Whatcha Been Playing?
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I spent a couple of hours playing Battlefield 4 commander mode on my tablet last night. It's still not 100% working as it doesn't show you the time or number of tickets remaining if you're playing obliteration or conquest. But it's alright and launching a couple of cruise missiles to help your team out is great. It also helps my K/D ratio
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mikeleddy83
- Member
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- Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 5:32 pm
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
You're in for a treat, not sure why you're getting the sound issues but I used ePSX 1.7 (now at 1.9 with optimisations to presumably make it even better) with the ps mouse emulator and it worked without a hitch. Can't wait to hear how you get on with it, as you guessed I loved it to bits!Todinho wrote:I did it! Finnaly managed to get Policenauts running on a emulator with the english patch! The sound keeps cutting out for some reason but other than that it's fine so im looking foward to get going at that if it's anything like Snatcher I know it's gonna be good and speaking of Snatcher I listened to Suda's51 2011 SDatcher Radio Drama and found it pretty good you can tell by a mile away that Suda is writing it but it still manages to fell like the Snatcher universe it also helps when Kojima is looking over your shoulder I guess,he also does a character in it and it's pretty good,by the way the japanese voice actor for Snake,Akio Otsuka,voices the main character in this and he is the best thing in it.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I've been feeling bad about neglecting Deus Ex recently, so I went back to that today. Managed to pick it back up again fairly well. I'm repeatedly stunned at how fantastic and well realised the visual design is in that game. I'd love it if the future actually looked like that. It's really amazing. The use of light and the futuristic architecture mixed with the renaissance cues is brilliant. The way they render materials is great too. Gives everything a really tangible feel to it. Like Jensen's cyborg body really looks like it's made out of crazy futuristic materials, not just a bunch of polygons making up a character model.
Usually my progress is pretty slow through that game, but I managed to do quite a bit today. I just got to the end of the section where you have to sneak your way up the skyscraper of a rival company in China. But at the end of that sequence, you get locked in the room at the top and a load of heavily armed guards pour in. It's insane. No idea how to deal with that many people who kill you so easily.
Oh yeah, and I picked up Contrast. It's a mixed bag. I love the aesthetic of that too. So unique in games. But the controls are seriously wonky, and sometimes the way the mechanics work seems unreliable and unfair. The way it can force you out of a shadow for something minor. Jumping is really floaty and hard to judge, and inconsistent in whether it judges whether you've made a jump or not. Recently played a little section that was an obvious homage to Limbo, so that made the problems even worse. I'm not a fan of Limbo either.
Usually my progress is pretty slow through that game, but I managed to do quite a bit today. I just got to the end of the section where you have to sneak your way up the skyscraper of a rival company in China. But at the end of that sequence, you get locked in the room at the top and a load of heavily armed guards pour in. It's insane. No idea how to deal with that many people who kill you so easily.
Oh yeah, and I picked up Contrast. It's a mixed bag. I love the aesthetic of that too. So unique in games. But the controls are seriously wonky, and sometimes the way the mechanics work seems unreliable and unfair. The way it can force you out of a shadow for something minor. Jumping is really floaty and hard to judge, and inconsistent in whether it judges whether you've made a jump or not. Recently played a little section that was an obvious homage to Limbo, so that made the problems even worse. I'm not a fan of Limbo either.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Been playing Bioshock Infinite. Enjoying it so far. I've got this weird relationship with the Bioshock games. It's that I never really get excited when I think about them, and I almost have to force myself to put them on, but when I do I really enjoy them and play really far longer than I meant to. The second is still my favourite (so far) but the combat in this one is actually enjoyable whereas at times in the first two it felt like it just got in the way of the story. I'm not that far in, just got dropped in to what seems to be some sort of slaving dock area and the girl has gone AWOL.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
If I were to describe any Bioshock game by saying the combat got in the way of the story, I would most definitely say it was Infinite. Especially after playing through the whole game. Also seems strange to me that someone whose favourite Bioshock is the second would say Infinite is the one where combat doesn't get in the way.
I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on how the story goes after you catch up with Elizabeth again. That was a pretty... significant part of the story for me, but I only realised a while afterwards.
I'd also be interested to hear your thoughts on how the story goes after you catch up with Elizabeth again. That was a pretty... significant part of the story for me, but I only realised a while afterwards.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
You can sneak that section if you are very very careful. I can't remember much but there's a takedown upgrade I had that came in handy at that point.Scrustle wrote:I've been feeling bad about neglecting Deus Ex recently, so I went back to that today. Managed to pick it back up again fairly well. I'm repeatedly stunned at how fantastic and well realised the visual design is in that game. I'd love it if the future actually looked like that. It's really amazing. The use of light and the futuristic architecture mixed with the renaissance cues is brilliant. The way they render materials is great too. Gives everything a really tangible feel to it. Like Jensen's cyborg body really looks like it's made out of crazy futuristic materials, not just a bunch of polygons making up a character model.
Usually my progress is pretty slow through that game, but I managed to do quite a bit today. I just got to the end of the section where you have to sneak your way up the skyscraper of a rival company in China. But at the end of that sequence, you get locked in the room at the top and a load of heavily armed guards pour in. It's insane. No idea how to deal with that many people who kill you so easily
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I enjoyed the combat in Bioshock 2 way more than in either of those other games. It wasn't as memorable as 1, but damn if 2 wasn't way more fun to actually play.
Hated the combat in Infinite. You're either ploughing through endless hordes of identical dudes with guns rushing at you, or facing off against one big dude who takes a beating, or (more likely) both at once. It's relentless and exhausting. I never once finished a fight thinking anything other than "thank fuck that's over with". Plus the weapon system is a mess - the two-weapon system means you can't really keep a weapon, so upgrading it seems pointless, even more so when you factor in that every weapon has an alternate version (for some reason?) that doesn't benefit from the upgrades. So the game provides an upgrade system and then does its best to disincentivise upgrading anything.
Hated the combat in Infinite. You're either ploughing through endless hordes of identical dudes with guns rushing at you, or facing off against one big dude who takes a beating, or (more likely) both at once. It's relentless and exhausting. I never once finished a fight thinking anything other than "thank fuck that's over with". Plus the weapon system is a mess - the two-weapon system means you can't really keep a weapon, so upgrading it seems pointless, even more so when you factor in that every weapon has an alternate version (for some reason?) that doesn't benefit from the upgrades. So the game provides an upgrade system and then does its best to disincentivise upgrading anything.
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Todinho
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Yeah I dont know what's going on with that either but it's just for short seconds in some of the cutscenes I have all the plugins right so im clueless one thing I noticed is that I made a big mistake by not asigning movement to the mouse XD I thought the game would be menu based like Snatcher but who knew we gotta a cursor now,So I'll probably have to change my config because if those later sequencer in Snatcher taught me anything is that I'll have to be precise.mikeleddy83 wrote: You're in for a treat, not sure why you're getting the sound issues but I used ePSX 1.7 (now at 1.9 with optimisations to presumably make it even better) with the ps mouse emulator and it worked without a hitch. Can't wait to hear how you get on with it, as you guessed I loved it to bits!
PS:Gravity totally ripped off the beginning scene from Policenauts,unless Kojima ripped off first which is entirely possible,still great set-up.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
More Curse of Darkness today. And Jesus, have I come across a truly infuriating part. There's a tower which is a kind of combat gauntlet. 50 floors of enemies that get progressively harder and harder. It never gets truly hard though, but it does take about 30 or 40 minutes to get all the way up. So I did that, and then when you reach the top you have to use one of your Innocent Devils to glide off the top to reach a secret area. I had learned before that I had to glide towards the moon, but I was unsure. There was clearly another tower there, but it wasn't directly in line with the moon, so I got confused and kind of went towards that instead. But I just fell down and found myself in some random part of the level. I'm not sure exactly why I didn't make it. It could have been that I was going in the wrong direction, but that seems unfair to me, since as I later found out, the second tower is actually where you're supposed to go, although you can still reach it if you fly directly towards the moon. I have a feeling the reason I failed was because I didn't have the level 2 version of the glide ability. If that is the case, then that's bollocks. Nothing indicated that at all and I just wasted my time. Well, I suppose I wasted my time either way, but I digress.
So I go up the first tower a second time. This time I have the longer glide, and I actually make it to the second tower. But there's nothing up there. There's a path to go down, but I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go there or whether that was just an exit or something. So I continues gliding towards the moon, which was a mistake. I fall down in the area of the level around the second tower, which doesn't have an entrance at ground level. So I have to backtrack back to the first tower. Both of those failed attempts were a few days ago, which put me off playing the game for a bit.
Went back to it today, to finally get that shit right. Things go well. I blast up the tower in my fastest time yet, my Devil levels up and becomes a cool dragon, and I craft some new gear from the rare drops you get from the enemies in the tower. Glide over to the second tower, and proceed down the stairs. Turns out that you have to go down another 50 floors of enemies in that tower too! Except, I didn't even get the chance to do that, because I was almost instantly killed by the first enemy in that second tower...
So yeah, fuck that place to the deepest pits of hell. I certainly won't be returning there soon. I carried on with the game though and fought the boss of the level, and got a little in to the next level. This time it's a town, which is something a little different. It's still relatively drab though, as all the environments have been so far. No introductory cutscene either, which was a shame. It's been fun watching some of these character interact with each other. Like there's an aristocrat-type guy. He's great. Always charming and polite, yet obviously up to something evil. But he's just so nice though!
But there's something I think I've kept forgetting to mention about this game. The camera is abysmal! Truly terrible. Gets stuck on geometry all the time, and the lock-on can't keep up with enemies sometimes. It also likes to lock on to enemies who are really far away on occasion. There isn't a way to cycle between different enemies while locked on either. It's manageable, but it is pretty awful.
But I feel like I complain about the game way too much. It's still kept me entertained, and motivated to continue through all this. I guess I just like absorbing the atmosphere and exploring the levels. It's currently my go-to game for playing while listening to podcasts too. Perfect abnegation. It requires just enough attention to stay sufficiently engaging, but it not too much for me to be able to just switch off and relax while paying attention to something else at the same time. I guess I have games that can do that better; ones that actually require more attention, like Monster Hunter and Forza. But I've played those so much, it's good to have something new to experience in that way. I guess a big factor in it is how closely you need to pay attention to audio, or how much of the game is lost if you have no audio. Monster Hunter doesn't really lose anything. Forza does a little, but nothing that makes the game a significantly worse experience. But in a game with amazing music, or frequent cutscenes or dialogue, podcast listening at the same time isn't really possible.
And as perhaps the perfect example of that, I played a bit more Metal Gear Rising today. The mission leaving Denver and then the boss fight with Sam immediately after. Both short chapters, so I did them both. That battle with Sam is so amazing. I find myself kind of role-playing in that fight too. Not just rushing in straight away. I always tend to mirror what he does. A lot of the fight is just a stand-off, interspersed with short flurries of really quick bouts, often lunging at each other from a distance. It's fantastic. I think the game is designed to encourage that though, because often if you just rush in when Sam hasn't got his guard down, he'll punish you for it. You have to bide your time and pick your moment carefully.
I'm getting the feeling in that game though, that the scoring system might not be that robust. Going through this second time, I am absolutely certain I'm doing significantly better than my first time through, yet I'm consistently getting comparable scores for missions and individual fights. I don't get it. I know I'm doing better, yet I'm still getting similar scores. Unless using a more powerful sword lowers your score or something? That would be annoying if it did.
Oh yeah, and I did some races on GT6 too. Got a TVR Cerbera Speed Six, which is cool. But thinking about the game, I realised something about the its cobbled together feel. This game can only exist the way it does because of a broken development system. No one would ever in their right mind design a game to be like this on purpose, from the ground up. No sane developer would want to develop a game under the idea of it having far too much content for it to all be brought up to a consistent standard. For most of the the content in the game to look and sound like it came from a decade old game. No one wants to make that, yet that's what Polyphony had to do, because they insist on having over 1000 cars and all the content under the sun. And because GT5 was such a mess. The problems of that game obviously impacted the development of this one, and they had to go back and patch things up instead of moving on to something new. That meant that the new game got less attention, leading it to have similar problems. The series seems to be stuck in this self-perpetuating, self-inflicted legacy of problems.
And judging by what Forza 5 ended up being like, I'm starting to worry that that series will start having similar problems too. I guess it already has. The number 5 seems to be very problematic with these console racing sims.
So I go up the first tower a second time. This time I have the longer glide, and I actually make it to the second tower. But there's nothing up there. There's a path to go down, but I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to go there or whether that was just an exit or something. So I continues gliding towards the moon, which was a mistake. I fall down in the area of the level around the second tower, which doesn't have an entrance at ground level. So I have to backtrack back to the first tower. Both of those failed attempts were a few days ago, which put me off playing the game for a bit.
Went back to it today, to finally get that shit right. Things go well. I blast up the tower in my fastest time yet, my Devil levels up and becomes a cool dragon, and I craft some new gear from the rare drops you get from the enemies in the tower. Glide over to the second tower, and proceed down the stairs. Turns out that you have to go down another 50 floors of enemies in that tower too! Except, I didn't even get the chance to do that, because I was almost instantly killed by the first enemy in that second tower...
So yeah, fuck that place to the deepest pits of hell. I certainly won't be returning there soon. I carried on with the game though and fought the boss of the level, and got a little in to the next level. This time it's a town, which is something a little different. It's still relatively drab though, as all the environments have been so far. No introductory cutscene either, which was a shame. It's been fun watching some of these character interact with each other. Like there's an aristocrat-type guy. He's great. Always charming and polite, yet obviously up to something evil. But he's just so nice though!
But there's something I think I've kept forgetting to mention about this game. The camera is abysmal! Truly terrible. Gets stuck on geometry all the time, and the lock-on can't keep up with enemies sometimes. It also likes to lock on to enemies who are really far away on occasion. There isn't a way to cycle between different enemies while locked on either. It's manageable, but it is pretty awful.
But I feel like I complain about the game way too much. It's still kept me entertained, and motivated to continue through all this. I guess I just like absorbing the atmosphere and exploring the levels. It's currently my go-to game for playing while listening to podcasts too. Perfect abnegation. It requires just enough attention to stay sufficiently engaging, but it not too much for me to be able to just switch off and relax while paying attention to something else at the same time. I guess I have games that can do that better; ones that actually require more attention, like Monster Hunter and Forza. But I've played those so much, it's good to have something new to experience in that way. I guess a big factor in it is how closely you need to pay attention to audio, or how much of the game is lost if you have no audio. Monster Hunter doesn't really lose anything. Forza does a little, but nothing that makes the game a significantly worse experience. But in a game with amazing music, or frequent cutscenes or dialogue, podcast listening at the same time isn't really possible.
And as perhaps the perfect example of that, I played a bit more Metal Gear Rising today. The mission leaving Denver and then the boss fight with Sam immediately after. Both short chapters, so I did them both. That battle with Sam is so amazing. I find myself kind of role-playing in that fight too. Not just rushing in straight away. I always tend to mirror what he does. A lot of the fight is just a stand-off, interspersed with short flurries of really quick bouts, often lunging at each other from a distance. It's fantastic. I think the game is designed to encourage that though, because often if you just rush in when Sam hasn't got his guard down, he'll punish you for it. You have to bide your time and pick your moment carefully.
I'm getting the feeling in that game though, that the scoring system might not be that robust. Going through this second time, I am absolutely certain I'm doing significantly better than my first time through, yet I'm consistently getting comparable scores for missions and individual fights. I don't get it. I know I'm doing better, yet I'm still getting similar scores. Unless using a more powerful sword lowers your score or something? That would be annoying if it did.
Oh yeah, and I did some races on GT6 too. Got a TVR Cerbera Speed Six, which is cool. But thinking about the game, I realised something about the its cobbled together feel. This game can only exist the way it does because of a broken development system. No one would ever in their right mind design a game to be like this on purpose, from the ground up. No sane developer would want to develop a game under the idea of it having far too much content for it to all be brought up to a consistent standard. For most of the the content in the game to look and sound like it came from a decade old game. No one wants to make that, yet that's what Polyphony had to do, because they insist on having over 1000 cars and all the content under the sun. And because GT5 was such a mess. The problems of that game obviously impacted the development of this one, and they had to go back and patch things up instead of moving on to something new. That meant that the new game got less attention, leading it to have similar problems. The series seems to be stuck in this self-perpetuating, self-inflicted legacy of problems.
And judging by what Forza 5 ended up being like, I'm starting to worry that that series will start having similar problems too. I guess it already has. The number 5 seems to be very problematic with these console racing sims.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
SO. I started Dark Souls, rolled a Knight (because why the hell not), walked into the dungeon, saw the Asylum Demon. Died. Reloaded, fought him again. Died. Felt too slow, did like 5 damage per hit with my broken sword hilt, didn't understand what I was doing wrong. Threw a tantrum and did the videogame equivalent of storming off, and went to sleep.
The next day, however, I woke with a new sense of purpose. I wasn't going to be beaten by the very first boss of a videogame. Sod that. So I cheated and googled good starting characters, eventually rolling a Thief with Black Firebombs. Dead in five hits, and the thief was sprightly enough to dodge his attacks. Felt glorious. Have since found out that there's a door that leads you on to better weapons and a shield etc, but after how angry the Asylum Demon made me, nothing short of lobbing fiery balls of death would have satisfied me, so it all works out OK.
Have continued on since then. Not at all sure where I am or where I'm going, but it's going alright so far. It's just not a game I can play for long without having some kind of temper tantrum... but it's still compelling, and that in itself is interesting to me.
The next day, however, I woke with a new sense of purpose. I wasn't going to be beaten by the very first boss of a videogame. Sod that. So I cheated and googled good starting characters, eventually rolling a Thief with Black Firebombs. Dead in five hits, and the thief was sprightly enough to dodge his attacks. Felt glorious. Have since found out that there's a door that leads you on to better weapons and a shield etc, but after how angry the Asylum Demon made me, nothing short of lobbing fiery balls of death would have satisfied me, so it all works out OK.
Have continued on since then. Not at all sure where I am or where I'm going, but it's going alright so far. It's just not a game I can play for long without having some kind of temper tantrum... but it's still compelling, and that in itself is interesting to me.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I'm nearly finished A link to the past. Making my way up death mountain (the dark world version) to take on the last dungeon before Ganon.
Love this game. It was one of my first gaming experiences so its always been my favourite Zelda game. I think it still holds up today. The controls feel quite stiff, but once you get the hang of it there is a challenging, fun Zelda game underneath it.
One thing I loved about it when i was younger was how many nooks and crannies there were to explore, and find amazing secrets. Now I know pretty much all of them by instinct, but I can't quite remember where you get the invincibility cloak.
After I beat it I'm gonna play the new one, A link between worlds. I CANT FLIPPIN WAIT.
Its much more fast paced and action packed than Ocarina of Time, which I'm also playing again at the minute. I am really struggling with it, seems like every time I load up the game I'm completely lost and have no idea what to do next. Navi's helpful advice is "Try to keep moving!", as if she's worried I'll keel over and have a heart attack if I don't keep the blood flowing.
But yeah, so far the game is sort of stuttering along. I will play for a while and really enjoy myself, then after I do a dungeon or complete some other major objective, I just lose momentum and end up knocking every door in hyrule, looking for someone to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing.
Also played a wee bit of Lost odyssey. Its getting better. Some nice story bits unfolded there, and I'm becoming more interested in the characters, which is good.
Love this game. It was one of my first gaming experiences so its always been my favourite Zelda game. I think it still holds up today. The controls feel quite stiff, but once you get the hang of it there is a challenging, fun Zelda game underneath it.
One thing I loved about it when i was younger was how many nooks and crannies there were to explore, and find amazing secrets. Now I know pretty much all of them by instinct, but I can't quite remember where you get the invincibility cloak.
After I beat it I'm gonna play the new one, A link between worlds. I CANT FLIPPIN WAIT.
Its much more fast paced and action packed than Ocarina of Time, which I'm also playing again at the minute. I am really struggling with it, seems like every time I load up the game I'm completely lost and have no idea what to do next. Navi's helpful advice is "Try to keep moving!", as if she's worried I'll keel over and have a heart attack if I don't keep the blood flowing.
But yeah, so far the game is sort of stuttering along. I will play for a while and really enjoy myself, then after I do a dungeon or complete some other major objective, I just lose momentum and end up knocking every door in hyrule, looking for someone to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing.
Also played a wee bit of Lost odyssey. Its getting better. Some nice story bits unfolded there, and I'm becoming more interested in the characters, which is good.
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Flappy Bird needs to die in a fire >_<
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Gunstar Heroes on the MD.
I've only ever played this under emulation before now, and because of all the hardware tricks Treasure are pulling it often doesn't work correctly that way.
So now I have a real MD it was high up my list of carts to find on eBay. It is a *glorious* piece of work isn't it?
I've actually ended up with a version that shares the cart with Alex Kidd, Flicky and Altered Beast. A clearer definition of 'filler' you will not find. Shame it's just a loose cart really as it looks like this one might have some rarity value. Still, I tend to only buy loose carts anyway as they're cheaper and I'm only interested in them to play them...
I've only ever played this under emulation before now, and because of all the hardware tricks Treasure are pulling it often doesn't work correctly that way.
So now I have a real MD it was high up my list of carts to find on eBay. It is a *glorious* piece of work isn't it?
I've actually ended up with a version that shares the cart with Alex Kidd, Flicky and Altered Beast. A clearer definition of 'filler' you will not find. Shame it's just a loose cart really as it looks like this one might have some rarity value. Still, I tend to only buy loose carts anyway as they're cheaper and I'm only interested in them to play them...
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ratsoalbion
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- Location: Brighton, England
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Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I love Gunstar Heroes and would very much like to do a podcast on the series some day.
I'd urge you to give Flicky another look. Although it was already retro when it came out on the MD I actually think it's a sharp and challenging score attack platformer.
I'd urge you to give Flicky another look. Although it was already retro when it came out on the MD I actually think it's a sharp and challenging score attack platformer.
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AndyKurosaki
- Member
- Posts: 968
- Joined: September 2nd, 2012, 10:43 pm
- Location: Scunthorpe, UK
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Just got Kingdom Hearts 1 HD from Boomerang. Never played the series before, at all. Time to see if I can get into it...
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Todinho
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Do it!If you can get behind the the Square/Disney asthetic it's a great action RPG,it has it's problems like plataforming and some of the worlds are kinda of boring but as whole it's a really fun game and since you have the HD version you'll get acess to all the final mix stuff like the sephiroth keyblade and an extra secret boss I believe.
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Todinho
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Getting back into Demon's Souls hopefully I can finnish it before DK2 comes out,I think I already said this before but if this game has one thing over it's sucessor it's the atmosphere,it's good here
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
I've gone right off Bioshock Infinite. Struggling to get through it and I'm only on the bit where you're looking for the gunsmith in Finkton (?) You know I said before the combat was more enjoyable. It's not. The combat in the second game was way better I think. I'm finding the story a bit dull so far too. The whole Bioshock formula of 'You need to go here > there's an obstacle, find the solution > there's an obstacle to the solution, find solution to that > there's an obstacle to that solution, find solution to that' repeat ad nauseam is getting really dull. It's like you're always about three layers deep in to a problem at any given time. I'm probably not describing it well, but I know what I mean and it annoys me!
Re: Whatcha Been Playing?
Keep at it a *little* longer, give it another hour or so, the gunsmith mission is the point the story changes gear...