Whatcha Been Playing?

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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

I've been revisiting Muramasa: The Demon Blade recently. I finally got tired waiting for an official remaster of this game (Vita version doesn't count) so I went ahead and tried out the AI upscaled texture pack that exists for this on Dolphin. It looks brilliant. It turns out the standard graphics are actually significantly higher detail than what the original resolution can show, which can be seen when running it at higher res on emulator, but it's still not exactly up to the standards of something actually made for an HD display. So this texture pack does that, and it does a really good job at it. It upscales very well, and accurately maintains the fantastic and lush painterly style too. It also boosts the richness of the colours ever so slightly, in a way that helps them stand out more but without altering the overall feel. There are perhaps some small areas where the sharpening filter is a little too intense, but it's only a minor thing in some spots that is easy to ignore. Overall it's really impressive though.

I'm really enjoying playing it too. I've always liked this game a lot, but this is the first time I've played it since playing the Odin Sphere remaster. They did a really good job with that one, totally overhauling the combat mechanics to make it play much faster and smoothly, when originally it was rather clunky. So I was somewhat worried that Muramasa wouldn't be able to hold up compared to that improved version of Odin Sphere that can now can do what Muramasa had over it, in addition to all the other stuff it has going on. But Muramasa remains a very fun time. It feels really good in the hands, and exploring around the world and getting in to fights is still as great as ever. The overall pace of the game is really fast and energetic. It feels like you're always making progress at a breakneck pace, with it never bogging down or stopping momentum. Between the chaotic and lightning quick battles you're running through levels at swift pace, levelling up very frequently, and getting access to new weapons all the time. You can criticise any particular part of it as not being especially deep, but putting it all together it becomes something quite special. The soundtrack is also still an absolute banger too.

I also just finished off my first NG+ run of Shadow of the Colossus HD. Still slowly trying to go for that platinum, and sticking to the plan of what I count as a "completed" run worthy of the main thread. This run I did the normal time attack, and collected all the shining lizards. Also trying to upgrade health and stamina, but that's more of a secondary thing. The time attack was far less painful than expected. Taking out everything before the fight makes replaying them much less of a daunting prospect, as they each only end up lasting around 5-10 minutes each. Even less in many cases. It also trains you to be a bit more considered and precise with your approach. Finding all the lizards was much less fun though. You get an item as a time attack reward that shows you where they are in the world, but only when you are close to them, and there's nothing keeping track of how many there are total, etc. I had to refer to several guides as well. It's extremely tedious, and a lot of them are super hard to spot even when you know where they are. Not something that feels like it makes the game more enjoyable, or something I would want to do again. But I will have to do something like that with the fruit trees, although hopefully that will be a bit easier.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

So last week I was making good progress in Chicory: A Colorful Tale when it started crashing on me and I started getting numerous error messages where I would report the error and I could restart the game again and continue on my adventure. This happened to me at least five times until one day when I started up a new play session it not only crashed yet again but I was informed that the save data was corrupted and that I had to erase the data if I was to open up the game at all. With no real choice left I did just that and now I have to start all over again. This was especially annoying because I had started to really enjoy the game as it was finally clicking for me and I was very close to the end. This completely killed my enthusiasm for it and so I will return to it sometime later in the future as I have a few more games to play for the podcast that need to get started on. But I put so much time into it that it really is heartbreaking to have all that progress taken from me because of some stupid glitch. This is the second time that a PS4 game has completely glitched on me and destroyed my progress. At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I missed when you popped a game into a console and it just worked and you never had to worry about the software deciding to shit itself on you and become unplayable. This really is one aspect of modern gaming that I really am starting to despise. Just hope that when I replay it later on that this stupid bug is sorted out.

Dragon Quest VIII, by contrast, is still a really amazing time and I am encountering no nasty game breaking crap with it. Nice to have something dependable and consistent.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

I’ve mostly been flitting between Elden Ring on Xbox and Mushihimesama on Switch this week. I like both even more than I did last week and the week before! I did try F1 2021 too though, which just arrived on Game Pass. First impressions were good, especially with its career mode, but, like its predecessor, it didn’t take that long for me to realise it’s all a bit too serious for my driving game taste. Virtua Racing is bang on though, and I’ve had a good time with the Switch version of that too most evenings before bed as well!
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I gave Judgment a shot on PS4, and I think I'm just done on RGG games. I seem to dislike them for the same reasons other people love them - the combat, the familiar world, the distraction activities.

I beat Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, and while I enjoyed them, I didn't enjoy playing them. If that makes sense. They had their moments - the twisting and turning storylines were a good time, and the fight scenes that complimented that narrative tension were great. But then the games would just stop dead in their tracks and dump you into an open world. And I found that experience incredibly frustrating. I would much prefer these as 5-10 hour games with a story that just barrels forward and doesn't stop. Cut the mini-game guff, cut the copy/pasted Kamurocho wandering, get rid of that stuff. For me, it doesn't make the world more interesting. By the time I got to Kiwami 2, I was genuinely falling asleep while playing, because I was just like, "Man, I've seen this before!" The twists stop being surprising when they hit the same emotional notes and are punctuated by the same "Punch 100 dudes to solve this problem" gameplay.

All Judgment seems to do is... Exactly the same time, but you're not Yakuza this time. Even though the story revolves around Yakuza anyway, and you still solve every conflict by punching dudes. It's on the same tired map. All the same stores. It looks prettier this time, but it's still the same place. I've heard the story is very good, and I believe that. The core conceit of the narrative is incredibly interesting. But when I boot up a game and my first thought is, "Oh my god, it's the same thing as the last one I played..." I just have to presume the series is not for me.

I still have Yakuza 7 sitting sealed on my shelf, so maybe I'll give that one a go when the series fatigue has died down a bit. Undecided, honestly. I know it's an RPG, but is the narrative and world going to be different enough to justify another shot? Need to think on it.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Magical_Isopod wrote: March 28th, 2022, 2:45 am I gave Judgment a shot on PS4, and I think I'm just done on RGG games. I seem to dislike them for the same reasons other people love them - the combat, the familiar world, the distraction activities.

I beat Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, and while I enjoyed them, I didn't enjoy playing them. If that makes sense. They had their moments - the twisting and turning storylines were a good time, and the fight scenes that complimented that narrative tension were great. But then the games would just stop dead in their tracks and dump you into an open world. And I found that experience incredibly frustrating. I would much prefer these as 5-10 hour games with a story that just barrels forward and doesn't stop. Cut the mini-game guff, cut the copy/pasted Kamurocho wandering, get rid of that stuff. For me, it doesn't make the world more interesting. By the time I got to Kiwami 2, I was genuinely falling asleep while playing, because I was just like, "Man, I've seen this before!" The twists stop being surprising when they hit the same emotional notes and are punctuated by the same "Punch 100 dudes to solve this problem" gameplay.

All Judgment seems to do is... Exactly the same time, but you're not Yakuza this time. Even though the story revolves around Yakuza anyway, and you still solve every conflict by punching dudes. It's on the same tired map. All the same stores. It looks prettier this time, but it's still the same place. I've heard the story is very good, and I believe that. The core conceit of the narrative is incredibly interesting. But when I boot up a game and my first thought is, "Oh my god, it's the same thing as the last one I played..." I just have to presume the series is not for me.

I still have Yakuza 7 sitting sealed on my shelf, so maybe I'll give that one a go when the series fatigue has died down a bit. Undecided, honestly. I know it's an RPG, but is the narrative and world going to be different enough to justify another shot? Need to think on it.
If the combat is one of the things you don't like, you might have more luck with 7 with it being turn based combat. Everything else is pretty much the same though in terms of gameplay loop to normal.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

Played a couple of things that are worth commenting on briefly.

Code Vein - I swear to god, every game with a great character creator sucks to actually play. That's the case here. I created a tall, slender lady with the codename Aphid, dressed in an outfit I meticulously designed for colour theming and consistent tone... And then when I start the actual game, it's like a bargain bin soulsborne with some really weak writing and cringe levels of jiggle physics and the like. Such a waste. Loved the character creator, but yeah.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City - I knew very little about this game before I picked it up for $1, and it's... Fine. I thought it would be an actiony Resident Evil game set from the lens of the Umbrella corporate army. But it's not anywhere near as interesting as that. It's a co-op shooting gallery with Resident Evil set dressing, and that's about it. I enjoyed the 2 or so hours, I played of it, but it definitely feels like something you play with a friend when you've already finished all the good co-op games and just want some dumb shooty-shoot. The Resident Evil stuff elevates it from being something designed to rot in a thrift store, but that's about the greatest compliment I can give it. Would love to try it out in co-op one day though. Servers are still up on Xbox One!
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ThirdDrawing
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ThirdDrawing »

Saga Frontier Remastered on the Switch. I never gave this a fair shake on the PS1, and with the extra content and new visuals, I figured it was worth a go.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Finally decided to have a go at Elden Ring’s second big boss after too long being a coward, which I’m now back to doing again but in a more dangerous area! Think I’m now done with total focus on bullet-hell beauty Mushihimesama, and ready to do the same with Espgaluda II, which felt great from the little I played so far!

I did have a good old go at Weird West this week, the new dark fantasy Wild West RPG that’s just appeared on Xbox Game Pass. It’s a kind of top-down, kind of cel-shaded vibe, mixing gunslinging with the supernatural in what was turning into a really cool story. But there was too much stealth, too much loading, not enough ammo (so not enough reloading), and it was all a bit too awkward to control for my liking. Which is a real shame because it’s so close to being right up my alley!

Apart from those, Demon’s Tilt on PC, which was free last week from Epic Games and gives me one more place to play my all-time favourite pinball game. Then loads of Buggy Boy on Atari ST for a piece I’m writing, and a fun couple of hours on Neo Drift Out: New Technology, the top-down isometric arcade rally racer from SNK in 1996. Then it got way too hard and less fun as a result!
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

I have been playing Far Cry 6 since it was 50% off on Xbox and I had a bunch of Microsoft Rewards points to use. The last Far Cry I played was 4 which I enjoyed but thought was too similar to 3. So when I heard that 5 was very similar again I decided to give it a miss. Whilst I knew that 6 was going to be the same kind of gameplay loop again, enough time has passed that I was ready to play a Far Cry again. So far it has been a lot of fun, it may be sticking to the same formula but I find the core gameplay of giving players lots of freedom to approach different missions is so much fun, it is almost like an open world immersive sim. 6 has introduced a lot of really whacky weapons which are fun to use too. So far I'm undecided on the characters and story, it seems standard guerilla warfare stuff but there is some intrigue with the dictators son not being totally down with the whole regime.
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Magical_Isopod
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I've been playing Terminator: Resistance, and man, I'm really enjoying this one.

It has a 45 on metacritic. I... Legitimately do not understand why. It has a 7.5 user score, which is definitely more in line with what I've played.

It's funny - reading reviews, the criticisms are exactly why I like this game: Limited mechanics, small scope, lack of depth, short run time. Like maybe I missed the memo, but who said every game needs to be some 50+ hour megalith with RPG elements, skill trees, map markers, and all that guff? Like, Terminator has those things... But it's all very focused. There's not 800 sidequests, there's like 12. And that's... Perfectly fine?

Like I really don't get it. This game is a tightly-paced shooter that has some really great story beats and some really exciting gameplay. You shoot the Skynet machines. They can kick your ass. I don't need 120 weapon models with randomized stats and 46 different ammo types to do that.

It's a good game. It's like $30 if you import the Euro version. If you're not a fan of the Terminator movies (specifically, the first two), you might not "get" it, but licensed games are usually much, much worse than this, and it does NOT deserve the crucifixion it received from critics. It's not perfect, but it's a solid 7 or 8 for sure.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I’ve finally moved on from over a month learning to play Mushihimesama on Switch to another classic Cave bullet-hell shooter, Espgaluda II, on there. I was clearing novice mode in a single credit pretty consistently before too long, so I’ve jumped to the original version and it’s a thrill ride! Amazingly I’m not doing too badly with that either so far.

I have our Video Wizards friends Michiel and Ben to thank for switching me on to Growl, the bonkers anti-poaching beat ‘em up that was lying undiscovered in my Taito Legends 2 collection on PlayStation 2, but now I can’t leave alone, although I have jumped to MAME because it turns out it’s censored on PS2.

My A500 Mini finally arrived on Friday, which is my first proper Amiga experience (being an ST guy until now) and first impressions are great. I love the curation these machines offer, which means I properly play what’s on them, but I have to admit that vertical steampunk shoot ‘em up Banshee on a USB stick has been the main event so far!
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Been having a go at Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night recently. I've been somewhat curious about this since it was first revealed, but never too bothered about going out of my way to try it. The only "Igavania" of this type I have played more than a few minutes of was Symphony of the Night, and I didn't really get on with it despite wanting to. So far my experience with Bloodstained has been almost identical. First impressions are good, enjoying the aesthetic and tone of it. I really like the kind of campy but still atmospheric Gothic vibe. I think SotN's pixel art does look better than this game's 3D graphics, but it still looks pretty good on its own. Seeing screenshots and footage of this game before made it looks kind of rough, but in action it actually does have a pretty nice look to most areas, even if the low budget is pretty evident.

But then I reached the first boss and I started remembering all the things I didn't like about SotN. The combat is so stiff and rigid, with you having an extremely limited range of abilities. It just feels really bad. I guess it's to make you approach fights with a bit more patience, but it so often just feels so clumsy that doing so doesn't feel rewarding. Just like in SotN, the first boss is also a ridiculously high difficulty spike. It took me loads of attempts and potions to stumble through it, and I almost made me give up on the game already. Traversing the castle in general isn't especially fun either since when you die you lose everything since your last save, which makes exploring really stressful and the idea of going back in after dying really discouraging. It's extremely easy to just miss save rooms as well, making the problem even worse.

But more recently I feel like I'm starting to get a better handle on things. I've levelled up a bit so death isn't as much of a threat anymore, and I managed to beat my second boss on the first attempt. I've also started referring to a map as a I play, trying not to look too close at it but just to tell me where the next save room is, which alleviates a lot of the stress. So I've got a second wind and I'm hopeful that things will keep getting looking up from here.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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After it being recommended on The Back Page podcast, I decided to dip my toe into visual novels (although there seems to be debate as to whether it is a visual novel) and bust the 3DS out to play the DS game Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I have just got to the end of chapter one and the story set up is intriguing so I will press on, I do hope however that there are some more puzzles coming up.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Magical_Isopod »

I recently tried the game In Sound Mind. And while there's things I like about it, it does a thing I hate. Well, a couple things.

1. "It's all in their head." You can do psychological horror without this. You all want to be Silent Hill 2, I get it, but that game worked because that shit was real, it was actually happening to the character, and it was less subtle than, "My patient shot herself at a Wal-Mart, so here's a level set in a Wal-Mart."

2. It does that thing where enemies will just gank you out of nowhere while you're trying to puzzle solve, and you have no real weapons or method to recover health.

It also prominently advertises, "Music by The Living Tombstone!" on the cover, despite the game not having much music - it's mostly ambient noise - and despite The Living Tombstone not even having a Wikipedia page... Had to do some googling to discover it's someone from the Brony music scene? Very weird that's it's advertised as if it's some household name.

Anyway. Not terribly impressed.

I'm moving on to Hard Reset, which is a good time thus far, in the 30 or so minutes I sat down with it. Also gonna pick back up Kingdom Hearts 3 and resume my save file from the launch week, where I gave up because... It's honestly just not a great game. However, I heard the Re:Mind DLC is great, so I'm going to play through out of obligation. Since KH4 was announced - and it actually looks kinda interesting? - I've been wanting to catch up on the series lore I missed: The end of KH3, Re:Mind, and whatever that weird era with the horse head people is all about (because of that new Missing Link game set there).
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Truk_Kurt wrote: April 11th, 2022, 9:19 am After it being recommended on The Back Page podcast, I decided to dip my toe into visual novels (although there seems to be debate as to whether it is a visual novel) and bust the 3DS out to play the DS game Hotel Dusk: Room 215. I have just got to the end of chapter one and the story set up is intriguing so I will press on, I do hope however that there are some more puzzles coming up.
Ah me too, played the first Phoenix Wright after Matthew Castle went on about the games so much, and just this evening I've bought the mobile port of the first Danganronpa game.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I had a load of CEX credit from selling a few games and a phone recently, so being off work for the next week took the kids in to town today and bought them the new Kirby game and Xenoblade Chronicles for myself. Also bought them the Switch Wario Ware game too, which we've been playing this afternoon.

Seems fun so far, some of the mini games you aren't really sure what you have to do, but I guess that's Wario Ware! Tons of mini games and modes, along with loads of playable characters and missions for them etc. It's a pretty comprehensive package really. Bit different to the other games in the series in that you're actually controlling the characters directly on screen. I've played loads of these over the years - Gamecube, GBA, DS, Wii - they're always fun and this is more of that!

Not seen much talk of the game around here though, anyone else played it?
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Still playing Espgaluda II, and I’ve spent most of the week playing its Black Label mode, which effectively adds chaining for score and a shield meter, and that absorbs a bit of contact from a bullet and gives you a chance to take evasive action. Puts it somewhere between novice mode and the insanity you meet a few levels in to the original arcade mode, and I really love the more forgiving chaos it delivers!

Also still dabbling with everything that’s pre-installed on The A500 Mini, as well as everything that isn’t! Battle Chess, Banshee and Microprose Formula One Grand Prix are the current highlights, but I’m just having a good time having a go at all sorts!

I fancied a break from Elden Ring, and for the convenience of playing on the big TV in the living room went for a relative speed-run of Silent Hill 3 on the Xbox HD Collection. I’m mostly playing on autopilot now, but much like Elden Ring currently, the main attraction is spending time there over any great attachment to its convoluted story and clunky gameplay!
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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I've never been a huge fan of visual novels, and I'm even less enthused by 'school drama anime' style games, so I have literally no idea whatsoever what drove me to purchase Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc for Android this weekend.

However, I'm about 90 minutes in and absolutely hooked! Anyone else played these games? I know they seem pretty well thought of by fans of the genre, but I didn't know anything about the game before going in other than it was described as a 'twisted Phoenix Wright'.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by dezm0nd »

I went into Lost in Random expecting a deckbuilding roguelite. The name to be screams RNG based shenanigans but instead what I am getting is a rather quirky, Tim Burton-esque narrative adventure game with a neat card based combat system.

If you like(d) Alice Madness Returns then give it a look. I am getting similar vibes from it.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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When Halo Infinite came out, I played it quite a lot but for some reason I stopped a few levels away from the end. Took a bit of a break from gaming as I then went home for Christmas and left my xbox in the flat.

But over the week I decided I'd go back and finish it. I actually played it on the cloud streaming service thing that Microsoft provide now, it was very smooth and worked really well. Pleasantly surprised by that.

Anyway, finished the campaign. I was so, so bored of all the bad guy monologues and how self serious the whole story was. How did they manage to nail it in the very first game with the campy, kind of frivolous sci-fi vibe, and then never get it again? I don't know. When the last boss said for the billionth time that I was going to face my doom and suffer and stuff I was just like, no I'm not, I just destroyed your entire army pretty much single handedly, let's get this over and done with 😂

Gameplay's still great though, love all the weapons and the equipment system, so I still had a good bit of fun (although I think they still don't do Hunters right, they're too hard to fight and you can almost never get behind them, which is where you want to be to hit their weakspots).
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