Stately Scrying: What we're playing this weekend

Front Page Discussion
#1

Originally published at: https://statelyplay.com/2019/02/08/stately-scrying-what-were-playing-this-weekend-33/

I’m going to save you a little time this week by not including my scry. That’s because you can go back to last week’s and just re-read that one if you’re curious. It’s all Slay the Spire all the time at my house, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. So, here’s the rest of the crew with their takes for the next few days. Get out there and enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Sunless Skies and Partia 3

I’ll be making as much time as for Sunless Skies as I can, and when my laptop is out of reach, I’ll be playing Partia 3. I reviewed the first Partia game in a past life, and I’m more than a little curious to see where the series has gone from there.

-Tof Eklund

Far Cry 5, Strange Brigade, Astroneer, Wargroove, and more

I bought Far Cry 5 and Strange Brigade on the cheap (thanks Lunar New Year). Both are mostly for co-op purposes but I’m kicking the tires a bit as well. I’m tempted by Astroneer‘s emergence from early access as well, though Wargroove is glaring at me and tapping it’s foot in the corner.

On iPad I’ve been working through the mass of games I started but never finished during my days writing for some other site. Transistor and Cat Quest are the most recent examples. Maybe I’ll play something new at some point too…Tropico, Star Traders, and Twinfold are all definite possibilities.

-Nick Vigdahl

Apex Legends

The folks who made Titanfall 2 surprise-dropped a free and fully-polished battle royale game on Monday, and it’s every bit as good as its pedigree would suggest. Apex Legends (ApeLeg if you’re cool (I’m cool)) completely derailed all the grand gaming plans I had for this week and weekend. It got rid of all the BS I didn’t realize I disliked from other battle royale games and added a bunch of features I didn’t know I wanted. The most significant addition is probably the context-sensitive Ping system, which is somehow even more efficient than communicating over voice. All you have to do is aim and press a button to call out a location, enemy, weapon, or item to your squadmates, which then pops up on their HUD. You can even use it in your inventory to signal to your mates that you’re in need of specific ammo or attachments. It’s a joy to play and I’m excited about a battle royale game for the first time since around the PUBG launch. If you can stomach first person games, there’s no reason to not give it a shot

-Tanner Hendrickson

The Resistance: Avalon, Victorian Masterminds, and Thin Mints (please, god, tell me they brought along Thin Mints)

I will be leading my first Girl Scout troop camping trip this weekend. I’m not ruling out taking up drinking; I hear good things about Scotch. We intend to start the scouts out right, though, with The Resistance: Avalon as one of our planned activities. I’m trying to put a moratorium on new games for a bit, as I’ve so much sterling gaming sitting in my backlog, and with the trip finishing up by Saturday afternoon, I may get in another run at Victorian Masterminds or perhaps some solo time figuring out Golan ‘73. Digitally, there are still some ancient Greeks in need of assassinating on the PlayStation, iOS has the usual greats, and I’m getting better at guitar in Rock Band, which has attracted my attention again for some reason. I’m a puzzle.

-Kelsey Rinella

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#2

How to be terrible at a game and still win.

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#3

I just managed my second hardcore season set in Diablo, this time on PS4. The crusader’s looks coolest, but the monk’s is so OP that it’s silly. I’m taking a break from D3 so I’ll probably put some time into (trying) to learn Carrier Battles Guadalcanal and Legends of Andor.

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#4

Haha, ApeLeg. It’s a good game. My top played games right now are both free: Apex Legends and Path of Exile. What a world.

#5

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#6

Can I hear more about Apex Legends?

#7

I had a team in the slums win with only one kill. It wasn’t like we weren’t fighting, just all our kills got poached by other teams.

#8

I like it. “Feel”-wise to me it seems closest to Call of Duty’s Blackout mode, of the BR games I’ve played (in descending order of most play time to least: PUBG, Hunt: Showdown, Cuisine Royale, H1Z1 Auto Royale, Blackout, Apex Legends, Fortnite, whatever the CS: GO BR mode is called). Of them all, I like PUBG’s shooting the most and Hunt’s mood and “other stuff” most (and probably second for shooting feel), but ApeLeg is very, very polished ( I eventually got sick of PUBG’s jankiness and stopped playing) and feels pretty good. The communications infrastructure they’ve put in is absolutely top notch, to the point where I don’t feel like it’s a very big detriment to have chat turned off (which I have done). The gunplay feels fine, not amazing but not bad at all. I love the team size. I always wished PUBG had a 3-man mode because that’s usually the team size I can pull together from friends. It’s really good. I’m gonna keep playing it for sure.

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#9

Resi 2 still, for me. My inner perfectionist makes me quit regularly after an hour or two, as I’ve spunked a load of ammo up the wall and used too many healing items; I die inside at facing the horrors all over again but eventually I do it better and manage to save.

Cardboard-wise it’s Betrayal Legacy, Gen 7, Condottiere (Gwent ripped it off), The Climbers, Inbetween, and Tulip Bubble.

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#10

I like Apex, but I am really bad at it. Never been into shooters that much. Am I too old to learn?
Every time after playing I am feeling kinda useless. Almost no damage, a few kills at least. Should i go back to World of Warships?

Still giving it some time.

#11

D3 season 16 for me, just got 4 set pieces, Best I have ever done

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#12

Between level 1 and level 10 I only got 1 kill a level. My kill rate took off significantly after that. I’ve not played a competitive shooter in years, but there’s enough players that even the Sydney server is well populated. I can finally play without enduring 200ms ping minimum.

Working with squad mates is a big deal for me in getting kills. I also vacuum up every item after landing whether I need it or not. I only stop to sort my inventory when it’s finally full. That way I’m hopefully armed and ready to go before any other enemy team that’s dropped in with me.

I play on Xbox and I’ve finally got the feel for what the aim assist is trying to do. I’ve stopped fighting it now. I also generally avoid long range fire fights as my aim sucks, but also movement is so fast and healing so plentiful that generally all I achieve is giving away our position.

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#13

Let’s see.

iOS: Star Traders, Star Traders, more Star Traders. I’ve restarted a couple of times, and I’m going to restart once more before I settle on a role and go the distance. I love this game. I also started another run of Templar Battleforce.

Switch: With the Fortuna drop, and DevStream 123 showing that Railjack is going to be clan only, I’m going to start a Ghost Clan in Warframe to get started on that. I also have a lot of Star Chart to uncover. I’ve decided to let my XB1 account go and transition fully to Switch, so I have a lot of work to do. The Ghost Clan will be open to folks here, just let me know. I’m still playing Smash, Tangledeep and Wargroove. Tangledeep and Wargroove are hitting my GotY bells they’re both so good.

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#14

Star Traders Frontiers?

I might try it! Need an immersive game on my phobe

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#15

Yes. Star Traders: Frontiers