Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Truk_Kurt wrote: September 2nd, 2021, 9:50 am
Alex79 wrote: September 1st, 2021, 5:00 pm Currently suffering from too much to play syndrome. I keep starting things but because I've literally got Gamepass last week I'm like a kid in a sweetshop and can't stick with anything. I've played the first hour or two of Flight Sim, Hellblade, Nier Automata, Forza Horizon 4, Forza Motorstorm 7, Yakuza 3, Red Dead Online... Probably half a dozen other games too!
Forza Motorstorm 7! I didn't know Microsoft and Sony had teamed up to reboot the Motorstorm franchise :P
Doh! :lol:
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Seph
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Seph »

I finally got around to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I'm amazed by some of the very good reviews this game got. Not to say it's bad, it's just painfully average and incredibly shallow. And doesn't stop holding your hand. I also hate games that find a reason to kill you when you want to explore.

The writing and acting are good, and the world design is fine. Ninja Theory have always had a gameplay problem with most of their games.
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Angry_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Angry_Kurt »

Seph wrote: September 4th, 2021, 6:51 am I finally got around to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I'm amazed by some of the very good reviews this game got. Not to say it's bad, it's just painfully average and incredibly shallow. And doesn't stop holding your hand. I also hate games that find a reason to kill you when you want to explore.

The writing and acting are good, and the world design is fine. Ninja Theory have always had a gameplay problem with most of their games.
How did you play this by the way, is it an Xbox BC title?

I find Ninja theory to be really hit and miss with gameplay, I found Hellblade incredibly shallow with its gameplay but then DMC had a great combat system which was as deep as you wanted it to be.
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Seph
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Angry_Kurt wrote: September 4th, 2021, 8:14 am
Seph wrote: September 4th, 2021, 6:51 am I finally got around to Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I'm amazed by some of the very good reviews this game got. Not to say it's bad, it's just painfully average and incredibly shallow. And doesn't stop holding your hand. I also hate games that find a reason to kill you when you want to explore.

The writing and acting are good, and the world design is fine. Ninja Theory have always had a gameplay problem with most of their games.
How did you play this by the way, is it an Xbox BC title?

I find Ninja theory to be really hit and miss with gameplay, I found Hellblade incredibly shallow with its gameplay but then DMC had a great combat system which was as deep as you wanted it to be.
On Steam. I got it years ago, probably as part of a bundle as that's where most of my library came from.

I agree about DmC. At first I wrote "gameplay problem with all their games", until I remembered they worked on that one; which was a fine addition to that series. I thought it had more going for it than the fourth game anyway and I didn't mind the redesign of Dante. I even used to own the hoodie that Insert Coin made based on his jacket.

Hellblade is a fantastic experience, but the combat doesn't add much to that game. Ninja Theory would be a fantastic studio for putting out interactive and immersive dramas, as their production values are incredibly strong, whereas as a game developer they still haven't found a formula that works (other than DmC, which was based on an existing combat system).
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Kasuga-san
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kasuga-san »

I finally bit the bullet at downloaded the Epic Games Store on my PC so I could check out Genshin Impact. The only FTP game that's gotten me before is Warframe (though I am intimidated to go back after having been away for two or three years). So far I've really been enjoying it, though I'm wary that it's going to start trying to encourage me to pay to upgrade everything down the line. I've already run up to the first ascension wall for my current characters. I can definitely see myself playing through the story if the gating doesn't get too bad. The combat is fine, but not great. I enjoy the character swapping similar to the newer Ys games and exploration similar to Breath of the Wild. I think those two things alone may get me to stay on for a while.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Finally got to the end of Luigi’s Mansion on GameCube. I liked how it looked more than it played, and the rough Bowser fight at the end did tarnish my final impressions a bit, but I’ve had that waiting to play for ages so I’m glad it’s finally done, and overall it was an enjoyable time.

Mostly been jumping between Art of Rally and Psychonauts 2 on Xbox this week though. Art of Rally is beautiful to look at and mostly the same to play, though there’s not a huge amount of variety once you’ve spent a huge amount of time on the very extensive career mode. I’m still not sure about Psychonauts 2 - I’m near the end I think, but despite a couple of genuinely spectacular levels, it’s never been something I’ve been desperate to get back to. But here I still am!

Otherwise, played through Rogue Trooper on ZX Spectrum for something I’m writing, and enjoyed quite a lot of arcade 1942, Section-Z and Commando on Switch, which is always a pleasure.
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RinseWashRepeat
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by RinseWashRepeat »

Speaking of Luigi's Mansion - I'm playing 3 on the Switch at the mo'. Really enjoying it - full of lovely little touches and the animation is just lovely.

Also playing Hollow Knight - think I'll get quietly plugging away at it. It's basically a hard MetroidVania and although it doesn't guide you as much as most games of this type do - I always find myself making progress, so am happy to chip away.

Lastly - Still playing Pokemon UNITE (great for a 10 minute game before bed) and also going through Dodgeball Academia. Like the game, even if it is a bit basic, but it's got a great look, some lively characters and it has a mode I've never seen in a game before - Language learner mode!

Basically, I have it set up so that the speech bubbles are all in Japanese, but at the bottom of the screen is the English translation. It's great and really been helping me with my 日本語!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

I poked my nose in to a little bit of multiplayer in Forza Motorsport 7 recently, and was actually pleasantly surprised at what I found. At least I was after a bad first impression. It turns out those strict rules that were intimidating me at first are only applied to a minority of the lobby types. At first I tried going for one of the more standard event types which didn't have all those rules. It almost instantly proved to be an utter nightmare. The absolute worst example of terrible online behaviour you could imagine in a racing game. Hard to believe anyone would be willing to subject themselves to that. So after one race I decided I was never going to touch that again, and tried the stricter rule lobbies. Shockingly, they actually did make for a much higher quality experience. It was actually possible to get some decent races in, and people are way more respectful than in the other lobbies. While there was still a certain level of chaos as the rules don't seem to be applied super strictly, the worst experiences I had could probably be more put down to simply too many players in the race. But when races don't go too far above 10 players or so, things actually tended to play out rather smoothly, and you could be reasonably confident things wouldn't get out of hand. I even managed to come first in a couple of races.

I also did mess around trying out drifting again, with also positive results. I did actually give it a quick go earlier on, but I had a bad time clashing against the homologation system yet again. I tried a Rivals drift event where I somehow couldn't enter the car I wanted despite the rules seeming very loose. I tried downloading the tune from someone on the leaderboards, who had some crazy car that seemed like it would break the rules way more than my own did. But it felt awful and I couldn't use it. But anyway, I recently tried quickly building by own drift car and messed around in free play with it, using the drift suspension, and it did actually work pretty well. I was still pretty messy with it, and I would need to do some work dialing in the tune, but it felt way more intuitive than my other attempts. I was actually able to hold a drift fairly well. From looking through all the multiplayer lobbies earlier it seemed like there was an open drift lobby that I assume doesn't have any tight restrictions, so I might try jumping in there at some point too.
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ColinAlonso »

I started Ori and the Will of the Wisps on Switch on Sunday morning and I've nearly 10 hours played already. I think I forgot quite how much I enjoyed the first game. I love Ori's movement and all the traversal skills build up quickly so I'm just zooming all over the place now.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Finished my F2 career in F1 2021 and decided to go with the Williams Race team for my first F1 season as I did well in F2. I could have chose one of the better teams but I want to work my way up slowly. Now I have played the game for a good amount of time I think it has become my current GOTY, it truly is a fantastic racing game and caters for all levels. The presentation is absolutely spot on too for F1 fans. I understand it's not going to be for everyone if you're not into the sport but I genuinely think with the accessibility options on offer it would appeal to casual racing fans and the game does a good job of explaining the rules of F1 to newcomers. It has made it into my top 3 racing games of all time and there is still a lot I haven't played yet outside of the career such as the Team management mode and the story mode (similar thing to FIFAs journey mode).
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I remember enjoying an old F1 game on the PS1 and being blown away at the time that the presentation basically looked to me like I was watching actual TV footage, but I tried the new one and just couldn't get the hang of it. I play racing games quite aggressively, and I kept getting told off for bumping in to cars. I tried to hold back but every time I went to overtake or went round a corner I'd just end up slamming in to other drivers and end up getting disqualified or something.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

That would certainly have been Bizarre Creations/Psygnosis' F1 or F1 '97 (although I think there were some EA F1 games later on in the decade too).

A fun game to look at now to see how one's memory of the graphics might not be 100% accurate!

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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Haha, yeah I used to think they looked incredible back then too. When we got to the PS3 I bought the launch F1 game and thought it would be impossible for anything to ever look better.

When you say you played the new one Alex, are you referring to 2021 or 2020 as I have seen how 2020 and the previous games are on Game Pass now. My tip is to at least initially turn on the racing line. I don't normally do this for racing games but given the speed of F1 I thought it was neccessary to ease myself into the handling. It shows you the racing line and colour codes it for braking lines, plus there is the rewind system like in the Forza and Dirt games you can use if you mess up. You can also change the settings so that you don't get penalised for crashing into other cars in any way. These are all off my experience with F1 2021 though, maybe these weren't all features in 2020 if that is the one you played.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Ah it might have been 2020 I played, it's whichever one is on PS Now at the moment. I think it had the racing line, but might give them another try if you can turn penalties off!

Yeah that's the one, Leon. I vividly remember trying to decide between an N64 or a PS1 at the time, and that was one of the games that swung me towards the PS1. I still think it looks pretty decent, although it doesn't compare to the versions they're making now for sure.
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Yeah, it doesn't hold up terribly, all things considered.
I queued up at midnight to get that first F1 game on PS1, and I don't even like the sport!

The N64 had its own excellent F1 games, from Paradigm, the studio behind PilotWings 64:
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Oh wow that N64 one looks considerably better, although I wonder how much its being upscaled through emulation. Really does look great, though!
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Yeah that looks pretty decent, looks fun too.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

This is a cool video essay I watched on the history of Codemasters F1 games. Covers 2009-21:

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shadowless_kick
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by shadowless_kick »

Truk_Kurt wrote: August 31st, 2021, 9:57 am I started Hollow Knight again after giving up on it when I played it a couple of years ago with some additional tips from friends as to what to do. ... I just don't enjoy dying at the boss and then having to go to the last save point such as a bonfire in the Souls games or a bench with Hollow Knight which then means you have to work through a part of the level again just to get to attempt the boss again, during which journey you could get killed along the way. I'm sure there is a very good reason for this mechanic but it's just something I find really off putting.
I gave up on this, too, for similar reasons. I bought it early spring last year with the intention of exploring a huge world during lockdown. the difficulty didn't bother me so much, but the time-consuming traversal combined with the lack of really even knowing where to go next became a chore. too bad; I wanted to find out the story behind the girl/bug in the red dress.

(also, I hate when games put you in the dark, and this game does it quite a bit. it's nerve-racking.)
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

I started Hard Reset Redux. It's aggressively "fine". Don't ask me what the story is, though. Those cut scenes come in so fast and loud, I have shell shock once they end.
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