Discussion What are you currently playing? (Week 51: Dec 19th - Dec 25th, 2022)

[Cacher]

A bit early, but I want to open this new thread when I remember. Thanks Panda Pedinte for opening the last thread! What are you playing?

I have just seen one of the big reveals in Harvestella. Yep this game goes total (noticeable inspirations from other games)Nier and Xenoblade but manages to stand on its own. Sounds like grand finale is coming up but there are still some unanswered questions so maybe there is a few chapters to go? I am really surprised by how the story develops, and judging from reactions online, it looks like I am not the only one. The people behind surely put their hearts into this game and I wish more people will give it a chance down the road.

 

[Li Kao]

Oh bummer, I knew about the last thread but forgot to post in it. Sorry Panda Pedinte

On the main game front I finished Nioh 2 campaign, and don't plan to play the DLC, the base game being as long and hard as it is. I should to start Resident Evil Village today or tomorrow (just bought the DLC on CDKeys).
As for the side dishes, I played several hours of Ship of Fools with PossiblyPudding and started Grounded to familiarize myself with it.

This leaves me with my troubled Norco playthrough. It's a great game, but I lost a little of my drive to play it.

 

[Panda Pedinte]

I had issues with my internet so that means no gamepass games to me so I made the decision to start Chained Echoes as I had already installed it through Steam before the issues started, I'm thinking about playing it this week while I let P5R for the days I'm not exhausted from my work.

 

[curi0usBystander]

Just got the last unlock of the DLC for Vampire survivors. I really liked the new level.

Also, still playing Romancing Saga 2. I've finally come to terms that a full party wipe is not a bad thing. I just get a new emperor and a new party (and some times it's better to just take the loss and try to explore another area). However, the UI of the game is frustrating.
Every time you get a new party member. You need to go to to many places to set up their gear, then want to teach them a spell ? Speak with the respective NPC for every spell you want to teach.

But still, I like that the game let's you start NG+ at any point. So If I get stuck I can always restart with my current levels.

 

[Stevey]

Having finished another playthrough of FEAR, I've started FEAR: Extraction Point which I've owned for ages but never played.

Only an hour in so far, but am enjoying it.

 

[Kvik]

Final week of work for 2022.

I think I'm nearly at the end of Minstrel Song, since I'm only 3 ranks away from a full rotation. It's been quite a ride. It's been a difficult one, too.

I've finally come to terms that a full party wipe is not a bad thing. I just get a new emperor and a new party (and some times it's better to just take the loss and try to explore another area). However, the UI of the game is frustrating.
Every time you get a new party member. You need to go to to many places to set up their gear, then want to teach them a spell ? Speak with the respective NPC for every spell you want to teach

That's definitely a SaGa experience you just had.

Up to chapter 2 in Mahoyo so far. Aoko's face's notwithstanding, I feel that it's going to be a very personal story, not as grand as the Holy Grail War in the Fate SN/HA, but something like Tsukihime where relationship dynamic plays a big part of it. And I like Tsukihime a lot.

 

[Parsnip]

Same as last week.


Seriously though, it kind of is the same as last week. Still mostly thinking about playing stuff, haven't really played a ton of stuff all December. I did however finish a no warp run of Super Mario Bros 2 yesterday.

Though I did end up buying Days Gone, and I feel like I could be in the mood for a too long open world game, so I'll probably start that soon. And since Ubi decided to be boneheaded about the achievement situation for their games on Steam, I decided to postpone buying both AC Valhalla and Fenyx Rising which I earlier had some plans to play soonish.

I've also been thinking about Subnautica lately since they release a new patch to that recently. My save is about 3 years old at this point, so I'll probably start from the beginning when I get back to it.

 

[Deku]

I started to play Hitman 2 again. Yeah, I know there is a third game. I don't have it yet and my plan is to unlock all remaining achievements in Hitman 2 before I start with Hitman 3. Got around 40 achievements left.

Also playing following games
Bleed 2 - Already finished it
Resident Evil 0 - Maybe it's me, but the game design didn't age well. Locked camera angles and quite limited inventory >.<
Celeste - I unlocked the Pico-8 version and already beaten it, but I didn't collect all strawberries in it yet.

 

[Durante]

I'm back to playing The Witcher 3, after a multi-year break.

I basically stopped in the later parts of the Skellige main quest line, now I played a lot of main story stuff, including the isle of mists, battle of kaer morhen, killing Imlerith and the Crones, and now doing "final preprations".

I'm quite into it right now, and I think that's a combination of (i) the game being generally pretty good, (ii) having a long break, (iii) the shiny new graphics, and (iv) the fact that I've now played enough open world (and generally "modern design") games to be finally over the idea of looking at everything.

 

[Mivey]

Started up Yakuza 5, and really impressed how nice everything looks for what is basically a PS3 game. It's easy to understand how the modern RGG team manages to create such amazing looking games this gen, when looking at what they were able to get running on consoles two generations ago. Absolute miracle workers. The game itself is still fun. There's something about the melodramatic gangsters story line that keeps pulling me in.

Also finally began playing Bravely Second. The 3DS sequel to the first game. It basically picks up the almost exactly where the first game ended. The villain came basically out of nowhere, but so far I still like the game's take on the old turn based combat idea, and the fact you can speed things up. More JRPGs should have turbo modes, both in combat (like this game has) and outside of it.

 

[Ascheroth]

I'm most likely either going to start my 2nd Digimon Survive playthrough (with a different route), or continue on with Yakuza 5, that I started a bit over a week ago (right after I finished Yakuza 4 )

 

[Avern]

I'm in year-end cleanup mode; trying to get through promising looking games before year's end so I can make a better GOTY list. So I'm currently going through...

Pentiment (I just reached act 3, which I wasn't expecting at all. The conclusion of act 2 has me shook.)
Norco (I'm maybe a third of the way in. So far, the writing has been superb.)
Signalis (Still near the beginning.)

I've also been spending some time with Akai Katana Shin. I had this on the 360, but never got that deep into it, largely because it's arcane as hell. But it runs great on Deck, so I've been sneaking in some runs here and there, and I finally am starting to understand the mechanics. It's a lot of fun once you learn them. Played right, you can turn the screen into a sea of point items, and it's a dopamine hit and a half when you nail it.

 

[Kvik]

Pentiment (I just reached act 3, which I wasn't expecting at all. The conclusion of act 2 has me shook.)

Pentiment Act 2 end—When that happened I thought I've made the wrong choices leading to a bad end, but apparently not so. The PoV shift as a narrative device in an adventure game is nothing new, but witnessing the choices Andreas has made in the past having implications to the community, both good and bad, is quite refreshing.

 

[PhaZZe]

Started rdr2, really a cowboy simulator,played cod mw2 warzone, deep rock galactic and some face 2 face maps in gtav with friends

 

[Parsnip]

I started Days Gone, as predicted. Seems fine so far. The story is whatever and most of the characters kind of look weird, but there is some open world fun to be had here.