What are you currently playing?

[Johnny Novgorod]

Finished Transiruby. This game was neat! Not especially challenging but very ingeniously designed and structured to make the most of a few unique gameplay conceits. Feels like everything I've played after Nine Sols has been chill, breezy and mostly undemanding, a few brainteasers aside: Creaks, flOw, Flower, Flynn: Son of Crimson and The Stanley Parable.

Ender Magnolia releases January 23, that should be a fun step up in difficulty. Ender Lilies had some tough bosses to it.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

After trying and failing to even open both Resident Evil 4 and Hi-Fi Rush, I ended up back on Black Myth Wukong again after not playing it for a while. I think it's actually closer to Sekiro than Dark Souls; between the basic level design philosophy, the combat giving you one core weapon and a lot of modular options as opposed to a hundred weapons to customize as you like, and the much more lenient death penalty (only losing progress to a checkpoint instead of dropping all your EXP or money). It's also got some really cool details, like how if you transform into a previously defeated boss while fighting someone with a lore connection to them, they'll comment upon it.

It's a lot of fun once you start getting into it, and especially if you're used to the Dark Souls trilogy or Elden Ring it's actually a pretty major change from them. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.

 

[gorfias]

Was watching a video about the "Best Looking Games Ever Made" and it starts with Battlefield V. Somehow (did I get it for free somehow?) I have it in my library and I don't think I've ever played. No campaign, online only. So, I gave it a try. Annnnd after about 3 min. after starting, it let me into the game, though, I was by myself. It read it needed another 15 players (2 teams of 8. Me, a guy/8 w/ 0/8 enemy) to start the game. So I looked around, note the mud looked really, really good. And F4. OK. Off to play something else.

 

[Ezekiel]

I remember this area in London. Pretty sure this level was the one I quit the game in during my first attempt eight years ago. I still dislike this area. Figuring out in what order to press the door-opening buttons.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Silent hill 2 remake
Was relieved to learn playtime don't affect final outcome. Cos I may got a problem!
if you were to guess, how many hours? 10? 20? 35? 60?? 100???

Spoiler: Perhaps is best left unexplained

is a lot of getting distracted lol

Only disappointment was final credits track sounded more like a first band's first recording instead of the moody ambience and piano beats the soundscape committed to along the way. Was a tad jarring. But otherwise great work, voice actting somehow managed to ride an impressively thin line between hitting the original stilted awkwardness of untrained randos in recording studio for first time, and still being like good? And convincing? Maybe even some of the best in the medium? I dunno, could just be me as am very finicky bout VA in games cause even some of the most revered still sounds subpar compared to other mediums so is a rare treat to hear.

Moving on. Might as well try, uh, *checks schedule* dying of old age! While playing Amnesia the Bunker Bois.

 

[Kyrian007]

So on Monday (strangely for some reason) I started on a replay of Far Cry 5. I'm not sure why, but suddenly I was in the mood to virtual murder a bunch of 2A gun nut Christian fundamentalist cult yokels. I mean, it has been a little over 4 years since the last time I pulled up FC5. Seems like a decent time to go back to it for some reason.

But on that note... it got me thinking. How many other games are there where the main character is American... and the primary game loop is shooting other Americans... AND the main character is without a doubt portrayed as the hero, the good guy? I honestly couldn't think of any. Lots where the character is an antihero or just of ambiguous morals. A few more that are "choices matter" binary good/bad choice stories. L.A. Noire? Not really, the primary loop there is trying to determine if someone is lying or not. It took me a while and to have to go all the way back to Lucasarts Outlaws to realize that the only shooters that really qualify are Westerns... where you play as law enforcement or some other good aligned character. So all I got is Outlaws and Weird West. And I like FC5, Outlaws, and Weird West.

Huh... I like games where you are the good guy for shooting Americans. Ehh, probably a coincidence.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Replayed Donut County over the weekend, now I'm waiting for Ender Magnolia to release/get home from work to play it.

 

[BrawlMan]

How many other games are there where the main character is American... and the primary game loop is shooting other Americans

Crysis 2 and Crysis 3.

Spawn: In the Demon's Hands. An arcade and Dreamcast game I have not touched since the year 2000. It's like Capcom's answer to Spikeout, but includes 3rd person shooter elements. It is a boss rush game.

Gauntlet Legends. Another oldie I have not touched since the early 2000s. This game has aged surprising well, and it's just fun killing tons of monsters and getting all these weapons and power upgrades. It's super simple, but fun. Dark Legacy is an upgraded version on 6th generation consoles that adds a few more characters and gives everyone new moves, but I haven't touched that in years either. Though I heard it's good.

 

[Ezekiel]

Hi-Fi Rush

Destroyed three of the big spherical nodes in the level with the pink-haired woman as villain. Want it to end. It's a bland game. The timing, now with parries, is pretty tedious. You defeated all these enemies, now try not to have it all cancelled out and die as this samurai spells the difficult to repeat beat of attacks that you have to then counter. Environmental traversal is bad, so monotonous combat is all there is, and it's only mediocre.

 

[BrawlMan]

Destroyed three of the big spherical nodes in the level with the pink-haired woman as villain

Corsica is her name. Her hair is more of a magenta than pink.

Want it to end.

Then stop your crying and just don't play the game, if you feel that way.

The timing, now with parries, is pretty tedious. You defeated all these enemies, now try not to have it all cancelled out and die as this samurai spells the difficult to repeat beat of attacks that you have to then counter. Environmental traversal is bad, so monotonous combat is all there is, and it's only mediocre.

The timing is not tedious and it's just your lack of skill and you wanting it to be easy. It's called either get good with it or don't bother at all.

 

[thebobmaster]

Crysis 2 and Crysis 3.

Spawn: In the Demon's Hands. An arcade and Dreamcast game I have not touched since the year 2000. It's like Capcom's answer to Spikeout, but includes 3rd person shooter elements. It is a boss rush game.

Gauntlet Legends. Another oldie, I have not touched since the early 2000s. This game has age surprising. Well, and it's just fun killing tons of monsters and getting all these weather in power of grades. It's simple but fun. Dark Legacy is an upgraded version That adds a few more characters and gives new moves, but I haven't only touched that in years either. Though I heard it's good.

"Elf needs food. Wizard has shot the food."

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

How many other games are there where the main character is American... and the primary game loop is shooting other Americans...

The Last of U-

AND the main character is without a doubt portrayed as the hero, the good guy?

...

 

[meiam]

So on Monday (strangely for some reason) I started on a replay of Far Cry 5. I'm not sure why, but suddenly I was in the mood to virtual murder a bunch of 2A gun nut Christian fundamentalist cult yokels. I mean, it has been a little over 4 years since the last time I pulled up FC5. Seems like a decent time to go back to it for some reason.

But on that note... it got me thinking. How many other games are there where the main character is American... and the primary game loop is shooting other Americans... AND the main character is without a doubt portrayed as the hero, the good guy? I honestly couldn't think of any. Lots where the character is an antihero or just of ambiguous morals. A few more that are "choices matter" binary good/bad choice stories. L.A. Noire? Not really, the primary loop there is trying to determine if someone is lying or not. It took me a while and to have to go all the way back to Lucasarts Outlaws to realize that the only shooters that really qualify are Westerns... where you play as law enforcement or some other good aligned character. So all I got is Outlaws and Weird West. And I like FC5, Outlaws, and Weird West.

Huh... I like games where you are the good guy for shooting Americans. Ehh, probably a coincidence.

The Last of U-



...

Well if the news lately have brought you down, I present you what a real american president is like

 

[Worgen]

Beat FF7 remake on hard mode. Whew that Sephiroth fight sucks if you don't have the right materia set. Had to look up a guide, really just for the materia and gear and found I had played through the whole thing pretty substandard since I never leveled some of the most powerful materia like elemental, which at max lvl lets you absorb certain spells.

Also got to the third semester in Persona 5 Royal after replaying it.

Also got to the end game in Path of Exile 2. Its kinda neat, going around a big map with various things, still figuring it out, certainly harder then the popcorn enemies in the normal levels.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Started Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist.

First impressions:

It's basically more Ender Lilies. Same vaguely Bloodborne-y setting, same kind of protagonist (an amnesiac Loli), same Metroidvania moveset. Some QoL improvements, mostly pertaining the original game's janky map and UI. The overall feeling I get is that it's more of the same but feels generally faster, comfier, easier. Not a jump like from Blasphemous to Blasphemous 2 but within that ballpark.

You can now slot four allies/monsters: a basic attack, a cooldown attack, a passive and a support. You can cancel out of anything, there's no contact damage, no corpse runs, you can fast travel to any bench from anywhere on the map. You get the double jump AND the air dash at the same time, within 20 freaking minutes of playing. That's a bold move.

The story is still the usual Souls mumbo-jumbo about a dying or cursed world (step aside, The Blight - now we're dealing with The Fumes). To the game's credit at least now there's a semblance of personality by letting you talk to your party and get a feel for them as characters rather than mere NPCs.

I think I'll like it about the same as Ender Lilies. I think it's a little unexciting just how much the games feel like but also how much easier the sequel is. But it's still a solid A-tier Metroidvania and if nothing else it manages to feel like a proper adventure as opposed to something to be merely completed.

 

[Kyrian007]

Crysis 2 and Crysis 3.

Set in America, Protagonist is American, and the "good" guy (even if he isn't working for a "good guy." But primary loop is shooting Koreans and Aliens.

Spawn: In the Demon's Hands. An arcade and Dreamcast game I have not touched since the year 2000. It's like Capcom's answer to Spikeout, but includes 3rd person shooter elements. It is a boss rush game.

I'll give you that one, didn't know until today it existed.

Gauntlet Legends. Another oldie I have not touched since the early 2000s. This game has aged surprising well, and it's just fun killing tons of monsters and getting all these weapons and power upgrades. It's super simple, but fun. Dark Legacy is an upgraded version on 6th generation consoles that adds a few more characters and gives everyone new moves, but I haven't touched that in years either. Though I heard it's good.

So yeah, FC 5 is pretty unique in that sense. And it almost doesn't qualify seeing as the only canon "good" ending is

Spoiler

leaving the cult alone and walking away right at the beginning, making the "good" ending the same as the "joke" ending (the same as FC4 basically.)

Fallout... Kind of. Canonically the player character can be the bad guy, and America as a country doesn't really exist anymore. Call it close.
Spec Ops: The Line... Well, you do fight lots of American soldiers. But the player character is barely even an antihero, he's basically the game's primary villain.

I'm still coming up mostly empty. The only ones I can think of are games where you are law enforcement of some kind and the bad guys (while Americans) are criminals. Westerns and FC5 fit into that category.

 

[BrawlMan]

y (even if he isn't working for a "good guy." But primary loop is shooting Koreans

That's the first game. The Koreans never show up in the sequels. The closest are some exposition journal entries that mention them in Crysis 3, but that's it.

I'll give you that one, didn't know until today it existed.

Understandable. It's one of those, you really had to be around the Arcade/Dreamcast days to notice it. My brother and I only knew about the game, because a friend of ours had a Dreamcast, and we caught the game in two different arcades back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

 

[Satinavian]

So yeah, FC 5 is pretty unique in that sense.

Aren't there heaps of American Civil War and Wild West games that qualify for Americans shooting Americans ?

 

[Kyrian007]

That's the first game. The Koreans never show up in the sequels. The closest are some exposition journal entries that mention them in Crysis 3, but that's it.

Ahh, only played the first one and Google's AI is stupid and lists the primary enemies of 2 and 3 as Koreans.

Aren't there heaps of American Civil War and Wild West games that qualify for Americans shooting Americans ?

Honestly, not really. I did say some westerns would qualify as something FC 5 like. Generally ones where the protagonist is Sheriff/law enforcement. But most fail the "player character IS the good guy" requirement. That's why things like the Red Dead series don't really qualify for the same reason GTA games don't either, as the player character is usually an outlaw. So I can name Lucasarts Outlaws and Weird West off the top of my head. Oh, and Gun... for all 8 of us that remember that game. And if you want to go way back Gunsmoke and Sunset Riders, not really a lot of story there but I guess they count. But if we're counting that, then things like Elevator Action count as well.

Half-Life, at least the middle 3rd of the first game probably fits. So I guess 1/3rd of Half-Life 1.

And Civil War games... yeah, not actually many of them out there. And most of what is are civ style strategy games where either the Civil War is a focus, or is DLC for a strategy game covering many different wars. And strategy games don't really count considering they are either history or alternate history or just don't really have a narrative element.

I'm really looking for games that present an in-game story where shooting fellow Americans is considered morally OK enough that the main character isn't a criminal or villain, but is still considered "the hero." A Civil War game would only qualify if the only player characters available were Union side, fighting on the rebel side would disqualify as preserving slavery is morally bankrupt enough to destroy any "legitimate" reason someone could have for supporting the south. Oh... wasn't there some time travel game where a Civil War battle was featured? That level of that game might count... sort of. I'm still not coming up with a lot of games that qualify.

 

[BrawlMan]

Ahh, only played the first one and Google's AI is stupid and lists the primary enemies of 2 and 3 as Koreans.

Google AI is complete ass. I agree. You can't trust nothing at the top page anymore.