Whatcha Been Playing?

[DeadpoolNegative]

Dead Space 2- "Severed"- well, THIS wrapped itself up almost immediately. Severed starts with a guy chasing his kidnapped pregnant wife, who's been tagged as a person of interest by the Unitologists. The Wellers were the protagonists of Dead Space Extraction, which I never got the chance to play since it never made it to the 360. And these characters were never even addressed or mentioned in Dead Space 3, to my recollection. It's interesting that this game starts with Mr. Weller using a pulse rifle, blasting his way through the mines, which presages the shooty shooty bang bang of Dead Space 3.

It's a pretty entertaining few hours, but again, it ends so abruptly that I wonder if it was cut down for budget reasons. Anyway, playing Dead Space 2 again after beating it a few months ago makes me think the real challenge in this game is from the shitty inventory. Playing a rig with the starting inventory, it's frustrating as hell, you're always running out of room for weapons, ammo, health and stasis packs.

This was the first time I ever seriously used a flamethrower for an extended period of time in Dead Space, however, and it found it rather soothing and surprisingly effective.

Dead Space 3- and now we move on to a replay of this game which is poorly written for significant chunks, has horrific micro transactions, a huge amount of contact locked behind the co-op mode (seriously, what were they thinking? Why not introduce an option to play as Carver for those side missions?), an obvious professional actor using his actual likeness contrasting with the grown from a vat original character models (in this case, Simon Templeman as ), and just an overall vibe that destroyed the entire franchise- but I can't help it, I really love playing it.

[Mr Ixolite]

Have just picked up Super Mario Odyssey again for a third -most likely final - lap of the levels, hoovering up the last few leftover moons. I'm at about 770 now, and am glad that I spaced the game out like this; theres still a few platforming challenges hidden away here and there, and its still fun enough overall, but these final challenges are also made up of a lot of stuff that I disregarded first time around for, well, not being platforming related. As such, I'm relying a lot on Talkatoos, Hint Toads and occasionally google; I was conflicted about the latter at first, but not so much after banging my head against a specific moon for 15 minutes only to learn from the internet that it can only be gotten with motion controls. Dammit Nintendo.


in other words, theres a lot of this going on:




I'll see how far I get before finishing off the *spoiler* Grand Final Exam Platforming Challenge, and calling it a wrap. I have yet to touch the Volleyball or Jump Rope minigames.

[stvnorman]

Been pressing on with Time Splitters 2

I was looking at that on eBay the other day. Never played if before and it’s only a fiver but I’d be gambling it because my PS2’s disc drawer is a bit temperamental - only about 50% of discs read.

I tell you what, go for it, pick one up and if it doesn't work, I'll send you a spare PS2 slim I salvaged the other week that works perfectly .

Blimey, there’s an offer I can’t refuse. Very generous Suits, thanks! I’ll do it and let you know how I get on!

[ColinAlonso]

I didn't have as much time for gaming in late February or March, as I moved apartment for the first time in 10 years. I'm getting back into the groove now though.

I started Octopath Traveler in December and finally reached credits on Sunday when I finished the last character's story.

I was somewhat aware (from the magnificent soundtrack) that there was an actual final boss so I looked up how to get there. It requires completion of two sidequest chains that eventually tie into each other. There is no indication in the game that either of these are important. Thankfully, they're short. This unlocks a new location. There is a save point here and further on a point where you are told you cannot return (this is important). Beyond this there are 8 upgraded bosses from earlier in the game. I considered myself somewhat overpowered and they were a breeze.

Then the game requires 2 parties of four for the final boss. Now all my party members are well leveled but there are only 4 hidden jobs and the rest will have to rely on weaker movesets. There is also a drop off in the quality of my armor after I've equipped 5/6 characters, and Octopath Traveler is a game where weapons and armor are very important to a character's stats.

After all of this, the final boss is a massive difficulty spike. I can't even get through the first stage. And everytime I want to redo this I have to waste time going through those eight bosses again.

I was already quite mixed on this game too.

I'm also playing the Resident Evil 2 remake and having a proper 'Its not you its me' feeling. I'm playing as Leon and have made it to the lab. My aim is crap and the thing that I'm most scared of is wasting bullets, I feel too tense to enjoy it really. Lickers are the worst, I've wasted many shotgun shells on them. I really want to finish a Resident Evil, I only messed around in the early parts of 1 and 2 when I was young.

Tried the demo for Trials of Mana and got a fair amount of hours out of it. You can definitely tell it is a SNES rpg just by the structure of it and it's straightforward story. Found it to be pretty enjoyable overall and may just check out the full game in the future. Only real fault I can find with it is that Charlotte, sorry, Charwotte is one of the most annoying characters I have come across in a JRPG. Does anyone find that kind of baby talk endearing? But yeah, I had nice old school fun with this one.

Ooh, I tried this too. Played to the end of the demo but there wasn't enough there to tempt me into buying. The voice acting is really bad though. Charwotte is the worst and I didn't even include her in my party but the others are varying levels of poor too. It's like middling to poor PS2-era JRPG voice acting. I don't even know how Square Enix let this happen.

[Suits]

I started Octopath Traveler in December and finally reached credits on Sunday when I finished the last character's story. .

Ah, wicked, nice one man.

How long did it take ??

Nice little summery there too, I got about 65 hours and just put it down. I really enjoyed it though and I’d certainly be very interested in another.

I remember finding a cave, in the desert towards the end of one of the characters stories. There was a Wolf hidden boss thing in there and it just destroyed me over and over so quick. It was that that kind of made me think, oh, I’m no where near the end of this .

[Suits]

Two attempts I made last night on the Robot Factory on Time Splitters 2.

You have to locate these four power nodes, then overcharge them with a electric beam weapon you have.

Then you have to find the entrance to the secret base.

All the while having to avoid or destroy the bullet sponge terminator style robots. Hard it is.

Good fun though.

This is the penultimate level, so I'll be back at it tonight.

[Flabyo]

I’m bouncing around a lot of games at the moment as I’m trying to complete a true achievements challenge that’s sending me back into lots of games I didn’t finish.

So last night I spent a fair chunk of time in Slime Rancher again. I’m still not sure what I think of it, I like the idea of exploring to find the new slime types and slowly build up the farm, but I don’t really enjoy the actual micro management of the farm itself.

I probably shouldn’t bother with Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing.

[ColinAlonso]

Ah, wicked, nice one man.

How long did it take ??

Just over 96 hours.

I think I played it slowly and getting the extra jobs probably added 5-7 hours too.

I usually played it on the bus to and from work. While the battle system is fantastic when fighting bosses, I felt it dragged out the regular random battles and I didn't enjoy that over longer play sessions. The Coronavirus shutdown meant I effectively put it down, so I made a point to finish it (or at least get to those credits) last weekend.

I'm not in the mood to grind (particularly for job points) for that extra boss until I start commuting again.

[Magical_Isopod]

I lost my job yesterday partially due to the 'rona, so I'm going through my games collection and doing a bit of a purge - mostly stuff that's either been sitting on the backlog forever, or games that sell for a lot that I didn't like enough to put on my Top 100. That'll ensure I have the funds needed to buy FF7R, Trials of Mana, and Xenoblade Definitive when those come out. (Hell, the Genesis copy of Air Buster alone is going for $120, so that'll get me a long way there.)

But I'm trying to find something to both keep my mind off despair, and keep me occupied during the coronabungus, and keep me busy until FF7R comes out as to avoid spoilers. I think I'll give Super Mario 3D Land a whirl, and maybe some other smaller stuff. Apex will come back for sure, with the new Bloodhound event starting today.

Strange times, but it's not all dour. I met a woman on Saturday that I'm getting on with really well. We clicked almost right away, and something seems to be developing there. So if all I find during this pandemic is love and video games, I view that as a net success.

[Flabyo]

I’ve been playing a *lot* of Apex this last month. It seems to have finally clicked with me and I’m winning far more games than I did in the previous entire year...

[Stanshall]

All the best, Iso. That's rough about the job but I hope you're enjoying the games and I hope it works out with your new belle.

[Magical_Isopod]

I’ve been playing a *lot* of Apex this last month. It seems to have finally clicked with me and I’m winning far more games than I did in the previous entire year...

If you play on PS4, feel free to add me - PyramidHeadcrab on PSN. Anyone else can add me if they want.

My best characters are Wattson, Bloodhound and Pathfinder. In that order. But I'm also very competent with Caustic and Octane.

I actually keep a spreadsheet tracking my Apex stats so I can empirically know who I'm best with. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... p=sharing Wattson is my best, for instance, but I have no idea why. I rarely use her fences, and almost never use her ult. But for one reason or another, I absolutely slay with her. Bloodhound, I understand why I'm good with them - I play pretty aggro. Caustic, same deal, I'm really aggressive with traps. Wattson? No damn clue. If it were just a matter of hitbox, Wraith would be one of my better ones... But she's one of my worst. XD

[chase210]

Final Fantasy VII remake which so far, I really love. I've played past the demo point now, and its just great.

[Magical_Isopod]

Final Fantasy VII remake which so far, I really love. I've played past the demo point now, and its just great.

Is the demo the start of the game? Like can I start that and resume with the disc when it drops?

[Stanshall]

Final Fantasy VII remake which so far, I really love. I've played past the demo point now, and its just great.

Is the demo the start of the game? Like can I start that and resume with the disc when it drops?

No resume, unfortunately.

[DomsBeard]

Team Sonic Racing

Picked this up in the Switch sale as my 3 year old is Sonic mad at the moment and it is basically an inferior Mario Kart. It also which I think is crazy have an easy mode or any assistance for younger ones so my 3 year old posts last in most races. He is enjoying it though. You start off with only 3 racers and have to unlock the rest.

Positives are the fact it is a team race so if I finish 1st and the 3rd team member finishes high up the average of the 3 means we win the race.

Resident Evil 3

Been a bit down on it the last couple of sessions, mainly down to some bizarre changes to the original which I won't go into as it is spoilery.

Also I've had two or threee points where I've had to do a section 10 or so times till finally I luck it through, there's a ridiculous bit where you're bottle necked as Carlos where there's 8 zombies in front of you in a small space and minimal ammo.

When it clicks it is great but I feel I might be in with the majority that it isn't as good as the original which I thought the RE2 one was.

I think I'll do a re run on easy mode after as maybe starting on Hardcore was a bad idea, I did so as I thought Nemesis would be more prevalent than he has been.

[Michiel K]

Yeah, all the best for the bounce back, Isopod!

[NoMoreSpearows]

I'm not sure what happened, but revisiting Kirby Super Star has been completely infuriating. Was Kirby always this susceptible to damage, or is this just an outlier? Dyna Blade felt almost impossible, the shoot-'em-up section deals a third of your health in damage for bumping into a wall... even some of the enemies can take off a solid fourth of Kirby's life bar if you have the audacity to stand still for a second or two. I guess, if anything, it's a good argument for the Dream Land approach of making Kirby's health distinguishable chunks instead of the one solid rectangle.

[Jobobonobo]

Ooh, I tried this too. Played to the end of the demo but there wasn't enough there to tempt me into buying. The voice acting is really bad though. Charwotte is the worst and I didn't even include her in my party but the others are varying levels of poor too. It's like middling to poor PS2-era JRPG voice acting. I don't even know how Square Enix let this happen.

It is funny, the voice acting is not particularly great for any character but Charwotte really is another level that everybody else sounds great in comparison! I believe you can switch to Japanese voice acting which should make it more tolerable. Really dug it otherwise so might check it out when I have time.

By the way, this seems to be an absolute blinder of a year for JRPGs. This, FFVII remake, Nier Replicant remaster and the first overseas release of that weird Moon RPG for the Switch! Heard there is even a new Paper Mario being rumored and it might be closer in style to the first two which I really hope is the case! Lots of stuff I want to check out.

[Jon Cheetham]

I've just been playing Hitman 2016/ 2 levels over and over. I have played Sapienza for the last three nights, got to Level 20 mastery and only just tried The Icon and Landslide missions which use and adapt the same map. It's such a wonderful map and the longer I spend in it the more I want to be there. With everything unlocked, the different routes you can take based on your starting location give it a fresh spin each time. Looking forward to doing all the mission stories for these bonus missions.

Edit: I am still looking forward to the Resi 3 remake, and will get it in a few months when it's on sale like the stingey gamer I am. After watching quite a bit of gameplay, my expectations are a little bit different though, based on how it adapts the original I played as a teen.