The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion

Finally playing Dave the Diver after getting recommendations from everyone I know since it came out. “Dive for fish and make sushi.” Seemed pleasant enough but I didn’t get why people talked about it in the same tone as like, Stardew Valley.

I get it now.

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I’ve played through the whole thing and maxed out my restaurant. I’m still not sure how to describe why it’s so engaging for me.

I think Stardew didn’t hit with me because there were too many mechanics. But Dave is just so light and joyful!

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- I should dive back in to that one.
  
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Shadow of the Colossus. The urge just hit me and I am just knocking out 3 or 4 Colossus a day. Enjoying exploring and seeing the world in hdr cause I only remember the ps3 hd remake. The ps4 hdr remake is jaw droppingly stunning to look at.

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One of the absolute best of all times. Truly a work of art. That remaster is kind a dream.

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All I want to do is play more Helldivers 2 on PS5. The good and bad news is that everyone else is feeling similar and I know the experience hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve got faith in the developers! I’ve had success with matchmaking and I find the game so much fun when you are in a squad!

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I'm in the same boat but for PC. It's been a lot of fun. Even with the server issues.

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I’m deep into Immortals of Aveum. I don’t know what all the hate is about, I’m having an awesome time with it. The combat is tight and satisfying, the writing is sharp and witty, and the plot is refreshingly original.

It runs like shit on my high-end gaming PC, so that sucks, but it hasn’t detracted from the insanely fun gameplay and great story.

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I don’t know what all the hate is about,

Allow me to inform you. It's an EA Game which is supposedly Singleplayer Wizards Call of Duty and it cost at launch $125 USD. When it released to mixed reviews and low sales numbers they laid off half the staff.

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- I think you're describing the hype, not the reality. It cost $59.99 at launch, I paid $23.99 last week. Very typical pricing these days. It is genuinely not Magic Call of Duty, I think that was just a hook the developers threw around so people had a frame of reference for a game that no one knew anything about. The only similarity is that it's first person.
  
  The layoffs are shit, I wish that hadn't happened. Companies need to have a little grace and keep some damn employees on salary, the whole release and layoff cycle is completely ridiculous. But to be clear, that was EA's decision, a huge evil megacorp, not the creatives who made a really fun new game.
  
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I picked up Cult of the Lamb and that’s making time fly by every time I turn it on.

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Pretty enjoyable. I think I need to go back for the finish. Nasty habit of getting 80-90% then wandering off to something new.

But yeah it's a goofy gameplay loop for sure.

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Finally started Elden Ring, about 25 hours in. I'm having a blast but why oh why is every cool weapon an STR weapon. Where my DEX weapons at??? (Not really asking, just whining)

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I played through on a STR build, but I heard some people like the Reduvia and Black Knife for how quick they are and movesets. I never used them myself.

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- I was using the Reduvia for a little while but then I found Hookclaws which are even faster so I mostly use that now.
  
  What I really want is an Uchigatana and I know there is one because I found a merchant selling a samurai set so no way that sword doesn't exist. It's gonna feel like Christmas once I come across it.
  
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Do you have any friends that play? If you do, and don't like the way summoning works, I totally, completely recommend the seamless coop mod. It was amazing.

Dex weapons will come, don't you worry.

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- I'm on console so unfortunately, no mods for me. It's fine, Oleg keeps me company.
  
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Elden Ring again 😅

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I bought Zelda TotK when it came out, now I'm finally playing it. Just finished the first boss fight, I really like that not only do shrines train you to be creative with the Ultrahand, side quests like sign support and korok escort quests also reenforce it with interesting tools. Towers being launch towers which ties in with the verticality of the game is also a nice touch.

Still don't know how to deal with lynels, three headed dragons, and the gloom hands thing though.

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Fuse all kinds of things to make your battles easier.

Fuse bat eyes to arrows to make gleeock fights easier.

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I'm replaying the wonderful The Outer Worlds and loving every minute!

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Playing dark souls one rn, possibly one of the best games I've ever played

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I need to get on that. Big FromSoft fan in general but haven't hit the OG Souls yet.

Safe to assume you've hit the other Soulsborne games, and how's it hold up comparatively?

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- Not OP, but Dark Souls 1 is probably the purest Souls experience: Slower and punishes impatience like no other. Depending on how much time you wanna spend reading item descriptions, you‘ll probably need to google things for a few gimmick areas/bosses. I like it more than 3 since it‘s not as influenced by Bloodborne yet thematically and in gameplay; it‘s closer to Demon Souls. It also has the most vertical world, which is such a unique experience. A must play for any Soulsborne fan.
  
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- It feels less polished than the other games, and there's a bit more bullshit (ie. Boss move with funky timing, or being mobbed my enemies) but it has a lot of charm, a very well done interconnected world, and a story that oddly makes more sense to me than the other games. For the combat, I agree with the other reply
  
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Alternating between playing RDR2 for the first time and fine-tuning the mods I've got installed. Really enjoying my time so far, but Jesus this game is just impossibly large. I've got something like 40 hours in the game and still haven't unlocked fishing. I get that they don't want to overwhelm you with mechanics but gimme my damn rod already!

I'm super impressed with the visuals, too. I guess it's no coincidence it still is used for benchmarks. I finally have a PC capable of maxing it and it puts many more recent releases to shame despite being over 5(!) years old now.

I also wish I hadn't gotten the ending spoiled for me way back. It's still a great experience, but I'm sad I'll never get to experience the impact it would have had if I was not spoiled.

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Just finished the Dead Space remake and can't decide between Alan Wake 2 or Starfield to play next... Maybe I'll just go read some sci-fi horror books instead and then get back to gaming once I have a clearer pictire of what I wanna play.

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Book Breaks have been so nice foe me this and last year

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Finally got to Act 3 of Baldur's Gate 3 while playing in co-op. It's a little overwhelming now, so much stuff every which way.

I also started Yakuza Like a Dragon. Ichiban is just wild, such a different vibe of protagonist compared to Kiryu.

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The same thing I've been playing for nearly a month. Fallout 4. Oh, and I also picked up Flat-out 2 again. I forgot how much that game is when I go flying out the window.

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Trying out CrossCode. Looks like a fake MMO esque game? So intriguing

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Tried this one out briefly definitely really fun game mechanics and I have heard the story is great.

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I've been playing Turnip Boy robs a bank, and it's been delightful. I've also been playing a lot of CS2.

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I've been obsessed with Helldivers 2 since release. Thankfully the patches are coming along and the game gets a bit more stable every day.

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I've gotten back into Hades, going for full completion. At about 86%, seems like just a matter of time as I'm not really stuck on anything.

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My friends and I have been playing Marauders together lately. Tons of fun if you're into that kind of thing.

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Love that game!

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Just started new game+ run of Lies of P! It's really smooth polished, as a fan of the Dark Souls series I really enjoy it.

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Finally completed the Ada DLC for Resident Evil 4. Was way more fun than I expected it to be. Immediately did a few more runthroughs, including a professional, and am now prepping for an S+ runthrough of it.

Also started Alan Wake 2 but that thing starts really slow and have to get into a mood for that. I ended up backing out and going back to Baldurs Gate 3. I think this thing just has me permanently hooked now.

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I finally beat Grounded - such a fun game. I happily played almost 60 hours with only a few complaints.

Now I’m playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I played Yakuza 0 then jumped straight to LAD, which I think was the right call. It balances the line of not taking myself seriously but really being enjoyable to play. I also love how Game Pass Cloud syncs with my Xbox Series X cloud save, so I can play it on the Steam Deck really easily.

I’ve also been super sucked into EVE Online - I played like 10 year ago and it’s been really fun to jump back in.

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Still playing Rocket League. Playing in a 32 franchise league. Season 19 just started. Didn't have a great start, so will probably be looking to make a roster move and cut some players from the team, and pick up some free agents. Gotta start turning things around now before the season is lost.

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Oh I didn’t know there were leagues!

I usually just jump into 3v3 competitive for a couple matches at the end of a night, but last week I did a tournament. Made it all the way to the semifinals! Which is way further than I expected to lol

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- Yeah it's super fun. You get paired up with similar skill level teammates and you get to practice and scrim with them a lot. Most of the leagues are free, and some allow players of all skill levels to join. The teams play for fun, but there is a lot of competitiveness. No prizes or anything in the league I play in, but the community is reward enough. Thousands of people in there and most of them still play this 8 year old game religiously lol
  
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Payday 2 and valheim 🙂

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I played a bit of Terranigma this past week for a Discord Game of the Month run. Would love to see this and Illusion of Gaia get remasters with script updates.

Currently playing No Man's Sky. This is my third attempt with it since it came out, and it's going a lot better so far this time around. Ironically, it might have been the things missing from Starfield that finally whetted my appetite for what this game has to offer.

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No Man's Sky can be pretty fun if you get into the progression loop. Got myself a good 100+ hours with it. I really like getting to slowly learn the alien languages.

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- That's near the top of the list of what I've been working on. I got snagged again by something I remembered hating about the main quest last time, getting stuck in one system working through it. This time was particularly awful because it kept sending me back to the same extreme world to do it, ugh.
  
  Now I'm just trying to find a semi-permanent base location. Finding a comfortable biome that doesn't look ugly to me has been shockingly diffcult 😅
  
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Escape from Tarkov. Somehow I'm still having fun.

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Back to Yakuza: Like A Dragon after a week of playing steam demos from the Next Fest. I was surprised at just how many I ended up enjoying. Crypt Custodian is a neat little metroidvania about a cat sentenced to be the underworld's janitor. Nice art style, sense of humor, and good puzzles. Cryptmaster is a typing-based dungeon crawler where every enemy you defeat gives you letters that you use to spell out the names of the skills you use in combat. It's certainly an inventive take and I'm looking forward to the release. Surprisingly, my favorite demo ended up being for a platformer called Happy! the Hippo. It's based on janky PS2-era platformers like Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. The game is purpose built for you to pull off those kind of tricks where you skip chunks of the level or even break outside the bounds of the game entirely. It's really fun to play, but what I'm really enjoying about the game is the weird, almost horror game stuff that shows up the longer you play. It feels like an ARG game in a way, like Crow 64 if anyone remembers that. Or something like Shipwreck 64, a game that is a platformer on the surface but is actually a horror game once you get in far enough. Except Happy! the Hippo never turns into a horror game. At least not in the demo. There's plenty of strange stuff the more you explore, but it never descends into an outright horror game. It feels like all the talk about how old 3D platformers could be unsettling and odd was a major inspiration for the game. Hoping the finished the game keeps that tone when it releases.

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I just got into Yakuza: Like a Dragon after getting interested on Infinite Wealth. Ichiban is so funny, he definitely has a very different attitude than Kiryu.

These Steam Next Fest Games sound interesting, I'll take a look on them. Happy! the Hippo saying it's "a previously lost game" definitely sounds like they will lean to the creepy side, but hopefully it will be better than Shipwrecked 64, which I felt like overused keypad puzzles.

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Final Fantasy VII Remake on Hard mode. Trying to get the Master of Fate trophy before Rebirth comes out on the 29th!

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I‘m playing Monster Hunter World a worrying amount…

Also some CoDBO3 Zombies, a very fun mode too - better than the rest of the game honestly.

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I‘m playing Monster Hunter World a worrying amount…

I mean going outside and family are important or whatevvvverrr, but also there is no guarantee whatever reality we zoom off to when we die will have Monster Hunter World. Play the shit out of now don’t be a fool and put off the important experiences in life.

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Finally got bit by Slay the Spire. Definitely see why my buddy was tossing hella hours on it. Always enjoyed rogues and deck builders so I'm not sure why I was slow to hop on.

Cleared the first 3 heros, just trying to get the hang of the 4th now so I can get all runs cleared once. Biggest issue is my impatience -- always notice a better combo after I finish the turn!

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Finished RE2r RE3r this weekend and started playing Alan wake 2 so far pretty good I like the atmosphere. I'm not sure if I should play control first but liking Alan wake so far.

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Fucking Palworld exclusively. I'm at a point where I'm actively looking for exploits for the fun of it. Send halp

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With some of the news around Kojima’s upcoming projects I picked up Death Stranding Directors Cut and have been playing in my spare time. When the original came out I couldn’t get into it and stopped playing after a few hours. This time around I’ve pushed past where I left off and it became way more enjoyable for me. Now I’m very excited to pick up and play a few hours here and there!

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Final fantasy vii rebirth demo.

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Brother and I are playing Ark Survival Evolved this week. Wanna actually beat the island finally

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Finished playing Return to monkey island. My love for point & click games keeps om growing.

Fun game. Liked the art style, can't understand what all the fuss was about.

Now playing through monkey island 2 lechucks revenge Special edition.

Also finally finished a run of dead cells with the 1st difficulty token. Been trying to do that for awhile now.

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Across the Obelisk again, haven't played much since the last two DLC so it's cool learning some new strats

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Alley Cat

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Possible minor FF7 remake spoilers ahead if you want to play knowing nothing about it!

So I have tried to finish FF7 Remake, which has been really enjoyable until it stumbled and smashed it‘s teeth on the pavement literally 3 steps away from the finish line. That last chapter is an utter mess with too many boss phases, bosses, unskippable cutscenes, confusing restart messages and lack of save options. How did the game do so much right just to be so utterly frustrating in the very end? It also seems so forced story wise but that’s a different topic. I have no clue what drove the devs to such madness but I ended up watching the final cutscene on Youtube after hours of painful repetition.

Of course I was wondering if I‘m the only one feeling this way so I looked up what others have to say and… yeah Square Enix really just messed up there after doing almost everything else right. Baffling.

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I'm slowly replaying the old homeworld games in advance of homeworld 3 coming out soon. I'm still on the first one and it holds up very well. Bit disconcerting to see it's a quarter of a century old now.

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Were you able to find the expansion? I have 1 and 2, and deserts of kharak, but haven't gotten around to finding the expac.

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- No, but TBH I haven't really looked yet, I'm still working my way through the campaign. I'm told that the mods are still out there somewhere so I'd guess the expansion is too. I'm also told there's also a community developed game that's pretty complex - but again, I've not checked it out, my screen time is pretty limited these days.
  
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Rimworld, palworld, armored core vi, ready or not, cp2077 and metro

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