What Are You Playing?

[Mythical]

19 hours ago, Spacesong said:

Been playing COH on that server as well! I was super young when I last played it and have idea what I'm doing in it. The UI can be a bit funky but I'm getting a hang of it.

 

Feel free to say hi if you see me cruising around. I'm named CosmicVoice.

With the latest news of the limited license granted by NCSoft to Homecoming, Excelsior has been packed. I actually had to switch over to Everlasting last night because I couldn't get on. But it's good to see new people (and returning vets) checking in. I'll try to keep an eye out for you. (My global name over there is Scranker.)

[Saberfan]

I've dumped nearly 280 hours into Nioh 2 since launch and have recently got back into playing it after finishing Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. Throwing my grotesquely-leveled half-yokai samurai into the meatgrinder that is Dream of the Nioh difficulty and the later floors of the Underworld superdungeon is still super fun all these years later, especially with the remaster cleaning up the visuals and making load times near-instantaneous. I've taken the opportunity to spend another two hours changing my character's appearance, because why not?

[Eagleheart]

11 hours ago, Mythical said:

With the latest news of the limited license granted by NCSoft to Homecoming, Excelsior has been packed. I actually had to switch over to Everlasting last night because I couldn't get on. But it's good to see new people (and returning vets) checking in. I'll try to keep an eye out for you. (My global name over there is Scranker.)

They have an agreement with NCSoft now?? That's awesome! I'm also a CoH enjoyer myself.

[Mythical]

5 hours ago, Eagleheart said:

They have an agreement with NCSoft now?? That's awesome! I'm also a CoH enjoyer myself.

You can check out the announcement over on the Homecoming forums. I don't think anyone thought we'd ever see the day. But it's happening.

[Saberfan]

I'm currently working my way back through the Octopath Traveler games and I love them to pieces. I've played through them several times at this point and they hit just as hard now as they did on my first playthrough. There's just something about the AD&D-esque worldbuilding, pixel art style, hard-as-nails superbosses, twists on classic character tropes, and ability to min-max-multiclass archetypal fantasy classes that appeals to my old-school sensibilities.

The mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent is also something I'm fiddling with at times when I'm too busy to sit down and enjoy the console games, but still have a few minutes where I can grab a quest or two. Some of the main questlines have some interesting stories to tell despite their relative brevity cutting into the overall quality, but the thing I've enjoyed the most are the villains of each plotline, as they're over-the-top evil with a capital E and it really makes the confrontations with them all the sweeter.

[Raistlinmc]

I agree that both of those games are must-plays for anyone who gives a damn about JRPGs - or, really, RPGs in general - Saberfan. I loved the first one and then went on to enjoy the second one even more. I hope to never get Mugen's evil voice out of my head! :)

[Saberfan]

41 minutes ago, Raistlinmc said:

I agree that both of those games are must-plays for anyone who gives a damn about JRPGs - or, really, RPGs in general - Saberfan. I loved the first one and then went on to enjoy the second one even more. I hope to never get Mugen's evil voice out of my head! :)

Yeah, I say the second game is a masterpiece worthy of standing alongside some of the older SNES and PS1 Squaresoft JRPGs, which is honestly some of the highest praise I can give it. It truly has it all: a great cast of characters, solid storylines, an amazing class and combat system, charming 2.5D pixel art, that magical Square-Enix musical score, complex boss battles that really make players put in some real effort, and one of my top five favorite final boss experiences of all time.

Who was your favorite character, if you don't mind my asking? I started as Throne after internally debating whether to start as her, Osvald, or Hikari, but ended up liking Castti the most when all was said and done. I initially thought that Castti was going to follow the trend set by fellow apothecary Alfyn from the first game and turn out to be the only boring character in the game, but boy was I wrong. She's definitely the team mom, but isn't afraid to embody the 'harm-acist' archetype when she has to. She ended up being an absolute monster in combat as well by using the Poison Axe + Drastic Measures combo after the rest of the team has debuffed the enemy, leading to hitting the damage cap nearly all the time.

[Raistlinmc]

For me, it was Hikari, but that's probably because I started as him. I think I tend to be biased toward my starting character! haha

That said, I suppose I broke my own rule there with my recent first run through Divinity II. I began as Beast and, by the end, he was my least favorite of my four companions. Go figure! :)

[yxanthymir]

Currently playing Amnesia: Rebirth and Disco Elysium. Only very slowly advancing.

[cailano]

About to be playing Sorcery: Contested Realm.

It looks like old-school Magic the Gathering. You know, before it got stupid.** Ben at Questing Beast did a video about it.

And the art is amazing. Every card features art made in a physical medium, and all cards are borderless.

I'm pretty excited about it.


** I'm assuming everyone agrees that the current format and direction of MtG is stupid. If not, I'll apologize for my insensitivity in this space. I used to be a big MtG fan, and I'm a little bitter about Hasbro ruining one of my favorite games.

[raschlain]

I've just slowly been going through Elden Ring and BG3. Will be interested in the next installment of FF7, though.

[leons1701]

16 hours ago, cailano said:

About to be playing Sorcery: Contested Realm.

It looks like old-school Magic the Gathering. You know, before it got stupid.** Ben at Questing Beast did a video about it.

And the art is amazing. Every card features art made in a physical medium, and all cards are borderless.

I'm pretty excited about it.


** I'm assuming everyone agrees that the current format and direction of MtG is stupid. If not, I'll apologize for my insensitivity in this space. I used to be a big MtG fan, and I'm a little bitter about Hasbro ruining one of my favorite games.

One of the local shops has a quite energetic Sorcery scene right now. I've not dived in because my massive collection of L5R, Doomtown, and INWO plus 4 or 5 other games I don't have thousands of cards for reminds me how I tend to get when I jump into CCG's (at least the MtG collection sold, if for a fraction of the cost). It does look like fun though, and the cards are generally pretty good looking (some of the art is a bit rough IMO).

 

Magic is in a weird spot, most of the guys I know who still play (we have a quite thriving local scene) say the gameplay aspects of the new sets are as good as they've ever been. And yet, every last one of them agrees that Hasbro is running the game into the ground with sheer stupidity. I know dozens of people who played competitive Magic for years, not a single one of them does now because it's just too hard to keep up.

[TheFred]

Yeah, I am often sceptical about "old school" games... often that's just nostalgia talking. I've seen people trying to push a version of Commander (a Magic variant) with only old cards, and so far as I can tell it's just worse (back then, a lot of good options and interesting options didn't exist, and in the very early days they hadn't even figured out the concept of game balance at all). It's the same with D&D, people used to say "oh I hate all these splatbooks that are feeding the munchkins!" but early/Core 3.5 was terribly balanced, and a lot of the things people decree from 3e (like multiclassing) are vast improvements on 2e.

[ZacSc]

On 2/22/2024 at 12:13 AM, cailano said:

About to be playing Sorcery: Contested Realm.

It looks like old-school Magic the Gathering. You know, before it got stupid.** Ben at Questing Beast did a video about it.

And the art is amazing. Every card features art made in a physical medium, and all cards are borderless.

I'm pretty excited about it.


** I'm assuming everyone agrees that the current format and direction of MtG is stupid. If not, I'll apologize for my insensitivity in this space. I used to be a big MtG fan, and I'm a little bitter about Hasbro ruining one of my favorite games.

You mean they drew the cards with their hands, not printed them?

Edited February 28 by ZacSc (see edit history)

[Sellsword]

No, just that the artwork was generated by hand, not digitally like much of MtG artwork is produced these days.

I just finished sorting all my Beta cards for Sorcery with my daughter on Monday evening. Had a friend come out for the weekend and we jammed a few games. I really enjoy the game, I hope that it sticks around. Second set should be releasing in the coming months, very much looking forward to that.