Whatcha Been Playing?

[Alex79]

Just started Final Fantasy 8 despite saying I wouldn't until the new year. I think its because I've gotten into a routine when playing the fist 6 games of finishing one and starting the next a month later. And its been nearly a month since I finished 6.

I have a few negative thoughts from previous attempts at it. There are reasons why its the only PS1 entry I didn't finish, but lets see if this playthrough will change my mind. Squall will annoy me though, so for his dialog choices I will pick the upbeat/friendlier option. Hopefully this will make me dislike him less. If a friendly option isn't available, I will pick the line with more words.

Also the game handed me cards and the opportunity to get into card games before any actual battles. I think its a statement of intent by FF8.

Finally I might actually try to get the platinum trophy Valkyria Chronicles 4. I don't trophy hunt but I'd like to add to the notably easy (26% have it) Sly 1 platinum I got 8 years ago and this one doesn't look too bad.

I really enjoyed the card game in FF8. Its worth spending some time on, really.

[ColinAlonso]

Oh I know, it's great and addictive. I think Square knew it too and threw it to players right at the start. I'll be on it for hours again.

I had just forgotten it was that early. I thought it was at least after the fire cavern or Dollet that the card games began.

[DeadpoolNegative]

Final Fantasy XV- Completed episode Prompto yesterday- it's the only one of the DLC I bought. For ten clams you can complete it in a little over two hours. It takes place after Prompto is accidentally thrown off the train. He finds himself in a strange facility learning some very horrifying things about his past. There's a Very Special Guest Star who helps him on his journey, a character I was very happy to see again.

There's a lot of gunplay- you can grab SMGs, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers to take down the bad guys. which is good because playing as Prompto all by yourself really puts into sharp relief how crap just a pistol is.

The thing is, there's not much here: there's an open world segment where you drive around with a snowmobile, and you can do side missions to... make the snowmobile go faster and jump higher. But there's barely any reason to do all this, since the main missions don't really require the snowmoblile, except to maybe improve your times on one snowmobile race course?

The story arc is good for Prompto and the voice and mocap is quite good, and there are two very cool boss battles at the end. But like a lot of FF15 stuff, it feels... strange.

--Dan

[Michiel K]

Yesterday I had the urge to play the original Quake. Run around in dark and spooky mazes and pump ugly monsters full of lead and grenades to the sounds of Trent Reznor. So that's what I did.

Also, I played Dynamite Deka 2 on the Dreamcast, which is a riot. Want to do it again with a friend.

[Suits]

I’m very much envious of your Dreamcast binge man.

I’m waiting for a RetroGamingCables RGB lead for mine, which I need for my PVM.

[Flabyo]

I love how silly the Dynamite Deka games are, and also that they managed to brand it as a Die Hard game for the arcade release in the west.

[Suits]

There’s got to be some sort of clever way to set us all up on Dreamcasts - online .

[DomsBeard]

There’s got to be some sort of clever way to set us all up on Dreamcasts - online .

Dreamcast mini would be lovely with full online functionality

[Michiel K]

I don't know what it is about so many of the Dreamcast games... They exemplify pick up and play and you want to keep returning to them time and again. The colours, the exuberance and yes the silliness (of something like Dynamite Deka)... it all puts you in a very happy place.

Also, check out Bruno/Bruce's assist attack in Project X Zone (57 seconds in):

[Joshihatsumitsu]

I've got the Naomi version of Dynamite Deka EX: Asian Dynamite, but until I get this current cabinet built and finished it's wrapped up in bubble wrap, waiting for the day to be enjoyed in the goofy way those games were meant to be enjoyed!

And there's the Japan PSN version of Playstation 2 release of Sega Ages Dynamite Deka (Jesus that's a long sentence only made longer by pointing out needlessly how long it was). It's pretty good value, though it's only the first game. So many gaps in my Dreamcast collection!

[Michiel K]

More Dreamcast talk: I played Quake III vs. some Fortnite playing kids including my son, yesterday evening. They were quite wowed by the speed and intensity of the game and really got into it.

One of the kids, looking at the Dreamcast: "What kind of PlayStation is this?"

[Scrustle]

Picked up Killer7 on the PC the other day. Despite being a fan of Suda51/Grasshopper, this is the first time I've played it. It certainly is quite the thing... Not sure what to think of it yet. It's really stylish and looks great, and is extremely weird. It took me a little while to get used to the odd controls, but it wasn't too hard to get to grips with the basics. I don't know if I actually like how it plays yet though. Not far in to it yet, so I've got a ways to go before I make my mind up.

Also been replaying Dust: An Elysian Tail on Switch too. I last played it way back on the 360 many years ago. It still stands up really well. Fidget is still adorable, and the combat is still extremely satisfying and exaggerated, if basic. It works really well in handheld mode too. Just feels appropriate to have in the palm of your hands. And it makes the character portraits look better too. I assume because they were originally drawn for 720 resolution, so they fit better with the native resolution of the handheld screen, and don't look as good upscaled to the slightly higher resolution of docked mode.

Still playing Forza Horizon 4. Still having fun driving around and stuff, but I discovered something today which I'm not particularly impressed with. After all this time, only now did I manage to find where the menu option to play offline is. Despite it being not that hidden, I just could never see it until now. I didn't find it from scouring the menus myself either, which I did to no success. Had to Google it. I've had similar problems with the UI in this game before. A lot of stuff in the menus feels way harder to find than it should be, since a lot of it just feels haphazardly thrown together, with lots of clashing sizes and shapes.

On top of that, the reason I was looking for this option was because of another problem I was having. And once I did manage to find it, that revealed another problem. But the reasons for this was because I was attempting one of the daily challenges they have. Usually they are very simple to do. Probably too simple if I'm being honest. Except sometimes they ask you to do so many near misses with traffic, or something like that. They are always a pain to do, because there seems to be almost no traffic in the game at all. Doing several of these challenges close together made me realise how completely empty the world is 99% of the time. It's completely depopulated of traffic, and even other players. So it makes doing stuff like this near impossible, since you never even get an opportunity to attempt them. So I decided to try to go offline, since in the previous games there was always less traffic when you play online. Turns out I was correct and going offline filled the game with both AI racers and traffic. This game even has far less traffic in online mode than the previous ones too!

Ironic, given how before this game came out I was somewhat worried about how much traffic there would be. I always got annoyed with the level of traffic in the offline modes of these games before since they frequently get in your way when you're trying to do stuff. I was assuming that since they were doing this new fancy multiplayer system, and making that the default, that means they had "solved" the issue of there not being as much traffic in the online mode. Now they would both just be about the same, right? While before I wished that there was an option to just turn traffic off if I wanted, now it's a huge issue that there is none. At least until I figured this out.

And the other problem that this made me realise is that this fancy multiplayer system doesn't even work. I suppose it was always obvious, but it just dawned on me when I finally did play offline, when it turned the game from an empty world to a fully populated one. The game is supposed to have this system like the Test Drive Unlimited games, where you roam around the open world in a big lobby full of loads of players, but they only load in a certain number that are close to you. So it feels like you're always surrounded by people, no matter where you go. Worked totally fine in TDU over a decade ago. But here you almost never see any other player at all. You're always spread out massively across the entire map. Playing the game offline made me think that's what they want the online to feel like too, with there always being a handful of other racers nearby. It's pretty stark in comparison to the reality of it. I think I can see two reasons why this might be though. Either the system simply doesn't work and it doesn't pair you up with people close to you at all, or people drive around the world so fast that the system can't keep up, and by the time it's worked out a nearby group of people it wants to put you with, they're all spread out miles apart already. And making the online mode the default, people don't really tend to want to stick together. They're all doing their own thing. But in the older games you opt in to multiplayer, so you're more likely to want to seek out other people anyway.

And this rant went on longer than I expected it would... This isn't the first time the game has rubbed me the wrong way with silly things either. Even though I still enjoy the game overall, this one definitely has quite a lot of irritating things about it. Lots of strange, obtuse design decisions, and features that apparently don't work. It can be pretty frustrating at times. Not long ago I was considering if this might be the end of the heyday of the Horizon games. Not because I thought FH4 was bad (and I still don't), but simply comparing it to the Motorsport games. That had four games of pure gold, dominating and entire console generation, with an impressive start on the previous one. We are now at that exact same point with the Horizon games. The Motorsport games went downhill with FM5 though because that game was rushed for a new console generation and was lacking loads of content and polish. We can't tell right now if Horizon will go that same way. But even so, after Motorsport got better again, I found myself not being interested anymore. There's only so many times I can enjoy something that iterative. So I'm wondering if Horizon might fall to that fate as well. Even though the different seasons in FH4 are very impressive, I'm not sure how long I can keep being enthused by these games. Not because I'm feeling myself drifting away already. They're still a lot of fun, and the different settings help them feel a lot fresher than the same tracks over and over in Motorsport. But nothing lasts forever.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

As someone who does have a genuine love of the Forza series, and still can't bring himself to invest in the current Microsoft generation, reading that assessment of Forza Horizon 4 doesn't fill me with much hope of ever investing in an Xbone One... and I'm a Forza fan! If a company can't even get fans to invest in their content... geez...

That, and the news of a cheaper, disc-less Xbox One on the horizon (gettit?) is pushing me even further from investing.

Of course, context is important: I am an older, different generation of gamer and consumer, so I doubt I'm the target audience anyway. And for many they will probably be happy with the development and direction that Microsoft are going in. So from purely a business standpoint, I get it, and me not spending my money on Xbone consoles and games isn't going to dent their bottom line.

But man, I guess wish I could get even remotely excited about a series I used to love.

Sorry, end of rant!

[KSubzero1000]

Replace "Forza" with "Halo" in Joshi's cute rant and that's pretty much where I'm at in regards to the Xbox brand nowadays.

Regarding Forza (and please bear in mind that this is pure conjecture and that I have zero evidence to back it up), but it wouldn't surprise me if employee burnout was becoming a major problem at the two studios involved. Forza as a series doesn't exactly allow for a whole lot of creative direction and passion projects, and given the rate at which they've been churning those out since the original Xbox days, I'd venture a guess that that even the most passionate car fanatics would dread designing the same pixel perfect realistic cars and racetracks over and over again for god knows how many hours a week.

Again, I have nothing to back it up, but imagining what the day-to-day workflow must be like doesn't seem like a lot of fun.

[Flabyo]

Playground Games are also doing something else that very definitely isn’t Forza related.

It’s kind of an open secret within the industry what it is, but no one is going to actually say it.

Probably going to be next e3 before it goes public though.

[Scrustle]

As someone who does have a genuine love of the Forza series, and still can't bring himself to invest in the current Microsoft generation, reading that assessment of Forza Horizon 4 doesn't fill me with much hope of ever investing in an Xbone One... and I'm a Forza fan! If a company can't even get fans to invest in their content... geez...

I don't mean to paint the game in a bad light in general. It's still great. I wouldn't want to put anyone off playing it. I've written a lot of positive stuff about it before. In general the Horizon games are great, and have pretty much been the best thing going on with the Xbox for a while. They're definitely worth playing if you're in to racing games of that type. I bought an Xbone pretty much to play the series, and I've never felt bad about it. Aside from the first year when it was just FM5 that is. But the Horizon games more than made up for it. They've pretty much singlehandedly kept my love for racing games alive over the past generation.

But I play a whole lot of these games, so often issues show up for me that probably don't emerge for most people. I've enjoyed it the vast majority of the time. If I wasn't so obsessed with them I wouldn't be going in to all these diatribes about the minutiae of the game in the first place. There's more tiny nitpicks I could write hundreds of words about too, like how some of the paint colours don't look quite right in this entry, how the Hospital Records radio station has been disappointing after FH2, but they seem a stretch too far to be worth the effort.

Playground Games are also doing something else that very definitely isn’t Forza related.

It’s kind of an open secret within the industry what it is, but no one is going to actually say it.

Probably going to be next e3 before it goes public though.

It's hardly a secret even outside industry circles, with all the rumours floating around about it. If you're referring to what I think you are.

But that is coming from the new studio Playground started up, right? It's not the same studio that has been working on the Horizon games. Mostly a different set of people.

[KSubzero1000]

...Why the cloak and dagger, guys?

Everybody and their pet penguin knows it's [REDACTED IN CASE OF INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE].

[DeadpoolNegative]

Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3- took a spin with the best two Mega man Games, don't @ me. Part of The Legacy Collection, which I sometimes thinks does too good a job of emulating those old glitches and slowdown. nearly thirty years after first playing these games, and I still have recall and memories of all those battles, all those fights. I remember feeling 3 was a tremendous comedown off the illustrious highs of 2, but I consider them almost equals now. Mega Man 2 is still one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, don't @ me, in terms of pixel art is still looks great.

It takes a while to get into the groove, I was never that super-coordinated even at age 12. But once I do... These games, these games. They make me happy.

Some of the robots in 3 are pretty lame, though. Hard Man? Magnet Man, who looks like Metal Man they just put a Magnet on him?

Grand Theft Auto V- God, this game is so, so much longer than I remember it being. I've been noticing a frequent criticism of Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to be that its single player story goes on for and exceptionally long amount of time. Well, this may be where it started (while technically GTA5 is the better game, GTA4 is better paced). Steve and his endless chess game between the FIB and the IAA- does anyone really know, all these years later, what the hell it was supposed to be about? Of course, that's probably the point- we're not supposed to know, it's all bullshit that Trevor, Michael, and Franklin are collateral damage in. But the game involves you in so many missions about this interagency war that it would have been nice for a payoff in some news report.

I decided in this playthrough I would try the Trevor hunting mini game. and you know what? it's actually a lot of fun. There's one glaring flaw in that mountain lions appear periodically, and if you don't immediately switch from a rifle to a more powerful weapon it will one hit kill you. I tried the mini game three times before I could get a discipline to find a way to deal with them and do a full day of hunting. The elk hunting involved a fair bit of strategy and patience, two things you don't normally think of when you have a character like Trevor. I liked how I had to figure out the best angle to approach a target so I could hit it the best way- a heart shot- to get the biggest payoff.

Let's talk about Trevor a bit, actually- I've gone through the arcs of the story where Trevor kidnaps Madrazzo's wife Patricia and parts ways with cousin Floyd. I actually wish they had spent more time developing Trevor and Patriica's relationship- it feels like a lot was left on the cutting room floor, because she adapts to living in a trailer and mothering a complete psychopath pretty quickly, and Trevor seems to genuinely care for her well being. Yes, she sort of stands up to him, but...? Adding to this, Patricia is the only prominent adult female character in the game besides Amanda, who's always bitchy (She has reason to be angry, yes, but you actually have to seek out her nice side).

I noticed it the first time around, but man, the conversation Trevor has with Wade after he kills Floyd is so disturbing. Basically, Wade was traveling with his friends through Sandy Shores, and encountered Trevor, and Trevor wanted a friend, so Trevor murdered all of Wade's friends and convinced him that they abandoned him. Of course, up to that point the game's been encouraging the player to laugh at Wade for being such a dumbass, and immediately after this he's dropped out of the story completely, reduced to a background player in the strip club (whose owner Trevor just murders and nobody in the club seems to care about it). Feels like a bit of a dodge to me. It helps that Steven Ogg is so amazing as Trevor- it's no coincidence he's been pretty prominent in TV and movies since the game came out. He's got a sort of magnetism.

I really do love a lot of the missions in this game- "Caida Libre" is a delightful, well structured mission that's utterly thrilling. Shoot a plane out of the sky and race the crashing plane on a dirt bike. "Deep Inside" has a hilarious James Bond parody. "Hood Safari" is pretty funny. "Blitz Play"- why yes, Mr. Houser and friends, I have watched Heat many times, and so have you! Isn't that nice? Reenacting the bit from the trailer in "Minor Turbulence" is glorious. "The Paleto Score" is thrilling.

XCOM 2 I bought this in an end of year sale and it's sat on my hard drive unattended until a few weeks ago. We jump ahead 20 years and the aliens have taken over the earth, in a semi-bloodless coup, and put the player character on ice (Why they didn't simply kill him is something the game hasn't adequately explained yet). But Brian Bloom's Central and his dulcet tones are on the case. Much like Enemy Unknown, the aliens are STILL harvesting humans and experimenting on them for use in their own war with an aggressive power.

Even on the rookie difficulty, this game is stressful and making me nervous. I keep losing prominent, powerful team members in battles and restarting. Chickenshit, yes, but it's so difficult to actually raise new team members since they're easily dead meat. I'm always concerned in how I'm distributing resources to the point where I'm often paralyzed over what to do next. Sometimes I feel like the game doesn't really respect my time, but I get in a particularly tough firefight or have a pretty good run of missions and I just don't care.

It's a game that can be difficult to like, but not as difficult to love.

1979 Revolution: Black Friday- Well, now that Telltale's dead, all we have left are its clones. I was hesitant to pick this up for quite a while, since co-writer Brian Wood is an irritating douchebag and the game barely clocks in at an hour and a half but the educational aspect was enough for me to give it a try. Also, the Black Friday Early Access sale on XBox (I also got NiER Automata: Become As Gods Edition). I was barely a year old when the events of the first part of the game took place, and it's fascinating, given how Khoemenei was such a boogeyman when I was growing up, to see how there were so many people who loved and supported him back then. He was seen as a worthy alternative to the Shah. The main character's friend is so excited and looking forward to change, any change. I also was interested to learn that there were religious leaders who were seen as more progressive than Khoemenei.

I wish there was more interaction- in the first three chapter it's just picture taking and the usual conversation trees, which are not as well developed as the ones you'd find in Telltale Games.

--Dan

[Stanshall]

A few updates on some big hitters:

Astro Bot

I'm taking my time acclimating to VR this time around after a bad experience at launch (massively overdid it, few rough days of nausea and unpleasant sensations, returned it) and Astro Bot is perfect for the five or ten minute sessions I'm giving myself to build up the VR legs. I'm still only in the first world and I know it is supposed to be even more amazing as you go along but this is a brilliant start. It's such a strange thing really because the gameplay isn't much more challenging than, say, Kirby Star Allies at this point but it is more about the pleasure you get from the little inventive ideas. It's also just a treat to see the little dude running around and looking at him from different perspectives. Lots of personality and a good feel to everything. It's nowhere near Galaxy at this point but I appreciate that I'm only on the warm-up levels.

Tetris Effect

On the telly with headphones, this was already one of my games of the year. It's overwhelming in its beauty and humanity and sensory splendour. It singlehandedly prompted me to check out PSVR deals and with a headset, this is one of the best experiences I've ever had with a game. Even having already played through all of the levels on the TV, this made me laugh with surprise and gave me an immediate giddy feeling like very little I can remember. It's a really beautiful creation and something everyone should try out if the opportunity arises.

Forza Horizon 4

Despite the criticisms further up the thread, this is also immediately up there with the best games I've played this year. I rebought a One X for Red Dead and for this and while I've somewhat struggled to get back into RDR2, I've been ploughing through this and having a wonderful time. They're both astonishing looking games but I think I would give this the edge for the best looking game I've played. There's some serious voodoo with the ambient colour and lighting which is almost uncanny. When clouds roll in, there's a quality to the light and the environments which is as 'real' as anything I can remember in video games. I don't do many races or events very often, I just drive and drive soaking up the world. A perfect wind down.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Having been slightly lacking in patience for RDR2 and slightly lacking the motivation to play the missions, I've gone back to this marvellous, immediate, responsive and relatively dated variant on open world gaming. I love how it is unapologetically a staged playground. The set dressing is absolutely wonderful but it's all there in service to your quiet chaos. I'm mainlining the story missions because there's so so much here, and I find I enjoy it even more if I unlock things in the desired order, rather than being in a hurry to open up the map. It has a lovely atmosphere, very light and bright and breezy despite the sinister cult stuff and all the mad stabbing. The Spartan Kick is the most satisfying button press of the year.

[Flabyo]

...Why the cloak and dagger, guys?

Because I might want to work there at some point...