What [not shmup] game are you playing now?

[Blinge]

Speaking of stamina bar using, and low-rent souls style combat.
I jumped on the hype train again, for Valheim this teim.

I've been trying to understand why this game is so popular in a world saturated by early-access open world crafting/survival games.
I think it's because it is.. actually fun to play with friends.

The Loop - Hunt/Gather > Gear up > Find Altar > Summon & Kill Boss > New Materials/tech > Can survive in New Area > repeat

Rust/7Days to Die etc are quite obtuse, the latter is just a constant headache of inventory from the looks of things - in which it takes forever to make any kind of progress.
Valheim's combat is serviceable, and the crafting & building are streamlined to the extent where you can actually just get on and play. If you get a new material like Deer Hide, the game will then tell you what new stuff you can make. Repairing your gear doesn't cost anything, just need a workbench - It just means you're tied somewhat to your base, unless you can build a temporary one out in the wild.

It's also nice to look at, it can run on low end machines like mine due to its low-res textures and low poly everything, yet has optional modern lighting, smoke and particle effects for the PC master race.


[We finally make our way north on the open ocean, looking for a new land and the second boss.]


[Our main base on the first continent. I dug a moat to keep enemies out, and because it looks cool, friend is building the tower, we hadn't figured out how to make a chimney yet]

Something that continually impresses me about Valheim is the meaningful choices. We've mostly only spent time in two biomes, but we're kept there by necessity, not a hard progression blocker like "beat boss to go next level."
One example is when we found a snowy mountain, I excitedly ran up a slope and immediately retreated, yelling " I'm taking damage!" At this point we don't have any materials or the knowledge to make cold-weather gear. So there's something for us to look forward to in the future.

We mostly stayed in meadows/forest because the resources we needed are there. We have real incentive to do so. I'm impressed by that balance I guess, in another game we'd have probably run all over the map and found everything within a couple of days.

Now we've made the step to sail north and fought hard to secure a beachhead.. going back for whatever reason is a choice we'd have to agonise over. Having to travel the distance back, the time it would take vs making whatever gains we can on the new continent first.

.. so yeah it's alright I guess.

Edit: oh yeah I fought a massive Troll in the woods alone (you're about as tall as its knee) and asked my budz to STAY OUT OF THIS >:((
all so I could solo the foe myself and demand to be known as " Blinge Trollsbane "

[Stevens]

Stevens's decent into CRPGS continues.

After a restart (wound up going with Lone Wolf to have less to keep track of and make it a little easier) I am just about through the first main area in Divinity OS 2. Playing it slow as I like to do with any game on my first trip through. Also I purposely don't talk to everyone. As my character travels I try to only engage people when it feels organic if that makes sense.

When I was finished with Wasteland 3 I went to Shadowrun, which I liked, but was a much simpler WL 3. I was looking for something with similar combat to WL 3, with choice, in a different setting. Basically DOS2 is the game I was hoping Torment Tides was going to be.

[drauch]

I just gave it up at I believe 37 hours. Played with a few of my scrublord friends, and oddly enough the guy who doesn't like survival games is the one that stuck with it. Go figure.

Started off great. The Meadows/Black Forest isn't too bad, just depends on how your seed world spawns. If you're close to copper/tin it's not bad, but the portal restrictions for when you have to go far away is miserable. Compared to other survival games, mining is a lengthy slog for little yield and hauling the cart just absolutely sucks. Greydwarfs are obviously little noobs, but mining at night you'll at least murder 30+ and can't get much done. So you've got to essentially set up multiple camps, which is fine, but this wore me down quickly. Boating is neat at first, but again, the process is just too long.

Once you get to the Swamp though it was game over for me. It's simply too miserable and too much of a grind for iron. I usually don't like mainstream gaming reviews, because like most stuff shared here, they're usually pretty clueless, but I think PCGamer's "Everything About Mining Iron Ore in Valheim Straight-Up Sucks" is pretty accurate.

We sailed a decent chunk of the map to make our way to the second base and set up another large camp. This one was just a trek from the second boss and was pretty close to essentially every biome. I saw some Swampland initially on my solo boat scouting, but eventually I noticed another small Swampland near our base. The three of us began paving a small way to haul the cart--only it passed into just a sliver of the Plains biome, aka HELL on Viking earth.

Even getting near this shithole is a death sentence. Little goblin fuckers start cackling and Deathsquitos kill you in about one hit, even with full bronze armor. I thought Deathsquito was just an internet colloquialism, but nope, real! This Plains area was gangbanged by Black Forest and the Swamp, so while we're getting fucked by skeeters and goblins we've also got the infinite Greydwarfs coming down to beat us, and if we fall into the water we've got Swamp leeches and blobs poisoning us to hell. It was miserable.

So we abandon this after my buddies die repeatedly and one's full gear sinks into the water. While we're away the cocksucker ai beats our cart to death to really drill home our proverbial ass-fucking. The AI in this game is a real motherfucker. They'll come up to anything they can get their hands on and just destroy it. Boats, workbenches, carts--if it's near their patrol they'll destroy it out of spite.

Back to sailing to the Swamp. This one is also fairly close. You get there and you're instantly shot at by skeletons and Draugr ,occasionally Wraiths and guys that throw fireballs. Everything is covered in water, since ya know, swamp, so when you get out you get the bullshit WET status effect, causing your already slow as shit stamina bar to refill even slower. Add leeches and blobs poisoning you and you've got a real treat.

Make your way to some Crypts (must have beaten the second boss for entry, FYI) and you can mine iron. It's a tomb like others, except this one is full of water. Same enemies as outside. You mine piles of muck that occasionally yield scrap iron. But they also drop a lot of shit. So there you are, stuck in the darkness mining a black corner for occasional drops. Do this for a few hours and you can make a couple pieces of iron armor.

TBH, a lot of that pain was pretty hysterical and involved a few rage-quits from our 3 man (formerly 4) group. It's the utter grind of this game that absolutely kills me. Everything is slooooow. Before going into the swamps you've got to make poison resistance potions and health potions. All of these require a handful of honey. We only found 2 bee nests. Each one can produce TWO honey combs a day. Potions require 10 honey, so we've got to wait a couple of days for that. Then you mix in berries (which you cannot grow and must find), so you've got to go look for that stuff. Those are common, so not that big of deal, but again, it's an addition of active time. Throw it in the fermenter to make the potion and you have to wait 2 days, which is essentially an hour of real life. So just for these goddamn potions we've got a few hours of real, mediocre life to wait. Worst thing for me is the stamina bar. Not necessarily its size and having to eat food for buffs like Monster Hunter, but how damn slow it regens, especially when cold or wet, which you will be for many hours until you get iron and can get wolf pelts.

It's got some charm and I enjoyed a lot of it, but I kinda broke my Early Access self-rule and 'suffered' for it. I just think it needs some QOL balancing. I think the 20 dollars sweetspot price and the low pc settings really sold this one and created the hype. And everyone loves Vikings.

I've played a lot of all the big survival games. This game does a handful of things like Conan Exiles, but I absolutely adore that game. Nothing ever felt like a slog; I always felt like I was making good use of my time and felt rewarded; In Valheim I simply feel like I'm wasting my evening. 7D2D has a lot of problems, but exploring always feels rewarding and drops are plentiful. There are no random drops in Valheim; enemies only drop specific loot. There are no weapons, armor, or potion drops. You must craft everything.

I dunno. I think you've just got to be really dedicated to this one and sink in a lot of time for it to be worthwhile, or have a big team of equally driven individuals, which I do not. I'll keep my eye on updates and will probably return eventually. Would really like to see some server options at least.

[Blinge]

Oh man I'd love to read that, but i'm not going to.. enjoying being completely blind

[drauch]

The TL;DR/non-spoilery version is I think the game is pretty miserable in some not fun ways. For being a muscled Viking with a huge hog, stamina regen is like a geriatric granny and everything takes way too long compared to other survival games. I think it's got a lot of potential, but needs some QoL adjustments for those that can't dedicate their life to the ye olde grind of ore--not to be confused with yore.

[Blinge]

Can't you just make sure you're dry, well fed and well rested for the stamina regens?

[drauch]

Even dry/fed with 3 different foods I think the regen is too slow. The fact that sneaking even takes up stamina is pretty redonk, and getting into water is just a death sentence if you're running from something and immediately start taking 'drowning' damage. There's stamina potions and such, but they're a slog to create and take literal days in game to make. Well-rested certainly helps for a bit, but not when you're on the move.

I dunno, I'm just pretty critical of modern games and stamina bars. FromSoft does game regen well I think. It's like a lot of modern military shooters where you can sprint for a few seconds and then you're toast, despite actual real dudes taking a few mile runs with full gear. Maybe this should just go in the "game mechanics you love/hate thread" But relevant! I'm supposed to be a hero or something in game but can't do shit without being a gasping grandma. I'm a fat loser in real life and I can outrun and outwork most gaming characters--and my life ain't even on the line! Valheim in particular I'm just always at odds with stamina, and I can't think of any other game where this affects me as much, survival or otherwise. Except maybe DSII before chloranthy and agility and I gotta take a time out to drink some estus like a baby.

BUT really, the big grumble this stems from is the Swamp (you'll be there soon it looks like). You're perpetually wet and it's perpetually miserable. This kinda ties in to other problems I have in the game (which consists of lots of waiting), but since you're going blind I won't say much more.

[Blinge]

Okay drauch I gave in and read most of your post/skimmed. hoo boy ahahah. We beat The Elder yesterday, just two of us

It was an epic fight actually, we were just scouting round for ancient seeds because we left them all on our first island. Farmed a spawner for a couple of minutes and got them. Thought " yeah fuck it lets take the boss on. " without realising it was late afternoon.
I built a bullshit little shelter next to brazier thing. Literally one post upwards and a couple of roof tiles xD. We squatted under there to get the rested bonus.

..Which didn't matter much because the sun went down as we fought the fucking thing. My friend died, left me fighting it alone. I continued to do so until the sun came up!!!! that's fucking metal man. I was out of fire arrows, friendo finally arrived back as I stabbed Elder in the shin for the win.

Huh that's odd, our elder was beyond a little bit of swamp too, like a strip of it across the map.
It seems.. i'm about to start the bad times, after reading your post

[cj iwakura]

Finished Disco Elysium. Wild game, and I appreciate that at the end, it's less about the case and more about the detective's personality and surroundings.

The stuff with his ex especially hit close to home.

[guigui]

I've been playing a lot of Dead Cells recently. I cleared the game in its first 3 modes of difficulties : 0BC, 1BC and 2BC. The difficulty goes up to 5BC.

I bought the game on its release, and dropped it after about 10 hours of gameplay. Picked it up again the other day, and cannot drop it since, really pleased with what I see here, some exemples :

* "Rogue" : not good for some people, including me most of the time. But in Dead Cells, it actually means real Game Over. Back in the days you know ? When you started a new game and could actually get a Game Over before getting to the end. I love this feeling.
* Custom mode : allows you to switch out items you unlocked but do not want to play with. Which lead to ...
* ... Builds : pick only a very restricted set of items and make them coherent. My current build is Hattori's Katana (main weapon), Giant Killer (for the boss), Rampart Shield (parries are very effective and easy to pull out in this game), Large Grenade (tons of damage), Telluric (jump and tons of damage).
* Boss : although not very numerous, you have to learn them if you want to succeed at high difficulties.
* Multiple branching paths : many ways to get to the end, one of the 3 DLC is free and offer nice additions.
* Git Gud : so 2012 I know. But it still works for me, you have to learn enemies patterns and behavior, and adapt your strategy to the different difficulty levels you want to clear. Nice, and makes me think about the game while I'm not playing. Last games forcing me to do this : Dark Souls, Sin & Punishlent, Subnautica, Puzzle & Dragons (not very proud of that one...), this cant be bad ?

If you also had a good time with the game, please share your thoughts.

[null1024]

Was reminded that Wing War exists, so I decided to play it.
Unfortunately, it seems I'm pretty sure the machine guns are supposed to do damage. I have never hit anything with them, nor have I gotten hit by them. I'm on MAME 0.228.
Missiles work, so the game is playable to an extent, but it's certainly not the intended experience.
Here's some footage from an actual cab.

On a better note, things have improved with Time Crisis since I last tried it in MAME -- a few objects [like the helicopter] had wrong hitboxes, so you couldn't shoot 'em. That's been fixed at some point, so I'm having fun with it, even if playing with a mouse doesn't give me that reel lightgun feeeel.

[Sengoku Strider]

Finished Disco Elysium. Wild game, and I appreciate that at the end, it's less about the case and more about the detective's personality and surroundings.

The stuff with his ex especially hit close to home.

I really want to play that game and be a raging communist, but along with House at Fata Morgana it seems to have fallen into the Switch release covid netherworld.

[Mischief Maker]

I've been playing a lot of Dead Cells recently.

[...]

If you also had a good time with the game, please share your thoughts.

Great game! Love the smooth movement system, especially after unlocking the wallrun rune.

[guigui]

Oh sure, it is a pleasure to move around in Dead Cells.
Everything is very smooth and very well taken care of. iFrames while rolling, and sometimes while attacking, are of great importance when playing at high difficulties. And this slam jump is so satisfying ... until you use it without caution in the sewers, land in a murky pool, and say goodbye to your kill combo.

[drauch]

..Which didn't matter much because the sun went down as we fought the fucking thing. My friend died, left me fighting it alone. I continued to do so until the sun came up!!!! that's fucking metal man. I was out of fire arrows, friendo finally arrived back as I stabbed Elder in the shin for the win.

Haha, sounds about like our match. My scrublord friends both instantly died, leaving me to fight it solo, albeit briefly--until a goddamn troll came and smacked me in the ass, taking most of my health. Had to scurry through the woods and shoot him a few times until he was toast, and by then the buds were back. A similar extended period of shooting arrows over and over, running out and having to get more until the Elder beast was finally slain.

Lemme know your experience onwards. I seem to be in the minority for those not enjoying it as much, so curious how you'll fare onwards. I think a lot of my problem is that it's usually me doing the brunt of the tedious work on my own while everyone else builds shit or farts around, and it's definitely a co-op experience.

[Blinge]

With The Elder I wonder that when he summons roots to deny area, if you stay put for a while before running out of it, does that area remain where you were standing? you could delay the evasion to keep the area denial smaller.
Also i didn't hit the roots much, do they all respawn? I did pelt the fucker with around 50 fire arrows, somewhat to my chagrin, i would've liked to use melee more than I did.

Urgh terrible luck on the troll! That's what happened in our first foray into the Swamp. Our outpost is on a smallish strip of black forest. Swamp is over a cliff one full stamina bar's sprint to the north. So when we went looking for crypts, a greydwarf patrol w/ brute followed us and we arrogantly tried to ignore them. Of course when my mate got poisoned by a fucking slime immediately and died face down in the muck, the remaining two of us found ourselves pinned by greydwarves and facing draugr archers. As we tried to pull back to the forest a troll was there too, horrendously bad luck ahaha. I led it away by myself, got caught on a rock while backpeddling and took a huge bonk. Complete Fission Mail.

Our second attempt was hueg success. one person mined a pile of shite in the crpyt while others shot over his shoulder with bows. There was another point with slime and Draugr not able to enter our zone, while we could fire. Matey stepped forward into the doorway, nocked, shot an arrow. He then stepped back as I moved forward, nocking my own arrow. We repeated this archery dance until everything was dead
..then we saw how much iron it takes to make like, anything.

We sailed back to main continent for various reasons, like placing the Elder's trophy... I'd sailed us halfway back before realising I'd forgotten the fucking thing in a chest. I wordlessly turned the boat round as the other two pissed themselves laughing.. the wind changed.

[drauch]

re: roots, I'm not sure. I tried to take a few swings at them with my sword and it didn't seem to account for much other than me getting swatted decent health, so I abandoned that. As a side note, I do know the bosses will chase you to the ends of the earth and all the way back to your base if you let them, as my poor friend discovered wile soloing the extremely easy first boss, lol.

Sounds like your swamp situation isn't too bad though at least. Looks like some folks have better luck than others as far as yield goes and the number of crypts in each swamp biome. I walked into one crypt with literally one pearl in it; the other three were a bit longer and had a decent amount of slush to mine. My couple of hours of spelunking netted me enough to make two pieces of armor . There's another mega rando chance of running into a certain event where you can actually do something with all your rubies, pearls, amber, and gold. I won't spoil it, but I never encountered it. Some people don't even after 60-80 hours .

[cj iwakura]

Finished Disco Elysium. Wild game, and I appreciate that at the end, it's less about the case and more about the detective's personality and surroundings.

The stuff with his ex especially hit close to home.

I really want to play that game and be a raging communist, but along with House at Fata Morgana it seems to have fallen into the Switch release covid netherworld.

I thought it was still happening?

And I went the same route, lol. It's pretty easy when the alternatives include being a psychopath or being a fascist.

[Blinge]

Sounds like your swamp situation isn't too bad though at least. Looks like some folks have better luck than others as far as yield goes and the number of crypts in each swamp biome. I walked into one crypt with literally one pearl in it; the other three were a bit longer and had a decent amount of slush to mine. My couple of hours of spelunking netted me enough to make two pieces of armor . There's another mega rando chance of running into a certain event where you can actually do something with all your rubies, pearls, amber, and gold. I won't spoil it, but I never encountered it. Some people don't even after 60-80 hours .

Yeah we found the trader on our second world, with different friends last night. All our gold was still on the original island ahaha. does he move from where he appeared?

Yeah bad luck on the swamps man, holy hell.
Anyway on that second world my friends really annoyed me so I'm gonna steal the boat (maybe) and live on my own somewhere

The boss thing is hilarious. oh my lord, i could summon elder, lead him to the camp and death-warp away to troll them

[drauch]

From my understanding he never moves and there's only one dude.

[Blinge]

Bruh we just found him on our original world too. Are we super super lucky?
I bought a fishing rod and bait. none of the fish bite and it sucks.

[Blinge]

dude, drauch dude you gotta watch this shit lmfao
https://youtu.be/04lneY4qbg0

This is the morning after Fence's Drunk ass took our friend's Longboat and sailed it so far north he ate shit and can't get it back lmao.
He gathered and built another longboat to go get it and got oneshot by a deathsquito.
Total cost so far.
2 Longboats
1 Karve boat.
1 Raft
+whatever else he took up there and left in many graves in the sea

[Stevens]

DOS2

I've made my way out of Fort Joy onto a boat. Not directly mind you, some other shit happened too. That is the short version.

I also had sex with a skeleton which would be weirder if I didn't have a character fuck a goat in the last game I played.

[drauch]

Goddamn, I'd say you're lucky! I haven't been playing, but I've got about enough saved up for that damn belt.

Hahaha, I saw a few stories where people were changing portals to cliff faces for killing their buds who weren't pulling their weight. Fuckin' Deathsquito made his way through the black forest near the plains in our game and just saw on this trail we made. It was eventually just covered in gravestones and we abandoned the post

[Blinge]

Oof. I think they're glass cannons, aren't they? Saw my potty-mouthed mate shoot one down.

I'm actually playing three worlds o_O.
Solo, Main co-op.. and my vagabond game

Had my second foray into the crypts on main co-op world. The blobs are brutal man, we haven't got potions, so i think that's a must for next time. none of the other enemies are a problem. Although we haven't had to search long for Crypts yet, so i haven't experienced a lot of swamp misery.

Solo I just beat the Elder by myself. Fire arrows, Flint spear +3.

Vagabond world.. i'm living on another island, hiding from my friends. I'm gonna leave deliberate clues eventually but so far they don't know where i am, it's pretty fun. but a bit nerve wracking sometimes when they're cruising near my shore in their police longboat... I've got bronze smithing on the go now

[Steamflogger Boss]

Been playing Legend of Dragoon again. Some day I will finish it. Really not loving the battle system though. I've got Ys IX to finish and more Cold Steel in the pipeline so idk..

Finished Disco Elysium. Wild game, and I appreciate that at the end, it's less about the case and more about the detective's personality and surroundings.

The stuff with his ex especially hit close to home.

I really want to play that game and be a raging communist, but along with House at Fata Morgana it seems to have fallen into the Switch release covid netherworld.

Do you have a PC? It's worth playing one way or another if you can.

[BulletMagnet]

Been playing Legend of Dragoon again.

I never played this one back in the day, but every time I hear someone talk about it now it's either "one of my all-time favorites" or "one of the worst things I've ever played", with almost nothing in between. Not sure if this fact makes me more curious or less.

[Steamflogger Boss]

Been playing Legend of Dragoon again.

I never played this one back in the day, but every time I hear someone talk about it now it's either "one of my all-time favorites" or "one of the worst things I've ever played", with almost nothing in between. Not sure if this fact makes me more curious or less.

Hmm I wouldn't go with worst ever. I think some people just really hate any combat system with timing aspects.

I don't think it's as good as some others I beat over the last couple years like Xenogears, FFIX, Suikoden, Star Ocean 2 etc But it's definitely better for me than stuff like Breath of Fire III, Thousand Arms, Persona..

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Legend of Dragoon is decent. Not at the level of mechanical depth of the Final Fantasy games, and lacks much in the way of character customization. It also has that awful thing many modern games started to do where your party arbitrarily has one party member forced in at all times despite having way more than three people in your party. If you could swap out Dart freely it'd have been a lot more interesting.

Does Legend of Dragoon play properly on a PS2 or in emulation? I remember hearing it does not work on PS2 and I've seen an emulator run have a game breaking bug late game. Fortunately I still have a PSX but it and Syphon Filter 2 are the only games I'd have that gives an excuse to play it.

[Stevens]

Still DOS 2.

It seems each area has a main goal with several different ways to solve it.

I'm purposely skipping a fair amount of side quests so they'll be new on my 2nd play through.