I’m back for my annual month on FFXIV, but I honestly admit I’m growing a bit tired of the gameplay loop, the “omg you’re the main hero !!” story and the sometimes very weird community. I love the world setting though, so I usually stick around anyway....
Re-subbed to WoW for a month, for the huge 20th Anniversary Event. Since I’ve played so much earlier in the year (another event and expansion launch), I’m not interested in continuing after the sub runs out. There are a few more achievements I’ll finish, but otherwise I’m kinda done.
FF14 is the only other MMO I’ve played, have like 650 hours on Steam, and I think I’m in the middle of the Stormblood campaign. It’s been a while since I played it, but some day I’ll make it to Endwalker.
While Disco Elysium is like no other CRPOG I’ve played, I have to disagree with your other point, because Indies exist with tons of innovative stuff in there.
The only one I know that might fit the bill (not really) is Pillars 1. When you’ve done a lot of the side content, you’ll be overleveled, and in the final act the game asks you if enemies should get scaled to your level, so there’s still a challenge. But that’s still optional and you’re not forced to do it.
As we can see, there is a small performance hit with NVIDIA App. However, it’s nowhere close to what has been reported. On our PC system, it’s around 4-6%. And that’s mostly in CPU-bound areas. For instance, in Indiana Jones which is a GPU-bound game with Path Tracing, there isn’t any performance hit at all....
A bit more World of Warcraft. I got most of the anniversary items I want, now I’ll do some more achievements.
Then I started Windblown, the next game from the Dead Cells devs. I guess it’s coop, isometric Dead Cells. It’s very fun, but I feel harder than Dead Cells. I finished my first run today, and the end was pretty nerve wracking. As for the coop part, that seems pretty dead right now. The game’s in Early Access, so that doesn’t help, but I only ever a saw a single open lobby. I might check it out a bit more, now that I have won once.
Then I was about to re-play Disco Elysium, but got sick again, and was in no mood for any story games (which I why I started Windblown). Maybe this week, maybe next, but definitely this year.
Also, pretty good timing with me re-playing FF7R last week, since Rebirth is coming to PC end of January. I’m really looking forward to it.
I was almost done with it last week, but I finished Baldur’s Gate - Siege of Dragonspear DLC. It’s terrible. The story is trash, especially the second half, and all characters, your party included, lose the ability to put two and two together. I haven’t played BG2 and don’t know if I ever will, but I can’t imagine this DLC is adding anything to the overall story.
Then I played through Final Fantasy VII Remake again. I definitely thought the game was shorter, mainly because I forgot about all the terrible moments. I still like the game, but there are a bunch of bosses and sequences that are cancer, and the game would be better if they were removed completely or at least much shorter. Hopefully it doesn’t take too much longer for Rebirth to make it to the PC.
Finally, I re-subbed to World of Warcraft for a month. For the 20th Anniversary, there’s a huge 3-month event going on. It’s running until early January, and you can get a bunch of old or removed stuff again. I’ll just do some quests once or twice a week, so I can buy the stuff that I want.
Is it? Steam does it all the time. Afaik they only completely remove games (meaning you they get removed from your account), when they break some TOS stuff.
As for Blizzard themselves (since this article is about Warcraft 1&2), they still offer downloads for old titles. I can just download Warcraft 3 or Diablo 2 right now, even though they’re remastered, and the old versions not for sale anymore.
Baldur’s Gate 3 coop, we’re in Act 2. For some reason, my friend started a fight, inside the throne room at Moonrise Towers, while surrounded by 20 enemies, half HP and no spells. We died, and because he hadn’t saved in an hour, we have to do some stuff again.
Then I finished the Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Palace of Ice DLC. It’s definitely the weakest campaign for me (base game and two DLC). The final dungeon was also pretty disappointing, but I liked the very final decision you had to do.
Then I started the Baldur’s Gate - Siege on Dragonspear DLC. I played the base game a year ago for the first time, and I think the game didn’t age well at all, and this DLC doesn’t improve things. I’m close to the end, but I really don’t like how it’s playing out right now, and I don’t care about the story at all.
Jingle Jam is a yearly bundle of games where the earnings go to charity! It just started today and will run for 2 weeks, although the keys are limited so they might run out of games before the sale ends....
I went ahead and bought a bunch of indie games, picked up Darkchaser, Oxygen Not Included, and UFO50, and also grabbed Cities: Skylines. Got used to the launch prices of some AAA games, buying these discounted low-priced games really doesn’t hurt much....
I’m in the middle of a coop playthrough and wanted to do another solo run, once no more new stuff is coming, but it seems that’s gonna take a while longer.
I’ll say basically the same thing as two weeks ago, when this exact topic was posted:
I think you’re looking at this through rose-tinted glasses.
Back in the day you also already had Collectors edition mounts and pets, the stuff from Blizzcon (before it was digital), TCG codes, etc. Not much different than these Mountain Dew promos and whatever else you have.
Why is scalping promo codes bad now, but back in the day it didn’t matter?
Like I said, what’s the difference? You had Coca Cola promotions in the past, when the game was still “pure,” according to some. Why couldn’t people with money hoard those TCG codes back in the day? For me, it’s all the same.
The in-game shop, definitely, but out-of-game promos, I don’t know. Most of the stuff is US or China exclusive anyway, so you don’t know about them outside those countries.
I’d guess these kinds of promos are kind rare , and that’s the reason this one blew up so much. If WoW had something like this every few months, most people probably wouldn’t care anymore, and only those who want to collect everything will pay someone to get the codes.
A bit more Baldurs Gate 3 coop. We just made it to the Githyanki Creche and next time everyone will die.
Then I got back to Vampire Survivors. Played a bunch of different “Survivors-likes”, but nothing really is as good as this. There’s so much stuff I have to catch up on, tons of unlocks and characters.
Finally, I started the Solasta: Crown of the Magister - Palace of Ice DLC. I really liked the more intimate setting of the previous one, Lost Valley, but this one is a straight-up sequel campaign to the base game. So far it’s not as good as Lost Valley, but it’s a higher level campaign up to level 16 (base game is up to 12), you get to play around with the higher level spells (also my ranger can attack one more time now). However, performance in some areas is horrible, with huge frame drops. Also ran into a potentially game breaking but, but luckily a full game restart helped.
I finished Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. It’s good but some weird decisions by the devs. For example, you can buy treasure maps at the end, so you don’t need a guide to find everything, just for some reason those maps to not actually show everything. I already mentioned the arbitrary limitation on the pictures you can take last week. Then, the whole game you’re trained to use your parry, normal enemies or bosses, just so some of the later bosses can just spam attacks you can’t parry.
I’m also done with Vampire Hunters. Beat all the stages, unlocked all the characters, but it just doesn’t have a lot of variety. It’s all just “normal” weapons, that shoot forward, nothing really crazy going on. Every level also plays the same, so it gets old relatively quick.
Then I tried HoloCure - Save the Fans!. This (F2P) game isn’t just like Vampire Survivors, it is Vampire Survivors, but with a VTuber skin. Since it’s copying the best in this genre, it’s not bad, but I’d rather just play Vampire Survivors. I’d only recommend this, if you’re a huge fan of VTubers, don’t want or can’t pay for Vampire Survivors, or have put in like a thousand hours into it and just want something a little bit different.
Next is Karate Survivor. Like the name suggests, another VS-like game. This one I’m not so sure about. The theme is 80s Martial Arts Movies, and you’re playing as Jackie Chan from Wish. Instead of weapons, you’re combining different fighting moves into a combo. It sounds neat, but the beginning is pretty rough. You can only run around, and your attacks basically all go forward. Since it’s martial arts, your attacks also have a tiny range, so you’re basically standing inside the enemies, so you can hit them. My first few runs weren’t that fun, but you unlock new moves of course and also some movement-type abilities, like rolling over obstacles or sliding under tables. You can also kick or throw small objects at enemies, like bottles, buckets, etc. or use some objects as weapons, like a broom or baseball bat. These weapons are a bit lame though, since they all have the same attack animation. Later, you can also kick bigger stuff at your enemies, like pallets or motorcycles. Each of these unlocks make the game more fun, but the normal combat, still isn’t my favorite. I’ll stick with it a bit longer, but dunno how long.
Finally, a bit more Baldurs Gate 3 coop. Grymforge is cleared, there were no survivors (except our party). Next is the rest of the Underdark.
I’m watching a streamer play through Cyberpunk right now and it looks really good. I gotta play it myself next year, when I (hopefully) upgrade my GPU.
I tried the newly released Vampire Hunters, and it’s crazy with guns all over the screen. It can be called a first-person perspective Vampire Survivors, or a combination with DOOM. However, just like Vampire Survivors, the later stages have too many chaotic effects, which can make me feel dizzy after playing for a while. I...
More Baldurs Gate 3 in coop with a friend. We’re in the Underdark, gonna kill some Dwarves next time and Gnome and probably everything. We’re just complete murderhobos.
Then I heard about Vampire Hunters, which is kinda Vampire Survivors, but as an FPS. It’s fun and there are a few more maps to beat, but I don’t know if it’s going to have as much staying power as some of these other games I’ve played.
Also, more Metroidvanias. I played through Elderand, and don’t think it’s very good. For some reason, I got lost and didn’t know where to go at some point, which I don’t remember ever happening with another game. It turned out to be a way up some platforms I just missed, but it took a lot of time with me just running around, until I looked at a video playthrough. Even if that’s just a skill issue on my end, some of the other parts, aren’t that good either. The map seems to be a bit inconsistent, which didn’t help finding the correct way. Combat is extremely repetitive, with every melee weapon having the same three-hit combo, even dual-wield daggers or a whip. There’s a crafting system for potions and upgrades, but it’s useless, because basically no materials drop. Definitely do not recommend this one.
I decided to buy Ender Magnolia, the follow-up to Ender Lilies, which is currently in Early Access. There’s not a lot to do right now, it took me a bit under two hours to get through everything, but it’s fun. Definitely wait for the full release though, unless you want to pre-order this game or something.
Finally, I also got Prince of Persia The Lost Crown. It’s much bigger than the other metroidvanias I played recently. I’m almost 20 hours in and about halfway done. It plays well and I gotta say, I really like the feature to take a picture, so you can see where you missed something and don’t just go back 20 times, just to realize you can’t get there yet. Combat against regular enemies can be a bit boring, since enemies are a bit spongy. Bosses are neat though, especially since you have a parry and interrupting boss moves feels great. There’s also a ton of platforming, which can get really tricky. The story is complete garbage and makes no sense, but whatever. The game is kinda expensive, but I got it on sale, which was fine. Since it’s an Ubisoft game, it’s probably going to be on sale for -75% in a few months.
Rant: Why are some of these metroidvanias so stingy with their fast travel? In Prince of Persia and Animal Well you can only travel to specific points of the map, although in Animal Well you could at least get to the teleporters from anywhere on the map. In Prince of Persia, you need to find the teleporter, to get someplace else, which can get really annoying. Just let me travel to and from every save point. Even Elderand, for all its faults, lets you do this. In Prince of Persia, in the DLC area you can actually teleport between save points, probably since they realized the other system sucks.
I love 2D platformers, especially metroidvanias. Some of my favorite ones (not just metroidvanias) are Battleblock Theater, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight and the Ori games.
I also think 3D Platforming sucks, so I try to avoid games, where this is the main gameplay. I’ve played some, like Portal or Grow Home, which I thought were good, but you probably won’t ever catch me playing some 3D collectathons or something.
The monetization of World of Warcraft has evolved significantly since I played during Burning Crusade over 10 years ago. Back then, the model was straightforward - you bought the expansion and paid a subscription fee. That was all you needed to access 100% of the game’s content....
I think you’re looking at this through rose-tinted glasses.
In my opinion mounts, pets, toys or whatever don’t count as content, so in that case, you still get everything with the expansion and a sub.
But even if you think it’s content, back in the day you also already had Collectors edition mounts and pets, the stuff from Blizzcon (before it was digital), TCG codes, etc. Not much different than today I think.
How so? I actually think in recent years, they’ve gone away from making you log in all the time, with less daily quest and much better catch up mechanics, so it doesn’t matter too much if you don’t play for weeks or even months.
Also, what’s an alternative? Everything is physical again? 99% of indie games cease to exist. But hey, at least you don’t have to fumble around with a few accounts, although CD-keys will probably be back, which is basically the same. Or would you rather buy directly from the devs or publishers? Great, accounts for every single one. Have fun with that.
Stopped buying there a long time ago when I realised I can’t backup my purchases and have to use their platforms to play.
Many games on Steam are actually DRM-free, but of course it’s not as easy as just going on GOG. You’d probably have to go to some 3rd-party website, like PCGamingWiki or SteamDB to find out.
If I understand it correctly from the reddit post, this was a popular mod, that you could get directly in-game, so probably available through the Steam Workshop or something. In that case you assume everything is fine and don’t really check out, if there’s something wrong.
I’ve been playing a tonnnn more UFO 50. Beat Vainger, started Mini and Max (absolutely amazing). Also did the whole meta game secret thing to the end which was super fun!
Finished HROT. It’s a good game, like I said last week, it’s basically Quake. I started on the Hard difficulty, played through the first episode, but turned it down for the others, because I wanted more run-and-gun and not creeping around corners, because enemies kill me in two shots.
Then I also played through Animal Well. A great looking metroidvania, where you don’t fight, it’s more about avoiding enemies or scaring them away. I saw credits after less than six hours, but then spend another eight searching for secrets. I needed help from a guide for the last couple, to get to the credits the second time, for the second ending. There’s some more stuff to find, maybe a third or true ending, but I don’t really care enough to do that.
I also decided to check out Rain World, but I’m not really sure about this one. For some reason, the game resolution is 768p, which scales with nothing. This means, unless you play on a cheap or old laptop, that uses that resolution, the game will be blurry (or a tiny window). There isn’t even a x2 scaling option or something. Luckily there is a mod fixes this, but it’s still baffling, that this is even needed. Like Animal Well, it’s also a game, where fighting isn’t really the focus (although you can to some extent), but most of the time I was fighting the controls. I’ll give it a bit more time next week, but unless it suddenly clicks with me, I’ll skip this one.
Since I’m in the mood for some metroidvanias right now, I played through another one, Haiku, the Robot. It’s a pretty cookie cutter medroidvania, not bad, but also doesn’t do anything special. You find abilities, like a double jump, short teleport, morphball, stuff like that. There’s also a system like the Charms in Hollow Knight to enhance certain parts of your skill set. I usually like pixel art graphics, but I really didn’t vibe with the enemy design, and everything else is once again pretty basic.
Earlier in the week I started Remnant II with a friend, but the beginning was really rough, so much so, that I don’t know if we’ll continue. The levels and bosses are randomized to some extent, so depending on your luck you might get easier or harder bosses. Our first boss (or event) was pretty terrible. We had to run down a tower, while we were chased by lighting (but also couldn’t be too fast, because of more lightning), and had to shoot some stuff in the middle of the tower, all while enemies spawned. The worst part about this “boss” was that basically everything, except the enemies, was a one-shot death. I was terrible at this and constantly failed, but we eventually made it through. The next couple of bosses were better, but not by much. Who knows if we’ll ever get back to this one.
Then the same friend and me started a coop Baldurs Gate 3 run today. I guess we’re doing an evil run, since he picked Dark Urge and we’re going to raid the grove next time. I played through the game once, around the time of the 1.0 release, and wanted to do an evil playthrough anyway eventually, so this is fine with me.
That D4 Halloween event was such a disappointment for me. I did like two Nightmare Dungeons (didn’t even spawn the Butcher), collected the free items, and was done.
I thought I was done with the latest Diablo 4 season last week, but then I put in a bunch more hours this weekend. While the season and the expansion is generally fun, it feels like the devs took two steps forward and one step back. Progression seems a lot more tedious, compared to before. In earlier seasons, you could basically unlock the highest difficulty really fast and progress pretty quickly to the endgame content. Now, with everything a lot harder and a bunch more difficulty options, you take twice or three times as long, to get to the same point as before. If I didn’t play the Spiritborn, who is completely busted this season, it might’ve taken even longer. I still gotta try the raid, which you can only do coop, although I rarely play with someone else.
Then I started HROT, but have only finished the first level, so I can’t talk about it too much. It seems like it’s basically just Quake with a different skin, I guess? I love the look, and it plays pretty smoothly, so I look forward to playing more of it.
since for whatever reason ancestral items don’t drop that often for me, and the last thing I have to do is salvage 100 of them. It might have to do with the Torment level I’m on
I’m on Torment 4 and yeah, they don’t drop a lot. If you’re on a high enough difficulty, Ancestral Uniques probably drop more, since you can farm the Uber bosses, who basically only drop uniques. I think that objective was the second to last one I finished for the journey (the last are the 5 Helltide Commanders, which I don’t probably won’t do).
You probably know this already, but if you don’t get slowed down that much on T3, definitely move up, but if you’re just getting killed too much or don’t kill stuff fast enough, stay on T2. I farmed T3 for a while, even though I had unlocked T4, because I would just get one-shot too much. After some more upgrades and a Mythic Unique, I was finally able to do T4 efficiently.
More Diablo 4, after finally getting over my cold. Playing through the campaign was super boring (being sick and miserable didn’t help). All that time is also basically wasted, and you just want it to be over as fast as possible, to actually start progressing your character. Future seasons might be better, since you can skip the campaign, but a bunch of stuff only unlocks after you hit max level anyway, so who knows. The expansion increased the difficulty of the game, added some more difficulty options and did a stat squish, but I don’t think I’m a big fan. Until yesterday, it felt like I was just treading water, not making much progress. Then I managed to unlock Torment 3 difficulty, change my build a bit and get good enough gear, started blasting through enemies, and had more fun. So, while I’m not bored out of my skull anymore, I think I’ll just finish the season journey and battle pass, and then take another break from the game.
I have no interest in playing this game myself, but I’ve been watching a streamer go thorugh the story mode. The combat is whatever, probably good enough if you like this type of game. The story between all the fights is told absolutely horribly though. Lots of stuff just gets skipped over or mentioned in a single picture. Like suddenly Goku is Super Saiyan God, with no explanation or a character is dead.
I got really into TCG Card Shop Simulator. It’s pretty much like all these other “Simulator” games, that pop up in early access every few weeks, like Supermarket Simulator, Recycling Center Simulator and whatever, although the theme is definitely much more appealing to me. The standout feature is probably that you can actually open card packs to collect the gazillion of cards already in the game or sell them as singles. The game is also made with Unity and can use existing mod frameworks, so there are tons of mods out already. You can change the cards to Pokemon, Digimon, and more, along with a bunch of mods to automate the more tedious aspects. I’m at a point right now, where I just need to restock my warehouse every night and can spend the rest of the day sitting in a dank corner and open packs like a degenerate.
The Diablo 4 expansion was supposed to launch a few hours ago, but it got delayed and nobody can play and has to wait.
What MMORPG are you playing, and why? angielski
I’m back for my annual month on FFXIV, but I honestly admit I’m growing a bit tired of the gameplay loop, the “omg you’re the main hero !!” story and the sometimes very weird community. I love the world setting though, so I usually stick around anyway....
Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter launches in fall 2025 worldwide for PS5, Switch, and PC (www.gematsu.com) angielski
What is your Game of the Year?
Steam Replay is out, so what game did you have the most fun experiencing this year?
What do You think about level scaling in cRPGs? angielski
Personally I dislike it very much. It take feel of achievement. Why even bother with gaining experience if it makes enemies stronger?
Does the NVIDIA App cripple your PC gaming performance? (Answer: no it does not) (www.dsogaming.com) angielski
As we can see, there is a small performance hit with NVIDIA App. However, it’s nowhere close to what has been reported. On our PC system, it’s around 4-6%. And that’s mostly in CPU-bound areas. For instance, in Indiana Jones which is a GPU-bound game with Path Tracing, there isn’t any performance hit at all....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 15th
What you all playing?...
The Last of Us Part II Remastered PC Announcement Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 8th
Whatcha been playing?...
GOG’s Game Preservation Program Gets Tested Early By Blizzard (www.techdirt.com) angielski
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 1st
Whatcha been playing! I’ve been back into Isaac a bunch. Grinding out dead god....
Jingle Jam 2024 - 18 games for £35 going to charity! (jinglejam.tiltify.com) angielski
Jingle Jam is a yearly bundle of games where the earnings go to charity! It just started today and will run for 2 weeks, although the keys are limited so they might run out of games before the sale ends....
Guys, what did you buy during the Steam autumn sale?
I went ahead and bought a bunch of indie games, picked up Darkchaser, Oxygen Not Included, and UFO50, and also grabbed Cities: Skylines. Got used to the launch prices of some AAA games, buying these discounted low-priced games really doesn’t hurt much....
How Trump's Tariffs Could Cost Gamers Billions (kotaku.com) angielski
Baldur's Gate 3 getting new subclasses, cross-play, and more next year (www.eurogamer.net)
What's your favourite it's all in the gameplay game? angielski
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Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 24th
What’s all playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 17th
Apologies for another late post....
What is a first-person perspective Vampire Survivors like?！
I tried the newly released Vampire Hunters, and it’s crazy with guns all over the screen. It can be called a first-person perspective Vampire Survivors, or a combination with DOOM. However, just like Vampire Survivors, the later stages have too many chaotic effects, which can make me feel dizzy after playing for a while. I...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 10th
Late post sorry about that....
Let's discuss: Platformers (beehaw.org) angielski
The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!...
Ubisoft Made an NFT Game; It Sucks - Jauwn Review - Champions Tactics (www.youtube.com) angielski
This game is so pointless and forgettable that I can’t even be bothered to write a description. It sucks, don’t play it. Watch my video instead!...
World of Warcraft's monetization seems to be getting way more aggressive angielski
The monetization of World of Warcraft has evolved significantly since I played during Burning Crusade over 10 years ago. Back then, the model was straightforward - you bought the expansion and paid a subscription fee. That was all you needed to access 100% of the game’s content....
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malicious backdoor found in widely used game mod by Low Level [YouTube] (youtu.be) angielski
Invidious, an alternative YouTube client in the browser without using YouTube directly (more private): inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=VH_8arwuRz8...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of November 3rd
I’ve been playing a tonnnn more UFO 50. Beat Vainger, started Mini and Max (absolutely amazing). Also did the whole meta game secret thing to the end which was super fun!
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 27th
Whatcha all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 20th
Whatcha all been playing?...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 13th
What y’all been playing?...
Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero | Review Thread angielski
Game Information...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of October 6th
Late thread this week, sorry bout that....