What are you playing?

[Nintex]

Ahhhh shit playing an alpha for one of my fav ea games y’all

You mean the retail version? 

[Freyj]

Elex was a good eurojank, a little let down by the early game promise of the jet pack. The best uses of it are some early set pieces after which it's mostly a means of getting higher faster. Also wasn’t a fan of how the stats served no purpose but to restrict equipment. Up to level 15-20 is kind of a slog without any real upgrades in power.

Onto Amid Evil which is insanely good so far.

AMID EVIL fucking rules. Hexen, Heretic, Quake feels all over. Can't recommend it enough. Was really tempted to immediately launch into DUSK (it's Quake-y brother) after finishing it.

Gonna try to finish Outer Wilds while starting Three Houses next.

[kingv]

Ahhhh shit playing an alpha for one of my fav ea games y’all

Never go full Shinobi.
 

[CatsCatsCats]

Idgi

But the alpha is real fun

[Bebpo]

Played about an hour of Where the Water Tastes Like Wine on xbox pc game pass. Neat concept for an adventure game. Walking across old time USA running into stories with branching and then having conversations with 16 major characters trying to up their companion points by telling the right kind of stories you've learned (so if they want to hear something happy, you tell them a happy story you ran into), and upping their companion points reveals more of their story told across multiple encounters.

Good music and VA. Writing seems good too and setting is neat. You move kinda slow if you're not hitchiking (which only goes from city to city so if you wanna experience the stories along the way, walking is better), but otherwise it's a pretty original concept and executes it pretty well.

Oh, one issue I have with it is the game is about running into stories yet when you hitchike it just takes you to the next city in silence. Considering hitchiking is often about storytelling it seems like a missed opportunity to not have a random set of hitchiking stories that play out sometimes when you hitchike.

Anyhow, for free it's worth a try!

[Svejk]

Tried the Black Desert beta last night.  It's certainly overwhelming at first but started to get use to the interface.  I thought it ran ok on base PS4.  Framerate seemed decent, but the buffering of textures was muddy often.  Nothing to take away from the fast gameplay and what with all's going on.  I'm a total sucker for good character creators (which this has the best hands down) and cosmetic options, in which this appears to have tons of dye options.  Looking forward to diving into the release to do more.

[tiesto]

I finally got a chance to play an Amstrad GX4000 and ZX (aka Zed Ex) Spectrum... most of the games were absolutely terrible. Confusing controls and abysmal framerates. The best game I probably played on either system were ports of Pang (GX4000) and Bomb Jack (Spectrum).

[The Sceneman]

Been a mental couple of weeks with Uni and work so haven't had much time for vidya.

Have been playing My Time at Portia when I can. Decided to check it out since it was on Xbox Game Pass and Rumbler said it was good. Yeah this game is chill, fun and very addictive. Great game design, and some damn awful character art, but it's not too much of a big deal.

[HardcoreRetro]

I finally got a chance to play an Amstrad GX4000 and ZX (aka Zed Ex) Spectrum... most of the games were absolutely terrible. Confusing controls and abysmal framerates. The best game I probably played on either system were ports of Pang (GX4000) and Bomb Jack (Spectrum).

I loved playing on the Amstrad CPC. Waiting 3 minutes for the tape to load a shitty version of frogger.

[Raist]

I finally got a chance to play an Amstrad GX4000 and ZX (aka Zed Ex) Spectrum... most of the games were absolutely terrible. Confusing controls and abysmal framerates. The best game I probably played on either system were ports of Pang (GX4000) and Bomb Jack (Spectrum).

Cookie

JetPac :

[CatsCatsCats]

Was looking for some couch co-op fun with the fam, came across Full Metal Furies on gamepass. Pretty fun, plus you get to read it as furries the whole time 

[The Sceneman]

Yeah I was trying to figure out if any good couch coop games were on Gamepass, thanks for the heads up. You find any others?

[CatsCatsCats]

Wizard of Legend is also good

[Bebpo]

Still really enjoying Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. The atmosphere and these stories that are often really  give the game a lot of feels.
But yeah the parts where you tell stories to appease story characters is kinda a busted mess but they're just a part and their actual stories are good it's just giving them the stories they want which can be a frustrating experience.

Also the game totally totally flopped:
https://www.polygon.com/2018/4/2/17188726/video-game-flops-where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-sales

I feel kinda bad because I'm playing it for free on Game Pass, but yeah this is the type of ambitious narrative art experience that the game medium needs more of even if it's flawed.

[Bebpo]

The post mortems on this game are fascinating. Really feels ambitious and unique. 24 diverse writers, that is a lot but the writing turned out well and a neat representation of America through it.

https://medium.com/@johnnemann/where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-postmortem-211a1f9d791a

https://blog.lauramichet.com/2018/03/04/where-the-water-tastes-like-wine-postmortem/

[Nintex]

Ion Fury

This shit is legit good. EA should take game design lessons from these guys.

[The Sceneman]

Okay Jackbox Party Pack 2 is the shit. Tried it on Gamepass last night, Fibbage is so good

[MMaRsu]

Ion Fury

This shit is legit good. EA should take game design lessons from these guys.

wait..ea?

[Nintex]

Ion Fury

This shit is legit good. EA should take game design lessons from these guys.

wait..ea?

The most recent FPS campaign I played was Battlefield V and it was horseshit compared to this.

[Freyj]

Three Houses is the first Fire Emblem to really hook me. Played both the GBA ones but always preferred Advance Wars. Tried a few others including Awakening but none of them ever really did much for me until this. Black Eagles route is some unfinished horseshit and there’s room for improvement but the Persona 3 style battle / social balance really helped to avoid the battle fatigue I always get with T/SRPGs.

100%’d A Short Hike this afternoon in about 3 hours. Great little Animal Crossing exploration game. Hope the dev does something bigger with the ideas there but honestly a short, cheap (free via Humble Bundle) game is what I need sometimes.

Didn’t finish Fell Seal but after revisiting a ~15 hour save I may be done with it. It’s FFT through and through for better or worse. I also really really hate SRPGs with CC / heal heavy enemy AI and this game pretty much solely relies on it for a difficulty curve. Divinity OS2 pushed my patience for CC in single player games to its limits and I’m not sure I’ll revisit this save again. Following up Three Houses with this didn’t help its case.

I really don’t know what I’m gonna play next. There’s a lot I want to get into: Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Remnant From The Ashes, RAD, Metal Wolf Chaos and The Sinking City but WoW Classic is out in a week or so and I know I’ll lose potentially months in an ill advised nostalgia haze there so starting anything seems pointless.

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, yeah not sure if I’d like fell seal.

Did you play TO psp? I felt at the time that it was the high point of srpgs.

[The Sceneman]

Been replaying Resident Evil 4 on Xbox One. Man, still a great game, just got the castle. The combat is so satisfying and the challenge and threat of the enemies keeps you on edge, despite being packing an arsenal.

[Akala]

Been playing DQ Builders 2. I really liked the first one, and while this one adds a lot, it feels less focused and kind of bloaty/low-rent. Almost like some shitty RPG Maker thing. Honestly the only thing I think that has been improved (aside from more pieces/things to build) is that the free build zone is handled much better than in the first one.

I think I like it, but not sure how strong I would recommend. 

Agree with what was said earlier in this thread:

Dragon Quest Builder 2,
I got this early because of a friend and it feels like it had the potential to be a GOAT life sim RPG, the systems and world are great, but it sadly is crippled by being handholding central. I didn't think it was going this bad - it's honestly on the handholding levels of Zelda Skyward Sword. Maybe even worse, because it gives you freedom, just to punish you for using it on your own.

It really never gets any better.

The second and third islands are a neat toss up on the formula but the training wheels are so god damned irritating.

It is bad to the point it's distracting. 

[CatsCatsCats]

Okay Jackbox Party Pack 2 is the shit. Tried it on Gamepass last night, Fibbage is so good

Also tried this the other night, pretty fun

[Freyj]

Hmmm, yeah not sure if I’d like fell seal.

Did you play TO psp? I felt at the time that it was the high point of srpgs.

Absolutely loved LUCT. I should replay it with emulator uprezzing.

[Freyj]

Been playing DQ Builders 2. I really liked the first one, and while this one adds a lot, it feels less focused and kind of bloaty/low-rent. Almost like some shitty RPG Maker thing. Honestly the only thing I think that has been improved (aside from more pieces/things to build) is that the free build zone is handled much better than in the first one.

I think I like it, but not sure how strong I would recommend. 

Agree with what was said earlier in this thread:

It is bad to the point it's distracting. 

I want to love DQ Builders, and to some degree I do, but there's a weird hesitancy in some japanese games (being a spinoff of Dragon Quest doesn't help here) to ever let the player have any real agency over the game and in some cases it doesn't negatively impact things too much but in the case of DQB they clearly gave up solving the player agency issue and just hid the sandbox behind an extremely linear / tedious experience. By the time you reach the sandbox there's really nothing left to do with it but creative mode and it's lost a lot of its appeal.

[Bebpo]

Hmmm, yeah not sure if I’d like fell seal.

Did you play TO psp? I felt at the time that it was the high point of srpgs.

Absolutely loved LUCT. I should replay it with emulator uprezzing.

Yeah, for TO/FFT style srpgs I'd be comparing any game like Fell Seal to them, so if you're not digging Fell Seal but you love TO then I probably wouldn't like it too much either.

[kingv]

I started playing crackdown 3 last because “Lol, Gamepass” and it’s surprisingly decent.

It has a ton of mediocre elements but the game itself is pretty addictive. Really seems to nail that “just one more thing” gameplay loop.

Everything else about it is aggressively mediocre, though, and it sort of feels like playing A 10 year old game.

[Shuri]

ION FURY

I'm having a blast with the game. It's a tone perfect throwback to the nineties, built on the venerable Build engine. The main character feels like she's Duke Nukem sister's. The gunplay is REALLY on touch, i'd say it's better than DN3D's gunplay. The sound effects for the guns are so liberating. Level design is pretty good, no weird obtuse puzzles.

The enemies are fun, they feel like a mix of Strife, Blood and Rise of the Triad. I kinda wish there was more diversity but I've just finished the first Episode so far. I gotta mention how tight the controls are, and coupled with  the sense of speed of your character makes for a very pure game play experience. The soundtrack is amazing, a pitch perfect mix of minimalist techno and drum and bass that completely fits with the atmosphere and the whole 1996 vibe of the game.

It's one of my favorite new release this year. Worth buying if you love that era of videogaming.


I know there has been some drama about this game, I dont know if the game has been patched, from what I understand there was some problematic content but I havent noticed any. The main character quotes a lot of action movies and is just a killing machine, thats pretty much her personality.

Don't sleep on this.

 

[Nintex]

I fully endorse your post. I thought I finished it last night (because I had run the typical number of HALO/COD campaign hours and was fighting what seemed like the final boss with the final gun).
And the game was like: "Nuh-uh you ain't done yet" and continued. 

I have one message to the people who worked on recent HALO campaigns and the likes

[bluemax]

I dunno, I'm really enjoying DQB2 this time. Feels like they refined most of the stuff that was jank, and gave you a bit more room to grow your towns this time. I'm still fairly early though.

[Svejk]

Started a ranger on Black Desert (PS4).  The game is overwhelming, but I'm enjoying the fighting a lot.  If only I didn't spend a stupid amount of time on the character creator. 

[HardcoreRetro]

If only I didn't spend a stupid amount of time on the character creator.

I feel like the most important part of any MMO is trying to create your own personal fuckdoll, that adheres to all your kinks.

[The Sceneman]

Just finishing up the "Seperate Ways" content in Resident Evil 4. This is pretty good, I'm surprised I never played it on the Wii release, I assumed it was just another minigame a-la Mercenaries. Pretty sweet side-campaign, I guess you'd call it a DLC pack nowadays. Theres even some new locations which is sweet

[The Sceneman]

Playing Professional/Hard mode in Resident Evil 4. Managed to get through the village siege sequence without dying but by the skin of my teeth using all 'nades, kung fu kicks and window exits at my disposal. Rest of the game should be straightforward from here!

[kingv]

If only I didn't spend a stupid amount of time on the character creator.

I feel like the most important part of any MMO is trying to create your own personal fuckdoll, that adheres to all your kinks.

Kind of stupid you can’t be a Psi dragon in more games :-(

[nachobro]

Started a ranger on Black Desert (PS4).  The game is overwhelming, but I'm enjoying the fighting a lot.  If only I didn't spend a stupid amount of time on the character creator.

Gotta post pics! I have some of my characters that I'll post up later...the creator is probably the best one in games so it's easy to get lost in it.

[Svejk]

Started a ranger on Black Desert (PS4).  The game is overwhelming, but I'm enjoying the fighting a lot.  If only I didn't spend a stupid amount of time on the character creator.

Gotta post pics! I have some of my characters that I'll post up later...the creator is probably the best one in games so it's easy to get lost in it.

Do it! I totally will.     I'm a total sucker for fashion in games.  Fashion >>>> Functionality.  I'd rather go into battle with weak, worthless gear and die... as long as I look damn beautiful doing it.

[Nintex]

I'm experiencing Control 

[The Sceneman]

Okay why is Resident Evil 4 on "Professional" difficulty so good? Normally INSANE MODE is there just to take the piss with cheap hitbox AI in TPS shooters, but RE4 solved the problem by giving the enemies no guns. Genius. It did also invent the genre but I digress.

This is one of my finest gaming experiences in recent memory. The game is just so fun, so satisfying. Hard to put my finger on why. I guess it's just a masterwork of overall game design. The map and encounter design is brilliant. Every battle ended feels like a triumph of survival, despite having massive guns to shoot the baddies with. I'm sure theres a Youtube clip or two breaking down just why its so good. I'm almost at the castle and never had so much fun blasting ganados. Is it because there's a 150G achievement at the end? Who knows.

[Chooky]

yeah tbh it's why i don't like rebuying the game. professional mode is only available as an unlockable and it's so much more satisfying to play that it ends up pissing me off that i have to go thru normal mode again to get to it.

[nachobro]

Do it! I totally will.     I'm a total sucker for fashion in games.  Fashion >>>> Functionality.  I'd rather go into battle with weak, worthless gear and die... as long as I look damn beautiful doing it.

these are old pc pics but they are still pretty good, didn't have as many character shots as i remembered

spoiler (click to show/hide)

first character i made in the creator pre-release. lost the save and didn't want to remake her lol


character i ended up playing with that is basically just asuka from wwe, she was a tamer class


couple other shots i thought were neat

[close]

[The Sceneman]

yeah tbh it's why i don't like rebuying the game. professional mode is only available as an unlockable and it's so much more satisfying to play that it ends up pissing me off that i have to go thru normal mode again to get to it.

yeah they should've added a cheat code to enter on the title screen to unlock hard mode from the get-go. I love it when games have that.

[Svejk]

Do it! I totally will.     I'm a total sucker for fashion in games.  Fashion >>>> Functionality.  I'd rather go into battle with weak, worthless gear and die... as long as I look damn beautiful doing it.

these are old pc pics but they are still pretty good, didn't have as many character shots as i remembered

spoiler (click to show/hide)

first character i made in the creator pre-release. lost the save and didn't want to remake her lol


character i ended up playing with that is basically just asuka from wwe, she was a tamer class


couple other shots i thought were neat

[close]

Love'em!    I want that class to come sooner rather than later!  I'm only still scratching the surface on PS4, so only have so much gear and still trying to fine tune some features...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Her skin tones and makeup do weird things in certain light, so I'm still trying to get what I want...  Love the hair features this game has though. 
She's got various body tats, but they're mostly covered up for now.

[close]

[MMaRsu]

yeah tbh it's why i don't like rebuying the game. professional mode is only available as an unlockable and it's so much more satisfying to play that it ends up pissing me off that i have to go thru normal mode again to get to it.

yeah they should've added a cheat code to enter on the title screen to unlock hard mode from the get-go. I love it when games have that.

remember cheatcodes

[Nintex]

Okay why is Resident Evil 4 on "Professional" difficulty so good? Normally INSANE MODE is there just to take the piss with cheap hitbox AI in TPS shooters, but RE4 solved the problem by giving the enemies no guns. Genius. It did also invent the genre but I digress.

This is one of my finest gaming experiences in recent memory. The game is just so fun, so satisfying. Hard to put my finger on why. I guess it's just a masterwork of overall game design. The map and encounter design is brilliant. Every battle ended feels like a triumph of survival, despite having massive guns to shoot the baddies with. I'm sure theres a Youtube clip or two breaking down just why its so good. I'm almost at the castle and never had so much fun blasting ganados. Is it because there's a 150G achievement at the end? Who knows.

Sounds godlike. How are the controls?

I remember reading some people having trouble with that. The Wii version was the easiest, you could just point and shoot. Worked like a charm though.
RE4's biggest strength is the pacing. It just keeps throwing cool shit on the screen which don't necessarily have to make any sense, they just make it work.

The game was so far ahead of its time that even now there aren't many games that can offer quite the same polished experience.

[Mr. Nobody]

Been replaying 999 after using it to check on my DS Lite. I've only got the true ending left and I've been kind of holding off on it because I've been blazing through the game to the point where I'm unsure if it was always this short/easy or not.

Or was I just an idiot 9 years ago 

[Rufus]

Or you have functioning long term memory bits.

[The Sceneman]

Okay why is Resident Evil 4 on "Professional" difficulty so good? Normally INSANE MODE is there just to take the piss with cheap hitbox AI in TPS shooters, but RE4 solved the problem by giving the enemies no guns. Genius. It did also invent the genre but I digress.

This is one of my finest gaming experiences in recent memory. The game is just so fun, so satisfying. Hard to put my finger on why. I guess it's just a masterwork of overall game design. The map and encounter design is brilliant. Every battle ended feels like a triumph of survival, despite having massive guns to shoot the baddies with. I'm sure theres a Youtube clip or two breaking down just why its so good. I'm almost at the castle and never had so much fun blasting ganados. Is it because there's a 150G achievement at the end? Who knows.

Sounds godlike. How are the controls?

I remember reading some people having trouble with that. The Wii version was the easiest, you could just point and shoot. Worked like a charm though.
RE4's biggest strength is the pacing. It just keeps throwing cool shit on the screen which don't necessarily have to make any sense, they just make it work.

The game was so far ahead of its time that even now there aren't many games that can offer quite the same polished experience.

Controls had like a 10 minute adjustment period but once you get the hang of them they're fine. Aiming was iffy for the first hour but again you get used to it. Hard mode is sweet as you can really min-max your arsenal - feels good. Up to Chapter 4 now.

[CatsCatsCats]

I downloaded a picross game on my phone, it’s all over for me

[Joe Molotov]

I downloaded a picross game on my phone, it’s all over for me

Is it the Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection? I like that one.

[Bebpo]

Played about 40 mins of Bloopers' Layers of Fear and then about 40 mins of their Blair Witch. Both were basically walking sims, but Blair Witch was just like forest forest, forest, pet dog, forest forest, get lost, pet dog, forest, whereas Layers of Fear was a total Amnesia ripoff but well paced haunted corridor with spooky rooms run.

What surprised me from a small studio was how Blair Witch had like Crysis level of photo-realistic graphics in the forest (game runs pretty bad though). Guess engines are pretty good for that kinda stuff these days! Art direction in both are on point. Probably finish both, I actually don't like the puzzle stuff so far in Blair, but otoh I think doing a pure walking sim with no way to die takes away a lot of tension in horror and so once I realized Layers of Fear was a walking sim it wasn't as good for me. I originally thought it was a haunted painting game or something and it was sitting in my backlog for years.

I like that Amnesia Machine for Pigs for instance is a walking sim but still occasionally has enemies and you can die so it still manages the tension with a strong focused narrative. The ending speech/song for that game is still amazing.

[CatsCatsCats]

I downloaded a picross game on my phone, it’s all over for me

Is it the Konami Pixel Puzzle Collection? I like that one.

Lol naw just some random shit that got advertised to me while I was playing a stupid ass clicker

Edit: it’s just called Picture Cross

[Spieler1]

Bomberman Tournament - a friend gifted this to me. Why did no one ever tell me there was Bomberman mixed with Zelda/JRPG progression? 

[Akala]

Just done with 2nd island in DQ builders. Liking it a bit more, but am maybe getting a bit tired of it? They should have condensed the story somewhat but I guess DQ isn't really known for that...

[Spieler1]

Making your new Monster Hunter game start with a Plesioth type

[Kunai With Chain]

Had Bioshock HD collection lying around so gave the first game a try and I gotta say it feels like it hasn't aged that well. Even found myself getting a hint of motion sickness which was a throw back to the old days for me. Not a big fan of horror games anyway, so maybe I should just dump it and instead give Infinite a go since I never played it last gen.

[Nintex]

Bioshock always had some tolerable jank.
Infinite is more polished in ways but they gave up on the RPG/Exploration bits and turned it into a linear shooter instead. Still worth playing though. Great story and art direction.

[Trent Dole]

My main online jam had a 15 hour maint the other day so I went and fired up something else for a change and played some more Hyrule Warriors. That game doesn't fucking end. I did what I thought was going to be the last bit of the main story mode and it opened up yet one more main story stage for me to do and also a path with a new side character starting under the first stage of the main run.

[Spieler1]

Master Rank in Monster Hunter isn't fucking around. Bigger bosses take me more than 30 minutes with starter weapons.    The best weapon from the og game is basically useless now (as is the overall gear).