Currently Playing in 2020...

Clarkman wrote:Started Spiritfarer tonight and have been completely sucked in. Four hours disappeared in a flash.

Time really does fly by when playing it. It also has some of the best art direction i have seen for a while.

Started Dishonored 2 and I'm so bad at the stealth. I've just been shanking everyone left and right

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Definitive Edition)

I completed the original version of this a couple a times when it was first launched on PC. Picked this up for the Xbox recently and it's my first time with the 'definitive' version. It turns out I had forgotten most of the mechanics and skills and so got reamed when I started a new game. I forgot how little hand-holding there is. Using Fane (undead) as my main character who can only heal through poison probably wasn't the best choice for a fresh start.

So I re-rolled. I currently have Beast (2h warrior), Ifan (Ranger), Sebille (Rogue) and Lohse (Wizard) in my merry band of adventurers. I'm playing on normal, but it's Divinity, so most fights are still pretty difficult. Especially since it's early-on when health, skill options and armour are lacking.

I'm glad to say my favourite OP skill combination hasn't been nerfed since I last played - the rogues ability to sever someone's tendons and then polymorph them into a chicken so they just run around aimlessly bleeding out. Much fun.

Div OS2 is WAY too hard. I don't think any game should be almost impossible to get past the first 2hrs because of who you picked tbh.

There are two difficulties lower than normal - Explorer (easy) and Story Mode (very easy). The latter was added in the definitive edition so you could always give that a shot since it will be a lot more forgiving. I do think combat is fair on the whole though - it just really rewards tactical play which isn't immediately obvious.

I do agree that more combat tutorials at the start would help accessibility though. It doesn't really give you many hints regarding just how important positioning and environmental damage (e.g. oil, fire, poison, ice, steam, static clouds) are to victory.

JT986M2 wrote:There are two difficulties lower than normal - Explorer (easy) and Story Mode (very easy). The latter was added in the definitive edition so you could always give that a shot since it will be a lot more forgiving. I do think combat is fair on the whole though - it just really rewards tactical play which isn't immediately obvious.

I do agree that more combat tutorials at the start would help accessibility though. It doesn't really give you many hints regarding just how important positioning and environmental damage (e.g. oil, fire, poison, ice, steam, static clouds) are to victory.

I know how it works, I enjoyed the original but the battles you have to do (seemingly) to get off the prison island at the start are incredibly difficult Impossible.

When I looked at how to get past it, I read that I have to pick a certain strawberry floating team at the start? That's terrible game design imo.

You don't require a particular team, but certain compositions are better than others. Just like Original Sin 1. Dragon Age: Origins was quite similar in that regard too.

You could do it with 4 rogues if you wanted. You'd need to be very careful of positioning, have some armour fortification spells and a healing potions, but it'd be doable. Same goes with pretty much all group-based RPGs. In the non-definitive version my first group was 2 x melee and 2 x ranged, then on a subsequent play-through 1 x melee and 3 x ranged.

It's a difficult game at times on normal and above, but you don't necessarily need a specific combination to get off the first island. Especially not on the easier difficulties. There is no shame in using the easier difficulty to get to grips with combinations and skills and then ramping it up as you get more familiar.

I remember a similar issue in Neverwinter Knights, if you didn't play as a thief or at least bring a thief along as your companion you were inadvertently stopping yourself from accessing many treasure chests.

I mean that sort of thing has been a recurrent theme in fantasy games for decades. You make the choice to bring a rogue (or assign lock-picking skills to your main) if you want to access optional treasure chests or have the ability to unlock doors without a key.

I think it was just the first game of that type I played having been more familiar with JRPGs over CRPGs so for me it was a surprise since I was used to just walking into houses and helping myself to owt not nailed down.

Decided to start Kingdom Hearts 2 tonight. What the strawberry float is this? Can I just hit things in Disney levels now?

Zilnad wrote:Started Dishonored 2 and I'm so bad at the stealth. I've just been shanking everyone left and right

This is a legitimate tactic

I tend to go with a stealth play as my first run through this kind of game but there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had by going full chaos and ripping the place to shreds!

Jenuall wrote:

Zilnad wrote:Started Dishonored 2 and I'm so bad at the stealth. I've just been shanking everyone left and right

This is a legitimate tactic

I tend to go with a stealth play as my first run through this kind of game but there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had by going full chaos and ripping the place to shreds!

I might start it again and take it more slowly. I felt like I wasn't soaking up the atmosphere today and I feel like I probably missed a lot because I was just charging through everyone.

Zilnad wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Zilnad wrote:Started Dishonored 2 and I'm so bad at the stealth. I've just been shanking everyone left and right

This is a legitimate tactic

I tend to go with a stealth play as my first run through this kind of game but there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had by going full chaos and ripping the place to shreds!

I might start it again and take it more slowly. I felt like I wasn't soaking up the atmosphere today and I feel like I probably missed a lot because I was just charging through everyone.

It does reward more patient play in terms of offering you more opportunities to pick up lore and appreciate the atmosphere, and that's the way I would recommend going at least to start with, but there's no "wrong" way to play

About 15 hours in to Spiritfarer now and i think i might have had my fill. Its been really lovely but now it does feel very much like going through a check list over and over, and is starting to feel like its not respecting my time. If i thought i wan nearing the end i would persevere, but it feels like there is still quite a few things to build etc. A very decent game, but i think it could benefit from being half / three quarters of its length.

State of Decay 2

Having moved my 9 strong band of guys and girls to another location and despite moving to smaller digs, we have now, a few weeks on, rid the area of the Plague Z's. We've moved 3 times and now live in a splendid location by the port making camp on top of a load of shipping containers. We have solar panels for electricity, a rain collection device for water, a garden, infirmary, sleeping quarters for 10 and more importantly, we have outlook posts all around.

Any Sieges the Z's send our way is dealt with swiftly from atop these outlook post before they get near, with whoever I'm controlling usually killing the 'least' amount of Z's. Former Army Sargent Townsend's training has really helped. I am trading with 3 other enclaves of survivors and I help other survivors when I find the time. It usually means I get some loot in return.

One of the enclaves reported a member missing and said he was last seen near a strip mall. I grabbed Joe and Santi, drove to the location and when we found him he was crazy, in fact, he took off after we explained the enclave were looking for him. I (Joe) had to chase him down on foot and when I eventually caught up he explained that the enclave he was a member of and we traded with for weeks were cannibals. He begged us not to return him so we let him run off.

Last night, we were hit with 3 possibilities, stop trading with them, keep things the way they are or Kill them. Since they give us mostly 'bags of meat' for any favours we do for them, I decided we should kill them because it's obvious now what that 'meat' was . There are only 3 of them left, usually I always take 2 but with permadeath being a thing and Joe volunteering to go alone, I used him. I headed out with grenades, a AK47 with and improvised Silencer and meds.

I swiftly killed all 3 and felt pretty damn good about it. We currently low on ammo so ill do a run later. Stories like these in SoD2 are why I love it, and although I don't know how to educate my survivors (I have books on lots of stuff from Computers to gardening and they just say 'nope' when I ask them to study) I love all of them. From former housewives, to former police and even a local Pizza boy, they have been with me since the game launched.

I desperately need a computer expert to upgrade my base and although I could exile a survivor and look for one to replace them, I can't let any of these guys go. We've had 1 fatality so far. On a post loot drive back to base and 1min away I failed to see bloater on the road, and in the panic crashed into a tree, we bailed so the toxic gas wouldn't kill us but then a Feral jumped on Colin and tore him apart. I used a shotgun to kill the feral but it was too late for Colin, he got back to his feet and shambled towards me and I had to put him down.

I'm gonna head to another location now I think, there's not much to do here bar the occasional infestation and although our corner of town is peaceful, I feel the urge to keep on moving. Someone on radio keeps threatening that they are going to come and kill us all but haven't yet, they don't stand a chance.

Joe swiftly killing off the cannibals:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:About 15 hours in to Spiritfarer now and i think i might have had my fill. Its been really lovely but now it does feel very much like going through a check list over and over, and is starting to feel like its not respecting my time. If i thought i wan nearing the end i would persevere, but it feels like there is still quite a few things to build etc. A very decent game, but i think it could benefit from being half / three quarters of its length.

I'm around a similar point but completely addicted. The gameplay loop has me utterly absorbed and the variety to the checklists keep it interesting, always feeling like I'm working towards something and progressing the story. Everything 'follows' and makes sense as a next action.

Yeah, i really enjoyed my time with it, but now i feel like i am peeking behind the curtain and just seeing the mechanisms that drive the game. Loved the art style and music. That tune for the sea taxi (with the walrus) will probably remain in my head until the day i die.

Just started Detroit-Becoming Human. I found it very absorbing, the topic isn't exactly unique and the writing is abit stiff but I've really got into it, played for a good 3 hours last night. I like how it jumps back and forth between characters and the scenes don't outstay their welcome. Especially the chore simulator bit

Looking forward to getting home on this Rainy day and booting up Wasteland 3 and might even try that dontnod game.