Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3558936 times)

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Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33900 on: December 15, 2019, 06:29:42 PM »
Finished Prey. The pacing was a bit off at the end, but it is still an excellent game. :heartbeat

The whole Dahl section should have come earlier, not right before the finale (itself marred by a sprint from one load screen to another), but it wasn't bad in itself. It just resulted in a lot of backtracking when it was least called for, i.e. right before another back-and-forth.

The post-credits reveal was contrived (and teased at too much), but it is "pick your ending" done right. Being allowed to subvert Morgan's character arc is a great idea. The game is one big trolley problem (with multiple smaller ones nested within), so to give you a chance to flip the table
spoiler (click to show/hide)
and become the trolley
[close]
is :delicious   
« Last Edit: December 16, 2019, 04:57:56 AM by Rufus »

Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33901 on: December 15, 2019, 09:18:15 PM »
Going through the Witcher 1 at the moment since I refuse to play 3 without going through the previous games first.

Had to pull out my old Asus laptop to play since my Surface Pro 3 can barely run the darn thing :-\

I gotta say, this has been fairly fun so far. World and characters are really interesting. Main plot hasn’t really kicked-in yet, but the Chapter 1 village storyline has been cool.

Combat is complete non-sense even by 2007 standards, but it’s easy enough to wrap your head around. Inventory management is fucking ass. Can only store things with an inn-keeper (who gets fucking killed off towards the end of chapter 1), and vendors only buy items that are their specialty. At least you can drop items if needed. Other than that, things are generally good.

Oh and the sex cards thing is hilariously dumb (but hot :rash).

Witcher 1 is pretty jank, even with all the patches and stuff, but it was CD Projekt's very first game so I can forgive those issues, especially since the main story and quests are all really good. 2 was much better mechanically, but felt a bit smaller in scale and...not as mysterious.
dog

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33902 on: December 15, 2019, 10:45:28 PM »
My favorite memory of Witcher 1 was getting stuck in the floor in the end battle and having it save (or I saved accidentally) and my last other save was like dozen hours back so I YouTubed the last hour.

I still liked Witcher 1. The investigation stuff was fun even if the combat was super jank.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33903 on: December 16, 2019, 02:13:22 AM »
Met the last couple characters in Where the Water Tastes Like Wine and made it to the west coast. Calling it a good stopping point now that I've traveled from Boston to Los Angeles on mostly foot. Really, really interesting experience (but not a good game). Can see it surviving the test of time in the future as an important piece of the medium.

Did a little write up on era because the game had a real impact on me over the last few months from the dozen or so hours I played on dark & lonely nights.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-is-one-of-the-most-interesting-games-ive-ever-played.159573/

Also, the soundtrack is fucking killer. Even if you have no interest in the game give it a listen. It's on spotify by Ryan Ike.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2019, 02:39:24 AM by Bebpo »

bluemax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33904 on: December 16, 2019, 03:26:51 AM »
The best and worst thing that you can say about ray-tracing is that it is the future.

I've seen a lot of experienced graphics programmers who would disagree that it is the future.
NO

BIONIC

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33905 on: December 16, 2019, 03:37:48 AM »

Witcher 1 is pretty jank, even with all the patches and stuff, but it was CD Projekt's very first game so I can forgive those issues, especially since the main story and quests are all really good. 2 was much better mechanically, but felt a bit smaller in scale and...not as mysterious.

My favorite memory of Witcher 1 was getting stuck in the floor in the end battle and having it save (or I saved accidentally) and my last other save was like dozen hours back so I YouTubed the last hour.

I still liked Witcher 1. The investigation stuff was fun even if the combat was super jank.

It reminds me of Mass Effect 1 in a lot of ways. Fairly janky first entry, but with lots of heart. Along with the (seemingly) much improved gameplay in the sequels. Thankfully, I haven’t heard anything about The Witcher 3 shitting the bed with its ending(s), so I don’t have that to dread.
Margs

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33906 on: December 16, 2019, 04:57:15 AM »
The best and worst thing that you can say about ray-tracing is that it is the future.

I've seen a lot of experienced graphics programmers who would disagree that it is the future.
Hmhm~! Spill, brother.

...Provided it's not too technical to understand for us plebs. :doge

Tuckers Law

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33907 on: December 16, 2019, 04:24:37 PM »
Finished Ys 2.  I ended up swapping in the TG-16 music and really enjoyed it, although I enjoyed the chronicles music too.

Decided to change up a bit before starting Oath in Felghana and, since EA gave me a free month of their sub services, moved onto Titanfall 2.  Not far into the game but so far I’m enjoying it. Not a fan of how easily the enemies blend in with the terrain, but that might be because my pc is a potato at this point, maybe they stand out better with higher graphical fidelity?

bluemax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33908 on: December 17, 2019, 12:55:58 AM »
The best and worst thing that you can say about ray-tracing is that it is the future.

I've seen a lot of experienced graphics programmers who would disagree that it is the future.
Hmhm~! Spill, brother.

...Provided it's not too technical to understand for us plebs. :doge

I'd have to go digging to find takes, but I saw a lot of "we are doing this again?".  Maybe it is the future at some point, but it just seems like another thing getting pushed out before its ready for consumers ala VR.
NO

Coax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33909 on: December 17, 2019, 07:32:53 AM »
The hypno attack from the boss in this level is pretty cheap :doge Being unrecoverable isn't so bad, more just going through the trivial motions again of the early fight (edit: just realized it merely inverses movement...). Neat rest of the level though. Have enjoyed the re-designed platforming sections from past areas, such as the final stretch of the cloud level in 8-bit mode which was a good challenge.

Excuse to test puzzle WebP clip instead of GIF:



encoding thoughts
Attention-drawing WebP deblocking or dithered to hell bloated GIF :thinking One would think that being VP8-based it'd allow for better size to quality ratios yet it's still fairly large in comparison (above at 20% quality to get the filesize more reasonable). Have also tested APNG but its optimizations aren't suited for long clips.
[close]
« Last Edit: December 17, 2019, 07:40:33 AM by Coax »

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33910 on: December 17, 2019, 11:59:59 AM »
I found the trick was just to stand still after being hit and jump straight up until it wears off.

naff

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33911 on: December 17, 2019, 04:56:14 PM »
The best and worst thing that you can say about ray-tracing is that it is the future.

I've seen a lot of experienced graphics programmers who would disagree that it is the future.
Hmhm~! Spill, brother.

...Provided it's not too technical to understand for us plebs. :doge

I'd have to go digging to find takes, but I saw a lot of "we are doing this again?".  Maybe it is the future at some point, but it just seems like another thing getting pushed out before its ready for consumers ala VR.

https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/975881430415818752?lang=en

also, lol

https://twitter.com/InternDept/status/805879135646220291
◕‿◕

Freyj

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33912 on: December 18, 2019, 10:56:30 PM »
Finished Remnant. Pretty sure I'm not going to grind out the last 10 achievements because while I'd like to roll the rest of the bosses I didn't fight I don't really want to grind out the scrap or maxed weapons / armor achievements.

Really good proof of concept for a Souls-like in the mold of a TPS, but so many of the boss designs fell flat for me. 95% of the difficulty in any given encounter is the add swarm phase that lazily throws chaos into a solo playthrough. Having even one more person to draw aggro would make Normal insanely easy. Then there's a number of encounters that feel like whoever designed it just straight up did not give a shit about solo players. Fun, but frustrating.

RyoonZ

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33913 on: December 19, 2019, 04:05:16 AM »
Days Gone is amazing. I love the bike combat, love the characters. I thought I was gonna hate Boozer really don't like his head tattoo but I was wrong. What a bro.
Don't believe the lies!

RyoonZ

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33914 on: December 19, 2019, 07:27:06 AM »
I hope there will be one set in China. I want to kill my ancestors.

Freyj

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33915 on: December 19, 2019, 10:19:48 AM »
How did you find the last boss? Reddit thinks it is the worst boss in the game (after Gorefist) and sours the whole experience etc. I do not think that at all.

The first phase is fine, the second one was pretty frustrating in that I didn’t understand what the game wanted me to do until I looked it up. Once I learned that you wanted to sit by the portal, pop exactly 10 adds and then portal out and Hot Shot / unload on the chest it went pretty smoothly. Not very impressive by any means and yet another boss who’s difficulty is entirely dependent on an add phase. Par for the game I guess.

paprikastaude

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33916 on: December 19, 2019, 10:53:47 AM »
Metal Wolf Chaos XD - Believe in your justice, Mr. President. :usacry tbf the gameplay doesn't seem so bad, except that the levels are now stacking up on helicopters, which are annoying to fight.

Joe Molotov

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33917 on: December 19, 2019, 10:57:37 AM »
How did you find the last boss? Reddit thinks it is the worst boss in the game (after Gorefist) and sours the whole experience etc. I do not think that at all.

The first phase is fine, the second one was pretty frustrating in that I didn’t understand what the game wanted me to do until I looked it up. Once I learned that you wanted to sit by the portal, pop exactly 10 adds and then portal out and Hot Shot / unload on the chest it went pretty smoothly. Not very impressive by any means and yet another boss who’s difficulty is entirely dependent on an add phase. Par for the game I guess.

I was watching two dudes play co-op, and that boss seemed really poorly designed for that. Only one person gets teleported and the other person just sorta hangs out with the boss for a few minutes. :lol
©@©™

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33918 on: December 19, 2019, 02:29:10 PM »
Wake me up when Odyssey is $5 without a coupon :P

Hopefully it'll be on humble choice in one of the bundles soon. Will probably be up for it sometime next year. Still gotta play the Origins DLCs first.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33919 on: December 19, 2019, 02:30:48 PM »
PC versions of Ass Creed are often more buggy than their console counterparts.
🤴

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33920 on: December 19, 2019, 02:46:57 PM »
That seems like an odd claim? AC games are notoriously buggy everywhere...

Also didn’t have any issues with Origins that I can remember. Game was pretty polished.

Freyj

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33921 on: December 19, 2019, 03:02:04 PM »
How did you find the last boss? Reddit thinks it is the worst boss in the game (after Gorefist) and sours the whole experience etc. I do not think that at all.

The first phase is fine, the second one was pretty frustrating in that I didn’t understand what the game wanted me to do until I looked it up. Once I learned that you wanted to sit by the portal, pop exactly 10 adds and then portal out and Hot Shot / unload on the chest it went pretty smoothly. Not very impressive by any means and yet another boss who’s difficulty is entirely dependent on an add phase. Par for the game I guess.

I was watching two dudes play co-op, and that boss seemed really poorly designed for that. Only one person gets teleported and the other person just sorta hangs out with the boss for a few minutes. :lol

That’s a bizarre decision. Most of the benefit of more than 1 person would be managing aggro. I would honestly rank most of the game’s boss designs pretty poorly by Souls-like standards because the entire difficulty is wrapped up in add management.

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33922 on: December 19, 2019, 03:03:46 PM »
PC versions of Ass Creed are often more buggy than their console counterparts.
Origins had very little problems for me, and actually ran fairly smooth as far as performance go.
Odyssey was a bit more stuttery instead.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33923 on: December 19, 2019, 03:04:16 PM »
That seems like an odd claim? AC games are notoriously buggy everywhere...

Also didn’t have any issues with Origins that I can remember. Game was pretty polished.
In my experience they are because consoles are 'fixed' hardware so it works and stays working even if issues persist.
Nvidia and AMD however are likely to break something within 2 or 3 years with driver updates, which they never bother to fix.

So you get things like this:
https://forums.ubisoft.com/showthread.php/1773724-Assassin-s-Creed-Origins-Known-Issues-UPDATED-May-15
Quote
Game crashes with AMD drivers 18.2.1
Description: We have noticed game client instability with both the base game and the upcoming Discovery Tour mode, while using AMD drivers 18.2.1
Workaround: We recommend rolling back to previous driver version 17.12.1 until we have more information about the issue.
Status: Under investigation
🤴

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33924 on: December 19, 2019, 07:40:47 PM »
Infinifactory is on Game Pass. I jumped right on it, knowing that it will both hook and eventually defeat me, like Space Chem before and as probably all other Zachtronics games would. One of these puzzles will require more than one sitting's worth of thought and it will sap my spirit, I know it. Until then, I will have a lot of fun tinkering.

Already found myself overthinking a puzzle severly. :stahp

Coax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33925 on: December 20, 2019, 02:16:28 AM »
Completed The Messenger. Is fair to say they could have pared it back and had a tighter experience, especially if they wanted to entice players with a NG+ but I agree the second half holds up mostly just fine apart from that. One could avoid the optional challenge rooms to keep it shorter.

That said I enjoyed the level design enough that I wasn't actively bothered by it and found the general play sessions quite chill with the music muted. They added enough changes and new rooms and maps to keep it interesting and rewarding gameplay wise.

It's the final ~10-15% which isn't as rewarding imo. It started to feel a bit long in the tooth following the flying sequence, then drag in the area past the bridge and then the Abyss sidescroller made me actively annoyed at the game for the first time. The last map is pretty decent but I wouldn't consider them as enjoyable as the prior parts of the game.

Boss-wise the sidescroller in the Abyss of The Messenger is the only part where I thought 'this is utter trash'. It's not even that a long section but if you get ahead of it the thing catches up unfairly and one mistake costs your life so it becomes mindnumbingly repetitive.

The Demon Boss was surprisingly easy. The second-easiest boss in the game apart from the moth (though I died more unnecessarily to that one until I realized how the hypno attack functioned). Last boss felt like a marathon until I discovered you can cut the fight in half using this technique while it's idle.

Tried the free DLC but it began with a boat race that went on and on and wasn't fun tbh so I left it at that.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33926 on: December 21, 2019, 03:01:10 AM »
Control












Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33927 on: December 21, 2019, 03:12:23 AM »
Getting towards the back end of the game and wrapping up sidequests and checked out the expeditions free dlc mode. I'm cooling on the game a little, though still really like it, just not in love with it like the first half where the action just kept getting better and better as you went through these weird cool areas.

It just feels like after a certain point it's running out of steam and the game just turns into room after room of the same enemy waves (standard, bomb, heavy gunner, rocket bois) and combat pretty much stays the same where the best thing to do just seems to be run around throwing shit at people one at a time and then flying and shoot dodging between, repeat over and over until the last spawns are dead.

There's nothing really to even do in the rooms between enemy waves besides scour every room for case files, which are fun but damn there is a lot. The FMV stuff is still great with the Dr. Darling vids and Hotline vids. Threshold Kids is creepy fun even if it is literally a 1:1 copy of Candle Cove from Channel Zero S1 (you can really tell the shows Sam Lake is a fan of in these games haha).

And the boss fights, especially the big monster ones feel like the weakest part. They're not terrrrible, but they're simple and make you miss the standard wave bosses.

It's a good game with great TPS action but just feels like it's coasting since about halfway and relying on the art and story. Most of the time it's a lot of fun, but sometimes it's starting to get a bit boring. I remember liking Alan Wake a good deal but it also kinda went back and forth between fun and a bit boring. It just feels like there's something variety-wise missing in Remedy games post-Max Payne to keep them running at high-steam from start to finish. Maybe they're too long for their own good.


Anyhow, was fun running into

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Alan Wake and his typewriter and thermos
[close]

The dark tower connected Remedy universe is lol but I'll take it. I didn't play Quantum Break but I guess it's a story written by Alan Wake? I definitely want to play Quantum Break soon after Control since the combat seems similar and the core combat feel is really good in Control. Just needs more enemy variety, combat scenario variety and maybe more useful moves/weapons (I feel like a lot of weapon types are kinda useless). Also not a big fan of the timed one-shot missions for mats. Getting instant KO'd by some off-screen enemy and then not seeing the mission again for an hour or two sucks.

I read Photo Mode wasn't there at launch. Glad I'm playing it now, especially since Epic Store doesn't have screenshots and it's really helpful for taking photos since it's a great looking game.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33928 on: December 21, 2019, 05:12:28 AM »
What I love about Control is all the optional content(TM).

You can just run through it as an action romp like Quantum Break or you can explore and really dive deep into the Lore and solve environmental puzzles that are not even marked as 'puzzles' using hints you find,
those hints may be as subtle as a poster in the background or an image playing on the TV. Once you realize all these secret are hidden the game it becomes even better.

I really enjoyed Quantum Break as well but Control is on another level. My biggest problem with Quantum Break is that by the time you have all the powers and things get really interesting the game ends.
Still, it's easily the most interesting 'AAA' first party game Microsoft published on the Xbox One  :doge


🤴

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33929 on: December 21, 2019, 03:00:27 PM »
I bought Battlefront II

might as well check it out for 5 bucks
What

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33930 on: December 21, 2019, 03:11:22 PM »
What I love about Control is all the optional content(TM).

You can just run through it as an action romp like Quantum Break or you can explore and really dive deep into the Lore and solve environmental puzzles that are not even marked as 'puzzles' using hints you find,
those hints may be as subtle as a poster in the background or an image playing on the TV. Once you realize all these secret are hidden the game it becomes even better.

I really enjoyed Quantum Break as well but Control is on another level. My biggest problem with Quantum Break is that by the time you have all the powers and things get really interesting the game ends.
Still, it's easily the most interesting 'AAA' first party game Microsoft published on the Xbox One  :doge

I'd like the optional content better if there was a better map showing locked doors like RE/SH. Because trying to remember where all the locked doors you now have keys for basically is just re-running through all the areas again.
But yeah, I like when I platform around and find some little hidden hole and it says HIDDEN AREA DISCOVERED +1 ability point

There is a lot I like about Control
and a decent amount I don't. Lots of little dumb things like how everytime you find an audio log you just have to stand still and wait for it to play it vs other games when you can keep moving while listening to audio logs. Between those and the videos everywhere the pacing is kinda whack where you're running and fighting and exploring and then just standing still for 90 seconds staring at a screen/audio player every few mins.

But man when the action waves are good, the core action is easily the most satisfying TPS since Vanquish.

Right now the game's about a B+ for me, but still got a bit to go. At

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Ordinary AWE
[close]

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33931 on: December 21, 2019, 11:25:48 PM »
The levitation is a pretty drastic game changer in the combat, and you get it near the end.  :ufup

My main problems with the game are a couple of audio visual choices that conflict with gameplay (everything is fucking red, you can't see shit sometimes, and too many things make too similar of a sound, to be used as cues for attacks), and, particularly, kind of underwhelming boss fights.
They gain their challenge entirely from the absurd damage dealt and the bullet spongyness, rather than interesting attack patterns or mechanics (except maybe the anchor?).
Didn't even bother beating end-game Tommasi, for this reason, it took forever to get his shield down, and he killed me in two hits, but since his attacks are brain dead stupid to avoid, they just drop a bunch of adds in the arena. Lame.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33932 on: December 22, 2019, 07:09:41 AM »
They spend absolutely no time on accessibility or whatever.
Remedy was basically like: "This looks fucking cool let's put that in"

People have been complaining and asking if they can clean it up, but I feel that if they do it won't be Control anymore.
You're supposed to be in this sort of hazy psychotic mental state all the time. With the later abilities in some rooms you can cover like 90% of your screen with effects and debris.  :lol
There's a few enemies and objects that mess with your head and thus visibility further.

I love these type of more experimental games. Especially when they're executed so well.
🤴

Potato

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33933 on: December 22, 2019, 07:56:29 AM »
Just started Joe Dever's Lone Wolf on Switch. Interesting little game, blending that old school pen and paper RPG with a video game. Not far enough to give it a definitive assessment, but I think I'll stick to this one for a while.
Spud

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33934 on: December 22, 2019, 02:32:18 PM »
Infinifactory is on Game Pass. I jumped right on it, knowing that it will both hook and eventually defeat me, like Space Chem before and as probably all other Zachtronics games would. One of these puzzles will require more than one sitting's worth of thought and it will sap my spirit, I know it. Until then, I will have a lot of fun tinkering.

Already found myself overthinking a puzzle severly. :stahp
There's a
...
second campaign!? I thought I was nearly done! No wonder I still hadn't unlocked those special blocks.
[close]

Still having a lot of fun with it though. The ramp is gentle. I've yet to hit a hard wall due to not having developed some unintuitive technique, which happened to me in SpaceChem.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2019, 02:39:08 PM by Rufus »

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33935 on: December 22, 2019, 11:30:12 PM »
Beat Control. Really good game. The ashtray maze with the metal song playing and fighting waves in moving cool environments was the highest point of the game and climax imo. Very awesome and would've liked more of that kinda moving environments gameplay in the game. The ending was kinda weak and after doing all the waves waiting for the cable car and then in the ashtray maze, doing them again at Hedron and then again at the final boss area got kinda tiring. It's weird how like 90% of the enemies can't even hit you in endgame and then like 2 enemy types can kill you in 2 hits (throwing shit enemies) so you can go waves and then they spawn and you die in 2 hits and do it again and watch out specifically for them.

Anyhow, liked the story, really liked the VA by the main gal who plays Jesse and Trench/Max Payne is great of course. Great art, great combat though could use some more useful weapons and powers (is there any reason to ever use the world's shittiest sniper rifle and the grenade launcher that doesn't do damage and just interrupts? When is shield/seize ever actually needed?) and more enemy variety. Also more gameplay variety too with puzzles and stuff could've mixed it up a bit.

I still have the new expeditions mode which is looong waves and dunno if I'll bother and a few of the tedious filler sidequests (go do a dozen different things through the whole map again!). Also the
spoiler (click to show/hide)
fake ending kinda ran on a bit long
[close]
but overall real good and very much worth full price and the time. Would give it like an A- in the end.

I very much appreciate how it's sorta Alan Wake 2 with very specific connections and overall settings/style is basically Alan Wake with better combat and less exploration. It's a better game than Alan Wake for sure.
Will definitely play the DLC expansions next year. Both sound interesting.

Oh and the diablo rng loot stuff was really pointless Never had to make mods since you get enough in combat and there's a lot of useless mods. Once I have my setup I pretty much just replaced them here and there with higher tier versions and was good. Would like more variety of useful mods in the expansions/sequel.

The levitation is a pretty drastic game changer in the combat, and you get it near the end.  :ufup

My main problems with the game are a couple of audio visual choices that conflict with gameplay (everything is fucking red, you can't see shit sometimes, and too many things make too similar of a sound, to be used as cues for attacks), and, particularly, kind of underwhelming boss fights.
They gain their challenge entirely from the absurd damage dealt and the bullet spongyness, rather than interesting attack patterns or mechanics (except maybe the anchor?).
Didn't even bother beating end-game Tommasi, for this reason, it took forever to get his shield down, and he killed me in two hits, but since his attacks are brain dead stupid to avoid, they just drop a bunch of adds in the arena. Lame.

Levitation does change things up although it mostly just changes dashing around strafting and throwing shit to flying around strafing and throwing shit.
But since teleport float is not tied to energy usage and makes you harder to hit it does make things easier. Throw throw throw and then jump and float and shoot shoot shoot while air dashing to dodge stuff big guys throw.

The funny thing is that Tommasi fight is exactly the same as the first boss in the game Tommasi fight. For me, even having beaten the game and done most/all the optional bosses, that first Tommasi fight was the hardest. I got stuck for 30-40 mins on it and had to cheat through it, but I did the endgame one fair and square and beat it. In that first fight he still kills you in 2 hits of things he throws, you have no powers against launch and he dodges your launch (although I learned later in the game that floating enemies only dodge your first launch and the second and third in a row hit, so I'm guessing I could've hit him but I assumed launch didn't work on him since he'd dodge when I threw stuff) and the only weapon you have is the starting one and the shotgun which doesn't help since he's so far away.

So since your options are severely limited and he kills you in 2 hits while spawning enemies and has a ton of HP and all you can do is get some pop pop pop shots in between reload times...that fight was fucking hard. It was the only part in the game I had to use a trainer for! The rest was fine when more options opened up.

On endgame one at least I could float up to the top level area so I avoid his spawns and can just launch shit at him non-stop and levitate dodge while energy recharged to repeat.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33936 on: December 22, 2019, 11:37:22 PM »
oh and the Dynamite music video was greaaaaaat

best parts are when the game was just having fun like with the ashtray maze metal and that.

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33937 on: December 23, 2019, 09:54:26 AM »
Started playing ni no cummy 2 again, with the UW support mod. Cummy af









Coax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33938 on: December 23, 2019, 11:27:18 AM »
Unruly Heroes. Bought during the current GOG sale. Ex-Ubisoft devs from what I understand (thought it was a Chinese studio initially due to the subject and certain things like their logo but they're French).

Production value is superb and the game has a brisk pacing so far. For gameplay (played on Normal so far) it centers around switching between four characters which have certain advantages in specific situations but play fairly similar otherwise so you're not really having to think about which is selected most of the time. Attacks can be combo'd and up into the air, even just by mashing and the animations look great though combat doesn't exactly feel particularly precise or challenging if that's something you're after.

Due to the very forgiving death mechanic on Normal if one character dies you respawn as another in the same vicinity and can revive the last character by hitting its ghost which hovers toward you. On Hard it's said to respawn you at the last checkpoint, which for the sake of my initial casual playthrough I haven't tried (difficulty is toggled per stage). Coins can be collected in the levels to buy alternate skins for the characters.

Music suits it well. There were a few quieter moments where the art and music gelled in a lovely way and I thought it would have been nice to extend it for a couple more screens.

Only aspect that reveals a budget is the voice acting which is sub-par but I'll slide since all cutscene dialog can be skipped (which you'll probably want to anyway since the writing sucks :lol). Took the shots below with its photo mode.







Quite creative section concept where you assume the spirit of the enemy alpha leader and howl to draw underlings to you for gameplay purposes



Boss fight with three phases and three health bars. Pretty decent. Would be curious how differently this plays on Hard.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33939 on: December 23, 2019, 01:02:22 PM »
I think somehow Origins is a lot more beautiful than Odyssey. Odyssey doesn't have a lot of big tall trees I've found. Or at least not in the 18 levels Ive played it

Origins is where its at, plus it has a better story ( and a far more interesting setting )
What

Chooky

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33940 on: December 23, 2019, 01:47:50 PM »
Origins graphics were insane to me. I kept thinking about how we'd all go nuts over some 2-4 frame unique animations in old games, meanwhile Origins has probably hundreds of unique animations. you can walk through a mausoleum and see people working on the bodies at various stages of embalming. you can see people planting crops, harvesting them, selling them, cooking with them, and eating a finished meal. insane. and the temples with all the flowers scattered around and the incense burning, just beautiful.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33941 on: December 23, 2019, 01:49:06 PM »
There are a bunch of things I don't like about the new AC, but enjoyed my time with Origins somewhat. I need to make myself finish it though.. so many good games.. ugh

What I don't like as much is grinding to keep your weapons up to date, collecting leather and shit.. making it a lot of useless busywork.. and also the quests are.. hmm well mediocre. It's mostly go here kill enemy rince and repeat. The ambient noises and NPC chatter are repeated so much.. it's like jesus fucking christ Ubisoft you have 3000 people working on this shit, you can't make more than 5 NPC chatters? In RDR2 you can talk to any NPC and they will mostly give a varied response 99 out of a 100 times. Even the fact that you can interact with NPC's, is something that makes the world feel more grounded.

The mounts look fucking stupid, move like I dunno toys or something. The camels do not move like camels and the horses do not move like horses. Even AC2 had better animated horses than Origin somehow.

I didn't really feel like a real "assassin" compared to AC1 or AC2.

But yeah Origins is pretty dope all of those niggles aside, I like the main character Bayek and his wife Aya(?). The story is more interesting than Odyssey where I found it just a little bit too much and unbelievable.

But yeah if you play it after RDR2 (as I did) you will be dissapointed in a lot of things.
What

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33942 on: December 23, 2019, 01:49:43 PM »
Origins graphics were insane to me. I kept thinking about how we'd all go nuts over some 2-4 frame unique animations in old games, meanwhile Origins has probably hundreds of unique animations. you can walk through a mausoleum and see people working on the bodies at various stages of embalming. you can see people planting crops, harvesting them, selling them, cooking with them, and eating a finished meal. insane. and the temples with all the flowers scattered around and the incense burning, just beautiful.

Too bad the horses still move like weird toys or something. AI Pathing is a nightmare too.

But I agree, it's very pretty most of the time.
What

Chooky

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33943 on: December 23, 2019, 01:52:39 PM »
the camels were fully motion captured lol. they just run weird naturally.

Chooky

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D3RANG3D

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33945 on: December 24, 2019, 09:45:14 AM »
Started Playing the Witcher 2 after my failed attempt to replay the fist game and noped the fuck out. How much better is the 3rd game? W2 is definetly the better game but the combat just makes Geralt into a chump who is weaker than most enemies unlike the first game where you beast on everything.

spoiler (click to show/hide)
Never played this in it's heyday my PC was too shite to do so.
[close]

nachobro

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33946 on: December 24, 2019, 09:55:58 AM »
witcher 1 and 2 aged like milk. 3's combat is better but still a bit clunky, overall its still a much better game than the first two.

D3RANG3D

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33947 on: December 24, 2019, 10:07:26 AM »
I have been playing two the last few days but I'm bored already.  :lol

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33948 on: December 24, 2019, 11:04:49 AM »
I never got into Witcher because it was overly clunky.
Witcher 2 was a snore at the start so I didn't feel that one either.

Witcher 3 is where I finally got into it. I kept Blood and Wine on the backburner for a rainy day though.
🤴

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33949 on: December 24, 2019, 12:16:13 PM »
I bought MK11 Premium Edition for Steam for 20 euro's, as a Christmas present for myself.

I do always enjoy the story mode in these games.
What

paprikastaude

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33950 on: December 24, 2019, 06:41:49 PM »
Dragon Quest Swords - I saw this in a video recommending games for christmas and I remember being slightly interested in it back in  the day. Now I got it, cool game. Arcade Dragon Quest with motion controls and minor adventure elements rules. Too bad this came out before Nintendo made properly functioning Wiimotes 2.0., so sadly the accuracy is like 90% at best - even though the game is overall fair and tries its best to iron out inaccuracies. Mainline DQ always bores me, but many of those spinoffs are fun.

Sid Meier's Pirates - destroying the French, betraying the English, grabbing hot Spanish wifes :rejoice This game always hooks me longer than it deserves when I replay it. The novelty of 'freedom' always wears off pretty quickly, i.e. when it reveals itself as a pathetic grind towards any major goal.  :lol

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33951 on: December 25, 2019, 02:20:24 AM »
http://ashorthike.com/



Era had a thread pop up this evening about a PC indie game called A Short Hike that was free on the humble bundle trove if you're a subscriber and otherwise like $7 on steam. I googled it and found lots of reviews praising it like this

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akwzwz/short-hike-review

and so I gave it a shot and played through the whole thing in one sitting in about 2 hours and it was absolutely fantastic. It has great gameplay and gameplay progression, really great sandbox-esque mountain to explore with lots of secrets and people to talk to (great dialogue). When I beat it, it felt damn good.

A+ game and definitely making my top10 of the year. If you have a PC give it a play. I'm sure it'll play on a toaster. Whatever this dev makes next I'll be there day 1.

Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33952 on: December 25, 2019, 09:33:19 AM »
Looks like a really good DS game.   
DS for life.
 :rejoice

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33953 on: December 25, 2019, 12:00:56 PM »
I discovered that there is a gif recording function in Infinifactory.

The quality isn't great, and there is no neat angle that would show enough, but here's my latest solution:

Disassembly and teleportation of parts:
https://i.imgur.com/iqlzF7V.gif
I tried to find way to sort the parts better, but I gave up and went back to the initial solution you see here. The pieces are in the correct orientation and the sections are not jumbled, so I should have been satisfied all along.

Re-assembly and turn-in:
https://i.imgur.com/Y6Xj82M.mp4
I just have it dump everything onto a single line, then use a simple sensor to count out and process a complete set. Most of what you see is just about moving things into position. The last stage of welding is done in the air, because I ran out of space on the ground. There's always some kind of cludgey part to my mechanicsms because I can't look far enough ahead.

This took around two-hours. :doge

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33954 on: December 25, 2019, 05:55:47 PM »
mk11 is dope but i suck online haha i won one match tho
What

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33955 on: December 26, 2019, 05:25:24 AM »
Tried out Glass Masquerade the other night when had trouble sleeping. It's a 99 cent jigsaw puzzle game with stained glass clocks from around the world that you don't rotate and don't know what the finished image will look like. At first I thought it was super fucking hard and was gonna bail out after a couple. But kinda got the hang of it and can pop out a 30-40 piece puzzle in a few minutes and even the 5/5 star difficulty 60 piece puzzles are like 20 mins and doable. The music is relaxing and the finished puzzles are good looking art. Had trouble sleeping again tonight and got through a bunch more. Actually might finish this up sooner than later. Without the DLC the base game is like 25 puzzles and I'm already through 10.


Coax

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33956 on: December 26, 2019, 08:22:26 AM »
Finished Unruly Heroes. The levels are stylistically grouped into four different environments, hell being the last with a few auto scroller sections that are no joke. Those sections are where the movement mechanics become more of an issue imo, with that slightly imprecise-feeling and auto-correcting platforming very similar to what I played of Ori and the Blind Forest.

By that I mean you can make effectively the same wall jump, which like Ori can only go in diagonal directions rather than straight up with no wall hanging, yet land on slightly differing parts of the wall and sometimes not make your intended jump. Being on ledges will auto-correct to either give a slight boost up or let you fall, depending sometimes just on the character (the monk more typically is boosted but lacks a double-jump). Keep in mind this is mainly a problem in challenging sections requiring tight and time sensitive maneuvers as otherwise it doesn't feel as egregious as it may sound but in those sections it's a PITA. There's also a puzzle section with Ori-like spikes where the slightest touch will kill you rather than damage you (even falling lava in this game is less harmful :doge).

Overall though I actually like the game despite these those things since they're only a real issue in like 2-3 spots and with enough attempts possible. The visuals are great and the pacing is good, balancing action with quieter areas or puzzle rooms following. Being level based it's a linear progression, which I'm usually fond of. There's a charming set of levels where you're teleported into a dream land with a few unique elements like underutilized reverse gravity switches and a kind of ghost rollercoaster mechanic, with all the characters transformed into child versions of themselves and at the end you have to perform for a crowd of gods.

more screens






[close]

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33957 on: December 26, 2019, 10:44:56 AM »
Finished Samorost 3 last night.
comfiest game ever created, even better than Machinarium:lawd

paprikastaude

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33958 on: December 26, 2019, 10:59:03 AM »
Celeste -  :lol it's every indie trope ever in a single game.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
:snore
[close]

Dragon Quest Swords - could've been a tight game overall, but it seems it requires at least a couple of hours of grinding to beat an overpowered final boss.

Dissidia 012 -  way too overcomplicate a Dragonball Budokai Tenkaichi clone with poor tutorials, nonsensical semantics and clutter. Should've started with Vaan instead of Lightning too, he seems way easier to handle for a beginner.

Svejk

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #33959 on: December 26, 2019, 11:47:41 AM »
Finished Samorost 3 last night.
comfiest game ever created, even better than Machinarium:lawd
I've been really missing out on these.  Made from one of muh peepz.  :mynicca. I played and loved Machinarium without having even known of it's developer origin.  After learning of it, it made even more sense.