What are you playing?

[Bebpo]

Finished my first run of Road 96 and did another one. Interesting concept. Apparently it takes six runs to get to the end. At least each run is only like an hour. Can see how it can get repetitive, really depends on how much variety there is each time you encounter the same person.

Good immersive hitchhiking game though. Enjoyed most of the episodes so far and it's interesting how your rep stuff affects further runs instead of your current run most of the time.

[Svejk]

I keep wavering on Horizon 2. By the end of the first (+DLC) on PS5, I was done with the gameplay loop. But the story was pretty interesting. One day I could see returning to it, when that fatigue dies down. That, and I read it’s coming to PC. So that’s an easier sell.

After wrapping FFXVI, I jumped back into Horizon 2 some.  I'm having a better time with it now and appreciating it more.  Game is flipping gorgeous, and I'm coming to terms with the sometime awkward controls, but definitely clicking more for me now.  Roughly around the 40% mark. 

But yeah, I think I was feeling the fatigue from the first one still at the time.  I think that's my problem with TOTK currently.. Still feeling the fatigue from BOTW's open world and feeling so samey.

[Bebpo]

Finished Road 96. I liked it and the characters all grew on me and enjoyed seeing their stories play out. I don't really like that you don't see 100% of the scenes for each character in one playthrough, because when the vast majority of the game will be the same on new game+ it's not really worth sitting through again to see one or two more scenes for a few characters. The game doesn't have replay value imo. The first run and it's 6-10 runs are fine because there's no repeat scenes.

I felt like sometimes the choices I made didn't match up or have an effect on the scenes or ending which didn't sit great. Like I got a terrible ending after all that work and it didn't match my choices, but I looked up the good version of it to see now that plays out.

I looked up the dev and saw it was the team that did 11:11 Memories Retold. That makes a lot of sense and the character episodes are a bit similar. I really liked 11:11 and the director also did Valiant Hearts which I really liked too, so I guess I like all their games.

I read the prequel to Road 96 they released this year sucks though, so I will skip that. I saw Embracer bought them. Hopefully that doesn't fuck up the studio.

[Himu]

Yeah it's a chill game. You're just a long for the ride though and even then a lot of it is circumstantial. Like a lot depends on the skills of your character at that one point in time. In my game main girl died during the escape. I think you're supposed to die for her to be in the good ending for example.

[Bebpo]

I

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Died for her and she still dies in the ending.
Also the cop shot the trucker guy even though I was nice to both of them.

From what I read basically you need Fanny the cop NOT to shoot John the trucker. Because if she shoots him Alex the kid runs out in front of the soldier and Zoe runs out to save him and gets shot.

If Alex doesn't run out, then some rando runs out and gets shot instead of Zoe.

[close]

Like I said, I got the bad ending. But yeah, one thing I don't like is that it felt like none of the choices I made made a difference. You can't change the fate of any of the characters in the game except

spoiler (click to show/hide)

John getting shot or not, Zoe dying in ch.4 on the escape or in the ending or not

[close]

Everything else just plays out the same no matter what you do the whole game. Like

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jarod the serial killer, there's no way for him to actually kill Sonya the reporter, because he'll always back out and the bank robbers will stop him and he'll run off and kidnap the brigade leader

[close]

I really like the game despite this, and it's a very immersive experience with fun episodes. But they totally bs'd when selling the game has some choice heavy choose your own story procedural adventure. I feel like you should have at least been able to change the final path ending for each of the 7 characters depending on how you interacted with them.

[Himu]

Yeah like I said, it's repetitive and has flaws but it's likeable despite it. It really makes me want to play an immersive RPG where you're trying to cross the border and security gets tighter and tighter the closer you get.

[Bebpo]

Yeah like I said, it's repetitive and has flaws but it's likeable despite it. It really makes me want to play an immersive RPG where you're trying to cross the border and security gets tighter and tighter the closer you get.

Yeah, that would be cool. The survival aspects of the game weren't bad. Different methods of travel costing different amounts of energy, food and sleep replenishing, money useful at times, hacks like lockpicks and hacking to steal.

I think instead of the prequel game they made which was panned, they should've taken the Road 96 concept and done a rogue sequel that doesn't have much story and is gameplay rogue game of trying to get to the border with procedural encounters. I think doing a gameplay-focused sequel would've been a better choice and in the current market that loves them rogue-likes, it probably would've been a smarter business choice too.

Instead they made another game about Zoe because someone there is really into their maniac pixie dream girl they made. I saw a reddit post that talked about how Zoe is kind of a bad person in Road 96. Like she's selfish and entitled and oblivious to other people's problems and every encounter you have with her she gets you arrested or in trouble or killed. And the reddit post was saying maybe it's intentional and she's kind of like "this character would be the cute girl you want to save in most games, but here she's kind of a jerk and will get you killed if you simp on her", but...I don't think that was intentional    They basically thought she was the Chloe of Life is Strange and people would want a prequel about her.

[Bebpo]

Did you ever play Where the Water Tastes like Wine?





It's my favorite game of this hitchhiking/traveling narrative style, even if it's fucking massive and I never finished it (I doubt very many people did). It doesn't have the rpg gameplay stuff you're looking for, but has the narrative episodes (hundreds of them) and handful of story people you encounter multiple times to get their whole store that Road 96 does.

Also this game was a huge indie bomb. They made a company for this game, put a ton of money into it, made an epic ambitious country-trotting game that almost no one was interested in, and it bombed and they lost almost all their money and closed down. The post-mortem by the director is interesting to read and depressing. I feel like Road 96 was influenced by it and it's one of the most ambitious indie games I ever played.

[Bebpo]

I finished reading A Profound Waste of Time Volume #2 gaming zine and tried a few games that were featured in articles that I hadn't played/heard of.



Wattam - I somehow missed that right before the pandemic, Keita Takahashi (Katamari/NobyNoby) put out a new game. Katamari is of course, awesome fun; NobyNoby was somewhat entertainingly amusing. I tried and I really tried to get through and like Wattam but...this is not a good game for adults.

It's basically just random wacky stuff, simple puzzles, and awful controls. It feels like Takahashi made it for his kid(s). Sorta like when Mike Park of Skankin' Pickle/Asian Man Records and Jeff Rosenstock of Bomb the Music Industry made an kids album including the alphabet song:



Wattam is like that in game form. If I had a kid I'd say it's a good game and let them play it. But as an adult it's kind of a boring game that wears out its charm pretty quick and is just unintuitive and unfun. Oh well, I'm currently playing Takahashi's next game Crankin's Time Traveling Adventure on Playdate and need to play more to comment on it, but it's no Katamari that's for sure.





When Rivers Were Trails

This is in the same genre we were talking about like Road 96 and Where the Water Turns to Wine. It's a game about playing as a Native American during the Oregon Trail era where their land was continually stolen from them and the tribes had to keep moving and surviving. You move around, interact with people and try to keep enough food and medicine as you go to not die. You can hunt and trade with people. There are random encounters. And you learn a lot.

As a game it's ok. I don't think it keeps attention more than an hour or so of the 3ish hours because the gameplay is very repetitive (there's only 1 BGM song that plays the whole time). It's not bad, I'd say kinda like average? But, as an edutainment game to learn about the history and culture it's a very good game. I got bored by 30-45 mins in, but I kept playing because I was learning a lot.

Tonight going to check out Humanity that came out this year and was free day 1 game on PS+. I hadn't touched it, but when I was reading the interview with Mizuguchi and his new studio Enhance games that did Tetris Effect I was wondering what they were up to and I saw they made that. I had no idea it was by Q games/Enhance. So will definitely give it a try and see if I like it.

[Nintex]

Separate Ways

This DLC is so good, holy shit Capgods stay winning. No budget cuts on Ada Wong either 

There's a new weather effect which is just insane and reminds me of the storms it had on the GameCube.
Hopefully they don't patch it out because you lose like 10fps or 20fps whenever it hits.

It's frankly insane how good Capcom now is at action games. They could've packaged this and sold it separately like they did with RE3:Remake.
A publisher like Embracer would probably suck dicks on the streets if they could exchange it for 1 hour of content like this.

[demi]

October is here which means time to play random horror games from replay or backlog

- Separate Ways (RE4Make DLC)

Was good. Got Professional S+. Definitely worth the $10

- Resident Evil: Survivor (PS1)

Played it on stream ( https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1932600336 ). Very short game. Was ok I guess.... way shorter than I remember

- Tormented Souls (SeriesX)

Pretty well done RE clone. The early game is kinda brutal but it's gotten more comfortable now that I have some ammo and guns and better understanding of the game.

[Bebpo]

Ya, I played the first couple of chapters of Separate Ways and seems fun enough. Will clear it this weekend prob.

[demi]

Tormented Souls playthrough - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1933556243

[Bebpo]

Finished Separate Ways.

Great stuff. Way longer than I expected. Took me about 5 hours and basically felt like a speedrun, shorter and tougher route B run of the entire RE4r campaign.

Thought the encounter design was great, level design great. A couple of annoying spots, but not too bad.

Wasn't a big fan of the two big boss fights. Felt like the arenas were kind of small and cramped and the boss moves were annoying. Plus like on Pesenta that tail whip O evade I don't think I ever actually pulled off. I swear the O qte pops up way too late for that move. And stuff like Sadlers tentacle straight forward punches seemed kinda bullshitty and I basically just did the fight from ranged. I mean they're doable, but I felt like I had to kind of cheese tactics them because they were both a bit janky.

One of the reasons I feel like the campaign is a bit harder than Leon's is Ada's weapon selection felt kinda worse? Her shotgun you can buy fucking sucks with how inaccurate it is, the blast arrows are so slow to reload but effective so I spent a lot of the last 3rd just kiting and reloading blast arrows. Her handgun is great, got me through 90% of the DLC and the TMP maxed is actually pretty good but it just eats through ammo too fast. By the time you get the Stingray it's kind of pointless outside the few spots like heatscope. So basically just got through the campaign with handgun and TMP until the end where I mixed in blast arrows.

But her melee with the grapple melee is fantastic and fun and I think grunt fighting was more fun here than with Leon.

But yeah, basically just felt like another run of RE4r again remixed. Yeah there's a few new bits, but mostly just felt like a route B, which is fine. Also reminded me of what I loved about RE4r and what I don't like. Could've done without a regenerators section. Ran out of rifle ammo and not even sure how you're supposed to fight them when your out of rifle ammo. Also the pig mask guys with the machine guns are annoying enemies. But at least each spot they appear in is well designed to stay out of their shot line.

I also was running out of ammo hard early on. I think I got out of the El Gigante fight with like 10 bullets left. I hadn't bought the shotgun yet so all I had was pistol and TMP and that boss has a ton of HP.

[Nintex]

Playing Separate Ways with an infected eye, could it be any more immersive

Nearing the end now I think, great stuff.

[Himu]

Feel better

[demi]

Played some more october games

Resident Evil: Dead Aim - better than Survivor but still not that good. The cutscenes don't match the subtitles at all so its weird.

Nightmare Creatures - Enjoyed this one still. Good bloodborne demake

[Nintex]

Finished Separate Ways.
A nice detour from all the 100+ hour RPG's.

Nice to see that some of the 'cut' content from RE4 wasn't cut at all but simply added to Separate Ways. Gives it even more added value.
They've also added a lot compared to the original making this almost a Separate Separate Ways. 

They even brought the old tunes back

[Bebpo]

What cut content from RE4r was in Separate Ways?

The only areas that felt new compared to my RE4r runs was the laser room lab and the sewers bit. Didn't notice any other locations that weren't just remixed areas from the main RE4r campaign.

[Himu]

I thought SW was free. Didn't know it cost 10 bucks. Oh well

[Bebpo]

I thought SW was free. Didn't know it cost 10 bucks. Oh well

I think everyone agrees it's worth $10. Don't know what other DLCs get you 5 hours of AAA content with replayability for $10.

[Polident Hive]

Played some more october games

Resident Evil: Dead Aim - better than Survivor but still not that good. The cutscenes don't match the subtitles at all so its weird.

Nightmare Creatures - Enjoyed this one still. Good bloodborne demake

Keep meaning to re play Dead Aim. Back then I bought it to justify the guncon purchase. But it didn’t play great with it. You moved using the cheap plastic dpad on the hammer. Later learned you could play with a mix of the gun and controller.

Still, I played and finished a lot of PS2 trash by necessity. Didn’t finish Dead Aim. Maybe that means something.

[MMaRsu]

Nightmare Creatures is something I always found fascinating as a kid but I was horrible at the game.
Well I only played the demo on PS1 but it was crazy as a kid lol.

[Nintex]

What cut content from RE4r was in Separate Ways?

The only areas that felt new compared to my RE4r runs was the laser room lab and the sewers bit. Didn't notice any other locations that weren't just remixed areas from the main RE4r campaign.

- El Gigante fight behind the mill with the destructable buildings and some areas leading up to it (this was an alternative path for Leon in the original)
- The long path along the village (this used to be a QTE zone with a boulder)
- The Cable Car sequence (this has been moved elsewhere and was originally a sequence before the Mendez boss fight)
- The Sewers (this is heavily altered as a 'castle waterway' rather than a dungeon sewer)
- "It" (heavily altered fight sequence but the same creature)
- Laser Room (moved to the lab, instead of guarding Sadlers throne room)
- Lab with the creature (I think this might be a reference to RE4 beta but I'm not entirely sure)
- The Cliffs (Leon climbed these in the original game)
- The upper sanctum route (I believe this was another alternative path Leon could take)
- Comms Tower (In the original game Leon goes here to try and contact his people but I think its another optional thing you can do)

[Nintex]

Played some Mercenaries first, Ada and Wesker slay.

Wanted something chill after Resident Evil 4 and popped Need for Speed Unbound into the 'X.
Took a while to update considering I haven't played it in a long time but they fixed many small things that make the game more enjoyable than it was at launch.
Still one of the most underrated real 'next-gen' games. The city looks stunning and it runs very smooth.

[Svejk]

About to start my 3rd run in Dragon's Dogma and get on that BBI.  It's been awhile since playing it.  Been playing as a Mystic Knight and it's been surprisingly fun.  I usually pay no mind to magic using, but the timed shield block counters are a total blast.  It'll be a toss up between a Mystic Knight and a Magic Archer for my BBI run. 

Played some spats of Horizon 2 also.  I'm on a roller coaster with this game; I get so enthralled for a couple minutes with the battles and presentation... then all of a sudden, I get severely bored for a bit.  It's weird.

[Joe Molotov]

Doing an Alan Wake replay before AW2 comes out. Barry is the realest bro.

[demi]

October gaming continued:

- Amnesia Collection (Dark Descent / Justine / Machine for Pigs)

Apparently everyone went nuts over this game when it first came out, but it really didnt do much for me. Just really blurry, annoying monster mechanics, annoying light mechanics... eh

- Amnesia Rebirth

I enjoyed this one a lot more, helps it was more modern so the visuals weren't awful and blurry.

- Eternal Darkness

Decided to do one final playthrough to unlock the "secret" ending (requires 3 whole playthroughs) after many years. Now I can die satisfied. Still enjoy this game

- Evil Dead: Hail to the King (Dreamcast)

Never finished this, the intro was always difficult for whatever reason. Once I made [some] progress, it becomes a lot easier since you can basically farm RNG mushrooms to convert to fuel and health. Guns are pretty much useless besides one or two encounters.

- Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare (Dreamcast)

This was fine I guess... story isnt very interesting and you spend more time checking doors to check keys you have and majority of guns suck and the enemies respawn and are annoying, it feels like you have no health kits until like the last 30 minutes of the game then they just stack you with it.

[Bebpo]

Tried a bit of Callisto Protocol since it's free now. Got a bit after you get to the shooting.
Game takes forever to actually have gameplay.

I can see why this reviewed the way it did. The combat is funky. This feels more like Breakdown or Riddick or something. Really weighty. I don't...hate it. It's unique enough that I'm ok giving it a chance to see where the combat goes, but definitely unsure of it and the combat will make or break the game.

Visuals are great, story is standard but enough to move you along. Really will just depend on the combat if I keep going or end up dropping it.

[Bebpo]

Alright, Callisto Porotol sucks. The game is ridiculously bad at managing multiple enemies at a time due to the kung fu circle style 1 enemy brawl at a time combat. Except that while you're doing that ranged enemies are still hitting you and trying to move around and dodge becomes really messy. Just feels clunky and not fun. Deleting it now.

[demi]

LOL was waiting for that post. Callisto is garbage, and the "true ending" DLC did no favors

Dead Space remake came out and shit on it, making Glen Schofield quit the industry again

[The Sceneman]

Decided to try and get on the October spooky bandwagon and I started Amnesia: The Bunker yesterday. Lol I noped out of that game pretty quick. Way too scary.

Im getting better at Armored Core 6, managed to beat the chapter one boss after a couple dozen on/off attempts. Apparently if you can deal with this fight you can beat the game so hopefully I understand the mechanics enough now.

Also playing Sea of Stars, about 10 hours in. Its pretty chill but not great. I got the 1000/1000 in McPixel 3, sweet game but Im sad to have finished it, as it was very good for doing the daily game pass achievement quest. Guess I gotta harden up and see if I can beat Amnesia and not PISS MY PANTS

[demi]

I finished Amnesia The Bunker, its basically if Alien Isolation sucked. Big fat meh

I also finished SOMA, which was fine. You're better off playing wuss mode because the monsters were just annoying

Also played Carrier (Dreamcast), jank Resident Evil. I enjoyed that more than those modern titles.

[MMaRsu]

what did u think of the story in soma?

[demi]

It was fine I guess.

Nothing really mindblowing, it was a playable version of a forum discussion about "if you upload your brain to the internet, is that still you?"

[Bebpo]

Soma is amazing

[Svejk]

Horizon FW – Getting more into it story-wise and gameplay-wise.  Started to b-line the main quests some to catch up to where the story is going.  Hit the 50% mark.  I still care nothing of the side characters and their involvement and stories (just like FFXVI), but Aloy’s story is still seems interesting so far.  As for gameplay, I’m adapting to it’s quirkiness on traversal vs ZD.   The enemy battles are a getting easier too, as I’m going back to main line quests too, which is nice.  The sense of wandering into areas under leveled is definitely more prevalent in this though and can be frustrating.  Feels like the latest AC where you're practically fighting your average enemy, but you're apparently underleveled and have zero effect on damaging it. and it can practically one shot you.  Feels cheap.    So far, I’m not finding any need to hunt for parts to upgrade my weapons further, so that helps move things along currently.  Weird …just like in FFXVI.

One thing I find clunky is the ability to compare weapon stats.  Feels like it could’ve been streamlined a bit better.  Same with the add-on components.  Honestly, I think the whole menu interface could use an overhaul.

However, one thing I need to highly praise, is the sound design.  Wow… the tempest 3D audio is absolutely phenomenal.   Hearing sounds way in the distance, bouncing off certain terrain, makes for such an immersive experience.  Demon’s Souls nailed it too… Something a Fromsoft game always desperately needs.

Other than that, it's been holding my interest better of late.  Not sure where this one will end at, but I hope they really push the more sci-fi space stuff for the 3rd one. Or have Aloy travel to a different colonized planet.. fuck it.  They'll need to shake things up quite a bit to hold my interest in this franchise.

[bork]

I tried Sonic Superstars.  The Steam version is already getting negative reviews right off the bat because the game has both Denuvo (which may not even be true?) and you need to connect an Epic Games account to it.

It's a pretty nice looking game and plays like classic Sonic, but now it's actually worth getting the chaos emeralds because they give you extra abilities to use.  I saw some complaints that the game feels slow, but I prefer that since it feels more like an older Sonic game and less like a "hold one direction and run to win" Sonic game, although I have already encountered sections with the latter.   The mini game to get chaos emeralds is now Verlet Swing- grab onto floating star things and swing towards the end.

It seems nice enough, but Sonic Mania is way better.  I refunded it and will maybe revisit it again when it's $20-$30.

[MMaRsu]

I tried Sonic Superstars.  The Steam version is already getting negative reviews right off the bat because the game has both Denuvo (which may not even be true?) and you need to connect an Epic Games account to it.

It's a pretty nice looking game and plays like classic Sonic, but now it's actually worth getting the chaos emeralds because they give you extra abilities to use.  I saw some complaints that the game feels slow, but I prefer that since it feels more like an older Sonic game and less like a "hold one direction and run to win" Sonic game, although I have already encountered sections with the latter.   The mini game to get chaos emeralds is now Verlet Swing- grab onto floating star things and swing towards the end.

It seems nice enough, but Sonic Mania is way better.  I refunded it and will maybe revisit it again when it's $20-$30.

It does have denuvo and wasnt mentioned on the steam page in the first place.

Also lmao at connecting an epic account, fuck off Epic.

[demi]

Halloween Gaming continued:

- Blue Stinger (Dreamcast)

Technically a Christmas game, similar to Parasite Eve, but I let it slide. I still enjoy this game, and it still has Dogs Bower, gaming bear icon. Final Boss is annoying though on Normal (one hit death???)
Complete with bore-approved gay hot tub scene (yes they are naked, and Dogs comments on Eliot's cock)



- D (PS1) (played on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1949447588 )

The jokes write themselves, but D. Nice spooky atmosphere, and short too as you have to finish it within 2 hours or you start all over. No saves, no pausing.

- D2 (Dreamcast) (played on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1952078993 )

This game is fucking wild. Also it's like this weird mishmash of mechanics that have no reason to be there. You do random battles like an RPG, and you get XP to level up (it only gives you more health I guess?). You can hunt to get healing, but the game throws tons of healing at you anyway. It even keeps the static "FPS room exploration" from the first D. Also it has naked chicks with aliens in their vaginas, you shoot a gigantic robot vagina, and the very end of the game gets all doom and gloom about the turn of the 21st century. Complete with facts like "5% of the world will have AIDS. There are 10% illiterate people in the world." and so on and so forth (just watch the VOD at the end). Like crazy fuckin Kojima shit. I had never played this game before so when this happened I was like WTF. Kenji Eno man

- Illbleed (Dreamcast) (currently playing)

A classic, and encompasses halloween/horror so well. Lots of camp too. I plan on playing this twice to get the secret naked ending :3

[bork]

I tried Sonic Superstars.  The Steam version is already getting negative reviews right off the bat because the game has both Denuvo (which may not even be true?) and you need to connect an Epic Games account to it.

It's a pretty nice looking game and plays like classic Sonic, but now it's actually worth getting the chaos emeralds because they give you extra abilities to use.  I saw some complaints that the game feels slow, but I prefer that since it feels more like an older Sonic game and less like a "hold one direction and run to win" Sonic game, although I have already encountered sections with the latter.   The mini game to get chaos emeralds is now Verlet Swing- grab onto floating star things and swing towards the end.

It seems nice enough, but Sonic Mania is way better.  I refunded it and will maybe revisit it again when it's $20-$30.

It does have denuvo and wasnt mentioned on the steam page in the first place.

Also lmao at connecting an epic account, fuck off Epic.

I saw people going back and forth on the Denuvo thing.  Apparently you can just X out of the Epic prompt, but you'd have to do it every time.  I didn't care about this since I have EGS installed, but it's just kinda stupid to have this on a Steam game release. 

[Bebpo]

Anyone playing the Spidey game?

Played about an hour last night. For whatever reason the graphics don't look as good as I remember Miles Morales looking. Like Miles had all those reflective surface focused rooms to ray-trace the fuck out of everything and it had snow and snow always looks nice.

Also the character models for everyone in this game look like early PS4, I don't remember if they were better in the previous games. I guess all the graphics power is going to the city and its density.

Like these are my shots from Miles and how I remember it:

Night + Snow + colored lighting = visually pops








Maybe the time of day/scenery in the start of Spider-Man 2 is just kind of fugly art direction.

[demi]

October gaming:

- Manhunt (Xbox, played on Series X) (played on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1955240636)

First time playing these "notorious" games. I'm sure these were way better when it first came out, but right now all I played was a super mid stealth game. And oddly from Rockstar, the combat and guns were atrocious to use. Also during the later half it pretty much disregards the stealth and makes you use guns primarily like a third person shooter. The only saving grace was that you can see Piggsy's fat cock in the bonus materials.

- Manhunt 2 (PS2) (played on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1956933827)

Nothing has changed at all in the sequel, it pretty much is the same game, just with a different story. Also during kills it does this goofy screen shake and color change and etc. This game was notorious as it was originally rated AO, but had to be censored to M. You can play the AO version on PC, but I don't think it really does anything to enhance the game. Again, during the later half it forces you to use guns and just treat it like a third person shooter. Also MMarsu stopped by even briefly so thanks for stopping by even if you didnt stay long

[Svejk]

Horizon 2 is starting to really get it’s hooks into me.  Even though the map is littered with stuff to explore/unlock, I’ve overcome my OCD of having to see what so and so is, and just be completely fine running past certain things and being ok with it.  If I come back to it later or not, it’s no big deal.
One thing that I’ve been enjoying a lot more is the human brawling.  Definitely feel more nimble and cinematic in these fights.  It felt shoehorned in in the first one, but they made these fights almost as fun as the dinobot fights.
 
On the other hand, my son has recently been all about Doom (1993) lately.  That being said, as it has been the past few years, whatever my kids get into, I start to fall into as well.  I downloaded and tried out Doom (2016) again for like the 3rd time now, and now it’s finally starting to click.  Once I got past the realization that most the detailed environments aren’t really interactive and trained myself to play it like Doom ’93 and just focus on the enemies and platform movement, it’s getting super fun.
 
Of course, it was inevitable I suppose.. I pre-ordered MGS Master Collection last night.  It’s been so long since playing these, I’m excited to revisit them with the added bells and whistles of bonus content.  Plus, as much as Konami is trying to make a pseudo comeback, I do want a Vol. 2 with MGS4, so I’ll support them for their classics they actually realize they have.  (*Ahem* looking at you, Sega.)  Apparently M2 did the emulation for MGS1, so that’s not a bad sign.

I may hold off playing Snake Eater since Delta is in the works.  I’m sure I’ll fall for it when it comes.  What a thrill…

[Svejk]

My OCD just got annihilated...


Why are these separated and not in one contained app?! 
Some folks may prefer it that way, but not me.  Ugh.

On a positive note though, Snake Eater apparently does have the Subsistence alternate camera too, so that's good.

[demi]

They are separate because you can buy them separately, which is good for people who just want one metal gear to play

[Svejk]

They are separate because you can buy them separately, which is good for people who just want one metal gear to play

Right.  Sucks PS5 has yet to apply a proper folder option.  Not sure why Sony likes their thumb in thier ass about that.

[tiesto]

Just about done with Wonder - have beaten all the special stages, have gotten all the coins and wonder seeds in every stage up to Bowser... just have to beat the final stage and then pick up some of the missing standees and I'll have 100%ed it. Great game, though rather easy. Even the final special stage took me 5 tries (in comparison, Champion's Road took me about 40). The hardest stage was the 2nd special stage with the disappearing blocks and walljumps you needed to make off of single blocks and couldn't fuck up at all.

Tonight I'll start on Legend of Legaia. I vaguely recall playing through like the first dungeon of this during freshman year at college (borrowed it from one of the kids in the dorms), but then dropped it soon after to play FF8. Don't really remember much about it at all, aside from a plot that had to do with fog overtaking the world? We'll see if I end up liking it better than Sony's other RPG that starts with Legend (which I absolutely _loved_).

Some other games I've played recently:

Nayuta: Boundless Trails - very fun action RPG/platformer hybrid. Reminiscent to me of Threads of Fate, with an ARPG/3D Platformer mix. Short levels made for replay. Has fuck all to do with the rest of the Trails series (though apparently it will tie in eventually?) but still I absolutely loved it.

Ninja Gaiden 3 (NES on the SNES Ninja Gaiden Trilogy) - beautiful graphics, played the SNES version since enemies don't do double damage like they did in the US NES release. Fun game but I like 2 better overall.

Spyro 1 Reignited - it's a decent game, probably would've been more impactful if I played it back in the days of the original PS1. I got everything in the game (120%), some of those turbocharged jumps were a bit unintuitive and frustrating.

Sorcerer's Kingdom - obscure Genesis RPG with interesting ideas but an absolutely grueling start - where you have to kill 1 enemy at a time and then leave and heal, until you can afford better armor. The balance is all over the place, the music is grating (though there are 1 or 2 banger tunes), and the story is pretty bland compared to some of its contemporaries. When it comes to obscure 1992 Genesis RPGs with vaguely tactical battles and terrible gameplay balance, I much prefer Traysia.

NES Golf - been on a slight golf kick lately... I want to take lessons next spring and everything. The NES game is very obtuse since you can't really accurately judge what clubs to use.

[demi]

October gaming:

Played the Splatterhouse trilogy (played on twitch, until my internet shit the bed: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1960323851), using my Genesis Mini and TurboGrafx Mini

I enjoyed the first two games a lot, just some classic pattern memorization. Splatterhouse 3 on the other hand.... yeah there's a lot wrong with it. I love being able to "explore" the mansion, but having every level be on a strict time limit is frustrating as shit. Also the difficulty is WILD, you pretty much need to abuse the "special" attacks which do a ton more damage than just beating them up normally.

[Nintex]

Mario Wonder is so fun
Playing it casually just tipped my toes into the Petal Islands, I love water levels in Mario games unlike in many other platformers.

What's up with Nintendo's world map design though, this is like the 10th Switch game that has the endboss waiting in his lair in the middle of the map like Xenoblade 3 and Fire Emblem Engage 

[Polident Hive]

Nayuta: Boundless Trails - very fun action RPG/platformer hybrid. Reminiscent to me of Threads of Fate, with an ARPG/3D Platformer mix. Short levels made for replay. Has fuck all to do with the rest of the Trails series (though apparently it will tie in eventually?) but still I absolutely loved it.

Didn’t know the English localization was finally out. They’ve been selling it with Japanese only on Steam, with an English patch in the future. Think Falcom is doing the same with Ys X. Gonna pick it up. Been wanting to play it for about ten years when it was a PSP release.

[HardcoreRetro]

Finished Super Mario Bros Wonder 100%. The final final level is an absolute bitch to clear.

Moved on to Alan Wake 2 now. Still waiting for my copy of Spiderman 2 to arrive but the Dutch postal service is being absolute dogshit. Should've been here on release.

Alan Wake 2 so far doesn't really feel like a sequel to Alan Wake gameplay-wise. It feels more like a survival horror game in the vein of RE2 Remake. Seems like it's using the first game as a framing device for the story in this one. Apparently no Barry Wheeler in this one either.

Atmosphere so far has been on point. Music is really good as well, but also kinda buggy. Had songs skipping and muting during cutscenes. The writing could go either way so far. I'll have to play more to see how I stand on the overall package.

[Bebpo]

Alan Wake 2 so far doesn't really feel like a sequel to Alan Wake gameplay-wise. It feels more like a survival horror game in the vein of RE2 Remake.

That's good. The first game had kind of shit gameplay despite the good atmosphere/graphics/interesting writing. Was bored out of my mind a lot in AW1. All I wanted out of AW2 was better gameplay more akin to RE.

[HardcoreRetro]

There has been very little gameplay so far in the 3 hours I played. It's mostly been a walking sim with exposition dumps so far. Point and click like investigation mechanics but no real deduction going on.

I imagine you'll be even more bored by this one.

[demi]

Played up to after Alan's first main chapter, and honestly this game is boring.

This is nothing like Resident Evil that they hoped to emulate. MAYBE IT PICKS UP LATER but the dips in action are MUCH more harsh than the times you actually do some exploration and combat.

Yes the "Mind Place" puts a harsh stop on things too much as well

Video playthrough: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1961981352

[Nintex]

I wanted to play Cyberpunk 2077 but it had to download 60GB.
No biggie, I clicked on Alan Wake 2 but it had to download 80GB.

So I figured, I'll just play some Mario as I wait.

And I just kept playing and playing and playing.

[Nintex]

Holy fucking shit









Peak Fincher fellas, peak Fincher. Sam Lake Remedy

[demi]

Finished Alan Wake 2

I prefer AW1 more but this game has some great setpieces and looks great. But it really is "just" alan wake.

If you did not like the combat, good news, there is substantially less combat involved but what is there is literally "just" alan wake.

[HardcoreRetro]

Spider-Man 2 is doing real little for me so far.

I can't stand the side characters telling me their life stories. Feels lazy as fuck. I'd rather have fewer side quests but have actual content to go along with it. Show, don't tell. I can't build a connection with disembodied audio logs. I don't know these people. Give me a reason to care, don't just basically tell me I should care.

Make better content.

[Bebpo]

Spider-Man 2 is doing real little for me so far.

I can't stand the side characters telling me their life stories. Feels lazy as fuck. I'd rather have fewer side quests but have actual content to go along with it. Show, don't tell. I can't build a connection with disembodied audio logs. I don't know these people. Give me a reason to care, don't just basically tell me I should care.

Make better content.

I turned around on it about 30% completion in. It does pick up, and it is good, but yeah it's not a perfect game. That Edge 8/10 seemed pretty fair from what I've played.

My biggest gripe with the game is honestly just the crowd control combat. I find it more annoying than fun. It's doable but it's dodge/parry spam while you're getting sniped/dive-bombed/abilities-disabled/hit by brutes you can't dodge/etc... all at the same time one after another. Arkham's combat worked better being at a slower pace.

Since Insomniac loves to just iterate comfort gaming forever (see: Ratchet series), it's a bummer we're probably stuck with this combat system forever for the series. They should've poached a DMC kinda combat guy like FFXVI did.

At least Wolverine will have a new combat system. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it's just Arkham combat again.