What are you currently playing?

happyninja42

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Still on Days Gone. Man is the main dude unlikable.
Yeah, I'm conflicted about him. Like, IRL I love the actor who played him, and I think he did a good job of playing "an asshole survivalist who has retreated into toxicity to try and cope with trauma." I just personally don't LIKE that character that much. I personally saw it as just a front he puts up, to try and avoid dealing with his emotional pain, as a few times you see a different version of him peek through, and around the halfway point, he does have something of a personality shift to some degree. But, that's a bad thing to say when that means the first 20+ hours are riding around in the skin of an asshole.

Also it's not consistent, like, his personality will shift slightly, depending on which side mission you are doing. Now, this might be a sign of poor writing, or it could be that it's just a sign that his prickly exterior is a front. As depending on the person he is interacting with in the mission, he might be way more empathetic and considerate. Other times, he's a douchebag. I think they tried for the "life is hard in a zombie apocalypse. we had to do bad things to survive." trope. And, ok sure, fair enough I guess. But don't get mad when people who DIDN'T do the bad things you did, call you out for your bad past, like they are in the wrong.

I do recommend making sure to do all the side stories for the people before completing the game, as it can impact certain aspects of the ending (I think.)
 

stroopwafel

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Haha you got it just in time didn't you!


I think Pascale and his whole kindergarten got a taste of that fear and we saw how that ended. I think he (she? in jp he is voiced by Yuki Aoi of Madoka Magica fame) is probably the most human character in the game.


I don't think 2B remembers a lot of the cycles, but there must have been so many that yeah she has more than reason enough to be upset.


And man I dunno, I just kinda loved the hacking minigame and how they sorta incorporated it in the ending credits. It felt kinda...gamey in a sense? It gave the game a firm grounding that it's still really trying to be a game even with all the profound themes it tackles. That such content can coexist with a little asteorids-like minigame just fine if not be profound in its own way when you sent out your save data to the ether to save some other player during their credits.
Yep, one day before Replicant's launch lmao.

I liked the minigame as well but I think I also overused it b/c the damage from the hacking minigame on enemies is so much higher than 9S's offensive capabilities. I have to say I do wish there were more shmup sections in a fly unit. Those were awesome.
 

Chimpzy

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So, beat the Monster Hunter Rise finale. Kind of disappointing. Both in terms of the actual fight, it's more lengthy and annoying than actually hard, as in terms of story as the ending cutscene makes it clear it is not the conclusion, like Xenojiva was in World. Still, plenty more to do. Missions I hadn't gotten to yet. Loadouts to craft and try.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Yeah, I'm conflicted about him. Like, IRL I love the actor who played him, and I think he did a good job of playing "an asshole survivalist who has retreated into toxicity to try and cope with trauma." I just personally don't LIKE that character that much. I personally saw it as just a front he puts up, to try and avoid dealing with his emotional pain, as a few times you see a different version of him peek through, and around the halfway point, he does have something of a personality shift to some degree. But, that's a bad thing to say when that means the first 20+ hours are riding around in the skin of an asshole.

Also it's not consistent, like, his personality will shift slightly, depending on which side mission you are doing. Now, this might be a sign of poor writing, or it could be that it's just a sign that his prickly exterior is a front. As depending on the person he is interacting with in the mission, he might be way more empathetic and considerate. Other times, he's a douchebag. I think they tried for the "life is hard in a zombie apocalypse. we had to do bad things to survive." trope. And, ok sure, fair enough I guess. But don't get mad when people who DIDN'T do the bad things you did, call you out for your bad past, like they are in the wrong.

I do recommend making sure to do all the side stories for the people before completing the game, as it can impact certain aspects of the ending (I think.)
I know it's a conceit of most AAA games to make it so every quest giver is always either angry or disappointed at you, and your main character can only mutter about it behind their backs, I guess to tap into the adolescent market. It's incredibly tiresome but I'm not gonna harp too much on that, every game does this.

But then you have scenes like the one where Deacon goes to a church to reminisce about his wedding day and finds people trashing the place (for no specific reason, they don't seem to be looting it, just kicking furniture around). He proceeds to murder all of them unprovoked, then torches the place himself. What the fuck am I supposed to get from that? He comes across as a petty sociopath. Those people weren't harming anybody, posed no threat to him (or the church, really), and he killed them just so he could destroy the place himself.

There's this overplayed joke about Nathan Drake and Lara Croft being murderous psychos, even though everything they do always goes to saving the world and the villains they fight are irredeemably evil Saturday Morning Cartoon types (although in Lara's case she instigates a lot of the problems herself). But with Deacon I really do feel I'm playing as a psycho and an asshole.
 

happyninja42

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But then you have scenes like the one where Deacon goes to a church to reminisce about his wedding day and finds people trashing the place (for no specific reason, they don't seem to be looting it, just kicking furniture around). He proceeds to murder all of them unprovoked, then torches the place himself. What the fuck am I supposed to get from that? He comes across as a petty sociopath. Those people weren't harming anybody, posed no threat to him (or the church, really), and he killed them just so he could destroy the place himself.
Were they the shirtless burn cultists? I vaguely recall that part, and I seem to recall that town was filled with the burning dudes. They're pretty much completely irredeemable as the game presents them. But yeah, Deacon isn't the best character, but I do enjoy how Sam plays him.
 

BrawlMan

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Yeah I bought that game because it looked interesting, and I thought my wife would enjoy watching me play it. And when we are doing the relationship/hogwarts stuff, she does. But every time we went to a fight, she'd lose interest so hard she would fall asleep.
I guess RTS games aren't her thing?
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Were they the shirtless burn cultists? I vaguely recall that part, and I seem to recall that town was filled with the burning dudes. They're pretty much completely irredeemable as the game presents them. But yeah, Deacon isn't the best character, but I do enjoy how Sam plays him.
No, those aren't Rippers (fuck those guys). It's just some random looters, victimizing the furniture of an abandoned church in an abandoned town. It's already morally bankrupt that Deacon murders them unprovoked, but that he finishes destroying the church is psychopathic.
 

BrawlMan

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I did another playthrough of Ninja Saviors again. This time as Kamaitachi, the fragile speedster of the group. He's got sickle/scythe blades on his arms. I finally got the grips to controlling how he functions. He has his own dedicated command grabs, because his works differently from everyone else. ATK, press and hold -->, then ATK again cause him push-kick an enemy forward in to other bad guy knocking them in to a domino effect. Or ATK, press and hold <--, then ATK, and he will toss someone over backwards real high. He's pain to use on the final boss, though Raiden is the worst. That's the only thing I dislike about this game is the final boss. Toss a bunch people on the window of his defense machine to win. It's easier depending on who you're playing as. I failed the 1CC, so no time record on the PS4 version.
 

Dreiko

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Got to the Dragon's Shrine in DS2, such a cool area. After that I finished the assassination quest (only actually killed the hexer dude cause my int was too low to use his stuff anyways) and now I'm finally ready to start the dlc areas. My adventure is coming to a close finally and boy has it been an epic journey.

Ultimately I can see why people complain about ds2 if they wanted it to be more like ds1 but as just a standalone game I found it excellent so far. The feel and theme and sheer variety of stuff in the game is incredible. Also there's just so many spells, I'm kinda tempted to play with magic on a ng+ cause the variety is insane.


I haven't even started nier replicant yet (but just installing the theme gave me feels cause of that themesong) which I guess is a testament to how much I'm enjoying DS2 since replicant has been a game I wanted to play for many years now, I even debated importing it from Japan back in the day.
 
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bluegate

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No, those aren't Rippers (fuck those guys). It's just some random looters, victimizing the furniture of an abandoned church in an abandoned town. It's already morally bankrupt that Deacon murders them unprovoked, but that he finishes destroying the church is psychopathic.
Eh, I wouldn't condone killing someone because they trashed a park bench you and your dead wife used to sit on, but in the post apocalyptic game setting, where killing is a daily occurrence? 🤷‍♂️

Seems to fit in nicely for a scarred person who can't stand to see his happy memories trampled over.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Eh, I wouldn't condone killing someone because they trashed a park bench you and your dead wife used to sit on, but in the post apocalyptic game setting, where killing is a daily occurrence? 🤷‍♂️

Seems to fit in nicely for a scarred person who can't stand to see his happy memories trampled over.
Yeah except he burns the church immediately afterwards. Not on accident or anything. He deliberately torches it.

I'm not saying start a hashtag or anything but Deacon frequently comes across as a douchebag.
 
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happyninja42

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No, those aren't Rippers (fuck those guys). It's just some random looters, victimizing the furniture of an abandoned church in an abandoned town. It's already morally bankrupt that Deacon murders them unprovoked, but that he finishes destroying the church is psychopathic.
Yeah that was pretty weird I won't lie. I guess the logic was "I was going to come here and have an emotional, cathartic goodbye, and then burn it down as symbolism, and these jerks ruined that Hallmark moment by treating it like any other building" ? *shrugs* But yeah I agree it was very jarring. A lot of the choices they have Deacon make were strange. I remember frequently commenting to my wife that he was acting in a way that didn't really make any sense. I'm pretty sure you've met the lake town people yes? If not, I'll hide it, but the opening conversation with them was sort of weird when you first show up there

So Deacon and Dozer show up at the lake community, and Scizzo, the guy in charge of security, isn't happy about it. He doesn't trust him, and he's not happy about how the boss guy ( I forget his name) is letting him in. Since they established that Deacon and Dozer were BANISHED from the community, on pain of death if they return, this is a valid stance on Scizzo's part in my opinion. He even points this stuff out, with the "are you really going to just let them back in? We can't trust them!" to which Deacon and Dozer are very confrontational about. Treating Scizzo like a little shit they need to squash. But...I mean HE'S RIGHT! They were banished because they were literally trafficking in forced labor to that woman who runs the other camp, and has everyone digging. The two of them, spent a not insignificant amount of time, sending people to that camp, which is basically slave labor. They aren't happy about it, and have stopped doing it now, but, I mean they DID do it. And that's why the lake community kicked them out, because they didn't want to truck with slavers. And Scizzo is pointing this out, and he's the badguy for doing it.

So yeah, some weird writing choices for motivations for Deacon, no doubt.
 
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bluegate

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Yeah except he burns the church immediately afterwards. Not on accident or anything. He deliberately torches it.

I'm not saying start a hashtag or anything but Deacon frequently comes across as a douchebag.
Torches it so that no other person could ever defile it again.

The good old if I can't have you, no one can way of thinking, twisted around a little.

Once again, not that I would ever apply it to something in the real world, but...
 

Johnny Novgorod

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Torches it so that no other person could ever defile it again.

The good old if I can't have you, no one can way of thinking, twisted around a little.
That's the sociopath logic that I hate in the character. I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I'm saying he's a sociopath and I can't stand the guy or his murderous woe-is-me outlook.
 
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BrawlMan

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Yeah that was pretty weird I won't lie. I guess the logic was "I was going to come here and have an emotional, cathartic goodbye, and then burn it down as symbolism, and these jerks ruined that Hallmark moment by treating it like any other building" ? *shrugs* But yeah I agree it was very jarring. A lot of the choices they have Deacon make were strange. I remember frequently commenting to my wife that he was acting in a way that didn't really make any sense. I'm pretty sure you've met the lake town people yes? If not, I'll hide it, but the opening conversation with them was sort of weird when you first show up there

So Deacon and Dozer show up at the lake community, and Scizzo, the guy in charge of security, isn't happy about it. He doesn't trust him, and he's not happy about how the boss guy ( I forget his name) is letting him in. Since they established that Deacon and Dozer were BANISHED from the community, on pain of death if they return, this is a valid stance on Scizzo's part in my opinion. He even points this stuff out, with the "are you really going to just let them back in? We can't trust them!" to which Deacon and Dozer are very confrontational about. Treating Scizzo like a little shit they need to squash. But...I mean HE'S RIGHT! They were banished because they were literally trafficking in forced labor to that woman who runs the other camp, and has everyone digging. The two of them, spent a not insignificant amount of time, sending people to that camp, which is basically slave labor. They aren't happy about it, and have stopped doing it now, but, I mean they DID do it. And that's why the lake community kicked them out, because they didn't want to truck with slavers. And Scizzo is pointing this out, and he's the badguy for doing it.

So yeah, some weird writing choices for motivations for Deacon, no doubt.
Well, there goes any motivation I have playing the game. Not that there was much to begin with. I really got to get back into Zombie Army 4.


Edit: Seriously, how does Google speak mix up relation with motivation? I said motivation and it gave me relation.
 
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happyninja42

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Well, there goes any relation I have playing the game. Not that there was much to begin with. I really got to get back into Zombie Army 4.
To be fair, the leader of the lake town does point out that ALL of them have done terrible things in their past, basically saying "it's post apocalypse, none of us have lived this long and stayed entirely clean." And apparently he decided to give them a second chance. Which, I mean I can kind of get, when the population of non-zombies and non crazy cultists has been reduced to like, less than 100, you work with what you've got. And Deacon does seem to be trying to make an effort to not be the asshole he was. It just can be inconsistent between scripted conversations and scenes, inbetween missions. One story arc he might be way more shitty in behavior, than in story arc B. And since they are all done in little snippets of missions, spread out over the course of the game, depending on what order you tackle them, it can make something of a tonal whiplash for how he's behaving.

Again, I think it's a good game, but Deacon is probably the most oddly written of the bunch. I think Sam acted him well, but I think the script they gave him was a bit iffy. The supporting cast though, I think are really good, compared to the average quality of supporting characters you get a lot of the time.
 

Dreiko

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My impression of that game is that it's literally just a generic zombie game with no originality. Those have been spoiled for me by the very compelling walking dead games so I never had any interest in playing it.
 
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Chupathingy

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Currently playing through NieR: Replicant. I loved the original, and I still do playing it again. It's nice to finally see BroNier's side if the story and how he reacts to story events and characters.

One thing that I don't really like though is some of the music remixes. They sound more muted and less distinctive than the original, though a few have been nice so far.

Also, for anyone who hasn't played it but is interested, do not read the trophy/achievement list, it has un-hidden spoilers in it for some reason
 

happyninja42

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My impression of that game is that it's literally just a generic zombie game with no originality. Those have been spoiled for me by the very compelling walking dead games so I never had any interest in playing it.
*shrugs* That was my impression as well, which is why I skipped buying it when it came out, despite my love for the actor who played the MC. But it had a lot more depth to the story than I usually see in the stereotypical zombie survival sandbox. It's not perfect, far from it, but I do think it's surprisingly good. They put a lot of heart into that game. A lot of little details that added extra tidbits of strategy to moving around the map, and resource management. Like how you can't fast travel between 2 locations unless you've cleared out any of the infected hives that are along that route. Because in Days Gone, the fast travel actually paths you along one of the roads between A and B. And it uses up your fuel, and takes time out of the day. But, you have to actually clear the route first. So if you ignored that one hive, and now find yourself on the other side of it, well time to bike it back to your camp the old fashion way, because the road is too dangerous to fast travel. And if you don't have enough gas for the FT, well then either FT somewhere closer, or try and scavenge up some fuel nearby, and try again.

It had a lot of little touches that I hadn't seen in other games, that made it stand out quite a bit.
 
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