What are you playing?

[Lonewulfeus]

Sunset Overdrive is really so much fun. I was a little  about the controls at the beginning of the game but now I get it and it feels so good. Zipping around and shooting and shit is kind of perfect. The only shit part so far is the base defense sections.

I had exactly the same experience to the point that I put the game down for ~6 years instead of pushing through and getting used to the controls.  Came back a few months ago and had a blast with it.  Once you get some more powerful aoe weapons(hairspray gun) and better traps the defense portions become a bit easier.

[Supermanisdead]

Playing on Series S. I've gotten the hang of the base defense stuff. One thing that kind of annoys me is the world is so samey. Except for the faction bases and interiors, every other part of the city just looks the same.

[Nintex]

Base defense was a thing when Overdrive came out and Microsoft Live Xbox Game Studios always tries to incorporate the latest trends and technology into their games with mixed results.

[Hamarr]

I decided to take a break from Valhalla already.  I fired up Dead Space 2 to knock out some of those MS reward point quests.  I had played through the first couple of chapters years but didn’t think too much of it.  This is one of those games where that remind me how much more I enjoyed the 360/ps3 gen overall.

I also picked up Immortals Fenyx Rising.  This is the best Ubisoft game I have played in years.  It’s basically a clone of Breath of the Wild, but it does the open world so much better than Watch Dogs or Assassin’s Creed.  I’m actually enjoying exploring and finding things like in BOTW.  And the combat is pretty fun. 

I have heard some don’t care for the writing.  I like it, and even chuckled at a couple of the jokes.  The narration that you hear while playing the game is generally fun.

Cyberpunk 2077 is really coming out next week?  I want to get it, but thought I had a bit to play through these other games first.  I’m sure it’s going to be amazing, but I might hold off for a bit before picking it up.

[Bebpo]

Is the combat actually good? Because the videos I've seen just seem like the standard ubisoft floaty simple stuff that works as a side system to the rest of the stuff so it's fine, but like BoTW the weapons feel like they have impact weight and are satisfying to use and get a good dodge in.

Definitely interested in trying Immortals at some point. I like puzzles and it looks like it's pretty similar to BoTW with shrine puzzles all over. Don't care for the art style, but the music sounds good and I am down with god stuff.

[Bebpo]

Playing on Series S. I've gotten the hang of the base defense stuff. One thing that kind of annoys me is the world is so samey. Except for the faction bases and interiors, every other part of the city just looks the same.

Yeaah, I'm mixed on whether I should ever go back to Overdrive. I'm pretty pro-Insomniac and I love their zany weapons and JSR sliding is always cool. But this game anti-clicked with me and after a few hours I just couldn't stand playing it. I really, really, reaaaaally hate tower defense games.

[Hamarr]

Is the combat actually good? Because the videos I've seen just seem like the standard ubisoft floaty simple stuff that works as a side system to the rest of the stuff so it's fine, but like BoTW the weapons feel like they have impact weight and are satisfying to use and get a good dodge in.

Definitely interested in trying Immortals at some point. I like puzzles and it looks like it's pretty similar to BoTW with shrine puzzles all over. Don't care for the art style, but the music sounds good and I am down with god stuff.

I’m most likely not the best judge, but it feels a little weightier than something like Assassin’s Creed, especially if you are using the axe.  There is some timing to doges and that sort of thing that also helps. It kind of reminds me of Darksiders. 

EDIT - I did like the BOTW combat a lot more.  The weapon swapping ended up becoming a lot of that.  Immortals is never as exciting as BOTW combat wise, but they do have some objects you can launch into enemies for some variety.

[Supermanisdead]

Playing on Series S. I've gotten the hang of the base defense stuff. One thing that kind of annoys me is the world is so samey. Except for the faction bases and interiors, every other part of the city just looks the same.

Yeaah, I'm mixed on whether I should ever go back to Overdrive. I'm pretty pro-Insomniac and I love their zany weapons and JSR sliding is always cool. But this game anti-clicked with me and after a few hours I just couldn't stand playing it. I really, really, reaaaaally hate tower defense games.

The tower defense segments are bad, but they haven't really ruined my enjoyment at all. There's a point in the middle of the game where they get annoying and a bit difficult, but the penalties are so small it doesn't matter. I'd recommend sticking with it til you get a full set of weapons and unlock all the movement options. Things like a super jump and air dash really make everything so much smoother. I'm nearing the end of the game now and the bosses are so sick.

[chronovore]

Even Disney Infinity 3 had a tower defense mode put into it. Really dumb.

[Nintex]

Completed DOOM Eternal on Ultra Violence

Those final battles, holy fucking shit

[benjipwns]

I really, really, reaaaaally love tower defense games. Send me all the ones Bebpo doesn't want.

[Bebpo]

Saw that Pathologic 2 is leaving game pass in a week. Put it on my list to give a try this weekend since I'd been meaning to check it out. I tried a little of the original back in the day but it was a bit too obtuse/janky for me. Always been interested in their games though like this and The Void.

Really enjoyed the first couple hours I played of 2 surprisingly. It looks pretty nice and seems fairly polished and it's pretty straight-forward in the majora mask/shenmue structure of it. The combat seems like it's probably pretty bad, and the save points are still obtuse, but otherwise this seems cool and interesting.

Since it's lengthy, won't have time to play through it before it leaves game pass, but will grab it on a steam sale and try to play through the whole thing at some point next year.


Also tried out Hyperdot because game pass listed it under "award nominee indie stuff" and I'd never heard of it. It's sorta baby bullet hell shmup training sim. Lots of 15 second levels where you're a dot that has to dodge bullets and there are different modifiers like slower movement, dark areas, limited movement space, etc...kinda like super hexagon but bullet hell. The problem is that it's too easy initially and the campaign takes foreeever to get challenging. Also the dark modifier is stupid as is blinding mechanics in most games where you can't see and die because of it. Very so-so, potential is there but game isn't.

[Bebpo]

Now that DQXI S is out for PC/PS4, got back to my save at the end of the demo. I didn't realize the new retro throwbacks to old DQ bits were nicely spread across the main storyline instead of like just being optional endgame stuff.

One of my very few complaints about DQXI was there wasn't much side stuff. Only like 24 quests in the entire game, the retro quest stuff doubling that to like 59 quests is a really nice addition beyond the fast battle mode stuff, running ability, forge anywhere, orchestra music and JP VA and new character questlines. Outside the visual downgrade, this is very much definitive edition.





Although it does have like the world's worst photo mode. Like did they even tryyy.

[Supermanisdead]

Beat Sunset Overdrive and it was really great. They reference neogaf at the end 

[tiesto]

I really, really, reaaaaally love tower defense games. Send me all the ones Bebpo doesn't want.

I don't mind intermittent tower defense minigames when you play a more active role in it (like say, the town defending sections of Ys 8, which still utilizes the same awesome Ys 8 battle system... or Protect Me Knight)... but the tower defense games where you just lay your traps and then don't do anything while the enemies walk over to your base are 

[demi]

Played Dark Picture Anthology: Little Hope over the weekend. It's marginally better than Man of Medan, but the ending ruined the whole story for me.

Ending:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's all a hallucination / in the main character's head so nothing "actually" happens, making the entire story feel pointless

[close]

[demi]

Ah man feels so good to have Dragon Quest and Yakuza 7 to play on Xbox.

[Bebpo]

Finished Disgaea 5. Great game. Probably the best story they've done. There's nothing new about it and you can see all the plot events happen hours before, but it's just well executed with a good cast and great funny skits. Very likeable nice anime story. Kinda shounen. Had some G Gundam yelling type moments. Very long too. Took me about 45 hours and N1 srpg main storylines used to be like 20-30 hours.

Going through some of the post-game and bought one DLC pack and checked out (Makai Kingdom) and probably just watch the others on youtube and saved the $30 or so in DLC, but pretty much good on this and ready to move on.

Definitely the most I've enjoyed a Disgaea game since the first one. I used to feel like Disgaea was their boring series that they had to keep coming back to because all their more interesting original srpgs like Phantom Brave/Makai Kingdom/Soul Nomad would sell like shit. But gameplay-wise the Disgaea games just felt like more of the same over and over adding a couple sub-systems. Maybe it's just because I took like 4 years break from the series, but D5 was a lot of fun. Easy recommend if anyone who liked the old games skipped it because it seemed like more of the same.

Not sure if I'll jump in D6 right away. The 3d actually looks kinda bad and the younger kid cast is less appealing. Might wait until a complete edition with the DLC comes out a year or so later.

[Bebpo]

Did some post-game tonight. Actually got through a bunch. Went from lvl.~<500 to lvl.2,500 and doubled or tripled my stats through reincarnation. Got me through all the post-game until Carnage Dimension/Land of Carnage stuff.

The cheat shop really is an amazing addition to Disgaea franchise or N1 srpgs in general. Being able to boost/lower enemy levels by a certain percentage between 0-20 stars and adjust xp/mana/money rates makes grinding so quick and easy. I remember the old N1 srpgs were like 30 hour main story, and 400 hours if you want to grind the post-game out or something. Now it's like 50 hour main story and could probably finish all the post-game content with lvl.9999 max stats in like another 10-20 hours if you wanted. I feel like I got a quarter of the way there in about 2-3 hours of grinding. Much more manageable. I never had an interest in hundreds of hours grinding to clear a handful of maps in the old post-games but it's almost tempting to completely finish this one out in a weekend or two. Probably good on it though.

Also I was looking at N1's development history and yeah, after Dis4 they did Dis D2 and then Dis5. Since I bailed after Dis4 and now I've played Dis5, I might hook up the PS3 and play Dis D2 since it's like the only N1 srpg I haven't played now. Also the cheat shop was introduced in Dis D2 so it should play pretty close to Dis5 and play well.


And looking at Nippon Ichi Software's development history, they've actually made and put out a lot of games in the last 5 years since Disgaea 5. Lots of weird little stuff that they sell at full price, like Mad Rat Dead, and the upcoming Labyrinth of Galleria: Coven of Dusk 1st person dungeon crawler EO x Wizardry style. Those weird puzzle platformers like Hotaru no Nikki, Liar Princess and Blind Prince, stuff like Yomawari. Kinda glad they're still trying even if most of their output isn't for me these days.

[Bebpo]

Also, I was watching the DLC cameo scenarios on youtube and they were all from the English version and yikes, I'd heard that NISA does fucking terrible localizations, but my god the dialogue was reading like an 8-bit machine translated rpg.

I feel bad for people playing these games translated like this. Disgaea 5's dialogue is anime, but it's full of character and flavor with super passionate characters. The localization bits I saw were just so dry, like robots talking to each other. There's no way native English speakers were involved.

Makes me want to get back into translating. I'm not gonna say I'd great like Alexander O' Smith, but I could do better than what I'm seeing from NISA.

[Yulwei]

Also, I was watching the DLC cameo scenarios on youtube and they were all from the English version and yikes, I'd heard that NISA does fucking terrible localizations, but my god the dialogue was reading like an 8-bit machine translated rpg.

I feel bad for people playing these games translated like this. Disgaea 5's dialogue is anime, but it's full of character and flavor with super passionate characters. The localization bits I saw were just so dry, like robots talking to each other. There's no way native English speakers were involved.

Makes me want to get back into translating. I'm not gonna say I'd great like Alexander O' Smith, but I could do better than what I'm seeing from NISA.

I've always preferred it when JRPGs take some liberties when localizing in order to give the script the kind of flavor that might be difficult to translate over. I'm not saying just make shit up wholesale, but that there's a lot you can do with prose style that adds flavor to the text without veering from the actual meaning.

[Coax]

Finished Prey (2017) on Hard. Gameplay was decent enough and I was never really bored with it but it also never captivated me despite being competently made. Various familiar tropes thoughout and a couple twists that weren't unexpected. Alien Isolation from a playthrough I've seen seem like a more seriously toned exploration of the genre Prey leans into and borrows from.

For an Arkane game and given some of the praise around the visuals I'd read years ago (particularly one comment that said they found them better than Dishonored 2) it's strange but I never felt like spending any time taking decent screenshots even though it's a rather slow paced experience. Felt like a smaller budget title but that's not to say it isn't polished; it still has its moments. Pity I didn't notice an option to hide the HUD like Dishonored has.

Some of the better screenshots during the rare sections where the helmet is overlaid:

[Hamarr]

I finished Dead Space 2 several days ago and decided to play through Dead Space 3.  It wasn’t amazing, but nowhere near as bad as I remember reading about in some gaming forums.  It helps that 2 was already going more the action route.  The game does get tedious midway through and then kind of picks up again later.  The crafting system does suck.I much preferred the upgrade system in the other games.  Every weapon felt more like a gun and not as distinct like in the first two games.

I went back to play more Immortals before getting Cyberpunk today.  I posted my initial thoughts in the Cyberpunk thread. 

[tiesto]

Also, I was watching the DLC cameo scenarios on youtube and they were all from the English version and yikes, I'd heard that NISA does fucking terrible localizations, but my god the dialogue was reading like an 8-bit machine translated rpg.

I feel bad for people playing these games translated like this. Disgaea 5's dialogue is anime, but it's full of character and flavor with super passionate characters. The localization bits I saw were just so dry, like robots talking to each other. There's no way native English speakers were involved.

Makes me want to get back into translating. I'm not gonna say I'd great like Alexander O' Smith, but I could do better than what I'm seeing from NISA.

I've always preferred it when JRPGs take some liberties when localizing in order to give the script the kind of flavor that might be difficult to translate over. I'm not saying just make shit up wholesale, but that there's a lot you can do with prose style that adds flavor to the text without veering from the actual meaning.

I have some nostalgia for the ridiculously over-the-top and cheesy jokes Working Designs used to put in their 90s RPGs. Most of what RPG townspeople say is pointless anyways, so why not have a bit of fun with it

[Supermanisdead]

In anger over its GOTY loss, I have been playing Hades some more. What a perfect game. It should have sweeped all the awards.

[Bebpo]

Idk, I get that people love 'em, especially Hades, and it's a good game for sure, but every Supergiant game gets raving reviews and people scream about it and I play them and they're just...ok/good. They have nice art/VA and play alright enough.

Hades was fun for like 3 days and then was over it. Yeah there's a lot of weapon/ability combinations to keep it fresh, but the runs were just too repetitive that after one clear I was bored. I get it's GoTY for a lot of people, but not even top 20 this year for me.

TLoU II probably wasn't GoTY either, but was like a top3/top5 kinda game so I'm fine with it winning everything.

My top 3 are basically FF7 Remake, Half-Life Alyx, and Astro's Playroom in some random order.

[Don Rumata]

Idk, I get that people love 'em, especially Hades, and it's a good game for sure, but every Supergiant game gets raving reviews and people scream about it and I play them and they're just...ok/good. They have nice art/VA and play alright enough.

Hades was fun for like 3 days and then was over it. Yeah there's a lot of weapon/ability combinations to keep it fresh, but the runs were just too repetitive that after one clear I was bored. I get it's GoTY for a lot of people, but not even top 20 this year for me.

TLoU II probably wasn't GoTY either, but was like a top3/top5 kinda game so I'm fine with it winning everything.

My top 3 are basically FF7 Remake, Half-Life Alyx, and Astro's Playroom in some random order.

Hades it's husbando fuel. 

Alyx was the real GOTY ofc.

[Supermanisdead]

It's how much you get invested in the story and relationships. Dying doesn't feel like some failure cuz you get to talk to your boyfriend Thanatos 

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I didn't care about any of the story stuff or how the story is told in pieces through a lot of runs. So if you clear it early on you're still missing a lot of the story.

I get that appeals to some people, but I am a one and done kind of game player, and I want the whole story by the time I get a clear because I'm probably over the game after that.

[Bebpo]

I'm excited to finish Sackboy tomorrow so I can write the world's snarkiest review.
And so I can stop wasting time playing this and play better games.

I haven't hated a 3d platformer like this in forever. I might give Crash 1 a 6/10 and rage a bit at a few parts and boss levels, but the core gameplay is fun and well designed. Sackboy honestly tells me that Sumo Digital doesn't understand how to make a 3d platformer at its core. Their LBP3 campaign from the first few worlds I played was so much better gameplay design than this because the gameplay just used Media Molecule's established LBP gameplay. Sumo is great at art/music and even some creativity, but they get some core things just flat out wrong in platformer design and so Sackboy is a frustrating broken piece of shit game.

I've never actually broken a game disc in half, but there was a point today where I was thinking how therapeutic it would feel to break this disc in half and throw it in the trash.

PS4 launch title Knack >>>>>>>>>>>>>> PS5 launch title Sackboy
Though Astro's Playroom >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Knack so PS5 launch still sorta wins there.

[Bebpo]

Well I did finish Sackboy, and wrote a bit of a mildly snarky review on era in the OT, but eh I was over it and am over it and just glad I'm moving on to the next game. Had a nice night after beating it in the afternoon and putting it back in its case. Also played some more DQXI S which was nice.

Gonna start on FF14 5.4 tomorrow. Doing that next then Miles Spider-Man.

[Bebpo]

One snarky comment I will make about Sackboy though is


The irony that for a decade people bitched about how LittleBigPlanet games controlled and then they make a completely different engine non-floaty controlling LBP game and it ends up controlling way worse than the previous LBP games. 

fwiw, I like how the LBP games control and say fuck the haters, but I've been cool with physics-based puzzle platformers since Trine 1 and don't mind a little float physics to jumping. Sackboy controls like clunky slow shit though, which is tons of fun when trying to make hardcore 3d Mario platforming ripoff stages where one death fails everything. Imagine a Mario game where if you lose a life all the red coins in the level vanish for the rest of the run. Though I guess that's how Crash is with the no death teleports, but at least those are just part of the stage. You lose a life at the end of a stage in Sackboy, might as well restart the run.

[HardcoreRetro]

You're probably the only one playing that garbage. So you're pretty much being snarky towards yourself.

Damn, really showed him.

[Thirty-Ought-Six]

Doom Eternal

I loved this game so much. The breakneck speed was what made Doom 2016 so great, and Eternal takes it up another level. Double jump, double dash, and air control are all available early in the game, so for almost the whole time you are way more mobile than ever before. The threat progression in Eternal is also fantastic. You are gradually forced to learn how to play, then to consistently use all your abilities, then to use strategy. And then toward the end it throws everything at you and it becomes blissful carnage. 2016 was basically blissful carnage all the way through, which was very fun, but I definitely like how this time there is more variety to the stages of the game. Favorite levels are Doom Hunter Base (best level design and memorable visuals for me), Mars Core (hilarious slayer gate), and the last two levels (bliss).

Only complaint I have is the Rocket Launcher changes. Remote Detonation Rockets was my favorite gun in 2016, even above Super Shotgun (which is my favorite for Eternal). It was much harder to get direct hits than with lock on, but if you got all direct hits I think it was probably higher DPS. In Eternal the rockets feel slower and more awkward to fire, and there is no reward for aiming skill anyway because lock on will easily do more damage no matter what.

[Coffee Dog]

Vergil in DMCV is fun as usual. He's always been my favorite, Yamato is one of my favorite action game weapons ever. Judgement Cut 

[Nintex]

Doom Eternal

I loved this game so much. The breakneck speed was what made Doom 2016 so great, and Eternal takes it up another level. Double jump, double dash, and air control are all available early in the game, so for almost the whole time you are way more mobile than ever before. The threat progression in Eternal is also fantastic. You are gradually forced to learn how to play, then to consistently use all your abilities, then to use strategy. And then toward the end it throws everything at you and it becomes blissful carnage. 2016 was basically blissful carnage all the way through, which was very fun, but I definitely like how this time there is more variety to the stages of the game. Favorite levels are Doom Hunter Base (best level design and memorable visuals for me), Mars Core (hilarious slayer gate), and the last two levels (bliss).

Only complaint I have is the Rocket Launcher changes. Remote Detonation Rockets was my favorite gun in 2016, even above Super Shotgun (which is my favorite for Eternal). It was much harder to get direct hits than with lock on, but if you got all direct hits I think it was probably higher DPS. In Eternal the rockets feel slower and more awkward to fire, and there is no reward for aiming skill anyway because lock on will easily do more damage no matter what.

I also found that using the rocket launcher often results in getting hurt yourself because by the time the rocket impacts the enemy will have moved a bit closer.
And most enemies in DOOM Eternal have a pattern that makes you a magnet

[Bebpo]

Finished all 152 songs in Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memories. It was ok, rates up there with some of the real whatever KH spin-offs like mobile/DS re:coded. It's not terrible, but it's a very mediocre music game.

The end 30 mins of CG cutscenes setting up the next games very specifically was kinda neat though. I didn't expect they would straight up say where the next games are taking place and who is involved. Definitely looking forward to the Riku in

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the real-esque world Tokyo w/Verum Rex

[close]

The next one up sounds like another re-hash though zzz.

[Bebpo]

I ended up finishing LittleBigPlanet 3 going back after beating Sumo Digital's crappy Sackboy. I didn't think I'd finish LBP3 two nights afterwards, but LBP3 is really short. It's only 3 worlds long and maybe 4-5 hours total.

That being said, it's really great. I don't remember LBP1/2 campaigns that much, but I'm pretty sure this is the best one because of the sheer variety in gameplay. Like it keeps throwing new abilities and characters at you and they all play awesome. But you only get to use them for 1-2 stages before moving on. But everything is great (outside the final boss being a bit trial & error but I still beat it on my first run on my last life) and charming and I wish Sumo Digital just made another 4-5 hours of this than Sackboy.

I have no idea how they went from a fast paced varied platformer where you have rocket shoes and diving birds and teleport guns to a 3d platformer where all you can do is punch slowly, roll slowly, and jump slowly and most stages are auto-scroll and you just stand around.  They really changed out their platforming design/goals for a specific reason with Sackboy (to be a launch family friendly 3d platformer for PS5?) and it sucks because LBP3 along with their other stuff like Outrun 2 and Sonic Transformed shows Sumo Digital are good devs. Sackboy was just a miss.

But hey, Sackboy finally got online patch today. So will try those 10 locked multiplayer only levels and see how online co-op is there.

[Bebpo]

Hmm, so back in 2015 there was a $6 DLC expansion by Sumo Digital called The Journey Home that adds another world that is based on LBP1/2 levels. Cool, will give it a play.

Also I tried Sackboy online and it was actually kind of fun as a chaotic multiplayer game where you are fucking around with each other and working together to solve puzzles. Honestly that's more interesting than the solo game. But was pretty dead. Joined one game that was at the end and then tried hosting a game at the start with the first locked multiplayer level and no one joined. It's pretty late at night so I guess I'll try again tomorrow.

[benjipwns]

CALL OF DUTY

I never have played the campaigns since MW1, and Kara was watchin Infinite Warfare one night (long story amirite) and I said I should play them just to see the stupid setpieces and such since I have all of them but only ever play the multiplayer. Plus the campaigns are only like 5-7 hours long so I can do 1-2 hour segments and finish like one a week and get achievements!

So I started with MW2 since I had played the ones before it and that was okay. Some weird spots where you have to die until you learn what you're supposed to be doing and/or just shoot waves of endless enemies. Some neat parts like sneaking around in a blizzard. Was surprised at how low polygon and texture resolution certain sections were, looked like PS2 game, whereas other parts had tons of shit that you think would have tanked the 60fps on consoles but apparently not. I think it was a step back from MW1 and the plot is hyper absurd for trying to be so realistic in other areas.

I'm not entirely done with MW3 but this is a huge step up and the best one of the trilogy so far. Nice graphics upgrade, the texture density in these games starts here I knew from the multiplayer but it's cool to see it in the campaign too. Everything is just over the top and if they can blow up two trucks they'll blow up a third and fourth. Take down a chopper? How about we smash it into another one first. Let's do a crazy car chase through Paris that blows up half the Russian army in the process. We did a blizzard, how about a sand storm and instead of sneaking we do a fight in it. Let's drop a tank through a parking garage. The plot is stranger but less absurd from a realism point of view than 2. Also, although it's not any less linear than the others like Call of Duty 2 it does lots of looping and cutting through the same areas to create a greater sense of size and less of a tunnel feel. Even better the respawning waves and dumb lines to cross are mostly excised. You can take out everyone in an area and have some quiet before advancing. Something I appreciate in these games.

If I worked at Game Informer and had to use their forty point scale, I'd score them including multiplayer here:
Bad Company 2: 8.75
Call of Duty 2: 7.75
4: Modern Warfare: 7.5
United Offensive: 7.25
Call of Duty: 7.25
MW3: 7
Medal of Honor: 6.75
MW2: 6.75

Game Informer's actual scores

CoD: 9; CoD:UO: 8.75; CoD 2: 9.75; CoD 4: 10; MW2: 9.75; MW3: 9; BFBC2: 9.5, MoH: 7

[close]

I'll probably do the first Black Ops trilogy (World at War, Black Ops, Black Ops II) next and then I'm not sure if I'll continue for a while because all the next generation games are much larger in size starting at 33GB and going upwards to 100GB. Although I should probably play Infinite Warfare for Kara.

Also been playing a little Torchlight since I never beat that. Gonna do some Garry's Mod this weekend apparently.

[Bebpo]

Sackboy multiplayer is a lot of fun. I kinda see why there's mixed reception with the game and people playing it with their kids think it's great. It's weirdly a platformer that's designed for multiplayer and plays much better with it.

Also so much full level content is hidden behind MP only levels I'm surprised. I thought these would be short levels, but they're big and meaty.

But playing with randoms online there's so many trolls already. Doing everything they can to murder everyone else and fuck over their run. Seems like a "great with private friends, mediocre solo, annoying/unplayable with randoms" kind of game.

[Bebpo]

DQXI S PC - Got back to where I was in the PS4 original at Puerto Valera, yay. Playtime was...about the same, even with the speed improvements. But I'm still going into every house and breaking every jar and reading all the books and talking to all the npcs, so makes sense. Plus there's been al little more content so far with the retro stuff.

Game is still fantastic and even with the slight visual downgrade it looks stellar on PC at 120fps nice and sharp & clean. Pretty excited to finally see some new story arcs. The couple of early ones are really well executed.

I'm doing slightly different weapon builds this time to mix it up. Not like there's a toooon of variety there since each character only usually uses two weapons. I feel like the skill trees are a bit small? Seems like I'd be able to max them up way before endgame at this rate assuming there's still ~75% of the game left.

[Bebpo]

Also I'm playing in English text with Japanese VA and it's pretty funny how the localization decided to change every single character and NPC name and town name. The dialogue is pretty close but all the nouns are totally different.

Like in the arena, your partner guy is named Graham in JP, but in English they named him Vince so they can make team "In-Vince-able" puns.

And they made everyone in the port towns Italian? Like in the JP audio they all talk normal with no accents, but in the localization they all talk in broken Italian and in the Japanese hot springs village everyone talks normal in JP audio but in the localization they all talk in Haikus. I can't tell if that's kind of racist caricatures    but it reads well enough and adds character to the towns so it's fine.

With the names and constantly hearing one name while reading another name I just tell myself all these characters have first and last names and the audio uses the last name and text uses the first name. So characters the characters are like Graham Vincent. Or Alice Dave (the ship captain muscle guy, Alice in JP, Dave in English).

Anyhow it's one of the better reading and flavorful localizations and I'm enjoying the English writing a lot. I just find all this stuff pretty funny while playing.

[Bebpo]

Finished Art's Dream. Media Molecule's main campaign in Dreams.

Was really good. Like controls are a bit loose in some gameplay parts, but it just has so much heart and is the kind of story you don't see in videogames much. It's mostly just an adventure game with platformer bits. Reminds me of Lucasarts stuff at spots. Great art & music.

It's pretty crazy because MM has other creations in Dreams and they....kind of suck compared to this. Like it's night & day the difference when you have a full talented dev team with a full budget.

As much as the LBP/Dreams engines are major achievements, as someone who doesn't create and just partakes, I wish Media Molecule was able to focus more on single player experiences. The LBP campaigns, Tearaway and Art's Dream are all fantastic. I'd love more single player games from them. But with stuff like Dreams, probably 95% of the team/time is focused on the engine.





also the ending song cover of Time Moves Slow by badbadnotgood is so good.

[kingv]

Playing Miles Morales and how many fucking powers are they gonna give this kid? He has all of Spiderman's powers and abilities, but also he's bioelectic so he can electrocute people and power up generators by punching them and use a piece of web as a conductor, oh and also he can turn invisible.  Feel like there's definitely going to be another big power introduced at the mid way point or 3/4ths of the way that happens to line up perfectly with the plot.

It’s December 21st

[tiesto]

I love that BADBADNOTGOOD song, heard it on a chill mix once and d/led it... had no idea it was used in Dreams.

[Freyj]

badbadnotgood rocks

[Supermanisdead]

I used my Cyberpunk stimulus package to buy Immortals and it's just ok so far. Completely misses the point of the game it's doing so much to copy and the humour is just...  but I love just hanging out in the world. The combat is hella floaty with no impact and most enemies so far are damage sponges. The best part is just riding around on a horse and doing the shrines.

[Bebpo]

Was going through my "try out these new Game Pass games" phase, and tried out Man of Medan and what, I'm loving the shit out of this

Just reached the big boat and this has been a ton of fun in a hammy cheesy way. I liked Until Dawn, but thought their 2 VR games were kinda meh, so I figured Until Dawn was a fluke, especially with the lukewarm/negative reaction to the two Dark Pictures games. Had low expectations and thought I'd try it for 15 mins and delete it.

Ended up playing like 1-2 hours straight. Looks pretty nice too on PC. Getting smooth 120fps, good visuals. Characters are cheesy like Until Dawn and branching is fun. QTEs annoying as always but gives some challenge to not kill everyone. Enjoying the cutscene direction and acting. Sometimes all the choices available suck and you can't roleplay, but oh well.

I thought the whole game was going to be a serious period piece with soldiers on a ship and wasn't that interested. Didn't realize it was like Until Dawn with a bunch of modern 20s kid horror tropes. That's a lot more fun.

If I end up still liking this by the end I'll probably actually buy the 2nd one instead of waiting for it to hit Game Pass.

[tiesto]

Still chipping away at CS4, somewhere in the midst of chapter 3 at this point... next up I think I'll play Seiken 3 (the original version on the Switch Collection of Mana, not the 3D remake), never actually beat it, made it to the final boss (original SFC cartridge) and my brother accidentally overwrote my game. tbf he didn't know wtf he was doing since it was all in Japanese...

[Straight Edge]

Secured a PS5 and am playing Demon's Souls at the moment.

[Sho Nuff]

Just wrapped Paradise Killer, please let me reiterate how much this game fucks

[MMaRsu]

Ya I need it

[Bebpo]

Just wrapped Paradise Killer, please let me reiterate how much this game fucks

What platform did you play it on?

Thinking of grabbing it on Switch for portableness. Not sure how it plays on there.

[Great Rumbler]

Just wrapped Paradise Killer, please let me reiterate how much this game fucks

What platform did you play it on?

Thinking of grabbing it on Switch for portableness. Not sure how it plays on there.

Shouldn't be too bad. The art is what sells the visuals, not so much the polygons.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, more wondering about controls and stuff.

[BrokenVerses]

I finally beat Control and one of its DLCs.

The powers are fun in combat but there should have been more reality warping sequences (like the maze for those of you that played it) and way less fighting the same SWAT guys in an office/industrial setting.

[Bebpo]

The Foundation is the better of the two DLCs fyi

I think the sequel will have more variety. It was definitely a budget limitation. Remedy runs a tight ship which is why they don't go bankrupt. Control was AA, not AAA.

[demi]

Just make Alan Wake 2 instead like they should have done... idk years ago

[Bebpo]

The next game is probably Alan Wake 2/Control 2 in the same game.