Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3559757 times)

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Thirty-Ought-Six

  • Junior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30540 on: December 25, 2017, 03:04:54 AM »
I've been playing Icewind Dale for the first time. It's been really fun up until recently (3rd floor of the Severed Hand) but I think I'm done now. I feel like I've seen most of the creativity encounters are ever going to have, although it might partly be my team getting too strong. With Haste and a bunch of other buffs available they can just charge in and kill everything.

Early levels were great, and showed off the strengths of the Infinity Engine combat. I loved having to control a thief/mage ducking and weaving in real time to run away from a giant until his stronger teammates can finish their foes and rescue him. Adventuring and surprise attacking with invisibility is always fun (if you don't know what's up ahead, be invisible). The graphics and sound hold up well, especially the snowy locations. Equipment variety is great (nice mix of guaranteed and random, some of the store-bought weapons are amazing).

What they needed to do though was focus on fewer, more unique encounters as your levels go up to the point that big mobs have no threat or novelty any more. To be fair, it's almost impossible for them to plan for what team you will have. I had a very strong team of fighter, paladin, fighter/cleric, thief/illusionist but it would probably be much harder with 6 thieves.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30541 on: December 25, 2017, 10:11:02 AM »
Gone Home and Firewatch. Firewatch had me also, right up until the big mystery reveal. Then it was a fart.

I think of the three Edith Finch had the most memorable moments but the overall story was just bad. After a while it started getting a little funny.

"Now let's see how they kill... THE BABY!!!"


[APPLAUSE]

I bought Dear Esther and Gone Home in steam sales for like $2.50 and still felt like I got ripped off. Walking sims are definitely not for me.
^_^

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30542 on: December 25, 2017, 10:54:12 AM »
FF7 Crisis Core. I like the battle system, excluding the weird automated slot machine. Reminds me a little bit of Parasite Eve, though Crisis Core certainly can't reach the latter. Especially since I have to watch these unskippable cutscenes featuring Nomura's J-POP fuckboys and edgelord writing.

Funnily enough, the ingame writing isn't nearly as bad. This strenghtens my belief that the biggest advantage for SNES/PS1 J-RPGs was the fact that the technical limitations held back Japanese developers' true story visions.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30543 on: December 25, 2017, 12:33:02 PM »
The slot system in CC is pretty fun. Plus the music is awesome and FF7 nostalgias good. The ending is amazing too. Would be neat if they remade CC some day so it plays/looks a little more modern. Would make a nice Switch game.

Gone Home and Firewatch. Firewatch had me also, right up until the big mystery reveal. Then it was a fart.

I think of the three Edith Finch had the most memorable moments but the overall story was just bad. After a while it started getting a little funny.

"Now let's see how they kill... THE BABY!!!"


[APPLAUSE]

I bought Dear Esther and Gone Home in steam sales for like $2.50 and still felt like I got ripped off. Walking sims are definitely not for me.

Hmm, I really liked Dear Esther for the 40 min short story w/nice music it was. Also liked Gone Home a good deal as well. Yeah, Walking Sims aren't for everyone. They're almost like another version of Visual Novel.

I've been playing Icewind Dale for the first time. It's been really fun up until recently (3rd floor of the Severed Hand) but I think I'm done now. I feel like I've seen most of the creativity encounters are ever going to have, although it might partly be my team getting too strong. With Haste and a bunch of other buffs available they can just charge in and kill everything.

Early levels were great, and showed off the strengths of the Infinity Engine combat. I loved having to control a thief/mage ducking and weaving in real time to run away from a giant until his stronger teammates can finish their foes and rescue him. Adventuring and surprise attacking with invisibility is always fun (if you don't know what's up ahead, be invisible). The graphics and sound hold up well, especially the snowy locations. Equipment variety is great (nice mix of guaranteed and random, some of the store-bought weapons are amazing).

What they needed to do though was focus on fewer, more unique encounters as your levels go up to the point that big mobs have no threat or novelty any more. To be fair, it's almost impossible for them to plan for what team you will have. I had a very strong team of fighter, paladin, fighter/cleric, thief/illusionist but it would probably be much harder with 6 thieves.

I was thinking about playing Icewind Dale since that's what Pillars combat gets most compared to, but that doesn't sound good. Maybe I'll just play the beginning at some point. A lot of the stuff I like about Pillars of Eternity are the modern QoL features it has, so without those I might not enjoy the older IE games as much.

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30544 on: December 25, 2017, 12:59:38 PM »
The slot system in CC is pretty fun.

I dunno man. I might be stuck indefinitely because leveling up is luck based and some boss is now 1 hit koing me.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30545 on: December 25, 2017, 01:11:10 PM »
Weird. I don't remember that being an issue (the slots) at all. Game did have weird difficulty spikes though. Are you underleveled for the area?

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30546 on: December 25, 2017, 01:19:38 PM »
Apparently. So technically I'd have to do side missions until the slot gives me enough level ups.

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30547 on: December 25, 2017, 01:33:49 PM »
I bought Dear Esther and Gone Home in steam sales for like $2.50 and still felt like I got ripped off. Walking sims are definitely not for me.

I'd say, give SOMA a try. It's the only walking sim I like. Turns out having a good story can actually carry what's pretty much a digital sightseeing tour.

Gone Home could've been good if they focussed on the one interesting character, the dad.

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30548 on: December 25, 2017, 01:44:22 PM »
The slot system in CC is pretty fun.

I dunno man. I might be stuck indefinitely because leveling up is luck based and some boss is now 1 hit koing me.

it's pretend luck based. you still get invisible exp and you'll gain a new level when you get enough. get some good def boost materia, roll like a madman, and use those shitty side missions to gain levels and strengthen materia. the difficulty is bullshit tho, especially if you're playing on hard.
pcp

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30549 on: December 25, 2017, 02:15:26 PM »
I bought Dear Esther and Gone Home in steam sales for like $2.50 and still felt like I got ripped off. Walking sims are definitely not for me.

I'd say, give SOMA a try. It's the only walking sim I like. Turns out having a good story can actually carry what's pretty much a digital sightseeing tour.

Gone Home could've been good if they focussed on the one interesting character, the dad.

Yeah, Soma is amazing but it’s like a halfway between walking sim and a stealth game with enemies like Amnesia. Now Amnesia a Machine for Pigs is straight up a walking sim (with like one stealth area), and I liked that as well. The soundtracks in Dear Esther & Machine for Pigs are so good. Having good music & British narration adds a lot to walking sims.

benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30550 on: December 25, 2017, 07:45:58 PM »
Just to note since I see it mentioned, SOMA is 80% off for $6 in the Steam sale right now. Lowest price it has been.

Worst case scenario we get tiesto to feel ripped off by a Steam Sale a third time!

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30551 on: December 26, 2017, 07:22:44 AM »
Yeah, Soma is amazing but it’s like a halfway between walking sim and a stealth game with enemies like Amnesia.

They're adding something called the "Safe mode" or something that takes out the stealth.

BlueTsunami

  • The Muffin Man
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30552 on: December 27, 2017, 10:30:53 PM »
Ive been playing ELEX and man, I must have died over a hundred times already, one of those deaths coming from me jet packing in between a house. Reminds me why Bethesda loves level scaling. You need a certain level of determination to stick with this game but theres a certain sense of progression that's felt with the tiniest of upgrades. You dont seem to get these tough, to the point of feeling unbalanced, as nails PCRPGs anymore.
:9

BlueTsunami

  • The Muffin Man
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30553 on: December 28, 2017, 01:51:01 AM »
Fuck man my main motivation for playing this game now is to fuck up all then enemies that are fucking me up now. The funny thing is, pitting raiders against these overpowered monaters is a viable strategy. There was one case where I brought a single ant like mutant against five raiders by jet packing out of the altercation right in the middle. The ant took out two raiders and I was able to finish off the weakened rest.
:9

duckman2000

  • A lot of shit pisses me off
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30554 on: December 28, 2017, 10:59:52 AM »
Just spent far too many hours on BOTW. First genuinely enjoyable Zelda game since Wind Waker as far as I'm concerned, so damned good. Even managed to get the 5-year old to stop calling it "a really boring cartoon" after I got myself a horse.

BobFromPikeCreek

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30555 on: December 29, 2017, 12:01:16 AM »
Playing Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and loving it! This should totally get a Switch re-release, because it's still gorgeous and all the levels are really clever and packed full of cool and unique platforming set pieces. And it's actually challenging!

Is DKC Returns this good? I might have to play that next.
zzzzz

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30556 on: December 29, 2017, 05:48:21 AM »
It's not as hard as Tropical Freeze, but it's just as good. Don't remember if there's pro controller support for it though. Think the having to shake the controller for the ground pound and rolling got on some people's nerves.

Purple Filth

  • This cosmic dance of bursting decadence and withheld permissions twists all our arms collectively, but if sweetness can win—and it can—then I'll still be here tomorrow to high-five you yesterday, my friend. Peace
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30557 on: December 29, 2017, 09:05:19 AM »
I got a Switch and started Mario + Zelda to ensure the switch is fine and everything is good  :lol :lol :lol :lol :lol

Gonna go with Mario first (haven't played a 3D Mario game in a very long time).


paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30558 on: December 29, 2017, 01:34:20 PM »
Playing Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and loving it! This should totally get a Switch re-release, because it's still gorgeous and all the levels are really clever and packed full of cool and unique platforming set pieces. And it's actually challenging!

Is DKC Returns this good? I might have to play that next.

I don't think DKCR has anything that you haven't already seen in the sequel.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30559 on: December 29, 2017, 07:35:58 PM »
Game still looks pretty nice from your screens. How's the combat compared to Pillars?

I hear Mask of the Betrayer is like 1,000 better than NWN2 and most people say to jump straight to that, just like how most people say to skip BG1 and jump straight to BG2.

Rufus

  • 🙈🙉🙊
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30560 on: December 29, 2017, 07:42:27 PM »
I would agree with those people.

BlueTsunami

  • The Muffin Man
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30561 on: December 29, 2017, 09:11:48 PM »
Finally have some gear in ELEX that's giving me a fighting chance with the wildlife. But thats the appeal with these games, you truly are drip fed ways to overcome this violent ass environment to the point where it feels amazing. Some gear edging. With that said having a companion helps immensely too, as far as drawing a second aggressor away. I'm also a little suprised at how much I'm enjoying the interactions between the companion I chose to travel with (Ray). Its making me stick with his quest line.
:9

archnemesis

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30562 on: December 30, 2017, 05:38:12 AM »




I downloaded the demos for Pinball FX3 and Stern Pinball Arcade for the Switch. Both comes with a single free table. I've only tried them in handheld mode, but so far I like FX3 a lot more. It feels smoother and it is easier to follow the action in it. None of the DLC looked particularly interesting so I will hold off buying additional tables for now.




Last night I started The Witness and I'm loving it. The puzzles are clever and substantially challenging. There is a lot of ingenious variation of very simple concepts.

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30563 on: December 30, 2017, 10:05:45 AM »
Went back to GTA Online due to the DOOMSDAY HEIST update. Apparently it's pretty great. But I don't have the $4M for a bunker, so I've started looking for new ways to earn money.

Bought a Hangar. Tried to log in and start using the computer to arrange Jobs: pick up merchandise and sell it. Turns out you have to be a CEO, MC Captain, or VIP to initiate stuff with the Hangar. It doesn't tell me any of this stuff prior to purchase, and it doesn't say how to do any of it once I've got the Hangar. It's completely opaque.

A CEO needs an office, an MC Captain needs a clubhouse, and a VIP needs $1M in funds, according to R*'s own page on the topic. I start grinding Races and odd Jobs to get another $1M so I can get the cheapest CEO office downtown, hoping I'll eventually be able play Smuggler's Run content out of my Hangar. I bump into another friend online. Turns out he did exactly the same purchase, but he is getting on as a VIP without $1M. R*'s own page has bad information. We beef up my smuggled cargo collection.

There is SO MUCH CONTENT in the game and NONE of it really is explained. Every time I join an Online session, I get 3-4 phone calls from contacts telling me what kind of base I have to buy to get in on a particular thread of new content, but it's all unclear how to access the stuff or what happens if I screw up, or how much of it can be done solo. GTA V was tremendously polished, but Online feels like they're doing their best to manage a tremendous amount of content around an infrastructure that was never supposed to hold this much.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30564 on: December 30, 2017, 02:05:04 PM »
Game still looks pretty nice from your screens. How's the combat compared to Pillars?

It's the same. All those games (BG1, BG2, ID1, ID2, Planescape, NWN1, NWN2, Pillars, Temple of Elemental Evil) have basically the exact same 1:1 combat system with different skills & spells & classes. Real-time/ turn based, rest to memorize spells, to hit rolls, spell resistance rolls, AoE spells, cone spells, spell failure due to armor etc. It is All. The. Same.

Combat is - and always was - one of the best parts of IE games.

I... liked NWN2 combat more than Pillars but that's because it is D&D vs non-D&D. I adore D&D and have strong nostalgia towards it.

But the camera is totally useless. It really makes the game 2x harder, literally, the camera - yes.

Can't wait to dig deeper into MoTB. NWN1 XPacks were also so much better than the base game.

If the combat is the same, doesn't it get boring playing rpg after rpg with the same combat? I mean one of the reasons why rpgs are fun is learning and maximizing the unique combat systems of every game. Also Fallout 1/2 was IE and played absolutely nothing like Pillars :P

I guess I'll see when I play Pillars 2, I'm hoping there's a lot of iteration in the combat and lots of new skills/attacks/spells to keep it fresh.

archnemesis

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30565 on: December 30, 2017, 02:49:44 PM »
The Witness is excellent. Have you also played INSIDE, archie? Also a great indie game.

Firewatch as well.
I've enjoyed almost all of the popular walking sims (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture was a bit weak). I bought Firewatch yesterday and I look forward to playing it soon.

Inside is on my wishlist and I'll get to it eventually.

etiolate

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30566 on: December 31, 2017, 01:55:18 AM »
af uck I forgot I never finished The Witness. I need to get back to it.


Been playing Mad Max. Like it a good bit.

zomgee

  • We've *all*
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30567 on: December 31, 2017, 08:47:43 PM »
I played through Tacoma recently. I was very interested going in because I loved Gone Home and the idea of a Gone Home like game set in space sounded super cool. But... Tacoma didn't really do much for me.

I found it to be super barebones - even compared to Gone Home. The story they tell is very by the numbers, but doesn't do much to dig deep into any aspect they bring up. You play a character sent by a corporation to a space station where something has gone wrong and your job is to essentially clean up the evidence. There's some future dystopian cyberpunk themes that are only really explored at a surface level. Specifically - they try to subvert some tropes commonly present in stories like this but then instead of doing something interesting with it, they simply replace the trope with a different trope and then just do that.

Then, in an attempt to expand the voyeuristic approach from Gone Home, Tacoma has you viewing AR recordings of the characters who existed in this space as colored silhouettes. They're basically little scenes that are fully voiced and you can walk around and focus on specific characters as they move around the environment. It's cool, but they don't do much with it. And, because they've increased the character count they don't spend nearly as much time with the characters so I never connected with them the way I did with the sister in Gone Home.

It felt like some cool ideas that needed to be fleshed out more.

I just beat this also and I feel the same way. I was ready for a subversive twist and it didn't happen.

In space, everyone is gay or fat.
rub

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30568 on: December 31, 2017, 10:40:31 PM »
some shit i've been playing:

front mission gun hazard - the side scrolling spinoff. tbh it kind of sucks. there's a ton of talking but no interesting story so far, and all the platforming levels are tiny. you spend way more time in menus and dialog than levels, which wouldn't be so bad if the game was interesting, but it's not.

demon's crest - pretty fun but this also has tiny levels wtf. platforming and combat is alright, and there's lots of special areas you need to come back to after you get more powerups. problem is 1. running thru a whole level, even if it is short, just to get that one secret is annoying, and 2. there's no indication of how many alternate routes/exits/secrets are in a level. so what happens is you run old levels over and over til you're certain you can't access anything new, and then you come back and do it all over again each time you get a new ability. it's  really clumsy and tedious.
pcp

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30569 on: December 31, 2017, 10:54:55 PM »
I am still playing GTA Online VIP work, need to get back to Horizon: Zero Dawn. I just bought I Am Toast and Gang Beasts. As soon as my son notices that Gang Beasts is on the PS4, I'll be stuck doing all my gaming on 360 or iPad again. :lol

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30570 on: January 01, 2018, 06:44:55 AM »
Started playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate tonight, just cause why not. Played...8 hours straight and got through 1/3rd of the entire game :lol

Game is pretty weird. Feels more fast paced/arcade-like gameplay loop than the previous few. Almost reminds me of AC1 with the same 4-5 things over and over. A lot of the individual parts are fun, and when it clicks and everything goes right it's great, but the assassinations are still a mess compared to something like Hitman which it's sorta trying to be. Doesn't feel like that much of a cohesive immersive package. For every time that things go right, there's another dozen times where the controls/camera/ai/bugs didn't do what they were supposed to and it fucks up the entire stealth mission and just time to punch guys. Wonder if Origins feels more polished considering it got that extra year development that AC games weren't getting. Games like Syndicate feel like if they'd had another year of polish they'd be great, but now they're sorta good, sorta fun, jank.

Driving carriages is more decent than I expected, quick way to get around. Grappling hook is alright, it's a little helpful going horizontal between buildings since there are wider gaps, but the most use of it seems to just be instant building climb which just takes those 15 seconds of climbing straight up away and helps keep the pace moving. I do like the concept of TRAIN BASE that's constantly moving around the map.

Don't care about the story at all, and the city is a bit boring/same looking outside the Thames which is very cool with all the boat traffic. These one city AC games never have that "adventure" feel because instead of traveling around locations in an epic story like AC2, it's just like short story of what's going on in the city. Didn't care for it in Unity or here. Music is great in this one, one of the better AC osts and really sticks out.

Anyhow, don't care about collectibles, but will unlock all the areas completely and finish the story since the gameplay loop is fun. Then probably wait a year or two and play Origins at some point. Still need to play Rogue someday, but I'm burned out on the sailboat upgrade grind.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30571 on: January 01, 2018, 04:35:18 PM »
Been thinking more about AC Syndicate from a game design perspective of what works/doesn't (yeah, this is what I think about in the shower each morning), because it's an interesting set of ideas that feels like it's trying to throw all the non-game stuff from AC out and focus on AC as its core gameplay mechanics.

Things that Syndicate does right:

+It has that distraction design (not sure if there's an official game design term for it), where everytime you go from point A -> point B on a mission you'll likely run across another mission or some event on the way and then you can start that mission as well and do the mission within the mission first then keep heading to where you are going. It's the same concept of rpgs like Pillars of Eternity where when you're on the way to the next quest objective you'll run across other quests and events. It keeps a good feedback loop of accomplishing things while being a bite into the next quest/mission by the time you're finished with the current one. This design counters the cold stop/start at the end of missions/quests/levels that can be "stopping points" for a player. Places where they would save and turn the game off for the session. But by continually putting the next gameplay hook in there's no stopping point and it keeps the pacing.

+Syndicate also doesn't overload with content. Unity had the problem of like 100 hours of sidequests so everywhere you go it's just sidequest, sidequest, sidequests and the pacing was a bog. In Syndicate, the actual missions are broken down into just 1 for each ward and then after you unlock all the wards, a boss mission for each borough. Additionally there's a few other character sidequests and the main story quests, but it's a good amount of content without being overwhelming, and the main missions constantly take you through wards in boroughs so you'll end up sidequesting to do the missions along the way.

+Missions are short and fast and mostly free-form. Most of the side missions are like 5 minute scenarios of "here is a base, go kill people anyway you want". There isn't a ton to them, but they're fun, quick diversions, which is exactly what they should be.

+Everything is made fast and to the point instead of going for immersion. Whereas past AC games would have lots and lots of running around from point A to B, or in Black Flag's case minutes of immersive sailing where you just sit and hold forward, which worked with the gorgeous sea & sky + your crew singing sea shanties, Syndicate doesn't care about immersion and is for the no patience gamer. You can fast travel a ton, drive a car pretty quick around down, grappling hook instantly up buildings or across. The pace just moves, moves and moves. Combined with the above described 5 minute side mission stops along the way that are numerous but not overwhelming in number, and the first point described gameplay loop, it keeps the game going and tough to put down. Add in that every side mission you do gives skill points, and skill points increase level, and level increases equipable gear, and all that makes your character stronger, it's a very solid loop.

Gameplay things Syndicate still struggles with, or does wrong:

-Controls are still bad and kill you way too much. I think AC could really benefit from a rewind button (maybe with a cooldown to prevent abuse), so that when you're 10 minutes into a mission having stealthed everything perfectly and then your guy jumps to the wrong thing and gets seen and blows the whole thing, a rewind save button would be a lifesaver. The other option would be to spend the extra time polishing the controls, camera and ai so mistakes don't happen, but given we're like 10 AC games in and the controls still have problems (or glitches like when I feel off a building because my guy started climbing the air), a rewind button would be a quick and easy fix that would improve the stealth a whole lot.

-Still too much repetition. You'd think with all the money and staff on these games they could come up with more than like 3-4 activities to do over and over again in slightly different enemy setups.

-The main story missions are often way too scripted for their own good and the engine often struggles with them with the AI doing weird ass glitches and one mistake blowing the whole thing stealth-wise. I kinda think the main missions are the worst part and maybe it'd be better if they were just like "here is a base, go kill that guy" like the side missions but make the base more complex for the main missions.

-Combat's a wash, it's a bit better but still just Arkham light


I think that's most of the stuff I was thinking about earlier. I definitely appreciate the faster, no-nonsense pace. If you're going to make a great epic journey, fine go for the slower immersive style, but if it's just a silly small AC story, than throw it all out the window and just make it an arcade style base attack game, which is what Syndicate gets closest to.

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30572 on: January 01, 2018, 09:10:51 PM »
I like "distraction design" as a term. It initiated a conversation between me and a couple designer friends, who didn't have a better term for it. One's response was "That’s side quests with great world threading," so I may end up using your phrasing.

Corporal

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30573 on: January 01, 2018, 10:39:59 PM »
Haven't been able to play too much, most of my gaming-compatible time comes in five minute slices away from home at the moment. Oh well, at least that's an option with Switch/3DS/smartphones. I should count my blessings, but whining feels so ...right. Anyway, on with the show.

Enter the Gungeon is a great game, a fun dungeon crawler, but not really all that awesome to play on the go. The tiny Joycon sticks. The outright ridiculous loading/floor generating times. The involved gameplay. Neurovoider encounters are easy to control, for example. If you stand in place, no more enemies will spawn. So take a few steps, shoot the spawns, suspend the game. In Gungeon, you often need to clear a room to regain some breathing space.

That theme song though. Eeeeeeeenter the Gungeon.

Still hating myself for getting the game in the first place, despite knowing how much I would find myself grating against a design issue. I dislike bullet hell gameplay, and the boss fights in this game almost entirely devolve into weaving your character through a metric asston of not-so-randomly-scattered spherical orange death. So that's crap as far as I'm concerned. Rest is too fun to pass up though.

Standard control setup doesn't work for me though. Thankfully you can customise it.


Also played some Shantae half genie hero, which is very wayforward-y and exactly how I expected the game to be. Good fun. Nice music. Mixed game/level design. Idle animation of main character is stupid. Some gameplay mechanisms are insufficiently explained for newbies to the franchise, but anyone who has played a Shantae game in the last decade would know what to do. It's a huge, artificially coloured lollipop of a game. It's like buying a Happy Meal at McD's. You know it's bad for your teeth and that your poop will probably be rainbow coloured for a while, but it's delicious and fun to consume and there's a free toy inside so whatever.


Mummy demastered is surprisingly gud so far. Well, mostly. Controls have an issue where aiming at an angle to shoot at enemies on the ceiling etc is a bit clunky - albeit perfectly manageable. Not that far along though, so I might get used to it (or it might be a conscious decision to e.g. sell an upgrade later in the game, or to offer some challenge by design). Love the title screen music. Haven't watched the movie it's attached to, but I guess it's shit since nobody ever talks about it. Bet the team is kicking themselves for not having been able to release this as an original franchise.


Finally: I spent way too much time on Letter Quest Remastered. Feels like a flash game. Probably is. Exceedingly unfitting music, simple gameplay, standard Flash look and feel. Too lazy to look it up, but if this actually ran in a browser on some Flash gaming site like kongregate before being released on switch then I wouldn't be surprised in the least.
However, all of that aside, stringing together characters into words to beat up enemies just feels so strangely relaxing and addictive. Even though the included dictionary has some occasional holes. "Britain" and other country names are missing, for example.
!list

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30574 on: January 02, 2018, 09:27:05 AM »
Gang Beasts came out on PS4. I bought it for my son. They were having trouble with their AI, so they dropped it for PS4. Their netcode is not performant. Now my son wants me to play a bunch of Gang Beasts with him.

Also bought I Am Toast (US$2), a game that makes me feel like I'm drunk because there's no way the controls are supposed to make the game that difficult.

Joe Molotov

  • I'm much more humble than you would understand.
  • Administrator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30575 on: January 02, 2018, 11:09:03 AM »
Started playing Resident Evil 7, I dig the TCM/Hills Have Eyes atmosphere even though I'm too much of a bitch to play it for more that a little bit at a time. I'd probably die if I played this in VR. :'( Really liking it though. The garage fight was hilarious, I loved it. :lol

Also playing I am Setsuna, mainly just because I felt like playing something wintry. Really, the snow is the best part about the game, everything else is kinda meh. Shoulda just played Skyrim again.
©@©™

Freyj

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30576 on: January 02, 2018, 01:50:15 PM »
Witcher 3 is too god damned long by miles. I’m halfway through Hearts of Stone and I kind of wish I could just be done. The open world is well crafted but I wish I hadn’t spent as much time mucking around Velen and Novigrad’s side content. Definitely feels like the contracts could’ve been handled more like FFXII’s hunts and the majority of the fetch quest content could’ve been cut, but you never know when a particular side quest is going to be one of those really well crafted ones.

Raist

  • Winner of the Baited Award 2018
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30577 on: January 02, 2018, 02:17:21 PM »
So I figured out They Are Billions. Sort of. On average difficulty settings anyway. Beat the first 3 maps one after the other.

And know I'm getting my ass kicked on the 4th map :stahp


Witcher 3 is too god damned long by miles. I’m halfway through Hearts of Stone and I kind of wish I could just be done. The open world is well crafted but I wish I hadn’t spent as much time mucking around Velen and Novigrad’s side content. Definitely feels like the contracts could’ve been handled more like FFXII’s hunts and the majority of the fetch quest content could’ve been cut, but you never know when a particular side quest is going to be one of those really well crafted ones.

What, you don't like ctrl+c ctrl+v ad nauseum?

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30578 on: January 02, 2018, 05:07:43 PM »
I thought the big deal with the Witcher 3 that everyone loved was that every quest was meaningful and there was almost no filler fetch quests?

Rufus

  • 🙈🙉🙊
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30579 on: January 02, 2018, 05:34:26 PM »
There is tons of filler that didn't require any writing and isn't logged outside of the symbol on the map. That stuff is as bog standard open world check mark design as it gets. I would only do those if you're short on money, want some monster parts for potions or are close to leveling. Well, monster nests being an exception. Blowing them up will often bring back the people who lived in the vicinity. Sometimes there's a merchant among them, which can be very useful depending on how much of a packrat you are.

The numerous side quests which come from quest givers and have actual writing are good.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30580 on: January 02, 2018, 09:28:09 PM »
Finally beat Sonic Mania, I unlocked debug mode and then just saw the -true- last boss. Pretty easy and underwhelming, unlocking debug mode was much harder.

Still can't beat the Pokio section in Odyssey.

Taking a trip down to DC for Magfest where I'll play Samus Returns on the train.
^_^

fistfulofmetal

  • RAPTOR
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30581 on: January 03, 2018, 02:49:18 PM »
Bought a few things on the Steam sale, and just sales in general, and early impressions:

No Man's Sky - been looking to give this a try for awhile. I don't know how much they've changed but I recall all of the breadcrumb stuff currently in place was not there. I can imagine how rough it was then, I could barely figure out what the game wanted me to do now let alone without anything leading me a long. Seems like an interesting thing, I doubt I'll dig super deep but it's cool to play for a half hour or so when something else is going on

Forza Horizon 3 - I just wanna race and this game keeps trying to throw more meta gameplay on top and I just glaze over. When I do get to race it's fun.

Resident Evil 7
- I probably would like this but I got to the first "open" area after the family and I got caught in a corner and the dude got me. I just know based on how I play, that I'll keep throwing myself at a wall getting killed over and over until I eventually get through and I'm just not interested in that. So I refunded it for now, maybe pick it up at a lower price another time.

I also got Dishonored: Death of the Outsider based on a lot of strong impressions. Haven't played it yet, but hopefully it's better than Dishonored 2.
nat

Joe Molotov

  • I'm much more humble than you would understand.
  • Administrator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30582 on: January 03, 2018, 10:30:41 PM »
Resident Evil 7

spoiler (click to show/hide)
omg, I've lost the chainsaw duel 5 times. Ethan, I need for you to learn a combat roll pls. :noah
[close]
©@©™

Great Rumbler

  • Dab on the sinners
  • Global Moderator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30583 on: January 03, 2018, 10:52:53 PM »
Bought a month of ESO Plus and the Morrowind expansion since I've been wanting to get back into Elder Scrolls Online. It's improved big time since it first came out, actually feels like a proper Elder Scrolls game at times when playing solo. Haven't gotten to the Morrowind or other expansion stuff yet since my character is still really low level, but I'll get to that in the next few days.
dog

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30584 on: January 04, 2018, 08:57:23 AM »
Resident Evil 7

spoiler (click to show/hide)
omg, I've lost the chainsaw duel 5 times. Ethan, I need for you to learn a combat roll pls. :noah
[close]

I've seen a video where someone somewhat reliably uses duck to avoid some hits. Such a good boss though   :-*

duckman2000

  • A lot of shit pisses me off
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30585 on: January 04, 2018, 09:23:09 AM »
So I'm something like 25 hours into BOTW and I just found a whole new area of the game. I guess I don't play enough large scale open world games that actually inspire checking out the worlds, but that's impressive to me. I also stumbled upon a dragon and a shrine mission just from deciding to hike around, which is cool.

Joe Molotov

  • I'm much more humble than you would understand.
  • Administrator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30586 on: January 04, 2018, 10:21:41 AM »
Resident Evil 7

spoiler (click to show/hide)
omg, I've lost the chainsaw duel 5 times. Ethan, I need for you to learn a combat roll pls. :noah
[close]

I've seen a video where someone somewhat reliably uses duck to avoid some hits. Such a good boss though   :-*

Yeah, it's a lot better than just another "here's a bullet sponge, hope you saved up enough bullets to kill him!" RE boss. Game is pretty generous with checkpoints, so it's not bad when you have to fight him again (although I wish it didn't take so long to get through his first phase).
©@©™

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30587 on: January 07, 2018, 04:02:45 PM »
Dude, your giant bear companion just totally sold me on the game. Adding MoTB to my list of backlog rpgs I wanna play in 2018.

Backlog rpgs ideally wanna get as many as possible this year:

Witcher 2+3
Divinity OS2
NWN2: MoTB
KoTOR II restored edition
Shadowrun Dragonfall + HK

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30588 on: January 07, 2018, 04:09:24 PM »
I tried some "best of 2017 indie game picks" games a few days ago:

Hidden Folks - Where's waldo with some animation and interactivity. Cool art, but from the levels I played, there's not much more to it than Where's Waldo with cool big B&W art fields.

Gorgoa - Great looking puzzle game, but honestly I played like an hour and found it kinda of boring. It's a neat puzzle concept but everything just feels very slow.

West of Loathing - Uh, this is fucking awesome. 2d side-scrolling rpg like Southpark rpg, comedy western wrpg. What sticks out is that it is polished AF and feels fast and modern excellent QoL/UI. The rpg mechanics are solid, the writing is funny and great, and it's just fast and fun. I got through the first town and all the quests and it was fantastic. I read the whole thing is about 8-10 hours which sounds great. Also it has this perk you can get in the first room called "walking stupid" that every few seconds changes your walking animation cycling between so.many stupid walking animations and they are amazing. The game has a lot of genius to it, but the walking stupid perk stands out as the most genius part to me because even after like an hour or two it'll crack me up. I would super recommend this to anyone who likes indie + wrpg + comedy.

Freyj

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30589 on: January 07, 2018, 06:15:23 PM »
Borys:

Do you mostly play in Character Strategy or Exploration Mode for NWN2? I'm trying to play it like Pillars or BG and struggling.

BlueTsunami

  • The Muffin Man
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30590 on: January 07, 2018, 07:01:48 PM »
Disgaea 5 is like $15 on PSN right now. Couldnt pass it up. One those games that totally overwhelms you at first but I'm settling into it.
:9

kingv

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30591 on: January 07, 2018, 09:17:39 PM »
Still chugging on Yakuza 0. The cabaret club mini game has totally gripped me, and I’ve basically set aside the main story to blow through the Five Stars first.

Fuck that blind bitch and her Chinese buddy. They can hang out in a warehouse and rot while I make that paper. His mom was a probably a comfort girl anyway.

nachobro

  • Live Más
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30592 on: January 07, 2018, 09:30:29 PM »
Just finished the new South Park game. It was pretty fun but extremely stupid. However I am also stupid so I laughed at pretty much all the racism and fart jokes. Fully recommend it as a silly little turn based RPG, though it did drag a bit at the end. Played on normal and it wasn't too challenging except for one boss that took me a couple tries.

Also this might just be an Xbox One thing but it was kinda buggy. Had a few times where it just stopped responding to inputs and one crash to the home screen. Luckily it auto saves constantly so I never lost any progress.

Also it's the only game in existence that let me play as the jewish transgender black-slovakian male skoliosexual superhero I always knew I was
« Last Edit: January 07, 2018, 09:38:50 PM by nachobro »

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30593 on: January 07, 2018, 11:02:41 PM »
dying to a boss in nier automata for the eighth time in a row and realizing you forgot to retrieve your body on that last run = endless silent screams

pcp

Freyj

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30594 on: January 07, 2018, 11:51:24 PM »
Make no mistake: the camera in this game is UTTER GARBAGE. You will be fighting it very often. You will have some troubles in combat scenarios with HUGE enemies or MANY enemies on screen. The camera is the worst part of the game. And believe me, and believe others, that Mask of the Betrayer is worth every minute. It is the "spiritual successor" to Planescape Torment and it feels so right. Not a single wrong or mistaken part in this game. 10/10 writing, story, choices (!!!) (they matter A FUCKING LOT), combat challenges.

I cannot believe what I am saying but, yes, you can just skip the very mundane and bland NWN2 main campaign and just start with MotB. It is so much better... so very much better.

Thanks. I've tried every mode now and I'm just like  :mindblown every time. Nothing feels "right" and I put up with BG on a god damned smartphone ffs.

I've seen a few hours of the OC and I think I'll take your advice. I remember buying and starting the OC before MotB was out and dropping it after 5-10 hours back in 2006 (the lure of WoW / FFXI was strong back then and I lost a few years of any other gaming). NWN2 is one of the last Obsidian things I haven't fully explored, but I'm not seeing much of the Obsidian touch with the OC. Looking forward to hearing how you like Storm of Zehir.

edit: I didn't know Josh Sawyer was brought in at the very end of the OC's development. That explains a bit I guess.

Corporal

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30595 on: January 08, 2018, 02:16:51 AM »
Played a whole bunch of Super Mario World and -Kart on my SNES classic Mini. With my dad. Massive, and I mean  MASSIVE, trip down memory lane for the both of us. The SNES was the first and last time this dad and kiddo sat together and played the vydia. After that, I was too old and either out of the house, or too nerdy with my tastes.

He has never been all good at the games. Still... Cripes, he's gotten old.
Creeps up on ya if you have 'em age alongside you.

Giver yer parental units a call, hug or at least non-derisive snort in passing once in a while. Time's ticking.  :'(
!list

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30596 on: January 09, 2018, 02:44:56 AM »
Ok, so I was playing Ruiner and running around the city after the first legit stage and talking to every npc and doing my usual mash A when I talk to npcs to skim their dialogue and I guess one guy is like "do you want to restart the game as a speedrun" or something and I mashed through it and suddenly I was back at the start of the game and was like oh shit I just lost my game and then I quit and came back and it still started from after the first stage but lost all the NPC/hacking stuff I'd done before talking to that guy.  :'( First time I've gotten fucked by mashing A through NPC dialogue!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30597 on: January 09, 2018, 05:31:16 AM »
Finished The House in Fata Morgana - By the end felt like the longest VN I've ever read even at only like 23 hours (then again the steam time might be wrong, howlongtobeat says the main story is average of 36 hours). At the climax of the first half of the game I'd have said this was the best VN I've read and a 10/10, but then endings start and it feels like there's like 28 endings in a row. Everytime it seems like the end IT KEEPS GOING AND NEVER ENDS. The stories themselves are good, but the pacing in the backhalf is super fucked and it's a story that just feels like it will never end which is kinda soul destroying. Doesn't help the back half is like over the top exposition non-stop trying to explain every single plot point in the game and wrap up every character completely. Overall was a good story, but my whole criticisms of the VN genre and why I've generally not been a fan because they're all super long and overwritten like crazy with awful pacing, is pretty much exactly the second half of Fata Morgana.

I'd probably give it like a 9/10 overall and would still recommend it for the good story, gorgeous art and phenomenal soundtrack, but while I'd say it's one of the better VNs, I don't think it's one of the best VNs I've read. I think at this point Steins;Gate is still the best VN I've ever. Outside a chunk of Steins;Gate in the middle which is super-repetitive, the pacing in the rest is pretty good and it has a much stronger, impactful ending than Fata Morgana. Fata Morgana's ending should have been really great but it's just so dragged out that I was completely emotionally drained by the time it was over.

Fata Morgana definitely had some interesting characters to it. Lots of short stories. The MC's tale in particular is excellent and would make a good movie on its own.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2018, 05:35:41 AM by Bebpo »

I'm a Puppy!

  • Knows the muffin man.
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30598 on: January 09, 2018, 10:57:50 AM »
Done with Skyrim, did the Solstheim, the thieves guild, the vampire quests, the companions, the dark brother and the legion, as well as the main story line. I've done what I wanted to with it. Having it portable on the switch, was really just a good as I expected.

Started Neir Automata only played to the first boss (accidentally got caught/crushed under the dual gears thing and died). I have no idea what I'm in for, but this game really feels like something special so far.
que

Positive Touch

  • Woo Papa
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #30599 on: January 09, 2018, 12:48:03 PM »
I'm playing nier right now and I'm really enjoying it. the gameplay is a mix of different styles and platinum of course pulled it off really well unlike the first game. plus it's been too long since I played a game with a weird creative scenario.
pcp