What are you playing at the moment?

[Kajo]

WoW videos made me watch World of Tanks videos, a game I did play from around 2012 and until 2015 (when the updater broke for me).

I thought of maybe trying it again, but it uses 2FA and I’ve lost access to the phone number I gave them, and there’s some weirdness with the mechanism that is supposed to allow you to change it, so that suddenly seems like Too Much Work.

I apparently had a win rate of 54.15%, which isn’t too shabby (also considering it was a F2P account and I never used any gold ammo).

So now I’m in the horrible position of having to find something else to play and I only have 900+ games in my Steam backlog. It’s not easy (mostly I just can’t figure out what sort of thing I feel like playing, though).

I had an almost similar situation, but caused by my pc melting…
So i tried World of Tanks Blitz (on Wow i had a 52,61%, so hat tip to you :D) on the Switch. I think it’s even better than WoW:
No arties, only 7 people so you have more weight on the match, smaller maps that leads to faster games (7 seconds to enter, 7 minutes to finish), gold ammo deal less damage so you have to choose which ammo is better, and more things i can’t remember.

The first 100 battles are against bots so that sucks, but at least you can study the maps

[zagibu]

Problem is, using my pc during the day for work and browsing, and then in the evening for Shadowrun is killing my arm/shoulder.

You should check your posture, then. Your chair or desk height is probably wrong. I’ve had similar problems, but then got a good chair and desk with height adjustment, and now I can be in front of a computer more or less 16h per day for weeks and not have any problems.

[LexW]

I would agree. I mean, I’m tempting fate here, but I’ve been using a PC for work and play a lot of hours a day for a long time. I used to get a ton of back/arm/neck problems, then I correctly adjusted my desk/keyboard/mouse/monitor, and most importantly, got a good chair, not an “okay” or “tolerable” one which is what most people seem to use, and suddenly, the problems vanished - and they’ve returned a couple of times - and guess what? I had changed something, like was using a crap chair, or had taken my monitor off it’s stand, or had my chair ridiculously far away. If everything is set right, I have no problems, and continue to have no problems for years on end.

[BillButNotBen]

Oh, I know what the problem is. It’s just not something I can easily fix at the moment without buying a bunch of new stuff.
It’s using a laptop on a table that’s too high.

Since buying a new desk is out of the question at the moment, the only solution that looked viable was one of those keyboard/mouse shelves that clips on the edge of the desk/table. I think that’d work, but due to the table having a really shallow lip, I can’t find any that would work properly.

It’s become more of an issue over the past year because I’ve just been spending a lot more time at the PC, either due to work or leisure and being at home so much.

[icemann]

With Death Stranding finished off, moved back to my Fallout - New Vegas play through. What sucked me back in was the release of “The Frontier” fan made expansion mod that came out this week. This game was originally my planned COVID lockdown game selected last year, as originally it looked like lockdown would only go on for a few months. Then lockdown got extended by another 4 months and I moved onto other games.

Due to the buggy nature of mod releases, the plan is to go through everything else first (I was done with the Sierra Madre DLC and the fan made New California and Autumn Leaves mods, and had explored around 90% of the wasteland of New Vegas) including the remaining DLCs, then onto The Frontier. Has drivable vehicles + a fair bit of new content so should be good to see. Currently just started the “Honest Hearts” DLC, which is alright. I remember most enjoying the story you’d find scattered around the place on PC’s from a survivor of the blast to be the best bit in that. Story and gameplay itself were half half (compared to New Vegas proper + the other DLCs).

[Similar]

So i tried World of Tanks Blitz (on Wow i had a 52,61%, so hat tip to you :D) on the Switch. I think it’s even better than WoW:
No arties, only 7 people so you have more weight on the match, smaller maps that leads to faster games (7 seconds to enter, 7 minutes to finish), gold ammo deal less damage so you have to choose which ammo is better, and more things i can’t remember.

I remember they started advertising it, but I never really understood what it was. It just looked sort of like a simplified, arcade version of WoT (even more arcade…). Nice that it’s more than that.

There’s a WoW Blitz too, it seems, but that has carriers. Weird when WoT Blitz doesn’t have artillery and carriers are even more hated by WoW players than artillery is by WoT players, from what I’ve seen.
Wargaming doesn’t even allow carriers in their own tournaments…

The first 100 battles are against bots so that sucks, but at least you can study the maps

wow. That’s a lot. I think you just got thrown in at the deep end when I started playing WoT, which isn’t a particularly good idea either because people don’t know anything at all then, but 100 seems like a bit much.
WoW started out with bot battles too when I tried that. I don’t remember how many I played, but not enough to play against people, at least.

[Similar]

Times have changed MAJORLY. It used to be the norm to play through many games in a week. Now your lucky if you complete that many in a year. I also find now that it is far more of a big deal when you complete a game. There’s a real feeling of disconnection (or at least for me), as you’ve been in that game world for so long, that it’s like stepping out of the Matrix. It’s then even more harder to then go on and pick that “next game”, and whether you want to jump right back in to another world for a long time period. I find the best remedy is playing through some quick games first after finishing one of the bigger ones.

That probably is much of my problem because I like games that keep me occupied for … as long as possible, basically. But that does mean it feels like a pretty major thing when I need to find something new, also because I’m instantly looking for something that will grab me as much as the previous game did. I suspect that’s one reason why I often feel like I don’t have much patience for new games these days; there doesn’t need to be very much wrong with new games before they aren’t good enough (also a contrast to playing in the eighties and nineties where the selection wasn’t that large so you kind of had to be more tolerant).

[Hanimalle]

I sympathise with your predicament, I have a similar issue at work (though thankfully I have a really comfortable setup at home which helps alleviate some of my back and neck pains) which, without going into too much details, involves either spending a lot of time sitting in a really crap chair or spending a long time standing carrying heavy things, using a strimmer and other such manual labors.

Like the others have said, a good chair is absolutely essential here, I’ve had a shit one for many years because I couldn’t afford anything better back then and I’m still paying the price today.

On another topic, I’m almost done with Cyberpunk 2077, I wanted to clear the map but I’m going to give up on that idea and just do the final mission instead. As much as I’ve enjoyed this despite its many flaws, I feel like it’s time to move on to other games. I’m tempted by Hitman 3 but I don’t want to jump into another timesink game right away.

I need something that is shorter and sweeter, I have a bunch of games in mind but I’m open to suggestions.

[Naramsin]

Guild Wars 1 - yes, fantastic music and Soule is not just a creep but a rapist, I don’t even know if he really wrote this music but GW: Nightfall is excellent and yes, I do remember Istan and Kourna tune. Good call.

ME2 has probably the best music in the series.

Not denying that and I enjoyed it while playing but I can’t for the life of me just recollect it without starting the game, even if this one of my most played sp game.

Some people can’t really remember tastes; I am not good at remembering music.

[icemann]

In the old days there was far more of an imagination aspect to gaming as well. All you had often were a few pixels for the player + enemies. So much of it came down to you imagining of what was going on vs what was on screen. Kinda like reading a book and filling in the blanks to what your mind imagines that as.

Now graphics are so damn good that you practically never have to do that anymore. For AAA games anyway.

[BooleanBob]

The starkest experience of that for me was moving from the Infinity Engine (top down, painted backgrounds, sprites that were evocative but not exactly clear in what they depicted) to KOTOR (very much felt like you took the world at face value, and it felt flatter as a result). With NWN sitting in the awkward middle ground, pointing to the compromises of the future with its endless tiling.

It definitely feels like abstraction engages the imagination in a way that has been lost as developers have prioritised ever-increasing fidelity. On the other hand, Shamus Young was talking about this on a recent podcast and pointed out that motion-capped animations and facial expressions are very effective for conveying information to the player quickly and wordlessly in a way that older games couldn’t manage. So it’s not all cons.

[BillButNotBen]

The starkest experience of that for me was moving from the Infinity Engine (top down, painted backgrounds, sprites that were evocative but not exactly clear in what they depicted) to KOTOR (very much felt like you took the world at face value, and it felt flatter as a result). With NWN sitting in the awkward middle ground, pointing to the compromises of the future with its endless tiling.

Weird, I had the exact opposite experience. I never really clicked with any of the top down rpg games like Baldur’s Gate at the time, but KotOR drew me in so much. The top down 2d ones always felt so sterile and detached, whereas the 3d ones immediately felt more like a place that I could inhabit and explore.

This might just be down to my patience and maturity at the time though.

I’m more able to enjoy top down RPGs these days (although I don’t have the time), but I still find 3d worlds so much more immersive.

[chopper]

I’m playing Phantom Doctrine, and I like it so far (Chapter 3). It’s a bit easy if you recon missions and then go in with disguises, so I’ve stopped doing that and like it better that way, because you actually have to sneak around.

I really liked the game, and I agree restricting yourself on the disguise front is the way to go.

They really nailed the 80s Cold War vibe.

[BillButNotBen]

Ok, Dragonfall is seriously pissing me off these days! I was really enjoying it up until it suddenly apparently decided to keep wasting my time.

Doing Blitz’s loyalty mission, and at the final section, and the Blitz gets one shotted from almost full health to death in the Matrix, and of course it’s his mission so if he dies it’s instant fail.
Redo the entire final section again, including a bunch of dialog and 2 waves of enemies and play it really well, and then the last enemy manages to down the NPC that I’m with on their final shot, before they in turn are killed.

So the NPC goes through his entire ending dialogue, gives us a reward and ‘leaves’, but because the NPC was downed the game is now stuck on the Neutral Turn and there’s nothing I can do. I have a revive kit, but I can’t move.
Only thing I can do is quit without saving and now I’m going to have to go through the entire ending dialogs and 2 waves of enemies and final dialogues for a 3rd time!

If there’s one thing I hate above all else in games it’s wasting my time by making me replay the same shit over and over again. It’s why i hate roguelikes.
If I didn’t like this game so much, I’d have uninstalled it already. I’ll give it one more chance to to pull this crap again. Another day.

[edit: end rant! Feel better now! ]

[Kajo]

wow. That’s a lot. I think you just got thrown in at the deep end when I started playing WoT, which isn’t a particularly good idea either because people don’t know anything at all then, but 100 seems like a bit much.

You can skip those by platooning, platoons always plays against humans and that counts towards the 100 games. (which is still a lot)
Oh: You are only matched with same tier or +/-1 tier, and tanks tier 5 and lower always comes with a 100% crew.

[zagibu]

It definitely feels like abstraction engages the imagination in a way that has been lost as developers have prioritised ever-increasing fidelity. On the other hand, Shamus Young was talking about this on a recent podcast and pointed out that motion-capped animations and facial expressions are very effective for conveying information to the player quickly and wordlessly in a way that older games couldn’t manage.

It’s a bit like the book vs. movie debate. And like in that debate, the conclusion here is probably that some games are better done in one form, and some in the other. Dwarf Fortress for example would be impossible to do in photorealism. And Mass Effect would be pretty bland without the dialog “cutscenes”.

[Det.Bullock]

Finished Dishonored: Death of The Outsider (PC)
Much shorter than the expansion to the first game, but further deviates in terms of gameplay.
First: there are no runes, only bone charms that can modify your powers. There is a story explanation for this.
Second: your mana regenerates, you have three power uses in rapid succession before stopping to let it recharge.
Third: you get all the powers at the same time.
Most powers are a variation on the basic Dishonored power set but there is a power that allows to steal the faces of people, knock someone unconscious (you cannot wear the faces of the dead), wear their face and as long as you have mana and don’t meet dogs you can waltz in places that you have no business being in and with a particular bone charm duration can be extended. In the second to last level I was able to walk out of a place crawling with overseers through the front door.
Of course I still did everything without killing anyone even if this one apparently doesn’t have the achievement for the whole game as a matter of principle.

[Similar]

In the old days there was far more of an imagination aspect to gaming as well. All you had often were a few pixels for the player + enemies. So much of it came down to you imagining of what was going on vs what was on screen. Kinda like reading a book and filling in the blanks to what your mind imagines that as.

I was thinking of ADOM, which I played a lot of on the Amiga. My memories of the game are of moods, I think, certainly not of ASCII characters.

Now graphics are so damn good that you practically never have to do that anymore. For AAA games anyway.

yeh, but, at least for me, we are reaching a point where the animations have to be really good or it all falls apart very quickly (when it comes to games with realistic graphics, of course).
I was a bit sad about how much it mattered to me that the hands of Blazkowicz’ friends don’t touch his body when they’re trying to keep his intestines in at the beginning of The New Colossus.

---

Anyway, still haven’t found something to play, but Noah Caldwell-Gervais’ Youtube channel isn’t a bad substitute. He really finds some interesting things to say about pretty much everything, even really bad games.

[icemann]

Doing Blitz’s loyalty mission, and at the final section, and the Blitz gets one shotted from almost full health to death in the Matrix, and of course it’s his mission so if he dies it’s instant fail.
Redo the entire final section again, including a bunch of dialog and 2 waves of enemies and play it really well, and then the last enemy manages to down the NPC that I’m with on their final shot, before they in turn are killed.

So the NPC goes through his entire ending dialogue, gives us a reward and ‘leaves’, but because the NPC was downed the game is now stuck on the Neutral Turn and there’s nothing I can do. I have a revive kit, but I can’t move.
Only thing I can do is quit without saving and now I’m going to have to go through the entire ending dialogs and 2 waves of enemies and final dialogues for a 3rd time!

[edit: end rant! Feel better now! ]

What may annoy you is that you can set an actor/NPC to invulnerable in the editor which then would happen when you’d play the level. So it sounds like a lack of testing of that level was done, as that exact stuff is the type of bugs you’d encounter in QA.

In the editor you could deal with it 3 ways:

• Set the NPC as invulnerable
• Set up a trigger check, where if said NPC is going to die from a shot, then give them a health boost at that exact same moment
• Revive said NPC just prior to that conversation triggering

Achieves the same outcome. It’s just interesting when you know how an engine works behind the scenes. So someone can say a situation and if it’s do-able then you can think of what they should have done vs if it’s something that the engine doesn’t support like custom music, sounds and models.

It is also possible that they were assuming that players would be manually saving a lot, and so never bothered to fix that. Now obviously none of that helps you at all. Just was noting of the game engine side of things.

[ToomuchFluffy]

I tend to feel like playing something similar to whatever I just read/heard that someone else was playing. So I start on it. Then I read about something else someone is playing and that makes me want to start something else.

Yeah, sometimes I question if it is healthy for me to read about whatever other people are currently playing. Sounds weird, since we are talking games, but discipline helps. Otherwise I would constantly be starting up more playthroughs of Bloodlines, Far Cry 2 etc.

It’s using a laptop on a table that’s too high.

I have a similar issue ever since I replaced my old notebook. The desk is still the same, but the old notebook did have the keyboard integrated into a surface that had a slight angle to it. And the edges were rounded, which you’d expect to be standard, but not so with this notebook.

For some reason it got better and my left hand/fingers do only rarely start to hurt anymore, but I’m not sure why. Though trying to not hammer the keys as much anymore - especially during more movement-intensive games and typing - might be one reason. Strangely, that’s a another issue I didn’t have with the old PC. Perhaps because of how my hands are lying on the keyboard?

Weird, I had the exact opposite experience. I never really clicked with any of the top down rpg games like Baldur’s Gate at the time, but KotOR drew me in so much. The top down 2d ones always felt so sterile and detached, whereas the 3d ones immediately felt more like a place that I could inhabit and explore.

This might just be down to my patience and maturity at the time though.

I’m more able to enjoy top down RPGs these days (although I don’t have the time), but I still find 3d worlds so much more immersive.

Drakensang was pretty interesting for me in that regard. I don’t think I have played any other traditional Fantasy RPGs that did actually profit from the 3D-engine. Sure, you kind of need it for the dialogue cutscenes, but with Drakensang I enjoyed it for the graphics and aesthetics not least because the camera would often go to ground-level/zoom in in tight spaces. At first I was a bit annoyed at it, but it wasn’t too fiddly and it helped immersion surprisingly much. With other Party-RPGs I usually just avoid that camera angle, if I have any choice about it.