Games you are currently playing - Part 7

[mouser]

Anyone else playing Valheim? I've played a lot of similar games but so far this one is a lot of fun and pretty smooth. Definitely a challenge and the lack of information on the internet makes it better.

Absolutely loving Valheim. There are definitely some quality of life updates that need to be made, but the game experience so far is amazingly polished for being early access.

About 25 hours of play so far, mostly with a group of four friends, some solo. Love games with this style of open world exploration, crafting, base building, degrees of nonlinear progression. Incorporating elements of so many games I loved such as Terraria and Subnautica, even Fallout 4 base building.

 

[542365]

Absolutely loving Valheim. There are definitely some quality of life updates that need to be made, but the game experience so far is amazingly polished for being early access.

About 25 hours of play so far, mostly with a group of four friends, some solo. Love games with this style of open world exploration, crafting, base building, degrees of nonlinear progression. Incorporating elements of so many games I loved such as Terraria and Subnautica, even Fallout 4 base building.

How is it solo? I don't think my friends would really enjoy it, but I'm looking to give it a shot.

 

[mouser]

How is it solo? I don't think my friends would really enjoy it, but I'm looking to give it a shot.

I've been enjoying the solo just as much as co-op play. I think the game works equally well with any number of players in my experience so far.

 

[542365]

I've been enjoying the solo just as much as co-op play. I think the game works equally well with any number of players in my experience so far.

Sounds good. Do you have separate characters for when you play solo versus Coop or how does that work?

 

[mouser]

Sounds good. Do you have separate characters for when you play solo versus Coop or how does that work?

It's your choice. You can create as many characters as you want and take any character into any particular world. I did choose to make two separate characters.

Works pretty much identically to Terraria as far as I can tell if you're familiar with that. Gear in your character inventory saves and travels with you from world to world. Gear in chests and storage locations remains in the world save.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

Immortals Fenyx Rising on the Series X

I’ll give the game a 7/10. I found the storyline/dialogue a little corny for my taste, but I know some people love it for that. The combat is pretty fun. Visually and performance wise, this game is pretty perfect. I didn’t encounter many (if any) glitches, which is saying something for a pretty newly released game. It’s not super original, a mix between AC: Odyssey and Breathe of the Wild, but it’s a pretty fun time.

If anyone is trying it, I recommend spending more time in Vaults/chests than I did. Some of the bosses not only get hard without it, but pretty time consuming.

I’m not sure I’d spend $80 CAD plus tax on the game, but I also find that price tag hard to justify for many games. You’ll get an enjoyable 25-35 hours out of the game, plus more if you’re a completionist.

 

[RobBrown4PM]

Phasmophobia is easily the best game in the last year.

Ghost wouldn't come out so I yelled into my mic and told it to go f*** itself.

Ghost decided to f*** me instead.

10/10 How to scream like a little girl simulator.

 

[Panthaz89]

I'm usually not into survival games but Valheim is pretty amazing both solo and even better with friends. Glad some of my friends got me to start playing it. Didn't know being a lumberjack could be so fun.

 

[Jovavic]

Immortals Fenyx Rising on the Series X

I’ll give the game a 7/10. I found the storyline/dialogue a little corny for my taste, but I know some people love it for that. The combat is pretty fun. Visually and performance wise, this game is pretty perfect. I didn’t encounter many (if any) glitches, which is saying something for a pretty newly released game. It’s not super original, a mix between AC: Odyssey and Breathe of the Wild, but it’s a pretty fun time.

If anyone is trying it, I recommend spending more time in Vaults/chests than I did. Some of the bosses not only get hard without it, but pretty time consuming.

I’m not sure I’d spend $80 CAD plus tax on the game, but I also find that price tag hard to justify for many games. You’ll get an enjoyable 25-35 hours out of the game, plus more if you’re a completionist.

Just got it for PS4 over the weekend, I dig it thus far. I like that the difference between the weapons and armor are perks and not individual stats. Had to change "run" to L3 though, and the Far Sight is nice if you want to find things but also you don't need to, you could just wander around and find things on your own.

I went with Fenyx over Yakuza was that has cross save while Yakuza doesn't, so if by some miracle I get a PS5 in the next few months I can just continue wherever I'm at instead of starting over in the case of Yakuza.

 

[PK Cronin]

I'm usually not into survival games but Valheim is pretty amazing both solo and even better with friends. Glad some of my friends got me to start playing it. Didn't know being a lumberjack could be so fun.

My friends and I are acting like we're 13 again with all the hours we've sunk into this game already. It's been a blast, but the only bad thing is that we have one more boss left to go.

The lag is an issue that they need to address through optimization or something. Some of the buildings and structures cause more lag than others and it makes it borderline unplayable for short stretches when you can't open a chest in your base.

 

[robertmac43]

Just finished ending A for Nier Automata. Unreal game, excited to go down track b.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Phasmophobia is easily the best game in the last year.

Ghost wouldn't come out so I yelled into my mic and told it to go f*** itself.

Ghost decided to f*** me instead.

10/10 How to scream like a little girl simulator.

It's not even really my style of game but it's a great game to play with friends. I'm playing in VR with a friend who's also in VR and just the amount of shenanigans we get into in that game is hilarious.

 

[NinjaKick]

I'm working my way through the old school side scrolling Castlevania games... I'm currently on Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow on the Nintendo DS... amazing game with beautiful artwork

 

[RandV]

How is it solo? I don't think my friends would really enjoy it, but I'm looking to give it a shot.

I bought it a bit over a week ago on a whim, playing it solo and really enjoying it sinking about 20 hours in so far. Haven't really played a 'survival' game since minecraft but yeah Valheim is really good.

In the Metroidvania sphere another really good game I just wrapped up is Phoenotopia Awakening. It really shouldn't be labelled as a 'Metroidvania', it plays much more like Zelda 2 with a kind of Earthbound meets Fallout setting. Quite a long game to for these types at 30-50 hours.

 

[Unholy Diver]

NBA 2K21 came with my PS5 bundle, probably would not have gotten it otherwise, but I am finding it to be enjoyable, looks great, commentary is very good, and it plays a good game of basketball

 

[TheDoldrums]

I've been playing the PS4 version of Trails of Cold Steel.

Holy crap this thing hits all my sweet spots. It's like a love letter to JRPG fans. It feels like a combination of Xenoblade, Persona and Fire Emblem Three Houses. If talking to NPC's is your favourite part of a game, you need to play this one. The writing is pretty good and there's so much of it. Vast majority of NPC's are named and they all get new dialogue after anything happens. I've been annoyed at how some modern RPG's (Final Fantasy) have heavily deemphasized NPC interaction, so this has been refreshing.

The graphics are very dated (I think it was a Vita game originally?) and it appears to be a massive commitment to play through the series as each game is so long. But classic JRPG fans should definitely check it out.

Okay I posted this almost 4 months ago, I finally beat it (with some breaks). Long but wonderful game.

The only issue is I loved it so much I want to play the whole Trails series to fully appreciate the world, but that's like 8 more long games with some of them not officially localized...

 

[ILikeTurtles]

Started playing Rogue Company again after some time off. Game is pretty darn fun and how can you not want to play as Dr. Disrespect?

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Started playing The Outer Wilds. Super interesting concept and I'm excited to dig more into it. Not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing though ....

 

[Papa Francouz]

Started playing The Outer Wilds. Super interesting concept and I'm excited to dig more into it. Not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing though ....

Exploring. Follow your curiosity and see what's out there in the universe.

God, I love that game.

 

[Soldier13Fox]

Exploring. Follow your curiosity and see what's out there in the universe.

God, I love that game.

So, other than exploring and learning things about that alien race ... is there an actual overarching plot/storyline that I'll be bumping into?

 

[Unholy Diver]

Started up on Cyberpunk last night, figured I had waited long enough and that it would work fine on the PS5, so far it hasn't been too buggy but it did crash twice in about 10 hrs

 

[Papa Francouz]

So, other than exploring and learning things about that alien race ... is there an actual overarching plot/storyline that I'll be bumping into?

You very well might find yourself taking part in an overarching plot, yes. Without giving anything away, there are times when you'll need to piece some stuff together to figure out what exactly is happening, but there are other times where the narrative will make itself apparent to you. Just as long as you're receptive to some less traditional forms of storytelling, you should be fine.

 

[Osprey]

Started playing The Outer Wilds. Super interesting concept and I'm excited to dig more into it. Not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be doing though ....

I tried to get into it last month and had difficulty. Everywhere that I explored, I couldn't make sense of anything or make any progress. I looked up some tips online and one was to not neglect the ship log, which stores all of the clues that you find and gives you a sense of direction of where to explore next. I guess that it's like a journal in an RPG. Of course, I had been totally neglecting it, not sure of its purpose, so that could explain why I felt lost. I haven't loaded it up again since (because I upgraded my computer around the same time and just haven't re-installed it yet), but I'll go back to it eventually and see if the ship log makes things clearer for me. You may care to see if it helps you, too.

Edit: Also, stay away from Brittle Hollow. I hate that planet so much . Who thought that it was a good idea to have clues lead you to the center of planet along rickety walkways which quickly collapse under your weight and send you falling into a black hole at the center of the planet that spits you out into open space on the other side of the system and too far away from your ship and anything else to make it before you run out of oxygen and die? What game design. That's another reason why I got frustrated and haven't been eager to load the game up again.

 

[Papa Francouz]

I tried to get into it last month and had difficulty. Everywhere that I explored, I couldn't make sense of anything or make any progress. I looked up some tips online and one was to not neglect the ship log, which stores all of the clues that you find and gives you a sense of direction of where to explore next. I guess that it's like a journal in an RPG. Of course, I had been totally neglecting it, not sure of its purpose, so that could explain why I felt lost. I haven't loaded it up again since (because I've upgraded my computer at the same time and just haven't re-installed it yet), but I'll go back to it eventually and see if the ship log makes things clearer for me. You may care to see if it helps you, too.

Edit: Also, stay away from Brittle Hollow. I hate that planet so much . Who thought that it was a good idea to have clues lead you to the center of planet along rickety walkways which quickly collapse under your weight and send you falling into a black hole at the center of the planet that spits you out into open space on the other side of the system and too far away from your ship and anything else to make it before you run out of oxygen and die? What game design. That's another reason why I got frustrated and haven't been eager to load the game up again.

I will echo this point about the ship log, @Soldier13Fox. That will be your most valuable tool.

Where I totally disagree is on the topic of Brittle Hollow. I think it's one of the most interesting planets in the game

 

[Osprey]

Where I totally disagree is on the topic of Brittle Hollow. I think it's one of the most interesting planets in the game

Oh, I didn't say that it's not interesting. In fact, I marvel at how interesting it is every time that I'm slowly and helplessly falling through the center of it to my inevitable death.

Do you have any tips? The one good lead that I have is to follow those rickety wooden walkways down into the planet, but, every time that I do, I fall into the black hole and it takes me 10 minutes to die, resurrect and get back there again (so that I can die all over again). Am I missing something?