Whatcha Been Playing?

[Truk_Kurt]

Is that Drive To Survive good? I really have zero interest in car racing as a sport (love racing games though) but I was feeling inclined to give the documentary a try after playing the last F1 game.

It's my favourite sports documentary series. It is what got me into the sport proper. I used to be a very casual fan, just someone who would look up who won the race each weekend, I'd never watched a race. Whereas now I'm a huge F1 nerd to the point where I'm working on the game. I have a lot to thank DtS for

[Scrustle]

Recently I’ve been playing Ridge Racer 2 for the PSP. This is the first time I’ve properly played any game in this series. As a fan of racing games it has long been a bit of a black mark for me that I hadn’t given this series a go, at least for the main entries. The only ones I’ve tried before were Unbounded and R: Racing, both of which don’t really count. I did give RR5 a quick go once, but bounced off it instantly. This time I actually managed to click with it, although it still does come off as having some very strange design choices that feel like they have more than one foot still in a form of racing game design from before they made the jump to 3D.

Your racing line doesn’t seem to matter much in this game, and the challenge seems to be way more about simply trying to pass opponents rather than driving better than them. You get punished much more for bonking in to their rears than you do for not nailing apexes correctly, etc. That kind of design makes some sense in those old 2D sprite-scaling racing games as you weren’t really controlling an object moving through space, and were basically on rails to a degree. So they had to build the challenge around something different. But in this game you are controlling your car as a physics object in a 3D world, so that design logic comes off as a bit weird. But then drifting comes in to the picture and that changes things quite a lot to be more in line with that older logic. When you initiate a drift, the way your car controls completely changes, and it enters a sort of on-rails mode like those old 2D games. The direction of your car has very little to do with your speed or angle of your drift, and it just guides you through corner complexes almost automatically. It feels extremely weird and unintuitive to begin with, but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty fun, letting you pull off some ridiculous moves that have that kind of surreal charm of old school arcade games. And even though the game mostly handles the drift for you, there is some level of skill in straightening up again afterwards. Doing that quickly and cleanly seems to be pretty important to maximising speed on the exit of a corner, and that can be tricky to do without accidentally snapping back in to the opposite direction by pushing too hard. So it does have a fun level of mastery to it even if it does so in a way that is totally alien to how most games do it these days.

I was in two minds about whether I should call this game complete or not as well. As I was playing it, I got to a point where I felt like I had more or less seen everything the game had to offer. I had seen all the tracks, and went to look up how much more of the game there was left, to find I was only a fraction of the way through. I kept going for a while, but it started to feel like a bit of a drag as it became apparent where the rest of this game was going, just being a gradual increase in speed of basically the same thing. But then suddenly the credits rolled after completing a random tour. I can see the idea of having an early “ending” and then the rest of the game just being bonus content, but maybe doing so at the end of one of the major tour categories. This just happened in the middle of the second of the four total tour calendars. Usually the credits rolling is one of the main things I use to define the end of a game, and honestly I’m at a point where I feel like moving on from it anyway, but this feels so out of place and happened so early that I don’t think I can call it properly “complete”. I’m still confused about it though. Why here? How many other times does it do this? Very odd.

[Alex79]

Is that Drive To Survive good? I really have zero interest in car racing as a sport (love racing games though) but I was feeling inclined to give the documentary a try after playing the last F1 game.

It's my favourite sports documentary series. It is what got me into the sport proper. I used to be a very casual fan, just someone who would look up who won the race each weekend, I'd never watched a race. Whereas now I'm a huge F1 nerd to the point where I'm working on the game. I have a lot to thank DtS for

I'll give it a go tonight then!

EDIT: Bloody hell there's five seasons!? I thought it was a one and done

[Alex79]

Ok I watched three episodes tonight and am so hooked in. It's really exciting!

[Angry_Kurt]

Ok I watched three episodes tonight and am so hooked in. It's really exciting!

Excellent! Yeah there’s a season per real life season. I’m sure you will come to know Danny Riccardo and Chris Horner well

[Alex79]

I did enjoy watching the two Red Bull cars smash in to each other. The F1 2021 game lifted that right out for their story mode haha. Max V seems like a bit of a villain to me

[Angry_Kurt]

I did enjoy watching the two Red Bull cars smash in to each other. The F1 2021 game lifted that right out for their story mode haha. Max V seems like a bit of a villain to me

Oh he is, he actually refused to do interviews for the show until the most recent season. Quite a few drivers did actually in that first season especially, you will see others get involved with doing interviews in the show in each series as they slowly realised how popular it was becoming. I find it weird that Max refused to take part in the show when his team principal Chris Horner loves being in it, you can’t get him off the screen

[Alex79]

I do like Daniel Ricciardo though, he seems like a genuinely decent kid. Quite a funny character. Does Hamilton get involved much in the series? I'm about six episodes in now.

[Truk_Kurt]

I do like Daniel Ricciardo though, he seems like a genuinely decent kid. Quite a funny character. Does Hamilton get involved much in the series? I'm about six episodes in now.

I know he's not in that first series at all as I think like Max he was sceptical to the show to begin with. From memory he doesn't properly show up until series 3 and even then his appearances are often quite fleeting, although I think it's season 4 which covers the great battle between him and Max through the season which ends in spectacular fashion, up there with the Aguero moment and also very controversial but I won't spoil it in case you didn't know what happened. It was in the news a lot at the time.

It's a shame he isn't in it more, like they don't do any behind the scenes away from the track stuff with him at any point like they do with Danny Ric and Bottas in later seasons. I did find out the other day that Lewis is doing his own documentary about his life and career, so maybe he didn't want to give Netflix anything that might provide any insight that documentary will.

I worry that we're turning this thread into a DTS catch up thread which might be annoying people so feel free to tweet me with any updates

[Tolkientaters]

After being a little disappointing with FF16, I decided to finally go back to what some consider to be the peak of the series with FF6 and I'm loving it.

As expected it's got great atmosphere with an incredible score and impressive pixel art. But the biggest suprise for me is how much I'm enjoying the story and characters, they're all endearing with interesting reasons to join the party. I also think the general magic and story setup is really compelling.

I'm probably half way through and if it maintains this quality it's gonna be an all timer for me.

[Jobobonobo]

For the last month, my TV was dying due to the screen turning so bright I could not see anything so I got a new one last week and finally got back to finishing route B of Nier Replicant. While the ending was intriguing I was more than a little annoyed when I was informed that

Spoiler: show

I have to collect every weapon in order to get Ending C. I really dislike when games require you to collect all of a particular item to finish the game, similar to when the original Rayman could not be bet unless you got all the Electoons. Thankfully, there are only 33 weapons to get and I only need six more. Still annoying I have to faf around and do this before I finish this playthrough. Also really hoping that there is more new stuff in this playthrough. Automata had the decency to have route C be completely new so I really hope I am not just doing everything the same here. These other endings better be worth all this hassle.

Beginning to kinda lose my enthusiasm for continuing with this one to be honest, hope it wont be too much of a slog. Shame as I really loved Automata.

However I am playing another Square Enix title that I have nothing but good things to say about, Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime for the DS. I always loved the design of the monsters from this series and the slime is an especially iconic creature that has to be one of Akira Toriyama's most recognisable creation so it was a no brainer to have them be the star of their own spin off. The general gist of the game is your town has been destroyed and all your slime friends have been kidnapped. So you need to use your squishy elastic body to fight enemies, solve puzzles and break the boxes containing slimes which will repopulate the town and as the town has more inhabitants a wider variety of services will be available to aid your adventure. This is fun enough as it is but is only one half of the package. The other involves unlocking a giant tank which you can use in battles against enemies. This involves stocking the cannons with weapons, fighting off intruders, infiltrating enemy tanks and managing your teammates which have different abilities. This is such fun and polished gameplay that every time I play I have a blast. I am at the final stage and have over 90 slimes rescued (out of a total of 100) and am shocked at how quickly I plowed through this. Honestly may be one of my favourite DS titles out there.

Just started my first ever Castlevania, Super Castlevania IV. I am surprised at how quickly I am going through this one as well. Already at Stage 4 where the Medusa heads are giving me grief. Not too hard but just challenging enough to not be a push over, this is a good time so far. Presentation is also really impressive so far especially for 1991. Nice showcase of the capabilities of the SNES.

Finally, have begun to do a proper playthrough of the original Ape Escape. Remember messing around with it as a kid but never properly played it. The controls really take getting used to. Right shoulder buttons being your jump and camera controls being the D Pad is really bizarre to me. Even the C buttons on the N64 controller were still on the right side, controlling the camera on the left side of the controller is really foreign to me. Not far into it but it is enjoyable from what I have played. Music is bloody amazing though, no other platformer I know of has such a techno Jungle vibe.

[markfm007]

I’ve mostly been wrapped up in Final Fantasy XVI. I’ve reached the point of no return at the end of the game, with all the final side quests, remaining hunts and things left to do. I’m away for the weekend so it feels like a good point to take a break, as I’ve been doing everything available up until this point. I’ve enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. Even the demo many were raving about didn’t fully sell me, but its grown on me the more I’ve played.

I’ve found the main story and action to be pretty compelling, a few lulls and criticisms here and there, but on the whole a very engaging campaign. Outside of that things are more hit and miss. Some of the side quests stretch things very thin. I can see why it’s been a bit divisive, as it’s an incredibly inconsistent game - high highs and low lows. I’ll give a more thorough review once I’ve completed it, and try not to repeat too much of what others have said.

[Pia Bella]

I grabbed Watch Dogs Legion for PS5 for 10 dollars. I'm about six hours in and it's definitely a 10 dollar game. The plot and dialogue are so bad that I'm skipping almost everything. I don't know if I'll finish it, but so far it's been a good game to kill time for a few days. Definitely I like Apex Legends more. Also it can boast to have Levelupper, which is also a great advantage for a gamer.

[Alex79]

I grabbed Watch Dogs Legion for PS5 for 10 dollars. I'm about six hours in and it's definitely a 10 dollar game. The plot and dialogue are so bad that I'm skipping almost everything. I don't know if I'll finish it, but so far it's been a good game to kill time for a few days.

I bought it for around the same price a couple of months ago and have at least 30 hours in it so far! I'm really enjoying it. The missions are fairly repetitive and the story isn't overly engaging (although I've not skipped anything yet) but I am finding the gameplay pretty fun. I've liberated all the areas in the city and once you have a few upgrades like cloaking and upgraded spider-bot etc the missions become a lot more fun I found. I alternate between trying to ghost missions and charging in with an assault rifle. I've made my own in game rules, haha - Clan Kelly and Albion are fair game to blast to death. Civilians and police are not.

[Rhaegyr]

Tears of the Kingdom, still.

Thought I would've tired of it by now but 90~ Shrines, 50~ Lightroots, two thirds of the map uncovered and 90+ hours later I still can't play anything else bar the odd bit of Street Fighter 6. Utterly absorbing.

[Scrustle]

For the past few days I've been revisiting the original Splatoon. I haven't touched it in ages, but they just brought the servers back online after they had been down for almost half a year while they were fixing a security flaw. So that was a good an excuse as any to dip my toe back in. It seems that a lot of people had the same idea, and it's currently pretty easy to find a game. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the highest player count the game has had in years.

I've really enjoyed coming back to it. It has been pretty refreshing after playing to much of Splatoon 3 and admittedly getting a little burnt out on it. Playing on these older maps is really cool. They really are significantly bigger and more sprawling than the S3 maps. There's a lot more freedom to move around and take different routes. Flanking is way more viable. The maps are also way more vertical in this game. That's pretty obvious when you look at a map like Flounder Heights, as verticality is the whole point of that one. But even with ones like Museum d'Alfonsino, things that would be ledges that you can simply hop or shoot over in S3 are walls that can cover your whole character's height in S1. Not to mention the spinning walls are more numerous and have more going on with them too.

The game feels more casual and relaxed too, although I'm not sure if that's actually down to the game itself. On one hand, that does make sense, as the bigger maps with more routes do lead to slower pace, and allows you to move around in relative safety more. I think it's safe to say S3 is generally a harder game. The maps force you in to direct confrontation more, and those clashes have a higher skill ceiling too thanks to the more complex movement mechanics. But at the same time this whole thing might just be down to me not being as high a rank in S1. I only reached A+ in this game, while I'm currently at S rank in S3 (I reaches S+ last season too). The level of competition at this level is pretty demanding, but I did notice how there seemed to be a massive jump specifically at this point. The A rank bracket in S3 was a breeze in comparison. So maybe if I get higher in S1 as well, I'll see something similar.

[Jobobonobo]

My time through route C of Nier Replicant was not as painful as i had anticipated and getting the remaining weapons for the other endings was pretty painless all things considered. I have now got both endings C and D which ended up in

Spoiler: show

my game being deleted. But I know that is not the true end. Will begin a new game with a different player name to get the final ending: Ending E.

While I definitely think Automata is a much more stronger title overall, I do want to see where this game ends up as its narrative is certainly compelling.

Also nearly finished Super Castlevania IV. In fact, I have made it to Dracula. He is a pretty tricky old bugger but I will figure out a way to best him eventually. Death was an absolute nightmare beforehand though, my best strategy was to stay in the corner and spam my whip when he hovered above me and duck whenever he threw his giant scythe at me. My first Castlevania experience was pretty positive so far, I have to say.

[Tolkientaters]

I started playing Baldur's Gate 3, buying it via GOG because I almost expected to bounce off it despite the very positive reception.

For reference the only Isometric RPG I really got into was Disco Elysium, not really getting on with the other ones I tried, but Baldur's Gate 3 is really working for me. Starting off in a more interesting section of the Forgotten Realms world with some pretty interesting choices early on completely won me over. It's got a fantastic presentation and going by what I've seen a good amount of depth.

Also it's pretty well optimized, I got a GTX 1060 (3 GB) and it's running pretty well which I didn't really expect since my last experience with a big new pc game via Total Wahammer 3 was pretty disappointing.

[Alex79]

If you enjoy it I highly recommend Divinity Original Sin 2 from the same developers.

[Tolkientaters]

If you enjoy it I highly recommend Divinity Original Sin 2 from the same developers.

I tried that wasn't able to get into it.