What are you playing?

[ssj4yamgeta]

I've been playing demos for three games: Pragmata, Nioh 3, and Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection. All three are very good, and I'm considering buying MH Stories 3 on release day next month along with Crimson Desert. The last time I bought a game on release was probably Persona 5 back in 2016.

There's one problem with Nioh 3 that's making me hesitate on paying $70 for it: even for a soulsborne game, the bosses have ridiculous amounts of armor and are just not fun to fight. My demo character uses Odachi (2-handed swords), and each swing will barely shave off a sliver of the boss' screen-spanning health bar. This makes it feel like you're hitting them with a nerf bat while they're hitting you with a sledgehammer. It's a shame the bosses are such a pain, because the rest of the game is pretty fun. Maybe I'll wait for it to drop to $50.

[kamikazekeeg]

Played a little "Fate Trigger" again, new demo is out, it's an anime styled battle royale, very much a mixture of Fortnite, Apex, and a lot of PUBG.  I played this on the closed beta test...last year? I don't remember, it's been awhile, but it feels abit more cleaned up from what I remember, I can't remember everything I said on it before, but it runs well, looks decent, but it isn't great.  It's at least got solo play, but not enough players right now for the demo, so it was 5+ minutes to get a match, which means I only played a handful of matches.

I think my issue with it is the hero shooter aspect doesn't seem super important to the experience, because the TTK is so fast.  This is where the PUBG comes in as a lot of the gameplay, world, general execution feels like that, but you can melt people fast, with very accurate weapons, across long ranges, even if you got sick as hell armor.  I only played solo and things could change a bit with a trio or duo, but I question that.  I don't want the game to be bullet spongey, but I think there needs to be a better middle ground.

It's not bad, but I might try one more time whenever it actually releases maybe, it's not like I'm playing any right now (REDSEC didn't really nail it and doesn't have solo play), so if it comes out in the next few months like it's supposed to, maybe I'll play for abit.  It's F2P and I ain't going back to Fortnite, PUBG, Apex, or Warzone, so why not lol

[weirdfeline]

I learned that Predator: Hunting Grounds is still active. It only takes about a minute to find a game and I was playing at like 4am. It's a decent game that for some reason reminds me of Unit 13.

[bizzgeburt]

I'm right in the middle of my last & hopefully final attempt to complete The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
I'm playing the Game of the Year version on PS3 ... and got a lot more questing to do before I'm through with it.
Having played Morrowind and Skyrim to it's absolute limits, it's a matter of gamers pride to finish this one off the same ridiculously overpowered way like I did with the other two entries. 

Currently: leveling my fighting and summoning skills by summoning and mowing down Skamps  inside my house in Cheydinhal.

[kamikazekeeg]

Played a few hours of the Marathon Server Slam and it's pretty solid.  It's generally your standard extraction shooter experience, but it kinda plays inbetween something abit more hardcore and something more casual as it's a slower paced game, which I like.  Not just because I'm an "old" at this point, but I just think we need more games like this or Arc Raiders and less speedy movement games.  It's wild to see the brainrot state of some folks that act like Marathon is way too slow, all because they are use to like Apex or Fortnite or something lol I don't know if I'll get the game when it releases or not, I like that it has solo play, but bots feel a tad overtuned since the TTK is kinda quick and you burn through ammo so fast.  We'll see, might depend on how big of a playerbase it has at launch.

More eagerly, Resident Evil: Requiem released, pretty excited for this.  I was a little worried that because it had Windows 11 for requirements, that I couldn't play it, but it runs and plays great for me, no issues.  This will be my weekend pretty much as it's pretty decent so far, very tense.

[weirdfeline]

Marathon was pretty awful. Long, nonsensical cutscenes were annoying. The menu system is probably the worst I've ever seen. Playing what is purposely labeled as the beginner mode and getting swarmed by bots that take more than a clip each to kill and reloading takes half an hour and the ammo is limited isn't fun. Shields are rare. No part of the game is streamlined for what is supposed to be a game played by millions, they failed at game design by making it so convoluted. If this were a single player FPS game it'd be more excusable but it's not. I kinda like the art style but it's not that special.

If I actually stuck with it and wasted hours learning everything it still wouldn't be fun. Not starting on an even playing field is flawed game design. Battle royale games are way better because everyone starts with nothing, bringing in your own super powered loot at the start of the game is just a lame idea for a game. Where's the fun part for a beginner? Die over and over and maybe one time get lucky? No thanks!

[kamikazekeeg]

Marathon was pretty awful. Long, nonsensical cutscenes were annoying. The menu system is probably the worst I've ever seen. Playing what is purposely labeled as the beginner mode and getting swarmed by bots that take more than a clip each to kill and reloading takes half an hour and the ammo is limited isn't fun. Shields are rare. No part of the game is streamlined for what is supposed to be a game played by millions, they failed at game design by making it so convoluted. If this were a single player FPS game it'd be more excusable but it's not. I kinda like the art style but it's not that special.

If I actually stuck with it and wasted hours learning everything it still wouldn't be fun. Not starting on an even playing field is flawed game design. Battle royale games are way better because everyone starts with nothing, bringing in your own super powered loot at the start of the game is just a lame idea for a game. Where's the fun part for a beginner? Die over and over and maybe one time get lucky? No thanks!

Very different takes lol This is what the Extraction genre is, you aren't meant to start on even footing, though in games like this, you can still stomp other players if you get the jump on them, it makes for pretty intense fights and you can have pretty great come ups because of it and this is the more casual end of Extraction shooters also compared to like Tarkov or Hunt, very similar to Arc Raiders in that way.  It's meant to be much more intense and challenging than a BR experience, which certainly isn't for everybody.

I never really got the UI problems a lot of folks are having, like it's a tad overwhelming too start with the art and such, but it didn't take long to figure things out, I think it was all pretty clear after an hour of play and I'm just glad they didn't do some CoD or now Battlefield garbage design where it looks like a streaming service.  I'll take a menu with a stylish look and a slight learning curve over that lol

Bots are tough though in solo particular.  I don't mind that they can take a decent amount of ammo, it's that you almost always have to fight them in like squads.  The free kit gives enough for like that one fight with maybe a mag to spare, but then trying to restock is tough as ammo comes in small amounts unless you happen to get lucky and the area has ammo lockers or you find an ammo resupply box.  And if you go in with a kit, you have to stock up on so much ammo, even with an extra backpack space, it feels like a quarter of your space is just reserved for ammo lol Crate hacking feels impossible as a solo to because of how it spawns bots nearly on top of you.  I think they need to tweak the bots abit better for solo, maybe having like one less spawn in the areas and perhaps up ammo stack counts, but we'll see I guess.

[bizzgeburt]

Still in the progress of playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion...
I'm 120+ hours in and already finished fighters guild and am close to finish mages guild, so thieves and assassins guilds are next to play through. I decided to do ALL side stuff before attempting the main quest and DLCs this time.
I simply love those busted leveling mechanics 

[2ko]

Marathon was pretty awful. Long, nonsensical cutscenes were annoying. The menu system is probably the worst I've ever seen. Playing what is purposely labeled as the beginner mode and getting swarmed by bots that take more than a clip each to kill and reloading takes half an hour and the ammo is limited isn't fun. Shields are rare. No part of the game is streamlined for what is supposed to be a game played by millions, they failed at game design by making it so convoluted. If this were a single player FPS game it'd be more excusable but it's not. I kinda like the art style but it's not that special.

If I actually stuck with it and wasted hours learning everything it still wouldn't be fun. Not starting on an even playing field is flawed game design. Battle royale games are way better because everyone starts with nothing, bringing in your own super powered loot at the start of the game is just a lame idea for a game. Where's the fun part for a beginner? Die over and over and maybe one time get lucky? No thanks!

Calling it flawed game design is a bit much. Asymmetrical combat is often quite fun because when you do take down the player with the better gear, you now get to use that gear for yourself. BR's (which you point out as being better) actually have the same "flaw". Good RNG means I can end up with high level armor and stronger weapons than you in a fight. It is far from an even playing field. Even zone RNG can tip the scales in someone's favor, since having to cross the battlefield in the open puts you at a significant disadvantage to someone who is able to stay in a secure position inside the zone. If you don't like it that's fine but just pointing out that calling it flawed is a bit much.

Personally I've been enjoying it as a solo player. The AI are manageable with proper preparation. The only AI I have had trouble with are the "raid boss" type enemies (there is one on each map and don't always spawn), but I feel such enemies should be hard. That's kind of the point. They are kind of trivial in Trios which I actually dislike as there is no risk in fighting them for their good loot. There needs to be some amount of risk involved IMO.

I'll probably play it for the first wipe and try to finish all the main stuff, but I'm not sure I'll stick around after they reset everything. By then it will be time to move onto new games, and I'm not sure I want to just replay all the same stuff  over and over again. Crimson Desert's release is also going to chew into my game time a lot so I may not even get through everything I want tbh.

[kamikazekeeg]

Picked up Icarus since it was on a deep sale, one of those games I thought about checking out at some point, but I was surprised how much DLC they've released for this.  It's kind of an alternate take to No Man's Sky, where I feel like Icarus had kind of a weaker launch that I remember, didn't really do a lot for folks, but the studio stuck with it and made a solid survival experience as far as I can tell, but instead of lots of free updates, there's a lot of expansion that have new animals and crafted maps and such.  The tech tree and amount of skills you can earn is honestly kind of crazy.  Kinda creates this combo of lots of depth, but is casual enough that doesn't feel immediately complicated. 

It originally had like a...Extraction mode-esque type experience, you'd land, do stuff, survive, and then need to leave, but it seems like they've embraced more of a general survival game option as you can play it like any other long term survival game.  I'm only a few hours in, but it's solid so far.