Whatcha Been Playing?

[Suits]

I think that particular version of the wasteland was just a little dull. There was a certain magic missing.

I think, or have suspicions, that I'm getting tired with the 'Wasteland' aesthetic. I mean, the same bland, wrecked, messy textures over and over soon become uninteresting. To me anyway.

I felt that with New Vegas, they sort of expanded on the style of things with Vault 22 and the other areas of less samey appearance.

Then, with the new Fallout 4 they would have expanded that even further and added a much-needed variety to the world.

Alas, I was wrong, so very wrong. Or so it feels.

[kintaris]

I think that particular version of the wasteland was just a little dull. There was a certain magic missing.

I think, or have suspicions, that I'm getting tired with the 'Wasteland' aesthetic. I mean, the same bland, wrecked, messy textures over and over soon become uninteresting. To me anyway.

I felt that with New Vegas, they sort of expanded on the style of things with Vault 22 and the other areas of less samey appearance.

Then, with the new Fallout 4 they would have expanded that even further and added a much-needed variety to the world.

Alas, I was wrong, so very wrong. Or so it feels.

You could be right. New Vegas and 3 are equally brilliant in my eyes, I felt Vegas switched things up in the right ways. Fallout 4 just felt like an extension of 3.

I had the Season pass for 4. I ended up selling the game without even touching the DLC. I just don't think there's any more to be said in that world unless they really shake up the political landscape. Maybe a 200 year time jump skipping a significant political upheaval, exactly as with Skyrim, would give the designers a chance to properly wipe the slate clean. They'd definitely need to get off the east coast as well.

[DomsBeard]

It isn't just me the. I put around 600 hours into Fallout 3, New Vegas and Skyrim and preordered digitally on ps4 Fallout 4 with all the dlc and bounced off it, I think it didn't feel enough of a new game to me.

I was excited to hear it was rumoured to be going psvr though but that ended up being Skyrim (which is amazing in vr after more time with it)

I have been playing Ultra Street Fighter 4 again and fallen back in love with it. There is still a community on there (although too many Ryu players). Still feels better than 5 although I do need to go back to that.

[Flabyo]

SFV is probably going to be worth taking another look at once the ‘arcade edition’ update drops early next year. Looks to be adding a decent amount of new SP content alongside all the balance changes, new moves and the start of a third season of new characters.

[Suits]

New Vegas and 3 are equally brilliant in my eyes, I felt Vegas switched things up in the right ways. Fallout 4 just felt like an extension of 3.

Pretty much sums up my feelings about those Fallout games too. Well said.

NV is my personal highlight, something I look back on very fondly and every time I replayed it, felt like I had a slightly differently lit experience.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

SFV is probably going to be worth taking another look at once the ‘arcade edition’ update drops early next year. Looks to be adding a decent amount of new SP content alongside all the balance changes, new moves and the start of a third season of new characters.

I definitely bounced of Street Fighter V, due to the content, or lack thereof. So the Arcade edition, when it comes out next year, will be the first time I pick it up.

[ThirdDrawing]

Been flip flopping between Mario and Zelda. Zelda really feels like an RPG for the first time. Mario feels....just different. Especially from Super Mario 3D World. Not in a bad way though. It just really feels like Nintendo listened to a lot of the criticism from the Wii U and applied it to games on the Switch. Really happy with both games.

[rob25X]

Persona 4 Arena.

My first experience with a Persona title and would rate it as one of the best beat-em-ups I've ever played (even better than SFIV and MvC3!).

The game is stunning to look at. Everything looks polished and super stylish from the title screen and characters to the combos and finishing moves. 10/10 for visuals. The voice work is excellent too.

A superb fighting game in every way. Highly recommended.

[deacon05oc]

Haven’t been on the forum in a while. I bought a ton of new games including South Park, GT Sport and Horizon Zero Dawn. Yet I’ve barely touched them and have been revisiting Metal Gear Solid. And now it’s gotten its claws in me and I want to go through the series again. Hopefully I will be able to finish Phantom Pain at last.

[Stanshall]

I've been playing the hell out of GT Sport, funnily enough. After really enjoying Forza 7, I expected very little from GTS. Turns out it has better handling than any driving game this gen and it looks stunning. The car's the star. Backgrounds and lighting not as impressive and realistic as Forza but it plays like a mother fucker. The sense of weight to the handling is tremendous, you can feel when you do something just right and you can feel why. It's spot on from that perspective. Also, the car models are absolutely gorgeous, an almost fetishistic precision and glorification. Proper get the wanking glove out material.

[Joshihatsumitsu]

If GT Sport had an substantial off-line mode, I'd be onboard, but until then, nah... which is a shame considering the work that goes into it.

According to my PSN purchase history, I bought Okami HD (PS3) back in March of 2016, and near the end of 2017 I'm finally diving into it.

Only 5 hours in, so barely scratched the surface, but if there's one conclusion I've drawn, it's that the animals in the game are absurdly cute, especially the boars! Adorable.

As a nerd who loves folklore, especially yokai, I am loving the design of the demons and monsters. Much like bird watchers, I grab my copy of Yokai Attack!, and mark off yokai I spot. It's an aspect of Persona 5 (and previous entries) that I find fascinating.

I'm sure some are technically yurei, but then I'm not a scholar or an expert. Just love folklore.

[Michiel K]

With news of the servers getting shut down by the end of February 2018, I figured it's finally time to grab that pretty much unplayed copy of Demon's Souls off my shelf and start playing it.

Even though I have a bit of experience with the original Dark Souls, it takes some adjusting. I'm inching my way through the Boletarian Palace with a Royalty class character, trying to make sense of it all, dying, repeating what I've learned before, recovering my souls and getting a bit further. Let's see if I can make it to the end before that server shutdown!

[ratsoalbion]

I really wanna join you in this endeavour MK!

[Michiel K]

Let's do it, man!

[KSubzero1000]

Oh, I had no idea there was gonna be a server shutdown! Hope you enjoy your time with it and manage to persevere all the way to the end, Michiel. Demon's Souls has its fair share of flaws and oddities, but it is an incredible game in its own right that gave birth to one of the most important franchises in gaming history. Definitely a must-play in my book.

[Michiel K]

Yeah, I could of course still play it after the servers are down, but now is probably the best moment for if I want to experience all its features.

I'm all about perseverance, by the way, but I'm about to give up on completing Fire Emblem: Awakening. I play on Hard-Classic and I can't seem to clear one of the final chapters without losing people. It's reinforcements that appear and attack in the same turn that p me off the most. Reinforcements are cool in the other games as they force you to rethink your tactics and to regroup and close rank, but there is none of that if they appear out of nowhere and gang up on one of your more vulnerable units in the same turn. Absolutely disgusting.

[KSubzero1000]

I hear ya, man. I'm more willing to give others in the series a pass on that because they're so fantastic otherwise, but it is a baffling and frustrating design choice. Awakening is simply not a well designed game.

[Michiel K]

Yeah, I'm forcing my way through it now, where I had fun with it initially. I'm starting to dislike it more the further I get. It's almost like the answer is to grind mindlessly against the zombie soldiers or DLC missions and I'm not planning on doing that. Grinding is one of the most absurd and unfun things to do in video games, for me.

[KSubzero1000]

Friendly reminder that there are some cool articles on that very subject waiting for you!

On-topic: I've decided to replay the Metroid Prime trilogy, and I just finished MP1's beginning Frigate level. What a fantastic introductory level it is. It effortlessly teaches the player all of the primary mechanics, teases the game's secondary antagonist and has just enough lore tidbits to set up the larger events to be discovered later on. Must have been quite the eye-opener when it first came out!

I know a lot of people aren't particularly fond of having their abilities confiscated at the end of the tutorial, but it never really bothered me. If anything, it forces you to learn how to survive without them at first and makes it all the more satisfying to get them back over the course of the game.

[Todinho]

Awakening is simply not a well designed game.

Could you elaborate a little bit more, the reinforment thing I remember being pretty annoying but other then that I thought awakening was mechanically sound, now from what I understand long time Fire Emblem fans like yourselves dont seem to like awakening all that much but I dont think I ever got why. I think you might've gone into it before but if you dont mind could go into it again?
Also what is your assessement of Fates is it better in your eyes or does it continues on a wrong path?

Speaking of grinds in SRPGs Im months slogging through the final chapter of Tatics Ogre and boy do I wish I was playing Awakening instead because boy griding in Ogre is so bad...