The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

BeamNg multiplayer! A lot of fun

thank you...that looks great

Starfield, like a maniac.

The contraband at Vulture's Roost keeps beckoning me!

Started playing Need for Speed Heat. Not really sure why but I am having fun with it.

Fun is what its about 🙌😊
Heat was amazing compared to Payback and 2015. I wish they would stick to that formula going forward.

RDR2 on Steam Deck. I never got far when I originally played it on my PC a few years ago and have been itching to play it again for the last few weeks.

Started a new game and so far it’s running really good.

Work and IRL stuff does not leave me with a lot of hours to game, but I did manage to put in a good few hours.

Reminds me so much of my situation. I have two kids and having a steam deck has changed everything for me, I went from not having time and/or brain space to game to being able to pick up my deck here and there and play when and where I want and not need to be at my desk or the couch.

I’m going through CP77 and plan to pick up RDR2 next sale.

Starfield, I can't not play. Also just bought Sea of Stars and I'm thinking of getting Jurassic World Evo 2. Is that Jurassic World worth it, if any of you have played?

It’s a pretty straight forward zoo sim with dinosaurs, I got it on sale for like 20 bucks and think it’s totally worth it at that price especially.

Games not very deep or complicated, but there’s decent management to be had alongside the story stuff if you’re playing campaigns.
- I think that's about all I'm looking for, but I was concerned about the $59.99 on the Microsoft store. I'll wait till a sale, thanks friend.

Grim Dawn on Steam Deck and finishing up the collectables on Quantum Break which I usually stream that from my PC to my Steam Deck. I absolutely love the Steam Deck.

For better or worse I can sit and play way longer sitting on the couch with my Steam Deck than at the desk in front of my computer.

I started Baldur’s gate last week. That’s a really nice game !

And also playing Factorio, of course

Still on metal gear solid 5 the phantom pain. I'm taking my time. I've put about 60 hours into it so far and still have lots to do. Not bad value when I picked up ground zeros and TPP for like 7 shmeckles in a steam sale.

MGS 5 is awesome. That's a great deal for sure. The Fulton system and using materials to research new equipment is addicting. Glad you're enjoying it!
- Yea its like "just one more mission and then I can develop xyz".
  
  Thanks for the wholesome comment 😊👍. Hope you have a great week
Mgs5 has some of the best open world gameplay of any game ever made . Love all of the metal gear games.
- Yea I love the adaptive enemy AI, the way they put on vests and helmets and NVG.
  
  I remember being a kid watching a friend play MGS2 and being amazed when the enemies would sweep the area in formation . Then seeing the footage that they had input from real life soldiers to get it right. The games are labors of love for sure.

This is super niche but I’ve been playing some older games from my childhood with RetroAchievements on my Steam Deck. Right now I’m playing through Pokémon Platinum, and trying to get all the achievements has me engaging with systems I didn’t even know existed! It’s really fun and super rewarding.

Also been using it to play SSX Tricky. RetroAchievements has leaderboards for some games, so seeing my time at the end of a race compared with everyone else’s is pretty surreal.

Ssx Tricky!?!? I have most emulators set up on my SD, can you point me towards the info I need to get this running? Played this game until my hands hurt on the Xbox, would be a frigging blast to revisit!
- I’m just using Emudeck and running it through pcsx2. I didn’t even have to tweak anything
SSX Fans unite!
Dude RetroAchievements is awesome. I found out about it thanks to my MiyooMini and it changed the way I play retro games. I liked it so much an made an app for it for iOS lol

Cyberpunk!!

Cyberpunk 2077. My second playthrough. First one with ver. 1.0 and it was painful

Its still on my list to play. Having played initially , what are your thoughts on the update ?
- Not that person, but the update is really good.
  
  Throwing weapons are decent to use now (they were awful when they were added). I like the new skill tree and while I'm feeling a bit constrained by the cyberware limits I can see how it would make me feel much more powerful if I built towards it, instead of just having ED and SC limits I can easily exceed.
Started to play for the first time on Friday. Bought it after watching the anime. I am 30 hours in, it's great but a little overwelming. So many things to do, to collect and upgrade...

Advance Wars By Web

Advance Wars is an old turn based strategy game, for the GBA (Game Boy Advance), and AWBW is a fan site to play AW online.

I've gotten pretty into it ever since Advance Wars Reboot was announced, and being able to play it in the web browser means I frequently find time to play...

Ironically I don't play the actual AW Remake because in classic nintendo style the multiplayer is extremely lacking, only being able to play with players added to friends list, not being able to upload/download maps except to friends, and extremely limited map sizes for online maps

Thanks for sharing, I'm doing a replay of it AW1 on my Steamdeck so I can play Advance wars 2 after (which I never played bfore)! Never knew about this website, gotta check that out!
AWBW is awesome. I've been playing WarBits+ with my friend for over a year now (it is in Alpha/Beta stages). Check it out on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2338990/Warbits/

If it looks interesting to you, they have a Discord you can join to get access to the beta.
- Neat, we need more games like AW and Wargroove

Baldurs Gate 3 turned into an addiction.

Finished some time ago afterimage. Pretty good metroidvania. I liked it despite some negative comments, I did not find many of the issues described, or very little of it. Tho I used a map to find my way around collectables.

Recently finished hogwarts Legacy. It's pretty good too, but it's cursed with bugs and not sure if it's abandoned by the dav as there wasn't any update in 5 months. Tho most of the game is fine without game breaking bugs or too visible.

I started yesterday GRIME. Another metroidvania. For now it's a bit soon to have a real opinion, but it's OK.

Love GRIME.

Playing Baldurs Gate 3 at the weekends with my partner, midway through act 3!

Meanwhile playing Lies of P on gamepass for a couple of hours each day after work. Just got to the grand exhibition, it's actually an amazing souls-like

I’m so excited to start BG3! But my co-op buddy doesn’t have a gaming PC, and it’s delayed on Xbox. It’s ok though, because we’re still enjoying a campaign in Solasta, another CRPG based on D&D rules, although with a much lower budget than BG3.

In the meantime when I have gaming time and he doesn’t, I’ve been playing through DOS2 on the Steam Deck and with some mods. It’s scratching the itch at least!
- Oh nice, I've added that to my Steam wishlist!
  
  DOS2 is amazing! DOS1 made us fall in love with Larian, so DOS2 and BG3 were part of a personally rare list of games I've bought full price.

Have been showing my kid Chrono Trigger. I don't have anyone with good taste to talk to, so I have resolved to create one

Titanfall 2!

About the most fun multiplayer experience I've played

I love that game. Last time I played I was finding it tricky to find a game though.
- Servers are suddenly up again as of last week or so, and are pretty active. Great time to get back in :)

Bouncing between Mass Effect Andromeda when my kid is asleep or not around, or Journey to a Savage Planet when they are around.

Cyberpunk 2.0 is a blast

Any other Trackmania Turbo players here?

Whoa, that's one out of left field, no? I just platinumed the game like a year ago, and it's super good. Tbh It feels more fun than tm2020 somehow, but that's probably cus i always sucked at stadium :/

My shining jewel in that game was like top 71 worldwide on one of the red beach track (ps4 though so less impressive ig?)

Also the black tier canyon and valley tracks can go die
- I started around May 2022. Planed to stop at the end of red series. (Black series looked way to hard) Now playing for STMs. But yes. Black Valley can go dissapear. Fpr my region, half of the players in black canyon didnt make it to black valley

Decided to give cs2 a shot, probably haven't played CS since shortly after csgo was released. Community seems worse, but do those reflexes kick back in even when you're an old man, and hearing the laments from young people as you mop the floor with them is an unexpected joy.

Based
I haven’t played CS2 yet, but since it’s an update/expansion/molting of CSGO, you’re going to have a rough time with the community until you’re out of “silver hell”. Once you rank up enough that you’ve gotten away from the spamming kiddies and smurfs, it’s a better time. At least until you reach ultra high rank where people start taking the game too seriously, but floating between Gold Nova and Master Guardian 1 ranks is the most fun place to be.

I have been playing Phantom Liberty a lot. I've enjoyed it more than Starfield and BG3.

Before PL came out, I had started playing Sea of Stars. But it was extremely difficult to get into. Besides the S+++ tier pixel art, I thought the writing was poor: boring characters, bad dialogue, bad worldbuilding all made worse by slow pacing. I am gonna revisit this game sometime in the future I guess, though I don't understand its appeal yet.

Also I played Armored Core 6 for a few minutes and died to the tutorial mission helicopter like 10 times in a row. I guess some people find that fun, lol.

Despite the popularity I have no interest in starfield or BG3 Hoping to get armoured core 6 soon and can't wait for spider-man 2 . For now I'm just going to finish up breath of the wild .

Cuphead

I'm back playing Escape from Tarkov. The game has some real performance issues and a pretty big cheater problem, but there is no other game on the market like it.

I've thought of getting the single player mod for it. I love the concept but not the pvp part.
Not really the same but you could give hunt showdown a try, almost no cheaters and performances are solid

For the first time in over 10 years. LBP Vita. Wanted to record it and just got sucked back in.

Also playing LBP PSP but not getting as sucked in

Cyberpunk minus Phantom Liberty, been too long since I've played properly.

Skyrim VR with all the fixins, maxed the esp limit, no esl support 😞

on pc

cyberpunk + dlc

shatterline - free to play pve and pvp rogue like fps game.

on mobile pickle Pete

Pc: sc2 Ps4: Stray Mobile: Pokémon Go

Ori and the Will of the Wisps. The visuals are absolutely stunning. Feels so good to control as well. Fantastic game

Great game. I liked it a lot more than I originally thought I would

Doorkickers 2. Cannot stop.

Minecraft, over on the lemmy.world server. Come join - https://lemmy.world/c/lwmc

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]
- Right on. Thanks bot

Against the Storm. I can pick it up whenever I have a free minute, and pause it or save and quit when I need to be doing something else. It's just enough of a challenge to be immersive when I'm playing, but the stakes are low enough that it's not stressful. And the music/ambient noise is lovely.

Torn between continuing my Zenith playthrough of Terraria and learning more Oxygen Not Included. I probably shouldn't have started both of those at the same time

Edit: So it turned out that what my brain wanted was to come back to Darkest Dungeon and try to actually beat it

I played oxygen not included a few month ago and realy had fun. At some point I just stopped, don't even know why. Realy want to replay though. So probably going to start again soon.

Remnant 2

So much cool stuff to do, so many things to try and glorious gunplay. Damn, I fell in love with that game.

Finally playing through Jedi: Survivor. I'm loving it so far. It's like dark souls but with a better story.

How do you like it compared to the first? Loved fallen order but holding off on Survivor until there's a good sale.
- I'm loving it. It's honestly just better in every way than the first. I know a lot of people had performance issues when the game first came out, but I'm about halfway through it right now and haven't had a single problem. So I personally would highly recommend.

Just finished Sea of Stars on PS5, true ending. Loved the way they improved on most aspects of SNES era RPGs , I just wish the story had been as impactful as the awesome gameplay, but I compare everything to Nier Automata so the bar is high.

Picked up Star Ocean First Departure R, and almost immediately regretted it, especially in comparison to Sea of Stars. Wandering aimlessly trying to trigger the next event , talking to every NPC in the village trying to move the plot along with barely a clue on where to go, that old design may have worked in 1996 but it's just not worth the time anymore.

I think I'll drop it and maybe try Starfield on the PC, or I've got final fantasy stranger of paradise sitting in my unplayed collection.

I recently played Phantasy Star on the Master System (the original from 1987) and I really loved the game in general, story was fun and the characters (as little as you see from them) were cool. But I have two issues with the game

The huge, multi level first person dungeons without a map and without any landmarks to navigate by.

Hardly any information on what to do next or where to go, just walking over the map until you find, by chance, the correct place or NPC to get further.

Both points made me drop the game about 2/3th in. I don't have the time for that kind of gameplay, I am not 12 anymore.

So yes, those old game mechanics are problematic. And it's in so many old JRPGs, Star Ocean, Phantasy Star, the early Final Fantasy games. Really sad.
I didn't realize Star Ocean was out already. I really liked what I saw from the announcement in the NDirect. Shame to hear it doesn't fix some of the outdated design of early RPGs. Guess I'll check out some more reviews.

Payday 3(when matchmaking actually works lol) and Lies of P. Payday FOR SURE needs some work put in it. If I didn't have gamepass I would've refunded the game by now. Still having fun, but it's so barebones compared to Payday 2. Obviously it's not gonna have a decade of content available on launch, but I'm definitely worried about the monetization of DLC going forward. Wait for a bundle to get released eventually and stick with game pass if you want to play.

Space Station 14.

Frontier station gameplay: This game is intentionally complex. Gettimg a space suit on? Don't forget your oxygen mask. ..and helmet. ..and to make sure the oxygen's on. ..and that you have grav boots. ..and that they're on.

Grab an ore bag in one hand, pick in the other, and start breaking rocks. If you're lucky, you can get with a good captain and make some dough.

But honestly, i usually get paid more working as a janitor for the station. Or as a bartender, mixing up various drinks, if it's a good day and people are tipping well. I've been trying to run my own food truck, but it seems mostly what I do is die.

..but, then there's sitting at the bar after a good run, drinking and playing music. You can join in a midi band, or play your own uploaded song. Dance with people, or drop banana peels and watch 'em slip. It's a good tune to be alive.

Regular SS14 play: Or, try to do the above. But the station is faced with some awful inevitable catastrophe. Serve drinks and secretly dose them with hallucinogens, until the zombies come, or terrorists with nukes, or alien artifacts that do.. ..Things. Or join sec and try to keep the station going by dealing with whatever threats there are (including errant bartenders slipping drugs into peoples' drinks), or at least evacuate the people. ..and anyone could be a bomb-packing terrorist.

Or be a hamster. Or, y'know.. Anything you want to.

I can't remember the specific name, but I am playing the latest in the Monkey Island series. I know it got a lot of hate online due to its unique graphics, but it has all the humor I always loved about Monkey Island and it is definitely worth playing. Especially since it is free on gamepass

I realized that after my long strategy gaming atrophy, I wasn’t ready to just jump into XCOM2 with War Of The Chosen content.

I decided to take it slow by playing the first Firaxis XCOM, with no DLC. Just plain vanilla.

It’s been a good priming for more complex strategy. Vanilla XCOM is friendly (perhaps too friendly) to stacking overwatch, with missions rarely being time sensitive, and the time sensitive one’s being very generous.

I still lost a few rookies early on, but I’m very close to beating the game. I already have a suitable psionic soldier, I just had to turn off the game on Sunday before I could build the special psionic armor.

I’ve got a squad of colonels with the stronger perks, best weapons and gear, and I’m ready to assault the alien HQ.

I’ll probably replay with Enemy Within DLC, and then move to XCOM 2.

Finished final achievements in Armoed Core 6.

Picked up Unrailed for $5 on Steam (great purchase).

Started a fresh file Ilin Stardew Valley, cause why not?

One more shoutout for unrailed, last videogame I played with my dad before we had to say goodbye. Very cool gameplay, tension without (much) violence, excellent co-op and A+ soundtrack. Simple idea, perfect execution

Last Epoch. The campaign isn't anywhere close to as good as Diablo, but the crafting and end game is way, way better. Despite it being in early access, it's very polished already. I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm looking forward to 1.0 in December.

Tales of Arise cause I think I‘m out of exploration options in Hollow Knight and don‘t have the patience to overcome skill issue for the bosses that are next rn

Pizza Possum. Very small indie game, but very fun.

I came back to Phasmophobia after a while. I forgot how much I love this game

I've been bouncing between Red Dead 2 and Cyberpunk (don't have the new DLC yet though, was going to clear all the base gigs first). I love the open world whiplash I'm getting between these two amazing character driven stories.

Finally giving elden ring a proper go and playing through Alan Wake in anticipation of AW2

Typical MMO addict - Guild Wars 2

Half Life - Alyx

I'm still playing Lies of P. 26 hours into the first playthrough Not sure if I will finish it though. I felt more frustrated towards LoP than when I played FromSoft's games.

I hate that it uses multi-phase bosses so much, yet these phases tend to have nothing related to the earlier phase.

I'm playing this as well and while I haven't played sekiro, lies of p is harder than any of the other From soft games I have played.
- After a long while, I felt more adjusted to their delayed attack and parry windows. However, I stopped playing for a week and now, I feel like I have to readjust the timing again lol.

Still obsessed with Star Wars: The Old Republic after all these years

Gonna play dead island 2 this weekend

I'm still working my way through Baldurs Gate 3: I guess I'm around the middle of Act 2. I am still loving the game :).

I'm at about the same point. Though I keep putting off playing it as I don't want it to end!
- If you're halfway through act 2 I wouldn't worry about that. I think I spent as much time in act 3 as in acts 1 & 2 combined!
- I'm in Act 3 and there's tons to do.
  
  I'm also already planning a second run since I've missed so much in Act 1 and 2... although I've already played for 105 hours.
  
  This game is insane when it comes to detail!

Just finished up Sea of Stars. Enjoyed it, but didn't love it. The visuals and music were spectacular. The story was kind of weak, and didn't too much time tying into the Messenger without resolving plots in a satisfying way. Some of the characters were good, but the actual plot felt kind of pointless. Gameplay was also fun, but took awhile to get going. I think it was really fun after some more options and characters were available, but the start felt too slow. Would still recommend it though. It is a very solid game. It's just not perfect.

Going back to finish Pikmin 4 next and start up Cocoon on PC too.

Shogun showdown!

Valheim with a buddy. I fucking love it

I'm between games at the moment, so I'm revisiting old favorites: Factorio and Hitman

I've got something like 170 hours in the modern Hitman trilogy over the years and still enjoy coming back to it sometimes. The only thing that comes close to it in the stealth genre is the Dishonored games.

Likewise Factorio: over 300 hours and the core loop is still so satisfying -- can't wait for the DLC, though

I was playing Baldur's Gate 3 but I'm burnt out on it at the moment. Combat is relentless in that game...

Sackboy: A Big Adventure, since my PS Plus subscription is running out and I don't intend on renewing due to the price increase.

After that, I'm going to start God Of War.

I've been chasing the platinum on ps5 for Trove for some reason, and it's such an awful game, but i love it lmao. Just imagine the worst grind possible, and then have lots of that grind in distinct areas of the game, and there you have it. Tbf, i am a recovering destiny 2 addict so it's par for the course ig.

Outside of that, I'm currently grinding through revita on pc, and tbh it breaks into my top 3 rouguelites with gungeon and nuclear throne above it (sorry isaac). It's actually so much better than i thought it would be, and the run variety you can get is kinda mad after you put a good bunch of time into it. It takes so many good elements from other roguelites like the heat system from hades and is just a good, all-around experience which I'd say is on par with the big 2 (in my head) of gungeon and isaac (nuclear throne is great but it do lack content fr). My only issue is i put it on veteran mode, and after checking online, everyone says it makes the game worse. I wanna try the easier difficulty just to see how it is, but i cba restarting my save.

Back to Apex Legends. Lot more casually this time. I’m a lot worse than I was, but still good enough to win a lot of fights.

Also trying to pick up CS2, but I forgot how bad my precision aiming is

Getting back into Apex here too, after having rage-uninstalled the game during season 15 lol

I just returned to Genshin Impact after spending a lot of time first playing Baldurs Gate 3, then Starfield and moving on to the expansion for Cyberpunk.

Doing the second run for Bg3. Prolly going for a third run after this one, the game is full of content and nuances to the story.

Just finished playing Dawncraft(a "souls like" Minecraft mod) multiplayer with a friend, and we called it a day after we killed >!notch!< and then got wrecked by >!"divine elementals"!<. Back to Disco Elysium now.

I've installed this but haven't touched it yet. It's meant to be pretty good.

Thanks to the First Descendant beta, I'm probably putting another couple hundred hours into Warframe.

Sonic Frontiers the final horizon update. Very hard.

The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion - 02-10-2023