Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3559080 times)

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Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32520 on: January 24, 2019, 12:14:49 PM »
If you're prepping for Sekiro, maybe play Tenchu or Onimusha instead? Play Nioh again? :)

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32521 on: January 24, 2019, 12:41:24 PM »
What is Sekiro? Isn’t that the new Otogi like game by From? Why does Borys assume it’s Souls-like?
IYKYK

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32522 on: January 24, 2019, 01:10:22 PM »
What is Sekiro? Isn’t that the new Otogi like game by From? Why does Borys assume it’s Souls-like?

Yeah, more Tenchu than Souls.

FROM still needs to make me another Gundam Unicorn game. That game was badass.
野球

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32523 on: January 24, 2019, 01:11:17 PM »
What is Sekiro? Isn’t that the new Otogi like game by From? Why does Borys assume it’s Souls-like?

It's a spiritual successor to Tenchu with Bloodborne / Nioh esque combat ( but def different ).
What

Rufus

  • 🙈🙉🙊
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32524 on: January 24, 2019, 01:11:18 PM »
What is Sekiro? Isn’t that the new Otogi like game by From? Why does Borys assume it’s Souls-like?
Miyazaki's next game. He was the director on all of From's Souls games (except DS2). This is going to be different, but still Souls-like, afaik. 
« Last Edit: January 24, 2019, 01:16:58 PM by Rufus »

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32525 on: January 24, 2019, 01:15:53 PM »
Dead Cells & Salt And Sanctuary might be good games to play Borys.


- The Surge
- Lords of Fallen

These two are mediocre. The Surge is a lot better than LOTF but it's still not worth it imo.
What

Don Rumata

  • Hard To Be A John
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32526 on: January 24, 2019, 01:43:20 PM »
What is Sekiro? Isn’t that the new Otogi like game by From? Why does Borys assume it’s Souls-like?

It's a spiritual successor to Tenchu
with Bloodborne / Nioh esque combat ( but def different ).
but that's Shinobido, made by Acquire, the actual developers of Tenchu 1/2.  :expert

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32527 on: January 24, 2019, 02:33:47 PM »
Tenchu 2 was probably worse than DMC2, as it was certainly the bastard child that should've been bagged and tossed in the river.   :doge

I was thinking more Tenchu 3 and/or Kurenai, tbh.  Those had better bosses battles, iirc.   But based on the pics, Sekiro gives mad tenchu vibes to me more than anything...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]
Thank goodness it's stepping away from the Soulsborne trait.  (Save that for BB2 or something)
« Last Edit: January 24, 2019, 02:41:50 PM by Svejk »

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32528 on: January 24, 2019, 03:38:55 PM »
Tenchu is cool. Soulsborne isnt. I’ll check it.
IYKYK

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32529 on: January 24, 2019, 03:48:35 PM »
Some of the new Sekiro footage in gameinformer :lawd but that reminds me, what happened to the localisation of Metal Wolf Chaos.  ???

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32530 on: January 24, 2019, 03:51:17 PM »
Just says coming 2019 on the website.

Raist

  • Winner of the Baited Award 2018
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32531 on: January 24, 2019, 03:55:09 PM »
The Surge and LotF are utter garbage.

Ashen is apparently OK.

Salt and Sanctuary is good.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32532 on: January 25, 2019, 02:16:07 AM »
Hollow Knight - Finished exploring out the map for the most part outside some crawly guys here and there and a few charms. Took out all 3 dreamers and unlocked temple of the black egg. Beat the 2nd tier in the coliseum and got my 3rd pale ore to make the final weapon upgrade. Beat the traitor king and got half the white mask. Beat the normal end in the black egg. 90% completion at this point, not bad. A little under 25 hours now.

I think what I need to do now is get about 300 more essence from finding some more trees (I think I've done all the warrior dream boss fights, might be missing one) to get to 1700 so I can open the White Palace and do that and I'm assuming it gets me the other half of the mask and then I can do the true end stuff. Plus gotta do the DLC bits. Getting close!

toku

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32533 on: January 25, 2019, 10:15:59 AM »
I still need to break into HK proper but it def. seems like the kind of game to lose yourself in

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32534 on: January 25, 2019, 03:12:12 PM »
Yeah, it's great. I'm with Borys that it's definitely one of the top3 metroidvanias and easily in top 20 of all time. It's extremely well designed big game with lots of secrets and great boss fights and amazing art/animation.

I feel like I enjoyed it the most once it got going a few areas in until about 75% through. (which is a good 20 hours of great game)
The endgame is fine it's just when most of the map is explored out and you're just going around picking up stuff you missed/secret boss fights/true ending it's a lot more backtracking than exploration. If they added more fast travel spots I'd enjoy the endgame more.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32535 on: January 25, 2019, 09:39:50 PM »
There's definitely some stuff I dislike about Hollow Knight. Cleared the White Palace and most of it was well designed super meat boy, coming from Celeste some of that was kinda ehhhh.
 
Got 101% completion, just need to do the rest of Grimm Troupe (started it, but collecting flames is zzz), the 3rd tournament, the godhome boss rushes. Tried Radiance and are you fucking kidding me that the game doesn't checkpoint after the final boss fight? You have to re-fight the final boss every goddamn time just to die in 20 seconds on the true final boss that does 2 health damage per hit and and has an insane HP count and 4 forms? Yeah, fuck that. Stuff like that and the 52 boss fight endurance run are just bullshit and I'm good without it.

Like Radiance would be fine if there was a checkpoint at the start of the fight. Still be a hard as fuck long fight over in 20 seconds until you get all the patterns down but would save a few mins not having to deal with the final boss beforehand each time. These devs got so much right but there's a few bits of real poor game design in here.

Will finish up Grimm Troupe, but then I'm good at this point.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32536 on: January 26, 2019, 05:28:48 PM »
Hollow Knight - Aaaand beat Radiance and got true end. 105% completion. Only missing that dumbass flower quest (which cost me 1-3 masks :|) and the 3rd coliseum trial just cause I don't have the patience for it. In the DLC added stuff got through Grimm Troupe, beat Grimm, but couldn't beat Nightmare King Grimm. I prooobably could if I spent a few hours on the fight, but the guy moves so damn fast in the nightmare version I don't wanna deal with the reflexes, so I did the banishment ending for that instead.

What got me through Radiance is that when I was initially dying and I read there were 5 phases I was like yeah no way am I having the patience for 5 forms of this fight. But then I watched a video of someone beating him and there's really only 2 parts to the fight (grounded & platform), they just divide up a slight change in patterns as official phases. Once I saw that I realized I was getting like halfway through the fight already in my first few tries, so it was just a matter of trying a few more times now that I knew the patterns from watching a video. Unlike Nightmare King Grimm his attacks are pretty average speed/easy to dodge (hardest is just the horizontal sword walls for me if I don't have shadow dash), and the beam ray is such an easy attack/wide opening to get a ton of damage in, so was able to beat him.

Now just gotta watch a bunch of lore youtube videos because I didn't really get the details of the plot

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32537 on: January 26, 2019, 09:02:27 PM »
beat Nightmare King Grimm  :)

The boss mode in Hall of Gods (Godhome) is great since you can just keep retrying bosses without any backtracking or cutscene bs and just play them over and over learning their patterns, improving until you can not get hit and that's how you win, yay!

Now I am definitely done and good until Hollow Knight expansion with playable Hornet comes out. As decent as I am at action games, the 52 boss 70 min boss rush to fight the final 4 or so new bosses at the end is not for me. I love quick retries of high challenge over and over like Celeste for platforming or just retrying bosses in the hall of gods here, endurance stuff is too frustrating for me in redoing long bits over and over.


At the end of the day though, I still think Tetris Effect's final stage is the hardest gaming challenge ever. I'd rather try to be 52 bosses in a row in Hollow Knight than try to beat Tetris Effect's final stage on hard.

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32538 on: January 27, 2019, 10:44:39 AM »
Mass Effect 4

- all 5 planets @ 100% viability
- 4/4 Outposts created
- all loyalty missions finished
- 180 quests finished (yes, I counted them)
- LVL 50
- 70 hours on the save file

...and the game is still @ 65% completion :lol which is kind of unbelievable yet there are weapons to be researched (Mark X) that you can only equip at... LVL 80.

It is simply HUGE. Game truly is Dragon Age in space, no doubt about it.

I don't have any sidequests remaining except killing Dragon Age's Dragons on each planet (Architects). Other than that I am boarding Meridian and moving on with the main plot.

I like it more than God of War :shh it does exactly what it promises (5 planets) whereas God of War blueballed with 9 Realms !!! yet you only visit like 5 and 2 out of those 5 are challenge arenas and the last one is a joke (1 corridor with no encounters).
I'm now lvl 48 at 60 hours in, with 60% completion of the game.
Still have one planet left to settle and one Ark left to find and about 3 loyalty missions to complete.
Plus a bunch of 'tasks' and side quests remaining.

I did ran into 1 or 2 side quests that seemed broken though. So I'm not sure if 100% is achievable in this game.
🤴

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32539 on: January 27, 2019, 11:10:55 AM »
Mass Effect 4

- all 5 planets @ 100% viability
- 4/4 Outposts created
- all loyalty missions finished
- 180 quests finished (yes, I counted them)
- LVL 50
- 70 hours on the save file

...and the game is still @ 65% completion :lol which is kind of unbelievable yet there are weapons to be researched (Mark X) that you can only equip at... LVL 80.

It is simply HUGE. Game truly is Dragon Age in space, no doubt about it.

I don't have any sidequests remaining except killing Dragon Age's Dragons on each planet (Architects). Other than that I am boarding Meridian and moving on with the main plot.

I like it more than God of War :shh it does exactly what it promises (5 planets) whereas God of War blueballed with 9 Realms !!! yet you only visit like 5 and 2 out of those 5 are challenge arenas and the last one is a joke (1 corridor with no encounters).

If that is supposed to be a compliment? Dragon Age Inquisition was one of the most boring games I've ever played. With a large amount of filler fetch quests, no interesting side content & no interesting companions or characters. And huge maps that offer nothing in the way of exploration.
What

Cryo

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32540 on: January 27, 2019, 03:37:04 PM »
It's unfortunate how similar Anthem feels and plays to ME:A because comparisons will definitely fuel the angry internet mobs

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32541 on: January 27, 2019, 06:24:20 PM »
I dunno, maybe more people who skipped ME:A will check it out looking at Bioware's other recent work.
It punches far above its weight for the $5 it costs now plus most of the technical issues it had at launch (especially the animations) have been fixed with patches.

Anthem seems like half a game but that could've been the demo. Still, it's weird considering they claim it was in development before Destiny 1 shipped.
🤴

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32542 on: January 27, 2019, 11:45:20 PM »
Anthem reminds me of Mass Effect with no charm or interesting characters  :-\

I feel bad for the people at Bioware.
OH!

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32543 on: January 28, 2019, 08:06:09 AM »
Bioware will go the hospice (aka Microsoft) and that'll be the end of that.  :doge  Wish MS would buy EA instead and dismantle that shit stain of a company.

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32544 on: January 28, 2019, 12:51:57 PM »
All I need is Burnout 3 HD and then EA can go die.

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32545 on: January 28, 2019, 02:09:37 PM »
All I need is Burnout 3 HD and then EA can go die.

SSX Tricky and SSX3 but yes.
IYKYK

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32546 on: January 28, 2019, 02:59:35 PM »
Got the Capcom Beat' Em Up thing. Throwing them a few bones for all the years I played these games on my modded original Xbox.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32547 on: January 28, 2019, 03:04:43 PM »
I liked the new SSX. I mean there were a bunch of levels where you could trick all the way down to the bottom without falling down some god awful pit.

I remember beating my friends lists records with ease  :esports
What

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32548 on: January 28, 2019, 03:14:05 PM »
I liked the new SSX. I mean there were a bunch of levels where you could trick all the way down to the bottom without falling down some god awful pit.

I remember beating my friends lists records with ease  :esports

Same. I liked the demo a lot. The full game I played though.
IYKYK

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32549 on: January 28, 2019, 04:22:18 PM »
Animations for the skeletons in The King of Dragons are cute. Lower ammount of frames so they look like the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion ones. :)

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32550 on: January 28, 2019, 06:47:43 PM »
Bioware fans seem pretty desperate. They're basically left with these choices

- Shill for Anthem despite its faults and somehow hope that it turns into a massive hit (reduces the chance of new Bioware single player games)
- Ignore Anthem and speak with their wallet (could end up in Bioware closing up shop)
- Hope that Anthem does well without their support (but not good enough to be a 'big' enough hit) so EA is kinda forced to feed both audiences

I still think that they're 1 or 2 flops away from shutting down and we'll at least see another game in the Mass Effect universe.
I'm not sure it'll be a full fledged RPG though. With Anthem I guess it'll do well enough if it has enough time to shine on its own.
It'll certainly help if they iron out the VIP Demo issues in the upcoming Public demo. Division 2 is not out for another month and there's no telling how bad/good that is either.

Destiny players might mix up their playtime as well because they're used to low quality efforts anyway.
🤴

demi

  • cooler than willco
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32551 on: January 28, 2019, 10:30:09 PM »
Imagine wasting your time worrying about what other people are playing
fat

porkbun

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32552 on: January 29, 2019, 08:36:41 AM »
Been playing a good amount of Donkey Kong on one of my bartops lately.  I'm terrible at the game so I'm making it a goal to actually get through all four boards.

bdoughty

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32553 on: January 29, 2019, 11:18:44 PM »
Farm Together is what I have been glued to since it was releases on the Xbox One last week.  It's like one of those old XBLA Avatar games but with a ton of content. Also it has been on Steam for a year.



Pretty addicting if you are even remotely interested in Farm Building game. It's not a simulation that requires things to be done or you lose crops. animals, etc. If you liked the farming and building in Stardew Valley you will love this. While there are no limits to the amount of work done each day, the tractor (you obtain after a few levels) requires refilling and resources. You just take your time and harvest, plant, fish and pick flowers/trees as you go.  You start in a single area that is surround by a bunch of other areas to be unlocked as you level up. Watering is not required but will cut the time to harvest the crop, which will vary by crop type and length. Seasons, which last 17 minutes each can also impact watering need as there are occasional droughts, rainfall and heavy winters that will affect how well watering works. Most crops can only be planted in certain seasons and most trees can only be harvested in certain seasons.

There are plenty of plants, fish, flowers, trees and farming items and decoration to unlock. In some cases by leveling up the play and others are locked until you level up a particular item. There are even houses and chores you can do to decorate inside of it. Unlike Stardew you have nobody to deal with, unless you choose to play online and even then they just help.  You turn all your crops at stands and get automated quests to complete (raising certain crops, etc) to get pink ribbons that are used to buy special items (fuel tanks for gas, sprinklers, fast travel, etc).  Money is used for buying/selling MOST crops and diamonds (what you get for turning in crops and other things) is used primarily to buy items for your farm to decorate, stands for crops and buying new sections of land.

Quite a bit of strategy when it comes to crops. Things can take from 15 minutes to a couple days. Planning crops around how long you plan to play. Time in game moves constantly and while you are away from the game. So this is a perfect time to try the longer crops as you sleep.  Fish and Trees are great to have as they require no maintenance but it does take some time for them to pay for themselves. Same goes for planting flowers, expensive and takes time to pay for itself and requires watering (or not, have not seen where this makes a difference in the time to harvest).  Animals are the most expensive and require large amounts of food and they get much more expensive to buy and feed as you level up and unlock new animals.  I have been limiting this production to when a quest requires it and then keeping them as I slowly build this area of the far.

Online play allows you to determine what users that find your farm can do or not do on it. In my case I set to private to eliminate stragglers from popping in and only allow people on my friends list to help.  Sadly there is no local co-op. This would have been a great addition for the game.  Especially for families as it really would be a great game for parents and young kids.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32554 on: January 29, 2019, 11:39:32 PM »
Just gotta do the Wheel of Harma and then work on getting all the costumes if I wanna platinum DQXI. I dunno if I'll do the latter, seems pretty time consuming to grind for all the materials.
^_^

bdoughty

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32555 on: January 30, 2019, 09:21:00 PM »
All I need is Burnout 3 HD and then EA can go die.

Not before they do a remake of NBA Street V2.  I thought EA liked money, a remake of this would make tons of it.  Then they can die, assuming there are no plans on bringing NCAA Football back.


kingv

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32556 on: January 30, 2019, 10:19:54 PM »
NFL street was pretty fun too. the game was broken as hell, but fun when people weren’t playing with dumb cheat teams where every player is jerry rice or some dumb shit.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32557 on: January 31, 2019, 01:24:29 AM »
Finished Chuchel



I started this like a year ago when he was a black dustmite with an orange hat and finished it a year later when he was orange with a black hat because the czech republic devs at Amanita Design realized he sorta looked like blackface after the fact and patched it  :doge

Anyhow, good weird ass euro indie puzzle game. A lot of the skits feel like you'd get from an animation short film festival. Was pretty funny and fun.

I liked it more than Botanicula and less than Machinarium which is still my favorite by Amanita. I feel like Machinarium's their most accessible game for sure. Was ported to a bunch of stuff and people like my brother who never plays weird art shit and only mainstream games actually played and beat Machinarium. I still need to play Samorost series but I can't get into them for some reason. They've got good weird art and good music and I will keep buying their games and actually finishing them.

Also I'm horrible at finishing puzzle games. Like this game was probably 2 hours long and it took me a year because each puzzle's like 5 mins. Puzzle games with hundreds of puzzles like Spacechem or Picross 3d or whatever can be 5-10 hours long and take me years to get through them, but sandbox game or rpg I can blow 5-10 hours in a week easy. Something about the repetition of puzzle after puzzle just drains me and I can only play a couple puzzles at a time. I still really enjoy them, I just can't keep playing.

MMaRsu

  • Administrator
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32558 on: January 31, 2019, 02:51:33 AM »
All I need is Burnout 3 HD and then EA can go die.

Not before they do a remake of NBA Street V2.  I thought EA liked money, a remake of this would make tons of it.  Then they can die, assuming there are no plans on bringing NCAA Football back.



Let's not forget this game



This game really needs a port to current systems

I mean wtf EA I hate you
What

demi

  • cooler than willco
  • Administrator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32559 on: January 31, 2019, 07:58:14 AM »
Got I want Def Jam FFNY but its gone up in price for Gamecube
fat

bdoughty

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32560 on: January 31, 2019, 08:48:14 AM »
Never played the Def Jam series. Terrible at any fighting game and just button mash.

NFL street was pretty fun too. the game was broken as hell, but fun when people weren’t playing with dumb cheat teams where every player is jerry rice or some dumb shit.

It also provided us with the time that IGN apparently let EA Sports write little blurbs scattered throughout the review.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/01/10/nfl-street-3


Quote
NFL Street is the game that out-blitzes Blitz to revive the arcade football genre to a status worthy of the legends strutting their attitude across the asphalt.

Quote
If you're looking for one football game to get you through the upcoming post Super Bowl depression, NFL Street is the polygonal Prozac you've been chanting for, and you don't even need a prescription.

Quote
NFL Street sets it straight. No punk-ass kickers allowed.

Quote
NFL Street is what arcade sports is all about and proudly carries the torch onto the next generation who never truly knew what it was like to be on fire.

It's time to forget the rest, Street is as hot as they come.

Don Rumata

  • Hard To Be A John
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32561 on: January 31, 2019, 09:24:26 AM »
Chuchel was pretty meh... didn't like neither the graphics nor the puzzles nor the humor. Finished it in one sitting. Big, bigly disappointment. It tried too hard to be funny? Sometimes the humor was too ironic/ paradox for me.

Machinarium is still the holy grail from Amanita Design. There is not one month passing I am not thinking about that game and wondering "where's the sequel?". Simply adored it and my kids as well. We played through it together and it was heaps of fun. Fuck that beads puzzle, though. That shit was nightmare fuel.

Bonus pic of our Machinarium plushies :) their are made in Czech Republic, top quality, none of that Made in China shit:

(Image removed from quote.)

In fact this is the only gaming memorabilia I own.... weird. I don't even have a single Souls shirt!
Machinarium is one of my favorite games yeah, but i'd say Samorost 3 is up there with it.
The soundtrack is just as good, and the visuals are just astonishing, plus i love the alien insect ahestetic.

Floex is a genius.

nachobro

  • Live Más
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32562 on: February 02, 2019, 12:56:06 AM »
Played the Anthem demo a bit tonight. It's uh...interesting. Looks nice (though I'm going to turn off chromatic aberration) but the framerate is hitchy in places. Popped into the open world for a bit to learn the controls and imo the keyboard/mouse setup kinda controls like shit. Flying feels awkward and is difficult to control. I plugged in an Xbox controller and that definitely feels better and like they put a bit more focus on controller. Once I got the controller going, flying really does feel awesome but I kinda wish I could do dumb tricks in the air or something. :doge

Got into an open world mission and had a bunch of dudes join in and we were doing pretty well with it...then the demo crashed and I decided I'd try again tomorrow. :lol Overall the shooting feels a little stiff, you can dash around a little with your mech but there's no cover mechanic from what I can tell. Maybe I just need more time with it but for having a flying mechsuit I kinda expected something a little more dynamic.








benjipwns

  • your bright ideas always burn me
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32563 on: February 02, 2019, 01:28:00 AM »
those shots are first time I've seen the actual game, that whole UI setup looks like Destiny smashed into Mass Effect to me

bork

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32564 on: February 02, 2019, 11:33:40 AM »
Cross-posting from the musou thread.

Got Fate/Extella Link for Switch (digital)- it's not out in 'Murica yet and got delayed until sometime in March for some reason.  Doesn't make sense to me when the game was fully localized months ago and released in English on PS4 and Vita in Asia regions.  Would have just imported for PS4 but decided to wait for the Switch port, which offers full English.  The first game turned out really well on the Switch and the sequel is just as good -if not better- of a port, so glad I waited.  It runs at a very smooth framerate (appears to be 30 FPS, but may be higher) and seems to be running 1080P docked.  It really doesn't look like that much of a visual downgrade from the PS4 version overall and looks nice.  Lots of enemies on-screen at the same time, too.

Like the original game, Fate/Extella Link is a musou-style action game that takes place in a digital word.  It's Musou Matrix!  Everyone is back from the original, with Nero Claudius and Tamamo No Mae as the main characters again, but Altera has been replaced with newcomer Charlemagne, who seems to be a total bro, lol.  There's a lot of assets being re-used here including some of the same stages as the original game, but everything feels much more refined now.  Fate/Extella had an exhausting amount of visual novel-style storyline between stages and the story bits alone were hours and hours of the game, which you had to play through four times to finish.  It also didn't allow for all of the characters to be played in the story modes and instead characters got unlocked for use in side stories that generally were a few levels each.

While there's still visual novel-type cut scenes, they are generally short and the game instead focuses on getting you right back into the action.  Whereas the first game felt like 50% VN and 50% action game, this feels like it's 100% action now.  Instead of going through long conversations to choose a path, clearing a stage opens up several levels that you can choose to play, broken down by day (I.E. day one is one stage, day two has two, etc.).  You can go back and play (or replay) all of the stages available as well- so far, each has generally had the same storyline, but with a few differences and boss/general types.  It's not necessary to play all of the stages to progress, but is useful for level grinding if needed.

The original game's four stories had you playing as one character throughout.  You can now choose from multiple characters to play as and can use in-game currency earned from playing levels to raise all characters' levels to match up with your highest-leveled character.  You still can 'craft' accessories that give you attack/defense/health regen/etc. options in battle, but now you also have four special move slots per character and can earn and switch up attacks inbetween battles.  The added special moves really help the game play to feel more varied and a bit less button-mashy like musou games can be.

Unless something unlocks, character side stories and free modes are gone- instead you get the story mode, extra battles that unlock as you play, and there's now a multiplayer mode which I haven't tried yet.  On Switch, this appears to be local multiplayer only.  Pretty sure it's online on PS4 and can't remember how it works on Vita.

DLC stuff currently being offered includes a bunch of outfits/swimsuits, disturbing 'chibi' character models for some of the main characters (got some of this stuff for free from having an Extella 1 save), and one playable character- Young Altera, who has not shown up in the story mode yet as a playable or enemy character, but from using her in the Extra Battle mode, seems to be the best character in the game by far.  Bit too loli for me with her half-nekkid design, though.  Might have to see if she has an alt costume to cover up with available.
:exxy

Overall, the improvements made to the game fix just about all my complaints on the original.  If you like musou games, this is worth checking out!
ど助平

nachobro

  • Live Más
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32565 on: February 02, 2019, 04:17:12 PM »
those shots are first time I've seen the actual game, that whole UI setup looks like Destiny smashed into Mass Effect to me
so far it plays like an uninspired mix of both as well. i only have access to one mech suit i think, so maybe the others have some more interesting playstyles

tried again to use kb/m when i was less tired but flying is still awkward as hell and there's like 4 different sensitivity settings that don't seem to do shit so i'm going to stick with controller.

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32566 on: February 02, 2019, 06:53:53 PM »
What I find weird about Anthem is that it doesn't look very good.
Not sure if it's the lighting or texture work but it doesn't look quite right.
🤴

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32567 on: February 03, 2019, 04:39:33 AM »
The only way I'd end up liking the game is if they renamed it Eulogy and it ends up killing EA.

Don Rumata

  • Hard To Be A John
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32568 on: February 03, 2019, 05:08:44 AM »
Finally finished Lost in Vivo (it's not long, but i just took my time cause i was busy).
The final "gauntlet" was a bit insipid (the part just before it, felt more intense, tbh) but the ending put a smile on my face, and left me with a good impression of the game.
Overall, it's a really neat little horror game, well worth the 9€ i paid for it.
Also, the extra tapes were real cool, even though i missed the first one.

Probably my favorite horror game since Evil Within 2.
After checking out of Outlast 2, because of boredom, it was nice to have my faith in the genre restored.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32569 on: February 03, 2019, 02:34:02 PM »
Monster Boy shits wondrous heights all over so many metroidvania wannabes.  Just got to the frog transformation last night (after the pig, then snake)…. Man… does this game show how Metroidvanias are done, son!  :lawd  It’s definitely got some challenging platforming (and I’ve died quite a few times), but it’s sooooo damn fun and charming!  The level designs are pure genius.  Anybody that ever enjoyed any of the Monster World  games, this is THE follow up that delivers all the above.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm tired of saying the word metroidvania.
[close]
« Last Edit: February 03, 2019, 03:38:14 PM by Svejk »

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32570 on: February 03, 2019, 05:29:49 PM »
It’s funny how Monster Boy is a tribute game to a Wonder Boy game but it’s seen as a Metroidvania but it’s the best term to apply it even though Dragon’s Trap is similarly open ended puzzle solving.
IYKYK

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32571 on: February 03, 2019, 05:36:17 PM »
Monster Boy shits wondrous heights all over so many metroidvania wannabes.  Just got to the frog transformation last night (after the pig, then snake)…. Man… does this game show how Metroidvanias are done, son!  :lawd  It’s definitely got some challenging platforming (and I’ve died quite a few times), but it’s sooooo damn fun and charming!  The level designs are pure genius.  Anybody that ever enjoyed any of the Monster World  games, this is THE follow up that delivers all the above.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm tired of saying the word metroidvania.
[close]

I liked the beginning, got to the first town, but then I played Hollow Knight and idk if I can go back. MB just felt so simple (not a bad thing), and HK was so good. I'll get back to MB at some point but just not in a rush. Same thing going on with Guacamelee 2 which I started and did a dungeon or two. Guac 1 is one of my favorite metroidvania's, but after HK idk. HK just pushed the bar so high for metroidvania for me.

Himu

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32572 on: February 03, 2019, 06:05:52 PM »
Stop comparing Wonder Boy to Metroid. You’ll do a lot better then.
IYKYK

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32573 on: February 03, 2019, 08:39:16 PM »
I really wanted to get into HK.... I really did.., but after 5-6 hours, I had no desire to keep going... The art direction was unique and the music was moody, but everything started looking the same to me and the level designs (from what I saw) was just getting meh...
Plus the whole Souls retrieving thing, I really don't find fun..
Maybe it'll click for me some other time...

I have a heavy bias for the Wonder Boy series (obviously).  The nostalgia runs deep.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2019, 09:33:16 PM by Svejk »

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32574 on: February 03, 2019, 09:57:21 PM »
Finished up all the stuff in Alexandria in AC Origins. Pretty fun city. About 13 hours in now, lvl.17, will be nice to get back to the desert. Only problem with this whole leveling thing is that if you do all the side stuff in AC games like I tend to do you end up ridiculously OP and nothing is a threat. The main story missions are still like lvl.12 where I'm at. Everyone talks about the grind in Origins/Odyssey but feels the opposite for me because of how I play these games. Maybe I should turn level scaling on.

Stop comparing Wonder Boy to Metroid. You’ll do a lot better then.

Yeah, I getcha. it seems more a stage based platformer.

bork

  • おっぱいは命、尻は故郷
  • Global Moderator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32575 on: February 03, 2019, 10:07:14 PM »
Beat Fate/Extella Link for the first time.  The final boss fight seemed a bit too easy and it didn't feel like much of an ending...plus I'm pretty sure all the characters in the game didn't even pop up!  So as expected, when I went back to the story mode, a split route popped up with at least another eight stages available.  You don't have to play all of the regular stages to get to the end, so I still have six levels from that route to go through, plus there's all the extra battle stages, meaning lots to do still.  Good stuff!

EDIT:  13 character slots left to unlock.  Looks like you pretty much have to clear all the regular stages before you can get to the second set that open up.  Makes sense.  The game also lets you freely-select any character for levels once you beat it.  Hoping that means I can use characters who normally aren't playable in the story mode, but kind of doubt it.

EDIT 2: You can use anyone who has been unlocked in story mode after clearing it once.
:phil
« Last Edit: February 03, 2019, 10:30:19 PM by bork »
ど助平

bork

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32576 on: February 03, 2019, 10:08:34 PM »
Monster Boy is very much a Metroidvania.  And it shits all over Hollow Knight.  So dunno- feel the exact opposite, Bebpo.

:idont
« Last Edit: February 03, 2019, 10:55:58 PM by bork »
ど助平

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32577 on: February 03, 2019, 10:57:55 PM »
Monster Boy is very much a Metroidvania.  And it shits all over Hollow Knight.  So dunno- feel the exact opposite, Bebpo.

:idont

Why didn't you like Hollow Knight?

At least Svejk said it was the areas looking similar and not being a fan of the dark souls mechanic.

bork

  • おっぱいは命、尻は故郷
  • Global Moderator
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32578 on: February 03, 2019, 11:00:12 PM »
Monster Boy is very much a Metroidvania.  And it shits all over Hollow Knight.  So dunno- feel the exact opposite, Bebpo.

:idont

Why didn't you like Hollow Knight?

At least Svejk said it was the areas looking similar and not being a fan of the dark souls mechanic.

My opinion on it pretty much mirrors Svejk's.  I usually go for Metroidvania games, but something about Hollow Knight just turned me right off.  Was pretty disappointed by what I played.  Still plan to give it another chance later on.

Monster Boy to me is easily one of the best games released last year.  Just a super-polished platformer/vania game.
ど助平

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #32579 on: February 04, 2019, 03:47:36 AM »
I feel like you probably just need to get further.

Like I started HK and got through 2 areas and then shelved it for almost two months. Then I picked it up and got a few more abilities and it clicked.

Did you get to City of Tears? I feel like with Dark Souls 1 and Anor Londo that’s where it starts to pick up.