What Are You Playing Right Now? (Gaming Thread)

[Ares]

I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda this weekend, and it wasn't nearly as bad as people made it out to be. Granted, I bought it at a discount and experienced a completely patched version, but doom unto early adopters and those pre-order--you're just asking to get screwed. Ultimately, it was sort of an inverse of Mass Effect 1, but instead of un-compelling combat and a great story we got great combat and an un-compelling story.

My biggest criticism is that there's no real compelling jumping off point for a sequel. In ME 1 the Reapers were still a Lovecraftian mystery at the end of the game, so there was fertile ground for more story there. Nothing about the Kett or the Jardaan leaves me wanting more; one is a violently expansionist empire and the other are just aliens with really good terraforming tech. I guess the Scourge is still mostly unexplained, even though we know it's essentially a weapon gone wrong.

Best part of the story to me was the "benefactor" sub plot and discovering that the Initiative was ultimately co-opted by the Illusive Man (they never reveal this specifically, but it's obvious) in case the cycle succeeds in the Milky Way. Listening to the initial recordings of the Reaper invasion in Alec Ryder's encrypted logs was eerie. At that moment you realize that no matter how you ended ME:3, the Initiative might, after 600 years, be all that's left of the Milky Way races. The writers made a mistake by not incorporating that into the main story. That really should've been the "big reveal" and become the main plot line IMO, and not the Kett/Jardaan/Angara stuff.

One big thing I felt they missed on with ME:A was how limited the new galaxy felt.

In ME1, if nothing else, they make it feel like the galaxy is big and diverse.

In ME:A you explore a whole new galaxy and find Kett, Angaran, and Remnant... lots of Milky Way races come along, but even so I felt like they were just in the background.

The entire game felt very shallow from a story perspective.... I agree on the inversion to ME1.

 

[fatbeard]

One big thing I felt they missed on with ME:A was how limited the new galaxy felt.

In ME1, if nothing else, they make it feel like the galaxy is big and diverse.

In ME:A you explore a whole new galaxy and find Kett, Angaran, and Remnant... lots of Milky Way races come along, but even so I felt like they were just in the background.

The entire game felt very shallow from a story perspective.... I agree on the inversion to ME1.

Well, you're only exploring the Heleus Cluster in Andromeda, which is a just small part of the whole galaxy. But I agree with your point. The galaxy screen certainly makes it feel like what you're looking at is all there is, since they never show you anything outside Heleus. Poorly executed.

 

[Ares]

Well, you're only exploring the Heleus Cluster in Andromeda, which is a just small part of the whole galaxy. But I agree with your point. The galaxy screen certainly makes it feel like what you're looking at is all there is, since they never show you anything outside Heleus. Poorly executed.

Fair point.... I guess I just figured we would get a similar feel out of ME:A since it was game 1 in a whole new series.

I figured 5-7 new alien species.... new galaxy with new personas.... new politics.....

It kinda had that... but very simplistic.... Angara = good guys (mostly), Kett = bad guys (evil empire), Remnant = neutral guys (old high level tech)

Everywhere you visited it was pretty much Kett or Angara or in some limited cases Humans that you would interact with and/or fight.

The one place that felt interesting was Kadara.... a semi-lawless haven for outlaws and pirates.... kinda like Omega in ME2.... but it was just Milky Way species (mostly human) took it over and it felt shallow.

I didn't mind the evil empire Kett thing.... but they needed more Andromeda life than just the Angaran.

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

i tried the trial of me:a. i dont remember if i mentioned it here or not. if i did i probably went into more detail, but the gist of it would be that i didnt even finish the trial because the game is so fucking soulless and dull.

 

[Ares]

i tried the trial of me:a. i dont remember if i mentioned it here or not. if i did i probably went into more detail, but the gist of it would be that i didnt even finish the trial because the game is so fucking soulless and dull.

Your opinion is harsh, but not without cause.

They truly did hollow out the story and immersion for ME:A.

 

[ShiftyDevil]

Tried to get into the new Monster Hunter but the combat felt a bit simplistic and I kept getting bored. Saw a streamer I sub to playing Yakuza 0 and I picked that up and I'm having a blast with it.

 

[Ares]

So I am finally having a ragequit moment with 7D2D.... day 77 horde night... the AI drastically changed its attack, I suppose because I beefed up the side they were attacking.

Well this meant they cut thru the other sides where they were spawning like a hot knife thru butter.... they actually tunneled under one wall and simply busted open my main gate after spending a few zombies to wear down my blade traps.

Anyways... to the ragequit.... the crumbling of my fortifications was actually kinda fun... then I fell off one of my perimeter walls and had to make a mad dash back to my main building/keep. I had like 10 health left and a zombie right on my tail so I went to run inside and shut my big ass vault door but I somehow managed to get glitched like into the door... so im stuck like standing half inside the upper third of the door and I die.... oh well I have the room sealed and my sleeping bag is inside, so I can just spawn there, go outside and pickup my backpack items, regroup and go back out.

Nah... no backpack there.... and on horde night I put most of my best weapons and pretty much all of my ammo into my backpack.

I survive horde night running around my walls throwing pipe bombs and molotovs and guiding the zombies to my traps.

Then I begin looking for my backpack.... did it glitch inside the wall? No.

Inside the door? bust that down, no.

Did it glitch up to the roof (people write about this)? no.

Did it glitch all the way up to that high ass tower I built above the main building? No.

Ok more googling... it can move beyond where the marker shows when you die, like rolling down a hill or something.

Is it anywhere inside the main building? No.

is it anywhere on the balcony area outside the door? No.

Is it lying in the grounds outside the building somehow? No.

How about underground? I have a mine under my base, did it glitch down there? No.

Is it just really fucking high in the air? Cheat mode, fly up from the marker. No.

Ok back to google.... it can glitch and replace a block inside a structure.

BUST UP THE WALLS AND THE WORKBENCH INSIDE AND THE CONCRETE UNDER THE BALCONY.

IS IT IN THERE? No.

Do the game config files have a way of giving me the location of the backpack? If it exists in the game for sure, something in the config must say where on the map it is? No.

Can I just rewind the save at all? No.

 

[Burque]

So I am finally having a ragequit moment with 7D2D.... day 77 horde night... the AI drastically changed its attack, I suppose because I beefed up the side they were attacking.

Well this meant they cut thru the other sides where they were spawning like a hot knife thru butter.... they actually tunneled under one wall and simply busted open my main gate after spending a few zombies to wear down my blade traps.

Anyways... to the ragequit.... the crumbling of my fortifications was actually kinda fun... then I fell off one of my perimeter walls and had to make a mad dash back to my main building/keep. I had like 10 health left and a zombie right on my tail so I went to run inside and shut my big ass vault door but I somehow managed to get glitched like into the door... so im stuck like standing half inside the upper third of the door and I die.... oh well I have the room sealed and my sleeping bag is inside, so I can just spawn there, go outside and pickup my backpack items, regroup and go back out.

Nah... no backpack there.... and on horde night I put most of my best weapons and pretty much all of my ammo into my backpack.

I survive horde night running around my walls throwing pipe bombs and molotovs and guiding the zombies to my traps.

Then I begin looking for my backpack.... did it glitch inside the wall? No.

Inside the door? bust that down, no.

Did it glitch up to the roof (people write about this)? no.

Did it glitch all the way up to that high ass tower I built above the main building? No.

Ok more googling... it can move beyond where the marker shows when you die, like rolling down a hill or something.

Is it anywhere inside the main building? No.

is it anywhere on the balcony area outside the door? No.

Is it lying in the grounds outside the building somehow? No.

How about underground? I have a mine under my base, did it glitch down there? No.

Is it just really fucking high in the air? Cheat mode, fly up from the marker. No.

Ok back to google.... it can glitch and replace a block inside a structure.

BUST UP THE WALLS AND THE WORKBENCH INSIDE AND THE CONCRETE UNDER THE BALCONY.

IS IT IN THERE? No.

Do the game config files have a way of giving me the location of the backpack? If it exists in the game for sure, something in the config must say where on the map it is? No.

Can I just rewind the save at all? No.

LoL reminded me of this:

[video=youtube;pHHZBmF8mk4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHHZBmF8mk4[/video]

 

[Ares]

I quit that game and did the unthinkable for Aussie.... I started fresh.

I will embrace the grind.

 

[AussieBear]

I started fresh.

as far as the bag vanishing.. i had read that it can be destroyed by the zombies.. or was that a different game? i did have a bike vanish and had to reload several times for it to reappear.

 

[Ares]

as far as the bag vanishing.. i had read that it can be destroyed by the zombies.. or was that a different game? i did have a bike vanish and had to reload several times for it to reappear.

They certainly can destroy it, but my understanding was the icon for the bag would then disappear and mine has not.

 

[policeman]

Shadow of War- picked it up - discounted- and playing the hell out of it. I usually play something to death and then never touch it again. About 1/3rd of the way through my second playthrough. If you liked Shadow of Mordor- you'll like this.

 

[AussieBear]

They certainly can destroy it, but my understanding was the icon for the bag would then disappear and mine has not.

that happened with me vanished bike.. icon was there but nothing.. dug around looking.. didnt see it in the sky... reloaded 5-6 times and it finally came back.. but i did play hours in between a couple of loads since i had a second bike.

 

[Speed]

Got Doom 2016 for 10 dollars, the story mode is worth it. I slept on this game.

Also bought the God of War collection to replay the games before God of War 4 comes out.

 

[CODE_BLUE56]

Been playing Horizon Zero Dawn

I really like the concept of mixing more primitive gameplay w/ future tech and AIs. Kind of wish there was a shield or blocking mechanism in this game besides dodging, I get that she's going against big robots, but no shields!?! Also, the humans are a joke compared to the robots, which i guess is to be expected. They are massively secondary in this game.

Also, **** fast travel packs. Just let me fast travel for free, damn it.


But yea, it's a good game so far.

 

[Bigfoot]

GTA 5 having a blast online

 

[Tater]

GTA 5 having a blast online

Me too. Xbox or PS4?

 

[Monsieur Tirets]

nier automata.

excellent. it comes the closest imo of creating art through the video game medium, not with writing or visuals, though it has those, but with gameplay itself. the way the gameplay randomly transactions from a 3d action jrpg to a vertical shmup, to a side scrolling shmup, and then back to an rpg, then to a dual stick top down shooter, then to a metrovania like side scrolling action game is impressive and never feels gimmicky or out of place.

and it even happens during boss fights.

 

[TheeUndyingFan]

Celeste... what a game.

 

[BornAnAngryBearsFan]

Lately: Final Fantasy XIV, and Blade and Soul... Both on PC