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The "What are you playing now?" Thread

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I just started playing Stardew Valley on the Switch. It's a pretty simple game but man is it addicting.

When I first got that game I played it an ungodly amount of time. Eventually, I burnt out on it, but I basically progressed through the bulk of the game first. It really is addicting and fun. I made a ton of money grinding out fishing early on before my farm was up to snuff.
 
Very pumped they announced General Grievous, Obi-Wan, Dooku, and Anakin are all being added to Battlefront 2. Been waiting for that forever.

They also announced BFV is adding a battle royale. I'm pumped about it, but 99% of the diehard fan base is pissed about it.
 
Really digging Vampyr so far. The reviews are mostly accurate. It's a game that's carried by the strength of characters and story and the combat kind of sucks, or at least just feels like more of a chore to get to more of the talky parts. It's strange that a game about vampire combat is buoyed by your interactions with the everyday poor of London, but it somehow works. I like the dichotomy of playing as a doctor who strives to help people, but who is also a vampire and must, at some point, kill them. Further, I love the system where you are encouraged to get to know people before killing them, as you gain more sustenance from the blood of a person you know in the game's lore. This is a great system because, once you get to know a lot of these people, you don't necessarily want to kill them. This is especially true because each person you kill means potential changes to the story, and also potential lost subplots and side quests.

Somehow, this game just makes walking around and talking to people work, which I guess owes to the developer's past experience making Life is Strange, another game that basically amounted to chatting it up. Here, though, there's just a lot more depth. As a doctor, your duty is to heal people, and so you can check up on them and craft antidotes to whatever is ailing them. This, in turn, feeds into a public health system for each of the four districts in the game. The sicker people get, the further each district delves into chaos. The more chaotic a district is, the more chance that people will go missing and that stronger foes will appear to fight. Thus, your ironic duty as vampire is to ensure the health of the citizens. You also get more XP from killing a healthy citizen than a sick one, so once again you are encouraged to chat and heal.

Finally, I really like RPG system here. You gain XP by doing various actions during the night...killing enemies, progressing the story, feeding off of citizens. However, you can only spend that XP by sleeping, which progresses the game a day. Progressing the game also means that each district has the chance to delve further into chaos, provided you aren't doing enough to help it. This turns each night into a sort of cat and mouse game where you try to see how far you can push the story forward before you start encountering foes that you can't face at your current level, which then forces you to eventually sleep, level up, and spend your XP to unlock new abilities or upgrade your health, blood level, etc. Since you can very easily wander into areas where enemies vastly outlevel you (I've gotten killed by a couple of two-hit combos after doing so), it forces you to be both careful and aggressive in equal parts. I've had a couple instances where I powered through a tough fight, sometimes dying a couple of times in the process, just for the long-term benefit of getting more XP that night and not having to advance the game forward just yet.

Decisions you make also can have consequences. I've already made one mistake I really wish I could take back, where I didn't quite realize what my actions would cause, which in turn hurt the overall health of a key district.

The only real downside to this game thus far is the combat. It's not outright awful, but it's not really fun either. Maybe it gets better at higher levels, but right now it's just a chore. It's not too bad when it's just a one on one fight, or even two on two, but anything beyond that and it becomes unwieldy. The system just doesn't seem to be designed to allow you to properly fight more than one enemy at a time. I usually just try to whittle the numbers down as quickly as possible, but that can be difficult, especially when you're in a fight with multiple enemies higher-leveled than you. Thus far, there just doesn't seem to be much balance in the combat. Either I'm tearing through enemies with ease or combat is frustrating and overly difficult, usually more due to the poor lock on system and the sluggishness of melee combat than anything else. Fights mostly devolve into running in, swiping a few times, and then using your evade ability to quickly get the fuck out and regain stamina while your foe flails at you. Hitting enemies with a melee attack rarely stops their attack from going through either, which is equally frustrating. It makes sense with the larger enemies in the game, but when I hit a regular dude with a machete, he should get staggered, not instantly counter with a swing of his own. This leads to a big lack of fluidity in combat, as it's tough to get combos going when enemies just hit through them.

I'd definitely recommend this game if you're into story-based experiences, though. It's fun learning about all the people in this version of London, along with slowly uncovering the vampire lore in the game's world. The combat sucks, but I find it doesn't suck enough to make me not want to keep playing.
 
Bethesda killed it.

Elder Scrolls 6
Elder Scrolls: Blades (Mobile)
Starfield
Fallout 76

:biggrinthumb:
 
After Witcher 3, I think these guys deserve the benefit of the doubt on anything they make until they prove us wrong. When you make a GOAT game, you get that kind of respect.

That trailer looked like Ghost in the Shell meets Ready Player One. Just looked fantastic... Better than most movie trailers.
 
That trailer looked like Ghost in the Shell meets Ready Player One. Just looked fantastic... Better than most movie trailers.
To me, it looked like a bigger clone of Dues Ex: Mankind Divided (which I lost interest half way into it, unfortunetly)
 
New Sea of Thieves update was pretty fun. The Bilge Rats (a faction in the game) used driftwood to build ten thrones in hard to reach locations and task you with locating them (they each have a clue as to their location) and finding a way to get to them and sit on them. Most of them require some precise cannon aiming, and half of them are large thrones that require at least two people from different ships to sit on them at the same time. For doing each one, you get a new currency, doubloons, which can be used to buy unique, limited-time items from the Bilge Rats.

It sounds like they're going to start doing community events like this every couple of weeks, which is great, as it will keep me coming back to the game. Each event earns you limited-time items that can't be found after the event ends. The last event with the Megalodon is over now, and so new players can't get the shark tattoos, the shark bite scar, the Shark Slayer title (whatever title you equip displays below your name to other players), or the shark skin for the drum instrument. I really like this set-up, as it gives players rewards for being active and keeping up with the game. I don't play it nearly as much as I used to, but if they do an event every two weeks, it'll keep me playing.

Last night, we partnered up with two other crews. We ended up having ten people on our ship, as it was more convenient to just all use one ship. That way, once we found the proper cannon angle to shoot ourselves up to a throne, everyone could use the same cannon and get there quicker. All told, it took about two hours. All but two of the clues were pretty easy to figure out. It was a lot of fun just shooting ourselves out of cannons constantly, along with just general dicking around.

At the end, one of our guys got everyone together for a photo op, at which point I dove down from the sails with a bomb and killed them all. :chuckle:

I got a sweet new jacket and hat out of it too.
 
Ive managed to get up to Silver/3 in RocketLeague. Which Im told is pretty good for keyboard/mouse only (no controller)

My username is "WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW0W" if anyone else happens to see me there.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
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