What video game are you playing?

[TheRealLynch51]

Anyone actually play Wo Long yet? It's on Xbox game pass, so I'll probably download it anyways, but wanted to see if anyone had any hands on experience yet.

 

[NorthDakota]

Thinking I might start a new Elder Scroll character this weekend. Just debating which game... Morrowind is 20+ years old now but I miss it.

 

[ulukinatme]

Thinking I might start a new Elder Scroll character this weekend. Just debating which game... Morrowind is 20+ years old now but I miss it.

I've been getting a lot of Morrowind references online lately. I feel like it's definitely time to dust that one off. Oblivion will always be my favorite though. I've still gotta finish Kingdom Come. Just finished my 6th Rattay tournament, I keep getting wrapped up in that crap lol.

 

[dublinirish]

I've been getting a lot of Morrowind references online lately. I feel like it's definitely time to dust that one off. Oblivion will always be my favorite though. I've still gotta finish Kingdom Come. Just finished my 6th Rattay tournament, I keep getting wrapped up in that crap lol.

theres an Oblivion mod for Skyrim thats been in the works for ages but it looks pretty neat

 

[DONTH8]

I've been getting a lot of Morrowind references online lately. I feel like it's definitely time to dust that one off. Oblivion will always be my favorite though. I've still gotta finish Kingdom Come. Just finished my 6th Rattay tournament, I keep getting wrapped up in that crap lol.

Never played Marrowind. Oblivion was my entry point. I love Oblivion. Played it a couple years ago (been about 4 years since I played Skyrim). I still think Skyrim is the better game overall. But man, Oblivion had such good guild quests.

Thieves guild you actually felt like a thief, and the Gray Fox was so badass. In Skyrim you can pretty much murder your way through the whole quest line becuase its basically a dungeon crawler.

Dark Brotherhood was way better in Oblivion.

I thought the Mages Guild was cooler.

Fighters guild.

And the Arena.

Skyrim definitely lacked in that department. But made up for it in about every other way imo.

 

[ulukinatme]

Never played Marrowind. Oblivion was my entry point. I love Oblivion. Played it a couple years ago (been about 4 years since I played Skyrim). I still think Skyrim is the better game overall. But man, Oblivion had such good guild quests.

Thieves guild you actually felt like a thief, and the Gray Fox was so badass. In Skyrim you can pretty much murder your way through the whole quest line becuase its basically a dungeon crawler.

Dark Brotherhood was way better in Oblivion.

I thought the Mages Guild was cooler.

Fighters guild.

And the Arena.

Skyrim definitely lacked in that department. But made up for it in about every other way imo.

That's where I'm at. Skyrim had some nice new features and probably better combat, but the guilds and quests were so much better in Oblivion. I thought Dark Brotherhood was decent in both games, but the Thieves Guild in Oblivion was far better than Skyrim's version. Mages Guild was no contest, the Skyrim Mages path was boring as hell...not like Oblivion and a matchup with the King of Worms, Mannimarco. The Skyrim dragons were epic and cool for the first few fights, but after awhile they lose their luster a bit. Oblivion gates, on the other hand, always felt like you were stepping into Hell as you battled Daedra and demons while you dungeon crawled. Then you had endgame bosses...Alduin wasn't crap when you had that Shout at your disposal, and in the end he was just another dragon. Oblivion we got the giant Avatar of Akatosh battling Mehrunes Dagon himself. Epic.

 

[dublinirish]

Imperial Scum


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ACamp1900]

Y’all only think Skyrim didn’t have as a good a story bc y’all dumpster divers went with that lame ass Stormcloak story,…

 

[ulukinatme]

Y’all only think Skyrim didn’t have as a good a story bc y’all dumpster divers went with that lame ass Stormcloak story,…

Better to live free as a Stormcloak than as an Imperial lapdog to the Thalmor...

 

[ACamp1900]

Better to live free as a Stormcloak than as an Imperial lapdog to the Thalmor...

Enjoy your roasted rat and hovel,…. ‘Free man’

 

[ulukinatme]

Enjoy your roasted rat and hovel,…. ‘Free man’

Sweetrolls or GTFO!
I sleep on only the finest bed money can buy in my abode at Hjerim in Windhelm. Just...disregard the blood stains from the mass murderer that resided there before I moved in.

 

[ulukinatme]

Steam Spring Sale going on for the next week till the 23rd. I bought a bunch of games during the Winter sale that I haven't played yet, but I'll probably be picking up a few more since my brother got me a gift card recently. Anyone play any of these and can vouch for them? Some have been on the Wishlist for awhile. These are just the ones rated Overwhelmingly Positive or Very Positive and are on sale. Some of these I know a bit about, some I know very little and may have added them on a whim years ago. If anyone has any input on which ones I should definitely pull the trigger on let me know your thoughts.

Persona 5 Royal
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
Monster Hunter Rise (I have this for Switch, not quite as good as MH: World but it has some nice features to speed up hunts)
Chronicon
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
RimWorld
Ender Lilies: Quietes of the Knights
Outer Wilds
Hades
Octopath Traveler
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Parkitect
V Rising
MASS Builder
Bravely Default II
Crystal Project
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Mech Armada
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Hyper Light Drifter
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
Space Engineers
UnderRail
Battletech
Project Wingman
Vigil: The Longest Night
House of the Dying Sun
Starbound
Stellaris
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Pulsar: Lost Colony
Field of Glory: Empires
Europa Universalis IV
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Diplomacy Is Not An Option
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
WW2 Rebuilder
Brigandine: Legend of Runersia

 

[greyhammer90]

Steam Spring Sale going on for the next week till the 23rd. I bought a bunch of games during the Winter sale that I haven't played yet, but I'll probably be picking up a few more since my brother got me a gift card recently. Anyone play any of these and can vouch for them? Some have been on the Wishlist for awhile. These are just the ones rated Overwhelmingly Positive or Very Positive and are on sale. Some of these I know a bit about, some I know very little and may have added them on a whim years ago. If anyone has any input on which ones I should definitely pull the trigger on let me know your thoughts.

Persona 5 Royal - Great RPG, very long, very anime. If you like it, its going to really be your thing. It's almost worth it to play just for the soundtrack. On Gamepass Ultimate for PC so you might try a free month and play it there to see if its worth buying.
RimWorld - Dwarf Fortress Lite. Really fun procedural camp silulator. Another one where if it's your thing, you'll love it more than everything else.
Outer Wilds - Play this game immediately and stay away from anyone talking about it.
Hades - Fun rougelite with a great story. Highly recommended.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - Probably the purest combat game ever? Is actually as hard as everyone pretends Dark Souls is. Won game of the year for a reason. Probably my 2nd favorite FromSoft game after Bloodborne. Highly, highly, highly recommend. If it kicks your butt, stick with it.
Stellaris - Really fun strategy game. Unfortunately has the typical Paradox thing where the reliance on expansion packs feels like you're only playing half the game. I believe this one is on GamePass Ultimate too, so you might sign up for a free month of that and play it there to see if it's your thing.
Mafia: Definitive Edition - Never played Definitive Edition but I thought the original was meh FWIW.

I played a few of these so I'll chime in. See my edits above with Bolded for emphasized "must play" status.

 

[TorontoGold]

Steam Spring Sale going on for the next week till the 23rd. I bought a bunch of games during the Winter sale that I haven't played yet, but I'll probably be picking up a few more since my brother got me a gift card recently. Anyone play any of these and can vouch for them? Some have been on the Wishlist for awhile. These are just the ones rated Overwhelmingly Positive or Very Positive and are on sale. Some of these I know a bit about, some I know very little and may have added them on a whim years ago. If anyone has any input on which ones I should definitely pull the trigger on let me know your thoughts.

Persona 5 Royal
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
Monster Hunter Rise (I have this for Switch, not quite as good as MH: World but it has some nice features to speed up hunts)
Chronicon
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
RimWorld
Ender Lilies: Quietes of the Knights
Outer Wilds
Hades
Octopath Traveler
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Parkitect
V Rising
MASS Builder
Bravely Default II
Crystal Project
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Mech Armada
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Hyper Light Drifter
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
Space Engineers
UnderRail
Battletech
Project Wingman
Vigil: The Longest Night
House of the Dying Sun
Starbound
Stellaris
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Pulsar: Lost Colony
Field of Glory: Empires
Europa Universalis IV
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Diplomacy Is Not An Option
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
WW2 Rebuilder
Brigandine: Legend of Runersia

Similar thoughts to Greyhammer - Sekiro/RimWorld/Hades are universally loved for a reason.

Diplomacy - We've spoken about this one before, can't recommend it enough.
V Rising - Wouldn't buy this one, have friends who played it and felt it was meh.
Europa - Didn't like the UI and felt that CIV games hit the spot better.

Two games not on your list that I would recommend
Vampire Survivors - The most simple game that actually created it's own "class", it's like $4 and better than the coffee you would have gotten for that price.
Voxel tycoon - Really peaceful fun management sim game, the graphics are very soothing lol.

 

[NorthDakota]

Europe Universalis is great if you don't mind not understanding the game or learning things after thousands of hours.

Think I got about 1500 hours in there....still learn new things.

Some really fun things though in that you can set your own "victory" conditions. No need to conquer the world. Or the whole continent...or anything like that. You can colonize, become a master of trade, a religious zealot, etc. Whatever floats your boat that particular time

 

[ulukinatme]

Thanks @greyhammer90 and @TorontoGold, that's helpful. I think I'm pulling the trigger on Sekiro for sure at $30, seems like a good deal. RimWorld is only 20% off, but that was another I almost got last sale and put off, so I may get it this time.

Toronto, I added Voxel Tycoon. It's not currently on sale, but I'll keep an eye on it. Seems a lot like SimCity tbh. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with that one. Love building the cities in the early going, but at some point I lose some interest when there's an unclear set of goals as the city reaches a certain size. That's different from Civ games. The nice thing about Civ is you can keep conquering (Or achieving diplomacy/techs I guess) until there's nothing left. On the other hand I haven't played a Civ game since V, I just haven't seen the need to play anything later.

I also added the Vampire Survivors. That gives Bullet Hell a whole new meaning. At $4 it's a strong candidate already.

 

[greyhammer90]

I will second that Vampire Survivors is great and really addictive in a potato chip sort of way. The only slight against it is that I'm not sure I would love it as much if I didn't have it on my Steam Deck. It's more of a "my wife is watching TV in the background" sort of game for me. I don't know if I would play it on my desktop (though the play metrics would suggest that this isn't a problem for most people haha).

 

[dublinirish]

 

[rikkitikki08]

Still playing God of War Ragnarok, still haven’t beat it

 

[greyhammer90]

Resident Evil 4 came out 15 years ago???

I'm so damn old.

 

[NorthDakota]

Resident Evil 4 came out 15 years ago???

I'm so damn old.

"I'm much too young to feel this damn old!" - Garth Brooks

 

[DONTH8]

Steam Spring Sale going on for the next week till the 23rd. I bought a bunch of games during the Winter sale that I haven't played yet, but I'll probably be picking up a few more since my brother got me a gift card recently. Anyone play any of these and can vouch for them? Some have been on the Wishlist for awhile. These are just the ones rated Overwhelmingly Positive or Very Positive and are on sale. Some of these I know a bit about, some I know very little and may have added them on a whim years ago. If anyone has any input on which ones I should definitely pull the trigger on let me know your thoughts.

Persona 5 Royal
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
Monster Hunter Rise (I have this for Switch, not quite as good as MH: World but it has some nice features to speed up hunts)
Chronicon
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
RimWorld
Ender Lilies: Quietes of the Knights
Outer Wilds
Hades
Octopath Traveler
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Parkitect
V Rising
MASS Builder
Bravely Default II
Crystal Project
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Mech Armada
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Hyper Light Drifter
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
Space Engineers
UnderRail
Battletech
Project Wingman
Vigil: The Longest Night
House of the Dying Sun
Starbound
Stellaris
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Pulsar: Lost Colony
Field of Glory: Empires
Europa Universalis IV
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Diplomacy Is Not An Option
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
WW2 Rebuilder
Brigandine: Legend of Runersia

Persona 5 Royal is the most JRPG game of all time. If you enjoy JRPGs, then I would absolutely recommend it. I loved all 100+ hours I played that game. Top 3 game on my list.

 

[ulukinatme]

Persona 5 Royal is the most JRPG game of all time. If you enjoy JRPGs, then I would absolutely recommend it. I loved all 100+ hours I played that game. Top 3 game on my list.

I knew you were coming to say that eventually lol.

 

[DONTH8]

I knew you were coming to say that eventually lol.

Haha I remember DM’ing you about it. I looked over the rest of your list an I unfortiunately have never played any of the other games.

I’m such a loser in the gaming sphere…

 

[ulukinatme]

Steam Spring Sale going on for the next week till the 23rd. I bought a bunch of games during the Winter sale that I haven't played yet, but I'll probably be picking up a few more since my brother got me a gift card recently. Anyone play any of these and can vouch for them? Some have been on the Wishlist for awhile. These are just the ones rated Overwhelmingly Positive or Very Positive and are on sale. Some of these I know a bit about, some I know very little and may have added them on a whim years ago. If anyone has any input on which ones I should definitely pull the trigger on let me know your thoughts.

Persona 5 Royal
Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga
Monster Hunter Rise (I have this for Switch, not quite as good as MH: World but it has some nice features to speed up hunts)
Chronicon
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
RimWorld
Ender Lilies: Quietes of the Knights
Outer Wilds
Hades
Octopath Traveler
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
Parkitect
V Rising
MASS Builder
Bravely Default II
Crystal Project
Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky
Mech Armada
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Hyper Light Drifter
The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos
Space Engineers
UnderRail
Battletech
Project Wingman
Vigil: The Longest Night
House of the Dying Sun
Starbound
Stellaris
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Pulsar: Lost Colony
Field of Glory: Empires
Europa Universalis IV
Mafia: Definitive Edition
Diplomacy Is Not An Option
King Arthur: Knight's Tale
WW2 Rebuilder
Brigandine: Legend of Runersia

I appreciate everyone's input. For now I did end up getting Sekiro and I also got Brigandine: Legend of Runersia in part because my brother loves that game and the original. He kind of talked me into it, and it was his gift card after all.

I've got Persona V, Rimworld, and Hades all high in my list but none of them were terribly discounted much besides Hades so I think I'm going to wait till there's a better sale. I've got no shortage of other games to play as it stands. I may still pull the trigger on Outer Wilds though since it's just $14.99 right now.

I'm trying to finish up Kingdom Come at the moment. I've knocked out every sidequest I can find almost, just have some loose ends with the Hans Capon DLC I think, and not a terrible lot left to do with the main story. I enjoyed the Madonna of Sasau DLC quite a bit...although felt a bit betrayed when Johanka sent me on a pilgrimage after I was her arch angel there for awhile...who is she to call me a sinner?! Okay, so I slept with a few bathmaids...and I may have killed a few nameless wanderers...and may have killed a few guards that wouldn't stop searching me for stolen goods...and I may have looted some stolen goods on occasion...and I may have slept with Sir Divish's wife...but I'm a pretty decent guy otherwise! After the trial and Johanka was cleared I unfortunately decided to waste my pilgrimage by taking out Father Fabian and the Swordsmith's wife Katra. Woe to the unbelievers! How dare they question the Virgin Mary's vessel?!

 

[Irishdrunk]

I have a Raspberry PI Drive...playing Castle Wolfenstein from 1983.... the old Apple Version...LOL

 

[ulukinatme]

I have a Raspberry PI Drive...playing Castle Wolfenstein from 1983.... the old Apple Version...LOL

Raspberry Pi's are great. I put one together a few years ago during the pandemic and gave them as gifts to my siblings and friends for Christmas. Unfortunately the damn price of boards skyrocketed afterwards because of shortages and the economy.

 

[IrishLion]

Finished Fire Emblem: Engage

I've come to the conclusion that the game itself was a bizarre marketing campaign for the series as a whole that doesn't actually have any North American utility in the long run, because all it does is makes you want to play the older games, and yet it's nearly impossible to experience most of the older games. They're either Japanese-only, or the NA-released titles were in such small quantities that they are impossible to find (Shadow Dragon for DS is #1 on my gaming wish list, period, but it's NEVER in stock with used-game vendors).

So at this point, you're relying on finding ROMs that won't give your computer herpes, and you're also relying on finding English-language patches for each ROM that ALSO won't give your computer herpes, and that's a scary prospect.

As for the game itself: the overall idea of the story was pretty good, though the emotional beats and political intrigue that most of the series is renowned for were underwhelming, so the total execution was lacking.

The gameplay on "Normal" was way too easy, even with "Classic Mode" settings that feature permadeath for characters that die in battle... they don't come back for the next chapter, and there are no revival items, so they're gone for good. It WOULD affect strategy to a large degree, like in past games, if the "Emblem" mechanic weren't so OP. You pair up to 12 party members with one of 12 OG heroes (Emblems), and the party member can "Engage" with the emblem for 3-4 turns to get new weapons, attacks and skills that their base class doesn't have.

I can't imagine the final battle NOT being trivial, even on the hardest mode the game has, based on how powerful the Engage mechanic is if you strategize your pairings correctly. If you give your Horseback archer the Lyn emblem, who is also a gifted swordsman/archer, and level up their bond, you unlock a dragon-killing bow. You can use the "Astra Storm" special attack to hit up to 10 spaces away with 9 consecutive hits, eliminating almost any enemy in one go. This is too much power when most maps only have two or three truly threatening strategic situations built in.

I'll let the game sit for a bit and then try it on the hardest difficulty at some point just to see, though. If not, the game would be enjoyable with some Nuzlocke style self-imposed restrictions.

 

[ulukinatme]

Fire Emblem is a franchise I always wanted to check out, but haven't managed to delve into yet. I've been curious ever since Marth and Roy showed up in Smash Bros on Gamecube. @IrishLion what in your opinion would be the best FE game to checkout first, regardless of platform?

 

[IrishLion]

Fire Emblem is a franchise I always wanted to check out, but haven't managed to delve into yet. I've been curious ever since Marth and Roy showed up in Smash Bros on Gamecube. @IrishLion what in your opinion would be the best FE game to checkout first, regardless of platform?

@ulukinatme I started with the first FE game released in NA, just titled "Fire Emblem" in North America, released for GBA in 2004. In FE culture, everyone knows it by the Japanese title, "Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade" Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade ... I'd start there for a standard intro to the series.

It might still be my GOAT strategy game. The levels are massive at times, and it is legitimately challenging to play Hard mode when you're going in blind. It's got all of the classic turn-based strategy mechanics, a deep-ish class system, separate weapons triangles for melee and magic users, and a legitimately good political story.

The main characters/heroes are Eliwood, Hector and Lynn. In the lore, Eliwood is Roy's father, and the game is actually a prequel to Roy's game ("Binding Blade" which was not released in NA).

Chapters 1-10 focus on Lynn, then you can pick to play as Eliwood or Hector starting at Chapter 11. Lynn and her party are reintroduced several chapters later.

Although Eliwood is the "main" character (he is Roy's father), and you have to beat the game playing as Eliwood to unlock Hector mode, most people consider Hector Hard Mode to be the complete experience, as there are two or three extra standard chapters, extra bonus chapters if you hit certain goals during the preceding chapter, and two or three extra recruitable characters that kick ass.

I've probably replayed it once a year since 2004, and Hector Hard Mode still presents a challenge during certain chapters, when you're trying to hit those goals to unlock the epilogues.