Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

I called after him, "hey wait buddy, wait up, that's not ACTUALLY how you play Ikaruga, wait up...let me show you my YouTube channel..." and I started to get my phone out but he was sprinting by that point.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Great, now our shmup drivel has metastasized to this thread as well...

Think of the normies, back to the shelter!
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hazeredmist
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by hazeredmist »

"shmup drivel" :D

Love it.
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ReprobateGamer
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ReprobateGamer »

The girls have been getting a little more interested on what's on the Xbox beyond their Minecraft addiction so I've been on recently:
Hydro Thunder Hurricane: A decent boat racer where the tracks go from credible to utterly fantasical (racing frost giants or skirting giant sea monsters) and the boats have jet engines hidden. The signposting is a little rough around the edges - we've all turned into a wall when it wasn't clear where we needed to go next - but for a local split screen game, it does pretty well for an older X360 game
Big Crown Showdown: A isometric scrolling racer with a dungeon crawling theme. Not outstanding but solid enough though it seems a little repetitive at this point
Marooners: A fun party game with a good selection of mini-games and the mechanic where you never know when the game will switch to another mode. Can take up to six players so worth trying if you are looking for a party game and don't have a nintendo console handy ...

And when the girls have gone to bed:

GTAV: Got back into this with the recent casino update. I remain impressed by both the huge variety of things you can do in this game, and that it's fairly easy to have vastly different levels of players together in missions. We had three of us running the 6 casino missions last night, a relatively new player starting at lvl 20, myself who has dipped in and out for several years at lvl 69 and a long term player at lvl 287. We were all able to play our part in all the missions. Rockstar do need to revisit how they cost things and allow access to weapons/armour/vehicles and the game engine is visibly aging but it's still fun to play - though you need to be mindful of griefers who still can be found in some lobbies
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

Checking out Football, Tactics and Glory, a turn based football game.

The tutorial comes to a rather abrupt halt :(

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Lovely detail in the Amateur League though - players coming to work on their bikes etc :)

I should have changed into our black away kit though.

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Early days yet, trying to get to grips with how it plays. Each team has three turns to progress the ball down the field; this can be extended by pulling off fancy moves which give you +1 turn; then you can try and hold the ball and stop the other team getting it.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

If Zelda 2 had a similar difficulty to Castlevania 2, it would have been a far more enjoyable game. They are hugely similar otherwise! With the help of a few pointers from a walkthrough, especially in the first hour, I’m making good progress through Simon’s Quest now. The mansions (dungeons) are really enjoyable when you actually find them, the over-world is fine, if not terribly atmospheric, the RPG-lite systems are very Zelda, and it feels like a Castlevania game. Much like Zelda 2 though, I can see exactly why many might find it a jarring entry in the series, even without the crazy difficulty!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

In parallel to my continuing journey through Castlevania II (which I think I’m not far from the end of), I’ve now finished Castlevania III. Twice in a week! When the Konami Anniversary Collections were updated with Japanese versions, I made a note to play that version of this because of the superior soundtrack. Which turned out to be correct thanks to some extra sound channel trickery, but it did mean all the Japanese text - that I got lucky with the first time I had to make a choice - just passed me by! The main reason for my replay in English, though, was the branching paths I’d not taken, and that I knew there was supposed to be a pirate ship in this and I hadn’t seen one on the first run! Both very enjoyable (more so than their predecessor) but didn’t blow me away like Super Castlevania IV did a few weeks ago. Despite the pirate ship!

I downloaded the Mario Tennis Aces timed trial and very proudly won an online tournament first go - I couldn’t even remember the controls when I served my first ball! No intention of getting addicted to that again though, so won and done!

Also downloaded the Cadence of Hyrule demo. As much as I now love Zelda, and have a lot of time for Necrodancer, it’s not really doing it for me. I’ll stick with it because I assumed this would be one of my games of the year when I finally got around to buying it, but despite there being absolutely everything right about it, I’d rather play Necrodancer so far!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Been playing Eastshade recently and I've really been enjoying it. It's a very relaxing and serene experience that is incredible to look at, and is a lot of fun to explore. It's one of these experiences I wouldn't necessarily qualifies as a "game", as there isn't really any skill being taught or tested here, but it still provides a lot to engage with, and gives you an impressive open world that you are free to explore around and find quests to complete and stories to uncover, as you make your way around meeting people as a travelling artist. The thing that drew me to this originally is how it seemed to be giving off strong Oblivion vibes with its world and mood. It certainly delivers that in spades, but not without its own personality too. But it's similar in that it gives you this idyllic and lush countryside to get lost in, full of life and greenery, and a soothing and peaceful soundtrack that lulls you in to a feeling of bliss. The environments are incredibly detailed, and expertly arranged where it seems like they somehow planned the entire world out to look fantastic from any angle. It certainly helps with making paintings too, as it's almost impossible to not find a really good composition for anything. It's even similar to Oblivion in some of the jank it has too, with some stiffly animated characters and occasional silly looking visual bugs. So in a way it feels like what Oblivion would be like if they had much more horsepower to work with, and a much smaller world to focus their attentions on.

But it has its own twist in that it has something of an Asian/Eastern flair to it. The way the characters dress and the architecture of buildings have hints of the kinds of things you might see in the middle or far east. The main city of Nava in particular is very impressive with its central library that looks like a huge temple. Also all the characters are anthropomorphised animals of some sort. They look a bit strange, going for very human like bodies but with semi-realistic animal heads, but it helps the game feel like it has an exotic vibe that I really like. It also probably helps hide that the modelling and animation on them is pretty iffy. I imagine it would look a lot more jarring if they tried to make them look like actual humans. But they are good characters. There's dozens to interact with, all fully voiced, and they all have some quirky trait to them that makes meeting someone new always a fun time. There's a lot of charming sidequests and stories to go through with these characters too. One of my favourite so far being playing matchmaking for a pair of very nice bear ladies. A few times they give you an option to back out of it and not set them up, but the lines are written in an amusingly sardonic way that I'm sure was meant to poke fun at people who object to the idea of the quest. Like one line you could choose being "No, love is disgusting", but I got a chuckle out of seeing what point they were obviously making with that.

There are a few little issues though, but most of them haven't really been a big deal. It runs pretty terribly. They do pack a lot of stuff on screen, but I don't think it's enough to have it run anywhere near as bad as it does. The default walk speed is very slow, and when you start off things can feel pretty restrictive. At first the walk speed is acceptable, but you're stuck like that for quite a while. As you play more you unlock various ways to speed up navigation and get more resources, so it stops being a problem. It probably takes a little bit too long to get there though. There are also a few little quality of life/streamlining issues too that make it feel like this was designed by someone who wasn't really a game designer. The UI is a bit fiddly, and it does weird things like requiring you to manually place down and pick up your bike every time you use it. I can see someone accidentally leaving it somewhere in the world and forgetting where it is.

But despite the issues I'm still liking it a lot. It does scratch that itch that Oblivion did so well when exploring around Cyrodiil listening to Jeremy Soule for hours, but at the same time it feels very unique and different.

A handful of the many screenshots I've been taking as I've been playing:
Spoiler: show
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

All I've played last couple of days, aside from a little Yakuza and Rocket League, is DC Universe Online on the Switch. I'm really enjoying it. Anyone else given it a go? At its heart it's a pretty fun brawler with magic abilities thrown in, and the DC backdrop keeps things interesting from a fans point of view. Taken down Scarecrow and Bane so far, and the pressure to put real world money in to the game has been non existent so far.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Scrustle wrote: August 9th, 2019, 9:53 pm Eastshade
I totally missed the bicycle! And I'd talked to the guy as well. I also found the walking speed far too slow (my biggest complaint about the game, other than one quest where you're locked in place till you solve it), though it makes more 'gaming sense' now that there's a gated increase to it. I started playing on Kb+M but had to switch to gamepad because running everywhere was so uncomfortable.

Nice screenshots - I went into the menu ten minutes into the game and was surprised the display settings were set to Low by default. However when I upped them to Ultra, my PC immediately went into overdrive as soon as I touched the slider, so I reset them to Low. I game on a laptop so I'm a bit conscious of temperature after the GPU in my last laptop seemingly got fried. Definitely going desktop next time. It's mostly unoptimised indie games that do this.

It's a pretty wholesome game, I didn't realise there was such gaming mileage in being nice to people!



I am still playing Football, Tactics and Glory, obsessively. Yesterday morning I could not recommend the game more; yesterday evening I was finding it a bit grindy (not sure if I am just bad at the game (I am) or if you really have no chance at the tactical game when your stats are just too low).

It is awesome though. And they are working on a console release at the moment for release this year (yes, also on Switch), so I would heartily recommend it to everyone here apart from obviously, KSub (and Clippa neither ;) ).
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

Shelley Duvall FFS :lol:
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Chopper wrote: August 11th, 2019, 10:18 am And they are working on a console release at the moment for release this year (yes, also on Switch), so I would heartily recommend it to everyone here apart from obviously, KSub (and Clippa neither ;) ).
Hey, why do I keep finding myself as the butt of your jokes?! :lol:

Unless it's some reverse psychology type stratagem, in which case: Not gonna work! And I totally didn't just check the game's price and system requirements! Can't fool me, old man! :roll:
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

KSubzero1000 wrote: August 11th, 2019, 10:30 am Hey, why do I keep finding myself as the butt of your jokes?! :lol:
Not at all! In three years on here, our tastes have intersected on precisely one game (Infinifactory), and I'm starting to feel guilty when you buy games I recommend and you don't get on with them! Just looking after you, man, no offence intended :lol:
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Chopper wrote: August 11th, 2019, 10:35 am In three years on here, our tastes have intersected on precisely one game (Infinifactory)
:cry:
Resident Evil 4 (PS4)

I did it! Kudos to KSubzero for offering advice here which removed some of my anxiety about the game and let me enjoy it rather than worrying about things. There probably isn't anything I can really say about it without sounding foolish, as I don't have much historical context for the game, but I enjoyed it a lot.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Resident Evil 4 (PS4)

I did it! Kudos to KSubzero for offering advice here which removed some of my anxiety about the game and let me enjoy it rather than worrying about things. There probably isn't anything I can really say about it without sounding foolish, as I don't have much historical context for the game, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Would I play it again? No.

:lol:
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

Hollow Knight is harder than I expected it to be. It's been brutalizing me (I've lost so much money...).
The map feels huge and I find I'm not to excited to backtrack. Is the world larger than normal or is it something else?
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Larger than normal is an odd statement! It's a fairly large world, but you unlock fast travel stations as you go and it never feels 'too big'.
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Kacey
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kacey »

Been giving GTA4 another shot in my downtime. Man, I really miss this game's characters. Maybe it's just because I've played so many hundreds of hours of GTA V over the past six (!) years but 4's writing just seems so much more interesting and gripping. Niko is leagues more interesting than any of the three protags in V.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

I've recently been abroad for the first family holiday since we my wife and I had our child, who is now two.

Previously on holidays, I've had good down time of any evening or night while female hair is being prepared or snoozes being taken.

This has all changed.

I had planned to play a good amount of Fire Emblem and took my Switch with me - didn't play a single second of it.

Instead, just before I left, I started messing about with Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi's Island on my GBA, which I should have taken with me instead in hindsight.

Having stumbled in a few hours of rest on the flight while people were sleeping and I'd had a few glasses of Champagne, I've started looking into the Castelvania collection, which makes some of the older games much more accessible.

So, I'm fresh and ready to smash some games in.

Not sure which yet.

Check how proud Mrs Suits is with our matching ripping t shirts :lol: .

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