What games do you guys play other than POE?

Picked up another oddity on the cheap (60% off): Sands of Salzaar. Clearly Chinese-made by the aesthetics but oddly just a single paid product with a few small expansions. Some dodgy translations but so far, playable enough.

Mount and Blade meets Diablo in a setting that would probably make Westerners think 'Middle East' but to me seems more North-West China/Xinjiang. The first rando faction I fought wore yellow turbans, and I suspect they're a clear reference to, well, the yellow turbans rebellion. Still, a weird mix of aesthetics.

ARPG-wise, it has the perspective down. Quite a few classes (none of them stock-standard fantasy fare either), a lot of skills, talents (passives), items, quests, all that. The Mount and Blade aspect is in the customisable main character, recruitable troops, big open world and constantly changing conditions. It's pretty deep-end but not overwhelmingly so.

I'm quite a fan of the cel-shaded graphics, if only because they maintain high framerate even on a clunker like a GTX970.

I can see myself getting a good 100 hours out of this.

And for like 10 bucks, why not?

edit: most reviews choose to call it a mix of Mount and Blade and a MOBA, which is an understandable interpretation given MOBAs are way...way bigger than ARPGs, but I think the RPG aspects (complexity of skill trees, full inventory for gearing, quests) skews it closer to an ARPG.

An odd couple of days for some of my regular games.

New expansion for Mechwarrior 5 dropped, using yet another of the so-called Unseen mechs (copied from/inspired by Macross, so stuck in legal hell for ages) and adding a rival mercenary system to the star map. So far, so interesting.

The third and likely final expansion to Stranger of Paradise: FFO dropped as well. It adds the gun as a base weapon and three jobs specialising in it (Marksman, Hunter, Gambler), and I have to admit I never thought I'd enjoy cosplaying as Irvine from FFVIII quite this much. I expected Machinist/Gunbreaker from XIV, but I think Irvine is way...way cooler. I think this 'final' version of the game will hit Steam as an underrated but still niche title.

A new hero for For Honor announced -- Afeera, a female Arabian mace+shield wielder. Many bonks. Many flips. I dig. Unlike the last few heroes, Afeera clearly has new mo-cap and moves rather than repurposed existing ones, so FH must be doing alright in the financial department.

That's all from me for now.

I watch a lot of gaming on YouTube. That's how I got into Frostpunk and Dawn of Man. However, for the longest time, I resisted getting into Stellaris... Until one YouTuber I follow posted a partner link to a Humble Bundle sale on most of the series (75% off either version of the main game, base, or Galaxy Edition, and 50% off of all but mebbe the five most recent releases*).

I bit, and then I played it. While I love to watch it, I discovered playing it not to be quite as enjoyable, at least at first blush. When you play a LOT of games, your muscle memory can lead you to make physical assumptions... And if you're like me, stubborn, or just a slow learner, a game whose user inputs vary significantly from what you are used to can be very uncomfortable to play. That, and some none-to-obvious mechanics and the like (even after MANY hours watching people play the game), while not as rules-opaque as some claim PoE to be, made Stellaris a bit of a struggle.

I plan to return to the stars, but I actually returned to Wraeclast as a bit of a palate cleanser for now. =^[.]^=

*https://www.humblebundle.com/store/stellaris?partner=montuplays good for about 9 more days.

If you're going to suck the triple A teat, it might as well be for a Star Wars game. Fallen Order is, so far, really enjoyable. No real clue how it fits into the canon and frankly I don't care. Lightsabers and using Force powers to solve puzzles, deliberately inoffensive writing (the game makes it look easy to not have jarring dialogue, which you'd think it would be but then Forspoken and MOST live action Star Wars), and generally just a well-made, easy to enjoy action-adventure game.

I really should play more of these -- I have a few sitting in my library from the various sales and giveaways -- but I think they're a sometimes food for me. All I know is I have to keep playing once I start or I lose momentum AND forget the controls. For some reason I can come back to mechwarrior or Elite and just jump right in, but a Soulslike-hybrid can completely slip from my grasp within a matter of days.

Quit EVE after spending a year trading for and skilling up to fly my "dream ship" at the time, a laser-heavy tech 3 Legion. As good a place to declare victory and move on as any.

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I have played nothing but Stranger of Paradise all week. The game finally truly clicked for me and I am having a great time farming for resources to make various killer build ideas. It literally went from a Nioh/Soulslike during the story progression to an ARPG style experience in the end game. With the right gear I can spam FF style spells, one shot mooks with iaigiri, use a 1h sword to "break" them very quickly (broken enemy=dead), nuke them with laser beams...dance around with dual daggers...wield a staff like a whip...or just straight up use one inch punches.

This is one game that gets it right regarding "core game=tutorial". You don't realise it until the credits roll and the stress of the learning curve eases off but what comes after that is the real fun. Thats when you stop using the auto optimise function for gear and start to really see what sort of power lies in the customisation. Skills that performed like super moves in the core story become your bread and butter in end game. And there is actual story in the end game but unlike PoE you can turn on an "invincible" mode to get through it if thats all you want to see (requires a little gear tweaking but nothing difficult by then).

The DLC added incredibly potent crafting functions that enable far more builds than core game ever could.

Anyway done pooping so back to it. This is one of my favourite games ever.

DCS (have an entire flight sim cockpit), Hearthstone, all of the Diablo series...hmm. I recently beat hogwarts legacy, but that's about it.

Recently dipped back into Slay The Spire on iPad. I’d only really figured out The Silent before, so it was fun giving another class (mostly The Defect, this time around) a shot. So far I’ve mostly been trying to force the greediest build ever, with defence being somewhat… hypothetical.

Might play some Darkest Dungeon before the sequel comes out in a few months!

Been playing Stellaris for a few weeks (I got the game and a bunch of DLCs on sale at Humble Bundle). LOTS of moving parts in this one; I play at Normal speed, and pause frequently. =^[.]^=

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Sarno wrote:

Recently dipped back into Slay The Spire on iPad. I’d only really figured out The Silent before, so it was fun giving another class (mostly The Defect, this time around) a shot. So far I’ve mostly been trying to force the greediest build ever, with defence being somewhat… hypothetical.

Might play some Darkest Dungeon before the sequel comes out in a few months!

Yeah I actually waited for StS to hit mobile to try it and naturally loved it -- later double dipped with it on ps4/5. I definitely prefer Deepest Chamber (only on PC for now) for its mix of StS and Eye of the Beholder party style setup, but there is no dearth for that sort of game at any rate. And like the crazy popular Bullet Heaven games, they are all very affordable for the amount of play you get from them.

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Foreverhappychan wrote:

I definitely prefer Deepest Chamber (only on PC for now) for its mix of StS and Eye of the Beholder party style setup, but there is no dearth for that sort of game at any rate.

Huh, not familiar with that one.

Looks intriguing, but both the platform (I've become a dirty casual now) and it being in Early Access turn me off a little. I might pull the trigger next month when my new job starts, but at the moment it isn't quite swaying me - even at < €10. Putting it on my Wishlist for now.

I saw the single-player tag. I guess nobody else is allowed enter your deepest chamber? :(