What are you playing right now? (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

I totally get what you are saying about MKX. The big emphasis on 2-player stuff is the sole reason I generally don't buy fighting games much anymore. I plan on buying MKXL when it's at $10 or less on PS4 and I have nothing else to play, mostly just for the single player stuff (I kinda dig the story overall, even though I know it's kind of goofy).

Are you playing God of War on easy? I'd recommend doing whatever you can to get as far into it as possible because it's worth it.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I was playing on the easiest difficulty. I may give it another go this weekend.

 

[Bryan^H]

I think I'm closing in on finishing "Deracine" for the PS4. I actually don't want it to end. This VR experience has been a complete joy. Such a small, bright gem of a game. From software has been one of my favorite game developers since the mid-90's when King's Field was released from the PS1. I have liked nearly everything they have released since then.

I did however throw in the towel on Sekiro. I was shocked at how uninterested I was with the game even with great graphics, and excellent control. It really just did nothing for me

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm mostly playing Elder Scrolls Blades on my cellphone. It's the worst of the Elder Scrolls games, but I'm such a mark I'm playing it anyway. It's repetitive and there's not much of a story. At around level 15 you'll feel like your pressing against the paywall. I've yet to spend a dime on it though, grinding works to improve your stuff.

I'm not going to recommend anyone give it a shot. It is what it is.

 

[LeoA]

I'm still having fun, but after nearly 20 hours in Red Dead Redemption, it's clear it still suffers from GTA syndrome. I'm at the point now where things don't really seem new. I'm just repeating things I've already done, with some variation in the setting, characters that I may be working with, etc.

Still some amusing random encounters though. I hope that keeps up for the entire length of the adventure. I had a girl in a corset run up to me while I on horseback, yelling for me to help. When she got close, she proceeded to yank me off my horse, hop on, and run off with it the other day.

And instead of whistling to get my horse back (which I suspect would've worked) and not wanting to lose my horse, I pulled out a gun, panicked a bit and didn't use dead-eye, missed, and killed my own horse. I don't think I'm going to get that 20 missions with the same horse achievement at this rate.

Stuff like that really adds to this.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

There was a Capcom sale on the Switch a couple weeks ago so I got Megaman 11, Megaman X Collection 1 + 2, and Resident Evil Revelations 1 + 2 (all digital). Played MM11, now playing through X Collection 1 (I'm almost done with MMX2).

I still have several games that are about a year old sitting on my PS4, waiting to go or half-started, but there's something about the Switch that just makes it hard for me to move on.

 

[Steve Y]

This week I'm playing a couple of games through Game Pass on the Xbox One.

Void Bastards is what you get when you cross a space strategy and resource management game like FTL with a horror first-person shooter like System Shock 2. Playing as literally disposable criminals, you fly from location to location, stopping when needed to raid ships & unlock weapons and powers on a big crafting/ability tree. It's nicely written and designed, and has a cool, stylistic (and sometimes overwhelming) comic book interface. It seems like the kind of game that could get repetitive after a while.

Outer Wilds is a single-player 3D space adventure with some charming world-building and an impeccably-designed solar system to explore. The main game mechanic forces you to return to the same areas and planets over and over, and some of the puzzles get pretty obtuse, and the controls can be a pain, but overall I'm enjoying it. The pace is quite slow and you're really not guided along a specific path at all. You don't see a lot of games like this nowadays, especially games this polished.

Although I haven't played it, I also have my eye on A Plague Tale: Innocence, out for PC, PS4, and Xbox. I've seen some impressive gameplay videos. People are calling it a "double-A" game, in that the French studio that developed it didn't have the resources of a behemoth like Sony or Microsoft, but still (apparently) managed to create an impressive, polished experience anyway. It's a linear, narrative-driven 3D stealth game with some puzzle solving elements... set during the Middle Ages I think, with invading soldiers and evil forces and plague rats.

 

[Bryan^H]

Fire Emblem Three Houses.

I think this qualifies as a great game. I'm hooked!

 

[Steve Y]

I've been on a Fire Emblem kick lately too. I haven't wanted to pick up Three Houses because my executive cognitive functions are awful, which means I'm exceptionally bad at turn-based strategy games (including chess). This means I usually play on casual difficulties, and/or cheese my way through these strategy games, which isn't very fun. By all accounts this game is so good that I need more experience before I dive in. I feel like these games are best enjoyed if you have a good enough grasp of strategy to progress without using grinding to brute force your way through.

Therefore I've been playing the first North American Fire Emblem for the GBA, played via the Wii U's Virtual Console. Its first several chapters make for a simple, excellent introduction to the battle mechanics. For good measure I also picked up two other games in the series: The Sacred Stones (GBA) and Shadow Dragon (DS). In addition to Awakening for the 3DS and Radiant Dawn for the Wii, this makes a whole lot of Fire Emblem on my plate.

Speaking of Three Houses, I've also been playing a game that seems to have inspired at least some of it: Persona 5. I'm coming up to 50 hours in this game. I've played most of the other Persona games, but this is the first one to provide a battle system that doesn't make me take notes in a spiral notebook. The game is just SO good at providing you with enough information in battle to make smart choices. It's just stupidly addictive.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I picked up the Lego Harry Potter collection and Lego Avengers for PS4 today. So far I’ve been playing Harry Potter and really enjoying it.

 

[Bryan^H]

I've been on a Fire Emblem kick lately too. I haven't wanted to pick up Three Houses because my executive cognitive functions are awful, which means I'm exceptionally bad at turn-based strategy games (including chess). This means I usually play on casual difficulties, and/or cheese my way through these strategy games, which isn't very fun. By all accounts this game is so good that I need more experience before I dive in. I feel like these games are best enjoyed if you have a good enough grasp of strategy to progress without using grinding to brute force your way through.

Therefore I've been playing the first North American Fire Emblem for the GBA, played via the Wii U's Virtual Console. Its first several chapters make for a simple, excellent introduction to the battle mechanics. For good measure I also picked up two other games in the series: The Sacred Stones (GBA) and Shadow Dragon (DS). In addition to Awakening for the 3DS and Radiant Dawn for the Wii, this makes a whole lot of Fire Emblem on my plate.

Speaking of Three Houses, I've also been playing a game that seems to have inspired at least some of it: Persona 5. I'm coming up to 50 hours in this game. I've played most of the other Persona games, but this is the first one to provide a battle system that doesn't make me take notes in a spiral notebook. The game is just SO good at providing you with enough information in battle to make smart choices. It's just stupidly addictive.

Auto battle works great and plays smart. However it does take longer because it controls your characters and it heals them an awful lot.


I didn't not use it much, just when I start getting worried of losing a battle.

 

[Steve Y]

I picked up the Lego Harry Potter collection and Lego Avengers for PS4 today. So far I’ve been playing Harry Potter and really enjoying it.

Lego Harry Potter is still my favorite of the Lego series. And I have played all of them.

 

[Bryan^H]

Dragon Quest Echoes of an Elusive Age demo on the Switch.

I know this series has been going for about 30 years, but I have never played one.

Fun RPG, musical score is freaking amazing. Makes me smile.

 

[LeoA]

Been playing a lot of Atari Flashback Classics for the Sony Vita on my Playstation TV.

I wish there were more people on the leaderboards for it. I easily got 1st place on the leaderboard for the Atari arcade game Red Baron, but tough to tell if it's a solid score or just a consequence of barely 100 people being ranked. I think it might be a good score since I'd rate 5th on the Twin Galaxies scoreboard for the arcade version.

Also finally got around to hooking up my PS3 to transfer Activision Hits Remixed for the PSP over to my Playstation TV, since direct downloading wasn't allowed for it. But alas that PSP collection of Activision's 2600 library looks pretty rough on my tv. Probably won't get much use out of it on my PSTV with better options available, but I'll have to install it to my PSP so I don't need to use the UMD anymore.

I like this little system and should really use it more often, but I wish it upscaled PSP games better since that was the main reason I bought it in the first place. Just not an awful lot of Vita content that interests me and only a portion of that even is PSTV compatible.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Dragon Quest Echoes of an Elusive Age demo on the Switch.

I know this series has been going for about 30 years, but I have never played one.

Fun RPG, musical score is freaking amazing. Makes me smile.

I played this for about 4 months (total play time was over 140 hours) on PS4 and earned a platinum trophy on it. It was a fantastic game but I don’t have any interest in replaying it. Like Final Fantasy, I’ll play any new Dragon Quest game that comes out but my favorite is always the first one.

 

[Bryan^H]

I played this for about 4 months (total play time was over 140 hours) on PS4 and earned a platinum trophy on it. It was a fantastic game but I don’t have any interest in replaying it. Like Final Fantasy, I’ll play any new Dragon Quest game that comes out but my favorite is always the first one.

Thank you for sharing. My first thought was to buy this on the PS4 after enjoying the demo, but playing these RPG on the go (I just started using my Switch as a handheld) is a nice trade off. Even though I'm sure there is a big drop in quality.

 

[Steve Y]

Thank you for sharing. My first thought was to buy this on the PS4 after enjoying the demo, but playing these RPG on the go (I just started using my Switch as a handheld) is a nice trade off. Even though I'm sure there is a big drop in quality.

I've played both the PS4 version and the Switch demo. It looks better (and plays more smoothly) on the PS4, but the orchestral soundtrack alone is worth getting it on the Switch. The PS4 version only contains the synthesized version, and I've heard there are no plans to include it on any other current platforms except the Switch.

The Switch includes other extras as well, but the soundtrack is why I bought it again.

 

[Bryan^H]

but the orchestral soundtrack alone is worth getting it on the Switch. The PS4 version only contains the synthesized version, and I've heard there are no plans to include it on any other current platforms except the Switch.

The Switch includes other extras as well, but the soundtrack is why I bought it again.

. More useful info. Thanks. I will pick it up on the Switch in late September. Good thing too, I'm playing Control and Samurai Showdown on my XBox One. I can't afford any more new games right now.

 

[Steve Y]

I'm playing Control and Samurai Showdown on my XBox One. I can't afford any more new games right now.

For those who don't know about Control, I'd like to recommend it (with some caveats). It's a single-player, story-based, third-person action game where you attack with guns and telekinetic powers. The game's action is similar to Quantum Break, Remedy's last game, which I loved but was criticized for its cheesy FMV.

This is more of a return to Alan Wake - there's some FMV, but it doesn't take over the game. Think X-Files meets Mad Men with some Stephen King and Lovecraft thrown in. If you're one of the few people who saw the 2006 miniseries The Lost Room (which I highly recommend), some similar ideas appear here. The story is nicely told (six hours in). I've been playing it on the Xbox One X, where it looks phenomenal in native 4k. The game is capped at 30fps, and on the X1X it rarely dips below that.

Here's the caveat: the other console versions at launch have been (rightfully) criticized for their poor performance at launch (Xbox One +S and the PS4 + Pro). I've heard a patch is coming to address some of these issues. Even on the X1X, the game stutters when coming out of pause, the map doesn't always load, and important world textures (like signs pointing you in the right direction) don't load properly until you stand near them for a few seconds. The latter is especially annoying when you're trying to figure out where to go next.

Design wise, it has some quirks, too. when you die in battle, the load times to get back into the action are atrocious, and because many checkpoints are poorly-placed, you must spend time sprinting through empty halls and down elevator shafts to re-try a battle. The game also throws time-limited missions at you occasionally when you're in the middle of a story mission, which breaks up the game's rhythm in a weird way, even though they're optional. Remedy also put an exclusive side mission on the PS4 after striking a deal with Sony. I wanted to play it on the X, so I'll miss out on that mission. I think it's a short side mission, and the game has plenty of those so I'm probably not missing mucch, but it's still disappointing.

But when it's running on all cylinders, Control is really something special, so I do recommend it, especially if they squash some of the technical problems.

 

[Bryan^H]

For those who don't know about Control, I'd like to recommend it (with some caveats). It's a single-player, story-based, third-person action game where you attack with guns and telekinetic powers. The game's action is similar to Quantum Break, Remedy's last game, which I loved but was criticized for its cheesy FMV.

This is more of a return to Alan Wake - there's some FMV, but it doesn't take over the game. Think X-Files meets Mad Men with some Stephen King and Lovecraft thrown in. If you're one of the few people who saw the 2006 miniseries The Lost Room (which I highly recommend), some similar ideas appear here. The story is nicely told (six hours in). I've been playing it on the Xbox One X, where it looks phenomenal in native 4k. The game is capped at 30fps, and on the X1X it rarely dips below that.

Here's the caveat: the other console versions at launch have been (rightfully) criticized for their poor performance at launch (Xbox One +S and the PS4 + Pro). I've heard a patch is coming to address some of these issues. Even on the X1X, the game stutters when coming out of pause, the map doesn't always load, and important world textures (like signs pointing you in the right direction) don't load properly until you stand near them for a few seconds. The latter is especially annoying when you're trying to figure out where to go next.

Design wise, it has some quirks, too. when you die in battle, the load times to get back into the action are atrocious, and because many checkpoints are poorly-placed, you must spend time sprinting through empty halls and down elevator shafts to re-try a battle. The game also throws time-limited missions at you occasionally when you're in the middle of a story mission, which breaks up the game's rhythm in a weird way, even though they're optional. Remedy also put an exclusive side mission on the PS4 after striking a deal with Sony. I wanted to play it on the X, so I'll miss out on that mission. I think it's a short side mission, and the game has plenty of those so I'm probably not missing mucch, but it's still disappointing.

But when it's running on all cylinders, Control is really something special, so I do recommend it, especially if they squash some of the technical problems.

I'm really enjoying it. I don't usually keep track of game developers so when I played it first I kept thinking, "this feels like Alan Wake". Well duh.