Community What are you currently playing?

[Virtual Ruminant]

Anybody remember this thread?

Well, an ebay search alert went off the other day and here we are:

I have the coming week off and people probably think I'll be playing a next gen console all week (which I definitely won't since I didn't get one), instead I think my gaming lineup will include only games at least six years old:

• Murdered: Soul Suspect (2014, PS4)
• Prey (2006, Xbox 360 on XB1)
• Blinx (2002, Xbox on XB1)
• Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP (2012, PC)
• Super Mario Galaxy (2007, Wii (emulated))
• The Ball (2010, PC)

I call it No Nuthin' New-vember.

It will be my first time to complete any of these (although I might have beaten Prey before, but I honestly can't remember).

 

[Alextended]

Woot, found and rescued a cool looking guy in DS, said he's all about demon murder, like me.

Then he went all sinister on me, plus he really was cool looking so yeah. Now I'm looking cool.

Update: Finished! Good game, I didn't mind the level/hub structure, it gave a decent sense of exploration early on with the choice of which area to tackle next, but each was also linear and limited, especially toward its end with boss after boss, most of which were easy and simple. Simplistic ending too. Dark is better!

 

[Stevey]

Finished the EA campaign of Prodeus.
Really good, looking forward to more of it.

 

[Alextended]

Ninja Gaiden Σ time. Maybe. It's not clicking for me yet, I get what it's going for but I'm not having fun so far. Nice shiny flashy visuals despite the dumb designs.

It's a minor complaint given this is about the fighting and just blocking, dodging and prioritizing but I don't like how stiff the basic control/turning feels, it's weird.

 

[Valdien]

Ninja Gaiden Σ time. Maybe. It's not clicking for me yet, I get what it's going for but I'm not having fun so far. Nice shiny flashy visuals despite the dumb designs.

It's a minor complaint given this is about the fighting and just blocking, dodging and prioritizing but I don't like how stiff the basic control/turning feels, it's weird.

Yes, NG will take some time getting used to, it's not as responsive & fluid as say, DMC or Bayonetta is, nor was it designed to be. It's similar to Dead or Alive in some ways. Understanding why it feels stiff and overcoming that will make for a more enjoyable game.

If you hadn't noticed, NG buffers input commands. So, mashing the attack or block button will get you killed very quickly. Once you start a combo, you've pretty much committed to it, and cancelling out of it will not be easy. You can use Shurikens to cancel certain combo or reset your attack chain. For example, Square x2-> Shuriken will reset the combo and cut down the recovery animation. You can do this repeatedly until you get the hang of it.

If you're willing to dig deep into NG's combat or want to understand how it works, you can read up on this guide here.

Ninja Gaiden Black & Sigma Part #15 - Ninja Gaiden Black: Advanced Gameplay

Let's Play Ninja Gaiden Black & Sigma by ArclightBorealis - Part 15: Ninja Gaiden Black: Advanced Gameplay

lparchive.org

You can also watch this video for optimal movement controls:

 

[Stevey]

DA:I

 

[Spamlynguist]

​

Been replaying F.E.A.R. since last weekend and man, I still adore the fuck out of this game.

 

[Alextended]

~40 hours into Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Great game. Some times it looks pretty good, most of the time just alright with lod issues and unconvincing lighting and other stuff that bring it down. The cut scenes don't have too high quality a lot of the time, just average motion capture without care to make every action look good or precise cuts but I guess it makes sense given there are so many and many of them of little significance overall, this game is really packed with content.

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[MegaApple]

Finally got Prepare to Die Edition of Dark Souls running without crashing. Picked up from where I left off.

And... now I'm in Blighttown, at the first bonfire that you encounter. I'm really not sure what to do next, genuinely terried.

 

[Futaleufu]

Red Faction 2 has to be the most blatant PS2 to PC port I've ever played, The levels are tiny, smaller than any regular level in old school Wolfenstein or Doom.

 

[Li Kao]

Red Faction 2 has to be the most blatant PS2 to PC port I've ever played, The levels are tiny, smaller than any regular level in old school Wolfenstein or Doom.

It’s incredibly short too, if memory serves.

 

[Stevey]

Been playing Diablo III the past few days.

 

[Ge0force]

Shadows Awakening. Great game, thanks for the recommendation Tizoc !

 

[Avern]

I'm way late to the party, but I finally started playing Spelunky. After about 5 hours of being unable to get past the Jungle, I had a really nice run last night.

I nearly made it to Olmec, and all it took was an early jetpack and spike boots and tons of money and damsels. Easy game.

And now this morning, I'm back to dying in the Mines.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

After firing off a few rockets into space in Oxygen Not Included, I let the Sour Gas get out of control in my colony, and...made a new one.


Look at all that purple. I could have vented into space but it would have taken forever. Generally speaking, I let too many unbreathable gasses get out of control.

Steam rocket currently under construction. Steam rockets suck, just generating the steam and moving them through pipes so that they don't cool off and burst as they become water is a headache. Luckily, if done correctly, only two steam rockets are necessary, then you move on to oxylite production.

I never got around to making liquid oxygen or hydrogen for fuel. Super high level late-game stuff.

Original rockets the Jubilee II and Reparations.


Thinking about naming my next series of rockets Emancipation and Black Lives Matter, but I don't like the name of the latter for a vessel.

Might go with Jubilee III and Reparations II. Save Emancipation for the end-game goal of escaping to the furthest destination in time for the DLC that's coming in December.

 

[Stevey]

Dragon Age Inquisition

 

[Valdien]

Finished Ni No Kuni 2. The DLCs were some Korean level MMO grind garbage. Didn't even bother to do the Labyrinth one, since it's just more dream mazes. The last boss is at level 100... yeah, nah. In recent memory, it's easily the worst DLCs I've come across in a game.

Almost done with Sakuna.

Started playing Mafia Remake.

 

[Stevey]

Inquisition.

 

[Cacher]

Far Cry 5. I see that there is an action figure fan at Ubisoft.

 

[Valdien]

Finished Mafia Remake yesterday.

Started playing Wolfenstein The New Colossus. The game's dynamic lighting is simply fantastic.

 

[Alextended]

Went back to Yakuza Ø now I'm done with Like a Dragon. Felt super off and weird even just wandering around but you get used to it soon enough. It's still great but they did upgrade the town areas a lot in Like a Dragon, it feels a bit less cramped to explore, here it's almost like you just get to walk the main streets, no climbing over small obstacles, far less narrow paths and passages and stairs and other cramped spaces to explore outside the main areas, etc.

 

[didamangi]

Playing Control since I've upgraded to a brand new shiny 3080. It's certainly fun and I'm enjoying the game so far but the graphics are, well...



Don't know how else to put it. The game has that same blurry/grainy looks as Quantum Break that put me off playing that game as well. Speaking of which, I tried Quantum Break again and what do you know, a 3080 is enough to run the game without the upscaling that destroys the image quality beyond 60 fps at 1440p. Huzzah! Will probably play that after control.

 

[Valdien]

Playing Control since I've upgraded to a brand new shiny 3080. It's certainly fun and I'm enjoying the game so far but the graphics are, well...



Don't know how else to put it. The game has that same blurry/grainy looks as Quantum Break that put me off playing that game as well. Speaking of which, I tried Quantum Break again and what do you know, a 3080 is enough to run the game without the upscaling that destroys the image quality beyond 60 fps at 1440p. Huzzah! Will probably play that after control.

That's odd. Do you have film grain turned off and DLSS mode set to quality? Since the DLSS 2.0 uptate, Control has been much sharper. I found it a bit too sharp, in fact.

 

[didamangi]

That's odd. Do you have film grain turned off and DLSS mode set to quality? Since the DLSS 2.0 uptate, Control has been much sharper. I found it a bit too sharp, in fact.

Yup, all max settings, film grain off. 1440p dlss quality.

Funny thing about the sharpness, i added nvidia image sharpening on top of it as well since i find it still too soft. on some levels the game looks sharp. on other levels it's blurry and grainy,

maybe the ray tracing horse power just isn't there yet, and they have to use a lower quality ray tracing to get all those effects in there. But their northlight engine have that grainy feel to it that just isn't to my liking. on some scenes it looks great though.

 

[Mivey]

maybe the ray tracing horse power just isn't there yet, and they have to use a lower quality ray tracing to get all those effects in there. But their northlight engine have that grainy feel to it that just isn't to my liking. on some scenes it looks great though.

I know what you mean, but I only notice it with certain textures, like the portraits in the game. Those appear low-res and grainy, until you come close to look at them. I think it's how the game dynamically adjusts its texture streaming. Hope Remedy can revamp that a bit now that even consoles have proper SSDs and these aggressive optimisations shouldn't be needed even for those.

 

[Valdien]

Yup, all max settings, film grain off. 1440p dlss quality.

Funny thing about the sharpness, i added nvidia image sharpening on top of it as well since i find it still too soft. on some levels the game looks sharp. on other levels it's blurry and grainy,

maybe the ray tracing horse power just isn't there yet, and they have to use a lower quality ray tracing to get all those effects in there. But their northlight engine have that grainy feel to it that just isn't to my liking. on some scenes it looks great though.

Ah yeah, I get what you mean now. It's the RTX denoiser artifacts. It sometimes gives it muddy look, as if the pixels are swimming. And yeah, this is something that will get better overtime. It bothered me at first too, but got used to it. Worth it for the RTX features alone anyway.

 

[sk2k]

It's a horror walking sim with some puzzles. For a one man show it's a good game.

 

[Arc]

I'm 60 hours into Assassin's Creed Valhalla and I have started to hate it. What began as being amazed by the gorgeous landscapes and interesting premise has devolved into tedium by having to play errand girl for some jabroni ealdorman, king or jarl. Nearly every regional story is the game: a leader has a problem -> you fix the problem -> they swear fealty. Rinse and repeat. While the exploration was initially satisfying, as my character is now decked in top tier equipment, I have no interest in spending minutes searching for a way to get items I won't even use. There's also a litany of bugs and other nitpicks that have washed away the initial sheen (although in Ubi's defense, such a huge game is going to always have issues). Basically there's about 30 hours of content stretched out into an 80 hour game.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

(although in Ubi's defense, such a huge game is going to always have issues).

At this point it's pretty clearly more like "such a huge Ubi game is always going to have issues".

 

[Alextended]

From Like a Dragon (9/10 & GOTY) and then 0 (8/10) now I'm on to Kiwami 2 (as I had played the original PS2 game but not 2). Seems pretty promising. Sucks it doesn't have TAA this time so aliasing can't be cleaned up well but overall it's slick and stylish as usual. Love that Virtual On has the twin stick controls option.

https://abload.de/img/yakuzakiwami2_2020_12d1jc3.png

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[Ge0force]

Sam & Max save the world remastered. I'm so bad at adventure games, I already needed a guide to complete the first episode

 

[sk2k]

Interesting horror game. Not as good as Shutter. Shutter 2 is bigger but also more confusing to navigate.

 

[ISee]

I should really like Fenix Rising. It runs well, it plays well, it looks great, exploration is exceptional, the small environmental riddles and mini dungeons are entertaining enough. The game doesn't do anything wrong other than being the pinnacle of Ubi games. Bravo to the team, you've reached master craftsmanship.

But I know one thing for sure: ubi games tend to grind my love and enthusiasm for gaming into dust. I keep on exploring and collecting until it becomes tasteless and even bitter by the end. The Story in Fenix Rising is not pronounced or interesting enough to keep things together and me motivated.

I've reached a good vantage point, looked into the far distance and thought to myself: I'm not doing that, Odyssey took me over one hundred hours and there is even more to do here. Which should be a positive, but after all this year I'm more intimidated than excited by that vista in an ubi game.

I should fall in love, but I can't anymore.

 

[LEANIJA]

ISee yeeah I totally understand what you mean.

Meanwhile, Im playing mostly WoW and Sims 4, also games that basically have no end, but, well, different.

My two main characters: Laelini (void elf warrior) and Leadora (night elf priest, my oldest char, has been with me since 2007)

some scenery from the Shadowlands. As always, the environments look really nice.

 

[lashman]

Sims 4

you need to post some screenshots then! (preferably - in the screenshot thread )

 

[LEANIJA]

you need to post some screenshots then! (preferably - in the screenshot thread )

I'll try to take more. That game produces quite some amusing things ;P Here's some that I do have:

Normal dating night; one of my sims playing guitar

I modified this public museums so that everything is a pool around it and peoplem have to swim through it to get in; cats are such a delight, even if you stink like hell because your cruel taskmaster doesnt let you shower or poop or eat

 

[lashman]

I'll try to take more. That game produces quite some amusing things ;P Here's some that I do have:

Normal dating night; one of my sims playing guitar

I modified this public museums so that everything is a pool around it and peoplem have to swim through it to get in; cats are such a delight, even if you stink like hell because your cruel taskmaster doesnt let you shower or poop or eat

lol, amazing!

 

[Alextended]

I tried Dragon Quest XI S DE. Graphics are pretty good, shaders are purdy, models great, textures probably lower res and grass density is reduced. World lod is pretty great but NPC lod seems to be done in chunks and they can pop in (I forget how it was before). Overall a great version, any shortcomings visually don't feel off when the game itself is so old school and classic style, it's sharp and runs great in general but does feel like a game of yesteryear, in a good way. Also, since the original game differs to the 3DS version where the 2D mode comes from (I wish they had the 3D version of that in too btw, it's so charming) there's no seamless transition from 2D to 3D, if you wanna switch you're given a choice of chapter/progress point based on your save and such, some things carry over but not all and they're basically separate. In the 3D mode I got back to the village for example and saved at the church where you can choose to switch but 2D mode brought me to the very beginning of the game instead. It's not 1:1 progression since the versions are also pretty different even in this early beginning I just got through. It works with the Dual Shock 4 on PC without using Steam mapping or DS4Windows or whatever, but it has Xbox prompts (maybe because I also have an xinput pad connected, who knows, it works anyhow). Directional input skips past dialogue like the buttons so lift that thumb in cut/dialogue scenes!

 

[Bonfires Down]

Finally got my hands on a PS4 so I've been playing The Last of Us and Shadow of the Colossus. I'm not too impressed really. Not sure I'll even finish these but hopefully God of War is more up my alley.

 

[ISee]

I can't stop playing Total War: Warhammer 2, again.
Please send help, again.

 

[Lashley]

Swapping between AC Valhalla and Yakuza 7

No way I finish them before Cyberpunk

 

[Stevey]

Avernum: Escape From The Pit.

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night

Also started another playthrough of SOMA

Too many games on the go at once.

 

[Paul]

Swapping between AC Valhalla and Yakuza 7

No way I finish them before Cyberpunk

You dun fucked up starting two huge games like that before C77

I started playing Valhalla day it came out and finished it day before yesterday, with 94% completion and 135 hours played. Then I immediately uninstalled it.

...and now I am reinstalling it because I do not want to start any other game and C77 is still 4 days away
So I will do some more meaningless sidequests in England that I skipped..
The guy above had it right though, Valhalla (and all ACs since Origins) are much bigger games than they should be, if Ubi cut the fat and focused only on the good, they could be in GOTY contests, but they always drown their good stuff in mediocrity.

 

[Stevey]

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Door Kickers 2 is fun , but going back to the Iraq War setting is...weird. I feel like we put that behind us and we don't want to go back but they do.

I stopped playing oxygen not included and picked up space Haven. Good game so far and equally time consuming. The developers have not implemented your character's ability to level up in skill, so I might not be playing it for very long.

 

[dummmyy]

Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night

Stevey you should post a few more of your screenshots in the screen shot thread! always look forward to the ones you post in here! Would be sweet to see more!

 

[Li Kao]

Stevey you should post a few more of your screenshots in the screen shot thread! always look forward to the ones you post in here! Would be sweet to see more!

I concur, they are nice !

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

I played some of those demos that popped up with that Game Awards show. A lot of them were astonishingly bad, so I thought I'd post about them, in case somebody has that game on their radar.


Very rough. One of those demos where the fact that it was put out at all makes me expect the worst for the product to be eventually released.


Less rough, but still has a lot of problems. Seems to me like it needs a lot more extra time in the oven than until spring 2021.


Like Ami, but even worse. These devs don't know what they're doing.


I almost didn't play this one because the muddy looking pixel art was so repulsive to me initially, but I'm glad I did anyway, because it plays really great. Wishlisted.


The game description says "poetic adventure" and the "poetic" right there is in reference to an incredibly grating narrator/puppeteer giving a running commentary in excruciating verse on the action on screen. Game itself is alright, has the rather unique property of the player character and every NPC being puppets on strings. And the strings do occasionally tangle with the environment. 50/50 odds of this one turning out well in the end.


A Hexen/Heretic homage developed by the competent folks at Slipgate Ironworks. I played the demo wrong (with the WASD-emulation steam controller profile since the demo does not have native controller support and I suspect the final product might not either, given the retro aesthetic they are going for here) and had fun anyway. Final product is probably gonna be really good.

 

[Stevey]

Skyrim SE

Using a mod that makes the trees 80% bigger.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Finally started Spiritfarer.