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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 15th, 2019, 1:02 pm
by Simonsloth
Playing Arkham Origins at the moment. I wanted to mop up the collectibles as well as replay the story so chose new game plus. Having played the game on easy I think with all the hints turned on it was a bit of a shock as the difficulty is ramped up, harder enemies appear earlier and all the hints for counters are turned off.

At first I hated It as two bullets or a few punches was enough to kill me. Add on top having to read the enemy movements and pre-empt their attacks to counter or get your own attack in it was all extremely difficult. A couple of low ranking street thugs would wipe the floor with me.

I’m so glad I persisted as now I love it. Playing it this way is so satisfying as every single encounter carries a threat. A combination of planning, patience and adapting to the situation have made this experience on another level compared to my previous playthroughs of Arkham games.

Nice, very nice.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 16th, 2019, 8:48 am
by Michiel K
During my stay in Nepal, me, my kids and my nephews were playing the first Super Mario Galaxy (I "completed" it back in the day).

My brother in law who lives in Berlin had gifted his Nintendo Wii to the kids of my sister in law (my nephews) on his last visit, but they only had a few fairly crappy games for it (not even Wii Sports, I found out!). We were going to stay there and I wanted to give them one of the best games you can get for that system.

I also had to bring my original composite cable, as the old CRT TV in the living room that they had it set up to didn't accept RGB or component.

It took them a while to pull themselves away from Roblox on their tablet, but once they did, they became throroughly absorbed by the sheer wonder, imagination and playability on display in that game and they kept talking about the hungry lumas, the monster eels in the caves in Beach Bowl Galaxy, the scary black holes, Boo Mario and so much more, when we were out and about.

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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 16th, 2019, 6:17 pm
by Simonsloth
That’s a really lovely story! Good to hear Mario is good enough to tear them away from Roblox:)

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 17th, 2019, 10:04 pm
by Kacey
Takin' a look at Need for Speed Carbon: Own The City for the DS. Not to be confused with the game by the same name on the PSP, or the one on the GBA, since they're different games with the same premise and cover...

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Looking back at this era of handheld and console ports/alternate versions is really interesting to me. Working from a much more complex or technically impressive source material (Half-Life 1/2 on PC, NFS games on console) and seeing how the dev teams worked them backwards onto weaker hardware (HalfLife on PS2, Half-Life 2 on Xbox, NFS on GBA/DS) is fascinating.

The NFS games are a bit hit or miss across the various handhelds- Most Wanted 5-1-0 on the PSP is pretty bad while the GBA games were decent if you could stomach the graphics. Carbon for the DS is pretty solidly in the middle, IMO.. It's a 3D racer that runs at 60FPS which is impressive and its mechanics have been mostly well adapted for the DS. Surprisingly, there's a really decent amount of car customization- including the typical fare like performance mods, vinyls and paint- all the way to gauge cluster mods, dashboard mods and mirror toys--your bottom screen is a dashboard-style HUD, with the top screen being a completely hud-less affair dedicated completely to your car and the track.

Having fun with it. hand's cramping up a bit- the DS's smaller buttons don't feel as good as the GBA's for holding a gas pedal for an extended period.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
by Scrustle
Kacey wrote: August 17th, 2019, 10:04 pm Takin' a look at Need for Speed Carbon: Own The City for the DS. Not to be confused with the game by the same name on the PSP, or the one on the GBA, since they're different games with the same premise and cover...
Interesting. I dabbled a bit in a few of the handheld NFS games of this period too. I was always disappointed that the first one on PSP wasn't open world like the main console games had recently become at the time. But I was impressed that Carbon on the PSP actually managed to include that, and it was interesting that they achieved that by re-purposing a chunk of the map from the console version of Most Wanted. Taking that same street layout and giving it a completely different feel.

I was under the impression that the DS games were inferior and not worth paying attention to. It's not like the PSP games were great either, so it didn't seem like there was much to miss. I played the Underground games on GBA too, and always found them really hard to get on with. But it's cool they managed to improve them, and get 60fps no less.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 18th, 2019, 8:06 pm
by Kacey
Scrustle wrote: August 18th, 2019, 5:25 pm
Kacey wrote: August 17th, 2019, 10:04 pm Takin' a look at Need for Speed Carbon: Own The City for the DS. Not to be confused with the game by the same name on the PSP, or the one on the GBA, since they're different games with the same premise and cover...
Interesting. I dabbled a bit in a few of the handheld NFS games of this period too. I was always disappointed that the first one on PSP wasn't open world like the main console games had recently become at the time. But I was impressed that Carbon on the PSP actually managed to include that, and it was interesting that they achieved that by re-purposing a chunk of the map from the console version of Most Wanted. Taking that same street layout and giving it a completely different feel.

I was under the impression that the DS games were inferior and not worth paying attention to. It's not like the PSP games were great either, so it didn't seem like there was much to miss. I played the Underground games on GBA too, and always found them really hard to get on with. But it's cool they managed to improve them, and get 60fps no less.
It's very inconsistent which version was the best. Underground on the PSP was better than the DS, Most Wanted on the GBA was the best of the three versions. I wonder how Undercover on the PSP fares.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 18th, 2019, 8:58 pm
by Alex79
Did you ever try the Vita port of Most Wanted? I'm not a big fan of the open world racing game, but it was an impressive achievement fitting pretty much that entire game on to handheld, and it still looked great too.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 19th, 2019, 2:54 pm
by Chopper
Four days with no gaming, and I'm not feeling Football, Tactics & Glory any more, which is a pity. It's an excellent game, but a bit of a grind. One season I had 3 wins, 3 losses, and 14 0-0 draws, and that wasn't exceptional :lol:

I've been on a big strategy/space game binge this summer, and looking at my backlog, it's all strategy or space games. Next will probably be Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, which I wasn't going to get, but is EUR 24.99 on PC, and I enjoyed the first, so I feel like I should support it at that price.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 6:06 am
by Hevi_Metaru
Playing through Resident Evil - Director's Cut on PS1 (via emulation on PC). Thoroughly enjoying it. Hated the constant dying and reloading of save games at the start. However, eventually appreciated it because it made me approach each room with ultra-caution. Now I think the game is a masterpiece of design and it truly makes me scared, not necessarily because of the zombies, but of dying and having my time erased.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 6:08 am
by Hevi_Metaru
Michiel K wrote: August 16th, 2019, 8:48 am During my stay in Nepal, me, my kids and my nephews were playing the first Super Mario Galaxy (I "completed" it back in the day).

My brother in law who lives in Berlin had gifted his Nintendo Wii to the kids of my sister in law (my nephews) on his last visit, but they only had a few fairly crappy games for it (not even Wii Sports, I found out!). We were going to stay there and I wanted to give them one of the best games you can get for that system.

I also had to bring my original composite cable, as the old CRT TV in the living room that they had it set up to didn't accept RGB or component.

It took them a while to pull themselves away from Roblox on their tablet, but once they did, they became throroughly absorbed by the sheer wonder, imagination and playability on display in that game and they kept talking about the hungry lumas, the monster eels in the caves in Beach Bowl Galaxy, the scary black holes, Boo Mario and so much more, when we were out and about.

Image
That's a sweet CRT man.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 6:09 am
by Kacey
Alex79uk wrote: August 18th, 2019, 8:58 pm Did you ever try the Vita port of Most Wanted? I'm not a big fan of the open world racing game, but it was an impressive achievement fitting pretty much that entire game on to handheld, and it still looked great too.
YES! I had it when it was new. Absolutely incredible handheld port on the level of Midnight Club 3 and LA for the PSP. It had some pretty ugly textures and aliasing but genuinely, taking that with me to school at the time was worth it. I wanna pick up another copy.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 7:31 am
by Suits
I’ve completely stopped playing Fire Emblem.

It’s very good, I’m just not in the mood. Also, I’m thinking about restarting in hard, as everyone recommends.

So yeah, skipping that for the moment I feel.

I’ve just reached Hell in Doom 3 and very much enjoying that and listening/reading to all the PDA’s you find.

As well as that I’m still playing Yoshi’s Island on my SP mainly on the train into work and I’ve started Castlevania 2: Belmont’s Revenge in the Gameboy - it’s a much better game than the first on that console I’m almost every way. Mainly the controls and performance though.

Astral Chain next week, which I’m excited for - although the more gameplay videos I’m seeing the less I think I will enjoy it.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 7:46 am
by dezm0nd
Still struggling to find any enthusiasm for new games at the mo, so i'm relying on old favourites. I finished Doom 1 and 2, started 3 and Doom 2016 but I need a break from demon slaying.

Started the SNES DKC trilogy for the show in September, with varying results. More on the show! ;)

Also with Age of Empires HD hitting Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, I've started that. Hoping something completely different tickles my fancy.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 8:36 am
by stvnorman
I came across Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend for Game Boy Advance the other day, and a quick go turned into playing through its two or three hours of action platforming beat ‘em up in one go. The fighting is really solid but reminded me how the controls for many GBA games of this type were far deeper than they needed to be! There’s also some stealth and exploration to mix things up, but nothing too taxing. It looks really bold with good variety in the level designs and enemies, and it sounds like a Bruce Lee movie. Really fun game and great to be surprised by something you'd forgotten existed!

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 8:59 am
by Suits
stvnorman wrote: August 20th, 2019, 8:36 am I came across Bruce Lee: Return of the Legend for Game Boy Advance the other day.....
Cool man, sounds fun.

I’ll keep my eye out for this 👍🏽.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 1:44 pm
by ReprobateGamer
I always feel a little out of place as I read about all the obscure shmups and retro games everyone here seems to play and there's me stolidly plugging away on my Xbox One ...

Anyways,
I've gone back recently to Batman: Arkham Knight. Got this second hand Spring 2016, played through about the first third of the game then abandoned it until recently, with only a single play on the Harlequin DLC somewhere in autumn 2017. However, it's been sitting on my pile of shame so I decided to ignore the Destiny 2 Triumph this summer and instead try to clear Arkham Knight.
It certainly builds on what the series has done before - Batman moves fluidly and and the world of Gotham is delightfully gothic. Batman has access to many of his skills from the Arkhamverse and collects the rest pretty early on (no electric gloves though) and the access to a multi-person takedown (charged by silent takedowns) emboldens you a little more in the group fights/predator maps.
You now have access to the Batmobile almost all the time and this is very much in the flavour of DCEU Batman with a switch between speed racer or mobile tank. As a tank it controls great; as a car it suffers a little in tight quarters. Sadly, you get a lot of battles where you have to be in the batmobile and it ruins it. The Riddler now has death races as part of his quest line, there are APC's to chase down, bombs to disable whilst defending yourself from tank drones and this is all before all the instances in the main story.
We all wanted the Batmobile but not this much.

The story has the usual contrivance for explaining why everyone on the streets is an enemy but currently does seem to be a fitting end to the Arkhamverse series (it says trilogy but it confirms Origins as canon). The story is a reasonable explanation as to why all of his enemies are present and it's nice to see that his allies (at least some) are present. The 'twists' are pretty obvious but the acting is on point (Kevin Conway and Mark Hamil particularly)

I'm now around 75% complete and whilst I abandoned the riddler trophies in City, in Knight there are half the amount so I may press through with getting 100% of those (which I did also manage in Asylum) - also the Riddler is a massive douche and I welcome the chance to actually smash his sneering face in.

I'm not certain Rocksteady have ever quite managed to repeat the magic of Asylum in any of the Batman games since - it's always 'a good try but ...' - and having never gone back to Asylum, I wonder if the later games would influence how I find that game but I'm looking forward to seeing the end of this story - though part of me wonders what the rest of the Justice League would be like in this universe ...

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 2:01 pm
by Chopper
ReprobateGamer wrote: August 20th, 2019, 1:44 pm I always feel a little out of place as I read about all the obscure shmups and retro games everyone here seems to play and there's me stolidly plugging away on my Xbox One ...
:lol: I wouldn't worry about it; outside of those two threads I'm sure everyone on here feels a little bit like this at times - look at Clippa banging the drum for some terrible roguelike, or Simonsloth following his heart with the more obscure podcast games, or me doggedly documenting my baseball adventures. Just gotta be happy on the rare occasions there is some crossover ;)

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 3:11 pm
by Scrustle
Just finished off the Burial at Sea DLC for Bioshock Infinite, so that finally finished off my revisit of the series. With this DLC though, I'm coming away rather conflicted. I did originally have a long rant of stuff I was planning to spew out, but it feels a bit pedantic and tiresome to bother going over all that stuff. But it does suffer from many issues. The first episode feels like just more of the main game, but with a different skin. Carrying over all the same problems, except now with more limitations and some annoying enemy types that stop you from moving. The second episode changes it in to a stealth game, and it just drags on forever and feels very tedious. Narratively it feels like a clumsy attempt to insert the story of Infinite in to the original, while also trying to cover up some of the shortcomings of the main game. It tries to inelegantly explain away some of the inconsistencies, and also tries to justify the portrayal of Fitzroy and make her actions a bit more sympathetic. But it feels awkward, and also kind of doubles down on a lot of the original problems too. On top of that it also adds in its own inconsistencies to the world, before coming up with a rushed explanation of why they don't exist in the original at the last second. So overall it feels like something that uses the facade of something that people have nostalgia for, for the purposes of wading through all the problems of the main game that just ends up highlighting those issues, as well as creating a few more. Instead of connecting both games in an elegant way like it seems was the intention, it just muddies the waters more.

Yet, I can't deny that there were things about it that I enjoyed. Seeing Rapture before the collapse, if only for a short moment, was interesting. Although I have to say that feels like a bit of fan service rather than something with substance to it. The introduction to Episode 2 is a really beautiful sequence that fits in to the trend of this series having amazing intros. The exploration of Elizabeth's inner thoughts and feelings was on occasion quite compelling. And despite not liking most of how they try to over-explain things in general, seeing more of the history of Songbird and its relationship to Elizabeth was cool as well. Also a few of the individual cutscenes were really well executed and sold their drama very well. Also this version of Rapture is the most graphically impressive too, significantly better than the remaster, funnily.

But all of the things I did like feel kind of isolated and shallow compared to the bigger picture. They were well-crafted moments, highly effective individual snapshots. But all taking place within something that feels like it's fumbling around trying to patch up problems that exist with something else, and doing a poor job at it. Trying to fix the wrong things, and ungracefully inserting itself where it doesn't fit.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 3:17 pm
by Michiel K
Hevi_Metaru wrote: August 20th, 2019, 6:08 am That's a sweet CRT man.
Ehhh... It's had its best time. And only composite and RF in. :cry:
ReprobateGamer wrote: August 20th, 2019, 1:44 pm I always feel a little out of place as I read about all the obscure shmups and retro games everyone here seems to play and there's me stolidly plugging away on my Xbox One ...
So this is what it has come down to already.

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Posted: August 20th, 2019, 5:23 pm
by Chopper
Michiel K wrote: August 20th, 2019, 3:17 pm So this is what it has come down to already.
I don't know what you mean here Michiel, but I would say that Reprobate Gamer is not being negative about those games but just expressing a bit of uncertainty about his place on the forum. It can be a bit dispiriting on a discussion forum when no one else is playing the same games as you, though it's unavoidable with a small forum population and seemingly infinite numbers of games these days.