What are you currently playing?

[Casual Shinji]

I wish I'd replayed the 2018 game recently to get a better compare the two. I don't remember if you could charge the weapons, for example. Mashing triangle to charge the blades vs holding it for the axe means I never use the blades except to pull and 1 hit kill the little worm fellas. Actually I have the inverse problem than in 2018, where the blades were introduced so late in the game I was married to the axe by then. Here starting off with both is like having to choose between 2 classes, because you're better off dumping XP in one of them, and I'm not feeling like I need the blades at all this time around.

I'm sorta having the same issue. In GoW '18 by the time you get the Blades you will be so familiar with the axe that it's easier to focus on this new weapon, but in Ragnarok with the combat changes, having to familiarize yourself with two weapons simultaneously is a bit weirder. I do use the Blades for faster enemies to hook on to them and close the distance, but I'm kind of using two or three moves of both weapons during combat rather than squeezing all the moves I can get out of them, like in '18.

The Blades definitely have the shittier triangle charge, since you're stuck in aim mode during it. A frequent strategy with the axe for me now is to charge it right after a parry into a radiant shield bash and then unleash the heavy R2 move. It works great. You can get a skill that allows you to insta-charge the Blades right after any attack lands, but whether that will make it more interesting to use, I don't know.

Also, incredibly minor nitpick and this goes for a bunch of games: when the limitations or rather rules of your game spoil the beats of your story. Like freeing the Lyngbakr thing, I know the game doesn't want to cheat anybody out of exploration and collectibles, so it was obvious the story would contrive a reason for it to just stay there (meaning I'm not invested in "freeing" it). Same with arriving at Nidavellir, I kinda sussed the game wasn't gonna bother with populating an entire city, so of course the story contrives a reason for everyone to be either dead or under lockdown. These games always look gorgeous and all but also a bit empty and dead.

I had this kind of majorly with the Thor fight at the start of the game. If you get killed during that fight he'll start talking in the game-over menu and then revives you to keep fighting. Pretty damn cool, right? Except not really, because the game is so scared that the player might miss this that you die there regardless so that it can play out. It cheats the 4th wall break, and that kinda pisses me off.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I agree the combat is kinda sparse in the game so far. A lot of it boils down to Uncharted style puzzles of pulling two levers to open a door, or getting a lift to run, or aligning a bunch of boxes to jump across. Combat feels almost like a reward when you finally get to it, and then it's over too quickly. A pie chart would probably show I've spent most of my time trying to figure out how to reach a chest or knock out a raven.

The one thing I'm excited for is that apparently you get to visit all 9 realms instead of the 4 or 5 from the previous game (and 2 of those phoned it in as totally optional combat challenges). Svartalfheim looks great but not that different from Midgard so far.

There's a few moments where you'll meet an enemy similar to the Travelers or the realm tears from '18, and you get that nice combat peak, but apart from that... yeah, not much. GoW '18 made it so you'd typically run into a gang of enemies in any area that wasn't hallway-shaped, but in Ragnorok it's like 'Hey, a larger wider area - Gee, I sure do hope I don't get ganged up by a bunch of eager enemies... Oh wait, there's actually nothing here. Guess I'll just run through like the last one... and the one before that. *sigh*'

Also, as much as I like the heavy axe grab, where you grab (smaller) enemies and chuck 'm, it's really kinda overpowered. It also has a frostin effect, slowing them down, making it even easier to grab 'm again. I'm doing it about 80% of the time now. And the triangle charge for the Blades really kinda sucks in comparison to the Axe charge.

I didn’t play 2018 on GMGOW but this one to me has *enough* combat so far lol. It’s not as frequent as in a Souls game or even Elden Ring, but the difference in those games is 80% or so of it wasn’t necessary, or even challenging. In GoW, every place you go you’ll need to kill everything in your path to advance, and on GMGOW most encounters keep me on my toes. They’re not nearly as frequent as a pure action game like Bayonetta or DMC, but that’s by design as well with the exploration, minor puzzles and platforming in between.

I’m only on the mine dismantling favor in Svartelfheim but so far pretty much every area with a title has had at least one or two combat sections involving around half a dozen or so. The other thing I’ve noticed is most of them have also introduced a new enemy type. I like the bigger dudes that shed the little slug things out of their backs. I like to charge the ax and wait until he pops them out, then run in with an R2 which takes them all out at once. The Hateful was the toughest mini boss yet for me of the three I’ve faced so far, and I used a resurrection stone to finish it. Once I managed to freeze one of them and used rage to just shatter them, but don’t recall how or what I did. Should’ve saved a recording.

The load times are significantly longer in this area on PS4 too. Like, dang near Bloodborne-long before it was patched. It’s probably due to the game treating the whole realm as a level vs the individual sections you visit. Thor was only a few seconds.

Other than that, at least I haven’t had the error message crop up the last couple nights. Starting from sleep mode but no idea if that has anything to do with it.

 

[Bedinsis]

I started playing Hollow Knight. I've beaten the first boss, it's good so far.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I started playing Hollow Knight. I've beaten the first boss, it's good so far.

Have fun with the only game you should ever bring with you on a desert island.

 

[Bedinsis]

Have fun with the only game you should ever bring with you on a desert island.

This is honestly the second time I've started playing it. The first time I gave up after a while since I got lost and it didn't feel like I was in control of the situation. This time I got long enough that I could buy a map, that improved things.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Cookie Clicker. I figured I'd try it since I've heard about it for so long. It kind of sucks. It was somewhat fun for about an hour when you'd have something new to buy every couple seconds, but 3 hours in I'm making 1.3 million cookies a second and it's just waiting, and I've stopped clicking because I've clicked 26k times already and I don't feel the need to prematurely wear out my mouse.

 

[laggyteabag]

In the middle of a couple of games, at the moment.

Borderlands 2 on my Steam Deck. BL2 stands to be a marked improvement over BL1 in just about every way. I probably don't need to rattle on about the game too much, because it is a known quantity at this point.

I have also been playing TellTale's Guardians of the Galaxy, which according to Steam at least, is no longer available to purchase. So I am happy that I snapped it up when I had the chance. Never played it beyond Episode 1, though.

I have been playing it with my girlfriend, where I control the characters, QTEs, etc, and she makes the decisions. This is how we have played the other TellTale games, and is a great way to experience these story games together. In any case, its enjoyable so far. It is very MCU-lite, especially in the direction that the voice cast has taken. Nolan North pulls of a very convincing impression of Bradley Cooper, and whoever is playing Yondu is obviously channelling Michael Rooker. Visually though, Star-Lord looks much scrawnier, and Gamora and Drax are rocking much more comic-like appearances.

Otherwise, I am immediately taken aback as to how janky this game is. Animations (or sometimes lack thereof), lip-syncing, music placement, and so on, are all really off. So its a good thing that the voice acting, story, and characters are (so far) well done, because it definitely doesn't have the best visual presentation.

I've almost completed the second episode out of 5 in total. Hopefully it ends up sticking the landing, though if it has been delisted, its not like I could even recommend buying it if it does.

 

[Casual Shinji]

More GoW:Ragnarok and you can really tell they needed to cram in two sequels worth of story and characters into one game, with certain important character shifts happening a little too quickly. I did meet what might be my favourite character in the entire game though - I have a thing for characters with a dismissive bitchy attitude, and holy tits does this person have it. In terms of charming characters this game really brings it (apart from Freya, she still sucks).

 

[BrawlMan]

More GoW:Ragnarok and you can really tell they needed to cram in two sequels worth of story and characters into one game, with certain important character shifts happening a little too quickly. I did meet what might be my favourite character in the entire game though - I have a thing for characters with a dismissive bitchy attitude, and holy tits does this person have it. In terms of charming characters this game really brings it (apart from Freya, she still sucks).

Given how long it takes for these type of games to be made, I don't exactly blame them. Bayonetta 3 has a semi-similar issue, but it's pretty clear both SM and Platinum want to end/close out the series on their own terms. I highly respect them for doing that, instead of stretching things out, unlike many publishers and developers before them. Though in Platinum's case, they did it in case if they ever closed down. But given the recent sales, Platinum will do fine so long as they never bother with the "live service" model ever again. Just make good ass games with no strings attached.

I played more Ragnarok last night and I never expected to rescue Tyr this early, but much appreciated. BTW @Johnny Novgorod, I know you complained about it, but I have no problem and have already gotten used to having the Blades of Chaos and the Axe at the start. Dat Axe grab is a game breaker, and I love it! I am getting used to the new shield parry, but still having some trouble. My only complain gameplay wise is that while there is more verticality, I really wish they programmed in a jump button! There are many moments where I am shouting at the screen: "Come on Kratos/Atreus, you can make that jump without the extra platform!". It's one of those things I was concerned and proven right. Thank the Gods of War, the combat is more refined. Whelp, it's of to Alfhiem next.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't have any really big qualms about the combat, other than there isn't much of it. All the cool fights so far have been entirely optional, with Boy very disappointedly noting "Oh, I guess we can come back later" every time I choose fighting a mini boss over lining up some crates.

I'm not that into the story, for now. Kratos is just in it for Boy, and everything he does is to humor Boy. I'm not with him - Boy is getting annoying. What do you think happened here, father? I don't fucking know. This is my first time here, same as you, please stop asking every time we enter a room. And for all his enthusiasm I'm not sure what Boy is trying to accomplish either. He wants to rescue Tyr but he doesn't know where he is or what he can do about it, in order to stop Odin from doing... what? Odin is a threat how? Is he trying to initiate, stop or do what about Ragnarok? It's all very murky and lacking in urgency.

Also are we to take it as a joke that a troll (the mini boss you fight 100 times in 2018) was finally introduced only to get killed in a cutscene? Cause I will take fighting 100 boss trolls over fighting a whopping nothing over the last few hours of gameplay.

 

[laggyteabag]

Finished episodes 2 and 3 of the TellTale Guardians of the Galaxy game, and I am thinking it is a shame that this game is no longer available.

Its good stuff! Though I definitely feel like it is depending a lot on the MCU movies to gloss over a lot of these character's origin stories.

But again - you can't buy it anymore. It is always really sad when a game just becomes abandonware. From what I can see, Guardians of the Galaxy, Game of Thrones, and Minecraft have all just disappeared from digital storefronts.

Im not sure that any of these games are TellTale's best (I think Tales from the Borderlands wins that award), but I really feel for the people who worked on the games, having something that they spent months/years working on, disappear into the digital aether.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Took apart my 360's disk drive. Seemed to just be sticking closed, so I cleaned it up and added a small amount of silicon grease. It works now so I've started Zone of the Enders 2. Actually I've just watched the attract mode that plays before showing the start screen. It's seriously like 10 minutes long! 7:40 to be exact. It just goes on and on referencing things and places that have no meaning to me. I feel completely lost and I haven't even pressed start. Also I don't remember what happened in the first game.

 

[meiam]

Took apart my 360's disk drive. Seemed to just be sticking closed, so I cleaned it up and added a small amount of silicon grease. It works now so I've started Zone of the Enders 2. Actually I've just watched the attract mode that plays before showing the start screen. It's seriously like 10 minutes long! 7:40 to be exact. It just goes on and on referencing things and places that have no meaning to me. I feel completely lost and I haven't even pressed start. Also I don't remember what happened in the first game.

The opening things is actually all events from the game itself, so your not supposed to understand, its more like a trailer. As for ZOE1, It's essentially just gundam story line.

Earth colonize mars and other body in solar system but treat them like second class citizen. Mars starts a rebellion but they're not doing too good. But then they find this rare material that can be used to make unlimited energy so they start developing 2 super mech for them on a moon of Jupiter (iirc). One of the mech is stolen by the earth people because they want to rig it up to blow up Aumaan, some sort of doomsday super weapon that's being built, but in the process it end up piloted by this kid and run away with it. The other is piloted by the boss of the mars rebellion. It's not a very complex story so you can probably fill the gap pretty easily.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I don't have any really big qualms about the combat, other than there isn't much of it. All the cool fights so far have been entirely optional, with Boy very disappointedly noting "Oh, I guess we can come back later" every time I choose fighting a mini boss over lining up some crates.

I'm not that into the story, for now. Kratos is just in it for Boy, and everything he does is to humor Boy. I'm not with him - Boy is getting annoying. What do you think happened here, father? I don't fucking know. This is my first time here, same as you, please stop asking every time we enter a room. And for all his enthusiasm I'm not sure what Boy is trying to accomplish either. He wants to rescue Tyr but he doesn't know where he is or what he can do about it, in order to stop Odin from doing... what? Odin is a threat how? Is he trying to initiate, stop or do what about Ragnarok? It's all very murky and lacking in urgency.

Also are we to take it as a joke that a troll (the mini boss you fight 100 times in 2018) was finally introduced only to get killed in a cutscene? Cause I will take fighting 100 boss trolls over fighting a whopping nothing over the last few hours of gameplay.

Must be a lot of stuff on the back end or something, because that was one thing that’s been praised is more enemy variety and bosses. Definitely sparse early on, but I’ve only just completed the mine favors.

Other than that, at least I haven’t had the error message crop up the last couple nights. Starting from sleep mode but no idea if that has anything to do with it.

Well me and my big mouth. Last night I had the error twice in the span of dismantling the last mine. I went into safe mode to rebuild the database and reinstalled the game, but called it a night. If that does work, I already have a WD Blue 1TB SSD coming either Wednesday or Thursday, so worst case I’ll swap that in. Hell I might just do it right away to trim down load times, and apparently a ~25% power save. Was going to wait until I finished Infamous: Second Son and Forbidden West but I’ll just download them again whenever. Not keen on backing up whatever’s on my current and transferring if something is haywire.

 

[BrawlMan]

Also are we to take it as a joke that a troll (the mini boss you fight 100 times in 2018) was finally introduced only to get killed in a cutscene? Cause I will take fighting 100 boss trolls over fighting a whopping nothing over the last few hours of gameplay.

That is still hilarious. I wouldn't mind 1 troll fight, but I fought them more than enough times in GoW4. If it makes you feel any better, there are way more combat encounters when you reach Alfhiem. There is even a side quest there after completing the main mission. I've barely started that one though, will put more info in when I finish it

 

[BrawlMan]

That solo chapter with Atreus in Johtenheim is a long one. Jesus. It's fun, but I felt it was stretched a bit. The great news is that he finally turns into a wolf. It's his rage mode. New character is introduced to. It's the girl from the first trailer. Agbroda. After that chapter you fight Freya. After the fight, it looks like Kratos is teaming up with her for the next chapter.

I did so much in that game last night. Including the side quest in Alfhiem. I got so much cool gear.

 

[Casual Shinji]

That solo chapter with Atreus in Johtenheim is a long one. Jesus. It's fun, but I felt it was stretched a bit. The great news is that he finally turns into a wolf. It's his rage mode. New character is introduced to. It's the girl from the first trailer. Agbroda. After that chapter you fight Freya. After the fight, it looks like Kratos is teaming up with her for the next chapter.

I did so much in that game last night. Including the side quest in Alfhiem. I got so much cool gear.

So far Atreus' sections have been the most narratively engaging ones for me. I've seen some people really hate on that section with Angrboda, saying it's too Disney, but I actually really like that about it. It shows Atreus views things differently and acts differently with other peope than when he's with his father.

I also like how the typical videogame sequel hook of 'you get to switch characters' makes perfect sense here, as we see a teenaged Atreus lying to his parent to meet up with friends and girls.

 

[Chimpzy]

Gerda: A Flame In Winter

A game about a young Danish woman living in a Nazi-occupied village near the German border close to the end of WWII, whose husband gets arrested by the Gestapo, and whom now is desperate for a way to get him back. I probably never would've tried if it werent for Angry Pat mentioning it on Castle Superbeast as the first Disco Elysium-like. And yeah, it sort of is, in the sense that it's dialogue-driven with some rpg elements with success determined by dice rolls, tho dice roll modifiers are replaced by your relationship to factions and people instead of your personal skills, and the free-roam map is switched for a series of linear vignettes kind of like a Telltale game. It's not as well-written, insightful or out there as Disco Elysium, there's no dancing so hard you communicate with a city or anything. But it does do some stuff pretty well. Like convey the complicated situation of living under an oppresive occupation, fear and desperation driving otherwise decent people to despicable acts for survival or protect loved ones. I went Resistance on my playthrough, but it seems like it allows you to collaborate to at least some degree if you want to. Was ranked Peacemaker for my efforts. Got quite a few people killed for it, including Gerda's hubby, but sure. At least I got the Jewish woman and kid to Sweden, and the sleazy Nazi sergeant blackmailing me arrested and presumably executed.

 

[Casual Shinji]

As scattered as the story for GoW: Ragnarok is, it can REALLY hit you with some fucking good cutscenes/character moments. Just watched a pipping hot serving of cold harsh truth to Kratos, and it was magnificent!

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Did an about-face on Vampire Survivors. After trying it out on a console with a TV it seemed lame but when I was looking for something to do with my eyes and hands while listening to a bunch of music, I got the game on my laptop via Steam and it is perfect for that.
So yeah you do just walk around and it's all about managing your power-ups but I was getting into it when completely changing the context of when and how I play.
You're supposed to survive for half and hour to win and so far the furthest I've gotten is 15 minutes but from a bit of googling it gets really hard so I can't imagine actually "beating" it, but I don't care right now I guess.