Whatcha Been Playing?

[Alex79]

I've played nothing but Stardew Valley the last couple of weeks. It's my evening game. Never made it to the end of year one before, but now halfway through Fall with 25 hours on the clock.

The only other thing I've touched is NBA 2K20. I desperately need to delete it from my Switch to free up 40+gb of space, but I really want to finish the season. Only 2 regular games left, then the Play-Offs. I'll feel like I've played enough if I can clear a season (which is 80+ games in total). I play the full match length, 12 minutes a quarter, and put in not far off 100 hours. Not bad considering it cost under £4 last year. Keeping an eye out for 2k21 to hit silly money sales, too.

[Magical_Isopod]

I've still been playing Ys 9 and it's good. Still looking for the central plot, but it's starting to poke it's head out. The series is really good at dropping these sub-plots in the background like, "Who is this? What does this mean?" But I haven't put in as much time as I'd like because of sheer fatigue from work. Deep in Chapter 4.

Also been playing Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Madness or whatever it's called. I had zero interest in this game, but I gave it a rental after watching a really funny Kingdom Hearts series recap video. This series is dumb as hell, but man do I just wanna see how they can out-stupid themselves at this point. This one is a music game and... It's fine. The series doesn't have good enough music to justify a dedicated music game to be honest. But mechanically, the game's really fun. I've been told that this game actually some important new plot, but I've put a few hours in now and haven't seen any. So I guess we'll see. But I'd sayit was worth the $6 rental.

[stvnorman]

I made myself ill for a whole evening playing Doom Eternal... Should know better by now, but fancied playing along with a C&R podcast for once, it's on Game Pass and motion sickness isn't always guaranteed! I decided to treat myself to the Japanese version of Castlevania on the Switch Anniversary Collection so I can play along with that one instead - no motion sickness on NES always guaranteed!

Really enjoying the Capcom Stadium Arcade first DLC pack on Switch too - give me Commando and 1942 on anything and I’m happy! Decided not to bundle all three packs or I’ll never play anything properly, and by the time I’ve had my fill here the others might be on sale.
 
I fancied trying World of Illusion on Megadrive Mini and finished that - what a nice game to switch off to! Also spent a lot of time on Scooby Doo on the Spectrum for a new piece I'm writing. It's like a brutal take on Kung-Fu Master that demands enormous patience to get anywhere, and I've always loved it!
 
Painfully (literally!) close to the end of Cyber Shadow on Xbox too. I hate it as much as I love it!

[stvnorman]

I made myself ill for a whole evening playing Doom Eternal... Should know better by now, but fancied playing along with a C&R podcast for once, it's on Game Pass and motion sickness isn't always guaranteed! I decided to treat myself to the Japanese version of Castlevania on the Switch Anniversary Collection so I can play along with that one instead - no motion sickness on NES always guaranteed!

Really enjoying the Capcom Stadium Arcade first DLC pack on Switch too - give me Commando and 1942 on anything and I’m happy! Decided not to bundle all three packs or I’ll never play anything properly, and by the time I’ve had my fill here the others might be on sale.
 
I fancied trying World of Illusion on Megadrive Mini and finished that - what a nice game to switch off to! Also spent a lot of time on Scooby Doo on the Spectrum for a new piece I'm writing. It's like a brutal take on Kung-Fu Master that demands enormous patience to get anywhere, and I've always adored it!
 
Painfully (literally!) close to the end of Cyber Shadow on Xbox too. I hate it as much as I love it!

[Alex79]

I decided to treat myself to the Japanese version of Castlevania on the Switch Anniversary Collection so I can play along with that one instead - no motion sickness on NES always guaranteed!

I just bought this CV collection for Switch last night but not had a time to look at it yet. Is there a reason you played the Japanese one? Are both ROMs on the collection?

[stvnorman]

I decided to treat myself to the Japanese version of Castlevania on the Switch Anniversary Collection so I can play along with that one instead - no motion sickness on NES always guaranteed!

I just bought this CV collection for Switch last night but not had a time to look at it yet. Is there a reason you played the Japanese one? Are both ROMs on the collection?

Yeah, they added Japanese ROMs for all the games on there in an update. Some of them are better versions (e.g. the soundtrack and some of the sprites in Castlevania III) but for the first one it’s generally a bit easier, but there’s also an easy mode not in the western release - more lives, more damage given, less taken and less hits to bosses. And a few cosmetic differences. I just played it because I’ve never played that version before. And I wouldn’t have known any of this if I hadn’t!

[ratsoalbion]

Details: https://tcrf.net/Castlevania_(NES)

[Miririn]

"Assassin's Creed: Valhalla", which I started to play today. Mixed feelings. Love getting to play as a female viking warrior (who looks amazing) and go on raids and fight with axes and command my longboat and play viking dice games and I love the wolves/cats/ravens and the scenery. Hate the glitches (some World Events I can't end) and the story/dialogue is as plain as dry toast (so far - it could get better, I hope).

I also googled how long the game takes and... apparently it's around 85 hours, so I'm a bit worried by the end I'm going to morph into Elaine from "Seinfeld" watching "The English Patient". ("It's too long... quit telling your story about the desert and just die already. DIE!!!"). I tend to prefer linear games, so it's probably a problem with me rather than the game itself, but when the story/characters are really interesting, and/or the world is fun to explore, and/or gameplay is addictive, I can really enjoy five-hundred-hour-long open-world games (RDR2, HZD, the new Spidey games, BOTW). I'm not sure if at the moment if the characters/story/gameplay in AC: Valhalla will manage to keep me engaged for 85+ hours... fighting is kind of fun with the axes, though (and fits the viking theme more than the sneaky assassinations)... so maybe. And I like female Eivor.

I keep imaging how fun it would be to play a linear viking story with the same great setting and all the bloat cut out. And then I realised that I have sort of played a game like that, and that was maybe "God of War (2018)" (the fighting was more fun in that game too). But I cannot stand Kratos... so now I just need to daydream about a Frankenstein's Monster of a game where I combine GoW with AC: Valhalla (and let's throw in "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" too) and I get to keep playing as a viking warrior lady, and keep doing raids, but I also get GoW's slimmed-down pacing and superior combat minus Kratos and his shrimpy child. And then throw in the creepy mythology and visuals and enemies from Hellblade.

I am enjoying it despite all my whinings, because... vikings. But I am tempted to put an audio book (about vikings!!) on in the background while I play, which makes me feel guilty towards all the devs and voice actors.

[DeadpoolNegative]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning- XBox did a free play Weekend a few weeks ago. I remember I spent 30-40 hours in this game when it was released 9 years ago and eventually completed it. I know it was pretty much a MMORPUGER without the MMO, the test run for a World of Warcraft killer the studio hoped to hit wit, with quests, quests, quests, the quest on Birdman's Helmet!

Playing it out, I find myself asking, "How the hell did I beat this game the first time around without slipping into a coma?"

Well, I do know paart of the answer to that question: I was working a customer service job that was kind of soul killing (but paid well) and also made me keep weird hours. So I would get home and just zone out for a couple playing this thing, I remember at least once there was a five hour sitting, because the quests go buy so quick and the combat is so intuitive.

But man, it was very difficult to get into the game nearly a decade later. The quests are so simple and so oppressively frequent I became annoyed with it rather than impressed with the sheer amount of content that Big Huge Games put into this game and its world. That's the thing: this world is just maddeningly generic, and while I've not read a lot of R.A. Salvatore I've read enough to know he's not boring. But this feels boring. There are some decent side quests- racial tension in one of the first towns you arrive in is compelling- but they feel too disconnected to the main narrative.

And visually- this is an eight year old game, and the remaster is fine, but it doesn't really grab me at all. Especially when I'm currently playing:

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Special Edition Thanks, XBox GamePass! Well, It's been an extremely long time since I last played a Dragon Quest game- in fact, it was 7 way back in 2001, and I found it unbelievably boring, even with Game Shark enhancements. I thought the story was somewhat intriguing but the turn based combat, I was getting really tired of it back then. I wondered back then whether I just couldn't enjoy this kind of game any more, though I was proven wrong by other games.

It pleases me to report that nearly 20 years and four sequels later, I've sunk 45 hours so far in this game. I think the key here is its pacing.

Some of the early reviews for Echoes of an Elusive Age noted that the game is episodic in the sense that you and your party travel from town to town solving the major issue that has cropped up in the area, then move on to the new town. And that is definitely true. But this works, since each stopover in each town feels exactly as long as it needs to be. I recall 7 being episodic in a similar way, but it just didn't grab me, probably because the writing wasn't as sharp or vivid. Each story feels, while not exactly innovative, unique in its own way. Though i have to admit, at the 58 hour mark it gets a tad exhausting that my quest for a crazy weapon that will finally defeat the big bad guy has... complications.

This is definitely a series that benefits greatly from the addition of voice acting and cut scenes (Though it is fun to play in 2D). The cast is mostly British unknowns (The biggest names in the cast are, two actors from the Doctor Who shows- the current Master, Sascha Dhawan, and Torchwood star Naoko Mori). The MVP, hands down, is Lauren Coe as Veronica, an adult magic user who's been transformed into a ten year old girl.

One problem, though, is than in keeping with series tradition, the lead character is voiceless except for a few grunts. The thing is, in this game in particular his own, personal arc is very important, and it so weird for him to be voiceless in events and relationships that revolve around him. I know it's silly to ask Square Enix to break from tradition, though.

The battles are traditional, and while sometimes I do have problems with the turn based format, given that I'm getting old, this is probably the best iteration of it. Battles even at regular speed are fun and rarely feel like a chore.

I'm just having a really great time with it, really want to wrap up at least the main story this week but man, I think I need to grind.

L.A. Noire- Speaking of GOOD remasters, another game I played back to front back in the day, I recieved the new remastered version as a christmas gift, and I have to say, this game still holds up for me so far. I often feel myself annoyed that I didn't get all the answers right in the interviews, reloading the save so I can guess right. The performances all remain solid, as you can spot so many B level TV character actors from around the late 2000s. There are some surprisingly subtle moments to go with the overwritten ones.

--Dan

[ColinAlonso]

But I'm worried it'll be another bog-standard Medieval Europe setting, and I'm so, so over those in games. Like it's been 40 years of this setting, guys, can we not do an RPG in like India? Or Aztec Central America? Or like an Inuit-inspired RPG in the cold, unforgiving North? Medieval Europe and Feudal Japan probably make up like 80% of all RPG settings that riff on real-world settings - and if you include Post-Apocalypse America, that's like 95%. I thought Ys was known for generally for bucking that trend, and maybe it eventually does. But man was I not enthused to see castles and knights.

Did you ever play the Shadow Hearts series on the PS2? I only played the 3rd one, From the New World, which I think isn't thought of as highly as its predecessors. It's set in the Americas in the 1920's and is a bit of a whistle stop tour of places (New York, Chicago and Chichen Itza come to mind). I suppose the downside is that it doesn't stick to one general area and you just feel like a blond haired, blue eyed tourist. Its often quite silly and I didn't like it enough to finish it but the series might be worth a look.

Front Mission: Gun Hazard (SNES)

Fan translated JP only side scrolling mech RPG. It's basically a plot heavy sequel to Cybernator with RPG style progression systems, made under the supervision of some of Squaresoft's 16-bit game dev superstars with a soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda. It's exactly as good as that sounds. Brilliant game from start to finish.

Ugh, I really need to get back to this, its only been 15 years or so . Played through a fan translation of the first game in the series at the time as well though. Its an SRPG though so quite a different beast, I really liked how you could target different parts of enemy mechs.

I'm still playing Slay the Spire (Ironclad Ascension level 14 completed, Silent Ascension level 6 completed), Hades (I tried and beat Heat level 16 despite only trying up to level 8 before) and Pokémon Crystal (4 gyms down, I don't feel as attached to any of my Mons like I usually do, except maybe my Gloom).

[Mehaler]

WoW Classic. A faithful recreation of the 16 year old MMO game, however, the obvious and widespread acceptance of stagnation that keeps this game from deviating from its original state, even if only balance changes, keeps me from rating it five.

The nostalgia was great, but 15 years is long enough to know how to take the edge off of unbalanced pvp. All that would have been needed is diminishing returns on CC, like in TBC.

PvE requires no changes.

[Miririn]

This is my first Ubisoft game (...if we're not including "Just Dance"), so I probably sound like a naive summer child because I know Ubisoft are somewhat famous for glitchy games, but the glitches in AC: Valhalla are sort of impacting my enjoyment. Falling between cracks and getting stuck. Side quests that you can't finish. Respawning into an area where there's no way to get out. Cut scenes where Eivor chats without moving her mouth. Controls are often laggy and unresponsive. Etc.

I love the viking setting and all that, but having to repeat parts of the game due to the glitches is a chore.

It would be nice to play a more polished, less glitchy, and slimmed down version of this game.

I think if the bugs carry on limiting my enjoyment I'll probably give up the game, which would be a shame because A. It was not a cheap game and B. I love exploring the viking and saxon worlds. It's a Japanese National Holiday today and I don't have work except a few small tasks, so I'll give it another try. I have a The Great Courses series of lectures on vikings to listen to while I play.

[Gadget8Bit]

Well, after finishing Yakuza 0 on Monday, I started Kiwami last night.

I’m glad I played 0 first as Kiwami does a really bad job of setting up the characters and the world building before the action kicks off proper. There’s barely any introduction to important characters like Nishiki or Kazama before huge things occur.

Was the original version of Yakuza this bad at world building? Or is it simply because 0 exists that they removed chunks of this world building?

Also, wildcard antagonist Majima feels like a reduction compared to the more controlled, on leash version of himself in 0.

[ratsoalbion]

0 was written a decade and multiple sequels after Yakuza 1/Kiwami, and it shows - nothing's been removed, it was just never there.

[Gadget8Bit]

Damn. Well I’m very glad I’d played 0 first then. I’d have real trouble sympathising with Kiryu without the buildup of Nishiki and seeing how generally dreadful Dojima was from the 0 story

[Truk_Kurt]

Sticking on the Yakuza theme. I have just hit Chapter 12 in Yakuza: Like a Dragon.
I have been enjoying the game thus far but I wasn't a fan of the much spike in enemy level at this point which basically forces you to do the Battle Arena it introduces in this chapter at least once to get to a high enough level to tackle the next boss, I understand that this is something often seen in JRPGs but as a newcomer to the genre it doesn't make it any more palatable. It just seems to grind a halt to the pace of the game. I still haven't managed to beat said boss, so went back to do the Battle Arena again last night. I hope there won't be anymore huge spikes like this going forward.

[Jon Cheetham]

So the main quest is done but obviously most of The Witcher 3 is side stuff so I'm still very much playing this. A couple of thoughts on the ending and impressions of the first expansion, spoilered in places.

Base game, post-credits spoilers:

Spoiler: show

One of my very few gripes with the base game is a churlish one, and that's that it does the "return to before the final quest" world state thing a lot of open world games do which is quite deflating. Naturally this is because CDPR had already created one of the biggest and most dense game worlds ever so it isn't fair to expect a post-game, that caters to all the different endings what's more, but I'm not going to pretend it wasn't a bit melancholy seeing Geralt just respawn in an empty Kaer Morhen.

That's also because I suddenly realised, in that moment, that I became more attached to Ciri, Yennefer, Lambert and the rest than I did the characters in any piece of entertainment for quite a while. It's like a combination of when you've binged a TV series and you're just sort of empty not being able to spend more time with those characters, and that nostalgic feeling in real life where you see a place that recalls a memory of someone that you know you can't recreate any more. An open world game being able to have this effect is something entirely new to me despite how many titles like this I've played. The way locations in such a gigantic world are imbued with such narrative and meaning is really a testament to the writers and the source material.

My head canon as to why I'm still mooching about this world without all those folks is that my further exploits mopping up contracts and side quests comprise the stories Geralt is telling Yennefer as they enjoy their life of semi-retirement together, eating scones and finger painting. Although I did manage to find Dandelion and Zoltan still at their tavern which was nice.

I've come across some of the best stories in the game by going through my quest log post credits - Black Pearl, Where the Cat and Wolf Play (which was apparently a piece of free DLC!), The Oxenfurt Drunk and more. Black Pearl is sort of brilliant how the final conversation you have with the quest giver totally reframes the adventure you've just been on, but then it's already over and all you can do is think about it.

Even the treasure hunts have something to them. In Kaer Morhen I wasn't just doing a collect em up - it was an archaeological tour through witcher history and training practices. So I've really enjoyed roaming about gearing up and building the character.

Although I had been treating this as a novel-size narrative game where I occasionally mashed buttons to kill monsters, there is obviously a gigantic and rich RPG here as well. It has actually been very satisfying doing treasure hunts, brewing decoctions, crafting and speccing into something more resembling a build as opposed to a random collection of abilities. My Geralt is now pretty scary, not to mention looking like a million bucks - full mastercrafted wolven armour, mastercrafted swords, all but four decoctions and a combat/ alchemy build based around stamina management and DPS. I'm now in the habit of knocking back several potions, a decoction, oiling my swords and so on before the battle is joined.

I went to Oxenfurt to start Hearts of Stone. I've been pretty excited to get to the expansions. Always love a pc style old school expansion pack and these are acclaimed.
Early impressions, boss spoilers:

Spoiler: show

First impressions were rough though. It starts with a sewer level, which is always erm, thrilling. Then railroads you into two really bad boss fights. A giant toad that bounces up and down on you, causing knockback so you've got few chances to get near it, and then a mage with a bunch of adds and an almost instakill whirlwind attack. Both more just fiddly and frustrating than challenging, both spam keep-away moves. The first thing in the game I found really off-putting and annoying, to be honest.

Compare these to the fight with Olgierd von Everec shortly after. A very tough encounter, but more like Lady Maria or a Sekiro boss - you have to parry, dodge well and manage spacing constantly, but it's possible to get his moves down and turn the fight in your favour. He doesn't OHK you and it is possible to close with him. I loved this fight and I hope the ones to come are similiar to this rather than the frog and the mage. Also this is building into a really quite gripping story so I'm thoroughly back on board.

Hope to spend a lot more time with this one.

[Scrustle]

Yet more Dragon's Dogma. Continuing to explore different classes, and I think I've reached a point where I've seen pretty much everything I wanted to see in that regard. I played as a Magick Archer for a while, mostly to get my magic defense stat up. Much like with Assassin, it was fun, but I'm not sure I like it as much as some of the other classes. There's less emphasis on melee with this class, but it does have some magic attacks that can come in handy. But the unique moves it does have are kind of slow for daggers, since they have a charge time like spells. The magic bow was pretty unique, but honestly a bit underwhelming. It doesn't actually fire arrows, and instead shoots homing magic bolts. So that means you can't use the powerful special arrow types. The skills it does have and the homing ability left a little to be desired too. Felt a bit underpowered, and like it didn't really home in on targets enough to be useful. But it does have a skill where you paint a whole bunch of targets at once and rain down fire on them, which was pretty fun. But after trying out all the different roguish classes, I think I still like the basic Strider best. It has the widest and most versatile melee abilities, and the bow is a good backup without being unwieldy to use.

I've also been alternating between digging deeper in to Bitterblack Isle and grinding XP in the Everfall. Got past that first boss in Bitterblack, and just beat the second as well. I came back to that first one when I was about 10 levels higher than before, which helped make it much easier, but it was still a big slog. It has an absurd amount of health, and it's really hard to reach floating above the ground, and throws annoying status effects at you all the time. And it's so big climbing on it to attack takes an age as well. The second boss was far easier. Since they are a mage type character, I switched back to a Strider class so I could use special arrows to silence it, which was a big help. Wasn't really sure how many arrows it took to work though. I'm pretty sure I wasted some, since I ran out before the battle was over and still had to deal with its magic attacks for a bit. So now on to the last leg of this area. Looking up a map of the dungeon, I realised that on my previous attempts I had got to literally the last room before the final boss. Kind of bittersweet when you find out stuff like that. The end seemed like it was unreachable, yet I was almost there. But at the same time, I definitely wasn't in a good position to take on that last boss though, since I couldn't even make it through the last room with my Pawns alive. Attempting the boss without them would be madness. Hopefully things go better this time.

[shadowless_kick]

Strider (PS4)

I gave up on my initial playthrough of this years ago after I got stuck inside of a wall :/

there haven't been any game-breaking bugs this time, but the game is still just ...ok. there are times when you really do feel like you're controlling the ultimate in elite assassins, but tight controls are a must in games like this, and everything just feels too loose. also, there are small annoyances in the interface and presentation (particularly with audio) which add up and lessen the overall experience.

it's really a shame because Strider is such a great character — he deserves so much better than this.

[ReprobateGamer]

I had been carrying on with Costume Quest on and off - and was on the final approach to the last boss - when I had to do a factory reset on the Xbox One to clear an issue with a couple of apps not properly updating.

This was the point that I found out that X360 backwards compatiability saves apparently save differently to regular game data and I lost the entirety of my progress ...

Wasn't taken enough with this game to jump back in so soon, even though I have now the opportunity to pick up a couple of things I missed in the second area. Some of the character options are interesting but the core gameplay is just a little too simple for me.

I'm a little further into Control - this is a well realised world and the biggest issue is that I'm playing it piecemeal rather than properly spending time with it

I also made a start in Pillars Of Eternity 2: Deadfire - and I'm missing something obvious in how to control my character as they keep storming into melee combat with their crossbow ... I'll freely admit that I was more interested in this as the cast of Critical Role have provided their characters and voices from the online show (in addition to providing voices for other characters) and it's another title that I haven't put more than an hour or two into at this point and it feels very much like a slow burn game