Whatcha Been Playing?

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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

New year, new Yakuza game. Started Yakuza 3 yesterday and already at chapter 4. It is interesting so far as I am mostly helping orphans out with their problems and seeing this side of Kiryu has made him even more likeable than I already found him. Control is a little more stiff particularly in narrow spaces which is tolerable but a little disappointing. You can definitely tell this is an older game but it still has gotten it's claws into me so definitely intrigued to see where it goes.
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BrianEdwards
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by BrianEdwards »

Orphan dad Kiryu is maybe my favorite Kiryu. I played 3 over the summer and really enjoyed it, although it was kind of funny going from Kiwami 2 to Yakuza 3. Graphics and physics downgrade, but I didn't mind at all because I was into the story.
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BrianEdwards
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by BrianEdwards »

SludgeWizard wrote: January 2nd, 2022, 2:33 pm
I'm still not super far into it, but the combat got more interesting to me once I got a few skill books under my belt. Books of knowledge? I forgot exactly what they're called but I didn't even know they existed until I stumbled across one. They're how you get cool new moves.

I also find Eivor to be a big nothing. I don't like him, I don't hate him. I don't feel anything for him at all.
I just started this game and feel the exact same way. I wished I cared about Eivor more but just can't bring myself to give even the slightest bit of crap about the Raven Clan. Maybe it will change, but I'm 15 hours in so I don't expect to.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Not playing it yet, but delighted to see the Mass Effect Legendary Collection is coming to Gamepass this month! Been wanting to replay this series for ages. (But, uh, not enough to actually buy it, I suppose...)

Also looking forward to The Pedestrian, launching on GP this week too.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Just been playing a bit of Hotshot Racing. First impressions are really good. Very fun arcade racer with tight controls, intuitive drifting, and a cool sense of style as well. Although I didn't test out many of the cars, what I've tried so far already shows a really wide variety in how they handle too. It's definitely scratching the arcade racer itch in a way that not many games have been able to in a very long time.

I have read some criticisms about the game before, and I can see where they come from, but so far they haven't been an issue for me. The game is definitely very short. I did all the GPs on Normal already, and that took a little over an hour. But it makes sense that this game would be short given its arcade inspirations, and I get the impression it expects you to replay on higher difficulties anyway. I was thinking of calling this game complete already since I did all the cups, but decided against it because of that. Another gripe I've heard is that the game is extremely terrible for rubber banding, and it definitely has that for sure, but it hasn't bothered me much so far. It seems designed for you to always be changing positions, as drafting gives you a really strong boost that makes it easy to regain a lost place, and it encourages strategizing with using your nitro boosts properly too. But I can see that getting to be a problem at higher difficulties.

I also did a bit of time trial lapping, and it was pretty interesting how differently it expects you to drive compared to the GP races. Or at least very different to how they are on Normal. The time trials have you driving way faster, boosting almost constantly, and doing much bigger drifts just so you can turn tight enough to keep on top of your boost speed. Which in turn builds up way more boost as a result. The car itself isn't any better, it's just how the mechanics behave when you push them further. So I get the impression that is like a little taste of how the game expects you to be driving in those higher difficulties.

I also played a bit of The Falconeer, but I dropped it pretty quickly without getting anywhere in to it. I feel kind of bad about it, since I didn't give it as much time as I try to when I usually want give a game a chance. Occasionally I do like the odd dogfighting game, so I like to keep an eye out for any that pique my interest, and one that has you flying on the backs of giant eagles definitely has a unique selling point going for it. But I just did not click with this at all.

It starts off by dumping loads of dialogue on you, full of complicated worldbuilding of this whole fictional world that the game is set in. It lays it on way too thick early on, with pretty bad voice acting too. It all comes from simple talking heads in little window icons as well, so it's not presented in an engaging way either. And when you get to the actual flying, it didn't do much to inspire either. It doesn't feel good to control. Changing direction feels pretty inaccurate and floaty, as it lurches around both feeling too sluggish and too sensitive. To compensate for this it has a generous auto-aim, to the point where it feels like I'm not really engaged in the act of aiming very much. On top of that, it also has an auto-levelling system, so you have to constantly fiddle with aiming up and down to continue pointing in the same direction. You can't turn this off. It also has this feature where the camera will rotate around if you fly in one direction for a length of time, for some baffling reason. You also can't turn this off. Flying speed is also very slow, with a "dash" that does barely anything.

It has some real nice art design though. It's set in a world that is mostly a vast ocean, with civilisation limited to small outposts clinging to the crags of rock that poke out above the sea. It does a lot to make the waves feel impressive, and adds in odd supernatural features. like a huge ravine that the ocean constantly pours in to. It has a nice flat shaded look too. I get the impression a lot of thought has gone in to the fiction of this world and its societies and politics. Shame it's not presented better.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Pyre
Back on this. A unique game, which I'm enjoying whether I'm sending my caravan trundling around the gorgeous biomes, chatting with my weird friends or playing ritual basketball. The music is sumptuous as well. The real star of the show is the artwork by Jen Zee. It's astonishingly beautiful. It has swamps and deserts, which in a lot of games would just be "greeny brown" and "endless sand" respectively. In this, both are riotous explosions of colour and shapes I can just gaze at. Wonderful stuff.

Deathloop
Mucked about on this a bit more, did a loop and a half finding some fireworks. Colt and Julianna really are the best lead characters Arkane have ever put in a video game. Now I've got not-Blink and not-Domino as well getting around the maps repeatedly is much quicker. Also, with an Xbox controller this feels much better to play to me than with either DS4 or mkb... well, the mkb was stuttering the last time I played, which seemingly they have fixed at this point.

Grindstone
Got some free Apple Arcade months with my new iPhone and this cartoonishly gory tactical take on a match-four puzzler is very absorbing. It's colourful, funny and really satisfying whenever you manage to clear half the board in one move or charge up your attack power to take out a mini-boss. Lush music, too.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

BrianEdwards wrote: January 4th, 2022, 12:49 am Orphan dad Kiryu is maybe my favorite Kiryu. I played 3 over the summer and really enjoyed it, although it was kind of funny going from Kiwami 2 to Yakuza 3. Graphics and physics downgrade, but I didn't mind at all because I was into the story.
Yeah, I really loved Kiwami 2 and seeing those quality of life improvements be absent has stung me, admittedly. But the orphan stuff and the chance to explore a new environment are definitely big pluses for me and I am interested to see how the series will evolve from here.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

BrianEdwards wrote: January 4th, 2022, 12:49 am Orphan dad Kiryu is maybe my favorite Kiryu. I played 3 over the summer and really enjoyed it, although it was kind of funny going from Kiwami 2 to Yakuza 3. Graphics and physics downgrade, but I didn't mind at all because I was into the story.
Yeah, I really loved Kiwami 2 and seeing those quality of life improvements be absent has stung me, admittedly. But the orphan stuff and the chance to explore a new environment are definitely big pluses for me and I am interested to see how the series will evolve from here.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Keep meaning to go back to 3. Started it when I got my Xbox in August but played a couple of hours then got distracted. Definitely want to finish it before the show this year.
Marlew
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Marlew »

Feeling quite out of the loop these days with what's been released over the last few months or so.

Been playing a lot of Ketsui again via the M2 ShotTriggers release, pretty motivated to try to get the 1CC this year because it's such a fun game, but one I've only ever played pretty casually.

The bullet patterns can be brutal and disorienting but it's also kind of forgiving in that the small hitbox does allow for some flukey dodges and plenty of moments where you feel you're invincible...until you're clearly not. I've practised enough to be able to no miss no bomb the first three stages somewhat consistently, and even though stage 4 is a wall, it's very satisfying to sail to that point with a full stock and a couple of extends. It gives me that feeling of intense exhilaration and almost calm focus that only Cave games do.

Also, I didn't realise until recently but there's an incredible training mode which records your twenty most recent deaths at intense moments and gives you the chance to replay them in random order until you learn how to make it through consistently. That's inspired! It's like automated save states. Very clever. It also very very helpful for learning boss patterns and the minutiae of timings to herd bullets and speed kill larger enemies, etc. Stage 4 is starting to come together gradually in this way and I can NMNB the mid-boss now more often than not which is a hell of a lot of fun. The actual stage itself is brick, though. There's almost no respite or sections where you're not quickly overwhelmed by bullets and the big ships just keep coming and overlapping. We'll see. I'm having fun playing games again, at least.
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

BrianEdwards wrote: January 4th, 2022, 12:49 am Orphan dad Kiryu is maybe my favorite Kiryu. I played 3 over the summer and really enjoyed it, although it was kind of funny going from Kiwami 2 to Yakuza 3. Graphics and physics downgrade, but I didn't mind at all because I was into the story.
Funny, for me the glass is half full, as I come off Yakuza 2 for PS2. :lol:

@Marlew Ketsui is a steep mountain to climb. A lot of fun though and I'd like to play it more as well.
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SludgeWizard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by SludgeWizard »

I finally picked up Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and it's made me drop pretty much everything else I've been playing. It's as wonderful as you'd hope/expect a Mario game to be, and it has really upped my interest in Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

But I will admit that I'm having some difficulty with the depth. Some levels feel like a strange mix of 2D and 3D, and I find myself missing jumps, running off the sides of platforms, or falling off the back of a level more often than I'd like. I don't remember having this issue with other 3D Mario games.
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

While I loved 3D World, Bowser's Fury left me a little cold and I didn't play very much of it. Seemed like a slightly odd mix of open world and linear gameplay. I'll have to give it another go at some point.
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RinseWashRepeat
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by RinseWashRepeat »

Breath of the Wild
It's finally clicked!

I've had this game for years now, but it was only during the Christmas break that I spent some time to really figure out why it wasn't working for me. Turns out, I was in too much of a rush to 'get to the next thing'. I'm now really taking my time with it. Exploring anything that looks interesting, collecting food, cooking it up, making notes of where powerful weapons are to be found, etc...

So yeah - 30 mins of plodding about, maybe do a shrine each night and I love it now!
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

After dabbling with dozens on games on my new Evercade VS, I decided to settle down with NES Dizzy The Adventurer on The Oliver Twins Collection. Never played a Dizzy outside of the Spectrum and this seemed alright at first glance, and after completing it I can confirm really was! It’s logical, not massive (good for all the back and forth in these games) and is a very nice looking take on an old favourite!

I picked up classy sideways bullet-hell shooter Sine Mora EX for 99p in the Switch Christmas sale and have played a few stages of the story mode and a bit of arcade. Realistically it’s going to get too hard for me before much longer, especially on these Joy-Cons, but until then it’s a stunner, and the time-bending mechanic gives me half a chance against these mad bullet-shaped death patterns!

Finally, I played a lot of Konami’s Aliens arcade game from 1990. Its side-scrolling sci-fi slaughter at its finest, with the most incredible garish colour palette this side of Everyone’s a Wally on the Spectrum! The head-on rail shooting sections add variety, though despite a fair bit of practice I’m still not getting far enough to be demanding much variety! Hard as nails but loads of fun and a real visual treat.
Dom_Maher
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Dom_Maher »

After finding this podcast again after better part of a decade and trawling through the back catalogue (i've got a great treasure trove of content now to go back over) i've gone back to the batman games (return to arkham collection on series x) following the respective podcasts on each. These games are quality story telling and still look great! The tight gameplay makes it easy for a recently new dad to jump in and out for an hour and enjoy the fully realised world of the dark knight!
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Dom_Maher wrote: January 9th, 2022, 11:08 am After finding this podcast again after better part of a decade and trawling through the back catalogue (i've got a great treasure trove of content now to go back over) i've gone back to the batman games (return to arkham collection on series x) following the respective podcasts on each. These games are quality story telling and still look great! The tight gameplay makes it easy for a recently new dad to jump in and out for an hour and enjoy the fully realised world of the dark knight!
Arkham Knight still looks like what of the best looking games available even now.
Dom_Maher
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Dom_Maher »

Truk_Kurt wrote: January 10th, 2022, 9:22 am
Dom_Maher wrote: January 9th, 2022, 11:08 am After finding this podcast again after better part of a decade and trawling through the back catalogue (i've got a great treasure trove of content now to go back over) i've gone back to the batman games (return to arkham collection on series x) following the respective podcasts on each. These games are quality story telling and still look great! The tight gameplay makes it easy for a recently new dad to jump in and out for an hour and enjoy the fully realised world of the dark knight!
Arkham Knight still looks like what of the best looking games available even now.
I agree, a real step up. I completed knight a year or so ago on my xbox one x and it looked so good. Great game as well, the pyschological battle going on the whole game is brilliant, i really didn't mind the batmobile sections either. Might warrant a repkay if the series x give it another sheen of quality.
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Feirsteax
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Feirsteax »

Have been playing around with the PCEngine / Turbo Grafx 16 mini a bit over the holidays. It's a console I never had any experience with before as a child, so there's not a big nostalgia factor or anything with it (except for bomberman, which I'm pretty sure I played on the Mega Drive back in the day.

There's some really cool fun games on here. I'd hoped to play Kojima's Snatcher on it, but it's only available in Japanese, which is disappointing. Castlevania Rondo of Blood is also available in Japanese on there, but I think that will be a lot more playable since I hopefully won't need to rely on the text as much.

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!
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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

Started both Hades and Breath of the Wild over the past week. I haven't played Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword yet, but I guess I didn't feel like waiting anymore. Anyway, liking them both. I had a sweet run in Hades on my 6th go, and that loss really knocked the wind of me. But I'm digging it for sure.
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