What are you currently playing?

meiam

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Just beat the FF7 remake. Holy crap that was really good, the ending starts to drag a bit and sets up too much stuff that will come later but the whole game was fantastic, I enjoyed it much more then the original, which I was kinda lukewarm on, I like 9 much more and 8 a bit more. The characters were a lot of fun, I'm so used to thinking of Aeris as the generic kinda perfect woman archtype that I was surprised to see her have not only a personality but a fun one. Not to mention that even with Cloud trying to be a stoic badass, you can tell its more of an act then who he really is, plus its fun to see him being bullied into helping out. I haven't started on the intragrade thing yet, but I am looking forward to more.
Aeris was always somewhat mischievous in the original (she's the one who suggest Cloud dressing up as a girl)
Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Roleplaying Game

It's in early access. Isometric SF RPG set on - you guessed it - a gigantic colony ship. The ship was filled with a religious sect heading off to colonise a new planet. The journey was generations long, and part-way through the later generations did not stick with the religion of their forefathers, rebelled, and the colony ship was kind of trashed in the process so it has post-apocalyptic elements. Quests, factions, etc. You live on it, and you have to... do stuff. Presumably, you will decide the fate and future of the ship.

It's very nice, though. I am not going to play it much more, so I don't spoil my fun when it's finished. I was quite amused by the combat, though: unless you made a very specialised tank, you'll learn very quickly that you might want to be avoid fighting until you get some much better kit than you start with.
One of those "please be good" EA game.
 

bluegate

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Sometimes it's best to play that game in segments. I was so excited for that game though, that I would usually play about 4 to 5 hours a day most of the time. It was more so me grinding so I could unlock all the stances. So I did as many side activities as possible, to unlock them early enough. It took me about 3.5 to 4 hours to get all the stances as unlocked. Around the halfway point of the game, I kept it to about two or two and a half hours each day.
Most of my time has also been spent roaming around, collecting materials, finding Fox holes and doing camps to kill leaders in order to get stances.

In the actual story I only just rescued Taka so that I could upgrade my sword. Maybe I'll take to the game more when I get more into the story of it.

A couple of things stood out to me though;

I had already chopped several bamboo training sets before I got to the introductionary one in Hiyoshi springs and sadly the game went about it as if it was the first one I had encountered.

Also, I already ran across the tomb for the large bow and it's two other locations, but the tomb was closed. Kind of lame to see it only open up through a side quest. Also came across and murdered camps that would magically repopulate in a mission ( straw hats ).

And one major gripe; I hate the weather system. The game looks so stunning when it's sunny and the skies are blue, yet 80% of the time it's either night or there's storm.
 
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BrawlMan

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And one major gripe; I hate the weather system. The game looks so stunning when it's sunny and the skies are blue, yet 80% of the time it's either night or there's storm.
Here's a hint: a storm will always happen whenever you go full ninja. To get it back to sunny times, play your flute. It's been a while, but I don't exactly remember how you unlock all the other weathers with the flute. You're going to have to look that one up.
 

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EW2 - chapter 3 and 4 are done. I am currently on chapter 5, and I've beaten the first boss fight of the chapter. There's another one that comes up soon. It's odd in a survival horror game, where the boss fight literally happens at the beginning of the chapter. Makes the game unique. If you have been upgrading Sebastian's weapons at least a few times, the boss fights actually not that hard. It's way past my bedtime, so I'm calling it done for now.
 

Chupathingy

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Been replaying the PS1 Spyro games.

It's been a long time since I played the first game and I forgot how good some of the level design was in the later parts of the game, particularly in the Dream Weavers homeworld. Most of the levels are incredibly simple and straightforward, but every now and then there are some real gems (no pun intended).

I just finished Spyro 2. The game feels a lot easier overall (barring the bosses, who aren't pushovers like the first), and the introduction of minigames means less focus is given on level layout and more so on making 'challenging' minigames and side quests. However, I liked the introduction of NPCs, and the (relatively) larger focus on story and characters means the worlds you visit feel more alive, with their own cultures and interactions. I find that most of the levels I really liked are due to aesthetic reasons, rather than mechanical, which is fine.

I always considered the third game to be my least favourite as a kid, but let's see how well it stacks up directly after playing the first two.
 

Hawki

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Been replaying the PS1 Spyro games.

It's been a long time since I played the first game and I forgot how good some of the level design was in the later parts of the game, particularly in the Dream Weavers homeworld. Most of the levels are incredibly simple and straightforward, but every now and then there are some real gems (no pun intended).

I just finished Spyro 2. The game feels a lot easier overall (barring the bosses, who aren't pushovers like the first), and the introduction of minigames means less focus is given on level layout and more so on making 'challenging' minigames and side quests. However, I liked the introduction of NPCs, and the (relatively) larger focus on story and characters means the worlds you visit feel more alive, with their own cultures and interactions. I find that most of the levels I really liked are due to aesthetic reasons, rather than mechanical, which is fine.

I always considered the third game to be my least favourite as a kid, but let's see how well it stacks up directly after playing the first two.
Hmm...

I think I'm in the opposite camp, since if I were ranking the Spyro PS1 games, for me, it's 3>2>1, 3 and 2 being pretty close, and a massive gap between 2 and 1. I kind of agree that 2 does step up its story (such as it is) a bit with slightly more emphasis on story and character. I don't think 1 is lacking with worldbuilding per se, since at least in the remake, every dragon is tailor made to fit its environment (e.g. the Peacekeepers are decked in armour), but Avalar clearly had its own stuff going on before Spyro showed up, whereas in 1, everything is apparently down to Gnasty Gnorc.

And yes, I just overanalyzed the lore and story of the original Spyro games, but for me, that's a Tuesday.
 
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Chupathingy

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Hmm...

I think I'm in the opposite camp, since if I were ranking the Spyro PS1 games, for me, it's 3>2>1, 3 and 2 being pretty close, and a massive gap between 2 and 1. I kind of agree that 2 does step up its story (such as it is) a bit with slightly more emphasis on story and character. I don't think 1 is lacking with worldbuilding per se, since at least in the remake, every dragon is tailor made to fit its environment (e.g. the Peacekeepers are decked in armour), but Avalar clearly had its own stuff going on before Spyro showed up, whereas in 1, everything is apparently down to Gnasty Gnorc.

And yes, I just overanalyzed the lore and story of the original Spyro games, but for me, that's a Tuesday.
If you asked me a year ago how I'd rank them it'd probably be something like 2>3>1, so we're not that far off. Then again I generally don't like simply ranking games because I often like them for different reasons.
 

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I actually got the 1CC on Hard for Final Vendetta! Right down to the last life! My overall ranks is a B, but I do not care. The ranking system is ass, but at least I beat my high score with 3,100, 000 points. I used Duke because he has the best and easiest to use juggle moves. Duke is a combination of Adam and Axel, which is another reason why I favor him.

This game I am putting down for a while, until they patch the console versions. The Steam version already has the patch update, but I am not dropping another $20+ for features that should have been in the game at the start. The last boss I still don't like, even when you know the pattern and how it works. But I hate the 4th boss, "The Gentleman" (Randy Savage knock off), even more. If you're playing as Duke or Claire, there are exploits to beat his overpowered ass, but good luck with trying of with Miller. Unless you're doing co-op, you might get lucky.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Been replaying the PS1 Spyro games.

It's been a long time since I played the first game and I forgot how good some of the level design was in the later parts of the game, particularly in the Dream Weavers homeworld. Most of the levels are incredibly simple and straightforward, but every now and then there are some real gems (no pun intended).

I just finished Spyro 2. The game feels a lot easier overall (barring the bosses, who aren't pushovers like the first), and the introduction of minigames means less focus is given on level layout and more so on making 'challenging' minigames and side quests. However, I liked the introduction of NPCs, and the (relatively) larger focus on story and characters means the worlds you visit feel more alive, with their own cultures and interactions. I find that most of the levels I really liked are due to aesthetic reasons, rather than mechanical, which is fine.

I always considered the third game to be my least favourite as a kid, but let's see how well it stacks up directly after playing the first two.
Things like Breeze Harbor and Zephyr being in a war with each other went a long way to making the worlds feel like places that people actually lived in rather than just an obstacle course. For me, I'd rank them 2>3>1, I feel like 2 is a more well rounded package while 3 is perhaps a bit too long in the tooth and lacks a bit of the character in its worlds that 2 does.
 

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I did another run of Arcade Hard Mode, in Final Vendetta. This time as Claire; I did a 1CC with her. I did not beat my recent high score, but was not expecting do so. I managed to get 101 kills in Survival mode with her too. I unlocked some other achievements such as no using a Super bar for an entire stage. I tried Ultra Difficulty, and fuck that shit. I got to the 4th stage, and lost my only two lives. Hidden lives are disable, and the only other change is the 3rd boss has an alternate theme. Not worth the stress on the heart and mind. I beat Hard mode with everybody, so that is good enough for me. I know I said I was done before, but this time I mean it. Not touching again until the patch comes out on consoles.
 

Bedinsis

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I played through the two released episodes of Deltarune today. Something I noticed was that the budget felt like it had increased since Undertale, since there were both more animations and those were smoother, and the various monsters felt more varied and more colorful. Something else I noticed was that the game was a lot more willing to hold hands when explaining things.

I had fun, but I think the difficulty could be upped a fair bit; the only boss battle I actually struggled with was the very last one. In Undertale I struggled with at least the first midpoint boss battle at the end of the Waterfall area.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Because of my coworkers, I reinstalled Valorant. My God do I hate this game. Everything about it is counter to what I enjoy in an FPS.

And so to recuperate I played some Battlefield 4 again. Which also made me a little sad, because it couldn't be more obvious that the DICE that created one of my favorite games of all time no longer exists. More than half a year later and I'm still learning about all the things 2042 is lacking compared to previous installments. Sigh. This is my first time experiencing the 'death' of one of my favorite developers. Now I know how the Bioware fans feel.
 
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Evil Within 2 - I am on chapter 8 and taking a break to eat dinner. Once again, what's the point of these XBOX One X "Enhancements" when it causes the game to crash. If you have the option, don't bother with the unlocked frame rate. It makes the game more prone to crash. There was nothing wrong at first, but my game crashed at 3 different points within the same chapter (Chapter 7). Putting it at the default locked frame rate has stopped this. I know it's not the copy of my game, because the CD is clean, and my PS4 version only ever crashed once.

This is the second game I played to not gain much from the enhancement, that is of a big budget. So far, RE2Remake is the only one not to crash, nor glitch from it.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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Because of my coworkers, I reinstalled Valorant. My God do I hate this game. Everything about it is counter to what I enjoy in an FPS.

And so to recuperate I played some Battlefield 4 again. Which also made me a little sad, because it couldn't be more obvious that the DICE that created one of my favorite games of all time no longer exists. More than half a year later and I'm still learning about all the things 2042 is lacking compared to previous installments. Sigh. This is my first time experiencing the 'death' of one of my favorite developers. Now I know how the Bioware fans feel.
What are the things in it that make you hate Valorant?
 

Bob_McMillan

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What are the things in it that make you hate Valorant?
That matches can go up to 25 games, lasting more than hour. If you die early, you get to twiddle your thumbs for the next few minutes. Consequently, I can never get into the "zone" that I need to do well in FPS games. I hate gunplay where your shots aren't actually going where your reticle is. The movement is so fucking slow and yet affects your accuracy immensely.

But most of all, how ridiculously toxic it can be. Especially with your friends. Some of the most laid back dudes I know get their panties in a twist over this game and I absolutely hate it. Doesn't mean Valorant is bad, it just really isn't for me.
 

BrawlMan

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Evil Within 2 - I am almost done with Chapter 11. I completed the remaining side quests and killed two of the flame thrower mini bosses, Harbingers (need to kill two of them to get 2 flame canisters). So all I need to do is get to the end main boss and beat him, and the flame thrower will be completed.
 

09philj

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I got a VR headset, been fiddling round with some demo stuff and VR chat.
My first impressions of owning a VR headset are that all of JG Ballard's nightmares about an alienated society are going to come true with knobs on, but on the upside it's going to be pretty fun for a while.
 
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09philj

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I have no idea who that is, or who you are referencing, but I like it.
British writer. Did a lot of science fiction during the New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s. He explored a lot of ideas to do with technologically aided masochism, excessive commercialisation, and transgressive sexuality. This kind of thing was very influential on the cyberpunk fiction of the 1980s. His novels Crash, Empire of the Sun, and High Rise have been adapted into feature films. (That's Crash the David Cronenberg film about people who are sexually aroused by car accidents, not Crash the much derided Best Picture winner.)
 

Piscian

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British writer. Did a lot of science fiction during the New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s. He explored a lot of ideas to do with technologically aided masochism, excessive commercialisation, and transgressive sexuality. This kind of thing was very influential on the cyberpunk fiction of the 1980s. His novels Crash, Empire of the Sun, and High Rise have been adapted into feature films. (That's Crash the David Cronenberg film about people who are sexually aroused by car accidents, not Crash the much derided Best Picture winner.)
I had mixed feelings about High-Rise and just now realized I saw Crash when it came out and forgot all about it. I remember it being tame for Cronenberg, but still good. Need to give it another rewatch.