What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Tunic looks like a lot of fun.

hotseatgames wrote: I had Paradise Killer on my steam wishlist forever, and now it showed up on Game Pass so I downloaded it on PC. I can already tell that the soundtrack is fantastic, award-worthy.

Pulled up the page for it. . . and I have no idea what it is about. Well it is free on GamePass and someone from here is interested so I guess I'll give it a shot.

Run around an island gathering evidence on a murder. I'm enjoying it but don't expect the best gameplay ever. But goddamn, that soundtrack.

Played my usual suspects: Payday 2, Orion: Prelude, & Talisman.

Payday 2 was the usual heisting, mainly to get to level 100 and reset my Infamy to get a new reward. Played with a bunch of noobs in the Mountain Master Heist on Mayhem level. I went loud immediately, and three noobs dropped in at various times, one dropping out completely after being downed too many times.

I think I need to tweak my policy of letting people in on Mayhem and above. There are new players, and that's great, but if you have no Infamy symbol after your name and you're not at level 100, I'm not letting you in. Time and time again, I've let new players in described above, only to have them flounder and rage quit. On Overkill and below, I'll gladly let them in.

Anyway, I'm playing with two new players and it's obvious that they've NEVER played on this level, including me. Yufu Wang was a flame-throwing bucket of hit points and the other two guys were getting downed constantly. So much so, that I had to hostage trade to get one back. One guy asked HOW MUCH HEALTH DOES THIS GUY HAVE? To which I replied, a lot. We kill him, and that's when the other player got taken into custody. We quickly finish up the requirements to leave (4 bags o' gold) and run like Hell to the helicopter. Fortunately, the guy in custody actually stayed, so he got the rewards.

Orion Prelude was played just to unlock achievements and to mindlessly shoot dinos.

Won my second game of Talisman, this time playing as the Wizard. The AI opponents were Thief, Warrior, and Dwarf. This time, the AI players were actually competent. The Dwarf actually made it to the Inner Region and the Crown of Command. Thief died first and I was down to 1 health and was cycling through Spells to get the Healing spell. Once I got that, I told the Dwarf-You had your chance to kill me, now I will hurt you a lot and slowly.

I healed myself and then made my way to the Inner Region, fed a mule and one life to the Vampire, easily killed the Pit Fiends with the Runesword and made it to the Crown.

The fight between me and the Dwarf was very much the Cloud City battle between Luke and Vader. Earlier, I cast Random on him and he lost all of his Strength down to starting levels. Then began the Force Psychic beating. Every time I won, I took away followers and objects that would make further fights go easier, and then when he invariably attacked me, there was no chance he could ever hurt me, but I could hurt him and gain a Life. Dwarf died by being defenestrated out a window tossed off the cliff and went to work on the Warrior. He was a paste eater, had a Talisman, more than enough Strength, but didn't bother getting into the Inner Region. He died ignominiously and I won again. I'm going to see if there's a way to ramp up the challenge on the AI characters next time I play, as they were no real challenge.

Finished Paradise Killer. It's not a long game, and I didn't wring all I could out of it, but I cracked enough of the case to get through the trial section at the end. This game plays much like your standard detective game. You roam a 3D island in first person, finding collectibles and various bits of evidence. You can unlock fast travel points, which costs money, and then you have to pay money to actually use them, which kind of sucks, but money is usually easy to come by.

The map is atrocious, and if they would have just added a fucking compass it would have been so much easier to navigate.

As is usually the case, the situation is not entirely as it seems at first glance, and the web of deceit is pretty involved. I had some theories that I didn't end up having sufficient evidence to support, but that's fine, I didn't need to get absolutely every detail.

This game has one of the best soundtracks I have ever heard in a game. I'd probably put it top 5. Even if you don't play it (it's on Game Pass), have a listen.

I've now spent about 2 hours with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Thoughts:
1. It is VERY Borderlands. If you didn't like Borderlands, you won't like this.
2. Having random melee weapons is a VERY welcome addition.
3. Ground pound is actually useful now.
4. It is structured very much like a D&D campaign, which is cool.
5. The writing is better than in BL3. I know that is a low bar.
6. Grenades are replaced with spells. This is cool, as they can do all sorts of things. The first time I dropped a giant ice ball on an enemy and it went flying, I laughed out loud.
7. I actually bought something from a vending machine. I never did that in Borderlands.
8. You finally get a proper character creator.

Haven't tried co-op yet, but I'm sure it will be much better that way, of course.

Question: What IS it? I saw a page a while back and while very exciting looking nothing described what the game is. An MMO?

No, it’s really just like Borderlands but instead of a vast open world divided into zones, there is an overland map you roam as a miniature chibi version of your character, which frankly looks dumb, going from encounter to encounter. The encounters themselves are traditional first person shooting / stabbing.

Kill things, open chests, etc. up to 4 person co-op, just like Borderlands.

hotseatgames wrote: I've now spent about 2 hours with Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Thoughts:
1. It is VERY Borderlands. If you didn't like Borderlands, you won't like this.
2. Having random melee weapons is a VERY welcome addition.
3. Ground pound is actually useful now.
4. It is structured very much like a D&D campaign, which is cool.
5. The writing is better than in BL3. I know that is a low bar.
6. Grenades are replaced with spells. This is cool, as they can do all sorts of things. The first time I dropped a giant ice ball on an enemy and it went flying, I laughed out loud.
7. I actually bought something from a vending machine. I never did that in Borderlands.
8. You finally get a proper character creator.

Haven't tried co-op yet, but I'm sure it will be much better that way, of course.

I'd hit the vending machines pretty hard in Borderlands. 90%+ of what it had was junk, but occasionally you could find a good sniper rifle or shield in there.

I never finished Borderlands 3, just kind of meh from top to bottom.

Continuing to enjoy Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. I have never played another video game that feels so much like a real D&D campaign.

I've started Weird West, and it's a neat game, but I really want the combat to be auto-lock on, and it is not. I am finding the gun fights harder than they should be, and it's just that I am not great with aiming on a controller.

Also played a little Mortal Kombat 11 for the first time in a long time. I enjoy the AI battle mode more than most, I expect. You pick three combatants, adjust their fight strategies, and choose someone else's team of 3. Then they fight each other, and you can watch the fight at 1x, 2x, or 4x speed. I get the same thrill that I get watching horse racing.

There are times that I like Jedi Fallen Order, and there are times it makes me so mad that my droid can't tell me where to go despite having a mostly full (if wonky) holo-map that I want to throw the controller.

I just started Tiny Tina's Wonderland and it is pretty fun. Voice acting is enjoyable and the writing gives me some laughs. My wife has to get used to the faster shoot and scoot combat, but I'm sure we will be doing split screen soon.

The maps for the encounter areas are surprisingly large and one can really use the obstacles to good use. I wish there was a Fate/Torchlight function to sell off items mid level.

the_jake_1973 wrote: I just started Tiny Tina's Wonderland and it is pretty fun. Voice acting is enjoyable and the writing gives me some laughs. My wife has to get used to the faster shoot and scoot combat, but I'm sure we will be doing split screen soon.

The maps for the encounter areas are surprisingly large and one can really use the obstacles to good use. I wish there was a Fate/Torchlight function to sell off items mid level.

Being able to transmute junk items to gold would be really nice.

I have beaten the main campaign, and I like what they have done with the post-game... the Chamber of Chaos or something. Basically randomized combat encounters that amp up chances for loot.

How is Tiny Tina different from Borderlands 2? I love B2, but the demo for TTW was just those levels from the DLC so not a proper demo I'm hoping.

mtagge wrote: How is Tiny Tina different from Borderlands 2? I love B2, but the demo for TTW was just those levels from the DLC so not a proper demo I'm hoping.

It's different, but not like "holy shit this is nothing like Borderlands" different. Grenades are out, spells are in. This is cool because spells are a lot more varied than grenades ever were. All of the gun types are here, with slight changes, although I'd say the shotguns have radically changed, and in my opinion mostly for the worst, but I did have one shotgun that was absolutely awesome. Sniper rifles can be strange, as I had one that shot goblin teeth in a circular pattern. Sounds neat but I actually hated it.

You now have a proper melee weapon slot, and this is probably the biggest and best change. The slam attack is now useful.

Vehicles are gone, replaced by a tabletop overworld in which you walk around a chibi version of your character. I think the vehicles in BL have all felt like shit to drive, so good riddance to them.

You get to actually make a character for once. You pick a class and can later add a second sub class, which can even be changed out later. It's all very flexible. The campaign is shorter than BL3 (this is a good thing) but you will surely be left with plenty to do after that.

If you enjoyed the Tiny Tina DLC from BL2, you would like this, since it's better than that was!