Whatcha Been Playing?

[dezm0nd]

Been playing more Travis Strikes again.

That game doesn't respect the players time at all and even makes a mockery of other games for doing similar things.

A codec style cut scene which goes on and on, after laughing at travis saying they talk to much.

Also theres a one hit kill enemy in a maze like puzzle section, once you lose both continues you are thrown back to the start of the level which was about 20 minutes of slightly mediocre combat.

A shame, really, as i like the style and enjoying self aware videogames but it reminds me of Retro City Rampage in that it mocks other games for being shit and then commits the same crimes.

[ratsoalbion]

See also: Matt Hazard games.

[DomsBeard]

Well into episode 3 of the final season of The Walking Dead.

Writing is excellent and some really good new characters that I have come to care about in such a short time. The story has come full circle with Clem taking the role of Lee with

Spoiler: show

AJ

. I am way more harsh than I was with Lee.

Not really as much gameplay as before which for me is a positive also. There are sections where you have to ''manage'' walkers either running by or taking them out which is far better than the find a to put in b to progress of old.

All 3 episodes so far have been on a par with season 1 for me personally. Be interested to hear if anyone else has played Michonne, season 2 or 3 (or even this one) as I hear very little chat about it anywhere, even more so after the goings on at Telltale. Season 2 was good but never reached the highs of 1, Season 3's first two episodes were excellent then it went massively downhill (and Clem didn't need to be anywhere near it). The Michonne one was pretty poor (so much so I cannot remember a thing about it).

[Magical_Isopod]

Well into episode 3 of the final season of The Walking Dead.

Writing is excellent and some really good new characters that I have come to care about in such a short time. The story has come full circle with Clem taking the role of Lee with

Spoiler: show

AJ

. I am way more harsh than I was with Lee.

Not really as much gameplay as before which for me is a positive also. There are sections where you have to ''manage'' walkers either running by or taking them out which is far better than the find a to put in b to progress of old.

All 3 episodes so far have been on a par with season 1 for me personally. Be interested to hear if anyone else has played Michonne, season 2 or 3 (or even this one) as I hear very little chat about it anywhere, even more so after the goings on at Telltale. Season 2 was good but never reached the highs of 1, Season 3's first two episodes were excellent then it went massively downhill (and Clem didn't need to be anywhere near it). The Michonne one was pretty poor (so much so I cannot remember a thing about it).

Season 2 basically killed my interest in the series for the same reason I lost interest in Game of Thrones - after a while, killing every single character just becomes lame and unnecessarily bleak. Even in the logic of that universe, I feel like they're always performing a quantum leap to kill off characters just for the sake of setting a blank slate for the next season. A friend of mine, who works as a playwright and stage director down in Toronto, she's had the best rants about how the somewhat recent trend of TV shows killing off masses of characters makes for restrictive writing - the *idea* is to reduce the number of plot threads and increasingly narrow focus on the ones the showrunner wants you to see, but this happens at the expense of character development and is too often used as a cheap "out" for when the author can't think of what to do with a character. You also kill any opportunity for callbacks, and wind up having to invent new characters to play a role a previous character could have filled to better fanfare.

What often happens as a result? The deaths stop having impact, you distance yourself from interesting characters knowing they'll be gone in short order, and the written universe becomes cynical to the point of unbelievabilty. It seems highly improbable that the protagonist would bear witness to every single death - it's much more likely that people would vanish, or travel elsewhere, or simply leave the camera's focus to tend to their own ends. But in Walking Dead, the only way they know how to end character arcs is death... I understand this is a major issue of the TV show as well.

[DomsBeard]

The Telltale Game Of Thrones was a bit of a joke to be honest it was way too bleak. Deaths are overused too often especially in The Walking Dead it was nice when watching Birdbox recently I quite liked the fact

Spoiler: show

Two of the characters just drove off and you never found out what happened to them

[dezm0nd]

Got lucky with post and played about 2 hours of Resi 2 remake.

Keep it short, i really like it so far.

[stvnorman]

Not sure how it sucked me in, but I’ve now spent five full evenings playing Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link since it arrived on the Switch last week. I’d planned to play it on the NES Classic at some point, but I quickly decided there’s no way I’m doing hard reset / save / resume on there with the frequency I’m having to on the much easier to “cheat” on Switch! It’s insanely hard in places (specifically getting the hammer from Death Mountain, for those that know the game). Not sure how long I’ll stick with this but I’ve just spam-saved my way through another palace, which was marginally easier, so I’m really hoping I’ve now seen the worst of it.

The SNES Classic has been getting some love. I’ll never grow tired of playing the first level of Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts over and over! Started playing Super Castlevania IV too - first time, but seems like a decent Castlevania! Both of which lead nicely into Cursed Castilla EX out on Switch today. Very inspired by both these series in visuals, sound and challenging gameplay so far. Finally, Bomb Jack came out on Switch today too. Wow...

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Season 2 basically killed my interest in the series for the same reason I lost interest in Game of Thrones - after a while, killing every single character just becomes lame and unnecessarily bleak. Even in the logic of that universe, I feel like they're always performing a quantum leap to kill off characters just for the sake of setting a blank slate for the next season. A friend of mine, who works as a playwright and stage director down in Toronto, she's had the best rants about how the somewhat recent trend of TV shows killing off masses of characters makes for restrictive writing - the *idea* is to reduce the number of plot threads and increasingly narrow focus on the ones the showrunner wants you to see, but this happens at the expense of character development and is too often used as a cheap "out" for when the author can't think of what to do with a character. You also kill any opportunity for callbacks, and wind up having to invent new characters to play a role a previous character could have filled to better fanfare.

What often happens as a result? The deaths stop having impact, you distance yourself from interesting characters knowing they'll be gone in short order, and the written universe becomes cynical to the point of unbelievabilty. It seems highly improbable that the protagonist would bear witness to every single death - it's much more likely that people would vanish, or travel elsewhere, or simply leave the camera's focus to tend to their own ends. But in Walking Dead, the only way they know how to end character arcs is death... I understand this is a major issue of the TV show as well.

This pretty much sums up why I've never invested much in TV shows most of the time, despite the alleged golden-age period everyone seems to think we live in... too much of it leans toward cynically provocative than organic and believable.

Also, TV shows are a considerably bigger time investment, and with the amount of movies and games yet to be seen and played, I find it hard to care about most direction-less, serialised storytelling.

[DomsBeard]

Got lucky with post and played about 2 hours of Resi 2 remake.

Keep it short, i really like it so far.

Me too!

[Suits]

Not sure how it sucked me in, but I’ve now spent five full evenings playing Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link since it arrived on the Switch last week.

Huh, I’ve been playing this also.

Not so strange I suppose now that it’s out on Swicth.

I got into it after after wanting to try out those NES-Joy Con controllers I got.

Nothing like as far as yourself it seems but I did find it extremely compelling.


I’m also, in two minds about picking up RE:2 tonight, I’ll play it for sure but I have a number of games on the go at the moment and I’m tempted to sit back on this for a while when a suitable window opens up.


Tonight is Pizza, Sofa, Mario night in my house, so me and the wife will continue our journey through the Mushroom Kingdom in Wii U Delux multiplayer. It’s great in multiplayer.


I’ve also, as of last night, started over again Wario Land 3 on the GameBoy Color - with the intention to see what that brings to the series.

So far, it brings a number of improvements accross the board - should make for an interesting playthrough .

[Magical_Isopod]

Also, TV shows are a considerably bigger time investment, and with the amount of movies and games yet to be seen and played, I find it hard to care about most direction-less, serialised storytelling.

I think there are some, let's say, "long-form" TV shows that work very well - Twin Peaks for instance, especially with Season 3. MAJORITY OF SEASON 2 ASIDE, that show was fantastic for having episodes that stood alone as distinct chapters, and still ended with strong narrative hooks. It was meant to be a piss-take of soap operas, after all. But that Season 3... You can take each episode as part of a larger narrative, or watch them in isolation as just these trippy, glacially paced art house films. Every single episode is stupidly good.

Or I'm cool with the way a lot of comedies are structured - Parks and Rec, Community, Archer, etc. Each episode is a standalone entity, but being a regular viewer let's you be privy to in-jokes and callbacks.

I think modern TV has tons of potential for creating innovative narratives that can withstand longer timespan, but they either have to be deliberately planned, which is difficult due to studio and network interference, or they have to be a little more fluid with worldbuilding.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

Also, TV shows are a considerably bigger time investment, and with the amount of movies and games yet to be seen and played, I find it hard to care about most direction-less, serialised storytelling.

I think there are some, let's say, "long-form" TV shows that work very well - Twin Peaks for instance, especially with Season 3. MAJORITY OF SEASON 2 ASIDE, that show was fantastic for having episodes that stood alone as distinct chapters, and still ended with strong narrative hooks. It was meant to be a piss-take of soap operas, after all. But that Season 3... You can take each episode as part of a larger narrative, or watch them in isolation as just these trippy, glacially paced art house films. Every single episode is stupidly good.

Or I'm cool with the way a lot of comedies are structured - Parks and Rec, Community, Archer, etc. Each episode is a standalone entity, but being a regular viewer let's you be privy to in-jokes and callbacks.

I think modern TV has tons of potential for creating innovative narratives that can withstand longer timespan, but they either have to be deliberately planned, which is difficult due to studio and network interference, or they have to be a little more fluid with worldbuilding.

I'll keep it brief, as not to turn this thread into whatcha been watching! I agree with you. For example: Vince Gilligan's decision to wind down Breaking Bad made the final season so, so very good. Had that show kept going for 12 seasons I would have checked out, but because there was a deliberate decision to end that narrative organically (or at least organically as possible), it's an example of long-form, serialised storytelling that succeed. Well, succeeded for me anyway!

And in the spirit of this thread: I'm hanging up Breath of the Wild, because I noticed that I was not motivated to play it. It's not the fault of the game, because I do like it, it's just I know I'm not motivated to play it, and that's okay. It's not you BoTW, it's me.

I was more in a Yakuza mood it turns out., so installed 4 last night... I do have other Yakuza games on the pile, and 3 was the last one I played, so logically 4 is next for me!

[KSubzero1000]

PS: Also, I'm playing "RE2".

[Magical_Isopod]

PS: Also, I'm playing "RE2".

Those quotations are dubious. It's like when I'd get a bootleg Pokemon game from Chinatown and tell everyone at school I had "Pokemon Clear".

[KSubzero1000]

Those quotations are dubious. It's like when I'd get a bootleg Pokemon game from Chinatown and tell everyone at school I had "Pokemon Clear".

Well look at that, I'm getting my point across for once.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

PS: Also, I'm playing "RE2".

[dezm0nd]

Nearing the end of Leon's campaign in REmake 2. Absolutely loving it, with a couple nitpicky minor gripes

Gonna head straight into Claires campaign and then try and get some more modes and find other things to do with another playthrough after.

Think this might be the first RE game to get me involved in post completion content as it plays very well. I've enjoyed the series so far (re6 aside) but never have i truly clicked with the controls enough to encourage me to play the other modes.

[Magical_Isopod]

Nearing the end of Leon's campaign in REmake 2. Absolutely loving it, with a couple nitpicky minor gripes

Gonna head straight into Claires campaign and then try and get some more modes and find other things to do with another playthrough after.

Think this might be the first RE game to get me involved in post completion content as it plays very well. I've enjoyed the series so far (re6 aside) but never have i truly clicked with the controls enough to encourage me to play the other modes.

Are you playing the PS4 version? If so, can you let me know if you're able to stream it? Because when I try to, it treats the entire game as though it's a blocked cutscene. First game I've never been able to stream. Not sure if it's an RE2 problem or an Isopod problem.

[Chopper]

I was more in a Yakuza mood it turns out., so installed 4 last night... I do have other Yakuza games on the pile, and 3 was the last one I played, so logically 4 is next for me!

I ... hope ... you ... like ... words ... and ... lots .... of .... ‘em. [press X to continue].

[Joshihatsumitsu]

I was more in a Yakuza mood it turns out., so installed 4 last night... I do have other Yakuza games on the pile, and 3 was the last one I played, so logically 4 is next for me!

I ... hope ... you ... like ... words ... and ... lots .... of .... ‘em. [press X to continue].

Oof! I'm already feeling that! (press x)