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I'm still stuck in Overwatch & Final Fantasy 14. FF14 more and more so. It really has captured that old MMO magic for me that I haven't had in years. Among other things I love the music (1) for the boss fights (2) in the game (3). For a genre that tends to keep things relatively short and atmospheric it's like specifically instructed composers to show no restraint.

Also one of the bad guys is totally just an errant warrmachine miniature:
https://privateerpress.com/warmachine/gallery/the-protectorate-of-menoth/warcasters/feora-priestess-of-the-flame

I really do need some time to start on X-COM 2. All my friends are playing it and I was super addict to the Enemy Unknown/Within.

Been playing "The Division" pretty exclusively. Up to level 22 with all wings at 80% complete.

Doing all the side missions for an area really bumps your levels up. Completionist in me is happy about that.

Had my first botch-up on Valkyria Chronicles. Drove my tank with my commander inside up to the middle of enemy fire with no backup whatsoever. I wound up being surrounded by three tanks. This is why I don't like timed missions.
Really loving this game so far though! The gameplay and story have a surprising amount of depth, even in areas that I wasn't expecting. My only worry is if the game is too short.

Also gave Last Stand another shot with an Ork Mek. I feel sorry for my teammates. I kept on dying.

I loved pumping orders into my Lancer dude so he could commando charge behind a tank and one shot it. You could also while infantry with the Lancer gun with careful aim and a little luck, kinda reminded me of using the AT turret on planetside2 to snipe little ant sized players from draw distance, though the Lance's weren't quite so accurate.

Need to finish that game sometime.

Finally got money for Stardew Valley last week. It's been fun! Like a cross between animal crossing and harvest valley, with a little bit of top-down rpgs like Link to the Past thrown in.

 SkavenLord wrote:
Had my first botch-up on Valkyria Chronicles. Drove my tank with my commander inside up to the middle of enemy fire with no backup whatsoever. I wound up being surrounded by three tanks. This is why I don't like timed missions.
Really loving this game so far though! The gameplay and story have a surprising amount of depth, even in areas that I wasn't expecting. My only worry is if the game is too short.

Also gave Last Stand another shot with an Ork Mek. I feel sorry for my teammates. I kept on dying.

Honestly, don't worry about the time limits. They are forgiving enough that you can play it safe. Not slow, but safe.

Remember, your tank is more than just for killing, It's also movable cover. Let your tank push, with your infantry close behind. And if you can take out their lancers at range (snipes are my preferred way, but I just love snipers generally) you shouldn't have much to worry about.

And (because I didn't find this out into late in the game), remember you can repair the rank with engineers. If you go to the engineer tool and go right up close to the tank, and then go into aim mode, your reticle should turn blue (similar to using the heal things on team members). "Fire" it, and that should get a good chunk of tank health back. A tank with a couple of engineers is basically unkillable. Engineers can also repair sandbags, refill ammo for people who have limits, disable mines, and can deal decent damage with their rifles to boot, as well as having more grenades (IIRC). They are one of the weakest classes, however, so be gentle with them.

Am tempted to go back into Warcraft (vanilla server). Please god help me not to

 Chongara wrote:


I really do need some time to start on X-COM 2. All my friends are playing it and I was super addict to the Enemy Unknown/Within.

Already started a new game and it isn't going as well as the previous one but I seem to be developing faster far as I can tell. I already have tier 3 for most things except armor and the sniper rifle. I love how one of my continent bonuses is vest and armor items are made instantly. It helped so much. Healing armor on the rangers helped esp.

Switched to pokemon emerald from light platinum as the second half of LP was kind of dull. I think I mentioned that. After looking up a couple of my dudes and determining that they had bad endgame stats or little to no solid end game moves even by TM, some cuts were made. There is now a stricter screening process to fill out my team's last slot or two.

Still entertaining, if rather grindy. At least the fast forward function saves me some time.

Gonna try out Stardew Valley.

I decided to go back and play through Fallout 1 and 2. I beat Fallout a couple weeks ago, and now I'm making some progress in Fallout 2. They both certainly hold up well, in terms of entertainment value. I was afraid I'd be annoyed going back to such a dated interface after all these years, but I've been genuinely enjoying the experience.

 toasteroven wrote:
Gonna try out Stardew Valley.

From everything I've seen/heard/read/watched, one does not simply, "try out Stardew Valley."

As for me, I succeeded at another thing!



Seriously, one of the few games I'm good at.

 Compel wrote:

 toasteroven wrote:
Gonna try out Stardew Valley.

From everything I've seen/heard/read/watched, one does not simply, "try out Stardew Valley."

Ha, well, I hope that's in a good way. I've been following the development for... quite a while, and I'm really looking forward to finally getting to play it.

That game sounds like all of the things I *don't* like to do in those kinds of games, so I can safely avoid it. Trailer did look like it would be nice for people who were into it though.

I tried fallout 1 or 2 and could not get into it. Never played them when they were new so that doesn't help. I may try again some day but for now I'm staying clear, as much as I like the franchise.

 GrimDork wrote:
That game sounds like all of the things I *don't* like to do in those kinds of games, so I can safely avoid it. Trailer did look like it would be nice for people who were into it though.

I tried fallout 1 or 2 and could not get into it. Never played them when they were new so that doesn't help. I may try again some day but for now I'm staying clear, as much as I like the franchise.

It is probably more difficult if you didn't play them in their original context. I played Fallout back when it was relatively new, so going back to it now was more nostalgic than unpleasant. If you'd never played RPGs when games like Fallout were the norm, I can see how one might not be able to enjoy it.

Right now I'm looking for something new to play. Burned out on Pillars, don't like Baldur's gate, and brother won't let me touch his copy of Borderlands 2

Any suggestions? I've got a decent PC and no consoles. Either free or something I've got to buy would be okay

Reeeally debating whether or not to get Trails in the Sky now that it's on sale. On one hand, it looks pretty cool, and I heard the story was rather neat. On the other hand, ugh, I think I already spent most of my Steam money.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 SkavenLord wrote:
Had my first botch-up on Valkyria Chronicles. Drove my tank with my commander inside up to the middle of enemy fire with no backup whatsoever. I wound up being surrounded by three tanks. This is why I don't like timed missions.
Really loving this game so far though! The gameplay and story have a surprising amount of depth, even in areas that I wasn't expecting. My only worry is if the game is too short.

Also gave Last Stand another shot with an Ork Mek. I feel sorry for my teammates. I kept on dying.

Honestly, don't worry about the time limits. They are forgiving enough that you can play it safe. Not slow, but safe.

Remember, your tank is more than just for killing, It's also movable cover. Let your tank push, with your infantry close behind. And if you can take out their lancers at range (snipes are my preferred way, but I just love snipers generally) you shouldn't have much to worry about.

And (because I didn't find this out into late in the game), remember you can repair the rank with engineers. If you go to the engineer tool and go right up close to the tank, and then go into aim mode, your reticle should turn blue (similar to using the heal things on team members). "Fire" it, and that should get a good chunk of tank health back. A tank with a couple of engineers is basically unkillable. Engineers can also repair sandbags, refill ammo for people who have limits, disable mines, and can deal decent damage with their rifles to boot, as well as having more grenades (IIRC). They are one of the weakest classes, however, so be gentle with them.

Oh my, I pretty much abuse using the tank as cover. It's especially handy for hit-and-run attacks on priority targets, or allowing less mobile soldiers to safely move to a new position. I think my problem for timed missions is because I'm more used to performing a slow push towards the objective, which is my usual strategy for XCOM. I'll keep the engineer advice in mind though. Thanks!

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
Right now I'm looking for something new to play. Burned out on Pillars, don't like Baldur's gate, and brother won't let me touch his copy of Borderlands 2

Any suggestions? I've got a decent PC and no consoles. Either free or something I've got to buy would be okay

Fallout 1 and 2 if you like classic RPGs.

 Hordini wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
Right now I'm looking for something new to play. Burned out on Pillars, don't like Baldur's gate, and brother won't let me touch his copy of Borderlands 2

Any suggestions? I've got a decent PC and no consoles. Either free or something I've got to buy would be okay

Fallout 1 and 2 if you like classic RPGs.

See my big thing is this... I just can't stand the interface and way to doing things. Same with Baldur's gate, it's just so antiquated. I still to this day play Age of Empires 2, but I just can't enjoy Baldur's gate and the older Fallout titles.

Played Fallout 3 and NV to death and my PC can only just handle F4. Barely

Pretty much at the same point I was at last game of Xcom 2 with commander difficulty on ironman mode. Some losses but nothing too crippling. It does really hurt to lose some colonel soldiers but I had some replacements. At this point once again they mostly can't stop me. All that's left really is the big main missions (the radar assault and the temple mission). I'm almost making 1k per month (850 in supplies) so all I really need is intel and that's it really. There's pretty much no place they can go on the planet to construct an alien facility I can't get to easily. The aliens are only at about 4 blocks of avatar progress and one block of progress is from one facility I'm just ignoring for now.

So in short it's a mostly successful run. I just won't call it a win until the game is finished. Gotta learn from last time.

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 Hordini wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
Right now I'm looking for something new to play. Burned out on Pillars, don't like Baldur's gate, and brother won't let me touch his copy of Borderlands 2

Any suggestions? I've got a decent PC and no consoles. Either free or something I've got to buy would be okay

Fallout 1 and 2 if you like classic RPGs.

See my big thing is this... I just can't stand the interface and way to doing things. Same with Baldur's gate, it's just so antiquated. I still to this day play Age of Empires 2, but I just can't enjoy Baldur's gate and the older Fallout titles.

Played Fallout 3 and NV to death and my PC can only just handle F4. Barely

Well, for one thing, if you're into Borderlands 2, it usually goes on sale on Steam for around 5.00$.
Planescape Torment has a slightly similar playstyle to Pillars and Baldur's Gate, but places a MUCH heavier emphasis on story (which is actually pretty good).
I've also found the Civilization games are especially good for burning through hours of gameplay (I still play it, and I think my total hours on that game is around the triple-digits). If you're on a budget, there's the third one on Steam for a relatively cheap price, and while it's a bit more dated than the later two, it still has relatively the same experience.
Also, if you're into RPGs like Fallout, there's the Elder Scrolls games. GOG.com offers Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind in one package, and while the first two may not be the absolute best (especially Arena), Morrowind is usually considered by many ES fans to be the best, despite the dated graphics.

I got Rainbow Six Siege on the Xbox One.

I'm terrible at it, but I'm having fun. I did most of the Tutorial missions, and played two multiplayer games. I got two kills, a bunch of assists, and one time I accidentally blew up the hostage as Fuze!

Stardew Valley

I forgot games like this have clocks and that they're always counting and it stresses me the heck out dang it.

Curse you, the relentless passage of time!

 SkavenLord wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:

 Hordini wrote:

 Overlord Thraka wrote:
Right now I'm looking for something new to play. Burned out on Pillars, don't like Baldur's gate, and brother won't let me touch his copy of Borderlands 2

Any suggestions? I've got a decent PC and no consoles. Either free or something I've got to buy would be okay

Fallout 1 and 2 if you like classic RPGs.

See my big thing is this... I just can't stand the interface and way to doing things. Same with Baldur's gate, it's just so antiquated. I still to this day play Age of Empires 2, but I just can't enjoy Baldur's gate and the older Fallout titles.

Played Fallout 3 and NV to death and my PC can only just handle F4. Barely

Well, for one thing, if you're into Borderlands 2, it usually goes on sale on Steam for around 5.00$.
Planescape Torment has a slightly similar playstyle to Pillars and Baldur's Gate, but places a MUCH heavier emphasis on story (which is actually pretty good).
I've also found the Civilization games are especially good for burning through hours of gameplay (I still play it, and I think my total hours on that game is around the triple-digits). If you're on a budget, there's the third one on Steam for a relatively cheap price, and while it's a bit more dated than the later two, it still has relatively the same experience.
Also, if you're into RPGs like Fallout, there's the Elder Scrolls games. GOG.com offers Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind in one package, and while the first two may not be the absolute best (especially Arena), Morrowind is usually considered by many ES fans to be the best, despite the dated graphics.

I didn't like the Elder Scrolls. Didn't think it was bad by any means, but I wish I could refund my Skyrim.
Planescape looks to have the same problems I have with older Fallout and Baldur's gate, that being the UI that I can't play with.
My other brother (who shares willingly) owns Civ V so that's more than covered. Haven't tried it yet, and doesn't look like my kind of game, but maybe I'll give it a go later.
There's a sale on SEGA stuff on steam right now. So I'll see if I find anything interesting there.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Try Alien Isolation if on Sega sale. Not perfect but very enjoyable overall.
Did you try the DA series?

 Ratius wrote:
Try Alien Isolation if on Sega sale. Not perfect but very enjoyable overall.
Did you try the DA series?

DA?

And no Alien Isolation isn't on sale, It looks like the Sega sale extends to DoW, Sanic, and a few misc games. Valkyria Chronicles looks interesting though...

Sorry DA is the Dragon Age series (I loved 1 - really great, 2 was okish, 3 I got bored of so very fast!).

Valkyria chronicles plays kinda like a 3rd person shooter Final fantasy tactics. Sort of. The game plays a lot like I would expect an corvus belli Infinity inspired PC game to play. You get a pool of orders based on how many units you bring and you can spend orders unevenly, pumping several into one unit so it can go commando behind enemy lines (though it's movement distance will steadily shrink with each activation as it wears out). There's breaching walls with your tank, using it to cover your lighter units. You can belly crawl through the grass to sneak up on dudes. And the enemy is always shooting back (at somewhat limited efficiency) to help keep that element of not-really-turn-based 'realism'. Well both sides do it, everyone shoots when people run inside their lines of fire, it just isn't as effectual as when you're actually spending orders to make shots.

Several classes: assault, sniper, engineer, lancer (heavy), probably one or two I'm forgetting and then the tank commander spot too.

Another thing I thought was really neat is that you can get a couple dozen or more characters to order around and every single one has a bit of backstory in addition to their own voice actor and quirks. You really feel bad for letting any of them die because of their personalities.

Good stuff, I need to go back an finish it.

Speaking as someone who's spent around 6 hours so far and has no intention of stopping anytime soon, I'd also recommend Valkyria Chronicles.

@ Overlord Thraka

Ooof- don't like Skyrim? Might I ask why, precisely? Depending on why you don't like it, Morrowind might actually be right up your alley- it's enough different in terms of gameplay and story that you may still enjoy it, even if you dislike Skyrim. Graphics can be updated with mods, easily.

And speaking of Mods- you're a PC gamer- have you tried modded versions of games you enjoy? I know that Oblivion, at least, has one or two completely different games developed using the Modding engine Bethesda provided.