What games are you currently playing?

[PluMGMK]

I finished Black Mesa this afternoon. I guess it was a moment I'd been waiting for for six and a half years, since I first played the mod version back in summer 2013. Now I can see what took so long, and I think it was worth the wait! I'd already seen the beautiful screenshots on the game blog, but playing the Xen sections really blew my mind. At one point towards the start of Xen (i.e. before I really met any hostile creatures) I remember thinking "this is like Narnia, but more alien". In fact, I'm not sure they didn't go a bit too far with this – it feels like there's a fully-functioning alien ecosystem there, which seems to go against the notion of a barren "border-world" (a phrase which is still used in the remake). That said, while the environments are built from the ground up, they still feel rooted in the same concepts as the original. (I'm not sure what the deal is with the new breeds of Houndeye though, especially the little red ones that explode.)

I really enjoyed the factory levels, in which I'm happy to say I never had to shoot a single vortigaunt, unlike the original. They only ever turn hostile if a controller actively interferes with them, and this is made clear by a beam connecting the vort and the controller – get rid of the latter, and the former returns to passivity. The puzzles were enjoyable and I think they stopped just short of being repetitive. It's been a good while since I played the original, but I think they're all new, despite again being based on more or less the same concept of a grunt factory, run by vorts, supervised by controllers. The combat was intense but rewarding, despite playing on Hard (the same can't be said of Gonarch though, as I mentioned yesterday).

Anyway, now that Black Mesa is finally complete, and I have finished it for the first time, I must wholeheartedly recommend it. It's still in beta, so things will probably be tuned a bit by the time I next play it – maybe Gonarch will be more forgiving! I don't know if I'd recommend it as a substitute for the original for any newcomers to the Half-Life series – there are a few changes which may or may not affect how one understands the story and universe, so maybe you should play both if you get a chance, and make up your own mind. (I still haven't made up my own mind whether I'll play the original or Black Mesa the next time I feel like going through the series!)

I suppose I'll get onto Half-Life 2 next, which I'm pretty sure I haven't played for five years now – time sure flies! Not sure when I'll fire it up though…

EDIT: Also this is the 10000th reply to this thread.

[raymanHUN]

Just finished Fire Emblem Three Houses and Warriors, so I decided it's time for something I haven't played in a very long time: JRPGs. I was hesitant at first, I didn't really know what to play, as there are so many I want to play, so many I should play, and then some that I really want to replay. So I started playing Xenoblade 2. It is my first game from the xenoblade games (and also the whole "xeno universe"), so I didn't really knew what to expect. Well, I guess I'm about halfway through it now? Nah, that's a lie, I'm probably still at the very-very beginning to be honest, but I'm really not sure long the game is, so yeah. Anyways, I like it so far, except for the grind. I do like grinding, when the battle system is fun. And this battle system (which is epic at boss fights, probably my favourite thing about the game) is just incredibly boring during grinding. So yeah, I hope it becomes faster or something soon, but even if it won't, I'm gonna stick with the game, not gonna drop it, as I actually like the atmosphere and characters.

[Roma10]

Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Cat Ninja - pretty tricky, but a lot of fun

[Steo]

Legends on Wii U the past couple of days, but I have Red Dead Redemption 2 and Luigi's Mansion 3 to play over Christmas.

[The Jonster]

Currently in the middle of playing the Megaman Battle Network series via VisualBoyAdvance. Ever since I learned how to import GS snapshots and how to link 2 together, I've become hooked again on them.

[TheAlexinator]

Thinking of playing Super Mario Sunshine or Wind Waker.

[Ambidextroid]

I hadn't realised Black Mesa Xen had released, I've got a lot of good games to sink my teeth into soon. I've never played HL2 as I've been waiting to play BM, and then Doom Eternal is coming out next month. Never been this hyped for a game release before
A bit of Doom 2 with Brutal Doom will have to satiate my appetite for demon blood in the mean time.

Thinking of playing Super Mario Sunshine or Wind Waker.

I would definitely recommended Wind Waker! I always feel like Mario games are easy to pick up and have fun while the classic Zelda games are quite an undertaking, but they're definitely worth it. I'll never forget my play through of OoT

[Hunchman801]

Not playing anything at the moment but I can't wait for the remake of Resident Evil 3.

[Steo]

Wind Waker is another one I want to play that I haven't gotten around to yet. I have a Wii U that I don't use very often, but this is one of the games I want to play on it.

[The Jonster]

I have Wind Waker myself, but I've actually never played the game. The Zelda games I finished were mainly the GameBoy ones, and I haven't been able to finish either OoT or MM on PJ64 as of yet. I hope none of you guys will judge me for failing to finish those, but I plan to play through those games fully at least once someday.

Finally fully finished the plot of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, including the Postgame story. All that's left to me now is to train my Pokemon and recruit all the rest of them.

[Hunchman801]

Well, now that we're all working from home, I'll have time to play Age of Empires 2 again.

[Steo]

I've yet to play Red Dead 2, I've just been playing GTA Online lately. I have a new GPU coming, which I hope works this time.

[Cairnie]

I've picked up my copy of Pokemon Ultra Moon that I had just sitting there for almost two years am and ploughing my way through that. That, and Pokemon Crystal on virtual console.

[Dancaa]

I started playing Astral Chain recently. It’s been an interesting experience so far. Can’t believe I’ve just been letting it sit there for the last few months.

[The Jonster]

I’m thinking of playing Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga again for the first time in awhile when I get home from my walk. Should be fun

[PluMGMK]

Half-Life 2. I guess we're now actually in the decade in which it was set (supposedly it takes place in "202X"). Go fig. Between the surveillance drones (a lot less outlandish now than they were in 2004) and the military throwing around medical jargon, it seems to cut a lot closer to the bone now than it did when I was younger. Speaking of which, I really can't believe how long it's been since I last played through this game. By all accounts, it was October 2014 (by contrast, I had by then played it about ten times since October 2010!) and yet I'm picking it up again as if it had just been a few months.

[The Jonster]

Lately I've been playing Super Mario Galaxy on my Wii, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity on my 2DS XL, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit on my laptop.

[Master]

If I ever did have a PC capable of emulating GCN games, the one I'd try out is Metroid Prime, I've been raring to try out a 3D Metroid title for a while.

Heh, was trying to see if I could pinpoint when I got into Metroid, since I remember I started with Fusion off the suggestion of someone here. Found this a bit funny since I only just fulfilled this dream earlier this year, PrimeHack and the Metroid Prime Trilogy work really well for the most part and seeing as Ninty still hasn't put it on the Switch, emulating it on PC with keyboard+mouse and upscaled textures was the most fun way to go.

I started playing Astral Chain recently. It’s been an interesting experience so far. Can’t believe I’ve just been letting it sit there for the last few months.

Ooooh, I ran through Astral Chain back in October! It was a bit finicky in controlling the Legions, but I really liked the overall experience, second Platinum game I ran through and I probably will follow more of theirs in the future. Nier Automata was my first and while I did struggle initially with it, by the end I really really enjoyed it and I'd throughly recommend both of these for those who like Stylish Action games.

[Steo]

I was playing GTA: San Andreas again, and I plan to play Vice City again since it's been a while. I've been trying out Streets of Rage 4 though since it's only been released today.

[The Jonster]

Yesterday I played Mario Kart Double Dash and Mario Kart Wii. It was loads of fun despite not playing the former for quite awhile. I also played Phantom Brave: We Meet Again (and is currently what I'm playing on my Wii).