What have you been playing recently? (Other than KSP)

[Meecrob]

1 hour ago, TwoCalories said:

snip

Congratulations! I bet your adrenaline was pumping like 2000psi through your body when you started to get close!

[Chemp]

KitHack is out!

You might know the dev

[Icegrx]

I went back in time and loaded up Oblivion again. I’ve 100%’ed the game back in the day, kinda excited to do it all over again. It’s been over a decade! 

[DDE]

3 hours ago, Icegrx said:

I went back in time and loaded up Oblivion again. I’ve 100%’ed the game back in the day, kinda excited to do it all over again. It’s been over a decade! 

Meanwhile, I'm playing Call of Duty. And I mean the one that didn't have a number to hide.

[AlamoVampire]

like the other day, ive been playing elite dangerous and for the first time in a LONG while I discovered a star system and was the first to map it! If you play Elite Dangerous feel free to travel some 555 light years or so from Shinrarta Dezhra to a little system called: SWOILZ LZ-F B2-3 the commanders name you see when you check any of the 4 stars or the giant gas giant will be my commanders name in Elite Dangerous. 

040404162024

[DDE]

10 hours ago, DDE said:

Meanwhile, I'm playing Call of Duty. And I mean the one that didn't have a number to hide.

I realized there's one thing that's particularly endearing even over CoD2 - the loading screens. CoD2 started to style them like diary entries, whereas CoD1...

And for the D-Day missions, entire obsolete sections are crossed out and replaced with hand scribbles.

[TwoCalories]

For the past week, I've been playing Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. It's a fighter jet arcade-style game that isn't a simulator like DCS but still extremely fun!

In the Ace Combat universe, Earth has different continents and countries, including the Osean Federation and the Kingdom of Erusea. Twenty years before the events of AC7, an asteroid named Ulysses 1994XF04 was on collision course with the planet. In response, several countries built massive superweapons like railguns to snipe the asteroid out of the sky, but the asteroid fragments made planetfall anyway (maybe that wasn't the smartest move). This in turn led to several large conflicts, each with their own AC game. But Ace Combat 7 takes place in the Lighthouse War, where [Spoilers].

Spoiler

After the Ulysses impact event, Osea sponsored an international space elevator project to bring prosperity back to devastated regions. Erusea sees this as a threat from Osea and declares war by shipping drones to Osea via cargo containers.

The player is an Osean Air Defense Force pilot named "Trigger". Long story short, after flying with a regular squadron for four missions, you are [Spoilers].

Spoiler

Falsely accused of killing the president by shooting down his aircraft during a rescue mission from the Space Elevator. After which, you are sent to the 444th Air Base penal unit "Spare Squadron".

The game is a ton of fun, and I've never been this involved in a campaign and never been so pumped up by gameplay for a long time.

And yes, I chose the F/A-18E as my aircraft.

I used the F-15C to get a nice uniform formation screenshot, but I haven't unlocked air-to-ground munitions for it yet, which were pretty needed for this mission. I quickly switched back to my F/A-18E after this.

Edited April 21 by TwoCalories

[Rutabaga22]

I got new vegas, very fun game. I've already played like 12 hour and got it on thursday.

[AlamoVampire]

Im beyond irritated now. Im playing elite dangerous and just spent the last 2 hours retracing steps i took over the two hours or so prior to that. I got killed by Thargoids which is why i had to retrace what I did. But heres the part that made my heart sink just now. I lost not the 4,000,000 credits i thought but that 1 death cost me 2 hours and 10,000,000 credits give or take. I remade the credits so technically only lost the first 2 or so hours but standing in Jameson Memorial staring at my pay out from Vista Genomics a 9,745,000 credit payout (earned another 640k in star system scans) tells me the longer original route had i not died would have net me north of 12m credits…. Fun times. Im gonna go sulk now lol

041404242024

Edited April 24 by AlamoVampire

[PASSthe40]

I've owned Subnautica for years,  and hardly done anything more than mess around and get to initial base building. In the past few weeks, Francis John did a blind playthrough on Youtube which I highly recommend. It inspired me to give it an honest shot again and Im 22 hrs in. It's really an unreal experience and the immersion is done so well. Once I got to the point that I realized its kind of difficult to die, exploration really opens up and its a blast. Underwater base building is great as well.

Definitely a looter, but I feel like there is so much there in terms of story, environment, etc...for me thats what sets something like this apart from a game like PlanetCrafter, which I've put about 24 hrs in EA, but felt it was so grindy with little really outside of a constant progression grind.

Anyone have any recommendations for an underwater survival game like Subnautica? I feel like Subnautica, Stationeers, and The Long Dark are 3 games that just really scratch survival itches for me.

[Lisias]

I'm playing this nice "little" game called Dome Keeper, suggestion from my son.

Hard as hell initially, I took weeks until I finally got a grasp on it and started to win a round now and then.

There're less demanding modes, as no enemies  (essentially, digging without worries) and automatic weapons (that do the service by themselves, but you need to upgrade them or you will be overrun). But they are available only after completing a full cycle, damnit.

Edited April 26 by Lisias
Entertaining grammars made slightely less entertaining...

[The Aziz]

Stardew valley 

Again.

Slowly cooperating into the end of year two.

[Abel Military Services]

@TwoCalories  Why not buy the CFA-44 DLC? It has two EMLs and ADMM that can make your campaign very easy. 

Anyway, you should try Project Wingman, a fan game that is made by the Belkans.

I'm playing Blue Archive these days. It's really fun and the story is good.

Edited April 26 by Abel Military Services

[TwoCalories]

17 hours ago, Abel Military Services said:

@TwoCalories  Why not buy the CFA-44 DLC? It has two EMLs and ADMM that can make your campaign very easy. 

I've only gotten the Top Gun: Maverick DLC because it was bundled with the base game on sale on Steam and it was cheaper than the base game or Season Pass at the moment. I'm pretty happy with my F/A-18E and the spread of aircraft given by TGM and it has gotten me almost through the campaign completely (I'm about to start Mission 20 on Easy with Expert Controls. Keep in mind this is my first campaign). But I'll look into some DLC aircraft.

17 hours ago, Abel Military Services said:

Anyway, you should try Project Wingman, a fan game that is made by the Belkans.

I've heard about that game! After I finish AC7, I might start looking into Project Wingman, because from what I've heard, it's very good, and maybe even better than AC7 from some reviews.

***

EDIT:

Well, I did it. I completed the campaign.

I got a lot of nice screenshots from the cutscenes, and I wanted to share them. Keep in mind there are game spoilers ahead. I'll also summarize all the game's storyline.

Spoiler

***

AC7 takes place in the Strangereal universe, an alternate universe where the Earth has different geography and countries. Some twenty years before the game takes place (2018 in Strangereal), an asteroid called Ulysses made planetfall. Despite a network of massive totally practical railguns and superweapons to defend Earth, fragments of asteroids still landed and wreaked havoc on civilization... Not sure how no one thought how shooting asteroids with railguns would make a bunch of fragments, but Ace Combat is not realistic by a long shot anyway. 

The game's main character and player's character Trigger is a pilot of the Osean Air Defense Force. He was a rookie pilot when the war broke out. You see, an Osean president named Vincent Harling commissioned the construction of the International Space Elevator, nicknamed Lighthouse. The ISEV was built close enough to Erusea that they felt as though Osea was doing it as a show of control. They declared war on Osean and shipped advanced drones via shipping containers to Osea to strike military and naval bases across the country. Trigger participated in a few missions with the International Union Peacekeeping Force engaging in missions against drones and this massive flying wing airborne aircraft carrier drone thing called the Arsenal Bird, before participating in an attempted rescue mission to rescue ex-pres Harling from the elevator and accidentally fired a missile at his liaison aircraft and killed him. Whoops.

You're then sent to the 444th Air Base penal unit "Spare Squadron" as Spare 15 and will do a few missions as well as meeting some new squadmates like Count and Tabloid (those are callsigns). Trigger also duels with an enemy ace pilot named Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage (I'm serious). Mihaly ends up escaping, but the mission was considered a success. You're then pardoned and transferred to the elite Strider Squadron of the Long-Range Strategic Strike Group and become Strider 1. You take down one Arsenal Bird with the help of your squadron and also that massive planetary defense railgun I talked about, do a nighttime canyon run, and finally invade Farbanti, the capital of Erusea and engaging Sol Squadron (Mihaly's elite experimental squadron) before Mihaly gets away again but it's not really your fault because some geniuses as Osea and Erusea's high commands decided to engage in a full on anti-satellite attack, which led to the entire continent (Usea)'s satellite network being destroyed by the Kessler Syndrome that followed.

No one can contact HQ or other forces, friendly fire is common now because the IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) systems were satellite-based, Erusea is plunged into civil war between conservative and radical powers, nothing makes sense...

You provide air cover for a betraying Erusean general who tells you that you didn't in fact kill the president, and it was a drone built of Osean parts, giving it an Osean IFF ping, making it seem like friendly fire. Speaking of friendly fire, some Osean fighter accidentally shoots down the general's aircraft due to misinformation and stuff. In the next mission, your air base crew is focused on just surviving. You raid some Erusean supply depot at Shilage Castle and then engage Sol Squadron and Mihaly in his advanced X-02 Wyvern, equipped with forward swept wings and a railgun for air-to-air combat. What's with this game and railguns? You then defeat him for real this time, and he manages to transmit to you, asking for forgiveness and telling you to stop the drone production. It turns out Mihaly was supplying flight data to the Erusean drones, and his data was successfully uploaded to two advanced ADF-11F drones.

You and an allied force of Osean and Erusean fighters launch an attack on the last of the two Arsenal Birds, hoping to just end the war. You end up managing to take it down, but then the two drones attack and you are forced to retreat. You then come back with what's left of the air forces and defeat the two ADF-11Fs, but it turns out one of them managed to use its escape pod unit and is still flying. It dives into the space elevator's underground maintenance tunnel. You and Count follow it through the claustrophobic tunnel. After shooting it down in the Space Elevator's internal chamber, you fly directly vertical through the hollow elevator and escape, and then there's a nice outro cutscene and happy ending.

All in all, really good game, very engaging storyline, and I would recommend it to any enjoyer of fighter jets and unrealistic aviation.

Spare Squadron.

Strider Squadron.

"The Three Strikes" Independent Squadron.

 

Edited April 27 by TwoCalories

[Abel Military Services]

On 4/27/2024 at 11:57 PM, TwoCalories said:

I've only gotten the Top Gun: Maverick DLC because it was bundled with the base game on sale on Steam and it was cheaper than the base game or Season Pass at the moment. I'm pretty happy with my F/A-18E and the spread of aircraft given by TGM and it has gotten me almost through the campaign completely (I'm about to start Mission 20 on Easy with Expert Controls. Keep in mind this is my first campaign). But I'll look into some DLC aircraft.

I've heard about that game! After I finish AC7, I might start looking into Project Wingman, because from what I've heard, it's very good, and maybe even better than AC7 from some reviews.

***

EDIT:

Well, I did it. I completed the campaign.

I got a lot of nice screenshots from the cutscenes, and I wanted to share them. Keep in mind there are game spoilers ahead. I'll also summarize all the game's storyline.

  Hide contents

***

AC7 takes place in the Strangereal universe, an alternate universe where the Earth has different geography and countries. Some twenty years before the game takes place (2018 in Strangereal), an asteroid called Ulysses made planetfall. Despite a network of massive totally practical railguns and superweapons to defend Earth, fragments of asteroids still landed and wreaked havoc on civilization... Not sure how no one thought how shooting asteroids with railguns would make a bunch of fragments, but Ace Combat is not realistic by a long shot anyway. 

The game's main character and player's character Trigger is a pilot of the Osean Air Defense Force. He was a rookie pilot when the war broke out. You see, an Osean president named Vincent Harling commissioned the construction of the International Space Elevator, nicknamed Lighthouse. The ISEV was built close enough to Erusea that they felt as though Osea was doing it as a show of control. They declared war on Osean and shipped advanced drones via shipping containers to Osea to strike military and naval bases across the country. Trigger participated in a few missions with the International Union Peacekeeping Force engaging in missions against drones and this massive flying wing airborne aircraft carrier drone thing called the Arsenal Bird, before participating in an attempted rescue mission to rescue ex-pres Harling from the elevator and accidentally fired a missile at his liaison aircraft and killed him. Whoops.

You're then sent to the 444th Air Base penal unit "Spare Squadron" as Spare 15 and will do a few missions as well as meeting some new squadmates like Count and Tabloid (those are callsigns). Trigger also duels with an enemy ace pilot named Mihaly Dumitru Margareta Corneliu Leopold Blanca Karol Aeon Ignatius Raphael Maria Niketas A. Shilage (I'm serious). Mihaly ends up escaping, but the mission was considered a success. You're then pardoned and transferred to the elite Strider Squadron of the Long-Range Strategic Strike Group and become Strider 1. You take down one Arsenal Bird with the help of your squadron and also that massive planetary defense railgun I talked about, do a nighttime canyon run, and finally invade Farbanti, the capital of Erusea and engaging Sol Squadron (Mihaly's elite experimental squadron) before Mihaly gets away again but it's not really your fault because some geniuses as Osea and Erusea's high commands decided to engage in a full on anti-satellite attack, which led to the entire continent (Usea)'s satellite network being destroyed by the Kessler Syndrome that followed.

No one can contact HQ or other forces, friendly fire is common now because the IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) systems were satellite-based, Erusea is plunged into civil war between conservative and radical powers, nothing makes sense...

You provide air cover for a betraying Erusean general who tells you that you didn't in fact kill the president, and it was a drone built of Osean parts, giving it an Osean IFF ping, making it seem like friendly fire. Speaking of friendly fire, some Osean fighter accidentally shoots down the general's aircraft due to misinformation and stuff. In the next mission, your air base crew is focused on just surviving. You raid some Erusean supply depot at Shilage Castle and then engage Sol Squadron and Mihaly in his advanced X-02 Wyvern, equipped with forward swept wings and a railgun for air-to-air combat. What's with this game and railguns? You then defeat him for real this time, and he manages to transmit to you, asking for forgiveness and telling you to stop the drone production. It turns out Mihaly was supplying flight data to the Erusean drones, and his data was successfully uploaded to two advanced ADF-11F drones.

You and an allied force of Osean and Erusean fighters launch an attack on the last of the two Arsenal Birds, hoping to just end the war. You end up managing to take it down, but then the two drones attack and you are forced to retreat. You then come back with what's left of the air forces and defeat the two ADF-11Fs, but it turns out one of them managed to use its escape pod unit and is still flying. It dives into the space elevator's underground maintenance tunnel. You and Count follow it through the claustrophobic tunnel. After shooting it down in the Space Elevator's internal chamber, you fly directly vertical through the hollow elevator and escape, and then there's a nice outro cutscene and happy ending.

All in all, really good game, very engaging storyline, and I would recommend it to any enjoyer of fighter jets and unrealistic aviation.

Spare Squadron.

Strider Squadron.

"The Three Strikes" Independent Squadron.

 

Just finished Mihaly with CFA-44.

Anyway, I'm playing Blue Archive these days, it's a really good game.

Spoiler

The game takes place in Florida Kivotos, a city full of female superhuman students with guns. You play as "Sensei" or Teacher, a guy that is probably the only normal human in this place.

 

[DDE]

It's a good thing I was rooting for Helldivers II from the rafters, knowing I don't exactly have the time to commit to playing. They've just jumped the shark by making PSN registration mandatory, ostensibly to streamline the banning of cheaters - but in practice, most bans appear to be players using VPN to access PSN from countries where it's not available. That includes Mainland China, where the game appears to have been sold officially (at least, I've found a yuan Steam price).

What has followed is potentially the biggest review bomb in history.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Timberborn, Space Trash Scavenger, EarthX, Going Mideaval (A tiny bit of Manor Lords)

With Per Aspera on the To Play Soon List.

Also think Rocket Science is shaping up to be a good candidate for a more KSP1 feel.

I've started to follow and hope development goes well.

[Iapetus7342]

Been playing some GMOD and Universe Sandbox 2 recently with a little Stanley Parable: ULTRA DELUXE on the side.

[Lisias]

Porco Rosso meets Crymson Skyes - and beer. How I would not love this one?

The Brew Barons. A very nice (but somewhat short) game about flying biplanes, fighting Zeppelins (and warships) while trying to run a brew business in competition with a nasty monopoly. Sounds like an euphemism for games, uh?

As usual, an indie game.

https://www.lifetapstudios.com/the-brew-barons/

[Jacke]

On 4/25/2024 at 1:19 PM, PASSthe40 said:

I've owned Subnautica for years,  and hardly done anything more than mess around and get to initial base building. In the past few weeks, Francis John did a blind playthrough on Youtube which I highly recommend. It inspired me to give it an honest shot again and Im 22 hrs in. It's really an unreal experience and the immersion is done so well. Once I got to the point that I realized its kind of difficult to die, exploration really opens up and its a blast. Underwater base building is great as well.

Definitely a looter, but I feel like there is so much there in terms of story, environment, etc...for me thats what sets something like this apart from a game like PlanetCrafter, which I've put about 24 hrs in EA, but felt it was so grindy with little really outside of a constant progression grind.

Anyone have any recommendations for an underwater survival game like Subnautica? I feel like Subnautica, Stationeers, and The Long Dark are 3 games that just really scratch survival itches for me.

I was one of the players who played Subnautica during its Early Access effectively Open Beta.  It helped that at the time, Unknown Worlds had a forums website which made posting feedback and commenting and forming a community relatively easy (there was also an in-game feedback system).

I still fondly remember my first dives off of the Escape Pod.  The short time I had until my O2 ran low (crazy low for game purposes).  And at night...wow.  All that alien life glowing in the dark.

As the new versions released, I played that game start so many times.  I didn't mind as even with what grind there is in the game, it's minor to the experience.  Got to have a few favourite spots for undersea bases.  Also when I got to the big sub, many times I kitted them out with so many extra add-on lockers and other bits and bobs I turned into a true mobile base.

Subnautica is one of the few games I finished.  Later parts are a bit challenging, but I powered through them.

The sequel, Subnautica Below Zero, it had a rockier development.  Some internal drama lead to a major recast of the game and its story.  I've not gotten far into it as though I like some of the changes, others don't sit as well for me.  Someday I'll go at it again.

Then Unknown Worlds shut down their forums and switched entirely to using a Discord.  For even a small community, a Discord isn't the same, especially for supporting that community as well as the many mods that any moddable game attracts.

I still hope for another Subnautica game that could capture more of the feeling of the first one.

For the other games, I've tried the demo of The Planet Crafter, but it just didn't seem to work right.  I'm glad you have a good opinion of Stationeers, as I have hopes for a good space game from RocketWerkz.

[DDE]

6 minutes ago, Jacke said:

Then Unknown Worlds shut down their forums and switched entirely to using a Discord.  For even a small community, a Discord isn't the same, especially for supporting that community as well as the many mods that any moddable game attracts.

I wonder why that trend is so pervasive. Lower running costs?

[The Aziz]

Cities 2

City over 70k and still growing.

[DDE]

Just surveyed the KSP install from two years ago. What a mess. The toolbar runneth over. I think I'll have to do a full audit and not only update everything but meticulously excise the stuff I'll likely never use given my rusty skills.

All while having precious little idea what the modding scene looks like now.

[Scarecrow71]

Been diving into Juno the last week or so.  It was on sale on Steam for like 60% off, so it only cost me $8.  And it isn't all that different than KSP.  There are differences for sure, such as Droo being bigger than Kerbin, and there being procedural parts of all kinds.  But it's still the same concept, and the same principles of engineering, rocketry, rocket design, and flight still apply.

In my current career save, I've gotten into the SOI of both Brigo and Luna (both of Droo's moons, which are akin to Mun and Minmus at least as far as distance goes), and I've got a craft orbiting Luna.  I only have the Village launch pad unlocked, which limits you to a rocket height of 10 meters and a rocket width of 3 meters.  No part or mass limits, but you have to take cash (funds) into account.  Which means the Caveman Challenge has served me well.    The rocket I used to get into Luna's SOI has way more fuel than it needs, so I'm going to put some legs on the upper stage and see if I can't land it on Brigo at some point.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

28 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

Been diving into Juno the last week or so.  It was on sale on Steam for like 60% off, so it only cost me $8.  And it isn't all that different than KSP.  There are differences for sure, such as Droo being bigger than Kerbin, and there being procedural parts of all kinds.  But it's still the same concept, and the same principles of engineering, rocketry, rocket design, and flight still apply.

In my current career save, I've gotten into the SOI of both Brigo and Luna (both of Droo's moons, which are akin to Mun and Minmus at least as far as distance goes), and I've got a craft orbiting Luna.  I only have the Village launch pad unlocked, which limits you to a rocket height of 10 meters and a rocket width of 3 meters.  No part or mass limits, but you have to take cash (funds) into account.  Which means the Caveman Challenge has served me well.    The rocket I used to get into Luna's SOI has way more fuel than it needs, so I'm going to put some legs on the upper stage and see if I can't land it on Brigo at some point.

Are you enjoying Juno then?

Do you see yourself becoming invested in the long term. I finished Orbiting Droo, put a relay around Luna but essentially end up finishing each play with a rocket RC car for excrementss & giggles.

About an hour in I can seem to stay focused.. having same issue with KSP1 lately.

I LOVED kerbals soo much and it was their Quirk that got me. That balanced with the sophistication of the game.

I still can't seem to find a game that grabs me. Even games like Kenshi & Rimworld don't much draw me in. (Both I Enjoyed until recently)

KSP2 broke my heart & I am having a hard time right now finding small doses of joy. Feels kinda pathetic, but definitely not the first time I've overreacted to something I should never have even been emotionally invested in.

First marriage comes to mind.

Edited May 11 by Fizzlebop Smith