What games are you playing currently?

[Tinker Garak Soldier Spy]

Just finished a playthrough of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Loosely based on Journey to the West, I had fond memories of playing it on the Xbox 360 back when it was originally released in 2010. Happy to find it still lived up to my expectations all these years later.

Think I might try finally finishing Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, went back to it last year after finishing Baldur's Gate 3 and Pillars of Eternity I & II but I think I was RPGed out at that stage.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I loved Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, but I enjoyed the second one a lot more.

 

[BigFoot]

Just finished a playthrough of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Loosely based on Journey to the West, I had fond memories of playing it on the Xbox 360 back when it was originally released in 2010. Happy to find it still lived up to my expectations all these years later.

I really enjoyed Enslaved back when it was first released. I've never replayed it though.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I have Detroit Become Human and only play it in parts. I'm not finding it fun.

 

[Owain Taggart]

To be honest, I've never been enamoured with Quantic Dreams' style of game. I find them to be a frustrating excersize muddled with QTEs. I'm kind of worried about the Star Wars game they're developing.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

To be honest, I've never been enamoured with Quantic Dreams' style of game. I find them to be a frustrating excersize muddled with QTEs. I'm kind of worried about the Star Wars game they're developing.

Is it the QTEs that worry you?

 

[Owain Taggart]

^ That's just part of it. They've been given a big IP, and it's apparently open-world (I think?), but none of that strikes me as the kind of game they have experience doing. They've made games tied together via interactive scenes. Either it could be really awesome, or it could end up with them being out of their depths like what happened with the point-n-click developer's Gollum game. It doesn't exactly fill me with optimism.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

^ That's just part of it. They've been given a big IP, and it's apparently open-world (I think?), but none of that strikes me as the kind of game they have experience doing. They've made games tied together via interactive scenes. Either it could be really awesome, or it could end up with them being out of their depths like what happened with the point-n-click developer's Gollum game. It doesn't exactly fill me with optimism.

I guess everyone will have to wait and see. It could be a raging success or a complete and total flop

 

[Tinker Garak Soldier Spy]

I really enjoyed Enslaved back when it was first released. I've never replayed it though.

I got it on Steam while on sale, only cost a few bucks. Graphically it looks its age but I think it holds up. Only took 6 hours to beat as well, which I appreciate in my old(er) age!

 

[Tinker Garak Soldier Spy]

I loved Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2, but I enjoyed the second one a lot more.

Same, they definitely improved with the second one. I appreciate the level of choice offered in both games, and the amount of combinations for the various endings is astounding.

I'm interested to see how Avowed turns out.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I guess everyone will have to wait and see. It could be a raging success or a complete and total flop

Yeah, I guess so. I hope I'm wrong and it ends up being a nice departure for them from their norm. It's just that when it was announced, it felt so out the left field.

Same, they definitely improved with the second one. I appreciate the level of choice offered in both games, and the amount of combinations for the various endings is astounding.

I love Pirate games in general, so for me, the amount of freedom they gave the players by opening up the world map via sea travel was amazing in itself. Combining that with aspects of an RPG was a great combination. It actually made me feel like we need a new more modern version of Sid Meier's Pirates.

Are the Pathfinder games any good?

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I like how in Baldurs Gate 3 no matter how many people you kill the game still finds ways to give you quests.

 

[Tinker Garak Soldier Spy]

I love Pirate games in general, so for me, the amount of freedom they gave the players by opening up the world map via sea travel was amazing in itself.

Indeed, Black Flag is still my favourite Assassin's Creed game for the same reason.

It actually made me feel like we need a new more modern version of Sid Meier's Pirates.

I would love to see that, I had great fun with Pirates back in the day.

Are the Pathfinder games any good?

I've played Kingmaker all the way through and enjoyed the RPG aspects of it (story, characters, combat), it also lets you switch between turn-based and real-time combat. But it has this tacked on kingdom management game that was ok at first but then just became a hassle later on. I believe you can automate or semi-automate that part of the game but then you miss out on certain things and it messes with some of the quests.

I'm only part way into WotR and feel it is an improvement on Kingmaker. The amount of classes and variations is staggering, and the mythic paths offer lots of replayability. There is a wargame/strategy aspect attached to it this time which can also be automated but so far it's less of a pain than the kingdom management from the first one.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Thanks. I've been thinking of eventually picking them up. There were several times I almost did when they've been on sale.

I didn't like the mansion management in Pillars 1 so much, and also the infinite dungeon in the basement. At least, I think it was infinite. Dididn't feel too inspired. But the ship in the sequel on the other hand felt like a breath of fresh air.

 

[Tinker Garak Soldier Spy]

I didn't like the mansion management in Pillars 1 so much, and also the infinite dungeon in the basement. At least, I think it was infinite. Dididn't feel too inspired. But the ship in the sequel on the other hand felt like a breath of fresh air.

The PoE management part is a lot more simplistic than the Kingmaker version but I did find it annoying having to run back to the keep to defend an attack (otherwise losing hirelings was a given). Definitely improved upon in PoE II.

The dungeon below was actually finite (15 levels I think) but the difficulty spike was ridiculous, I remember breezing through the first 14 levels but then hitting a brick wall with the final boss. Had to come back towards the end of the game and even then only beat it by the skin of my teeth.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The dungeon was such a slog though, and I think I eventually lost count how many floors there were, and you're right about the difficulty spike. I found that even on the easiest, I still had trouble with the boss and ended up not finishing up that quest. Felt imbalanced.

The ridiculous thing about the management in the first game is that, if there was a quest you were doing that kept you occupied and you couldn't respond in time, you had no choice but to let bandits attack.

 

[urrutiap]

games I'm busy with this summer and rest of this year anyway

Playstation 3
-Alpha Protocol
-God of War 1 from God of War Saga Collection

Playstation 4
-Final Fantasy XV

Gamecube
-Metroid 2

Switch Lite
-Zelda Skyward
-Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection 1
-Xenoblade 2 stuff along with the Future DLC for Xenoblade 3 hopefully
-Paper Mario Origami
-Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars
-Resident Evil 5 and Revelations 2 sometime

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Talos Principle 2 and its DLC (‘Road to Elysium’j.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yesterday I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda, and wow that was a massive game. Tried to do every sidequest, and I think I got 3 months out of it, easily. As a Mass Effect game, I feel it was totally fine, and while I understand the game got criticized for its bugs and animation when it came out, those got fixed long ago, I don't think the game is nearly as bad as the reception would lead anyone to believe. They had improved a lot of things from the 3 games; the probing for instance was made less annoying and the exploration via the nomad was purposeful, as opposed to much of the exploration from the first game.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Talos Principle 2 and its DLC (‘Road to Elysium’j.

Cheers,
-CM-

I have the first one and the DLC but haven't really looked at it much. But did note in the DLC the building is an almost direct copy of the Adelaide Botanical Gardens conservatory in terms of looks. I noticed that right off when I saw pics of the game.

Yesterday I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda, and wow that was a massive game. Tried to do every sidequest, and I think I got 3 months out of it, easily. As a Mass Effect game, I feel it was totally fine, and while I understand the game got criticized for its bugs and animation when it came out, those got fixed long ago, I don't think the game is nearly as bad as the reception would lead anyone to believe. They had improved a lot of things from the 3 games; the probing for instance was made less annoying and the exploration via the nomad was purposeful, as opposed to much of the exploration from the first game.

ME Andromeda surprised me how much fun it was despite the naysayers.

I finished Guardians Of The Galaxy last night and had a lot more fun with it than I thought I'd possibly have.

BUT: The game is buggy. Sometimes missions would not progress and get stuck so I had to reload the most recent checkpoint. It happened enough times it was a tiny bit annoying, but overall I had a ton of fun with the game and will definitely come back to it at a later point. Spiderman Miles Morales was also more fun then I had expected as was Spiderman Remastered.