Topic: What games are you playing at the moment?

[Zlen]

I agree that it doesn't have much resemblance to actual football but is that not just the nature of the beast with football games?  They need to add a bit of a basketball factor with attacking boosts as otherwise almost every six minute game would end 0-0 with, at most, a couple of shots.  As I said I've not played an EA title for a decade so maybe things improved in the interim before regressing.

In general - any company making a football game must find a way to do two things. Make games enjoyable and interesting in 10 minutes, instead of 90 and also find a way to keep humans with years of experience challenged on higher difficulty tiers (this is what scripting usually does). So yes, I understand that. But I see no reason whatsoever why any of this warrants changing the nature of the game. You can just as easily accomplish both while preserving what makes football feel like football.

EA solves the first issue of making short matches feel interesting by doing three things. First they completely ignore existence of physical momentum. I remember testing in FIFA 23 and it took my player 0.5 seconds to go from sprinting with the ball in one direction to stop, turn and sprint in the opposite direction. That is the source of the 'skating' feel you get in FIFA. Other thing they do is the impact of speed. Fast enough player can just run around a defender and go through on goal. Also their stamina is seemingly endless. And the third one is the indirect result of these changes - midfield and passing aren't really important, because you can create space and chances with speed and rapid movements. These is no need to pass around. 

All combined - it feels nothing like football.

[JerseyKloppite]

I’ve always much preferred football that feels like a real game versus the arcade-y feel you get with FIFA/EA.

Even if that means scraping a 1-0 or drawing a few games 0-0. It feels more satisfying when you win, you have to earn it.

There’s a reason people love games like Football Manager, it’s an approximation of reality. You know that Swindon Town aren’t going to win the Champions League in 2032 but the game is balanced so that you can take them on that journey without it feeling completely ridiculous, and the games feel (more or less) like believable football games. If I had an FM save where every game finished 7-4 or 5-5 I wouldn’t be remotely interested.

I appreciate people get different things out of FM and FIFA but I do think a lot of people want something that both plays and feels like an actual game of football, particularly in single player, master league type modes. But I think that seems to be essentially gone forever now because the money is obviously in the multiplayer experience.

[Zlen]

What is really devastating to someone who grew up on these offline modes (and I agree that it is dead, possibly never to return) is that we are entering an age of AI. You could easily see devs using it to create near-infinite tactical variety for teams, or perfect approximations of famous managers, perfect approximations of player behaviour etc. We could have the golden age of football games - instead we're witnessing the dark age of microtransactions, card collecting online fuckery and horrible gameplay. Ah well..

[Lisan Al Gaib]

You're playing FM wrong if you can't take a team like Swindon Town to Champions League glory in 8 years

[Hedley Lamarr]

Indiana Jones is just an absolute treat, puts a smile on my face every time I play it.

[ToneLa]

DayZ when you have friends in the world to give you food and guns is actually fun

Not a big survival / crafting game type but

I can be lethal with friends, eyyy

[Ed-Zeppelin]

Thanks to those who gave Tinykin a shout out last week. I finished it tonight after looking it up based on the recommendations.

Brilliant little game, such a chilled but fun experience. The final level especially was great but overall really good quality and about the perfect length (6-7 hours for me).

Indiana Jones next!

[Andy @ Allerton]

Noita, Enter the Gungeon, UnderMine, Vampire Survivors and Farming Sim 22

[JerseyKloppite]

Noita, Enter the Gungeon, UnderMine, Vampire Survivors and Farming Sim 22

I can tell who’s hiding behind the Xmas username by the Noita shout out

[Andy @ Allerton]

I can tell who’s hiding behind the Xmas username by the Noita shout out

[stoa]

I can tell who’s hiding behind the Xmas username by the Noita shout out

I can't stand the Christmas usernames, but it couldn't be more clear who's behind this one...

[Fabulous_aurelio]

I'm thinking (pretty much decided) that I am going to trade my SX in and get a PS5.

I've not had a PS since I owed a PS2 and it was only because I was given a 360 that got me onto Xbox.

Anyway, I'm not a massive gamer anymore due to having a one year old. Now my time is limited, I just want to play one or two really good games a year and I'm getting annoying with the lack of quality Xbox exclusives. I've missed Ghosts, Last of Us and GOW.

My gaming time has changed, and just need quality now. My wife also wants to play The Last of Us having both enjoyed the TV series.

Anyone know of any good deals knocking about?

[ToneLa]

Not sure on PS5 deals as it's right after black friday and xmas.. shop around

But if you're gonna get any console yeah the PS5 is the one

Consider joining PS Plus as well, to instantly get "free" games - it's matured into quite a good service and god knows when you have a console the last thing you wanna do is fork out the fortune new games cost now

I want to clear something up about the Pro:
it is 100% opt-in, so, in my eyes not worth it
In other words, the upscaling tech etc, needs to be patched in by the devs, so only specific titles will actually benefit - otherwise it'll do everything the PS5 does

[Walshy nMe®]

There are games getting bump in performance just due to the power of the Pro.

The PS4 games for instance are sharper without a patch due to PSSR.

[Riquende]

I picked up a small range of cheap PC games, different genres, in the Steam sale that have been on my wishlist for ages and very quickly lost interest in all of them, even with the excuse of a cold keeping me inside and near the PC. I'm just not getting much back from the sort of game you can pick up for 10-15 minutes and put down again.

I think I need a certain type of game now. Big, open or semi-open world with an overarcing story to play through but lots of other stuff to explore/collect. Something that will take me a month or more of evenings/weekends to plough through.

[JerseyKloppite]

I picked up a small range of cheap PC games, different genres, in the Steam sale that have been on my wishlist for ages and very quickly lost interest in all of them, even with the excuse of a cold keeping me inside and near the PC. I'm just not getting much back from the sort of game you can pick up for 10-15 minutes and put down again.

I think I need a certain type of game now. Big, open or semi-open world with an overarcing story to play through but lots of other stuff to explore/collect. Something that will take me a month or more of evenings/weekends to plough through.

So funny, I’m the complete opposite now Love something I can blast on the Switch for 10-15 mins but really have to push myself to put the hours in a big game on the PS5

[dai_bonehead]

Stalker 2, but parked it as I have to get through an Emission and keep dying....GRRR.

Forza Horizon 4. Purchased as it was getting delisted. It is excellent.

[Scottymuser]

Mostly played Bolatro for the last week, good god it is both remarkably good and very addictive.  Did everyone see the ridiculous PEGI age rating of 18! for it - just so stupid.

[classycarra]

Cult of the Lamb, as of today - and it's seriously addictive

[Fabulous_aurelio]

Got a PS5 landing over the weekend. I'll be keeping the SX too just incase as I went for the digital PS.

So excited to crack on with the exclusives. Which first... TLOU, God of War, Miles or Ghosts of T!?

[zero zero]

Got a PS5 landing over the weekend. I'll be keeping the SX too just incase as I went for the digital PS.

So excited to crack on with the exclusives. Which first... TLOU, God of War, Miles or Ghosts of T!?

Amazing

[Darren G]

Got a PS5 landing over the weekend. I'll be keeping the SX too just incase as I went for the digital PS.

So excited to crack on with the exclusives. Which first... TLOU, God of War, Miles or Ghosts of T!?

Can't speak to TLOU or Miles, but God of War is overrated in my opinion.  GoT of Tsushima is one of my top games ever. An absolute masterpiece in my opinion. I found it truly beautiful and I don't just mean visually.

[Fabulous_aurelio]

Interesting. I am very excited to play Ghosts, looks right up my street.

In terms of TLOU, I've watched the 1st season and I wanted to finish the 2 games before the 2nd one comes out. My wife loved it but she isn't a massive gamer at all. She really wants to play TLOU though as she's read a lot about it, minus spoilers.

For time purposes, and wanting to avoid the risk of my wife losing interest, you think we can jump straight into the 2nd game?

[AndyMuller]

It wouldn’t hit the same if you jumped straight into the second one. The first one isn’t that long really but the second one is long.

[zero zero]

For time purposes, and wanting to avoid the risk of my wife losing interest, you think we can jump straight into the 2nd game?

I played TLOU2 first becuase of when I bought my PS5. In my opinion the series remained pretty faithful to the game whilst introducing the back story of some of the characters. I think if you played TLOU first, you'd get through the game without progressing the story, so I'd say go with TLOU2 now.

You haven't got Horizon Zero Dawn on there, which I thought was a brilliant game. I couldn't get in to GOW either.

[Walshy nMe®]

Do not pay the 2nd first, it won't have any of the impact the story is designed for!

Play the first it is a masterpiece, the Part 1 version is remade in the Part 2 engine, the graphics and sound are insane, it is a must play!

[Riquende]

So after striking out 4 times the other day with small Steam bits, I gambled on the next tier of game up (over £10 on sale, big money for me) and picked up something I've been a bit sceptical about whether it could work - Expeditions: Rome. And... it's great! 16 hours in across the two Scottish NY bank holidays, not really sure of my progress but I've only just unlocked the last companion 2/3 of the way though Act 1.

For anyone unsure it's ultimately an RPG - you play a dispossessed young Roman noble whose family has been usurped by a rival, and the game starts with your character fleeing East to an army camp run by a powerful family friend, and in the course of early events you both take command of a Legion of troops and form a little party of "Praetorians" to accompany you on talky adventures and SpecOps-style raids, which are all played out as Xcom-style turn based combat across a hex grid, only instead of aliens and advanced firepower you're instead equipping your guys with better levels of swords, shields and chainmail armour etc. There are some ancient legendary weapons (Spear of Achilles etc) and crafting to upgrade stuff you've already found.

As you level up there's various class skills to unlock which do make a difference - in the first boss battle on Lesbos I was trying to take the guy down but my archer couldn't get a shot since the boss was in a narrow space and my tanky Princeps was blocking line of sight whilst the boss himself was blocking access to a bridge off the rooftop. The Princeps was able to use a shield bash to push the boss back one hex which let the archer sprint through the gap, turn round and pick out a shot from the other side of the bridge to win the encounter.

You also have to use the Legion though to conquer new settlments (and defend existing ones) on a Total War style map, so when at your camp you'll be recruiting battlefield commanders, checking in and replenishing the troops and setting up the plans they use in battle (which you don't control first-hand, but take an almost Football Manager-esque overview of as it plays out). It's an odd blend of things I've not seen put together before but certainly scratches an itch at the moment. Doesn't appear it's ever been mentioned on RAWK either.

[JerseyKloppite]

I played TLOU2 first becuase of when I bought my PS5. In my opinion the series remained pretty faithful to the game whilst introducing the back story of some of the characters. I think if you played TLOU first, you'd get through the game without progressing the story, so I'd say go with TLOU2 now.

You haven't got Horizon Zero Dawn on there, which I thought was a brilliant game. I couldn't get in to GOW either.

I loved GOW but couldn’t get into Horizons at all

[Walshy nMe®]

I loved GOW but couldn’t get into Horizons at all

I'm similar, I loved both GOW games.

The first horizon still didn't feel like it clicked with me until I got to

Spoiler

the new area

[close]

I was going through the motions with it, haven't played 2.  I am thinking of paying £10 for the PS5 remaster and doing them again, with the aim of picking up FW once I finish ZD again.

[stoa]

The weird thing about Horizons is that I got kind of into the gameplay, but overall it was forgetable. Never really wanted to play the second one...

[Darren G]

Both Horizons have been slow burners for me. Nearly put the first one down early on, but was advised to keep going by Voodoo on here and ended up loving it. Was also somewhat indifferent to the second for a while. Just finished it about 20 minutes ago and now think that it's a fantastic game, though I still maintain the combat is a bit shit. Felt like a proper good adventure though and the main thing that impressed me about it (Forbidden West) was the world. Wonderful imagination to come up with some of that stuff and great art design overall.

[JerseyKloppite]

The combat is the thing that hugely put me off Horizons. I’ve come off games like Control, GoT and GoW where I loved the combat, and then found Horizons’ very laboured and dull.

[voodoo ray]

The combat is the thing that hugely put me off Horizons. I’ve come off games like Control, GoT and GoW where I loved the combat, and then found Horizons’ very laboured and dull.

I found it got better as I got better weapons. and ignored other weapons that I didn't want to use.

[Riquende]

Wonderful imagination to come up with some of that stuff and great art design overall.

It's the setting that really sucked me in to the first game, how they created a whole new style of apocalypse to get from here to a futuristing tribal setting was clever, and slowly discovering about that and also Aloy's place in the world and reason for being was really well done.

Slightly agree about the combat, I think I ended up using something to enable double damage output when I played, because even some of the mid-range enemies took an annoying amount of time to get through by time I was nearing the end with fully upgraded weapons.

Sequel is 100% on my list to purchase some point this year.

[Zlen]

Still rocking the Path of Exile 2 Early Access.
Runs like crap on console, but it is still a lot of fun.
Has potential to be the best ARPG ever if they nail the landing on full release.

[voodoo ray]

Both Horizons have been slow burners for me. Nearly put the first one down early on, but was advised to keep going by Voodoo on here and ended up loving it. Was also somewhat indifferent to the second for a while. Just finished it about 20 minutes ago and now think that it's a fantastic game, though I still maintain the combat is a bit shit. Felt like a proper good adventure though and the main thing that impressed me about it (Forbidden West) was the world. Wonderful imagination to come up with some of that stuff and great art design overall.

did you do the dlc as well?

[Darren G]

did you do the dlc as well?

Gonna start it soon. Just dicking around in the world mopping up side quests, cauldrons and the like and leveling up my gear at the moment. My armour was made of wet tissue paper for the final fight and as a result it took me three rage-quits to complete. I'm going to end up with PTSD if I go through that again.  It was nice to see that Forbidden West has a proper post-story phase too (aside from the DLC), as opposed to Zero Dawn where you just got sent back to before the finale after the story was completed. 

It's the setting that really sucked me in to the first game, how they created a whole new style of apocalypse to get from here to a futuristing tribal setting was clever, and slowly discovering about that and also Aloy's place in the world and reason for being was really well done.

Slightly agree about the combat, I think I ended up using something to enable double damage output when I played, because even some of the mid-range enemies took an annoying amount of time to get through by time I was nearing the end with fully upgraded weapons.

Sequel is 100% on my list to purchase some point this year.

The setting is better still in the second game and by some margin in my opinion. Some of the vistas, settlements and the like are absolute boss. It just feels a lot more vast and diverse than the first game.  I get what you're saying though regarding the nature of the apocalypse. The meshing of man being back to a primitive state coupled with the futuristic aspects made for a really interesting backdrop and the world building is really well done in both games.

As for the combat, you're talking about Zero Dawn, which wasn't that bad. Forbidden West's combat is (in my opinion) markedly worse. Top of the list of gripes is that Aloy now gets knocked off her feet by the equivalent of a small breeze. Then, whilst she's getting (incredibly slowly) back to her feet she'll get absolutely pummeled, often knocking her right back on your arse again.  You're a passenger for this as there's fuck all you can do about it, at least on the harder levels. Dodging doesn't work properly either, which is a constant frustration.  This isn't spoiler material by the way. You'll probably realise this after your first couple of fights.  Still a fantastic game though and going by what you've said, you'll probably love it.

[ToneLa]

Indiana Jones
DayZ
Rocket League
Xcom Long War of the Chosen new beta
Errmn

Astrobot
Red Dead 1

Manor Lords pre release beta (pass is veryNiceBasket )

[KevLFC]

I agree that it doesn't have much resemblance to actual football but is that not just the nature of the beast with football games?  They need to add a bit of a basketball factor with attacking boosts as otherwise almost every six minute game would end 0-0 with, at most, a couple of shots.  As I said I've not played an EA title for a decade so maybe things improved in the interim before regressing.

From the small amounts I've read most of the grumbles with the new release are because they've nerfed the dribbling so that somebody can't just stack a team of superstar attackers and slice through with solo runs on every attack.  That and being victims of "scripting" when they lose.  And packs that serve up more mediocre players than world class players.  And players exploiting whatever the latest flaw is in the AI.

I guess it's partly an expectations thing.  If somebody has been duped into throwing hundreds of pounds into the game and they're still losing then they're going to annoyed.

Picked up Fifa for a bit of fun over Christmas. I read the online forums and it's like my 99 rated Messi can't dribbled, it's so scripted. The fact is these guys spend like hundreds of pounds to get a super star team and if they lose its like its not their fault. Some would you believe demand refunds!  So self entitled, surley losing once in a while doesn't hurt.

I have fun building a team from scratch on UT without any pressure or spending money on it. The game isn't perfect and never has been. The worst thing EA did was trying to make money on UT. Its all UT focus now, card after card all in the name of money.

[PhilV]

Over Christmas and NY I was poorly so sank mega time into Baldur's Gate 3 - soooooooooooooooooo good, I forget each time how unreal and in depth this game is, it is an absolute masterpiece.