What are you playing right now? (1 Viewer)

[Scott-S]

Craig, I got the bound bow really early by doing a dash and grab at Fort Amol. It has mages that were way over my level at the time. I just drank a health/stamina potion, conjured my familiar (I am a Brenton) as a distraction, ran in, looted the spell book and ran away like a little girl.

Then I had to level up enough to get my Magicka high enough to even cast it.

I am now at level 14 and have added enough stuff so I can conjure it and still have a little left in the tank for an emergency.

I have been watching walkthoughs on YouTube so I got a lot of tips on how get stuff way over my level. I have a full set of Elven armor that I have smithed to exquisite. I have found that I got over confident by following the walkthoughs and that is bad thing now. It didn't prepare me enough for areas that I haven't seen in the walkthough and I sometimes get killed so fast I don't know what hit me. I really need to get my sneak up more.

 

[CraigF]

^ Sounds like you're doing fine. I originally thought you might be getting discouraged because you were getting killed so fast. That happened to me at the beginning of BioShock 2, I couldn't even turn around or move 2 feet (literally) sometimes without getting killed. And I've heard of people playing Skyrim for less than an hour and never again, they got so discouraged by its "difficulty".

One tip I forgot to mention before is that you can dial down the combat difficulty at any time. I get the impression you probably wouldn't like to do that, I never have... In fact I bumped it up a couple levels in my VR game because they start on "baby level", which I guess makes sense because it could be tricky until you get the hang of the control devices.

I was thinking that about the bound bow: I'm not sure in my current game I'd even be able to use one if I somehow found it, even with the (petty) magic buffs I have...doubt I'm strong enough yet. So Fort Amol has a bound bow book eh, I don't remember that, probably already had one (in another game) when I eventually went there so it didn't stick out...might have to go there soon, recall it was a bit unpleasant inside though, one of the very few places I killed my follower...

 

[Scott-S]

Yes, the bound bow is the far, left corner of the room that has 2 mages. The book is in a bucket. You wont have time to look, just go to the bucket and spam the loot button to get everything, then get out.
You have to run across the courtyard with mages to get to the door to the interior room. Unless you are good enough to take them out at your current level, you might just do what I did and run past them straight to the door.

 

[CraigF]

The book is in a bucket

I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't find it then, unless it was obviously sticking up, I rarely look in buckets. I do now in VR, it's so much easier/more convenient and things "stick out" more to my notice...I see/find all sorts of things that I'm pretty sure I never saw/found in the flat game.

 

[Ruz-El]

Nice thing about Skyrim, for me anyway, is that the skills you use, grow. So if you plan on being aspellcaster, but find yourself more often than not bashing through everything with a sword, then your sword skill grows. I loved that about the game, but going into it I knew I would be bashing through most of it from playing past Elder Scroll games, so I went Redguard. Good with a sword and sheild, okay with a bow, a little magic power to heal, light, throw some fire balls as back up. Aww, Cannibal F*ckface, how I loved playing you!

Currently still going through World of Final Fantasy. I had a mental block from stats-stress with the mirage collecting so I didn't play it for two weeks. I've decided to not worry about it and just go through the game, get to the final chapter, than go back and do some mirage collecting. It's more enjoyable this way. I kept worrying about my mirage stack combinations and boy oh boy, can that be a deep well of not easily comparable stats.

Also giving Rock Band a rivals a play every week since I'm in a "crew" that's casual enough that they aren't on your ass to do better, but serious enough that they started booting people if they don't play.

 

[Steve Y]

About Skyrim: I usually make it 2-3 hours into Skyrim before I run up against a brick wall of difficulty or can't figure out exactly what to do. I've already purchased it four times--on PC, PS4, PS4 VR, and now Switch. Yeah, I'm THAT person. But I actually consider the lack of pathfinding a strength of the game, because it really immerses me in the world. I just don't have a spare couple of hours to figure out exactly what I'm doing.

Celeste (PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, PS4, Switch): If you like smooth, tight, precision-based platforming games like Super Meat Boy, you should definitely check out Celeste. I bought it for the Switch, where pixel graphic games look especially good. This game is MUCH more forgiving than Super Meat Boy, at least at the beginning; furthermore, it offers "assist" modes for players who don't want to be frustrated, or who want to proceed more gently. However, for masochists or speedrunners, it has very difficult challenges later in the game. Most of all, the story is well-written and intriguing, and the music is excellent too.

 

[CraigF]

About Skyrim:... I just don't have a spare couple of hours to figure out exactly what I'm doing.

I honestly don't think it matters what you do. Just wander around. Maybe be a hunter and avoid people. Quests and questlines are completely optional.

A possible challenge could be to see if you can make it to the "normal" max level of 81 without doing any "proper" quests besides the one(s) you're forced to do when you first escape Helgen.

 

[Scott-S]

I just started playing Subnautica this last weekend. I am really digging it. Anyone else playing this right now?
I got to say that I am not looking forward to taking my Cyclops (when I can build one) into the deep under water caves, It is stressful enough because of the claustrophobic feel, but having to get past big mean things that want to kill me down there makes it a bit too stressful.

It can get a little "farmy" with the material gathering, but that seems to be par for games now. But the look and feel is really great. I could just hang out in the shallows forever instead of moving the story along.

 

[Steve Y]

My PS4 died, and its system storage along with it, so I've had to re-download close to 2 TB of data. While my ISP sends me warnings about how I've gone way over my data cap, I've moved over to the Switch and PC.

Darkest Dungeon (available on most gaming platforms, I have it on Switch) is an interesting experiment. The more successful you are in the game, the more complex and unhappy your characters become. And they're mostly expected just to die. It's an absurdly depressing game, but its Lovecraftian writing is just short of satire. It's delightfully pulpy.

Octogeddon (PC only) is from the original designer of (the first) Plants vs Zombies. It's a side-scrolling action game with basically just two buttons (rotate octopus clockwise and rotate octopus counterclockwise). As you move through the stages, you rotate your tentacles or venom-spouting snake heads (and lots of other weapons) to destroy submarines, planes, tanks, and missiles. It reminds me a lot of an aquatic version of the original Rampage arcade game, and despite its simplistic controls, it gets surprisingly deep in terms of placing weapons in a specific configuration and choosing the right power ups. This is the kind of classic, cartoony fun game Popcap used to provide before they were gobbled up by EA and began producing slot machines.

Steamworld Dig 2 just came out for the 3DS. I, for one, rather enjoy the 3D effect, so I was hoping they'd release it on this platform (it's already out on most other systems). I wasn't disappointed. This game looks and plays great. I highly recommend it for users who like these Metroid-style platform games. If you haven't played the first Steamworld Dig, I recommend that, too. It doesn't take long to complete (the second is much longer) and is pretty delightful in its own right.

 

[CraigF]

My PS4 died, and its system storage along with it, so I've had to re-download close to 2 TB of data. While my ISP sends me warnings about how I've gone way over my data cap, I've moved over to the Switch and PC.

We were talking about the benefits of PS+ for backups the other day. I'm going to be a jerk now and give one more point to doing it locally/manually instead.

Speaking for my own situation, and without getting into a big story about my ISP (considered a very good one, by Canadian "standards" of such things), I would be kind of screwed if I had 2TB to DL. I could either do it bit by bit over a year , or pay a fair bit of $$ up front to get it quickly. [edit: scratch "quickly" and make that "much sooner"]

 

[RolandL]

Mafia 3. I like it.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

We were talking about the benefits of PS+ for backups the other day. I'm going to be a jerk now and give one more point to doing it locally/manually instead.

Speaking for my own situation, and without getting into a big story about my ISP (considered a very good one, by Canadian "standards" of such things), I would be kind of screwed if I had 2TB to DL. I could either do it bit by bit over a year , or pay a fair bit of $$ up front to get it quickly. [edit: scratch "quickly" and make that "much sooner"]

I believe he's referring to having to re-download the actual games themselves, not the save data. So he would have been in the same situation whether he backed up the save data manually or not.

 

[CraigF]

^ Good point.

But for me, data is data, and I'd still be screwed or out a bunch of cash to get it all back in a reasonable time. It's why I like to have hard copies, of movies, music or games, though there are convenience advantages to not using discs with the PS4. Just re-installing all the games from discs, with all the patches etc., would still be a huge DL though... I ran into this in December when I first got the Pro, limit warnings etc., at least the ISPs do that, they didn't used to in Canada, and charged you a $ per bit overage (or something like that...).

At first I thought "2TB, that's a lot of saves". And of course, it would be, but not a crazy lot. But 2TB of PS4 games, that's not really a lot, they sure do suck up the drive space.

Edit: On another note, I see the PS4 system software v5.50 is available now. Most of the new features I'll probably never use, but one I can certainly benefit from is the supersampling for the Pro. Some might think it bizarre/backwards, but I have the Pro connected to a 1080p display, and the OG PS4 connected to a 4K display, so this is perfect for me, for now (my 1080p display is of much higher quality than the 4K one).

The odd person has said 5.50 fixes the shutdown/startup issues with the PSVR PU when you use Rest mode to shutdown the PS4. Worth a look, especially for those who use PS+ to scheduled-backup their game saves, or I guess even use the rest time to charge controllers.

 

[Steve Y]

We were talking about the benefits of PS+ for backups the other day. I'm going to be a jerk now and give one more point to doing it locally/manually instead.

Speaking for my own situation, and without getting into a big story about my ISP (considered a very good one, by Canadian "standards" of such things), I would be kind of screwed if I had 2TB to DL. I could either do it bit by bit over a year , or pay a fair bit of $$ up front to get it quickly. [edit: scratch "quickly" and make that "much sooner"]

This is a great point!

In my case, the PS+ save backups ended up being a very small thing, and barely registered towards my cap. The big drain was the 1.5 TB of games on my internal PS4 Pro HD (I upgraded from 1 TB to 2 TB when I first bought it). That doesn't include the 3 TB of games on my external storage. Yes... I have a lot of games. Too many.

Off topic! Okay, so I must sing the praises of both Risk of Rain (PS4) and The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (Switch). Kindred spirits, really. They're both procedurally-generated games (the first side-scrolling, the second top-down), perfect for short gameplay sessions. A ridiculous amount of randomly-generated abilities appear in the worlds, with enemies getting harder and harder. Sometimes you just get the "perfect" run, with a nice set of abilities. ROR in particular has an absurd number of stackable weapons/abilities that can get really crazy. Both hard as heck, but rewarding.

Edit: I should add, The Binding of Isaac is gross. Really gross. Disturbing, even. And definitely not for kids, despite its cartoony appearance.

 

[CraigF]

Useless OT info for Friday fun "facts", in the spirit of the cost/speed of large amounts of data transfer (they would laugh at your 2-5TB):

People probably know that the most profitable part of the amazon empire has to do with data services, storage and delivery of all types. For really large amounts of data, amazon has these semi trailers filled with HDDs. They drive to your site, load 'em up, and then drive the data to your destination. I believe they guarantee "transfer" in less than 30 days to/from anywhere in contiguous North America. With the fastest available internet services, it is said to take ~2 years to do it otherwise (per semi).

Maybe less useless: the PS4 v5.50 update seems to definitely fix the "PSVR Rest mode issue". We were talking about that somewhere in this sub-forum the other day...

 

[Steve Y]

Maybe less useless: the PS4 v5.50 update seems to definitely fix the "PSVR Rest mode issue". We were talking about that somewhere in this sub-forum the other day...

I noticed this today after the update! Saw the red light on my PSU and got worried that my console had spontaneously powered down. But it was just in rest mode. So glad to see this fixed!

Has anyone else here played Monster Hunter World? I have it on PS4 and after some confusion and frustration have decided it might not be for me. I've read up on what I need to do to get better at the game, and it really doesn't sound like my cup of tea at all.

 

[Mike Boone]

Am listening to the beautiful main theme for 1960's "The Time Machine", which is the first track on the CD of that film's soundtrack.

 

[DaveF]

Am listening to the beautiful main theme for 1960's "The Time Machine", which is the first track on the CD of that film's soundtrack.

Uhmmm...wrong thread?

 

[Lou Sytsma]

PSVR - Wipeout Omega Collection. OMG!

 

[CraigF]

^ It's on my list, probably my next VR game purchase. I am terrible at racing games though. Does it have an "easy" mode for the racing difficulty? I've never played any version of the game before.