Discussion Video games you're playing or might have recently finished.

[Skathon]

I think 30 hours is the bare-bones rushing through the plot length. It's probably twice as long if you actually take your time and get extra stuff.

But that would be just 60 hours... I'm used to playing RPGs, I mean, which are usually at least 120-150 hours long (some are 300+). I also have no life.

 

[neitherherenorthere]

Also, lots of alternative endings so it does have some replayability. At the very least its worth buying on sale.

Oh I had no idea it had alternate endings, neat. I'll put it on my steam wishlist.

I'm used to playing RPGs

Haha I figured as much

 

[wannabesetfree]

Just got into Runescape for the first time. Don't know why it took me so long but for some reason, it's very enjoyable to me. Other than that I mostly play mobile games. I have a PS4 and an older gaming laptop but my depression is so bad that it's so hard for me to concentrate and build up the strength to actually play any games.

 

[Imaginos]

Well, I started playing the fourth case in AA2 the other day and so far it's....okay. Many people consider it their favorite case of the series, but so far it's just been kind of meh. Hopefully it'll end up being better later on. Then again, maybe I'm just burned out. Just a random gripe, but I found it annoying how there's been two occasions in this case where you need to present the same piece of evidence twice in a row, and I just hate it when the game does that, since it feels really unintuitive. Overall though, I feel like my ability to focus and pay attention has been steadily going further and further down, leading to me making a lot of easily avoidable mistakes. Depression induced brain damage certainly doesn't help as far as that's concerned. My hippocampus must be the size of a grain of sand by now, given how little it is I can seem to remember these days, at least insofar as exact details of things. Saving before you present evidence alleviates problems like these for the most part, but it still sucks to save scum more than you feel you should have to, whether because of the game's failings, or your own failings as the player.

Other than that, lately I've been dabbling with the RTS genre again, in what's been the first time for many years.

Finished Stronghold HD to start with and, although it's a pretty old game by this point, it was still pretty good. A couple of the siege missions where you're the attacker could've been designed a heck of a lot better, but, aside from that, both the military and economic campaigns were pretty fun to complete, with a nice sense of variety to each.

Currently playing Battlefleet Gothic: Armada and, so far anyway, it hasn't been too bad. Some of the mission types can be pretty annoying though. As an example, playing defense on orbital bombardments can be especially frustrating. It'd just be nice if there were more missions where you simply duked it out with the enemy fleet, instead of in almost all of the other kinds of missions where direct engagement is secondary to whatever the objective is, leaving you either chasing after the AI, or trying to bunker down and cut them off wherever you can. Ramming headlong into an enemy ship is pretty satisfying though, assuming you can avoid ramming into your own, lol.

After that, I hope to give the Homeworld series a try. I played the original, for what to me feels like eons ago, but I only got as far as the third mission. I remember how the way the gameplay worked just overwhelmed me at the time, but hopefully I'll better appreciate it now.

Also just wanted to mention that Legend of Grimrock 2 was awesome. The first game's also really good, but pretty much everything is improved/expanded on in the sequel. I originally played it not long after it had first come out, but dropped it on account of a bad depressive mood I was in at the time. Crazy how it took me this many years to get back to it, but I guess that's how it goes with these things. I mean, even at first, it felt overwhelming to start a new game and commit to finishing it, but fortunately it sucked me right in and I enjoyed pretty much every moment of it. I gotta hand it to the developers in terms of creating some pretty interesting/unexpected encounters, such as when you get teleported to that huge desert filled with what must've been like a 100+ enemies. Too bad they never decided to make a third game, even though it's been like 7 years since LoG 2 came out. There's another game called Vaporum which is pretty similar to this series, but personally I've already finished that one. There's also the really old school stuff like Eye of the Beholder, but those seem pretty archaic/outdated by this point.

One more quick thing I want to mention is a free little game I played on itch.io called Soul Void. I was on a bit of an itch.io binge recently, just playing really quick 10-30 minute horror games. Mostly because I'm a fan of the horror genre, almost all the games there are free, and also because I have an extremely low attention span and how super short games of the kind you'll find there are pretty much all I'm capable of playing at times. Anyway, I just found that Soul Void was, for the most part, what I wanted and was hoping a game like OMORI was going to be. As opposed to OMORI (which I ranted about earlier in this thread), I found Soul Void to do a much better job at portraying crippling depression, suicide and mental illness. For anyone else who was disappointed by OMORI, then I'd definitely recommend checking out Soul Void. It's extremely short, but personally I didn't find that much of a problem. More content certainly would've been cool, but for a free game you can't really complain. In this case, I feel like the brevity actually helped better convey the subject matter, whereas something like OMORI, at least for me, was just bloated and unfocused to the extreme, putting stuff like an examination of depression far on the side lines in favor of servicing its own lackluster story.

Oh I had no idea it had alternate endings, neat. I'll put it on my steam wishlist.

I for one also personally didn't mind Blooper's Blair Witch game and thought that, despite the flak it got for being lame/mediocre, that it was mostly okay. However, I just thought I should mention that there's only one alternative ending to that game, and it's kind of a bitch to get, and arguably isn't even worth getting given how little it actually changes anything, or matters story-wise. If you do play it, then I'd recommend just watching the alternate ending on YouTube to save yourself the hassle. For what it's worth, there's a neat little Blair Witch inspired game on itch.io called The House in the Woods. It's free and only takes like 10 minutes to complete, but it's actually pretty good.

 

[Darkmoon Queen]

Currently playing Witcher 3. It's okay, I don't really understand the hype around it tbh, I just got it because I saw the complete edition for £7.

I sort of like the world but I feel like all of the characters are just completely flat. It's also strange and creepy how hard Geralt simps on Yennefer yet cheats on her every two minutes. He must be a nice guy™.

Played Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone earlier in the year and think they're far better. Vampyr was fun but basically unplayable by the end as it was freezing three times an hour.

I know I'm years behind on these but I don't fund AAA studios anymore if I can help it and all but Witcher were free on PS+.

 

[Makko]

It's happening. They're doing it

 

[hyacinths]

i play so, so much of final fantasy xiv. its so fucking good. maybe the simulated life my character lives gives me a small amount of joy when compared to how sad my actual life is LOLOL

Recently finished Fire Emblem Three Houses months ago and enjoyed the hell out of it. I'm replaying Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time currently for the nostalgia. The last game I'll probably play and enjoy, would be Pokemon diamond/pearl remakes once it comes out; I played and loved the original so much in my childhood.

oh explorers of time makes me so nostalgic... it was the first rpg game i really attached myself as a little kid haha

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Another part of why I haven't been active as much here is actually because I've been doing a lot of gaming.

I've been obsessively playing Pokémon Unite almost every single day since it came out on the Switch despite the fact that I have absolutely zero MOBA experience. I'm at Veteran Rank right now though hopefully I can make it to Masters. Even though I don't always play ranked, I do try to grind the game out every day.

I've also fully completed Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Great game by the way. I had a lot of issues with pacing but overall the story was one of the best from the franchise. It made me also want to marathon the entire Ace Attorney series which I'm close to finishing.

I played Deltarune Chapter 2 last week and liked it even better than Chapter 1 even though I'm stuck on the final boss…

And finally, I'm in the middle of trying to at least get Super Sonic in Sonic Colors Ultimate. I haven't really encountered any major glitches lol.

 

[kappa]

Like someone else said I have a hard time enjoying games now and usually just use my PC to browse Youtube.

I've been forcing myself to play Red Dead 2. It can be fun sometimes. Going through the single player for the first time. Bought it for online but the single player teaches you how to play.

 

[neitherherenorthere]

I've been forcing myself to play Red Dead 2. It can be fun sometimes.

I completely understand the feeling... at least you enjoy the game some of the time. Honestly just finding something that you can use to pass the time is great, even if it's just tolerable rather than fun. Would you recommend the game? I never managed to get the hang of riding horses in the first RDR for whatever reason, to my everlasting shame.

 

[Imaginos]

Just another long rant I wanted to make about much of a chore gaming is to me these days.

To start with, I find that, even if I might get absorbed in playing a particular game for a time, I almost always just feel absolutely drained and shitty afterwards. Not only that, but actually sitting down to play something never gets any easier, even if the game in question has already managed to keep my attention during a prior gaming session. No matter what, it's just always a fucking struggle. If I didn't push myself to keep gaming, then I doubt that I'd ever play anything again, outside of very rare occasions where I have brief breaks in my depression. Be that as it may, that's not to say I also don't sometimes feel like shit while in the process of playing something, but that it's not as guaranteed a sensation as the moment I actually snap back to reality after I'm done playing and feel utterly exhausted and disillusioned again to an unpleasant degree.

Depression and anhedonia also play devastating roles here, since their influence significantly diminishes the quality of literally everything out there. The good seems less good, and the bad seems even worse. Even when I mention how I'm "enjoying" a game it ultimately doesn't really amount to much, since my sense of enjoyment is already significantly numbed and inhibited by anhedonic depression. Compared to non-depressed people, or even my past self from say 10 years ago, my ability to actually enjoy something basically amounts to a middling sense of positive involvement in the game itself, and that the presence of anhedonia and the mental noise of my own tiresome thoughts are both fairly minimal, even though they're always there on some level.

I also wish that my self-critical side wasn't so intense, since even though I only play solo games, I chastise myself for nearly every fuck-up I make. The one thing I'd love to have diminish with age, only seems to flare up instead, leading to it being even harder to enjoy whatever's in front of me. How fucking typical.

And then there's OCD, which naturally makes all of these things even worse. A sense of completionism that can be frustrating to deal with, and also how it tightens the focus of my self-loathing (makes it harder to forget and let go of my fuck-ups), being two prime examples about how it pains me.

What's more though, another thing I really hate is how minor flaws in things that I otherwise would've overlooked in the past, or that I at least wouldn't have let get in the way of my overall enjoyment of whatever it might be that I'm playing, nowadays tend to stick out and annoy me a lot more. It seems like most games I play these days, even the best ones, are marred by this kind of thing happening. Even if I come out the other end still largely liking them, I tend to look at negative reviews afterwards for catharsis, since they usually point out all the flaws that bothered me the most. It'll probably sound ridiculous, but my general attitude towards everything, even stuff I ultimately like, is basically this, "I might've liked this game overall, but only in spite of its flaws, and I can see why other people might dislike it instead, because a part of me does too.". This is likely a byproduct of depression/anhedonia where, at least for me, everything carries a sense of disappointment to it, because everything, on a certain level, fundamentally sucks.

Having said that, I've always been annoyed by people who overpraise things, whether they be games or anything else, and act as if they're free of flaws and beyond reproach. Again, I guess it's probably the depression talking here, but as far as I'm concerned there isn't a single thing out there that doesn't suck. The difference is that you still like it in spite of the fact it sucks, and not because you're in denial of the fact it sucks and you instead think it's perfect. Even the best games I've personally played, I'll fully acknowledge have a lot of aspects that suck about them, but that the way in which they suck just doesn't bother me as much as it might others. In other words, everything is at a baseline of being negative overall, although the player has the possibility to make it positive through their own experience of playing it, but that doesn't change that the game on its own, outside of that experience, is still negative. Now sure, that's a pretty extreme/absurd point of view, but I feel like if this were the general attitude out there, you wouldn't have so much nauseating fanboyism on display, which inevitably happens across countless games whether they be old, new, indie, AAA (etc.), and people getting shit on for not liking what everybody else does. If everybody could see that everything sucked, there'd be no need to shit on anyone for whatever their experience might've been, or go full-on fanboy for anything.

But yeah, anyway, using Steam reviews as a comparison, that's why I always look at negative reviews that give a game a thumbs down, even if I actually liked the game overall, because that's what fits best for me and the attitude I described above. When it comes down to it though, I don't think I'd ever personally give a game a full thumbs up. The highest praise would only ever be just a sideways thumb, or neutral review. Still crazy to me that Steam doesn't have that yet.

Also, just want to say that I really hate that I have to deal with everything I've talked about here, and I don't think I'll ever be able to accept the fact that it's never going to get any better, or be like it once was. People who don't have to deal with this sort of shit are so god damned lucky, they really have no fucking idea.

Also, just as a random aside, I finished Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, but only out of completionism, even though it got pretty tedious/repetitive and isn't a particularly good game. Still, a part of me seems to have a thing for mediocre games. I've suspected that it might have something to do with my sense of self-loathing, as in that a part of me feels that bad/mediocre games are all that I deserve. It's also nice to play games sometimes that don't have any hype, or overpraise attached to them, which is something that itself can make it difficult to start or get into a game that's a recipient of that kind of thing.

Right now I'm just about done with Homeworld: Remastered. Although I've mostly enjoyed my time with it, it's also a perfect example of everything I mentioned above. How despite that I like it how it still feels like a struggle to play it, how its flaws are amplified for me, how the fact that I like it doesn't compare to how a much less depressed/anhedonic version of me would've liked it that much more (etc.). In the end, all this shit does is diminish the overall experience, which more than anything else, is what really fucking sucks in the end.

 

[odradek]

My playthrough of Death Stranding has fizzled out so I've gone back to another Bloodborne playthrough. I think this is one of my all time favourite games.

I completely understand the feeling... at least you enjoy the game some of the time. Honestly just finding something that you can use to pass the time is great, even if it's just tolerable rather than fun. Would you recommend the game? I never managed to get the hang of riding horses in the first RDR for whatever reason, to my everlasting shame.

The horse riding is a lot more complicated in RDR2 but it's worth the investment I'd say. It's arguably the greatest open world game ever made. It's a game your supposed to take it slow with tho, down to even having slight input lag to make the movement feel more realistic. I would highly recommend it.

 

[TheHatedOne]

I'm playing The Sims 4 currently and it's been the reason I've stayed up these nights... Whoops.

Also playing Guilty Gear X2 Reload which is one of the games of my childhood... It's pure nostalgia and I like many characters from there.

I'm thinking to play a WW2 game but I don't know which. I've heard nice stuff about Hell Let Loose but I'm open to any recommendations.

 

[Manaaja]

I played Fez for fifteen minutes. Nice game, but I'm too sad to play more. I don't feel like playing games.

I finished playthroughs of Dark Souls 1, 3 and Bloodborne years ago. I wish I could finish Demon's souls. I really like that game. I have both DS2 and DS2SotoS, but I don't feel like playing them. I hate the battle system. I hate the enemies. I hate how unfinished and unpolished it is. The character is somehow slower and more cumbersome than in any other game. Everything takes too much stamina. I read I should level adaptability to get more i-frames, I don't like the idea of tying i-frames to a stat other than weight. Most of all I hate how the character moves. It's like sliding on ice while also weighting a ton. I love DS1 and I'm currently playing DS1Re planning to beat all bosses without summons, but I'm stuck in that painted world. Everyone says it's one of the best areas. I hate the area. I think it's the fact that you can't teleport out. I just feel like I have to get quickly out. If it was a area

Fucking hell! I got a heart attack! Someone came online on battlenet and it made a sudden loud sound that i wasn't familiar with!

So if it was an area connected to other areas, it would feel more relaxing. And if there weren't those pinwheel skeletons.

Of course I'm still playing Hearthstone. And I recently started playing MTGArena again after discovering you can play with old decks in some modes. My white-blue flying deck was invincible.

Speaking of flying, I wish flying type didn't exist in Pokemon, or not in its current form. Instead flying was a hidden/special third type. Because now we have a problem where a pokemon can clearly fly but gets hit with earthquake because it isn't flying type or a pokemon is clearly like poison psychic but gets labeled as flying because it flies. If flying type was a hidden third type that made a pokemon that made pokemon immune to ground attacks and made it fly and get stab from flying attacks but otherwise didn't affect in anything else. Some pokemon who are poison dragon could also have water as their special third type.

I still wanna play D2RE but I still don't have Win10 and I'd rather play on PC than on switch.

 

[kappa]

I completely understand the feeling... at least you enjoy the game some of the time. Honestly just finding something that you can use to pass the time is great, even if it's just tolerable rather than fun. Would you recommend the game? I never managed to get the hang of riding horses in the first RDR for whatever reason, to my everlasting shame.

I would recommend it. I've played GTA online and even thought it has more things to do, I prefer Red Dead 2- online or single player. The single player is great to learn the game/controls but it also is fun. I tend to play more online multiplayer than single player.

I like any game where you can customize your character. The game itself also looks really nice, good amount of detail to it. I never played the first one.

There's just something about the old wild west setting that is more fun compared to GTA style. I've discovered that I enjoy playing poker. They have poker in both SP and multi. I wish there was a general chat while playing it, but I'm sure it would be too much trolling problems.

 

[http-410]

I started playing Control yesterday. Normally I rarely play games anymore because of anhedonia or close them after 10 minutes, but Control looks promising at first impression - maybe because I hardly read up on it beforehand and the game design is rather unpredictable and dynamic at the moment. There's something atmospheric, fever dream-like about it, and I like that.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

I just finished Castle of the Winds yesterday. 1993's finest. The game is about as complex as I can manage with my level of brain fog.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

So I bought Nickelodeon All Star Brawl on release date and even though I feel it's rather unpolished (should have come out in December tbh), the game is at least still fun and if it's true that Garfield will be a character in it, I'd be pretty happy about it. Right now I think I like playing as CatDog or Toph the most.

And of course I also bought Metroid Dread. This one will probably be slow since I plan to get all the items and upgrades on my first run then leave the game alone afterwards. I'm pretty bad at these games even though I have beaten Super Metroid and Samus Returns already. So far I'm loving the graphics on Dread, I don't think any other Switch game has managed to look this aesthetically good.

 

[neitherherenorthere]

@http-410 Control is a great game, I hope you're able to enjoy it fully.

@Dr Iron Arc Good to hear you like Dread so far. There's no way I can manage to play a metroidvania right now but if my brain/reflexes start working any better I'll pick it up.

 

[Midgardsorm]

I'm playing The Sims 4 currently and it's been the reason I've stayed up these nights... Whoops.

Also playing Guilty Gear X2 Reload which is one of the games of my childhood... It's pure nostalgia and I like many characters from there.

I'm thinking to play a WW2 game but I don't know which. I've heard nice stuff about Hell Let Loose but I'm open to any recommendations.

A lot of Call of Duty is based on WW2

And if you like strategy, there's Company of Heroes and Hearts of Iron. Both a little old, but fun.

 

[Imaginos]

Well, since it's the month of Halloween, I've managed to play/finish a couple horror games, which is a slight improvement over last year when I was too anhedonic to do so. I actually tend to check out horror games all year round, but there's a slight festive feeling to playing them during this particular time. It's a feeling that's barely detectable nowadays, and in truth is actually gone altogether, but I just keep pretending as if there's a flicker still there, when actually there isn't. I remember years and years ago when I'd check out something that was intentionally made to be played during Halloween, like Costume Quest, or that Festival of Blood DLC for Infamous 2, and how amazingly comfy it would feel to just sink into the festiveness of it all. Now they're just a bunch of hollow memories of past contentment. The kind that will never come again.

Anyway, the first game I wanted to mention is called Visage. I knew nothing about it going in and wasn't expecting much at all, but it actually turned out to be one of the more memorable modern horror games I've played in recent years. Out of all the games that tried to imitate and deliver on that PT demo, of which I've finished many, I feel like this one came the closest to actually achieving it. It's been ages since a game last scared or creeped me out, and this one was sadly no different on that front, but I think a majority of people, those far less dead/numb inside than I, would find it an unsettling experience. All of the spirits that haunt the house have their own distinct feel and I appreciated that the developers have them pop up around said house in sometimes subtle, or otherwise unique ways, that go beyond the usual boring jump scares or obligatory hide and seek segments that pretty much every single other horror game has.


Truth be told, I'm someone who actually never got a chance to check out PT beyond watching a silent playthrough of it on YouTube (never owned a PS4, and have exclusively been a PC gamer for years now), so it was cool to see about as fully realized a version of that as we're likely to get in terms of a complete game.

Out of a couple other small niggling things, my main criticism with this game would be that the story is extremely opaque and it's hard to really know just what the hell even happened by the time you're done with it. I also thought that the bad/secret ending, while pretty disappointing, was an extremely good representation of what chronic depression feels like. Gameplay-wise, while they kind of feel like somewhat throwaway mechanics, the resource management elements, along with having to safeguard your character's sanity, gave the whole thing a bit of a survival horror feel. Overall though, this was a pretty good horror game that had a decent amount of variety to it, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested in the genre.

And the other game I wanted to mention was RE7. Even accounting for anhedonia, I don't know why it took me this long to get to it, but better late than never I suppose. To be honest, I have to say that I was pretty disappointed about how little content the main game has, minus the DLC (which is also very short). The primary area, as in everything encompassing the Baker family's estate, felt like it was over way too quickly. The following short section in the beached cargo ship wasn't anywhere near as interesting, and then after that it's the final stretch to the finale. Another really disappointing thing, for me anyway, was the lack of an actual final boss. Instead, the whole thing just plays out like a glorified quick time event. The low quantity/variety of enemies, along with there just not being that much to explore in the end given the linear/small size of everything, also really sucked. All that aside, what little there actually was to be found to this game turned out to be pretty decent and it occupied my attention.

I guess I was just expecting something closer to RE4, at least in terms of the amount of content. Ultimately though, I suppose one can argue that the first three REs were pretty short too, but they didn't really "feel" short, you know? RE7, by comparison, felt ridiculously short, especially on subsequent playthroughs. If you took out all the unskippable narrative sequences, you could easily finish the whole thing in like an hour. I did like the story and characters though, and it was nice to see a relatively fresh tale be told in the RE universe, minus pretty much of all the previous events/lore. The shift to first person was also surprisingly smooth, and the inclusion of item boxes and inventory management again was great too. On top of this, the DLC somewhat filled the gap in content that the main game was lacking, and it was nice to check all that out too, even though the main two DLCs were just linear action from beginning to end.

About to play RE: Remake, and then RE: Zero afterwards, since I never got the chance to check them out way back when and, like RE7, just haven't gotten around to it until now.

 

[neitherherenorthere]

Visage has been on my "maybe buy" list for a while, but based on your description it sounds worth playing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Yeah, Resident Evil 7 definitely has some flaws. The first half of the game is also much better than the second half. Once mold!Dad stops chasing you around the house the game loses its tension and essentially stops being scary. Based on your reaction, if you decide to play 8, go into it with very low expectations. It's actively trying to be RE4 and only manages to be a pale, disappointing imitation of it. That's not to say it isn't fun, but it's far from being a masterpiece (which, as far as I'm concerned, RE4 is).

REmake and 0 are both great. I'm definitely biased by nostalgia, but I replayed both games a few months ago and still think they're excellent. RE0 is definitely easier than the games that came out before it, so if you're looking for difficulty this isn't the game for you, but it's fantastically cheesy and Rebecca and Billy are both solid characters. And the remake is just amazing overall.

Also, if you like traditional RE games (i.e., tank controls and fixed camera angles) and haven't played the original Resident Evil, I'd recommend playing that as well. It's the same game as the remake as far as plot and gameplay go, but the ridiculous voice acting gives it a totally different vibe. There's also the DS version (which has the original voice acting) which adds a nifty mechanic where zombies sometimes attack you while you're opening doors, and you have to use the touch screen to swipe your knife at them to get them away from you.

Whatever version(s) you end up playing, I hope you enjoy the games. :)

 

[Enabran255]

After a long time not playing anything, in September I got The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on the switch. Only reason I have a switch is because my close friend loved Splatoon and wanted me to play Splatoon2 with her. Unfortunately she ended her life a couple years ago. I can't bear to try and play s2 anymore since.

Anyway, TGAAC was pretty good overall. Playing that was a double edged sword as I was introduced to the series by my (at the time) good otaku friends in college, before they all turned against me as a result of vicious bullying that destroyed my life. So, yea, some dredging up of associative pain from that trauma.

It was really annoying that they changed Sherlock Holmes' name to Herlock Sholmes thanks to the copyright gestapo. I found I really enjoyed a lot of the soundtrack, and the plot kept me interested for the most part. It was also nice to escape to an imaginary world where I felt what it was like again to have friends who liked me as well as a nice girl who showed romantic interest. Pretty pathetic I know but that's the gist of my current sad existence.

I also began playing FFXIV in the past few weeks. That too has been rough on me because of strong associative pain, this time from that close friend I mentioned who loved Splatoon. Several years ago when we were close to dating, she and I played Tera together all the time. This has been my first time back in an MMO since then. I feel so isolated and alone, playing by myself and not having that source of warm companionship by my side everywhere I go. Of course seeing all the couples everywhere in game is just pouring acid on that wound.

For the gameplay itself I chose Summoner because it seemed an intriguing class to me. Way back in the days of Everquest my first class choice was a necro, who I chose because it had a pet who could fight and tank things. I always wanted to try the Mage in EQ but never got around to it, I ended up making an Enchanter and loving the role I had in groups.

When I looked up the Summoner class in FFXIV I thought it looked like that mage class a lot. Unfortunately it seems they nerfed summoner a while back so your pet can't hold agro/tank at all, so it's basically been turned into a glorified DoT. I was disappointed when I found that out. I may try a different class. The bard seems interesting because it can play real music in the game. I am also having a terrible time trying to play because the game likes to crash fairly regularly with DX11 or Nvidia driver errors.

I was thinking of maybe trying that new Metroid game that's been released but am hesitant because of that new dynamic they threw in. Last time I played the series were the prime games on the Gamecube. I never ended up playing the wii one.

 

[Moonomyth]

Summoner is getting a substantial rework in the upcoming expansion and will play very differently. Do give it another try.

I am playing Vagrus: The Riven Realms. It's a game about being the leader of a trading caravan in a horrible fantasy setting where the gods nearly destroyed the world and left it ruined.

As games go it is functionally an economics simulator mixed with the day to day of not dying on the road. You buy low, sell high, hire lots of guards to keep your money and cargo safe, and travel the world while.managing the caravan's morale and food supplies.

It's not a visually impressive game. There's a lot of text to read. But I like it.

 

[Midgardsorm]

I feel so isolated and alone, playing by myself and not having that source of warm companionship by my side everywhere I go.

I'm not a woman and neither is my character. But I play FF14 and I can play with you, depending on your datacenter. I'm not currently playing because I already finished all the expansions and stuff but I will get back as soon as they release the next xp whi is later November (If I'm still alive then)

 

[user_name_here]

Well, I started playing the fourth case in AA2 the other day and so far it's....okay. Many people consider it their favorite case of the series, but so far it's just been kind of meh. Hopefully it'll end up being better later on. Then again, maybe I'm just burned out. Just a random gripe, but I found it annoying how there's been two occasions in this case where you need to present the same piece of evidence twice in a row, and I just hate it when the game does that, since it feels really unintuitive. Overall though, I feel like my ability to focus and pay attention has been steadily going further and further down, leading to me making a lot of easily avoidable mistakes. Depression induced brain damage certainly doesn't help as far as that's concerned. My hippocampus must be the size of a grain of sand by now, given how little it is I can seem to remember these days, at least insofar as exact details of things. Saving before you present evidence alleviates problems like these for the most part, but it still sucks to save scum more than you feel you should have to, whether because of the game's failings, or your own failings as the player.

Other than that, lately I've been dabbling with the RTS genre again, in what's been the first time for many years.

Finished Stronghold HD to start with and, although it's a pretty old game by this point, it was still pretty good. A couple of the siege missions where you're the attacker could've been designed a heck of a lot better, but, aside from that, both the military and economic campaigns were pretty fun to complete, with a nice sense of variety to each.

Currently playing Battlefleet Gothic: Armada and, so far anyway, it hasn't been too bad. Some of the mission types can be pretty annoying though. As an example, playing defense on orbital bombardments can be especially frustrating. It'd just be nice if there were more missions where you simply duked it out with the enemy fleet, instead of in almost all of the other kinds of missions where direct engagement is secondary to whatever the objective is, leaving you either chasing after the AI, or trying to bunker down and cut them off wherever you can. Ramming headlong into an enemy ship is pretty satisfying though, assuming you can avoid ramming into your own, lol.

After that, I hope to give the Homeworld series a try. I played the original, for what to me feels like eons ago, but I only got as far as the third mission. I remember how the way the gameplay worked just overwhelmed me at the time, but hopefully I'll better appreciate it now.

Also just wanted to mention that Legend of Grimrock 2 was awesome. The first game's also really good, but pretty much everything is improved/expanded on in the sequel. I originally played it not long after it had first come out, but dropped it on account of a bad depressive mood I was in at the time. Crazy how it took me this many years to get back to it, but I guess that's how it goes with these things. I mean, even at first, it felt overwhelming to start a new game and commit to finishing it, but fortunately it sucked me right in and I enjoyed pretty much every moment of it. I gotta hand it to the developers in terms of creating some pretty interesting/unexpected encounters, such as when you get teleported to that huge desert filled with what must've been like a 100+ enemies. Too bad they never decided to make a third game, even though it's been like 7 years since LoG 2 came out. There's another game called Vaporum which is pretty similar to this series, but personally I've already finished that one. There's also the really old school stuff like Eye of the Beholder, but those seem pretty archaic/outdated by this point.

One more quick thing I want to mention is a free little game I played on itch.io called Soul Void. I was on a bit of an itch.io binge recently, just playing really quick 10-30 minute horror games. Mostly because I'm a fan of the horror genre, almost all the games there are free, and also because I have an extremely low attention span and how super short games of the kind you'll find there are pretty much all I'm capable of playing at times. Anyway, I just found that Soul Void was, for the most part, what I wanted and was hoping a game like OMORI was going to be. As opposed to OMORI (which I ranted about earlier in this thread), I found Soul Void to do a much better job at portraying crippling depression, suicide and mental illness. For anyone else who was disappointed by OMORI, then I'd definitely recommend checking out Soul Void. It's extremely short, but personally I didn't find that much of a problem. More content certainly would've been cool, but for a free game you can't really complain. In this case, I feel like the brevity actually helped better convey the subject matter, whereas something like OMORI, at least for me, was just bloated and unfocused to the extreme, putting stuff like an examination of depression far on the side lines in favor of servicing its own lackluster story.



I for one also personally didn't mind Blooper's Blair Witch game and thought that, despite the flak it got for being lame/mediocre, that it was mostly okay. However, I just thought I should mention that there's only one alternative ending to that game, and it's kind of a bitch to get, and arguably isn't even worth getting given how little it actually changes anything,

This can't be right.

Save the dog,
Save the child
Appease the witch

There has to be more

 

[Enabran255]

Summoner is getting a substantial rework in the upcoming expansion and will play very differently. Do give it another try.

Good to know. I'm still sticking with it for now since I had already put in a lot of time,

I'm not a woman and neither is my character. But I play FF14 and I can play with you, depending on your datacenter. I'm not currently playing because I already finished all the expansions and stuff but I will get back as soon as they release the next xp whi is later November (If I'm still alive then)

I'll have to look up what it is. Chances are it's not the same but I'll let you know which one when I play again.

 

[callme]

Marvel vs Capcom 2 and I won a ticket for Iraq.

 

[$nowLeopard]

Mostly online games like Apex Legands, Insurgency Sandstorm. Used to play some 2009 game with a big modding community (STALKER)
But my pc broke down so... Rip

 

[Imaginos]

Yeah, Resident Evil 7 definitely has some flaws. The first half of the game is also much better than the second half. Once mold!Dad stops chasing you around the house the game loses its tension and essentially stops being scary.

Well, for me, it was the lack of exploration that kind of sucked the most. Even when it comes to the first half of the game, while you have a little bit of space to go exploring around in, it still feels like there should have at least been a couple more areas available. As it is, the whole game world just feels too small, and the best part of the game in which you're exploring the surroundings of the Baker estate, is over too quickly. After having just finished my first playthrough of RE: Remake, the difference between the two on this front is pretty much night and day. And when you consider the second half of RE7, it's pretty much just a linear action game. I mean, you can do a little bit of exploring in the cargo ship, but it's hardly worth mentioning.

And it's a small thing, but it's a shame there wasn't a greater variety of puzzles in RE7. The puzzles in the RE series have never really been much as far as brainteasers are concerned, but it would've been nice to see more than those simple shadow manipulation things, which really weren't even puzzles. I appreciated at least that the 'Banned Footage' DLC had a little cool puzzle exclusive vignette that acts as a kind of room escape type thing.

Nitpicking aside, RE7 still turned out to be a pretty good game. Much more in keeping with the spirit of RE than RE5 or RE6 ever were, that's for sure. Although, personally, I didn't mind RE5 that much, and I can see how RE6 would've been fun in co-op. RE: Revelations also wasn't too bad, if pretty forgettable. RE: Revelations 2 however was downright awful and is definitely the worst RE game I've played out of the bunch.

Based on your reaction, if you decide to play 8, go into it with very low expectations. It's actively trying to be RE4 and only manages to be a pale, disappointing imitation of it. That's not to say it isn't fun, but it's far from being a masterpiece (which, as far as I'm concerned, RE4 is).

Good to know. Thanks for the info. Agreed that RE4 is a masterpiece. I think it might even be the one game I've finished/replayed the most out of any other, ever. Maybe it's not a great RE game, at least if you're comparing it to the old school entries in the series, but it's definitely a top notch action game. Like many, RE4 was where I first got exposed to the RE series, so I can understand why those who had been following the series from the beginning would've disliked RE4 for all the major changes it brought to the table. RE7 was definitely doing its own kind of imitating in regards to emulating the original RE, what with having its very own mini-mansion to explore and all, so it's only fitting that RE8 would try to take a stab at imitating RE4. I'm sure I'll probably still like it, despite the flaws, but I think I'll at least wait until all the DLC is released before playing it.

REmake and 0 are both great. I'm definitely biased by nostalgia, but I replayed both games a few months ago and still think they're excellent. RE0 is definitely easier than the games that came out before it, so if you're looking for difficulty this isn't the game for you, but it's fantastically cheesy and Rebecca and Billy are both solid characters. And the remake is just amazing overall.

I've heard that a lot of people dislike RE0 and, unfortunately, that's really all I know about it, beyond the fact that it's a prequel. But yeah, I hope I can have a decent time with it at least. How would you say that it's easy? Just that it gives you an overabundance of resources, I presume?

In comparison to RE; Remake, I've only just finished my first playthrough with Jill. It was a little tricky in the beginning, and I'll admit that I fumbled around a bit trying to avoid as many enemies as I could in the early game, so as to conserve as many resources as possible, plus avoid zombies going crimson, when really I should've been a bit more liberal with what I had at my disposal. By the end of the game, I had like 10+ extra healing items that I just never ended up using, mostly because of the limited inventory space and me simply not needing them. I also never ended up using either of my incendiary or acid rounds for the grenade launcher, since what I couldn't avoid outright avoid, I just killed with the assault shotgun. I was actually surprised how easy the boss fights are, since even on normal difficulty it doesn't take many shots to defeat stuff like the giant snake, or even the tyrant at the end of the game.

In my case, I just made the game harder through my own perfectionist shenanigans, and wanting to get through an area as fast as possible while using the least amount of resources, and also for the sake of unlockables. This in turn led to a bit of saving and reloading, which for my trouble managed to land me the infinite pistol, and now I'm wondering if I should go for the infinite grenade launcher as well. Sucks that the game doesn't tell you what your total playtime is anywhere, which is one thing I can give credit to RE7 for doing. I kind of rushed my first playthrough though, what with feeling like I was constantly on the clock, and I'll admit that was dumb of me.

What was even dumber though, was how in the final area where you need to transport that explosive energy capsule, I just kept blowing myself up with it over and over, since I didn't realize you could kill all of those spider zombies given my first assumption was that they would just keep respawning. And even more breathtakingly stupid than that, I had also forgotten that the receptacle for the energy capsule was literally in the very first section of the engine room, whereas I kept trying to take it to the very last section, which is where the computer to turn back on the elevators is and my brain was associating that with the capsule. After about the sixth time I had blown myself up, I went to look online to see if anyone else was having the problems I was having, only to realize what a massive idiot I am. I was literally stunned at such a staggering display of my own dumbassery, not to mention how it's hard not to think that this might be me starting to develop some sort of short term memory loss. In my defense, I had already been playing the game for quite a few hours by that point and wasn't really capable of focusing on much of anything. Still, I think this is just another sign that years of depression has pretty much wrecked my cognitive faculties. Then again, I guess we can all have these kinds of brain farts from time to time, and I should stop mentally crucifying myself every time I happen to have one.

Well, all that aside, I still enjoyed my first playthrough. I'll be doing a Chris playthrough next, and this time I'm not going to worry about the clock and just take things at my own pace. I wonder if Chris ever gets a chance to fight/destroy that shackled zombie covered in skinned flesh, since as Jill you really only just distract it. I guess I was just expecting it to be an actual boss fight at some point.

Also, if you like traditional RE games (i.e., tank controls and fixed camera angles) and haven't played the original Resident Evil, I'd recommend playing that as well. It's the same game as the remake as far as plot and gameplay go, but the ridiculous voice acting gives it a totally different vibe.

I played the original PSX version of RE via my PS3 about 10 years ago, since I had gotten it off PSN some time around then. Same goes for RE2, but unfortunately I never ended up playing RE3. In my case, I actually only finished Jill's route. Similarly, I only finished Leon's route in RE2. At the time, I just assumed that there wouldn't be that much difference between either Chris/Jill or Leon/Claire, so didn't bother with doing another playthrough with the other remaining character. That was definitely my mistake, and I've been intending on doing a replay of at least RE2 before I check out RE2: Remake, and also RE3 before RE3: Remake. In the case of RE: Remake, it's been neat to see the extra areas/enemies they added in, versus those found in the original. It's been many years since I played it, but I still (mostly) remember my Jill playthrough from the PSX version. You're right though that the voice acting doesn't match the same level of so bad it's good that the PSX original managed to achieve. It's still pretty bad, but not Jill sandwich (although to me it always sounded like Barry pronounced it as "jiggle") or master of unlocking hilarious kind of bad.

There's also the DS version (which has the original voice acting) which adds a nifty mechanic where zombies sometimes attack you while you're opening doors, and you have to use the touch screen to swipe your knife at them to get them away from you.

Huh, I didn't know that. That would definitely make those tedious doors a lot less of a pain to deal with. In my case, To be honest, I actually even downloaded a mod that removed the door animations. Now it's similar to Silent Hill where when you open a door you just transition to the next area pretty much immediately. I know some consider the doors to be part of the ambience, but I personally found their presence just made exploration too much of a hassle. It's interesting because, from what I've read, the PC versions of RE 1, 2 and 3 all allowed you to skip the door animations if you wanted to. Since the PC didn't have the same loading limitations as the consoles of that time, there was no reason not to give the player that option, given that it was before it had become seen as such a signature aspect of the series, at least for some. It's not much, but it seems that at least the DS version tried to make them at least tad bit interactive, beyond being a loading screen holdover.

Whatever version(s) you end up playing, I hope you enjoy the games. :)

Sadly, that seems to be the exception to the rule these days. I'm seemingly always in an uphill battle against everything, whether due to pure anhedonia, or sometimes just my random bumbling antics getting in the way of whatever fun I could otherwise be having. Whatever distraction/entertainment I can manage to have, usually only seems to happen in spite of myself. Depression continues to be the bane of my existence as far as all this is concerned. At the end of the day, one just has to try to make the best out of whatever situation they're in, even if it that still means a diminished involvement/tainted in things that were once anything, but.

There has to be more

Well, regardless of those factors, there's still only two final endings. And neither of them are really all that satisfying, at least for me anyway. Also, my bad if I'm misunderstanding you, but I'm not sure if you're disappointed that there aren't more endings, or if you're confused over the fact that there should be.