What is Icrontic playing? Spring 2020 edition
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
in Gaming
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Whew. It's been a year, huh everyone?
I stopped gaming for months after Kyle was killed, and I'm finally starting to get back into the hobby. Working for Unity now, I've started to dust off all the memories of the things I love so much about gaming. I'll be honest, GamerGate kind of ruined gamer culture for me, and I never really felt like identifying as a gamer after that dumpster fire. I was happy to dip out of the gaming industry entirely.
But now I'm back in it. I am working in the industry I used to know and love so well, and it has rekindled a flame I thought had gone out.
My Switch has been a big part of that; the Switch library is massive, and with engines like Unity (ahem) making it really easy for devs to write a game and deploy it on multiple platforms, the Switch has become my preferred platform for new game purchases. When a new interesting game under $20 comes out, and it exists on both platforms, I will always go for the Switch version instead.
That said, I'm currently playing:
- My Time at Portia (Switch) - a bit buggy, but really really charming and I can't stop playing it. Crafting, relationship building, exploring, fighting, upgrading... it's a bit of RPG, a bit of Minecraft, a bit of Stardew Valley, all cute, all fun.
- Stardew Valley (PC) - I finally started playing it after having it sit in my library for years. I'm not far yet, but it's fun. Maybe playing it after Portia was a bad idea, cause I find myself just wishing it was Portia, but it definitely has its moments
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - Duh.
- Township (Mobile) - running a little town, farming, crafting, and transit stuff. Mini-games. Great time waster. There's an Icrontic guild of sorts that's pretty active, so that's fun
- Adventure Communist (Mobile) - idle game set in a Soviet paradise
- Zen Idle (Mobile) - ultra minimalist gravity-based ball-drop idle game
- Empires & Puzzles (Mobile) - I don't know why I play it except that I'm invested in helping my guild kill monsters, and I don't want to let them down since I'm one of the top members. It's a match-3 game.
- Journey (PS4) - incredibly beautiful, short, poignant, emotive. Just a wonderful experience
- ICRONTIC TF2. It's still so goddamn fun. 12.5 years of this shit. Jesus.
I recently bought a PS4 and I'm excited to get into The Last of Us, Spiderman, FF7 Remake, and God of War.
Whatchu got? Whatchu playn?
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Minecraft - Just love this game. It's got something for everyone.
Project Cars 2 - I just recently replaced my racing wheel with a new Thrustmaster T300RS, got a wheel stand and I'm loving the sim racing stuff. It's such a great change of pace from shooting things in video games and I'm finding learning how to race all these cars very rewarding.
Squad - though I haven't played in a few weeks, Squad is such an interesting FPS. It's so dependent on teamwork. You can't just lonewolf around the massive maps and try to get a high k/d. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a somewhat MilSim shooter.
Minecraft-- Gonna have the comfiest house yo
Valorant-- I'M SO BAD AT IT WHY DO I KEEP PLAYING IT
Outer Worlds-- One of these days I'm gonna finish this
Township-- Stupid fucking Prime getting me into this stupid fucking game
Pokemon Go-- Gotta catch them all as long as I can exert minimal effort and don't have to coordinate with people
Love Nikki-- Chinese dress game, mobile
Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries - can't decide if this game is good or not, but I like piloting a mech again.
Kingdom Death: Monster - playing this with my brother and nephews on Tabletop Simulator. It's a mix of XCOM, Civ, and survivor rogue-like games. Incredibly brutal and unforgiving game.
My Time at Portia - Basically the same game as Kingdom Death: Monster.
Minecraft (PC) - Modded to hell, currently doing MCEternal with Farge and another friend.
World of Warcraft (PC) - Still in Icrontic guild, running keystones with a set group and facetanking heroics for Call-to-Arms as dps is pretty fun still.
Gato Roboto (PC) - Fun little metroidvania, a little short but fair replay potential. I recommend it!
Rune Factory 4 Special (Switch) - Harvest Moon + monsters and crafting also, quite fun. I played the non-special edition on 3DS but Farge wanted his own and it's biiiig on Switch.
Star Ocean First Departure (Switch) - ARPG. I looooooooooooOOOOVE Star Ocean, and playing the remade original was a delight. Need to do another run for the extra routes, I really did not do well the first time. Too much group crime
PubG (PC) - Mostly to do a quest or two (driving on motorcycles aimlessly is kind of zen), buy a few crates to sell, leave.
Slay the Spire (PC) - Keeping on top of the friends leaderboard and enjoying Watcher Ascension runs.
The last year or so was a lot of decreasing games, then moving in with my then girlfriend and having no space for PC or PS4 to be set up, and then moving out after she broke up with me. I played some Switch during that time, but mostly group games like Overcooked 1 & 2, with Jackbox sprinkled in and some single player games I didn't get too much into.
Been playing a lot of Destiny 2 on PS4 to connect with a friend who moved across the country, and recently Overcooked with my new girlfriend and planning to get back into some PC games once I move into my condo next month. Got a bunch of PS4 games I haven't played through (God of War, Spiderman, The Last of Us, and FF7 Remake among them).
Have been really busy with work for the past 4-5 years and didn't have much time for games, but working from home full time gave me back 2 hours/day and my workload is generally lighter right now, so instead of using that time to be even more of an over-productive workaholic, I've been gaming again.
Robocraft - I got into this game about 5 years too late, but it's really fun and I'm hooked. I think I spend more time building than fighting. My brothers, nephews, and son play, so it has been a good quarantine game to stay connected.
WoW Classic - The wife and I started playing when everything locked down in late March and are about to hit level 30. We used to play together 2004-2005, so it's been a nice throwback.
Skyrim - Playing this game still/again. I realized recently that I hadn't actually played any of the content for the Dragonborn expansion despite owning it for several years, so I created a new character for the 20th time and started playing again. Fun fact: I have 300+ hours in Skyrim, but have never bothered to finish the main quest lines. Maybe this time ...
TF2 - Yup.
Warhammer 40k Inquisitor Martyr/Prophecy - Picked it up on a steam sale and I gotta say, it's pretty awesome. Its graphically like Diablo 3 but plays more like diablo 2 in terms of game flow and progression. Its hard to find a good ARPG and even more so one that sticks to the lore of WH40k.
Planetside 2 - Hadnt played it since SOE was sold off to Daybreak but there's been lots of improvements, plus my characters were still there from ~2015. Its a good game provided you have atleast a solid hour or two to play uninterrupted.
@mas0n getting that two hours a day back, I assume in commute, really shows how skewed our lives have become under the oppression of this system; we live to work. I'm so glad you're finding time to reconnect not only with a beloved hobby, but with beloved family through that hobby.
@mas0n totally get that time back without the commute. I've been enjoying the ability to game with the East coast IC folks again thanks to the lack of work commute. Typically by the time I'd walk from office to bus, ride through bridge traffic, get home, walk the dog, get settled down and -then- ready to jump online and play stuff, most everyone on EST are done for the night and about ready for bed. Now that we've had all these pandemic play time games, it's been awesome being on voice and playing with the lot of you. Feels like it's been forever.
I recently finished two absolutely incredible singleplayer games:
Right now, I've been playing:
I've been playing a LOT of RimWorld during "these unprecedented times". It's a great game for pulling up when not much is going on in the house, but there are a lot of people in the house, so I could be interupted ay anymunite to do something with one of them, or clean somethign or cook something for someone.
When everyone else is asleep, I take a few hours a night to work my way through a single-player story-based game. Right now, I'm in the middle of PoE2:Deadfire. I'm not far in yet, but I'm really happy that I started after they introduced turn-based combat options. The combat is much more interesting than their last couple games, and I hope they make this a day-one feature on future titles).
The Mitey Worriers' weekly co-op game right now is Borderlands 3. Some of the bugs make me sad/frustrated, but it's still a neat co-op experience. We're only about 8 hours in, so we haven't seen a whole lot of it yet.
I thought that with lockdown I would playing a lot more games, but I've been filling my non-work hours with an online class, reading, walking and general busy work, so I'm only managing a few hours per week plus a bit of mobile gaming.
Here's the current list (not even mentioning the pile of games I've abandoned and want to get back to).
1. Animal Crossing New Horizons - got through the main objectives, so just check in for half an hour per day to check the stock market, look for fossils, and chip away at a few tasks.
2. My Time at Portia - recommended by Brian. As he said, a bit buggy but there's lots to do. I suck at relationship building.
3. Breath of the Wild - JUST started this one (still on the great plateau) but it's stunning!
4. Pokemon GO - this accompanies me on my (almost) daily walks. Working on the Pokedex and research tasks gives me something to strive for.
5. Little Big Planet 2 - playing with Dave - we're down to the final part, but as we haven't played in a few weeks I'm intimidated as I find the controls a bit confusing (Always opening the various menus by accident and not knowing how to close them)
6. Pokemon Sword - took a break when ACNH came out, but ready to get back to it.
7. Mobile games I dip in and out of: Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, Emoji Blitz, Food Fantasy, DASH Adventure, Match City
@elyxandra the easiest tool for relationship building is to buy a bundle of roses for cheap, one a day, every day at the flower shop. They're at least +6, and often +10 for almost everybody. Who doesn't like flowers? Also, look up the favorite gifts for people on the Fandom Wiki. It's the easiest way to know what to give people/animals. Helped me a ton. It does actually help to have "friends" with almost everybody in town, cause they give you lots of gifts in the mail and whatnot.