Whatcha Been Playing?

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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... I/htmlview

Hey CaR, I have a massive backlog. I have the full list of games, plus a How Long To Beat score. Suggest me something under 12 hours and I'll try to play and beat it this weekend. Probably stream too, unless it's DS or 3DS (and some PS2 game won't stream either, because they display at bizarro resolutions).

Have at 'er. Fix my indecision.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

Binary Domain. 11 hours so you’ve got an hour of wiggle room! Flawed gem.
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shadowless_kick
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by shadowless_kick »

I recently beat River City Girls and really enjoyed it. The presentation is fantastic, with the world and characters really bursting with life and personality. (One touch I really appreciated is the iPad/tablet screen that doubles as the game's menu. Kyoko, the bubbly girl, has cutesy animal stickers on hers. On the other hand, Misako, the no-nonsense chick, has got nothing but a cracked screen. Unecessary, but very cool detail that adds to the characterization 8-) )

The combat is fun and the sense of impact from the attacks is oh-so-satisfying. Without spoiling anything, the game gives you an incentive to play through again, and I've still got loads of techniques I've yet to try out in new game+. Overall, definitely recommend if you're into brawlers.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Magical_Isopod wrote: January 16th, 2020, 12:18 pm https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... I/htmlview

Hey CaR, I have a massive backlog. I have the full list of games, plus a How Long To Beat score. Suggest me something under 12 hours and I'll try to play and beat it this weekend. Probably stream too, unless it's DS or 3DS (and some PS2 game won't stream either, because they display at bizarro resolutions).

Have at 'er. Fix my indecision.
Detroit.
ThirdMan

Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdMan »

ThirdMan wrote: January 16th, 2020, 12:06 am
clippa wrote: January 15th, 2020, 2:09 am
ThirdMan wrote: January 13th, 2020, 12:54 amI've been playing Caves of Qud,
This is real jumping in at the deep end stuff!

Golden Krone Hotel, Cardinal Quest 2, Hack, Slash, Loot and Dungeons of Dreadmor all have mac builds if you're looking for something less daunting. They're much more my speed.
Yep, it sure is. I've played multiple runs so far and I'm getting slaughtered.

Thanks for the links. I think I'll go for Dungeons of Dredmor. It looks a lot lighter in tone and I could use a good laugh right now!
None of those were on GOG.com so I went for Tales of Maj'Eyal. Another hardcore experience by all accounts but it's been a bit easier to get into so far.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

Thanks to Alex79uk’s recent post about Mega Man X, I’ve been playing Mega Man X again on the SNES Classic Mini. I do love it! And thanks to that, I’ve also started Super Castlevania IV again on there. Neither of which was planned, but both are very welcome as always!

After many months of sporadic play, I’ve finally finished NES Punch-Out on Switch. By the time you get there, the last few regular fights aren’t that hard once you’ve worked out the patterns, then you meet the final opponent and things get far more unpredictable and very frustrating. But in the end, a three sentence guide, finding out there’s a way to dodge quicker, and enough attempts to relive every frame whenever I close my eyes for the rest of my life sorted me out, and a points victory eventually came!

I also finished Spyro the Dragon on PS4. The final boss level stinks - piece of cake when you eventually catch him, but prolonged multi-stage high speed chases across narrow platforms, combined with dodgy PS1-era controls and shocking checkpointing, pretty much ruined what had been a really pleasant experience for me. I’m going back to Mega Man again now... far less stressful!
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dezm0nd
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

Ring fit adventure. World 1.

Want to curl and cry after that workout.

Also it's a good game to play!
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

Started ‘Children of Morta’ which is a diablo style roguelike that’s just been added to gamepass.

Impressed so far. The progression system is similar to Dead Cells in that each run you gain things that make you permanently a little better, so next time you go a bit further.

Multiple characters to choose, some unlock as you progress the story. Has a nice mechanic where reaching level milestones with a character unlocks a buff that gets applied to all the characters, encouraging you to keep mixing and matching who you’re using.

Has couch co-op, but no online co-op, which seems a shame to me, but it’s plenty fun played solo.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I rented Control and.... I have no idea what to think. It plays well, but 2 hours in I'm getting massive "style over substance" vibes. Everything happening on the screen is cool, but it lacks the context to make it meaningful. Everything is conveyed with this deliberately vague narrative, and it's rather frustrating. I'm gonna keep playing and see if it goes anywhere, but I'm concerned it won't.
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Suits
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Suits »

dezm0nd wrote: January 19th, 2020, 9:37 am Ring fit adventure. World 1.

Want to curl and cry after that workout.

Also it's a good game to play!
Gnarly, isn't it.

Really gets the heart and blood pumping.

My boy would stand next to me while I played and got really into chasing down Dragaux.

The main reason that I stopped playing was that I found it's rather heavy on the knees, regardless of how you choose to play it, which sadly and makes it a no no for me and my knees of cheese.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Having just got PS Now I spent the evening playing Dirt 4 and Red Dead Redemption. Dirt 4 is a lot of fun. I already have Dirt Rally, which is a brilliant rally sim, but Dirt 4 seems a little more arcadey, and I'll definitely be dipping in and out of it over the next few weeks. Red Dead Redemption is still great in terms of the world and atmosphere, but it doesn't look as pretty as I remember it! I've also got Wolfenstein The New Order ready to play having been meaning to have a look at that series for ages. I loved RTCW back in the day, and am I right in thinking this New Order is the first game of the 'rebooted' series? Only there's a Wolfenstein released in 2009 for PS3 and 360, so I wasn't sure if that was the starting point?
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdMan »

I dusted off my Intel Pentium Potato last night for some classic PC gaming (meaning I bought Deus Ex for €0.99 before I realised it wasn't Mac compatible). I installed the GMDX mod which gives it a new lick of paint amongst many other upgrades and fixes. It was my first experience with a mod and, speaking as a lifelong console player, I found it quite remarkable. Such love and dedication. Very impressive.
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dezm0nd
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

Children of Morta on gamepass has definitely got my intrigued
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I dipped on Control after watching some reviews, because it seems like even the "payoff" is not something I'm especially interested in.

I started playing Metroid Prime 3 though and you know what? Freaking excellent. I'm going in totally blind, and it's surprising me. Not at all what I expected.
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Chopper
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I lost a full week to Slay the Spire, so I'm hoping to get back to Outward today.

@Ksub - how is 'Hike the Faroe Islands!" going?
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Picked up Horizon Chase Turbo the other day on the Switch. It's got a lot of cool things about it I like, but a couple of things that I'm not so keen on, so I'm not sure I'm sold on the whole thing yet. It's an homage to those old 2D sprite-scaling racing games, despite using polygon graphics. They do an amazing job of recreating the weird illusion of depth those games had. Technologically, it's quite impressive. The problem is, I've never really liked those games. They never felt right to me, because that weird depth illusion always felt off. And it's not like you're actually controlling a car and pointing it where you want it to go, instead you're shifting it right and left along an axis, where corners aren't real and all they really do is push you to one side. But I think I'm starting to get used to the weird logic of it. It's almost like you don't really pay attention to the track in front of you, and instead react to things as they come at you, like Guitar Hero in a way. Or maybe Thumper is a better comparison, but I've not played that. I still don't really like having to deal with traffic though. Kind of like how your car moves, they don't move very naturally either, and when you bonk in to them it feels unfairly punishing. Always pushing you back, even if you glance off the side. And frequently it seems to happen when there's no way you could have avoided it.

Visually it's really impressive. It's got a really clean and colourful look to it, with a lot of personality put in to the backgrounds. They manage to create a lot out of not many assets. And it's refreshingly uncomplicated, given its mobile game roots. You can still clearly see that it has a mobile game design, but without all the F2P trappings and complications, just letting you get on with the fun. It's an apt comparison to Asphalt 9, which I also played on the Switch not long ago. Another mobile derived racing game, but which keeps the F2P business model. In that case it felt really clawing and unnecessarily convoluted, with multiple currencies and loads of rewards and things that it just showers on you to desperately get you to keep playing. Horizon Chase just gets out of your way and lets the game stand on its own merits.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Flabyo »

dezm0nd wrote: January 19th, 2020, 9:59 pm Children of Morta on gamepass has definitely got my intrigued
Clippa is right in that the cool down it introduces eventually to *force* you to use the other characters is a bit of a pain, but it’s not been a game breaker for me yet. Hopefully one of the last two characters I have to unlock will be ranged as well cause the game is way easier with the archer than any of the melee ones I’ve unlocked so far.
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KSubzero1000
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KSubzero1000 »

Chopper wrote: January 20th, 2020, 10:37 am @Ksub - how is 'Hike the Faroe Islands!" going?
...Is that... Are you talking Death Stranding here? :lol:

If so, I haven't played it recently. I've been distracted by a lot of different things and I never feel like I have the time to properly sit down and give this game the concentration it deserves. And then I feel guilty when looking at the box and start eating ice cream instead. I really need to get back to it. This procrastinating is appalling.

I'm gonna start again tonight, in fact.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by hazeredmist »

KSubzero1000 wrote: January 20th, 2020, 5:06 pm
Chopper wrote: January 20th, 2020, 10:37 am @Ksub - how is 'Hike the Faroe Islands!" going?
...Is that... Are you talking Death Stranding here? :lol:
Given what I've listened to / read about the game, that's quite a compliment from Chopper towards Kojima's work there :P
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Michiel K
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Michiel K »

Image

Me and my 2 younglings went to the BlastGalaxy arcade in North Amsterdam this weekend and had a grand time.

Games I've played:

Galaga
Blasteroids (first time ever and it was interesting, since we did the Asteroids podcast not too long ago)
Gauntlet (3 player, with the kids, and this game is quickly becoming one of their alltime favs. We played Gauntlet II on NES recently and they were very interested in seeing what many of the more non-descript sprites in that version were actually supposed to look like)
Bomb Jack (put a decisive nr 1 high score down at the table)
Shinobi
Rolling Thunder
Ikari Warriors (always wanted to have a go at those rotary joysticks and it didn't disappoint, really good fun in its original form)
Street Fighter II Hyper Fighting (solo play, forgot how much more difficult than the SNES port the arcade version is)
Super Puzzle Fighter II-X (first playing against my daughter, then playing against my son)
Point Blank (versus my son and wow the recoil!)
Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX (this was the half covered sit down version and it blew me away more than I had expected it to, especially in the sound department... when that huge battleship is approaching fast, you'll know that a huge battleship is approaching fast)
Daytona USA (2 player linked sit down, vs. my son)
Taiko no Tatsujin (vs. my daughter... rhythm action isn't my bag, but banging those drums on the beat was satisfying, I can't deny that)
SEGA Rally Championship 1995 (you simply have to)
Crimzon Clover World Ignition (always took this to be a tacky DoDonPachi clone, but it seriously impressed me. It wears its two main influences on its sleeve, the other being Layer Section/Rayforce, but it's really fun to play, especially on a giant candy cab)

Some games the kids played that I didn't: DDR, Groove Coaster (music by Zuntata!), Rhythm Tengoku and Ms. Pac-Man...

Also, closer to the bar, they had a lounge area set up, with a Nintendo Switch and Smash Ultimate. Two twentysomething dudes were playing and my 9 y.o. boy asked if he could join. He wrecked their shit! I also joined for two games, after that. Lost the 1st one with my kid coming in first and won the second. Played K. Rool both times.

They've got 88 machines. Time flew by fast and there were a few I wanted to play that I didn't. We'll be back!
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