What are you currently playing?

KazumaKillyou wrote:Recently been trekking through the new Prey from Arkane after forever and a half. It's scratching an itch particularly close to System Shock 2 and some other immersive sims. Would recommend.

If you're looking for more of that stuff then I'd definitely recommend the OG Thief trilogy if you haven't already. On top of being incredibly great stealth games they're just so good at immersing you into their setting.

Which, given it IS from the same guys who did System Shock, it shouldn't be surprising.

Ohmygodiamonfire wrote:

KazumaKillyou wrote:Recently been trekking through the new Prey from Arkane after forever and a half. It's scratching an itch particularly close to System Shock 2 and some other immersive sims. Would recommend.

If you're looking for more of that stuff then I'd definitely recommend the OG Thief trilogy if you haven't already. On top of being incredibly great stealth games they're just so good at immersing you into their setting.

Which, given it IS from the same guys who did System Shock, it shouldn't be surprising.

Oh yeah the Thief games are some of my favorites, easily, which makes the reboot game sucking hurt all the more. Dishonored has filled that niche pretty well thankfully AND New Blood's upcoming Gloomwood oozes Thief spiritual successor. Might go back soon and play Thief 1 and 2 though since stealth games are pretty few and far between nowadays.

I'm playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. I guess I'm action-minded at the moment.

On the other hand, I have Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley available for more relaxing and cooperative-style gameplay. I also enjoy playing Tabletop Simulator to emulate the board game experience and socialize with friends!

Beat Resident Evil 7. It didn't feel very "Resi" at first, but ultimately it ended up being a solid, tightly constructed survival horror experience. Hopefully I'll be able to give the 2 and 3 remakes a fair shake eventually; I'm still biased against the way they removed the tank controls and fixed camera angles, but 7 has shown me Capcom still knows how to design survival horror gameplay.

Katsie wrote:
On the other hand, I have Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley available for more relaxing and cooperative-style gameplay. I also enjoy playing Tabletop Simulator to emulate the board game experience and socialize with friends!

You might enjoy Rune Factory 4 Special. Its another cozy farming sim on switch, with the addition of anime aesthetics and action rpg elements. They ported it to renew interest in the franchise since 5 is ostensibly on the way.

Tabletop Sim is a good time, don't use it for much besides occasional Wixoss though.

Gave Helltaker a shot. Remember I suck at puzzles, so I looked up how to do them and made it to the final stage and got stuck again. At least that final stage is "easier" than the ones leading to it.

I just can't do puzzle games like this. Got stuck in Friday the 13th Killer Puzzle so now all I play is the kill mode!

Ohmygodiamonfire wrote:

sky_and_sea wrote:
Dungeon crawlers have been the mood as of late, so if anyone has any suggestions
for those or other RPGs, I'm all ears.

I hear Darkest Dungeon is good for that, if you can handle the roguelike nature of it.

If I may throw some of my suggestions into the ring: Diablo, Rogue Legacy, something from the Choco Dungeon series, and lastly, POWDER. Not the physics sandbox game — the free indie roguelike available at 'zincland,' the site of its creator (Jeff Lait). Honestly, POWDER is a surprising gem of a game with many deep mechanics despite its simplistic controls, and it is available to download and play on pretty much everything.

Got in the mood for Pokemon again for the first time since Kalos-era and Gen 8 has not made a good impression on me

There's lots of nice QoL features and good ideas that are soured by excessive linearity and handholding (please for the love of god Hop I just want to play the game quit stopping me for tutorials every five feet)

Can't say I care for a lot of the pokemon designs either, though the human character designs remain on point

Katsie wrote:
If I may throw some of my suggestions into the ring: Diablo, Rogue Legacy, something from the Choco Dungeon series, and lastly, POWDER. Not the physics sandbox game — the free indie roguelike available at 'zincland,' the site of its creator (Jeff Lait). Honestly, POWDER is a surprising gem of a game with many deep mechanics despite its simplistic controls, and it is available to download and play on pretty much everything.

second for POWDER, solid game

on the roguelike front its also worth trying Forays Into Norrendrin and ClassicRogue

Forays in particular is simple but tactical and ClassicRogue is a good modern port of the dungeon crawler that kicked off the entire roguelike genre

I'm not sure I can replay any Pokemon games past Gen 5 at this point, I do plan on starting Sword (eventually, I've only owned the game for SIX MONTHS without playing it) but I probably will just do my runthrough and some post game and then move on.

EvieSigma wrote:I'm not sure I can replay any Pokemon games past Gen 5 at this point, I do plan on starting Sword (eventually, I've only owned the game for SIX MONTHS without playing it) but I probably will just do my runthrough and some post game and then move on.

It feels pretty impossible for me too. I still haven't completed Pokémon Sun yet. I think Gen 5 was the last Gen I was able to really get into (Black/White 2 is one of my favorites).

I'm still playing Zelda Link's Awakening. I'm working on getting to the fourth dungeon right now, I forgot how short this game is when you have an idea of what you're doing.

EvieSigma wrote:I'm still playing Zelda Link's Awakening. I'm working on getting to the fourth dungeon right now, I forgot how short this game is when you have an idea of what you're doing.

Hey! Just curious, what version of the game are you playing? The Game Boy release, the DX version on Game Boy Color, or the Switch remake?

Tempted to pick up Maneater. I missed Jaws Unleashed back in the day, and this more or less seems to be along the same lines!

Katsie wrote:

EvieSigma wrote:I'm still playing Zelda Link's Awakening. I'm working on getting to the fourth dungeon right now, I forgot how short this game is when you have an idea of what you're doing.

Hey! Just curious, what version of the game are you playing? The Game Boy release, the DX version on Game Boy Color, or the Switch remake?

DX version, but on the 3DS so I can have save states.

EvieSigma wrote:

Katsie wrote:Hey! Just curious, what version of the game are you playing? The Game Boy release, the DX version on Game Boy Color, or the Switch remake?

DX version, but on the 3DS so I can have save states.

That's smart thinking. I also have the game on 3DS. I have my own little folder for Zelda titles that I picked up on the eShop. IIRC it contains the NES Zeldas (1 + AoL) and all of the GBC titles (LA + OoS & OoA). Oh, and also ALttP for SNES!

Wahmphi wrote:Tabletop Sim is a good time, don't use it for much besides occasional Wixoss though.

Oh, right, I completely forgot we were gonna try to get a group together for some strategy board games at some point.

EvieSigma wrote:I'm not sure I can replay any Pokemon games past Gen 5 at this point, I do plan on starting Sword (eventually, I've only owned the game for SIX MONTHS without playing it) but I probably will just do my runthrough and some post game and then move on.

I really got into Gen 6 in terms of collecting and breeding, but the metagame just took too much effort to keep up with. Once that appeal faded away, the games had...well, they really had nothing left. Then Gen 7 had such issues in terms of progression and game design that I felt really burned, especially when the resells in USUM were flat-out downgrades instead of upgrades. Borrowed Let's Go because I was super hesitant and it pretty much just confirmed to me that nope, I'm completely out on the series from now on. I was seeing trends I didn't like that were getting worse instead of better. And being out on the series was just so freeing.

Anyway, now that I'm done with Doom Eternal, the next step is beating Persona 5 Royal. If I could manage to get the TV to myself for a while, at least. That's really been halting my progress.

Wahmphi wrote:Got in the mood for Pokemon again for the first time since Kalos-era and Gen 8 has not made a good impression on me

There's lots of nice QoL features and good ideas that are soured by excessive linearity and handholding (please for the love of god Hop I just want to play the game quit stopping me for tutorials every five feet)

Can't say I care for a lot of the pokemon designs either, though the human character designs remain on point.

I wonder what your reaction to Sordward and Shielbert would be.

Back on topic, I've made some progress on Mother 3 and have been enjoying it. The characters are pretty neat.
Thinking about giving POWDER a shot soon, but there's the obstacle of figuring out what to put it on and how. I'm not software savvy,
but I'll figure something out. If all else fails, Steam will probably be my best bet for playing aforementioned recommendations.

Katsie wrote:

EvieSigma wrote:

Katsie wrote:Hey! Just curious, what version of the game are you playing? The Game Boy release, the DX version on Game Boy Color, or the Switch remake?

DX version, but on the 3DS so I can have save states.

That's smart thinking. I also have the game on 3DS. I have my own little folder for Zelda titles that I picked up on the eShop. IIRC it contains the NES Zeldas (1 + AoL) and all of the GBC titles (LA + OoS & OoA). Oh, and also ALttP for SNES!

I really should try the Oracle games again. They're...very ambitious, to say the least.

sky_and_sea wrote:I wonder what your reaction to Sordward and Shielbert would be.

Back on topic, I've made some progress on Mother 3 and have been enjoying it. The characters are pretty neat.
Thinking about giving POWDER a shot soon, but there's the obstacle of figuring out what to put it on and how. I'm not software savvy,
but I'll figure something out. If all else fails, Steam will probably be my best bet for playing aforementioned recommendations.

Tried playing Mother 3, got to Mr. Passion. After Chapter 1 my emulator crashed every time I tried to save so I relied on save states, then I started save-scumming because I'm p sure I wasn't ready for him and didn't know if I could grind up anymore and save states stopped working
I'll probably get back into it at some point but it all left a sour taste in my mouth

Is Doom 2 (Eternal) significantly better than Doom (2016)?

sky_and_sea wrote:Thinking about giving POWDER a shot soon, but there's the obstacle of figuring out what to put it on and how.

Googling 'powder roguelike' should yield a link to Jeff Lait's site where he uploads POWDER in all its forms (available on the Downloads page) at 'zincland.com'. Download the Windows SDL on whatever PC/laptop/tablet/mobile device you have. Good luck!

EvieSigma wrote:I really should try the Oracle games again. They're...very ambitious, to say the least.

JanieCox wrote:Tried playing Mother 3...

...I'll probably get back into it at some point but it (all) left a sour taste in my mouth

I say yes and yes to both of you. I think it's often worth giving games another chance every now and then, to see if you can find new ways to enjoy it. I've been able to have more fun with games that I gave a second chance to.

One of the strongest personal examples that jumps to my mind immediately is Final Fantasy IX, a game that I spurned when my friend loaned it to me (I quit at the Ice Caves boss — basically, the 2nd dungeon in the game). When I eventually returned to the game with a fresh set of eyes, I ended up 100%ing my new save.

Katsie wrote:Is Doom 2 (Eternal) significantly better than Doom (2016)?

I'd say so. More freedom of movement, generally improved arena design and enemy variety, better weapon balance, more challenging but also improved difficulty scaling.

sky_and_sea wrote:
I wonder what your reaction to Sordward and Shielbert would be.

Sword is what I was complaining about.

Wahmphi wrote:
Sword is what I was complaining about.

I'm aware of that. There must be some misunderstanding between us because Sordward and Shielbert are literally characters in the game.
I probably could've assumed you might not have made it that far yet, though.

sky_and_sea wrote:Sordward and Shielbert are literally characters in the game.

...what

DaLadybugMan wrote:

sky_and_sea wrote:Sordward and Shielbert are literally characters in the game.

...what

I wish I was lying.

DaLadybugMan wrote:

sky_and_sea wrote:Sordward and Shielbert are literally characters in the game.

...what

images of the lads in question:

Guess which one is which

Finally finishing up Link's Awakening DX, just have two dungeons left and then the Wind Fish's Egg. After that, Oracle of Ages I guess.