Whatcha been playing lately?

[birdandbear]

Really late to allll the parties here, but I finally got around to Dragon Age. It's almost as good as Mass Effect.


Alistair is sweet.
Morrigan's a good mom.
Flemeth is...
Hawke is BEST GIRL.
Varric is MVP.
No one touches Anders.
The Inquisition will save the Dread Wolf or die trying.


I'm currently on DAI again, as Lavellan, to see all the Solas content I missed. Turns out there's a lot he doesn't tell you if you're not an elf.

[Avatar]

I couldn't finish DAI...got annoying, lost interest, eventually uninstalled it.

--A

[birdandbear]

Bioware went waaay overboard with the Fetch and Collect 'em All missions in DAI (in Andromeda too.) Once I figured out which quests to skip and just stuck with the main story, it got a lot more interesting. But the real punch is the Trespasser DLC - genuinely shocking plot twist and amazing setup for DA4.

[Avatar]

Well, I gave in and got RDR 2 at 33% off on the Steam Sale. Prob won't get a better discount for a long while, and this is one I've been keen to play.

Not bad so far, and obvs my machine is running it great. I could probably dial back a setting or two to improve my frame rate, but quite happy with performance so far.

--A

[peter]

Keep us up to speed with how it works for you Av. Clearly a game that has to be considered as 'must play' (ughh! Hate that expression - why did I use it?) and I'll be very interested to hear your thoughts as you proceed through it (maybe a designated thread to give a running acct?)

For my part, my ps4 went tits up yesterday and by coincidence I had a copy of Fallout New Vegas arrive in time post from eBay! So I powered up the old 360 and am now making my first tentative steps into the Mojave. So far, one day in, I'm liking what I see. The old style graphics are quite refreshing in a way and I like the look of the terrain; it has a bleached look that I much prefer to the hyper colorful world of The Outer Limits (another Obsidian produced open worlder). Last time I began this game I was not Fallout proficient, and didn't last long; this time, as a result of completing Fallout 4, I know the ropes somewhat (the VATS system for example) and am progressing much better. I'm just hoping that Dogmeat will appear at some point; I believe he is supposed to be in it somewhere and I kinda miss the old boy!

[Rigel]

I've heard it's a mile wide and an inch deep. Let us know what you think.

[peter]

Shhh Rigel - Av loves it!

As it happens, I managed to get my ps4 up and running again and yet another of my eBay impulse buys came through the letterbox - the remastered hd version of Resident Evil for this consul - and I couldn't resist putting it straight in!

So the upshot is that I now have three games on the go - KCD, which I'm taking a break from (I've been playing it for months in total and I'm about twenty percent in - it's huge if you do all of the side stuff, treasure searches and whatnot, but I love it), Fallout New Vegas (two days in), and this new Resident Evil.

On the latter, it's a bit weird playing a game that is so old school that you don't even have the '360' feature and you have this sort of strange jumping from viewpoint to viewpoint thing that is hard to grasp - but I enjoyed the concentration of the search and puzzle aspects of it as a great change of pace from what I normally play. The fighting mechanics seem quaint, but this isn't what these games are really about so it's okay. I'm currently at a point where I seem to have exhausted the clues available to me, but am getting squished by a spikey wall thing when I try to move forward. It's a bit like some of the puzzles in the early Lara Croft games - but without her pneumatic figure to fall back on (if you pardon the expression). But all in all a good day's play!

[Avatar]

Well, it is IMHO the best of the Fallout Games.

As for RDR2, I'm enjoying it. The story is a bit lacklustre, (also I accidentally spoiled it for myself), but the world is certainly gorgeous and big, and it's perfectly possible to roam around for days doing nothing but fishing the many streams, rivers and lakes for example.

Not rushing any, about 50% through, I tend not to start it up during the week because each session feels like a big commitment so I'm mostly only playing it on weekends. Mostly anyway.

--A

[peter]

Fifty percent through! It'd take me months to get to that point Av! I'm only twenty percent into kcd after hundreds of hours of play!

But I like the sound of the landscape - I'm a great one for just getting in amongst it in games; just wandering around to see what the creators have done. In Kingdom Come Deliverance yesterday, I got up just before dawn to go somewhere, and out on my horse in the countryside I saw the sun just coming up over some distant hills. I stopped to watch and sure enough, it slowly came up over the horizon as I stood there. Now I can't be sure, but I believe that the shadows cast in the rising sunlight actually move as the sun rises as well - now that's attention to detail and I love it. This is the pleasure of just roaming in a virtual landscape - just seeing and discovering things that the guys have done.

[Avatar]

Well, I do play in 10-12 hour chunks at a time, and also of course I'm familiar with these sorts of mechanics / games.

Funnily enough, the first person perspective of KCD makes me less immersed, rather than more. RDR2 has the option for you to play either in 1st or 3rd person, which I like.

(Sadly Cyberpunk 2077 will be first person only as well, but KCD did show me I can tolerate it.)

--A

[peter]

Now that's interesting; I work with a guy that cannot abide first person. He won't play games that are made without the option of third person, and yet for me the situation is entirely different. I find first person way more immersive and absolutely preferable - but not to the extent that it becomes a point of issue in whether I'll play a game or not. Incidentally, I saw Todd Howard in an interview saying that Skyrim was meant to be played first person (though the option for third was obviously in there). Horses for courses!

On KCD, the battle segments are absolutely more 'in your face' in first person. This kind of actual 'in there' melee could never be achieved third person.

[I'm Murrin]

On that subject I will say that I like first person games a lot less when playing with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard, and first person also just naturally has a smaller field of view than third; a first person camera shows you less of your surrounding than even what you can see in real life, which can leave you feeling a bit blinkered in some situations.

[Avatar]

Most games allow you to adjust the field of view angle these days, (or have mods that will do it).

It used to be a deal-breaker for me but I suspended my long-standing rule against first person only games for KCD, and like I said, it wasn't the end of the world.

Definitely a strong preference for 3rd person though.

--A

[peter]

On that subject I will say that I like first person games a lot less when playing with a controller than with a mouse and keyboard, and first person also just naturally has a smaller field of view than third; a first person camera shows you less of your surrounding than even what you can see in real life, which can leave you feeling a bit blinkered in some situations.

That's a good point Murrin, and one I'd never considered. I'm big on scenery in a game, so yes - take it on board.

I've never played a game on a computer with a mouse so can't judge on the merits of hand controller Vs the former...... but instinctively just feel that I'd struggle to adapt to a mouse at this late stage in the day. Funny that it should effect your preference for first or third person playing though.

[Avatar]

Hahaha, I struggle to play with a controller because I was trained on mouse & keyboard. And I'm totally incapable of playing an FPS (first person shooter) with one.

--A

[peter]

I wouldn't have the dexterity in my fingers for a keyboard and mouse Av. With a controller it's largely down to your thumbs which I am just about up to.

But this is going to be put to the test today, because I've been lent a copy of the notoriously hard to play Dark Souls (the remastered for PS4 version of the first game) and am about to start it later today. I've heard tales of people throwing their controllers across the room and their TVs out of the window and stuff so I'm not expecting great success if it's really that difficult. My gaming skills are okay if I can advance by pure patience alone, but if it's really just down to speed of reaction and nothing else (combined with big unbeatable bosses) then I'm screwed.

No doubt my howls of anguish will be reverberating around these corridors in the days ahead so be prepared for it!

[Avatar]

Well, I'm back to Kenshi, playing with the massive world overhaul which is the Project Genesis mod, and a custom start.

I cannot get over how addictive this game is. I must have close on 1,000 hours in it, yet last night I played until 03h00...

Murrin, you play Rimworld don't you? You should check this out.

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I've never played Rimworld.

[Avatar]

Oh, think I was thinking of Rigel.

Regardless...play Kenshi. Or at least watch some let's play's or whatever.

(Demo is available for free...)

--A

[I'm Murrin]

I'm too busy playing Satisfactory.