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Chimpzy

Simian Abomination
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Apr 3, 2020
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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.
It's more like a walking simulator, except contained within a single location, and with dialogues and puzzles. But yes, it's about 3-4 hours long and more about the narrative than the gameplay.
 
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BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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Mar 10, 2016
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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.
Good to know, I'll remember it when I get there. Currently on Blizar Prime, since your curious. The harder modes ain't a joke either.

I admit that Rift Apart wasn't my main reason to get a PS5 (DMC5: SE and to play 3D PS4 games with better frame rates and resolutions), but it was on my must play list for a reason. I appreciate Insomniacs gameplay, presentation, and cinematic flair, but still remember that it's an over-the-top platformer action game. Not a single forced walking section. 🙂 I've seen some people in gaming compare Rift Apart to Uncharted franchise with some of its set pieces and cut-scenes. They are not wrong. I love the level variety, the set pieces, and the additional guns you get on NG+. Though the Omega Version of all the weapons are a disappointment from what I heard. My only complaint with the game is Ratchet and Rivet play exactly the same. I get why, but Insomniac could have done something to differentiate their gameplay style, other than unique set pieces. For example, Rivet been a Fragile Speedster of sorts, or have slightly bigger focus on melee. She has a hammer, infuse that with her character. Insomniac already experimented with character switching recently in Spider-Man 2, so they can make it even better for the next R&C title.

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.
This is why I always prefer starting on Normal first. That said, I find most of the mini bosses more fun than the main bosses for specific chapters. I hate next-to-last boss. Fuck him. Another gripe I have with the game is the skill tree. I would prefer just a regular upgrade system like the game does with Jesse's weapons. If there ever is a sequel, Flying Wid Hog needs to get rid of it.

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.
From what I've seen, En Garde looks like an easier version of Sifu. I might check it out, if the game is available on consoles and a sale.
 
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Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Apr 1, 2009
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
This is why I always prefer starting on Normal first. That said, I find most of the mini bosses more fun than the main bosses for specific chapters. I hate next-to-last boss. Fuck him. Another gripe I have with the game is the skill tree. I would prefer just a regular upgrade system like the game does with Jesse's weapons. If there ever is a sequel, Flying Wid Hog needs to get rid of it.
I had more issues with some of the miniboss combos then the bosses, second to last was kinda rough, but not as bad as the combos.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
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I had more issues with some of the miniboss combos then the bosses, second to last was kinda rough, but not as bad as the combos.
Really? The mini boss combos can be challenging at times, none of them has killed me more than Jesse's father. I hate the boss and everything about him is bad boss design. On Normal, he's barely tedious, but on Hard and above..fuck that boss.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Apr 1, 2009
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Really? The mini boss combos can be challenging at times, none of them has killed me more than Jesse's father. I hate the boss and everything about him is bad boss design. On Normal, he's barely tedious, but on Hard and above..fuck that boss.
I didn't have too much trouble with him. He killed me a few times, but not that many. I had more trouble with Brunch since I didn't really know how to do damage at that point and he taught me to use my ult. But some of the miniboss combos were really rough if I got into them with things on cooldown and I wasn't sure of the order to destruction yet.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
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Feb 9, 2012
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Playing the Resident Evil 4 remake again, going for the Platinum. Just S ranked the shooting gallery. Missing the S+ runs on Standard and Hardcore, which don't stack - unless you play Pro S+ instead. Can't decide which road would be hardest. The two runs would be tedious, and it's tempting to just do it on Pro - but Pro's 15 save limit is absolutely going to get on my nerves. Decisions decisions.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Dec 29, 2021
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Dave the Diver

Yep, I am one of those now, one of those people that saw the hype around this game and though "oh this does look cute" but didn't care that much what with all the big ticket games out this year. But then I started playing it and I'm absolutely hooked.

I realized now I have a new favorite genre, or sub-genre, and I don't think it has a name: it's like when there's two games in one game, where one of the games is an action combat game with some sort of dungeon crawling and/or procedurally generated elements, and the other game is sort of a management sim type chill game. And the two feed into each other- you resources you get from the dungeons let you build your base which then gives you benefits to help crawling and so on.

The two other games in this sub-genre I played are Boyfriend Dungeon and Cult of the Lamb and I similarly enjoyed them immensely.

Here's why I think these games work for me:
- The dungeon crawling is like a baby version of rogueli*es. You basically are doing the same thing over and over but the action isn't as demanding as Spelunky or Dead Cells. And except for maybe towards the end of the whole campaign, each "run" is explicit forward progress, because you get to use what you did in the other half of the game.
- The management sim stuff is also pretty straightfoward, and there aren't real consequences for small scale failures like being too late with someone's order in DtD or not cleaning up enough poop in Lamb. The punishment/reward is your own sense of accomplishment and the speed of the larger campaign, and things like achievements or bonus stuff.
- All this also is way to implement "difficulty" without explicit settings. Including the complexity of the various systems and menus- I kind if didn't understand how the menu system worked in DtD's restaurant part for a while so I wasted a bunch of resources. If I were to replay the game I would make money earlier and faster which would propel me forward quicker, for example. But I'm still ok to progress the game, and I never had to futz with some stupid menu or restart the game.

Specifically for DtD it implements all these in ways that really hook me. Each activity is very short and the whole thing is broken up by days. So most "days" are two dives (morning and afternoon) and running the restaurant at night. Each dive is short, at least so far- I image they'll get longer as I'm able to dive deeper and deeper.
A pleasant surprise is how impactful the resource gathering is- harpooning a fish feels good and I even fought off some pirates in the water using these simple mechanics and it didn't want to make my throw my console out the window, which is really impressive.

Most important is there a really story and overall campaign. Just seeing a big text that says "Chapter 2" at the end of my last session is the most triumphant thing. And there is some story with some sea people or whatever- it's all very silly and cute, as these small/indy games tend to be.

This is a great example of a game that really isn't particularly innovative or brilliant or anything like that, it just knows what it is and it does it well. The only thing that can spoil it for me at this point is if they introduce some bullshit to extend play time and unfair difficulty curve or obtuse gameplay elements out of context.
 
Sep 14, 2023
6
7
3
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FuckYou
I am knee-deep in act 3 with my Dark Urge run and this really feels like it was the main story originally but they decided to cut it out and make it a separate origin for a customer character. So many plot beats in Act 3 feel more impactful playing Dark Urge. Also glad I played BG 1 and 2 before really delving into Dark Urge. I'm still in chapter 5 of BG2 but I've seen to give a lot more context and weight to certain characters and events in Act 3. Also, performance is a lot more stable and I have encountered a lot fewer bugs.
 

Bartholen

At age 6 I was born without a face
Legacy
Jul 1, 2020
729
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There's an achievement in Arkham City Knight for beating Killer Croc in the Iceberg Lounge challenge, which is an endless survival mode. Thing is, you have to get one million points to get him to spawn, and it just feels fucking impossible. Not necessarily because of a skill issue, but because the game's systems that are designed to help start actively hindering you. A huge part of keeping up a good combo is deciding what enemies to target, and after a point the fight becomes more of a puzzle. Problem is that the camera snaps like a hungry shark to what it prioritizes as a threat: enemies starting a charge, for example. But those enemies are far and away the least of the problem that far into the challenge, where acute awareness of your surroundings is paramount. But it's next to impossible to keep track of it all, because the camera pans so blisteringly fast, and the usually reliable auto-targeting starts crumbling under its weight. I guess if you had infinite patience you could cheese the challenge by just spamming the batclaw slam, but frankly fuck that.
 
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Jun 11, 2023
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There's an achievement in Arkham City for beating Killer Croc in the Iceberg Lounge challenge, which is an endless survival mode. Thing is, you have to get one million points to get him to spawn, and it just feels fucking impossible. Not necessarily because of a skill issue, but because the game's systems that are designed to help start actively hindering you. A huge part of keeping up a good combo is deciding what enemies to target, and after a point the fight becomes more of a puzzle. Problem is that the camera snaps like a hungry shark to what it prioritizes as a threat: enemies starting a charge, for example. But those enemies are far and away the least of the problem that far into the challenge, where acute awareness of your surroundings is paramount. But it's next to impossible to keep track of it all, because the camera pans so blisteringly fast, and the usually reliable auto-targeting starts crumbling under its weight. I guess if you had infinite patience you could cheese the challenge by just spamming the batclaw slam, but frankly fuck that.
And lemme guess, there’s no option to turn off auto target or something? I never looked that deep into menus when I played this or Asylum, but it seems to camera was made to be on the cinematic side almost to a fault with things like finishers.
 

Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
18,746
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Ok, so I tried Re4make on NG Pro for my S+ run and immediately pussied out after getting decimated at the village. Fuck it. I'm not doing this limited save shit. I'm taking the grindier yet more manageable route, which is more on brand for me. Gonna get S+ on Standard and Hardcore instead of acing Pro for the Plat.

Currently 35 minutes in and just defeated Del Lago. I think I can clock in a run under 5 hours at this rate.

I was tempted to do a single Pro run "to save time" but there is absolutely no way a perfect under 5.30 hours run, on that difficulty, with only 15 saves and no checkpoints, takes me less material time than doing 2 runs under 5 and 5.30 hours when I can freely savescum and shave off precious minutes between saves.
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
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Sep 23, 2010
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Just off-screen
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Despite having both Mario Odyssey and 13 Sentinels on the go after reading The CRPG Addict's playthoughs of Angband and Omega I'm starting to get the shakes and feel like I need to play an old school roguelike. It's been over a year since I've played Nethack so I've done pretty well. I'm not sure whether I'll play a more recent version of Angband which I've never played, a variant of Nethack since I've barely touched any except a little bit of Slash 'em and one Evilhack ascension, or maybe I'll play Stone Soup Dungeon Crawl since it was on Chimpzy's Top 25 and I've never really gave it more than a cursory attempt.
 

Bob_McMillan

Elite Member
Aug 28, 2014
5,332
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Philippines
Watch Dogs 2 ends with a wet fart. Eh. Nothing interesting was done really. You sneak around the same startup, Silicon Valley office building and press buttons. Really thought they'd either end with a hard puzzle or let you go wild.

Overall, there is an incredibly fun game to be had in this franchise. I do think if they had kept the tone of the first game and the gameplay of this game, then you would have something special. Although I suppose San Francisco isn't exactly a great fit for a dark and brooding story.
 

XsjadoBlayde

~it ends here~
Apr 29, 2020
3,309
3,432
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Evil West had urge to go back n retry wormflower boss difficulty wall but lowered to normal instead this time. well for once my cunning plan worked, the beast is finally dead! - not original tactic tbh, Sun Tzu himself always said "do not fear the difficulty options, boy." though the control scheme does make returning after a long break a tad trickier than the average videogame: still been occasionally firing the shotgun off due to panicked muscle memory assuming reload remains a thing.

Tried the 'vivid' visual mode on fancy telly for game as well - it hasn't cooperated so good with every game tested yet, some colours and contrasts just get smooshed and harder to distinguish in motion, to say the least - however Evil West is looking uncompromised with the curious visual enhancement technology so far....frame rate was fine already, aside the stubborn motion blur. Is perhaps resolution upscaling and fruity colour boosts doing the hard work this time, plus some smaller frame rate smoothing may be involved too. Basically it looks bloody great, the mysterious telly mode may have legs on it yet! Is intriguing to consider a future of technologies meeting halfway between the telly and console to take some weight of the console processing.
 
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Johnny Novgorod

Bebop Man
Legacy
Feb 9, 2012
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Dave the Diver

Yep, I am one of those now, one of those people that saw the hype around this game and though "oh this does look cute" but didn't care that much what with all the big ticket games out this year. But then I started playing it and I'm absolutely hooked.

I realized now I have a new favorite genre, or sub-genre, and I don't think it has a name: it's like when there's two games in one game, where one of the games is an action combat game with some sort of dungeon crawling and/or procedurally generated elements, and the other game is sort of a management sim type chill game. And the two feed into each other- you resources you get from the dungeons let you build your base which then gives you benefits to help crawling and so on.

The two other games in this sub-genre I played are Boyfriend Dungeon and Cult of the Lamb and I similarly enjoyed them immensely.

Here's why I think these games work for me:
- The dungeon crawling is like a baby version of rogueli*es. You basically are doing the same thing over and over but the action isn't as demanding as Spelunky or Dead Cells. And except for maybe towards the end of the whole campaign, each "run" is explicit forward progress, because you get to use what you did in the other half of the game.
- The management sim stuff is also pretty straightfoward, and there aren't real consequences for small scale failures like being too late with someone's order in DtD or not cleaning up enough poop in Lamb. The punishment/reward is your own sense of accomplishment and the speed of the larger campaign, and things like achievements or bonus stuff.
- All this also is way to implement "difficulty" without explicit settings. Including the complexity of the various systems and menus- I kind if didn't understand how the menu system worked in DtD's restaurant part for a while so I wasted a bunch of resources. If I were to replay the game I would make money earlier and faster which would propel me forward quicker, for example. But I'm still ok to progress the game, and I never had to futz with some stupid menu or restart the game.

Specifically for DtD it implements all these in ways that really hook me. Each activity is very short and the whole thing is broken up by days. So most "days" are two dives (morning and afternoon) and running the restaurant at night. Each dive is short, at least so far- I image they'll get longer as I'm able to dive deeper and deeper.
A pleasant surprise is how impactful the resource gathering is- harpooning a fish feels good and I even fought off some pirates in the water using these simple mechanics and it didn't want to make my throw my console out the window, which is really impressive.

Most important is there a really story and overall campaign. Just seeing a big text that says "Chapter 2" at the end of my last session is the most triumphant thing. And there is some story with some sea people or whatever- it's all very silly and cute, as these small/indy games tend to be.

This is a great example of a game that really isn't particularly innovative or brilliant or anything like that, it just knows what it is and it does it well. The only thing that can spoil it for me at this point is if they introduce some bullshit to extend play time and unfair difficulty curve or obtuse gameplay elements out of context.
You should check out Moonlighter (dungeon crawler + store management sim) and Dredge (fishing game + management sim). Neither is terribly complex regarding the management part but they feed the other half of the game in a fun, natural way.
 
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meiam

Elite Member
Dec 9, 2010
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If you liked that, you'll probably like Recettear, since that's a very similar concept.
Capitalism OH!

Receattear is like 10-15 year old at this point, it was kinda unique back then but nowaday is mechanically very simplistic and the writing is fun but its mostly about making fun of trope and never does anything very substantial.
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
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Just off-screen
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Capitalism OH!

Receattear is like 10-15 year old at this point, it was kinda unique back then but nowaday is mechanically very simplistic and the writing is fun but its mostly about making fun of trope and never does anything very substantial.
Was just in the middle of typing this exactly. Recettear is not worth playing. It's a middling dungeon crawler wearing the mask of a shop management game that has no complexity beyond "buy low, sell high".