Revisit any games recently?

JagermanXcell

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Oct 1, 2012
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Dark Souls 1. As expected, I still enjoy it much more than it's broken younger brother. No... I do not care about your scholar of the first sin 2... leave me alone! I'm enjoying actual atmosphere.

And now Fallout New Vegas, since i've always wanted to do an energy weapons build in that game but could never put down the class of a revolver or the proficiency of an Anti Material Rifle.
 

Valkrex

Elder Dragon
Jan 6, 2013
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The Metroid Prime Trilogy. I NEVER get tired of these games, and I've even gone on to get 100% items in all three of them. Do you have ANY idea how long that takes? ESPECIALLY in Prime 2.

I'm also diving back into Guild Wars 2. Played it at launch, loved it and got to level 45, then real life basically said "you're not allowed to play video games for a few months" and by the time I had time to play games again I didn't feel the need to dive back in. I am now and... god damn I love this game and its changed quite a bit for the better.

My only question is... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO LION'S ARCH?!?!? The place is completely destroyed, the monuments are in pieces, the buildings are in ruins, no one's there, the markets gone, the crafting stations are gone, and what was once a lively area full of people running around and was a generally awesome area to hang out and soak up the fun atmosphere is completely dead...


EDIT: Also been playing Dark Souls 1 again. Still don't see all the rage poured on DS2. One game is stronger where the other is weak, and neither games' weaknesses are bad enough to really be considered horrible in my eyes.
Bascially in my eyes: DS2 combat > DS1 combat.

DS2 Build Options > DS1 Build Options

DS1 Lore > DS2 Lore
DS1 level design > DS2 Level design.
 

Poetic Nova

Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Jan 24, 2012
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Played True Crime Streets of LA yesterday.
It's buggier than I remembered, TCLA is still a fairly fun game but the bugs ruin complete mission scripts due to out of bounds spawning.
 

GundamSentinel

The leading man, who else?
Aug 23, 2009
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- Final Fantasy XIII

Yes, I know. Everyone hates this game. And the thing is, while I can perfectly see why everyone hates it, I can't stop myself liking it all the same.

It looks good, the combat system is solid, I liked the setting, and the characters and story go only uphill after a crappy start. 20 hours in and I'm really enjoying myself.


- Total War: Rome II

Again a game everyone dislikes and again I can see why. But you know, the patches really helped. While still not as good as Shogun II and Medieval II, it's very enjoyable and I finished my first grand campaign last week (Seleucids rule!). I'm about to start a new campaign, but I'm not sure which faction to pick. (tips welcome ^^)
 

Cowabungaa

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Feb 10, 2008
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Not really, actually. I'm too much of a slave to new experiences to re-play games very often. Thank god Steam sales makes that affordable.
 

EHKOS

Madness to my Methods
Feb 28, 2010
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Technically. I have the four main MGS games and never played any of them. I plan to play all of them, even though I suck at stealth games.
Besides that I 'm playing Spider-Man Shatty Dems on PS3 for the trophies and because Spider-Man Noir is awesome. And I have Crash Bandicoot 2 out because me and my dad play it when he comes over.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Mar 30, 2011
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I started up X-Com again, with the "Long War" mod installed. I got re-addicted to the game all over again, but after a while it starts to grate on you because they throw SO many missions at you. I realized I wasn't having a ton of fun any more when another mission would pop up and I wished there was an option for the computer to just play the mission for me.

Rage. Rage is that weird game for me where I just keep going back to it, over and over again, even though it has tons of flaws. Playing through it now, I can definitely see why it didn't take off the way ID expected it to, and why so many people were disappointed in it, but to me the graphics are just perfect for the atmosphere of the game and the shooting action is so fun that I always find myself having a blast with it.
 

GodzillaGuy92

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Jul 10, 2012
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I bought Sonic Adventure 2 at the tail end of the recent Steam Christmas Sale for just this experimental purpose, and put eleven hours into it over the course of a few days last week. I wasn't expecting it to hold up from my childhood Gamecube days, of course, and it didn't, but I must say I was still genuinely taken aback at how unfinished it came across. Horribly jerky and unreliable controls and especially camera, character locations changing sporadically between cutscenes and gameplay, boss fights against characters you have or will soon play as that happen without reason or consequence because to have the outcome of these fights actually affect the plot would have messed up the parallel stories thing Sonic Team was so keen on but didn't bother thinking through to negate this problem, certain boss fights you can finish in literally less than twenty seconds by just mashing buttons, cutscene music that both doesn't fit the scenes' intended tone and completely drowns out characters' dialogue because the sound mixing is so badly done, lengthy "highway chases" that occur on barren racetracks floating in a skybox and populated by maybe three or four cars in total, and so on. So I stand reassured that everyone who says 3D Sonic games aren't all bad and points to this as an example are full of it, and it was regardless an educational and enjoyable little nostalgia trip. Maybe I'll even go back to Radical Highway or Pyramid Cave every now and again for the music.

JagermanXcell said:
Dark Souls 1. As expected, I still enjoy it much more than it's broken younger brother. No... I do not care about your scholar of the first sin 2... leave me alone! I'm enjoying actual atmosphere.
I've been replaying this one on pretty much a constant basis since I first picked it up a year ago. This time I'm cosplaying as Oscar, and I just beat Artorias without a shield after a great drawn-out battle because half the damage Oscar's sword wields is magic, which all the Oolacile bosses are highly resistant to (by which I mean the two-handed strong attack dealt only 57 damage per hit). Can't wait to take on Manus and Kalameet.

Valkrex said:
Bascially in my eyes: DS2 combat > DS1 combat.
Would you mind explaining why? I'm quite curious, because while just about no one is stupid enough to try claiming that Dark Souls II's story or level and world design are superior to those of the first game, I hear plenty who share your sentiment that the gameplay is an improvement, yet always leave it at that and don't explain how. And speaking for myself, I can think of plenty of factors (the hugely lessened importance of equip load and poise combined with the nerfing of shields and dodge-rolling, enemy attacks with unfair homing or bad hitboxes - the latter magnified by the player's attacks oftentimes not connecting when they clearly should be - hugely less vibrant character animations and sound design that gave the first Dark Souls's combat so much of its kick, etc.) that make Dark Souls II's gameplay far worse than its predecessor's outside of a few nice tangential additions, which is why I'm so keen to know what other people see in it.
 

Lugbzurg

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Mar 4, 2012
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I started replaying Pac-Man: Adventures in Time recently, though that was really more due to the fact that I'm working on a video review for the game, I needed to refresh my memory, see how much my perspective may have changed, and I needed to record my own footage.

The game's a bit darker than I remember...
 

Valkrex

Elder Dragon
Jan 6, 2013
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GodzillaGuy92 said:
Valkrex said:
Bascially in my eyes: DS2 combat > DS1 combat.
Would you mind explaining why? I'm quite curious, because while just about no one is stupid enough to try claiming that Dark Souls II's story or level and world design are superior to those of the first game, I hear plenty who share your sentiment that the gameplay is an improvement, yet always leave it at that and don't explain how. And speaking for myself, I can think of plenty of factors (the hugely lessened importance of equip load and poise combined with the nerfing of shields and dodge-rolling, enemy attacks with unfair homing or bad hitboxes - the latter magnified by the player's attacks sometimes not connecting when they clearly should be, hugely less vibrant character animations and sound design that gave the first Dark Souls's combat so much of its kick, etc.) that make Dark Souls II's gameplay far worse than its predecessor's outside of a few nice tangential additions, which is why I'm so keen to know what other people see in it.
Well to me it just feels more responsive, had more variety, and let you do more things while still forcing you to be careful. I personally like the new weight system, it feels more real and organic as your roll distance and stamina regeneration decrease with more weight as opposed to three flat tiers. And quite frankly in DS1 having 50% be the fatroll threshold felt too low, and if you wanted to be effective in PVP it was lightroll or nothing so your options in equipment felt very limited. Midroll word for PvE, but PVP was questionable. This system rewards lower equipment loads with stamina and mobility without making heavier builds worthless.

Movement in DS2's combat also just feels better. The first game feels very clunky in comparison, as in DS2 the controls respond better and you can roll and come out of the roll instantly into an attack or strafe without a delay. DS1 you could do roll into strafe, but there was a split-second delay that made it more difficult to keep up movement which is essential in souls games.

Powerstancing is an addition that I REALLY like that opens up a TON of build options centered around dual wielding weapons. Sacrifice some defense for extra damage and an expanded moveset? Hell yea I'll build a character around that.

Casters also have a lot more options this time around. There are some really cool spells to be used here. Variations on souls spears and weapon buffs for sorcerers, and there are a lot of new offensive and defensive spells that let you expand beyond homing soulmass/soul spear combos. Soul Greatsword? Hell yea that spell kicks ass.

Clerics have some new awesome buffs as well (thank god they patched out buff stacking, it was an issue) that give you plenty of options. Buffs for physical defense and damage, resistance to poison, bleed, curse and petrification, magic barriers, weapon buffs, and some pretty cool offensive spells. Emit force, and lightning spears are always awesome, but the addition of things like splintering lightning spear, blinding bolt, and heavenly thunder open up tons of ways to play.

Then there's the infamous dark path, and also some cool pyro abilities. Just the sheer additions to variety on top of the already staggering amount of options form DS1 is awesome.

Guardbreaking is cool. It just is, and makes countering turtle builds easier as you can do pull a guard break on someone who is hiding behind their shield and then land a critical hit, again something that just adds more strategies to the fight. Greatshields are still awesome and can tank damage for days, medium shields can still soak up damage and let you stay mobile, and light shields can block in a pinch and are still great for parrying. Speaking of which...

Criticals. I feel that DS2 vastly improved on the way critical damage is done. Parrying isn't as easy this time around as there is a delay on the parry start up, and there are many different implements that can allow one to parry at different times. Greatsword/ultragreatsword parries are also a thing of beauty.

Backstabs are now harder to achieve and chain backstabbing is pretty much eliminated. Yes lagstabs happen, but until FROM uses dedicated servers or improves their netcode (preferably both) they will be around.

The sweetspot system they use for certain weapon types I also really like. Its a bit more realistic as hitting an enemy with the tip of the halberd kills while hitting with the shaft just stuns. It rewards positioning and careful play with standard damage from weapons hitting in their main sweetspot, and extra damage on the very tip for weapons like halberds and reapers.

I keep hearing about the hitboxes... but after hopping between the games I can't find any major difference. Certainly there are spots in DS2 where a wonky hitbox will happen (looking at you mimics) but for the most part I haven't seen anything, or had any issues with attacks landing. DS1 had that issue as well in PVP, but that was because iframes and lag and the issue is certainly present in DS2's pvp, but its no better or worse. Enemy tracking is also brought up a lot. Again something that I myself haven't seen anything broken with. Enemies can track movement now, certainly more than the almost non-existent tracking in DS1, but aside from like one of my friends, I have NEVER seen the alleged 180 degree swing correction that is brought up from time to time. I will agree a couple of enemies had some ridiculously hard to dodge attacks, but nothing that really felt unfair to me. Except for the drake keepers with hammers. Fuck those guys.

I will definitely agree with you about poise however. Its wonky as hell this time around and only seems to work when swinging heavy weapons this time around, and only applies when you're mid animation. Not sure what the hell that's about, and makes building a tank harder than it needs to be.

All that said, I still love everything about the combat in DS1. Its an absolutely amazing system, and I just feel that DS2 took an already fantastic system and improved and refined it.
 

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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Because of the Master Chief Collection updating my opinions on the four numbered Halo games, over December I replayed the Gears of War series. It at least reconfirmed in my mind that my favourites go 1 > 2 > Judgment > 3.

Gears 1 is more unpolished than I remembered it being, but it still looks great and has a beautiful atmosphere. The horror elements stood out to me more this time around, making me love the game even more than I did before. Seriously until Act 4 the game is incredibly awesome with nice set pieces and a well crafted atmosphere. It also shows me that there is a difference between playing homage to something and ripping it off with no shame or respect. Gears 1 takes massive influence from Pitch Black, a film I adore and it even has a character go "It's Pitch Black out here!". Halo 4 rips off set pieces and level design from previous games whilst also pissing on the story of those games.

Gears 2 is more polished and crafts a nice "America Sera! Fuck yeah!" gun ho adventure tone. Brilliant set pieces, nice design, interesting new enemies, cool little story even if it's a bit shaky. I already thought this, though I was somewhat disappointed by the horror sections of the game because they do have a nice (if familiar) tone and creative a panicky, gotta-go-fast reaction. It's just a shame that the rest of the game didn't go with that because it still looked gritty enough to pull off the uncomfortable look of horror.

Gears 3 reclaimed it's honour. Whilst I've always loved the multiplayer I must concede that the campaign is, for the most part, awesome. Act Five of Gears 3 is still awful and disrespectful with less awesome set pieces, a bewildering twist to the already flimsy plot that just gets stupider the more you think about it, and the final boss fight/ending really is pitiful and should have been cut out entirely. So what if that means the game and story ends half an hour earlier, it would still make for a better ending. Also I hate how the Lambent basically become the Flood, and what did they do to the aesthetic of the Lambent from the previous games? I cri evry tim when I see what they did to the Lambent Wretches.

Judgment commits pretty much the same atrocity of ignoring the previous games and doing it's own thing like Halo 4 did. The difference? Gears Judgment is actually awesome, and replaying it made me realise that it's better played in small chunks due to the stop-and-start-again play style and that it still totally holds up even with the more modern style of gameplay. I did fear that it wouldn't really have much charm to it after finishing it the first time.
 

Luminous_Umbra

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Sep 25, 2011
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Currently replaying SMT: Devil Survivor. Well, replaying is perhaps the wrong word, as I didn't get too far in the first time. Don't know why, because I'm absolutely loving it. Can't really describe why, but this type of game just...plays in a way that I really enjoy. I mean, I'm huge fan of RPGs in general, but Devil Survivor is special for some reason that I can't really define.
 

baddude1337

Taffer
Jun 9, 2010
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The past few weeks I've been playing the Roma Surrectum mod for Rome: Total War. Think the last time I played it was when RS2 2.0 came out. Damn good fun. Rome Still has the best battle engine (even if the AI is pretty moronic most of the time) and Roma Surrectum's legions look amazing.
 

joest01

Senior Member
Apr 15, 2009
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Valkrex said:
The Metroid Prime Trilogy. I NEVER get tired of these games, and I've even gone on to get 100% items in all three of them. Do you have ANY idea how long that takes? ESPECIALLY in Prime 2.

...

EDIT: Also been playing Dark Souls 1 again. Still don't see all the rage poured on DS2. One game is stronger where the other is weak, and neither games' weaknesses are bad enough to really be considered horrible in my eyes.
Bascially in my eyes: DS2 combat > DS1 combat.

DS2 Build Options > DS1 Build Options

DS1 Lore > DS2 Lore
DS1 level design > DS2 Level design.
I got 100% in MP1 and 3. Looking forward to 2 now that it is coming out on Wii U end of this month!

Also atmosphere and storytelling in MP are no slouch. If any DS game comes close it was Demon's. And MP was there a long time before. let's not even talk about super metroid.
 

Scow2

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Aug 3, 2009
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I just revisited Far Cry 3 lately... and instead of the thrilling, dynamic game I had on the console, it felt... repetitive and dull, with me being too damn complacent with it.

I still play Titan Quest a lot.
 

ninja666

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May 17, 2014
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I recently revisited Saints Row 2 after 5 years since my last playthrough, but I'm not gonna get into details, since I've already made a separate thread about it a few days earlier.

Another game I'm revisiting at the moment, also after a long time since my last playthrough, is Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. A terribly underappreciated title, probably for a reason, but boy is it fun. I mean, what other GTA clone lets you literally destroy buildings, along with all the surroundings, using artillery strikes? Wreaking havoc is the best part about this title.