I was planning on playing Plague Tales: Requiem but I had a nightmare about rats last night so, no, I'm not going to do that after all.
Also the performance seems to be a problem according to some reviews
What are you currently playing?
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Been continuing the Borderlands 3 DLC Bounty of Blood with my lvl 58 Zane and... man, I just can't muster up any enthusiasm for it. I feel like I'm just playing out of obligation because I paid for the collector's edition with the season pass included. Took me over 80 hours to realize, but this might be one of the most disappointing games I've ever played. It's actually interesting in a downright academic way how changing just one core aspect of the game, combined with a couple of QoL improvements, completely kicks the legs out from the experience.
That one core aspect is of course the drop rates which are generous to the point of ridiculousness and even paradoxicality. You find like 3 times as many legendaries in the first 10 levels of this game than you do during an entire playthrough of Borderlands 2, that's the level we're at. The paradoxical part is how this one change actually makes another massively improved aspect of the game go to complete waste, and that's the weapon variety. The variety in BL3 is simply astronomical: there are I don't even know how many legendary weapons in the game, but even the non-legendaries have incredibly elaborate and differing abilities even if you're using weapons from the same manufacturer. They're so different that switching to a new weapon can open up an entirely new playstyle, not to speak of countless synergies... which you never actually get to experience, because within like an hour of gameplay you'll already have swapped that one weapon out to a new one, which in turn can have its own unique quirks. But because deciding what guns to use ultimately boils down to series of numbers, those dozens of unique abilities and quirks are discarded in favor of more damage, fire rate etc. By the endgame you're so thoroughly swamped in legendaries that you simply won't have the time to try to learn how each one works, you just pick the most damaging one.
The damage to the experience the drop rates do spills over even to other characters! Because the machine that automatically saves purple and orange rarity weapons you haven't picked up is shared between all characters, money becomes completely meaningless as well. If you get just one character to like level 50, none of your future characters have to ever worry about money again. Because all you have to do is play the game for like an hour with that level 50 character, not pick up any loot, then switch to a low-level character to open up the missed loot bank and boom! Millions of dollars free of charge. When money is meaningless, shops are meaningless and guns are meaningless, there's nothing left to struggle for or strive towards. The asinine story full of cringe-inducing dialogue, annoying characters and lengthy cutscenes certainly won't endear itself to the player in that regard.
But wait! There's more! Even the gameplay itself doesn't feel like it has anywhere to go. BL3 is decidedly much faster-paced and more frenetic than any of its predecessors: enemies are way more aggressive, will flank you, flush you out of cover and so on. In turn the player has vastly improved mobility and damage also seems to have been increased, which makes every combat pulse-poundingly intense and action-packed. While this is initially fun, after a while you realize that that's as good as it's ever going to get: the game simply can't get any more chaotic even when other players get involved. Playing with my level 58 Zane I can often barely tell what I'm shooting at because the game moves so fast and the screen's covered in effects, bullets and flashing lights. What's 2 more players going to do, make the game even less comprehensible? Borderlands 2 feels decidedly different even with just 2 players compared to singleplayer. There's an escalation curve, not to mention the increased chance of better loot. With BL3 it feels like things are turned up to 11 right out of the gate, and as such nothing feels special anymore because the game has hit the ceiling.
As a last note I think this game should definitely have an epilepsy warning. I've played little with the other characters but man, Zane's high level gameplay is simply an insane sensory overload. It's genuinely straining to play.
So in summation: core gameplay loop ruined, incentives for co-op ruined, feeling of progression ruined, and the result is a game that feels pointless to play, and is IMO actually dangerous to play for a certain part of the population.
That one core aspect is of course the drop rates which are generous to the point of ridiculousness and even paradoxicality. You find like 3 times as many legendaries in the first 10 levels of this game than you do during an entire playthrough of Borderlands 2, that's the level we're at. The paradoxical part is how this one change actually makes another massively improved aspect of the game go to complete waste, and that's the weapon variety. The variety in BL3 is simply astronomical: there are I don't even know how many legendary weapons in the game, but even the non-legendaries have incredibly elaborate and differing abilities even if you're using weapons from the same manufacturer. They're so different that switching to a new weapon can open up an entirely new playstyle, not to speak of countless synergies... which you never actually get to experience, because within like an hour of gameplay you'll already have swapped that one weapon out to a new one, which in turn can have its own unique quirks. But because deciding what guns to use ultimately boils down to series of numbers, those dozens of unique abilities and quirks are discarded in favor of more damage, fire rate etc. By the endgame you're so thoroughly swamped in legendaries that you simply won't have the time to try to learn how each one works, you just pick the most damaging one.
The damage to the experience the drop rates do spills over even to other characters! Because the machine that automatically saves purple and orange rarity weapons you haven't picked up is shared between all characters, money becomes completely meaningless as well. If you get just one character to like level 50, none of your future characters have to ever worry about money again. Because all you have to do is play the game for like an hour with that level 50 character, not pick up any loot, then switch to a low-level character to open up the missed loot bank and boom! Millions of dollars free of charge. When money is meaningless, shops are meaningless and guns are meaningless, there's nothing left to struggle for or strive towards. The asinine story full of cringe-inducing dialogue, annoying characters and lengthy cutscenes certainly won't endear itself to the player in that regard.
But wait! There's more! Even the gameplay itself doesn't feel like it has anywhere to go. BL3 is decidedly much faster-paced and more frenetic than any of its predecessors: enemies are way more aggressive, will flank you, flush you out of cover and so on. In turn the player has vastly improved mobility and damage also seems to have been increased, which makes every combat pulse-poundingly intense and action-packed. While this is initially fun, after a while you realize that that's as good as it's ever going to get: the game simply can't get any more chaotic even when other players get involved. Playing with my level 58 Zane I can often barely tell what I'm shooting at because the game moves so fast and the screen's covered in effects, bullets and flashing lights. What's 2 more players going to do, make the game even less comprehensible? Borderlands 2 feels decidedly different even with just 2 players compared to singleplayer. There's an escalation curve, not to mention the increased chance of better loot. With BL3 it feels like things are turned up to 11 right out of the gate, and as such nothing feels special anymore because the game has hit the ceiling.
As a last note I think this game should definitely have an epilepsy warning. I've played little with the other characters but man, Zane's high level gameplay is simply an insane sensory overload. It's genuinely straining to play.
So in summation: core gameplay loop ruined, incentives for co-op ruined, feeling of progression ruined, and the result is a game that feels pointless to play, and is IMO actually dangerous to play for a certain part of the population.
Why I outta....
Anyway I took a walk and a nap and got over my nightmare and started Plague Requiem. Playing on Series S and I don't know if I'm ruined by the press coverage of the trees and stuff do seem lower-res or something compared to other games. I may be seeing performance issues like that. But I'm still glad I watched SkillUp's review because he suggested disabling motion blur which truly helps.
Of course I'm still too early to make any judgements about anything else but, you know- it's sneaking around dudes and directing rats, like the first time, so that's good.
It'll take me a while to beat it because I get frustrated with stealth easily and this game is longer than the first.
What I do like so far is that you know how in the first game where you have to carry a stick from light to light before it goes out and the rats eat you? That's here too but so far its a lot less punishing. In the first game I would do the right thing but if I'm like half a second off I die, or like one rat would jump out and kill me or some crap. That kind of thing is incredibly frustrating. Here so far once I figure where to go or what to do, I do it and it's fine.
Anyway I took a walk and a nap and got over my nightmare and started Plague Requiem. Playing on Series S and I don't know if I'm ruined by the press coverage of the trees and stuff do seem lower-res or something compared to other games. I may be seeing performance issues like that. But I'm still glad I watched SkillUp's review because he suggested disabling motion blur which truly helps.
Of course I'm still too early to make any judgements about anything else but, you know- it's sneaking around dudes and directing rats, like the first time, so that's good.
It'll take me a while to beat it because I get frustrated with stealth easily and this game is longer than the first.
What I do like so far is that you know how in the first game where you have to carry a stick from light to light before it goes out and the rats eat you? That's here too but so far its a lot less punishing. In the first game I would do the right thing but if I'm like half a second off I die, or like one rat would jump out and kill me or some crap. That kind of thing is incredibly frustrating. Here so far once I figure where to go or what to do, I do it and it's fine.
Dems Fighting Herds.
It's a pony fighting game, but with, like, an adventure story mode and shit ..it has a real goddamn story to tell us just you wait! Am quite appreciative of these games usually not known for stories to be so enthusiastically all about their campaign narrative. This one even has a top-down pixelated world exploration mode as you encounter the various battles upon which you are shown the various gameplay mechanics for fighting. I think I heard a while back this was meant to be an MLP game, but was likely changed after a couple of cease and desists to an entirely unrelated group of adventurous ponies. Need a bit more time to see where it's going, but am pleasantly surprised so far.
It's a pony fighting game, but with, like, an adventure story mode and shit ..it has a real goddamn story to tell us just you wait! Am quite appreciative of these games usually not known for stories to be so enthusiastically all about their campaign narrative. This one even has a top-down pixelated world exploration mode as you encounter the various battles upon which you are shown the various gameplay mechanics for fighting. I think I heard a while back this was meant to be an MLP game, but was likely changed after a couple of cease and desists to an entirely unrelated group of adventurous ponies. Need a bit more time to see where it's going, but am pleasantly surprised so far.
I played Final Vendetta and got the overall S Rank despite dying twice in the final stage. I'll take it. I've been getting back into Bayonetta 2. I am prepping for next Friday.
I started playing Pillars of Eternity 2. Only thoughts so far are that as a fan of Critical Role it's quite distracting to have both Ashley Johnson and Matt Mercer be the first two voices you hear in the game. On account of the fact that I've listened to their voices for hundreds upon hundreds of hours while listening to the podcast. And I'm sure the rest of the cast are going to show up as well, I just have a feeling.
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It is pretty awesome. Keep hoping chapter 2 of the campaign comes out soon.
So I kinda know what Critical Role is due to the Legend of Vox Machina but does that mean there's a connection between PoE and CR? Or is it just that the voice actors who enjoy RPGs also like doing VA for Computer RPGS?
Tried out Hotwheels Unleashed as the freebie this month, and it’s a really fun and unique game for that racing fix. Not sure how much of it I’ll play but it’s cool to zoom through some of these “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” style tracks. I’d stick with it more if I knew later ones get even crazier with the jumps and stuff.
Also got back into Forbidden West. Just did the Deep Trouble side quest with the trapped miners, and it reinforces some of my biggest issues with the game. I don’t like having to use focus all the time to see where I need to go, especially in darker places and now with more water (because who doesn’t love swimming in video games?!). I mean, I don’t hate it but it’s certainly not my preferred mode of travel, and maybe it feels worse just because I played ABZU shortly beforehand, which handled it more gracefully.
Before I found out how to get to the explosives I was just getting hung up rooting around the rock geometry whenever I hopped out of the water. Ugh. Less of that and more open landscapes to fight bigger machines in the better imo.
Aloy also doesn’t always feel as nimble as she should. The aiming and her general platforming animations feel stiffer somehow, or at least do when they interact with her environments. While I like having more ability to climb stuff, it again kinda sucks needing to constantly use focus to highlight these areas.
Other than that, I’m having fun with it and it is pretty relaxing, not to mention pretty pretty. Still not a fan of having play spin the dialog wheel seemingly every other time I talk to someone, so I end up hitting X to skip through most of that shit. But, the main story parts are well done overall to say the least. I think I’ll stick to mostly following the main quest as I think @CriticalGaming mentioned something about that. The game would feel almost overwhelming otherwise because I’m looking at the map too much and want to go everywhere lol.
Also got back into Forbidden West. Just did the Deep Trouble side quest with the trapped miners, and it reinforces some of my biggest issues with the game. I don’t like having to use focus all the time to see where I need to go, especially in darker places and now with more water (because who doesn’t love swimming in video games?!). I mean, I don’t hate it but it’s certainly not my preferred mode of travel, and maybe it feels worse just because I played ABZU shortly beforehand, which handled it more gracefully.
Before I found out how to get to the explosives I was just getting hung up rooting around the rock geometry whenever I hopped out of the water. Ugh. Less of that and more open landscapes to fight bigger machines in the better imo.
Aloy also doesn’t always feel as nimble as she should. The aiming and her general platforming animations feel stiffer somehow, or at least do when they interact with her environments. While I like having more ability to climb stuff, it again kinda sucks needing to constantly use focus to highlight these areas.
Other than that, I’m having fun with it and it is pretty relaxing, not to mention pretty pretty. Still not a fan of having play spin the dialog wheel seemingly every other time I talk to someone, so I end up hitting X to skip through most of that shit. But, the main story parts are well done overall to say the least. I think I’ll stick to mostly following the main quest as I think @CriticalGaming mentioned something about that. The game would feel almost overwhelming otherwise because I’m looking at the map too much and want to go everywhere lol.
Probably best you quit now because the game only gets more ridiculously difficult as it goes on. I remember the final boss being one of those all day affairs that took me like 6 hours of retries to finally scrape by.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by connection. Narrative connection, no. But the entire cast is featured in the game, and they did a free voice pack DLC for the game as their campaign 1 characters. Not a mod, an official DLC that's on the game's Steam page. They also used this track as their break background music during their streams in campaign 1. And yes, most of the cast are very much fans of old school CRPGs.
And yep, didn't even take 10 minutes of gameplay for Taliesin Jaffe to show up.
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FW definitely doesn't have as strong of a story as ZD did unfortunately. I think that's because ZD was driven by the unique mystery of the apocalypse plot which is solved by the end. So there isn't really any mystery here. It's more of a DBZ style of "oh no a bigger threat is coming soon" kind of thing and that's just not great. I enjoyed it more than ER though so it's currently GOTY for me, but I highly doubt GOW wont destroy that title with a bang.
Also I get a new FF7 game in Decemeber so....I don't even know why other games are trying to impress me because they are doomed to fail.
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I didn't have that much trouble with it, I found the last boss easier then some of the others, but didn't find the game that hard. It took time to learn a boss but once I learned the moves I didn't find them that bad. I've been curious how others found the game difficulty.
Well good for you. I'm not always great at games, but I'm determined. Honestly, it's been 4 years and the game doesn't track any stats for boss attempts or time played or anything so I might be misremembering exactly how long it took.
Heh, VA is so not my interest that I literally played trough the game twice and never even knew about that.
Stop wasting money on celebrity VA game industry, its not worth the cash!
I've been playing VA-11 Hall-A. But I guess playing isn't quite the right word. I like it tho. I expected the drinks mixing would be timed or something, but thankfully there's no rush. You can just take your time, enjoy the character interactions, fill a couple lazy hours with a chill experience.
That's close enough. I'm not really sure what I meant, just talking about the CR crew in POE got me interested. Speaking of which Vox Machina Season 2 is coming out in a few months and I'm here for it.
That game is in my backlog and who know, maybe I'll jump into POE games after I finish the Dragon Age Trilogy assuming I'm not totally sick of RPGS at that point.