What Game Are You Currently Playing?

[Joshua Jones]

I just wrapped up a social experiment over the course of a couple months in a game called LifeAfter. It's a mobile zombie survival/3rd person shooter with a HEAVY emphasis on the social dynamics.

My experiment was into the different experiences between male and female gamers. To that end, I did a 2 month run as a male character and another as a female character, who were in every way identical apart from appearance (and the fact I pretended to be an actual girl as the female character). It was really interesting to see how people reacted differently to the same things based on perception of gender...

 

[Bren G]

Sid Meir's Civilization 4. Best of the series and IMHO the best game of all time. Though I can only play it twice a year. Too addictive and keeps me from writing!

 

[Foxbat]

And talking about what games are being played...found this on another forum and thought it was too funny not to mention here.

My partner plays the Sims 4 and has every single add-on for it. I tried getting into it a few times, but except for building property, It's really not my thing.

So, last week I downloaded an alcohol/drugs mod and a sex mod and played around for a while on it. Formed a gang, sold drugs, made sims have sex. It got tired quickly but was fun for a couple of hours.

I didn't realise that the mods work in the background, because the Sims 4 is a continuous game world.

When my better half fired up a game her neighborhood had a gang war going on and her couples were spontaneously having sex, smoking weed, sniffing coke, getting drunk and masturbating. Cops were busting people.

I heard cries of real shock from my partner who thought she'd been hacked.

I'm now in the doghouse for 'ruining' her idyllic neighborhoods.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Ha, that's rather good.

I'm flitting about a bit, played a spot of The Witcher 3 and returned to an old Civ VI game as Rome (it had a rare perfect starting location, with two mountain-guarded entrances to enough land for me to found about 10 cities or so without any military worries at all).

Main thing I'm sticking to is Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It's not perfect, but I do like the mix of Civ and XCOM. The races are nice and distinct. Enjoying the Dvar (Russian space dwarves). The Vanguard and Kirko are about refounding civilisations, and the Dvar just want to mine and make money.

 

[Foxbat]

Busy playing Armageddon Empires. An oldie but a goodie.

Decided to halt my Fallout 2 game for now (just about ready to take on the enclave in the end game). I always find the last part of any RPG the least satisfying and often most frustrating as you come up against near impossible odds most of the time. If I keep going right now, I’ll probably end up in a seething mass of rage and frustration after making so much progress so time for a break.

I’ve got my eye on a new turn-based strategy game called Shadow Empire. It’s a one man design/development team and I have most of his previous games and there’s not a dud among them. This new one is getting great reviews from strategy gamers but I’ll hold off until my new PC arrives.

For anybody that’s interested

Matrix Games

www.matrixgames.com

Note: in case you haven’t noticed, all games mentioned are post-apocalyptic. I seem to have a fetish for these.

 

[thaddeus6th]

You might be interested in Wasteland 3. Comes out in August, I think.

As does Pathfinder Kingmaker and Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning [dumb remaster name, but still].

 

[Justin Swanton]

I'm playing a game I developed myself: Optio. It uses VASSAL and recreates battles in Antiquity but unlike every other Ancients ruleset it has virtually no randomness - no dice. Here's a screenshot. Click on the image then right-click, choose "View Image" and use the magnifying glass to get a zoomed version.

 

[Foxbat]

I have VASSAL myself. A good bit of software.

 

[AlexH]

Golf Story
Death Squared (one of the best two-player games I've played)
Gorogoa

 

[Foxbat]

I’m still playing Armageddon Empires (I’ve never ever won a game). In my last turn, one of my recce units discovered a cult out in the wastelands. They lived in a place called Vault 13 so I’m guessing the game designer was a fan of Fallout.

 

[Justin Swanton]

I have VASSAL myself. A good bit of software.

Into Ancients gaming?

 

[Foxbat]

Into Ancients gaming?

I used to do a bit of boardgaming (Avalon Hill and the like in the days when I could find face to face opponents). I’m more of a WW2 gamer. I have a few modules for Vassal but they’re mainly WW2 or modern.

I do have the great battles series on PC (Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal) and give them a whirl now and then.

 

[Justin Swanton]

I used to do a bit of boardgaming (Avalon Hill and the like in the days when I could find face to face opponents). I’m more of a WW2 gamer. I have a few modules for Vassal but they’re mainly WW2 or modern.

I do have the great battles series on PC (Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal) and give them a whirl now and then.

I'm looking for playtesters if you're interested...

BTW I was also an Avalon Hill fan: Tactics II, Panzerblitz and War and Peace. Many happy hours.

 

[Colbey Frost 2]

Well, I was playing WoW Classic for the last 6 or so months, but I had to have an operation and when I returned home, I could not get back into it. I have since picked up Team Fight Tactics, but again, I'm not really into it (as in addicted). I actually started work on an Online Cyberpunk Card Game. I dunno if I'm allowed to post links, but I made a video of it for Youtube. I might try and get back into MTG, I dunno.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm looking for playtesters if you're interested...

BTW I was also an Avalon Hill fan: Tactics II, Panzerblitz and War and Peace. Many happy hours.

I’m neither skilled enough as a gamer to play one forensically or be able to articulate/uncover any flaws or solutions within a game system. Sorry but I have to decline your invitation.

Yes. Happy hours indeed with Avalon Hill

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been playing a game called The Procession to Calvary, which is entirely by one person called Joe Richardson. It's a point and click adventure, but the twist is that all of the artwork is taken from old paintings and animated like a Monty Python animation. It's very funny and silly. Recommended, and very impressive work for one guy.

 

[Foxbat]

Finally! I managed my first ever victory in Armageddon Empires. Playing as the Machine Empire, managed to locate an ancient nuclear submarine in the wastelands, recovered a warhead and nuked the last of humanity. The Earth is mine and their bones mingle with the dust.

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Never played any Ubisoft titles till last month when I got Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Finding it very enjoyable, slaughtering and shaggin' my way through ancient Greece. Love the time period and the effort they put into putting the history into the game (okay <cough> plenty of fantasy too....but Atlantis was first invented in Athens about then and most of the rest is mostly based on Greek myth.)

Anyway after 80 hours, on level 43 and still got half the map to explore and much assassinating to do. Even got my dad hooked on it.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I keep toying with getting Odyssey, but when I look at other options (Stellaris, for one, and I'm still in early stages of Planetfall) I always seem to go for those.

 

[Toby Frost]

I've been playing a game called Invisible Inc, which is a sort of stealth game in which a team of agents has to infiltrate a building. It's like the turn-based combat from XCOM, but with the emphasis on going unseen instead of fighting. The system is slick and the missions can be very tense. Although the background is nominally cyberpunk, the art style reminds me of Saul Bass' pictures from the 1950s and 60s.

Because the buildings are procedurally generated, the layout of the rooms can occasionally throw up a mission that's near-impossible to complete. The story of the game only takes place over 5 or 6 missions (although you can alter this). Overall, Invisible Inc is a very good stealth/strategy game and definitely worth a look if that's your sort of thing.