What are you currently playing?

[NerfedFalcon]

Decided to pick up Spiderman on PS4. Started a new file because I needed to relearn everything after playing a lot of other games; decided to pick the hard difficulty (Spectacular) because I recently beat five games by From Software and how hard could it be? The answer is, still pretty hard, but not to the point where I've needed to give up and turn it down yet.

Played up to the art gallery mission that session. I remember doing Shocker in my last run as well, but not exactly how far I got from there.

 

[Gordon_4]

I was going to play Dragon Age: Inquisition, as I havent played it since the Trespasser DLC came out. Then I thought, hey, I might as well play Dragon Age 2, so I can lead into it. Then I thought, hey, I might as well play Dragon Age Origins, so I can lead into that.

So I guess I am starting my Dragon Age series playthrough?

After battling with EA support to get the game working (my DLC ownership had disappeared, and apparently EA couldn't verify that I actually owned the game), my first impressions were "God, this camera is horrible" and "Jesus, this game is hideous.". The UI doesnt even scale to 4K, so I am running around with tiny action bars and menus.

The combat is great. The story is great. The characters are fun, and well voiced. The music is great. Seemingly everything but the visual presentation is great. Im having fun, but god, this game is not a looker.

I just need to figure out if it bothers me enough to dig into modding.

I've called the combat in DragonAge: Origins a lot of things. Great is not one of them.

I'm always so eager to get in fights with David, the massive douche. Looking forward to the global results at the end of episode 2, just to see how many people actually emptied their pockets for him.

Is that Step Douche in Life is Strange? He's a dick.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

62 percent of you emptied your pockets for him?! Didn't know gamers were such a submissive bunch.

That’s the paradox of sorts with games like this. There’s what your own personality or instincts lead you to do, but then there’s also the voice in the back of your head saying, I probably won’t get the “good” ending making this or that choice.

I guess I’ve never been able to completely disregard that factor. Maybe I’ll try to do so with the prequel after finishing What Remains of Edith Finch. The original LiS was decent enough to make me curious about Chloe’s backstory.


Anyways, got the hunting requests done in RDR2, and went to visit the old lady who started me on this whole excursion back when I was playing as Arthur. As far as side quests go, this one was one of the more bitter sweet and oddly worth the humorous payoff. If she wasn’t convincingly missing a few marbles this scene would’ve fizzled out, after spending over a dozen or so hours finding everything for her.

Spoiler

Now the next part is playing music statue from what I’ve read, but at least the hard part is done with

 

[laggyteabag]

I've called the combat in DragonAge: Origins a lot of things. Great is not one of them.

Okay, maybe "great" was exaggerating a bit, but it isn't awful.

I don't immediately sigh when I get into a fight, and I would say that I do enjoy it.

Sure, the animations are garbage, and the whole "the game is rolling dice in the background" thing isn't for everyone, but it certainly isn't bad - at least from my current perspective, playing a twin-dagger rogue on normal.

I would probably enjoy it more if it was turn-based, though.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Thomas Was Alone

Basically an experiment in pareidolia: let's see how much humanity we can inject into a bunch of color rectangles trapped in a labyrinth by little else than the use of a nerdy British narration and a melancholy musical score. The game is all simple geometric shapes and monochromatic shading that make Sound Shapes (anothe great puzzle-platformer about basic geometry braving a death gauntlet) look like Skyrim. The puzzles themselves aren't as hard to solve as they are to figure out but the difficulty curve kicks up every other level and every new character brings a new gameplay mechanic into play. So overall it's engaging enough, and the story and characters keep things funny and interesting and endearing.

 

[happyninja42]

Playing Surviving the Aftermath, new update that changed some of the mechanics, but not a whole lot. It's a fun game, and I love the "fix the mess of an apocalypse" kind of setting for a city builder. I like taking something turned to shit, and fixing it up and making it sustainable again. StA does that for me very well.

I wish there was more....I dunno, larger impact I guess? Like I enjoy the expanding town design, and sending out explorers to scavenge in the larger map is also very fun, but there isn't really interaction with those 2 game elements. The overworld map is entirely isolated, aside from having resources you can gather and take back to the town. You can encounter other settlements if you explore enough, and you can establish trade with them, but again, it's just a source of resources, nothing more. There is a "Diplomacy" tab on the trade menu, but so far it's not implemented. I'd really like some kind of cooperative setup, as each of the other settlements have their own flavor. There is an ecologially focused "tree hugger" group, that's all about growing and agriculture (even though their trade goods don't always reflect this focus, which is annoying), a group called Malltown, which, as you might guess, are in a mall. An ex-military style community that still act like soldiers to a degree, etc. It's really neat how they are flavored, but the implementation of their supplies, is fairly uniform, which I dislike. I'd REALLY like it if it was more set where groups like the Junktown had all kinds of mechanical supplies, but never had food, so they were always eager for food in trade. Which would work well for me, as I tend to build a town that is food heavy on production. So being the bread basket for a larger area, appeals to me. I could establish a constant trade with them, for the mechanical parts I need to build/maintain my power grid, that are fairly difficult to get, and send them truck loads of vegetables and fish as trade.

It's still a very fun game though, it's sort of my "chill out" title currently. I turn on one of the in-game radio stations for some in-universe music, chill out, and manage my little people as they try and reclaim their area from the pollution, and re-establish a human society.

 

[Dalisclock]

Still working Spiritfarer. I think I'm getting close to the last stretch because I'm running out improvements and houses for my boat, I've just gotten the ability to go through the fog and I don't think there are that many spirits left for me to get.

Still good, but there's a couple nitpicks.

-I just learned how to make glue and get the ectoplasm because those things are tied to Stanley. Stanley being one of the few spirits you don't find on an island, but rather by fishing and getting a special seed which then you grow into him. I hadn't really fished much after the early game because very few spirits want to eat fish as opposed to anything else and you can harvest shellfish off the side of your boat pretty easily, which serves the same purpose for seafood. So I was held up on some stuff because of that.

-I've generally liked the spirits so far, but Micky and Bruce are seriously obnoxious. They're rude, very picky about what they want, everything they want is tacky and expensive and treat Stella like a servant. The fact they act like mobsters(or maybe just jerkass New Yorkers) really, really doesn't help either. I honestly can't wait to get those two off my boat. Well, I guess I should rephrase that. Bruce is all of those things, while Micky....doesn't really talk, which makes me wonder what his deal is and if he's got some sort of serious issue Bruce doesn't talk about(but he'll yammer about everything else).

Giovanni was kind of a jerk but had some charm and likable traits, but Bruce...Can I toss him back or something?

 

[Trunkage]

Alpha Protocol

Obsidian made a game that makes Morrowind’s gamplay look awesome...

But the story is incredible. Where was this team when they made NV? And all the branches choices and the consequences of actions are unparalleled. You can insult people to YOUR BENEFIT. Riling someone up has actual consequences that have real tangible benefits. While slapping a journalist for their questions is cartharic, it means nothing. Manipulating one bad guy to kill another bad guy based one secret information you gathered on both is satisfying. Doing your research pays off. Everyone has a motive and the bad guys are very good at verbal manipulation. Failure for them is just as profitable as winning, so even your successes can be turned against you. Changing your atitude based on the person your talking to is rewarded.

Such an exceptional game with just terrible gameplay
10/10 for story and choice. I wish Obisidian would write stories as good as this again
4/10 for gameplay

 

[Dalisclock]

Alpha Protocol

Obsidian made a game that makes Morrowind’s gamplay look awesome...


Such an exceptional game with just terrible gameplay
10/10 for story and choice. I wish Obisidian would write stories as good as this again
4/10 for gameplay

What, you didn't like fighting a coked up russian over and over again to "Video killed the radio star"?

 

[BrawlMan]

Speed Brawl (PS4) [also on XBONE, Switch, & PC]. Finally dropped 20 bones on this, and it is worth it. It's like beat'em up combined with a racing game. And you fight in Smash style arenas. The game is all about finishing fights as fast as possible. Gold medals nets you better gear and stats. The game has two attack buttons, a dash button, a Bayonetta style dodge button (L1/LB/L), an Marvel vs. Capcom tag system, parry, and ultimate attacks. Once again, professional critics slept on this or did not bother learning the mechanics of the game (Giant Bomb), and it was up to the smaller people in the YouTube community to pick up the slack. The game had done well thanks to word of mouth.

​

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Finished 'Act 1' of Spiderman on PS4... I don't know. It's just not really grabbing me the way that Ghost of Tsushima did. It's not bad, I'm just not feeling it.

I'll probably leave it there for a while and maybe come back to it sometime, maybe not. For now, I'll probably switch to playing God of War instead like I planned to originally.

 

[Trunkage]

What, you didn't like fighting a coked up russian over and over again to "Video killed the radio star"?

I liked it about as much as he liked my 6 quickshots to the head

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished 'Act 1' of Spiderman on PS4... I don't know. It's just not really grabbing me the way that Ghost of Tsushima did. It's not bad, I'm just not feeling it.

I'll probably leave it there for a while and maybe come back to it sometime, maybe not. For now, I'll probably switch to playing God of War instead like I planned to originally.

I haven't played it but Shamus Young(if you remember him from the old days on this site) did a long winded look at the game. https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=44629

He liked playing it but the plot and a number of other elements gave him a lot to nitpick. Particularly anything with (I have no idea if you'd consider this a plot spoiler or not) Silver Sable..

Granted, that's also what this man does. He did the entire Mass effect series and wrote a novel's worth on mostly where the plot tends to fail to hold up to the standards it sets for itself(which is an interesting read if your so inclined).

 

[happyninja42]

Alpha Protocol

Obsidian made a game that makes Morrowind’s gamplay look awesome...

But the story is incredible. Where was this team when they made NV? And all the branches choices and the consequences of actions are unparalleled. You can insult people to YOUR BENEFIT. Riling someone up has actual consequences that have real tangible benefits. While slapping a journalist for their questions is cartharic, it means nothing. Manipulating one bad guy to kill another bad guy based one secret information you gathered on both is satisfying. Doing your research pays off. Everyone has a motive and the bad guys are very good at verbal manipulation. Failure for them is just as profitable as winning, so even your successes can be turned against you. Changing your atitude based on the person your talking to is rewarded.

Such an exceptional game with just terrible gameplay
10/10 for story and choice. I wish Obisidian would write stories as good as this again
4/10 for gameplay

Yeah I actually stopped playing AP at the climax of the game, I just realized that I didn't actually know what was going on, or why. It was like I'd tuned out for the whole game and was like "oh, wait, i'm in the bond villain lair? Why am I here again? " And just...turned it off.

I did love the reputation system they used in that game though. My favorite example was :

When you sneak into that mercenary HQ to steal some files, and you speak to their boss via tablet right after. And if you didn't kill anyone, and didn't get spotted he's impressed with your professionalism, and is instantly much more inclined to work with you.

It was things like that, that made me really like the game. That and the little perks like "hey you just did 100 stealth non-lethal takedowns, so we guess you are going a Sneaky Boy route, so here's a perk that makes your noise radius when moving 25% less, go have fun Sneaky Boy!"

The story though...meh.

 

[Adam Jensen]

Yeah, the actual story of Alpha Protocol is not very interesting. But it's not about the plot, it's about how all the decisions have a real and measurable impact on what happens. It's one of very few examples of choice/consequence done extraordinarily well.

We need a sequel or a spiritual successor. My dream game would be Alpha Protocol attention to choice/consequence system and the characters, and Splinter Cell Blacklist gameplay.

 

[happyninja42]

But it's not about the plot, it's about how all the decisions have a real and measurable impact on what happens.

But if the decisions are impacting a story I don't give a shit about, why should I give a shit about the decisions? Because I had been making those decisions the entire game, and by the end, I was so disinterested in what was going on, that I literally just shut it off mid scene in the climax map. I just...didn't care. So, you can have the coolest game structure ever made, but if the story you drape over it is trash, I'm not going to care, or play it.

 

[BrawlMan]

But if the decisions are impacting a story I don't give a shit about, why should I give a shit about the decisions? Because I had been making those decisions the entire game, and by the end, I was so disinterested in what was going on, that I literally just shut it off mid scene in the climax map. I just...didn't care. So, you can have the coolest game structure ever made, but if the story you drape over it is trash, I'm not going to care, or play it.

I can see you and Adam's point of view. I barely remember anything when AP first came out when I was in college. All I know is one of my friends was orgasming over all the decisions you can make. I looked at the gameplay on YouTube and I'm like "that's it.?" Before anyone brings up Rayveick's hour-long AP video, I've already seen the whole thing.

 

[happyninja42]

I can see you and Adam's point of view. I barely remember anything when AP first came out when I was in college. All I know is one of my friends was orgasming over all the decisions you can make. I looked at the gameplay on YouTube and I'm like "that's it.?" Before anyone brings up Rayveick's hour-long AP video, I've already seen the whole thing.

For me, I remember a total of....well I guess 3 things, because the Russian lady banging my PC was a fairly unique gaming experience. It's honestly the only time in gaming I can recall a woman sexually (assaulting? I mean I did choose Agree, so I guess not) a protagonist as he's tied up on a table. So that was new I guess.

Other than that, I remember A. The thing with that merc group's owner and how he really liked me because I didn't kill his men, and was sneaky enough to avoid detection. And B. The fact that the game gave you little perks based on your playstyle, that further specialized your playstyle (the "you did a lot of sneaky takedowns, so here's a perk that makes you even harder to detect") That is literally all I remember about that game.

But, I might be a bit biased, as I genuinely don't like Obsidian's titles. Other than Tyranny, which was fun, but was still something of a chore to play through until I got to the part that wasn't me playing the servant of an asshole. Otherwise, I personally think they are highly overrated.

 

[Adam Jensen]

But if the decisions are impacting a story I don't give a shit about, why should I give a shit about the decisions? Because I had been making those decisions the entire game, and by the end, I was so disinterested in what was going on, that I literally just shut it off mid scene in the climax map. I just...didn't care. So, you can have the coolest game structure ever made, but if the story you drape over it is trash, I'm not going to care, or play it.

Usually when a story revolves around the plot, the characters are not as interesting, and vice versa. Alpha Protocol is one of those titles that's all about the characters. The plot is just there as something for these characters to be involved in. A reason for their existence. An opposite example would be Dragon Age 2. A cast of mostly boring characters who are there just to drive the plot that sets in motion the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Finished 'Act 1' of Spiderman on PS4... I don't know. It's just not really grabbing me the way that Ghost of Tsushima did. It's not bad, I'm just not feeling it.

I'll probably leave it there for a while and maybe come back to it sometime, maybe not. For now, I'll probably switch to playing God of War instead like I planned to originally.

To reiterate it is worth checking out the classic trilogy at least, if you’re really interested. It will give more weight and yield appreciation to some of the happenings of the reboot, and design changes.

On topic, chipping away at What Remains of Edith Finch. Currently I suppose I’m on a three game rotation: RDR2 for Platinum run, MK11 for mainstay action, and this for an Indie.

There’s a sort of game breaking part in Barbara’s story that I’ve seen complaints about online that I’ve run into the last two sessions. When you’re going through the tunnel and see her room ahead, there is also a path to the left about halfway with a hand icon. Naturally I try that one first, and it takes you back out into the upstairs hallway. Apparently there’s no way to get back into the tunnel, and the music box key won’t work yet. So I did what others did and closed out the game to dashboard and restarted, ignoring the side tracking optional route which probably should’ve been patched out.


Otherwise, I’m digging the story and creative progression choices. Plus the fact they got a license for the Halloween theme was pretty grin-inducing. Tis the season.