What Do You Play TODAY

[Yasek]

I've been off-and-on playing Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny.

My goal is to play the Ultima series all the way through to 9 and I'm halfway there but Ultima V is a HUUUUUUGE leap in learning curve from Ultima IV where you have to learn a runic language, spelling of spells to cast them (In Ultima IV you could just say you want "cure" and use the ginseng and garlic to make it. Now you have to type A & N for 'An Nox' which is the spell for Cure), and figure out the main quest on your own. Oh, and Shadowlords occasionally appear in cities and portcullis gates like to close at certain times so you have to keep track of time with a pocket watch. Truly a revolutionary game for its time, I think. Also, you could talk to Lord British and his seer in his castle to understand the quest of Ultima IV but in Ultima V all you know is Shadowlords reign, Shamino, Iolo and your fellow party members from your quest to become avatar are being hunted down and you have to find out about what happened to Lord British. There's an overworld and underworld (the underworld in this game basically spawns the basis of Ultima VI as well as the game which inspired Bethesda to make The Elder Scrolls series, Ultima: Underworld).

My hope is that I can complete this without decking too many hours to it, but as it stands I only have the crown of Lord British and I still need his cape, scepter, and I think 3 gem shards to destroy the shadowlords? It's all very very confusing.

[The Chosen One]

I’m currently playing Halo 3 Horde Mode and also Halo ODST Horde Mode when I can. I was in Colllege when during Halo CE and Halo 2 and think Halo 3 was the best multiplayer of the Halo games IMO.

I also just bought Skyrim VR. Looking forward to that since the game is so beautiful. To be honest I don’t purchase many games and of the games I have purchased recently I haven’t played them yet. Having said that I do enjoy going back to Halo 3 and Skyrim from time to time just because I can get very immersed in the atmosphere and gameplay.

To me games I play the most are usually ones that I have good memories of playing with friends (like Halo) and/or get into the lore and immersive/epic story that I can participate in and not watch (like Skyrim).

I’m looking forward to Ghosts of Tsushima and Cyberpunk 2077.

[Murray]

Are you playing Halo on 360 or the Master Chief Collection on the One?

[The Chosen One]

I’ve been playing on the 360 offline. I wanted to try it out on Xbox One because it should be backwards compatible, I believe.

[Murray]

I dunno about backwards comatibility but with MCC you can play all Halos between 1-4 except Reach.

[Percy]

I have been alternating between a few games as well. Whenever I want something online it's Final Fantasy XIV, just because it is relaxing and in my humble opinion the most player friendly MMO out there. It is insane the amount of quality of life decisions the devs have made for this game.

If I feel like doing something sandbox and open world, with real freedom and some brutal reality, then I play Kenshi. Its pure sandbox, no story, no hand holding, you are not the hero, hence why no single main character, and your guys can die easily, since for the majority of the game, everyone else is better than you. Graphics might not be up to date for a game that has been in development I believe since 2004-2006 and mostly just had only 1 guy work on it, but they work and are ok for the most part. The game is regularly updated, it is brutal, it is honest, it is simply a delight to fight for survival in it.

Now, to scratch my world conquering itches and power fantasies, you can never go wrong, strategy wise, with Stellaris and Crusader Kings 2, space or medieval fun times, Paradox games are always ready to show you a good time, and I hold these two games as the best out of their whole repertoire. Though if you like space strategy and you feel like Stellaris might be too simple for you, Distant Worlds by Matrix Games is simply put, the best space strategy game out there. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, due to it's rather comprehensive automation system. You can micro your entire empire or let the AI handle and you just pick a ship or two and play a Star Trek Captain in that game.

And lastly, newly launched a few days ago, X4 Foundations is right now my best economic simulator out there. It takes place in spaaaaaaace, in a universe that has evolved with each new X game in the series, and Egosoft as always have tried to deliver a game to keep you occupied for many months, with fun ships, economic opportunities, living world, and of course, constant patching of bugs :P.

[gu3rillaaxiom]

I am currently playing Q.U.B.E. 2

[scwoody]

I have been playing a ton of the new call of duty. The game is truthfully worth every cent. The three different modes have hours of game time. If you have a buddy to play blackout or zombies with its always a great time! And from what i have been hearing treyarch is trying their darndest to keep updates coming. Other than the slight cosmetics that cost a arm and a leg and the once in a while server issues it is seriously a great game. I normally hate cod to

[Andreas]

I am playing Elder Scrolls Online on the Xbox One and River City Ransom Underground on my workstation.

[Funkalopigus]

I have such a back-log of games it hurts. I'm always popping into Guild Wars 2 as my MMO fix, but I've been playing my Switch like a madman. Warframe has been a big obsession lately followed by Diablo 3, Minecraft (always pulling me back in), SSB Ultimate, and Steredenn. I'm probably going to get back into PC gaming a bit more and give some much deserved time to New Vegas.

[SnarkyJay]

I just finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider yesterday, and today I started Fatal Frame V and Mad Max. I'm also playing Let's Go Pikachu on Switch, as well as Magical Quest 3 on Super Famicon. I don't play many mobile games, but I picked up Epic Seven after seeing someone stream it on Twitch. It's pretty good for a free to play game. I tend to rotate through various games throughout the day unless one really sucks me in.

[Globaltron]

Top current games in order of favorite and most played:

Insurgency - excellent team based coop, can really talk out strats with a fire team.

Railway Empire - stretch track across the country and connect cities like never before in a dope train game.

Warhammer 40,000 - has a nice Diablo 2 vibe going for it plus its in the future with neural implants and crazy stuff like that I dream of making one day.

Empire Total War - Love fighting line battles with American revolutionary troops with France as our ally. Get huge lines of British and native swarms comming at you for some real fun game play.

Rust - gotta help some friends grind in a gnarly fps survival game, highly toxic.

Starcraft II - Cheese cannon to fast expo carrier rush with mother ship got me Diamond rank 1 in 4v4.

Dota 2 - not really so much anymore.

Planetary Anihilation - best command and conquer type game out right now in my opinion, this genre is really lacking and I hope to bring back a good ol GDI vs NoD type experience.

No Manys Sky - Love space!

World of Warships - My aim is trash but getting to command the huge ships is an amazing experience, you also get to control the aircraft carriers so if you want to get your pilot on, strap in, sooo fun!

Fortnite - I suck, but I get some good kills and love to play. Bring back 50 v 50 WTH!!!

[Ronnin426850]

Anybody here playing OGame? I've been at it for about a year now, last time was about 10 years ago and didn't last as long.

[MadMummy76]

This weekend: Anthem closed alpha

[Teratus]

I have quite a few games on the go these days but the main two I invest the most time into right now are Guildwars 2 and ARK: Survival Evolved.

Guildwars 2 I've been playing since it's Beta 6 years ago likewise I've been playing the first game since it's release year in 2005.
Suffice to say i'm a huge fan of the franchise with no plans to give that up
I've always had an interest in the MMO world even from it's early years but I was always turned away by the subscription fees, even to this day I harbor great disdain for any game or service that takes away features or products i've paid for if I stop paying the sub fee.. it's actually the main reason I do not and never will play modern games online on consoles anymore.
The Guildwars franchise lured me in exclusively because it boasted that there would never be a monthly subscription and to this day 13 years later, neither games have betrayed that to which I am extremely happy about.
With Guildwars 2 now having two expansions and getting semi regular free story content updates on a average 3 month basis I have to say the game has significantly grown and improved with time and as a long time player it's been an absolute treat to experience it all.. and to continue experiencing this new content and the games progressing story, which I also have to admit I've become severely invested in thanks to not just the narrative and direction it's taken but also the sheer epicness of it ^^
When Anet said they are now able to deliver expansion like quality content with Guildwars 2's new living world episodes I was skeptical about the truth in those words.. but oh boy were they telling the truth.
Some of the best story and epic moments in the game to date have been in the last few living world episodes.
God I love these games ^^

As for ARK.. Well I've never had the luxury of being able to play online with friends in a private server to avoid all the issues with the official ones so I've exclusively played the game in single player.
At the present time of posting I've invested 1190 hours into the single player of this game which is a pretty clear indicator that I very much enjoy the game in concept at least ^^
ARK unfortunately is notorious for it's developers failings.. namely the game being horribly un-optimised requiring some pretty beefy PC hardware just to run the game in a somewhat acceptable level of detail, likewise the bugs are numerous and while the game is somewhat balanced in the single player mode I can honestly say that it's not well balanced and using game commands to pretty much spawn in items or ghost through terrain is more or less neccessary to beat the game.
Thankfully the game does offer custom modifiers for all stats as well as mods so you can easily customize the game to your own liking which does help a lot with those balancing problems as well as the breeding grind.
ARK is definitely a game with a great deal of potential that's unfortunately not been utilized.. but the game is still ridiculously enjoyable despite that, specially if you've the luxury of a private server and a group of friends to play with.
Conquering powerful beasts, taming them and riding them into battle is very enjoyable, as is scratching that pokemon itch and simply trying to collect them all XD
I'm certainly going to continue investing hundreds if not thousands of hours into ARK, despite it's flaws it's still a game that appeals greatly to the kid in me.. back in the 90's etc I could only dream of games with this much freedom.. to build anywhere I wanted to.. to see almost any wild creature in the game and know that I could kill it, ignore it or even tame it into an ally on my own whim.
We just never had this kind of experience available to us growing up.. and even now there are few games that truly offer it.. and that's why I will continue to love this game no matter how much it occasionally pisses me off xD

[Neferteri]

I play a lot of Guild Wars 2. I bounce between Overwatch, Monster Hunter, Fallout 4, Skyrim and GTAO whenever I need a break from GW2. GW2 replaced a lot of the collaborative writing/RPing/character creation and design/development I use to do on RP forums. I do play other games but the above are my staple for the most part!

[Murray]

Today I played a bit more Path of Exile. The new expansion, Betrayal, has some nifty new features about stopping enemy caravans on the map here and there, plus you can occasionally invade fortresses as you travel. There is also a new reveal feature where you find items and can choose to add an additional stat to them, plus there are now hideouts where you can craft gear and stuff. I haven't tried it all out yet but it's pretty fun so far. They are good additions to the gameplay. Nothing spectacular but it keeps the game somewhat fresh.

I also played a bit Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy. I'm quite liking these remasters. They are true to the originals in terms of mechanics and atmosphere but they have done a great job with the graphical upgrades. I'm really liking how the Crash games' backtracking mechanic works. You don't have to do it, but if you want the best ending, you have to go back to older levels once you've found the coloured gems, whitch help you find secret areas that you previously could not access. Then, at the end, you use all the gems you've found to create a bridge to where the true ending is. It's a nice way of letting the player know what the goals are and what you have to do if you want to complete the game proper.

[RemoranArucaurd]

I'm playing God of War, got it on the Black Friday deal, and so far? It sucks ass.

Now to be fair, I've selected the highest available difficulty for the first time I've ever picked up the controls. I'm a bit of a difficulty masochist. I love me some NG++ Soulsborne, and LDK DMC4 SE, but this is just poorly balanced. I haven't played any other difficulty yet, but I feel like all they've done is made the enemies bigger sponges, maybe upped the enemy count, and made Kratos a gigantic pussy. I've put 15 hours into the game, and I'm still stuck at the second revenant encounter, where there's two heavy draugr and a pair of casters after she dies.

This wouldn't be too bad except the combat is very, very bland so far. I was hoping to tough it out until I find a weapon upgrade that might make it so Kratos could kill a single enemy in less than 30 heavy axe swings, allowing me to do more crowd control and focus on big threats, but the combat feels so poorly designed compared to something as old as DMC3 that it's sapping my will to play. The juggling is repetitive, Kratos's moves have knockback where you wouldn't want it, my best AoE is on a 100 second cooldown, the lock-on sucks so bad, Atreus is constantly getting the shit kicked out of him while screaming for help, I need to fire his arrows but he's always dirt napping, I can't make use of my combos because nothing staggers easily, and shit can regenerate.

Tell me the combat at least gets more interesting or varied, preferably soon.

DS has some sponginess too, but I have more character control in its meticulous combat, and far more options. DMC makes sponginess fun because you can look cool longer, and has a vast list of moves to make sure a skilled player is always in control. GoW has none of those, or I just can't see it.