Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 20th

While everyone has been talking about Baldur's Gate 3, I decided to cave in and started a replay of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Well, yea, I got a ten years old PC and a Ps4!

Still, what an excellent game. The easy mode goes well since the battlefields are chaotic, there's not a single combat that I go through that doesn't involve 1)Setting everything on fire 2)Shocking a large portion of the characters 3)Poisoning a large portion of the characters 4)Mixing all that because elemental interaction exists (Poison + Fire makes NECROFIRE which is a harsh and often deadly punishment)

But the questing and adventuring still stands out well. This is a game that has a somewhat large map, but unlike most open world fillers its a dense map. Every corner has a named NPC with a little trouble to solve, and there's no "random cave with nameless mobs" to venture into; Every single place you can go has a little lore, a little story, something important that makes the world feel alive.

Its no surprise Larian has been taking the world by storm lately, and I'm glad this has aged so well so folks can try an original setting whenever the BG3 hype cools down.

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While everyone has been talking about Baldur’s Gate 3, I decided to cave in and started a replay of Divinity: Original Sin 2. Well, yea, I got a ten years old PC and a Ps4!

I'm sure your PC could run Baldur's Gate 1 and 2... 😉

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- I would not wish Advanced D&D THAC0 mechanics on my worst enemy
  
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I'm playing BG3 right now, and am thinking about giving D:OS2 another shot. I played it around release and got off the first island, but stopped after that. Although, maybe I should wait a bit more, so I don't get burned out so soon on this type of game.

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Continuing my first time playthrough of Apollo Justice on my way through the rest of the Ace Attorney series.

And returning to Death Stranding since I beat the game to max out the prepper shelters (mission givers) and to slowly work towards Legend of Legends (completing every single repeatable mission on "hard" mode).

Now that the story is over Death Stranding is a fantastic "throw on a podcast and grind" kind of game. Very soothing.

Still working through side quests in Borderlands 3 as well. Really enjoying the shooting in this one. As acclaimed as 2 is, I just couldn't stand the shooting model until at least Pre Sequel, but 3's shooting genuinely feels quite good now.

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I hope you enjoy the Apollo Justice series! Will you be playing the Investigations series with Edgeworth too?

I played all the Ace Attorney games for the first time during the pandemic and had an absolute blast! The Great Ace Attorney duology is definitely my favourite of the bunch by far, but they are all so charming!

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- As a kid I endlessly replayed the original trilogy and never wanted to try Apollo because "I thought his hair looked dumb", so after trying it now and realizing that even with a new character it's still Ace Attorney I won't be skipping any other games.
  
  So yes, I'll be doing the Edgeworth Investigations next! I'm excited. Eventually I'll make my way through the 3DS titles and then to Great Ace Attorney too.
  
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I loved Death Stranding, it's one of my few platinum trophies on Playstation. looking forward to the sequel that I just recently heard about.

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- I'm a PC player so I probably won't get to play the second one for quite a long time, but I'm excited as well. Kojima doesn't usually iterate in a straightforward manner in sequels, so it's hard to know just quite what we'll get out of it.
  
  Death Stranding was already one of the most novel and interesting games I've ever played in both story and gameplay, so I'm glad we'll get to see some more of it.
  
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Is there a way around the stealth / hiding from the black fog thingy or does it get less as you progress? This is the only thing that held me back playing further. And I was so impressed by everything else in the game. It is a bit sad, I really want to continue playing.

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- You do get a way to combat them fairly easily later on, but it's still usually best to avoid them unless they are very dense or blocking your path directly. It does not become less frequent, it gets more frequent, but you can actually engage them
  
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- They won't go away, but you will eventually learn and see where they are. Sometimes you'll have to engage them, a lot of the time you can get around them.
  
  They're not in all areas, but you will be able to understand how to deal with them and once you can fight back you can handle them.
  
  I was terrified by them in the beginning and didn't want to have to deal with them, but now I really think they're cool and enjoy taking them down. You really go from helpless and confused to knowledgeable and prepared.
  
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I am just now playing The Stanley Parable on Switch and am having a great time with it. I'm not a PC gamer, and rarely a console gamer, so I missed when it first came out.

I have recently finished Hollow Knight, Deaths Door and Fire watch.

Hollow Knight was great, and I was pretty sad when I finished it.

Deaths Door is really good, but it felt a little lacking of content to me. But it's a small game and is a good introduction to more complicated games in similar genres.

I liked Firewatch, but I remember being disappointed by it for some reason. I can't remember why exactly.

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I have recently finished Hollow Knight

Did you finish it finish it? Have you battled The Radiance? (9000 times lol)

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- Well... I didn't finish it finish it. I didn't:
  
  Complete the path of pain
  
  Beat Nightmare Grim
  
  Complete the Pantheons.
  
  I felt like I was missing out on other games, so I opted to shelve Hollow Knight. I was spending so much time trying to complete the path of pain and defeat nightmare grim, I didn't even want to attempt the Pantheons. I instead just moved on, lol.
  
  I think I was at 107% completion or something
  
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I started playing Vampire Survivor on mobile last week and I'm so addicted. I know I'm late to the party. I had heard about it many times but I never played the Desktop version because I wasn't a fan of the 16-bit graphics. But a few days ago I saw it in the Play store for free and decided to try it. Wow! I'm so impressed by this little game. The game play is fun and satisfying. There are plenty of unlocks and secrets in the base game to keep you busy. Well worth a try. Once you get powered up a bit and you unlock some new characters it's really addictive.

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I come back to finish off a few more unlocks every so often, and it seems like the list keeps growing. Great little game, very trippy towards the end of the “story” as well.

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- It really does get pretty trippy. I've been working through the secrets to unlock all the other characters. Some of them are pretty funny, others have curious quirks.
  
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It just came out on switch so I’ve been playing too, it’s really fun! The maps are much more interesting than Brotato

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I've been trying to finish some games that I always wanted to play. So I just completed a first run through of NieR: Automata (WA complete). Now for the second!

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My partner and I started playing Palia this week and like it so far. It has some issues and I wish there was more co-op, but it's a nice relaxing game that's been fun to explore.

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It's not Baldur's Gate 3, because it's Baldur's Gate 2. I think I'm past the halfway point, and I'm hoping to have it beaten before this thread comes up next week.

I also started a co-op playthrough of Quake with a friend of mine, and I play a few runs of 30XX here and there.

Other than that, it's Street Fighter 6, and there's a patch coming for Guilty Gear Strive soon that I'm excited about.

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I had a nice daliance in Palia and now I'm feverishly prepping for the next season of Destiny 2. I have until Tuesday to get my vault under control.

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Factorio. I'm playing a space ex and Krastorio modded run with the science costs increased by 10x. It's slowing down the progression a lot which is forcing me to design things smartly instead of getting by with jank. I'm about 71 hours in and I'm getting crashes which is devastating because I really don't want to restart.

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Just finished Link's Awakening and now I'm in the middle of Oracle of Ages! I've just been playing gameboy games on the switch for months lol I used to dream of playing this stuff on a backlit screen when I was a kid 🥲

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Same I've replaced finishing pikmin with blasting through the oracles games

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Fontaine just opened in Genshin, so I put Baldur’s Gate on hold for a bit to do the new stuff. I also went back to play a bit of Mass Effect 2, since I was in the middle of a trilogy run when BG3 came out. I’m sure I’ll be back to BG3 soon, now that I’ve got all the Fontaine areas at +65% exploration.

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Funny, I've been replaying the Mass Effect trilogy as well (through Legendary edition), and I'm also on Mass Effect 2. ME 1 holds up more decently than I expected with the LE changes, but ME 2 is just such a better game in almost every way. Really enjoying spending time with these characters again. Even with other games going on you can always hop back in and do a mission or two in ME 2, the save system lets you make some good progress even if you don't have a ton of time. Femshep for life.

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- Ironically, ME2 is my least favorite of the trilogy, because plot-wise, it’s worse than just being a plot cul-de-sac because it undoes everything set up in 1 and sets ME3 up for failure by introducing more plot lines that have to be resolved. I know everyone loves it because of the characters and BioWare changing a lot of mechanics so it’s more fun to play, but I like the trilogy for the story, and ME2 really fails, story wise, as the middle part of a trilogy, because it doesn’t advance the story set up in ME1 - it ends with us in the exact same place, story-wise, only with more baggage. It’s got a great series of individual stories and is good as an anthology, but hurts the overall story of the trilogy.
  
  I really love this video on it, since it really explains how ME2 wasn’t actually good for story of the trilogy: Mass Effect 2 Broke the Franchise.
  
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Fontaine is looking pretty nice. I need to start the quest headed there now that I finished the main story in Sumeru.

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- Fontaine has been really great, honestly. I had gotten burned out of Genshin and had only been doing dailies and none of the events for a while now (I did the bare minimum of the summer event then didn’t touch it again), but Fontaine has gotten me back in. I really like the underwater mechanics and just swimming around and exploring.
  
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It's not Baldur's Gate 3, because it's Baldur's Gate 2. I think I'm past the halfway point, and I'm hoping to have it beaten before this thread comes up next week.

I also started a co-op playthrough of Quake with a friend of mine, and I play a few runs of 30XX here and there.

Other than that, it's Street Fighter 6, and there's a patch coming for Guilty Gear Strive soon that I'm excited about.

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Fallout 4, since it released on GOG this week.

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Do you usually wait for the DRM-free release for games?

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- Yes. I am old and patient, and have a lot of games to play. I also really dislike DRM.
  
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Far Cry 6. These games are so much fun for me but this one seemed to get a lot of bad reviews that I put off playing it. it's repetitive but I'm still enjoying it. The weak sniper rifle are bothersome so I need to figure out what I'm doing wrong there.

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"Stray Gods" is an incredibly beautiful game. I was turned off by the playstyle at first, but then I embraced it and got really invested in the characters and the story. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys Greek mythology and/or fantastic stories about interpersonal drama and enjoys games with tough dialogue choices.

The soundtrack also!!! It's a musical game and the songs are all SO BEAUTIFUL. I teared up a few times.

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Uber modded Skyrim and a Minecraft world with friends we called HIV

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Hey now, I’m in Diablo 4, with a dash of Texas chainsaw massacre, while trying to play through persona 5

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After years of hearing so much about the games, I loaded up pokemon on my retro handheld.

Started with Ruby for no reason in particular.

I'm splitting my time between that and D4.

I also have the following games on the back burner at various stages of completion:

Deep rock Galactic LoZ: LTTP Last of Us Part1 on PC Tiny Tina's wonderlands

There's more, I'm just too tired to go look at my "recent" queue in steam....

Any suggestions for games that I should play on my retro handheld, it supports everything from neogeo up to ps1.... More or less.

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Guild Wars 2 by my-self. BGEE with my SO.

Sadly no BG3 in the near future as a computer that can run it costs too much. The two computer can't.

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replying gtav and playing some more rock band 3. im gonna also buy papa's freezeria on steam maybe tonight or tomorrow

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I'm trying to beat Final Fantasy Tactics - I never got past Act 1 as a kid. I'm currently up through Golgarion Execution Grounds. Turns out the secret is to not bomb in all-offense and get nuked into the ground. Who knew?

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Hahaha, my computer would catch on fire if I tried running Bauldur's Gate 3.

Hell, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum Edition lags a little whenever I ride a coaster and the camera starts facing all the guests in the best park I have ever designed.

Happened last night and is probably gonna happen again when I eventually boot it up again to work some more on the park. Thankfully it doesn't whenever I build my absolute monstrosities in the coaster designer mode.

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I quit my xcom2-lwotc run. I guess I didn't play optimized enough. Enemies keep getting stronger and stronger and my science is too slow to keep up. It got to the point where I could only finish missions with massive save-scumming and now I benched it. In my next attempt I'm gonna be quicker about everything and build up multiple teams right from the start but for now ..

I am playing BG3 :D

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For xcom2 you need to immediately research the upgraded weapons as soon as you begin your campaign. It feels counter intuitive because it takes so long but it really puts you into the correct pace. I don't remember when it best to upgrade them again or armor but that's the best start. Also aggressively use grenades because they're guaranteed hits.

For BG3, be sad there is no overwatch, sorry, I mean readied action like in D&D.

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- Thanks will try that when I come back to it. BG3 should take a while though I'm afraid :)
  
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Metro 2033 and Have a Nice Death

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I think I’m nearing the end of Midnight Suns. Story seems to be wrapping up so I’m trying to get the last few friendship levels for folks. This has been such a blast to play and I’m glad I picked up the complete edition for ~$35 in a Steam sale.

Not sure what the next one will be. Really tempted to grab Baldurs Gate but I’ll probably go back to some indie backlog games for a few.

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I've been going back to The Witcher 3 to play the DLCs.
I finished Hearts of Stone and started Blood and Wine. I really enjoyed the former, but the change of atmosphere and setting of the latter is simply something else and it feels like a new game with how much content there is!

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Same old same old. I only have a Switch, so mostly MarioKart while my bones disintegrate waiting for Silksong and Hades II.

If anyone has any metroidvania rec's, I'm all ears. Already played both Ori games, HK, HAAK, Unbound. Haven't found much else in the Nintendo Shop that appeals to me.

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If you're interested in a roguelike metroidvania, I'd highly recommend A Robot Named Fight. There's also the Batman Arkham collection that just came out on Switch, and the first game, Asylum, is a 3D metroidvania.

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Just War Thunder

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Last act of Baldurs Gate 3. Damn, does this game have a ton of stuff in it.

The third act is a bit of a disappointment though, compared to the first two. Not necessarily the storylines, or environment, but parts just seem unfinished, more glitches and bugs with quests, which is par for the course for Larian games I guess. It's still great, and I'm thinking about doing a second playthrough eventually, but probably not before the Definitive or Enhanced Edition release in a year or something.

I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, then play the recently released Quake 2 Enhanced release as a palate cleanser, before jumping into the next bigger game.

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Besides the obvious BG3, I picked up Book of Hours yesterday and spent the day playing it. It's a very cozy puzzle game

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Book of Hours

In my case: Instead of Baldur's Gate 3. I can't find time for Baldur's Gate any more since I started Book of Hours. It's just too good. It's one of those games where I just don't want to stop playing. Just one more book. Light LEAKS through the CRACKS. My mind is BRIGHTER than it EVER was. THE HIGHER I RISE THE MORE I SEE.

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Mostly Palia this week, with a little Hexceed. Need to get back to TOTK soon.

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Well for me it is actually Baldurs Gate 3! I just beat Jedi survivor last night and now have moved on to the zeitgeist that is this game

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Do you usually try to play games that are new and part of The Discourse? I'm more of a patient gamer, so the mindset of chasing the latest game is a little foreign to me.

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- Nah not really. I just pick up what sounds fun to me mostly. That often is new games but I try and finish ones I have going before picking up a new one
  
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Trying to learn Dark Souls 3. 20 hours in and finally getting used to the controls. Beat the second boss with 2 deaths so feeling a tiny bit less despair for now.

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I finally started looking into emulating on my phone, so I've been playing some games from my childhood. Mostly Alleyway and Pokemon Red, with a little Harvest Moon thrown in.

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I'm trying to get the last few cards in the pokemon trading card game on switch, I've been cheating with the rewind feature which has made life slightly less painful but it seems to pre calculate your coin flips so not as powerful as it could be, also played some tabletop simulator and started doing dragon riding races in WoW as part of that event. It's been a crazy year for releases so it's nice having some downtime

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Been slowly picking away at Blue Reflection Second Light. It’s nice and chill, and neat that the first game’s subtext of girls love isn’t subtext anymore.

Also been playing some Gundam EXVS Maxiboost On with a friend. Slowly getting our bearings and it’s neat how every session our play improves, as does our coordination.

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I’ve been playing Subnautica Below Zero. Loved the first game and I’ve been meaning to try the second for ages. Nice and relaxing expect when it isn’t.

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I've recently been trying to get back into Guild Wars 2, with the new expansion that came out.

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In the end game of Tears of the Kingdom. The systems for collection are really obtuse. I'm pretty sure I have all of the Shrines, but still missing a couple of hearts. Also have to look around for quest starters by teleporting all over

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I'm also in the end game part, trying to max out my hearts before putting the game away. I've been using Mapgenie.io to help me figure out what Shrines I don't have. While I love the exploration and the sensor+ helps point you in the right direction, I just want to wrap this one up soon to get to other games in my backlog.

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@chloyster
Not a new game, but I've been replaying Undertale as part of a large randomized multiworld. Every item or big event I unlock turns into a random item or unlock for somebody else's game. And random items in their games are sent to me as random items in mine (or another game). It's called Archipelago, it's really fun and there are games you wouldn't expect to be supported (like The Witness). It's called Archipelago.

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Oh cool! I've been really wanting to try out Archipelago but the setup for it all seems pretty involved. Still really want to give it a try sometime

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I started Convergence. It is pretty entertaining and also somewhat challenging on highest difficulty.

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As someone who almost always plays mouse and keyboard on PC, I had a few struggles with Convergence feeling like it was made console-first.

I understand why, but it just makes me want to go play Hollow Knight or something.

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- I had the same behaviour, I played everything with mouse and keyboard. Dead Cells, Assassins Creed, Sekiro, Dark Souls, etc. Then with Elden Ring I gave the controller a try just to see how it is, and it worked flawlessly. I think it is just about with what you to a game first.
  
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I've been jumping between Genshin Impact (Fontaine recently released), Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Baldur's Gate 3. I haven't made much progress in Genshin or BG3 because I'm having so much fun in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk lol

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I stopped playing Time Warpers, it's an idle FPS game. The game is fun, but sadly there's not enough interesting progressions to get me thru 500 levels. Most important for me, is that I've managed to play the game comfortably with a left-handed trackball (Kensington Expert placed on left hand side), since I've shifted from right handed mouse couple of months ago. I rarely play FPS, but the game was easy and comfortable enough that I can enjoy the experience with a trackball.

Armored Core 6. The first AC game for me. While I do enjoy the battles, the mech movement can be a bit slippery, I've just switched to reverse joint legs, maybe it will feel better. The story is interesting, but I kinda wish the character banters are more like in Ace Combat 7, bit livelier, with character portraits. I'm enjoying the game very much

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The OG Splinter Cell. I modded my original Xbox not top long ago and am looking to play games on it so it wasn't a waste so I figured why not give it a try?

I am enjoying it so far but I'm used to playing the new Hitman games where the AI is rather predictable and I can gun my way out of most situations. I just beat the Kalinatek level and feel like I need to finish the game at this point.

I don't know if I need to play one game after the other to full understand the overall plot or what game I should stop at if I just want to play the best in the series.

Not sure if I'll play Baldur's Gate 3 because I own the first two on multiple systems and haven't beaten them

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There is a bit of a continuing story in Splinter Cell, but for the most part, each one is its own story. I'd say I was fairly unimpressed with Pandora Tomorrow and Double Agent, but neither is bad. Conviction is very different from the games before it but still plenty of fun, and Blacklist somehow manages to marry Conviction's gameplay with the classic gameplay of the series in a modern way, but Michael Ironside was battling cancer at the time, so Fisher was unfortunately recast. If you're asking the average person which one is best, most will say Chaos Theory, and then you'll get a contingent of people such as myself who prefer Blacklist, but CT is still great.

As for the old Baldur's Gate games, no better time than now to go through them. I'm inching closer to finishing 2 after beating 1 earlier this month. They're great.

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