Whatcha Been Playing?

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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Return to Monkey Island on Switch.

It's so, so good. Everything one could want from a Monkey Island sequel. Art direction is just gorgeous (boo to the naysayers) and it's so slick and speedy to play - such a beautifully streamlined point and click experience. Determined to savour it and avoid cheating or using any hints.... Just started on part two - the
Spoiler: show
bite of a thousand needles
had me really stumped for a while there...
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

That's pleasant to read, KM.
😊
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Kasuga-san
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Kasuga-san »

KissMammal wrote: September 22nd, 2022, 4:38 pm Return to Monkey Island on Switch.

It's so, so good. Everything one could want from a Monkey Island sequel. Art direction is just gorgeous (boo to the naysayers) and it's so slick and speedy to play - such a beautifully streamlined point and click experience. Determined to savour it and avoid cheating or using any hints.... Just started on part two - the
Spoiler: show
bite of a thousand needles
had me really stumped for a while there...
I am so looking forward to diving into this game once I finish Xenoblade Chronicles 3. As for XC3, this has been one of my favorite JRPGs. They fixed a lot of the problems with the first two games, and I would happily put this up there among the classics I love. Side quests are mostly excellent. Only complaint there would be that some have a little bit too much unnecessary back and forth travel, especially if you have to have a "discussion" at a camp in the middle of it. Also, Sena stands out a lot as the lone American dialect among the main cast (but I've felt the voice work has been pretty excellent all around). Pretty sure I'll be wrapping things up in the next week given where the story is and that I've unlocked all the classes I can before the post game and most of the ascensions for them, colonies are almost all five stars, and I'm at level 90.

Can't wait for my return to Melee Island for my pirate adventure, then I'm thinking Death Loop.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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AimeeHoben wrote: September 23rd, 2022, 4:56 am WOTLK Classic, this is the game I'm currently playing the most. To build a strong character in the game, I need to be backed by great gear, like better weapons and armor. But it's hard for me to get these powerful gear by doing quests, so I can only get as much WOTLK Classic Gold as possible, which can give me a better experience.
Amazing, almost like an infomercial! :lol:
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ratsoalbion
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by ratsoalbion »

Killed 'em. Why do they bother?
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Alex79 »

I do wonder that, I suppose it must work one in a hundred times and it ends up being worthwhile!
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Just got to Return to Monkey Island Part IV - still no hints or sneaky googling used...

By the looks of it this is quite a short game, but can't really complain given the price.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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KissMammal wrote: September 23rd, 2022, 11:11 pm Just got to Return to Monkey Island Part IV - still no hints or sneaky googling used...

By the looks of it this is quite a short game, but can't really complain given the price.
How long has it taken you? I've played the first three again this year and would say they range between 8-12 hours, depending how stuck you get, which is about right to me.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Anyone played much Deathloop? I'm about two hours in and best let off the leash for a little while and just pretty confused about it all! I guess more clues will come as I play, but at the moment I can't even imagine how I would get the visionaries in one place even if I knew what I needed to do. I haven't noticed that I'm able to really affect anything in the world, and I went after Charlie and went running round his funhouse for ages and couldn't find him anywhere. There seems like such a lot going on in this game all at once!

Apart from that I've been making my way through Mass Effect 2 and found I've forgotten pretty much everything in the entire game, so it's cool to go through again.

Still on my second playthrough of X-Com 2 on Switch; 85 hours in and it's an all-timer for sure. Think I'm near the end now.

Finally, picked up Hades on the Switch in the sale for £11 (with a few gold points) which I wanted to do since it left Gamepass a while back. Had a few runs and it's as good as ever. Never managed to finish it on Xbox so most the game is still new to me.

Oh, and I've been learning Japanese on Duolingo, which is pretty gameified, haha. I can now read Hiragana well, which is pretty good. It's really fun to use and I'd recommend the app to anyone looking to learn some basics of a language. I'm really enjoying it. Shame I won't really get change to practice speaking it, but it's cool all the same.
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MattL
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79 wrote: September 25th, 2022, 12:57 am Anyone played much Deathloop? I'm about two hours in and best let off the leash for a little while and just pretty confused about it all! I guess more clues will come as I play, but at the moment I can't even imagine how I would get the visionaries in one place even if I knew what I needed to do. I haven't noticed that I'm able to really affect anything in the world, and I went after Charlie and went running round his funhouse for ages and couldn't find him anywhere. There seems like such a lot going on in this game all at once!
Yes, I actually platinummed Deathloop on PS5 earlier this year and, I'll be honest, I was not impressed. Like you, I felt fairly confused at the beginning and was wondering why I was making like no headway in the whole "kill all the Visionaries in one loop" thing, but I eventually discovered that there's literally only one way to complete the game, which means you're just following the quest markers. It was so overly handholdy that it was boring, but at the same time, the method by which you get the visionaries is so obtuse, that I don't think I would've figured it out on my own. So it's a strange game to me. Without the quest markers and the game over explaining everything, it would probably be too confusing to complete, but with the quest markers and the game over explaining everything, it becomes boring. In addition, there's only two enemy types and their AI is completely braindead and there's only four extremely small levels. Overall, it was a huge let down considering this was the studio that brought us the Dishonored series and Prey 2016.
Alex79 wrote: September 25th, 2022, 12:57 am Apart from that I've been making my way through Mass Effect 2 and found I've forgotten pretty much everything in the entire game, so it's cool to go through again.
Ah, a man of culture. ME2 is one of my favorite games of all time. It kept what worked in ME1, the story and characters, while fixing what didn't, the combat, and dropping what was utterly worthless, the uncharted planet exploration. Might I ask what class your playing? Vanguard was my absolute favorite.
Alex79 wrote: September 25th, 2022, 12:57 am Finally, picked up Hades on the Switch in the sale for £11 (with a few gold points) which I wanted to do since it left Gamepass a while back. Had a few runs and it's as good as ever. Never managed to finish it on Xbox so most the game is still new to me.
I started playing it a few weeks ago and it's a lot of fun. I accidentally started the game in Hell Mode and didn't realize it, so I was wondering why it was so tough after 35 runs. So then I started the game in regular mode and made more headway, but I again started to feel a bit bored around 35 runs despite doing better. I guess I'm just not a fan of Rogue-likes.
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Alex79
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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For all the hours I played Hades for on Xbox, whilst it was on Gamepass, for some reason I never once tried any of the other weapons apart from the sword you start with. I've put a few more hours in to Switch and tried them all now. It's amazing how much they change the game! From the mad dashing about using the sword or fits of fury (whatever the real names are) to the much slower paced and methodical combat the bow and the gun bring, where the key is placing yourself in the right position and picking off enemies at range. Having a blast using these ranged weapons.

I'm still not much good at the game; I can beat the first area every time now but still not made it past the Bone Hydra boss in the second stage.

I know I'm telling the converted, but this game is great!
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markfm007
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by markfm007 »

I finished Deathloop earlier this year and felt similar to you guys. It's a fun game but wore out its welcome by the end. It took me a few goes round to get to grips with it too. I was hoping for a sort of 'Dishonored Hitman' where you're given free reign to find and take out all these targets within the span of a day, but it isn't really that. It felt a bit half baked in comparison to the Dishonored games.
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MattL
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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markfm007 wrote: September 27th, 2022, 1:43 pm I finished Deathloop earlier this year and felt similar to you guys. It's a fun game but wore out its welcome by the end. It took me a few goes round to get to grips with it too. I was hoping for a sort of 'Dishonored Hitman' where you're given free reign to find and take out all these targets within the span of a day, but it isn't really that. It felt a bit half baked in comparison to the Dishonored games.
I think that's my biggest issue with the game. There's no creativity involved. You have to just have to complete the game according to the one single solution exactly as the developers envisioned, which is in complete contrast to Arkane's prior games, where they're like, "Here's a giant open level. Your target is so-and-so. Have fun getting to him!"

I'm linking an interesting video from Gamespot where they chat with Dana Nightingale, one of the leads on Deathloop, about the struggles Arkane had developing it. It seemed that, there was going to be absolutely zero hand-holding at first and it totally baffled game testers over and over, leading to all the excessive hand-holding that's in game as released. I really feel like Dana learned the wrong thing from those testers. In her mind, it was like "Well, if they can't infer or understand the one single solution that I devised, then I need to tell them how to do it," when she really should have learned that the game needed multiple solutions. It just seems to me that in a game about time travel, there should be flexibility in solving a problem, rather than strict rigidity. Allowing players to come up with their own ways to assassinate every Visionary would lead to and encourage divergent playstyles, speed-running, low percentage runs, sequence breaking, and other forms of player expression. The game as it is, is just "get a Strelak shotgun to mow down all the brain-dead enemies and then follow the dots on your radar to the Visionaries who are likewise brain-dead, but have slightly more health points." I legit don't understand how it got so many perfect scores, particularly when compared to (a) other loop games, (b) other immersive sim games, and (c) other Arkane games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uzhjl8 ... l=GameSpot
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KissMammal
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

Alex79 wrote: September 24th, 2022, 9:23 am
KissMammal wrote: September 23rd, 2022, 11:11 pm Just got to Return to Monkey Island Part IV - still no hints or sneaky googling used...

By the looks of it this is quite a short game, but can't really complain given the price.
How long has it taken you? I've played the first three again this year and would say they range between 8-12 hours, depending how stuck you get, which is about right to me.
So far it doesn't feel like it has the scope and level of detail of Monkey Island II... I don't know, it could be rose tinted glasses making that game feel bigger and more expansive than it actually was.

I'm also finding it quite easy going and haven't been stuck on any one thing for very long, but again I'm comparing it to my experience with playing the originals as a kid, being stuck on the same bit for days or weeks at a time. Nothing as tricky as the spitting contest from II so far, at least.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by KissMammal »

It's also imo nowhere near as challenging as Thimbleweed Park. That game had me stumped good and proper and had me resorting to walkthroughs on more than one occasion.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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markfm007 wrote: September 27th, 2022, 1:43 pm I finished Deathloop earlier this year and felt similar to you guys. It's a fun game but wore out its welcome by the end. It took me a few goes round to get to grips with it too. I was hoping for a sort of 'Dishonored Hitman' where you're given free reign to find and take out all these targets within the span of a day, but it isn't really that. It felt a bit half baked in comparison to the Dishonored games.
Yeah, I've bailed on it. Just felt like what's the point playing a game I'm not actually enjoying. I thought the game would be more as you described, a Dishonoured Hitman, but it just felt like moving from checkpoint to checkpoint. I didn't have a clue what I was doing other than 'head towards the yellow marker' and it never really felt like I was working anything out myself.
MattL wrote: September 27th, 2022, 2:49 pm

I think that's my biggest issue with the game. There's no creativity involved. You have to just have to complete the game according to the one single solution exactly as the developers envisioned, which is in complete contrast to Arkane's prior games, where they're like, "Here's a giant open level. Your target is so-and-so. Have fun getting to him!"

I'm linking an interesting video from Gamespot where they chat with Dana Nightingale, one of the leads on Deathloop, about the struggles Arkane had developing it. It seemed that, there was going to be absolutely zero hand-holding at first and it totally baffled game testers over and over, leading to all the excessive hand-holding that's in game as released. I really feel like Dana learned the wrong thing from those testers. In her mind, it was like "Well, if they can't infer or understand the one single solution that I devised, then I need to tell them how to do it," when she really should have learned that the game needed multiple solutions. It just seems to me that in a game about time travel, there should be flexibility in solving a problem, rather than strict rigidity. Allowing players to come up with their own ways to assassinate every Visionary would lead to and encourage divergent playstyles, speed-running, low percentage runs, sequence breaking, and other forms of player expression. The game as it is, is just "get a Strelak shotgun to mow down all the brain-dead enemies and then follow the dots on your radar to the Visionaries who are likewise brain-dead, but have slightly more health points." I legit don't understand how it got so many perfect scores, particularly when compared to (a) other loop games, (b) other immersive sim games, and (c) other Arkane games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uzhjl8 ... l=GameSpot
I don't really have anything to add to that other than to say that was a really interesting and insightful view on the game!
KissMammal wrote: September 27th, 2022, 4:52 pm It's also imo nowhere near as challenging as Thimbleweed Park. That game had me stumped good and proper and had me resorting to walkthroughs on more than one occasion.
Yeah I played that last year, maybe the year before, and I enjoyed it on the whole but there was a few times I needed hints. It never felt as logical or satisfying as anything out of Monkey Island 1-3 to me. Still, I'll definitely be playing the new one at some point hopefully soon.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Interesting interview! It should be simple, like Dishonored but instead of taking people out one level at a time, you need to do it within a single in game day. The confusing part is that you're supposed to 'complete the golden loop', not just do it however you want. You're hunting objectives within fixed points of time. All the tutorial stuff is needed because they made the concept unintuitive.

I think if I was having that much of a nightmare getting testers to understand it, I'd question the core premise, as you say Matt. Maybe it was too late at that point idk. I know real time games aren't always that popular, but if you're selling the game on the concept of a timeloop, surely people would expect that.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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Alex79 wrote: September 27th, 2022, 6:51 pm
MattL wrote: September 27th, 2022, 2:49 pm I think that's my biggest issue with the game. There's no creativity involved. You have to just have to complete the game according to the one single solution exactly as the developers envisioned, which is in complete contrast to Arkane's prior games, where they're like, "Here's a giant open level. Your target is so-and-so. Have fun getting to him!"

I'm linking an interesting video from Gamespot where they chat with Dana Nightingale, one of the leads on Deathloop, about the struggles Arkane had developing it. It seemed that, there was going to be absolutely zero hand-holding at first and it totally baffled game testers over and over, leading to all the excessive hand-holding that's in game as released. I really feel like Dana learned the wrong thing from those testers. In her mind, it was like "Well, if they can't infer or understand the one single solution that I devised, then I need to tell them how to do it," when she really should have learned that the game needed multiple solutions. It just seems to me that in a game about time travel, there should be flexibility in solving a problem, rather than strict rigidity. Allowing players to come up with their own ways to assassinate every Visionary would lead to and encourage divergent playstyles, speed-running, low percentage runs, sequence breaking, and other forms of player expression. The game as it is, is just "get a Strelak shotgun to mow down all the brain-dead enemies and then follow the dots on your radar to the Visionaries who are likewise brain-dead, but have slightly more health points." I legit don't understand how it got so many perfect scores, particularly when compared to (a) other loop games, (b) other immersive sim games, and (c) other Arkane games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uzhjl8 ... l=GameSpot
I don't really have anything to add to that other than to say that was a really interesting and insightful view on the game!
Thank you! I'm going to have a lot to say on this game when it comes time for the inevitable C&R episode.
markfm007 wrote: September 27th, 2022, 8:13 pm I think if I was having that much of a nightmare getting testers to understand it, I'd question the core premise, as you say Matt. Maybe it was too late at that point idk. I know real time games aren't always that popular, but if you're selling the game on the concept of a timeloop, surely people would expect that.
I have a feeling it was partially that, but also I think Dana Nightingale and her team were too close to the problem to see it. As in, they knew how to play and complete the game because they designed it, so to them, it seemed simple, thus they lost their objectivity and couldn't understand why others struggled with it as a result. They couldn't see the forest from the trees, as the expression goes.

On a related note, I was looking into sales figures for Deathloop and I could not find any hard numbers anywhere. The only info I found was that it was the lowest debut for any Arkane game ever, even worse than Prey. That is not good.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

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MattL wrote: September 28th, 2022, 1:25 pm I have a feeling it was partially that, but also I think Dana Nightingale and her team were too close to the problem to see it. As in, they knew how to play and complete the game because they designed it, so to them, it seemed simple, thus they lost their objectivity and couldn't understand why others struggled with it as a result. They couldn't see the forest from the trees, as the expression goes.

On a related note, I was looking into sales figures for Deathloop and I could not find any hard numbers anywhere. The only info I found was that it was the lowest debut for any Arkane game ever, even worse than Prey. That is not good.
I could see that. I did enjoy my time with it despite all that, it just falls flat. Shame about the sales, I'd like to see Arkane succeed. I'll have to try Prey, I've heard that one's good too.
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?

Post by Truk_Kurt »

Regarding the weak sales numbers at launch compared to other Arkane games, it's worth remembering that it was exclusive to PlayStation and PC when all their previous games also launched on Xbox. Plus now they're under the Microsoft banner, so they should be ok financially.
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