What are you currently playing?

[XsjadoBlayde]

Steamworld BUILD. Oh my sweet little darling robots you never disappoint! This steampunk town management and digging adventures game is more slick than previous entries, very console-friendly controls too. And it does this thing where you know you're playing a super polished builder/management cause the ghost models of any building you select for placement have their own cute wobble physics for when you move them about the environment. Unnecessary, yet too pleasing to not admire. Oh there's voice acting this time round, cutscenes 'n all! However, they provide an option to revert back to older games' robot speak in menu, which I switched to after intro mainly for podcast-listening synergy, not a dig (lol) at the voice acting quality.


Trailer presents bias but whatevs.

 

[Bartholen]

I went for a bit of a nostalgia trip and installed the singleplayer portion of the original Call of Duty: Black Ops. And goodness me the campaign hasn't aged well. Which was honestly inevitable: cutting edge graphics are like the cutting edge of a knife. They only maintain that superb edge for a brief bit of time. Nowadays it's impossible to not notice all the ways it's dated: the rubbery action figure character models, the stiff facial animation, the lack of environmental detail compared to modern games, and the incredibly shallow gameplay that's about two steps removed from being a rail shooter. This was criticized even back on release, but one of the worst aspects of the singleplayer is its mind-numbing, non-stop intensity: there's absolutely no use of stillness or pacing, everything's at 11 all the time. Nonstop gunfire and explosions, constant shouted dialogue and bombastic music create an audiovisual vomit that's almost nauseating to play for more than 20 minutes at a time. So yeah, there's literally no reason whatsoever to play the singleplayer in this decade.

The much better aged, but still aged, part of the singleplayer is the Zombies mode, which maintains a much greater level of enjoyment as a simple arcade shooter. It's got a sort of crass, late 00's to early 10's meme charm to it. Like the devs just went "nazi zombies, teleporters, mad science, national stereotypes, lolderp". It's enjoyable enough, though the movement controls feel rather sluggish compared to how fast the enemies get. It gets pretty repetitive in singleplayer, once you unlock the special weapons you've basically seen everything, and then it's just going through the motions. I never got to play it in properly organized multiplayer, and it's probably a lot more fun there because it was designed around that.

 

[BrawlMan]

So yeah, there's literally no reason whatsoever to play the singleplayer in this decade.

Tell that to Seraphim17. He'll words for you on that.

This was criticized even back on release, but one of the worst aspects of the singleplayer is its mind-numbing, non-stop intensity: there's absolutely no use of stillness or pacing, everything's at 11 all the time. Nonstop gunfire and explosions, constant shouted dialogue and bombastic music create an audiovisual vomit that's almost nauseating to play for more than 20 minutes at a time.

I just remember it for these memes.

​

The much better aged, but still aged, part of the singleplayer is the Zombies mode, which maintains a much greater level of enjoyment as a simple arcade shooter. It's got a sort of crass, late 00's to early 10's meme charm to it. Like the devs just went "nazi zombies, teleporters, mad science, national stereotypes, lolderp". It's enjoyable enough, though the movement controls feel rather sluggish compared to how fast the enemies get. It gets pretty repetitive in singleplayer, once you unlock the special weapons you've basically seen everything, and then it's just going through the motions. I never got to play it in properly organized multiplayer, and it's probably a lot more fun there because it was designed around that.

I prefer Dead Ops Arcade. That's even better than the Zombies Mode.

​

 

[Bob_McMillan]

The graffiti mission in Watch Dogs 2 might be the worst side mission I have ever played in a video game. Yes I did say I wouldn't bother with it anymore, but the game literally told me "go do some other stuff" in the main story mission.

This video is only 5 minutes, but I sure as hell felt like it took me 30 minutes. It is actually really cool to use lifts and whatnot to increase the verticality of this world, but Goddamn are they slow. How could they possibly think this would be any fun?

But the biggest sin of all is that this game uses Esc as the key to skip dialogue. Which is insane, because Esc is the same button you use to exit using a camera, a drone, a lift, or even the fucking in game menu. I have died multiple times because I couldn't exit controlling my drone fast enough, because the game thought it was more important I skip dialogue. Conversely, I have accidentally skipped what I assumed was important story beats because I was trying to get out of a menu.

That they missed on that bit while designing the game is ASTOUNDING.

 

[Worgen]

Beat Turok 3, not as short as it was on the n64 (I remember hearing it was like 3 hours there), but its still short. Bosses are neat looking but super easy, normal enemies are much more dangerous since they all seem to have aoe attacks, but they do die quick most of the time. Weapons feel powerful, the super weapon is really cool and distorts the environment along with making enemies stretchy, super tempted to look up a vid of how it looked on the n64 since I've only very rarely seen that effect and never to the extent that I see it here.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Steamworld BUILD. Oh my sweet little darling robots you never disappoint! This steampunk town management and digging adventures game is more slick than previous entries, very console-friendly controls too. And it does this thing where you know you're playing a super polished builder/management cause the ghost models of any building you select for placement have their own cute wobble physics for when you move them about the environment. Unnecessary, yet too pleasing to not admire. Oh there's voice acting this time round, cutscenes 'n all! However, they provide an option to revert back to older games' robot speak in menu, which I switched to after intro mainly for podcast-listening synergy, not a dig (lol) at the voice acting quality.


Trailer presents bias but whatevs.

Does it tie in at all with the SteamWorld Dig games' story?

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Playing Among Us with randos to grind out the latest DLC trophies. Hide N Seek turns the game into a much more mundane thing. No guesswork or voting involved, just try to complete every task before the designated impostor kills everyone onboard. It's faster and easier on boh sides but without the occasional catharsis of detective work or the incredibly fucking frustrating groupthink.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Well, I finally finished the main campaign of CP2077. I don't think there's anything much to say that I haven't said already. Good story and characters, adequate gunplay, sub par driving.
Night city felt huge but lifeless. I didn't really feel compelled to explore, it looked cool but there wasn't really anything interesting to find when you did, like a very pretty shell with nothing underneath. So much of that design effort was wasted on stuff that most people will never see because there's no reason to go there. I felt it could have been a smaller city but had more in it.

Still, I didn't expect to like it and I will be buying Phantom Liberty on the 1st 50% off sale.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Been playing Sea of Stars and it's really darn good. Pixel art games have had the tendency to be very charming in the first hour or so, but to then lose me, never quite having the muscle to propel an engaging adventure. But Sea of Stars has been doing a damn fine job in the 6 hours I've been playing. The turn-based combat is pretty good, the music is delightful, and the pixel art is exquisite, with a decent little story to chase the whole thing down.

The only thing that feels off so far is the rare poorly animated cutscene, which stands in stark contrast to how self-assured the pixel artstyle carries this whole game. It really feels unnecessary to have these cutscenes even there as it only serves to delute your immersion by switches visual styles, even if they last only 10 seconds or so. Feels like such wasted effort, but it's a miniscule blight on an otherwise fabulous game.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Been playing Sea of Stars and it's really darn good. Pixel art games have had the tendency to be very charming in the first hour or so, but to then lose me, never quite having the muscle to propel an engaging adventure. But Sea of Stars has been doing a damn fine job in the 6 hours I've been playing. The turn-based combat is pretty good, the music is delightful, and the pixel art is exquisite, with a decent little story to chase the whole thing down.

The only thing that feels off so far is the rare poorly animated cutscene, which stands in stark contrast to how self-assured the pixel artstyle carries this whole game. It really feels unnecessary to have these cutscenes even there as it only serves to delute your immersion by switches visual styles, even if they last only 10 seconds or so. Feels like such wasted effort, but it's a miniscule blight on an otherwise fabulous game.

Sea of Stars was great and I say that as someone who never played Chrono Trigger, which is said to be the nostalgic gateway to SoS.

The cutscenes definitely take you out of it but they mostly happen towards the beginning and kinda go away for the majority of it. Same with Blasphemous 2. You spend so much time in a beautifully crafted pixel world only to get shaken awake by the intrusion of a 10 second animated cutscenes that it always feels disruptive. Especially because the animation looks so cheap by comparison.

Also save yourself some spoilers and do not look at the trophy/achievement list.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Also save yourself some spoilers and do not look at the trophy/achievement list.

I hardly ever look at the Trophy list. Though I can definitely sense one or two pennies floating around waiting to drop.

 

[BrawlMan]

Doing some more Rift Apart on NG+ and doing the side missions for the open ended zones. Took me a minute realize the optional rift platforming challenges in the open world nets you either new costumers or collectibles.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Does it tie in at all with the SteamWorld Dig games' story?

Decided to rownload Dig 2 to refresh some memory last night, as can't yet confidently identify any specifics in narrative overlap. However the wiki page alleges;

The story of the game runs parallel to that of SteamWorld Dig 2 and features both new and returning characters from previous SteamWorld games.[4][5]

(oops was upposed to type "redownload" but kinda prefer "rownload" now it happun to world)

 

[Worgen]

Beat Evil West on hard. Its neat, but the game starts just putting annoying miniboss enemy combos at you for what feels like the last half. So its hard, but also kinda annoying. I might someday do newgame+ but for now I'm good.

 

[Chimpzy]

Played and finished Killer Frequency, a first person horror adventure game inspired by 80s slasher movies. You play as a small town radio jockey who due to circumstance become a stand-in emergency dispatcher while a Michael Myers style serial murderer is terrorizing the town. Gameplay consists of light puzzling by taking calls from the killer's would-be victims and help them to safety through dialogue and clues found around the radio station. It's not very deep, or long, and really more horror-themed than actually horror, but it's got a fun nostalgic vibe.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Been abusing Steam's refund policy to try a couple games:

Karmazoo- this is a cute little indy platformer where the gimmick is that you work with other people to overcome puzzles and obstacles. And it's a really great idea. Unfortunately, since the only way you can communicate with the other player is to move and "sing" (basically shout in a direction of your choosing) and I couldn't get past the first area but even though it was obvious how to do it, we couldn't manage both figuring out how flips a switch for the other AND platforming it right AND timing it and I dunno how people can even play co-op games without talking to each other. Not for me, way too infuriating.

En Garde- a delightfully themed fencing based action game with a fun goofy art and dialogue style. I was really hoping to like this one but the mechanics in practice simply do not match the ambition of the game. You have your basic dodge and parry and attack mechanics but you're really supposed to move around a lot and use the environment to kick and throw things at the enemy, which is great- I really love the idea of a dirty-fighting swashbuckler. But between the soft lock-on system how jittery the movements can be (that feeling that everything feels like right angles instead of naturally smooth), and then you get a whole bunch of enemies from all sides but the camera and movement don't really let you put together the evasive fencing and kicking and dodging stuff it wants you to do. Or, rather, at least not for me, maybe it would feel better for others, I dunno.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I finished Boneworks, and boy howdy does this game give Serious Sam 4 a run for the "most disappointing ending sequence" prize. After being given a stand-in of the Gravity Gun to solve a puzzle involving a large weighted plug in a hole, you drop down into an arena in which every enemy in the game is thrown at you- but there's no point in fighting; you're expected to simply run across a dark floor to a tower on the opposite side, which you must spend literally a full minute climbing (and given the game's kind of clunky VR climbing mechanics, this can be more of a challenge than fighting enemies). You then walk into a room with a giant computer monitor which shows your character's real-life body slumped over, still wearing his VR headset, as armed goons force their way into the room he's been hiding in. Then a man in a business suit with a blurred face walks in, pulls a gun and shoots your character in the back of the head. End of game.

Why was our character so intent on breaking into the VR system? What was causing the virtual entities to rise up? What was the corporation so desperate to hide? Guess I'll have to go read the TV Tropes page to find out.

 

[meiam]

Played and finished Killer Frequency, a first person horror adventure game inspired by 80s slasher movies. You play as a small town radio jockey who due to circumstance become a stand-in emergency dispatcher while a Michael Myers style serial murderer is terrorizing the town. Gameplay consists of light puzzling by taking calls from the killer's would-be victims and help them to safety through dialogue and clues found around the radio station. It's not very deep, or long, and really more horror-themed than actually horror, but it's got a fun nostalgic vibe.

Looking at it, it feel like its one of those VR game they made when it had its 3 week of popularity and is more of a short experience than game.

 

[Jarrito3002]

I have been rejecting modernity and returning to tradition been playing some PS2 games. I been playing Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy I never got to play when it dropped but man I missed out on something good. The plaforming can be jank but puzzles and exploration is on greatness. You really feel like you solved something complex and going oh snap that is how you do it. The combat is fine nothing to fancy and servicable and switch between Sphinx and the Mummy keeps things fresh. And man thank you modern gaming for big ass arrows cause Sphinx does not have that and with out the help of old youtube videos uploaded at 480p I will be running around in circles for an hour.

Now coming back to Modernity I got Cult of Lamb on sale and even got it for a friend for Christmas. Not far in but I am loving the charm. Its like if Maxwell Atoms contacted Super Giant to make a game collab with him. Its cute but diabolical and so far the loop has not worn on be but lets see what happens when I get more followers.

Doing some more Rift Apart on NG+ and doing the side missions for the open ended zones. Took me a minute realize the optional rift platforming challenges in the open world nets you either new costumers or collectibles.

I don't where you are in your NG+ but in the pirate level you can find a treasure map and it shows the locations and how to find collectibles all over the worlds. An interesting addition. Nice to see love for one of my favorite franchise Rift Apart was the main reason I wanted a PS5.

 

[Worgen]

I have been rejecting modernity and returning to tradition been playing some PS2 games. I been playing Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy I never got to play when it dropped but man I missed out on something good. The plaforming can be jank but puzzles and exploration is on greatness. You really feel like you solved something complex and going oh snap that is how you do it. The combat is fine nothing to fancy and servicable and switch between Sphinx and the Mummy keeps things fresh. And man thank you modern gaming for big ass arrows cause Sphinx does not have that and with out the help of old youtube videos uploaded at 480p I will be running around in circles for an hour.