What are you currently playing?

[Casual Shinji]

Playing through The Last of Us Part 1 (yeah, I'm a slut for remasters; what of it), and I'm actually having a far more enjoyable time with it then I thought I would. Maybe the wounds of TLoU2 have healed a bit finally.

Anyway, it obviously looks very, very, very, very nice, but the way it changes things just visually adds a surprsing amount of freshness. I'm finding the inverse of nostalgia clapping, where everytime I notice something is changed in the level from the original I get a strange, warm, cozy feeling.

They did make the Clickers use actual echo location now like in TLoU2, so that's a neat addition. The game does feel way more kind with ammo dispension then I remember; I'm playing on Survivor but the game seems to want to drown me in handgun ammo.

Also, either they added previously removed audio files for ingame dialoge or I just never managed to trigger it in all my playthroughs, because I'm hearing a lot dialoge I've never heard before.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Playing through The Last of Us Part 1 (yeah, I'm a slut for remasters; what of it), and I'm actually having a far more enjoyable time with it then I thought I would. Maybe the wounds of TLoU2 have healed a bit finally.

Anyway, it obviously looks very, very, very, very nice, but the way it changes things just visually adds a surprsing amount of freshness. I'm finding the inverse of nostalgia clapping, where everytime I notice something is changed in the level from the original I get a strange, warm, cozy feeling.

They did make the Clickers use actual echo location now like in TLoU2, so that's a neat adition. The game does feel way more kind with ammo dispension then I remember; I'm playing on Survivor but the game seems to want to drown me in handgun ammo.

Also, either they added previously removed audio files for ingame dialoge or I just never managed to trigger it in all my playthroughs, because I'm hearing a lot dialoge I've never heard before.

I’d imagine they did something with 3D audio that makes the sound space feel more lively. Would like to try that with good headphones.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

lol @ Black Desert Online...

So I figured sure I'll try an MMORPG, this one looks better than most and I ok I get going. One good thing about it is you can drop into the action quickly which I did.
And wholy jank how to people accept these games- everything is delayed and cluttered obviously because it's constantly checking online for everything. So like the characters mouths are out of sync with the sound and often are saying different things than the subtitles?

The game puts on effectively a single-player quest which I wanted, that's good, to get you familiar with quest structure and mechanics. And quests are like go here and talk to this person, do that a bunch. *yawn* The actual story could be intriguing, but the rhythm of mindless chattering limits that.

But, ok, whatever I could live with that up to a point- the reason I chose this MMORPG (other than that I have it w/ Game Pass) is because the combat actually looks good. Ok, time for combat... it's the same right bumper attack stuff as every other game but more clunky and slow and the enemies don't move.. until they disappear and reappear and glitch around all over the place. So it's easy and stupid.

Meanwhile there's text and notification and "rewards" flying around the screen constantly but I still can't figure out how to access the quest menu.

Well, no harm no fowl, I already figured these kinds of games were not my thing but man I just don't get how anyone plays these other than I guess the social factor.

The last such online multiplayer game I really tried was Warframe and it was a similar experience- an interesting world with some good core designs that is just swamped with online kluge.

 

[meiam]

lol @ Black Desert Online...

So I figured sure I'll try an MMORPG, this one looks better than most and I ok I get going. One good thing about it is you can drop into the action quickly which I did.
And wholy jank how to people accept these games- everything is delayed and cluttered obviously because it's constantly checking online for everything. So like the characters mouths are out of sync with the sound and often are saying different things than the subtitles?

The game puts on effectively a single-player quest which I wanted, that's good, to get you familiar with quest structure and mechanics. And quests are like go here and talk to this person, do that a bunch. *yawn* The actual story could be intriguing, but the rhythm of mindless chattering limits that.

But, ok, whatever I could live with that up to a point- the reason I chose this MMORPG (other than that I have it w/ Game Pass) is because the combat actually looks good. Ok, time for combat... it's the same right bumper attack stuff as every other game but more clunky and slow and the enemies don't move.. until they disappear and reappear and glitch around all over the place. So it's easy and stupid.

Meanwhile there's text and notification and "rewards" flying around the screen constantly but I still can't figure out how to access the quest menu.

Well, no harm no fowl, I already figured these kinds of games were not my thing but man I just don't get how anyone plays these other than I guess the social factor.

The last such online multiplayer game I really tried was Warframe and it was a similar experience- an interesting world with some good core designs that is just swamped with online kluge.

Oh god, black desert online, its does such an awful job of introducing itself. And those quest, yuck, so much pointless blahblah. It's so bad one of the official carbot trailer for it makes fun of it (and then they beg the player not to skip everything).

If you never tried, genshin impact it smartly avoid that issue, but its not really mmo.

 

[Chupathingy]

I've reached Takoshima (roughly the half-way point) of DAH! 2 - Reprobed, and have so more impressions.

First off, the levels look amazing. Black Forest Games have done another great job making the levels not only more beautiful looking, but making them feel much more 'alive'. The original Destroy All Humans! games had very simple NPCs, who would just walk around and run in terror from you. Now you have civilians working on their cars, having a barbie with mates, relaxing at the beach, or selling stuff at a market. The levels are more vibrant and more enjoyable to explore. I've played the original DAH! 2 a million times yet the levels in the remake feel fresh, while also simultaneously familiar.

Gameplay is a bit more of a mixed bag. I never found the original game to be all that difficult, and I was excited when booting up the remake to see new difficulty settings (ranging from easy to very hard). I chose the hardest difficulty (conqueror), and while enemies seem to do a lot more damage, and Crypto's shields take long to regenerate, all other aspects of the game have become noticeably easier. There's much more handholding, an annoying robot that points out obvious stuff on the map, and some of the more infamous 'tough' missions have been neutered and had difficult combat sections replaced with cutscenes. The controls are still better than the original, some weapons have better usability, and QoL additions are always welcome, but I'm a bit disappointed in how difficulty has been handled so far. I will note that the game does let you replay missions with extra difficulty options added, but I haven't tested any of these yet.

Still loving the game, and so happy to see this once dead franchise being slowly brought back from the grave.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Oh god, black desert online, its does such an awful job of introducing itself. And those quest, yuck, so much pointless blahblah. It's so bad one of the official carbot trailer for it makes fun of it (and then they beg the player not to skip everything).

If you never tried, genshin impact it smartly avoid that issue, but its not really mmo.

I did try Genshin Impact and I stuck with it a tad longer but dropped it for the same reason I dropped Breath of the Wild and Fenyx Rising- I don't how to describe that aesthetic and style but I just don't like it. Some anime-lite thing with mind-numbing environmental "puzzles" and combat that is both floaty and lagging. These aren't bad games by any stretch obviously it's just not my thing.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Lost In Random

I started this one, I'm about 2 hours in or so and it's aggressively OK. I mean the idea is interesting- combat is an action 3rd person WITH dice rolling WITH deck building WITH an equivalent of mana management. The premise is sweet- yes another game where you're a child but that's ok- and the art style is like Tim Burton or something. I like all that.

The intro is way too slow though- you get teased with the cool combat idea and then it's an hour of walking around. Ok well eventually I found my dice and it starts and it's really cool! I'm in the second major area and was having some fun with it until I hit a room with seemingly endless waves of enemies and then the game's combat weaknesses really started to show. While the idea of combining these elements is great, the execution is painfully slow making combat with more than a couple enemies feel like a real slog.

Because before you get to roll the dice that gives you cards that gives you weapons, you have to collect some mana-like substance by shooting it off of or rolling through enemies, which means running around in a circles to also avoid getting hit. And it's not like I'm playing Sekiro here where it's fast and responsive, it's Tim Burton puppet cartoon so I'm sort of walking and walking and walking until the game tells me I can use a dice-card-weapon... and then more enemies come and I want to die already.

I think I'll just drop the difficulty because I am intrigued by the game but if combat tedium escalates it'll remove one of the two big appeals of the game.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I picked up Code Vein on sale on Steam, wondering if maybe a lower-difficulty Soulslike might change my feelings on the genre (and a little Waifu Souls wouldn't hurt). Nope, Soulslikes are still absolute shit and I can't understand how anyone even tolerates them.

 

[BrawlMan]

I can't understand how anyone even tolerates them.

Because they're the return of "truly difficult" games!

 

[Dalisclock]

Because they're the return of "truly difficult" games!

That begs the question: were Soulslikes a mistake?

I like Souls games but very few of the Soulslikes have interested me at all , so I'm not asking this rhetorically or as a joke.

 

[BrawlMan]

That begs the question: were Soulslikes a mistake?

Were Mario or Sonic clones a mistake? No.

Were Doom clones a mistake? No.

Were RE clones a mistake? No.

Were DMC or God of War clones a mistake? No.

Were COD or Gears of War clones a mistake? Mostly yes, because too many stuck around and either did very little, are so serious, and "dark & edgy", that they were all boring.

As for Soulslike? No.

Like any genre or trend, 90% of everything is crap. I don't like and don't care for the genre, nor it's clones, but this is just another cycle again. There are some good clones out there, but they have a different thematic feel and play style. Something that at least sets them apart. Plus, Code Vein came out a time when we still only had a few clones that were in the early infancies of copying Dark Souls.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Like any genre or trend, 90% of everything is crap. I don't like and don't care for the genre, nor it's clones, but this is just another cycle again. There are some good clones out there, but they have a different thematic feel and play style. Something that at least sets them apart. Plus, Code Vein came out a time when we still only had a few clones that were in the early infancies of copying Dark Souls.

I liked Code Vein's demo, but never actually got around to playing the real game after I bought it on a Steam sale I forget when. Maybe I should consider that.

Probably not going to right away, though, because I just picked up Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Only barely started it, but first impression is that it's cute. Obviously. Also, Kirby can't infinitely fly in it, which does make sense from a gameplay perspective. And it's explicitly stated that his ability to swallow things significantly larger than he is like cars is a property of the wormhole that took him to the Forgotten Land, so if you want to be pedantic, you could say the same thing for losing his infinite flight.

Not that I really think it's a bad thing, either way.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Playing Ring of Pain. Kind of fun, but could really benefit from a bit more in the visuals and story departments. There is no story apart from snippets of nonsense the two characters in the game utter. Kind of reminds me of Slay the Spire, but that game was a bit superior in the visual aspect. Not altogether overly difficult either. Doesn't really live up to it's name, actually. It took me about 3 hours to get to credits roll. Quite luck based on whether you will get items that synergize well enough early enough, but you don't actually need that many. I almost beat the game a second time with 4 items equipped because the ice crown thing is completely broken. Didn't work against the final boss, though. I didn't actually want to fight the one I did the second time but I didn't realize that choosing dark was the same as killing the shopkeeper, which I did on my last run. Oh well. Not sure how long the game will hold my attention, I'd like to get the other ending and maybe beat the game on the next difficulty, but we'll see.


Also playing Saints Row 2 again, gonna get to the credits this time. I'm 40% complete according to the save file, last time I dropped out at 50%. It's a good game, some of the minigames are really kind of annoying in the last few levels, though. Like the helicopter defense mission where a single rocket can cause sometimes cause you to crash and one time the stupid AI van missed driving up the bridge and got stuck and I had to restart. I don't know why they let you buy vehicles in the game, because they are all just lying around for free. Like, yeah, I could pay 60k for a superiore, except I grabbed one that was just driving by around my second hour in the game and have been driving that ever since. Also one of the early side missions I played gave me infinite SMG ammo, and the game feels kind of broken as a result. It's still fun, though. I love that you can turn up the corners of the mouth in character creation so that the character has a permanent smile on their face. Really makes all the murder and mayhem seem in character, since The Boss seems like they are just having a blast all the time, even in cutscenes.

 

[Worgen]

Playing Ring of Pain. Kind of fun, but could really benefit from a bit more in the visuals and story departments. There is no story apart from snippets of nonsense the two characters in the game utter. Kind of reminds me of Slay the Spire, but that game was a bit superior in the visual aspect. Not altogether overly difficult either. Doesn't really live up to it's name, actually. It took me about 3 hours to get to credits roll. Quite luck based on whether you will get items that synergize well enough early enough, but you don't actually need that many. I almost beat the game a second time with 4 items equipped because the ice crown thing is completely broken. Didn't work against the final boss, though. I didn't actually want to fight the one I did the second time but I didn't realize that choosing dark was the same as killing the shopkeeper, which I did on my last run. Oh well. Not sure how long the game will hold my attention, I'd like to get the other ending and maybe beat the game on the next difficulty, but we'll see.

I have had my eye on that game, but I ended up getting Across the Oblesk instead and have been having entirely too much fun with it, but it is rather brutal, but there is a lot to unlock.

Maybe it will scratch that itch if you are still looking for something.

 

[Chimpzy]

This past weekend I felt a bit nostalgic, so I reinstalled Team Fortress 2 after a five year hiatus, get in a couple rounds for old times' sake. It reminded me why I loved this game so much. But it was also very sobering. I was confronted with the fact that I'm getting older in a way I haven't really felt before. The game sense is still there, I see the ebb and flow of the match, see situations unfold, know what to do in those situations, but I just can't respond in time. I didn't do terrible, but not good either. Middle of the road, where half a decade ago I could consistently top the board. Even taking into account that I'm out of practice, it felt kind of bad, realizing my time has past.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Because they're the return of "truly difficult" games!

I've played truly difficult games. I finished System Shock 2, where it is entirely possible to make the game unfinishable just by not being careful with allocating skills. I've ghosted a number of Thief missions, which the games never actually required a player to do. I even finished Heart of the Alien, the unauthorized (and even more difficult) sequel to the already infamously difficult Out of This World.

And thus has always been my problem ever since I uninstalled the first Dark Souls after just under six hours of playing. Maybe it's just "old man yells at clouds" time here, but my issue is that Soulslikes don't punish mistakes; they punish imperfection. And the player is expected to slam their face into a brick wall for the "privilege" of sticking their bloodied visage through the hole and saying "look how good I am".

 

[BrawlMan]

Maybe it's just "old man yells at clouds" time here, but my issue is that Soulslikes don't punish mistakes; they punish imperfection. And the player is expected to slam their face into a brick wall for the "privilege" of sticking their bloodied visage through the hole and saying "look how good I am".

It ain't old man yelling at a cloud, if it's true, or the opinion you held back when Dark Souls 1 first launched. That was more or less my stance back then, but I was less vocal about it, due to being focused on other things.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played some Shredder's Revenge as Splinter this time. I unlocked some more achievements and forgot about the secret ending, if you find all the characters and unlock complete all of their side quests. It's a neat and heartwarming extra ending. There was more Turtlemania last night going through the CB Collection again. I played Tournament Fighters (NES) last night. Not bad, and probably the best fighting game on the NES.

 

[Gordon_4]

lol @ Black Desert Online...

So I figured sure I'll try an MMORPG, this one looks better than most and I ok I get going. One good thing about it is you can drop into the action quickly which I did.
And wholy jank how to people accept these games- everything is delayed and cluttered obviously because it's constantly checking online for everything. So like the characters mouths are out of sync with the sound and often are saying different things than the subtitles?

The game puts on effectively a single-player quest which I wanted, that's good, to get you familiar with quest structure and mechanics. And quests are like go here and talk to this person, do that a bunch. *yawn* The actual story could be intriguing, but the rhythm of mindless chattering limits that.

But, ok, whatever I could live with that up to a point- the reason I chose this MMORPG (other than that I have it w/ Game Pass) is because the combat actually looks good. Ok, time for combat... it's the same right bumper attack stuff as every other game but more clunky and slow and the enemies don't move.. until they disappear and reappear and glitch around all over the place. So it's easy and stupid.

Meanwhile there's text and notification and "rewards" flying around the screen constantly but I still can't figure out how to access the quest menu.

Well, no harm no fowl, I already figured these kinds of games were not my thing but man I just don't get how anyone plays these other than I guess the social factor.

The last such online multiplayer game I really tried was Warframe and it was a similar experience- an interesting world with some good core designs that is just swamped with online kluge.

I’ll be honest, most of the technical issues you ran into sound like either your connection wasn’t enough to handle the game OR the game’s servers were shitting themselves. Because every MMO that I’ve ever played - WoW, SWTOR, Tera, ESO, and indeed Black Desert Online - does that when there’s severe lag.

Your narrative criticisms however are dead on point and I cannot refute.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I've played truly difficult games. I finished System Shock 2, where it is entirely possible to make the game unfinishable just by not being careful with allocating skills. I've ghosted a number of Thief missions, which the games never actually required a player to do. I even finished Heart of the Alien, the unauthorized (and even more difficult) sequel to the already infamously difficult Out of This World.

And thus has always been my problem ever since I uninstalled the first Dark Souls after just under six hours of playing. Maybe it's just "old man yells at clouds" time here, but my issue is that Soulslikes don't punish mistakes; they punish imperfection. And the player is expected to slam their face into a brick wall for the "privilege" of sticking their bloodied visage through the hole and saying "look how good I am".

If you’re thinking these games require perfection then they’ve done a bad job at presenting what’s required of the player. Outside of dodge roll or parry timing, of which only the former is anywhere close to being necessary, there is very little precision involved. Most of the series is just about, as you’ve alluded to for the other examples, being careful.