(20-04-2025, 07:21 PM)Blueblob Wrote: [ -> ] (20-04-2025, 05:54 PM)Refluxe Wrote: [ -> ] (19-04-2025, 07:33 PM)Blueblob Wrote: [ -> ]Not RuneScape, I don’t need to be ruining any lives
Slay the Spire hands down. Obviously if you’re into deck builders you’ll know it and also know it’s the GOAT but I feel like that’s a more niche genre that I guess a more ‘casual gamer’ wouldn’t go out of their way to dabble with. Might be completely wrong considering the success Balatro has just had, which is also a good entry point into that style of game, but SnS offers so much more complexity and variety so if it tickles your pickle then suddenly you have a game you can put thousands of hours into.
Couldn't agree more with this. I'm on well over 1,000 hours on Slay the Spire (across PC and Switch) and I am still finding new ways to beat the game that I've never done before. It's so easy to pick up and get the hang of, but hard to master, especially at the higher ascensions. Monster Train is also badass, but doesn't feel quite as 'polished' as StS.
I see BG3 has also been mentioned for obvious reasons. Probably the most complete game I've ever played, especially from an RPG perspective.
Both are awesome shouts.
Honestly, everytime I feel like I’ve exhausted every build that’s viable (especially anything ascension 15+) I’ll whip out some absolutely insane run that’s focused on some shit card like Thunderstrike or something. Have you tried the downfall mod? The character feels so much like it could’ve been designed by the devs
Agreed with monster train, it’s fun enough and I can play it for a few hours every now and then but it just lacks whatever ‘that’ which StS has which makes it impossible to put down. Can’t wait for the sequel
Yeah, anything at high ascension you need to be a little more focused on your deck building synergies. I find myself nowadays just rotating through characters and playing up to ascension 20 and then starting a new profile once I've completed all four. Generally I'll always smash through with Silent first and then Ironclad/Watcher come in second and then I just don't seem to be as good at Defect as I want to be. I think the reason is my obsession of wanting to make 'Claw' decks work and then getting my ass handed to me as soon as I get to a boss. Silent is my favourite though and also the character I'm best with.
'Thunder Strike' is definitely one of those cards you get could early on and then get obsessed with the idea of building an entire deck around it, even if it's gonna be shite. Probably also my problem with 'Defect' is that there are too many cards that can make you fail e.g. 'Hello World'. Also, speaking of building stupid decks, Ironclad's 'Searing Blow' is ridiculous fun. I think I got it to +15 in one run once.
And yeah, I've tried Downfall. I played it a lot a few years back on PC (not sure if you can mod on Switch?). Definitely gave me a renewed interest in the game and absolutely loved the concept. I think that's the only mod I've ever actually used though.
Oh and Slay the Spire 2 is looking great as well. Cannot wait.
(20-04-2025, 07:33 PM)NateDog Wrote: [ -> ]How do you people find the time to work or sleep or eat. If I manage to get 7-10 hours of gaming in during a standard week I'd consider that a huge success.
Yeah, same really -- if that. S'why I love my Switch because I can sneak a bit of gaming time in, even if I'm on the shitter. Otherwise, it'll just be a few hours in the evening after the little one has gone to bed.
So I'm a bit more out there with the games that I dump hundreds of hours into. I enjoy a wide variety of genres, but I find myself spending the most amount of time on incredibly immersive, simulator-level experiences, so if I had to recommend just one game to someone, my opinion is certainly not one that would appeal to the average person, I don't think.
I gotta go with the mod Antistasi Ultimate for ArmA 3. Not ArmA 3 as a whole, because it's just a big sandbox to create experiences like Antistasi Ultimate.
Describing how the game works doesn't sell anybody on why I have sunk so much time into AU so I'll just relay one of my favorite experiences while playing this game.
I was playing a Vietnam War-era campaign (big surprise) playing as the Viet Cong, and had begun a campaign to take over a part of the map that was incredibly dense jungle. The area was a small airbase surrounded by three smaller outposts. Each outpost has 2-3 enemy squads, and each one would be a massive fight to take over. The airbase itself had 4-5 squads, many emplaced weapons, and armor support.
Dead of night, I drive my AI squad up until the road ends and then we start trekking on foot into the jungle. Moonlight is barely making it through the trees. It takes almost ten minutes to get us to where I want to flank the outpost. I set my squad to stealth mode and to hold fire while we begin getting in close. We move from cover to cover, slowly closing in on the outpost. I pause for a second to check my map, sitting in a bush. As I close the map, an enemy South Vietnamese soldier walks right by the barrel of my M16, literally as close to me as I am to my computer monitor right now. Absolute point blank. He doesn't see me. My radio is going off, my squadmates saying they are ready to fire. An entire 12-man squad is right in front of me, patrolling about 100 meters from the outpost. I give the order to open fire. The entire jungle lights up instantly. Tracer rounds flying everywhere, flares shooting up into the sky. I'm just unloading my M16 into the darkness. Used half my magazines, not sure if I hit anything at all. At some point I get incapacitated, and my medic drags me out of there. I give the order to retreat. I lost over half of my 10 man squad.
None of that was scripted in any way, besides the enemy patrol patterns. Eventually I took the outpost, every raid entirely different from the last. Many veterans of the Vietnam War, from both sides, described firefights where they ended up "aiming with their tracers" because they were fighting so close to each other. This is the only game where that happened to me, in a split second, entirely without thinking. Organic, simulated warfare that maintains historical accuracy purely because all the numbers were in place--The factions, the setting, the equipment used, all of it. And it has ruined any kind of military-themed video game for me since. CoD, BF, they're all empty shams of games to me now that I've experienced Antistasi.
When I play Antistasi, all I can think about is playing something simpler. Then when I play something simpler, all I can think about is getting back into the jungle.
Now the reason I keep coming back to this game is because of the sheer amount of different factions, maps, weapons, and combinations of all of them that I can use. Nazi Germany vs. the Galactic Empire from Star Wars. Modern day US Army versus Vietnam era US Army. The Covenant from Halo versus the Imperium from Warhammer 40K. It never ends, and there's always something that surprises me.
(21-04-2025, 06:31 PM)Refluxe Wrote: [ -> ] (20-04-2025, 07:21 PM)Blueblob Wrote: [ -> ] (20-04-2025, 05:54 PM)Refluxe Wrote: [ -> ] (19-04-2025, 07:33 PM)Blueblob Wrote: [ -> ]Not RuneScape, I don’t need to be ruining any lives
Slay the Spire hands down. Obviously if you’re into deck builders you’ll know it and also know it’s the GOAT but I feel like that’s a more niche genre that I guess a more ‘casual gamer’ wouldn’t go out of their way to dabble with. Might be completely wrong considering the success Balatro has just had, which is also a good entry point into that style of game, but SnS offers so much more complexity and variety so if it tickles your pickle then suddenly you have a game you can put thousands of hours into.
Couldn't agree more with this. I'm on well over 1,000 hours on Slay the Spire (across PC and Switch) and I am still finding new ways to beat the game that I've never done before. It's so easy to pick up and get the hang of, but hard to master, especially at the higher ascensions. Monster Train is also badass, but doesn't feel quite as 'polished' as StS.
I see BG3 has also been mentioned for obvious reasons. Probably the most complete game I've ever played, especially from an RPG perspective.
Both are awesome shouts.
Honestly, everytime I feel like I’ve exhausted every build that’s viable (especially anything ascension 15+) I’ll whip out some absolutely insane run that’s focused on some shit card like Thunderstrike or something. Have you tried the downfall mod? The character feels so much like it could’ve been designed by the devs
Agreed with monster train, it’s fun enough and I can play it for a few hours every now and then but it just lacks whatever ‘that’ which StS has which makes it impossible to put down. Can’t wait for the sequel
Yeah, anything at high ascension you need to be a little more focused on your deck building synergies. I find myself nowadays just rotating through characters and playing up to ascension 20 and then starting a new profile once I've completed all four. Generally I'll always smash through with Silent first and then Ironclad/Watcher come in second and then I just don't seem to be as good at Defect as I want to be. I think the reason is my obsession of wanting to make 'Claw' decks work and then getting my ass handed to me as soon as I get to a boss. Silent is my favourite though and also the character I'm best with.
'Thunder Strike' is definitely one of those cards you get could early on and then get obsessed with the idea of building an entire deck around it, even if it's gonna be shite. Probably also my problem with 'Defect' is that there are too many cards that can make you fail e.g. 'Hello World'. Also, speaking of building stupid decks, Ironclad's 'Searing Blow' is ridiculous fun. I think I got it to +15 in one run once.
And yeah, I've tried Downfall. I played it a lot a few years back on PC (not sure if you can mod on Switch?). Definitely gave me a renewed interest in the game and absolutely loved the concept. I think that's the only mod I've ever actually used though.
Oh and Slay the Spire 2 is looking great as well. Cannot wait.
Silent first? Love Silent and it has such a strong clear up until lie ac14 but I find it very inconsistent on harder difficuties. In fact it's the only one I haven't ac20'd on, up to 18 atm but definitely going back to finish that off before StS2. Ahaha I also used to not be on board with Defect, but that was my friend's favorite so I have definitely come around to Defect and it's probably the one I'm best with (Or Ironclad but I feel it's hard to fuck up Ironclad).
I didn't even get Thunderstrike early, pretty sure I scooped it up as like the act 3 boss reward, honestly did not expect to win with that deck. Always hate to see Hello World when running Creative AI, but I feel like Defect has so many avenues to infinite decks so really enjoy him. Honestly buildng stupid decks might be the best part, love trying to get a searing blow deck going. My personal favorite was Corpse Explosion Silent with 5 upgraded Catalyst.
I'd probably choose something like GTA 5 or 6 when that comes out. It's just that no other game has a city that's full of life and detail as Los Santos. Like yeah this game doesn't have the best characters and the main plot kinda falls apart by the end but the atmosphere and vibes are still the best.
It'd be a ping-pong between RDR2 and Days Gone.
RDR2 for me personally. Such an incredibly well built world with one of my favorite stories ever. I'll quite often boot it up just to do some hunting or get into a bit of gambling simply because I don't want the story to advance too much. It's an experience and half.
Honestly such a hard question to answer, been thinking about it for a while and drawing blanks lmao. I'm partly inclined to say something like Assassin's Creed 2 - I feel like it can demonstrate nearly most things which can be so great about that kind of mid-level gaming with casual elements and a healthy level of time sink whilst also retaining style, fun gameplay and a compelling story with good production value.
Would also say Demon's Souls or Dark Souls II is a great shout, or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Both really fun in a single player way with good options for competitive play between friends.