whatchu playing now

Omg thank you I didn't know you could do that!

why is slay the spire so hard

Any of you playing "Dragon's Dogma 2"? Seems similar to something like "Baldur's Gate 3," but ... goofier? More accessible? I haven't played either, but I am kind of intrigued that both of those games are optimized for single player, yet feature a sort of custom campaign crew that follows you around. "BG3" seems a bit much to me, but from what I've seen online I could imagine one day getting to "DD2."

I have it but haven't got that far in, I probably shouldn't reaaaally have bought it while still buried in FF7 rebirth, but needed a little palate cleanser

DD is hard to describe tbh, it's not like BG3, it's a real time third person combat thing. It's superficially similar to Souls games but actually more emergent/systems-based. You get cool stuff like climbing onto the back of some huge monster that's lurched out of a canopy to whale on its head while your mage sets your sword on fire and your rogue starts doing gnarly stuff with traps and bombs.

There's way less variety in terms of enemies and weapon styles than a Souls like, but more in terms of customising useful followers and sharing them with other users, and more action game/MMO style cool abilities you can unlock with XP.

Not totally sure how the console versions are faring, but it seems to be one of the most absurdly CPU-bound games ever made, to the point where people with high end PC rigs were/are barely getting 30fps in the crowded areas. They had to patch it so that NPCs will just pop into existence a foot away from you like GTA3. I find it alright with a variable refresh rate TV though really, and the lighting in picturesque outside areas is really nice looking

The thing I keep reading which seems like a blast is that there are all sorts of random encounters and events that can happen. Often in these open world games some of my favorite parts are when you come across NPCs fighting monsters (or the reverse) and you can kind of decide if you want to get involved or just watch and/or avoid.

I've heard that DD2 is poorly optimized out of the gate. Might be worth it to wait a bit and let them iron a few more bugs out.

The first one is usually very cheap and has a big cult following. Might be a good option in the meantime. No one is saying the new one is a breakthrough in graphics.

the thing that really struck me about dragon's dogma was that i looked forward to going from place to place and the random encounters along the way, stretches that in other games are typically a slog. i really wanna play DD2 but yeah, it needs fixing, and i don't have a ps5 yet or a PC capable of running it so i'm forced to wait anyway

that and the day/night cycle was dramatic and impactful, which i think i've mentioned itt or elsewhere before

I only know of it from Carbot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lwSXSOzRjk

I put about a good 20-25 hours into Dragon’s Dogma 2 and have some things to say, haha.

Played a few hours of the 1st one a few months ago. Thought it had the bones of a really cool game, but it very much felt like a PS3 game, so seemed like a sequel that took its ideas to the next level sounded perfect. Set it aside knowing 2 was around the corner.

DD2 starts out kinda boring, then opens up and gets interesting, and then unfortunately gets boring again. It doesn’t feel like a significantly updated iteration of the first one. I’m totally down with fast travel being not something you can rely on, but I quickly found my journeys across the map to be repetitive. Same cycle of goblin camps every 30 yards, occasional big monster, some caves to explore that typically aren’t that interesting, treasure chests that are always “hidden” in the same types of areas. After Elden Ring, that kind of open world feels ancient.

Quests are dull and rote. The “emergent” gameplay scenarios that are played up aren’t exactly filled with variety. You kinda see the same sorta stuff happen pretty regularly. Not a lot of enemy variety either.

It gets very easy once you get your character’s class high enough. Game more than subtly suggests to try out new classes, but after spending a lot of loot on upgrading class specific gear I’m not too keen on starting fresh every few hours. And I think having to constantly change your class to keep the game interesting is kind of a cop out of game design.

So IDK, I put it down for now. A lot of the potentially-alienating-to-casuals features aren’t really the problem for me. I’m a From guy, so that’s what made me interested.

Played it on PS5. 30 fps, which is disappointing, but performance problems haven’t been much of a problem.

Two point and click games: strangeland and the excavation of hob's barrow. Strangeland is directly inspired by i have no mouth and i must scream, and does it well. Hob's barrow is a slow burn paranormal investigation sort of like gabriel knight. It's let down by an ending where the player character does a dumb thing that you can't control. These games both scratched an itch but i'd like to find some more innovative games in the genre.

we talked about 'hob's barrow' last year, enjoyed that and the similar (style wise anyway) 'the case of the golden idol'

will checkout strangeland

Hobs Barrow stars Karlach! I haven't played it yet but the comparison to Golden Idol has piqued my interest.

Hob's Barrow has cutscenes that look like rotoscoped footage into pixel art. I liked those. Its gameplay is very different from deduction games.

helldivers 2 is fantastically dumb fun, 'live service' done right. i recall bouncing off of destiny 2 after about 15 minutes. surprisingly nontoxic and friendly atmosphere among players for the most part also

finally got sick of hades, just in time for hades 2 early access (i think)

Venba is a real heartfelt treat. If I'm a little teary while playing, it's because of all the onoins I have to chop

Finished Venda in a few sittings. Lovely lovely lovely game

It's actually my favorite game from last year, and they also released the cook book as DLC recently.