Whatcha Been Playing?

[kintaris]

I am currently looking for a woman dressed in black and white, who smells of lilac and gooseberries. I'm very much enjoying it.

I'm at the other end of that particular story - 100 hours or so later...

[ADumican83]

Picked up DOOM on PC for the free weekend. Only just started and it expires tonight. Could somebody tell me if my save game will carry over if I buy the game at a later date, or will the save files expire with the game tonight?

[Flabyo]

Splatoon 2 mainly (Salmon run is soooo good), and I've also started a season 11 run in Diablo 3 with a class I've not played before: the mage.

Say what you want about Diablo 3 and it's balance and hostile online community, that core game loop is ridiculously addictive even when you know all the plot backwards...

[ColinAlonso]

Played the early parts of Until Dawn and kinda bounced off it. But I'll give it another go.

I've been playing the PSP version of Final Fantasy on my commute. It is far easier than I was expecting. I wonder if they toned down the difficulty from the original. My biggest problem was getting lost, but I persevered without a map and I have the airship now.

Played some Tearaway (after buying it two years ago ). Still early days but it's pretty. There's a point where I had to decorate a pig. A bow tie was in the preset decorations, but I also wanted a top hat which wasn't there. So I made one.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

On the subject of Resident Evil 4: Ashley... definitely Ashley. Not a fan of escort-missions. Still have my PS2 save file, so may get back to that eventually. On the postponed-to-be-attempted-again-later pile.

At least Resi 4 isn't giving me motion sickness! Thank God for third-person perspectives!

[Alex79]

I encountered a completely game breaking bug in Witcher 3 last night. Geralt kept walking on his own. Just wouldn't stand still! It made it impossible to pick up loot or talk to people! Quit game and started again but no joy. Bizarre, and Google says I'm not the only one who's had it. Really hoping it goes away!

[Chopper]

Geralt: I've done this frying pan quest over 5m times now. Enough already.
*walks off into sunset*

[Todinho]

A fitting end to the epic tale of the Witcher!

[kintaris]

I encountered a completely game breaking bug in Witcher 3 last night. Geralt kept walking on his own. Just wouldn't stand still! It made it impossible to pick up loot or talk to people! Quit game and started again but no joy. Bizarre, and Google says I'm not the only one who's had it. Really hoping it goes away!

Are you on the Game of the Year edition?

I haven't had this specific bug but I've had all sorts of others, and been told that there's something not quite right. A lot of these issues have persisted through a few restarts but most have resolved themselves.

One hilarious (read: terrifying) bug I keep coming across is the game simply forgetting I have any save data at all for a good two or three hard resets of the console, before suddenly bringing them all back again. This happened when I was about 90 hours in, thought I was going to faint.

For those that care about this sort of thing, the GOTY edition on the One has some maddening issues with achievements not unlocking. Just keep making alternate saves and hard reset the console if you think one should have popped and hope for the best, unfortunately.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

A game I'm in no hurry to finish (as I'm limiting myself to one credit runs) but currently playing is Snow Bros. I was the first arcade PCB I bought, and is perhaps the reason I travel down this dark path of tracking down old arcade games. I will die a very broke, though happy, man.

It's interesting revisiting the game years later after exploring the world of Cave, Eighting/Raising/etc shmups, in that I'm much more aware of the scoring system in the game now, and how much of that Toaplan DNA has evolved into later releases.

Obviously, years ago playing the game in the arcade, you're more focussed on seeing how far you can get with the limited time and money available. Now that I have the time to explore, I have a much greater appreciation for it, and any apprehension I had about spending money on an official board (I paid around $400 AUD, PCB only, last year) rather than just MAMEing it is long gone. No regrets at all.

[Alex79]

I encountered a completely game breaking bug in Witcher 3 last night. Geralt kept walking on his own. Just wouldn't stand still! It made it impossible to pick up loot or talk to people! Quit game and started again but no joy. Bizarre, and Google says I'm not the only one who's had it. Really hoping it goes away!

Are you on the Game of the Year edition?

I haven't had this specific bug but I've had all sorts of others, and been told that there's something not quite right. A lot of these issues have persisted through a few restarts but most have resolved themselves.

One hilarious (read: terrifying) bug I keep coming across is the game simply forgetting I have any save data at all for a good two or three hard resets of the console, before suddenly bringing them all back again. This happened when I was about 90 hours in, thought I was going to faint.

For those that care about this sort of thing, the GOTY edition on the One has some maddening issues with achievements not unlocking. Just keep making alternate saves and hard reset the console if you think one should have popped and hope for the best, unfortunately.

Sounds bad! No it's the standard edition although fully patched obviously. I've narrowed it down, I failed to mention the bug was when I played via remote play on Vita. Despite lots of people saying the play on remote play the bug happens to me every time I connect. Really annoying as I liked the idea of playing Gwent in bed haha. (Even though the only person I've found to play so far is the scholar in the first tavern you come across and he's far too easily beaten, it's still fun to play. Kinda wish it was like Final Fantasy 8 where you could challenge almost anyone to a game of cards).

[PressEscToExit]

I've had a go at the Pro Evo 2018 beta, having not really touched a football game since 2006. It's broadly the same as I remember, ie deep, satisfying and intensely frustrating. There's often a big disconnect between what I want to do and what I can actually pull off, particularly in defense where I routinely gain control of the player next to the one I want, or where an easy interception could be made if only somebody could just jab a foot out.

Round about when I stopped playing they made some big changes defensively, and I still find myself missing the more binary approach to things like slide tackles from the early PS1/PS2 days, whereby you just picked a direction and fired away. The way defenders are sucked in towards the ball rather than having free movement to cut off angles feels quite limiting, but I never really got to grips with anything they added since Pro Evolution Soccer 4 so I'm probably missing a lot.

I'm having fun with it regardless. Street Fighter is off the menu indefinitely so it's been nice to play something competitive with random folk for a bit.

[Stanshall]

I've been playing Dark Souls again for the first time in a few years. My PS3 went out of service a good while ago and I replaced it with an XBone S which has turned out to be a fantastic purchase.

Anyway, Dark Souls on BC is probably the highlight for me. Despite this probably being my favourite game ever, I've only actually completed it once. It just made such a deep, lasting impression I've never been back, nor felt I 'needed' to, despite playing DS2 and 3 probably a dozen times, and Bloodborne that many again.

This is so wonderful, though, and so steeped in atmosphere, I can't really express how much I love it and how at home I feel in the world. I'm really soaking up the environments this time and the backgrounds. While DS2 is more varied and colourful and DS3 has greater detail and so on, there's something much more singular and powerful about the use of colour and light here. Darkroot Garden is so so green, it's menacing. Undead Burg is like a gauzy, limpid, impressionistic version of Boletaria Palace and Anor Londo - sigh - is like the opulent European kingdom of your wildest dreams, a peach sun setting on polished marble. It's so gorgeous. I love the sense of place, the river running under the bridge of Sen's Fortress, the terracotta hills of Anor Londo, little touches that you may never look at directly but they add life.

It's an overused reference, certainly, but for many reasons, Dark Souls is still my favourite game.

[KSubzero1000]

Oh, really? I never would have thought that our resident Dark Souls fanatic had only ever played through the game once.
Your description is on point though, and very enjoyable to read as well. May your current playthrough rekindle (arf arf) your love for decades to come!

[kintaris]

I have managed to cheese through the whole of The Witcher 3 again on NG+ Death March difficulty using only Quen and Axii, without upgrading anything or doing any side missions... but now I'm stuck on the final boss, whom it seems I cannot cheese. It hurts all the more that I'm only getting what I deserve by perhaps not playing it "properly". Looks like I'll have to reload an earlier save and trudge around after some better gear...

[Alex79]

...and I keep getting killed by bloody Drowners.

[kintaris]

...and I keep getting killed by bloody Drowners.

Oh, me too. I just ran past them, and virtually everything in the game. I've now spent nearly a fifth of this total playthrough getting killed by the very last enemy.

I can't blame the developers - no one should have played it like this

[Alex79]

Trouble is there isn't really any benefit from killing random enemies because you don't seem to get XP from it. Don't really get anything aside from a few crafting bits. I suppose that means grinding is out of the question which is a shame as I do like a good grind in an RPG now and then.

[kintaris]

Trouble is there isn't really any benefit from killing random enemies because you don't seem to get XP from it. Don't really get anything aside from a few crafting bits. I suppose that means grinding is out of the question which is a shame as I do like a good grind in an RPG now and then.

Yeah it's a bit odd, my advice is to tackle some of the bigger quests whenever you feel like that. You get massive XP hits, often for little effort. You do get some XP back from enemies but only noticeably if they are well above your current level. The game really opened up for me on my first playthrough after I stopped trying to grind and went after quests and enemies well above my level. There's a significant bump in effectiveness once you have levelled enough to put on enhanced witcher gear.

Just don't take it to the opposite extreme as I have now done on my second run... at least stop long enough to pick up some decent equipment, and make some backup saves! Such a fool...

[Chopper]

I can safely say that Elite Dangerous is the most impenetrable space game I've ever played (and I've played most of the X- series).

All information is embedded deep within:

a. 1 hour 30 minute long Youtube videos, at unspecified points,
b. Flame wars on Steam,
c. 2 hour developer videos showing a new gameplay feature, eg planetary landings, or
d. utterly obscured by the many beta versions, full versions, versions for different platforms.

It's the perfect culmination of years of space game obscurantism. Enjoying it so far.