What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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Yeah, the Ezio arc really teased and frustrated me personally. I remember one sequence, that REALLY got me hyped for future installments, as it felt like they were moving forward, but then they shit the bed with the present day plot. Ezio was going into the depths of some vault or whatever, to find a Templar artifact. He gets it, and out pops the giant hologram head of Totally Not Female Zordon, who keeps referring to him as the Vessel or something similar. The floating head talks about future events, and what must be done, but their use of verbage and phrasing kept confusing Ezio, and he keeps looking around like "Who are you talking to? Are you talking to me?" And you realize that the ENTIRE point of that event, was them trying to orchestrate Ezio getting there, so he could have the conversation they KNEW that Desmond would overhear, and Totally Not Female Zordon was trying to give information to Desmond, to prevent the Disaster. That had me so hyped, the idea that they did that kind of cross-time communication for narrative purposes, making the present day struggle feel more immediate, .....and then they did nothing with it. I was just SO disheartened. I played a few more in the franchise. Unity was ok (can't recall if I finished it or not), LOVED Black Flag, mostly for the Pirate Simulator aspects, and not the AC stuff. I played Syndicate a bit, and it also had one of those "i'm hacking time and the animus stuff to leave this message for Future Protagonist" , but I lost interest in that one...not sure why, I enjoyed it up to the point I stopped playing. Then played the Origins/Odyssey ones, which were....passable. Origins was genuinely enjoyable, though the ending suddenly shifted who the "main character" of the narrative was in a way that seemed out of nowhere. Like, you play the WHOLE game as Person X, and suddenly the resolution of the story, has it all centered on Person Y. Which was odd. Odyssey, was fun, just not an AC game.
Yeah, basically. Though I did enjoy Edward's arc as a character, the Assassins and Templars barely play into it. Though maybe that's another reason I enjoyed that game's story: not too much focus on the groups as a whole and a lot more on individuals like Edward.
"For if nothing is true, then why believe anything? And if everything is permitted, why not chase every desire? It might be that this idea is only the beginning of wisdom, and not its final form."
Yeah Edward's growth from selfish pirate dude to something less selfish, and more motivated towards helping others, was a good transition. I just didn't really give much of a shit about the Assassin/Progenitor stuff going on in that game. I'm sitting here while typing this, genuinely trying to think of a SINGLE detail about that Assassin/Templar plot in that game, and I am 100% drawing a blank. I remember listening to the crew doing sea shanties, sailing at night in the storms. Leaping from the rigging of my ship down onto the deck of an enemy ship to take it's loot. That's....honestly about it. The rest of the game just faded away, like a sandcastle too close to the waves.
As to the Creed itself......eh, I have some MAJOR issues with it. It feels like some incredibly lame, Anarchist/Skeptic 101 bullshit, some college students thought up at 3am, while high out of their minds, and misremembering their philosophy teacher's lecture from earlier that week.
"Nothing is true" That's just fucking bullshit. There are plenty of things that are demonstrably true, and by extension, their opposite is demonstrably false.
"Everything is permitted" .....um, no. No it fucking isn't. You don't get to say "hey, nothing is real maaaan, so I can do what I want. " There are consequences to all actions, and while you could argue that "everything is permitted" means "there isn't anything actually preventing me from physically attempting all that is physically possible" that's not the same thing as everything is "permitted" Permission, implies some outside group/society, making a declaration about whether a specific action is/isn't cool. And we know for a fact that there are plenty of things that aren't permitted. I mean, just look at the Brotherhood. They don't think "Mind controlling the human population via ancient magicky science artifacts" is something that should be permitted. Quite the opposite. They are willing to engage in thousands of years worth of assassinations to NOT permit that.
So, yeah, it's not great, the overall plot is not great. It could've been, given a proper writer, and some actual connective tissue that meant something, instead of just a lame framing device for the past game components. So some games are good, and some suck, and you mostly have to just look at them all individually.
Which is basically what Edward's second take on the Creed is, as quoted above. There's also the long form used near the end(?) of Assassin's Creed 2, but that still might be a bit too heavy on the V for Vendetta anarchist stuff.
Good news for everyone who hates the Dark Souls sub-threads: now we're in an Assassin's Creed sub-thread!
Finished Grim Fandango Remastered. Literally took 20 years of my life to figure the damn boat puzzle but hey, I got there in the end. It's a bit of an anticlimax that after all this time it turns out I had already played the best part of the game (the year you spend in Rubacava) but it's satisfactory nonetheless. Didn't know about any of the twists or turns or how the story ended, and it's great to have some first hand closure on that. Really the whole story is fantastic. The game could lose the whole undead veneer and the story would work out perfectly as a film noir, though why would you do that.
Speaking of the remaster itself, the animations tend to fuck up and give Manny weird fractures (or teleport him from a starting position to the finisher).
Speaking of the remaster itself, the animations tend to fuck up and give Manny weird fractures (or teleport him from a starting position to the finisher).
- Feb 7, 2011
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OH HELL NO WE'RE NOT!
I'm going to start a new play-through of Dark Souls 3 out of spite now.
SPITE MOTHERFUCKERS!
Playing RE2Remake again. This time Claire A, Leon B on Normal. Leon definitely has it easier than Claire in some regard when it comes to getting powerful weapons early on the B scenario. Not completely, but I prefer his scenario B exclusive pistol over Clare's rapid fire sic shooter.
Still Nethack. I lost a run on the High Astral Plane, literally minutes away from a win. I'm devastated. There's 13 hours down the drain :/
"How about you feed off the humanity of Manus the Primeval man?"
*Hijinks Ensue*
"How about feeding off the humanity of each other?"
*More Hijinks Ensue*
Ornstein! Io sono Artorias, sono il cavaliere piu figo di tutta Lordran! C'ho pure il lupo. Adesso vado dentro l'abisso e ammazzo Manus!
Though back on topic for a second (boo) I finished the Village in Resident Evil 4. Castle has new enemies, new opportunities, and new ways for Ashley to need Leon's help. It's probably my favorite part of the game, other than that one room.
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*Patches waves from a nearby nook, awaiting the next undead chump to jump down a hole for the shiny*
Jump or be assisted? This is patches we're talking about.
Resident Evil 4: Jesus the water hall in 3-1 was difficult. I mean, I knew it was the hardest room in the game on the hardest difficulty going in, but I still wasn't prepared for that. Somehow got out of it with only 1 death, but it took everything I had. Still, rest of the game should be relatively smooth from here, other than boss fights. Or if I get careless.
I just got Xiao in Genshin impact who is basically the most OP character in the game. I suspect he will be nerfed due to how many have him, and how overpowered he is, but I don't have the Exp books to level him, and I am all out of quests that grant it.
Furi. Beat the first three bosses but I don't know if I want to continue. Learning every goddamn pattern feels like homework - every boss has like 5 or 6 phases and it can take so long to get to each one, let alone master it. We'll see. On the plus side it's a tantalizingly short game, with only boss fights and only 9 bosses total. So technically I'm 33% of the way there.
In my experience the water room is the hardest mob fight in the game. Always dread it.
I've been playing through Rogue Galaxy for my review blog but it's slow going, both because the game is sluggishly paced but also because I'm not as into it as I used to be as a kid when it originally released. It's been interesting to replay these games from my childhood and teenage years with an older eye and with an intent to sit down and write about them, but it certainly has meant some games have not survived the test of time for me.
Also reinstalled Mass Effect Andromeda to replay it, but not for review, just as a change of pace from Rogue Galaxy. It's settled into a pleasant niche for me as a kind of switch-off comfort game I can chill with for a few hours before going to bed.
Also reinstalled Mass Effect Andromeda to replay it, but not for review, just as a change of pace from Rogue Galaxy. It's settled into a pleasant niche for me as a kind of switch-off comfort game I can chill with for a few hours before going to bed.
- Feb 7, 2011
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Finally finished Cyberpunk 2077. I have 92 hours recorded on steam.
I believe I did every sidequest, and about half the gigs and ended the game at level 45.
It has the bones of a really great game, but unfortunately that's all it is, the bones. Nothing feels quite finished. A lot of the side quests don't have very satisfying conclusions. Some just kind of end abruptly, like there was a 3rd or 4th part to the quest-line that got cut.
I also ran into a lot of glitches. Nothing game breaking (though one did make me roll back about 4 hours of progress because one of the side quests I was doing didn't trigger correctly, which was really annoying).
All in all, it's a game I really want to like, but I definitely don't think anyone should play right now. Give the game a year and pick it up on sale once it's mostly fixed and there's been some free content updates.
I do plan to come back to it in like a year or 2 though and do another play through with a new character and make different decisions. The main story is really short and easy to complete, which is one of my criticisms of the game, but at least it's easy to do multiple play-throughs and see the different endings.
Now, time to play through Ghost Runner.
I believe I did every sidequest, and about half the gigs and ended the game at level 45.
It has the bones of a really great game, but unfortunately that's all it is, the bones. Nothing feels quite finished. A lot of the side quests don't have very satisfying conclusions. Some just kind of end abruptly, like there was a 3rd or 4th part to the quest-line that got cut.
I also ran into a lot of glitches. Nothing game breaking (though one did make me roll back about 4 hours of progress because one of the side quests I was doing didn't trigger correctly, which was really annoying).
All in all, it's a game I really want to like, but I definitely don't think anyone should play right now. Give the game a year and pick it up on sale once it's mostly fixed and there's been some free content updates.
I do plan to come back to it in like a year or 2 though and do another play through with a new character and make different decisions. The main story is really short and easy to complete, which is one of my criticisms of the game, but at least it's easy to do multiple play-throughs and see the different endings.
Now, time to play through Ghost Runner.
Ah, so they’re the Vorlons and the Shadows. A feud started millennia ago and everyone’s forgotten the reason but we’re gonna keep going god damn it.
Started playing Valheim over the weekend. It's Terraria-DarkSouls?
It's got the framework of your typical survival type game(think Rust, Forest, Ark, whatever). You can chop trees down, you can dig stuff, you can build things. The world is procedurally generated. All that jazz.
You do however, have a goal to aspire to. There are bosses littered around a massive world, across different biomes. You have to seek out and kill them all and mount their heads to 'beat' the game.
Characters and worlds are separate, so it's like Terraria in this regard. You can bring your character and inventory in between different games and worlds. Unlike Terraria, your character has a bit more meat going for them progression wise. It's a skill based system based on how much you use a skill.
I'm currently having plenty of fun, exploring, fighting monsters, crafting gear, building bases. You can also build a boat and sail the seas(and you're at the mercy of the wind direction....). It's PvE and CoOp focuses and can support up to 10 players. I'm currently just playing with two.
You can also build a portal network, so you're not stuck walking everywhere. The game however, does not let you teleport metal resources which is a fairly important resource(things crafted with metal is fine though). It's a bit weird, but I think it's encouraging you to explore and build many bases as opposed to just staying put. It can be annoying to rebuild bases though, since some of the crafting implements require metal to make and you can't really just craft the implement and bring it with you - it's built through a sorta building menu which subtracts the resources from your inventory. Setting up shop somewhere new can require a bit of legwork. There are carts and boats in the game though so you could go on a shipping mission I suppose.
Combat is a bit Dark Soulsey. Stamina management, slap things, block, parry and dodge roll. Not quite as fine tuned of course and there's no lock on so it can be a bit janky. Nowhere near as janky as Outward though. It's not super amazing but serviceable.
The game is still in Early Access, but has plenty of meat on its bones already.
It's got the framework of your typical survival type game(think Rust, Forest, Ark, whatever). You can chop trees down, you can dig stuff, you can build things. The world is procedurally generated. All that jazz.
You do however, have a goal to aspire to. There are bosses littered around a massive world, across different biomes. You have to seek out and kill them all and mount their heads to 'beat' the game.
Characters and worlds are separate, so it's like Terraria in this regard. You can bring your character and inventory in between different games and worlds. Unlike Terraria, your character has a bit more meat going for them progression wise. It's a skill based system based on how much you use a skill.
I'm currently having plenty of fun, exploring, fighting monsters, crafting gear, building bases. You can also build a boat and sail the seas(and you're at the mercy of the wind direction....). It's PvE and CoOp focuses and can support up to 10 players. I'm currently just playing with two.
You can also build a portal network, so you're not stuck walking everywhere. The game however, does not let you teleport metal resources which is a fairly important resource(things crafted with metal is fine though). It's a bit weird, but I think it's encouraging you to explore and build many bases as opposed to just staying put. It can be annoying to rebuild bases though, since some of the crafting implements require metal to make and you can't really just craft the implement and bring it with you - it's built through a sorta building menu which subtracts the resources from your inventory. Setting up shop somewhere new can require a bit of legwork. There are carts and boats in the game though so you could go on a shipping mission I suppose.
Combat is a bit Dark Soulsey. Stamina management, slap things, block, parry and dodge roll. Not quite as fine tuned of course and there's no lock on so it can be a bit janky. Nowhere near as janky as Outward though. It's not super amazing but serviceable.
The game is still in Early Access, but has plenty of meat on its bones already.