Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

DomsBeard wrote: August 17th, 2017, 11:04 am Struggling with Oxenfree. I'm just not finding it interesting. Something interesting did happen then I seem to be just wandering around now looking for someone
Yeah I kinda tapped out unintentionally too. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just did a couple of hours and then the next time I put my PS4 on I didn't feel drawn towards it, and haven't been back since. I will finish it at some point but I'm not itching to get back to it at the moment. Sounds like I was around the same place as you wandering about looking for someone.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

Sonic Mania has been fantastic so far. The amount of love and care put into it is just incredible. So many references to the hedgehog's past with a few of them being surprising in how they are implemented in the gameplay, I won't mention any for fear of spoilers. But yes, it is great to see classic Sonic back after all these years. It is also can be quite challenging in places, seeing actual game overs is truly old school and is a feature that even most modern 2D platformers have done away with now. But I think it works very well in this instance. Can see myself returning to this title a lot.

Also started playing Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and this has to be the oddest type of Kirby platformer that I have played yet. It is basically a metroidvania where you have to track down the bosses in labyrinth-like levels and collect shards of a mirror to get to the final boss. Still not sure how to feel about this. I love a good metroidvania but Kirby is a game I usually play to do some mindless running and jumping after a hard day of work. Metroidvanias on the other hand require you to know the layout of levels pretty well and to know which abilities to unlock in order to progress. They are far from casual gaming. To see this type of gameplay in a Kirby game is kind of jarring to be honest but will see how well it works when I get a bit further into it.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I’m on a bit of a GameCube push of late, having noticed that GC stuff is generally getting more expensive, I’m focusing on grabbing what I can, at what I think is a fair price.

Doing the usual charity shop sweep and usual shops in Southend turned out pretty well this month.

I grabbed these.

Image

I popped 18 Wheeler into my GameCube to test it and was happy to see that it boots in 60Hz mode, (if you hold B while the game boots a fair amount of PAL games will give you the option to run in 60hHz mode) the played the first stage, then the 2nd, then did the parking challenge, then did the 3rd stage…. and ended up finishing the Arcade mode :lol: . Hardly that challenging or deep but was an enjoyable pick up and play Arcade port for an hour or so. Worth the 99p I paid for it anyway.

With the upcoming re-release of Revelations on the Switch later in the year, I’m on a bit of a Resident Evil playthrough. I need a few more RE titles to hold the complete series on GC, RE2 was one so was happy pick that up and have my Saturday night sorted.

After a strong start on the weekend I’m chipping away at it for a few hours a night, or until I force myself to go to bed as the hours fly by in what seems like 10 minutes stints – everyone on here knows that feeling and when you’re in it, I think that a good indication of being totally engaged with a game.

I’ve played it before, back on the PS1 when it came out back in the day, so bits obviously come back to me but generally I remember very little about it. I think I even played it with Claire, so I’m playing as Leon this time.

I’ve just cracked the Precinct and am well under way in the Waste Treatment area – thoroughly enjoying it and I think it looks darn good too for a game of such years. The tank controls work just as you’d expect, clunky & slow and I think are more than a significant chunk of what creates the atmosphere of the game – I love them.

Image
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Suits wrote: August 22nd, 2017, 12:22 pm I’m on a bit of a GameCube push of late[...]
Great stuff! RE2 is a masterpiece, and the GC version is probably the best one in my opinion. Very happy to read about people honoring yesterday's classics like that.
Spoiler: show
Tank controls aren't "clunky", you heathen! :P
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Craig
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Craig »

Totally forgot they released 2 for the GameCube. I know it isn't a whole remake like the first game, but is it a bit more polished up on the GameCube?
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

It's a simple port, but it has all the extra modes (4th Survivor, Tofu Survivor & Extreme Battle), has higher resolution than the PS1 version and comes on a single disc. It's also the only version with skippable cutscenes as far as I know, which is a blessing on repeated playthroughs.

I'd also argue that the classic RE games feel right at home on the NGC controller thanks to the octagonal gate, but that's definitely more subjective.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

A lot of Cube games will indeed run in PAL 60, which is pretty unusual given not many TVs supported it back then (most modern ones will).

I’m mostly just mooching about in Overwatch and Elite Dangerous at the moment, waiting for the XBO version of Path of Exile to launch later this week.

There’s a new multiplayer map and a new Salmon run map going int Splatoon 2 over the next few days as well I think.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

KSubzero1000 wrote: August 22nd, 2017, 12:44 pm
Spoiler: show
Tank controls aren't "clunky", you heathen! :P
:lol: You know I love the Tank Controls :lol: , I was just pointing out that due to the slightly awkward and slow movement controls, it sort of ramps up the tension in those - "Move quick, shooty bang bang !! moments :lol:"
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Suits wrote: August 22nd, 2017, 9:45 pm :lol: You know I love the Tank Controls :lol: , I was just pointing out that due to the slightly awkward and slow movement controls, it sort of ramps up the tension in those - "Move quick, shooty bang bang !! moments :lol:"
I know I know, don't worry! :lol:

Speaking of which, the lack of a quick turn option in RE2 is definitely noticeable during those very same moments. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a flaw, but it's certainly a bit odd when one is so used to it from all the other games in the series.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

KSubzero1000 wrote: August 22nd, 2017, 9:52 pm Speaking of which, the lack of a quick turn option in RE2 is definitely noticeable during those very same moments. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a flaw, but it's certainly a bit odd when one is so used to it from all the other games in the series.
Like you wouldn't believe mate.

To a point that I thought I wasn't doing the button command for it properly and had to look up the control scheme.

Yep, just not in it. Very odd.

Also, I'm using a Nintendo Wavebird controller to play this and the lack of rumble is a noticeable omission too.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Yes, the quick turn was first introduced in RE3 (along with the dodge). I keep forgetting about it as well, which always leads to the inevitable "Oh wait... that's right." moment during my yearly series playthrough. Although to be fair, it's mostly just out of habit. The game and the enemies themselves are not designed around the quick turn, so it's not like there's anything "missing", strictly speaking.

The lack of rumble is 100% on the Wavebird, however!
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DomsBeard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DomsBeard »

Forcing my way to the end of Oxenfree now. How this was used as a stick to beat life is strange is beyond me :lol: . Pacing is terrible, the story is taking too long to reveal itself (although it is interesting). I hate all of the characters in it bar Alex. They've given me a treasure hunt to do to go back over all the old areas which I cannot be bothered doing but at the same time it looks like if I don't it'll screw me over later on.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Played most of the way through A Story About My Uncle the other day. Been meaning to check it out for a while, and finally got around to it. It's got some cool aspects to it, but I eventually had to give up in frustration. It's a rather unique game, in that gameplay is mostly based around making your way through levels with the aid of a grapple beam like device. You can also jump really high and far too, and later you get some rocket boots to give you an extra boost. So you're using these tools to soar through the sky, leaping between floating islands and rocks, which can occasionally be quite fun. I very frequently found is quite frustrating and clunky though. Part of the problem is no doubt down to using a controller, since the game is clearly designed for M+K, but it makes no affordances for pads, when I think at least something could have been done relatively easily. But as it is, aiming towards grapple points while flying through the air is a pain. You can't rotate fast enough, and it's way too hard to hit some of the extremely small, and sometimes moving targets as well.

There are other problems though which have nothing to do with the method of control too. Checkpointing it pretty bad, with them being too far apart. You'd expect each challenge to have a checkpoint between them, but that's not the case. It sends you back way too far sometimes. The range of your grapple beam is also very poorly communicated. The crosshair lights up when pointed at something that's within range, but there's nothing showing how far out of range of something you might be. Just a binary state. It's also sometimes inconsistent with what you can and can't grapple on to as well. Another issue is how the grapple works. You don't swing from it, it simply pulls you to the target. So you're not building up momentum by swinging around, but trying to slingshot past objects, which is kind of a pain. It's extremely frustrating to let go too late, or be angled just a little bit in the wrong direction, and end up hitting your target, which kills your momentum and sends you plummeting downwards. On top of this, the length of time it lets you fall before restarting you at a checkpoint is way too long as well.

The point when I just couldn't take it anymore was a point near the end where all of these problems come together, and a whole bunch more added, which just left me baffled as to how they thought this was a good idea at all. There's a section where you need to get across a huge chasm by grappling on to blocks that are falling from the ceiling. The pattern of the blocks is totally random, and they are often way too far apart to be in range of each other. The whole chasm itself is far too long to get across without having to stop on top of one of these blocks, given you're only allowed a certain number of grapples per jump. Not only does the random pattern make this pretty much impossible on its own, they also decided that in this challenge, and only here, the blocks would rise when you grappled them. So when you pull yourself towards them, you just end up smacking in to them and falling down. I very rarely call a game outright broken by design, but I think this has to be a case where I call it that.

Some parts of it were cool though. The thing that drew me to it in the first place was the novel concept and the striking art design. Those things are commendable. At least it tried something new, and it is quite pretty. I'm a sucker to anything with floating islands in too. I wish more games would use that idea. There was also a character called Maddie, who is a strange frog-person of sorts, who accompanies you through a large portion of your journey. While I wouldn't say the story or writing was particularly good by any means, I did find this character somewhat charming.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Angryzeusgaming »

Every time I try to move on and scratch a game off of the backlog, Stardew Valley calls out to me and asks me to go back to the farm life. I should be playing Uncharted: Lost Legacy. Instead, I'm fertilizing soil to get some killer gold star pumpkins. There is something about this game that just constantly beckons me to hop back in. Charming as hell, that Stardew Valley. Any older games calling out to anyone else?
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Angryzeusgaming wrote: August 25th, 2017, 9:06 pmAny older games calling out to anyone else?
Constantly mate, all the time :lol: .

Regards Stardew Vally, I have it on the Xbox One put some decent hours into it but never got into it casually.

When it eventually lands on the Switch, I'll pick it up again and hopefully give it the attention it deserves, in a handheld mode that will suit it perfectly I think.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Path of Exile, the f2p Diablo style game, is on the XBO now.

I dropped about 3 hours into it last night, and I'm impressed. The stated aim was to make something that feels more like Diablo 2 than 3 and it certainly does. Its mechanically different enough from that series to make it interesting, and it scratches all the same itches (loot drop cycle! so satisfying...)

Worth a look if you're on XBO.

(The f2p aspects are that the whole thing is free, you pay if you want cosmetic items to make your character look unique or for extra space in your character stash. I'm not quite sure how that is paying the bills, but it must be or they wouldn't have taken this chance to port it to console as well)
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James
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by James »

I think it's probably surprising how much players are willing to spend on cosmetic items. The fact that Grinding Gear are confident enough in that model to bring it to Xbox makes something of a mockery of those (free-to-play or micro-transaction-laden) games that don't, frankly.

I hadn't heard this was coming to Xbox One until a few days ago. Happy to give it a try, though I have no experience with Diablo, only Torchlight.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

James wrote: August 26th, 2017, 11:30 am I think it's probably surprising how much players are willing to spend on cosmetic items.
Only tangentially related, but let's not forget that RNG-based systems like loot boxes operate under the same principles as traditional gambling, with all the psychological trickery that comes with it. It doesn't surprise me at all to see publishers making money hand over fist like this. It's a tried-and-true business model that has been known for millennia.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

From hearing about it on pc, I believe the game is of such high quality that the cosmetic items are totally voluntary payments by the player base to reward the developer and that there are no abusive practices here. I haven't followed it much in recent years though, apart from knowing it's a consistently good experience on pc.

Be interesting to see if that works on console.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Yeah, path of exile isn’t using loot boxes. The cosmetics are very much ‘buy this thing if you want this thing’.
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