Games you are currently playing - Part 7

[McGarnagle]

Finally got myself over the hump with Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve tried probably 3 times prior to get into the game. It’s a long tutorial with a lot of game mechanics to learn but I’ve stuck with it and stopped smoking weed in general so everything is clicking. I’m a few missions into Chapter 3 and totally loving it. I get the hype and the adoration. I can’t wait to play through the rest of this one for sure.

I haven’t been doing much of exploring just yet. Been mostly doing the main quests and then some side quests I stumble upon but no major hunting or compendium-related things.

Are there any “past the point of no return” parts in this game or can I explore at my leisure while I progress through the story?

Pretty much everything is still available, though the sidequests may be experienced differently if you play them at the end of the game rather than the start. But that's the fun of it, going back and replaying things as an evil character or doing optional quests at different parts of the game.

There's one location that you'll come to later that you only have access to in that particular chapter, but it only really matters if you're trying to do s fill compendium of birds (but I believe the fauna there don't affect achieving 100%.)
----

On another subject, has anyone played Skull & Bones yet? I love the naval aspects of AC Black Flag so it intrigued me when I heard about it, but all the reviewers and YouTubers are just shitting all over it.

 

[pistolpete11]

Finally got myself over the hump with Red Dead Redemption 2. I’ve tried probably 3 times prior to get into the game. It’s a long tutorial with a lot of game mechanics to learn but I’ve stuck with it and stopped smoking weed in general so everything is clicking. I’m a few missions into Chapter 3 and totally loving it. I get the hype and the adoration. I can’t wait to play through the rest of this one for sure.

I haven’t been doing much of exploring just yet. Been mostly doing the main quests and then some side quests I stumble upon but no major hunting or compendium-related things.

Are there any “past the point of no return” parts in this game or can I explore at my leisure while I progress through the story?

It took me beelining the main story on my 3rd or 4th try to finally get into it. Once I did, I started to do some exploring/side quests, but it felt like it was starting to drag again pretty quickly, so I ended up just doing the main missions again. I get the appeal, but overall, I didn't like it. I don't like sandbox games to begin with, though.

 

[x Tame Impala]

It took me beelining the main story on my 3rd or 4th try to finally get into it. Once I did, I started to do some exploring/side quests, but it felt like it was starting to drag again pretty quickly, so I ended up just doing the main missions again. I get the appeal, but overall, I didn't like it. I don't like sandbox games to begin with, though.

I'm not a big completionist guy to begin with. A lot of it seems tedious especially in a game of this scale. But i'm having fun meandering a little bit in-between main quests. The world feels huge and like there's something interesting anywhere I want to go.

Dark Souls 1

It's janky, the graphics aren't good even in the remaster, not being able to swing half the weapons in tight corridors is frustrating, a shield kind of trivializes the standard enemies, classic vague FromSoft story style.....

....but I can see how it attracted a cult following, even if I wouldn't have been 1 of them if I played it back then. The level design in particular is outstanding. I like how they don't let you fast travel in the early game as well so it forces you to get to know the areas and how they are interconnected.

It's hard for me to play older games for the first time since I'm now so used to the QoL improvements these games have made in the many years since their original release. I'm sure DS1 was great at the time but so much has been improved upon over the years it's hard to enjoy it as authentically as I'm sure the OG players did.

Games are generally NOT a timeless medium.

 

[pistolpete11]

I'm not a big completionist guy to begin with. A lot of it seems tedious especially in a game of this scale. But i'm having fun meandering a little bit in-between main quests. The world feels huge and like there's something interesting anywhere I want to go.

Tedious and the gunplay sucks ass. It's a good story and the amount of detail in the world is incredible, though.

It's hard for me to play older games for the first time since I'm now so used to the QoL improvements these games have made in the many years since their original release. I'm sure DS1 was great at the time but so much has been improved upon over the years it's hard to enjoy it as authentically as I'm sure the OG players did.

Games are generally NOT a timeless medium.

1000%. I think I pissed off some people on here with my takes on Shadow of the Colossus and Alan Wake 1

If Dark Souls was my first Souls game, I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. But after Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, and Demon's Souls remake, I can look past a lot of the more frustrating bits and appreciate it for what it is. I'm having fun with it. Other than the level design, though, the later entries do everything else better (we'll see about Dark Souls 2).

 

[Unholy Diver]

Along with Tiger Woods 05 I've been playing thru the John Cena Showcase mode on WWE 2K23 while figuring out my next longer term game to tackle

 

[Kelly]

Been hard on The Finals. First person shooter with an entirely destructible world. I'm having a ton of fun with it. It has it's issues with performance (seem to be getting a lot of stutter/frame rate drops when initially joining the game) but I've been hard on it for a month and actually bought the battlepass for it, which I usually don't do.

Definitely recommend for any first person shooter lovers out there.

 

[flyersnorth]

Are there any “past the point of no return” parts in this game or can I explore at my leisure while I progress through the story?

I'm pretty sure some / most of the white quest markers are chapter-sensitive. If you don't complete them by the time you move on to the next chapter, they expire.

 

[mouser]

Played three hours of Pacific Drive (1.0 version released today). Really enjoying the game design and premise. RNG elements in the mission/map areas, has a mission extraction mechanic like Tarkov. It’s a very different game than Subnautica, but I can see why many people have made the comparison. The resource collection, tech advancement, and focus on upgrading your vehicle has many similarities.

 

[Osprey]

Played three hours of Pacific Drive (1.0 version released today). Really enjoying the game design and premise. RNG elements in the mission/map areas, has a mission extraction mechanic like Tarkov. It’s a very different game than Subnautica, but I can see why many people have made the comparison. The resource collection, tech advancement, and focus on upgrading your vehicle has many similarities.

You caught my interest with "Subnautica." I just perused the Steam page and it looks like something that's up my alley, but the fact that it saves only every 45 minutes or so and people are losing half an hour of progress because they quit or died is a deal breaker for me. I think that I'll wait until the devs address that, but thanks for putting it on my radar.

 

[Sad People]

Project Zomboid

Started it today, about 2 hours in and its slowly growing on me. Hard to get used to the controls. I love the zombie/ post apocalyptic survival aspect of it though. I think he has a huge update coming soon (tm) that i keep hearing people talking about, dunno whats suppose to be coming in it though.

 

[mouser]

You caught my interest with "Subnautica." I just perused the Steam page and it looks like something that's up my alley, but the fact that it saves only every 45 minutes or so and people are losing half an hour of progress because they quit or died is a deal breaker for me. I think that I'll wait until the devs address that, but thanks for putting it on my radar.

I died once, due my own stupid mistakes, and most (or all?) of the resources I had collected before dying were available to salvage by returning to the same map. The wreck of my car was there with the resources still loaded in the trunk. Originally spent 20-30 minutes collecting before I died, but was able to make a “corpse run” and get back out with everything in under 10 minutes.

The game is mission based with RNG elements, sort of roguelite, I wouldn’t expect to save in the middle of a mission map, view each mission map as succeed or fail. But I’m still early in the game and have far to progress, might have a different view the further I go.

I do manually save after every mission when I return to my base. Haven’t had a crash so far in three hours.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Tedious and the gunplay sucks ass. It's a good story and the amount of detail in the world is incredible, though.

1000%. I think I pissed off some people on here with my takes on Shadow of the Colossus and Alan Wake 1

If Dark Souls was my first Souls game, I probably wouldn't have stuck with it. But after Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, and Demon's Souls remake, I can look past a lot of the more frustrating bits and appreciate it for what it is. I'm having fun with it. Other than the level design, though, the later entries do everything else better (we'll see about Dark Souls 2).

I'd games aren't good now, they probably weren't anything great to begin with, but drew people in at the time for being new or different. Shadow of the Colossus was never a great game. Truly great games don't age. If you feel like a game you're playing will age poorly, you might want to take a step back and ask yourself what you actually enjoy about the game.

 

[Osprey]

I died once, due my own stupid mistakes, and most (or all?) of the resources I had collected before dying were available to salvage by returning to the same map. The wreck of my car was there with the resources still loaded in the trunk. Originally spent 20-30 minutes collecting before I died, but was able to make a “corpse run” and get back out with everything in under 10 minutes.

The game is mission based with RNG elements, sort of roguelite, I wouldn’t expect to save in the middle of a mission map, view each mission map as succeed or fail. But I’m still early in the game and have far to progress, might have a different view the further I go.

I do manually save after every mission when I return to my base. Haven’t had a crash so far in three hours.

Thanks. The reviews made it sound like you lost all progress if you died or quit prematurely, but if you at least don't lose your resources by returning to your corpse, that helps. Maybe I'll give it a try.

 

[mouser]

Thanks. The reviews made it sound like you lost all progress if you died or quit prematurely, but if you at least don't lose your resources by returning to your corpse, that helps. Maybe I'll give it a try.

You don’t lose any game progress for dying. The only risked loss of resources are the items you brought along with you or collected on the specific mission—you’d normally store all the collected resources at your base after every mission. And at least on the early game maps corpse run is a featured option.

Your car will take damage during the mission that requires repair during or after the mission, and dying will cause parts of the car to take a lot more damage or maybe even be destroyed and require a newly crafted replacement part. But the car is never completely destroyed, it’s a management issue of how many resources do you have to invest to repair your car after each mission success or death. Not too dissimilar to games like Valheim and others where your armor is damaged on missions or destroyed when you die, but can invest resources you collected to repair it afterward. The cleaner you run a mission map the less resources you need to spend to patch up afterward.

Also, the game tech tree has tiers that appear to make repairs less resource intensive. Haven't unlocked any yet to verify.

 

[542365]

Been playing Balatro a lot since it released. Haven’t had much free time recently, but in the time I’ve had I’ve sunk like 4 hours into it(released on Tuesday). It’s a deck builder roguelite that scratches the same itch as Slay the Spire. Really enjoying my time with it. It’s a perfect game for Steam Deck. I have young kids who need me pretty frequently and it’s a great game for playing on the Steam Deck for ten minutes, putting down for a couple of hours and then picking back up when the kids are asleep. Highly recommend and it’s cheap($15).

Wanting to try Last Epoch as well now that it’s fully released. I’ve only casually been following but I see that they’ve had server issues, which is not unusual for games these days. Hopefully they get ironed out and I can play some this weekend.

 

[pistolpete11]

I'd games aren't good now, they probably weren't anything great to begin with, but drew people in at the time for being new or different. Shadow of the Colossus was never a great game. Truly great games don't age. If you feel like a game you're playing will age poorly, you might want to take a step back and ask yourself what you actually enjoy about the game.

I agree to the bolded, but professional reviewers and several posters on here would strongly disagree with you there

I see what you're saying, but I don't think I agree. Things can be great for their time and not age well, especially things that are so connected to technology.

 

[That Habs Fan]

Balatro already has me hooked.

Only put in 3 hours so far but I can tell this will join Slay the Spire and Monster Train in the very top tier of deckbuilder roguelikes. Very easy to get into but deceptively deep.

 

[Osprey]

I started playing Alan Wake and am not sure that I'm going to finish it. I can't get used to the wonky camera, in particular. It's very annoying that Alan doesn't run towards the center of the screen, but off to the side, instead. Constantly adjusting the camera to get him to run straight ahead feels like driving a car that drifts to one side. He doesn't shoot straight ahead, either. I habitually center the camera on enemies, then realize that I have to correct for Alan shooting off to the side or else I'll miss them. Other things that I don't like are the combat, dodging, camera angle while running, voiceover narration that spoils the immersion and frequent interruptions by animations and cutscenes. The game is a lot more irritating than fun so far. I might give it one more chance tomorrow, but the camera may be a deal breaker that I won't be able to tolerate for another 10 hours.

 

[Ceremony]

Shadow of the Colossus was never a great game. Truly great games don't age.

Shadow of the Colossus is a great game and has aged wonderfully.

I started playing Alan Wake and am not sure that I'm going to finish it. I can't get used to the wonky camera control, in particular. It's very annoying that Alan doesn't run straight ahead, to the center of the screen, but well off to the side, instead. Constantly adjusting the camera to get him to run in a straight line feels like driving a car that drifts hard to one side. He doesn't shoot straight ahead, either. If I center the camera on enemies, like in just about any other game, I'll completely miss them because Alan aims way off to the side. Other things that I don't like are the camera dropping while running, the uninteresting and repetitive combat and how I can't play for more than a minute without being interrupted by an animation or cutscene. The game is more frustrating than fun for me so far. I might give it one more chance tomorrow, but the camera control may just be a deal breaker that I won't be able to tolerate for another 10 hours.

Alan Wake is crap. It doesn't get any better than this.

 

[pistolpete11]

I started playing Alan Wake and am not sure that I'm going to finish it. I can't get used to the wonky camera control, in particular. It's very annoying that Alan doesn't run straight ahead, to the center of the screen, but well off to the side, instead. Constantly adjusting the camera to get him to run in a straight line feels like driving a car that drifts hard to one side. He doesn't shoot straight ahead, either. If I center the camera on enemies, like in just about any other game, I'll completely miss them because Alan aims way off to the side. Other things that I don't like are the camera dropping while running, the uninteresting and repetitive combat and how I can't play for more than a minute without being interrupted by an animation or cutscene. The game is more frustrating than fun for me so far. I might give it one more chance tomorrow, but the camera control may just be a deal breaker that I won't be able to tolerate for another 10 hours.

If you don't like it, it doesn't get better. I turned it down to easy because the story intrigued me enough, but the gameplay was brutal.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Started Call of Duty:Black Ops - Cold War last night, I'm not a COD guy, but it was a free PS+ game a bit back that I added to my library. I felt like another short game, so I know these games usually only have a 5-7 hr campaign that I can knock out in a couple of evenings

 

[pistolpete11]

I finally encountered the first boss in Dark Souls 1 that I would consider a real "Soulsborne Boss" in Manus in the DLC.

I believe I only have Gwyn left in the main game and the dragon in the DLC left. I've beat every boss on my first or second attempt except for Manus, Ornstein and Smough (which I hate 2-on-1 fights), and Bed of Chaos which is the biggest bullshit, frustrating not difficult, gimmicky boss fight I've encountered in all the FromSoft games I've played.

I don't know if that is a reflection on the difficulty of Dark Souls 1, my Soulsborne experience, or most probably a combination.

 

[Sad People]

Anyone play Ultros in here yet? If so how it?

 

[PeteWorrell]

I finally encountered the first boss in Dark Souls 1 that I would consider a real "Soulsborne Boss" in Manus in the DLC.

I believe I only have Gwyn left in the main game and the dragon in the DLC left. I've beat every boss on my first or second attempt except for Manus, Ornstein and Smough (which I hate 2-on-1 fights), and Bed of Chaos which is the biggest bullshit, frustrating not difficult, gimmicky boss fight I've encountered in all the FromSoft games I've played.

I don't know if that is a reflection on the difficulty of Dark Souls 1, my Soulsborne experience, or most probably a combination.

Bed of Chaos i remember some run beating it easily while having a hellish time on others. But when it goes wrong, it goes very wrong and it becomes a very frustrating experience.

 

[flyersnorth]

Started Dead Island 2 because it's on GamePass.

It's cheesy and cliche but very entertaining if you're in the right mindset. I like some of the progression mechanics (swap in/out ability cards).