Weekly "What are you playing" Thread || Week of July 9th

Stray!

And I did get it from the Steam sale.

It had been on my radar for quite some time. Partly because it's gotten such great review and partly because it's from Annapurna, they seem to release pretty sweet games.

And it's great! Highly recommended. :)

Star Wars Jedi Knight Academy! Enjoying an old game that my parents wouldn’t let me have because it was “too violent”

Also FTL! Snagged it for $2 on Steam.

For me, I am playing through Oblivion for the first time!

After seeing the starfield trailer I figured it was time for me to fill in this gap I had in the bethesda library. I am using some mods from the "through the valley" mod list and have been having a great time so far. The game is really goofy, but the exploration has been great so far. Also got the mods set up on my steam deck, and its been working great!

Just started playing Hollow Knight again and I’m HOOKED. I love almost everything about the game so far from the music, the visuals, and the gameplay. Although it gets mighty frustrating when trying to platform through those fucking thorns or off the bouncy purple mushrooms but I take my break and then I’m back at it again :)

Been playing Heaven's Vault, a game I kept seeing recommended for people who liked Outer Wilds and Return of the Obra Dinn. There's this big overarching mystery to solve, and a core part of the game is translating a written language. There's limited options you're given for what each word means, but you still have to compare symbols and use context to make deductions, it's very cool.

Just picked up Terraria and I'm loving it. I played Starbound a while back and read that it was more or less a spiritual successor to Terraria. Terraria has all the things I wanted to see from Starbound. The crafting system is so expansive. The difficulty is real though, I travelled through 2 biomes and hit something with large beetles and cave worms that chomped me to death. Zombies, floating eyes, and slimes were no problem. Same for the mobs in the desert, easy...but once I hit that 3rd biome I was in trouble, even with my metal armor.

Okay so I'm continuing with my Bloodborne play through. Made some progress the last two nights and I feel like I've finally accomplished something.

I also started a few smaller games on my 'Deck, namely Spin Rhythm and Bleak Sword DX.

Been playing Assassin's Creed Odessey lately. It's fun and big, but I think, ultimately, Origins was a better game. There was a lot more cultural diversity present and they changed some mechanics for the worse imho. But it's kinda cool how smooth it runs on my Linux machine!

I had been making steady progress in Expedition Rome from the sale, but then the siren song of RimWorld pulled me back again. My melee moleperson cult is going strong!

Currently playing Horizon: Forbidden West. I love it but it can get somewhat tiring after a while. It’s my third open world game in a row and I definitely feel the need to play something smaller and more focused.

Northgard to destress. Diablo IV with the lads.

Almost picked up Against the Storm on sale but haven't done it yet.

Recently downloaded Duckstation and am playing through Xenogears for the first time.

Cyberpunk 2077 with a bunch of mods. The Enemies of Night City mod is actually making the game interesting and somewhat of a challenge.

I'm playing a heavily modded Fallout 4. I got a mod where you can start more like a regular RPG and choose your backstory and where you start, and all of the dialogue relating to Sean has been taken out. It's great, way more fun. My character is a drunk who washed up on Nordhagen beach and is living with the settlers and killing raiders for them and building them a nice house :)

Grinding through nightmare dungeons in Diablo 4, and because I fell down a YouTube tutorial hole I'm retrying Frostpunk. Hopefully I can stave off the guilt from slapping makeshift prosthetics on orphans long enough to finish it this time.

I'm paying through Skyrim for the first time. I had tried it once before as a teen but didn't really know what I was doing and gave up.. Now I've got it loaded up with mods and am thoroughly enjoying myself!

I actually started playing the Dishonored series in the remastered edition. Missed them, back when there were new and I am totally loving it so far 🙂

All the hype around the My House Wad last month got me interested in playing Doom II so I'm working my way through it this week. I played through the first Doom ages ago, but just never got around to the sequel. Looking forward to diving into the Doom 2 modding scene when I've played through it.

"The Ascent" on gamepass. My buddy and I are always looking for fun coop games, and I saw the trailer for this and thought it looked fun. We are only a couple hours in but so ar it's been a pretty enjoyable cyberpunk twinstick shooter with some great visual design. There are some bugs and the shooting takes a while to get used to but lots of fun so far!

Path of Exile. I can't even say it's great. It's OK. But they must have nailed that Diablo-esque addictive quality because I can't stop.

Pokemon Violet. I'm trying to complete the Pokedex as much as I can, as I try to ignore the blatant perfomance problems of the game 😅 But I really like the game and its open world nature.

Roguebook was one of the Prime Gaming free games recently so I started playing that. Very fun. It does feel very easy to get overpowered, which is one of my favorite things a roguelike can do. I've already been able to beat it twice out of three attempts, so it's probably undertuned, but I'd prefer that over the alternative.

I also dipped into WH40K: Mechanicus, which was free on EGS a while ago. That game is much less fun. The UI is kind of clunky and the upgrades and gear are very underwhelming. It seems difficult to really get synergies going with any of your characters. Probably will not even finish a run.

i've been playin Kid Icarus: Uprising, its really fun! i wish it was easier to control on emulator tho

Trackmania, cup of the day everyday.

Picked up Diablo 4 to play with my friends, been enjoying it so far. Also still playing Single Player Tarkov here and there and a colony management game called Going Medieval.

I'm playing Doom & Doom 2, with custom monster sounds.

I've been playing Breath of the Wild emulated on my PC. First time playing it.

Battlebit has been pretty much it for my limited dedicated gaming time. Super fun, easy to drop in and out of.

On my phone I've been working through the puzzle game Snakebird. Also very fun for when I only have 5 minutes or so.

I cannot stop playing Oxygen Not Included. Apparently my idea of fun is simulating fluid mechanics and learning about heat transfer and gas diffusion in the middle of the night

I have finished Final Fantasy XVI today. May continue Triangle Strategy and Dave the Diver now.

Still playing fallout 4 😂

My favorite game is to score deals on video games and then watch my kids play them afterwards. I bought Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on release ($70) saving by using Nintendo game vouchers (2 games for $100) purchased with Costco eShop cards ($100 value for $90). I've been watching my daughter play these past two weeks while combing through Steam's summer sale. Another pro-tip is whatever game I find on sale @Steam, I can (usually) find the same game on Fanatical.com for a few dollars less and score a 5% coupon for the next puchase.

The two games I've played the most this past week are:

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me - It's half off in the sale. The latest Dark Pictures Anthology narrative horror game. I love these games, currently working through a second playthrough and trying to save everyone this time. Also, this developer has several other titles if you like narrative horror. My faves are Man of Medan, The Quarry, and House of Ashes.

Halls of Torment - A Vampire Survivors derivative, and I think, a pretty good one. Has a dark, 80's era fantasy aesthetic. There's a lot of content here for an early access title too, and it's only $4.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly on Ironman mode. Starting my 8th run. Haven't even made it close to chernobyl with any of my past characters yet. I honestly like it, makes the endgame that much more intriguing when you get closer each run.

If anyone is interested in a hardcore survival FPS game that is highly customizable to your preference give it a try. It's free to download and it is a standalone game so no need to own any previous titles 👍

Cyberpunk 2077. It’s been ages since I actually decided to pick up an RPG and get into it. I’m enjoying it so much.

I've been really into Lord of the Rings Online with my buds, MMOs aren't for anyone but if you really like LoTR it's an absolutely phenomenal experience.

Frostpunk and Diablo 4. Frostpunk is my first civ management game in a while (played lots Age of Empires and Age of Wonders back in the day) and OH MAN is this game good. Diablo is...compelling enough but not better than 3. Dislike the online aspect mainly but overall the game has its merits.

Love this thread idea BTW!

Diablo IV mostly right now. I’m level 45 and barely getting started on Act II. I need to catch up, but there are so many side quests.

I also picked up Dead Cells for the Switch yesterday. Seemed more appropriate on the Switch than on PC. So far, it’s a lot of fun.

Pikmin 2, Subnautica, Dome Keeper on the Steam Deck, Zelda TOTK on the Switch and revisiting Civ V on my main pc.

I've been playing days gone a whole lot recently along with some Stardew valley and Witcher 3 and I got dark souls 2 on the sale as well

Taking a break from Diablo 4 till the season starts, played and finished Grim Fandango. Great game.

Now thinking about setting up a Minecraft server for me and my daughter.

I'm playing a bit of totk, and building out a version of https://pedestrianobservations.com/2023/06/18/assume-normal-costs-an-update/ in Nimby Rails!

I recently joined a Survival multiplayer server on Minecraft for the first time and I am having so much fun. The community around it is so positive I really look forward to hopping on every day haha

Hey!

From the Steam Sale, some casual games about playing with the odds:

• Peglin is quite fun and short. The more pegs you hit, the more it damages an enemy. Highly replayable with all the modifiers making each game unique.
• Roll is similar, modifying dice to get the highest score in 2500 rolls. There is way more complex calculations, but I like how messy it gets.

From the ones already on the library, just Hollow Knight which has been a delightful yet frustrating experience. The soundtrack is stunning, and I love me some platforming challenge.

Just finished TOTK, so I started Wild Hearts. It's a monster hunter clone that has some great ideas, but the execution isn't always there for me. I had heard the performance was terrible early on for ps5, but it seems to have mostly been ironed out for me at least.

I'm currently 100%ing AC Revelations on the switch. It'll take a while, possibly more than the first two combined

Pillars of Eternity and some Cyberpunk in between.

Fire Emblem Three Houses again - So much changes between the 3 different stories in that game, it is so much bigger than I initially realized. When my partner was talking about what happened in their playthrough and it didn't at all resemble my Golden Deer playthrough I realized I'd have to get back to it one day.

I just started going through the Resident Evil series with my friends and we're still on Resident Evil 1 (the 2002 remake), but it's a blast! I love the atmosphere and how terrifying the crimson heads are.

The gameplay and movement is a bit frustrating but I think that's the point, and I know later games have easier controls, so I'm just enjoying a historical look at an old game.

I'm really looking forward to seeing/experiencing the different evolutions that RE goes through over time. Not looking forward to Code Veronica though, cuz I know it's really really hard :(

im addicted to hogwarts legacy. i cannot stop playing. must 100% complete it

Been making my way through totk. I think I enjoyed playing the first one more but it's still pretty good. I'm stuck at the lost woods though, have no idea what I'm supposed to do. I might have done a main quest early so maybe I just have to progress to that point?

I picked up Diablo 4, and also had to sign up for Playstation Plus since it's always online... Ended up spending more time playing the games from the Plus catalog. The story is surprisingly good - I always though D3's story was kind of dumb, but the atmosphere in this one is great, to the point where I'm often not listening to a podcast when I play (at least until I finish the campaign)

I played through Stray in a few days - incredibly charming game. In a way it almost reminded me of Chibi Robo, since you're a little guy exploring a human-sized environment. Definitely recommend it.

I also did a run of Until Dawn, which I played years ago. I always intended to replay it but it's hard to motivate myself to redo a story-heavy game like this where it's going to be a few hours before things really start branching off in interesting ways. I really like how they play with different flavors of horror, from slasher to paranormal, to play with your expectations if you're a genre-savvy horror fan. Going to check out The Quarry sometime.

And I'm playing Alan Wake, for another TV-show-esque horror experience. The Stephen King and Twin Peaks inspiration is pretty obvious but I like both of those things. Combat is a little frustrating, though, it's easy to lose track of enemies if you're fighting a group, and the cinematic slow-mo sometimes gets annoying.

This week? I barely grabbed a few minutes on TotK, about to grab a few sage masks.

Currently, though, I’m playing TotK and Garden story. I finished Shredders revenge last week and am about to start Planet of Lana.

TotK is all consuming and so incredible, but I take breaks with other stuff and have REALLY been enjoying Garden story—cute, kind, and delightful.

X4 Foundations. The Kingdom End expansion is awesome and I absolutely adore everything Boron. Just yesterday I finally broke the mexican standoff my fleet (and that of the Argon) had with the Xenon. For multiple real life hours, we had our fleets parked menacingly at the respective ends of the jump gates that connect two sectors. I charged through the gate with my entire fleet after the Xenon sent through a large portion of their fighters (which got obliterated by my ships) so only their capital ships were remaining. Had to hit the bed during a short break in the battle, though, so the outcome is still to be determined.

In other news, I'm also playing a lot of The Isle again and having a lotta fun with the new dinos and mechanics that have recently been added/tweaked. I'm positively surprised how chill many deino (crocodiles basically) players are about sharing the rivers with beipis (think penguins but in tropic climate)

on pc, super animal royale (new content update yay) and l4d2 (trying out some old maps)

and on android magic survival and i love hue, as usual.

no new games as of now 🤭

I am playing through the legend of heroes: trails series just finished cold steel and started cold steel 2.

Getting pretty deep into FF16, really enjoying it still, the combat seems to be opening up which is making it more fun, will try and do all the side quests before the end, but will see how it goes.

I just bought Subnautica and Cities Skylines, so I'm looking forward to playing them both.

I've been working my way through Cross Code in the evenings after I get back home, and it's as excellent as everyone says it is! I keep trying to decide what other games it reminds me of the most, and surprisingly I think I'm starting to settle on Legend of Zelda (the older ones, not BotW/TotK).

The way it gates progress, the level & dungeon design, etc just really seems to be a part of that tradition. The moment to moment gameplay is pretty different though, and pretty unique at that!

Really though it's just been a nice escape in the evenings. It's challenging enough that sometimes I decide to leave a tough fight or puzzle to pick up the next night, but it's not punishingly hard and I feel like it respects my time.

i'm running psychonauts 2, really loving the level design and story and characters. it has really really good gay representation too!

I just finished Call Of Duty Black Ops - Cold War, and it was kind of ¯_(ツ)_/¯. The campaign was short and the story felt kind of patched together - graphically it wa surely top notch, but I guess nothing will ever come close to MW2.

I'm playing through The Last of Us: Part 2 for the second time. I was inspired by watching HBO's adaptation, so I played through part one remastered and then started on Part 2 on my PS5. It's even better this time around as the PS5 60fps patch was released about a week after I first completed it!

Then I've got a stack of other large games to get through including Death Stranding and Cyberpunk 2077.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a blast.

Early access is more fully-baked than many full releases. The story is intriguing, and seems to react in a very flexible way to dialogue as well as actions in the world. The D&D nostalgia is awesome, and it seems that Forgotten Realms is more familiar to me than I thought.

It’s gorgeous. It feels great. It’s fun.

Fun fact: if you get the early release, you get a free upgrade to digital deluxe when it releases Aug 3 I think. Not a shill, I just love gaming.

Mass effect series, on ps5. I’m on MA2 right now.

I've been playing through Powerwash Simulator on Gamepass recently, among other things. The game has just enough going on to keep you engaged while also being super zen (until you're trying to find those last 6 things that are only 99% clean agggghhhhhhh). Progress goes at what seems like the perfect rate, you're never spending long cleaning an individual item, yet there's so much to clean that you get a pretty good sense of accomplishment from finally finishing a map.

It's pretty good for playing in the background too during useless wfh meetings while being able to stay fairly attentive

I started replaying Grand Theft Auto V since it was added to GamePass. Aggalos, Sword and Fairy: Together Forever, Tunic, and started replaying The Elder Scrolls Online.

I’ve been all over the place lately, haha.

BattleBit Remastered! If you're a fan of Battlefield games, this game is what you've been waiting for!

If On A Winter's Night, Four Travelers was a beautiful masterpiece which I just finished. If you enjoy pixel art and pensive point and click narratives then you should check it out!

NEET Girl Date Night will be the next game I play.

Last of Us part II. I have to say that I liked part I more - the second part's artificiall padding is way too obvious. But I love the atmosphere.

I got Final Fantasy XVI less than a week ago, and have been playing **quite **a bit of it since then. The combat's felt really fun and fluid (especially with the quick and easy element swaps), and I've found the story and characters really engaging so far.

I also picked up Tunic in the Steam Summer Sale. As a lover of the Zelda games and Soulsborne-style games, it's been on my radar for a while, but it was nice to catch it on 30% off. I haven't been disappointed so far; it can be a little sparse on information, but it's been really fun exploring the world (and just what your character is capable of), and the artstyle is just adorable.

On mobile, I'm finally getting into Archero, but man, the red dot spam is wild.

Necromerger is still really fun a couple of weeks in.

Pentiment