What are you currently playing?

[Drathnoxis]

Finished Higurashi: when they Cry. As I've said, I didn't know anything going in, and it revealed itself to be an effective enough version of what it tries to be. It also is something I don't have any interest in, so I won't be playing the other chapters.

Oh and to keep this from becoming confusing: the original Higurashi series was released as a series of visual novels, with each chapter sold separately. I've only finished the first one that was free on gog, and won't play the others.

Gameplay wise it has literally no choices and literally no puzzles, it merely a story that you progress through.

Graphics wise it feels like a real budget title. The backgrounds are photographs with a Photoshop filter applied to them and the character artwork feels a bit generic. They make it work though.

Spoiler: Discussing the plot

The overall genre of this game was horror. I've been playing it through in a semi-sleep-deprived state so I don't remember all the details of the plot but one aspect I thought was a bit weak was how many details they provided to keep track of. I assume the intention was to keep multiple hooks open so the player won't be clued into what's going on thereby elevating the horror. It also had a moment where I thought "Okay, protagonist, as of this action you no longer can pretend that there is nothing strange about proceedings; you have to get professionals involved and run far far away." (it was the thing involving a needle). He however didn't do that.

At the end of the day the game didn't really provide any answers to my queries, leaving me unsatisfied. Maybe that is the point? That I am supposed to speculate on what was going on?

In the spirit of things: I think the guardian spirit (Okayami-sama) presiding over the town is able to possess anyone in his domain as his vessel, and as he does so the people possessed are of varying degree of awareness of what's going on. And he'll attack anyone that tries to expose the town as anything other than a picture perfect town. Hence why Mion was herself when upset about Keiichi revealing details about the town, but her eyes still going blank when attacking him; she was possessed in the latter case but not the former.

I don't know how they'd continue the plot from this. The three most important characters are dead. I assume they'd go with flashbacks since Satoshi was apparently an important character that underwent a similar story with the girls as Keiichi.

I never played the game, but I liked the anime a lot. Maybe you'd enjoy that more. I thought it created an interesting mystery and wrapped it up satisfactorily.

 

[XsjadoBlaydette]

sea of thieves this piece of juddering shit time-wasting garbage so glad I hadn't wasted real money on. Absurd tiny inventory, so tiny it can't even fit a key in, let alone any rewards, but don't worry there's crate inventory available I bought hoping to save time by dragging the bastard along to islands with me, oh that also wouldn't fit keys or any other treasure discovered or stolen from enemy drops, leaving little option but to literally hold each item individually as I trapse like a fucking idiot back and forth to the ship over 30 times...yes even the bloody key am expected to hold out in front of me like a confused child wielding their parents' brand new handgun - what would've taken 5 minutes in any other videogame took me a whole kraken-kunting afternoon. and do you know the best part? none of it mattered in the end cause while trying to find what to even do with the newly collected tat around the starting docks, a skeleton ship spawned and blew my ship out the water whilst I helplessly watched from land despite finding a cannon facing them that wouldn't fire or had any ammo around for, losing everything muggins here arduously obtained up to that point. all this experienced through the insufferable constant juddering performance only a live-service could provide. if that's the game then the game can sincerely fuuuuck oooooff! all due respect ta n sorry

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished the Plat for Alwa's Awakening.

I kinda wanna see how the sequel supposedly addresses the most common complaints and improves the game, but I think I'm going to take a break for now.

 

[BrawlMan]

Tekken 8 - Playing Eddie Gordo.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Started Omega Strike (no not that one). It's fun enough. It's also probably the easiest, most uncomplicated thing I've played in a while. It has the vibe and personality of a Saturday morning cartoon (rebel team vs army of mutant super soldiers). It looks crunchy and colorful and the gameplay is tight and polished enough, but nothing about it is particularly clever or ambitious.

You run around a series of interconnected but fairly linear levels absolutely decimating everything in your way by holding down the fire button. Enemies have zero advantage over you - most of them are very slow and their attacks have no range - and health drops regularly litter the scenery. So right off the bat you can barrel through almost everything without even paying attention to damage.

The gimmick is that you can swap on the spot between three different characters: an all-rounder with a machine gun and a dodge roll, a dude with a shotgun and a double jump, and a brawny dude with a weird bouncy gun that can also push blocks out of the way. Action is snappy and fast-paced but there is little incentive to switch characters except circumstantially to reach a tall platform or push a block out of the way. For the most part I otherwise never have much reason not to stick with the jack of all trades. Astalon: Tears of the Earth works in character swapping much, much better with its level design and enemy variety.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Finally made it to Maliketh in Elden Ring, and called it a day before even trying. Haven't even bothered with the sentinel in front of his arena yet; decided to sleep tonight on a high note, and not the bitter taste of my inevitable failure(s). Everything transferred seamlessly from my Xbone to my new Series X, so I'm hoping there will be a more active community, and I can summon someone to help me. I never saw a single player summons, got invaded, or was able TO invade anyone on the Xbone. I suspected because the older platform has less activity; now, I can hopefully see what all these summoning "fingers" can actually do.

 

[BrawlMan]

Street Fighter Alpha 2 - Dramatic Battle again. I really wish I could've recorded some of the awesome shit I did! I picked to play Charlie and Chun-Li as my CPU partner and we did this cool double attack to KO Sagat. I German suplexed him in front of Chun-Li and then she did her Level 3 fireball super just before Sagat got up, and he took the full impact, as soon as the Thai fighter stood up and ended with a Level 3 Super Finish! Only in Street Fighter Dramatic Battle is this possible.

 

[Worgen]

Alpha for Smite 2 started. Its... its neat, feels similar but different to the original Smite. It certainly has some of that alpha stiffness that is to be expected, the itemization is much closer to something like league, but I can see it working fine. Visually it looks so much better and the weapon effects are much cooler and the sound effects are punchier. Right now all the gods available are well worn, but each has a few differences and stuns seem a bit less powerful (long lasting) then they are in the original. I think I am pleased with the direction its going, but I really hope the next alpha has more then just the conquest game mode. I hate conquest, its much less interesting and slower paced then something like arena or slash or even assualt.

 

[Gergar12]

So in 200 CE in Total War Three Kingdoms. The game went on, and on about the bad Cao Cao in the intro, so I took Guan Yu, One other guy, and Liu Bei, and the drunk guy. And I straight up offed him. But then it was like now the emperor hates me, Guan Yu hates me because Cao Cao let him go for some reason, and at that point quit the game. Damn it total war your the one that told me to kill him.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finally made it to Maliketh in Elden Ring, and called it a day before even trying. Haven't even bothered with the sentinel in front of his arena yet; decided to sleep tonight on a high note, and not the bitter taste of my inevitable failure(s). Everything transferred seamlessly from my Xbone to my new Series X, so I'm hoping there will be a more active community, and I can summon someone to help me. I never saw a single player summons, got invaded, or was able TO invade anyone on the Xbone. I suspected because the older platform has less activity; now, I can hopefully see what all these summoning "fingers" can actually do.

Fuck that horse boy outside Maliketh's arena(not literally, I mean). I spent hours trying to take him out and eventually just gave up and ran past him to get to Maliketh.
I still haven't beaten him and I've finished the game. Maliketh is a PITA but that knight feels worse for some reason.

 

[meiam]

Alpha for Smite 2 started. Its... its neat, feels similar but different to the original Smite. It certainly has some of that alpha stiffness that is to be expected, the itemization is much closer to something like league, but I can see it working fine. Visually it looks so much better and the weapon effects are much cooler and the sound effects are punchier. Right now all the gods available are well worn, but each has a few differences and stuns seem a bit less powerful (long lasting) then they are in the original. I think I am pleased with the direction its going, but I really hope the next alpha has more then just the conquest game mode. I hate conquest, its much less interesting and slower paced then something like arena or slash or even assualt.

Reading up on the change, it sounds like its 90% just a graphical update, which... meh...

MOBA are kinda pass their prime, I don't think a new coat of paint is going to do much to change this, was hoping for a lot bolder change to gameplay and basic system.

 

[Worgen]

Reading up on the change, it sounds like its 90% just a graphical update, which... meh...

MOBA are kinda pass their prime, I don't think a new coat of paint is going to do much to change this, was hoping for a lot bolder change to gameplay and basic system.

Ehh, more like 40% graphical. I mean it looks a lot better, but there is also so many systems that are changed. The whole itemization system is different, so far you only have 2 utility items. I mean of course it plays pretty much the same, its a 3rd person moba and that is its claim to fame.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Still Death Stranding. Finally got a Bridge model truck. I didn't think it was going to be very useful because the MULE trucks can only hold a little more than you can with the power skeleton, but wow, it's like a real truck. You just load it and load it and load it, and then make a huge delivery which is satisfying even if the reward system in the game isn't that great. The problem is that you can't build roads to every settlement and I just can not be bothered to deliver to anywhere that isn't on the road, even before I had the truck.

The game has also just given me lethal firearms and I'm a little confused. This is a world where dead bodies cause nuclear explosions if they aren't incinerated, so I'm not sure how an assault rifle is going to make my life better.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

The game has also just given me lethal firearms and I'm a little confused. This is a world where dead bodies cause nuclear explosions if they aren't incinerated, so I'm not sure how an assault rifle is going to make my life better.

It's a Hideo Kojima game. Assault rifles aren't supposed to make your life better in most of the Metal Gear Solid series either.

OT: I dug out my Nintendo Switch, which for some reason I've been paying the online subscription for all this time, and decided to play Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64. It's a game I have a fair bit of experience with, none of it recent, as I discovered when I managed to lose to the first and easiest match play opponent (Luigi) without even scoring a single point. Either the game's a lot harder than I remember, I somehow lost all the skills I had when I was twelve, or both.

 

[Dalisclock]

It's a Hideo Kojima game. Assault rifles aren't supposed to make your life better in most of the Metal Gear Solid series either.

OT: I dug out my Nintendo Switch, which for some reason I've been paying the online subscription for all this time, and decided to play Mario Golf for the Nintendo 64. It's a game I have a fair bit of experience with, none of it recent, as I discovered when I managed to lose to the first and easiest match play opponent (Luigi) without even scoring a single point. Either the game's a lot harder than I remember, I somehow lost all the skills I had when I was twelve, or both.

I remember playing Super Mario Bros on the Switch online thinking "I'm an experienced gamer. This should be a lot easier then it was when I was a kid".

Died to the first fucking goomba. Not on purpose either.

So maybe I still suck at Super Mario Bros.

 

[BrawlMan]

Died to the first fucking goomba. Not on purpose either.

.....How?

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

.....How?

Best not to ask…for the goombas are watching/listening and will report the feedback to Bowser.

 

[Dalisclock]

.....How?

Believe me, that's what I said.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Started EA Sports PGA Tour: Road To The Masters today, and I must say, I'm a pretty disappointed. Firstly, I'm rusty; haven't played a golf game in nearly a decade, so there's going to be a period of adjustment. But mostly I'm disappointed at how soulless the game is.

Back in the 2000s, when the game was branded under Tiger Woods, the game was fun! You could make goofy looking characters, give them whacky swings, etc. In the early 2010s, some of that stuff fell off as they veered more towards realism, but the level of customization was top notch; they used to have a feature that used your Kinect camera to scan your face so your created golfer looked EXACTLY like you, and they had an extensive category of accessories and equipment so you could deck your self out in whatever swag suited your fancy.

Then in 2015, EA said "y'know all that cool and fun stuff that has made our golf game appealing all these years? Yeah, fuck ALL of that. Sack Tiger Woods, bring in some Irish guy with an extremely punchable face to take his place, take the barebones of our product, bleach them in the sun, and call it a day; $60 full retail. Done." 2015's game had basically nothing to it. They stepped back literally generations in terms of capability; I could do more on an OG Xbox than I could on the Xbox One.

So I took a decade off, and came back. New generation, 10 years to learn, aaaaand... we've got about 24 preset heads to choose from now, and oh, and fucking LOOT BOXES!! These consoles have the power to put a satellite into space, yet I'm relegated to pick one of four "black guys" to be "me," and the swag is tucked away in loot boxes. Great, I'm gonna be Black Guy #3 in a white polo and khakis for my entire career.

 

[Bedinsis]

In the early 2010s, some of that stuff fell off as they veered more towards realism, but the level of customization was top notch; they used to have a feature that used your Kinect camera to scan your face so your created golfer looked EXACTLY like you, and they had an extensive category of accessories and equipment so you could deck your self out in whatever swag suited your fancy.

Wait, really? That is one of those features that I would assume that if someone perfected it they would immediately port it to every game that had any degree of customization.