What are you currently playing?

[Dalisclock]

I never understood why people do this. They specifically say they like a game then call out the fanbase and say its good despite the fandom. The really weird thing is that it only seems to happen for more... I suppose, progressive type games, you never hear anyone saying it about COD or even something like fortnight.

I've heard plenty of people calling out COD's fanbase as being racist 13 year olds who all fucked your mom(unclear if individually or part of a group) but your point stands. Yeah, there are some wierdos in the UT/DR fanbase but there's wierdos in every fanbase. If we're gonna judge things by the worst of it's fans rather then on it's own flaws and merits everything can be made to look like shit.

 

[Worgen]

I've heard plenty of people calling out COD's fanbase as being racist 13 year olds who all fucked your mom(unclear if individually or part of a group) but your point stands. Yeah, there are some wierdos in the UT/DR fanbase but there's wierdos in every fanbase. If we're gonna judge things by the worst of it's fans rather then on it's own flaws and merits everything can be made to look like shit.

True, but it seems like you usually only get that call out when the conversation is about gamers being racist, not just thrown out there apropos of nothing. I saw the same thing with Steven Universe, MLP, even Zootopia. Where it seems like most people who say they like these then immediately have to cover themselves by saying they don't like the fandom. I generally don't see that with something like COD or battlefield unless the topic is specifically about bad behavior.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

I've heard plenty of people calling out COD's fanbase as being racist 13 year olds who all fucked your mom(unclear if individually or part of a group) but your point stands. Yeah, there are some wierdos in the UT/DR fanbase but there's wierdos in every fanbase. If we're gonna judge things by the worst of it's fans rather then on it's own flaws and merits everything can be made to look like shit.

I never understood why people do this. They specifically say they like a game then call out the fanbase and say its good despite the fandom. The really weird thing is that it only seems to happen for more... I suppose, progressive type games, you never hear anyone saying it about COD or even something like fortnight.

My intention was mainly to call out the people who say they refuse to play the game because of the other people who play it more than the people who play it, but I guess I didn't actually say it very well and it came across like the opposite. That's my fault for saying it badly.

 

[Worgen]

My intention was mainly to call out the people who say they refuse to play the game because of the other people who play it more than the people who play it, but I guess I didn't actually say it very well and it came across like the opposite. That's my fault for saying it badly.

No worries. I just reread your message and yeah, it does seem to be more about those that demand playing Undertale first. So my bad.

 

[laggyteabag]

I haven't had much free time recently, but when I have, i've been dipping my toes into the Halo Infinite flight (beta).

It is a really fun return to form for the franchise. It doesn't have any of the in-game mechanical nonsense of the previous 3 games, and just feels like Halo, which is refreshing.

Returning to the equipment pick-ups from Halo 3 is probably the best way to add a fourth pillar to the franchise's combat loop, and a lot of it is really fun. The grappling hook is (as always) a lot of fun, and the replusor is a great last-moment save from players/vehicles/grenades/projectiles. The dropwall takes too long to deploy, though.

Otherwise, a lot of the new weapons feel fun (especially the Skewer), but the Assault Rifle that you spawn with seems a tad too powerful.

Probably my biggest issue, though, is with the progression. You don't earn ANY XP for completing matches, and the only way that you can progress (progression is also tied to a battle pass) is by completing in-game challenges. Some challenges are fine, like "Win a match", but some encourage using specific weapons or equipment, sometimes in specific ways, like "Grapplehook 5 players", which encourages players to focus on completing challenges, and not playing optimally.

Im also not really convinced by the way the game is handling cosmetics. Since Halo 2, colour customisation has been done via a player-chosen Primary/Secondary colour system. So before, if you wanted to be purple and yellow, you could just select purple as your primary, and yellow as your secondary, or vice versa. With this new system, colour customisation is tied to skins, so if you wanted to be purple and yellow, you now have to wait to unlock that specific skin. They say this will allow for greater variety, because they can create skins that have different textures, or can use multiple colours on the same skin, but I don't see why something like this couldn't have just been baked into the new player-controlled customisation system, other than, well, microtransactions.

But, the multiplayer here is Free 2 Play this time around, so I guess it comes with the territory.

I've also really simmered down on the way the game looks. It has definitely improved since the gameplay reveal in 2019, but it isn't going to be winning any rewards anytime soon, and games from years prior will still be beating out Infinite in many ways. What the game does have, though, is good performance. Infinite's MP modes will be running at up to 120Hz on consoles, and im getting really solid performance on my (aging) PC, so im really happy. Hopefully this means that the game will be accessible to a lot of people, which should (fingers crossed) translate to decent populations.

Im hopeful.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dropped into RDO to do some new bounties and nab what is arguably the best saddle in the game, the Upland.

It has less stamina than Nacogdoches but everything else is golden, including looks. It alone pretty much makes the Prestigious license worth it, but there’s quite a bit else to be had as well.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Overcooked 2 and the Surf n Turf DLC. Story campaign isn't anywhere near as hard as the first game's - pretty sure the 3 star requirements are more lenient - and the DLC is only marginally harder. Most of the time 2 tries was all we needed, and the first is always about figuring out the particular gimmick for tje level. Still we had a lot of fun, and it's nice there's all this bonus content for free in the form of seasonal updates too.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

They released a patch today so now its working fine.

Is this confirmed? The trophy guide still shows unattainable for a few, but not sure the last time it was updated. Usually the guide makers keep them up to date.

 

[Worgen]

Is this confirmed? The trophy guide still shows unattainable for a few, but not sure the last time it was updated. Usually the guide makers keep them up to date.

Oh, well, I was talking about my fighting stick working fine since the patch. I don't know about achievements.

 

[Dalisclock]

I think I'm getting close to the end of GOW. Finally on the way back to the mountain(after Atreus getting sick, getting well and then learning he's a god) though now Atreus is acting like a little shit because "Imma God, I can do what I want!". I love the character beats here and how grounded the storytelling feels between Kratos and Atreus, despite all the mythological stuff going on in the story and the fact KRATOS of all people is now the rational one urging restraint and responsibility is strangely refreshing(even if in gameplay I'm still smashing every pot, smashing treasure chests with my fist and robbing every coffin I can find). Then again, Kratos has already seen what Roaring Rampage of Revenge gets you and it turns out it's very little other then nightmares and regrets.

I am less impressed by the sneaking suspicion that the Devs kinda phoned in the boss battles for the most part. Because it really feels like 80% of the boss battles are essentially different versions of "Troll with glowing brick/Golem with Laser". It was cool when you meet that first one but damn if it's not feeling a bit....worn at this point. I had the same criticism of Horizon Zero Dawn where many of the big Boss battles were.....basically a tank and once you've fought that tank once, you know how it works the next couple times you do it. Even for the final battle, it was basically a tank with buddies coming in to help it because they couldn't bother to make a unique boss monster/robot

Also, I guess I should ask, is there any real point of doing Muspelheim(and Niefelheim when I eventually unlock it) other then grinding up for the pretty armors on the gold(EPIC?) end of the armor tree? I know the Valkyries are supposed to be brutal bonus bosses(I've found a couple of them now in underground sealed chambers) and apparently that's the big draw is to have a better chance of beating them but as far as main story content goes I'm not really having any issues with any of it anymore. Because while exploring is fun and I'm generally enjoying the combat, I'm mostly here for the story and character beats and I'm not sure if spending multiple hours grinding embers and mist echos is really going to satisfy me in that regard(and the main game already has enough "KIll things to get the shineys or explore for chests to get the shineys").

Also, after getting the chisel, the ability to kill the hel brambles and the Hels wind orbs, etc, I've been going back to earlier bits of the game to get chests and such that I couldn't open before. And I realized that I missed a bunch of early game chests somehow right outside of Kratos home(which now have laughably small amounts of loot because I was meant to get them hours and hours ago) and how the entire area loops around a bunch. OTOH, a lot of the game is very linear and it's very good at disguising it the first time you go through because your eyes are drawn forward to the next part of the path and there's just enough little side areas to poke around in to make it feel less like a very pretty tunnel. It's only when you really start poking off to the sides of the path to look for goodies where you realize you're more or less being railroaded(there's a place where the path splits near the beginning of the game. One direction looks like the path heading off into hills, but you can't follow it because there's a knee high piller across the road(which Kratos won't attempt to go over because there's no button prompt).The fact you get the Lake of Nine which is basically a mini-open world to fuck about in helps make the world feel bigger.

But it hasn't stopped me from noticing how the fast travel along the world tree is basically Kratos and Atreus walking the same route over and over again regardless of actual distance between the portals while Mimir tells stories/Atreus chats with Kratos) and is basically there to try to distant me from the fact it's basically interactable loading screen for the rest of the game. Which ironically makes it a little more annoying then the boat rides because the boat rides at least allow exploration, having pretty scenery and you can find random loot along the way.

 

[Worgen]

Just beat Cuphead, started playing Borderlands 3 again after my GF decided she wanted to 100% Borderlands 2 then Borderlands 3 (she finished 100%ing 2 and now is just finishing up a few last achievements on 3)

 

[Casual Shinji]

I am less impressed by the sneaking suspicion that the Devs kinda phoned in the boss battles for the most part. Because it really feels like 80% of the boss battles are essentially different versions of "Troll with glowing brick/Golem with Laser". It was cool when you meet that first one but damn if it's not feeling a bit....worn at this point. I had the same criticism of Horizon Zero Dawn where many of the big Boss battles were.....basically a tank and once you've fought that tank once, you know how it works the next couple times you do it. Even for the final battle, it was basically a tank with buddies coming in to help it because they couldn't bother to make a unique boss monster/robot

They wouldn't be so bad if they were more fun to fight, but all you really do is beat on their knees and avoid their big wallop attacks. God of War '18 is comparable in that way to Breath of the Wild, where the main Boss fights are pretty limp, but the optional Boss fights (the Lynels in BotW, the Valkyries in GoW'18) are fucking excellent.

Also, I guess I should ask, is there any real point of doing Muspelheim(and Niefelheim when I eventually unlock it) other then grinding up for the pretty armors on the gold(EPIC?) end of the armor tree? I know the Valkyries are supposed to be brutal bonus bosses(I've found a couple of them now in underground sealed chambers) and apparently that's the big draw is to have a better chance of beating them but as far as main story content goes I'm not really having any issues with any of it anymore. Because while exploring is fun and I'm generally enjoying the combat, I'm mostly here for the story and character beats and I'm not sure if spending multiple hours grinding embers and mist echos is really going to satisfy me in that regard(and the main game already has enough "KIll things to get the shineys or explore for chests to get the shineys").

The only reason to do Muspelheim and Nifelheim is if you want to fight more, get cooler stuff, and reach the rest of the Valkyries. I will say it's worth doing Muspelheim for the somewhat more interesting combat scenarios compared to the main game. I mean, I really, really like the combat in this game, but the encounters themselves are rather dull - no fighting enemies while on a conveyor that's headed toward a spiked wall or anything. Muspelheim puts a bit more of an interesting parameter on some of the scenarios.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

@Dalisclock the ethereal ring is basically a clever albeit tedious way to keep the no camera cuts presentation intact. Fast travel is appreciated but yeah, it would’ve been cool if there was more relevance in between locations or lore dumps through a mini game with Mimir or something since it’s essentially a waiting game.

It makes me wonder how they’ll handle this in Ragnarok given that it’ll be near-instant on PS5 but lowly PS4 users will be left running in circles again or whatever.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Just played through The Secret of Monkey Island. I can see why it's held up as an pinnacle of the genre, it genuinely is cleverly written and uses the adventure game format in clever ways. Standout moments include the insult sword fighting and the ridiculous backroom brawl that is communicated to the player entirely through the action prompts. Unfortunately it still is an adventure game with all the drawbacks the genre entails. You will spend a lot of time wandering back and forth between screens dragging your mouse over every pixel looking for whatever thing you are missing to solve the current 'puzzle' the game designer has placed before you until you eventually give up and look up the answer online and then roll your eyes and wonder to yourself how on earth you were supposed to think of that short of trying every action and object on every other object in the game. For an adventure game, I enjoyed it well enough though.

In the end, the most valuable lesson the game taught me was to never pay more than 20 dollars for a computer game.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I think I'm getting close to the end of GOW. Finally on the way back to the mountain(after Atreus getting sick, getting well and then learning he's a god) though now Atreus is acting like a little shit because "Imma God, I can do what I want!". I love the character beats here and how grounded the storytelling feels between Kratos and Atreus, despite all the mythological stuff going on in the story and the fact KRATOS of all people is now the rational one urging restraint and responsibility is strangely refreshing(even if in gameplay I'm still smashing every pot, smashing treasure chests with my fist and robbing every coffin I can find). Then again, Kratos has already seen what Roaring Rampage of Revenge gets you and it turns out it's very little other then nightmares and regrets.

I am less impressed by the sneaking suspicion that the Devs kinda phoned in the boss battles for the most part. Because it really feels like 80% of the boss battles are essentially different versions of "Troll with glowing brick/Golem with Laser". It was cool when you meet that first one but damn if it's not feeling a bit....worn at this point. I had the same criticism of Horizon Zero Dawn where many of the big Boss battles were.....basically a tank and once you've fought that tank once, you know how it works the next couple times you do it. Even for the final battle, it was basically a tank with buddies coming in to help it because they couldn't bother to make a unique boss monster/robot

Also, I guess I should ask, is there any real point of doing Muspelheim(and Niefelheim when I eventually unlock it) other then grinding up for the pretty armors on the gold(EPIC?) end of the armor tree? I know the Valkyries are supposed to be brutal bonus bosses(I've found a couple of them now in underground sealed chambers) and apparently that's the big draw is to have a better chance of beating them but as far as main story content goes I'm not really having any issues with any of it anymore. Because while exploring is fun and I'm generally enjoying the combat, I'm mostly here for the story and character beats and I'm not sure if spending multiple hours grinding embers and mist echos is really going to satisfy me in that regard(and the main game already has enough "KIll things to get the shineys or explore for chests to get the shineys").

Also, after getting the chisel, the ability to kill the hel brambles and the Hels wind orbs, etc, I've been going back to earlier bits of the game to get chests and such that I couldn't open before. And I realized that I missed a bunch of early game chests somehow right outside of Kratos home(which now have laughably small amounts of loot because I was meant to get them hours and hours ago) and how the entire area loops around a bunch. OTOH, a lot of the game is very linear and it's very good at disguising it the first time you go through because your eyes are drawn forward to the next part of the path and there's just enough little side areas to poke around in to make it feel less like a very pretty tunnel. It's only when you really start poking off to the sides of the path to look for goodies where you realize you're more or less being railroaded(there's a place where the path splits near the beginning of the game. One direction looks like the path heading off into hills, but you can't follow it because there's a knee high piller across the road(which Kratos won't attempt to go over because there's no button prompt).The fact you get the Lake of Nine which is basically a mini-open world to fuck about in helps make the world feel bigger.

But it hasn't stopped me from noticing how the fast travel along the world tree is basically Kratos and Atreus walking the same route over and over again regardless of actual distance between the portals while Mimir tells stories/Atreus chats with Kratos) and is basically there to try to distant me from the fact it's basically interactable loading screen for the rest of the game. Which ironically makes it a little more annoying then the boat rides because the boat rides at least allow exploration, having pretty scenery and you can find random loot along the way.

The reason to do Muspelheim and Niefelheim (other than gear) is that both of them have optional Valkyrie bosses (and you have to beat every Valkyrie to be able to fight the final optional boss).

Speaking of bosses, Santa Monica Studio have said before that the giant trolls in God of War aren't actually meant to be bosses. Those are normal enemies, but they couldn't figure out a way to put the health bars over their heads like other enemies, and still allow those health bars to be visible to the player, which is why they got "boss" health bars instead.

So it's not that the boss fights are lazy copy pastes, it's just that there aren't very many bosses in the game total, which was one of my few problems with the game.

The Valkyries are great, and tons of fun to fight, but unfortunately they also share a lot of movesets so they also aren't totally unique boss fights either (although each of them does get a unique gimmick).

 

[BrawlMan]

So it's not that the boss fights are lazy copy pastes, it's just that there aren't very many bosses in the game total, which was one of my few problems with the game.

Just like the first God of War. Ironic that the 4th game has the same issue with boss numbers as the first installment.

 

[Dalisclock]

Speaking of bosses, Santa Monica Studio have said before that the giant trolls in God of War aren't actually meant to be bosses. Those are normal enemies, but they couldn't figure out a way to put the health bars over their heads like other enemies, and still allow those health bars to be visible to the player, which is why they got "boss" health bars instead.

Okay, that makes me feel a little better. It's just giving them those big health bars makes it seem like that. Then again, Dark Souls had me running across a guy in Stone Armor and a giant dragon tooth for a club and didn't realize for a moment that guy was essentially a boss without a health bar(EIther Havel or someone wearing Havel's Armor).

 

[BrawlMan]

I played Ninja Saviors again. I did a few runs on certain stages for fun.

I decided to tackle California Reaper Difficulty on NMH III. The difficulty is not too bad as long as you maxed Travis on all health, attack, death glove recharged, and battery. The enemies do more damage and have more health, so being maxed out lessens a lot of tedium. The mode is nothing more than bragging rights, yet I have so much fun with the combat. I managed to the Velvet Chair Girl musical chair section without dying this time. I had to use a standard controller, because for some reason, my third party turbo controller does not agree with this one section half the time. I did rank #5 too, since her stage is not that long either. I'll finish the rest tomorrow.

Transformers Devastation is still fun, and anyone who says it is not stylish nor has deep mechanics (Gaming Brit) can get get pimped slapped with the front and back hand. The game has its flaws and was made on a quick budget, but combat is so much fun. No character plays the same, everyone has their own unique abilities, and each Autobot can hold up to 4 weapons (you need to at least have 1 melee weapon, if the rest are ranged or vice versa).

There still has not been an Transformers game that integrates car combat this well and precise. Vehicle mode acts as a alternative combat stance, and triples as a combo extender and gap closer. Hidden mechanics exist to where you can chain vehicle attacks with the right timing and rhythm. These can even be chained ranged attacks with pistols, rifles, shotguns, etc. Experimentation is not limited at all.

It sucks (?) that Activision no longer holds the publishing rights, but you can still find the game physical. Just check Amazon or any used game store. Most places tend to have the Devastation at a decent price, but that won't last long. A game no longer available on digital stores due to licensing or copyright is why I always say "Physical forever!". Platinum may have been on a low budget, yet they managed to put out a kick-ass game any Transformer fan should play. Casual or Hardcore.

 

[BrawlMan]

Okay, that makes me feel a little better. It's just giving them those big health bars makes it seem like that.

Nothing to feel ashamed of; they're glorified mini bosses. The trolls are GoW4's versions of the cyclops enemy. Carries a big stick/pillar, smashes things, and comes with elemental effects. The ogres are also another version of the cyclops, except you can ride on them unlike the trolls. Funny enough, the ogres are considered Bosses in Mooks Clothing status.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Just like the first God of War. Ironic that the 4th game has the same issue with boss numbers as the first installment.

With God of War '18 I think it's due to a combination of the close camera and Kratos being very secured to the ground, making fights against enemies of similar height more ideal. The bigger the Boss/enemy the less good a fight tends to be, with the dragon really being the worst. For the sequel I hope they figure out a way to expand the combat so that you can grapple yourself upon to larger enemies.