What are you playing?

[EchoRin]

Crash Team Racing 2019. This game is hard. I knew that from the reviews, but man they demand a lot out of you. The races themselves are tough and yet now that I'm in the 2nd world I actually won the first two races there on my first try while failing like 4 times at the 3rd race (and calling it for the day). The CTR challenges aren't all that much tougher as it's mainly about doing one run where you figure out the location of the 3 letters. Sometimes this can be be really confusing though and you will likely be looking up how in the world you are supposed to reach said letter. Then there are the relics crate races which are the time trials. By far the most hardest challenge I've seen so far.

Unlike Mario Kart 8 you can actually win while being last place going into the final lap which is good. I found it nearly impossible to move up 3 places per lap in MK8 on the hardest difficulty. It's still a harder game though even with that being the ability to make a huge comeback. And I like the comeback aspect of it as it's lame in MK8 on high difficulties that you have no chance of stealing a race if you are in the back going into the final lap. Couldn't tell you a single tune from the 8 tracks or so that I've been able to play. MK8 on the other hand had an immensely strong OST.


I'm talking about the Adventure Mode here in case anyone is wondering. Don't remember if there was a difficulty option at the start, but I went with normal.

It's been an interesting case of remembering I loved the PS1 game and yet I don't remember anything from that old game. So everything here is essentially new except my feelings from the past that told me "you liked this decades ago" lol.

[MMaRsu]

 

[Rufus]

Kind of proud of this one, even though it's nothing special in any of the metrics. Symmetry just does it for me.

The way I'm doing things - few pieces, many instructions per piece - is starting to hamper me, but if I did the inverse, I'd have timing issues instead.

[Spieler1]

Dissidia 012 - Kain was fun to play, Tifa not as much. I know this is a fighting game first, but I still wish they had a bit more variety in story mode battles. No idea why they repeat old tutorials at some key story points, but then again, the UI and all the terminology is laughably convoluted for no reason.

Secret of Monkey Island - usually not a fan of this genre, which is why I didn't play most classics. The first chapter has been pretty fair in its difficulty (still had to use the in-game guide one time). Holy fuck, these remastered graphics are a bigger rape than SNES Final Fantasy on mobile/Steam though. At least you can switch back, even though they aren't exactly promoting that option very clearly.

[Great Rumbler]

The remaster of Monkey Island 2 looks so much better than the remaster of the first game.

[MMaRsu]

and mi3 looks better than all of them and is also the best one

[Great Rumbler]

I really want Monkey Island 3 with high resolution remasters of the original assets.

[BIONIC]

Finished both paths of Witcher 2 (X360) last night. Awesome game. Had a save backed up before the major decision so I didn’t have to redo chapter 1. Whole thing felt very RE2-esque in the sense that you play the same game from different perspectives with unique story beats. You definitely did NOT beat the game if you just did one path. I’d say each path is about 60% unique which is pretty sizable. I would say I preferred Iorveth’s path compared to Roche’s. Far more interesting characters, and feels like rooting for the little guy is what Geralt would do. Roche’s wasn’t bad by any stretch though. Still lots of fun to be had.

I ended up doing Roche first with choosing to kill everyone that can be killed, and then did Iorveth second while sparing everyone since that’s the world state I’d rather have in Witcher 3.

Speaking of which, I did end up firing that up for a bit on PS4 Pro. Graphics are an insane jump, god damn. Only did the tutorial up to riding into the inn before calling it a night. UI and combat seem to be a big improvement so far. I chose to simulate my save from 2, but I didn’t see any questions or dialog options pertaining to that yet. Hopefully it’s coming. Pretty excited to dive in, but also mortified at being burnt out on a 200 hour fucking game.

[Svejk]

and mi3 looks better than all of them and is also the best one

There's a MI3?!?  I need to get out from under this rock. Wth

[MMaRsu]

I really want Monkey Island 3 with high resolution remasters of the original assets.

Same.. but the original is still quite striking imo. Too bad it's not widescreen but eh

and mi3 looks better than all of them and is also the best one

There's a MI3?!?  I need to get out from under this rock. Wth

Well yes it's called Curse of Monkey Island



https://store.steampowered.com/app/730820/The_Curse_of_Monkey_Island/

This is the first one I played, so I have a certain love for it. One of the funniest games ever and also a great adventure game.

[chronovore]

AC: Origins

60 hours in.
60% of map done (defogged).
Reached max level (40).

That's some bad gameplay balance, Ubisoft :tsk :tsk

You're a mutant, Borys. Ubi could not predict your focus and devotion.

[Spieler1]

Finished Death Stranding and started AI Somnium Files - feels good to have comprehensible writing again. It seems to have classic detective VN vibes. It's a pleasant suprise to have actual adult characters in this, too bad the Fire Emblem art direction makes them look like 17 anyway  Much worse though, apparently some idol character is a permanent sidekick

[Bebpo]

Borys, where does the FF quest start in Origins? I somehow missed it when I played (is it exclusive to a system?). Gonna go back to Origins this year to play the 2 DLC expansions, wouldn't mind doing the FF quest when I do.

[Nintex]

Ace Combat 7 mission 15

I'm fully prepared for WW3. 

[Spieler1]

damn Somnium Files started out like Ace Attorney but this shit is getting real now The dialogue seems way better than in some prior Zero Escape games (even though this clearly doesn't top the first two games overall), I wonder how much the localisation has to do with it. Humour is good too, except for some weird action comedy scenes that feel completely out of place.

[Thirty-Ought-Six]

Monster Hunter: World.

I never played a MH before because I expected it to be a grind. But this is an awesome game. I wish there were more monsters and more locations, but that's because what there is, is near perfect. Coral Highlands is fun just to walk around and look at.

The grind wasn't as bad as I expected, although I made it much worse on myself. The main thing I wanted was a full Legiana set and bow, so I had to repeat Legiana missions over and over, each time climbing up endless walls. Only later I found out you can shoot your grappling hook at certain glowing spots to fly up the walls instead, which would have made it 100x more fun.

Just beat a Lunastra/Teostra combo mission, thankfully the Legiana bow is the optimal weapon for that as they are both weak to ice. The hardest monsters for me have been Nergigante and Rathalos. Nergigante is just brutal, probably killed me more than every other monster combined. Yet it is also one of the most fun fights. Rathalos can actually be harder than elder dragons because it is more aggressive and mobile than most and will combo you where most monsters let you heal.

[Svejk]

I've been wanting to go back to MHW.  Especially after falling down a rabbit hole of watching a shit ton of SunhiLegend gifs. 

[RyoonZ]

Playing SaGa Scarlet Grace, this game is kicking my ass. Every enemy encounter is hard.

[tiesto]

I'm almost done with the single player mode in Mario Maker 2, have about 2 or 3 more courses to complete.

[Spieler1]

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Just found a secret ending in which you elope with her

[Joe Molotov]

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

(Image removed from quote.)

Just found a secret ending in which you elope with her

You mean the True Ending? 

[Spieler1]

https://www.famitsu.com/news/201911/08186514.html

A shocking confession from Uchikoshi-san about how she was created: "I generally like panties, but I came to notice that 70-80% of men like titties. That's how I decided that there had to be a titty character in the game." She is a new generation of character created through a miraculous collaboration of panty-liking Uchikoshi-san and the titty lovers of the world.

　 "After saying 'titties' over and over, I became a titty lover too (laughs)." (Uchikoshi-san)

[Chooky]

video games are art

[Potato]

Just started The Long Dark.

I love the idea of survival games, but the execution is usually way too finicky for my tastes.

[Bebpo]

Not sure if we have a dedicated top10 of 2019 thread, only see the 10 of the decade and the worst 10 of 2019 threads. Here's my top 10 of 2019.

1. Death Stranding
2. Control
3. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
4. FFXIV Shadowbringers
5. RE2 Remake
6. A Short Hike
7. Monster Hunter Iceborne
8. Fire Emblem 3 Houses
9. Little Misfortune
10. Kingdom Hearts 3

Pre-2019 top games that I beat this year and would've made this year's list (best to worst):
Hollow Knight (maybe best game I played in 2019)
Astrobot VR (definitely top5 game for 2019)
World of FF
House in Fata Morgana Gaiden
Streets of Rage 2
11-11 Memories Untold
Unavowed
AC Origins

[D3RANG3D]

Beat the main game Witcher 3

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Vessimir

[close]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

This game is some glitchy crashy shite how many bethsoft employess moonlight at CDPR

[close]

[Great Rumbler]

It's a PC game from Eastern Europe, breh, you expect the jank.

[D3RANG3D]

The first Witcher and TW1 cashed on me a total of two times between both of them instead of two or three times a day. 

[Rufus]

That's excessive.

Seems to be a recent issue that's cropped up on newer GPU drivers:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/292030/discussions/0/2666627464748243298/

[Thirty-Ought-Six]

Behemoth is casting Charybdis

flash pod!

Behemoth is casting Charybdis

flash pod!

Behemoth is casting Charybdis

flash pod!

Behemoth is casting Charybdis. Behemoth casts Charybdis.
Behemoth is casting Charybdis. Behemoth casts Charybdis.
Behemoth is casting Charybdis. Behemoth casts Charybdis.
Behemoth is casting Charybdis. Behemoth casts Charybdis.
Behemoth is casting Charybdis. Behemoth casts Charybdis.
Behemoth is casting Ecliptic Meteor.

[Rahxephon91]

eND OF eTERNITY ON ps4/ iTS SO GOOD

[Bebpo]

Glass Masquerade - Not sure why they have a 5 point difficulty scale when after the intro 3-star puzzles, pretty much every puzzle is 5-star with a few occasional 4-star puzzles. When I load up a 5-star puzzle and it's 61 pieces this is basically me:

fuck you puzzle
 

[Akala]

Difficulty levels are all over the place, totally random. Once you get into it it's not too bad...I cleared all of them and the DLC. 

I actually grabbed the 2nd game (with its terrible cover image and worse reviews) plus DLC before sale ended but am saving for a rainy day or long plane ride.

[Bebpo]

How were the dlcs? I’m almost done with the base game.

[Potato]

Baba is You

Baba is so fucking good.

[Akala]

How were the dlcs? I’m almost done with the base game.

I'd say worth it, better deal at 50% off obv, but current price is still like .22c per puzzle. If you like the main ones you are just getting more of that.

Was about to complain about not being able to re-hide completed ones, but seems you can by pressing 'Right Shift + Left Shift + W.'

Apparently 2 has a reset button.

[Bebpo]

How were the dlcs? I’m almost done with the base game.

I'd say worth it, better deal at 50% off obv, but current price is still like .22c per puzzle. If you like the main ones you are just getting more of that.

Was about to complain about not being able to re-hide completed ones, but seems you can by pressing 'Right Shift + Left Shift + W.'

Apparently 2 has a reset button.

Cool. My mom has a birthday next week and I'm gonna finally install steam on her old toaster computer and get her glass masquerade and the DLCs. She used to play tetris and solitaire all the time on PC, so she'd probably like some of this kind of stuff. She does regular jigsaw puzzles so I think she'd like it.

[tiesto]

Baba is You

Baba is so fucking good.

Really awesome concept, I'm pretty decent at logic puzzles but this game requires wayyyy too much out of the box thinking that I couldn't really get very far.

[Potato]

Baba is You

Baba is so fucking good.

Really awesome concept, I'm pretty decent at logic puzzles but this game requires wayyyy too much out of the box thinking that I couldn't really get very far.

Yeah, I've had to look up a couple already. Only one of them has left me a little bit WTF?

[Bebpo]

Starting the new year finishing off all the stuff I had started but never got to:

Gears 5 - Only at Chapter 3. Game looks amazing and the shooting is gears and there's talky talk bits. I looked on my shelf the other week and realized Gears 3 was in my "360 backlog shelf". I thought I'd played the original trilogy, but I guess I only played the first 2. I have no idea about anything going on in the story but I'm shooting things and I have a robo buddy and Drake's the main guy who is not Bender Felix, so I'm enjoying it.

Binary Domain - At the sewer plant after the jet skis. It's weird, the core gameplay like shooting or terrible minigames like jetski are worse than Gears 5, but the variety, the script, the cutscene direction, the BOSSES (actual decent bosses for a cover shooter??) are making me like this more than Gears 5 even if it looks way worse and plays worse. Just something about constantly answering the worst answers to everything and having your entire team downvote you.

Glass Masquerade - As mentioned, finishing this up. It's pretty good puzzler.

Assemble With Care - Neat little ios game. I'm told it's by the Monument Valley team. Tells a slice of life story while also letting me virtually take apart things I've never taken apart before like a camera or a neon sign. I'm actually learning things about engineering from this. I like it.

Super Robot Wars T - Been playing for about 7 months. It's pretty long and a bit weak/boring for a SRW, so getting closer to the end, but still have a bit to go.

[Bebpo]

Was trying out some different stuff to try to find a fun game for the night and had fun with the first hour or so of Cthulhu Saves Christmas. Battle system is kinda interesting and challenging on hard. There's a bit too much RNG though as it randomly picks 3 of your abilities to fill your 3 ability slots and you have to defend a round to re-roll them. Had some trouble on the 2nd boss that self-healed and hit hard with a lot of status effects because of getting bad rolls. But on normal it's fine and a bit easy.

The humor is pretty great though. between dungeons there's a P3-5 style daily social link thing and the first time you get to your room, Cthulhu is like "nice room, what now?" and the narrator is all TIME TO GO TO SLEEP
that had me lolllll
a lot of other silly jrpg parody stuff.
Music is pretty good too.

[Nintex]

Continued AC Odyssey today after all the AC talk got me excited to play it again. Such a beautiful and immersive game still.

Also played some Celeste, which I started recently. I like a lot of things about Celeste, except for the hipster culture it oozes.
I hope Theo freezes to death on the fucking mountain with his InstaPix. 

[tiesto]

I'd try Celeste but the "it's about depression" stuff is a big turnoff, not really a fan of "depression culture" so popular with gen Z...

[demi]

Its really not a focus of the game. The story is hardly there lol

[Mr Gilhaney]

what if i love depression, but hate feminists and women?

[Akala]

Playing the Tomb Raider reboot on game pass. I have tried getting into it a few times before over the years but it finally clicked and am having fun. Better uncharted than uncharted.

[Bebpo]

I mean are we talking Uncharted 1? Because otherwise I’d give it to Uncharted. Tomb Raider reboot is really fun, but the combat feels super shallow, even more than Uncharted. Platforming might be better. Story goes to Drake adventures. I didn’t play Rise yet, but I hear the story is really bad.

[Bebpo]

Played the first 80 mins or so (first day in the game) of Whispers of the Machine. It's in the January Humble Choice and people had said it was good. A PnC adventure game from the creators of Kathy Rain which I didn't play but heard was fairly good detective noir thing. This one is a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk sci-fi detective story kinda similar to Primordia which I really liked.

This one seems solid. Has a few neat sub-systems like being able to measure the heartrate of a person while you are talking to them and catch them in lies and options to call them out on it. Also every dialogue choice you pick gives you a +1/-1/-1 in 3 types of character morale and apparently will effect the story based on which of the 3 types of characters you are (I think it's like asshole, emphatic and middleground?).

One thing is while I like the character portraits and I like my 2d pixel adventure games, I think the spritework is kinda ...off and ugly looking for some reason with the characters. It's a weird look.

[The Sceneman]

Doom (2016) finally clicked with me and its awesome! The guns feel meaty and the action is super smooth and satisfying. The shotguns are appropriately kickass keeping with Doom tradition.  After playing a total warm cup of piss of a game like 'The Outer Worlds' this is just so good and fun.

[Bebpo]

Got to chapter 4 in Binary Domain. When people always said Binary Domain was awesome, I thought it was sorta a "awesome for a Japanese tps that surprisingly isn't terrible and has a unique look". I mean I've played the Yakuza/RGG games and their gun shooting sure ain't great. The gun shooting Yakuza game they did was supposedly really bad.

But holy shit, Binary Domain is a real awesome Japanese action game in the vein of Vanquish. The game is intense and I'm constantly on the edge of dying and surviving. Got several game overs so far. Some of the usual Japanese game design frustratingly annoying/difficult parts, but overall lots of really good intense action. Game is constantly putting timer pressure on, whether it's your squad mates drowning or poison gas killing you, or you're in a moving cart, so you need to be at 100% constantly.

The level design is crazy varied. Segments don't go on too long and every bit is something new and exciting. Enemy types are fun to fight against and bosses are cool mecha stuff.

On top of that the characters are really likeable and the whole global aspect of the game with Japanese characters talking in Japanese with subs and English speakers talking in English is really enjoyable. Story is fun too with good cutscene direction (that part was expected from the Yakuza/RGG team).

Probably just gonna uninstall Gears 5 after I finish BD. Don't really see how I'll enjoy that campaign after this.

[Akala]

I mean are we talking Uncharted 1? Because otherwise I’d give it to Uncharted. Tomb Raider reboot is really fun, but the combat feels super shallow, even more than Uncharted. Platforming might be better. Story goes to Drake adventures. I didn’t play Rise yet, but I hear the story is really bad.

Just finished. I think I ended up liking it more than any uncharted other than 2. Story was dumb but the set pieces and environments were great. I actually liked the combat. 

[Spieler1]

I liked it quite less on a second playthrough sadly.

[Bebpo]

While I wouldn't put the shooting up there with Vanquish I'm glad you saw the light with Binary Domain, Bebpo. That game is fantastic.

Yeah, the core shooting isn't as good as Vanquish or some western shooters, but it's the constant varied action level design + exciting fun story/characters that make it work so well.

It also makes very little sense they pulled this off when the dev team never showed any shooting action skills before and haven't done anything with it since. It's a shame the game bombed and became a cult classic because it totally deserves a sequel. Either that or the Yakuza/RGG teams should make more straight up action games like this. I think Judgment is like 50% an action game and 50% a detective game?

[demi]

So just to be clear, this isnt required for a platinum? Because it sounds like a huge waste of time

[toku]

Blasphemous is solid so far. I think you gotta really enjoy the presentation they have going on here to get the most out of it though.

[Bebpo]

So just to be clear, this isnt required for a platinum? Because it sounds like a huge waste of time

Sometimes you're just too good and games and have to set your own limitations to challenge yourself.

[Freyj]

Borys do all the Ashen fights have adds like that one? I really didn’t care for it in Remnant and it made me feel like I was playing a worse version of the game for not having another player to do add management.

Blasphemous is solid so far. I think you gotta really enjoy the presentation they have going on here to get the most out of it though.

I bounced off of this pretty hard after dying a few too many times to insta-death spikes early on with a long stretch between shrines. I may have gone to the wrong area first though and it’s in my “retry later” Steam category.

[toku]

Borys do all the Ashen fights have adds like that one? I really didn’t care for it in Remnant and it made me feel like I was playing a worse version of the game for not having another player to do add management.

Blasphemous is solid so far. I think you gotta really enjoy the presentation they have going on here to get the most out of it though.

I bounced off of this pretty hard after dying a few too many times to insta-death spikes early on with a long stretch between shrines. I may have gone to the wrong area first though and it’s in my “retry later” Steam category.

It definitely feels like they go out of their way to make progress hard. The big question is does it let up a little with more abilities/beads? I'll probably keep plugging away at it slowly.

[demi]

That guide says you can just have someone tank for you on normal, so its not so bad. Its like playing gears on insane with a partner who is on easy mode.

You just made it more difficult for yourself for no reason

[Bebpo]

Finished Whispers of a Machine. It's really short like an indie PnC (~4 hours) and it's just sorta good, but nothing special. It gives you all these powers like an evidence scanner or biometric analyzer and stuff but because the game is so short they're usually just used once right after you get them and maybe one once or twice after. I think the game would've been better if there was like 1/2 the abilities and you had to think to use them more for puzzle solving. The ending was good and had a lot of branching in final choice solutions, but everything up until then was pretty linear and as a mystery it was fairly straightforward. Wasn't a bad few hours, but wouldn't recommend playing it over other better PnC games. I think the last PnC I played was Unavowed last year and that was way better than this (and one of the top games I played last year).