What are you playing?

[Zazigalka]

doom dark ages

 

[beardedragon]

Tainted Grail: The fall of Avalon.

Bought the tabletop game back in their kickstarter campaign, and the PC games were included as freebies. They were collecting dust in my backlog until I tried this one. It's like an old Bethesda game, kinda klunky at times, but quite inmersive. The story an lore are quite good imho. The combat is... well, it could be worse. At least is not game breaking.

But anyhow is quite adictive. Let's see if it can mainain my interest until I finish it.

Several times a day.

But did you play it?

Several times a day.

 

[Nikhar]

Several times a day.

lol then you are definitely a gamer

 

[Space Lynx]

Currently playing Trepang2

View attachment 401978

This reminds me of the KIllzone games, looks really similar cause of those helmets, and the gun style too. Interesting.

on-topic: still playing Monster Train 2

 

[Splinterdog]

The Killing Antidote, a Resident Evil clone or some sort.

The Killing Antidote on Steam

This is a TPS game. Shooting, fighting, dress-up, puzzle solving, and more. In the future, a special germ causes humans to be constantly infected and mutated. The protagonist, Jodi, is a brave journalist who goes on her way to find the legendary antidote and is in danger.

store.steampowered.com

The reviews on Steam are hilarious!

 

[Space Lynx]

Monster Train 2 is a much much bigger game than you would think...

I have 25 hours in this game so far, and I am only about halfway done with the story challenge themed events... really unbelievable, and it's still very fun too. I have two rows of artifacts for this themed event... it was quite fun indeed It's basically Slay the Spire on steroids. Exercises your brain in a very fun way, but man I am left tired after, but in a good way. Also, the writing is fantastic, it made me laugh several times, which is rare for any game.

 

[Vayra86]

Then don't force it. Yes, it's a good game, so it's unfortunate when something is good in all areas except for one which is a deal breaker. But there's plenty of good games out there for most tastes, so don't play something just for FOMO reasons. Play something if it naturally appeals to you.

I know that well because I have the opposite issue. I've bounced off a number of JRPGs (Tales of Berseria and Visions of Mana) because they weren't turn based combat and it was unfortunate because everything else was great.

The balance (and to a slightly lesser extent, the pacing) is definitely one (two) of the things that certainly isn't perfect in this game. Neither are bad enough to ruin it, but both are examples that this was a newer studio still trying to dial things in.

I found that limiting yourself to level 15 through 21 pictos and weapons, and not using the cheater lumina (and perhaps avoiding painted power lumina before the end) makes it a little more balanced if you did most of the side content before completing the story. But at that point, if everyone is still hitting for the damage cap with most attacks, then it becomes "just use people who have skills with more hits" so finding a way to use painted power but reducing your power (level 10-ish weapons?) might feel better.

Who knew Lorien Testard would come out of nowhere as a Nobuo Uematsu tier composer!? Oh my goodness, the music is that good. Few games have great music. This is one of them.

But yeah, I love the game and the story. The plot twist near the end will be hit or miss with people so you'll either love it or hate it, and the term "plot twist" is often overused for any story beat shift, but it's apt for this game. The change near the end is a literal and real twist here. I personally loved it, but it was also apparent to me it was coming.

SPOILERS FOR AN ENDING, DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE GAME OR OTHERWISE DON'T WANT SOME THINGS SPOILED!

Spoiler

LAST CHANCE TO TURN BACK!

Spoiler

What ending did you choose? I went with Verso, and after watching Maelle's, I find his to be the one I'm happier with... although neither seems entirely happy.

I couldn't help but swoon when he'd give "this look" throughout the game... (I'm not sorry!) but wow, I knew there something he was hiding every time he showed it. Chills.

"It's time to stop painting."

Even with my aforementioned restrictions, I did that to Maelle's health in one attack. I think I was already overpowered before act III, but rather by the end of act II because the supposed difficulty spike at the end of act II is where it got easier for me. Probably because that was the first (yes, first) time I respeced my character stats, used proper point allocation, and upgraded to higher level pictos for stats instead of effects. So I auto attacked for the rest of the battle.

There's an obvious universe set up here, even if a sequel (or prequel) in this canvas is also possible, I'd rather not see it (but I wouldn't mind DLC for this game of it). The point of the game is moving on; let's see another universe, perhaps from the perspective of the writers? Of another family? What is this "war" or feud about? A lot of unanswered potential.

"For those who come after." (Right?)

Spoiler

- NG+ talk
Yeap, NG+ is clearly aimed at starting at level 20~ish weapons and Picto rewards are the same except levelled to 21 at the beginning, moving up rapidly as you progress in the story (second area already gives you 23). So its clear the NG+ scaling is adapted to level 20-33. But its very easy to get a lv 33 weapon in your first playthrough, the moment you deviate from the story path, you'll get stuff that will make you stronger. Its not even just Cheater; even stuff like the triggered protections (if you have all three... its mental what you can do)... if you stack them with Energising pictos you can just give the whole party maxed AP all the time, and if you add Sciel, you can control the turn order too. Oh yeah... lets add some double damage for good measure hm? Speed 2800 and Sciel plays twice anyway, sans Cheater...

All of it points to a game design entirely not focused around the NG+ playthrough. They might have done better just scaling the enemies up earlier in the first play already, or make it seamless and not labelled NG+. You'll be getting level 28 weapons and whatnot in the first run anyway, its almost impossible to avoid.

In hindsight, I could have self limited to get play out of NG+ but its honestly busywork either way, and won't be adding much, all that will happen is you add Cheater in the NG+ playthrough and have the same result, except wasting more time The chromatic bosses are challenging in the first playthrough as well, and scaling won't make it much different. Perhaps you need two Stendhals now, okay.

By the by... do not underestimate Lune. I've found her to be a potential better glass cannon than Maelle. (saywut?) Equip Trebuchim, get those random stains going, open every battle with Hell (9AP) and preferably let Sciel give her double damage. Hell can then hit for an easy 500K on everything while adding 10 burn stacks... which is also a fantastic opener to get burn affinity/critical burn to trigger for everyone, and Elemental Genesis (if you get 4 different stains) can go up to 2M damage to everything without issue using double damage and/or powerful buffs and it gets even better if you also give her Maelle's suite of damage bonuses. Trebuchim with Sniper, in the meantime, can just Break any monster on the first shot and with enough energising pictos related to free aim, you can get an easy 10-15 shots in per turn; if you do the math on that, Lune can single target for an easy half million damage every turn. Or hit everything for the same. Maelle can't do this.

Monoco can also get completely stupid with Raise Earthquakes and that Earth element weapon that starts him in Heavy Mask. Same tricks as Sciel with party buffs, as Powerful can cascade into every other buff and you can give the party 6 AP while attacking everyone for 400k. One move. So yeah... Cheater is vastly overrated I found it more of nuisance than a help tbh. Had to keep clicking away Sciel's third turn

Spoiler

- Endings
Yeah I did check out both endings and agree I'm also leaning towards the Verso one. But the dilemma is real, and with technologies like VR, AI, computer generated worlds.... the game is world- and self- criticism too. Brilliantly done. It actually kinda leans into a similar theme as Cyberpunk if you think of it; do you want the shitty, real world, or do you want to escape from it. Except here its more figurative.

 

[RootinTootinPootin]

Im on the last two bosses in Khasan.

do you feel its worth the price tag? I put this on my wishlist as it seems to be interesting, haven't bought it yet.

 

[Vayra86]

Monster Train 2 is a much much bigger game than you would think...

I have 25 hours in this game so far, and I am only about halfway done with the story challenge themed events... really unbelievable, and it's still very fun too. I have two rows of artifacts for this themed event... it was quite fun indeed It's basically Slay the Spire on steroids. Exercises your brain in a very fun way, but man I am left tired after, but in a good way. Also, the writing is fantastic, it made me laugh several times, which is rare for any game.

View attachment 402279

Bucket listed. Does it ascend beyond the mobile-phone game look in terms of gameplay? It sounds like it does

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Ass deep into X:Com Chimera Squad.

I know its a bit of a punching bag in the Xcom community, but damn its a fun game and does a great job slimming down the Xcom experience so you spend more time in the action and less time at base or waiting for events to happen or meandering around a map.

Levels are entirely 1/2/3 stage combat rooms, units are distinct and cannot die (they can die in a mission, but then you just lose the game), and there is a better sense of progression and definitely less apparent risk of being in a zombie run (that miserable experience in Xcom where one or two bad defeats has tanked your run but you don't really know it till 10 hours later).

And while the characters are sort of tepid, they are a bunch of fun to play and their abilities are quite entertaining.

All in all, I'm having a damn good time.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Spoiler

- NG+ talk
Yeap, NG+ is clearly aimed at starting at level 20~ish weapons and Picto rewards are the same except levelled to 21 at the beginning, moving up rapidly as you progress in the story (second area already gives you 23). So its clear the NG+ scaling is adapted to level 20-33. But its very easy to get a lv 33 weapon in your first playthrough, the moment you deviate from the story path, you'll get stuff that will make you stronger. Its not even just Cheater; even stuff like the triggered protections (if you have all three... its mental what you can do)... if you stack them with Energising pictos you can just give the whole party maxed AP all the time, and if you add Sciel, you can control the turn order too. Oh yeah... lets add some double damage for good measure hm? Speed 2800 and Sciel plays twice anyway, sans Cheater...

All of it points to a game design entirely not focused around the NG+ playthrough. They might have done better just scaling the enemies up earlier in the first play already, or make it seamless and not labelled NG+. You'll be getting level 28 weapons and whatnot in the first run anyway, its almost impossible to avoid.

In hindsight, I could have self limited to get play out of NG+ but its honestly busywork either way, and won't be adding much, all that will happen is you add Cheater in the NG+ playthrough and have the same result, except wasting more time The chromatic bosses are challenging in the first playthrough as well, and scaling won't make it much different. Perhaps you need two Stendhals now, okay.

By the by... do not underestimate Lune. I've found her to be a potential better glass cannon than Maelle. (saywut?) Equip Trebuchim, get those random stains going, open every battle with Hell (9AP) and preferably let Sciel give her double damage. Hell can then hit for an easy 500K on everything while adding 10 burn stacks... which is also a fantastic opener to get burn affinity/critical burn to trigger for everyone, and Elemental Genesis (if you get 4 different stains) can go up to 2M damage to everything without issue using double damage and/or powerful buffs and it gets even better if you also give her Maelle's suite of damage bonuses. Trebuchim with Sniper, in the meantime, can just Break any monster on the first shot and with enough energising pictos related to free aim, you can get an easy 10-15 shots in per turn; if you do the math on that, Lune can single target for an easy half million damage every turn. Or hit everything for the same. Maelle can't do this.

Monoco can also get completely stupid with Raise Earthquakes and that Earth element weapon that starts him in Heavy Mask. Same tricks as Sciel with party buffs, as Powerful can cascade into every other buff and you can give the party 6 AP while attacking everyone for 400k. One move. So yeah... Cheater is vastly overrated I found it more of nuisance than a help tbh. Had to keep clicking away Sciel's third turn

Not a spoiler for the story, but spoilered for those who don't want to trivialize the gameplay to nothing...

Spoiler

Just wait until you find out you can give someone autodeath to die at the start of battle, and then add give them effects to break on death (why does this exist!?), burn on break, mark on break, and second chance to auto revive. So before the battle starts, the enemy is in such a vulnerable state, will lose its next turn due to broken/stun (Verso or Monoco can reapply this theoretically, not that it matters), and you probably have first strike/cheater anyway so there goes the enemy getting anything in for a while. Give Maelle the weapon that starts her in virtuous stance for 200% damage, give her every damage increasing lumina you have (more damage to broken, marked, and burn targets which your autodeath start all just applied, and all the "do more damage on your first strike" and "do more damage but take more damage" or "do more damage but can't be healed", of which none of the drawbacks matters when you get one shot if you're hit anyway so it's just simply free extra damage), and oh, then have Sciel also double the damage of a given character's next attack and then give her the next turn.

So basically, a character of your choosing between Verso, Monoco, or Lune uses autodeath, applies all those debuffs, and revives, and then Sciel with firststrike gives the double damage buff to Maelle and then gives her next turn to Maelle, and then Maelle... just one shots anything in the game with Stendahl. If it survives, she just does another Stendahl (albeit it as less damage tan the first) within her own two following turns.

And yeah, constantly having full AP nearly every turn becomes easy.

The game really just overdoes everything it offers to the point of trivializing it eventually. Theoretically, I believe Sciel or Monoco may have the highest damage potential (?) because they both have skills that get stronger based on previous foretell consumption or previous times the same attack was used respectively... but you'll meaningfully never see that potential because you would have to intentionally set it up to reduce the target's health to as low as possible without killing them, and then using it for a big damage on a low HP target so what's the point? Stendahl probably still does more anyway, and it one shots anything from full. That may change with enough new game playthroughs (apparently, theings scale up higher for up to five playthroughs) but by then, that's because you can't keep leveling pictos or weapons but enemies keep getting stronger so it feels bad regardless.

Despite how broken it can be... it remains fun for a long time which is what matters, and in some cases (Simon...), it doesn't feel bad to use these broken tactics.

 

[Vayra86]

Not a spoiler for the story, but spoilered for those who don't want to trivialize the gameplay to nothing...

Spoiler

Just wait until you find out you can give someone autodeath to die at the start of battle, and then add give them effects to break on death (why does this exist!?), burn on break, mark on break, and second chance to auto revive. So before the battle starts, the enemy is in such a vulnerable state, will lose its next turn due to broken/stun (Verso or Monoco can reapply this theoretically, not that it matters), and you probably have first strike/cheater anyway so there goes the enemy getting anything in for a while. Give Maelle the weapon that starts her in virtuous stance for 200% damage, give her every damage increasing lumina you have (more damage to broken, marked, and burn targets which your autodeath start all just applied, and all the "do more damage on your first strike" and "do more damage but take more damage" or "do more damage but can't be healed", of which none of the drawbacks matters when you get one shot if you're hit anyway so it's just simply free extra damage), and oh, then have Sciel also double the damage of a given character's next attack and then give her the next turn.

So basically, a character of your choosing between Verso, Monoco, or Lune uses autodeath, applies all those debuffs, and revives, and then Sciel with firststrike gives the double damage buff to Maelle and then gives her next turn to Maelle, and then Maelle... just one shots anything in the game with Stendahl. If it survives, she just does another Stendahl (albeit it as less damage tan the first) within her own two following turns.

And yeah, constantly having full AP nearly every turn becomes easy.

The game really just overdoes everything it offers to the point of trivializing it eventually. Theoretically, I believe Sciel or Monoco may have the highest damage potential (?) because they both have skills that get stronger based on previous foretell consumption or previous times the same attack was used respectively... but you'll meaningfully never see that potential because you would have to intentionally set it up to reduce the target's health to as low as possible without killing them, and then using it for a big damage on a low HP target so what's the point? Stendahl probably still does more anyway, and it one shots anything from full. That may change with enough new game playthroughs (apparently, theings scale up higher for up to five playthroughs) but by then, that's because you can't keep leveling pictos or weapons but enemies keep getting stronger so it feels bad regardless.

Despite how broken it can be... it remains fun for a long time which is what matters, and in some cases (Simon...), it doesn't feel bad to use these broken tactics.

Yeah I just figured it out myself and ended up with something else but indeed...on death effects... damn ! And yeah... Simon. Lol. Just lol.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Remember when the turle uses "the strongest ice attack ever" and you're just like, yeah, okay, this is a comedy battle in the first quarter of the game so no way it's...

*and then you get one shot*

Yeah, I learned from that, so when Simon...

Spoiler

Gets back up, attacks "at the speed of light", and starts "removing members from the canvas", panic sets in. I have no regrets about cheesing that particular battle. I did everything up until that point without many broken tactics so I got my fun out of it.

 

[Vayra86]

Remember when the turle uses "the strongest ice attack ever" and you're just like, yeah, okay, this is a comedy battle in the first quarter of the game so no way it's...

*and then you get one shot*

Yeah, I learned from that, so when Simon...

Spoiler

Gets back up, attacks "at the speed of light", and starts "removing members from the canvas", panic sets in. I have no regrets about cheesing that particular battle. I did everything up until that point without many broken tactics so I got my fun out of it.

I just smacked my forehead against the controller a few dozen times and eventually made it
The successful run had me pinging away his health in the first stage with just two party members, so that I could swap Maelle in for the last few stage after losing members.

 

[Nikhar]

Let me just slide into this chat... Forza Horizon 5 We're slacking this year, but this is my machine in our tandem crew.

The youngest makes our liveries, and while beautiful, the glare in the sunlight sure is irritating Still, gotta love a Mk4 Supra

 

[Leooooo1061]

Let me just slide into this chat... Forza Horizon 5 We're slacking this year, but this is my machine in our tandem crew.

The youngest makes our liveries, and while beautiful, the glare in the sunlight sure is irritating Still, gotta love a Mk4 Supra
View attachment 402462

yep. FH5 is definitely one of my favorite games. Started playing it back in 2022 and never stopped until I recently bought FH4 because it's about to be delisted. Been driving in the UK since then and chasing jets but I still visit Mexico once in a while.

DAMN your Mk4 Supra looks cool. Those rims are a really nice touch. I wonder how impressive it would be if you build it in real life.

 

[Nikhar]

yep. FH5 is definitely one of my favorite games. Started playing it back in 2022 and never stopped until I recently bought FH4 because it's about to be delisted. Been driving in the UK since then and chasing jets but I still visit Mexico once in a while.

DAMN your Mk4 Supra looks cool. Those rims are a really nice touch. I wonder how impressive it would be if you build it in real life.

Haha yeah Forza is awesome!

I love those rims too, Work Emotion's (Forgot the variant but they're lightweight forged rims)

Not everyone's cuppa tea in color choice, but Cyan/Magenta is our theme...

I'll go bankrupt before I start

Real life I built an old beemer in high school while studying automotive engineering on the side

- 1991 BMW E30 325iS EVO2, inherited from my grandfather (they were limited production of about 500 produced in both EVO1 and 2)

I was going to get it painted that exact Magenta color including my TE37 rims but the price put me off so I'm betting doing it to a Supra is even more crazy

I think everyone scrambled to pick up FH4 when it went on sale before delisting... Driving in the UK rain was fun

Now if only this game could show 900 degrees of steering wheel rotation in the cockpit like every other racing game does when using a wheel to play... That annoyed me in 4 and 5

 

[nomdeplume]

Certainly hope to see abilities related to flipping return in FH6. Off camber flips to be perfectly exact.
Saying that, I'm much surer it will be a driftfest. Drift DLC, dorifto passes, drift parks...
Subtly every update to FH5 is more simtastic with Motorsport receiving the drained off funs.

 

[Nikhar]

Certainly hope to see abilities related to flipping return in FH6. Off camber flips to be perfectly exact.
Saying that, I'm much surer it will be a driftfest. Drift DLC, dorifto passes, drift parks...
Subtly every update to FH5 is more simtastic with Motorsport receiving the drained off funs.

If FH6 has a Japanese setting, they BETTER give us off-camber flips

A lot of indie and small studio games are just doing so much right, Forza is lacking in the drift scene

 

[RatusNatus]

Star Citizen

 

[nomdeplume]

SnowRunner

Been too focused on taking block long 30' tall trailers down icy hairpin turns in what is apparently the easiest part of the game. To casually take screenshots.

 

[harm9963]

Hellisus Demo​

 

[anubis44]

Fallout 76. I basically haven't been playing anything else since it came out 6 1/2 years ago. They keep adding quests, items, weapon and armour tweaks, etc. etc. etc., as well as meeting people in game, and the sheer pleasure of the gun mechanics never get old for me. To make matters worse, my best friend FINALLY agreed to try it, and he loves the living h3ll out of it now, so I'm showing him the almost ridiculous array of things that you would want to learn to get the most out of playing it.

And for anybody who was all primed to sh!t on the game, I don't give a rat's ass what you think, so save yourself the keystrokes of vitriol. I'll simply laugh, no matter what you have to say.

 

[Princess Garnet]

Since I finished Clair Obscur, I'm back to the game I was in the middle of and set aside when it launched; the finale of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

I think I'm about halfway through.

I may have said this in an older post when I first started playing it, but I definitely like the third one better than the second one. One of the two levels I did today has your flame attack replaced with one that freezes enemies. Instead of killing them, it just freezes them in a block of ice. While this sounds like a negative, they are helpless when frozen and can be defeated with a follow up charge, so there's no added risk unless there's multiple enemies in an area (which is not overly common, at least since they have a low aggression range). And the few that are clustered often have these beam ray towers nearby, another unique thing for this level, to help deal with them.

The real reason the freeze breath is a benefit is that there are places in the level you can't reach without freezing an enemy in the right spot, and then using the frozen block to access. It's some nice variety for one level, and I like the things they did to freshen up the third game compared to the second (which was too reliant on power ups).

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

It had been a while since i played any borderlands. This is/was free on the epic store. Wife, daughter, and myself all playing LAN, and are having a blast. It has been our 2 hours of gaming before bedtime.

I'll admit, the language is a bit rough sometimes, but overall, not a bad game for the whole family (except the little ones.)