What Are You Currently Playing?

Robotality have suddenly woken up and released a trailer for Pathway. Been waiting for this for ages.

 

Endless Space 2 has taken over my gaming time at the moment. I hadn't played it much since early access but the Vaulters expansion got me enthusiastic again. The game's come a long way in the past ten months. I've finished one game as the United Empire (which I managed to win) and am now playing another as the Vaulters, which is proving to be a bit more difficult but no less enjoyable. Amplitude's games are exemplary in terms of UI and presentation - it's so slick and a joy to use, they hook me in like no other 4X games have before. So much so that a friend and I have been playing Endless Legend in multiplayer, too.

If I'm in the mood for something different I have re-started and been dipping into Shadowrun: Hong Kong. This is one where I jumped in on the Kickstarter because I loved the previous game, Dragonfall, so much, but then only played for half a dozen hours on release. It's brilliant, and the atmosphere and characters are fantastic, but it's text heavy, so I have to be in the right mood for a lot of reading!

 

Am playing the original "Quake" and "Doom" games on a PC emulator. I remember playing these on some really old 486sx single core Pentium processors, back in the 90s. Obviously in terms of graphics etc, they pale quite poorly by today's standards, but in terms of gamesplay, they're still pretty immense and straightforward. Plus adding all the mods & Mission Packs, certainly enhanced the games. And the good thing about these games is the relatively simplistic controls - you don't have to remember a shedload of key combos or turn manoeuvres to progress through to the next level.

 

I am playing The Witcher 3 in German. I have the exact proficiency in the language for this to be a challenge [and an occasionally comedic one, at that]. Keeping the voices in English, though.

 

I thought I'd give Stellaris another go over the weekend, to see what the 2.0 update is like. I wasn't as bothered by some of the changes as a lot of people seem to be but, after about 4 hours, I started to find it just as boring as before.

So, back to Endless Space 2, which is much more my kind of thing. I finished my Vaulters game, which was great fun. Each game I'm increasing the galaxy size, number of opponents and the difficulty. I'm thinking Cravers next, on 'Hard'.

 

I'm currently roaming the Montana countryside shooting militia and Cultists in Farcry 5.

 

Hey, me too! So far I’m enjoying the gameplay and graphics, but I feel a general sense of indirection with the game course as a whole.

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic MMPORPG.

I've not played an RPG before so this is a big learning curve for me. I played a few hours last night and it seems pretty enjoyable, but it looks like you might need to devote a lot of time to it.

First impressions are good.

 

Started playing Skyrim VR, but I didn't have time to get far into the game. Performance is definitely better than the previous VR mod, but I do miss being able to see my body rather than a couple of disembodied hands.

 

I'm back on Skyrim and very good it is too.

I'm also playing a game called Rogue Galaxy, which is a space trading game. It looks like Elite or Freelancer, but combat is much more like old naval warships. While I don't think it's got huge lasting appeal, it is easy to control so beats Elite already as far as I'm concerned.

Shadowrun Dragonfall and Hong Kong are both really good. I slightly preferred Dragonfall, but I thought they were both excellent games.

 

Toby, I played Rogue Galaxy... not sure it's the same game, though, as mine was a sprawling (too sprawling, to be honest) RPG.

I've been playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, and writing a wry comedy of my elf's actions (a bit like the Fallout 4 Diary of a Deceiver). First part will be up next week.

 

Rogue Galaxy was a PS2 JRPG made by Level 5.

I think Toby might mean Rebel Galaxy which is a space trading type game.

 

To clear it up if this


is playing then its Rebel Galaxy

 

Got my rogues and rebels confused there. I doubt I'll be leading an X-wing squadron soon.

 

God of War downloaded and ready to go - just waiting for it to unlock at midnight. I'm vaguely excited

 

Got to say, I'm unlikely to get it. I played the three main entries for the PS2/3, but giving Kratos a child is just asking for trouble. Either they've made his character too different, or they end up with him committing infanticide (again)/being unable to stop the kid dying. Those aren't great options.

Those aren't great options. I hope the game works, but Dad of War just feels like too big a shift for the World's Angriest Man.

 

Glad to say, after playing the first couple of hours last night, you're wrong on all counts. It's . . . incredible.

 

I played an interesting horror game called Monstrum on the PC. This feels like a stripped-down, procedurally generated version of Alien: Isolation set on a container ship. It also has hints of The Ship, a jolly little multiplayer game based on Agatha Christie novels, which I found strangely compelling and unsettling.

Monstrum has almost no back story: you start in a room on the ship, and you collect a number of objects to help you escape. Also on the vessel is one of three monsters: a ghosty thing, a sort of transluscent Alien with a flower for a head, and a hulking demon that looks oddly like Horace from Horace Goes Skiing. All are very sinister and want to kill you. And that’s more or less it. You creep around looking for parts, hiding and avoiding death. As per Alien: Isolation, you can’t kill the monster and, if it gets hold of you, you’re dead.

The setting is very well realised, and capitalizes on the sinister feel of abandoned ships. Every time you play, the computer generates a new ship, so you can’t learn where the items are. I actually found it more frightening than the better-produced Alien: Isolation, although it’s undoubtedly shallower and there's less to do. I could imagine this game providing a few hours’ entertainment to most people and, given its procedurally generated environments, a lot of entertainment to others.

 

Bugg, me, wrong? Unpossible!

Glad to be so. Still unlikely I'll pick it up (money, time, woe, me miserum etc) but if it's good, 'tis good.

 

I've avoided buying that game because horror games scare the heck out of me in VR. But I see it's $4.99 this weekend in the Steam VR sale, so I may just have to give in...