Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3558452 times)

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Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36240 on: January 12, 2021, 03:47:34 AM »
At first I thought Arx city in Divinity OS2 chapter 4 was kinda small. But then I started going through the buildings and every building has its own story and like 30-90 mins of questing/exploring. Like Driftwood it's really dense even if the city size isn't Baldur's Gate or anything. Did a bunch and hit lvl.19. Definitely moving along. Probably covered like 1/4th the city so far.

Also the difficulty stat jumps in Act 4 are kinda bullshit. I looked it up and that's the general consensus. They just give every enemy thousands of HP/Armors and strong enough to 1-2 shot your characters. I've been sticking on classic difficulty and making it through so far (had a glitch in one major fight where one character, Ifan, became invincible and was at 0 HP but would never die lol), but every fight is like 30 mins+ battle because of the # grind.

I read a comment that said in the DE they halved player armor/HP but kept enemy armor/HP the same...because the original was too easy? Idk, I may drop down a difficulty just to speed up some of these fights. It's fun beating them when they're tough, but like I did a 20-30 min fight outside the school and the enemies just ran away when low on life after 20-30 mins of intense fighting which was not really satisfying -_-

HardcoreRetro

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36241 on: January 12, 2021, 05:22:23 AM »
." Someone really should have been "Do you REALLY need the grenades to be of poop?"

That was one of the only aspects of the game I enjoyed. Dick out, walking toward BTs and pissing on them.

Coffee Dog

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36242 on: January 12, 2021, 01:14:15 PM »
I picked up Sam and Max Hit The Road in the holiday sale. Definitely worth a couple bucks. Great performances, Sam is funny as hell compared to the telltale stuff where he's a little more restrained. The art and music must have been next level on release, as it still looks great. Very brief little game, only about six hours, but definitely made use of the time. A little much on the cartoon logic (corkscrew puzzle :| ) but that's just a sign of the times it was made in. Maybe I'll pick up Monkey Island 2 after this.

I'm going back and giving second chances to extremely popular games that I'd otherwise written off, meaning that I put a few hours into The Last Of Us yesterday. The performances were great and the dialogue is fine if overly expository, but good god what a bore to interact with. So much of this game is traversal - walking down hallways and moving dumpsters and boosting people up ledges, and none of it is anything other than strictly functional. At the same time, the atmosphere of the first couple clicker encounters was fun and tense, but the game is utterly unconvinced with curating that experience. Being an interactive work, these first impressions should matter - the moment when I turned around and realized the clickers were following my light steps was a genuinely fun one, and a moment I recall better than the actual cutscene in which the clickers were introduced, but in the five seconds that follow my ally comes STOMP STOMP STOMP sprinting through the scene, bantering over a previously tense moment. Lord help me for invoking Kojima, but just comparing the first clicker encounter to the first BT encounters in Death Stranding, the BT's have a clear authority that is not undermined in the same sequence they're introduced. It takes many hours to get the upper hand on the BT's. Yet here Joel's instinct mastery of bricks and your loud yet undetectable friends reveal them for the haunted house animatronics they are. The only authority clickers have is within a noninteractive context, utterly apathetic to the emotions that I feel while in control.

I'm reminded of the first shooting sequence in the game, cynically set against the waist high boxes we all know and love. The game goes to great lengths to establish just how few humans there are, and with Joel's daughter still fresh in the players mind to immediately throw you into a situation so knowingly disposable communicates it's goals more than anything else. It's a contrived scenario for a contrived medium, presenting to the player upfront the divorced atmosphere of its mechanical interactions against an ostensibly human backdrop. It knows that the gameplay doesn't amount to anything more than the shooting gallery filler between story beats and doesn't even do the bare minimum to acknowledge the tension of the interactive sequences.  Why would it? The story flows better if you pretend so many of these sequences don't exist. They're commercial breaks.

Verdict: I was going to see this through to the end but it actively feels like it takes up too much of my time for how much enjoyment I'm getting out of this. This seems like a game best experienced in 50% fast forward on youtube. I actually had better memories of this.  :-\
« Last Edit: January 12, 2021, 03:51:48 PM by Coffee Dog »

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36243 on: January 12, 2021, 04:01:11 PM »
Grandia for the Saturn. Not as magical as I remember it, but still charming. I'm one dungeon away from finishing disc 1.

I'm using this translation patch: https://segaxtreme.net/threads/translating-grandia.24330/page-34#post-179252

They've recently added subtitled cutscenes. Wasn't impossible to play before (I started with .85), but more complete more better. Finding the right version for patching can be a hassle. I can point the way if necessary.

Runs pretty much perfect using Mednafen, aside from a couple loading hitches before FMVs and voiced cutscenes (which might be accurate to real hardware, I don't know).

Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36244 on: January 12, 2021, 04:02:48 PM »
I picked up Sam and Max Hit The Road in the holiday sale. Definitely worth a couple bucks. Great performances, Sam is funny as hell compared to the telltale stuff where he's a little more restrained. The art and music must have been next level on release, as it still looks great. Very brief little game, only about six hours, but definitely made use of the time. A little much on the cartoon logic (corkscrew puzzle :| ) but that's just a sign of the times it was made in. Maybe I'll pick up Monkey Island 2 after this.

Still one of the GOATs from the 90s. :preach
dog

Joe Molotov

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36245 on: January 12, 2021, 04:05:01 PM »
Sam and Max Hit the Road was one of the first games I played when I got a CD-ROM drive for my PC in 1994. It was amazing. I replayed it about a year ago and I could still remember the solutions to all the puzzles, but yeah, they are a few that are pretty wack. I remembered being stuck on the Alligator puzzle forever for some reason, although it didn't really seem hard in retrospect.
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Coffee Dog

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36246 on: January 12, 2021, 04:51:47 PM »
Sam and Max Hit the Road was one of the first games I played when I got a CD-ROM drive for my PC in 1994. It was amazing. I replayed it about a year ago and I could still remember the solutions to all the puzzles, but yeah, they are a few that are pretty wack. I remembered being stuck on the Alligator puzzle forever for some reason, although it didn't really seem hard in retrospect.

Why do I have to set the bucket of fish on the dock before I can use it on the golf club?!  :rage

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36247 on: January 12, 2021, 05:17:03 PM »
Grandia for the Saturn. Not as magical as I remember it, but still charming. I'm one dungeon away from finishing disc 1.

I'm using this translation patch: https://segaxtreme.net/threads/translating-grandia.24330/page-34#post-179252

They've recently added subtitled cutscenes. Wasn't impossible to play before (I started with .85), but more complete more better. Finding the right version for patching can be a hassle. I can point the way if necessary.

Runs pretty much perfect using Mednafen, aside from a couple loading hitches before FMVs and voiced cutscenes (which might be accurate to real hardware, I don't know).

I replayed Grandia 1 during the late PS2 era and thought it still held up pretty well. Not perfect, but it's a great adventure rpg and that soundtrack is godly.

Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36248 on: January 12, 2021, 05:19:15 PM »
Any specific reason you're playing the Saturn version of Grandia over the PS1 version, or the remaster for that matter?
dog

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36249 on: January 12, 2021, 05:24:20 PM »
So in Divinity OS2 one of the quests I did last night was like "Bad guys want to drop a nuke on the city, player choice afterwards 1) don't drop nuke on city, 2) drop nuke on city" and while I picked don't drop nuke on the city I'm actively questing in and is the location for the entire endgame, I looked up to see if picking to nuke the city just basically kills everyone and there's no more endgame story and you just walk to the ending because everyone good & bad are all dead.

...and yeah, that is what happens.

 :clap

That's what I want to see in my crpgs. Choices and actual logical follow up. I did another quest where a loan shark steals my soul for money, so I was wondering if I could find where she stashed it and pickpocket it back because that's logical. And I could! And I could even then tell her I stole it back and then she goes psycho and fights me. Apparently other options if you steal it back is when she comes to get the money back you can just say no and she can't do anything because she can't find your soul.

I wouldn't say that OS2 is as narratively complex in quest branching as the top Obsidian stuff like New Vegas/Pillars or Black Isle stuff like Fallout 2, but right behind that and heads & tails above most modern crpgs like Bioware/Bethesda and Outer Worlds Obsidian? Yeah, for sure.

And I'd argue that quest complexity & branching is the most important aspect of any crpg. You can have a weak story, you can have a whatever battle system, but if you have good quest designs, the game will be worth playing.

Hopefully OS1 and Baldur's Gate 3 are as good in complexity of quest branching. The closer I'm getting to finishing OS2 the more I think I'm gonna play OS1 even if I gotta just run through it with cheats because there's not much mod support and a lot of QoL stuff may be pretty rough. But I'm definitely interested in another full OS game full of good questing.

Rufus

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36250 on: January 12, 2021, 06:30:03 PM »
Any specific reason you're playing the Saturn version of Grandia over the PS1 version, or the remaster for that matter?
I was curious about the differences to the PS port, mostly. Some things are better on Saturn (sprites, ground and battle textures, less slowdown), some on PS (spell effects, actual transparencies). As for the remaster, I just didn't like the look of the upscaled assets. :doge

Here's a comparison of the Saturn version and HD remaster (which is based on the PS port):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1932732522


Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36251 on: January 12, 2021, 06:54:38 PM »
Yeah, I remember the Saturn version being better. I played it on PS1.

The Sceneman

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36252 on: January 12, 2021, 07:46:57 PM »
Completed Control. Grew to love the game more and more as I got further in. Great stuff. Still got a few sidequests and achievements to knock out and I'm keen to play the DLC.

Question: are the DLCs self contained mini-campaigns, or do they add content to the core game? I will get the DLC straight away if they add locations to the main game.
#1

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36253 on: January 12, 2021, 08:30:58 PM »
They are self-contained metroidvanias but you access them from the main hub.

The first DLC is a legit good mini-metroidvania.
The Alan Wake DLC is weaker imo.

The Sceneman

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36254 on: January 12, 2021, 08:57:00 PM »
Do your weapons and stats from the main game carry over? I will get the season pass as it's just a couple bucks more than buying a single DLC
#1

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36255 on: January 12, 2021, 09:27:20 PM »
Yeah, it's just like a new section in the main hub.

Thirty-Ought-Six

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36256 on: January 12, 2021, 11:35:33 PM »
Star Renegades

I wasn't sure about this at first, but I've played 16 hours now and beaten it twice. The battle system is awesome (a timeline system based on interrupts and combos). The items are well-designed, characters can play very differently based on what you find. The leveling system is great at letting you customize too, experience is a shared resource so you might decide to level equally or to leave someone behind to get max level elsewhere. My only real complaint is how long each run takes, which goes against the idea of truly playing it like a roguelike. But if you think of it as a short rpg it's worth it just to beat it once.

How long is a run? And can you save mid-run?


Probably about 6-7 hours to win, but that's with taking time to plan out paths and moves. Losses were much faster because if you take risks trying to get optimal paths, you are more likely to lose early or be strong later. You can save and exit but there aren't multiple save slots.

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36257 on: January 14, 2021, 11:41:02 AM »
Holy crap. I've been on this Chapter 3 of Death Stranding for about 23 hours. WTF? How long is this game?
que

Sho Nuff

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36258 on: January 14, 2021, 11:52:34 AM »
I’m ripping through act 2 of Ghost of Tsushima and man they could sure fuckin use some variety in the missions, it’s really overstaying its welcome.

Also, unskippable cutscenes and dialogue? Fuck you.

Pissy F Benny

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36259 on: January 14, 2021, 01:11:21 PM »
act 2 was where the game overstayed its welcome for me, even though i was really enjoying it until hitting a brick wall of "i dont want to do any of this shit anymore" :lol
(ice)

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36260 on: January 14, 2021, 02:16:45 PM »
Holy crap. I've been on this Chapter 3 of Death Stranding for about 23 hours. WTF? How long is this game?

Chapter 3 is the main game. The full game is about 40-50 hours.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36261 on: January 15, 2021, 03:55:06 AM »
Finished Divinity OS2 - Act IV wasn’t super long but was good. Overall great game. I like how there’s really no good ending because the game is surprisingly grey area morality. I always do lawful good hero runs but man I did a lot of fucked up shit in this because things had to get done and maybe some people (or hundreds) had to die to make it happen.

It’s pretty weird that one of the most interesting plot threads (Malady) doesn’t really go anywhere in this game and is setup for a sequel. I don’t see how you could even do a chronological sequel with all the ending choices. Apparently it was gonna be the story of the spin-off game Fallen Heroes that basically got canned. Oh well.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36262 on: January 15, 2021, 04:28:15 AM »
Ok, watched most of the ending variations play out. Really impressed on the choice branching. Feels like Fallout 2 ending slides.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36263 on: January 16, 2021, 05:33:34 PM »
Hmm, played an hour of Divinity OS1 and got to the city at the start. It's interesting how different the game is than OS2. I thought it would be mostly the same but less. But the combat, character builds, skills, magic, etc... is pretty different. It seems simpler in execution but maybe more complex & strategic in that there's fewer options and everything seems to matter more initially.

I picked a mage + archer for the main two and playing keep away with the mage freezing/teleporting while the archer picks them off and uses crafted arrows/grenades. Definitely feels pretty different combat.

Also elemental stuff seems way bigger deal here without magical armor to protect against it. Just touching a fire surface pretty much wipes your characters initially.

Game seems a lot less forgiving than OS2.

I think I may actually like the combat more here? It's slower & more strategic than BURST BURST BURST DAMAGE EVERYONE KILL ONE GUY AT A TIME OS2.

The quest journal is pretty bad for keeping track of quests, and there's like zero mod support, which sucks.

The music is a lot more in your face and is pretty good. The VA is ooooooooooohhhh booooooooy, BAD. Like OS2 has amazing VA and in this so far the English VA is really amateurish. The default guy voice in your party is fucking terrible. Yikes.

I might play through this.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36264 on: January 16, 2021, 06:54:23 PM »


Been listening to the Divinity OS2 ost. It really is great. It's so rare for a western game soundtrack to stick out because they focus so much on ambiance instead of loud forefront music. Last western rpg soundtrack that stood out to me was Mass Effect 1.


Also kinda random but I was thinking about how in OS2 tanking is really useless because every enemy has a teleport and first turn just flies somewhere in a large battle area. The only provoke/aggro move is a taunt move that is a really small AoE around the tank, so outside big non-moving heavies, it's almost impossible to aggro anyone and tanks just end up being low damage dealers, low utility. I feel like to make tanking work in OS2 you'd need the aggro/taunt skill to be a battle-wide AoE or have full range single enemy provoke skills.

OS2 battles were basically just "kill the enemies super fast and if you can't one turn shot them, then try to get rid of their armor and stun-lock them so they miss a turn and then kill them next turn"

Borealis

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36265 on: January 16, 2021, 07:26:37 PM »


Been listening to the Divinity OS2 ost. It really is great. It's so rare for a western game soundtrack to stick out because they focus so much on ambiance instead of loud forefront music. Last western rpg soundtrack that stood out to me was Mass Effect 1.


Also kinda random but I was thinking about how in OS2 tanking is really useless because every enemy has a teleport and first turn just flies somewhere in a large battle area. The only provoke/aggro move is a taunt move that is a really small AoE around the tank, so outside big non-moving heavies, it's almost impossible to aggro anyone and tanks just end up being low damage dealers, low utility. I feel like to make tanking work in OS2 you'd need the aggro/taunt skill to be a battle-wide AoE or have full range single enemy provoke skills.

OS2 battles were basically just "kill the enemies super fast and if you can't one turn shot them, then try to get rid of their armor and stun-lock them so they miss a turn and then kill them next turn"

Had a solid time with OS2, but the balancing from Act 3 (especially with how it funnels your party) onward and definitely Act 4 was beyond fucking stupid. Kind weird how the Definitive Edition never addressed those difficulty spikes.

Hated the split armour system too, but loved making use of deathfog barrels as a big fuck you to the annoying enemy balance.

The Sceneman

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36266 on: January 16, 2021, 07:31:42 PM »
The Foundation DLC in Control is so good. Loving the new story beats and mods, you can switch up your playstyle quite a bit. Awesome new locations which feel quite removed from the main game as well - was really impressed by the 'Warehouse' location. Grade A DLC.
#1

Great Rumbler

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36267 on: January 16, 2021, 08:00:39 PM »


Been listening to the Divinity OS2 ost. It really is great. It's so rare for a western game soundtrack to stick out because they focus so much on ambiance instead of loud forefront music. Last western rpg soundtrack that stood out to me was Mass Effect 1.

Larian games have always had really fantastic scores. OS2 is certainly no exception, even though they had to bring in someone new after the death of their long-time composer Kirill Pokrovsky. BG3's soundtrack is quite nice, as well:

dog

Thirty-Ought-Six

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36268 on: January 17, 2021, 01:48:49 AM »
The music is a lot more in your face and is pretty good. The VA is ooooooooooohhhh booooooooy, BAD. Like OS2 has amazing VA and in this so far the English VA is really amateurish. The default guy voice in your party is fucking terrible. Yikes.


OS2 is probably my favorite VA in any game, but OS is definitely my least favorite in any game. It must be the reason they focused on it so much for the sequel.

But yeah, elements are vastly better in OS. The reason it is hard to use them in OS2 is not only the armor system, but also because physical damage spells are so versatile. Maybe the craziest spell in the game is mass corpse explosion, which (despite being in the pyro category) does physical damage. And there are teleportation, blood storm, bloated corpse, grasp of the starved, healing (on undead). There are so many amazing damage and disabling spells without elements, that there is no need to use the elemental ones.


Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36269 on: January 17, 2021, 02:46:55 AM »
Yeah, people always talked about OS1/2 as moving around barrels and setting up environmental traps, etc...

But for the most part I didn't bother with any of that in OS2. Like you said, most of the stuff wasn't necessary + magic armor blocking things. My highest damage dealers in OS2 were my rogue who just backstabbed physical attacks and my archer who shot physical (mostly w/blood arrows which are just physical bonus damage) damage as well.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36270 on: January 17, 2021, 03:29:44 AM »
Also after 90 hours in 3 weeks of OS2, having crpg withdrawals. Really itching to jump into another game full of quest logs and xp gains.

But Hitman 3 is out in a few days and that's gonna be a 100 hour game and I'm still in the middle of DQXIs so really not a good time to start a crpg. Withdrawals are hard. I get seriously addicted to crpgs.

After Hitman 3, if I skip MH Rise in March, not playing anything new & lengthy until fall? So probably will jump into a few crpgs in the meantime. Probably play Baldur's Gate 2 EE next, though I may play the Beamdog Siege of Dragonspear campaign first since it's between BG1->BG2 and would also help getting me back in the swing of how to play BG.

Though if I want something short without the huge time commitment of a 50-100 hour crpg, might do Mass Effect 3 or KoTOR II Restored Edition or Witcher II. Maybe Vampire the Masquerade? I think that one's supposed to be <30 hours.

Probably save big long stuff like Divinity OS1 / Wasteland 3 until I'm done with BG2. Probably wanna play through Yakuza 7 this year too.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36271 on: January 17, 2021, 05:19:34 AM »
You are getting Hitman on EGS and paying IOI another bit of cash to get your Hitman 2 levels imported?



 :jeanluc
What

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36272 on: January 17, 2021, 07:38:50 AM »
Is there a graph of which Mario Kart tracks are available in which games including the remakes?  :thinking
🤴

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36273 on: January 17, 2021, 08:23:05 AM »
Is there a graph of which Mario Kart tracks are available in which games including the remakes?  :thinking
That graph already LOOKS LIKE a Mario Kart track, wtf.

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36274 on: January 17, 2021, 08:34:21 AM »
It's on Epic only? fugg :DDD

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36275 on: January 17, 2021, 09:10:31 AM »
Yeah for a year and you have to pay extra to import your Hitman 2 levels even if you already own it on steam
What

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36276 on: January 17, 2021, 09:47:58 AM »
Yeah for a year and you have to pay extra to import your Hitman 2 levels even if you already own it on steam
Yeah thats dumb, ill wait.

who is ted danson?

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36277 on: January 17, 2021, 10:38:11 AM »
I got Hitman 2 over christmas and by the time I'm done with it, I'll be able to get Hitman 3 at 50% off on steam  8)
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36278 on: January 17, 2021, 11:10:57 AM »
Yeah, the Hitman Epic thing is crap, but you know how many times I replayed Hitman 1 maps in 2? Like once to check it out and then never again and put 100 hours into H2 content.

If your item unlocks carry over from Steam, I'm ok with that.

Hitman 2016 was my GoTY, 2018 was my #2 goty. These games are some of the best stealth games ever made. I'm not going to sit on it for a year because I can't play Hitman 2 levels and the storefront lacks features.


Also IOI almost went out of business trying to make these games. Hitman 2 bombed hard, Hitman 1 didn't even do well enough that SE booted them, Hitman 2 with Warner bombed, they used all their money to buy out the IP and are doing H3 indie. When was the last time you saw an indie AAA game with a budget like this?

Taking all these deals for exclusivity like Epic and PSVR got this game to exist and kept IOI alive. These are very talented devs making a high quality niche game very few people appreciate or at least purchase at or near full price. I can't hate and I'll deal with some Epic annoyances.

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36279 on: January 17, 2021, 11:14:53 AM »
I really liked doing those elusive missions in Hitman 1 though  :-\

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36280 on: January 17, 2021, 11:32:02 AM »
Well Hitman 1 maps are included free with pre-order and 2 had barely any elusives so not missing much there.

Still sucks though, sure. You can also see it as an epic store $15 tax, where if you want H2 stuff in H3 the game just costs $15 more.

Also if you want escalations (some of my favorite parts of these games) you have to pay $30 more for the deluxe edition. The base game will have them eventually, but like Hitman 2 had no escalations initially and the deluxe edition promises escalations on every level from the start.


fwiw, people are speculating that IOI really wanted and tried to get H1/2 content transferred to Epic store, but there's a good chance WB, who are dicks, aren't letting them give away content on a different store for free.

Don Rumata

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36281 on: January 17, 2021, 11:38:31 AM »
I understand WHY they're doing it, but it's completely counterintuitive to their whole World of Assassination thing.
If these were just 3 separate games, it'd be whatever.

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36282 on: January 17, 2021, 11:40:32 AM »
At the end of the day, everything with Hitman has been a bit downhill since 2016/2017 season 1. This was supposed to be a GAAS game with 2018/2020 just being S2 and S3 within the same game and released episodically over two years with regular content updates.

But that's what happens when your big budget games don't sell and you keep trying to make them while keeping the lights on.

Most companies would've just bailed on the game and done something else with the hope of better sales. I think they're kind of dumb/stubborn to keep at it with Hitman, but it's obviously their passion and they have a small devoted fanbase that loves the games, so it works out for me and I'm not gonna complain.

Hope their James Bond project after this sells ok and uses some of the better ideas from these Hitman games.

mormapope

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36283 on: January 17, 2021, 02:11:54 PM »
I've bought Hitman 1&2 and all DLC for both, probably put in a total of 8 or so hours into both games combined. I'd say I was a huge Hitman fan, beat 2 on expert and contracts on expert a while back. Beat Blood Money numerous times, a couple playthrus on professional. Even beat Absolution a couple of times and defended that entry in the franchise.

The series peak absolutely was Blood Money imo. I guess it's the combination of tone, level design, environmental themes and soundtrack. For those reasons and more, Blood Money stands out above the rest for me.

New Hitman feels really.....empty for whatever reason to me. Voice overs being blanket American accents across all locales is off putting, the scoring and xp systems being so ingrained with unlocks makes experimental play feel less rewarding. The humor and tone being so light-hearted makes everything you're doing feel cartoonish.

New Hitman does have stellar environmental design and the AI/density is also incredibly impressive. But it hasn't grabbed me or doesn't feel as compelling as past Hitman games.

Always online stuff also feels unneeded and I've had weird disconnect issues that hinder immersion and my enjoyment.
OH!

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36284 on: January 17, 2021, 03:07:55 PM »
I've bought Hitman 1&2 and all DLC for both, probably put in a total of 8 or so hours into both games combined. I'd say I was a huge Hitman fan, beat 2 on expert and contracts on expert a while back. Beat Blood Money numerous times, a couple playthrus on professional. Even beat Absolution a couple of times and defended that entry in the franchise.

The series peak absolutely was Blood Money imo. I guess it's the combination of tone, level design, environmental themes and soundtrack. For those reasons and more, Blood Money stands out above the rest for me.

New Hitman feels really.....empty for whatever reason to me. Voice overs being blanket American accents across all locales is off putting, the scoring and xp systems being so ingrained with unlocks makes experimental play feel less rewarding. The humor and tone being so light-hearted makes everything you're doing feel cartoonish.

New Hitman does have stellar environmental design and the AI/density is also incredibly impressive. But it hasn't grabbed me or doesn't feel as compelling as past Hitman games.

Always online stuff also feels unneeded and I've had weird disconnect issues that hinder immersion and my enjoyment.

I mean, that's fair. You dig it or you don't.

I think the levels are amazing in these games. On average it takes me about 15 hours to fully see all the details they've put into each map. Going through the challenges for each map and trying to figure out how to manipulate the character paths and NPCs to get a specific type of kill or feat is a real fun puzzle and a lot of it is really clever.

The games are basically puzzle x stealth games. The escalations where they modify fail conditions and give unique objectives are pretty cool to figure out too usually though some are tedious.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36285 on: January 18, 2021, 12:41:17 AM »
I'm playing a little AC Valhalla and they're so close to making AC a real rpg...but they just don't get there.

I like that the world is actually about exploring and that a lot of stuff isn't marked on your map. It's cool seeing something unique in the distance and going there and there's something and feels good to discover stuff. Also a lot less repetition with the smaller events.

But like I ran into an event early on in England where there's a nudist colony and some dude who got kicked out is on a cliff and asks you to destroy their clothes so they can be always-nude like him. Ok, so I go down and I see the clothes box but I see someone with a speech bubble in the colony and I go talk to them to see what kind of questing options I have. One of the options is saying you're going to join their nudist colony and asking where you can put your clothes away.

I thought this was a clever question branch option where instead of just running in and stealing the box you can pretend you're joining and putting your clothes away and then steal or destroy the box unnoticed.

But no, the game doesn't let you destroy the box. I tried throwing it in a river and it just respawns, I tried throwing it on a fire and it doesn't burn, I tried shooting it with fire arrows and it doesn't burn or break. And the second I touch it everyone yells I stole it and comes after me.

So really there was no option besides just grabbing it and having everyone chase you. Talking to the person was pointless.

They could've programmed this quest that once the box is destroyed the objective is accomplished and it's up to you to do it however you want. But instead they railroad you done a forced single way of grabbing the box and running while people chase you and carrying the box back to the quest giver to finish the quest. Even though the quest giver just said he wanted the box destroyed so they didn't have clothes.

So close, but not there.

Still enjoying the early bits of the game.

MMaRsu

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36286 on: January 18, 2021, 07:44:13 AM »
Im thinking it might be time for a replay of NGB and NGII but sadly dont have a Series X or Xbox One X :(

Just a 360
What

mormapope

  • WHADDYA HEAR, WHADDYA SAY
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36287 on: January 18, 2021, 07:56:04 AM »
I'm the minority here, but I feel NG especially 1/Black control like absolute dog shit. It's like GTA IV (which I enjoy control wise) times ten. There's so much weight to everything you do. Mix in a lot more platforming that gets remembered and confusing level design, it just doesn't hold up to me.

I am a DMC whore though. And imo, DMC/Bayonetta are the best controlling character action games.

I enjoy DoA more than Ninja Gaiden. It's a shame DoA6 was sorta dead on arrival.
OH!

Don Rumata

  • Hard To Be A John
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36288 on: January 18, 2021, 09:05:08 AM »
I love Bayo, but dont like DMC's movement.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36289 on: January 18, 2021, 12:23:32 PM »
https://twitter.com/IOInteractive/status/1350899132966318084

IOI gonna make Hitman 2 content free for steam owners somehow. Guessing they want to stick to their original promise of this. Wouldn't be surprised if they end up eating the costs and just paying WB for a copy of H2 for every one redeemed at some bulk discount price.

Does the Epic store have install modules? Because Hitman 2 on steam with all the maps installed along with Hitman 1 maps was something close to 200gbs. Add in Hitman 3 maps and you're gonna need 300gb free if you can't piecemeal install this.

MMaRsu

  • Administrator
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36290 on: January 18, 2021, 01:08:04 PM »
Somehow but they dont know how exactly 2 days from launch?

Not like they didnt know this beforehand. They are just sorry they have been caught with their pants down.

Seriously, I love the Hitman series and wish the best for IOI money wise, but fuck IOI and EGS and this fucking stupid ass scheme.

Just put the game up for sale everywhere and let players decide. But nah gotta grab the cash and make it annoying for players to even transfer anything.

Why anyone would go for the EGS version of these games is absolutely beyond me, at full price even.
What

Pissy F Benny

  • Is down with the sickness
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36291 on: January 18, 2021, 01:10:21 PM »
To annoy you :rash
(ice)

MMaRsu

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36292 on: January 18, 2021, 01:40:17 PM »
To annoy you :rash

idgaf but why support such a shit setup. I always said I would have used the EGS if they battled on price instead of exclusivity.

Shit like this just makes the entire situation worse. Giving me zero incentive to actually give money to IOI. Id rather wait till the gold edition is 10 bucks on CDkeys, like 2 is now.
What

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36293 on: January 18, 2021, 02:10:58 PM »
Why anyone would go for the EGS version of these games is absolutely beyond me, at full price even.

To play them year 1.

That's it.

After year 1, everyone buys them on steam and they launch at like 20-20% off by that point anyhow.

You can ask the same thing for every AAA release (especially Ubisoft games). Why buy them day 1 at a full price? Same answer. Because sometimes people want to play something in the first 6-12 months.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36294 on: January 18, 2021, 02:12:19 PM »
EGS sucks balls,

but I wanted to play Control year 1 so I bought it on EGS.

I wanted to play Tony Hawk 1+2 year 1, so I bought it on EGS.

I want to play Hitman 3 year 1, so I'll buy it on EGS.


But for most EGS exclusive games, I'll wait until they hit steam. Never bought Untitled Goose Game because of that. Same with Outer Wilds.

MMaRsu

  • Administrator
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36295 on: January 18, 2021, 02:15:01 PM »
I understand that and thats why exclusivity is shit
What

Mr Gilhaney

  • Gay and suicidal
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36296 on: January 18, 2021, 02:17:39 PM »
Ive yet to buy a game on there, but I think this will be my first. Not really an active boycott, just that I thought it was really shit and could wait with most games. But I kind of want to play Hitman now.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36297 on: January 18, 2021, 02:19:44 PM »
Im hoping it will be cracked within 1 year and then ill just eventually buy it on steam
What

Nintex

  • Finish the Fight
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36298 on: January 18, 2021, 07:07:37 PM »
I'll just wait for MS to buy them after this inevitably bombs and puts all their shit exclusively on GamePass :success
🤴

chronovore

  • relapsed dev
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #36299 on: January 18, 2021, 07:17:44 PM »
Looks like Hitman will be the first Stadia game with State Share features:

https://community.stadia.com/t5/Stadia-Community-Blog/Capture-and-share-playable-scenarios-with-State-Share-coming/ba-p/50835

Somehow but they dont know how exactly 2 days from launch?

Not like they didnt know this beforehand. They are just sorry they have been caught with their pants down.

Seriously, I love the Hitman series and wish the best for IOI money wise, but fuck IOI and EGS and this fucking stupid ass scheme.

Just put the game up for sale everywhere and let players decide. But nah gotta grab the cash and make it annoying for players to even transfer anything.

Why anyone would go for the EGS version of these games is absolutely beyond me, at full price even.

Jesus, fuck, you are a Negative Nancy.