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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
So I'm up to the final boss in Gears Tactics. I spent two hours on the fucker, failed, and it turns out I can't load a checkpoint, and it sent be back to the beginning.

...fuck!

Anyway, may as well vent some more. Remember how glowing I was about Tactics before? Well, forget it. The negative points still stand (story is stretched extremely thin), and the positive points are wearing thin. The moment to moment gameplay is decent, but it's clear how much is being recycled in the missions. Even in the 'core' missions, the game really just boils down to a handful of mission types (e.g. hold X points for Y turns," or "sprint from A to B to avoid bombardment), and while they're fun in of themselves, when you're forced to repeat them over, and over, and over...yeah. I think side missions in of themselves are a good idea, but looking at the game as a whole, I'd have gladly had fewer, more varied missions as opposed to more, but samey missions.

Also, while I'm on the subject of the final boss, bad enough that it takes forever, but Ukkon just won't...stop...talking. Christ, it's not as if the Locust bosses in previous games were particuarly deep, but they at least had the decency to be quiet. I'll happily take RAAM's growls and occasional sentence to Ukkon's constant prattling. Yes Ukkon, you're evil, and you hate humans, and your Locust are superior, and your creations are awesome, and I JUST SHUT UP!

So, yeah. Less of a fan now. I'd happily for a Gears Tactics 2 to be made, provided it had a narrower focus. I'm actually kind of dreading going back to the boss now just because of how long the thing takes. Least this time I'll use save points.
There is no way that boss is worse then the final boss in Phoenix Point. Certainly sounds chattier though.
 

Ezekiel

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Another thing I hate about these cinematic games is that you often don't know if proceeding somewhere will prevent you from taking another path until much later. I chose the story path without thinking it would block me off from the other, had my lightsaber broken in a cutscene and then tried the other path but couldn't open the gold chest containing a health stem at the end of it because everybody was agroed and I didn't have a weapon to fight them with. Oh, and then right after I had to go through this tediously long Jedi snow planet without any checkpoints. I got bored and just quit out of my game, but went back into it to see where I'd have to continue from the next time, and it's back at the goddamn ship, about fifteen minutes back. I'd thought MAYBE they'd give me an auto-checkpoint somewhere, since they didn't even space the Dark Souls-like checkpoints out properly. Speaking of chests, that's another thing this game is so much shittier at than Dark Souls and where the soullessness of EA really shows itself. A lot of the items you find in Dark Souls you'd never use, but at least the chests and loot have a reason for being there. Here they all contain cosmetic skins for your lightsaber, ship and droid companion.

I might be able to go back to that golden chest with the stem after this snow level. Annoying that I couldn't just get it then because the game decided I shouldn't get the interact button on the chest while I was unarmed.
 
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Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Ooh, do tell!
Well, first you have to deal with a huge group of pretty powerful enemy troops, the second is a long path with respawning enemies and artillery enemies and the boss will be putting this weird debuff on your guys that does damage every turn, no dodge chance, at first its not bad, but it stacks up, and the boss will have this annoying shifting wall so every turn you damage it, the next turn you might have to reposition to hit it again, especially if the vulnerable gap is on one of the sides. To make it more complicated, depending on which faction you're helping, you might have a powerful, but vulnerable ally who you have to keep alive and then run into where the boss was. You also need to make sure you stack up on ammo since its entirely possible to just not have enough to do the job.
 

Old_Hunter_77

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Well I bought Sifu despite my reservations about difficulty and repetition and, yeah, I kind of regret it. I'll go ***** about it in the other Sifu thread but consider this a reminder to only spend your money on games your really wanna play unless it's like 3 bucks or whatever.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Finished Majora's Mask last night. Did the final loop helping the Romani sisters and doing the Anju/Kafre sidequest so both of them can have a happy ending(I know they would anyway but I hate the idea of the poor girl sitting there after being abducted and the two lovers sitting waiting for the end). Also finished the trio of games at the dancing couples shop(Take that you wierdos).

The ending final area is interesting. those 4 mini-dungeons which in some cases are more annoying than they really need to be(that fucking Goron course). Getting the fierce deity mask makes the final battle into a curb stomp that ends in a few minutes, but then again, you're putting in a lot of work into get the mask, so it's basically a big pay off for a lot of extra effort and I'm fine with that. Besides, after god knows how many fucking loops, giving Majora's Mask a total beatdown felt good. Really good. So yeah, glad I put the time in and finished it. I've got a few other games to finish up before ER drops in less then 2 weeks.

After that, I don't know. I do want to play through Wind Waker and Twlight Princess this year but I'm ready for a break from Zelda for now.
I hope you do play through more Zelda this year, I always enjoy reading about people playing Zelda games
 
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Dalisclock

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I hope you do play through more Zelda this year, I always enjoy reading about people playing Zelda games
I do intend to play through most of the remaining ones, including link between worlds, spirit tracks, phantom hourglass, minish cap and skyward sword. But this year I'm being conservative and aiming for wind waker and twilight princess.
 
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meiam

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I do intend to play through most of the remaining ones, including link between worlds, spirit tracks, phantom hourglass, minish cap and skyward sword. But this year I'm being conservative and aiming for wind waker and twilight princess.
Dunno if you ever watched them/know of them but mathewmatosis has a great series of video on all the 3D zelda that are pretty great.

I'd also recommend link's awekening, its a gameboy game so often get overlooked but I think its one of the best zelda game.
 
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Dalisclock

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Dunno if you ever watched them/know of them but mathewmatosis has a great series of video on all the 3D zelda that are pretty great.

I'd also recommend link's awekening, its a gameboy game so often get overlooked but I think its one of the best zelda game.
Already played links awakening (remake) and I enjoyed it a lot.
I've also seen Matt's videos and liked them
 
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Bartholen

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Finished Lonesome Road in New Vegas and hit level 49. Meaning that I'll soon be finishing the story altogether.

I'm legit puzzled as to how I'd forgotten this DLC so completely and utterly, because I've definitely finished it before, on account of having visited the Long 15 with a previous character. I vaguely remembered detonating warheads with the laser detonator when it came up, but everything else was a blank. It might partly be because the environment isn't ultimately that different from the main game... even though it kind of is. The Mojave is ruined, but the Divide is full on annihilated into a hellscape. But I also never gave a shit about the plot with aforementioned previous character, and had only finished Dead Money prior to Lonesome Road, so I was definitely lost on the story.

It doesn't help that Ulysses is an incredibly wordy, philosphical and eloquent character, and his motivations are deliberately obtuse and hidden from the player until the very end. It's a bit confusing how the DLC reveals the story, because Ulysses speaks from the get-go in such personal terms to the player that it's kind of forcing you to try to remember this guy you've never met. It kind of messes with the whole "be whoever you want to be" ethos of Bethesda RPGs, because the story is heavily implying that the PC did something monstrous, which can lead to a bit of narrative dissonance if you've been playing a good-natured character. But of course the "monstrous act" was just doing a courier's job.

Lonesome Road is an example of how to do linear story-focused DLC in an open-ended RPG right. It never feels like it's restricting your movement, there's plenty of rewards for exploration and optional areas, but the story never loses momentum or focus. The DLC is properly tough for an endgame add-on, with some parts giving me legit trouble on Hard difficulty. At one point I had to use 4 C-4 explosives to kill two deathclaws, which is the most damage I've done in a single attack in the entire game. In the end I convinced Ulysses to stop his plan and shut down the nuke launch due to having a strong allegiance with the NCR and 100 Speech. I was a bit bummed to find out that in that solution there is no "endgame raid" like the Long 15, but it felt appropriate to how I've played this character.

What's left now is endgame mopup and then the final battle. I likely won't be going for a full completion, but I am going to explore the underground labyrinth that's part of one of the mods I've installed. The way I remember it it's like a full game's worth of content down there, and crashing past everything as a level 49 demigod ought to feel satisfying if nothing else. It really says something of just how good this game is that I've already planned to start a new playthrough with an entirely different character. This playthrough has finally opened my eyes about New Vegas.
 

NerfedFalcon

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Made a fair bit of progress with Earthbound, including the third Sanctuary - which means I now basically don't have to deal with mushrooms anymore, though ghosts show up in one more dungeon down the line. Next stop: Fourside Department Store, beginning a rather difficult segment of the game where your party is short-handed for a little while.
 
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Dalisclock

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Played A Short HIke.

This came out a few years ago but gets praised to high heaven and it's honestly pretty good. You play a little bird person named Claire staying on an island with her Aunt and decides to climb to the top of the moutain at the center of the island. Along the Way you meet other people and chat, explore the island, find tools and money and such, but really the game is very chill. There's no danger and the point is to relax and enjoy the exploration and the island. Since you're a bird you can glide after jumping from high places, but as you find and collect golden feathers, you can stay in the air longer as well as climb steep slopes(not unlike BOTW). The whole game will likely be done in about an hour or so but it's a nice little distraction to enjoy the time on the island and see what there is to see, maybe flsh a little bit, fly around, etc.

I know this doesn't sound like much and to some people it won't be much but for me it was a nice little change of pace, really. After 40 hours racing the clock in majora's mask, just wandering around a cool little island was worth an hour of my time.
 
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Drathnoxis

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Played A Short HIke.

This came out a few years ago but gets praised to high heaven and it's honestly pretty good. You play a little bird person named Claire staying on an island with her Aunt and decides to climb to the top of the moutain at the center of the island. Along the Way you meet other people and chat, explore the island, find tools and money and such, but really the game is very chill. There's no danger and the point is to relax and enjoy the exploration and the island. Since you're a bird you can glide after jumping from high places, but as you find and collect golden feathers, you can stay in the air longer as well as climb steep slopes(not unlike BOTW). The whole game will likely be done in about an hour or so but it's a nice little distraction to enjoy the time on the island and see what there is to see, maybe flsh a little bit, fly around, etc.

I know this doesn't sound like much and to some people it won't be much but for me it was a nice little change of pace, really. After 40 hours racing the clock in majora's mask, just wandering around a cool little island was worth an hour of my time.
I watched SGF play that a while back, and I agree. It seemed like a really relaxing, feel good game.
 
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NerfedFalcon

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Four Sanctuaries down, four to go. The next one's a right pain, though. Hopefully it doesn't take me too many attempts to get through.

Also, last new party member, not counting the temporary guest stars.
 

Dalisclock

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Four Sanctuaries down, four to go. The next one's a right pain, though. Hopefully it doesn't take me too many attempts to get through.

Also, last new party member, not counting the temporary guest stars.
I started playing it and I forgot Pokey is briefly in your party at the beginning. I mean he's completely useless but it's weird considering later developments(and Mother 3). I don't normally approve of hitting childern, but for him I'll make an exception.
 

Dalisclock

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I watched SGF play that a while back, and I agree. It seemed like a really relaxing, feel good game.
I noticed it was on sale on GOG. Then I realized I got it free on EGS so played it there.

Good for free, probably worth the $10 or less gog was asking for it.
 
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hanselthecaretaker

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Back into The Evil Within while awaiting Horizon: Forbidden West. Pretty much halfway through the game as I’m probably half way through chapter 7. I’ve grown accustomed to the game’s few quirks like the zoomed perspective, tacky upgrade system and generally derivative survival horror game design. I do like the opportunities to set up traps and lead baddies to their doom in certain kill rooms though. The game also feels really smooth on PC with a DualSense. Overall it’s holding my interest enough to finish at least.
 

bluegate

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Reluctantly finished up Final Fantasy 12 and now looking at getting into Ni no Kuni.
 

Bartholen

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Finished New Vegas at last. All in all the playthrough clocked in around 45 hours, a solid amount.

Yeah, this is genuinely a great, at times even brilliant game. There's so many choices, so many nuances, so many different ways for things to go that I'm already planning a second playthrough. The finished playthrough was a pathological, initially reluctant good guy who ended up siding with Mr. House all the way. The ending overall seemed about as close to a "good" ending as one could expect from such a game. I ended up playing through the ending twice just to see how doing Boone's quest would alter his ending (quite significantly), and also finishing the final confrontation entirely without combat (ended up having very little effect).

The thing I'm a bit puzzled by is why anyone would ever side "naturally" with Caesar's Legion. It's made so abundantly clear that they're a bunch of fanatical, fascist, brutal, oppressive, sadistic, imperialist, rapist thugs that I can only see playing a deliberately evil character siding with them. The NCR are kind of inept, spread too thin and clearly out of their depth, but they're portrayed with so much more humanity that the Legion seem almost cartoonishly evil in comparison. Hell, even Mr. House and his army of killer robots come across as more affable than these twats.

One thing I finally realized after over 120 hours of gameplay is to delete the "A World of Pain" mod. In theory it gives a ton more content into the game, but in actuality it ends up diluting the game's quality, because the difference between the mod content and game content is so blatantly clear. I can't even remember what the game looks like without it, so in a sense I should be facing quite a different game with my next character.
 
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