Whatcha Been Playing?

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

Post by Flabyo »

I’ve mostly stopped caring about being able to land the ship well now, just smash it into where I’m trying to go and forget about it. There don’t *seem* to be many places that need you to be a precision flyer...
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Finally got my hands on Virtua Racing for Switch. On,y time for a quick go so far but wow!

Resident Evil 2 Remake is really, really good. The tension is incredible (especially when the big dude starts following you about), with great plot balance that gives you just enough freedom to make you have to think hard about what’s next, based on where you’ve been and what you’ve seen. Second only to Baba is You as my favourite game of the year so far!

Finished NES Kid Icarus on Switch. I’d always thought it was a platformer, but having played it through it’s far closer to the first two Zelda games than anything else... Except for the side-scrolling shooter last section, which took a few attempts but was less challenging than the similar ending to Super Mario Land which I’ve always struggled with for some reason!

Also finished Mega Man 6 on the Switch Legacy Collection. Very enjoyable but definitely easier and shorter than its predecessors. That’s the first six games done in just over a year! Definitely 11 on PS4 next.

Finally, also finished Game Boy Balloon Kid on 3DS, which was about £1.30 last week with MyNintendo Rewards. The first few stages are fairly pedestrian, but then the challenge ramps up a bit with new elemental hazards and more dynamic enemies, and the last stage really goes nuts demanding precision platforming from your floaty balloons. It’s definitely not going to be an all time favourite like its predecessor and its score-based simplicity, but it’s been really enjoyable and definitely great value!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

After being a bit apprehensive in the lead up to release, I decided to pull the trigger on Judgment after seeing that it mostly is more or less another Yakuza game, just with a bit of a spin on the formula. I have to say though, the opening hours are not thrilling me. Most of my worries have turned out to be true, although I suppose they have been less of a problem than I was expecting they might be. But other stuff has been a bit disappointing too. The detective themed mechanics in this game are pretty dull and tedious to be honest. Tailing people and picking locks isn't very interesting, and the drone that seemed like it might be one of the more fun parts of these new mechanics is kind of sluggish and not fun to fly. Not in the investigation sections at least. I've yet to get to the races. Although it is pretty fun to get a different perspective on the city using it. But these investigation sections don't come up quite as frequently as I was worried they would, and they're not awful. They mostly feel like busywork, not so bad as to ruin the game. Exploring the city and getting in to fights is still a very big part of the experience. I was somewhat worried whether that kind of thing would tonally fit, but it seems to get away with it mostly. You play as a character who is far from clean cut, and is familiar with the world of the yakuza, so it doesn't feel too inappropriate that he would get in to that sort of trouble fairly often.

The story though... I don't know how to sum it up. So far I'm find it pretty boring, and it's dragging a lot, but I am intrigued to see where it goes. I don't how to explain it. It sets up a murder mystery which is involving, and I want to see where it goes, but at the same time actually watching that process has been quite dull. I don't think it's the pacing, because there's already been a few twists thrown in to keep me on the hook. Maybe it's because the main character himself isn't interesting. Something quite unusual for protagonists of this series. He doesn't have much personality or energy, and he isn't entertaining to watch interact with anyone else. It's still very early on though. I have heard that this is just problems with the first chapter, and it picks up much more in chapter 2. It definitely wouldn't be the first time these games have had a slow start. This first chapter is oddly long though. I think I've reached a point that must surely be at the end of the chapter, or very close to it, but I've already been playing for like 5 hours or so. Mostly focusing on the main story too, since there isn't much else to do right now anyway. I trust it will pick up soon because of the things I've heard, but this game makes a seriously bad first impression.

I also played a bit of the beta for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne and this is another one I'm not sure on. In a way that is almost opposite to Judgment. I was pretty confident I was all in on this as soon as it was announced, but now I've played it I'm not sure. Not that there's anything wrong with it. It seems that it is basically what it looks like. More MHW. Now with some new tricks up its sleeve. I played the two hunts that have the new monsters, out of the three they give you. Banbaro, the bipedal elk thing, was pretty entertaining to fight. I really like the visual design of that monster. Watching it thrash around in the snow and pick up fallen trees is pretty impressive. I also attempted Tigrex, but I didn't beat it. That thing is extremely hard, and I just wasn't feeling up to it. Too fast to keep track of, too unpredictable, too hard hitting. I am pretty rusty at the game, and although I tried using some of the new mechanics, I didn't really get the hang of them. I've heard that monster has a reputation of being one of the hardest in the series anyway, so I wasn't expecting to jump right in and walk all over it. And if this demo is anything like the original one, the gear they gives you is probably underpowered for that fight anyway. But aside from all that, getting thrown around like that and not being able to get a decent look in, brought back memories of why I burnt out on this game to begin with. I just hit a wall with monsters that were too much, and weren't fun to fight either. Apparently this expansion is supposed to focus on late game stuff, so I'm worried that it'll just mostly be more than I can deal with. I ran out of energy for dealing with that already. But I don't know how focused on this sort of thing it will be. Banbaro was pretty manageable after all. So I don't know what to think right now. Release is still a long ways off, so I have time to think on it I guess.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

I remembered that there are also non-shmup games available and since Virtua Racing arrived on the EU eShop, I jumped back in amidst all the excitement. Tremendous game, it's probably never looked better and that blue sky Sega retro futurism is perfect for an age where we have discovered that the future is largely bollocks and the Earth is irreversibly fucked. It's been said many times in many places that the purity and mastery of the design of the three tracks puts many dull driving games to shame. It's exciting, fluid, and very tough to master. A triumph. The magnificent M2 port I didn't know I wanted.

Fresh from VR, the M2 team has also brought Space Harrier to the Japanese eShop this week, and it's as wonderful as I remember it - one of my earliest memories of the arcade and one which I still find visually thrilling. Those Yu Suzuki games are like nothing else, not just for their distinctive engine, but the sense of sheer exhilaration. The theme tune is also an evergreen favourite, evoking flight and freedom and adventure. It makes me feel a youthful vitality that I'm trying vainly to cling onto! It takes me back thirty years, quite frankly, and it's as blindingly brilliant as ever.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

I have made it to Champion rank in the current season of Mk11 ranked play. I really wasn’t expecting to get this far up. It’s the fourth tier of nine, and the three tiers below don’t lose you very many points for a loss, but you still have to be able to beat the sheer flood of people playing Scorpion without getting bored to tears to get out of there.

If I go no higher, I’ll still be happy. I don’t usually do even close to this well in ranked modes.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

Pocket City.

It's just the right amount of sim management for me. Loving it
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

dezm0nd wrote: June 30th, 2019, 5:04 pm Pocket City.

It's just the right amount of sim management for me. Loving it
Ah yes, I spent a good few weeks playing that a while back. Really nice and simple, reminded me of the SNES Sim City before the games got so complicated!
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

So, I’ve pretty much just played Super Mario Maker 2 all weekend since launch.

Firstly, what I feel is the most commonly asked question by people, is that is there anything to do in this game if you don’t enjoy or have any interest in the making side of things – well there is, plenty. Certainly, much more than there was in the previous game.

You have the story mode, where you are tasked with re-building Peach’s Castel by earning coins and instructing Toad’s to work. It’s a nice little mode where you play Nintendo created levels which show off the games features in a sort of drip-fed way that introduce the games mechanics and ideas. Not being hamstrung by a theme or Mario scenario (Hills, Desert, Field, Ice, Water, etc…) you can really see the Nintendo team go crazy with ideas. It’s really fun and some of them get really quite challenging.

Clearly designed to inspire the creating side of things I feel.

Then you have the endless challenge mode where similarly to the 100 or 10 Mario challenge of the previous game you have a number of lives and play a random level from the created levels pool. For the first few days this was very well curated I feel with most levels being very fun to play, then last night, I started to see some silly, pointless levels creep in.
Ones where you open a door at the start and fall directly onto the flag, or just flat levels, with one enemy. Sadly, this was a problem with the first game which made the mode totally random as to whether you were going to enjoy it. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out over time.

I jumped into the easy mode, which, as you can pick up lives as you go, means, it will probably be endless, I’m at level 30 now with over 40 lives – so I wonder if this will ever end !!

I think, by then, if you’ve spent some time with those modes you will likely be motivated to try your hand at some level creating.

Now, you can creating on the TV.

You can use the control pad to make things, which has been implemented by the use of lots of shortcuts. The D-pad takes you instantly to the four side bar options and the tools within those to create. The items are on radials which makes things snappy. You then use the analogue stick to move about the grid and place your items. You have an undo button and most things are mapped well to the face buttons.

However, if you played the first one, this will feel clunky, slow and frustrating.

I do all my building in handheld mode with a stylus.

Firstly, compared to the Wii U, it feels bad I think. Now, I don’t think this is because I’m used to the Wii U gamepad, I just think it feels worse than using the Gamepad. The Switch is a lot heavier than the Gamepad, so It’s awkward to hold. I’m somewhere between how you hold the gamepad and how you hold a DS say. My little finger on my left hand is in bits this morning from holding it all weekend.

Also, I feel like the input is less precise than on the Wii. I’m using the Mario Maker stylus but occasionally I feel like it’s a little fiddley and I often put the wrong input in.

What is really cool though, are the gestures that this version has.

Because the Switch has a capacitive screen, it can read more than one input on its screen, because of this you can pinch to zoom and double finger swipe to scroll the level. Vert handy for getting about quickly.

Also, the shortcut buttons are back (Copy/Multi-grab/Erase), if a little more awkward this time out due to the form of the Switch and aren’t as chunky as the Gamepad.

Initially I didn’t like the new item menus, I was used to the rows and groups of icons that you could configure from the old one, however now, I can fly about the tile sets very quickly and it makes much more sense.

I feel that I’m almost as efficient as I was on the Gamepad now after a weekends play, if a little uncomfortable.

I really enjoy the creation side of things and while I’m nowhere near the level of what most people put out, I still very much enjoy making things and seeing people play them and what feedback they get.

Regards Feedback, this game will live and die on how people leave its feedback, as it’s critical to weeding out what the good stuff is to the shovelwear so my generally rule of thumb is…..

If I enjoyed a level, or an aspect of it that, I like it.

If I’m no plussed by it but see some value in people playing it to either learn something or get better, I do nothing.

If it’s a waste of time, like a pointless dull auto-scroll, troll level or a boring 1-1 remake, I dislike it.

That is pretty much how I fall on things.

I’m very much enjoying my time with this and so far is everything I could have hoped for.

I hope as time goes by new software tools will become available to allow sharing things between friends will be easier.

I feel like there is a mode for whatever mood I’m and it’s so easy to just pick up and play for long or short bursts.

I’ll keep the community thread updated and hopefully we can all have a good laugh with this wonderful game.
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Stanshall
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

It's so so good. I just got my monthly Switch usage report and I apparently played it for nineteen hours in the last three days somehow!

Absolutely adore this game.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Pitwar »

Crash Team Racing

I've not played the original from the PS1, but saw way too many people gushing over CTR that I had to give the remaster a go.

It's a great kart racer for sure, but the adventure mode seems to be really hard from a very early point. I also tried to play online but came last every time.

Pleased I picked it up though as it's always nice to have a kart racer for local multiplayer shenanigans.

Also, Game had a deal on where if you bought this you got the Crash trilogy remaster for just over £10, so I picked that up too having not played any of the games included before.

Detroit: Become Human

I've played all of Cage's previous work and after finishing his latest game always say that will be the last, but Detroit was £15 so I felt compelled to give it a go.

I'm only at the very start but it's very Cage, so if you're not into his stuff I'd maybe avoid it, but I'll play it through to completion for sure.

The Division 2

Divs 2 is still my go to game, I just love it.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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clippa wrote: July 1st, 2019, 9:04 am You seen this brazen knockoff, suits? Without nintendo tidying up, I dread to think how many cock shaped wonders await.
One of the bad reviews says that most of the community made levels involve spikes and precision jumping. Well, yeah, most people don't have a natural gift for level design, they're just gonna be trolling their friends.
Yeah, there were a few that came out similar to the original and in ways were better surrounding the community stuff and starring.

Well, yeah, there is that. People do tend to enjoying making precise platform levels, Super Meat Boy esc if you like, I enjoy them as when you beat them they are very rewarding - although my preference are the more puzzle based levels, doors, keys, coins, switches etc.. which is what I generally gravitate towards when making my own fun.

It’s just so varied and benefits greatly from the pick up and play factor.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I've been playing Interstellar Transport Company, which is a space logistics game where you don't own any of the resources, but are merely in charge of getting them from A to B.

It's a bit weird. You start on Earth as it begins its colonisation phase, and you must ensure that the Mars colonists for example, are delivered enough colonists, food, water, machinery etc to thrive. But these resources fluctuate - for example as more machinery is made available, they need less food and water, as I guess they begin terraforming/manufacturing. So you then need to repurpose your water carriers into ships taking Martian resources back to earth, or delivering medicine or luxury goods as the colony advances.

You also seem to be able to influence the development of the colony by subsidising various industries (an act that has led to accusations of Communism on the game's forum :lol: ) and therefore creating demand for more goods.

It's...odd. I admit I might not fully understand it, but it seems to be a plate spinning exercise where you are constantly buying new ships, repurposing ships, creating and deleting delivery routes depending on what is in demand at any one time. So lots of clicking, and no real sense of accomplishment apart from numbers going up. We will see.
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

Pitwar wrote: July 1st, 2019, 9:32 amDivs 2 is still my go to game, I just love it.
Me too!

Division 2 is so very well done. It looks beautiful and the level of detail in the world is incredible (playing on One X). The gameplay and systems are easy to pick up and hard to master. There's also so much content and so many things to see and do, while performance is incredibly sturdy too. Barely a drop-out in around 30 hours of play, and hardly a bug in sight!

For all the criticisms 'games as a service' titles get (not enough content, buggy, online problems etc), Division 2 pretty much dodged them all. I really don't think Ubisoft have had a enough credit for just how complete and high quality an overall package this game is.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I've been playing the greatest racing game ever made (aka Gran Turismo 2) on my Vita. I love this series - well, up to the last gen games at least. Its just such a deep, immersive sim. I love taking an old banger and tuning the living shit out of it. The endurance races, the license tests, the RPG-like grind to earn money for new cars - all of it! And because this version of the game was before they started imposing limitations on which cars could be used in which races, if you wanted to tune up a 900bhp monster and take it around the Sunday Cup, literally lapping cars on their first lap, then you could! Brilliant game, and I'm genuinely sad with the direction the series has gone. There are scant few series I'd love to see a new game done right for more than this.

Image
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Sinclair Gregstrum wrote: July 1st, 2019, 1:24 pm
Pitwar wrote: July 1st, 2019, 9:32 amDivs 2 is still my go to game, I just love it.
Me too!

Division 2 is so very well done. It looks beautiful and the level of detail in the world is incredible (playing on One X). The gameplay and systems are easy to pick up and hard to master. There's also so much content and so many things to see and do, while performance is incredibly sturdy too. Barely a drop-out in around 30 hours of play, and hardly a bug in sight!

For all the criticisms 'games as a service' titles get (not enough content, buggy, online problems etc), Division 2 pretty much dodged them all. I really don't think Ubisoft have had a enough credit for just how complete and high quality an overall package this game is.
Div2 continues to be that game that is not as good as the sum of it's parts. Almost every aspect is improved from the first but it just doesn't seem to gel cohesively.
It continues to try to get me to do the next encounter though I'm still slogging through the story missions for the first time (Xbox doesn't track how many hours I've played but I'll estimate 40-50 hours since March) and and the match making sucks (that is worse than the first game). As an example, I reached the Potomac Centre mission to the west of the map, selected story difficulty, went into matchmaking then came out of the menu with matchmaking in the background and started the mission. In Div 1, I would then either have someone join me, usually within the first minute or so, or I'd be prompted to join someone else in mission and would click to accept to join them.
Clicked accept on the prompt and was teleported into another persons game - somewhere on the east side of the map past the Base of Operations defending a control point. Which meant leaving their party, then having to fast travel back to the nearest safe house to then track the 1km distance back to the story mission I had wanted to play several minutes before.
And then whilst going through the mission, having to ignore the constant prompts to join someone else's game (which return even if you decline or let them run out).

I hope that this is improved once I reach the endgame which is about the only reason I'm pushing through as it drives me nuts currently.

Maybe I just need to arrange a game with pitwar and Sinclair Gregstrum as they seem to be having a better time of it than I ...
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James
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by James »

Been having a bit of a backlog blast over the past week. A few years ago, my backlog stood at something like 600 games; between changing PSN accounts (before PSN ID changes were allowed) and spending the odd week/weekend clearing a bunch of games, I'm now down under 100.

I've taken to giving each game half an hour to see if it grabs me. Not much time, I know, but many of these games have sat on my gaming shelf for years, and I figure if 30 minutes of playing them isn't enough to reignite my enthusiasm for them then 5 or 10 or 50 hours likely won't.

Anyway, over the past week I've tried:

Absolver
- Seemed cool, but I couldn't get a handle on the dodge timing at all.
2064: Read Only Memories
- Really cool, but slow adventure game. Will carve out time for it in future.
Badland
- Glitched out repeatedly. Solved one glitch only to bounce right into another. Shame.
Beyond: Two Souls
- I'm starting to really dislike the clunky way characters control in these games. More on that later.
Burly Men At Sea
- Loved it. (See 'Games Completed' thread.)
Child Of Light
- Truly beautiful. I all too quickly tired of the combat though.
Hatoful Boyfriend
- Loved it. (See 'Game Completed' thread.)
inFAMOUS: Second Son
- I want nothing to do with the morality system. Electric shot/dash/glide/grenade, but smoke instead.
For Honor
- Combat seems interesting, but I got hand cramp during the lengthy tutorial and couldn't block for toffee.
Batman: The Telltale Series
- Story was very uneven, I thought. And the game was glitchy. Still finished it though.
Knack
- Really disliked the tutorial and pretty much everything else. Would rather play Ratchet & Clank.
Lumo
- Wrestled with the controls to and beyond the point of frustration.
Transformers: Devastation
- Combat seemed fast, fluid and fun. Navigating the environment seemed really confusing.
Mad Max
- The driving is apparently better than in RAGE 2, but I wasn't enjoying it at all. Not feeling it.
Life Is Strange: Season 1
- More clunky controls. How close does Max have to get to someone before deciding to look at them? Hella close.
Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime
- Seemed like it'd be a cool co-op game. But solo it's heavy on the micro-management.
Rogue Aces
- Hitting grounded targets was so frustrating. (Almost all targets are on the ground.)
Risk Of Rain
- No idea what I was doing, but definitely got the rogue-like itch. Will return.
Resident Evil (HD)
- Oof. Per comments on Beyond and Life Is Strange, I don't know if I can handle these controls, or that camera perspective. Door locked, encounter zombie, walk backwards, shoot zombie five times, get grabbed, shake off, repeat.
We Are Doomed
- Seemed fun. Screen was a bit busy, so it was tough to see what was going on. Made me want to play Geometry Wars.
Type:Rider
- Enjoyed this. Will probably go back to read/play more.
Trackmania Turbo
- Why do I have to pick which medal I'm going for? I guess I'm just picking the ghost? Kinda want to drive more than the game lets me.
The Bridge
- Really dig the hand-drawn aesthetic. Completed a couple of worlds, but ended up resorting to trial-and-error tilting more than I thought I would.
Hue
- Another platformer. Again, I liked the aesthetic, but this was way more linear than the Metroidvania I mistook it for.
Until Dawn
- I'd seen the opening before. Playing it was no more appealing. More clunky controls. Can't they all just bite the dust now? And you Creeper Stormare.
Trials Fusion
- Only just got the hang of being gentle on the accelerator and leaning. Will go back to finally use the brake.
The Talos Principle
- The movement is so fast! Enjoyed the physicality of this; puzzle solving that encouraged movement as much as thinking, similar to Portal or Antichamber.

A few I finished, and a few have been earmarked for me to go back to. Most, sadly, didn't capture my imagination, so have come off my backlog altogether. I say "sadly", but between the games I play for Cane And Rinse and the never-ending tidal wave of new games it'll actually be a relief to get my backlog down to something manageable.

P.S. Sorry if I've done anyone's favourite game a disservice. I wish I had time to persist with all these games. :oops:
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I really enjoyed Infamous: Second Son - it opens up to loads more than just smoke based stuff. It was more of the same for the series, but I really liked the first two games, too. I'd definitely be up for more, although I do still have Last Light to play actually. Did you give up on it or you going to play any more? The story wasn't bad either, if a little generic.
James wrote: July 1st, 2019, 4:59 pm Trackmania Turbo
- Why do I have to pick which medal I'm going for? I guess I'm just picking the ghost? Kinda want to drive more than the game lets me.
Yeah I wanted to love this, but just got irritated with the stop/start bite sized gameplay. Just let me race on crazy tracks!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by James »

Alex79uk wrote: July 1st, 2019, 5:15 pm I really enjoyed Infamous: Second Son - it opens up to loads more than just smoke based stuff. It was more of the same for the series, but I really liked the first two games, too. I'd definitely be up for more, although I do still have Last Light to play actually. Did you give up on it or you going to play any more? The story wasn't bad either, if a little generic.
Yeah, the game hinted it would expand to more than smoke abilities, the opening just seemed eerily familiar. I really wasn't a fan of the first inFAMOUS, so hearing that this is in the same style only puts me off further. Didn't really like anything about what I played, sadly. I'd actually forgotten there was an inFAMOUS 2 until you mentioned the "first two games". I think I played a demo or the start of that game too, but wasn't sold.

I've heard good things about Last Light. Though, I'm zero-for-three on the series, so maybe not for me. :(
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Transformers: Devastation is excellent. It gets a lot easier to navigate after the earlier levels. It gets far more linear once you get past the starting levels in the city. Combat is of course great, and it has a really good soundtrack, and amusingly cheesy voice acting. I don't have any affinity for Transformers at all, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I have tried Absolver and it seems like it's got some really deep and unique combat, and a cool world, but I was useless at it. Couldn't get my head around it either. But I can tell there's something quite special there if you can crack it. I get the feeling it will be one of those games that, many years from now, will have a small but vocal group of people talking about how it was a forgotten classic that no one remembers.

I've also tried The Bridge, and that's a pretty intriguing puzzle game that really makes the most of its Escher style aesthetic, but it's extremely hard. Another one that I couldn't crack. It also annoyingly had odd numbered achievements on the 360, so I stopped playing at a certain point when I hit a round number. So if you want to annoy people with OCD, that's a good game to try.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Stanshall »

clippa wrote: July 1st, 2019, 9:04 am edit: Haha, oh right, that's where you've been, stuck in an infinite mario hell hole! I thought you didn't much like platformers? This ticking your boxes regardless?
Yeah, I've gone deep into this one. I've always been a massive Nintendo fan since I was a kid and that's always been my main thing, really. Nintendo, 2D fighters, driving games and the Souls games were probably 80% of what I loved before I got into shmups. I've not been terribly excited by much of their first party stuff, though, since 2017. Smash is fun and I'm sure it's very deep and so on but it doesn't really inspire me too much. SMM2 is a bona fide banger, though. Top drawer.

As for platformers, Mario set the bar so high when I was a kid, not much else touches the sides. Donkey Kong Country is great in its own way, I really enjoyed Celeste, but that's probably it that I can remember. I wish I got Sonic because I'm very fond of Sega but I find the fast bits too automated and the slow bits too fiddly and unwieldy. Obviously I've enjoyed 2D scrolling games, like Dead Cells and others, but I wouldn't call them platformers, as such. I ought to like Meat Boy but for some reason, I just don't.
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