Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I'm choosing to interpret this as a tacit admission that Chopper is a secret Alien: Resurrection fan who wants to see more magical clones with DNA-stored memories in his space fantasy drama. Move over H. G. Wells, there is a new sci-fi master in town. :lol:
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

That sounds more fun than what I'm actually doing, which is fighting mooks for McGuffins in ME Andromeda :(
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Ok, so I really want to like The Banner Saga, but I'm having the same problem I have in every strategy game ever. I just can't see the strategy. All I do is stand there trading blows and the person with the highest numbers wins. I'm only on like the third battle. It's the battle which teaches you about damaging an opponents armour before attacking their strength, and it's impossible not to lose at least two men during the fight. I just don't get how you can do it without this happening.

I'm going to stick with it, because I'm enjoying everything about it outside of the battles, but since that's the main part of the game it'll need to start clicking soon to hold my attention!
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

It’s a kinda odd battle system. You have to make your peace with taking damage really; I think I mostly tanked up with two varl on the front lines to absorb damage, and two chess pieces roaming behind them dealing damage.

One thing that’s not well explained is that it’s not advantageous to knock an enemy completely out of the fight. Even if you have 4 guys to their 2, it still goes your turn, enemy turn, your turn, enemy turn and so on. You don’t get 4 turns to their 2. Damage dealt is linked to health, so it’s better to reduce enemy health to 1 or 2 and keep them on the field so that when their turn comes round they are ineffectually swatting at your guys, rather than a full health guy getting two powerful attacks against you.

So an effective strategy is to concentrate fire on one enemy till he’s on low health, then move to the next.

The combat is weird on this one for sure. It’s a toss up whether you’ll like it or not.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Chopper wrote: June 30th, 2018, 2:52 pm One thing that’s not well explained is that it’s not advantageous to knock an enemy completely out of the fight. Even if you have 4 guys to their 2, it still goes your turn, enemy turn, your turn, enemy turn and so on. You don’t get 4 turns to their 2. Damage dealt is linked to health, so it’s better to reduce enemy health to 1 or 2 and keep them on the field so that when their turn comes round they are ineffectually swatting at your guys, rather than a full health guy getting two powerful attacks against you.

So an effective strategy is to concentrate fire on one enemy till he’s on low health, then move to the next.

The combat is weird on this one for sure. It’s a toss up whether you’ll like it or not.
Ah ha! That's a really good strategy now you mention it! Thanks I will keep that in mind :)
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Absolutely loving Mario Tennis Aces online tournaments. After around 80 matches worth of not doing very well at all, a few of the game’s deeper techniques all seemed to click at once - the blue glow around the ball telling you when to return specials, how to use the star when it appears on the ground to get an edge on shots and build energy quickly, and mainly the need to pretty much spam trick shots from in front of the net to break an opponent’s flow and stack up energy even more quickly. Another 50 games on and I’m winning about two in three matches, and reaching tournament semi finals regularly. Still a lot of people better than I am at that stage, but I’ve reached one final now and I seem to be getting there. Which isn’t bad considering my last post here!
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Craig
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Craig »

Started I am Setsuna on Switch as it was 50% off and I was hankering for a JRPG. It's scratching the itch really well. Loving the soundtrack and look. Fingers crossed it doesn't require too much grinding later on. The story is rather grim, however.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Todinho »

Dont worry it doesnt, there are a few trickier fights later on but overall the game is a cakewalk
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Combine Hunter »

So I finished both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City again recently. Playing both back to back only strengthened my preference for Asylum. Asylum has some weak boss fights, whereas City’s are generally ok with one GREAT one (plus I think the melee combat is “slightly” better in City). However, I MUCH prefer the “predator” stealth sections in Asylum (there are a couple in City I think are genuinely a bit rubbish) and the Asylum its self is just a much more compelling environment than Arkham City. I actually have new problems with City on this replay. Some of the environments you travel through feel poorly designed for navigation and I got lost a lot and the pacing is really uneven. Don’t get me wrong, City is still great, but can’t help but feel my perfect Batman game is Asylum with Mr. Freeze shoved in.
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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

Combine Hunter wrote: July 2nd, 2018, 10:06 pm So I finished both Arkham Asylum and Arkham City again recently. Playing both back to back only strengthened my preference for Asylum. Asylum has some weak boss fights, whereas City’s are generally ok with one GREAT one (plus I think the melee combat is “slightly” better in City). However, I MUCH prefer the “predator” stealth sections in Asylum (there are a couple in City I think are genuinely a bit rubbish) and the Asylum its self is just a much more compelling environment than Arkham City. I actually have new problems with City on this replay. Some of the environments you travel through feel poorly designed for navigation and I got lost a lot and the pacing is really uneven. Don’t get me wrong, City is still great, but can’t help but feel my perfect Batman game is Asylum with Mr. Freeze shoved in.
Asylum is my preferred game as well. I even decided it would be in my top 50 for sure. The atmosphere, design and story are so much more focused. It feels like a classic Batman story as opposed to City's slightly bloated tale.
Playing Asylum and Bioshock 1 was a real treat for me back when.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

I've been rather enjoying getting deeper into Gran Tourismo Sport on the PS4.

I've been doing the traditional License Grind, then switching into the Missions (which I enjoy) and very much enjoying the modern, if still familiar, Gran Tourismo package and aesthetic, after the last decade of playing Forza Motorsport.

What might potentially feel like a lack of vehicles, or indeed circuits at the outset I agree with – but I’d argue that they are a refined selection, a focused look at of what feels the best, an amuse-bouche if you like.

Willow Springs is a nice addition if a touch bland to look at but feels fun to learn and is inherently a fast circuit so encourages flat out cornering which is fun. The fantasy circuits are great, which nowadays I feel sets driving, or maybe perhaps more accurately Motorsport games apart. There’s enough cars to satisfy the thumbs and give a good spread and understanding of the difference in cars.

Some of the R1 cars are an absolute joy to hoon about in, putting the stability down to minimal and leaving the traction on 1 makes manual shifting on the pad a joy. Easy enough for anyone to learn but the game then itself allows you mess with it enough to make it fun in its self – controlling the rally cars but short shifting is a perfect example of this. Now you can do this on Forza but it just all gets to complicated on there now with clutch dead zones and the like, and you spend so long setting it up to how you like it you never actually feel comfortable with it – personally.

With the weather being so damn hot, the football being incredible, I’m finding it hard to get into anything major, Mario Tennis Aces stressed me, Hollow Knight I’m not in the mood for, Harvest Moon: Light of Hope is a bit dull and Fallout 4 is a bit heavy at the minute - having this to dip into every now and then is perfect and I can feel myself getting deeper into it.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Combine Hunter »

Been playing Frostpunk. This is the City builder, survival sim from the devs behind This is War is Mine. I have to say I'm really into it. It's incredibly bleak, but in a way that feels like it's saying something meaningful through mechanics. Manages to always put you in a position of being on the edge of failure.

Need to play more, but yeah, impressed so far.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

Combine Hunter wrote: July 4th, 2018, 10:43 amBeen playing Frostpunk.
I watched a lets play of this and I have to say it was very compelling.

The way that the game moves the story on I found very interesting.

Great looking game too.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Started playing ‘Forgotton Anne’ this evening and it manages to be exactly what I expected and also nothing like what I expected at the same time.

On the surface you have a very pretty anime look, some great animation and music, and what appears to be a whimsical world where objects that were forgotten by their human owners have been transported and are now alive.

Within the first ten minutes you realise that your avatar, the title character Anne is a human in a world with no humans, and is also in charge of ‘keeping the peace’. Everyone is terrified of you. They refer to you as ‘the enforcer’ and other less pleasant things. Your character seems far too comfortable with the idea of being judge, jury and executioner.

It is waaaaaaay darker a plot than I was expecting. It’s intriguing and mysterious, when all I was expecting was whimsy and light puzzling.
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shadowless_kick
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by shadowless_kick »

Nex Machina has sunken its claws into me. This is one of the best examples of a just-one-more-game! game that I can think of. I don't play online pretty much on principle, but I made the mistake of glancing at the leaderboards and it has awakened a competitive fire within that's been mostly dormant since I was rubbing shoulders with Street Fighter rivals in the arcade years ago.

I've managed to get into the upper 10% on some of the stage-specific boards (even 5% on some), but I've yet to beat the arcade mode on Experienced difficulty; the Supreme AI has been consistently mopping the floor with me. I can't even imagine what the "Hero" difficulty is like...

I've played this so much recently that I had to rip myself away and take a breather with something else. I picked the Plague of Shadows DLC even though the original Shovel Knight frustrated me more than it entertained. PoS suffers from all the same stuff SK does, yet I feel compelled to continue, death after frustrating death. But I gotta admit that I wanna see where the story goes; the series certainly has some fun, memorable characters.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

shadowless_kick wrote: July 5th, 2018, 6:55 am Nex Machina has sunken its claws into me. This is one of the best examples of a just-one-more-game! game that I can think of. I don't play online pretty much on principle, but I made the mistake of glancing at the leaderboards and it has awakened a competitive fire within that's been mostly dormant since I was rubbing shoulders with Street Fighter rivals in the arcade years ago.
What platform are you playing this on? I'm on PS4 and I could always use another player to compare scores with! :)
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

I know at least one of the podcast crew are top 1% on the Nex Machina leaderboards.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Ksub has since smashed all mine I think.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Assault Android Cactus being on games with gold means all my scores are in free fall on the leaderboards for that... heh.
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shadowless_kick
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by shadowless_kick »

KSubzero1000 wrote: July 5th, 2018, 7:19 am What platform are you playing this on? I'm on PS4 and I could always use another player to compare scores with! :)
I'm also on PS4 (@blu_storm__). I've seen your name up there 8-)
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