What games are you playing now?

I'm still playing God Wars: the complete legend. I only meant to dabble in this and get back to Swords and Sorcery: Underworld, yet I've been completely enchanted with the various group make-ups and classes you can unlock along the way, as well as the high exploration value some of the maps seem to have.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
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Holly Hill, FL.
I just finished the shortest campaign (consists of 3 chapters) in Wildermyth with my husband - took us 4 hours to complete.

We started off with 3 heroes then later picked up 3 more (one hero is a son of one of our original character). We can only take 5 heroes around per mission, so the son had to sit out most of the time. The game does rather poor job of describing how things work (imo), so we struggled a bit in part 2 of the campaign which made part 3 harder. We managed to defeat the final boss but one of our original heroes had to sacrifice herself *sniff*

It was a fun ride and we really got attached to the original 3 heroes. We managed to finish the campaign with none of them retiring due to old age but got close. I think we will end up seeing heroes retiring in other campaigns because they are longer (consists of 5 parts). It's a bit difficult to spread the experience between original heroes and new heroes but I think getting new heroes skilled up will be very important in other campaigns.

We are emotionally drained at the moment due to the death of our hero, so will take a short break before moving on to another campaign.

@forgottenlor; - thanks for you review, that was the reason I decided to pick this one up! :)
 
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Sep 4, 2021
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I messed around a bit with the new Steam version of Quake that I purchased recently. It's ok, but, imo, there are free source ports that look better.

It still plays great though. The controls and overall feel are really tight. I noticed it includes a new episode. I never did play the 2 original expansions, so I might just play those and the new one.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
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Florida, US
I've been putting in some time into the new online FPS Enlisted. World War 2, somewhat realistic, and quite fun even if it is still in beta. It is, however, a massive grind. After over 10 hours, I just got to my first semi-automatic. In one campaign, on one side. You have to grind up levels for each campaign and on both allied and axis sides.

Or you can buy levels and special weapons. Thus you have whales running around with M1 Garands and Thompsons, while schlebs run around with 1903 Springfields and M3s. Thing is, the balance is good enough that it doesn't really matter. I'm not I'm pretty terrible at shooters, yet I can still bring down whales with even vastly better weapons like the BARs and StG44. For nearly everything, it's one shot = kill, unless you hit a limb. Even SMGS don't take a lot to bring down an enemy, so buying higher tier weapons only gives some advantage, but not so much that it's impossible to compete and have fun.

The downside is that vehicle combat... sucks. The view is first person only, so when playing with a tank, you're looking down the barrel. The tanks get stuck constantly, and are highly vulnerable. I've found giving my tankers SMGs and abandoning the tank is far more effective than using the tank. Planes are worse. While realism is a fine thing to shoot for in many ways, the rule of fun should always take precedence in a game. As of right now, vehicles are not fun to use. The most annoying is that the squad system (more later) requires you to waste a squad slot on a vehicle. I'd rather toss my unused engineers in that slot. There are also an array of trucks and jeeps and kubelwagens around that you can hop in and drive. They're mostly for speedy access to the front, as they are unarmed and armored, and basically make you into a large target.

Infantry is class-based, with the usual suspects, except there is no medic. Instead, everyone in your squads gets a first aid kit. In case you get hit and are not killed instantly, you can bandage yourself and return to the fight. Engineers can build fortifications, ammo dumps, and other neat stuff, and are welcome on any battlefield. Riflemen have perks to give them advantages when shooting things, Snipers er... snipe. Assaulters use SMGs and harass women, Tankers suck until you give them a real weapon, and pilots die.

As to the squads, you actually spawn with a team of AI (missing the I mostly) buddies. Each squad is named for a historical unit, with each member having a name, and the individuals and the squad each gaining levels. In battle, you control one, and the others stand around soaking up bullets so you don't have to, and provide extra ammo for you when they die. Yeah, they aren't smart. They do act as a "lives" counter. Assuming they aren't wiped out before you, getting killed just sends you into controlling one of your squadmates. Whats more, deaths are only counted once the entire unit is wiped out. F2P players get 4 squads, with one forcibly locked into a vehicle squad (tank, plane).

The grind is, as mentioned, atrocious. First you have a campaign level, for each campaign, for each side (axis/allies). This unlocks weapons, troop classes, and vehicles. Then you have a squad/unit level. Then you have a system of upgrading the squads as a whole, with extra troops, higher level troops, and more. Then each person in the squad has their own level, which unlocks perks.

Then there's the logistics system. You have to get orders to buy new troops and weapons. Troops don't come with weapons. Want to add those two new riflemen you just bought? Better buy a couple MAS '36's for them. Otherwise they'll be wandering around with just a knife. Whats more is the silver weapon orders drop only rarely, as do the silver troop orders. Bronze weapon order are just used for random deliveries, and bronze troop orders aren't used period.

The TL:DR is that it's pretty fun, but the grind is horrible, and honestly if the basic gameplay wasn't such a blast, it wouldn't be worth playing due to that grind. As it is, it'll probably become unbearable once the devs start giving out broken weapons or perks for whales, but until then, it's a really fun shooter.
 
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Jun 28, 2007
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We are continuing our Wildermyth journey. Just finished 3rd part of The Enduring War campaign. Its a bit of change in pace from Age of Ulstryx camapaign. 2 of our original heroes retired and 2 will retire during part 4. We have 4 younger heroes to carry on with the story. I must admit, I have mixed feeling about the characters aging and retiring.

TEW story so far has been less engaging than AoU but I suppose that first campaign always feel more special. I'm enjoying the combat encounters more tho, probably because I have better underdtanding of how it works now.

@forgottenlor; out of curiosity, which campaign was your favourite?
 
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Sep 4, 2021
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I'm still romping around in God Wars. These towns you pass through and open shrines to do quests in seem to get NEW quests later in the game, so going back to do these has slowed down my overall progress in the game story, which isn't a complaint at all. If anything I think I might be super strong now, so far as the story-line combats are concerned, I might find that out later today or tomorrow.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
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Holly Hill, FL.
We are continuing our Wildermyth journey. Just finished 3rd part of The Enduring War campaign. Its a bit of change in pace from Age of Ulstryx camapaign. 2 of our original heroes retired and 2 will retire during part 4. We have 4 younger heroes to carry on with the story. I must admit, I have mixed feeling about the characters aging and retiring.

TEW story so far has been less engaging than AoU but I suppose that first campaign always feel more special. I'm enjoying the combat encounters more tho, probably because I have better underdtanding of how it works now.

@forgottenlor; out of curiosity, which campaign was your favourite?

I actually found the first campaign the least interesting. I think Eluna and the Moth was probably may favorite. I also think All the Bones of Summer was really good. That was the last campaign, and I only had one character who survived the final battle. It was one of the first 3 characters I got in the campaign, and he ended the campaign as an old man whose family and friends all fell in battle. A pretty pyrrhic victory, even if he saved humanity from destruction.
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
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Vienna, Austria
I actually found the first campaign the least interesting. I think Eluna and the Moth was probably may favorite. I also think All the Bones of Summer was really good. That was the last campaign, and I only had one character who survived the final battle. It was one of the first 3 characters I got in the campaign, and he ended the campaign as an old man whose family and friends all fell in battle. A pretty pyrrhic victory, even if he saved humanity from destruction.

I did bit of reading and it seems like most of players liked E&M and Bones campaign like you did :)

I think the reason I liked AoU more than TEW is because our heroes had better chemistry between them - it felt like they really bonded while our current group mostly are less friendly to each other. For someone like me, that party chemistry is really important.
 
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The Enduring War didn't click for me until I got more than midway through. The stories in the later campaigns can be slow burners, because they are stretched over 5 chapters. Also the procedural stories become less effective, because you've seen them before.
 
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Jan 29, 2014
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Vienna, Austria
The Enduring War didn't click for me until I got more than midway through. The stories in the later campaigns can be slow burners, because they are stretched over 5 chapters. Also the procedural stories become less effective, because you've seen them before.

We are now at the beginning of part 5 of TEW - the dilemma!!

We decided to continue help the "human" morthagi but I don't know - I was keen on eliminating them instead.

Again, out of curiosity, which did you side with?
 
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Sep 4, 2021
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Playing Solasta and loving it. Totally agree with description I read somewhere calling it a 'faithful adaption of DnD 5 to crpg'. My expectations were sort of low and the game has significantly exceeded them. I like how they implemented character creation / selecting traits, and how the characters behave in dialog as a result. Simple yet fun. Other Watch members said the game was mostly about combat and tactics, and I agree with that - I am really enjoying the combat encounters and maps - but the story so far is solid and definitely not a negative IMHO. Overall I would recommend this game to the Watch community without hesitation. I'm sure you can find on sale at some point too. I wish they could use DnD content. Hopefully they can license down the road. Seems they've laid all the groundwork to be able to implement new campaigns pretty easily (save for maybe the cut scenes and voice acting). I am curious to see what their campaign builder tools can do...for example creating branched dialog with skill checks. Stuff like that.
 
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Nov 22, 2014
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I like how they implemented character creation / selecting traits, and how the characters behave in dialog as a result. Simple yet fun.

Another criticism I keep seeing is that it's too formulaic and not innovative enough, and yet it's concept and implementation of individual personalities while maintaining a freely customisable party is truly revolutionary and has never been attempted before in this way.
 
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Nov 1, 2014
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We finished The Enduring War campaign last night.

We had fun but ended up hating one of our heroes so much that we let him get possessed by Thrixl so he doesn't come back - he was fairly experienced hero with decent equipment (also son of a charcater who retired earlier) but we were willing to accept the sacrifice. We even unticked him in list of legacy characters - that's how much we disliked him.

Its pretty amazing how well the personality tag system in Wildermyth works - really created different atmosphere depending on who we had in our party!
 
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Sep 4, 2021
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You two have tempted me to give this game a try at some point. Sounds engrossing.
 
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Nov 1, 2014
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4,762
You two have tempted me to give this game a try at some point. Sounds engrossing.
I bought Wildermyth in the end because of all the good reviews including here.

I've only played through the first campaign but I have to admit the character stuff which is procedural seems very well done.

Not sure how good the fully procedural campaigns would be but I'm likely to enjoy the mixed ones where there is a specific villain you're looking for.

I don't get very close to characters very often but it's done well enough for me to at least try to roleplay some of them.

The party stays with me long enough and is smal enough for me to think about that which is more than I can say about many other squad based games.

The combat is standard turn based fare. I played the tutorial campaign on normal and found it a bit too easy even without understanding all the concepts, so I'd recommend the harder difficulties for veterans.
 
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Nov 13, 2006
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I've started playing Far Cry New Dawn.

It's not bad. Certainly better than the user-reviews at least. It's post-apoc though so of course I'm biased. I'm still very early in the game though.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
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Florida, US
Now then. So many AAA releases, so much disappointment (you know who you are)
Therefore, a niche indie game is in order, and Nox Archaist (Apple2 - what?!) fits the bill nicely.

This is as retro as it gets.
The game is an Ultima clone, running on an emulated Apple2.
If you understand this sentence, you will be in for a treat -- if you are confused, just skip it.

Kudos to 6502 Workshop, well done!
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2008
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820
Bought a month of GFN, so gonna start a replay of cyberpunk til the steam sales pop in a week
 
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