Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Are you boarding up the windows and using sealed rooms effectively? :X Cuz that's the key. Simply being in shelter will not guarantee survival - it'll blast through kerosene way faster if there's an open door or shattered window. Once you get into the flow of things, you should find a good balance that'll get you to more effective gear and therefore allows for longer treks.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod wrote: January 30th, 2019, 12:09 pm Are you boarding up the windows and using sealed rooms effectively? :X Cuz that's the key. Simply being in shelter will not guarantee survival - it'll blast through kerosene way faster if there's an open door or shattered window. Once you get into the flow of things, you should find a good balance that'll get you to more effective gear and therefore allows for longer treks.
I'm doing all that, I'm nearly at the end (or at least I'm at the Science building and have picked up one of the three things I need there). I've upgraded my clothes and the heater itself, and I literally only put the heater on till she signals she's warm, but I'm just barely able to stay with it. Due to the lack of fuel, I'm being forced to explore bit by bit, then when I've found the McGuffin, reload and make a dash for it.

I should really have restored power to Science/Water/Radar, but I never came across what I needed for that quest so I guess I am suffering now.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Hey folks, I'm streaming Kingdom Hearts 3 for the next few hours at twitch.tv/PyramidHeadcrab if you wanna tune in and see if it's your jam or not.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Took a break in-between replays of Operation Retcon City and booted up Halo: CE Anniversary on the dusty 360 instead.

So many iconic elements, from the weapons, enemies, combat loop, music, sound effects, etc... The first one also has these really old-school design sensibilities (from even before my time), but is nevertheless an absolute classic. Outdated as it surely is to some, there is nothing quite like it on the market these days.

Played the first mission and stopped just at the beginning of the second one, right after this timeless moment of stepping out of the escape pod and glancing at this beautiful alien world, begging to be explored. Magnificent game. I don't give the series enough love these days.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Had to give up on Near Death as I got into a position where it was impossible to progress.

I have a feeling that the root of my problems was leaving the heater burning when I saved. The final kerosene canister I picked up lasted roughly 15 seconds (3 uses), and my MO was generally to get to shelter, light heater, Save. My suspicion is that the heater keeps burning during saves, if switched on.

Either that or it is just a terrible system. :lol:
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Anyone else playing Final Fantasy X in preparation for the show? I'm about 20 hours in to my first ever play of it, just got to a battle that lasted 40 min before I died, FFS :(
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Oh Final Fantasy X... 'tis been many a year since I last played that, certainly not through to completion. If memory serves me correctly I was playing some blitzball, then... can't remember the reason I stopped playing. Still in my collection, so I can always go back.

Because of my recent Street Fighter II: Champion Edition PCB purchase (complete with original artset!!!) I've had to make adjustments to my current cab.

I had to switch out the three-button Blast City Panel for the six button Astro City panel, which also meant making adjustments to the entire panel, because I built it with three buttons in mind. So outside with the saw (I used MDF, so cheap and adjustable), a little sanding, added a little paint to protect, then once dry put everything back together.

Next thing I did was making adjustments to the kick harness: as it turns out, a two-foot harness was too short, and I don't currently have the budget to afford a new one. So I spent a very hot evening under the air-con (three straight 40 degree days), cutting, wires, soldiering and heat-shrinking my way to a three-foot kick harness! It was a slow and methodical process, and very meditative.

Everything worked as it should, though after playing a few rounds I went into the settings and discovered why I suck: turns out the difficulty was set to 7 - the hardest setting. So that meant switching it off, rolling out the cabinet, locating the second lot of dipswitches, and flicking it to on-on-off, which sets it to the default difficulty, which is 4.

There may be easier ways to do things, but I kinda like the slower, more deliberate ways of all this wonderful physical, tangible crap! It's similar to how it is great that streaming makes so many movies easily available, but there's something special about seeing a film at the cinema.

Next step is waiting for replacement joystick tops. Turns out the default size is 35mm, and in my impatience I bought 30mm, so they are very small, and super cute, but not quite what I was going for... :oops:
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Alex79uk wrote: January 31st, 2019, 4:31 pm Anyone else playing Final Fantasy X in preparation for the show? I'm about 20 hours in to my first ever play of it, just got to a battle that lasted 40 min before I died, FFS :(
I think FF10 is a wonderful game the first time around, but I really found its pace to be downright glacial during the second play, when the mystery was sort of eroded. Not my favourite in the series by a longshot, but worth playing once for sure.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod wrote: January 31st, 2019, 10:25 pm I think FF10 is a wonderful game the first time around, but I really found its pace to be downright glacial during the second play, when the mystery was sort of eroded. Not my favourite in the series by a longshot, but worth playing once for sure.
Spoiler: show
Master Seymour is an absolute prick. Twice I've beaten his Aeon only to get nailed when he comes back. He's an absolute fuckwit. Even with a guide I can't do it. I'm now grinding to try to go in to the battle with more HP.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Always happy to read your updates, Joshi!

In the gaming goals thread I announced that I was going to tear through all "Metroidvanias" in my collection that I haven't played through yet (which is a fair number), but since I like to keep a sense of chronology and I can't play Wonder Boy in Monster Land on Master System yet (need an actual Master System controller as the Megadrive controller's inputs - or even lack thereof - gets misread by this specific game), I just started my offishal first playthrough of the Witcher series, with the first game's Enhanced Edition.

I just finished the first (prologue?) chapter and I'm really digging the atmosphere and the environmental storytelling with
Spoiler: show
the battered state of Kaer Morhen and the empty halls and chambers where the few last remaining witchers dwell.
I'm also digging the whole rickety, ambitious CRPG thing. Takes me back to playing Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines back in the days.

Also still going at what I'm presuming are the final chapters of Project X Zone, so I can start that full playthrough of Fire Emblem, the first one released in the West, on GBA/DS Lite, that I promised KSubzero.

Don't know when I'll get to the rest of the Resident Evil games post 5 (including Revelations 1 & 2) or the rest of the Yakuza series past the 1st one. Itching to play it all!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

For the first time in ages, I have finally gone back to the 3DS to play Metroid: Samus Returns. Never played the original Metroid 2 so this is pretty much a brand new adventure for me. Still at the very beginning and have only taken down one metroid so far (the number of metroids remaining is a nice way to tell you how far in the game you have gone). I kept countering its attacks and shooting it which was taking ages and I was thinking "Surely this is not the only way to beat this thing? This is an absolute slog!" It was then that I used the missiles on it and it was down in 2 hits as I had slowly drained its health by countering before. In typical Metroid fashion, very little is explained about the world and you just have to figure out its intricacies on your own. At least I know for future reference how to handle those guys. It also does a stellar job of cultivating a intimidating, oppressive atmosphere where everything wants you dead. I have always maintained if Nintendo were to go into true survival horror, Metroid would be a viable candidate to get the treatment. But yeah, enjoying this so far.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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There's rumours that the Smaus Returns devs (Mercury Steam) may have been tapped for a Metroid 5 on the Switch. I'd be okay with this.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Wargroove - very early days but this is looking like a quality game. Advance Wars, fire emblem with its own character in the mix. Very impressive.

DQ Builders - Its Minecraft but with more direction, basically. Very chill. Fell asleep playing it at half 8 last night

Sea of thieves - After about 6 months away its quite astonishing to see the changes. It's still got issues but overall i still love it. Helping my brother out who's only just started and it feels good to sail again
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Jobobonobo wrote: February 1st, 2019, 10:05 pm In typical Metroid fashion, very little is explained about the world and you just have to figure out its intricacies on your own.
Make sure you check out the gallery pictures as you unlock them, they give images that represent SR388 and the events that lead up too the game.

I was captivated by them.

I also very much enjoyed the game, I thought it lost its way a bit three quarters in but picks back up nicely towards the end.

Wonderfully suited to the 3DS’s form too with great artwork and visuals I thought (although not to everyone’s taste).
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Michiel K wrote: February 1st, 2019, 8:50 am I just started my offishal first playthrough of the Witcher series, with the first game's Enhanced Edition.
I'm sure you've realised this already but using the correct sword per monster type makes a huge difference.

Good luck with it, while able to admire them, I have failed to finish all three Witchers, though I got furthest in the first.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I've been playing Kingdom Hearts 3 and it's such a bizarre game... The dialogue and voice acting have somehow taken a step down since the 3DS title? But the quality widely varies. It definitely seems like a game cobbled together from too many years in development - too many combat mechanics, scenes and ideas that feel directed by completely different people, it's just weird.

For what it's worth, it's not a BAD game - I'm actually interested in where it's going, and they've set up some interesting story threads already. But the combat is definitely an overloaded mess, and a big step back from Dream Drop Distance.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I'm definitely interested in KH3, but I'm still only halfway through the first game. Last time I played it a while back I was lost in some caves in Aladdin world. That's definitely on my list of things I want to finish this year after RDR2 and Spiderman.

I'm determined not to buy any games this year as I just own too many I really want to play and haven't had time. An exception may be made for Sekiro when it drops in price a bit, but other than that.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79uk wrote: February 2nd, 2019, 6:31 pm I'm determined not to buy any games this year.
That would be an incredible accomplishment.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Still at the very beginning really so was not aware of any gallery but I like that the story stuff like that is actually kept separate from the game. Minimalism in narrative really is one of the series' strength. I always take my time with Metroid titles but am looking forward to seeing what kind of stuff they have for the gallery!

Also,another Metroid title on Switch? If I had more money and even more importantly, time I would definitely have gotten myself a Switch by now. So much stuff I want to get for that console!
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Oh my god the ball puzzle things in Final Fantasy X are some of the worst, flow breaking pieces of junk I've ever played. Just utterly pointless, irritating, boring, there is literally nothing good about them. Ugh.
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