What are you currently playing?

[BrawlMan]

I tried playing Double Dragon III (NES) last night. I hate it. It's way too hard, you only get one life (aside from switching characters when you get to them & unlock them), you can only win the game by spamming the (double) cyclone kick over and over, and I don't find it that fun to play. It looks great on a presentation and visual standpoint, but that's all I can give it. Better than the arcade version, but that is not saying a lot. What the hell was Technos thinking back then?

I rather play Double Dragon IV. At least you get unlimited continues. It's not a perfect game either, but compared to most of the NES Double Dragon games, it's way above the first and third game.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Is that laika? Did she survive in the marvelverse and become psychic? Is she known as comrade pupper?

Weeeeeeeell... *suspicious sound of frantic keyboard tapping*

Who is Cosmo in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy?

Cosmo is one of the most adorable characters introduced into Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. He is a telepathic Soviet dog and the security chief of the "Knowhere" space station.

www.sportskeeda.com

How did Cosmo become a telepathic space dog?


The character of Cosmo was inspired by the real-life story of Laika, a Russian dog that was sent into space to test whether humans could survive in alien conditions or not. In Marvel Comics, Cosmo was a former test animal of the Soviet Space Program. He was launched into Earth’s orbit as part of an experiment but later drifted into a different path, becoming mutated by cosmic rays along the way. He then showed up on Knowhere, becoming its security chief at a later point in time.

Exposure to the cosmic rays gave Cosmo psychic abilities like high-level telepathy and telekinesis, on top of its naturally enhanced sense of hearing and smell. He also has the capability of creating defensive shields, equipped with enough strength to deflect energy blasts. He can also project highly intensified mind blasts, although his power levels are unknown.

I just "did my own research" is what I did sir!

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Update on Eastward.

....... Well..... I see.....

 

[Dalisclock]

Update on Eastward.

....... Well..... I see.....

View attachment 5857

Is that good or bad?

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Is that good or bad?

I just came upon what's inside the mountain in the forest is all.

 

[BrawlMan]

I managed to beat my old high score on Stage 1 Mania+ with Axel in SOR4. I got 76, 618. The perfect bonus was a big help. I played some stages I didn't do with Shiva. Same with Adam too. Shiva is busted as always and might as well be from Streets of Rage 5 from how he plays. He almost plays like a DMC character. You can do the same with most other characters, but his is deliberately the easies to do and abuse.

 

[Gordon_4]

I played a few hours of Modern Warfare 2 last night, feeling nostalgic about life in my drug induced haze. Aside from the really eerie resonance about a militarily resurgent and extremist Russia doing an invasion - admittedly the real life situation in Ukraine is much more believable an invasion than the fucking mainland United States - its core gameplay and story are still really great. As a fan of Dog Soldiers and The Bill it tickles me to hear both Sgt. Cooper and DS Don Beech as Soap and Price and Lance Henriksen makes for a compelling villain.

But most of all, the game still makes you appreciate the value of a mile. There's never any huge distances - biggest I recall is about 200m - between any given objectives but the game makes you earn every meter you take.

 

[Dalisclock]

I played a few hours of Modern Warfare 2 last night, feeling nostalgic about life in my drug induced haze. Aside from the really eerie resonance about a militarily resurgent and extremist Russia doing an invasion - admittedly the real life situation in Ukraine is much more believable an invasion than the fucking mainland United States - its core gameplay and story are still really great. As a fan of Dog Soldiers and The Bill it tickles me to hear both Sgt. Cooper and DS Don Beech as Soap and Price and Lance Henriksen makes for a compelling villain.

But most of all, the game still makes you appreciate the value of a mile. There's never any huge distances - biggest I recall is about 200m - between any given objectives but the game makes you earn every meter you take.

I still think COD4: MW and MW2 are amazing FPS games and even though they campaigns are short and more focused on style then substance, they work pretty damn well at giving a particular feel. Even the incredibly unlikely possibility of Russia invading the US and NATO just not giving a shit at all(nor any nukes being launched in all of this), it still feels like it fucking works in a world spiraling completely out of control sort of way.

MW3 completely dropped the ball on it though, having some great setpiece missions(notably the ones in Paris) but they made no sense in context with the actual plot. And while MW1 and MW2 had plot holes, MW3 had some many things that made no fucking sense at all it became hard to take anything remotely seriously.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Just got my fastest Platinum ever by re-downloading Fall Guys (the game changed launchers) and all the trophies popped within 33 seconds.

 

[Hawki]

So here's what I'm doing these days.

World of Warcraft

On one hand, playing Classic WoW (human warrior, level 18). I'm really mixed on this. Server's mostly abandoned, and there's some activities you simply can't do without being part of a group (e.g. dungeon raids). Also, the grind's pretty heavy, and this translates to make it hard to explore areas. For instance, there's a number of naturally geographic 'choke points' from one zone to the next that are going to kill you if you try to get through them without being strong enough.

On the other, the game's really good in giving you a sense of exploration. That isn't new (likely), but there really is a sense of a "world," and there's a quiet joy in seeing your map fill up as you discover one zone after another. Also, this might seem controversial, but I think the storytelling is actually quite well done. Having explored a number of Stormwind areas, it's clear by talking to NPCs, and even through visual storytelling, that something is really WRONG here. The kingdom's going to shit, soldiers have been withdrawn from outlying areas, said areas are hanging on for dear life, and no-one in the capital even seems to care. Now, I know why that's the case (cough*Onyxia*cough), and I'm assuming that similar storytelling is used for other races, Horde and Alliance alike (I did a fair bit of a dwarf paladin as well, but I didn't really see any connecting story when I did do it) but in the scope of personal experience, it's pretty well done.

So, yeah. Good in some areas, extremely frustrating in others.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

So I've bit the bullet and started playing XC2. It's probably too early to say (4hrs in), but basically, it's XC1, but worse in every area. The combat is less involved, gear's less complex, the world's less interesting (if similar), the characters are...okay, I guess, the writing is far more anime, etc. In other words, it's more of the same, but done worse in every area. That's not to say it's bad, but this is really repeating the first game's story and combat beats, just less competently.

Granted, only 4hrs in, whereas XC1 took me around 100hrs to complete, but, yeah.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I still think COD4: MW and MW2 are amazing FPS games and even though they campaigns are short and more focused on style then substance, they work pretty damn well at giving a particular feel. Even the incredibly unlikely possibility of Russia invading the US and NATO just not giving a shit at all(nor any nukes being launched in all of this), it still feels like it fucking works in a world spiraling completely out of control sort of way.

MW3 completely dropped the ball on it though, having some great setpiece missions(notably the ones in Paris) but they made no sense in context with the actual plot. And while MW1 and MW2 had plot holes, MW3 had some many things that made no fucking sense at all it became hard to take anything remotely seriously.

The older MW games have been having a resurgence online it seems, especially MW3. Perhaps it's because it was the "least" popular (or maybe well regarded?) of the trilogy, and so people are experiencing it for the first time/recalling what they have forgotten.

We can all debate about the quality of the older games, but hot damn, you cannot deny how shit the latest CoD campaign looks in comparison. Vanguard genuinely came off as a parody of the franchise.

And this is more of a shower thought, but I can't believe that we spent the last decade grumbling over how corny it is that Russians are the default international bad guys, and now they are actual international bad guys (let's not make this political, we all know what I mean).

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Been trying to have a go at that Robin Hood multiplayer game as part of the monthly games dealio on playstation, but even on the least intimidating mode (PvE) no-one seems capable of finishing even a single match. I love the stealth multiplayer aspect as it feels really cool when you're all doing well like a crack team of medieval splinter cell agents, it's just there's always but always the impatience of other players to contend with. And the final run moment, where it sends every fucker including the invincible sheriff master chief to your direction as you have to protect the money crate, is where all players just give up and die within seconds. Fucking hopeless. One match, is all I ask, please let me finish one match. Oh yeah, and the lag can be regularly obnoxious too.

Ok and a little bonus moan about services: PS Now put WRC 10 on there this month, and as an owner of WRC 9 I was pretty interested in trying, especially due to the growing praise of the series lately. However, it is only the PS4 version, which doesn't sound like much difference, except that the standard version of the PS4 game when bought on the storefront also is the PS5 version on the store too. In fact all versions of the bought game are the PS5 version too. So they've basically had to create a new separate version of the standard game for PS now purely to exclude customers from being able to play the game at 60fps. Which is a fresh kinda unnecessary bullshit. This is a low stakes moan, and my cat doesn't care so here on a random interwebs forum it goes!

On a more positive note, been jumping in and out of Dying Light 2 for a while and mostly enjoying it really. Agree with the main criticisms like the protag is big bland vibes, but rather weirdly still given a little more agency than most bland protags, like he'll often ramble off moralistic preaching to other NPCs during convos if they're a bit shit at stuff and the voice actor does seem to be really into it. It's just a shame they sound exactly like Troy Baker doing an impression of the previous game's protagonist unless they're whispering. Maybe sounding like Troy Baker is a boon for a dude's career in the videogame VA industry, tho it sure doesn't help avoid the sound of blandness when placed amongst its peers.

But anyway, it's nice to faff around in, feels good to play too. The side stories are mostly interesting flavour. The problem is the peacekeeper faction are just all round terrible choice to side with despite the game trying its best to guilt trip you with their struggles and kinship before every single choice. Like, the hippie faction may seem cliched, but they're the only ones who appear to care for bees which provide the honey that is the only source for making more medkits. Also they have superior aesthetic design for their homes. So there's not a moment of doubt or hesitation, every base is given to the hippies, sorry peacekeepers, you are just all round kinda shit, nothing personal. Also, why won't you let me jump in your bases? You gonna be all fash about gravity too?

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I still think COD4: MW and MW2 are amazing FPS games and even though they campaigns are short and more focused on style then substance, they work pretty damn well at giving a particular feel. Even the incredibly unlikely possibility of Russia invading the US and NATO just not giving a shit at all(nor any nukes being launched in all of this), it still feels like it fucking works in a world spiraling completely out of control sort of way.

MW3 completely dropped the ball on it though, having some great setpiece missions(notably the ones in Paris) but they made no sense in context with the actual plot. And while MW1 and MW2 had plot holes, MW3 had some many things that made no fucking sense at all it became hard to take anything remotely seriously.

Call me crazy but I’d also throw W@W in there for enjoyable CoD campaigns before the series went AWOL and/or shit the barracks.

 

[BrawlMan]

The older MW games have been having a resurgence online it seems, especially MW3. Perhaps it's because it was the "least" popular (or maybe well regarded?) of the trilogy, and so people are experiencing it for the first time/recalling what they have forgotten.

We can all debate about the quality of the older games, but hot damn, you cannot deny how shit the latest CoD campaign looks in comparison. Vanguard genuinely came off as a parody of the franchise.

And this is more of a shower thought, but I can't believe that we spent the last decade grumbling over how corny it is that Russians are the default international bad guys, and now they are actual international bad guys (let's not make this political, we all know what I mean).

From what I remember, most people that already liked Call of Duty didn't have a problem with modern warfare 3. The only thing you can say about the campaign was that it was more of the same at the time. Which is true. It's why I never jumped on board. I've stopped playing COD since MW2. I think the only reason people are looking back is probably now is due to its absence from most consciousness, and nostalgia setting in. You do have a point in people discovering in what they missed, or they only bought the game for the multiplayer.

As far as I'm concerned, each game that came out had a less stellar single-player most of the time. Diminishing returns and all that. You are on point about Vanguard. The other problem it being Activision, and their whole "we're not political!" Stance. No reason they ever say that it's at their afraid of offending and pissing off a bunch of racist jackasses who do nothing else, but play this stagnant franchise and just sit on their asses all day.

 

[BrawlMan]

I still think COD4: MW and MW2 are amazing FPS games and even though they campaigns are short and more focused on style then substance, they work pretty damn well at giving a particular feel. Even the incredibly unlikely possibility of Russia invading the US and NATO just not giving a shit at all(nor any nukes being launched in all of this), it still feels like it fucking works in a world spiraling completely out of control sort of way.

MW3 completely dropped the ball on it though, having some great setpiece missions(notably the ones in Paris) but they made no sense in context with the actual plot. And while MW1 and MW2 had plot holes, MW3 had some many things that made no fucking sense at all it became hard to take anything remotely seriously.

I stopped taking the series seriously after MW2. I know you made your points, but MW2 felt like a James Bond movie that took itself too seriously. I remember excuses were made how it's just being realistic, or realism, but it got way over the top for me by that point. And it came off as just another fantasy claiming to be about how this would turn out and such, when everyone was speaking out of their asses. At that point, the game pretty much turn into Red Dawn parts one and two in video game form. A movie I'm not exactly a fan of either. The third game basically became a ultra conservatives wet dream.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Update on Eastward.

Of course the frootloop has to be the one continuing with us... *sigh*

 

[Dalisclock]

Update on Eastward.

Of course the frootloop has to be the one continuing with us... *sigh*

You mean the guy and his robot son?

Sorry, there's a fair number of frootloops in Eastward.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

You mean the guy and his robot son?

Sorry, there's a fair number of frootloops in Eastward.

Jasper. I just... It's the flower. For some reason that flower gives me an irrationally high amount of irritation.

 

[Dalisclock]

Jasper. I just... It's the flower. For some reason that flower gives me an irrationally high amount of irritation.

I had to look him up. I'd forgotten who that even was.

If it makes you feel better, you're not gonna be seeing him a lot along the trip. He parts ways from Sam and John pretty soon.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I had to look him up. I'd forgotten who that even was.

If it makes you feel better, you're not gonna be seeing him a lot along the trip. He parts ways from Sam and John pretty soon.

I have to wonder why they bothered developing him as much as they did. He wasn't a good character and gets dropped about half way through. I was expecting him to become an antagonist or something near the end, but he just kind of disappears.