Author Topic: What are you playing?  (Read 3558733 times)

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Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37380 on: September 06, 2021, 06:23:16 PM »
Finished Avengers: War for Wakanda - Meh. Combat finally clicked somewhat in this game after all these expansions and Black Panther plays pretty well.

Game still has the same fucking issues as always where it's designed as a 4p game when played solo:

-Enemies have ridiculous HP
-Defend the bases 3 spot objectives meant for 3 players+ which are miserable solo

And the new sonic disruption status effect enemies and final boss is just an annoying as shit new addition.

If this game played like say TMNT or Streets of Rage in 3d with paper thin enemies it'd be so much more fun. Also the stages all suck and are just nothing but copy & pasta segments over and over again.

I still think with friends this is probably a fun game. But solo Avengers fucking sucks.

Great Rumbler

  • Dab on the sinners
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37381 on: September 06, 2021, 08:08:03 PM »
I'm wondering if i should just bite the bullet and play it on my 1060, or wait (probably well into next year) to see if the GPU market finally normalizes. :thinking
Seems like quite the demanding game, that makes a good use of RT (and DLSS?).

Cyberpunk still looks really good even on the lower settings, but it looks absolutely amazing in 4k with all the RTX bells and whistles turned on.
dog

Don Rumata

  • Hard To Be A John
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37382 on: September 07, 2021, 03:19:45 AM »
I'm wondering if i should just bite the bullet and play it on my 1060, or wait (probably well into next year) to see if the GPU market finally normalizes. :thinking
Seems like quite the demanding game, that makes a good use of RT (and DLSS?).

Cyberpunk still looks really good even on the lower settings, but it looks absolutely amazing in 4k with all the RTX bells and whistles turned on.
Good thing is, the game should at least lend itself well to a second playthrough.

I'll probably play the two Psychonauts first, tho.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37383 on: September 07, 2021, 08:40:41 AM »
I need to get back to it. I think I'm about 70% completion.

The main story is where the game shines. The side gigs you get from actual quest givers can be decent to great but most random map icons are Ubi-tier busy work.
🤴

Pissy F Benny

  • Is down with the sickness
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37384 on: September 07, 2021, 09:28:19 AM »
i don't mind the map ones (replaying it now) but i have a powerful pistol and tend to do the ones i'm over levelled for and one shot every punk ass biaaaaaatch who dares cross me :rash
(ice)

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37385 on: September 07, 2021, 11:37:52 AM »
Finished the story mode of Fire Emblem Warriors.
Might return for the History mode later but overall I had a good time.

Today I fired up Xenoblade Chronicles 2 which I stopped playing over a year ago.
I've gotta say that they defiinitely improved the performance with patches over time.

Still such a weird ass game, furries speaking Welsh.  :doge
🤴

Pissy F Benny

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37386 on: September 07, 2021, 12:14:36 PM »
have you mastered the art of blushy crushy yet?
(ice)

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37387 on: September 07, 2021, 04:27:39 PM »
Started playing Shining the Holy Ark - it's a pretty fun dungeon crawler developed by Camelot (when they still were part of Sonic Team) for the Saturn. A followup to Shining in the Darkness, the oft-forgotten premier Shining game. It's a tiny bit more story/puzzle driven than your usual dungeon crawler, which keeps me interested more than something like Etrian Odyssey (plus having automap is nice instead of having to draw your own). There are some real interesting dungeon designs, like the temple where you walk into a spiral and up onto the walls. Graphics are a mixture of chunky Saturn polygons and characters/monsters all CGI rendered in that short-lived mid 90s style... it's dated but it gives it a unique aesthetic; for probably the last big pre-FF7 RPG, the production values are quite high and this was probably a pretty impressive feat back in late 96/early 97. Music is Sakuraba doing what Sakuraba does (weird time signatures, lots of cymbal crashes, and the same battle theme you've heard in every single Star Ocean/Tales/Golden Sun game), though there are a couple of nice surprises on the soundtrack like the South Shrine theme:

^_^

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37388 on: September 07, 2021, 04:58:26 PM »
have you mastered the art of blushy crushy yet?
Mythra sleepwalked into Rex's bed, then pushed her boobs against him and blamed him for being a pervert.

Then Pyra was sipping tea for breakfast and asked Rex if she had caused any trouble considering his bruises. Grandpa ship (who was recentely reborn as a baby) told the Tiger (Dromach) they could all use some romance a suggestion the tiger dismissed. Then a chrystal got stolen and the thief stole a ship.
🤴

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37389 on: September 07, 2021, 08:27:03 PM »
Beat the Forgotten City, was neat, basically Groundhogs Day: Roman Edition.  Will look at what Modern Storyteller  makes next with interest.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/874260/The_Forgotten_City/

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37390 on: September 08, 2021, 12:18:40 AM »
I used to play & beat every Sierra/Lucasarts puzzle point n' click game as a kid, but I tried Myst a few times and never made it past the first area because I couldn't figure out what to do to even get started.

Gave it another shot with this new remaster, played like an hour, made a tiny bit of progress but generally have no idea what to do. Ready to bail again unless I'm just gonna walkthrough the thing. The puzzles in this game are just way too abstract for me.

archnemesis

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37391 on: September 08, 2021, 04:33:12 AM »
I never got far into Myst back when it was first released. I played it a few years ago with a walkthrough and that's definitely the best approach.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37392 on: September 08, 2021, 10:11:48 AM »
Myst sucks, Douglas Adams Starship Titanic is where its at
What

Joe Molotov

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37393 on: September 08, 2021, 11:16:50 AM »
Pyst, starring John Goodman :rejoice
©@©™

porkbun

  • #1 Pit-Fighter fan
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37394 on: September 08, 2021, 12:29:23 PM »
GTA III for about the 20th time - still the GOAT for me

 :uguu

bork

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37395 on: September 08, 2021, 02:09:46 PM »
Pyst, starring John Goodman :rejoice



:heh

spoiler (click to show/hide)


 :steel
[close]
ど助平

Tuckers Law

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37396 on: September 08, 2021, 07:39:03 PM »
I had Pyst.  It would never run on my pc, just kept crashing to desktop when trying to startup.  I loved the idea of a game parodying/satirizing another game, and now I’m trying to think of other games that did similar.

MMaRsu

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37397 on: September 09, 2021, 09:30:29 AM »
I had Pyst.  It would never run on my pc, just kept crashing to desktop when trying to startup.  I loved the idea of a game parodying/satirizing another game, and now I’m trying to think of other games that did similar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Parody_video_games
What

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37398 on: September 10, 2021, 02:04:15 AM »
Surprised but enjoying Tales of Arise so far. Picked it up on PC where it looks and runs way better than PS5 (going from the demo, maybe the full PS5 runs better). Tales games are meant for 60fps+

HardcoreRetro

  • Punk Mushi no Onna
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37399 on: September 10, 2021, 10:05:30 AM »
Performance mode on PS5 is fine. Played for an hour and it's been a locked 60fps.

Edit: Seems the performance mode runs at 1620p and the graphics mode runs at 4K.

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37400 on: September 10, 2021, 10:29:07 AM »
Final section of Legend of Oasis, after getting 100% of the items so far (a total PITA with tons of tracking through unintuitive environments)... gonna beat it after work.
Then continue with Shining the Holy Ark, at the mid-game, just beat what's supposedly one of the toughest bosses in the game.
Once StHA is done I'm gonna play Arise, I hear reports it's only ~40 hours, which is a reprieve considering how long and drawn out Tales games tend to be for me.
^_^

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37401 on: September 10, 2021, 10:40:59 PM »
Surprised but enjoying Tales of Arise so far. Picked it up on PC where it looks and runs way better than PS5 (going from the demo, maybe the full PS5 runs better). Tales games are meant for 60fps+

Same. Only tried one takes game before and hated it. But this one is doing it for me so far.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37402 on: September 10, 2021, 11:32:55 PM »


FF III Pixel Remaster - Just beat the Fire Crystal and got my first set of new jobs. Very fun and silly game. I can't think of any FF that has the tone of this where it's almost a goofy kids game, but not bad kiddy. Also has a decent bit of challenge compared to I & II, that Fire Crystal fight wasn't a pushover. New jobs seem alright.

Also I knew the Crystal Tower stuff in FFXIV Shadowbringers was from FFIII, but I had no idea the main storyline was straight out lifted from FFIII damn.




Svejk

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37403 on: September 11, 2021, 01:50:26 PM »
Cyberpunk.  Just jumping to side jobs and random encounters in NC and just go and do whatever piques the eye/interest. This game is crazy detailed and beautiful.  The npc facial and body movement is pretty fantastic too. (Compared to W3)  Just went through the tutorial BD (brain dance).  Totally reminds me of Remember Me (I actually really liked that game), but even more immersive.  Learning how this game works little by little.. Having to retrain ways of stealth and fps style shooting and movement.  I fall into Deus Ex muscle memory, but with no cover fire, it throws me off some, so I'm still adapting.  Have I mentioned this game is incredible what they've pulled off? Lol
« Last Edit: September 11, 2021, 03:30:47 PM by Svejk »

Bebpo

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37404 on: September 11, 2021, 10:40:09 PM »
As much as I am liking aspects of Arise (the combat has more strategy than I initially thought from the demo), been more focused on FF3 and messing with all these jobs. Got the weird jobs after the water crystal with Geomancer, Bard, Evoker, Dragoon, Dark Knight, Viking, Black Belt and been messing with them. Lots of fun. This game is a blast. Will probably finish this up first before getting much headway into Arise.

Also enjoying Psychonauts 2 a lot. FF3/Arise/Psychonauts 2 is probably all I'm gonna finish it by the end of the month and that's fine. All good stuff.

tiesto

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37405 on: September 12, 2021, 12:57:39 PM »
It seems a lot of people who weren't really too big into Tales before are really enjoying Arise - I'm wondering what makes it so much better? I just picked up a copy (but waiting to finish Shining the Holy Ark first), the demo just seemed like the usual Tales just with better graphics.

Anyways, I beat Rolan's Curse 2 and Legend of Oasis yesterday, and about to go to the penultimate dungeon in StHA.
^_^

The Sceneman

  • Did my wife send you?
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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37406 on: September 12, 2021, 04:20:17 PM »
Playing a few things
Getting my ass kicked by Spelunky 2, doing a few runs a day. I'm lucky to get past world one most of the time. Shit is insane hard

Doing the odd grinding session in Yakuza Like A Dragon still. Very boring but podcasts help

Battling through overtime mode in Going Under and man it's tough. Even with full assist mode on I'm still having a lot of failed runs. Making progress though.

Playing a little Rise of the Tomb Raider. Very fun exploring the crypts and finding tombs and treasure. Super hard mode ain't too bad as you can just be sneaky and headshot dudes with the bow pretty easily.

Finally giving Super Metroid a good crack and yeah it's pretty awesome once you get into the groove of it. Can't think of any other 16 bit games with this much attention to sound design and atmospheric world building



#1

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37407 on: September 12, 2021, 05:11:21 PM »
Dipped my toes into Tales of Arise

It looks stunning for starters :o
🤴

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37408 on: September 12, 2021, 05:17:58 PM »
I actually don’t think Arise looks very good. Not a fan of the art direction, character designs and Instagram filter on everything.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37409 on: September 12, 2021, 05:58:45 PM »
I dunno, it looks very nice on Xbox One X.

Although to be fair I was playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 before this.
🤴

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37410 on: September 12, 2021, 07:00:13 PM »
I dunno, it looks very nice on Xbox One X.

Although to be fair I was playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 before this.

See, outside of the boob-a-licious character designs in XB2 and the incredibly low resolution making everything look like ass, I greatly prefer the art direction in XB2 to Arise. But it's a personal taste.

If they make a PC mod to remove the weird oversharpening filter in Arise I might like the visual look better. It reminds me of the bad Chromatic Abberation in Bloodborne.

naff

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37411 on: September 12, 2021, 07:53:29 PM »
I haven't played a Tales game since the original Vesperia on 360, but FFVIIr felt kinda like I remembered Tales combat. Was keen to try Arise at some point (once it hits gamepass :p) as I've heard it's a bit of a "soft reboot" and everyone seems really high on it. I don't feel much about the art style, but looks fairly nice in motion.
◕‿◕

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37412 on: September 13, 2021, 02:58:37 AM »




Beat FF3 Pixel Remaster

Holy fuck was that the biggest nosedive I've seen in an FF game since FF15's 2nd half. Game is all super fun, interesting jobs, lots of adventure, vehicles everywhere, and then it's like FUCK YOU SIX HOUR DUNGEON CRAWL with every boss spamming the same all-party shit move Quake/Meteor/Particle Beam over and over and over and job variety? No fuck you, it's Sage and Ninja only because they're better than everything else.

What a boring tedious marathon that is so long it's essentially like 20% of the entire game. Absolutely hated everything from the Earth Crystal onwards. I'd go as far as saying that 20% is the worst endgame of any FF ever. If I tried this on any of the other versions without saves I'd probably have just given up. I got several game overs during this segment so all the saves constantly saved my ass. 

It's too bad the end sucks so hard since the rest of the game is a great FF.

Cloud of Darkness is ridiculous too in HP. Either you buy a ton of shurikens or the fight takes forever. I was broke and couldn't afford shurikens and I did like 1k damage per turn and the boss has 120k HP. It literally took like 100 turns over 20+ mins. God.fucking.awful.

So overall feel pretty mixed on where it stands as an FF. I guess it's better than FF13, everything is better than FF13.

I think I'm gonna go ahead and say out of the initial group of FF1-3 Pixel Remasters, FF1 is the game I enjoyed the most. Outside one spot with the poison cave early on, that game was just pure fun without any annoyance or frustration found in chunks of FF2/FF3.

Kinda glad FF4 Pixel is next, coming from that can use a super easy no effort FF.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2021, 03:20:35 AM by Bebpo »

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37413 on: September 13, 2021, 03:13:40 PM »
I’m mostly just waiting for FF6 I haven’t played that game since like the summer of 95. Beat it tho!

I'm a Puppy!

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37414 on: September 13, 2021, 03:33:51 PM »
Yeah FF3 went from a good time to "OMG HOW LONG CAN THIS SHIT POSSIBLY GO ON FOR?!!" really really badly. Honestly I'd almost rather play 2 than 3 (almost).

I just finished Terranigma. I never played it but decided to play the whole trilogy to see what the fuss was about. Honestly Illusion of Gaia was by far the weakest in the trilogy for me. Terranigma definitely deserves its reputation for being something special. It really is. But that being said, it's a flawed masterpiece. The dungeon designs were lacking, almost nothing clever about them. They were winding and confusing with little to set each scene apart and loads of required backtracking. It got frustrating to be like "OK, which screen with the trees did I need to go back to?" Also, the save points were few and far between, essentially making you finish a dungeon AND the boss without dying (thank god for save states). Speaking of bosses, there's a few bosses in here that REQUIRE grinding, really only one or two, but if you're not at a specific level  you might as well be hitting them with a wet towel. The bloody mary boss is the worst offender I really explored a lot so I felt I was on the high level side and I was doing a whopping 3-5 damage per hit to a boss that had 350 HP and had some attacks that could one shot me. After a bunch of attempts I went out and gained 3 levels and my 3-5 damage per hit became 60-80. That's ridiculous. The town building aspect that really made Soul Blazer compelling, is back...in away. You can expand towns. But you really don't get much for it. There's loads of NPCs but 90% of them don't really have anything special to say. You travel around the world an awful lot, but there's not really a fast way to travel towards the end of the game. You do unlock a plane!....that literally goes between 2 locations. And the end also tosses in tri-force hunt BS x2 for good measure (deliver 9 letters, find 5 items).

I'd love to see a remake that fixes these issues because in the end Terranigma is probably the best ARPG on the SNES outside of LTTP.  But yeah, it's too much a product of its time to stand up to today's standards without causing some annoyance.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2021, 03:41:12 PM by I'm a Puppy! »
que

demi

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37415 on: September 13, 2021, 04:23:29 PM »
The speedrun uses Dragoon and Viking only

https://youtu.be/G7i4dCu2buo?t=11645
fat

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37416 on: September 13, 2021, 04:50:51 PM »
Will watch. Not sure how you’re suppose to survive any of the final dungeon bosses since Viking’s provoke/draw all doesn’t work on them and they still take a shitload of damage and Dragoon landing timing is too RNG to always dodge all party attacks that would basically two shot them.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37417 on: September 13, 2021, 04:53:56 PM »
Ah, ok so it’s a cheese with Viking stoned so nothing hurts it (not sure why this is needed and situation wouldn’t be the same with the Viking dead)

Dragoon HP leech to restore particle beam hits is a good strategy though. Having blood leech weapons on all the physical attackers probably would’ve been enough to survive the particle beam shots.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37418 on: September 13, 2021, 05:06:21 PM »
Ok, just tried using blood lance w/Dragoon, blood sword with ninja and orichalum (HP leech) with thief and they only are absorbing ~250 hp each. No idea how that dragoon is leeching 1400 HP...maybe dual blood lances? I only have one.

Nintex

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37419 on: September 13, 2021, 05:44:33 PM »
I'd love to see a remake that fixes these issues because in the end Terranigma is probably the best ARPG on the SNES outside of LTTP.  But yeah, it's too much a product of its time to stand up to today's standards without causing some annoyance.
I believe that by the time Terranigma came out Quintet was already having difficulties.
They even put their own office in the game. It's a very strange relic indeed.


I like how the first quest in Tales is to literally get a dress for your waifu. Funny though, the mix between mechanical stuff, different races and nature reminds me of Xenoblade at times.



4k waifu  :drool
[close]
🤴

demi

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37420 on: September 13, 2021, 05:58:47 PM »
Ok, just tried using blood lance w/Dragoon, blood sword with ninja and orichalum (HP leech) with thief and they only are absorbing ~250 hp each. No idea how that dragoon is leeching 1400 HP...maybe dual blood lances? I only have one.

Might depend on Job Level, the description of the video says

Quote
[...] followed by grinding Dragoon up to Job Level 28 before moving to Bahamut's Cave for the second grind. Initially did it up to Job Level 60, but was one encounter off of hitting the next Character Level, so did that then moved on. Fled from random encounters until the Labyrinth, then killed random encounters in Labyrinth and Syrcus Tower until I hit Job Level 85, then fled for the remainder of the random encounters in the run.
fat

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37421 on: September 13, 2021, 08:13:48 PM »
Yeah, seems like it depends on job level + he's using dual-blood lances and I only have one. FF3's endgame is just dumb imo. The rest of the game you can play around with job switching and use whatever without job level really mattering, but endgame for any reasonable tactics on those final dungeons/bosses you need to grind up those job levels.

I'd love to see a remake that fixes these issues because in the end Terranigma is probably the best ARPG on the SNES outside of LTTP.  But yeah, it's too much a product of its time to stand up to today's standards without causing some annoyance.
I believe that by the time Terranigma came out Quintet was already having difficulties.
They even put their own office in the game. It's a very strange relic indeed.


I like how the first quest in Tales is to literally get a dress for your waifu. Funny though, the mix between mechanical stuff, different races and nature reminds me of Xenoblade at times.



(Image removed from quote.)


Boob armor will never not look stupid. I honestly prefer her starting white dress. Once I get a decent costume I'm changing her out of that and same with mask face's dumb head-piece (and that includes the half one).

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37422 on: September 13, 2021, 09:01:28 PM »
Job leveling at least is super quick in FF3 PR. Was wrapping up achievements and got my Viking from 91 -> 99 in a few minutes with game speed up. Was gaining like a job level a fight in the final dungeon. Levels go up decently as well.

I didn't grind once the entire FF3 PR and still was able to beat it so I guess that's a thing. If I sat down and grinded a few jobs and bought a bunch of shurikens in Eureka, it'd probably have been pretty cake.

I'm getting more ok with the game overall today. Still think the endgame is sucky, and that one part you have to get around mountains with your airship one hop at a time is tedious (and kinda annoyed you never get an airship that just smoothly goes everywhere on the map), but it's a pretty fun adventure. The combat/job system is ok but it doesn't go far enough depth-wise. It's a decent start for FFV doing it much better from what I recall.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37423 on: September 13, 2021, 09:44:33 PM »
FF4 Pixel Remaster's encounter rate is pretty high coming from FF3 PR. I guess it's the same as FF4 has always been, but FF3, at least in the PR version, has a good reasonable encounter rate. FF4 is like going back to FF1/2's encounter every 10 steps. Kind of annoying.

Mostly just waiting for Deathloop to come out, so playing a bit of FF4 now.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37424 on: September 13, 2021, 10:42:18 PM »
Psychonauts 2 is ridiculously good except the actual gameplay again. The platforming still has some dumb jank like not being able to judge distances and why does the balloon float only last a few seconds so you can't even judge what you can float to? Combat has jank too like telekenises grabbing the wrong thing and getting stuck on it while you eat a fireball you were trying to grab, etc... and this is just on the 2nd world now.

After dying on a section and losing all my collectables I'd spent 10 mins grabbing I just turned on invincibility. I think I like this better as an adventure game. The writing and art design/music/va is amazing and it's generally fun to play but I just wish they could have nailed the platforming & combat a bit better.

Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37425 on: September 14, 2021, 08:53:40 PM »


Adorable game

Mr Gilhaney

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37426 on: September 14, 2021, 08:57:55 PM »



bork

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Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37427 on: September 14, 2021, 10:01:34 PM »
Cruisn' Blast (Switch) - Feels like a breath of fresh air with the huge lack of arcade racers out there nowadays.  It's easy to pick up and play, has tracks with different paths, huge jumps, crazy crap going on in the stages, lots of cheesy lights and gaudy colors, and thumping music. 

90's arcade racing is back
:rejoice
ど助平

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37428 on: September 14, 2021, 11:33:17 PM »
Killed 4 of the 8 visionaries so far in Deathloop just messing around and running and gunning. Not sure if having zero difficulty levels was wise. I am terrible at FPS games but this is ez pz. It kind of makes stealthing and figuring out non-combat assassinations a bit pointless since you can pretty easily run and gun through everyone, especially as you build your arsenal up.

I'm assuming that since this is sorta a rogue (it's very, very, very rogue-lite and so much progression is kept between runs, so even though I hate rogues I have no issue here) that after you beat it tougher NG+ runs will open up with new & better loot.

Anyhow, game is awesome. Definitely feels like it could be a GoTY contender.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37429 on: September 15, 2021, 12:19:57 AM »
Ok, apparently Deathloop doesn't have NG+ runs or higher difficulties. Hmmmm, I really like this game but I feel like it might end up being pretty short. It's like the most accessible rogue-lite game ever. It's like the opposite of Returnal.

Borealis

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37430 on: September 15, 2021, 01:28:47 AM »
Having a really solid time with Deathloop and uncovering the layers of secrets etc.

Do agree there needs to be added difficulties or custom modifiers. AI awareness being low makes sense at the start, but I think this should amp up like their numbers, traps, gear, and placement when the difficulty does increase in response to you killing more Visionaries.

Also the PC UI needs some improvements. I'm not having performance issues at Very High, but I'd imagine these woes needed to be addressed asap.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37431 on: September 15, 2021, 01:55:16 AM »
I don't have a big issue with awareness though I hear a lot of people complaining about that. Enemies can spot me pretty easily if I'm not careful and if there's a firefight they come running.

My issue is that they go down to easily and there aren't enough enemies so you can just mow them down. They actually do plenty of damage on the offense and can kill you pretty quick, I think their defense just needs to be buffed a bit. And bosses/visionaries need more HP too. Normally I'm very anti bullet-sponge enemies, but this is too far the other direction and feels like playing an FPS on easy mode.

Combat-wise/difficulty/options the game reminds me of Bioshock a bit. Kind of simple and easy but fun and the core of the game is about the other stuff.

Borealis

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37432 on: September 15, 2021, 02:36:29 AM »
I don't have a big issue with awareness though I hear a lot of people complaining about that. Enemies can spot me pretty easily if I'm not careful and if there's a firefight they come running.

My issue is that they go down to easily and there aren't enough enemies so you can just mow them down. They actually do plenty of damage on the offense and can kill you pretty quick, I think their defense just needs to be buffed a bit. And bosses/visionaries need more HP too. Normally I'm very anti bullet-sponge enemies, but this is too far the other direction and feels like playing an FPS on easy mode.

Combat-wise/difficulty/options the game reminds me of Bioshock a bit. Kind of simple and easy but fun and the core of the game is about the other stuff.

Yeah I think it more enemy types should show up as you progress through the Visionary kill list. Ones with helmets to protect against instant headshots and/or wearing makeshift body armour come to mind.

With regards to awareness, I think it boils down to their lack of peripheral vision and detection towards melee animation kills, especially since killing someone to a person's side just a metre away can go unoticed easily. They can spot you quite well with a fair distance if they're actually looking at the direction where Colt is at.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37433 on: September 15, 2021, 03:40:32 AM »
Yeah, I've seen that with melee kills near someone. Then again I've killed someone quietly and then everyone gets alerted quick after when someone looks in the direction of their corpse.

I got a nice silenced perk SMG tonight, pretty useful for not alerting enemies. The nail gun just isn't strong enough to take down most enemies before they alert people so I don't even bother with it.

Took out Egor, so have 5 of them down. Just missing Frank/Ajie and the party throwing fox mask one. I'm not quite sure how to solve the puzzle of killing them all in one loop since like Egor is outside the game map for the first 3 time periods and the only opportunity is in the Complex at night. Yet the big party is at night in Updaam. I'm assuming there is a way to manipulate things to change pathing in later time periods where visionaries will appear but haven't figured that out yet.

Also I wish the game was larger scope than it is. Like even Egor's map shows Blackreef island is BIG and the 4 locations in the game are just 1 of 4 zones of the island on the south east. Would've liked to had more of the island. Hoping there will be a sizeable DLC expansion like Dishonored and Prey got which adds another zone or two. Then again because of the MS buyout, not sure if Arkane wants to devote time to PS5 expansion DLC.

Akala

  • Easy Victor
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37434 on: September 15, 2021, 09:24:37 AM »
I really liked FF3 all the way up until maze of the ancients as well.  :maf

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37435 on: September 15, 2021, 04:20:19 PM »
I have a feeling Deathloop is going to be about a 9/10 for me. I think it's a great, fun, refreshing, original game in the AAA space and there are very, very few original games in the AAA space anymore, but the more I play the more I nitpick small stuff that could've been better.

The game feels like an AA game with AAA polish. The ideas are fantastic, but it also feels fairly small/medium-scope when it could have taken the (great) ideas and made a much bigger game.

Excited to get closer to finishing it, but also sad that it'll be over not too far off.

I guess best case is the game is highly successful and MS/Bethesda give Arkane the time & budget to make a larger sequel 3-4 years.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37436 on: September 16, 2021, 06:17:17 AM »
Can't stop playing Deathloop all night every night. Game is ridiculously addictive as you're making small steps of progression each run but you tend to discover something new which opens up even more questlines and sidequests to look into.

Also it's not until tonight at maybe like 10-12 hours in that I just realized how path routing works in this. Unlike in Hitman where you make some change in the level and immediately see the NPC change their routes so you can set up opportunities, this is more about doing things in one level in an earlier time period and then seeing the results change the NPC pathing in a different level at a later time period. So you do something in the morning and it'll change how things play out in the afternoon somewhere. Pretty interesting.

There's definitely a lot of passcodes and secrets to discover. It's actually kind of overwhelming because there's just so much. If you can be efficient and check off multiple questline progression items in one run during a map at a certain time of day it's great, but if you aren't managing it well and just doing one step from one quest at a time it can be a bit slow progressing and time consuming.

Also I just got a perk that lets me shortcut some stuff and create new strategies so there's definitely some neat stuff in there.

tiesto

  • ルカルカ★ナイトフィーバー
  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37437 on: September 16, 2021, 09:40:14 AM »
Just finished exploring the final dungeon in Shining the Holy Ark. Warped back to town to heal up, and tonight, time permitting, I'm gonna go fight the final boss.
Then it's finally on to Arise, super excited to play that one based on all the praise it's getting.
^_^

Nuitangg

  • Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37438 on: September 16, 2021, 08:01:38 PM »
Cod Vanguard is trash. Not sure how you fuck up the audio that bad.  Might be the first time I skip cod which is really sad.

Bebpo

  • Senior Member
Re: What are you playing?
« Reply #37439 on: September 18, 2021, 01:09:43 AM »
Finished Deathloop - I put way too many hours staying up until 3am+ every night this work week. Hell I worked a double shift yesterday so I could book out a half-day today and play a long all day session. Probably took like 20 hours+ and just started Monday night. Most addictive game I've played in a long time. Reminds me a lot of Fallout/Bethesda/Bioshock kind games. I think it's definitely the equivalent of Xbox 360's Bioshock for the PS5/XSX generation. Hits a lot of the same narrative polish weird sorta-rpg interesting world vibes.

I liked it a lot and think it could be a GoTY contender, though maybe not the actual GoTY 2021. The loop stuff is both really well designed and adds a 4th dimensional layer to already complex non-linear map design of stuff like Dishonored and Hitman, yet the loop also can burn you out and get repetitive when going for little tasks by the end. The main story has some reaaaall fetchy-fetch quests in the very end which kinda burned me out a bit and I just equipped running perks and ran past everyone to speedrun the runs to get the next item done and get out of there.

The dialogue writing and VA is A++++, the guy who plays Colt is one of the best lead VAs in a while and the writing really helps. His dialogues with Julianna and reacting to stuff is really, really enjoyable. Combined with the amazing art aesthetic and some good music and an interesting narrative structure and unique and original gameplay it's quite a ride.

That said, it has the repetition issues and the AI is still a bit glitchy/dumb and with no quicksave, unlike Hitman, all you need is one AI NPC to do something wacky and blow a really good stealth run you've been having for 15-20 mins, which can be frustrating. Especially since there are multiple bosses where if they are alerted you basically lose any assassination opportunities, or with one section you pretty much can just fail the mission.

I didn't mess with the MP, because when you're playing a rogue the idea of someone jumping in your game to gank you and you lose all your shit like my first experience with the MP just didn't seem fun. Plus if you're trying to play stealth it can really fuck it up when you're a dozen minutes into a base pure stealthing and someone comes in guns firing and fucks it all up. The AI Julianna will still do that from time to time, but she's soooo dumb in AI that you can basically bait her somewhere away from people and then kill her and not have to worry about her for the rest of the level. I especially like turning some turrets to my side and hanging by them to go off when she runs by.

Definitely highly recommend the game. Either now if you got PS5 or in a year when it's on Game Pass on XSX. Even with the flaws it's my favorite Arkane game so far. I'll play it a bit more to wrap up some of the side stuff I missed, but overall I think I'm good on it.