Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 28th

'faster than light' ... frustrating space sim

took me a few days just to get the mechanics down

I’m starting TF2. I’m a little intimidated however because so many gaming veterans play that game.

Finished The Darkness, and still didn't find all the collectibles. But I did get a bunch of other achievements, so it wasn't a loss as far as that goes. I am a little sad that this game has multiplayer achievements though, because since this game is so old (and really didn't need multiplayer to begin with), there's no one available online. Multiplayer achievements in a primarily single player game are the bane of my existence.

I've also already played through The Darkness 2. It's crazy how the vibe is so different than the first one. The first game had a really gritty feel, meanwhile this one has a polished and "clean" feel to it, probably due to having different developers and art styles. I love them both, they are special in their own ways. While I do miss the "open" world and side quests of the first Darkness, I do love this game. It's so fun, and so is the extra content Vendettas. It's like extra story without taking away from the story, if that makes sense? Like you don't need Vendettas, but the extra bits are still fun to have.

Now I'm attempting Monstrum for the first time. I was a little wary at first because it seemed to start out boring since I was just walking around, but once I ran into the monsters it got a lot more interesting. I'm not sure I'll actually get all the way through it, but it's a fun little ride while I decide on what my next game is going to be.

Starfield

Finally starting to get some free time lately so I got Game Pass back, I played a bunch when it first came out and had a lot of fun, I'm excited to start a new playthrough with all the updates and now mod support as well.

A new Path of Exile league started last Friday so I'm playing that.

Most of the week was Baldur's Gate 3, but I bought TW Warhammer 3 yesterday and have been playing that since.

Played the three games developed Accidental Queens because I've been in an interactive fiction/detective mood.

Started off with A Normal Lost Phone and Another Lost Phone, then headed into their gem of a game they later developed called Alt-Frequencies. Super fun narrative-focused game with a cool time loop premise. Great voice acting as well.

It's been nice playing these short little games lately. Enjoying them quite a bit.

i've been really enjoying that pokemon emerald rogue rom hack.... it's such a breath of fresh air. it's all the good parts and all the parts. (goodtime zone has really good videos on it if you're curious)

Both Turnip Boy games (Tax Evasion and Robs a Bank), short fun, games with decent replayability. The writing is what makes it work though.

Wayfinder, don't have a full opinion on this yet but it would have been interesting to see it if it had been released as an MMO as planned, the world is very pretty.

Crime Boss Rokay City is pretty fun, at launch it was crap but they've moved more towards a PayDay angle with heists and is pretty decent now.

Haven't played much this week, really.

I'm getting to the later stages of Jedi: Fallen Order, and bought the 'Pixels with a Porpoise' bundle on Humble Bundle, so I'm looking a several weeks of pixelated fantasy fun, I think.

If you like that sort of thing, check it out. EIght really good games for $10: https://www.humblebundle.com/games/pixels-with-porpoise?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_2_layout_type_threes_tile_index_1_c_pixelswithporpoise_bundle

I started playing the first Nioh. Send help.

Once Human for the nth consecutive week since release.

Just finished my first Elden ring playthrough, gonna try the DLC tonight!!

I started one quick Pokerogue run on Friday and now it's Sunday and I haven't put it down

GTA 4, loving Niko so much. His voice is funny.

I would like to answer Vagrus, as that is what I would want to play.

However, I spent way too much of my spare time playing Lean4, and that isn't even supposed to be a game!

Almost all the rest of my gaming time goes into Palworld multiplayer with my wife. What left about 1 hour for Vagrus last week...

I've fallen down the hole that is X4 Foundations. It is consuming my every waking thought. It has a frustrating learning curve and a lot of things to criticize but I do so love building my space empire and learning the subtler points of the game.

Beat Wolf Among Us! I played it years ago but loved the replay, now I’m on the Yhe Walking Dead

Leveling some more World of Warcraft characters. The pre-expansion patch launched, and I've read about lots of bugs, but since I basically just play up to level 25 in the remix mode (and then boost the characters to max) I don't really notice anything about it. Only that low level characters appear to be weaker now, that's it. The pre-expansion event starts this week, so I'll check that out.

Then I finished Solasta: Crown of the Magister. The story stays kinda mediocre, and it felt like some characters suddenly lost 50 IQ near the end, otherwise some parts wouldn't have worked. I still like turn-based combat, so I generally had a good time. The game has multiple campaigns, that were added in the DLC (plus a Dungeon Maker, to create your own campaign and share in on the Steam Workshop). The first DLC campaign is supposed to be a faster pace and shorter than the main one, even if both are level 1-12, so I started that one. I did install a mod that lets you add and change a bunch of things, although I mainly use it for some QoL stuff, plus some more spells (and maybe feats) from table-top DND, so even though I'm using the same characters, I can try out some different things.

hitman 3

Forgot that came out, I should play it. Had a lot of fun with 1 and 2.

This week I played around 12 hours of Bravely Default 2, but dropped it because the boss mechanics (counters) feel anti-fun and like they want a specific party composition, and it feels a bit too grindy for my taste.

Continuing the Trails series with 3rd: it seems interesting, but I'm not sure I like how it's structured, the gameplay feels too disconnected from the story.