Crysis 3 Remastered is done! I'll post more on the thread I made!
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
Finished the Godmaster DLC for Hollow Knight. What a pain. Made up of 5 pantheons/arenas with maybe some healing in between fights and absolutely no checkpoints. Last fight involves basically every boss in the game, so something like 50 fights in a row. And no matter how many times you beat the last 2 or 3 bosses in training mode, you WILL fuck up and there goes the 2 hours you just spent fighting every other boss in the game.
I keep reading the game was Souls-inspired but this…actually doesn’t sound very Soulslike much at all. I hope there was at least a cool trophy to compliment the personal satisfaction from such a masochistic grind.
Sure, I got my Platinum #65. But I wouldn't have done it if I didn't enjoy playing the game to begin with. I'd beaten it twice already and was up for a challenge.
When I think boss rushes I think Capcom. The Souls thing might go for the area design, labyrinthine gauntlets looping overall and the mechanic where you go to your death spot to get your money back, as well as all the gloomy lore and how it's imparted, but it doesn't apply to combat. There's no stamina to manage, no blocking/parrying, no locking on and circling around, and for weaponry you're stuck with your starter and a linear upgrade path. Combat is more of a bullet hell where you're supposed to jump and dash around a barrage of long-range enemy attacks. Where Souls is all about patience Hollow Knight is much more aggressive. You get magic from hitting the enemy, which encourages a good DPS, which you can trade off for a quick magic attack or a slow healing spell. And all the while you're chaining double jumps, dashes, bouncing off the enemy, clinging to walls, basically juggling your own character around the arena while trying to keep the DPS>Magic>Spell/Heal circuit flowing.
The setting and atmosphere feels very soulslike. Also how the story is presented. Otoh, combat is much faster and less methodical then a souls game tends to be.
Plus that makes sense with the combat being a 2D side scroller.
I haven't played the godmaster dlc but from I understand it's pretty much there for people who want more challenge and it has no bearing on the rest of the game
*A short vignette of me playing Alien: Isolation*
-Quietly crouch-shuffling around Comms before accidently shuffling into deadly robot's crotch and sprint away-
"shitshitshit"
-run into last elevator needed to reach transit station again-
"Whew, that was close...wait...if I'm back tracking through places I've been already, that means..."
"Ding! First floor, main lobby, transit hub, and horrible nightmares from beyond the stars"
-elevator door opens, Alien noises directly above me with thumping steps-
"Ok, deep breath, been through this before, just need to throw a flare up and out and scuttle away..."
-prepare flare, windup for an amazing throw to the upper floor...and drop it right at my feet-
-angry Alien noises and loud thumping noises heading for the stairs-
"ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit"
-panic sprint through the lobby towards the station, but APOLLO shows it's disapproval at me shooting it's robots in the head by having the door take it's time opening-
"nononono..."
-in a panic, forget where I'm going and waste precious time running into the security checkpoint-
"fuckfuckfuckfuck!"
-figure myself out, run towards the right door, which is also slow-
-sprint down the stairs to the platform in a state of hysteria at this point while I hear the Alien closing in behind me-
-burst onto the platform, desperately looking for that transit car that Samuels supposedly sent-
"Oh god, I don't see it, this isn't-"
-Alien impales me with it's tail before ripping my face off-
"......I think I've had enough excitement for one night......"
-Quietly crouch-shuffling around Comms before accidently shuffling into deadly robot's crotch and sprint away-
"shitshitshit"
-run into last elevator needed to reach transit station again-
"Whew, that was close...wait...if I'm back tracking through places I've been already, that means..."
"Ding! First floor, main lobby, transit hub, and horrible nightmares from beyond the stars"
-elevator door opens, Alien noises directly above me with thumping steps-
"Ok, deep breath, been through this before, just need to throw a flare up and out and scuttle away..."
-prepare flare, windup for an amazing throw to the upper floor...and drop it right at my feet-
-angry Alien noises and loud thumping noises heading for the stairs-
"ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit"
-panic sprint through the lobby towards the station, but APOLLO shows it's disapproval at me shooting it's robots in the head by having the door take it's time opening-
"nononono..."
-in a panic, forget where I'm going and waste precious time running into the security checkpoint-
"fuckfuckfuckfuck!"
-figure myself out, run towards the right door, which is also slow-
-sprint down the stairs to the platform in a state of hysteria at this point while I hear the Alien closing in behind me-
-burst onto the platform, desperately looking for that transit car that Samuels supposedly sent-
"Oh god, I don't see it, this isn't-"
-Alien impales me with it's tail before ripping my face off-
"......I think I've had enough excitement for one night......"
People have been begging for endgame content in Genshin Impact. But they just keep doing abyss changes and events. The problem is that this game is the only PVE focused game that is a live service. Destiny 2 is live service and their raids requires multiple players/friends, plus you should see the requirements for being a part of raid teams its like a job interview. Black desert online's endgame is PVP. War Thunder is unbalanced, and they keep releasing OP vehicles in random tiers and OP paid vehicles.
Also I tried playing project wingman the dialogue is so cringe.
Also I tried playing project wingman the dialogue is so cringe.
I don't think they'll ever do endgame stuff, they're printing money like crazy and I think part of the success they get is because everyone can participate in everything and the reward aren't loot but chance at getting new character, so there's no gear treadmill. I'm getting close to running out of content so I don't know if I'll keep playing it much more but I really doubt they have any intention of changing their already winning model.
Dunno if you're familiar with ace combat (what project wingman is based on) but its on purpose (at least I think), it's more like an american army B-movie in video game form trough the lens of japenes developer.
I'm at least a few hours in Suikoden: Woven Web of the Centuries, the unreleased PSP RPG that just got a fan English translation. I've actually never really played any Suikodens despite owning a few and knowing all about it. The premise is kind of interesting and also not the worst way to write a large game on limited hardware, in the story you're attacked by the same creatures who almost killed humanity a 100 years ago. however you accidently go back exactly a 100 years and meet your ancestor who'd just recently defeated them. When you go back forward in time your village has been destroyed and one of the protagonists died trying to save the village while you were gone which leads to a pretty well-written emotional moment as hes also one of the other characters brother. You get the bright idea to go back in time again (you are limited to that same moment a 100 years ago) and subtle change things, coming back to find the village survived and your friend still alive. I assume this will be the crux of the game, to keep going back and finding a way to affect the future. For now I'm kinda onboard, the dialog is pretty charming though the main character is a blank slate typical jrpg protagonist. There are dialog choices which hint at youre being concerned about whether this quantum leap stuff is really something you should be monkeying around with, I hope that pays off eventually.
Sadly in my like 3 hours of gameplay I've only had two battles with 2 playable characters, however I think right when I quit last night I got introduced to several characters about to join. Its been kneedeep exposition so far. It looks surprisingly good emulated at 4xPSP rendering on PC. I'd play it on my PSP but its in storage.
My only major complaint about the game is the outdated equipment management, you gotta go to a store buy shit, leave, equip it then go back to the store to sell it. Im tolerating it. Theres no agressive random enemy fights, thank god for that. You see monsters on the map.
Sadly in my like 3 hours of gameplay I've only had two battles with 2 playable characters, however I think right when I quit last night I got introduced to several characters about to join. Its been kneedeep exposition so far. It looks surprisingly good emulated at 4xPSP rendering on PC. I'd play it on my PSP but its in storage.
My only major complaint about the game is the outdated equipment management, you gotta go to a store buy shit, leave, equip it then go back to the store to sell it. Im tolerating it. Theres no agressive random enemy fights, thank god for that. You see monsters on the map.
Last edited:
The Persistence
Gonna talk about PSN monthly games now cause haven't bought a real game in ages. This one was, or is (but was exclusively?) a VR sci-fi survival horror rogue-ligh...lite? And is way better than I had expected from the shit title/thumbnail art. Penniless muggins here doesn't have VR though, so this is a controller-only impression and you'll just have to deal with it you filthy rich wankers. As in 'filthy' and 'rich', not 'flithy rich', because a single insult is just depressingly lonely, and yes "rich" is an insult in my culture too. The culture of not owning VR anyway.
The point is, maybe rogue-lite/light is a pretty good fit for survival horror if done well. The genre usually involves resource management, especially around health already. And when you bungle "sci-fi" and "space" into the mix, then shuffling level parts around makes more sense when they're all like prefab connecty modules and various other detachable maguffins.
It starts off like SOMA for idiots, plainly telling you what's up: that you're a consciousness slapped into a clone so go and do stuff like complete the game or escape or collect delicious stem cells from all your dead buddies to make more clones. Except, the ship is kind of maybe printing its own clones and they are not so forward thinking. Or friendly. Or human? It's printing angry zombies who can sometimes use guns, and other mostly uninspired variations of videogame enemies. Which is where I think the game could've used a lot more creativity and risk. Could have the first humanoid enemies where the faces are nothing but one huge gaping mouth fulll of spindly teeth who could envelope your whole head with one simple snake-like suck, and/or animate them in strange contorting ways. But no, zombies it is and zombies is all we deserve I guess. And a hulk. You get limited guns, ammo, melee, stealth abilities, all upgradeable. Dying is easy, or it is for me at least. Gets disorienting with all the dark everywhere.
Also the Interstellar-inspired black hole outside the ship looks like it's only about 10 meters away from the window and the size of a hot air balloon due to a line of rocks curving towards it all rendered with what I'm assuming is incredibly incorrect depth of perception past a certain point, possibly due to coding shortcuts , I dunno, looks baffling either way. But aside that, a couple of bullshit moments, the need to turn aim assist off and a super slow walk only vaguely compensated for by a short teleport with a charge requirement, it's not bad. Nooooot baaaad.
Kingdoms of Amalur: The shiny improved one
I appreciate all the quests you accept are plastered on the map no matter which one is selected. And the drop rate along with mission simplicity means it's very effective at providing fast serotonin delivery from constant rewards and progress. Moreso if you plough through the dialogue like an ADHA champ. Apart from that one guy's dialogue voice who purrs like a sexy gruff lyrical lion. Not so appreciated is the paltry inventory space with even more stingy options for expanding it. Nor is the odd progress-halting glitch. But...there's a lot of game to get through, and as a penniless ragamuffin supping from the spicy ambrosia of poverty-stricken sewers, it's nice to have a few litres of vodka-tainted gruel to see me through those long and cold, lonely nights till the end of the month.
First Class Trouble
Don't know what it's likes but it says 'First Class's so it's probably up itself and crap.
Ok, fine, it's actually multiplayer only, and expects teamwork, so it's intimidating and I'd rather not, thankyou! People are a hassle and I need to pee too much.
Gonna talk about PSN monthly games now cause haven't bought a real game in ages. This one was, or is (but was exclusively?) a VR sci-fi survival horror rogue-ligh...lite? And is way better than I had expected from the shit title/thumbnail art. Penniless muggins here doesn't have VR though, so this is a controller-only impression and you'll just have to deal with it you filthy rich wankers. As in 'filthy' and 'rich', not 'flithy rich', because a single insult is just depressingly lonely, and yes "rich" is an insult in my culture too. The culture of not owning VR anyway.
The point is, maybe rogue-lite/light is a pretty good fit for survival horror if done well. The genre usually involves resource management, especially around health already. And when you bungle "sci-fi" and "space" into the mix, then shuffling level parts around makes more sense when they're all like prefab connecty modules and various other detachable maguffins.
It starts off like SOMA for idiots, plainly telling you what's up: that you're a consciousness slapped into a clone so go and do stuff like complete the game or escape or collect delicious stem cells from all your dead buddies to make more clones. Except, the ship is kind of maybe printing its own clones and they are not so forward thinking. Or friendly. Or human? It's printing angry zombies who can sometimes use guns, and other mostly uninspired variations of videogame enemies. Which is where I think the game could've used a lot more creativity and risk. Could have the first humanoid enemies where the faces are nothing but one huge gaping mouth fulll of spindly teeth who could envelope your whole head with one simple snake-like suck, and/or animate them in strange contorting ways. But no, zombies it is and zombies is all we deserve I guess. And a hulk. You get limited guns, ammo, melee, stealth abilities, all upgradeable. Dying is easy, or it is for me at least. Gets disorienting with all the dark everywhere.
Also the Interstellar-inspired black hole outside the ship looks like it's only about 10 meters away from the window and the size of a hot air balloon due to a line of rocks curving towards it all rendered with what I'm assuming is incredibly incorrect depth of perception past a certain point, possibly due to coding shortcuts , I dunno, looks baffling either way. But aside that, a couple of bullshit moments, the need to turn aim assist off and a super slow walk only vaguely compensated for by a short teleport with a charge requirement, it's not bad. Nooooot baaaad.
Kingdoms of Amalur: The shiny improved one
I appreciate all the quests you accept are plastered on the map no matter which one is selected. And the drop rate along with mission simplicity means it's very effective at providing fast serotonin delivery from constant rewards and progress. Moreso if you plough through the dialogue like an ADHA champ. Apart from that one guy's dialogue voice who purrs like a sexy gruff lyrical lion. Not so appreciated is the paltry inventory space with even more stingy options for expanding it. Nor is the odd progress-halting glitch. But...there's a lot of game to get through, and as a penniless ragamuffin supping from the spicy ambrosia of poverty-stricken sewers, it's nice to have a few litres of vodka-tainted gruel to see me through those long and cold, lonely nights till the end of the month.
First Class Trouble
Don't know what it's likes but it says 'First Class's so it's probably up itself and crap.
Ok, fine, it's actually multiplayer only, and expects teamwork, so it's intimidating and I'd rather not, thankyou! People are a hassle and I need to pee too much.
Last edited:
I have every plane, and I have beaten everything in Ace Combat.
Butcher
Imagine Doom or Quake, but as a 2d run & fun platformer. Or, if you actually remember an old DOS game called Abuse, like that, but faster and gorier. Anyway, it's not much for story, or characters, or really anything that requires more than two neurons, but it's a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultra violence. Can't play it for very long tho, cuz it has a deliberately lo-fi aesthetic, and the sprites are eyestrainingly tiny, as in, your player character is like less than half a cm tall onscreen. This, combined with the high octane and frenetic action means it tends to drain me quickly.
Eastward
Picked this up recently. It's a Zelda-like in terms of moment to moment gameplay, but in every other respect, it is clearly inspired by Earthbound/Mother. It's most noticeable in the spritework, which is top notch btw, as every npc has an unique sprite and animations. But it's also in the writing, how the world is built, the ncps characterized, and the way it can turn from humorous whimsy into genuinely dark and tragic moments. Anyway, good game, and I'm enjoying my time with it, but it is very linear. Which I don't mind, but it's a little annoying here. There are tons of points of no return that lock you out of backtracking and exploring, and lots of chests, npc interactions and even abilities are missable. You basically have to get everything on your first go, and its often not clear what is a side area and what is progress.
I also got Detention, that Taiwanese horror game that CD Project pussied out of putting on GOG hours after the announcement because of "many messages from gamers". Something for the weekend, I think.
Imagine Doom or Quake, but as a 2d run & fun platformer. Or, if you actually remember an old DOS game called Abuse, like that, but faster and gorier. Anyway, it's not much for story, or characters, or really anything that requires more than two neurons, but it's a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultra violence. Can't play it for very long tho, cuz it has a deliberately lo-fi aesthetic, and the sprites are eyestrainingly tiny, as in, your player character is like less than half a cm tall onscreen. This, combined with the high octane and frenetic action means it tends to drain me quickly.
Eastward
Picked this up recently. It's a Zelda-like in terms of moment to moment gameplay, but in every other respect, it is clearly inspired by Earthbound/Mother. It's most noticeable in the spritework, which is top notch btw, as every npc has an unique sprite and animations. But it's also in the writing, how the world is built, the ncps characterized, and the way it can turn from humorous whimsy into genuinely dark and tragic moments. Anyway, good game, and I'm enjoying my time with it, but it is very linear. Which I don't mind, but it's a little annoying here. There are tons of points of no return that lock you out of backtracking and exploring, and lots of chests, npc interactions and even abilities are missable. You basically have to get everything on your first go, and its often not clear what is a side area and what is progress.
I also got Detention, that Taiwanese horror game that CD Project pussied out of putting on GOG hours after the announcement because of "many messages from gamers". Something for the weekend, I think.
Last edited:
Go figure the game I do first to try and sand off some of my backlog is a game that is actually going to kill me. Still Alien: Isolation, about 20 minutes past my previous moment and now I'm stuck hunting for a keycard in the medical ward, and I swear it's becoming difficult to tell if the thumping noise I hear is the Alien or my own heartbeat. Can't play more than 30 minutes or so before it gets too much for me. It doesn't help either that it feels like it's toying with me, constantly poking it's head back into the room I'm cowering in or popping up right in front of me when I think I've figured it out.
Playing through the Arkham Knight DLC. Most of the "episodes" are pretty straightforward vignettes of 3 to 4 combat or stealth encounters. Each character controls more or less like Batman minus a gadget here or a twist there. Like how Red Hood has guns but are more or less functionally the same as Batarangs, and Harley can't stealth (duh) but can enter berserk mode.
Only one that stands out is the Batgirl DLC. Unlike the other 30-40 minute campaigns, Batgirl's takes place over a few hours and in a brand new (albeit smallish) open world. There's also some thought to the story, or at least has some meaning within the Arkham canon, instead of being yet another throwaway "Two Face has escaped again!" routine. And combining the traditional Batman stealthing with Watch_Dogs tech is a lot of fun. I'd play a full game of this.
Only one that stands out is the Batgirl DLC. Unlike the other 30-40 minute campaigns, Batgirl's takes place over a few hours and in a brand new (albeit smallish) open world. There's also some thought to the story, or at least has some meaning within the Arkham canon, instead of being yet another throwaway "Two Face has escaped again!" routine. And combining the traditional Batman stealthing with Watch_Dogs tech is a lot of fun. I'd play a full game of this.
Finally did the last of the Blood Money contracts in RDO, and am 2/3 through the Halloween update, which once again is underwhelming. The best thing on offer is a sweet skull lantern to unlock at the very end. I still haven’t check out Call to Arms as I know it’ll require having to replenish practically all my ammo and tonics, which I’m not to keen on parting with. Maybe I’ll wait for another double cash/gold/xp weekend.
Also have all mission tasks up to Mission 30: Skull Face done in MGSV, so Chapter 1 is pretty much checked off. In total I have 61 to go out of 285, but most of the problematic ones are out of the way and my stealth camo is fully developed. Fatigue from the deployment routine is setting in, but still having fun with it, thanks to being able to be a super sneaky Snake that renders most of the original challenge of these missions a trivial exercise.
Also have all mission tasks up to Mission 30: Skull Face done in MGSV, so Chapter 1 is pretty much checked off. In total I have 61 to go out of 285, but most of the problematic ones are out of the way and my stealth camo is fully developed. Fatigue from the deployment routine is setting in, but still having fun with it, thanks to being able to be a super sneaky Snake that renders most of the original challenge of these missions a trivial exercise.
I'd had my eye on Eastward for a while. The only reason I haven't gotten it yet is because I haven't decided to play it on Switch or PC(AKA GOG.com) and because I'm trying to clear some other games before I start a new one.
Speaking of clearing games, I finished AC:Unity and it's DLC, Dead Kings. Still wrapping up a few of the side activities but pretty much ready to call it. On the plus side, it's no longer the trash fire it was when it released, having been heavily patched(I'm also playing it on a PC that is far better then the ones available at release). On the minus side, it's basically okay.
I covered it in a lot more detail in the AC thread but in short, it's a Classic AC game, like a higher def version of the Ezio games. That's both it's strength and it's weakness, because yeah, it's what the fans apparently wanted before the games went to being RPGS(though Unity already had it's foot in that door), but it's also a formula that was starting to get stale a while before and now its back(after a brief trip to the Americas and Pirateland) like nothing had changed(but with MORE STUFF).
So it was fine, I enjoyed some of it, the story mostly had the issue with basically not wanting to offend anyone so it basically punts on making any statements about the French Revolutions other then "EXTREMISM IS BAD!" and it's full of Assasiny Creedy Stuff splattered all over a map of Paris. A very nice map of Paris, don't get me wrong, but if you either didn't like the Ezio games or AC in general, this game isn't gonna change your mind on the whole affair.
As someone who played Eastward on Switch. I can easily recommend the game. The game is a nice homage to Zelda and earthbound, and it has a great story. Gameplay is hit or miss IMO but I had some fun with it.