What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Cthulhu.Science]

Timberborn - cute "city builder" with Beavers. Nice water physics.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I recently bought a football management game called We Are Football. I thought it looked a bit more relaxing than Championship Manager, which always had me shouting in despair at my useless players. Now I'm shouting in despair at my useless players in this new footie management game. Alex Ferguson has got nothing on me when it comes to giving my PC the 'hairdryer' treatment.

Ragequit!
Ragequit!
Ragequit!

The game may change but the anger remains the same.

ooh, wouldn't it be great if you could actually do a simulation of the post-match dressing room in your game where you could decide to go and pick up a useless player, pin him to the wall and give me 'the hairdryer'.

Then depending on his stats he might storm off in a huff or perhaps instead start crying.

 

[Foxbat]

Went back to We Are Football after calming down. I had staff that were overworked - a couple of the backroom staff even quit saying they'd never worked in such chaotic conditions. I decided to give a motivational speech but, apparently, it wasn't the right time. The staff just looked at each other in embarrassment.

Looks like it was my David Brent moment.

What makes it worse is I've been in the position listening to a boss talk nonsense and thinking 'what is this arsehole doing?'

 

[thaddeus6th]

Bought a Mega Drive classics bundle the other day. Playing Streets of Rage was pretty nostalgic. I got to the third or fourth level. Then tried Streets of Rage II. In both games it was a wrestler who ended my game.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Bought a Mega Drive classics bundle the other day. Playing Streets of Rage was pretty nostalgic. I got to the third or fourth level. Then tried Streets of Rage II. In both games it was a wrestler who ended my game.

The one that looks like Ultimate Warrior and charges across the screen and uppercuts you... remember him well

 

[BigJ]

Just wrapped up my NG+++ playthrough of Sekiro, nabbing the fourth and last unique ending and the last of the achievements. My brother (who stopped after his NG run) thinks I'm insane.

Not sure what's up next on the docket. Have the Tomb Raider Survivor Trilogy (the ones released from 2013-2018) downloaded onto my xbox, as well as Mechwarrior Clans. On my PC I have Horizon Forbidden West, God of War, Everspace 2, and Stellaris, and that's just the bits of my backlog I've decided deserve my attention. At some point my brother or I will cave and pick up Shadow of the Erdtree.

Of course, if I just need a quick dopamine hit, there's always Starcraft 2 co-op, or Hardspace Shipbreaker, or the new Call of Duty (I know, but it was on game pass, and actually Black Ops 6 has my favourite COD campaign since Modern Warfare 2019, and I'm enjoying the multiplayer more than I have in years despite closing in on 40, though not enough to play more than a match or two at a time).

 

[thaddeus6th]

The one that looks like Ultimate Warrior and charges across the screen and uppercuts you... remember him well

Even before I encountered him I was wondering if that would be it. And so it was.

 

[Foxbat]

Picked up a new F1 management game called Golden Lap. It was cheap and it looks interesting. Spent the first couple of hours figuring out how to get it running. Now I find there’s no manual and no tutorial so I’ve been searching youtube for videos on how to play. Why do software companies apparently go out of their way to piss off their customers like this? Frankly, if this game turns out to be a dud, I’ll never buy another game from them (funselektor).

 

[Foxbat]

With regard to my previous post, I found an excellent video tutorial for Golden Lap (my biggest problem was understanding tuning the car in the game). It's looking like exactly the kind of thing I am looking for so hopeful that it's fun. I've downloaded a mod for 2024 season.

 

[Toby Frost]

I loaded up the two Half-Life add-ons, Blue Shift and Opposing Force. They'd both extremely good but dated, not just by visuals but by content. Both include quite hard puzzles and absolutely odious jumping elements. Somewhere between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, mankind discovered that jumping in 1st person games is simply not enjoyable, and the whole thing, ironically, fell away.

 

[Rodders]

I really loved those two.

I wasn't sure whether to get the Star Wars: Outlaws on Steam as i doubt my PC could run it. I passed in the end.

I've been playing Sniper Elite 5 to get the special kills. Currently replying SW 4 to try and get some more of the achievement medals. Quite enjoying it, but SE5 is my preferred choice.

I'm not too sure what to play next.

 

[Bugg]

The Metroid Prime games really nailed jumping in first person, which was just as well

 

[Toby Frost]

Aaaand then I started up something called Dying Light, which appears to be entirely 1st person jumping. So far, so slightly mediocre.

 

[Foxbat]

Coming to the end of my first season playing Golden Lap. I decided to play a 1970s mod and, as the screenshot shows, things were more dangerous back then. In the same race as the one that caused Peterson's demise, I told my driver (Jackie Ickx) to push in heavy rain and he also crashed but walked away unscathed.

The game is okay but I'm not sure how much replayability it has. I suspect once you've played through a season, you've pretty much covered it all. The developers say they are working on a big update so maybe that can add a bit more variety when it arrives. I'll probably try a 2024 mod and see how that goes.

 

[Foxbat]

I started playing Stalker: Clear Sky - the sequel to Shadow Of Chernobyl. It starts off with an interesting premise. You are tasked with preventing Strelok reaching the centre of the Zone. This is the character the player plays in Shadow Of Chernobyl. It starts off quite well and you eventually end up in the same areas as in the first game. This time, different factions have control of certain facilities. It feels much harder than the first game but that could be my own ineptness coming in to play. About two thirds through, things change and you end up in new areas as you try to make your way to the power station to stop Strelok. It very much feels like you are a rat navigating a maze because, despite all the window dressing, there is only one way in and one way out. Of course, the path is blocked by unfeasibly large numbers Monolith (a faction) troops out to stop you. I did actually make it to the final section but immediately recognised it as merely a very slight variant on the last sections of the first game. I gave up at that point. What started out as an interesting world and fight for survival, had become a very tedious and unimaginitive shootemup.

It looks an attractive game but it's really just a load of lipstick slapped on a pig.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I'm playing Battle Brothers, which is quite a fun game. Graphically basic, it's a bit like if you run your own version of the Black Company in a fantasy (but low magic/generally realistic) world. Even on Beginner you've got to pay attention in the turn-based battles. it's basic enough to grasp easily but has enough complexity/variety to keep things interesting, so far, at least.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been playing Half-Life 2 and its additional content. It really is so well-made. The mixture of puzzles, fighting and the introduction of story is almost flawless. It's interesting that, despite its police-state setting and near-continual violence (and the slightly incongruous "Ravenholm" gothic-horror section), I think of it as a "nice" game. I think it's because the characters are charming and at times quite amusing: there isn't the usual unconvincing bunch of tough-guys growling about honour at each other. As a result, its world feels very three-dimensional and convincing.

While it's pretty linear, it also gives lots of opportunities for exploration and little bits of storytelling: a group of burned bodies beside a lonely house, beached ships suggestive of an environment catastrophe, worried citizens hiding in tenements while Gordon Freeman leads an uprising around them.

It's such a shame that a third installment was never made. I like to think that Gordon and Alyx got together, although there would have be problems at the wedding when Gordon was required to say "I do".

 

[Astro Pen]

 

[Foxbat]

Playing Second Front.

I started gaming many many moons ago (before personal computers). First, it was Chess but then I moved on to strategy boardgames (I could never get into miniatures - I think I liked the abstract nature of moving counters on a map). I say strategy but they varied, often dropping to the tactical level. That was when I discovered Squad Leader. Since then, I think I've been looking for Squad Leader's computer successor. There have been notable attempts. Valor and Victory being one, but I was put off by how difficult it was to create custom scenarios and how few scenarios there actually were in the package. Also, I'm beginning to doubt the developer's commitment and think it could have reached a dead end.

Tigers On The Hunt was another. Visually (with the right mod) it was the closest to SL but with an incredibly unfriendly and click-heavy interface. It was close but no cigar. Not bad for a one-man effort so it deserves to be mentioned in dispatches for that alone. I believe the creator suffered a serious illness (a stroke I think) and has said that's pretty much it as he needs to prioritise his health. Understandably no moredevelopment there either.

Now, Second Front is the latest and I'm hopeful. The AI appears to be pretty decent (I was always a poor player so it doesn't take much in my eyes to be good AI). I'm enjoying it so far. It's in a kind of cartoonish 3D and the only complaint I have so far is that it is incredibly fiddly dealing with multiple squads in multi-level buildings. It's very easy to select the wrong unit and move it to the wrong place because of all the visual clutter associated with multi-level buildings. On the plus side, development seems to be ongoing with Commonwealth forces added as a patch (many other developers would have released this as a DLC). That all being said, I think this may be as close as we get to the SL Holy Grail