Wot are you playing (video games)

Oh wow I hadn’t even thought of Stellaris as multiplayer… interesting!
I have looked at Lone Wolf but I love all the characters too much, I suppose I’d keep Fane and the Red Prince… hmm

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Stellaris as a multiplayer looks a really good idea. Funny how we are supposed to have more time in lockdown and still haven’t enough time to play all the video games we’d want to…

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Amen to this! I feel busier than I’ve ever been and, annoyingly, not with games!

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I’m teaching some of my friends how to play Tekken 7. It’s a great feeling starting up a group, seeing people gravitate to different styles, and improve beyond button mashing. I’d love to get everyone I know hooked on T7.

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Man, I haven’t played any Tekken since Tekken Tag Tournament. Really had fun with Lei and his various stances.

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I wish I could play beatemups beyond button mashing. Tried with King of Fighters for a bit, but the temptation was too strong. I’ve been wanting to pick up Tekken and Soul Caliber, but doesn’t seem much point with no one to play against. Long for my teenage years of massive tournaments in the summer holidays!

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Tekken 7 is 12-ish bucks on steam right now, I think, and I’m always looking for people to play with!

I play on PS4. It hits the sales quite regularly but I’ve always been “ah, I’ll wait til next time…”. Maybe next time I’ll actually follow through :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Legends of Runeterra fills the CCG hole Duelyst’s shutdown left in my heart. At least partly. Duelyst’s hole can never really be filled :slight_smile:

But LoR is a lot of fun, easy going, very polished and more casual than Duelyst. Super F2P friendly, it sets the new standard in that area. Kinda crazy how well they did that.

Other than that I finally finished Outer Wilds. What an amazing game! Wow, that’s something I think everybody should have played :slight_smile: Such a refreshing, different and clever game!

Also got a XBox Game Pass for PC to play Gears Tactics which I enjoy a lot more than XCom because it doesn’t feel as punishing. Your soldiers can take more than 2 hits :slight_smile:

Also noticed the Game Pass gives me Mechwarrior 5 and I played the first mission (after the tutorial) but to be honest… it doesn’t really capture the magic of Mechwarrior 4 which I loved so much. Not sure I will play that much more but at least it didn’t cost me anything.

Hades is one of these games I always go back to, it is such an amazing game and right now you can get it for 6€ on Epic Store. That’s really cheap and the game is more than worth that :smiley:

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I somehow came back to play on my laptop a lot at night, and after Raiders of the North Sea, I started a Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion… that led me to playing my favourite Total War game due to naval battles, Empire: Total War, where I started a campaign with Austria, which was one of the only factions I had never started with. It has been three nights of it, I love that game.

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Free physics game, runs on all sorts of platforms. If you are me, highly addictive (as in I need to ration my play of it or I’ll take hours fiddling at it). https://powdertoy.co.uk/

(ETA: unlike most addictive free games, doesn’t have in-app purchases or ads.)

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I’m currently (still) playing Rocket League. A game hasn’t had me invest this much time in it since Quake 3 with the Rocket Arena mod.

Other than that I’ve started Anno 1800 (I’ve loved that supply chain style city builder since the first Settlers back on the Amiga) which seems excellent so far, Raiden V (by far the best vertical shmup I’ve played in years, and in last month’s Humble Choice) and lots more Animal Crossing.

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I have been engrossed in HITMAN 2 to the exclusion of all others lately. It’s been fascinating trying to gain full mastery of the various locales, and getting as creative as possible with regards to taking out my targets. It’s not for everybody, but I have been enjoying it a great deal. :smirk:

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So, I finished Assassins Creed Odyssey, which was disappointing only in its total lack of an “ending”. I’m 99.9% sure that the “real” ending is buried in paid-DLC, but f-that-noise. The game was good, I had a lovely time traveling around exploring and stabbing, and I’m happy to put it aside. Saved my entire family, killed “all” of the cultists (except 2 which I chose to spare… would’ve been 3 but the game didn’t let me save that 3rd one due to a decision that I find very questionable writing, but what can ya do), and overall I would say I enjoyed the trip… except that ending, but what can ya do.

I also finished XCOM Chimera, which was fine. I liked the faster pace of the missions and the more forgiving elements of the game. I didn’t like the limited number of agents you were allowed in the early game, since it meant I couldn’t train, research, and conduct spec-ops at the same time for no real reason, but that’s okay. Ending was pretty good (albeit a little abrupt).

Which brings me to Elite: Dangerous, a game I bought a $100 joystick for (a low-end HOTAS setup which is perfectly fine, albeit on the lower-mid end of price and flexibility). I think I’m going to have to do something I hate… button mapping. The default setup is fine, but there are some really stupid choices made (“strafe” being mapped to two buttons in a game that should almost never intentionally use the strafe ability, for example, instead of letting you choose weapon groups… as it stands switching from Missiles to Chaff requires taking my hand off the flight-stick for at least a second, and that seems… dumb…). I’m still not a huge fan of sandbox games, and I don’t like how many of the toys are behind premium currency (paint jobs, new voices for your AI, etc…), but I did spend some time running cargo runs and making a few million credits, which means I can diversify into exploration or combat builds if I want. Which is fine.

But since I’m being recalled to work on Saturday, I don’t know if I’ll bother getting anything else to play, since my free time is about to be heavily curtailed. I might spend sometime with Battletech, but I really don’t want to run through the main campaign for a 3rd time… some of those randomly “This Is Totally Impossible” missions tossed into the mix are really frustrating. Maybe I’ll play a bit of XCOM2 instead… I dunno. We shall see.

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Does Assassin’s Creed ever do endings? I’ve played maybe just over half of them, and there’s never a conclusion. They’re the JJ Abrams of video games! Great at the set up, but no interest on giving any pay off.

Just started Origins, and I’ve already given up on expecting any storyline. The little callbacks are fun though.

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Hmmm. I don’t know… the original definitely had an ending (and a satisfying one). Assassins Creed 2 also had an ending, albeit not quite as satisfying. Assassins Creed 3 was a bit of an awful AC overall, but the ending was pretty good.

Since then, I don’t think I’ve finished (or seriously played) an AC. Black Flag was fun but really buggy so I gave up after a few hours.

I skipped everything between AC:2 and Origins but ended up playing both AC Origins and AC Odyssey. I wouldn’t say either lacked an ending. Both have a pretty clear main plot arc that ends when you finish out their respective quests. I can see that with Odyssey, though–the ending is definitely pretty anemic and the way the cultist plot is integrated into the ending of the personal story feels weird. Assassin’s Creed strikes me as a somewhat nihilistic series with an unsatisfying take on its themes such as they are, which probably doesn’t help the feeling of slack in Odyssey.

Origins has a very definite ending and I felt it had a much stronger narrative arc to it than the other two games I had played prior. The level-based grinding was a baffling decision and led to me doing a lot more side-quest stuff than I was interested in, but overall it hung together pretty well.

I’m Currently playing my way through too many games at once as is my way. Just started the first Yakuza game on PC. It’s reminding me a lot of Sleeping Dogs–more comedic in tone, but a similar mix of personal antics, crime intrigue, and street brawling.

I’m also working my way through The Very Seventh Fantasy. Not in love with the timed menu combat here and I could do with about 75% as many random battles but otherwise enjoying my time in Midgar.

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Somebody mentioned Frostpunk in another thread, so now I am back down the post-apocalyptic city-building rabbit hole :+1:

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I’m playing, and loving, Aviary Attorney. It’s essentially Ace Attorney gameplay, collecting evidence and then presenting it in court. The twist though is that it’s set in 19th century France, and the characters are these amazing public domain works by someone called J J Grandville

What I really love though is the writing. It’s one of the few games that is genuinely funny. So many games try to be funny, but so few manage it, and this is one of them. Brilliant game.

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Yup that was me.

I ended up buying it on ps4. Works really well on console. It’s an intense game but good. I’ve only scratched the surface though.

Managed to kill everyone by not building medical facilities in my first run.

Second run I’ve just ran out of wood so it’s looking a bit ropey.

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