What Videogames are you playing? ΙΔ - Meet your doom

[Takhisis]

(the subtitle for this edition of the thread is an allusion to the fact that people still make Doom maps and mods after all this time)
(also insert here Takh's insistent recommendation of this wonderful game called The Battle for Wesnoth which you really should be playing, especially in a few months or Soon™, whichever takes longer, when he's finally done making a campaign)

Older editions:

What Video Games have you been playing I: My Muffintop Expands!
What Video Games have you been playing II: Have you finished that backlog?
What Video Games have you been playing III: You're gonna need a bigger boat.
What video games have you been playing? 4
What video games have you been playing V: the return of the subtitle
What Video Games Have You Been Playing VI: Because There Are No Elections In Video Games
What Video Games Have You Been Playing VII: The Real Ending is Locked Behind a Paywall
What Video Games Have You Been Playing? Eight times I've died...
What video games have you been playing IX: Now with 4K VR!
What Video Games Have You Been Playing, Part 10: Or; A Shameful Display!
What Video Games Have You Been Playing #11: I should go
What Video Games Have You Been Playing #12: Rage Quit - ain't my thing
What Video games have you been playing #13 Now with CGA graphics!​

 

[Kyriakos]

In gamer analysis terms, there is only the Ego, the Superego and the ΙΔ.

 

[Takhisis]

Into a more respectable game this evening. Age of Wonder III. Let's see how much damage I can cause to my reputation tonight.

I have to ask: what have you been playing which you consider ‘dis’respectable?

 

[cardgame]

I'm not sure if I can keep playing XCOM. Apparently I've already sunk 14 18 hours into it, Steam is reporting both numbers but the last 2 were pretty torturous, trying to fight a large, landed UFO and 34 aliens with my tiny squad of 6. Save scummed my ass off, because necessity demanded it.

 

[tjs282]

Completed X-Wing Tour V Mission 20 last night, felt a little anticlimactic: all I got was a(nother) measly cutscene (which happens every 4-5 missions anyway) and a(nother) medal to add to my collection (which happens at the end of every Tour, or after any mission where the player has gone beyond the call of duty). Very little sense of occasion ("Congratulations, you have finally completed this game!") at all.

Oh well, I've still got TIE Fighter to finish...

 

[Akka]

To get back at Morrowind's discussion : the game world has aged very well. The main problem are the HORRIBLE models and animations. But then, they were already considered horrible at the time.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The main problem are the HORRIBLE models and animations.

Horrible?

(original video here, but the audio was muted)

 

[AdamCrock]

I'm not sure if I can keep playing XCOM. Apparently I've already sunk 14 18 hours into it, Steam is reporting both numbers but the last 2 were pretty torturous, trying to fight a large, landed UFO and 34 aliens with my tiny squad of 6. Save scummed my ass off, because necessity demanded it.

I recommend using autosave feature to save every turn without breaking immersion and only load when something goes horribly wrong
My favourite mission is when Aliens attack XCOM base but in original Enemy Within it occurs only after You destroy Alien Base so I wait with that until after I get to at least MEC tier 2 (preferably tier 3 for mines AND grenades) and plasma weapons or laser weapons + alien grenades (and most of my squad are colonels) to get the necessary firepower and experience to combat ~37 aliens Also it is most important to get satellite coverage over as many countries as possible ASAP I don't know about Long War mod but my tip is not to rush those *priority* objectives

 

[Arakhor]

Morrowind hasn't aged badly, all things considered. Although you will want to install the Morrowind Sound and Graphics Overhaul as, at minimum, it improves texture quality/fixes bugs and at best makes Morrowind look freaking beautiful.

MSGO is now six years old and not getting any younger. Now you're better off using the STEP guide instead.

 

[MaryKB]

I've started playing Wordington. It's similar to games like Gardenscapes and Homescapes, but it's crossword puzzles instead of those match-3 games I despise. I used to play Wordscapes a lot, which was just crossword puzzles, but I got bored because you don't really achieve anything other than getting to more levels (which eventually become repetitive), I need some kind of story, so Wordington seems to be pretty fun so far. Basically you inherit your grandfather's house, and you need to fix it up ... and to earn "stars", you complete crossword puzzles (you then get choices to set up your decor)

It's a fun game, I'll usually binge on crosswords to store up a bunch of stars, and then play the story for a while without being interrupted by puzzles. I paid the $2 to turn off all ads in the game, I'm willing to pay that much for a cute distraction like this.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Completed X-Wing Tour V Mission 20 last night, felt a little anticlimactic: all I got was a(nother) measly cutscene (which happens every 4-5 missions anyway) and a(nother) medal to add to my collection (which happens at the end of every Tour, or after any mission where the player has gone beyond the call of duty). Very little sense of occasion ("Congratulations, you have finally completed this game!") at all.

Oh well, I've still got TIE Fighter to finish...

Was that the end of the game?

 

[Socrates99]

Zard mentioned CKII in another thread and it sounded intriguing. I liked EUIV but I wasn't sure about spending money on something that looked so similar so I never tried CKII.

The base game is FTP now so I gave it a shot. It's quite different and I'm really digging it. The RP elements of building a lasting and prestigious dynasty is a lot of fun. I bought one of the small expansion bundles to make sure Paradox got some cash for their good work.

Currently playing a Viking emperor of house Hvitserk ruling Britannia. Fun but kind of easy. Norse rulers have this ability to rake in gobs of cash through raiding which you can use to easily max out your immediate demense holdings and then paint the map red with large levies other empires can't seem to match.

Might try something tougher next game like some minor count in eastern Europe or something. Britain seems too insulated from mainland strife. Once you control it it's all downhill.

Now I can't wait for CKIII...

 

[AmazonQueen]

To get back at Morrowind's discussion : the game world has aged very well. The main problem are the HORRIBLE models and animations. But then, they were already considered horrible at the time.

Agree with Akka here. I find it much easier to go back to Morrowind than any other game in the series.

Zard mentioned CKII in another thread and it sounded intriguing. I liked EUIV but I wasn't sure about spending money on something that looked so similar so I never tried CKII.

The base game is FTP now so I gave it a shot. It's quite different and I'm really digging it. The RP elements of building a lasting and prestigious dynasty is a lot of fun. I bought one of the small expansion bundles to make sure Paradox got some cash for their good work.

Currently playing a Viking emperor of house Hvitserk ruling Britannia. Fun but kind of easy. Norse rulers have this ability to rake in gobs of cash through raiding which you can use to easily max out your immediate demense holdings and then paint the map red with large levies other empires can't seem to match.

Might try something tougher next game like some minor count in eastern Europe or something. Britain seems too insulated from mainland strife. Once you control it it's all downhill.

Now I can't wait for CKIII...

Another easy start but one that stays challenging for longer is the Magyars in 867. Relatively easy to carve out Hungary and start expanding towards an Empire. Lots of options like staying Tengri or converting to Catholicism or Orthodoxy, staying nomad or becoming feudal, lots of directions for expansion.

A hard but interesting start is playing the Duke of Aquitaine in the Charlemagne start and trying to break free and become King of Aquitaine.

 

[Socrates99]

Agree with Akka here. I find it much easier to go back to Morrowind than any other game in the series.



Another easy start but one that stays challenging for longer is the Magyars in 867. Relatively easy to carve out Hungary and start expanding towards an Empire. Lots of options like staying Tengri or converting to Catholicism or Orthodoxy, staying nomad or becoming feudal, lots of directions for expansion.

A hard but interesting start is playing the Duke of Aquitaine in the Charlemagne start and trying to break free and become King of Aquitaine.

Those sound like cool suggestions. Both are in pretty contested regions. Seems like the most difficult areas to play are the ones where you border at least two religions different from yours or a large empire. HRE used to be a good competitor in my current game but it got whittled down by Islamic Hispania and Norse and Slavic pagans like me.

I like how the game stays interesting even once you get big. Managing powerful vassals and quashing rebellions takes work. Even resolidifying power after succession is an interesting dynamic. I just recently had a ruler die during a large rebellion and his heir was killed shortly after during a battle. By the time I finished off the rebels with my third ruler I had a lot of work appeasing vassals without giving up too much power.

Civ could benefit from adding some stuff like that into its endgame to prevent snowball boredom.

 

[Lexicus]

I may have to take the plunge into CK2 myself. I've been putting it off even though it's been in my Steam library for a while (picked it up for $10 when it was on sale like a year ago).

I'm afraid of the potential to become obsessed with it, honestly. Paradox games have a tendency to suck me in so that I forget to do things like maintain my relationships and eat and go to the bathroom.

 

[AmazonQueen]

I may have to take the plunge into CK2 myself. I've been putting it off even though it's been in my Steam library for a while (picked it up for $10 when it was on sale like a year ago).

I'm afraid of the potential to become obsessed with it, honestly. Paradox games have a tendency to suck me in so that I forget to do things like maintain my relationships and eat and go to the bathroom.

I haven't played it for 6 months or so for much the same reasons. Must try it again sometime to see what differences Holy Fury has made to the game.

 

[Socrates99]

I may have to take the plunge into CK2 myself. I've been putting it off even though it's been in my Steam library for a while (picked it up for $10 when it was on sale like a year ago).

I'm afraid of the potential to become obsessed with it, honestly. Paradox games have a tendency to suck me in so that I forget to do things like maintain my relationships and eat and go to the bathroom.

Same problem. Less the maintaining RLstuff, my wife wouldn't tolerate that, but it's led to a lot of late nights. Then I'm walking around like a zombie the next day. It's just so hard to say "yep, here's a good spot to save and quit." There's always stuff to do.

If I were single and alone I'd probably just eat sleep work and game...

 

[hobbsyoyo]

For me personally, binge gaming was always the symptom of problems (depression, in my case) and not the cause of them. I would like to say I've outgrown destructive binge gaming but I haven't had a protracted depressed spell in a few years (thankfully) so I can't be sure.

 

[tjs282]

Was that the end of the game?

Well, it was the end of the Story-missions for the Collector's Edition of the game*, yeah.

Turned out that using that particular pilot-file, I'd only completed X-Wing Historical (training) Mission 5, so I breezed through Missions 1-4 and 6, and Y-Wing Missions 1-3 yesterday as well, for form's sake as much as anything. But now that I'm such a hotshot pilot they were almost too easy: it only took me about an hour to do all 8, on the 'first' try (and without even switching on the time-compression).

Thinking back, I don't think I've completed most of the B-Wing Historical missions, or any of the Bonus Missions yet, either, with any of my pilot-files (I've had a go at the first couple, though, and they're really hard!)

Spoiler * :

AFAIK, the original end of the game was the trench-run mission at the end of Tour III. Tours IV ("Imperial Pursuit") and V ("B-Wing"), beginning just after the Battle of Yavin, and ending with the move to Hoth, were added later, after the game was rejigged to use the TIE Fighter graphics-engine, which allows more detailed ship-models.

 

[Socrates99]

For me personally, binge gaming was always the symptom of problems (depression, in my case) and not the cause of them. I would like to say I've outgrown destructive binge gaming but I haven't had a protracted depressed spell in a few years (thankfully) so I can't be sure.

I wish that's what it was but I don't have issues with depression anymore. Now I think it's just escapism. Being a father of three young boys is like a fulltime job and both my wife and I work. On top of that I've taken on hobbies like coaching football and homebrewing which have their own commitments (I've held office in our local homebrew club off and on). I'd just rather play games than vege out in front of the tv or read a book. If it were depression I could at least point at that as a cause for my binge gaming. I'm just addicted.