The Sword and Laser discussion

What video games are you playing?

I’ve been playing City of Heroes — well, mostly making characters in the character creator — but I’ve been out of the loop for a few years. What’s good?

(I do PC games. I can’t use controllers.)

I could have sworn there was another thread for this. I'm literally at this moment playing Pokemon Go. There's an event today and tomorrow.
I have a mac so don't play too many computer games but I play a lot of Switch. I do Mario Kart nights but if not playing that, it's probably Animal Crossing (still; trying to get all the achievements) and Pokemon Shield.

Found it! https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Though "playing" is more generic so could go for board games too (which I'm also playing a few).

I thought there was, too, but couldn’t find it. Both search and notifications are borked at the moment.

I have been playing EverQuest since 1999. EQ is my first MMORPG love and I can't let it go.

I sometimes play Everquest 2, emulator Warhammer Online (Return of Reckoning), Torchlight, Torchlight 2, Diablo, Diablo 3, and Guild Wars 2.

On my phone I play Pokemon Go nearly every day. I used to play Ingress, but I hate the new interface, so I deleted the app.

I own a million Steam games and have played maybe five of them. Bejeweled is my most played. I like it for the mindlessness when I'm really stressed/overthinking things. I know I said mindlessness, but some of the games within the game can get kinda strat/thinky, so it works to either put me into zen/meditative state or make me focus enough to forget what's stressing me the F out (I'm looking at you, Pandemic + 2016-early 2021).

Finally got around to start with Resident Evil 7 today. Had that on my list since I played the remakes of 2 and 3, which are both excellent. Also, I've recently finished Hollow Knight once again in anticipation of the sequel, Silksong.

In multiplayer-land, I'm still running through the Bayous in Hunt: Showdown and play the occasional round of Gwent.

For me it's all Fallout 76 all the time. I spend more than half my time in game making my CAMPs & Shelters look as awesome & realistic as possible. I was up late last night doing it. I also visit other players CAMPs to get ideas & buy stuff from them. I also spend a lot of my time on social media looking at other people's builds. I am spending way too much money on Atoms to unlock the stuff to make it. I'm definitely addicted.

It's all Mega Sloths, all the way down.

I just got a new video card in my PC so of course I’m playing a 16 year old game, Psychonauts, in anticipation of Psychonauts 2 next month (which looks amazing). I am playing it in 4k though so that’s cool. I’ve also been playing a 10 year old game, Minecraft, albeit with the fancy ray tracing graphics in 4k, so that’s been cool.

Brad wrote: "I just got a new video card in my PC so of course I’m playing a 16 year old game, Psychonauts, in anticipation of Psychonauts 2 next month (which looks amazing). I am playing it in 4k though so tha..."

Yes! That's also on my list. Really excited to see how Psychonauts 2 turns out after all this time.

I play Minecraft with my kid, but have come to respect it. I also use Apple Arcade version of Solitaire to unwind. It’s the simple life for me!

The Messenger
Broforce

I was reading poetry last night and discovered this:

Earth Voices (an excerpt)

"I Heard the spring wind whisper
Above the brushwood fire,
The world is made forever
Of transport and desire.

"I am the breath of being,
The primal urge of things;
I am the whirl of star dust,
I am the lift of wings.

"I am the splendid impulse
That comes before the thought,
The joy and exaltation
Wherein the life is caught.

"Across the sleeping furrows
I call the buried seed,
And blade and bud and blossom
Awaken at my need.

"Within the dying ashes
I blow the sacred spark,
And make the hearts of lovers
To leap against the dark."

-- Bliss Carman

…so I made my 107th new character in City of Heroes, this one based on controlling plants. (Actual number, that 107. I made a spreadsheet.)

Here are some of the others I’ve made, which gives you an idea why the Character Creator is so addictive:

Before a pinched nerve made it painful to hold a controller or game for any length of time I was playing Stellaris on the PC and No Man's Sky on Xbox.

I used to play Guild Wars 2 - they have a new expansion coming out next year that looks really great that might draw me back in.

The board game Wingspan is a huge hit. Even though I bought a copy for my mom because she likes birds, I didn’t realize it had become as huge as this.

How a Board Game About Birds Became a Surprise Blockbuster
https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/win...

Ha, I just posted that on another discussion forum. I now both want to try it out myself, and buy a copy for my mother.

I just finished Pathfinder:Kingmaker in time for the release of the new Title Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
Awesome game, and does a really good job of emulating the myriad options of Pathfinder 1E. Even though I do not have the time to delve into the nitty gritty anymore, they also took a great campagin from the PnP and IMO improved upon it. Which admittedly is easier on railroads, but the early involvement of the Big Bad was masterfully done.
As I am currently DM'ing Wrath of the Righteous IRL (as soon as Corona lets us meet again), I do hope to steal loads of inspiration from the new game.

I've been playing Starfighter 3000, original RISC OS edition. An excellent vintage.

That said, I'm now tempted to crack out the old Spectrum games to commemorate the passing of the great Sir Clive Sinclair.

I’ve been playing the Halo Infinite beta, which is live until Dec 8th. Turns out I’ve aged out of FPS games, especially ones optimized for controllers when I use mouse + keyboard, but it’s super fun.

Sometimes it’s aggravating, but just as often I LOL at the hilarious hijinks. The other night I accidentally launched a Warthog (the game’s version of a Hummer) halfway across the map, only to land on an enemy soldier, who looked up at the last second to see a truck falling from the sky on him. I keep imagining the guy’s “What the f-” reaction in that moment and start laughing all over again.

Then there’s the time I successfully defended our flag from three attackers with perfect shooting and was rewarded with the game saying, “You’re unstoppable!” just as I stepped backwards off a cliff and plummeted to my death. 🤣

For fans of The Expanse, there’s a new space game out called Nebulous: Fleet Command.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/88...

I'm on a rougelike kick. More watching videos about them than actually playing them, lol.

XCOM 2 was something like 95% off on Steam last weekend, so I picked that up and have been playing it the last few nights.

Seth wrote: "XCOM 2 was something like 95% off on Steam last weekend, so I picked that up and have been playing it the last few nights."

Is it just me or is XCOM 2 incredibly difficult? I’m having a hard time keeping an entire squad alive throughout an encounter.

There's a roguelike version by the Cogmind buy, X@COM.

Trike wrote: "Seth wrote: "XCOM 2 was something like 95% off on Steam last weekend, so I picked that up and have been playing it the last few nights."

Is it just me or is XCOM 2 incredibly difficult? I’m having..."

Well, I'm only a few days in, but yeah, you aren't wrong. I think I'll push as far as I can on my current roster (which is pretty depleted) and then start a new playthrough and see if it makes a difference.

Guardians of the Galaxy.

Phillip wrote: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

That’s been getting lots of praise.

Subnautica

hard to get

Trike wrote: "Phillip wrote: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

That’s been getting lots of praise."

I had a lot of fun with it. It was way better than their Avengers game. Now I've moved on to finally playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, though I'm not happy they won't let me use the classic controls and have forced me into a horrid arrangement. I've almost died a hundred times because I'm pressing an old attack or dodge button that my mind won't let go.

I bought Cogmind and Jupiter Hell on Steam. Now I have to learn them.

Tamahome wrote: "I bought Cogmind and Jupiter Hell on Steam. Now I have to learn them."

There was another roguelike recently that folks were raving about. Something with vampires…

Ah, here, Vampire Survivors.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/17...

Phillip wrote: "Trike wrote: "Phillip wrote: "Guardians of the Galaxy."

That’s been getting lots of praise."

I had a lot of fun with it. It was way better than their Avengers game. Now I've moved on to finally playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, though I'm not happy they won't let me use the classic controls and have forced me into a horrid arrangement. I've almost died a hundred times because I'm pressing an old attack or dodge button that my mind won't let go..."

That’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a game that won’t let you configure your controls, including using “classic layout”.

Trike wrote: "Tamahome wrote: "I bought Cogmind and Jupiter Hell on Steam. Now I have to learn them."

There was another roguelike recently that folks were raving about. Something with vampires…

Ah, here, Vampi..."

That's what I would call a roguelite (not turn based).

Tamahome wrote: "That's what I would call a roguelite (not turn based)."

Good point. More bullet hell in the old Berzerk fashion.

I've been playing Horizon: Forbidden West. It's been a bigger learning curve than Zero Dawn (at least for me).

I need to get into a good game again in the near future. All I've played in the past year or so was NBA 2K21, and now 2K22.

I played Everspace 2 for 27 minutes before deleting it. That was enough time to reaffirm that I am absolutely terrible at any kind of flying game.

Not playing right now, because of war happening not so far to the east, but just bought "This War of Mine" – at least until Wendesday all profits are coming to Ukrainian Red Cross. https://store.steampowered.com/news/a...

The 10 Best Sci-Fi Board Games, Ranked
https://www.cbr.com/best-sci-fi-board...

10 Short Board Games You Can Play In 15 Minutes Or Less
https://www.cbr.com/short-board-games...

This is a fun divertimento: put the items in correct timeline order.

https://wikitrivia.tomjwatson.com/

My current streak is 11.

10 BEST from Next Fest (NEW Strategy, Tactical, Sim & Management Games 2022)
https://youtu.be/dX7T9SBCetA

Check out polybot-7. It's free and you can save any time. You just blow up other robots while drawing parts to yourself. It's an alternate mini-version of cogmind by the same guy made "during" one of the annual 7 Day Roguelikes.

I've been playing Lost Ark (albeit very slowly). It's free to play but I haven't gotten to the tedious endgame grind yet, so it's been a fun diversion.

Rob wrote: "I've been playing Lost Ark (albeit very slowly). It's free to play but I haven't gotten to the tedious endgame grind yet, so it's been a fun diversion."

I didn’t realize it was FTP. Is it sort of Diablo-ish?

Yeah. There are some similarities to Diablo. It's kind of part action rpg and part mmo, but ive been playing the game entirely single player thus far.

Top 10 NEW Free Games of 2022
https://youtu.be/3vEPKiP-d2Y

I’m 25 hours into Elden Ring, I just killed the first of the 6 major bosses and I feel comfortable saying this game is a masterpiece. The last time I was this into a game was The Witcher 3 and I think part of that is that both of these games created a really cool, interesting, and immersive fantasy world, albeit with very different styles of gameplay. After those 25 hours I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game and I couldn’t be happier about that because I’m enjoying every minute.

Had more phone time than computer time lately so it's been mostly Super Auto Pets which is free and fun.

Seth wrote: "Had more phone time than computer time lately so it's been mostly Super Auto Pets which is free and fun."

With out knowing anything about the game, that sure is in an interesting mash up of a title. Makes me think that the Australian store "Supercheap Auto" is expanding into pet stores. ;-)

Brad wrote: "I’m 25 hours into Elden Ring, I just killed the first of the 6 major bosses and I feel comfortable saying this game is a masterpiece. The last time I was this into a game was The Witcher 3 and I th..."

High praise indeed.