What are you currently playing?

[Dirty Hipsters]

To me it just does the opposite, since there's no way to know what choice are good or bad it doesn't really matter and you can just pick w/e every time a choice pop up, a random number generate would do just as well as someone who spent 15 minutes weighting the pros and cons of every choices.

You don't know the outcome of your choices in real life either. That's kind of the point.

 

[meiam]

You don't know the outcome of your choices in real life either. That's kind of the point.

Ehhh not really, most of the dilemas you don't have access to information, stuff that you should really know is just not told to you. Early on the game some character is holding some heavy cart and is grabbing onto a tree and you have to decide if you tell him to keep holding or let go. Turn out the tree was really weak because it actually break if you tell him to keep holding on the cart. This is information that's available to the character (you can tell at a glance if a tree is a big tree or a small/dead tree) but you're just not told. Another choice you're asked if it's a good idea to set a forest on fire to kill the enemy and the game forget to mention that you yourself are in the very forest you're about to set on fire.

 

[happyninja42]

Another choice you're asked if it's a good idea to set a forest on fire to kill the enemy and the game forget to mention that you yourself are in the very forest you're about to set on fire.

lol, I just picture this with them standing in the middle of the inferno, people running around on fire, screaming, and the core group just standing in the middle, looking at the leader, all covered in soot. And him just looking around, and saying very deadpan. "Ok soooo......mistakes were made." *cue flaming extra to run behind him in frame* "Oh god!! the burning ! the buuuuurning!!"

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Ehhh not really, most of the dilemas you don't have access to information, stuff that you should really know is just not told to you. Early on the game some character is holding some heavy cart and is grabbing onto a tree and you have to decide if you tell him to keep holding or let go. Turn out the tree was really weak because it actually break if you tell him to keep holding on the cart. This is information that's available to the character (you can tell at a glance if a tree is a big tree or a small/dead tree) but you're just not told. Another choice you're asked if it's a good idea to set a forest on fire to kill the enemy and the game forget to mention that you yourself are in the very forest you're about to set on fire.

I disagree with both of those examples

If I remember correctly, with the tree the game goes out of its way to tell you in the description of the scene that the tree groans under the weight of Gunnulf and the cart, which you're supposed to deduce means that the tree may break under the stress.

In the second example with the forest fire the game definitely tells you that you're in the forest. One of the preceding choices had you chose to go into the forest to make it more difficult for the dredge to surround your group.

 

[meiam]

I disagree with both of those examples

If I remember correctly, with the tree the game goes out of its way to tell you in the description of the scene that the tree groans under the weight of Gunnulf and the cart, which you're supposed to deduce means that the tree may break under the stress.

In the second example with the forest fire the game definitely tells you that you're in the forest. One of the preceding choices had you chose to go into the forest to make it more difficult for the dredge to surround your group.

So I tried to find the event in question on a lets play, but the only guy who put the chapter number in his video got his ass handed to him in the combat before the tree event and it automatically gave him the bad event. So Instead I just went with a guide on steam so it might not be accurate. The text you get for the tree wagon event is :

"The enormous metal wagon dangles precariously off a cliff. From the end swings a confused yox, still tied to its reins. On top, the dredge hangs on tight. Keeping the whole thing from plummeting over the side is Gunnulf, one hand white-knuckling the cart, the other wrapped around a tree trunk." Which makes no mention of the tree being weaken.

For the forest fire, the text before is: "You call Mogr around.", to progress you need to say: "Any ideas, Mogr?" which will let you choose: "Draw them into the woods and set them on fire". I guess you could interpret "draw them into the wood" as you literally being in the wood when you set it on fire, but I just assume anyone would be smart enough to realize that's a terrible idea and to retreat out of the forest before setting it on fire.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Counterspy

It's a 2D stealth platformer, but the levels and enemy layout are randomly generated and boy is that at odds with the stealth part. There's no way of eavesdropping into rooms or seeing very far ahead so more often than not you'll walk right into the line of sight of enemies you couldn't have known were there. Also dungeons will spawn shooting galleries and blockades with 12 different enemies that are simply impossible to bypass without being seen. Because the game doesn't actually penalize you for killing enemies (or even shooting up every room like a madman) I'm supposed to be OK with it, but to me that just cheapens my effort to be stealthy and try play things tactfully. It's like trying to play Hitman but every other room becomes Smash TV.

 

[Dalisclock]

I kinda had an inkling of the liberties this game took when I saw a gigantic Zeus statue on freaking Kephalonia of all places. I have relatives from there and we'd go swimming there when I was a kid since it's a short distance from Athens so you can make it into a daytrip. Trust me, I'd have noticed even the ruins of a giant Zeus statue! XD

But yeah, I just got my ship and man the naval combat is fun as hell. I love ramming the other ship with that poker that protrudes from the front of the ship. I remember studying about those in history class in like the 4th grade. Fun times. Also I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do all the minor quests or just go kill the "bit target" right away, I just kinda tested my skill and tried to kill him without doing anything that would weaken him and I managed to kill everyone in his building pretty easily but I fear I may have missed out on some content by not doing all the other smaller quests first. I honestly expected the fight to be legit unwinnable lol.

The Discovery tour does have an entry that says the giant gods statues(and some other things, like a giant snake skeleton near delphi) were an artisitc choice to demonstrate what the ancient greeks thought their world was like. The Gods loom large or something like that. Except you can hang off Zeus Junk, so yeah.....? Maybe they secretly wished they could put the Colussus of Rhodes into the game and couldn't figure out a way to do so?

Honestly, I really get the feeling the devs wanted the game to be set closer to the Homeric era of Greece(thus all the mythological references and even actual monsters) but then they realized very few of the cool, iconic buildings would have been built and none of the famous greeks not in the Trojan Cycle would be alive yet, so they decided to set it right in the middle of the classical area but with all these Mythological/Homeric references so they could have their cake and eat it too. And then there's the Atlantis DLC which is....yeah.

The smaller quests are mostly there to give you more EXP, money and resources There's a level cap for the areas and if you go into an area you're not high enough for you'll know it quick, because the enemies will be super tough in comparison to you. You probably haven't seen it much yet but you'll notice it when the world opens up more. The level gating is strict and the enemes keep pace with you as you outlevel them(you can change this . And eventually you'll reach Lvl 50 and then it will cease to matter at all because very little is higher then Lvl 50.

Agree the Naval Combat is a blast, even if it's a little bit unrealistic.

Later you'll be introduced to the idea of fighting battles to help takeover provinces/areas for the Athenians or the Spartans. A few are part of the story but you can do it for fun if you want for the rest of the map. It makes literally no difference which side you help. You can turn the entire map blue or red and it makes no difference other then the color of the uniforms of the guards/soldiers you're killing.

 

[Dreiko]

The Discovery tour does have an entry that says the giant gods statues(and some other things, like a giant snake skeleton near delphi) were an artisitc choice to demonstrate what the ancient greeks thought their world was like. The Gods loom large or something like that. Except you can hang off Zeus Junk, so yeah.....? Maybe they secretly wished they could put the Colussus of Rhodes into the game and couldn't figure out a way to do so?

Honestly, I really get the feeling the devs wanted the game to be set closer to the Homeric era of Greece(thus all the mythological references and even actual monsters) but then they realized very few of the cool, iconic buildings would have been built and none of the famous greeks not in the Trojan Cycle would be alive yet, so they decided to set it right in the middle of the classical area but with all these Mythological/Homeric references so they could have their cake and eat it too. And then there's the Atlantis DLC which is....yeah.

The smaller quests are mostly there to give you more EXP, money and resources There's a level cap for the areas and if you go into an area you're not high enough for you'll know it quick, because the enemies will be super tough in comparison to you. You probably haven't seen it much yet but you'll notice it when the world opens up more. The level gating is strict and the enemes keep pace with you as you outlevel them(you can change this . And eventually you'll reach Lvl 50 and then it will cease to matter at all because very little is higher then Lvl 50.

Agree the Naval Combat is a blast, even if it's a little bit unrealistic.

Later you'll be introduced to the idea of fighting battles to help takeover provinces/areas for the Athenians or the Spartans. A few are part of the story but you can do it for fun if you want for the rest of the map. It makes literally no difference which side you help. You can turn the entire map blue or red and it makes no difference other then the color of the uniforms of the guards/soldiers you're killing.

It's kinda nice that they let you know you can climb literally anything by putting an eagle icon right ontop of the statue that would seem unreachable, also the fact you can't die from a fall somehow is nice too lol. And yeah I dunno how magical this will eventually get but I saw some of the images from the dlc when I was DLing it and you could clearly see someone who has to be Poseidon (and not just a statue either) as well as Cerberus. So yeah going in I expect them to be more Homeric about things, which to me is a cool thing cause I love all those more fantastical elements way more than the drier political stuff.

And yeah the levels seem to scale really hard, I took a quest that had me sinking some ships which caused my bounty to go up which I did not expect since I figured it's something I'm supposed to do if it's a mission and one of the bounty hunters that came after me was 2 levels after me and also had a pet lion too so I barely escaped with my life lol.

I did do the first big war fight which was kinda like the Leonidas bit at the beginning. Fun times. Now I gotta bounce cause angry spartans are after me (and I thought the fact I didn't kill pops woulda make em friendly to me...too optimistic I guess lol).

Oh and I saw a whale of all things. Not sure how accurate it is to have gray whales off the coast of Megara but either way it was awesome lmao.

 

[Dalisclock]

It's kinda nice that they let you know you can climb literally anything by putting an eagle icon right ontop of the statue that would seem unreachable, also the fact you can't die from a fall somehow is nice too lol. And yeah I dunno how magical this will eventually get but I saw some of the images from the dlc when I was DLing it and you could clearly see someone who has to be Poseidon (and not just a statue either) as well as Cerberus. So yeah going in I expect them to be more Homeric about things, which to me is a cool thing cause I love all those more fantastical elements way more than the drier political stuff.

And yeah the levels seem to scale really hard, I took a quest that had me sinking some ships which caused my bounty to go up which I did not expect since I figured it's something I'm supposed to do if it's a mission and one of the bounty hunters that came after me was 2 levels after me and also had a pet lion too so I barely escaped with my life lol.

Oh, yes, the goddamn bounty hunters. They can appear pretty much anywhere and always seem to know exactly where you are. This is incredibly "fun" when you're infiltrating an enemy fort and suddenly a bounty hunter shows up and starts prowling around VERY CLOSE TO YOUR HIDING SPOT which makes you wonder if you don't have a goddamn GPS locator in your head only they can see. The only good thing is that you can pay them off on the map screen and killing ones higher in the rankings then you nets you some good stuff when you clear a tier.

You can tell more or less exactly the route the game wants you to follow by checking out the level range on the map but it does lead to such wierdness of Megaris being a low level area, surrounded by Attika, Korinthia and Boeotia which are much higher in level. And don't think about trying to head down to Achaia from the early areas because it's one of the highest level areas in the game and you will get stomped.

Poseidon is in the Fate of Atlantis DLC, yes. Along with a number of other Greek Gods(it's more complex then that but that starts getting into AC lore territory which you're probably not familiar with if this is your first AC game). And you probably already know about the various Monsters that show up, such as Cerberus and Medusa. The Atlantis DLC is sci-fi mythological bullshit, but for you it might or might not be entertaining sci-fi mythological bullshit. Also, it's fucking long. Aprox 30 hours to beat the entire DLC on average, and it's high level so you're expected to play it in the late game, likely after you've beaten at least one of the main quests, so you'll likely be playing it after 30-50 hours of the main game as well.

What I'm saying is.....you're gonna be playing this for awhile if you take it all the way to the end. It's the longest AC game by far.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Bummer, I'm not having any issues like that with the PC version. The biggest issue I've seen now, after several hours of playing, is that the various surfaces you are supposed to run along, can sometimes be problematic.

Like, it's clearly meant for you to run along this billboard to the next wall, ok fine, no problem. However, they added these little light fixtures directly above the billboard, and you will sometimes jump and mantle onto them, instead of wallrunning. So you lose all momentum, no longer stick to the wall, and fall to your death. A few issues with the various traversal mechanics, like that one, pop up every so often to be annoying, but so far not bad enough to be a serious issue. Frustrating in the moment, but quickly forgotten as you run along on your speedy little ninja feet to the next walking meat sack, I mean guard.

Ah yes, those squiffy moments have indeed occured. Luckily death is quick and painless. A couple of times a leap towards a wall run on a billboard or metal dangly thing has resulted in some unexpected resistance in the form of being pushed away by mysterious gravitational forces, to then plummet to my confused, injust death.

 

[happyninja42]

Ghost of Tsushima Online mode.

It's pretty fun, however VERY annoying that if you want to play the content with other people, they require you to have PS +. So I'm running around doing multiplayer content solo, because I don't feel like giving them more money. Which is extra annoying, because the first character I chose to unlock, is the healer class, so all my special abilities only really work if I have someone to use them on. But I can't switch to another class because I have to first level this one up to a certain level...which means playing a less than optimal class in a solo state, or forking over money for a mode I probably won't use for anything but this game.

So...yeah, that's a bit of a pain in the ass. The one mission I've done so far is pretty fun though. It's a nice narrated map with pretty standard layouts. It's fun having the narrator comment when you do good kills "The Ghost struck down a demon with precise aim!" or "The Ghost killed, as silent as the wind" So that's fun. The core of me wants him to comment sort of like the narrator in the Stanley Parable though whenever I fuck up, but alas. "The Ghost really screwed up when he tried to jump to that ledge, and fell flat on his face like an idiot."

 

[Ezekiel]

Just made $49,000 in Crazy Taxi. Not bad for an hour of work.

 

[Dalisclock]

So I tried to find the event in question on a lets play, but the only guy who put the chapter number in his video got his ass handed to him in the combat before the tree event and it automatically gave him the bad event. So Instead I just went with a guide on steam so it might not be accurate. The text you get for the tree wagon event is :

"The enormous metal wagon dangles precariously off a cliff. From the end swings a confused yox, still tied to its reins. On top, the dredge hangs on tight. Keeping the whole thing from plummeting over the side is Gunnulf, one hand white-knuckling the cart, the other wrapped around a tree trunk." Which makes no mention of the tree being weaken.

For the forest fire, the text before is: "You call Mogr around.", to progress you need to say: "Any ideas, Mogr?" which will let you choose: "Draw them into the woods and set them on fire". I guess you could interpret "draw them into the wood" as you literally being in the wood when you set it on fire, but I just assume anyone would be smart enough to realize that's a terrible idea and to retreat out of the forest before setting it on fire.

I think the fire thing being a bad idea is supposed to be obvious because you already know the Varl get freaked out by fire. I just didn't realize I'd lose the red-headed fire "witch" and I guess the tree could have been guessed because "Do you really need that wagon that badly?" presumably should have come to mind. I'm could have also reloaded a save if I'd really wanted to. I'm more sore over the whole traitor thing I locked in early in the game without realizing it.

To be fair, I got the bad outcome on both of these and it's making me question if I should replay but make the choices that will allow me to save as many heroes as possible since I'm going to be importing my save into Banner Saga 2: Electric Bugaloo, or if I should just own my failures and press on. It's better roleplaying to own the losses and failures but I've got two more games to get through(and I do intend to transfer the savefile)and I can't help but think it's going to hurt me down the line.

I guess the question is if it really makes a difference in BS2/3.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Resident Evil VII

Very good. Spooked me out a couple of times despite already having seen the guest house section of the game several times. I think once you fight Chainsaw Girlfriend and meet the Bakers the game loses some of the initial atmosphere, but the sound design at work is fantastic. I like the heft of the axe and how it catches on the enviroment as well. Storywise it's a bit more engaging than Resident Evil's usual "Fuck about until you find a crank" but I'm sure we'll get to cranks and underground labs by the end. Herbs, lockpicks and item boxes already made their appearence. Also the most stupid cop in the world. The lest I find out about the Bakers the better.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I guess the question is if it really makes a difference in BS2/3.

You do get pick up more characters along the way as you go, so even if you make a lot of poor choices you'll still always have more than enough characters for a full 6 man party. I had 4 characters die due to dumb decisions in 1 and I still have enough characters where I had at least 2 of each type (big shield boys, big sword/ax boys, archers, berserkers, spear lads, etc) going into 2.

Personally I think it's more interesting to just role with the failures than it is to try and get "the perfect run." Games that are supposed to be heavily influenced by your decisions tend to have that veneer stripped away quite quickly by repeat playthroughs or by reloading bad outcomes.

 

[EvilRoy]

Civilization 6:

I think... I'm done for a while. Its a solid game but it still suffers from that godawful issue of turns taking a million years once you have satellites, and certain paths to victory being far easier than others. I appreciate them making religious victory harder in 6 than 5, where I truly felt as though every game was a race against the dominant religion, but making certain things like rock bands being only purchasable by faith feels needless. You still effectively have to decide how you're going to win at the start of the game rather than progressing organically because wanting to win by tourism isn't just done by being in good position to build theater districts, you also have to make sure you have sources of faith to get the damn bands. Wanting to win by science is a lot more straightforward, but you better have started near mountains. Every domination victory I've had has been as a result of realizing I won't win through science, and then using all my science to get the best weapons fast and going to town on the nearest tool. Even on higher difficulties alliances won't usually save an enemy because its rare they will bother crossing an ocean to stop you from kicking their buddies ass - no penalty at all for not stepping up when a bro is under fire. Diplomatic victory just felt arbitrary. If I curry enough favour with enough dbags I could eventually stumble to victory even if every other avenue is closed. Sweet. Better win a lot of nobel prizes and agree with the right people.

Risk of Rain 2:

I've played to the point where I start the game expecting to not just win a run but beat its ass so brutally that I will choose to end the run on my own at my own time regardless of the opinion of the game. That's... neat. But two things - shit damn I need a new game, and that shouldn't be how this goes. I played Isaac until my ass tried to file for divorce but I never got to the point where I knew, with certainty, the minimum crushing ass beating that I would perpetrate against the game within about 35 minutes. I feel like that kind of indicates a failure of the game, where although yes, I am very skilled and my nerd wang is huge, the experience is cheapened somewhat by how trivial it now is. That would be fine in an AI versus kind of game, but in a rougelike/lite I expect a bit more "oh god I didn't get X item, that means shits gonna be real". As it stands I've gotten through a few stages in RoR without a healing item or an equipment and not realized until one popped up.

I gotta find a new game. May as well read some pages of this thread for ideas.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Tried the Ghostrunner demo today and was immediately sold.

It's like Mirror's Edge meets Hotline Miami. Clearing a room perfectly hits all the right pleasure centers in my brain screaming at me "gotta go fast" and the pumping music makes me bob my head the whole time I'm getting blasted in the face.

Hugely fun, will definitely be buying it once I beat the Doom Eternal DLC (which I sadly haven't had any time to play this week).

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Resi Evil 4, on dat PS4.
Having only played the Wii version during a wonderfully happy period in a mental ward years ago, it only seems right to come at it again with a slightly less compromised cocktail of cracked perceptions. So...

All those fans that expressed doubt towards a remake because they claim this game is perfect and cannot be improved upon are dirty fat cold blooded pants on fire liars and I will not entrust these poor lost children unto their care!
Leaving aside the commitment to brown and grey as if the world were built entirely as a tribute to the filthy cloth under the sink, the camera is just awful to contend with, always snapping back so you can't look anything properly unless you steer your catatonic tank clumsily in the precise angle required. Moving and aiming is an awkward chore. The only way you can change weapon is pausing to equip it in the menu, even for grenades! So there's no flow to the action when you're always running out of ammo and needing to switch on the fly so often. And why the bloody hell is the subtitles option greyed out? (Do I seriously have to unlock the subtitles?)
That last one is probably not a comment on the game itself though, more a weird quirk of the...port? Anyway, while there's still fun to be had, I am just honestly baffled how people can't see how this can be improved. It's nowhere near perfect to play in these modern times.

Wait, did I mention the QTEs? I didn't mention the QTEs! It's got QTEs. ...insta death QTEs.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Resi Evil 4, on dat PS4.
Having only played the Wii version during a wonderfully happy period in a mental ward years ago, it only seems right to come at it again with a slightly less compromised cocktail of cracked perceptions. So...

All those fans that expressed doubt towards a remake because they claim this game is perfect and cannot be improved upon are dirty fat cold blooded pants on fire liars and I will not entrust these poor lost children unto their care!
Leaving aside the commitment to brown and grey as if the world were built entirely as a tribute to the filthy cloth under the sink, the camera is just awful to contend with, always snapping back so you can't look anything properly unless you steer your catatonic tank clumsily in the precise angle required. Moving and aiming is an awkward chore. The only way you can change weapon is pausing to equip it in the menu, even for grenades! So there's no flow to the action when you're always running out of ammo and needing to switch on the fly so often. And why the bloody hell is the subtitles option greyed out? (Do I seriously have to unlock the subtitles?)
That last one is probably not a comment on the game itself though, more a weird quirk of the...port? Anyway, while there's still fun to be had, I am just honestly baffled how people can't see how this can be improved. It's nowhere near perfect to play in these modern times.

Wait, did I mention the QTEs? I didn't mention the QTEs! It's got QTEs. ...insta death QTEs.

This is something that I've been saying for years. By modern standards the controls for RE4 are terrible, and that's the big thing that I would want a remake to address. The controls are forgivable for the time because games hadn't really figured out the optimal control scheme for shooters yet, but even by RE5 controls were standardized and RE5 plays better than RE4 does (even if everything else about the game is worse).

 

[BrawlMan]

Resi Evil 4, on dat PS4.
Having only played the Wii version during a wonderfully happy period in a mental ward years ago, it only seems right to come at it again with a slightly less compromised cocktail of cracked perceptions. So...

All those fans that expressed doubt towards a remake because they claim this game is perfect and cannot be improved upon are dirty fat cold blooded pants on fire liars and I will not entrust these poor lost children unto their care!
Leaving aside the commitment to brown and grey as if the world were built entirely as a tribute to the filthy cloth under the sink, the camera is just awful to contend with, always snapping back so you can't look anything properly unless you steer your catatonic tank clumsily in the precise angle required. Moving and aiming is an awkward chore. The only way you can change weapon is pausing to equip it in the menu, even for grenades! So there's no flow to the action when you're always running out of ammo and needing to switch on the fly so often. And why the bloody hell is the subtitles option greyed out? (Do I seriously have to unlock the subtitles?)
That last one is probably not a comment on the game itself though, more a weird quirk of the...port? Anyway, while there's still fun to be had, I am just honestly baffled how people can't see how this can be improved. It's nowhere near perfect to play in these modern times.

Wait, did I mention the QTEs? I didn't mention the QTEs! It's got QTEs. ...insta death QTEs.

The problem is that anyone who shits on or critcizes RE4 gets made fun of or does not want to be seen as "weak" in front of HARDCORE GAMERZ or RE fans. RE4 is overrated. I blame people like Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, Movie Bob (who does not really count as he hates the RE game franchise with minor exceptions), and Max_Dood/YoVideoGames Crew (They do at least give RE5 a lot of love). It is not a bad game, but they all went overboard on praising the game, and act as if it has almost no flaws or because it's "Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge." "Self Aware". Just because a game is self aware, does not excuse other problems. I like Avalanche's Retrospective of RE4, because the dude tells it like it is. Though he was wrong about the flash grenades being useless. How he missed that one is beyond me.