What Video Games Are You Currently Playing

[Vaaler9]

Currently playing Street Fighter 6 and loving every second of it.. while getting completely destroyed online. I've also been having an insatiable urge for SNES on a CRT.. so splurged and got both along with a cartridge with a micro SD port for roms. Been loving retro gaming lately. Something about the immediacy of these games is appealing after so many cut scene heavy, handholding modern games. Sometimes a SHMUP is all you really need. 

[Berk]

Man i wish we got a new TES game (or whichever kickass rpg) with Jeremy Soule's music. Won't be happening anytime soon though, as he's become quite controversial a couple of years ago (rape allegations ffs)

[Rubin Farr]

Trying the Pikmin 4 demo

https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/pikmin-4-switch/

[Danny O Flannagin]

Bought Zuma Deluxe on steam for a dollar and some change. Great game

[T3551ER]

A decent ways into Final Fantasy XVI and it's... pretty much what I expected (TLDR: It's fucking great). The plot / voice acting is great - totally like watching a realllly good medieval fantasy show, with some of the scenes being top-tier eye candy. Major story beats are super high fidelity, with some drop in quality (visual wise) for the subplot stuff, all the way down to "generic poses by my character and whomever they're speaking to" when you get down into the sidequest level of stuff. No matter - the main story is so good and so well done I'm really not bothered by that at all. Was initially worried that I'd be overwhelmed by the amount of cutscenes (I know that's a staple for the series) but they are well paced, and provide some nice downtime from the action. Plus, as above - I'm genuinely enjoying just watching - it's like I get to experience this great TV series but then also play it too. Some minor story beats that feel a bit quick, but extremely small quibbles there. Soundtrack/audio work is out of this world good - incredible. 

The action is really where this motherfucker shines, including the visual spectacle that accompanies it. It's just a fantastic LOOKING game (even on performance mode) and you add in the visual flares for your various Eikonic abilities/strikes/charges and man does this thing ever look amazeballs. Controls are tip/top, and the game is masterful at feeding your new techniques at just the right pace. When I played the demo, the second portion was a slice of action with lots of abilities unlocked, and I found it almost overwhelming. Playing through the full version, the game totally just keeps sliding you new cards to play, in a way that just feels natural. The game designers have said the first run through is to "teach you how to play the game," with subsequent runs allowing you to really flex your muscles (Final Fantasy Mode allows you to replay with remixed + different enemy placement - I can't waiiiiiit). 

Too soon to tell for absolute sure but it seems likely that this will be my GOTY and, even better, one that I'm going to play for a looooong time. The combat system combined with the visual spectacle is just 11/10 (for me) with some minor complaints (listed below) that I suspect will be addressed in a future update:

• The inability to turn off the HUD as well as the hit #'s from your attacks can make the action difficult to follow at times. There is just so much shit going on on screen that it would be much better to be able to turn some of this stuff off. Ironically, although I'm complaining about this, I actually haven't found it has hampered my ability to play - it's just something that would make wtf is going on less overwhelming. 
• Some issues with HDR - Good news/bad news. My old TV started crapping out a few weeks before the game dropped (bad) so I got a new TV (good - but costly). It's a QLED w/ micro LED's and looks fucking amaaaaaazing when dialed in - but the HDR in this game (and PS5 in general) is very finicky. It would be great to have in-game HDR adjustments. I've basically gotten it almost perfect as is, but just would be good to have independent HDR adjustments in game. 
• Motion Blur - they are going to patch it so you can toggle this, and you better believe I'm turning that shit off
• Performance - I'm not going to really ding them too much here, because there is some voodoo involved in making a game that looks this good (even on a PS5). One thing they (wisely) did was to optimize during combat, where performance mode sticks around 60fps (though I've seen analysis that have dropped this to sub-40 in some instances).. Outside of combat, performance is varied, and on graphic mode things can get a little dicey. Oddly enough, performance mode actually looks almost as good as graphics mode so I leave it on that - once you go +30fps it's hard to go back, but they should probably offer a lower resolution performance mode that locks above 45 fps (if that's even possible) to accommodate VRR. 

Too soon to make a final call but, if this is a measure of anything, I've ALREADY gotten easily my 70$ worth out of this title (both in terms of time spent and enjoyment) and I haven't even unlocked limit breaks yet (which is not a spoiler, because you either know what that is so already know, or you don't know what that is and doesn't mean fuckall to you anyway).

 

 

 

[thumbass]

Playing Ghost Trick on the switch rn. That game is so amazing. I played it back in the days on the DS and loved it. It still is an expertly crafted piece of work imo. Also finished the portal games on the Switch recently and I've been playing zelda on and off since may.

Edited July 1, 2023 by thumbass

[Limo]

Picked up Hades in the Steam sale.

Not bad. Fairly intense, fun story. Not very deep, though. Managed to smash my way up to and halfway in level 3 of 4 in total after about an hour or 4 (I'm *very bad* at games).

For the €12 (IIRC) it costs now: highly recommended.

[Stock]

I picked Two Point Campus, very funny sim game, however the game seems to hide its complexity during the first few levels (probably to avoid discouraging new players). Good for them but I feel like the first levels will just be tutorials that I will have to plow through before reaching the "real" game. Had the same feeling with Two Point Hospital and never went past the 3rd mission or something

[GORDO]

Almost done with it. Awesome game.

 

[o00o]

Zelda feels almost like single player WOW experience now. I just played it more than any other game recently and it feels like I have seen maybe 10%. I wonder if it is as big as elden ring  

[YEK]

They keep pushing back the release date of the TOTK strategy guide. I ordered it a long time ago gosh darnit.  

[o00o]

12 hours ago, YEK said:

They keep pushing back the release date of the TOTK strategy guide. I ordered it a long time ago gosh darnit.  

this looks really nice - its sold out everywhere since preorder I guess? 

[YEK]

38 minutes ago, o00o said:

this looks really nice - its sold out everywhere since preorder I guess? 

Never been released yet as far as I know. 

[Squee]

On 7/3/2023 at 6:25 PM, GORDO said:

Almost done with it. Awesome game.

 

So fucking good!

[Stock]

Anyone spent some money on Steam sales yet ? I don't know why, but I want to go and try a space 4X game (never played one before !). I'm on the verge between Stellaris and Endless Space 2, which both look awesome but also seem to need a shit ton of DLC to propose a complete experience.

[usagi]

and will consume hundreds of hours of your life.

I've been detoxing over the past month or so, haven't really played much.

[TubularCorporation]

I haven't started it yet but I picked up Hatoful Boyfriend (the meme pigeon dating sim from a few years ago) for a couple bucks from the Steam summer sale.  Should be at least funny enough to justify $2.

Edited July 6, 2023 by TubularCorporation

[Stock]

2 hours ago, TubularCorporation said:

I haven't started it yet but I picked up Hatoful Boyfriend (the meme pigeon dating sim from a few years ago) for a couple bucks from the Steam summer sale.  Should be at least funny enough to justify $2.

It is quite funny indeed, never took the time to 100% the game but the first few endings I reached were good. Have fun !

Edited July 6, 2023 by Stock

[GORDO]

On 7/5/2023 at 2:47 PM, Stock said:

Anyone spent some money on Steam sales yet ? I don't know why, but I want to go and try a space 4X game (never played one before !). I'm on the verge between Stellaris and Endless Space 2, which both look awesome but also seem to need a shit ton of DLC to propose a complete experience.

I got Pyre and the outer wilds both for very cheap.

Edited July 7, 2023 by GORDO
Wilds not limits

[usagi]

27 minutes ago, GORDO said:

Pyre

Supergiant's weirdest game but still good. I actually was very into the story, it had a certain charm and power in spite of it basically playing out like a visual novel.

[YEK]

On 7/4/2023 at 11:39 AM, o00o said:

this looks really nice - its sold out everywhere since preorder I guess? 

Just got a phone call that the preorders are in 

[Rubin Farr]

Finally adding new characters to MK8

[o00o]

as drivers? is this already available? 

[Rubin Farr]

58 minutes ago, o00o said:

as drivers? is this already available? 

July 12

[Berk]

I'd be way more into those Horizon games if they didn't have that cheesy ass futuristic dinosaur setting. Gameplay, gfx and controls are great. Such a shame lol