General Gaming Megathread: What are you playing?

[Resardiv]

Damn, you only downloaded two games that came out in 2024?
(I'm currently bitter about my total 2.5 TB of internal storage being nearly maxed out right now)

I have more storage — but, I do not want to store important data on my D and E drives as they are 10 years old. They're slow and unreliable. Only my C and G are m2 SSDs

Spoiler: STALKER 2 first impressions, no story spoilers

My biggest complaints right now would be that A-Life 2.0 needs more fixes to make it feel more alive but it's serviceable and the game itself works well and is fun to play. The other complaint is how CRAZY the enemy AI can act. I played the originals on the highest "difficulty" because how difficulty worked in those games meant that the higher it was the less bullet-spongey both enemies and you were, essentially lowering it meant you took less damage but so did enemies. And I'm no stranger to STALKER games and their core gameplay designs so I picked Veteran. Well, holy fuck is it hard to not only spot enemies at a distance in the wild but they have little trouble tracking you and being consistently good with their aim. I had to turn it back down to the medium or normal mode and have enjoyed it far more. Grenades don't always land beside me but never are thrown in a way that feels incompetent, enemies still hit me very often with automatic fire and shotguns from far away but it hurts a hell of a lot less.
Otherwise, it's been more than what I initially felt skeptical about. New areas, old areas with the familiar old buildings and landscape but also with expanded areas that weren't there before is welcome. Garbage feels more like Garbage and is probably bigger than 2x of the original area, I haven't gone to the original area yet but I see it on the map. Cordon is mostly the same though which felt neat. I don't know if the mods Call of Chernobyl and Anomaly were wrong about how the map was interconnected or if the new GSC decided to change it up but now the map is one big open map but it seems like to get to the major areas, you still pass through more narrow passages (like the checkpoint at the end of Cordon is the only way in and out from what I saw, you can't entirely avoid it). Garbage is north of Cordon and the new starter zone (called Lesser Zone), it seems the Swamps from Clear Sky are to the East of Cordon, I had trouble figuring out where Truck Cemetery was but I think it's on the West of Garbage. Or, since I haven't actually been to these places, I could be completely wrong but they do look familiar based on the details I can find on the map. There's more than just the Lesser Zone as an additional zone to the map it seems.

No, but in all seriousness, I like how difficult they've made the game. Playing on veteran makes it so you don't have the resources to take every fight and encounter. It's a valid strategy to just run away, which is seldom something you see in other games. Like in FNV, where you break the economy and difficulty in only a couple of hours. Even >30 hours into the game and I'm not even close to being sufficiently armed or wealthy, a large sum of your dosh is spent on repairs and mods making sure you stay in line with the difficulty curve.

It's still possible to one-shot most humans in the head with Skif's pistol if they're not wearing heavy armour, wasting your valuable ammo on body shots will quickly ruin your weapons. That's why I've settled for the Spas and a bolt-action sniper, think it was the M701 Super High damage as soon as possible is of the utmost importance, especially against muties. Nullifying Bloodsuckers with lightning-fast buckshot is a godsend.

Spoiler: SPSA-14 Psalm 89:20 - 24

20;I have found David SPSA-14, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21;so that my hand shall ever abide with him,
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22;The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23;I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24;My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

Spoiler: Actual spoilers for STALKER 2 in regards to faction names, affiliations, and size

Ward - One of the biggest factions so far I know of is the Ward, I did not align with them. Seems like a Duty met Military type thing which makes them more tolerable than Military and less tolerable than Duty.

Spoiler: My opinion on factions

I was ambivalent about Ward when I started, but a leader was a total areshole at Garbage, which made me change my mind and say "FUCK Ward".

 

[Mr Fish]

No, but in all seriousness, I like how difficult they've made the game. Playing on veteran makes it so you don't have the resources to take every fight and encounter. It's a valid strategy to just run away, which is seldom something you see in other games. Like in FNV, where you break the economy and difficulty in only a couple of hours. Even >30 hours into the game and I'm not even close to being sufficiently armed or wealthy, a large sum of your dosh is spent on repairs and mods making sure you stay in line with the difficulty curve.

Different strokes for different folks but for me it honestly just sounds like the game is going to become a tedious chore if I'm reduced to a snail pace. I'm not much for a "simulation experience" exactly. It's why when I played RDR2 I finished the tutorial, got to the camp, went out and killed, skinned and brought back one deer to base and asked myself if I wanted to do that repeatedly for the game and the answer as just a huge bloated blubber-fat no.

Doubt I'll play on Veteran mode if it's like that.
Good that you're enjoying yourself though.

 

[The_HighwayMan]

We don't talk enough about gaming. Tell us what you are playing the most of right now, plus any thoughts you might have on the game.

This weekend I'm going to try and finish up the UFO: Afterlight Campaign for the second time. Its a really solid game, the most refined and polished of the series, but I still feel the combat would be much better turn based.

The mad max game. its not the best, but i like it well enough.

 

[Resardiv]

Different strokes for different folks but for me it honestly just sounds like the game is going to become a tedious chore if I'm reduced to a snail pace. I'm not much for a "simulation experience" exactly. It's why when I played RDR2 I finished the tutorial, got to the camp, went out and killed, skinned and brought back one deer to base and asked myself if I wanted to do that repeatedly for the game and the answer as just a huge bloated blubber-fat no.

Doubt I'll play on Veteran mode if it's like that.
Good that you're enjoying yourself though.

More instant gratification for you.

 

[SquidWard]

I have more storage — but, I do not want to store important data on my D and E drives as they are 10 years old. They're slow and unreliable. Only my C and G are m2 SSDs
View attachment 35737

No, but in all seriousness, I like how difficult they've made the game. Playing on veteran makes it so you don't have the resources to take every fight and encounter. It's a valid strategy to just run away, which is seldom something you see in other games. Like in FNV, where you break the economy and difficulty in only a couple of hours. Even >30 hours into the game and I'm not even close to being sufficiently armed or wealthy, a large sum of your dosh is spent on repairs and mods making sure you stay in line with the difficulty curve.

It's still possible to one-shot most humans in the head with Skif's pistol if they're not wearing heavy armour, wasting your valuable ammo on body shots will quickly ruin your weapons. That's why I've settled for the Spas and a bolt-action sniper, think it was the M701 Super High damage as soon as possible is of the utmost importance, especially against muties. Nullifying Bloodsuckers with lightning-fast buckshot is a godsend.

Spoiler: SPSA-14 Psalm 89:20 - 24

20;I have found David SPSA-14, my servant;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21;so that my hand shall ever abide with him,
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22;The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23;I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24;My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,
and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

Spoiler: My opinion on factions

I was ambivalent about Ward when I started, but a leader was a total areshole at Garbage, which made me change my mind and say "FUCK Ward".

I understand how to play the game. I've played all three of the originals unmodded on Master, I beat the three Anomaly main storylines with (mostly) default settings. It's not unfamiliar to me, it's the AI and how it performs in combat.
I'd rather have it where a few shots is all it takes for me and the enemy if centermass is hit or 1-2 shots for low armor headshots both ways but have enemies have to deal with actual line of sight barriers. Seems like the AI just ignores any objects that a bullet can pass through (like a fence/gate, thin wall, or breakable object) and definitely ignores them once combat starts if they can pass through it (like a bush). They notice you too well at a far out distance, they track you too well when you try to rotate, and they have insanely good accuracy despite whatever weapon they have is. It's one thing when a Monolith or Duty soldier is beaming you down with a decent mid or high tier weapon, it's another when it's two bandits who saw you looting pieces of bread in a house from a hill across the road that carry the shittiest weapons that even Sidorovich wouldn't try to sell to a moron.

I'll give Veteran another go when I finish the game and after they fix the issues with AI and A-Life 2.0. I don't have hours to burn wasting all my bandages to 30% condition TOZs loaded with buckshot from a mile away because they got spawned in behind me.

Doubt I'll play on Veteran mode if it's like that.

This was the first hour or two of experiences in the Lesser Zone to be fair, I haven't tried Veteran again. But they spotted me quickly even though I wasn't making much noise at all and it was night time. I died three times to that squad and the third time I ran up a hill, along a road, beside a few bushes with a large tree I decided to bandage up but one of the fuckers still saw me through the bushes between us and killed me before I even finished holding the key down for a bandage (I decided to bandage here because the positioning of them and where I ran should have made him unsure of where I was exactly so he knows my general location but not enough to reliably shoot at me). I hit load last save, hit escape, lowered it to normal and suddenly enemies did that less often and the times they did, it wasn't instantly sending me back to the load screen.

I enjoy the game a lot, just some AI improvements would be welcome. Maybe I was just had some unlucky moments initially on Veteran, but I'm not trying again for now until I see a patch log that states there was changes implemented or until I beat the game lol.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I bought a couple of games during the Steam winter sale such as Sandland, Catquest 3, and Infernax

Currently I am playing Infernax. It is a decent little Metroidvania style game with an easy mode that is welcoming to gamers like me who don't play the more difficult games in the genre.

A couple of weeks ago I did give Stalker 2 a try but I got my ass kicked so fast that it stopped being fun.
I am not that good at games that seek to be 'realistic' when it comes to elements like combat.
Guess it shows my age

 

[Mr Fish]

I am not that good at games that seek to be 'realistic' when it comes to elements like combat.
Guess it shows my age

Nah it's not an age thing, just a preference thing. Some people really want to have a sim experience and others want games to be games.

For me it all depends on which game I'm playing as to whether or not I am willing to deal with difficulty. I have so many games to play and not enough time for them all so with some games while I enjoy them I do not want to drag out the experience too long and having to reload because of failure just drags out the game for me so I'd prefer just beating the games on an easier mode.

In other games I enjoy difficulty and having to 'prove myself'. I think back on games back when I was a child and how difficult they were and when I replay a lot of them they really weren't that difficult to begin with it just felt that way because of a lack of experience and skill. But that mystique that games had when I was a kid. That feeling of danger and missing out on areas because they were too high risk to venture meant that I had something to look forward to the next time that I replayed the game. The only way to get that feeling is to play on higher difficulty tiers but that also means you have to 'git gud' so to speak and, well, that can take a long time. Question is am I willing to invest it into this particular game?

Now I don't want everything to be streamlined but games that opt for "realism" often just come across as tedious to me. It doesn't really have to do with difficulty but rather arbitrary design decisions that make the game unfun to play. I looked at the recent Underrail Infusion alpha gameplay showcase for example and in Infusion when you change gear your character will have an animation for "changing clothes", at which point your mouse cursor is turned into an hour glass and you can do fuck all with interacting with the game and I just know that this level of "realism" is going to piss me off.

It's a question of how much "clunk" you can withstand. Too little clunk in a game makes it so streamlined and smooth that there is no texture to it, it's a smooth ball that your fingers find understimulating to explore. Too much clunk however makes the game an absolute chore to deal with. Doing the simplest of things require way too much mechanical input and wonk. Add harsh difficulty modifiers to that hefty clunk and yep I'm out.

 

[The_Proletarian]

The original Fallout overland map tracked the terrain underfoot while traveling. Travel speed was affected, and in the case of encounters (or just choosing to stop and explore), the game would use a terrain appropriate encounter map.

View attachment 35475

Alas this was lost in Fallout 2; perhaps they didn't even notice the feature in the first game.

What was lost in Fallout 2?

 

[Mr Fish]

So.

Nier Automata - *sigh* It's a fine game for the most part, weebness aside, but the foundation of the premise, setting and narrative structure is basically shattered in Path C making a lot of it nihilistic and meaningless and it really sucked the enjoyment out of the game for me.

Threshold - Fun little 1 hour first person point and click game about you operating a train pass with some spooky stuff. It has some replayability. It's not worth the asking price however. Wait for it to go 60% off then grab it.

You Will Die Here Tonight - Basically top down REvil 1. It's fine but I refunded it because the game is 3.5 hours according to howlongtobeat and I just don't think it is worth the asking price. When it goes on sale for like 5 bucks I'm definitely picking this one back up.

FlipWitch - A metroidvania porn game. Huge heaving titties flopping all over the place. It's fun so far. It's simple but also very polished.