What are you currently playing?

[laggyteabag]

Still chugging along with Dragon Age 2, though I haven't had much time to play it recently.

Otherwise, with the announcement that Halo Infinite is finally coming out on Dec 8th, I feel like I should replay all of the Halo games. Im annoyed that I have to plug in my old Xbox One just to play Halo 5, but whatever.

My streamer friend also bought me a really nice microphone in return for selling his old PC, so I might try out streaming them, just to spice up the games that I have played a billion times before.

 

[happyninja42]

Still chugging along with Dragon Age 2, though I haven't had much time to play it recently.

What are your thoughts on it? I remember liking the game pretty well. Something about the combat was pretty enjoyable to me. Plus I loved the snarky dwarf ally. His voice actor was fantastic.

OT: Been churning away at Tainted Grail: Conquest. It's a really addictive game for me. I have definitely learned over the last several years, that I have a weakness for deckbuilder games. Not sure why, but something about their setup appeals to me. And this one is a nice setup. I've found 2 of the 11 classes that I just love to play, their combat style is just nuts. I'm still trying to get good enough to beat the "true enemy", but so far I'm just not beefy enough, even with my beefiest of beefcakes. I probably need to grind up more of the meta-stats that persist between playthroughs, and then just get lucky with some RNG on the talents and cards I get.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

Guerrilla released the fabled 60fps patch for Horizon Zero Dawn at last, wonderful appreciated humans! Though having not played in a a while and loading up a save right before a tricky boss on a tough difficulty setting took a fair bit of readjustment, (AKA dying) before getting to grips with the flow of combat once more. It still doesn't quite beat Ghost of Tsushima visually speaking, but Tsushima doesn't have fast-paced massive robot dinosaur battles with a thousand moving parts, so give and take and all that. Still looks and plays great!

And No Man's Sky continues to impress with yet another biggsie content update, something to do with frontier towns during exploration or whatever, so gonna give that a go too. Not sure how, but I got a space freighter without even trying, which is...nice. Never had one of those before. Maybe it'll impress the ladies.

 

[happyninja42]

Guerrilla released the fabled 60fps patch for Horizon Zero Dawn at last, wonderful appreciated humans! Though having not played in a a while and loading up a save right before a tricky boss on a tough difficulty setting took a fair bit of readjustment, (AKA dying) before getting to grips with the flow of combat once more. It still doesn't quite beat Ghost of Tsushima visually speaking, but Tsushima doesn't have fast-paced massive robot dinosaur battles with a thousand moving parts, so give and take and all that. Still looks and plays great!

Yeah it was super fun setting up insane traps to take down the robots in ambush tactics. I might have to replay that one soon, as I keep thinking about it offhand, or when people bring it up.

 

[Offworlder]

Finally got Hitman 3. I think the mission design is a bit weaker than the first two in the trilogy but I'm still having a blast with it. Also picked up a few Indies games on Steam that are a good time; Bad North, A Short Hike and Armella. Enjoying all three, will tide me over til Far Cry 6.

 

[laggyteabag]

What are your thoughts on it? I remember liking the game pretty well. Something about the combat was pretty enjoyable to me. Plus I loved the snarky dwarf ally. His voice actor was fantastic.

Dragon Age 2 is a game of two halves. Every aspect that I can pick out that I like, also has an aspect about it that I don't.

For example, I really like the combat. Its more challenging than DA:Os. I like how different classes have specific debuffs that they can apply, and can interact with different class' debuffs to trigger them. I much prefer the animations and sound design over DA:O, and the combat is a lot more satisfying to watch/play as a result. At the same time though, the difficulty can feel completely unfair, as entire groups of full-health enemies can appear out of thin air, and there is no way to predict if/when/where they will appear, which makes positioning your characters useless/impossible.

Similarly, I really like the companions. They are all really interesting, and very well written and acted. They also have a lot to say during quests, and whilst running around, and these conversation and inputs are always fun to listen to. Unfortunately, there are two fairly massive issues with this game's party system. Firstly, because your party composition is super important, and the characters are so locked into certain roles, you don't really have much space to experiment with who you bring along with you. For example, for gameplay reasons, you *must* have a tank, but unless you play as one, the only character who is capable of being a tank is Aveline, which effectively locks her into your party throughout the game. A subsequent issue with this, is that whilst your characters have a lot to say whilst they are in your party, they don't really have much to say or do when they aren't, which makes a lot of them feel like strangers, as they don't really fit into your party composition.

I do really like the Mage vs Templar plot that slowly escalates throughout the game. It is an interesting take on magic in fantasy, and I liked hearing about your companion's different perspectives and viewpoints on the conflict, as you interacted with the two parties throughout various quests. One thing that Drathnoxis pointed out, however, is just how jarring it can be to play as a mage (or have one in your party). The game places you in the dead-centre of this conflict, but no one ever notices that you (or your party member) are a mage. You can have entire conversations with Templars, who tell you just how bad magic is, and how it needs to be controlled at all costs, just after fighting alongside them, shooting lightning out of your fingers - without them noticing, of course.

Lastly, I love the idea of a focused, more linear story, which takes place in a single location - especially these days, where everything has to be a massive open world - but Kirkwall really isn't that exciting of a location to navigate ad infinitum. Everything is grey, or brown, and the city never changes. Wars wage, years pass, but at the end game, the city, and its inhabitants, look exactly the same, and are standing in exactly the same spots as they were at the beginning. One character, Fenris, liberates a mansion from his former slave-owner. The mansion is run-down, and there are bodies littering the floor. 3 years later, the bodies are still there! It is really quite strange.

Of course, there is the (quite major) concession that the game was made in a stupidly little amount of time, filled with ungodly levels of crunch, and EA were absolutely uncompromising, so in reality, it is actually quite remarkable that Dragon Age 2 turned out as well as it did.

I do like this game - quite a lot, actually. I definitely feel like this game's reputation is far overblown, but certainly far from perfect.

 

[happyninja42]

Dragon Age 2 is a game of two halves. Every aspect that I can pick out that I like, also has an aspect about it that I don't.

For example, I really like the combat. Its more challenging than DA:Os. I like how different classes have specific debuffs that they can apply, and can interact with different class' debuffs to trigger them. I much prefer the animations and sound design over DA:O, and the combat is a lot more satisfying to watch/play as a result. At the same time though, the difficulty can feel completely unfair, as entire groups of full-health enemies can appear out of thin air, and there is no way to predict if/when/where they will appear, which makes positioning your characters useless/impossible.

Similarly, I really like the companions. They are all really interesting, and very well written and acted. They also have a lot to say during quests, and whilst running around, and these conversation and inputs are always fun to listen to. Unfortunately, there are two fairly massive issues with this game's party system. Firstly, because your party composition is super important, and the characters are so locked into certain roles, you don't really have much space to experiment with who you bring along with you. For example, for gameplay reasons, you *must* have a tank, but unless you play as one, the only character who is capable of being a tank is Aveline, which effectively locks her into your party throughout the game. A subsequent issue with this, is that whilst your characters have a lot to say whilst they are in your party, they don't really have much to say or do when they aren't, which makes a lot of them feel like strangers, as they don't really fit into your party composition.

I do really like the Mage vs Templar plot that slowly escalates throughout the game. It is an interesting take on magic in fantasy, and I liked hearing about your companion's different perspectives and viewpoints on the conflict, as you interacted with the two parties throughout various quests. One thing that Drathnoxis pointed out, however, is just how jarring it can be to play as a mage (or have one in your party). The game places you in the dead-centre of this conflict, but no one ever notices that you (or your party member) are a mage. You can have entire conversations with Templars, who tell you just how bad magic is, and how it needs to be controlled at all costs, just after fighting alongside them, shooting lightning out of your fingers - without them noticing, of course.

Lastly, I love the idea of a focused, more linear story, which takes place in a single location - especially these days, where everything has to be a massive open world - but Kirkwall really isn't that exciting of a location to navigate ad infinitum. Everything is grey, or brown, and the city never changes. Wars wage, years pass, but at the end game, the city, and its inhabitants, look exactly the same, and are standing in exactly the same spots as they were at the beginning. One character, Fenris, liberates a mansion from his former slave-owner. The mansion is run-down, and there are bodies littering the floor. 3 years later, the bodies are still there! It is really quite strange.

Of course, there is the (quite major) concession that the game was made in a stupidly little amount of time, filled with ungodly levels of crunch, and EA were absolutely uncompromising, so in reality, it is actually quite remarkable that Dragon Age 2 turned out as well as it did.

I do like this game - quite a lot, actually. I definitely feel like this game's reputation is far overblown, but certainly far from perfect.

Yeah that's mostly my thoughts too. It's one of the games that I can recall replaying, to see different choices. I don't recall doing that with DA:O, though I might have and just blanked it. That game was a very big slog to get through IMO. It had some issues, and yes the Plot Blindness for you being/running with mages, given the context was, and still is hilarious, though that's a concession to game mechanics vs plot that frankly a lot of games do, so I can't say it's specific or unique to the game.

 

[Piscian]

I started Aliens: Firestorm. To be honest, even with friends, it feels kind of dull. At least in the first mission it's just you in cramped corridors shooting at aliens. The damage you take feels like of weightless. Like I can't even tell when I'm taking damage unless I keep track of the health and look whenever I see green splashes my screen. The guns and equipment are very generic and lack luster. The aliens look fine I guess, but its just kind of like noise coming at you. My friends seem to enjoy it so I'm gonna give it a little time.

I have a hard time differentiating this between L4D and Killing Floor. L4D is prettier and better designed, Killing Floor is the same game, but with weapon variety and in-game RPG elements like the store. Aliens: Firestorm just seems like those two games mashed together with Aliens franchise sticker on it.


If I could give some context I adored Outriders. I think what really made Outriders a different animal was that its vastly more customizable character wise and you have all Kinds of crazy epileptic seizure inducing powers and gun abilities. It was brightly lit, colorful and made you literally feel like a god when you play. Outriders would be more comparable to an Amalgamation of L4D and Borderlands, but benefiting from both rather than feeling derivative.

Hopefully as I unlock stuff I'll change my mind, but the first mission and story did not wow me. In fact the radiocom person sorta narrating your mission is really tonedeaf and grating.

 

[Hawki]

I started Aliens: Firestorm.

God damn it, you made me think there was an Aliens game I'd missed for a second.

 

[gorfias]

EA support was able to get this up and running for me again. Medal of Honor 2010.

Really fun, easy game that has aged, IMHO, very well.

 

[happyninja42]

God damn it, you made me think there was an Aliens game I'd missed for a second.

....I'm not sure what you mean? This IS an Aliens game? And it's a new release?

 

[Hawki]

....I'm not sure what you mean? This IS an Aliens game? And it's a new release?

You wrote Aliens: Firestorm, not Aliens: Fireteam. Hence, for a second, I thought there was an actual game called Aliens: Firestorm, before I realized you were talking about Fireteam.

 

[happyninja42]

You wrote Aliens: Firestorm, not Aliens: Fireteam. Hence, for a second, I thought there was an actual game called Aliens: Firestorm, before I realized you were talking about Fireteam.

it wasn't my comment, it was someone else's. Was just confused as to if you were making a joke like "that isn't really an Aliens game" I wasn't aware it was a typo from the original source. Don't really follow Aliens at all, so didn't spot the error

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Got back into playing Ghostrunner. Definitely felt the rust, but the game controls so well I was actually surprised how easy it was to get back into and how much the controls intuitively make sense.

 

[happyninja42]

Got back into playing Ghostrunner. Definitely felt the rust, but the game controls so well I was actually surprised how easy it was to get back into and how much the controls intuitively make sense.

Yeah, I just rewatched a no hit playthrough of it I had found shortly after the game came out. That dude is just ridiculous at shortcuts and stuff. I'm debating loading it back up to play again myself.

 

[CastletonSnob]

Mega Man X2.

I only have Wire Sponge left before I get to Sigma's Fortress. And just like the first game, X becomes OP by the end.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Got back into playing Ghostrunner. Definitely felt the rust, but the game controls so well I was actually surprised how easy it was to get back into and how much the controls intuitively make sense.

I only played the demo but there were a few sections where you had multiple wall jumps side to side that felt kinda unpredictable as far as getting a rhythm going. Especially the ones with a grapple/swing up to higher sections, it was tricky afterwards to tell when boosting a bit was needed or simply timing your next jump once the game registers contact with the wall.

For a game that’s centered around platforming I was surprised at how much easier it was to do things like continuous wall jumps in other action games. I guess they figured the platforming is the main challenge so it’s purposely made more difficult in terms of timing and momentum.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Been playing GoT: Iki Island lately, and it's fun. So far, it's just more of the same GoT. Which might sound like it's underwhelming, but it's not. I really loved GoT, so "it's as good as a game I really loved, because it's more of that thing I loved" is about as accurate as I can make it.

It's got the same flaws as the base game. The parkour/climbing physics can be a bit janky as fuck sometimes, and given it's very linear in how it wants you to traverse these climbing puzzles, I find it so strange that they make it so easy to miss a leap/grab. I mean you are 100% dependent on the game magnetizing you to the spot you generally aimed for, because that's how you do things like hop onto the tops of poles, or onto planks to shimmy across. There is no button to "grab", so, the fact that you can so easily just...NOT grab, when you are clearly right up against the object in question, is a bit frustrating. That's probably my biggest complaint, the still janky parkour/climbing physics. It's not enough to make me rage quit, but it's made me get pissed quite a few times at the screen for something entirely out of my control.

Story wise, it's pretty interesting so far. Jin has returned to Iki Island. A location that a group of Mongols have set up base at, that also happens to be an Important Location From His Past. So now Jin must deal with the ghosts of his past, and the current Mongol threat, on an island that does NOT like him at all, since he's a samurai.
The way the game handles the flashbacks are really nice. I won't go into details, but it's blended very nicely with the current events, and feels very organic. It reminded me of a lot of events that I had forgotten from my first playthrough, so it was a nice callback.

This content is REALLY meant to be played AFTER you beat the main game though. I've run into 2 different times when the game makes reference to events from the base game...that I currently haven't done at this point with this save file. The one I can recall currently is Jin stating that he defeated Khotun Khan...the final badguy of the base game. Well....I haven't beaten him yet at this point so....yeaaaah....oops So there is a bit of a narrative hiccup there. I also ran into another example of this sort of writing hiccup, though it's not related to base game, but the DLC itself.

So, for reasons related to the plot, Jin is on Iki island incognito. He is working with some people who don't know he is a member of clan Sakai. Later on in the storyline, it's revealed he is Lord Sakai, and one of the people he's been working with, is a bit miffed. Jin keeps saying "you need to keep this to yourself! Noone can know who I am! It will bring up too much bad blood! We have to work together!" And, I mean I agree in theory, but there is oooone teeny, tiny problem. One of the side missions, is all about him openly declaring who he is, and claiming a clan relic lost from the initial invasion 15 years ago. I mean it's NOT subtle, and the main story NPC is a dude, established as being the local STORYTELLER for a rather large community of villagers. Soooo....I fear this whole plan of "keep it quiet" is dead in the water Jin by your own actions!

Little things like that aside, it's been fun. The combat is harder, they've introduced a new enemy that really makes things much nastier for Jin, and shuffles around target priority no matter how you handle combat. The missions are fun, the new side content about playing the flute for the animals to bond with them is a neat new component, that's mechanically neat, and thematically enjoyable.

It's good content IMO. I wish there were more new skills, as I've only unlocked one so far, for the horse. Nothing for Jin though. Not sure if it's just hidden behind more story development, or if Jin just has no new tricks at all. The horse one is pretty fucking awesome though, not gonna lie.

But the new charms they introduced with the DLC are pretty awesome, and add a lot of new versatility to how you approach combat. It's more solid content, on par with the main game IMO.

If you like GoT, you should like Iki Island. I would strongly recommend waiting until after you've finished the base game on whatever save file you play it. Partly for the improved stats and gear, etc, but also just to make the various dialogue feel more smooth.

The best part of the DLC is them starting it off with your horse being this awesome hero horse all of a sudden, which was so stupid and anime I kinda loved it.

One thing that keeps coming back with this game is this sort of but not really supernatural element. You can tell the developers tried very hard to implement cool, over-the-top Ninja Scroll type stuff without breaking the historical setting and narrative. Which makes me think that maybe they should've just opted for a supernatural samurai game and ditched the historical "realism".

 

[BrawlMan]

No More Heroes 3. After beating the game, I'm just doing various challenge missions and having fun with the mini games. There is a new game plus, so I'll take all of Travis's upgrades and play them on a hardest mode. Mainly out of curiosity. I have him at near Max upgrade. I do love the fact that there is a Boss Rush mode as you unlock the game. And you can do the boss Rush at any time, though if you're playing on a harder difficulty you do have to pay a fee each and every time. I find that stupid. You shouldn't have to pay after completing it your first time through. At least it's there, if you don't want to have to go through the story mode to do all the bosses again, so it is appreciated. It's an element that was done before in a previous sequel, but you have to beat the game first to unlock Boss Rush mode. The PS3 version of the first game also had a similar mode as you went through the campaign.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Finally played through No More Heroes 2. I bought it on sale, maybe a year or two after it came out, just got around to it now. I wasn't very impressed by it. The combat is clunky and unfun. The dodge roll forces you to wait for the end of your combo before letting you dodge, and thus feels incredibly unresponsive sometimes waiting a second or two before kicking in. Thugs with guns suck, it's very frustrating trying to take out a group of them because the others will keep knocking you down and there's nothing you can do about it. The rest of combat is just mashing A against stunlocked enemies until you need to do a little wiimote shake. Boring.

Despite removing the entry fees the game still feels padded the heck out because most of the playtime is mashing A against the same handful of enemies shouting the same handful of taunts ad nauseam. Sometimes they'll all shout the same taunt at once overlapping eachother. Who are all these people anyway, and why are there hundreds of thugs always ready to stand in the way of one of the most dangerous "assassins" (not that Travis ever kills anybody other than other assassins) in the world wielding nothing but a metal pipe? Just thousands of them and their health bars just get longer and longer as you play through the game.

But the main focus of the game is the colorful boss fights which are... not very good. You wait until they attack and dodge roll then counter attack or you get knocked on your face and have to mash A for a while. It's pretty much the same every time. Sometimes the enemy gets invulnerability for a while and you get screwed for trying to hit them while they aren't ready to be hit. One time you have a motorbike duel with a guy that I have no idea how you are supposed to win. My turning speed was so slow I couldn't turn and hit the guy before he became invulnerable doing his charging attack. I won after a couple of tries when he just drove off the edge himself 5 seconds after the fight started. The final boss also kind of sucks. I got stuck in his first phase because, despite taking him down to half health without taking damage I wasn't attacking him in the exact way the game wanted me to and wasn't triggering a cutscene. I was fighting him for about 10 minutes before I realized his health wasn't going down anymore and looked it up online to see if the game had just bugged out.

The 8 bit minigames were not really very enjoyable to play, but thankfully there isn't really a reason to play them more than once. I had enough money from playing each game once to buy the two additional lightsabers and get all my stat upgrades.

The story just ran off me. It probably didn't help that I didn't remember any characters from the first game, so when someone would come back looking for revenge or whatever, I just didn't remember them at all. But besides that I just don't understand the motives of anybody really. Ok Travis is looking for revenge, I understand that, but what was anybody else doing. Why do they even have these ranked Assassin battles? Who benefits? What did Sylvia want? Why was she talking on the phone to Travis? (I mean he was my first guess, but I still don't understand why) the whole game? The framing narrative made no sense here. Why does Travis call himself "The No More Hero" at several points? What does that even mean? Characters came in, exposited their life story and died without really affecting anything. I feel like the game could be summed up adequately by the phrase "stuff happened."

On the whole it was pretty underwhelming. I don't remember disliking the original this much, so maybe it was better despite the grindfest entry fees or maybe my tastes have just changed.