Community What are you currently playing?

[Ascheroth]

I'm probably in the last third of the second Deponia game currently, continues to be great fun.

Having a blast with Tomb Raider Anniversary as well. It looks and runs great, the platforming and puzzles are great, the locations are really cool and varied and Lara is badass.

Yesterday I also started Enderal: Forgotten Stories. The Skyrim mod that is actually a completely new game and got a standalone release on Steam last year [UWSL](I had installed since then )[/UWSL]
And of couse since it's related to Skyrim the first thing I did was mod the mod
Mostly character creation related stuff. It took some time (looking through ~700 hairstyles mainly) but I think the end result turned out nicely!

Game is pretty pretty too. Of course the age of the engine shows, but the overall atmosphere and environment design still shines.
And I immediately like the RPG mechanics much more than Skyrim

 

[Ge0force]

Lifeless Planet. Another walking simulator, not bad but not very special either. Hoping for a decent ending.

 

[Stevey]

Started a new playthrough of The Witcher 3.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

As it turns out, I didn't like Wintermoor Tactics Club. Very E for Everyone in tone, with Zak & Wiki-level difficulty.

Moving on to I Dracula

 

[Deku]

Finished GRIS. It was fun and ear relaxing game since the music is good. The game play wasn't challenging at all

 

[Ge0force]

Guacamelee 2. What a funny and beautiful game that is!

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Having a wholesome Monday off with OVIVO and Super Mario Galaxy.

 

[Stevey]

Red Faction

Using Dash Faction

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Moving on to I Dracula

I like it better than Nuclear Thone, and I think it's better than most of the Nuclear Throne clones.

Will have to play more to investigate further.

 

[Deku]

Currently playing Masquerada - Songs and shadows. It's fun game. It was a bit difficult in the beginning but once you understand the battle system the game is easy. I think my party is overpowered now. Most battles I encounter are easy to win

What's very impressive with the game is that the game is fully voiced. And it's not a low quality voice over. Everything seems to be high quality voice over acting. How can such an indie game have afford high quality voice over?

 

[d00d3n]

I am currently 50 hours into Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition on Switch. I was never able to get past the bad graphics on Wii, so this the first time that I play the game "for real".

The game probably gives a bad first impression with the MMORPG levels of throwaway sidequests, the battle system focusing on the main character swinging a super sword to solve every issue, the wide open but empty starting section and and the slow-burning main story (especially if you try to do the sidequests). Both the main story and the gameplay get much better down the line, though. I am currently playing as a spellcaster trying to get maximum chain combos, using entirely different characters than the starting lineup, and I can't wait to get to know what happens in the story next.

Some minor issues:
The mini-map does not show areas that you have not explored with a black fog like the main map screen does
The game is pretty reasonable when it comes to inventory limits overall, but I just had to spend several hours cleaning up gem precursors that are used for the crafting mini-game, which has frankly been a low point of playing the game so far.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Having a wholesome Monday off with OVIVO and Super Mario Galaxy.

Progress:

 

[5taquitos]

It's been too long since I've posted here.

I'm currently juggling too many games (what else is new), but at least I've managed to kick the worst of my Apex addiction. I still play, but it's not dominating my attention anymore.

Which is great, because I've finally started making progress on my mountain of single-player games.

Contrary to my tag, I finished a couple games recently. I finally beat Doom 2016 and slogged my way through Halo CE in MCC for Steam. I'm a little burnt out on FPS campaigns now, so I'm switching it up.

Right now I'm playing Stories: Path of Destinies, which is a fun little Arkham-lite (in combat) adventure game. The main conceit is the storytelling structure, which functions essentially like a Choose Your Own Adventure. You end up replaying lots of sections to access different branches. Each run through takes maybe an hour, and your skills carry over. I'm enjoying it well enough.

I'm also picking away at my Grid 2 career, and Halo is my main squeeze when it comes to multiplayer, SWAT specifically.

 

[LEANIJA]

Honestly just playing WOW and Overwatch these days.
Still eagerly awaiting Horizon Zero Dawn on Steam, so I can restart and finish that. I should finish HL Alyx at some point too. I liked it when I played it, but eventually I just ... stopped. It happens sometimes, and sometimes I pick those games (that I put away) up again later, sometimes not. Will see.

 

[Ascheroth]

Supraland, which is indeed good. It's a bit too puzzle-heavy for my tastes, but the mechanics and puzzles themselves are undoubtedly very creative and clever.

Final Fantasy 12 Zodiac Age, which has been fantastic.
But I swear, I wouldn't be able to play it without the turbo mode and free respec (which they patched in a while after the Switch version came out with that feature).
Setting up your gambits to have your party auto-kill everything while you sit back and enable turbo is very satisfying. And the respec takes away the choice paralysis, because the amount of options you have is huge and you have them right from the very beginning

 

[gabbo]

Dishonored2: Death of the Outsider
It's been a while since I've played anything resembling an immersive sim (and it was Dishonored 2 I believe) so i'm quite rusty when I try to stealth/neutral every task (a lot of restarts because i'm like that), but I'm really into the world and the powers, even if at the moment the actual story is kinda middling. I'll be disappointed if the ending doesn't bring it around though.

various games in the itch bundle for justice - DYO - platforming puzzle game, that I'm controlling both minotuars since my wife doesn't want to play but help with the puzzles. It's so minimal - basically the same level assets, and no story, but i'm sucked in by the gameplay. Flipping the level is genius. I just can't always get my left brain to work with my right brain and figure it out for a few tries.

 

[Stevey]

Crysis 2

 

[Deku]

Started and finished the first episode of Life is Strange 2.

It feel like I started the game in kinda bad time, or maybe good... I don't know.... It will be in spoiler from now on

Chapter 1 spoiler

The game started with a trigger happy cop, which is pretty much what's happening in USA, at least during the protest that's happening now. And it fueled me, when the cop did nothing to de-escalate a situation. He just randomly shot someone. Stupid cop.

And in the gas station, I hate the racist fucker. Should have stole everything instead of being honest...

 

[lashman]

Started and finished the first episode of Life is Strange 2.

It feel like I started the game in kinda bad time, or maybe good... I don't know.... It will be in spoiler from now on

Chapter 1 spoiler

The game started with a trigger happy cop, which is pretty much what's happening in USA, at least during the protest that's happening now. And it fueled me, when the cop did nothing to de-escalate a situation. He just randomly shot someone. Stupid cop.

And in the gas station, I hate the racist fucker. Should have stole everything instead of being honest...

keep going ... that game is soooo good ... my 2019 GOTY

 

[Deku]

keep going ... that game is soooo good ... my 2019 GOTY

Yes, sir!

 

[Futaleufu]

 

[5taquitos]

I just beat Stories: Path of Destinies and only have three achievements left but I'm staring down around 15 more playthroughs to get the last few I need and I just don't know if I have it in me. Especially when the rest will just result in bad endings since I already have the true ending.

 

[Ex-User (119)]

Neoverse and something secret

 

[ScreamingTrees]

Playing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition. I had it on Wii, only played a little bit there, messed with it on emulator and now I think I will actually play it through this time. About 20 hours in now. I finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2 already, shortly after it came out.

 

[Dandy]

Still playing Animal Crossing every day, though usually only 30 minutes to an hour. Also playing ESO: Greymoor here and there - I treat it as a single player RPG with random people running around, mostly.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Now completely stuck in 00s retro-gaming mode with Super Mario Galaxy and World of Goo. Very fresh to me though!

 

[Kvik]

Now playing 7th Dragon 2020. I've failed in making 60fps unlock cheat codes for it though.

 

[JackPineSavage]

I played some Control on ps4 but I'm so terrible with aiming with a controller, so i think I'm gonna wait for the steam version. The story seems like some weird ass Lynchian nighmare aka awesome tho

 

[MegaApple]

Super Mario Galaxy

How's the emulation?

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

How's the emulation?

Really smooth despite tons of enhancements until my last session on Thursday actually, where I hit some actual slowdown with audio stutter in "Battlerock Barrage". It actually helped with beating the level though.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Should be finishing up Mass Effect Andromeda in the next day or so. I really enjoy the game, i can see why some people hate it but for me it's fine and a comfy game to play. I really need to sort out an image host so i can post more images of the games i play.

 

[Stevey]

Should be finishing up Mass Effect Andromeda in the next day or so. I really enjoy the game, i can see why some people hate it but for me it's fine and a comfy game to play. I really need to sort out an image host so i can post more images of the games i play.

I just link directly to STEAM

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

I just link directly to STEAM

Yeah, i usually post non-steam game screens in the "artwork" section but was wondering if Valve would get pissy about it
Now i've had a think about it i reckon i'll continue doing that.

 

[Mivey]

Just finished Shantae and the Seven Sirens.

Great game in the series, even if not quite as fun as Pirate's Curse, which still remains as the best game in the series. Seven Sirens uses a lot of its elements, though, as the continuous map, giving the game a bit of a metroidvania feel, even if it doesn't depart too much from its linear platforming roots. My only real issue is how lame the boss fights end up being. With the ludicrous amounts of items you get in the game, there really isn't much of a challenge, and you can cheese all of them fairly easily. They are also not very great at designing boss fights with varying stages. It just ends up being fairly boring, though luckily they don't waste your time either.

 

[Stevey]

Crysis 3.

Still a good looking game.

 

[MegaApple]

Downloaded Anno 1800 (which ate through my data) and I tried the adventure but damn the tutorial is bad and undercooked.

I've no idea what I should be doing.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

C&C:R was a dud due to awful pathing.

I started playing Brigador to kill time before Desperados III. Reminds me of Bedlam in the 90's.

 

[Dandy]

Max Gentlemen Sexy Business! The writing is very funny, the gameplay is fine, and it's not nearly as porny as I was expecting. Like, there is full frontal nudity, sure, but there are no sex acts depicted(other than in text form).

Also played a bit of Observation. It's pretty good as well, though navigating around can be frustrating and confusing at times.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Brigador is...okay. Like, 7.0 maybe.

Very repetitive, but it's satisfying shooting everything until it blows up. All of the text-based lore is an eyesore. Game needed more artwork besides gameplay assets and pilot portraits, because that's way too much reading the game asks players to do before we're even sold on if we should care about its universe.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

DreadOut 2. It's pretty fun and I think everything about it is much better than the first game.

 

[Yoshi]

I've really been into survival games lately:

Raft is a ton of fun, especially with a friend. You start off stranded on a raft with only a scrap hook, which is used to collect debris in the ocean. The materials you gather are used to craft things such as a fishing rod, cooking grill, water purifier, etc. You'll also need a spear to fend off a shark who constantly tries to destroy your raft. My favorite part of the game is building up your raft. There are some impressive builds out there. There is a story you follow that leads you to discovering islands, provided you have the equipment to get there. For starters, I recommend playing on easy mode. There is also a peaceful mode where the shark does not attack your raft at all, as well as a creative mode. Very relaxing game. If you're on the fence, you can check out the demo on itch.io

Green Hell is the most realistic survival game I've played. You start off in a jungle with nothing, and nearly everything wants to kill you -- rattlesnakes, jaguars, poisonous spiders, scorpions, aggressive tribesmen, etc. If you get infected by something, you'll have to search the jungle for specific plants that cure that particular infection. It's definitely one of the more harder survival games to play. There is a bit of a complex hunger system where you have to keep track your protein, carbs, and fats, so make sure you're full on those, as well as keeping hydrated. Like Raft, there is also a story mode. They've recently added online co-op to the game and are planning to add a co-op story mode and achievements in future updates.

Lastly, The Forest, which has become my favorite survival game. It's extremely fun with a friend, and likely terrifying by yourself. In the beginning cutscene, you and your son are boarded on an airplane that crashes on an island. While barely conscious, you see your son being carried away by a mysterious man. The goal is to find your son, and there are clues hidden around the island to help you along the way. The creepiest part of the game are definitely the cannibals, They will watch you and sometimes approach you, but they are not always immediately hostile. They may run away from you, or they may flat-out attack you. Very unpredictable behavior. What I really appreciate a lot about this game is the lack of grind, unless you opt to build a large base. All in all, I strongly recommend checking this game out if you're into survival or horror games in general. Tip: If you're freaked out by the darkness, turn "Caves and Night brightness" all the way up and set color grading to "Texas"

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Demos! Playable demos! SO MANY DEMOS. Man, I love Valve for bringing the playable demo back. Not quite sure I like the "timed" demo quite as much, but hey, I've got a weekend.

Played so far:


Unfortunately, style over substance in this one, which just doesn't work for a first person puzzle game. The puzzling is about as minimalist as in The Turing Test, but unlike in The Turing Test, the super shiny environments constantly made me want more freedom and less restrictive mechanics. Sometimes less is more. Also the voice acting is unintentionally funny, with characters just swearing at each other and cursing up a storm for no reason.

One of those times where playing a demo wipes a game from my wishlist, but that's also what a demo is for.


Welp, this alpha demo is in a rough shape, but then again, there's plenty of time for it to get better. And I really want it to, as well. The concept had me convinced from the first minute I saw a teaser trailer for this a year or two ago. Keeping hope alive for now.


Superliminal is coming to Steam and it actually seems to be properly finished now, too, unlike when it launched on EGS exclusively (I bought and returned it after 15 minutes back then). Played the demo and am convinced - this time around, it'll be a keeper.


Cute metroidvanish puzzle platformer that gets pretty twitchy with its alternate-universe-portal mechanic. I'll definitely get that one at some point.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

This is so much better than watching E3 presentations. Or going to a game show and going deaf while waiting in line.


This game was originally announced for 2018 and still has no fixed release date, but damn, I want it now!!1 And I don't even know why, it's ... sort of Marble Madness on sci-fi aesthetic steroids?!? But super fun to play. Wishlisted.


When this game came up in the PC Gaming Show stream on Twitch the other week, the chat was mostly like "lol, BOTW clone". Well, it's not that. I have no idea what this game is. It throws together exploration, semi-turn based combat, resource gathering and crafting and visual novel style dialog in an absurdly random way I haven't really seen outside of Japanese bullshgame-design before. Oh, and the demo starts off with an animated music video to a track by Danger.
[...]
For reasons inexplicable even to me, I want to play more. Wishlisted.


Ooof, what a shocker - the gameplay trailers look amazing, the alpha demo plays absolutely terrible. Very unfortunately this demo comes without controller support (even though you can select controller input schemes in the options, they don't seem to be operational though) - it seems the game really is designed controller first, but for this PC demo you're stuck with keyboard and mouse and unless you have a pro-gamer left-hand pinkie, these controls just suck. Might check a later build eventually.


Video-game adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel? Whyyyyy ... not?!? Get out of bed, play as a bug. Thankfully, the writers took a lot of liberties with the source material, otherwise this would be more grim than fun. For starters, you find yourself transformed not into a giant, but a rather bug-sized bug.

99% chance of me buying this on release, even though the demo is too short to really show off anything but the basic movement mechanics. I just have a hunch this game will be brilliant.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Last time I did a demo marathon like this must have been 2009 or so and me just going through every demo on Xbox Live Arcade... aaah, memories. Last batch for today:


Chinese surrealist/horror walking simulator made in Unreal Engine. Walking speed slightly too slow for comfort. Had an accidental cool jump scare moment: I put the controller down and played with mouse and keyboard because the demo lacks an option to invert Y. At some point, a collectible is to be found and it makes its presence known by a heartbeat sound that also rumbles the controller. Got me good. Well played, game. Not going on my wish list though.


Puzzle platforming specialists Bedtime Games are bringing a sequel to 2017's Figment, which I haven't played, but does look very similar to this. And the demo is cool, so I guess I'll be looking out for a bundle deal.


Honestly this game is too out there to even describe. Seriously. Read the "About this game" section of the Steam store page and watch the trailers and then tell me how you would have described it in two sentences. Looks and sounds like my kind of jam, wishlisted.


When I played Jason Roberts' puzzling picture book masterpiece Gorogoa, I was convinced this concept and mechanic would stay unique and unmatched for a long time, possibly forever - but as it turns out, another game with the same mind-bending image-and-logic-puzzle mechanics is already in the works.

And this even adds a literal dimension - it's 3d with a movable camera, so there's an additional perspective element to the puzzling. This is a 100% buy-on-release for me.

 

[Yoshi]

Been playing this during the free weekend. Currently at a historic low:

Gorgeous open-world hunting game and super relaxing to play. The game has quite a bit of DLC, some of which should've been included in the base game (like ATVs & tents for convenience)... but other than that, you can spend countless hours in the base game without spending a dime on DLC.

i'm a vegetarian

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

And here's the last batch. I literally went through every page of Steam's featured demos carrousel on Saturday and downloaded every one that looked interesting, so I'm all caught up now.


Okay, so, I'm a sucker for a side-scrolling platformer in a 3d engine with physics-based puzzle platforming. Little bit of nonlinear level design? Even better. In this game you control a big old sphere that sprays a little mist from a nozzle whose direction you control with your right stick, and the spray turns beams of light into a solid platforms - for a second. Differently colored beams = different physics of the platform (normal, bouncy, sticky, etc.).

I want to like this game. I want this game to be good. But the demo had bad performance issues for me and the voice acting ... whoof, unless you're a fan of strong central European accents (think it might be German), not exactly stellar. And the platforming gets hella difficult. And the level design is happy to let you miss a platform and undo minutes worth of progress from the fall.

But I still beat the demo, cursing and shouting, and it took me three hours to do it (it's a large demo fwiw). One level alone took me an hour (the game helpfully keeps your playtime for each level). This game might become my Dark Souls.


Cool art design, bit of a classic Tron theme (you play an anthropomorphic program running around in a computer), but the demo level is so dark, I just jumped off into nothing a lot because I couldn't tell platforms from the background. Also the controller support of the demo has not enough dead zone on the sticks and seems to ignore the Steam controller settings. One to watch for sure, but could go either way.


Describes itself as an "enigmatic puzzle adventure" and that's pretty accurate. Lovely hand-drawn art-style, almost completely monochrome. Has mysterious bits and cute bits. The point-and-click is pretty minimalist, so I suspect this game will come out on mobile as well and might be really nice on a tablet. Wishlisted.


Journey meets Zelda developed by a single guy. This pre-alpha demo is pretty old wrt its content, but has been updated to the latest graphics of the ongoing development. This one has winner written all over it, presentation, controls and gameplay are so smooth and so polished, I will click buy on this the minute I learn of its release.


And the best for last: A trailer for this game made it at least into one of the big E3 2019 presentations if I remember correctly, and with good reason. This game is like a playable classic Studio Ghibli movie. And unlike the Ni no Kuni games, this one very probably will not come with any Japanese bullsh distracting JRPG grind mechanics.

The charm level is just off the charts. Even though the demo is nothing but good vibes, you can tell this game will have you in tears at some point. I played the demo twice. You can hug the cat.

Not only a definite buy-on-release, I'm putting this one up for a potential game of the year, if it makes the planned 2020 release date.

 

[Stevey]

Halo 3 on MCC flighting.

Buttery smooth gameplay, shit audio mix.

 

[Mivey]

Shit audio mixing seems par of the course for the MCC games. I tweak it around until I can at least reliably hear what grunts and Cortana are saying most of the time.
But with Reach it's so crazy bad, that even that doesn't help.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Going on virtual vacation this weekend in

- Mutazione

and

- Eastshade

 

[Stevey]

Been playing through the Dead Space trilogy now that 3 is on STEAM.

Just started 3.