What are you currently playing?

[Bobchillingworth]

Finished the Master Chief collection, immediately moved on to Halo: Infinity. Haven't gotten very far in it, but so far it's promising; like a combination of Halo gunplay and Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

[Gold Ergo Sum]

Just finished playing Kena: Bridge of Spirits. If you dig 3D Zelda games, I highly recommend. The developer was an animation studio before they made the game, and it absolutely looks like a Pixar movie turned into a game. It might be the most beautiful game I've ever played, and if you have any reasonably high end system (or a PS5), it is as eye-candy as it gets. It also ran very well. I have an older 1080 Ti and knocked out max settings no problem. The world building is also solid for a new IP. The gameplay is surprisingly strong too. Combat has reasonably complex options for a Zelda type game and some really fun platforming. The difficulty does not reflect its Pixar aesthetic either. The bosses are legitimately really difficult on the standard difficulty. I had to replay most several times, and few quite a lot of times.

The story is very Japanese without being annoying and weeby like FF for me. I love old Kurosawa movies but despise anime to give you a sense of my tastes. The themes are about being in harmony with nature, accepting change, hardship and sadness etc.

I picked it up for $20 on Epic sale, and it was definitely worth that for me.

[T-hawk]

I got a game that I bet isn't in any of your Steam libraries:

   

My best so far is four gems won from Thanos. (You don't have to win all six to reach the final battle. But each one helps, activating some kind of bonus for the final battle if you have it, or a penalty if Thanos has it. And if you do win all six, you snap and instantly beat Thanos yourself!)

[Gold Ergo Sum]

That's sweet! I go to freeplay day at the local arcade and play pinball a lot.

[Brian Shanahan]

Nice machine T-Hawk, well wear!

[haphazard1]

I have been playing Stellaris, taking advantage of the free weekend. Pretty interesting so far, although I have only the vaguest idea what I am doing. It does seem remarkably resource hungry, both memory and GPU, but it certainly looks nice. As usual with Paradox games, the profusion of DLC is bewildering (and expensive). Any Stellaris veterans want to offer opinions on what DLC is actually worth it?

[Ginger()]

I have been playing Stellaris, taking advantage of the free weekend. Pretty interesting so far, although I have only the vaguest idea what I am doing. It does seem remarkably resource hungry, both memory and GPU, but it certainly looks nice. As usual with Paradox games, the profusion of DLC is bewildering (and expensive). Any Stellaris veterans want to offer opinions on what DLC is actually worth it?

Stellaris is fun, it’s so flavor rich and there are some mods (Startech) that make the AI surprisingly engaging.
There’s several very active mp discord’s, but I stopped playing as it was a lot to keep up with the game changelogs.
The “mandatory” DLC are Utopia and Federations, I would also add Synthetic Dawn, but it’s a low content dlc (should be cheaper iirc). 
I bought the most of the DLCs via steam codes on websites like Eneba. Was much more affordable than the ridiculous upfront steam store price. If you’re paying that way, I’d recommend also getting at least Apocalypse and Megacorp DLCs.

[AdrienIer]

Isn't this a paradox sales weekend or something ? For cheaper DLCs ? Yeah Utopia Federations are great, other DLCs mostly if you want that particular species (like synthetic dawn for robot empires). Story packs are good too but for a beginner the events from the base game are already sufficient.

[haphazard1]

Cheaper DLCs still add up to quite a bit, given how many there are. Thanks for the info!

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Currently playing Ys 8 and Phoenix Wright:  Ace Attorney Trilogy.  Ys 8 is a fun action RPG with similar gameplay to Kingdom Hearts.  Phoenix Wright is funny when it sticks with "ridiculous but almost possible" plots, but Justice for All (2nd game) is annoying.  Currently on the 2nd case.  Some examples:


-In the tutorial case, you can't point out that the victim couldn't write ANYTHING with a broken neck.  Instead you allegedly prove that he couldn't have done so because he was left-handed instead of right-handed.  Even though I'm left handed, and I can tell you it mostly affects how well you can hold a pencil or pen, which shouldn't matter as much when you're writing in sand!


-Everyone seems to accept that "spirit mediums" really can channel spirits and shapeshift, even in a court of law.  So you can't point out that "Maya" clearly has the eyes of another character who died in a traffic accident who's related to a witness.  However, it's easy to vindicate the mediums, when they suddenly grow several feet taller when possessed.  Then again, Misty Fey channeled a victim in the DL-6 case, who was mistaken about the murderer.


-In Justice for All, you not only have to Talk and Present evidence to various characters, but you have to open their "Psyche Locks" to make them tell you the truth.  The problem is that Psyche Locks suffer from exacting Adventure Game Logic.  You have to Present the key to Pearl in the normal menu, NOT the Psyche Lock session before learning a clue about an incinerator.


-One photo of "Maya" doesn't have the bullet hole that exists in the real Maya's bloodied clothes.  You have to point out the correct sleeve in the picture, but the game requires much more precision than necessary.  I must have clicked everywhere in that photo before giving up and looking up a guide.  The worst similar sequence is the "rotate the vase so it looks like the silhouette of the Blue Badger mascot" in the first game.  If you don't have the exact angle, you have to try again and again.


(There's a reason why I mostly read gamebooks when I want to play an adventure game, because bad programming and Sierra type puzzles are ruled out.  Or at least if they are badly written, you won't waste hours trying to figure out what the developers want you to think.)


As for Ys 8, the plot is mostly a standard Japanese RPG.  The only detail that really bothers me is that Dana looks exactly the same as a human when a plot twist reveals her species evolved from dinosaurs.  No reptilian or avian features at all.