What are you playing?

[MMaRsu]

Tried Red Dead Redemption 2 and it's some of the biggest pap I have ever played. Bad controls where you have to hold a menu open with a button just to change weapons from your horse, endless self inflicted flatulence sniffing from Rockstar with their fancy graphics and "cinematics". Game has worst pacing than Shenmue and that's my favorite game. It makes Starship Troopers look like high art. I keep waiting for the game part to start. You know, the thing Rockstar used to be good at, but it's just endless slow ass cutscenes, digging in its own arse and sniffing its fingers after. As a massive Rockstar Games fan this is the complete opposite of the direction of games they used to make and I resent every single gamer that whipped their hogs out and pleasured themselves with their own mouths who praised it, this type of "gameplay", and the developers that that have ruined this hobby with their inferiority complex that they don't make movies. A visual novel would be better. Perhaps it gets better eventually when Rockstar remembers they make games but I had been playing GTAIV a few months last summer just popping it in for fun and comparing it with this gives me AIDS.

I say all of this as someone that adored the original game. I'll keep going because I notice games these days that are actually good tend to make horrific first impressions.

What a load of horsecock

[Himu]

Nah, it's pretty on the nose. Gaming is a minimalist art form by design. If you take away interaction from me chances are you have a bad game. Five minute, ten minutes cutscene set up? Fine. But hours and hours of slow, plodding fart smelling is a bad game. I mentioned Shenmue up there but Shenmue is actually a better game. Shenmue has an intro and then you can sniff around Ryo's house and open up any drawer and find almost any secret in that house almost immediately. Even though it's just opening cabinets and drawers and exploring a house it's still gameplay because it's interaction .  Interaction requires choice as a default. Mario 1-1. Do I go down this pipe and take the shortcut or do I jump over and clear the pipes and go for the star instead? Hell, me saying a visual novel would be better is an insult to VNs. Phoenix Wright has that short intro mission and then puts the orange cones away. Takes all of 20 minutes or something.

If I am sitting around watching your game you probably have a bad game. Comparing it with GTAIII or SA or IV for instance where you get a short intro, an intro mission, and then you can start your crap and explore the world makes it more harrowing. if you are forcing your players to be railroaded to watch your stupid movie you have a bad game. There's nothing wrong with story but games are at their best when they let the player interact with the world, question things, and get involved. It's why things like Resident Evil's "itchy tasty" is so resonant, because it doesn't blow the doors open on what happened in the mansion immediately, it's a slow ever evolving process. If you're going to jerk off to your story make the gameplay a part of it.

Film has a show me, don't tell me mindset to its storytelling. Gamings philosophy is similar but the "show" is often tied to my interaction and gameplay. This is why Shadow of the Colossus is more artistic than any single game shoves as much cutscenes shit down the players throat as possible because SOTC is smart enough to know that to make a good game story you have to make the player wonder.

[Joe Molotov]

Played a couple of hours of Atomic Heart but it was kinda dooky. I don’t even care about the “problematic elements”, it just seems like a worse Bioshock Infinite. The “hilarious” dialogue is terrible, I almost changed it to Russian to see if it was less annoying like that, but I don’t want to accidentally self-radicalize myself into a tankie over a game that’s probably worse than Forspoken.

Fired up the Octopath Traveler II demo instead because my friend was playing it, and I really enjoyed it. After finishing Cassti’s Chapter 1 in the demo, I bought the full game and added Hikari to my party. Game seems really good so far. I never really played the first game so I can’t compare, but the combat system feels solid and the first two character stories were good.

[Himu]

I tried Atomic Heart and wanted to change the voice to Trump's native language but it changed the entire language including the menu to Russian so I groaned and changed it back.

[Joe Molotov]

Damn, this chapter had a Cowboy Bebop reference and a popular uprising against landlords.

[Hamarr]

I ended up playing through High On Life.  It was okay.  I liked the art direction and the word design was decent.  It had some light Metroidvania elements.  I’ve never watched Rick and Morty so I’m not familiar with the writing or voice acting.  The characters all got grating pretty quickly.  I played it with the sound down.  There were too many sequences where you are frozen in place during dialogue.  There were some parts of the humor that worked for me but lines dragged on way too long and wore out the jokes. 

I would probably replay it if there was an option to skip all dialogue for replays. 

The combat and boss fights were pretty interesting for what felt like a franchise tie in game.  The movement felt pretty good once everything is unlocked.

I also installed the Xbox series X release of Journey to the Savage planet.  The upgrade version was free if you bought the original but it has all new achievements.  It looks better but it’s been awhile so I don’t know how much.  This game is also a Metroidvania but better than High on Life.  Combat is worse but humor and exploration is better.  High on Life made me appreciate how relatively restrained some of the jokes are. Like bad HR videos that are short instead of 5 minute long chats.

[MMaRsu]

Nah, it's pretty on the nose. Gaming is a minimalist art form by design. If you take away interaction from me chances are you have a bad game. Five minute, ten minutes cutscene set up? Fine. But hours and hours of slow, plodding fart smelling is a bad game. I mentioned Shenmue up there but Shenmue is actually a better game. Shenmue has an intro and then you can sniff around Ryo's house and open up any drawer and find almost any secret in that house almost immediately. Even though it's just opening cabinets and drawers and exploring a house it's still gameplay because it's interaction .  Interaction requires choice as a default. Mario 1-1. Do I go down this pipe and take the shortcut or do I jump over and clear the pipes and go for the star instead? Hell, me saying a visual novel would be better is an insult to VNs. Phoenix Wright has that short intro mission and then puts the orange cones away. Takes all of 20 minutes or something.

If I am sitting around watching your game you probably have a bad game. Comparing it with GTAIII or SA or IV for instance where you get a short intro, an intro mission, and then you can start your crap and explore the world makes it more harrowing. if you are forcing your players to be railroaded to watch your stupid movie you have a bad game. There's nothing wrong with story but games are at their best when they let the player interact with the world, question things, and get involved. It's why things like Resident Evil's "itchy tasty" is so resonant, because it doesn't blow the doors open on what happened in the mansion immediately, it's a slow ever evolving process. If you're going to jerk off to your story make the gameplay a part of it.

Film has a show me, don't tell me mindset to its storytelling. Gamings philosophy is similar but the "show" is often tied to my interaction and gameplay. This is why Shadow of the Colossus is more artistic than any single game shoves as much cutscenes shit down the players throat as possible because SOTC is smart enough to know that to make a good game story you have to make the player wonder.

Not every game needs to be fucking mario.

if you are forcing your players to be railroaded to watch your stupid movie you have a bad game

Lmao so basically all jrpg's, Sony games?

Give me a fucking break man 

RDR2 is an amazing videogame, and one of the best stories in videogames as well. I wasnt too hot on chapter 5 or whatever it was, but aside from that, the immersion in the world, the staggering amount of detail. The story and connections you feel with some of the members in your group is real. Well real to the point where you hate certain characters and grow fond of others. There are a lot of cool missions in the game, and the sidemissions can be great as well. Certainly not every mission is a hit, true enough, but it's vastly better than RDR1 for instance.

Yes the game doesn't let you do missions you want them to. It's not a sandbox, it's a linear videogame in an open world (just as Mafia II is basically). Could Rockstar improve this? Hell yes. Does it make this game bad? Hell no.

Also it's a fucking WESTERN.

You know Western movies are all about extremely slow pace right?

Let's look at the opening of one of the greatest Western movies of all time, Once Upon A Time in The West



It's EXTREMELY slow, and on purpose.

[MMaRsu]

Also put the controls on FPS standard (its a control option in the game) if your having issues with the controls. Aiming deadzone to zero and go for expert aiming (no lockon like a bitch). Makes a ton of difference. In that regard I don't understand why the controls arent FPS standard to begin with.

[MMaRsu]

https://gamerant.com/video-games-longest-cutscenes-history/#metal-gear-solid-4-27-minutes

MGS4 has 27 minute cutscenes, Star Ocean has a 46 minute cutscene. Does it make those games bad? Yakuza 2, 23 minutes. Bad game?

RDR2 isnt even on this list

[Himu]

Mgs4 sucked balls

Slow pace to help a story slowly unravel and sniffing your farts with hours of wank aren't the same thing. Video games are an interactive medium. If I'm not interacting and making choices your game sucks

RDR1 is a western and it's not nearly as rail roaded and digging its finger in its booty hole.

Comparing a movie to a game is precisely the problem. Films are things you watch. Games are things you interact with. There are a multitude of slow moving game stories that have plenty of interaction. I named Shenmue as one of them. Resident Evil is another. I expect a game to have a five or ten minute intro to set the story and then let me play the damn game. Stuff like RDR2 and Atomic Heart are for people that hate video games.

You mistake that this is about slowness. It isn't. I name dropped a game where you work a full time job stacking crates in it. This is about interaction. In RDR2's intro you're rail roaded and characters do nothing but give exposition dumps. There's barely any interactivity and what little there is mostly busy work holding up while following some guy. You can even make it so you auto follow him and just watch them ride in cinematic splendor. It's the complete lack of choices, forced into a crap snowy environment, forced into this situation, now being allowed to explore. It's a movie. Modern games like RDR2 like to talk a lot. They are telling me how I'm supposed to feel. Classic gaming storytelling drops nuggets and leaves a trail and let's you tie things together yourself. Like figuring out Shadow is Relm's father or doing the Grey Prince story line in Oblivion and being forced to kill him because he refuses to fight in the arena match. Modern games like RDR2 and Atomic Heart shove as much dialogue as possible you're not allowed to sit with the choices or the story. It's constant yap yap and less doing. Play Silent Hill 1 through. 3. They know how to shut the f up and let the story unfold over a side expanding mystery rather than wallowing in forcing the player watch and listen to a bunch of crap.

Games like Atomic Heart are dare I say it, anti-game.

[Potato]

https://gamerant.com/video-games-longest-cutscenes-history/#metal-gear-solid-4-27-minutes

MGS4 has 27 minute cutscenes, Star Ocean has a 46 minute cutscene. Does it make those games bad? Yakuza 2, 23 minutes. Bad game?

RDR2 isnt even on this list

Yes, yes and yes

[MMaRsu]

 

[MMaRsu]

Mgs4 sucked balls

Slow pace to help a story slowly unravel and sniffing your farts with hours of wank aren't the same thing. Video games are an interactive medium. If I'm not interacting and making choices your game sucks

RDR1 is a western and it's not nearly as rail roaded and digging its finger in its booty hole.

Comparing a movie to a game is precisely the problem. Films are things you watch. Games are things you interact with. There are a multitude of slow moving game stories that have plenty of interaction. I named Shenmue as one of them. Resident Evil is another. I expect a game to have a five or ten minute intro to set the story and then let me play the damn game. Stuff like RDR2 and Atomic Heart are for people that hate video games.

You mistake that this is about slowness. It isn't. I name dropped a game where you work a full time job stacking crates in it. This is about interaction. In RDR2's intro you're rail roaded and characters do nothing but give exposition dumps. There's barely any interactivity and what little there is mostly busy work holding up while following some guy. You can even make it so you auto follow him and just watch them ride in cinematic splendor. It's the complete lack of choices, forced into a crap snowy environment, forced into this situation, now being allowed to explore. It's a movie. Modern games like RDR2 like to talk a lot. They are telling me how I'm supposed to feel. Classic gaming storytelling drops nuggets and leaves a trail and let's you tie things together yourself. Like figuring out Shadow is Relm's father or doing the Grey Prince story line in Oblivion and being forced to kill him because he refuses to fight in the arena match. Modern games like RDR2 and Atomic Heart shove as much dialogue as possible you're not allowed to sit with the choices or the story. It's constant yap yap and less doing. Play Silent Hill 1 through. 3. They know how to shut the f up and let the story unfold over a side expanding mystery rather than wallowing in forcing the player watch and listen to a bunch of crap.

Games like Atomic Heart are dare I say it, anti-game.

its an intro

[Potato]

Here are some general rules/commandments of game design I just made up:

• Your game will control well and not need to be adjusted in the settings in order for me to be able to play it.
• Your game will be interactive and allow me to play within a couple of minutes of starting.
• Your game will be economical with my time and not waste it with your sad desperation to prove you could have been a film director if you really wanted.
• Your in-game rules will be consistent and you won't change them to artificially make things more difficult.
• Your story will be integrated into the game, not interrupt me every 10 minutes in your sad desperation to prove you could have been a film director if you really wanted.
• Your game can be as difficult as you want it to be, but you will make sure you give me the tools and the knowledge to "git gud" if I decide I want to "git gud".
• If you claim my choices affect the outcome/ending, you will not railroad me into making certain key choices to force the ending you want.
• Your story-driven game will respect the rules and norms of storytelling (and if you want to subvert them, then make sure you do it well).
• Your game will not have a bunch of filler sidequests to meet some idiotic children's ideal of what the "price:length" value ratio is. If your story can be told in 2 hours, then that's it. Give me value in other ways.
• You will give me some credit that I can work things out myself and not handhold me into boredom.

[Potato]

Also it's a fucking WESTERN.

You know Western movies are all about extremely slow pace right?

Let's look at the opening of one of the greatest Western movies of all time, Once Upon A Time in The West



It's EXTREMELY slow, and on purpose.

You can't seriously be comparing that with the absolutely dire intro to RDR2, can you?

That was full of tension, character building, world building and above all, expectation. All in 7 minutes without any dialogue or music.

RDR2, in contrast, was five hours of boredom and drudgery mixed with bad tutorials showing you how to use overly complex and unintuitive controls that you will forget by the time the game opens up because it just takes soooooooo fucking loooooooooong to get past this bullshit.

This guy has a good summary of why it is garbage https://www.gamerevolution.com/originals/452429-red-dead-redemption-2-tutorial-failure#:~:text=Not%20just%20in%20the%20snow,Red%20Dead%20Redemption%202%20tutorial.

[Nintex]

And that wraps up Skyward Sword. I have to say I liked it far better as a HD remake than I did when it first launched on the Wii.

Pro's
- In HD remaster the graphics the colorful graphics are quite nice
- The parry and sword mechanics makes the fights more interesting than most other Zelda's once you get the hang of them
- Some absolutely banger dungeons (and not spoiled in the HD remaster) and also the field exploration is general feels more like 2D Zelda's than older 3D Zelda's like OOT and TWW.
- It's not that difficult to 100% because things aren't hidden in the most obtuse ways and dowsing makes hunting for the last few Grattitude Crystals quite easy
- Skyloft feels very cosy, probably one of the better town areas, lots of small little details and easter eggs
- The Time Shift Stones / Orbs are just brilliant, they could've made an entire game around that mechanic
- As I mentioned before for a Zelda game the story is quite good and the quest is complete, it doesn't feel like they've cut dungeons or quest lines in this one

Cons
- No real fast travel, after you leave an area you still have to fly to Skyloft every time, why not just warp there
- The music is so-so, the orchestral pieces are well done and there's some good stuff based on Majora's Mask and some other Zelda's but it doesn't really have a sound of its own and some compositions are very basic repeating samples like the Eldin area and Floria lake
- There aren't that many areas for a 40 hour game, so you end up revisiting the forest area a lot. 2 bosses are also repeated multiple times. Ghirahim was a weak boss for the Fire Sanctuary in particular, that probably wasn't the plan originally
- Despite the start being challenging there's some baby Wii influences in terms of difficulty, the game peaks when you've pretty much completed it but at that point nothing hurts you anymore
- Some janky animations, Link playing the harp (the harp is undercooked in general, probably second worst Zelda instrument next to Wolf howling) and Fi's singing face are laughable
- The final boss isn't that interesting, it's a neat duel but it misses all the twists and turns from the OOT or TWW endings
- Quite a bit of padding and some pacing issues

[MMaRsu]

I disagree, i was engrossed in the story, and the game controls fine enough. Its not even that different from gta v.

[Fifstar]

And that wraps up Skyward Sword. I have to say I liked it far better as a HD remake than I did when it first launched on the Wii.

Pro's
- In HD remaster the graphics the colorful graphics are quite nice
- The parry and sword mechanics makes the fights more interesting than most other Zelda's once you get the hang of them
- Some absolutely banger dungeons (and not spoiled in the HD remaster) and also the field exploration is general feels more like 2D Zelda's than older 3D Zelda's like OOT and TWW.
- It's not that difficult to 100% because things aren't hidden in the most obtuse ways and dowsing makes hunting for the last few Grattitude Crystals quite easy
- Skyloft feels very cosy, probably one of the better town areas, lots of small little details and easter eggs
- The Time Shift Stones / Orbs are just brilliant, they could've made an entire game around that mechanic
- As I mentioned before for a Zelda game the story is quite good and the quest is complete, it doesn't feel like they've cut dungeons or quest lines in this one

Cons
- No real fast travel, after you leave an area you still have to fly to Skyloft every time, why not just warp there
- The music is so-so, the orchestral pieces are well done and there's some good stuff based on Majora's Mask and some other Zelda's but it doesn't really have a sound of its own and some compositions are very basic repeating samples like the Eldin area and Floria lake
- There aren't that many areas for a 40 hour game, so you end up revisiting the forest area a lot. 2 bosses are also repeated multiple times. Ghirahim was a weak boss for the Fire Sanctuary in particular, that probably wasn't the plan originally
- Despite the start being challenging there's some baby Wii influences in terms of difficulty, the game peaks when you've pretty much completed it but at that point nothing hurts you anymore
- Some janky animations, Link playing the harp (the harp is undercooked in general, probably second worst Zelda instrument next to Wolf howling) and Fi's singing face are laughable
- The final boss isn't that interesting, it's a neat duel but it misses all the twists and turns from the OOT or TWW endings
- Quite a bit of padding and some pacing issues

Playing this one for the first time. generally a good game, although it has it fair share of ups and downs, so it's hard to rate.

Generally I agree with your points, was just surprised regarding the field exploration. Because my biggest beef with this game is that this game has almost no meaningful exploration. You probably could loose the hub world and just string together the dungeons and outside areas as levels and the game wouldn't feel really different.

Although thinking about it, you're right that the outside areas in SS play more similar to ALTTP from a design and moment to moment pov than to OOT or TP, just in 3D. Before in the 3D Zeldas the overworld was mainly an big empty central world that's connected to dungeons and towns via basically tubes. In SS the areas are filled with obstacles, little labyrinths, structures and so on.

Not sure if that's a good thing though, as traversing an obstacle course in 3D is generally slower and less fun than in 2D. So in the 2D Zelda this doesn't detoriate you from exploring but in SS I just never found in fun to move around the overworld. Like when I got the ability to swim I didn't feel like backtracking to check if there are any ponds because traversing through Faron, Lanaryu and Eldin is just not fun.

[Nintex]

Obstacle course, that's totally an accurate description of the overworld sections.
The woods are the most fun to explore, the Vulcano is the most boring area, you just move up the mountain and the desert easily the most cumbersome to get through.

With regards to backtracking, I think they figured this out during development too because there's only 2 or 3 spots to go back to for each ability and most are very close to a Bird Statue.

In any case after playing this I do feel that there's an important connection with Tears of the Kingdom.

SS/BOTW late game ending spoilers

I think the theory that Zelda/Hylia 'dies' is accurate. In SS her magic is responsible for a lot of events and even the key to life and death. It is implied that Impa was only alive because of her oath to Hylia and by extension her power and magic. After her task is complete she is allowed to pass on. (kinda like the Sheikah monks in the shrines in BOTW. They are allowed to turn into spirits once they've guided the hero). Once Zelda is in distress because Ghirahim starts his ritual the skies turn dark as she is responsible for keeping evil at bay. The game also tells us that Zelda doesn't remember all these spells in her mortal form.

Zelda seemingly has the Triforce at the end of BOTW (or its power). Link, Zelda and the Triforce would be able to deal with anything. However, we know from the trailer that Zelda falls into a dark pit and possibly dies. My theory is that when Zelda/Hylia dies her influence and magic also wanes, thus the sky islands drop down from high above the clouds. Only kept in place by the automatons and engines. With Zelda/Hylia gone Link can no longer use her divine power (or indeed the Triforce) and he has to tap into a different power source (that of the Zonai or the spirit hand?) to fight Ganondorf's evil and find a way to bring Zelda back (which obviously involves time travel). The silver lining being that Ganondorf isn't able to take control of the world with the Triforce either.

[close]

[tiesto]

Went back to Crash 4, and made some progress. Trying to get all the hidden gems and beat all the inverted levels. Got all the colored gems and a decent assortment of regular gems. Just gotta get all the hidden gems and beat the inverted levels for stages 9 and 10, then go to fight the final boss. I wanted to try and unlock all the flashback levels but I don't think the last 3 will ever happen, the game just gets wayyyy too difficult.

Still working on It Takes Two with my fiancee, we just finished up the snowglobe level.

Gonna play some Theatrhythm: Curtain Call and finish up the Trials of Mana Remake postgame dungeon this weekend.

Then after, debating whether or not to play Bayonetta 3 or Disco Elysium to hold me over until Azure drops.

[Joe Molotov]

[Bebpo]

Kinda random but I think I'm going to agree with Demi and bail on ever finishing TWEWY2. I play it here and there but I've just lost all interest because the battle system sucks and takes too fucking long and the chapters are padded out with tons of battles so you can't even drop to story/easiest difficulty and just blow through the plot.

I love the music, like the writing and art style, I wish the battles weren't the most boring tedious lengthy shit ever in an rpg. The original TWEWY battle system was fine and pretty fast. This is just a really poorly designed one that's not that fun and gets old so fast.

I'm like 15ish hours in or so on Day 7 of 21. Just not motivated to finish it. Seems like it will join DQ7 and Bravely Default in the pile of rpgs I got far into but will never finish because they are boring.

Went back to Crash 4, and made some progress. Trying to get all the hidden gems and beat all the inverted levels. Got all the colored gems and a decent assortment of regular gems. Just gotta get all the hidden gems and beat the inverted levels for stages 9 and 10, then go to fight the final boss. I wanted to try and unlock all the flashback levels but I don't think the last 3 will ever happen, the game just gets wayyyy too difficult.

Still working on It Takes Two with my fiancee, we just finished up the snowglobe level.

Gonna play some Theatrhythm: Curtain Call and finish up the Trials of Mana Remake postgame dungeon this weekend.

Then after, debating whether or not to play Bayonetta 3 or Disco Elysium to hold me over until Azure drops.

Is Trials of Mana worth playing if I've never played the original? Have it on PS+ and been planning on playing it. Just wanna know if it's worth the 30 hours of time.

[Potato]

I'm like 15ish hours in or so on Day 7 of 21. Just not motivated to finish it. Seems like it will join DQ7 and Bravely Default in the pile of rpgs I got far into but will never finish because they are boring.

See commandments 3 and 9 above

[Nintex]

Fire Emblem Engage
Absolute banger, all maps so far have been great and that doesn't happen a lot with Fire Emblem games. A nice challenge on hard too and it looks much better than any other 3D Fire Emblem.

But I'm not seeing how we're going to win this war when the average age of the soldiers in our army is about 12, only 2 of them have armor and our 'dragon queen' spends most of her time outside of battles trying out new dresses, adopting cats and managing her simps and simpettes.

[Rahxephon91]

https://gamerant.com/video-games-longest-cutscenes-history/#metal-gear-solid-4-27-minutes

MGS4 has 27 minute cutscenes, Star Ocean has a 46 minute cutscene. Does it make those games bad?

Yes those are bad games.

[Himu]

My review of Doom 2016.



It is a rare perfect game. The game loop of combat -> exploration -> combat is perfect. Its concept of glory kills for more ammo/health/drops is perfect. The weapon balance is perfect. It is the perfection of the Doom formula which was already up there. Doom Eternal has a lot of shoes to fill. Never thought first person shooters would become my favorite genre to play as I got older when I was a wacky jappy weeb of a teenager and young adult.

Gears of War 3 and Control are next.

[Nintex]

DOOM 2016 is fucking awesome.

DOOM Eternal and the DLC's are different though and more like Metroid Prime on steroids.
I like it a lot too and it's a top tier FPS game but not as easy to just pick up and play like DOOM 2016.

[MMaRsu]

https://gamerant.com/video-games-longest-cutscenes-history/#metal-gear-solid-4-27-minutes

MGS4 has 27 minute cutscenes, Star Ocean has a 46 minute cutscene. Does it make those games bad?

Yes those are bad games.

 

[MMaRsu]

eternal is ass

[BIONIC]

eternal is ass

Skill issue

[MMaRsu]

Stop tormenting with horrible tutorials and popup boxes of text every 10 seconds

[demi]

Skill issue

[tiesto]

Kinda random but I think I'm going to agree with Demi and bail on ever finishing TWEWY2. I play it here and there but I've just lost all interest because the battle system sucks and takes too fucking long and the chapters are padded out with tons of battles so you can't even drop to story/easiest difficulty and just blow through the plot.

I love the music, like the writing and art style, I wish the battles weren't the most boring tedious lengthy shit ever in an rpg. The original TWEWY battle system was fine and pretty fast. This is just a really poorly designed one that's not that fun and gets old so fast.

I'm like 15ish hours in or so on Day 7 of 21. Just not motivated to finish it. Seems like it will join DQ7 and Bravely Default in the pile of rpgs I got far into but will never finish because they are boring.

Went back to Crash 4, and made some progress. Trying to get all the hidden gems and beat all the inverted levels. Got all the colored gems and a decent assortment of regular gems. Just gotta get all the hidden gems and beat the inverted levels for stages 9 and 10, then go to fight the final boss. I wanted to try and unlock all the flashback levels but I don't think the last 3 will ever happen, the game just gets wayyyy too difficult.

Still working on It Takes Two with my fiancee, we just finished up the snowglobe level.

Gonna play some Theatrhythm: Curtain Call and finish up the Trials of Mana Remake postgame dungeon this weekend.

Then after, debating whether or not to play Bayonetta 3 or Disco Elysium to hold me over until Azure drops.

Is Trials of Mana worth playing if I've never played the original? Have it on PS+ and been planning on playing it. Just wanna know if it's worth the 30 hours of time.

I think it's worth playing, the combat is fun though not super detailed, the music is gorgeous... but the story is pretty straightforward and the graphics are very... 'mobile' for lack of a better term. It certainly was much more impressive in 1995 (especially the pixel art) but it's a quick enough playthrough that is throwing a big variety of places at you pretty quickly, and you never really spend more than an hour stuck in an area.

[Nintex]

Fire Emblem Engage

All the maps in this game are great so far compared to many other Fire Emblems. There's also quite a bit of depth in the leveling systems, bond rings, emblem and weapons engraving.

The war continues and I've recruited another waifu, a 10 year old and a bunch of stray cats and dogs. Surely this will win us the war, who needs knights

[BIONIC]

another waifu, a 10 year old

[Nintex]

another waifu, a 10 year old

This waifu is supposed to be 22, she also carries a waifu ring spirit with her.


The 11 year old is the merchant Anna who used to be 20 something in the other Fire Emblems but is now half her usual age

[HardcoreRetro]

Played some Euro Truck Simulator 2. Game is still good.

Found some shit Polish internet radio that you can run through the game. Glass of wodka at the side. Old ass Microsoft Sidewinder as the steering wheel. 10/10 gaming.

[Joe Molotov]

You know I'm still not totally sold on Octopath Traveler II's lack of a central character and narrative, but gotdam are all the characters and individual stories great. The Crossed Paths chapters and Tales style skits are nice for some cross party communication, but just the individual stories are all fire. Except Agnea, she's boring.

[Himu]

Fatum Betula is a really good, quirky type of game that I used to love but haven't seen in a long, long time that simply has to be experienced. I randomly picked it on when it was on sale for 2 bucks on the Xbox marketplace and loved every second. It encapsulates the Gaming As Art philosophy with emphasis on heavy interaction, experimentation, and minimalism crafting a bold, harrowing world full of dark mysteries. It hearkens to a time of wild experimental 2000's games like Mr. Mosquito,Killer 7,  LSD, and Katamari Damacy that reward inventiveness and just what the fuck. It also reminds me of Nintendo DS games like Dementium 1 and 2 and Thresia. Back in the day we called this "wacky Jappy" type games, but the creator, Bryce Bucher, seems to have nailed the experimental 2000's Japanese game vibe in spades despite not being Japanese himself. Its only "flaw" is its short length but what is there is a wild ride and an easy 1000/1000. I got every achievement and I plan on following the creator going forward. I like his take on games. Apparently Bryce is only 22. I have no idea what kind of games this kid played growing up and I would love to ask him personally which ones because he nailed a gaming philosophy that has since gone out of fashion and one that was mostly spearheaded before he was even born.



I played it on Xbox but it's also on Steam and Switch. Apparently he is a part of an indie video game collective called The Haunted PS1 which makes low poly PS1 like games. Holy shit.











Psychonauts 2 is everything I've ever wanted in a Psychonauts sequel. The original game is in my top 10 and one of my most replayed games of all time to the point where I know just about every single line of dialogue. I can't believe they nailed it. I didn't even support the Kickstarter because lowered expectations after Shenmue III. It feels like an OG Xbox game made in the 2020's. I can't recommend it enough.

Started Gears of War 3 and the storytelling so far is Gears at its best. I'm playing on Hardcore and the shooting is really good. :3

[Himu]

Holy fuck, these people are RAD.

[Himu]

Paratopic is an awful "game" which, despite using low poly aesthetic, has a game design philosophy contrary to that era. It's no different than Red Dead Redemption 2 in terms of game design ethos. All attention is put on the developers narrative they want to push rather giving an environment to explore and interact with things. Most of it you're spending time walking up as you chase after a pink bird/bat/whatever until you get to the next event. Sometimes you'll driving up  instead as you literally drive down the interstate with zero traffic, zero obstacles, just pap and art farts. For a game that is said to be an hour long time stretches to feel like it's actually 5. A kusoge for a specific type of gamer, who really wants to watch movies over playing video games. The driving portions actually made me make a cup of chai because I was literally getting sleepy "playing" it.

The contrast between it and Fatum Betula is striking. Shit game.

[Bebpo]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/paranormasight-the-seven-mysteries-of-honjo

That Square Enix ParaNormaSight game released today is getting really good reviews and came out of nowhere and is $15.99. Made by the Trials of Mana team.

Picked it up because of reviews+price and I like the VN/Puzzle horror genre. Played a little. Production values seem nice for a VN outside lack of voice acting. Definitely prefer VNs that are more than just a static screen with some art and text. The music and sound effects are really good initially.

Game is supposedly around 10-12 hours, so not a major time commitment.

[Bebpo]

Fatum Betula is a really good, quirky type of game that I used to love but haven't seen in a long, long time that simply has to be experienced. I randomly picked it on when it was on sale for 2 bucks on the Xbox marketplace and loved every second. It encapsulates the Gaming As Art philosophy with emphasis on heavy interaction, experimentation, and minimalism crafting a bold, harrowing world full of dark mysteries. It hearkens to a time of wild experimental 2000's games like Mr. Mosquito,Killer 7,  LSD, and Katamari Damacy that reward inventiveness and just what the fuck. It also reminds me of Nintendo DS games like Dementium 1 and 2 and Thresia. Back in the day we called this "wacky Jappy" type games, but the creator, Bryce Bucher, seems to have nailed the experimental 2000's Japanese game vibe in spades despite not being Japanese himself. Its only "flaw" is its short length but what is there is a wild ride and an easy 1000/1000. I got every achievement and I plan on following the creator going forward. I like his take on games. Apparently Bryce is only 22. I have no idea what kind of games this kid played growing up and I would love to ask him personally which ones because he nailed a gaming philosophy that has since gone out of fashion and one that was mostly spearheaded before he was even born.

I'd never heard of this, but you sold me on it. Will give it a shot.

I have Paratopic from some sale a long time ago, but your write up makes it sound like a pass. I heard it was a David Lynch-esque videogame which was the main selling point.

[Himu]

I mean, it is Lynchian but not in a good Killer 7 type manner that knows how to balance game with story. It'd be good if it weren't padded.

Demi: I don't see Advent Rising 2 ahahahahahaha. EH, EH EH. EH EH EH EH! WHERE'S ADVENT RISING 2, DEMI?! Psychonauts won the Majesco wars it seems.

[Himu]

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/paranormasight-the-seven-mysteries-of-honjo

That Square Enix ParaNormaSight game released today is getting really good reviews and came out of nowhere and is $15.99. Made by the Trials of Mana team.

Picked it up because of reviews+price and I like the VN/Puzzle horror genre. Played a little. Production values seem nice for a VN outside lack of voice acting. Definitely prefer VNs that are more than just a static screen with some art and text. The music and sound effects are really good initially.

Game is supposedly around 10-12 hours, so not a major time commitment.

Looks quite good.

[Nintex]

The war continues and more cats have been adopted as well as a soy archer and 2 additional waifu's, also we now have a swimming pool.

[Himu]

Road 96 isn't a perfect game. Its political leanings are too on the nose. It makes too many real world analogies and operates in a black and white handling of modern day topics. It has hackneyed forced writing with characters that sometimes don't talk like real people. The dialogue can be REALLY bad (almost every line Alex has made me groan). The game makers really want to tell the story they want to tell and express the things they want to say despite the game having a choose your own adventure RPG like structure reminiscent of Fallout games that turns out to be a complete facade of smoke and mirrors. Your choices don't ultimately matter. It can be repetitive because of all of this.

And yet it's one of those games where none of that really matters. Road 96 is a game with so much heart that it's hard to not fall in love with it despite every dirt spot, scratch, or cut on its exterior. It's a game that you can tell the developers put every litre of love from their hearts into making it. The premise despite whatever flaws it has, is spectacular. The idea of a kid trying to cross the border in a simulation like RPG fleeing a totalitarian state is stunning and in its greatest moments I felt such tension especially when I reached the titular Road 96 for the first time despite its scripted nature. What's interesting is how the game flow works. It's linear and scripted and yet not. It allows you explore in the minute to minute gameplay that allows you to increase your survival, whether it's stealing food or cash, or maybe a car. It's a fully interactive adventure game and yet guided like a Walking Dead or Life is Strange game. It's not linear like a walking simulator but it's not open like a western RPG where your choice land on the wall and stay there. Somehow it all just works.

It has so many good characters. My favorite is Sonya, the female broadcaster on a Fox News like station who despite your disagreements of who she supports (the fascist obviously) is still a good person who treats every single person she encounters with goodness. The game, despite having its own favored faction, manages to make many characters on each side three dimensional. Sonya is a puppet to the regime but she's such a good, joyous person. At one point you attend a Burning Man festival crossed with Trump rally for the main antagonist that he throws for his donors. You have an option to steal the keys to the car of one of these donors. Upon getting in their backseat is littered with fliers for his Democratic opponent, Flores. You can glean behind the mask that despite their donations they don't really support his rule.

Road 96 is full of details like that. From the crazed Taxi driver with a murderous rage who happens to be a good guy that is hurting to the cop with a conscience.

I really liked it and the ending just made me wanting more. It has a premise and story that make it really addictive and the developer knows how to let the screws loose jussst enough to allow you to choose how to approach how you play it despite it being their story.

(as an aside someone really needs to make a simulation like game where you play as an illegal immigrant that tries to make it to America doing as many good or bad deeds as you can to make it here)

[Himu]

Psychonauts 2 rocks

[Bebpo]

Yeah, that was the best dialogue set of cutscenes in Psychonauts 2. The way the animals are all freaked out is hilarious.

[Bebpo]

Finished Utawarerumono Prelude to the Fallen

Solid srpg/vn that kinda runs out of steam in the end and by about 3/4ths through the simplistic srpg maps and easy difficulty get a bit dull.

The cast is pretty great, and there are some good story arcs in there and it's mostly a war VN of fighting different countries. Some arcs are underdeveloped, some are a bit long. I pretty much liked the game through all the war arcs and the character scenes.

But the main plot which is lingering in the background, when it comes to the front and becomes Xenoblade, is ok. Very underdeveloped and didn't find it super satisfying. From what I've read the 2nd and 3rd game will go more into the lore of this stuff and fill it out.

Music was really good, art was pretty good. Was 30 hours.


Basically was a very B-quality VN/tactics game that runs about 30 hours and is popcorn entertainment enjoyable 

From what I'm reading even though Prelude to the Fallen is a modern 2020 remake of the first game from the early 2000s, it's still heavily constrained and pretty authentic to the original just with a new coat of paint and that the next two games Mask of Deception and Mask of Truth are generally compared to Trails in the Sky FC and SC and supposed to be quite a bit better in both story and combat.

Will play the sequel at some point. I've got better games I want to play but next time I'm in the mood for a tactics game...I'll probably play Triangle Strategy. But maybe the time after that when I get in an srpg mood I'll play Mask of Deception. Or maybe I'll play the new Fire Emblem, dunno.


Oh and most people say the anime adaptation of this in like...2006? was good and that makes sense from having played it now. Probably would work just as good in anime form without the combat maps. It's on Crunchyroll, so will watch the final ep and see if it hits any better as an anime. But yeah probably the best route if Mask of Deception/Truth are actually legit great would be to watch the anime for Prelude to the Fallen over playing the game. Anime is like ~11 hours so about 1/3rd the time commitment too.

[Nintex]

Today everyone in Fire Emblem congratulated me with my birthday. And I thought, that's funny I have the same birth date as the Divine Dragon but then I realized that it wasn't a coincidence and that's an event that's triggered on your actual birthday.
You get great bond items for everyone though, so be sure to fire up Fire Emblem Engage on your birthday.

Aside from that I fought a kick ass battle to defend a big beautiful castle with large massive walls against a waifu riding a wyvern and finally recruited an adult with a big sword, Roy's emblem ring and a gay servant.

[Svejk]

Spent an hour making a waifu in Code Vein knowing I'm not even going to end up playing it. 

[Bebpo]

playing The Quarry and it's dumb and terrible with amazing graphics yet bizarro character models & jank animations

...and that's just the way I want it. Good game 

[Nintex]

Mario Kart 8 Wave 4

Amsterdam Drift
Fun track but where is the red light district, the crazy climate activists and weed dealers? Joking aside it lacks a bit of an identity in terms of lay-out. Feels much like the Sydney track but just with different scenery.

Riverside Park
GBA tracks get crazy glow ups and this is no exception. Simple lay-out but avoiding the walking plants requires some skill and makes it more interesting.

Snowboard Cross
Fun new version of the Wii track. I don't think they changed much and it works just as well as it did on the Wii.

Yoshi's Island
Probably the most detailed Mario Kart track since Ribbon Road for some reason. The assets are really well done. Reminds me a bit of the Dino Dino Jungle track from Double Dash.
Overall an S+ tier Mario Kart track. Not many of these exist.

Bangkok Rush
Not a big fan of this one. It looks good enough but it's a bit busy. Lots of variety in the scenery though. But overall kinda mid for me.

Mario Circuit DS
One of the better Mario Circuits, the fast shooting Piranha's are in. They did make some changes though, the start section lacks the pit lane, so the track is less wide. And I don't think it's possible to get close to the castle anymore.
Like Mario Kart DS not too many item boxes so it really comes down to racing and tight drifting with Rosalina in leather pants on her motorbike.... *cough* moving on

Waluigi Stadium
Another Double Dash track which is another game people have started to praise more in recent times, the mud effect is nice and the modern Mario Kart stunt mechanics work well on these kind of tracks with lots of ramps and ledges.
For some reason it's just not as exciting as it could be. Not on the Cube and not remastered like this.

Singapore Speedway
This is a visual feast and I like it much better than the Bangkok track. Lots of variety in the track. Despite all that there's not that much actual 'racing' on it. It's more about jumping, flying, bouncing. So yeah, fun track but a bit gimmicky.

Don't ask why but Nintendo seems to have rebalanced the entire game. In my brief time playing I found the AI much better. They didn't seem to rubberband as much or at least there was more variety on who would actually battle for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.


Fire Emblem Engage
Did some skirmishes to level, also experimented by equipping different characters with the Emblem Rings.
The default Diamant/Roy combo is a beast though, the knight I needed to actually be able to play offensive.

[Bebpo]

Maaaan, I'm really enjoying The Quarry

I also liked Man of Medan which was panned as well. I think I am just this team's target audience who likes point and click horror adventure/VN games with great production values and gfx.

Compared to like Hi Fi Rush where the writing and cutscenes are fucking grating to me and I want to skip every cutscene, I like the Life is Strange-esque teens being dumb teens/coming of age writing in this. The cast is all pretty likeable. Gonna be annoyed if I don't keep everyone alive.

Playing it on the PS+ sub, but so far a few hours in I would've been ok paying money for this. I really should play the other Dark Pictures game after this since I enjoy their style. Though I heard the final one with the serial killer changed up the gameplay in to some experimental game thing and it didn't work at all. But at least there's the Witch and Mummy one to play.

[Svejk]

Doing some trophy hunting for Castlevania: SOTN.  Man, you think you knew a game, but after 26 years, it still surprises you.  Had no idea of the fairy singing that sits on your shoulder. (Always wondered what that song was on the OST. lol)  Never knew how to eat the peanuts.  But most surprising of all, Got the Crissaegrim sword.  How have I never found this sword before? It only drops from the schmoo enemy apparently, but damn... it turns the game into Strider!    Iga, you son of a bitch, how'd you do it?!

[Beezy]

I doubt I'll finish it before it leave Gamepass, but Paradise Killer has hooked me these past few days. Game timer says I've played 3 hours, but it felt longer. Oh well. Its not the type of game I'd normally play and I'm not really sure what's going on, but the presentation and great soundtrack go a long way. The original Phoenix Wright game hooked me pretty much the same way.

[Himu]

Looks great

[Bebpo]

Yeah, I'm probably going to bail on Hi Fi Rush.  As a character action fan, I think this game fucking sucks. The combat is so unsatisfying, the level design is boring and stages go on way too long and I've started skipping every cutscene because I can't stand the dialogue/writing.

I really hate the shield bullshit. The combat reminds me of the bad DmC with its color-coded fights. The dodge is terrible and there's no real effective way to avoid incoming physical attacks that chase you besides just triple dashing in a direction since there's no lock-on which is a terrible, terrible decision for a character action game.

Apparently you get a parry at some point, which could help get around the shitty dodge and shitty no lock-on, but I really don't want to keep playing to that point.

First game in a while that critics and audiences seem to love and I'm just not enjoying it at all. Even the music isn't great because the tracks are so simple and repetitive to keep the beat gameplay.

Pretty much all it has going for it are the visuals. I didn't like this guy's Evil Within 2 (although I at least enjoyed it more than this game) and don't like this. Just not a fan of John Johanas's game design. Glad I didn't pay for Hi Fi Rush and just playing it on Game Pass.

[Nintex]

I find that those type of games are often overrated on Xbox, just like 'mature' games used to be overrated on Nintendo ("Ooh, it's a Wii game with a gun 9/10!").

A lot of the critically acclaimed Xbox shall we say 'family' games are mid at best. Dreadful shovelware like Disneyland Adventures would get a 3/10 or 4/10 on PlayStation or Nintendo platforms but still manages to score a 7/10 on Xbox.
Hi-Fi Rush looked fun but fairly simple and repetitive.