What are you currently playing?

[Old_Hunter_77]

Nobody Saves the World

Polygon has an article about it that says basically it's very grindy but it's done "right." I guess... I was attracted to it because after exhausting my brain with Sekiro (in a good way) and Scarlet Nexus (in a sort of mixed way), I guess I'm happy for cute grindiness while listening to podcasts and Escapist streams.
It's... fine? It's good. I was playing it while listening to yesterday's post-ZP stream with Yahtzee and Marty talking about its core progression mechanic, where leveling up involves grindy tasks of "kill enemies this way" or whatevever. So if you're in the mood for that, this one is good.

It's certainly cute and silly but not in any brilliant way (Yahtzee was pretty critical of the humor, and while I kind of agree I think he's exaggerating a bit). The graphics and mechanics are like basically a flash game- I installed it on my regular laptop even.

It is... something to do. I like it! It's not a must-play by any means, but it's very nice.

 

[Dalisclock]

Today in Unsighted, I learned that those big black eyeball monsters that the game implies can only be beat by the infinity +1 sword, and that's why you need to get the 5 macguffins? Yeah no, you don't actually need it. You can kill them with any weapon. It's just hard because you need several perfect parries in a row to get an opportunity for a critical hit, then rince and repeat until it bites the dust, while it only needs one or two hits to down you.

Such a good game.

Dude, stop selling me on it on hard! My poor backlog is giving me death glares as it........I'm gonna end up buying it, but I have no idea when I'm gonna end up getting to it.
Well, at least when 2 or 3 corps dominate the AAA portion of the video game industry I'll have more then enough good indies and older games to play until I die or civilization collapses, whichever comes first.

 

[Chimpzy]

Dude, stop selling me on it on hard! My poor backlog is giving me death glares as it........I'm gonna end up buying it, but I have no idea when I'm gonna end up getting to it.
Well, at least when 2 or 3 corps dominate the AAA portion of the video game industry I'll have more then enough good indies and older games to play until I die or civilization collapses, whichever comes first.

I'm not particularly trying to sell anyone on it, but I'm already considering it an early contender for my goty. It takes many of the best qualities of Zelda, a soulslike and a true metroidvania, and combines them in a way that is cohesive, engaging and rewarding. When I finish it, I'll probably do another playthrough immediately, something I usually don't do, just because I want to find out what knowledge of all those little hidden tricks and techniques does to change the experience. For example, I know it's possible to beat the bosses in reverse order, because there's an achievement for it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Completed the latest DLC for Blasphemous (Wounds of Eventide), which required another playthrough from scratch to get the new ending.

The new bosses are great fun, particularly the new second phase for Crisanta.

And it was free! And ends with a tease for Blasphemous 2 in 2023! Great all round model for how DLC should be.

Question.
I've beaten the game multiple times but haven't played any of the DLCs. I guess Stir of Dawn is strictly NG+, and I know the Bloodstained crossover is incorporated into the game like any other sidequest. Is Wounds of Eventide NG+ or can I access it just from playing the game again normally?

Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have to start a new game over a completed save file to access Wounds of Events, and once I finish that go on to NG+, where I access Stir of Dawn, right?

 

[Silvanus]

Question.
I've beaten the game multiple times but haven't played any of the DLCs. I guess Stir of Dawn is strictly NG+, and I know the Bloodstained crossover is incorporated into the game like any other sidequest. Is Wounds of Eventide NG+ or can I access it just from playing the game again normally?

Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have to start a new game over a completed save file to access Wounds of Events, and once I finish that go on to NG+, where I access Stir of Dawn, right?

Wounds of Eventide doesn't need to be NG+, and It doesn't need to be a file created over a completed save. Any new game or new file will do. I did my latest playthrough (doing the WoE stuff) on an entirely new NG file.

Stir of Dawn is NG+ only, yeah. Which seems a bit unnecessary to me honestly, but meh.

 

[Dalisclock]

Question.
I've beaten the game multiple times but haven't played any of the DLCs. I guess Stir of Dawn is strictly NG+, and I know the Bloodstained crossover is incorporated into the game like any other sidequest. Is Wounds of Eventide NG+ or can I access it just from playing the game again normally?

Edit: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have to start a new game over a completed save file to access Wounds of Events, and once I finish that go on to NG+, where I access Stir of Dawn, right?

As mentioned by others, NG+ is not required but you need to accomplish a few DLC based things BEFORE you defeat dude and his sister on the big bridge. If your save file after that(which is likely if you've finished it), you can either start a NG or a NG+. After that, you're locked out if you haven't accomplished the prereqs. On one hand, that feels a bit unfair, but on the other.....Welcome to Cvstodia. Enjoy your Penance, Sinner.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm not particularly trying to sell anyone on it, but I'm already considering it an early contender for my goty. It takes many of the best qualities of Zelda, a soulslike and a true metroidvania, and combines them in a way that is cohesive, engaging and rewarding. When I finish it, I'll probably do another playthrough immediately, something I usually don't do, just because I want to find out what knowledge of all those little hidden tricks and techniques does to change the experience. For example, I know it's possible to beat the bosses in reverse order, because there's an achievement for it.

Sorry, that's not meant to be mean. It does look good and I almost hate that so many indies look so good because I want to experience them all at some point. When a game ends up being bad, sometimes it's a relief because then I can write it off and focus on something else. I know it's weird, it's basically this game FOMO I'm trying to shake so I can enjoy what I'm experiencing without thinking I could be doing something even more fun right now.

Like how I'm playing LoZ: Majora's Mask I'm still in the early game yet I'm already mentally mulling over if I'm gonna do Twlight Princess or Wind Waker next in the series, or if I go play something else.

 

[Chimpzy]

Sorry, that's not meant to be mean. It does look good and I almost hate that so many indies look so good because I want to experience them all at some point. When a game ends up being bad, sometimes it's a relief because then I can write it off and focus on something else. I know it's weird, it's basically this game FOMO I'm trying to shake so I can enjoy what I'm experiencing without thinking I could be doing something even more fun right now.

Like how I'm playing LoZ: Majora's Mask I'm still in the early game yet I'm already mentally mulling over if I'm gonna do Twlight Princess or Wind Waker next in the series, or if I go play something else.

Nah, I get you. Found great deals on games I was interested in the past few months. Made my backlog balloon from 15 back to 33, even tho I've been spending the last 3-4 years trying (and largely succeeding) at eliminating it. But those deals, they were too good to resist. And who knows when it'll be this ridiculously cheap again? So much bang for my buck, while staying within my €60/month budget. Even have some budget left over in november. This month too. I mean, it doesn't transfer over, and probably not much I can still do with 73 cents, but still, the savings.

So here I am, with a whole bunch of new unplayed games on top of the 15 old unplayed ones (which were almost all 40h rpgs). Silver lining tho, basically nothing I'm really interested in releasing until like april/may, so guess I got time to make that number smaller again.

 

[Ezekiel]

Sekiro. New save file. I remembered now why I quit this game on the last boss. Screw the delayed attack animations and confusing swings. I probably won't play Elden Ring for years. I hate the difficulty of their newer games. Demon's SOuls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, loved them. Everything after that, eh.

 

[Hawki]

So I started playing Gears Tactics.

Put this off for awhile since while I enjoy strategy games in general, haven't played much in the TBT genre (I guess you could include Fire Emblem? Sort of?), and certainly not this kind of 'squad command' type of gameplay. I suspect that what it's doing is mostly what XCOM (re)established recently, but whatever the case, took the plunge.

For the most part, it's solid. Battles are tense, have to manage your squad, when to reload, what skills to use, where to set up overwatch and fields of fire, etc. Again, I doubt this is anything groundbreaking for people more familiar with the genre, but meh, new to me, and heaps of fun.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about the story. It's early days, but I think this has to be the weakest Gears story I've ever played. And I get that some of that is due to the nature of the gameplay, since there's only a handful of core characters, while the rest of your army is interchangable mooks. However, even then, what we have so far is just bland - there's little to distinguish Gabe and Sid from each other, whereas every other Gears game, even at their weakest (looking at you, Judgement) did something to distinguish their squad members. It's not fair to say that they're without distinction, but the dynamic isn't nearly as strong as past entries.

Also, the entire premise seems weird. The game starts in 1AE, with the prologue taking place hours before and during the Hammer of Dawn strikes, and the rest of the game after it, and...sorry, barely anything changes. The Locust are still everywhere, and there's plenty of human survivours as well. Prior to this, the lore established just how devastating the HoD was for everyone and everyTHING on Sera, basically triggering a mass extinction and a temporary nuclear winter. Here, all of that is nerfed. Even one of the characters points out that the HoD has barely changed anything. Well, that's nice, I guess, but it doesn't fit the setting.

So, yeah. Good (if a bit repetitve) gameplay, weak story. But fun for now.

Also, on the side, been playing Warcraft III: Reforged's multiplayer. Yes, I know, I'm terrible, but the graphics are gorgeous, and the gameplay as fun as it ever was. Mostly - I've given the four factions equal playing time, but for me, not all factions are equal. I think I've got the hang of the Alliance, Horde, and Scourge, but I suck with the Sentinels. They're just too damn squishy, and sure, they're probably the fastest faction out there, but that doesn't help me much when my troops are dying like flies.

But hey, still fun.

 

[BrawlMan]

You have to beat 8 stages to get to Hell in Doom 64. This is when the game starts really opening up with Stage 9: Even Simpler. I finally got the BFG 9000! I found it in a secret during Stage 10: The Bleeding.

It's awesome, but by far the weakest of the BFGs in terms of power. The design is cool, but they nerfed the damage compared to Doom I & II, because The Unmaker is so powerful when you find all the parts for it.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

After watching a speedrun of it at this year's AGDQ, I decided to buy Final Fantasy 13 on Steam. I've heard the PC port has a number of issues which there are fanmade patches to fix, but so far I haven't installed any of those, so my impression is of the port as it was published.

I'm enjoying it. I don't really mind the windowed resolution and the FMVs still look and sound good to me, and as for the actual game it's got a lot going on. It may be an 'auto battler', but you still have to give a lot of direction, prepare properly and react quickly to changes in the battle to win. And the story's got me hooked as well, the main cast are all pretty great and they've each had some cool moments already (I'm about 8 hours in). I'm not on team 'it's the best FF, fuck the haters', but I'm definitely not a hater either.

 

[Bartholen]

I've gotten back to Slay the Spire after finding out it was available on mobile and yup, it's still pure fucking crack cocaine.

One thing I have noticed is that unlocking more stuff actually makes the game harder as opposed to offering more options and flexibility. I beat the final(ish) boss on all my first 3 tries. But after that point the card pool had become so diverse that it actually became hard to create any sort of effective build reliably, because you just end up getting cards that don't synergize with your setup. Instead of increasing variety it feels like your power is being diluted, since the really powerful or useful cards show up less and less.

Roguelikes becoming harder as you play through them is of course nothing new, even expected, but this isn't an Isaac scenario where the increasing challenge is balanced by improving player skill and new synergies. If playing a roguelike could be described as walking up a flight of stairs, then Isaac would be one where you get to take the elevator up a few floors every now and then, whereas StS just forces you to walk all the way, and halfway up puts 5-pound ankle bracelets on you so the climb gets even more strenuous.

 

[meiam]

So I started playing Gears Tactics.

I enjoyed the game for awhile, but unlike xcom where a big part of the fun is to keep the same team as you play, gears tactics give your character so little exp per mission that you'll end up constantly firing your veteran to recruit new unit that are higher level than anything you have.

I've gotten back to Slay the Spire after finding out it was available on mobile and yup, it's still pure fucking crack cocaine.

One thing I have noticed is that unlocking more stuff actually makes the game harder as opposed to offering more options and flexibility. I beat the final(ish) boss on all my first 3 tries. But after that point the card pool had become so diverse that it actually became hard to create any sort of effective build reliably, because you just end up getting cards that don't synergize with your setup. Instead of increasing variety it feels like your power is being diluted, since the really powerful or useful cards show up less and less.

Roguelikes becoming harder as you play through them is of course nothing new, even expected, but this isn't an Isaac scenario where the increasing challenge is balanced by improving player skill and new synergies. If playing a roguelike could be described as walking up a flight of stairs, then Isaac would be one where you get to take the elevator up a few floors every now and then, whereas StS just forces you to walk all the way, and halfway up puts 5-pound ankle bracelets on you so the climb gets even more strenuous.

I stopped playing dead cells for that reason, most of the weapon you unlock are trash so I just ended up rarely ever seeing the weapon I wanted.They really need to give you an option to removing stuff at the same time as adding them. I'm playing star renegade at the moment and there's a nice system to promote and demote the chance of certain item spawning.

 

[BrawlMan]

I played some more Doom 64 last night up until midnight. I got to stage 19 and decided to stop there. I'm already over halfway done with completing the campaign. This is where the levels get trickier, and the puzzles a bit more complex, requiring some thinking power. And there are some game critics that says you can't think in a Doom game

 

[BrawlMan]

Sekiro. New save file. I remembered now why I quit this game on the last boss. Screw the delayed attack animations and confusing swings. I probably won't play Elden Ring for years. I hate the difficulty of their newer games. Demon's SOuls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II, loved them. Everything after that, eh.

Which is funny, because a lot of fans do not like Dark Souls II's combat all that much. Claiming it's too tedious and too janky. I have no stake in this, but that's the popular opinion. That game had a different game director, as Miyazaki was working on Bloodborne at the time.

 

[Dalisclock]

Which is funny, because a lot of fans do not like Dark Souls II's combat all that much. Claiming it's too tedious and too janky. I have no stake in this, but that's the popular opinion. That game had a different game director, as Miyazaki was working on Bloodborne at the time.

Dark Souls 2 also had a lot of wasted dev time. Apparently they tried to implement a new engine with really cool lighting and it took a long ass time to get it to work properly. To the point the original director was apparently demoted or booted halfway through development and they started taking the finished content and duct taping it all together. Illusionary Wall has some really cool videos show just how extensive some of the cuts were to the game(like entire areas or sections of areas were discarded).

Some parts of DS2 I really like(especially the DLC content) but a lot of it feels really patchy and uneven with a lot of repeated or just phoned in boss encounters that really hurt it in my eyes. Not to mention a lot of the character/enemy designs kinda just look ugly(and i can always tell I'm looking at DS2 screenshots/footage just by this alone). On a personal note, I also hated how you can pretty much be invaded at any time unless you turn off the online connection and some areas just had me getting invaded way too often, whether scripted AI invasions or fucking griefers. Which is one of many reason I will never replay DS2.

On an unrelated note, I finally reached the first dungeon in Majora's Mask before I decided to rewind time and then stop for the night. I'm glad the game(at least the remake) has fast travel points at specific points so I can unlock those and save time(I know the world really isn't big but the clock is always ticking and some places require a bit of effort to get to). I do dislike how some bits seem stuck to a specific day, like needing to save the witch in the lost swamp/woods but her sister who runs the potion shop leaves to go searching on day 2 and I'm pretty sure she never comes back so you can't get the required medicine(or at least it did for me, since I waited outside her shop for an entire in game day waiting for her to return and it never happened). Also, I just have to say some of those N64 animations are just kinda wierd. This was true in OOT but I'm noticing it all over again how some of the people have these wierd recurring animations that just comes across as offputting at times, like the banker in clock town who always seems like she's having a stroke or something(or maybe she's just coked up). A minor note for sure but something I wanted to mention.

 

[Ezekiel]

Games really should place dialogue on the center channel no matter where the character you're communicating with is standing. It's awkward having their voice go from speaker to speaker as you spin the camera. Filmmakers understand this. Why not the video game developers who so often try to ape movies? Something that occurred to me while playing Sekiro.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Beat My Friend Pedro and now I'm replaying some levels to get the S-Rank trophies. It's easier to get a high score in these than in Hotline Miami, though I think Hotline Miami is the way better game. It's basically the same premise - you're a nameless gunman on a rampage against organized crime as mandated by an anthropomorphic hallucination - but Hotline Miami has way better atmosphere, characterization and even emotion. Whereas Pedro thinks phoning all of those things in is somehow hilarious.

 

[meiam]

Beat My Friend Pedro

If that how you treat your friend I don't want to know what you do to your best friend.