What games have you been playing lately?

Warcraft, bit by the bug again it seems.

Back on WoW after a 3 year break. Still trying to get used to all the changes.

wotzgoingon wrote: »

I'm playing on PC and it is a very well optimized game the framerates are excellent.

That's what impressed me the most after I decided to have a go off it yesterday.
It must be the most well-optimised game ever made.

I'm running it at 1440p with everything turned up full blast on an R9 Fury with Vulkan enabled and for most graphically intensive games I'm experiencing at least some frame drops with those setting these days but I don't think I've noticed any at all so far.

I wish ID would make the aforementioned WH40k game I want so much. I think they'd turn it into the real deal and crack that elusive mainstream market that no 40k game has managed.



I tried to go back to Civ6 for my "listening to podcasts game" but I really just don't think it's up to much.
They've consistently supported the game with DLC (bundled with the deluxe edition) and patches that have fixed some glaring balance and gameplay issues, as well as bugs and it runs pretty well now, but while I was in favour of the big changes they made early on paper, in practice I just don't enjoy the game.

The destacking of cities supposedly creates good strategy opportunities around city planning, but in practice all I find is that it pisses me off as I end up choosing sub-optimal positions either because it requires too much knowledge to do it efficiently (because each civ has their own best practice), or because you don't have the knowledge of terrain and resources until later in the game.

Districts take too long to build and repair, they conflict with the way the game handles borders, they destroy useful terrain, they're strategically inflexible because they can't be moved or demolished, they gate construction along certain paths in a way that overcomplicates early game progression.

I think a big help might be to push districts way forward to the industrial revolution and have access to the first 2 buildings from each district in the city centre district.
I don't think there were districts in the sense they use them in the ancient world anyway so it'd have realism as a side benefit.

Beyond that, Religion is still annoying and the mutual exclusivity of beliefs is both not fun and doesn't make any sense. It also irritates me that it's selected rather than an emergent property of your civ's culture.
Mechanically, the actual gameplay it enables, religious victories and so on are utterly uninteresting to me.

Trade routes are still a massive pain in the hole from a quality of life perspective (which is odd because the decision to have them construct roads was a really positive move in that respect). They're too easy to destroy and too labour-intensive to manage, especially late game.

I was listening to the Three Moves Ahead podcast (podcast about Strategy games) where they interviewd some of the guys from Firaxis and they were talking about Espionage and how they feel like it's historically important but they're never quite sure how to implement it. They still can't. It's just annoying. Almost any system that has no direct counterplay and that takes power out of the players hands is a bad mechanic IMO. I disable it in Civ 5.
The associated system of diplomatic intrigue and info levels is completely superfluous.

Units, experience and promotions have all taken a step backwards as well IMO.
There was something to the idea that promotions were overpowered in Civ5, as were legacy unique promotions, but the blandness and lack of dynamism of the new system is a poor effort at fixing that.
Civs' units felt more unique if they carried over their unique promotions (like Aztec Eagle Warriors healing 25hp after a kill, or double healing for Persian Immortals). It makes that unique unit not just 1 small buff for a period of time but rather a theme for their civ's units that encourages you to play to their strengths throughout the game.
Now you get a little temporary buff that barely registers in some cases and that's it.

And that ties into the overall way the Civs are set up in the new game.
They've added an extra trait - the leader trait, so now you get 2/3 uniques (tile improvements, buildings, units), a civ trait and a leader trait and while more uniqueness seems like a good idea in principle, in practice a lot of the traits don't synergise well, are underpowered and you're left beholden to a single aspect of a civ's gameplay to carry them totally.
Some Civs were like that in Civ 5 - not good at anything in particular - but there isn't a single civ in 6 that I enjoy playing with because none of them feel like they have a genuine emergent style of play, except when it's that they have an OP unit so you build it and go kill everyone until it becomes obsolete.

I'm burnt out on Civ5 at this point, after around 1800 hours in it, but it's still a much better game IMO and if anyone wants to get into the series, don't start with 6.
In fact, Civ 5 is still massively discounted on steam at the moment and you can pick up the complete edition for about €10. It's arguably the best TBS ever made so get it if you're into that sort of thing.

What's Stellaris like, does anyone know? I need another 4X or strategy game to fill the void.

I have so many games to play at the moment I dont know where to start. Not a bad complaint I suppose.

Currently playing:
WOW:Legion
The Division
Life is Strange
Overwatch
Destiny 2


Need to get to:
Battlefield 1
Fallout 4
Dishonoured 2
The Witcher:Blood and Wine
Mass Effect:Andromoda

I'm playing Doki Doki Literature Club at the moment, literally all I know about it is that it's a horror-dating sim.

It's pretty boring but the gf is insisting that if I don't play it we have to watch indimaus play it, which is about the only thing worse than playing a boring game. Writing poetry is not my idea of a game.

Its starting to pick up a little, I've never played a dating sim before ("uhh visual novels take a while to pick up" - try playing Zero Escape then)

One of the girls is very like my gf so I'm hoping that will add to the entertainment when it all goes crazy.

Roughly two hours in, it should be picking up soon afaik.

The music and art is bloody top notch though, looks and sounds great if nothing else.

Pter wrote: »

Look who is humble bragging about having a gf

It was more of an explanabrag, she's more of a waifu anyways



It's picking up now, finally...

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I've started my first assassins creed game as it was free, black flag, enjoying it!

Love the AC games.

In a way it's a pity that's your first one because it's the best in the series.

Although I've heard that Origins is pretty awesome.