What are you currently playing?

[Summerstorm]

So, i bought a discounted title called "Honey, i joined a cult", because i like the idea of managing cult, and the gameplay looks like Rimworld, Prison Architect or Clanfolk, which i all liked.

Well... pumped in a day of playing... and it is surprisingly boring.

We have mismatched story/atmosphere/logic: You clearly are a scam-artist grifting people for money... but ALSO there is weird shit going on and otherworldly powers/superscience exist and guide you. The "Random Encounters" are just meme and pop-culture references and the risk/reward is screwed up. The Missions are boring. The planning is too simple. The Compound is too static and you never have to adapt anything. For hours i could just expand without difficulty, by just being patient and run 100% safe reduce-HEAT missions every day. MIGHT get harder later on or throw some curveballs in the endgame - but my patience ran out.

So i remembered how much fun Rimworld was, and reinstalled that. (All the DLC's are too expensive, but even the main-game got some real nice quality-of-life upgrades since i last played)
Had to restart my naked single survivor in a harsh desert campaign because a rando lizard or emu, or a punk with a knife would cut me and i would die of infection or die in a sudden heatwave because i couldn't get enough wood together for a primitive cooler.
Yeah, punish me... just how i like it. Hm, yeah...

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

It's been over 4 years since I played TLoU 2 before selling it off, but I remember thinking that it felt like one of those infamous Hollywood flops in terms of its pacing. Like the game had been given carte blanche to put every single scene concept into the game to show off the production values, no matter how meandering or indulgent they were in execution. Hence the looooooong riding sections in the beginning with Dina and Ellie, the eeeeeven loooooooooooooonger sections of slowly following chatterbox NPCs in a cutscene pretending to be gameplay, and an overindulgence of detail in every place, sometimes to the detriment of the gameplay (and definitely the devs' health). Nothing cut out, nothing trimmed, which makes for a slog of an experience.

It doesn't help none how completely boring Ellie and Dina are together. I've done my fair share of slowly walking/riding next to chatterbox NPCs, but where Arthur Morgan can have 20 wildly different conversations with 20 different characters about the same topic, Ellie and Dina flatline every interaction with their mildness. They have the intense chemistry of two neighbors momentarily sharing an elevator.

Don't know where you are, but count the times characters will just be somewhere, or an area will just be safe, because the story demands it. That whole ludonarrative dissonance that Uncharted got criticized for... TLoU2 was like 'hold my beer'.

Day 2, just after the museum flashback. Funny you should mention it, I was just thinking this when Ellie and Dina decide to hide in the theater across the horde they just barely outran.

Clickers actually echo locate now, which is cool. Also a tip; just go prone when approaching a clicker from behind. You can just fully push the analog stick without risk of being heard that way.

Can you stealth kill from a prone position or do you always have to be crouching? With the echo location thing, does that mean if they scream in my direction they'll spot me? I had my suspicions but didn't try it out.

As bogged down by obnoxious, miserable edgelord story as this game is it has some of the finest third-person stealth action gameplay and enemy encounters I've ever experienced in a game. It's one hell of juxtaposition, with the story being one of the worst Naughty Dog has ever told, but the (action) gameplay being their best. Also the level design... *cheff's kiss*

It sucks that a game this good and polished is held hostage by a story, characters, and themes this insultingly juvenile.

Yeah, I love the game *game*. The trudging and chatting between the game *game* parts not so much, and it doesn't help that the bulk of the levels are wasted on it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Day 2, just after the museum flashback. Funny you should mention it, I was just thinking this when Ellie and Dina decide to hide in the theater across the horde they just barely outran.

I mean, Joel taking Ellie to a museum is kinda a big 'what the fuck'. That whole moment is cute and all, but why the hell would Joel risk their safety just for a birthday? Ellie even has her gun with her, and near the end its teased that some combat is going to happen.

There's some much 'well, this is just a thing now for reasons' in this game. Like Joel apparently having told Ellie how he tortured people. Something Joel would've never fucking done, but because the game wants there to be some dark parallel between Joel and Ellie I guess now he did. Just like how Ellie never would've left Jackson for revenge, and certainly never would've brought a dear friend/lover on a suicide mission. I'm already getting pissed off again.

Can you stealth kill from a prone position or do you always have to be crouching? With the echo location thing, does that mean if they scream in my direction they'll spot me? I had my suspicions but didn't try it out.

I think you need to be crouched to grab. And yeah, it's when they do the long throaty screech that they send out a big tracking cone, and if you're in it and not behind something they got you. They actually transferred this over to the Part 1 "remake".

Yeah, I love the game *game*. The trudging and chatting between the game *game* parts not so much, and it doesn't help that the bulk of the levels are wasted on it.

There is some very good parts still to come though, and very unlike what you just mentioned. Again, when this game is good, it's the best Naughty Dog has ever been.

 

[BrawlMan]

the best Naughty Dog has ever been.

No that goes to Uncharted 2, Jake II, and Crash Bandicoot 3.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I mean, Joel taking Ellie to a museum is kinda a big 'what the fuck'. That whole moment is cute and all, but why the hell would Joel risk their safety just for a birthday? Ellie even has her gun with her, and near the end its teased that some combat is going to happen.

I think Joel offhandedly mentions scouting the museum ahead of taking Ellie there, although of course that in turn raises the question of why would he risk his own safety for this. Never mind boosting Ellie into the other unexplored half of the museum, presuming (why?) he can get inside by just going around it.

Again I point to TWD. Characters making stupid decisions and taking unnecessary risks for the sake of a Kodak moment nobody in their right mind would be coveting. Isn't there a TWD episode literally about finding the ingredients to bake a cake?

 

[Casual Shinji]

It doesn't help none how completely boring Ellie and Dina are together. I've done my fair share of slowly walking/riding next to chatterbox NPCs, but where Arthur Morgan can have 20 wildly different conversations with 20 different characters about the same topic, Ellie and Dina flatline every interaction with their mildness. They have the intense chemistry of two neighbors momentarily sharing an elevator.

Yes, thank you. I don't know if it's the writing or the two actors just not having chemistry with eachother (probably both). What certainly doesn't help is Dina being written almost solely as 'supportive girlfriend'. I remember at the time not being too big a fan of Riley in the Left Behind DLC, but her chemistry with Ellie is leaps and bounds better than Dina's.

No that goes to Uncharted 2, Jake II, and Crash Bandicoot 3.

I said 'when the game is good'. Uncharted 2 is better overall, but combat wise that game is mid at best. And Jak 2 is notoriously janky in its mission design, where failing wouldn't reset your ammo count (and even the timer I think) and would actually make the game harder to near impossible to finish.

 

[BrawlMan]

said 'when the game is good'. Uncharted 2 is better overall, but combat wise that game is mid at best. And Jak 2 is notoriously janky in its mission design, where failing wouldn't reset your ammo count (and even the timer I think) and would actually make the game harder to near impossible to finish.

All three I would still prefer over 14 hour misery porn. Jank included. UC2's gameplay is a little above average.

 

[Casual Shinji]

All three I would still prefer over 14 hour misery porn. Jank included. UC2's gameplay is a little above average.

Jak 2... nah. In Jak 2 the gameplay was the misery porn.

 

[BrawlMan]

Jak 2... nah. In Jak 2 the gameplay was the misery porn.

Despite its problems, I still had fun. There is no misery porn as far as i'm concerned in Jak 2. That is my answer to that statement. I get no joy from TLOUS2 in any capacity.

 

[Ezekiel]

Just played two matches in SaveMGO (MGS4 multiplayer revived), did terribly. Everybody performing precise headshots with their controllers.

The move to shooter in MGS was lame. Don't like that starting in MGS4 you have to aim the gun with L1 before you can shoot, since the shoot button (R1) is also the melee button. MGS3 controls with primary actions on face buttons more interesting than staring at back in MGS4/5. Fight me.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Jak 2... nah. In Jak 2 the gameplay was the misery porn.

I still have flashback of the underwater mech segments.

 

[Drathnoxis]

So, i bought a discounted title called "Honey, i joined a cult", because i like the idea of managing cult, and the gameplay looks like Rimworld, Prison Architect or Clanfolk, which i all liked.

Well... pumped in a day of playing... and it is surprisingly boring.

We have mismatched story/atmosphere/logic: You clearly are a scam-artist grifting people for money... but ALSO there is weird shit going on and otherworldly powers/superscience exist and guide you. The "Random Encounters" are just meme and pop-culture references and the risk/reward is screwed up. The Missions are boring. The planning is too simple. The Compound is too static and you never have to adapt anything. For hours i could just expand without difficulty, by just being patient and run 100% safe reduce-HEAT missions every day. MIGHT get harder later on or throw some curveballs in the endgame - but my patience ran out.

So i remembered how much fun Rimworld was, and reinstalled that. (All the DLC's are too expensive, but even the main-game got some real nice quality-of-life upgrades since i last played)
Had to restart my naked single survivor in a harsh desert campaign because a rando lizard or emu, or a punk with a knife would cut me and i would die of infection or die in a sudden heatwave because i couldn't get enough wood together for a primitive cooler.
Yeah, punish me... just how i like it. Hm, yeah...

And Rimworld has the DLC where you can pretty much make a cult.

 

[Worgen]

Whew, I'm pretty sure I'm really close to the end of Persona 5 Royal. Whew, shit is happening.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I still have flashback of the underwater mech segments.

I don't even remember that. Those street races and walking mech bomb missions though...

 

[laggyteabag]

I recently got Frostpunk 2, and I'm sad to say that I'm not in love with it.

It is a move away from the first game, in that the first game is very granular - you build individual houses, etc - and the second game is much more large scale - you build entire housing districts, etc. I do respect the change in scale, in an effort to do something different, but I do feel less connected to my city, and also I feel like I have much less agency in where certain buildings/districts go, because I have to place districts on corresponding pre-determined nodes, whereas in the first game I could place almost every building wherever I wanted, but the challenge was finding and maintaining optimised space.

But I think my main issue when it comes to playing the game long-term, is that there aren't any scenarios to play, other than the main story, or a sandbox with generic objectives. In the first game and its DLCs, there were a bunch of different scenarios that changed the way that you played the game. You had your main story mission which was pretty "normal", then you had one mission where you had hundreds of refugees constantly streaming into your city, another where you had basically zero workers and three buildings that you had to keep warm at all times, and another where your whole city had previously been destroyed and you had to scavenge resources from all of the burnt-out buildings. In 2, you have one very long story mission with multiple objectives along the way, but not really anything that really changes how you approach the game. The only way it seems to have a meaningfully different scenario, would be if you were to play the whole thing again, but try to appease the other factions.

I do really like the expanded technology and law trees, and the extra focus on crime and squalor; these are really great additions. But as it stands, I don't really see myself wanting to revisit this game, where I constantly revisit Frostpunk 1.

We'll see what the expansions bring, I suppose.

Otherwise, I've been playing Orcs Must Die on my Steam Deck. This is a third-person tower defence game from 2011, where each level is a little dungeon. You're told where the enemies are coming from, and where they want to go, and then it is up to you to place a plethora of traps in between to stop the Orcs from getting to their objective, all whilst you can shoot or stab the orcs yourself in some (fairly basic) third person combat.

It is pretty simple, but also pretty fun to create your own little meatgrinder. Some of the levels that I have played so far have proven to be interesting challenges. The only real issue I suppose is that some of the traps are clearly better than others, either through efficiency, or cost to setup.

But its a fun little low-stakes game, that I am enjoying playing in bed.

 

[Worgen]

In addition to Persona 5, I've also been playing Darkest Dungeon 2 and Ravenswatch. My current run in Darkest Dungeon 2 is a kinda silly one, that is being weirdly successful, even though I just lost one guy. Starting team was Vestal as a frontline build, then the flagellant (who I just unlocked and didn't know how to play), plaguedoc as a surgeon build (powerful knife) and the occultist (who had powerful backline damage but was killed) who had to be replaced with the highwaymen (who I didn't remember didn't have good 4th spot damage) Everyone hates each other but it actually synergizes well with the weird science healing ability the Doc has since it heals more based on buffs and debuffs and removes them. Not to mention that the Flagellant is just really good at staying up forever and even self heals up to a point when his stress maxes out.

Beat ravenswatch with Beowulf, its really intended for multi, but it works ok single player.

 

[Gordon_4]

Finished LE1 on Insanity. It's laughably easy past a certain point when you know what squadmates to bring. I rolled mostly with Wrex, Tali and Liara, because they had access to the most useful powers. AI Hacking, Warp and Singularity proved the MVPs time and time again. The economy is every bit as fucked on Insanity as any other setting, the game literally stops displaying money numbers past 9,999,999. You're absolutely swimming in money by the halfway point, and there's nothing to spend it on except very rarely on some super powerful armor and weapons.

I know I already said this, but this game does not hold up aside from the solid writing and roleplay elements. The side content is a joke, the balance is laughable, the combat is janky, the storytelling is all over the place... this was lucky it came out in 2007, when groundbreaking games were coming out left and right.

Trust me, the changes Legendary Edition made to Mass Effect 1s combat upgraded it from Janky to Serviceable. In the old one, unless you had weapon proficiency and ranks, your reticle would spin all over the place; it was fucking absurd.

 

[laggyteabag]

Trust me, the changes Legendary Edition made to Mass Effect 1s combat upgraded it from Janky to Serviceable. In the old one, unless you had weapon proficiency and ranks, your reticle would spin all over the place; it was fucking absurd.

The first time I played Mass Effect 1, I loved it to bits.

The second time I played it - having since played through Mass Effect 2 and 3 - I couldn't stomach it. So I ditched it part-way through, downloaded a save with all of the choices I wanted to make, and just skipped straight to ME2. And that is how I've been replaying the Mass Effect games for a decade since, until the LE came out.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the gameplay changes to Mass Effect 1 in the LE. Even just being serviceable has literally saved the game for me.

 

[Gordon_4]

The first time I played Mass Effect 1, I loved it to bits.

The second time I played it - having since played through Mass Effect 2 and 3 - I couldn't stomach it. So I ditched it part-way through, downloaded a save with all of the choices I wanted to make, and just skipped straight to ME2. And that is how I've been replaying the Mass Effect games for a decade since, until the LE came out.

I cannot stress enough how much I appreciate the gameplay changes to Mass Effect 1 in the LE. Even just being serviceable has literally saved the game for me.

Agreed. I have replayed Mass Effect 1 LE more times this year than I ever played the original when it was fresh on the Xbox.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Started Watchdogs 2 yesterday. It's been SOOO long since I played a game like this, and between trying to reprogram my brain away from Elden Ring controls and Ubisoft's overly complicated interfaces and unintuitive menus, the struggle is real. I really liked the first Watchdogs, so I'm going to stick with this one as long as I can, but already, I'm not a fan of the vibe, being a part a 20-somethings rebel hacking group. I prefer the lone wolf vigilante aura of the first title; this so far feels like I'm just one a of bunch of techie punks.