Whatcha Been Playing?

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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Feirsteax wrote: January 10th, 2022, 1:06 pm Played a bit of one called Lords of Thunder today, really cool sidescrolling shooter where you play as an elemental mecha type thing. Music and graphics are excellent, it's very vibrant and has a mad kind of metal soundtrack. The gameplay is solid too. Fun game!
That's a coincidence!

I was playing Wii Punch-Out!! after our recording on the series last night, and decided to flip through my SD Card menu and browse the Virtual Console games before going to bed... and I settled on having a quick go at Lords of Thunder as well. Definitely fun. I imagine when you learn the stages and enemy attack patterns, you can make short work of nasty foes with the automatic melee attack.

There is lots of experimentation possible as well, with the different elemental armours and the shop items. Wouldn't mind putting more time into this one!
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Jedi: Fallen Order

Was really looking forward to trying this out, but initial impressions are pretty negative.

I’m all for a game that demands a high level of skill and finesse from the player, but I expect the game to hold up its own side of the bargain and offer controls that are tight and responsive. My instant impression of J:FO is that it feels mechanically very unpolished. The character controls feel loose and floaty. There’s very little sense of inertia to how the character moves. Moving from a standing start or changing direction mid-run feels awkward. Character control overall feels twitchy rather than smooth and responsive. Things like jumping and locking on to enemies feel really unreliable and imprecise. The standard of animation is also very poor for such a high profile game - almost comical on occasion. Very disappointing.

Add to this load/reload times that are genuinely shocking - up to a whole minute of loading after each and every death (playing on Xbox Series S) - and I’m giving up and moving on to something else.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Hmm I finished it on the S and don't remember loading being bad at all really, wonder if something is amiss.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

I've looked it up and seems like a very common complaint. Loading times tended to range from 25 to 60 seconds for me.
bixer

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by bixer »

I spent the latter half of 2021 almost exclusively just bouncing between multiplayer sessions on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 2. While that's fine, as 'fun' is the ultimate point in gaming, I did feel a slight disappointment that I hadn't made any progress on a 'complete-able' game for a fair few months.

With that in mind, I've decided to give Hollow Knight another college try. As someone who usually adores Metroidvanias, I hit a brick wall and gave up on Hollow Knight after about 10 hours when I first tried it a couple of years ago.

I've already struggled somewhat to beat False Knight and Hornet, so I'm not yet convinced I'm going to have the patience to see it through to the end, but I'm hoping maybe if I scour the map for more upgrades this time round I might be able to try some different tactics.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I've been playing Saints Row IV on Switch, which is quite a buggy mess, but ok fun when it works. But here's the thing, are there any actual missions in this game, because I'm about 4 or 5 hours in, and every single mission so far has just been talking part in some mini-game or map activity like clearing out bad guy zones. Wondering if there's an actual story or anything coming at some point. I know that's not the point of these games, but even so, something driving the action would be nice!

Also about 15 hours in to Mass Effect and loving it all over again. I couldn't make my exact character from when I originally played it, but my Kyra Shepherd seems to resemble Melinda May off Agents Of Shield...

Finally, did the first hour of Disco Elysium on Switch. I'm really wanting to play it, but finding I need to be in the right mood, which I don't seem to be at the moment. I don't want to dip in and out, I want long, immersive sessions with it, and can't seem to find the right time, so I might leave it for now and start again at some point in the future. Loved the bit I played though. I'm really no further than when you go to investigate the hanged body in the game intro.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

bixer wrote: January 12th, 2022, 11:03 am I spent the latter half of 2021 almost exclusively just bouncing between multiplayer sessions on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Splatoon 2. While that's fine, as 'fun' is the ultimate point in gaming, I did feel a slight disappointment that I hadn't made any progress on a 'complete-able' game for a fair few months.

With that in mind, I've decided to give Hollow Knight another college try. As someone who usually adores Metroidvanias, I hit a brick wall and gave up on Hollow Knight after about 10 hours when I first tried it a couple of years ago.

I've already struggled somewhat to beat False Knight and Hornet, so I'm not yet convinced I'm going to have the patience to see it through to the end, but I'm hoping maybe if I scour the map for more upgrades this time round I might be able to try some different tactics.
For me Hollow Knight is - by design - missing quite a lot of features of what I would consider essential to the classic Metroidvania formula. It's more of a genre hybrid. Like you, I'm a huge fan of the Metroidvania genre but I found HK to be a tedious slog.
Marlew
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Marlew »

Michiel K wrote: January 7th, 2022, 12:12 pm @Marlew Ketsui is a steep mountain to climb. A lot of fun though and I'd like to play it more as well.
I'm hopefully hopefully getting there, but consistency/time is a factor at the mo. Stage 4 is actually not too bad, I've cracked the first half and the midboss is OK until the last phase which I can't figure out at all, basically. I have to fluke my dodges or bomb, I get squeezed to death.

Second half of the stage is really tough with the Nightmares and the spinning bastards, and then double Nightmare and this and that overlapping. I don't really have a route, just flukey survival and mad dodges. That's never going to be consistent for someone like me who needs to just practise practise until I can stay cool enough to string a run together.

I should probably play some stage 5 to start learning it but I'd rather get consistent with the rest before moving on, seems like the most efficient approach.

How about yourself? Are you playing much or mostly working?
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by markfm007 »

Fallen Order had some long load times for me on the PS4 Pro too.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Gave the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot a whirl.

It's... fine.

Starts out mildly interesting but devolves into a fairly mindless shooter pretty quickly. Pronounced Resident Evil 4 influence (right down to the annoying QTEs) but doesn't get anywhere close to the genius of that game's mechanics.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Also tried to get into Dark Souls again. In many ways the polar opposite of a game like Tomb Raider, and a game and series whose popularity I've long suspected must be some kind of elaborate joke everyone but me is in on.

Fared better than my first attempt, and I'm starting to appreciate why people like it, but I'm still not convinced it's my cup of tea.

Even taking into account its vintage, everything about the game is just so clunky and obtuse, even down to the UI. I suppose thats why people find it so refreshing.

I definitely find it a lot less tedious and punishing than Hollow Knight, and the slow, methodical pace of the combat works much better than the looser, jankier feel of Jedi Fallen Order. Will persevere with it at some point but it's very much a game you have to be in a particular mood for. Not sure I have the right kind of mindset or patience for it.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

KissMammal wrote: January 13th, 2022, 9:42 pm I definitely find it a lot less tedious and punishing than Hollow Knight, and the slow, methodical pace of the combat works much better than the looser, jankier feel of Jedi Fallen Order. Will persevere with it at some point but it's very much a game you have to be in a particular mood for. Not sure I have the right kind of mindset or patience for it.
I am like you KissMammal in not being particularly into either Hollow Knight or Dark Souls. Whilst they are different genres, one of the aspects both games share which really puts me off is the whole bonfires/bench mechanic which are effectively your checkpoints. I really frustrates me that if I die at a boss, I have to go all the way back to a bonfire/bench and do the whole run again up to the boss, during which I might die anyway as these games are tough outside of the bosses anyway. It really frustrates me that I can't just attempt a boss straight away, fair enough you could argue that you can go back to do some grinding to level up your character so it is in a better position to face the boss, but if my character is suitably levelled enough and I die during the boss battle due to a silly mistake, why can't I just start the boss again rather than have to do the whole run again?
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

That was my issue with Hollow Knight too - it feels like a game with 10 hours of content artificially stretched out to take 50 hours to complete due to arbitrary, transparently time-wasting obstacles placed in front of the player.

This video absolutely nails everything I dislike about it.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUrUceYSgmQ[/youtube]
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

I played a bit of the Dead Cells demo on Switch a couple of years ago, and I stopped because I thought it was great and I’d play it properly one day, and that day finally came this week! It was actually one of the first games I downloaded from Game Pass when I got my Xbox Series X last year, but it’s still being so well updated that I thought it high time I got on with its rogue-lite, metroidvania action-platforming! The dark fantasy pixel art is gorgeous, the gameplay loop is incredibly addictive once what’s going on clicks, and unlike my friends above, finding Hollow Knight’s bench was one of the nicest surprises I’ve ever had in a game!

I’ve liked the sound of The Outer Wilds since it first came out, so when it appeared on Game Pass last week, right after listening to its recent Cane and Rinse episode, I dived straight in. Now, I don’t often see time spent having a go at any game as wasted, but this was two hours I’ll never get back! I immediately didn’t like the dreary cartoon art style but gave it the benefit of the doubt. I knew that motion sickness was likely to arrive at any moment but carried on exploring regardless. I lifted the veil of time-looping pretentiousness but that little spaceship still seemed like it might feel like home after a while… But flying it was no fun. Working out what to to next was no fun, and that was before the puzzles even began. Working out what I was doing now while being tossed around screen-tearing scenery was no fun. In summary I was having no fun! So I reluctantly uninstalled it, wishing I was seeing what so many others had convinced me I might see in it, and also wishing I’d carried on learning the art of playing DoDonPachi instead…

I often say that I might be rubbish at shoot ‘em ups but I’ve played a lot of them. I’ve really played a lot of them of late though, and with this new found appreciation I think I’m even starting to improve! That was definitely the case with this vertical bullet-hell classic DoDonPachi via MAME, which amazingly was one I’d never played before! There’s no black magic involved in getting good at these either - just repetition and learning the hell out of level designs, which brings with it noticing details about scoring mechanics and chaining hits and the like, not to mention exactly where you should be looking to plot your path through insane patterns of bullets! And for all of that to work, the game has to grab you by the unmentionables and this really did! Absolutely stunning, and while I’ll never be great, I‘m sure I’m getting better!
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Marlew wrote: January 12th, 2022, 8:56 pm How about yourself? Are you playing much or mostly working?
Mostly working, unfortunately. Need to get this massive Video Wizards podcast edit out of the way, so I can start playing games for this new Cane and Rinse volume!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I started up Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops since my curiosity got the better of me. But to be honest I don't think I'll be sticking with this one. It's basically all the things I don't enjoy about this series, with none of the stuff I do. Mechanics have been simplified and trimmed down from the PS2 games, yet controls are still very awkward and clunky, as they struggle to fit the limited mapping of the PSP. Even though there's much less going on I'm having a harder time actually playing it than I was with 3. The camera is really awful, having a really narrow field of view and really terrible controls. The game has a lot of busywork and repetition to its structure too, with how you need to do a lot of things that don't involve moving forward the plot in order to progress. Often that means kidnapping enemy soldiers to turn to your side, which forces you to tediously drag them across the level back to the spawn point. There are some ways to mitigate that, but they do barely anything to alleviate the tedium.

The general presentation is also a huge step down from the major numbered titles. Cutscenes are now simple motion comics that are usually pretty short. While it's cool to see Yoji Shinkawa's art take a bigger role in the actual game, these scenes have none of the style or directorial flair of the cutscenes in older games. No cool compositions, and no entertaining character acting and interactions. The story also drops you in extremely quickly with no context for what's going on either. It doesn't give you much to care about, and the whole thing feels somewhat arbitrary. I haven't got especially far in to the game yet, but I feel like there should at least be something to pique my interest by now. I think I'll maybe give this one more session to get me interested, or else I'll just ditch it.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Now this is more like it.

Sublime controls, excellent graphics, sumptuous production values all round. Feels faithful to the original while also being essentially a totally different game. Gameplay strikes the perfect balance between the more expansive feel of Resident Evil 4 and the classic, claustrophobic survival horror we all know and love. Dialogue and voice acting leaps and bounds above that of the original game, but still feels suitably cheesy. Wonderful feeling of unease that permeates the entire game - I'm not sure whether this one incorporates a Resi 4 type dynamic difficulty, but it really hits that sweet spot of never giving you quite enough resources to ever feel comfortable - had a memorable incident where I took down the last zombie in a room with my absolute last bullet.

Only minor complaints are that some of the boss fights feel a little unfair - it often feels like its impossible to avoid taking damage in certain situations - and that the variety of enemy types feels a little limited. I count only 5 distinct enemy types if you ignore Tyrants. The game also feels a little short, especially compared to the epic that is Resi 4, but its packed with replayability - as soon as I finished Leon's story mode I went straight in to Claire's 2nd scenario.

Wonderful stuff. Also picked up the 3 remake as that came in the bundle - can't wait to check that out too.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Been playing a bit of Need for Speed: Carbon again, this time with the Battle Royale mod. It's an overhaul for the career mode, that doesn't have anything to do with the genre that shares its name. It basically adds in a bunch more content. An alternate start and end, splitting the world map in to more districts, and adding in new districts like the canyons and the area that is usually only seen in the tutorial of the main game. So along with that it adds in loads more races to the career, including a bunch of the cut content that is in the game data but never made it in to the actual game.

I've been thinking about trying this out for years, and randomly got the motivation to finally set it up recently. But after first trying it out I wondered if I had made a mistake. I wasn't really feeling it at first, and was also finding it extremely easy. When you install the mod it prompts you do choose what level of difficulty you want, and I chose the easy mode, since mods like this tend to be aimed towards really hardcore players who want an extreme challenge. I wanted something more along the lines of the usual game's difficulty, and that's what this easy mode was presented as. Early races were a pushover. The original game was never especially hard, and I suppose I would actually want something a little more challenging, but it seemed like this was going the other way. As I've played more though it does seem like that was a false impression. It actually is in general a bit harder than the normal game, but it doesn't seem particularly well balanced. It depends a lot on what car you drive. This seems to be partially intentional, to emphasise the specialisation between different car classes. It sort of works, but cars added in from the mod don't fit in to this very well. Currently I've been using a car that has much tighter cornering than it should in its class, and it doesn't really have any weaknesses.

There's more thoughts I have on it but I'll leave it there for now. Despite its weird quirks, I am at least enjoying playing it. It's cool to see this game in a different form that at least tries to mine out some of the potential of this game that was never realised before.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I'm about 3 or 4 hours in to Halo Infinite (no spoilers but just in the Conservatory and done a few bits of side stuff) and I'm really enjoying it so far. I like the sense there's a full scale battle going on around me, I like rescuing soldiers and clearing out FOBs. The weakest parts for me are when it funnels you in to an inside area, and the intro didn't do much for me either, but overall I'm having a real blast so far.
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SludgeWizard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by SludgeWizard »

Is everybody going to yell at me and take my gamer card away if I say that I'm bouncing off of Bowser's Fury? I love Mario, especially 3D Mario, but for some reason I am not gelling with the open world set up. I miss each stage being its own contained little world. I'll keep going back, at least for a while, but I haven't struggled with a Mario game like this since Sunshine. (but to be fair I am very early, I've only had only one giant Mario vs giant Bowser fight)

I also dropped AC Valhalla. After the fun kind of faded and I found myself just passively playing it, I looked it up and saw I had at least 40 hours left, so I pulled the plug.

Maybe I've finally reached open world fatigue.
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