Whatcha Been Playing?

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

Post by Magical_Isopod »

New Pokemon Snap

I love it, but it's not conducive to long play sessions. It's like. Boot it up, try a couple levels, find a couple new things, turn it off, repeat tomorrow. I really love it. It's basically exactly what I wanted - Snap, but more of it, and with additional layers of complexity. It's by far the best Pokemon game in nearly a decade.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Been playing some Enderal Special Edition recently. I actually started this shortly before my Drakengard binge, but I dropped it in favour of that, and only just picked it back up now. I swear I posted about it before, yet I searching through my previous posts yields nothing. Anyway, it's a total conversion mod for Skyrim, and this is a recently released version of it that works with the Special Edition remaster. For a non-professional effort, it is very impressive. It could even pass for a retail product from a smaller studio. The biggest thing that stands out is that the environments are really well presented. There's been a lot of effort put in to making the world itself look interesting. Practically nowhere looks like it's just had things dropped down wherever haphazardly, but instead it's all organised in a way to make it picturesque from as many different angles as possible. While I have found this means navigating the big main city a bit tricky, it's still very nice to look at and poke around in. It's actually convincingly large too, unlike most of the cities in Skyrim itself.

The voice acting is also pretty good, although it varies a lot in quality. Sometimes it comes across as a bit stilted and hokey, but some of the main characters are really well performed, and they have really good voices that are full of personality. And even if the quality can be patchy in some areas, one thing that none of the actors lack is enthusiasm. They all sound like they're actually interested in what they're saying, and are actually trying to convey some emotion. Again something that this has over the bored, monotone sounding acting in Skyrim.

Mechanically I'm not quite sure on it though. The game ditches the usual Elder Scrolls system of skills levelling up naturally as you use them. Instead you have to buy skill books, which each take a skill point to be able to read as well. It's a pretty huge drain on the wallet, and it means you can't level up out in the field for the most part. Also, despite it carrying over all the different skill disciplines from Skyrim, all the magic schools are renamed to something else. It can be pretty confusing trying to work out exactly what skills you want to focus on when they all have unfamiliar names. And on top of all that, they made the game much harder than Skyrim. While I can see the argument for changing how levelling works, this is just a unambiguously bad change I think. It's no news to anyone that the Skyrim combat system is awful. Clunky and shallow, and not really fun. Making it so enemies just do absurd amounts of damage doesn't change that, it just highlights how awful this system is. I changed the difficulty down to the minimum to try to alleviate this somewhat, but I'm not sure that even does anything.

Continuing with exploring PS3 emulation I've also started God of War: Chains of Olympus HD. This also works impressively well. It runs more smoothly than Rain, with virtually none of the minor stutters that game had. Although it seems there are some very minor but still noticeably visual glitches. Particles look a bit odd when you open a chest, and sometimes Kratos' shadow doesn't look right when you walk past a point light. But with how small those are, they are easily ignorable. And I'm not even certain the particle thing is even actually a bug. Might just be misremembering how the original was.

I've always been an advocate for these PSP spin-offs, and coming back to this one definitely reinforces that. A few years back, just after playing reboot, I played Ascension for the first time. I did not have a good time with that game, and it shook my confidence in the older games in the series. In addition to that, before jumping in to Ascension I booted up one of these PSP remasters again, and was surprised to find that the game had some serious input lag. I never remembered the game being like that when I played it before, but it made me wonder if perhaps these games weren't as good as I remembered either. Whatever it was that happened there, it seems to be not an issue this time around. It feels really good in the hands, especially since I'm able to use a Dualshock 4 this time. I think perhaps the nature of this game meaning that things had to be scaled back somewhat from the native PS3 entries actually helps it feel more focused. Like playing with intention and doing specific combos is actually worth it, rather than just button-mashing your way through a crowd while the camera zooms out to show an epic scene. Also it being so short means that it has a very nice brisk pace to it as well. Nothing goes on long enough for it to become tedious. So yeah, having a lot of fun. It's a bite-sized chunk of God of War that holds up to the quality standard of the main games really well.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Resi is in the air so I decided to finally start RE3 remake. I'm about two hours in. It's terrific. Such a tight, polished game and so much fun. Just crackling with energy and never stops throwing setpieces and action at you.
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Kal_Luke
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kal_Luke »

That sounds good, Jon. I listened to the show and bought it for about £25. I got to as far as I could on PS4 without the game being fully installed. Jill really took a kicking at the start.
The original is one of my very favourite PS1 games. Me and my friend always wanted to go for a pint of bitter with STARS (our name for Nemesis) he definitely drink John Smiths.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Kal_Luke wrote: May 10th, 2021, 11:41 am That sounds good, Jon. I listened to the show and bought it for about £25. I got to as far as I could on PS4 without the game being fully installed. Jill really took a kicking at the start.
The original is one of my very favourite PS1 games. Me and my friend always wanted to go for a pint of bitter with STARS (our name for Nemesis) he definitely drink John Smiths.
The opening is just explosive, I love it. Like they took the way she rolls out from the fire at the start of the original and turned that one concept into a scripted rollercoaster sequence. I am a big fan of the original too, just wish they'd had the option to play with the classic soundtrack like RE2 remake.

I think Nemesis would be down for a pint, if you're not part of STARS I imagine he's fairly approachable.
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Seph
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Seph »

I've been playing ridiculous amount of Murder by Numbers recently. For those who don't know, it's a visual novel detective type game where you find clues by solving picross puzzles. I'm taking a break from it before doing the final case as I was actually starting to dream in picross...
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by HaloFandango »

Jon Cheetham wrote: May 10th, 2021, 10:11 am Resi is in the air so I decided to finally start RE3 remake. I'm about two hours in. It's terrific. Such a tight, polished game and so much fun. Just crackling with energy and never stops throwing setpieces and action at you.
Oh man, yeah Resident Evil 3 is one I need to get. It is quite short from what I heard, but overall a quality release from Capcom.

I still need to pick up Resident Evil 6. I've heard Leon's campaign is alright, so I'd be okay with having a play through that. Ustanak as a name for a monster is hilarious, lol.
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Kal_Luke
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kal_Luke »

I couldn’t even finish Leon’s campaign. From the little I played, the controls were good but the level design was very boring and the plot was very much like bad fan fiction.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

I played some of 6, decent as a co-op game but didn't feel very Resi. To be fair we were on Chris' campaign which is the most Gearsy, CoD-y one apparently. Only got a few hours in.

@ HaloFandango I think Resi 3 remake is pure quality. I'm about 1/2 way through now and it's just a treat.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Is the first Borderlands game still worth playing? Just the collection is cheap on Switch at the moment, and wondered if the triple pack is worth getting?

The pack that doesn't include the first game is also available for less, but it's only £2 cheaper so just wondered if the first one is still worth a look?

EDIT: Got it anyway :lol:
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by markfm007 »

Finished Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City today, beat the final boss on my lunch break, which was oddly satisfying. Overall I'd say the levels of this DLC were punishing in a way I didn't enjoy. It didn't really encourage exploration, so I ended up sprinting through a fair amount of it, which meant that I didn't grasp the lore as strongly, and overall made it less satisfying.

That said, the boss fights were excellent. Very tough but in a less frustrating way. I did have to level up a bit to have a prayer of defeating them, but it was very satisfying when I did. I think
Spoiler: show
Darkeater Midir
was my favourite boss. Learning the moveset was tough but enjoyable, I liked the design of the boss, and the fight itself was an excellent test of patience and application.

Overall I've really enjoyed my time with this game. It's a bit less impactful than other From games, but as a sequel and as a game I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm ready to put it down now though - perfect timing with my copy of Mass Effect arriving early.
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Kal_Luke
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kal_Luke »

Well done. Gael was an amazing fight. Took me 25 attempts. Did you beat Midir? I can’t beat him for the life of me.
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by markfm007 »

Kal_Luke wrote: May 13th, 2021, 5:59 pm Well done. Gael was an amazing fight. Took me 25 attempts. Did you beat Midir? I can’t beat him for the life of me.
Cheers, appreciate that. Gael was brilliant, really fun fight. I did beat Midir yeah, he's a tough one for sure. I had to level up a fair bit to stand a chance. Try to stay in front of him, close to his head, and learn his attack patterns. He's tough but predictable, so it's all about dying and learning the patterns until you can read them comfortably.

His main attack types are swipe combos, charges, and fire/laser attacks. With most of them he'll end by resting his head on the ground, which you can punish by smacking him on the nose. With swipes and charges you can dodge them. With fire or lasers, once you know where it'll go you can avoid it and run to his head, rather than backwards. It's better to be patient and just do that rather than trying to hit him anywhere else. If you can't punish an attack just avoid it.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

A lot of people have said the Ringed City's central design thesis of "F*****G RUN!" harms the exploration that's important to Dark Souls, and I agree, particularly when those giant sorcerers respawn which I think is unnecessary.

It's a shame because the environments themselves are really good, and I love that that Gael boss fight. If only you didn't have to go through the Ringed City to get to him. At least there's always the sunbro option.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by HaloFandango »

Kal_Luke wrote: May 11th, 2021, 9:06 am I couldn’t even finish Leon’s campaign. From the little I played, the controls were good but the level design was very boring and the plot was very much like bad fan fiction.
Wow, it was that bad? Maybe a good game for a laugh with some friends ;)
HaloFandango
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by HaloFandango »

Jon Cheetham wrote: May 11th, 2021, 9:13 am I played some of 6, decent as a co-op game but didn't feel very Resi. To be fair we were on Chris' campaign which is the most Gearsy, CoD-y one apparently. Only got a few hours in.

@ HaloFandango I think Resi 3 remake is pure quality. I'm about 1/2 way through now and it's just a treat.
Ah, okay, well with what Luke also mentioned, it might be a fun romp with a friend along for the ride. :) New words: 'Gearsy' and 'CoD-y', love it!

Definitely, I will pick it up sometime in the future, the game looks very beautiful and Nemisis' re-design looks pretty slick!
HaloFandango
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by HaloFandango »

markfm007 wrote: May 13th, 2021, 5:41 pm Finished Dark Souls 3: The Ringed City today, beat the final boss on my lunch break, which was oddly satisfying. Overall I'd say the levels of this DLC were punishing in a way I didn't enjoy. It didn't really encourage exploration, so I ended up sprinting through a fair amount of it, which meant that I didn't grasp the lore as strongly, and overall made it less satisfying.

That said, the boss fights were excellent. Very tough but in a less frustrating way. I did have to level up a bit to have a prayer of defeating them, but it was very satisfying when I did. I think
Spoiler: show
Darkeater Midir
was my favourite boss. Learning the moveset was tough but enjoyable, I liked the design of the boss, and the fight itself was an excellent test of patience and application.

Overall I've really enjoyed my time with this game. It's a bit less impactful than other From games, but as a sequel and as a game I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm ready to put it down now though - perfect timing with my copy of Mass Effect arriving early.
Beating a Dark Souls' boss during a lunchbreak is pretty impressive! I'm imagining you brought a PC or console to work with you (unless you work from home ;))

Dark Souls is one of those games I want to beat at some point in my life. Hopefully I won't be too old when I do, otherwise I'll have a heart attack.
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by markfm007 »

Jon Cheetham wrote: May 14th, 2021, 1:56 am A lot of people have said the Ringed City's central design thesis of "F*****G RUN!" harms the exploration that's important to Dark Souls, and I agree, particularly when those giant sorcerers respawn which I think is unnecessary.

It's a shame because the environments themselves are really good, and I love that that Gael boss fight. If only you didn't have to go through the Ringed City to get to him. At least there's always the sunbro option.
Haha yeah, seems like it's meant to be a sort of final test of the series. It's a bit too hardcore for me but I did appreciate the bosses and environments. I ended up looking up how to get past the laser angels though as they were driving me up the wall.
HaloFandango wrote: May 14th, 2021, 5:44 am Beating a Dark Souls' boss during a lunchbreak is pretty impressive! I'm imagining you brought a PC or console to work with you (unless you work from home ;))

Dark Souls is one of those games I want to beat at some point in my life. Hopefully I won't be too old when I do, otherwise I'll have a heart attack.
Cheers, I work from home! They're definitey worth a go, can test your patience but there's a lot of good stuff there
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Not a huge amount of gaming time recently, but just enough to get through Resident Evil Village this week. I absolutely loved it - in the eye of the beholder I know, but it’s the best-looking game I’ve ever played, with great pacing, good variety and everything felt like one Resident Evil or another… apart from one chapter that I thought became very Doom 3, though that’s my favourite shooter so all is forgiven! What I can’t quite reconcile yet is how it stacks up against its clear spiritual predecessor Resident Evil 4, which is in my top three games of all time; this certainly isn’t, but I need the dust to settle a bit longer to think about why.

That was a birthday present, as were the Space Invaders Forever and Turrican Flashback collections on Switch; I also picked up the Namco Museum Volume 1 on there for £3.99, and I’ve been dabbling with all of them!

And all of that interrupted Final Fantasy VII Remake, where I’ve gone back and just done a ridiculous dancing section… I really hate all things dancing, and I immediately decided if I fail this first time then it’s game over. I didn’t so we continue!
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Miririn
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Miririn »

Stuck in a gaming rut where I was playing, for the first time, three excellent games that I was really enjoying ("Bloodborne", "Resi8", "NieR: Replicant"*) but for some reason I just stopped playing all of them partway through (I plan to go back to all later from the beginning). And I was feeling a little anxious and a bit tired and it was raining outside and the cat was curled up next to me and I had beer in the fridge and I thought, "ah f*ck it, comfort gaming it is".

So I'm playing "Uncharted 4" for the fourth time and it's like putting on a big cosy jumper and being handed a big mug of tea. It's just so comforting, and fun, and made with such attention to detail (all components work so nicely music, graphics, characterisation). Is it reinventing the wheel when it comes to gameplay? No. Does the plot make sense if you think about it in detail for more than one minute? No. Is Nate a terrifyng sociopath who leaves hundreds of bodies in his wake as he wisecracks casually through life? Yes. But I don't care. I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. It's just so polished and satisfying.

And I love Sam - out of an extremely strong stable of fantastic Naughty Dog characters (whatever your thoughts on ND, they're almost unparalleled when it comes to making AAA games with great characters), he is my absolute favourite (with the one caveat about the blatant retconning - but it's done so confidently and brazenly I just don't really care). I know there was some drama with Amy Hennig leaving and her vision for the story being different, but I could kiss whoever at ND decided to change it from a slightly overdone Hero Brother vs Evil Brother story, and change it to a story about what happens when you're trying to fit back into someone's life when that person's moved on, and about what happens when someone who represents a part of yourself you're leaving behind turns up. And a story about obsession. And a treasure hunt where the treasure actually is more interesting than a standard McGuffin and represents something about the lead characters and their relationship.

And yes I'm overthinking the story of the fun popcorn Indiana Jones game with the lemur in it.

I'm playing it on "Hard" this time, which feels just right, but last time I played it through on "Crushing" and I still stand by my (possibly unpopular) opinion that UC4 on "Crushing" is WAY more horrifically brutal than TLOU1 or TLOU2 on "Grounded". I think I almost cried when I finally got through the Avery's Mansion level on that difficulty after I started the level with barely any bullets or grenades and it's just approximately 5000 people shooting at you while you hide behind one rickety pillar. It was so satisfying playing on that difficulty but I don't have the... uh fortitude to put myself through that again today. I hope it's not a Wreck-It-Ralph situation where game characters have feelings, because the amount of times I got Nate shot to death on that level was excessive.

* (but oh my GOD is Yona annoying, everything she says is so saccharine I can feel myself slipping into some sort of excessive-blood-sugar-level coma every time she appears on screen. And don't get me started on Kaine's stupid outfit and the stupid upskirting trophy - which was also stupid/offensive in "Automata". Arrrggh I love the two Nier games I've played but god Yoko Taro really likes to make it hard sometimes ........I'll get me coat)
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