What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Vladd67]

I've cracked open Mount and Blade Bannerlord again now that it's fully released. The mechanics are a bit convoluted at times, but considering it's a grand strategy, an RPG, and a third-person medieval combat simulator, I suppose that's to be expected.

My favourite tactic - spec bows, mount up, and harass the hell out of the enemy until they lose their minds and attack my army's shield wall.

You can change the view to 1st person

 

[.matthew.]

You can change the view to 1st person

I know, but I prefer 3rd person for the situational awareness

 

[reiver33]

Drive On Moscow - one of those PC games where units perform better when controlled by the AI.

 

[Toby Frost]

Sir Loin de Boeuf has joined the party!

 

[Venusian Broon]

I have been mostly fishing in Skyrim Special Edition

 

[Foxbat]

I finally solved the painting mystery in Oblivion. It turned out that it was a fairly linear procedure and I'd missed one crucial part of it.
Also uncovered and joined the Thieves Guild.

I've actually (finally) completed the main quest. Many days of frustration, thumping keyboards and general gnashing of teeth later I have to say that it was probably the least enjoyable part of the whole game. I really have no time for parts that are difficult simply for the sake of being difficult (and camouflaging deficiencies).

I'll probably move on to Skyrim soon but, right now, just chilling out doing a few minor quests. I've found a doorway on an island that leads (by the look of it) to a whole new adventure so might be on Oblivion a little longer than I expected.

 

[Toby Frost]

I recommend going through the magic door!

I've been playing Oblivion too. One of the things I love in sandbox games is stumbling upon odd little things in the game - in-jokes and amusing weird things. I bought some stuff from an alchemist, who casually observed "By the way, is there a fine for necrophilia around here?" When I said it might be 500 gold, she replied "Oh, that's nowhere near as bad as the last place!" and got back to work. Okay...

The Thieves Guild missions are quite fun, especially if you're quite good at sneaking anyhow (having the magic lockpick helps). I agree that the main story is a bit weak. The Oblivion stuff is pretty tedious. To be honest, I think the dull combat doesn't help at all. Hammering the "swing sword" button and occasionally running away to heal gets old quickly.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Returned to Crusader Kings 3, playing it more as a roleplaying than strategy game, and enjoying it more for that. Also, being able to create a character thanks to a patch is a good thing.

I founded the Goose family, led by their heroic founder Aethelgoose Goose, Duke of Gooseland (formerly East Anglia). Between him, his successor Gooseric Aethelgooseson Goose, and my current player character (Richard Goose) we've expanded to claim Devon, most of Wales, and Burgundy after a daring/bonkers decision by Gooseric to attack the kingdom of France (and somehow won).

 

[Toby Frost]

I've also been playing a bit of the Spiderman game. It really is exceedingly good. The inevitable decline of your jolly, klutzy scientist friend into a complete maniac is really well done and actually quite moving. And the repackaging of J Jonah Jameson into a conspiracy-theorist DJ (clearly modelled on a real-world villain) is genius. I've never been into Spiderman (or is it Spider-Man?) but this is a really high-quality game.

 

[.matthew.]

Returned to Crusader Kings 3, playing it more as a roleplaying than strategy game, and enjoying it more for that.

Reckon that's the only way to play it. I always end up really enjoying the early game but then it becomes too much micromanagement and min/maxing as time goes on.

I've never been into Spiderman (or is it Spider-Man?) but this is a really high-quality game.

Worst 'popular' superhero. I've always found him to be the absolute worst. Even most of the villains are total jokes. It really felt like a young kids' thing, more than a serious attempt at the genre.

 

[Toby Frost]

Personally I find the whole superhero genre impossible to warm to: you have the jolly silly ones and the "dark" sulky ones who think they're deep. I actually find Batman & co more ridiculous than Spiderman, who is at least honest about being daft fun. Sometimes the genre is entertaining, but the vast majority of it just seems absurd to me. Each to his own, though. Anyhow, that just goes to show what a good job the computer game has done.

 

[Foxbat]

I still think the best superhero game was Freedom Force (mainly because of all the mods). There was nothing more satisfying than beating down a bad guy with a lamp post you'd just pulled from the tarmac (except maybe throwing a car at a building and watching the whole lot collapse into a pile of rubble).

 

[Rodders]

I bought three 2000AD related games for less than five Earth monies on Steam.

Judge Dredd 95
Dredd vs Death
Rogue Trooper.

 

[Raincloud Man]

I still think the best superhero game was Freedom Force (mainly because of all the mods). There was nothing more satisfying than beating down a bad guy with a lamp post you'd just pulled from the tarmac (except maybe throwing a car at a building and watching the whole lot collapse into a pile of rubble).

Certain damage types were brokenly overpowered though, I remember in the second game you could make a custom hero that basically just charged things up like Gambit and then threw them at bad guys. Nothing but super throwing ability and the kinetic charge, except instead of cards he'd throw cars.

 

[Foxbat]

Certain damage types were brokenly overpowered though, I remember in the second game you could make a custom hero that basically just charged things up like Gambit and then threw them at bad guys. Nothing but super throwing ability and the kinetic charge, except instead of cards he'd throw cars.

The trick was always balance. If a custom hero is too strong it just becomes boring. It ws easy enough to set your own limits on hero powers.
I always found having your hero a bit weaker than the strongest bad guy was always more fun. Alternatively, having a medium strength hero come up against wave after wave of weaker villains but giving him/her a finite resource of energy that had to be recharged (I think it was called energy X or something) meant that there were times that called for a more survival based strategy rather than just out and out wham, kapow, kayo.

And for anybody interested, I've just checked and Freedom Force in on sale at GOG for 79 pence

 

[Venusian Broon]

The trick was always balance. If a custom hero is too strong it just becomes boring. It ws easy enough to set your own limits on hero powers.
I always found having your hero a bit weaker than the strongest bad guy was always more fun. Alternatively, having a medium strength hero come up against wave after wave of weaker villains but giving him/her a finite resource of energy that had to be recharged (I think it was called energy X or something) meant that there were times that called for a more survival based strategy rather than just out and out wham, kapow, kayo

^^^^^
This, so true(forn many games!) Can't be too easy!

For example, really enjoying Skyrim on Legendary Survival difficulty at the mo' - where you start at a level that makes a mud crab a relative difficult opponent. By careful progression I'm now at a level where I could happily take on a basic bandit dungeon/camp (well, as long as I have a tanky companion and a few decent conjugation spells)

Still so many nasty, much more badass enemies hiding out in the bits of Skyrim I haven't dared enter...

...and if I'm ambushed by a couple of cave bears, or more than one troll.....RUNAWAY.

 

[Foxbat]

I've reached level 22 in Oblivion and I'm presuming that the bad guys increase in difficulty as your character progresses. I've just finshed a quest against the toughest goblins I've come across yet. Maybe it's just on this particular quest (the one where you need to find a jade emerald for a widower farmer) but they just suddenly became a problem for me.

 

[Toby Frost]

IIRC, goblins do change in toughness a lot throughout the game, and many of the other creatures do as well (although perhaps not as much).

I seem to have acquired some special skill in archery, because occasionally when I shoot someone they either fall over or bounce into the air.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Yep, the level-scaling in Oblivion is why the levelling up is so atrocious. You can easily become progressively weaker as you level, and you can't always choose when this happens because non-selected skills affect how much more powerful you become. It's a terrible system.

 

[psikeyhackr]

I am playing Mob Control.

The user plays against a bot but it assigns human opponents to the bot so you can win or lose shields or points against other players around the world. I have not figured out all of the rules. There is also something about cards that I don't have a clue about.