What games are you playing now?

QUBE AE proved to be tougher in Sector 8, the part they added in this edition. Except for the lack of story, it it is up to par with Portal in originality and challenge. Not as difficult as Portal: Reloaded though, I even managed to 100% it without loosing too much hair.

By the way, Portal is getting a free ray-tracing update for RTX in November, it will be fun to try that one. The pics show very nice light rendering, which makes it look quite different.

I'll start Kingdom Come: Deliverance now, just a little bit to see how it feels. But before going any further I first need to finish my 2nd run in Expeditions: Rome, playing a female character to see how different it feels story-wise.
 
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Brigandine Grand Edition with the Grand Battle Patch on hardest difficulty:

I totally like the game's best ever feature of looting rare magical items from enemy monsters and enemy generals in battle!
You can see - check - a comprehensive statistics of the enemy in the UNITS menu and see the entire monster army in a list that you can sort any way you like. That list shows separately what magic items the enemy generals are wearing and you can see separately what magic items are on the monsters! You can also see the strongest / highest level enemy monster / who has the biggest HP or INT or Agility, etc...

The EPSXE emulator is a State-Based software and when I can't steal a magical item by killing an enemy general or monster, I just need to move onto different hexes with my attacking units ==> this RESETS THE RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR and I'll have new chances to steal the coveted rare magic item!!

Also is a unique fantastic feature on the emulators that you have QUICKSAVES = SAVE STATES, which quickloads the game in half a second! This way I can try different moves, different spells, if I don't like that my commander or my favorite ELITE monsters are mobbed and beaten to a pulp by the enemy. If I'm getting party-wiped, I just load an earlier save-state.
Also - mid-battle - I frequently press ESC in EPSXE, this pauses & exits the Fullscreen emulation and gives me Desktop and I go and copy the entire save state folder (sstates) into a new numbered backup folder. Currently I'm at "113. Camelford castle attack". This way you can multiply the max number of save-slots into infinity. You won't need more than 10.

For Maximum Fun:
This patch makes the game even harder and removes the time limit in hardest diff. Absolutely necessary for making Elite Units [!!] is the infinite mana cheat (activated all the time) in EPSXE:
1. PEOPS Sound Audio Driver plugin v1.10 (Beautiful music)
2. GPUBladeSoft 1.64 for the video plugin (Best graphics)

Duckstation emulator I only use for creating my Elite Monsters by summoning until I reach the 140 max creatures cap AND using the AUTOFIRE button [CIRCLE] set onto (LEFT SHIFT):
1. I go to the Summon menu.
2. Select a monster I want to summon and set the UI cursor to "Do you want to summon this monster?" on YES. Then I press TURBO SPEED, then I press the LEFT SHIFT (AUTOFIRE 2 frames). This begins to summon monsters with turbo-speed and I reach the maximum 140 monsters cap in about 15 seconds. Then I begin to delete monsters by checking their Max Stats, which monster I like, I jump over: also in TURBO mode, because the next selection and delete is super fast this way. Also I use Duckstations expanded QUICKSAVE and QUICKLOAD functions frequently, so when I see and delete monsters super fast, I can go back, if I accidentally delete a high-Stats Elite monster. Then usually 2 or 3 super-elite monsters remain. Repeat the ELITE recruiting process this way if you want. After repeats I usually get 6 or 10 super elite monsters and then I just select the best one or two from even this super elite bunch!
Using the re-NAME menu, I give these monsters ALL CAPS NAMES. If I manage to summon a super-rare = highest stats monster, then I put an exclamation mark after its name, to signify that monster is a Legendary Heavyweight. This makes battles even more fun. ==> just watching how much harder your legendary monsters hit the enemy's average monsters!

Also enemy monsters guarding the highest level enemy Lord or general have unique names, which adds to the fun factor, when stealing these rare & high level monsters from the enemy!!

Also is critical a Cheat Engine Table (CT) made by Ashthebloody - giving you beautiful possibilities, like if a hero reaches Max Level Cap 30, you can set his level to 1 + experience to 0: the hero retains all abilities, but can progress further! ==> his / her stats (Mana points, etc..) will increase and you can try out new classes with these heroes, when they reach EXPERT! (carry over some abilites to the new class!!) during their "re-juvenated new run from Level 1", so your heroes can gather more unique abilities! :D

Also if you already succeeded to steal a magical item - or find it via sending your hero knights on quests - , then with this table you can simply duplicate magic items and give some heroes the same ones, but only if you already looted one! (Just a personal rule)

I also use this table to give my monsters a 'Stone of Revive Once Upon Death', since I found it last week. So I decided to multiply this Revival Stone, since I already found one. :D This way its even more convenient to not to lose my precious Elite Monsters!! In Runersia you can also multiply Re-Summon Stones, so you can summon all your Elite Monsters back, there its easier and more fun: you can play out dramatic monster "Fight to the death" scenarios, then you can simply re-summon your dead elite monster anywhere - to any castle - in Runersia. So Runersia is better in this regard. But Brigandine GE has way more hardcore monster types and the Waging Global War Feel is much better here!

Also Brigandine GE has a much more beautiful and better thought out World Map and the entire game really feels like you are waging a war! That negative-review writer on Steam for Runersia was right!
 
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I guess I'm coming up on the final act of RDR2. I finished with the tropical island, and that part was definitely my least favorite part of the game. Very little story or exploration, and just mission after mission of shooting galleries. It was getting ridiculous how long it went on. It even resembled what you see in your generic COD set piece mission. Very uninspired in my opinion. They should've cut that part a lot sooner.
 
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Oh man, I forgot about that part. I didn't like it either. Couldn't wait to get back to the game proper. They did the same kind of thing in AC: Valhalla and I felt the same way about it.

You have further to go than you think. I'm very curious to see what you think about the structure of the game at the end.
 
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I think it is a design flaw when an open world game takes you away from the open world for an extended period of time (1-2 missions is fine). I also thought the island segment was possibly the weakest in the game.

I am in the final dungeon of Might and Magic X. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty but the game is a complete cake walk - it is quite poorly balanced indeed. There was a short difficulty spike in the early game but the rest is just far too easy. There are also too many easy battles. Overall though, I have quite enjoyed it. I think I would score it a 7/10. I will never play it again but I am glad I did. It's made me think about playing 6-8 again.
 
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I got Dungeons of Naheulbeck on Humble Choice. I thought I knew how to play tactical RPGs but this game is quite hard. I got party-wiped twice already.

I think I'm getting the hang of it and I'll try again over the next week. I'm not sure I should go for iron man again though :D Probably was not the best idea.
 
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I got Dungeons of Naheulbeck on Humble Choice. I thought I knew how to play tactical RPGs but this game is quite hard. I got party-wiped twice already.

I think I'm getting the hang of it and I'll try again over the next week. I'm not sure I should go for iron man again though :D Probably was not the best idea.
Isn't the humour too heavy or silly in English? It's quite typical French/game I think but I don't know how well that translates.
 
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Isn't the humour too heavy or silly in English? It's quite typical French/game I think but I don't know how well that translates.
It's quite silly, but it not too bad for me. The combat and character progression is interesting enough for me that it doesn't detract.
 
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And in several threads, there's the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the browser but for no reason since it's full except one pixel. It's quite strange and I think it's recent too. Not a big deal though.

It appears in Chrome and Edge (same family so it's normal).
Never noticed it until you said that, but yeah I have it too.
 
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Yeah, I kind of really like Arthur's arc in RDR2. I'm not sure how much I have left of Act 6, but I like the slow buildup. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled about a certain part of the ending. We'll see how I like it.

I'm just about to go with Sadie to rescue John. I just kicked out Strauss, the money lender from the gang, which was a bit nice, but I was surprised to not see any reaction from the rest of the gang.
 
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I think it is a design flaw when an open world game takes you away from the open world for an extended period of time (1-2 missions is fine). I also thought the island segment was possibly the weakest in the game.

I am in the final dungeon of Might and Magic X. I'm playing on the hardest difficulty but the game is a complete cake walk - it is quite poorly balanced indeed. There was a short difficulty spike in the early game but the rest is just far too easy. There are also too many easy battles. Overall though, I have quite enjoyed it. I think I would score it a 7/10. I will never play it again but I am glad I did. It's made me think about playing 6-8 again.
Do you have the DLC (The falcon and the unicorn)? Depending on you build you will get completely destroyed there, regardless of how you cakewalked before...
 
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Holy shit is RDR2 thick even towards the end. I'm in Act 6, the final one unless I'm mistaken, and they still introduce new factions and quest givers. The writing is solid and the acting also. Plus I love the tensions in the gang, which seems to be slowly falling apart.

But even so, I'm just about done with the gameplay. There's so much riding around and shooting, that I think that's the part I'm about done with and ready for them to wrap up. The riding around especially, even while the scenery is absolutely fantastic, I'm really getting burned out and feel I'm rushing things.

Another thing I noticed, while the map is pretty gigantic, at least in terms of the wilderness, it's got very few settlements and cities. It's basically just one big city, that I don't think reaches Novigrad's size from Witche 3. And about 5-10 smaller towns or settlements. That's about it. It's 95% wilderness. Which can be cool, but I expected a lot more cities, I guess. Actually, I just realized I've not been to a big part of the map, which I wonder if the story will take us there. It would be a waste if it doesn't. But then I wonder how much longer do I have of the story, if that whole chunk will also open up. Anyway, we'll see.
 
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Do you have the DLC (The falcon and the unicorn)? Depending on you build you will get completely destroyed there, regardless of how you cakewalked before...
Interesting. Yes I have the DLC and I was planning on starting it soon. I actually finished the main campaign last night and I was going to do that Limbo dungeon before heading off to the DLC.

note: the DLC is actually included in the main game now - Ubisoft did it because they removed the activation servers about a year ago.

Holy shit is RDR2 thick even towards the end. I'm in Act 6, the final one unless I'm mistaken, and they still introduce new factions and quest givers. The writing is solid and the acting also. Plus I love the tensions in the gang, which seems to be slowly falling apart.
Act 6 is not the end. There are actually another 2 short chapters, although these can be finished quite quickly.
 
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I recently finished Divinity: Original Sin 2 for the first time, Tactician mode, and A Plague Tale: Innocence (in preparation for A Plague Tale: Requiem release next month).

Anyone else playing Metal: Hellsinger?
I only play it about once a week because rhythm shooting doesn't go well with RL interruptions, but the music is great and the game surprisingly fun, with a steep but rewarding learning curve even for someone without FPS experience. (unless you count Mass Effect)
 
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Interesting. Yes I have the DLC and I was planning on starting it soon. I actually finished the main campaign last night and I was going to do that Limbo dungeon before heading off to the DLC.

note: the DLC is actually included in the main game now - Ubisoft did it because they removed the activation servers about a year ago.


Act 6 is not the end. There are actually another 2 short chapters, although these can be finished quite quickly.
Yeah, I'm in Part 2 of the Epilogue, and I'm not sure I would call them very short either. Back to back they could be longer than some full games, I guess depending on how much you screw around.

So, while I liked the overall story and Arthur's narrative arc, and I'm sure the epilogues will only make it even better, I'm not sure I liked the very final moments of Arthur. At least, finishing it off with the fight against Micah felt kind of anti-climactic.

I did love the final shot, after Arthur crawls to the edge of the rock and dies looking at the sun-rise, with the camera just showing up the back of his head and part of his side of the face, as he passes. Was kind of cool.

Anyway, as I said I really liked Arthur's arc, and I think it was very original and probably the only game where the main guy dies of a disease, and not in some glorious honorable death. I mean, Arthur had enough time to set at least some of his affairs in order. And turn his life a little bit around.

Also, it was interesting going back to Valentine as John Marston and meeting the homeless veteran, Mickey, who makes a small mention of meeting Arthur (though he confuses him as Alan. But Marston mentioning that he's talking about Arthur was kind of an unsubtle way of doing it. The writers could've just left it as a nod to the player, and Marston not knowing who he was talking about.
 
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And talking about content right at the ending of the game, it seems there's another, I don't know, 10-15-20% of the world map that wasn't even accessible during the main acts. I'm talking about the territory in which Blackwater is found, and the huge areas to the south of that, and even part of Armadillo, from RDR1? Holy shit is it large.

I also read a bit about all the characters from RDR2 that still live on in RDR1, and man I'm even more excited about playing RDR1. God am I even more disappointed that Rockstar apparently cancelled the remastered version of that. Fuck. I'm not gonna get angry trying to play it on a console. :(
 
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I also read a bit about all the characters from RDR2 that still live on in RDR1, and man I'm even more excited about playing RDR1. God am I even more disappointed that Rockstar apparently cancelled the remastered version of that. Fuck. I'm not gonna get angry trying to play it on a console. :(
I know you hate trying to aim with a controller, but RDR 1 isn't a very difficult game.

You'd probably have a harder time adjusting to how dated it is. After playing RDR 2, the first game is going to look and feel like a dinosaur.
 
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I know you hate trying to aim with a controller, but RDR 1 isn't a very difficult game.

You'd probably have a harder time adjusting to how dated it is. After playing RDR 2, the first game is going to look and feel like a dinosaur.
I tried playing RDR1 on my then PS3, and I was pretty bad while aiming on foot, but as soon as I had to tackle firefights at gallop speed, while trying to both aim and steer the horse, I quit then and there. It's sort of manageable if you have dead eye (slow-motion), but since it wears out really fast and aiming speed is still relatively slow and awkward, I always ended up needing to aim in real-time, which is pretty much impossible for me on horseback. If I'm behind some cover, it slightly less bad, but still pretty awful. But on horseback, it's just infuriating.

I'm sure the graphics and controls would be awkward, which is why it's so disappointing that we won't get a redone version of it.

Now that I've completed RDR2, I went south as much as possible, to areas that are locked off completely during the main story. And was shocked to find they actually modeled a pretty big chunk of the RDR1 areas. But it's all pretty much empty, aside from random easter eggs, and towns that only have the usual merchants and other services. It does seem to have some small events that don't tie into anything, and are still fascinating to see in this huge empty landscape that you couldn't access before. From what I hear this big area is available mostly for multiplayer. Anyway, it's fascinating to see this big of an effort put into a large area just to make it available for multiplayer, aside from the already gigantic main areas you play in the main story. It would be really cool if they redid RDR1 with the same level of attention and mechanics as RDR2, but that's not gonna happen. Which is sad, since RDR1 is basically a dead game. It's only available on PS3 and Xbox360, both pretty much dead consoles. Or I hear you can play it on the modern Xbox consoles, since they emulate older games? Oh, and you can play it on PSNow, Sony's streaming service. And the PC emulation. But other than that it's pretty much a dead game. Sad.
 
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I tried to setup RDR1 in the Xenia emulator, and after 30 mins of fiddling around, I really can't be bothered to smooth out all the edges, like disabling the cursor outside the emulator window. And I really don't want to find myself in the middle of the game with some gamebreaking bug or point I cannot cross. I think I'll just have to abandon that thought, until maybe an official release comes our way.
 
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