What are you playing?

[TunaCasserole]

Quake Brutalist Jam 3 - I'd been on a Quake hiatus for a couple of years, but this might be the biggest deal since Arcane Dimensions in terms of effort/scope. Fully replaces weapons and enemies (though some sounds are not replaced). 77 maps, separated into main section + "new faces" (first-time mappers) + "resurfaced" (adaptations of maps from the first 2 brutalist jams)

Omg same! I just became aware of that project and it's so freaking impressive. I haven't made it through even half of them yet, but I feel like it's taught so much both visual style and level design at breakneck pace.

If anyone's into that primo mod goodness you can find it here: https://www.slipseer.com/index.php?reso ... iii.549%2F

[bumbervevo]

@skullmeat

I love when people make new games for retro consoles. Not that I don't appreciate indie devs' efforts already, but I'd love if even one quarter of the indie devs making retro-style games today did so for actual retro hardware.

We also need to return to FM synthesis!

You should also check out Micro Mages! Made specifically for NES hardware. Super fun little game to play with friends.

I've been playing a ton of Hades 2. I hadn't played it since before the full release. The game feels a lot more polished and fleshed out, so I've really been enjoying playing through it again. Started up a new save file and already dumped a good 5-10 hours into it.

Fiancee picked up Cassette Beasts and it's been fun to watch her play. We haven't had much time to get invested in it since we're still unpacking and the living room just isn't cozy enough yet for a game like this.

[CnEY]

I suppose I ought to mention a couple of games that have had demos before/during/after Next Fest that I have spent over half a dozen hours on (each).

Darkhaven - a very Diablo-like game by a dev team that includes some veterans from both Diablo 1 & 2 and Torchlight 1 & 2. It has a kickstarter going, though I'm rather worried it seems unlikely to meet its goal.

Nox Mortalis - first-person dungeon crawling mixed with a bit of survival crafting and horror, with a PS1 aesthetic. Not the kind of game I'd expect to be into at all, and I reckon its systems are rather straightforward, yet I'm finding it really enjoyable. Honestly aside from the few surprises, the aesthetic and soundtrack makes it a rather mellow experience. I've heard it compared to King's Field a couple of times (which is something I've never played but have been wondering if I should look at it at some point; I am not exactly a FromSoft enjoyer). The main reason I've spent a long time with this is I'm exploring everything I can, including all sorts of extra half-implemented nonsense out of bounds lol, I reached the "end" of the demo in less than half the total time I've played now.

[ward]

Nox Mortalis - first-person dungeon crawling mixed with a bit of survival crafting and horror, with a PS1 aesthetic. Not the kind of game I'd expect to be into at all, and I reckon its systems are rather straightforward, yet I'm finding it really enjoyable. Honestly aside from the few surprises, the aesthetic and soundtrack makes it a rather mellow experience. I've heard it compared to King's Field a couple of times (which is something I've never played but have been wondering if I should look at it at some point; I am not exactly a FromSoft enjoyer). The main reason I've spent a long time with this is I'm exploring everything I can, including all sorts of extra half-implemented nonsense out of bounds lol, I reached the "end" of the demo in less than half the total time I've played now.

The name reminded me of Arx Fatalis at first, but it doesn't look like that at all. It's giving me early 2000s vibes when it comes to the graphics (... but more colorful. I miss games that feel like this. The modern stuff that goes for realism all looks and feels kinda samey to me. So, that's on the list now.

[TheLeatherMushroom]

I can currently pushing the boundaries of my handheld docked with various stalker mods from my 1TB stalker drive (yes I am thoroughly aware of how bad that sounds), IORTCW and Blood because I love Blood! Going to try Battletech later now I have gone into my handhelds bios and forced it to use 4GB of available RAM for VRAM :) :)

[skullmeat]

Stellar Blade. Say what you will about it being a "gooner game" but its a refreshing take on a genre I love, hack and slash. That said, if I'm gonna be running around staring at some characters ass for 4 hours, at least make it worth looking at.

[chiefterror]

various stalker mods from my 1TB stalker drive (yes I am thoroughly aware of how bad that sounds)

Yeah so uh, what's this all mean? Guess I missed out on learning what a "stalker drive" is supposed to be...

EDIT: I'm assuming you mean the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

[CnEY]

The name reminded me of Arx Fatalis at first, but it doesn't look like that at all. It's giving me early 2000s vibes when it comes to the graphics (... but more colorful. I miss games that feel like this. The modern stuff that goes for realism all looks and feels kinda samey to me. So, that's on the list now.

Yeah no not too much like Arx Fatalis (I've seen that one played and don't think I'd be into it).

Glad it's on your list now, since I also forgot to mention the demo literally has a Zweihander in it.

You might also want to look at Alaric if you like that aesthetic.

[TheLeatherMushroom]

various stalker mods from my 1TB stalker drive (yes I am thoroughly aware of how bad that sounds)

Yeah so uh, what's this all mean? Guess I missed out on learning what a "stalker drive" is supposed to be...

EDIT: I'm assuming you mean the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

Yep it is a 1TB SSD Full to the brim with mods made in 2010 that are no longer available, translations, weird fan patches. The original build of OLR and LADC plus tonnes of nonsense.

I promise you there are definitely no photos of my local member of parliament...

[the_skotts]

I've finally wrapped up act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3! My save file says it took 56 hours which from what I can tell is on the longer side of how long people spend in act 1, but I like to poke around so that makes sense.

This is my 3rd attempt at playing BG3 and this is the farthest I've made it so far. I think after about 20 hours I really started to get into it and hit the point where I was really looking forward to playing. One thing that I think has helped me stick with it this time is switching to controller. I split my play time between a Steam Deck and my desktop so only having to remember one control layout has helped a lot.

I'm very much looking forward to the playing through act 2!