What are you currently playing?

[hanselthecaretaker]

Went back into the Owl fight after killing the other Vilehand ninja at the Serpent Shrine (oil+Spring loaded flame vent works rather well to break him down quickly). Somehow I was able to pretty much dominate him first try tonight, after a previous night of failed attempts to even get a first deathblow. Never died to his second phase either which personally might be a first for main bosses. Now it’s probably off to the Fountainhead Palace for some much needed new loot to get some good prosthetic upgrades.

 

[Worgen]

Please let us know how you feel when you're ready to talk about that. I've had my eye on that for a long time, mostly because I love the art style but also because it reminds me of Salt and Sanctuary. I've heard it's more of a Metroidvania then a Soulslike(and I'm fine with that) but still it looks interesting.

Well, I feel like I'm over half way through it so far. It is really good, initially I was worried about the difficulty since it seemed like it might be too easy, but its gotten to a really good spot where I would say its hard, but so far nothing has stopped me for that long. Your attacks feel good, there are some that you probably won't use much, but for the most part I saw myself swapping spirits fairly regularly. The art style remains fantastic throughout, both character, enemy and level art.

Probably the biggest weakness of the game is that it tends to let you go rather far into an area without the traversal mechanic needed to finish it. You can just fast travel from safe points though so your time isn't really wasted but there was one instance where I needed a new traversal ability and went around everywhere till I found a new path that was literally at the last place I could check. The map could also be better. It gives info about where new exits are and what rooms will still have things you can find in them, but you can't put down icons which would be super handy and you have no details about the rooms other then a basic box that shows roughly the shape and sometimes size.

So yeah, really good.

 

[Drathnoxis]

It's an English game though. Cavalier Studios (UK) hired Tequila Works (Spain) to work on the art assets well into the development of the game.

Huh, that's surprising since the dialogue seemed to have a bit of an air of an awkward translation too. I don't have any idea why they chose the title then.

 

[happyninja42]

Just finished It Takes Two with the wifey.

Really fun game. It's very sweet, and heartfelt. It's very much a story about family, love, dealing with problems, etc. The narrative is simple and straightforward enough to be mainly targeted at a kid, but also rooted in an adult situation enough, for a parent to appreciate what is going on.

I said it before, but this really feels like a team, that grew up on the Toy Story films, but were disappointed by the game adaptations of them, not living up to their expectations. I never played them, but I vaguely recall people saying the games are not that great.

Well, this game makes up for that stuff. It's a fantastic collection of maps, each with their own incredibly unique themes and set dressings. The amount of detail and love, into just making everything fun, and colorful, and busy with little tidbits, is just oozing from every pixel. I kept being impressed, by the changes in game mechanics in every stage. You get unique abilities, completely different from the previous stage, making you learn a new strategy for how to proceed. The designs are night and day different from map to map. I mean, it's really hard to describe, but the music, atmosphere, theme, everything, is so different from stage to stage. The cuckoo clock in particular was an impressive display of someone putting a LOT of work into bringing one of those "turn of the century villages" that are on a mechanism to life. The level of detail was just impressive.

My personal favorite maps, were the scifi/space one, and then the music one. They tickled my little heart a lot, more than the others, but, seriously all of the maps were fun as hell.

I really am surprised at the variety of game mechanics they packed into the game. From a plethora of mini-games that you can play, simply for fun (and seriously there's a lot of them) all having different rules to them. To the mechanics of each map, and how you have to deal with the challenges. They packed in a little bit of everything, for everyone. And, unlike most games, where the packing of all those different gameplay systems, usually means the game suffers from being spread too thin, this game doesn't have that problem. The controls are solid, we experienced zero bugs of any kind that I can recall (PS 4 version), the systems were responsive and easily understood. It was just....REALLY fucking solidly made.

If I had to give it a criticism, I would say that the story is fairly transparent. But, I mean that's like saying the morality tales in Toy Story are transparent. I mean, yeah? They weren't really trying to be anything else. So don't expect a huge plot investment, as you can see where it's going pretty much every step of the way. But again, that's like being mad at Toy Story 1, for realizing it's about learning to let things go, and appreciate what you have, and not being too stuck on living in the past. That was pretty easily broadcast from the opening scene of the film. It Takes Two works like that. It shows you exactly where you're going, and then just shoves you on the storypath and says "ok have fun goofing around!" So I can't really call it a criticism honestly.

But, yeah, really good game. Definitely recommend it, though it does require 2 players. I recommend local play with someone in your family/friends, but it does have online play, so you could play with strangers too. I think this does lose some of the charm though, as you can't tease your partner when they fuck up, or fist bump each other when you deal with one of the challenges in a particularly smooth way. Seriously it was so funny, as my wife is not great with fast response stuff, but her character was portrayed as being "the competent, agile one" ...and she is.....not So it was especially funny when the character would say "Ok watch and learn Cody! This is a breeze!" *wife proceeds to fail utterly and die in a hilarious way...and then do it again. Me just laughing while I wait for her to catch up*

Yeah, really good, fun game. Check it out if that sounds like something you'd enjoy.

 

[Dalisclock]

Puppeteer(PS3)-

So this one of those cute little games I picked up along with my PS3 because of it's unique aesthetic and I've started playing like twice before this without getting very far. And it's weird because I really like it, but for whatever reason I put it down and never get back to it. But I've decided to actually sit down and finish this before my PS3 dies because when my PS3 dies I may never get to play it again, considering it's one of those forgotten PS3 exclusives(and while it looks like an Indie, it's made JapanStudio of all things).

With that out of the way, Puppeteer is a frankly gorgeous (pseudo) 2d platformer that looks like a puppet show. I mean, REALLY looks like someone is holding a very high quality puppet show in your PS3. Everything has a 3d look to it, the background looks like the back of the stage, and moving to different scenes will often have the props and stage pop up and drop down in and out of sight to simulate a scenery change. It's perhaps the most interesting and endearing part of the experience but the platformer gameplay is quite solid and quite fun and the story is kinda amusing and over the top.

Basically, the game takes place on the moon, where an evil bear dethroned the Moon Goddess and become the Evil Moon Bear King. He steals the souls of children from Earth while they sleep and stuffs them into puppets to act as slaves in his moon castle and you play as one of those poor sods. Being a puppet you can pick up as many as 3 different heads, that act as both a health bar and a way to access extra content. Each of the heads can be used in specific parts of the game to access extra stuff and minigames(which you can revisit later). When you get hit, your head goes rolling away and you have about 5-10 seconds to run and chase it down before it disappears, essentially regaining that part of your health bar. Lose all 3 heads and you lose a life, but going through the first act I haven't lost a life yet due the how generous this system tends to be. You also tend to find other heads on a regular basis(I had a couple drop during an end of act boss fight) and extra lives are earned by collecting 100 units of "moon sparkles", which is plentiful and practically showered upon you on a regular basis. If you quit to the main menu in the middle of a "Curtain"(of which there are 3 per act), you can choose to resume from the middle of it instead of the beginning.

You also have a magical floating cat with a silly accent who is controlled by either the right thumb stick and R2 button or the 2nd player in 2P mode, who gives advice and hints but also can be used to activate parts of the background(and that's pretty much anything that looks remotely interesting in the background) to find more heads, moon dust ,etc. It's quite doable with one person but this is where a 2nd person would probably help quite a bit.

The first couple minutes of the game introduces your plight as a poor child turned puppet on the moon and acts as a justified tutorial(which can be annoying if you're replaying from the beginning) before a witch who runs the kitchen tells you to go find and steal some magical scissors from the moon bear king, which ad a new dimension to the game a tool and weapon. Scissors can be used to attack and dismember goons but also traverse objects made of cloth and paper, and acts as a method of transport quite often as the scissors will not only cut but also grab as they cut. Later on you get a shield to deflect incoming projectiles and bounce them back at the things firing at them. Conveniently these things don't appear until you have the tools to deal with them.

The story has a fairy tale vibe to it and is played very hammy and over the top, with events that could be seen as horrifying or scary done as comedic and there's a couple puns dropped here and there. It's quite cute and the overall feel gives the impression it's aimed at kids but not so much adults can't enjoy it. The platforming is rather forgiving though not without challenge and a couple of the boss fights so far do demand you actually pay attention to boss patterns(but being able to recover your head 90% of the time means you have plenty of chances to try again without dying). There are some QTE's involved in the first BIG multistage boss fight at the end of Act one versus General Tiger(who is a Massive Puppet Tiger), but it involves 2 buttons and there's a decent window to hit the buttons which takes some of the sting out of the QTEs.

But it's a lot of fun so far and I am gonna stick with it this time until it's done. It took me a good hour or so to finish act 1(of 7) which makes it a pretty hefty platformer on top of it's gameplay and aesthetic. There's also some replay value in being to revisit minigames unlocked from the menu(unlocked after act 1), getting little stories associated with all the heads you found, and being able to revisit stages with certain heads to find new secrets. I honestly just wish it would get a port to ANYTHING other then the PS3. It's a game that really showed off what the PS3 can do in what I was sure was an Indie Platformer and sadly most people have never heard of.

 

[BrawlMan]

I popped in No More Heroes on Switch. It's awkward not playing with the motion controls at first, but I'm getting used to regular control already. I'm glad they give you options for either control method. The open world has not aged well. It's not the worst, but could have been better. Getting entry fees still sucks. To take down the tedium by doing side jobs or kill missions that give the highest rewards each time. The good thing is you can replay them any time, but it does involve going back to job spot to do them again. I do notice the huge removal of "Heavenly Star" by Genki Rockets. Licensing issue, so it's replaced by "Kill or Be Killed" from No More Heroes 2.

The combat is good, but don't go expecting DMC, God of War, or Bayonetta. The funny thing is NMH had a bullet time dodge mechanic called Dark Step that beats Witch Time by 2 years. The huge difference being Witch Time has a dedicated dodge button, while Dark Step is a hidden mechanic the game nor instruction manual tell you about. You do by blocking an attack and tapping the control stick from left to right as soon as it hits. Travis will go slide to the left or right, and you get free hits while in slow-mo. This mechanic would be refined at its best in Killer Is Dead. The Grasshopper game with the best combat from the studio. What's unique about this game is the Beam Katana (Light Saber) and the wrestling moves to perform on stunned enemies and bosses. You can stun enemies with punch and kicks called beat attacks. These can be upgraded once you unlock the gym and train Travis to have stronger attacks. The same can be done with his health too. I know you can unlock more Beam Katanas later in the game. You need the final sword to get the true ending. I recommend you get the infinite battery for it too. A heads up for those wondering or curious.

P.S - For reference, this is the song that was in the Wii version of NMH:

Originally in Lumines on PSP. I have the physical version on Switch. I gave my copy and PSP to my brother.


This is the song they replaced it with.​

 

[happyninja42]

Just beat Farcry 4.

This game is so fucking weird. Like, it can't seem to make up it's mind on if the mystical shit is all just drug induced, or actual mystical shit. 9/10 times when you have a "vision quest" it's begun by you getting high as fuck, either voluntarily or forcibly. But then, when you come down, you find yourself surrounded by the corpses of the "demons" you were fighting. The game clearly makes a point to frame it as "oh, you weren't actually fighting monster things, you were clearly fighting regular dudes, and were just high as hell." But then, there are times when you have a vision quest, where there are no drugs involved. You pick up a piece of ancient parchment, and poof, off to Shangri-La you go. But then again, while under the effects of one of the DRUG trips, you clearly get a vision of the future, with 2 scenes, where you witness a character saying things, VERBATIM, that they say much much later, at the conclusion of the game.

...so which is it game? Make up your fucking mind!

The mechanics are wonky as shit too. You have that single person helicopter thingy, The Buzzer, and it's great for flying around the map, but holy fuckballs is the elevation you can fly at inconsistent as hell. So, I'm going to refer to 2 things about this. ASL (Above Sea Level - Meaning what I assume is the bottom of the overall map of the game) and AGL (Above Ground Level - specifically how far you are currently flying above whatever ground you are directly above)

So, you can be flying along, at say 3000 ASL, and it's fine. The terrain below you is going up and down, so your AGL is higher and lower, but doesn't matter because you are just flying A to B. But, THEN the buzzer just starts screaming out a warning siren, telling you you are too high elevation to keep flying, forcing you to go down. Nevermind that you haven't done anything, and have been flying at ASL 3000 for several minutes with no problems. Nope, for some reason, NOW that's too high, so you need to lower elevation, to say, 2900 ASL at least. Ok fine, you dip down a bit, siren shuts off, keep flying. 20 seconds later, it starts screaming again. So you lower again! And AGAIN! AND AGAIN! I was flying over a lake, and just flying from one shore to the other, I had to drop ASL like 5 times to keep flying, even though there was no fucking logical reason I can think of that it would be necessary. It's also inconsistent how high that ASL can be, before it freaks out. At first I thought it was tied to maybe something like the snowline, as that seemed to be roughly when it would start being unhappy with me. But, no, later on, and in different regions of the map, you could fly REALLY close to the snowline, without any problems. It made trying to traverse the map annoying as hell.

On the point of traveling the map, the hang glider and wingsuit are almost useless. The places you can likely jump off from to use those, are often so remote, that just to GET to them, you waste more time climbing, than you would've to just run there on the ground, or grab a vehicle, or fucking fast travel.

The various side missions were underwhelming as hell. There is one that is about destroying the calling cards of a serial killer. And completing it, doesn't make you face off against the killer, no. You just....get unlimited ally tokens to call in npcs to help you in open combat. Something I literally NEVER did once, because I like playing stealthy, and that's loud as hell.

Also, on sidequests, holy shit are there tons of them. So many gather quests, the map is just flooded with them. And if you are even remotely being curious and exploring, you will max out all of your progression tracks, like XP and stuff SO fast. I seriously think you could level up 3-4 times over, buying all the skills, if you finished everything. I guess they wanted redundancy, to make sure everyone could max out all the skills, even if you didn't do everything, but holy shit this is a lot. People complain about Ghost of Tsushima capping out levels and talents quickly, but seriously that game has nothing on FC 4 for that.

Overall, I'd say it's probably the jankiest, and most mechanically weird one of the ones I've played so far. It's actually interesting, as I'm playing these in reverse order, so I'm seeing how things were added, by seeing what isn't implemented yet. Sort of reverse engineering the various components that they took forward, and which ones they did away with.

Pagan Min was a delight as a villain though. I wish he had been more directly IN the game, because his scene chewing was just fantastic to witness.

Overall, I give it a "Meh out of 10"

 

[BrawlMan]

@happyninja42, this why I don't even bother with the Far Cry series anymore, along with Ubisoft's shady shit.

I played more NMH, and I've killed Dr. Peace already. I would have fought Shinobu early, but I had to buy a Tsubaki, go to gym and upgrade Travis, and bought some accessories for aesthetic differences. I had to do a quick grind, but it did not take me long to get the entry fee. So I will be fighting Shinobu next. With everything said, the grind is only going to get worse from here.

There are some neat stuff in the open-world to fine like hidden shirts and money, but it does not make up for the over all experience.

 

[happyninja42]

@happyninja42, this why I don't even bother with the Far Cry series anymore, along with Ubisoft's shady shit.

Well I generally like the FC series, FC 3 was super fun, I fucking LOVED Blood Dragon. Primal, which I picked up just on it's own premise even though it's based on the FC 4 engine, was really fun for me, and I am in fact, playing that one now on Survival Mode (something they added after I first played it). FC 5 was a fun game for the most part, I just got frustrated with the narrative components for it, and the theme. FC New Dawn was more of FC 5, but more Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome-y, and more inherently tongue and cheek, so it was more enjoyable.

But, the basic game setup of "stealthy assault/ambush of enemy forces, while traversing a sandbox" with crafting of weapons and upgrading skills. That's one of my favorite genre's really. And for the most part, the FC series, is more hit than miss for me, on average. Each game has it's shitty bits that irk me to no end, but they also have a lot of bits that I really enjoy the hell out of.

FC 4 was just way more composed of annoying bits, and a LOT more actual quirks of the engine and stuff than any of the others. I think it's because they were introducing a lot of new stuff with that one, and hadn't ironed out the kinks yet.

 

[BrawlMan]

Well I generally like the FC series, FC 3 was super fun, I fucking LOVED Blood Dragon. Primal, which I picked up just on it's own premise even though it's based on the FC 4 engine, was really fun for me, and I am in fact, playing that one now on Survival Mode (something they added after I first played it). FC 5 was a fun game for the most part, I just got frustrated with the narrative components for it, and the theme. FC New Dawn was more of FC 5, but more Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome-y, and more inherently tongue and cheek, so it was more enjoyable.

The last FC game I played was 2; before that, it was Instincts Predator (my favorite in the franchise). I kept saying I was going to play 3, but I lost interests.

I played some more GG Strive. I beat Survival Mode this time, and unlocked a couple of trophies on the way. Getting used to Giovanna and landing consistent combos now. I played a little of Ramlethal in training and did some of arcade to get used to her move set.

 

[happyninja42]

The last FC game I played was 2; before that, it was Instincts Predator (my favorite in the franchise). I kept saying I was going to play 3, but I lost interests.

I played some more GG Strive. I beat Survival Mode this time, and unlocked a couple of trophies on the way. Getting used to Giovanna and landing consistent combos now. I played a little of Ramlethal in training and did some of arcade to get used to her move set.

FC 3 was my first one. Vaas was a great antagonist, just the right blend of crazy and terrifying. He reminded me a lot of Gary Oldman's character in The Professional. That cop who was just so unhinged, that you never knew what was going to happen at any moment. He definitely set the benchmark for their antagonists going forward, with mixed results as to how compelling a villain they were.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

FC 3 was my first one. Vaas was a great antagonist, just the right blend of crazy and terrifying. He reminded me a lot of Gary Oldman's character in The Professional. That cop who was just so unhinged, that you never knew what was going to happen at any moment. He definitely set the benchmark for their antagonists going forward, with mixed results as to how compelling a villain they were.

Including/especially the other major villain from the same game who takes over in the last third or so and is just never as good as Vaas was. But hey, I still had a lot of fun with Far Cry 3 even after that. Don't think I've played it since, though.

Also I finished Metal Gear Solid. Planning to play 2 as well, though considering how I kinda suffered through it last time I played it on Normal, I'm probably going to pick Easy instead. Get your 'git gud Dark Souls scrub' in whenever you feel like.

 

[deleted20220709]

DELETED

 

[Chupathingy]

Been playing and enjoying STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.

The setting is neat and the atmosphere is great. The gameplay isn't as janky as I expected it to be, and I actually quite enjoy the gunplay. Weapons feel and control very snappy (though pistols feel very underpowered), and enemies provide a nice challenge. People recommended playing on higher difficulties and based on my experience switching between normal and veteran (i.e. hard) I'd agree. The game felt too easy on normal and I was rarely using health items and I was swimming in ammo. Even on veteran though I'm still stockpiling ammo mainly due to how easy it is to make money and buy more. The game also really encourages not spraying bullets with some rather unforgiving bullet accuracy, so to be as efficient as possible you need to move from cover to cover to get closer to your opponent and get a sweet headshot.

There's also some nice attention to detail, like being able to load different types of shells inside shotguns, or how if you kill a large group of hostile dogs, the rest will eventually get scared and run away.

The main questline has been alright so far, though the main draw for me is the word building more than the actual plot. The side quests have been nothing special so far, with most of them being simple 'go here, kill this' or 'go here, find this'.

 

[laggyteabag]

Almost done with Mass Effect 3.

I've got the mission to meet the Quarians, next - but I have also completed the Leviathan and Omega DLCs, as now seemed like a good time.

I do really enjoy ME3, particularly its combat and weapon variety.

I do miss the multiplayer modes, though. Lootboxes aside, the MP mode was a great place to explore lots of different classes, and lots of different weapons, in a way that the campaign doesn't really let you - at least unless you have multiple different saves as different classes.

After finishing ME3, I might actually go on to Andromeda, because I never actually finished it the first time around. Maybe that is a mistake. I don't know.

 

[Kyrian007]

Which I think was totally in line with the game's message about the temptation of using violence to establish your power. The first islands is one extended power fantasy where you get the power to fight back, get payback on Buck and Vaas and have a fling with the hot leader of the resistance fighters. Once you kill Vaas you're at the top of that high, the guy who killed your brother is dead by your hands and you're a mighty warrior. So it is time to do all that all over again, violence becomes rote but it no longer keeps yielding unconditional victories for you. Instead you start a downward spiral where violence makes everything worse and ends with you either breaking the cycle of violence or succumbing to it and being killed.

Thematically it is perfectly appropriate. From a game design perspective it is really gutsy to make the second half of your game purposefully be an increasingly bleak copy of the first half. I'd argue that it doesn't really work out though as the player is more likely to just grow bored and stop playing then they are to admire your dedication to theme.

It also gave it, unfortunately, the impression that they made a great game but decided it was going to be seen as much too short. So they added a second half to the game but didn't reset the development progression for the game's new length. And the only reason I don' t actually believe that, is because I honestly don't think any AAA publisher has ever worried that a game would be seen as "not enough value for the money." Even if the developers thought so, Ubi would have told them to sell any additional content as DLC.

Interesting to talk about as the game I'm playing right now, Just Cause 3, follows a similar path. The first half of the game (technically between half and 2/3rds) is particularly good. Not story wise mind you, the JC story in general is just there to provide some cutscenes with humorous moments as a bit of down time from blowing stuff up constantly. The first part (the first 2 island clusters) is paced well. Its big enough and densely packed with things to see and do. The second part (the big main island) is terrible. Huge wide open spaces between interesting bits where nothing happens. Its easily possible to do the first part without fast traveling once. Trying to do the second part without fast travel... nope, rather quit playing.

So this past weekend I finished the first part. And staring at the second half... now I don't know what I want to do. I played the DLC's, thinking the further upgrades to the wingsuit would help make the traversal faster... but it also takes all the skillful fun out of wingsuiting around. It would be like an upgrade in a Spider Man game that gave him the ability to fly. Cool... but now its no fun anymore. So I could install and play JC 4 again... but it isn't as good. Playing it after its predecessor invites a really bad comparison. I could install and play JC 2 again. A really great game... but without 3's wingsuit, traversal will feel particularly limited. I guess I could go back and finish Mad Max (I had to stop and move on to JC 3 because it is too grindy and dour) but really don't really feel like doing that either. Mad Max, Just Cause 3... maybe I should reinstall and play Far Cry 3 again too. Kind of a trilogy of games they should have stopped making about halfway through.

 

[BrawlMan]

It also gave it, unfortunately, the impression that they made a great game but decided it was going to be seen as much too short. So they added a second half to the game but didn't reset the development progression for the game's new length. And the only reason I don' t actually believe that, is because I honestly don't think any AAA publisher has ever worried that a game would be seen as "not enough value for the money." Even if the developers thought so, Ubi would have told them to sell any additional content as DLC.

Interesting to talk about as the game I'm playing right now, Just Cause 3, follows a similar path. The first half of the game (technically between half and 2/3rds) is particularly good. Not story wise mind you, the JC story in general is just there to provide some cutscenes with humorous moments as a bit of down time from blowing stuff up constantly. The first part (the first 2 island clusters) is paced well. Its big enough and densely packed with things to see and do. The second part (the big main island) is terrible. Huge wide open spaces between interesting bits where nothing happens. Its easily possible to do the first part without fast traveling once. Trying to do the second part without fast travel... nope, rather quit playing.

So this past weekend I finished the first part. And staring at the second half... now I don't know what I want to do. I played the DLC's, thinking the further upgrades to the wingsuit would help make the traversal faster... but it also takes all the skillful fun out of wingsuiting around. It would be like an upgrade in a Spider Man game that gave him the ability to fly. Cool... but now its no fun anymore. So I could install and play JC 4 again... but it isn't as good. Playing it after its predecessor invites a really bad comparison. I could install and play JC 2 again. A really great game... but without 3's wingsuit, traversal will feel particularly limited. I guess I could go back and finish Mad Max (I had to stop and move on to JC 3 because it is too grindy and dour) but really don't really feel like doing that either. Mad Max, Just Cause 3... maybe I should reinstall and play Far Cry 3 again too. Kind of a trilogy of games they should have stopped making about halfway through.

That's the problem with most open-world sandbox games: they don't know when to stop. Everything you described is senseless padding and where the developer/publisher were running out of ideas and steam. Even Ghost of Tsushima suffers from this to an extent, but thankfully, the 3rd part of the island is not that big compared to the first two sections.

i finally beat Shinobu, and man does the camera suck. I forgot tedious it can be depending on where you fight and what objects are blocking your way. You can't change the sensitivity of the camera, which was bad for even 2007. It took me 4 tries to finally beat her, and with 3 pixels of health left. Now on my way to Destroy Man; a much easier boss.

 

[happyninja42]

Including/especially the other major villain from the same game who takes over in the last third or so and is just never as good as Vaas was. But hey, I still had a lot of fun with Far Cry 3 even after that. Don't think I've played it since, though.

Yeah that really was weird how they did that.

Also I finished Metal Gear Solid. Planning to play 2 as well, though considering how I kinda suffered through it last time I played it on Normal, I'm probably going to pick Easy instead. Get your 'git gud Dark Souls scrub' in whenever you feel like.

That comment was made in jest, and was only to point out the hypocrisy with a lot of the souls crowd, when talking about anything other than souls apparently. I honestly don't care what difficulty you play a game on, because I just want you to enjoy playing the thing you spent your own fucking money on. And not be obligated to play it based on some other person's douchebag expectations of you. Because I'm not an elitist asshole.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Installing Modern Warfare on the PS4 has made my opinion on CoD change from "not my thing" to "fuck this piece of shit that's actively making the gaming industry worse". Man, I still think consoles have a place in gaming, but there's so much about the experience that I don't miss.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Been playing and enjoying STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.

The setting is neat and the atmosphere is great. The gameplay isn't as janky as I expected it to be, and I actually quite enjoy the gunplay. Weapons feel and control very snappy (though pistols feel very underpowered), and enemies provide a nice challenge. People recommended playing on higher difficulties and based on my experience switching between normal and veteran (i.e. hard) I'd agree. The game felt too easy on normal and I was rarely using health items and I was swimming in ammo. Even on veteran though I'm still stockpiling ammo mainly due to how easy it is to make money and buy more. The game also really encourages not spraying bullets with some rather unforgiving bullet accuracy, so to be as efficient as possible you need to move from cover to cover to get closer to your opponent and get a sweet headshot.

There's also some nice attention to detail, like being able to load different types of shells inside shotguns, or how if you kill a large group of hostile dogs, the rest will eventually get scared and run away.

The main questline has been alright so far, though the main draw for me is the word building more than the actual plot. The side quests have been nothing special so far, with most of them being simple 'go here, kill this' or 'go here, find this'.

There was apparently also a bug with how ballistics worked on lower difficulties that actually made it more difficult to hit a target on anything below the highest (Master IIRC). If you’re finding your shots missing the mark too often, might want to try it out.



On topic, finished prepping for the complicated endings in Sekiro. Now it’s down to wrapping up in Fountainhead Palace and Owl’s memory. I’ll probably save Demon of Hatred for last. Gotta say, that gigantic straw figure takes the cake for “transport to distant land” NPCs in FROM games.