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 »

Oh, man. I absolutely hammered that Ghostface back in the day, crooning along, "you can never fuck with Wu Tang killaaaahhh beeeeeeezzzzz!"

:D
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

"Light your blunts and down your beeeeeeers, 'cause ......."
Stanshall wrote: August 10th, 2018, 2:01 pm "you can never fuck with Wu Tang killaaaahhh beeeeeeezzzzz!"
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

Haha, love it. The best bit was of course trying to jump about two octaves on the 'beeeeezzzz'!
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Suits wrote: August 10th, 2018, 2:24 pm "Light your blunts and down your beeeeeeers, 'cause ......."
Stanshall wrote: August 10th, 2018, 2:01 pm "you can never fuck with Wu Tang killaaaahhh beeeeeeezzzzz!"
<3
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

I thought I'd give Ninja Gaiden Sigma another go in order to unlock the platinum, at least. Joke's on me, game doesn't even have trophies! Might as well keep playing, I suppose.

What can I say, I love this game so much I'm having a blast even with the trash version. :heart:
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

KSubzero1000 wrote: August 11th, 2018, 5:39 pm ...the trash version. :heart:
That was my understanding, but then interestingly, former CaR contributor - and Ninja Gaiden World Championship finalist - Darren Forman told me that he would always recommend the PS3 Sigma version over the others. He even gifted me a copy in fact.

I now have access to the Black version (in high resolution) via Xbox One Game Pass too if I want to compare and contrast.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Well, I suppose I'm gonna have to very respectfully disagree with Mr. Forman on this one! :P

But to be honest, the differences between the two versions are subtle, and mostly related to high-level play (nerfed enemy AI) and the removal of certain sections. As a purist, Black will always be my favorite, but I'll go on record as saying that Sigma is a perfectly fine version in and of itself, and perfectly acceptable for a quick casual playthrough. The Rachel chapters and the handful of new enemies are really bad, though. On the plus side, it looks fantastic.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

Couple of updates:

Metal Gear Survive was reluctantly abandoned and deleted. Some of it was ok, but the base defence sections were unbearable to me: you'd have a line of zombies approaching from multiple points, and you had to run around selecting fences and barriers from a finicky inventory menu and erecting them to slow down the horde. These barriers only held up for a few seconds, so the defence aspect was a lot of terrible multitasking running from point to point trying to thin down the horde as they were momentarily held up. This happens for multiple waves. I was on one of these sections and couldn't bring myself to start up the game.

Star Traders Frontiers is a space ARPG in the style of Drox Operative/Mount & Blade/Rebel Galaxy. You beetle about from A to B, picking up some cargo or accepting missions from NPCs and building rep with factions. You can upgrade your ship and crew; the ship gets better components and the crew get stat upgrades and skills that can help in the normal course of the game. These skills can be the chance to pass a skill check (eg if you pass through a meteor storm, a crew member may have a saving throw and prevent you from taking damage), or a combat ability (for example add 10% accuracy to weapons in ship-to-ship combat or add a knockback ability in ground combat, which is a 4v4 Darkest Dungeon-type deal). There's a plot that you can follow or ignore, and missions that play out via card game (pull 5 cards, 3 may have negative effects, one may be receiving resources, one may be mission success, and you can mitigate the bad cards via skill checks, eg re-roll a bad card, remove one bad card from the deck etc).

Sounds good, right? Its main problem is repetitiveness. Once I restarted a few times and got my ship and pilot up to spec, combat plays out the exact same way for every encounter. The card game missions keep it interesting for a while but essentially everything breaks down to plodding from A to B while getting stronger/your stats up. There's no end game, from what I can tell, just a rolling plot where new scenarios are generated over time.

It's quite interesting though - I still feel drawn to it despite the repetitiveness - and there's a good 20 hours there before getting to that point.
kintaris

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by kintaris »

Quite chuffed to say that I've been playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider at a preview event! I think it looks pretty awesome. The stealth combat is vastly improved and Lara is a much more complex character this time around, helped in part by having some more companions to bounce off of during gameplay rather than just in cutscenes.

If you haven't been sold on the reboot so far this won't change your mind, but it's worth looking at if you thought Rise of the Tomb Raider was promising.

(Also, I've cut together, scripted and narrated my first ever YouTube preview. I have no idea how people do this regularly, it took me far too long! https://www.truetrophies.com/n15750/in- ... as-evolved)
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Been playing Darius Gaiden on the Saturn a bit seriously in the past days. Serious in that I'm actually sticking to one route and practicing it, as opposed to trying to see as many stages as possible, as I have been when playing the version on PS2 Taito Legends 2 in the past. And I'm starting to book results! Prickly Angler in Zone G is a bit of a prick of a boss, though.
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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

Got back to Nioh. I shouldn't have gone two months away because I've been absolute garbage at the thing since I got back. It took me a while to remember how to do Ki Pulses correctly. But, I'm back and I'm liking the game again, even with boss fights that make me cry.
I will say that Nioh has taught me I don't love stamina maintenance, in games or in real life.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

duskvstweak wrote: August 13th, 2018, 3:45 pm Got back to Nioh. I shouldn't have gone two months away because I've been absolute garbage at the thing since I got back. It took me a while to remember how to do Ki Pulses correctly.
I can vouch for that. 8-)
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Since I picked up Mega Man Legacy Collection on Switch, I’ve been jumping around the six games but not making any progress. Then I noticed Mega Man 2 on my NES Classic Mini, loaded it up and didn’t move until I’d defeated the first two bosses. Then I went back to Switch, did them again and carried on with another three. It was a great way to learn to play then go back to the Switch -old school with no rewind, no save... And the progression is amazing; struggling to the first checkpoint of each level, then getting there every time without losing a life, then the same for the second checkpoint, then again for the boss, until the whole thing has just clicked and you wonder why you were about to throw your Switch through a window! I might have been decades late to Mega Man, but I can’t get enough of it now!
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

^^^^ Great stuff!
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Chopper »

Prey Mooncrash is pretty great so far, but a couple of things might hold it back.

The setup is something about a training simulation, but in effect you have to get 5 different characters with different traits, to escape from a moon base overrun with Prey’s Typhon enemies.

So you have to get the first character to an escape pod, which unlocks both an optional mission for that character, and the next character with which to attempt an escape. The next character might have to reach a shuttle in a different part of the base, with complications of course.

If you die, you go back to the start, and some roguelite elements are introduced as enemies are placed differently, you find different pickups etc. All the weapons and some of the abilities from Prey make an appearance, but you can’t rely on them being present on any one run. Abilities that you unlock are persistent between runs, and you can buy a decent load out per run with points you accumulate.

There are 5 escapes, and 5 unlockable missions. It’s been really interesting so far, and a great complement to the main game.

There are two potential flaws. After rescuing the first character (one of those Russian test subjects from the game proper), a timer is started for the second character. This has six levels, and at each level the enemies become more difficult and frequent. The timer moves quite fast too. If it reaches level 6, that character dies and you have to restart the level.

This means that you’ve got significant time pressure in a game known for its stealthy, deliberate approach. So there’s no room for noodling around enjoying the environments.

The other drawback is that the second character’s escape was quite involved, and as I got towards the end of it, I was thinking, if I get sent back to the start of this level, I’m not sure I’ll be up for doing it all again. I survived, but that’s something to keep an eye on.

I also found out that I needed to do something in the level (that I didn’t do) in order to unlock the third character, so it looks like I’ll have to go back and do that level again anyway. -_-
Joshihatsumitsu

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

About 4 hours into the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King, so very early days. In a way you could compare the game to Ni No Kuni, where instead of artistic input of Studio Ghibli, Dragon Quest VIII has the artist input of Akira Toriyama, best known for his work on Dragon Ball. And all a good 7 years prior.

I have read that some people prefer the more cel-shaded look of the Playstation 2 version, so of course I had to pick a copy of that too... may have to compare later!

So far so good. And as a bonus, the English dub is actually very good. I guess it helps that it's in a fantasy setting with very European/English influences, so it's not jarring at all (unlike a Tokyo-based RPG where everyone is Californian for some reason?!?). :D
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Not sure how familiar you are with the series, but Toriyama has been doing the art (well, at least the character designs) for the Dragon Quest games since the very first one way back in the 80s. It was a major coup at the time.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Joshihatsumitsu »

Flabyo wrote: August 15th, 2018, 7:50 am Not sure how familiar you are with the series, but Toriyama has been doing the art (well, at least the character designs) for the Dragon Quest games since the very first one way back in the 80s. It was a major coup at the time.
No, I didn't know! :o Kind of is the first Dragon Quest I've played (not counting Dragon Quest Builders). I remember seeing the reviews for 8 when it first came out, and I really wanted to get it... and it took more than a decade for me to get around to it.

Better late than never I guess!
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DomsBeard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DomsBeard »

After saying I would not preorder it I preordered The Walking Dead Final Season on PS4.

The new engine is very snazzy and it looks stunning in places

Only played the opening 30 minutes but so far so good. Combat is better and requires you to be smart and manage several walkers at once.

All of my other saves were on Xbox One and they were not on the Telltale system so it goes through seasons 1, 2 and 3 and asks you to confirm what decisions you made (the fact that there was one decision from season 3 which was in a flashback tells you all you need to know from that!)
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

I just finished Minit on Switch. I can’t recommend this enough if you’re into old school Zelda-type games. Very clever rogue-lite concept where your life (and game) ends after 60 seconds but it’s literally just enough to do what you need to do and work out what to do with your next minute. The progression through the story, the puzzles and the world is very intuitive, and again, literally just enough that you don’t need a map. And I love the art style, the character it generates despite its simplicity, and the equally simple but atmospheric sound effects. It took exactly three hours to get through the story, but it’s told me I’m only at 51% “collectibles” which I think means completing the three side quests I started but didn’t complete and a couple of things I’ve noticed on my travels that I don’t seem to have the right gear to access yet. And I definitely plan on doing that, and have a go at new game plus which limits your life to 40 seconds.
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