What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Black Barney wrote: nono, he's only level 7 so he should 100% focus on Story. Once he's finished story, he's gets auto-risen to 20. The he should concentrate on milestones.

Yeah, that's the "public event" thing, and the Strikes "once available" thing. I don't think you can do Strikes until lvl 18 or something, right? Do the story missions, but be on the lookout for Public Events. If you see one, pop on over and mix it up to score good loot. Even if it seems out of your level (it may well be) there will be big guns around managing things and you can reap rewards. This was how it worked in D1, at least. I would see little dudes in their lvl 5 armor running around as some drop ship pooped out Fallen Captains and I would kill them before they hit the ground. Everyone wins.

Strikes aren't great in D2. they take 20 minutes and aren't the best way to grind. Public events are the NUTS in D2 and the most efficient way to grind.

Yeah, I jumped into three or four of them when I was doing the story missions. It sort of reminded me of the similar missions in GW2 and Rift, except it seemed like the D2 events were shorter.

Black Barney wrote:

also, that sounds like a much more fun way of playing Terra Mystica. I still have an UNPLAYED version at home. i probably need to get the digital version to learn it.

I saw a copy of Terra Mystica being played at a local game convention, and looked at the rules while waiting for the game to form up (4 players already, so I wasn't invited). I read through them a couple of times and came to the conclusion that I was too stupid to play Terra Mystica. The Steam version's rules aren't any clearer, and its tutorial flat-out sucks, but I can keep restarting the game until I get the rules down.

I kind of wonder if anyone actually knows how to play Terra Mystica or if everyone just acts like they do.

I played Nidhogg A LOT with my kids over the weekend...what a fun game.

I read through the rules very very carefully of Terra Mystica as I’ve always been the rules explainer of my previous play groups.

... I have no idea how to play the game and , more importantly, I don’t really “get it”


Hey so I watched Dunkeys review of Mario Odyssey who opened by saying his most anticipated game now is Mario Odyssey 2. I watched gameplay and was smiling the entire time, not seen since Super Mario Sunshine for me. That city level looks incredible. Between this and Breath of the Wild makes the Switch seem like a real contender, after years of absolute garbage Wii crap. I’m really happy for Nintendo and hope they can keep it up

I was looking at the specs of Xbox One X (or whatever it’s called), really impressive but I would need a 4K HDR (?) television to take advantage of it. There’s a reason I don’t PC game cuz I object to having to upgrade equipment. Also there are zero launch titles and the console comes with ZERO games. What are they doing?

Mario Odyssey is as if they managed to put pure delight into a ROM cartridge. There is something clever or surprising like every two minutes. And it plays faster and looser with conventions...but it also has things that are literally exactly the same as they were in 1985.

The hat thing is BRILLIANT. Especially because you can usually take control of classic Mario enemies- you can be a Bullet Bill, a Cheep Cheep, a Lakitu, or even a whole stack of Goombas. If that doesn't make you smile, you are an inhuman monster.

I've laughed out loud at some of the comedy, gasped at how awesome the level design is, and marveled at how smartly presented new concepts are. Encountering a completely new mechanic that is 100 percent shown and not told is a wonderful thing.

The moon collecting is also genius. There are TONS of them...most of them totally optional. Sometimes you just find one. Others require you to go through a secret area and complete a fairy difficult puzzle. Both are equally rewarding.

The only issues I have are that I wish it had the multiplayer of its predecessor (which was a HUGE hit in my family) and I don't like that some of the control functions require the dual Joycon thing- I play almost exclusively as a handheld.

It is truly a masterpiece, and it may be the best Mario game to date- mainly because it is essentially the same game Mario has always been but updated for today.

Switch is the real deal, man. I loved Wii U and Wii. But this may be the best machine they've done since SNES.

I am bummed at the things I've heard about how Odyssey wants to force motion controls on you. I hate that stuff. And like you, I only use it in handheld mode.

So, I've finally tried Witcher III. There were three choices for me. GTAV, Doom and Witcher III. W3 was the cheapest.

First thing is, it seems my laptop is not strong enough to run the game on the lowest setting, so it's kinda choppy but very playable. However, I can't do the oft-recommended hard mode since combat does require quick reflex. So I play it on normal.

First impression isn't all that strong, long-winded story section with very little action. I know, strange thing to complain, since I know what I'm getting into. When the game sort of released me to its world, it feels an awful lot like playing in Westeros. All the war and horrible stuff. I really like that the initial characters that I converse with doesn't feel like they're one dimensional characters. I met a compassionate commander who request less grain levy from peasant, only to later had the peasant whipped because the grain was bad. Also a hunter who lived away from other people because he's a freak. Geralt (the PC) offered cure if he had lycantrophy, but it turned out he was gay. The first village has a lot of little stories which are actually interconnected. Very interesting. But conversation can take a while, and sometimes I'm just not patient enough.

Combat-wise... well, here's my main complaint of the game. W3 is often regarded to have an excellent combat system, to be played on hard, etc etc. But it has its issues. Let me talk about the system first. You have light attack, heavy attack, parry, dodge, and two different swords (one for monsters, the other for humans). Sounds simple right? You also have bombs and a crossbow. You can apply different oils to your swords, depending on enemy. You have potions to enhance combat abilities. Then you also have five different "signs" or spells: force push, burn, shield, mind and immobility field. Then you have to eat to recover life during combat. The thing is, a lot of these are just smoke and mirrors. Sure, it's interesting that every enemy is probably vulnerable to a certain sign, a type of bomb (yes there are multiple types of bomb), and oil. But it's a matter of opening the (very convenient) bestiary. One-on-one battle can be interesting, but a lot of the battles are against multiple enemies, and that boils down to rolling/dodging around, stab, and repeat. I'd say not worth it to play on the hardest difficulty.

(I haven't touched the leveling system and its set-collection mechanics, inventory & durability, crafting, alchemy, etc, etc)

But other than that, I have near to no complaints. I feel at first the environment was drab and boring (the first two maps are very similar), but I've warmed up to them. The quest system is not as locked as GTA, I like how it works. You check the village board and get quests. In addition, this also reveals question marks which are not quest but points of interest. This could be loot, bandit camp, monster nest, etc. That's good, because a "quest" involves long conversation, which I don't always want. There's a fast travel, but you can only do it from certain points, at sign posts or boats. Not as convenient as Skyrim, but I like it. Horse riding is done excellently, especially for long stretch of road in which your horse can automatically follow road without you steering it. While I dislike the alchemy/oil/bombs system, I thank the developer for the meditation system. When you meditate, all your consumables are replenished automatically, providing you have at least 1 alcohest in your inventory.

Other nit-picking: Armor looks BAD. Seriously. I heard it will be good when you get Witcher gear, but at this early levels, I look like a deserter.

Final nit-picking: On quests, it is a lot more involving than Skyrim, which is both a good and a bad thing. Skyrim's so non-offensive I can play it for hours. This, I have to think why I let a person die for petty crime. Same thing for combat. Witcher combat can be exhausting, even on normal.

Keira Metz is one super sexy sorceress.

Im sad you didn’t get gta v, I just bought it for my best friends birthday. Can’t wait to go back to playing it myself but I figure I should finish Destiny 2

It was really close though. The final decider was price.

I put several hours into Witcher 3 a while back. The quests are neat, the characters are neat... but I eventually fell off it because after over 20 hours I didn't feel like I was any closer to achieving anything in the story whatsoever. It felt like one of those movie hallways that just keeps getting longer.

I enjoyed W3 and finished the main quest and many of the side ones. I played at the Hardest level and the combat became very samey. I used 2 spells, the Shield and Fire ones, never crafted anything, and rarely used oils. It was only the next to last boss that really gave me trouble. I enjoyed the small stories and how Geralt had an exasperated attitude towards some of the dumb quests the peasants would ask him to do. The three Witchers playing 'Did you ever...' and doing shots and dressing in drag was one of the funniest video game interludes I have seen.

I am with hotseat. I was plugging away and digging it, but it just got boring. it is very pretty, but I was diving for weeds or something and thought--what the fuck am I doing this for? I could be a cowboy shooting an electrified Moon Ape right now.

I am back at ZELDA:BotW now. Having a good time with the t h i c c Gerudo ladies. Some bird man sang me a song and I ate some tasty cactus fruit to ward off the sand lizard's lightning attack. See? that's what I want in my adventure games.

Witcher 3 is a TREMENDOUS disappointment. The second one was amazing! It was one of the best RPGs I've ever played. 3 continues on with the awesome writing, great scenarios, intriguing concepts...and then shits the bed by making it open world in all of the worst possible ways.

I got to the point where I had no idea what the fuck to do other than to check god damned job boards so I quit. I do not play video games to check job boards.