The gaming thread, this time with another classic. I'm bad at racing games so spend a lot of time smashing into the walls of courses… But hey, it's fun!
What've you been playing this week?
by a-liquid-sky
The gaming thread, this time with another classic. I'm bad at racing games so spend a lot of time smashing into the walls of courses… But hey, it's fun!
What've you been playing this week?
by a-liquid-sky
31 comments
Been playing a lot of Art of Rally this week so far. It’s a really fun rally game with a cool art style and banging soundtrack! It’s also a lot more difficult than it looks as well
Ah I loved Burnout, the indicators coming on near a turn told me we’d truly moved to the next generation of gaming (first PS2 game I got). The stripes on that lorry also unlocked a bizarre desire in me to see Stagecoach buses in the game to smash into.
the usual; dead by daylight & world of warcraft
the treasure goblin event in WoW this month also meant i finally managed to get invincible from icecrown citadel, so that’s been fun
I recently started new profiles on both ETS2 and ATS, been smashing them mostly.
Brilliant game.
I’ve been playing World Championship Snooker 2002, great game I spent many hours playing as a kid
I loved Burnout 2 as a kid.
It was such a good game and the Crash Mode was also a great form of stress relief for me after a shitty day at school, which happened a lot thanks to all the bullying I received.
The theme tune still lives in my head to this day.
Burnout 3 is the best racing game ever made, and I will die on that hill. Whilst I appreciated the Burnout Paradise remaster, the fact Burnout 3 never got one is criminal.
I got a PS2 from CEX a few months ago, specifically so I could play Simpsons Hit and Run, and Burnout 3
Exploring the subways of Washington DC, avoiding the feral ghouls as much as i can
I’ve been building multiple farms in Minecraft. Almost got a working enderman farm in the end, have a villager trading and breeding village, and then it’ll be time to make a multiple mob, mob farm. The gunpowder is needed heavily for my fireworks so I can use my elytra.
The other game I’ve recently gotten back into is The Front, which is just completely chaotic fun and the vehicle fabricator makes it so fun, except when it comes to the power supply.
I’ve been playing a bit of Warhammer Battle Sector and some Modern Warfare 2. Was recently hyped that Helldivers 2 is dropping on Xbox August 26 so felt like a kid at Christmas, booked 3 days of work for it too! I’m 34 years old 🙈
PS2 was the best console. So many games at all price points. I used to love the cheap ones from Woolworths.
Currently still on Spider-Man 2 and Alone in the Dark.
Been revisiting a long lost favourite of mine on the 360 emulator, Project Gotham Racing 4. I miss that franchise, played it ever since the Dreamcast days of Metropolis Street Racer.
I have finally got around to playing Life is Strange and despite some janky writing, it has been excellent. End of Episode 2 and I am hooked. But man, it is stressful at times. End of Episode 2 in particular was very stressful.
Genuinely think the title sequence when you have the first mission to go to the bathroom is one of the best openings to games of all time. I just love the sound design in this segment.
Shout out for Mashed on the PS2, was great fun with friends
God Ioved burnout revenge… it was my favourite game and I was awesome at it.
Lately I’ve been playing league of legends. Thought I’d jump in the bandwagon.
I’ve been absolutely smashing through **Clair Obscur: Expedition 33**, it’s just ridiculously good. Last night though, I saw that the **Bluey** game was on PS+ so I downloaded that and fucked around for an hour or so, it was a pleasant enough distraction.
Still playing through path of exile 2. It’s a tough game!
I seem to have a very short attention span when it comes to games these days. Gone are the days of spending months at a time grinding away at WoW (although I do maintain a subscription and dip in most weeks) but the one game that I keep coming back to and putting many hours into is **Captain of Industry**
Should really get back into MS Flight Sim 24 too considering I so eagerly bought it when it released, got my PPL and then went “meh”. I have so much external hardware for flying, seems a shame for it to just be sat on my desk.
Now 80 hours into **Death Stranding 2** and still on chapter 7. Just did a decent BT focused mission, which was welcome as there’s not been nearly enough BT combat in this game. Lots of human combat but tbh I’m kinda bored of it cos it’s too easy. Though I unlocked a couple of fun weapons and items recently to mix things up a bit.
My mate, who’s a bit behind me, reckons he’s got 150k likes from his roads. Whereas all my roads (and I love building roads) have only earned me 20k. I think he’s lying/looking at the wrong number.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 – only a few hours in, I have no money, no clothes, no bed to sleep in.
Loving it!
**Cyberpunk** got added to PS Plus last week, so started playing that. Not massively far into it, so giving it a chance – it hasn’t fully grabbed me yet
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3+4 for me.
I’m in my last week of paternity and in between random crying sessions (baby, not me) and feeds, I’m jumping into THPS on Switch 2 and loving it
Been playing **Path of Exile 2** for the last few weeks. Skipped most of Dawn of the Hunt launch as it was a bit rough, but feels much better now. Patiently waiting for 0.3, need an economy reset. The market is dead so trading for anything outside of big ticket items is almost non-existent, not to mention the inflation.
Even though I haven’t played in over a year I’ve been keeping an eye on the **Destiny 2** “expansion” launch. From what I’ve seen of it so far I’m glad I didn’t buy it and I feel happy with my decision to leave the game on a high note with The Final Shape.
Also, Burnout 2 and 3 were among my most played games on PS2. Every arcade racing game I’ve played since hasn’t held a candle to Burnout 3. I know lots of people loved Paradise, but it just wasn’t the same to me.
Currently playing a mix of Octopath Traveler 2 and Borderlands on the Switch depending on how much free time I have. I ended up picking up the big Borderlands bundle they do, so I forsee a lot of looting and shooting in my future.
I’m also managing to squeeze in some Overwatch each night, which at this point I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll be playing until the servers get turned off. What an incredible game.
I lament the lack of structure in racing games. Since Forza and Gran Turismo they just focus on number of cars and tracks. Very few titles give any thought to progression, or the sense of working your way up. That’s why games like the NFS series were so compelling imo. And there was the code masters classic TOCA race driver which was hella-fun.
I still wish for a motorsport would play nicely with my moza wheel and just… Be better. It’s exactly my style of game it’s just implemented poorly.
Games I’ve loved:
Witcher series
Fallout 4
Cyberpunk 2077
Red Dead Redemption 1+2
Assassin’s Creed series
I’m well aware I have a type of game that I enjoy. Story driven, open world etc.
I’m open for suggestions of other games that fit this theme!
I’ve been playing lots of Chef RPG, Slime Rancher 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3.
I’m stuck at the underdark Grymforge in BG3, will probably sink my teeth into later tonight and try and do battle there
Currently playing The Alters, really enjoying it!
THPS 3+4!
One of my childhood memories I remember well is getting THPS 4 on release for my birthday for PS1. Promised my mates I’d wait until they got round to play it but couldn’t resist. We played the college park until the early hours with ‘spokesman’ being the only song on the game playlist turned on.
Quite enjoy the remaster, haven’t touched 3 yet but completed 4. Water park is a very fun map! I’m having display issues, the shadow are too dark and I can’t figure out how to fix it, so if anyone can help!
I want to talk about a nice little mobile game call **Backpack Brawl**. It’s one of very few mobile games I’ve found with an actual strategic level to it. And it has no forced ads which is a big plus.
The premise is simple. You have bags. You put items in the bags. These items (weapons, armour, trinkets, pets etc.) can interact with eachother based on placement. For example, there are potion items (eg. below X health, it activates and heals you) and there are belt items that if placed next to the potions, give the potions additional uses. When you have set up your bag, you go against another player and items activate every X seconds. Between rounds, you have money and a shop where you do the best you can to create the strongest board you can. It sounds super simple, but with over 600 items, it gets really deep but not overwhelmingly so. It’s very easy to see the through line. “Ok, so this item gives me armour per strength buff I have and it’s a potion, so I can put the strength potion and this potion next to the same belt and so I get more strength and two uses of the armour potion, for more than twice the armour!”.
But you only have a limited number of slots, so you need to think carefully. It ultimately becomes a combination of a puzzle game and a combat game.
Being a mobile game, there is monetisation and it seems very fair to me. You have various charactars who have their own unique items. These heroes cost gems to buy so you’re paying for a more diversified playstyle depending on your mood. Thing is the devs are possibly overgenerous with gems. I did the maths and even without watching a single ad or paying for gems, you can earn a new hero every 3 weeks or so, just playing for a half hour or so a day (if you take public transport, that’s easy). And this is after they tripled the price of heroes because literally no one was buying the premium currency. They’ve said they could charge a lot more and people would pay it and I believe them.
Now technically, there is a slight pay to win element. You get chests from winning, these chests have cards and coins and gems in them. When you have enough cards for a particular item, you can spend the coins to upgrade the item. The thing is that these upgrades are usually incredibly minor. They’re things like “An extra 5% chance on match start to get an extra 6 hp!” which really doesn’t matter at any stage of the game. But yes, a player with fully upgraded cards and the same board as someone else with no upgrades will win but the sheer variety of builds means that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game won or lost on the back of this. And besides, even if you did whale it up and spend thousands, it would still only get you to a slightly higher rank. It’s not a concern for me.
Ultimately, it’s a great little game and it hits all the right buttons to me. Strategic, actually fun (yeah, what an alien concept for a mobile game), with devs that seem to care and no predatory monetisation.
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