Whatcha Been Playing?

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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

I started playing Devil Summoner 2. I've never played an SMT game before, but I have once or twice gone down a Wikipedia rabbit hole researching some of the games in this sprawl of a franchise. Not being in to turn-based combat, these Devil Summoner games seemed like the ones I would most likely get on with. And this sequel is supposedly the better of the two, so I gave it a shot.

So far I'm quite liking it. The combat is pretty fun, although at the moment a little simple. Basic attacks are snappy, if a tad stiff. Still feels decent enough to be enjoyable though. But you also fight alongside demons that you recruit from the enemies you come across. I gather this is a pretty common mechanic across the SMT franchise, but I like how it adds another layer to the combat here. They do the expected things like having their own magical attacks, or giving you heals and buffs, but you can also call them back to your side at any time, and if you hold that button that makes them invincible too. So it adds in a fun way to manage their position while not stopping you from doing your own attacks at the same time.

The setting is pretty interesting too. It's set in early 20th century Japan, so there's a mix of very traditional Japanese stuff, but also with the early signs of western influence of that time coming in. It also uses pre-rendered backgrounds, in what might be one of the very last examples of that technique being used. It means they don't work well in widescreen, and look a bit blurry when upscaled to higher resolution, but I think they still look pretty nice regardless. The soundtrack is also very jazzy, very much like the Persona games. I know it's gauche to compare other SMT stuff to Persona, but I thought it was a little weird here. I thought that style of music was one of the things very specific to Persona, and it definitely feels like an unusual choice for this setting and time period. You also happen to having a talking black cat as a companion in this game,
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade done. Decided to put the Torment of Hades DLC on hold and go back to complete this. Quite short, just a couple of evenings to bash through it. The story does sit awkwardly with the rest of Kassandra’s journey and I almost consider it a “what if” scenario or “it was all a dream”. It doesn’t feel true to the character or respectful of the players relationship to her.

However I do want to cross off the main quests and expansions before I head to Korfu for the ending. As Valhalla just arrived in the post and once I get that started it probably really will be goodbye to this Greek adventure, so I want it to be complete before then.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Jon Cheetham wrote: October 15th, 2022, 2:13 am Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - Legacy of the First Blade done. Decided to put the Torment of Hades DLC on hold and go back to complete this. Quite short, just a couple of evenings to bash through it. The story does sit awkwardly with the rest of Kassandra’s journey and I almost consider it a “what if” scenario or “it was all a dream”. It doesn’t feel true to the character or respectful of the players relationship to her.

However I do want to cross off the main quests and expansions before I head to Korfu for the ending. As Valhalla just arrived in the post and once I get that started it probably really will be goodbye to this Greek adventure, so I want it to be complete before then.
How would you rate Odyssey next to the rest of the series? I began a really slow playthrough of the entire series about four years ago and slowly made my way through every game up to Origins when it came to Gamepass earlier in the year. I initially really enjoyed it, but bailed when I realised I couldn't really sustain the interest of basically doing the same thing over and over for another 50+ hours. I'm tempted to start Odyssey though, was there much of a jump in systems and gameplay from Origins? I feel like I'm cheating by skipping the rest of Origins but what you gonna do...
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79 wrote: October 15th, 2022, 11:54 am How would you rate Odyssey next to the rest of the series? I began a really slow playthrough of the entire series about four years ago and slowly made my way through every game up to Origins when it came to Gamepass earlier in the year. I initially really enjoyed it, but bailed when I realised I couldn't really sustain the interest of basically doing the same thing over and over for another 50+ hours. I'm tempted to start Odyssey though, was there much of a jump in systems and gameplay from Origins? I feel like I'm cheating by skipping the rest of Origins but what you gonna do...
Honestly it’s my favourite. I’ve played and beaten Black Flag through Odyssey, yet to do Valhalla. But if you didn’t fancy doing the same thing for 50hrs, Odyssey is even bigger than Origins. It’s gigantic in terms of both landmass and systems. There’s three overlapping main campaigns each of which can take you 15-20 hours, miles and miles of open ocean and a ship and crew to upgrade, balance of power shifting between Athenians and Spartans in each region according to your actions, three times as many collectibles as Origins, twice as many quests… it’s big.

You could bash through the “family drama” main quest line which is what gives you credits in maybe 30-40hrs? But then I think the best stories are actually in the Lost Tales of Greece which is a free DLC pack with some really entertaining short story style quests a la The Witcher 3.

It does refine the combat and the RPG mechanics so that they’re much more engaging, and Kassandra is a terrific lead, one of the best realised main characters in a video game imo. But I didn’t play it as a game to tick off; this is the closest I’ve come to engaging with a game the way people do Apex Legends or Destiny, I have been going back to it for years. It’s like a digital stress ball, practically comfort food.

It’s coming to the new PS Plus thing though, so you can always just try it for free. The starting island is like a 5hr job in itself and will give you an idea of firstly the pace of the game and secondly how it plays.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Thanks - yeah it's on Gamepass at the moment too! I will give it a try I think, I like the sound of sailing about again. Not sure if that was in Origins (apart from the little single person raft things you'd use to cross lakes) but I never unlocked it if it was.
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Jon Cheetham
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jon Cheetham »

Origins did have a few scripted sailing missions when you played as Aya, later in the story. In Odyssey it’s back fully, once you’ve completed Kephallonia.

Hope you enjoy it!

I beat the Torment of Hades DLC episode last night. I thought the side quests were surprisingly great. Really well written. They reunite Kassandra with familiar faces to close out those characters stories, and seem a bit more incisive about the themes of heroism and warfare that the game usually just takes as read.
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SludgeWizard
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by SludgeWizard »

I recently found out that you can buy the nearly-impossible-to-find-at-regular-price N64 Switch controller at the NYC Nintendo store if you’re an NSO subscriber (you need to log in and show them)

So this weekend I did that, and I’ve really been hitting the NSO N64 section hard.
I know that a lot of it is nostalgia, but that doesn’t mean I’m enjoying it any less!

I’m by no means an original hardware purist, but a lot of N64 games feel weird without the controller. It’s completely opened up this part of NSO I was not clicking with before. Pretty cool!
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I'm about 16 hours in to Cyberpunk 2077 now. I really wasn't sure about this game. It felt overly convoluted with the hacking systems etc and it just felt like a bit of an incoherent mess. But actually, it's started to click now. I've followed some of the main story (focusing on the Evelyn strand at the moment) and it's really started to get more interesting. The atmosphere in the world can change wildly though. Sometimes it just feels like a generic place full of inconsequential NPCs, but then at other times it all comes together to make something brilliant. Last night I was cruising round the city in the rain with some jazz on the stereo and it really did feel very Blade Runner. The driving is kind of interesting too. Doesn't feel a bit like GTA. I'm only using the 'in car' view, and rather than speeding everywhere I'm observing the rules of the road, stopping at lights, keeping to the speed limit - it's genuinely made the game more immersive. I've got the hang of hacking now too and it's actually really useful.

One feature I'm hoping to see more of is the Braindances. Like a more complex version of Arkhams detective mode where Batman can replay incidents, this expands upon that idea in every way, and I've really enjoyed dissecting memories or recordings during those parts of the game.

Cyberpunk is nowhere near perfect, but I think they've created a decent game here.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Question on Cyberpunk, how alive does the city feel. I only played an hour on Xbox Series X at launch and the thing that stuck out to me was how empty the city felt in terms of pedestrians and vehicles compared to other modern open world city games. I even thought GTA IV felt busier back on PS3. I wondered if that had improved with patches.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Truk_Kurt wrote: October 18th, 2022, 9:14 am Question on Cyberpunk, how alive does the city feel. I only played an hour on Xbox Series X at launch and the thing that stuck out to me was how empty the city felt in terms of pedestrians and vehicles compared to other modern open world city games. I even thought GTA IV felt busier back on PS3. I wondered if that had improved with patches.
The city is fairly busy, even on Series S, which I understand actually has reduced traffic and pedestrians compared to Series X/PS5. Thing is, that doesn't mean the city feels alive. We're not talking Rockstar levels of people going about their own business here. They're fairly static and have irrelevant conversations. Little attentions to detail are missing, for example I watched an NPC take a phone call and decided to hang around to see if he hung up after the conversation but he continued to just stand there with his phone to his ear long after he'd finished talking. The city is busy, but it's not alive.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Of the limited amount of Witcher 3 I played, that felt alive but then it was smaller built up locations dotted around a big map. But yeah, I remember following some NPCs in even GTA IV go about their business and they would actually go and do stuff like drive to a location, get out a car and start speaking to someone or performing a task.
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Will Marley
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Will Marley »

I've been playing Ketsui - because that's what I play when I don't play anything else - but I've also been absolutely loving The Last Of Us Part 1.

It's expensive and 'unnecessary' but I hardly buy any games these days so I can justify it as my quarterly purchase. It's also frankly stunning and the best way to experience one of my favourite worlds and very likely my favourite narrative in gaming. The core gameplay feels almost identical but the atmosphere is outstanding, the new lighting and assets add a hell of a lot. Yeah, it arguably only updates the tech in line with my memory but that's exactly enough for it to feel as fresh and impressive as the when I played Remastered on PS4 (and the time before on PS3!).

The notes and 'side quests' (a stretch of a term) lack the impact of the initial discovery, of course, and the combat feels a little simplistic and repetitive after Part 2 but the major appeal is in soaking up the details of being in these crumbling cities, these dilapidated houses and in a world reclaimed by nature. I still don't think anything can compare in terms of mainstream marquee gaming. For a massive TLOU fan like me, it's worth every penny.
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Cornelius_Smiff
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Cornelius_Smiff »

Dark Souls III and nothing else. I cannot quite believe how I (captain low attention span) has been able to endlessly play such a linear game over and over and over and over.... (you get the point) again.

PvP is endlessly fun and entertaining. I have to thank Elden Ring for giving me the confidence to give this another shot after bouncing off it hard. Even if it's mostly toxic (and it is) I finally understand "Git gud" and why it's so damn satisfying to slam yourself against this titanite slab of a game.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I'm assuming, just from what you've said, that you've not played DS 1 and 2 then? Would definitely recommend them after you finish this! Bloodborne too. Sekiro I got on less well with, but I know a lot of people hold it as their favourite.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Finally beat the pair of bosses in the Elysium stage of Hades, then started stage four and had the same thought I'd had at the start of every stage in the game; "I'm never going to be able to do this!"

The final stage does seem particularly mean. Enemies that poison you (and boy does that poison work fast) and you don't even get a prize after each room!
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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After being on my "must get around to that someday" list for years, I have finally started the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy. The last time I played these games were in the 90s so it was interesting to go back to these games with a shiny coat of paint. Crash 1 is one of the few games that actively makes me scream and swear at my screen. I can't remember if the jumping was always this fiddly but the amount of times I miss a platform to jump to my doom was way too many to count. The bridge levels were only bearable because of the walk on the rope trick but even with that I died a load of times. If it was not for the little QOL touches such as getting an Aku Aku mask after dying multiple times, extra checkpoints or more freely available extra lives I might just have ragequit this. Again, I have heard that the jumping physics have changed substantially from the original so i cannot say if the original would have been any easier but still. Odd thing is that the bosses were pretty much all a cake walk in comparison. But yeah, this was just alright for me.

Starting up Crash 2 now and I have to say that I am enjoying this a hell of a lot more. Levels are more varied, you can choose to do them in any order in the hub area, the polar bear cub is still cute and the added ability to crouch really makes a difference in how the game is played. With it you can not only crouch but slide, long jump and add height to your regular jump. That added bit of movement makes platforming so much more enjoyable than in the first game. Already in the third warp room. Also getting gems is way more easier this time. You just need to break every box, not break every box without dying once! Bloody sadistic requirement, that! Compared to Crash 1, I am flying through this and I feel things are going to get better from here. Remember enjoying the sequels a lot more than the original even back in the day so it seems to be matching up with my childhood memories in that regard at least!
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I've been updating my backloggd page with a bunch of games I've played over the years, adding reviews and ratings. I'll keep it updated with new things I'm playing and add older things as I remember them. Not sure if anyone uses it but feel free to let me know how terrible my taste is and how you can't believe I haven't played (insert game here) :lol:

https://www.backloggd.com/u/markfm/
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Rhaegyr
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Rhaegyr »

Signalis

Really enjoying this one. It's early Resident Evil set in space with a few dashes of Silent Hill.

That seems incredibly reductive but it's meant as a big compliment. The audio design is top notch.

Perfect for this time of year.
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Cornelius_Smiff
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Cornelius_Smiff »

Alex79 wrote: October 21st, 2022, 8:51 am I'm assuming, just from what you've said, that you've not played DS 1 and 2 then? Would definitely recommend them after you finish this! Bloodborne too. Sekiro I got on less well with, but I know a lot of people hold it as their favourite.
Sorry for late reply...

I have played them both, but could not get on with them and found them too janky. I think the error was playing 3 before them and going into the earlier games. That said, I am almost certain I will give them another try at some point. Perhaps I need to give DS3 a break for a while before playing.

Unfortunately, I have no real way to play BB. I know I could on PS Now but the framerate is incredibly irritating. Sekiro, I loved!
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FrittteShopClerk
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by FrittteShopClerk »

For some reason I've rebought Red Dead 2 and started wandering around the post game after downloading my old save again. It's mainly just building camp fires, going back to the farm to help out from time to time and doing the bounty hunter missions in each town.

It's oddly relaxing.
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