What are you playing?

[HardcoreRetro]

glad to see yakuza 7 getting more of the love it deserves, its the first must play game since botw imo

I still can't believe how much I liked the english voice acting. I'd argue the Japanese voice actor sounds too cool to actually sell the character.

[Svejk]

Yeah, CD peaked the series with Rise.

I liked TR 2013 more than Rise, although I enjoyed Rise a fair bit.  Then I played Shadow and just quit after a few hours.  Maybe I should try it again.

Shadow was great, except for the big red flag of having outfit restrictions to certain areas when playing through the main story.  After the end portion, it unlocks, so you can go back and do side quests and dlc with whatever you want (which I highly recommend the dlc)..  That was a big no no for me otherwise, but in certain instances I understand why they did it.  Still annoyed the shit outta me though.

[Joe Molotov]

what cell phone games should I be playing?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-excel/id586683407

[paprikastaude]

what cell phone games should I be playing?

Pokemon Go.

[team filler]

what cell phone games should I be playing?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-excel/id586683407

I'm using android 

[The Sceneman]

glad to see yakuza 7 getting more of the love it deserves, its the first must play game since botw imo

I still can't believe how much I liked the english voice acting. I'd argue the Japanese voice actor sounds too cool to actually sell the character.

I'm playing in Japanese (I am kinda missing out as all the comments during battles, minigames, leveling up are not subtitled) and Kasuga's VA suits him I think? He does sound cool but can also sound very naive and goofy. IMO thats fitting for the character, becuase Kasuga is a pretty cool guy!

I just love how positive the game is despite being about beating people up. Kasuga's positive and helpfuloutlook on the world is so refreshing with all the doom and gloom IRL

Anyhow I just finished the management minigame and done all possible substories, drink links, dragon kart races and done a ton of the part time hero stuff (I'm at executive hero rank and theres no more rewards other than the junk you get for hunting certain mobs). So I guess it's now time to finish the story and get my characters buff for the postgame.

[ZombieSupaStar]

Beat yakuza 0 (2nd time), gonna do some side stories then play kiwami 1, never played any of the other games so far.

[tiesto]

glad to see yakuza 7 getting more of the love it deserves, its the first must play game since botw imo

I still can't believe how much I liked the english voice acting. I'd argue the Japanese voice actor sounds too cool to actually sell the character.

I'm playing in Japanese (I am kinda missing out as all the comments during battles, minigames, leveling up are not subtitled) and Kasuga's VA suits him I think? He does sound cool but can also sound very naive and goofy. IMO thats fitting for the character, becuase Kasuga is a pretty cool guy!

I just love how positive the game is despite being about beating people up. Kasuga's positive and helpfuloutlook on the world is so refreshing with all the doom and gloom IRL

Anyhow I just finished the management minigame and done all possible substories, drink links, dragon kart races and done a ton of the part time hero stuff (I'm at executive hero rank and theres no more rewards other than the junk you get for hunting certain mobs). So I guess it's now time to finish the story and get my characters buff for the postgame.

Question about Dragon Kart - I beat the first grand prix, and unlocked the first race - when do I get the ability to buy new karts? I'm getting screwed on the final lap of the first challenge race. Should I try to do the second grand prix and then tackle the challenge race?

Also is there a 'point of no return' in the game? When do you think would be a good time to do a lot of the quests? I'm trying to spread out the minigames/quests as to not burn out (so often when a game has a lot of sidequests I try to do them all before advancing the main story, then by the time I get back to the main story I'm so overpowered and disconnected that I just rush through it.

Finally, any crane game tips? I probably won't do that with the rent a hero stuff...

[BIONIC]

I think you unlock a new kart to buy every time you finish a cup. You can upgrade the default ones either way. Do the challenge races as you get them, though I think the last one only unlocks at the last chapter.

Even if you do literally every side thing available to you before moving to the story and never run from a random battle, you’ll likely be under leveled for some late-game boss fights! Either way, you can always use a taxi to travel back and forth between the different areas, and I think you can even change the time of day in the last chapter for night/day exclusive sub stories. Last dungeon is super obvious, and I think the game gives a warning even before attempting.

[porkbun]

I haven't played Like a Dragon, but in the other ones, if you're about to head into the final mission, there will be a message that pops up and/or the character will say something like "I better make sure I have everything else taken care of before going in here".  You can also continue to play in the city after you clear all the story missions to do side missions or just to dink around in arcades, bars, etc.

Also you were asking about the combat rates.  If you look in the Don Quixote stores or pawn shops, there will be items that will reduce the rates.

The crane games are just mostly practice.  I found it's better to overshoot a bit, like if you are moving it left, go a little further than what might look correct.

[The Sceneman]

Question about Dragon Kart - I beat the first grand prix, and unlocked the first race - when do I get the ability to buy new karts? I'm getting screwed on the final lap of the first challenge race. Should I try to do the second grand prix and then tackle the challenge race?

You get the option to buy a new kart each time you beat a rival challenge.

Have you upgraded your karts? Every kart can have its base stats increased for a bit of money. So try upgrading if you havent. Also, have you noticed the different karts get diff powerups depending on kart type (you can see #s on the right side of kart select). For the instance the speed type kart gets a massive 4 turbo boosts on powerup pickup - I've won most of my races by learning where the boost powerups are on a given track and zooming my way to 1st place. The heavy kart gets way more machinegun and rocket ammo making (temporarily) KO'ing you opponents quite easy. Both strats are quite viable and I wouldn't bother with the midrange kart.

I'm pretty sure I beat "The Two Headed Bomb" (the wrestlers) with the boosting strat

I just got up to chapter 14. Man what a game, the story gets so good. And the music kicks ass

[tiesto]

Heh, I'm 1/2 of the way there - just made it to ch 7 last nite. Finally finished maxing out my Can Quest ranking and watching all the movies. In Ch 7 I'll spend more time on the business and Dragon Kart.

[Don Rumata]

Yeah, CD peaked the series with Rise.

Incidentally the only one i haven't finished, mostly because of the input lag annoying me.
I didn't really liked any of them tho.

[Joe Molotov]

I liked the first one but was kinda meh on the 2nd one because of the crafting and then I never played the 3rd one.

[team filler]

AdVenture Communist

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Puzzle and Dragons

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Farm Heroes Saga

[close]

[close]

tried the puzzle dragons, not sure I want to bother with this.

cell phone gaming makes me want a controller 

[Bebpo]

So yeah, the encounter rate gets a bit much in the back half of Judgment. And the Keihin gang enemy spam is like every 15 mins. I hope Judgment 2 lowers this more than a bit.

Also I got the thing that puts QR codes on the map with a radar sound and putting like 40 or something collectibles around that just unlock a few drone parts is pretty zzz. Need better rewards for stopping and taking all these QR photos.

Game is still great though.

[demi]

tried the puzzle dragons, not sure I want to bother with this.

cell phone gaming makes me want a controller 

Time for you to learn some Picross

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.konami.mo.pvt.aww&hl=en_US&gl=US

[naff]

Finished up The Ascent. Great game for what it is, but it feels like a taster. Looks fantastic, plays really well. Extremely fun co-op shooter with some very light lootin'. If the loot was a little deeper, your stats more customisable and  there was some kind of endgame this could have been a massive hit. Hopefully it leads to a more fully fledged arpg follow up. Core game was just so damn fun, love so many of their design decisions but there's little to no replayability (though I can see it being great for speed runs), you max out every stat by the time you're finishing up the final side quests and there's no endgame content to keep you around.

[Don Rumata]

Sounds fun, i'm waiting for a couple of patches, since i read that it's quite buggy.

[naff]

when I first started playing the other week was hella buggy. would crash pretty regularly, you'd be trying to get in a lift at the bottom, hit go up and the lift would teleport to the top and go down again with you still in it so you couldn't progress, or you'd die on a boss battle and it would reload out of the boss arena at the last safe space (often a town) with all the boss minions swarming you and infinitely spawning lol. they released a patch for pc at least a few days ago and the only bug I've encountered since is I can't get the last few achievements for codex/enemy entries (no one can, is fully bugged, or there's some secret no one's found...... )

[Don Rumata]

Nice, i don't care about achievements (nor gaming ones  ), so i'll give it a go then.

[ZombieSupaStar]

Figures somewhat decent cyberpunk game ands its fucking robotron clone.

[paprikastaude]

Burnout Revenge - first time playing. So far I think this is better than 3?  There's way more going on. The only thing I don't like is the same as in other Criterion games, time trials are just boring and frustrating.  Also, I remember everyone bitching about the 360 version pasting redundant bloom all over the picture, but the original Xbox version is bloomy as hell also?  Actually makes it hard to see incoming traffic...

[chronovore]

Bought a Nintendo Switch a year or so ago. Haven't been able to travel, haven't had a need for a portable system.
Finally travel to the USA for the first time in 2 years.
Switch is one of the first things I pack.
Realize I need to install things while I still have fiber-optic-to-home access, so I choose a few titles. It needs an OS update to install the purchased titles. I start the OS update an hour prior to departing, and forget the damned thing along with the single USB-C adapter that I'd planned to take.

So my iPad is my primary gaming device right now.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shhhhhheeeeeit.

[close]

I'm playing Darkest Dungeons. It's great, but it's crashed to Home Screen twice after the tutorial, and no save data was kept, so I've played the tutorial a few times.

Still, it's pretty great. Fantastic sense of atmosphere, and quite suspenseful.

[Supermanisdead]

I beat Neo: The World Ends with You. Very good game. I'd give it an 8/10. Original is still a 10/10. The new game has really fun combat, but overall the story and the way it's presented is worse. I'm going to take a break and then come back to do all the side quests and secret missions.

[Svejk]

Beat Link's Awakening.  Never played the original.  Great little Zelda game.  That Bird Tower dungeon was quite a brain buster, which was awesome.  Bosses were super easy, but that's ok I guess.  Glad it wasn't long...  First Switch game beat! Lol

[Nintex]

Spend some time playing FE Warriors today. Didn't click with me then, does now that I've discovered there's more to it than just mashing X and Y

[The Sceneman]

Doing the Tetris 99 daily challenges on a regular basis.

Up to chapter 15 in Yakuza Like a Dragon and just grinding and doing side stuff. Finished the Dragon Kart minigame which is a relief as the later races have cheating AI and the load times are abysmal on my Xbone S.

And this on mobile

[tiesto]

Chapter 11 in Like A Dragon - just completed the business management minigame. Gonna explore the sewer side dungeon and then advance with the main story. I hear soon there's a grinding wall...
But with nearly all of the major side content done I'm hoping I can wrap the next few chapters up fairly quickly...
Not looking forward to the last few Dragon Kart races if the AI cheats.

[demi]

I hope NEO TWEWY kicks in because right now it is pretty boring.

[Potato]

Started playing Islanders on the Switch.

I kind of like it, but I'm left wanting more. Is there more to this than just a chilled out Tetrisish city builder?

[Tuckers Law]

I doubt it.  I gave the pc version a solid hour and change before deciding I’d had my fill.  If you’re looking for something similar but has slightly more meat on the bones, Kingdoms and Castles scratched a similar itch for me for a lot longer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/569480/Kingdoms_and_Castles/

[paprikastaude]

So yeah Burnout Revenge is the best. So many tweaks are missing in 3 when you go straight back to it. And there's so many slow moments compared to the constant action in Revenge. All those dumb reward screens you can't skip. Eleminator using whole rounds instead of 20 second loops for elimination...    Crazy how a game like Burnout 3 starts to feel tame after playing Revenge. Revenge is just that crazy. I will also go back to Hot Pursuit, which is only brought down by the fact that they made so many time trials, when all you want is the amazing pursuits...

[ZombieSupaStar]

So I accidentally tripped and and preordered Diablo2R, vicarious visions did a great job from what I can see so far. They nailed the Tony Hawk 1+2 remake so I hoped this would be good too, and seems so, so far, let’s seee how bad it’ll chug when I have my Necromancer royal rumble of summons following me + monsters all fighting.

[The Sceneman]

Finished main story in Yakuza Like A Dragon. Superb ending, I cried. Now it's time for a grind a thon to get the remaining cheevs. I think the grinding isn't too bad compared to other games as there's some good dedicated spots. I still need to max out my personality stats and finish the romance subplots as well.

[MMaRsu]

Just hit diamond in Apex ranked.. lets get to Pred boiiis

Also letting my gf play Persona 5 and she really likes it 🥰

[Potato]

I doubt it.  I gave the pc version a solid hour and change before deciding I’d had my fill.  If you’re looking for something similar but has slightly more meat on the bones, Kingdoms and Castles scratched a similar itch for me for a lot longer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/569480/Kingdoms_and_Castles/

Thanks. I'll add that to my wishlist. Still waiting for my laptop to shit itself before I buy something that can play games. This fucking thing is bulletproof. Pretty sure it's got a Gen2 i7 in it, that's how old it is.

[tiesto]

Made it to Dotonbori in Yak 7, now gonna take on the battle arena before continuing with the main story. Have done all the quests and minigames that are possible up to this point,maxed my S-Links out with all the characters except for the most recent arrival, did enough Part-Time Hero quests for the trophy (surprised they didn't call it Rent-A-Hero), also finished rebuilding the crafting factory and secured top rank in the business minigame (great for cash - I went from being absolutely cash-strapped most of the game to having too much to know what to do with).

I went to Japan in 2018 and that included an eating tour around Dotonbori - so seeing a lot of locations I recognized - the giant crab, the pufferfish hanging from the restaurant, the takoyaki stand), hearing party chats about things my tourguide talked about (jumping in the river when the baseball team wins, kansai citizens walking on the right side instead of left). Posing by the in-game version of Glico-man like I did when I visited.

[HardcoreRetro]

Finished The Silver Case, Flower Sun and Rain, Killer 7, No More Heroes 1, 2 and Travis Strikes Again. Trying to finish The 25th Ward before No More Heroes 3 releases on friday.

[tiesto]

Friend came over last nite so I showed him my latest euro-exclusive SMS pickup - Taz Mania, which I purchased off ebay from someone in Serbia. Which I managed to beat in under an hour... it was a pretty fun game though the level design and music get noticeably worse on the final 2 levels. Much better, and completely different, than the Genesis game however.

Also continued my playthrough of Rolan's Curse 2, beat 2 more bosses... and have 2 more areas to go. Fun game even if it's a bit slow-paced and hard to avoid enemies attacks.

And finally beat the Arena in Yak 7. Was hoping to finish the game up next week sometime, just really hope I don't get fucked with the hurricane and lose power for a week.

[Tasty]

I beat Neo: The World Ends with You. Very good game. I'd give it an 8/10. Original is still a 10/10. The new game has really fun combat, but overall the story and the way it's presented is worse. I'm going to take a break and then come back to do all the side quests and secret missions.

I haven't played the original, gameplay seemed a little overwhelming, but I liked NEO's demo a lot and I'm still planning on picking it up.

I'd pick up Final Remix but I also kinda spoiler the whole game after NEO's demo, and not sure how much is get out of it otherwise.

[The Sceneman]

Sunk about five hours into Going Under yesterday. Game is dope. Engaging gameplay loop and good variety of skills and playstyles to discover with the mentor system. The writing and aesthetic is so on point as well, game is genuinely funny.

[chronovore]

Sunk about five hours into Going Under yesterday. Game is dope. Engaging gameplay loop and good variety of skills and playstyles to discover with the mentor system. The writing and aesthetic is so on point as well, game is genuinely funny.

If you enjoy that style of gameplay, definitely give “RAD” by doublefine a chance. The combat is less buttonmashy and feels more coherent.

[Tuckers Law]

Fired up Quake again after the new remaster updates, campaign looks and plays so much better than I was expecting for a vanilla install, apart from the music being a little quiet.  Multiplayer I’m hearing is kind of a letdown though, since they opted against using quakeworld for the backend.  Still, it’s pretty awesome that they did this and brought the game to a whole new audience, and if we’re lucky we’ll get a new version of classic quake fortress.

[The Sceneman]

Sunk about five hours into Going Under yesterday. Game is dope. Engaging gameplay loop and good variety of skills and playstyles to discover with the mentor system. The writing and aesthetic is so on point as well, game is genuinely funny.

If you enjoy that style of gameplay, definitely give “RAD” by doublefine a chance. The combat is less buttonmashy and feels more coherent.

Looks cool, I'll make a note of it. I have Hades to play after Going Under so I'm probably sorted for dungeoneering for the next week while!

[The Sceneman]

That being said RAD is on Switch and not game pass...

[Svejk]

Pseudo finished Mario Odyssey... saw an "ending" and watched the credits roll..  Definitely have my opinions on it, but all I'll say is that it is not TEH BEST 3D Mario.. Hyper Switch inflation strikes again...  It was a really good 3D platformer, but mostly pretty average.  Not in a hurry to keep going for now..

Started another playthrough of Dragon's Dogma... either my 6th or 7th (lost count)... This time on PS4/5. ....holy crap I love this game...  I simply can't get enough of it.  Besides the super precise arcadey combat and combat variety, no game has the amount of customization this game has.  Not just the best character creator still, but the clothes and armor options is still unmatched.  No words can describe the anticipation for DD2.  Like seriously... if I could play just one more game before my time is done...

Ghost Iki Island DLC.. Game is stunning and still has some of the best open world combat out there.  It really is more of the same, but with adaptive triggers, 3D audio and literally zero load times, it's fun to go back to...  Feeling really rusty and out of practice with it though...  Toggled the loadouts on (which is weird it's a toggle) and spent too much time going through all the charms again... it's great, but wish I didn't do it and stuck with my OG load out.. I change gear too often to deal with that.   Still fantastic DLC.  Game is solid af.

[Don Rumata]

Any new gimmick/enemy type in the dlc?

[Svejk]

Any new gimmick/enemy type in the dlc?

So far, all that I've come across is, certain mobs will have a shaman the runs off and chants to buff the others, so you want to target him first... Also, with the animal sanctuary, there's like a small rhythm type game when playing your flute.. not much so far.

[thetylerrob]

This Final Fantasy III (VI) game seems pretty cool guys. Except for the tower of fanatics which might be the worst jrpg dungeon I've ever played.

[demi]

The first half of it is great, dont be surprised if you fall off hard on the second half

[tiesto]

This Final Fantasy III (VI) game seems pretty cool guys. Except for the tower of fanatics which might be the worst jrpg dungeon I've ever played.

The final dungeon in Albert Odyssey on the Saturn is probably worse, at least in the Fanatics Tower you can use the Moogle Charm to nullify random encounters... which is what I always do on my ff6 playthroughs.

[thetylerrob]

The second half has definitely been less good, but I'm still enjoying myself. I wish I had known about that Moogle Charm before I wasted hours of my life, oh well.

[Bebpo]

Playing FF7 Intermission w/Yuffie, the Monster Hunter crossover with Kula-Yaku was cute. I like that since this is a short expansion there's mini-bosses like every 5th fight.

The combat with Yuffie & Sono isn't really clicking with me the way the base game combat is. I've died a couple times and basically have no idea how to play defensively with this group, especially not having a dedicated healer. Pretty much just going full stagger offense constant with elemental weakness ninjutsu + Sono doing stagger abilities and then burst damage. It's fun, but when I start getting attacked as Yuffie I'm having a tough time getting distance and getting the enemy off my ass and targetting Sono instead.

It's funny because my friend who played this said the base FF7r combat never clicked with them but Yuffie/Sono's combat did.

Otherwise I'm also surprised how much this expansion is padded with Fort Condor to lengthen it. I spent 30-40 mins retrying the Shinra Middle Manager losing over and over again before reading up on real strategy. I hate RTS games, they are my weakest genre so I never play them and this is no exception. It's kind of fun and looks nice and I like the papercraft kind of looking enemies, but this shit is pretty tough. After beating all the rank 1 characters my strategy seems to basically be to take out one of their condors early on with zerg rushing units + magic and then just play defensively from that point on and try to survive 2-3 mins without any of mine being destroyed so I win.

Game still looks and sounds great. The soundtrack is crazy. Like it's so non-traditional FF it's the only thing they can get away with by being so popular they just don't give a fuck and do whatever they want. Jazzy tunes, terrible metal rock, retro pop songs, it's nuts. I love it!

[tiesto]

Thankfully, that "hurricane" turned out to be a dud. Just a bit of rain. Between that and my fiancee starting school this week, it means a ton of RPG time. Just completed the final Kart Race in Like A Dragon. I'm at the Point of No Return, got all possible trophies for the main game (though tbh I don't think I'll do the second postgame dungeon, seems like way too much of a grind), did all 52 sidestories, raised my Part Time Hero (why didn't they decide to call this Rent A Hero?) rank enough to get the trophy, got Kasuga and crew to ~lv 70. So tomorrow I'll go in and beat the game and the first postgame dungeon.

The final kart races weren't too bad, the Ignition Shadow instead of Rapid Phantom (which the guides suggested) really made things much easier since I wasn't decelerating so much and caroming all over the place after bumping into the walls.

[Mr Gilhaney]

Psychonauts 2 is cumpoggers

[Bebpo]

Ended up playing FF7 Intermission?Intergrade? Whichever fucking one is the Yuffie expansion through in basically a day. Around 7 hours total. Was great and ended up liking the Fort Condor mini-game a lot more than I'd expected. The stuff around the slums was fun and the combat was good and Ramuh summon looked fucking glorious.

Not sure about this Dirge of Cerebus shit in the end, also the final final final boss was pretty nonsense and I had no idea what was going on and Sono died and then I revived him and then Yuffie died a second later but Sono revived with a limit break and I did it using the invincibility frames and beat the boss, so yay.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sono's death wasn't really deserved. He got some decent character development but I really hate the trope of ok you beat the boss, but now as you go away the boss kills someone in your team. If they pulled off Sono's death with more impact the overall expansion story would've been a lot better. The plot itself is kinda of whatever

[close]

But Yuffie is really awesome here. She's just enough to not be annoying but be silly lolz and likeable.

Hope Pt.2 isn't that far away. Maybe 2023? Would be nice.

[Bebpo]

Psychonauts 2 is cumpoggers

Yeah, played through the opening. Was great. Nice budget on it.

[Bebpo]

Been listening to the FF7r Yuffie ost. They did such an incredible job taking Yuffie's theme song and working it into all these tracks. Especially the battle song. Totally impressed. Plus Ninjas are the best.

That being said I looked up some wiki stuff and uhhhh so they're really incorporating Dirge of Cerebus's plot into FF7 remake's storyline? To be fair I never made it more than 30 mins into that game on PS2 because it was shit, so I have no idea the story quality of Dirge, but the character designs are fucking terrible in that game and it just seemed pretty shitty all around. Would rather they remake parts of Crisis Core in remake's storyline through playable flashbacks than Dirge.

Then again re: Crisis Core

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since Zach doesn't die now in this now multiverse FF7r, you wouldn't get the best part of CC anyhow, so maybe we don't need CC flashbacks

[close]

Also in terms of FF7r's plot for pt.2/pt.3

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I feel like it's 50/50 whether instead of Sepiroth killing Aerith, Zach pushes her aside and gets killed instead in this timeline because that seems very Zach and lets Aerith survive in this version,

or they keep both alive so there can be a Zach x Aerith and Cloud x Tifa pairing. Otherwise gonna get awkward love triangle with Cloud/Aerith/Tifa at the end.

[close]

[Bebpo]

This is a really good cowboy bebop-esque jazzy track