Whatcha Been Playing?

This is where you can deliberate anything relating to videogames - past, present and future
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Kez86
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kez86 »

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled has been on my playlist these couple of weeks. Really enjoyable.

Still making progress through Mario +Rabbids (I'm a completionist so those challenges need to be beaten)

Resident evil 4 has also been slow going. I am enjoying it but im not as hooked as I was with the original Resident Evil HD.

Dicey Dungeons has also been insanely fun. Recommend that to any fans of rogue-like Dice based deck builders. Plus an absolute cracking soundtrack.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

40 hours in to X-Com 2 and damn, it might be one of my all timers. It's so good. Training up your squad, flanking the enemy, building Psi-warriors... Already looking forward to going through it all again with all the DLC turned on and maybe in Ironman mode. Loving this.
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Jobobonobo
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Jobobonobo »

I have just started a real odd duck of a game called moon: RPG remix adventure. This was originally released only in Japan for the PS1 way back in 1997 and was such a cult classic that Toby Fox claimed it as one of the major influences on Undertale. It has been officially translated since 2020 and I managed to nab it on the Summer Sale on the Playstation Store.

Its influence on Undertale is obvious as you progress by helping out NPCs with their problem and battling your foes is nowhere to be seen. It is quite a sharp satire look at the RPG genre and pokes fun at many of the genres' conventions by portraying the Hero as a bumbling idiot who ruins everything. It also predates Majoras Mask by having to do things within a rigid time scale. If you don't get to bed before time runs out, it is game over! This gives a lot of tension to what is otherwise a sweet little adventure. By progressing through the game and collecting Love (experience basically), your time you can spend awake increases.

I have only played an hour or so and it took me a while to get the hang of it but this has intrigued me enough to keep playing. Also for a 1997 game it looks really nice with distinctive character designs and lovely pre-rendered backgrounds. I have always wanted to try this out and I am quite excited to see how it progresses.
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Tolkientaters
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Tolkientaters »

Picked up Rollerdrome and it's just great. It's Tony Hawk with combat and you have to do tricks to refill ammo. Also it's got a fantastic presentation, similar to what Sable was doing, except it runs well. Not far in or skilled at the gameplay but really enjoying it. It's nice that my 3 most anticipated games (Cult of the Lamb, Rollerdrome, and Elden Ring) are just exceeding my expectations.
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NoMoreSpearows
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by NoMoreSpearows »

A year after playing the demo, I've beaten NEO: The World Ends with You. I hesitate to say "finished" considering I have a bunch of things to do, namely due to the Ultimate difficulty not being unlocked until the postgame.

It is a significantly better game to play than the original. Things like eating food and evolving pins have been made a lot easier, the battle system is balanced so there isn't a situation where you can literally be invincible, and the game provides enough information to make it so backtracking isn't a pain in the posterior. But it is a lesser experience, if that makes any sense. The characters are fun but not as endearing as the original, the systems being made more user-friendly now rob them of their uniqueness, and the ending goes on for far, far too long.

I still really like this game, and it remains frustrating that both purposeful sabotage from the higher-ups and critics thinking teenagers speaking like teenagers do is a fault against the game's writing led to it drastically underperforming in sales. Even if it isn't a title that makes you think as much as the original did, it is still a definite recommendation for anyone who's a fan of action RPGs or Japanese culture.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

X-Com 2: War of the Chosen has absolutely blown me away. It took what was already an incredible game and somehow made it better. By introducing The Lost (zombies) and three new factions as well as nemesis style leaders who pursue you through missions it has improved the game no end. Add to this new abilities, weapons, tactics, soldier bonds and more customisation options and we might be looking at one of my top 10 games of all time. I've put 60 hours in to it now, am on my second campaign and it's the only game to memory I have ever just started a second playthrough of immediately after finishing the first. There are not enough superlatives to hype this game up - it's an absolute masterpiece.

And I don't even like strategy games.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

How did you get over the difficulty or am I just rubbish at it? I play it in the same way as other XCOM style games which I have not had an issue with but for some reason I couldn't even get past the 3rd mission in XCOM 2, even on Easy!
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I don't know really, I guess I just did! It is tough early game but once you start upgrading weapons and armour and learn more tactics it gets easier. There are some real difficulty spikes like the leader aliens that get a move after every action you take (rather than just at the end when it's the aliens turn) but you can combat that in lots of different ways once you get the hang of it and you realise they do a runner once they're below certain health. Don't be afraid to keep saving and loading in that early game too, if that's how you want to play - I certainly did. Once you know where the enemies are, you can reload and set your squad up more effectively to take them out. It's cheating I suppose, but it makes the game more playable and fun.
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Scrustle
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Scrustle »

Played a couple of interesting demos the last few days. First is Soulstice. An indie hack-and-slash in the vein of DMC. I've had my eye on this one for a while, since it seemed like it had potential, but was put off when seeing trailers of it. From what they showed before, it made it look like the sound design was incredibly lacking. But now playing this demo, that problem has been fixed, and I was pretty impressed with it. It feels good in the hand, very snappy and impactful, with a stylish flair. Although there is some jank to it as well. A couple of abilities don't feel great. Hopefully they get tweaked before release. The combat does appear to have some depth to it though. You have a primary weapon, and up to three secondary weapons at once, the latter of which you can swap between on the fly with the D-pad. Although only two of them were available in the demo. Thought has clearly gone in to how your attacks work, with different types of launchers and mid-air moves, etc. I did a bit of experimenting trying to string something together, and it was definitely possible. You also have a ghostly companion character who has various magical abilities to compliment your weapons. They can deflect incoming projectiles if you hit the button for it at the right time, which doesn't break you out of your melee combos either. They also produce a magical field which you need to be able to hit certain enemies. Not sure how I feel about that idea, but it didn't cause any major issues in the demo at least.

The other demo was for Wavetale. A 3D platformer with an emphasis on open water and high speed movement. I'd never heard of this before stumbling on this demo, but I was really impressed with it. Turns out this has actually been out on Stadia for a while already, which probably explains the lack of knowledge about it. It has a really great visual style. Nice pastel colours with cel shading, skies filled with dramatic swirling clouds, and oceans that takes some cues from how Wind Waker presented its seas, but with really nice reflections and shaders, and constantly undulating waves to leap off from. Jumping and movement feel really great. Your basic traversal has you skimming across the surface of the water, and you can charge a jump to adjust how high you go when you spring up from it. The momentum that you carry up in to the air feels just right, really smooth and fast. And in the air you have a dash and a hover that keep a lot of horizontal momentum as well. It immediately feels great as soon as you pick it up, and it's a lot of fun to just play around with your moves even in the wide open areas where there aren't platforms and obstacles. Areas with those do exist though, small hubs with more traditional platforming sequences, that seem to be mostly about vertical traversal instead. But they still manage to maintain the quick pace and momentum too. The trailer for this game seems to show much more complex levels in that style than what the demo had as well. Another neat touch I liked was how the characters' facial features were all done with simple 2D art, with that kind of wobbly outline effect you see in cartoons sometimes. It allowed the characters to be really expressive despite having such low detail to them, and the wobbliness helped make them feel like a natural part of the character model rather than just something slapped on the top.
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stvnorman
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by stvnorman »

My Taito Egret II Mini finally turned up a couple of weeks ago and is still demanding most of my attention. I have played all forty games (plus the ten on the trackball and paddle expansion), and while being able to spin the screen to vertical for stuff like Gun Frontier and Tatsujin never gets old, I have now also spent significant time on horizontal shooter Darius Gaiden and ninja platformer The Legend of Kage. The spectacular first of those is probably only not my series favourite because it’s the one I’ve played the least, and the iconic second I’ve played a load of home ports of but barely touched the original. And they both feel great on that arcade stick!

I am still Darkstalking with Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire on the Capcom Fighting Collection on Switch, and also slowly trying to get better at vertical shooter 19xx: The War Against Destiny on there, via Capcom Stadium Arcade. Same for Saturday Night Slam Masters on its sequel.

Finally, I made the mistake of getting hooked on Elite Dangerous a couple of days before it leaves Game Pass. I’ll remember to not be so intimidated next time!
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

My Egret II is en route from Germany!
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Tolkientaters
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Tolkientaters »

Downloaded Immortality which is the new game from Sam Barlow (made Telling Lies and Her Story). Just starting out, but I am loving it so far. I didn't play his previous games so this is new format for me, but it's working. Scrubbing through FMV footage to figure the story is really compelling especially with the little twist it adds. I'd recommend anyone at interested to go in knowing as little as possible.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

I pre ordered and have been playing F1 Manager. I am a recentish convert to the motorsport, I had always followed it casually but only since Drive to Survive came on Netflix have I been following F1 to a great extent, so there is still aspects to the sport I am still learning. With this in mind I was initially hesitant to get this in case it was too deep for me. I needn't have worried though as the tutorials are all really well done and you can bring them up again whenever you like if you forget something. All menus are well presented with lots of explainers on what things mean.
In many ways it is similar to Football Manager but with a greater emphasis on facilities management. Races are very involved, Bahrain which I did last night took me 90 minutes to go through practice, qualifying and the race, You can simulate practice and qualifying if you wish though. It feels very rewarding to get a good result for your team.
I think there are a couple of areas for improvement for future games though, the first would be some kind of media interaction like in Football Manager. Currently there is none whatsoever. It would be really cool to be interviewed before and after races by the media or when you make a big decision such as to get rid of a driver and have all the answers impact on team morale. The ability to create your own team would also be good, now you have to choose one of the official teams (I went Alfa Romeo).
If you're an F1 fan, there is a lot here to like so I would recommend it and it's cool that it's on consoles too.
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Seph
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Seph »

Death Stranding.

First of, the story isn't as confusing as people have made out but it is just baffling nonsense from a man who definitely needs a filter and an editor. I think I get the gist of it, but the setting doesn't make sense. I refuse to believe this is supposed to be a USA that's not a million miles in our future, unless there's some alternative universe or timeline thing going on. It's just so empty! At least other post-apocalypse things have some shithole towns or rundown buildings dotted about; but this has none of them. It really takes away from the world.

The gameplay is the most confusing part for me, in that there's really not a lot of it. I actually like the exploration aspect and some of the epic journeys or adventures you can make for yourself, but it's so repetitive. The entire game is basically fetch quests. While I find the feedback loop hypnotic, I often ask myself why I am wasting my time with this. If it wasn't for the online features this game would have very little to show for itself.

Still playing it though. I'm ashamed of myself.
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Seph
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Seph »

Truk_Kurt wrote: August 31st, 2022, 9:18 am I pre ordered and have been playing F1 Manager. I am a recentish convert to the motorsport, I had always followed it casually but only since Drive to Survive came on Netflix have I been following F1 to a great extent, so there is still aspects to the sport I am still learning. With this in mind I was initially hesitant to get this in case it was too deep for me. I needn't have worried though as the tutorials are all really well done and you can bring them up again whenever you like if you forget something. All menus are well presented with lots of explainers on what things mean.
In many ways it is similar to Football Manager but with a greater emphasis on facilities management. Races are very involved, Bahrain which I did last night took me 90 minutes to go through practice, qualifying and the race, You can simulate practice and qualifying if you wish though. It feels very rewarding to get a good result for your team.
I think there are a couple of areas for improvement for future games though, the first would be some kind of media interaction like in Football Manager. Currently there is none whatsoever. It would be really cool to be interviewed before and after races by the media or when you make a big decision such as to get rid of a driver and have all the answers impact on team morale. The ability to create your own team would also be good, now you have to choose one of the official teams (I went Alfa Romeo).
If you're an F1 fan, there is a lot here to like so I would recommend it and it's cool that it's on consoles too.
I saw an advert for this the other day and I was intrigued. While I know sod all about cars, F1 is the one sport I have the most time for; mostly down to the tactical and technical aspect of it. So something like this might be just what I'm looking for, especially if you can take a team like Haas to the top. Or play as Ferrari and try not to make the same tactical fuck ups they've done this season and see how close the championship should really be.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

Seph wrote: September 1st, 2022, 9:08 am Death Stranding.

First of, the story isn't as confusing as people have made out but it is just baffling nonsense from a man who definitely needs a filter and an editor. I think I get the gist of it, but the setting doesn't make sense. I refuse to believe this is supposed to be a USA that's not a million miles in our future, unless there's some alternative universe or timeline thing going on. It's just so empty! At least other post-apocalypse things have some shithole towns or rundown buildings dotted about; but this has none of them. It really takes away from the world.

The gameplay is the most confusing part for me, in that there's really not a lot of it. I actually like the exploration aspect and some of the epic journeys or adventures you can make for yourself, but it's so repetitive. The entire game is basically fetch quests. While I find the feedback loop hypnotic, I often ask myself why I am wasting my time with this. If it wasn't for the online features this game would have very little to show for itself.

Still playing it though. I'm ashamed of myself.
Hmm, yeah, I suppose it is one big fetch quest, but it's easy to get bogged down in side deliveries in this game. I spent hours doing that and was finding the game began to drag. Once I decided that I was cracking on with the story and putting some effort in to rebuilding the road network I found it better paced. I tended to take side deliveries if they were on route or near my intended destination only. I really, really liked this game. It had a sense of isolation I've never felt in another game, not Fallout or No Man's Sky or any of the other obvious ones. I suppose a lot hinges on where you rate Kojima and his storytelling. Personally, I am the very definition of a 'fanboy' as far as he's concerned, so was lapping it up, but I can see how it would be dreadfully irritating for anyone less enthused.
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Kos or some say Kosm
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kos or some say Kosm »

Playing Final Fantasy 8 for the first time since release! After listening to the podcast about this show I definitely now see how bat shit crazy the story turns… I was enjoying the story until the start of disc 2. And then yep and a fat alien named NORG is in the basement of the garden running the show!

Haha story aside I have really enjoyed the battle system and the whole junctioning set up. I was loving triple triad ( I loved Gwent so there was no chance I wouldn’t) until all the rules change permanently so it was random cards, same/plus & sudden death and became unplayable. I didn’t realise rules would change permanently but oh well that’s on me. On the road to the platinum and have really enjoyed my time with FF8!
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ColinAlonso
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ColinAlonso »

NORG is the tip of the 'FF8 is bonkers' iceberg.
Truk_Kurt wrote: August 31st, 2022, 9:18 am I pre ordered and have been playing F1 Manager. ... With this in mind I was initially hesitant to get this in case it was too deep for me.
I feel like I haven't seen much in terms of reviews for this and my fear is the opposite, that I will find it either too shallow and dislike it but that probably comes with having watched F1 since the mid 90s.
Seph wrote: September 1st, 2022, 9:13 am I saw an advert for this the other day and I was intrigued. While I know sod all about cars, F1 is the one sport I have the most time for; mostly down to the tactical and technical aspect of it. So something like this might be just what I'm looking for, especially if you can take a team like Haas to the top. Or play as Ferrari and try not to make the same tactical fuck ups they've done this season and see how close the championship should really be.
I wonder if there's a situation where the pit crew only bring out 3 tyres. ;)
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duskvstweak
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by duskvstweak »

I'm back from my League of Legends relapse. Used FTL as a cleanser. It's just so good and the soundtrack is still such fire. I just wish I could beat the game, even once.
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Truk_Kurt
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Have always been tempted by FTL after Into the Breach being perhaps my favourite indie game ever alongside Hotline Miami, but only hear about how difficult it is and I already thought Into the Breach was hard enough.
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