Have you been spending hours trying to pass a level? Or maybe you are completely addicted to a newly bought game. Do you have a question about a game or would like to share something else? In the Weekly Discussion Thread, you can do it all!
Please don’t forget to use the spoiler tag as soon as you start talking about a storyline.
Helldivers 2 is so good.
Something about a non twitch shooter where you have to think about your squad a little bit feels so good in a sea of 360 no scope garbage. My last favorite online shooter was The Division 2, so maybe tight, squad gameplay is just my thing.
The missions can get a little samey, but since the terrain always changes it’s still nice to explore around and have new experiences. But also it feels like there is so much room you add new missions and planets and bad guys.
Finally, a live service game that kind of makes sense thematically.
I still have the helldivers itch but bugs are starting to diminish my enjoyment. The last few days in particular have been extremely buggy. My weapons have disappeared, extraction has bugged out, side objectives autocompleting (I couldn’t activate a radar on one mission because it completed itself), lairs not completing despite destroying all the spawners, mobs spawn right next to me, I’ve gotten stuck inside terrain, kicked to orbit by poor connection, crashed the game.
The game is great when it works, but it’s definitely unstable right now.
PC or PS5?
I’ve had some bugs on PS5 over the weekend, but fortunately not enough to really get frustrating.
PC
I’m hoping they are able to squash all the little bugs soon, for sure.
I’ve been playing Division 2, finding a lot of fun gear that promises skill enhancements to the team on various activations - but it ends up feeling irrelevant when most players you team up with use rush tactics that dump everything into damage, meaning there’s no time to process those.
I really like the feel of action games that punish players for acting too quickly; rewarding more deliberate gameplay (even if the net result isn’t really “hard”). I wonder if Helldivers would meet that, but I didn’t like the first game and it sounds like they have server issues.
I’d say Helldivers does punish you if you try to push too hard too fast. It’s really easy to get overwhelmed with enemies.
BG3. Im about 30 hours in. Its been really fun so far, even on the easiest mode. Ill probably play though it again to see all the interactions.
Yeah me and my buddy have been going back and forth between easiest mode and one notch up. Still a fun experience either way! Just a matter of if we want a more strategic challenge vs. being pew pew gods
The somewhat new Deep Rock Galactic: Survivors. Its a singleplayer 2D horde autoshooter version of the game, with the same design / voice acting as the main game but randomized runs where you find different upgrades and weapons leading to lots of cool valid builds to go for.
Its in Early Access rn but if they devs put 10% of the love they have for the main game into it, then it will only become greater. Its 9€ rn and the devs already released a roadmap with great future plans.
Rock and Stone!
Nice. I’m rooting for Survivor to succeed, from the sidelines.
I’m not going to bother while it’s single player, but I’m cautiously optimistic for a multiplayer variant of DRG:Survivor in the future, should they make one.
It strikes me that a DOTA style game, built for the DRG player base, could be a ton of fun, and Survivor might grow in that direction.
I can’t be bothered by most current DOTA clones because their communities are famously toxic. Of course, I’m sure there’s already exceptions, but I’m not so desperate for a DOTA that I’ll do the research.
In any case, bringing the DRG community to a DOTA clone sounds like a good time. So I’ll keep an ear out for how Survivor develops.
Isn’t DRG:Survivors by a different developer - not Ghost Ship Games?
Yeah youre right, the original devs hired another team to develop survivors apparently, i didnt know that. However the publisher for survivors is “Ghost Ship Publishing” so i assume the creative direction is still heavily influenced by the ghost ship team but i have no idea if thats true.
Witcher 3 Quit smoking and drinking a few months ago and been going through my backlog to keep my mind busy. Started with Skyrim, then assassins creed Valhalla and now Witcher.
Not sure what I’ll do next. I have fallout 4, assassins creed origin and odyssey. All these games I’ve started and never finished and would like to finish.
Pokemon Renegade Platinum. I found the base game was a bit too easy. The ROM hack made it so challenging. Couldn’t imagine me playing nuzelocke though.
Last Epoch I love it! Plus runs great on Steam Deck
OMG that is great news, had no idea it ran well on the deck. Does it run out of the box or did you have to do some tinkering/configuration?
By default there are some texture issues, switching to Proton GE resolved everything.
My son and i are doing a fun slow roll with this. 20hrs and only level 4. Love it
20h and level four? What are you doing??
Farming. Building. Exploring. We got into a bunch of fights and got all the people in base finally last night. Level 8 now
Yeah, we’re not talking about the same game.
You sure we are talking about the same game? Lvl 4 can be achieved during the first map within 10 min in Last Epoch
Oops. I swear i replied to enshrouded. My bad. Last epoch is damn good too. We had many hors in ea. looking forward to new play in 1.0
Last Epoch. Loving it so far!
Helldivers 2 exclusively. However, Elite: Dangerous just dropped a massive patch, so I may change to squishing bugs from a cockpit for a bit.
Playing Warframe again. Been playing for over 10 years now and it still hasn’t gotten old or boring.
Monster Hunter World. I‘d kill for a DLSS3 and FSR3 mod for this game, I want better AA and frame gen so bad. I tried FSR3 in Skyrim and Starfield and it‘s mindblowingly good, so smooth.
Is the stickied “What are you playing” post going to be updated? The current one is over a month old.
Anyways, I’ve been playing Penny’s Big Breakaway, and I am enjoying it thoroughly. It’s like a blend of Cappy mechanics from Mario Odyssey with a THPS style combo chaining system, and staged in levels reminiscent of 2D Sonic but transposed into 3D. The skill cap is way higher than your typical 3D platformer, and personally I find this type of design to be way more interesting than a collectathon.
It’s awesome if you get a lot of enjoyment out of combo chasing and improving your times, but I can tell it’s going to be divisive for those expecting a more conventional platformer. I have a feeling that this is going to end up on many “hidden gems” lists in the future.
League of Legends: I try to get diamond before Riot removes Linux support.
Mushy Score: I a lot of testing before releasing the game.
Spiritfarer: Just to have something relaxing alternative.A buddy of mine gifted me a copy of Helldivers 2 the other day, so I’ve been spending some time spreading Managed Democracy across the galaxy. Mostly going back and forth between Helldivers and The Finals lately.
We’ve been playing a lot of co-op (just finished the new Turtles game) and competitive games against each other, so Lumines (had it on Xbox Live Arcade and installed it on my Series S for some PSP/Xbox 360 nostalgia) has been given a good run. PlateUp! looked like Overcooked but a little bit different (you get to move the kitchen and tables around); soon after, I realised I take these types of games too seriously and become kitchen Nazi, ordering people around and generally not enjoying my time.
Brotato for some sessions in between as it’s on Game Pass (already completed quite a few characters - some level 5 - on PC) and so easy to pick up.
Having only tried it on the Switch (and it looked/played awful), we loaded up Fortnite based on a student’s recommendation (he is only 11 though); it’s actually pretty fun! We won half of the time out of a hundred people, can do couch co-op (was a little fiddly to get started), but is a large-map, relatively sparse experience until you get into vehicles and track people down. The missus warmed up to it after a game or two and now enjoys pratting around on the motorbike and acting as bait so I can destroy waves of kids.
Roguebook: I’d been lucky enough to stumble upon Cobalt Core which I’ve since finished and needed another Slay the Spire-esque game to scratch that itch. Roguebook is almost it, it still needs polish but that is unlikely to come. Runs are quite long, and the map system, while expansive and fun to explore/strategise around, makes it a bit too much at times. I had it on my wishlist a fair while and it handily appeared in a recent bundle, so I can’t complain much. I’ll get a few more hours out of it (there are four characters to unlock, and you use two - and their cards - in each run) before moving on. The style is nice, the music motivating enough, although the enemies aren’t the widest in variety. A fine little game that serves its purpose.
Baldur’s Gate 3: I just loaded it up on my Mac (Air, M2)… the framerate isn’t there. It’s a bit choppy, has a fundamental bug which I had to find a workaround for (controller was recognised as two players for some reason), and generally is a fiddly game in the 40 mins I just put in. I’ll tweak the graphics a little more and see if I can get a smoother experience before putting it down. I don’t have any plans to get a gaming PC anytime soon so I’ll give it a go in a year or so I reckon.
Enshrouded, it is surprisingly good. And there is so much content. I can highly recommend it to anyone that likes the genre. It got overshadowed by palworlds launch just a week before, but in terms of gameplay, completeness and optimization, enshrouded is miles ahead.
