What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Bugg]

Conquered Asia Minor. Mithridates got what was coming to him Now back in Rome playing nice with Cato and Cicero. Think I'm off to Africa next. Expeditions: Rome is fantastic.

 

[Toby Frost]

To be fair, The Witcher 3 definitely has its own feel thanks to the Polish inspiration.

True. For me, a lot of the enjoyment of playing games - especially role-playing games - is the sense of exploring a new place. If all the elements of that place are entirely predictable, a lot of the pleasure of exploration disappears. I think a game needs at least one interesting new element in setting to work: the Polish elements of The Witcher, the weirdness of Morrowind, the comedy and industrial setting of Fable 3, and so on.

 

[Vladd67]

I have just started playing Vintage Story, think of it as Minecraft for grownups. I have seen it compared to those survival videos where they gather wood and mud and make a hut to live in. In this game everything comes in steps, to make a knife you collect a stick and two pieces of flint, then you knap the flint to make the knife blade which you combine with the stick to make a knife, the knife is then used to collect reeds to make baskets to increase the amount you can carry. To make other containers you have to find clay, make the raw containers then fire them in a fire pit you have made.I believe it is still in early access so there are probably wrinkles ahead but I would advise you to check it out. It's not on steam, it is only available from Home it is worth a look.

Ok I am a convert so just one more post to help explain why this game has gripped me.

Any rumours I was playing this until 2am are completely unfounded, I deny it completely, well maybe.....

 

[Foxbat]

Fallout 4 never ceases to amuse me. Exploring the island in Far Harbor, I approached an old truck precariously perched on the remains of a bridge. Hoping to find some loot, I found, instead, that the truck had become the home of a giant hermit crab. I think even the great Ray Harryhausen would have been impressed by the creators of this game

 

[Toby Frost]

The crab is awesome (and incredibly tough)!

 

[Foxbat]

I haven’t bought this, I’m simply keeping an eye on it. Why? Let me explain.

It’s a real time strategy game featuring zombies. Now, normally, I’d run a mile at the mention of RTS (I think it’s possibly the worst, most overrated genre of strategy game on the planet). This game caught my eye however because of one particular feature…you can base yourself anywhere in the world….meaning you can play in your own home from the safety of your own home. I like this idea. I like it a lot.

It’s still in early access but has a few favourable reviews. One reviewer said that he looted his own home and found nothing valuable…meaning the game is accurate. Others have mentionef the fun of defending their homes from zombie attack. If the developers continue sorting out the bugs, this might be my first RTS purchase in many a year.

Save 10% on Infection Free Zone on Steam

Choose any real region from the world. Choose your base of operations, then rebuild and readapt the buildings around you to create a self-sustaining settlement. Take charge of a group of survivors from your city. And when the night falls - Defend the zone from the infected!

store.steampowered.com

 

[Bugg]

Steam Deck arrived yesterday. I was very surprised as I wasn't expecting it to come until early next week.

 

[Foxbat]

Steam Deck arrived yesterday. I was very surprised as I wasn't expecting it to come until early next week.

Let us know what you think

 

[Venusian Broon]

So just about to get the Thrace short campaign award in Rome Total War remastered.

I was attacking the Greeks on Rhodes, and it just happened to be night when I went to storm the city...

...and had quite a lovely view of the Colossus as the sun set (Mountain on the left is the eastern part of Crete).

Historical. Nah. But I love how the battle map of the game accurately reproduces the strategic map. Why, oh why did they stop doing this?

 

[Bugg]

Let us know what you think

It's great, I'm very happy with it. I've tried several games on it now and it's running all of them very smoothly with a mixture of high and medium settings (medium mostly for shadows). I'm hoping it will help me get through my backlog a bit.

That said, I noticed the Fallout games are on sale on Steam. I haven't played any since 3 so tempted to pick up New Vegas and/or 4 at £3.99 a piece.

 

[Toby Frost]

I found a large fan-made campaign for the excellent RPG Shadowrun: Dragonfall, which I've been playing. It's very good.

Fallout 3 is very good, but dated. Fallout 4 is just superb. I've not played Fallout 76, as it's a multi-player thing and that doesn't appeal to me.

 

[Bugg]

I found a large fan-made campaign for the excellent RPG Shadowrun: Dragonfall, which I've been playing. It's very good.

Ooooh!

Mind you, I still haven't finished Shadowrun: Hong Kong

 

[paeng]

Panzer Corps 2 1946 DLC. Uses nuclear weapons and involves the invasion of the U.S. It gets tricky with latter operations because you will have to make surgical attacks while guarding flanks.

 

[Bugg]

I've been messing around a bit with emulation on the Steam Deck. There was (quite) a bit of swearing at first but, once I figured things out, it's actually pretty easy. My main reason was to play Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance again, which is working beautifully, and last night I got Lost Odyssey, which I have never finished, up and running. I own both games on their original consoles but I no longer have a Game Cube and my 360 is up in the loft and shall remain there

 

[Toby Frost]

I loaded up Saints Row IV for the first time in a while. It's mind-bogglingly silly: the plot is both pointless and complicated, and boils down to you running around a vaguely cyberpunk city with a variety of superhero powers, usually while dressed like a fool. The humour is childish but sometimes quite funny.

It's nice to play a game that is so dedicated to being a laugh, a bit like Sunset Overdrive: the main aim is giving you entertaining things to do. While it's absurd and trivial, the fact that it's actually fun makes me warm to the game and, in a strange way, care about what happens.

 

[Foxbat]

I tried RimWorld a few months back and it just didn’t click for me. I’ve recently been reading a lot on the game (including watching some videos on why it’s so awesome)
so I decided to give it another try based on what I had learned. So far, it’s going well and I’m quite enjoying it. First time around I felt there was too much micro-management but that’s not actually the case once you figure out the interface. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is to switch to manual the prioritising of work tasks and then set them to suit your situation. This seems to have solved the micromanaging problem.

Still early days but I’m hopeful I’ll finally discover why so many folk like this game.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I tried RimWorld a few months back and it just didn’t click for me. I’ve recently been reading a lot on the game (including watching some videos on why it’s so awesome)
so I decided to give it another try based on what I had learned. So far, it’s going well and I’m quite enjoying it. First time around I felt there was too much micro-management but that’s not actually the case once you figure out the interface. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is to switch to manual the prioritising of work tasks and then set them to suit your situation. This seems to have solved the micromanaging problem.

Still early days but I’m hopeful I’ll finally discover why so many folk like this game.

It's (at least in the early days) Dwarf Fortress Lite. The expansions have added a lot more on the basic game and there are many, many mods. That's one part of its popularity - so many people have modded it into loads of different directions. People like that.

 

[Foxbat]

It's (at least in the early days) Dwarf Fortress Lite. The expansions have added a lot more on the basic game and there are many, many mods. That's one part of its popularity - so many people have modded it into loads of different directions. People like that.

I bought the Ideology expansion and it actually seems to give a little more direction to the game. This is something I felt was somewhat lacking in the vanilla version. If I find myself finally acquiring a real taste for this game, there’s a new expansion piquing my interest (Anomaly). It looks very intriguing - full of horror elements like Lovecraft style monsters, I can see myself investing in that soon

 

[Foxbat]

I've downloaded the free prologue to Infection Free Zone and have been playing it a little. It looks interesting and I think it could have potential.

Overall, despite my dislike of RTS style games, this could be an exception for me but there's a big problem. The prologue is limited as you might expect. Instead of being able to set up base anywhere in the world (including, if you wish - and I do wish it - in your own home). That lack of setup is understandable because you don't want to give away too much with the free version. The problem is the lack of save feature in what is, for all practical purposes, a tutorial mission.

It's not the type of game to reveal itself within minutes of playing but do I want to spend hour upon hour playing through it just because I can't save it and come back to where I left off? Absolutely not. Would I buy the game based purely on the length of my attention span (I usually play a bit of gaming for around 30 minutes at most)? Absolutely not.

It may well be the case that if I can't be bothered going through the whole tutorial again just to get to the point where I left off, I will not buy this game. It would have been quite simple to add a limited save feature (say...save four times and then it locks out of any more saves). This would have allowed assessment of the game over a better, more relaxed time span. Big mistake, developers, big mistake. Or, then again, maybe it wasn't. Maybe there are flaws that they don't want revealed in the free version for fear of losing paying customers.

For now, I'll just sit back and see what happens. Right now, the odds on me shelling out for this game are probably 50/50. But it won't be anytime soon if I do decide to buy.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Returned to Age of Wonders 4 which has changed a bit with free updates. Might be about to win my first victory having shed some rust, with Jag Greenclaw, the leader of the Woodland Cats who ride around on white wolf mounts. I do like the look of the DLC but given limited time right now I'm going to wait a bit before deciding on getting it or not.