What're YOU Playing? I

[RevanFan]

So... no posts in this thread in a while but I feel I must revive it to mention one of the best games I've ever played in my life. A game that brings about an incredible sense of adventure, scale, and wonder. A game that ponders the universe, its beginnings, its fate, and its beauty. A game that I genuinely consider awe-inspiring. It's got the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game, used perfectly, and it's a game that, once you finish, you'll wish you could wipe your memory and experience it for the first time all over again.

That game is Outer Wilds.



This game is truly incredible, and I think everyone should experience it. It's more than a game. It's... an experience.

[KO'BBF]

I just got a playstation 3 given to me by a family member who didn't use it/want it anymore. I bought some cheap games right away, all I play is sports games, and my best value has been MLB The Show 10 for $6 brand new out of the factory wrapping. At the time of my purchasing, that was cheaper than I was finding the other Show games for, used.

I just wish it was football.

The detail with stuff like the marks in the dirt and how the crowd moves around the stadium and gets up and down out of their seats really helps me get IN the game. EA has always lacked in these kind of details. Especially the generic Madden sideline, whereas The Show has the real players standing in the dugout and the bullpen. Something you think EA would find as a basic part of a sports game.

The commentary is also an absolute gem. My favorite thing of all about the game is the full customization of the million fictional players that fill out the [playable] AAA and AA teams.

Probably the best game I have ever played. More satisfying than any Madden, but yet I am left empty in the end because its just not football

[jose21crisis]

Been a while. So the latest addition to my game roster (That I've been able to play, damaged keyboard and all) is Plague Inc. Fun little strategy game. That and using another computer to mod the hell out of R6 Raven Shield.

[jose21crisis]

The detail with stuff like the marks in the dirt and how the crowd moves around the stadium and gets up and down out of their seats really helps me get IN the game. EA has always lacked in these kind of details. Especially the generic Madden sideline, whereas The Show has the real players standing in the dugout and the bullpen. Something you think EA would find as a basic part of a sports game.

Fun fact: In EA's MVP Baseball series they did have the players in the dugout (Along with the manage or bench coach) and the pen. They would occasionally show the guys in the dugout being happy/mad at the event that just happened like a frustrated manager talking with some of the bench players (which are understandably upset) after pitcher gives up a game tying hit, or the dugout celebrating after a spectacular defensive play, so it's not like they can't do it. It's just that ... they ... don't at Madden.

[RevanFan]

The detail with stuff like the marks in the dirt and how the crowd moves around the stadium and gets up and down out of their seats really helps me get IN the game. EA has always lacked in these kind of details. Especially the generic Madden sideline, whereas The Show has the real players standing in the dugout and the bullpen. Something you think EA would find as a basic part of a sports game.

Fun fact: In EA's MVP Baseball series they did have the players in the dugout (Along with the manage or bench coach) and the pen. They would occasionally show the guys in the dugout being happy/mad at the event that just happened like a frustrated manager talking with some of the bench players (which are understandably upset) after pitcher gives up a game tying hit, or the dugout celebrating after a spectacular defensive play, so it's not like they can't do it. It's just that ... they ... don't at Madden.

The big thing is that Sony makes games. EA makes casinos. Sony, being that their main source of income is the PlayStation consoles, focuses on making solid, no-BS games. MLB The Show used to have microtransactions and other BS like that, but recently they actually removed them. EA, being that their main source of income is games and they have greedy stockholders to appease, focuses on making games riddled with BS gambling mechanics. They don't have as much time to spend focusing on the actual game. The only exception in recent years is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and that's only an exception because Respawn developed it and Respawn has more autonomy than most EA developers. One potential piece of good news, though, is that EA is making the CEO of Respawn a big figure in their company, having him oversee DICE LA. So... there's potential that EA could do more games with no BS, but that's still to be seen. And their sports games will almost certainly still be completely full of trash gambling mechanics for years to come. Only thing that will stop that is loot boxes and/or microtransactions being banned by the US government.

So yeah, you want good games again from EA? Petition your local representatives to have loot boxes banned. Then EA will be forced to make decent games again.

[jose21crisis]

Another game series I added into my game rotations is Ace Combat, specifically Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere for the PSX. I have both the boring, linear NTSC version as well as both Discs 1 and 2 of the JAP version, both with a patch that translates the text to English. It's not AC04 (I have played this one, and watched via youtube the rest of the series, and 04 is my favorite by far), but it is still an awesome game.

[RevanFan]

I started playing American Truck Simulator for the first time. Liking it so far, except for parking. Parking drives me freaking nuts.

A while back I went back and played an old favorite. Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005). Stopped when I got consistent crashes caused by going to pursuit level 4 and couldn't find a fix, though. Might need to do a complete reinstall.

I also played and beat one of the greatest logical deduction games ever, Return of the Obra Dinn. If you like games that make you think, and where you may even need to take notes, don't read anything about the game or watch any videos. Just buy the game and play it. Make sure you have a notebook with you. And keep in mind that everything can be solved using logical reasoning, and every detail is important. It's one of the most brilliant games I've ever played.

[rambolz]

I started playing American Truck Simulator for the first time. Liking it so far, except for parking. Parking drives me freaking nuts.

Ah, good old ATS. One of my favorite games. I haven't played since the summer since I don't have a proper PC, but it's a great game if you enjoy just driving around with your truck. If you have the option, I would highly recommend getting at least some of the map DLCs. They are much better quality than the original map and have more varied roads/scenery/truck stops. I don't mean to say that the base game map is bad, it's just that it's a bit copy/paste-y at times. But it's still much better than ETS2 map was when it came out. And if you like mods, oh boy, there are a lot of them. Apart from Steam Workshop, the SCS forum (forum.scssoft.com) is a great place to get mods.

As for what I'm playing at the moment, in no particular order: Heroes of Might and Magic III, Silkroad Online (ah, the nostalgia), Diesel Railcar Simulator, MLB 2K12, Dawn of Man. Mostly older games that I can run on my laptop.

[RevanFan]

I started playing American Truck Simulator for the first time. Liking it so far, except for parking. Parking drives me freaking nuts.

As for what I'm playing at the moment, in no particular order: Heroes of Might and Magic III, Silkroad Online (ah, the nostalgia), Diesel Railcar Simulator, MLB 2K12, Dawn of Man. Mostly older games that I can run on my laptop.

Heroes 3? Have you ever played the Horn of the Abyss mod? It's fantastic and it just released a new version last month.

[rambolz]

I started playing American Truck Simulator for the first time. Liking it so far, except for parking. Parking drives me freaking nuts.

As for what I'm playing at the moment, in no particular order: Heroes of Might and Magic III, Silkroad Online (ah, the nostalgia), Diesel Railcar Simulator, MLB 2K12, Dawn of Man. Mostly older games that I can run on my laptop.

Heroes 3? Have you ever played the Horn of the Abyss mod? It's fantastic and it just released a new version last month.

I've never gotten around downloading and trying HoTA. I've watched some videos about it, and I probably should try it out. I don't play HOMM3 much nowadays, but it's one of the first games I remember from my childhood watching my brother play. There's this YouTuber who does weird challenge videos on HOMM3 every once in a while, and it's mostly after watching him play that I'll boot up the game.