What are you currently playing?

[meiam]

I got back into Valkyria Chronicles (the first one) after like 6 years due to finally being able to play PS4 games again after getting a PS5, and feeling a bit burnt out on action games after Elden Ring.

This has got to be one of the most psychotically tone-deaf games ever made ever. The meshing of bright cheery high-school anime tropes and drama with WW2 is such a staggeringly mismatched concept that I can only imagine how distanced the devs must have felt from actual war (which due to currently being very present in everyone's lives isn't doing this game any favors). It is legitimately horrifyingly disturbing to see these characters shooting enemies at point blank range and blowing them into bits with tank mortars, and then go back to talking how pretty the flowers look. It makes everyone in this game look like a stone cold psychopath, and is one of the reasons why this game's anime-ness is utterly unbearable and makes me incapable of following the story in the slightest. However juvenile a wank fantasy Call of Duty may be, at least they treat their subject matter seriously and don't shy away from its ugliness.

Or that's what I thought at first.

Over the course of roughly an hour and a half of gameplay I stumbled upon a realization that completely changes how you can view the game, and actually makes the twee anime cutesiness both make sense and actually somewhat bearable to follow. And that realization is a reframing: none of it is literal. Since the game is presented in a scrapbook format, it's already framed as a sort of recollection, a set of memories. So if you take that idea and run with it, it's incredibly easy to see the game as the processing of trauma by a scarred war veteran who's trying to make sense of it. The bright colors, the cute anime characters, the worryingly chipper tone, it's all in the mind of this unknown person who's trying to come to grips with the horrors they saw. "No, we weren't in France in 1939, we were in Gallia in 1935. No, there wasn't blood, corpses and limbs everywhere, some buildings just fell down in a cloud of dust. The people we fought weren't reduced to shreds, guts and blood, they just ragdolled and fell over. No, the training instructor wasn't a monstrous abuser, he was just a bit animated and goofy." And so on. It actually gives the game a sense of both unintended and undeserved gravitas that I'm sure the devs didn't intend. But trying to see it as just what it is will have you tearing your hair out and recoiling in horror and revulsion at these psychotic murderers.

The game itself? Pretty good actually. The fusion of Gears of War and X-Com isn't entirely seamless, but it creates some unique and interesting dynamics. Like waiting for enemies to reload before moving on. There's quite a lot of tactical depth to it, but I can't comment on it too much since I'm not even 2 hours into the game. An unexpected positive are the tutorials, which not only explain the mechanics, but also give tactical hints when they're presented. Which in another game might feel patronizing, but I think it's warranted in a game with core gameplay this unusual. One thing I'm already getting worried about though is how singular the game feels: it feels like the game expects you to face each scenario with one and only one sequence of events in mind, and if you stray too far from that the game will a) give you a poor grade at the end of each mission and b) do some massive ass-pull to go "nuh-uh, you can't it that way".

I like your interpretation, sadly the game goes very anime over time and that aspect kinda get lost (maybe the guy remembering had to be put on morphine and is now delirious?).

As far as grading, battlefield very much have an intended way to beat them, where a clear path is given to you and you don't have that much freedom to deviate from it. But if you do deviate, you usually end up with much better grade rather than worse, spoiler not to spoil the gameplay because once I realize this it pretty much killed all of my interest in the gameplay in almost every scenario you can just rush the objective with a scout and easily win, most mission can be done within 2 turns, some can even be done before the enemy even have a single turn, almost every other class is useless and the tank isn't worth using in most scenario.

 

[BrawlMan]

However juvenile a wank fantasy Call of Duty may be, at least they treat their subject matter seriously and don't shy away from its ugliness.

Depends on which ones you are talking about. Some of them either take themselves too seriously to the point of self-parody, or they don't even try and still give themselves a pat on the back for nothing.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Working my way through the current seasonal event in Genshin Impact, which involves an entire separate area of the game (recycled from last year, but I loved it last year until the ending), and a plot that takes a deep dive into, so far, one of the game's characters in a world based on their memories and psyche. I'm not sure if they're going to do it for the others or not, but since the character they've chosen is one of my favorites, I call that a plus.

 

[BrawlMan]

@Chimpzy, I tried EX Zodiac demo, and I am loving this game! The perfect hybrid blend of Star Fox, Space Harrier, and Panzer Dragoon. Game is hard as nails too. I did beat one of the two stages available for the demo. Clutch victory it was. Ex Zodiac is the best modern day Star Fox game ever made right now. Suck it, Nintendo!

 

[wings012]

I got back into Valkyria Chronicles (the first one) after like 6 years due to finally being able to play PS4 games again after getting a PS5, and feeling a bit burnt out on action games after Elden Ring.

This has got to be one of the most psychotically tone-deaf games ever made ever. The meshing of bright cheery high-school anime tropes and drama with WW2 is such a staggeringly mismatched concept that I can only imagine how distanced the devs must have felt from actual war (which due to currently being very present in everyone's lives isn't doing this game any favors). It is legitimately horrifyingly disturbing to see these characters shooting enemies at point blank range and blowing them into bits with tank mortars, and then go back to talking how pretty the flowers look. It makes everyone in this game look like a stone cold psychopath, and is one of the reasons why this game's anime-ness is utterly unbearable and makes me incapable of following the story in the slightest. However juvenile a wank fantasy Call of Duty may be, at least they treat their subject matter seriously and don't shy away from its ugliness.

Or that's what I thought at first.

Over the course of roughly an hour and a half of gameplay I stumbled upon a realization that completely changes how you can view the game, and actually makes the twee anime cutesiness both make sense and actually somewhat bearable to follow. And that realization is a reframing: none of it is literal. Since the game is presented in a scrapbook format, it's already framed as a sort of recollection, a set of memories. So if you take that idea and run with it, it's incredibly easy to see the game as the processing of trauma by a scarred war veteran who's trying to make sense of it. The bright colors, the cute anime characters, the worryingly chipper tone, it's all in the mind of this unknown person who's trying to come to grips with the horrors they saw. "No, we weren't in France in 1939, we were in Gallia in 1935. No, there wasn't blood, corpses and limbs everywhere, some buildings just fell down in a cloud of dust. The people we fought weren't reduced to shreds, guts and blood, they just ragdolled and fell over. No, the training instructor wasn't a monstrous abuser, he was just a bit animated and goofy." And so on. It actually gives the game a sense of both unintended and undeserved gravitas that I'm sure the devs didn't intend. But trying to see it as just what it is will have you tearing your hair out and recoiling in horror and revulsion at these psychotic murderers.

The game itself? Pretty good actually. The fusion of Gears of War and X-Com isn't entirely seamless, but it creates some unique and interesting dynamics. Like waiting for enemies to reload before moving on. There's quite a lot of tactical depth to it, but I can't comment on it too much since I'm not even 2 hours into the game. An unexpected positive are the tutorials, which not only explain the mechanics, but also give tactical hints when they're presented. Which in another game might feel patronizing, but I think it's warranted in a game with core gameplay this unusual. One thing I'm already getting worried about though is how singular the game feels: it feels like the game expects you to face each scenario with one and only one sequence of events in mind, and if you stray too far from that the game will a) give you a poor grade at the end of each mission and b) do some massive ass-pull to go "nuh-uh, you can't it that way".

I couldn't get through the first VC, I tried it out when it got a PC port.

I really didn't like how all enemies could shoot the living shit out of the one dude you're controlling.

I'm not sure if there was too much point to having to manually move and aim besides making it a lot harder to figure out how far you can go and where you should go. Ultimately weapon accuracy was dictated by random spread anyway, so I'm not sure if having to manually aim even adds anything over a RNG percentage based system.

There was all sorts of weird jank that I had trouble getting over, such as how cover was not 'directional'. As long as an enemy was in cover, they counted as having all the benefits of cover(immunity to headshots and whatever) even if you go through the trouble of flanking and shooting them from behind. I found that the gameplay kinda just devolved into driving my tank through every piece of cover in existence and abusing multiple turns with scouts who had so goddamn much movement range that you might as well not use anything else unless mission specific gimickry forced you to.

I remember there was a mission where there was an invincible enemy valkyrie enemy, but her attacks just counted as regular 'bullets' or whatever so I just parked my tank on top of her and had her helplessly plink it all mission. I think I had to slowly maneuver some soldier class to flamethrower some bunkers or something. Overall the missions didn't really feel that tactical, they were gimicky and had you abuse mechanics to win.

It had interesting ideas I guess but I think I would've just preferred a more standard X-COM style combat system.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

20 hs into Far Cry Primal, 60% done. Feels like most of the story happened during the first hour and I've been just fucking around Oros ever since.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge

A perfect "GamePass" game- I would never pay for this outside of a subscription. But a fun way to spend a lazy hot evening on a day when I had nothing to do and didn't want to go out in the humidity. A couple of beers and an enthusiastic co-op stranger playing as April O'Neal doing most of the work had me blow through the story campaign in one sitting.
It's... fine, I dunno, button smashy cute arcade nostalgia.

And now I'm doing yet another reply of Sekiro. I just... can't stop...

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Maliketh the Black Blade defeated. I knew I was missing something in the crumbly floating land, along with the last bell bearing for smithing upgrades. Plus that one fire spewing A-hole. Only two tries thankfully and a nail biting finish but also the malformed horse riding A-hole too. He took about three times as many tries as Maliketh, who went down surprisingly quickly for a late game boss. It’s really making Malenia stand out as the most BS boss. Not only does she have life steal on block but gets a whole new health bar plus rot for a 2nd phase. And with a near unavoidable combo that can undo all the damage you’ve worked for, multiple times. I’ll go back to her before end game but for now seeing what’s what in the Capital of Ash.

Out of curiosity I looked at the trophy list and was pleasantly surprised to see the only need one more weapon and ash, but missing a few of the spells yet. Not sure on talismans so will have to check. Save scumming endings is a tradition too I guess, but might need the NG+ for the frenzied one. In any case it doesn’t look as arduous as other FROM games, especially given its size. But then again I’ve already put about as much time into it as other platinum efforts, so yeah. At least it’s still been less redundant so far even considering the reused bosses and tomb raiding.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Congrats on Maliketh. I don't even remember exactly how I beat him.. I think all the late game bosses were just me and my mimic and Rivers of Bloods and bleed and slamming attacks and praying.

As I started a Sekiro replay recently I was thinking about Melania's crazy whirly attack, the one with the swords slashing white all over the screen. And I realized that it's essentially just a bigger version of the white whirly attack by Ishin from Sekiro. And the best way to avoid both is to just run away. I mean, yes, it's possible to i-frame through them but it is crazy hard and I can't do that.
But this is the whole thing with Elden Ring- that slightly "more" nature of ER's versions of things are too much. Ishin's white whirly attack is insane, and it took me a while to figure it out, but I did. It's as crazy as it can possibly be for me to handle. Any more would be too much. Melania is any more. It's too much. At least with Ishin, you have a wide area to avoid it- the battle arena is a huge field. So it's ultimately fair- Ishin has all these huge attacks but Sekiro is fast and nimble and you can run in and out and around. The Melania fight is in a crowded dark cave so the attack takes up the whole screen but also you have to get away but also you can't block... it just doesn't make sense.

The really f'd up thing is that I'll probably replay ER at some point, lol.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Congrats on Maliketh. I don't even remember exactly how I beat him.. I think all the late game bosses were just me and my mimic and Rivers of Bloods and bleed and slamming attacks and praying.

As I started a Sekiro replay recently I was thinking about Melania's crazy whirly attack, the one with the swords slashing white all over the screen. And I realized that it's essentially just a bigger version of the white whirly attack by Ishin from Sekiro. And the best way to avoid both is to just run away. I mean, yes, it's possible to i-frame through them but it is crazy hard and I can't do that.
But this is the whole thing with Elden Ring- that slightly "more" nature of ER's versions of things are too much. Ishin's white whirly attack is insane, and it took me a while to figure it out, but I did. It's as crazy as it can possibly be for me to handle. Any more would be too much. Melania is any more. It's too much. At least with Ishin, you have a wide area to avoid it- the battle arena is a huge field. So it's ultimately fair- Ishin has all these huge attacks but Sekiro is fast and nimble and you can run in and out and around. The Melania fight is in a crowded dark cave so the attack takes up the whole screen but also you have to get away but also you can't block... it just doesn't make sense.

The really f'd up thing is that I'll probably replay ER at some point, lol.

I just saw this yesterday which is probably what you’re referring to (plus some funny comments) -


It’s missing the two quick aftershock slashes at the end but basically she should’ve been in Sekiro, sans life steal. Or at least not on deflecting. It might’ve been interesting if the amount she stole reflected the precision of the player’s deflecting. Like, perfect deflect she gains nothing and loses loads of posture. Bad deflect and shit happens.

As in replay you mean NG+ correct? If not then damn, I haven’t even done a complete NG playthrough with any FROM game. Pretty sure Sekiro would be the only one I’d have the patience for and I love Bloodborne. The act of re-leveling and looting everything is too much for me, especially with my backlog.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Yes- Melania is a Sekiro boss in a Dark Souls game. And she's not the only one. This has been my primary criticism of Elden Ring. People describe ER as the culmination/summation of all FromSoftware games. I agree- but for me it's a criticism not a compliment. This is exactly why- the pieces don't fit together well.

But, as for a replay, no not a NG+, re-building a new character would be the whole point. The good part of ER is how HUGE it is and the appeal of a replay would be to choose a build to work toward.
I've also changed platforms. So my first play-through was on PlayStation with a platinum trophy mentality, having collected all plats on all FromSoftware games.

The next replay would be on XBox and more of a mess-around play-through with no self-imposed pressure to fight any optional boss or acquire any items I don't want. And I just like the XBox controller a lot more.

Basically with XBox Series S it's like this- I like having GamePass to try out stuff. But then when I'm not finding stuff I want to try, I have a FromSoftware game to mess with. Right now that is Sekiro, I'm still not sick of it. But one day I will be and ER might interest me. And I won't care if I beat it or not since I already beat it on PS. But I may want to mess with an Arcane build.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Yes- Melania is a Sekiro boss in a Dark Souls game. And she's not the only one. This has been my primary criticism of Elden Ring. People describe ER as the culmination/summation of all FromSoftware games. I agree- but for me it's a criticism not a compliment. This is exactly why- the pieces don't fit together well.

But, as for a replay, no not a NG+, re-building a new character would be the whole point. The good part of ER is how HUGE it is and the appeal of a replay would be to choose a build to work toward.
I've also changed platforms. So my first play-through was on PlayStation with a platinum trophy mentality, having collected all plats on all FromSoftware games.

The next replay would be on XBox and more of a mess-around play-through with no self-imposed pressure to fight any optional boss or acquire any items I don't want. And I just like the XBox controller a lot more.

Basically with XBox Series S it's like this- I like having GamePass to try out stuff. But then when I'm not finding stuff I want to try, I have a FromSoftware game to mess with. Right now that is Sekiro, I'm still not sick of it. But one day I will be and ER might interest me. And I won't care if I beat it or not since I already beat it on PS. But I may want to mess with an Arcane build.

I just spend that larval tear and respec but hey if you’ve got the time more power to you.

 

[Bartholen]

Welp, those good first impressions of Valkyria Chronicles didn't last long. I spent the last 3 hours trying to get through that assblasted mission where you have to destroy the giant tank. It's like playing the worst railroad campaign of DnD ever: you essentially have no control over what happens. For every situation there is one solution, and one solution only, only at specific moments, and god help you if you try to come up with clever solutions, outwit the game or think outside the box. There's no way to make anything go faster or slower than what the game has already decided, and you just have to sit there, minute after minute of the game playing itself as the enemies move excruuuuuuuciatingly slowly around. No reward for creative tactics, proactivity, or intuiting important features before the game points a literal giant neon sign saying "THIS IS AN IMPORTANT FEATURE" at them. Oh, and no mid-mission checkpoints either, so you either save scum your way to victory or watch yet another hour of your precious life waste away as you watch the same bollocks happen in the exact same way again and again.

Then the massively overpowered ***** shows up and the game just forces you to endure at least two rounds "fighting" her because dammit, they have this giant-titted so kewl ermagerd anime boss and you're damn well going to watch it. Honestly, this one mission alone would be worth ditching this game over, it's just so fucking badly done. You wouldn't even need to get into the anime cringe, the tone deaf setup, the unfair mechanics, the menu overload and every upgrade taking 5 times as long to apply as it needs to. I feel like I might be falling into sunk cost fallacy when I think "well I spent like 30 bucks on this game and bought it brand new, I might as well finish it." Maybe I'd be better off just watching a longplay on youtube.

 

[Dalisclock]

Then the massively overpowered ***** shows up and the game just forces you to endure at least two rounds "fighting" her because dammit, they have this giant-titted so kewl ermagerd anime boss and you're damn well going to watch it. Honestly, this one mission alone would be worth ditching this game over, it's just so fucking badly done. You wouldn't even need to get into the anime cringe, the tone deaf setup, the unfair mechanics, the menu overload and every upgrade taking 5 times as long to apply as it needs to. I feel like I might be falling into sunk cost fallacy when I think "well I spent like 30 bucks on this game and bought it brand new, I might as well finish it." Maybe I'd be better off just watching a longplay on youtube.

Yeah, I got kinda tired of the game when the Valkyries started showing up with their anime super soldier bullshit. I wasn't expecting a totally accurate recreation of WW2 but something a little more grounded then....that.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Welp.

I like that word, welp. Sure it’s like “well”, but automatically more effective when punctuated with a tinge of disappointment.

 

[laggyteabag]

I completed Cursed Halo with my friend.

This is a mod for Halo: Combat Evolved, where it takes all of the existing maps, enemies, and weapons, and makes them all ridiculous.

Here is a video from the mod's creator.


And here is the download link, if anyone is interested: https://www.patreon.com/posts/68480803

Otherwise, it is an absolute blast. Sure, it is a lot of "lol random" humour, but I would be lying if I said I didn't lose it with laughter a few times.

The biggest issue with the mod, though, is just Halo CE in general. I love this game, but I have played it enough to really know all of its faults, and unfortunately the mod doesn't really do too much to remedy them. After you complete the level 343 Guilty Spark, you have seen everything that the game has to throw at you, and so the mod doesn't really have too much else to reveal afterwards. The Library aside, the rest of the game is just running through levels 1, 3, and 5 again, but backwards, and with the Flood. The game really turns into a bit of a slog at this point, even with the added hilarity that this mod brings.

Its a shame, but this is an issue beyond the scope of the mod.

The Warthog run at the end of the final level was a blast, though.

 

[BrawlMan]

My older brother took me to Dave & Buster's for a pre-birthday celebration!

For the first time, we finally got to play....

 

[BrawlMan]

Last night I beat my old high score again on FV with Duke. I managed to die only 3 times with him. I just finished doing a full run, on Hard, as Miller this time. Even with the patch updates, I do not find him that fun to use. He has some cool juggles and cancels, but Claire and Duke especially, are so much more fun and given better options. Miller is not the worst Mighty Glacier in a brawler, bit I've seen and played better.

 

[BrawlMan]

Also during Dave & Buster's night, we played the new Elevator Action game. Why they turned it into a rail shooter, I'll never know, but it's decent fun. It definitely has some cheap spots, and enemies can hit you from off screen. We did it complete the game. It just kind of ends.

Before that we played the World's Largest Pac-Man Arcade Game (w/ competitive co-op), Galaga Assault, and Space Invaders Frenzy! Pac-Man and Space Invaders are large as fuck! I forgot to take pictures sadly, but just type them in to YT or Google, you will find something.

​

 

[Piscian]

I've gotten ultra-absorbed in This is the Police this last week. I'm about half-through the game and I've probably put 40 hours into it. I'm surprised to say I think it's the bees knees. It seems like reviews are very mixed. At it's essentially it's a sort of Police chief/dispatcher job simulator. It's heavily into resource management. I can't think of a game to really compare it too as it's not quite of micro-management specific as something like CIV, football Manger or Romance of The Three kingdoms. Firstly a lot of it is realtime, essentially you have a shift of cops and detectives and throughout the day you gotta decide how to make best use of their hours, calls come in for anything from protests, bank robberies, and even corruption stuff like you can take bribes to send or not send them to dirty work.

I don't think the reviews cover it very well because as you progress the game gets quite complicated, with you having to use your gut instincts and guess work a lot, as well as balancing the happiness of your force, city hall and organized crime while staying alive.

In the reviewers defense though I think this is for a really specific audience that not only tolerates the daily grind, but enjoys it. Also the type of people that create their own in game story. I often found myself getting invested in and characterizing the generic cops. Rewarding and promoting the good/loyal ones.

Sims! thats what I'd compare it to. It's litte like that. The care and feeding of this department while building your nestegg.