woven with such an emotionally involving story. After the original Syberia game which was released in 2002 (21 years ago!) this one has to be my favorite Syberia title without a shadow of doubt. The plot, characters, puzzles were so intricately designed. Perhaps the pacing could have been a little better towards the end but barring that I seriously loved playing through this game. Also, this installment I felt had the hardest puzzles so far amongst all of the Syberia games!

I would strongly recommend anyone who has played the first 3 Syberia games to definitely play this. This is a masterpiece from the the house of Microids.

With that I've completed all 4 Syberia games in exactly a month, back to back! This saga was long overdue in my "Games To Be Played List" and I'm so glad that I took it up and went through all of them without getting sucked into any other title.

Moving forward... Installed Hitman 3 on Steam this evening and will be playing it next. Had completed Hitman (2016) and Hitman 2 (2018) last year but Hitman 3 was pending.

 

[Iron Woode]

I am playing the hell out of Quake 4 I bought on sale.

I installed the 4X_AI_DP68_Textures Mod and Quake 4 Tweaker.

The high resolution textures look very nice at 1080P.

 

[Stg-Flame]

So Bannerlord is amazing and everything I was hoping it would be with one small exception that's supposedly fixed in the upcoming 1.2 update. In Warband, if you'd conquer a kingdom's final fief, their faction would be destroyed and removed from the game which let the surviving lords join other factions or turn rebel. In Bannerlord, for whatever reason, if you conquer all of a kingdom's fiefs, the lords just roam around because kingdom destruction isn't in the game... It's rather annoying because the lords refuse to defect and they'll just swarm your villages with tiny 20-man armies that you can't catch unless you get lucky and all they do is screw over your town/castle prosperity and food stocks because all they do is raid villages. I've found a few work-arounds for this but it's tedious and almost impossible if you have another war going on.

No idea when the 1.2 patch is supposed to be fully released but everyone assumes it's soon so I've been playing a lot of Grim Dawn in the meantime.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

So Bannerlord is amazing and everything I was hoping it would be with one small exception that's supposedly fixed in the upcoming 1.2 update. In Warband, if you'd conquer a kingdom's final fief, their faction would be destroyed and removed from the game which let the surviving lords join other factions or turn rebel. In Bannerlord, for whatever reason, if you conquer all of a kingdom's fiefs, the lords just roam around because kingdom destruction isn't in the game... It's rather annoying because the lords refuse to defect and they'll just swarm your villages with tiny 20-man armies that you can't catch unless you get lucky and all they do is screw over your town/castle prosperity and food stocks because all they do is raid villages. I've found a few work-arounds for this but it's tedious and almost impossible if you have another war going on.

No idea when the 1.2 patch is supposed to be fully released but everyone assumes it's soon so I've been playing a lot of Grim Dawn in the meantime.

I haven’t played bannerlord in a long time but yeah I remember that. Lords would never surrender and ultimately holding more than three places became a huge chore.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I haven’t played bannerlord in a long time but yeah I remember that. Lords would never surrender and ultimately holding more than three places became a huge chore.

Someone on Reddit told me the quickest way to alleviate this specific headache for a while is to sit in the middle of where they swarm, form an army, then disband the army and they'll all chase individual lords and since the AI doesn't like ransoming other lords, they just run off and stash them in a castle or town. The other option is to dust off the executioner's axe and piss off the world, but after I made a backup save and started trimming down the Battanian lords one head at a time, we had two mercenary clans leave us and join the Battanians...

Others have suggested I just opt in to the 1.2 beta through Steam but I'd have to start a new game since it's still in beta testing. I guess the developers have suggested the patch will release soon, but there's no official word yet. Though I can guarantee one thing and that is I'll definitely be spending a lot of time with this game. I have almost 1,000 hours in Warband and this is just a straight upgrade in every way. I am slightly disappointed they didn't even try to add any mechanics from Fire and Sword, but then again, it's rare to hear anyone even mention that atrocity.

 

[quikah]

I came back to Hollow Knight. I originally played for 1-2 hrs about 2 years ago but just was frustrated by the combat so dropped it. Played about 14 hrs. I would give it a 5/10. Too many things just annoy the hell out of me about. Fast travel sucks, puts you ~10+ minutes away from where you actually want to go most times. Rest points are too far from boss areas. Combat is too twitchy. Progression is way too slow. Lots of unnecessary "difficulty", like the fact that your shadow to get your geo back after dying can kill you or putting too many obstacles between a rest point and a boss area. Might finish it eventually, but overall, pretty bored of it now.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Trek to Yomi. Simple gameplay mechanics. Fucking phenomenal artistic direction.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Trek to Yomi. Simple gameplay mechanics. Fucking phenomenal artistic direction.

Looks like a movie!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Making my way through the Dawn of War 3 campaign. Classic 40k story (ancient corrupted mcguffin that everyone is after).

Gameplay is a little rough, tried to do DoW 1's big armies with DoW 2's micro heavy squad focused gameplay and it sort of fails everywhere. You have to be some sort of micro god in order to extract anything from your characters, your mobs die way too damn quick while hero units are just too damn strong.

Stuff like cover has been dumbed down, and no more unit garrisoning etc.

This all amounts to the gameplay coming down to your meatball of death vs the enemy meatball of death, with hero abilities generally shifting the tide of battle one way or another.

Having fun with it for what it's worth, but I can see why the game didn't capture either the larger MOBA community or Relic's stalwart fan base.

Besides that, I've fired up Sleeping Dogs yet again. Never made it passed the intro section since I guess I just wasn't in the right headspace before, but this time I am ready for a Hong Kong Triad Cop-on-the-inside martial arts masterpiece and SD's delivers. Think I'll be going to the end on this one.

 

[Zeze]

Here's a lightning round of my latest:

Diablo 4 (5 out of 10): I paid a full price and I couldn't even finish it. What a shame. I loved D1, D2, and D3 was fine.

Baldur's Gate 3 (rating TBD): Still in Act 2. My first CRPG. Already kickin' butt at the Tactician difficulty

Elden Ring (9 out of 10): What a masterpiece. The depth of this game made BG3 really a no big deal. This is truly immersive too.

Persona 5 Royal (6 out of 10): Fans say this is peak JRPG of recent years. I'm not the biggest fan of their summon / monster catching mechanic. I think I would've loved this if I were younger. The game seems pretty basic now compared to ER or BG3. I haven't finished it after the killing two bosses.

Control (5 out of 10): I also couldn't finish this. It started off interesting enough, but it got very repetitive. The gunplay is big aloof and lacking.

Deathloop (TBD): I normally finish games, but it just feels like a chore. I think I'd settle down to

Skul: The Hero Slayer (8 out of 10): This is an action packed 2D roguelike with tons of builds and chaotic fights. It's made with love.

OVerwatch (10 out of 10): I still play this time to time. Yes, it's real sad what happended to OW2, but the gameplay itself is top tier.

 

[Shmee]

I am playing the hell out of Quake 4 I bought on sale.

I installed the 4X_AI_DP68_Textures Mod and Quake 4 Tweaker.

The high resolution textures look very nice at 1080P.

IDK if you saw or have Amazon prime, but prime gaming had a free Quake 4 code for GoG. It might still be active.

Also, the Quake II remaster is quite good, I already played through the original campaign, playing through Call of the Machine now.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Sleeping Dogs is an incredible game, I get the hype. Love letter to Hong Kong police dramas and action flicks.

Just an incredible undercover cop GTA "clone" across the board.

 

[Mai72]

Played the "Last of Us" and the included DLC "Left Behind" 2x so far on PC.

Enjoyed the game. Its a good game, and still looks good 10 plus years later. When you finish the game the first time, game modifiers open up. Its a good way to alter the game (unlimited ammo, bullet time, 50% slow game speed, etc). It gives the game replay value. There isn't a multiplayer. It wasn't included in the PC versuon, which is totally understandable. It is a 10 plus year old game. But, like I stated earlier the story telling is fantastic. The action is good. Reminds me of Splinter Cell a bit. Its better to hide in the shadows and take out hostiles than to run in with guns blazing. The one thing I wish I could do was hide the bodies. You can't pick them up like you can in Hitman and Splinter Cell. Overall: 9/10.

 

[igor_kavinski]

It is a 10 plus year old game.

The PC version is the Remake so not that old.

 

[quikah]

Lies of P, about 6 hrs in, so far excellent. In the 3rd? area (the factory). Took me a while to get used to the timing, but have mostly gotten it I think. So far nice mix of enemies. Story is decent so far.

 

[funboy6942]

I broke down and got a months worth of FX Pinball Game Pass and it is fun, but feel the tables are harder than on FX3, and do NOT like the fact I cannot turn off the stupid animation stuff and have the tables I DID used to play at the arcade without that flying, blowing up, or just ANY of the animation on the screen like I can choose in FX3 if I want it or not. IMO it doesn't make it fun when I want to relive my youth on tables I played, and its ALL I used to play at the arcade, and played almost all the :real" tables they have, when I got cartoony crap on it, when I just want to hear and watch what I remembered as a kid.

Other than that its fun, and would I buy another month of it.......no, not unless they give the option to disable it, for Id rather play FX3 and turn that stuff off on it, and have more fun. They got the option to stop the pop up score bs every time the ball hits something, but not so sure why they would not have the option to shut off the animations for hard core pinball users if they are going for more realism with the new FX

 

[Sam25]

For the last month I have been addicted to playing Hitman 3 (World of Assassination). It's such a well made and refined game. One can complete the game really quickly as well but once you delve into completing the Assassination Challenges and Feats... that's where the game truly shines. I have spent close to 114 hours so far on it doing various approaches to each level. Also made videos for the game on my YT channel... very fun!

Now I'm thinking I should go back and re-play Hitman 2 and make some videos for it as well.

 

[William Gaatjes]

Dishonored : Death of the outsider. (Kind of like being Dishonored 3).
The void engine makes the game look magnificent. The game is from 2017.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I have mixed feelings on the Resident Evil 4 remake on Steam. On one hand, it looks phenomenal, it's a lot of fun being able to actually aim with a mouse, and considering it's one of my favorite games, being able to play it again without hooking up my PS2 is rather nice. On the other hand, I wasn't aware of how much content they cut out before I bought the game. I've been taking my time and exploring every inch of the game as well as backtracking to pick up all the treasure, but reaching the island in around six hours is a little disheartening. They added a decent amount of content and changed quite a few things around, but they removed so much it doesn't make sense.

I will say that at first I hated the idea of my knife breaking and using kitchen knives that broke after one use was rather annoying, but I see why they made the change. With the new stealth and one-hit mechanic, it would be outright overpowered for your knife to never break. Overall I think they did a great job with the remake. I just wish they hadn't cut so much content from the game.

Also, I got curious to see if there were any mods for the game and after seeing it listed on the Nexus, I wasn't surprised in the slightest that at least 95% of all the mods revolve around "sexy Ashley" and "sexy Ada" reskins. I knew there would be a lot of those kinds of mods, but I was hoping there would be more than three non-reskin mods on the 'Most Popular' list...

 

[Ajay]

Currently stuck on a level in MW2 Remastered. My claymores disappeared from my inventory - so I'm getting mobbed. Then after picking it up the next day, they were back again, but keep exploding as soon as I set them. Argh! Then I get hit by two flash bangs after, seemingly, clearing two room (one with a machine gun). Then I die. Guess my team are all picking their noses.

Other than that, playing a few older games with new mods. Nice nostalgic play with a modified Supreme Commander 2 (always wish they finished that game, and added map making abilities). New faster CPU makes this game a pleasure to play compared to when I bought it. Kind of sad that I don't know where my SC FFA CD is, would like to try that again. Also playing, on and off, Metro 2035 - stuck on the rail car trying to get it past that ball lightning - keep screwing up and losing power, I'll get it right eventually.

Looking forward to Starfield. I hope they optimize it more b/4 I buy it - apparently it takes a Zen4 CPU or greater on the AMD side to get good frame rates, boo hoo. Probably ask for it as a Christmas gift from the Mrs.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Kind of sad that I don't know where my SC FFA CD is, would like to try that again.

Sup Com FA is on sale at the moment for $4 on Steam and considering how much of a downgrade Sup Com 2 was compared to the first one, I would highly recommend any fans of the genre just pick up the digital copy. I also have a physical disk but I picked it up on Steam during one of the sales just for convenience.