What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Dozmonic]

It never is... I'm always wary of revisiting games I have a fondness for.

What about those, like Valorant, that take a formula that worked (CS1.6) and add new flavour (overwatch)?

 

[.matthew.]

What about those, like Valorant, that take a formula that worked (CS1.6) and add new flavour (overwatch)?

How does that make it anything other than a new game? All games are copies of copies at this point with the occasional inspiration that shifts the genre (MOBAs are basically warcraft gameplay, and Royales are FPS last man standing games). They're still new games though.

 

[Rodders]

Still playing Half Life 2, it's expansions and mods. I just cannot get into anything else, but it's starting to lose some of its appeal now. Maybe I should give Halo another go.

 

[Bugg]

When I can get to the tv I'm playing Persona 5 Royal. When I can't I'm playing Persona 4 Golden. Both fantastic games.

 

[HoopyFrood]

The past is not what it used to be

yeah, I got out my N64 and managed to tune it to my digital tv (graphics not great but playable) to play my favourite game ever Zelda: Ocarina of Time but I think I may have finally reached my fill of it. I’ve played it so many times I could probably do it with my eyes closed, and the levels really aren’t hard at all when you know what you’re doing. I got through the Forest Temple in about half an hour the other night and even the dreaded Water Temple no longer gives me much grief. I think what’s also changed is that I’ve done so much other modern gaming since I last played OoT, so that it really does seem even more tiny and easy.

 

[Dozmonic]

How does that make it anything other than a new game? All games are copies of copies at this point with the occasional inspiration that shifts the genre (MOBAs are basically warcraft gameplay, and Royales are FPS last man standing games). They're still new games though.

That reminds me of the ship of Theseus. There are some games that are so closely related to those that inspire them that there's little difference. Not just straight sequels or remakes, but what Urtuk is to Battle Brothers, for example. If you've played Battle Brothers to the point of exhaustion, then Urtuk won't appeal.

I guess more than that it depends on what the barriers are to revisiting the past. If you literally try and replay an old game then the interface or the resolution can be the hindrance. Times have changed. If it's that you played the game to saturation, then how much of that ship needs to be changed to feel new.

For me the game needs to feel sufficiently different. MOBAs were born out of DOTA, sure. But something like Smite changes the feel to such a degree that the game feels different. But the difference from DOTA, to DOTA2, to LoL, just isn't sufficient to make me want to play them after the time I sunk into DOTA.

 

[.matthew.]

For me the game needs to feel sufficiently different. MOBAs were born out of DOTA, sure. But something like Smite changes the feel to such a degree that the game feels different. But the difference from DOTA, to DOTA2, to LoL, just isn't sufficient to make me want to play them after the time I sunk into DOTA.

There were several MOBAs in WCTFT before DotA came on the scene, and honestly I liked some of them better at first (they just lacked the persistent development that DotA had so ended up falling well behind in popularity). I haven't bothered with DotA 2 or LoL at all, I had my fill of the first and by the time they made the standalone versions the community was so toxic that it wasn't worth the aggravation.

 

[Dozmonic]

There were several MOBAs in WCTFT before DotA came on the scene, and honestly I liked some of them better at first (they just lacked the persistent development that DotA had so ended up falling well behind in popularity). I haven't bothered with DotA 2 or LoL at all, I had my fill of the first and by the time they made the standalone versions the community was so toxic that it wasn't worth the aggravation.

I wasn't aware of any, but if you work in the industry I've no doubt you're right. I only started to play dota because more people were playing it rather than the hero siege maps that I preferred. Toxic communities are tricky. Sometimes it's the competitive nature of the game. I led a reasonably successful 1.6 clan almost 2 decades ago. The community was called toxic then, but when you compare it to what you see in rust or PUBG these days, it was pretty tame. Competition seems to breed toxicity, until you get to the higher levels where mutual respect starts to take over.

 

[.matthew.]

Competition seems to breed toxicity, until you get to the higher levels where mutual respect starts to take over.

True, but a big part of it for MOBAs comes from the fact you can see what your teammates are doing at all times and you often have time to check in on them, That and it's more dependent on teamwork than many other games.

As for the higher levels being less toxic, I would suspect that's less about respect (although it will exist) and more about the punishments that are handed down that can burn their accounts and destroy their stats, not even going in to prize money and that.

 

[Overread]

Toxicity isn't a measure of skill nor level but more one of upbringing and personal qualities of those taking part.

That said I would also say that moba and a lot of online games, by their design are very odd. Teamplay is required to win, but the game actually rewards selfish play slightly more than team play. For example you get gold to upgrade your character, which increases your performance. You get more experience at the end based on your game performance. So in game you want more gold which you get with more kills and, importantly, you get more gold when you make a kill. This means if someone else on your team swoops in and kills something you've been attacking they get the gold pay-out and you only get a supporting payment.

Suddenly there's an element of selfishness within the team system.

Plus there's the aspect that unless everyone on the team knows each other before the match; many will not unit perfectly during a match when they are randomly placed together. People get stressy and everyone wants to be in charge because there's no team unity.

Another aspect which adds to the stress is daily targets. It's not just playing the game, its winning as fast as you can so you can meet daily targets and time slots to play. Winning isn't enough its winning as fast as you can whilst in a random group of people with limited communication and teambuilding elements; ontop of some mechanics in game which reward personal performance above team performance.

All that added together can produce a more stressful environment where toxicity can set into the population and once it becomes an established norm, getting rid of it is no simple task (especially because once it becomes normal you get people who act toxic just because they can)


I'd argue that at higher levels its less about the daily personal reward and more about the team win; teams have organised plans with players having set roles that they perform and understand and which fit into the team aspect. You're not worried about kill steals and such its far more about the team winning.

 

[Foxbat]

I’m starting to think you guys are playing A Game Of Acronyms...

 

[Foxbat]

I fired up Capitalism 2 and ran through the tutorial. It seems to get good reviews (and it was cheap at Gog.com) but I’m not sure if it’s for me.

 

[Rodders]

Alien: Isolation is on sale at the Steam website for Alien day, (which is today). I downloaded the game and two DLC's for just over £8.

 

[Toby Frost]

It is very good indeed.

I bought The Outer Worlds, which seems to be a cross between Fallout and Firefly. It's pretty entertaining so far.

 

[Phyrebrat]

@Toby Frost I'm so pleased to hear you're sticking with AC2. It's my favourite game on the franchise and although the mechanics are improved in later games, nothing can replace Florence as a setting (my favourite place on the planet, I think). Brotherhood is good and I have to admit to man-weeping <ahem> at the end of AC Revelations. I think the franchise foundered a bit until Black Flag (although Unity is beautiful to look at), then it got back on its feet again.

Funnily enough, I rage quit Star Wars The Force Awakens Lego yesterday because of a supremely annoying mini-game on the prologue Endor level. It's based loosely on 80s Defender Arcade game where you have to fly along a side scroller avoiding simple asteroids that appear in ones and twos at the top or bottom of the screen. It sounds easy but the controls are sluggish and there's no real skill.

Alien: Isolation is on sale at the Steam website for Alien day, (which is today). I downloaded the game and two DLC's for just over £8.

I really enjoyed this game up till a point where I had to get a keycard to open some doctor's door - I got the keycard but the Alien AI leanrs how you play and I was constantly getting killed. I gave up 2 years ago because spending 2 hours creeping around then running back to hide in the same locker seemed like a false economy in entertainment. The game's exceptional though and I might fire it up again.

pH

 

[HoopyFrood]

It is very good indeed.

I bought The Outer Worlds, which seems to be a cross between Fallout and Firefly. It's pretty entertaining so far.

I really enjoyed Outer Worlds, it was a small but layered game, felt like the right sized RPG for me. Direct enough that I didn’t get annoyed and felt like I was overlooking or missing out in potentially loads of other stuff, but fleshed out enough that when I did go exploring and stumbled over stuff it was was fun and interesting. Loved how colourful and lively things were, as well. I enjoyed Fallout but my main gripe was every time I stumbled across something, it turns out it happened a hundred years ago and all that’s left is skeletons and holo tapes. People are alive in Outer Worlds! And when I first opened those doors onto the main Groundbreaker part, wow. I also really enjoyed the companion aspect. I never elect to travel with companions in other games, but I loved how much they added to the game, the way they would even chat just between themselves. At one point I was in a five way conversation between me, my two buddies and two NPCs. There must be an incredible amount of potential dialogue trees depending on who you take where.

Also something that hit me only after I finished was there was no Sex Sells capitalism. No scantily-clad neon women, no raunchy adverts, it was refreshing. Nice LGBT+ representation, including my own tiny minority, which I don’t think I’ve come across before in any media; blimey, I exist!

One thing about it, though, and is still my main gripe for RPGs in general is there still needs to be more depth to your involvement in the story. I get that it’s hard, considering the nature of RPGs is self-insertion, so you can’t make decisions and events too rigid, and games are starting to have more places where choices do effect the outcomes and have consequences. But the thing that I felt this game needed was to make the Board feel like an actual threat, and also make our character feel like an actual threat. Because characters in the game can say as much, but if nothing particularly happens game-wise then those words feel empty. I admit I did speed through the story towards the end,

Spoiler: Some mild to moderate spoliers

but I think I got one, maybe two threatening video calls from the Board and that was the extent of them trying to stop me. Everyone else in the game seems terrified of the Board, tales of people being stalked and disappearing, people ending up in rubbish chutes, the whole side story involving the Lottery...

couldn’t my character get dragged into a dark alley and roughed up at least once?

But yeah, generally really enjoyed it. Not sure it’s got the extreme replayability of Skyrim, say, but I could definitely see myself playing it a couple more times, if for nothing more than being a Complete Corporate ******* next time.

 

[Toby Frost]

I really enjoyed this game up till a point where I had to get a keycard to open some doctor's door - I got the keycard but the Alien AI leanrs how you play and I was constantly getting killed. I gave up 2 years ago because spending 2 hours creeping around then running back to hide in the same locker seemed like a false economy in entertainment. The game's exceptional though and I might fire it up again.

I remember this and I think it's one of the hardest parts of the game. I would recommend:

Spoiler: this

Throwing the noisemaker past the alien and down the corridor, and then turning left. Even this isn't guaranteed, but it does at least let you get away from the doctor's office. I found it was best to never run and rarely walk if you could sneak instead.

I tend to play RPGs quite slowly, and explore as much as possible, so I reckon I should get my money's worth out of The Outer Worlds. It's early days and I've only got one minion, who reminds me of Kaylee from Firefly. I like the look of the spaceships and the landscapes. It has a similar retro feel to Bioshock and Fallout, but doesn't have the decayed look of either. So far, so good.

 

[.matthew.]

I tend to play RPGs quite slowly, and explore as much as possible, so I reckon I should get my money's worth out of The Outer Worlds. It's early days and I've only got one minion, who reminds me of Kaylee from Firefly.

Same, except it can be a problem too... spending so long essentially screwing about means I usually get bored and end up losing interest. The Witcher 3 and The Original Sin games are the only exceptions I can think of in the whole wide world of my Steam RPG catalogue.

You're not the first person to mention Kaylee either I've had someone tell me as much, and watched a little review video that said so to. It's enough to make you think there was some definite Firefly love in the writers room.

 

[Luiglin]

Got Alien Isolation off Steam for £1.50.

It's already got my nerves on edge and I've not even seen or heard the Alien as yet.

My advice... don't play it in the dark when you have cats mooching around.

 

[Toby Frost]

I actually find the androids just as sinister as the Alien. They come from the very bottom of the uncanny valley, deep in the Swamp of Nope.