Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Also,

The Great Big CaR Forum Quiz 2021 is in the works.

The categories are set, the questions are being written, and the anagrams are being painfully considered.

Get your thinking hats on, only 4 weeks away! Might actually try to come up with a prize this year now I've actually got a proper job again... :lol:
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I started playing Alliance Alive HD last night. Put about 90 minutes or so in, finished the first act. That is a really cool little game. It's so nice to have a turn-based RPG where the gameplay isn't ruined by some stupid gimmick.

I really like the story so far too - I love stuff that leans heavy into mythology (even if fictional), and I LOVE stories where you're slowly uncovering revelations about a lost, ancient culture.

It's obviously very cheaply produced - it's a port of a 3DS game, after all. The lack of voice acting seems odd in current year, but it's honestly not a big deal if you remember it's trying to be like a PS1 RPG. But it runs at a strong frame rate, the gameplay mechanics are excellent, there's enough of a narrative hook to get me in the door... Really happy with this one so far.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Forza Horizon 5

Oh. I don't like this much at all...

What's with all the silly, GTA-style cutscenes and constant irritating voiceovers? Why is there a player character avatar? Isn't this a driving game? Where is the motivation to progress if I am given top-tier supercars to drive right out of the gate? Where is the variety? Why do all the cars seems to handle exactly the same? Why do 'player' names appear above cars even when I'm not playing against other people? Why do I get awarded for crashing into things? Is this really what people want from a driving game these days? The graphics are pretty but I'm finding the overall aesthetic and vibe deeply off-putting.

Reminds me of Trials Rising in how much of an exercise it is to smother what should be a straightforward game with obnoxious, Fortnite-esque(?) bells and whistles.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

KissMammal wrote: November 28th, 2021, 8:19 pm Forza Horizon 5

Oh. I don't like this much at all...

What's with all the silly, GTA-style cutscenes and constant irritating voiceovers? Why is there a player character avatar? Isn't this a driving game? Where is the motivation to progress if I am given top-tier supercars to drive right out of the gate? Where is the variety? Why do all the cars seems to handle exactly the same? Why do 'player' names appear above cars even when I'm not playing against other people? Why do I get awarded for crashing into things? Is this really what people want from a driving game these days? The graphics are pretty but I'm finding the overall aesthetic and vibe deeply off-putting.

Reminds me of Trials Rising in how much of an exercise it is to smother what should be a straightforward game with obnoxious, Fortnite-esque(?) bells and whistles.
You can turn names off in the settings for other cars, and I've played for 40 hours and honestly don't feel like all the cars handle the same at all. Is this the first Forza Horizon you've played? It's very much an arcade style game, not really meant to be serious like Gran Turismo or the Forza Motorsport series (I mean there is stuff like zombie tag and 'smash 100 cactus' events in the game). I think there's quite a lot of variety in the game, too. Loads of different events and terrain, and types of cars. Obviously I'm not dismissing your opinion on the game, it's just as valid as anyone else's, but I wonder if maybe you might have come to the game with a different idea of what it's all about?
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Cornelius_Smiff »

Alex

I'm all about that 'Smactus' bonus.. 8-)
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Alex79 wrote: November 28th, 2021, 8:48 pm
KissMammal wrote: November 28th, 2021, 8:19 pm Forza Horizon 5

Oh. I don't like this much at all...

What's with all the silly, GTA-style cutscenes and constant irritating voiceovers? Why is there a player character avatar? Isn't this a driving game? Where is the motivation to progress if I am given top-tier supercars to drive right out of the gate? Where is the variety? Why do all the cars seems to handle exactly the same? Why do 'player' names appear above cars even when I'm not playing against other people? Why do I get awarded for crashing into things? Is this really what people want from a driving game these days? The graphics are pretty but I'm finding the overall aesthetic and vibe deeply off-putting.

Reminds me of Trials Rising in how much of an exercise it is to smother what should be a straightforward game with obnoxious, Fortnite-esque(?) bells and whistles.
You can turn names off in the settings for other cars, and I've played for 40 hours and honestly don't feel like all the cars handle the same at all. Is this the first Forza Horizon you've played? It's very much an arcade style game, not really meant to be serious like Gran Turismo or the Forza Motorsport series (I mean there is stuff like zombie tag and 'smash 100 cactus' events in the game). I think there's quite a lot of variety in the game, too. Loads of different events and terrain, and types of cars. Obviously I'm not dismissing your opinion on the game, it's just as valid as anyone else's, but I wonder if maybe you might have come to the game with a different idea of what it's all about?

You are correct, fully own up to my own ignorance here. I have very limited experience with the Forza series (I had Forza 3(?) on 360), but I'm coming to this pretty fresh and assumed that it was going to be like that, just with an open world element. I wasn't aware that its entirely it's own thing. To me the high end, super realistic graphics just don't mesh well with the cartoonish physics and over the top nature of the gameplay. There's little to indicate to the casual observer browsing screenshots that this wouldn't be a much more grounded, simulation-like game.

As for the lack of variety, it's more that all of the cars (to me) feel similarly light and zippy, and you have access to incredibly fast cars from the off. There's very little 'personality' to the handling of the vehicles (eg there's no feeling of heft to driving the heavier vehicles like the 4x4, at least that I could detect) or any feeling of gradually ramping up in class and speed. I like to play in 'interior' view, and it always just feels like I'm driving the same car regardless of what race I'm doing.

Ultimately it's just not my cup of tea at all. Luckily it's included with Game Pass, so it's not like I paid full price for it or anything.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Yeah, Forza Motorsport (sim-ish) and Forza Horizon (arcadey) are separate (but sister) series'.

I would have said to try Forza Motorsport 7 on Game Pass but it's recently been delisted.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Yeah I saw that. That's a shame. Here's hoping they do a Motorsport 8, then.

Also been playing Halo: MCC - specifically the original Halo Combat Evolved.

Unsurprisingly, it holds up incredibly well for now a 20(!) year old title. Aside from the labyrinthine level design and occasional wandering around not knowing where to go next, the combat remains just as gripping as it always was, and CE remains easily my favourite of the entire series to date - subsequent entries just never quite managed to replicate the same atmosphere, and the feeling of scale and participating in a sweeping sci fi epic. I can't believe it's taken them 20 years to do the logical extension of Combat Evolved - ie a quasi open-world version. Hoping that Infinite lives up to my hopes for it.

Been incredibly impressed with the Series S so far. The emphasis on backwards compatibility and ability to redownload many games that I bought 10+ years and 2 hardware generations ago is seriously impressive. The super quick loading/boot times feels like a real advance to what I'm accustomed to, and Game Pass is awesome, though it's very much giving me that 'paradox of choice' problem of finding it hard to commit to any one game with such an abundance of options at my fingertips.

I knew about the 'Switch Tax', but I'm still flabbergasted as how insanely good the deals on the Xbox Store are compared to the eShop. Picked up the last-gen Tomb Raider reboot for $2.99, and a double pack of Arkham Asylum/City for $4.99. Also grabbed Duck Tales Remastered, a game I always wanted to come to Switch.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Definitive Edition- sit down, this may take a while.

There was a time, not long ago, where I'd say that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was not only the best Grand Theft Auto of all time, but one of the best games of all time. I played through it at least twice, perhaps a third time on the PS2 (I even beat "Supply Lines" ONCE), and I would have played through the XBox 360 version, had it not consistently locked up when I tried to launch an early mission (I'm sure if I had just launched another mission beforehand I would have been able to get around the glitch but I was annoyed with this ten year old game having such a glitch, and boy I will eat those words).

Of course, Grand Theft Auto V, after the fourth playthrough (Detailed earlier in this very thread!), is now the best GTA to me, but for a while there San Andreas was right behind it... that is, until I actually played this version.

Let's just get the elephant in the room out of the way first: I am playing on GamePass on a seven year old XBox One. But this game is a bug filled atrocious hellhole from there is no escape, and I spent most of last month playing nothing but Cyberpunk 2077 on the same machine. I have a quite a bit to say about Cyberpunk 2077, hands down one of the best games of 2011, but that's for another time. I'm not sure what is the most egregious bug in this game, but I gotta tell ya, I never had a game lock up for me and freeze WHILE I WAS WATCHING THE END CREDITS. Actually, it's tied with getting kicked out into the XBox Dashboard when I went up to the roof during the casino heist. The graphics didn't bother me too much except when a character model looked really bizarre, like Ken Rosenberg.

The combat is definitely improved, if only slightly. The addition of the weapon wheel helped, and the white outline appearing on an auto-targeted character was nice. It still can be very stiff, and the free aim feels off.

The Checkpoint system is both a blessing and a curse. I KNOW I beat this game. I recognized the ending. But I remain astonished just as to HOW I beat this game without going completely insane, since there are so, so many missions in this game where the Checkpoint helped, and many of the missions are extremely long (I'm told there aren't any checkpoints in the other Definitive Editions, it just restarts the mission). So checkpoints! Yes! Saving at checkpoints! Yes! BUT...

Let me give you an example. When I fought my way down to the jetpack at the end of "Black Project" It was brutal and hard fought... and I had only a sliver of health. And when you use that jetpack, you are flying up through a gauntlet of soldiers on the stairs firing at you, and even if you take the jetpack up, run up the stairs and somehow take them out, you still have to get past the soldiers on the surface, and so I was stuck in a cycle of dying almost immediately. This also happened in "Beat Down on B Dup" where I found myself riddled with bullets as the checkpoint dropped me right in front of B Dup's House.

Okay, but let's get back to the game itself. When you cut out all the technical issue, it's still Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, and it's still good. But is it still great?

Let's start with the story. The biggest advantage of San Andreas' story, or perhaps was, its biggest advantage, is its pacing. I must admit I feel like the opening sequence in Los Santos tends to drag, especially when it's so obvious Big Smoke and Ryder are going to betray CJ, but once you get out into the woods, San Fierro, Las Venturas, and the way back, always by the time you get tired of an area a new section of the game opens up. And it builds to a suitably crazy finish.

There's a lot of great events and scenes in San Andreas. But does it all flow correctly? I'm not so sure about that. THe previous games in the series were all rags to riches stories of a low level criminal fighting his way to the top among various unsavory characters. CJ is a man who's haunted by his past (the game never tells us what happened to Brian, and I was confused the prologue short, where Tenpenny and Pulaski kill Mama Johnson, wasn't included as an extra) but it never feels like the issue the characters make it out to be. What kind of gang is Grove Street exactly? Sweet is hardcore anti-drugs, but then what are they doing to make money? Is it a protection racket? Sweet and Carl's arguments about protecting the hood versus just leaving it be... I mean, Carl's desire to walk away makes more sense. The corruption of Tenpenny and Pulaski hits a bit harder in the age of ACAB (about which my personal feelings are thoroughly mixed). It's funny how the corruption case against them keeps proceeding, despite Carl successfully killing any witnesses and destroying evidence. And would there be an automatic city wide riot over a corrupt cop getting off, if there wasn't, say, hard video evidence of his venality, unlike certain riots I could mention?

The story is less a tale of revenge and fighting to survive than it is a series of vignettes where CJ runs into increasingly strange and wacky, albeit incredibly entertaining, characters like The Truth, Mike Toreno, and Woozie who help him on his adventures. Don't get me wrong, all these missions are fun to play for the most part (even the flight school didn't bother me this much this time around) but I felt more detached from them than ever. But man, I came together in that final stretch of missions.

And yet, when I got to the end of this playtrhough of San Andreas, which took me about forty hours, I felt something I didn't expect to feel- a desire to never play it again. And that's nothing I've ever felt GTAIV or GTA5. Or Vice City.

Then again, Shaun Ryder gets a knife to the junk. How can I hate that?

--Dan
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Transformers Battlegrounds- Developer Coatsink's XCOM style take on the Transformers has been out for a year, but I only now Grabbed in the latest Black Friday sale (I can't find a physical copy anywhere). I got the Digital Deluxe edition, with an additional game mode and all the bonus character skins. Neon Autobots!

Battlegrounds is based on Transformers: Cyberverse, a cel shaded animated series that's been running on Cartoon Network the past few years. Its main characters are Bumblebee and Windblade, as they find themselves on earth, eventually followed by the other Autobots and vengeful Decepticons. It's got some great visuals but it's simplistic kids stuff- which is fine, but you're not missing anything by skipping it.

I believe the game takes place around season 2. As part of the premise, you're the only human left in an evacuated city where the Autobots and Decepticons are fighting. the floating satellite bot Teletraan-X finds you, and picks you up, and is apparently holding you in the air for the entire game, as you help direct the Autobots in their battles with the Decepticons. Bit of a strained justification for this game being top down strategy.

The show is kids stuff, and the game's turn based strategy is kids stuff. There's the usual ability points, overwatch, and other things, but I was rather miffed there was no counterattack mechanic. The robots' special abilities can be really cool, and there are some fun animations to be had.

The mission variety is very lacking however. It's just "Kill all these Decepticons" or "Go to this point on the map while Decepticons infinitely spawn". More of the latter than the former, at least after playing the first two acts. But if you like Transformers, and you like Cyberverse, it's a decent distraction.

American Hero- now when you see the cover of this game, you're thinking "Isn't that Dubya?" Nope, that's not the 43rd president of the United States of America, that's actor Timothy Bottoms, who played Dubya on Trey Parker and Matt Stone's short lived sitcom parody That's My Bush! and later in a cable TV dramatization of the events of 9/11. But even in 1994-1995, when the footage for this FMV game was shot, he resembled the President who Annoyed Everyone On Earth quite a bit. Bottoms IS Jack Devon, a retired military intelligence operative who's spending time in a strip club drinking carrot juice when his old partner Hoover (Daniel Roebuck!) reveals that the evil general Krueger (Gustav Vintas) is back, and he's got a mind control drug he plans to dump into the LA reservoir. Jack isn't interested but it turns out his ex Laura (Musetta Vander- that's right, SINDEL) was developing an antidote, and she's gone missing...

Wait, FMV footage, you say? What is this: Well, American Hero was a canceled game for the Atari Jaguar CD using a new technique called GameFilm. The game was never released due to the Jaguar, but enough footage existed to cobble together a prototype build out of it, and this year Ziggurat Interactive released a full game version developed by Empty Clip Studios (with new voiceovers and cleaned up transitions) on the 11th.

I'll be blunt: at $14.99 American Hero is somewhat overpriced- there's about two hours worth of game, at most. But the thing is... I'm a man who, 28 years ago, sat down one Saturday afternoon with the goal of beating Sewer Shark and succeeded. And so I had a LOT of fun with this game. For one thing, all the death scenes are hilarious, because it's often Jack screaming as they cut to a mannequin being smashed against something or exploding. The gameplay is like all the other FMV games at the time, just press a button to make a choice or to go in a certain direction, although once in a while you can tap A furiously for something. The game looks cheap, but the actors, especially Bottoms and Vander, go through it with a bit of a wink and keep things moving and fun. The game's biggest issue is that there are checkpoints in the game, but the footage is unskippable, and the checkpoints are inconsistently spaced out. I had to play the same 20 minute sequence multiple times to get all the game endings.

One amusing thing is, there's an ending you can choose where the hero returns to the strip club and watch some topless dancers. the dancers are covered up by black bars, which I thought was kind of weird- after all, we're all adults here, right? Then I realized this footage is over a quarter century old and tracking down these women to get a release wouldn't be worth the effort.

Tom Clancy's The Division- when I want to zone out and listen to a podcast or YouTube videos, I play this "Shit Christmas Simulator" ash Think Matt Lees once called it. It would be a decent, fun open world shooter if the developers had made it remotely easy to solo it, but nobody wants that. I hate other people, dang it.

--Dan
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I have just listened back to the Red Dead Redemption Cane and Rinse show after replaying the game and finishing it a couple of days ago. There was something during the discussion with Leon, James, Joshua and Tony that I wanted to pick up on.

***STORY SPOILERS FOLLOW (FOR A DECADE OLD GAME, BUT SOMEONE MIGHT NOT HAVE PLAYED IT!)***

It was mentioned that a lot of players may never have seen the very last mission in the game where Jack avenges his father's murder, the point being that many players may have seen the credits roll after John is shot coming out of the barn on his homestead, and just stopped playing.

As I mentioned I've just replayed the game so this is fresh in my memory, but the credits do not roll after John is killed. There's just a cut scene with Jack looking at the gravestones, then you play as him, and can go and find the final quest in Blackwater on the map. It's only once you've finished off the special agent down by the river in the final duel that the games credits roll.

I just wondered if anyone knows whether this was something that was altered in a patch later on since the game was released? It seems it must have been, as every participant in the RDR show seemed to agree that it was possible to miss the last mission due to the credits rolling after John's death. If it was patched in later, I wonder why? Perhaps Rockstar wanted to ensure everyone saw the 'true' ending, maybe?
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DeadpoolNegative »

I don't recall the credits rolling after John's death when I first played it upon release. The game just switches to Jack. What I do remember is that I had no idea there was a way for Jack to get revenge until someone told me where to go.

--Dan
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Does an icon come up on the map for Jack to follow? I can't remember now.
Spoiler: show
I remember going to get my revenge but can't remember whether it was because I had heard from mates that's what you were supposed to do or whether it was because an icon came up on the map. That moment had been spoilt for me beforehand but can't remember how I got to doing it myself.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Truk_Kurt wrote: November 30th, 2021, 9:19 am Does an icon come up on the map for Jack to follow? I can't remember now.
Spoiler: show
I remember going to get my revenge but can't remember whether it was because I had heard from mates that's what you were supposed to do or whether it was because an icon came up on the map. That moment had been spoilt for me beforehand but can't remember how I got to doing it myself.
It does, but you actually have to be quite near Blackwater and also zoom in on the map. You won't see it if you're zoomed right out. It's easily missable to be honest.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79 wrote: Just loaded Viewtiful Joe on to my Series S via Retroarch, and fuck me it looks incredible at 4 x the resolution (can push it higher, but usually get frame rate issues in most games, but I might try it out later). Man alive, absolutely amazing! I've been asking for a remaster for years, well here it is!
Turning your Series S into an emulation machine - that is so cool, I will have to try that some time.

As for what I've been playing, basically still hooked on Halo Infinite. Ranked mode is good fun (very stressful! and when your teammates leave the match halfway through or go afk, you can't help but feel a bit frustrated), and the other gamemodes are great craic too.

I have to agree with some of the criticisms of the battle pass / cosmetic progression stuff, (though there is a LOT of air being taken up by that conversation already) but I also don't mind an awful lot given that it is just cosmetics and doesn't impact the gameplay, and the game is free 2 play. I'd personally have preferred a fully furnished title with unlockable cosmetics that you had to pay £50 or £60 for and nothing more, but that's me asking for Microsoft to go for a monetisation model that's counterproductive to them making more money, so I never expected that to happen.

Other criticisms that I am more willing to moan about are the playlists... atm I usually play quick play, and I'm lucky enough that I find every game mode in that 4v4 playlist to be very enjoyable. But not having any options to pick and choose what game modes you prefer to play, or veto certain games, basically not having any level of control of the game modes you play, is really quite dire. Beyond that, there's no infection playlist nor SWAT, I know they will eventually come, but it's kinda sad that we basically have to wait till all this stuff trickles down to us, we probably won't have a fully functioning, full suite of playlist options until much later down the line. The game is going to be fully released on December the 8th, but the multiplayer matchmaking is still very bare bones. It's quite disappointing when you compare it to games such as Reach's game mode options on release.

That, plus the fact that Custom Games are broken and buggy, and a few other weird bugs here and there throughout, are adding a sour note to a game that, gameplay wise, is absolutely unbelievable.

Oh well, I'm hjoping my fears are unfounded and soon they'll implement a bunch of matchmaking playlists, fix the custom games issues, and if they can do that the game will probably be one of my favourite multiplayer experiences of recent memory, so fingers crossed.

Also patiently waiting for the Campaign to drop so I can see what it's like. From what I've heard so far it sounds amazing and I can't wait to play it.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Magical_Isopod wrote: November 28th, 2021, 1:14 pm I started playing Alliance Alive HD last night. Put about 90 minutes or so in, finished the first act. That is a really cool little game. It's so nice to have a turn-based RPG where the gameplay isn't ruined by some stupid gimmick.

I really like the story so far too - I love stuff that leans heavy into mythology (even if fictional), and I LOVE stories where you're slowly uncovering revelations about a lost, ancient culture.

It's obviously very cheaply produced - it's a port of a 3DS game, after all. The lack of voice acting seems odd in current year, but it's honestly not a big deal if you remember it's trying to be like a PS1 RPG. But it runs at a strong frame rate, the gameplay mechanics are excellent, there's enough of a narrative hook to get me in the door... Really happy with this one so far.
This game is still great and I have no idea why it has such a low profile. Check this one out, it goes on sale a lot.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdDrawing »

Magical_Isopod wrote: November 30th, 2021, 6:33 pm
Magical_Isopod wrote: November 28th, 2021, 1:14 pm I started playing Alliance Alive HD last night. Put about 90 minutes or so in, finished the first act. That is a really cool little game. It's so nice to have a turn-based RPG where the gameplay isn't ruined by some stupid gimmick.

I really like the story so far too - I love stuff that leans heavy into mythology (even if fictional), and I LOVE stories where you're slowly uncovering revelations about a lost, ancient culture.

It's obviously very cheaply produced - it's a port of a 3DS game, after all. The lack of voice acting seems odd in current year, but it's honestly not a big deal if you remember it's trying to be like a PS1 RPG. But it runs at a strong frame rate, the gameplay mechanics are excellent, there's enough of a narrative hook to get me in the door... Really happy with this one so far.
This game is still great and I have no idea why it has such a low profile. Check this one out, it goes on sale a lot.
I have this for 3DS and I've been wanting to get to it for ages.....but I keep drifting to other stuff (finally got a copy of Xenoblade 2 this year), or other stuff comes out (SMT V).
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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DeadpoolNegative wrote: November 29th, 2021, 1:02 am Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Definitive Edition- sit down, this may take a while.
Yeah... I mean, I'm bitterly disappointed with the package and having tried both GTA 3 and San Andreas from it, I can't help feeling that actually, technical issues aside, the games don't hold up particularly well. But even then, if they'd looked great and run perfectly then I'd have probably sat and finished them, but there's just not enough time in the day when there are so many other games that work properly to play. The Definitive Edition tag is a real kicker, and I suppose indicates that they're done with the series now, and this is as good as it gets for those old PS2 classics, but this is Rockstar, we expect better. And farming it out to another dev is no excuse, they signed it off, they checked it it, and it's fallen well short of expectation.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Tbh, I don't think any of the GTA games played particularly great even back in the day. They were certainly groundbreaking technically, but I would describe the way they played to be 'functional' at best. I always found the controls to be a bit loose and twitchy - the novelty and style is what made them so much fun rather than the gameplay itself. I always thought they were fun to mess around with, but I could never be bothered with the actual missions. GTAV is where they actually got something approaching decent traversal/combat mechanics imo.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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One unexpected side effect with checkpointing the missions in San Andreas: the best way to build your stats- stamina, car handling, weapons et al- was through repetition and starting missions from the beginning. One of the things I liked about the game back then was that even if I failed in a mission, I was still making progress, however, incremental. Now that you can just start at a checkpoint, you don't need to do all that.

I started a playthrough of GTAIV after beating San Andreas, and I was about to say the aiming/targeting improved in that game, but uh it really did not.

--Dan
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