Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Been digging through the Wii games with the kids today, and spent a good while all of us playing Mario Party 9. It was a lot of fun! I've never actually played it before, but felt like I knew half the mini-games from the amount of gaming YouTube stuff the kids watch.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

The Resident Evil 3 Remake demo is really excellent. Very generous too - I got a good hour of play before the frantic ending!

I was saving the recent C&R Shadow of the Colossus podcast until I’d finished it, following its arrival on PS+ this month, but instead used it to confirm my opinion after a few colossi... must have been impressive on PS2 but as far as gameplay goes, I don’t get it at all and it’s just not for me! Did enjoy the podcast though.

Apart from a few colourblindness issues in dark, red and black areas, Doom 64 on Switch is a lot of fun, and there’s a lot more to the level design than I was expecting - makes you think as well as run about the place shooting everything! A few levels in and already had my money’s worth from the bargain price.

Assassins Creed Odyssey had a free trial weekend. My first AC since the pirate one, and it’s fine (as well as being a real looker) but mainly another affirmation that a game is not for me.

Then there‘s Animal Crossing... What an absolute joy. Dread to think how many hours the Switch clock will tell me I’ve played when it appears after 10 days!
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

I played about 15 hours of the Assassin's Creed Odyssey trilogy and I had the same reaction to it as I did RDR2: It was like it will never, ever end, but I can't stop playing it.

--Dan
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

I have kind of missed the last few days of crazy goings on in the UK as I’ve been mostly in bed sleeping suffering from some familiar sounding symptoms.

I’ve built up some strength today and because I’m isolating myself away from the rest of my family I’m in my office which just happens to have an old CRT tv, a PS2 and a stack of games. One of which is Silent Hill 4: The Room. How apt...
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

:( :( :(

Please take care of yourself, Simon.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

Mate, I'm really sorry to hear that. Please look after yourself and it sounds like you're doing the sensible thing. Suits will no doubt be very proud of your CRT action, too! Keep in touch.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

Honestly don’t worry I’m on the mend. I don’t think I looked at my phone on Sunday and my animal
Crossing island hadn’t seen me since Saturday morning.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Glad you're on the up, mate.
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Combine Hunter
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Combine Hunter »

Keep resting till you're 100%. Glad you're doing better though
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

Thanks for all the sympathy everyone!

The main reason for my post was to highlight Silent Hill 4 as a creepy form of escapism as the protagonist is trapped in his apartment whilst the world outside seems to be going to hell. No holes in my isolation room to climb out of though.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Simonsloth, good to hear you're resting up and feeling better. Be good to yourself and take the time you need, where you can.

I played just a little bit of Bloodborne last night, since I noticed it was the 5th anniversary of it coming out. Decided to stop before I fell into a complete hole with it and abandoned everything else I'm playing (it will happen eventually, just a matter of time.)

Hitman 2

Been playing a ton of this game. In fact I went back and replayed all the locations from the Hitman 2016 campaign to see the other mission stories... I could live in those six levels, they are just fantastic. Then did Miami and part of Santa Fortuna from the story campaign for Hitman 2. The way the game rewards you for getting to know the levels and completing challenges by letting you start somewhere else and getting new equipment, so that you come back with a new experience next time... I think this is best in class stuff for rewarding the player and providing replay value at the same time.

For something to take my mind off everything, offer a gameplay experience that encourages experimentation and emergent play, this is ideal stuff.

Far Cry 5

Got this on sale as my brother and I need something new to play co-op. He had played a lot of the first two or three of these back in the day, and I played some of Primal, but didn't know what to expect here.

I definitely did not expect this to instantly turn into Grand Theft Auto when I joined my bro's game and we got into a car and started out on a rampage across the world map. Petrol stations were blown up, hostages liberated, planes brought out of the sky and helicopters crashed. Not to mention it's just nice speeding down a country road together, or perhaps cross-country Homer Simpson style. An absolute blast, plus as a shooter the controls and weaponry are all pretty great- nice bow, nice shotgun so I'm happy - and you can also stealth up the cultist bases and take everyone out without being seen, so another tick from me. I think this game actually has a lot of fun and mayhem to offer us.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

Batman: The Telltale Series- I'd played through this long ago, but with the new Shadows mode I decided to give it another spin. And I have to say, given the relentlessly bleak and gruesome tone of this game, the Shadows mode works splendidly.

The Telltale Batman games have a lot of really neat ideas but often squander them or bury them under a ton of violent schlock. There's a bit near the climax of the first chapter where I can either tie Carmine Falcone up or impale him on a rebar. Okay, Falcone's a criminal but... why would I do that? I guess Bruce is supposed to be emotionally fraught to discover proof that the Waynes are criminals but he's not supposed to be some sort of sadist.

There was an expose about Telltale a year or so back that portrayed the company's CEO as especially enthusiastic about that sort of brutality, and pushed for it in all the company's projects (Guardians of the Galaxy and Minecraft being the lone exceptions). The Batman Telltale games really do feel this influence, as the nastiness just escalates and escalates, especially in The Enemy Within.

In episode 2, Alfred and Bruce kick off with a discussion about the Waynes being mobbed up and Alfred simply says something to the effect of you can't get as Rich as the Waynes were without SOME illegal dealings. The game never quite sells that Alfred would have kept it from him for so long. Like wouldn't' that have come up when your young ward, whom you swore to raise as your own after the untimely death of his parents, told you wants to use his seemingly limitless resources to wage a one man war on crime, when those resources are partially paid for with dirty money?

It's a really fascinating idea, the corruption of the Waynes, but the game doesn't do nearly as much with it as it could have because it's busier with so many other things. A shame.

Toy Story 3- full disclosure: I think Toy Story 3 is a great movie, and Lotso Bear is one of the best animated villains of all time. it's also the only Toy Story I've seen all the way through, now that I think about it. The game that ties into it, which would presage the ill-fated Disney Infinity, is actually pretty darn good. It strings together about eight basic platforming levels with the real meat of it, the Toy Box Mode.

Ah, the Toy Box Mode. If only I weren't a 42 year old man, and was more into Toy Story. It's fun at first, to put the town together and get more and more and more stuff, and do quests to unlock more stuff. But eventually I began to get fidgety, wondering if this was all there was, acquisition. And again, if I were a young kid, I don't think I would mind, or if I had a kid I was playing this with but nieces and nephew are too young to play games.

Luckily the platforming sections, though geared towards kids, are surprisingly varied and robust. Only a few of them have to do with the movie's plot; the rest are fantasy sequences. In fact the last level is a massive boss battle that's actually a play collaboration between Andy and Bonnie. Even though the level was slightly frustrating, it was pretty neat to hear Bonnie and Andy come up with ideas on the spot.

Axiom Verge- I've been trying to play this for the podcast- bought it on a sale nearly 3 years ago, played it for an hour then forgot about it- but it's surprisingly not grabbing me. I loved Super Metroid but this game has all of the mechanics of Super Metroid but little of the personality. And I feel churlish for criticizing it since it was made by one man. But I don't get the same sense of propulsive discovery that I get from Super Metroid- the world just doesn't look as varied or neat. I found Xeodrifter to be a much more exciting variation on this formula, even if I find it prohibitively difficult.

Tales of Vesperia- I bought this years ago for the 360 when they were selling it for $3.74, and it sat in my system for a while until the past few months when I decided to go full bore on it. Despite being a nearly 12 year old game and despite the fact that the Definitive Edition is probably much much better, this is definitely one of the more fun and entertaining RPGs I've ever played. It's rare you find a cast this compelling and interesting, each character, despite having familiar characteristics, feels like they each have a decent arc. I'm about 27 hours in.

Dead Space 2: "Severed"- I was going to delete this off my hard drive since I beat DS 2 a few months ago and discovered that somehow the DLC was included with the Games With Gold. So I played a bit of it- it's interesting how they give Waller a rifle instead of a plasma cutter, and it feels more like playing 3 than 2.

--Dan
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I'd not heard of that shadows modes before you posted but it looks really cool, wish it had been available when I played Batman!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I've been playing Doom Eternal. I didn't expect to buy it at launch, but I received $60 in Wal-Mart gift cards as a "thank you" from a data collection panel I was a part of, so I pulled the trigger. Really glad I did. My job's been declared as an "essential service" under the VERY broad definitions of the Ontario Government, but I suspect that list will shrink... So it's very weird times for me.

Anyway. I think Eternal is an improvement on 2016 in a lot of ways, but also a lateral move in others... And to be frank, I hate the Marauder enemy type. It's like Soulsborne enemy in a game that's completely antithetical to the tedium of Soulsborne games. I like the bare-bones plot and simplicity of the "original" 2016 game, but I also like all the collectables and unlockables and even the lore of Eternal. I think I like Eternal *a bit* more than 2016, but there's pros and cons of both. A good problem to have, I think.

I've also been playing Pokemon Conquest and that game is... Great! Just a good little strategy RPG with a Pokemon aesthetic. It's not amazing by any means, but it's been a good time. Dunno if I'll get around to finishing it, but it's p good.

I also picked up the Mega Man Zero/ZX Collection and uh... Yeah, I'm not sure I like the Zero games. At least the first two. They kind of falling into that "hard, but not fun" zone for me. Some people like that - I don't. I know I like ZX quite a lot, so I don't feel like my money's wasted. But I think I'll move on the Zero 3 when I get the chance and ignore 1 and 2.
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PallasRil
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by PallasRil »

Unlike Isopod, my job wasn't considered essential--yet--so I'm at home. I'm still trying to finish the RDR2 storyline, along with keeping up my online daily streak. For some reason, I ended up with a copy of NBA 2K 20, so even though I don't play sports games, I fired this up last night. I won a game, so I guess I can put it away since I've mastered it.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I introduced Ellis (4) to Yoku's Island Express and he enjoyed it. So much so that when I came down from my shower this morning he'd decided to sit and play it. As soon as I walked in the room I just knew... I just knew. Checked the save games, yes, he'd managed to delete my 68% completed save file instead of loading his own profile.

Thought maybe I can grab it off the cloud and reinstate. As I got to the cloud save screen the words flashed up - backing up.... So no good. I was loving the game but hate having to do stuff again.

:cry:
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hazeredmist
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by hazeredmist »

How pleased am I to still have my Wii U right now?

I realised last night I still have Wii Fit U, Wii Sports Club, Wii Sports Resort, Table Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 to name a few active games. Woohoo! These will be getting busted out tonight.

Also:

A rather large FUCK YOU to the arseholes selling Ring Fit Adventure at massively inflated prices right now. Had a quick look to see if I could pick that up. Nope!
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

Alex79uk wrote: March 26th, 2020, 8:14 am I introduced Ellis (4) to Yoku's Island Express and he enjoyed it. So much so that when I came down from my shower this morning he'd decided to sit and play it. As soon as I walked in the room I just knew... I just knew. Checked the save games, yes, he'd managed to delete my 68% completed save file instead of loading his own profile.

Thought maybe I can grab it off the cloud and reinstate. As I got to the cloud save screen the words flashed up - backing up.... So no good. I was loving the game but hate having to do stuff again.

:cry:
Nooooooo!

This reminds me of when my house got broken into and thieves made it off with my PS3 and my housemate’s laptop, digital SLR and phone.

I like to avoid stereotypes but genuinely all the female members of our friendship group were somber about all those lost memories and photos on her laptop. All the blokes were putting their arms around me saying “can’t believe you lost your GTA 4 saves”. All those stupid pigeons I’d hunted down were gone!

Lost saves are the worst!

Haha vent over! Thank goodness for the cloud (for the most part).
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dezm0nd
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

Doom eternal

It's got so much going on for what is a simple concept; killing demons.

Absolutely loving it
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Granblue Fantasy Versus is *finally* out in Europe, an entire month after the US.

It’s so so SO pretty. I’m not sure there’s anyone better than Arc Sys at this aesthetic. That whole ‘it looks like a 24fps 2d anime show, but it’s actually a 60fps 3d game’.

It’s also a lot less complex than most Arc Sys fighting games. This is kind of ‘guilty gear for people who find guilty gear way too complex’. I think I’m going to enjoy this a lot.
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