What Game(s) Are You Playing Right Now?

[Sir Tawmis]

Other than Legend of Grimrock related games, of course.

Tell us about the game - what you like, don't like, why you picked it up, etc.

For me, GoG recently put all of the "Army Men" games on Sale, so I picked them all up. Threw the first one on my system, but the mouse sensitivity is WAY too high. I can barely move without spinning in circles. So I had posted a thread on the GoG forum about it. No answer yet, and it's been three days.

[lostsol]

I'm currently revisiting my dusty Baldur's Gate games. I have a heavy dose of custom mods installed so its likely to break at any moment now.

I'm looking forward to Darksiders 3, Resident Evil 2 and will probably grab Dragon Quest XI when it goes on sale. I was going to pick up Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but the reviews have turned me away.

I never played Army Men and I don't know the setup features but I had a similar issue with Rise of the Tomb Raider. Lara was all over the place when trying to aim the bow. I was playing with a controller and was able to resolve the issue by keeping the controller unplugged when the game launched. Then after it loaded up I plugged it back in and all was well. Maybe try that if you are using a controller. Or if you are playing keyboard / mouse and have a controller plugged in, try keeping it unplugged or disabled when launching the game.

[andyroosta]

Pillars Of Eternity 2, and i can't stop playing The Golf Club VR at the moment.

[MostlyHarmless]

I just finished Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. It's similar to Might & Magic X, but with puzzles like in Grimrock and free movement outside of combat. Combat is turn based on a 4x4 grid (you on the bottom, enemies on the top), and it's fun and strategic. I'd say there are more puzzles than in Grimrock though, and the game takes a lot of hard drive space, and is badly optimized.

I really liked it and played it obsessively, but it does have some bugs and is still being updated and patched. Nothing game breaking for me, just annoyances that forced me to reload the game a few times and lose some progress or I had to unselect characters and then bring them back into the party one by one to get their skills to work. Had to use low graphics settings in some parts to avoid fatal crashes too.

It's a long game (at least 40 hours, but I probably clocked in closer to 80), and towards the end, after I had learned how everything worked, and optimized my party to my liking, the default difficulty felt too easy, so I'd recommend people play it on hard. You'll make mistakes in building the characters at first, but you can replace them later with mercs (custom characters of the same level), which basically gives you a do-over in skill point allocation. Just be aware that sometimes the character creation is bugged, so save before doing it, and consider removing the characters with skills that add opportunity points, and then adding them back in one by one to make sure you get those skills workings.

Before Bard's Tale, I played a bunch of the Far Cry games, Tomb Raiders, etc. They are great; usual AAA titles, but I kind of enjoy Grimrock, Might & Magic X, and Bard's tale type games more, or at least I play them more obsessively (revealed preference). I might try either Pathfinder Kingmaker next, or Divinity Original Sin 2. I'll may play Bard's Tale IV again on the hardest difficulty, but I'll wait until they finish patching and optimizing it.

[Sir Tawmis]

I'm currently revisiting my dusty Baldur's Gate games. I have a heavy dose of custom mods installed so its likely to break at any moment now.

You doing the classic Baulder's Gate, or the recently "polished" one by the former Bioware peeps?

I never played Army Men and I don't know the setup features but I had a similar issue with Rise of the Tomb Raider. Lara was all over the place when trying to aim the bow. I was playing with a controller and was able to resolve the issue by keeping the controller unplugged when the game launched. Then after it loaded up I plugged it back in and all was well. Maybe try that if you are using a controller. Or if you are playing keyboard / mouse and have a controller plugged in, try keeping it unplugged or disabled when launching the game.

Ah ha! I may look into that! Will have to purchase a controller.

Pillars Of Eternity 2, and i can't stop playing The Golf Club VR at the moment.

Have you played the first Pillars of Eternity?

If so, how do you feel it compares?

(I've played and beat both)

I just finished Bard's Tale IV: Barrows Deep. [snip] the game takes a lot of hard drive space, and is badly optimized.

It's horribly optimized, lol. I had it installed, and had to put everything on the LOW settings to even feel like it was worth play (in regards to movement/lag). I got beneath the city, and such - and then there's the demon you spot (I engaged it, just to see how that would go - and you can guess it went poorly). The other combat was OK (brigands, and what not) - but I didn't like that the enemy can move forward/backward, but you could only move side/side.

Would have been nice if there was one enemy to be able to corner them into a corner, if they moved there.

It's a long game (at least 40 hours, but I probably clocked in closer to 80), and towards the end, after I had learned how everything worked, and optimized my party to my liking, the default difficulty felt too easy, so I'd recommend people play it on hard.

I am looking forward to eventually getting back to this; but currently it's uninstalled.

You'll make mistakes in building the characters at first, but you can replace them later with mercs (custom characters of the same level), which basically gives you a do-over in skill point allocation. Just be aware that sometimes the character creation is bugged, so save before doing it, and consider removing the characters with skills that add opportunity points, and then adding them back in one by one to make sure you get those skills workings.

Super trivial, but I thought the lack of character customization on an RPG game was unfortunate. The only "customization" is by picking the race's locale. There's no changing height, hair styles, eye colors, etc. Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Bioware in general, have spoiled me.

[MostlyHarmless]

I got beneath the city, and such - and then there's the demon you spot (I engaged it, just to see how that would go - and you can guess it went poorly). The other combat was OK (brigands, and what not) - but I didn't like that the enemy can move forward/backward, but you could only move side/side.

Some enemies you are supposed to leave for later. If you look at them from a distance, it will show you color code for their difficulty (green=easy,yellow=medium,orange=hard,red=impossible), although the impossible enemies aren't always that difficult to beat later on. The characters also warn you about certain fights. You could try sneaking past the demon.

You can move backwards and forwards too on your side of the 4x4 grid, as well as side to side and diagonally, although movement costs opportunity points and sometimes you may be limited. You might need to equip boots to move. In the beginning you only have 3 opportunity points (later that can grow up to 9 or more will spells), and spells using spell points instead of opportunity points which is a good reason to have several mages/bards. You can also use the taunt ability to bring enemies to you, and there's a levitate spells that works on regular size enemies and some attacks can knock them back or sideways if your weapon has the ability to choose the direction of the knockback (super useful imo).

Would have been nice if there was one enemy to be able to corner them into a corner, if they moved there.

One tactic I used a lot early and mid-game against difficult single enemies was to have my dwarf fighter and damage dealer bard on one side of the screen and the rest of the characters on the other side, away from harms way; you can choose their placement before battle. The dwarf would taunt the enemy (which brings him over to his corner and focuses his attacks on the dwarf), and use deflect skill to withstand the attacks. The bard would cast healing/shield spell on the dwarf and hide behind him to launch big attacks from there (dwarfs can't be moved by enemy attacks which makes them arguably the most useful fighters). The other characters would launch spells/arrows from a distance or just use healing potions to keep the fighter and bard alive. This tactic would essentially corner the enemy and work very well against giants, trolls and other mini-boss types that use large area attacks.

Super trivial, but I thought the lack of character customization on an RPG game was unfortunate. The only "customization" is by picking the race's locale. There's no changing height, hair styles, eye colors, etc. Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Bioware in general, have spoiled me.

I think you have about 4 portraits for each race (2 women, 2 men, maybe 3 for each), and many voice types, not including the story characters that can join your party. I would have preferred more portraits as well.

[andyroosta]

Pillars Of Eternity 2, and i can't stop playing The Golf Club VR at the moment.

Have you played the first Pillars of Eternity?

If so, how do you feel it compares?

(I've played and beat both)

I've played the first one, but prefer the second. There seems to be fewer battles and more exploration than the first, which i prefer.

[Sir Tawmis]

I've played the first one, but prefer the second. There seems to be fewer battles and more exploration than the first, which i prefer.

Interesting! Let me know when you finish Pillars of Eternity II (in this thread), I'd like to discuss it more, but I don't want to mention any spoilers.

[Sir Tawmis]

Some enemies you are supposed to leave for later. If you look at them from a distance, it will show you color code for their difficulty (green=easy,yellow=medium,orange=hard,red=impossible), although the impossible enemies aren't always that difficult to beat later on. The characters also warn you about certain fights. You could try sneaking past the demon.

Oh, I know the demon was clearly for later. But by this time, I was already fairly frustrated with the game play, forced LOW graphics to make it tolerable. I will get back to this game eventually, but I have so many games to finish (I notoriously purchase games on GoG that I've not played or played but never finish - so I have an entire library of 50+ games to one day try to get through!) And by the time I get those done, I will probably have a system that greatly SURPASSES the requirements for Bards Tales IV, that should make playing it much more tolerable.

You can move backwards and forwards too on your side of the 4x4 grid, as well as side to side and diagonally, although movement costs opportunity points and sometimes you may be limited.

Interesting. I only saw side to side movement options. (One on the left and one on the right) of my two characters. No forward/backwards squares.

You can also use the taunt ability to bring enemies to you

Yeah, I used taunt on every fight.

and there's a levitate spells that works on regular size enemies and some attacks can knock them back or sideways if your weapon has the ability to choose the direction of the knockback (super useful imo).

This sounds pretty sweet!

Would have been nice if there was one enemy to be able to corner them into a corner, if they moved there.

One tactic I used a lot early and mid-game against difficult single enemies was to have my dwarf fighter and damage dealer bard on one side of the screen and the rest of the characters on the other side, away from harms way; you can choose their placement before battle. The dwarf would taunt the enemy (which brings him over to his corner and focuses his attacks on the dwarf), and use deflect skill to withstand the attacks. The bard would cast healing/shield spell on the dwarf and hide behind him to launch big attacks from there (dwarfs can't be moved by enemy attacks which makes them arguably the most useful fighters). The other characters would launch spells/arrows from a distance or just use healing potions to keep the fighter and bard alive. This tactic would essentially corner the enemy and work very well against giants, trolls and other mini-boss types that use large area attacks.

Nice!

[andyroosta]

I've played the first one, but prefer the second. There seems to be fewer battles and more exploration than the first, which i prefer.

Interesting! Let me know when you finish Pillars of Eternity II (in this thread), I'd like to discuss it more, but I don't want to mention any spoilers.

Will do..i like the setting in POE2 and the voice acting is really good (apart from the 'dodgy' English accents in some places).