What are you currently playing?

[happyninja42]

Alright, fair enough, maybe that wasn't my finest moment.

That said, my point still stands.

The games don't really look like Assassin's Creed anymore, and the past few entries have barely even touched the Assassin/Templar conflict, and with the whole gameplay revamp of Origins and beyond, we are left with games that don't look like AC, don't play like AC, and barely even follow the same plot.

So, I ask then, what is the point, other than brand recognition?

It just seems like the newer games are so desperate to distance themselves from their own franchise, that we don't even have a game that really resembles where the series came from. I just want Assassin's Creed back, dammit.

I agree the gameplay has drastically altered from the first games to now. Way more RPG-esque with levels and stuff.

As to your overall question of "but why?" I can only speculate, but here are my thoughts on it.

First, the last several games have all technically taken place BEFORE the iconic look of the Creed happened. AC: Origins was heavily implying that the various outfits, with the hooded motif, in that game, were the origins ("That's the title of the game!" Screen Rant Pitch Meeting Guy Voice) of the classic elements. So you could say it's not been canonized yet, between Origins and AC 1. But I felt that I was wearing a "brand accurate" costume with most of the looks in Origins. Odyssey, not so much.

Odyssey hinted at the warring factions, or at least the proto-groups that will eventually evolve into the Templars and Creed. I think, they are trying to do a soft reboot, of the various elements of the storyline, and stuff, because it started getting cluttered. Frankly I think they are just trying to dance around a lot of the story elements they've painted themselves into, with the entire franchise being nothing but an extended flashback sequence for a present day crisis that they forgot to actually flesh out and make interesting. A crime in my opinion, as I was always more interested in the present day stuff, and thought the film was actually GOOD (Yeah I said it, fight me!) because it focused on that storyline, and left the flashback stuff to just a few minutes of time. But anyway.

I do think that you are somewhat correct, that a lot of the whole "sticking with the hoods" plan, IS brand recognition, as that does have a powerful impact on sales. And frankly the look is pretty cool, regardless of color scheme.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played some DmC Definitive Edition last night. Despite being the "definitive" version, there are still bugs and odd glitches. Nothing too game-breaking, but I encountered a bug with the first boss where he keeps endlessly running in a circle and the only way to stop it is to either restart the checkpoint (Counts as a death. Who thought of that stupid idea?), go back out into the title screen and then continue from the checkpoint, or just continue shooting him as the runs infantly in circles while you whittled down his health. And I've had this glitch happen before too. That in the game can still crash for no reason. It's not just my copy, it's common on a PS4 copies. I am not sure about the Xbox Onene copies, but they might have a similar problem. Vergil is more fun to fight in this version, he's still not as interesting as his original incarnation. In terms of character or gameplay.

 

[happyninja42]

Still playing a LOT of Hades. Definitely going to say it's captured my attention wholesale lately. I even went as far as to buy it a second time on PC so that I could play it when I was suffering from insomnia and my wife was asleep in the other room. I enjoy how the overarcing story is played out, and what it is that you are doing, and why. I also like, that my guess several escapes ago, about what the "final" end of the game, would probably set up, mythologically speaking, and so far, it seems to be accurate, based on the various motivations of the characters.

My theory, though it's probably not really a spoil at this point, given how long the game's been out but....

It appears that the final resolution of this story, is going to be setting up the "6months in Hades, 6 months on the surface" thing with Persephone, to end the eternal winter that Demeter is inflicting on the earth, in grief of her lost daughter. That it's basically setting it up as a divorce, split custody of the kid type thing. Where Persephone, having seen the pain she is causing her son in his constant attempts to reach her, and to balance out the diety conflict with olympus, basically agrees to shared parentage, and visitation with Hades in...well....Hades. So that way, Demeter will stop freezing the world. And if that's the case, and it certainly seems to be so, given the drip feed of plot from the various gods so far, then I actually really like that. It's an interesting way, to give a more modern sensibility take on the mythology, while also being relatively true to the source material.

Dodge/Punch build with Malfon (the gloves) and Lambent Feather is still, by far, my most ridiculous build. Even on a "bad" run with that setup, I'm rocking like 80+% dodge chance. And if I pick up that Hermes boon that just gives you +10% dodge chance, well....it's just OP. And I love it. Basically running around as an Infernal Bruce Lee, flurry punching and dragon uppercutting everything in my path. It's glorious.

Still enjoying the writing and voice acting a lot. I really enjoy how Zagreus is very chill and laid back. You think, looking at him, that he's going to be this broody, emo edgelord, but that's the farthest from the truth. I mean to his dad, yeah he's very typical teenager angsty boy, but frankly there is justification there. But everyone else in the cast, he's really friendly, and nice, and jovial to. He's always trying to just get along with everyone, give them presents to try and make their suffering in his father's house that bit more bearable. He cracks jokes with people, offers at every opportunity, to NOT fight people who confront him, because he JUST wants to go outside. I also love how motivated he is to play matchmaker with the various famous couples from myth. I'm currently on Wingman Project 3, though I still haven't hooked any of them up yet, that's mostly due to being locked behind progress of conversations, which requires more runs through to trigger them. But, yeah, I'm amused by how highly motivated I am, to get the OTHER people in the game to hook up. Usually in games, it's all about getting your character laid, but not Hades. Oh no, so far anyway, I'm too busy trying to get my friends laid with their estranged lovers, to worry about my own booty calls. It actually kind of reminds me of the one bit in The Outer Worlds that I liked, which was the romance quest for Pavarti. I SO enjoyed getting her awkward ass hooked up with the engineering lady. Everything else in that game could piss off, but that, yes that was fun.

So yeah, definitely seeing why Hades got so much praise.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

I'm such an easy lay for great pixel graphics, this is going on the wishlist.

Have you not played many of them or what about them seems to turn you off? Also, if you love gorgious pixel graphics you should check out Star Renegades and Timespinner.

Waitaminute....Are we talking “sprite-based graphics” here, or the actual “pixel”, as in picture element in a raster image? I thought everything was based off the latter, including polygonal graphics?

 

[Chimpzy]

Gris

Puzzle platformer. Pretty basic, not very challenging, but very pretty. Oh so very pretty. You know about the 'every frame a painting' thing? Gris is that. It's also the Spanish word for grey. Cuz the game world starts out colorless and you gradually add color back into the world as you progress. The colors correspond to the 5 stages of grief. That's some good Symbolism. Also kind of spoilery, but when it's laid on this thicc, well, you know, all style no substance comes to mind. Maybe play it for the pretty pictures, not so much the profound insights.

Waitaminute....Are we talking “sprite-based graphics” here, or the actual “pixel”, as in picture element in a raster image? I thought everything was based off the latter, including polygonal graphics?

He means graphics that go for a pixel art style i.e. edited at the level of single pixels, usually inspired by the low-res aesthetics of the 8- and 16-bit eras. Which is largely but not wholly synonymous with sprite graphics. But yes, technically everything we see on a screen is rasterized graphics.

 

[meiam]

Dodge/Punch build with Malfon (the gloves) and Lambent Feather is still, by far, my most ridiculous build. Even on a "bad" run with that setup, I'm rocking like 80+% dodge chance. And if I pick up that Hermes boon that just gives you +10% dodge chance, well....it's just OP. And I love it. Basically running around as an Infernal Bruce Lee, flurry punching and dragon uppercutting everything in my path. It's glorious.

Sadly feather struggle to stay good as you increase the heat, there's more enemy and they have more health so you can't guarantee you'll clear the room fast enough to trigger the feather.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Resident Evil 6, Leon 1, in summary: Is that going to explode as well? Yes. Yes, it is.

 

[BrawlMan]

Resident Evil 6, Leon 1, in summary: Is that going to explode as well? Yes. Yes, it is.

This should have been the game where we see Leon and Claire team up again and have a reunion with Sherry. Helena is lame and uninteresting.

 

[happyninja42]

Sadly feather struggle to stay good as you increase the heat, there's more enemy and they have more health so you can't guarantee you'll clear the room fast enough to trigger the feather.

Yes well I'm not really worried too much about heat increase, I'm mostly playing it for the story, which you can do without boosting the heat at all.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Resident Evil 6, Leon 1, in summary: Is that going to explode as well? Yes. Yes, it is.

That's going to be the rest of the game as well, but somehow even less subtle.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening Remake(Switch)

As some of you may know, I was a nintendo lad back in the day. Got a NES/SNES/GB during the 80's and 90's and a lot of their games I still have found memories of today(I'd also forgotten how hard some of them were). Wierdly, despite LoZ:LttP being one of my favorite SNES games, I never did play Links Awakening for the GB. I knew it existed, but I think the fact it was a GB game, which notably felt scaled down and, well, not nearly as good as their SNES/NES counterparts from the same series. I'm learning now that I was wrong but as a kid that was my take on it.

So Nintendo doing a full on remake of this game for the Switch gave me a 2nd chance to fix my overlooking of a very good zelda game. What apparently began as a side project for the Zelda team using LttP assets and a GB dev kit turned into a stealth sequel to the SNES classic and despite it's handheld limitations it's a full fledged classic Zelda game, with some new ideas tossed in there as well. There are short side-view platforming sections added, not seen since the dungeons of Zelda 2 and not seen again since, that act as passages within dungeons and a rather involved trading sidequest, at least part of which is mandatory to complete the game. The dungeons employ some interesting new gimmicks I haven't seen before, but even before that, most of them require a special key to even enter, found somewhere on the map(and normally not near the dungeons). The map pulls off the rather nice balance of both feeling large and full but also relatively easy to cross once you have the proper tools and knowledge, so feeling big within a reasonable space(and like an entire chunk of the map is basically a theme park ride to win prizes).

The notable aspect of the game come in it's setting. Since the game is like 25 years old at this point, I'm gonna assume I don't need spoiler warnings. Link is in a shipwreck and washes up on a remote island(which is surprisingly large and varied), and is told he needs to go to the top of the tallest mountain on the island and wake the Wind Fish, which is inside of a massive Egg perched on the summit(Building a boat apparently isn't an option, despite the abundance of trees on the island). To do that, Link needs to go through 8 dungeons and get 8 instruments to play a special ballad. Later you find out that the Island itself(including everyone living on it) is a dream of the Wind Fish and if the Wind Fish is awakened, the island will vanish into nothingness(and everyone living on it will effectively die). This kind of explains some of the wierder elements, like you find enemies from the mario games(and Kirby shows up as an enemy in one of the later dungeons), some of the mini-bosses/bosses are kinda weird(like one of them is literally a boxer). However, it also creates this dark undertone to the adventure, that the Wind Fish is being kept asleep against it's will(the Bosses are called Nightmares and it's stated they're purposefully keeping the Wind Fish from waking, as well as terrorizing it's sleep) and the fact you're dooming the island and it's population to literal oblivion by waking it up. Remember, this isn't Bloodborne, where being trapped in a nightmare is in keeping with the dark tone, but a game meant for kids to be able to play.

I do understand the Remake had some QoL improvements over the GameBoy original but it still comes across as a damn fine game for a handheld, and even if full Nintendo game price for a remake of a 25 year old Game Boy game may be a little on the steep side, I felt it was worth it for the quality of the experience(even if I might not have felt the same way if I'd played the original as a kid).

With that being said, one of the obligatory mini-game shops in this one is a Crane Game(with realistic Crane Game Physics). Anyone whose ever played a crane game in an arcade before knows the dread and frustration involved with this and I just gonna say, Fuck the Crane game. Otherwise, quite a fun ride and I wish most remakes would strive to improve on the original while still keeping what made it good.

Link's Awakening is my favourite Zelda 2D game. I haven't played the remake, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Hawki]

Started playing Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods.

It starts tough, and keeps being tough. I've taken a break, because my hands are aching from gripping the controller. This isn't a complaint mind you, but like I said, this is hard.

Also, was anyone meant to actually be caught offguard when it was revealed that Hayden was the Seraphim? FYI, plot twists aren't plot twists when you already know the plot twist.

 

[Worgen]

Started playing Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods.

It starts tough, and keeps being tough. I've taken a break, because my hands are aching from gripping the controller. This isn't a complaint mind you, but like I said, this is hard.

Also, was anyone meant to actually be caught offguard when it was revealed that Hayden was the Seraphim? FYI, plot twists aren't plot twists when you already know the plot twist.

I still don't really understand how you can play that with a controller. At some point I do need to go back and beat ancient gods on nightmare or finish my lives run thing.

Story? No, not really, they said something about Vega being like an angel equivalent or something in some of the fluff you find so I was fully expecting them to do something like that with Hayden, it just ended up being dumber then I expected. Keep in mind though, the story of Doom eternal has so many story beats I don't like to see in things that you could play bingo with them. All its really missing is a teenage main character with a strong sense of justice and a sister not sister he wants to fuck to complete things.

OP: Finished Hardcore Mecha, its fantastic, currently playing Darksiders Genesis. Its halfbaked but I love it.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Just finished Leon's Chapter 3 in Resident Evil 6.

That was the worst level so far. Might end up being the worst level in the entire game.A cave too dark to see shit, full of bullet sponge enemies or else ones with suicide vests, capped off with the worst 'boss' since that damn snake in the first game... Christ.

On the bright side, since it can't possibly get any worse than that, the rest of the game's all uphill from here.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Just finished Leon's Chapter 3 in Resident Evil 6.

That was the worst level so far. Might end up being the worst level in the entire game.A cave too dark to see shit, full of bullet sponge enemies or else ones with suicide vests, capped off with the worst 'boss' since that damn snake in the first game... Christ.

On the bright side, since it can't possibly get any worse than that, the rest of the game's all uphill from here.

Oh it definitely gets worse. Leon's campaign is actually the best one.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Leon's campaign done. Though I've heard that it gets worse, I've also heard that Chris's campaign at least has much less of an identity crisis than the last one, fully embracing the Michael Bay movie/Gears of War side, and turns out better for it. Also that Piers is the best wingman. Probably going to find out tomorrow.

 

[Dalisclock]

Dark Souls 3: All good things must come to an end.

It's done, at last. The ringed city is a beatiful, intricate level that was fascinating to explore....and absolutely a bear to get through parts of it. Especially the long stairway with big beefy enemies rolling deep. At least the swamp at the bottom isn't poison, so one small mercy from FROM. OTOH, some fun invading red phantoms along the way, a harassing dragon on the bridges, because why not bring back an old favorite at the end?

Finally reached the Church of of the napping goddess and fought the....Spear of the Church, AKA "DO you like PVP? Haha if you don't, fuck you". Yeah, not a fan of PVP battles, not fond of one as a boss. What makes it really interesting is that you can be drafted to serve as the boss. This happened to me a few times and the first time was amusing, even if I wasn't prepared and didn't win. When it happened another time or two, I was getting irritated with getting drafted for invading instead of the co-op I wanted to do, so I might have taken a dive as a solid to someone else. You're welcome, random guy.

All that left was Gael and yeah, that was a beast of a fight. Considering its the final boss of a Dark Souls DLC, I expected but yeah, the guy is a fucking beast. And of course, the whole thing is sad, considering the history and lore behind him. going back to painter girl is just an extra twist of the knife I wonder when Uncle Gael will return..... Oh, and I found Shira in a ruined building, who might be one of the last humans left at that point....or maybe half human, either way, yeah, I put her out of her misery(not just because I owed her one for ambushing me and smacking me a couple times).

And with that, it's over. Sure, I could fuck around some more but really, there's nothing really of substance to do, so after a brief tour of some of the sights, I brought it to an end by going to that last bonfire in the middle of the pygmy circle, and taking a seat, the last (un)living thing in a field of ash that used to be the world. Because isn't that where it logically all ends?

Anyway, Yeah, I had a great time with the game. One of my favorite Soulsborne games, I think and I'm glad to check it off my list after years of working up to this point. I can finally stop posting these damn musings in the "Current playing" thread(You're welcome, HappyNinja), though I plan to post a bunch of my musings on the lore and setting sometime in the next week(Spoilers all the way in its own thread).

*Raises a Siegbrau*

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Dark Souls 3: All good things must come to an end.[spoiler

It's done, at last. The ringed city is a beatiful, intricate level that was fascinating to explore....and absolutely a bear to get through parts of it. Especially the long stairway with big beefy enemies rolling deep. At least the swamp at the bottom isn't poison, so one small mercy from FROM. OTOH, some fun invading red phantoms along the way, a harassing dragon on the bridges, because why not bring back an old favorite at the end?

Finally reached the Church of of the napping goddess and fought the....Spear of the Church, AKA "DO you like PVP? Haha if you don't, fuck you". Yeah, not a fan of PVP battles, not fond of one as a boss. What makes it really interesting is that you can be drafted to serve as the boss. This happened to me a few times and the first time was amusing, even if I wasn't prepared and didn't win. When it happened another time or two, I was getting irritated with getting drafted for invading instead of the co-op I wanted to do, so I might have taken a dive as a solid to someone else. You're welcome, random guy.

All that left was Gael and yeah, that was a beast of a fight. Considering its the final boss of a Dark Souls DLC, I expected but yeah, the guy is a fucking beast. And of course, the whole thing is sad, considering the history and lore behind him. going back to painter girl is just an extra twist of the knife I wonder when Uncle Gael will return..... Oh, and I found Shira in a ruined building, who might be one of the last humans left at that point....or maybe half human, either way, yeah, I put her out of her misery(not just because I owed her one for ambushing me and smacking me a couple times).

And with that, it's over. Sure, I could fuck around some more but really, there's nothing really of substance to do, so after a brief tour of some of the sights, I brought it to an end by going to that last bonfire in the middle of the pygmy circle, and taking a seat, the last (un)living thing in a field of ash that used to be the world. Because isn't that where it logically all ends?

Anyway, Yeah, I had a great time with the game. One of my favorite Soulsborne games, I think and I'm glad to check it off my list after years of working up to this point. I can finally stop posting these damn musings in the "Current playing" thread(You're welcome, HappyNinja), though I plan to post a bunch of my musings on the lore and setting sometime in the next week(Spoilers all the way in its own thread).

*Raises a Siegbrau*[/spoiler]

...But Darkeater Midir still beckons you from the depths, no?

Really though, it’s an optional fight worth checking out at the very least. The path to true enlightenment like within the elevator ride outside of the statue room.

 

[meiam]

currently playing Darksiders Genesis. Its halfbaked but I love it.

Does it hold playing alone?

 

[Dalisclock]

...But Darkeater Midir still beckons you from the depths, no?

Really though, it’s an optional fight worth checking out at the very least. The path to true enlightenment like within the elevator ride outside of the statue room.

Oh, I found him. Fell down the fucking ladder a time or two as well. Woke him up from his nap, turns out he was grumpy about being woke and yeah, that didn't end well. Also ended up getting dragged there as a sunbro when I put my summon next to the Spear of the Church battle, because some people will apparently go far and wide looking for MIDIR assists. I know they can go wherever they want but it feels....slightly rude, I guess, to drag phantom from the boss door their sign is sitting next to to a boss door halfway across the map.

Took a couple stabs at him but eventually decided to move on to grumpy old man outside the church. Fuck Midir, he's the ringed city's problem. I'm not getting paid for pest control.....or at all, for that matter. Besides, I didn't see him hanging around the ash bowl at the end, so I'm just gonna assume he died or something in the time skip.

I did notice Midir's home looks very similar to the cave from the DS1 intro where the First Flame was apparently hanging out. Which is pretty cool and kinda dovetails neatly with the Ringed city lore we're presented.

I guess I'm kinda done, despite my enjoyment. I logged 70 hours across the game and 2 DLCs over 2 months and I'm more then ready to pack it in and play another game....of a non-soulslike nature. Preferably a lot shorter as well.