What video games are you playing?

[Worffan101]

I have fallen into the Pathfinder: Kingmaker trap, I expect I will be doing that in my solo game time for a while.

I've found that while it takes a little getting used to coming straight off of Pillars, it's still a rock-solid game with some genuinely creative work and a lot of really detailed work on the art side that makes it well worth it.

[Karha of Honor]

Mace Griffin. Downloaded some saves so i won't have to do all the space missions.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

This evening I jumped back into Arkham Origins to commence New Game Plus, which I put off for a long time in lieu of totally completing Arkham Knight.

The indifference towards the game is still there, but in revisiting it (after about 4-5 months) I'm noticing how it stands out for the better for some aspects compared to the other games. Not having to play the game on 720 x --- resolution as I do with Arkham Knight helps a bit.

[CmdrKing]

I've been playing Super Metroid for the first time on and off this month, hoping to do the big push for the finish over the weekend: I've got Ridley and the endgame left, been trying to explore the map for some missed powerups before that since the Golden Chozo took me several attempts.

This is actually my first Metroid experience, but I played most of the Symphony of the Night-based Castlevania games so the basic format is familiar. Metroid has some differences that hit really hard of course, like bosses being immune to some attacks and later bosses having specific counters threw me entirely. I think Super Metroid specifically does show its age a lot if you're playing it for the first time 20-plus years later: not getting full heals on save is a bummer and necessitates a lot of needless grinding. I've also been putting off this powerup hunt because the map doesn't really show you where the entrances and exits on rooms are, so I can see obvious areas of the map to go hunting but can't remember how to get to them. Neither of these would be remotely relevant if you already knew Super Metroid's layout and advanced techniques, but for a fresh player it's frustrating and an obvious product of the game's age.

In spite of that it's also completely unsurprising this game's influence showed up over in Castlevania (I mean maybe SotN wasn't trying to be more Metroid-like specifically, but I very much assume it was directly inspired by it), which in turn caused slews of knockoffs that continue to this day. It also has some astonishing small moments in there, like there not being any enemies until you pick up the Morph Ball is inspired, gives it a chance to really set a mood before gameplay concerns take over.

[Edvarius]

I'm currently hopping between a couple of games. One is Atelier Lydie & Suelle: Alchemists of the Mysterious Painting. It's not bad, though it's easy to lose a lot of time with running errands and crafting stuff so I try to save it for when I don't have anything I might need to do.

The other however is Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope. The Enterprise of this Star Trek "homage" series. My ship just fell through a worm hole and landed in a desert in the western US in the year 1957. I get the feeling this is gonna be a long "episode". Though at least it couldn't be worse than trying to escape from the mothership of the mutant lizard people.

[Edvarius]

The other however is Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope. The Enterprise of this Star Trek "homage" series. My ship just fell through a worm hole and landed in a desert in the western US in the year 1957. I get the feeling this is gonna be a long "episode". Though at least it couldn't be worse than trying to escape from the mothership of the mutant lizard people.

And then Captain Arch*ahem* Maverick got talked into handing their "exa"lithium (totally not dilithium) crystal to a mad military scientist in Roswell who tried to run a matter/anti-matter energy generation experiment and instead blew up the Earth. But it was probably going to wind up a Mirror Universe Earth so that's probably for the best?

Oh well, at least Captain Maverick reacts a lot more reasonably to accidentally committing genocide than Archer did. In that his was on accident and he freaks out about it afterward. Say what you will about the voice acting, going on a screaming tirade about how you didn't go out into space for this after killing billions is a lot more believable than a sanctimonious speech about it.

[ChiggyvonRichthofen]

I played Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I enjoyed a lot, and am playing Wolfenstein: The New Order. I dig the old-school feel of its combat. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is next on queue.

[CmdrKing]

Transistor- So I played Bastion a few months ago, and I'll definitely say that I like it better. Transistor doesn't play quite as smooth and I think the narration concept works better in the past tense than as an interplay between the PC and the narrator (with one big exception).
It's definitely a neat art piece though, both in terms of the in-game assets and being a distinctly quirky and unique game. Ultimately the ending doesn't quite stick the landing, but the way you can peel back layers of the different areas or your abilities to get a fuller, richer story is handled really well.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

So in NewGame + in Arkham Origins, I was at the police station and got to the point where you're supposed to use the not-Line Launcher to overpass the room of corrupt cops. In this version of events they all have riot gear and there's 3-4 gunmen in the crowd, but I knew that it should be possible to take them out. Spent a little bit of time trying over and over again, but finally found out the trick to beating all of them.

[Darth Wedgius]

The fun with Diablo Immortal had me nostalgic, so I'm playing Torchlight. It's not quite Diablo, but makes up for it by having a ferret with an aviator's hood and goggles.