I'm currently juggling playing AC:O with my wife as copilot and observer. I'm also playing Bannerlord (though it's pretty buggy right now for a character type I'm focusing on, so taking a break), and XCOM: Chimera Squad.
What are you currently playing?
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The game of the month on my r/patientgamers discord server is Final Fantasy VII - the original, naturally - and I'm having a blast replaying it. I absolutely love FFVII; it took me a long time to finally get around to it, but I'm very glad I did, but it's been a few years since then so having a nice reason to pick it back up off the shelf and give it another spin is great.
I've just closed up Disc 1 in my playthrough. Gonna give it a few days break and then crack on with Disc 2!
I've just closed up Disc 1 in my playthrough. Gonna give it a few days break and then crack on with Disc 2!
Lockdown has resulted in quite a lot of gaming, predictably. Since it began, I've played through Nioh 2, The Last of Us, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, SOMA, and am currently on Rayman Legends. Also earned the Platinum trophies for Nioh 2 & Crash Bandicoot 2. Also nearly completed my Pokedex in Pokemon Shield, & put about an hour a day into Guild Wars 2 hunting a fourth legendary weapon.
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@CriticalGaming since you asked for it a few weeks ago, my thoughts on the Trial of Mana remake, since I just finished it. Fyi, never played the original.
I have a love-hate relationship with it. It's not great, maybe not even good. But I also kind of like it. Considering which other game its release and presumably development coincided with, I have a feeling Square didn't put their A team to work on this, nor give it much of a budget. In many ways it feels and plays like a early PS2 era action jrpg with all its idiosyncrasies, which I'm usually fairly tolerant of, but there were still many things that really annoyed me. The bad voice acting that belong in the 90s. The awkward stilted writing. The predictable cliched story. The general glitchiness and lack of polish. The loading screens, oh, the loading screen, the worst example the ones for the menu to change class, one to get in, one to get out, for each character, so 6 in total, just for a model change.
Yet, I still finished it. Did the bonus postgame content. I enjoyed it even. Because despite all the glaring problems, there's a lot of charm in it. Like the visual design, those 16 bit sprites faithfully translated into 3d, down to the palette swaps. I like how the soundtrack has remained videogamey. Many games nowadays would go for an often overproduced bombastic orchestral score, which has its uses, but not here. Nope, just old-school bouncy tunes with modern but restrained production quality. Lovely. And of course the battle system. Simple, yes, but elegant and satisfying in its simplicity. Especially the bosses, which are plentiful, generally well-designed and above all, fun to fight. All in all, deeply flawed, but not without its merits. Would I recommend it? Not unless you're into action rpgs.
I have a love-hate relationship with it. It's not great, maybe not even good. But I also kind of like it. Considering which other game its release and presumably development coincided with, I have a feeling Square didn't put their A team to work on this, nor give it much of a budget. In many ways it feels and plays like a early PS2 era action jrpg with all its idiosyncrasies, which I'm usually fairly tolerant of, but there were still many things that really annoyed me. The bad voice acting that belong in the 90s. The awkward stilted writing. The predictable cliched story. The general glitchiness and lack of polish. The loading screens, oh, the loading screen, the worst example the ones for the menu to change class, one to get in, one to get out, for each character, so 6 in total, just for a model change.
Yet, I still finished it. Did the bonus postgame content. I enjoyed it even. Because despite all the glaring problems, there's a lot of charm in it. Like the visual design, those 16 bit sprites faithfully translated into 3d, down to the palette swaps. I like how the soundtrack has remained videogamey. Many games nowadays would go for an often overproduced bombastic orchestral score, which has its uses, but not here. Nope, just old-school bouncy tunes with modern but restrained production quality. Lovely. And of course the battle system. Simple, yes, but elegant and satisfying in its simplicity. Especially the bosses, which are plentiful, generally well-designed and above all, fun to fight. All in all, deeply flawed, but not without its merits. Would I recommend it? Not unless you're into action rpgs.
Just finished playing XCOM: Chimera Squad.
It was a fun experience overall, and a nice, relatively short spinoff to bide me over until whenever the next mainline game comes out. The breach mechanic is very nice, and works well mechanically and thematically. The agents felt very distinct from each other in terms of abilities, though I really did miss the customisation of the previous games.
As for the negatives the voice acting and the characters themselves weren't particularly great, the game had plenty of glitches (I had restart the last encounter of the final mission because I got stuck in an endless loop), the bosses all felt like regular enemies with more health, some agents were much more useful than others, the game felt easier overall than the previous two entries (but still challenging enough to be fun), and there wasn't much variety in missions.
It was a fun experience overall, and a nice, relatively short spinoff to bide me over until whenever the next mainline game comes out. The breach mechanic is very nice, and works well mechanically and thematically. The agents felt very distinct from each other in terms of abilities, though I really did miss the customisation of the previous games.
As for the negatives the voice acting and the characters themselves weren't particularly great, the game had plenty of glitches (I had restart the last encounter of the final mission because I got stuck in an endless loop), the bosses all felt like regular enemies with more health, some agents were much more useful than others, the game felt easier overall than the previous two entries (but still challenging enough to be fun), and there wasn't much variety in missions.
That's the usual response. I like the story, but there are gameplay issues abound. The fact the stealth is even more annoying and not improves upon makes it worse. After beating it once, I never picked it up again. Youngblood is even worse. So save yourself some money and don't bother.
I thought it was pretty buggy too. But then I remember Xcom 2 being really buggy and I only played it during WOTC release time. So, I think its par for the course.
Youngblood makes me sad. It sounded like a cool premise for a spinoff game but everything I've heard about it since launch is pretty much that they dropped the ball on making it live up to the premise.
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My big problem with the game is that I never feel like I'm actually in control of my character. The controls change so frequently depending on context that I never feel like I'm building the necessary muscle memory to confidently play the game.
Like the basic controls change depending on whether something is a plot mission or a side quest.
For example, sometimes putting on your mask is 1 button but sometimes you have to go into your bad, scroll through 3 menus and hold 2 buttons to put the mask on. I've had story missions where a character will tell me to put my mask on, so I go into the bag to do it, and then the mask isn't available, or Arthur won't put it on. Then I walk forward 2 feet an a button prompt will show up to put the mask on. I HATE shit like this.
It's like there were 2 teams, one that did the story missions and one that did the side missions, and none of them talked to each other about how the controls and menus were supposed to work so we have a bunch of different controls to perform the same exact actions. Playing it is absolutely awful and frustrating.
The game keeps punishing me for not pushing the right button, but is really bad about teaching me what the right button was supposed to be. I end up having to trial and error missions constantly.
Just finished inFAMOUS: Second Son.
Maybe it's been long enough since I played the inFAMOUS games on the PS3 that I can play Second Son and feel perfectly satisfied with it. It's essentially the same game, just much shorter and with a smaller sandbox. My biggest gripe is that all 4 powers Delsin gets are largely interchangeable despite the supposed variety (smoke, neon, video, concrete) and visual distinction. Really each boils down to a melee button, a hover button, light/heavy projectiles and special AOE attacks, just with different particle effects. The biggest difference is that each new power makes it slightly easier to move around town, but that just means there's never a reason to go back to a previous power. I wish the powers would've complimented each other for some tactical gameplay instead of just succeeding each other as color upgrades. To be fair, smoke is the nominal power while neon emphasizes precision (zoom slows down time, missiles have to be charged) and video emphasizes stealth (you turn invisible, deploy decoys). But there's no tactical benefit to choose one over the other. Enemy variety is low and there isn't much strategy to how to take anything that isn't a boss.
Anyway, other than that, I liked the general gameplay. Comparing it to Gravity Rush 2, the other superhero sim I was just busy with, there's a freedom and versatility to Second Son that I really appreciate. The city's small-ish but teeming with all sorts of events and activities that are so much more satisfying than anything GR2 throws at you because you're in and out like it's no big deal and everything is just spontaneous and satisfying. Whereas everything in Gravity Rush has to fade in, fade out, load in, tutorialize, explain, interrupt, show in-game cutscene, show comic book cutscene and fail you if you so much as look the other way at any point. Gameplay becomes a minimal part in Gravity Rush's connect-the-interruptions experience. Whereas Second Son is almost purely gameplay, always playing to the strengths of parkour and combat. Even if it falls short in creativity it's never going to force anything you don't wanna do on you, and it's consistently fun.
Maybe it's been long enough since I played the inFAMOUS games on the PS3 that I can play Second Son and feel perfectly satisfied with it. It's essentially the same game, just much shorter and with a smaller sandbox. My biggest gripe is that all 4 powers Delsin gets are largely interchangeable despite the supposed variety (smoke, neon, video, concrete) and visual distinction. Really each boils down to a melee button, a hover button, light/heavy projectiles and special AOE attacks, just with different particle effects. The biggest difference is that each new power makes it slightly easier to move around town, but that just means there's never a reason to go back to a previous power. I wish the powers would've complimented each other for some tactical gameplay instead of just succeeding each other as color upgrades. To be fair, smoke is the nominal power while neon emphasizes precision (zoom slows down time, missiles have to be charged) and video emphasizes stealth (you turn invisible, deploy decoys). But there's no tactical benefit to choose one over the other. Enemy variety is low and there isn't much strategy to how to take anything that isn't a boss.
Anyway, other than that, I liked the general gameplay. Comparing it to Gravity Rush 2, the other superhero sim I was just busy with, there's a freedom and versatility to Second Son that I really appreciate. The city's small-ish but teeming with all sorts of events and activities that are so much more satisfying than anything GR2 throws at you because you're in and out like it's no big deal and everything is just spontaneous and satisfying. Whereas everything in Gravity Rush has to fade in, fade out, load in, tutorialize, explain, interrupt, show in-game cutscene, show comic book cutscene and fail you if you so much as look the other way at any point. Gameplay becomes a minimal part in Gravity Rush's connect-the-interruptions experience. Whereas Second Son is almost purely gameplay, always playing to the strengths of parkour and combat. Even if it falls short in creativity it's never going to force anything you don't wanna do on you, and it's consistently fun.
Just finished Assassin's Creed II. Wasn't really a huge fan. The plot was really boring and none of the characters had any sort of depth at all. Ezio really had it in for the big bad but I could never quite see exactly what the guy even had to do with the death of Ezio's family. I thought we killed the guy responsible within the first hour, although the big bad did look a lot like him, maybe they were the same guy and I never caught on.
Speaking of the big bad, Ezio has this really weird pivot point where he refuses to kill him for no reason at all. "Killing you won't bring my family back." What? Ezio, you kill guards for literally no reason. You killed the guards of the guy you were trying to save because they were in your way of saving the guy. Of all the people you could have spared, the evil pope is probably one of the least deserving.
On the whole I just don't get what they were trying to say with the whole morality thing they have going on. The good and righteous defenders of the peace are remorseless murderers that cut through huge swathes of the population. Would it really be so bad if we were playing a bad guy, or even morally neutral? It's just weird that they work so hard to twist assassins into the role of moral and just goody goodies.
The game was pretty easy, I never really felt like there was much need to be stealthy or blend in with your surroundings because there really is no penalty for just running in and stabbing your target in the throat and then running back out again in most cases. It isn't very assassin like but the stealth just kind of sucks in the game anyway, so it's probably for the best. It was kind of weird when some missions tell you to "not be detected" but then guards telling you to get off the roof doesn't count. uhh, I'm pretty sure he saw me, that's why he's telling me to get off the roof.
The worst thing, mechanically, was that the steal contextual button was the same as the fast walk button. So you are walking fast toward a group of loiterers that you intend to blend in with because, say, a guard is just about to turn around on a no detect mission but as you get close you accidentally steal from them and after a couple seconds they freak out and blow your cover and you fail the mission. How did nobody catch this? Stealing is USELESS beyond the first 15 minutes. You never steal more than 20 florins and by 5 hours in I was pulling in around 5k every 20 minutes from the villa. You can't even rebind the key to steal.
One last thing. At the end of the game you skip forward in the memories to a point where Ezio has collected all the codex pages. So then the game comes to a halt until you go and collect all the codex pages... again. Why? He already has them! And you've given me a map telling me exactly where they are. And every one is in a room guarded by four guards. This is pure travel time and nothing else, and the game has enough dull travel time as it is. There is absolutely no reason to stop the game and force me to engage in this pointless busywork! The game could have just spared me the chore and withheld the last couple blips of health. I already had 20 and with my 15 instant health potions I was completely invincible as it was.
Overall, there was some fun to be had, and it was probably an improvement on the first game in a number of ways, but I am definitely done with this series, and hopefully Ubisoft games, for good.
Speaking of the big bad, Ezio has this really weird pivot point where he refuses to kill him for no reason at all. "Killing you won't bring my family back." What? Ezio, you kill guards for literally no reason. You killed the guards of the guy you were trying to save because they were in your way of saving the guy. Of all the people you could have spared, the evil pope is probably one of the least deserving.
On the whole I just don't get what they were trying to say with the whole morality thing they have going on. The good and righteous defenders of the peace are remorseless murderers that cut through huge swathes of the population. Would it really be so bad if we were playing a bad guy, or even morally neutral? It's just weird that they work so hard to twist assassins into the role of moral and just goody goodies.
The game was pretty easy, I never really felt like there was much need to be stealthy or blend in with your surroundings because there really is no penalty for just running in and stabbing your target in the throat and then running back out again in most cases. It isn't very assassin like but the stealth just kind of sucks in the game anyway, so it's probably for the best. It was kind of weird when some missions tell you to "not be detected" but then guards telling you to get off the roof doesn't count. uhh, I'm pretty sure he saw me, that's why he's telling me to get off the roof.
The worst thing, mechanically, was that the steal contextual button was the same as the fast walk button. So you are walking fast toward a group of loiterers that you intend to blend in with because, say, a guard is just about to turn around on a no detect mission but as you get close you accidentally steal from them and after a couple seconds they freak out and blow your cover and you fail the mission. How did nobody catch this? Stealing is USELESS beyond the first 15 minutes. You never steal more than 20 florins and by 5 hours in I was pulling in around 5k every 20 minutes from the villa. You can't even rebind the key to steal.
One last thing. At the end of the game you skip forward in the memories to a point where Ezio has collected all the codex pages. So then the game comes to a halt until you go and collect all the codex pages... again. Why? He already has them! And you've given me a map telling me exactly where they are. And every one is in a room guarded by four guards. This is pure travel time and nothing else, and the game has enough dull travel time as it is. There is absolutely no reason to stop the game and force me to engage in this pointless busywork! The game could have just spared me the chore and withheld the last couple blips of health. I already had 20 and with my 15 instant health potions I was completely invincible as it was.
Overall, there was some fun to be had, and it was probably an improvement on the first game in a number of ways, but I am definitely done with this series, and hopefully Ubisoft games, for good.
I mean, that's quintessential video games, isnt it? You might see similar situations in Elder Scrolls ot Witcher where you either free a bad guy or kill him. There is no inbetween. Like I just came from a dungeon, could we send him there
There was a fake Witcher in Velen. You save him from monsters then decide his fate. Run him off or give him to a judge. Who hangs him.
Sounds bad all round. Cant we make a pillory or cage at least. Send out flyers to explain his bad rep. Hell I'll organise that, as he's ruining my rep. Cant we influence the judge for a leaner sentence. Because the punishment doesnt fit the crime. But he SHOULDN'T walk away free either
I haven’t played it in nearly a year (PC), but don’t recall anything that frustrating. The game systems could definitely be more intuitive, but I think the worst I’ve encountered was some buggy quest tracking, and a weird thing with the inventory menu scrolling being screwed up, where using the wheel to scroll back up only results in it scrolling down some more.
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A) you can also just make the fake Witcher work off his debt to the mayor
B) Ezio didn't kill the pope cuz the devs were banking on that being a plot point for their DLC when they brought in Cesar Borgia to do it.
Edit: actually, Brotherhood was more of a halfway point between expansion pack and sequel, wasn't it? It's been a while.
I've got Final Fantasy XII for the Switch on the go. This is my third attempt to finish it since the original PS2 release, but I've just hit the Archades section, which sucks hard, so who knows if I'll finally get through it. Telltale Batman, Sunless Skies, FF VIII Remaster, and maybe Bation or Transistor, are the most likely to be up next.
Rogue Legacy and Darkest Dungeon have been my drop-in-and-play games for a while now.
Rogue Legacy and Darkest Dungeon have been my drop-in-and-play games for a while now.
Playing through Lothern/Tyrion in TW:WH2 for the umpteenth time. And Alith Anar was a total idiot this time, got himself killed before I even aggro'd Malekith. Hyped for what Eltharion/Imrik do to shake up the HE gameplay.
FInally Cleared Act 2 in Divinity Original Sin 2. I'm digging the game but yea gad this game is long. I cleared Act 1 in like 15ish hours but I'm at hour 55 for Act 2. It doesn't even feel that long, because it's well put together so it doesn't feel like a slog, but there's a lot of quests to do.
I have to wonder if the next few acts are as long or if Act 2 is the outlier here. I mean, I'll up to the full 3 source points, level 16, have a good complement of skills/spells per character and it's implied this is the final area(though considering Arx has been namedropped in relation to quite a few different quests, it's obvious we'll be visiting at some point).
I have to wonder if the next few acts are as long or if Act 2 is the outlier here. I mean, I'll up to the full 3 source points, level 16, have a good complement of skills/spells per character and it's implied this is the final area(though considering Arx has been namedropped in relation to quite a few different quests, it's obvious we'll be visiting at some point).
I picked up Mortal Kombat 11 and have beaten the story on very easy because I am very much NOT a fighting game player. I've found a very unusually frustration with the game. Let's face facts, i button mash, i dont know how to do shit except quarter circles or back forward and a button to make things happen. But one thing that i don't quite understand is that some characters feel like they simple do not respond at all to button presses, whereas other characters are much more responsive.
I am unsure if this is on purpose for some characters and their responsiveness is based on them being a generally slower character. But then I see someone play that character online and the character is fast as fuck and I dunno why.
Also i think Mortal Kombat has a terrible tutorial system. For two reasons. One, they throw shit loads of terms at you at a back-to-back pace. Bounce Cancels, Breakaways, perfect counters, and much much more, but they never explain how these things are useful. They just kind of give you the term, and a button input and then expect you to do it. Secondly, there is a tutorial for combos but the combos they expect you to do are fucking nuts and in no way beginner friendly.
Especially for someone who could be completely new to fighting games, expecting someone to use Raiden and in rapid juggling perfection be able to do two punches, special move cancel into the quarter circle back ability, hit R1 to enhance that ability to make the enemy float for a second, down up teleport to the other side, do two more punches, the special move cancell into the flying shove attack to send the enemy across the screen.....THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO TELL A NOOB TO DO, or if you do, you slow the game down to make sure the inputs do not have to be frame perfect.
Needless to say I was able to beat the story and some of the Towers in the game, but even with that experience I still cannot complete the tutorial.
Otherwise, it's ok as far as fighting games go i guess.
I am unsure if this is on purpose for some characters and their responsiveness is based on them being a generally slower character. But then I see someone play that character online and the character is fast as fuck and I dunno why.
Also i think Mortal Kombat has a terrible tutorial system. For two reasons. One, they throw shit loads of terms at you at a back-to-back pace. Bounce Cancels, Breakaways, perfect counters, and much much more, but they never explain how these things are useful. They just kind of give you the term, and a button input and then expect you to do it. Secondly, there is a tutorial for combos but the combos they expect you to do are fucking nuts and in no way beginner friendly.
Especially for someone who could be completely new to fighting games, expecting someone to use Raiden and in rapid juggling perfection be able to do two punches, special move cancel into the quarter circle back ability, hit R1 to enhance that ability to make the enemy float for a second, down up teleport to the other side, do two more punches, the special move cancell into the flying shove attack to send the enemy across the screen.....THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO TELL A NOOB TO DO, or if you do, you slow the game down to make sure the inputs do not have to be frame perfect.
Needless to say I was able to beat the story and some of the Towers in the game, but even with that experience I still cannot complete the tutorial.
Otherwise, it's ok as far as fighting games go i guess.