Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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chase210
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by chase210 »

Call of Duty Cold War is so mediocre, the best thing about it is the haptic feedback from the dualsense. COD definitely needs to take a year off.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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The more I play of Resident Evil 4 on GameCube, the more I’m just marvelling at it. It’s a while since I’ve savoured a game as much this, but I’m really enjoying taking my time over everything there is to see. Guess I’m about half way now and really don’t want it to end.

After finishing PC-Engine Splatterhouse the other week, I moved on to NES Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti. It’s a strange mix of cute and horror, and I’m not sure it quite pulls it off, but it’s mostly fun and there’s nothing too challenging once you clock the simple boss attack patterns. Working my way through the arcade version now, then I’ve got 2 and 3 lined up on the Megadrive.

I’ve also been strangely hooked on Atari 2600 Jungle Hunt, and managed to rescue the girl for the first time ever! And after about a month of regular car play while hanging around for my son’s lockdown-excluded football training, I saw the only ending my skills will ever allow on Fantasy Zone II W on 3DS. The circle pad really is the way to play that wonderful series!
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdDrawing »

DomsBeard wrote: November 24th, 2020, 10:10 am I'm still on with Ghost Of Tsushima and not since Skyrim have I felt the need to do every side quest and do all the other little bits here and there. Story-wise
Spoiler: show
Taka has just been killed
which really got to me.

I must've done over 100 stand offs and still love them every time.
I'm on the third section now. I was just as upset about
Spoiler: show
my horse
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DomsBeard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by DomsBeard »

Yeah me too.
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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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stvnorman wrote: December 6th, 2020, 11:25 am The more I play of Resident Evil 4 on GameCube, the more I’m just marvelling at it. It’s a while since I’ve savoured a game as much this, but I’m really enjoying taking my time over everything there is to see. Guess I’m about half way now and really don’t want it to end.
I replayed it in October and, while it was a much better time the second go-around, I really missed the Gamecube controller. Nintendo has that rep of making a controller with one game in mind, but Capcom really showed third parties could do the same thing. Playing with an Xbox controller was fine, but it's just not the same as the Gamecube!
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Try the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 if you can. I generally hate motion controls, but they really worked great in that, and for me, it's the best way to play the game.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

duskvstweak wrote: December 7th, 2020, 6:37 pm
I replayed it in October and, while it was a much better time the second go-around, I really missed the Gamecube controller. Nintendo has that rep of making a controller with one game in mind, but Capcom really showed third parties could do the same thing. Playing with an Xbox controller was fine, but it's just not the same as the Gamecube!
It does feel really at home on there. And now I’ve got an excuse to replay too...
Alex79uk wrote: December 7th, 2020, 7:54 pm Try the Wii version of Resident Evil 4 if you can. I generally hate motion controls, but they really worked great in that, and for me, it's the best way to play the game.
I just bought it for £1.10 on eBay, complete, in good condition and for 50p less than the postage costs! Nice one Alex!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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After finishing off Master Quest I'm carrying on with the Zelda replays with Skyward Sword. I've always liked this one, despite it being lower down my list of favourites. But playing it again, a lot of the issues don't feel as grating. Even though it is extremely linear, the stuff you actually do along your adventure are usually still pretty good, and the beginning drags a bit less if you know what you're going in to. I've never agreed with people saying the motion controls for the sword combat don't work. Always found them to be more than sufficient in accuracy, and it's not hard to get it to do what you want if you're just patient and careful about it.

Although I think there is a strange quirk with how Bokoblins block your attacks. They seem to snap to blocking a different direction more or less instantly, so fighting them can feel a bit aggravating in a way that I can see people interpreting it as the game not reading their inputs correctly. It's a strange design decision, as most of the other enemies that are supposed to be tougher are actually easier because of this. But dealing with those enemies in general isn't that hard once you work out you can deal with them quickly with a jump attack followed by a final blow.

But aside from that, I'm enjoying the dungeons too. So far I've done three, and they all make very good use of the dungeons items, and have a lot of their own unique ideas too, like rolling on the ball through the lava in the Earth Temple. It also helps that this game has some of the best dungeon items in the series. I really like the Beetle, one of my favourites out of all the games.

I also played through most of Mind: Path to Thalamus Enhanced Edition. I've actually played a lot of this game before, but dropped it before finishing it. It's a first-person puzzle adventure thing, and it's uh... a very mixed bag. Visually it has some stunning scenes. It has some amazing environments that can be very impressive with their striking and dreamlike scenes. But that's unfortunately most of the good I can say about it. The puzzle mechanics have a couple of good ideas, but are mostly not very interesting. They involve picking up strange orbs and placing them in specific zones that change the conditions of the level which allows you to interact with things or open the way forward. It gets kind of old and isn't particularly interesting to play with on an inherent level. Although there is one puzzle earlier where you need to find your way over invisible platforms by looking at their reflections in a wet salt pan, which is also one of the standout visual moments of the game too. But apart from that, there isn't much to write home about with the puzzle design. Some of the later ones are really obtuse as well. And the point where I eventually quit, one puzzle was basically broken because of a glitch where the orb I had to carry to a location just flew out of my hands every time I got near the spot I needed to carry it to. That was also the exact same point I quit before, and from what I found out looking at walkthroughs, I think that was the final puzzle of the game too. So I've almost finished this game twice now, it turns out.

The story is pretty awful as well. The game is narrated by the protagonist, framed as some kind of subconscious soul search, but it's far, far less profound than it thinks it is, and the character comes across as pretty mean-spirited and self-absorbed too. And in this Enhanced Edition, that is something they actually cut down on too. When I first played this, it was before it got updated to this version, and it was far worse originally. Way more commentary, making the protagonist come across as thoroughly unlikable and pretentious. So while that has been cut down, and made optional too, what is there is still pretty bad.

It's also pretty subpar on a technical level too. While it runs fine, there are loads of oversights that makes the game come across as rather sloppily put together. The audio balancing is pretty bad, with the VO being way quieter than everything else. The subtitles are often garbled or even simply missing too. It also has no in-game fullscreen option, no pause menu, no visible loading screens (despite having load times), and the language setting doesn't seem to align with actual in-game assets either. As you start the game, there's an in-world control layout image, and despite me playing in English, these instructions were in Russian. Looking up footage of the game from other people, they seemed to show this not being an issue for them. Presumably it's a problem introduced in this "enhanced" version.
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Angry_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Angry_Kurt »

Do you think Skyward Sword could be adapted to work on Switch? I've never played it so don't really know if it could be possible.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Angry_Kurt wrote: December 9th, 2020, 9:44 am Do you think Skyward Sword could be adapted to work on Switch? I've never played it so don't really know if it could be possible.
I think it probably could, but it might take some reworking in some areas. When it comes to basic sword combat, your actual attacks are restricted to the eight main directions (up/down, sideways, diagonal) and a forward stab. Since the Wii didn't have a second control stick, those movements could be mapped to the right stick on the Switch. Tilt for attacks, click for stab. Some of the more finer pointer controls could probably be mapped to the right stick too, like when you do use the more 1:1 sword motions, and stuff like piloting the Beetle or using the bow could just use traditional aiming. None of them require any kind of speed advantage motion controls might give. Metal Gear Rising showed the right stick can work with that sort of sword stuff already too. There are some items which might require simply activating them with a button press instead. Although I don't think those couldn't be done at all with a stick, they would just be easier as a button. Even if that does make them less entertaining to use than on the Wii.

There is a chance none of that would even be necessary. Mario Galaxy showed that it's possible for the Joycons to emulate Wii pointer controls well enough, but then again SS used WiiMotion Plus, so maybe that's harder to replicate. Splatoon 2 already has really accurate controls that work towards a similar function though. Splatoon does require you to re-centre your controls fairly frequently, but so does SS.
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I'm on the very, very final battle in Ghost of Tsushima. For non-spoilery reasons, I'm trying to parry in the fight and it's bloody maddening. I just have not been able to do it in this game. I don't know what I'm doing wrong and I just can't understand why I'm missing the timing. It's the first time I've really felt frustrated in the game.

Edit - Gave up trying to parry. A lot of dodging and heavy hitting seemed to work. Going to try getting better at parrying on the New game + playthrough.

Overall, a fantastic game and well worth anyone's time.
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Flabyo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Finally got around to playing Control now that it’s on gamepass. Very much my jam, I love the setting (and it’s use of typography to set the tone... awesome).

But my word it’s crashy. Every session I’ve played so far has ended cause it crashed and I didn’t want to face the incredibly long time to restart the game and load the save back in. For something that’s been out as long as this it’s kinda surprising they’ve not fixed stuff.

Started a few other games as part of a Trueachivement challenge...

Phogs is a cute puzzler where you control a two headed sausage dog thing and solve puzzles by moving the two ends of it independently with the two analog sticks. I imagine there’s a lot of fun to be had playing it couch co-op too.

Yes, Your Grace is a narrative game where you manage the needs of the kingdoms against the needs of the plot. Think of it like a more involved version of Reigns, or a slightly less hardcore version of Long live the Queen. The characters are likeable, and it has that ‘every choice is going to be bad in some way’ feel.

Final aside: now on earth is the install for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite nearly as big as the one for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? Madness.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I finally beat arcade Splatterhouse on Switch – I just love it, though it gave me a new-found respect for the incredible PC-Engine port I played and also loved previously; that’s a top conversion!
 
SSX3 is one of my favourite games ever, and I have it on Gamecube but I’ve no idea where my PS2 copy went, so when I saw it for £1.50 on eBay decided to grab it again. SSX on Tour - which for some reason I never bought originally - is what then arrived in the post, and I agreed with the seller that was fine. And it is fine! It’s not quite SSX3 – the characters have lost a bit of their detail and it’s all a little sanitised in comparison, but it feels like SSX and it’s so fast! And I’ve spent most evenings this week getting acquainted with it.
 
I’ve also played a bit more Resident Evil 4 (made difficult by our Sky box dying and having to switch main TV to the one that the Gamecube is connected to temporarily). And I’m on the third world on Donkey Kong Country Returns on 3DS. I’m not the biggest DKC fan, but its grabbed me and while I’ll never unlock everything, I’m definitely going to see as much as possible.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

People tried to give me perfectly good advice about Death Stranding and yet all I want to do in the game is build roads.
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Simonsloth
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Simonsloth »

duskvstweak wrote: December 16th, 2020, 9:26 pm People tried to give me perfectly good advice about Death Stranding and yet all I want to do in the game is build roads.
Keep on keeping on..
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seansthomas
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by seansthomas »

Scrustle wrote: December 8th, 2020, 8:20 pm After finishing off Master Quest I'm carrying on with the Zelda replays with Skyward Sword. I've always liked this one, despite it being lower down my list of favourites. But playing it again, a lot of the issues don't feel as grating. Even though it is extremely linear, the stuff you actually do along your adventure are usually still pretty good, and the beginning drags a bit less if you know what you're going in to. I've never agreed with people saying the motion controls for the sword combat don't work. Always found them to be more than sufficient in accuracy, and it's not hard to get it to do what you want if you're just patient and careful about it.

Although I think there is a strange quirk with how Bokoblins block your attacks. They seem to snap to blocking a different direction more or less instantly, so fighting them can feel a bit aggravating in a way that I can see people interpreting it as the game not reading their inputs correctly. It's a strange design decision, as most of the other enemies that are supposed to be tougher are actually easier because of this. But dealing with those enemies in general isn't that hard once you work out you can deal with them quickly with a jump attack followed by a final blow.

But aside from that, I'm enjoying the dungeons too. So far I've done three, and they all make very good use of the dungeons items, and have a lot of their own unique ideas too, like rolling on the ball through the lava in the Earth Temple. It also helps that this game has some of the best dungeon items in the series. I really like the Beetle, one of my favourites out of all the games.
Good to hear someone playing this. Gets a lot of stick for what is a very good game.

There definitely is some padding later on, it's too long and the repetition of item collection / text not being skippable was dated even then but the core gameplay, story and dungeons are all great in my view.

Replayed it on Master Mode a few years back, the only time I've ever done so, and enjoyed it far, far more. Think it makes you play it at a slower pace and use the motion inputs more discerningly, which helps tons.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I'm currently on the final area of Cuphead. Really nice idea with the dice choosing the bosses you face, but I rage quit after being sent back to the start three times in a row due to landing on the wrong square... What a stupid thing to do.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Steam achievements for story games can be so funny. I finished Chapter 5 of Death Stranding, something less than 30% of players have done? I'm worried what it's going to be at the end of the game! The last game I finished was Snake Pass and very, very few people have done that, according to Steam.

Anyway, I just built a whole bunch of zip lines across a snowy mountain in Death Stranding and I feel like a god.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Image

80 questions spanning time and space! Do you have the smarts? The questions have been written, the trophy has been polished* and the stakes are higher than ever!**

PREVIOUS CHAMPIONS

2018: Combine Hunter
2019: Simonsloth
2020: ???

*There is no trophy.
**There are no stakes.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

My son lent me Trials Rising, and it's fucking terrible. Every release has got progressively worse, bordering on plain boring as the courses are tediously easy you could do them with your eyes shut. This game takes it to a new depth of shitness, however, totally doing away with the linear stage progression and forcing in rider and bike customisation, required 'rank' levels for accessing courses, which you cannot reach via simply completing the levels, you have to grind them again and again to unlock enough XP to progress, and I'm getting golds in every level, so it's literally impossible to unlock new stages without grinding. Throw in a bunch of awful free to play bullshit lifted straight out the mobile game (which is fine in a mobile game) and it all adds up to the worst Trials experience yet. You have no list of levels or a menu to access stages, and have to search around a world map to find the next stage, which is also utterly littered with DLC tracks you have to pay extra for. That's one thing, but there are more greyed out DLC tracks than accessible ones!

The only reason I'm so annoyed is that Trials is potentially a 10/10 game, but with every release they've watered it down to the point it might as well be a bucket of piss. This game absolutely stinks.
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