What are you playing in quarantine? Also, MP invites here..

[YellowKing]

My son recently got heavy into Fortnite, and I never gave it much thought. Online competitive shooters generally aren't my thing these days, and the cartoony graphics, etc. just didn't really appeal to me. So this weekend I'm casually watching him play and he says, "Daddy, I wish we had another Xbox so you could play with me."

So then a lightbulb went off, I started investigating cross-platform play, and realized Fortnite is totally built around cross-platform. Problem solved. I immediately set it up on my PC, and brought the Xbox upstairs for him to play beside me. Long story short, we spent WAY too many hours this weekend shooting people in the face.

I think the thing that hooked me (aside from the obvious father/son bonding time) was the fact that we somehow won our first 4 Battle Royales in a row. Here I was expecting to get annihilated in the first minute of every match, and instead I was somehow holding my own. We have a pretty good team dynamic. His 9-year old reflexes make up for my deteriorating skill, but my years (hell, decades) of experience with squad-based team tactics helps us outwit a bunch of the impatient run-and-gun players. We've had an absolute blast, and are finishing in the Top 10 just about every match.

Rather coincidentally I also started this right before the launch of Season 7, so I'll get to start fresh in a couple of days with he and I on the same level with the same quests, learning the new features, etc. Should be fun.

[Baroquen]

It's funny reading this, because while my son's a little older, this has been our routine over the last 4-5 months. I tried Fortnite when it first came out and was such a hit, but I hate PvP and shooters and so quickly mothballed it. He loves it however, and I've really enjoyed playing with him. He's better at it than me (I hate building and my reflexes suck), but he respects my play enough that the pre-teen know-it-all allows me to party up.

If you didn't know - the matchmaking at the lower levels, or when accounts first start, will match you up against bots. That might have contributed to your fantastic starting luck. Personally, I enjoy fighting them rather than the much better players that are instantly recognizable by how quickly they destroy me.

We're looking forward to the new season this week too. Should be fun.

[YellowKing]

Interesting about the bots. However that led me down a really entertaining rabbit hole reading about the whole controversy and conspiracy theories. I did suspect bots when I won two solo matches (I ain't near THAT good), but didn't suspect them in Duos play.

Ultimately it doesn't matter to me either way. We're playing against "the game" and whether that game is bots, humans, or some weird combination of both, it is what it is. I'd assume as the match progresses into endgame you're facing fewer bots and more players simply because the inferior bots would get killed off rather quickly. Interesting to think about though.

[naednek]

My son recently got heavy into Fortnite, and I never gave it much thought. Online competitive shooters generally aren't my thing these days, and the cartoony graphics, etc. just didn't really appeal to me. So this weekend I'm casually watching him play and he says, "Daddy, I wish we had another Xbox so you could play with me."

So then a lightbulb went off, I started investigating cross-platform play, and realized Fortnite is totally built around cross-platform. Problem solved. I immediately set it up on my PC, and brought the Xbox upstairs for him to play beside me. Long story short, we spent WAY too many hours this weekend shooting people in the face.

I think the thing that hooked me (aside from the obvious father/son bonding time) was the fact that we somehow won our first 4 Battle Royales in a row. Here I was expecting to get annihilated in the first minute of every match, and instead I was somehow holding my own. We have a pretty good team dynamic. His 9-year old reflexes make up for my deteriorating skill, but my years (hell, decades) of experience with squad-based team tactics helps us outwit a bunch of the impatient run-and-gun players. We've had an absolute blast, and are finishing in the Top 10 just about every match.

Rather coincidentally I also started this right before the launch of Season 7, so I'll get to start fresh in a couple of days with he and I on the same level with the same quests, learning the new features, etc. Should be fun.

My son and I play fortnite together a few times a week during his treatments. I'm on the PC and he's on the ps5. If you want to play together let me know.

Nothing like getting Victory Royale together. You can hear us shouting across the house

[coopasonic]

- Gave the new Ori & the Will O' the Wisp a look. It's incredibly beautiful, but I find that I just can't get into the more difficult Metroidvania games any more. I'm absolutely terrible at platforming and get frustrated by backtracking.

I just finished Ori and the Blind Forest, and while I thought the story and atmosphere and music were superb, the heavy trial and error based gameplay was definitely frustrating. I could have done without those escape levels after the big quests where you have to run away from something, can't save, and repeatedly die as you progress further along until you memorize the pattern. Was your foray into the sequel similar to the original? Trying to decide if I should dive right on in to the second, wait, or just not bother.

Sorry, missed this last week.

My general feeling is that if you didn't care for the trial and error gameplay from the original, nothing in the sequel is going to change your mind. I just found it to be frustrating, and bounced off it pretty quickly.

Hmm, thanks. I will put this on the back burner for a bit, then. Thankfully the first Ori wasn't terribly long, but having to replay some sections dozens of times was not the most fun thing in the world.

Coming to this a bit late, but I just played them both, back to back. I was similarly frustrated with the escape sequences in the first game. The second game has a few similar sequences, but in general they are both shorter and more forgiving. The other gameplay of the game is really much better in the second one from my perspective. It is more melee focused and the combat has improved quite a bit. The world is bigger and less linear, which can be a bit frustrating. The second has more real boss fights and the last boss fight is a pain because of... well, if you have the movement skills down it isn't that bad.

[pr0ner]

- Gave the new Ori & the Will O' the Wisp a look. It's incredibly beautiful, but I find that I just can't get into the more difficult Metroidvania games any more. I'm absolutely terrible at platforming and get frustrated by backtracking.

I just finished Ori and the Blind Forest, and while I thought the story and atmosphere and music were superb, the heavy trial and error based gameplay was definitely frustrating. I could have done without those escape levels after the big quests where you have to run away from something, can't save, and repeatedly die as you progress further along until you memorize the pattern. Was your foray into the sequel similar to the original? Trying to decide if I should dive right on in to the second, wait, or just not bother.

Sorry, missed this last week.

My general feeling is that if you didn't care for the trial and error gameplay from the original, nothing in the sequel is going to change your mind. I just found it to be frustrating, and bounced off it pretty quickly.

Hmm, thanks. I will put this on the back burner for a bit, then. Thankfully the first Ori wasn't terribly long, but having to replay some sections dozens of times was not the most fun thing in the world.

Coming to this a bit late, but I just played them both, back to back. I was similarly frustrated with the escape sequences in the first game. The second game has a few similar sequences, but in general they are both shorter and more forgiving. The other gameplay of the game is really much better in the second one from my perspective. It is more melee focused and the combat has improved quite a bit. The world is bigger and less linear, which can be a bit frustrating. The second has more real boss fights and the last boss fight is a pain because of... well, if you have the movement skills down it isn't that bad.

I never made it back to Will O the Wisp - I played the intro for a bit and not much else. I don't know if I'll get back to it any time soon - I'm almost done with Psychonauts 2, and then on to other parts of my backlog!