What Video Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Rudolph]

Just finished Enjay Doom 2. Not bad, I get its historical significance, but it is visually not particularly interesting and the monster and item placements leave much to be desired. At least, the Icon of Sin fight was really simple and easy. I played through the mapset with my custom Descent/Descent 2 music pack to spice things up.

[ZethXM]

Just finished my second playthrough of Scorn.  Relentlessly hostile and pitiless survival horror set in a Giger-Beksinski nightmarescape with god-tier environmental/atmospheric design. 

 

The gameplay is workmanlike as far as survival horror goes; combat has the roughness and discomfiting lack of clear intended play characteristic of the genre, meant more to furnish the atmosphere by making you think of the level as a living threat model more than a simple series of pictures.

 

Same goes for the puzzle widgets, most of which aren't puzzles.  They're just there to make you consider the space holistically and wonder at its purpose.

 

I want to absorb it into my work somehow, it's proving quite a resonant experience for me.

[HeatedChocolate]

Finally sat down with S.T.A.L.K.E.R SOC after a long, long time without it, she hurts just as much as I remember. The adage is true, you really can't take the Zone out of a stalker!

[Rudolph]

Going through my GOG library after uninstalling Fallout, I was reminded that I got Total Annihilation for free back in the days.

 

I gave it a shot, but the way it controls just does not feel right compared to WarCraft/StarCraft or even Command & Conquer: for example, I keep forgetting that I have to use the ALT key - which I never use in games - to select a squad and it makes micromanagement so annoying. In fact, the whole game seems to be doing a terrible job at introducing its mechanics, which is baffling, given how StarCraft came out the very next year.

 

Oh well. At least, it is interesting to see basic units that are capable to fire while moving and the soundtrack is nice too, even if it sounds less like the music for a game about giant robots engaged in a genocidal conflict and more something you would hear in The Simpsons. 

 

I mean, surely I am not the only one who hears the similitude, right?

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Rudolph

[SFFlowerBoy]

Played through death stranding. Pretty good game to relax and take you mind off. But sometimes I wish Kojima had an editor who read through his script. Not that the writing is bad, but it is sometimes too self-indulgent. Aside from that it's easily one of the most experimental AAA games in the past 10 years, but it's also not for everyone. But honestly I am just happy that someone tries something new and isn't just chasing trends. So thank you Kojima-san.

[SFFlowerBoy]

8 hours ago, HeatedChocolate said:

Finally sat down with S.T.A.L.K.E.R SOC after a long, long time without it, she hurts just as much as I remember. The adage is true, you really can't take the Zone out of a stalker!

I can't wait for stalker 2. I hope they capture the feeling of the first games especially soc.

[Rudolph]

2 hours ago, SFFlowerBoy said:

I can't wait for stalker 2. I hope they capture the feeling of the first games especially soc.

Have you tried Call of Pripyat? While it lacks the novelty of Shadow of Chornobyl, it is stabler, more open-ended and better designed in general.

[SFFlowerBoy]

2 hours ago, Rudolph said:

Have you tried Call of Pripyat? While it lacks the novelty of Shadow of Chornobyl, it is stabler, more open-ended and better designed in general.

I tried, but never got far into it. I Should play it again when I get to it.

[Rudolph]

There is also the Lost Alpha, which I believe is available for free.

[SPG]

22 hours ago, ZethXM said:

Just finished my second playthrough of Scorn.  Relentlessly hostile and pitiless survival horror set in a Giger-Beksinski nightmarescape with god-tier environmental/atmospheric design. 

 

The gameplay is workmanlike as far as survival horror goes; combat has the roughness and discomfiting lack of clear intended play characteristic of the genre, meant more to furnish the atmosphere by making you think of the level as a living threat model more than a simple series of pictures.

 

Same goes for the puzzle widgets, most of which aren't puzzles.  They're just there to make you consider the space holistically and wonder at its purpose.

 

I want to absorb it into my work somehow, it's proving quite a resonant experience for me.

Beat it recently myself, and generally agree, though it may have been a more cohesive vision if it had focused on being Giger's take on Myst rather than working the combat in the way it was. Not that I have issue with it, just its design seems to not match the rest.

[Redneckerz]

13 hours ago, SFFlowerBoy said:

I can't wait for stalker 2. I hope they capture the feeling of the first games especially soc.

Stalker's Dynamic Lighting (Thunderstorms!) is still cool as heck, and one of those games where you can pick between static lights and a fully dynamic light model.

 

 

[PsyDOOMer]

I've been smashing my way through several Marathon scenarios, including Phoenix and Kindred Spirits. Hopefully, once I'm done, I should be ready to do Apotheosis X, a remake of an old, almost completed scenario that is getting a lot of praise.

[scalliano]

Revisiting an old guilty pleasure:

(yes, I did make the fake PAL boxart for my MegaPi)

[Wyrmwood]

Assassins Creed 2, haven't played any of the others but after 5-6 hrs on this one I'm wondering why the hell I didn't. The world buildings incredible, I mean it not super interactive but it almost feels like your a time tourist and the maps look really alive. Story telling and voice acting has been great too so far, gameplays pretty good reminds me of the Batman games slightly and there's a metric shit ton of stuff to do. Seems to have came with the next two games (Jesus, there's a lot of them, these 3 only cover Assassins Creed 2), so looks like a pretty epic story. Damn good deal for $25ca.

Edited October 19, 2022 by Wyrmwood

[Lemonzest]

I don't know if I'd call it playing, but its is game related, learning how to setup a Minecraft server :)

[HeatedChocolate]

On 10/18/2022 at 12:15 AM, Rudolph said:

Have you tried Call of Pripyat? While it lacks the novelty of Shadow of Chornobyl, it is stabler, more open-ended and better designed in general.

I hear the only reason that the xray engine is so unstable is because the AI was so good they'd complete the game before the player could.

[TheCarsEdge]

currently playing doom 64, next up on my list is p5r

[Rudolph]

@HeatedChocolate That sounds more like a marketing claim to me. From a technical standpoint, I do not see an AI being able to do better than a human player in a sandbox environment and from a story standpoint, Shadow of Chornobyl is specifically about Strelok finishing what he and his crew have started; how could other NPCs be able to complete it for him?

Edited October 19, 2022 by Rudolph

[HeatedChocolate]

Given the number of stories concerning bandits tricking players, I'd somewhat believe at least some of the claim.

[Rudolph]

36 minutes ago, HeatedChocolate said:

Given the number of stories concerning bandits tricking players

What kind of stories?

[HeatedChocolate]

3 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

What kind of stories?

Things like healing some random stalker on the ground, said stalker telling the player to follow them for a reward, only for the stalker to yell "That's him!" or something to that effect before the PC is beset upon by bandits.
Now that I say (or rather, type) that, sounds kinda like a normal random encounter tbh.

Edited October 19, 2022 by HeatedChocolate

[Rudolph]

5 minutes ago, HeatedChocolate said:

Now that I say (or rather, type) that, sounds kinda like a normal random encounter tbh.

Sounds more like a scripted encounter if you ask me.

[ZethXM]

On 10/18/2022 at 10:53 AM, SPG said:

Beat it recently myself, and generally agree, though it may have been a more cohesive vision if it had focused on being Giger's take on Myst rather than working the combat in the way it was. Not that I have issue with it, just its design seems to not match the rest.

 

The combat was... safe.  Like I said, workmanlike and bare; meant to do the job of enhancing the environment by forcing the player to consider threats and combat space, but adding very little else.  The resource management is similar: they mathed it out to a "survival horror" template so you'd be mildly oppressed by attrition combat.  The guns are fairly well designed, deriving the genre's requisite sense of insecurity because of slow reloading and limited capacity rather than weak stopping power or poor accuracy. 

 

And the enemies are similarly basic, doing about the purest survival horror formula of escalation you can find: early game forces you to tank shots or hang enemies on cover to approach for melee, midgame gives you a limited-capacity gun and two or three enemies at a time, then overwhelming you with a big ammo-soak enemy.  Later game you get a bigger gun with almost no capacity to reserve for big guys, finishing with multiple big guys.  It's all very safe.  Rote. 

 

Funnily enough, my time mapping helped me spot that they likely didn't do a lot of testing with people who failed their way through the game, as I took few hits and got ammunition and health precisely when I needed them, not too early or late.  If they had, they'd have caught their autosave system creating softlock scenarios, which is by far the biggest problem with the game next to being able to walk right past the healing mechanic and never obtain it.

 

The trend of people comparing it to Myst is interesting considering it has very few puzzles depending on you reasoning out how a contraption works, and none depending on information taken from elsewhere.  It's just figuring out what a set of cow tools do and putting them together.  Where I think people get the Myst vibe is how adamantly the game refuses to explain itself, forcing you to try to find meaning or purpose to the various machinery in order to do that.

 

I really want them to do more of this game, and start refining and deepening the stuff they used to draw players into the environment ludonarratively.

Edited October 19, 2022 by ZethXM

[Majin]

real life

[Lemonzest]

7 hours ago, Majin said:

real life

The graphics are ok, but the NPC suck

[MrFroz]

Hollow Knight

[Kokoro Hane]

Finally able to play Genshin Impact after getting a new phone. The game is really fun! Love the combat mechanics, the exploration, the story, and characters.

[MrFroz]

Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. Almost done with my YouTube playthrough of it.

[Chezza]

I have finished Scorn. Got what I expected from it, albeit a bit more puzzles than I anticipated.

 

My mate gifted me "Cult of the Lamb". Addictive game loop.

[Axuris]

Postal 2. It's so stupid and janky that it becomes comedy gold.