Games you are currently playing - Part 7

[mouser]

Been playing Dave the Diver this week, really fun enjoyable game, kudos to the developers.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Randomly thought of Typing of the Dead the other day which I've had for over 10 years. Reinstalled it and really enjoying it. I didn't even play it for an hour prior when I first bought it but the cutscenes are hilarious and the typing is fun to go through and listen to the silly dialogue.

Also started War Mongrels which is a real time stealth tactics game similar to Mimimi Games like Shadow Tactics, Desperados 3, and Shadow Gambit. It feels a little less polished than Mimimi titles but it's still a ton of fun. It's all realistic too, unlike Mimimi titles that always had at least some magic involved.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

I'll disagree that PS+ isn't worth it after a year.

Same here. I've downloaded TONS of games and really like the catalogue tbh. Quite a lot of the time I spend playing on my playstation I am playing games offered through PS Plus. I've discovered some of my favorite recent games through PS Plus, as well as getting to play old games on the classics catalogue.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

As for the topic at hand:

Under The Waves (2023) - Both XBOX and PS Consoles + Windows. (Currently being offered on PS+

Described by the publisher as "a love letter to the oceans", Under the Waves is a narrative based adventure game which takes place in a techno-futuristic 1970s, almost entirely under water. The game focuses on the story of professional diver Stanley who is attempting to overcome his personal grief and struggles while also taking care of his job duties maintaining various underwater facilities.

The game is very story-driven with beautiful underwater scenery, a captivating score, and immersive overall feeling (no pun intended). A lot of the game focuses on completing daily tasks while gradually advancing the storyline and collecting resources and blueprints to continue your journey and improve your ability to explore. This game could be seen as a "Scuba Diving/Submersible Simulator" and probably isn't going to appeal to people who prefer more action-oriented games.


I'm pretty early into the game, but I'm already loving it. I don't think it's a particularly long game, so I'm trying to take it a bit slow and really enjoy the story and adventuring underwater. It's a great game to fire up and play just to relax and vibe alone under the sea to the music. I'm definitely getting to a point in the story where some odd things are happening and I'm interested to see where it goes from here.

Would definitely recommend so far, especially if you have PS+ Extra, you can try it for free. I've had a hankering for another underwater game since finishing Subnautica multiple times and this one is getting the job done so far.

 

[Soedy]

PUBG and Helldivers 2 with friends.

Mario Kart 8 Online on Switch. So much fun.

Echoes of Wisdom should be here by Monday, then 100% of my gaming time is going into that.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

Astro Bot finna be GOTY. So much fun with that little robot dude.

 

[Jovavic]

Finished the Metaphor demo at 8 hours, they give you three days once it "opens up" to mess around with an optional dungeon and various activities to increase your personality stats. Damn fun game I'm excited to get it (once it goes on sale) as I've always wondered how a Persona style game would be away from the high school setting.

Back to Wukong, end of chapter 4, it's been a few days since i played so I might need to fight some mobs to get the muscle memory back before I try the boss again lol

 

[x Tame Impala]

Replaying the Witcher 3 for the first time in years. Level 16 and going to finish up some Witcher contracts before I head to Skellige. It’s a gem of a game despite many shortcomings. The world and characters are so fun they you overlook a lot of things like…

-a convoluted weapon/armor crafting system
-mid combat
-janky movement
-level suggestions on quests/contracts messing with your XP
-sword and armor loot being quickly obsolete

I’m having a hell of a time though and can’t put it down. Las time I played a few years ago I stopped right after beating the Wild Hunt and starting the HoS DLC. I was smoking too much weed at the time and hardly remember a lot of the game so it’s nice to be fully paying attention this time around.

 

[PeteWorrell]

Replaying the Witcher 3 for the first time in years. Level 16 and going to finish up some Witcher contracts before I head to Skellige. It’s a gem of a game despite many shortcomings. The world and characters are so fun they you overlook a lot of things like…

-a convoluted weapon/armor crafting system
-mid combat
-janky movement
-level suggestions on quests/contracts messing with your XP
-sword and armor loot being quickly obsolete

I’m having a hell of a time though and can’t put it down. Las time I played a few years ago I stopped right after beating the Wild Hunt and starting the HoS DLC. I was smoking too much weed at the time and hardly remember a lot of the game so it’s nice to be fully paying attention this time around.

I love the fact that in the Witcher 3, you can tackle the story in wildly different orders. That depending on the order you take, you get different dialogues, reactions and options.

The only that is sad, is how much end game content was rushed and not given the time to be properly fleshed out. I think everyone is disappointed about the different ending options for Reason of State.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Witcher 3 soured on me probably about halfway through. If you're gonna have a game that long, I need amore interesting combat loop.

I will absolutely give them credit for what are by far the best written sidequests in the history of the medium though. The story is obviously good but the sidequests really stood out.

 

[Unholy Diver]

I'm also finishing up a replay of Witcher 3, the first time I played was without the DLC, so there was plenty of new material on top of what I had forgotten/ skipped the first time. While like every game of it's type it has some ho-hum side quests, it also has some real gems, with the Bloody Baron having to fall among the best side quests if not any type of quest ever. Finished up Heart of Stone, and just getting going on Blood and Wine, I won't 100% the game but this will probably be about as close as I get to doing so for a game this big

 

[HanSolo]

Lol came to post about my own currently gaming experience and it's funny yall are already talking about the Witcher 3. So I bought a new PS5 somewhat recently and the first game I bought was Elden Ring. Sank about 20 hours into that but have dropped it for a while after learning the mechanics I need for a FromSoft game but the reason I quit was I spent like 4 hours trying to get what I need for a very specific build and thought I had accidentally sold a unique drop and I was so pissed off I decided to drop the game for a while and come back to it later because I also bought a year of PS+ premium and started playing ghost of tsushima from the game catalogue.

I think Ghost is a game with a solid enough combat system and a really impressive looking open world, but a lot of the side quest/open world activities were getting super repetitive after a while. Given the similarities in the open world gameplay loop I couldn't help but compare to the Witcher 3 and while that game has some repetitive "Witcher Senses investigation/tracking", I think the side content is developed with a lot more purpose.

My brother was over at my place to shoot the shit and while we were trying to figure out what to watch or play I decided to boot up Witcher 3 to let him give it a try. Just watching him play through the early White Orchard stuff gave me an itch to play through it for the fourth time with the next gen update.

There's no question the movement is still janky and the combat is lackluster, especially after playing Ghost, but the Witcher 3 always scratched an itch for me with its overall immersion in its story with its fully voice acted and animated cutscenes. I've always been a bit of a cutscene skipper but the Witcher 3 feels like playing through a Game of Thrones-esque story with great characters throughout and because of that I can somewhat forgive the technical weaknesses because I'm made to step into Geralt's shoes in a phenomenally realized story and the combat, while janky, services that story well. Yeah the last act is a bit rushed but the DLCs more than make up for that.

For my needs, I still have The Witcher 3 as my favorite open world game of all time with RDR2 and Breath of the Wild just behind. I can appreciate the artistry of Ghost of Tsushima but while the main story (and side story) content is strong the repetitive open world stuff and half baked character animation drags it back. Elden Ring, maybe I didn't play long enough to appreciate the full package but the open world feels like a supplement to its collection of big boss encounters. It's a stellar game for sure, but it hasn't really sparked as something truly special for me yet.

 

[Sad People]

BF5 with the new AC update. Still a beautiful game even though its 8 years old or so.

Also bought Age of Mythology Retold and i plan on taking a dive into that as soon as i get bored of the EFT wipe.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Man, these Bandits in TW3 sure are ballsy. They talk a lot of shit for having just seen or heard about me slicing their buddies in half.

Lol came to post about my own currently gaming experience and it's funny yall are already talking about the Witcher 3. So I bought a new PS5 somewhat recently and the first game I bought was Elden Ring. Sank about 20 hours into that but have dropped it for a while after learning the mechanics I need for a FromSoft game but the reason I quit was I spent like 4 hours trying to get what I need for a very specific build and thought I had accidentally sold a unique drop and I was so pissed off I decided to drop the game for a while and come back to it later because I also bought a year of PS+ premium and started playing ghost of tsushima from the game catalogue.

I think Ghost is a game with a solid enough combat system and a really impressive looking open world, but a lot of the side quest/open world activities were getting super repetitive after a while. Given the similarities in the open world gameplay loop I couldn't help but compare to the Witcher 3 and while that game has some repetitive "Witcher Senses investigation/tracking", I think the side content is developed with a lot more purpose.

My brother was over at my place to shoot the shit and while we were trying to figure out what to watch or play I decided to boot up Witcher 3 to let him give it a try. Just watching him play through the early White Orchard stuff gave me an itch to play through it for the fourth time with the next gen update.

There's no question the movement is still janky and the combat is lackluster, especially after playing Ghost, but the Witcher 3 always scratched an itch for me with its overall immersion in its story with its fully voice acted and animated cutscenes. I've always been a bit of a cutscene skipper but the Witcher 3 feels like playing through a Game of Thrones-esque story with great characters throughout and because of that I can somewhat forgive the technical weaknesses because I'm made to step into Geralt's shoes in a phenomenally realized story and the combat, while janky, services that story well. Yeah the last act is a bit rushed but the DLCs more than make up for that.

For my needs, I still have The Witcher 3 as my favorite open world game of all time with RDR2 and Breath of the Wild just behind. I can appreciate the artistry of Ghost of Tsushima but while the main story (and side story) content is strong the repetitive open world stuff and half baked character animation drags it back. Elden Ring, maybe I didn't play long enough to appreciate the full package but the open world feels like a supplement to its collection of big boss encounters. It's a stellar game for sure, but it hasn't really sparked as something truly special for me yet.

I've put about a dozen hours into both GoT and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'll finish them both at some point but they both feel like an exhaustive open world made for the sake of it. After Witcher 3, get back into Elden Ring and stick with it man. Maybe not the DLC, as I haven't finished that and can't vouch for it, but the base game is a masterpiece. Don't get hung up on anything specific.

Kind of like BOTW where all you really need to do is beat Ganon, all you really need to do in Elden Ring is beat two rune bearers and become Elden Lord. The entire rest of the game is completely open to you. Do what you like, skip what you don't, and get stronger along the way.

 

[PeteWorrell]

When i played Horizon Zero Dawn, i had a blast mostly because i liked hunting down the different monsters. But now, i really have no desire to play the sequel or a game like Ghost of Tsushima because like some of you have already mentioned, the maps are big for the sake of being big. They suffer from the same problem as Ubisoft games when it comes to that.

A game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance is more of my style. I never expected to enjoy the game as much as i did. The world is not too big and it's quite immersive with many interesting quests and dialogues. The sequel is bigger but it seems by the trailers that they kept the core aspects from the first game so it won't be just a bigger game for the sake of making it bigger.

 

[HanSolo]

Man, these Bandits in TW3 sure are ballsy. They talk a lot of shit for having just seen or heard about me slicing their buddies in half.


I've put about a dozen hours into both GoT and Horizon Zero Dawn. I'll finish them both at some point but they both feel like an exhaustive open world made for the sake of it. After Witcher 3, get back into Elden Ring and stick with it man. Maybe not the DLC, as I haven't finished that and can't vouch for it, but the base game is a masterpiece. Don't get hung up on anything specific.

Kind of like BOTW where all you really need to do is beat Ganon, all you really need to do in Elden Ring is beat two rune bearers and become Elden Lord. The entire rest of the game is completely open to you. Do what you like, skip what you don't, and get stronger along the way.

I just had this feeling of like "okay I've beaten two notably tough bosses and I just realized I didn't sell off the thing I need for my build and I just finished putting it together...now f***ing what?" like I'll wander around fighting in world mobs and just have no idea where to go next. I know that's part of the fun but I feel like I'm pulled to play through Ghost and TW3 too. I'll get back to it eventually. And after that I'll get back to Tears of the Kingdom cause I put like 70 hours into that game just exploring and experimenting with the new mechanics and have played almost zero of the story content lol.

 

[Dolemite]

When i played Horizon Zero Dawn, i had a blast mostly because i liked hunting down the different monsters. But now, i really have no desire to play the sequel or a game like Ghost of Tsushima because like some of you have already mentioned, the maps are big for the sake of being big. They suffer from the same problem as Ubisoft games when it comes to that.

A game like Kingdom Come: Deliverance is more of my style. I never expected to enjoy the game as much as i did. The world is not too big and it's quite immersive with many interesting quests and dialogues. The sequel is bigger but it seems by the trailers that they kept the core aspects from the first game so it won't be just a bigger game for the sake of making it bigger.

HFW is one of the greatest games of all time. Get out of your own head and just give it a try. It’s absolutely spectacular.

 

[Turin]

Just got re-addicted to Destiny after a 7 year hiatus. I can't figure out if I'm just trash now because I'm older or if I just have no idea how to deal with the new abilities. Oh well.

 

[Blitzkrug]

One of the greatest game of all time? lmao it's not even as good as the game that came before it.

I wish i was as simple minded as Dolemite where having pointless objectives vomited across the map and being distracted by graphics where it as enough to keep me amused.

And before you ask, yes. I played them both and have the platinum trophy for forbidden west. So don't hit me with that lame ass retort.

 

[Andrei79]

Playing Wildlands, which is an actually good Ubisoft game. Even though its formulaic, I find it works very well for the shooter genre.

Also playing Heroes of Might and Magic which is just a fantastic game even 25 years later.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn but it also agree with how unnecessarily big it is. I feel like the gaming community as a whole seems to be getting tired of these giant games with a bunch of repetitive content littered across the map. Pretty much whenever I play an open world game, I just go from main story marker to main story marker and use fast travel as much as possible. I would say I enjoy the freedom of how to approach objectives but while focusing on open world, these titles also have super linear missions with a set path you're forced to take. It's like the game can't decide whether it should be open world or linear and forces you into each.

I just like bow combat and the setting/story was really fun. I ended up rating it an 8.5/10 but certainly not one of the best.

That being said, I'm almost done with War Mongrels which has been a really enjoyable stealth tactics game, similar to Mimimi games. I also started Gravity Circuit, that game is awesome! I love these focused action platformers. They did a great job recreating that Mega Man feel even though the combat is all melee instead of ranged.

 

[PeteWorrell]

I enjoy games like Dishonored and Hitman because of the freedom. You get a mission you must accomplish and then the rest is up to you as the player. You can be as restrained or as wild as you wish to be to accomplish said mission.

As much as i like Rockstar games, i agree with the sentiment that their gaming philosophy is outdated. You can go wild in the sandbox but then are super restricted when it comes to doing missions. It's such a contradiction when the game tells you that you can have fun but only at certain times or else you get punished.

 

[Blitzkrug]

Yeah i think that style of open world in particular is just outdated.

 

[Osprey]

I enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn, but it played like Far Cry with bows and mechanical animals. That worked for me, but there wasn't much that was innovative about it. Games don't need to be innovative to be fun, but I hesitate to use terms like "masterpiece" or "GotY" if they're not.

 

[x Tame Impala]

This 2nd act of TW3 is a slog, man. I desperately need to find Cirri but in order to do that I have to find Dandelion. Then this chain is started where in order to find Dandelion I have to talk to this person, help them out, then find the next person to talk to and help THEM out, then again, then again.

It's a lot of fetching around and 99% of the action is me slicing level 10-12 goons in half. Skellige can't get here fast enough.