New thread! Whatcha all playing! I’ve been playing more blasphemous 2. Really really into it 🙏

Still playing Baldur’s Gate 3

I’m shelving Baldur’s Gate 3 for now after a full run plus more. Had a great time with it, but I think I’d rather wait for more polish first before I tinker with it any more or check out the story branches/side quests in Act 3 I didn’t see.

I started playing Hardspace: Shipbreaker and I was surprised at how quickly it grabbed me. The story has a very similar vibe to Papers, Please and something about the UI and the artistic design is reminding me a lot of old space sims. Surprisingly cozy game, though I might look into seeing if I can swap out the music. Don’t know if I like what it says about me that I really like games that are work simulators, though.

I have Hard space Shipbreaker on my list. I’m hoping it’s the type of game you can pick up and play I short, relaxed bursts. Is that how you’d describe it?

For sure. The core gameplay loop is in 15 minute segments, at least at the point I’m at.

Armored Core 6. It’s quite different from the earlier games in the series. Some good changes, some bad. I really don’t get into Fromsoft’s games from the past 12 years and was hoping this would be a return to the old AC style, and in some ways it is, but it mixes in so much from their recent successes that it makes parts of the game really unfun for me.

Either way, I’m glad for more Armored Core.

As a fan of the souls borne games, I’m thoroughly enjoying AC6, nearing the end of my first play through, and will likely do at least one lap of NG+

My biggest complaint is that new items are spread out well, seems to be a dump of new stuff then nothing for ages.

Glad you’re having fun! I’d say of you’re going to do another round, you might as well just go for NG++ as well and see the “true ending”. I’m about to wrap up the third playthrough and it really does add a lot of good content. More choices in missions, more parts and weapons, more battles. Each playthrough gets quicker also. Still 1 or 2 bosses that I absolutely despise though.

I agree on the parts rollercoaster. At least they’re not too stingy with money so you can actually buy some new stuff when it becomes available instead of having to grind cash.

ampersandrew
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42Y

Baldur’s Gate 3

It’s incredible so far. I just made it out of Act 1. For the most part, you can come up with plans and ideas on your own, and they’ll usually work, which makes you feel like a genius, but I have to call out two times that this specifically did not work the way I thought they would.

some light spoilers ahead

Early on, there’s a target that you have to either eliminate or side with, and I choose to side with them, with the express purpose of getting them to let their guard down so that I can separate them from the group and eliminate them. The dialogue options even allude to the fact that this is a strategy they want you to use. This target wants you to sneak into another (good) faction and open a gate for a bloodbath of an assault on that faction, but the target also leaves their battle plans out in the open. So I figure I’d steal the battle plans, give them to the other faction, and just not open the gate, and then that target dies. Well, it doesn’t work that way, and progressing that far along with the target invalidates the other quest entirely. Bummer.

The second is a fight right near the end of Act 1 where you’ve got to eliminate or side with a target again, in a room with a lot of lava, some slaves you can try to rescue, and a lot of enemies. Depending on how the dialogue goes right before the encounter, you either side with the target against the room full of enemies (but the slaves die), or you fight everyone. There are about 15 enemies in the room, which means they get a lot more turns than you, and since they’re all grouped in that room, there’s no real way to isolate them and take them out stealthily ahead of the encounter. I tried using a bard Performance to get them to all clump up so that I could push large groups of them into the lava, which was fairly effective, but then the slaves would join that group too, and it was very easy to aggro them. Worse still is that the slaves will happily fight you if you aggro them, but they won’t join you to fight the other enemies in the room that enslaved them, let alone the target you’re trying to eliminate. The only way I found through it was to reload an earlier save and to make different dialogue choices with a particular NPC so that some of those 15 enemies end up on my side in that fight when the time comes.

end of spoilers

The game usually lets me get away with whatever crazy plan I come up with, but I just wish these two points so far were a bit more flexible.

One thing I learned about the game fairly early on (actually in that same area, with a certain imprisoned bear) is that once you do something that makes NPCs hostile, they are going to stay hostile for good. That’s not to say there aren’t opportunities to flip allegiances a bit, but going fully subversive isn’t well-supported. And to a degree, that makes sense; a good DM’s going to make it difficult on you, because once you’re seen with the enemy, it’s going to take a lot of convincing.

For the Grymforge event, you can also just…

spoiler

not excavate and let Nere die in the poison trap.

ampersandrew
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12Y

But again, my expectation is that I had other ways to go hostile against these folks, especially after the goblin camp. But that scenario is basically set up to make that combat encounter next to impossible, but I didn’t know that ahead of time, because after you clear the obstruction, the state of the map changes.

Yes, there are a couple of situations in the game where one can end up in a dead end situation, and that’s probably the easiest of the bunch to stumble into. The player pretty much has to either make a deal with the chief ahead of time or just not do the battle. It’s not ideal, especially since it’s likely easy for a player to go into it when needing a rest, too.

For the fight in Grymforge you’re talking about, there’s also an opportunity to get some of the duergar on your side, which makes the fight a lot more manageable.

Also, the game never explains this, but you know the buttons in the bottom left of the screen during cutscenes? You can use these to trade with characters that don’t normally have an option for it, to switch party members to sneak around while the one in conversation distracts an NPC, or to attack before a cutscene finishes playing out. Doing these things can affect the outcome of game events!

For your second fight, you can actually get above all the enemies (there’s a platform, to access some other parts of the map) and just completely break the AI, because they can’t get to you. I don’t remember if the slaves even joined the fight, but they all survived.

You can use this “tactic” in multiple locations, if you’re not above cheesing fights. If the enemy doesn’t have a ranged attack, or have no easy way to get to you, they just run in circles.

ampersandrew
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22Y

I’ve seen that area but had absolutely no idea how to reach it after looking around for a while.

I case you want to know

spoiler

you can either jump to a small outcropping down below, near the “entrance” of the big room, where the slaves are, or on the other side of the map, are a bunch of dwarves trying to go through yet another wall (these have like two goats with them), and go from there.

at_an_angle
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42Y

Voices of the Void. Because I like the subtle feeling of dread and knowing any action could result in something horrific.

Factorio. Optimization can always be improved upon.

Kenshi. Finally got my base built. Only cost a few arms and legs… and some of them weren’t mine!

quacker
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42Y

Judgement - this is basically just Yakuza Kiwami reskinned as a light detective game. I love the Yakuza games so I’m enjoying this. I wish the detective elements were a bit deeper, but they always do a great job stuffing the world with different weird side quests and characters.

Stellaris (console edition) - first time playing. This is Civilization in space. There’s a learning curve of course, so I started out on easy. I like the bit of detail they add in descriptions of strange sci-fi events, although this probably gets repetitive after your first game. They did a great job with the controls for console. Overall I’m enjoying it but it’s very much like Civilization where AI civs hate you for no reason.

Sea of Stars - this is good. I’m around 10-12 hrs in. The story picks up a lot after the dull intro thankfully. I’m slightly disappointed with the music. It’s fine, but none of the tracks are something I really want to listen to again. I’m impressed with the amount of detailed artwork and animation. I like the verticality of the world which adds interest to running around and provides good ways to hide secrets. The battle system is good. The only thing is I wish there was a bit more to the character customization. It’s pretty standard physical/magic attack and defense and there are very few armor and weapon choices so far. Overall, I’m enjoying it a lot.

Sea of stars came out of nowhere for me. I played the demo about a week ago and I was hooked. Looks like a great throwback to my favorite era of rpgs and I’m very excited.

Sea of Stars! It’s great so far. I only like turn based RPGs once in a blue moon, and this one really hooked me

MrGerrit
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32Y

Currently playing a lot of Minecraft with my daughter and her boyfriend. Have set up a server so we can pop in and out when we want to. Having a blast.

Also playing started playing sea of stars. Beautiful game and excited where it will go.

And there is always time to play another round of enter the gungeon!

idotherock
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22Y

That’s a really nice idea! And a great way to connect with your children.

Ecksell
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32Y

Trying to beat Spider-Man before Spider-Man 2 comes out next month. Also finally got around to Stardew Valley. I need to finish off Horizon Zero Dawn. Too many games, not enough time, the exact opposite of my childhood lol!

I’m in Act 3 of Baldur’s Gate 3 on my main run and keep proliferating new playthroughs instead of finishing the game.

Baldur’s gate 3

MooseGas
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32Y

I am, too.

Metroid Dread on Switch, at the final boss

idotherock
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12Y

Good luck!

Way too much Tetris on an emulated SNES

idotherock
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22Y

Oh nice! I super want to get Blasphemous 2. I loved the first one.

I’m continuing my slow progress through Mass Effect Legendary Edition.

Chloyster [she/her]
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32Y

You def should! It’s basically an improvement in every way imo over the first. I’ve heard some don’t like the cutscene art style as much but it doesn’t bother me

I’m on vacation, so I’ve returned to my default Steam Deck game: Wildermyth. I love its storytelling, particularly with carrying characters over from one campaign to another. I’ve grown particularly attached to the warrior from my first campaign, now fully fire-transformed. However, he’s moved on from his first love, who is now far too crow-like.

From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it’s gaming you can probably discuss it here!

Please Note: Gaming memes are permitted to be posted on Meme Mondays, but will otherwise be removed in an effort to allow other discussions to take place.

See also Gaming’s sister community Tabletop Gaming.


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