What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

The game Asura's Wrath was all QTEs and it was pretty awesome, generally I agree though.

The only QTEs I can stand are in Man of Medan and Little Hope. At least failing them there leads to further amusement.

It's only taken 8 hours with Crusader Kings III for me to realize that it's a better pure roleplaying experience than literally any RPG video game I've ever played.

Definitely! I think I told you in that thread elsewhere to never ever quit a character/lineage when something goes wrong, and avoid any attempt to min-max. The game has a quality where once *you* start to act and take risks, it starts off an entire snowball of events. If you never act, much less will happen, and you'll just sit around gaining some gold and upgrading territory which is intentionally not made especially interesting in CKIII.

Paradox's other games are more focused on development and such.

It definitely rewards the choices you make, and the open-ended self-driven quality makes it a far more personalized roleplaying experience than I thought possible. It all feels very organic.

Another thing I realized I appreciated was the abstracted nature of combat. It's so much less trouble than personally controlling every unit like you would in something like Civ. I don't mind going to war at all in CK3, because for all its complexity it's not really a game full of busy work.

Speaking of Civ and of busy work, I have been pretty burnt out on Civ VI for a long time, but I also felt like playing some kind of Civ. So I decided to reinstall Civilization V after a few years with its sequel, and it's been very nice to get back into it. I'm willing to concede that VI is the "better-designed" game, in the sense that its mechanics seem very well considered, but it takes a lot more steps to accomplish pretty much anything. So the relative simplicity of V has been refreshing for me. The biggest advantage that VI presents, better combat, is sort of negated by the fact that I tend to be a Civ pacifict in the first place.

So I think after all these years I would still land on Civ V being the best in the series. While VI has plenty to recommend it, I think it's at that "too many notes" stage for me right now.

Been in trial prep Hell for the past couple of weeks, only to have our state's Supreme Court say, "no jury trials" and now all that stress and work has dialed down exponentially.

To kill off the remaining stress, I've been playing a lot of Payday 2, at the cost of playing Destiny. It's a "I've stopped doing crack and now picked up smack as a lesser evil." Downloaded the border heists DLC last week and enjoyed them, a definite breath of fresh air after playing the others to death, and the reluctance to play with randos.

I've also been achievement hunting in the game, close to 50% now and it's just sharpening my skills in the game. Also, the best way to play the game is drunk. Payday 2 + 2 serving bottles of sake on NY's = gaming bliss and a lot of smack talk to the game itself." Was so silly, The Boy came in and said, "Go home, dad. You're drunk... Wait."

Aside from that, I recently realized that I have Prime Gaming.... Who knew? So, I downloaded the client and check out their free games. Downloaded a bunch, including Void Bastards, Sheltered, and SNK's King of the Monsters.

Void Bastards is by far one of my favorites, because of the game play. Yes, it takes pages from System Shock and Bioshock and blends in dry, British humor on top of it. Making it highly enjoyable, despite dying multiple times. Ooops. Time to get a replacement Client!

But the real reason why I adore it so much because it reminds me of a game of my youth, Paradroid. Granted, you're not taking over robots in this, but the ship clearing feels exactly the same.

Sheltered is just Post-Apoc meets the Sims with Crafting. You start out with a family of 4, in a barely functional shelter, and you upgrade and constantly fix systems inside and out. And also engages in HIGHLY QUESTIONABLE parenting tactics, such as sending unattended, young children out to scavenge in the new, scary world. I'm on Day 36, and I'm forced to intentionally send out my wife into the wasteland without protective gear, just in the hopes she'll find antirads in a pharmacy or that someone will trade to give them to you. NUMBNESS IS THE PATH TO SURVIVAL....

Let me tell you about Duskers. You have a spaceship, and on this ship you have (initially) three drones. Each drone has different equipment on it. More on that later.

Your goal is to explore derelict spacecraft, harvesting scrap, fuel, looking for data logs, etc. The problem is, some of these "space hulks" are inhabited by HOSTILE forces. I believe them to be rogue AI, but I don't know for certain. What I do know is if one of them catches one of your drones, that drone is immediately disabled.

So... you select a hulk, dock, and send in the drones. One might have a motion sensor that can scan the next room. A green scan is clear, a red scan is hostile, and the worst one of all, yellow. Yellow is "indeterminate". Maybe that room is empty. Maybe Mecha-Godzilla is in there. Who knows?

Clear the ship room by room, using the various talents of each drone in concert. Move up drone 3, it can tow that disabled drone you discovered. Move up drone 2 so it can power that bulkhead door. You can kite enemies around and trap them in different chambers in order to continue making progress. Sometimes you can even turn on the ship's internal defenses and destroy them that way.

This game is tense, creative, and cool as hell. Check it out. PC only I believe. store.steampowered.com/app/254320/Duskers/

I gotta check out SHELTERED. I just need it to text my IRL wife all the terrible things i made the in game wife do for the sake of survival because 2020 wasn't stressful enough

jason10mm wrote: I gotta check out SHELTERED. I just need it to text my IRL wife all the terrible things i made the in game wife do for the sake of survival because 2020 wasn't stressful enough

I was off yesterday, due to medical appointments, so I got a full dose of it yesterday.

We were doing extremely well, sending out teams to forage for resources, bringing back weapons, and whatnot.

Then, our home was invaded by a trio of ne'er do wells. Despite having firearms, my wife and I were overwhelmed (proves how bad knives are in this game, as well as being outnumbered). They stole a lot of food and left. Since I didn't have a defibrillator, my wife and I both died. That left Sharon (a strong recruit), Kenneth (another strong one), The Boy and his (imaginary as he's an only child) sister, Zoe.

They buried me outside, as to not traumatize anyone living in the shelter. That left my wife's body. Since burial space up top is limited, and I didn't have an incinerator, I had Sharon harvest my wife's body. Obviously, it traumatized her, but it was for the good of the shelter. My wife's remains lay in the freezer for the longest time, marked DESPERATE (as in, eat this only if you have to). Finally, a trader came by....and I traded off my wife to get resources for the shelter.

I told THAT to my wife. Her response? GET OUT....

Payday 2! Loved that game back when it first came out. Not perfect, but the closest thing to Heat we'll get in this form. I spent some time trying to come up with a tabletop get inspired by it.

Never bought any of the DLC. Surprised it's still kicking.

charlest wrote: Payday 2! Loved that game back when it first came out. Not perfect, but the closest thing to Heat we'll get in this form. I spent some time trying to come up with a tabletop get inspired by it.

Never bought any of the DLC. Surprised it's still kicking.

Oh, it's still kicking. They had a heister's holiday event over Christmas, they now have a Biden mask to buy, and they've put out more cosmetics and heists in the last two years.

Picked up Resident Evil 3 on PC yesterday since it's on sale and I have been wanting to play it ever since finishing the remake of 2, which was fantastic. It is definitely more of the same, with a less compelling story, but I am enjoying it immensely.

An interesting difference this time is that I now have a monitor capable of HDR, and WOW does this make the fire effects look wild. Cop car flasher reflections, etc. I assume RE 4 will get this treatment and I am all here for it.

Speaking of RE...the demo for 8/Village whatever is pretty cool on the PS5...it’s definitely more like Amnesia than, sat, RE5 or 6. Graphics and lighting are just amazing. There’s some pretty grisly stuff in it but the atmosphere is the star of the show. It seems like there is definitely a vampire thing going on- I didn’t play 7 so I don’t know if that’s a thing but...yeah, it’s vampires. I might pick up 7 while it’s on sale.

Miles Morales was freaking great. Just a fun, wholesome, big-hearted game that was exactly the right length. So many lovely, sweet moments. It was great playing this over the holidays since it’s a holiday game. My son 100%ed it.

Started on Ghost of Tsushima- it’s very good. It feels much more focused and crafted than most open world games. I have to laugh though because it looks like an 80s Ridley Scott movie gone berzerk with all the leaves and stuff flying in the air constantly. I think I’ll stick with it to the end. It definitely feels worthwhile.

Annnnd fed Buluc to his pet last night.

Very satisfying.

In other news, I have created Vault 27 in Sheltered. Granted, I'm down to my imaginary daughter (The Boy got shanked by a psycho new recruit). However, as long as she is alive, the game goes on. I have nearly run out of space to build rooms, but I don't have to even do that. I have water and food in surplus, 10 other bodies to do basic maintenance, and enough things to keep the minions occupied (training, books, jukebox, Coffee...). And for those shelter raiders, I have a nasty fucking surprise for them... It's called motion activated rifle traps. Four of them, to be exact.

It ends the same way, they break in, get shot. If they survive, they get shot by the next one. And so on. I've only had one make it to the pantry on the first floor and she stole food and then tried running back through the gauntlet to escape. Needless to say, she didn't make it and the minions cleaned up the bodies and threw them in the incinerator.

I don't even need spare parts any more, so I've stopped answering the doorbell. If I see one person, I ignore them until they leave. If I see two, I answer it, just to see what they are trading for. The reason why I don't is twofold. One, most of the time, THEY WANT IN! I have enough people, thank you very much, and don't need another mouth to feed. It also avoids the possibility that the person will go freak show for whatever reason, and kill someone/sabotage the shelter during the Loyalty probationary period for newcomers. It also avoids the passive aggressive bullshit they pull when you reject them. So, fuck you, single person survivor. Come back with a friend and MAYBE we'll talk.

Guess I’m 4 years too late on RE7 but hey. So I’ve been playing it and I really don’t know what I think about it. I am a HUGE 0-4 fan and I though 5 was OK. I didn’t even play 6. I love the zany, batty nonsense in the games. One of my all time favorite video game memories was getting “Biohazard” from a PSX bootleg seller and realizing holy shit, this is like a George Romero thing. Back when there were 0 other zombie games.

So this one, like 8 apparently, is more like Amnesia than the “classic” RE games and It is WAY more Tobe Hooper/Wes Craven. Like, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre references could not be more overt. The kind of horror it is also references TCM, Hills Have Eyes, Motel Hell, and other dirt road cannibal junk horror. But the there’s a weird sci-fi thing that is pure RE out of nowhere so I have no idea where it is really going. And then there are the bullshit RE puzzles- goofy ass locking mechanisms and so forth, which sort of blows the otherwise realistic tone of it.

The atmosphere is almost unbearable- it is scary as fuck, at least until something actually does jump out and then it’s sort of silly. The “boss fights” are awful but I did like the crazy dad doing donuts in his muscle car. You have to run up and slash at him with a knife. While he’s doing the donuts. In the muscle car.

I really like the tension and the production design- the rotten old house is a distinctive “place” and it does hearken back to the first game’s focus on the manor. There is a hint of the Nemesis gameplay, where you have to hide and run more than fight- that’s good. The psychology of the game is kind of incredible, it constantly feels like you about to die.

The found footage thing is kind of cool, kind of lame. I like that it reveals stuff, but it also doesn’t make any sense how some of it goes down. But...it’s RE. Nonsensical bullshit abounds.

Total contrast to Tsushima’s poetic beauty and tranquility.