What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Arkham Knight on NG+, finally got the Platinum. Mixing NG+ with all the DLC was fun. And I know the game is not *that* old (by my standards anyway) but it's still impressive just how detailed and polished the graphics are.

My nitpicks are:

1) I still think the game is sorely lacking in boss fights and kind of a letdown in that regard, especially considering the fights in City/Origins. I don't believe you personally fight any Batman rogue outside Mecha Riddler and Croc, and Croc's DLC. Everybody else is a takedown at the end of a chase or a combat encounter. This also goes hand in hand with the generally disappointing conclusions to subplots that were hyped in previous games, such as Asrael, Hush and Deathstroke.

2) I also don't like the Batmobile sections. The side stuff is fine - chasing after APCs, the tower bomb defense fights, working the car into combat and puzzles, just generally speeding 'round Gotham, all of that is fine. What I loathe is whenever the game forces the Batmobile on you since it's so limiting - it's simply not as versatile as combat Batman or predator Batman. The Cloudburst fight, the assault on GCPD and the excavator fight were no fun during my first go and downright painful on NG+. There's nothing this level of punishing in the rest of the game.

 

[BrawlMan]

@XsjadoBlaydette, I am currently on Return 6. Return 5 is a long chapter. Stopping with Alan Wake II for tonight. I decided to stick with Saga for the long haul.

 

[BrawlMan]

Finished AWII - Return 6. I then went to play RE4R Mercenaries to cap off the Halloween night.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

Tried out someone I never thought I’d like playing as in MK1: Reiko. Got a neat looking head piece for him and thought why not check out how he plays. Did 6 out of 7 of his challenges but only got about 80% of the last so far. He feels powerful but also has quick neutral movement which makes combo potential and pressure more interesting. He seems to pair well with Jax and is one of those characters where I can see more value in the Kameo system.

 

[BrawlMan]

Alan Wake II - Alright, I finished Return 6 & 7, so I have to finish the game as Alan. It would be vice versa for Saga, if I did all of Alan's chapters first. Initiation 6 is nothing but an easy walk-a-thon, but I am not complaining. I am at Initiation 7, so this more than likely the final chapter. I am stopping for tonight, and will finish the rest tomorrow.

 

[Worgen]

Finished Cultic on extreme. Was still quite fun, its such a well made FPS. Great music, great atmosphere, great weapons, great enemies, etc. I even found out you can pick up a dead cultists shield and use it as a shield, not sure how I went this long without knowing, but it works pretty well. Wish I had known earlier, would have made the early game easier.

 

[FakeSympathy]

I played the AVGN games on steam for about two hours, and then refunded it.

Look, I love the guy's work, been watching him since middle school, and will continue to love his reviews as long as he makes them, but the games aren't just that great.

I feel like the game was designed to frustrate you. A slight touch to the death block kills you. Which is ironic because Nerd has complained many times about pixel-perfect accuracies in many of his reviews.

It would be unfair to put all the blame on him, but I feel like he could've had more say in the development.

 

[AllMondayEveryday]

So after finishing BG 1, I moved on to BG 2 and yeah this feels much more like an actual Bioware RPG, with your companions actually having a fleshed-out personality, dialogue and story rather than being disposable meat puppets that were simply there for combat assistance like they were in the first game. I guess it makes sense since this is essentially the template for every modern Bioware RPG. I actually started BG 2 years ago and made it past Irenecus' dungeon. I remember it being brutal and that I had to be super cautious and save scummy with every enemy encounter during the tutorial dungeon. This time around everything feels much easier and more manageable for some reason? Maybe I didn't play the Enhanced Edition the first time around since the default difficulty here is easier than the original BG 2 difficulty.

It feels much more sensibly balanced for a starting area, unlike BG 1 where you immediately start getting fucked the second you are released into the wilderness. Just a lot of the weird tonal issues in the writing and voice acting, jank, and rough edges have been smoothed out in the sequel. There's still a charming 90's camp to the characters, but it feels more grounded and in line with the fantasy tone of the game. Imoen is an actual character who treats your protagonist like her childhood friend and makes comments regarding your situation as you try to escape from Iranicus dungeon. It's a farcry from whatever the fuck she was supposed to be in BG 1. But that does lead to the issue of the pacing here being much more stop-and-start. I kind of understand why some people prefer BG1's openness and simplicity. You can leave Candlekeep in under 5 minutes and then just venture off into the wilderness exploring and doing whatever you want. Meanwhile, in BG2 you have to trudge through 1-2 hours of dungeon crawling before you finally escape.


Also I might be taking crazy pills but I feel the AI pathfinding in 2 is atrocious and worse than it was in 1. The AI is actually idiotic in game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played the AVGN games on steam for about two hours, and then refunded it.

Look, I love the guy's work, been watching him since middle school, and will continue to love his reviews as long as he makes them, but the games aren't just that great.

I feel like the game was designed to frustrate you. A slight touch to the death block kills you. Which is ironic because Nerd has complained many times about pixel-perfect accuracies in many of his reviews.

It would be unfair to put all the blame on him, but I feel like he could've had more say in the development.

I never bothered with his games for a good reason. The Nerd had legit complaints, even though he was in character. Too many death blocks.

 

[sXeth]

So after finishing BG 1, I moved on to BG 2 and yeah this feels much more like an actual Bioware RPG, with your companions actually having a fleshed-out personality, dialogue and story rather than being disposable meat puppets that were simply there for combat assistance like they were in the first game. I guess it makes sense since this is essentially the template for every modern Bioware RPG. I actually started BG 2 years ago and made it past Irenecus' dungeon. I remember it being brutal and that I had to be super cautious and save scummy with every enemy encounter during the tutorial dungeon. This time around everything feels much easier and more manageable for some reason? Maybe I didn't play the Enhanced Edition the first time around since the default difficulty here is easier than the original BG 2 difficulty.

It feels much more sensibly balanced for a starting area, unlike BG 1 where you immediately start getting fucked the second you are released into the wilderness. Just a lot of the weird tonal issues in the writing and voice acting, jank, and rough edges have been smoothed out in the sequel. There's still a charming 90's camp to the characters, but it feels more grounded and in line with the fantasy tone of the game. Imoen is an actual character who treats your protagonist like her childhood friend and makes comments regarding your situation as you try to escape from Iranicus dungeon. It's a farcry from whatever the fuck she was supposed to be in BG 1. But that does lead to the issue of the pacing here being much more stop-and-start. I kind of understand why some people prefer BG1's openness and simplicity. You can leave Candlekeep in under 5 minutes and then just venture off into the wilderness exploring and doing whatever you want. Meanwhile, in BG2 you have to trudge through 1-2 hours of dungeon crawling before you finally escape.


Also I might be taking crazy pills but I feel the AI pathfinding in 2 is atrocious and worse than it was in 1. The AI is actually idiotic in game.

BG1 is basically Bioware pumping out a vague open ended nothingburger to full a contractual obligation to do the Bhaalspawn thing as part of the Time of Troubles/3rd ed Rebrand for Forgotten Realms. Which I suspect bleeds into the characters because you can't just flood the canon with new characters of note.

BG2 they basically ignore that entire story entirely and do their own thing. Presumably being given some creative freedom to do so after BG1s unexpected success.

Throne of Bhaal got dragged back to it to finish before Interplay fell off a cliff or something.

Funnily, the canon novels that go along with it just explicitly killed everyone involved and later retconned/made pointless the whole thing.

Theres a large portion of BG2 that amusingly, because I assume its just a contract point to use the Underdark assets no matter how unlikely or unrelated it is, can be completely skipped and ignored. Which is an ironic contrast to the fact that BG2 is essentially able to be entirely skipped and ignored in the context of its own series (despite being the better of the original 3 bits).

I would say that BG1 and IWD felt more like a traditional D&D game. BG2 definitely has more of that sense of you're playing someone elses defined story. Starting straight out of the gate where the game insists that you kept Imoen, agreed and joined with Khalid and Jaheira, and also picked up highly optional characters in Minsc and Dynaheir.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Been playing Alan Wake (the remaster).

I think I'm nearing the end, and it's here where I feel the game is actually getting quite fun. For the first 2/3's of the game you're just wandering nondescript, dark forrest alone shooting shadow enemies, and it's not too riviting, with some very frustrating enemy encounters. But once you get to Episode 5 the level design actually gets a lot more interesting, you have more interactions with other characters, and the combat gets a lot more fun.

Don't know what to say about the story, I haven't really been too intrigued by it, but the mood is adequate.

Also, what's the deal with the coffee thermos? At first I thought they were health pick-ups, but they don't really do shit. Are they just collectables, because it doesn't seem like you can even check how many you've got.

 

[BrawlMan]

Been playing Alan Wake (the remaster).

I think I'm nearing the end, and it's here where I feel the game is actually getting quite fun. For the first 2/3's of the game you're just wandering nondescript, dark forrest alone shooting shadow enemies, and it's not too riviting, with some very frustrating enemy encounters. But once you get to Episode 5 the level design actually gets a lot more interesting, you have more interactions with other characters, and the combat gets a lot more fun.

Don't know what to say about the story, I haven't really been too intrigued by it, but the mood is adequate.

Also, what's the deal with the coffee thermos? At first I thought they were health pick-ups, but they don't really do shit. Are they just collectables, because it doesn't seem like you can even check how many you've got.

The coffee thermos really don't do anything and is just regular collectibles. I think you get some minor unlocks, if you collect them all, but I never bothered to look it up.

 

[Worgen]

Still felt in a shooter mood, well, shooter or rpg and the ff6 pixel remaster is still missing the patches that the console versions got, but it sounds like they might be coming? Anyway, tried Boltgun, but after Cultic, it just felt... ehh. Remembered I had the Bulletstorm reloaded thing, started playing it, its got issues, the remaster was really done on the cheap and its got a lot of lingering console issues like way too much screen shake. But, its stupid and bombastic in a way that cod could only dream of, so... I think I'll keep going, doesn't match up to Cultic at all, but its ridiculous enough to be fun.

 

[AllMondayEveryday]

Been playing Alan Wake (the remaster).

I think I'm nearing the end, and it's here where I feel the game is actually getting quite fun. For the first 2/3's of the game you're just wandering nondescript, dark forrest alone shooting shadow enemies, and it's not too riviting, with some very frustrating enemy encounters. But once you get to Episode 5 the level design actually gets a lot more interesting, you have more interactions with other characters, and the combat gets a lot more fun.

Don't know what to say about the story, I haven't really been too intrigued by it, but the mood is adequate.

Also, what's the deal with the coffee thermos? At first I thought they were health pick-ups, but they don't really do shit. Are they just collectables, because it doesn't seem like you can even check how many you've got.

I'm playing the first game in preparation for the second and it just suffers too much from 7th gen third person shooter syndrome for me to really find it compelling. I have this issue with a lot of Remedy games despite desperately wanting to like them.

BG1 is basically Bioware pumping out a vague open ended nothingburger to full a contractual obligation to do the Bhaalspawn thing as part of the Time of Troubles/3rd ed Rebrand for Forgotten Realms. Which I suspect bleeds into the characters because you can't just flood the canon with new characters of note.

BG2 they basically ignore that entire story entirely and do their own thing. Presumably being given some creative freedom to do so after BG1s unexpected success.

Throne of Bhaal got dragged back to it to finish before Interplay fell off a cliff or something.

Funnily, the canon novels that go along with it just explicitly killed everyone involved and later retconned/made pointless the whole thing.

Theres a large portion of BG2 that amusingly, because I assume its just a contract point to use the Underdark assets no matter how unlikely or unrelated it is, can be completely skipped and ignored. Which is an ironic contrast to the fact that BG2 is essentially able to be entirely skipped and ignored in the context of its own series (despite being the better of the original 3 bits).

I would say that BG1 and IWD felt more like a traditional D&D game. BG2 definitely has more of that sense of you're playing someone elses defined story. Starting straight out of the gate where the game insists that you kept Imoen, agreed and joined with Khalid and Jaheira, and also picked up highly optional characters in Minsc and Dynaheir.

What's baffling is I'm playing the Enhanced Editions by Beamdog and they've added their own companions who actually have companion quests and dialogue the way companions do in the second game? Like even as someone who didn't really know much about the Enhanced Editions, it was extremely obvious the Beamdog characters were recent editions due to how the voice acting and writing sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm just baffled as to why they didn't add dialogue and a story to the "canon" companions (i.e. Jaheira, Khalid, Imoen, Minsc and Dynaheir) but insisted on awkwardly inserting their shitty fanfic characters.

Also the Enhanced Edition of the second game is fucking awful. The pathfinding is worse than the first game. There are so many bugs with spells. Like the Maze status effect became permanent on Yoshimo and Minsc, meaning I couldn't leave the area or rest because they were still stuck in Maze. And when I dismissed them, they didn't respawn at the locations where they are suppose to wait for you. Jaheira's Harper's Call spell also just doesn't straight up work. And there are some NPC and enemies that just straight up don't spawn. I had to use a console command to get them to spawn. If I'd known that it would have all these issues I would have just played the original version.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm playing the first game in preparation for the second and it just suffers too much from 7th gen third person shooter syndrome for me to really find it compelling. I have this issue with a lot of Remedy games despite desperately wanting to like them.

I get what you mean, but there are so many worse 3rd person games from the 7th generation that suffer from 7th gen third person shooter syndrome. Spec Ops-Line, Inversion, both Kane and Lynch games (Dog Days being even worse), Mind Jack, and Quantum Break (that game is a 7th generation game with an 8th generation coat of paint). The same applies to The Order: 1886 as well.

At least Alan Wake has some gameplay variety and visual styles and aesthetics to stand out from the generic browns and greys of most shooters. The title character at least half personality and is not just some generic or gruff soldier, nor is he just some criminal asshole we're supposed to like or tolerate.

 

[sXeth]

I'm playing the first game in preparation for the second and it just suffers too much from 7th gen third person shooter syndrome for me to really find it compelling. I have this issue with a lot of Remedy games despite desperately wanting to like them.



What's baffling is I'm playing the Enhanced Editions by Beamdog and they've added their own companions who actually have companion quests and dialogue the way companions do in the second game? Like even as someone who didn't really know much about the Enhanced Editions, it was extremely obvious the Beamdog characters were recent editions due to how the voice acting and writing sticks out like a sore thumb. I'm just baffled as to why they didn't add dialogue and a story to the "canon" companions (i.e. Jaheira, Khalid, Imoen, Minsc and Dynaheir) but insisted on awkwardly inserting their shitty fanfic characters.

Also the Enhanced Edition of the second game is fucking awful. The pathfinding is worse than the first game. There are so many bugs with spells. Like the Maze status effect became permanent on Yoshimo and Minsc, meaning I couldn't leave the area or rest because they were still stuck in Maze. And when I dismissed them, they didn't respawn at the locations where they are suppose to wait for you. Jaheira's Harper's Call spell also just doesn't straight up work. And there are some NPC and enemies that just straight up don't spawn. I had to use a console command to get them to spawn. If I'd known that it would have all these issues I would have just played the original version.

Part of my brain is tickling that the Harpers Call speciically was also broken in the original (although I also jettisoned Jaheirqa ASAP, so)

Although lets also jusst say that Infinity/Aurora engine Bioware was notoriously kind of buggy and heavily patched up by fans alot too.

 

[BrawlMan]

I finished all of Alan's Dark World Chapters, and the game is still not over yet. After fighting Scratch a second time, Saga gets thrown into Dark Place, and we're now controlling Alan again back in the real world! The critics were not exaggerating. Alan Wake II is like 18-20+ hours long.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I finished up Zero Caliber VR, and it really is a dumb game. I'm not saying it doesn't have good points- the gunplay is actually pretty solid, the ability to mix-and-match attachments is great, and it's the only VR game I've played that lets me throw grenades a reasonable distance without risking putting my controller through a window- but the gameplay gets stale fast, and the voice acting runs the gamut between "well they got someone who can at least read a script" to "they asked the Doordash guy to step into the booth for a few lines". Plus there's only two sets of regular NPC voices- typical cultist stuff for the basic enemies, and semi-professional military callouts from your allies... as well as the Russian ultranationalist troops who side with them, to the point where THEY call out YOUR troops by the name of the faction you're fighting against!

And naturally there's a last-minute "twist" that I'm not even going to bother putting in spoiler tags: The woman who serves as mission control early in the campaign turns out to have been a mole for the cultists the whole time, which explains how they've always been a step ahead. There's no kind of real buildup to this, as she disappears a third of the way into the game and only has one line at the end taunting your commanders, and no kind of resolution as the game ends abruptly after you bring down the leader of the cultists (some dude in power armor, the only time that kind of technology shows up in the game, who required about seven hundred rounds of .45ACP delivered at point-blank range to take down).

I also tried their new "zombie mode", but it turns out to be a low-rent CoD Zombies clone.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

*awkward cough* so glad no-one saw the wrong thread I posted this in first lol


Talos Principle 2
if anyone be hating all them politics or philosophies (if you blur your eyes a bit they're the same) injected in their videogames all the time then they best turn the fuck around for this one. no beating around the bush, as soon as you validate yourself as a functional player it drops you straight into elaborate mass effect style conversations, politics is launched directly at your face and you best got yourself a lot of fucking answers, cause well, they got a lot of questions and...you won't progress the story, obviously. file size is bit larger than expected, maybe it's all those British dialects fighting for space, I dunno. if you played the first and wanted more of the philosophy/politics and an evolution of the narrative, it appears to be doing a respectable job so far, kind of even overcompensating perhaps. Bit more zippier too.

The Talos Principle 2 Reviews

The Talos Principle 2 is a thought-provoking first-person puzzle experience that greatly expands on the first game's philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges. Born into a new world where biological humanity is extinct but human culture lives on in...

www.metacritic.com

loooook at alllllll thoooooose greeeeeeeeenies eeeeeehehehehe!

of course, banana441 is entitled to their own indecipherable (to a console peasant who's pretending Google don't exist) conclusion too

The Talos Principle 2 review - a thought experiment to puzzle over

Eurogamer's review of The Talos Principle 2, an ambitious sequel that explores bold, if unambiguous territory in its philosophical robot puzzling.

www.eurogamer.net

 

[BrawlMan]

Update: I just beat Alan Wake II. The final chapter is not complicated. The first 15 minutes, you're just in the mind place. Then in Dark NY, but grey with rain. There is no final boss, and whatever fights are there, can be skipped. Once you get the clicker and the bullet light, that's it. Watch a 5 minute cut-scene, then roll credits. Alan traps the Dark Presence with in himself, and tells Anderson to shoot him, so he dies, and that Anderson, her family, and Casey lives. The game ends on ambiguous note, as we don't know if their plan worked. Alan then says: "It's not a loop; it's a spiral.", after the credits. I know there will be two DLCs coming out later to wrap up, but that's it. I'll put my full thoughts on the dedicated thread later.