Whatcha Been Playing?

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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Simonsloth wrote: September 6th, 2018, 11:52 pm Are you playing it on the Xbox or pc?

Glad you’re enjoying it. I hoped that my negative post would be offset by some positivity:)
Playing it on the old black brick and it's all rather smooth going, discounting finicky mechanics
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Actually it’s a very dark green brick.
😉
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DomsBeard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DomsBeard »

Stanshall wrote: September 7th, 2018, 6:21 am Had a bash at SNK Heroines this morning. It's not really what I expected as I have got into the Neo Geo fighters this year, with Garou, KoF98, The Last Blade, Real Bout FFS and more and after seeing the early trailers thought this would be a slightly more modern and flashy take on that style, albeit with a girl power spin. Hmm...Not quite.

It's very simplified in terms of combat, almost like Smash in terms of movesets and execution but more limited. The real depth and variety in the game appears to be playing dress up and putting clown noses on the girls' tits and furry handcuffs on their wrists and ankles and cow ears to match their cow bikini and tail and taking screenshots of them crying in the car park of the SNK headquarters through a telephoto lens overlay.

Oh, I'm not joking, no.
Only 7 hours till I get home and can see for myself..... :D :lol:
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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So apparently I'm a Hitman fan now...?

This a completely different brand of stealth than MGS, Splinter Cell or even Mark of the Ninja, centered around staying inconspicuous and navigating your way through crowds while learning the AI routines and utilizing the various tools at your disposal. And it is excellent! I just love the purity of it and the fact that you can't just shoot your way out of trouble. Replaying the levels and becoming more and more efficient at the game is a ridiculously satisfying experience. And there are plenty of built-in challenges that prove how the game has been carefully fine-tuned for perfectionism. Straight to the pleasure center of the brain. Where has this been all my life? :o

It's a shame the business side of things is so consumer-unfriendly, because this might very well end up being one of my favorite games of this generation if the beginning is anything to go by.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Still playing Phantom Doctrine here, and it has started to drag a little. The main storyline only gets progressed once you discover enough evidence, but you don't have a lot of control over that - as far as I can tell the files you photograph within missions reveal something, but seems to have as good a chance of revealing a new informer, weapons dealer etc rather than something germane to the case. In between the storyline progressing you do generic missions where you rescue a captured informer, take out an enemy agent, wipe out an enemy cell.

These are all well and good but are a bit samey, and each mission takes a significant amount of time, being stealth-based. I've had my fun, I want to critical-path it now.

I have managed to get my base to the point where I have a specialist working in Comms uncovering evidence, so I've started a new tactic of progressing time through the strategic map and hoping that he will turn up stuff (btw a lot of the agents are big-haired eighties women with aliases like Fixer, Marzipan, Bliss etc, it's great. But in this case Poodle is assigned to Comms :lol: ) and only doing necessary missions like taking out enemy cells when they become too dangerous. But it is definitely a flaw of the game that I want to avoid the actual day-to-day missions and gameplay.

Breaking that up with a little MLB The Show 18. I am in the Bigs with the #lolMets, having imported a Road to the Show save from last year's game and am playing on dynamic difficulty which is starting to challenge now on Legend. About to play in my first ever All-Star game. :shock:
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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KSubzero1000 wrote: September 8th, 2018, 12:12 am So apparently I'm a Hitman fan now...?

This a completely different brand of stealth than MGS, Splinter Cell or even Mark of the Ninja, centered around staying inconspicuous and navigating your way through crowds while learning the AI routines and utilizing the various tools at your disposal. And it is excellent! I just love the purity of it and the fact that you can't just shoot your way out of trouble. Replaying the levels and becoming more and more efficient at the game is a ridiculously satisfying experience. And there are plenty of built-in challenges that prove how the game has been carefully fine-tuned for perfectionism. Straight to the pleasure center of the brain. Where has this been all my life? :o

It's a shame the business side of things is so consumer-unfriendly, because this might very well end up being one of my favorite games of this generation if the beginning is anything to go by.
Ah excellent! Glad you are enjoying it. I only ever bought the intro pack with the Paris missions as well as the first mission pack which was Sapienza I think. I really liked what I played but then they removed the ability to buy the individual DLC from the store. I may pick up the GOTY version at some point.

Do we know if season 2 will be episodic yet or just one and done?
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79uk wrote: September 8th, 2018, 1:05 pm I really liked what I played but then they removed the ability to buy the individual DLC from the store. I may pick up the GOTY version at some point.

Do we know if season 2 will be episodic yet or just one and done?
I think the GOTY upgrade is also currently discounted as the Deal of the Week on PSN if you own the intro pack. Might wanna check it out!

As far as I know, Hitman 2 will not have the same episodic structure, although it looks like several DLC packs are already planned. Tomayto / Tomahto, I'll wait for the compete package.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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ratsoalbion wrote: September 7th, 2018, 10:11 am Actually it’s a very dark green brick.
😉
Must be the lighting in this room. :)
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

The Mega Man 11 demo feels great to my relative newcomer eye, and looks the part too. Definite purchase. And another ten hours put in this weekend has me heading for the end game in Breath of the Wild - a bit of focus now has taken me from one divine beast down after 65 hours to half way through the last divine beast “dungeon” after 75, with plenty of hearts and some decent weapons and armour in hand, so all those distractions might just pay off.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Further to my post above, did anyone else who’s played Zelda: Breath of the Wild find the final boss battle a bit anti-climactic? I flew in with no thought of strategy from the nearest tower, swam up three waterfalls then climbed to the rest of the way to top of the castle completely unopposed, had him at 50% energy within seconds, and beaten within a few minutes. The last bit on the horse was pointless – I just got off the horse, walked around him and shot the targets when they appeared – no damage taken. I was very well prepared for the main part with the Master Sword, nice armour and a bunch of attack-enhancing potions, but all the same, given the amount of goes Ocarina of Time’s final boss took me to beat when I played it right before starting this, and the fact that I’m rubbish at boss battles, I was expecting a little bit more of a challenge. Not really complaining though – incredible game but I’m glad to be done with it without the stress and frustration I was expecting!
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

Azure Reflections. A Touhou spin-off horizontal shmup, featuring your usual cast of witches and maids and tea parties and all that shite. It's fun, though. I do love a good bullet hell and while this isn't a great bullet hell, it does a couple of things I rather enjoy, namely the boss fights. They play out as duels and have much more interesting and challenging patterns than the fairly dull and repetitive stages. It's a bit like Shikhondo, in that respect. You also have a reflector bar which you can use up to deflect bullets, as well as absorb bullets and hurl yourself kamikaze style at your boss opponent when you knock down their health. It's a neat little twist on the genre conventions. You can also buy accessories and shit for your maid/witch to boost various attributes like faster charge and larger pickup radius. It's also got a slightly unusual mechanic whereby you don't die if you get hit, you just get stunned. If your hit when stunned, then you lose a life. It makes for some progressive kyle more interesting runs. I thought it might be a bit shit but it's one of the better modern shmups on the system.

DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours. Probably a better game than the above but I have found it very dry and rather dull. It has no sense of spectacle, no flash and no feeling of being a formidable weapon at all. You feel like you're inflicting chip damage on an enemy ship until it suddenly crumples with a very polite snap, crackle and pop. It's a far cry from Dodonpachi, for example. On that note, the Cave DLC has brought the most enjoyment I've had with the game but it just makes me want to fire up Ketsui or Deathsmiles for real, rather than this mild bastardised version. Strange game, really, and I don't understand the praise - or the absurd price. Glad I picked it up in the recent sale.

Danmaku Unlimited 3. Having started with this as my entry to the doujin danmaku world, I now realise exactly how spoiled I was. Both in terms of feel, flash and design, this is a masterpiece of itself kind and streets ahead of most indie bullet hell fodder. I've got back into it as I'm trying for a 1cc and it's just endlessly gorgeous, beautifully challenging, stimulating, relaxing, thrilling, overwhelming. It's a wonderfully balanced shmup, accessible to all but damn difficult to master - and I'm a long way off that. Serious recommendation and the best grazing shmup I've ever played. The colour palette, while repetitive, is one of the most perfect in the entire shmup genre.

Raiden V. Flashy, information overload, lots of options, goofy story and commentary stuff, fast paced, constant pats on the back, decent patterns but ultimately, not inherently very exciting. The weapon limitation is an interesting choice but when placed alongside Radiant Silvergun, or even something like Caladrius Blaze, the decision to give you only one weapon at a time is a little bit strange. I credit fed to the end a couple of times but I'm not sure I'll be rushing to replay it again soon.

Shmups are 90% of what I play now.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Stanshall wrote: September 10th, 2018, 9:43 pm Danmaku Unlimited 3. Having started with this as my entry to the doujin danmaku world, I now realise exactly how spoiled I was. Both in terms of feel, flash and design, this is a masterpiece of itself kind and streets ahead of most indie bullet hell fodder. I've got back into it as I'm trying for a 1cc and it's just endlessly gorgeous, beautifully challenging, stimulating, relaxing, thrilling, overwhelming. It's a wonderfully balanced shmup, accessible to all but damn difficult to master - and I'm a long way off that. Serious recommendation and the best grazing shmup I've ever played. The colour palette, while repetitive, is one of the most perfect in the entire shmup genre.

Raiden V. Flashy, information overload, lots of options, goofy story and commentary stuff, fast paced, constant pats on the back, decent patterns but ultimately, not inherently very exciting. The weapon limitation is an interesting choice but when placed alongside Radiant Silvergun, or even something like Caladrius Blaze, the decision to give you only one weapon at a time is a little bit strange. I credit fed to the end a couple of times but I'm not sure I'll be rushing to replay it again soon.

Shmups are 90% of what I play now.
You're assessment of Danmuku Unlimited 3 (total recommendation from me too) and Raiden V (audio information overload!) are spot on.

Still in the shmups arena, I've been playing a little bit of Dimension Drive on the Switch.

Was a little late to the party with this one, and I think a lot of reviews out there reflect my own feelings with it. I love the concept more than I like the execution: having the screen split down the middle, where you navigate the environment by switching/warping between the two sides is a pretty inspired idea.

However, it just didn't feel right, in terms of basic shooting controls. Maybe it's because I play a lot of different shmups, so I'm curious to know if anyone else has played this, and how they felt about it. Maybe my addiction to STG's has ruined me somewhat!
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

Joshihatsumitsu wrote: September 10th, 2018, 11:58 pm.
Still in the shmups arena, I've been playing a little bit of Dimension Drive on the Switch.

Was a little late to the party with this one, and I think a lot of reviews out there reflect my own feelings with it. I love the concept more than I like the execution...

However, it just didn't feel right, in terms of basic shooting controls...
And I'm totally with you on this. I'm all for devs trying something new with the genre, goodness knows it's a well furrowed niche, but it isn't much fun at all. I think the screen switching is a decent idea, and it works well during boss fights where it can add a layer of rhythm game mechanics to the action. During regular stages, though, I find that the mild puzzle elements are mostly a frustration. I totally accept I'm just not very good at it but it's brutal to teleport a couple of pixels into the scenery and die, especially when the timing and spacing is often needlessly tight, even on otherwise easy stages. And as you say, the basic shooting is seriously lacking. It all feels a bit stiff and stilted and - worse - avoidable. There's very little intensity or challenge beyond navigating obstacles. I hope the devs can learn from it and come back with something just a bit more exciting.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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After listening to the latest C&R podcast during my lunchtime run today, I dug out my PSP because I was sure I had the Capcom Classics Reloaded Collection that the team mentioned included the original Ghosts ‘n Goblins. Sure enough, there it was in a games wallet, but on loading it I was convinced it was the first time I’ve ever done so – if I’d known I owned Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts on there, not to mention my all-time favourite 1942, the PSP would never have been consigned to a desk drawer for years! It’s absolutely timeless, makes Meatboy seem like a pussy cat, and amazingly on my first go I got further (into the first level) than I ever have before!

Perhaps my time in Mega Man 2 on the Switch has helped out… I’ve now got to the stage in Wily Fortress where all the level bosses reappear, and I must say, not knowing this was what was coming, it was really nice to see them again! Which I quite easily might not have done, thanks to the previous “boss” which is a merciless platforming puzzle room featuring a load of timed laser turrets behind walls. Up to that point, I’d avoided quality of life enhancements like rewind and save (except as a convenient alternative to the password system), but since perfecting the long journey from the respawn point back to this boss room after dying over and over, decided a save outside the door was justified… until I realised that only the Crash Bomb worked here, and I didn’t have the necessary full meter of that – or enough health - so that guilty save became pointless and instead I had to back track, fill up the life and Crash Bomb meters, and try again. Once more, this game took me to the point of giving up (and the point of cheating), only for me to realise that every time I’d died after inching that bit further each go, I’d been gradually building up the know-how to eventually do it without a problem. Decades late to the party, I absolutely love this game!

Also finished the Adventure Mode in Mario Tennis Aces – glad I did it, but after the disgraceful amount of time I’ve spent in online tournaments it wasn’t that much of a challenge.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I still have my PAL copy of the capcom classics thing for PS1, I think it’s probably the most valuable ps1 thing I own, even more so than my copy of symphony of the night.

And I’m fairly sure I’ve barely played most of the games in it, there’s some right stinkers.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Carrying on with my current system infatuation and the gaping whole Luigi's Mansion has left in my life now that I'm done with it - I popped into CEX at lunch and picked these up.

Image

The Proff Layton series I'm familiar with but I've never played this entry and the only Mario & Luigi game I've played currently is Bowser's inside story.

The sofa, jaffa cakes, milk and one of these is where it's at tonight.

What a time to be alive.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

I love Superstar Saga!
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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ratsoalbion wrote: September 12th, 2018, 3:53 pm I love Superstar Saga!
Cool man, it seems well loved.

I've been chatting to Dez about it as he sort of put me onto it - missed it totally on the GBA.

Really looking forward to it.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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If we ever cover that series for the show that will be my excuse to play the 3DS version.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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So I've very much enjoyed playing Hitman for the past week, but I'm starting to regret my purchase. For the simple reason that I'm currently locked out of my progress since the game decided to "fail to communicate with the server" for the past 20 minutes. Everything else is working properly, the game is even saying I'm online, but the main menu refuses to load.

Screw always online DRM for single-player games and the people condescendingly framing it as "the future of gaming". Being arbitrarily locked out of content I've paid for and that never needed to be online-based in the first place is completely unacceptable.

Contrasting this with the other game I've been playing recently -The Wonderful 101 - one that runs perfectly well off the disc and has only received very minor updates since launch, really shows the disgusting business practices that some publishers have adopted as of late.

I'm upset. Way to ruin an otherwise incredible game.
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