What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
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I don't think I've enjoyed a game this much before while simultaneously really hating it. I don't get how this game is still in the state that it's in.
Why is everything in Fallen Order so fucking janky? I die about three times more to the environment than to any actual enemies. I've lost count of the number of ledges or climbable walls Cal has ignored in favor of plunging into the abyss. There's been plenty of glitches and performance issues as well. The open world tries to be seamless with all the stupid fucking "stand on a button" elevators, and yet still freezes your game when it can't load the new area fast enough. I've had frames chug in cutscenes, of all places. And the game, on PS4 btw, just looks like shit most of the time.
I'd heard it in reviews that without the Star Wars shtick, this game would be nothing special. And as far as I can tell, that is absolutely true. Literally the only reason I'm chugging through this game is because I'm a fan. If I wasn't, I would have waved this game off as a pretty mediocre attempt by a rookie dev to make a Souls-like. I am kind of shocked that this came from Respawn. After Titanfall 2, I thought any singleplayer content by them would be pretty good.
Why is everything in Fallen Order so fucking janky? I die about three times more to the environment than to any actual enemies. I've lost count of the number of ledges or climbable walls Cal has ignored in favor of plunging into the abyss. There's been plenty of glitches and performance issues as well. The open world tries to be seamless with all the stupid fucking "stand on a button" elevators, and yet still freezes your game when it can't load the new area fast enough. I've had frames chug in cutscenes, of all places. And the game, on PS4 btw, just looks like shit most of the time.
I'd heard it in reviews that without the Star Wars shtick, this game would be nothing special. And as far as I can tell, that is absolutely true. Literally the only reason I'm chugging through this game is because I'm a fan. If I wasn't, I would have waved this game off as a pretty mediocre attempt by a rookie dev to make a Souls-like. I am kind of shocked that this came from Respawn. After Titanfall 2, I thought any singleplayer content by them would be pretty good.
I've been working through New Vegas and I'm happy to say that I haven't been this absorbed in a game in years. I stayed up til 2 am last night playing through Honest Hearts, which was surprisingly good. The best story in the game is the one you never even see: the Survivalist's tale. It was genuinely touching and heart-wrenching reading the logs he left behind of his life in the post-apocalypse. So much so that I desperately wanted to discover all his locations, which weren't that hard to find to be honest.
Finished the Great Bay Temple in Majora's Mask. So in retrospect, the temple isn't really hard to figure out, it's just really obnoxious because if you far into the water(and you will, a lot, because Link sometimes takes your "Jump" commands as suggestions he'll do if he feels like it) you have to climb up and try again. This can lead a LOT of wasted time in a temple that's actually pretty linear. Not to mention the Stray faries are kind of all over the place in hard to reach places at times which adds more time, but the reward you get for the Ocean Fairy is really good so it's worth the trouble.
Also, that fish boss has a conceptually cool fight but the 2nd phase is kind of annoying because of the whole "Explosive swallow" thing you need to time just right.....underwater. But hey, I got the 3rd mask, I got the ice arrows, and I got the damage reduction buff so I'm ready to knock out a bunch more of the side quests before the last temple in the canyon.
Also, that fish boss has a conceptually cool fight but the 2nd phase is kind of annoying because of the whole "Explosive swallow" thing you need to time just right.....underwater. But hey, I got the 3rd mask, I got the ice arrows, and I got the damage reduction buff so I'm ready to knock out a bunch more of the side quests before the last temple in the canyon.
Honestly all I said for years while Stars Wars games were dicking around with multiplayer and whatever, I just wanted to wield a lightsaber and Fallen Order gave me that.
This is what all Star Wars media is: barely decent enough in quality to deliver nostalgia lightsaber shit. And I consume it all like the content vacuum dork I am.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
IIRC it kind of got shit on my Yahtzee and the Escapist crew but I am really loving it! Imagine watching Moana but before each scene, you have to play a little Dark Souls 2. If that sounds intriguing, pick this up. If it sounds nightmarish, don't.
IIRC it kind of got shit on my Yahtzee and the Escapist crew but I am really loving it! Imagine watching Moana but before each scene, you have to play a little Dark Souls 2. If that sounds intriguing, pick this up. If it sounds nightmarish, don't.
And I finished Kena. Yeah, it's a wonderfully short game but it's the difficulty that will extend the game time.
And that's why I dropped it down to easiest today. I was at the end, and it started doing that end-game bullshit that so many games do, where they just throw waves of enemies and bosses with multiple stages without checkpoints and I just wanted to see the end of the tale already.
The game's combat and challenge are actually really interesting and I wish everybody here plays it so we can argue about it
I have mixed feelings.
I mean... it's good, because it's just another Dark Souls lite copy. Or if you played a recent Assassins Creed you're already an expert on Kena.
The enemies especially bosses have variety within that simple combat and it's great.
But a lot of the fights are in the dark and that is narratively thematic (you're lifting poison curses through your victories). But that just makes it hard to see the attacks, especially when mobs spawn.
Worst of all is any boss with a "grab" attack. It's worse than the ogre in Sekiro- I beat the game and I can't even explain how to time that dodge consistently. And it's only bosses so you can't even "practice" it on regular enemies.
Back on the plus side, the fights are quick, at least on default difficulty mode- yeah, you die after a couple hits, but the enemies are NOT health sponges and you see the health bar go down and it feels very good when you start to string together your plan of attack.
And then the last boss is so annoying it got a whole write-up on Polygon (IIRC) about how shit it is, lol.
And that's why I dropped it down to easiest today. I was at the end, and it started doing that end-game bullshit that so many games do, where they just throw waves of enemies and bosses with multiple stages without checkpoints and I just wanted to see the end of the tale already.
The game's combat and challenge are actually really interesting and I wish everybody here plays it so we can argue about it
I have mixed feelings.I mean... it's good, because it's just another Dark Souls lite copy. Or if you played a recent Assassins Creed you're already an expert on Kena.
The enemies especially bosses have variety within that simple combat and it's great.
But a lot of the fights are in the dark and that is narratively thematic (you're lifting poison curses through your victories). But that just makes it hard to see the attacks, especially when mobs spawn.
Worst of all is any boss with a "grab" attack. It's worse than the ogre in Sekiro- I beat the game and I can't even explain how to time that dodge consistently. And it's only bosses so you can't even "practice" it on regular enemies.
Back on the plus side, the fights are quick, at least on default difficulty mode- yeah, you die after a couple hits, but the enemies are NOT health sponges and you see the health bar go down and it feels very good when you start to string together your plan of attack.
And then the last boss is so annoying it got a whole write-up on Polygon (IIRC) about how shit it is, lol.
I've been replaying 80 days on my phone and it holds up very well. It might actually be better on the phone, considering it easily be picked up and put down as needed. So basically it's an adventure/strategy adaptation of the novel around the world in 80 days(by Jules Verne), except there's a bunch of steampunk tech to make the world a bit more interesting and offer more traversal options. So it means this version of 1872 has steam powered automobiles, carriages drawn by robot horses, passenger airships and such, so it's basically an alt history 1872 while still following the general jist of the novel. Basically, the plot is: British Gentleman Phileas Fogg has just made a very large bet he can circumnavigate the world in 80 days or less. You play his French Valet, Passepartout, who has literally just been hired when being told about this bet and you're leaving RIGHT NOW.
The game element is that you're the one responsible for getting him and yourself through this journey. That means finding routes and choosing the appropriate ones, managing the inventory and finances, and such. Certain inventory items can be bought for cheap and sold for a large profit in certain cities, certain items can make traveling less stressful(there's a 'morale" meter, which I guess acts as a health bar), etc, but you can only carry so much inventory without limiting your travel options(some places might let you only take X number of items, so you either hire extra space or get rid of some of them). So you're constantly balancing Inventory, time(which is always ticking) and money to keep moving east so as met the 80 day deadline.
There are a ton of cities to visit, cities have different routes to other cities(some only discoverable if you ask the right people the right questions), so there are a lot of different ways to cross the globe. And along the ways there will be little text adventure bits conveying story that you get a few choices of how the story goes(along with what looks like an invisible skill check/dice roll for certain scenarios), so there's a lot of possible replay value because you can try different routes and find different story bits.For example, the first time I played I took the trans siberian railway through Russia when crossing Eurasia, while this time i went down through the Mediterranean, the suez and India before heading around China to Japan).
Sure, on the surface it's a game of "Pick routes and manage resources" with some text bits to convey story, characterization and atmosphere. But it is surprisingly engaging if the idea appeals to you.
The game element is that you're the one responsible for getting him and yourself through this journey. That means finding routes and choosing the appropriate ones, managing the inventory and finances, and such. Certain inventory items can be bought for cheap and sold for a large profit in certain cities, certain items can make traveling less stressful(there's a 'morale" meter, which I guess acts as a health bar), etc, but you can only carry so much inventory without limiting your travel options(some places might let you only take X number of items, so you either hire extra space or get rid of some of them). So you're constantly balancing Inventory, time(which is always ticking) and money to keep moving east so as met the 80 day deadline.
There are a ton of cities to visit, cities have different routes to other cities(some only discoverable if you ask the right people the right questions), so there are a lot of different ways to cross the globe. And along the ways there will be little text adventure bits conveying story that you get a few choices of how the story goes(along with what looks like an invisible skill check/dice roll for certain scenarios), so there's a lot of possible replay value because you can try different routes and find different story bits.For example, the first time I played I took the trans siberian railway through Russia when crossing Eurasia, while this time i went down through the Mediterranean, the suez and India before heading around China to Japan).
Sure, on the surface it's a game of "Pick routes and manage resources" with some text bits to convey story, characterization and atmosphere. But it is surprisingly engaging if the idea appeals to you.
I've been playing through the Dead Money DLC in New Vegas because I saw it being recommended to be the second one to play. And fucking Christ, it's garbage. Just straight up rubbish. And in such basic ways I'm astonished they managed to fuck it up this badly. Just off the top of my head:
- The environments are incredibly repetitive and tedious to traverse with labyrinthine layouts and multiple levels of elevation. This might be fine if there was a lot of exploration, but the DLC is entirely linear. It turns the game's already garbage compass and map system into an active hindrance against the player
- All open-endedness and exploration is thrown out the window in favor of a narrative focus, which this is just the completely wrong game for
- The DLC strips you of all your gear upon entry and locks you in it for its duration, meaning 1. you can't leave until you finish it and 2. you're forced to play it the way it wants you to. Additionally the DLC deliberately handicaps you even if you're at a very high level by having any and all gear you find be complete garbage.
- The DLC seems to be encouraging a methodical, stealth-based approach, but it often forces you down such narrow paths that you're essentially forced to combat them. Either that, or invincible holograms you have to shut down remotely
- As if restricted options and cramped environments weren't enough, the DLC reinforces its linearity by having the PC wear an explosive collar which starts beeping at what seem to be completely arbitrary places. It's climbing the charts of "most annoying sounds ever" in my brain, and is now probably in the top 10 alongside Cotton Eye Joe, neighbors partying at 3am and waking up to the sound of a jackhammer.
I am not playing Kaze and the Wild Masks anymore. Traded it in for store credit. I'll probably start my Quake IV (360) playthrough today.
The only one that's really worth playing is old world blues imo, maybe the last one but its built around a dumb premise.
Finished Dead Money, thankfully it's short. Christ what sludge that was. Gameplay wise I mean. Storywise it's actually really well written, and I was legit a bit sad that none of the side characters could become companions afterwards. I also finally understand a bit how Lonesome Road is being set up. I played through it years ago and remember nothing about it except for the Long 15 being essentially an endgame raid with everything turned up to 11. I'm saving that for last, heading to Old World Blues next.
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Encased
Isometric RPG in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world set in the 1970s. I don't quite get how a huge (like, tens of miles across) Dome filled with long lost technology from a mysterious past (alien?) civilisation is found somewhere in a conveniently unspecified "wasteland" in the Cold War world, but hey, just roll with it. Anyway, the world abandons its Cold War conflicts to explore this exciting new opportunity for technology as a global effort - aww! Anyway, biological material that goes into the Dome can't come back out, because reasons, and they can't procreate in the Dome, because reasons. So a bunch of people have volunteered to go in and send funky tech stuff back out, and set up a lovely new city with research outposts. Step foward a few years, you're arriving as a new recruit... just before everything goes horribly wrong.
It's quite well done - the stats and skills system works pretty well, it's pleasingly bug-free, runs smoothly, and it's interesting enough. Obviously, it's got strong Fallout-like vibes (although is less overtly humorous). So if you've got that classic RPG itch to scratch, this should be well up your street.
Isometric RPG in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic world set in the 1970s. I don't quite get how a huge (like, tens of miles across) Dome filled with long lost technology from a mysterious past (alien?) civilisation is found somewhere in a conveniently unspecified "wasteland" in the Cold War world, but hey, just roll with it. Anyway, the world abandons its Cold War conflicts to explore this exciting new opportunity for technology as a global effort - aww! Anyway, biological material that goes into the Dome can't come back out, because reasons, and they can't procreate in the Dome, because reasons. So a bunch of people have volunteered to go in and send funky tech stuff back out, and set up a lovely new city with research outposts. Step foward a few years, you're arriving as a new recruit... just before everything goes horribly wrong.
It's quite well done - the stats and skills system works pretty well, it's pleasingly bug-free, runs smoothly, and it's interesting enough. Obviously, it's got strong Fallout-like vibes (although is less overtly humorous). So if you've got that classic RPG itch to scratch, this should be well up your street.
That was where I quit NV. Dead Money looked so cool, but it was such an ass to play. I had managed to save over a few prior saves so I would have had to go back several hours before I started the DLC and I just couldn't bear to play through it to get out the other side of that crapfest.
I finished the first stage on Sifu. Man, the first boss is no joke. I am at Stage 2, and now my character at age 40. Had I not died to some of those super powered mooks who glow, I would have finished the stage at age 30 something.
I haven't seen the review yet but I kinda know the gist of it. How much do you age every time you die and is there a limit to how much you can die? Can you become the worlds oldest brawler if you're bad at the game or do you eventually just keel over from old age?
I tested it out, and the oldest you can get is 76. How fast you age, depends on the amount of death counts you have. For example, you die when you have 3 death counts, you age another 3 years upon resurrection. Once you get to 70+ Age, you've reached final death. After that, you lose all your temp upgrades and XP, but you can keep all the hidden items you found through exploration.
Can't say I blame you. While I said it's really well written, it's not well structured. The writing is only given focus in a few places where you have the opportunity to freely converse with the side characters, and it can turn into an exposition dump very easily. So I can't even recommend one suffer through it for the writing. And to add insult to injury you don't really even get anything cool out of it. A pretty good light armor and a massive amount of caps, provided you have the carrying capacity to carry gold bars out of the vault. But at the level you'll be playing Dead Money caps won't be a problem anyway, so it's all just piss in the wind.
There are admittedly a couple of cool things about the second half of the DLC.
- The starlet who got trapped inside the hotel and committed suicide by overdose, but had her last moments of desperation during the lockdown recorded by the hologram system. The concept of this holographic playing someone's despair endlessly on repeat for over a century is a legitimately horrific concept, and it really got under my skin.
- The way you can deal with Dog/God non-combatively. With a high enough speech skill you can merge his split identity into one, forming a new consciousness and memory. I just love shit like that.
- When you get to the vault you can look through some data files on the computer. Looking through one there's a warning about looking at personal accounts, which are unlocked by looking at said file. If you decide to look through the personal accounts, the game locks you in the vault, unable to escape. It then cuts to an epilogue segment about how the Courier starved to death in the vault, but ended up recorded as a hologram, in a way granting them eternal life. As far as non-standard game overs go it's pretty neat.
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I think I lucked out on my go through of Dead Money. I took it with my melee focused character. That made it a little more tolerable for me. I was kind of bored by Honest Hearts, but it was better than Dead Money. Old World Blues is just fun, if not particularly connected to the overall story much. But if the humor isn't doing it for you it could be a slog. And Lonesome Road, is art. Maybe not as fun as other parts of the game, but something everyone should experience and an absolutely necessary part of NV.
Now I'm gonna be playing certain Fire Emblem games.
The "Ike Duology", the games that has the character Ike from Smash Brothers.
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.They were the first games to make the jump to 3D, although its still the exact same chess grid turned based games as the prior ones.
The "Ike Duology", the games that has the character Ike from Smash Brothers.
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.They were the first games to make the jump to 3D, although its still the exact same chess grid turned based games as the prior ones.