What games are you playing now?

[danutz_plusplus]

You're talking about Senua's sacrifice, right? To me it dragged on a bit towards the end as well, mostly because it became increasingly difficult to follow the story due to the deterioration of her mental health. I had to look up the interpretation afterwards...

But the experience was worth it for me, especially the soundscape with headphones listening to the voices in her head were quite unique.

Yeah, the experience emotional and story experience was definitely solid for how much I played through it. But now it's hard to get back into it and finish it.
I'm in a bit of a burnout, and the gameplay is just killing me. It's so repetitive. I need to take a bigger break from gaming.

 

[JFarrell71]

I've been interested in the Trails games for some time but shy away due to the supposed length of the games. Nowadays it takes me three to four months of regular gaming to complete a game of 100 hours...

Some are longer than others, but none of them are short. And it's an interconnected story across its 10+ games (they're still coming out), so... yeah. Definitely a long haul situation. That continuity is a big part of the appeal to me. Very few long running game series do that sort of thing.

 

[henriquejr]

I'm still playing Dragon's Dogma 1 (yes, the first one, you read it correctly) and only now, after I'm past the middle of the game (at least I believe so) I've got my first issue/frustration with the one-slot save system.

Spoiler: Problem with the order of sme quests

When I finished the quest "Trials and Tribulations", I received a message telling me that the quest "The Conspirators" had failed. I tried to reload my manual save (a save before the completion of "Trials and Tribulations") but the game already had overwritten it with an automatic one (right after the completion).
Also trying to reload from the last checkpoint didn't work, since the now "last checkpoint" is the proper end of the "Trials and Tribulations" quest itself

Anyway, I entered the game knowing that the one-slot save system 'feature' did exist. Personally, it's a bit of disappointment leaving a quest undone but I can live with it. Yes, it's boring but what can I do?

 

[Shagnak]

I've been having a hard time settling into anything. Part way in Tyranny, barely started Divinity: OS... mostly been dabbling in smaller games.
I think it's partly to do with doing a LOT of computer work lately for my job and needing a break from sitting in front of a PC.

Been having a go at Looper Hero. Feels like something I'd enjoy more on a tablet, so maybe I'll buy the Android version sometime.
Speaking of which, I've been playing a lot of Slice & Dice on my phone. Very simple and addictive.

 

[bkrueger]

I've been having a hard time settling into anything. Part way in Tyranny, barely started Divinity: OS... mostly been dabbling in smaller games.
I think it's partly to do with doing a LOT of computer work lately for my job and needing a break from sitting in front of a PC.

Might also be a gaming burnout. I have that from time to time. Then it helps to stay away from computer games for a few days or weeks. If that doesn't work, replay an old game that you love. In my experience this is better than trying lots of new games without getting into them.

 

[Robollix]

Skyrim...........again...........

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Went back to Hellblade, and it seems previously I stopped my playthrough right before it got interesting. I really liked the whole scene, after Senua gets defeated by Hela and she has that whole monologue with herself about being a failure. It really felt honest.

Now I just finished one of the challenges around the tree, the complete darkness one. God was it annoying at one point.
I actually managed to get lost among those creatures, and even managed to blindly walk all the way back to where I started from. That was so demoralizing.
Thank god on the second attempt I found the correct way out pretty quickly.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Ok, I think I'm probably in the last few hours of Hellblade (at least according to the achievements; still have Fenrir and Hela to defeat) since I'm in Helheim.
But I am so tired of just running in the darkness, chased by whatever, trying to find symbols to unlock the next gate.
It's absolutely annoying. Plus, every time I just lose patience and die Senua rots and I imagine at a certain point it's a definite gameover.

As much as I enjoy the world, story and character, the gameplay (combat and puzzles) is absolutely sub-par.
I've even put the combat on easy, and they still take a lot of time to get through.
The puzzles are just the same shit over and over. Find the pattern in the environment, under various limitations.

I think I'm done with it. I'll watch the rest of the story on a youtube playthrough.
Maybe if I were in a better mindset I'd be more lenient, but this is just not a good game.
The story, writing and personal journey of Senua seems very nice and I'm enjoyin those a lot, but this should've just been a walking simulator, and it would've been all the better for it.

I really hope Hellblade 2 either makes combat much rarer, or makes it better (I'd vote for make it rare, since this is a mental journey; and the gamification of it kind of goes against the whole experience I imagine they're going for).
And I hope the puzzles are better, or take them out completely.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Yeah, I watched the last hour of gameplay on youtube and it was the best decision.
Really enjoyed how the story wrapped up, but oh god did they stuff the last hour of gameplay with more of the same enemies than ever.
The fight on the bridge to Hela had around 20-30 of the same enemies, with some of the worst in teams of 2 or 3.

It was shocking to see how their logic of just stuffing more and more enemies since it's the end was at work. I really cannot understand their logic. It feels like just auto-pilot encounter design with no thought. It's the final fights so there have to be more and more enemies. That really goes against the whole idea of games as art. I wonder when game devs will grow out of these knee-jerk decisions.
And then the very final fight, they even recycled all of the bosses from across the game, along with another round of the same enemies from throughout the whole game. Just a lack of creativity.

Anyway, the story itself and how it wrapped was pretty good. Even got me pretty emotional. I just wish they could've been wiser and not stuff their whole game with just the most spongy and endless amounts of enemies.
Really screws with the whole experience. As I said, this could've been an ever better "walking-simulator".

 

[Redglyph]

I'm still playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It includes the Frozen Wilds DLC, which I finished today, or at least its main line. There's a ridiculous difficulty spike in several combats at the end that almost made me give up on the game - more combats against very difficult and sponge machines in a tight area. I simply switched to story mode and resumes normally after that part (unfortunately, it wasn't possible to leave the area and get back later, or even to reload before the whole thing).

I don't know what went through their heads when they designed that part. I hated it. After that, I watched FightinCowboy and he apparently had troubles in the last combat, too, which he didn't like either (video).

And of course, no way to refill health potions during most of the quest, so I almost ran out.

 

[Couchpotato]

Started to play the last three Star Ocean PC ports and it feels weird as I'm used to playing those on a console. Still love playing JRPGs but the older I get less so.

There just made for older players and thankfully some developers finally understand that. Just look at the latest Final Fantasy games for good examples.

 

[JDR13]

I'm still playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It includes the Frozen Wilds DLC, which I finished today, or at least its main line. There's a ridiculous difficulty spike in several combats at the end that almost made me give up on the game - more combats against very difficult and sponge machines in a tight area. I simply switched to story mode and resumes normally after that part (unfortunately, it wasn't possible to leave the area and get back later, or even to reload before the whole thing).

I don't know what went through their heads when they designed that part. I hated it. After that, I watched FightinCowboy and he apparently had troubles in the last combat, too, which he didn't like either (video).

And of course, no way to refill health potions during most of the quest, so I almost ran out.

I remember liking Frozen Wilds for the most part, but I don't remember much about the plot except for Hephaestus. Those Fireclaws were ridiculous though especially on Hard difficulty.

I'm still playing Horizon Forbidden West. It's good, but not a game that I've wanted to play constantly. That might just be me though because I haven't been in much of a gaming mood the last few weeks, nor have I had the time to commit to it. Steam has me logged at 110 hours now, but I still have quite a lot of content left.

 

[bkrueger]

[...] or even to reload before the whole thing).

While I feel with you in general, I don't understand this passage. You can reload saves at any time, at least in the PC version. So if you saved at a camp fire before you started "the whole thing", you should have been able to reload that whenever you wanted.

By the way: The level requirement for the end of Frozen Wilds is higher than for the final fight of the main game. So obviously it is meant to be played after that.

That said, I also hate boss fights, where you are locked in. That is bad console design. Unfortunately most games have it today.

 

[Redglyph]

I remember liking Frozen Wilds for the most part, but I don't remember much about the plot except for Hephaestus. Those Fireclaws were ridiculous though especially on Hard difficulty.

I'm still playing Horizon Forbidden West. It's good, but not a game that I've wanted to play constantly. That might just be me though because I haven't been in much of a gaming mood the last few weeks, nor have I had the time to commit to it. Steam has me logged at 110 hours now, but I still have quite a lot of content left.

I do like Frozen Wilds. The story is nice and fits the HZD's story, and the environment is gorgeous. This snow... It's a little harder because it's a DLC, but I didn't have any problem with the rest.

It looks like HFW is longer than HZD. Though it depends on whether you do all the side quests and many errands or not. I'm about 90 hours, now, and only a few things left in the main quest. Not playing it constantly either, for the same reasons (I don't think it's due to the game).

 

[Redglyph]

While I feel with you in general, I don't understand this passage. You can reload saves at any time, at least in the PC version. So if you saved at a camp fire before you started "the whole thing", you should have been able to reload that whenever you wanted.

By the way: The level requirement for the end of Frozen Wilds is higher than for the final fight of the main game. So obviously it is meant to be played after that.

That said, I also hate boss fights, where you are locked in. That is bad console design. Unfortunately most games have it today.

I did a quicksave earlier, but not a manual one, and it was apparently overwritten (maybe when I left the game?). All the auto-saves left were also during this long one-way part, and the previous manual save would have put me 2 weeks back.

Had I known it was so different than the rest of the game so far, I would've made a manual save.

I have the required level and didn't have any problem with the other combats, though they were of course harder than the main game (or less easy). Yeah, I should have finished the main quest first, but I don't mind if it's easier; it seems to level-scale somewhat anyway. And it's actually taken into account if you do FW before the end of the quest because you get some dialogues about it, so it didn't feel odd or meant to play after.

The thing with the fireclaw fight (or the previous ones) is what was discussed a few weeks ago. The game is mostly ranged and encourages stealth, so when you have a very powerful enemy in a closed area and who's in your face all the time, it's quite disorienting.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I started another playthrough of Hellblade, but this time with combat difficulty on hard and it's surprising how easy they go down when you don't just spam light attack over and over.
I feel I also have a higher degree of confidence this time around, so I'm taking more risks and being less defensive, so also having more fun. I think I was also too afraid of the advertised permadeath, once you die enough times.
But apparently that's not exactly true, from what a bunch of videos are saying. They're saying the perma-death is also another lie/illusion, to keep with the theme of the story.

 

[Pladio]

I wanted to play Fallout 3, but it kept crashing and I wasn't in the mood to try a 100 solutions to fix it, so I installed ATOM RPG instead.
I had tried it when it released, but then stopped for some reason. I had only gotten to the first town, and I'm back there, so not much lost.

Will see how it progresses. I'm aiming to play a melee build but no clue if that's viable.

 

[Shagnak]

Lunacid
I've played an hour or so before, enough to know I'd like it before buying it. Going to have a proper go at it now, as a palate cleanser before something bigger.
Cool PSX-style graphics, good atmosphere, Kingsfield-like gameplay. The second area with the brain-eaten monk mummies scares me a little.

 

[Tony]

Will see how it progresses. I'm aiming to play a melee build but no clue if that's viable.

In my experience, it is. Some of the best early craftable equipment are shields and melee weapons (if I'm remembering right).

 

[purpleblob]

I'm still playing Dragon's Dogma 1 (yes, the first one, you read it correctly) and only now, after I'm past the middle of the game (at least I believe so) I've got my first issue/frustration with the one-slot save system.

Spoiler: Problem with the order of sme quests

When I finished the quest "Trials and Tribulations", I received a message telling me that the quest "The Conspirators" had failed. I tried to reload my manual save (a save before the completion of "Trials and Tribulations") but the game already had overwritten it with an automatic one (right after the completion).
Also trying to reload from the last checkpoint didn't work, since the now "last checkpoint" is the proper end of the "Trials and Tribulations" quest itself

Anyway, I entered the game knowing that the one-slot save system 'feature' did exist. Personally, it's a bit of disappointment leaving a quest undone but I can live with it. Yes, it's boring but what can I do?

How are you finding Dragon's Dogma 1? I'm actually re-installing this to give it another go (last time, I gave up after 12 hours).