What are you playing?

[Vit-Symty]

Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter is a great recommendation. If you're thinking of jumping into the series then I'd rather you play Dragon Quarter first, Borys, as it will make it easier for you to accept and enjoy the game for it is. There are many out there who unfairly judge it because it isn't anything like the previous entries in the series, among other silly reasons. To hell with them.

Also don't play BoFII without the restranslation patch: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/1384/

Or try Unlimited Saga. In fact, you all should drop whatever game you're playing and start US. Let's turn The Bore into the No.1 Unlimited Saga loving site on the net.

Thinking about it, a game like US would be perfect for touchscreen devices. Missed opportunity.

[Bebpo]

Toku's screenshots of AC Origins, got me back playing Syndicate, which was the last AC I was up to  (skipped Rogue though, probably should play it someday, or maybe not). Man, going back to AC after being away for a while is super frustrating. The controls are awful, the game is glitchy, the mission design ain't great, it's super repetitive. But somehow once you get in the groove it gets pretty fun and you end up playing 3-4 hours straight and only making like another 5% progress in the overall completion.

I think I'll be happy to play Origins at some point just to get out of this gloomy same-y looking London city. One of my issues with Syndicate is that it's the least visually interesting AC since AC3. And having nothing but the city to play around and all the areas look kinda the same outside the Thames which is cool but it's a big river and you get over it, will be nice to have multiple locations again after this.

I'm not sure how I feel about the leveling stuff in AC. Hopefully it's better in Origins. In Syndicate because you can't use weapons/armor above your level and you level very slowly mostly getting xp from storyline, the game basically caps you from becoming super strong and forces a type of level design in the order that you take down areas based on their levels. Again, hopefully this is better in Origins.

Also any chance they've improved the controls in Origins? Played Syndicate it's like I wish AC controlled like MGS. All these years in and AC still controls so damn janky. It's frustrating.

[bluemax]

Dragon Quarter is one of the greatest JRPGs of all time.

But also you should probably play it a bit more like a survival horror game.

Speaking of the BoF series. I've been playing the re-translated version of the game. Still early on, but it's nice that people talk in more complete sentences and such.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Finished the original Nier

Man, that was depressing. I can see why it took a while to get a sequel. With the way they did the extra endings and without a skip old dialogue option, getting all the additional endings was a bit of a slog. Nier Automata is better in every way. Still its nice to see more of the lore, even if it is convoluted. I was going to say it was a convoluted mess, but then I remembered Kingdom Hearts and comparatively Nier is a masterpiece of storytelling comparatively.

[HardcoreRetro]

I'm not sure how I feel about the leveling stuff in AC. Hopefully it's better in Origins. In Syndicate because you can't use weapons/armor above your level and you level very slowly mostly getting xp from storyline, the game basically caps you from becoming super strong and forces a type of level design in the order that you take down areas based on their levels. Again, hopefully this is better in Origins.

The level system in Syndicate is actually more lenient. Origins is extremely railroaded by how much the levels effect your damage output.

[Tasty]

What are the hardest non-ROMhack platformers ever made?

Because I'm leaning towards Mutant Mudds Super Challenge being king of them all.

[tiesto]

What are the hardest non-ROMhack platformers ever made?

Because I'm leaning towards Mutant Mudds Super Challenge being king of them all.

There's some commodore 64 game that was unfinished so the developers just made one part impossible to beat, iirc

[Tasty]

I mean finished, released console games that you'd have to pay a standard MSRP to purchase and play.

Unless I see differently, Super Challenge is one of the most difficult 2D platformers ever released to fit this description.

I've beaten 18 of the 45 levels and it's starting to give me gray hairs.

[demi]

you're also raised on pokemon and soy, of course something as basic as mutant mudds is difficult for you

[Tasty]

you're also raised on pokemon and soy, of course something as basic as mutant mudds is difficult for you

Lol get fucked, I've beaten Lost Levels, Castlevania and Kid Icarus without breaking a sweat.

I bet $10 you can't beat Super Challenge. $5 for beating half the game. I'm serious.

[demi]

buy me the game. is it on switch ?

[Tasty]

Lol even Oscar backs me up on this. Super Challenge is so fucked.

But I keep playing. 🙄

buy me the game. is it on switch ?

I'll fully reimburse you if you beat it (part of Mutant Mudds Collection on Switch.) I'm not going to buy a game for you to say "Lol too hard thanks for the free game sucker."

[demi]

who, oscar the mobile phone gamer? color me impressed

[Tasty]

who, oscar the mobile phone gamer? color me impressed

You're more bitchmade than badass, breh.

[demi]

In 2016, the game's spin-off, Mutant Mudds Super Challenge, was released for Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.

No switch ? I guess I will have to get PS4 or Vita version then

[Tasty]

In 2016, the game's spin-off, Mutant Mudds Super Challenge, was released for Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows.

No switch ? I guess I will have to get PS4 or Vita version then

The Collection is Switch only actually. Has MM Deluxe, Super Challenge, and a puzzle game (Mudd Blocks.)

[demi]

[Tasty]

👍🏻

Let me know what you think, and where you'd place it on your "hardest games evar" list. My only point is that it belongs on such a list.

I'm also sick of people assuming I only play babby games.

[demi]

the only point ur gonna get is my paypal when i finish this pussboi game

[Tasty]

the only point ur gonna get is my paypal when i finish this pussboi game

Lulz, sure Jan.

Just for shits and giggles, post your final death count when you're done.

[porkbun]

Dark Souls III, Need for Speed Payback and Sega Classics Collection on PS4.

Random beat em ups on a hacked SNES Classic.

Modded uncensored version of NARC and Rush N Attack on Famicom multicarts.

Streets of Rage 2 mods via an Everdrive on an OG Genesis.

[toku]

[MMaRsu]

Dark Souls III, Need for Speed Payback and Sega Classics Collection on PS4.

Random beat em ups on a hacked SNES Classic.

Modded uncensored version of NARC and Rush N Attack on Famicom multicarts.

Streets of Rage 2 mods via an Everdrive on an OG Genesis.

Hello have you heard of Streets of Rage Remake?

Let me fill your life with infinite joy

[MMaRsu]

Im thinking about buying Witcher 3 goty on Steam..its only 20 bucks..so that's like 10 for the main game and 10 for the expacks

[HardcoreRetro]

Tasty Meat selling me on this barebones looking platformer. Is it harder than 1001 Spikes?

[Tasty]

Tasty Meat selling me on this barebones looking platformer. Is it harder than 1001 Spikes?

Both probably top out at a similar difficulty but Super Challenge literally doesn't have a difficulty curve - it's a straight line. Right off the bat. 1001 Spikes looks like it starts off quite a bit easier before ramping up.

Up to 32/45 water sprites. The end is in sight.

[agrajag]

Started up Hollow Knight. Game is pretty, but at what point does it get interesting?

[Tasty]

I... I think I'm done with Mutant Mudds forever. Few other games have caused me to question my will to live like this one has. And I think I'm done with Atooie for a while too. There's a thick line between challenging and spirit-shattering and Super Challenge is so far on the latter side it's laughable (in a maudlin sort of way.)

I beat it because I dared myself to but I'd really only recommend this game to masochists. If you think platformers today are too easy, by all means check out Super Challenge. Guaranteed Nintendo thumb in the first level.

Let me know when you're on my level demi, lol.

[Bebpo]

Booted up Just Cause 3 because the JC4 trailer got me in the mood. I had cleared like half of the first island the couple days I played and did the other half tonight. Just have the story command base mission to clear part 1.

Not sure why I kept playing this. There’s like a billion settlements/bases to liberate and it’s all the same goddamn thing over and over again. Go in with a plane and take out as much as you can, mop up the rest with RPGs and grenades, keep moving so you don’t die and replenish ammo at weapon spots. Hit the button so your allies can come in, repeat x 300. Like the game kinda sucks and I swear I did this all in JC2. I don’t know why I kept playing. I think to give it a fair shake I’m gonna play the story missions and beat the first general to finish this section and then I’ll call it a day and delete it.

The sad thing is that instead of making hundreds of repeat settlements (and forcing it to advance the story missions), it’d be better if they tried to make more unique missions for each base/city. Like playing AC Syndicate at the same time, AC is repetitive as hell but JC is a whole different level. At least with AC there’s like 6 activities to take over a “base” area and that gives it a little variety. If JC could do the same for the settlements it’d be so much better.

[CatsCatsCats]

I’m playing the shit out of Tower of Guns it’s a silly little rogue like fps strafe fest with a large interesting variety of power ups, perks, items, weapons, weapon mods, etc etc. It’s got a bunch of stupid randomized stories (that can be turned off) as well. I would never have even tried it without game pass, I’m really enjoying trying some of the deeper cuts on there. Kinda wish I could just get high all day and play it instead of go to work rn.

[chronovore]

I’m playing the shit out of Tower of Guns it’s a silly little rogue like fps strafe fest with a large interesting variety of power ups, perks, items, weapons, weapon mods, etc etc. It’s got a bunch of stupid randomized stories (that can be turned off) as well. I would never have even tried it without game pass, I’m really enjoying trying some of the deeper cuts on there. Kinda wish I could just get high all day and play it instead of go to work rn.

I grabbed that back when it was PC only. It was one of few games my beat-ass PC would play. It's pretty cool.

[Bebpo]

Man, it's amazing how glitchy these Assassin's Creed games are these days. Played like 90 mins in AC Syndicate and had 2 points where I had to hard reset to get out:

-One time where suddenly when driving a horse cart all controls stopped and it just kept going and going forever and couldn't get out
-One time where mid-story mission I was supposed to jump from one train to another and somehow I jumped through the train and got stuck inside it's wall and none of the controls would respond

This is besides the smaller glitches where the game teleported me around on a fast travel and I ended up nowhere near where I was supposed to be, and one time where a horse carriage I was after suddenly took off at Nitro speed flying through everyone before stopping like 100 feet away.

And that's just in like 90 mins of playing. I can't remember any AC game being anywhere near this constantly running into major glitches. Maybe they need more time in the oven...

[tiesto]

Started playing Doki Doki Literature Club after recommendations from a few of my friends. Just got to the day of the school festival...  no spoilers pls.

[HardcoreRetro]

Playing Uncharted Lost Legacy. They actually put gameplay in their game this time around.

Edit: Bebpo don't complain about the glitches, they're my favourite part. Try holding an enemy and try to take it down a ledge. The game doesn't understand how to do it and launches you like 20 meters in the air.

[Bebpo]

Playing Uncharted Lost Legacy. They actually put gameplay in their game this time around.

Edit: Bebpo don't complain about the glitches, they're my favourite part. Try holding an enemy and try to take it down a ledge. The game doesn't understand how to do it and launches you like 20 meters in the air.

Well it's fun until like tonight my game just randomly crashed at one point and when I reloaded it all the sound was gone :\ This is definitely the glitchist AC in 1-Syndicate. Complain about performances issues all you want on Unity, at least it wasn't crashing all the time on PC.

[Tasty]

Bloodstained, brehs

[Kara]

For some reason Borys and I are playing the same old game at the same time, independent of one another.

When you come back to Prague (and until you go to Switzerland) Deus Ex 4 reminds me a lot of Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines.

[Nintex]

Oh man, the bank is one of the if not the best Deus Ex environments ever.
Prague is extremely dense behind the surface. Kinda weird though that if you just play through the main story you'll see about 20% of it, at best.

[toku]

I couldn't get into MD. Put about 12? hrs in and it just never grabbed me like HR did.

[Nintex]

I couldn't get into MD. Put about 12? hrs in and it just never grabbed me like HR did.

The game starts right after HR which did more world building.
So the idea is basically that you play the first game (for the world building/introductions) and then move on to the second game to dive deeper into the conspiracy.
These days sequels are usually just 'stand alone' new entries, while in MD there is a lot of continuation.

Also fuck the gaming press forever for pooping on this game because it was too 'similar'. Fuck em. 

[MMaRsu]

Mankind Divided was pretty boring imo. Really not as good as the one that came before it.

I started replaying TW3

[chronovore]

I’ve gone back to Just Cause 2.

There are too many settlements. The game is a collectathon, and now that I’ve seen beyond the veil, I may not finish it. 

[Great Rumbler]

One of the main story missions eventually takes you to the Palisade Bank, so you don't need to go there yet.

[Kara]

Palisade Bank looks to be a new-age Thief 2 bank which was the best level in that game.

Nah, but it's still pretty cool.

It's a nice thematic foil to the streets and the zone you go to after Prague too because it's policed and secured in a way that those zones aren't. A blunt (but effective) way of establishing the real world / cyberpunk world divide.

[HardcoreRetro]

I can't believe Detroit Become Human has like an 8 on metacritic. Game is godawful garbage.

I thought the stuff like putting the androids in the back of the bus was bad enough.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Then he has one of the final chapters be a literal Holocaust chapter, with the androids being forced to undress themself and get rid of their holographic skin and hair. The chapter then ends with your robot being put in the "shower".

[close]

And some people still claim this is pushing the format forward... A game with about the same level of nuance as a movie called Extreme Ass-fisting 5.

[MMaRsu]

You're not done with Prague until Prague is done with you Borys

[Kara]

You're not done with Prague until Prague is done with you Borys

The second return.

[toku]

[tiesto]

Beat Pokemon Yellow and got Mewtoo.. my first time playing a traditional Pokemon game... Also did a bit of Outrun 2 playing to test out my OSSC/Xbox SCART cables.

[Kara]

Finished Deus Ex 4. Fired up my Deus Ex 2 save and remembered that I was stuck. OH WELL.

[Rufus]

That game blows, anyway.

[Corporal]

Dipping my toes into Paladins. Overwatch left me completely cold, but now this one is on Nintendo^TM Switch^TM, so it must be the most goodest on this planet. If not even better.

I'm actually having fun though.

Small niggle: I'm getting owned quite terribly in the vanilla loadout, and the leaderboard loadout import mechanism doesn't work so I have to rely on my three-and-a-half Switch friends or whoever I battle against to check out some combinations, which is kinda annoying. I'm not far along to actually make an informed decision, and I'm not gonna sit my ass down and learn shit before playing, because that's work.

Also, getting matchmade against someone at twice my level is kinda painful. Not like the level is relevant though, I just suck. All these curbstompings after getting out of the bots-only tutorial area. Ow. Right in the kisser. Fuck you, game. Treat your nubs more carefully.

Getting better tho. Slooooooooowly. Can't rush an old man.

[Bebpo]

At the final boss assassination mission in Assassin's Creed Syndicate at around 33 hours in having done all the sidequests and cleared all the map sections. At the end of the day there's definitely a lot to like about the game, not much to love about the game, and most of the stuff to hate about the game is lack of polish (glitches, crashes, glitches, crashes) and a few crappy mission designs. It's popcorn AC, and if I didn't have so many crashes to desktop and game breaking glitches to damage my playthrough experience (aka if the game just had some more time in the oven to polish), it'd be a good game even if it's not doing anything amazing. I also appreciate that it's not super long at <35 hours for basically everything outside collectibles which is closer to the older games that were 20-30 hours and not ACIV's 50 hour+ and Unity's 100 hour+. I think I'd rank the AC games AC2 > AC:B > AC4: Black Flag > AC Syndicate >>>>>>>>>> everything else is mediocre to bad and not worth playing*

*having not played Rogue or Origins so those are excluded.

I feel like I'm coming out of Syndicate knowing a hell of a lot more about the city of London, a place I didn't know much about since I've never been. Was like taking a 30 hour London City class. It's nice driving around and seeing the sights and definitely makes me want to visit. The MC characters are pretty lively and carriage vehicles for getting around is actually pretty nice especially since there's no penalty for running people down on the street, even right in front of cops, whoops. Grappling hook has its uses, but it's not all that fast for moving around, so prefer the carriages for improvements. Carriage fights were kinda fun too and they controlled pretty well. The gang stuff worked alright and it was nice to be able to call a carriage of your own thugs at any time to get a ride and have a team to back you up.

The story was ok considering the entire story is just "hey there's this templar grand master and his henchmen running the town, go kill each them the henchmen and then the grand master. the end". I kinda think the single sprawling city 1:1 authentic ratio experiment of Unity (Paris) and Syndicate (London) was an interesting idea, but it just doesn't lead to allowing a particularly interesting storyline so the whole thing has to take place in one city. At least it was better than Unity which had a pretty awful story and main characters. The gameplay is also a lot more fun here with all the quality of life improvements. Paris just wins for being a more interesting city and having a more graphically impressive tech engine that they scaled back for Syndicate to make it run better.

Oh and speaking of graphics, the day and night, weather effects were pretty nice in London. Driving a carriage around foggy London is quite atmospheric. Definitely planning on picking up the Jack the Ripper DLC expansion during the summer steam sale for cheap and playing that after I finish the main game.

[Nintex]

I've been playing Age of Empires II maybe I already posted about it but I can't remember.

Anyways I suck at RTS but I keep playing because it's compelling enough.

But also, I can select Japanese as a civilization.

And units talk Japanese. So I'm like oh cool. The weeb in me can't resist playing that.

But also, you can create samurai units. And their voices are badass as fuck.

Eventually I can create an entire fucking ARMY of SAMURAI WARRIORS. IT'S JUST LIKE IN ONE OF MY ANIMES. (Image removed from quote.)

I've wrote an extensive guide for you on one of the previous pages to teach you about formations and pincer movements so you can wreck your enemies and build a 1000 year lasting empire.

[MMaRsu]

Is that one of those child detention camps in the US I've been reading about?

[Nintex]

Is that one of those child detention camps in the US I've been reading about?

No that's a playground.

[Svejk]

Wow @ Golem City.

Making me want to play through it again.  I started a 2nd playthrough earlier this year, but stopped after finding out the DLC was stand alone, so I played the DLC instead.  (Which I'd highly recommend) 

Plus, the OST has grown on me a lot over the past 2 years.  So fucking good. 
The drone, pulsi-ness of this track...  chillbumps


So ready for another installment!

[Bebpo]

Oh, so I finished AC Syndicate. Nothing new to say besides the last mission was pretty neat in that you switched back and forth between the two MCs as the mission story played out in a mission impossible kinda thing.

For instance there's a part where the female MC is dancing with the antagonist and he points up at the roof to show the snipers he's setup there to shoot her when the song ends
Then you switch to the male MC and run up and kill all the snipers and then
it switches back to female MC's dance and this time she looks up at the roof and sees the male MC wave to her that it's clear

I wish there had been more of that throughout the game because that's fun and creative. Given the brother/sister MC direction of the game, instead of alternating story missions it would've been cool if the main story was team missions with the two of them working together. Kinda like Uncharted I guess with Drake's buddies.

Otherwise, the last boss fight was dumb and the post-game missions with the queen were alright. Not much else to say until I play the expansion DLC.

Oh, actually it's worth noting that the game tries to pull a Hitman with the main assassinations and give similar opportunities that Hitman 2016 did which are optional targets that open up new scripting to allow for unique kills. It's a nice idea but it's soooooooo minimal effort (like 1 unique kill per major assassination, 1 opportunity to sneak in, etc...) and especially coming from Hitman feels like baby's first Hitman. Wouldn't mind them taking that concept further with more depth for the main assassinations.

So I'm guessing in Origins everything interesting about Syndicate is dropped completely instead of expanded and maybe the Rome game will bring some of it back since it's the Syndicate team?

[Borealis]

So I'm guessing in Origins everything interesting about Syndicate is dropped completely instead of expanded and maybe the Rome game will bring some of it back since it's the Syndicate team?

Finished Origins recently, I would argue very much so. Origins' reworks are kinda hit and miss, happy to expand on that but won't mind waiting on your thoughts first. Syndicate team's work on Odyssey is pretty much a continuation of Origins' mechanics with increased RPG features and tweaks.

[Corporal]

Currently playing a Turn Based Strategy game, Into The Breach. It was/is on sale on gog and I've always wanted to try it. It's from the guys that made FTL, a game I cherish dearly.

The tiny map size, strongly constrained team (only three units under your control), limited undo capabilities/early commitment, constantly spawning insectoid enemies and comparatively huge amount of vulnerable tiles you have to defend from attack make for tremendous tactical conundrums. Jeez, no matter what you do, the damn bugs always get a strike in. 

Also already (permanently?) lost the artillery pilot, dammit. Nobody told me even time travel wouldn't bring them back. Now I'm hesitant to even attempt more runs. :'(

And I've unlocked the second mech manufacturer. Man, pooping out DoT dust clouds all over the map is such a weird combat concept for a skyscraper sized mech. Especially given how they seem to be affected by them as well?

But I got until the second phase of the final fight on my third-ever try (made a beeline towards the final fight as soon as I unlocked it by clearing the second island because I was rapidly running out of energy). Proud moment, that. And wouldn't you know it, just as the thingy was set to explode, on the very last turn, I maneuvered myself into a checkmate where I could only lose my last energy pylon. An appropriately sad end to an intense fight.

I am having an appropriate amount of fun, but given my ineptitude at these kinda games the difficulty on normal seems kinda too easy. I mean, I freaking got to the final fight on my third attempt. This me, who for all intents and purposes is a bloody troglodyte whose tactical prowess is at the levels that a toddler would be able to best. That's not how FTL worked, at least from my memory. Been a while though, maybe I'm misremembering. Not that I'm complaining though. It's nice getting tantallizingly close to the end(?) even despite major suckage.

Given my terrible compatibility with the genre, I doubt I'll finish this any time soon - as much as an endlessly repeating randomized game can be beat, at that. However, it sure is pleasing to pop up for a quick battle or two. I'll keep this around and nibble at it from time to time. Gotta train those thinking muscles.


Dufus, as you are shit at RTS just like me, maybe give this or other TBS a try. With more time to consider every move, it's less confusing and punishing.


...I also bought the KKND games. Another TBS (but with an optional RTS compatible mode), this time from the last DOS/early Win95 days. I really enjoyed them back in the day. Is it masochism, or am I striving to better myself? ... I'm probably just insane and have too many fun moneys.