What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Donut County

It's fun and cute but short and not very challenging. Most puzzles are kindergarten level "shape through hole" toys without the chance of failure or even being wrong, since the stuff you can interact with is so limited. It's Katamari if instead of rolling around a ball you controlled a hole in the ground that gets bigger the more stuff falls into it. But like I said, there's no challenge to it. Unlike Katamari there's no timer, no hazards, no special conditions of any kind that might have you adapt or improve. You get a boss fight at the end and that's about it.

You eventually unlock a mechanic that allows you to throw objects into the air, but the game doesn't get a whole lot of mileage out of it. The story isn't complete nonsense like Katamari but still very absurd and has its own charm. Presentation goes a long way. The music is a nice chill lo-fi blend of chiptune and ukulele, the art style is nice crispy cel shading and some of the visual humor had me chuckling. The lolspeak was a bit much but it didn't ruin the game for me.

 

[mirbrownbread]

Got back into Warframe over the past few days...
Don't know why I do this, it's not a game that leads anywhere, but this is the 4th time I've come back to it after a months-long hiatus...

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

So there's this game - Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion - I may have tried. For a bit. Seems kinda cute and amusing. Heard some praise about it from Steph Sterling a whiles ago too. Only thing is, I booted and started a new game, got through the intro, but had to put down the controller to sort some unrelated stuff in the same room for about 15 minutes. Not a particularly long span of time in the grand scheme of universal entropy, I admit. The television is somewhat new and has a more booming volume than what am used to, so for that 15 minute window I was subjected to the most annoying soundtrack loop I have ever heard in my whole worthless goddamn life! It drills into the soft unprotected underbelly of the amygdala with diamond-coated twee squeaks which sound like they're looping the basic melody every 4 seconds. It wasn't so bad for the first 2 minutes, but when it just kept going and going I could sense a dark pressure building, a sinking realisation that this won't ever stop, won't change and won't slow down. I garuntee this could be legit used as a torture method, if not the only soundtrack played continuously in hell. Managed to get through 2 more lines of dialogue before having to close the game. I'm sorry, no doubt someone somewhere must've put time and effort into the music at some point, and harbours a measure of pride in it, but it's awful, I'm sorry! May have to adopt a different tactic to trying the game in future. Starting and ending with the telly mute button.

 

[Dalisclock]

Donut County

It's fun and cute but short and not very challenging. Most puzzles are kindergarten level "shape through hole" toys without the chance of failure or even being wrong, since the stuff you can interact with is so limited. It's Katamari if instead of rolling around a ball you controlled a hole in the ground that gets bigger the more stuff falls into it. But like I said, there's no challenge to it. Unlike Katamari there's no timer, no hazards, no special conditions of any kind that might have you adapt or improve. You get a boss fight at the end and that's about it.

You eventually unlock a mechanic that allows you to throw objects into the air, but the game doesn't get a whole lot of mileage out of it. The story isn't complete nonsense like Katamari but still very absurd and has its own charm. Presentation goes a long way. The music is a nice chill lo-fi blend of chiptune and ukulele, the art style is nice crispy cel shading and some of the visual humor had me chuckling. The lolspeak was a bit much but it didn't ruin the game for me.

It's short but I feel that works for it. It's just long enough that it doesn't overstay it's welcome and I'm fine with that. I think it's a lesson more games need to learn that if it's long enough, it's okay to stop.

I'm looking at you, UBISOFT!

 

[Worgen]

Got back into Warframe over the past few days...
Don't know why I do this, it's not a game that leads anywhere, but this is the 4th time I've come back to it after a months-long hiatus...

I'm scared to go back into Warframe, that was how it would go with me too. Stop playing it when I felt like I ran out of things to do then come back and play the fuck out of it. At this point I would have like 3 primes I would have to get and a bunch of new story stuff and I have other shit to do.

Playing Hard West 2. Its a pretty cool xcom like game. It really rewards aggresiveness since when one of your guys kills an enemy they get back all their action points and there is no reloading weapons, so if you setup things right, you can have one guy plow through a large group of enemies. Its also got these neat story segments where you make choices, it usually tells you the outcome too so you don't need to stress over what to get. The dialog is a bit weird, cause not only is it kinda trying to be old western, but its also clearly written by someone whos first language probably wasn't english so some of the wording is really odd.

 

[Hawki]

Random update timez:

SONIC FRONTIERS

I can't add much more at this point, as I'm still on Chaos Island. So, random points:

-The background music is still gorgeous. It's ambience, so it's not something I can really hum out in my head, but when it's playing, especially when it's raining in-game, or whatnot...absolutely beautiful.

-Everything I'd read/seen indicated that Flynn had salvaged how Tails has been handled for the past decade, with outright character assassination in Sonic Forces, but while I agree Flynn arguably "fixed" Tails, I'll give further props by using Forces as a benchmark to recontextualize his character, rather than trying to outright salvage it. I'm a bit wary of giving too much credit for character development, since this is an IP where status quo is king, but the interactions between Sonic and Tails here are nice and wholesome, so that's neat.

APEX LEGENDS

I can't really say I "git gudder," but overall, probably doing better than when I first started. That said, it's almost embarassing in some cases. For instance, came first recently, but looking at my team's damage/kill/assist counters at the end of the game, and comparing it to mine...well, someone was dead weight, let's just put it this way.

SONIC DASH

I've been playing this in short bouts of Apex Legends's loading times, and God, I'm sick of it already.

It's an endless runner replete with microtransactions. Coming off Runners Adventure, which was a downpayment of $5 AUD (you still had to unlock stuff in-game, but only with in-game currency such as rings, you never paid for anything), it's a jarring shift. And while I can easily forgive monetization scumminess if the gameplay is good enough, it isn't good enough. It's a worse version of Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, because at least that had some multiplayer and strategy, whereas this? Nothing much.

Really, it's a moot point, but when I update my Sonic games ranking, this will be near the bottom unless something utterly bizzare happens (and in case you're wondering, Frontiers is probably somewhere around the no. 10 spot).

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil West - Reached the halfway point. Stopping on mission 8 for now. The end boss of mission 7 is lame. A glorified wall boss given way too much health. I almost bit the dust a couple of times, yet made it through. The combat keeps getting better, and I love new combat options that open up. The game has great enemy variety too. I don't know what GGman or certain others were talking about the game having limited enemy variety. There are some reviewers who complained there "weren't enough vampires". Okay...don't know what the fuck y'all are smokin, so ignoring all of that. I'll see if I can finish this game by the weekend. I got 8 more stages to go.

 

[Dreiko]

DNF Duel just got a huge patch and I put a good 7 hours or so in training mode figuring out new optimal stuff.


Fun times.

 

[Dalisclock]

Close to finished with Project Wingman. Like 2-3 missions left. Really enjoying it and it succeeds in hitting the Ace Combat vibes without actually being Ace Combat. I kinda miss the lack of cutscenes and little details but OTOH, Ace Combat's cutscenes were often Hit and Miss(I ended up skipping all the story cutscenes in AC6 when I replayed it because they were so dull and poorly written and was happier for it).

This game is a HUGE fan of AC0 considering one of the major plot points late in the game and it even has it's own version of Pixy as the recurring antagonist. Though Crimson 1 is far less likable then Pixy ever was, even when Pixy had lost his shit at the end. I do appreciate when you fight Crimson Team late in the game and he starts monologuing over the Radio to you about how Righteous he is and almost immediately my wingmen start yelling at him to shut the fuck up and nobody wants to hear his self glorification(all while a dogfight is raging). This is after I'd already bested his squad and he'd Ordered a full on Nuclear Strike of a City HIS SIDE WAS STILL OCCUPYING just because he was salty about losing.

Crimson 1 does make a good bad guy just because of how fucking Melodramatic and hypocritical he is and the fact he's clearly BIG MAD that I beat his ass in a fair fight. Or as a wise man once said "Crimson 1 is clearly not used to losing. He Nuked his own house trying kill you and that didn't even work"

 

[SilentPony]

There was a bunch of quality of life updates and new mechanics and rooms added to Subnautica, and Im replaying it.
I still enjoy the minute-to-minute gameplay. Like I was obsessed with base building in Fallout 4, and this is basically that, less bandits(mores the pity) but underwater, which is another big win for me.
But Im not sure this game lends itself to replays, if you're looking for that first experience again. Like I know, fucking duh SilentPony, nothing is ever the first again. But what I mean is the atmosphere. During the first playthroughs, the leviathans are a major threat. Who knows where another is hiding, and damn they scary!
But replaying, even after years, I sorta remember where they are, but also distinctly remember how fucking terrible the AI pathfinding is. In this replay, I was near the misty island with the laser gun, and there was a reaper leviathan around the alien base, roaring as it does. Except over half its body was just stuck in the rock and I was able to scan it, no problem and leave. The AI is so bad in this game, you have to go out of your way to get attacked. Sometimes literally, when it comes to the Void. Which...okay yeah, the Void still gives me the jibblies. And the Ghost leviathans are by far and away the best leviathans. Like its kinda startling to have the creepy ghost snake monsters with the giant void mouth like the fucking Doomsday Device from Star Trek TOS, compared to the literally fire breathing Bowser monsters literally guarding an alien castle and a Queen in the lava level at the end.
I know the game is divided into biomes, and the first playthrough it doesn't clock how fundamentally different each is in terms of threats, gameplay and puzzles, but yeah, its as if each biome was designed by a different team, in like shadow conditions where you're not quiet sure what the game is supposed to be then surprise! Everyone gets thrown into Subnautica, how they balance well with each other.

 

[meiam]

Close to finished with Project Wingman. Like 2-3 missions left. Really enjoying it and it succeeds in hitting the Ace Combat vibes without actually being Ace Combat. I kinda miss the lack of cutscenes and little details but OTOH, Ace Combat's cutscenes were often Hit and Miss(I ended up skipping all the story cutscenes in AC6 when I replayed it because they were so dull and poorly written and was happier for it).

This game is a HUGE fan of AC0 considering one of the major plot points late in the game and it even has it's own version of Pixy as the recurring antagonist. Though Crimson 1 is far less likable then Pixy ever was, even when Pixy had lost his shit at the end. I do appreciate when you fight Crimson Team late in the game and he starts monologuing over the Radio to you about how Righteous he is and almost immediately my wingmen start yelling at him to shut the fuck up and nobody wants to hear his self glorification(all while a dogfight is raging). This is after I'd already bested his squad and he'd Ordered a full on Nuclear Strike of a City HIS SIDE WAS STILL OCCUPYING just because he was salty about losing.

Crimson 1 does make a good bad guy just because of how fucking Melodramatic and hypocritical he is and the fact he's clearly BIG MAD that I beat his ass in a fair fight. Or as a wise man once said "Crimson 1 is clearly not used to losing. He Nuked his own house trying kill you and that didn't even work"

Yeah its rather impressive how well they reproduce the ace combat experience, especially on (I'm assuming) a fraction of the budget, a lot of smaller indie team have tried to make "just like X franchise but indie" and they often fail at capturing but not here. I would have liked one more super enemy rather than always fighting the same flying fortress, but its fine. I do hope Bandai make more AC game though, from what I understand, AC7 did pretty good sales wise and even wingman manage to push some decent number, yet there hasn't been a peep about an AC8 (still think they should have pounced on the success of top gun and make an adaptation of that).

Cut scene in AC are indeed hit or miss, you're not the only one skiping them in AC6. I did really liked the AC0 formula of live action interview with the various pilot you fight.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yeah its rather impressive how well they reproduce the ace combat experience, especially on (I'm assuming) a fraction of the budget, a lot of smaller indie team have tried to make "just like X franchise but indie" and they often fail at capturing but not here. I would have liked one more super enemy rather than always fighting the same flying fortress, but its fine. I do hope Bandai make more AC game though, from what I understand, AC7 did pretty good sales wise and even wingman manage to push some decent number, yet there hasn't been a peep about an AC8 (still think they should have pounced on the success of top gun and make an adaptation of that).

Cut scene in AC are indeed hit or miss, you're not the only one skiping them in AC6. I did really liked the AC0 formula of live action interview with the various pilot you fight.

I've heard something on the AC subreddit that AC8 is gonna happen at some point but that's all we know. Everything beyond that is fanwank.

It would be really cool if they remake AC3 so more people can actually experience it though I'm not holding my breath.

 

[BrawlMan]

Evil West - Mission 8 is a long one. I love the use of red and green, similar to is done in the second mission. Reminds me of Shadows of the Damned. Currently on chapter 9 now. Taking a break.

 

[Samtemdo8]

Thief: Deadly Shadows - Never beaten this game until now even though I longed owned it and I had no idea why I was so intimidated by it since I've beaten Thief 1 and 2 before and those were bigger and more complex levels.

I think it has to do with the fact that there's loading screens up the ass in this game, but thanks to MandaloreGaming's video showing me that SneakyUpgrade Mod, the levels are now far more acceptable as a Thief Game

Alas my experience had a lot of highs and a lot of lows.

Graphics still shockingly hold up, this game is running on Unreal Engine 2 and some of the best games I love were on that Engine like Star Wars Republic Commando and SWAT 4 and Splinter Cell. Heck in some ways this game looks almost as good as games on Unreal Engine 2.5 which were games like Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and Bioshock 1. But of course the aged things are the character models and such, they ain't Source Engine/Half Life 2 level quality.

Overall gameplay still good despite the regression of mechanics from the older games. Especially helped with the Sneaky Upgrade mod removing loading screens between sections of the level making it all seamless. Though I do think this game is the easiest of the series in terms of how little you use your tools. And this is the game that generally doesn't penalizes you too much if you kill, or get caught.

Story for some odd reason isn't as investing or interesting as the last games for some reason, like it started off interesting, but then you start losing the big picture and you just do the levels that some of them are more isolated events, levels that just happen to have the things you need for the big plot.

The bad is despite the SneakyUpgrade including Bug Fixes and such this game still feels a bit buggy and janky. Geralt is weirdly designed because your controlling more his full body now then a disembodied being with floating hands. Crashes happened to me in the game including one bad one where it crashed when I pressed "Save Game" and it corrupted the file and I had to start over from the beginning because I only had one file at the time. So I was doing quick saving and multiple save files. And little janky things like how loading screens work in this game (loading screens still happen in some instances like the city hub) on my PC, it feels like the loading screen had to swap resolutions, like my I enter a place, screen goes pitch black as if I'm changing the resolution, loading screen appears, and I'm back in-game. Because of that I don't feel this game is alt-tab friendly if your a PC gamer.

Ultimately Thief: Deadly Shadows is a decent/good game that DEFINITELY imo needs a remaster of some kind. Something to at least prop it up like mabye make the City Hub not as segmented by removing those loading screens too? (Especially since it would make one event in the game feel far more engaging then the current game now)

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Something to at least prop it up like mabye make the City Hub not as segmented by removing those loading screens too?

You wouldn't even need a remaster for that. Days after level editing tools came out for the game, someone put out a fan mission with a map easily as large as many of the ones in the original games; Deadly Shadows got chopped up to allow for the XBox's 64MB of memory to not choke on it.

I'm curious: Have you reached the Shalebridge Cradle yet?

 

[Samtemdo8]

You wouldn't even need a remaster for that. Days after level editing tools came out for the game, someone put out a fan mission with a map easily as large as many of the ones in the original games; Deadly Shadows got chopped up to allow for the XBox's 64MB of memory to not choke on it.

I'm curious: Have you reached the Shalebridge Cradle yet?

I just said I beaten the whole game

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I just said I beaten the whole game

Ah, I missed that. Curious as to what you thought of that map and "The House of the Widow Moira".

 

[Samtemdo8]

Ah, I missed that. Curious as to what you thought of that map and "The House of the Widow Moira".

I get why the Cradle being of those "Spooky as fuck" moments in the series, but I argue it was more or less no different from the spooky moments you get in the first Thief game. The "Monsters" you face I've seen spookier ultimately. Doesn't help that despite all that I can still just hide in the shadows and they can't see me at all. I feel like to make them spooky, they should easily see you at all times. The thing you've been using to hide no longer works against them.

As for the House of the Widow Moira, Remember what I said that this game gave me highs and lows

I did the level, I believe it was the biggest level in the entire game, feels like it. Especially with the Sneaky Upgrade removing the loading screens. Lots of ways to tackle the level, puzzle design was interesting, the moment meeting Widow Moira is tragic and sad.

But then something happened that fucked me over I was so mad I had to restart the level again from the beginning. So in the level you find a secret room that leads to where the plot McGuffin you had to steal, and a further path that takes you directly to where you started in the level......however, in that area where I started the level, I knocked out and guard and put his body in front of a shadow spot near a wall. Little did I know that wall was the secret exit that only opens from the other side, and when I was in that room I opned the door and it refused to open because the knocked out body of the guard was blocking the door preventing it from opening, and I could not go back the other way from where I came because the door is locked because its part of a secret entrence that you had to press a button to unlock before it closes on its own.

I was LIVID at that moment. To experience a level that gave me such a high and such a low.

 

[Gordon_4]

Because it's EA and they had a brainrot of turn based being unpopular (and also sticking multiplayer into everything, see Mass Effect 2-3) so they tried to make the game which very clearly was made to be turn based seem more actiony.

There is a valid argument for both methods of play in the subsequent games where they toned down the important of stats like accuracy and so on to make it more like an action rpg and have less of a dice roll decide you whiffed when your axe went right through their skulls, but not with Origins. Also Origins was in development for a long while, I think like 6ish years or something, so it was originally conceived before the brainrot set in place so it was a lot harder to rework it to actually mechanically be as actiony as it seemed I think, meanwhile the sequels, especially 2, were rushed out a lot quicker and had a more current for the time outlook.


As for telling where the enemies will end up, you just manage your hate generation basically, you stick out the heavy armor unit in front and have it be followed from afar (there's an AI behavior you can set up of how far back you wanna have chars follow the unit you control), enemies target heavier armored units more and if you delay the actions of the mages by a bit until you have the warrior being hit then you can easily aim a spell. Also the more wide AoE nukes are really quite huge and there are delaying effects like frost which slow enemies down. You really have to try hard to miss with those.


Sure but a Tal Vashoth wouldn't himself know that cause they also think all the horny goat bros are qunari. Gotta stick to the role.

Mass Effect 2 didn’t have multiplayer. Also as a nerd who plays a tabletop or three, I don’t appreciate stupid shit like that deciding if I hit the idiot with my sword or worse, the bullet I fired missing because dice say so when I perfectly lined the crosshairs up with his noggin.

 

[Dreiko]

Mass Effect 2 didn’t have multiplayer. Also as a nerd who plays a tabletop or three, I don’t appreciate stupid shit like that deciding if I hit the idiot with my sword or worse, the bullet I fired missing because dice say so when I perfectly lined the crosshairs up with his noggin.

In DnD you can line up your shot all you want, if you roll a critical miss you can trip and fall and shoot yourself in the foot all the same, that's kinda where DA is coming from lol.


In practice it just gives you more time to use tactics since enemies won't be dying in 3 seconds though, it makes for a more slow paced and thoughtful experience. Less frantic than an action game. And if you're looking for that experience I question why you're looking for it in DA in the first place.