🕹️ What are you playing right now?

[Gormalysis]

Fallout 1, playing this again made me realise how much the Bethesda entries hold your hand. One thing I really like (that the modern games fail at) is how important a high speech skill is.

[SirStoneyOfBow]

With every Fallout title I’ve played, I try to start with an intelligence rating of at least 7, which usually allows to gain the advantage with speech checks and to obtain more skill points per level up. It does make a lovely difference.

[SirStoneyOfBow]

Following the completion ofIt Takes Two a few weeks back I just ordered Hazelight’s spiritual successor, Split Fiction.
This has been getting near universal acclaim with an average meta score of 91.
The trailers have blown me away, I will be playing this at the weekend.

[Metal Hammer]

I moved on to Age of Empires 3 this week, it's a lot different to the first two games.

[SirStoneyOfBow]

Obviously I’m not playing this one but this 10 minute trailer for Death Stranding 2 blew me away.
The first grew on me after a slow start but this may be a genuine game of the year. Graphically it even eclipses Hellblade II.
Comes out 26th June.

[binary]

Just finished the remake of System Shock. Absolutely loved it despite the fact it retains the old school attitude of "work it out for yourself" without any big yellow arrows to show you the way. Gripping atmosphere and one of the all time great bad guys in the shape of a computer who has had their ethics and morality removed (more relevant today than when the original version came out).

Now started Plucky Squire which has some cracking ideas and visual delights.

[Gormalysis]

Fallout 1 still, made it to The Master and he won't even talk to me just starts shooting as soon as I'm within spitting distance of him. This is annoying because whilst I can talk my way out of a difficult situation, I can't fight my way out of one!

[norse]

Downloaded R-Type Final 3 Evolved yesterday for a bit of self torture, it was on sale. I have always loved 2D shooters / shmups / STG's / whatever you want to call them, but they are known as perhaps the hardest of all genres!

Still remember the struggle with Super R-Type (SNES) three decades ago.

Still not finished with Witcher 3 though, so that's still my main game.

[WHU Independent]

Still not finished with Witcher 3 though, so that's still my main game.

I bought this months ago, tried the tutorial and gave up.

Bored, and finding no new game to buy, I went back to it yesterday. I started from scratch.

I'm now level three, plodding slowly along, still not sure what I'm doing, but I was happy to find that it's not as hard a game as I thought. My old fingers can still deal with combat on easy level, the story is ok and the graphics decent.

That said, there are some quests I have "auto failed" on. I had to chase a bloke on a horse and that was impossible. and in the Orchard tavern, I am forced into a fight that I don't want, and am made to auto fail a quest.

My other main concern is money. It's hard to get, and buying crafting materials is dear. I've harvested all plants and materials I go past, yes I can't find enough of certain stuff to make armour or afford to buy plans. Lucky enough, when I fought the griffon, I had a wander round the immediate vicinity and found a abandoned mill which had a secret door, and managed to find some decent (for my level armour) and weapon.

I like that - wandering round, expolring stuff and finding kit.

BTW what are the sorta playing cards for - I have no idea!!

[Metal Hammer]

BTW what are the sorta playing cards for - I have no idea!!

Gwent is a card game within the main game, you can build a deck of cards around a theme and play games against some NPC's, betting money on the outcome and winning cards. It's quite fun to play a game as a break from questing.

[norse]

My other main concern is money. It's hard to get, and buying crafting materials is dear. I've harvested all plants and materials I go past, yes I can't find enough of certain stuff to make armour or afford to buy plans. Lucky enough, when I fought the griffon, I had a wander round the immediate vicinity and found a abandoned mill which had a secret door, and managed to find some decent (for my level armour) and weapon.

Loot everything you see, I do mean everything. Get a saddlebag for your horse so that you can carry more. Sell stuff you don't need to merchants, blacksmiths or armourers to raise funds. You typically get more from merchants in the cities.

[Up the Junction]

It's quite fun to play a game as a break from questing.

It is good fun. I believe a version of the game was released independently of The Witcher at some point a few years back.

[norse]

https://www.playgwent.com/en/

Gwent can be played online for free or even as a regular card game, people are collecting them.

And coming in 2025: https://www.hachetteboardgames.co.uk/gwent

[Gormalysis]

Revisiting Cuphead as I didn't realise there was now DLC for it, trying to do the pacifist run first which is controller smashing levels of frustrating

[Jonah]

Started AC:Shadows breifly last night.

Seems a bit meh at the moment, probably down to me being a bit Shogun'd out by Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Ronin and the amount of hours I put into them.....

[Metal Hammer]

Got a bit bored of Age of Empires 3 and it's colonial heroes vs the evil British so picked up Conan Exiles for £3.49 on Steam. I'm playing it solo rather than online as the pvp element doesn't really appeal to me, it's quite fun so far.

[SirStoneyOfBow]

Revisiting Cuphead as I didn't realise there was now DLC for it, trying to do the pacifist run first which is controller smashing levels of frustrating

I don’t have the patience to arse about with pacifist runs on Cuphead. Just playing through it is torture enough.

[WHU Independent]

The Witcher 3 - finally got into it. I'm on easy mode so I can go full "buttonmasher" mode and still do ok. One thing - I had to reconfiger the middle mouse mode for the crossbow et al to the F1 button, as although it would scroll through the spells ok, it wouldn't fire the crossbow or use that special lamp for that matter.

Now I can fight underwater.

I've stayed away from the Gwent game - doesn't seem to be my kinda thing. I'm level eleven now and just poodling along exploring thw question marks etc on the map. I've not really bothered with the main quest that much.

One gripe - at level 11 I maanged to beat a level 15 posessed witcher down a mine - I was badly wounded after and thought I'd won. Oh no - the secondary boss immediately spawned and p-owned me. I'm coming back when I'm level 25 or so - that should sort it.

[norse]

Crossbow is not an important weapon in the Witcher 3, but can be useful under water. No point using any time or resources to evolve or better that weapon.

A combination of signs, swords and grenades / bombs is what you want in battle.

Sword oils can't be underestimated. Make them with alchemy. There is a function under game options which automatically oils your swords for the kind of enemy you face, turn it on, it's a godsend. Could help you kill the level 15 monster even if you're "only" level 11 yourself. Study the Bestary, it tells of weaknesses of the monster you are facing, what oils, signs or bombs that are effective against them etc. Mutagens are also important, red are for attacks, green alchemy, blue signs etc, you use them to build your character.

Get the swallow potions, use potions to regain life/vitality in the situation you describe. Food will also do this to a lesser degree. Lots of potions are really useful for different kinds of scenarios. Keep your distance, dodge and strike.

[smuts]

Downloaded R-Type Final 3 Evolved yesterday for a bit of self torture, it was on sale. I have always loved 2D shooters / shmups / STG's / whatever you want to call them, but they are known as perhaps the hardest of all genres!

Still remember the struggle with Super R-Type (SNES) three decades ago.

Still not finished with Witcher 3 though, so that's still my main game.

I love a bit of R-Type. Classic.