What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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More on R&C: Rift Apart. I am at the half way point now. Remember when Dunkey said Rift Apart is like the kids version of Doom Eternal in terms of combat? He's not wrong, but I don't see it as insult. I find the combat better here than Eternal. That's not a joke. You're jumping from place to place in vertical combat arenas, and platforming challenges in-between. The only difference is Rift Apart is obviously a 3rd person shooter-platformer and excels at this shit. I did some arena challenges and got two different rocket launchers and an ice gun.
I just finished Rift Apart 7 minutes ago. Great game, awesome levels, good enemy variety, but could have used more variety of bosses. The game does repeat certain bosses and mini-bosses too often. Also, Emperor Nefarious as a final boss is underwhelming, because it's more or less a repeat of Dr. Nefarious, except you're in a smaller arena, you don't get transported to different dimensions, he has a few more melee swipes and a laser spam, and he is a damage sponge. The beatdown is cathartic though. This game is definitely a keeper. I will probably do NG+ run at some point, but I will save it for a rainy day.
- Apr 1, 2009
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I quite enjoyed Rift Apart also. It was just cool and I really hope more big budget platformers come to pc.
Just played Colony Ship.
Was fun. Significantly more polished and easier to get into than Age of Decadence.
Was fun. Significantly more polished and easier to get into than Age of Decadence.
Got back into Yakuza 7/Like a Dragon. I started this game about a year or so back and then didn't return to it a few hours in. Started a new playthrough to really make a go at it this time, but while the game is pretty neat, primarily because of the characters and the twists and turns in the story, the combat hasn't evolved past the basics in the 10 hours that I've played so far. I don't mind the change to turn-based combat, but said combat still needs to have some meaningful decisions. I'm 10 hours in and all I really need to do is press 'Attack' or choose a random Ability to get through even the Boss encounters. Running out of Health or Mana isn't much of an issue either, since you have two EXP. bars - Character and Job - and when either levels up your Heath and Mana bar get recharged, and so far I've leveled up quite frequently.
What I've played of the previous Yakuza games didn't show much depth to the combat neither, but since that was straight-up action gameplay it had that instant satisfaction of beating the shit out of dudes. With turn-based combat you need the tactical angle to make it satisfying, but Yakuza 7 still treats it in the same arcade-y fashion as it did the brawlers. And the monotony of the fights is kinda getting to me.
What I've played of the previous Yakuza games didn't show much depth to the combat neither, but since that was straight-up action gameplay it had that instant satisfaction of beating the shit out of dudes. With turn-based combat you need the tactical angle to make it satisfying, but Yakuza 7 still treats it in the same arcade-y fashion as it did the brawlers. And the monotony of the fights is kinda getting to me.
Speaking of islands I noticed an earlier quest about finding a master armorer which involved a nice boat ride to the frigid land of Undvik. One of the more atmospheric locations I’ve seen thus far with all the wind and rain, busted up boats, etc. Get the sense that some shit went down here. The numerous barrels full of ashes is a neat if unsettling touch.
So far I counted 92 quests done of which maybe half dozen or so are contracts. So if might switch gears and do a few more of those. Also I’m missing the quest queue for the third part of the Wolf School Witcher gear. I have part four though, so I must’ve missed something. Speaking of misses, I also have seven failed quests but am too far along to bother with going back to early saves on this playthrough. I guess a wiki would be needed if there’s a trophy for completing all quests since I have no idea what triggered the fail states, other than perhaps getting distracted by other quests in the middle or something.
Also didn’t notice initially the next gen update’s gift of White Tiger armor from Yennefer. I like how they wove it into the game, and it does look pretty cool but my current gear is already more robust. I put it in my trunk.
I'm wondering if you might have missed something....
Spoilers I guess maybe?
But.. if you're already at Kaer Morhen then you must've completed the main quest line that starts with the wake and ends with identifying Uma as the next clue. After the wake you would've spoken with Crach an Craite who askes you to help his children, one of which indeed takes you to Undvuk.
Perhaps you visited Undvuk before doing the wake? That would prevent you from being able to pick up that quest.
In fact, that quest- The Lord of Undvuk- is both my favorite quest in the entire game and is also one of the earliest ones put together. It can be done very quickly or you can let it take you down side adventures and I just love it. Definitely if you want to do it and haven't you should do that before Isle of Mists. Same goes for the other such quest on Spikeroog. But even before doing those I highly recommend the contract Phantom of Elsberg because only by doing that one BEFORE the whole An Craite side quests resolution quests, you get an extra very cool side quest that is also one of my favorites.
Yes, the section of Skellige before Isle of Mists is my favorite part of the game.
There were some bugs with wolf school gear at some point (as it was really part of free DLC) but I think that was all fixed.
There are some maps available from the master swordsman only after you complete his questline so it could be those. Also it is possible to unlock a witcher gear treasure hunt quest by finding one of the diagrams on your own (for example I remember finding a high level Bear school gear diagram in the cave that was the home of the bear that attacks Princess, the Pellar's goat). So maybe you did that for one of the master diagrams for wolf.
My recommendation is to just pick which gear set you like, you're far enough along now that you don't have to chase everything. If Wolf School is your preference, that's cool, and there's not shame in just looking it up online. I do always recommend doing the base gear quests for all the witcher gear just because they're fun- some excellent locations to explore and fight at. But only chase the upgrades for the one you care about.
Don't worry about failed quests. Sure, when I replay, I never let myself have any but that's just because I know this game by heart. There is no trophy for completing all quests or not having any failed ones. There are specific trophies that you can't get if you fail (or skip) particular quests but that's something to worry about on a replay. If you're curious about specific quests you can ask me of course.
I'm guessing you failed Gangs of Novigrad- that is a notorious one. This is in Novigrad after you the fight where you're in a towel and you have to chase down Whoreson Jr. Cleaver offers a violent brute force method and Reuven suggests otherwise. The game doesn't really explain that in order to complete Gangs of Novigrad you have to speak with Cleaver first then meet his goons at each of the hideouts (casino and arena). But if you ignored that and infiltrated each place using the more subtle and, frankly, fun ways of playing gwent and doing an arena tournament fight, you will fail it. Or if you try to attack with them and they all die in one place, you fail it. It is possible to not fail and still sneak but this is advanced Witcher 3 obsession nonsense and nets you absolutely nothing except the OCD-like obsession with not seeing red text in your menu.
So Undvik was something I literally just discovered from that master armorer quest leading me there. It was free of icons otherwise, so definitely new to me. I really haven’t done much sailing prior to that but must say it’s very pleasant having that travel mode to help flesh out the “go anywhere” design. I’ve also lifted Uma’s curse, which for me triggered the Brothers in Arms quest involving gaining allies for the upcoming battle. But most recently now after doing the Undvik thread with the Craite dude (Nordic like with red hair if it’s the same one) he is saying he needs to be crowned before helping at Kaer Morhen.
Yeah I definitely want to take some time doing the smaller stuff that’s queuing in my log, whether it’s contracts, treasure hunts, side quests, etc. My plan is doing everything available that doesn’t have a red skull on it. Or hell, maybe I’ll even do a few of those since I just easily defeated a wyvern or something on another smaller island that had a red skull. Currently have it on Normal difficulty but might just put it back to B&BB because it’s still basically a cakewalk otherwise.
This is why I can't get into Yakuza style games in general. I am glad the franchise exists, but I just want Sega to either make a new Spikeout, or re-release all the games on modern consoles.
Didn't realized they did age of decadence, I quite liked it so good to know they still make game. Can you play colony ship 100% non combat?
I decided to pop in Rift Apart again do some more of the arena challenges. They're fun and addicting.
EDIT: I just finished all of the arena challenges. Looks like NG+ I will be doing later.
EDIT: I just finished all of the arena challenges. Looks like NG+ I will be doing later.
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I think you can do it 100% non combat. At least there are achievements for it.
Katamari Damacy: REROLL - I played a demo of this game once at a Best Buy back in the PS2 days. That was the extent of my playtime. Why didn't I get this game sooner. Fun and wacky game that still holds up well. Glad they decided to port this back in 2018 on modern consoles. I picked up the game at GameStop during Black Friday and got it for $7.
Resident Evil 2 (GameCube) - Man is it rough to get back into this game. Even with Type C controls, it is still awkward. I set the game to Easy, but I do not literally care in this case. I am just here to have fun, hear Claire's OG voice (Alyson Court) again, and Leon (Paul Haddad; RIP) again. I decided to start with Claire A, Leon B. I will do more next week, but I made it to the police station.
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I've been playing Boneworks, and I'd call it the best VR experience ever if I hadn't already played Half-Life: Alyx. Everything in Boneworks just screams "so close to perfect"; the controls, the gunplay, and the virtual presence are just not quite at the level that Alyx set, but it wasn't for lack of trying. There's also a weird mechanic where you can't carry weapons through level transitions and will lose them if you quit or reload after a save unless you drop them on a specific spot next to a save station- I have no idea if this was intentional or some sort of engine limitation.
- Apr 1, 2009
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Still working my way through Evil West, just killed Brunch. Kinda a bullshit boss fight, till I remembered my electric ultimate, then it wasn't bad. I have to stop just sitting on that power and start using it against enemies with too big hp bars.
More Total Warhammer 2. It's not good for me. How many times do I need to teach me this lesson, old man? I restarted the Kroq-Gar campaign no less than 4 times, because every other time it stalled to impossible, interminable quagmires and I'm pretty sure the game bugged out on me once. Much like the Imrik campaign, the geography screws you super hard with Kroq-Gar: you start off in basically an isolated corner, and need to force forward a very specific path to get the objectives. But not only that, there seems to also be a specific sequence in which you need to do things for the campaign to be viable in any way. Because there are so many ways it can go wrong and so many factions that can grind your progress to a halt.
I've also noticed a pretty funny quirk with the auto-resolve system: the Tomb Kings have an ability that basically gives them huge buffs when defending or something. Queen Khalida attacked one of my garrisons alone in this stance. Due to how weak default garrison armies are, the game projected the auto-resolve as a Crushing Defeat, despite it being literally one lord against 5 full units. I just sent my units at her and basically killed her by a thousand cuts, giving me a Decisive Victory in what the game projected as a Crushing Defeat. Kinda funny.
- The Skaven to the north of the starting location will bloom super fast into two full stacks which refuse to move, and the only way to deal with them is to wait for a full stack of your own, which can take like a dozen turns due to how little resources you have.
- Hag Graef, unless dealt with early on, and which lies in the literal opposite direction of all your objectives, has the chance to utterly screw the campaign due to how broken a lord Malus Darkblade is.
- Clan Mors, thanks to them having the Underway and you don't, can pull you into an endlessly enraging game of cat and mouse, stalling your progress for like 20 turns.
- The longest attempt ended at around turn 150-ish, which is where I believe the game bugged out. Lords I'd defeat completely and utterly would turn back up in like 2 turns with a full stack, effectively negating any progress I might be able to make.
- The attempt I was running before uninstalling the game again was the most successful, but I could see it being a slow grind to eliminate Khemri and take over not-Africa.
I've also noticed a pretty funny quirk with the auto-resolve system: the Tomb Kings have an ability that basically gives them huge buffs when defending or something. Queen Khalida attacked one of my garrisons alone in this stance. Due to how weak default garrison armies are, the game projected the auto-resolve as a Crushing Defeat, despite it being literally one lord against 5 full units. I just sent my units at her and basically killed her by a thousand cuts, giving me a Decisive Victory in what the game projected as a Crushing Defeat. Kinda funny.
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