Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
User avatar
dezm0nd
Moderator
Posts: 4445
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:48 am
Location: Leighton Buzzard

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

I'm enjoying Oreo and the Will of the Wispas but the performance is really stopping me from being pulled in.

The intermittent freezing really is jarring and takes you out of this beautiful looking and fun to play metroidvania
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

dezm0nd wrote: March 14th, 2020, 8:58 am I'm enjoying Oreo and the Will of the Wispas but the performance is really stopping me from being pulled in.

The intermittent freezing really is jarring and takes you out of this beautiful looking and fun to play metroidvania
I haven't had any of these problems at all. The only time I've noticed bad performance is slow load times to open the map.
User avatar
Stanshall
Member
Posts: 2370
Joined: January 31st, 2016, 6:45 am

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

I've been really enjoying a healthy cross-section of late and while I'm not looking forward to the imminent lockdown, I am very comfortable with staying in the house playing games for hours. Recently, I've been especially enjoying:

Hatsune Miku Project DIVA Mega Mix (Switch)

I've never played a Hatsune Miku game before and always found the aesthetic and music a bit off-putting but having become desensitised/incredibly enthused via Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party, I have been loving this. It's a different approach to Groove Coaster in that it seems more focused on the vocals and tapping syncopated syllables rather than the beats and instrumentation focus of GCWWP. The music vid presentation is actually pretty fun and sometimes funny. Animation is quite charming and it's all rather wholesome, to be honest. There's also so much game here, it's quite remarkable how much time I could get out of this if I really wanted to try to master some songs. It's very much an arcade style skill ceiling. Brilliant stuff and well worth checking out when it comes to the West but it's very obvious and intuitive even with Japanese menus.

Ori and the Blind Forest (Switch)

I picked this up the other week on Switch in a sale and it's a stunning port. I put it down to start Will of the Wisp but heard that I'll ruin some story stuff so I'm going back to the original. Even compared to WotW, it still looks fantastic. I don't really like the MV subgenre but this is so good. The only downside is that I probably won't be inclined to go straight into the sequel but if it's short enough, you never know. It might work out perfectly.

Also, Ketsui Deathtiny, but I'll save that...
User avatar
stvnorman
Member
Posts: 911
Joined: March 19th, 2013, 8:09 pm
Location: Keysoe, Bedfordshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Same situation here! Just got the 50% mapped achievement on Ori and the Blind Forest on Xbox but I’m blowing a bit hot and cold with this at the moment. Some of the game mechanics seem over-complicated then used to excess - for a game that also oozes atmosphere, having a great big arrow that you have to awkwardly move around the character before completing a mid-air jump, for example, really drags you out of it! That said, escaping the Ginso Tree was an absolute thrill ride, and the visuals continue to mesmerise everywhere you look!

I really didn’t have great expectations for Doom 3, which is why it took it being £2.40 before I finally got it on Switch, but what a fantastic surprise! I’m only an occasional FPS player, but the atmosphere it’s still got alone probably makes it my favourite, and there wasn’t much of the 18 or so hours it took to finish that I didn’t have a blast with. Definitely wasn’t expecting that much game for my money either, with two expansions included on top!
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

FemalePheromones wrote: March 14th, 2020, 9:09 am

I haven't had any of these problems at all. The only time I've noticed bad performance is slow load times to open the map.
OK I've just crashed out to the dashboard. I knew I couldn't be safe forever.
User avatar
dezm0nd
Moderator
Posts: 4445
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:48 am
Location: Leighton Buzzard

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

The annoying wait to open the map is starting to get bothersome too. Really want to love it but as I say, I keep being distracted with these technicals.
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

dezm0nd wrote: March 14th, 2020, 7:09 pm The annoying wait to open the map is starting to get bothersome too. Really want to love it but as I say, I keep being distracted with these technicals.
Which Xbox are you on?

I was taking it to be due to me playing on a day one OG Xbox One. Assumed the X and S would be OK.
User avatar
ratsoalbion
Admin
Posts: 7918
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:41 am
Location: Brighton, England
Contact:

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Our Darren has had some similar issues on his X (maybe not quite so bad, hard to say without a comparison of course).

User avatar
Suits
Member
Posts: 3174
Joined: October 28th, 2015, 3:25 pm
Location: Chelmsford, UK

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

stvnorman wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:21 am I really didn’t have great expectations for Doom 3, which is why it took it being £2.40 before I finally got it on Switch, but what a fantastic surprise! I’m only an occasional FPS player, but the atmosphere it’s still got alone probably makes it my favourite, and there wasn’t much of the 18 or so hours it took to finish that I didn’t have a blast with. Definitely wasn’t expecting that much game for my money either, with two expansions included on top!
Great stuff, glad you enjoyed it.

I have a fascination with this game.

All the Doom games actually 😄.
User avatar
Alex79
Member
Posts: 8423
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 12:36 pm
Location: Walsall, UK.
Contact:

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Suits wrote: March 15th, 2020, 12:49 pm
stvnorman wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:21 am I really didn’t have great expectations for Doom 3, which is why it took it being £2.40 before I finally got it on Switch, but what a fantastic surprise! I’m only an occasional FPS player, but the atmosphere it’s still got alone probably makes it my favourite, and there wasn’t much of the 18 or so hours it took to finish that I didn’t have a blast with. Definitely wasn’t expecting that much game for my money either, with two expansions included on top!
Great stuff, glad you enjoyed it.

I have a fascination with this game.

All the Doom games actually 😄.
I'm looking forward to playing it, can't belive the price really. I didn't take to it on PC on release but hoping with headphones on a handheld in bed it's a lot more fun.
User avatar
Alex79
Member
Posts: 8423
Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 12:36 pm
Location: Walsall, UK.
Contact:

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Spent ages this afternoon with the help (hinderence) of the kids making the motorbike Labo set. It's actually really fun using the handlebars to ride that bike round the track, it's a shame the actual game isn't just a bit deeper or more interesting. It didn't take us long to work out its actually a lot more fun to play in docked, sitting with the handlebars in front of the TV rather than have the Switch screen nestled in to the handlebars themselves as its supposed to be.

Image
User avatar
dezm0nd
Moderator
Posts: 4445
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:48 am
Location: Leighton Buzzard

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

The further I'm into Oreo Wispas the more broken its becoming and it's really jarring.

Weird warping. Not dying despite health being depleted and leaving me able to run about invincible. Xbox One X not turning off properly when I put it in sleep state.

Loads of technical issues.
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

dezm0nd wrote: March 16th, 2020, 9:32 am The further I'm into Oreo Wispas the more broken its becoming and it's really jarring.

Weird warping. Not dying despite health being depleted and leaving me able to run about invincible. Xbox One X not turning off properly when I put it in sleep state.

Loads of technical issues.
I have had a couple of times now where I've crashed to the dashboard and had to load the whole game back up.

Also, warping sometimes takes longer than it should as well as going through doors and I've had a few times where the game has just frozen for 3-10 seconds.
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

dezm0nd wrote: March 16th, 2020, 9:32 am The further I'm into Oreo Wispas the more broken its becoming and it's really jarring.

Weird warping. Not dying despite health being depleted and leaving me able to run about invincible. Xbox One X not turning off properly when I put it in sleep state.

Loads of technical issues.
I have had a couple of times now where I've crashed to the dashboard and had to load the whole game back up.

Also, warping sometimes takes longer than it should as well as going through doors and I've had a few times where the game has just frozen for 3-10 seconds.
User avatar
dezm0nd
Moderator
Posts: 4445
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:48 am
Location: Leighton Buzzard

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

The bubbles which Ori bounces off, if he dies during this, will warp his across the level and then die. It's quite odd!
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

Oh I haven't had that happen.

It seems odd that the game has launched with so many little bugs though.
User avatar
dezm0nd
Moderator
Posts: 4445
Joined: August 28th, 2012, 9:48 am
Location: Leighton Buzzard

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

Well... the game has re-started powering off my xbox one x on load.

I've had enough of it. Gonna leave it alone.

If I had paid for this (I'm game sharing) then I would be furious.
User avatar
KSubzero1000
Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: August 26th, 2015, 9:56 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

FemalePheromones wrote: March 16th, 2020, 12:58 pm It seems odd that the game has launched with so many little bugs though.
Is it? The fact that everybody is rushing out to buy it sight unseen might shed some light on that matter. :P
User avatar
FemalePheromones
Member
Posts: 256
Joined: August 20th, 2018, 7:17 am
Location: Oxford

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FemalePheromones »

To be fair I didn't play the original until a couple of years after release so all those things would have been ironed out by then so maybe that's why it seems surprising to me.
User avatar
stvnorman
Member
Posts: 911
Joined: March 19th, 2013, 8:09 pm
Location: Keysoe, Bedfordshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Bizarrely, as soon as I installed the new Ori, the old one, which I’m about halfway through, has started crashing while it’s loading. It does it after a few attempts but never seen it crash before. The new one loads okay so maybe just coincidence.

Played a few hours of Anodyne, a Switch wish-list item I picked up dirt cheap in a sale last year. It’s a kind of less polished 2D Zelda that took an hour or so to get my head around, which was very nearly too long, but despite my stubbornness, another two hours on I’m possibly about done. The exploring and dungeon crawling is pretty lightweight, but I can see I’m only scratching the surface and the monotony is setting in.

With my Spectrum +2 all set up again, I’ve got a list of games I want to properly go back to. As always, Feud, my favourite game ever, is top of that list, and every detail of its wonderful map is still etched in my mind, but I’ve also got two strangely similar games on the go... I’d forgotten how big Atic Atac is, but it didn’t take long to start getting a feel for it again, and within a couple of hours I might have even finished it if random key drops had gone my way on a decent run. Still a very good game and an absolute pleasure to get back into.

As is Platoon, which has a similar requirement to both of those for memorising or mapping out the maze-like first level especially. However, my old map is still in the big Atari ST or Amiga style box it came in (together with the bonus Tracks of my Tears audio cassette), so a slight head start, though I’m generally dead before I have a chance to glance at it then back at the screen again! I’m sure I used to be able to finish this every time in 15 minutes or so, but little chance of that now I don’t have time to dedicate my life to cruel 8-bit classics any more!
Post Reply